Aclina strides to Echo's room. She had a few words to say to them. Ignoring the rushing staff around her she stopped in front of their door. Taking a breath to calm herself she called out to them, “Your grace, I would like to speak with you.” There was no reply.

Frowning, she knocked on the door, “Your grace,” she called. There was no reply. Her fist banged against the door, “Your grace are you there.” No reply.

Gritting her teeth she announced, “I’m coming in.” The door swung open. The room was empty.

Aclina sighed, they must be out doing something around the cathedral. She walked out of the room glancing down the hall for the nearest staff member. Spotting the unfortunate soul she called out to them, catching their attention.

“You there, do you know where their grace went?”

The staff member was startled, jolting back and whipping his head to look at her. “Uh, uh no?” He replied, glancing around.

Aclina huffed. “Alright. Excuse me then.” She spent the next few minutes tracking down the staff manager. “Mrs. Lina, I have to find their grace, would you mind getting some of your staff to help me look for her.”

“Of course, let me send out an alert.”

“Thank you.”

A half hour passed with no news and Aclina was beginning to become antsy.

“Are you sure you sent out that alert?”

“Yes, high priestess. I even have replies. Would you like to see?”

“No, thank you though.”

After another half hour of silence Aclina asked again, “Have they checked everywhere? We should have found them by now. They couldn’t have left.”

“I’m sorry, high priestess, my staff have not sent word.”

Aclina gritted her teeth, “Excuse me I believe I need to talk to security.”

“Of course M’lady.”

She marched to the security office swinging the door open and walking to the manager. “Mr. Alex. Can you check the security footage of their grace’s room at 11 a.m.”

“Of course, high priestess.” Alex pulled up the footage and put it on x5 speed.

After a few minutes of what she assumed to be Echo and Aleta talking they were then shown moving around the room putting a few things into a bag that Echo then carried.

“Slow it down.”

The footage was slowed down. Echo climbed up onto the window, sang their legs out of the window and pushed theirself off. Aleta rushed to the window and looked out. She stayed like that for a few moments, presumably speaking with Echo.

“They jumped out the window?!” Mr. Alex whisper shouted under his breath.

Aleta began to follow after swinging her leg out the window. Her head then turned to the door she then turned back and talked to Echo again. Then her head turned again. The door opened. An unknown man walked in.

“Pause it.” Aleta commanded.

Alex did.

“Find out who that is.”

“Of course, Ma’am.”

The video resumed. Aleta jumped out of the window. The man followed behind her. Alex closed the video and began clicking, finding the one outside the window. Playing it from when Echo had first jumped out the window it showed what was expected. Echo looked up and talked to Aleta. Finally it reached the point where Aleta jumped out. She fell into Echo’s arms who then began sprinting across the garden. Following behind them the mysterious man followed. They followed the trio across the premises until they exited the area and ran into town.

“Do we know who that man was? And what his intentions were?”

“I don’t. I’ll contact Mrs. Lina to she if she knows.”

“Good.”

----------

Aleta and Echo boarded the train headed to Sunshire City. Echo watched as lines on the train began to glow as the train took off.

“Wow what’s that about?” Echo asked.

“That’s the mana flowing to the engines and such.”

“Oh that’s so cool! How does that work?”

“Well the station is connected to a mana company who supplies them with mana to run the train. That mana is what powers it.”

“So it's like normal trains but instead of electric it's run by mana!”

“Electric? That runs things in your world?”

“Yeah, we didn’t have mana so instead we used electricity, and such.”

“How interesting.”

They fell into comfortable silence again resting on the surprisingly comfortable seats and listening to the chatter around them.

“Is that the chosen one?”

“Oh my gods mom look!”

“Holy is that Aleta? I love her content!”

“But have you considered arson?”

Ah Echo thought I forgot we are celebrities now. They blushed as sweat began to form on their face.

“Are you alright?” Aleta asked, concerned.

“Yeah, just hate the attention.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, can I help in any way?”

“Na, I’ll be alright, just forgot I was a celebrity.”

“Yeah it can be rather jarring at times.”

“How do you deal with it?”

“Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss.”

“What?”

“Just pretend you're not them. Are you the chosen? No, but I look a lot like them don’t you think? Things like that.”

“That’s smart.”

“Also get some glasses, it throws people off.”

“Brilliant. We’re doing that.”

The duo feel into idle conversation allowing the chatter around them to fall into background noise. They spoke about meaningless things for hours as the train stopped, people walked on and off, and the noise rose and fell.

“Now arriving at Sunshire City.” The person over the intercom announced.

“That’s our stop, I’ll have to show you around the city tomorrow it's getting pretty late.” Aleta says.

“Sounds good, lead the way.”

They exited the train entering the bustling station where they walked through the crowd. Once out on the streets of the city Aleta was able to wave down a taxi. Echo watch fascinated as Aleta placed her hand on what looked to be a mason jar with odd symbols around it. The jar then began to become filled with white specks of light floating around the jar. The specks continued to multiply until Aleta pulled her hand away.

She gestured for Echo to follow her into the taxi.

“What was that?”

“That’s a form of payment we use here. We have these jars that collect mana from people that can be used for anything. That’s how a lot of people pay for things if they don’t have money on them or don’t want to use it.”

“Ooh.” Echo responded. “Why didn’t you tell me this Chaos?!”

“It didn’t really come up?”

“Yeah but you have to tell me about all the cool things here! I feel betrayed man. How could you do this to me.”

The taxi driver looked at Aleta concerned.

“Chosen one stuff.”

The driver choked.

----------

Following the duo was more of a pain then trying to kill a politician. This was just ridiculous. Enzo just wanted a nap at this point but noooo. The chosen, Echo, he was just gonna call them Echo fuck it. Did. not. Sleep. It's 2 a.m. and that little pest was still watching tv. Finally he snapped.

“Oh my gods you’ve watched that movie for the third time already! Please pick something else.”

“Hahaha no. if you wanna stalk me you have to put up with my shitty movie taste.”

Enzo almost screamed. “Ya know what I’m just gonna kill you know. Come heRE!”

Echo bolted up, grabbed the nearest thing and chucked it at his head. It was way off. Enzo flew at them with a knife. Echo jumped to the side.

“Chaos help! Getting stabbed hurts!”

Chaos did not help.

“You incompetent biiiiittcccchhh!!”

They then proceeded to play chase around the house, Echo putting their parkour skill to good use and Enzo failing to kill them simply because Echo kept throwing things at his face. The place was a mess. Aleta, who had been woken up by the sound, had been observing the situation blankly for the last ten minutes. What the fuck she mouthed not really registering anything.

“Stop wrecking my house!” She finally shouted.

The duo stopped. Echo on top of the fridge and Enzo just before he throws his knife.

“Clean this mess up right. Now.” She hissed.

“They started it.” Enzo stated accusingly pointing at Echo.

“You were trying to kill me!”

“You're literally the worst! I can’t even stalk you properly.”

“Oh please--”

Before Echo could continue Aleta cut them off. “Shut it. Clean this mess up before I kill both of you.” She hissed, lighting beginning to crackle around her. The duo gulped.

They began to clean under the watchful eye of Aleta.

“Why are you so scared, aren't you an assassin?” Echo hissed quietly to Enzo.

“Yeah and aren’t you the chosen one.” Enzo shot back.

“Bah, you don’t even know my name.”

“It's Echo.”

“Fuck.”

Enzo scrubbed the floor while Echo tossed broken glass into the trash.

“Why are you trying to kill me again?’

“A person wants you dead and pays well. Not well enough though.”

“I see. What’s your name anyway?”

“Why would I tell you?”

“Cuz you're stuck with me.”

“I’m trying to murder you!”

“Well you're doing a shit job.”

Enzo launched at Echo.