The young woman in ragged attire looked humbly across the dark alley at Micro, her one red eye glowing slightly beneath the starry sky. She smiled and extended her hand to gently touch Micro’s cheek, and sighed.

  “I didn’t realize you were so new to this world, brave messenger. There is much I’d ask you, but we have little time,” she said with a humble bow. “I’ve served the Temple of Nora since before I can remember, so I forget just how far from home you messengers are. I will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability.”

  “Temple of Nora…” Micro repeated as he did his best to process her words. “Chaos Witch… So, you’re not a magician?”

  “I’m Lily, a chaos witch of the Temple of Nora,” she continued. “I convene with the prophets who speak directly with Nora. I convey Nora’s instructions to the magicians. The ones who sent you here must have been in a hurry, but you’ll be informed in due time. Nora’s blessing never leaves a hero.”

  “The chaos energy…” He thought aloud. As she pointed at her eye, Micro lifted his hand to his own eye. “That’s why so many of you—”

  “It’s a power beyond even the cultivators’ understanding, and few of us can survive in its presence for long. I’ve been exposed since birth, so I can…” Lily trailed off, then shook her head and went on. “Listen, I’m grateful that you set my family free from our obligations to the temple, but you should know that we are still your allies, your humble servants, you—”

  “You sacrificed all those people!” Micro interrupted her as a feeling of fatigue overcame his mind, but he commanded his body to stand. “Well, you tried!”

  “I was also taken by surprise by the scale of tonight’s summoning,” Lily replied, nodding her head slowly. “But lives were not to be taken. Justice was not the only purpose of this event.”

  “Justice?” Micro asked. “For who?”

  “For us all,” Lily replied plainly. “The cultivators’ cores were to be drained to the point that they would be nearly indistinguishable from any mortal. Though you can always tell a cultivator by the stench of their arrogance, with or without energy.”

  “And the hero?” Micro continued. “That was supposed to attack them?”

  “Had it received its destined soul, it would have taught them the fear only mortals can know,” Lily answered with cold eyes. “They would crawl on the ground, desperate only to survive, all while an unreachable power wreaked havoc above their heads with indifference to their plight.”

  “Wow…” Micro was taken aback by the sudden chill in the air which Lily’s words wrought, but she soon smiled again and continued.

  “But I’m not a cultivator,” she said, half laughing at the word. “Why would I waste the chance you gave me, to leave this fight and never look back…?”

  “Why do magicians summon heroes in the first place?” Micro continued. “Why don’t you just cultivate?”

  “Perhaps it is different where you come from,” Lily said, nodding slowly as she realized his confusion. “Those not born into a sect can only dream of a life spent gallivanting carelessly through the mountains and forests, seeking out battles and adventures in the name of enlightenment, empowered by the previous generation of arrogant fools. I hear it’s different in the mortal cities to the west, but a nameless one like me would only become a slave should I wander too near to such a place…”

  “Ah, that almost happened to me!” Micro said as the unpleasant memory resurfaced. “Some thieves tried to resell me.”

  “Your path is one of tribulation,” Lily replied with a kind smile. “But you are kind… I wonder why Nora chose you.”

  “I don’t think she’s all that picky, but I only met her the one time.” Micro shrugged. “What sort of name do you want? I thought Lily was nice enough.”

  “Cultivators have their cores, and the nobles have their family names…” Lily said solemnly. “With neither of those things, people like me can only pray to whatever god is listening.”

  “But if you make a core, you can get stronger, right?”

  “Make a core?” Lily scoffed, though she quickly bowed apologetically as she heard her own rude laugh. “There are fools among us mortals who have tried, and there are few who have succeeded. And who would feed our families in the time it took us to cultivate one?”

  “That’s true…”

  “Who would reap the harvest that feeds them while we meditate our days away?” Lily continued, her graceful tone wavering slightly. “Who would care for our young and elderly in the likely event that we should fail? Who would pay us the money we need just to sit around staring at those wretched cards…?”

  “So you need more gold?” Micro asked with slightly more optimism.

  “We need to escape this kingdom…” Lily waved her hand as she sighed. “Even a chaos witch like me can see that cultivators aren’t the true enemy of the weak.”

  “Your true enemy…” Micro repeated in confusion, but he recalled their previous conversation. “You mean taxes?”

  “The mortal king who reigns beneath the thumb of whatever sect is in power is no ally of ours,” Lily said with an air of spite. “Curse his name and all who share it.”

  “Does he not have a nice name…?” Micro asked, but he was feeling slightly intimidated by the fierce expression of Lily.

  “He lives in his palace surrounded by riches of our making, while the cultivators pass through our lives like aloof gods! I can’t fight this anymore…” Lily became flustered, but she fought back her tears. “I will see peace in this lifetime!”

  “Gods…” Micro mumbled as Lily began to tremble. “So much fighting…”

  “I don’t know why it is your will that my family alone should escape this stagnant hell, but I’m too weak to refuse…” she cried while doing her best to maintain her composure. She looked at him straight in the eye despite the shame overwhelming her. “The Brake Light… I shall accept that fate gladly…”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “A restaurant sounds like a lot more fun than magic and fighting,” Micro agreed.

  “You may know little of this world and the wills that move it, but I will pray that you find your place in it one day, should Nora allow it,” Lily added.

  “I’d rather find a way home,” Micro replied, taking a deep breath as the information settled in his fatigued mind. “But I don’t think Nora is going to be of much help getting there.”

  “Home sounds nice,” Lily said with a forced smile, but she shook her head. “I wouldn’t know what a home is like.”

  He brought his hand to his chest as the extra soul he’d somehow absorbed continued to move around as if it was looking for an exit. His own soul felt cramped, weak, and sticky beneath the layer of chaos energy it was coated with. A quick inspection of his subconscious world confirmed that his core was almost completely gone, having left behind little more than a few bricks near the space where his soul resided. He was about to continue his questions, but an even more overwhelming sensation suddenly silenced him. Micro opened his eyes to see Lily Frozen in fear.

  “This is it!” Azar’s familiar voice, filled with frustration and rage, echoed in the alley behind him, though the aura which accompanied it was less threatening than before. “I thought he’d try to escape with the first chance he got, and I was right!”

  Lily’s knees buckled as Azar’s relatively weak aura extended down the alley toward them. Though Micro couldn’t shield himself from it with energy, he was able to endure it to some extent thanks to the makeshift core of chaos energy around his soul. He turned to look at Azar, but his neck was already within Azar’s grip before he could turn around to greet him.

  “I got him!” Azar shouted over his shoulder, dragging Micro violently along. “And there’s a strange girl with him, a magician no doubt!”

  Micro strained his one good eye to see a female figure standing just behind Azar, but he was surprised to see that it wasn’t Lena. A youthful sigh escaped the mouth of the woman as Azar continued to emit a hostile aura.

  “Do you think I have time for your jokes?” the woman said as she walked beneath a ray of moonlight that dimly lit up the centre of the alley, revealing a light blue robe. “Did you mean to make a fool of me?”

  “What do you…” Azar stuttered, but he spoke respectfully to the young woman. “Honoured Imperial Envoy… This is the hero we apprehended to the north, and this could be his summoner—”

  “You there,” the woman suddenly addressed the girl struggling to breathe on the ground. “Are you a prophet?”

  “I…” Lily mumbled, unable to show any sign of resistance. “I’m not…”

  “Waste of time…” She rolled her eyes, but then she turned to face Micro with a more curious gaze. “Interesting core you have there. Are you planning to overthrow the empire this evening?”

  “I just want…” Micro whispered, unable to get much air in his lungs due to Azar’s firm grip around his neck. “I want to go home…”

  “Good luck with that,” she said quickly, then returned her glare to Azar. “And I suppose the sleepy pixies in his pockets will bring about the end of the world, won’t they?”

  “No—No, but I…” Azar stuttered.

  “Let’s go, captain,” the woman said with an eerie tone.

  “He clearly had something to do with the attack!” Azar protested. “And he stinks of chaos!”

  “Of course he does,” the woman sighed again, this time with a hint of frustration in her breath. “He was just inside the same magicians’ array that you were. You smell even worse than him.”

  “But his core is pure chaos energy! Look!” Azar pointed enthusiastically at Micro’s chest. “We need to take him and—”

  “Do all sapphire level captains waste this much time?” she spat back at him. “Do you report every ant you step on to the empire now?”

  “No, but I—”

  “If you touch a single hair on that girl’s head, you’ll only make a martyr of her!” she shouted at Azar as if rebuking a child. “Ten more will pop up in her unimportant little place! You think a brat like her is propping up a centuries-old cult of chaos? She’s worth less than the rags she’s wearing as long as she’s alive!”

  “The hero—” Azar again spoke up, but he was unable to continue.

  “The failed summon? Killing him would accomplish nothing!” The woman marched toward him in anger. “You’re lucky I care so little about you, or I’d be tempted to have you exiled for the awe-inspiring lack of honour you frequently display. How many broken children have you saved the world from today? Pathetic…”

  “But the—” Azar attempted once more to argue, but Micro suddenly fell to the floor, along with Azar’s arm.

  “Silence!” the woman shouted as she let her blade come to rest on her shoulder.

  “Agh…!” Azar quietly grimaced as he gripped the stump of his arm with his other hand to stop the bleeding. He looked hatefully down at Micro, then turned back to face the woman who now held an ethereal golden sword in her hand.

  “Does a member of the Imperial Guard dare stand before me with a single arm?” she scoffed as the sword dissipated. “Return to the capital, and maybe you’ll find somewhere to repair your honour along with that arm. If you ever dare to waste a single moment of my time again, you will wish I’d killed you today.”

  “Understood…” Azar replied with a respectful tone that Micro hadn’t heard from him before. “Honoured Imperial Envoy…”

  Micro pried the arm which still gripped his neck away and threw it at the ground near his disgruntled assailant. Azar kept his head bowed as the woman stepped to the side and took another look at Micro and Lily. Though she wasn’t a tall woman, Micro felt like he was looking up into the sun as her bright eyes glared at him indifferently.

  “Interesting,” she mumbled. “Your fate is harder to determine than most.”

  “My fate?” Micro repeated as his body grew increasingly numb in the presence of such a powerful aura.

  “Even for a hero, being able to craft a core from the ambient chaos of an array…” she thought aloud. “We may meet again.”

  “Again…?”

  “I am Yahari of the Cerulean Star Sect,” she stated boldly, raising her fist to her heart in some sort of salute. Her fist glowed slightly as she spoke, illuminating her face enough for Micro to take note of a large scar on her cheek. Noticing his eyes wandering across the scar, she smiled and continued. “I serve as an Imperial Envoy. Defending the empire has come at a cost to my beautiful face, I’m afraid…”

  “I was keyed once,” Micro replied quietly. “The old man called it a racing stripe until he could afford to repair it…”

  “A racing stripe…” Yahari repeated suspiciously. “Do you mean to flatter or insult me?”

  “I think he said it to make me feel better,” Micro replied, recalling the look on the old man’s face when he first found the long scratch on his door. “But I’m not an expert on faces.”

  “Today I shall accept a compliment from a hero, it seems,” Yahari said, exhaling a brief laugh. “I hope the next hero I meet is just as polite. The last few were rather unpleasant.”

  As her powerful aura began to make him feel faint, she suddenly jumped into the sky so quickly that the wind knocked him backward into Lily. Azar stood his ground as she vanished into the sky like a rocket, then picked up his severed arm and left the alley on foot, not uttering a single word to Micro before he turned the corner and disappeared from view.

  “Lily…” Micro said as he collapsed onto his back beside her.

  “Yes, messenger?” she replied with her hands over her mouth, struggling not to be sick as she leaned against the wall.

  “I think I’m going to sleep now,” Micro mumbled as his vision grew dark.

  “I’ll join you,” Lily replied, her voice still muffled by her hand.

  “Goodnight…” he added as he slipped into unconsciousness on the moonlit floor of the alley, shortly before Lily fainted beside him.