After John left with his Ravens, Vincent as well packed all his stuff and walked towards the door. We followed him and walked around the town. As we followed him, we were proceeded in an aisle with market shops on both sides of the street.

  They had everything with them, right from the materials to make a sword to materials to cook food.

  “Mise Street is the specialty of Artium, you’ll find everything here–and I mean everything.” Vincent emphasized on it.

  We all knew tad-bit about Artium, but to see the Mise Street in real life was something that we had never done.

  Mise Street is the Commerce Centre, the markets were centrally governed by the King of Terra and his Clergies. As we walked, the others kept getting fascinated and stopped at a number of stores, as they did. Vincent walked up to me.

  “It really means a lot to him, we’re really grateful to find you.” He said.

  I looked at him and then at Avon, he seemed happy. I knew it was a duty that he was regarded to do.

  “Our forefathers once made a mistake, where we lost you and then we had to repent on that mistake for years.” Mary said as she walked beside me, “Finally, now he made things right.”

  “I want to ask you some things?” I said to pull Vincent a little close.

  “You can ask me anything.”

  “Who exactly are you people?”

  “I knew you would ask that–” He said and then took a deep breath, “After the incident, everything ceased to exist. We were supposed to die, but Mother saved us. We tried getting out, but everything was wiped out except for the Tribunal and the Lake of Life. Rex got all the remaining nobles together and holed up in the forest surrounding the lake, now known as the Forest of Emptiness. We stayed there for some time and even made a search team, we checked the Tower as well. We found no one, not even Summa, but during such a search we found you washed out on the shore.”

  I listened quietly and articulated everything.

  “Rex is alive?” I asked them and they both turned their heads towards each other and then towards me which made me think that he might not be, but…

  “We don’t know.” They answered.

  “What do you mean you don’t know?”

  “He asked us to continue with our jobs and went somewhere–never came back.”

  ‘That’s weird.’

  I thought as much as I knew Rex, he was a very responsible man and doing something like this was out of character and it seemed as though they both understood that as well, hence their varied response.

  As our chat was done, Vincent walked to one of the food stalls, “Got a place to stay?”

  “Yes, 100 gold per person.” The man at the food stall replied.

  “Well, I’ll pay you 100 extra for each and would like to buy your silence about them as well.” Vincent followed as he removed a small pouch of gold from his back and slid it onto his cart.

  The man behind looked at us and then Vincent, then gently briefed a smile.

  “The Contract is initiated.” He said and then stepped away from his spot. He walked up to another man beside him and asked him to take over his place on the cart.

  “Whenever you’re ready.” He said and then walked towards the empty street behind us.

  “This is the specialty of Artium,” Vincent said and then continued, “Anything can be bought so long the money provided suffices the trade. The contract has been forged now so you guys don’t need to worry.”

  “Can we completely trust him?” Krial asked him.

  “Nope,” Vincent replied immediately, “As I said, money can be everything, that can be applied to breaking a contract too.”

  We turned towards the empty street behind us and started walking.

  “You go on ahead, we have some work we need to do.” Vincent said to which we nodded, “Be careful, we’ll be there in the morning.” He said and started walking in the opposite direction.

  We followed the gentlemen closely and silently. As we walked we saw a group of kids walking out of an alley. They were following some guards. Kids were with there heads down and it appeared that they were in pain.

  “What’s happening here?”

  Mikhail asked the man which finally led him to break the silence.

  “The Judgement was received, a few days prior the Light of Ordination had appeared and it consumed the ones who were destined. These are the Kids that were left orphaned as their parents died.” He replied and looked at the kids remorsefully, “Idiots, there’s a reason why we say that marry someone either who is younger or older than you.”

  “But, that dangers the right to freely like someone.” Mikhail reacted.

  “You say that, but you see it yourselves, don’t you?” The man replied and then pointed his finger towards the kids being taken away, “Children being left out in the world alone is dreadful enough, but for them to survive is more difficult.”

  He said as a voice interrupted him from speaking further.

  “Jaskier, how’s you?”

  A man walked in with blue robes and black silver lining attached to it, he was fair and blonde.

  “Spike?”

  ‘Spike?’ I thought.

  Maria spotted the confusion in my expression and leaned in to answer my thoughts, “He is one of the Generals of The War Council.”

  “Yeah, been a long time, innit?” Spike said as he walked in to hug, but Jaskier walked as many steps back as Spike walked towards him.

  “What? This is how you treat an old friend?” Spike reacted as he saw Jaskier’s movements. The atmosphere suddenly was tense and it became visually clear that these two were acquainted with something that they don’t like.

  “Friend? You?” Jaskier commented as he stopped and looked straight into his eyes.

  Spike stopped and then smiled as he answered, “The definition of a ‘Friend’ can be different for everyone.”

  “So is mine.” Jaskier replied to the jolly explanation laid out by Spike in a completely serious manner.

  Spike stood silent for a second and then coughed a laugh. He then looked at us and said, “Nice group you got there, Jaskier!” he said as he examined us individually. We tried to appear non intimidating and as calm as possible.

  After all, it was The War Council that was trying to find us. They had immense power, I mean they were the individuals responsible to maintain peace in the Pentacross. They had to be pretty powerful to exercise their word. Because, humans as a species only acted in favor of someone only if they deem that they were either powerful or backed by immense knowledge.

  “I feel like I recognize this one.” He said as he pointed his fingers to me. I clenched my hands. My fingers tightened on the spear I tied behind my back. But, to my relief he continued moving his finger, sliding it across until it stopped over Mikhail.

  “Nope, you don’t.” Mikhail quickly answered to make sure he would make this person go away quickly as staying in his presence was a threat to everyone.

  “What are you doing here?” Jaskier, the man who was taking us to a shelter asked him.

  “The kids–” Spike replied as he looked at them and continued, “Taking them to Special Provinces.”

  “So, you have got a lot of work, don’t you?” Jaskier questioned him.

  “Yeah, I am leaving.” Spike replied, which was an obvious reply to a question framed as such a way to make a person go away, but it was for the best. Him leaving would actually put a rest to the already racing hearts of ours.

  “Oh, by the way…” He said as he was leaving again, “I have got a girl for you to look after. She was stabbed–” he took a pause and then continued, “From behind. I’ll pay you good–” he tried to complete the statement, but was interrupted by one of his co-workers.

  “Sir, they are here.” he said which led Spike to a disdainful face, but unwillingly walked away from the scene, but then looked back at us again and gave a peculiar smile that I will never forget. The smile reminded me of my times when Summa did something.

  “Sorry for the trouble. Follow me please.” Jaskier said to which we nodded. As I walked straight I matched myself with Mikhail.

  “Do you think?” I asked him.

  “Yes, I think so too.” He said with a delighted yet hurtful voice.

  It was a relief to me as there was a possibility of that person being alive. By that person I meant– Amanda, one of the Generals that Jin had stabbed.

  Soon after some time, we reached our place to stay. We looked around and it was quiet outside the market and was cozy to live in. We all were happy as it was after some tough times that we will stay in a good place.

  Maria as usual quickly ran towards the shower and claimed her position as the first. I never knew what drives women to have this close relationship that they have with their showers. Every shower that Maria took was more than average time taken by other people. Although I wasn’t that keen to understand the knowledge, it indeed made me curious. Everyone followed after her to freshen up and be calm and rest for a while.

  We all sat down for the night, the room was equipped with a stove and we used some supplies that we had and made a homely meal for the night.

  We were having chats about our previous adventures and were poking fun at each other leading to loud laughter.

  “Shouldn’t we maintain our discretion?” Avon questioned as we were laughing. He sat in the corner and stayed as quiet as possible.

  “Relax a bit, if they find us then they find us. It’s not like we have done something wrong, have we?” Krial asked him and then continued, “Nowhere is safe anyways, but that shouldn’t stop us from having some fun. But, if you’re so worried that someone may find us then you are capable of saving your ass.”

  “But, Mortis–”

  Avon tried to speak, but was interrupted. I looked at Avon by lifting my eyebrow. I knew what he wanted to say and that was exactly the kind of thing that I had already told him not to do.

  But, he didn’t continue. I guess my thoughts reached him before I could say anything. Thus, Avon finally joined us and then we had some talks. As the night came to halt we decided to keep a shut eye as it had been a tiring day and it could become more tiring in the coming days.

  Everyone was asleep except for me and Mikhail. Mikhail got up late after midnight and quietly walked outside the room. I discreetly followed him till we got a little faraway from the room. I had a fair idea of where he was going and making unnecessary commotion amongst others was not a good idea.

  After we got some distance, I said.

  “Going on a hike?”

  He quickly turned and then looked at me with a certain amount of surprise. It felt as if he knew that I would follow him, but was still unsure.

  “Probably?” he answered, “Wanna join?”

  “Depends, if that involves seeing an injured girl? Sure!”

  We both started walking together. The Market lane was surprisingly active in small amounts. Some stalls had food and beverages and others provided accommodation services. I looked at the sky which looked ever so beautiful, though there was a part of me that hated this beauty for I always wanted to despise this kind of world.

  “Hey?” Mikhail uttered, which drew my attention over to him.

  “Say, how do you bear the weight of those dead?” He asked me. The question was framed as straightforward as possible.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean–you’re the God of Death, right?” he tried to elaborate on this question he asked while replying to me.

  I had always been asked and wondering what my life would be if not for this, but never had I been asked this type of question ever.

  “Quadrant of Death.” I tried correcting him first.

  “Yeah, more or less.” He replied with an uninterested smile.

  “Well, bearing the weight is part of the responsibility of what I have undertaken.”

  I said this and kept looking at the ground. I thought to myself that is that answer was sufficient. I had always been wondering whether my role as a Quadrant was a boon or a curse. Mikhail looked right through me and guessed that I had a different opinion on it as well.

  “But?” He tried poking me.

  “My Teacher used to say that duty is not a crime. I never understood it, but…” I said as I looked up again, “To make the weight feel less, I tried to make every death meaningful.”

  He chuckled a bit at my response and then asked another question, “So, that’s why you don’t like this world?”

  “Definitely, life has no meaning here; with death predestined there is no faith, but only fear.” I said and continued, “The kids today–they should’ve never been alone, but their parents had to die for their death was predestined. Their time with their kids was vandalized, the life they could have lead. The sheer thought of such meaningless death burns me, but…”

  There was something that I kept myself from saying. I struggled to speak ahead and thus sought to go for silence.

  “Man, you sure are a tough guy. I could never be you.” He said as we reached the path’s end, where the house was located.

  “How did you find this?” I asked him.

  “A fine trade it was.” he said as he indicated to his pocket which contained his money.

  ‘Everything has a price, I suppose.’ I thought as Artium was just a place out of this world for me.

  “Don’t get too close, there’s a bounded field.” He said as I tried stepping forwards. I looked around to look for the field he mentioned, but couldn’t see it.

  “Bounded field?” I asked him a genuine question, which he chose to ignore or mistakenly ignored.

  “Only if Avon was here.” He said with a huge sigh. I couldn’t understand a thing and thus asked him again.

  “Avon? Bounded Field?”

  “You didn’t know Avon is good with bounded fields. He saved our ass with a bounded field during the rumble with Minotaur.”

  I understood half of it, by that I meant that Avon is good at something that is called bounded fields, but I still had no idea about what bounded fields are. So, once again I asked.

  “Bounded Fields? What are those?”

  “Oh! You don’t know them, you should’ve said so..”

  He said to which I thought in my mind for what I had been asking him for the last fifteen seconds.

  He started to walk around me and then started encircling me in order to explain to me, but while he explained..

  “Bounded Fields are like invisible portions of marked land that could work as protection, concealment, creation or for best…Deception”

  As soon as he looked for me, he was just gone.

  Vanished.

  He was completely out of my sight and from a quarters distance I could hear a gush of wind directed towards me. I felt an ominous presence hauntingly watching over me. By the time I could turn around and look for that person, I felt a singular attack thrown towards me. I ducked and saw a knife passing away. I had no time to regain my composure, so I raised my arm and called upon my spear.

  As soon as I raised my arm, I could see a dark figure behind me, they had a toothed knives in their hands and were ready to attack me. Fortunately, my spear arrived at the exact moment when they were initiating their attack.

  ‘Clung!’ I heard my spear and their knives clashing on to each other.

  “Missed my chance, eh?” They said as they jumped backwards.

  I tried to take a good look at them, but was unable to do so as it was very dark. Though not be faltered, I stood in an attack stance and asked them,

  “Two questions– Where is Mikhail? And who are you?”

  “Huh? You mean the one standing with you?” A man in brown and yellow drapes stepped in from the shadows. He appeared to be an outsider. He had a brown complexion, black hair, his eyebrows were pierced and had tattoos all over his arms. He had a sigil that resembled the mark of a clove.

  “I don’t know,” He answered. As he stepped into the moonlight, I could see his eyes– his green pupils dilated and with a stern yet mischievous look he continued, “And for who I am? Well, it doesn’t matter– you won’t be alive to remember it.”

  He said as he plunged his knife that now oddly appeared as daggers towards me. I lifted my spear and placed it in between us, blocking his attack and rotated my spear clockwise to counter his movement. My goal at the moment was to subdue him and make him answer my questions, but that goal seemed a far-fetched idea as his movements made me recognize him as a skilled fighter.

  I tried different ways to block, yet counter his attacks, but he was always swift enough to escape my attack. It was as if I was being too slow, which I am sure that I wasn’t.

  As we dueled, he was constantly focusing attacks on my lower abdomen. I was getting used to his strikes, I was still keeping an eye out for any surprise movements. And as he attacked, he suddenly moved his right arm in an upwards motion targeting my eyes, to which I responded by moving away and thrusting my spear in the frontal direction. He leaped in the air and somersaulted his way towards my back. I tried to thrust my spear again, but this time in the backwards direction to restrict his movements, but he casually stepped on my spear, slashing down my spear and then kicking me away.

  I was shaken by this sudden development, but was determined to land a blow as it was at this moment that he had his guard down. So, I shoved my spear in the ground and used it as a pole to launch myself towards him. I was successful in catching him off guard and kicked him in his chest, making him fly backwards and as he fell down– I raised my spear and aimed it towards him.

  He chuckled on my launch and pulled a grapple out of his drapes, which he then used to escape my attack by hurling himself over a tree branch.

  “What a pain in the–” He tried to speak, but I assume that he stopped himself to get a breather. I also used this opportunity to calm myself down and regain some energy.

  “No wonder the pay is good.” He said as looked down on me.

  “Pay? Who’s paying you?” I asked him to get myself some answers, but he seemed covert at first, but then opened up.

  “Someone big. That’s all I can tell you.” He said as he then removed his knives from his back pocket. “Anyways, playtime’s over.” He said as he threw the knife in my direction.

  ‘A simple knife throw?’ I thought. It is quite simple to dodge a throw, but everything that he had been doing this whole time had a precise structure. Thus, this throw felt a little off. I stepped sideways to dodge the incoming knife. But, as I completed my movement that I realized that my focus had completely shifted from him to the knife. So, I quickly looked up to the tree branch where he was sitting only to find him that he wasn’t there.

  ‘The knife!’ I reacted by raising my spear over my back to stop the incoming attack. I heard spear clashing with the knife behind me.

  “Quite perceptive, huh?” He said as he tried to press his knife over my spear, to which I used the momentum of my turn and tried pushing him away. He jumped backwards and maintained a safe distance between us.

  As I was getting ready for his next attack, I started articulating his situations. From what I had experienced, it was clear that he somehow used his knife to appear behind me. But, was it the only way? He could have just used the knife as a distraction, but then it isn’t humanly to run at such speeds. Or is he ‘Gifted’?

  As I tried thinking about it, he raised his knife again and threw it towards me. Whatever, his method— I had to stop his movement and thus, I concluded that his movements were connected to his knife. So, this time I used my spear to block the incoming knife and in the process broke it into pieces. But, when I was in process of doing so, I saw him smile as he had already predicted for what I was going to do.

  ‘Am I wrong?’ I started thinking as I broke the knife. The knife shattered like it was made up of glass. Every single piece flew across me and as they fell past me, I could hear a gush of wind blowing around me.

  ‘Why did it break so easily? It is as if it was made to be broken.’ I thought and suddenly realized that maybe he can appear wherever his knife lands, but that isn’t enforced on the basis of whether it is in one piece or million. Which means, that I might have just opened him a thousand ways for him to attack me. I quickly tried to encircle my spear around me.

  “Too late!” I heard his voice as he rushed towards from a direction unknown. I looked everywhere frantically, but suddenly I just sensed his blade approaching me and as soon as he revealed himself. I knife of a similar fashion as his struck in between of us.

  He reacted to that knife and jumped backwards and started looking around for the source of the trajectory. He looked at me and then at the trees and then screamed, “He is my mark!!”.

  He turned his back against me and started walking away and as he took some steps, he looked at me again and said, “Don’t worry! We’ll meet again.” He said with a firm voice, “You are really amusing. But, the next time we meet— I will kill you.”

  “Who are you? Why are doing this?” I tried asking him. I expected him to not reply, but to my surprise he said,

  “A guy from the Kingdom of Ventus is paying me to finish you off.” He continued, “Also, tell John that Suriya the Clove misses him..” He completed and vanished in the darkness.

  Happy Reading!!!! I love you guys a lot!!!