“Arcadia won’t be joining you for this one.” Tarek answered, “This mission is a double header, so to speak.” Tarek threw an envelope with a silver wax seal to Zaizen, who caught it with unparalleled ease.

“Zaizen, you’ll be accompanied by the Water Genus Pure of Heart in retrieving the Water relic.” Vlasis proclaimed dramatically.

“The what now? What the hell is a pure of heart?” Zaizen looked at Seifen in confusion, and the council members looked at Eogen – who placed his hand over his face, and Alleria – who smiled ominously at Zaizen, every muscle in her face spelling out ‘you’re making me look bad’.

“Excuse me for interjecting.” Seifen stepped forward, “But my instructor’s confusion is more than understandable given his upbringing. We must remember that until Lady Colainn elevated him to his Stellar status, he had no formal education in the ways of mages.” Seifen added, receiving a warm smile from Alleria.

“Half a millennia ago, the Shadow Genus rebelled against their fellow mages,” Eogen explained, “These mages used assassination in hopes of changing the world order. An order they thought misrepresented them and their abilities. They wished to be recognized as a force to be reckoned with. In order to achieve that, they partook in what humans would call terrorism.”

“– They even managed to kill a few high-ranking and powerful mages.” Isi added, her voice deep and resonant, but her manner of speech crass, “Of course, that proved rather unfortunate for them, eventually.” She smirked, “Every Genus wanted to take vengeance on the people that killed their brethren. So, it wasn’t long before killing a shadow mage became a moral duty, as well as a sport. They were quite adept at hiding, after all.”

“Ugh, yes.” Eogen coughed uncomfortably, “Before long they were exterminated, and shadow magic went extinct along with them.”

“And it is our divine duty to make sure that will never happen again!” Vlasis cried out. “The first command of the Aegis, led by my forefather of course,” He gestured to the large portrait of his ancestor that hung behind him, “Was to establish a system to preserve all types of magic!”  

“The title of “Pure of Heart” is bestowed upon a designated mage in every Genus.” It was now Tarek who spoke, circling back to the relevant topic, “This mage’s loyalties will not to the family they were born in, but to the council.”

“So that in case we need another mass extermination, the Pure of Heart will be spared, and the magic of his Genus will not be lost.” Isi added, much to Tarek’s apparent disdain.

“Which leads us to our current problem.” Tarek cut her off before she could continue. It wasn’t difficult to see that even though Vlasis sat at the head of the table, it was Tarek who really ran the show. “The ruling house of the Water Genus, the Mizushimas, have closed themselves off in their eastern stronghold. That in and of itself is fine, but their refusal to provide details upon their designated Pure of Heart is unacceptable.” The crease between Tarek’s brows deepened, “The representatives of the council sent to further investigate the subject were refused entry to the Water Genus territory, so we have no choice but to summon the water Pure of heart here. In which case, refusal to comply would be considered treason.” Tarek’s eyes narrowed.

“Then, the mission to retrieve the relic is nothing but a pretense. You just want to meet him.” Seifen said, “But if the Mizushimas has in fact declined to provide you with a Pure of Heart and are now lying about it as you suspect, the person about to show up might be an agent of the Water Genus.” Seifen stepped forward, his eyes in a deadlock with Tarek, “The relics make mediocre mages unstoppable. A hostile water mage in high proximity to the water relic might use this opportunity to try and kill Zaizen and blame it on the harsh terrain.” Seifen ignored Zaizen’s annoyed expression, which was directed at the theoretical notion that someone could somehow manage to kill him, “After that, the water mage can retreat with the relic back into the stronghold undisturbed.”

“Not to mention that having the water relic in their stronghold will essentially make it impregnable.” Alleria added, “Any chance of us storming that thing will go up in smoke.”

“We’ve discussed it already! We have no choice but to get that relic out of there, and when it’s out of there we’ll have no diplomatic cause to summon the water mage.” Vlasis growled at Alleria, who moved her head demonstrably away from him in response.

“What’s the rush?” Zaizen yawned, “And why are we going after the water relic anyways?”

Why indeed? Seifen pondered of it himself ever since Zaizen was given the order. The council’s number one priority was to keep the relics separate. The reason for that was that magic scholars suggested that bringing all relics together could conjure the Evermore and create additional forms of magic. The council, whose sole purpose is to safeguard the mage world will avoid that at all costs, Seifen concluded.

A relic would be retrieved by the council only if it poses a direct threat to either the human or the mage world, since in any other case, the council would be content to leave the relics where they spontaneously manifest themselves. Undisturbed relics were useful to the council, since they caused the mana surrounding them to flow and ebb – effectively re-routing ley lines – something mages are not able to do on their own.

It is for that reason that the water relic, located atop an ever-snowing mountain, had been left undisturbed for the last hundred years. Moreover, Seifen’s hand clasped his chin, the council took great care to isolate this type of relics from the human world.

Relics were capricious, well, Seifen smiled inwardly, as much as a tangible shard of magic could be considered “capricious”. They would often cause strange phenomena that could confuse the human world at the best-case scenario and could jeopardize the secrecy of the existence of magic at the worst.

Such a result was of course, unacceptable. The council would need a thick protective layer around the relics. He’d even heard the council would settle human tribes without access to technology or the common languages of the human world in the regions surrounding these relics. They would speak Oardian, which was best described as a universal language of the mages, and instructed to treat the relics as holy sites which were never to be approached. And if he recalled correctly, the water relic was granted this safety measure. What could possibly make the council reconsider this arrangement?

“The humans are no longer providing a cover for the actions of the relic, but instead, the relic is providing a cover for the activities of the humans.” Seifen’s mouth ran dry, suddenly filled with a terrible sense of dread, “That’s why it’s a double header. That’s why I’m here.” Seifen realized, “There’s one of those among them, isn’t there?”

The droplets fell softly on the ground, forming small puddles that would soon be absorbed into the earth. Yumeka stared at the wet soil, her hand tracing the outline of the woven mat beneath her multiple layers of colorful robes. The rain had accompanied her for as long as she could remember. Unlike the people who came and went, most of whom she seldom saw more than once, the rain remained constant. The rain, the mat, and the sliding paper doors were her world, and the room she inhabited was the entirety of her universe.

In her short existence Yumeka had realized only a handful of things, but each of those things was understood wholeheartedly. Very early on, she had come to the conclusion that any act that involved taking care of her was an unwanted endeavor. The staff that tended to her changed frequently and rarely spoke to her. Even when they did, it was only when faced with no other choice. Some of them explained that this was a “chore” they had to complete, while the others made her understand that wordlessly. Once, she asked one of those attendants, who was more talkative than the others, what is the “chore” she spoke of. The attendant explained to Yumeka that a chore is something one must do. For example, the attendant said, Yumeka’s chore is to live.

And she lived. Soon realizing that there was very little she needed in order to complete her chore. Yumeka needed to eat, breathe, and sleep, and all the words she was taught were to allow her to achieve those things. This made speaking incredibly difficult for her, but she found that her stunted speech was easily understood by those whose chore was to care for her. ‘Bad’, she was taught, was used to describe food that had made her throat close up, so she was unable to breathe, or food that caused pain in her stomach. Pain was also ‘bad’. ‘Good’ was used to describe when there was no more pain.

“Yumeka.”