Orion, Amelia, and Karteira all looked at the woman that sat on the third couch, in front of Orion.

"My name's Kamala Genathis. I have to thank you for saving my life."

Kamala bowed her head low toward Orion.

"Can I believe that the words that you exchanged with Florian led to your benevolence toward me?"

Orion comfortably sat in the couch. This was going to be a long talk.

Amelia and Karteira looked at each other, and nodded.

They decided to avoid entering the conversation that was about to happen. Whatever Orion decided, they would follow.

"You can take it however you want, I simply saved you for my own convenience."

She looked at him. This answer was expected.

Orion continued.

"I am no hero. I do not save people supposed to be killed for no reason. But let me be honest."

He took a deep breath.

"If I can save a person that is on my side, then it is worth doing. I've seen some parts of the city, and I've heard how everyone is treated in here."

"The people are valued for their work, and not for their faction. Those who do not respect that are shunned, and locked from living peacefully in the city."

She nodded. This was known to her, since she was the one who established these rules.

"We were led here by a soldier that showed sincerity I have never seen in a human other than my companion."

Orion looked at Amelia next to him.

"Just the fact of saving you was enough. Seeing their happiness when they knew you were out of danger, the gratitude they showed to these two after they defended the gates."

"All of this. This was everything that led us to this moment. So let me ease your mind."

"I won't kill you. In my eyes, you are not an Apostle."

Amelia, Karteira, and Kamala all let out a sight of relief.

Kamala looked at the girls in turn, surprised by the reactions they showed.

'Why? Were they hoping for him to stay his hand too?'

She smiled at them, to which they returned a smile of their own.

Orion had his eyes closed.

'This is the right choice, isn't it mom, dad?'

"I am glad to have avoided death a second time."

She stared at him until he opened his eyes. She continued when they looked into each other's eyes.

"Florian sent letters to each of us, notifying of a possible visit."

She turned to Timothy who was standing near the staircase.

"Bring me the letters, please."

Timothy registered the request and walked upstairs.

She returned to look at Orion.

"He specifically asked not to antagonize you. As it stands, we would only cause our own death by doing so."

She sighed after ending her sentence.

Orion smiled, remembering how cautious he was against Florian.

It was a good thing to be cautious. These four were, at that point, still enemies.

"I have a question. How did you, the Apostles, knew about the alliance between angels and fairies?"

Orion asked a question, to which Kamala instantly answered.

"In a book that is given to each Apostle, there is a part concerning the fairies where it is said that a single angel killed many humans, defending them. He was so strong that anyone sent to the fairies came back in pouch full of ashes."

-

Inside the bracelet.

"You went overboard, huh?"

Orianne was poking Reon on the cheek, a cheeky smile on her face.

He was bright red. This was something he didn't want her to know.

-

'That's definitely dad's doing. I am still far from being at his level.'

"I see, so that's why Florian deduced this would be our next stop."

Kamala nodded, but cleared something right after.

"What you have to keep in mind, is that he was the only one to make this assumption. The other Apostles either didn't care, or weren't smart enough to track you."

"Florian tracked you down by his own deductions, and took a risk by approaching you. Which I am grateful he did currently."

The girls looked at the woman in front of them. She was definitely older than them, maybe around her thirties. She was stunning, but that wasn't the point.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

'She was scared.'

'She wants to live.'

Karteira and Amelia both thought this looking at her expression.

Timothy walked downstairs with a letter in his hands. He walked to Kamala, and gave her the letter.

"Here, Lady Kamala."

"Thank you, Timothy."

The man return to stand near the staircase, while Kamala opened the letter.

She took the last paper, and showed it to Orion.

"If you do not mind, could you tell me who is your new companion?"

She showed the drawing of Orion and Amelia that Florian drew for each of his new friends.

Amelia couldn't believe how good this was. He perfectly transmitted the way they were at that moment.

Cautious.

Florian decided to keep the aggressiveness she displayed at their first encounter to himself, and drew a beautiful blonde woman that was standing slightly behind a man that had his hand on her head.

Karteira remembered this moment. She had front row seat when this happened. She was looking through the portal, ready to attack at any moment.

She haven't seen Orion wear his cape since then. She thought that maybe it was hindering him.

'I need to confirm something else before.'

"Her name is Karteira, but before I give you more detail, I have another question."

Kamala nodded, she understood that the woman named Karteira had something to do with the fairies. She also saw the next question coming at some point.

"What happened for two Apostles to fight each others? How did you end up in this sorry state?"

She looked at the papers in her hands with a mocking smile.

"I am just like you. I don't know the real reason."

She continued, looking outside the window on her right.

"It could be many things. Jealousy, lack of ressources further in the desert, thirst for blood, I really don't know."

She returned to look at Orion. She explained everything that happened.

"We've been receiving multiple reports from scouts about suspicious army movement toward Hocride, beginning around three weeks ago."

"Ivan Borias had seemingly decided to attack Hocride from his city, Kaios, north-west from here."

"The problem was, in the reports, there was words about the weird movements, almost feral of the soldiers. I had it looked multiple times, but each times, the scout came back with the same answer."

"Around two weeks ago, the first wave of the army came near Hocride. I gave words to the soldiers to defend the city in case a straggler decided to move past me, while I personally dealt with it. It was fast and efficient, no one had to lose a life other than the invaders."

"The problem began to start the next day. Another army of the same size, roughly five hundred feral soldiers were seen not far from Hocride. Once again, I dealt with it."

"For two weeks, I constantly had to defend against a daily instance of invading soldiers. I finally realized what all this had to do in the plans Ivan came up with."

Orion cut in, holding his chin.

"To exhaust you, and strike you down at the best moment. This is the reason for you defeat."

He continued.

"You, who played a defensive stance, had to constantly exhaust your strength. He most likely knew you would deal personally with his puppets."

Kamala shrugged.

"Exactly. The moment I had almost exhausted my magic energy, he appeared with a bigger army and stopped me from protecting the city gates."

"With the last of my strength gone, and the many injuries I suffered before that point, I was ready to lose my life... or so I thought."

Orion laughed.

"'Over my dead body!' wasn't it? I could feel your anger in that last shout."

A pink blush appeared on her cheeks.

'What kind of last words was that!'

She grabbed her face in shame.

On his left side, the girls were making a hard face. They imagined themselves in her place.

Karteira was a battle addict, but not a suicidal person. So a situation were she was exhausted but still had to fight was only torture for her.

Not being able to properly recover for this long made them sympathize with Kamala.

"I plan on attacking him. Not immediately, of course. I want to let him enjoy the pain a little longer."

His smile was terrifying.

'He really shows no mercy to his enemies. I am glad this smile is not directed at me anymore.'

"I have heard everything from upstairs, so I won't ask what happened. I also heard that you've healed my injuries. For that too, I am grateful."

She once again bowed.

"You are welcome. Karteira, you can show her. I am going to trust her from now on."

Karteira nodded. She followed his words and got up from the couch.

Kamala straightened herself and looked at Karteira, the blue haired woman that joined Orion's group after Florian's encounter with him.

Karteira closed her visible eye, and focused on the magic Tiohr-nam imbued in her.

Her scorpion tail began to reappear behind her.

'I do prefer Karteira with her tail. I wonder why?'

Orion thought, watching the blue tail slowly appear.

Kamala had her eyes wide open.

"Is she a fairy? She's different from what was depicted in the book."

What she saw in the Apostle book was the usual insect-like form that most common fairies had.

"She is special for that matter. Since I will consider you my ally from now on, I will give and share information about us. Do keep it to yourself though. I do not trust the others yet."

"You trust me that easily?"

Kamala was intrigued. Even if he accepted that she wasn't an Apostle in his eyes, she could still act like one.

"After being attacked by another Apostle, I can't believe you would side with them. Like I said, I will attack Ivan later, but I never said you wouldn't help me. This is also your revenge."

A light appeared in her eyes at the word 'revenge'.

'The man that tried to steal everything from me, that tried to defile this city I worked hard to create. I think I understand this man for the first time.'

A smile similar to Orion before appeared on her face.

"I'll gladly help you bring him down. Also, you haven't answered my question about why you hunt them down."

'So she doesn't know the whole story? Maybe only that woman in blue knows the truth.'

"You know that I am a hybrid right?"

She nodded.

"Between an angel and a demon. I don't understand how someone like you could exist in this time."

"It's simple. My parents, the ones who sealed Elliot, used a forbidden magic to save me at the time. It seemed to have taken two millenium for me to be born in a pillar of light."

"The pillar of light near Albriar twenty two years ago! It was you?!"

He smiled and nodded.

"I lived peacefully until an event forced me to learn about my identity and this world."

Amelia dropped her face. This was still a hard topic for her.

Orion knew that, so he placed a hand on her head like he always did.

'I'll have to talk seriously with her about that. We haven't really talked about this event since then.'

"I see. A hybrid of angel and demon, a human (?), and a fairy."

She made a questioned face about Amelia. She assumed she was human, because she looked exactly like one, and she was right.

"She is human, an orphan that lost her parents around the same time I was born."

Kamala showed a dark expression.

"The dragons."

Orion shook his head.

"I've already confirmed with the dragons, they are not the culprit. What else happened near the east coast twenty years ago? You should have a clue right?"

Amelia's face darkened. She wanted to know what happened to her parents.

"The east coast..."

Kamala stood up from the couch, and walked toward the bookshelf behind her. It was a really large bookshelf, with over a hundred books displayed on it.

'This one is before. Not this one.'

She looked in the history section of the bookshelf. They all looked at her back, searching for a book.

"The Bandir explosion?"

Something awakened in Amelia after hearing this.

She was one year old at the time, so her memories were blurred and almost indescriptible, but she remembered something.

She was in someone's arms, who was smiling at her. Her memories switched to a man, standing in the middle of town. Her vision suddenly changed to one of fire and death. The person holding her nowhere to be seen. The next thing she saw was a small child being held by Keith.

The flashback suddenly stopped, and she looked at Orion, her gaze lost in confusion.

"Orion, I think this is it. I just saw something when she said that name."

Kamala turned around with the book in her hands.

"Then this is going to be troublesome."

She sat back, a serious look on her face.

"Bandir was a small human town on the east coast. There was nothing particular to it, except it's seafood delicacies."

"The book tells a different story from reality. It says that a child possessing multiple elements lost control and blew the whole town."

Amelia had to cut in right there.

"That can't be true! I remember a man, arms high in the air, a face of anger toward me."

"That makes it even worse..."

Kamala massaged her brows. What she was about to say was a secret guarded by the Apostles.

"The Bandir incident was caused by an Apostle."