"With that, I think I have everything. Thank you for your cooperation. I have your accounts of today and 2 weeks ago. I will be discussing further actions with the rest of the guards." The captain said while standing up.

"You are free to go when you want. If you need some time you can stay here as well. I have to return to my other duties so I can not keep you company."

The captain walked over to the room door. He was pretty... buff, for a lack of better words. Let's just say he has had lots of training. As he was walking out the door he looked back in.

"Zeph and Zephyria, please come to the guards' house again around 8 tonight. I should be all done with work by then. I would love to talk with you again and catch up on things."

He said this with a far softer voice this time. Friendlier, is the word. The voice of a family member being glad he got the chance to talk to his niece and nephew again.

We nodded but had one last question. "Uhm, Uncle?" Sis said somewhat nervously. "We don't really have anywhere to stay. So, uhm..." Sis stumbled a bit as we weren't sure if this was asking too much.

He reached for something in his pocket and after a few seconds, he threw a coin to my sister.

"Take that coin to the Aquamarine Inn. It is a small inn that you can find if you walk back to the central plaza and walk further to the east along the river. It should be on the left, edging the river. Tell the innkeeper that I sent you and show her that coin. She will know what to do."

We were happy to finally have a nice place to stay. Or at least we hoped it was a nice place. But taking into account that the coin, mentioning our uncle's name, it was on the river's edge and close to the center, it should be good right?

"Ow and one last thing." Uncle said as he tapped the doorframe. "Lucian, go with them. I don't want you wandering the streets tonight, nor do I want you at your own home."

His voice was a lot sterner now. I could sense he and Lucian knew each other enough for Uncle to worry about him.

Lucian looked up to the captain, nodded, and softly answered with a "Yeah, sure" that was hardly perceptible.

"Well Lucian, shall we get going then? We should freshen up at the inn"

My sister reached out to Lucian to help him up in case he was still feeling the exhaustion from earlier. Without a warning, he slapped the hand of my sister away, stood up, and moved away from us.

"What are you? Who are you?" He suddenly asked with a confused look.

Sis and I looked at each other in confusion.

"Uhm, what do you mean? Do you want to know where we..." I couldn't finish my sentence as Lucian interrupted me halfway through.

"No!" he said with a louder voice. "What are you? You two feel identical. That should not be possible."

My confusion suddenly turned into surprise and shock.

Wait a minute, did he just say we were identical?

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Even though we never let on that something was going on between Zephyria and me, he seems to have picked up on something. After a few seconds in thought, I wanted to know why he said that.

"Why do you say we are identical? You can clearly see we are brother and sister, don't you."

Sis and I looked very much related. We had the same hair color, eyes, and tail markings. Though you would be forgiven not knowing that. Ignisari siblings always have the same markings on the tails. I have no idea why, but I digress.

"I can assure you that Zeph and I are brother and sister and there is nothing weird about us," Zephyria said calmly.

As the situation was tense enough, I didn't want to use myself to ask too many questions. From his story earlier, I could sense there was a large amount of distrust for strangers coming from him. And I'm not even talking about the way he is treated by many others.

My guess was that it would be better to let Zephyria do the rest.

"Lucian, please calm down. We are not here to hurt you at all." Sis walked a little closer to Lucian but put a step back.

"Did we do anything to make you so afraid of us?" Sis asked, hoping he would give us a hint.

"L-look, I know you won't hurt me, but.." He was hesitant to tell us what was going on.

But what he said next was beyond belief.

"I... have a high sensitivity for Aether and with my healing abilities, I can feel people's emotions and intentions." He let out a sigh and looked up to find our reactions.

"You must think I'm an idiot don't you."

There was silence in the room for a good minute. I was trying to comprehend what the implications could be for someone to have that ability.

I thought it best to let my sister keep doing the talking as her voice is much more caring than mine.

"No, we don't think you are an idiot. On the contrary, we think it must be immensely difficult for you to have to deal with all the emotions of others around you."

He looked up at Sis and, for a moment, I saw a small glow in his eyes. That must be when he sees, or senses, what he talked about. Does he use the ability knowingly or is he unaware of it? Maybe we can help him in some way.

"Hey, Lucian." I finally broke my silence and Lucian looked at me. "Do you use your ability to... sense, or do you feel it all the time without you doing anything?"

He looked down in thought and answered a bit insecurely.

"I don't know. I just sense it all the time. What did you mean with 'Do you know if I am using my ability to sense'."

"Well, never mind. It is not really that important right now. I do want to know one thing though. Why did you say me and sis were identical?"

I was becoming more and more curious and maybe I was pushing my luck a little here.

Maybe it would be good to let Sis comment on this question as well. Might get the tension out of the air.

"Yeah, I'm pretty curious as well. And don't worry. we really are just curious." My sister added.

"Well," he started a bit nervously. "Everybody I have ever met has a unique aura. This aura is like.. uhm a voice. No one else has your voice, so it is unique to you. But when you picked me up earlier I sensed that your auras are nearly identical."

He looked at us to gauge our reaction to this.

"Wait, hold on. You just said 'nearly', right?" I spoke with an urgency in my voice that I had rarely heard myself talk with.

Lucian looked at me with interest "Yeah, it's not completely identical but nearly."

It is hard to describe the relief I felt when I heard Lucian say this. It has been 15 years since it happened, it has been 15 years living on a hope that what I wished would be true. Now, in a random village, I meet a guy by pure chance and he suddenly turns my blind hope into something more tangible. Something to fight for. Something worth taking my revenge for.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as Lucian became curious why the 2 people in front of him were completely spacing out at the same time.

"Uhm, Zeph, was it? Are you 2 ok?"

I Rubbed my eyes which were becoming blurry from tearing up a little. Tears at the thought that Aria's soul might still be somewhere in my sister's body.

"Yeah, You just gave us something immensely valuable," I said with an almost breaking voice.

Thinking about the possibilities for the future, the quest for revenge, and saving my sister's soul, I made up my mind.

"Lucian, Come with us to the inn. We will tell you what is going on and why you sense us as nearly identical, ok?"

Lucian looked at us and probably sensed that we were genuinely relieved and happy. He nodded and we made our way out of the guards' house. As the air seemed to have released its tenseness completely, we made our way to the inn.

I can't believe this. This was some unexpected hope that I never would have dreamed of receiving.