Nay.

Don’t blame yourself.

I am the one who couldn’t.

My body is not one a man should have any more, it changes every day and soon, I’ll stop being me. I just want to leave as myself.

I would have so much liked to travel with you, but I would just have been weighing you down.

If one day you meet Master Yglasion, could you tell him I’m sorry?

Thank you for saving me.

Carle.

Letter.

The crumpled letter was resting in Nay’s pocket. She had read it a few times but didn’t want to see it anymore. She had not managed to throw it away though. While she was walking under the cover of the stars, Nay was singing.

In the rhythm of her steps, “A day before winter” sounded slow and melancholic. Her voice was resonating through the darkness like the blow of the wind.

Hours passed, and Nay reached the final dune. She was lucky to immediately reach the road she and Carle had taken on the way in. She was walking north, but hadn’t decided yet if she would go to Leïn or to Gite. Soon though, she would have to take a decision.

Hope that Sage Jormun did not make a mistake, and let her friend alone to face the Angel, or go help her but leave her family unprotected at the capital? It was an impossible choice, but Nay felt detached. The piece of paper inside her pocket was akin a burn, and the Master Legio’s revelations were like a mist on her spirit and mind.

The young Legio was concentrating on her breathing, trying to calm her tumultuous thoughts.

Days passed.

Nay trained with no stopping. Besides her usual warm-ups and sword training, she even trained while she walked. She was meditating on her Rreico.

The Sage Jormun had given her a lead: she had barely touched the world of the Rreico. Thenceforth, everything she could give of her concentration was directed to the Rreico.

When she walked, when she sang, when she cooked.

Every moment, she tried to open herself to what was happening around her.

She didn’t feel as if she was making any notable progress.

Which was not exactly surprising considering her mental and physical state. Never had her Rreico been in such disarray. Nonetheless, she had managed to observe herself.

She wanted to see what the other mages, what her father and Vestigio could see while looking at her.

The exercise was difficult, as she had to try to look at her own Rreico as if she was someone other than herself.

After a full day trying only that, she finally managed to do it.

This second sight almost knocked her out.

In less than a second, while she was picturing herself as a ghost outside her body, the world became grey.

No more colours. Only mixtures of black and white creating a sight devoid of any life.

At least in appearance, because in the clouds of greyness storming around the young Legio, she noticed something. Like a wind of millions of odours, each and every one of them alive and dead.

It was a nightmare, and Nay lost all control over her Rreico. The gigantic pillar a grey Rreico vanished, and she managed to breathe again.

It took her two days to dare try again.

Nay felt herself faint again, but this time, she held strong. She realized that Sage Jormun had not lied, not that she had really doubted him as she could feel his Rreico, but this was proof. This grey Rreico around her was reaching absurd heights, touching the sky, and it was clearly covered in millions of beings that had to have been alive once.

Any mage or Legio could see her abominable truth.

Marke had saved that?

Nay would have liked to understand it.

She continued training for the next few days, but this time on how to hide her Rreico consciously. She could do that already, so it was not exactly an improvement, but she wanted to see its effect on the pillar of grey Rreico she was emitting.

Fortunately, now that she knew what she was doing, she managed quite easily.

The effect was quite striking. The infinite tower had disappeared. You could still see the grey horror on Nay’s skin though.

After two weeks, something changed.

She finally made some progress.

Nay could now hide her “external” Rreico with no difficulty, almost unconsciously. It would never have fooled Marke or Vestigio, especially considering Nay’s chaotic internal state, her intent or combat technique would still have been plainly visible to them. But the infinite tower of lost souls and power, this one was now hidden. It was absurd. The young Legio had no idea how so much power could be hidden so easily, and unfortunately, there was no one left to explain it to her.

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She was getting slightly better though, and her senses of the outside world were coming back.

It is what let her sense it.

She was just a few hours away from the village where she and Carle had stopped, almost a month ago.

Despite the distance and her state of mind, Nay felt that something was wrong. It was the same sensation of latent horror. Those deafening sounds in her skull, her instinct screaming the incoming horror.

The young Legio had no difficulty understanding what was happening to her. What it meant.

It was the second time this week, after all.

Nay stopped in the middle of the road, crouching there, a hand on her head, laughing nervously.

“By Lebe, really?”

She couldn’t believe it. The horrors did not stop. One after the other, as if to crush her on the ground until she was unable to stand back up.

She wanted to avoid the village altogether, to avoid at least one tragedy.

But that wasn’t who she was.

She put the her backpack’s strap back correctly on her shoulder, and started to walk again.

The more she approached the village, the more her unnerving feeling grew.

But when she finally reached the village, nothing abnormal greeted her.

The houses were untouched, no flames or smoke.

Nay entered the village, a hand on her sword, a hand on her back, gripping nothing.

Nay swore, she still wasn’t used to her dagger being absent.

“Maybe I’m crazy?” Said Nay out loud, to reassure herself.

But she knew that even if she had lost her marbles, the fact that something was deeply wrong in the village was undeniable.

She felt some distant Rreicos, even though she couldn’t be sure considering her current state of mind. But the place was empty.

The sun had barely risen, so it wasn’t that weird, but Nay had walked towards the central plaza with the well of Canna, and even there, she saw no one.

The doors of some of the houses were opened, but none was bashed in or broken. There was signs of struggle in the sand, lots of footsteps, but no blood, arrows, or other clues of a battle.

Nay felt something coming from the tavern. Not a Rreico per se, something in between.

Someone wounded?

Nay hurriedly went towards the large wooden building.

Before opening the door, she hesitated. The smell was atrocious, and she could hear the buzzing of insects coming from inside.

Once again, her hand hovered over the door’s handle.

Nay had the ridiculous thought that soon, she would have a phobia of doors.

She pushed on the handle.

No one was alive inside.

She went back outside immediately.

“Lebe’s whore.” Said Nay in a gargle. She had to go back, inspect the scene, understand what had happened, but first, she needed to breathe again.

One thing she knew for sure, a mage, or something using magic, had massacred the inhabitants of the village. She closed her eyes, trying to recollect herself.

There were no words to describe what was inside the tavern. She didn’t know many of the villagers, so she couldn’t know if all of them were inside, but she had counted at least twenty bodies.

Trying to analyse the nightmarish picture in her head was almost painful. Mainly men, that is all she would manage to deduce. She stood back up. She needed to know more. She inhaled a large gulp of air, the reached back towards the opened door.

She ceased her movement mid-way. There was a Rreico getting closer to her, coming from the road to Leïn. Not one, many? She couldn’t concentrate enough to be certain.

A woman in her fifties, dressed in noble clothing, was walking towards her. She wasn’t very tall, and if she had been beautiful in the past, Nay could not say as much now. Part of the stranger’s face was like if it had melted, and Nay could read in her eyes something she often saw in Trinne’s blue eyes. Still, Nay didn’t feel threatened. The stranger wasn’t a mage, she could not have been responsible for what had happened here, and her physique showed she had never trained to fight. She was without a doubt Jarulavien, and considering her clothes, she was completely out of place in a little village of Striavie.

It only took Nay a second to understand how wrong she was.

The woman was far from being alone. The young Legio could feel stares, others. She was almost certain now. Nay looked towards the top of the roof of the building opposite of the tavern, but saw no one.

Her feeling of Rreico had really become so bad? Or maybe they were the ones being very good.

She could feel them on her right and on her left. They were getting closer at the same pace as the woman, but none could be seen from where she stood.

The stranger with the burned face looked towards the roof the young Legio had previously examined. She showed no reaction. When she stared at Nay again, she was smiling.

Nay had never met this woman before, but it wasn’t reciprocated. Nay felt her interlocutor’s Rreico miss a beat and her expression show that she had recognized her.

‘Biach’ Nay thought. She immediately put a hand on her sword’s handle.

She stopped her movement immediately.

If she unsheathed her weapon, she was dead.

It was an unmissable Rreico.

The woman was still smiling. Nay felt the gazes of ten or more people on her, ready to kill her the moment she would show any sign of hostility.

She moved her hand away from her sword, and the killing intent ceased.

Nay smiled. If a fight started, either you were named Redrick Darkstar or you died. Even her father would not have been able to come out victorious from a fight against that many opponents at the same time. But, he would never have let himself been surrounded that easily.

“You are Nay, aren’t you?” Said the woman in a soft voice.

“…Yes, that is my name. Are you here for me?” Nay spoke calmly. There was a certainty that hadn’t left her since she had broken her father’s promise.

She was not allowed to die.

Her survival meant everyone’s survival.

The woman raised an eyebrow. “No, of course not. Even though in usual circumstances I would have questioned you about the Commandare’s death, it is not my mission so I shall abstain. What’s more, I promised Ra’fa I would leave you alone.”

Her mother’s name echoed inside Nay’s head.

“What?” The young Legio was unable to hide her stupor.

“I didn’t think we would cross paths, but your mother described you to me, and, well, your eyes are quite the giveaway. My name is Nephrite. I am one of the Imperatrix’s jewels.”

Nay know had a thousand questions in her mind, but no desire to ask any of them. The Imperatrix’s jewels were directly under Her orders. They were her spies, her hand, her sword. They answered to no one else.

It explained why Nay felt watched. Such an important person didn’t travel alone.

“Are you the one who…?” Nay had to ask, as she looked towards the tavern. If the Imperatrix had ordered the killing, Nay would have to fight for her life, as such a massacre didn’t leave any witnesses.

Nephrite seemed annoyed. “No, of course not. My mission is to find the man who did this and gather information about his powers and weaknesses. Which explains why I am here, and why I will ask you to tell me if you have seen anything?”

Nay thought about it before answering. She had felt no lie coming from the woman.

“I just arrived. I came here a few weeks ago, and everything was normal.”

“You didn’t see anything out of the ordinary?”

“No.”

Nephrite sighed.

“Too bad. You shouldn’t stay here, Nay.”

“I’ll just fill my flasks and I’m gone.” Said the young woman factually.

“Very good.”

Nephrite turned around to leave, but Nay could not stop herself from asking one last question.

“Madam Nephrite, what about Gite?”

The jewel turned her head to look at her. Nay felt she was walking very close to the edge now.

“Nothing changed. The Angel is staying on the plateau and kills anyone who dares try to go there. I should not answer you, as you are very likely to be involved in what is happening out there. I only answer in respect to your mother. Now leave before I change my mind.”

Nay nodded and left to fill her flasks at Canna’s well.

The Imperatrix’s jewel left, and Ney didn’t feel surrounded anymore.

She sat down to catch her breath, all the while looking at the tavern’s opened door.

Nephrite’s mission was to find the man who did this. Not the woman, not the thing, the man. There was a mage, a man, a madman, travelling throughout the Empire, using his powers to kill and destroy.

Nay had no doubts she would meet him one day. After all, it was the kind of monsters she was attracting.

She sighed and readied herself for a long walk under the sun to take some distance away from the Imperatrix’s jewel and her men.

Nay would go to Leïn. She was going there to tell Ra’fa and Lisana that Marke was dead. She would wait for Trinne there.

Hearing her mother’s name had made up her mind.