+++ ???’s Perspective +++

“What is this all about?” The dockmaster had been called in to discuss certain breaches in the shipping guidelines, and he was rather displeased.

“Sir, their cargo has been found to contain mana far exceeding the standards set.” The young dockworker reported.

A tall hooded figure, shrouded in a dark cloak turned to face him, the abhorrent mask almost taunting him.

This was the culprit for his displeasures.

“Ah hello there master Sergiv, it is always a pleasure.” The culprit at hand, however, doesn't seem worried at the slightest, “Is this boy new on the job? He doesn’t seem to understand the... arrangements we’ve made.”

Sergiv narrowed his eyes, “So you’ve come personally this time Hirlicind.”

“Yes, the shipment this time is special.”

The old man let out a grunt before looking at the documents that had been prepared for him.

Though what he saw made his eyes widen.

He wasn’t kidding.

This was special, too special.

“I know you have your deal with the troupe and the royals but this is... too much. There’s no way this will work. There’s too much risk involved.” He scowled at the cloaked figure, unsure how he even managed to get this thing across the sea without dying.

“Now now, there are special circumstances with this one. I can assure you the risk is minimal. We’ve already made the necessary preparations for the necessary people, we just need to get it through the city.” Hirlicind persuaded.

“Then you’ll have to get it through another way, I can’t give that thing entry.” The dockmaster threw the papers onto the floor and prepared to leave before a soft tune stopped him.

Dead in his tracks.

“Oh, do you like it?” Hirlicind gingerly held up a music box, the blue sheen of the instrument juxtaposing his dull black gauntlets. It was a rare item assembled in the dwarven mountains, but that wasn’t the reason for the cold chill running down Sergiv’s spine.

“Quite a lovely melody isn’t it? Does it sound familiar?” His voice danced across the room as the notes of the song struck his eardrums.

The dockmaster did recognize the tune.

Too well.

He had heard his wife sing it to their child before bed.

Just yesterday.

“You...” Sergiv turned his head slowly.

“You’re a lucky man Sergiv. Blessed by a happy family and a stable job. Even walking along the docks I could see how many people respect you. Makes me quite envious.” There wasn’t a hint of emotion in his voice.

“What. Do. You. Want?” The words of the dockmaster came out slowly, forced out from deep within his stomach.

“Me? Oh I don’t want anything in particular. But I can imagine you would want to look the other way this time.”

There was a tense silence that grew between them.

Before finally, Sergiv spoke at a volume that could be heard outside: “Lad.”

“Huh? Are you talking to me sir?” The young dockworker who had been guarding the entrance peaked his head in.

“Let them through.”

“But sir, the ca-”

“Did you not hear me boy? Or is it another week of cleaning the barnacles?”

“No sir! I mean uh- yes sir! Sorry sir, I’ll get to it right away.” The young man scurried off, the fear of punishment pushing him along.

When the man had gotten out of earshot Hirlicind spoke again: “You’re a good man Sergiv. If the pike does come, it shall not be for your head.”

“And it won’t be for yours either.” Sergiv retorted.

Sergiv could see nothing under the mask, but he could imagine Hirlicind was smiling right about now. Walking forward, he placed the intricate metal box into the hands of Sergiv.

It felt heavy, in more ways than one.

“A gift for your family.”

“Get out.”

+++ Alfon’s Perspective +++

“It’s fineee stop worrying about it nya.” Prisilla reassured mother.

“I agree with the cat on this occasion. It would seem as though the safety of Alfon is more or less guaranteed in the temple.” Master Rafine added.

Prisilla and master Rafine were currently in the middle of persuading mother to let go of my hand; she had been nervous on the ride here and was having second thoughts at this point.

“But he’s too young, what if something happens?” She cried.

“Sylvestra Adelmire, I assure you that the south temple of Darisport puts an emphasis on safety. The age of your child, while a few months short of the standard, is not entirely unprecedented.” Oh, as expected of a head priest, he’s quite adept at calming people down.

“See nya? What’s the problem? You were just fine yesterday.”

“I just have a really bad feeling about this...”

After a few more back and forths, mother was finally persuaded in letting go of my hand and I waved goodbye to the people seeing me off. Though I wasn’t sure why they made a big deal of it, master Rafine had informed me that the process would take a few hours at most anyway.

And from what I saw a few days ago, even if complications arose it's not like we didn’t have the funds to deal with it.

--

“Hey, Sylvie.” Master Rafine interrupted my mother, who was writing some letters.

“What is it, Rafine?”

“We’ve got some issues. The company we’re traveling with informed us we need to pay extra since there have been some hazards on the roads recently.”

“To Halyis?”

“Yeah, he required us to pay twenty percent extra for the risk. On the bright side though, that uhh, brother-in-law (?) of yours has already paid his share so we don’t need to cover that, and he’s also adding extra bodyguards since the party will be larger than expected.”

“Is... he-”

“No, I double checked his information with the guild, it seems like it's true. Disappearances have been going on recently.”

“Hm. Well I don’t think money will be too much of a problem, talk to Prisilla.” Mother pointed in the direction of Prisilla’s room.

Master Rafine gave her a questioning look before leaving. I was curious, so I tagged along as well.

“Oi! Furball!” Prisilla knocked, “You up?”

Crash.

Bang.

Clank.

“Ow, pain.” I heard Nina say as a body hit the floor.

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“Nyaaaaa, sorry kiddo. You alright nya?”

Master Rafine and I exchanged looks of suspicion as noises of concern arose behind the door.

“One moment nya?” Prisilla yelled back. It was the afternoon already, why did it sound like she just woke up?

One moment passed.

Then two.

Then a few more.

Then, just as master Rafine was on the verge of breaking the door down, it opened.

“MmMmMM nyaaaaaaa. What’s the issue?” Prisilla, half dressed, asked sleepily. Looks like she went drinking last night.

“You didn’t... take Nina with you to the bars did you?” A tinge of rage was peppered into her sentence.

“Uh, yup. Guilty nya. But she didn’t drink anythin don’cha worry bout it nya.” Prisilla answered nonchalantly.

“We shall speak of this later.” Master Rafine said in a low tone, “For now, there is an issue of funding Sylvie told me to speak to you about.”

Master Rafine recounted the problem to Prisilla, whose expression seemed to be a mixture of not caring, and sleepiness. I did see her ears perk up at the mention of disappearances though.

“Well?” Master Rafine asked when finished.

“Oh what nya? Money right?” She put her hand lazily on master Rafine’s shoulder, “Don’t even worry about that nyaa. I’m filthy stinkin’ rich nya! You know, you should really be fixing this by yourself but since big sister Prisilla is here she’ll give you a hand okay little mage?” Her condescending tone somehow even rubbed me the wrong way, a quick glance at master Rafine led me to believe she was dangerously close to throwing hands.

Or was it magic in this respect?

Master Rafine’s temper was probably only restrained by the fact that she was technically asking for a favor.

“Please clarify before I reduce you to just filthy and stinkin’.”

Sensing the danger in her tone Prisilla hurried up with the explanation: “Oh yeah uh. You know Nina right nya? And you know I frequent the gambli- uh... bars right nya? Well here’s the thing nya. She doesn’t actually lose at gambling at all, nya! So I just kept winning nya, and winning nya. Until I got kicked out, nya.” I don’t know if it was because she was half awake or something, but it sounded like she was just making random cat noises for half her explanation.

“You... made a child gamble for you? Just when I thought your actions couldn’t be more depraved.”

“Hey I bought her some sweets after nya.” She gave master Rafine a wink before heading back into her room and rummaging through some drawers, eventually coming back out with a sack of coins in hand and dropping it in the hands of master Rafine.

Judging by the look on master Rafine’s face, it was probably a lot of money.

“And besides nya, didn’t you need money anyway? Would you like me to return it?”

Bribery

This has to be some form of bribery.

Master Rafine you can’t fall for it, it has to be unethical.

“Is... Nina fine with it?” Upon master Rafine’s question Prisilla opened the door wider to reveal a smiling Nina.

“Alfy, Alfy!” She ran up and hugged me. Looks like she was doing fine, you couldn’t even tell she had been in a gambling den the night before.

Actually.

Hold on, she was even wearing new clothes.

Woah, was that a floral dress?

“I’ll...” Master Rafine seemed conflicted but eventually put the bag into her own pocket, “Look the other way this time. For the sake of emergency.”

Ah.

Looks like even master Rafine couldn’t resist the temptation of easy cash.

---

So yeah, from the looks of things, we were kind of rich right now. At least, until the owners of those pseudo casinos finally realize how big of a problem Nina and Prisilla were.

As I finished my goodbyes and was led into the temple, though, I couldn’t help but think something about my mother’s worries were validated.

Mother had very good instincts after all.

But what concerned me the most...

Was that Nina wasn’t smiling when seeing me off.

It wasn’t like she was frowning or crying, she just had a sort of neutral expression.

Was I really in big trouble?

“Please lay down on the altar and don’t move.” With those hesitant thoughts in mind I did as the priest instructed, “We will be performing the opening of your mana channels, a sleep spell shall be cast upon you. Do not resist.”

“Okay.”

I laid down and prepared for the spell.

...

Though...

Not a whole lot was happening.

But I didn’t want to interfere with the priest so I just lay there.

Silently.

For quite a long time.

It must have been at least thirty minutes before I spoke.

“Mr. Priest sir, have there been some problems?”

No reply.

Okay, now I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

There is no way they’d leave a kid unattended right?

“Mr. Priest?” I turned my head to look around. All I saw was the dimly lit altar room where they led me to.

Was it me or did it get darker?

“Mr. Priest if you don’t respond I’m going to get up okay?”

One moment passes.

Then two.

Then a few more.

But silence was all that answered me.

I got up slowly.

As my bare feet touched the floor I nearly jumped, when exactly did they take my shoes off?

“H-Hello? Is anyone there?” Once again, only silence answered me.

Or that was until I heard something, a clattering noise to my right. Distant but undeniable.

“Hello?” I asked once again, the same clattering noise from the right.

Were they preparing the spell over there? Sure, it took a while.

I looked around the room once more.

It was dimly lit, by a strange looking tree right next to the altar behind me. It seemed to be consistent entirely with branches that glowed a soft green hue. I wasn’t really paying attention when I came into the room, but it seemed rather majestic.

Other than that, the room was barren of any other decorations.

I waited some more, wondering if they'd forgotten about me, or were busy.

But eventually my patience wore out and I went to investigate. As the soles of my feet met cold marble, I started grumbling, “Some professional service this was.”

“Hey! Did you guys forget about me? Just answering would be nice, you know?” I walked towards the sound. There was only a single corridor leading out of the altar room and it stretched on for quite a bit, even widening considerably at some stages.

Which.

Was strange.

Since I don’t remember it being this large.

Was my memory off.

“H-Hey? Mr. Priest, are you still there?” Once again, a clunking noise to my right. Were they incapable of words? A vow of silence maybe? Something strange was definitely going on.

But it's not like I had any other option other than to investigate.

Eventually I reached an intersection. A hallway to the left, similar to the one I just walked through; a big hallway to the middle, which resembles the width of a dining hall; and a hallway to the right, also similar to the one on the left but more dimly lit.

There was a lit candle with a holder conveniently placed near the entrance of the right hallway. Looks like I was going the right way. Was the awakening a test or something? I heard it was what all children went through but I can’t believe mother or master Rafine didn’t tell me.

“Hello? Are you still there?” I wish that priest had told me his name, I hope he didn't think I was rude by addressing him as ‘You’.

But at the same time, I didn’t care that much. How dare he leave a child alone in the altar room like that? Mother was definitely going to give him an earful.

Clattering, in the right hallway, louder this time.

I sighed and started walking.

It had been a while before I got over my annoyance and started thinking about this objectively.

And the more I thought.

The more scared I got.

The temple definitely wasn’t this big.

I definitely didn’t take any turns to get here, let alone encounter an intersection that large.

And the hallway was definitely getting darker.

It had been dimly lit in the first place but I could barely see a few meters ahead of me at this point, even with the candle.

“H-Hello?”

“---Ba--” A multi-pitched, moan, like many voices were talking at once.

That.

Was definitely not the priest.

Something resembling a mix between black tar and spiderwebs started stretching into the corner of my vision.

I stood, horrified as a black, fleshy, creature started emerging from the darkness. Tied down by chains of dark metal.

Clank.

The chains made noise as they collided with the marble flooring. So that’s what I heard.

The pain in my right arm started flaring up again.

And then...

A scream.

“aaaaAAAAhhHhHHH.”

Was that my own or from the creature I couldn’t tell, but I ran as fast as I could.

The patter of feet hitting the floor echoed as I made my way down the hallway, but equally loud was the clanking of chains as the... Thing... behind chased after me.

The frightening part wasn’t the dark tendrils creeping up in front of me, or the hallway seemingly getting longer, however, it was the fact that the clanking got louder by the second.

But I didn’t need to outrun it forever.

“Ha...Haa... haa”

There it was, I could see it! A small light beyond the dark hallway.

I had an intrinsic feeling that I would be safe if I made it there.

But as soon as my concentration let up...

I tripped.

Like an idiot.

“No..NOnononononono.” Fear crawled up my spine as I stood hastily back up.

But the few seconds I was stalled was all the time the monster needed to catch up.

SLAM.

I was grabbed and pinned to the ground like a doll, back against the marble floor.

The light from the candle had revealed the black tendrils had spread across the ceiling, but as the monster came into view my focus shifted towards my detainer.

Dark, Bruised flesh spread across a skull shaped bone. Pulsating tumors dotted what looks to be its shoulder.

It was frightening, and disgusting.

A slit opened up on the bruised flesh and it spoke in that voice that felt like a hundred people were talking in unison, but....

Within the multitude of sounds, there was one that was the loudest, one that I could hear the clearest. .

A disturbingly familiar tone.

A voice similar to how I remembered my first cries in this world were.

Something resembling a baby’s cries.

“giVe mY BOdY bAck!”