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After a few days of recovery, we paid a visit to the church to check up on them. They'd been a huge part of the recovery effort, largely responsible for providing funding for therapy, food and shelter for people who were affected by the demon attack. The strangest part is that so many people didn’t even notice anything happened. They just woke up in some random place, probably wherever they wandered to as a skeleton.

Funeral services had been running since the end of the conflict. Each coffin was a reminder of how I’d failed to protect so many people.

I placed my hand over one of the coffins, hoping that maybe I’d be able to detect a hint of life signs within…but there was nothing. The worst part was that it was completely empty. The body was never found.

“It’s all my fault…” I cried, laying myself over this now symbolic resting place of a once living person. “I put everyone in danger…I shouldn’t have come.”

Uncle’s right hand rested on my shoulder, while his left went over my hand, pressing it closer to the coffin.

“You’ve shown the world more than you know. Before this, they weren’t prepared for the threats that loomed in the shadows. Now, they have someone who’s willing to fight back against it.”

How many people before this city was attacked died to the Reaper, and nobody even knew? That’s not even to speak about the mystery of why there were so many cars all over that valley.

Maybe I was being too hard on myself. It really was only a matter of time before a terrible event like this happened. It’s just unfortunate that I had to be the catalyst.

Kindly, one of the clergy men told me that they’d be transporting the coffin out of the church. I pressed close to it one more time and hugged it as if a family member were inside, then I allowed the pallbearers to march away.

Following them, they loaded the coffin into a rather ceremonially decorated car swirling with gold and pearl all over. Before sliding the coffin in completely, a blanket of gems and silver was placed over the wooden box.

“When someone dies, it’s said their bodies become a precious stone in heaven,” Yamin said, dressed in black like the rest of us. “Each and every coffin is decorated in a beautiful way before being put into the ground to honour that.”

“There may be more truth in that statement then you realize.” That was Mella’s voice.

We all quickly spun around to see her leaning against a lamppost in front of the church. She was wearing a black dress and hat like all the other women here.

“Hey, you're not going to start something now, are you?” Indena growled, looking aggressively at the witch.

“If I were going to, there wouldn’t be a stone left standing on this block.” She pushed herself up and stood proper, then folded her arms. “Little One of Hyem, I’ve come to make a deal…”

A deal with a witch is never a good thing. I saw it all too often in scary movies.

“What deal?”

“If the Evil One is to die by my hand, it must be done lawfully. Therefore, would it be safe to assume one of you is her guardian?” She was talking to me, but staring at Indena the whole time.

“What’s your point?” I asked.

“To get to her, I shall go through one of you.” She walked up to Indena, looking her deep in the eyes. “I can see there is a connection between you and the girl. How interesting.” she turned around to look at me once more. “Here is my deal. Each time I wish to kill the Evil One, I will challenge the fire mage first.”

It wasn’t my place to force Indena to do that, but she seemed more than willing to take on the challenge.

“Fine. I’ll kick your ass anytime, anywhere. Name it, and you’ll be on the ground before it even starts.”

I really didn’t see why we needed to fight at all. There had to be another way to deal with whatever evil was inside Yamin. And to be honest, I’m not even sure I believed it existed in the first place.

“Mella, does Yamin really need to die because of this?” I asked.

“If another way exists to expel the darkness from her, then this deal should buy you time to find it. But I have my purpose, and I will see it through regardless.”

If only she was willing to help us find a different way…

Darn that witch.

She started walking away, heading down the road. But she forgot something.

“Hey!” I shouted. “What about your heart?”

Her hand lifted and she waved back at me.

“Please don’t break it!” she shouted back.

What the heck did that mean? What a strange person she was.

Now that business with her was settled, not in a great way, but still settled for now, we had some other things to figure out.

“Well, what do we do now?” I asked as we were heading the opposite way of Mella.

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My question stumped everyone more than I intended it too.

*Rumble Rumble* went someone’s belly.

Uncle smiled, then looked at Yamin, who clearly was rubbing her stomach to calm its gurgly growls. She seemed a tad bit embarrassed.

“Sorry…I don’t think I’ve eaten all day…” she said, as if that were something to be ashamed of.

“How about we all get some food?” Uncle suggested.

“I second that.” Marek raised his hand. “My grandmother always used to say, ‘A little food brings up the mood!’”

Wiser words have never been spoken in a time like this. All I’ve had to eat the last few days was applesauce and really dry meatloaf. I don’t normally complain about food, at least when it's not rocks, but man was hospital chow just missing any flavour.

“Oh, ooh!” I hopped up and down. “Can we go to that café again?”

Indena’s brow raised as she turned her eyes toward Marek, who was mildly intimidated by her aggressive gaze.

“Café? When did you troggs go to a café?”

“Er…” Marek was knee deep in a speechless stupor.

If he told her the truth, it might look like we were being lazy while looking for her. That'd get her super mad. He needed to tread carefully here.

With a clear of his throat, he gained a confident demeanor.

“After forcing the church to call off their search for you, which was done due to no small part of our little angel’s wise council, she requested we find sustenance to fuel our own journey to regroup the team.”

That wasn’t exactly his political voice, it was more theatrical. Still, very inspiring. He made the story sound more dramatic than it actually was.

“Mmm…alright. Whatever.” Indena nodded. Marek’s silver tongue prevailed. “This place better be good though.”

He knew how to defuse a situation with Indena. That was impressive.

“Alright, why don’t you lead the way, Marek?” Uncle said.

“Of course!” he let out a cheer and marched onward. We all followed closely.

~☆☆☆~

The fragrant smell of coffee filled the air for a block, subliminally tempting hungry souls to trace it back to a palace of wonderfully quick crafted appetizers and java. Even we couldn’t resist the urge to enter.

With the line long enough to nearly stick out the door, we waited quietly at the end while the baristas trimmed away the people as fast as they could. Each one was working hard to meet the demanding customers and their unique orders. Some customers weren’t pleasant to deal with, but others were kind enough to leave tips of cold hard cash in a jar of dreams.

Sometime later came our turn to order. Marek was awesome and paid for it again, especially since all I had were four Pier tokens to my name.

“The least I can do is cover the tip…” Yamin insisted, pulling out a coin from her purse. “Alright, this should…” she grimaced at the round metal object. “Great…a Pier token.”

“Gods, I hate those.” Indena grumbled.

Yamin and Indena looked at each other for a moment. It seemed like Yamin had a response to that, but was a little too shy to speak up.

“We-well…” she pushed past her anxiety. “I guess we have that in c-common, don’t we?” she smiled.

“Heh, guess so.” Indena smiled back.

Did that mean they were going to make nice? I hope so. They were both my friends, and I wanted my friends to be friends with each other too. That just made it sound all the more fun to do stuff together.

Speaking of together, the party was looking pretty full at this point. There was Uncle, Indena, Yamin, Marek and me. Oh, and how could I forget Samael too? It was nice to see I’d made so many friends here.

That being said, each of us were brought together for a reason. Uncle and Indena were with me because we had to find daddy, and Yamin and Marek were together because their town was attacked by a demon.

I promised I’d help her deal with that, and I wasn’t going back on my word. Even if it was going to be out of the way, those people were suffering. Letting them go another week, maybe even more, especially after seeing what happened here, there wasn’t any question what needed to happen next. Maybe it would even help me make up for all the losses here too...

“Uncle, we have to go to Yamin’s home town,” I ordered. “Demons are attacking there too, so we have to stop them.”

Uncle pulled his hat down and tapped a finger to his chin.

“Don’t forget our main objective. We need to find your father.”

“I know that.” I nodded my head. “But still.”

Uncle was really considering it, but he had a slight apprehension that maybe we should hold off on going to Yamin’s home.

“Sir,” Marek spoke up. “If you'd be willing to do this country a favour and save Verrenville, it would give a lot of leverage for me when I petition the crown to assist you in finding Dr. Asamo.”

Marek’s deal was hard to refuse. It gave us a big ally in the search for daddy.

“Alright.” Uncle agreed. “We’d be passing by Verrenville to get to the capital anyways,” Uncle said.

Yes! I’m glad he was willing to go!

“So, how do we get back home?” Yamin asked. “Can we take a plane?”

“No.” Marek shook his head. “Because of the crisis, no commercial flights are running.”

“Marek, you’re rich. Let’s take a private jet there!” I suggested.

He shrugged. “I don’t have a private jet.”

Oh, that puts a damper on my plans.

“Could you ask the crown to send someone here to get us?” Yamin asked.

Marek shot that bird down too. It would take a while for them to send someone out to get us, and that was more time the people of Yamin’s town would have to suffer through.

“Then we take a boat.” Uncle concluded. “We can ferry our way to the mainland.”

That was the most promising idea yet. Marek had a train pass that he could use to get us from this region of Esma to a province called Anderland. From Anderland, we could take a ferry to the island nation of Erdareich. It wasn’t too far, according to him.

“Old man…” Indena lifted up her arm, showing her Manona crest. “Will this help us at all to find her dad?”

He tried taking a look at her Mannona crest, but it seemed to be too damaged to scan anymore.

“What was the name of the place you came from, Indena?” Uncle asked her.

“A city called Okitoshi. Ring a bell?”

Uncle wasn’t sure where that was, neither was Marek. The name was a good hint though, but we’d probably need to find someone who knew a little about maps. Like, what are they called…cartographers? Preferably one that isn’t silent, if possible. I’m sure the queen had someone like that in her ranks.