All that needs to be done is to watch over him. Make sure that no harm comes to him, until we can come back and take him. If you can do that, I promise we will find your precious son for you.

Walnut woke from an unpleasant dream to an even more unpleasant situation. Two hooded figures in a white cloak stood over him as if they were the arbiters of death.

He could see the man’s face, but the woman’s face was covered with a mask adorned with a sun. The man wore no mask.

“Look at that. Just as we walked in too. Good morning, mister bandit.” The man knelt down. “Could you please tell us where Prince Cedar Oswell is?”

Walnut blinked, his mind was still hazy from waking up. He felt pangs of pain from where he had been punched by that boy, but his mind became clear as he spotted the symbol of a sun painted in dark black worn around the young man’s neck.

“You’re the Black Sun aren’t you?” Walnut started to put two and two together. “You were the ones that came down the elevator, and killed all those men?”

The man snickered, pulling off his head. Walnut stopped breathing for a moment. The man had an angelic face with a smile filled with malicious intent. He had light brown wavy hair, and a beauty mark under his left eye. But it was those glowing orange eyes of his, that made Walnut feel that there was something unnatural about him.

“Why, yes. Yes, there were a couple of men that I killed when we reached down here. Wouldn’t you say, Miss Saint?” He turned over to his companion, the woman.

The woman did not respond back. It was clear to Walnut that these two did not have the warmest of relationships. The man chuckled, shaking his head. He still had that angelic smile on him, but his eyes went cold.

Then, without even a warning, the man stabbed Walnut’s hand.

Walnut opened his mouth to scream, but the young man slapped him with his backhand.

“Fucking woman. Never listening to me. This is the problem with them. They think they’re better than us.” A nasty voice slithered out of the man’s mouth. He leaned on the knife, and Walnut grimaced. “You never answered my question, bandit. Where is the prince? We know he lives here.”

“H-he left.” Walnut said. His mouth tasted of blood.

“Where?” The man leveled his gaze.

Walnut eyed the man.

“How do I know you will let me live if I tell you?”

The man chuckled, holding his hand to his heart.

“I swear under the Sun, if you tell me now, no more harm will come to you,” he said.

“Your word might as well be a pile of shit,” Walnut turned his gaze upon the woman who was leaning against the wall. “But I feel like I can trust you. If I tell you where, will you let me live?”

As the woman regarded him, the man spoke up.

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“Why can’t you trust me?”

“Because,” Walnut dared to look into those pits he called eyes. “I’ve known your kind. I see them every day I’m down here. You don’t keep your promises.”

The man snorted. “Come on? Of course I’m trustworthy. I was chosen by the Goddess herself to be her chosen champion. I am the epitome of goodness.”

But Walnut kept his eyes on the woman. He waited for her to answer.

She held up her hand, and placed her other to her chest. “I promise, for the information you give us about Cedar Oswell, I will make sure no harm comes to you from us.”

That was enough. Walnut nodded and looked at the two of them.

“The Prince. Cedar. He decided he had enough down here. He went to face the Warden. My guess is, he will be caught if he hasn’t already, and will take part of the Harvest.”

“Harvest?”

He was a bit surprised that an assassin from the Black Sun wouldn’t know about the Harvest, but he explained it anyways.

“It’s a ritual to strengthen the Seal.”

“Ah, now that you mention it, that shitty Priestess did mention something like that. Well, thank you for telling us all of this. Now please die-”

The woman pressed the flat of her blade on the man’s shoulder. His face was reflected upon it.

“What are you doing?” His voice strained with anger.

“He answered the questions, let him go, Bell.”

“He is a criminal. Who cares if we kill someone as impure as him. The Goddess has granted me the Authority to do what must be done.”

“Enough Bell!”

Bell’s face twisted into that of a demon’s.

“This is what I mean.” He spoke to Walnut. “Why can’t you understand what I’m doing is justice? You heard the stories of this man? He deserves to die.”

“I gave him my word, Bell. If you try anything, I will kill you.”

“You would dare kill the chosen champion of the Goddess? You cannot dare match me.”

“You don’t scare me, Bell,”

Something in the air shook. It wasn’t cold, but Walnut shook anyways. It was a fear that he had not felt before, but he knew instinctively that whatever was happening to him, came from the woman with the drawn sword.

Bell closed his eyes and held up both of his hands.

“Okay, okay. I surrender. You can’t even laugh at my joke. I was never going to kill him.” The man smiled. “Everyone under the Goddess deserves redemption.”

“Funny, that’s not what happened when we came down here.” She whispered.

Bell smiled.

“The Goddess guides my blade.”

“Come on then. Let’s go.”

“Can you put away that sword?”

“No,” she said darkly.

Bell shook his head and sighed. He looked over at Walnut. “Women? Am I right.”

Walnut didn’t say anything. Bell pulled the dagger from his hand, pain flashed at the back of his head. He wiped the dagger on Walnut’s shoulder, put it back at his waist, before standing carefully and walking out. The woman kept her blade trained at him, walking behind him to make sure that he didn’t try to kill him.

Before she turned the corner into the hallway, she gave him a nod, and the door opened and closed soon after.

They were gone. Walnut stood up, his body aching, his hand throbbing. He hobbled over into his room. He gazed longly at his bed, wishing nothing but sleep, but he had work to do. He pulled the bookshelf in the corner of his room aside, it took him a few tries to do it, his hand made his grip slip as blood lubricated it.

After the third try, he was able to pull his shelf enough where he could push against the wall. The secret door swung open and Walnut almost fell to the floor as he stumbled into the room. He caught the chair with his right hand to catch himself.

He pulled the chair out, screeching as the legs scrapped the floor and then promptly sat down in the table. A crystal ball sat in front of him, he pulled out a Key from a pouch next to the crystal, chewing on it thoughtlessly. The taste was always quite terrible.

His Gate creaked open and Aura flowed through him like an old water wheel. He placed his hand on top of the crystal and fed it his Aura. The crystal lit up, humming to life.

“What is it?” A rough voice came from the crystal.

“We have a problem.”