“Are you close with your sister?”

Mirac was in a large cathedral, colored in red and gold, feeling the cold marmor walls - and it looked like a royal chamber. The suite with silk furniture was only the cadet room, large enough to fit five people in. The best ones can even fit ten people in - but the luxury lies if you can use it alone. That was the standard for the heavens and the angels. A luxury Mirac was familiar with. The boy was sitting in his chair, holding the light feather in his hand as his gaze was on the paper. He covered his pale hands with extravagant gloves as he narrowed his brows, seeming unbothered to what his friend said. He glanced uninterested at the boy - who looked bland like a background character, but the only thing that stood out was the expensive black uniform like Miracs, making it clear they belonged to the military.

Whenever Mirac focused hard enough, he could see the golden amber eyes and brown hair that flowed in the breeze - which the cathedral had enough of.

Mirac turned his gaze back towards his homework. It had a large sword painted on it. There were descriptions of the swords, including fighting style.

He sighed.

“No. We drifted apart. Yvonne does her things nowadays. Who am I to stop this,” Mirac answered, furrowing his brows. His roommate tilted his head as he lay in the bed with his book.

His name was Hamza.

He sat up, analyzing Mirac as he sighed. The red-haired boy was a tough shell to break. He hardly talked anything about himself. Hamza was even more intrigued since the rumors of the siblings were not harmless. But Mirac acted differently than the rumors.

“Oh. I see,” Hamza answered, smiling brightly and moving closer to Mirac like a golden retriever. Mirac sighed. “Let us go to the cafeteria! My treat! You hardly ever talk. I will see your small sigh as a victory! We can be friends!” Hamza said, pulling the red-haired by the arm. He was extremely close to Mirac, even putting his arm around him as if he had not heard about the word space before. The red-haired boy grits his teeth - but his face shows anything but detest. Rather an uncomfortable to the random closeness.

Hamza laughed, seeing the expression as a first win. Mirac pushed his arm off but still followed the brown-haired guy with the golden eyes.

The bland image of the boy became vivid as they walked through the large hall. Mirac widened his eyes, seeing the lock of his brown hair as the sun shone through the glass walls, behind it an air of paradise as they were a thousand feet in the air, away from any human civilization. Mirac darted his eyes down, blushing a little as Hamza treated him like a friend, still not knowing any boundaries.

They passed some other students, holding their books as they whispered to each other, gazing toward Mirac. The red-haired boy clicked his tongue, ignoring the looks with an effortless bland expression.

“H-hey, Hamza! Do you want to eat with us at the fountain?”

Mirac kept walking as Hamza stopped in his tracks - looking at the two boys that passed them. But in this moment, he did something he never expected himself to do.

He pulled his friend by the arm, giving the two boys a forced smile. Mirac stood tall, his chest puffed. Hamza widened his eyes, his face lightened up - which did not come from the sunshine. The two boys trembled, turning the other way as fast as possible. Mirac sighed.

“We would love to join! What is the food list? We can make it after we reach the cafeteria,” the boy said, putting on the brightest smile he ever had. Hamza gaped his mouth, his jaw almost hitting the floor as he turned towards the two students from his last year as they did the same. When he smiled, he did not come off as scary. He looked like an angel with a halo radiating behind him. “Hamza? Do you agree? They are waiting for your answer,”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“H-huh? Eh, Y-yeah,” he said, laughing. The two boys gulped, looking unsure as they turned the other way.

As Mirac opened his eyes, he was back with his head buried in the shoulder of his sister, hardly being able to lift himself as he covered his wounded stomach. He could not stand straight with his leg wounded. Yvonne could also not stand as she supported her taller brother. She grabbed the side of his arms tightly, forcing him to stand tall. “Let us go! The sooner we are over with this mission, the better!” she said, seeing Mirac widen his eyes with a hurt look. There were eyebags under his eyes, his expression pale as if he had seen a ghost. Some fractions of his mind were still in the hallway, while the other was at the current mission. The soft breeze of the cathedral room still lingered on his skin - and the sunshine was brighter than on average days. The heaven above was fair to its name as it felt like heaven. At least - when he had a friend there.

“No,” Mirac said, hitting himself. He focused his mind back on the mission as they both held hands. Yvonne looked ambitious at the moment.

“Trust me,” she said, supporting him. Miracs mind was still on a friend that was long gone. He squeezed his eyes, pushing himself off Yvonne, walking tall and proud. He walked in front of her. Yvonne realized the state of his wings. She widened her eyes.

She opened her mouth to say something. But sounds were coming behind the wall of the palace. Her wings were still functional, but flying above gave them more space to aim, like an arrow shooting a bird down. They knew they were coming. Or at least, they prepared well. She pulled a paper out of her wrist with markings on a plan. “I managed to get into a chamber, but it was only trapped there. Arrows began to shoot at me in all directions as I flew above. Underground were fire snakes. I lost half of my feathers.” she said, handing Mirac the paper. She gulped as she continued. “I think the only way in,” she said, getting cut off by her brother.

“It is a difficult trap house. No wonder the executives wanted the cursed twin breed to infiltrate a ground they could not solve. We are supposed to bring the god residing in that temple… but I got no god atmosphere here. We fought more traps and magic vassals than actual deities,”

“Which is not a difficult mission to do,”

Mirac and Yvonne both glared down at her magic watch. Miracs watch is broken and gone as smoke bursts out from the wrist. Explain the burned wax smell. The siblings sighed, hearing only the voice of a man. They sounded snarky on the other side.

“What do you mean not difficult to do? Is there even a deity?” Yvonne asked, pointing at the large temple. Mirac tried to calm down his sister. She was about to stomp off from the mission.

Mirac pulled the watch closer to his face. “But she is right. It is our first mission… but we did not encounter anything you taught us,” he said. The portals were traps. They did not learn about trap classes yet. They also were told they could go into temples with no sweat to infiltrate. But since they stepped into this part of the forest - they were unwelcoming, as if the enemies knew they were coming. It looked like a grand scheme of plans.

“That is simply because… you guys do not have the guts. Granted - this is a more difficult mission as this temple has been empty for the past 500 years. But-”

The red-haired boy cut him off in the middle of the speech.

“Remained empty? Then who are we fighting? Is this some last-level mission that no one else wants to do? It feels like you gave us something to clean up rather than take a victory home,” Mirac said, his voice calm. The boy sighed. The man on the other line chuckled. Yvonne looked furious as she bit her lower lip, about to cut the connection with the executive.

She did.

“It is an empty, no hope Blacklist temple, yes, I confess. But you kids are smart,”

The voice came from Miracs broken watch, which only showed half of the glowing screen - and the voice sounded more sinister to the sound difficulty. They could hardly decipher what the executive was saying. Mirac pulled the watch closer to his ear, keeping Yvonne from breaking it.

“Is this a joke? Do you want us to win the mission when I almost lost my leg? Yvonne is bleeding from her ribcage,”

The man on the other line sighed. There was some silence before he continued to berate the kids.

“This is an important mission. It decides on who can be a guardian. They made it extremely hard - so one of you can only… pass the mission. They don´t want to put your siblings in a group. See it as a sick game from the higher-ups. I´ll tell you now as how it is,” the executive said. “You will meet no one at the temple. But the moment you reach the throne room, you will be teleported back to heaven,” he said.