Hayl was very tired. Who would have guessed that making Niki Oberyn live like a normal human being would be more taxing than battling savages! The boy had an almost magical ability to turn everything into a chaotic mess. The worst part was that he insisted that this mess of his had some sort of system to it, and everything had to stay in a certain kind of order. Hayl supposed that this order could only be understood by a madman. If there was any logic to Oberyn's system, it was not a type of logic familiar to humans.

This evening Hayl had to leave the boy's room early upon Niki's insistence. He shuddered to think what the place would look like tomorrow. To calm himself down and release the tension, Hayl decided to spend the free hours training with the sword. He didn't want to get rusty. Or more like, with the way things were in the Empire, he couldn't afford to get rusty.

After an hour Hayl had worked up a good sweat and was in a much better mood. Which didn't last long.

Because just as he was about to get to more challenging moves, he noticed a familiar figure of his newly appointed master walking out of the palace. He was dragging a big bulky bag behind him, obviously having a lot of trouble with it.

What was he even doing out at such hour?

Hayl dropped the practice sword and made his way towards the boy.

“Where are you going?” he asked, trying to maintain a respectful tone but it wasn't easy.

Niki, as always a bit oblivious, didn't seem to mind the sudden questioning by his so-called servant:

“To the Sacred Mount,” he answered, as he continued to pull the heavy bag.

“Why...?” Hayl almost added “the hell” to the question but stopped himself.

“To talk to the spirits,” Niki Oberyn said in such a tone as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Yes, that's what one does late at night – takes a heavy bag and goes to the Sacred Mount to talk to the spirits.

“What's in the bag?” Hayl couldn't help but ask.

“Mostly bones. And some plants for the spiritual fire.”

“Does it mean that you gathered all the bones, scattered around your room?” Hayl asked, happy that whatever was going on here might at least have a positive impact on this boy's living conditions.

“I took just the ones that I might need,” Niki responded very seriously. “I'm actually in a bit of a hurry. It will take me a while to get this bag up the mountain.”

In fact, judging by the way Niki was handling it now, it looked like it would take him an eternity.

“I can help you with that,” Hayl offered.

“You really don't have to,” the boy shook his head and looked at him with those big bright eyes that for some reason made Hayl's heart skip a beat.

Without saying another word Hayl just picked up the bag, suddenly realizing that it wasn't even as heavy as Niki's desperate attempts to move it made it out to be.

The boy shrugged and just continued walking – they made their way to the mountain in complete silence. It wasn't very far, yet Hayl had never visited the Sacred Mount before. It was where they buried the ashes of the most celebrated warriors in the Empire. There was a time when Hayl dreamed about having his last resting place here. But now it was, of course, impossible.

Once they got up the mountain, Niki made his way towards the fire pit where the warrior bodies would usually be burnt. Hayl followed him, now even more intrigued about what the boy was up to.

Niki proceeded to clumsily untie the bag and after rummaging around it like a raccoon for a long time, he fished out a bunch of weirdly long weeds, a flint and a piece of steel. Looking quite satisfied with himself, he threw the plants into the pit and then tried to start the fire. Hayl watched the boy's desperate attempts to strike a spark, until he finally gave up and took the flint and the steel out of his hands. In a mere moment the flames lit up.

“Thank you,” said the boy, slightly blushing. “I would have needed longer.”

To Hayl's surprise the fire he started looked nothing like your typical fire. It was purple in color, and the flames moved against the wind, not with it.

“What do you want to ask those spirits of yours?” Hayl inquired, realizing he was about to witness a real magic ritual.

“The spirits are not mine,” Niki corrected him like he would correct a child. “And I need to know some things about Adnan Minn that only the dead can tell me.”

Hayl was a bit bewildered. What did this boy and General Minn have to do with each other?

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

And then a scene from a couple days ago came to his mind. On the day when the Prince and the General left for the spirit healing Niki had exchanged some weird words with Minn.

“Why did you think that Minn should be angry with you?” Hayl asked.

Niki seemed slightly taken aback by the question, yet he still answered:

“One would be quite angry at a person who tried to murder them, right?”

“When did you try to murder General Minn?” Hayl asked in astonishment. How could this clumsy angel think of killing anybody? Especially someone like Minn – a man who could squish this little adorable boy like a bug!

Niki scratched his head.

“About a month ago. While he was stationed next to the savage fort.”

“But you weren't even there!” Hayl exclaimed.

“A part of me was,” the boy cocked his head innocently. “But that's not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“He survived one of the deadliest attacks I could master and didn't seem affected by it at all. I wonder, if he has some sort of protection,” Niki said thoughtfully.

“Why would you even try to kill him?” Hayl still couldn't wrap his mind around Niki purposefully harming anybody. Besides, however cruel Minn was to the enemies of the Empire and possibly his own servants, he never struck Hayl as an especially malicious person.

“That is a complicated story,” the boy sighed. “It might not even make sense to somebody like you.”

“Try me.”

“The first time I saw Adnan Minn was a couple of months ago, when he appeared in front of the Regent to argue the slave matter. Kai happened to be in the mood to attend the court that day,” Niki began his story. Hayl listened, barely breathing, afraid to miss a single word.

“Kai is very special, you know,” Niki said, his expression somber. “And not just because of the way he is... there is also a certain part of him that makes him different from other people, namely a fragment of Kai's soul is filled by a shadow and not by life essence, as it is normally the case.”

Niki was right after all – this didn't make much sense to Hayl. But for some reason he didn't want to show that to the boy. So he just casually asked:

“You can see souls?”

“That's my particular skill,” said the boy and then continued:

“Even though I was concerned about Kai's condition at first, I didn't do much about it, as it didn't seem to get worse. But then... he met Adnan Minn – another person in this world, whose soul carries a shadow. And as soon as these two exchanged looks, something extraordinary happened – one more fragment of Kai's soul was consumed by the darkness in a mere moment. So I tried to prevent them from meeting or interacting in any way I could... But it seems that the world is really pushing those two together.”

“Do you have the reason to believe that General Minn wants to harm the Prince?” Hayl asked.

Niki sucked his teeth.

“I can't say anything about his intentions... But losing one's soul is no joke. I don't want this to happen to Kai.”

“So you decided to get General Minn completely out of the picture?”

“Yes, and I wanted to do it at a place where his death wouldn't raise too many questions. Everyone would have blamed it on the savages anyway.”

Hayl felt a chill run up his spine.

“Sneaky,” he said carefully.

“I didn't succeed, so I wasn't sneaky enough,” Niki sighed. “Once I found out that he survived my attack, I was sure he would come for me or at least confront me. But... he never did.”

“If you're so concerned for His Highness, why did you let him leave together with Minn?” Hayl asked.

“Let him?” Niki furrowed his brow. “Kai wouldn't listen to me. He always does what he wants, of course.”

“So you protect him from the distance, like some kind of silent force, huh?” Hayl spat out, somehow feeling wronged. He didn't quite understand why he would be that upset about Niki attempting to get rid of one of the strongest Generals in the army just to shield the Prince.

“That's all I can do.”

“Why do you care about him so much?” Hayl asked, surprising even himself with how bitter he sounded.

“Because I owe him,” Niki said simply.

“How so?”

“One night he kept me warm in my grave,” the boy responded.

“What do you mean?” Hayl was confused. It seemed like a metaphor for something.

“I mean exactly what I said,” Niki turned around and started taking bones out of the bag, signaling the end of this conversation.

Hayl promised to himself that he was going to get to the bottom of this no matter what it took.

In the meantime, the boy chose a scapula bone and two rib bones. All three were probably human – Hayl didn't even want to know. One thing he found out today was that even though the guy looked like the purest angel, he was far from harmless.

Niki used the steel to scratch a sign on the scapula bone – a cross inside a triangle. Then he tossed the bone into the purple fire. As soon as he did, the flames went up, and three shadows formed an empty triangle, suspended in the air.

Niki frowned.

“Does this have some sort of meaning?” Hayl asked.

“I asked, whether there was a spirit protecting Adnan Minn... And the spirits are telling me that's not the case.”

“Can you trust those spirits?” Hayl asked skeptically. After all, why would dead bother telling the truth?

Niki gave him an almost amused look.

“Do you think that the most honorable warriors in the Empire are liars?”

This question literally shut Hayl up. It was obviously not his place to question the honor of those who have protected these lands with their own lives.

The boy turned his attention towards the bones again. Now he carefully carved an arrow on the long rib and threw it into the fire just like he did with the scapula previously. This time it took a long while, till the dark shadows appeared in the air and formed a sign that looked like a butterfly.

Niki suddenly gasped, which was very unusual. In the last couple of days that they had spent together Hayl had never seen the boy react strongly to anything.

“What did they say now?” Hayl asked, looking at Niki's incredulous expression.

“They said, Adnan Minn's dead.”

“Oh no, did he die during the trip with the Emperor-In-Waiting?” Hayl exclaimed.

Niki didn't say anything and just scratched a waved line on the other rib and threw it into the fire. After the bone went up in flames, several shadows emerged, forming a full circle.

Hayl looked impatiently at Niki, waiting for him to interpret the cryptic sign yet again. The boy now looked paler than usual.

“No. Adnan Minn has been dead for a full month.”

“That can't be true,” said Hayl. “We've seen him just a couple of days ago. I am no expert but he looked very much alive.”

“It wasn't Minn,” Niki shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

“Who was it then?” Nothing made sense to Hayl anymore.

“An impostor,” said Niki. “A very cunning and dangerous one at that.”