"I'd think twice about going swimming. They dumped corpses into that lake in the old days. That's why it's called the Red Lake. Imagine that," Balgair said, bumping Aurelius with his elbow.

Aurelius turned to face him with his frowning mouth open. "That's not true."

"Yeah, it is." Balgair laughed. "How do you think I heard about the place?"

Aurelius' expression dropped. 'He's joking, right? But if he is, then why is it called the Red Lake?'

"Nevermind. I'm kidding. Go ahead and swim, boy," Balgair said and tapped Aurelius on the back. "The girls are waiting."

Aurelius looked around and saw multiple heads turn away. 'What's that about?'

After a little doubt, he decided to go on ahead, but just as he was about to take his shirt off, Cade grabbed his forearm.

"Your scars. I think it would be best to not show them. Well, more than they can already see."

Aurelius saw Balgair grinning at Cade but didn't pay it any mind and nodded. He jumped down from the terrace and made his way into the water. It was still fairly cold despite summer being around the corner, and once he stepped in, his feet sank into the sand.

He walked until the water was up to his thighs. Then he dove in. The cold jumpstarted his system and he came up breathing raggedly, but after only a couple of deep breaths, the cold faded. He was still.

It had been years since he last swam. Gabriel taught him.

He swam towards the center without using any essence. It would have defeated the purpose.

It took almost an hour of swimming to get to the center. Once he was there, he reinforced and the coolness was pushed away. He then turned to his back and watched the clouds move.

They had gotten darker since he left the shore, and they had covered the sun, letting only slivers of golden light through.

He could barely see Cade and Balgair anymore. That was how far he had come.

And now he could just float. He had done so before. Only on a much smaller scale. Once he realized that, he understood the depths he faced. He could use essence if he liked, but he would not be able to reach the bottom of the lake if he were to try. There was something terrifying about that fact.

He turned once more and looked down into the dark depths.

'Maybe there really are corpses down there,' he thought.

Then images started flooding into his mind. The mercenary's fear-ridden face as Aurelius loowed down at him. The Commander staring at his daughter's drawing with hollow eyes. The shivering children kept in dark cells underground, where nobody could hear. Both of the twin girls' corpses in Cade's hands. And finally the leader of Numen's Boeria branch attached to a wall with spikes through his limbs and an array of mutilated body parts surrounding him. All for a message. A message to the Golden One. To Aurelius.

Aurelius recalled Balgair's words at the café, 'There is no safeguard against such things.'

Truly, the world was lawless. People could do anything, and so many would do exactly so if given the power. It was sickening. It was all so wrong, yet there was nobody who could definitely say what was right.

Maybe some thought that the ugliest side of the world was how animals could mutilate children and there would be no moral consequences. But in actuality, the ugliness lay in doing incomprehensibly disgusting things while understanding just how wrong they were.

Humans could be precisely conscious of the reprehensibility of an action and take it, nonetheless. Just because they could. Just because they didn't care. Just because they hoped it would lead to stimulation.

There was nothing scary about a creature with no comprehension of good and bad. Such an existance was simply sad.

The scariest thing in existence was what a human being could do to another.

As he floated there in the dark liquid, Aurelius began to feel like the resistance was growing. The liquid seemed to be getting thicker, imitating the texture of blood.

Aurelius closed his eyes and could see it. Blood everywhere. His blood, the blood of his friends, loved ones, family, enemies, strangers.

Suddenly, it felt like the lake would swallow him. His breathing went ragged as he kicked down. He opened his eyes and looked to the shore. Cade. Balgair. So small. So far.

He gulped and realized how dry his mouth was. Shivers went down his spine. Something was coming to eat him. He looked up at the dark clouds that closed up.

Aurelius put his hand on the surface and concentrated in a hurry. A faint blue platform appesred and he scrambled onto it. He then dashed forward creating platform under his feet. He took long lunges all the way before he reached the shore.

When he did, the clouds had opened and as he looked back, he could no longer understand what had overtaken him.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"You cold?" Cade yelled down as she threw him a towel from the terrace.

"Uh, yeah. Something like that," he answered as he wiped his face and hair before wringing the water out of his shirt.

Cade jumped down from the terrace and walked over. She put a hand to Aurelius' forehead, startling him.

"Am I okay?"

"You're okay," she assured with a smile.

Aurelius gave a weak laugh and walked past her to go change out of the wet clothes.

***

Droplets of water hit against the windowsill. It was a rainy night in Akario. Mist had risen from the lake.

Someone knocked on the door. Aurelius lay on his bed in clean clothes with his gaze on the roof.

"I'm not up to play right now," Aurelius answered through the door.

"Yeah I wasn't thinking of playing touch-butt at this hour either." Balgair voice came.

Aurelius let out a sigh of relief. "Come in."

The door opened and Balgair waltzed in. Aurelius sat up freeing up the space for Balgair to sit next to him.

"So what are you suddenly all mysterious about? Having bad thoughts?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Aurelius answered leaning his elbows on his knees.

Balgair tapped him on the back and said, "Good thing I am the professor of bad thoughts."

Aurelius chuckled and turned his head to look at Balgair. "You ever think we're bad people?"

"Who? Our trio? Hard to say if you wanna group us all together. We're all different people. You're certainly the best of us."

"I don't think so. Cade's a better person than me," Aurelius said, promting Balgair to scoff. "Hey, I know you don't like her, but she—"

"I kind of do, though," Balgair interrupted. "We get along just fine these days if you haven't noticed. But she undoubtedly walks a thin line between good and evil. You know how hot and cold feel the same when touched at their extremes? It's the same with good and evil. Cade has a very strict world view. If she views you as bad, she kills you. It's good so extreme it can very well be mistaken for evil."

"Then what about you and me? How good or evil are we?"

"Shit, I don't know. I'd say that I'm just a piece of shit, but to be honest, I've been repeating that to myself for so long that it almost seems like a coping mechanism. And you? Well, you have good intentions. What your intentions lead to may be the base on which people judge you, but you can't really affect the result with your intentions. Results are what matter, and skills make results, so I guess only how good you are at something makes up the roof for how ethically good you can be... uh..." Balgair dug at his ear with his pinky. "I'm just rambling, aren't I?"

"I don't know, but it sounded intelligent," Aurelius answered with a high-pitched voice.

Balgair sighed and threw an arm around Aurelius' shoulder. "What I'm meant to say is that you have the right intentions, and as long as your main focus is helping people, you'll be a good person no matter the results. But since you're skilled and all, I think the results will—"

"Aurelius," Cade's voice came from down stairs.

Aurelius' ears perked up. Her voice was unlike the one he was used to hearing. A single emotion in her voice stood out. Panic.

Aurelius jumped up and rushed downstairs, Balgair trailing behind him.

"What is this?" Aurelius asked as he stopped at the door where Cade stood looking at a sobbing teenage girl who stood out in the rain about ten meters from the door.

"She asked for you. I haven't seen her before and she refuses to come closer. Keeps mumbling something I can't hear," Cade whispered.

"It's a trap," Balgair said, receiving glances from both Aurelius and Cade. "Someone's after Aurelius. They want him out in the open. The girl was probably threatened into doing this."

"And what do I do?" Aurelius asked.

Balgair's face twitched and he seemed to swallow.

"Do nothing?" Aurelius almost yelled.

Balgair closed his eyes.

Aurelius looked at the girl and shook his head. He turned on reinforcement as well as double enhancement in an instant and walked out slowly into the misty rain.

The girl stopped her sobbing and seemed to mouth something off. Cade followed slowly behind Aurelius while Balgair stayed inside.

Aurelius couldn't sense anyone. No scent. No sound of breathing. No footsteps. Not even a trace of essence leaking anywhere.

Then the girl's gaze went to the side.

Aurelius' heart jumped as he was only a few meters from the door and looked back. Cade with her back to the door. And a shadowy figure behind.

Aurelius opened his mouth to yell, but the shadowy figure was faster. An ethereal blade had already gone through the door... and through Cade's stomach.