-Eran-
[The Alten word for “Thousand.”
A surprisingly common name.]
“Let’s split up tomorrow. We can go around and follow up with some of the places we’d gone that said they’d keep an eye out and do internal investigations for us.” That was Oroske’s suggestion last night, given after their lunch with the Muwal siblings. Oroske took the lower three layers, and Kuro took the upper three. Kuro had just returned to the second layer from the third. One of the stops he made earlier in the day asked him to come back later in the day. It was early night in Quarry, the sun having just disappeared behind the Western edge of the city. There would still be a few hours of daylight in the rest of the world.
Being in this hole for as long as they’d been was starting to drive Kuro crazy. He longed for fresh air and open fields. He’d even take the dense forest they’d passed through while traveling with the Peace Party over the same gray walls in all directions. More than anything the lack of direct sunlight on the lower layers was making him feel a bit down.
He strolled leisurely from the lift towards the center of town, grateful he wore his white coat for the day. Tsu’ra was pretty much in full swing, and once the sun went away, Quarry got pretty cold pretty quick. He hated thinking about what it would be like during Pyr’ra. He had no conscious memories of the season, but it seemed his body remembered, feeling a dreading chill at the idea of the cold weather. The office he sought out came into view quickly, near the half-way point on the bridge.
It was a small place, the accounting department for a company whose primary headquarters were along the far edge of the city, on the fourth layer. He hoped Oroske didn’t have as much annoyance with them as he did. But, the person in charge of auditing their old records for anything suspicious wasn’t there the first time he swung by today, so there wasn’t much he could do about it. He knocked on the door of the small two story rectangle of a building, and immediately heard someone get up abruptly, knocking something to the floor that landed with a sound like glass breaking. “Oh, give me patience, Life Mother…” he heard a feminine voice grumble as they approached the door. The door opened to reveal a face he’d seen the first time he and Oroske stopped by, a short Aethen girl with droopy fox-like ears and peach colored hair. She looked at him with tired blue eyes, “Ah, you. I was told you’d be coming by. Come in,” she said, yawning as she turned to walk into another room. “Let me clean this up really fast, and I’ll show you what I’ve found.”
Kuro peeked into the room and saw her soaking up some dark liquid into a cloth rag, fragments of a cup scattered on the floor. The desk it seemed to have fallen off of was covered in several piles of paper, many of which were well over a foot tall. The girl swept up the glass fragments and disposed of them, then gestured to a chair next to another desk, “Pull up a seat. Would you like anything to drink?” She asked. He declined, pulling the chair out and sitting down.
After cleaning her hands, she sat down and introduced herself properly, “I’m Eran - I know, funny right? An accountant with a number for a name,” She sighed, leaning forward to grab a small stack of papers off her desk, “Anyway, I wasn’t able to find much. These are the only transactions from the last two years that drew up any red flags. Discluding transactions from companies I could verify exist, or at least used to-” she took off three quarters of the stack, setting them on the desk, then presenting the remaining stack “-this is all that’s left.”
Kuro took the small pile. There were maybe a dozen sheets, with 3 three items per side. It included both incoming and outgoing money, and a small memo on what the transactions were for, separate from the client name.
“Many of those I believe were personal deals of the company owner, done on the business account,” She explained, “But I haven’t been able to get a hold of him to confirm. If you look at the last sheet, there’s a couple of very odd ones. I’ve sent a request for elaboration on them, but again, I haven’t been able to reach the company owner. They have his signature on them, so he should definitely know about them.”
Kuro skimmed through all the sheets, barely anything interesting about them. Then, there, on the last sheet. Two transactions on the front side that listed “The Royal Council” as the client. Large sums of money, and no memo attached whatsoever. There was a third on the back of the sheet, too. They were all dated within the same month, the second of the year 1650.
“That is very strange, and seems suspicious too,” Kuro said, “The name ‘Royal Council’ definitely sounds like something these New Spire Empire people would use, but we haven’t heard anything like that yet. The closest would be the Consulate. You haven’t been able to find any information about them in your own search?”
Eran shook her head, “Nothing. The name isn’t registered in any official directory made in the last ten years. If such a group exists, they are either not a registered business, or usually operate under another name.”
Kuro handed the sheets back, “Would you mind keeping us posted if you hear anything about these transactions? The rest in that stack are concerning too, but they at least seem pretty legitimate.”
“Of course, I’d be happy to,” She said with a yawn, “I’m going to kick you out for now though, if you don’t mind. Now that this audit is complete, I need to catch up on some sleep.”
“That’s perfectly understandable. Thank you for your help.” Kuro stood, and reached out to shake her hand. She did so daintily, bowing her head slightly. He returned the gesture, one of thanks to a colleague.
He let himself out of the office building. His stomach growled audibly as the door shut behind him, and he decided to look for something to eat. He and Oroske had agreed they’d probably eat separately. He recalled one of the places he was going to suggest the day before, until Yil and Cera interrupted and picked a place for them. Of course, he was on the wrong main bridge for it, so he began walking toward the crossroads again.
He took his time eating, and got roped into a conversation with the owner about some recent happenings in the Human Realm. He refrained from telling the owner that he himself was involved with a couple of them, namely the Sigil attacks that happened at various villages and towns. Before he knew it, a couple hours had passed.
The sun was long gone by the time he left, and Kuro figured that night was beginning on the surface as well. He began his journey back, not before stretching, feeling satisfied at the day’s work, and the food he’d just eaten. Sure, the only thing of interest was a single company having a small set of old, strange transactions, but he enjoyed the feeling of being in charge of himself. No Oroske telling him exactly how to do everything. Though, he probably did it the same way Oroske would have told him anyway.
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A few minutes of walking away from the shop he’d eaten at, a voice called to him from an alley between some office buildings. The voice led him behind the buildings. “Thank you for coming over here, young man,” It was a woman’s voice, belonging to a tall woman with dark hair. She was dressed in an elaborate black coat that covered her down to her ankles. Small, white dress shoes peeked out from beneath the coat.
“What can I help you with?” Kuro asked, “Are you hurt? Or lost?”
Suddenly a red streak dropped from her hand, before forming into a blade. It carried the smell of freshly spilt blood. What kind of magic is that? Kuro asked himself, pulling himself into a stance, readying to defend himself as she pointed it to him. The blade seemed mostly hard, but small drops fell from it. Is that a sword made of blood? I’ve never heard of anything like that.
“You and your large partner should stop your investigation. Leave the city, and act like you never found anything,” She said. Her face was obscured by a mask that left only her mouth visible. It bore a symbol reminiscent of the Sigil of the Soulless.
“And what is it you think we’re investigating?” He asked, a stream of energy waiting for a command, prepared to bring a weapon out of his Demon Sheath in the blink of an eye.
“What else, but the New Spire Empire?”
“And what are you going to do if we don’t leave?”
As if in response, she suddenly flashed forward. Not the product of acceleration, there was no flash of energy being manipulated, no sign of acceleration being used either. Kuro barely had time to dodge a stab at his right shoulder. It still grazed him, but better to have a small cut than to get a whole sword in his chest or shoulder.
Kuro rebounded, putting some distance between himself and his attacker. The attack shook his focus, and he wasn’t able to use his prepared energy manipulation. He put a hand to his shoulder, which burned with an unexpected amount of pain for such a small knick. It was then that he realized his entire right arm was numb. He couldn’t feel it, nor move it whatsoever.
“This is your last warning. Leave this city, forget what you saw.” She lifted the sword to him again, “I can’t have you interfering with my plans for Yenva and this city. That wound will heal in a few days and you’ll have your arm back. The Mienr won’t be so merciful, and neither will I if I catch you snooping around again.”
She ran off after saying that, disappearing into the night, her black coat and dark features aiding in her flight.
Kuro simply stood there, dumbfounded for several minutes, trying - and failing - to process what just happened. Eventually he began to make his way toward the nearest lift, and towards his current home.
He arrived without much difficulty, shock still dampening his other emotions. Oroske had beaten him there, by nearly an hour. He and Ensaru were chatting in the kitchen of the Director’s home.
“Ah, there you are,” Oroske said, a joyful expression on his face, which quickly turned to a mix of concern and quizzical, “What happened to you?”
Kuro briefly explained, and didn’t fail to notice Ensaru perking up at the mention of the sword made from blood.
“Your arm is paralyzed from where she hit you, you said? And you’re certain this sword was made from blood?” Ensaru asked him, an intrigued, and perhaps amused tone to his voice. Kuro nodded to confirm. “Well, that makes figuring out the culprit very easy. She mentioned Yenva by name in your report, which means there’s only one other person, probably in the whole of Spire, that it could have been.
“Explain,” Oroske practically demanded.
“I wouldn’t blame you for being unfamiliar, it’s not a particularly well known piece of trivia. How familiar are you with the Muwal name? And more specifically, its meaning?”
“It isn’t Alten, right? So I have no idea.”
“Muwal is an ancient Terrai’en word meaning ‘blood.’ It is of particular interest, because it isn’t part of the main Terrai’en language, but instead from an island dialect, specifically the island the Crimson Hills and Ivory Plains were on.” It was at this point in the conversation Kuro realized that Oroske had a tendency to surround himself with scholarly individuals like Nadred, who like to ramble about their knowledge. “There’s a bit of an interesting legend passed down in the Muwal family, Yenva told me about it when we still worked together. Supposedly, the family got the name when their progenitor made a hasty contract with some form of ‘Primordial God.’ There’s no texts I’ve found to support the existence of this entity, but the legend says the God’s own name was Muwal. The contract cursed them to never be able to use regular magic again, but in return, they would gain access to the God’s special ‘bloodcurse’ magic. The progenitor didn’t know it would curse his bloodline as well, and once he learned that, he changed his family name to the name of the God.”
“If it’s a Muwal family curse, then it would have to be Recen, wouldn’t it?” Kuro asked, “Why would she tell me all of that then?”
“She probably either has confidence she could beat you and Oroske if it came down to it,” Ensaru explained, leaning on the counter next to him, “Or, she simply doesn’t know who the two of you are. I think it’s entirely possible she doesn’t know the two of you are Hunters. Either way, it seems she’s incriminated herself, an interesting move all things considered.”
“I wonder,” Oroske said, breaking a moment of silence, “Is it possible she didn’t incriminate herself? By all means, it sounds like she did. But what if she simply knows about the Mienr and how dangerous and powerful they are, without necessarily working with them?”
Kuro nodded, a hand to his chin, “That does seem possible. But wouldn’t that mean she’s met them in the past? Maybe she used to work with them, or something.”
“I think we may need to dig a bit deeper on this matter, find something more solid. Even if it’s one simple piece.” Oroske agreed.
“You mentioned she wore a mask, with an emblem similar to the Sigil of the Soulless, correct?” Ensaru asked. Kuro confirmed, and he continued, “That sounds familiar. I’ll do some digging on my end, maybe call up a connection I have at the School of Towers. If I’m right about it, we may be able to track where she got it from.”
“Thank you, Ensaru,” Oroske said, then motioned for Kuro to follow him, “We should probably start turning in for the night. Danfis will be interested to hear this as well.”
“That is very interesting indeed,” Danfis said, the Hunters’ report concluded. “My father told me once about a rumor of such abilities. I’ve never encountered them myself, and this is the first time I’ve heard a firsthand account of them. Furthermore, it certainly does sound like she at least has worked with the Mienr. I’d like you to look into the matter some more before taking any action, but I’ll trust the two of you and your judgment.”
“I am concerned,” Oroske said, “That our initial worries were correct. If Recen Muwal was acting on the orders of the Mienr, this would be the second time that the New Spire Empire has made a move to be known in a very short time.”
“Third, actually,” Danfis said with a sigh, “We received word earlier today of a somewhat similar incident in Yul’en. I agree, though, that this is a concerning sign. It seems they’re gathering attention, making themselves known to the public intentionally. Be on your guard, both of you. I’d wager they’re planning to make a move, and sooner than later if I had to guess.”
The communication ended shortly after, leaving Kuro and Oroske with troubling thoughts as they prepared to sleep.