"Did you lose eyes on him?" A distant voice called out.

Quickly turning on the person, Jin remembered that once more, he was not alone. The orange-eyed woman had also seen what had happened around his brother's duel, a valuable witness. In a way, the fact that she wore a cloak similar to Vendrick's also made her friendlier to the eyes, which could be a naive mistake on Jin's part. What appearances truly suggested about her posture was nothing more than a single fact; she had to be in an Elemental Step comparable to the one Vendrick found himself in, and that was no doubt a terrifying thought.

No matter the way he put it, she could be a valuable ally or his worst enemy. And so, he decided to be honest with her. Perhaps that would bring her good side to light. Jin had enough self-awareness to realize that in the best-case scenario, he would be almost useless in hand-to-hand combat against a figure standing three meters tall. And so cooperation would be ideal.

“I tried following him as fast as I could but once I reached the window he was long gone.”

She nodded in agreement; her brow furrowed softly. Enough to see that she wasn't surprised by the escape. The feminine tone of voice had a degree of seriousness in such a way its authenticity could not be put into question. Almost as if she knew something else and didn't want to show it.

“I see. Did he leave anything behind?”

Coincidentally or not, she sought an answer that was still in the back of his mind. And in truth, Jin thought once more about lying, but there would be no reason for her to ask a question with such precision if she didn't have some idea of

what Jin had found when he came across the window. Her orange-tinted eyes clearly showed some sort of fixation on what was wrapped in his robe at the waist level.

After a moment of silence, Jin shrugged and released a sigh, “There is one thing that I found, here.”

Jin calmly withdrew from his back pocket a piece of claw he had picked up from the window's ledge earlier. The one who interacted up to that point with the greatest degree of coolness possible made it difficult to read what was on her mind. But everything changed when Jin raised her hand, and she could see the remnant of a sharp object resting on his hand. It looked like the facade in her face quickly melted away, instantly reacting to what laid before her, lifting her neck in surprise. Her orange eyes sparkled as if a thousand-year-old treasure had been found.

"Put that back on your pocket, fast!" She silently uttered with a scowl. “Don’t handle it without any care..”

Jin had no idea about the origin of what he just found, but her reaction at seeing the nail-like item had sparked a sense of hope on his chest. Maybe they could figure this out by themselves. Perhaps she had encountered something like that earlier in her previous missions around the thousand cities of Ravnos. Indeed, the continent was too big of a landmass for him to assume he learned about every creature that roamed the earth in just a single month. Vampires and Behemoths were certainly real, but what else could've been out there beyond the thick walls of Sanctum?

As long as he kept the strange item in his possession, he would be useful to the investigation and would be one of those responsible for confronting the unidentified attackers.

Without questioning twice, Jin tucked what he had found back into his pocket. And immediately afterward a great bang of the door rippled the air, a thud grabbing the duo's attention. A very strong gust of wind quickly passed, in a manner Jin felt compelled to bring both hands up to his eyes. Between the two of them, a figure had landed at high speed. Taking shape as the dust settled, his arm made a subtle movement.

"Hey, didn't expect to see both of you here."

A peaceful voice came from the figure, a recognizable insignia marking his presence. In the wind his cape fluttered, the same symbol could be seen on both of their cloaks, the one representing the Sentinel Rank. Reserved for those who had been successful in breaking through not only the first and second step, but also the third.

If awakening the elemental within their bodies required sheer luck in earning the patronage of an elemental god within the Hall of Trials as an individual, then he could hardly think of what they had gone through to breakthrough the next two steps to godhood.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Jin ignored the arrival of the one between them and turned to the girl, "Now that you mention it, I don’t even know your name."

But the charismatic boy was not the type to be quiet. Intruding on the conversation just as quick as he landed, spoke out once more before the girl could answer the question, “Oh you don’t? Well then let me introduce you both.”

“Jin this is my friend Alaeria Fenathus, she is a Sentinel just like me. And the one besides myself is my dear brother Jin, the one I told you about.”

“I am one of the top Sentinels in the whole fortress, mind you…oh yes, I remember you talking about your sibling.”

“I don’t know about top Sentinel, but you’re surely one of the smallest.” Vendrick shrugged, “What are you doing down here anyway, I heard you were in a mission near the Shemhian Temple and wouldn’t come back until the end of the month?

"Who told you that?"

"You know who, Ringo."

“Oh that asshole with the loose lips… yes I was briefly there earlier that much I can say. I'm not fond of sleeping in places that I can't call my own, so I usually finish the jobs as soon as I can. I can’t blame him for his rough estimate for tracking my targets, it seems he spends more time gossiping about everyone rather than harvesting the elemental way these days. If you see him slacking around, make sure to tell him he was off by a lot. A dozen bandits too arrogant for their own good don’t give me trouble like they used to after I got past the Disciple Step. After I unlocked the Sixth Sense, they couldn't give me a scratch even if I was half asleep.”

“Well he wasn’t meditating when I spoke to him, I can tell you that much. So you got him there. You finally unveiled the Sixth Sense, that's impressive.” Subtly nodded Vendrick, "Were you here in time for my sparring contest with the others then?"

“Sparring… you call that freak show a sparring session… I came close to watching you be defeated by lowly Disciples in a duel, abusing the usage of poisons…why did you accept their terms are the question, you had nothing to prove out there.” Sneered Alaeria, her arms now crossed as she quickly tapped her foot into the ground.

Vendrick let a half smirk appear on his face, “All elemental artists must be treated the same, regardless of what they trained. Not everyone is skillful enough to pass the Trial of Sanctum, and keep ascending past Disciple. As we have come to understand, this was never a perfect world. Besides, Frozen Lake is an eight days travel on horse. The least I could do was accept their proposal for a duel. The five of them were Disciples just looking for a challenge.”

"If your elemental pulse wasn't carefully controlled in time, it was a possibility—they could have maimed you."

"And yet they didn't."

"That's not the point!" She shouted, her voice cracking in by the end.

Her volume of speech was so loud that it interrupted several parallel conversations taking place in the back of the room. A couple of dozen Disciples training in the surrounding area turned their necks up toward the three of them in the upper balcony. In response to the unwanted attention, Alaeria instinctively closed her eyes as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment blowing air through her mouth. Soon afterward she whispered, "Vendrick you are too honorable for your own good."

"That's a good thing right?"

"It almost got you killed."

“Whatever.”

“Did you feel it?” He asked as he kept playing with his spear, moving it around skillfully with flicks of his wrist.

"Feel what?"

Suddenly Jin's playful aura was suddenly gone. And her voice almost announced that this was no longer a joke. “In the crowd. That dark, foggy energy surrounding the arena.” He concluded, pointing it at the same spot they both had seen the brown-cloaked man a few minutes ago.

“So you felt It too…To have such a great amount of elemental perception, all while dueling five people at once… Maybe the rumors I’ve heard hold some weight, the famous Yellow-eyed Sentinel does have sharp eyes after all.”

“No, it was more than that,” Vendrick shrugged.

“The way they stared at me, it seemed like they were looking at a monster. A couple of the guys weren’t total strangers to me either. Training with a couple of them since I passed the Elemental Trial made me think we had a bond together. A bond that grew with battle, with victories. And suddenly, when I needed them the most they did watch…And shout for my head. Soon after the duel ended, they acted out of character. At least from what I gathered, It seemed like they were under some sort of illusion. They weren't cheering for my death per se…Like I wasn't there at all for them.”

“And you weren’t brother… Your intuition was solid. If you had ended that duel any sooner then…”

“Enough of this Jin, this is not the time, we can’t disclose anything else to your brother. The walls in Sanctum have ears. Not here, at least. We must think of a plan fast. Somewhere safe. The place where the living can't hear us.”

Alaeria looked up as if she had remembered a point of interest.

“I must come to terms with myself, I need to double-check something upstairs,” After a quick moment pondering her next move, Alaeria gazed at them, “Okay here’s what we’re going to do. Come to the Third Floor tonight, I’ll be at the Research Archives, come meet me there when the clock strikes ten.” She whispered only the both of them could hear, "And most importantly, bring the strange item you found too."