Yurie waited in the stairwell along with Shade, Xiaomei, Hyun Soon and the dwarf. The tall elf woman had been hesitant to leave but something Shade had said stopped her from arguing and she left. Since Shade came back from opening the door, everyone had been silent.

Even her paths had gone cold.

Instead of a rainbow of possibility, it seemed that there were no options available to Yurie but angst and boredom. A small puddle of dark malaise sat underneath her but she ignored it for now. For once she could not bring herself to keep moving, she felt that she had to be here.

She asked herself “why?” She did not have an answer and she did not even know what question she was truly asking. Why did her paths all seem to lead to Ah Dan? What did that mean for her?

Why did he shine like a star?

She buried her face in her hands as heat started to rise there again. Her fingers found scars and she flinched.

She had… forgotten them? When Ah Dan had looked at her, she hadn’t felt the weight of the knotted tissue which scoured her face. Yurie couldn’t cry, the destroyed portions of her upper face blocked that. The solution was, usually, to simply not care. However, she did not have that option upon her realisation and her eyes themselves flooded, a salty sting which she gritted her teeth and bared.

“How much longer can we wait?” Xiaomei was pacing on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. It was a concern on everyone’s mind. Xiaomei was looking at Shade as she asked but the question was to all of them. “We all felt the heat, Dan can’t survive that for long.”

It had been ten minutes since the door had closed and the world had gone grey. Without her paths alighting, Yurie found it hard to even speak. She was so used to being guided that without knowing how the situation would unfold, she could not bring herself to interact.

“He had solid control of his mana.” Shade said simply. “Though…” The majaal bit his pitch dark lip, white teeth pressing into the flesh nervously. “I’m not sure how we would know when it was safe.”

“You’re not sure?” Xiaomei’s voice raised entire octaves with each word. Just as she began what Yurie was sure would have been a fantastic tirade, the colour came back at once. Xiaomei was startled when Yurie yelled with joy and jumped up from her spot on the stairs.

“They’re back!” Yurie said, speaking about her paths. When that was confusing, she simply tutted and rolled her eyes. Normal spirit returned, Yurie looked for the gold paths that she had come to associate with Ah Dan.

“Who is back?” Asked Hyun Soon.

“If I had to guess… that friend of yours has saved the day.” Yurie spoke while still looking around. The world was awash with peaceful green and cool relaxing blues. The colours stayed the same as she began to walk up the stairs, filling Yurie with an assurance that everything would be alright. When she spoke next, she spoke with confidence.

“We can let them out now.”

————————————————————————

From his vantage point atop a spire, Bloom was watching. Hidden by a simple incantation, it wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny but scrutiny was not something Bloom expected to face. Confident in the cloak of camouflage, the seventh son of Hestia the majaal queen watched his older brother.

Spying was one of Bloom’s specialities and he quite enjoyed it. Speaking to people and spending time “enjoying” himself held no charm, he had never once enjoyed the company of others. Being alone, invisible and ignored was much more his style. He would reconvene with his siblings soon. It was especially never good to keep Mania waiting.

Bloom had only waited here to make sure that Shade did not follow them to their hideout within the city but he had been caught up in the goings on. Even from his position nearly a mile away, he had been able to see the instant waves of heat from the strange bump on top of the building when the door had opened.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The boy had gone inside. The human boy with the strange eyes who had been watching. Bloom had felt the probing fingers of inexperience all over his shell but felt nothing in return when he had returned the inspection. How, then, was that child so potent? They had healed Shade in an instant.

Bloom spat, hoping that the globule might hit someone below. If he was lucky, it would splash as it landed and hit a few shopgoers.

The plague would spread quickly in the market below.

Now, after another fifteen minutes or so with occasional pacing on the roof and no other action, Bloom was on the edge of impatience. No one had screamed from below yet, which was disappointing. Right as Bloom was about to let impulse take over and drop some more chaos on the city below, something occurred on the rooftop which distracted him.

First came the girl. Even from this distance, being clad in the uniform of the city guard, Bloom was sure that this was no trained soldier from the way she skipped forward. Shade himself followed and once again Bloom felt his concentration skip.

“Filthy traitor, blood thief. SCUM.” Before he could work himself into a true state, Bloom brought one sharp fingernail to his arm. A flick of his finger sliced the skin and his focus returned due to the thin trickle of blood. The sight of his once favourite brother now filled him with such loathing that his blood boiled. “You’ll get your’s, brother.” For now he could be content to watch. The others might wonder at his delay soon but something interesting was happening and Bloom knew it.

By the time Shade had walked to the door to the lumpy room, there were a total of five people on the roof. Unless they had decided to recruit a fat child, one of them was certainly a dwarf but the others could be elf or human at this distance. The group was fairly scattered, though all were gathering around the lump. Two stood together, the “guard” girl bounced around excitedly and the dwarf seemed to be waiting patiently for something.

Further analysis of them was nearly impossible from this distance, but Bloom’s scouting capabilities were second to none. He coughed out a guttural incantation, no more than a cantrip, and suddenly his vision was above the Barracks once more. Effective, but he still could not hear. Relying on reading lips would have to be enough for the conversation.

Shade had his back to the spot Bloom’s mana sight came from, but he said something to the guardgirl who just nodded and did a cartwheel. It was a dwarf and not a small child, as Bloom had thought, and they seemed to be chanting an incantation, though there was no mana flow of an actual spell being wrought. Maybe a prayer? The other two, a small one and a tall one, were holding hands and watching the door intently.

“Is this your army, Shade? A hot room, a disjointed collection of filthy human children and a dwarf?” It certainly seemed so. Adding in the strange healer boy, Bloom himself could likely kill them all in one fell swoop. It was certainly tempting, but he had learned his lesson about knowing the enemy once before. He drew his fingernail over his skin again as thoughts of Shade’s transgressions brought vitriol once more.

Instead of rushing ahead like a child, Bloom was patient. He was able to watch as Shade moved forward and opened the door. There were a few moments of tension between the group until the boy walked out of the room again. He still limped from the kick Ravage had gifted to him, though only having a limp was a testament to some durability. His clothes, a white prisoner’s garb, was now crisped and soot covered. Bloom’s lack of hearing at this distance was not an issue, the whoops of delight were obvious and infuriating.

The boy first turned to Shade and said something that looked like a relief filled “it worked.” He then turned Shade around so that neither of them were facing the door. The strange boy gathered all males on the roof to one side before moving to the two females. His back was to Bloom’s vantage but he said… a joke? The guard girl and the one with the two big lumps of hair both laughed for a moment before looking mortified. The two ran off, leaving the boy to return to the other men on the roof.

There now seemed to be an awkwardness to their gathering. When the boy with silver eyes stumbled, his leg no longer able to hold his weight, the dwarf reacted. There seemed to be a moment of trepidation until Shade said “I swear.” After that, the boy seemed to trust the dwarf more and allowed a spell to be cast on himself.

As he stood, limp now seemingly gone, Bloom was a little surprised at the quality of healing magic he had seen. The dwarf seemed to wield the magic of the empty church, or otherwise some false “divine”. Whatever the boy could do, he wasn’t able to heal himself. Healing powers were rare, and there were two on that roof right now. The urge to assault increased.

With his leg healed, the boy seemed comfortable to sit and meditate. He said “thank you” to Shade and the dwarf before sitting and crossing his legs.

“Idiot.” Bloom spat off the side of the roof again. “Trusting Shade will get you killed.” Bloom was feeling the closest emotion to compassion he could feel - derision. Shade would lead the fools to their deaths, as surely as he was walking towards his own demise by disrespecting mother. Once the command was given, Allusia would be razed, a pyre to their lost brother.

The two girls returned with a bundle of clothing. The guardgirl stood outside with her arms crossed, staring daggers at the men who had made no attempt to get closer at all. There was some noise from inside causing the guardgirl to turn around and the waiting men to turn their attention that way too.

Two girls were stepping from inside now, the one with the two balls on her head and another. The second girl must have been in the room to begin with. The source of the heat Bloom had seen earlier? As Bloom looked at the group, he felt a shiver run across his spine.

Why?

His answer came quickly. Through his cantrip, Bloom felt a stabbing icicle of power. His energy in the air felt like it was squeezed, sudden and intense pressure building in his eyes. He felt the silver eyes of the strange boy snap to his position. Not the spot in the sky where his mana sat spying, but his spot on the roof.

How? When did he spot me?

That didn’t matter, he could stay there no longer. Bloom snapped his connection to his mana and fled to find his siblings. He had to tell them that they had made a mistake.

They should have killed the boy with silver eyes when they had the chance.