-Genesis-

I sat in the black Autonav as it sped its way through the streets along with the other Autonavs, driving everyone to their destinations with computerized efficiency and seeming chaos. I was on my way to hand over Radiant’s letter to Mystdell after taking a long while to track her down to her current whereabouts, since she traveled all around.

It had been quite a while since the last time I had seen Mystdell, since her current career as an explorer sent her all over Tallen, but before this I had actually gotten to know her quite well, to the point that she was more like a friend than an acquaintance even if she was older than me by 7 years. Ever since Mystdell first found out that I was friends with Radiant, we began to interact with each other, and it lasted long after our first meeting. So I had come to find Mystdell myself, not only to give her Radiant’s letter, but also to catch up with her as a friend.

The Autonav stopped to let me out on the sidewalk while the other Autonavs flowed around it as smoothly as water. Getting out, I stopped to look at the hotel Mystdell was supposed to be staying at. It was a nice hotel with elegant construction, and when I had looked it up on the web before coming here it had actually been rated 7/16 Stars. This was actually a fairly high end hotel for Mystdell to be staying at, considering that a 10 Star hotel was basically a paradise that would cost around 200 GC to rent a room for a day, and a 7 Star hotel would cost around 10 GC to rent a room for a day. 10 GC per day was definitely way beyond what normal people would be able to afford, considering that most normal transactions would be done with BC or SC*.

*SC are Silver Credits and are worth 100x less than GC (Gold Credits in case you forgot). BC are Bronze Credits, and are worth 100x less than SC. You can think of a BC like a dollar, but it’s not an exact comparison or anything.*

I made my way through the nice hotel, arriving at the floor Mystdell was supposed to be on with a *Ding*. The elevator opened up and I stepped out into the hall with a railing on the opposite side that showed the open view down to the lobby and all the way up to the 20th floor.

Walking towards Mystdell's room, I reached the corner that would take me to her room when I overheard her voice talking. I didn’t want to interrupt her in the middle of her conversation, and if she was having a conversation out in the hallway then it shouldn’t take too long to finish.

“-have no idea.” Mystdell's voice said in a somewhat heated tone.

“Miss Shadow please cooperate. Radiant might be your brother, but he is a MAX danger prisoner that has escaped from Lonevista. The fact that he has escaped from such a place clearly shows what kind of a danger he is-”

“Alright that’s enough.” Mystdell cut the man off, “Radiant isn’t dangerous, and I really don’t know anything about where he might be. If that’s all you came here for then I have other things I need to take care of.”

Radiant a max danger prisoner? What is that supposed to mean? I heard a door close and the sound of footsteps headed in my direction. I didn’t want anyone to know I was listening in on their conversation, so I leaned up against the wall and pretended to be on my Epicell.

Two men in slick uniforms turned around the corner and briefly looked at me before seemingly deciding I wasn’t important and walking off.

I felt relieved when they left. Those guys looked like government officials, and they were talking to Mystdell about Radiant escaping from somewhere. Just what is this all about?

I decided that I should take a few precautions before meeting with Mystdell, so I texted her to meet me at a nearby restaurant before walking away. There might be surveillance to keep an eye on Mystdell or something. And I was going to get food with her anyways.

As I was walking away my mind couldn’t help but come up with all sorts of crazy scenarios about the conversation I had just heard. I now had another reason to meet with Mystdell face to face.

-Break-

I had had some time to think about the new information I had just learned, and I had quite a few questions for Mystdell. Hearing a bell ring I cast my gaze over to the door of the restaurant and saw Mystdell step inside. Mystdell looked around, trying to find me, and I waved her over when she looked in my direction.

“It’s been quite a while hasn’t it Ge-”

She started to speak to me while sitting down in the seat opposite of me, but I held up my hand to stop her from speaking as I took out a handheld device from my bag. The tool lit up and scanned its immediate surroundings before giving a negative response and turning off. I breathed a sigh of relief as I put the tool away. It doesn’t seem like Radiant is important enough to put bugs on his family members-

“You didn’t have to do that. I already took care of the bugs they put on me.”

I paused for a second as I looked at Mystdell with a surprised expression. So Radiant is important enough for them to bug his family? Wait doesn’t that mean, “You took care of them yourself? Why would you even know how to do that? I don’t ever recall you doing such a thing in the past, I mean I only know how to take care of bugs because I have to protect certain business secrets.”

“Oh don’t worry about it, it’s a family thing.” She waved her hand like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“A family thing?” What kind of family would need to take care of bugs enough that it becomes a ‘family thing’?

“So what did you want to talk to me about that you had to scan me for any bugs before you did so?”

I noticed that she dodged my question with her own, but it wasn’t that necessary of a question anyways, “Well I originally came to deliver a letter to you, but I kind of overheard your conversation with those people at the hotel earlier, so now I wanted to ask you some questions about that.”

“You heard that huh? Well it probably won’t be long before everyone knows about it anyways.” She shook her head, “So what did you want to ask?”

I was a bit surprised at her nonchalant response, “Uh, well, I don’t know. It was just such a shock to me. I had no idea that Radiant was a prisoner. And he escaped recently? I never got that kind of impression from him at all. Did he do something to get put in prison? How long has he been in prison for? I mean I know that he’s smart, so it’s not impossible that the government didn’t like something he was doing. I mean now that I think about it-”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Genesis, Genesis hey slow down there. One thing at a time.” Mystdell stopped my spiraling thoughts as she waved a waiter over to our table.

“Whew, yeah.”

We ordered some food before continuing, “Well I guess what I want to know most is how long has Radiant been in jail for?”

She looked at me with an expression that said ‘Are you pulling my leg?’ before saying, “Well he’s been in there ever since he was five. I thought that you two had stopped seeing each other since back then, so wouldn’t you already know that? I mean you would’ve stopped being able to see him at that time, so you already know that.”

“What? No, I only met Radiant after I turned eight. I’ve never even met him in person before.”

“Wait, don’t you have the same birthday as him? You’re telling me that you’ve been talking to him while he was in prison? How? He shouldn’t have been able to talk to anybody while he was at Lonevista.”

We both had perplexed expressions, and I said, “Huh? I met Radiant in The Ever Present Archives. We’ve been in touch through The Archives ever since.”

“The Archives? Isn’t it super difficult to get a pass to that place?” Mystdell sounded like she was having difficulty connecting the dots between what I was telling her.

Is she saying that because she thinks I wouldn’t be able to get a pass?

“Well yeah I guess it’s difficult, but I was lucky to get one from my family. Why would you be so surprised by that? I am a Duke’s daughter after all.”

Mystdell shook her head, “No, I’m surprised because I have no idea how Radiant has a pass to that place, not you.”

“Wait, I thought you knew about that. How else would he get a pass if not from your family?”

“I don’t know. You’re the one with the pass, why don’t you tell me?” She leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed as our food was delivered to our table.

I shrugged at her question, “The only way I know to get a pass is from buying one. Well besides receiving a god’s blessing anyways, but there was no god’s mark anywhere on his clothes in The Archives, so that’s impossible.”

Mystdell hummed to herself, “I guess Radiant did always seem to know more than he should, even if he was extremely smart. I guess that’s where he learned everything from.” She sighed, “Anyways, you said something about delivering a letter. Would this letter happen to be from Radiant by chance?”

“Yeah it is.”

“Well, hand it over. I guess I’ll see what my dear brother has to say for himself.”

I got out the letter and handed it over to Mystdell who promptly read the short message that was written.

Dear, Mystdell.

It’s me Radiant! I know that it’s been a long time since we’ve last talked to each other, and I know that’s not your fault with you exploring different places, but I decided that I should let you know about some things before events that will happen in the near future.

First off, try not to be too worried about any news you might hear about me. I’ll be completely fine since I’ve been preparing for this since I was a kid. I know that won’t prevent you from worrying about me, but there’s not much I can do about that.

Second, if anybody comes to you asking about me, just tell them the truth. There’s no need for you to protect me, and nothing you could tell them will make a difference to my plans anyways.

Third, I’ll try and get in touch with you in person, as soon as I can, after things settle down. It might take a while though, so don’t worry if you don’t get any word from me.

Lastly, make sure to dispose of this letter in a way that leaves no traces behind. Don’t make any copies or anything either.(I’m saying this because I know you might actually do this, so just don’t. I mean it.)

I love you and wish you well. Thanks for always believing in me.

From your favorite brother, Radiant.

After Mystdell finished reading the letter she shook her head and gave a short laugh before pulling out a small box from somewhere and putting the letter in it. After the letter was inside she absorbed the box into her hand.

“Are you not going to dispose of the letter like Radiant said?”

Mystdell gave a short snort at my question, “Radiant underestimates my capabilities. There’s no need for me to dispose of it.”

I guess Radiant was right, Mystdell really didn’t dispose of the letter.

Mystdell got a playful expression on her face, “You know what the letter says, so you read the letter huh? You afraid your boyfriend is talking smack about you behind your back?”

I blew air through my nose and rolled my eyes, “He had to send the contents of the letter directly to my mind, so I knew what was in the letter because of that. And he’s not my boyfriend, I mean he’s your brother.”

“Pfft, like him being my brother makes any difference. You’re already letting him into your mind! You’re definitely boyfriend girlfriend.”

I felt my cheeks heat up a bit, but I rolled my eyes at her antics, “What is up with you. You’ve never teased me like this before.”

She pointed at me, “That was before I knew you two were talking to my brother all this time. I always thought it was strange that you never talked about any boys over the years. I guess now I know why huh?” Mystdell wiggled her eyebrows at me with a smirk.

“Gosh.” I shook my head in exasperation while my whole face started to get hot.

“Alright, alright. I’ll stop teasing you.” She chuckled to herself, “But anyways, he’s never told you anything about his situation?” She raised her eyebrow.

“Well I did ask him about it, but he was always somewhat vague. When I was a kid I guessed that he was doing some kind of isolated mage training, and when I told him about my guess he said it was something like that. So all this time I always thought he was doing some kind of mage seclusion training, not that he was training to escape from prison or whatever he was doing.”

“Yeah, that does sound like Radiant.” She nodded her head.

“I heard those people mention that he’s in Lonevista? Isn’t that supposed to be like some max security prison? Does that mean that Radiant is a bad person?”

“You’re partially right, Lonevista is a max security prison that holds some very powerful and dangerous people, but they also have a juvenile facility that is used to help children who are deemed ‘dangerous’, to change.” Mystdell sneered when she said the word dangerous, “Radiant was sent to the juvenile facility when he was five, after his Future Assessment Examination. So is he a bad person? According to the government he is still dangerous, but if you ask me that’s just a pile of golem scrap.”

“Then why would he still be locked up? I thought that the kids sent away after their Future Assessment Examination came back fairly quickly.”

“Well, again, you’re partially right. Most kids sent away after their Future Assessment Examination do come back fairly quickly. The others are either actually dangerous or just presented as such. Those that the government deems ‘unable to change’ are mind controlled after they become mature adults, becoming the government’s mental slaves.”

“That’s horrible. Why doesn’t anybody say anything about this?”

“Who cares about a few dangerous people being mind controlled?" She shrugged her shoulders, "Most of the kids that go to the facility come back much better than they were before they went there anyways, so you can’t say that they aren’t helping the kids sent there. I mean Radiant even had the opportunity to leave, but he chose to stay.”

“He chose to stay? Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know, ask him. But if you ask me, Radiant was always strange, even before he was sent to Lonevista. But Radiant seemed to change after he was taken to prison, almost like he had found something worth his effort. Maybe Radiant was too smart and was just bored with everything before going to prison. Then, after he was sent to Lonevista, he seemed to have a fire burning inside for the first time. And Radiant always seemed to know that the government wanted to control him anyways, he always seemed to get quite the kick whenever he talked about escaping from prison.”

“Wait, he told you he was going to escape from prison? Did nobody think anything about that?”

“Oh, he didn’t just tell me, he told everyone he was going to escape from prison one day. That’s why I wasn’t that surprised when I found out he actually had escaped. Radiant is probably laughing whenever he thinks about it. About how they weren’t able to stop him even though he told them he was going to escape for years.”

“Wow. Yeah that does sound like something Radiant would do.”

“I know right?” She put her hands on her chin and stared at me, “So tell me a little about what your time with Radiant in The Archives was like. I won’t judge, but you like bad boys? Hardened criminals? Didn’t expect that.”

“Mystdell.” My voice had a little bit of a whine to it. This girl. I don’t like him that much.

Our conversation continued for quite some time, talking about Radiant and various other things. Some of her stories about her adventures as an explorer were especially fascinating, and we talked while we hung out around the city having a fun time and catching up with each other.