“So we are ready. Kalliope repeat the Plan!”, Karsa animates her adoptive daughter.

“In four days we will meet at the ball. Trisor will take the face of Lady Fira and get us in as her Butlers. Nash takes care of the real Lady Fira in Enshire. Fade will assassinate the King. This will be easy because Veleno is a known cook who got invited to the ball beforehand, he will drug some of the guards and people in there. I will be the one infiltrating Arkevh that is said to be part of the Adventurers Guild, if he even goes to the ball, he could be the only problem.”, Kalliope repeats the plan.

“It seems like you are not as useless as I thought.”, Veleno explains laughing, rummaging through his goat beard. Kalliope hated him, not even him, she hated everyone in this “family”.

They all were criminals recruited by that Garwin to assassinate the King, putting Carwitz into power. Of course the others agreed to that plan, every concern was washed away as soon as huge sums of money were given. Kalliope was always with them as the second Plan if the first one was doomed.

Now however she had more freedom. With four days left she awoke in a mansion Karsa bought in Helgria. She was the only real noble and the leader of the assassin family. She was not invited towards the King's Chamber but Lady Fira was. In addition she was the only one Kalliope feared, Kalliope could beat anyone in a duel but not the Mother. Even if she tried to flee she would always find her.

She tried to make the best out of her time, those four days without the others were her times to rest. In addition she really wanted to know if the stories of Arkevh were true. Even if he was not part of the Adventurers Guild, her Mission was to find him. He could be a problem to their Plan, but also the one that could help her escape.

She wandered across the streets, the more she neared the outer walls the more she looked out of place. Karsa gave her an expensive dark blue mantle, covered with Golden flower patterns. The warm weather did not annoy her in any way, she was used to worse thanks to her magic.

After some time she finally reached said Guild, from the outside there was not much going on, only the sound of someone hammering against a piece of metal was to be heard in the distance. The Dummies in the mud seemed ragged but currently not in use. From outside the place looked like your average drinking hole, usual for the outskirts of a large City. Was that really the place she was looking for? Only one way to find out. She grabs the doorknob and opens the door, barging into another person.

Nolan bursted out in laughter as he saw Arkevh falling down. Arkevh was just talking with Nolan as someone opened the door while Arkevh grabbed into nothingness, losing his balance.

“Come on, you didn’t drink that much yesterday.”, Nolan continues to chuckle.

“Very funny.”, Arkevh answers, annoyed and stands up looking at who caused him to fall down.

It was a young woman probably his age, she was covered in an expensive looking mantle and wore her red long hair freely. He stares into her light brown eyes as she comes to word.

“I am terribly sorry.”, she exclaims quickly.

“Don’t worry.”, Arkevh answers and touches his nose it hurt.

“I should have been more careful.”, he continues to stand up and makes space for the woman to enter.

She waits for a while till she enters the Tavern and looks at Arkevh for a while, those purple eyes, was he the one she was searching for.

“What can I do for you.”, Kalliope hears the Man from the counter sound across the room.

“I-”, she considers for a while.

“I wanted to know if I can join the Guild for a while, I heard that the Adventurers Guild here has some tasks.” Kalliope then explains with confidence.

“Sure, while I prepare the Task board you can help Arkevh at Bork.”, The old Man explains.

“I think he isn’t able to do it alone if he already falls.”, Nolan laughs.

With a betrayed look Arkevh turns to Nolan and nods.

“You could also help me, not my problem if everyone drank so much they are still sleeping.”, Arkevh counters.

“Where is Craftol by the way, he didn’t drink anything yesterday?”, Nolan asks.

“Probably sleeping too, not gonna wake him up now.”, Arkevh explains and looks towards Kalliope.

“Follow me, let’s help Bork.”, He explains, resulting in a nod from Kalliope. Leaving the Tavern together.

“You probably get that question often but are you really that Arkevh?”, Kalliope asks as they walk towards the Forge.

“Indeed.”, Arkevh explains and finishes and readjust the part of his hair that covered one of his eyes.

“And who are you?”, Arkevh asks afterwards.

“My name is Kalliope.”, she explains.

“Nice to meet you.”, Arkevh replies and looks towards the Forge, the noise of ringing metal grew.

“Can I ask you something else?”, Kalliope questions.

“If you insist.”

“What brought you to the Guild?”, Kalliope asks

“That sounds like an interesting choice.”, she continues

“I wanted to see the world and help others without being a Weapon for Helgria. Why are you here?”, Arkevh answers and smiles.

“For the same reasons-besides the Weapon thing of course.”, Kalliope saves her identity and laughs it off.

To her surprise Arkevh continues to smile.

“Hey you two.”, Bork greets them and washes the sweat from his forehead, in front of him laid an unfinished steel sword he was working on since the morning. Probably for Bryan the person that told everyone about Arkevh. He hasn’t talked with him, he only knew from Nolan how he looked. He was the one Donovan and Arkevh met on the first day of the Guild.

“I see you brought another new face to the Guild Arkevh, first Donovan and then this fine looking woman. Are you here to help me out?” Bork asks and smiles, revealing his unusual shiny teeth.

Arkevh nods.

“What can we do for you? Should we bring you more Iron?”

“No not now, I have enough Material. I need a present, a kind of flower that grows in the southern parts of the Forest of Yor. It's for my Wife our marriage day is soon. I have every flower I need besides this one.”, Bork explains, smiling.

“We can get it for you, can you describe it?”, he asks.

“Nolan told me about it, that's why i wanted it so badly, it's a Luna flower, they shine in the moon and are normally light blue with an invisible centerpiece that reflects the moonlight.”, Bork explains

“They are said to be found in a clearing full of flowers in the south.”, Bork adds.

“Understood we can get it for you.”, Arkevh explains and looks behind him there was a familiar Aura, as he turned around he saw Craftol. His hair was even more chaotic than yesterday and he had some bad grommets and looked rather sleepy.

To everyone, Surprise Kalliope's Hands light up in fire as she sees the Goblin. Pointing towards him ready to unleash flames.

To deescalate the Situation Arkevh grabs Kalliope's Shoulder.

“Hey don’t worry this is Craftol he is one of us.”, Arkevh explains.

Kalliope's fires die down as she looks at him confused.

“I-I’m sorry. I’ve never seen something like that”, she explains.

“Next time you could just talk with me before you threaten my life.”, Craftol explains and climbs up Arkevhs mantle. He wore a little leather jacket like the day Arkevh met him at the Camp. His tiredness seemed to have faded away.

“You can speak?”, Kalliope asks, even more surprised than before.

“I can. Arkevh is she coming with us?”, Craftol asks

“Yes she is, also can you stop using me as a way of transportation.”, Arkevh explains annoyed.

“No I’m too shocked to walk that far right now.”, Craftol smiles

Arkevh just shakes his head and goes towards the gates, followed by Kalliope who was unsure what she had stumbled upon.

“I wanted to ask you something else.”, Kalliope breaks the silence as they walk through the Forest, the big stream that went through all of the forest pattering in the distance.

“Why didn’t you flee from Helgria if you did not want to be used as a weapon, you had every chance to do so haven’t you?”, Kalliope asks unsure and reminds herself of Karsa. She would have run away a long time ago if she did not hold her captive.

“I’m not so sure either, I think it was because of not being sure how I could survive without Helgria. I lived in an Orphanage my entire life, even though I wanted to leave the city walls, I feared that it would destroy the balance I had established. The balance someone helped me to achieve made life in it feel bearable.”, Arkevh recalls his opportunity to study in the University, learning more about the Magic he possessed.

While Thinking about it he reminds himself of his Pure Magic study, hoping that he didn’t miss any letter sent to him, he should ask his Preceptor when he had the time.

“I understand, why are you willing to tell me all of this?”, Kalliope asks, confused about Arkevh's honesty. He was more different then he thought, similar to her even.

“I don’t hide myself anymore.”

“What about you? You are always asking but never told anything about you.”, Craftol Interrupts the conversation.

Arkevh wanted to say something but Kalliope stood up for herself.

“I’m just a Traveler, I didn’t beg for Arkevh's help but I still take what he gives me so openly.”, Kalliope counters, slightly annoyed.

“That implies you are still hoping for something right, you could have just asked him about his Powers, come on tell us the truth nobody is listening.”, Craftol explains unknowingly.

Kalliope could not tell the truth otherwise Karsa would use her strings to deform her, she needed to lie.

“Same goes for you Goblin. Everyone has their reason only because you seemed to have revealed them to Arkevh. I don't need to be as naive as you.”, Kalliope explains.

Before Craftol says something Arkevh interrupts both of them.

“I don’t care Craftol let's go on.”, He quickly exclaims and ends the conversation with that. Craftol just lets out a big sight but keeps silent.

“By the way how do we find the flower, any plans?”, Craftol speaks up after a while and looks around, not seeing anything like it was described to them.

“I was actually searching for a good place to rest, we reached the Southern part of the forest and we probably find it easier when the moon shines. If I remember correctly Bork mentioned a clearing somewhere further south that is full of flowers. So I heard, so let's hope it's true.”, Arkevh explains and continues throughout the Forest.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“Let us continue until the night, then we search for the flower and return in the Morning. Maybe we reach the clearing sooner than we think.”, Arkevh suggests, resulting in a nod from both.

“I don’t have any better suggestions so lets make what we can out of it.”, Craftol replies in agreement.

Bork recalled everything correctly, after one more hour of walking they reached a clearing filled with flowers of different colors. Surrounded by the mild looking Oak trees the Flowers were an unusual spot in the Forest of Yor who was known to be rather balanced. Repeating similar structures in Nature, like it followed a sense of balance that became its rule. Legends tell that once there was an elven Civilization in the Forest of Yor long forgotten, only supported by old Pillars that loosely popped up if you wandered this place for long enough.

With the view of the colorful flower field in the distance the three set up a camp. Arkevh tried to follow Donovan’s suggestions as best as possible, even though he did not consider dangerous animals or perhaps Goblins to be near here. He still wanted their mission to be hidden. Maybe there weren’t too many Lunar Flowers here and people were on the hunt for them as well.

The logs in the small fireplace crinkled as they waited for the moon to rise, over the clearing Kalliope had fallen asleep for the time being. Her arrival at Helgria and her Crew had not given her enough time to rest.

In the meantime Arkevh and Craftol sat around the Campfire and ate some of their rations, some dry bread and raisins where not really delicious but enough to fill the stomach.

Craftol glanced over to their sleeping companion until he turned towards Arkevh and shook his head.

“Be honest, don't you think she is a bit suspicious?”, Craftol asks and eats some of the raisins.

“Maybe.”, Arkevh just answers and drinks some water from his canteen, it was almost empty, he forgot to fill it.

“Just Maybe?”, Craftol repeats in disbelief.

“It's obvious that she is trying something, I don’t know what but it feels like she is trying to gather information about you for a purpose.”, Craftol continued his thought.

“I sense nothing suspicious so far though only her magic Aura nothing else.”, Arkevh explains and glances over to Kalliope as well.

“I have a plan, we ask her the same questions when we are alone with her, if she answers differently we know she is faking a character.”, Craftol says sure of himself.

Arkevh just nods once again.

“We can try it.”, Arkevh agrees on the idea.

“Can you explain to me what an Orphanage is now? You mentioned it before.” Craftol asks, still curious.

Arkevh can’t help himself to not laugh, so he starts to explain it to his friend. Craftol seems to be surprisingly intrigued by such a concept and before they can count how many time has passed, they see a distant glow coming from the clearing.

As both of them stand up Kalliope wakes from her sleep as well, without the need of waking her up. Not sure if Kalliope had slept in doze the whole time, destroying their plan, they try to ignore it and move towards the strange light that emitted from the clearing.

Like Bork described it, the moon stood straight above the clearing, activating the glow from the Lunar flower. There was only one light amidst the sea of marigold.

This lone light however shone like nothing they saw before, perfect for a unique gift.

Arkevh slowly approaches the light blue glow, trying not to crush too many marigolds on the way. He hovers his hand over the flower for a while, grabbing it by the stem who reflects the surrounding in a magical way. As he uproots the plant as soft as possible, he realizes how deep in the earth this one seems to be. Resulting in him, holding a flower taller than he thought, most of it was the almost transparent stem that reflected himself. Seeing his own body in the stem Arkevh feels a strange feeling, almost as if something would consume his mana slowly. Arkevh stands still for a while and says nothing, only sensing the strange feeling the flower emitted when he held it.

“Arkevh is something wrong?”, Kalliope asks unsure on why Arkevh stood still for so long.

“Nothing is really wrong, this flower just has a weird feeling when you touch it.”, Arkevh explains and gives Kalliope the flower. She takes it and starts to shake within. This feeling, how was this flower able to achieve that. This feeling like something looked right in her soul and towards Karsa. Who communicated with her in this instance?

“Get that flower away from me child!”, she yells in her mind and gives it towards Craftol, who was only a bit taller than the flower.

He just shrugs as he holds the flower in his hand and gives it back towards Arkevh.

“I feel nothing must be a magician thing or so.”, He theorizes unimpressed.

Arkevh looks towards Kalliope

“Makes sense, I assume you also felt something thanks to your fire magic, where did you learn it?”, Arkevh asks

“My Mother, she is also dead.”, Kalliope explains.

“You were just born with them?” Kalliope asks, confused, Arkevh nods as a reply.

“So we got the flower, I think we take that well deserved pause and rest.”, Arkevh explains as an arrow flies by him crashing into a flower.

Turning around hastily they see three orcs approaching from the thicket. They seem to come from the south, visible by their grayish skin, which was common for the southern orc clans. Five of those fearless Warriors stepped up to them, one of them carried a bow which was still held in a shooting position, another arrow already on the bowstring.

Their leader was covered in iron armor and equipped with a battle axe. He was the tallest of the group, his axe already covered in blood symbolizing all the poor souls that fell to him.

He held his hand into the air, symbolizing his archer not to shoot until he was done talking, something rare for the orcs.

“Is that who i think it is?”, the orc asks in the human language, surprisingly well spoken as well.

“Who are you searching for?”, Arkevh replied coldly.

“Not for you, but that does not matter now, it seems like it's my lucky day. Tell me what is that Goblin doing here?”

“He is our Guild member.”, Arkevh explains, resulting in the orc leader laughing in response.

“Very Funny.”

“Schitz Dummar.”, he tells his archer who loosens his arrow flying directly towards Arkevh, who blocks it with a quick sphere of dark magic,

“Seems like you didn’t rust since Darkingstone.”, The orc comments and rushes towards the three, his companions follow with drawn axes. Their Blood lust was visible in their eyes, even if he tried he would not be able to spare them in any way.

Kalliope steps next to Arkevh.

“Fire magic now.”, She says, resulting in Arkevh immediately understanding.

At the same time both of them stretch out their hands and unravel a roll of fire with their combined magic that rushes towards the orcs. Craftol in the meantime searches for a trinket in his bag and goes undercover in the flower field. Resulting in the archer missing another shot.

As the fire dies down the orcs reveal themselves, one of them got caught, however the leader and two other orcs still stood their ground. Another orc took the lead and had activated some kind of protection rune that was built in his armor, blocking the attack as best as the rune could.

The orcs leap forward and swing their weapons after the two, doing their best to doge the incoming attacks. Both of them weren’t made for dueling, that was Donovan's thing.

In the meantime Craftol rummages through the flowers towards the orc archer. As he comes close enough to him he throws the trinket at the orc. The orc archer tries his best to defend the potion with the dagger he drew and stabs into the glass, destroying the container of the blue liquid. However as his hands touch the liquid they suddenly freeze and turn into ice, before the orc can realize what happened his arms and legs turn into ice, stunning him in position.

“Have fun with some ice slime Liquid. It was really expensive.”, Craftol smiles and looks towards his companions.

Another axe swing was about to hit Kalliope as the orc suddenly stopped swinging his axe and started to bleed uncontrollably. It was hard to see but dozens of strings burst out close to Kalliope protecting her and piercing into the attackers flesh. The blood drips along the strings as the orc collapses towards the flowers, his face deformed by the many holes.

The orc but also Kalliope freeze as they see the strings disappearing back into Kalliope's body. The Orc leader rushes towards Kalliope and grabs her with his right arm slamming her to the ground.

“How did you do that!”, he yells at her, as Arkevh defeats the other orc with a spear he formed out of dark magic, plunging it in the attackers body.

“Give up.”, Arkevh replies cold

“Why should I.”, The orc yells back and looks at his fellow Warriors. They all got defeated even his archer got immobilized by a Goblin. In a last act of desperation he raises Kalliope up from the ground and points his axe at her throat.

“Do you really want to trade her life for yours?”, Arkevh asks and raises his hand.

“You are still scared about what happened aren’t you?”, Arkevh continues the questioning.

Resulting in the orc slowly hardening the position of the axe on Kalliope's throat.

“I’m not a naive boy.”, The orc replies in anger.

“I don’t want to take risks with her now, after she killed one of my warriors so fast and beautiful.”, The orc compliments Kalliope in the orcish manner.

“You still seem to hang on to your life though.” Arkevh explains. Resulting into the orc getting more angry.

“You get on my nerves human, I will just-”, The orc leader starts but can’t finish his sentence as a little sphere of fire pierces through the orcs throat. Kalliope used the time in which Arkevh distracted the orc to focus her Mana into a precise and fast attack. It took her way longer than normally thanks to the orc blocking her breathing with his grab, something important for most elemental magics.

Kalliope looks at Arkevh for a while before she lets her view ponder across the flower field. It looked way less soothing now.

“What are we gonna do with the other orc?”, Craftol breaks the silence as he points towards the frozen archer.

“We will bring him away from the flower field, with the bodies. The flowers will recover until we clean the mess up.”, Arkevh explains.

Kalliope just nods and raises her head.

“Kalliope was it your magic?”, Arkevh asks

“No. I have a question."

“That is?”,

“Please help me get rid of Karsa.”, Kalliope explains.

Karsa in the meantime touched her hurting neck. The mark of the orcs grip was still on there and her throat had a tiny cut from the orcish axe. She could not kill Kalliope yet, she still needed her powers.