“You Kaiyumae have a strange taste of fashion,” Eir commented, walking alongside Iris through the Sentorayan streets wearing a grey and gold yokui that Iris picked out for the valkyrie.

“I would say the same for you Templarians,” Iris laughed in return. “I’ve only seen a few of you, but you are always wearing armour of some kind.”

“Not all of us, only those who serve the High Houses,” Eir returned.

“High Houses?” Iris asked

Eir raised an eyebrow, confused by the Kaiyumian girl. “You’ve never heard of them?”

Iris shook her head as she stopped in her tracks, turning to face the valkyrie. “Arylos doesn’t talk much about Templarius other than his contempt for a lot of Templarians.”

“But don’t the Templarians form your religion?” Eir asked.

“It does, but to be honest, my faith in our religion has been shaken lately,” Iris confessed while looking towards the ground, lost in her own thoughts. “A lot of that changed when you attacked and I met Arylos. If I’m being honest, I keep to the traditions important to me, but I keep finding holes in it.”

“How so?” Eir asked while leaning against a wall.

“Anoron confuses me,” Iris told the valkyrie. “He’s somehow Templarian and yet not Templarian? And yet he rules you? There’s also books that say he came from another world and others that say he’s ruled Templarius for as long as it has been around. Anoron is real enough; why are his origins so hard to pin down?”

Eir let out a chuckle that she tried to mask. “To be fair, that’s a difficult question to answer; even I don’t know all of the answers.”

“So you just accept a king that you know nothing about?” Iris asked.

“You Kaiyumae have done no different,” Eir jumped in with a sarcastic laugh. “Many of the people here in Sentoraya have never seen Sentarus in person, and yet everyone accepts that he rules the land.”

Iris cut her response short, knowing the valkyrie was right. Iris found herself confused by Sentarus on a daily basis. His closeness with Templarius, his motives, his desire to keep Templarius away; it all made little sense. To the average Kaiyumae, Templarius is nothing but a mythical place but Sentarus accepted it as a real place with real people.

“I can tell you a couple of things about him, but not much,” Eir continued while rubbing her arms. “Anoron comes from another world so he’s not Templarian by blood per se. However, he carries the blood of the first Templarian king who went by the same name.”

“He’s the descendant of a Templarian ancestor and yet not Templarian?” Iris asked, trying to clarify the situation.

“Now you understand my own confusion,” Eir confessed, pushing away from the wall. “Anoron’s a great warrior with the power of his ancestor, our first king. That’s all I know for certain.”

Iris rubbed her chin as she thought, wondering more about this mysterious Anoron. She eventually shook her head, deciding to ask Arylos since he may be able to give a straight answer. “Come on, we should get going,” Iris cut in while gesturing for Eir to follow. “We need to see Sentarus to see if he’s okay with a Templarian like you living here.”

Eir nodded and followed Iris through the streets. Iris felt more questions come to her that she wanted to know more. “So what are the High Houses?” she eventually asked, wanting to pass some time.

Eir cracked a smile, catching onto Iris’s motives. “There are eight royal families of Templarius, each of them ancient and dating back to our early history. Many of the houses have their own realms but share territory on Templarius and rule as a common people.”

“Regions like Watermont and Abritus?” Iris jumped in.

Eir nodded and gave Iris a firm clap. “Exactly! Abritus is the territory of the Nyx family and Watermont belongs to the Hurakahn family.”

“Where did you come from?” Iris asked, intrigued by the information.

“I grew up on Asgard, another realm far away from Templarius,” Eir explained, reminiscing of her home. “I was pretty young by the time I came to Templarius for the first time. Once I went there for the first time though, I fell in love there so I never went back to Asgard.”

“It’s that beautiful?” Iris asked.

Eir gave Iris a firm nod. “It is. Asgard is one thing, but there’s something serene about Templarius. It doesn’t have a sun so the sky is in perpetual twilight and the sky is filled with worlds and stars and is filled with blues and oranges.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“I guess I can visit one day,” Iris wondered aloud.

Eir stopped in her tracks and quickly shook her head. “No, don’t think that!” she insisted.

“Why not? Trying to keep me from getting my hopes up?” Iris asked with a smirk.

Eir continued panicking as she tried to find the words. “W-Well, mortals can’t come to Templarius.”

“Wait, what?” Iris asked as she raised her voice.

“Templarius is another world, another planet,” Eir explained while rubbing her arms for comfort. “Kaiyumi is very, very far away from being able to travel there. That means the only way you can go there is by the help of another Templarian or someone else who can travel worlds.”

Iris thought about the problem for a time, secretly wondering if Arylos would be able to take her. He had obviously been there before, so maybe he could take her. A part of her longed to see these twilight skies, a part of her deep down that wanted to see this beauty with her own eyes, maybe even experience it with the last of the Titans by her side.

No, she remembered his disdain for the Templarians. He wouldn’t want to go.

She shook her head and accepted reality. “Come on,” she repeated to the valkyrie, wanting to focus on something else for a change.

“I’m sorry Iris,” Eir whispered shamefully. “If there’s a way, I could see if you could go. Maybe that can make up for what I did.”

“It’s fine,” Iris insisted in a stern voice. “I’m content with staying here; this is my home after all and we humans never stray too far from home.”

The two women continued walking through the streets in silence until they approached the familiar clifface palace of grey stone. Iris kept her head clear as she approached the stairs of the palace guarded by two silver-clad soldiers holding spears. Iris waved her hand and the guards gave her a nod and did not stop her approach as she and Eir climbed the stairs.

“They’ll just let you in?” Eir asked in confusion.

“I work alongside Bellona and Sentarus,” Iris explained. “I don’t have any rank in their guard, but I am recognizable.”

“How much of that comes from Arylos’s presence?” Eir asked while examining the stone palace.

“Not as much as you’d think,” Iris returned in a cheery tone. She approached the set of wooden doors and gave them a push as they opened for her, revealing the ornate foyer with the crystal chandelier overhead, painting the room in rainbow colours from the incoming sunlight. The two continued inside as Iris closed the door behind her.

“Ah, lady Nashonaru,” a grizzled soldier in silver armour and a blue cape announced softly as he approached.

“Ah, Kujou!” Iris responded with a smile. “I haven’t seen you the past few weeks, how have things been?”

“Different, but difference is good,” the Watcher replied with a hearty voice. “Training new Watchers fills one with pride and joy.”

“One day, you’ll need to retire before age gets the best of you,” Iris remarked with a smirk. “When he gets time, can you send Sentarus our way?”

“What is the occasion?” Kujou asked while passing a glance to Eir, swiftly examining her from head to toe.

“I need to talk to him about immigration for this woman here,” Iris answered while gesturing to Eir. “I’m pretty sure Sentarus– I mean the Lord would like to know she’s in the city.”

“I do think his schedule is flexible today; I will announce you to him,” the Watcher replied with a smile as he turned towards one of the corridors and walked away in a smooth motion.

Iris took a seat on one of the benches in the foyer and gestured for Eir to do the same. Eir held her hands together and sat next to Iris, nervous with a pounding drum in her chest.

“What is Sentarus like?” Eir asked nervously as her heart pounded even louder.

“He’s an ass, but he’ll work with you if you twist his arm enough,” Iris responded with a scoff.

“What makes you think he’ll help me?” Eir followed up, gripping her hands tight.

“To be honest, I don’t think he will,” Iris responded while leaning back and letting out a sigh. “When Reyz attacked, his first idea was to kill Arylos, thinking that would make everything better. However, as a Templarian you have to at least tell him you’re here. After that, who knows?”

“So what if we came all the way here for nothing?” Eir asked, slowly losing hope.

Iris let out a soft laugh as she gathered her thoughts. “Think about it like this. The best case scenario, he gives you residency as a Templarian. Worst case scenario, he no longer recognises you as immortal and tells you to get a job like the rest.”

“The worst case scenario is pretty bad, Iris,” Eir cut in with nervousness in her voice.

“Not really,” Iris grinned. “He doesn’t like the homeless and wants to help them. Either way, he’ll give you references for work and a place to stay, no matter what he does.”

“That’s your solution?” Eir exclaimed, feeling her nervousness become overcome by panic.

“Do you have any better ideas? At the very least, I can be your reference to work the district watch,” Iris explained with her smirk widening. “I’m sure you can still fight like you did a year ago, or at least be able to handle yourself. That’s the work situation solved right there.”

“And I can only work the district watch with Sentarus’s approval,” Eir finished the thought as her nervousness slowly went away.

“Well if it isn’t Iris,” a booming voice called out from one of the corridors as the tall blue-robed man came into view. “Why is it that every time you come here, I get the urge to drink?”

Iris smiled and jumped up to greet the king. “Because you know me so well,” she responded with a smile.

“Yeah, I know you well enough to know that when you come here, I better not be sober,” Sentarus responded with a scoff. Sentarus cast his glance over to Eir and the valkyrie felt a chill in her spine as she felt her anxiety return, overcome by fear. The man’s stare bore through her like focused sunlight and Eir felt nothing but fear.

She recognised this man, and he is not who Iris thinks he is.