Raven Wing Farm, midday

When they reached the farm’s entrance, military men prevented people from entering.

“This area is off-limits, please carry on.”

Lyra frowned. “I’m a Locksmith who just came back from a quest. You would be obstructing me from doing my job, which is illegal.”

The military man furrowed his brows and looked Lyra up and down. She was holding the hands of the missing boy, whose eyes darted around nervously in the presence of the uniformed man.

“Unless you have signed documentation stating this, I can’t let you through.”

“Wha-what? Are you serious?” She exclaimed. “I only need documentation if a quest was picked up at the Guild. Locksmiths can acquire quests by word of mouth if the recipient calls the nearest Guild after it’s over.”

“Sorry, new rule.”

“On whose accord! Your own men even asked me to take on this job since they couldn’t do it. Just go and ask around who was stationed here earlier.”

As Lyra bickered with the military man, it caught the attention of a blonde-haired man standing at six feet and wearing a navy blue ensemble that was different from the burgundy uniform the usual military men wore.

His gray eyes narrowed at the noise, and he grinned, having recognized it before. He walked over to the yelling Locksmith and military personnel.

“Let her through. She has clearance to be here. The parents assigned her to a missing person’s case.”

Observing the confident gait of the man with chiseled jaws made Lyra’s face contort in annoyance and disgust. She wouldn’t have expected to see him again.

“Captain Nikolai Volkov, sir! Of course.”

He moved to the side to let Lyra through, with one hand holding the boys and Aurora’s. However, he stopped the others.

“Are you serious?” Lyra yelled at him again.

“Only Locksmith personnel, I’m afraid,” Nikolai told her.

“Don’t worry, Lyra. We’ll wait here!” Cassandra called out to her so she wouldn’t cause another scene.

Lyra rolled her eyes and sighed. “Fine.” Following Nikolai. The entire farm was no longer quaint and serene as the Imperial Military now overran it.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, little Ashbourne. I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”

“The feelings are not mutual.” She scoffed. “Now let’s cut to the chase and tell me why there is an Infestation of you fiends.”

Nikolai smirked. It infuriated Lyra how much he had never been affected by anything.

“It’s just a new protocol. I’m afraid that was your only get-out-of-jail-free card. You’ll need to get signed documentation from anyone asking you to complete a quest.”

“And again, I ask, on whose accord?”

“Why, Chancellor Viktor Radovinov made an announcement a few days ago. Have you not been keeping up with the news, little Ashbourne?”

Lyra’s eye twitched at his name-calling. She was about to retort when the boy dropped her hand and shouted, “Mom!” He ran over to a woman with brunette hair who dropped down on the ground, getting her long skirt dirty as she knelt her face into her son and started crying.

Lyra’s expression relaxed as she watched mother and son reunite, forgetting all about Nikolai.

“By chance, aren’t we missing someone… Where is Eamon?”

For the moment, at least.

“Don’t say his name,” she said through gritted teeth. A surge of energy seemed to course through her. Had Aurora not been by her side, tugging her arm back to her original state, she wasn’t sure what she would do.

“Ah,” Nikolai said matter-of-factly. “He left you too, didn’t he? It was inevitable, unfortunately. If he left me, it was only a matter of time till it was your turn.”

“How about you mind your own business?! You don’t know anything that’s been going on. Eamon didn’t leave; he’s fine!”

The tears blurred in her eyes, betraying her own words. Nikolai raised his brow, saying nothing more.

“Very well. I’ll square your quest away so you can get your payment and keep your journey moving, yes? We’re working on a new wired system to access payment from your Voxlink instantly.”

“Whatever.” Lyra quietly said. As much as that idea of instant payment marveled her. She didn’t want to risk showing him any more emotion than she had to.

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“Lyra?” Aurora whispered.

She shook her head and looked down at the little girl with a sad smile. “I’m okay, Aurora. Promise.”

But Aurora knew that was a lie.

“What you see here is phase two of the Chancellor’s Harmony Tax: The Unification Pact.” Nikolai pointed to military men around the farm, marking their posts. The sad expressions on the civilian’s faces were blatant to Lyra, but she knew that The Imperial Military was nothing but masochist and sadistic to see through the people’s Pain.

“Last I checked, it didn’t seem like ‘unity.’ The Empire seemed to mount themselves and decided to bribe the people to keep them complacent.”

“Please, little Ashbourne, the common person will ultimately thank us. There must be some sacrifices before people can get what they want.”

“What I want,” through gritted teeth. “Is for you to stop calling me ‘little Ashbourne.’”

“But it is fitting as small as you are and the next generation of the Ashbourne lineage. Though I suppose without Eamon, how will it continue.”

“Okay, that’s it!” Lyra shouted. She was about to swing at him when Aurora grabbed her hand, and a surge of energy made her hesitate as she shouted, ‘Stop it!’ Even Nikolai seemed to sense the strong-willed girl’s aura. He narrowed his eyes, observing the white-haired girl, before regaining his composure.

“Don’t let him bully you, Lyra. He’s just trying to get a rise out of you!”

Lyra pursed her lips together, knowing she was right, and she was letting Nikolai get under her skin so quickly.

“Smart girl. I’ve never seen her before. She isn’t yours, I can assume?”

She was not in the mood for his questioning.

“I have a question for you, Nikolai. It’s about the Imperial Military’s involvement and an announcement so abruptly? It makes me wonder if the Chancellor knows something he isn’t telling anyone.”

Lyra hoped that her bait would catch. It was odd that this happened so suddenly, even by Empire standards. So when a glimmer of recognition flashed in his eyes, she knew she had gotten him.

Lyra spread her smile across her lips. “That must be why you helped me get passed earlier.”

All smiles were gone now, and Nikolai’s expression was severe. “Let’s talk somewhere more private.”

The two of them, plus Aurora, made their way between a set of houses further away from where the military was posted.

“It would seem like you have become quite popular in Crystalline City, and the Argonian Empire isn’t pleased about that.”

“And why do they have beef with me? I haven’t done anything.”

“Are you sure about that, little Ashbourne? Does the name Joanne Ryvers mean anything to you?”

Lyra sucked in a breath. It did mean something to her. Joanne Ryvers was the reporter for the Daily Crystal Clear in Crystalline City, where they met at Troér when it was attacked by a Magycte Beast and transformed into an Altar.

“I take from your silence that you do. Well, she’s made your speech quite popular. People have begun questioning the reality of fairy tale villains like the Magycte Beast and the Children of Deimos, which are real and meddling in the Chancellor’s plan for the Harmony Tax Act. If people focus more on mysticism than the proposed unity, it won’t bode well for you.”

Lyra gritted her teeth. “And why are you telling me this?”

He hunched his shoulders. A carefree, narrowed-eye looked her way. “Think of it as a gift because of our relationship with Eamon. Wherever he is, he’d be furious if something were to happen to you.”

“Tch quit acting as you care so much about him.” She turned to leave, but his following words pulled her back.

“Of course I do. After all, he was supposed to be my weapon, as Walsh had promised.”

Something in Lyra snapped, and in the next moment, she was only a few inches away from Nikolai, with her blade out and the steel tip pointed at his throat.

“How do you know that name?” Fury claimed her body as a raw power surged off from her.

Aurora stood off to the side with panicked, wide-eyed fear at the person before her. She didn’t look like Lyra; it was like something dark purple miasma aura took over. Something negative.

“You want to sit here and act coy, explaining what’s happening in the Empire with the announcement and people’s conclusion. Now you sit here and tell me you know Walsh?”

Nikolai kept a calm look on his face even though a sword was too close to slitting his throat. He only smiled and eyed her with a gleam in his eyes that infuriated Lyra, and she hissed at the mockery.

“I never said anything about being unaware of what’s going on. I know Walsh because he used to work for the Empire. Argonian’s project was to have… special weapons– what was their name again? It was a strange thing at first, human-made weapons, but even so, the Empire accepted this.

Lyra gasped, catching onto what he was saying. “They wanted to use Homunculus as weapons.”

He tipped his head to the side so as not to slice his neck. “Precisely. Eamon was one of them and promised to me until he decided to leave. During that time, Walsh too had left– something to do with not having met proper demands– but the Empire had a backup plan… until it was taken a little over a month ago.”

His attention now drew to Aurora, who gasped at the man’s hardened glare. She cowered backward. Lyra, still holding the sword to his throat, stepped before Aurora.

“Leave Aurora out of this!”

“Come now, Lyra. It isn’t hard to figure out. That girl, that Homunculus, is supposed to be a weapon. Their power was supposed to rival the Locksmiths Wellspring Essentia. Luckily, we did find a way around that and uncovered a new way to fight, close Rifts, and even fight Veilspawn. Now, we can even slay the dreaded Magycte from these Altars.”

Lyra gasped, having so much information thrown at her all at once, but only truly got her attention: the secret revealed in front of Aurora.

She spun around to see the wide-eyed, teary glare of the little girl she had come to love as her own.

“I’m… A weapon.” She whispered and looked down at her shaking hands. “A… Homunculus.”

“Aurora, listen to me. You are still every bit of a person as I am. Remember? You’re an Ashbourne, too.”

Nikolai sighed. “The faster you stop lying to her, the easier things can be. I can imagine this is what happened to Eamon.”

“Shut up!” Lyra lashed out at him. She took a Slash at him in a fury-like state, but he could evade her swing with a sideways dodge, then kicked off against the wall and backed away from Lyra.

“Now, we don’t want your anger to get carried away. That’s unbecoming of a Locksmith.”

“Why even tell me all this? What’s your goal in all this?”

“My goal?” He tapped his chin and looked to the sky. “I’m afraid I can’t reveal that, not yet, anyway. Let’s say that more people believe you: that Magycte Beasts, Altars, and the Children of Deimos are all real. Just not for the good you align yourself with. In time, you shall know, but for now…”

He bowed with a hand to his heart.

“...you have a few seconds to stash your sword away, or you’ll never be able to save Aurum or Eamon.”

That struck a chord within her, and she put it away. Just as he said, two armed military men went by for patrol. Upon seeing Nikolai, however, they started to approach, but he casually waved them away.

“What is it that you want from me, Nikolai?” Lyra said through gritted teeth. She wanted nothing more but to punch his face in, but another part of her wanted to console a teary-eyed Aurora.

Nikolai smirked. “Nothing. You’re following your path to destiny exactly as the Hero of Aurum should. Just be mindful of what you say going forward and be careful; not everything is what it seems.”