Red awoke in a violent daze to a dazzling sun standing proudly over the horizon. He looked around at his surroundings, apparently he found the strength to bring himself upstairs into one of the rusty metal beds. He tried to remember the events of the previous night, but it all blended into a hazy fog of fighting and melancholy conversation. Red got up slowly and ambled over to a dimly lit bathroom area.
Downstairs, Yasuke entered the front door with Olo. Yasuke examined the front room again, the sun revealing new details he didn’t notice the previous night. The burn marks were deep and completely singed the wood on the floors. There were large puddles of water everywhere in the room that Yasuke earnestly tried to avoid.
Yasuke nervously began to speak, “Sorry about this sir, just like I told you--“
Olo placed one hand behind his back and waved his other dismissively, “Yes, yes we’ve talked about that situation at length. Don’t worry Yasuke, the state of this room is of little import, and your attackers from last night will be severely reprimanded. Tell me, where is Grand Officer Red?”
Yasuke scratched his head, “I’m not sure. I know he’s here, he’s probably upstairs getting prepared. I’m sure that fight took a lot out of him.”
Olo stomped around the room looking around at every nook and cranny. Yasuke tried to follow his eyes, and track exactly what he was looking at.
Olo turned around quickly, and asked, “Okay then. While we wait on Red, let me ask you something. Tell me, what you were doing in the king’s throne room yesterday?”
Yasuke began to smile and approached Olo slowly, “What do you want me to say Commander Grand Officer? Do you want me to say I was there to kill the king? What if I was? Are you going to kill me?”
Olo laughed out manically and got right into Yasuke’s face, “Yasuke, you should know that I’m the last person you want to taunt,” Smoke began to rise from Olo’s body, “Give me a straight answer now. If you don’t, or if you give an answer I don’t like, I’ll take everything away I’ve given you. I won’t kill you, but you’ll wish I did.”
Black smoke began to rise from Yasuke’s body as well, so much that it began to completely fill the room. Inside the smoke, Yasuke and Olo stared at each other without moving for a long time. It felt as though time began to stop, and the air turned cold. The color seemed to fade in the world as Olo began to close the little remaining distance between them. Yasuke attempted to back away but his body did not respond to his thoughts. Dread began to fill Yasuke’s body as Olo reached his hand out to touch Yasuke. He continued to try to move his body to no avail, and he closed his eyes as Olo got even closer.
“Okay Olo, please explain what you’re doing to my subordinate before I get pissed off.”
Red stood on the stairs and looked at Olo through the smoke. Olo snapped his fingers and instantly caused all of the smoke to dissipate. Yasuke looked at up at Red and nearly didn’t recognize him. It seemed as though his hair was standing up much longer than usual and it had a distinctive glow around it. His eyes, which already took the appearance of red stars in a dark blue void, glowed extra bright as he gritted his teeth at Olo.
Olo looked up at him and tilted his head, calmly stating, “Now Red, I know the type of privilege you must feel since the king personally invited you into his army, but you must understand. I am an extension of the king, so you attacking me is nearly the same as attacking the king and declaring war against Oldum. Do you really want to do that?”
Red looked at him blankly and he readied some magic runes along his arm.
Olo waved his hands and laughed, “Okay, okay I understand now. I’m glad you two already have such a close relationship. Moving along, I have the details of your first mission so please,” Olo motioned toward him, “come and join us.”
As Red began to slowly step down the stairs, Olo laid out a map across the wall. Yasuke, finally able to move, turned and looked at the map closely.
“First and foremost, I’ll work on getting you both some furniture. As far as your squad is concerned, I wasn’t able to recruit a support or healing mage in time for this mission. If you can find one, let me know so I can vet them and officially give them a rank and title, but otherwise, it’ll just be the two of you for now.”
Red looked at the map and shook his head, “How in the world did you acquire a map this detailed? It would take a team of cartographers years to map this out, not to mention the type of clearances they would need to enter some kingdom’s territory and map it out.”
The three of them stared at the map for a while. It was extraordinarily detailed, neatly marking every town, village, forest, guild hall, camp and settlement on the entire continent. Every space on the map was filled to the brim with text or pictures representing each point of interest.
Olo chuckled, “Yes, our cartographer is quite talented, isn’t he? Can you believe just one person drew this for us, and it took him just a little over two years? In any case, just so we’re all on the same page we are…“ Olo pointed to the right edge of the map, “here, as far east as possible. I’m not sure how many full maps you’ve looked at Red, but Oldum is east, Britannius is west, and Socotra is north into the northwest. The south is starting to have some developments with some smaller clans attempting to unite, but for now it's only La Des and some other disparate villages.”
“Speaking of, where are Adamos and La Des?” Red interjected.
“Unfortunately those were two areas our cartographer was unable to gain access to,” Olo pointed to the northwest section labeled ‘Socotra’, “He also stressed to me this is no longer accurate, and he’s having trouble regaining entry to update it.”
“So where are we headed for this mission, who’s the target?” Red asked bluntly.
Olo looked at Red out of the corner of his eye, “Target? Please Red, you aren’t hitmen. If it would be possible we want this individual brought back here alive. Moving on though, your ‘target’ is a soldier from Socotra, so please make the proper preparations for that.”
Red scratched his head, “Captured? Well, that works better for me.”
Yasuke looked at the both of them, confused. “What do we have to prepare so much for? I thought people from Socotra were a bunch of theists who sit around and praise their god all day and night?”
Red sighed and turned away from the map, “The knights from Socotra for the most part are nothing special. Britannius and Socotra share a border, so I spent most of my time before the war fighting little battles against Socotra. But there are a few knights among them, a small, specialized group known as the Seraphim that are simply out of this world. They each have a title corresponding to a letter in the alphabet, so more than likely there are twenty-six of those unbelievable warriors. Their innate abilities are unusual and all-powerful, so much so that it genuinely surprises me that Socotra hasn’t conquered this whole continent.”
Olo nodded his head in agreement, “All correct. Even the weakest among the Seraphim could easily destroy this country, and the strongest Seraphim are said to be equal to the Dragons. Socotra never commands their knights to do anything aggressive, they only hold their border with Britannius. Maybe it’s their religion, I’m not sure. In any case, the knight we’re going after is one of the Seraphim, rank fifteen Jeannot the Optimist. He’s a bit of a wildcard, going off and killing patrols near Oldum, and we’re assuming he’s doing this of his own accord.”
Red swallowed hard as he turned back around, “What are his abilities, do we know?”
Olo nodded, “Fortunately for the both of you, his ability is pretty simple; it's fire.”
“Fire? That’s it?” Yasuke questioned, ”Didn’t you two just say the Seraphim are great and powerful warriors with mysterious abilities?”
Olo looked at Yasuke and frowned, “Please don’t underestimate him. The level of fire abilities he is capable of completely dwarfs someone like Dogma. Jeannot might as well have a different set of abilities entirely. From what we know, he can become completely intangible and turn his body into fire, he can erupt pillars of fire from the ground, evaporate all of the moisture in the air and that’s only the abilities we know about. Treat this like the battle of your life, it’s possible this may be the toughest opponent either of you have ever faced.”
Yasuke and Red looked at each other for a moment, then back to the map. Olo pointed to the middle area of the map, “This is where we expect him to be as of a week ago, near the town of Khalarnis, but he is known to frequent this area,” Olo pointed to a spot dotted with trees labeled the Mystic Forest.
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Red’s eyes got wide and he looked over Olo in shock.
Olo struggled to hold back a smirk, “My, my. That’s close to where we originally found you Red. I wonder how you and your friends at that rundown tavern would have handled Jeannot.”
Red clenched his fist until they began to bleed and he bit his lip tightly.
“He’s near Day’s guild hall, rampaging and killing wildly?” Red thought to himself.
Olo continued, “Yasuke, I had a new sword crafted for you as you asked, and I’m having it delivered so you’re not at risk of getting attacked again. Red, the king specifically requested we have a special lance and kite shield crafted for you, but it will take at least another week so you'll have to go without for now. There’s no amount of fire protection we could provide that could protect against even one attack from Jeannot, so my best advice is to avoid his attacks at all cost.”
“So much for providing resources.” Red thought to himself.
Olo clapped his hands and pulled down the map, “I believe that wraps up our debrief! It doesn’t matter when you leave, but we do want Jeannot captured within a month.”
Red started to walk away slowly, into a poorly lit kitchen area, “What do you mean capture, I thought this was a -“
Olo looked at Red sharply, “I mean capture. So it’ll be up to the legendary Grand Officer Red and his subordinate to figure out how to go about that. Do you think you can?”
“I’m getting sick of this guy.” Red thought to himself.
Olo smiled from ear to ear, and made his way towards the front door, “Looks like you’re already thinking up a plan! I can’t wait to hear about how you both did it!”
Yasuke stared at Olo the entire time, his eyes never deviating from watching Olo’s every movement.
As Olo closed the door, Red and Yasuke’s eyes met for a second before they turned away from each other. Red scoured the kitchen cabinets for any semblance of food while Yasuke stared out of the window adjacent to the front door, watching Olo head back to the castle.
“So when are you going to do it?” Yasuke asked flatly.
“Do what?” Red asked, slowly walking back into the front room.
“When are you going to destroy Oldum? I heard you say it to King Esa. I want to…” Yasuke’s voice trailed as he looked at the busy citizens on the street through the window.
“You want to what? Help me do it?” Red chuckled, “Yasuke, you’re not strong enough yet. And I don’t mean physically, you could probably take on the majority of the soldiers in there by yourself. You’re not ready for that mentally. Your resolve is too wishy-washy, I don’t sense anything concrete from you.”
Yasuke simply remained silent and continued looking out of the window.
Red sat down on the floor with a rotten piece of fruit, “This mission will be the test though. I want to see if you can really help me against Jeannot, or if you’ll just be in my way taking up the arcana.”
Yasuke turned around and shouted, tears flowing down his eyes, “Who the hell do you think you are patronizing me like this? You think because you got a little stronger you can just talk down to me? You must have forgot, I was this close to…this close to…”
Yasuke let his voice trail once again and turned back around, “Red, how have you gotten so strong? Forget that weird power you acquired at the entrance to the kingdom, I just mean in general.”
Tossing the fruit to the side, Red summoned a blood dagger and twirled it in his fingers, “Good question…before I answer, let me ask you this first. What is strength to you?”
Yasuke turned and looked at Red, confused, “Strength? Isn’t strength just a measure of how strong you are?”
Red nodded his head, still looking at the dagger intently, “Sure…that’s one way to think about it, and not a bad way either. But to me strength meant power. And power is the easiest way to gain authority. The thing I like about having authority is that people listen to what you have to say without question. They have to,” Red took a deep breath, “I’m a little different now than I was when I first started craving strength, but I still remember back when I was a kid and my Mom and I were starving to death during those cold winter nights in the slums of Britannius. I didn’t dream about food or drinking water or a warm bed. I dreamed about the strength, the power and the authority to make my cries for help reach somebody.”
Yasuke leaned against the window and stared out into the afternoon foot traffic for a long time. During the long silence, Yasuke thought of his own past, though he could barely remember it. He remembered a strict but caring and compassionate older woman with rough features, who drilled all of the basics of swordplay into him as a child. Yasuke closed and eyes and pondered on it, but he could not remember if the woman that raised him, that he referred to as master, was his mother or not. If she was, she never called him son or hugged him or told him “I love you.”
As Yasuke sat deep in thought, there was a knock at the door. He got up and opened the door, he looked out into the distance and noticed a young man sprinting away. Looking down, there was a plain wooden box laid at his feet. Picking the box up and moving it into the house, he bent down and opened it. Straw exploded everywhere, and in the middle of it all, a short black and red katana with foreign letters carved into the scabbard.
Yasuke ran his fingers over it, smiling and proudly stated, “Masamune. He was the originator of this style of katana, shorter and sharper, more suited for close range battles. Of course, my Caligo Hidden Draw Style requires the longest blade possible to be the most effective, but I plan on innovating it, eliminating its weaknesses and making them strengths.”
Red waved away his dagger and approached Yasuke, looking at the blade, “Interesting, that’s the opposite of the path I’ve taken. Instead of strengthening my weakness and making myself complete, I made my strengths so overwhelming no one can take advantage of my weaknesses.”
Yasuke held the sword up into the air, then brought it down to his side and unsheathed it a few times. Red watched him for a moment, then turned away, “We’ll be leaving in the middle of the night. It should take us seven days to reach that area, but we have no idea how long it will take us to find him once we get there.”
Picking up a small burlap sack, Red leaned against a nearby wall, “Before we head out though, I just want to know something Yasuke. I heard you say you can’t use magic and you don’t have an innate ability, so how are you able to use the same black smoke ability that Olo has?”
Yasuke continued to face away from Red, examining the blade closely, “There are some things going on around us, that are better left undiscussed. At least for now.”
Red shrugged and moved toward the front door, “Well I expected as much anyway. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to tell me about it on our way there. I’m going to head out for a little bit to gather some supplies, and when I get back tonight we head out. Make sure you’ve got everything you need as well, I don’t want to be waiting on you when it’s time to go.”
Red slumped out of the front door and stepped out into stone-paved streets bathed in sunlight. Red looked in both directions and sighed, dragging his feet as he examined each sign and building.
“I need to gather some potions and elixirs, but most importantly I need to see if there are any Philosophers stones.” Red thought to himself.
After a long period of walking aimlessly, Red stumbled upon the shopping district and carefully examined the area. The style of the buildings was much more modern than the residential area, and the area was generally cleaner.
Red stepped into one of the shops with a picture of a potion adorned on it and looked around. The stock of elixirs was much more scarce than the shops of Britannius, barely any of the shelves throughout the store had more than a few things on it.
As Red looked around at the handwritten descriptions attached to each potion, his eyes continued to drift to the nervous shopkeeper, scratching his head and staring at Red just outside of his periphery.
“Hey!” Red shouted out abruptly, causing the scrawny man to jump, “do you all have any philosopher’s stones? I need to buy all of them,” Red reached into his burlap sack, “Don’t worry, I may not look like it but I can afford it.”
The shopkeeper spoke in a hushed tone, “S-sorry, we don’t carry that. Sorry.”
Red glared at the man, slapping his hand on a counter, “A potion shop doesn’t carry any philosopher’s stones? Oldum is…well whatever, do you at least know where I can find some?”
The shopkeeper turned his back to Red and began to fiddle with some potion bottle behind his counter, “N-no I don’t know where…sorry I can’t help you!” He rushed to the back without another sound.
“Thanks for nothing,” Red mumbled under his breath as he stomped out of the store. The brightness of the day had turned into a lazy dusk as Red looked at the other store signs, attempting to find another potion shop.
“Grand Officer Red?” An unfamiliar feminine voice called out to Red. He turned around confused to find a short young woman with silver hair highlighted with shades of red and basic silver armor smiling at him brightly.
Her smile only grew wider as he turned around, but Red only shivered uncontrollably. He knew who the young woman was before she introduced herself.
“Hey, it really is you! Wow, it’s an honor to meet you, sir! my name is Maria Forever but most of my subordinates call me Grand Officer Forever! It looks like we’ll be working together on certain things, so feel free to ask if you need any help!” Forever reached her out to Red and he shook it. After a few seconds, he snatched away his hand and looked at it. He was unable to stop his hands from shaking even for a few seconds.
Forever just stared up at him, seemingly ignoring his actions, “So what was it you were looking for in there? The selection in there is pretty sparse, if you’re looking for some more potent potions I can lead you to the soldier exclusive shop in the castle! Just follow me.”
Red backed away slowly, “Thank you Grand Officer, I appreciate the offer…”
Forever’s attitude shifted immediately, she stopped smiling and wrapped her left hand in layers of chains, “Red I suggest you follow me. Come on, let me show you where to get those potions.”
Red stopped moving and stood defiantly, staring directly at her, “Sorry Grand Officer, I appreciate the offer, but I think I’ll get going toward my first mission since I already got everything I need. Unless you’re going to force me to come with you with those chains.”
Forever smiled and without a motion the chains wrapped around her hand disappeared, “Of course not! We’re both high-ranking officers, I can’t force you to do anything! Good luck on your first mission, and make sure to come see me when you get back,” Her tone became cold once again, “We have a lot to talk about.”
Red walked back towards the residential district as Forever waved after him, still standing in front of the shop.
Red deliberated over the situation for a long time and thought to himself, "That was close, I’m not ready to get into a prolonged fight with Forever yet. Even though my arcana control improved drastically thanks to Valafor and I can do much more with less, I’m still not used to it. I can’t afford to slug it out with Forever today and then try to fight a high-ranking Seraphim member in a week.”
As Red entered the door, Yasuke sat inside the front room, sharpening his sword with a small whetstone.
Red called out to Yasuke with a simple phrase, “You ready?”
Yasuke looked back at him, still sharpening his sword, and smiled.