Saith was looking at a different part of the room so Zaana quickly grabbed all the letters on the table and shoved them into her trousers. Then he looked at her and she froze.

“What are you doing here Zaana?” Saith asked, slowly stepping into the house.

“Oh I um... I forgot something, I... I left it here... last night.” She backed up as he walked in, his scythe hovering next to him. It was dawning on her just how badly she’d screwed up now. This was an elemental warrior from the capital, one of the most skilled warriors in the capital. And she had information he wanted. The scythe twirled slowly through the air.

“What did you forget?” Saith asked, ignoring her and looking around at the room. It seemed he hadn’t noticed the letters she’d grabbed.

“My...” she looked around desperately and saw, buried in the corner under a pile of clothes, the mask. Just the edge of it peeking out from under a cloak, it looked even more terrifying in the daylight.

“Your?” Saith asked, smiling at her.

“My... um mug,” she said, picking up an empty mug that was sitting on the table. She held it to her chest protectively, her eyes now fixed back on the twirling scythe.

“Your mug?” Saith asked again. “Why did you leave your mug here?”

“Why did you follow me?” she asked quickly, her nervousness forcing the words out of her.

Saith looked slightly taken aback, clearly he’d thought he was in complete control of the situation. “Well you ran off, I thought I’d see where you were going and why you didn’t fetch our bags. Especially after you’d just mentioned the Day Star.” He opened a drawer in a chest of drawers and peered into it. He didn’t seem to find anything interesting as he opened the next one.

“I was getting my mug that I left behind when I came to my friend’s house last night. And then you just barged in, breaking the lock like that. My friend is going to be very angry when he gets home.”

“Oh yes, and what’s your friend’s name?” Saith asked, still looting through the drawers.

“Emris,” she said quickly, remembering the name on the letter. Saith looked at her suspiciously, why was he suspicious of that? That had been a really fast and good lie.

She started to realise how much she was lying. She’d lied before of course. To priestesses, to sisters, to people she met in the street. But now she was lying to a deadly warrior. A warrior she probably shouldn’t be lying to. The scythe still twirled idly in the air.

“That wouldn’t happen to be Emris the Forsaken, the scout and outrider for the Armies of Gahenna?”

“Who?” she asked, not having to fake her confusion. Though that must have been the Emris on the letter.

“Thought not. That Emris is a woman. In fact I thought Emris was usually a woman’s name.”

“Uh... well... this Emris is from somewhere else. A different planet.”

“Which planet?”

“I don’t know, he didn’t tell me,” she said proudly, managing to build up her lie very well. She was still backing away from Saith who was still searching the room. He hadn’t seen the mask yet, instead he was examining an old painting on the wall. The painting was so old in fact that Zaana couldn’t tell what it was.

“How do you know Em-?”

Zaana interrupted, she had to get Saith out of here before he found the helmet. “Why are you searching Emris’s house? What gives you the right to invade his privacy like that? Let’s get back to the temple and I can put away your bags.” She tried to look angry despite the panic threatening to build up inside her. Maybe Saith wouldn’t hurt her, maybe he was like Davrial and didn’t like hurting children.

He did seem a bit surprised at her outburst and seemed to think for a second before responding. “Well you are acting very suspiciously.”

“How do you know that?! This is how I always act! You heard Sister Eren, I’m very troublesome!”

He took even longer to think about that one. “I... I suppose... Yes you’re right I’m sorry. I would quite like to meet this Emris though, I’d like to pay to fix that lock and apologise in person.”

Zaana’s chest swelled with excitement. Had she done it? Had she talked her way out of that mess with one of the most dangerous elementals on the planet? She wasn’t done yet though, there were still more things to say.

“Uh... well I don’t know where he is right now, so I can’t take you to him.”

“Will he be back tonight?”

Zaana’s panic was rising again. Yes, he probably would be! But she couldn’t let Saith come back tonight! Could she?

“I don’t know,” she said quickly, aware that the silence might be dragging on too long. Saith was still looking at her though. “Very unpredictable, Emris, sometimes he’s gone for days at a time. Foreigners, you know?”

Saith nodded slowly. “Yes. Well, I’ll drop by and see if he’s in anyway. If you see him, give him my regards and apologies.” He gestured toward the broken lock and turned to leave. Relief began to settle over Zaana, she’d done it. She just had to somehow warn Davrial not to come back tonight. That would be difficult considering she had no idea where he was. Maybe she could-

“Oh and I would rather like to learn what planet he comes from,” Saith said, turning back to her. He walked over to the clothes and robes. “Because all of these clothes and things look very much like their from-” He picked up a scarf to examine and it swept away some of the other clothes, revealing the mask with the fire patterns dripping down it. “Solinare,” Saith finished.

They both looked down at the mask, the mask looked back up at them with its dead dead eyes. “Emris you say?” Saith said, grinning menacingly down at the mask.

Davrial knew that he shouldn’t be there. He knew he should have packed up and left as soon as the girl had gone back to the temple. But he was still here. A friend had told him about Priestess Nisi, about how she could be trusted with any secrets, even ones as dangerous as his. So he’d thought that that was a safe place to start, a safe place to tell all his secrets. But he hadn’t expected it to be so refreshing. To be able to finally unload all his sins and crimes. To talk about all the people he had killed and how they all still haunted him at night. Just once more. Just one more confession, then he’d leave. Then any of the capital’s forces could hunt him down all they liked. He could lead them on a merry chase then. That was what he was good at after all. That and killing people.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

He walked up to the temple and saw a cart outside it that hadn’t been there the day before but he ignored it. Likely just delivering supplies to them or something, he knew very little of how temples worked. As he walked in he noted that there were a lot more sisters around this time and they all seemed to be very busy rushing around doing something. One of them saw him and rushed up to help him, she seemed annoyed at being interrupted from whatever she was doing though.

“Yes? How can I help you?” she asked, her annoyance coming through clearly. Davrial didn’t mind though, it was better than the loathing he deserved.

“I’m here for a confession with the priestess. I was-”

“Oh yes yes I think she told us something about that. Right this way to the confession booth, she’ll be with you shortly.”

He was led once more to the confession booth and waited there in the small dark room. He wondered if that girl was listening in again. He didn’t mind too much, that might actually be a good thing depending on what happened. He didn’t know how much she’d heard last time but he’d heard her being shouted at by someone early on to go and sweep the hallway and he’d seen her sweeping the hallway when he’d left. So it likely wasn’t very much. That was good, if she’d heard everything she’d likely hate him and then she’d never keep his secret. He just needed her to keep it for one more day.

The priestess settled in on the other side of the confession booth, hidden behind the curtain. She spoke to him urgently which surprised him, she’d been calm in the face of all of his confessions yesterday, even the most abhorrent ones.

“You mustn’t be here,” she said. “The Lord Warrior Neron Saith and his family are staying on some secret mission from the masked man. You are in terrible danger.”

Davrial sat up in surprise and blinked himself awake. Neron Saith was here. The greatest warrior the capital had. The one who’d devastated their armies, killing many of their greatest elementals. What was he doing here? He couldn’t be looking for Davrial could he? No one had known he was here until yesterday and the capital was days away. Maybe he was here for something else.

“Is he in the pyramid now?”

“No, he disappeared somewhere. I’m not sure where he went. But he’ll be back!”

“Well, we better hurry up with this confession then,” Davrial said, happier than he should be. It was true Neron Saith was a terrible threat and he should really be taking this more seriously. But there was something about the whole situation that shook him out of his melancholy. The thrill of the hunt. And, he knew deep inside him, the thrill of getting to fight another elemental again.

“You can’t confess now!” the priestess complained. “You have to leave.”

“Well I-”

“If Neron Saith sees you he’ll-”

“Neron Saith doesn’t know what I look like. In the wars we always wore masks out in the dust. Even if he knows who I am, he’s never met or seen me.”

The priestess considered that and was silent for a while. “It’s still dangerous,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of putting you in danger like this.”

“I’ll be in more danger if I come back later when he’s actually here.”

“Then don’t come back. Find some other priestess to take your confession.”

“Then I’d have to tell them who I was. The less people who know that the better.”

The priestess was silent from the other side of the curtain. That part was certainly true. Davrial sat and waited patiently for her to think. He was happy waiting, he was happy doing most things with that thrill of the hunt powering him on. Maybe Neron Saith would come back and he could walk right out past him. Wouldn’t that be something, he’d get to see this terrifying warrior and walk right past without him knowing in the slightest.

“Alright fine,” the priestess said angrily. “But, talk quickly, my child.”

Davrial nodded even though she couldn’t see, and began the confession.

The open window didn’t shatter when Zaana crashed into it. Instead it flung itself further open, leaving the way for her to fly through it and land in the courtyard. She spun around and saw a door that was wide open, a woman bringing a load of laundry through it. Without thinking she dived into that door, sending laundry and the woman flying everywhere.

Behind her Saith spun around and saw her disappear through the window. His whirling scythe too slow to catch her as she left. He ran to the door and tried to cut it open as well but the scythe caught in the door frame and he cursed. He was out of practise, it had been months since the war and he was growing sloppy. He cut the lock on the second try and stepped out into the courtyard but Zaana was gone by then, leaving a woman slowly picking herself off the ground and laundry lying everywhere.

“Where did she go?” he asked the woman angrily. His whirling scythe trailing behind him.

The woman, previously only a little annoyed, looked at him with absolute terror and slowly pointed a trembling finger inside. He nodded in thanks and charged through into the house.

Zaana had flown through the house in seconds, it was much the same as Davrial’s house and so she’d gotten to the other door quickly, which had been, thankfully, unlocked. She made it into the alley and started to run back toward the main street. The alley was empty this time and there was no space to hide if Saith found her. She spun around and saw him leaving the house with his scythe. Looking at her she wasn’t focussed on where she was going. The last thing she saw before she tripped was him flicking something at her.

She crashed to the ground and the three tiny blades from the scythe zipped over her head, toward the crowded street beyond the alley. Saith cursed and caught them before they could impale anyone else. He watched the girl scramble quickly to her feet and disappear into the crowd before he could react. Elementalism was slower at that distance. He ran forward and entered the crowd himself. There was no sign of her of course, there were too many people. But that was okay, he knew where she was going.

Zaana sprinted through the crowd which parted in surprise around her. It wasn’t a very big crowd. Not enough to slow her down, but just enough to hide her from view. Not that it would matter that much though. She was being hunted by an elemental. An elemental! If he got close to her she’d die. He’d almost killed her once already in the alley she was fairly sure. She didn’t know exactly what had happened, just that she’d crashed to the ground and then something had whooshed over her head. It was a miracle she was alive at all.

She got back to the temple and sprinted in, trailing dust everywhere. She grabbed a random sister who looked at her in shock.

“Where’s Priestess Nisi?!” she asked in terror. She was in serious trouble, she knew. Life-threatening trouble. But Nisi would know what to do. Nisi always knew what to do.

“Um... she’s taking a confession I think. But-”

A confession? Zaana dashed off toward the confession booth. She wasn’t supposed to go in there but she didn’t care, she barged in anyway. Almost crashing into Davrial who was sitting there.

“Um... what are-”

Her eyes went wide. “He- he’s here. He knows who you are. He’s chasing me!” she stammered out.

“What?” Davrial asked and she struggled to keep from panicking, struggled to keep the tears out of her eyes. She’d betrayed him, he’d give her one secret and she’d been unable to keep it for even a day.

“I- I said something stupid. He- he figured out that I knew you. He...”

Davrial stood up and she saw anger in his eyes. Terrible anger at her and she realised that maybe she was wrong to be scared of Neron Saith. Maybe she should have been scared of the Day Star.

“Well I better leave then,” he said and the anger vanished. “Thank you for your time priestess.”

“Wait but-” the priestess said from behind the curtain, but Davrial was already walking out. Zaana followed him, she needed to get somewhere safe. Somewhere she could hide. Somewhere-

The two of them walked out of the confession booth into the courtyard of the pyramid to see Neron Saith walking toward them, his scythe idly twirling by his side. He flicked something at Zaana and Davrial reacted which was all Saith needed to focus his ire on him instead. Zaana staggered back in terror as the two elementals clashed in the courtyard.