DAY 2

EIGHT DAYS UNTIL THE FIRST EVALUATION

”I was just mad! How would you feel if you got kicked and stabbed every time you tried to get a hit off? It’s aggravating!”

“Yeah,” Seiji lamented. “I’d probably just kill them and move on.”

Cora jabbed Seiji in his arm. When he turned to her, her lavender eyes were narrow.

“I’d be cocky too if I only had to fight four Aqua Silhouettes.” She pointed fervently to Seiji’s map before he could protest. “Now, get back to drawing. I don’t want to get caught by the guards!”

After their training session with Endora, Seiji had spent the rest of the day coming up with ways to take full advantage of the knowledge the Valkyrie had provided him. When he met with Cora the day after, he decided to go over his ideas with her. Most involved sabotaging the Grand Garden to some capacity. She was less than thrilled to ‘break the rules’. With a bit of convincing, Seiji managed to sell her on drawing a simple map. He’d been surprised to learn that none existed, but Cora said it wasn’t necessary.

“Do you need a map of your bedroom when you’re at home?” She’d said.

Seiji did try to tell her that floor plans counted as maps to a degree, but she wasn’t listening. Instead, they finished their training a bit early, changed into their white and gold Exam outfits, then met back up at the training hall to walk to the Grand Garden.

The Grand Garden stood underneath Haven. Though there was an elevator that took visitors to the center of the Garden, Cora insisted on taking the staircase down to avoid drawing attention. The Garden itself could’ve easily been named the Grand Meadow. It was an endless sea of grass, spotted with the occasional wildflower. Despite being under Haven, the Grand Garden was lit as though under direct sunlight, a fact that Cora attributed to the work of the magic-assisted architects that built it.

Cora and Seiji walked along a concrete pathway, Seiji canvassing the area while Cora provided insights into which locations could be used for what purpose. They’d been at it for about an hour now, and they’d managed to chart the perimeter and most of the pathways. Seiji worked under the assumption that the Bond Event would be a battle royale, marking every choke point and hiding spot he could think to find on the map. Cora, meanwhile, guessed that it was likely some sort of gathering task. She marked every location that seemed empty, too out of the way that it would be the perfect place to hide something of value.

As Seiji finished connecting their current pathway to one he’d drawn earlier, he looked up. About fifty feet away stood a tall white gazebo, lined with grass, spots of red flowers, and a lantern at the entryway. He’d begun marking it on the map when Cora grabbed his arm.

“Seiji! That’s the gazebo! Let’s take a break, come on!”

“Sure.”

After accepting Cora’s request, he pocketed the map and pencil in his white jacket and let Cora pull him into the wooden gazebo. The scents of mint and fresh-cut grass hit Seiji the moment he entered. He turned to Cora, her smile a bit softer than normal. She sat on a brown cushioned chair in the center of the gazebo, motioning with a hand for Seiji to take the free seat beside her. Seiji did so, sitting in silence as they looked out at the Grand Garden.

“I remember I used to come here with my parents every single week. I’d train with mother and father, study tradition with Sir Dorian, then come here and just… relax. Naturally, it slowed as we all aged. Responsibility waits for no one, but we still made time to come here together.”

“I guess you don’t come here that much?” Seiji asked, unsure what else to say.

Cora shook her head. “Our visits here slowed tremendously around the time I was ten. After Endora failed her Exam–”

“Endora failed her Valkyrie Exam?!” Seiji shouted, unable to contain his disbelief. Cora chuckled softly as she responded.

“Yup, she failed.” Cora turned to Seiji in her seat. “She couldn’t take it. Endora hounded my mother every opportunity she got for a second chance. Eventually, my mother decided to take Endora with her on her missions outside of Haven.” Cora turned away again, her eyes growing distant. “Endora studied under my mother for the next seven years. Mother started going on more missions, so she wasn’t around as much. Endora, meanwhile, stopped looking like a Valkyrie’s tag-along and started looking like a Valkyrie. After seven years, she was strong enough to defeat some seasoned Valkyries in public duels.” Cora chuckled softly. “If she had joined the Royal Guard, she’d probably have outranked her father Dorian within a week.”

Seiji’s eyes widened, and Cora laughed softly when she noticed. Dorian had dragged Seiji across space, and Endora was close to him in power. He once again recalled Endora’s words about proper guidance. If they managed to receive guidance from her, there was no way they could lose the Valkyrie Exam.

“Is that why she became a Valkyrie? She became too strong to not be one?” Seiji asked, genuinely curious. It seemed foolish not to recognize someone like Endora, but perhaps the Valkyrie Exam was an unshakable formality.

“Kind of,” Cora responded. Seijii tried to ask for clarification, but she continued. “A private Wing Ceremony was held for Endora. It didn’t work.”

Cora paused for a moment. Seiji looked at her and was surprised to find she’d looked angry. She gripped the handles of her chair with considerable force, and her ears tucked back like an angry cat. He wanted to say something, but she was clearly in her own head. It seemed best to let her work out whatever she was thinking of. After a few deep breaths, Cora continued.

“After the Ceremony failed, Endora left Haven out of the blue. Though publicly my mother allowed it and encouraged it, privately she told me that she blamed herself for Endora’s failure. She felt guilty for wasting Endora’s time.” In a softer tone, she muttered. “It was all you ever talked about. I’m your daughter, not Endora. I haven’t seen you in six months.” Shakily, Cora whispered. “Where are you?”

Seiji began to understand what Cora was thinking, but wasn’t sure whether he should say anything about it. It seemed wrong to intrude on private affairs, but they were partners now. Is that not a pass to be a bit more open?

Cora took a few, shaky breaths. A single tear fell from a lavender eye. She seemed more shocked than anything, wiping it away with her sleeve. Though, more followed soon after. After a while, the girl was sobbing. Seiji, unable to think of any proper support, placed a hand on her shoulder, saying nothing. When she turned to him, he gave her a smile and a nod. She returned it, producing a handkerchief from her jacket and wiping a few more tears from her face. After giving thanks to Seiji, she decided to continue the story. Seiji asked whether she truly wanted to, considering her emotional response to it, but Cora insisted that she did – more so to understand it than to reflect on it.

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“The part of the story that still has everyone stumped is what happened when Endora returned.” She said. “One week outside of Haven and she comes back with gold wings no one has ever seen before.” Cora turned to Seiji, her eyes slightly red from tears. “When we were young, she was quiet. Stoic. Humorless. Now? She’s all jokes and confidence. She has wings no one in Haven has ever seen, brings back her Servant from the Exams, and treats Haven like her own personal pitstop!” She leaned back in her chair. “For a while, some people thought Endora was a clone or something. She’s an enigma and she knows it!”

“How long has this been going on?” Seiji asked.

“Since she came back five months ago!”

“Five months? No one thought to ask her about it?”

“My mother has,” Cora said, her tone soft. “She’s been working alongside Endora, trying desperately to understand what happened to her. Endora isn’t saying anything, though.” She chuckled a bit, her face lifting slightly. “If Endora wasn’t so helpful to the people of Haven, she probably would’ve been kicked out weeks ago. Instead, she’s my mother’s favorite science project and the people’s personal problem solver.”

“How about this,” Seiji began, having come to his own conclusion. “All we need to do is make a splash in the Valkyrie Exam. If we do something bold, your mother will have no choice but to acknowledge you, right?”

He’d done as much in his previous life, going out of his way during training or on a mission to impress the Hidden Hand. Though the thought still ached him, he couldn’t argue with the results. Cora turned to him, slack-jawed. She stared at him for a long while before bursting out into a hearty laugh.

“You’re absolutely right! I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that!” She said, wiping a tear from her eye. Her expression grew excited, “What do you think we should do?”

They spoke for a while, talking about various ideas for Bond Events and Exhibitions. Cora settled on trying to create an attack to use with Seiji, while Seiji was stuck between attempting a Bond Event by themselves or finding ways to break the rules of a Bond Event. Both intrigued him. If they managed to win their own way, they’d turn heads.

After a while, Cora sat back in her seat and turned to Seiji, her tone direct.

“Okay, so you got to see me all vulnerable and whiny. Now it’s your turn. Tell me something sad.”

“I don’t have any particularly sad stories,” Seiji lied. “My life was boring.”

“Alright, bore me to tears then. Tell me about your life.”

Seiji frowned. “Are you sure? There isn’t much to–”

“Yes!” Cora groaned. “I’m your Cadet. This is an order. Do it now!”

Seiji rolled his eyes but leaned back into his chair. “Where do I start?”

“With your parents! What were they like?”

“I’m not sure. They sold me off as soon as I was born.”

Cora’s eyes widened and she immediately sat back in her chair. She tried to stammer an apology, bringing Seiji to laughter. Considering the exchange happened before he’d been coherent, he’d never felt a connection to his parents. He said as much to Cora, but she still looked quite guilty.

Seiji went on to tell Cora the most barebones version of his life story. He told her stories about being trained to fight soon after he learned to walk, overachieving during his training to receive rewards and praise, and being made to spend his commissions on his necessities. In his mind, Seiji never craved parental guidance because the Hidden Hand were his parents, harsh as they could be. Seiji went on to talk about his hardest jobs, though hard was a bit of an exaggeration. Time-consuming was far more accurate. When someone knew they were a target, they took many steps to avoid being taken out.

“Fate Has Decided.” Seiji mused aloud. “It means your death has been dictated by fate itself. You can hire decoys, hide in bunkers, or pay for bodyguards. At the end of the day, Fate has already decided upon your death.

“That sounds like a justification,” Cora said immediately. “There’s no guilt to be had if you believe you’re carrying out the will of the heavens.”

Seiji chuckled softly. “I know. The Hidden Hand were nothing more than greedy warmongers. When I was a child, though, I believed it. It was why I was different than other children. Why I could never be normal. I had a ‘divine purpose’, and they did not.”

Now it was Seiji’s turn to grip his chair with force. He caught it immediately, recalling Endora’s assessment of his emotional control.

“What made you see differently?” Cora asked.

Seiji took a deep breath. He knew he was going to get to this part eventually, but that didn’t make it any easier. He decided to speak before his mind could talk him out of it.

“I had a job to kill the son of this local politician who’d been trying to fix The Ardor. It was pretty easy. He usually hung around the same bar, spending his father’s money on alcohol and drugs.” Seiji took a breath. “I justified it by telling myself that the gods didn’t approve of a son that would tarnish his father’s good name.” The chair’s handle cracked under Seiji’s force. “Just like that, I killed him. He was barely twenty. With a single stab through the heart, I killed him in an alley.”

Seiji used real effort to control his breathing. He looked down at the cracked handle and removed his hand from it, instead folding them in his lap. Seiji focused on the clouds of yellow light in the far distance, unwilling to meet Cora’s eyes. He knew Cora wouldn’t ask for any elaboration from this point, but Seiji felt it necessary. He wanted to hear the truth from his own mouth.

“The next day,” he began. “The man’s father walks into our office and asks for his son’s killer. Normally, it’s against policy to reveal that you’re in the Hidden Hand, but since he saw me already, I decided to visit him.” Seiji took a long, shaky breath. “When I met him, I explained what I did and what my ‘purpose’ was. I expected him to curse me, but instead, he hugged me. He kept apologizing to me for the life that I lived, swearing to rid The Ardor of the Hidden Hand.” A lump started forming in Seiji’s throat. “He went on to talk about his son, telling me all about the things he achieved and the good he’d done in his life. Apparently, he was drowning his sorrows because his mother had recently been killed and he felt responsible… even though I’m the one…”

Seiji couldn’t even say it. The words simply refused to exit his lips. Instead, he breathed a shaky breath and continued once again.

“I met with the man a few more times. Each visit, I’d come away less like the assassin I’d been. I started to feel… different. I felt like I was missing something, so I decided to leave the Hidden Hand to understand what that was.” Anger threatened to take him again, but he fought it back. “The day I said this to my superiors, they had the politician killed. I tried to figure out who did it, but I got killed during my investigation.”

That had been the moment everything finally clicked for Seiji. He wasn’t an arbiter of fate. He wasn’t granted some divine purpose to maintain balance. He was a killer. He took friends from friends, wives from husbands, sons from fathers. When he was killed, he was relieved to know he wouldn’t gain redemption. He didn’t deserve it. That peace would be granted to someone far more deserving.

“Here, you can keep it.”

Seiji looked down and was shocked to find Cora handing him a handkerchief. He turned to her, and she hadn’t been looking at him. He looked between her and the handkerchief for a while before thanking her and using it to wipe tears from his eyes. Tears? Seiji couldn’t recall the last time he’d cried. Hell, he couldn’t recall if he’d ever cried in his life. Regardless, he wiped newly forming tears from his eyes and watched the clouds.

When they finally stopped, Seiji pocketed the handkerchief into his pants – so as to avoid the map – and tried to thank Cora. She cut him off with a hand. She scruffed Seiji’s head just as Endora had done to her before they fought. Though Seiji wasn’t a Felzian, he greatly appreciated the gesture.

“Sir Dorian always says, if you can feel bad about your past, it means you’ve grown. I know this all happened a few days ago for you, but you never struck me as the kind of cultist weirdo you used to be.”

“Thanks, Cora.” Seiji laughed weakly. “I still have my moments, but I’m glad not to be a ‘cultist weird–”

“I’ve received reports that a young man and woman in Exam clothing were spotted drawing a map of the Grand Garden. Would either of you two care to explain?”

Cora snatched her hand from Seiji’s head, standing to her feet in a single breath. Seiji joined her, though he would’ve been a fool not to. The woman before them had tan skin, straight black hair, silver and gold armor, and massive white wings. She towered over the two of them, and though her tone was calm, her face was not.

“A-ah!” Cora stammered. “Mother! It’s… been a while!”