“Diplomat Jivitasa, I hope you forgive Taran-Varan for their impudence,” the officer broke the uncomfortable silence as he addressed Arka. The two guards in question stood to a side, looking down at their feet, desperately avoiding the officer’s eyes.

“Taran-Varan?” Arka asked without much thought, still perplexed by the officer’s drastic change in behaviour and his rescue from the guards’ angry outburst.

“Taran and Varan–the guards who challenged you,” stated the officer matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” Arka nodded dumbly, as an afterthought he said, “They sound like the names of a pair of brothers.”

“They are twins,” agreed the officer, his lips curving into a small smile.

“They are!” Arka nodded his head vigorously. He hadn’t expected that. Then again, Arka had always been confused by human genes. He wasn’t like one of those people who could tell your entire family history by looking at your face. As a matter of fact, it had taken him two years to find out that two of his best friends back at Buvanes Academy had been siblings.

Arka glanced towards the twins. Nope, he still couldn’t find any resemblance.

Wait… why was Arka wasting his time thinking about the genetics of two barbarians who had ridiculed him?! Who cared if they were twins?

Arka shook his head, trying to clear away the unwanted thoughts.

“Why did you help me now, Officer …?” Arka stopped speaking, realising he didn’t know the middle-aged officer’s name.

“Daruka,” the officer helpfully supplied.

“Officer Daruka, why are you suddenly so friendly?” asked Arka, suspicious of the barbarian’s abrupt change in behaviour.

Officer Daruka laughed awkwardly, “Why don’t we just forget all our differences, Diplomat Jivitasa?” he ran a nervous hand through his greying hair, “I helped you now. Isn’t that goodwill enough?”

Arka raised a judgemental eyebrow. “While I understand the initial hostility between citizens of two warring nations,” he started, “What I don’t understand is the extreme lengths your group went to, in order to dissuade me from stepping foot in the Candresa Kingdom.”

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“You are a clever one, Diplomat Jivitasa.”

“Huh?” exclaimed Arka, confused by the sudden praise.

“Not to mention, crafty.”

“Excuse me,” said Arka, offended.

Arka opened his mouth to demand an explanation, but Officer Daruka raised his hand, asking him to stop. “Just an hour ago, you were extremely exhausted carrying your heavy luggage. Hence, when you saw an opportunity to ease your hardship, you grasped it. Taran-Varan appeared before you as the perfect pawns. Your little challenge was merely a means to extract free labour from both of them,” said Officer Daruka, recounting his observations on Arka.

Officer Daruka had just given Arka an extremely correct yet biased recounting of the last hour of his life.

Arka smiled, hoping his surprise didn’t reflect on his face.

So, from the beginning, ever since Arka left the Immigration Office, Officer Daruka had been keeping an eye on him. He had observed Arka’s whole debacle with Taran-Varan, yet not intervened until the situation got out of his hands.

“You have not answered any of my questions, Officer Daruka,” said Arka, neither denying nor confirming the officer’s previous statements.

“If fate lets us meet again, I will answer all your questions,” was all Officer Daruka said. He turned towards the twin guards and spoke sternly, “Taran-Varan, it is your duty to ensure Diplomat Jivitasa reaches the capital safely. This mission is your punishment for the insolent behaviour you displayed earlier.”

“I won’t disappoint you, Uncle,” said the first guard–Taran.

The second guard–Varan was slow to reply as he grumbled, “Only because you said so, Uncle.”

Arka had totally forgotten about the presence of the guards, with how silent and obedient they had been till now. He noticed the officer was preparing to leave, “W-wait, what about–”

“I have faith that you will survive the oncoming ordeals along your way, Arka Jivitasa,” said the officer, “My only wish is that you don’t lose your spirit.” With that ominous statement, officer Daruka vanished in a white cloud of smoke.

Arka was stunned by the expert display of Maya. Only someone powerful could achieve a feat such as teleportation. To force every atom of a human body into oblivion and re-materialise it into a desired location in a gap of milliseconds. Only 1 in 10000 were capable of achieving it.

Was Daruka merely an officer of the Candresa Kingdom? Why did a powerful Maya user predict such a bleak future for Arka?