Perched on a sheer cliff's edge, I watched as stormy waves crashed onto the rocks forty meters below, breaking into frothy sprays. In the material world, it would be too dangerous to sit like this; any careless movement could send me plunging to a rocky death. But here in the Break, there was no such danger, and I was free to enjoy the hazardous beauty.

I was particularly grateful to Zanh Kiem at this moment, who had taught me to use my surroundings for meditative practices. If your soul is in turmoil, he would say, find beauty around you and let it flow through you. If you are weary, look for something that radiates energy - a rushing stream, a powerful gust of wind, or waves crashing onto the rocks. Merge with it, draw from its strength. And if your nerves are stretched thin, sit in a peaceful meadow or by a calm river and partake in its serenity. These meditations don't require the talents of a sensum - they are available to anyone.

At that moment, I was "recharging", drawing energy from the fury of the waves below, the solidity of the rocks, and the freshness of the wind.

"He's alive, he's alive. Don't believe me? Poke him with a stick!" I heard behind me.

The twins had been shuffling around me for about half a minute and it wasn't a secret. But I wanted to finish my meditation before acknowledging them.

"If you're so curious, you poke him," Thora snapped at her sister.

Exhaling, I rose to my feet and slowly turned to face the girls. Recognizing my expression, their laughter abruptly stopped and they even took a step back.

"What? We didn't do anything!" Kael protested, even though I hadn't said a word yet.

"Is that so?" I asked, feigning indifference.

"Yeah, exactly!" they echoed each other.

"I'll admit, I messed up," I began, circling the inseparable pair which caused the twins to huddle together. "It would be foolish to deny that. But you..."

"What did we do?" Thora squeaked softly, but fell silent after receiving a jab in the ribs from her sister.

"Your commander was out of commission, giving you complete freedom. And how did you handle it?"

"What did we do wrong?" Kael whispered, bowing her head.

"Did you do anything useful during these two weeks? Are you certain? Then tell me, what did you do?"

"We prevented Halley from becoming the head of BKDW!" Thora blurted out.

At this, Kael slapped her forehead and distanced herself from her sister.

"So you two truly think that Crixus is better suited for this position?" I asked, a bitter smile in my voice.

"No," they answered in unison.

"We just did what we thought was right!" Thora exclaimed angrily.

"We didn't consider the consequences," Kael confessed, unlike her sister. "We got carried away. We were fools."

"Eh?" That was all Thora could muster.

"Maestro is right," Kael stated forcefully. "We screwed up."

"What?!!" The sudden outburst from Halley, who had approached the twins from behind a minute ago, sent the girls jumping in surprise. "We... we fought together! I trusted you as if you were myself!"

"Eh?!!" Their shock was so great that they could only utter that exclamation.

Halley's late arrival and stealthy approach were no coincidence - that's what I had asked him to do in the message I sent.

"Why?!" Abruptly approaching in Sliding, I hovered over Halley, catching him off guard. "You're asking 'why'? Haven't you lost the right to ask any of us anything at all?!"

"Ah... But..."

"Did you think your secret meetings with Mersk would go unnoticed?" I interrupted. "How could you even consider meeting him without consulting any of us?"

"Because he is a tra..."

"No!" I cut Thora off. "Halley is definitely not a traitor. Although, I must admit, at first, it seemed exactly that way."

"What are you saying?!" The bewildered guy finally found his voice. "I would never..."

"Then think about how it looked from the outside," I urged him.

From the way his shoulders sagged, it was clear he had visualized it and realized how it might have appeared to any observer.

"But you could have just come up and asked me directly."

"Are you five years old?" Thora exclaimed. "And everyone around you is just as naive?! To walk up to someone negotiating behind the scenes with an extremist and just ask?! We should have reported you to Mr. Rock, but we took pity on you!"

"A-ah!" Halley threw his hands up in exasperation. "I wish you had reported me!"

"What?!" Thora recoiled, not expecting such a response.

"Did Mr. Rock ask you to meet Mersk?" I asked, considering this scenario after my encounter with the Heir.

"Yes," Halley confirmed my suspicion.

"What?!" Thora was taken aback.

"Omissions and silence breed mistrust," I declared, though it sounded cliché. "Shall we put an end to this? Here and now?"

Halley looked at us doubtfully for a few seconds. To prompt him, I continued:

"Firstly, I don't consider the 'Masks of Novilter' or Mersk personally to be our enemies." The twins looked ready to argue, but I silenced them with a sharp gesture. "They may be political rivals, but not enemies. They are raigs, just like us. They fight in the Breakthroughs, protect people, just like us. Do we have disagreements? Yes. But primarily, we're on the same side. It's true there's friction between BKDW and the Masks, but as long as their discontent remains in words and not actions, they're not our adversaries. Should they start taking action... attempts at sabotage, political assassinations... then, yes. But not now." I turned to Halley. "But they are still not our friends. Remember, the House on the Hill and BKDW are official allies. Thus, secret contacts with the leader of an organization hostile to our friends appear extremely suspicious from the outside!"

"Do you think I'm fond of Mersk?" Halley's voice took on a slightly irate tone. "He's arrogant, belligerent, and has no tolerance for any opinion that differs from his own. However, he did save my life once during a Breakthrough."

His words subtly shifted the sisters' perspective on the situation.

"In fact, I've saved him three times," Halley continued, his grin evident in his voice. "Mr. Rock gave me the same spiel as Maestro, convincing me to aid the Masks. Basically, the House on the Hill recognizes that the threat of Breakthroughs far outweighs the antigovernment sentiments of the Masks of Novilter." The reality is slightly different, but it's too early to reveal the secret of Mersk working for the Heir.

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"Help?" Kael prodded him to elaborate.

"It's not my secret to tell." Halley shut down.

"Another secret?" Kael stepped forward. "Are you sure you want to keep this up?"

"No-o-o." Halley's capitulation wasn't surprising under such pressure. "You've seen some unusual stuff in the BKDW building."

To conceal his anxiety, Halley clasped his hands behind his back. The conversation veered into a territory I had long been curious about; I hoped he wouldn't be deterred.

"Artifacts, as Maya explained," Thora chimed in.

"Exactly. The raig who gained the ability to create these artifacts has always kept his identity a secret." Halley continued, "Before Eshin's terrorist attack, only Max Kraas knew who was behind those peculiar items. After that, I became the keeper of this secret."

"Not Maya?" Kael asked, surprised.

"I didn't see it coming when one of the Knights approached me and revealed their mystery."

"And who is this person?" Thora asked innocently.

"No!" Halley was resolute. "It's not my secret to spill."

"Enough!" I growled at the twins. "He's right. One of us entrusted Halley, and he won't betray that trust. If you were in his shoes, would you reveal it?"

"No." The sisters answered in unison.

"Exactly." I shot a warning glance at the twins before turning back to Halley. "Will you continue?"

"Mr. Rock asked me to assist Mersk; he required a few specific things, mostly tracking artifacts. In return, Mersk promised not to harm the authorities and to prevent his people from doing so... Not indefinitely, just for a while. I'm not privy to the details of the agreement, as it was brokered by Mr. Rock." Halley straightened up, squaring his shoulders. "I believe I made the right choice; none of us needs a war between the Masks and the House on the Hill right now! If there's a chance to prevent or delay it, we should seize it!"

"I agree," Kael nodded.

"If only you hadn't hidden what you were doing," Thora shook her head.

"Mr. Rock asked me to keep everything a secret," Halley defended himself.

"But you could have told him!" Kael nearly growled, pointing at me.

"Mr. Rock is indeed our ally, even a friend," I chimed in, "But is he one of us?"

"I already understood..." Halley whispered, the realization sinking in that he might have made a mistake.

"I look at us and I see that everyone wanted to do the right thing, wanted to do good. And where did that lead us?" I said in a low voice.

"To the fact that Crixus became the head of the organization!" Thora yelled angrily.

"That's not the main issue," I brushed off her words. "What's worse, we started to doubt each other."

"I wouldn't say Crixus' appointment is a minor detail," Halley crossed his arms. "When we were paired for negotiations, I got to appreciate how intelligent, cunning, and completely convinced of his own righteousness he was. At first, I even admired these qualities in him, until he turned them against us."

"Turned them against us?" Kael asked, intrigued.

"Haven't you noticed how the Corsican manipulates those who don't stand their ground? How he's building a circle of people loyal to him alone? Not to BKDW, but to him. Only him!"

"Only him..." Kael echoed, as if doubting.

"Yes, open your eyes!" Halley clenched his fists. "He's forming his own guard!"

"The Corsican." "Guard." I'd heard those exact terms from the Heir recently. So that's where the leak was. No, Halley wasn't a traitor. He just trusted his inner circle implicitly. He was a loyal friend, a competent fighter, but he was young and, like most Knights, an idealist who saw the world in black and white. And it just so happened that the curator from the House on the Hill was part of his inner circle. Could Halley be blamed for this? No, it just showed how adept Mr. Rock was at his job.

"We'll keep an eye on him!" Kael smirked.

"The same way you did with me?" Halley retorted.

"We'll do a better job this time," Thora assured him.

Initially, I wanted to intervene, but I checked myself. This was their typical way of communicating before the whole secret debacle.

"Let me summarize," I started, struggling to find the right words. "I am the most to blame for what's happened. Don't argue. It's true. If I hadn't been consumed by self-loathing and regret, we could have resolved this sooner. But you all made mistakes too. Halley, you put Mr. Rock above our team. Not telling me is one thing, but not telling Maya is unfathomable! Thora, Kael, you're not innocent either. You started a witch hunt without solid evidence of betrayal, just your suspicions. The question now is, have we learned anything from this ordeal?"

For nearly thirty seconds, my eyes swept over the Knights standing nearby before Kael took the first step forward, extending her hand to Halley.

"I was wrong. Truce?"

"Truce!" Halley shook her hand with palpable relief.

Kael squealed in a rather girlish manner, pulling us all into a group hug. It was perhaps the first time I noticed that the twins weren't exact copies of each other. Thora watched her sister's antics with mild surprise.

"We all make mistakes," I summarized once the embraces subsided. "Avoiding them is an unattainable ideal. So, it's crucial to reflect and do everything possible to prevent the same mistake from recurring, if it can't be corrected. We watch each other's backs during the Breakthroughs, so perhaps we should trust each other more in normal life?"

"We agree!" Kael answered for both sisters.

"I agree," Halley said, quickly adding, "But I still won't reveal the secret of the artifactor." Stubborn resolve was evident in his voice.

"No one is asking you to," I reassured him.

"Words are undoubtedly good, but I propose we put our misunderstandings behind us and have a symbolic duel!" Kael suggested unexpectedly.

"A duel?!" Halley and I echoed in unison.

"Exactly! Training is great, but we've been itching to spar with a formidable opponent and test our mettle!" Kael elaborated.

After a moment of consideration, I nodded and rested my hand on the hilt of "Word." If they needed this sort of release, I was not against it.

"No!" Kael waved her hands frantically, noticing my gesture. "Not that formidable!"

"With me?" Halley sounded surprised.

"Yep!" Kael confirmed, as the sisters drew their swords.

"With pleasure!" Halley's response was accompanied by what I was certain was a malicious grin under his helmet.

"The one whose prana drops to a quarter is out!" I established the rules.

The twins were the first to attack, and naturally, their opponent anticipated this. Halley spun away from the main line of attack, launching a formidable counterstrike with a broad sweep of his sword. If he were up against ordinary opponents, it would have been enough for him to emerge unscathed. But the twins moved in almost perfect sync, and Halley's sword couldn't be in two places at once. His sidestep saved him from a rather severe injury, but his prana still decreased by a tenth.

However, Halley didn't lose his cool, he took another grazing hit on his hand, and launched a precise counter-attack seemingly unfazed by the new energy drain. Regardless of Thora's attempts to dodge, or her sister's efforts to assist, the guy's strike hit its mark, landing on the girl's neck. The impact caused Thora's prana to drop by two-thirds instantly, teetering dangerously close to the expulsion line.

This attack forced the twins to urgently alter their battle strategy: they increased their distance and attempted to flank Halley. However, the guy seemed to anticipate this, swiftly switching to Sliding and striking at Thora who was momentarily isolated due to the girls' maneuvers.

Observing the battle from the sidelines, I could clearly see that Halley was his own worst enemy. His attacks were overly cautious - as if he was dueling a far superior opponent. If he had taken more risks, the fight would have ended then and there, but his hesitations allowed Thora to counterattack.

Having botched his strike, the guy found himself caught in a pincer, under fire from both sides.

A raigs' duel is starkly different from any other kind of fight. Knights, musketeers, and the like have never fought this way simply because they couldn't. Leaping five meters from a standstill, darting sideways at a speed that challenges the eye's tracking - these are just a small fraction of what raigs can do in combat. From a spectator's perspective, a Break Knights' duel resembles the choreographed battles in the Star Wars universe, only played at double speed. However, raigs lack the simulated calm of the Jedi; every move they make is brimming with youthful energy.

Had I blinked, I would've missed the climax of the fight - it all happened so swiftly. Halley finally identified the twins' key weakness - their deep concern for each other, and exploited it without hesitation. A few subtle strikes later, and Thora was out of the game, having fallen for the ruse and rushing to shield her sister.

Even though Kael remained unscathed and Halley's prana had dropped below half, the outcome of this friendly duel was a foregone conclusion. Regardless, Kael didn't lower her blade and fought like a cornered honey badger - fiercely, selflessly, albeit not for long.

The entire fight lasted less than forty seconds. Had it been a real battle instead of a practice session, it would've ended even quicker.

Much to my relief, as soon as I declared the duel over, the sisters found the strength to shake hands with Halley. After all, a friendly spar can sometimes foster mutual understanding, as I had known from personal experience. The brawl that Zanh Kiem and I had could illustrate this point perfectly. Hopefully, the same would hold true here.

I seized the moment to dissect the duel, highlighting errors and demonstrating how to react in specific scenarios. This analysis took ten times longer than the duel itself. At the end of this spontaneous fencing tutorial, the sisters, citing a hectic schedule, hugged Halley and made a hasty exit.

"I need to go too," the guy announced, watching the retreating figures of the girls. "I have to oversee the operations at the headquarters."

"I understand," I responded.

"Well then, I'll see you at our next training session."

"Hold on, I have a favor to ask."

"Oh?"

"Could I request the artifactor to craft something tailored for me?"

"I can put forth the request, but the final decision lies with him."

"That's fair. I require something that would alert me to the presence of any unnoticeable, concealed, or invisible doors around me."

"What?" His confusion was palpable at my odd request.

I was obliged to repeat myself.

"That's a bit complex," he mused. If he hadn't been wearing a helmet, I imagined he would be scratching his head in bewilderment. "I'm unsure if it's feasible. But I'll pose the question."

"Thank you."

With that, we parted ways.