Forbidden Faces and Painful Words

"Halt!" A soldier boomed, clashing their crystal blue spear with their partner's to prohibit passage into the library. "Highest Council property is restricted to the general public."

"Ah..." I muttered in annoyance. "Why?"

"We had reports from the Highest Council that the demon prince of Mirrikh escaped his judgement, so we're tightening security for the safety of the public."

"Oh, so this is what you are." I whispered with a small smirk.

It was one of the many expected courses they could go through. How interesting, yet foolish. By this alone I could conclude my assumptions and reach for the facts to fill in the blanks.

"Until further notice is given, passage is prohibited."

I tapped my chin, pretending to have been deep in thought before clicking my tongue like a know-it-all, "But not out of the city huh."

"Excuse me?"

The tone of my sentence had ticked the soldier off as his grip on the weapon tightened to the point where it trembled, however, his partner didn't seem to share the same sentiment. Or more like he didn't seem to share any thought at all behind those blank eyes of his. It was like staring at a wall with no marks, chips, or graffiti marked on its surface.

No-- an NPC with less lore built for them. Like a background actor in a movie. But they were merely empty husks programed to only provide things for the player. This would be the case if it weren't for the fact that this is a reality now.

So...was there more than what meets the eye? And I held eye contact with the empty soldier until I felt something stare back.

There, I couldn't tell if it was all real the moment he flashed me a sly smirk. As if behind those dead eyes he had been replaced by something I felt I knew with a tiny red dot in the middle of his pupil. Especially after the soldier, the familiar stranger, mouthed,

'Mad star, mad star, where are you? Why here I am, my little lamb. So cry no more...'

"What are you?" I felt myself ask on a whim, filled with sudden unease only to have my attention pulled away.

"Repeat that again." The first soldier snapped impatiently through his teeth.

I tensed my hand, bouncing my eyes between the soldier and the stranger.

But his eyes were empty again. The smile no longer left a trace behind. I no longer felt impending doom, or the uneasiness shaking my hand.

"I'm not implying anything." I began, "Just that I applaud you for stepping up and showing off how much of an idiot you all are under a crisis."

The soldier angrily swung the end of his weapon just centimeters from my face. "What are you implying?" And before I could defend myself, the soldier used the handle of his weapon to push me back with great force. Of course it didn't knock me off my feet but it did knock off a chunk of my patience as I angrily held onto my hood with a deep inhale.

Luckily, sense was knocked into my sense of judgment when Sun jumped to my defense.

"Do you know what they do to lowlife scum like you for insulting prin-"

I snapped my fingers immediately, invoking, little to my knowing, an magic invocation by the followed word, "SILENCE." Which cut Sun off from speaking her last sentence.

"Allow us a moment," I smiled at the solider, ushering Sun to a lone area. "Sun, we have to get in. But we can't carelessly jump into fights and risk our chance at information." I scolded, watching as her face scrunched up in annoyance. "We need as much information as we can before we investigate this world, the magic, and most of all, what it was that Sin caused to bring change upon this world. If it even existed to begin with."

Sun rose a brow. "You mean not even you know, majesty?"

"Of course I do not. Otherwise we wouldn't be here. It's not like you know anything either." I carefully reached into my pocket. "I need all their knowledge, Sun. But I realized now that they closed off the library, that they are hiding something. Public and forbidden knowledge. I must have it..." I took out the RLP necklace, slowly stripping the cloth I had around it until I felt its coldness hug my neck. "Chance will be random. It could or could not be the best plan I've had in mind so far."

With a deep breath, I headed back to the soldiers with a new face on. "Excuse me for my behavior earlier but I really need to get into the library so would you kindly let me pass? I won't be long."

But then something, or perhaps someone, pulled off my hoodie. Sabotaging my entire cover with a rush of fearful gasps from those passing by and witnesses who stood by. I felt exposed. Like showing up to class in nothing but underwear.

"It's the Prince of Mirrikh!!" The blank-eyed soldier exclaimed along with the buzzing crowd, picking up his stance, ready to execute as the other readied himself to pierce me to death with shaky hands.

I bit my tongue in bitterness. "No...I am--" Ack! "So much for going undercover."

I knew this was going to be a risky move but The Palace of Knowledge was one of the most prominent landmarks known to all in the eyes of scholars in search of knowledge. I needed answers to my burning questions yet it seemed that Sin's insatiable thirst for revenge and knowledge made all high on alert with their books clenched to their chests.

First, about four guards surrounded me with three pushing back a crowd of fearful witnesses. And others were adventurers clutching their weapons, ready to step in if need be. All gawking at me as if I were some monster.

I felt an intense anger spark from within my chest, making me forget the pain in my eye. And it seemed I wasn't the only one who was angry, for Sun rushed to my side with two fingers on both hands pointing at the crowd.

"I have your back, Majesty."

That very line brought me a sense of relief, quieting the fire. I was glad that his hair prevented him from seeing my genuine smile.

"It's expected you--" Sun stopped to strike the side of a soldier with the end of the spear, tossing it back to me before spinning to face me again. "--aren't accustomed to fighting and using magic, majesty. So take your time by looking at everyone's mana."

Sun was right. I had no idea how to use my abilities. It was like learning how to ride a bike all over again without training wheels. But I had the knowledge and I had the determination to learn.

While Sun fought off one side of incoming attacks, I took the closest soldier and grabbed his sword by the blade. I've always noticed I had a keen sense of smell. One beyond just smelling your typical lilies and wine. It was the sense of smell that allowed me to visualize one's magic capacity and strength.

I focused intensely on this skill as the soldier and I fought for control over the sword. My hand did not sting nor give into fatal wounds and my nose began to take in more and more smells. From the raindrops of last week to the fire that once forged their weapons, I kept focus until I could visualize the same aura I saw around the Palace of Knowledge and Magic. A semi-transparent blanket that emerged from everyone's body. But all came in different sizes and colors. Dancing at various speeds.

And the soldier in front of me had this very pale pink aura with weak waves of magic flowing merely centimeters from his body. It was unbelievable how near invisible to my senses this soldier's magic was. But it seemed the more I fought, the more I realized how sloppy I physically was with weaponry.

"Sun!" I tossed him my spear, watching him take it and immediately swing it like a baseball bat over someone's head. I had to admit, seeing him be this ruthless in the battlefield, marking semi-severe wounds and knocking out the consciousness of those weaker, made me want to consider something I hadn't before. But after we cleared all the soldiers, adventurers stepped in.

"C'mon! Don't let him terrorize the city!" One adventurer shouted, adjusting his raggedy squire outfit and few plates of iron armor before taking his stance with his flimsy sword in hand. I felt almost sorry.

"Fools in it for the money." I huffed, watching as many adventurers of many kinds set up their weapons and staffs, aiming all sorts of magical slashes and fireballs at Sun and I. It felt almost like a dance, dodging their attacks in a certain pattern. "If you're going for an easy bounty, you might as well have settled for a weaker opponent."

While I avoided the swings of many incoming attacks enhanced by prediction thanks to my keen sense of smell, I held up a hand. Concentrating a grand amount of focus on my open palm. A focus that went from intense glaring to this lightness I couldn't describe.

Just that the feeling of a growing pressure bounced between my curled fingers and my palm. Spinning around the tiny enclosure like a mini hurricane. Except it was no wind, but gravity shifting and enveloping into itself.

Until I could vividly imagine these thick rays of purple light hovering around me staring from my palm. They sprouted out like great vines on a wall, and flickered in and out of sight like a glitched screen. I then hooked my fingers over the gravitational force that gripped these rays of energy and...

"Slashes of Severed Fate." I chanted softly.

BAM!

With just a tiny tug, the purple light of energy cut through all the adventurer's bodies. But it didn't cut through their flesh. It took me one closer look to understand and see the mana of the crowd having been cut, slowly vanishing until they were nothing more but powerful humans left with no magical strength to support their attacks. Although it cut through the weak, the more stronger ones, about only two, remained on their feet with a good portion of their mana still intact.

Once the light disappeared, I found only one adventurer maintaining eye contact with me. In a flee of panic, I turned behind me only to have my wrist gripped and his other hand over the one that held the spear.

"I feel your anger..." A familiar man whispered, his voice and body language identical to a named Liveren Blight. A deaf half human elf swordsman belonging to a high class family of nature and light. He was the close friend of the main character of this novel I once read online. Supposedly wise beyond his mere 200 years of living with a strong sense of courage and moral value. But his face was the same as another character from my dream. A priest who wanted to make peace with his bloody past by making amends to a Goddess whose name I had forgotten. Extremely powerful in magic that cost him his right eye's sight, but remained a pacifist. Just judging by aura and body language alone I could see all this as true. It was interesting to see such a mix.

"And I see in such anger, remains of your fallen kingdom in both your hands and in the hands of strangers. Do you really become angry at the sight of remnants from your fallen kingdom? Blaming all for its downfall when it was you who abandoned it from the start?"

As the spear was knocked out of my hands, I turned to Sun but he was gone as well as the second stranger. Or more like I wasn't in the same place anymore. So I asked, "Is this your ability?"

"Yes." The half-ling began, sounding a bit surprised. slowly releasing their grip on me. In his eyes, he seemed to have placed immense trust in me as a soft smile crept on his face. "My name is Liveren. And I wish to speak with you."

"Liveren..." I repeated plainly, reassured on having had my initial deduction confirmed. "You are as peaceful as they said you are. It's a rather foolish trait."

"Oh? You know of me, Prince Sin?" Liveren sung, his smile wide. "Or should I say, Arsin?"

"Wh-?"

"Your aura feels like that of two people. One much weaker with an aura almost white. Whereas the other, being Sin no doubt, has an aura with mana so grand I felt almost completely overwhelmed. Two beings struggling over control. Most of all beings hunting you down are aware of this."

I didn't answer. I did not feel like giving any answer since it appeared he could get the answer any time he wanted to from just a glance at my aura or from the smallest shift in my posture.

After all, I had a few suspicions of my own that I wished to confirm before using it to my advantage.

So I answered his original question. "Spare me the psychoanalysis. I already know myself."

More than he could ever imagine, don't you agree, Sun?

He then gave a hearty laugh. "Aha, as cruel as you ever were, your Majesty. No wonder they died in your vile hands."

"Can't say I deny it." I blurted. "But to the point-- why did you take me here?"

"Hmm, for a prince you are rather ill-mannered." Liveren sighed. "But that's okay. You have been through so much, I doubt manners are top priority."

I frowned, remembering how much I never liked Liveren as a character. He was too righteous, stood by moral grounds and always showed kindness. Even to the most cruel creatures that cost him a lot. But now that he is a mix, he was just as cruel as he was kind. Hated only the purest forms of evil with all his heart to the point where he always had this signature motto from the novel.

"Should I ever step foot into the darkness, it be only to bring burning light into your empty sockets, friend." Liveren sang hushingly until the light in his silver eye disappeared. It was like he had been replaced. The shadow from his short hair growing darker until I was no longer in the presence of the famous, loved adventurer. But someone who looked like he wished more than death for me.

"Arsin, the Prince of Mirrikh who pursued forbidden, otherworldly magic at the expense of his kingdom. Did you enjoy it when you heard their screams?"

Almost immediately I snatched the half-ling by the throat, gripping hard until I could feel my nails pierce his skin.

"I'm tired of people like you..." I breathed, tightening my grip. "Who are you to impose your moral values in a world devoid of it? Governed by pure magic?"

"Isn't it what keeps us sane?" Liveren sang before flashing me a cocky smile. "Here, let my friend show you our world. Come on in, Kiana!"

At the shout of the name, something else stepped foot into our little isolated bubble.

"Yes, sir."