6 - I Like You

"Father, I have returned". Brynner said in Elvish as he quickly went down on one knee.

The cloaked figure took a look at the rest of Brynner's companions.

"Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be on an important mission? What is your excuse?" He demanded in Elvish.

"I am still performing my duty, father. I have found someone who could be of help to the bureaucracy."

"Wait, is the group you're with the one Teutoberg is after?"

"Yes, Father."

"Don't say anymore. Follow me."

The other cloaked figure quietly followed behind as the taller man and Brynner started moving. Emilia, Avaram, Clove and Annika stood, confused as they were being left alone in a field of corpses. Brynner remembered that they didn't understand Elvish, so he gestured for them to follow.

The two men lead them to the main passage through the marketplace. As they got closer to the gates of Friestros, the passage became more strictly patrolled by armored men wearing silver armor embedded with the symbol of six wings.

People avoided the small group, which followed closely behind the two cloaked figures as they wove through the marketplace.

Armored men stood guard at the gate, harassing anyone passing by on foot or in cheap vehicles, but when they reached the gates the guards simply let them pass after seeing the cloaked figures remove the hoods over their faces.

A few hundred yards within the gate, they came upon an area where many vehicles littered the space. Most of them similar to Baden's, they were loading people in the large compartments behind the vehicles. Again they seemed to receive special treatment when the driver saw the faces of the two men leading them, and decided to carry just their group when there was still room for more people to be seated.

The ride took a while but Emilia was absorbed throughout the experience. Streifzug was different from anything she had ever seen, there were so many vehicles moving about, most of them newer than the few she had seen on her way to Streifzug. The city too like a forest of stone houses sometimes stacked high on top each other. Very different from the small wooden buildings she knew.

The roads were paved with smooth stones and became lit by lamps as the day became darker, very much unlike the dark rocky paths she had become accustomed to.

The vehicle took them through the gates of a large mansion and finally stopped. At this point the two cloaked figures finally took of their cloaks and revealed black armor decorated with red engravings of two thorn crowns surrounded by seven red roses.

A butler from the mansion came and greeted them in elvish.

"Welcome back, Master Erik and Master Lukas, Oh, and you too Master Brynner. How may I be of help?"

"Lead these people to the guests quarters, they are our guests. And please speak to them in Aryan, they do not understand Elvish."

After separating from Brynner and the other two, the butler led Emilia, Avaram, Clove and Annika into the mansion and put them all in a large well decorated room, instructing them to wait quietly and patiently. A maid was appointed to attend to them.

Settling in was easy, but their next course of action was the problem on all of their minds. They waited around the room in silence until Annika asked the question.

"What now? I know we're confused but now isn't the time thos–"

"There's no point in asking that question. The answer is clear as day."

"What do you mean, Avaram?"

"Emilia, you of all of us here shouldn't be asking that question. What is going to happen next is very simple. The Lonthorians will take you in and discard the rest of us, we're not as important as you."

"But that's not right. You're all my family, right? I don't think they'd do anything bad to you guys. They're not like the nobles from Teutoberg. Brynner has been with us throughout our journey. I'm sur-"

Avaram burst out laughing, cutting Emilia off, "Emilia, you underestimate your worth. The moment you awakened as a Diviner you were no longer someone I hoped to stand by, I've done all I can to get you to this place but from now, know that I am powerless to do anything about you. As a matter of fact, I've been powerless since we met Brynner ."

Emilia only then noticed the way they looked at her, Avaram had his mask on so he was difficult to decipher, but Annika and Clove were easier. Even though they were all in the same room, they had put a lot of distance between them and her.

Annika looked at Emilia with a stern expression on her face but would frown as if in worry whenever she looked in Avaram's direction from time to time, while Clove would stare with a blank look on his face, like he was lost.

One thing was certain, with the way they had all avoided talking about the sites in Streifzug, they were now taking their last look at her.

Meanwhile, in another room in the mansion Brynner was with his father and the other knight reporting about his time with Emilia's group.

"First of all, which one of them is a Lonthorian?"

"Actually, none of them is, father. They are all commoners from Teutoberg."

"Is that so. Then why would there be a bounty on their heads? The request itself was from a high ranking noble and it mentioned nothing about a red haired knight, meaning that you are not the Lonthorian Knight they're looking for, is that correct?"

"Yes Father, I don't understand why such a bounty has been placed on their heads but none of them are knights. The blond man wearing an ocular mask and the woman with a shaved head are deserters from the guard-post of a fort near the border. The same area I was assigned to. And although they are skilled and quite capable for commoners, there's nothing special about them. As for the youngest two, the girl is the special one, She is a Diviner. The other one just moves around with them, there is nothing even remotely interesting about him."

"What do you mean 'Diviner'?"

"She's the real deal, a Diviner like grandfather. I've personally witnessed her use the inverted body ability too defeat two seiteme, one of which was a Teut Knight."

"That explains it. The Teuts don't know she is The Diviner but have noticed the missing knight and so thought it to be a Lonthorian knight capable of arcane magic."Tell me everything you know." The older man says.

"I met them while they were fleeing Teutoberg, apparently, the least significant one reported her when she first awakened but both of them were arrested. They come from a village very close to the border between Friestros and Teutoberg. They were held in the very fort stationed there but the blond man, her older brother, a driver and a high ranking soldier alongside the woman with the shaved head were able to make a quick escape."

"Good, but what about the more important things, like the two seiteme you witnessed the Diviner defeat. Can you tell me more about that?"

"Father I think–. The diviner, her group had been attacked by ordinary soldiers and even an esquire level knight before facing the two seiteme, but she never used the Inverted Body. Even when her life was threatened, yet once she encountered the seiteme she very easily transformed."

"Brynner, that isn't clear enough, I need to know if she can use the ability or not. Diviners typically only transform in the presence of a seiteme. Is she like that?"

"After the esquire attacked, she asked her brother if she was evil because of the deaths caused by her existence. We even had to clear the battlefield whenever we could because she cannot the sight of corpses. Yet she very easily killed the seiteme. I believe she's in control, but she hesitates to use her power against ordinary people. The most noticeable sign of hesitation she showed when attacking a seiteme was shedding a tear."

"Mm, she likely has a strong sense of justice and doesn't consider seiteme as people. Maybe we can use her. Brynner, help Lukas with his shots of Krokodile. I'm calling the Diviner."

The butler that brought brought Emilia and her group to the room appeared again. This time only asking for Emilia.

He led her through the mansion without speaking a word, leaving Emilia to look around again, at things she had never seen before, the most eye catching of which were the pictures of the previous and current members of the family. Their names were written beneath their portraits in Elvish. She couldn't read Elvish.

When she got into the office Brynner was in a corner with the other knight, his father was sitting just opposite her. He gestured for her to sit in the chair in front of his.

"Emilia Virago, was it? I am Sir Erik Steinem, that towering brute is Sir Lukas Stroheim. Don't worry about him, he doesn't talk, oh, and next to him is Sir Brynner Steinem whom I believe you are already acquainted with."

"What do you want from me?" Emilia demanded.

At her reply, Erik regarded her with a bit of surprise and excitement in his eyes, even Brynner and Lukas stopped what they were doing to pay closer attention to her.

"Ah, that question is out of character for someone in your positi–"

"I know you want something from me and that's why you've allowed me to stay here, so I think it would be better for all of us if you went straight to the point."

"I like you. You've got spunk, and you're resolute. Well, what we want from you depends on what you want to do, in a way. So tell me, if you could do anything, anything at all right now, what would it be?"

After reflecting on her most recent memories, Emilia declared with visible, firm resolve "To be true to myself, in my heart I just want to go back to the way things were, but now I have this new power. Power that can fix all sorts of problems, so I think I'd be better off doing whatever I can to make the world a better place."

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" The older man probes.

"By eliminating every last one of those ugly seiteme with my own hands." She surprises even herself with the way she says the words. But Emilia believes. She'll do it. Damnit, she'll destroy every last one of those hateful creatures. Or die trying.

"Emilia, what we want is to solve that very problem. The Seiteme. Are you willing to work with us, no, with me? A few weeks from now The Lonthorian Unitary Bureaucracy alongside the Free Territories of Friestros and a few allies from the kingdom of Teutoberg will be marching into Teutoberg to put an end to the rule of the Seiteme. In fact this is exactly how Brynner found you, he was originally meant to be gathering information on military operations that side of the border, but I guess Fate always moves unpredictably."

Emilia looked at Brynner who only nodded back in affirmation, she hadn't known him for long and she certainly couldn't just trust the Lonthorians that everyone warned against, but since she had awakened these powers, the things she had always believed to be true had slowly turned out to be hollow lies. So even now, without fully understanding what she was getting into, Emilia made the choice to accept Erik Steinem's words.

"I'll join you, but only if you're willing to accept my conditions."

"Conditions?" Erik's brows folded together but he still urged her to speak.

"My conditions are about how we will be working together and also about Avaram, Annika and Clove."