The Night Before

Inside Zane's room, three people were up in the dead of night, talking with each other. On the other bed, Slem was sleeping soundly while drooling, without a care in the world. Zane was sitting up on his bed, facing the two that were standing in front of him.

"So? Why'd you two come find me?" Zane asked Sheils before his gaze turned towards Kael at the back. Sheils followed Zane's gaze and laughed awkwardly. "Sorry for disturbing you brother Zane." He looked towards Kael. Pointing at him, he introduced Kael to Zane. "This is Kael, I hope you don't mind him accompanying us."

Zane looked towards Kael and nodded his head. "I'm Zane." He introduced himself. Kael nodded his head and replied back in a calm voice. "Brother Sheils has told me about you." After the introduction was over, Zane's gaze alternated between the two. "So? Why'd you come and find me at this hour?"

Sheils and Kael looked at each other before facing Zane. "Brother Zane..." he spoke. "I heard you're not planning on escaping from the Sacred Order?"

Zane's eyes widened. "H-How'd you know?"

Sheils turned back and looked at the kid who was snoring peacefully. "While you guys went out to investigate, Slem told us about your plans." Zane was stumped. He looked towards Slem and shook his head. 'This kid...'

"Haah.." With a loud sigh, Zane turned back towards Sheils and Kael. "Yes. I don't plan to escape the Sacred Order. But I do intend to help you, you don't need to worry about that. I'm just aiming for the right time." As the cat was already out of the bag, Zane decided to come clean.

Sheils shook his head. "Brother Zane... Why don't you want to escape?" He continued. "The Sacred Order will hand you over to the Union. They're sure to execute you, or worse..." He muttered in a low voice.

"Worse?" Zane raised his eyebrows.

"Yes." This time it was Kael who spoke. "Most rogue seekers are executed by the Union, they don't even give the matter any second thoughts." He paused for a moment before continuing. "But as for some, nobody knows what they do with them..." He clenched his fists. "We only know that we never hear about them afterwards.."

Kael clenched his teeth after his words, his calm demeanor from before was replaced with that of silent anger. Zane observed him for a moment before speaking up. "I know.." He looked at the two with resolute eyes. "But I must still go with them. I have my own reasons." Zane spoke firmly.

"Alright.." Sheils gave up after seeing his determined eyes. "We thought you would say that, every rouge seeker have their own situations after all.."

"If you really must go with the Sacred Order, then you don't need to distract them as per our original plans. We don't want you to have a harder time while travelling with them." Sheils gave out an awkward smile. "We've come up with a new plan." He looked towards Kael.

Noticing his gaze, Kael regained his calmness and looked towards Zane, explaining their plans. "I overheard the knights discussing about the route we are going to take tomorrow to head towards Arcturus." He started speaking in a small voice, lest anyone heard them. He rummaged through his clothes and fished out a parchment, which contained a map after he opened it.

"If what they're saying is correct, we'll be heading straight towards this cliff." He pointed on the map, showing Zane and Sheils a cliff with a lake. Sheils moved his hand and pointed to the lake at the side of the cliff. "We're planning to escape from the lake. One of our seekers has a barrier spell which can cover the whole wagon." He explained. "If I use my Saltwater Infusion with the barrier, we can safely go through the lake without drowning."

It was Kael who spoke next. "And I can use my spell Spectral Vanish ability which can turn me invisible and remove all traces detectable by their Azure Gaze."

Thinking for a moment, Zane asked Kael. "Your Spectral Vanish can only turn yourself invisible and remove your traces?" He found a flaw in their plan as the Sacred Order would easily be able to find the traces of other seekers with their Azure Gaze.

Kael nodded. "Yes that is the extent of my ability." He smiled. "But one of our other seeker can help me with that. His ability can enhance my own for a brief moment, making it an area-of-effect spell. "Oh.." Zane nodded his head.

"As for Victor, he is useless in this scenario. Edgar can distract the leaders." Sheils looked at Zane. "Brother, we only need you to use your ability to throw the wagon into the lake while we all charge our spells."

Zane nodded. "I can do that." He looked at Sheils and Kael. "Thank you for understanding my situation." Zane knew that after they hand him over to the Union, the chance of him dying would be high, but there were two reasons he was sticking with the Sacred Order.

The first was he wanted to see his sister. As for the second, his blood was boiling, screaming at him to come to Arcturus. He instinctively knew he would find Szal's diary if he followed the Sacred Order.

Wrapping up their conversation, the seekers went to their rooms and let Zane go back to sleep. He once again focused his essence on the slug and went back to sleep, this time, he was not interrupted by anyone.

---

On the cliff, the knights were looking down at the quiet lake, searching for any signs of the seekers. "C-Could they have died?" A knight asked his companion to the side. "Maybe. It would be hard surviving a fall from this height after all."

Thorn hurriedly used his Azure Gaze and looked down the cliff. To his dismay, he couldn't find any traces of the seekers or the wagon. "Impossible..." He muttered in surprise. He jerked his head and turned back towards Zane, who was still sitting on the ground and looking at them. Following him, Vine also turned to look towards Zane, who shrugged his shoulders like he didn't know anything about what just happened.

"Tch." Vine clicked his tongue and stared at Zane with dissatisfaction. "Leave them be, we have more important matters to report." He turned towards Thorn and the others. "We must return to Arcturus quickly."

Letting the matter go with reluctance, the Sacred Order began moving towards Arcturus again. This time, Zane and Slem were seated inside the carriage with the commanders and Marshall Buck. They all watched Zane closely, while he and Slem leaned back on the comfortable seat of the carriage, their faces covered with happy smiles.