Loss

As I walked towards the smoke no one could be seen. The streets were desolate goods abandoned, stalls ravaged. I reached the epicenter of the chaos and what I saw turned my stomach. It was Ms. Francis mutilated, laying outside the building, her intestines strung along the street like the power cables above. I walked towards the body to get a closer look and it was her, her light red hair now crimson with her own blood. I was dumbfounded, I asked my self why someone would want to kill her but I couldn't find a reason.

The bang I heard was a bomb as their was no flame, just smoke. I concluded it was rigged to the door of the building as she was lying a few feet away from it. The building was small, too small, it looked more like a bunker, it had no windows and then, no door.

My curiosity got the better of me against my better judgement and I went inside. It was dark, the lights that illuminated the entrance now charred black and broken. The floor I expected to step on turned into stairs. As I braved the darkness I was met with another door or what was supposed to be another door, disfigured and sunken into the walls, ripped open. I went inside the light overhead flickering. It was a vault, filled with some of the same artifacts I had read about. They were all on shelves embedded in the stone walls excluding a few that were missing, leaving only there labels, "Hephaestus" and "Hermes". I walked around the room and saw things that weren't even in the books. They seemed to be casually removed, "Ares" and "Poseidon" a pair of rings resting in a glass case there description including the fact that they were "ancient artifacts" a classification that wasn't in the books. There names being the most interesting mimicking that of Greek gods.

Lost in confusion I soon felt a heavy blow to the back of my neck stealing my consciousness. I soon awoke tied to a pole in the middle of the town surrounded by all the villagers, large amounts of straw below me. Then I saw him, a man clad in armor before me ready to cast a judgement, sword in hand. I tried to look in his eyes but to no avail, his visor an elongated purple gem that was most likely glass stained by quiltite to see mana, to see if I would resist. As he marched towards me the sun glared off the shining white of the armor the lined gold amplified under the suns rays.

He soon stood right in front of me peering into my soul.

"I ask you are you ready to receive your punishment?" Everyone's faces looked colorless I couldn't see his but I could assume as much.

"Punishment? why?" I wiggled in the restraints trying to quench my discomfort.

"If you choose to faint ignorance in the face of death neglecting your own short comings, your judgement shall be slow and unpleasant." Upon hearing those words my perception shifted and realization hit. I was being tried for the murder of Mrs. Francis.

"I didn't kill her." My voice muffled by my fleeting consciousness.

"If you're bullshitting me then..." He squeezed the handle of the sword.

"I'm not bullshitting you I didn't kill her. Besides what proof do you have?" He seemed taken aback, he lent on the great sword that accompanied him its guard that tapered to a golden sphere resting on his head, the squished cylinder of a gold and white pommel with a dragon laying just above his reach.

"Well... YOU WERE AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME WERE YOU NOT!!" The sound of his breath echoed through the helmet.

"I was, but I only went their because I heard the explosion, besides what reason would I have for killing the only person in this town that cared to bat an eye at me? Explain." The restraints seemed to get tighter the longer the conversation went on.

"Then why were you in her inventory, the place where she stored her most valuable assets, huh?" He eased off the sword and laid it across his shoulder.

"My curiosity got the better of me. What can I say I'm human." I settled my tone.

"And the door?" He slowly lowered the sword once more.

"It had already been destroyed when I go there." I got comfortable in the restraints.

"I guess we have no choice but to believe you for now." He stood the sword upright.

"Just like that?" I felt the restraints getting tighter.

"Would you like to question our methods? If you don't like the judgement take it up with Aria or better yet Fortia herself." He sighed. "Give me a break I tell you you're not guilty and you question me. You couldn't be the culprit. Release the restraints."

They lowered me from the pole the feeling of touching the ground made me feel free. The names he had mentioned were new to me.

"What did you mean by Aria and Fortia? What methods did you use to try me?" I asked whilst he undid his helmet.

"Hold this." He said dropping the behemoth of a sword on me.

The sword fell in my hands and I grasped it by the handle trying not to drop it. Then it happened my first official encounter with the otherworldly beings called spirits.

[Hello, please... don't drop me.] A feminine voice rung in my head.

"Wait, what?." I felt like dropping the sword. I looked all around me in my head but there was nothing new.

"Congratulations on meeting Aria or as she's better known the spirit of truth." As his helmet came undone it revealed a certain blue eyed chief guard.

"Happy now...satisfied." He lowered the helmet to his side.

"Not really, you mentioned a... "Fortia ?" I said whilst struggling to, or not drop the sword.

[She's the supreme fire spirit which I serve. The source of your fire magic, one of the Primordial Magic Quaternity.] I could feel her swiping her hair and crossing her hands in my mind, though I couldn't see her.

It was valuable information none the less, I had finally bypassed the books' vagueness and got one of the Primordial names.

"Thanks... I guess." I franticly reached to Mr. Sentari with the sword but that proved difficult as he started to walk away.

I had no choice but to follow him as he caught me up to the state of events.

"To you, the death of Cecelia might of been just a murder, but to us it marks an absence of protection from the wilderness and the other nobles. The only reason you were allowed to stay here in the first place was because she allowed it. I know you didn't realize it, but she was royalty." He shined his helmet with his cloth palm. The golden dragon paws at his knuckles reflecting in my eyes.

"She.. she... mentioned we were close to the coast. Why would a noble be all the way out here?"

"Its more than one reason really. She isn't a pure noble but in fact an appointed one." He raised the helmet in front of himself changing his view on it. " I'm sure she told you she was a magician and researcher right? Though she wouldn't tell an outsider about her nobility even if she took them under her wing. Not being a pure noble she wasn't appointed territory close to the capital or a major town but instead on the outskirts of the nation. Though I think she preferred this nonetheless." He lowered the helmet to his side, lowering his head as well.

"How did she become a... noble?" I rested the sword on my shoulder and caught up to him.

"Well.. when one comes into possession of a certain undocumented item, they become a noble automatically, as they become of use to the crowns. You've gone into the inventory you must know of what I speak." He looked at me not turning his head.

We came upon a building taller than the rest, white, the entrance under a large archway held up by two pillars, dragons feet in design, the scales having gold between them, the claws golden. This was proceeded by a small flight of stairs lined with gold. The top coming together in a cone with indents leading to a sphered tip, gold coating the indents, a flag with a black dragon soaring flew high, anchored by the sphere. The door was a large polished mahogany looking wood, with a dragon having golden eyes, claws and teeth on it. The room it lead to was bland and echoic, to say I was disappointed was an understatement . He fastened his armor to the stand behind the desk that stood in the center of the room. I mounted the sword to the same stand.

He sat in his chair, a grand chair. Continuing with the theme of dragons, the chair had a dragon scale pattern and what seemed to be claws to the two top edges.

"So what now?" I sat in the only other chair in the room, a normal chair, one I was used to, staring at him staring at a book he had opened on his desk.

"You're not from here." He closed the book and clasped his hands under his chin, our eyes locked. I felt nervous. Did he see me fall out of the wormhole. My mind went wild.

"What's the problem?" I sat up in the chair as to not miss a word.

"A noble died, this is free real-estate, literally. If the nobles show up here and an outsider came the same time another noble died its going to complicate things." He slumped down in his chair.

"How?" I didn't get it.

"She had four of a certain thing, two are now missing. Cecelia might have been a good apple in a spoiled bunch, but all the apples are still spoiled. We're at the high edge, it might be good to be closer to the capital but if a high edge state is managed properly it develops and grows, mana is rich here, but its further from the capital, harder to supply and harder to develop, but Cecelia did it." He fiddled with the pen he just removed from the desk drawer averting eye contact.

"So what you're saying is..."

"Yes, this place is way more valuable now, economically and monetarily. I'm sure you saw the fields and fields of high cherries. Cherries only able to grow at the high edge and on the border of the low and high edge. Its hard to maintain, if it wasn't for Poseidon we wouldn't have the water. Cecelia single handedly grew a small village into this town. I bet they were waiting for her to die. I had to report to the crowns about her death meaning they'll be here in days if not a day." He stopped fiddling with the pen and sat up in the chair.

"Cant we stop them from taking the state?" I was optimistic perhaps.

"If she had a will we could, but all the wastes of space around here that only used her to further their ambitions lost her trust and I don't think she'd trust them regardless." He spun the chair and peered through the window.

"What about you? Aren't you the chief guard?" I didn't believe the system could be so stupid.

"I am but... I'm apart of the guard for a reason, I'm not good at politics or economics. I couldn't manage this place to save all our lives."

"But still wouldn't you..." He cut me off.

"Cecelia respected peoples opinions. I told her no and she took it well. I never thought... I never thought..." His voice started to crack.

"I understand. I'll look for a will if there is one." I realized he needed time alone and left.

"Th...th...thank you."

As I passed through the town I attracted curious gazes and disgusted ones. Mr. Sentari knew it wasn't me but everybody else didn't know or rather didn't believe. I couldn't blame them. The streets were bland and slow, it felt heavy.

I got to the house and it felt, empty. Not the emptiness of being the only one there, the emptiness of being the only one who would walk the halls. I walked towards the end of the hall, towards her room. The door was opened. It was organized, just like the lab, her bed made and pillows fluffed, flowery pillow cases and sheets were expected. The light from the window adjacent to her bed illuminated the flowers below it, roses, but black weirdly. She had a dresser, on top was a hairbrush, a few combs and a box. The dresser was wooden, the wood arching over the glass, though strangely no drawers.

Then I saw it, a picture of her on the wall, then I remembered. I ran towards the bathroom and relieved myself of the same salad she had made. She was everywhere, her old woman charm, from the way the walls were designed to the organization of her books, the ones that had the most wear were closer to the top, even to the clothes I wore.

Knowing the picture was there, I averted my eyes. I then combed through the room, the box, was basically empty only a gold lined tablet was there, stone at its center, not what I was expecting. I expected documents, hairpins maybe . The drawers were built into the bottom of the bed. As I searched I found nothing but clothes.

I went to the lab and the cabinets only had trophies. I desperately read through the books, hoping she had hid something in them, a clue for us to find, still, I found nothing. My legs soon caved in leaving me unbalanced, so I fell. Now slung across the floor books all around me, I laid there and at some point fell asleep. It was weird that I cared about her, but I understood why. She was kind to me, something I wasn't used to, and so I latched on to that kindness. I guessed that being alone for the amount of time I was made me gullible, but even if that was the case I still felt it, a heaviness in my chest and stomach... and a loneliness.

***Arc 2 A New Noble***