Book One – Interlude – Part One – The Twins’ Lamentations

“Why do we have to travel all the way out here? I mean, we ain’t seen him in ten years! He couldn’t even send a damn letter, and here we are having to deliver one in person? We’ve finally joined, and now we’re being treated like a delivery crew.”

I rolled my eyes at my brother’s childish complaining. This entire trip was supposed to be our debut assignment for the Imperial Guard, something we’ve both wanted since we were children playing in the garden with wooden swords.

“Father and the Commander already told us why we’re doing this. Every member takes on a mission like this when they first join. Even the Commander had to do something like this.”

That’s what I said, but it didn’t mean I accepted it. Coming from Keyya to this little city in Lando was an annoying journey, but my brother and I achieved Rank 1 in Warden. We can pretty much handle any monsters or robbers. The difficulty came from doing nothing but ride on a horse all night long. My butt hurts, my back hurts! Everything hurts! And I’m so tired all the time!

“I’m tired of riding throughout the night. Why couldn’t we go during the day like everyone else? I feel like a bat!” he complained.

“That I can agree with you on. My schedule is all messed up now, and I’d kill for a chance to get some good sleep. I’m so tired,” I yawned as I spoke.

“Bahaha! Don’t let the Commander hear you say that, or you’ll get a lecture.”

“Oh shut up,” I muttered back as I did my best to stifle a yawn, but it was to no avail. Even though I’d done pretty much nothing but complain like my brother, I had to admit one thing. The sense of nature and the feeling I get from traveling through the night is nothing compared to the day. For example, when traveling at night, I’m more likely to see animals and critters that would be asleep during the day. Nocturnal, I think Veris called them. So maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to see an owl or two.

As my eyes devoured the sight before me, an irritating noise hampered my pleasure. Glancing over, my brother was in the process of thumping his armor.

“Do you really have to do that?” I rolled my eyes as I asked.

“Sorry, but look! I mean, it’s cracking and bending just from a single thump.”

“If it's cracking from thumping, then stop.”

“Fine… Hey, how come we couldn’t wear our proper armor?”

I sighed again. I loved my brother, I do, but sometimes he doesn’t listen. It’s just his attitude. Unfortunately, that attitude had gotten him quite a bit of punishment during our training. But I can’t complain. If he suddenly went on the straight and narrow and became all serious, then he wouldn’t really be the brother I loved so dearly. So I guess at times like this, I can feel happy knowing he’s the same old brother I grew up and trained with.

“Because this is an undercover mission. We’re just two adventurers riding through the night. If anyone asks, and they shouldn’t because we’re just an hour or so away from Canary, that’s what you should tell them.”

He smirked. “I knew that. I’m not dumb.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

He grabbed the reins of his horse and got closer to me.

“I just wanted to talk.”

I smiled. “You blockhead. If you wanted to talk then, all you had to do was talk.”

“I know, but hearing you explain it to me brought me back to when we were getting trained by Veris and Trerk. You remember how I couldn’t even get Remedium right, and you cut your finger on purpose?”

I smiled again. That memory brought me down memory lane. “I remember you crying so much that you practiced hours and hours while they went to grab supplies. Even though the cut was literally smaller than a dupla,” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Laugh all you want, but at the time, I was freaking out.”

“But you got it in the end. Remember?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“But then you started crying again,” I couldn’t help but tease him.

“Yeah, because I was so happy. If you wouldn’t have done that, then I’d never been able to move on with my studies.” My brother looked down at his hands, then back to me.

“I’m so glad we made it. Maybe we can meet our mother soon.”

“Me too. I miss our mother. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years.”

“Yeah. Hey, our birthday is coming up. You decided on a gift?”

“Yep. What about you?” My face went red when I pictured what I wanted. If even a single person knew, then it wouldn't be good. But my brother wouldn’t care. Even though we're twins, born only minutes apart, he always treated me like a little sister, and that’s partially the reason I was able to get away with so much stuff when we were younger.

“Yeah, but I can’t tell you. I’m sure we know just what each other wants. I can tell because your face is as red as a tomato. Haha!”

“Shut up! Your face is red too!”

“While that may be, it’s because I have a sunburn.”

“You idiot, we’ve been traveling in the dark for weeks. I never heard of someone getting burnt from the moon.”

My brother laughed. “That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”

And we rode the rest of the way in silence. Well, I wished that was what happened, but something caught my eye.

“Is…..is that smoke?!” There was a hill in front of me.  Once we were at the top, the city of Canary would've been in our sight.  But smoke?

“Qina!” my brother shouted in a tone he only used when he was serious.

“I’m right behind you!”

Kicking into our horses slightly with our spurs, we raced off over the hill.

Come on….. Faster!!

“Dear Gods Above…” I heard my brother mutter in disbelief, and I couldn’t blame him. Four giant domes of red fire lit up the entire city. And I mean in the sense that if the sun was out, it would be darker than what I saw.

“Qina! We gotta go!”

Kicking our horses into action, I said a silent apology for my faithful steed as we raced down the hill and passed by a frantic line of people rushing to run away from the city. I shook my head and tried to keep the negative thoughts from clouding my mind.

Parrel is okay.  He has to be.  He’s royalty and the firstborn son of our father, Virin Keywater. There’s no way he’d be in danger.

That’s what I thought at the time, at least, and I hoped and prayed with all of my being that my dear brother was safe.

“Hold it!” A man in armor as black as the night sky stood in front of our panting horses. In gold writing, the word ‘justice’ was engraved on his breastplate. His face was youthful and young in the glowing light, but I would wager he was older than he appeared. Maybe around 28 or 29? Regardless of his age, he had brown hair and brown eyes.

We were currently in front of one of the gates that led into the city. A stable was to our right, and a company of guards was at the ready to our left.

“Look, you have to let us pass. We were sent here by the Emperor of Keywater to deliver a letter,” I said as I pulled a scroll out of my pouch.  I wanted to vomit in disgust at the green tree-like seal that kept the letter closed. Honestly, just looking at it was enough to piss me off. Apparently, our father thought it right to banish Veris from the Empire, but he didn't want to change the emblem? That just didn’t sit right with me, but I was in no position to complain. Not if I wanted to see my mother again.

“So you’re the ones? Qina and Claus?”

“That’s right. So can you let us pass? We’d like to help out!”

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing to help with. Please, follow me, and I’ll explain. You can hand your horses to the stable hand,” the man in black armor pointed to a man next to the nearby stable as he turned to walk. We did as he said and handed our horses off before following the man. He led us to a building, one that a person would store gardening tools in. It was a bit too small for my liking, but I didn’t say anything. As a member of the Imperial Guard, I was trained in uncomfortable locations all the time.

“Sorry, but this the best we can do.” He took a glance around and shook his head towards the door. The two guards inside saluted and left, making sure to close the door behind them. We all took a seat around a small table that was set up. White candles littered the table, providing a decent source of light that illuminated the dark inside. Still, my brother and I were instantly ready to draw our weapons if this turned out to be some sort of a trap. One thing they beat into our heads while training was that something could always happen. Whether it was good or bad had yet to be seen. Even if I felt safe, I was still ready to attack in case something went wrong.

“Can you give me a summary? Why can’t we go out and help?!” Claus violently said.

“Because the attack is over, and the injured are mostly collected,” he replied.

“Can you explain that to us, Mr...” I asked.

“Jin. My name is Fisher Jin, but please call me Fisher.”

“Alright then, Fisher, why can’t we help? Surely we could help put out the fire,” now that I knew his name, I asked him directly.

“Because it’s impossible to put out. Inside that dome of fire is an equally hellish firestorm that is just begging to be let loose. If we somehow get rid of the dome, then we have something even bigger to worry about.”

“I see. So someone thought to use a mixture of two skills to create an everlasting fire? No, that can’t be it… The only way to make a dome-like object was to use Fire Wall, but to make a dome so big and wide would require a lot of people. And even then, the incredible Skill Energy requirements to sustain such a wall would be too much,” I placed my left hand on my chin and forced my brain to churn.  Skills were what I was good at.

“Yes, that’s ri—"

“If that explains the outside, then what about the inside. A firestorm brewing….. Considering the average Rank… Hey, what exactly got attacked?” I asked, interrupting Fisher.

“Three slavery markets and—”

“If I take the target into consideration…. Then….how long ago?”

“The earliest report says the first dome appeared a little after 1 AM.”

“Four targets would require an equal amount of energy, and they would want all four to stay active for as long as they can to thin out the forces…. 30 minutes. If I’m right, the fire should disappear in half an hour,” I said.

“But how can you be so sure?” Fisher asked. I went to explain, but my brother did it for me.

“When it comes to skills, there is no one better or smarter than my sister. If she says 30 minutes, then it’ll be 30 minutes.”

“Thank you, Claus, but I’ll explain more.” He smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “There is a property of skills called duration. Let’s say I use Fire Wall and set it for 30 seconds. In 30 seconds, the wall will disappear by itself, but adding a duration is a resource-hog, even for Fire Wall. Since the slave markets were attacked, I’m guessing the attackers wanted it to go off without a hitch. So I imagine they brought in some powerful allies, maybe Rank 2 or 3.

“If they combined their power and had multiple people for each location using Fire Wall, then something like this wouldn’t exactly be impossible to do if they set the first dome to have the longest duration. In that case, the second, third, and fourth dome’s duration would be shorter than the previous one because of their low remaining Skill Energy. If someone were to get tired, then they’d have a replacement. Of course, that only works if it was a large group doing the attacking. What would be impossible was setting the duration to be longer than five or so hours. The amount of Skill Energy required for that is even more than I have. And then they’d have to do it three more times.  Besides, the flames inside the domes have surely run out of things to burn, and they should be close to dying out. All we have to do is wait.”

“Thank you, Miss Keywater, for that informative lesson.” My brother clapped, and my face reddened.

“Wait?! Keywater?! You’re the two messengers?!” Fisher's face was nearly swamped with sweat.

“Easy, man. You were expecting us, right? So it shouldn’t be too much of a shock,” my brother said as he reached in his pouch for his canteen of water and took a sip.

“I’m sorry, but there was another attack beside the slave markets. The mansion... Governor Parrel’s mansion is currently engulfed inside the smallest dome.”

The canteen my brother picked up dropped to the table, spilling water on its light brown surface.  He hastily grabbed it, returning it to his pouch.

“Are you sure?” I asked. On the outside, I was as cool as a cucumber, but I desperately wanted to cry. And I’m sure my brother did too, but we were trained to completely hide our emotions while on a mission. And goddamn it, we were on a mission.

“Yes, ma’am. It was the very last dome to appear.”

“What of his personal guards?” my brother asked.

“Mossi, Axel, and a few others went missing last night after an attack on the bar they like to go to. Rowan, one of our fine adventurers at Warden, was carried to the Governor’s Mansion late yesterday night. He wasn’t alive.”

“This isn’t the only attack?”

“No, sir. The Rude Crystal, a bar, and a clothing store called the Old Onyx were attacked last night.”

“Do you have any suspects?” I asked.

“No, ma’am. Though one of my guards saw two Earth Elves rushing out through the city gate that leads to the Forest Of Gife.”

“Do you think those two were responsible for everything?” I asked.

“That I do, but that’s not all. A few days ago, we had a thief steal food and ran off. The guards that went after her never came back. We couldn’t even find their bodies, only a massive pile of blood.”

“I see.”

“Qina, we need to check in with father and the Commander.”

“I agree.” I stood up. Of course, I’m sad, and I’m shaking from hearing about my brother’s mansion being attacked, but I had to hold it in.

“Fisher, we’ll back as soon as we can. I still have some questions.” My brother stood up as well. He walked over to me and grabbed my hand while I’m was getting Teleportation ready.

I absolutely hated this skill. It used too much Skill Energy, and it took a while to activate.  It also wasn't the safest skill to use.  One wrong or stray thought was enough to send us to a completely different location.

Dark light slowly surrounded us as a list of saved locations flashed through my mind. I used my eyes and head to gesture through the list until I found the one I’m looking for.

“Teleportation: Imperial Guard Teleportation Gate!” I said out loud. I felt my sense of self disappear right in front of me. This skill worked by converting my body into the seven elements that made up the world. Then the elements at the destination, where I wanted to go, were in charge of putting me back together. It felt so weird like I was being violated, and I just hated it. Claus said he didn't feel anything, but still, I hate this stupid skill. Even then, I can’t deny just how useful it is, and it was worth the 90 Potential.

A few seconds later, the small building meant to store tools disappeared from my sight, and our awe-inspiring HQ appeared in its place. The floors were made from Veris’s tree. A few months ago, I had heard rumors of a plan to replace them with stone or marble. The walls were hand-painted by her as a token of goodwill towards a previous emperor.

Claus and I had appeared in a room dedicated to Teleportation, which was aptly named Teleportation Gate.  Other than a few chairs sparsely scattered around, it was empty, which was a good thing. I had heard stories of someone teleporting to a crowded room and becoming fused with a vase. I cringed like never before when Veris told me that, and she forced Claus and me to promise her we'd be safe with Teleportation. Yeah, she didn't need to do that because fusing with a piece of furniture isn't something I care to experience.

We quickly left the dedicated room. Our footsteps echoed loudly, reflecting our haste. We rushed to the command room because we knew the Commander was waiting for our report upon a successful mission. Since it was an emergency, we ignored those asking questions and focused on our goal.

Finally, we arrived, and I panickily knocked on the door. After getting a confirmation to come in, Claus opened the door, and I entered first.

I saw our father, Virin Keywater, instead of the Commander.

“Ahh, my newest guards. Have you already returned from your mission?” he asked as he held a cup in his hands. His robe wasn’t tied correctly, and his face looked flushed. He was getting on up there in age. The tiniest wrinkles were beginning to form on his face. Even then, he was still the strongest warrior in the empire. His God, Bahmutia, was said to be one of the strongest in the Heavens Above. And my father had the strength and skills to back it up. Only a foolish man would ever dare challenge him.

“No, sir. There was an emergency when we arrived. The slave markets and Governor Parrel’s mansion are enclosed in a raging dome of fire. What do we do?” asked my brother.

Almost like he wanted or expected this development, our father took a sip of his cup and placed it down on a nearby table with a few folders full of documents. “Is he dead?”

“Sir, we don’t know. The fire is too hot, probably hot enough to burn it to ashes,” I reported.

“Then we consider him dead. Consider your previous mission completed, and I’ll give you the next one. Claus!”

My brother jumped slightly and saluted. “You are to be the new governor of Canary,” father walked over to a desk and grabbed a paper and a quill pen before scribbling a message.

“Qina, you are to be his secretary. Do your best for a year to make the city as successful as your brother did. I’ll send word to King Lando and have him acknowledge it. For right now, show this letter to anyone who asks. Now, tear up the other letter in front of me.”

"Yes, sir!" Claus retrieved the letter we were supposed to deliver and ripped it four times.  Father smiled and retrieved a small wax cube and a wooden block engraved with Keywater's symbol from his robe's pocket.  With a snap of his fingers, a fierce fire roared to life.  After burning the wax and allowing it to drip on the letter, he pressed the wooden block to the paper until it was sealed. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the letter to my brother, who caught it.

And he did all of that without chanting. My brother and I couldn't do that. Even Veris couldn't, and she was way stronger than us.

“Yes, sir!” we said in unison as we saluted our emperor.

“Good. Then be gone back to that pathetic city and try not to ruin it. And I expect you two to get stronger and stronger. I’m quite sure you want to see your dear mother again, right? It’s been oh so long since you last saw each her.”

“Sir, we’ll do our best!” I said with pride and resolve as we left the room.

We walked back to the teleportation gate, staring straight ahead as our feet stomped against the wooden floor. My mind was occupied with a million things, but Claus had an odd look plastered on his face. Right when I was about to inquire, he spoke to me about something he noticed.

“When father handed me the letter, I glanced over and saw the Commander collapsed and naked. I’m 100% percent he just finished assaulting her. I guess mother didn’t mean much to him,” Claus balled his fist in anger, and I did the same. “Just because he’s the emperor doesn’t mean he can have any woman he wants! And he didn’t even care about Parrel!!”

It was complicated. We both really wanted to join the guard, and now that we have, it was nothing like we thought it was. What made it worse was the knowledge we have. Father locked our mother up, we haven’t been allowed to see her, and now he has sex with literally anything that he can. It’s disgusting. If we didn’t know that, Claus and I could focus even more on our tasks. And I know we are supposed to defend Keyya and Keywater, but how does running a city in Lando do that?

I know I should feel bad, but I can't.  To be honest, I didn't like the Commander that much.  Even if I did, I couldn't spare the feelings.  Come hell or high water, I will do what I need to do to see my mother.  If I have to live with the fact that my father is a shitty rapist, I will live with it.

But those suspicions were my own, and nobody was privy to them.  Claus didn't even know about them, but I'm sure a part of him realizes the dark thoughts in my mind.

I shook my head silently took a deep breath before changing the subject in my mind.  I asked my brother, and he gave me his opinion on our task. “Maybe it’s a test or something. All I know is that I’m gonna do what he wants and run the city the best I can. And I’m counting on your support. Right, Secretary of Canary?”

I sighed. “Yeah yeah… Whatever you say, Governor.”

We finally made it to the gate. Very few of our comrades were around, and I guess that was to be expected. The only way to access this area was by teleporting to it, and the only ones who could accomplish that were father and members of the Imperial Guard.

“Take this,” Claus reached into his pouch to store the letter and retrieved a blue vial. “Teleportation takes a lot of Skill Energy, right?”

I thanked him as I placed the vial to my lips and tilted my head.  The flavor reminded me of blueberries. “Skill potions taste so much better than their red kin...” I tossed the bottle to the floor. It broke, but the shards were immediately teleported away to the dedicated trash heap. I wasn't sure how it worked, but the flooring had an enchantment on it. Anything considered trash was instantly whisked away, and it made cleaning up a breeze. A few of the Warden offices my brother and I had gone to had the same perk, but most of them didn't. It seemed to be something of a rarity.

“We ready?” I asked. Claus reached out to hold my hand, and I took that as a yes.