The Lone Wanderer

The half-moon shone dimly over Twilight City, bathing the park in its soft radiance. It illuminated the faces of the two people sitting side by side on an old bench, discussing something quietly.

At some point, one of them: a bearded man with glowing eyes: carefully handed the woman something. There wasn’t anyone else nearby, but he still made a conscious effort to hide the object in his sleeve for as long as possible before passing it over.

It was a small black cube, strung on a thin chain. Lots of tiny lights decorated its surface, glittering like stars. They formed faint patterns that wouldn’t have meant much to the average person. Yet, if a member of House Etna had been here: or a high-ranking noble, they would have certainly recognized it as a spatial amulet.

The woman: a young lady in her early twenties, with short azure hair: received the object, handing the man another one like it. Naturally, she was Elaine, and the guy was Percy. The amulets were both full of elixirs, but the one she’d given him also contained the deattunement ingredients she’d purchased earlier that day.

“Did you run into any issues?” he asked.

“Not really.” she shook her head. “I found almost everything you requested, except for the dazzling fern. I’ve already spoken to Ebony about it: she said I should try looking in the 91st district.”

Percy nodded. Ebony was the name Nesha was using while they stayed here. Elaine was Azure, while Percy had borrowed the name of one of his hosts, calling himself Noland.

“Bring it with the next batch if you find it. I’ve put the list in the amulet.”

Elaine was the only one in the group who wasn’t a fugitive, so they’d given her the task of traveling through the white districts during the day, to look for the ingredients he needed. Percy told her what to look for, depending on how the experiments went, while Nesha instructed her on the best places to look for them.

The rest of her time, she spent working for a water manifestation company. This was a special industry they employed in Twilight City, to provide the residents with drinking water. Normally, villages and towns were built near sources of water, like rivers or lakes. Unfortunately, Twilight City had nothing of the sort nearby, as it had been built next to the Thirsty Valley.

For that reason, the Syndicate relied on water users to manifest water out of their own mana, to provide for their residents’ needs. The pay wasn’t that great: especially since she only worked there part-time: but she figured it was good training for her. Manifesting streams of water for hours at a time gave her the chance to work on both her stamina and mana control. It was somewhat useful, since there wasn’t any other place in the city suitable for a Green to practice.

Naturally, she couldn’t use Circulation while on the job, but the company provided their employees with a few magic potions per day, to help them replenish their reserves faster. The potions cost a fair amount too, and they weren’t too effective on the higher grades either. Still, the city’s management clearly felt it was a small price to pay for the service Elaine and her colleagues provided.

“You don’t look too good.” she suddenly said, her voice tinged with concern. “Is the clone back?”

“Yeah.” he sighed. “My head is killing me. I took the afternoon off. Hopefully, I’ll be back to brewing tomorrow.”

“Anything good?”

“Lots of things.” he grinned, before lowering his voice even more. “Most importantly, we’ve got it! The rest of the Dance!”

Her eyes widened; her face full of questions. But he spoke again.

“It’s a little complicated. We’ll have to practice in the Valley. For now, just stick to the plan.”

“Alright.” she said, getting up.

Percy grabbed her wrist, however, stopping her in her tracks.

“Are you meeting with Ebony soon?”

“Tomorrow.” Elaine said.

They’d agreed to use different meeting spots with each other. Percy never met his cousin where he met Nesha. The girls used a third location for their own meetings. And they all scheduled their meetings in advance, based on what they needed from each other.

In case of an emergency, they’d have to visit each other at their inn, of course, but they preferred to leave that as a last resort. Hopefully, it would make it harder for any prying eyes to track the whole group down. Honestly, they knew this was a bit overkill, but they’d rather be safe than sorry.

“Tell her we’re moving our next meeting forward by two days. I have a few new things to discuss with her. They’re related to alchemy, and our upcoming business.”

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He let go of her hand as soon as he got a nod back. Elaine then walked away, leaving him alone in the park. The night was still young, and he could use some fresh air, the cold breeze doing wonders for his headache.

It wasn’t until about an hour later that he decided to return, hoping to get some shut eye before the sun was up. He was already feeling a little better, so resuming work tomorrow was looking more and more likely.

That said, he didn’t head directly towards the inn. Instead, he opted to take the long way around the park, to explore the area a bit more. Not for any practical reason: he just wanted to appreciate the greenery a little longer.

The park wasn’t that large, only about a mile across. Still, it was maintained well, the hedges carefully trimmed, the grass regularly manicured. He hadn’t seen any trash littering the place either, the whole garden completely spotless.

A few minutes later, he reached the other side of the park. Satisfied with his break, he was about to leave, when something caught his attention. There was a small hut in the middle of the garden, looking completely out of place.

The wooden planks lining its walls were densely covered in preservation runes, yet the enchantments seemed to have done little to stop the material from rotting: a testament to how ancient the hut was. Even the runes themselves were old, as many of them had already faded, their glow dim.

Beyond that, Percy was confident that the enchantments hadn’t been there from the start: they had probably been added later, in a futile attempt to maintain the decrepit house. After all, it didn’t look like anything special, even by a commoner’s standards. Even the houses in Bogside town were larger than that. The most likely scenario was that somebody had grown interested enough in this place to try preserving it, long after its original owner had moved out.

He hadn’t the slightest clue who had done this, but they had to be sanctioned by the Syndicate. That would explain why they’d built an entire park around it, and even erected a fence around the hut, covering it in “DO NOT TRESPASS” signs.

“It’s the owner of the hut who was special, not the place itself.” somebody said, guessing his thoughts.

It was a female voice, piercing the deafening silence of the park like a gentle melody.

Gentle or not, it still caused Percy’s heart to skip a beat, however. He’d only stayed here this long because he thought he was alone. Generally, he avoided meeting anyone he didn’t have to, to minimize the risk of somebody recognizing him.

But he didn’t let his shock show on his face, unwilling to make himself any more suspicious. Turning slowly, he soon located the person who’d just spoken. A young lady, wearing simple clothes. A ragged outfit of worn linen. Not the kind of attire one would expect to see on such a pretty girl. Her black hair fluttered softly in the wind, her delicate features looking like they’d been carved out of the finest jade. She stood a few dozen metres away, seemingly admiring the enchanted hut too.

Every time the wind blew towards him; he caught whiff of a strange scent coming from her. It was faintly sweet, reminding him of agarwood. Though it wasn’t exactly the kind of perfume somebody would wear by choice. It was more like an aroma that had clung to her by accident, perhaps from her house. Or her workplace.

More importantly, a Green core thrummed in her chest. And he had some trouble identifying her affinity, having never seen mana channels shaped like hers. It had to be a rare one. One that he hadn’t seen since he got his mutated eyes, ruling out life, soul, karma and space.

Her cheap clothes non-withstanding, a Yellow-born with a rare affinity was very likely to be a noble. Even worse, her face looked a little familiar, though he couldn’t quite recall where he’d seen her before.

Was it from the Guild? Maybe she used to work there? Or was she some travelling merchant who’d passed through the settlement at some point during his stay?

Then again, Percy had never been the most social person. He was sure she wasn’t one of the attendants who’d bought his nectar and sold him the elixirs. And he hadn’t met that many people in the Guild.

But where else could they have met? One of the towns on the way to Twilight City perhaps? Or had she visited the Avalon mansion when he was younger?

Either way, this was bad.

Getting seen by a stranger was already an unnecessary risk. Coming face to face with somebody he knew was a hundred times worse. If she recognized him too, he was screwed!

Panicking, he scrambled to think of a good excuse to run away before she got a better look at him. Then again, leaving in a rush would only draw more attention. What he needed to do was to keep a low profile and try not to make an impression. Thus, he didn’t even dare to open his mouth, afraid his voice might give away more clues.

The woman seemed to have mistaken his prolonged silence for something else, however. Her pink lips parted into a bright smile, two faint dimples forming on her cheeks.

“I didn’t think anybody else would be interested in this hut. Most people don’t spare it a second glance. It’s sad really, seeing a place with such a rich history forgotten like that.”

Percy frowned.

Nothing in her words suggested she might have recognized him. This was a great start. Forcing himself to calm down, he took advantage of the situation, sinking deeper into the topic at hand, to distract her.

“What history? I have trouble figuring out why the Syndicate has put so much time and effort into preserving a dusty old hut.”

She chuckled.

“It’s not just a ‘dusty old hut’. It’s the birthplace of a very influential person… he’s the reason this city even exists.”

Percy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“One of the founders, you mean? The people who built their restaurants next to the Valley?”

“Nope. Everyone knows that story, but they only settled here because of the Valley. Almost nobody knows why the Valley itself was placed here, though…”

Her words confused him more. As far as he could tell, the Thirsty Valley was a Decree, cast here by a titan. How many people on Remior even knew what a Decree was?

Suddenly, he felt more on-guard against the woman, giving her another appraising look. If she truly knew something that esoteric, she might be involved with the Divine Root in some way. This was even worse than he’d initially feared.

Oblivious to his thoughts, she continued, however, soon confirming some of his suspicions.

“The Thirsty Valley was created by the titan, Kronos. A previous leader of the Divine Order. And he chose this place for purely sentimental reasons.”

Percy wanted to get the hell out of here.

Still, realizing something, he pushed his worries aside for a moment, failing to contain his curiosity.

“The hut… was it...?”

The woman nodded.

“It’s where Kronos was born. This dusty old hut.”