Millennia ago, Kio forged heavily ahead in the middle of the scorching desert of the Great Eberhart. She had been wandering for entire days under the relentless sun, fulfilling an assignment that struck her as more absurd with every passing moment.
«Damn fucking sand... It gets into all my fur and getting it out is a problem», she protested internally, spitting out a handful of dust while traversing a dense blizzard.
Upon looking up and contemplating the golden vastness that she still had left to cross, her resignation transformed into pure annoyance.
«Damn it! Why the hell did I have to come on this errand instead of that imbecile?!», she thought angrily, gritting her teeth.
She kept moving blindly through the gusts until, by pure luck, she spotted the outline of a temple devoured by the dunes. Without thinking twice, she broke into a run to take shelter behind the thick stone walls.
—Finally... —Kio sighed, angrily shaking off the sand accumulated on her cat ears.
Upon standing upright, she began to examine the foyer through narrowed eyes. Fallen arches, wind-eroded pillars, and an aura of solemnity enveloping the atmosphere.
«Wow... this really looks fucking ancient», she deduced, tilting her head with a certain admiration.
However, upon taking a couple of steps toward the back, her gaze clashed directly against a badge engraved on the main wall: the emblem of a merchant nation that she herself had visited time ago.
Kio froze on the spot. Her left eyelid drooped and she put on a flat face of absolute disenchantment, contemplating the engraving with marked disappointment.
«This junk isn't even three hundred years old…», she thought, letting out a grunt of reluctance.
Even so, she continued deeper into the complex. Despite its scant age, the deterioration of the place was remarkable due to the hostile weather. To guide herself in the darkness, she summoned a sphere of magical fire that floated over her shoulder, although the flame was so dim that it barely managed to illuminate a couple of meters around.
«Wait a second... if to me this feels recent... could it mean that I'm getting old?», she suddenly questioned herself, touching her cheek with slight worry.
A detail on the floor interrupted her thoughts. She bent down to pick up a garment of worn yet strangely preserved cloth. It didn't match the erosion of the place. Moving a few steps further, she began to stumble upon a chaotic trail of recent belongings scattered everywhere: wooden boxes, clay tablets, scrolls, papyrus rolls, and even low-grade magical stones still gleaming.
Intrigued, Kio snapped her fingers and impregnated the ceiling with a longer-range light spell. The darkness disipated instantly, revealing the true panorama: the complete structure had been converted into an improvised warehouse overflowing with materials.
As she made her way into the enclosure, the clutter became more evident and dense, until at the end of the main hallway she came upon a wooden door that led down to a basement.
Upon going down the stairs, she stumbled upon two gigantic wooden spheres stuck to the ground, from which numerous branches and roots sprouted, digging into the earth. Around these enormous masses were several tables saturated with papyri and tablets filled with information about magic, the creation of life, and other similar subjects.
At that moment, someone stepped out from the gloom.
It was an old man with an unkempt beard and brown hair. He wore an old, torn robe that reached down to his feet, and he held a dagger with a trembling hand, pointing right at her.
—Y-You...! What are you doing here?! Who sent you?! —the old man shouted, trying to sound firm—. Just so you know, I am a powerful mage and I won't be afraid to use my magic to protect us!
—Protect us? —Kio said unfazed, while flipping through the tablets on the table as if it were nothing.
In that very instant, a stone spike erupted from the ground and struck a sharp blow to the mage's hands, making him drop the dagger in shock.
—Lucky me. Finding my target right here in the middle of nowhere saves me a good amount of time —she commented, dropping the papers.
—Y-You... —the mage murmured, falling on his back to the ground out of sheer dread—. He sent you.
—You should have thought twice before breaking God's laws —Kio said, summoning a sword with magic as she walked toward the shells.
—Wait... what are you going to do? —the old man said, crawling frantically toward her.
Without paying him the slightest mind, Kio raised the sword, ready to drive it into one of the shells.
—Stop! —the mage screamed.
But right before the blade came down, a hand grabbed Kio's arm with force, stopping her cold.
It was Sora, who had come out of the other shell upon hearing all the commotion.
—Well, it seems that despite all the failures in the research, the result was quite good, wasn't it? —Kio said, using her other hand to swing her sword and sever Sora's arm.
Sora's arm began to regenerate little by little after the cut.
—But I have to put an end to this right here and right now —Kio said, pointing directly at his chest.
—Please, don't do it! —the mage begged her from the ground, desperate—. I'm doing it for my two brothers! They died during the war and I've been trying to bring them back ever since. I've prayed to God asking for a miracle, but nothing happened. So please! Let them live!
—If God fulfilled every miracle asked of him, the world would be in absolute chaos. And he is even less likely to grant something that breaks the very laws he established —Kio responded with total coldness.
—Your damned God... is just a selfish being acting for himself. He doesn't care in the slightest about what happens to us mortals —the mage said, clenching his fists against the ground in pure rage.
In that instant, a second figure erupted from the other shell. It was identical to Sora, except that instead of wood, its body was formed from a rock-like substance.
—I'm sorry —Kio said, raising her sword, determined to finish the job.
—Could you stop, please? —a voice interrupted behind her back.
Upon hearing it, Kio instantly turned pale. A tremor ran through her body and she ended up dropping her sword, leaving her hands suspended in the air.
Slowly, she turned toward the origin of the voice, her face white and her breath held.
—You... —Kio managed to say upon seeing the figure standing in the doorway.
—I'm glad you still remember me —the man said, offering her a calm smile.
His hair, light as marble, shone under the dim light coming from behind him, while a black robe covered his body completely.
—What are you doing here? You were supposed to be sealed long ago... —Kio asked, unable to hide her nervousness.
—I managed to free myself recently —he responded with complete naturalness.
Kio kept silent for a second, feeling a suffocating pressure in her chest.
—What did you do to your brother, the king? —she finally asked.
—My brother, the traitor, now lies resting in peace —the figure said without a shred of interest—. Unlike the others who truly betrayed me, my brother was not at fault. After all, he was merely manipulated.
—Your brother locked you away along with the others not because he was manipulated, but because, as the hero he was, he knew perfectly well the threat you had become —she responded, leaning down quickly to retrieve her sword.
The man began to descend the stairs slowly, shortening the distance between them. Immediately, Kio pointed the blade directly at his chest.
—You should leave the past behind and join them once and for all —he said.
—If I wanted to, I could kill you right here and right now —Kio warned him, trying to maintain a defiant tone despite the tremor in her hands.
He took another step until he was millimeters away from the tip of the sword.
—Can you? —he asked with an icy arrogance—. Are you sure? Because to me you are, and always will be, nothing more than the lapdog of that idiot who thinks he's untouchable.
Without paying the slightest mind to the blade threatening him, he passed right by her side, leaning down slightly to whisper in her ear.
—Tell me one thing... did he order you to kill me? What is that voice inside your little head telling you?
He continued on his way toward the back of the basement without looking back. Kio remained motionless, head lowered and arms hanging, squeezing the hilt with so much rage that the blade of her sword ended up cracking and shattering to pieces.
—Do you remember that day, Kio? —Sora asked her, bringing her back to the present—. When the emperor rescued my brother and me, to later found the Empire of the Black Sun alongside him approximately a thousand years ago...
—How could I forget? —Kio murmured, hiding her face between her knees while hugging her legs.
By her side, little Talik slept peacefully, resting against her side.
—Even so, I had no idea you had a past with the emperor and with the traitor —Sora added, observing her from the other side of the room.
—HE WAS NOT A TRAITOR! —Kio shouted at him, raising her head full of fury and pointing her finger at him—. He was not a traitor, he was a hero!
—Forgive me, it was not my intention to offend you —Sora said, carefully lowering her hand to try to calm her down.
Kio sat back in her place and adjusted Talik's head upon her lap. The little one, plunged into a deep sleep, didn't even notice the shout.
—Anyway... what were you doing outside of Mirathun while I was facing Zein? —Sora asked, changing the subject quickly.
—I was on a mission in the islands of Dravemur —she responded.
—Demons, huh? Those things never stop causing trouble.
Kio lowered her gaze to observe Talik for a second.
—And what do you plan to do now? —she asked him.
—I cannot return to the Empire; technically I am dead to everyone. So I suppose I will stay to take care of the child for a while.
Kio looked at him with a grimace of genuine surprise.
—Wow... I never expected to hear something like that coming from you.
—I know.
—Either way I wasn't given orders regarding you, so I don't see why you couldn't take care of him —she said, sketching a smile—. In that case, I'll stay here too.
—What? —Sora exclaimed, caught between bewildered and annoyed—. No way. Go back to Zein or wherever.
—I can't. He has to face what is coming on his own. When the time comes, I will return to them. But in the meantime... I'll handle bringing more children for us to take care of —Kio blurted out with a mocking air.
—What?! No, no, no. Absolutely not. If just one brat gives me a thousand problems, I am not going to start taking care of an entire orphanage —Sora protested, standing up abruptly.
—Well, in that case I'll simply disappear and take the child with me —Kio threw out in a sarcastic tone.
With no choice but to yield, Sora grumbled in silence while Kio gave him a couple of pats on the back to comfort him.
—Relax, I'll handle the finances —she added with a big smile—. There's a reason I managed to survive so long alone in the desert.