"The radiance attribute is all about forming connections," Reoloy explained, slipping into a lecturing posture. "Even the most basic enhancement spells work by using a link between the caster and the target to pass mana from one to the other."
He then pulled out Gaiskas's mirror, only to frown when it gave no response.
'It's still throwing a fit... and I decided to let it get over it for a bit.'
"The attribute's real strength comes into play when those connections are formed with special beings like laikerns and eldrids." He ran a hand through his wild hair before returning the relic to his pocket. "Fortunately, the second princess doesn't have an eldrid under her command. And as I'm sure you know, laikerns come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and specialities."
He raised a finger.
"A poison laikern's abilities are what we're dealing with."
Wynn nodded slowly, absorbing the information and comparing it to everything they had observed over the years.
"So what?" she asked quietly. "We need to get the temple involved for an exorcism?"
Reoloy shook his head, his eyes narrowing toward the distant temple.
"Regardless of which faith does it, an exorcism is overkill in this scenario," he explained. "Your brother's not possessed, after all. He's just carrying a seed of the laikern's inhuman spell formula. Whatever the priests do to him will only leave him worse off than before this all started."
"So Lara would still win..." Wynn muttered.
"Exactly."
The princess threw a glance at him, telling him to finish the explanation he clearly wanted to give and get to the solution.
"Laikerns, aside from being able to cast human magic, have their own unique style," he said with a sigh. "It's not public knowledge, but it's loosely referred to as inhuman magic. Clever, I know."
Seeing that she neither laughed nor reacted otherwise, he awkwardly cleared his throat.
"We could dissect the formula and unravel the spell, but without understanding even the fundamentals of the 'language' used in inhuman casting, it would take us decades at best."
'Or seconds if I had Gaiskas or Luvarne at a hundred percent...'
"And in the process, we would inevitably draw its attention," he added. "Meaning the more we try, the more power it will put into the spell's effect, which might lead to—"
"Cale's death," Wynn interrupted, looking away to hide her expression. "I can surmise that much."
Reoloy found himself feeling a little sorry for the siblings. To anyone else, the situation would seem hopeless—a slow, inevitable loss with no safe answer in sight. Yet, despite everything he had just said, he wasn't actually worried in the slightest.
The solution to the problem had already been in his possession since basically the very start.
"The plan I have in mind will instantly sever the spell and free your brother," Reoloy said simply, causing the princess's expression to brighten. "I just need time to prepare for what comes after."
In reality, he could have done it that very hour. He simply reasoned that displaying such absurd competence right away wouldn't be the wisest decision.
"After?" Wynn repeated.
"The laikern will immediately sense the spell's disappearance. We need something in place to ensure it doesn't simply cast another one." He paused. "Oh, and something to keep your sister in check in general."
Reoloy's eyes drifted to the black, grey-detailed glove on his hand, a small smile forming.
"Let's do it tomorrow," he said. "Same time."
---
~ Next Day: Noon ~
Avron sat across from Lavere in a café, calmly sipping a pineapple drink.
A long bundle wrapped in bandages stood leaning against his armrest, giving off an impressive aura to all who could perceive it.
"What happened to them?" he asked, glancing at Edren, Digo, and Belonica, who were sprawled across the table beside them.
They looked utterly miserable, as if they hadn't slept a single minute the entire night.
The contrast with Selene, Lohan, and Cisco at the other end of the table was stark. The three of them looked wary—even slightly haunted—but otherwise completely energised.
"After Reoloy disappeared and you went hunting for him," Lavere replied, reading a newspaper with mild intrigue. "We wandered around for a bit. Then night fell, and these strange people showed up."
All of them—except Avron—shuddered in unison.
"They were priests... some call them monks," Selene corrected, frowning. "There was someone we knew who used to mouth off about them all the time. The hatred seemed excessive back then. Now I think he might've actually been giving them a fair bit of grace."
The so-called evil-purging ritual, unceremoniously dubbed the Obnoxious Nightly Purge Runs by the public, was a tradition in which the priests of Amelphas would scour whatever town they were in and force individuals they suspected of heresy—or even loose association with it—into "cleansing activities."
"They made us do weird exercises..." Edren muttered, pale as paper with deep, dark bags under his eyes. "Even Digo couldn't keep up."
Avron's gaze fell on the larger mage, acknowledging his beyond-sorry state.
"If even he's like that, it must've been intense..." he said, still sipping his drink as if none of it concerned him. "Why didn't you just leave?"
They all stared at him like he had just said something deeply offensive.
"...Sorry?"
Lavere sighed. "We watched some people try."
"They got caught and brutalised instantly," Lohan finished.
The orange-haired boy's brow lifted as he looked over the four still-functioning ones.
"Then why do you all look fine?"
"Physically, I've been through worse," they said in unison. "Mentally, I'm undecided."
"Ugh. Why are you all talking in sync like that?" Reoloy asked, suddenly appearing from behind Lavere and sliding into the chair between her and Avron. "It's creepy. Don't do it again."
It took a moment for them to register that he was there before they all jumped him.
Blows came from every direction as Reoloy was dragged into the chaos, Lohan locking him in a tight headlock.
"Hey! You're causing a scene!" he wheezed. "What did I even do to deserve this?!"
Through the struggle, his eyes flicked across their faces, taking in their exhausted, hollow expressions.
"Ah, you ran into them, didn't you?"
His companions' silence was answer enough.
"I'm sorry..."
As they released him and returned to their seats, Lavere turned a questioning look toward Avron.
"Why did you attack him?" she asked, tilting her head.
"While you were dealing with your monks, I ran into this woman." Avron shuddered at the mere memory of her. "Escaping her was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."
He shot Reoloy a glare as the latter rubbed his neck and sat back down.
"If he hadn't run off, I wouldn't have had to go through that."
They all blankly stared at him in silence.
'You're the one that ran off without direction...'
Reoloy leaned onto the table, casually jerking his thumb toward the castle behind him.
"I've set up a meeting with our recruitment target," he said, noticing Lavere's frown this time. "We're sneaking into the castle at midnight tonight. Enjoy yourselves while you can—we have to head back to the ship a few hours before to prepare."
"How did you manage that?" Lavere asked.
"I ran into someone at the temple and used my expert negotiation skills."
The Cardanians exchanged looks, recalling that his "skills" tended to consist of vague statements, luck, and an alarming amount of going with the vibe. Still, if it worked on them, who were they to say it wouldn't work on others?
"The temple?" Selene asked, clearly more focused on that detail than anything else. "Then you were with those crazy priests?"
"For most of the day, yeah." Reoloy absently rested his cheek on his gloved hand. "But after they left for their nightly stroll, I was pretty much alone."
"What?" Belonica chimed in for the first time.
"It's common sense," he said simply. "If they're outside, they're not in their house. So that's the safest place."
The ice mage slammed her hands on the table.
"We didn't even know about—"
Edren quickly grabbed her sleeve and shook his head. She paused, then looked around and only then realised that all eyes in the café were on them and probably had been for a while.
'Tsk.' Her bravado held for a solid minute before it faltered. 'What's with this place? It feels so... off.'
"It's strange, isn't it?" Reoloy asked, his tone understanding. "Everyone here is basically a pair of eyes and ears waiting to pass information to someone higher up. That's how cities like this work."
"Higher up?" Avron chimed in, setting his empty glass down.
"Remember when you got turned away from those restaurants earlier?" Selene asked. "Those places are for the kind of people Reoloy's talking about."
"In the society out here, those people are considered more important than others," Cisco added, absentmindedly fiddling with a fork. "In this country, they're called nobles, but even in places without them, the same hierarchy exists."
Digo frowned. "More important... How can you measure people's importance against each other?"
"You guys have your Captain, Chieftain, and that blacksmith, don't you?" Selene asked, then shrugged. "It's not that different."
"It's very different," Lavere replied immediately. "Those three might be considered significant to Cardana's sustenance, but they're no more or less important than anyone else. Even those who have put their bodies on the line and paid the price are treated with the same honour and given the same rights."
"Hmm. You're both not wrong." Reoloy nodded before his expression turned more serious. "The outside world is just far harsher than the humble community of kindness you've built."
His gaze settled on Lavere.
"Out here, there's a term for the people you just described—cripples. They're not treated kindly. The general populace mostly forgets they exist unless they're able to build themselves back up and contribute value again."
He paused, briefly reminded of just how much that sentiment applied to the world he'd come from as well.
"Anyway, if you're going to keep interacting with the rest of this world," he continued, voice hardening. "You'll need to remember to keep your guards up at all times."
The mood around the table noticeably dimmed.
Reoloy wanted to cheer them up with some sweets or a distraction, but that would have to wait.
'Things always go wrong...'
"Avron…" he said slowly. "That woman who harassed you… did she have black hair and blue eyes? Kind of a… twisted air about her?"
The spearman blinked.
It was an alarmingly accurate description.
"How did you know that?"
Without answering, Reoloy stood abruptly.
"We're leaving," he said.
A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as countless inhuman presences began converging on their location.
A small circular bottle appeared in his hand.
"Drink this. Now."
Avron didn't question him. The sheer urgency in Reoloy's voice was enough to make everyone move. The spearman snatched the bottle, uncorked it, and downed its contents in one go, immediately grimacing at the bitter aftertaste.
"Shit! No time to get somewhere private…" Reoloy muttered under his breath, briefly weighing whether doing something so conspicuous was worth it. "Edren! Digo! Cause a commotion! Selene—!"
"Blind them, I know."
A heartbeat later, Edren slammed both hands onto the table. Teal symbols blossomed beneath it as cyan formulas ignited under Digo's feet. The wind erupted outward, dragging with it a shrill, grating whine that made everyone instinctively clamp their hands over their ears.
Taking advantage of the sudden chaos, Selene raised a hand.
The bystanders' vision instantly faded to absolute darkness.
Reoloy gave the wordless command, and in a silver flash, they were gone, warped back onto Luvarne.
Not a moment too soon.
A recognisable silhouette of dark, silky hair pinned upward with ornate ornaments stepped through the café doors. Her long red dress trailed on the ground, though she didn't care at the moment. She didn't have time to wait for her attendants to catch up.
Lara scanned the room with a serene smile, already taking in the state of disarray.
"I thought you said he was here."
Three laikerns, each large enough to fill the café on their own, partially manifested into the space—unseen by anyone but her.
"He just was," one of them said, its singular eye pulsating as it hovered over the exact tables the group had just occupied. "Magic was used... quickly, too."
"A spatial spell?" Lara asked, her eyes widening slightly in fascination. "He wasn't skilled enough for that. So there's a caster of that calibre with him?"
"No," the laikern answered, the pulsing stopping. "The spell attributes were wind and sound—likely to cover their tracks. I don't know how they managed to get away so rapidly."
The second princess frowned for only a moment before breaking into vibrant laughter, even wiping away a tear as her attendant finally arrived.
"Princess!"
"We're leaving," Lara said pleasantly. "There's nothing here for us anymore."
Her mind turned over the unknown variables as she walked, each one more interesting than the last. All of it layered atop the curious discovery she had made the previous night, when she had extended her outing on a whim while returning home.
The oddly bandaged object that had been on the orange-haired boy's back flashed through her memory.
She began to hum, the sound carrying a strangely disquieting charm as people instinctively made way for her.
'In due time, I'll take it all.'