"Does he seem like he'll be leaving soon?" – Arduo.
"Not by the looks of it… he hasn't moved in almost a week now. That's how I caught up with you guys."
"Lucky for us then, from what I saw tracking you guys, this means he is making contact here. Either giving the message to the receiver or giving it to an in-between man."
They both stood there in an alleyway, lurking and keeping silent. They could not afford to slip up now.
Around them moved humanoid and/or shapeless creatures of flame, water, darkness, light, life, and few of the existential element. They looked like spirits, but they shone with the kind of lighting one would imagine in a fever dream. Each of their steps left a path of striking visuals. Incite awe and wonder into those that gazed at it.
"He's going past the festival festivities. I think he's going to meet our guy."
Gydil paused a little before answering. "I'm not sure. He might just be strolling again."
For months, their messenger travelled around the city, doing nothing at all. This place was relatively safe distance from any darkness and had a very accomplished guard – known as the Front Guard of All.
"I'm starting to think we've been following the wrong guy, a decoy maybe?" – Gydil.
With a mouth full, mulched by her set of rotten teeth, she chewed and drained every bit of energy out of the cuisine of elementals, she spoke. Finding just enough room to let out some muffled answers.
"You still don't get it after being with me for so long? A mark always takes time and patience. Sure, people understand this, but you all tend to be blind to your own advice. Let me give you an example, a man thinks his friend is going to betray him, so he starts stalking him. Eventually he finds nothing, realising how childish and foolish he was."
"Yes…"
"well, let's say, he eventually does get betrayed. Would you say he had patience? Afterall, he had time and leverage like we do now, on something that was true, but he failed to uncover it, meaning he wasn't really patient. Just a little longer and bam, he would've caught his friend. We won't make that mistake."
"I say you got it wrong?"
"Really" – Swallowing. A large gulp went down her throat. She pulled the next dish closer.
"There is a point where all the waiting turns into a waste of time and choosing when to stop can heavily impact how long one decides to wait."
"You really don't get it. Okay, if you wait for tomorrow even though you know it's coming means you can wait. But the act of patience is to have trust that waiting long enough something will eventually happen. Granted you are not just going of off nothing and had a source to go on. Like now. Waiting for something guaranteed doesn't make you patient, it's waiting despite the odds that does."
There was a brief pause before Gydil spoke – some modesty in her voice.
"Look, you're right, there he goes."
"You see." Arduo then quickly stuffed the rest of the food, gulping it all in one go. All the energy immediately transferred to her soul, turning it into digested mulch. Abandoning the body, she leapt for their target.
They listened on to their conversation. Trying to gleam some form of understanding.
"The procession is coming past the next town, Orinsca. But we'll have to organise the meeting place for you to relay the message." – said the messenger to another.
By the sounds of it, the message will be moved through here to reach the eastern side. – thought Arduo.
***
They sat around a fire – it had been five years since the short fiasco at Orinsca town. They had almost gotten caught.
Now they camped just outside their next town, on a non-established route as usual. On their faces, one could see the mental exhaustion of their travels. Both the rotten face and the one eternally everchanging, riddled with fatigue. The chase had taken its toll on them.
"wanna talk about it?" Gydil broke the silence. Stick in hand, she stirred the flames.
"No!"
Gydil took a breath in and thought.
'She really does have her own problems, doesn't she? Like come on, attacking that guy out of nowhere like that was just plain mental.'
This time Arduo sighed and spoke. Ending her bow of silence. "I used to live in a village you see, and before then, was this guy who our village leader had bought the village from. They told us that the dungeon was closed, and would never spill over, at least not for another millennia. My grandparents and the others took his offer, the place was sturdy, why not? It's not like there was much left for them.
And here I find him living his best life. He didn't even remember selling the place to the old, tired, outcasts. He didn't even warn us about what was buried under that place – even if it never became a problem."
"Dungeon?"
"Something else. But you know what."
"what?"
She moved her neck up, glaring at the stars. "It wasn't fair to him – not only did he find us outcasts a nice place to live, but the monsters attracted by the dungeon gave our town a stapple income flow. What I'm saying is that looking at him just made me remember my failure to protect my friends, my love, and our child.
And I guess I kinda snapped – he was the only thing that I have seen that reminded me of my village. They were far gone, by the time I left the dungeon. On the bright side, this meant that our mission in the dungeon wasn't such a bust. Sometimes, I wonder though, if everyone is doing okay."
"Ever tried looking for them."
"No."
Following an awkward silence – of which Gydil broke. Pushing the words out of herself.
"It was like a vivid nightmare."
"Huh?"
"You mentioned your loss – I just thought it'd be fitting I regale you of mine."
Arduo leaned in closer, her shadow dancing in the light of the flame. "As you were saying…"
"As I was saying… It was not the darkness we came to fear that took them from me. And it was no hunt for 'malforms', at least not really. On that night, my mother sang me to sleep. Kissing my forehead – I still remember the warmth of her lips. She smiled and left my room. I awoke to the sounds of a rampage. I ran out, and found the door wide open, left creaking in the cold breeze of the night.
I ran out to look for her. Far of in the distance, shadows contrasted by the flames that consumed my home, I watched as the dark dressed knights rode off. I figured they were dark knights, leaving the place with a caravan of slaves."
Gydil intently looked at their fireplace as it stirred. Releasing sparks into the cold sand. In these flames she saw, remembering, as her home burnt down. She watched the logs crumple to ash, as did her home.
"They took almost everyone, but was in a rush, and I knew why. Soon after they left, a wave of darkness washed over the town. It seems they had followed it here and even took us while the guard prepared for the assault. I was chasing after them when it happened.
Their shadows disappeared, as if the flame behind me had vanished. Consumed. I looked behind me, at the bonfire that was just burning just a minute ago. It was gone. Replaced by a cold and chilling darkness which somehow was darker than the starless night of that day. Not even ashes rained from the skies that night.
I had avoided it by chance. The wave had stopped just a few metres from me. This was my first encounter with the darkness, so it paralysed me. I was not inside it, but I heard the noises that rung from the town. Those noises were made by those I knew, but there was not a single note I recognised in their screams. I heard a melancholy of true terror that day, one that beckoned me to run – even if I was paralysed in place.
The strangest part of all this, was the fact that my mother always kept a watchful eye and made sure to always leave the areas too close to the darkness. Considering the fact that they also ran with the haste of death at their heels. It almost looked like the dark knights, and the darkness had coordinated the attack. Strange right?"
"I've never heard of people working with the darkness – a destroyer really? Maybe worship, but not that."
For a second, she thought back to the smile on Folisha's face when she spoke with the Knight. Sure, there was no way she would work with it. But that moment, made her see that it was not completely out of the realm of possibility. So, she chose to put it off her mind and not mention it. Just leaning in, listening to Gydil speak.
"I remember realising that, if it were not for them kidnapping my mother, both of us would have been gone. By the looks of it, I was the only one who wasn't kidnapped, that had lived. This is also why I was so hopeful when I heard you sing. Only those kidnapped could have possibly heard that song. The rest were gone. I knew that cold hard fact more than anything else."
Arduo almost reeled back as she remembered Gydil's rage. They both didn't speak much after that. Gydil then took out a guitar like instrument, with gridded strings, just barely interlocking, out of her multi-storage bag. The strings each floated, above and below the others. Intertwined to produce even more complex notes, for the experienced and skilled fingers such as hers.
A noise saturated the air. It sounded closer to a piano than it did to a guitar. Arduo recognised the notes very well. Soon after the melody began, Gydil sang.
"On the starlit night of the distant skies
Shone a light from south to the north
A single truth I see, wherein lie the mystery
Connect the dots, like sailor at sea
And see something interesting
I may forget, you may too
But the stars will never forget your face…"
From that point, Arduo started singing along. Filling the night with a simple and mistic wonder. Both wrought of thoughts of the people they knew and lost. In the stars they could piece together their faces. It was a bittersweet joy and reprieve. It filled the night with a sombre melancholy as they thought about whether or not, one day, someone will still remember them, once they too were long gone. Arduo felt she didn't deserve to be remembered. Gydil just hoped she herself could hold on to the memory of her mother's face.
"…In the simple streets, where everything meets
Is the passing feet of those who knew you not
Once home you live, hear the cheer and laughter
As you speak to those you do
The starlit night, sparkless on the deep blue sea
The darkness plumes – deep within
Some in those you fear, and those who smile
And as you lose yourself
Remember that…
The stars won't forget your face."
They sang away the night until daybreak – continuing their search for the illusive priest.
They travelled many a place – none even remembered the pair. One continuously changed faces, and the other the body completely. They formed a repetitive pattern of analysis and clean tracking, making sure none of it could be traced back to them. They left no crumbs in their path. Soon, their work turned methodical – calculated and extremely sharp. Even gaining a few knowledge levels in the process.
***
For many more years, back and forth, learning to be patient, determined and persistent, they got closer to the case – their journey had brought them back to a familiar city. Having travelled and explored much of this place. A whole two decades passed, and eventually, their tracking had led them back to the city where they tracked the first runner messenger – the city of elementals – wilster Ash City.
"Breathe it in. Do you smell it?" – asked Arduo.
"The smell of toxic fumes made by elementals in the air or just the smell of your new body?"
She tried not to let her smile crack – "I'm talking about the smell of nostalgia."
"You can't expect me to smell anything through all that cloud of fire, light and darkness. I'll give you one thing; it is the same smell during every wilster Ash festival."
"Unlike you my friend – I'm just glad to see this place again, it's been what? Eighteen years, twenty of us working together."
"Friend? I still don't like you!"
"Fine, be that way. Anyway, we got to move."
Over the fine art of repetition and focus, they finally perfected their espionage skills. They moved like the coordinated arms of a professional locksmith. Precision. Poise. And clean, effortless work, that only the single-minded pursuit for something could achieve.