The Whisper of the Nightingale #1-50
Author: SnowyFeffe
Date: 2021-07-08T00:00:00+00:00
Publisher: anonymous

Table Of Contents

- Table Of Contents -
The Prologue
Chapter 1: Life Begins Anew
Chapter 2: Spirit Essence
Chapter 3: Three Years Pass
Chapter 4: Time To Enroll
Chapter 5: Sky City
Chapter 6: Foreign Might
Chapter 7: An Unexpected Gift
Chapter 8: Twilight Lullaby
Chapter 9: Hoatzin Returns
Chapter 10: A Token of Depreciation
Chapter 11: Light, where have you gone?
Chapter 12: Hope?
Chapter 13: Moving Forward
Chapter 14: Hungry Persuit
Chapter 15: Faked Bravado
Chapter 16: Masquerade
Chapter 17: The Thrall of Her Voice
Chapter 18: The Prefecture Border
Chapter 19: Finding "Cover"
Chapter 20: Rumors and Consequences
Chapter 21: Entering the Passage
Chapter 22: Ambushed
Chapter 23: To Help...
Chapter 24: ...Or Not to Help?
Chapter 25: Sending of the Dead
Chapter 26: Answers
Chapter 27: The Debt
Chapter 28: Development
Chapter 29: News from the Capital
Chapter 30: Morning of the Exam
Chapter 31: The Exam Begins
Chapter 32: Unprecedented
Chapter 33: Admittance
Chapter 34: Imperial Banquet
Chapter 35: The Dare
Chapter 36: The Library
Chapter 37: An Arbitrary Amount of Skills
Chapter 38: The Fake's Performance
Chapter 39: Threats and Lies
Chapter 40: Setting Things in Motion
Chapter 41: A Slip of the Hand
Chapter 42: Things You Live For
Chapter 43: Saving a Madman
Chapter 44: The Soul Stirs
Chapter 45: Merciless
Chapter 46: Memories
Chapter 47: Visions
Chapter 48: Familiar, yet Unfamiliar
Chapter 49: Recognition
Chapter 50: Confrontations

The Prologue

The Dark Forest. A place that everybody feared. The trees in this forest were so tall and so dense that the forest floor had since long been cast into a stage of perpetual darkness. Many camp-fire stories have been told about this unfriendly place, and the numerous people that have entered, supposedly, never to return. Most people see these myths as just that, myths, but despite the world being in an age of technology, were every inch of the globe was meticulously studied, explorers had never quite been able to navigate through the entire Dark Forest. . . .

Deep in this otherwise silent place the quiet night was interrupted by the light sound of someone running. A young woman was rushing through the dense woods. Normally this person's running wouldn't make a sound, no matter how hard the young woman pushed herself to run, but today was different. If one were to look closely, one would notice that the sleek, black, leathery suit she was wearing was drenched in blood. This in itself was not unusual for her, but this time, most of the blood was hers.

On her back sat a small child whose long, silvery hair whipped wildly behind them as they made their way deeper and deeper into the forest. The child was a young teenager, at most, but had a very androgynous appearance making it hard to tell if it was a girl or a boy. The child's originally white clothes were now dyed red from tightly hugging the running woman.

"Just a bit further, Miss Night!" the child urged.

"Quiet!" hissed the woman; she was afraid that someone might pin-point their location through their voices.

Unfortunately, her fears were not without reason, because a couple hundred meters behind her, dozens of people in black cloaks were rushing to catch up to them. They were being hunted and the distance between the hunters and the prey was slowly shrinking.

The chase continued and before long the pursuers had all but caught up, only tens of meters remained. Just as 'Miss Night' was about to curse that the situation had become hopeless she noticed a clearing up ahead, and on the other side of that clearing was a very narrow passage between two mountain sides.

'This must be the Rift! If the kid can get through to the other side he'll be safe!' The sight made her lip twitch into a slight smile as she forced her legs to make a last spurt towards the Rift. One meter away she stopped and practically threw the child off her back and into the narrow passage.

"Run! Don't look back!" As the young 'Miss Night' shouted she turned around to face the oncoming assault of their pursuers. To herself she thought bitterly 'This is why I never took any protection missions - running away on your own is one thing, but standing ground. . . .'

The child only paused for a second before he too turned and, with tears running down his cheeks, dashed deeper into the Rift. Behind him the clearing had already been filled with nearly thirty angry looking men in black cloaks who all aimed their firearms at 'Miss Night', his savior.

For a moment the silence returned once more to the forest. The pursuers suddenly seemed hesitant to continue, as if their numbers and numerous firearms no longer would be enough to take care of the woman in front of them. After what seemed like ages, an older gentleman stepped out from the crowd.

"Raven Night! By the order of the Union I demand that you let us pass!"

The man's shouts echoed against the mounting walls but Raven's only reply was to, with a flip of her wrists, activate the two sword-units she was carrying along her arms and readying her stance for battle.

"You have already killed nearly a hundred of your comrades! If that child doesn't die, being the Night Songstress won't be enough to spare your life!"

Raven Night glared at the dark group in front of her. Not long ago she had considered herself one of them and she couldn't help but think back on the nearly 25 years she had lived as a faithful servant of the Assassin Union. She had no memories of her parents and by now she barely remembered the horrible orphanage she spent her first three years in. Her first strong memory was from the day a Union member had come to her orphanage and picked four toddlers, seemingly at random, and Raven had been one of them.

The Union member had taken her and her fellow orphans to a run-down warehouse where four people were chained to the floor. The Union member had then given them guns and ordered them to kill a captive each. If they did as they were told they would be granted a place to call home and a purpose with their lives, if they did not they would be killed themselves. Normal kids might not understand the meaning of death at the age of three but these orphans had already lived through enough to know and fear death. The four kids had only glances at each other before they fired their guns.

As a result they had all been taken to the Union to begin their training as assassins. She had been given the name Raven Night; 'Raven' had been the name of chained captive she had shot and 'Night' was her unit. Any other names she had were to be forgotten, and they were.

The training had been grueling. To call it torture would be more accurate, and at times not even that would suffice to describe what they had to experience, but the Union knew what they were doing and the kids quickly became loyal beyond belief. Raven Night had excelled in training and had extraordinary perception. She quickly shot through the ranks and by the age of 18 she was already considered too be the best assassin alive.

She was given the nickname Night Songstress and her 'performance' became feared all over the world. She would execute her missions faster and cleaner than anybody else and by the of 25, the body count left in her wake had reached the equivalent of a medium-sized city, and this not counting the time she was ordered to actually erase an entire city - since it had been done with explosives, rather than by her own hands, she didn't feel like it counted. . . .

Most likely she would have continued to be a loyal servant of the Assassin Union until killed in action, but her latest mission had changed that. She had been sent to a secluded mountain village with orders kill a young child living with the town elders. This was a fairly common assignment; some hotshot had most likely fathered an illegitimate child and now another heir wanted to get rid of the competition. Of course this was all speculation; reasons behind the missions were never stated and Raven never asked.

It was supposed to be a routine hit, but the moment she had laid eyes on her target she had felt an inexpiable urge to protect him. She really couldn't say why. It was not love or pity or any other odd emotional reason - such nonsense had since long been trained away - but there had been a sort of eerie nobleness over the child that had struck at her very soul. It was a presence she hadn't experienced before and it made her question every order she had ever followed. In that instant she had gained the insight to the difference between following orders because you wanted to and simply following out of habit or fear. She hadn't hesitated for a second. Within minutes she had grabbed the kid and started running.

Naturally the Union had learned of her disregard for orders and had labeled her a traitor. Now, half a year later the Union had finally caught up. "Humph! Union puppets, I am done killing for others. Done killing for reasons not my own." As she spoke, the initial disdain on her face was replaced with an eerie sort of calm. "It may be the last thing I do, but I will protect that kid. Come!" At the last word an overwhelming killing intent filled the clearing.

After only a brief millisecond of hesitation the man shouted his order "Engage!"

At once every dark cloaked assassin fired their guns as half of them rushed forward in a frenzy. They knew very well that simple guns wouldn't do the trick against the legendary Night Songstress. Being the queen of all assassins, perhaps even the greatest assassin the world had ever seen, guns had stopped being fatal for her a long time ago. But they would still be a distraction that could slow her down.

Despite the blood flowing from the heavy wounds she had already obtained, Raven Night moved like a light feather with her two swords flying around her in streaks of light. A faint whistle rang out every time she, with perceived ease, blocked an incoming bullet. But as the cloaked assassins drew closer she was forced to split her attention between those fighting in close combat and those who momentarily jumped away only to fire off their guns again. She also had to make sure no one darted into the Rift behind her to pursue the fleeing child.

What followed was a fierce battle where the thirty cloaked assassins took turns slashing and shooting at the lone Raven guarding the Rift. No commands were shouted among the attackers, no cries of pain were heard. Nobody that witnessed the fight would doubt for a second that everyone present were professionals at killing. Every so often an attacker would fall to the ground by Raven's swords and the group was shrinking in size. But her defenses were becoming less and less perfect. It was only a matter of time before a fatal wound would be inflicted.

As the fourteenth attacker fell dead to the ground the air about the cloaked men changed and their attacks intensified. They no longer switched between shooting and engaging in close-combat, but rather combined the two and disregarded the risks of friendly fire.

Raven grunted and stretched out her two swords in opposite directions. The sharp swords effortlessly pierced through two assassins that had drawn too close to Rift too recklessly.

At this point four more assassins rushed in and used all their strength to keep Raven's swords lodged in her last kills and block her line of sight. Not hesitating for a second the remaining cloaked men fired of their firearms straight through their own comrades. Over a hundred shots were fired before the bullet riddled assassins sank to the ground.

Surrounded by corpses Raven sank to her knees, her eyes glazed over as she stared of into the distance, not focusing on anything in particular. 'I . . . I guess this is my limit. . . ,' she thought as her vision became blurry, darkness tugging at the corners. 'Over 25 years of bringing death . . . hehe . . . with today's kills I guess I've surpassed the half-a-million-hits record. . . . Ironic. . . .'

As last strength left her, Raven Night fell to ground with her head facing the dark depth of the Rift. The remaining ten assassins only paused for a second to witness the legendary Night Songstress' last breaths before they started to flood into the Rift. A final thought made it into Raven's mind before the darkness claimed her.

'I hope the kid made it. . . . At least then I've done something good in this life.'

Chapter 1: Life Begins Anew

It was an unusually warm autumn day in the Nightingale Mountains. The forests covering the mountain range looked as if they were on fire; the sunlight hit the slowly moving leaves whose hues stretched from bright golden yellows to racy blood reds. Sometimes the light breeze would loosen a couple of leaves that took to the sky like embers.

Suddenly, a high pitched wail yanked Raven out of the unconscious state she had sunken into. Disoriented, she tried to open her eyes so she could find the source of the screaming. Her eyes refused her command at first, but after some struggling a blurry world of light filled her eyes, and Raven realized to her surprise that she herself was the perpetrator.

'What is going on?'

She tried to stop screaming but her body responded sluggishly.

"There, there. Everything is alright." A gentle soft voice cooed in her ear.

Blinking, Raven forced herself to calm down, slowly gaining control over her body and voice. The wails came to an end and the blurry world became clearer and clearer. Looking at her surroundings and her own tiny hands Raven could only come to one conclusion: she had been reborn, and if the architecture of the room was anything to go by, it was not in a place remotely close to the where - and perhaps even when - she came from!

She was currently lying in the arms of a young woman that looked down on her with tender, loving eyes. A shudder ran through the small body of the former Raven Night - never had she been looked at with eyes like those. . . . The woman was obviously very tired and her long light violet hair clung tightly to her face, but despite this she had a slight warm glow about her. To Raven the woman seemed like a star lighting up a dark night sky.

Without looking away from her newborn baby, the lady spoke: "I'iwi, let Lord Maleo know that he has sired a lovely little daughter."

'What language is this? I can understand what they are saying, but I don't recognize it at all. . . .'

"Yes, Lady Besra." Light steps scurried out of the room.

"Hello, little one." With a pearly white hand, the woman lightly poked at Raven's bead-sized nose. "Welcome to Trinity. I am your mother, Besra." A bright smile spread across her face, and Raven couldn't help but stretch out a fumbling hand towards the woman.

"maoa . . . ," a small sound rolled out of Raven's mouth, followed by a baffled look on her infant face. 'Ah, I can't speak yet - my vocal cords haven't develop completely, I guess.' The baffled look was quickly replaced by that of serendipity; 'this mother of mine seems very kind. . . .' For Raven, the love she felt from this 'Lady Besra' was something she had never experienced before and she already cherished it deeply.

Just as Raven's tiny hand was about to reach her mother's cheek, she could her the door opening and, in the same instant, a huge figure loomed over the bed in which Lady Besra and little Raven were resting. Raven froze and stared at the figure. It was a powerfully built man, at most thirty years old, whose black hair was arranged in a thick braid swaying behind him. He wore fine silken garments in different shades of green, intricate copper patterns were woven over his chest and arms.

"Maleo! Don't shadow walk in front of the child, you will scare her!" reprimanded Besra.

"Haha, how could a child of mine possibly be scared so easily!" bellowed the man named Maleo, but noticing the glare Besra gave him he immediately quieted down, a guilty look on his face.

But Raven hadn't been scared, she had been dumbfounded. How could a man possibly move so quickly? Sure, she had been focused on her mother and no doubt her senses as a baby were not what they had been as an adult, but the man had appeared out of nowhere. . . .

However, before Raven could spend any more time contemplating what she had just witnessed, the man bent down over the bed and scooped her up. His strong arms were surprisingly careful as they gently held Raven. She looked up into the man's face, and she could see the same love and happiness in his eyes that her mother had shown her, only this time there was an overbearing air of protectiveness present. Raven couldn't help but feel that this man, her father, would move the world to keep her safe. This too was a feeling foreign to Raven. 'It would seem I have been blessed with two loving parents this time around. . . .'

Maleo looked pensively at the newborn daughter in his arms for a while. The little infant just looked back at him, eyes filled with curiosity. He couldn't shake the feeling that this little one was trying to learn everything about him just by staring at him. "Besra, this child of ours looks at me like an all-seeing raven. . . ." Maleo was silent for a while. "Yes, Raven. It will be a fitting name for her."

"Raven Nightingale." Her mother tried the name and nodded approvingly.

Raven was quietly shocked. How come her father had given her the same name that she had acquired in her past life? The coincidence was just too enormous! Last time she had only been named Raven due to her first kill, now she got the same name simply because she stared at her father?

The family name was also cause for amazement. The infamous 'Night Songstress' had been born into a family named after the ultimate songstress of the night; the nightingale songbird.

'This must be what is called fate. . . .' Raven's initial shock quickly subsided, what point was there in being surprised at the mysteries of fate?

"Raven Nightingale? Very well, this shall be the second me. Here I will live a life of my choosing with people that genuinely care for me." With this thought Raven Night, a.k.a. the Night Songstress, finally embraced her new self. She was Raven Nightingale, daughter of Maleo and Besra Nightingale, and she was loved.

Maleo kept looking at his new born daughter in his arms. Her tiny mouth had curved into a small smile as he had given her a name, and her big green eyes were quietly looking up at him. Once again he felt as if this child hid unusual intelligence underneath its infant appearance, but as he had just become her father all he felt at this was limitless pride.

"She's got my eyes this little one." He said with a chuckle. "Only fair considering the first one got yours."

He turned to his wife on the bed and lowered Raven back into her arms. As he did so Raven took the opportunity to study the room she was in. It was a fairly large bedchamber, complete with a large double bed, a few meticulously carved wooden cabinets and a gorgeous little desk that stood in front of one of the larger windows, looking out at what seemed to be endless skies. The craftsmanship on the wooden furniture was simply amazing; flowers and leaves tangled their way up the sides and legs of the cabinets and the desk. Within the lush greenery small birds where perched and they looked almost alive.

The tall walls were all made of a reddish stone that had been polished blank and as the sunlight lit up the far-side wall, it seemed as if hundreds of tiny specks of crystal had been embedded in the rock. The multiple tall windows were flanked by thick white curtains that ran from the ceiling to the floor. Raven couldn't help but assume that she had been born into a very wealthy family.

As she looked towards the big wooden door her father had entered from, she noticed a small boy peeping in from outside. He was perhaps five or six years old and looked like a miniature version of her father; he wore the same green robes, but without the copper patterns covering his chest and arms, his hair was pitch black and small braid could be seen hanging over his shoulder.

With Raven back in her mother's arms Maleo faced the boy in the doorway. "Son, come over here!"

"Yes father!" The little boy hurried into the room, stopping at the foot of the bed.

Maleo placed a large hand on his son's shoulder and led him to a place next to the bed with Besra and Raven.

"Look son, this is your baby sister Raven!"

As Maleo spoke, Besra tilted the little Raven in her arms to give her son a better look. Curiosity filled his eyes as he stretched to look at his sister.

"So cute!" he exclaimed.

"Next year you will start your training to become a spiritualist. You have to work hard so you can become strong enough to protect her!" The large hand patted his son's shoulder firmly.

They boy's hazel brown eyes glowed with confidence and resolution. "Yes, father!" Clearly he took his new mission very seriously. He placed his hand his chest, as if copying a military salute, and looked straight in front of him. "I, Haotzin Nightingale, will protect my little sister with my life!"

Besra chuckled. "Very good, my child." Her gentle hand reached out to ruffle the hair on Haotzin's head. "You will have to work hard." Startled by his mother's movements, the young Hoatzin became conflicted about whether he should hold his grand stance or avoid his mother's embarrassing touch. In the end he managed to do neither.

"Mother!" he complained, but Besra just smiled.

Raven on the other hand looked at her 'older' brother with newfound love. This little boy seemed so sincere. She could tell that he really would work hard for her sake. No doubt he was in a slightly rebellious age where he wanted to prove to everyone around that he was a man rather than a boy. Hoatzin had a long way to go, but effort does count and the previously cold assassin heart couldn't help but melt a little bit more. 'What a family I have gained!'

Before Raven could reflect any more on her new family, a wave of fatigue swept through her body and she failed to stifle a yawn. She was completely spent, and had to work hard in order to keep her eyes from instantly closing. Of course, mother Besra noticed her daughter's struggles.

"Okay now. It's time to let us get some rest."

"Ah! Yes. Come son, you mother and sister have had a long day." Maleo kissed his wife on the forehead and led their son out the door. "I'll see you in a while," he called back softly with a smile on his face as he too disappeared out the door.

Besra sighed and sank further into the bed, carefully placing her newborn infant next to her, using her own body heat to keep it warm.

"There my darling, my little Raven, time to sleep." As she spoke the faint glow around her seemed to expand and envelope the child in her arms. A warm, fuzzy feeling spread through Raven's tiny body and, try as she might to stay awake, within a heartbeat she had fallen into a deep sleep.

---------

Over the next couple of days various people came to congratulate the newest addition to the Nightingale family, or 'Nightingale clan' as they called it. Most of the visitors seemed to be either close friends or not-too-distant family members. Raven quickly learned that her father was the ruler of an area called Nightingale Prefecture and that his servants had great respect for him. This information came from the servants themselves who became very loose-lipped as soon as they figured none but the baby could overhear them.

The same servants were on the other hand not very fond of the older sister of Raven's father, Lady Anhinga, who had come to visit quite quickly after Raven's birth. Word was that she never treated her servants well and Raven couldn't help but agree with their negative opinions. Aunt Anhinga had practically stormed into the dining hall where Raven's family had been seated for dinner the day after her birth. Raven, who had been sleeping in her mother's arms, had woken with a start.

"I heard that my dear brother has sired his second child! My congratulations!" The unknown woman with grayish hair and a velvet dark blue gown smiled widely as she rushed over to Lady Besra's side. "Let aunt Anhinga see this little bundle of joy!" The woman had almost already yanked Raven from her mother as she spoke.

Although aunt Anhinga had been all smiles and congratulations in front of Raven's parents, she couldn't help but notice a flash of contempt on her aunt's face when she inspected the newest addition to the family that she held in her arms. Raven had seen that look all too many times in her previous life. Her aunt had considered her an enemy!

Raven had listened intently to the servants gossiping about her aunt after that and if the servants' guesses were correct, aunt Anhinga wasn't very pleased with the low influence her husband held in the prefecture. Naturally an additional heir to the current prefecture lord wouldn't improve the situation. It was a fairly common situation in a powerful family so Raven didn't think much about it.

Raven was of course very curious about her new world but her information source was limited to whatever the people around her discussed so insights came slowly.

'Sigh, I wish I could move around a bit more. . . .'

As a newly born infant, Raven's muscle strength and control was very limited. From what she knew of babies in her old world it would normally take about a year before an infant would be able to walk, but patience had never been one of her strong sides. So, to speed up the process, Raven spent every moment she was alone trying to gain more control over her body and work up her strength bit by bit. It was extremely tiring work and as a result she slept quite a lot.

But when others were around Raven spent most of her time either eating or quietly observing her surroundings. To her relief her mother didn't breast feed her, instead a servant would give her a bottle filled with a delicious sweet liquid that seemed to strengthen her considerably.

Raven's name was one of the much debated topics so she quickly learnt the reason behind it; here, in this new world, ravens were considered a symbol unparalleled wisdom and insight. When Raven kept quietly observing the new world around her, the servants would all agree that the name was well picked. Since Raven's soul had already lived through 25 years of ruthless experiences, of course her eyes would reflect more wisdom than those of a regular infant.

Because of her quiet nature Raven was quickly considered to be a very well behaved child who rarely cried or made any fuss. Sometimes though, the jubilant giggles of an infant echoed through the many halls of the Nightingale palace. To the servants, this indicated that young master Haotzin had been given time off from his schooling and had rushed to entertain his little sister, something he did very well.

"Hear ye! Hear ye!" Hoatzin would yell and strike an impressive pose in front of his sister. "This is the tale of Weebill the Great!"

Clad in fake armor with a large cape fluttering about him, Hoatzin would reenact the stories his father had told him of great battles where even greater heroes and magical beasts fought to the death. Raven would always start bubbling with laughter as her older brother, with a hideous grimace on his face, 'died' for the first time, usually slain by some vicious beast, only to rise again as a vengeful hero who would save the day.

A couple of months passed like this and as autumn turned into winter, Raven was finally strong enough to crawl around a bit. However, due to fairly strict supervision she could never get very far and whenever she was alone she was left in her cradle, whose high bars made escape impossible. She once got hold of a book but to her dismay the scripture was entirely different from her own alphabet so she had to give up on reading for now. Despite all this Raven had still managed to learn quite a lot about her new world.

It was currently the year of 4990 of the so called Trinity era. This she knew because the servants were preparing for the grand celebration - to mark the beginning of a new year - that would take place in a few weeks. It seemed as if this world also operated on a 12 month calendar. She herself had been born on the 13th day of the 10th month - a very ominous date in her old world but people here didn't seem to care.

At another time she had overheard officials discussing trade with her father which told her that the Nightingale Prefecture her father ruled over was one of three prefectures in the northerly Sky Kingdom. Besides the Sky Kingdom, there seemed to be two more countries on the continent, Earth Kingdom and Sea Kingdom. The reason why her country was called the Sky Kingdom was very apparent as soon as you looked out a window; the entire Sky Kingdom consisted of massive mountain ranges that seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky. The view from Nightingale Palace - that was located high up in the Nightingale Prefecture's mountain range - was quite breathtaking. Most likely the other kingdoms had equivalent reasons behind their names.

Apart from these insights, she had also heard various tidbits about the state of the prefecture, loads of gossip about who was courting whom, and even managed to snap up information on various hidden passages and places the servants had found during their rounds - she couldn't wait to explore these once her legs got strong enough to carry her.

But there were also some discussions she overheard that she didn't quite understand.

Servants would talk about magical beasts that roamed the mountains and forests around the City. They would talk in grave voices with serious faces, but the stories would be nearly as extreme as her older brother's reenactments, indicating that there actually was some truth behind them. They also expressed much relief that Lord Nightingale hired so many 'spiritualists' to keep these beasts away from the various cities spread throughout the mountain range.

Raven had no idea what these so called spiritualists were, but if they could fight of the magical beasts in brother Hoatzin's stories they must be quite amazing. After all, those beast were capable of everything from spitting fireballs to freezing time itself. She guessed the stories were a bit exaggerated, but still!

Raven tried her best to find out more about this, but since her speech still was limited, there wasn't much she could do.

---------

The new year's celebration arrived. That day the otherwise dark city around the Nightingale Palace lit up like a sea of stars. On a balcony facing the city, Lady Besra stood dressed in a fabulous white fur coat. In her arms was her nearly three months old daughter, wrapped in a warm bundle. Besra lifted Raven so she could see out over the city below.

"Look my darling. Today is the Day of Light! On this darkest of days we honor the past year and welcome the year to come by burning away the darkness. Thus we purify not only the night but also our hearts."

Raven stared with wonder in her eyes at the city below - it was truly a sight for the soul.

"My lady Besra." A solemn voice called out behind them.

It was Besra's head maid I'iwi, who had been with her on the day Raven was born. I'iwi's hazel brown hair was in the same tight knot on her head that I'iwi always wore. Her gown was dark red and on her chest she bore the emblem of a high level servant, indicating for everyone that she served the head family directly. I'iwi continued, "Lord Maleo and young master Hoatzin have returned from the celebrations in the city. They are headed for Spirit Hall."

'Spirit Hall?' Raven's eyes lit up. She had never heard of it before.

"Thank you, I'iwi. I will go there at once." Besra turned and left the balcony.

"Shall I take young mistress Raven?"

"Yes." Besra started to hand over Raven to the servant, but as she did, the normally complacent little girl started to wail desperately.

'This is the first lead in weeks; no way I'm letting mother go without me!' Raven refused to give in to I'iwi's cooing.

Besra stared at her daughter. This was the first time she had protested so vehemently when being left behind. Besra only hesitated for a moment before collecting her daughter once again in her arms. "Oh well, I might as well bring her. It will make little difference."

With her daughter in her arms Besra made her way deeper into the palace than Raven had ever been before. Raven curiously observed the hallways they were passing through, subconsciously expanding her inner map of the palace - old habits die hard and some were worth keeping. Soon they arrived at a winding staircase.

"I'iwi, you may wait here."

With a nod to her servant, Besra started ascending the stairs.

Chapter 2: Spirit Essence

Lady Besra, with the infant Raven in her arms, reached the top of the stairs and entered a dimly lit chamber. The chamber had nine walls made of a semi-translucent stone that allowed the starlight outside to slightly shine through. In the center of the room sat father and son on either side of a large symbol that glistened on the floor.

Maleo lifted his head and looked quizzically at the Raven.

"She protested when I tried to leave her with I'iwi. Don't worry she is a quiet child, she won't disturb her brother. Right little Raven?"

The infant blinked, an innocent smile on her face.

"Very well. She is too young to be affected anyway," laughed Maleo. "Take your seat."

Without hesitation, Besra elegantly sank to the floor next to the glistening symbol. As Raven came closer she noticed that symbol consisted of three overlapped and interlocked triangles that created a complex star-like pattern. Each triangle-side had been made by different colored stones inserted into the floor. The segments were made of what looked like white jade, red jasper, orange amber, yellow serpentine, green jade, light blue amazonite, indigo lapis lazuli, violet charoite, and deep, black onyx. Raven's thoughts immediately went to the rainbows of her old world, that embodied every aspect of light.

Once Besra, with Raven, had taken her place on the floor, Maleo turned his attention back to his very nervous son. Hoatzin tried is best to hide this nervousness, but his eyes darted from the symbol on the floor to his two parents, out through the translucent walls and then back again to the floor. His hands were tightly clenched in his lap.

"Hoatzin." Maleo spoke with a steady and serious voice. "Son, this year you will turn six years old. With two spiritualist parents this means that your soul should be crystallized and strong enough to start walking the path of spirit cultivation."

By now not only Hoatzin looked on his father with deep interest; Raven also stared at her father expectantly. 'Finally some insight to this spirit-business!'

"As you know, leading Spiritualists throughout the ages have accomplished astonishing deeds. They are capable of defeating horrendous magical beasts and single-handedly defeating great armies. Fights between true masters can shake the entire world. But how can they do all this?" He gave Hoatzin a look, encouraging him to continue the explanation.

"By cultivating spirit essence!" answered Hoatzin eagerly.

"Indeed. But how?"

"Ah! By . . ." Hoatzin faltered.

Maleo hid a smile. "It is done by establishing spirit connections between your soul and the spirit energies that flow throughout the very fabric of the world" He explained. "Once a connection has been made, you can start cultivating your own spirit core. With your spirit core established you can use collected spirit essence to strengthen yourself, both passively and actively during battles." He studied his son for a moment then asked. "So, what are the different levels of cultivation spiritualists are separated into?"

This time Hoatzin didn't hesitate. "There are three levels of spiritualists. Spirit Novice, Spirit Adept and Spirit Champion."

"Right. And beyond that are the true masters, Spirit Masters. Each level is divided into low, mid and high. As you advance the differences in these levels grow larger, with the biggest leaps between title changes. It might not be entirely impossible for a low level Spirit Novice to defeat a high level Novice, but a low level Adept will wipe out both without any problems. Then again a high level Champion will always crush a low level Champion despite them both being 'champions'. So ber that in mind!"

Maleo paused and fished a grey pendant out from a pouch he carried at his hip and tossed it to his son. "This is a spirit stone. Every Spiritualist is required to carry one and its color reveals the level of its owner. Apart from intrusively examining others through physical contact or willingly releasing spirit essence this is the only way to tell the cultivation level of another spiritualist."

"Once you managed to form a spirit core and thereby have entered the stage of a lower Spirit Novice, a speck of white will appear in the pendant's center. This white will then spread until it fills the entire pendant. When it does it indicates that you've reach the peak Novice stage. When breaking through to the next stage a red speck will be formed at its center and the process will start again."

Maleo parted the fabric of his robe to reveal a deep red pendant with a large orange center. "Novices are white, Adepts red, Champions orange. Supposedly, true masters are yellow. Your own father is approaching the mid Champion stage, with a possibility of breaking through any day now." He smiled proudly, and Hoatzin looked as his father with big, wondrous eyes.

Mid Champion? What did this signify? Within the entire Sky Empire, consisting of perhaps four million inhabitants, there were probably no more than a couple hundred mid Champions! They were extremely valuable assets for the Empire. Even if Maleo hadn't been born a noble, he would be held in very high regard.

To the side Besra gave a small cough and glanced at her husband.

"Ah, yes. That is all quite far off for you, son, but train hard and you might get there." Maleo stuffed back the pendant into his robes. "Today you will attempt to make your first spirit connection, once you have three you will be considered a lower Spirit Novice, capable of forming your spirit core."

"The first connection is always the hardest and it is difficult to say when your soul is strong enough to make it. However! Today is the last day of the year, the Day of Light, and as midnight approaches spirit essence will pour into Spirit Halls all over the continent, marking the new beginning. This is the optimal time to attempt making your first connection."

"It comes," Besra urged.

In the center of the nine-pointed star, a dim light started to spread.

"Son, close your eyes and relax. Focus on the darkness in your mind and try not to resist when you feel a slight push in your mind." As he spoke, both he and Besra closed their eyes and started to breathe in slow, rhythmic, breaths. Hoatzin only hesitated for a moment before he did the same. Raven on the other hand stared at the accumulating light in the center of the symbol with growing eagerness. This was the first time she had witnessed something so . . . magical! The light moved as if made of water as it stretched upwards pouring into a large sphere. After a while the flow stopped and the sphere floated in mid-air, swaying slightly.

Suddenly the spirit essence split into three smaller spheres and one very large sphere. Even the smaller ones varied in sizes - the smallest no bigger than a finger nail, the largest was the size of a thumb - but the fourth sphere was the size of a watermelon. Raven barely had time to notice how the smallest sphere shot at high speed towards her older brother before the biggest sphere slammed into her and her mind went blank with pain.

It felt as if thousands of tiny needles tried to drill their way into her head at once. Instinctively, she turned all her senses inwards and what she saw changed the way she viewed the world. In her head hovered a dim, light-green prism. The moment she saw it she knew that it was her crystallized soul. If the pain she felt at that moment hadn't been so excruciating she would have found it amusing that something that had caused so much religious debates and even great wars in her old world not only existed but turned out to be something so . . . simple.

She was, however, distracted by the pain. The source was without a doubt the bright light that endlessly pressed at the prism, trying to force its way in. She wanted to push the light away but there was nothing she could do. In reality, even if she had known how to put up a fight, she wouldn't have been strong enough for it to make any difference. Finally, the first ray of light managed to penetrate deep into the prism. As it did, it was as if the dam broke; countless rays of light forced their way into the depths of her soul, latching on to whatever they found in there.

Raven had lived through all kinds of torture methods imaginable to man in her old life - in most cases, it had been part of her training as a child - but none of it came close to what she was feeling now. She wanted to cry out, she wanted to get away, she wanted it to end any way possible. But none of it happened. Her body didn't listen to her, and as more and more rays penetrated her soul her senses only became more heightened. She could feel everything; not only her own pain but the pressure the stone under her mother felt from being sat on, she could feel the air's hopelessness as it was being breathed in and out by the people in the room, she could feel the excitement and hunger of the raw spirit essence pushing its way into her mind. Everything.

It was all just too much to bear. . . .

But, just as it started to feel as if her soul was going to shatter for good, the pressure stopped. The spirit essence stopped trying to force its way in and instead allowed itself to flow freely along the already established connections, filling her soul. The pain subsided and was replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling. She was healing.

Her previously dim prism now shone brightly, around it floated a haze of excess spirit essence that didn't seem to have fit inside. The extreme clearness Raven's senses had held during the connecting process had faded considerably but she could still tell that the spirit essence seemed to be waiting for something, but Raven didn't know what it was.

As she was contemplating this she heard her father speaking. "Son, how did it go?"

Raven opened her eyes and saw her brother's bewildered gaze.

"Father! That was amazing! It hurt at fist but once I stopped resisting everything changed. It was as if I could feel the very air I was breathing! It was absolutely amazing!" Hoatzin couldn't have hid his excitement even if he wanted to.

"Good, son! Very good indeed!" Maleo looked at his son with overflowing pride. "New connections are always a bit painful but you get used to it. In the future they will come more naturally as your soul grows mature enough."

Raven couldn't help but snort coldly inside. 'You call that a bit painful? They must have insane pain tolerance. . . .'

"Now then, tell me son, what do you see with your minds inner eye?" Maleo inquired.

Hoatzin closed his eyes and breathed calmly. "I see a clear prism with a string of light flowing out of it."

"That would be your first connection to the spirit energy that is the very fabric of the very world. As you grow older and your soul matures, more connections will be formed. As they are formed, your perception and ability to cultivate will increase."

Out of curiosity, Raven took a closer look at her own soul and it gave her a huge shock. '. . . 243!? 243 connections? Is that even possible?' As she pondered over this another thought hit her. '. . . hehe, at least it explains the additional pain. If one connection hurt, what would over 200 times that feel like?'

Her father continued. "As your connections increase you will notice that your soul will follow the same color scheme as you spirit stone. White, or clear, being the weakest, followed by red and so on. However, your soul strength and your cultivation won't necessarily be in phase. The strength of your soul merely indicates how fast you can absorb the spirit essence, your cultivation will depend on what you do with it."

Yet again Raven was baffled. What about her own soul? It was green, and according to her father, shouldn't it be either white, red, orange or yellow?

'Perhaps it's a consequence of being reborn with my mind intact. . . .' Raven speculated.

"On average you will establish one new connection every year or so, but extreme events might cause your soul to develop faster than that. There is no other way to develop your soul, so you have to make sure to live your life to the fullest or you will get stuck," Maleo continued.

"Yes, father!"

"But remember, the strength of your soul is important since it will improve you cultivation speed, but when it comes down to it, the most important thing is to have a strong cultivation! A spiritualist with a weak soul can still make up for it by cultivating relentlessly and even if you have the strongest soul in the world you won't be able to break a twig if you don't cultivate properly. If you want to be able to protect your sister you have to work hard!" Maleo's voice was stern as he reminded his son.

"Yes, father!" Hoatzin straightened up a bit and glanced at his smiling mother and the infant in her arms.

"With only one connection, forming a permanent spirit core will be impossible, but you can still start cultivating to increase your overall strength. Tell me, is there any spirit essence floating around your soul?"

Hoatzin looked a bit puzzled. "No, father."

Maleo frowned slightly then glanced at his wife with a mischievous smile before he waved his hand in front of him.

"No matter." He paused for a second, then started instructing his son.

"Focus on your existing connection and try tugging at it. As you do, the area around your soul will slowly fill up with spirit essence. You will notice that once the essence enters your mind you will able to control it and move it around your body. It will be a bit hard at first but you will get the hang of it. Once you can freely control it, move it towards the area right below your navel and let it circulate there until you feel you can't hold it any more. At that time just let it go and it will naturally disperse through your body and return to the world around you."

Hoatzin looked nervously at his father.

"Go ahead, try it. It will come to you more naturally than you think." His mother spoke softly, coaxing her son into action.

Hoatzin nodded and once again closed his eyes. Both parents looked at their son with anticipation. His aptitude for controlling the spirit essence within him would be very important for his development over the next couple of years. It would be crucial for him when time came for him to join a spirit school. After all, since it would take roughly three years for him to get enough spirit connections to form a spirit core he would be young but not unusual among his peers, but if he could control the spirit essence efficiently then he could be taught several breathing techniques that would lift him above the rest.

What nobody noticed was that in Besra's arms, little Raven copied her brother; she too closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. For her this state came very naturally since meditation had been a big part of her training as an assassin. Within her mind Raven observed the hazy essence swirling slowly around her soul and the 243 connections that extended from her green prism. With a thought she tried to extort pressure on the floating essence and to her surprise the cloud of light easily moved away. Raven quickly realized that even though she had no problems what so ever to move the essence, making it flow exactly where she wanted was a bit more tricky. However, she was persistent and within just a minute or so she had figured it out to the point where it almost became second nature.

Excitedly she led the essence down towards her navel, but as it approached its destination she was in for another surprise. The closer she got the faster the essence moved and before she had a chance to start rotating it herself, all spirit essence was sucked up in a small vortex, right below her navel. There it formed a small and slowly rotating disk of dense white light. Without her knowing how, Raven had already managed to form her spirit core! But how could she not? The minimum requirement was to have 3 spirit connections, she had over 200!

Raven studied the vortex and tried to move the spirit essence within in the same manner as before but nothing happened. Perplexed, Raven turned her attention back to her spirit connections. This time she 'tugged' at them as instructed and new spirit essence flowed into her soul. The prism flashed slightly and slowly a new haze started to seep into her mind. Once the haze was roughly the same size as before no more essence came to her no matter how hard she tried, so Raven instead tried to once more move the new haze towards her navel.

Yet again the spirit essence seemed drawn to the newly formed vortex but this time, as the new essence was absorbed and started rotating, almost all of the old essence was forced out and dispersed throughout her body. As it did Raven could feel how her cells welcomed the essence like it was rain in a desert. Her cells were already in a state of rapid growth due to her being an infant, but spurred on by the spirit essence the growth rate accelerated immensely. But now, rather than focusing solely on growing in size, her cells now also focused on growing in strength and flexibility.

The process only lasted for a couple of minutes but once it was done Raven was exhausted. Every muscle ached as after a hard work out, even her skin tingled, but it was a welcome ache because Raven knew what it meant - she was getting stronger, and fast! She yawned and opened her eyes to see how it was going for her brother.

Hoatzin was still sitting with his eyes closed. His brows were slightly furrowed in concentration, but it didn't seem as he was going to give up any time soon. Raven wanted to stay awake in support of her brother but soon she had no choice but to give in; she was just too tired. She yawned once more, snuggled closer to her mother's chest and fell asleep.

Besra noticed this and gave her daughter a light peck on the forehead before returning her attention to her son.

---------

Barely one hour later husband and wife walked into their bedchamber with happy smiles on their faces. Their son had not only managed to form a spirit connection on the first try but also only required half an hour to grasp how to control the spirit essence within him. This was borderline genius! By the time spirit school drafting came around, with the right guiding, Hoatzin would perhaps be unrivaled within the Nightingale prefecture and among the best within the empire. Chances were high that he could get accepted into the Imperial Sky Academy of Spiritual Arts in Sky City by his own strength, rather than relying on his father's name. Only 1 in 10,000 could do that!

They were still smiling when they crept into bed, but as Maleo glanced at his wife he remembered something.

"Congratulations on your breakthrough," he whispered as he hugged his wife tightly. "Giving birth to little Raven must have helped your soul this time."

"Hmm, what are you talking about?" Besra mumbled as she moved closer to her husband. It had been a long day and she was starting to feel it.

"Didn't you establish multiple connections or even enter the ranks of lower champions?"

This caused Besra to snap out of her sleepy state. "How could I possibly?" As she stared at her husband in bewilderment she pulled out a pendant from under her sleeping gown, it was mostly red but it still had a thick border white. "I'm still a mid-level Adept!"

Maleo frowned. "But then were did all that spirit essence go? I sensed so much in the hall at the beginning. . . . I figured I would get enough to break through to mid-level Champion, but I barely got any. . . ."

Usually cultivators would slowly store more and more essence in their spirit cores, strengthening their bodies as they go along. As their bodies grew stronger, so would their spirit core, and once the spirit core was strong enough it would evolve to the next step and the cultivator would improve a level. However, during the Day of Light, the spirit essence that flows into Spirit Halls behaves differently from usual.

During these circumstances the spirit essence formed is hungry for change and works actively to improve its surroundings. Because of this, cultivators at a bottleneck can use a Spirit Hall to forcefully evolve their cores. Every one present in the Hall at midnight during the Day of Light would get a share of the gathered spirit essence; the share would be proportionate to the strength of their souls. This spirit essence would then willfully enter the spiritualist's body and try to improve it as much as possible by increasing the strength of said body, sometimes to the point of a breakthrough.

"That makes no sense darling, you must have sensed wrong." Besra sighed and settled back on her pillow. "Go to sleep. It's been a long day."

Maleo felt that his wife's explanation didn't completely hit the mark but what could he do about it? He had checked his son before he sent him to bed and his wife clearly hadn't advanced beyond expectations either. He had no choice but to let it go and try to fall asleep.

Maleo didn't even consider checking his daughter, and why would he? Historically, the earliest age someone had even been able to form one lone spirit connection was at the age of 4 and that child had been put through some extremely traumatizing events in order to strengthen the soul. How could he know that the cute little daughter sleeping soundly in the next room had lived through more than most people do in multiple lifetimes? If he had known, it is hard to tell if he would be happy for her potential or heartbroken by the hardships she must have experienced.

Chapter 3: Three Years Pass

A slight breeze caused the sheer white curtains to sway and stretch, like delicate wings, into a faintly lit chamber. Just out of the curtains reach stood a wooden bed, whose life-like flower carvings almost seemed to sway in shifting sunlight.

The thick covers on the bed started to move and a small child made its way out from underneath. As the child moved away from the bed long dark hair flowed behind her, its tips slightly grazing the floor. At first glance the hair seemed black, but as she stepped into the sunlight at the foot of her bed, its color shifted to a dark violet shade.

The child absentmindedly grabbed a thick velvet robe hanging over a bed post a walked over to the window, draping the robe around her as she went. She paused and looked out at the mint green mountain range that stretched out beneath her window; spring had arrived and the trees were bursting with new life. A fond smile spread on her face.

If an adult had seen her now, her expression would have puzzled them. It might not seem as much but her smile was one only those who realized the value of and truly cherished spring would reveal, and yet here it was on a child that impossibly could have lived through more than a couple of winters.

She glanced towards the chamber doors before smoothly sitting down at a chair in front of the window. Her face now looked more fitting for her age as she smiled happily. She tapped her fingers three times against her chair and in the same instant the third *tap* echoed throughout the chamber, a light knock came at the door. Shortly after, the door opened and a middle-aged woman walked in with a tray held high in one hand.

When she saw the child waiting happily in front of the window, she sighed lightly.

"Young Mistress Raven, will I never catch you sleeping in?"

Raven just smiled. "Good morning, I'iwi."

It had become something of a game for her to always be awake before any of the servants came to wake her. So far she was winning easily. And how could she not? Her spirit connections made it practically impossible to sneak up on her. If not using some Divine Martial Skill, such as her father's Shadow Walk, of course.

I'iwi shook her head and placed the tray she was carrying on a small table by the window. She picked up a mug from the tray and handed it to the smiling child, who clasped it with both hands. Steam rose from the mug and a sweet scent, reminiscent of honey, filled Raven's nose. As Raven sipped the warm liquid while looking out the window, I'iwi pulled out a comb from within her robes and started to brush the long violet hair of the child.

As she worked, I'iwi pondered about the odd fixation of the child waiting patiently while I'iwi fixed her hair. For a child of her age to agree to sit still for nearly an hour every morning so that I'iwi could tend to her long locks was very unusual. Normally, the hair of such young children would be kept short out of convenience, but from the day the first hairs had grown on Raven's head until today, three years later, she had adamantly refused to let anyone cut her hair. Even as an infant she would thrash around so much that the servants had no choice but to let it grow. This behavior stood out for this otherwise complacent child that rarely made a fuss and seemed to enjoy reading more than old scholars.

How could she know that, for Raven, the long hair had become somewhat of a symbol for her new life? She relished having it long, to the point that she even let her Spirit Essence stimulate its growth. In her old life, her training had begun the same year she turned three, in other words when Raven was as old as she was now. As an assassin she had been forced to keep her hair short out of necessity; long hair was not only easy for an enemy to grab, it also served as an identifying characteristic that potential eye-witnesses could remember her by. Not that she ever left any witnesses. . . .

Barely an hour later, I'iwi took a step back and inspected her creation. Raven's hair had been braided and pinned to her head in complex patterns, efficiently keeping it off the ground. A lone, thin braid hung lightly over her shoulder, extending down to her waist. It was quite an adult hair style but surprisingly it fit this child very well. Three years of spirit cultivation, during a period of already rapid growth, had resulted in giving Raven a relatively strong but lithe body that showed none of the typical chubbiness of normal three-year-old toddlers. Her face was cute but not overly round and she was a bit taller than your average three-year-old as well, measuring just over a meter. If someone were to guess her age they would put her at perhaps six, at the youngest, but even then her appearance didn't quite fit. Raven looked more like a miniature adult than a well developed child, disregarding the lack of passing through puberty of course.

I'iwi handed Raven a light blue dress, and once she had slipped into it, I'iwi draped a soft gray fur coat over Raven's shoulders.

"Young master Hoatzin is training in the northern courtyard as usual." I'iwi said smiling and opened the chamber door with a slight bow. I'iwi knew very well that Raven enjoyed watching her brother train.

Raven answered with a smile of her own and passed through the doorway, heading towards the northern area of the mansion. The two guards that had been standing on either side of the door immediately stirred and followed behind her. The mansion was well guarded but the two younger members of the Nightingale family had their own guards with them wherever they went.

---------

*BOOM!*

Just as Raven stepped out into the courtyard, a large bang vibrated through the open area and a small figure flew several meters backwards before tumbling to the ground. As soon as the figure hit the ground it curled up in a ball, instantly regaining some control over the falling motion. It was her brother.

"Haha! Good, son! You are improving."

In the other end of the courtyard stood her father, beaming with satisfaction.

"Again!" Haotzin was already on his feet and had started running towards his father. Determination filled his eyes.

Raven quietly slipped into a fur-covered armchair that had been placed by to the side of the courtyard, looking out over the training area. As she settled down, she wrapped herself in the coat she was wearing - it might be spring, but spring in the Nightingale mountain range was still quite a cold affair. Flanking her were her two guards. Together the trio observed father and son training in the center of the courtyard.

Amusement twinkled in Raven's eyes. She really liked this part of the day. Hoatzin was very dedicated to his training and would train relentlessly. Thanks to his advanced spirit control, Hoatzin had spent every day cultivating spirit essence with various breathing techniques. Even without a complete spirit core he had improved a great deal over the past three years. Raven couldn't help but think of her old world; here her brother might be considered close to a genius but there his progress would be simply impossible, even within the Assassins Union. Hoatzin might still lack the skill to win in a battle, but his strength was already comparable to that of someone five years his senior. It really showed the potential of spiritualists.

Raven observed her brother approaching her father at a high speed.

Ever since her brother had managed to establish his third spirit connection a few months ago, her father had taken it upon himself to start his training in basic Divine Martial Skills.

Even though Raven had instinctively understood the spoken language of this world it had taken her roughly a year to learn how to read it, and since then she had spent a great deal of time reading about many things concerning her new world. Divine Martial Skills had been one of them. From what Raven had read she knew that even though increasing your cultivation was the most important pillar stone for a spiritualist, in order to use your cultivated spirit essence efficiently you had to practice the Divine Skills.

There were two major types of Divine Skills; Divine Healing Skills and Divine Martial Skills. Divine Healing Skills were mainly practiced by women since it didn't require hours of physical training and gave the added effect of safer childbirth. For example, the slight glow Raven had noticed around her mother at her birth had been Besra's Divine Healing Skill Nourishing Light that continuously replenished your body, countering exhaustion. Divine Martial Skills on the other hand forced you to train relentlessly in order to master them. But once you did, you would be able to crush mountains with pebbles.

Both sets of skills had two things in common. The first was that both contained a nine-level categorization system that divided different skills into power levels - level one skills were the weakest, level nine skills the strongest. Although there were nine levels in theory, in practice most people never came into contact with skills beyond level three. As prefecture lords, the Nightingale clan most likely had access to a handful of level five skills and perhaps one or two level six skills. Beyond that was the realm of legend.

The second thing they had in common was that the Divine Skills could not be taught simply by observing, you had to get them imprinted on your very soul before you could even start practicing them. This had been a great source of irritation for Raven the past two years; the moment she had read about the Divine Skills she became so excited that she nearly fell out of the chair she had been sitting in. However, her excitement had soon died because there was no way she could possibly learn them.

There were essentially two ways to get a skill imprinted on your soul. The first was to learn it from a Divine Scroll written with spirit essence. Once read, the spirit essence in the scroll would flow into the reader to complete the imprint. These scrolls were however very precious and the three-year-old Raven had no way of getting hold of one. Of course, if she had asked her parents she might have been given one but she would have a hard time explaining why she wanted it without revealing that she'd already formed her spirit core.

Unfortunately the second option was even worse since it meant that someone who already had a skill imprint would form a temporary spirit connection with the person who wished to learn the skill, thus copying the imprint to the next soul. This option would instantly reveal not only how far your cultivation had come but also how many spirit connections you had.

Raven had clearly understood from all her reading that someone like her, with 243 spirit connections and a spirit core formed right after birth, was completely unprecedented. According to the books in the mansions library, the highest recorded amount of spirit connections in Sky Empire had been a legendary Spirit Master some hundred years ago, but he had been an 80-year-old man and his connections had still been in the quite far off from 200.

Raven had, by now, reached 245 connections and she could feel the next one connecting soon. All things considered, she would be seen as a monster. Or perhaps a miracle. Either way, it would change her life drastically if someone found out. This was something Raven feared more than anything - she had never lived a peaceful life before and now she was determined to keep it.

Of course, in theory, it should be possible to develop new Divine Skills on your own but very few had ever succeeded. The existing skills had usually been developed over countless generations.

Thus, Raven had chosen to quietly cultivate her spirit essence, without the aid of breathing techniques or Divine Skills; judging by the increased size of her spirit core she suspected that her cultivation had reached the mid-level Spirit Novice realm by now, but couldn't say for sure without a spirit stone. Also, without any Divine Skills to use it with, her core was of little practical use for Raven.

But Raven wasn't too disappointed. Even without any breathing techniques, her numerous spirit connections more than made up for it, keeping her cultivation at an alarming rate. Her brother's six-year head-start and aided cultivation still put him slightly ahead in terms of physical strength but Raven was catching up. Quickly.

She had also kept training her old world's martial arts to ensure a level of control over her body that she was comfortable with. In fact, this was perhaps the area she was most pleased with - practically since birth, Raven had nourished her cells with nearly boundless spirit essence. As a result, her body was extraordinarily flexible and resilient. She could train for hours on end without getting tired and some techniques she had trouble with in her past life, she could now execute flawlessly.

*BOOM!*

Haotzin once again flew across the courtyard, but he regained his footing a bit faster than last time. By now his previously green robes where covered in layers of dust.

"Again!" he shouted and once more rushed towards his father.

As he came closer Maleo swung out a big arm that first seemed to miss Haotzin but . . . *BOOM!* Hoatzin was sent flying.

"Again!"

The guard on Raven's right chuckled softly. "He has determination at least."

"Verdin, don't tease. It took you a year to come this close to learning the Shadow Walk." The left guard, Rook, teased back.

Raven simply smiled. These two guards were in their late-twenties and had quite recently graduated from a spirit school in the Nightingale prefecture. They had been the top of their class, both renowned for their fast learning skills. How else could they be guarding their lord's only daughter so soon after graduation? They were both lower Spirit Champions and Raven was very fond of the two; they were very loyal to her family and proud to be guarding one of them personally, but they never put on airs or treated those with lower status ill.

Raven focused her attention on her brother as he yet again tried to move past his father. Haotzin's task was actually quite straightforward. He was to run straight at his father and then use the second level Divine Martial Skill Shadow Walk to swiftly sidestep around Maleo, at the same time as he avoided his father's heavy arm sweeping towards him.

Raven could sense spirit essence collecting at the soles of Hoatzin's feet as he tried to perform the Divine Skill, but it was not stable enough this time either so she felt that failure was eminent. Seconds later Hoatzin was tossed into the air.

'He is so close. . . .' Raven mused to herself. She might not be able to learn the skill on her own but with her heightened senses she could clearly tell where the differences between her brother's faulty activation and her father's perfected version lay.

As Haotzin sprang to his feet and repeated the process once more, Raven's eyes flashed with insight.

'Hmm, it might work!'

In the same instant the loud bang rang out from the collision between father and son, Raven sprung to her feet and rushed towards her brother before her guards had a chance to stop her.

"Brother! Brother! Play with me!" a radiant smile spread across Raven's face as she bounced up and down around her brother at the center of the courtyard.

The soon to be nine-year-old Haotzin was a head taller than Raven so he bent down until he was face to face with her.

"Sorry little sister, I need to train with father. I can play with you after lunch." He placed a hand on her shoulder to push her off to the side but Raven easily sidestepped him.

"But I wanna play now!" Raven pouted.

Haotzin sighed. "Later," he repeated and made a second attempt to push his sister back to her armchair. However, Raven once more slipped out of his hand, now moving further away, giggling loudly.

"Hihi, you have to catch me first!" A small pink tongue popped out of her mouth as she teased her brother.

By the armchair, guards Verdin and Rook started to move forward to collect their young charge, but Lord Maleo raised a hand to stop them. He quite enjoyed seeing his children play and his son had reached a bottleneck anyway - some distraction might do him good.

Hoatzin gave his father a pleading look but Maleo only chuckled.

"You heard her, son. A woman's requests must be fulfilled, even a miniature one's." He crossed his arms and leaned against the courtyard wall. "Hurry up and catch her so we can continue."

Raven giggled and balanced on the heels of her feet. "You have to catch me! You have to catch me!"

With yet another sigh Haotzin finally gave in and started to chase after his taunting little sister. To his surprise Raven didn't run, but rather waited for him to grab her. Just as he thought the ordeal would be over quicker than expected, Raven shifted her body slightly and moved around him, her loose braid flowing behind her.

"Hihi, almost! Almost!" She laughed brightly as she moved away.

Hoatzin blinked. How had his sister moved away so quickly? He spun around and tried again, but once more she moved away in the last instant, like water slipping through his hands.

How could a barely trained 9-year-old possibly compare to the experience of a master assassin? Raven easily made up for their differences in strength by her perfectly executed footwork. What's more, from a distance it simply looked as if she was happily dancing around her brother. Unless you paid extreme attention to what was going on you wouldn't notice anything odd.

The "dance" continued for nearly 5 minutes and Haotzin was growing more and more frustrated. He had even started to use his incomplete Shadow Walk to assist him but he couldn't get the concentration of spirit essence at his feet high enough for it to make any difference.

The jubilant laughter of the young girl filled the courtyard.

"Hihi, brother is so clumsy! You move like an elephant!" Raven swayed lightly on the tip of her toes and once again twirled out of reach.

"Hmpf! What elephant? You're the one who moves like a Shadow Fairy, tipping around on your toes. . . ." Suddenly Haotzin's eyes widened and he stopped dead in his tracks. Next to him a mischievous smile crossed Raven's face only to be swiftly replaced with the earlier pout.

"Tche. Brother is so boring. You can't catch me no matter what!" Raven stopped her dodging and stomped back to her armchair and sank down with a loud *humph*.

The three older men in the courtyard stared at the young girl with astonishment and confusion. Five minutes! This three-year-old had danced around with her six years older brother for five minutes without him being able to catch her. Sure, it had looked more like a dance than a game of catch but when Haotzin in desperation had tried to rely the Shadow Walk it became apparent that the kid was actually trying his best.

"Father." Haotzin ignored his sister's comments and looked over at his father with new determination. His call roused Maleo from his thoughts of Raven's performance. "Can we continue?"

Maleo smiled and pushed away from the wall he was leaning against. He was really proud of his son's tenacity.

"Come!"

Chapter 4: Time To Enroll

From her armchair Raven watched as her brother resumed the previous exercises rushing towards their father. This time however, the spirit essence that flowed to his feet was no longer spread over the entire soles of his feet but was instead concentrated to only the front halves. Maleo swiped out his arm as soon as Hoatzin was within range but in that very instant Hoatzin had already appeared behind his fathers back.

"Yes!" Hoatzin raised a fist into the sky, pride filling his face.

Maleo blinked in surprise and then started laughing.

"Hahaha! Son, well done! You still have some ways to go before your spirit core is strong enough for you to preform the full Shadow Walk but by focusing on half the area you can indeed pull of this version." His big hands smacked his son on the back. "Good thinking!"

Maleo glanced over to the still pouting little Raven. "Make sure to thank your sister. You got some insight from playing with her, no?"

"Yes, father!" Hoatzin bowed and then also glanced at his sister. He would indeed have to think of a way to pay her back; who would have guessed that her game of tag would give him such ideas? If nothing else, next time she requested him to play her, he would have no right to refuse, regardless of the situation.

"Good, good. This will do for now. Go and clean up for lunch."

"Yes, father!" Hoatzin bowed once more and hurried of towards his chambers. Without her farther having to order it, guard Verdin stirred and followed his young master out. Hoatzin's own guards had been dismissed before the training so Verdin would naturally take their place temporarily.

Seeing her brother leave, Raven jumped to her feet, her previous pout nowhere to be seen. "Lunch!" she chimed happily and ran of towards the dining hall, her remaining guard close behind her.
Maleo looked pensively at the small female figure leaving the courtyard. What an odd daughter he had.

---------

A few minutes later, the family of four was seated around a smaller table in their private dining hall. I'iwi was standing to the side instructing servants where to place the trays of food they were carrying. Once they were done, Besra motioned for them to leave.

A variation of dishes had been paced on the table and their lovely aromas quickly filled the room. Raven noticed that even her favorite dish, stewed Mountain Owl with Frost Berries, was present. She pointed happily at the dish and before she had the time to ask, her brother had stretched over to give her a hand. Afterwards he served himself the same dish.

"Hoatzin, your father told me that you have managed to activate the Shadow Walk."

"Right now it's more of a step rather than a walk, mother." Hoatzin replied humbly. "It's not complete yet."

Raven hid her smile by drinking a large gulp of milk. Her father had often stressed the importance of not overestimating ones strengths and Haotzin seemed to have taken the preachers to heart.
Maleo simply nodded but Besra smiled happily. "Well done, my little Hoatzin!"

"I'm not little anymore, mother! I've already started learning my first Divine Skills..." Hoatzin protested.

"Right you are, son! Well spoken." Maleo laughed and smacked his son on his back so hard that Hoatzin dropped his fork. As it hit his plate, a red Frost Berry was flung across the room.

Raven started giggling uncontrollably and Besra shot her husband a reproving glare.

Maleo caughed slightly but placed his hand on Hoatzin's sholder, preventing the boy from rising to collect the wayward berry. "Never mind that. Late next month, the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts will have their entrance examinations in Sky City."

At this Hoatzin stopped trying to get up, and Raven's giggles quieted down as well. Both children looked at their father with excitement.

"I want you to go and take the exam, son."

"Really?" Hoatzin asked enthusiastically.

"Yes. As my son you might get accepted on your lineage alone but I want you to earn it on your own. If you can't pass you will return home and attend our Nightingale Academy. But with your spirit control you should have no problems!"

"I will make father proud!" Hoatzin was still happy but now determination seeped through every inch of him.

"You are a young man now so I will not accompany you. In two weeks you will leave with your guard detail. After that, as long as you get accepted, it will be a year until you can come home for a visit. This will continue for ten years. You are aware of this, right?"

"I know, Father. I still want to go."

Next to Maleo, Besra was smiling a bittersweet smile. She of course wanted the very best for her son, but to be separated from him for such long periods of time was still going to be painful for her.

Raven sat quietly for a while. She was really curious about the Sky Empire's capital and also about this Sky Acadamy. She quickly made up her mind.

Gingerly, Raven jumped down from her chair and walked around the table to her father. She grabbed the sleeve of her father's robe and looked up at him. Her green eyes were big and she looked so sweet that that even the coldest of men would melt in front of her. She lightly bit her pink lower lip before she spoke in a pleading voice.

"Father, can I go too? I want to cheer big brother on!"

"This..." Maleo frowned slightly. Originally he had only intended to send a small group guards with his son but if both his heirs were going it would be a completely different matter. Additionally, Raven was still so young. If she went it meant a governess or more had to go too.

"Pleeeease father!" Raven pulled of the remarkable feat of looking even sweeter as she pleaded yet again.

Besra chuckled lightly. "Let her go with him, Maleo. I will join them too, that way you can just focus on sending enough guards for us."

Of course, secretly Besra was overjoyed with an excuse to follow Hoatzin on his journey; it would be overprotective for her to join her son, but staying by her tree-year-old daughter was only to be expected.

Maleo sighed. He knew very well what his wife was thinking.

"If you insist." At least this way there would be no need for the governesses.

"Yeay!" The little Raven jumped up and down. She had gotten quite accustomed to acting like the spoiled little child she was supposed to be during the past three years.

Raven twirled around and threw herself at her brother, laughing happily. Hoatzin gave her a big hug and patted her on the head.

"Isn't this great? I get to show the capital my adorable little sister!" A bright smile was on Hoatzin's face too.

---------

Preparations for the trip started the very next day. Travelling was quite the affair for the wife and heirs of one the Sky Empire's three prefecture lords, especially for such a long trip as to Sky City. The best guards were chosen and safe travel routes were discussed - it was a time of relative peace on the continent in general, but there were still some bandits roaming around and you never knew when peace would turn to war; no risks were to be taken.

Sky Empire is one of the most wide-stretched countries on the continent and since it consists of mostly mountain ranges, it made the trip on the roads would take over a year, perhaps even two. Even between neighboring cities the journey would usually add up to a month or so, if done on horseback. Naturally a country would find it hard to stay united under such circumstances, but Sky Empire had a solution; the Everest Hawks.

The Everest Hawks were one of the aspects of the journey that Raven looked forward to the most. The Everest Hawks are a type of magical beast hawks that are incomparably large. The smallest of them are still large enough to carry a full-grown man on its back several hundreds of kilometers without tiring. The largest can use their talons to carry heavy cabins, big enough to fit up to a dozen fully armored soldiers inside. With these huge birds the travel times are reduced a hundred times over, turning the trip from Nightingale Prefecture to the capital city from nearly two years to a bare month.

Roughly five centuries ago the Sky Empire had started breeding these previously wild beasts and, by now, every city and larger village had a merchants guild responsible of tending to their appointed Everest Hawks. The hawk herd that would live on nearby mountain tops and be called upon using special whistles. Richer families might even have their own Everest Hawks. Naturally the Nightingale clan was no exception. Raven had with envy watched her father teach Hoatzin who to fly a smaller one not to long ago.

Now two of the clans larger Hawks were being prepared for the journey. One would carry Besra, the children and maid I'iwi. The other one their ten guards. The Everest Hawks could fly day and night for nearly a week without landing so both Hawks would be accompanied by a flying crew of three people taking turns guiding the birds. The hawks could be trusted to fly all the way to their destination without supervision but it was better to have someone keep track of their physical and mental state at all times so as to not tire them needlessly.

Apart from the actual travel arrangements, a large variety of goods had to be packed. If Hoatzin was to be accepted into the school he would move into the dorms immediately. This meant that all necessary personal effects had to be brought from the beginning. He would get a school uniform but he would need more than that if he were to live in a distant city for the next year. Two large trunks were filled with everything from copies of books from the clan library to high-level battle gear.

An additional trunk was filled to the brim with extravagant gifts that Besra would present during her visit. Since she was going, they were bound to be introduced to plenty of high-standing figures, including the Imperial family. There was no getting around that and gifts would be expected.

For the same reason two travel-cabinets, that basically looked like large trunks tilted over so as to stand on their smallest side, were also prepared. Within them hung two beautifully tailored gowns in fine, sky blue, silks. Intricate cloud patterns were woven into the fabric with copper-like thread. At their feat lay complex head ornaments, shimmering with golden luster. These were the official gowns noble women would wear while officially visiting other prefectures. Every prefecture had the same gowns, but the thread used to weave the patterns would vary. The other countries had similar traditions.

Raven might be young but she would still be expected to wear hers, and since she obviously had yet to be married her head ornament also included a veil to cover her face with. Only core clan members and their personal servants had the privilege to see her face before marriage, forcing her to wear a veil whenever leaving the Nightingale residence.
It was a notion extremely foreign to Raven herself. But she had learned to stick to the rule very quickly though..

She had once accidentally walked in on a public forum her father had held in their main hall, and over fifty merchants and normal citizens had seen her face. As a result every non-clan member present had been given the required punishment: one whiplash for every year since Raven was born! Fortunately Raven had only been two at the time so no one was severely injured, but she still felt extremely guilty about it all and had secretly vowed to make it up to them at a later time.

---------

Two weeks went by quickly and on a crisp spring day Raven and her family gathered in the main courtyard. In the center stood the two cabins that would house them and their guards on the journey to Sky City. The ten guards that would accompany them were waiting patiently to the side. Raven's personal guards, Verdin and Rook were among them. The crewmen appointed to the trip were making last minute checks, calling short commands to each other as they worked.

"Well then."

Maleo glanced at the sky above them before he went down on one knee to be face-to-face with Hoatzin. He grabbed his son's shoulders and gave him a firm look.

"Remember who you are; as a Nightingale you have a great heritage but you must never abuse this, nor let your self be abused by others."

Hoatzin swallowed. "Yes, father."

"I know you will make me proud." Maleo stood up and patted his son on his back.

Raven watched as her father and brother said their goodbyes. There was an awkwardness about it that Raven found quite amusing. She even had to bite her lip to stop herself from giggling when she caught her father scratching the bridge of his nose, stealthily removing the moist that had gathered in the inner corner of his eye.

It was obvious that her father was trying to be strict and resolute in front of her brother but at the same time she suspected that Maleo was even more unwilling to see Hoatzin go than her mother. Haotzin was his first-born son after all. Maleo knew the importance of letting him spread his wings, but knowing and wholeheartedly approving were two different things.

A minute later, Maleo waved for the guards to enter their cabin. Verdin and Rook winked at Raven as they disappeared inside. Noticing the movements of the guards, two of the crewmen pulled out a small silver whistle each and placed them to their lips. No sound was heard, but instants later two distant figures appeared in the sky. Raven watched with awe as the figures grew larger and larger, and finally two huge hawks landed on the ground next to the crewmen that blew the whistles. The sight of the Everest Hawks - these two easily five meters tall - with their glacier white feathers, never seized to amaze her.

The hawks lowered their majestic blue-tinged heads so that the men on the ground could reach them. The crewmen in turn placed their hands on the birds' beaks. Raven knew that this was done to initiate the spirit connection that would allow them to communicate efficiently with each other. Even if the Hawk's intellect was far from being on par with humans, the spirit connection would allow bird and man to instinctively understand each others needs. To call it a bond between equals was however incorrect. The crewmen could use the same connection to give orders that the hawks couldn't refuse.

"Come children, it is time for us to leave." Besra gave her husband a quick kiss before leading her two children into the passenger section of their cabin, followed closely by I'iwi.

Once inside, Raven rushed to the window that faced her father still in the courtyard. She waved enthusiastically and thought to herself 'This being-a-kid thing is quite refreshing!'.

"Bye, bye, father!" she shouted as the Everest Hawks spread their enormous wings.

With only one beat of the giant birds's wings, wild gusts of wind spread throughout the courtyard. In the next moment Raven felt the cabin sway slightly, and within three breaths they where already nearly a hundred meters above the mansion.

Hoatzin joined her at the window and together they looked down on the city that spread around the mansion. Most houses were built out of wood, that had later been painted in a rusty red copper paint that kept the harsh weathers at bay. These houses were intermingled with the light green specks of spring trees. It might not be an awe-inspiring sight, but it was indeed beautiful, and it was their home.

Raven looked up at her brother. He had a complicated expression on his face. Raven could guess at the conflicting emotions he must be experiencing; he was excited for what he was going to experience but reluctant about what he was leaving behind. Hoatzin was after all only nine and this would be his first time away from home, away from his family.

"Brother! Brother! What will Sky City be like?" Raven twirled around and plopped down on the nearby couch.

Hoatzin joined her at the couch and started retelling the stories he had heard about the city. Raven had of course already heard, or read, all of these stories before but she wanted to distract her brother. As Hoatzin spoke the reluctance in him seemed to fade, leaving only anticipation.

And so, the journey flashed by. Most days were spent reading or telling stories but every once in a while the hawks would lower the cabins to the ground to rest for a day while the travelers used the opportunity to stretch their legs. The cabins were fairly large but for the ten guards that shared the same space as the four people riding in Raven's cabin, it became quite cramped. On these day's the company would arrange larger meals and even have sparring sessions for entertainment and for practice. Raven really enjoyed watching these.

All the guards were lower Spirit Champions and their battles were quite spectacular. As they fought, they used various Divine Martial Skills that would sometimes allow them to move at extreme speeds, sometimes combine blows with various elements such as fire or lightning. Of course, they couldn't go all out in fear of attracting unwanted attention, but it was none the less amazing to watch. Both Raven's and Hoatzin's eyes twitched slightly every time a martial skill was activated; none of them could wait until the day they too would start to learn these martial skills. Raven realized that it would take some convincing of her parents to let her train in the martial skills rather than the healing ones but she would deal with that problem once it comes.

One skill set in particular caught Raven's interest. It was used by one of the smaller guards and it went by the name Sonic Swords. They were a peculiar set of Divine Martial Skills in the sense that they evolved. When you first learned it, it would only be a level one skill, but if you practiced with it relentlessly you could gain additional insights and evolve the skill. There seemed to be no limits how far it could go. The small guard who used it seemed to have evolved it to the rare fourth level; Silent Pierce.

The small guard would keep his sword sheathed as he moved around his opponent. Once he found a opening he would then silently withdraw his sword. It looked very unremarkable, and yet somehow his opponents never seamed to be able to tell where he would strike at and as a result almost always lost. He never even had to use any of the other Sonic Sword skills. As an ex-assassin, Raven was quite envious about this skill, she could tell the frightening potential of such attacks. But, as usual, there was no way for her to learn it so she had to settle for watching.

After sparring the company would return to their cabins and the Everest Hawks would take of yet again. Four weeks passed in this manner and on the 29th day after their departure from Nightingale City Hoatzin suddenly jumped to his feat and rushed over to the bay side window. His eyes were round in awe.

"Little sister, come look!"

Chapter 5: Sky City

Raven bounced up from the floor, where she had been reading a book about various Magical Beats, and joined her brother at the window.

"Wow!" Raven didn't need to act her astonishment this time; nobody could see Sky City for the first time without being impressed.

The city truly lived up to its name. Four mountain peaks stood fairly close to each other as they stretched towards the sky. The center peak was the tallest, with the three slightly lower peaks surrounding it. Around the foot of the mountains spread a large city, several kilometers in every direction, but the city wasn't limited to the ground.

Making its way up the mountains, several layers of settlements extended between the peaks, suspended over nothing but air. A great waterfall flowed down the middle peak, branching out into smaller waterfalls at every new level. Despite being covered by higher settlements, even the lowest levels had no problems getting plenty of sunlight since the distance between them where so great. Hundreds of Everest Hawks were constantly traveling between the different levels and the surrounding city.

The Sky City was located slightly further south that the Nightingale prefecture. As a result spring had come further here and dark green greenery wove its way up the mountains and intermingled with both the houses around and on the mountain. As their cabin drew closer to the city, Hoatzin nudged Raven's shoulder and pointed to the top of the center peak.

"That must be the imperial palace, Indigo Cloud Palace!"

Raven lifted her gaze and noticed an extravagant structure sitting on a plateau above the massive waterfall. The Indigo Cloud Palace's stone walls shone with a light blue shimmer amidst the otherwise dark stone surrounding it. Large portions of the palace perturbed daringly over the plateau's edge, defying both gravity and logic. It was many times larger than the Nightingale mansion, with multiple towers extending towards the skies.

Raven wondered if not most residents of her home city would fit within.

"Raven, come here."

Just as the cabin got close enough for Raven to start seeing people milling about the city, her mother called out to her. Raven reluctantly turned away from the window and obediently walked over to her mother. Besra placed a simple veiled ornament on Raven's head.

"You have to be careful not to drop this, little Raven."

"Yes mother!" Raven would not make that mistake again...

Not soon after, the cabin swayed slightly and with a soft thud it came to a stop. Outside of the cabin Raven could hear the roaring sounds of rushing water.

'We must have landed quite close to the waterfall...'

Raven glanced back towards the window, but before she could move to look out, the cabin door opened and a familiar guard bowed in the doorway.

"My Lady Besra, young master, young mistress. We have arrived at the imperial residence, Indigo Cloud Palace."

The guard moved out of the way and Besra stood up to walk out, motioning to Raven and her brother to follow.
Once outside, Raven noticed that the cabin had been placed on a constructed landing area, protruding the middle peak's mountain wall. Several similar platforms could be seen on both sides of the one they were on. At the end of them all were the foundations of the awe-inspiring imperial palace she had seen from the sky. This close it looked even more daunting, as if it was challenging heaven it self with its high towers, and ornate walls, reaching endlessly upwards.

Besra walked towards the palace, closely followed by her two children. Hoatzin had grabbed Raven's hand, keeping her close to him as they came approached the palace. Excitement filled both their eyes, but Raven noticed a tinge of nervousness beneath the surface within her brother. How could he not be nervous? He was about to meet the Emperor for the first time.

'My dear brother... He hides his nervousness so well and strives to comfort me at the same time. He will grow into a fine man one day!'

Of course Hoatzin wanted to comfort her, if he was nervous, his little sister must be even more so. However, in her past life Raven had been sent to assassinate both kings and emperors numerous times, why be nervous only to meet one?

Raven and her family were flanked on both sides by palace guards - their own guards would have to wait by the cabins until the emperor gave them permission to enter - but I'iwi followed the family five steps behind them, carrying a small wooden box.

Finally Raven's mother reached the end of the platform. Slightly lifting her gown, she curtsied gracefully; her knees almost hitting the ground as she spoke with a lowered head.

"Lady Besra of the Nightingale Prefecture pays her respects to Sky Empress Nene."

Behind her Raven copied her mother perfectly while Hoatzin bowed deeply. I'iwi kneeled behind them..

"We pay our respects to the Empress!" the children echoed in unison.

"Oh my! Dear Besra, we are childhood friends! No need for all this formality."

The sweetest voice Raven had ever heard filled the air and a pearly white hand reached out to pull Besra to her feat. Raven straightened to see a petite woman in a gold-shimmering gown warmly embrace her mother. Even though her face looked very young, the woman's hair was pure white and flowed like water over her shoulders.

"As you wish, Nene." Besra laughed as she answered the embrace wholeheartedly.

Behind Raven's veil a small, dark-violet eyebrow rose.

'To think my mother had this good a relationship with the Empress... Quite impressive!'

"I know Mallard usually greets the Prefecture Lords but when I heard you were coming I begged him to let me do it." Empress Nene smiled mischievously as she backed away from Raven's mother.

Besra glanced questioningly at her imperial friend. "Begged? You?"

"Haha, well, 'forced' sounds so harsh." A saint couldn't look more innocent.

Raven immediately got a good impression of the woman. She had an impressive nobility about her that remained even as she joked with Raven's mother. She had no doubt been raised for her role since birth, but no haughtiness was present at all.

Besra chuckled and waved a hand signaling I'iwi to get move forward.

"I have a gift for you."

"Keep it for now." Nene interrupted. "Let me take you to your quarters. There we can talk undisturbed and you can hand me this gift of yours."

She nodded to one of her attendants before grabbing Besra by the arm and walking of into the palace. Hoatzin and Raven glanced at each other before hurrying after the pair of ladies.

---------

After that Raven and her family had been lead to the spacious suite they would use while in town. As soon as they have entered the empress had ordered her attendants to inform the emperor of their arrival and then leave. The moment the servants had left Nene had pulled Raven's mother into a nearby sofa and started chatting about everything between heaven and earth.

Soon after a middle-aged, sturdily built, man in golden robes had strode into the room and before Besra or her children had the time to stand and welcome him, Emperor Mullard had laughed waved for them to stay seated.

"Any childhood friend of my wife's is a childhood friend of me. No need for formality in private." With that he had sat down as well and joined the conversations.

Like this the days passed. Empress Nene would arrive everyday to talk with Raven's mother, sometimes joined by her husband, sometimes alone. Raven grew really fond of the imperial couple. They were very friendly, and seemed just and fair in their ruling; Raven could understand why the people loved them.

Once a day, Hoatzin would head out to join their family guard's training sessions and Raven would keep him company. She had hoped to be able to sneak of and explore her surroundings a bit more but Verdin and Rook were on duty even here so there was nothing she could do.

One week later, to the day, Besra and Raven rose extra early in the morning. Today was finally the day when the young applicants would have their entrance exams in hope of earning a spot at the Imperial Academy of Divine Arts. After the examinations concluded, a minor banquette would be held at the palace for all children of nobles and foreign dignitaries that might have passed. Since Raven and her mother were going to attend all of this, they had to dress as tradition demanded from the start.

But dressing according to tradition took time. Simply putting on the gowns was complicated, not to mention getting the head ornaments in place; to make it in time, Besra had to work on Raven's hair at the same time as I'iwi worked on Besra's.

As the minutes turned into hours the delicate ornaments were slowly woven into place by interlocking braids, while some hair was left to hang freely down their backs. Once the coiffure was done, the multiple layers of the gowns were draped around the two ladies. All together it took nearly four hours to get ready. The results, however, were quite spectacular.

Raven looked at her reflection in the large mirror in her mother's chamber and sighed slightly in appreciation. With the extravagant dress in light blue silks on, together with the exquisitely arranged hair and veiled head-ornament, Raven looked like a combination of the magical Water Nymphs she had read about in her books and the elegant geisha of her old world. When she moved bells tingled in her hair and the thin fabrics of her gown swayed slightly. The free, floor-long, hair down her back rested on the long hem of the dress that swept the ground as she walked.

The traditional dress came even more into its element when worn by Raven's mother. On Besra, the dress perfectly showed of her supple waist and promoted her firm bosom, without becoming too evocative. Next to each other, one was a goddess, the other a fairy.
"I'iwi, go bring my son."

I'iwi bowed and left the room and soon after returned with Hoatzin in tow. He wearing the same green robes as always; since he was attending the exams he would not need to change until afterwards. If he passed he would change into the Academy's uniforms. As he caught sight of Raven and his mother pride filled his happy face.

"It's an honor to be blessed with two so beautiful women in my family! The very flowers of heaven would seem dull in your presence." He might be young, but Hoatzin knew to compliment beauty when he saw it.

Besra just smiled.

"Come, it is time to leave for the exam."

Together the four of them left the suite and the Indigo Cloud Palace.

---------

"Lady Nightingale, this way, if you please."

A middle-aged attendant bowed deeply before slowly leading the way down a narrow corridor. Raven and the two women with her had entered the auditorium hall of the great Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts. Hoatzin had been already left them to join the rest of the applicants in an other area.

The attendant elegantly opened a door at the end of the corridor. He bowed once again as Besra and Raven passed him, walking out on their personal viewing balcony. I'iwi nodded politely to the attendant before closing the door quietly. On the balcony there were two rows of comfortable chairs and a small table with drinks on it, all of it facing out towards the stage below the balcony. Beyond the stage was the common viewing area where family and friends of other applicants were allowed to watch the exams.

'It would seem as if we are as much part of the entertainment as the examinations...' Raven mused to herself.

Probably up to two thousand people could be seated below, but today nearly half of the seats were empty. Raven had noticed that quite a lot of the people below stared up at them with curious eyes, some would even point or nod in their direction whilst whispering something to their neighbors.

Usually prefecture lords only attended the entrance examinations if an heir was present. For example, Rock Wren Prefecture had no lord or lady present today since their heirs were older and already attended Sky Academy.

"All rise for their Imperial Highness, Sky Emperor Mallard Bateleur and Sky Empress Nene!"

A loud voice echoed through the hall and everyone present, including Raven and her mother, rose to their feat and looked up at the balcony directly above the one Raven was in. This was the arrangement, the three prefectures each had a personal balcony above the stage and the imperial family had theirs above those three.

The couple Raven had come to know a bit over the past week walked out on imperial balcony, with Nene's hand resting on her husbands arm. With them standing next to each other Raven couldn't help but notice how different they looked, they were almost each others opposites even. Were Empress Nene was lithe and petite, Emepror Mallard was muscular and tall. Were one had white hair that flowed like water in the wind, the other had pitch black hair trimmed too short for the wind to move very much at all.

'Like Yin and Yang...' Raven finally made the connection and chuckled softly to herself.

Behind them walked a very muscular man with wavy blonde hair. He wore a sea green, silk jacket with two rows of buttons down the front. He seemed very imposing but Raven noticed that his right hand kept grabbing at his hip.

'He is a warrior then...' Raven recognized the nervous tick that swordsmen would find hard to get rid of the moment they moved around without their weapons.

Emperor Mallard lead his wife to one of the foremost chairs on the balcony and let her sit. He gave a light nod to Raven's mother and another of to the left. Leaning out, Raven noticed that a man she recognized as Lord Griffin, the prefecture lord of Red Griffin Prefecture, sat on the left-side balcony.

After the two nods, his Imperial Highness indicated for the blond man to take the chair to his left and sat down himself. The rest of the hall followed suit.

Out on the stage walked a bearded elderly man in a light grey scholar's robe. Over right chest was an embroidery of the same nine-pointed star that Raven had seen on the floor in the Spirit Hall over three years ago. Even though she hadn't entered the Hall again she had since then learnt that it was the symbol representing all spiritualists, the Spirit Star. Elders and students at various spirit schools would have the emblem on their uniforms.

Once at the center of the stage the elderly man bowed towards the Emperor before turning to face the majority of the crowd.

"Welcome to the annual entrance exams for the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts!" his strong voice echoed out into the hall. "I am Elder Kagu, and I will administer today's final exam." He paused and gazed out over the audience.

"All applicants have been checked and they have all passed the first requirement; establishing their spirit cores before the age of nine. But, as you know, Sky Academy has even higher requirements before accepting new students."

"896 children have applied for the exam this year, most likely less than ten will pass." Elder Kagu continued and at his words a sharp intake of air spread throughout the hall.

'Only ten? So few...' Raven was quite surprised. She knew getting in would be hard but ten out of nearly a thousand was far worse than she had expected.

"The final exam is a simple test of control." a small light-spark popped out of the man's hand and came to rest in his palm. "Every child will be filled with one hundred small orbs of my spirit essence. They will then have five minutes to use their own spirit essence to force them out. From years of experience I can tell you that eight out of nine will be able to expel up to ten orbs. One in ten is likely to manage up to twenty. One in a hundred might succeed in expelling thirty. This is the bar they must pass to get accepted into the Sky Academy."

The requirements to get accepted were really very high. Even though Raven and her brother had almost a 100% chance of being born with a crystallized soul due to both of their parents being fairly skilled spiritualists, crystallization was an inherited trait which meant that with normal parents the likelihood of being born with this feature was close to none existent.

Of the four million inhabitants of Sky Empire, only 40,000 would have the potential to become spiritualist during their life-times. To then be able to form a spirit core before the age of nine almost always required access to a spirit hall that would allow the first spirit connection to form early. This reduced the pool to roughly 20,000 people. Statistically, at any given moment, less than 2,000 of these would be between the ages of five and nine. To have nearly 900 children with their cores formed present at the same time was already more than usual. Still, only ten were likely to be accepted.

"We will test the children in groups of a hundred. Let the first group come in."

The doors to the side of the stage swung open and the hundred children swarmed in, but Raven quickly noticed that her brother was not among them. Elder Kagu watched as the children formed ten neat rows.

"Remember, use of any Divine Skill is strictly forbidden." He looked sternly at the youths on stage. Raven could clearly feel him using spirit essence to apply increased mental pressure on the group. Many swallowed and started sweating under this pressure.

"Don't resist." The elderly man shouted and thousands of small orbs of light streamed out of the Elder, swirling swiftly around the children before splitting up and surging into the waiting participants. The spectators could see how every child now had one hundred small dots of light spread out over their bodies, clearly visible through both skin and clothing. The whole ordeal was quite beautiful to watch actually.

"You have five minutes, starting... now!"

On Elder Kagu's mark every child on stage closed their eyes, focusing on the foreign spirit essence within them. As they did, some the dots started moving slowly, clearly under the influence of the children. Soon the first sparks of light were forced out of their hosts. Once outside, the small orbs started circulating around the child it had come from.

As the minutes passed, more and more light filled the stage, but as the five minute mark came, none had reached the thirty-orbs limit. Elder Kagu stopped the exam by simply retracting all orbs back to himself and then asking the children to leave the stage and take a seat in the audience instead. While the failed children walked of the stage, their faces filled with regret, the next group walked in and once more formed ten neat rows.

This process was repeated once more before the first pass came; in the third group a pair of identical twins managed to both expel 33 orbs and thus earning a place at the academy. From the balcony to their left Raven heard a content chuckle.

"Good, very good!"

It was Lord Griffin that had spoken, and looking back at the two twins Raven could clearly see the family resemblance.

'First pass and with margins... Good for them.' Raven smiled slightly behind her veil. Being the first to pass any exam would always leave a good impression. Naturally the prefecture lord would be extra happy for the luck of his heirs.

Raven turned her attention back to the stage. Four more groups came and went, each producing one successful applicant, resulting in a total of six passes as the eighth group was asked to take the stage. Most had just barely passed but one applicant had amazed the crowds by removing an impressive 35 spirit orbs. To Raven's dismay she had recognized the boy as her eldest cousin Dunlin, son of aunt Anhinga.

If his mother was annoying to deal with, Dunlin was a virtual pest. He was one month older than Hoatzin and he was spoiled to the core. He lived under the impression that everyone either adored him or was too ignorant to know better. Raven hoped that someone, anyone, would preform better than him. At least that would be a thorn in his otherwise rosy life. But as the eighth group filled the stage Raven abandoned her current train of thoughts.

Because at the very front of this group stood a very familiar face, Hoatzin.

Chapter 6: Foreign Might

Hoatzin stood at the front end of the stage. Raven couldn't see his face from the balcony she was on but she noticed that his fists were clenched in determination.

'Good luck brother!' Raven prayed.

"Don't resist." Elder Kagu shouted his instructions for the eighth time and the air was once more filled with thousands of spirit orbs. Once they had entered the present children, Elder Kagu spoke yet again. "You have five minutes, starting… now!”

The exam began. It only took a heartbeat before the first light shot out of Hoatzin. A faint murmur spread throughout the crowed. So far, no one had been this fast with the first expulsion.

The seconds flew by and as the one minute mark came and went Hoatzin had managed to push nine orbs out of him. Raven sighed a breath of relief. If he kept this up her brother would pass the exam in flying colors, perhaps even beat cousin Dunlin!

'Hmm?'

Raven had averted her gaze from her brother for a moment to observe the other participants and she noticed a blond youth standing right below her at the far right-hand side of the stage. By now, everyone else had managed to expel at least one or two orbs, but not this boy. Not even one orb of light rotated around him, but as Raven looked closer she realized that even if the lights from the spirit orbs were still within him, seven sparks seemed to shine brighter than the rest and the vibrated ever so slightly.

At this moment a tenth orb flew out of her brother at the other end of the stage, momentarily taring Raven's attention to the front. When she looked back at the blond youth see witnessed how yet another spark slowly began to glow stronger within him.

'Could it be...?'

Raven kept observing her brother and the blond boy closely. Every time Haotzin managed to expel a new orb, one more spark would brighten within the blonde.

'It can't be... Is he moving a new orb closer to his skin every time he sees my brother expel one?'

Once ten sparks had increased in luminescence within the boy, they simultaneously shook once and then slipped out of him. Everyone in the hall noticed the sudden increase in light at the back of the stage, and yet another a faint murmur spread throughout the hall. At this moment Hoatzin had twelve orbs rotating slowly around him and the audience watched with intense stares as he and the blonde continued to steadily expel orb after orb.

Raven noticed that even if the boy now pushed out the spirit orbs rather keep them just under his skin, he still paced himself after her brother's progress; as soon as the previous orb left the blonde a new spark would intensify and then wait patiently under his skin until Hoatzin managed to release his next orb.

By the time only one minute remained, Hoatzin had managed to remove a staggering 33 spirit orbs and more were still coming. Raven was overjoyed by her brother's achievements but at the same time perplexed by the blonde youth. He had 31 spirit orbs flying around him and a thirty-second spark that shone brighter than the rest within him; why wasn't he expelling it right away? He clearly had the skill to do so, but instead he matched his pace to her brother...

While Raven pondered this, time went on and before she knew it Elder Kagu's voice filled the hall.

"Time is up." Elder Kagu waved his hand and collected all the orbs back to him.

Silence filled the hall. How did it go? In the end there had been too many orbs flying around the participants on stage to tell clearly what the results were.

"Two confirmed passes: Hoatzin Nightingale, 40 orbs cleared, and Javelin Hake, 38 orbs cleared."

The gathered crowd started applauding vigorously at the elders report and even the previously indifferent elder himself seem quite pleased at these results. He felt joy at the fact that two geniuses had appeared this time, and the Dunlin kid wasn't half bad either.

"The two of you can follow the attendant out. The rest of you, take your seats in the audience." Elder Kagu instructed.
On stage Hoatzin turned to look for the other person who had also passed. Seeing this, the blonde walked over to him, reaching out a hand in greeting. Clasping hands they said something to each other that Raven couldn't hear and then turned to follow the attendant of the stage.

Just as they reached the end of the stage Hoatzin saw Raven standing above them at the railing of her balcony. He paused and waved happily to her. The blond Javelin Hake stopped as well and followed Hoatzin's gaze. When his eyes landed on the dolled-up Raven he seemed to freeze in place.

Raven had lifted a delicate hand to wave back to her brother, but when she saw Javelin's reaction, the hand instead moved to cover her already veiled mouth, stifling a giggle. Hoatzin of course noticed this and looked back at the boy next to him. Seeing the baffled expression on the boy's face, Hoatzin laughed and rolled his eyes as he nudged Javelin in the side. This yanked the blonde back to reality. The tip of his ears turned bright red, and the young Javelin scratched the back of his neck as he sheepishly followed Hoatzin of the stage.

'Hehe, could that be what it meens to be "love struck"?' Raven released the giggle. 'How adorable.'

Raven had occasionally used her feminine charms to get close to targets in her old life but this was the first time seeing it in such a pure and innocent form. Previously there had always been a underlying surge of ravage lust for her to play on. But this youth had obviously not yet turned nine and was too young for that sort of thing. His attention was pure adoration.

The remaining group didn't give any big surprises, but one more managed to pass the exam, and thus a total of 9 children managed to get excepted into the Academy this year.

None of the new students were girls, in fact, none of the applicants had been girls. This was to be expected though since Sky Academy was mostly an academy for Divine Martial Skills practiced mainly by boys. There was a special branch for Healing Skills but they held their exams separately and the criteria to pass was different as well.

"Little Raven, what do you think of your brother?" Besra spoke for the first time since the exams started.
Raven turned to look at her mother who couldn't hide the pride she felt over her son from her face. Raven nodded happily.

"Big brother is the best! A lot better than cousin Dunlin!"

A trace of worry flashed across Besra face before returning to the pleased expression from before.

"Indeed he was. Your father will be overjoyed when he hears of little Hoatzin's results." Besra stood up. "Come little
Raven, we must leave for the banquet so we can congratulate your big brother properly."

I'iwi walked over to the door and opened it to let Lady Besra and her daughter out. Raven's mother started walking towards the opening but before she reached the door she paused and glanced out over the stage. Besra then crouched down in front of her daughter and whispered softly in Raven's ear.

"And my darling little Raven, you are still young but tonight is important for you too. Perhaps your future husband will be present at the banquet so be on your best behavior. You must honor your father and brother by finding a good man to marry." Besra stood once more. "It is never too early to start looking."

With a knowing smile on her face, Besra turned and walked out the door. Shocked, Raven was frozen in place for a few seconds before she shrugged and followed after her mother.

'I should have guessed this would be coming... I'm a female of noble birth, of course I'll get a fiance at a young age! But to "start looking" at the age of three... isn't that pushing it a bit?'

It really wasn't though. As a female child of two parents both able to become spiritualists she would have a higher chance of giving birth to spiritualists in the future. This in combination with her father being a prefecture lord meant that she was "prime meat", so to speak. It was only out of respect for her own wishes that she hadn't been betrothed to someone the moment she was born.

Raven, her mother and their maid were flown back to the Indigo Cloud Palace by a majestic Everest Hawk.

Well back in the palace, they were led to one of the mid-sized dining halls were the banquet would take place. It was large enough to feel quite grand but still not too large considering the limited amount of people that would attend the banquet. "Limited" is of course only a relative term. In reality over one hundred people would be present at the event.

Apart from representatives from the clans of the young nobles who passed the exam and the new students themselves, important elders from Sky Academy would also attend. Even prior, and present, students from noble clans would be present. It was supposed to be a celebration for the new students but Raven suspected it would become more of a bragging contest among the various noble clans present.

The main noble clans, that is to say the three prefecture clans and of course the imperial family, were at least officially all on very good terms. This did however not stop them from competing with each other whenever they got the chance. Raven's father detested the mood at these type of gatherings and she suspected that the reason he had stayed home was to avoid the hole event.

Raven obediently followed her mother as Besra made her rounds, greeting the other guests that had already arrived. Keeping her mother's orders from before in mind, Raven deliberately kept her movements as soft and fluid as humanly possible. As a result most ladies present seemed stiff in comparison; Raven moved as if floating on air and every time her mother introduced her to a new person the bells in her hair would jingle softly as she curtsied with so much grace that even her own mother started having doubts about her age an lineage - could a human child really be so graceful?
Raven's veil had been lifted slightly to allow her to eat and drink. Her eyes were still covered, but her small mouth was not. This gave her a even more mysterious and fairy like air about her. Raven exploited this feature to the utmost as she smiled, grinned and laughed her way around the hall.

She almost never spoke but somehow, everyone that greeted her got the best possible impression; she would smile silently in front of an old Elder from the Academy in one instant and then grin wholeheartedly at a noble youth in the next. Like such she adapted her demeanor depending on the people around her.

'Haha, what is humanity if not predictable.' she thought to herself as she moved around the hall.

Raven knew what kind of people she was among. The fabric of this world might work differently from her old world, but the humans living in it did not. With her background she could tell in an instant what the people she met thought was proper conduct and behave accordingly.

'Brother did so well during his exam, I must be a fitting complement!'

Both her mother, that Raven accompanied, and maid I'iwi, that stood quietly observing at the back of the room, were struck by the same thought their husband, or correspondingly Lord, had just over a month ago: 'what an odd little daughter!' Others might not notice the subtle variations in Raven's behavior, but they did.

At this point the grand doors at the far end of the banquet hall swung open. The people in the hall quieted down and bowed slightly as they saw the emperor striding in through the doorway. He was flanked on either side by his wife and the blond warrior in sea-green uniform that Raven had noticed before. Once inside, Emperor Mallard came to a halt and gazed out over the people gathered.

"Greetings everyone. I'm glad to see so many of you here today to congratulate our newest generation of talented spiritualists. This year we have extra talented boys entering our Sky Academy - I really look forward to the future they will bring." He laughed merrily as he spoke.

"The new students will join us shortly but before that I would like to introduce you all to a new friend of mine, Admiral Devario Hake of the Sea Empire." Mallard placed his imperial hand on the blonde man's shoulder. The admiral seemed to stiffen slightly under the weight of the hand. Raven guessed that the poor admiral was not used to be treated in such friendly manner by his own emperor, let alone a neighboring one.

"Admiral Hake is here to support his son that today passed the entrance exams with outstanding results. I am of course referring to the second ranked student, young Javelin Hake!" the emperors smile widened as he patted the admiral's shoulder passionately. "Even though our young Hoatzin Nightingale managed to hit the one in a thousand mark of forty expelled orbs, considering your son's age, it is hard to say who has the most potential."

Admiral Hake simply nodded.

Raven's eyes widened slightly under her veil. 'A foreigner! Is that the reason he didn't push himself to best Brother?'

"The young Javelin attending our Sky Academy is part of a newly formed exchange program between the three great empires so treat him well in the future." Mallard finally let go of admiral Hake, who seemed to relax a bit."Now then, Elder Kagu, would you introduce our guests of honor?"

From beyond the doorway the Elder from the exam walked in followed by five youths. The youths had all changed into the dark grey uniforms of Sky Academy consisting of simple grey robes with an all-white version of the Spirit Star on their chest. The group stopped in front of Emperor Mallard.

"With pleasure, your Highness." The elder bowed before he gestured to the students behind him. "This year, four out of the nine student who passed the exams are of noble birth," The elderly man reported. "Including our foreign student of course." Elder Kagu added hastily. "In the order they passed we have first the twins Lark and Martin Griffin of the Red Griffin Prefecture." Hearing their names, two red headed boys, that looked identical to each other, stepped forward.

"We greet our elders!" they shouted in perfect unison as they bowed deeply.

"The young misters will turn nine in four months and both have a spirit control level of 33."

The gathered group clapped politely and those who happened to stand close enough to Lord Griffin congratulated him for the achievements of his sons.

"Then we have Dunlin Talon of the Nightingale Prefecture." The twins stepped back and Dunlin instead took a step forward.

"This humble student greats his honorable elders!" he shouted and bowed far deeper than necessary.

Underneath her veil Raven rolled her eyes. 'Seriously, this brat... Humble? He doesn't know the meaning of the word.'

Surprised by the sudden extravagance, Elder Kagu blinked twice before resuming his report. "Ah, yes... Young mister Talon is nine in two months and has a spirit control level of 35."

Once again polite applauds spread through the hall accompanied by light murmurs about the youths achievement.

"Thirdly, and with the highest score, is Hoatzin Nightingale of the Nightingale Prefecture."

As Dunlin moved back, and Hoatzin moved forward to greet the assembly, Raven caught Dunlin sneering at her brother's back. He made little to no attempt to hide his content.

"I greet my elders!" Hoatzin bowed appropriately.

"Young mister Hoatzin will turn nine in three months and has a truly amazing spirit control level of 40." Elder Kagu continued.

At this shocked breaths could be heard before thunderous applauds filled the hall. Clearly everyone had not been present during the examinations and many were deeply impressed by his achievement. The difference between 35 and 40 might not seem as much but the difficulty of expelling the orbs rose exponentially for every next step; achieving 40 required nearly twice as much effort as achieving 35 and perhaps ten times as much as achieving 30.

The praise to Raven's mother flowed in endlessly and eventually Elder Kagu had to ask people to quiet down.

"Yes, a truly amazing achievement." Elder Kagu agreed. "It has been nearly ten years since we had a student with the same potential."

Hoatzin's ears had turned slightly red by the time the elder spoke again. He was not used to so much praise.

"Well then." the elder continued. "Finally we have our exchange student, Javelin Hake."

The blond Javelin walked forward and bowed respectfully. "I greet my elders!"

"Although he fell slightly short in his spirit control compared to young mister Nightingale, his age is quite impressive. Young mister Hake turned seven only two months ago."

Silence.

'He is only seven? This Javelin keeps surprising me... Impressive!' Raven eyed the blonde youth with increased interest.
Murmurs started spreading in the hall that were soon covered by hesitant clapping. As the applause grew stronger and a few guests even started to compliment the admiral, Raven glanced around the room.

'Ah, that is perhaps the reason he held himself back. His age is intimidating enough. If he got the highest score as well, some would think that the Sky Empire had lost face to this little boy. His admiral father would not want him to cause an international incident.' Raven looked back to Javelin who had returned to his place in the line. 'I wonder what his true level of control is...'

"A very talented bunch indeed!" Emperor Mallard spoke once more and the applause quickly died down. "Come! Let us feast and get to know these young ones a little!"

And with that the banquet started for real. The guests ate, drank and chatted while soft chamber music played in the background. Most were discussing the new students and comparing their achievements with previous students, usually pointing out similar or stronger talents within their own clans in the process. "Oh, right! Do you remember person so-and-so from our clan, wasn't he also very young when he was excepted." or "I recall person such-and-such from your clan, didn't he also get 40? Whatever happened to him?" were to be common phrases throughout the evening.

Besra urged Raven to join up with her brother before she herself walked of to talk with Empress Nene. The urging was unnecessary though since Raven wanted to congratulate her brother in person as soon as possible.

Raven didn't have to look hard for her brother; Hoatzin stood at a table not too far away, surrounded by a large group of young girls. Most of the girls wore the noble's gown of their prefectures whereas one or two wore the dark grey uniforms of the Academy. All of them wore veils, just like Raven, indicating that they were unwed and of noble birth.

'Hoho, someone has become popular all of a sudden.' Raven smiled as she observed her brother trying to handle the girls around him. The redness of his ears had by now started to spread to his cheeks.

'Hmm, this will be fun.' Raven let the smile on her face fade as she approached the group. Mischief twinkled in her hidden eyes.

Chapter 7: An Unexpected Gift

An Unexpected Gift

As she drew closer, Raven started sorting out the girls around her brother in her mind; she had been introduced to all of them earlier and some of them she liked, some she didn't.

Once she was no more than a pace away, she stopped and instead started tapping her right foot lightly on the blue marble floor. Her mouth was twisted into a small pout. Hoatzin lifted his gaze almost immediately and a brief moment of relief flooded his face when he saw her, until he noticed that his sister seemed upset.

"Little Sister!" He tried smiling at her as he gently pushed his way through the horde of girls.

"Brother, you liar!" Raven's voice was low and shaky.

Only the girls standing in the group would be able to hear it over all the noise, but they could clearly hear the heartbreak in her voice. The girls immediately felt that the little child was truly upset; Raven's tiny hands had even turned deathly pale as they tightly clutched the fabrics of her skirt.

"What is wrong, little Sister?" Her brother probed.

"You promised! You said my gift was most important, so it would be the first you accepted!"

The other girls glanced at the table behind Hoatzin. They had all given him small tokens of congratulations; it was customary for girls to bring gifts to the Sky Academy banquets. They hoped to gain favor from the youngsters who were no doubt bound for greatness in the future. After all, graduates from Sky Academy were likely to be mid and possibly even high Spirit Champions; such rare experts were very good husband material and Hoatzin had showed enormous potential.

The gifts weren't expensive but they were suitable conversation starters and adequate reminders of an evening well spent later on. However, if they now became a source of discontent for Hoatzin, their purpose would backfire.

Hoatzin looked at his sister in confusion. He had made no such promise. What was she up to?

Just as he was going to ask her, Raven body shook lightly and she spoke again.

"You promised! Is ...is Sister no longer important?" Her voice broke slightly at the end and a single tear slid down her pearly white cheek.

Hoaztin started to panic. His sister was crying! He had never seen her cry before and now it seemed as if he was the cause of it. A couple of the girls around him noticed his distress and moved over to comfort Raven.

"There, there." A gray robed girl consoled. "Your brother is not at fault. He was just being polite to us."
Raven seemed to pause and think this over. Her hands gained some color as they slightly released their cramped clutch of her clothing.

"Lady Cara is right - we shouldn't have been so forward. Here, we will leave you two alone so you can give him your gift." Another girl chipped in and motioned for the rest of the girls to back away.

"...Thank you." Raven replied in a still shaking voice.

Raven's head was lowered, as if starring on the floor, but in reality she observed the girls as they stepped away from the pair of siblings. Some of them looked at her with understanding, and perhaps even admiration for her devotion to her brother, while others frowned with discontent at having been interrupted. Not surprisingly, Raven noticed that her first impressions of them all, had been spot on.

Tentatively, Hoatzin reached out his hand to dry of the falling tear on Raven's cheek only to realize that the girl's previously frowning mouth was now stretched into a wide grin.

"Hihi, they fell for it." Raven giggled softly enough for only her brother to hear. "Now I have Brother all to my self!"

Hoatzin blinked as he stared at his sister with round eyes.

"You..." Her brother was speechless; he could not believe it. His little sister had effortlessly convinced not only the other girls that she was very upset, but him too.

Raven smiled and, standing on her toes, gave her brother a affectionate hug.

"I'm quite impressive too, right?" She giggled.

Before Hoatzin had a chance to collect himself and give a reply, Raven backed away a bit and fiddled slightly with the folds of her gown, fishing out a small bracelet. Raven had made it herself by intertwining multiple brown leather straps with strands of dark green silks. She had learned how to make them a very long time ago - back then it had been one of the few normal hobbies she and her fellow female assassins had; making bracelets for each other.

"Congratulations on getting accepted." She positively beamed as she handed her brother her gift.

He shook off his earlier confusion. It was after all not the first time he had seen his sister coax her will out of someone, she had done it to their father in order to join Hoatzin now, for example. Instead, he looked at the incarnate bracelet in her hand.

"You made this?" Hoatzin asked as he took the bracelet. He had not seen her working on it.

"Mhm!" Raven placed her hands behind her back and swayed slightly. "You like it?"

Hoatzin smiled widely as he tugged the bracelet over his right hand and tightened it around his wrist.

"I do. The green is the same as your's and Father's eyes, the brown like Mother's and mine. Like this I will carry you with me even when we are separated." He reached out his hand to pat Raven on her head but stopped himself when he realized that her head ornament would allow no such thing. Instead he embraced her tightly.
"Thank you, little Raven." He whispered in her ear before braking the embrace.

The two siblings started chatting happily among themselves, unconcerned by the feast around them. Just as they breached the topic of the other new students and their results, Raven felt as if someone was observing her closely. She looked around and saw that, at this moment, the young Javelin was staring at her intently.

The blond took a deep breath before he started to stride over with resolute steps.

Hoatzin had followed his sister's gaze and when Javelin came close enough, he smiled and greeted the boy.

"Fellow student Hake! How do you like the banquet?" Haotzin was nothing if not polite.

"Hoatzin please, call me Javelin. We will be living together for a long time - let us be friends!"

"Very well, Javelin." Hoatzins glanced at his sister. "Let me introduce my little sister, Raven Nightingale."

Raven curtsied deeply with her small mouth smiling tenderly bellow her veil.

"Raven Nightingale greets young master Javelin Hake." she spoke with a sweet voice.

Javelin stared for a moment at the vision before him. Up close, and with her veil slightly lifted, Raven was even more mesmerizing for him than she had been from afar. He might only be seven but he had a mature soul, and in this very soul he felt a change, as if he had found something her never knew he had lost.

"Javelin?" Hoatzin snickered  as he called his new friend.

Startled, Javelin immediately bowed deeply, his ears red as tomatoes.

"Young Lady Nightingale, it's my pleasure!" Javelin spoke a bit louder than he had intended and a few guests turned to look at the spectacle. Most smiled knowingly before returning to their conversations.

Raven stifled a giggle as she observed the youth in front of her. He now wore the same grey robes as Hoatzin did, but his blonde hair shone all the more brightly in contrast to it. In the dancing light of the candle fire, streaks of gold and silver shimmered ever so often in the short, wavy hear. A thin braid extended from the nape of his neck down to his shoulder blades. His hair was quite striking and Raven guessed that it would be even more so in sunlight.

As Javelin straightened and nervously scratched the back of his head, Raven realized that his hair was, however, not his most striking feature. Shining brightly in the youths face were the most wondrous and peculiar eyes Raven had ever seen. They were like two supernovas; an amazing fusion of light and dark blues, violets and even some steaks gold swirled together as if they contained entire galaxies within. Those eyes, in combination with his golden blonde hair and slightly suntanned skin made him rather handsome, even though his features were still quite childish.

'This boy will be very dangerous when he grows older...' Raven mused.

While Raven was studying Javelin, the boy reached within his robes and pulled out a small cylinder made of pressed, green paper. He paused only for a second before stretching it out to Raven.

"Young Lady Nightingale, please accept this small token of appreciation. I can think of no one more fitting for it."
Raven and Hoatzin stared at Javelin in surprise. He was giving her a gift during his celebration banquet? Wasn't this the wrong way around?

Raven hesitated to take it but Hoatzin pushed her forward.

"Take it." Hoatzin urged. He had a good impression of the boy and Javelin seemed to have taken a fancy to his sister. Why back away only because his behavior was uncommon?

Raven curtsied sightly and reached out to take the scroll.

"Thank you, young master Hake. This one is most gre..." But just as she lifted the cylinder from Javelin's outstretched hand she could feel the spirit essence stored within it. She froze in place.

"This..." She stared with astonishment on the cylinder. It looked very plain on the outside, except for two golden words etched onto its side: Twilight Lullaby. She raised her head to look at Javelin.

"This is too much! How can this one possibly accept such a precious gift?"

Javelin stared back. How could she tell right away what it was? He naturally knew what was inside but he had no way of telling without opening the cylinder and it's name should not be known in this empire... Raven however had more spirit connections then he could possibly imagine, of course she could tell.

Javelin didn't ponder on it for long though, he simply pushed the cylinder into Raven's hands.

"It's my gift to give. Take it." He smiled at her before he turned to the very confused Hoatzin. "I will see you later, Hoatzin."

With that, he just walked of into the crowd. Raven was still frozen in place, looking of towards where the boy had disappeared.

"Little Sister, what's wrong?"

Startled, Raven quickly tucked the cylinder into the folds of her gown. She glanced around her before she answered him in a low voice.

"A Divine Skill - Brother, he just gave me a Divine Skill! I'm not sure but I think it's a level six skill and it goes by the name Twilight Lullaby."

"What!?" Hoatzin's reaction was strong and Raven had too hush him.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a lower voice. "A level six skill is truly precious, how could he give it to you just like that?"

"I don't know, but brother, you better be a good friend to him in the future."

"Yes, very much so."

The two sibling were both quite affected by the exchange. Even though Hoatzin assumed that Raven was too young to use the skill at the moment, it was still a very precious gift that would no doubt benefit his sister greatly in the future. To him, Raven wasn't likely to cultivate very far so a level six skill, if it was a healing one, would put her ahead among her peers by leaps and bounds. If it was a martial one it would perhaps become a life saving trump card for her. He would have to repay the favor Javelin had showed his sister, one way or the other.

Raven on the other hand was even more overjoyed. She barely cared what level the skill was, or even what it did, at the moment. She would finally be able to start using her spirit essence for something more than simply strengthening herself - it was quite hard for her to hide her excitement enough to keep participating in the banquet. She would never forget this favor. Never.

The evening's banquet continued without any more big events. Eventually the night came to an end and the guests said their farewells and returned to their dwellings. The new students would have one last night with their families so they did not move into their dorms tonight. Raven and Javelin both bowed deeper then necessary to each other before parting.

Raven was very eager to return to her room so she could study her first Divine Skill and payed little notice to anyone else as they left. If she had, she would no doubt have been shocked by the viscous expression on her cousin Dunlin's face as he watched her family leaving. He had never fancied them, but there was more to it than that now.

Dunlin had been sure that a spirit control of 35 would be enough to steal the limelight from his cousin, the precious prefecture heir. He had even used a secret Divine Skill his mother had given him that had raised is control by four levels to assure his own glory. The technique was impossible to detect from the outside and even the Elder Kagu had not noticed anything. But it had still not been enough!

At first he had just been mad but as the evening progressed, and more and more people proclaimed Hoatzin as the "genius that upheld the honor of the Empire", Dunlin's mood had gone from bad to worse. For him, this night had been nothing but a huge embarrassment! He had even failed at provoking the Griffin twins into joining Dunlin in his despise of the Nightingale boy.

"Why should we be upset?" Lark had replied. "Is it not a good thing that we have gotten such a skilled classmate? No doubt his skill will rub of on us as well."

"Hopefully your pride won't have the same effect" Martin filled in.

The twins had laughed as they walked away. Dunlin had, with seething eyes, watched them walk straight across the room to happily greet the oh-so-important Hoatzin and his pipsqueak of a sister.

"Just you wait! We'll see how high and mighty you will act once we're done with you." Dunlin cursed as he followed the rest of his clan to their residence. His parents had not joined him for the event, but they would hear of it from him.

---------

In one of the grander guest suites sat the young Javelin on his knees on the floor. The very furious Admiral Hake was pacing back and forth in front of him.

"What did you say you did!?"

"I gave the young Lady Nightingale the Twilight Lullaby." Javelin repeated himself calmly. He had known this was coming.

"How could you bee so stupid!" His father spat. "Your mother gave you that skill to give to your fiance once you return, how could you give it to some random girl you've just met? She's not even from our Sea Empire!" The usually stiff admiral was practically boiling with rage.

"Mother told me to give it to a woman I cherish and wish to protect, and that is what I did." Javelin kept his calm as he spoke with a sincere face.

The older man stopped his passing and started at his son in disbelief. After a long while he let out a heavy sigh.

"Seriously, I don't know what to do with you sometimes... It's lucky little miss Arowana hadn't been told to expect it." He sat down on a nearby chair.

Javelin twitched slightly at the mention of his fiance.

"Father, about that...."

"Not a word more." The admiral cut him off. Javelin did as he was told and stayed silent.

"At least you did as you were told during the exam... But to think they had a youngster with such good spirit control, they are quite lucky." Devario Hake finally smiled slightly. "Perhaps this exchange will be beneficial after all."

Javelin remained silent but his thoughts went to the young Hoatzin he had met earlier. During the exam Javelin had been told to get, at most, a result one step below the best scoring child of the Sky Empire; just as Raven had guessed, Admiral Hake did not want to stir up any trouble. But Javelin had indeed been surprised when he noticed Hoatzin in his group.

Hoatzin had expelled the first orb with astounding speed and even though Javelin would indeed have bested him if he had gone all out, it would not have been by much. Probably only by one step! After all, the more orbs you expel the harder it gets. If the difference in control between the level 35 and 40 was a doubling, then the same could be said for the distance between 40 and 41.

But what had surprised Javelin the most was that, when he spoke with Hoatzin right after the exam, he learned that Hoatzin had been doing fairly straightforward training; Hoatzin had achieved his level of control simply by persistence. Javelin on the other hand had gone through quite a different training regime.

Since the day he was born he had followed his father and older brother on the various excursions his father did for the Sea Empires navy. He had already witnessed, first hand, vicious battles and deception between both enemies and allies alike. By following his father, he had managed to form his first spirit connection shortly after his fifth birthday and had only needed two years to form the next three. He had even experienced a few life-or-death situations that pushed his spirit control to evolve even more rapidly.

It was a risky tactic that could easily backfire, but both him and his older brother had gained a lot from it.

As Javelin pondered the achievements of Hoatzin Nightingale, he couldn't help letting his thoughts wander to the fairy-like figure of Hoatzin's sister. He had only spoken to her once, and not much had been said, but he already felt a longing for her in his young heart. He was too young to truly understand the concepts of love but he still had no doubts that the longing would not pass until he met her again.

Chapter 8: Twilight Lullaby

Twilight Lullaby

In her room, Raven sat cross-legged on her bed. She had since long undressed, with the help of her maid, and now only wore a simple nightgown. In front of her lay the green cylinder Javelin had given her earlier. Her brother and mother had already gone to bed and were sleeping soundly in their rooms.

After simply staring at the cylinder and the golden words engraved on it for a long while, Raven drew a deep breath to steady herself and picked it up. She once more felt the spirit essence stored within, trickling her fingers. The essence fluctuations were stronger than in any of the scrolls her father had shown her and her brother a few years ago, the closest being a level five skill.

With gentle hands she carefully broke the seal, opened the top and tilted the cylinder to let the scroll within slip out into her waiting hand. The scroll was small, only a little bit longer than her hand, but on contact with her skin she felt its power seeping into her. It was as if the scroll was examining her, checking its new master.

Holding her breath, Raven slowly unrolled the scroll. Inside was, unexpectedly,  a poem written in what looked like golden ink. As Raven started reading she could feel the words vibrating within her soul, leaving a permanent mark. In her mind she heard a soft tune that accompanied the text perfectly. She read:

Oh mister mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, handsome darling;
Journeys end in lover meeting,
Every wise man's son doth know.

Her reading and the tune in her head merged so perfectly that before she knew it she was quietly singing what she read, aloud.

What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

As the last words left her mouth, a sharp pain throbbed through her mind and the scripture on the scroll faded. The imprint was complete. At the same moment Raven knew everything there was to know about her new and very odd Divine Skill - in all her reading she had never read of a Divine Skill in the form of a song, and yet here it was.

It was indeed a level six skill, as she had predicted, but it was neither for healing nor martial prowess, but rather for control. Once she had mastered it, simply humming the first notes would cause those who heard it to be enthralled by her. Unless they had a significantly higher cultivation than hers, they would feel extremely compelled to pause whatever they doing and listen until she stopped her humming. If she was strong enough, the effect would remain long after she stopped singing.

'I wonder if Javelin knows meaning of this song or if he only knows it's use.'

Raven couldn't help but laugh when she replayed the song in her head. It was a love song. A very bittersweet love song, urging the listener to seize the moment or it might be forever lost.

Raven pondered the skill she had learned. Although it wasn't what she had expected, she realized the vast uses it would have for her. It would be her last defense; if faced with multiple hostile people, even if she wasn't strong enough to restrain her opponents for long, it would likely grant her the extra time she needed to run away or hide. It could also help her launch attacks against momentarily unguarded enemies. With this song, this Twilight Lullaby, and her earlier knowledge of martial arts she would be fairly dangerous even without any additional Divine Skills.

Through the spirit imprint she now instinctively knew how to stimulate her spirit core to merge the stored spirit essence with her voice and achieve the desired effect. It would take practice, but Raven was confident in her abilities; now that she had the imprint nothing would stop her from perfecting the skill.

She started practicing right away.

The next morning a slightly red-eyed Raven made her way into the guest room's dinning area. She had stayed up all night working on the skill; once they left for home it would be a month before she could practice it again without attracting unwanted attention.

After nearly eight hours she had only managed to preform the most basic step of the skill ; merging her spirit essence with her voice. Next was to actually activate the skill. She wasn't very pleased with her slow progress but it would have to do for now.

Had Javelin been aware of her complaints he would have been shocked beyond belief. Eight hours? Eight months would be a more reasonable time span for her level of progress!

---------

Later that day, the three Nightingale's stood on the same landing platform on which they had arrived over a week earlier. They had already said goodbye to the Emperor and his wife and all that remained was the parting with Hoatzin.
Besra's eyes were moist but she managed to refrain from crying as she embraced her son.

"Your mother and father love you dearly, remember that." She whispered in his ear before releasing him.

"Here." Besra held out a delicate hand and in its palm lay a copper ring, gleaming with metallic luster.

"This..."

"Yes. Take it. Inside are some gifts from your father and me."

Raven glanced at the ring with big eyes, it was an spacial ring! Such rings were very rare. By pouring your spirit essence into it you could access a separate dimension linked with the ring. Once bound by blood, the ring would even seal itself from any other user.

"It is time, little Raven. Say your goodbyes." her mother urged her.

Raven didn't hesitate as she threw herself into her brother's arms, hugging him tightly. She was silent for a long while and eventually Hoatzin spoke first.

"Take care, little Sister. I will see you next spring." He stroked her long hair as he spoke. "I bet you won't even notice that I'm gone before I'm back again."

Raven looked up on her brother. Forced smiles were on both of their faces.

"Brother too... You must take care!"

"Don't worry I will. The next time we meet I bet you'll be surprised how much stronger you're brother has become."
Raven did not doubt this.

The siblings tightened their embrace once more before Raven slipped out of her brother's arms and followed her mother into the cabin.

Eight of the ten guards entered their own cabin and with the silent whistle of the crewmen the Everest Hawks took fight once more.

On the ground remained Hoatzin and his two personal guards, that would stay with him in Sky City. They wouldn't follow him at school but if he wanted to venture outside the guards would protect him. He remained on the platform long after the Everest Hawks had disappeared out of sight.

---------

The journey home was rather uneventful and four weeks later the party arrived back at Nightingale City. Summer was now at its brief peak and the previously light green trees had darkened to a lush dark green.

Summer might be short here, but the days were long, so despite arriving in the middle of the night, the sky had already turned pale blue in anticipation of the dawning sun.

In the large courtyard waited the sturdy Lord Maleo; it had been over two months since his wife and children left and he looked forward to their return. He had, of course, already received news of his son's achievements and knew that only his girls would be returning.

He lifted his gaze to the sky and smiled, because flying towards him were the family's two Everest Hawks that had left months before. In barely a minute's time, the birds lowered their precious cargo into the courtyard and flew off towards their own mountain top.

Maleo walked over to his wife's cabin and just as he reached it, I'iwi opened the cabin door from within. She held up a finger to her mouth and motioned for him to enter.

Once inside he was greeted by his serene wife who leaned softly into his arms.

"She fell asleep an hour ago. I didn't have the heart to wake her." Besra whispered.

Maleo looked over at his daughter sleeping soundly on the cabin's sofa. With a tender smile on his face, he walked over and scooped up the sleeping Raven. Together with his wife, he carried his young daughter to her room.

Despite being fast asleep, Raven was not oblivious to what was going on around her; the numerous spirit collections within her soul helped her keep a constant awareness. Nevertheless, she chose to not stir from her sleep. Biologically, she was after all, only three - why not enjoy being spoiled a bit while she had the chance?

----------

Life went back to ordinary at the Nightingale mansion. Without her brother around, the days seemed to move a bit slower but Raven used her new found time to read even more books and, of course, diligently train her Twilight Lullaby.
It took her a bit over a month to perfect the skill, which was an insane achievement in itself, and as she grew more accustomed to it Raven discovered a welcome surprise. If she was careful, and started singing the song like any one else would and then slowly let her spirit essence merge with it to activate the actual Twilight Lullaby, she could pull off the skill without any spiritualists even noticing that she was using a Divine Skill.

Usually the sudden bust of spirit essence at the activation of a Divine Skill would be impossible to miss, and would even reveal the cultivation level of the practitioner, but for some reason this skill, if activated in this way, seamed to blend too well with the natural spirit essence in the air, making it incredibly hard to both detect and guard against.

Realizing this trait, Raven had only hesitated for a day or two before using the skill on her own guards! By doing so she easily managed to shake of her protection and sneak into the Nightingale's Spirit Scroll Library. She had only gone to the common section and not dared to stay long, but she had left with the two skills that had caught her attention the most so far: level three skill Shadow Walk and the evolving skill Sonic Swords.

Since then she had practiced the Shadow Walk relentlessly and had by now become quite proficient in using it. When she used it in unison with her old world's martial arts, adding superhuman speed with perfect timing here and there, she
became very deadly.

Her attack power was, however, still quite limited so she had wanted to start practicing with the Sonic Swords as well but once the imprint was complete she had realized that the first, and so far only, skill she had gained insight to was called the Deafening Sweep. Unfortunately, it lived up to its name, so finding a time and place for Raven to practice it was easier said than done.

Regardless, Raven had set out to get her hands on an appropriate sword. First she had figured that she might nab one in the same manner as she got the Divine Skills but in the end she didn't have to rely on such methods; Raven had pleaded with her father to "give her a cool sword just like her guards's." and her father had given her one without much hustle. What astonished her more was that he had even taken it one step further and commissioned a personal sword to be forged just for her.

The completed weapon reminded Raven of the Chinese jian swords of her old world; it was a thin one-handed sword, with beautiful patterns inlaid into the roughly 80 centimeters long blade. The hilt was formed like a pair of wings ready for flight, their violet feathers shimmering slightly as they stretched towards the tip of the blade. The handle was wrapped in a soft black fabric and two tassels, in the same violet shade as the wings, hung from the pommel at the end of the handle.

Raven had stared at the beautiful weapon with big eyes. The sword was truly a masterpiece, but it was also too long for her. Raven herself was only about a head taller than the sword at the moment. Seeing his daughter's wonder Maleo had laughed.

"If my little Raven wants to carry a sword then it needs to be a sword fitting for a princess!"

"But it is so long..." Raven sighed.

"No rush, you will grow into it." Maleo looked quite smug as he handed over another parcel.

To Raven's surprise she found that her father had actually prepared a special scabbard that would allow her to carry the sword over her back, even though it was too long. The sword's name, 'Nightingale's Blessing', was written on it in fine letters.

"You are still too small for it but that will change. Once you are old enough, I can teach you how to use it."

Raven realized that her father thought she had asked for the sword simply because she thought them fascinating and therefore wanted one for herself, so he had made her a pretty one.

'Considering that my father clearly doesn't want me to actually use it, he has commissioned a truly amazing weapon for me!' She had thought while inspecting it. Raven was very pleased with the sword, it was well balanced and sharp beyond compare.

Despite the sword being to long for her, Raven started to gingerly carry it with her wherever she went, much to the Nightingale guards' amusement. Seeing their young mistress' love for the sword, Rook and Verdin had, on numerous occasions, taken it upon themselves to teach her the basic stances of swords fighting ahead of time. It however always ended in failure; the too long sword wold cause the young girl to lose balance and topple over at every swing.

They would have given her a smaller sword to practice with but Lord Maleo forbade it - why had he forged a too large sword for her to begin with? To keep her away from sword fighting until she grew tiered of it, of course! After all, he had no wish to see his daughter get injured by taking up martial practices.

Little did her father know that his hopes were already shattered. Sure, the blade was in reality too long for her, but who was Raven? She had adapted to the length of the sword within the fist hour of wielding it. She would swing it hundreds of times everyday, and it had become as much a part of her as her own arm. But yet again she wanted to keep a low profile, so she moved clumsily with it in public.

Since that then, another six months had passed. Autumn and winter had both come and gone, and now spring had arrived. Besides tentative heat, spring brought another joy to the Nightingale mansion; news that young master Hoatzin had been given leave and was on his way home for a visit.

Almost a year had passed since Raven last saw her brother and she was curious to see how much he'd improved over the year. Four weeks later, a very impatient Raven stood in the main courtyard, spying expectantly up into they vast sky. There, far away, the large silhouette of an Everest Hawk was slowly growing larger and larger.

Chapter 9: Hoatzin Returns

Hoatzin Returns

Even before the cabin touched ground, the door swung open and a dark-haired youth in grey robes jumped down. With large steps the youth approached Raven and, once close enough, lifted her of the ground twirling her around him.

"Welcome home, big brother!" Raven laughed.

"I'm home!" Hoatzin laughed as well, and he let his sister go.

"You've grown, big Brother."

Hoatzin had indeed grown. The soon ten-year-old boy had not only become a decimeter taller, his body build was a lot more firm. He now had an air of strength about him that wasn't there before. The time at the academy was paying of.

"You bet I have." Hoatzin smiled smugly and fished out his spirit stone pendant. "Look, am I not an impressive big Brother?"

The previously grey had now almost completely sifted to a opaque white. Only a slim line of grey remained around the border. Raven's eyebrows rose in pleasant surprise.

"Brother, you're nearly a high Novice?"

Hoatzin smiled pridefully, and rightfully so - to go from a new low Spirit Novice to a high Novice was something that usually took two to four years, depending on your skills. To advance that far in one was quite impressive.

"Big brother is truly a genius!" Raven praised.

She really meant every word, yet, she couldn't help but marvel over her own progress at the same time. Despite not having focused on her cultivation the past year - rather, letting it progress naturally - she had still reached the peak of the Novice stage and could feel a slight change in her Spirit Core. She suspected that she would make the evolution to Adept in the near future.

"Haha, not so! Remember Javelin? The blonde boy from Sea Empire? He is two years younger than me but is keeping up with me - when he is my age he will be even more impressive."

"Really?"

"Really. Oh, that reminds me, he has been eyeing the bracelet you gave me. Perhaps you should make him one? As a thank you for the Divine Skill."

Raven blinked and then started laughing. "Sure, why not?"
"Where are Mother and Father? I want to tell them of my progress." Hoatzin looked around the courtyard.

Raven frowned.

"They had intended to come meet you but then aunt and uncle showed up. Mother and Father are "entertaining" them now."

Hoatzin also frowned.

"Hmm, do you know what they are talking about?"

"Nope, but I'm guessing it's about the ore."

All three empires on the continent had different things they excelled in. Sea Empire for example was the only empire with a proper coastline and they therefore held dominion in all things sea related, including everything from fishing to intercontinental trade. Sky Empire on the other hand, had a vast amount of prosperous mines. There were mines of various metals, gems and, most importantly, the soul ore that is used to make most things related to spiritualists: Spirit Halls, Spirit Stones, Divine weapons and armor, all of it is made with soul ore.

The different prefectures within Sky Empire all had their own mines that they tended to. Within Nightingale Prefecture were a bunch of smaller gem mines and one very large soul ore mine. As the ruling clan, the Nightingale Clan was charged with the duty of mining and protecting these resources. The Talon clan were the head clan of one of Nightingale prefectures largest merchants guilds and therefore worked with them closely whenever trading ore was involved.

"Makes sense I suppose..." Hoatzin seemed lost in thoughts.

"What's wrong brother?" concern spread across Raven's face.

"Hm? No, I guess it's nothing.... It's just that cousin Dunlin has been acting a bit weird lately."

"Weirder than usual?"

"Yeah, he's become... friendly. Well, friendlier."

Raven stared at her brother.

"Are we talking about the same Dunlin?"

"Haha, yes, well who knows? Perhaps he's actually reformed?" Hoatzin smirked and winked at her, joking it of, but Raven couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. People don't change for no reason, especially someone as self-centered as Dunlin. Perhaps she should look into the matter.

"Nevermind. Come, I bet you are dying to hear all about my year at the Academy, right?" As he spoke Hoatzin started to walk towards their common chambers.

Pushing her doubts aside for now, Raven raised an eyebrow as she glanced at her brother.

"Will big brother tell it to me like before? With the cape and all?" she teased.

Hoatzin immediately straightened and placed a closed fist over his chest, cleared his throat and trumpeted "Hear ye! Hear ye! It's the tale of Hoatzin the Spirit Novice!"

Ravens happy laughter burst out and echoed down the hallways. Soon they were seated in big chairs, nibbling on fresh fruits and merrily talking about what Hoatzin had experienced over the past year.

After a couple of hours, the doors to the room they were seated in flew open and a corpulent man in his late thirties and a sharp-featured woman in matching velvet gowns stormed through the room. It was Aunt Anhinga and her husband, Uncle Gyps, head of the Talon Clan. As they passed through the room they didn't as much as glance at the two children seated there before they disappeared out the next set of doors.

The siblings looked at each other and without saying a word they stood up and quietly walked into the room their aunt and uncle had come out from. Inside sat their parents at a round table. Both looked very tired.

"I know you love your sister and I can see the benefits, but what they are suggesting borders on treason..."

"Enough, I rejected it. That should be the end of it." Maleo sighed and looked out the window.

Besra said no more. She lifted her head and caught sight of her children standing in the doorway. Her worried expression was quickly replaced by a joyful smile.

"My dear Hoatzin, you have returned!" She got to her feat and rushed over to give her son a warm embrace.

Maleo stopped staring out the window and walked over to the group at the door. He placed a big hand on his son's shoulder. Next to them, Raven could feel her father activating his spirit essence, letting it flow out of his hand and into his son. Most likely it was to probe her brother's current cultivation.

"Well done my boy!" A huge grin spread on his face. "Already nearly a high Novice and two new spirit connections - Sky Academy lives up to its fame."

Hoatzin smiled back at his father. "Congratulations to you too father, you've finally become a mid Champion!"

Using spirit essence to ascertain someone's level of cultivation was a two-way road, both would find out the other's level.

Both father and son have had a good year. Besra and Raven stood to the side, smiling happily at their boys' achievements.

Raven remained quiet for a moment more before she looked up at she father.

"Father, what was it Aunt and Uncle wanted to talk about?" Raven guessed she wouldn't get an answer from him directly but her curiosity finally got the better of her and she had to ask.

A flash of darkness crossed Maleo's eyes before he sighed once more.

"Nothing of consequence." was the only reply he gave on the subject. "Instead, let us eat dinner and talk of my son's time at the Academy. Have you found any good rivals?"

Raven sighed. She would have to find information elsewhere.

They family ate and talked late into the night. Hoatzin was particularly amused by his sister's new found love for her sword and the rest of the family laughed merrily at the various mischief Hoatzin had pulled of with his new friends at the academy. Raven got the feeling that perhaps her brother's academy life was not as rosy as he would want them to believe, but she did not push the matter. Her brother would talk about it if he felt he needed to.

Eventually the family broke up the evenings pleasantries and returned to their own chambers for sleep. But before Raven had a chance to slip into her bed she felt the presence of her brother approaching her door. Moments later a light knock pounded at the door.

"Come in Brother."

The door opened and Hoatzin walked in.

"It's eerie that you can do that. A couple of the elders at school can tell if someone is outside their room but not who."

"Who else would visit me at this hour?" Raven winked.

Hoatzin snorted. "If you say so."

Raven sat down in one of the chairs by her window. "So, why has Brother come at this hour?"

"I forgot to give you something." Hoatzin walked over to his sister and held out a small pouch. "I found this by chance on the way home and though it might suit you."

Raven took the pouch and tilted it in her hand. A small, smooth ring rolled out in her palm. It was completely smooth with no engravings or blemishes and its dark violet color was almost identical to her own hair color. It felt oddly cold in her hand.

"Here, let me help you." Hoatzin took the ring and started wiggling it onto Raven's right index finger.

"Ouch!" Just as the ring slipped into place, Hoatzin withdrew has hand and examined it. A small wound was visible on the tip on his finger.

"Hmm, odd. I must have pricked it without noticing." He sucked on his finger to stop the bleeding.

Raven asked to see the wound before she, convinced it was nothing serious, turned her attention to her new ring.

"Thank you brother. It is beautiful."

Hoatzin smiled and walked over to the door.

"Well then, sleep well little sister. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sleep well, big brother."

With a grin on her face, Raven crept in under her covers and fell asleep. None of the siblings had noticed how a small drop of blood had dripped onto the purple ring nor the faint light it emitted before the stain faded into its depths.

Hoatzin had been given ten weeks leave, which meant he could spend two weeks with his family before he had to start his journey back to Sky City.

The boy was diligent in his training, so despite the limited time with his family he still practiced his cultivation, and the various new Divine Skills he had learnt, with his father every morning. Hoatzin had by now advanced very far in his Shadow Walk and had been rewarded with two fifth level skills for his prowess from the academy. One was for hand to hand combat, the other for the sword.

Like before, Raven stayed with her brother as he trained, but in her lap she now had a bunch leather strips in various shades of blue and lilac. Intertwined with the strings of leather were golden stands of soul ore. The ore had been spun into thin wires that were thin enough to still be flexible.

As she wove the strings together, Raven discreetly let her spirit essence seep through her fingers and into the soul ore. She had to be careful not to let any essence escape her control - if it did, any present spiritualists would no doubt notice it. It was hard work but Raven figured it was worth it.

The reason was that Raven had presently read about how master craftsmen went about to make Divine Equipment; the very foundation of making such equipment was to infuse it with spirit essence during its creation. This, in it self, would strengthen the ore considerably but to produce additional benefits one usually needed to use special Divine Skills. However, there were some reports of random characteristics appearing anyway from time to time. No one knew why though.

Raven doubted that any special effects would arise in her case but the additional strength couldn't hurt; she needed to start repaying Javelin somehow.

While the mornings were spent in training, the afternoons were mostly spent playing. The two children were truly enjoying themselves, sometimes even their guards would join in a game or two.

Raven had tried to find out more about what her parents had discussed with her aunt and uncle but Raven's parents refused to talk about it and nobody else had been present to overhear the conversation. Raven considered visiting the Talon household to sniff around but could think of no way to do so without drawing unwanted attention to herself - everyone expected her to spend the brief weeks left of her brother's vacation with him, not visiting relatives that would be around even after Hoatzin returned to school. She had no choice but to put off the investigation for now.

About halfway through Hoatzin's vacation, the two children were enjoying a game of King Pin in the eastern courtyard. King Pin is a large scale game somewhat reminiscent of her old worlds chess with a few exceptions: instead of playing it on a board it required a large open area; rather than moving your pieces in set patterns you tossed your various "attackers" at your opponent's pieces to knock them out; you were not allowed to hit either of the "kings" guarding the front line. Once all other pieces were out of play, the enemy king had to be taken out.

Raven was so far winning a landslide victory, but her face was suddenly stripped of all triumph. At this moment a familiar, and always unwelcome, voice could be heard in the courtyard.

"If it isn't my dear cousins."

'Dunlin...' Raven didn't need to turn to see who it was. Instead she pulled out a veil and fastened it over her face. She didn't really need it for her cousin but Raven preferred to have a filter when dealing with him.

"Cousin Dunlin, I take it you are back for a vacation just as I am. Do you wish to join us for a game?" Hoatzin was, as always, very polite.

Dunin glanced at the playing field.

"Thank you for the offer but I fear I'm no match for your sister."

Raven was stunned. Dunlin had spoken without any hint of sarcasm or disdain whatsoever.

'He really is acting odd...'

"I was actually hoping to use my parents visit here today as an opportunity for sparring with you, cousin Hoatzin. I have been making some progress lately and I'm sure some pointers from our class's most prominent student would stimulate my cultivation further." Dunlin continued to speak in a polite tone and even clasped his hands in respect as he made his request.

The siblings exchanged glances. What was Hoatzin to do? To refuse would be very impolite and even if Dunlin's behavior was an act, the fact that Hoatzin was stronger than him could not be refused. At least, that had been the case six weeks ago; how much could have changed since then? Hoatzin should have nothing to worry about.

"Of course, I would gladly spar with you cousin." Hoatzin returned the gesture of respect by clasping his own hands.
Raven observed her cousin closely. Dunlin's acting was surprisingly quite astonishing but naturally Raven's senses were even more so, and she could clearly feel an air of smugness around him that grew even stronger when Hoatzin agreed.

'What is he up to? Clearly he is trying to act polite, but surely there is more to it than that...'

As Hoatzin motioned for the present servants to clear the courtyard field of the previous game, Raven whispered her concerns to her brother before she strode of to stand next to her guards on the side of the courtyard.

"Good luck, cousin!" she yelled with perfectly faked enthusiasm.

The the center of the courtyard stood the two young men.

"What do you say, cousin, best of five?" Dunlin asked.

"Fine by me. Cousin." Hoatzin answered.

This was the way friendly sparring matches went at the Academy; the participants would agree to a fix amount of exchanges and the person with the most successful hits would be the victor.

Suppressing his apprehension, Hoatzin exchanged the customary bows with his cousin that marked the start of the exchange - he had to agree with his sister's warning; something was fishy, but he had confident in his own ability and would not be caught of guard easily

The spar began.

At the exact same time, spirit essence surged to the two boys' feet as they both activated  Shadow Walk and rushed towards each other at high speeds. Non-spiritualists that observed the sparing would only see two shadows sweeping over the field, but Raven and her guards could not only follow what was going on with their eyes but could also clearly sense the level of the spirit essence used. Hoatzin was a borderline high Novice, whereas Dunlin was a stable mid Novice.

As the pair drew closer, deep red flames burst out from Hoatzin's palms, immediately covering his hands and lower arms. The moment he was with reach of Dunlin, Hoatzin slammed his right foot into the ground and used the momentum from his dash to lash out with a fiery fist towards Dunlin's chest.

Dunlin clearly expected this move and shifted ever so slightly in the last instant to let the punch miss him. However, just as Hoatzin's fist was flying by his shoulder, Hoatzin grunted while harshly releasing the breath he'd been holding. The fires covering his outstretched arm seemed to momentarily disappear, only to violently expand in the next instant.

*BOOM!*

Caught by surprise, Dunlin had no time to defend himself properly and was sent flying backwards several meters. When he got to his feet Raven noticed a brief moment of contempt on Dunlin's face before it was replaced by well-faked awe.

"So you have learnt the second step of the Ember Palm, Exploding Fist? Impressive." Dunlin brushed some dust off his clothing, but the fabric covering his chest had been permanently charred. "But, you are not the only one that has made a breakthrough."

Dunlin had barely stopped speaking before he once more charged at Hoatzin, who stood in a defensive stance in the middle of the courtyard, arms still ablaze. Three strides away, Dunlin's body started to turn, his body seemingly becoming transparent as he turned. To the side Raven raised an eyebrow in surprise.

'True Mirage Cyclone? That is a level six skill! Where did he get that?'

Chapter 10: A Token of Depreciation

A Token of Depreciation

As prefecture lords, the Nightingale clan had access to at most two level six skills. The Talon clan was a fairly large noble clan but a level six skill should still be beyond them.

Dunlin's nearly invisible leg was raised and traveling towards Hoatzin in a very high speed.

As the leg approached him, Hoatzin shared his sister's surprise; he could barely see the leg flying towards him - Dunlin had no such skill last time they sparred! Despite this, thanks to his great instincts and his higher cultivation, Hoatzin could clearly sense the leg coming.

Without knowing what he was defending against, Hoatzin pored most of his spirit essence to his arms and feet. The flames on his arms deepened in color as Hoatzin crossed them over his chest. Dunlin's kick landed on him with considerable force but the spirit essence in Hoatzin's legs stirred and he was only pushed back a few centimeters before the two bodies stopped moving.

Shock spread over Dunlin's face. Ember Palm was "only" a level five Divine Skill so the difference in their cultivation shouldn't be large enough for Hoatzin to prevail against his own level six skill so easily.

Using these two milliseconds of shock in his opponent, Hoatzin's flame covered arms grabbed the leg that had kicked him and twisted. The motion caused Dunlin to twist around and fall to the ground, face first.

Raven smiled; her brother was truly skilled. He controlled his spirit essence elegantly to make up for the difference in the two skills' explosive powers and then used the moment of confusion seal the deal.

'His year at Sky Academy has definitely payed of - his level of fighting prowess and experience has improved immensely! He would not have even imagined that exchange of blows a year ago.'

In the courtyard Dunlin staggered to his feet. He had taken no serious damage but his nose was bleeding, clearly broken. Without a word Dunlin grabbed his nose and set the bone right with a subtle *Crack!*.

His previously faked air of goodwill was gone.

"Sorry about the nose." Hoatzin honestly apologized. "But your understanding of the True Mirage Cyclone is impressive - if we were at the same cultivation level it's hard to say if I could block it."

Dunlin glared at Hoatzin venomously.

"Same cultivation you say? Hmpf!" Dunlin took a fighting stance. "Let me show you the quality of my cultivation."

Suddenly Raven felt a surge of spirit essence spiraling around her cousin, but something was of. The essence was darker and less tangible than normal spirit essence. She glanced at the guards standing next to her but they didn't seem to react at all.

'What is going on? It's as if he is having a cultivation breakthrough right here and now - he seems to be becoming a high Spirit Novice!'

Before Raven had a chance to think about it any further, Dunlin rushed forward once more.

'Oh no!'  Raven panicked; her brother wouldn't be able to block the True Mirage Cyclone even if he was knew about Dunlin's sudden increase in power, but since he didn't know, Hoatzin would most likely get seriously injured!

Just as Dunlin was about to activate True Mirage Cyclone yet again, a sharp voice rang out in the courtyard.

"Dunlin!"

Dunlin froze mid-action; the odd spirit essence dissipating instantly.

"Mother."

Aunt Anhinga shot her son a reproving look before she smiled towards Hoatzin.

"Most impressive, my young nephew. You show much promise."

She then motioned towards her sneering son.

"Well, we're leaving, but I hope you will keep helping my Dunlin with his training in the future."

"Of course, Aunt." Hoatzin clasped his fist and bowed.

Without so much as a glance at his cousins Dunlin joined his mother and the two Tanlons left together. As they walked away, Raven released her grip of her sword; pushing back the spirit essence she had gathered in every muscle of her body. If Dunlin had launched his attack, Raven wouldn't have hesitated for a second to reveal her own cultivation to protect her bother from injury. Fortunately she didn't need to.

Hoatzin walked over to her.

"What do you think all that was about?"

"I don't know."  Raven looked out the doors the Talons had left through before she fixed her eyes on her brother, locking their gazes. "But Brother, you have to be careful with Dunlin. I think his cultivation is higher then he shows."

"What makes you say that? I clearly felt that his spiritual pressure was that of a mid Novice, and besides, the spirit stone is an absolute and his showed 'mid Novice'." Hoatzin had trouble believing his sister.

"I don't know..." How could Raven explain what she had sensed from her cousin without explaining the rest, and even if she did, she had no more insights as to how Dunlin had momentarily increased his cultivation then her brother would have. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will be careful, little sister." Hoatzin could tell his sister was worried about him so he quickly agreed. He would keep his guard up even more closely around his cousin in the future.

---------

Later that day, Raven sat in her room, inspecting her newly finished creation; after working on it for a week, her gift to Javelin was finally complete. The result was more impressive than she had anticipated: the various leathers and strands of soul ore formed a slightly wider bracelet then the one her brother had received; it's pattern was a lot more complicated.

'Now, let's see what feeding it with spirit essence has done to it.' Raven mused to herself.

She sent a probing string of spirit essence into the bracelet, trying to form a temporary spirit connection with it. Divine equipment, that is to say equipment that had been successfully crafted with spirit essence, would be capable to form such connections with its bearer. In some cases, as with for example spacial rings, the connection could be made permanent by a contract of blood. Such contracts wold limit the equipment to one user until the contract was willingly removed by the owner. Or until the owner died.

"Ha! It worked!" excited, she spoke out loud.

Raven's spirit essence had latched on to the bracelet in her hand with ease. As it did, a safeguarding feeling was transmitted from the bracelet that was glowing slightly. The light faded rather quickly, but Raven was smiling widely.

'It's not very strong... but no doubt it will work to protect Javelin in times of need.'

The bracelet wasn't made by a crafting master, and with no Divine Skills, so to say that it would always do this or that was not possible. Raven had simply managed to imprint the bracelet with her wish to thank Javelin for his kindness - how this would portray itself in the future was impossible to say.

"This will have to do for now."

She pulled out the green cylinder Javelin had given her before, removed the empty scroll from within and replaced it with her gift. She placed a small note inside as well before she sealed the cylinder.

Finally, Raven altered the golden markings on the cylinder's outside. Before it read 'Twilight Lullaby', now it read 'Twilight Paladin'.

She walked out of her room and handed the cylinder to one of the servants always waiting outside.

"See that this is sent to Javelin Hake at the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts, by Stormbird."

"Yes, young mistress Nightingale." The servant bowed and hurried of with the green cylinder in hand.

Smiling, Raven made her way towards the dinning hall. Javelin would get the gift in only a few days - whereas the Everest Hawk was known for its size and strength, the Stormbird was know for its immense speed. It wasn't very large so it could only carry smaller parcels, but it did so at extraordinary speeds.

---------

Still smiling, Raven entered the dining hall. At once she noticed an extremely large flower arrangement of exotic flowers that stood at the center of the dining table. It gave of a pleasantly sweet scent that filled the entire room. Raven's mother leaned over the table with a relaxed smile on her face as she breathed in the flowery scent.

"What beautiful flowers...!" Raven praised as she hurried into the room.

"Aren't they lovely?" Besra agreed. "Your aunt brought them over."

"Aunt Anhinga?" Raven immediately grew cautious.

"Yes, she came over to apologize to your father concerning their heated discussion a few days back; the matter is truly settled now."

'Apologize? How out of character...' Raven's wariness didn't leave her.

"It's soon time to eat, I'll go inform your father and brother." Besra started to move towards the door.

"Where is I'iwi?" Raven asked - usually she would be the one preform such tasks.

"Oh, I'iwi is on an errand to the Imperial Outpost." Besra spoke over her shoulder as she left the room.

Raven glanced back at the flowers.

'Better safe than sorry...'

"Wait outside for a moment." Raven ordered her guards.

Her two guards looked at Raven with surprise, but they only hesitated for a moment before they stepped outside the hall. Once alone, Raven moved closer to the flowers and examined them closely. She recognized most of the flowers from the books in the library - some even grew in their own garden - and all of those were famous for having regenerative effects; simply breathing in their fragrance made you feel uplifted and calm at the same time.

As for the few flowers she didn't recognize, Raven spread out her spirit essence, carefully brushing against them. If they were poisonous, they should give of a hostile feeling when inspected.

'Nothing. Guess I'm being paranoid...' Raven started to pull back her spirit essence.

'Hmm?'

A small yellow plant caught her attention. When she tried to remove her spirit essence from it, the flower resisted.

'What is this?' Raven could feel the flower tugging at her spirit essence, almost as if the flower wanted to consume it all.

More and more spirit essence seeped out of Raven's spirit core and into the flower. Startled, Raven cut of the connection between her and the captured spirit essence in the flower, relinquishing her control over it. Immediately the tugging stopped.

Raven studied the flower closely before picking it up with a table fork and burning it over a nearby candle. She would have to research it later, step one was to remove the immediate danger. Slowly the yellow plant withered and turned to embers over the flame.

'So the flowers weren't harmless after all... Even though it is possible that Aunt Anhinga didn't know what the flower did, it feels unlikely.' Frowning, Raven came to a conclusion: 'Seems like I can't put this investigation of any further...'

Just as the last specks of ash fell to the table, Raven sensed her family approaching the room. She didn't bother hiding the evidence of her little bonfire; since the plant was already gone, she could tell her parents that it was a regular poisonous flower she recognized from a book and raise her suspicions about her aunt's involvement. Hopefully that would make them more prone to discuss what was going on with the Talon Clan.

Seconds later, the dinning halls doors opened and Raven's parents and brother walked in.

"You sent out your guards? Little Raven, we have talked about this; they have to be with you at all times." Her father quickly reprimanded her.

Raven rolled her eye's. "They aren't with me when I'm alone in my room, I don't see how this is any different." She took a step to the side to reveal the small pile of ash on the table behind her.

"More importantly, we need to... Hoatzin?"As Raven spoke she noticed her brother's eyes becoming distant, his breathing quieter.

Panicked, she tried to run over to her brother but as she took her first step, Raven's legs gave way under her and she fell to the red marble floor.

"Darling!" Besra cried and ran over to Raven, collecting her daughter in her arms.

"Son, wake up!" Maleo shouted next to Hoatzin.

'What is happening to me!?'

Raven tried to force her body into action but nothing happened. She tried to stir her spirit core but it was as if it no longer belonged to her.

"Little Raven!" Besra continued to cry next to her. "Maleo, what is go..." Just as Besra lifted her head to talk to her husband, she too lost control over her body, causing her to slump over little Raven, still in her arms.

"Besra!" Maleo lifted his son over to his wife and daughter. His face was distorted in worry. "Guards, Guards!"

Hearing their lord's calls, hurried footsteps echoed through the hallways outside of the room but even before the first guard set a foot inside, Maleo too fell powerless to the ground.

This was the last thing Raven saw before the world turned dark. Just as when sleeping, Raven could still feel the world around her through her numerous spirit connections. But, helpless and afraid for her family's safety, she could do nothing as she felt how gradually even that sensation faded.

Slowly, Raven sank into oblivion.

---------

Tens of thousands of miles away, in one of the dorm rooms at Sky Academy, Javelin Hake awakened with a jerk. His body was covered in cold sweat, his limbs shaking. Within him, his heart ached as if stabbed through by a knife, and his very soul trembled.

'A dream?' Javelin tried to slow down his breathing.

It took hours before he calmed down enough to go back to sleep, but when he did Javelin was continuously tormented by nightmares of endless darkness and unimaginable loss.

---------

Cold. It was the first thing Raven felt. Cold and stiff.

She tried to move, but her muscles were sore and slow to follow her commands. With much effort she opened her eyes and sat up. She had to blink several times before her started to adapt to her surroundings.

She was in a cave, a damp and dark cave that she hadn't seen before. She was sitting on a tattered blanket, and she noticed that her sword, 'Nightingale's Blessing', had been wrapped in another blanket so it could function as her makeshift pillow. She strained her eye's to observe more of the cave but her eyes were too slow to adapt to the low light. Instinctively, she wanted to rely on the spirit connections in her soul, but her senses were dulled; barely above what they had been in her old life. So, confounded, she turned her attention inwards.

"...what is this!?" She nearly jumped up in shock.

Within her, only thirteen connections remained linked with her soul!

"Something has removed most of my spirit connections? ....How is that even possible?"

Raven started sifting through all the books she had read in her mind. She recalled books that wrote about souls being damaged beyond repair. These would indeed loose some of their spirit connections and be unable to form new ones, but that was usually accompanied by mental illnesses and Raven felt fine otherwise.

"Perhaps mother has herd of.." Her voice trailed of mid-sentence. Despite the pain, Raven shot to her feat and started to search her surroundings in a frenzy.

"Mother! Brother! Father!" she called out to her family but she could find no traces of them.

Suddenly she herd light footsteps behind her, coming from the only tunnel Raven had noticed so far.

"Brother?" Raven turned around, desperate hope shining in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, young mistress Raven; it's only me." The voice belonged to I'iwi, the maid.

I'iwi walked into the cave crying a torch in one hand, and a dead hare in the other. Her clothes had been torn and showed signs of being in a fire. Her face looked tired. So very tired. But despite all this she still gave of an air of calm that seemed slightly out of place with the rest of her.

"I'iwi," Raven ran over, frantically grabbing the maids clothes; "where is my family?" She couldn't have kept the fear from her voice even if she'd wanted to.

Immense sadness flooded I'iwi's eyes.

'No!'

Sometimes, being astute is a curse. Raven needed no more to know that the worst had happened. Tears started flowing, silently, down her face.

"You should sit." I'iwi helped Raven to sit down before she spoke again.

"There is much I must tell you, and I'm not sure were I should start." I'iwi paused for a moment as she watched the crying little four-year-old in front of her. 'It's so unfortunate. Poor girl...'

She took a deep breath and folded up the left arm of her robes, removing the arm guard that was hidden there.

"I guess I should start at the beginning."

As the arm guard fell to the ground, I'iwi's always present air of calm disappeared. It was replaced by an overbearing feeling of strength. Had Raven been paying attention, she would have noticed how I'iwi seemed to grow more muscular; her face seemed less round, her skin less frail. A spirit stone hung in a pendant around her neck that Raven never noticed before. It was red with a large orange center; I'iwi was a peak mid Spirit Champion!

But, as the tears kept flowing down her face in silent sorrow, Raven barely noticed any of this.

"Actually, I was not really your mother's maid... I was appointed to be her bodyguard by her good friend, the Empress Nene, who has cared dearly for your mother since they studied together. For nearly 15 years have I kept my Lady Besra, and her family, safe from harm."

I'iwi sighed.

"As I think you've noticed, things have been a bit tense between your father and his sister lately. Especially the past couple of weeks. But the other day they seemed to reconcile their differences and I was sent to the Imperial Outpost with a classified letter for instant transmission to the Emperor. Most likely it contained information of what had passed between them."

"However, on the way to the outpost, I was attacked - they wanted to steal the letter. I burnt it before they had a chance.
I hurried back to the mansion, because I knew something was wrong, but..." I'iwi fell silent.

"But, I was too late. Once I returned, the mansion was ablaze and as I searched the house I found that most people within had already been consumed by the flames."

"Finally, I found your family and a handful of servants in the private dining hall. The fire had not yet spread so far but nonetheless, everyone there was already dead - or so I thought, until I noticed that you were still breathing. I had no other choice but to take you with me and leave. I feared my pursuers would learn that you had survived so, as I left, I helped the flames spread into the room..."

"I'm so sorry! It was my job to keep them safe but..." I'iwi's voice trailed of. Over the years she had truly come to appreciate the Nightingale family; their deaths had hit her hard and she had even been forced to let them burn without a proper burial.

I'iwi sat silent for quite a while, pensive. Finally she made up her mind.

"Young mistress, I am pretty sure that the Talon's are behind this but I don't know how, or really even why... I wish to go investigate the matter more closely. I know it will be hard for you but if I wait the trail might go cold. I have brought you some food and I will be back within the week. Okay?"

I'iwi didn't wait for a reply. She could tell that Raven needed time. I'iwi simply wrapped Raven in another blanket before she slipped on her arm guard. As she did, her aura shifted yet again, making her seem... ignorable.  And then, she left the way she'd came.

Through all of this Raven hadn't said a word. Streams of tears flowed continuously down her cheeks as she sat like a statue on the cave floor.

Author's note: I know that many of you don't approve of this turn of events - with the loss of family, OP prowess and all - but out of the hundreds of people who have decided to stick with the story anyway, very few have any complaints about it after a few chapters...

Chapter 11: Light, where have you gone?

In the dark cave, hours had passed since I'iwi left Raven to her grieving; it might as well have been mere seconds ago. The only difference between then and now was that Raven's clothes had become damper from her tears.

Raven herself no longer took any notice of her surroundings. Her mind was far, far away...

---------

I lie in the arms of a young woman that looks on me with tender, loving eyes. I've never been looked at with eyes like those before... She is very tired - her long violet hair clings tightly to her damp face - but despite this she has a warm glow about her. To me she is a sun, expelling the night.

"Hello, little one." With a pearly white hand, she lightly pokes my nose. "Welcome to the world. I am your mother, Besra."

---------

Raven's small body quivered and she closed her eyes tight, but this did nothing to stay her gushing tears.

---------

I look towards the big wooden door in my mother's chamber and see a small boy peeping in from outside. He is perhaps five or six years old. His hazel brown eyes glow with confidence and resolution as he places his hand on his chest and looks straight at me. "I, Haotzin Nightingale, will protect my little sister with my life!"

----------

A silent whimper escaped Raven's lips; the heartbreaking sound echoing lamentably within the cave.

---------

*BOOM!*

Just as I step out into the courtyard a small figure flies several meters backwards before tumbling to the ground.

"Again!" Haotzin is already on his feat and running towards his father.

My guard chuckles softly next to me. "He has determination at least."

I giggle and balance on the heals of my feet. "You have to catch me! You have to catch me!"

With a sigh Haotzin starts to chase me. Just as he is about to grab me, I shift ever so slightly and move around him.

"Hihi, brother is so clumsy! You move like an elephant!" I sway lightly on the tip of my toes and once more twirl out of his reach.

---------

Raven's body collapsed to the ground, devoid of all her strength.

---------

We are leaving for Sky Academy. In the southern courtyard I watch my father and brother say goodbye. There is an awkwardness about it that is quite amusing. I notice father scratching the bridge of his nose, stealthily removing the moist that is gathering at the inner corner of his eye - I bite my lip to stop myself from giggling. Father's attempts to hide his affections are quite feeble.

---------

Raven lifted her shaking hands to cover her face, grabbing at her tangled hair with paling fingers. Her previously beautiful braids were becoming undone.

---------

My mother is walking towards the imperial palace. Hoatzin is next to me and he grabs my hand; keeping me close to him as we approach the building. I'm excited and I can tell that Hoatzin is too, but I notice a tinge of nervousness beneath his anticipating expression. Love fills my heart. My dear brother... He hides his nervousness so well and strives to comfort me at the same time. He will grow into a fine man one day!

---------

Like a fetus, Raven pulled her legs closer to her.  She lied there, weeping endlessly on the cold cave floor.

---------

"Two confirmed passes: Hoatzin Nightingale, 40 orbs cleared, and Javelin Hake, 38 orbs cleared."

I hear the gathered crowd applauding vigorously but I'm more focused on my brother. On stage I can see how he finally turns around - he looks so proud. Hoatzin shakes hands with the blond boy and they say something I can't hear. They start following the attendant of stage but as they reach the end of the stage my brother notices me. He stops and waves to me happily.

---------

Raven's back stared convulsing as her desolate sobs grew louder and louder.

---------

Outside the cabin I can sense my father approaching. My mother meets him at the door, their existences becoming one in my minds eye. I am sleeping but I am still partially aware of my surroundings.

"She fell asleep an hour ago. I didn't have the heart to wake her." My mother whispers softly.

My father gives of a tender air, filled with love, as I feel him coming closer and scooping me up. My mother moves closer as well and together they carry me towards my room. Their warmth and security lull me to a deeper sleep.

---------

Raven's nails had turned red with blood from claw marks in her scalp. A thin line of blood even seeped out through the corner of her mouth. In angst, she had bit her tongue.

---------

The cabin has a couple meters left to the ground but I see the door swing open. My dark-haired brother jumps down in his grey robes. He runs to me with large steps and, once we are close enough, we embrace tightly. He lifts me from the ground and spins me around him.

"I'm home!" he laughs.

---------

Raven opened her mouth wide and howled a soundless shriek. Every acing muscle in her body clenched as she writhed on the ground.

She wanted to scream. But no sound could be heard.

She wanted to forget. But amnesia didn't come.

She wanted to die. But death refused to claim her.

---------

Finally, after three days and three nights of crying, Raven ran out of tears. She lay motionless on the cave floor staring absently into the distance. Her skin was pale, her nails broken. She hadn't eaten or drunken anything during the past four days.

'It's my fault. It's all my fault.' the thought repeated itself in her head, over and over.

'I knew something was going on between Father and Aunt - I should have been more stubborn in my inquires. I should have...'

'Oh, my dear family! I only had you for four years but I have never been happier...'

Raven was at her wits end; if she didn't find something to cling too soon, she would be lost for good. She didn't notice it, but within her, the light in her soul was flickering, as if dangling at the border of extinction.

'...What is in this world for me if you are not here?'

Suddenly, something flashed across Raven's lifeless eyes.

'No, there is one thing I must do in this world...'

Her soul stopped flickering and her previously listless eyes now held a sense of purpose. Slowly, Raven sat up. A fathomless rage was starting to build in the very core of her being.

"There is indeed something I must do..." Her voice was shaky but it grew in strength as she spoke her words out loud. She lifted a pale hand and started into its palm.

"Anyone and everyone involved in the death of my family will pay for their crimes - by this very hand! I swear it with all I am: they shall pay!" She clenched her fist and smacked it into the cave floor.

She had found something to cling to.

Raven took a deep breath and steeled herself; forcing down the emotions that threatened to undue her. In that instant, the heart she had spent the last four years melting, in the warm embrace of her family, froze over once more - she had no other choice but to fall back on her old training. She made her self look upon her situation with the eyes of an assassin; it was no longer a matter of grieving the loss of the only people she ever truly loved, it was a matter of finding, and then eradicating, her targets.

And so, Raven started to eat. And drink.

It had been too long and if she was left without nourishment much longer, death would stop being so picky and claim her too. Before she would be able to do anything about her new mission, she needed to regain her strength. Eating was the first step, but the food had no taste and the water didn't feel refreshing as it flowed down her throat - Raven doubted that it ever would again.

As the tasteless food and water gradually filled her stomach, Raven felt the familiar prickle of a spirit connection being formed. This caused her to turn her attention inwards.

Raven inspected her soul and was revealed to find that in total four connections had been reestablished, without her noticing it. It would seem as if whatever caused her to loose them in the first place hadn't actually damaged her soul - in fact, her soul even seemed to have strengthened slightly. Consequently, once her soul came in contact with enough spirit essence the connections would naturally reform.

Raven then turned her attention to her spirit core. Just like with her soul, it had been almost completely depleted of its content; the vortex of white light had shrunk considerably. Raven suspected that it had initially been fully drained, but that it too had started to recover over the past few days. Fortunately, her body strength had not been effected at all, so recovery should be rather quick.

Raven sighed. Even if the damage wasn't permanent, at this rate, it would take nearly a year for all her spirit connections to be restored and as for her core, it would most likely be a couple of months before it was back to its previous level. If the culprits were who she thought they were, it meant that she would be facing spiritualists - killing them would be hard, or more likely impossible, in her current condition.

But she would be patient. No errors would be allowed; even if it took decades, she would accomplish her goal.

Raven forced a final piece of meat down her throat, before adapting a cross legged position of meditation. A couple of days remained before she could expect I'iwi to return and Raven would use this time to try to speed up her recovery. She closed her eyes and started tugging at the seventeen strands of light that extended from her soul. Slowly, at least compared to before, spirit essence flooded her mind.

---------

Two days passed. Within the cave Raven sat, as before, cross legged on the ground. She had spent little to no time sleeping, her meditative state was close enough to sleeping for her to be able to forgo it for longer periods. She would, however, pause her cultivation once in a while to eat and move around a bit in the cave; since all spirit essence she absorbed went to stimulate her spirit core, none was left to strengthen her body. Thus, she had to stimulate her muscles in other ways.

She had noticed that, even though her soul continued to reestablish one connection a day, she could vastly increase the recovery rate of her core by this method. 29 days. That was her estimated time frame for her spirit core to make a full recovery. After that she planed start practicing her Divine Skills again.

Raven felt her stomach growl; it was time to eat again. She broke her meditation, got up and started walking towards the few food parcels left in one corner of the cave. Just as she was about to bend down to pick up a bag filled with assorted berries, she heard a faint thud from the tunnel that led out towards the entrance of the cave.

Raven didn't hesitate; she spun around and dashed towards the tunnel on silent feet. She grabbed the Nightingale's Blessing as she passed it.

She had explored the tunnels during some of her earlier breaks and she had learned that it was quite difficult to navigate this far into it. There was a myriad of tunnels and no sunlight penetrated this far in - if not for the strange specks of glowing ore intermingled with the stone walls, the system of caves and tunnels would be forever clad in darkness. The complexity of the tunnels meant that Raven was quite confident that she could elude detection if she wanted to.

As Raven approached the origin of the sound, she slowed down and drew her blade. By now she could hear labored breathing, sometimes accompanied by coughs and the sound of metal scraping against stone.

There was only a small bend in the tunnel left. Slowing to a halt, Raven sank to the floor before she peaked around the corner. Her eye's widened in shock.

"I'iwi!" Raven scrambled to her feet and rushed towards the maid - or rather bodyguard - that was slowly crawling her way deeper into the cave.

"Young mistress?" I'iwi's voice was very weak. When she saw Raven running towards her, she stopped trying to move forward and collapsed to the ground. Within seconds, Raven had sank to her knees next to the bodyguard.

As she rolled I'iwi unto her lap, Raven's face darkened; a gaping wound in I'iwi's abdomen was gushing blood and an equally large laceration ran down her thighs. It was a miracle that I'iwi hadn't bled to death already.

Raven knew it was hopeless but that didn't stop her from taring the arm of her own robe. With practiced hands she tied it above the wound in the leg, tightening it hard enough to stay the blood flow. She then turned her attention to the gut-wound, but as Raven started trying to wrap it in more fabrics from her own robes, I'iwi's pale hand came to rest on Raven's.

"It's... no use...." I'iwi smiled weakly; "I'm..."

"Shh... don't speak." Raven hushed and tried to continue her work, but I'iwi's seemingly frail hand suddenly grew too strong for Raven to break free.

"No...*cough*...take this instead." I'iwi lifted her other hand and opened it. In her bloody palm lay a small jade colored glass orb; "...my findings...are...stored inside."

Raven hesitated for a moment before she took the orb.

"Thank you..." Raven looked at the dying bodyguard; her death was undoubtedly a result of trying to find out what had happened to Raven's family.

I'iwi forced another smile but there was an odd expression hidden beneath it that Raven couldn't quite identify.

"Goodbye, little Raven. Make us proud...."

The last signs of life faded from I'iwi's face and her outstretched hand fell, lifeless, to her chest. Raven had thought that all tears had left her, already spent, but when I'iwi called her 'little Raven' - just as her parents had - two lone tears escaped her eyes; dripping down on the blood-covered servant below.

'This isn't fair....' her soul ached; 'why does everyone have to be wrenched from me like this?'

Raven sat motionless on the ground with the dead I'iwi in her lap for quite some time. Eventually, she stirred; using much of her strength, she lifted I'iwi's body into her arms and walked back into the depths of the tunnel system.

Once back in her cave, Raven lowered I'iwi onto the makeshift bed of blankets on the ground. She removed all of the woman's pieces of armor and other equipment. Taring more fabric from her gown, Raven used it to meticulously remove all blood stains from I'iwi's face and hands. She then carefully wrapped the woman's body in the blankets - I'iwi looked almost peaceful where she lay, yet again no more than a calm, sleeping, maid.

Silently, Raven got to her feet and left the cave, only to return moments later carrying a small rock, no bigger than an orange. She placed it next to I'iwi and then left once more. This process repeated itself over and over. She worked in silence, her pace slow but steady, for almost five hours before she stopped and inspected her work. Before her, the bed of blankets had transformed into a large tomb of small, glistering rocks.

Finally, Raven pulled out the Spirit Stone I'iwi had carried around her neck when she died. It had by now faded back to a lifeless grey, awaiting it's next owner, but no such owner would come, because Raven placed the Stone on top of the self-made tomb.

"Rest well."

Raven bowed to the tomb thrice before backing away. In the other end of the cave, she sat down and brought out the jade glass orb. The anger from before was once more growing within her. She closed her eyes, calmed her self down, and then extended her spirit essence to make contact with the orb.

The instant her essence entered the orb a stream of memories flooded her mind. In that moment Raven learned everything I'iwi had found out during the past week. Raven's eyes shot open, the anger within her turned to pure, abysmal rage - no training in the world could keep her feelings in check now.

"How. Dare. They." Raven spat the words through clenched teeth.

Suddenly, the forest-green color of her eyes darkened and became a deep, blood-red. The air around her seemed to shake and quiver as if suddenly afraid. Within Raven's soul, the previously golden strands of spirit connections were overflowed by a crimson light that flooded out of the crystal prism. The crimson light forced it's way out into the world where it started swirling violently around Raven.

It was immense killing intent.

Never before had Raven wished to kill anyone as much as she did now. Previously, killing had been a way of living for her, not something she ever made personal - in fact she was trained to not make it personal. But this time was different. Now she wished to not only kill her enemies, she wanted to make them suffer first.

The crimson whisks of light grew denser and denser, and as they did they started to lash out at their surroundings, leaving faint groves in the cave walls. Beneath her, the ground started to shake and crumble; above her, cracks appeared in the ceiling causing pebbles to fall. Even though Raven didn't understand what was going on, she didn't care.

The light in her life had been torn from her by such horrifying means, and the world would burn for it!

Chapter 12: Hope?

Consumed by her boundless killing intent, Raven stood, shaking, inside the gradually crumbling cave. The emotions were just too strong, too raw; had she been in a more lucid state she would have felt her control slipping. As it was, she didn’t. She didn’t even notice the huge crack making it’s way over to the newly constructed tomb of I’iwi, located in the other end of the cave.

But in all this chaos, a wondrous thing happened; a twentieth spirit connection was reformed.

“….aven! Raven, stop! Snap out of it, or you’ll kill yourself!”

Raven froze. The solidified strands of killing intent vanished in that same heartbeat.

“*sigh*…finally she stopped. I thought she’d lost it for good this time….”

Raven looked down at her hand; disbelief filled her face. She didn’t dare hope…

“…seriously, this little sister of mine, how many secrets has she been keeping?”

Raven gasped and collapsed down on the broken ground beneath her.

“…Brother? Is… is that you?” Her voice was fragile, as if on the verge of braking. Tentatively she started to expand her spirit essence to let it examine the deep purple ring on her finger.

“You can hear me!?” the voice in her head suddenly grew happy. “Finally! Oh, Little Sister, having to observe you in silence this past week…”

As Raven’s spirit essence tried to enter the cold ring, it was blocked – just as it had been when she tried right after she received it. Nonetheless, she could now clearly feel a presence within; it was none other than Hoatzin, her brother.

In that instant, disbelief and jubilant joy mixed within Raven in an odd merger.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the voice of your own brother?”

He even teased her!

“But..! But how?” Raven couldn’t help but be guarded; if this was her mind was playing tricks with her, she felt she wouldn’t be able to take it. To think that her brother now existed within the ring on her finger was just a bit too far fetched.

“Remember how I helped you put on this ring and started bleeding afterwards? Well, some of my blood must have gotten on the ring, because the moment I felt my consciousness slip away from me back at the mansion, this ring tugged at my soul, pulling me within it.”

“This…” Raven was flabbergasted. She had never even heard of such a thing!

“Quite fortunate, right? To think that something so small would help save me…” her brother’s voice grew solemn; “if only our parents would have been so lucky…”
Raven’s red eyes flashed. Her killing intent surged once more, but this time around she was prepared for it; with little effort, she rained it in.

“Woaw, Little Sister, easy there. I’m upset too but, your reaction is quite frightening… Tell me, what was in I’iwi’s memories that angers you to this extent?”

From within the ring, Hoatzin could hear and see everything going on outside it. Naturally, he had heard the conversations between the two women; he knew that the glass orb held information about his parents deaths, and the demise of his body, but he couldn’t read Raven’s mind. She would have to speak out loud to tell him what she learnt.

Of course, there were other questions he wanted to ask, such as: how come Raven is already a spiritualist, and one at a higher level than him at that; or, how could she, a four-year-old girl, possess killing intent so strong that it manifested in the physical world? As far as he knew, killing intent was linked to how many people a person had killed in their lifetime as well as their spirit connections – the more people you killed, the stronger the killing intent grew; the more connections you had, the better you would be able to manifest it. What he had learnt of Raven the last couple of days indicated that her spirit connections alone would not generate such levels of manifestation.
But these questions could wait; right now he wanted to know why his sister had nearly spiraled out of control.

After hesitating for a moment Raven started to, haltingly, recall what she had learned from I’iwi’s memories.

“After I’iwi left me here, she returned to our… to the Mansion – not much was left of it. The fire had burnt for hours; barely any remains had been found and everyone that had been in the mansion were proclaimed dead. When she could find no hints about what had really happened in the rubble, I’iwi chose to make her way towards the Talon Clan’s main house. Using the ‘Fox’s Veil’ – that is her strange arm guard – she moved through the city without anyone paying her any attention or even recognizing her. As she made her way, she learned that the general story around town was that one of the spiritualists of our clan had been bold enough to capture a Inferno Devil and bring it home.”

Hoatzin snorted.

“Who would possibly do something so stupid within our clan?”

What was an Inferno Devil? It was a small magical beast, roughly the size of a melon, that looked like a fiery red squirrel. Its bushy tail was replaced by a scorching hot flame that moved with a will of its own; it was quite cute actually. However, being fooled by it’s cute exterior would be the last mistake you did. If angered, this normally docile beast would use it’s tail to set everything it touched ablaze with a hellish fire that couldn’t be put out by normal means; water would only make it burn more viciously and even high Champions would have a hard time escaping alive if trapped in the blaze.

“I agree with you, Brother, but apparently, once the flames had died down, the people who rushed to the site had indeed found an Inferno Devil sleeping peacefully in the center of the mansion grounds…”

“What!? Impossible!”

Inferno Beasts were rare. Very rare. To think that one had ended up there by mere accident, the very same evening the Nightingale family met their untimely demise, was simply foolish.

“I’iwi didn’t find it reasonable either, so she infiltrated the Talon main house to find out more. I must say, that I’m quite impressed by her skills; sure the Fox’s Veil helped her greatly but still, to get so close to Aunt and Uncle without being detected is quite the feat.” Raven had truly been impressed by the accomplishments of their little “maid” – who would have thought that Raven had lived so close to an expert these past four years without even knowing it!

“She overheard a conversation our dear Talons had…” anger flashed across Raven’s face; “…they… they were laughing. Gloating, even. Reveling in how they would undoubtedly be given the position as Lord Prefects – they were after all not only second in line but had also, sooo heroically, captured the detestable creature responsible for their beloved relatives deaths.”

“….” Hoatzin didn’t speak, but Raven could tell he too was growing increasingly angry.

Raven swallowed and continued.

“They then mentioned something about the aid from foreign friends and how they together would turn Black Talon Prefecture,” Raven spat the words; “into something greater than Father ever could have imagined.”

“Preposterous!” Hoatzin couldn’t hold it in any longer. “How dare they rename Father’s prefecture? And what do they mean greater? The prefecture is fine as it is! Now I understand why you got so upset!”

But Raven shook her head. If it was only this, how could she possibly loose her composure? Up till this point, the events had unfolded pretty much as she had suspected they would.

“There is more!?” Her brother was shocked.

Raven sighed and continued.

“I’iwi had confirmed that the Talons were indeed the main culprits, but also that they had been given aid – not surprising considering that they must have managed to find, capture and control an Inferno Devil; something the spiritualists within the Talon clan would not be capable of on their own. I’iwi naturally wanted to find out the identity of these mysterious ‘foreign friends’.”

Raven’s still dark red eyes became somewhat distant.

“I’iwi managed to sneak into aunt’s study. There she had found a letter that was being prepared for instant transfer. It was addressed to an “Elder W” at Sky Academy. Within stood the following: ‘Humble thanks for all your aid; Elder’s hounds took care of the squirrel infestation beautifully. Most intrigued by Elder’s tale of the Phoenix Death Lotus; it’s fortunate they don’t grow in our colder climates.’ …after reading the letter, I’iwi was discovered and mortally wounded, before she managed to flee back to this cave.”

Raven stopped speaking. She knew this wouldn’t be enough for her brother to understand, but she didn’t really want to speak about it further.

“I’iwi’s sacrifice was indeed great, but now we know their accomplice is at Sky Academy; isn’t that a good thing? Like this we know were to look. Let me think, elders that have names starting with a ‘W’….” Hoatzin did indeed not understand the implications of what she had just said.

Raven closed her eyes before she interrupted her brother’s contemplation.

“I had my self not heard of it before, but I’iwi had. The Phoenix Death Lotus is a legendary flower; supposedly it doesn’t even exist… According to legend though, it is a small, yellow, flower that at first seems completely normal and harmless to its surroundings. However, if you burn it, the ash it leaves behind is drawn to the spirit cores of nearby spiritualists. Once inside their cores, it takes control over the essence stored within and stars consuming the spiritualists spirit connections. If it manages to consume all of the connections, the crystallized prism will no longer be able to contain its soul. Instead the soul disperses and the cultivator dies. The flowers ashes then settles in the vacant prism, where it’s starts to grow anew.”

Pain filled Raven’s face.

“Oh. So that’s how they did it. The flower was burnt in the fire, the ash was released and when our parent’s souls had nowhere to go, they died…” Hoatzin was silent for a while; “…but wait. The fire hadn’t started then. How come…”

“I did it!” Raven couldn’t take it anymore.

“Huh?”

“I did it! I found the flower and noticed that it was dangerous. So… So I burnt it! Don’t you see!? I killed my own family!” Raven banged her fists into the stone floor; the sharp rocks cut into her palms.

“They made me kill my own family!” her body shook as she forced her emotions under control.
Hoatzin was shocked. At first he didn’t know what to say – his sister blamed herself… Wasn’t that pushing it? She had only acted out of concern for them; how could she possibly have known that the flower had been such a mythical plant? As he thought about it though, his anger grew within his soul.

He wasn’t angry at Raven, quite the opposite. He was angry at the Talons, and, he was angry at this “Elder W”. Hoatzin knew that even if his sister wasn’t really responsible for what had happened, it wouldn’t stop Raven from forever blaming herself for it. He knew his sister well, or at least, he understood her personality well, and she would not let this go easily.

He was silent a little while longer before he spoke in a firm voice.

“Raven, while it might be true that the night’s events progressed a little bit faster by your hand, you can’t possibly doubt that all of it had been carefully planed to the point where all our deaths were unavoidable.”

“But if I had showed it to Father rather than burn it, then perhaps…”

Hoatzin cut her off.

“Perhaps is just that, perhaps. Perhaps, there were hundreds of those flowers hidden throughout our home. Perhaps, alerting father to it would have caused an all out war between our two clans, leading to the deaths of countless civilians. Perhaps, burning that flower ahead of time was the only thing that allowed I’iwi to find you before the Talons’s “hounds” did, thereby saving not only you but me as well.”

Raven didn’t refute him this time. In her mind she knew he had a point, but to make her heart except it was another thing.

“As far as I’m concerned, the people responsible for the deaths of our parents are the Talon Clan and Elder W. And only them.”

Slowly Raven’s body relaxed. Hearing her brother defend her so firmly was a bigger weight of her shoulder’s than she had expected.

“You are right; we should be focusing on avenging our parents… Oh, and trying to figure out a way to get you a body!” Raven’s mood was lifted slightly.

“Hehe….” Hoatzin laughed nervously. “Ah, before that – I have a few questions I would like to ask you.”

“Oh?” Raven lifted an eyebrow.

“Yes, well, for starters, how come you survived?”

Raven blinked in surprise.

“Haha, well, it’s quite a long story…”

Slowly, Raven started telling her brother about everything she had been through since she was born. She told him about her experience in the Spirit Hall during her first Day of Light, about learning various Divine Skills and training with her sword. She even told him that she had some recollections of her past life, where she seemed to have lived as a “soldier” – she didn’t want to burden her brother with the vicious life she had lived before, so she told him her memories were more like muscle memories; her soul remembered what her body had learnt but not really how or when.

As she spoke, Raven calmed down quite a lot; talking about her hidden life with her brother was a welcome distraction. Gradually the red in her eyes faded, once more returning to their original forest green.

When her story was complete,  Hoatzin surprised her simply saying: “Well, that explains a lot.”

Raven had expected him to be less… well, less prone to believe her story; it was a quite outrageous one after all. What she didn’t know was that while Raven had been unconscious, I’iwi had naturally examined her with spirit essence. Originally it was only to check that Raven was alright, but when she had discovered that this little four-year-old kid not only possessed over ten spirit connections, but also had a soul color I’iwi hadn’t even heard of, I’iwi’s examination had grown a lot more thorough. Every time she discovered something new she would marvel about it out loud:

“What!? A light blue soul prism – is there even such a thing?”

“Dear heavens, such well developed muscles! She must have been cultivating all her life…”

“Could it be? Is she entering the stage of Spirit Adept? At four!?”

Hoatzin had observed it all from within his ring and had grown more and more curious about his sister. Later, when Raven exhibited killing intent like he’d never seen before, he truly wondered what this sister of his had gone through. Her explanation – having kept some extent of her memories from a previous live – kind of made it all fall into place. Of course she would have a special soul. Of course she would know how to fight and meditate. And most likely she had killed quite a few people as a soldier, whether she subconsciously remembered it or not, which explained the strong killing intent.

Had Raven known about I’iwi’s insights, then she would perhaps have realized what the odd look I’iwi had given her as she died was – it was wonder and hope; wonder at the little girls existence and hope for what she would accomplish in the future.

Chapter 13: Moving Forward

Author's note: Magical beasts have been re-named to spirit beasts to fit with the lore better - the change will be carried out backwards eventually but not today.

Also, the releases here have almost caught up with my writing speed so unfortunately I won't be able to keep doing daily releases very much longer... The minimum will be once a week but most likely I will manage a release once every 3 days, depending on how much I have to do at school/work.

Moving Forward

Within the cave, Raven and her brother had been talking about their past four years together, for hours. Sometimes they grew sad as they thought about the people they'd lost, but sometimes they would laugh as they retold their experiences of an event from their different perspectives. At the moment, they were talking about exactly such an event.

"So your little game of tag was all an act? You knew all along what I was doing wrong!" Hoatzin accused.

"Hehe, well not exactly, but I did think I could help Brother make some advancements." Raven was smiling.

"I was so annoyed with you at first..." Hoatzin sighed; "Really Sister, you are too calculating!"

Both of them laughed.

"Speaking of calculating, what do you intend to do now?" Hoatzin asked.

He had already come to terms with his sister's vast experience; even if Raven would always be his little sister in his heart, he naturally let her make their future plans. Besides, it was not like he could do anything about what she decided anyway - he was after all stuck in the ring - that they by now had named 'Life Link'.

Raven, that had been absentmindedly re-braiding her hair, only pondered over the question for a second.

"Well, the Talon's must be taken care of, and as the first step will be for me to enroll at Sky Academy,"

"Great! There you can grow stronger at a fast pace, take care of Dunlin and learn the identity of the mystery elder. It's good to not be too impatient." Hoatzin's response was quick; he naturally also knew that Raven, as she was now, was likely no match for their enemies. She had to grow stronger.

"...as a man." She finished.

"Of course you will... wait, what what did you say!?"

"I will be enrolling as a man, or well, as a boy." Raven repeated calmly.

"But why?"

"Think about it; while it is true that most people haven't seen my face due to always being veiled in public, if a female were to enter the Sky Academy's martial division, with a cultivation like mine, it would cause too big of an uproar. Even if I can use the Fox's Veil to alter my aura, it doesn't actually change how I look. Sooner or later someone would recognize me."

"But you would be capable of disguising yourself as a boy!? Have you seen yourself lately - you are as far from a boy as a four-year-old toddler could possibly be, and it will only get worse as you grow older!"

Raven laughed. What her brother pointed out was indeed true, but even in her old world Raven had been forced to hide her sex many times. Raven knew that there was a lot more to "being male" than the physical features of her body. I was rather a question of mannerisms: body langue, how one chooses to speak, how one chooses to act and a lot more. Of course, once Raven entered full puberty, her body would complicate things, but firstly, that was at least six years in the future, and secondly, even if the Fox's Veil couldn't actually change her appearance, it could alter what people payed attention to.

This combined with her previous experiences made her fairly confident in her abilities to remain as a boy for the ten years she would attend the Academy. Not that she had any intentions of waiting ten years before extracting her revenge - once that was done she would have no issues reveling her identity.

Instead of explaining all this to her brother, she figured it would be more efficient to show him. She shifted her sitting position ever so slightly; relaxing some muscles, while tensing others. Her facial expression changed, enhancing her more masculine features.

"You...." Hoatzin was stunned.

The changes were, on their own, extremely small but the Raven sitting in the cave now was not the same Raven he had seen mere moments before. She was still Raven, but even Hoatzin would have labeled her a boy at a first glance. A feminine one, but still a boy.

A faint smile curled at the corner of Raven's mouth, giving her the expression of a mischievous little boy, preparing to steel an egg from under a hen. Before her brother had time to react, Raven drew her sword and with a swift, but almost robust move, chopped of her floor-long hair right above her shoulders. She caught the falling braid in her other hand.

"Your hair!"

"It had to go - I might be good at deception but this hair is more then I can handle..." Raven's voice was calm and almost imperceptibly deeper than before - she could lower it further but she was only four; what four-year-old boy had already had his voice mature?

"..." Hoatzin said nothing. He knew how much Raven valued her hair - how could he not when she had refused to let anyone cut it since the day she was born - but now she had cut it of without hesitation.

Raven tied up her remaining hair in the back of her head, using the typical hair knot of commoners.

"Well brother, your verdict?" Raven asked.

"It will do." If not for Raven chopping of her hair, Hoatzin had prepared a joke for her about finally revealing her true gender, but now he let it pass. His sister was clearly serious about this.

"There is more to it." Raven got to her feet and walked over to I'iwi's tomb. Once next to it, she clasped her hand in respect before placing her own dark purple braid by the tombs feet and backing away. Next she moved to the small pile of equipment she had removed from I'iwi before she lay her to rest.

To call it a pile was perhaps a stretch though, since it only consisted of three items: the arm guard Fox's Veil, a small but surprisingly sharp dagger and a copper-colored spacial ring. Raven had yet to inspect the ring so she didn't know what she would find inside, but right now, her attention was more focused on the Fox's Veil.

Raven lifted the arm guard and pulled it onto her right arm. It was way too big for her, but she wasn't concerned. Instead she reached for the small dagger and, with a well trained movement, flicked it across her left palm. She then pressed her bleeding hand against the Fox's Veil. The moment the arm guard came in contact with her blood, it started to glow and vibrate slightly. Slowly, it started to shrink, adapting itself to the arm wearing it. Soon, it was wrapped around Ravens arm like a second layer of skin.

Raven flexed her right hand, and nodded approvingly; it wouldn't hinder her movements at all. Through the blood connection Raven instinctively knew how to use it. With but a thought, she felt the air around her change according to her will.

"Now it's complete!"

---------

In the old mining town of White Water, a small nondescript boy was making his way through deserted alleys. This town had once been a bustling hub of activity but once the nearby mines ran out of useful soul ore, it's largest income was gone; only five years had passed since then but the town grew more desolate every passing month.

The little boy kept to the shadows as he seemed to be searching for something. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. In the alley he'd just peeked into hung a clothing line, filled with damp children's clothes, a few meters above ground. After pausing for a moment to inspect his surroundings more closely, the boy increased his pace and dashed down the ally in question. Just as it looked as if he was going to pass underneath the clothing line, the boy jumped into the air, extending a foot towards the nearby wall. With the additional boost from the wall, the tiny figure reached his target and snatched a set of child robes with ease.

Before anyone had a chance to notice what had happened, the boy had already changed into the damp robes and disappeared. Tucked into a nearby burning garbage bin was a tattered dress in fine silks.

The 'boy' was no one else than young Raven. Earlier that night she had stored her sword within the spacial ring and then made her way out of the complex system of tunnels, emerging in this White Water Town - the cave she had hidden in had been a part of the those very soul ore mines that had been depleted five years ago.

Now that she had changed into more fitting clothing she pondered her next step.

"So, we won't be flying, but rather go to Sky City by foot?" Hoatzin couldn't help but ask again.

"Yes, by foot. How would I possibly explain having the funds to pay for the transport when I'm supposed to be an orphaned commoner?" Raven explained patiently.

Even through flight was the main form of transportation in Sky Empire, it was still quite expensive, so poorer citizens would normally have to either travel by foot and horseback or stay put. After inspecting I'iwi's spacial ring, Raven had found a rather substantial amount of money inside - nothing compared to the wealth Raven's own family had been in possession of, but definitely enough to pay for the trip to Sky City many times over.

"Why not pretend to be a rich orphan?" Hoatzin suggested after some pondering.

"And risk being robbed, or even killed for my money? Too much is at stake for that - I'd rather play it safe."

"I wouldn't call passing through the mountain ranges and living in the wild with spirit beasts for two years 'playing it safe'..." Hoatzin muttered, mostly to himself.

Raven only smiled. She knew her brother's concerns but in her opinion, being poor in the wilderness was a lot better than being rich in civilization. At least if you were weak. While greedy humans would be attracted to money no matter how uninteresting the person carrying it might seem, beasts were another matter; as long as you didn't fall under either of the categories 'threat' or 'food', most beasts would leave you alone. With Raven's training and the Fox's Veil aiding her, she was confident to avoid them both.

So, Raven continued to move quietly through town. She stopped sticking to the smaller alleys and instead used the bigger streets that were lined with the handful of shops that had managed to stay open, despite the state of the town - none were open right now though since it was still in the middle of the night. Raven walked slowly with her head down, as if to not accidentally offend any of the few townspeople that were moving around on the streets even at this hour. Once in a while though, she would pause and disappear into the shadows only to reappear moments later. Nobody noticed her weird behavior. In fact, few even looked at her, even when she was in plain sight.

Just as dawn broke, Raven reached the end of the town. Standing beneath the huge stone gate in grey marble, Raven looked out over the landscape in front of her. White Water Town was located fairly high up, altitude-wise, and as far as Raven could see, it was surrounded by an ocean of dark green trees that covered the numerous mountains that made the Nightingale Prefecture. A wide river, with water so rapid that the water seemed white, ran next to the town, making its way to a huge lake at the foot of the mountain.

White Water Town was fairly close to the prefecture's capital and Raven knew the area well from the various books she had studied. In her mind she reviewed the geography of the entire Sky Empire and quickly decided on a route. To get to Sky City from White Water Town, Raven would have to travel to the other side of Nightingale Prefecture and then the entire length of Rock Wren Prefecture. This was a distance of nearly 12 000 kilometers, through rough terrain.

Despite having her route figured out, Raven didn't set of imminently, but rather observed the rising sun's slow arrival in the morning sky.

"What? Having second thoughts now that you've pilfered your way through town?" Hoatzin mocked.

Raven had indeed stolen quite a lot on her way out - there was much equipment she would enjoy having once in the wilderness and whenever Raven had passed a store with such supplies she... liberated some of it. This didn't sit very well with Hoatzin's upfront nature, so he was currently sulking a bit.

"Haha, no Brother. I'm simply enjoying the scenery. Once this journey truly starts, we won't have the luxury of doing so very often."

"Hmm, even though I can see the beauty of it from within this ring, it's still not quite the same as experiencing it first hand..."  Her brother sighed.

"Hopefully, we will find a way to change that as well, once we reach the Academy."

Hoatzin didn't reply.

As Raven stood there, also in silence, an elderly man came walking up the mountain side road. Every morning he would make this climb up to town from his little cabin further down the mountain. In his younger days, he had worked in the mines and even earned enough money to build himself a home, for him, his wife and child. Now, however, he was all alone and could feel how the town he frequented was slowly fading, just like him.

While he passed the town gate he almost failed to notice the small child standing by it, but since he walked that road every morning and usually never met anyone until he was much further in town, he eventually reacted to the unexpected presence.

He turned to look at the boy once more, but when he did, the child was already gone. He leaned out through the gates to see if the boy was further down the road, but the road was just as empty as it always was this time of day.

"Huh? Must have imagined it..." The man sighed wearily and continued his journey into town.

- End of Volume 1 -

Chapter 14: Hungry Persuit

The Great Woodland Valley. This was a vast forest - perhaps nearly ten thousand square kilometers large - of densely packed trees, located at the very center of the Nightingale Prefecture. Circumventing it on all sides were tall mountains, who's peaks were covered in a perpetual layer of snow.

The Great Woodland Valley was home to a wide verity of normal and spirit beasts alike. It was not uncommon for these beasts to fight with each other, hoping to increase their areas of dominion; rarely, incredibly strong spirit beasts would fight each other and the shock waves of the battle would echo throughout the valley.

Today, however, no such sounds could be heard. All in all, it was a fairly calm day in the huge valley. But not everywhere. In the far western corner of the forest, a small child was running dead east at an uncharacteristically high pace. At a glance the child looked like your average preteen boy, with no features really worth mentioning, but if you managed to look closely he would suddenly seem... delicate; the midsummer sun that seeped through the leaves above him made his nearly black hair reveal its true, purple color and even though the child was tall and muscular for his age, he was more lean than anything, giving him a slightly feminine appearance.

The child kept running, once in a while glancing back over its shoulder.

"I told you that saving that girl was a bad idea!" Raven hissed between labored breaths.

The young 'boy' was indeed none other than Raven Nightingale, who ran as fast as she could deeper into the forest. Every now and then she would activate Shadow Walk to momentarily increase her speed, but she could not keep it active for long; it wasn't a long distance skill to begin with and Raven's current cultivation did not allow her to force the skill to become one.

"How was I to know that she was in fact a member of a cannibal tribe!?" Hoatzin retorted from within his ring.

"She reeked of blood!" Raven panted. "Even if she hadn't been a cannibal she had clearly been consorting with death for a long time..."

"...she could have been a victim." was the only defense Hoatzin could give to that.

The reason why Raven was running for all she was worth at the moment, was that she was currently being pursued by a horde of hungry cannibals. Everything had started a few days back...

Raven had been steadily make her way through the wilderness for nearly a month without any mishaps; by relying on her assassin's training, the Fox's Veil and her slowly returning senses she had managed to stay under the radar of most beasts she had come across. However, two days ago, Raven had herd the faint crying of a little child. Surprised by the presence of humans this deep in the wilderness, Raven had carefully approached the source of the crying. She had soon come across a small girl trapped in a patch of Blue Fire Mire.

The mire was perhaps no larger than a few square meters, but it was clear that the girl had fallen into the flame covered muck of the mire while trying to reach a branch of fruits growing above it, and now she was stuck. Although blue flames burned like lanterns here and there in the mire, the flames were cold to the touch and not dangerous by themselves. The danger of the Blue Fire Mire was getting stuck and then either starving to death or becoming fodder to some lucky beast that past by.

The moment Raven came within a hundred meters of the girl, she sensed the prominent smell of blood filling the air as if a dense fog. The crying girl had noticed Raven's approach at the same time and a relieved expression filled her teary face. However, reacting to the thick smell of blood, Raven had simply turned around and walked away.

"Don't go..." the girl had pleaded; "help me!"

"What are you doing?" Hoatzin had in turn responded. "You can't just leave her there!"

Raven, who had felt the underlying danger, had still obediently turned around to help the girl. She knew very well that her brother wouldn't let it go otherwise.

Once out of the mire, the girl had implored Raven to follow her to her home.

"Please, big brother, follow me to my home - daddy will want to thank you!" she had squealed.

"Just go with her. It's too dangerous for a little girl out here anyway." Hoatzin had coaxed.

'How about your sister? I'm also just a little girl!' Raven had thought to herself, but in the end, she had just sighed and agreed to follow the rescuee home.

However, as they arrived at this "home", even Hoatzin couldn't deny that something was off. The home consisted of a cluster of huts built high in the tree tops with various cages hanging empty from them. But, most importantly, all the huts were made out of bones. Human bones.

"Can I abandon her now?" Raven had asked sarcastically under her breath.

"Yes!"

Even before Hoatzin had given a reply, Raven had turned and fled. Unfortunately, the little girl had alerted her elders about Raven's presence, leading to the ensuing hunt.

As she now dashed through the forest, sometimes hearing the whistling sound of an approaching arrow, she couldn't help but feel a pang of deja vu - last time Raven had rescued a child it had also ended up in a life-or-death chase through a dark forest.

This time however she had a major benefit - she was a spiritualist while her pursuers where not. Thus, despite being only four years old the distance between her and her pursuers grew steadily larger. Half a day later, Raven started to slow down. By now she had shaken of the cannibals a while ago and even crossed a few rivers, diagonally, to prevent later tracking.

"Brother, next time I choose to not save someone - let me."

With a loud 'umpf' Raven sank to the ground next to a tree, breathing heavily.

"Especially if it's a child," she added; "I have bad luck with those."

"Yes, Sister." Her brother replied with a glum voice.

On Raven's tired face a slight smile appeared. Part of the reason she had let herself get ambushed by the girl's family was to show her brother more of how the world worked. He had, after all, lived a fairly sheltered life. Even if he knew in his head that people weren't always what they seemed - take the Talon Clan for instance - to be distrusting of random strangers was not in his nature. He would undoubtedly pick the option of "trust until proven untrustworthy" with innocent looking people like the young girl.

This was a nice view to have of the world, but it was also way too naive for an heir of nobility, not to mention a martially cultivating spiritualist, like Hoatzin.

"Well no worries. The danger has past now." Raven said reassuringly.

With the wave of her hand, Raven retrieved a skin of water and some fruits from within her spacial ring. She drank eagerly from the water skin before she started chomping down the fruits.

'Had that chase been a month ago, I would have had a harder time outrunning them...' she mused to herself as she ate. 'Luckily they had no spiritualists with them.'

Raven sighed and looked inwards. Her spirit connections had increased to 47 and her spirit core was nearly back at peak high Novice level - in a couple of days, it should be back to were she started.

'Once my core recovered, I must hurry and break through to the Adept level. Only then will I start to be able to contend with rouge spiritualists...'

Not all spiritualists developed their skills at a divine school. If their soul was too weak or they for some other reason had to start cultivating after the age of 18, no schools would accept them. Once they had stopped growing, advancing from a low Novice to a high Novice was no longer a matter of two to four years...  The fact that the body's cells were already in a state of growth was very important for a speedy cultivation; if the essence absorption started later in life it would be extremely hard to achieve the same development in even ten years. Thus, the resources the school would have to spend to develop the older kids wouldn't be compensated by any achievements worth mentioning in the future, so why bother?

These later developed spiritualists would have to cultivate on their own and would rarely get a job as spiritualists. Instead, many became rouge spiritualists, turning to thievery and smuggling, were their limited skills still put them far ahead of normal people.

Raven had yet to run in to such a crew of bandits, but she feared it would only be a question of time. If she wanted to leave such an encounter unfazed, she needed to advance her cultivation level quickly.
Suddenly an idea struck her.

"Hey, Big Brother, you no doubt received special Breathing Techniques from Sky Academy to help improve your cultivation rate. Am I right?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, Sister, that is correct." Hoatzin seemed a bit unsure what she was getting at.

"Could you teach them to me?"

"Ah!" Hoatzin understood right away; a first class breathing technique like the ones thought at the Academy would increase the cultivation rate of his sister's already impressive cultivation vastly.

He hesitated for a moment. "...I'm sorry, Sister. Although I do remember how to preform the techniques, the soul imprint needed for me to teach them to you disappeared together with my soul prism - I... I can't teach them to others anymore."

Raven sighed.

"Oh well. It was worth asking at least." Raven had tried learning Divine Skills by listening to peoples descriptions and copying the flows of spirit essence before - it never worked.

Finished eating, Raven sat still, meditating, for a couple of hours. Within her, she carefully revolved the spirit essence her soul was absorbing three times around her body, before letting it be absorbed by her spirit core. This way she would strengthen her body and rebuild her core at the same time.

Eventually she opened her eyes and got up.

"At least, it would seem that the recovery of my spirit core isn't slowed down by me activating Divine Skills."

An almost savage smile spread across Raven's face.

"Do you know what that means, big Brother?"
"I'd better be prepared for some singing lessons?" Hoatzin assumed his sister would start using the Twilight Lullaby to speed up their advance through the wilderness.

"Haha! Perhaps, but not quite; it means I can start hunting and finally get to eat some meat!"

Before being hunted by the cannibals, Raven had refrained from activating any Divine Skills in fear that it might slow down her recovery. When she realized that escaping without their aid would be tiresome, she chose to use Shadow Walk to speed up. She could, of course, have used the Twilight Lullaby and simply walked away from her pursuers but she didn't, for two reasons: one, she wanted to get an idea of who fast she could escape if she wanted to; two, if using her a Divine Skill would slow down her recovery, it was better to use the Shadow Walk that had a lower consumption rate.

Since she had wanted to avoid using Divine Skills, Raven had simply kept as low a profile as possible while she made her way through the mountains and forests. Now, however, she knew better and as long as she didn't run into a higher level spirit beast or spiritualist, she was pretty confident in her abilities - if nothing else she should be able to run away. Also, she couldn't cower away forever; only by pushing her limits would she be able to make advancements at a rapid pace.

"I better start evolving my Sonic Sword while I'm at it."

With a twist of her wrist, Raven withdrew the Nightingale's Blessing from within her spacial ring; twirling it effortlessly in her right hand.

Looking on from within the ring Hoatzin grew excited; he hadn't really seen his sister in action during the past month, but just from how she handled her slightly too long sword, he could tell he was in for a treat.

"Let's see what we have around us..." Raven silenced her breathing and strained her senses to the max, taking in everything within a couple hundred meters.

As luck would have it, Raven suddenly came across the presence of an approaching pack of wild game not to far away. Since there was no disturbance in the spirit essence around the them, they were clearly not spirit beasts.

"Perfect."

Without making a sound, Raven started to move towards the flock. Taking a slightly longer route, she even made sure to stay downwind of them, completely hiding her approach. Soon the group of eight elk-like creatures came into view; they stood in a small clearing were they were grazing peacefully at the lush greens around them, totally oblivious to the impending threat to their lives.

A tense look of concentration was on Raven's face. She stirred the spirit essence within her, preparing her attack.

'Now.'

Suddenly, Raven shifted her position; in the next instant, seven loud bangs shook the forest almost simultaneously, shortly thereafter an eighth, and considerably softer, bang followed suit. As the silence fell, it was as if the world had been frozen in place; the "elks" stood motionlessly in their places and the soft grass that had surrounded Raven instants earlier still made a space for her, as if the already gone Raven yet sat among them.

At the other side of the clearing, Raven routinely flicked her meter long sword, splattering a thin ray of blood on the ground.

"Tsk, guess I can't master the Deafing Sweap at the first try after all..."

When Raven's disappointed voice broke the silence, it also seemed to jog the flow of time in the clearing; at once, all eight creatures fell to the ground, decapitated.

Raven re-stored the Nightingale's Blessing within her spacial ring and instead extracted the sharp dagger that had previously belonged to I'iwi. She motionlessly walked over to the closest fallen animal, intending to get to work on its hide and meat.

"How did you do that!?" Hoatzin's amazed voice suddenly burst out in Raven's head.

Startled, Raven's hands paused for a moment above the first animal before she smiled slightly and continued her movement.

"You should recognize both of the Divine Skills I used, right?" she asked as she got to work.

"This... Well, yes, it seemed like Shadow Walk combined with the first level of the Sonic Swords skills, Deafening Sweep... but no, they are both low level skills, no way you could pull of what you just did with those!"

Hoatzin had a point. Deafening Sweep was indeed only a level one skill and Shadow Walk was only barely a level three skill. While there was no doubt that by using these skills to slay a group of regular animals it would result only in success, doing what Raven had done - massacre them within a single heartbeat - was just a ridiculous notion.

"Only when one can be extremely soft and pliable can one be extremely hard and strong." Raven responded with a mischievous smile, after she giggled to herself: 'gosh, I sound like a fortune cookie!'

"Huh?" Her brother didn't understand what she was getting at.

Sobering, Raven started explain in more detail.

"It's a question of how you apply your strength," as Raven talked, she effortlessly removed the skin from the animal she was working on, revealing the meaty carcass underneath; "if you go all out, all the time, the effects will be lower than if you pace yourself and adapt to your surroundings. What I used was indeed only a combination of Shadow Walk and Deafening Sweep, but interwoven so as to maximize their potentials."

"Sadly..." Raven sighed while she, with a practiced hand, cut into the animal's abdomen and stretched in to retrieve the nutritious liver within. Unfortunately for Hoatzin, the Life Link Ring was on the hand that retrieved said organ. Even though his existence was more abstract then feeling and seeing whatever the ring came in contact with, he couldn't help but feel a bit nauseous at the notion of it.

"Sadly, I have never practiced the Deafening Sweep before so the result wasn't really up to standard..."

As she spoke, Raven was about to move on to extracting the heart but Hoatzin's slightly queasy voice stopped her.

"Please, sis, not with your right hand..."

"Oh?" Raven paused in surprise, glancing down at her bloodied right hand. "Sure."

Without being hindered the least, Raven changed how she worked in order to minimize the Life Link's contact with the animal's intestines. Noticing the change, Hoatzin felt a bit steadier and could once more reflect over what his sister had said.

Although he could understand her reasoning in theory, it didn't mean that he got a deeper understanding of how to actually pull it of. He didn't see how the two skills could be combined to create such impressive results as his sister had showed.

"Wait, did you say that you've never practiced the Deafening Sweep before?" Hoatzin assumed he must have heard wrong.

"Yes, of course. You have been with me the entire time since our pare... well, since we started journeying, and I've never used it, have I?"

"No, you haven't, but before that..."

"Before?" Raven interrupted. "Where would I possibly be able to practice such a noisy technique at home without being noticed?"

"But you've practically mastered it!"

"Hmm," Raven paused for a second; "well, I guess it's close to something I learnt earlier? In my previous life, that is."

"I see..." Hoatzin grew silent as he pondered this.

It was indeed. Usually, when someone was learning a new Divine Martial Skill, the imprint would teach your soul how to link your spirit essence with specific physical movements the very moment you completed the imprinting process. The hard part, however, was then not only to manage linking your essence with the movement, but also to master the actual movement. In her old world, Raven had mastered a extremely wide variation of martial art skills, for just as many variations of weapons; even if there could be smaller differences, she already had the basics movements down for almost every Divine Skill in existence.

This, combined with her extreme control over her spirit essence, made learning new Divine Martial Skills a walk in the park for Raven - especially low level ones, like the Deafening Sweep.

Hoatzin was silent for a long time before he spoke again.

"Really now, I'm starting to wish I had lived you're old life and kept my memories too." Hoatzin finally said with envy.

Raven said nothing but a bittersweet smile crossed her face.

'No, big Brother, you don't...'

Chapter 15: Faked Bravado

The day's rolled on as Raven steadily made her way east through the Great Woodland Valley; it would take her a bit over a week to cross it and reach the mountain range that would take her to the borders of Nightingale Prefecture. Raven had not been in a rush as she moved through the forest and she often stopped to cultivate or hunt along the way.

As she went, she had even fought against a couple of low level spirit beasts, winning with ease. Of course, she had made sure to avoid those beasts who seemed beyond her abilities, relying heavily on her instincts and recovering spirit connections to judge the danger they possessed. As a result, Raven had since long mastered the Deafening Sweep and even gained some insights to the next level of her Sonic Sword, the Shrill Rift.

With only a day's travel left before reaching the edge of the Woodlands, Raven sat cross legged by a rather calm river. Next to her were a couple of newly caught fishes skewered over a small fire. It was still bright out but Raven had nonetheless checked that no dangerous beasts were close enough to be drawn by the fire.

"Aarg, those smell so nice!" Hoatzin sounded quite defeated.

"Sorry, big Brother..." Raven glanced at the fish guiltily. "I can eat them raw if it helps."

Raven couldn't imagine how hard it must be to be confined with the Life Link all the time. Sure, Hoatzin might be grateful to be alive at all, but still...

"Naw, don't worry about me, Sister." Hoatsin reassured.

"..." she wasn't convinced.

"Well, when you eat, I can nearly taste it too." Hoatzin joked and Raven could almost feel him winking within the ring.

"If you say so..."

She sat quietly for a while. Once the fishes were done Raven practically swallowed them hole.

"Hey, hey! I was supposed to taste the flavor through you; don't gobble them down like a hungry hound the moment they're done!" Hoatzin's complains echoed in Raven's head.

Raven's face became saintlike as she blinked innocently.

"Why, Big Brother, I noticed that the fishes had been slightly burnt over the fire. Fearing that I'd give you a bad experience, I figured that the best course of action was to eat them quickly, so as to not invade your tongue with the vial taste of ash."

Silence, and then, after a while: "Well, did they taste bad?" Hoatzin asked disbelievingly.

"No, they where quite divine." Raven answered without hesitation, still smiling like an angel.

"Why you...! You were just hungry, right?"  A cynical sneer was obvious in his voice.

"Indeed."

Both were silent for a while, and then, simultaneously, broke out in laughter.

"Haha, Sister, your eating style alone would convince anyone that you're a boy!" Hoatzin cried between laughs.

Coughing, Raven stilled her laughs.

"So, tell me, once we figure out how to restore you body, what will you, Hoatzin the boy, gobble down?"

The question caused Hoatzin's laugh to die down as well. With an unwavering voice he answered: "Burnt fish."

And the laughing started once more.

---------

Later, as the sun slowly started to set, Raven still sat by the riverside, cross legged. The laughing had stopped hours ago and Raven had chosen to cultivate for a bit before finding a good place to rest for the night. Usually she would do this for one, perhaps two, hours, but this time was different.

As Raven had entered her meditative state, she had realized that her spirit core, that had been fully restored soon after entering the Woodlands, seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough. Exited, Raven had focused wholeheartedly on absorbing more spirit essence and sending it to her core.

Hoatzin knew that Raven was getting close to an important juncture in her cultivation so he stayed silent.
At this moment, the large white vortex of rapidly spinning spirit essence that was Raven's core, shock considerably and it's center came to a sudden halt. The abrupt stop in the middle caused the surrounding essence to smash into each other with high force, forcibly combing them in the process. As the essence grew denser and smaller, its color grew brighter and stronger.

Raven had read about this and knew that she had reached a critical point. Unceasingly she absorbed more and more essence to feed her core with. Soon, the shrinking disk started to revolve again, once more becoming a twirling vortex, but now it was considerably smaller and instead of white, it glowed with a warm red.

While it was smaller, Raven clearly felt the qualitative difference between her old core and her new one - she didn't doubt that her Divine Skills would become at least twice as deadly as before.

Slowly Raven opened her eyes with a content smile on her face, but before she had a chance to tell her brother of her successful breakthrough, he spoke first in a slightly nervous voice.

"Oh, good, you're done. You're about to get company."

Startled, Raven realized that she could clearly hear two sets of heavy footsteps making their way towards her.

'Shit. I was too focused on my cultivation!' she cursed to herself.

She considered hiding, but it was too late - just as she was about to get up, two burly men stepped into view.

"Woaw, there! No need to rush, boy." The slightly larger of the two spoke first.

They had clearly already spotted her.

"Yeah, stay and play with us for a while." The second man smiled viciously, revealing a row of blackened teeth.

Raven looked the two men with frightened eyes, as if she was a dear caught in the headlights of a car, but behind those terrified eyes, she was as calm as ever. She observed the men and noted every last detail about them; everything from the enormous broadswords they carried over their backs and the beast hides they were wearing, down to their individual musculature. Within seconds, Raven had already fond several weak-spots.

As she lifted her gaze to their foreheads however, Raven had a hard time not laughing out loud at their boastfulness. There, both of them, had fashioned a sort of metallic headband, or crown. Dead center in these head ornaments, glowed two completely white stones. Raven at once recognized them as Spirit Stones; these two men were high Spirit Novices, and they obviously liked to flaunt it.

'I guess reaching high Novice is quite okay for a rogue...' she mused sarcastically to herself.

"Are you going to be okay?" Hoatzin then asked her with concern.

Outwardly, Raven started nodding frantically in confirmation.

"Good boy." The black toothed man's smile grew wider.  Obviously, he had taken Raven's nodding as a sign of submission.

"Now, let me take a look at you." The larger man was now close enough to Raven to be able to stretched out a hand to touch her.

When faced with the approaching muscular hand, Raven scurried backwards, as if in an instinctive fright. Her retreat however, caused her to "trip" into the river behind her. The river wasn't very deep, perhaps only half a meter, but it was enough to soak her completely. As she struggled to her feet the two men on the shore laughed.

"Well, well. Such a feminine little boy - what a treasure." chuckled mister black-tooth.

"Come on out of there, boy, and we'll treat you nicely." cooed the larger one.

"Speak for your self," laughed black-tooth; "I haven't had a woman in weeks, and this one is close enough."

'Despicable...'

Raven kept calm as she, seemingly panic-stricken, tried to make her way to the other side of the River. Just as the river wasn't very deep, it wasn't very wide either - any of the two men could jump over it if they wanted to - so they just watched as Raven slowly moved closer to the other side. But as she reached the bank, it would seem as if she couldn't make it up. Raven's little body tried, over and over again, to heave itself out of the water, but to no avail.

Running out of patience, the black toothed man started to move into the water as well.

"No need to be nice then..." He said with his nefarious smile turning to a sneer.

But just as he reached the middle of the river, barely a meter from Raven, Raven's entire attitude changed; her green eyes turned red with cold killing intent and she dove down under the surface. The lack of sunlight had rendered the waters quite dark, so the two men instantly lost sight of her.

"Eh? Where did he go?" the man in the water hurriedly dashed the last meter to were Raven had disappeared from, but she was gone.

Looking up and down the calm river, neither of the two men saw any traces of the girlish boy they were hunting.

Suddenly the water beneath black-tooth shifted and Raven sprang up from underneath. She lashed on the the man's back and pulled the unsuspecting man with her back down under the water before he even had a chance to rally his spirit essence.

"Brewer!" The large man still on the shore rushed forward, but he paused before stepping down into the river.

The dark river had returned to it's previous calm, with no sign of either Raven or the black toothed man, named Brewer.

"Damn you, brat! Show yourself!" he drew his broad sword and shouted out over the river.

Silence.

"If you don't come out here, right now, I'm going to blow up the entire river - with you in it!" He grew angrier every second.

Silence.

"Fine! Then take this: Wind Storm Claw!"

The man swung his huge broadsword towards the river. Powerful gusts of wind surged from the tip of the sword, crashing into the water surface. The wind forced large quantities of water to splash up into the air, accompanied by the body of man's dead companion, Brewer, that landed with a thud on the other side of the river.

Just as the large man was considering where the boy's body had ended up, he heard a pleasant tune being whistled behind him. Captivated by the melody, his mind felt slightly sluggish as he turned to find its source. But before he could locate it, a shrill roar rang out in the forest. Confused, he noticed how the world around him grew taller before it all turned dark.

Next to the beheaded body, stood Raven in her drenched clothes clenching Nightingale's blessing in one hand and her dagger in the other . She looked over the two corpses with disdain.

"Wow, well done, Sister! You even had me fooled there for a while!" Hoatzin praised.

Raven said nothing, instead she checked the two men's clothing, seemingly searching for something. She really detested men like these two, and made no effort to calm her murderous feelings as she searched.

"The way you used the first guy... Brewer, was it? The way you used him as a cover to get out of the water - brilliant! And there at the end, that was the Shrill Rift rather than the Deafening Sweep, right?"

Hoatzin was laughing, but he soon noticed his sister's mood was a bit of.

"Are you okay?" He asked tentatively.

Having just finished checking the two men's possessions, Raven shuddered once before she started walking of into the forest with determination in her steps.

"I'm fine," she spoke with a heavy voice; "it's just that, when I consider what would have happened if they had met an ordinary child... It pisses me off." Her eyes still shined red with killing intent. "While it might be true that we live in a world were the strong rule the weak, there should be limits to how the strong abuse their."

Hoatzin grew solemn. He had been raised with the burning desire to protect his sister, something that was still engraved deep in him. Even if he, of late, had grown to realize that his sister didn't really need his protection, the thought of her in the hands of those two men - had she not been a spiritualist - made his skin crawl. Figuratively, of course.

Suddenly he noticed a piece of paper in Raven's hand.

"What's that in your hand?"

"A map. I got it from the bigger fellow."

"Map?"

"Yes. It would seem like there is more of them.... It's time to truly go hunting."

Silent as the night, Raven made her way north through the undergrowth, her blood red eyes darkening to the point where they no longer stood out in the dark.

---------

Further north, barely two hours walk away, a group of fifteen people were rowdily preparing for dinner. They were gathered in a clearing they'd made for themselves by chopping down the trees that had grown there. The logs and branches had then been used to construct tents and make-shift tables and stools for the group.

Everyone present wore rugged clothes, made of animal hides, and carried various viscous-looking weapons. Almost everyone had a spirit stone fastened as a ornament on their foreheads. Only two of the fifteen people present were female, although 'feminine' was not a word that could be used to describe them; both were built like fat oxen, and the earth almost shook beneath them as they walked. They were similar enough to be twins, but one seemed a little bit older than the other. Currently, they were busy stirring a big cauldron that was placed over an open fire as they shouted commands at the males around them; orders that were reluctantly followed by all but one man.

The last, middle-aged, man was sitting, laughing and drinking, on one of the larger stools in the center of their encampment. He was far from the largest man present, but the air around him was different from the rest and the stone on his forehead had a large red center, surrounded by only a slim ring of white - mid Spirit Adept. As he watched the two ladies boss around the men around him, his laughs grew louder.

"Hahaha! Tundra! Magpie! You two ladies show no mercy when it comes to cooking!" Ha slapped his hand down on the stool next to him that instantly split in two. "I look forward to the result, as always."

"What ladies..." a nearby man grumbled under his breath as he lifted a heavy sack filled with meats.

"Shut it!" The younger woman, Magpie, snapped at the disgruntled man, as she swung a heavy ladle at him. The man ducked, but the ladle left a deep impression in the tree it hit instead.

"Riffleman! It's fine that you don't help, but don't go disturbing us instead." Tundra glared at their leader, before she nudged Magpie to refocus her attention on the cooking.

"Yes, yes." Rifleman agreed, but he kept laughing as he observed his men hard at work.

Behind him stood a cage, perhaps one cubic meter large, adorned with sharp spikes; only, the spikes were not turned outwards, they stretched inwards. The spikes were covered in layers of dried blood, clearly from whatever poor creatures they had trapped within the cage previously. At the moment, a low level spirit beast lay whimpering inside. It's previously snow white fur was damp with blood from the numerous wounds it had received as it tried to break free - but it's strength was only comparable to a low Spirit Novice and it could do nothing about it's restraints. Even if it could, it captors would easily catch, or slay it, if it actually escaped.

"Quiet!" A passing man shouted at the beast and kicked at the cage.

The sudden jolt caused the little animal to jump up in shock, piercing itself yet again on the spikes as it did. It squealed in pain, but quickly quieted down - it was smart enough to know what would happen to it if it was too loud.

"Careful, Diver - we'll get less money for it dead." Rifleman chided between his laughs. He didn't really care about the creature's well being - but money was money.

"Yes, Boss." Diver didn't disagree, and simply moved on with his work.

Soon the food was done and and the preparations in camp were complete; they planed to stay here for a couple of days before heading to the closest town to sell their goods so fairly sturdy tents had been made.

"Food's done." grunted Tundra as she heaved the enormous cauldron of the fire and placed it on the ground with a loud thud.

"Petrel and Brewer are running late..." Someone remarked.

"Who cares? They can eat what ever's left!" Someone else replied.

"Yeah! I'm starving!" Encouraged a third.

"Come, crew, let's eat!" Rifleman finally invited and the group started to sloppily chow down on the prepared food.

Nobody really cared that two of their members had yet to return and nobody seemed to notice the pair of deep red eyes staring silently at them from the within dark forest.

Chapter 16: Masquerade

[author's note: mid terms are coming up so be prepared for a momentary dip in releases the next couple of weeks... sorry...]

For the past couple of hours, Raven had been sitting quietly in a leafy tree top close to the group's encampment. The more she learned about the people she was observing, the more agitated she grew. They were clearly nothing more than a group of rogue spiritualists who abused their powers to track, torture and eventually kill whatever they could find that was weaker than themselves, be it beast or man.

"Truly despicable.... To think that bandits like these roam freely within our prefecture..." Hoatzin sighed deeply.

Not wishing to be detected, Raven simply nodded. But she also knew that the people in front of her weren't that rare. Power is an alluring concept, even more so in a world like this one where your own physical strength was so important if you were to advance in society.

But just because she understood why they existed, didn't mean she would ignore that existence when she came across it.

"So, how are you going to deal with them? They are quite numerous and the leader is even a mid Adept.... Wait until they fall asleep and then slit their throats?"

Raven raised a eyebrow in surprise. 'What ever happened to my upfront brother? ...am I rubbing of on him?'

"What? No good?" her brother couldn't read Raven's mind and had therefor not heard her inner musings. He simply took her lack of response as a dismissal of his suggestion.

Raven relaxed her brow and tilted her head to the side, considering her options. She could indeed go for her brother's version. It was quick and simple, but there was a high risk of being detected before the job was done leading to an all-out battle with whomever remains.

She could use the Twilight Lullaby to help her, but since even normal singing would be out of place in the forest she wouldn't be able to activate the Divine Skill without them noticing her surging spirit essence. Raven feared that, if he was prepared for it, then there was a risk that Riffleman, as a mid Adept, might be able to resist her enough for it to become dangerous for her. However, if she could make them expect her singing, but not her attack, then....

Raven's mouth grew into a slightly vicious sneer. The leaves around her fluttered ever so slightly as she disappeared from the branch she was sitting on.

"Where are you going?"

Raven glanced over her back towards the bandits - that where busy eating to their hearts content - before she replied.

"I'm going to make use of their greed and sense of superiority." She whispered as she moved further and further away from the camp.

As she walked, she carefully scouted her surroundings. Suddenly, her eyes brightened and she came to a stop; she had found what she needed - a wolf. It was a perfectly normal, spirit essence free, wolf, that was currently resting not far from her position.

Without hesitating, Raven removed the outer layers of her robes, revealing only the fine light blue undergarments that she had kept from home. She even removed her shoes. Swiftly, Raven released the fabric she had used to fasten her hair and instead wrapped it around her right hand and lower arm, efficiently hiding both her rings and the Fox's Veil. Taking a deep breath, she finally started to alter the tension in her muscles, shifting back to her normal movement patterns.

"Going back to being my real sister?" Hoatzin was watching his sisters transformation with a mixture of fascination and confusion.

"I'm always your sister." Raven teased as she made the final adjustments by altering what the Fox's Veil portrayed of her aura.

There she stood, in the middle of a steadily darkening forest, in nothing but her silk undergarments that, along with her shoulder-long hair, swayed softly in the light breeze. Raven's eyes remained dark red but no killing intent whatsoever could be detected from them. Instead, they gave her an very exotic appearance that, together with the mysterious and noble air brought out by the Fox's Veil, made Raven seem even more fairy-like than she had done in her traditional dress, back in Sky City.

The gleam of steal flashed over her left arm and then her right leg, causing two small streams of blood to flow down her pearly white skin. In mere seconds, the nearby wolf lifted its furry head and sniffed, picking up her sent.

With a soft growl, it got to its feet and started to move towards Raven.

Raven just waited. Once the wolf was close enough, it only hesitated for a heartbeat before it pounced at the frail human it had found. With a panicked yelp, Raven dodged in the absolutely last moment, but one paw made contact with her garments, resulting in three long tears running from her right hip all the way down to the hem. Remarkably, no damage was done to Raven herself.

Scrambling to her feet, Raven let her panic grow as she frantically started running back towards the group of bandits. She paced herself to make sure the wolf kept up with her, and she made no attempts to avoid the low hanging branches that tore into her clothes as she ran. It didn't take long before she saw the faint glow of the fireplace and heard the merry laughing of the eating crew.

"It looks like we're about to get company." Raven recognized the voice as Riffleman's.

By now, Raven had worked up quite a heavy breath, and naturally the spiritualists in the group heard her coming from quite far of.

"Help!" Raven whimpered, terrified, just before she broke into the clearing.

She threw herself onto the ground in the encampment and turned just in time to she the hungry wolf spring towards her.

"Eii!" She squealed and closed her eyes tightly as if in fear of the coming impact but, just as she suspected, it never came.
Slowly, she opened her eyes again and looked around in "shock". At her feet lay the slayed wolf with a gashing wound across its abdomen, next to it stood its slayer, Riffleman himself.

Immense relief flooded her pale face and tears filled her eyes. With a loud sob she flung herself at the man, grabbing at his robes as she cried heavily.

"Thank you... Thank you!" her voice was soft and delicate. Even if it didn't hold the allure of a full-grown woman it had a beautiful ring to it that showed great potential for the future, and to rough people such as these it was like honey to a bee.

Riffleman stared down at the frail, little girl clinging to him in surprise - he hadn't expected her reaction to be so strong. But, as he thought about it, it started to make sense to him; the girl in his arms was perhaps seven or eight years old and had no doubt just been through something very new and scary for her. Judging by her clothes she was perhaps a nobleman's daughter that had been abducted, but that also managed to escape - of course she would cling to whatever hope she was given.

Pity it was false hope.

Yet, as he was about to order the girl captured and caged, another idea struck him. Wouldn't this girl basically treat him as her god-given savior for all eternity if he handled this right? If he could make her feel safe now, then he could groom her into his personal pleasure slave in the future; the girl did show much promise for such a thing...

Greed and lust filled his face. He didn't hesitate much longer. With strong arms, he scooped up the little girl and carried her closer to the fire.

"Get me a blanket and a bowl of food." Riffleman barked before he sat down and focused on the shivering girl in his arms.
In the dancing light from the fire, he inspected the crying Raven more closely. Her skin was pearly white without any blemishes, apart from the two shallow cut along her arms and legs, and her hair was silky soft and looked like the night sky - deep black, but with a hint of something more.

"There, there..." he cooed as he rocked the child gently in his arms; "everything is fine now..."

His crewmen stared at the seemingly softhearted man by the fire - this was not the captain they knew at all! Tundra was the first to catch on to what he was up too; she snorted as she went to get a bowl of her stew. She winked an evil sneer towards her sister that imminently caught on and in turn collected a  blanket.

Together, they walked over to the fire with as close to tender looks on their faces as they could muster.

"Here child, eat a bit and you'll feel better." Tundra handed the bowl to the now sniveling Raven.

"Poor little thing, you're freazing!" Magpie quickly wrapped both Raven and Riffleman in the blanket, effectively pushing
Raven's young body even closer to the man still holding her.

"Are they serious? What idiot of a child would fall for their lousy acting!?" remarked Hoatzin, who grew more disgusted by these people every minute.

At that moment a wave of understanding swept over the group of bandits. Lust filled their eyes and some even winked at each other before making vulgar gestures towards Raven; she couldn't see them directly from within Riflleman's embrace, but at this range her senses were once again excellent so she could easily tell what they were doing anyway.

'How original...' she thought sarcastically to herself.

Outwardly, however, she held her bowl with shaking hands as she looked up at Rifleman with big, nearly worshiping, eyes.

"You're... being so kind to me... No one has been so kind to me since... since... my family d.. di..." Her voice broke and new tears started falling down her face and into the bowl of food.

When Raven had looked up at Rifleman with her exotic red eyes, a shiver run through his body and stirred his groin. Those eyes! There was an unfathomable depth to them that seemed to pull him in. He felt as if she was begging him to devour her...

Little did he know that this feeling actually was born from Raven's insane but well controlled killing intent - the red color came from linking her eyes with the killing intent in her very soul, giving them the feeling of immense depth, and as for the devouring part, well, there was definitely going to be some of that going on, just not the type Rifleman envisioned.
Rifleman coughed and regained his composer slightly; "No need to cry! No matter where you came from, you can have a new home with us."

Raven stayed her crying and hesitantly looked up at the man holding her.

"Really?" Her voice was soft like summer rain.

Rifleman shivered once more and a hint of his lust seeped into his face.

"Of course you can. Right everyone?"

"Sure." The men around him all laughed, but they sounded more like a pack of wolves than a welcoming family though.

'Time for the coup de grâce...' Raven smirked inwardly.

"Oh, thank you!" Dropping the half-finished bowl to the ground, she returned Riffleman's embrace with new vigor, pressing her tiny body tightly against his. Raven could clearly feel his excited member poking at her side, but she hid her revulsion masterfully.

"Ah..." Riffleman's eyes widened and his pupils dilated. He started to feel like waiting until she grew up a bit would be hard, and perhaps unnecessary.

"Girl, what is your name?" He asked, his voice growing a bit husky.

"Raven!" Raven replied happily. It was a common enough name in the Sky Empire, used by both girls and boys, so she felt no need to change it.

"Well, little Raven, you are most welcome to stay with us! ...but in our family everyone has to contribute. We live in the wild so we can't have people weighing us down for nothing. You understand that, right?" He pushed her away from him slightly and stared up and down her body.

A brief flash of anger had flickered across Raven's face when Rifleman called her 'little Raven' but she covered it up before anyone had a chance to notice it. Instead, she tilted her head to the side as she looked worriedly at her "savior".

"I'm not very strong..." she said in a low voice. She seemed afraid that they would go back on their agreement to let her stay.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Rifleman lifted Raven out of his lap and placed her in front of him; "I'm sure there are other things you can contribute with..."

He reached out a hand and stroked her check.

"Get your hand of my sister, you lecherous creep!" Hoatzin practically bellowed within the ring, but only Raven could hear him.

Raven pretended to be unfazed by Rifleman's touch and instead looked as if she continued to ponder over what she could do for the group. Suddenly, she lit up like a sun.

"I know, I can sing! Mother always told me that I had a voice worth gold!" She smiled brilliantly.

Everyone in the encampment blinked as they stared at the little girl by the fire. Such pure naivety! Almost at once they all started laughing hysterically.

"Hey! It's true!" Raven pouted and stamped a bare foot into the ground in protest.

"Hahaha, very well! Let us hear this golden voice and see if it will be contribution enough." Rifleman laughed and slapped his lap, before he motioned to his crew to quite down. He smiled and nodded at Raven to let her know she should begin. Inwardly, he figured that he would listen to one song, then simply tell her that it wasn't good enough and move on to the more interesting labors the girl could preform for him.

Raven on the other hand had other plans.

She stood in front of the fire and swayed slowly from side to side as she started humming the melody of the Twilight Lullaby, but it was just the melody, no Divine Skill was activated. Carefully she started to intertwine her spirit essence into the tune. As she did, the group around her seemed to calm down a bit and some even sat down around the fire to listen more astutely to her - to them it felt as if Raven really might possess a golden voice.

Once her spirit essence had completely melded with her voice, Raven glanced around the clearing to make sure no one had noticed before she opened her mouth and started singing the first line of the Twilight Lullaby.

Oh, mister mine, where are you roaming...

As the first words left her, she let the full force of the Twilight Lullaby free; her voice instantly carried an air of allure and grace to it as the melancholy love song spread throughout the proximate forest.
The forest around them fell deathly silent; every creature that heard Raven's singing paused whatever they were doing to listen and even the few song birds that had been singing in the distance stopped, as if to not offend a superior voice.
Within the clearing, the bandits - men and women alike - sat on the ground with stupefied expressions on their faces. In front of their eyes, the world became hazy and it felt as if nothing else was of importance; as long as they could hear one more second of singing they would be overjoyed.

Within its spiked cage, the little white spirit beast lifted its weary head, seemingly in a better mental state then just before.

Oh come and hear your true love calling...

Raven observed the bandits around her as she sang. Once she was sure the lullaby had taken affect, she flicked her wrist and the sharp dagger appeared in her hand. Without hesitation she ignored the three non-spiritualist and swiftly walked over to the lowest level spiritualist in the group and pulled the dagger across his throat.

Even as his life was draining from him, the man did not stir from his stupor. Noting this, Raven nodded approvingly and continued her swift walk through the camp.

That can sing both high and low...

Throat after throat was pierced by Raven's dagger, and before she'd even finished the first verse of the lullaby every Spirit Novice had lost their life.

Every wise man's son doth know....

As Raven sang the last line in the first verse, she glanced around the encampment. Only five people remained alive; three were non-spiritualist - whom Raven felt little fear for - while the other two were the groups only Adepts. One was Tundra that was a low Adept, just as Raven, the other was the mid Adept, Rifleman. Raven knew that as long as they had a lower cultivation than herself, the Twilight Lullaby would keep them completely sedated even as they died, as long as she didn't run out of spirit essence to control her Divine Skill. However, if they were at the same level or higher then her, Raven wasn't as sure.

What is love, 'tis not here after...

She did nonetheless not hesitate for long. She moved over to stand in front of the fat Tundra who swayed slightly with the rhythm of the song. With movements so quick that Hoatzin barely registered them, Raven sliced the woman's throat and then stabbed the dagger deep into her gut, effectively piercing the spirit core located within.

Present mirth has present laughter....

The sudden pain caused Tundra to snap out of her daze, but as she looked at the little girl standing over her, terror filled her instead; she tried to stir her spirit essence but nothing happened. She opened her moth to speak, but Raven lifted a bloody finger to her lips, shaking her head.

What's to come is still unsure....

Halfway through the final verse, Tundra's life abandoned her. Raven observed her as it did and then steadily walked over to her final target with a satisfied smile on her face. She could have killed Tundra instantly, by stabbing at her head instead, but Raven needed to know the boundaries of her skill and wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste. Besides, if bandits like these all died peacefully, it would be too good for them.

Chapter 17: The Thrall of Her Voice

Author's note: Sorry about the delay - mid-terms.... T_T

Hoatzin watched his sister's progress in silence. He didn't dare disturb her now, but he also couldn't help but to be amazed and slightly sickened by the calm ease with which Raven executed the people in front of her. He knew they deserved it, but apart from the two brutes Raven had killed in self defense earlier, Hoatzin had never seen someone killed before. It was a lot to take in for a ten-year-old boy.

In delay there lies no plenty...

Raven now stood between the fire and the crew's leader, Rifleman.

Come and kiss me; sweet and twenty...

The small dagger flashed in Raven's hand, swiftly cutting through the man's throat and then piercing into his abdomen as if it was butter under a hot knife.

Youth's a stuff does not endure...

Just as Raven was singing the last words of the song, Rifleman's eyes flashed open with clarity; despite being mortally wounded he quickly realized what had happened. Not bothering with his injuries, he angrily swung his arm at full force towards Raven. But Raven only smiled and lifted her own hand to catch it - even though Raven had depleted most of her spirit essence, she still had a lot more than Rifleman who had gotten his spirit core destroyed.

As if grabbing the arm of a child throwing a tantrum, Raven easily stopped his punch and instead pinned him down to the ground. Her dagger rested at his genitals as she whispered flattly into his ear.

"Dear savior, this little fellow seemed quite fond of me," she excreted pressure with her dagger; "let me bring it with me."

Horrified, the man tried to wriggle free but there was nothing he could do; with a casual flick of the wrist, Raven castrated Rifleman. The immense pain caused him to shoat out in pain but only a soft gurgle could be heard as more blood flowed out of the gaping wound in his neck.

"Nothing impressive." Raven barely glanced at the piece of flesh she held in her hand before she tossed it into the fire.

"Good riddence, if you ask me." She looked back down at the dying bandit boss at her feat with clear disdain.

"You...!" A startled scream suddenly rang out in the camp.

Raven lifted her head. The three non-spiritualists had finally also regained there senses now that Raven had stopped singing. They looked at the small girl standing in the middle of a virtual blood bath as if she was the devil incarnate.

Raven smiled a sweet smile and slowly started walking towards them. She no longer hid her killing intent and let some of it surge to the surface and swirl around her as she came closer to the three men.

"Don't... Don't come any closer!" The three men wailed and tried to scurry backwards but, in a flash, Raven small body disappeared, and reappeared behind them.

"No need to be in such a hurry." She smiled and spoke in kind voice.

But as the men shakily turned to face her and their eyes locked with hers, rays of red flashed from Raven's eyes and drilled into their minds. Suddenly, their vision blurred and the scene was replaced by horrible visions of the deaths they would undoubtedly face by Raven's hand.

Although they weren't spiritualist, yet, they remarkably still possessed crystallized souls - apparently Rifleman had been picky about who could join his crew - unfortunately, these souls were very weak. Under the immense pressure of Raven's killing intent, minute fissures appeared within the soul prisms, threatening to break them apart completely.

"Leave this place and know that the black raven forbids people like you from entering these woodlands!"

Raven's voice was still merged with her spirit essence, that in turn had intertwined with her killing intent. As she spoke, the fissures grew into cracks and looks of hysteria spread across the three men's faces.

"Black... Black Raven... forbid it... death... blood" the men started mumbling in frantic raves, their bodies shaking considerably.

"Go!" Raven ordered.

The men yelped and ran of into the darkness as fast as their legs could carry them.

Raven sighed and looked out over the man-made clearing. As her eyes fell on the cage with the white little spirit beast, her expression softened. Raven let her killing intent fade, her eyes once again returning to their usual green, before she carefully approached the cage.

The little creature looked at her with unafraid eyes. It seemed pleased, as if it didn't care what would happen to it now that all its captures were dead.

"You're a smart one, aren't you?" Raven observed the animal's calmness with surprise.

"Well, from one captured creature to another, there is no animosity between us." Raven spoke as she fiddled a while with the look on the cage before she managed to open it. "There, of you go. No doubt you have some other place you call home."

Raven smiled a warm smile as she swung open the cage door. The beast only hesitated for a moment before it carefully moved out of the cramped cage. Once outside, it looked at Raven for a long while. Finally, it gently licked her hand once, then jumped of in the opposite direction of the three men that had fled earlier.

Raven gazed after the creature.

"Odd, I don't recognize the race...."

Considering all the reading Raven had done about spirit beasts, this was indeed quite odd.

With a shrug, Raven turned and started to leave the camp. She had no interest in looting these bandits, and the blood would sooner or later attract hunters. Raven had no spirit essence left to deal with such creatures, and wished to leave before they arrived. Just as she was about to step out into forest, something caught her attention, not too far from the spiked cage.

It was a pair of metal anklets with complicated carvings on them. When Raven came closer and lifted them up, she was astonished by their weight; each anklet probably weighed around ten kilos. Inspecting them closer, Raven's eyes flashed with recognition and she pricked her finger, so as to let a drop of blood fall down onto each of them. They glowed and absorbed the drops blood as if they were rain in a desert.

"These will be convenient." Happily she stored the two anklets within her spacial ring before she, too, disappeared into the night.

---------

A day and a half later, Raven had made her way to the edge of the Great Woodlands. She now sat in a small cave at the foot of the mountains. The cave - or rather the cave-shaped dent in the mountain wall - was looking out over turquoise lake formed by the small streams of water trickling down the mountain. There was a slight tinge of sulfur in the air, hinting that the mountain had a volcanic origin.

She had since long shifted her mannerisms, and the Fox's Veil, back to her male alter ego making her once more seem like a non-significant, preteen boy.

Raven sighed and looked down on the purple ring on her finger. Hoatzin hadn't said a word since they left the bandits camp. She hadn't pushed him either; she knew that it must have been a lot for her brother to take in.

"Brother?" she called softly.

When no reply came, Raven sighed once more and instead retrieved the two anklets she had obtained earlier from within her spacial ring. But just as she was about to use her spirit essence to activate them, Hoatzin finally spoke.

"You were quite heartless back there..."

Raven froze.

"You wish that I had acted differently?"

"They died without even having a chance to defend themselves! Sister, you slaughtered them like sheep!" Hoatzins voice was growing agitated.

"Then, you wished for me to spare their lives, only scare them a bit and then let them go, like the last three?" Her voice was flat, neither defensive nor accusing.

"No! Of course not, but that was nothing more than plain massacre! Hardly behavior fit for nobility like..."

"There is no nobility in death, Hoatzin." Raven interrupted her brother. "If you are going to kill someone, do it as quickly and efficiently as you can. Giving your opponent a, so called, fair chance is nothing else than plain stupidity."

"But..."

"No buts, Brother. You yourself suggested that I should slip in while they were sleeping and slit their throats - what I did was a mere extension of that."

Hoatzin hesitated.

"...I guess, but I didn't think..."

"That no one would be able to resist?" Raven's voice remained flat and emotionless. "Would you really have felt better if I'd ended up in a life or death struggle with the remaining spiritualists?"

"...no."

Hoatzin grew silent once more, and Raven didn't fill the silence. Instead, she closed her eyes and waited.

"I'm sorry, Sister," After about twenty minutes Hoaztin finally spoke again; "I was wrong."

Raven took a deep breath.

"It's okay, big Brother. I know it's a difficult in the beginning."

Silence descended again and Raven was just about to return her attention to the two anklets when Hoatzin spoke once more.

"Are you sure you don't have any clear memories of your past life? These bandits should have been the first humans Sister has killed in this life - how come you're so unfazed?"

Raven's hand stopped. She couldn't help but think back on her real first kill in that dark warehouse a long time ago...

---------

The sharp smell of gunpowder filled the warehouse and stabbed at my nose, shortly followed by the metallic tang of blood.

After shooting their targets, most of the kids had become pale faced and some even puked, but I only stared at the man I had shot moments before. The line "it's them or me" repeated over and over in my head. I bit down on my tongue to steady the nausea welling up inside - it worked, but the taste of blood filled my mouth..

The following day I arrived at the "the Camp". I was led to a slim bed that I would share with another girl. The other girl was smaller and seemed even more fragile than I was; her skin was white as snow, her hair a pail gold that barely had more color that her skin. Clearly she came from a northern country. When night came and we crept into our bed, both of us started crying. We hugged and I can't put words on how much I appreciated that I wasn't alone that night.

After that, the girl and I took an instant liking to each other - the kind that only children in a tough situation can; we became each others lifelines as we forced ourselves through one grueling training regime after the other. Every time we were ordered to killed another person, we would spend the night crying, but over time our cries grew less intensive.

One day, roughly two years later, a Union instructor took all the children outside and informed us plainly that we had outgrown our beds: "From today forward, only one child is allowed per bed, also, no changing of beds are allowed."

The instructor didn't say anymore. He didn't need to, we all understood right away; half of us would not leave the court alive. Once again, the reactions from the assassin children varied, but I and my bleak bed-mate simply looked over at each other. Our're eyes met, but no feelings of resentment was present in her eyes, and I suspect mine were the same. Silently, we nodded to each other as we accepted our fates.

'It's them or me,..' I thought before I launched myself forward.

That night, I did't cry.

---------

"Sister?"

Hoatzin's concerned voice brought Raven back to her present life.

"Oh, sorry," Raven shook her head and smiled an apologetic smile; "I was trying to remember..."

"Anything?"

"Not really, no... But I guess I can imagine that the humans I plan to kill are nothing more than animals or spirit beasts - and there is no trouble killing them, is there?"

"...I guess not. But, I'm not sure I would be able to do it."

"You would be, if you needed to." Raven smiled calmly and started to once again fiddle with the two anklets.

"Then, how come you let three of them go?"

"I wanted them to be a cautionary tale for other bandits in the area. Do you remember the story of Weebill the Great and his demise?"

"You mean the story of the legendary spiritualist? If I remember correctly, he was finally slain by a huge spirit beast in the form of a black raven... Oh!"

"If the three manage to reach a village, their lunatic ranting will make people wonder if not the legendary Black Raven has returned to our lands. Even if they manage to say that it was a little girl who did it, no one will believe them at that point. Hopefully it will deter other bandits from roaming too freely around here."

"Impressive." Hoatzin indeed sounded very impressed with his sister. "To think that killing intent could cause someones mind to break apart to that degree... Scary."

"I'm not sure it was only the killing intent..." Raven said pensively. "I don't know for sure, but I think it was because my killing intent had merged with my already altered spirit essence. I can't shake the feeling that if I manage to improve that merger, the results would be even more devastating."

"Haha, if didn't know better I would say that it sounds like you've stumbled upon a new Divine Skill!" Hoatzin joked.

Raven raised an eyebrow. 'Could that be it? It did feel fairly close to the Twilight Lullaby... Hmm, I will have to experiment with this some more.'

With two small clicking noises, Raven latched the two anklets to her ankles, and stretched her feet.

"Wait, you're actually going to ware the Limiters yourself!? I thought you picked them up to be able to use them on someone else."

Raven leaned back against the mountain wall. Hoatzin was right to be surprised; the two anklets Raven had snapped on to her feet are actually called Spirit Limiters, and are normally used to temporarily strip spiritualists and spirit beasts of their cultivation. By binding them with blood, the owner can then choose to suppress as much cultivation from the person wearing them as they themselves possess. In other words, a low Spirit Adept can completely suppress cultivators of the same level or lower, but only remove the foundation for those with higher cultivation - for say a high Spirit Adept, this would still be at least a third of their cultivation, but a low Spirit Champion would barely notice it.

"These Limiters are actually exactly what I needed. While I'm out in the wild, I will keep my cultivation at its max, and simply use the additional weight as training. But once I make contact with humans again, I will be able to alter my perceived cultivation as necessary. If, when I reach Sky Academy, I don't want to reveal my full strength, then these Limiters will be very handy."

"Why wouldn't you want to reveal your full strength?"

"We don't know who we're up against and I'd rather not let them know everything about me before I know everything about them."

"You're saying I'm not going to be able to gloat about the looks Sister will get when people realize how outstanding you are?" A note of disappointment hung on Hoatzin's voice.

"Haha, oh don't worry Brother - your little sister is going to be outstanding enough!"

Still laughing, Raven retrieved a bundle of fabrics from within her ring and made a make-shift bed for herself.

"Tomorrow we'll start the final mountain crossing before we reach the border - we are going to have to climb rather high this time, " Raven huddled up under a blanket and closed her eyes. "so, let us hope you're at least immune to cold within the Life Link."

"It would be too unfair if I wasn't..." mumbled Hoatzin.

Author's note 2:
I'd like to ask for your opinion on one thing, if you've got the time to consider it ^.^

in this chapter, Raven thinks back on her past life and her memories are written in first person (because it is from her we're getting what happened), but still in past tense. When I did a similar thing in Chapter 11, I chose to do it in present tense. The reason then was that she would be too consumed by grief to be able to tell they were memories so it felt odd to write it in past tense.

Question is, should I write even normal memories (in this chpater and in future ones), in present tens?

Chapter 18: The Prefecture Border

On a high mountain top stood a small figure, barely one and a half meter tall, wrapped in multiple layers of dark cloaks. Despite the season being well into summer, the snow still lay thick at these altitudes and the hard wind caused snow to whirl around the figure, stabbing at the small patches of skin the layers didn't manager to cover.

The area was desolate of any living creatures - except for the small figure, whom was staring down the mountain pass. Further down, where the air was milder and the snow held no sway, a small town could be observed, nestled deep in the valley.

It was the border town, called Nightingale Gate, that efficiently blocked the entrance to the only safe land-crossing between the Nightingale Prefecture and Rock Wren Prefecture. It had a mirror town on the other side of the passage, called Rock Wren Gate, and if you were making your journey on foot, you had no other choice but to pass through both towns.

The small figure lifted its head and gazed out over the mountain ranges on either side of the town. Their steep mountain walls stretched relentlessly towards the sky - one range running north, the other south - and practically no vegetation managed to grow on them.

Suddenly, an unusually strong wind swept over the snow covered mountain top, grabbing hold of the cloaks worn by the lone figure. As the fabric flapped violently in the wind, the pearly-white face of a youth was revealed.

The face was cold and stoic but nonetheless very beautiful. It was quite a feminine face, but the actual gender of the youth was hard to determine; by looks alone it would be female, but there was something about it that made you doubt your eyes. Perhaps it was a mirage brought on by the youth's tender age, or perhaps, it was the two dark-red eyes that seemed too cold, too harsh, to belong to a girl. Or a child for that matter. Shivering, the youth collected the escaped fabric again.

"It would seem like we really have no choice but to pass through the two gate towns... " The voice of Raven sounded slightly displeased as it disappeared into the heavy wind.

"Are you worried you'll be recognized?" within her head, Raven heard her brother's question as clearly as if he was standing next to her.

"No, but I will have to pay the toll to pass through, and even if it isn't a lot of money, it might be enough to draw attention - the border towns are rough places..."

The border towns were located far from any other cities and even if the were officially run by the two prefectures, many bandits and mercenaries were drawn there to take advantage of those who were too poor to fly, but still rich enough to travel.

The two groups worked in an odd symbiosis - the bandits would rob people, who in turn would hire mercenaries to protect them. The mercenaries knew they wouldn't be needed if not for the bandits so they usually went easy on the robbers and settled for scaring them off.

"I will have to find some cover if I'm to pass through inconspicuously..."

With a last glance over the mountains, Raven turned and started to walk the winding descent down towards the valley; even if the first town was visible from were Raven stood, it would take nearly four days to get there.

---------

Disbelieving, Raven stared up at the huge walls that surrounded the first border town. There, right above the entrance - carved into stone that was slightly lighter than the surrounding stone, clearly, due to a resent remodeling - were three words: Black Talon Gate.

Raven stood by the side of the road without moving, seemingly more deep frozen than she had been up on the icy mountain top.

'I knew they would change the name of the prefecture, but to do it so quickly and thoroughly...'

It had barely been four months since Raven left White Water Town in the center of the prefecture. The mourning period for Raven and her family had only recently ended and yet, her she was, as far away from the prefecture capital as possible and the change had already come to effect.

"Aren't they afraid that someone will find it suspicious that they've acted so quickly?" Finally, Hoatzin's bitter voice broke Raven's silent contemplation.

"Not necessarily. As far as they know, everyone involved in the incident, that oppose them, are dead - even if they fear what I'iwi might have found out, she was mortally wounded and who would believe a maid over them anyway." Raven covered her mouth and she spoke quietly, so as to not draw attention to her one-sided conversation.

"But they are being so disrespectful to our family and clan! Wouldn't at least Empress Nene be upset?"

Raven's eyes grew moist and she fanned herself with little hand before she spoke in a heartbroken voice "Oh, most benevolent Empress, I am beside myself with grief over my brother's death! I want nothing more than to take over his legacy, but to constantly be reminded of his demise," Raven's voice broke; "I... I can't..." A lone tear slid down her left cheek.

Hoatzin drew a shocked breath as Raven turned back to herself.

"Aunt has had plenty of practice, she will be able to convince them..." Raven's red eyes flashed; "But they will get what they deserve, in time."

Within the ring Hoatzin shuddered. Ever since they left the small cave by the lake two months ago, his sister had continuously been attempting to completely merge her killing intent with her spirit essence in hopes of gaining new insights to whatever she had sensed that night. Slowly, she was succeeding with the merger, but as a consequence Raven's eyes had practically become permanently red. Even though no killing intent escaped from her, it gave her a very cold glare that could send shivers down your spine. He almost felt pity for the Talon's and their accomplices - she would no doubt make them suffer greatly - but only almost.

"...But, the Empress would believe you, right? You can show her the orb left by I'iwi." Hoatzin asked after some consideration.

"Hard to say... I'm only four, remember, and hardly count as a reliable witness. The orb might be enough to convince Empress Nene, or at least make her suspicious, but it will most likely not be enough for her to act against the Talon's. After all, they could claim that the orb is fabricated."

"It's worth a try though, right?"

"Could be..." Raven's voice trailed of as she considered the Empress. Her aid would be most welcome but Raven felt a bit apprehensive when she considered the letter I'iwi had found; clearly they had help seizing the power over the prefecture from another Empire and Raven found it hard to believe that they would do so only for the sake of the Talon's becoming prefecture lords. There must be more to it than that.

However, there was nothing Raven could do about it right now so, not wishing to look at the huge carvings on the wall any further, Raven took a deep breath and entered the town. It was mid-day and there were plenty of people milling about on the streets. She disappeared into the crowds and followed the masses down the most populated streets, passing several inns and restaurants as she went. There were even quite a few shops and guild halls present on either sides.

"This place really is a lot livelier than White Water Town." Hoatzin remarked.

"And a lot rowdier." Raven snickered and glanced of to the right.

"Huh?"

"You'll see." Calmly Raven walked over to the road leading off to the right.

Just as Raven rounded the corner a loud crashing noise could be heard from within one of the buildings followed by several angry shouts. Nonchalantly, Raven leaned against a light post and started counting down. '3....2....1....'

*SMASH*

The wooden doors of the closest restaurant splintered into a thousand pieces as a huge figure blasted through them and slammed into the opposite stone wall. Raven raised an eyebrow and whistled approvingly as the huge figure brushed off the debris as it if was dust and stomped back towards the restaurant - on his feet, he was well over two meters and had the body-build of a smaller giant. By the looks of it, he was in his thirties.

"Hog, you old bastard! Stop it with your cheap-shots!"

Out on the street most ignored the commotion as if it was a drop of water in a lake - clearly such fights were common here. Some people, like Raven, chuckled and moved a bit closer so that they could see into the building through the broken doors, hoping for a bit of entertainment.

Within, the brawl was in full swing. The giant had engaged with a tawny, probably fifty-year-old, man in scholars robes, and all around them men where fighting with each other, using everything from their fists to tables and chairs to fight. Even if the two Gates were fairly lawless places, they knew better than to go for killing hits within the city walls - the prefecture guards allowed much, but not that - so they refrained from using any real weapons.

"Haha, few things are as entertaining as a good bar fight!" Raven laughed softly as she observed the chaos within with a devilish spark in his eyes.

"Sister? I thought you disapproved of the behaviors of bandits..."

"Oh, I do, but a bar fight is fairly harmless - you wouldn't find kids or other defenseless innocents in a bar, right? Sometimes, arguments are best settled with your fists."

She could still remember the huge fight she had been part of in a high-end casino parlor back when she was an assassin. Part of it had been planned, and would function as a cover for the the assassination of a local drug lord, but Raven had really enjoyed the absolute frenzy that it had caused. At one point, Raven had even been helped out by a small, shriveled up, old lady who smacked a high-up mob member on the head with her coin-filled purse. Raven giggled as she remembered the youth's vacant expression as he sank unconscious to the floor.

"Seriously Sister, I'm starting to doubt whether or not you aren't a boy after all... What lady would be roused to laughter by a brawl?"

Raven only rolled her eyes and kept watching the growing fight.

"Damn you, Hog! Stop dodging and take my fist like a man." The giant roared and swung his huge fist towards the tawny man, that simply side-stepped the arm with a calm impression on his face.

"Twig, don't go defining what a man is when you don't even have the skill to touch me." Hog too extended his hand and easily slapped the giant's buttocks as he passed him. "Children should be spanked to know their place."

"I'm 32!" Snapped the giant named Twig and swung at his opponent once more.

"The big one is called 'Twig' and the scrawny guy 'Hog'? It doesn't match at all." Raven chuckled a bit too loudly and her fellow observes overheard her.

"Kid, you're new right? How else could you not know of Big Boy Twig and Old Man Hog!" an elderly man, that looked like he would die of old age any minute, spoke out next to her. "You shouldn't make fun of them, they are the leaders of two very strong mercenary groups that operate in town and even if they are not showing it now, they are also both high level spiritualists!"

"Oh, spiritualists, you say? I don't see them wearing any spirit stones..."

"Haha, kid, why would they? They are both rogue spiritualists and even if they could get a lot of advantages by wearing them, they are better off keeping their exact strengths hidden."

Raven understood the man's reasoning. She had always found it a bit odd that spiritualists chose to wear the spirit stones; sure it gave you a lot of benefits in the form of various discounts, access to otherwise restricted areas and so forth, but in Raven's mind these weren't enough for her to want to reveal her cultivation. Then again, spiritualist were fairly few in numbers and were generally very proud of their achievements - it was perhaps only natural that they would want to show of, even at the risk of there being bigger fish in the sea, so to speak.

"So, what level are they?" Raven inquired.

"Oi, kid, didn't you hear me - they want to keep their cultivation hidden!"

Raven raised an eyebrow. "So all your age and wisdom has given you no insights? Pity."

"Tche, this brat..." the old man snorted disapprovingly, but continued; "Don't go underestimating your elders! Of course I know - they are peak Adepts!"

His voice might be frail but in his annoyance he had spoken a little to loudly, and the entire restaurant suddenly became silent.

"Eh?" The old man lifted his head to look into the restaurant only to see Twig and Hog staring at him with annoyed eyes. The rest of the fighters were instead looking at Twig and Hog.

"I... it wasn't me! This kid, he..." he looked down at were Raven had stood only seconds ago, but the kid was nowhere to be seen.

"What? Where did he go?" He looked back up at the two fighters with horror in his eyes. "This old one is terribly sorry, I didn't mean to... to..." His old body was shaking like a leaf.

"Humpf, I've lost interest in this fight. Let's call it quits for today, old man." Twig walked over to the corner of the room to pick an enormous axe that was resting against the wall. "Let's go!"

As he motioned to the crowd, about thirty percent of the people present in the establishment straightened and shouted "Yes, boss!" and scurried after the departing giant.

"Aren't you forgetting our bet?" The tawny Hog called out just as Twig passed through the broken doors.

Twig only glanced back before he stretched out his enormous hand and patted the terrified ancient man on his shoulder. The poor fellow seemed to break apart under the weight of the hand.

"Since this elder seems to know so much, he'll cover it." And with that Twig and his men left.
Hog sighed.

"Youths these days... So sensitive." Hog glanced at the old man that seemed to be about to faint any moment. "You can go."

"Thank you!" the man looked as if he could die of relief as he hurried off surprisingly fast for his old age.

Hog ignored the departing man and instead walked over to the owner, that stood pale-faced by a broken counter - it was the third time this month his restaurant had been totaled, and now he even had to replace the doors...

"Pardon the mess," Hog nodded to the owner and retrieved a small pouch from within his robes; "here is for your troubles."

He placed to pouch on the only part of the counter that was still intact, and then turned to leave as well. As he did, four more middle-aged men followed respectfully behind him. When Old Man Hog walked out into the street he glanced up towards the roof before he walked off in the opposite direction of Big Boy Twig that had left earlier.
From behind a chimney on the roof, Raven emerged with a small smile on her face.

"He noticed me? Interesting."

Without hesitating, Raven jumped down from the roof and once more merged with the moving crowds. She didn't bother following Twig or Hog, instead, she made her way towards to big marketplace she had seen from the roof top. She was too young to be able to gain any information at bars and restaurants, and besides, one should not underestimate the treasure trove that was merchant's gossip.

Chapter 19: Finding "Cover"

The main market place of Black Talon Gate was bustling with activity; men and women alike were shouting out various bargains to the passing buyers, some of whom would stop and try to haggle the prices further. The aromas of spices and cooked meats filled the air, and children were running back en forth between the numerous stalls - some were playing, others were carrying large parcels on their backs as they ran deliveries for various merchants.

Most buyers present at the market had a fairly rowdy disposition and sometimes arguments would brake out over the items for sale. The fights were usually resolved fairly quickly, either by the fighters themselves or by the patrolling guards the town provided to help safeguard the merchants wares.

Despite the town's remote location, the merchandise for sale was of fairly high quality and a lot of money changed hands every day here. Of course, the merchants wouldn't be allowed to keep all of it - a tenth of their profits had to be paid as taxes to the town Lords in order for them to be allowed to set up their stalls within the town walls and enjoy the protection of the guards.

Then again, not everyone in the market had any money to trade with or any services they could offer. Revealing the dirtier side of the market, several beggars were loitering around asking for scraps to survive another day. Most ignored them, but once the food stalls closed for the day, the beggars had a chance to get lucky and receive whatever left-overs that wouldn't stay fresh till the next market day.

Adapting the role of "street urchin" perfectly, Raven sat nibbling on a stale piece of breed, not far from the baker that had tossed said piece of bread on the ground moments earlier. Raven looked like all the other broken little boys roaming around as she ate her bread with apathy, but in reality her eyes were pushed to their limits in order to hear everything that was said around her.

"One silver for a Frost Berry Pie!" The baker shouted.

"Hey, don't touch it if you're not gonna buy it!" Reprimanded another salesman.

Moments like these she really missed her spirit connections. Before, she would have been able to easily hear almost every voice within the vast market, but now she was limited to a couple of hundred meters. She had regained almost 150 of her connections but her senses were still far from returned to their former glory. Even worse, the recovery rate had started to slow down a bit, as every connection needed to come in contact with more spirit essence to be reformed.

"Tui, go get more herbs from the carriage!" A young woman in her twenties ordered her daughter.

"Buy a lovely hairpin for a lovely lady - who knows? It might seal the deal!" Hollered a fat man selling jewelry.

Despite the lessened range, a multitude of voices still drilled into Raven's ears, and she calmly sifted through what they were saying; taking note of any interesting information she came across. She had already learnt a great deal.

It would seem like, at the moment, two large and four smaller caravans of merchants were present in Black Talon Gate. Among these, only three of the smaller ones were headed towards Rock Wren Prefecture, whereas the rest had, the now renamed, Black Talon City as their destination. The fat accessories salesman, located across from the baker, was the head of one of the smaller caravans and would, according to rumor, head out tomorrow.

His name was Heron and he had the unusual reputation of being very considerate, from what Raven could tell, the reputation seemed warranted; he had on several occasions during the day given a copper or two to the beggars that passed his stall. Of course, coppers wouldn't get you very far - the one silver Frost Berry pie the baker sold, would require a hundred coppers to buy - but it was better than nothing.

At the moment Raven was waiting for an opportunity to strike a conversation with the man, in hopes of convincing him to let Raven join his caravan. After she'd been sitting in her spot for nearly an hour, and the darkness of the evening was starting to descend, a small smirk crossed Raven's face.

'Finally...'

The reason why Raven rejoiced was due to an approaching man draped in fine silks. He looked very regal as he elegantly swept down the street, glancing at the various stalls with feigned disinterest. At a glance, the man looked very refined, but his body language was slightly of - as if it had been altered from his normal routine.

As the man reached Heron's stall he slowed down his pace and started examining the displayed merchandise loftily.

"Fine sir, are you looking for anything in particular?" Noticing the man's stare, Heron naturally engaged with the possible buyer.

"My wife and I have an anniversary coming up but I have had some trouble with my Hawks, so I fear I will miss it." The mans left shoulder shifted slightly as he spoke. "I wish to make it up to her."

Raven snorted.

"He's lying?" Hoatzin asked, puzzled.

Raven nodded. "He's fairly good, but yes, he is lying."

"Ah, then you have come to the right place!" Heron beamed. "How about this golden hair pin with inlaid pearls? Nothing says happy anniversary more than gold and pearls."

A well executed look of disappointment filled the mans face.

"Don't you have anything more unique? She already has plenty of golden jewelry."

Heron on the other hand showed genuine excitement - few customers complained that his finest hair pins were too ordinary. Happily he brought out one expensive item after the other, the price steadily increasing, but the refined man was not to be satisfied. Finally, Heron ran out of wares and the silk dressed man sighed deeply.

"I'm afraid this won't do... I will have to keep looking." The man placed his hands on his back and started to walk away with a dejected expression on his face.

Even more dejected was poor Heron that watched his potential money trove walk away without buying anything.

"Can I also get a hair pin?"

A small voice peeped next to Heron. The merchant looked down on the dirty boy standing in front of his stall, holding a half-eaten loaf of bread in his hand.

"No, boy, you have to pay for those." he sighed and started fishing into his own purse after a copper coin.

"But that man didn't have to pay..."

Heron froze. He inspected his table to make sure that everything was accounted for, but... "The hair pin!"
Heron first turned deathly pale and then red with rage.

"Guards! Guards! Stop the man in silks, he is a thief!" With surprising agility the fat merchant jumped out from behind his table and pointed at the departing burglar whom had started running when he heard the angry shouts.

"It wasn't a gift?" The voice turned Herons attention back to the little boy. "Well that's not right."

The kid bent down and picked up a palm sized rock. "You have to pay money if it isn't a gift."

Lifting his front leg and both his arms, much like a baseball player would, the boy fixed his eyes on the escaping man. Suddenly, he stomped down the raised foot in front of him and lobbed the stone at his target. The stone flew through the air so fast it caused to air to whistle as it passed. In an instant the stone arrived and hit the fleeing man right in his left kneecap, causing the man to fall to the ground with a pained wail.

"Haha! Well done, kid!" Heron laughed and slapped the boy on the back before he ran over to the fallen thief. By now the guards had arrived and they soon found the golden hair pin tucked into the silken sleeves of his robes.

"You were right, again." Hoatzin's pleased voice rang out in Raven's head, who watched to unfolding drama from where Heron had left her.

Raven just smiled. She knew that, most likely, she had gained her way through the two gate towns.

Once the guards had dragged away the thief, the fat Heron wobbled back to his stall with a pleased smile on his face and the golden hair pin in his hand. When his eyes fell on the patiently waiting Raven his expression grew more serious.

"You have a good aim, boy!" Heron smiled and patted Raven's shoulder. "Are you from around here? I don't think I've seen you before."

When Heron had started speaking, Raven had looked up at Heron pridefully, but when he asked her where she was from, a brief expression of fear flashed across her face. She hesitated a bit before she answered: "No, I just don't come to the market very often..."

"Oi, Sister, can't you lie a bit better then that? Even I can tell that you're being dishonest..." Hoatzin reprimanded  in her head.

'That's kind of the point...' Raven thought back, but her brother couldn't hear it.

Naturally, Heron had also caught on to that Raven was lying, but he wasn't surprised by it; few people in Black Talon Gate would be honest about their past. Instead he continued probing.

"Then, are your parents around? I want to thank them for raising such a good kid."

At the mention of parents, Raven lowered her gaze and looked away as she clenched her yaw slightly.

"They're dead." was all she said.

Heron raised an eyebrow in surprise. He wasn't surprised about the kid being an orphan - most kids roaming these streets were - what surprised him was that the child before him showed clear signs of shame and anger about the parents's death; most kids would feel sad rather then ashamed about loosing their parents.

"Well, you're a good kid, nonetheless." Heron's smile grew warmer, as if he was trying to comfort Raven. "And skilled too! I'm amazed that you saw the man stealing - I usually don't miss such things."

Heron was telling the truth. He was a seasoned merchant and was used to dealing with all sorts of customers; catching someone stealing was an important part of his trade.

Raven lifted her head and looked up on Heron with renewed pride.

"Thanks! I was the best of th..." Raven stopped speaking mid-sentence, and fear flashed across her face once more; "...ah, I mean, I've seem a lot of hungry people... stealing food."

As if to prove a point, Raven nervously held up her loaf of bread and made it disappear into her robes with a sleight of hand. The movement, however, caused her robes to lift slightly and revealed the Limiters around her ankles.
Heron, that was a lot taller than Raven, had already been looking down on her and therefore directly saw the two shackles. Understanding filled his face.

'So that's it,' he sighed to himself; 'the kid is an escaped bandit slave..'

It was a fairly common notion around these parts. Smaller villages, that had trouble putting enough food on their tables, would occasionally sell of younger children to bandit crews. That way, they would gain some money to feed the hungry mouths with, and fewer hungry mouths to feed as well. The bandits would then first train the kids how to pick pockets and then how to fight. Eventually they would become the next generation of bandits. Of course, not all slaves where sold, some were stolen, but the risk of the kids rebelling was smaller if they were sold. After all, why rebel only to return to a village that betrayed your trust in the first place.

Raven pretended to not notice the merchant's stare and instead retrieved her half-eaten piece of bread and started nibbling at it yet again.

"So, can I get a hair pin?" She asked between bites and looked up at Heron with expecting eyes.

Heron stared blankly at the kid before him and started laughing.

"Haha, kid, how about you start working for me instead? I could use an extra pair of eyes guarding my goods, and tomorrow I'm heading back to Rock Wren Prefecture - I'm sure my daughter would appropriate it if someone her own age joined us for the journey."

Raven's eyes widened. "You're leaving?"

"Yes, and if you do well on the way, you can become my apprentice once we reach my home town."

Heron wasn't sure if he'd actually take the kid in as an apprentice, but if he stayed in Black Talon Gate it would only be a matter of time before the bandits found him and took him back. As long as the kid was wearing those Limiters, their owners would sense them if they got close enough. Removing them would be for the best but, as long as the owner was alive, it was a nearly impossible task, at least in a back-water town like the two gate towns.

Of course, Heron was assuming that the Limiters were the less complicated version, that were simple weights combined with a bit of tracking - why waste spiritualist Limiters on a kid that didn't look much older them seven? Spirit Limiters used on spiritualists could not be removed by any force; if the owner didn't die then all you could do was keep cultivating and hope to, one day, surpass the owner to the point where it didn't matter if the Limiter was on or not.

As Heron expected, Raven barely hesitated at all before accepting his offer, seemingly very keen on the notion of leaving Black Talon Gate.

"Good, good! If you have anything you want to bring, go get it now, otherwise you can get to work right away by helping me keep an eye on my goods."

"I have nothing to get." She said and walked in and sat down in the far corner of the stall. The stall wasn't very big, barely two square meters, so she still had no problem seeing out on the street.

"Hehe, aren't you a straightforward one." Heron muttered before he joined Raven in the stall.

Even though the stall was small, it should be more than big enough for two people. However, Heron filled the stall quite efficiently by himself so it suddenly became fairly cramped.

"It's lucky I'm stuck in this ring or we wouldn't all fit in here." Hoatzin teased.

---------

The day progressed without any bigger incidents; Raven pointed out one more thief before he had a chance to do anything and after that future thieves seemed to choose other targets.

Once darkness fell, Heron was joined by two large guards who helped him close his shop and then stayed to guard it during the night. Heron and Raven, on the other hand, walked off through the town until they reached a relatively fancy inn, called Song Bird Inn.

Raven looked up at the familiar nightingale bird that had been carved into the sign above the door and smiled a bittersweet smile.

"At least they haven't been forced to change this sign..." Hoatzin sighed within his ring.

Raven nodded slightly as she followed her new employer into the inn.

The interior was neatly decorated in varying shades of brown and red fabrics, that somehow managed to remind Raven of the houses in Nightingale City. All in all, the inn gave a homey feel without being too extravagant. It was most likely one of the more expensive inns in town, but that said more about the town then the inn.

"Daddy!"

Just as Heron and Raven walked through the door a high pitched voice rang through the room and a slightly chubby, little girl in a pink dress came running down the stairs to the hallway.

"Mayeri." Heron clucked happily and lifted the girl into the air. "Where is your mother?"

"Taking a bath." The girl smiled.

"I see." Heron gave her a kiss and put her back down.

He walked over to the lady sitting behind a counter not far from the door.

"This kid will be staying with us for the night. Is that okay?" Heron asked in a polite tone a waved at Raven.

The lady behind the counter leaned to the side in order to observe the dirty kid standing quietly by the door. She frowned slightly, but quickly replaced the expression with a present smile.

"Of course, sir. It will by five extra silver for the food and lodging for the child and an additional silver if you wish for him to take a bath." Her tone was very polite but no one would have missed her underlying opinion: the boy needed a bath.

Heron fished six silvers out of his purse and returned to his daughter that was eyeing Raven curiously.

"Mayeri, let me introduce you to my new assistant, this is..." Heron paused; "haha, I guess we never got to the name part... Kid, what's you name?"

"Raven."

"Raven? Good name, it fits you! I am Heron and this is my seven-year-old daughter Mayeri. You will meet my wife later." Heron patted his daughter on her back. "Go on, say hello to the boy."

With no more encouragement needed, the pink girl's curious eyes sparkled and she bounced over to Raven. She was used to her father going out of his way to help less fortunate souls, so she felt neither fear nor disgust for the young boy she greeted.

"Hello, Raven!" She laughed happily with dimples appearing in her round face while she reached out a hand for Raven to shake. "I'm Mayeri, let's be friends!"

Raven observed to seven-year-old in front of her. She was, contrary to Raven, fairly short for her age; barely over a meter tall, her features were cute but fairly round. As the girl stood there, with her small hand promptly stretched out before her, Raven couldn't help but sigh inwardly - she always had the hardest time dealing with bubbling, straightforward personalities like the girl in front of her. No doubt, Raven would get few calm moments during the coming weeks.

Nonetheless, after pausing for a moment Raven grabbed the girl's hand.

"Hi." Raven said with a halfhearted smile.

To the side, Heron smiled more wholeheartedly. If he had guessed right about the boy's past, then that halfhearted smile of his was a very good start.

Chapter 20: Rumors and Consequences

After the greetings, Raven was showed to a small chamber where a tub of hot water had been prepared in the middle of the room. Various fragrant oils lined the the tub's rim and a soft towel lied, folded, on a stool nearby.

"Change into these once your done." Heron handed her a parcel of clean clothes and then left Raven alone.

Finally alone, Raven relaxed her muscles and walked over to the tub. She dipped her had into it to test the water. Its temperature was perfect; warm but not scorching.

"Four months..." she sighed and started getting undressed.

"Umm, Sister..." Hoatzin's voice echoed a bit nervously in her head.

"Yes Brother?" Raven was down to her undergarments and paused to sniff a orange bottle by the tub - it smelled of sandalwood.

"You are aware of that I don't really have any eyes to close in here, right?"

Raven raised a surprised eyebrow; she understood his concerns right away. She had of course been made aware of the fact that her brother wasn't able to stop seeing what was going on around him, but he hadn't really bothered to bring it up like this before. Then again, until now, Raven had only washed herself sporadically by wiping her arms and legs with a damp cloth.

"So? You are my brother - it's not like you've never seen me naked before?" Raven chuckled. "Besides I'm only four, there is not that much to see."

"I know and you are right," the nervousness in his voice lessened; "I just figured it was best to remind you before, rather than to have you mad at me afterwards."

"Thank you for your concern, big Brother."

Raven tilted the orange bottle and let the oil pore into the tub. Taking of her last piece of tattered clothes, she slipped into the bath with a content smile on her face.

'Ah, I have missed this!' she thought to herself as she closed her eyes. 'Hehe, Brother is still too polite and innocent ...it kind of reminds me of Eric.'

Raven thought back to the odd scientist she had been assigned to protect as he studied the effects of solar flares up in the arctic pole - apparently his research had quite a few military applications and his sponsors wanted to keep their investment safe. Eric had once walked in on her while she bathed in a natural hot spring close to the science station and had nearly fainted when he saw her. Of course, it might have been more due to the shock of seeing all her scars, than seeing the naked Raven herself. Perhaps, it was the combination of the two.

Raven's face grew solemn as she thought back on that mission - her employers might have been satisfied with the results but for her it was one of her few failures... She sighed heavily and sank deeper into the tub, nearly disappearing completely beneath the surface.

---------

After soaking in the tub for fifteen minutes, Raven reluctantly got out and dressed in her new clothes - a blue, two-piece, cotton set, perfect for working in - and made her way to the room Heron had indicated before. Outside the room she paused to listen at the discussion going on inside. Normally, the thick doors would make eavesdropping rather hard, but Raven had no trouble hearing the conversation going on inside - to her, they might as well have been screaming right next to her, it made no difference.

Within the room Raven could clearly feel the presence of two people - she had yet to recover enough to be able to tell who they were by their auras alone, but their conversation revealed that they were Heron and his wife.

"Husband, I heard the other wives talking - is it true that the amount of bandits between the Gates has increased?" the wife's voice sounded quite concerned.

"It is true, according to the leader of our hired mercenaries, something has scared the bandits shitless and they have been flooding into the area during the last couple of weeks. Rumor has it, an ancient spirit beast has re-appeared in the Great Woodlands and it slaughters any bandits who enter."

Heron sighed.

"I don't know if it's true or not but the bandits seem to believe it, and many have opted to take the "safer" option of praying on people passing between the Gates."

'Hmm, can they talking about me, perhaps? I didn't think the tales of those three men would be so effective...' Raven frowned slightly. 'After all, it was only a one time thing...'

As Raven pondered this, the conversation continued inside.

"But don't worry, my wife, I have sent word to the mercenary's guild about hiring an additional group for the passing, so we will be safe either way."

The wife clicked her tongue.

"And what of our profits? If you hire any more people, we won't have earned anything this trip"

The sound of chairs scuffing across the floor could be heard as Heron pulled his wife into his arms.

"Oh, come now, don't be so stingy - or safety is more important. Besides, the kid saved us from a large loss today, you could say that it almost evens out."

"Hmpf, you compare a hair pin, worth a couple of gold, with the cost of adding another mercenary crew? Honestly, how you managed to make a profit out of your merchandise before I married you is beyond me."

"Ha! You mistrust my mind for business that much? I'll have you know that I offered to pay no more then one gold a head for the extra group - there must be some group heading over to Wren Prefecture, for some other mission, that wouldn't mind earning just a little bit extra on the way. "

The wife snorted but didn't lecture Heron further. Heron on the other hand seemed amused by his wife's retort and started to snuggle her closely, whispering something in her ear that Raven couldn't work out.

As Raven noticed the change in atmosphere in the room, she briefly considered to walk away and leave the pair to their pleasures, but a presence approaching from downstairs, that was accompanied by the sent of smoked meats, made the decision for her.

She lifted her hand and knocked politely on the door.

"Mister Heron? I am done." She spoke in a steady voice with her mouth close to the door, so that they would hear her inside despite their unfolding activities.

The snuggling came to an abrupt halt and a few coughs could be heard before an answer came.

"Come in, Raven." Heron called.

With a light push, Raven opened the door and walked in to a rather spacious room.

At a table by the fireplace sat Heron and his wife, a plump little woman with flush cheeks. It was apparent that both husband and wife enjoyed to eat.

"Thank you for the clothes, sir." Raven bowed stiffly.

"Don't mention it, don't mention it." Heron laughed and looked over at his wife; "Ardea, this is.."

Mid sentence, Heron was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Room service!" shouted a nasal voice on the other side and before Heron had a chance to answer, the door swung open and a woman dressed for working in the kitchen strolled in with a large tray filled to the brim with meat and bread held high in one hand and a sizable tankard of ale in the other - how she hand managed to open the door was hard to say.

Without waiting for instructions, the woman - whose appearance was about as crude as her temperament - placed her cargo at the table, wheezed "Enjoy" in her nasal voice, and left.

Raven raised an eyebrow as she looked at the closed door. 'Charming...'

Apparently, Heron and his wife were used to this behavior by now and simply glanced at each other; if they had expected higher standards from the staff in the beginning, they had clearly accepted it now.

"You must be Raven," Ardea broke the silence; "I am Ardea, Heron's wife."

"Hello, mam." Raven gave another stiff bow.

Ardea stood and walked over to Raven, who had remained by the door.

"Heron told me you helped stop a thief today - very well done!" Ardea smiled a warm smile as she spoke.

When she reached Raven she paused for a moment to glance down at the metal shackles barely visible below Raven's new pants and then at the cloth that was meticulously wrapped around Ravens right hand and arm as a bandage. Pity filled her face, momentarily drowning out the warm smile, before Ardea gently placed a hand on Raven's shoulder. Raven flinched slightly from the contact but didn't move away and Ardea's smile warmed once more.

"Come, you must be hungry." She guided Raven to the table and pulled out a chair for her.

"Mayeri! Food's here!" Heron called as Ardea motioned to the food. "Eat."

"Thank you, mam."

Raven reached for a piece of bread, just as Mayeri rushed into the room all smiles - clearly she too like to eat.

"Dinner!" In a flash the little girl had taken her place at the table and started filling her plate. She only paused for a second to smile at Raven and get out a "Hi, Raven." before her focus turned back at the food.

"I take back my statement from before about girls and eating," chuckled Hoatzin; "this girl's appetite is worse than yours - by far."

Raven had to force herself not to chuckle at her brother's comment.

There was a lot of food present and after some coaxing, Raven too started to eat with more enthusiasm. As the family ate, they listen to Mayeri talk about what she had done during the day and both parents engaged in various discussions with her. They tried to involve Raven as well, but she rarely contributed with more than a few words at a time, seemingly unsure of what to say regarding a seven-year-old girl's daily life.

Once the subject moved on to the coming journey, relief flooded Raven's face and the surprised family was suddenly bombarded with questions: What route they will we take? Have you been to Wren Prefecture before? Is it different from this prefecture? Will they see bandits?

Eventually both the food and the questions ran out and the dinner came to an end. The table was cleared and a mattress was placed on it for Raven to sleep on. Everyone said their good-nights and went to bed imminently because, as Heron pointed out: "It will be a long day tomorrow."

Raven climbed up in her bed and lied down, but instead of sleeping she started meditating - the position was not as efficient as when sitting cross-legged, but she wouldn't have to interrupt her meditation if any of the family members moved around during the night. Spirit essence flowed in through her 146 spirit connections, into her core, were some of it was sucked up by the vortex and the rest passed through only to be dispersed throughout her body and absorbed by her various cells.

She repeated the process over and over. Her progress was astounding; with every breath she grew a bit stronger as her cells improved and her core's capacity expanded with it. Every time essence passed through her core, it managed to absorb a little bit more. It had only been two months since Raven broke through and became a low Adept, statistically it should take her five years to become a mid Adept, if she cultivated outside of an academy, but Raven had a hard time believing it would take anywhere near that long for her.

While Raven quietly meditated in her make-shift bead in front of the fire, Mayeri lay awake in her bed. Her parents had talked to her about the black haired boy, Raven, as they'd tucked her in.

"You'll have to help us take care of the boy, Mayeri." Her father had told her. "He's been through a lot and needs a friend."
Her mother had then laughingly joked about it being good to have a cute brother, but the laugh hadn't reached her eyes. Her eyes had instead been sad. As Mayeri thought back on it she couldn't help but wonder what it was the boy "had been through" that made her parents feel so sad for him. She grew more and more curious about it for every minute. She decided she would try to find out more on their journey.

'He was cute though...' she thought and hid her blushing face under the covers.

---------

Dawn broke and the moment Raven sensed movement from within the room were Heron and his wife slept, she halted her cultivation and got up from her bed. She moved over to the darkest corner in the room where she huddled up in a ball with her back towards the wall.

"A good morning to you too, Sister." Hoatzin sarcastic voice filled Raven's head.

She smiled.

"Good morning, big Brother." She whispered so softly that barely even Hoatzin heard her.

"I preferred it when you were travelling alone, at least then you could speak to me a bit..."

Hoatzin sighed and Raven would have answered him that he would need to get used to it, but at that moment she felt how Heron, who had been busy getting dressed, walked towards his bedroom door. Seconds later he gently opened the door and walked into the room on quiet feet.

When he noticed that the table bed was empty he looked around the room, as his eyes fell upon the huddled figure of the young boy pressed up against the dark corner, he sighed heavily. 'Poor kid...'

Heron walked over to Raven with heavy steps, hoping to not surprise the boy too much, and placed his hand on the kids shoulder to wake him. Raven jumped up at the touch, pressed her body hard against the wall behind her and looked around her with scared eyes.

"Easy, boy, you are safe here." Heron voice was calm, soothing, and Raven was secretly impressed by this fat merchants way of handling scared kids; if she had been the slightly traumatized boy she was pretending to be, she would most likely be pacified by this man.

As it was, her eyes slowly focused on Heron and, with a flash of recognition, she calmed down.

"Mornin, sir."

"Good morning, Raven." Heron still calm and soothing. "It is time to get to work."

Together they left the inn to prepare for the journey that would start in only a couple of hours. Before they left, Heron had checked at the counter if the Mercenary Guild had accepted the escort mission - which they had - and also grabbed a couple of fruits from the kitchen as breakfast.

Heron worked quickly and with the help of his guards, the other two merchants who would join his caravan and of course Raven, the preparations for the journey were quickly taken care of. Three hours later, Heron and Raven were standing next to three wagons close to the passage gate that gave the town its name. They were waiting for Heron's family and the mercenaries that were going to protect them on their journey.

The mercenaries were the first to arrive. Raven raised a surprised eyebrow when she recognized the two groups arriving. The first group, consisting of five people all dressed in white, was lead by the middle-aged man 'Old Man Hog'. The other group was twice as large Hog's, everyone completely dressed in red, and was lead by 'Big Boy Twig'. Oddly enough, the two groups seemed to be on quite good terms, laughing and telling jokes to each other as they approached.

"I guess you were right about the whole talk-things-out-with-fists thing..." Hoatzin muttered.

Heron greeted the two groups respectfully. It was clear from the conversation that Hog was the original group and Twig was the extras.

"Haha, all this crazy talk of monstrous spirit beasts in the Woodlands is most beneficial to us. Who would have thought that we could add ten extra gold to our original mission earnings without doing anything extra." Twig laughed.

"You still have to protect your charges, Twig." Hog gave Heron a small bow. When he looked up again he noticed Raven leaning against the wagon behind Heron. His eyebrows lifted ever so slightly.

"A servant of yours?" Hog asked and indicated towards Raven.

Heron followed his gaze.

"Ah, yes. That is Raven, he is my new assistant. Come and great our guards, kid."

Raven stalled for a moment before she walked over to the group.

"Hello, sirs."

Chapter 21: Entering the Passage

Raven bowed respectfully to the two mercenaries. Hog raised an eyebrow and almost instinctively stretched out a spirit essence laced hand to touch Raven's shoulder. Raven sensed the hand coming and for a moment fear filled her.

'He wants to check my cultivation?' Her mind reeled. 'This is bad...'

Although the limiters would stop her cultivation from being exposed, they would do nothing to hide her spirit connections. Raven hadn't thought this would be a problem since, at the academy, she could use her spirit essence to block her soul from being inspected, but if she did so now, Hog would notice and realize that she was a spiritualist.

Her options at this moment were quite limited. She would have to make a gamble on Hog's perception of her "personality".

As the hand approached, Raven glanced up from her bow. The moment her eyes met Old Man Hog's hand - now only centimeters away - absolute terror filled her face and she staggered backwards, falling to the ground in the process.

"Ah!" The initial terror in Raven's face faded quickly and was instead replaced by embarrassment. "S... Sorry... I..."

As Hog observed the seemingly scrawny boy on the ground, his look of surprised interest shifted to that of understanding and he glanced over at Heron, who nodded back to him with a sad smile.

Hog pulled back his hand.

"No, I'm sorry, kid. I didn't mean to startle you." Hog smiled slightly at Raven and backed away.

Seeing his change in demeanor, Raven felt relieved and she didn't bother hiding it. Her plan had worked; as she fell, her trousers had shifted upwards and thus clearly revealed the Limiters around her ankles. Being a veteran mercenary, Hog had instantly drawn the same conclusions that Heron had the day before: Raven was a slightly traumatized, escaped bandit slave. Heron's nod had confirmed it.

"Go check the horses, Raven." Heron ordered, or perhaps more accurately, suggested.

"Yes, sir." Raven leaped from the ground and hurried away, honestly happy to put some distance between her and the spiritualists.

Despite moving away, Raven had no problem listening to the conversation behind her.

"Sigh, he's a good kid but he seems to have some issues with sudden touches..." Heron explained.

"Most escaped slaves do." Hog replied.

"Has he been in your service for long?" Twig had also noticed Raven's limiters and now joined the conversation.

"No, not really. He helped me spot a thief I missed yesterday. When I realized his history I figured I'd help him back."

"How noble." Twig sounded quite sincere.

At that moment an other merchant called for Heron so he excused himself and walked away. Once alone, Twig focused his attention on Hog.

"So, why sudden urge to scan the boy, old man?" He asked. He had, just as Raven, felt Hog fill his hand with spirit essence.

Hog chuckled.

"Remember the bar fight the other day? That kid was there."

"Your point being...?"

"He had been standing next to the man that stated our cultivation, but the boy was gone by the time we turned to look. His... Raven, was it...? Raven's nimble movements got me a bit curious as to what kind of training he's been through. His shackles explained it though. Poor kid." Hog sighed.

"Poor? He's better of than most, what with the merchant taking him in and all."

"True."

Their conversation soon moved on to the journey at hand, and Raven couldn't help but release a heavy breath. Naturally, she had never stopped listening in on their conversation and since they had bought her background story, hopefully they wouldn't investigate the matter further.

---------

Shortly thereafter, Heron's wife and daughter arrived together with another woman Raven hadn't been introduced to - apparently she was the wife of one of the other merchants that had bought room on Heron's caravans. Once the whole group was assembled, no more time was wasted and they immediately set out towards the gateway to the passage. In the driver's coach of the first carriage sat Heron and Raven, while the three ladies sat comfortably inside it. While in town, the mercenaries simply followed behind the carriages - there was no point in keeping a protective formation while within the town walls.

It didn't take long before the caravan reached the gate. As they were arriving, Heron leaned over to Raven and whispered
"Keep your head down." in her ear. He even handed over one of the horse's blankets for Raven to hold on to, efficiently hiding both her legs and arms in the process.

'You didn't have to tell me that, geezer.' Raven thought to herself with amusement but she said nothing.

Even without Heron's warning, Raven had already stimulated the Fox's Veil to make her seem less important and more forgettable than before. She kept her gaze absentmindedly fixed on the tip of the horse tail swaying a few feet above ground in front of the carriage, while her other senses worked on high drive to observe if anyone reacted to her presence.

The carriage came to a halt.

"Declare your goods and passengers." An official sounding voice spoke on the ground next to Heron.

Heron pulled out a role of parchment and handed it to the owner of the voice.

"These are our goods. The passengers are myself, my wife and daughter, my servant, two more merchants and a wife. All our names are written on the last page." Heron spoke in a calm voice. He didn't need to declare the mercenaries, they would pass through on their own accord.

There was silence as papers were being looked over, sometimes interrupted by the scribbling of notes or questions raised for Heron to answer. Everything seemed to be going well. But eventually...

"The name of your servant is missing." The voice sounded a bit annoyed at this.

"Is it? Sorry." Heron sounded genuinely surprised. "Must have forgotten to add it... Oh, well. He's called Crass."

Raven's mouth twitched ever so slightly into a smile. She was impressed by Heron's will to protect the supposed bandit slave by his side from being found out. She hadn't really cared if her real name was registered here - the name was too normal to be a problem for her down the road - but Heron's consideration warmed her.

"Very well. That will be one gold for passage though the Gate."

"One gold!? It was only 70 silver last time!" Heron protested.

"More bandits out there now," the voice replied; "we need to hire more guards to keep the city safe."

Heron snorted, but paid the price nonetheless. There was no point in haggling with the Gate officials - they would only raise the fee instead.

The group started moving once more, but Raven didn't change her posture until Heron spoke again.

"You can relax now."

But Raven didn't relax quite yet. Keeping her senses on high alert she took in every sound and movement around her. None of the guards even so much as glanced at her.

'This Fox's Veil is quite handy.' she thought to her self as she finally relaxed a bit.

Raven looked up just as they passed through the huge metal gate that separated the town from the only passageway between Black Talon Prefecture and Rock Wren Prefecture that could be tread by foot. Beyond the gate stretchered a narrow rode in between rows of densely packed trees that slowly climbed their way up the enclosing mountain walls. The walls were not as steep here as the had been on the other side so the trees managed to grow almost all the way to the top. Even though the walls weren't steep - relatively speaking at least - the amount of flat ground suitable for carriages was still very limited.

As she observed the terrain they would be traveling through the next couple of weeks, Raven could understand why the bandits liked it here; there were so many hiding places for them to hide, and those who traveled through the passage only had that narrow rode to use. All in all, it was easy pickings.

Most likely, the bandits lived in caves along the mountain walls and only left the Passage every once in a while to sell the goods they gathered. By just paying a little extra to the Gate towns, they would be allowed to pass through undisturbed; the towns didn't really care where the money or goods came from as long as appropriate taxes were payed.

The two gate towns would however, every once in awhile, send soldiers through the passage to clear out any bandit crews that had grown too large or had constructed too strong settlements. After all, it was bad for business if people didn't dare travel through the passage at all.

As Raven contemplated this, the white-garbed group lead by Old Man Hog moved up past the caravan and took point, while  Twig's red men covered the flanks and rear. They were surprisingly well coordinated in the formation.

"Keep your eyes open, men! We're expecting more trouble than usual this time around."  Hog called from the front.

"How much trouble is normal?" Raven asked Heron, but before the merchant could give an answer, Twig's horse came up from the rear and walked next to where Raven was seated.

"Normally, not that much - perhaps one or two attacks - but now it's likely to be at least the double," the big man smiled a oddly gentle smile; "but don't worry - we'll keep you safe."

With a wink, Twig rode on ahead and started discussing the night shifts with Hog. Raven couldn't help but quietly snort at the notion of being protected, but said nothing.

---------

After three days of relatively event-less progress, the traveling caravan and its guards started to relax a bit; people talked more and began to make jokes and other merriment with each other.

Raven had at first been disappointed by the mercenaries lax approach to their situation, but as she observed them more closely she noticed a well hidden vigilance. Underneath all their fooling around they were never truly relaxed. Whether the act was for the benefit of the merchants they were guarding or if it was to fool the bandits in the passage to think they were incompetent, was hard to say.

The caravan eventually stopped moving forward for the day and the now routine hustle of setting up their night camp was brought into motion. Every member had something to contribute with; some stood guard while others set up tents, gathered firewood and so on. The merchants and their wives were responsible for the food.

Mayeri, however, was an exception to this rule. She was free to do whatever she wished and that usually meant that she would force a very reluctant Raven to accompany her as she "explored" the new campsite.

Over the past few days Raven had learnt a great deal about Mayeri and grown accustomed to her jubilant personality. Even when on the road, Mayeri would constantly seek Raven out and try to coax Raven into talking about her past, or join some childish game Mayeri had thought up. By now, Raven didn't have to fake her discomfort at the girl's relentless presence.

At this moment Raven and Mayeri - on Mayeri's insistence of course - had climbed a smaller tree that stood slightly hidden across the road from the campsite. They sat there and observed how the setting sun was disappearing between the several mountain peaks in the west.

Today Mayeri had been uncharacteristically quiet and Raven could guess that the girl was working up her courage to ask something important. It didn't take long before their silence was broken.

“Raven…” Mayeri started carefully; “are you happy with us?”

That was not what Raven thought the girl would ask.

Raven opened her mouth to respond as 'Raven, the enslaved boy' would - with a disinterested “sure” - but she halted before the word was formed. At the border of Raven's senses she had detected subtle movements. By reflex, Raven closed the distance between her and Mayeri and covered the girl’s mouth with her hand.

“Shhh..” Raven hushed the struggling Mayeri and focused on the movement she'd sensed.

‘...Twenty two humans are approaching from the north. Roughly four hundred meters out.’ Raven counted carefully. ‘They are impressively quiet. If not for my excessive spirit connections, I might have missed them… there must be spiritualists along them, and with a good Divine Skill at that.’

“Trouble?” Hoatzin asked excitedly - he was growing quite bored because of the silent treatment Raven had to give him due to their constant company.

Raven nodded and then frowned; the mercenaries were, not unexpectedly, not reacting to the coming ambush. If this continued, the situation would turn bad, and soon. Raven glanced down at the confused Mayeri in her arms.

"Time to sleep." Raven whispered and used two fingers on her her free hand to put pressure slightly above the girl's collar bone. In less than a quarter of a second, Mayeri's body slumped as she drifted into unconsciousness.

"How practical." Hoatzin mussed. "You must have been wanting to do that for days."

"Can't deny that..." Raven muttered.

Carefully, Raven positioned Mayeri's body so that she would remain on their branch on her own. Her movement had been swift but the assumed bandits were now only three hundred meters away from the camp. Considering her options, Raven only hesitating for a second more before she pulled out three small daggers from within her robes. She had snatched these daggers from inattentive mercenaries over the past few days and hidden in her garments so that she could used them for self-defense, without drawing attention to her spacial ring.

Now she poured some of her spirit essence into two of them and threw them all into the middle of the campsite. She only used one hand and one movement to accomplish this, but the daggers shot towards completely different locations. The first dagger swiftly grazed the bag of grain Ardea was carrying towards the open fire. The second and third dagger, both filled with spirit essence, headed to the vicinity of the two mercenary leaders, Hog and Twig, but passed them almost a meter over their heads before disappearing into the forest behind them.

Ardea hadn't noticed the dagger that had ruptured her bag but she did notice the sudden grain leakedge. Her surprised yelp gave perfect reason for the sudden movement of the other two. Both Hog and Twig sprang to their feet the instant the daggers passed over them - any spiritualist with at least three spirit connections would have no problem sensing spirit essence activated within a radius of a couple of meters. Hog and Twig were apparently not the only spiritualists in the group because several other reacted to Raven's daggers and focused their attention at their leaders for commands.

The following moments proved how experienced the the two crews were; no verbal instructions were given, so with nothing but hand signals and body language it still only took a few breaths time for all the mercenaries to move into formation a prepared an ambush; Heron and the other merchants were at the center, with their backs to the carriages, and the mercenaries fanned out in a half-circle around them. Heron was holding his struggling wife and firmly covering her mouth, undoubtedly to stop her from calling out to Mayeri.

‘Good.’ Raven thought, pleased at both their fast reaction and the choice they made to not call attention to the two kids.

Silence spread. Shortly after the people in camp had stopped moving, the approaching humans did the same. No doubt they realized that they somehow had been discovered.

‘Well then, the element of surprise is gone. Will you attack anyway or wait for a better opportunity?’ Raven pondered as she remained on the branch next to the unconscious Mayeri.

There were barely a hundred meters left between the ambushers and the campsite and if they attacked it would only take them a few seconds to reach their target. Apparently a decision was made, because in the next instant the silence was broken by the rustle of leaves and branches swiftly being pushed aside - there was no longer any need to hide their approach.

“It’s an ambush!” Twig bellowed as the mercenaries also sprang into action.

Chapter 22: Ambushed

What followed was a form of organized chaos; without braking formation, the seventeen mercenaries faced of against the twenty two bandits, causing the ringing sound of steel on steel, and rough grunts of fighting men to fill the quiet night. If not for the dens forest within the valley, the sound of the battle would no doubt have echoed throughout the entire passage. From her tree, Raven had a very good view of the campsite and she silently observed the unfolding battle.

"Interesting..." Raven muttered.

"Huh?" Hoatzin snapped up on her quiet comment.

"Well, Hog and Twig's groups both have surprisingly solid fighting styles. Usually, mercenary crews are put together randomly, with little to no consideration of how they would work as a group. Contrary to an army, that works hard to unify its troops, mercenaries tend to focus more on individual strengths. After all, people tend to come and go as they please from mercenary groups." Raven explained. "But look, Hog's people all move in similar patterns and their auras are very calm and collected as they fight. Twig's people, on the other hand, have their own set of patterns and fight more aggressively. These two groups have not been formed overnight."

"I see what you mean... Perhaps they being together long enough that is affects their fighting style" Hoatizin offered as a reason. "The bandits seem to be at a disadvantage."

Hoatzin was right about the bandits having a hard time; they might have the advantage in numbers but the mercenaries were well trained and more organized. At the moment, the bandits were making no progress and where rather being pushed back.

"True, but neither side has yet to reveal any Divine Skills. It might shift the balance." Raven pointed out.

As if the fighting men had heard her, spirit essence started to stir within first one, and then several more of the bandits, while the other bandits fell back a bit. Raven imminently sensed the change and could gauge the opponents strengths.

"One low Adept and four Novices of varying strength. If these are all the spiritualists they have, then they are not as picky as Rifleman was with his crew." Raven concluded.

By the time Raven had finished her sentence, the mercenaries had already regrouped with the intention of handling the enemy spiritualists more efficiently. Surprisingly enough, both Hog and Twig were at the back of this formation, no longer engaging in direct battle at all. Despite this, spirit essence started to stir within the foremost mercenaries and in the next instant numerous Divine Skills were activated, from mercenaries and bandits alike.

"Barbarian Serpent Stroke!"

"Thrust of the Five Warriors!"

"Whirlwind Palm!"

The active spiritualists shouted the name of the Divine Skills they were using as they rushed towards their enemies and Raven couldn't help but snort.

"Seriously, why do all the spiritualist we've come across have the tendency to announce their attacks when they execute them?" She muttered disapprovingly.

In Raven's training stealth and always getting the upper hand had been paramount. For her, making any unnecessary noise at all while attacking was not only silly, it was an error that might give her opponents the information they need to safeguard themselves!

In the campsite, the fight had gained a new level of frenzy as spirit essence and various elemental traits boosted the spiritualists fighting power. However, the outcome was still the same as before, the bandits were at a clear disadvantage. Be it in cultivation or Skill level, the spiritualists the mercenaries had sent forward were all a notch above their opponents.

"Retreat!"

Finally realizing that they had picked the wrong target, one of the bandits shouted the command and all twenty two assailants turned and fled. By now, the sun had already set, and the silhouettes of the bandits quickly disappeared into the darkness.

"That was it?" Hoatzin sounded somewhat disappointed.

"So it would seem..." Raven sympathized  with her brother's disappointment.

The bandits had posed less of a threat to the caravan then Raven had expected, considering their silent approach, and when they withdrew, neither side had suffered any casualties. The fact that Hog and Twig hadn't even joined the spiritualists in the later stage of the fray clearly indicated that they had been going easy on the bandits. Raven and Hoatzin had now seen the odd symbiosis between those who were out-laws and those who worked as guardians first hand.

"Mayeri! Mayeri!" Finally free from her husbands embrace, Ardea shouted frantically for her child.

Raven had already scooped up the still sleeping girl into her arms and now silently jumped down from the branch they had been sitting on. Even though the campsite had been visible from the tree branch, the base of the tree was hidden behind tall bushes and, fortunately, no one turned to look in her direction. If they had, they would no doubt had been shocked to she the roughly one meter tall boy jump down from a branch over two meters up, while carrying a child of similar size.

Raven walked out from behind the bushes with Mayeri in her arms.

"Here, ma'm." She answered Ardea's call and, to calm the worrying mother, quickly added: "she fell asleep before the bandits came."

"Mayeri!" Ardea rushed over and pulled the girl from Raven's arms.

Sitting on the ground, she carefully inspected her daughter, and when no wounds were found, she sighed in relief. Hugging Mayeri close, Ardea looked up at Raven.

'Oh, great...' Raven cringed inwardly; Ardea's face was warped with immense anger.

*Whap!* The crisp sound of a hand slamming into a face filled the now quiet campsite. Everyone froze. Raven absentmindedly lifted a hand to cover the cheek that Ardea had just hit while pumped up on adrenaline.

"You! How dare you lead my child out of the safety of camp!" Ardea shouted and prepared to slap Raven once more. "You could have gotten her killed!"

Just as Ardea was about to hit Raven a second time, Twig's large body appeared next to her and grabbed the descending hand.

"Don't." He spoke in a calm voice.

"Let me go," Ardea kept shouting; "what's the point of protecting a bandit slave like him? He might even be in on it!"

The men in camp inhaled sharply and stared disbelievingly as Ardea. By now, everyone had become aware of the shackles Raven was wearing and had also noticed how the small boy would sometimes grew distant, as if he was watching something very far away. That the kid was a former slave was obvious, so was the fact that he must have been quite severely abused. They all pitied the kid, Ardea perhaps most so, which made her behavior now so hard to take in.

"Ardea..." Heron walked up to his wife and put his arms around her shaking body; "calm down. You don't really mean that."

"Yes I do!" Ardea's voice faltered and she slumped, crying, into her husbands arms.

Heron patted her hair. "There, there, darling. We are all safe now."

He knew that Ardea was overreacting due to her fears and that she actually was very concerned about Raven's safety as well. Heron looked at Raven that stood rooted to the spot in front of them.

"Raven, she..."

Before he could finish the sentence, Raven turned around and fled into the forest. Heron sighed.

"...and we had made so much progress these past days." Heron mumbled. In his eyes, Raven had become a lot more comfortable around people since they left Black Talon Gate. Now he feared that the situation would revert. "Twig, or Hog, would one of you go after him? He won't survive for long on his own out here."

"Sure, I'll go." Hog was the first to respond and he calmly walked of in the direction Raven had left; the trail of broken branches and disturbed soil that Raven left behind her was easy to follow so Hog felt no need to run. The child would stop eventually.

---------

Raven kept running in a moderate pace up the forest covered mountain side.

"Why are you running away? Don't you need them to pass through the next Gate?" Hoatzin asked.

"I do," Raven replied in a steady voice; "but the mother hit me with all her might, foolish woman."

"So?"

"Do you need to ask? If a normal non-spiritualist person hit you with full force, what would happen to their hand?"

Hoatzin drew a deep breath. The fundamentals of cultivation was to absorb spirit essence into your spirit core and then use the refined energy to strengthen your body. However, this strengthening process was not limited to the body's muscles alone, every single cell would grow stronger. When Hoatzin had his body, he was already more than twice as strong as regular children, which also meant that his bones were over twice as hard, his skin twice as tough.

"I have been cultivating since I was an infant - since my cells already are in a state of rapid growth, they are and have been very susceptible to change. Although my cultivation is only that of an low Adept, I suspect that the state of my physical body is closer to that of a peak Adept, or possibly even a low Champion."

Raven sped up a bit, she had noticed that somebody had been sent after her, but she wasn't ready to be return quite yet.

"For an ordinary person, hitting me is like hitting a rock... Even though a tried to lessen the damage to her hand by moving my head away, I clearly heard the woman's hand fracturing slightly on impact - tomorrow it will be the size of a balloon."

"Well, that is problematic. They will figure out something is wrong then, especially since Sister's face won't be injured at all." Hoatzin remarked, almost sounding pleased. "I guess Sister has no choice but to travel on your own again, huh?"

Raven smiled mischievously.

"Who said I wouldn't be injured?"

"Sister, you wouldn't!" Hoatzin was flabbergasted; he knew his sister well enough to know what she was planing.

"Sorry big Brother, you will have to live through the silent treatment a little bit longer."

Confident that the distance between her and her follower was large enough Raven slowed to a stop. Gathering spirit essence into her already wrapped right hand, Raven unflinchingly slapped herself across the same cheek that Ardea had hit earlier.

The slam from the impact was deafening, but the dense forest stopped the noise from travelling very far. Sharp pain filled Raven's face and the vibrations from the impact made her a bit dizzy, but despite this she showed no outwardly signs of pain.

"Damn it, Raven! Don't hit yourself so hard!"

"I'm fine, Brother."

"Like hell you are - you face is already turning purple!"

"My injury has to match hers."

"So you inflict internal bleeding on yourself!?" Hoatizin was close to enraged. "And how can you look so unfazed? You must be in extreme pain!"

Raven only smiled at this, even though the gesture caused the pain to intensify. Raven was indeed in quite a lot of pain but, for her, it was nothing. If need be, Raven could withstand days of torture without revealing even an ounce of the pain she felt. In fact, then pain would be treated as a welcome friend; as long as she could feel the pain, she knew she was alive.

Hoatzin kept bombarding her with reprimands but Raven sensed that she would not be alone for very much longer - Hog was soon to catch up - so she sat down by one of the larger trees and started crying. At first, Hoatzin thought his sister had finally given in to the pain she felt, and started to comfort her. However, just a few minutes later, Hoatzin heard Hog approaching and realized that he had once again fallen for his sister's charades.

"Figures..." He murmured and stopped talking.

When Hog came close enough to hear Raven's sobs he increased his pace and quickly arrived at the tree she was sitting by. Looking at the small sobbing figure on the ground, his weathered heart felt pang of emotion; despite being a thick-skinned warrior, Hog couldn't help but want to protect the child in front of him. Suddenly he hesitated. Contrary to Heron, Hog had no experience when it came to handling children. He hadn't really cared before, but now he was at a loss at what to do.

Slowly, Hog crouched down a meter away from Raven; he at least knew not to touch the kid out recklessly.

"Um... hey, kid..." He started carefully but Raven's body still shuddered. "Um.. You know, men shouldn't cry when a woman hits him."

"I'm not crying!" retorted Raven, sniveling, without looking up. She couldn't help but roll her eyes though. 'What kind of advise is that to give a young child - are you grooming a soldier? Besides, if all of this wasn't an act, it would hardly be the actual slap that was be the problem, would it?'

Nonetheless, Raven's crying was reduced to silent sniveling; there was no point in being hard on the man.

"Good." Hog's voice was more confident this time around. "Now let me take a look at your face, I have an ointment that will help with the pain."

Hog looked away from Raven for a second to find the jar with the ointment within his purse but once he looked up again and saw how basically half of Raven's face wad swollen beyond recognition and the trademark signs of internal bleeding already visible underneath the pale skin, he couldn't help but gasp and drop the jar he had fished out.

"Holy...!"

He stared at Raven's face in shock. Suddenly he felt that his previous remark about not crying was a bit insensitive. Heck, he was impressed that the kid hadn't passed out the moment Ardea's hand slapped him.

Eventually his senses returned to him. With new-found resolution, Hog grabbed on to Raven's shoulders - ignoring the fear it brought in the child's eyes - and said firmly: "You actually tried to protect Mayeri, didn't you? Kid, listen to me, anyone that can take a hit like that and still stand true to his convictions and not retaliate is a true man! Don't bother with people that look down on you for your past - you have the potential to become a great man in the future."

Hog's face was now very close to Raven's and despite the darkness Raven could clearly see how his eyes practically sparkled with enthusiasm. It was as if he was encouraging his most favored disciple. Within the Life Link Hoatzin was roaring with laughter.

"Haha, Sister, he called you a true man! Hahaha, this is hilarious!"

Before Raven had a chance to respond, Hog had risen to his feat and pulled Raven up with him - at first he had intended to carry the kid back to camp but now he thought differently.

"Come, young man, let us go back to camp with our heads held high!" Hog put extra emphasis on the 'young man' part as he spoke. "I bet you will have the most impressive battle wound of us all."

Hog winked and strode of down the mountain side while pulling Raven along. As they walked Hog talked about various adventures he had gone through when he was younger and seemingly tried to convince Raven to do the same. Raven had to admit that the total one-eighty turn in Hog's personality was outside of her calculations; she had wanted his to feel sorry for her and get more attached to her, yes, but this? Hog's increased interest in her might back-fire on her later on.

Chapter 23: To Help...

When Raven and Hog, nearly an hour later, walked out from the line of trees by the road campsite, more than one stared at Raven with round eyes.

"Blimey! Quite the jewel you've got there, boy!" Twig was the first to speak, but he was soon followed by the other mercenaries whom all seemed to wholeheartedly congratulate Raven for her "first battle wound".

None of the women were present, they had most likely already gone to sleep, but Heron smiled as he walked up to Raven.

"I'm glad you came ba..." His smile faltered when he saw the full extent of Raven's injury. "Dear god... No wonder Ardea's hand hurt!"

Raven said nothing and just stared blankly at the nearby fire. Hog leaned over and whispered into Heron's ear: "He's been like this since I got him to follow me back. He hasn't said a word."

Heron glanced the tent where his wife was sleeping. He had feared Raven would close up even more because of this - seems he was right.

"Raven, my boy, don't take what my wife said to heart. She was only afraid after the ambush and she took it out on you." Heron moved so he stood between Raven and the fire, forcing Raven to look at him. "You have every right to be mad about what happened, but I hope you can trust me when I say it won't happen again."

"Sure." Raven's voice sounded distant.

She didn't look up at Heron's face before she turned and over to the tree that was closest to Hog's tent. With almost no effort, she climbed to the lowest branch and settled down for the night.

Behind her, Heron couldn't help but feel dispirited. He had finally managed to get the kid comfortable enough to sleep in his family's tent the night before, but now everything was back to square one.

"Well, at least that's end it for this time." With an understanding glance at Heron, Hog sat down next to Twig by the fire.
"The bandit crew was large but not very skilled," Twig responded; "they only had a few spiritualists and they let their spirit essence slip early."

Hog was silent for a while as he thought back on the fight, he seemed to ponder something but ultimately rejected the notion.

"True. Let us hope it stays that way all the way through."

"Haha, I hope not! That would be too boring!" Twig bellowed.

Hog sighed. "Seriously, Twig, you never learn."

The two mercenaries, and some of their fellow crew members, kept talking in hushed voices for a while, but Raven just smiled and let herself fall asleep. The mercenaries had not noticed the knives she threw before and only sensed the spirit essence, because of this they had figured that the bandits had messed up. So, at least for now, Raven felt than her cover was safe.

---------

The next day was awkward for nearly everybody. Well, for everyone except for Raven.

Ardea, with her fractured hand tightly wrapped in bandages, was clearly ashamed of her behavior the day before but had trouble getting around to apologizing. Mayeri, who had only learned of the ambush that morning, had shrieked loudly and nearly fainted the moment she saw Raven's now nearly rainbow colored face. She spent the rest of the day unnaturally quiet, casting glances at her mother - the notion that her mother could hurt anyone to that degree shocked her. The men in the caravan, all made varying attempts at engaging Raven in conversations but to no avail, thus leaving the caravan in an odd silence.

Raven on the other hand reveled in that very silence. She quite enjoyed playing the apathetic child while watching everybody else squirm awkwardly at her disinterest. After all, pretending to be someone your not can be quite exhausting in the long run, so this change of pace for her was most welcome.

The situation remained unchanged until, two days later, another bandit crew attacked. This group attacked in broad daylight and their attempt was even more unsuccessful than the last one, but this time Ardea reacted differently; she forcefully pulled Raven, who had "just happened" to stand fairly close at the time of the attack, into her embrace and protected the the kid with her own body. Of course, there was never any danger to either of them - the mercenaries stopped the bandits with ease - but Raven thanked her nonetheless and the action drastically changed the mood in the caravan.

"How magnanimous of you..." Hoatzin sneered - he had of course realized that Raven planed to let Ardea "protect" her. "And here I felt pleased by the fact that I was no longer the only one being ignored by Sister" He teased from withing the Life Link.

Raven, on the other hand, felt a bit dejected. She had let it happen for "the good of the group" but as she looked at the, yet again, high spirited Mayeri bouncing towards her, Raven couldn't help but cringe.

'I will never birth children...'

With Ardea's gesture everything went back to normal - except for the fact that Ardea was no longer able to help with the cooking and Raven was reduced to eating only liquids for a while - and the caravan slowly made its way through the passage.

As they traveled, they came under quite a few bandit attacks. It was clear that some of the bandit groups had been hastily formed and were therefore quite sloppy, but others were more organized and put up more of a challenge for the mercenaries. By the time ten days had passed since the caravan entered the pass, the group had been attacked five times - already more than twice the normal amount, and they were then still quite far away from the next Gate Town.

Despite this, Hog and Twig had only needed to use their spirit essence on one occasion. This was due to a mid Adept bandit that surprisingly enough possessed a level three area martial Divine Skill, thus forcing Hog and Twig to use the Divine Skill Golden Tortoise that formed their spirit essences into a protective barrier around the merchants and their goods. Other than during that first ambush, Raven hadn't needed to give a helping hand even once; whatever skill their spiritualist had used to help them all move forward quietly, the other bandit crews didn't know it.

Since the last attack, that was ten days after entering the passage, another two days had passed. If nothing unexpected happened, they would reach Rock Wren Gate in two to three more days. Over the past two days, the passage had been very calm; not only were there no attacks, no cheering bandits could be heard in distance, and no wild animals howled in the night. This calm made Raven feel extremely on edge.

She couldn't help but think back on that same arctic landscape where she had spent nearly half a year protecting Eric, the solar scientist. There had been a huge forest a couple of kilometers from the research base. The trees in that forest were the largest Raven has ever seen, with trunks so large that five people holding hand wouldn't be able to encircle them. The thick layer of snow covering every inch of the forest already made the it eerily quiet, but there was this one area that was even quieter... The hairs on the back on Raven's neck stood up simply thinking of that place and what she had met there.

The sensation wasn't nearly as strong here, the silence not as prominent. She didn't feel directly threatened here, but clearly the inhabitants of this passage seemed to feel differently.

At the moment, it was dawn. The mercenaries that had kept watch during the later night shift were walking around and waking people up, but Raven didn't need waking; even before, she had usually spent her nights cultivating while pretending to sleep, only sleeping for real every three days or so - she didn't need more, no Spirit Adept really did. But since they entered the quiet area, Raven had remained extra vigilant.

Raven pushed through the tent flap just as a night shift mercenary was about to lean closer to the tent, ready to wake the people within.

"Oh! Morn'n!" The startled man backed up a bit, then nodded towards the tent. "Rest of 'em awake?"

"Nope." No more reply was given by Raven as she strode of towards a nearby stream.

It was the only stream they had come across over they past two weeks, and it was well needed - not only had their water supply been running a bit low, the entire caravan stank! Raven wished she had enough standing in the group to be able to order a mandatory wash for everyone, but unfortunately she didn't have such authority. Then again, if she had she would only make her jealous - it wasn't like she could strip down and wash herself thoroughly... As it was, she had to settle for splashing water her own face and limbs.

A presence approached from behind.

'Oh, dear...' Raven had hoped for a few more minutes of peace.

"Good morning, Raven!" The annoyingly perky Mayeri dashed the last few steps and halted right behind Raven, giving the latter a firm shove forward at the same time.

Had Raven not been, well, Raven, then Mayeri's little stunt would have resulted in Raven tumbling head first into the water. Normally, Raven wouldn't have bothered resisting - it was after all quite hot in this narrow valley with barely any wind, and childish play would be a good excuse for her to get wet without undressing - but not now. Not in this odd silence.

"Morning." Raven forced out.

"Tche, how boring." Mayeri pouted over her failed ambush, but soon got over it. "Oh, today it's a more yellow-ish green!"

Mayeri was referring to Raven's cheek. Mayeri had made it her mission to clearly inform Raven of the state of the ever changing shades of her bruise.

"Is it? Fascinating." Raven didn't sound very fascinated.

"It is! It is! Who would have thought that a face could go through so many colors?" Mayeri giggled.

"Then maybe you should become a nurse when you grow up. That way you'd..." Raven froze.

'How is this possible? Only two hundred meters! And there's nearly thirty of them!'

Raven had detected movement, but just like during the first attack, the crew moved towards them without making even the slightest sound. Only this time, they barely even displaced the wind as they slowly moved forward, as if flowed right through them. It wasn't until the crew entered into the range in which Raven can detect activated spirit essence that she reacted to their presence. At least they moved a bit slower than the first crew.

'Shit!'

"Mayeri, wanna play hide and seek?" Raven asked quickly, and without waiting for a reply she continued, "Go crouch under one of the carriages and count to one hundred while I hide - no peeking!"

Mayeri's eyes sparkled; Raven had never initiated a game before!

"Okay!" Happily she ran of towards the carriages.

With Mayeri out of the way, Raven quickly took in the state of the camp. Less then half of the men were out of their beds, and the few that were up were preoccupied getting either dressed for work or undressed for rest. Neither Hog nor Twig were up yet. Raven herself stood out in the open, if she through knives like last time the risk was high that people in camp would see her, and worse still, the approaching bandits. The mercenaries would gain no advantage like that. The same went for simply shouting: "Ambush". She needed to alert them in a way that gave the mercenaries the upper hand.

Raven looked at the nearest tent. It was barely fifty meters away and it belonged to Twig.

'Twig seems to be in his thirties and has most likely lived a rather rich life, experience wise, so his spirit connections should number around twenty or twenty five. That would put his essence detection range at roughly forty meters... It's not impossible. The bandits haven't come much closer yet, so unless they have a freak like me...' Frantically Raven weighed her options in her mind.

"Sister?" Hoatzin had naturally noticed his sisters sudden pensiveness but Raven ignored him.

'But if I do this, they, or at least Twig, is likely to find out that I'm a spiritualist.' Raven's eyes suddenly lit up. 'Oh, that might work...'

Focusing her attention on the movements within Twigs tent, Raven forcefully filled every cell in her body with spirit essence and then let it all burst free towards Twig's tent. Raven was careful not to focus the spirit essence to harshly in one direction, if she did, it might take a visible form which would defeat the purpose of alerting only the mercenaries.

For months now Raven had been working on merging her killing intent with her spirit essence and although it wasn't complete, an overbearing feeling of eminent death still flowed out with her spirit essence. Within the tent, Twig's eyes shot open, and cold sweat covered his body. Never before had he feared so much for his life as he did in this instant.

'I'm going to die!' was his first thought. 'No! I must fight!' was his next.

He sprang to his feet and at the same time he let his spirit essence surge through is body, readying it for battle. He grabbed at his weapon and prepared to storm out of his tent.

Outside, Raven reacted the moment Twig opened his eyes - her spirit essence had achieved the desired effect, so she instantly cut of her spirit essence and shouted: "I'll hide now, Mayeri." Raven looked around, seemingly for a hiding place, and finally trotted over to a nearby tree. She climbed it with difficulty and settled on a branch, gazing of towards Mayeri.

Before Raven had even reached the tree, Twig's reaction to her spirit essence had already set of a chain reaction within the camp; as soon as the spiritualist that had Twig within their detection range noticed his spirit essence, they activated their own, thereby causing the next set of spiritualists to react and so on. The bandits where by then less than one hundred meters away by now - not close enough to sense the spirit essence but definitely close enough to hear and see the sudden activation in the campsite.

By the time Raven sat on her branch, the battle had already begun.

Contrary to the first time, there was no organized chaos this time, there was only chaos. Raven's actions had merely given the mercenaries enough time to grab their weapons and ready their spirit essence. There had been no time to form and battle formations.

Raven quietly observed to battle. It would seem like the bandits were going all out from the start. Over half of them were fighting with Divine Skills, and even though most of their spiritualist were low or mid Novices, they still clearly outnumbered the mercenaries that only had twelve spiritualists, yet with higher cultivation. Hog and Twig went all out as well, but the bandits also had a high Adept so they could not assist their fellow mercenaries freely. It was by far the bloodiest confrontation yet, and it didn't take long before the first casualties came.

While the mercenaries and bandits fought, Heron and Ardea had joined Mayeri by the carriage she had crouched under for the game of hide and seek. The other merchants where by another carriage and out of Raven's line of sight, but as Raven glanced towards their direction, she noticed a small man moving rapidly towards the sturdiest carriage.

As the man moved, no sound was made and the air seemed to part willfully in front of him. As Raven focused on the man she realized that she amazingly couldn't sense any spirit essence coming from him, even though he was clearly using a Divine Skill. If he had been a bit more skilled at hiding his own presence, even Raven would have a hard time locating him with anything but sight.

"It must be he that helped move everyone before..." Raven didn't bother keeping her voice down, only someone right next to her, or someone with hundreds of spirit connections like her, would be able to hear her over all the fighting anyway. "I want that Skill."

If it was only about hiding her own movement, Raven could do it with ease using her old skill, but to be able to hide others was something different. Additionally, there was the fact that the spirit essence of his skill wasn't spreading - that too was worth looking into.

Raven kept observing the man. At the moment she could do nothing else, but she was a patient girl. The bandit had reached his destination and swiftly entered the carriage. Moments later he came back out carrying a large chest that Raven recognized as the one containing Heron's most precious wares and much of his money.

"His companions fight the mercenaries while he snatches the goods - how despicable!" Hoatzin had noticed the small man as well.

"It's quite a solid tactic actually. The bandits don't want to kill too excessively or the mercenary guilds might stop being lenient with them. Like this, the rest of the bandits will fight for a while, to let the man run away, and then they will withdraw. If all goes well, the merchant won't realize anything is missing until much later."

"Hmpf! It is dishonest nonetheless!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "They are bandits, what do you expect?"

Hoatzin fell silent and Raven kept watching the man as he was making his way out of the camp. If she was lucky, no one would notice him and Raven would be able to peruse him freely. Unfortunately, luck seemed to be on a break, because just as the man was about to reach the forest line of trees, Heron looked up from his hiding place and incidentally stared strait at the fleeing man.

"My jewels! Hog, he's getting away with my jewels!" Heron bellowed.

Even over all the fighting Hog had no problem hearing Heron's loud voice. He looked up from his fight and too spotted the man. Hog quickly shifted his body, thereby avoiding the sword sweep of the spiritualist he was fighting and then, using the forward momentum of his attacker and a well placed push, he shoved the spiritualist away from himself. The spiritualist only needed a few steps to regain his balance but by then Hog was already racing after the man escaping with the chest.

Chapter 24: ...Or Not to Help?

Raven cursed. With Hog pursuing the bandit she wouldn't be able to act without drawing attention to herself.

The man with the chest had entered the forest not far from Raven and Hog soon rushed by her as well. Raven considered her options for a moment but after a quick glance back at the battle taking place in the campsite, she made up her mind and swiftly descended from the tree. Silently, she started running after Hog and the escaping bandit. Even without any Divine Skill, Raven barely made any sounds as she rushed through the forest; her feet pattered lightly against the forest floor and her breathing was practically non-existent, despite pushing her muscles to their limits.

'The distance is growing..' Raven frowned.

She had hoped that she would be able to keep up by relying on her physique alone but clearly that wasn't the case. At the moment there was roughly a hundred meters between her and Hog - and an additional seventy meters or so to the bandit - but the distance was slowly growing. She could feel the spirit essence the Hog in front of her had activated; most likely both of them were using agility type Martial Skills to increase their speed, just that the bandit was using his odd movement skill from before and therefore couldn't be sensed.

'Well, they shouldn't notice my spirit essence at this distance.'

Raven's red spirit core stirred and strong spirit essence flowed to her legs and feet. Milliseconds later, Raven's figure grew hazy as she dashed forward with sudden speed. Shadow Walk might not be a skill made for long-distance running, but it was enough for Raven to catch up a bit and keep herself at a average distance of just over sixty meters from Hog.

The chase continued for another twenty minutes before the bandit suddenly came to a stop. Raven noticed his abrupt halt before Hog did and immediately slowed down, but instead of following behind Hog, she started to slowly move towards the bandit's left flank.

'Why stop now?' wondered Raven as she moved to the left.

Either the bandit had grown tired of running and decided to make a stance or there was an other reason for him to stop running at this time and place. She used all of her senses to try and figure out why the bandit had stopped here of all places, but noting was out of the ordinary; the area was just like any other part of this mountain forest - a sloping land covered with densely packed trees. However, the bandit didn't seem very tired which forced Raven to suspect the later option nonetheless.

While Raven silently moved to the side, Hog had already caught up with the bandit and they were now standing less then ten meters apart.

"Well then, it was a good strategy but ultimately you were caught." said Hog with a steady voice that was seemingly unfazed by the intense chase that had just ended. "Hand me the chest and I will let you leave unharmed."

The bandit sneered. "I think you've got it the wrong way around, sir mercenary. Leave now and I won't kill you."

Hog raised an eyebrow in surprise before he shook his head. The bandit in front of him looked fairly viscous, with a long scar running down his right cheek, but he was clearly not older than, at most, thirty. Considering the bandit's occupation and age, it was doubtful that he had a higher cultivation than Hog himself - Hog was considered fairly skilled in this area, he had after all managed to become a peak Adept despite only attending a low level spirit academy, he even could have joined one of the imperial army as a soldier if he had wanted to.

"I warned you." Hog said as his spirit essence surged into his sword.

Of to the side, Raven smiled ruefully as she felt the pressure of Hog's spirit essence flow over her. 'There really is a big difference between low Adepts and peak high Adepts... his essence is so much denser than mine. He would be a very tough opponent for me.'

The temperature in the area dropped several degrees and a layer of frost covered Hog's arm and sword. He dashed forward and swung his sword at the bandit's neck.

'Frozen blade? A level four skill... Impressive.'

Raven watched as Hog's sword approached its target and Raven couldn't help but frown; the man seemed totally unfazed by the approaching sword and still wore the same sneer from before. Suddenly, the bandit raised his hand and immense spirit essence flowed to his palm.

'Impossible!' Raven almost shouted out load.

The man easily stopped Hog's attack with his bare hand, and as the pressure from his spirit essence reached Raven it made hard for her to breath. Without hesitating for a second Raven turned around and fled.

"Where are you going?" Hoatzin shouted in her head.

Raven didn't answer, she just kept running.

"Turn around, Sister! Hog will need your help."

"Are you kidding?" Raven finally hissed back. "That man is a low Spirit Champion! He can swat me like a fly!"

"But Hog will die if you don't help him." Hoatzin pleaded.

"No doubt, but that is not on me. Besides, he is a mercenary; he knew the risks when he signed up for the job." Raven didn't slow down at all. An important aspect of being a good assassin was to know your own limits - do not go for the kill unless you know you can win.

"Sister! Why not help him when you might make a difference?"

"Because I value our lives higher than his..." Raven's voice was calm but inside she felt great apprehension; she could tell where her brother was going with this and if her brother truly asked her for something she wouldn't want to deny him it - even before he lost his body, Raven would have gone to great lengths for her brother, now she felt she owed him everything.

"Turn around! You were able to use the Twilight Lullaby on our guards back home, you should be able to do the same with this low Champion. Sister, at least try to help him!"

Hoatzin's voice had grown pleading and Raven finally stopped running. Closing her eyes tightly, a pained expression filled her face.

'You are too softhearted, Brother... One day it will be the end of both of us.' Regardless of her inner thoughts, Raven turned around and rushed back towards Hog and the Champion bandit.

She had been able to hear the fighting all along, but the moment she came within two hundred meters of the two, a shock wave of spirit essence slammed against her mind. Raven's face paled slightly under the pressure and she had to work hard to keep her breathing steady. Even though she had lived with several low Spirit Champions for the past four years, she had never seen any of them fighting all out; during training, they usually never used their full force, and when they did they had always asked Raven and Hoatzin to leave in fear of them getting indirectly hurt. The physical pressure generated by high levels of spirit essence was harmful to others, regardless if they could sense the spirit essence behind it or not.

Raven pushed on, but she couldn't help but be shocked by the scene in front of her once she reached her previous location. Most of the trees in a hundred meter radius had been utterly destroyed; some lay on the ground in shattered pieces, encased in ice, others were reduced to piles of charred ash. The ground was a tattered mess of ice and smoldering embers. At the center of this area, two blurry figures were charging at each other, one with a sword turned white by frost that caused the ground under it to freeze as it flew over, the other with a sword encased in bright red flames that burnt anything it came even close to touching.

Whenever they clashed, Hog's lean body would be pushed back several steps while the small bandit seemed unaffected. Yet, Hog was faring better than Raven expected in the fight - his body was covered in burns and deep, bleeding gashes, his face was filled with fatigue, but he was still alive.

Raven didn't bother retrieving the Nightingale's Blessing from her spacial ring; if she needed to use it, she would die instantly anyway. Instead she remained at the outskirts of the ruined area as she stimulated her spirit core and readied her spirit essence.

At that moment, Hog, who had just been pushed back yet again, paused his assault to observe his opponent. The bandit was still sneering at him with a hint of amusement, as if he was only playing around. Hog couldn't believe his bad luck. How could there be a low Spirit Champion among a group of bandits? Basically every Champion was given a high position an the Imperial Army, and the salary would far surpass what this bandit could possibly hope to earn as a bandit here.

"...Okay..." Hog panted; "...take the chest... let's stop fighting."

Hog wasn't stupid, he knew he had little no no chance of winning. He would have stopped fighting earlier if the bandit had given him the opportunity.

"Stop?" The bandit chuckled. "I believe I gave you a chance to leave before. Now that you know my strength, I'm afraid I can't let you leave."

Hog frowned, he understood the bandit's reasoning - if the neighboring prefectures found out that a low Champion was robing people in the passage between the Gate Towns, they would definitely send an horde of spiritualists to get rid of the problem.

"...I suspect that promising to keep it to myself won't help?" Hog tried.

"No."

Resignation filled Hog's eyes.

"Well then. Let's get this over with." Hog straightened his stance and the sword in his hand was covered by an even thicker layer of ice. With a loud shout he rushed towards the bandit.

The bandit raised his own sword to intercept Hog, but just as he was about to activate his own Divine Skill an odd tune filled his ears.

"Huh?"

The distraction didn't even last for an entire second but by the time the bandit's mind had cleared, blood was flowing profusely down his left arm. Hog's sword had stabbed straight through the bandit's left shoulder.

The bandit wasn't the only one who was surprised. Hog had never thought that his attack would actually reach its mark. For a moment he stared at his sword that was still lodged in the bandit's shoulder. He tried to figure out what had happened, but Hog had been to focused on his own attack to notice anything else.

Raven on the other hand was panting heavily. She had used much of her spirit essence to launch the strongest attack she had attempted with the Twilight Lullaby so far. She had only whistled the tune for a second - she could feel the bandit shaking of her influence at that point so she had stopped - but she had nonetheless used up almost a third of her spirit essence. Raven had hoped that Hog would manage to give the bandit a lethal blow during that brief moment but judging by the position of Hog's sword it was unlikely. Raven knew that her own attacks would do little harm to the low Spirit Champion - his body's defenses would simply be to strong for her to break through. If the bandit was to be defeated, then Hog needed to attack the man again.

"Bloody old man, don't just stand there - attack!" Raven roared.

Her shout brought the to men back to their senses. Hog hurriedly jumped away from the bandit and prepared to attack once more. Without looking around to find out whom had shouted, he rushed at the bandit with his sword held high. He didn't know what had happened earlier but he couldn't help but feel like it wasn't a coincidence, and that therefore it might happen again.

However, Hog wasn't the only one who reacted to Raven's shout. Contrary to Hog, the bandit lifted his head and stared directly at Raven. When he had been distracted earlier, he had felt a string of spirit essence invading his mind and the little brat fifty meters away from him was definitely its source. Filled with hate and shame for being wounded because of a mere low Spirit Adept, the bandit ignored the approaching Hog and instead swung his enflamed sword towards Raven.

A river of fire burst out of the sword and flowed towards Raven with great speed, but Raven stood her ground. As soon as the fire had left the sword, the bandit turned his attention back to Hog. With an even more sinister sneer on his face then before, he raised his sword towards the mercenary, ready to strike back. However, just as Hog got within his sword's range, and the fire river was about to reach Raven, that same odd tune filled the air yet again and invaded the bandit's mind. The alluring force behind it was even stronger this time and even though the bandit had been expecting it, he couldn't help but pause his movements for half a second. Merely half a second. It sounds like so little time but within that half second, so many things happened. Once it was over, silence filled the forest, leaving only the faint crackling sound of burning wood.

At that moment no one was left standing. During that half second, Hog had used his last strength and spirit essence to duck down under the bandit's outstretched sword and dive, sword first, into the man, resulting in Hog's sword piercing straight through the bandit's abdomen and spirit core. The conclusion was that both men now lay unconscious and bleeding on the ground. For that to happened, Raven had been forced to focus all her spirit essence on controlling the Twilight Lullaby to its utmost. No spirit essence had been left for her to evade the approaching fire river, so she had been forced to rely solely on her physical strength to avoid the attack - something easier said then done, considering it had come from an enraged Spirit Champion.

Fortunately, Raven had managed to avoid the worst of it but both her legs had been badly burned, and the fabric of her now tattered and burnt pants had merged with her burnt skin. The pain was excruciating, but not enough for her to pass out.

"Sister! Sister, are you okay?" her frantic brother kept yelling in her head.

"What do you think?" muttered Raven so low that not even Hoatzin had heard her.

"Sister! Speak to me - are you okay?"

"I'm alive so quiet down..." Raven's voice was horse but stable.

"Oh thank goodness!" he breathed a sigh of relief.

Rolling on to her back Raven couldn't help reflecting back on what had just happened. 'There really is a big difference in the efficiency for the Twilight Lullaby when it is launched slowly versus straight out. The guards back home were knocked out a lot longer... I should practice using it in combat more.'

Groaning, Raven she forced herself to stand up and walk over to the two unconscious men. She carefully sat down on the ground next to them and checked their pulses.

"Are they alive?" asked Hoatzin.

"Yes, but the bandit's pulse is getting weaker - he will die soon."

"And Hog?"

"He should be fine; I don't have enough spirit essence left to check him thoroughly but his pulse is at least steady."

Raven turned her attention back to the bandit.

"Since you are still alive, let's see if we can't pry that movement Skill out of you."

Raven placed her hand on the mans forehead and used the little spirit essence she had left to invade the mans mind, aiming for his soul prism. The man shuddered under her touch be didn't stir. Once her spirit essence had reached its target, Raven forcefully made a spirit connection with the mans soul. Usually this would be impossible since, even in an unconscious state, a spiritualists spirit core would work to protect the soul prism, but since that very core had been destroyed, nothing prevented Raven from making a temporary spirit connection with the bandit.

Of course, such a spirit connection would still be a two-way-bridge, if the man had been conscious, he would no doubt have been shocked and perhaps even scared by Raven's extremely strong soul. As it was, the bandit made no signs of life as Raven closely examined the Skill imprints in his soul prism.

To Raven's surprise, she found that the man actually had the imprints for quite a few high leveled Divine Skills, at least, they were high leveled for a rogue bandit; apart from the level tree fire Skill he had used on her, Flaming River, there was also the level four area attack Meteor Descent, that hadn't been used in the battle, and the level four elemental strengthening skill Inferno Sword. Although practical, none of these really suited Raven's fighting style so she didn't bother transferring the imprints.

What did peak her interest though was a level three breathing technique that would allow her to add 30% to the rate of her spirit essence absorption - it wasn't an outstanding technique, but it was better than none. After transferring the imprint for it she once more searched the soul prism and finally found what she had been looking for from the start, the mysterious movement Skill.

Chapter 25: Sending of the Dead

Author's note: A small warning - I have yet to proof read this (it's 2:33 in the morning here so it ain't going to happen until tomorrow) so if your picky wait a day before you read this.

As Raven was inspecting the movement technique more closely, the bandits body shuddered as the last breaths of life were about to leave him. Not lingering any further, Raven quickly transferred the inscription to her own soul prism, Just as the wordsVoid Tracker filled her mind, the bandit's originally orange soul prism faded in to a dull grey hue before shattering - the man had died.

'That was close...' Raven let go of the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. 'I should have gone for the Void Tracker from the beginning. It would have been a pity to miss it!'

A satisfied smile filled Raven's face. The Void Tracker Divine Skill fitted her quite well. It was a level five Skill with three stages of mastery. The first stage would let her nullify any noise made by the movement of anyone within her range - that range would depend on her cultivation, but at the time her limit should be at roughly 10 meters. The second stage would nullify the wind resistance for anyone within the same range, instantly giving a speed boost that would increase exponentially as the original seed rose. At low speeds it would at most make it harder to detect the movement, but at higher speeds this effect would be enormous. Finally, in the third stage the Void Tracker would hide the activation of any agility related Divine Skill, also this was applicable to others if mastered.

'This is quite a refined Divine Skill, it is of little use in itself but combined with other Skills it will have great benefits! It seems to draw very little spirit essence so once I've mastered the second stage, my Shadow Walk will become many time more deadly, perhaps comparable to a level four skill!'

Raven drew a deep breath and lied down on the ground between the two male bodies. She was just about to close her eyes to rest for a bit when she suddenly heard faint running in the distance and felt the presence of 10-15 people, perhaps four hundred away.

"The bandits are returning!" She spoke in a whisper and glanced over at the chest on the ground a few meters away and then at the still unconscious Hog. 'Sorry Heron.'

Ignoring both the chest and the dead bandit, Raven forced herself to stand and then hoisted Hog over her shoulders with a classical fireman's lift.

'I'm glad it wasn't Twig who ran after the bandit...'

Her soul prism was frantically working on absorbing new spirit essence for her to use, but she was still a bit short if she wanted to activate any Divine Skills, so she had no other choice but to run away relying on her old skills.

She rushed downwards and into the forest, making sure to stay to the side of the approaching bandits. Once the bandits were less than a hundred meters away from Raven and her unconscious load, she crouched down behind a large tree and steadied her breath. With a free hand she covered Hog's mouth, to lessen the noise of his breathing as well. Then she waited.

The bandits were not running at full speed so it took a couple of minutes for them to pass them by and run an additional one hundred meters up the mountain side. Raven stood once more and continued her decent; soon, the bandits would come across the body of their comrade and Raven wanted to put some distance between her and them before that happened.

Surely enough, before even three more minutes had passed, Raven could hear the shocked yelps of the bandits that had passed earlier. Raven had feared that they might start search the area for the man's killer, but the bandit's were either to shocked to act at the moment or they figured that whoever was strong enough to kill that man also was strong enough to kill them, either way they stayed put for a moment and then continued further up the mountain.

---------

It took Raven nearly two hours to carry Hog back to the campsite and be the time she reached it, her legs had gone numb from the pain. She didn't bother hiding her strength as she walked out from the tree line and approached the stream by the camp.

The air was filled with smoke and the smell of burning flesh. Judging by the amount of people she sensed within the camp and the bandits that had passed her in the forest, there had been sixteen casualties, twelve bandits and four mercenaries. Raven didn't bother calling out to anyone and simply let Hog slip down from her back next to the stream before she waded out into the stream and let the cool water wash over her burnt caffs.

The water made the burns hurt even more but Raven made no outward sign of it. With I'iwi's dagger, she tore through her pants right above the knees and carefully pealed of the burnt tatters that had merged with her wounds. The burns were the worst around her Limiters, that had been heated up but the flames, and she briefly considered taking them of but opted against it in the end.

"Oi! Shouldn't you guys be a bit more vigilant? The bandits didn't leave that long ago..." Raven called out as she washed her burns - the fact that no one had noticed her return yet was indeed quite disappointing.

Raven's call did the trick, within seconds over ten men came running, with Twig and Heron in the lead.

"Raven!" Heron shouted with relief; "You are okay!"

Raven lifted an eyebrow and glanced down at her legs. 'I wouldn't class third degree burns on a kid as being okay...' But before she could say anything Twig noticed Hog on the ground.

"Hog!" He dove down next to the man. "What happened?"

"The bandit that fled was a low Champion."

As Raven's words the entire group of ten gasped.

"A low Champion? That is not possible!" Heron exclaimed. It was clear he didn't believe Raven's claim.

"Wait until Hog wakes and he can tell you himself." Raven got out of the stream, revealing her burnt lower legs in the process.

"Holy...! How can you even walk with those burns?" Just as last time, Twig was first to react to Raven's injuries.

Raven shrugged.

"Get Dove and Martial!" Twig ordered and one of the younger mercenaries ran of to a the largest tent only to return seconds later, followed by two other mercenaries - one dress in Hog's white robes, one in Twig's red.

Dove, the white one, imminently bent down and got to work on Hog's wounds; a warm light engulfed them both as very pure spirit essence flowed from Dove to Hog. Slowly, the bleeding seized and the burns lighted.
'Healing Divine Skills' thought Raven.

At the same time, Martial motioned for Raven to sit down. Raven considered the offer for a second before she obediently sat down, but before Martial's hand reached her, Raven activated her Limiters to bring down her cultivation to the low Novice level and shielded her soul prism with her spirit essence. If a healer cared to look, they would learn the cultivation level and soul strength of their patients. The fact that she was a spiritualist couldn't be hidden much longer but some secrets still had to be kept.

Martial's hands started to glow with the same warm light as Dove's and when his hand touched her legs a pleasantly soothing feeling spread within her. Quickly Raven's red and blistered skin started to pale and heal, even the areas were her skin had been charred black lightened noticeably. It only took a couple of minutes for the heavily burnt legs go from red and charred to merely a couple of shades pinker than usual. By then, Martial's forehead was damp and he stopped his treatment.

"Try flexing your feet." He urged.

'So he didn't check, huh?' Raven thought to herself before complied to his demand and moved her feet. A sudden flash of pleased surprise crossed her face. 'There is barely any pain at all!'

Martial noticed her reaction. "Impressive right? Healing burns is relatively easy - you should be back to normal by tomorrow."

Raven smiled but then narrowed her eyes and glared at Martial. "Hey, if you guys had healers, why didn't you heal my face or Ardea's hand?"

Martial blinked in surprise and then started laughing. "Haha, well healing is usually an expensive extra service - see it as a bonus for bringing Old Hog back."

Hoatzin snorted. "Stingy people. Who lets a woman walk around injured for weeks when they could do something about it?"

"Bandits?" Offered Raven sarcastically in a soft voice.

"Huh?" Martial asked.

"Nothing." Raven shrugged, but both her and Hoatzin laughed on the inside.

Martial paused a moment and then winked at Raven. "Besides, the woman deserved it."

It was Raven's turn to blink in surprise.

"How is Hog?" Martial didn't wait for a reply and instead asked of Hog's condition.

Dove's forehead was a lot more damp then Martial's had been when he looked up from his work. "He will live but it will take a while before he comes to." he looked at Heron and Twig. "We shouldn't move him until he wakes up."

"How long should that take?" Heron asked.

"At most a day."

Heron frowned. "What if the bandits come back?"

"They won't be back." Raven chipped in.

Everyone looked at her questioningly.

"Their strongest and half of the rest died today, but they got the loot they were after - why come back?"

Only now did Heron realize that even though Hog was back, the chest the bandit had stolen was not. Heron's knees went soft under him and he sank down to the ground with a defeated look on his face. Most of his earning had been in that chest. It was a hard blow for his business.

"Raven, won't you tell us what happened?" Twig asked.

"The low Champion bandit and Hog fought, but Hog managed to kill the bandit, and I then helped him back."

Silence.

There was a lot in Raven's statement that gave the men around her found unreasonable. Ignoring the fact that the bandits having a low Spirit Champion among their ranks - that didn't fight but did the hit-and-run - was a preposterous notion in itself, if it was true, there should be no way for Hog to win; the difference between the Adept realm and the Champion realm was just too big. Secondly, if Raven was telling the truth, then the little boy in front of them - that seemed no older than seven - had subsequently carried the wounded Hog back to the campsite, with third degree burns his legs. Raven shouldn't have the strength to lift Hog at all!

Seeing the men's looks of disbelief Raven sighed and held up her hand. The men gasped in shock as a globe of pure spirit essence flowed out of her hand and hovered in her palm.

"You... you're a spiritualist!?" Twig staggered backwards.

Raven rolled her eyes and pointed to her Limiters. "How did you think I escaped in the first place, with these shackles on, without being a spiritualist?"

"Ah..." Twig hesitated. It was indeed impressive for a bandit slave to have fled despite having Limiters on. Everyone had assumed that the Limiters were the kind that only functioned as weights and trackers, as they still did.

"So the bandits that you were sold to didn't know that you were a spiritualist and gave you normal Limiters, then you used tour spirit essence to block the tracking and ran away..." Heron was mumbling this absentmindedly to himself but everyone had heard him. Realizing his his mistake, his face snapped up to Raven's. "Ah, I'm sorry I didn't mean..."

Raven shook her head. "I'm not an idiot. I guessed you had figured out my past..." she paused; "...but how did you know my parents had sold me?"

Heron smiled apologetically. "You seemed more wronged then depressed when I talked about your parents so I figures they weren't dead as you had said."

"Oh," Raven sat quietly for a while before she added; "by the way, I wasn't a spiritualist when they sold me - I awakened just a few months ago."

"Makes sense," Twig nodded, but then furrowed his brows; "but that only explains how you could manage carry Hog back here. I still can't see how Hog could possibly defeat a low Spirit Champion..."

Raven smiled a half smile. "I'm good at distractions."

The men blinked at her in surprise and wanted her to explain more in detail, but Raven refused. "Ask Hog when he wakes up" was all she would say. She wished to reveal as little about her abilities as possible, so she would wait until Hog's version of the events were out; that way she wouldn't tell anyone more than necessary.

Eventually they stopped asking and instead got to work at setting up a shelter around Hog, so he would be kept warm until he woke up. Raven walked around the campsite to assess the damage and at the same time she strained her ears to listen to the conversations around her.

"A spiritualist at seven! How is that even possible?"

"He must have been through hell with those bandits, or else how could he gain enough spirit connections?"

"Doesn't this make him qualified to apply to Sky Academy?"

"Are you kidding? He would be called a genius among geniuses even there!"

Not surprisingly, most talk centered around Raven and her being a spiritualist. Somehow, her revelation had caused the mood in camp to lighten slightly. Even those who were injured and currently being treated by Dove and Martial seemed a bit distracted from their pains.

Mayeri was currently sleeping, the shook of seeing so many people die had been a bit too much for her so Dove had sedated her, but Ardea looked at Raven with a new light. She walked over to stand next to Raven whom was currently observing the funeral pier for the dead bandits - the dead mercenaries would get their own pier later that night.

"I'm really sorry about hitting you before." Her voice was soft but attentive. "I realize now that not only were you actually protecting Mayeri, you also didn't strike back at me even though you could have done so easily... I'm sorry."

Even if Ardea had protected her on the occasion of the second attack, she hadn't actually apologized. As a mother, even though she felt she had overreacted in her actions, she still blamed Raven for not keeping Mayeri within line of sight from the campsite. She hadn't truly forgiven Raven until now.

"It's okay. You didn't know." Raven shrugged and walked away.

---------

Later that night, a second funeral pier had been built, and the four dead mercenaries had been cleaned and placed on top. Amazingly, Hog had just moments ago regained his consciousness and was seated with the rest of the group around the pier - he had yet to speak of the battle in the mountain woods since he awoke just in time to partake in the funeral. Only Mayeri was missing as her soul had not yet stabilized after the day's events.

Twig stood next to the pier holding a burning torch.

"We honor our fellow soldiers who have fallen in battle." He bellowed.

"We honor them." the mercenaries chanted back in low voices.

"May their next journey be victorious!" Twig continued.

"Be victorious." the chant rang out once more.

"And embrace us when we join you!"

"We will join you."

As the mercenaries chanted the last line, twig lowered the torch to the pier and used his own spirit essence to stimulate the fire; it only took seconds for the entire pier to be ablaze with burning flames.

The group sat in silence as the watched they flames consume the dead. The flames stretched high into the night sky, as if licking the stars. No doubt this fire could be seen from kilometers away, but they didn't care. Sending of their dead with respect was to these mercenaries a lot more important than avoiding more attacks.

Raven couldn't help but feel that is was a bit foolish - why risk the living for the the sake of the dead - but at the same time she understood that the people around her needed to vent their feelings. They had not had her training, they were still normal.

Staring into the flames Raven couldn't help but think back on that blonde little girl she had shared a bed with for a while back at the Camp, in her old life. The girl's life had ended unceremoniously, and her body had been treated just as unceremoniously after her death - it had just been tossed in the mass grave not far from the Camp. Years later, when Raven had become the queen of assassins and had gained more freedom in picking her missions, Raven had chosen a mission in the little blonde girls home land. She had on a whim, spent some time trying to locate the girl's parents' graves. Once she found it, she had stared at it for hours simply walking away without a word.

'I should have done this then... but, I wasn't strong enough to dare.'

Slowly Raven opened her mouth and started singing. Her voice was soft and deep as she sang words in a langue this world had never heard before - it was not Raven's original langue but rather the native tongue of the bleak little girl. Raven let her spirit essence meld with her voice and as the foreign words echoed out into the night their meanings were nonetheless clear - Raven's song was not one for your ears but for your soul.

The people around the fire slightly lifted their heads to glance at the young boy sitting of to the side. The flames made the already red eyes of the youth seem like smoldering embers that stared distantly into the fire. His voice was like an angel but the melody was eerie, and held a mellow undertone. As they them selves looked back into the flames, they seemed to see a story unfolding within the flames; it was a story about a young girl that had been transformed into a songbird by a evil stepmother and then been torn away from her love.

Raven had chosen to use her spirit essence mostly out of courtesy for her dead friend, but as she sang she could feel her soul linking with the words, binding them to it. When raven reached the chorus, a bright white light suddenly surged from within the depths of Raven's soul. The pure spirit essence, that Raven couldn't control, merged with her own spirit essence and before she knew it her deep alto voice was joined by a bright soprano voice, singing in tandem with her.

Chapter 26: Answers

Moisture filled Raven's eyes; she knew that voice! It was the little bleak girl from her past life - the little girl had taught this very song to her and they had often, in secret, crept away to sing it when no one paid attention.

Their two voices complemented each other beautifully; sometimes almost as one in the same melody, sometimes separately in their own melodies that nonetheless melded perfectly with each other. The people around her sat as if in a trance as they observed the story in the fire; by now, the poor bird had narrowly managed to escape her own brother that was hunting her, not knowing her true identity, only to be captured by a wile and gruesome knight that fancied her wings.

When the tale of the transformed girl was coming to an end, and the songbird was about to be slain by that very knight that had captured her, Raven felt how the foreign spirit essence grabbed hold of the killing intent Raven had been working on merging with her spirit essence and forcefully let it surge forward. It didn't take physical form this time but rather spread like a haze around her. As the haze reached the people around her they froze solid in fear.

Their vision in the flames seemed to leap out at them and they saw the death of the little bird, as if it caused by their own hands. In the distance came the grieving lover searching for bloody vengeance and they felt their heart beats slowing down slightly, as if it had already excepted the death that would inevitably come.

The song came to an end, and utter silence descended - even the crackling noise of the flames seemed to have been dimmed.

Raven, unaware of what had happened to the people around her, wore a look of wonder on her face. She quickly inspected her soul, only to find that a new Divine Skill had been etched into it. As she focused on it the words Ode of Woe were formed in her mind. This Divine Skill seemed to be the completed version of the merger of her spirit essence and her killing intent that Raven had been working on lately.

This Divine Skill, despite it's name, was not in form of a song, but rather a skill that allowed her to manipulate her killing intent into mentally attacking her opponents. Before, she had used the immense pressure of her killing intent to critically damage weaker souls, but that had been comparable smacking a fly with a rolled up newspaper - sure, it would kill a fly but it would do little damage in used on anything else.

This was different. With the Ode of Woe, her killing intent became like a blade. A frightening blade of death. If used on someone with a stronger soul it would mostly cause them immense fear, but if it was someone of similar soul strength they would suffer damages to their soul that would make it harder for them to use Divine skills. If her opponents had a weaker soul then herself it might even cause them to subconsciously shut down their bodies, killing themselves in fear.
However, if the opponent had a stronger cultivation than her, they might manage to defend themselves with their own spirit essence or killing intent, but it would be hard.

'What in heaven's name just happened?'

Raven could explain why the voice of her dead friend had accompanied her or why she suddenly had a break through leading to a new Divine Skill.

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Yanked out of her pondering by the sudden noise, Raven instinctively drew a dagger  and tried to find the source of the sound.

'What the...?' As Raven looked around the campsite she noticed that everyone present had seemingly frozen in place, staring lifelessly at the fire in front of them. Raven followed their gazes and drew in a sharp breath.

Slowly walking out from behind the burning pier came a odd looking young man in light green robes. Over all, his appearance was quite average; he was neither particularly handsome nor was he ugly to look at, he was also of average height and build. What made his appearance odd was that sticking out from the long white hair that hung over the man's shoulders was a pair of snow white vulpine ears and stretching behind him was a white fluffy tail. He was looking at Raven with pleased eyes.

"A most curious creature, you are." He said pensively as he came to a halt only meters away from Raven. "A young human girl, pretending to be a boy, that sings with a soul touched voice. Most curious, indeed."

Raven stared at the man in shock. Not only did the man in front of her see through her charade with ease, Raven noticed that she couldn't sense him at all; her eyes could see him but no other of her senses picked him up. This was not like with the Void Tracker, where the sound and spirit essence was nullified, this was something much more profound. It was as if the young man in front of her didn't exist, or perhaps more as if he was one with the world, and therefore impossible to differentiate from his surroundings.

"I must say," the vulpine-eared man continued; "you surprise me. When I heard from my grandson that he had been rescued by a human child I thought that was curious act in itself, but when I find you I learn that you are a four-year-old Spirit Adept, whom has been soul touched. To think I'd find such a human on this continent..." He paused and looked down on her right hand, a look of surprise flashed across his face. "Curious indeed."

Raven's mind reeled. So many questions rushed through her mind that she didn't even know where to start. As if he'd read her mind the vulpine-eared man spoke yet again.

"How about you introduce yourself first?" he smiled knowingly as he spoke.

The question snapped Raven out of her confusion. One thing she was sure of - the man or creature before he was stronger than her. By a lot. She hurriedly bowed.

"Junior Raven Night greats Senior..." her respectful voice trailed of in a question.

"Raven is it? Fitting name..." a flash of mischief crossed the creature's eyes, before he continued; "I have many names she-human, but you may call me Fenris."

"Junior greats Senior Fenris." Raven repeated, together with another bow. She considered asking what type of creature this Fenris was but she quickly opted against it - what would she do if he took offense?

Fenris stared at Raven for a moment. "So tell me, young Raven, who's soul is it that touched you?"
Raven frowned. "Soul?"

"Earlier, when you sang, a remnant soul emerged and help you create a new Divine Skill. Who was it?" Fenris spoke as if his words were basic knowledge.

"If you are referring to the second voice that sang than it..." Raven paused and glanced down on the Life Link. For some reason she felt that it was important to tell the truth to the man but if she did her brother would know she had been lying about her memories.

Fenris noticed her quick glace. "Oh, I see..." He waved a hand and out of nowhere a gentle layer of spirit essence flowed around Raven's hand, encasing the Life Link within. "The boy inside can't hear you now."

Raven jumped back but the spirit essence followed her. "How did you know th.."

"That there is a boy inside the ring? Of course I can tell - I made it after all." Just like before Fenris spoke as if it was the most common thing in the world.

Raven expression went from extreme shock to sparkling hope. "The you know how to restore him?"

Fenris raised a white eyebrow and looked down on the ring "Curious..."

"Huh?" Raven didn't see what was Fenris had found so interesting.

"Well we shall discuss that in a minute," Fenris's focus returned to Raven; "first, tell me about the soul that touched you and sang with you."

Raven didn't hesitate at all this time. The creature in front of her might have a way to help her brother - she wold answer whatever questions he asked.

"The voice belonged to to a friend of mine... I killed her."

"And she chose to touch you? How curious."

Raven could help but ask; "Senior Fenris, you keep talking about being soul touched. What do you mean by that? I have never heard of such a thing."

Fenris snorted and his ears pulled back.

"I'm not surprised. This continent is so primitive." before Raven could respond. he continued; "Listen, she-human, being soul touched by someone is very rare. It only has a chance at happening when someone, who cares very dearly for you, dies while trying to protect you. When that person dies, if they feel strongly enough about wanting to protect you, their soul will touch yours and they will leave a very special kind of imprint. It is hard to say what the imprint will do - the one who has been touched cannot control it - but usually it is either activated during a moment of great peril or during a cultivation breakthrough. It would seem your friend wished for you to grow stronger and therefore helped you create your Divine Skill."

Raven stared blankly at Fenris. If she hadn't experienced it herself, she would have never believed his story, but now it was the only explanation that made sense.

'She wanted to protect me? Oh, Inga...' For the first time since that little, bleak, girl's death, Raven cried for her.

"You shouldn't mourn her now, young Raven, she has done what she wished to do."

Raven used her free hand to brush of the tears on her face.

"Will it happen again?" she asked.

Fenris smiled weakly. "No, by helping you her soul remnant has been released. She is gone."

"Oh."

The two stood in silence for a while - very odd sight with them surrounded by the entranced mercenaries and merchants - before Raven took a deep breath and then lifted her hand.

"Will Senior Fenris tell me about this ring now? Can my brother be restored."

"Why don't you ask him yourself." As he spoke Fenris waved his arm and the spirit essence around the Life Link disappeared.

"RAAAAVEN!" Hoatzin's voice suddenly boomed inside Raven's head.

"Not so loud, big Brother. I can her you just fine."

Hoatzin breathed a sigh of relief. "Not a moment ago you couldn't! Ever since that... that creature... waved his hand I have cut of from the outside world! I haven't seen or heard anything!" he sounded quite mad.

"No need to get angry little man, your sister and I had something to discuss."

"You can hear him?" Raven was shocked.

Fenris gave her a condescending look. "I made it, remember."

Within the ring Hoazin became as quiet as a grave.

"Didn't you have something to ask him?" Fenris continued.

"Huh? No, I asked you how to restore him and you..." Raven's eyes widened. "Big Brother, do you know what needs to be done to restore your body?"

"What!? Of... of course not!" He tried to hide his nervousness but how could he possibly fool Raven.

"Brother! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Sister, I... I don't.." Hoatzin stutterd.

"Perhaps he didn't approve of the method." Fenris offered. By the looks of it he seemed quite amused by the two sibling's argument.

"Tell me." Raven basically ordered her brother.

"Fine..." Hoatzin sounded deflated; "if a spiritualist dies while wearing this ring, then I can take over his body and soul prism. I can then live in that body instead of my own."

"Ah." Raven understood.

Her brother was too pure-hearted to willingly kill someone for their body alone - especially if he wanted a body that fit his age. Raven herself wouldn't hesitate to arrange it for her brother but he would hate her for it. It explained why Hoatzin had chosen to keep silent about it, until now, and had been so reluctant to talk about getting his body back.

"But, wait, how did you know of this method?" Raven asked her brother.

"I left instructions in the ring before I dropped it." Fenris answered before Hoatzin could answer.

"Why would you do such a thing?"

Fenris shrugged. "Amusement? If you reach my age you will also be easily bored. Since I will be staying on this continent for a while I figured I see what would happen if such treasures started circulating."

'Treasures? There's more of them?' Raven couldn't help but be a bit intrigued by the notion - the Life Link was after all a second chance at life.

"What do you men by "if she reach your age? You can't have reached thirty yet." While raven pondered this, Hoatzin shouted in an offended voice. "My Sister doesn't die that easily!"

'I died before I reached thirty in my previous life, though.' Raven mused to herself.

Raven knew very well that the martial road as a dangerous one and that reaching thirty might be harder than it sounds, but Fenris only smiled and changes the subject.

"I take it you're not interested in the method recorded in the ring. To give your brother a new body, that is."

"Certainly not!" Hoatzin exclaimed before Raven had a chance to reply.

"Well, there is another way, that doubt your brother would disapprove of." Fenris eyes grey eyes locked on to Raven's red ones. "But I won't tell you for free."

"Don't listen to him, Sister! This creature would take the lives of others for his own benefits! He.."

Hoatzin clearly had more to say but Fenris waved his hand and encased the ring in spirit essence once more.

"Such a loud talker..." Fenris eye's had never left Raven's. "Well, what do you say?"

"What is it you want?"

A small smile appeared on Fenris face. "A life debt, repaid."

Chapter 27: The Debt

"Life debt?" Raven stared at the man.

"Yes, do you recall releasing a small white Spirit Beast a while back?" Raven nodded so Fenris continued, "Well, that was my grandson."

"Senior's grandson? But you..."

"Have human form, indeed. He might too, eventually."

For the second time that evening Raven's mind spun. She had read legends of extremely powerful Spirit Beasts that managed to take human form, the great raven that had caused the death of Weebill the Great was rumored to have been one of them, but that was in legends only. Besides, those creatures supposedly had no problem defeating Spirit Masters, doing so with but a thought; such a thing should be impossible.

Before Raven had a chance to compose herself, Fenris continued talking.

"By doing so, you saved his life. According to the laws laid down by our ancestors that means that my grandson owes you a life debt. That being the case, he must follow you as a servant until the debt is repaid, until he has saved your life."

Raven's mind had calmed down and she focused on what Fenris was telling her.

"However, my grandson is still very weak and it is unsuitable for him to follow you - most likely he would do you more harm than good by doing so. That being the case, I chose to follow you in his place. I had intended to keep doing so in silence, until he was strong enough to do so himself, but curiosity got the better of me when I heard you singing and observing you create a new Divine Skill."

As Raven listened she realized something.

"Senior, may I be as bold as to ask if you perhaps did something to bandits who entered the Great Valley Woodlands after I left?"

"Ah. Yes, I felt a little bit of punishment was at hand." Fenris smiled a sinister smile.

'That explains the fear the bandits had for that place...'

"Then, when did Senior Fenris catch up to us - three days ago, perhaps?" Raven continued her investigation with as much respect she could muster.

"No," Fenris seemed to be counting backwards, "it was twelve days ago. How so?"

'Hmm, so the silent forest is not because of him... Was the low Spirit Champion enough for the wildlife to quiet down?'

Raven shook her head. "Never mind. So, what is Senior's proposal exactly? Senior helps me restore my brother, by a method he would approve of, and I cancel the life debt of Senior's grandson?"

"Not quite." Fenris shook his head. "Since your brother's life isn't in direct peril at the moment the two acts don't cancel each other out completely, and also, a life debt must ultimately be repaid by the one in debt. No, I will help you restore your brother's body and, in turn, you will cancel my grandson's servitude - he will still have to save your life some day but you two will be considered equals from now on."

"...Senior Fenris, do not take offence, but how do I know you are not tricking us with all this? Senior might not even be related to that little Spirit Beast at all." Raven very much wanted to agree to his proposal but she was never one to trust easily.

Fenris didn't take offence though, he just smiled and flicked his wrist. A loud *thud* was heard as the spiked cage that Raven had rescued the small Spirit Beast from, landed by his feet.

"You recognize this, right? Besides, no doubt your instincts are telling you that if I wanted to harm you I would not have needed to make a deal with you first, she-human."

Raven definitely knew this in her heart, nonetheless, there were other ways one might harm others apart from using physical strength. The cage, however, together with the man's body language indicated that he was telling the truth. It wasn't fool-proof of course, but it was good enough.

"Very well, I agree to Seniors proposition."Raven didn't hesitate any longer.

What was there for Raven to think about? She was in no need of a servant.

Fenris stated laughing. "Haha, I like your decisiveness. We have an agreement." He flicked his sleeve and a small clump of grey clay appeared in his hand.

"If you want to restore your brother's body, you will have to let me remove a small shard from you soul prism and embed it, together with the ring, into this." he motioned to the lump in his hand. "I would use a shard from my own soul prism, but it is better to use the prism of someone your brother is related to. Don't worry about it though - you won't miss the shard at all and it will restore itself with time anyway."

"The shard and the ring will merge within, and create a spirit body for your brother." Fenris continued.

Raven's eyes lit up, it sounded like such a simple solution!

"However, there are three thing I must warn you about. Fist of, this merger won't be stable for more than two years, unless you manage to get him to a Spirit Hall, during the Day of Light, within that time frame. Secondly, the spirit body will not take human form initially, rather, it will adapt an animal form your soul feels linked to. Thirdly, if your brother wishes to take human form again he must cultivate to the level of a peak Spirit Champion - only then will he be able to permanently retain a truly human form."

Raven silently considered what Fenris had told her. The last two aspects weren't that bad - it wasn't impossible to become a peak Champion and even if her brother failed, it was surely better for him to have his own body, human or not, than to be stuck within a ring.

However, getting access to a Spirit Hall was another thing. There were definitely a few Spirit Halls between Rock Wren Gate and Sky City, but she would never be given entrance to them, especially not on the Day of Light.

Yet again, as if Fenris had read her mind, he said: "I've heard that students of the advanced classes at Sky Academy get access to private Spirit Halls..."

That changed things. Raven knew of these advanced classes at Sky Academy, they were extremely hard to get into and were reserved for the geniuses among geniuses. Even her brother, whom was considered a one in a thousand talent had yet to manage earning a spot.

'By the time I reach sky city I will be six years old and already a Spirit Adept. Even if I hide my spirit connections and some of my cultivation that should be enough to earn me a spot in the advanced class... I won't be able to enter the school quite as inconspicuously as I had intended but restoring my brother's body takes precedence.'

"I do not see any reason for my brother to reject this option, but I need to ask him."

"Of course." Fenris removed the seal around the Life Link and, after spending some time calming her brother down,  Raven explained the method Fenris had provided.

As Raven talked, she could feel a sense of growing excitement from her brother - clearly the thought of getting out of the ring, even in animal form, was very appealing to him.

"You said Sister wouldn't be hindered by the loss of the shard, is that really true?" Hoatzin asked skeptically once the explanation was done.

"I didn't say she wouldn't be hindered, I said she wouldn't miss it. By giving the shard to you she will lose roughly ten spirit connections permanently. Unlike whatever happened to her that made her soul let go of its connections in the past, these will not return simply by waiting - she will have to earn them back the hard way." Fenris gaze seemed to grow distant for a second before he continued. "But what are ten connections for a girl with hundreds of them?"

"It is worth it, big Brother." Raven prompted her brother while, secretly, wondering if Fenris perhaps could tell how many connections she ought to have.

"And I'll become human again if I become a peak Spirit Champion?" despite his excitement, Hoatzin was still a bit hesitant.

"Indeed." a very brief moment of mischief flashed in Fenris's eyes; Hoatzin didn't notice, but Raven did.

"Senior Fenris, is there something you have yet to tell us?" Raven's voice was very polite but her eyes were sharp as knives as she observed the creature in front of her.

"Perceptive, aren't we?" Fenris seemed pleasantly surprised. "I have spoken no lies, but, cultivation in the spirit body is a bit different from normal cultivation."

"How so?" Raven pressed.

"Cultivating, for a spirit body, is very dependent on the strengthening effect of the spirit essence produced in Spirit Halls during the Day of Light. During all other times of the year, cultivation will be extremely slow..." his sentence trailed of as he gave Raven an urging glance.

'Then I must maximize the essence he receives each year.' Raven had understood what Fenris meant right away. For her brother to make any progress she would have to let him use a Spirit Hall, alone, every year. As a consequence, Raven herself was unlikely to enjoy the benefits of the Day of Light for a very long time; she would make sure to get accepted into the advanced classes but that would only give her access to one Spirit Hall.

"Then that is fine, slow is better than not at all." Raven nodded. "What do you say, big Brother?"

While Raven had understood the consequences needing to use Spirit Halls right away, her brother had yet to catch on. She feared he might back down if he knew it would have negative effect on her cultivation so Raven wanted to make her brother agree as soon as possible. She would figure out how to force him into the Spirit Hall alone when the time came.

"I agree!"

Hoatzin only hesitated for a moment. He was, after all, only ten years old and the thought of being able to move around again made him very excited.

"Good,"Fenris smiled an almost wolfish smile; "then let us get this over with."

Raven didn't even see when Fenris started moving before he appeared next to her with one hand placed on her forehead and the other, the one holding the lump of clay, clasped around Raven's right hand and the Life Link ring she wore there.
Raven barely had time to register how cold his hands were before foreign spirit essence flooded her mind and encased her soul prism. Sharp pain filled her head as that spirit essence started to cut into her sea green crystal of her soul. Instinctively, Raven rallied her own spirit essence to fight back but her efforts were like a light summer breeze trying to push away a mountain; she could do nothing against it.

"Shhh, she-human," Fenris voice that had grown deeper whispered in her ear; "struggle, and it will only be more painful."
Against her instincts, Raven closed her eyes and forced herself to draw back her spirit essence and instantly the sharp pain lessened somewhat. However, shaving of a peace of your soul was not something that could be done hastily.
Fenris face was filled with concentration and if any of the members of the caravan had been free from their trance, they would no doubt have noticed how Fenris features had grown more angular, his nose and moth more elongated; he looked more like a wolf than a man.

After almost an hour, Raven heard and felt a little *click* within her, and the cutting pain she had felt was reduced into a prominent throbbing. Within her, a small crystal shard, no bigger than the fingernail of a little finger, floated next to her soul prism. At first it had been sea green as the rest of Raven's soul but as soon as it was separated from it faded to a dull gray. The shard only floated there for a split second before Fenris' spirit essence grabbed a hold of it - instantly the shard shifted colors to a vibrant dark blue - and slowly pulled the shard towards his hand.

Fenris pulled his hand, without breaking contact with Raven, slowly from her forehead to her neck, shoulder and arm, only to rest once it reached her right hand. During this time, the shard followed the movement of his hand, never leaving Raven's body, until it reached the Life Link on her right hand. It seemed to lock in place as it tried to pass through the center of the Life Link ring on Raven's finger.

The light within the shard stretched out and latched onto the ring, creating a disk of light with the ring as its rim. Slowly the light started to rotate around the prism, creating a miniature vortex, quite similar to a spirit core.

"Move into the prism chard, human."

Raven felt her brother's presence stir, and after hesitating for a moment, carefully moving towards the chard. The moment his soul reached it, streaks of white light intermingled with the dark blue light in the vortex. First the streaks were scarce, but slowly the grew larger  and more numerous, eventually replacing the dark blue light entirely even causing the initially purple ring to turn white as snow.

All this time, the Life Link had yet to leave Raven's finger, but once the ring had shifted color, Fenris molded the clay around both ring and finger before gently pulling of the ring. The moment the Life Link was of Raven's finger the substance, that had already surrounded it completely, started to contract and glow.

Raven had kept her eyes shut all this time now opened them to observe what was happening, and after a brief moment of shock over Fenris' more canine appearance focused her attention on the glowing globe in his hand.

Dense spirit essence swirled around it in complicated patterns. Every once in a while, a strand of spirit essence would flow through the globe, causing the white light to gain a momentary tint of blue as it grew in size.

Slowly but surely the globe grew large and brighter until it eventually outshone the funeral pier that was still burning in the campsite. By now, it was almost painful for Raven to look directly at it, but she refused to avert her gaze - for her brother's sake she wanted watch until the very end.

Suddenly, the light intensified drastically and the surface of the globe started to move erratically, almost as if it was boiling water; it bulged and caved in alternately, constantly morphing. The spirit essence also started to move faster and faster in its patterns.

Eventually the light grew too strong and Raven had no choice but to raise a hand to cover her eyes. For, what seemed like minuets, the light forced its way through Raven's fingers, showing no signs of dissipating but, finally, with a last roaring surge of spirit essence, the light disappeared as if it had never existed.

"Sister," Raven heard her bother's slightly hesitant voice in her head; "what do you think of my new body?"

Chapter 28: Development

Raven lowered her hand and blinked a few times to adjust to the now dim fire light. Slowly the world returned to her eyes.

In front of her stood Fenris, the wolfish appearance gone - apart from the always visible ears and tail - with a slight, pleased smile on his face. The hand, that had previously held the glowing orb, was still outstretched, only, now the orb was gone. In its place perched a small bird.

The bird's feathers were as white as snow, as was its beak and claws. Only the eyes offered some color; they were deep brown and looked inquisitively at Raven. The eyes where filled with much emotion and they felt more human than anything else.

"Brother?" Raven stared at the bird in wonder.

The bird winked at her and Raven heard her brother's voice once more. "It is me Sister," the bird seemed to smile, "So what do you think? I can't really tell what I am by myself, more than that I am a bird and that I'm small."

Tentatively, Hoatzin spread his wings and hopped around on Fenris' palm to let Raven view all of him. Fenris merely looked on with unconcealed amusement.

'It's actually a nightingale!' she realized as she observed her brother, the bird, closer - the size was a bit larger than usual and its coloration was wrong, but ever before being reborn as a Nightingale, Raven had possessed an interest in the bird, due to her assassin nickname, she wouldn't mistake it. 'An animal form my soul feels linked to, huh? I guess that is true.'

"It would seem like you're a nightingale now, in more than just name."

The albino nightingale's beak popped open.

"A nightingale?" Hoatzin sounded a bit disappointed, "I feel fondly for the bird, being our ancestral symbol and all, but if I have to spend the rest of my life as a bird I'd prefer something a bit more... manly."

"The animal is derived from your sister's soul, not yours.," Fenris chipped in, "what would you expect?"

Hoatzin snorted, which, coming from a famous songbird, no doubt sounded a lot more musical than he had intended.

"My sister is less feminine that you might think."

Fenris looked at Raven and her boyish facade. "I had noticed."

"Senior can still hear him, I take it." Raven ignored both their comments and changed the subject.

"The ring is part of him, so I can hear him. As is your soul prism, so you can hear him as well. With a bit of practice you should be able to answer him." Fenris was back to speaking in his matter-of-fact tone.

"Well, my task here is done so our agreement is complete. It is time for me to leave." Without waiting for Hoatzin to attempt flying on his own, spirit essence surged out of Fenris's palm and effortlessly coiled around Hoatzin's body. It lifted and transferred the bird to Raven's shoulder.

"As a last favor, what do you want me to do with these." Fenris gestured to the entranced people around the fire. "Kill them? Alter their memories?"

Raven noted Fenris use of words; it didn't seem like he put ordinary humans in very high regard, if any. This wasn't surprising though - Raven barely put them in any regard herself - so instead of being offended she considered his offer.

They now knew that she was a spiritualist and considering the reason behind her travels and her objective, the fewer people that could give insights to how she had arrived at Sky Academy the better.

Then again, she still had things she needed from them.

"Killing them would defeat the purpose of me saving one of them earlier, but having them remember everything would be bad as well," she finally answered, "Senior, how precise is this memory alteration of yours?"

Fenris only smiled.

---------

"Fine sirs, Fine sirs!" a small and rat-like man scurried along a mucky street, "If you are looking for a place to eat delicious food, then I know just the place.

The group of people that the man was trying to get the attention of, ignored him and continued to walk further into town.

"Fine sirs!" he called one last time but he didn't dare follow them.

He had lived long enough to know who he could pester, and for how long, without risking a beating. Kinglet Grove wasn't a very large city, but it was one of the closest to the Imperial Sky City and therefore had a lot of different people passing through, some less patient then others.

The man sighed and looked into the grey sky. A cold wind blew down the street and the rat-like man pulled his coat tighter around him. The winter was being unusually persistent this year; it was already four months in, but heavy snow still fell at least once a week, only to melt away within minutes.

The man cursed the grey skies. The bad weather was bad for business too, since fewer people traveled, and if he wanted any pay at all he would have to get some customers for the restaurant he worked at today.

He looked back down the street and noticed a new group walking in his direction. Quickly he sized up the group: four adult men and one boy, probably about eight years old; the men, although dressed in fine white robes, gave of an air of blood, indicating that the were warriors or mercenaries. Their faces, hardened by battle, only softened when they looked on the youth among them - clearly the boy meant a lot to them. Apart from his companions care, the boy himself didn't seem very special so the observing man didn't pay him any further notice.

"Fine sirs," he rushed towards the group, stopping to bow when he was close enough, "may I guide you to a restaurant were you can rest your feet and have good meal?"

The eldest in the group only glanced at the man before he turned to the boy, "what do you say kid, are you hungry?"

Noticing that the child would have the final say, rat man added, "we have many dishes fit for a growing man."

The kid snorted at the man but gave his consent nonetheless, "might as well get it over with."

The three men that had yet to speak laughed at the child's disinterest.

"I swear, I will see you passionate about something other than training before we reach Sky City or I'll streak the entire city." one of them chuckled as he wrapped the kids neck with his arm.

"Don't involve me in your Casanova plots," the child retorted coldly, "I know you relish at the thought of introducing Sky City to your family jewels," he paused, "well, at least half of the city."

This got the rest of the group to laugh even harder, but they abruptly stopped as small white bird came swooping down from the sky and pecked at the man that had his arm around the kid.

"Sorry, sorry!" the lewd man backed away. "No touching, I know." the bird didn't abandon its assault. "Raven, get your bird of me!" He pleaded at last.

The kid smirked slightly but said nothing and yet the bird immediately stopped and flew over to perch at the kid's shoulder.

"Well?" the kid looked at the rat-like man, "were you not going to take us to a restaurant?"

"Ah! Yes of course!" rat man jumped, he had been totally distracted by their conversation and the small bird. "This way."

He lead the group down a side alley and stopped outside one of the few wooden buildings in the area. "Here we are sirs, the Wooden Lodge." he motioned towards the entrance.

"Inventive," muttered the kid sarcastically as the group of five entered the building.

Once they were inside, the rat-like man started walking back towards the main street with a pleased look on his face.

"Four people pulled is better than none." he smiled a crocked smile, revealing a mouth lacking some of its teeth. "Or wait, there was five of them, how come I can't remember how the kid looked..."

Within the restaurant, Raven and the four mercenaries had been shown to a table and ordered in some ale - and a large glass of milk - while they waited for their food. They weren't the only customers in the room but almost.

Raven observed the mercenaries as they drank their ale and talked in not too loud voices. It had been over a year since they had left Rock Wren Gate and the merchant caravan behind them and over that period of time Raven had started to grow quite fond of them.

Hog was as calm and composed as always as he sipped the ale as if it was sherry; he really got excited, except when it came to talking about Raven's cultivation progress, then he would be like a kid on Christmas - always excited for what would come next.

Of the other three, two were actual brothers - they all referred to each other as brothers but only two were blood related. Emu and Dove were strong silent types that rarely spoke, but were happy to listen. Over the year they had grown very protective of Raven and had made her training their top priority.

Finally, there was Saltmarsh. His real name was Sparrow but due to various incidents in the past - which none of the mercenaries would talk about, no matter how they were prompted - the nickname had stuck. Saltmarsh was the goof in the group and Raven's earlier comment about him wanting to show of his family jewels to half of Sky City was definitely not without grounds.

Raven looked at these four men and couldn't help but sigh of admiration.

"To think Fenris was able to alter so much..." she directed the thought towards Hoatzin perched on her shoulder.

"It's very impressive indeed, and it helped you with your cover story too." Hoatzin replied while he swooped down to sit on the rim of the glass of milk on the table. He looked up at Raven before he bent down to dip his beak into the milk for a sip.

"Indeed."

Raven thought back on that night, well over a year ago, and a small shudder ran down her spine. When Fenris had asked what she wanted him to do with the people in the caravan, whom were still sitting in at trance around the funeral pier, Raven had asked if he could change their memories of how they had met Raven. She had assumed it impossible but had asked out of curiosity nonetheless.

The result far outdid her hopes.

One of Raven's biggest problems when enrolling into the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts was her cover story, even more so if she had to stand out enough to get into the advanced classes without a hitch. Sooner or later people would start looking into her background and the more solid her cover story was, the less likely it was that someone would find out the truth.

Fenris's offer had given her the solid background she needed. As far as the four people around her were concerned, Raven had been saved by them from a viscous bandit crew three years ago - that is to say nearly a year before the Nightingale's were killed. The bandits had supposedly been doing vile and very inhumane experiments on children in hope of causing their souls to mature faster. Only Raven had survived.

They realized that Raven, whom - in line with her actual age - was barely three at the time, had already formed a Spirit Core. Due to this Hog's mercenary crew decided to take the boy under their wings and bring him to the Sky Academy for further schooling. The journey had taken them three years but now they were soon at their destination.

The rest of the caravan believed that Raven was an adopted son of Hog's that was slightly unsocial perhaps but nothing more. They had no memories of how Heron hired Raven or how Raven had revealed her spirit essence for them. Hog and his crew believe that they did everything in their power to keep Raven's skills hidden from the people of the caravan during the brief time they traveled together with them.

But Hog and his crew did remember how Raven had helped save Hog's life in the passage between the Gate Towns and then other members of the crew on later occasions, so even if the base of their memories were false, the concern and gratitude they felt toward Raven now was very real. They even insisted she called them her 'uncles'.

Over the past year, Raven had been training relentlessly as they journeyed towards Sky City and thanks to the newly acquired breathing technique Raven's already alarming cultivation rate had shot to the skies. She had, in barely two years, already become a mid Spirit Adept and was close to its peak, soon to be classed as a high Adept. This was an achievement that even spiritualist enrolled at Sky Academy would require four to six years to pull of.

She had also made great progress with various of her Divine Skills. The Sonic Sword was already mastered to the fifth level, Whispered Blast, and the sixth level, Dance of Bells, was being fine tuned. The Ode of Woe had been mastered by Raven the moment it was created, but to increase its strength, she had ceaselessly worked on merging her killing intent with her spirit essence to the point that separating the two was now nearly impossible.

Although she was doing exceedingly well with the more attack oriented skills, advancement was a lot slower with Void Tracker and the Healing Divine Skill that Dove taught her not too long ago, Blessed Hand. Contrary to her other Divine Skills, these two drew no real benefit from neither her previous life's experiences nor her exceedingly strong soul. Instead they focused solely on manipulating spirit essence into intricate patterns within yourself.

Her progress was still faster then most people's but over the passing year, Raven had only managed to master the first stage of the Void Tracker - allowing her to nullify the sound of movement - and as for the Blessed Hand, the best she could do was heal minor cuts and bruises. Most likely she would have gotten further with the Blessed Hand if it wasn't for the fact that the killing intent in her spirit essence seemed to counteract the effects of the Healing Skill.

Of course, the men she traveled with did not now the full extent of her strengths, but they new enough to be mightily impressed and sometimes even a little scared. However, the fact that they knew the least about, and that would have scared them the most was Raven's spirit connections.

Five months after they had left Rock Wren Gate, Raven's soul prism had returned the expected number of 239 connections - it would have been 249 if not for the ten she lost with the prism shard - but surprisingly enough, the number of connections continued to rise steadily for another five months. Eventually the amount of connections stopped at 373. Apparently, nearly being killed by a Phoenix Death Lotus and loosing the only people you've ever loved, without going insane, was strengthening for the soul.

If she wished it, Raven could easily hear every sound, feel every movement, smell every sent around her, not only in the building but also outside on the street. Had it not been for all the houses and walls within the area, this would have been true for nearly a six hundred meter radius.

She had also experienced a large and sudden change with her senses that gave her a new understanding of the world.
Even prior to this point, Raven had regained the ability to differentiate between different people based on their auras. Then it had been a vague concept that she couldn't really explain, she only knew it worked, not how. But when she reached 350 spirit connections she had started to see spirit essence within people, even when it wasn't activated or dense enough to be actually visible.

Every persons spirit essence looked differently and she realized that this was the auras she had been feeling before - it was leaking spirit essence. The best part of this development was the realization that the color of peoples spirit essence corresponded to their cultivation level.

Thanks to this, Raven could clearly tell that out of the nine people in the building, only one more person was a spiritualist; a burly man seated on the floor above them gave of a purely white glow, indicating that he was a high Spirit Novice.

At this moment the petite serving girl was returning to the table Raven and her fellow travelers were seated at - her aura was completely colorless, indicating not only the lack of cultivation but also the lack of potential cultivation. Nonetheless, she was remarkably enough balancing five large plates covered with food and a bowl filled with nuts on her small arms, as she expertly weaved her way between chairs and tables without mishap.

"Here you go, sirs," she placed the plates on the table with well rehearsed movements, "and bird..." her look was quizzical as she moved to set down the bowl next to Raven's glass of milk.

"Tzin," remarked Saltmarsh with a wink at the girl, "we call him Tzin."

The girl smiled and nodded towards Hoatzin, "then here you go, Tzin."

Hoatzin only gave the girl a glance before he hopped over to the bowl and started pecking at the nuts. Saltmarsh, on the other hand, leaned closer to the girl and smiled his most seductive smile.

"And you can call me Saltm... Ouch!" Halfway through his introduction Raven had kicked him in the shins.

"Enjoy your meal, mister Salt." The girl ignored his yelp of pain and walked away.

"What in the skies did you do that for!?" Saltmarsh grumbled at Raven.

"Keep it in your pants, Casanova, she's married."

"What is this cassa.. casanoa you keep referring to," he waggled a warm chicken wing at Raven, "and how could you possibly know she's married? She wears no ring."

"Casanova is a person, not a thing," replied Raven flatly, "and the indent on her left ring finger, combined with the small bulk in her apron pocket would indicate that she has taken it of. For work, most likely."

The three others looked on with amused smiles on their faces as Raven started eating and Saltmarsh stared disbelievingly at the eating youth. After a moments pause Saltmarsh's eyes brightened.

"Aha! She might not have taken it of for work, perhaps she has had a fight with her husband and wants to leave him now! I should offer my support by..."

"If that's the case, then they must have made their peace quickly," Raven interrupted him without looking up from her plate, "they are kissing quite passionately by the counter."

"What?" Saltmarsh mouth fell open as he looked over towards the counter.

Hog and the two brothers couldn't hold it in anymore and started chuckling merrily.

Chapter 29: News from the Capital

News from the Capital

Raven and her mercenary uncles ate their dinner, and Hoatzin his nuts, with much merriment. It had been a while since they ate food not cooked by one of them - something none of them excelled in - which put them all in a good mood. Eventually the discussion turned towards the remaining leg of their journey, and Hog started by explaining the situation.

"We are now fairly close to Sky City now, only one last mountain range left and we will reach it. By foot it should take one to two months to cross it, depending on the weather."

"Isn't the spring entrance exams for Sky Academy on the last day of the fifth month of the year?" Dove asked, then added,  "that is barely fifty days from now."

"Yes, so it might be a bit tight, if we're unlucky."

"Should we fly then?" asked Emu.

"Excellent idea!" Saltmarsh chipped in before Hog could reply, "the city is at its best from above and the brat still hasn't experienced travelling by Everest Hawks. He'll get teased for being a country bumpkin if we leave it at that."

"Don't involve me in your schemes, Uncle," said Raven in a flat voice, ignoring the offended look Saltmarsh faked with exaggeratedly poor acting, "and I won't get teased for anything."

"We could," Hog ignored them both and answered Emu instead, "but until we know for sure that Raven is given a scholarship, we should save as much money as possible."

"How could this little brat of ours not get a scholarship?" Saltmarsh had already forgotten that he was supposed to act offended and happily swung an arm around Raven's shoulders, his free hand rubbed to top of her head wildly.

Barely a second later Hoatzin was in the air, bombarding the mercenary with sharp claws - calling them talons would be incorrect but they were nonetheless very effective.

"Sorry, Tzin." Saltmarsh let go of Raven right away.

The rest of the group was used to this scenario by now so Hog simply raised his voice slightly and continued.

"Since we want to spare the expenses, I suggest we rent a couple of Mountain Steeds and go the last stretch on horseback. What do you think?"

"Well.." Dove started answering him but Raven zoned out from the conversation; it was important for her to reach Sky City in time for the exams but she didn't really care how she got there. She was confident the mercenaries would solve the details on their own

Instead Raven focused her attention on the few other conversations being held in the building.

"Darling, why don't we book room with a deluxe bed tonight?" A greasy sounding man urged his companion.

"How bold!" His female answered but her giggles indicated that she was quite pleased with his suggestion.

'Boring.' thought Raven.

"Look at this!" a young voice bellowed out - the man wasn't in fact speaking very loudly but to Raven, whom was currently focusing most of her attention on listening, the voice was nearly deafening. "I got it last night."

The body belonging to the voice seemed to be showing off something on his shoulder to the person next to him.

"Nice tattoo!" Laughed that person, just as loudly is the first one, and smacked his friend on the shoulder, causing his friend to grunt in pain.

'Insignificant.' this was yet an other conversation that Raven felt little interest in.

"Did you hear about the bandit massacres taking place in Woodland Valley,  of Black Talon Prefecture?" said an elderly man on the floor above them. His voice sounded cracked and full of dust.

"Yeah., serves them bandits right though," answered a voice with a similar antique feeling, "heard the same thing started happening in the Griffin Caves not too long ago."

'Really?' Raven tilted her head pensively to the side, recalling the Sky Empire's geography in her head, 'the Griffin Caves are close to the ground passage between Black Talon Prefecture and Blood Griffin Prefecture... Is it a coincidence, or has Fenris perhaps moved there? But why then are rumors of killings in Woodland Valley still circulating...'

Before she could ponder this any further, the rat like man, who had led her and her group to this restaurant, walked in within her range out on the street. Next to him walked a busty woman, who's pale white spirit essence gave of a very stern feeling. The pair's pace was brisk, much due to the woman, and rat man had to half-run to keep up with her.

"Won't you tell me a bit more?" He pleaded excitedly, "you can't give my news like that and then not give me any more details!"

They would soon reach the entrance to the restaurant bu the woman showed no signs of slowing down.

"I have already told you more than I should," she sounded a bit annoyed, but then added, "for free."

"Oh, come on, Tringa, for old times sake!" The man groaned, but his voice dropped to a whisper, "You tell me the empress has been accused of treason, but nothing more - even you can't be that cruel."

Raven tensed, nearly dropping the glass she'd been drinking from.

'Treason? That's absurd!'

"They are called old times for a reason," the woman paused outside of the building, "now a days, you have to pay with money like everybody else if you want information."

With that, the woman turned and entered the stone building directly opposite of the restaurant. The thick stone walls made it difficult for Raven to sense what was going on inside the building, but the little she did sense, combined with the nondescript sign outside, gave Raven the general gist of the place.

'A low Spirit Novice works at a brothel?' Raven was intrigued by the realization. 'Interesting, I wonder if spirit essence can be used to intensify the experience?'

Brothels weren't outlawed in the Sky Empire, as they were in large parts of Raven's previous world, but since people were generally supposed to live in monogamy here so such places were still frowned upon. Consequently, discretion was important.

Raven knew, however, that sex wasn't the only thing for sale at brothels - neither in this world nor her old one. Few people knew so much about the people in power and what they were up to as the women, and men, who bedded them.

"Brother," Raven spoke to Hoatzin mentally, "have you ever been to a brothel?"

The bird nearly choked on the nut he was eating.

"Of course not!" Hoatzin retorted. "How could you even suggest such a thing? I would never set foot in such a place!"

"Well it's a good thing you have wings then," said Raven sarcastically before she started explaining what she just had heard outside.

"There is no way Empress Nene would betray the Empire," exclaimed Hoatzin as he flew up to Raven's shoulder, "the information must be false!"

"I agree that it is unlikely, but perhaps not all of the information is incorrect," Raven shifted around the few remaining pieces of food on her plate, seemingly sunken into deep thought, "we need to know more."

"Fine," the bird even managed to sigh, "I'm guessing you want me to fly in there, find this Tringa and listen her conversations."

"Yes," Raven replied but to herself she thought, 'and I'm guessing you'll have to listen to more then just conversations.'

Hoatzin extended his wings and flew of. No one remarked his departure - the bird had come and gone as it pleased over the last year anyway - and after about half an hour, Hog paid the waitress for the food and the group left the restaurant. By now, the sun had already set, and small fires had been lit along the streets to light the way in the darkening evening.

A few blocks away, they found a suitable inn and acquired two rooms for the night; Raven and Hog shared one room, while the other three shared the second one. Due to her age, Raven was as usual sent to bed early. This was despite her argument that, for a peak Spirit Novice - the level of cultivation the four mercenaries thought she had - a long night's sleep wasn't really necessary.

"Brats need sleep, and that's final." would be Saltmarsh's reply every time the argument rose.

"Pleeeease, Uncle Dove..." would be Raven's response, but not even her best puppy-eyed plea to the essentially softhearted Dove ever had any positive effect.

So, Raven went to bed as commanded but, as always, decided to spend the night cultivating regardless. The breathing technique Raven had snagged from the dying bandit wasn't really suited for cultivating lying down but she didn't want to draw Hog's attention, so it would have to do.

Raven cultivated the entire night. Every once in a while, Hoatzin's control over his voice and thoughts would slip and they poured into Raven's mind. She could help but chuckle at how his thoughts changed during the night; there had been disgust, surprised interest, shock, wonder and even some hints of arousal. The boy was soon to be twelve year old and even though he had little prior experience regarding what he might see at at a brothel, once the initial shocked had passed, he found himself eager to... learn more.

It wasn't until dawn broke, and Hog already left his and Raven's room for breakfast, that the little white body of Hoatzin's flew in through the window and landed, unsteadily, on the table next to Raven's bed.

Raven opened her eyes and stared into her brother's, whose pupils seemed to still be slightly dilated.

"Was it an informative night?" she wanted to smirk at him but she kept her face innocent.

"Very!"

"You didn't mind spending the night at a brothel?" Raven let the smirk grow on her face.

"No, not at all! It was..." Hoatzin faltered as he realized how excited he had sounded.

"It was... what?" Raven teased.

"Uhm, it.. it was a good way to find out what information Tringa had about Nene, ah, I mean the Empress, Empress Nene."
If Hoatzin's spirit body had been capable of blushing, Raven had no doubt that her brother's face would have gone from snowy white to bright pink by now. She decided to let him of the hook with only a snort.

"Then what did you learn?" Raven asked instead, but couldn't restist adding, "about the Empress, I mean."

Hoatzin's small bird body straightened.

"Well, according to Tringa, and some of her... uh, guests, the Empress has indeed been accused of treason. The charge is: Caught red-handed consorting with the enemy."

Raven frowned as Hoatzin continued.

"No one seems to know who this supposed enemy is, but, as a result the queen has been placed under house arrest in one of the towers at Indigo Cloud Palace."

"House arrest? Not imprisonment or execution?" Raven interrupted.

"No, house arrest. Supposedly, Tringa is related to one of Empress Nene's maids so she is quite sure of it. The general guess seems to be that the Emperor is too fond of the Empress to be able to do anything worse..."

"Did they say anything about when the house arrest started?"

"A month or so ago. They have been trying to keep it quiet."

"It won't be for much longer..." Raven said, more to herself than to her brother.

Raven sat, quiet, for a very long time as she turned this new information over and over in her head. After nearly twenty minutes she sighed heavily, climbed out of the bed and stretched her body.

"Well, there isn't much we can do about it now." she indicated for Haoatzin to sit on her shoulder and moved to walk out of the room.

"That's it?" Hoatzin sounded shocked, "that's all you have to say?"

"But there really isn't much we can do about it, at the moment." Raven walked out of the room so she switched to talking to her brother mentally, "there are no official reports and we are in the wrong city to make our own inquires."

Before Hoatzin had a change to object she continued, "Considering what we know of Empress Nene's personality, it is likely that she has been framed. Even more so if we add what happened to our family into the mix."

"Our family?"

"With the aid of the foreign 'Elder W' they attempted to murder us all, hoping to gain control over the prefecture, but why would this foreigner help them at all? Clearly there was something that our father wouldn't agree to that Aunt and Uncle would."

Hoatzin's bird eyes shined with revelation, "the borderline treason mother talked about?"

"Yes, precisely. I suspect it wasn't so borderline after all." Raven passed in through the dinning hall doorway and sank down next to her self appointed uncles, whom were currently halfway through their meal.

"Then, what do we do?"

"We travel to Sky City, I enroll at the Academy and then we spend every moment we can spare trying to find out what's actually going on within this empire." Raven replied with a cold flare in her deep red eyes.

The flare was gone as soon as it had arrived and, with the strained smile that had sort of become her trademark over the past year, she looked up at Hog.

"Can you pass me the bread, Uncle Hog?"

- End of Volume 2 -

Chapter 30: Morning of the Exam

"Javelin!" two nearly identical voices chimed in unison outside of room 207 on the second floor of the southern student dorms at Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts.

"Come on, Javelin, the exam students," called the slightly lighter voice.

"Will be arriving soon," continued the the slightly darker voice, "and you, mister Hake."

"Promised to help us out!" they finished in unison.

The door swung open and a well built youth, dressed only in a pair of grey pants, appeared in the doorway. A white Spirit Stone with a red center hung around his neck.

"Don't. Do. That." Javelin pointed decidedly at his two friends waiting for him outside. "It creeps me out."

Javelin's golden hair, that was long enough to cover his ears but not long enough to reach his shoulders, was in a ruffled mess and the thin braid extending down his back had tied a knot on itself. Beneath his clear, mixed-blue eyes, his slightly tanned skin was a bit darker than elsewhere; clearly he had just woken up, and most likely he didn't have a very long nights sleep before that either.

"That's why we do it. Isn't it, Twin Lark?" Said the twin with slightly darker voice without looking away from Javelin.

"Indeed it is, Twin Martin." answered the other one immediately, also without looking away from Javelin.

"How else would we get you out of bed?" they once more spoke as one, still looking at Javelin.

Javelin shuddered.

"I'm out of bed now, so stop it!" He turned around and re-entered his room.

Inside was a mirrored world; almost everything - desks, beds, cupboards, and so on - existed in pairs, each placed at opposite sides of the room. However, only the left side showed any signs of being lived in.

Under constant, and annoyingly synchronized, remarks about hurrying it up, Javelin put on the rest of his grey school robes. He paused in front of the room's only mirror to make a swift attempt at straightening out his hair, something he quickly gave up, before he left and followed the Griffin twins down the corridor outside.

As they walked past one of the large windows, the early morning sun stung Javelin's eyes and he cringed before quickly looking away. Continuing on, he sighed heavily and used his thumb and index finger to kneed out the pressure below his brows. Today was going to be a long day and, for some reason, Javelin hadn't been able to sleep or cultivate properly the last couple of days; an ever growing notion of anticipation seemed to keep pulling him awake.

---------

Meanwhile, on Sky City's ground level, Raven was being pulled along by her four mercenary uncles. Raven stifled a yawn.

"Is it really necessary to go there so early? There are still a couple of hours left before the exam starts."

"True," answered Hog, "but in order to take the test you have to sign up first and that alone takes about an hour."

"That long?" the small white body of Hoatzin landed and Raven's shoulder, "It didn't even take five minutes last time..."

"The noble clans most likely don't have to go through with the full procedure." Raven thought back to her brother.

At that moment the group rounded a corner and walked out on of the larger streets that headed directly towards the center of the city. Raven looked up and couldn't help but draw a deep breath. The four peaks of Sky City were even more impressive from the ground and the blue imperial palace, situated thousands of meters above them, was only barely discernible through the misty clouds that covered the top of the central peak.

"And there might be widows among the nervous parents," winked Saltmarsh.

Emu smacked Saltmarsh over the back of his head while Hog and Dove rolled their eyes.

"While you sign up for the exam, Raven, we," Hog said and focused his stare on Saltmarsh, "will visit the mercenary guild - we have yet to register here."

Before Saltmarsh could cut in again Dove continued, "and if there is any time left over it will be spent on finding someone to remove those Limiters."

"I told you, the is no need for that..." muttered Raven loud enough so the others could hear her.

They had only arrived in Sky City two nights ago and had focused their attention on finding a fitting place to call home for the four mercenaries, who intended to make Sky City their home base for the duration of Raven's studies.  Finally they had purchased a five room house in the outskirts of Sky City's ground level.

Due to the distance from the central peaks, it was quite affordable. The same could not be said about the houses closest to the peaks - those would cost a smaller fortune to buy and even the substantial amount of money I'iwi had saved after years of servitude, not only to the Nightingale's but also to the Empress, wouldn't be enough. As for the houses located on the peaks themselves, well, they could not be bought with money alone.

"Ah, here we are."

Hog motioned to a building that reminded Raven very much of the alpine lift houses of her old world, only, instead of ski cabins gliding in and out of the openings just under the roof, Everest Hawks came and went. These Everest Hawks were young and therefor a great deal smaller than the ones Raven's family had used last time they arrived in Sky City.

"Welcome," muttered a sleepy attendant as the group walked through the door, "where to?"

"Business Tier, near the Academy enrollments."

The attendant glanced down on Raven. "Under nine, are ya?" he asked but Raven only stared at him in response. He snorted and looked back at Hog, "That's two silvers for each of ya, fifty coppers for the kid."

Hog paid the man who then directed them to the nearest available bird. Moments later, the left the building strapped down on the back of an Everest Hawk.

Apart from the Indigo Cloud Palace - located on its own, high above all the others - the settlements on the peaks were divided into four major tiers. The lowest and largest tier was the so called Business Tier. This enormous layer stretched around all four peaks and was the center of all important businesses in Sky City.

Above the Business Tier were the Mansion Tier, the Military Tier and finally the Academy Tier. The Military and Academy Tiers' names speak for themselves - one is the base of the Imperial Army and the other houses the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts - but the Mansion Tier is were the noble clans live, even the prefecture clans would have dwellings there, though they rarely used them.

Although the distance between the outskirts of the ground level and the four peaks was rather vast, it only took roughly five minutes for the Everest Hawk to reach its destination, the northern side of the Business Tier.

Even before the bird landed, Raven had figured out where she was supposed to go to sign up for the exams; thousands of young people were gathered on a large square fairly close to the landing area. Along the left and right side of the square were at least ten different banners, each representing a separate school trying to lure applicants - with varying success.
At the far end was a large, dark blue, banner with the golden text: Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts, printed on it. Beneath it were five smaller banners that divided up interested participants based on their initials. No other school needed to make such a separation; clearly most youths present were aiming for the Sky Academy. Perhaps the other schools would have better luck in the afternoon, after the Academy's exams.

"We'll be back here in two hours at most. Good luck Raven," Hog patted Raven on the shoulder, and was about to walk off when he added "and don't cause any trouble."

"I will do nothing that my dear uncles wouldn't do." said Raven sarcastically.

"That's what worries us," answered Dove and Emu almost in unison as they glanced at Saltmarsh.

"What?" Saltmarsh pulled back from the sudden stares.

"Never mind," sighed Hog, and started to leave, "let us go."

"Yes, brother boss!"

The four white-robed mercenaries walked off, leaving Raven alone by the square. Well, as alone as one can be surrounded by thousands of people and with your bird-formed brother on your shoulder. Raven turned around and took in the crowd. All these people and their presences almost made Raven light headed; practically everyone present were, or at least had the potential to become, spiritualists and all gave of varying tones of grey.

"Be careful not to fall of my shoulder, big Brother, or you might get trampled." warned Raven.

"I'll keep it in mind,"  he answered but he didn't sound very thankful for the advice.

Raven grit her teeth and moved into the crowd, placing herself last in what seemed to be the N-S line for Sky Academy - she might have practiced patience to perfection but that didn't mean she liked waiting.

One and a half hour later, Raven had still not reached her goal, although now only a handful of people were left in front of her. During the wait, Raven and her brother had tried to amuse themselves with guessing, or rather inventing, the backgrounds of the other youths waiting in the square, but, by now the exercise had grown tedious.

Suddenly, light flashed in Raven's eyes.

"Don't look now brother, but we're about to get some entertainment."

"Huh? What..." Before Hoatzin had time to finish his sentence, a large white and purple crane, followed by a even larger Everest hawk, swooped in over the square and landed at the far end, close to where Raven had first arrived. The white and purple bird was a rare spirit beast called the Viola Crane, famous for its loyalty and devotion,  and this specimen wore lavish ornaments over its head and claws.

Of from the Viola Crane's back slipped a boy and a girl, both dressed in very exquisite clothes, and they were soon joined by four more, although in less fancy clothes, who had jumped off from the Hawk. Without hesitation, the group started to move through the crowd people in the square.

"Make way for Lord and Lady Sarus!" the four groupies took turns at ordering the youths in the square to move and they met little to no resistance.

"So the Sarus clan needs to register like everyone else... What are you going to do, Sister?"

They were headed straight in Raven's direction.

"Keep waiting patiently in line," answered Raven with a slight smirk, "I wouldn't want to loose my place."

It didn't take long before the group had made it's way to Raven's position.

"Move, runt!" shouted groupie number one.

Raven only glanced over her shoulder, before facing forward again. Another person was just done so Raven moved to fill the created gap.

"There, I moved," she said with a flat tone, " no need to rush."

"Are you stupid?" asked groupie number two as number one's face started to grow red with anger.

"Not particularly," answered Raven, without looking back.

Now groupie number two started to grow red as well but before they could act, the boy lifted a hand to stop them. The boy, or Lord Sarus as the groupies called him, inspected Raven's clean but somewhat tattered clothes from top till toe before he spoke in a condescending tone: "No point in getting mad a the, what did you call him, runt?" he paused, "yes, very fitting... This runt is clearly a poor little creature that has lived all his life away from civilized people. You can't expect him to know proper manners."

It was meant as an insult but Raven didn't even flinch, or turn around for that matter.

"You have a good eye, sir," her voice was still flat, "here I thought that it was the civilized thing to do, to stand in line without cutting ahead."

"How dare you!" All four groupies became upset at once and the young lord got a murderous look in his eyes.

The closest groupie, groupie number two, swung out a fist towards Raven's head, but just as the fist was about to make contact, Raven bent down to the ground with a pleased, "Look at that, a copper!" The lack of a target caused the boy to loose his balance and topple over, just as Raven stood back up again, seemingly oblivious to everything.

"Why is the line not moving?" said Raven in a pensive voice and jumped up to see over the crowd, just as groupie number one's leg swept past under her legs and instead kicked the already fallen groupie number one.

The groan of the boy on the ground finally got Raven's attention and she looked at groupie number one with disdain, "you shouldn't kick a man that's down, that's uncivilized."

Suddenly, spirit essence surged within the young Lord and he gesticulated towards Raven, "You bastard! I, Brolga Sarus, will teach you a lesson in manners even your parents will remember!"

Raven's eyes narrowed.

'Now you've done it.' thought Hoatzin and flew of from Raven's shoulder.

Slowly, Raven turned to look at Brolga. Her eyes met his at once. No spirit essence was used and her killing intent was kept in check, but the moment he stared into her deep, dark red eyes a shiver ran down Brolga's spine. He had never seen such a cold and heartless glare before and all of his instincts were telling him, yelling at him, to run away.

"What is going on here?" A loud voice rang out in the square and, calming down, Raven broke eye contact with Brolga to look for the source. As she did, Brolga let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

When Raven looked at the boy who had spoken she almost smiled; she knew him. It was Javelin, the young boy that had gifted her the Twilight Lullaby almost exactly four years ago. He had grown a lot since then.

Although he was only ten, his constant cultivation and training had made him mature quicker, to the point were he now seemed no younger than fifteen. He was nearly a head taller than Raven and very well built. His blonde hair shined like gold in the sunlight, just as she had guessed it would, and his striking galaxy-like eyes seemed to draw her in.

'Very dangerous, indeed.'

As Raven looked at Javelin, he too looked at her, or him, as he saw it. Javelin had run over from his position beneath banner A-F when he sensed the spirit essence within Brolga Sarus activating. He had intended to quickly put an end to whatever ruckus was going on, but now found himself staring at a scrawny boy with midnight purple hair and blood red eyes. Apart from the cold glare of those red eyes, the boy seemed remarkably... unremarkable, and yet, the moment Javelin had laid eyes on him his heart a stopped beating for a second, only to start beating even faster afterwards.

'What the heck...' he couldn't understand his own reaction and, quite frankly, that made him annoyed.

A light cough near by drew the attention of both Javelin and Raven.

"My brother and I were on our way to register for the exams when we had a slight misunderstanding with this boy here," it was the young Lady Sarus that spoke, "it will not happen again."

"Sister?" Brolga hissed under his breath.

"Don't go breaking rules when you can shame him during the exams, Brother," she whispered back.

"Ah," Javelin looked back at Raven, "is that so?"

Raven shrugged.

"Very well then, back in line everyone." By now, the argument had drawn quite a lot of attention and the queues were largely disrupted, but on Javelin's command they started to reform.
Javelin glanced a final time at Raven before he started walking back to his post, but he stopped and turned as he noticed he was followed.

"Yes?" he asked the two Sarus siblings behind him.

They blinked at him in surprise. "We are going to register for the exams," said Brolga eventually.

Javelin pointed at the back of the queue, "Then I suggest you wait in line." he said and walked of.

"He hasn't lost his straightforwardness over the last two years at least," commented Hoatzin happily as he settled back down on Raven's shoulder, "nor his fascination for you, it would seem."

"Don't be silly, he no doubt thinks I'm a boy."

"According to mistress Tinga, gender has nothing to do with it." he sounded very proud of his new insights.

Raven just snorted and, since it was finally her turn, walked up to the desk under the N-S banner. Behind it sat another known face, one of the Griffin twins, though she didn't know which one. The twin had also grown considerably, although he was less sturdy and more lean than Javelin.

"Hello," the twin spoke with the dispirited voice of someone who has done the same thing for far too long, "name?"

"Raven."

He twitched a bit at her name but after a quick glance at her, he returned to his previous state. "And your family name?" he continued.

Raven only paused for a second.

"Night."

He scribbled the full name down in a log book.

"Age?"

"Six."

That caused him too look up again.

"There is no point in lying, I will test you once I've written down your answers."

"I'm not lying." Raven had known this was going to happen.

"And you have formed a spirit core?"

"Yes."

"Then show me your Spirit Stone."

"I don't have one."

The twin sighed and stopped taking notes.

"Hold this," he held out a clear disk and motioned for Raven to take it - which she did - and then said, "pour spirit essence into it."

Which she also did. Within seconds the disk flared up with extremely brightly light and then dimmed just as quickly, revealing the text '6 years and 7 months, spirit core confirmed' at its center.

Chapter 31: The Exam Begins

Martin stared at the disk with round eyes. Subconsciously he glanced over at Javelin's desk two steps away; had Martin stumbled across a freak even more impressive than his foreign friend? He shook his head.

"The disk must be broken..." he grumbled and fished out a new one from a box below his table.

The disks could only test a hundred people or so before needing to be replaced, but what Martin forgot, or perhaps chose to forget, was that he had just changed the disk for the previous person.

"Here, do it again."

Inwardly Raven rolled her eyes slight annoyance but she showed no sign of it to Martin as she grabbed the second disk.
Hoatzin's eyes shined with amusement, watching silently from Raven's shoulder.

The disk flared up and '6 years 7 months, spirit core confirmed' was displayed once again.

"How is that even..." Martin started to blurt out but then he chuckled and said, mostly to himself, "well, I though Javelin was impossible, so why not..."

As far as Martin was concerned, forming a spirit core at the age of seven was unimaginable already, Raven had simply beat him to it by six months. What Martin was to young to take into consideration was that Javelin was from a famous military family with close to unlimited resources, he would for example have had no problem getting access to a Spirit Hall on the Day of Light. Night, however, was not a name of any big or wealthy clan in Sky Empire...

As it was Martin just smiled happily at Raven and handed over two small wooden tablets. "The red one is for you, use it to get on the shuttles to Sky Academy for the exams. The blue one can be given to a family member that you want to bring with you."

Raven accepted the tables with a curt bow, it was closer to a nod actually, and turned to walk of.

"Good luck, little brother Night," Martin called out after Raven, "I hope you pass!"

"Hmpf," snorted Hoatzin, "that Martin fellow, always too easy going. I hoped for a better reaction..."

"You know him well then? I couldn't have told the two twins apart before." Raven asked while she made her way through the crowd - there was still over a thousand people on the square and it was very cramped, but Raven didn't even touch a single person as she moved.

"Well, the four of us - the twins and Javelin - were all in the same dorm room that year and they are fun guys to be with." he explained, but then added with an other snort, "most of the time."

Raven kept making her way across the square, careful not to get to close to the Sarus siblings - she had no wish to cause another scene, yet - and soon got a clear view of her target, her waiting mercenary uncles. They had switched out of their white robes and instead wore brown leather armor with a red sun on their chests.

'It would seem like they've joined a larger mercenary core.' Raven thought to herself but just as she was about to step out of the square to join them, Hoatzin's panicked voice rang in her head, "Wait!" and her brother flew up in front of her face.

Raven stopped immediately, sharpening her senses in case of danger, and asked solemnly, "What is wrong, bother?"

"The dorms! I had forgotten, but you will have to share a room with three guys at the Academy!"

Raven blinked at her brother and then burst out laughing, with quite a few heads turning her way.

"Oh, Brother..." her body had already relaxed, "have I not been traveling alone with four men for over a year now?"

"That's different! They are too old for you!"

'Hog is, certainly, but the other three are not that far from to my actual age. It's more like my classmates will be way too young...' she mused to herself but said nothing.

Stifling her laughter, and ignoring her fretting brother, Raven rejoined the waiting mercenaries. She held up her two tablets and gave a small smile. After a heated discussion between the four men it was decided that Hog would be the one to join Raven, while the others would wait at a tavern, ready to celebrate the good news.

Opting not to tarry any longer, Hog and Raven located the shuttle bird that flew anticipating students and their family members up to the second top most Tier that belonged to Sky Academy. The flight was fairly short, but the bird took a extra tour around the Academy Tier allowing the ten or so passengers to have a closer look.

Most people had never seen it this up close before, since you required clearance from the military if you wished to fly above their Tier. Raven had seen it before but it was still very beautiful to watch.

The Academy Tier was relatively small; most of it was centered around the main peak, with a smaller portion located to the south, at the very top of the second highest peak of Sky City - the other two peaks were not high enough to reach the Academy Tier. The two areas were interlinked by a wondrous garden that stretched between the two peaks.

The garden had everything from exotic flowers and trees to rivers and ponds; a part of the huge waterfall running down the main peak had been diverted into this garden and flowed gently towards the outer peak. It was an optimal place for meditation and contemplating the natural spirit essences in the world.

There were even a few open areas that allowed two student to spar with each other. Special force fields surrounded these areas so the fighting wouldn't disrupt the rest of the garden.

Hoatzin nodded towards the smaller settlement on the outer peak, "That is where the elders and advanced students live. The spirit essence is a lot denser there."

Raven looked closer at the cluster of buildings. Apart from a larger tower in the middle, most houses were fairly low, two stories at most. The tiles on the roofs were a deep blue and, surprisingly enough, all of these houses seemed to be made of wood as white as snow.

"Starlight Birch!" Raven exclaimed in shook.
"You know of it?" Hoatzin first sounded surprised but it quickly faded, "of course you do.  Well, the Elders will tell you all about how the Academy got a hold of the wood if you ask them, for hours. To make a long story short, the founder was gifted the wood from a mysterious friend he once saved."

Raven just stared at the houses, even as the bird took her out them out of sight. Starlight Birch was a long extinct tree that looked almost exactly like a normal birch, except for the snow white bark and wood and the dazzling silver leaves that would shine softly in the dark. The reason for this phenomenon was that the starlight birch was capable of absorbing spirit essence, much like a spirit beast, and purified itself in the process.

The result would be unimaginably strong wood that was at one with the natures spirit essence. This had many positive consequences for a spiritualist. Starlight wood would for example not restrict a spiritualist's senses, as normal stone would, but the biggest benefit was that even though the wood absorbed spirit essence, it didn't keep it indefinitely. It simply absorbed it, refined it and then let's it go again.

"No wonder the spirit essence is denser there... I wonder who this friend was that casually gave away so much Starlight wood."

"Nobody knows for sure." answered Hoatzin just as the cabin they were in was lower down to the ground.

They had arrived in front of the huge auditorium were the exam would take place. Even the buildings here were white with deep blue roofs, but here the buildings were made out of stone. The roaring sound of the waterfall could be heard in the distance.

As she and the other people in the cabin disembarked they were meet by none other than Lark, the other Griffin twin. Raven was astonished by how similar the two twins were even on a spirit essence level; very few differences existed between the two that she could use to tell them apart.

"Welcome to the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts," said Lark without acknowledging any of the adults, "I will show you to the waiting rooms were you will be dived into groups for the exam." He turned and walked away, knocking on a sign that said 'Families this way' as he past it.

Hog and Raven glanced at each other once before Raven followed Lark and the five other students that had arrived with her. Hoatzin hesitated for a moment but in the end decided to remain on Raven's shoulder.

"I know the Academy is supposed to treat all students equally, regardless of background but I didn't think they'd go as far as to have prefecture heirs and important exchange students working as aids..."

There wasn't really a question in there but Hoatzin answered it anyway, "Ha! Sky Academy is anything but equal to its students, but, if our year together was an indicator then I bet the Griffin Twins did something they shouldn't have and then got Javelin involved in the clean up."

He tried to sound displeased with this behavior but Raven could tell that his heart wasn't in it.

"How improper!" she teased sarcastically as they followed Lark through a set of heavy doors.

---------

Javelin sat in the second floor viewing area of the Academy's auditorium together with the other few students who were either bored enough to come watch the entrance exams or had relatives entering. Across from him, over the stage, all three prefecture booths were empty and the emperor was not to arrive for a while longer - if he'd arrive at all this time, considering the troubles the imperial family were having at the time.

Fairly few people were aware of the accusations against the Empress but Javelin had been present at the palace to meet with an ambassador from his home country when the Empress had been detained. Javelin himself had been sworn to secrecy, of course.

Loud *thumps* on either side of him drew his attention to his two friends.

"Unshackled for now?" he asked the twins - Hoatzin's guess had been spot on.

"Yeah, we are released until after the exam." smiled the one on the left, Lark, "how many do you think will pass?"

"I don't know," Hoatzin looked down on the stage, "it felt like fewer than usual even met the criteria this time."

"Then you had bad luck in your line, according to Elder Kagu, we have a new record," Lark paused for effect, "1097 applicants."

"I wouldn't call it bad luck," sighed Martin, "I had to go get an extra box of age disks..."

"At least you didn't have to break up any fights," Javelin pushed down on his temples, ever since he broke up the first fight earlier, he had been feeling... odd.

Martin, however, disregarded Javelin's comment and tiered state as his eyes lit up and he leaned over so he could look at both his brother and friend.

"Speaking of age disks, I came across a boy even freakier than our own mister Hake here." he jabbed Javelin with a closed fist on his shoulder.

"Oh? Do tell." Lark seemed only mildly interested on the surface but light shone in his eyes and Javelin knew no man appreciated gossip more than Lark, and perhaps Martin.

"Six years, seven months, spirit core confirmed."

That jerked Javelin out of his odd mood.

"The disk must have been broken." said Lark disbelievingly.

"I thought so too but I had changed it right before and even gave him a new one to test him again. Same result."

"Impossible." breathed Javelin.

As someone who had managed to form his first spirit connection at the very young age of five years and one month, Javelin knew just how hard it was to make a child form a connection ahead of time. His empire had done countless studies on the subject, and no mentally sane child had ever managed to form a connection before the age of four years and nine months. Even then, the child had  basically been tortured its entire life and was of little use after that.

Similarly, once the first connection was made, the all time record of forming a spirit core was currently held by his own big brother, who had only needed a couple of months under two years.

Javelin's own childhood had been very though and still his success hadn't been certain.

Javelin drew a deep breath, "poor kid, most likely he has life has been a living hell only to now have a useless and unstable soul prism and spirit core..."

"Hmm, he didn't seem so unstable to me," pondered Martin, "a bit cold, though."

At that moment a loud voice echoed through the now filled hall.

“All rise for his Imperial Majesty, Sky Emperor Mallard Bateleur!"

The hall was filled with shuffling noises as everyone got to their feet. Moments later the large golden clad figure of the emperor appeared on the highest balcony over the stage. He smiled and waved once to the crowd before sitting down. No one would have known that anything was wrong just by looking at him, perhaps not even Raven would be able to tell.
The fact that the Empress wasn't with him caused some whispers among the crowd but the Empress didn't always attend the Academy exam so it was mostly whispers of disappointment, rather than suspicion.

Elder Kagu walked out on stage in the light grey robes of a regular elder. He bowed to the Emperor and then started repeating the same speech he held every year.

“Welcome to the annual entrance exams for the Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts!” his strong voice echoed out into the hall. “I am Elder Kagu, and I will administer today’s exam.” He paused and gazed out over the audience.

“All applicants have been checked and they have all passed the first requirement; establishing their spirit cores before the age of nine. But, as you know, Sky Academy has even higher requirements before accepting new students.”

“1097 children have applied for the exam this year, most likely only about ten will pass.” Elder Kagu continued and just like every year the hissing noise of sharp intakes of air spreads throughout the hall at his words.

He continued to explain how the exam would work and the probabilities of passing but Javelin and his friends didn't pay much attention.

"So, you don't think the six year old..." Lark looked questioningly at Martin.

"Um, Night. Raven Night." Martin filled in and glanced at Javelin as he said the first name, but Javelin didn't seem to react.
That in itself caused the twins to exchange glances before Lark continued, "then...you don't think that the Night kid will pass?"

"It's just a name..." sighed Javelin quietly - causing a second silent interaction between the twins - while he himself fiddled with something under his sleeve, "but, no, I don't think he will pass."

The twins didn't seem to register his last comment as they stared at their friend. For two years now, Javelin had reacted negatively any time the name Raven came up, but now he seemed almost fine.

"It begins."

The first group of possible students shuffled out on stage and went through the procedure of expelling glowing orbs of spirit essence that Kagu planted in them. Eleven groups would come and go, and by the time the tenth group left the stage twelve children had already passed.

None of them showed any stellar potential, like that of Hoatzin and Javelin, with the highest amount of expelled orbs numbering at 32. Surprisingly enough, that 32 had been achieved by a girl, meaning that she became the ninth girl currently attending the martial division at Sky Academy.

"I bet Elder Kagu is quite pleased with this years results," commented Lark as the last group was lining up on stage, "it has been years since more than ten students were accepted."

"If you're lucky, he will forgive you for turning his cat pink last week, on account of his good mood." Javelin winked at Lark.

"Ah, that's him!" shouted Martin, way to loudly, as he pointed into the rows of students on stage.

Elder Kagu twirled around on stage and shot the trio reproving glares.

"Or not," cringed Lark.

"Nevermind that," urged Martin, though in a lower voice, "look, it's the kid with the white bird on his shoulder."
Javelin and Lark scanned the group for the white bird and when Javelin found its owner his heart involuntarily skipped a beat. He frowned and suddenly felt quite annoyed. He recognized the boy from before and although he couldn't put his finger on it, something about him made Javelin feel perturbed.

"Are you sure that's him, Twin, he doesn't look like his any younger than the rest." questioned Lark.

He did have a point, Raven might be leaner than the boys around her but she wasn't much shorter, already being nearly one and a half meters tall.

"Of course I'm sure! How could I forget a little freak like that?"

With the children in place, neatly ordered in ten rows, nearly ten thousand spirit orbs surged out of Elder Kagu and moved towards 97 children on stage. The white bird on the Raven Night's shoulder took flight just as a hundred light globes poured into the kid.

“You have five minutes, starting… now!” bellowed Elder Kagu.

Chapter 32: Unprecedented

The entire hall sat in silence as the seconds ticked by. It didn't take long before the first student managed to expel an orb, Javelin recognized the kid from the the fight during sign ups, Brolga Sarus. Soon afterwards his achievement was mirrored by who Javelin assumed was his sister.

"Looks like we might get a tenth girl today." remarked Lark, but Javelin couldn't take his eyes of Raven Night.

No orbs moved out of the boy and as the seconds grew to minutes, he started to grow nervous. He was aware that the kid was most likely ruined for life, and incapable of cultivation, because even if he combined his brother's record for core formation with the earliest age a spirit connection has been formed - stable or not - this boy would still be too young.  However, he really wanted the kid to pass; a kid with a past like that, at least deserved to be... useful.

Four and a half minute had passed and still no sign of activity from the orbs. At some point, the boy's white bird had flown up and landed on the railing in front of the Javelin and the twins, but none of them had really noticed. Amusement and expectation twinkled in its very human eyes as it alternately looked at the stage in front of him and the boys behind him.

With mere seconds to go, Brolga Sarus opened his eyes and risked a glance towards the little runt he had argued with earlier. He snorted disdainfully at the lack of orbs around the kid and was about to close his eyes again for a final attempt a removing a thirty fourth orb, when a blinding light filled the auditorium.

Up on the student balcony Javelin shot to his feet and stared in disbelief at the immense light radiating from within the purple haired youth on stage. The light was so bright that the other student, who had their eyes closed in concentration, frowned and looked at it source.

The light slowly faded and revealed the calm youth standing at the center of a sea of twirling orbs.

"How...that's..." Javelin stuttered as he stared at the boy; not a single orb could be seen within Raven Night.

Javelin wasn't the only once shocked into aphasia, even Elder Kagu missed the light *gong* that indicated that the time was up and instead, wide eyed and pale faced, stood muttering "a hundred..." over and over.

At first the Elder though that some Divine Skill must have been used to accomplish the deed but as he thought back on what he happened it didn't fit. The orbs of spirit essence he released were specially designed to pick up on the activation of Divine Skills and the few skills it wouldn't pick up on were to weak to have this effect.

No, the exam was put together so that the only way a spiritualist could expel the orbs was to use their own, pure, spirit essence to slowly push them out. With newly formed spirit cores, the children taking the exams could only hope to move one or maybe...

The Elder's eyes widened and he suddenly disappeared from his position on the side of the stage only to reappear next to Raven. Without even asking he reached out and placed his hand on the kid's forehead. The kid stood there as calmly as before, and somewhere in the audience a muffled chuckle momentarily broke the silence.

With shaking hands Elder Kagu backed away from the kid. He closed his eyes and turned to face the audience.

“Three confirmed passes: Kori Sarus, 31 orbs cleared; Brolga Sarus, 33 orbs cleared; Raven Night, 100 orbs cleared.”

Silence.

“The three of you can follow the attendant out. The rest, may leave. The exams are over.” Elder Kagu instructed.

For a moment nothing happened. It wasn't until Raven turned toward the exit and started walking of the stage that the people present woke from their daze. Clamor broke out at once.

"A hundred? Isn't that a one in a billion occurrence?"

"Cheated, he must have cheated!"

"How dare he!"

Various comments and accusations flew through the air, but Javelin and the twins only sat silently in their chairs; the elder had passed the kid so they knew cheating was likely out of the question.

The noise level only rose in the hall, some parents and failed students were even trying to make their way on to the stage. What they intended to do once they got there, was hard to tell if even they themselves knew.

*BANG!*

The sudden sound from the imperial balcony caused everyone to quiet down and look up at the Emperor; he did not seem pleased.

Slowly he got up from his extravagant chair and walked over the balcony railing. His cold stare was like a bucket of water over the exasperated crowd.

"Elder Kagu, you have permission to explain the situation." Emperor Malard's voice was surprisingly calm. Even though he didn't have all the details it would seem like he had an idea of what might have happened and his words told the Elder that it wasn't necessary to hide the facts from the public.

"As you wish, your Majesty," Elder Kagu bowed respectfully to the Emperor and then turned to the audience.

"Raven Night has passed the exam on two grounds: firstly, he is well bellow the age of ten; secondly, his cultivation has already reached the peak of the Spirit Novice," this caused another shock for the listeners, "As such the spirit control exam is of no concern, since it is designed for a low Spirit Novice."

The people in the audience seemed to have come to terms with something at that point: it is not that this child is one in a billion or a cheater, he has simply advanced further in his cultivation and can therefor overpower the test. Slowly they backed away and the tense air in the hall dissipated.

The few spiritualists in the crowd, and the students on the floor above them, were not so easily calmed though. While it was true that practically anyone of them now could overpower the entrance exam with the sheer abundance of their spirit essence, was it truly less spectacular to be a peak Spirit Novice before the age of ten, than it was to have a one in a billion control over your spirit essence? Even the children attending Sky Academy, whom were considered the most talented of spiritualists, usually required three years simply to go from a new low Spirit Novice to a peak high Spirit Novice.

"Well, what do you know," smiled Martin, "I told you he wasn't unstable."

"Indeed." Javelin couldn't muster a longer reply.

"I bet you will get a new student in the advanced classes after this." Lark nudged Javelin in the side.

"Most likely."

"Come, let's go meet him before someone finds out and tries to sink his claws into him." Lark stood and pulled Javelin up with him.

"Good idea, Twin!" Martin was already standing, "See, I told you it was a good idea to turn Kagu's cat pink."

As the trio hurried off, the white bird on the railing almost seemed to smirk at them before it took flight, heading down towards the stage exit.

---------

Raven had, by now, already left the stage and entered the small backstage room where all other student who had already passed the exam waited. While they had waited, they had not been given any updates on the ongoing tests so none of them knew about Raven's insane results.

Therefore, the twelve eight-year-old kids looked at Raven and the Sarus siblings with mostly childlike curiosity. They might be young children but Raven could tell from their glances that they had quickly figured out that the later two did not like her. Perhaps some of them even noticed the fear Raven cold sense within the two. No doubt they wondered how Raven had grown disliked so fast.

Raven casually crossed the room and leaned against the opposite wall. She had barely looked at any of her fellow students, but she smiled slightly as her gaze fell upon the young girl that had managed to pass the test earlier on.

'I'm glad to see that there are more girls this year. We can't let the men keep hogging all the fun forever.'

The girl had noticed Raven's stare and hesitantly smiled back. The boys in the room where too focused on Kori to notice this exchange, but Kori herself had been shocked by the fact that another girl had passed and was already glaring at the girl. Her eyes narrowed.

Kori was just about to step forward when the attendant from the stage entered the room, followed by Elder Kagu and, seconds later, the white little Hoatzin who landed gracefully on Raven's shoulder.

"Haha, that was awesome, Sister!" Hoaztin practically squealed in her mind, "You should have seen the faces of Javelin and the Griffin twins - it was priceless!"

"The look the Elder is giving me right now is rather priceless as well." Raven replied as she lifted a finger to ruffle the feathers on her brother's head.

"True, it's as if he can't decide if he's looking at a monster or a genius."

"Let's hope he goes for the later..."

At this point, Elder Kagu, whom had been looking at Raven with an odd expression ever since he entered the room, tore his eyes away and addressed all the students.

"Congratulations, you have all passed your entrance exams and have been accepted into our Imperial Sky Academy of Divine Arts. From tomorrow onward you will be living at the student dorms here on the Academy Tier and spend your days cultivating and perfecting your Divine Skills."

"Your first lecture starts tomorrow at noon, you will then get a more thorough introduction to the Academy and your coming ten years. For now, I want you to follow this man, he will show you to your dorm rooms and give you your uniforms. After that, you are free to return to your families for the night," his expression grew stern, "but don't be late tomorrow."

He motioned for the attendant to leave through the main doors and the new students stood up to follow him.

"Ah, Raven Night," Elder Kagu's gaze locked on Raven once more, "I'd like you to come with me."

Brolga's fists clenched until they turned white while the other students looked at Raven with confusion. Raven herself gave a disinterested shrug, as if it didn't really concern her, and leaned of the wall.

She followed the Elder out one of the side doors without looking back at the others but once the door closed behind her she heard Brolga mutter "Commoner runt, I'll show you!" in a voice so low that, most likely, only Raven could hear him.

She didn't dignify that with even a mental response.

Raven followed Elder Kagu in silence through narrow corridors and a few staircases before Raven felt a familiar presence not far from her position. Moments later the elder led her around a corner and stopped in front of a large wooden door. Next to the door stood a slightly, and therefor uncharacteristically, nervous Hog.

"I see they have already brought your relative here," smiled Elder Kagu, "would you introduce me, Raven?"

"Elder Kagu, this is my adoptive uncle, Uncle Hog," Hog bowed rather elegantly, "Uncle Hog, this is an Elder of the Academy whom you have already seen on stage, Elder Kagu."

Elder Kagu also bowed, albeit not as deeply.

"Wait here a moment," he then said and walked though the wooden doors.

The moment he passed the threshold, Raven raised an eyebrow in surprise; she could no longer sense the Elder's presence.

"Hehe, you've impressed me yet again, Raven," chuckled Hog, "you don't know how to hold back, do you?"

"If you only knew..." puffed Hoatzin on her shoulder, but Raven just gave Hog a halfhearted smile.

"It's not always good to be too impressive, Raven," Hog continued, "you might attract unwanted attention." he glanced at the wooden door.

"I will keep that in mind, Uncle Hog."

After a few more minutes, the wooden door swung open once more and Elder Kagu called from within, "the two of you may enter now."

Without hesitating, Hog and Raven entered the room, but Raven nearly froze at the doorstep; the presence of leaking spirit essences inside the room was too overbearing! There were only three people within, one of which, was of course Elder Kagu whose warm orange presence had revealed him as a mid Spirit Champion even before.

The second person had an even brighter orange presence, indicating the impressive cultivation of high Champion - not yet at the peak, but still solidly 'high'. Amazingly enough, this man looked to be a lot younger than Elder Kagu, being perhaps roughly the same age as Hog. His eyes were bright and very curious as he observed Raven.

However, it was the third person, calmly seated behind a big desk, who was the largest reason for Raven's reaction; his presence was a blinding yellow that easily eclipsed the other two's.

'A Spirit Master!' Raven gasped. She had never met one before and could therefor not judge at what exact level the man was at but there was no doubt about him being in the Master realm.

Both unknown men wore the same type of robes as Elder Kagu, only theirs were whiter than snow - had Hog still been in his white robes then they would have looked dirty in comparison - and the nine pointed Spirit Stars were black, rather than the silver one on Elder Kagu's chest.

The seated Spirit Master smiled warmly at Raven. His hair was long and just as white as the robes he was wearing, but his face looked very young. By the face alone, Raven would have guessed him no older than thirty, but his grey eyes revealed a lot more age than that - much like she guessed her own would, were she not careful.

"You must be young Raven," the man's ancient eyes seemed to drill into Raven, "I am Headmaster Eider Swan, and this is Vice Headmaster Smew Gadwall." he nodded towards the other man beside him.

"Would you do me the honor?" Asked Headmaster Swan and stretched out a pale hand over his desk.

Raven couldn't help but swallow; this was it. If a Spirit Master couldn't see through her male disguise and hidden cultivation, no one else was likely to. Her thoughts went to the mysterious Fenris for a moment but she dismissed them at once; she had no idea what level of cultivation Fenris had but she felt sure that he was one-of-a-kind.

Almost holding her breath, Raven focused her attention on controlling her Limiters and circulating her spirit essence within her to hide her several secrets. Calmly she walked up to the table and grabbed the outstretched hand of the headmaster.

The moment their hands touched, strong spirit essence surged in from the headmaster's hand. A warm and gentle sensation filled Raven as the essence moved through her, first through her bones in her arm to ascertain her age, then to her spirit core to ascertain her cultivation.

At this point Headmaster Swan's eyes widened in pleased surprise, but he said nothing. His spirit essence then moved on towards her soul prism, but Raven put on a frown and used her own spirit essence to block him. Unlike with Fenris, she had no problem in stopping him.

Had the headmaster wanted to, he could have forced his way through, but not without risking hurting Raven in the process. Raven gambled on the fact that he would be more interested in keeping her as a healthy student than forcefully inspecting her soul. She was right.

"Apologies," he smiled as he let go of Raven's hand, "I did not intend to pry so deeply, but your age and cultivation rose my curiosity."

"So it's true then," said Vice Headmaster Gadwall excitedly, more as a statement then a question.

"Yes," he got a reply anyway, "tell me... Uncle Hog, was it? How have you raised such an extraordinary boy?"

It was Hog's turn to swallow. "Honorable Headmaster, although it is true that I, we, have raised and trained Raven these past three years, he was already a spiritualist when we found him."

"What!?" Elder Kagu couldn't hide his shock, "wouldn't he have been only three at the time?"

"Well," Hog glanced at Raven. He didn't really like to talk about Raven's past in front of her, since she would 'turn catatonic' for days afterwords.

The elders in the room seemed to understand that he didn't want to talk about it with Raven present so they asked her to leave, which she did, but before she left, Hoatzin switched his resting place to Hog's shoulder.

Once Raven was out of the room, Hog started telling them of that horrible day when he and his mercenary group had stumbled across giant caves located at the western mountain cost of the then called Nightingale Prefecture. They had originally been out on an other mission but decided to explore them anyway.

He then painted a very vivid picture of what they had found inside: cave after cave filled with dead, mutilated  children; smells that forced even veteran mercenaries to loose their dinner; torture chambers; and so on.

Hoatzin kept repeating what Hog told the men inside, his voice growing queasier by the second, and Raven had to yet again admit the wonder that was Fenris; even she would have a hard time imagining some the atrocities Hog thought he'd witnessed. Then again, Hog's story most likely had more truth to it then Fenris had realized since Raven actually had lived through, or dealt out, most of the rest of them.

Once Hog had finished his story - ending with how they'd found Raven strapped to a chair with sharp spikes digging into her neck, surrounded by a dozen laughing bandits - the room remained silent for a long while.

After a while, Hog continued talking, but now about the three years since then and how he and his crew had slowly made Raven to open up more and become the, all things considered, rather sociable kid she was today. He even brought up the times Raven helped save the lives of people in his crew. Perhaps he was afraid that they would think the kid unstable.
When the door opened and Raven was called in again, much of the Academy Elder's previous excitement had been sedated and Raven noticed that Hoatzin wasn't the only one to have been sickened by story.

"Junior Raven Night," Headmaster Swan still smiled at her, but it was more strained now, "I wholeheartedly welcome you to our Sky Academy. I hope you will enjoy your time here and find a place to call home."

Raven bowed respectfully and Swan looked at his vice headmaster who nodded in a.

"Junior, may we ask you something?" the headmaster spoke again.

"Ask anything, Headmaster Swan."

"Why do you want to grow stronger?"

Both vice and head headmaster looked at Raven with profound eyes, waiting attentively for her response. She could tell they were putting a lot of weight in her answer.

Raven seemed to ponder it for a moment before she lifted her gaze to look out through the rooms only window. When she spoke, it was the first time in a long while she was so honest with her words, perhaps even more so then she realized.

"I don't want to lose anyone... Not ever again."

Chapter 33: Admittance

The men in the room looked at Raven with mixed expressions, varying from pity to admiration, but Headmaster Swan seemed mostly determined.

"Very well, Junior Night, here is your curriculum for your first semester," he lifted of a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to Raven, "it might be a bit though for you, at first, but I think you have the strength for it."

Raven looked down on the paper and rejoiced; at the top was her name next to the number 95-01, followed by:

Morning Class: Battle Strategy - 1st level

Noon Recess

Afternoon Class: Spirit Control - 4th level

Evening Class: Advanced Classes - mixed

"You made it?" asked Hoatzin and few back to Raven's shoulder to look at the paper in her hand.

"I made it." she said happily to her brother but outwardly she looked up at the headmaster with a confused look.

"I guess you wouldn't know about it," Swan's smile had grown a bit more relaxed now, "well, Elder Kagu can explain on the way to your dorms."

The headmaster was about to send Raven of when he remembered something, "Oh, and if you feel up to it, the Emperor has invited you to attend a banquet this evening. It's normally for children from the noble clans who have been accepted into the school but he wanted to make an exception for you."

"If you want to go, tell your roommate and he will bring you. He will also be attending."

"Who is my roommate?" Raven wanted to ask but it wasn't something Raven Night would care about so she said nothing as she once more followed Elder Kagu out.

Hog hesitated, "um, respectable Headmaster Swan, the school fee..."

"Raven's studies will be paid for by the Academy, mister Hog," answered the vice headmaster matter-of-factly before Hog could finish his question. Hog bowed deeply and quickly exited the room, drawing a deep breath of relief once outside; he might not have Raven's sharp senses but his instincts still warned him of how much strength had been gathered in that room.

Raven and Hog said goodbye and Raven promised to head over to the earlier mentioned tavern later that night, but Hog recommended a visit to the Emperor's banquet first; "it's not every day you have an opportunity to see the Indigo Cloud Palace up close," he said.

The encouragement was unnecessary though; Raven would certainly not give up the opportunity to snoop around at the Palace, even if it meant taking the risk of being recognized by one of the noble clans. At least, not considering the current situation where the Empress had been accused of treason.

"Well then," said Elder Kagu as he and Raven walked away from the headmaster's room, "I take it your schedule confused you, no?"

"Yes, Elder Kagu, it did." This was of course a lie but she would let him explain anyway.

"Normally, students have two classes per day - apart from the time spent in self cultivation. The class in the morning consists of various lectures and practical activities endeavoring to teach you all you need to know once you graduate. Everything from how to lead an army or working as an official to how to effectively attack or defend as a group. These morning lectures will continue for the entire ten years you study at Sky Academy and no skipping is allowed."

Raven nodded as the elder spoke.

"The afternoon class is instead focused on increasing your understanding and control of your spirit essence. After your display this morning and the headmaster's inspection earlier, it is clear that putting you with the first year students for this class would be a waste. Therefore, you have been moved to the level for the forth year students instead," Elder Kagu glanced down at Raven, "I'm not sure that you will manage to follow their pace, but give it a try and if it doesn't work we can move you down a step."

"I will try, Elder Kagu."

There was much determination in Raven's voice and Kagu wondered if the kid had added the 'try' more out of courtesy then to indicate an actual possibility of failure.

He shook his head, smiling slightly, before he continued, "As for the advanced classes, well, you will find out the specifics later, but the students that have been picked for the advanced classes are the true elite potentials within our Academy. There can be at most twenty advanced students at any given time, two from each year, but there are rarely more that ten or fifteen that qualify. You are very fortunate to have been admitted, and so early on too."

Elder Kagu paused in front of a small door, "wait here," he said and disappeared into the room behind it only to reappear seconds later, now holding a grey bundle.

"Here you go," he handed it over to Raven, "your uniform. I slipped a Spirit Stone in there as well, since you don't seem to have one."

"Wouldn't students have to take more tests before they are picked for the advanced class? Why was I  admitted right away?" asked Raven as they started walking again.

"Do you really need to ask?" Elder Kagu raised an eyebrow in surprise but when Raven gave no other response he continued, "a six-year-old peak Spirit Novice is unheard of. If you work hard and get the right training from us, your potential is unlimited! Of course we would advance you right away."

The elder smiled warmly at Raven and she felt as if he had the erge to lift a hand and ruffle her hair. He resisted it, however, and instead turned left walking out through a small archway. When Raven followed him, her eyes widened with awe. They had stepped out into the beautiful garden that stretched between the main and the southern peek and it was even more impressive up close than it had been from the air.

Despite the cold temperatures of a too late spring, a sweet rosy scent filled the air and crystalline butterflies fluttered over the gurgling river that ran down along the garden. Here and there, students sat mediating on smooth white rocks, indifferent to the chill in the air.

In the distance, the lone high tower, with white Starlight wood walls and cobalt blue roof tiles, stood like a mythical monument or mirage - oddly there but not there at the same time - against the black background of the even more distant mountain range that surrounded Sky City.

"Impressive, no?" asked Elder Kagu as he took a deep breath and walked off down an ally of barren trees, "you see it at is least impressive time though, am I afraid. It's in a transition period right now."

"He's right, Sister," confirmed Hoatzin, "wait until you see how it looks in the summer!"

Raven looked forward to it already.

Walking at a slower pace than before, Elder Kagu, with Raven in tow, made his way across the garden in silence until they reached a large gate at the far end of it. As they passed through it, the elder nodded respectfully to a man seated leisurely by the gate, but the man barely took notice.

Judging by his clothes, the man was just another elder, but Raven could tell by his vibrantly orange presence that the man was not so simple; apart from the headmaster and his vice, this man was the strongest spiritualist she'd come across on campus.

Raven stopped and bowed deeply to the man before she hurried after Elder Kagu. Behind her, the man raised his head and watched her go with curious eyes.

"As a advanced student," the elder finally spoke again, "you will live here, in the southern dorms, together with the other advanced students." he paused and pointed to a ornate building to the right, "see that house, don't go near it. It's the Healing Division's advanced dorm and they don't approve of trespassers."

"And don't I know it..." muttered Hoatzin.

Raven guessed there was an underlying story for this comment but let it go for now. The elder kept walking and pointing out various houses and their functions along the way, including the house were the elders lived.

At this point Raven asked, "How many elders are there at Sky Academy?"

"Forty three at the moment, if you don't count the headmasters, but not all of us teach students." It was the first real question Raven asked so the elder was happy to answer.

"That many?" Raven sounded shocked, "are all of them from Sky Empire?"

"Usually, but as of late we've made an exchange with the other empires so we have two elders here from Earth and Sea Empire respectively."

Raven nodded but said no more.

Finally elder Kagu stopped in front of a two-story square garden house with a large sign over the front door that read 'Southern Martial Dorms' in golden letters.

"Here is were you will be living the next ten years, I would follow you in but I have other business to attend to." the elder held out his hand, revealing a smooth stone seemingly made of white jade. "This jade slip is your personal key in the Academy. Bind it with your blood and it will be able to unlock all rooms you have permission to enter, including your dorm room."

Raven took the stone and before she had the opportunity to bind it, Elder Kagu excused himself and, after a final "Welcome to Sky Academy", strode of back the way they had come.

"That was sudden..." Raven muttered as she looked at her surroundings, at the moment not a single soul was in sight.

"They don't tend to pamper students here. The fact that an elder escorted you this far is impressive enough," explained Hoatzin. "Brand the key, your room number should appear on it when you do."

Raven did as she was told and a grey number appeared on the smooth surface.

"That should be on the second floor, let's go." said Hoatzin and flew off through the open doors.

It didn't take long to find the room in question and once inside, Raven sank down on the right-hand bed taking in her new home base. The room faced west and would eventually have a perfect view of the setting sun over the mountains. As far as furniture went, calling it spartan may be a bit of a stretch but not by much.

"It will do, I suppose," muttered Raven, "at least the view is spectacular."

Her roommate seemed fairly well organized - apart from a hastily made bed - and few personal effect were out in the open. Hoatzin flew over to the other bed and landed on one of its bedposts.

"So who do you think your roommate is?" he asked.

"Hard to say... He has too be from one of the higher classes and someone has drilled the importance of order into him, the son of a military man perhaps."

"You just described nearly half the boys in the Academy..."

"True," Raven got of the bed and started changing into her school robes. "But who many of them are skilled enough to be in the advanced classes?" she  paused for a minute before she gave Hoatzin a smirk, "I'm just glad it excludes cousin Dunlin; I bet he isn't capable of keeping a straight line organized."

Hoatzin laughed - something that sounded very melodious in his bird form. "Well said, sister!"

Raven hung her old clothes in her empty cupboard before examining herself in the mirror. The effects of the Fox's Veil had no affect on her so she clearly saw her self and the aura she gave of in the reflection. She let her muscles relax, reclaiming her natural appearance.

For a six-year-old, Raven had to admit she looked rather striking; her purple-black hair, although short, framed a pale face with soft yet prominent features and her still blood red eyes gave her a cold, overbearing air that demanded regency. She was also tall for her age and even though the step into womanhood was still far away, the early signs were already there.

Raven sighed and resumed her male persona and tied up her hair before she tugged at her grey robe to cover her Fox's Veil arm guard.

"It is fortunate that the school uniforms do so little to enhance body shapes but still, I only have five years, at most, before hiding my gender will be near impossible."

"Sister could always just tell everyone that you're a girl..." muttered Hoatzin, but seeing the look Raven shot him, he quickly added "or we get our revenge before it comes to that..."

Raven smiled at him warmly but the underlying blood lust in her eyes still made Hoatzin's feathers stand on edge.

"On that note, we might as well get started. We have a lot of things we need to find out, but the most urgent is to learn what happened with the Empress." Raven moved over to the room's window, "when we arrive at the Palace later, I want you to see if you can find where Empress Nene is being held - most likely, the stone walls will obstruct my senses too strongly to find her, but you should be able to fly from window to window in search for her."

"Window to window? Sister, there must be at least a thousand windows in that Palace!"

"True, but if Tringa's information is correct, you only need to search the towers." Hoatzin snorted but didn't voice any further complaints so Raven continued, "once you've found her, I'd like for you to stay with her for a while, a few days even, to see what you can learn of her situation."

"I got it, Sister. What will you do?"

"I'll see what I can find out from the other end," replied Raven with a mischievous smile, "and go to class, of course."

"Class, huh? Never thought I'd say this but I rather miss them," Hoatzin reminisced.

"As it is a means to grow stronger, you should miss it," replied Raven as she hung the Spirit Stone pendant the elder had given her around her neck, tucking it into her robes, "but don't worry brother, I shall make sure you don't fall behind."

The bird shuddered, "Why does that scare me more than facing of against our unknown enemies?"

"Primal instinct?" Raven offered with an innocent face. She then looked towards the door, a surprised smile growing on her mouth.

---------

"Blasted twins, dragging me around for nearly two hours," muttered Javelin as he approached his room, "That Raven Night is indeed really impressive but to hunt him down like some lovesick teenager is simply too much."

Javelin placed his hand on the door knob for his room, pausing for a moment to let the door unlock itself for him, before he opened it and walked in.

He glanced at the empty bed opposite his and froze. It wasn't empty, She was sitting there; dressed in the same traditional gown She had worn three years ago, the soft sunlight from the window fell on her veiled face, slightly revealing the hidden features beneath. She had grown and had the years had done her well - she was beautiful.

Moisture filled Javelin's eyes and he had to blink to see clearly again, but when he did, She was gone. In her place was her namesake, the boy Raven Night that he and his friends had been searching for just moments ago.

As he stared at the ordinary looking boy and his cold glare, Javelin's confusion turned to anger and annoyance. Why did this kid bring up memories he was trying to put behind him?

"Junior Student Raven Night greats Senior."

Javelin blinked aagain. He hadn't noticed Raven getting up from the bed.

"What are you doing here?" he ignored courtesyand went straight to the point. "How did you get into my room?"

"This junior used the key Elder Kagu provided." Was that a flash of amusement Javelin detected in the kid's face? "I am under the impression that we are to be roommates."

"That's impossible, only advanced students can..." Javelin stopped mid-sentense. "Let me see your schedule."

"Yes, senior." Raven walked over and handed him a piece of paper. Javelin stared at it with amazement.

"I guess they would want a talent like yours to be nurtured right from the beginning." Javelin spoke more to convince himself than Raven. "No wonder we couldn't find you."

Coming to terms with the situation, Javelin suppressed his annoyance and stretched out his right hand to the boy, "I guess that makes us roommates for the next seven years. My name is Javelin Hake. No need to be so polite though, just call me Javelin."

Raven took his hand after a moments hesitation and then answered "then you should call me Raven."

"If it's all the same to you I think I'll stick with Night."

The boy looked a bit surprised at this but said nothing, so Javelin assumed it was fine.

Suddenly, a white little bird flew up between them and started flapping is wings violently in front of Javelin's face. Taken by surprise, he took a few steps back and let go of Raven's hand in the process.

The bird calmed down and landed on Raven's shoulder.

"Javelin, meet Tzin. He's a bit overprotective." Raven seemed to give the bird a reproving look.

Javelin stared at the bird. "A tamed spirit beast?"

"Something like that." Raven shrugged.

Chapter 34: Imperial Banquet

Author's note: Happy Mid-Winter everyone (or midsummer if you live on the southern hemisphere) ! I hope everyone will have a lovely last week of 2015 ^.^

Apart from this chapter I have also prepared a small Winter Interlude - it's a side story to the Whisper of the Nightingale and takes place back in Raven's old world. Check it out if you're interested!

A slightly awkward silence filled dorm room 207 after that. Raven could tell that Javelin was a bit conflicted over her presence; she could have asked him a few leading questions about himself to break the ice but it wasn't really the Raven-Night thing to do, so she let the awkwardness draw out for a while.

Eventually, Javelin cleared his throat. "Ah, um, I'm headed for a banquet at the palace," he lifted his hand to scratch the back of his neck, causing Raven to secretly smile at the familiar gesture, "so, I guess I'll see you when I get back... Or are you staying with your family tonight?"

"I will be, but actually, Elder Kagu said I was invited to the banquet as well and that you would bring me along, if I wanted to go."

"Really?" another conflicted look appeared on his face,"and you want to go? It is usually only nobility, Elders and ambassadors present..."

"So?" Raven gave him a questioning glare, "are you saying I'm not worthy enough to go?"

"No, no, I didn't mean that," he sighed and scratched the back of his neck again, "it's just a bit... stiff, that's all. I'm not sure you'd like it."

"We won't know until we've tried." Raven smiled a cold smile that was closer to a sneer than anything else.

If Javelin thought that the mockery was aimed at him, he ignored it. Instead he moved towards the door and motioned for Raven to follow.

"Well, I've warned you." he said and then added in a lower voice, "I wouldn't go if I had a choice."

"Sister, you are being rather harsh with Javelin; shouldn't you be trying to make friends?" Hoatzin asked as they followed Javelin down the hallway outside.

"I need to make useful allies, not friends," Raven thought back, "and besides, I bet he has his own notions of what I've been through to mature my soul so quickly - it would be more odd if I acted sociably."

Hoatzin said no more, but he couldn't help but feel that his sister had grown colder than he remembered her.

The journey to the palace was an uneventful one. Raven felt how Javelin kept shooting glances at her, only to look away with renewed confusion moments later. If she hadn't know better, Raven would have thought that Javelin suspected her identity, but he showed no signs of mistrust towards her.

Once at the palace, Javelin could have asked a palace attendant to show Raven to Elder Kagu, but he opted to do it himself. It didn't take long before they stopped outside a small wooden door with a few familiar presences waiting on the other side.

"Elder Kagu should be inside," Javelin nodded towards the door, "I will see you in the banquet hall."

With that, he turned around and continued down the hallway.

"It's time for you to leave as well - I'll see you in a few days, big Brother."

"Yes, Sister - take care of yourself." Hoatzin took flight and flew out through a nearby window.

"You too, big Brother," replied Raven as she placed her hand on the doorknob. She was just about to open the door when Javelin called out to her from further down the hallway.

"Come to me if anyone tries to harass you; we roommates have to look out for each other." As the last words left his mouth, Javelin turned around a corner and disappeared from Raven's line of sight.

Raven blinked and almost started laughing.

'You feel awkward in my presence but are still willing to protect me? Someone had instilled a great sense of honor in you, mister Hake.'

She covered up her smile and entered the room after a quick knock.

"What are you doing here?" the upset voice of the Sarus clan boy greeted her the minute she stepped into the room  "Commoners are not welcome here!"

"How fortunate then that I'm quite uncommon." Raven didn't bother look at Brolga as she walked over to room's only window.

Elder Kagu had yet to arrive - although Raven could feel his presence swiftly approaching - so the only ones present where the Sarus siblings and a veiled girl dressed in the uniform of the Healing Arts department, who was engaged in reading a small book she seemed to have found in the dusty bookshelf behind her. The girl's presence was familiar but Raven couldn't place it exactly.

'So the Healing Arts department had their entrance exams recently too.'

The Healing Arts placed their exam in accordance with the lunar calender so it wouldn't always match up with the Martial one.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" furious at being ignored, Brolga stomped over to the window, "Don't think that your measly talent is enough to put you in equal terms with us nobles!"

He stretched out a hand to grab Raven's robes, but she was quicker; Raven took a hold of his wrist and twisted it behind his back before the little lord even realized that she had moved.

"Your parents have done you a disfavor," she whispered is Brolga's ear so only he could hear it, "you are way too proud." He struggled against her grip but to no avail. "Nobility is wasted on the likes of you."

"You...!"

Just as spirit essence started to gather within both Brolga, and his sister too, Raven let him go and backed off a few steps. In the same instant Elder Kagu walked through the door.

"What do you think you are doing?" the elder immediately noticed the building power in the two youths, as well as their target.

"Elder, this commoner has no right to be here; we were just about to force him to leave," explained Brolga as if it was the most natural thing in the world, but his underlying anger was obvious.

The elder started blankly at the boy. "There is so much error in your statement that I don't know where to begin... If nothing else, I would expect you to have eyes that work." Elder Kagu pointed towards Raven's chest, "How could you possibly hope to force Junior Night to do anything?"

When Brolga's eyes feel upon the purely white pendant that hung visibly around Raven's neck he became flabbergasted.

"H... How.." Brolga stuttered.

His sister was equally shocked but kept her composure a bit better, but she had the benefit of her veil to hide her expressions. The other girl, however, made no attempt to hide her wonder, instantly putting down her book, leaping to her feet and running the few steps to Raven's side.

"Wow, you're already a high Novice, and a peak one at that? Impressive, brother Night!"

"Brother?" Raven blinked in surprise.

"Of course, we're both students of the same school after all!" Even through the veil Raven could tell the girl was smiling foolishly. "My name is Kea Nestor of the Nestor Clan, but you can just call me sister Kea."

'Not another exuberant personality...' sighed Raven inwardly; she had been so pleased when she parted with Mayeri.

"Brother Night has to promise to come to me whenever you're injured, okay?"

Before Raven had a chance to reply, Elder Kagu intervened, "Enough of this, his Imperial majesty is waiting. Follow me."

Without waiting for the students to collect themselves Elder Kagu turned around and left the small waiting room. Full of energy, Kea coupled her arm with Raven's and dragged the obviously disapproving assassin girl with her after the Elder. It took a few moments before the Sarus siblings woke from their shock, forcing them to run in order to catch up.

Just like last time when Raven was present at this banquet, the Emperor gave a short speech before asking Elder Kagu to present the newest addition of nobles at Sky Academy. Low murmurs spread in the hall as Raven entered, last in line of the students; most people present had only expected three children to arrive.

Those murmurs of confusion turned to a whirlwind of nihilism once Raven's results were announced. If not for Elder Kagu's assurance that the headmaster himself had checked both Raven's age and cultivation, none would have believed even the notion of a six-year-old high Spirit Novice. During all this, Raven payed extra attention to people's reactions, taking note of those who seemed to be more threatened than impressed by her presence.

Eventually, the banquet hall calmed down and Emperor Mallard could welcome the new students and announce the beginning of the banquet. Immediately Raven got the explanation to Kea Nestor's familiar presence as she bounced off to hug a slightly older girl that Raven recognized as Lady Cara - one of the girls who swamped Hoatzin two years ago. Clearly they were sisters.

The banquet began; people ate, and some even danced, but everybody talked. At first Raven had been swamped with people, both young and old, whom all wanted to get to know the genius of the century, but Raven's cold demeanour quickly sent them packing. turned her into somewhat of an exotic animal - to be observed and marveled at, from a distance, but not approached. Few of those pushed away felt offended by it though, to them out only felt natural. She had turned into somewhat of an exotic animal - to be observed and marveled at, from a distance, but not approached.

Little did they know that just as they observer her, Raven too observed them. She was listening to every conversation, noticing every gesture. It was surprising how many dirty little secrets were revealed in a place like this, if you only paid attention.

Once people had moved on from discussing Raven, many turned their gossip towards the Empress. Clearly, the noble clans were aware of the accusations laid against her, however the verdict was out on whether they beloved them or not. The details about the supposed treason itself was however all over the place - no two stories being the same - and there were also mixed opinions on the Emperor's choice to keep his wife in the palace, rather than in a prison dungeon.

Raven was leaning against a pillar, sipping punch and listening to a particularly interesting conversation about the evening when the accusations had been brought to light, when Raven's body stiffened. She glared at a set of doors on the other end of the hall and as she did her blood red eyes seethed with murderous rage.

Moments later, the doors opened and a group of Academy student entered. In the front was a black haired youth with equally black eyes, that seemed to swallow everything they looked at. But Raven didn't care about him, what she cared about was that just behind him was a very familiar figure. Dunlin.

Just feeling his presence made Raven recall what had come to pass two years ago, and despite all her training she was finding it hard to keep her emotions in check.

'It would be so easy to kill him...' Raven's hand clutched her glass so her knuckles turned white, 'I could have a knife down his throat before anyone even noticed.'

Raven knew that killing her cousin now would do her no good, quite the opposite, but the temptation was so great. She felt herself taking a step forward as he word turned red, her mind mind blank.

Just as she was about to walk over to Dunlin, a cool hand gripped her wrist.

"Oi , Night, do you hear me?"

In an instant Raven's mind cleared and the ravaging blood lust within her calmed down. She was still upset, but in control of herself.

Blinking, Raven focused her attention on the owner of the cool hand and was surprised to realize that it belonged to Javelin, and her surprise astonished her even more.

'When did he get so close?'

"Night, are you okay?" Javelin looked genuinely concerned, "You look a bit pale."

Pulling herself free from his grip she expelled the last disorder in her mind, pushing down the urge to look back at Dunlin. "I'm fine," was all she said.

Javelin didn't look convinced but he knew better then to pry, at least not here and now. Instead he stepped to the side, revealing the the two red haired twins that had been behind him.

"My friends keep insisting that I introduce them to you. This is Martin and Lark Griffin, they started the same year as me and you will be having your afternoon Spirit Control classes with them."

Raven bowed stiffly in greeting, but before she had a chance to say anything, Martin smiled broadly at Raven and patted Javelin on his shoulder. "I'm glad to see a more insane genius than our mister Hake here - we had started to worry it might get to his head, hadn't we, Twin?"

Javelin rolled his eyes.

"Indeed we had, Twin," Lark's smile was a bit more controlled than Martin's, but just as genuine, "and any new addition to the anti-snob movement is most welcome."

Raven could guess what they were referring to but asked anyway, "Anti-snob movement?"

Martin snorted as Lark started explaining, "You noticed the group of late arriving student, right? Well, they are a bunch of snobs that believe that just because they were born by nobility the very world itself should kowtow before them; they have totally forgotten the point of having noble clans in the first place."

"Unfortunately most of the young nobles agree with them and the older ones spoil them too much to care," added Martin.

"Indeed," Lark nodded, "You have to be extra careful, Night; whereas they usually refrain from bothering other nobles, any 'commoner' with talent risks to be mightily opposed by them."

"Is that so?" Raven could have guessed this by their association to Dunlin alone.

"There are three head-honchos that stick out particularly in this group that you ought to be extra weary of. First we have the young heir of the Rock Wren Prefecture, Auk Wren - you will have little to no contact with him as he is in his second to last year now. Auk is actually not so bad on his own, but he is way to malleable and eager to please," Javelin warned.

"He wasn't a problem before Jack started here two years ago," sighed Martin.

"True," replied Javelin, "which brings us to trouble bringer number two - the Earth Empire exchange kid, Jack Tanuki. Like me, he is here for the exchange program between our three empires, but he is the eldest son of some important council member back home - something he is very proud of."

"Unfortunately, he's a Advanced student so there will be no avoiding him. The same goes for Dunlin Talon, who started same year as us and got accepted into the Advanced classes last year."

'Cousin Dunlin? An Advanced student!?' This news stunned Raven; from what she knew of Dunlin's talents, there was no way he would have been promoted.

A loud chorus of swooning interrupted the boys' talking. Raven completely ignored it, but Javelin and the twins looked around to find a group of young girls surrounding a young man. From his cultivation level, Raven assumed he was an elder at the school.

Martin sighed. "If it isn't Professor Love..." his voice was very sarcastic, "one of these days I'd like to see him enter a room without every woman melting like butter at the sight of him!"

"If only his temperament was a bit more like his younger kinsman's, then we'd have a legitimate reason to dislike him," teased Lark and both of the other boys laughed self-mockingly.

"Oh, come on, this is getting boring. Let's get out of here," suggested Martin and Javelin seemed sigh a breath of relief, "Yes, please!"

Without further ado the trio started moving towards the closest exit, efficiently shoving Raven with them as they went. Raven could have side-stepped them of course, but she noticed how the three of boys were carefully making sure that they blocked Raven's view of the group Dunlin had arrived with.

'It would seem like they are attempting to shield me from the snobs.' Raven felt quite amused by the whole situation, 'well, I guess a confrontation at this point wouldn't really lead to anything - I might as well go with the flow.'

Raven had already learnt a great deal about the situation in the palace and the current relations between the various noble clans present, plus her brother would hopefully give her more insights in a few days; it was a good enough starting point for now.

Chapter 35: The Dare

The three boys managed to shuffle Raven out of the banquet hall with perfect timing; just as the doors closed behind them, Raven could hear Dunlin and his crew getting details about her. It was a shame she couldn't see them, considering the sudden change in their breathing.

As it was, Raven got away from the banquet without a fuss. Her new insights and whatever information Hoatzin would bring her, had given Raven a few options for her next move. Now, however, was not the time to consider them.

"Now what?" she asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

The two twins looked peevishly at each other, and Javelin sighed.

"Well, there is this tradition..." started Lark.

"It's more of a dare really," inserted Martin.

"...where new students try to climb as high as possible up the Spirit Hall tower back at the northern area of the Academy," continued Lark, "Normally you would have found out about it tomorrow during your first Spirit Control class..."

"...but wouldn't it be awesome if your mark was already on it when the others hear of it? Besides, you will have your first control lesson with us so tonight is your only chance, really," finished Martin.

Raven stared at the excited twins with raised eyebrows; 'they are quite synchronized, these two...' she thought, but instead asked, "why not just take a spirit beast to the top?"

"Due to the nature of the tower there is a strong suction of spirit essence outside, normal spirit beasts won't go near it," explained Javelin, "this also restricts the use of spirit essence during the climb; you will have to rely on body strength alone going up."

"It doesn't sound like much of a dare..." muttered Raven.

The twins smirked slightly. "So you'll do it then?" they echoed.

Raven shrugged and nodded her consent, causing the Griffins to light up triumphantly while Javelin just smiled apologetically.

'I wonder what they have planned?' mused Raven as the twins dragged her through the palace halls, likely towards an appropriate exit.

How could she not notice that they were hiding something from her? Nonetheless, she obediently followed along; no matter what the hidden detail was, she was confident that she could handle it. Even though she saw few benefits in making friends with her preteen classmates, alienating them would bring no benefits at all.

The departure from the palace was swift and before long Raven and the boys were seated on the back of a large Everest Hawk, headed for the north side of the Academy Tier. As they approached, Raven couldn't help but notice a huge tower standing at the northern ledge of the Tier, looking as if it would topple over the edge at any moment.

The architectural structure of the tower was a complete opposite to all the other constructions in the area. Whereas the other buildings had a very Asian feel to them, this tower was more medieval Gothic in nature; it was built out of smooth black bricks and had multiple large windows - decorated with intricate traceries - and ornate spires were in abundance.
Every twenty meters or so, the tower changed shape; the base was square, the next level was slightly smaller but with five sides instead of four, the level after that was smaller still but with six sides. This pattern was repeated a total of six times, giving the smallest top-structure nine sides. All in all, it looked quite menacing.

"That is the Spirit Hall Tower," Javelin, who was seated being Raven, pointed at the black building, "it had to be placed as far away from the southern dorms as possible, or it would have sucked the Starlight wood in our houses dry ages ago."

Raven nodded - they were more than two hundred meters away from the tower but she could already feel how the natural spirit essence in the air was growing thinner.

"Inside there are hundreds of Spirit Halls of varying size and quality. The fifth section, the one shaped like a octagon, is for us advanced students - it has twenty rooms, separated on five floors, and we get one room each during the Day of Light."

Suddenly, the Hawk dived down and landed on the ground barely fifty meters away from the tower - clearly it would go no further. Raven understood its discomfort; the area in front of her was completely void of natural spirit essence, making the air itself seem dead and unwelcoming. Her own spirit core struggled desperately against the suction of the tower and any spirit essence that she tried to move out of it was sucked up in an instant.

Raven shuddered but as she hesitated to walk forward, Javelin and the twins approached the tower totally unfazed. 'Ignorance is bliss...' she thought derisively, 'they don't even sense their own presences being sucked away...'

Martin turned around and gave Raven a pleased smirk, "having second thoughts, are we?"

Raven snorted and started walking.

As she came closer to the tower she noticed how her senses grew duller, leaving her with only what her strengthened body provided. Up close and from the ground, the building was even more impressive and Raven had to crank her neck all the way back to see the top. She noticed the twins walking towards the ledge next to the tower and got a sudden premonition.

"I just have to climb as high as I can, right?" she asked.

"Well," started Lark, dragging out the word.

"It wouldn't be very much of a dare that way, now would it?" continued Martin and both twins glanced meaningfully towards the side of the tower facing the edge. They smiled broadly at Raven, obviously pleased at how they had turned Raven's own words back at her.

"Don't listen to them," interrupted Javelin, "you don't have to do it on the northern side - most students don't."

"But you three did."

It wasn't a question but Javelin nodded nonetheless.

Raven walked over to the edge and looked down on the world bellow. Although the Military tier was only a couple of hundred meters bellow the Academy Tier, due to the location of the other three mountain peaks, there were no structures facing directly north. If Raven fell, she wouldn't stop until she hit the Mansion Tier, roughly six hundred meters bellow.

Suddenly her eyes narrowed slightly and a minuscule smile spread on her lips.

"How high did you guys go?" she asked and while the boys were busy pointing out were they had been forced to turn around, Raven nudged a small stone over the edge and her smile grew. By the time the boys turned their attention back to Raven, however, the smile was relapsed by an unimpressed stare. "The record?" she prompted.

The twins seemed a bit perturbed by Raven's reaction, but Javelin answered calmly: "on the northern side the record is 63 meters - the bottom of the forth section - it might not sound like much but it's a lot harder to climb than it looks."

Raven couldn't help but reflect back on her old world; the notion of eight-year-olds climbing sixty meters up a perpendicular facade, even without the six hundred meter drop below, would have been utterly ridiculous. Well, for anyone but Raven and her fellow assassin trainees that was.

"How do I mark my top position?" she asked.

"You don't need to worry about that, the identification stone that Elder Kagu gave you will do it for you." informed Martin, who was almost bouncing with excitement by now.

Raven just gave him a nod and walked over to the closest tower wall. It was impossible to reach the northern side from the ground, so she would have to swing around the corner once she was a bit up the wall. For a few seconds Raven just stood there, observing the tower in front of her. With her extraordinary eyesight she had no trouble seeing small details in the buildings structure even a hundred meters up.

'Let's have some fun with this!'

---------

Javelin observed the lean youth in front of him who was currently starting up the tower wall with intense eyes. He couldn't help but feel like this was a bad idea. What if something happened to Raven? Usually an Elder would be present while the students attempted the climb.

"Don't push yourself too hard, Night," Javelin finally warned as Raven removed the outer layer of his grey uniform, revealing the equally grey tunic and pants underneath.

"Yeah, it would be a pain in the neck to explain to the elders why their new favorite is plastered to a one of the noble clan's family homes," joked Martin and Lark laughed, but Javelin only felt more uneasy.

Raven didn't even turn around at this though and just lifted a pale hand to his forehead, flicking it out in a salute.

'His hands are so small...' though Javelin absentmindedly before he quickly shook his head; why did he even care about the boy's hands?

Suddenly, Raven jumped up and down a few times before dashing towards the tower wall. With impressive ease, Raven basically ran up the wall before grabbing hold of the first windowsill, almost three meters up. The twins whistled in unison as Raven swiftly pulled himself up and somehow managed to stand on the narrow ledge beneath the window. A red dot appeared on the tower wall next to Raven's head.

Without pausing, Raven threw himself towards the corner of the tower and, for terrifying moment, Javelin thought that the boy had lost his mind - simply jumping of the building, and the Academy Tier in the process. However, just as Raven's body passed the corner, a small hand shot out, grabbing at the perturbing list running down the side of the building. Using the forward momentum of his body, Raven swung around the corner and effortlessly latched on to the closest windowsill on the other side.

Javelin released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Martin and Lark were silent for a moment before they started cheering excitedly.

"You're insane, man!" shouted Martin joyfully and Javelin agreed, not with the sentiment but with the statement - most people that attempted the northern wall would climb up to the second segment before switching sides.

As the twins cheered, Raven had already made it halfway up the first segment and kept climbing effortlessly at a steady pace.

"Let's get on the Hawk and watch from outside," suggested Javelin, "we'll get a better view that way."

The twins happily agreed with his reasoning and hurried back to the large bird that was waiting where they'd left it. Javelin had to force himself to look away from Raven's ascent - the notion of leaving the kid unobserved, even for only a moment, stabbed at him, but he had his reasons for wanting to be on the Hawk so it had to be done.

It took less than a minute for them to reach the bird and fly around the tower, as close as the Hawk would agree to, but when they arrived Raven was waving smugly at them from the ledge that separated to first and second segment.

"The kid is impressively quick!" exclaimed Lark, "it has been, what, a minute since he started?"

"But the hard part starts now..." said Martin, "think he'll beat the record, Javelin?"

"Huh? Ah, well, I guess so," Javelin's unease grew as Raven resumed the climb with feline-like movements.

"Oh, relax Javelin! Night will be just fine," assured Lark, "we'll tell him to turn around after he reaches the forth segment."

"That's already further than any of us managed," exclaimed Javelin, "he's only six for crying out loud!"

"True, but he's a high Novice - he ought to be many times stronger than we were three years ago, even without using spirit essence."

"Stop blabbering, you two, and observe Night instead - this kid is amazing!" interrupted Martin just as Javelin was about to speak again.

Immediately Javelin's full attention was back at Raven and he had to admit that what he saw was beyond belief; like a river flowing in reverse, Raven's lean figure moved up the tower wall with ease. Sometimes he climbed using the traceries in the windows, sometimes he jumped nearly a meter straight up to grab hold of the next ledge.

At one point Raven even twisted around from hanging - from what looked like nothing more than two cracks in the wall - to standing on his hands - still lodged in those same cracks - in order to use his feat to latch on to a buttress that extended from one segment to the next.

After ten minutes of continuous climbing, Raven had since long passed the previous record but all three boys were too entranced by what they saw to even notice. It wasn't until Raven paused at the bottom of the fifth segment that Javelin snapped out of his daze.

By now, strong winds were slamming into Raven's small figure, causing his grey clothes to flutter wildly. Javelin could see how Raven's body even swayed a bit under the high forces.

"That's enough, Night," he called out to Raven, "you've already set a new record!"

The two twins stirred at Javelin's call and once they realized how strong the winds actually were, they were quick to agree; "Javelin's right," they called, "go around to the other side and start climbing down!"

Raven turned to look at them and smiled the warmest smile Javelin had seen on that face yet. Javelin's heart rate increased instantaneously, but he chose to blame it on his nerves.

"Come on, Night, it's time to go down," Javelin's voice sounded a lot more pleading than he had intended, but at the moment he didn't care because his eyes locked with Raven's and he could have sworn that the boy winked at him while mouthing: "As you wish."

'Wha..' before Javelin had a chance to process this, he saw Raven spread his slender arms and fall forwards.
The world seemed to slow down.

Javelin watched with round eyes as Raven went from standing on the tower - relatively safe and sound - to lying face down over absolutely nothing. Slowly, Raven turned around in the air until their eyes locked once more - only then did time catch up and Javelin registered Raven plummeting further and further away. It had only taken a few seconds but the kid had already fallen a third of the height of the tower.

"Raven!" Javelin bellowed and forced the Everest Hawk to dive down. The bird promptly refused to fly within fifty meters of the tower so he had no choice but to speed on alongside Raven's decent - only once they were bellow the tower would Javelin be able to steer closer and catch the falling boy.

In mere seconds the Hawk had caught up to the point where it flew paralleled to Raven. The twins had already figured out Javelin's plan and were just about to call out to Raven when they noticed that the kid was still smiling at them and was even repeating the salute from earlier.

---------

When Raven lifted her hand to salute the boys on the back of the diving Hawk, she felt as if her body was being enveloped in a thick membrane of soft goo. Her speed slowed, instantly putting distance between her and the diving bird.

Raven allowed herself to shout out in joy as the thick membrane around her stretched and eventually propelled her body in the opposite direction, back towards to top of the tower.

'Haha, this is even better than I thought - it's like bungy jumping!'

What Raven had noticed earlier were traces of what seemed like a protective net of spirit essence just bellow the ledge where the Spirit Hall Tower stood,. She had then confirmed its existence with the stone she had nudged over the ledge, which had slowed down to a halt after only a few feet. She hadn't thought that the added speed of her fall would cause her to be ricocheted back up again.

Smiling she let herself bounce up and down a few times until she finally jumped off towards solid ground. The three boys had already landed and waited for her by the ledge.

"I'm starting to think you might not be so stable after all; why in the skies would you just jump off like that?" Martin's voice was harsh but the glow in his eyes told Raven that he was mostly just impressed.

Raven shrugged with obviously faked innocence, causing the two twins to burst out laughing. Javelin, however was not amused.

"Answer him."

"Huh?" Raven looked closer at Javelin's face and could see that he was basically seething with rage.

"Answer him," Javelin repeated and walked closer to Raven, "why did you jump?"

Raven blinked; she hadn't expected him to become so upset by her little stunt. Quickly, she picked up a stone and tossed it over the edge, pointing to where it stopped in mid air, "I noticed the safety net before I started climbing," she explained, before starting to turn back to face Javelin, "I figured it was the fastest way down..."

*BANG*

Numbing pain spread along Raven's check bone and for a second the world grew dizzy. Surprised, it took a moment before she realized what had happened - Javelin had hit her, hard, and she hadn't seen it coming.

"Don't ever do that again!" Javelin spat at her before he stormed of.

To the side Martin and Lark stared at the departing Javelin with wide eyes. They looked at Raven and then each other before immediately splitting up in two different directions - Martin running after Javelin and Lark walking over to Raven.

"Come," he said placing a hand on a confused Raven's shoulder, "let's find some ice for that."

Chapter 36: The Library

Author's note: I LOVE winter but I hate winter exams....

Raven declined the offer of applying ice to her swelling and instead used Healing Touch to lessen the reddening of her cheek. She didn't go back to her dorm room after that, and instead made her way to the tavern were she had promised to meet her mercenary uncles. The four men were of course happy to see her and bragged to the entire room about their genius boy who had made history at the entrance exams.

However, as they laughed and celebrated, Raven kept thinking back on the conversation she had with Lark just before leaving.

"Sorry about that" he had said, "Javelin is usually a lot of fun, but I think you remind him of someone he lost a few years ago, so he overreacted."

"Who do I remind him of?" Raven had asked in return.

Lark had paused for a second before answering, "his first love - her name was also Raven."

This had surprised Raven greatly. She was of course aware that Javelin had taken taken a keen liking to her when they first met, but that was three years ago. He had barely been seven at the time and they had only met once; his feelings for her shouldn't be so strong as to cause a trauma after her death.

'Surely, he can't still be in love with me?' Raven pondered as Saltmarch waddled over to the bar and ordered another round of drinks, 'no, it's more likely something else behind his overreaction.'

The noise level in the tavern rose yet again when the very drunk Saltmarsh started retelling Hog's story for the millionth time to the poor bloke next to him at the counter.

'... Javelin was uncomfortable with my presence before,' Raven continued her silent reflections, 'I just figured he felt threatened by me - don't tell me he actually suspects something?'

Raven discarded the idea almost immediately; if a Spirit Master couldn't see through her disguise, how could a ten-year-old?

"Why are you looking so worried, Raven?" asked Dove as he leaned over a now empty cup.

For an instant she was taken aback by the man's comment before Raven realized that she had let her normal expression of disinterest slip, letting her worry shine through. Raven did, however, not have to search long for an excuse.

"It's because Uncle Saltmarsh is about to start a fight," she replied and took a sip from her own cup, that contained a type of spiced milk often drunk by children in this area.

A large bang followed by the cracking noise of splintering wood filled the tavern mere seconds later.

"Who's girl do ya think ya touchin', bastard!" bellowed an angry man in his late thirties; he was dressed in leather armor, similar to those of Raven's mercenary uncles, and his right fist was lodged deep into the bar counter.

Opposite him, Saltmarsh had pulled a slinky woman into his arms - she didn't seem to mind his attention.

"I don't see your name on her," replied Saltmarsh with a wolfish grin and lifted the woman's long hair to examine the nape of her neck, causing the girl to giggle seductively, "but I'm happy to look for it."

The angry man's face turned blood red as he watched Saltmarsh tug at the collar of the woman's dress. In a fit of rage he picked up a bottle of the counter and lobbed it at Saltmarsh, but Saltmarsh had seen it coming and ducked at the last moment, pulling the woman with him. The bottle flew past the pair and smashed into the head of a burly man behind them. The impact caused the bottle to break and splash its wet content over not only the burly man but also his companions.

The room became deathly silent as the hit man, with blood trickling down the back of his head, slowly got up from his chair and turned around. The man was at least two meters tall and just as wide. Saltmarsh paled slightly and pointed at the leather armored man whom had thrown the bottle.

'Here we go again...' Raven rolled her eyes but continued to drink from her cup as the burly man grunted and sprung into action. Within seconds the entire tavern was a war zone; with every missed punch causing a chain reaction that involved more and more people in the brawl. No weapons or Divine Skills were used but since the tavern was a place for spiritualist mercenaries, spirit essence was nonetheless running high, amplifying every hit.

Dove and his brother were quick to join the fray and, sighing, Hog was soon to follow, leaving only Raven at their table. Donning an ill concealed smile, Raven observed every movement in the room with closed eyes as she sipped her milk in silence.

At some point Raven unhurriedly tilted her head to the right, effortlessly avoiding a table knife that lodged itself in the wall next to her head. With a flick of her wrist, the knife was removed and tossed back whence it came, efficiently tripping a brawler whom was just about to hit Dove over the head with a broken bottle. A few breaths later, Raven's own fork swiveled through the air and stopped the girl Saltmarsh had roped in from pulling a dagger at Hog.

Nobody noticed Raven's silent participation but whenever one of her mercenary uncles was in any real danger of getting hurt, more table utensils would disappear from her table. Suddenly, Raven's eyes flashed open and she slipped off from her chair.

Like a fish moving through water, she made her way through the fighting tavern guests and informed all of her companions that is was time to leave; the tavern brawl had finally drawn the attention of the city guards, whom would be arriving shortly.

In all the chaos the five of them had little problem slipping out a back door, only moments before six men in silvery armor stormed the tavern.

Laughing, the four uncles brought Raven back to their new home; apparently renting the house at the edge of the city had been a waste of time since the larger mercenary core that the uncles had chosen to join, the Dawn Brigade, owned their own lodgings on the Business Tier, with ample space for all their members.

At this point Raven could have headed back to her dorm room, but she opted to give Javelin some more space and instead stayed the night with the mercenaries. Early next morning she bid them farewell for now and headed back to the Academy for her first lessons.

---------

Raven and the other twelve students whom had passed this year's entrance exams sat cross-legged in an open courtyard on the eastern side of the Academy Tier. When the lecture started the air was crisp with the morning chill and the sun had barely broken the mountain-hidden horizon.

For an hour, Raven listened absentmindedly to an ancient Elder of mediocre cultivation - he was "only" a low Champion - explain how the Academy worked and what the new students should come to expect from their coming ten years here. Most of what he said Hoatzin had already told her about so Raven wasn't very surprised, but some of her classmates gaped in shock as they realized how many cultivation resources would be used for their benefit.

She was, however, a bit impressed when she heard of the practically bimonthly examinations that would take place starting next month. At every other full moon, the Academy would send the students to an area densely inhabited by spirit beasts and leave them there for the three days when the moon was the fullest.

During that time the students would have to fend for themselves; staying and defending would safeguard your life, but venturing out and hunting spirit beasts would earn you merits. Threes merits could then be used to exchange for extra cultivation resources or, in extreme cases, applying to the advanced classes. This wasn't without risk though and students loosing their lives wasn't unheard of.

'A trial by fire every eight weeks? Interesting!' thought Raven and wondered why her brother hadn't mentioned this before.

A lot less interesting, however, was the first subject the Battle Strategy class would study, the history of spiritualists; Raven almost fell asleep in protest when the ancient fellow made the switch. Everything the Elder mentioned Raven had, yet again, already learnt - this time through books - and judging from the bored expressions of her classmates, they either didn't care for the subject or had likewise already learnt it.

Finally, the two hour mark came and the lesson ended. Most children headed off towards the dining hall for the mid-day meal. Oddly enough, all twelve of them kept their distance from Raven - the Sarus siblings included - and acted as if she wasn't even there.

Just as Raven was considering whether this was a consistence or an orchestrated scheme, the ancient Elder stopped her at the gate.

"Elder Stork," Raven bowed politely.

"Junior Night, the vice headmaster has asked me to show you to the Divine Library. Follow me." The Elder didn't wait for Raven's reply before he strolled off.

"Elder Stork, what is the Divine Library and why would Vice Gadwall want you to take me there?" Raven asked as she followed behind the old man.

"Use your head, Junior Night," chided Elder Stork, "naturally, the Divine Library is where we keep the Academy's martial Divine Skills. You are to choose four Skills and practice them to perfection. You are not permitted a fifth skill until one of the first four is mastered. As for why I am showing you there, it is due to you skipping three grades of Spirit Control class, where you would have made your first visits to the Library," he didn't seem to approve of the decision to lett her start at level four if his tone was anything to go by.

After that the Elder stopped talking and the two of them walked in silence through the Academy grounds. As they walked, many other students passed by them and practically all of them would bow politely to the Elder and then completely ignore Raven, barely glancing at her.

'So it was not a coincidence then,' she concluded. 'For it to be this widespread... Is it the work of the snobs, perhaps?'

It didn't take long before the Elder halted in front of a large building not far from the Auditorium where the entrance exam had been held. The words "Divine Library" were etched into the white stone facade and painted with gold.

"Here we are. The identity stone will unlock the Skills you choose and automatically track your progress in mastering them. Don't bother trying to cheat it." Raven noticed a underlying tone of contempt.

'I take it he's not my fan either...'

"You have clearance of all Skills up to level five and may select one at level six, but remember that you will not get new skills until you've mastered your old ones," he continued, his contempt growing clearer. "Your next lesson starts in three quarters of an hour - don't be late."

Without further ado Elder Stork walked off. Raven followed his departure with her eyes briefly before entering the building. As she walked through the door she felt a veil of spirit essence slip over and past her. Raven guessed that veil would block anyone without authorization to enter.

The first floor of the Library was very vast and practically every square meter of it was covered in rows upon rows of bookshelves filled to the brim with scrolls. Raven whistled softly in admiration. This was the first time she had seen so many Divine Scrolls in one place and her strengthened senses now gave her an entirely different view of each scroll.
Before Raven had only been able to sense the spirit essence within by touch but now every scroll shined with vibrant color, turning the entire first floor into a sea of kaleidoscopic light.

'That's odd, I would have thought that the color of the scrolls would follow the same rules as cultivators but every color of the rainbow is present here,' Raven looked over at a plaque of instructions on the wall, 'yet there are only Divine Skills of level one to three on this floor.'

She looked back out over the sea of scrolls. The red and orange spectra of the rainbow was undoubtedly more abundant but there were plenty of yellow and green scrolls as well as a couple of blue ones. Walking over to the closest shelf, Raven pulled out a red and a light blue scroll that shined dimly in her hands.

Both Skills were of level one and intended for fighting with a halberd. The martial arts depicted within them were very similar to each other, with only a few differences in their stances and spirit essence flow. Just judging from her own experiences with the halberd she would prefer the stance described in the blue one, simply because it was closer to the technique she'd learned in her previous life. Shrugging she put the two scrolls back.

A few shelves away the scrolls shined more brightly so Raven stopped and pulled out an even deeper blue scroll and examined it. It was a level two skill and inside a familiar dagger technique was depicted causing Raven's eyes to lit up when she saw it.

'Haha, I know this technique - it's one of my favorits!' Although the Divine Skill itself was new to her, the underlying martial arts technique was not and it was perfect for disarming opponents who were using heavier weapons.

Without even thinking so much about it, Raven held up her identification stone to the scroll and with a light clicking noise the final part of the scroll was unlocked. On the white surface of the stone the text "Divine Skill Count 1/4" appeared. Excitedly Raven unrolled the scroll and completed the soul imprint. Immediately, information on how to apply spirit essence to her old martial arts technique flooded her mind and she impatiently pulled out a dagger from within her spacial ring.

With the dager in hand she carefully activated her spirit essence according to the imprint as she stepped forward, ducking under the attack of an imaginary opponent and then jabbing with the dagger towards where their wrist would have been. Spirit essence surged to the small blade and sparks of lightning gathered at it's point. It was perhaps not very strong but the added electrical shock would make the already numbing technique even more effective.

'Paralizing Ligtning Srike, huh? What a straightforward name.' Smiling Raven placed the scroll back on the shelf and headed to the second floor that would contain Divine Skills of level four to six.

On the second floor there were a few more students than on the first but they, just like every other student Raven had met today, merely glanced at her before looking away.

Raven didn't mind this though and only chuckled silently to herself; being ignored suited her just fine for now. Instead she focused her attention on this floor's shelves. There were fewer of them here, perhaps not even half of what had been on the floor below.

Upp here the bluer end of the spectra was basically nonexistent, leaving only a few green ones. Although the colors of the scrolls didn't reveal their level, the intensity of the light did. From this Raven deduced that the majority of the scrolls were level four, with perhaps only a hundred at level five and a lone ten scrolls at level six.

She approached the ten level six scrolls, noticing soft snickers from some of the students as she did - Raven acted as if she hadn't heard them. Slowly Raven started reading through the descriptions of the ten Skills and her heart sank slightly as she did. Although all of the martial Divine Skills seemed to be very impressive none of them really caught her interest.

Something that Raven had come to realize as she traveled towards Sky City was that she missed her old martial arts. Even though she easily adapted to using her Divine Skills, she often found herself wanting to execute one of her old moves but not having a way to merge such martial arts with her spirit essence for optimal effect.

Raven had hoped to fill the gap here - after all, twenty years of habits are hard to break - but it would seem like the level six skills would not do the job. Finally Raven picked up the last level six scroll. It was the only whose light wasn't red or orange, but rather green.

Opening it she read the words "Spacial Dash" at the top.

Chapter 37: An Arbitrary Amount of Skills

Author's note:

I would like to send a big thank you to M. Kolb and he/she-whom-has-wished-to-be-anonymous for  their donations via Royal Road! It's an unbelievably amazing feeling to actually "get paid" for my story ^.^

Thank You!

Also, the countdown to post-winter-exam "freedom" is swiftly approaching zero! A bit too swiftly atm.... T_T

Raven stared at the description of the Divine Skill in her hands with wide eyes; it was an impressive movement type skill.

'Well this is definitely not a skill that I can base off my old martial arts!' Raven exclaimed to herself. 'This is practically a teleportation skill!'

If mastered, the Divine Skill Spacial Dash could be used to separate some of the practitioner's spirit essence into a separate incorporeal body of sorts, that could be sustained within a radius dependent on the practitioner's level of cultivation. It was then possible to, at any given moment, shift one's real body to that location, instantaneously.

There were however a few drawbacks to the skill, which might explain why it was graded as only a level six skill, despite the essence fluctuations being a bit stronger than those of the other level six skills Raven had inspected.

Besides being unusually har to learn, the two major drawbacks were noise and essence consumption.

Keeping a incorporeal body of spirit essence separate from oneself would, not surprisingly, be extremely taxing on the soul and once the actual dash was made huge amounts of spirit essence would be used up. Raven guessed that with her current cultivation, she would only be able to use the skill perhaps 2-3 times in actual combat, and this was only thanks to her soul being unusually fast at absorbing spirit essence.

Then there was the noise. The immediate shift of pressure in the atmosphere, caused by the sudden disappearance and subsequent reappearance of a human body, would generate a bang so loud that it would burst the eardrums of any low level Spiritualists nearby. Not to mention the potentially deadly effects it would have on normal humans.

'Hehe, if I get proficient enough in with the Void Tracker, I should be able to cancel out the noise,' Raven was incapable of hiding the glee from her face, 'although it will be hard to learn, I'm not in a hurry, and thanks to the extra skill given to Advanced Students I will still have plenty of slots open for other skills.'

Raven had made up her mind and held up her identification stone to the scroll to unlock the Divine Skill within. Instantly a low murmur filled the floor.

"Do you see that?" someone snickered quietly, "the slave kid picked the Spacial Dash."

"Wasting his extra skill on a Divine Skill he will never learn, what a rookie mistake."

"I thought a slave would have been taught his self-worth early on. . . ."

It came to no surprise to Raven that the students on the second floor were only ignoring her when they thought she was looking. Although their voices were low, they might as well have shouted - it would have made no difference to Raven.

Although she registered what they said, she chose to ignore it for now as she instead looked at the identification stone in her palm with even confusion; the text “Divine Skill Count 1/4” was once again displayed.

'Shouldn't it be 2/4?' Raven frowned.

She thought back to the words Elder Stork had left her with: "you are to choose four Divine Skills and practice them to perfection. You are not permitted a fifth skill until one of the first four is mastered."

'Could it be that my trial run downstairs was enough for the stone to deem the Paralizing Ligtning Srike as mastered?'

As far as Raven was concerned, her earlier performance had been merely adequate, with many adjustments still required before she would be satisfied.

Then again, Raven was a bit of a perfectionist when it came her martial techniques; it wasn't unreasonable to think that the Academy would put the bar lower or none of the students would learn more than five or six skills during their studies at Sky Academy.

Raven smiled at the possibility this presented. If her guess was correct, wouldn't that mean that she would be able to get the imprint for practically every low level Divine Skill that implemented her old martial arts almost as fast as she could read their scrolls?

'This has to be tested!'

Although it was possible that she would find fitting skills on the second floor, Raven opted against it with so many people present. Instead, she immediately completed the imprint with the level six Spacial Dash and headed back to the first floor, fittingly ignoring every person she left behind on the second floor.

Once back on the first floor, Raven strode to the very back of the library, almost forgetting to hide the lithe of her natural movements. Fortunately, the first floor was practically only used by first and second year students, whom seemed disinclined to skip out on lunch, so there were only two other students present. They were both low Novices and the numerous shelves separating them from Raven were more than enough to hide her activities from all their senses.

With inhuman speed Raven started to sift through the scrolls on the self in front of her. Every time she came across a skill whose physical movements were nearly identical to her old martial arts, she would stop, unlock the imprint, and then perform the skill; it was a success, the first skill increased the counter on the identification stone to 2/4, but when the second skill was unlocked the counter was still only 2/4.

Raven kept it up for over half an hour before her mind started feel strained; like a balloon filled with too much air. Drawing a deep breath, she looked back at the scrolls she had read and then leaned out into the next aisle of the library.

'I've checked 42 level three Divine Skills, and taken the imprint of the 17 level scrolls whose skills fit me,' she lifted her hands to rub her temples, 'I haven't even looked through a single shelf yet. . . .'

Even though Raven's mind was spent, she was still very pleased with the situation; finally she had made some of her old techniques a bit more useful to her even in Spiritualist combat.

However, there were thousands of scrolls to go and hundreds of martial techniques she wanted to find a use for.

'I wonder how long time it would take to . . . ,' Raven's eyes widened, 'oh, shit! My next class!'

Not bothering to restore order to the section she had worked through, Raven dashed out from the library, leaving two small piles of glowing scrolls behind. In her rush, Raven failed to notice that while the larger pile of disregarded skills consisted mostly of warm hues, the small pile shined with the colder lights of green, yellow and pale blue.

---------

The location for the forth level Spirit Control Class was not particularly far away, but it still took five minutes for Raven to arrive, bursting through the gateway onto yet another open courtyard at full speed. Although she was moving very quickly, for observes it seemed as if Raven was simply taking a casual jog; her step was light and no sweat had been gathered on her forehead.

The twenty or so people already present stared at her small figure with perplexed gazes. Whatever rumors, or perhaps instructions, someone had spread, they had apparently not taken hold in everyone here; quite a few students were not averting their eyes the moment they realized it was Raven.

To Raven's surprise, most of those students were women, all wearing the gold rimmed robes of the Healing Arts Department.

'So the Spirit Control Class is co-ed . . . ,' noted Raven as she observed her observers, 'and judging by their appearances, the girls are younger than the boys.'

Most males attending the fourth level class were simultaneously in their fourth year - as was the case with the Griffin twins - and therefor approaching their twelfth birthday. The girls on the other hand seemed to be ten or, at most, newly turned eleven. Granted, there were fewer of them, but still.

If not for the fact that the Griffin twins were absent for some unknown reason, Raven would have asked them about it. Instead, she let the girls stare and simply waited for the class to start, which Raven figured, surprisingly, might take a while; she could sense no Spirit Champions approaching the courtyard.

The children around Raven were clustered in small groups, and soon started to talk among themselves in hushed tones. If it wasn't for Raven's extraordinary hearing, she would most likely not have heard a word they said to each other. As it was . . .

"Is that the super genius that joined the Martial Department yesterday?" asked one of the girls.

"He looks so ordinary. . . ." commented another.

"Hmph, what's so special about it - any high Novice who takes that trial would get the same result," mumbled one of the boys but Raven could tell from his voice that he didn't really believe what he was saying.

"I heard from Senior Wren that this so called genius is actually fake, " said another boy and in a voice loud enough for anyone in the open area to hear, "he's only a thief who stole his cultivation from his fellow slaves!"

Raven raised an eyebrow at that; 'stealing cultivation? Is that even possible?' Raven tilted her head to the side as she pondered, 'you could perhaps find a way to absorb someones spirit essence but without a strong enough Spirit Core you wouldn't be able to make it your own. . . .'

Meanwhile, talks about Raven and her past grew more rowdy around her.

"How horrible!" shrieked some of the girls, who clearly hadn't heard the story before, while some of the others actually snorted disbelievingly.

"Isn't Senior Wren just jealous?" suggested one of the older girls. "Clearly he feels threatened by this Junior."

"What's there to be threatened by? Senior Wren is already a peak high Adept and will likely break through to the Champion realm before he graduates. This little thief will never catch up, now that he can't keep to his old treachery anymore!"

"The only thing impressive about Senior Wren's cultivation is that he managed to get there without being an Advanced Student," retorted one of the smaller boys in a voice so low Raven almost missed it. His cultivation was lowest among the boys as he was the only one still quite far from reaching the bottleneck before advancing to Spirit Adept.

"What was that?" the boy who had first raised his voice asked the small kid - he had seen the latter's mouth moving but only heard fragments.

The small boy shivered slightly and backed up a few steps. "Nothing," he said and looked down at his feet.

"No, you definitely said something," the larger boy advanced towards the other one, "come on, Regulus, share your opinion with the rest of us."

The girls frowned at the scen but said nothing. Perhaps the fact that their cultivation wasn't any higher Regulus's held them back. Raven on the other hand had no such scruples.

'Might as well see if I can get some more insight into this whole thief business. . . .'

Swiftly, Raven stepped forward and blocked the larger kid's approach with a cold glare.

"Out of the way, slave thief," ordered the kid with disdain, "or do you think that you, with your fake cultivation, can match up to me - a true high Novice?"

"I am no thief," answered Raven in a voice devoid of emotion.

"No? Then how about 'murderer' instead?"

The other children gasped. Raven frowned slightly.

'Where does this come from? Usually people don't choose to make such accusations without any sort of proof. . . .'

"Don't be ridiculous, Robin," the slightly older girl from before finally spoke again, "he's only six!"

The boy, Robin, didn't look away from Raven as a smug sneer spread on his face.

"Then do you deny that you have watched dussins of children get slowly ripped to pieces, limb form limb, right in front of you without doing a thing?" More gasps. "I bet you even enjoyed it!"

Raven's frown deepened. The scene Robin was describing was awfully close to one of the horrors Hog had described to the headmasters and Elder Kagu only yesterday. Was it a coincidence? Not likely. Had anyone of them told the story to someone else? Perhaps even less likely.

'But who could have overheard it? Even I couldn't hear anything through those doors without Brother and it's practically impossible that someone hid themselves in there...'

When Raven remained silent, Robin laughed mockingly, "Ha! See, he doesn't even deny it!"

'It would seem like I have something more to investigate - Auk Wren's, or perhaps Jake Tanuki's, source. As for this kid . . .'

Raven's eyes studied the soon to be twelve-year-old in front of her. Her frown slowly dissipated and was replaced by a cold and emotionless expression that sent shivers down Robin's spine.

"Whatever I have witnessed, it is none of your business, but if you think that my experiences make me weak, then you are dead wrong." Raven's blood red eyes locked on to the boy like a hawk, minuscule amounts of killing intent seeping out towards him. Instinctively, Robin took a few steps back. Annoyed at his reaction, Robin faltered after a comeback, but the words were caught in his throat.

One of the boys, whom had stood next to Robin prior to the altercation, and who didn't feel the weight of Raven's glare chuckled; "already he makes threats! Are you here to steal our cultivation as well?"

"He is here to learn, just like the rest of you," a clear voice rang out in the courtyard, instantly putting a lid over the brewing tension.

"Elder Willow!" the girls practically shrieked in unison, as they bowed their heads towards the gate.

'He's an elder?' thought Raven as she turned to look at the man who had just entered.

She had recognized his presence while she sensed him he approached as the man Martin had referred to as "Professor Love" during the banquet but, at that time, she hadn't turned to see look at him. Consequently she had not seen the color of his robes and had therefor assumed it was a simply a nickname. This assumption had based on the deep red glow of his presence that had relieved this 'Elder Willow' as a high Adept, close to a breakthrough, but nonetheless just an Adept - there are students at Sky Academy with higher cultivation.

However, now that Raven actually looked at him, she was even more disbelieving of his status as an Elder. His figure was lean and elegant, with long auburn hair, tied in a high ponytail, and ivory pale skin. His eyes, shining with dazzling light green hues, seemed to see right through whomever he looked at. Raven had to agree with the girls and admit that Elder Willow was irrefutably gorgeous - in a top model kind of way - but, most importantly, he was young - very young. It would not surprise Raven if the man was below nineteen.

'To be an Elder at such a young age, and yet with such a low cultivation . . . ,' Raven glanced over his robes, and furrowed her brows; 'he's from the Healing Department?'

"Sorry for the delay," with elegant confidence, Elder Willow strode to the center of the courtyard as he spoke. "I was on my way when I found out two of your classmates were loitering near the Spirit Hall Tower, so I had to make a detour." He turned to face the gate. "Boys?"

There was a short pause before two fiery sets of hair appeared outside, soon to be followed by an enormous crate of boxes that they were pulling behind them with much effort.

Elder Willow smiled warmly at the sight and continued speaking over the huffs and puffs of the Twins; "they were however kind enough to help me with bringing over the equipment for today's class. Collect one box each and take a seat somewhere; it doesn't matter where, as long as you have at least an arms length to each other."

"Yes, Elder!" the children shouted and did as they were told.

"Up to no good again?" whispered Raven to the twins as she picked up a box for herself and handed a second one to Regulus, who was too short to reach them on his own.

"No," wheezed Martin between labored breaths, "and what do you mean again? We are practically saints, right Twin?"

"Indeed," smiled Lark and nodded towards an empty section of the courtyard. Together, the three walked over and sat down, but leaned in closer than the arms length distance so they could  continue their conversation.

"We wanted to see the first year's reaction to your record," explained Lark.

"Did you?"

"Well, Professor Love found us . . . ," started Martin dejectedly.

"When we told him why we were there he started lecturing us about how reckless we had been . . ." interrupted Lark a little too quickly, "he dragged on for ever, but as a result we had yet to leave when the teacher found your record." His eyes practically twinkled. "It was awesome; the other Elder's jaw nearly touched the ground!"

"It would have been even more awesome if we hadn't been forced to pull that god forsaken crate all the way here afterwards!" grumbled Martin causing Lark to laugh and nod, but surprisingly Raven noticed him giving Martin a slightly reproving look.

'Interesting,' she thought, 'so they don't agree on everything.'

Chapter 38: The Fake's Performance

Raven looked over at the young Elder that seemed to cause a rare difference of opinion between the two twins.

"Isn't he a bit too . . . young to be an Elder?" she asked in a low voice.

"You bet!" exclaimed Martin in a not so low voice, causing a few students to look their way. Coughing slightly he continued, more silently this time, "he's only nineteen!"

"Then how come he's an Elder? Even in Earth Empire, most academies only let's you graduate at eighteen, right?"

"Well, first off, he's a Healer Spiritualist which means his focus in cultivation is on control of spirit essence rather than strength," said Lark and shot a keen glance at Elder Willow. "Just like with the girls here, Healers generally advance in control a lot faster than us Martial Spiritualist. According to rumor, Elder Willow was such a fast learner that, a few years ago, there came a point in when none of the Elders at his Academy could teach him anything! So, they asked him if he wanted to join them as an Elder and help teach the other students instead. It's quite impressive, right?"

'He is even better than his academy's headmaster? That aught to be at least a high Champion level . . . interesting!' thought Raven as she nodded slightly.

"Right, cause a male Healer is so amazing," said Martin sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"Then what is a female Martial Spiritualist - a joke?" countered Raven before she could resist it.

Lark grinned approvingly while Martin blinked a few times in confusion. While he was searching for the words to refute Raven with, all students had already collected a box and taken their seats; the same groupings from before were still present and the male denser groups had ended up the furthest away from Raven.

"Alright," Elder Willow's voice filled the courtyard once more, "before we get started, I would like to introduce myself to those of you who might not have met me yet." He gazed over all the boys in the class. "My name is Myrtus Willow and I'm one of the exchange Elders from Earth Empire. Since last year, I have been teaching Spirit Control at the Healing Department here and from now on I will be in charge of this class as well. I know some of you might have doubts concerning my age . . ." Raven noticed him briefly looking over at her, challengingly, "but I assure you that you will find my teaching beneficial."

'Ho, he heard me?' Raven smiled internally, 'I get the feeling he found the comment ironic coming from me.'

"If you have any doubts about my abilities after this lesson, feel free to report it to Headmaster Swan."

"We wouldn't dream of it," echoed the girls in unison, causing more boys than just Martin to roll his eyes.

Elder Willow seemed a bit amused by the commotion but suddenly his demeanor grew serious as he started his lecture; "Up until now, Control Class has been about inner control of your spirit essence. While such control is vital for how quickly you can prepare a Divine Skill, without sufficient control over your essence once it leaves your body, the effect of most Divine Skills will drop drastically. This is especially the case for Healing Skills."

He paused and summoned a globe of visible spirit essence into his palm. The globe then separated into dozens of smaller globes that started flying around him in intricate patterns. Raven focused her attention on the globes.

'This seems similar to the process described in the Spacial Dash for creating an incorporeal body. . . .'

Elder Willow waved his hand and the globes floated out among the children and landed on their boxes. "With sufficient control you can make your spirit essence take a nearly physical form, even without using a Divine Skill." He snapped his fingers causing the globes to simultaneously click open the small latches that had kept the boxes closed.

'So much theatrics,' thought Raven, amused; as far as she could tell, all that hand waving and finger snapping was totally unnecessary - spirit essence was controlled with the mind, not the body.

"Unfortunately, there are major limits to what you can do with your spirit essence without a Divine Skill, but it is good training nonetheless." The globes floated back to Elder Willow and were absorbed into his palm. "In the boxes you will find an instrument to help you train; lift them out and bind with the ring you find."

Shuffling noises filled the air as the children hoisted the instruments out of their boxes. Raven studied the contraption with genuine interest. It looked like a crystalline material had been stretched into a thick wire that then twisted around itself in a maze-like manner. Resting at one end of the wire was a deep black ring. As she let a drop of blood fall from her finger onto the black ring, she felt it pulling out some of her spirit essence to form a glowing sphere around it. As she willed it, the sphere moved upwards along the wire, bringing the ring with it. It was harder to move the sphere than Raven had expected, but it was definitely manageable.

"Your task is to move the ring from one end of the wire to the other, within one minute," explained Elder Willow as he used an unclaimed instrument to demonstrate. His black ring flowed effortlessly along the wire as the latter twisted in and out of itself. It took him less than thirty seconds to complete the course.

"Looks easy enough," said the boy named Robin and started to slowly move his ring with, what to Raven seemed like herculean effort, shrouded by his overflowing confidence. As the ring approached the first turn in wire, Robin didn't lower its speed and the ring clinked into contact with the wire. The instrument hissed loudly and Robin yelped as the ring snapped back to its original position. The girls burst out in giggles at his outburst.

"What was that!?" he shouted in shock; "my spirit essence had been drained!"

"If you would let me finish . . . ," sighed the young Elder. "The hardest part will be to avoid touching the wire; any slightest contact will cause the ring to return to the starting position and the wire will drain some of your spirit essence. This in turn making the sphere harder to control on your next attempt. The first student to complete this task will receive 100 merit points, the second 50. Anyone who manages to complete it today will get an additional 100 points."

The students in the class gasped and an excited murmur spread through the courtyard; 200 merit points was the same amount that the victors of the bimonthly Lunar Trial would get. It would go far resource-wise at the academy, and was also a fifth of what you needed if you wished to attempt to become an Advanced Student - it was not a guarantee that you'd get accepted, but you would be allowed to try.

"You may begin."

Elder Willow had a mischievous spark in his eyes as he instructed the students to start. The additional 100 points were not something he intended to give out today, it was only a trap to make the kids more excited and therefore make it harder for them to concentrate. He wanted them to learn the difficulties of essence control the hard way.

All the students started to manically focus on their spheres of spirit essence and after a bit of struggling, the Rings within them started to move. However it didn't take long before buzzing sounds filled the courtyard like a swarm of angry bees. Within thirty minutes every child had beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads and were panting heavily. Not one had made it past the first three bends of the wire.

"Argh! This is impossible!" grunted Martin and threw himself backwards onto the ground.

The sudden noise caused most of the other students to lose the little concentration they had mustered and several rings snapped back at once. Everyone sighed in frustration.

"Not so cocky now, are you, Slave?" Robin was quick to comment when he noticed that Raven looked just as tired as the rest of them. Perhaps even a bit more so.

Raven ignored him and continued moving her ring slowly forward.

"What? No comeback?" laughed Robin's friend.

"Quiet," ordered Elder Willow, whom had been strolling around the courtyard giving occasional advice, "Spirit Control is all about concentration and practice. Don't waste your time babbling." He reached the area where Raven and her friends were seated and froze.

"Junior Night, you have removed the binding to your ring." He didn't say it like a question but he clearly didn't really believe what he saw.

Raven kept focusing on the ring's progress along the wire as she answered, "Yes, Elder."

Judging by his intake of breath Elder Willow took the confirmation hard, and even took a few step forward to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

"Why?" he questioned once closer. By now the rest of the class had stopped their progress and looked over at Raven and the Elder.

"Elder Willow did not use a bind when he demonstrated."

"But, that's . . . ," Raven's words were so matter-of-fact that Elder Willow was stunned for a moment. Was this kid serious? He had truly not used a bound ring to demonstrate with before, but doing the exercise without it was at least ten times harder!

Raven had of course realized this difference the second she tried it but she felt that training as she did now would be more beneficial for her understanding to the Spacial Dash. Besides, she would have preferred the low profile of a slow progress anyway.

Elder Willow seemed to gather himself. "Junior Night, please bind the ring again and complete the task before changing it," he said sternly. His words might sound harsh but there was an underlying hint of excitement in the Elder's voice; he was clearly looking forward to Raven's results.

The rest of the students didn't catch it through and some of them sneered at the seemingly reprimanded Raven with renewed contempt. Others, like Martin and Regulus, rather conveyed pity instead. Only Lark glanced from Raven to Elder Willow with an odd expression, like he was pondering something.

"As the Elder mandates," Raven's voice was just as devoid of zeal as before and inwardly she felt a sense of capitulation; 'I had hoped that he wouldn't notice it; I'm going to cause a scene again . . . but I won't benefit from my time at this Academy if I don't push my limits somewhere!'

As Raven pulled back her spirit essence from the ring it snapped back to its starting point where Raven reconnected the blood link. She let the ring hover up and down for a few heartbeats to readjust to the new connection between it and her before she started moving it along the wire at a steady pace. Without a hitch the ring slid past the third bend that no one had made it past yet.

When she passed the fourth bend with ease, the mocking smiles had stiffened while the looks of pity had turned to excitement; Martin even raised his hand to give Raven an approving slap on the back, but Lark was quick to stop him.

"So much for a fake . . ." giggled some of the girls and glanced at Robin insinuatingly.

Ignoring all of this Raven's spirit essence sphere with ring kept moving - the progress was noticeably slower than when Elder Willow had demonstrated but the movement was steady and showed no signs of Raven loosing control. Not even when she reached a section of the wire maze that was out of her sight did the ring falter.

Fifty eight seconds after Raven had started, the light cling of the metal ring hitting the crystal blocker at the other end of the maze broke the silence that had transcended the training area.
Raven turned around on the ground and looked up at the Elder. "May I remove the bond now, Elder  Willow?," she asked.

---------

Hundreds of meters above Sky Academy, a white little bird was perched on the windowsill located at the very top of Indigo Cloud Palace's highest tower. The small bird had been sitting there for almost an entire day as it quietly observed the world within.

Its unnaturally big, brown, eyes had watched when the woman on the other side of the window glass spent hours pacing back and forth the previous evening. It had watched as the woman cried in silence when she was alone but then smiled strongly in front of her beloved. It had watched when she argued with her spy masters for hours on end.

Although the bird's presence hadn't gone entirely unnoticed, nobody payed it any heed; it was, after all, only a bird.

---------

With an expression that by no means revealed her satisfaction, Raven walked away from her first spirit control lesson with 200 merit points registered on her identification stone. She wasn't one to bother with the opinions of random children but the bewildered expressions of Robin and the rest of the "he's a fake" gang had been most gratifying, even for her.

What pleased her most, however, was that after another hour of practicing, Raven's spirit control had actually showed signs of improvement. She had yet to complete the course while not using the connection with the ring, but now she could at least manage a third of it before exhaustion forced her to lose control.

Martin and Lark had "volunteered" to help Elder Willow bring back the crate of boxes, so at the moment Raven walked alone down the splendid garden that separated the main campus from the Starlight wood houses, where the Elders and Advanced Students resided. Well 'alone' wasn't really accurate; there were plenty of students spread out over the entire garden, whom were currently either quietly cultivating through meditation or sparring with fellow students.

'I see gossip travels fast here too. . . .'

Just as before, no one approached Raven and preferred to observe from a distance as she passed, but the students no longer feigned ignorance of her existence. Instead, they would pause their training to whisper comments to each other, or simply stare at her for a moment. The expressions in their eyes varied from disgust to awe and occasionally even some fear.

The rumors of Raven the Thieving Slave, whom merely had a fake cultivation and secretly reveled in death, had clearly reached everyone present, but so had her results from the previous class as well as the new Spirit Hall Tower record she'd set. The poor students didn't know what to believe anymore.

'Well, they are not so far off on the death thing,' she thought to herself.

Suddenly, Raven felt the presence of a familiar high Champion enter the far end of the garden, heading her way. After a moment of internal debate, Raven slowed her pace, as if taking in the wonders of the garden, thus allowing the Elder in question to catch up without even trying.

"Junior Student Night," the friendly voice of Vice Headmaster Gadwall called out to Raven. "If you tarry in the gardens too long then you'll be late for class."

Raven's body twitched slightly, as if startled, before she turned and bowed. "Vice Gadwall", she said in a cold tone before she straightened and looked up at him with equally cold eyes.

The man might not be as astute as Raven but didn't miss her cold attitude. The curious light in his eyes dimmed and was replaced with concern as he asked, "is something wrong, Junior Night? Did you have any troubles picking out Divine Skills this morning?"

Raven almost laughed at the irony of his assumption, but her face showed no traces of humor. "No, Vice Gadwall, I had no problems at the library."

"Then what is the matter?" Gadwall's eyes then suddenly shined with realization, "oh, I see, the rumors about your past . . . yes, it's quite unfortunate . . . but all of it will be forgotten in a few days, I'm sure." He smiled warmly and reached out a hand to pat Raven's shoulder, but she stepped out of his reach.

"With all due respect, I would have preferred it if Vice Gadwall, Headmaster Swan and Elder Kagu had kept my past to yourselves."

Gadwall's brows furrowed. "I can assure you that it did, Junior Night; such secrets are not for us to tell! Perhaps . . . perhaps, your Uncles had a bit much to drink, while celebrating and. . ." he didn't finish the sentence but there was no need to.

Raven's cold glare seemed to soften slightly; "perhaps . . . ," she agreed with a sigh. Inwardly, however, she couldn't agree less. 'No matter how drunk they are, they would never say a word. . . . But if Gadwall is right, then how did it come out?'

"Well then," taking Raven's reaction as a sign that the matter was settled, Gadwall motioned towards the south; "I believe we are headed the same way."

A few minutes later, with the guidance of Vice Gadwall, Raven arrived at the tall building where the advanced classes were being held. Along the way, Raven had learnt that the ordinary teacher for the Advanced Class was otherwise preoccupied at the moment so Gadwall would be stepping in as their adviser for today. She had also learnt that unless the Elder in charge had something special planned, the Advanced Class mostly consisted of individual training but under highly beneficial conditions. It was for this reason he had wanted Raven to pick out at least one Divine Skill before today's lesson.

Once inside, they were greeted by thirteen youngsters, of varying age and cultivation. Had any of them had the same perception as Raven, they would have been unable to miss the bloodthirsty aura that whiffed out into the room as soon as Raven laid eyes on her cousin.

Dunlin had been standing with his back towards the entrance, talking to the black haired Jake Tanuki of Earth Empire, but turned around at the sound of the doors opening.

For a brief moment, the gazes of the two cousins met.

Raven had pondered if he, one of only two people still alive and well whom had actually seen her face - albeit when she was only a toddler - would be able to recognize her, but Dunlin's gaze simply turned contemptuous before he looked away with ill-feigned indifference.

Chapter 39: Threats and Lies

Author's Note: Heartfelt gratitude goes out to Anonymous for your donation; you know who you are - THANK YOU!

Pushing down the urge to pull her sword out and sink it deep into her cousins chest, Raven instead looked over at Javelin, whom also had stopped talking to his friend at the sound of the door opening. Their gazes met and Javelin smiled meekly at her; he looked a bit tired, but also regretful, no doubt it was concerning yesterday's events.

Raven nodded at him, silently agreeing to put it all behind them, and was about to walk over when Jack Tanuki nudged Dunlin's side. Together the two both bowed excessively low and shouted in a respectful tone, "Advanced Class greets Vice Headmaster Gadwall!"

The rest of the students quickly followed suit, but Raven noticed that even if they hid it well not all of them were pleased by the perceived leadership of Dunlin and this Jack.

"Greetings students," the youths straitened at Gadwall's response, " I found your newest addition on my way here, whom I'm sure you have all heard of by now." Gadwall smiled warmly and Raven wondered if he grasped the double meaning of his worlds. "Do you wish to introduce yourself, Junior Night?"he asked.

'Not really,' thought Raven but she shrugged and answered anyway; "Raven Night. First Year. High Spirit Novice."

Gadwall waited a moment before he realized that was all Raven intended to say. "Ah . . . well, yes, straight to the point. Good. Why don't the rest of you repeat the courtesy?"

From the Vice Headmaster no more prompting was needed; one by one they introduced themselves with name, grade and spiritualist rank. From what Raven had learnt about expected cultivation levels of students at Sky Academy, these thirteen youths really were a step above their peers. The oldest student, an eighteen-year-old boy whom looked like bear, had even stepped into the Spirit Champion realm and was approaching mid Champion, something that even the talented students of Sky Academy would find hard to pull off before the age of twenty five.

As the introductions moved along, from oldest to youngest, it was eventually time for the forth graders, but before Javelin or Dunlin had a chance, the black eyed exchange student spoke out.

"Jack Tanuki, third year, peak mid Adept." His endlessly black eyes bore into Raven, as if daring her to oppose him or rebuff his prowess. Raven however showed no reaction at all; although his cultivation was impressive for someone not yet eleven years old, Javelin had almost the same cultivation, and, was even younger.

Besides, she already found out about Jack's cultivation level at the banquet yesterday, so what was there to be surprised about? The next introduction however did surprise her.

"Dunlin Talon, forth year, mid Adept."

'What?' Raven's brow twitched slightly as she quelled her frown. She risked a glance around the room but no one reacted at Dunlin's statement. 'How come no one is refuting him? He's clearly only a low Adept!'

She focused her senses on his presence but no matter how hard she concentrated, Dunlin's leaking spirit essence was so light pink, it almost seemed white.

"As for Junior Hake, I assume you've already been introduced to him, since you two are roommates," Gadwall suddenly put an end to the introductions, disrupting Raven's pondering. "Your ordinary teacher is otherwise engaged at the moment so I will be over-seeing you today. I have nothing special planned so please proceed to your allocated rooms and I will be with you shortly. Junior Hake, your room is closest to Junior Night's. Show him the way, won't you?"

"Yes Vice Headmaster," replied Javelin but Gadwall had already disappeared down a corridor.

The advanced students studied Raven for a moment before they headed towards a nearby staircase. Raven had no doubts that these people had heard all the rumors about her but they were all considered geniuses among geniuses. She assumed that for them, regardless of whether the rumors were true or not, the only ting they cared about was personal strength. Right now, Raven was the weakest in the class - as the only person, presumably, below Spirit Adept level -  and was therefore of little to no concern for them.

Well, almost all of them only cared about strength. On their way to the staircase, Raven and Javelin were passing by Dunlin and Jack when the latter snickered; "a slave and a soldier, roommates . . . how fitting; both are born to take orders!"

While the pair laughed, Raven noticed Javelin's hand clenching as he stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face them.

"What, soldier boy, you want permission to speak?" retorted Dunlin and the two started laughing again.

Javelin took a large step towards the duo, and for a moment Raven thought he might hit one of them. Instead he passed between the two and slammed his fist into the wall behind them.

"Firstly," he said with an steady voice, "even as a soldier I wouldn't have to ask the two of you permission for anything, since you're not my officers. Secondly," Javelin's voice grew more agitated, "no one, is born to be a slave!"

With that he returned to Raven's side and pulled her up the stairs before Dunlin and Jack had a chance to answer. Once they reached the second floor and had veered off into a side corridor Javelin finally realized he was still holding Raven's arm and quickly let go.

"Sorry," he said and looked away from her.

"Why are you apologizing? They were the jerks. . . ." Raven sounded indifferent but inside she felt weirdly happy; this was the second time Javelin had stood up for her - not that it was needed, but it was sweet nonetheless.

"Ah, no," Javelin's ears turned slightly red and he lifted his hand to scratch the back of his neck, "not that. . . . They will retaliate against both of us for me speaking up. Usually it's best to just let them be pricks in their own little world and then get better scores during the Lunar Trials, but I . . ."

As he spoke, a smile too small for Javelin to notice spread on Raven's lips. 'He keeps scratching his head whenever he's embarrassed,' she noted, amused, before she interrupted him by asking, "Retaliate? How?"

"Well, the Talon Clan is the ruler clan of Nighting . . . I mean Black Talon Prefecture. As such Dunlin has sway over many of the students here; nearly a third are from clans that, by law, are lower ranked. As for Jack, he might be an exchange student but at home his clan is noble too and his father is one of the three High Counsillors of Earth Empire so many what to get on his good side. Going against them too openly is not a good idea."

"Then what about the anti-snob group? That's pretty out in the open."

"That's when the Griffin twins are around - as heirs to a Prefecture Lord themselves, and friendly ones at that, they hold almost equal sway over the student body. Only . . . their personal strength is lacking in comparison."

Raven understood right away; as long as there was a crowd and the twins were present they could use their own status as a countermeasure, but they weren't outstanding enough in their own right to rile up devoted followers.

Raven shrugged indifferently. 'Let them come! If they start a fight, I have no reason to hold back - even as a high Novice I should be able to handle them - and if they use some other subterfuge . . . well, they're not the only ones that can play at that game.'

Javelin then proceeded to show Raven to her cultivation room before he left for his own room. As Raven entered hers, she could feel her Limiters suddenly weighing down heavily at her ankles, making it hard for her to walk. It turned out that one of the beneficial circumstances Gadwall had mentioned earlier was something akin to an increased gravity field. Every cell in Raven's body strained against the extra pressure and the normally ten kilo Limiters now weighed perhaps three times as much.

Apart from the higher gravity there was also an abundance of spirit essence gathered in the room, just waiting to be absorbed. That high concentration would increase the training endurance of the rooms occupant significantly - not that it would be noticeable from the outside, since the extra strain of the stronger gravitational pull would counter it.

'Training in here will definitely be advantageous!' Raven didn't bother hiding the wide grin on her face. 'Should I release the block on my cultivation? It would improve the results . . .'

Just as she was about to go through with it, a merry voice spoke behind her; "What do you think, Junior Night?"
Startled, Raven spun around as she, purely on instinct, withdrew a blade from her spacial ring and let her spirit essence surge to it.

"Haha, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I assumed Junior Hake warned you of how these rooms work."

Raven started at Vice Headmaster Gadwall's hazy figure in surprise. His body seemed almost transparent as he hovered over by the door; no spirit essence at all could be sensed from him - at least not any spirit essence that belonged to a living person.

'It's almost like the holograms of my old world,' she mused as she withdrew her blade and with more effort than she wished to admit walked a few steps to the side to study Gadwall's apparition from another angle.

Gadwall, however, noticed her struggle and smiled, that inquisitive flare was back in his eyes. "It's not easy to move around, is it? Welcome to the Pressure Room; as you grow stronger, so will the pressure you experience. Here you will train for two hours everyday as long as you're in the Advanced Class. It might not sound like much, but anymore and your body wouldn't be able to take it. While you train in here you will gain guidence from an Elder at all times, if necessary."

'So much for training at full strength. . . .'

"Usually we will just quietly observe and only intervene when we think it will be beneficial," continued Vice Gadwall. "I recommend that you start training with something simple, until you get the feel of the room. Call out when you wish to start practicing your new Divine Skills and I will walk you through it." Gadwall's image faded, but Raven assumed he was still paying attention.

'Well, I guess, it's better than nothing,' thought Raven and did as she was told; she kept it "simple".

---------

After two hours of switching between vigorous training with Shadow Walk and quiet contemplation regarding the Spacial Dash Raven walked out of her Pressure Room. Every cell in her body ached. As she reached the staircase she paused for a moment, considering if she should go down on her own or wait for Javelin. She opted for the former and, forcing the muscles in her body to move more fluidly, she walked down the stairs.

The moment she stepped out on the ground floor, the two people who had been "hiding" at either side of the staircase stepped forward to block her path. Their combined spirit essence pushed down on her, making it feel much like she was still in the Pressure Room.

"Can I help you, Seniors?" she asked, as her cold blood red eyes moved from her cousin to his accomplice.

Jack frowned slightly at how she seemed unaffected by the pressure they put on her but Dunlin didn't seem to notice. "At least the slave knows that we are his superiors," he laughed and tapped Jack on his shoulder. "Use that limited intellect of yours to follow our orders in the future and we might let you off for disrespecting us earlier."

"I said seniors," corrected Raven blankly.

"Huh?" blinked Dunlin while Jack narrowed his eyes.

"I called you my seniors, as in people older than me, not as in someone superior to me."

Dunlin's face turned bright red in rage. Raven noticed his pink spirit essence gathering at his fists, but now that he controlled it directly, Raven could sense something else, darker, mingling with it. Suddenly she remembered the duel Dunlin had held against her brother. 'Is this linked to the dark essence I sensed then? But it wasn't so tangible then. . . .'

While Raven was contemplating this, Dunlin was about to use his spirit essence to hit her when Jack stopped him. Boring his deep black eyes into Raven and leaned in closer. "Wits won't save you here, little slave. What will you do if every student here despises you and wants to harm you? Do as we say, or we will make it happen."

Raven stared blankly at the pair. In front of their threats she wasn't sure if what she wanted most was to beat them up or laugh at how foolishly childish they sounded. She glanced at Dunlin. 'Oh, I definitely want to beat them up! But . . .'

"Seniors, I am sure you have heard the rumors about me, and as they say: where there is smoke, there is fire." The two youths looked a bit confused. Raven sighed and rolled her eyes, "if you want to intimidate me, you have to try a lot harder than petty threats concerning my reputation. Besides, are you not afraid that you will be ridiculed for bullying someone almost half your age?"

Raven almost chuckled as she saw the anger growing within Dunlin and Jack, but before they had a chance to move against her, she bowed her head and said, "thank you for your guidance, Vice Headmaster."

Surprised, the boys turned towards the corridor Gadwall had walked off into before only to find it empty. Confused, they looked down the corridor for a moment more before they angrily turned back towards Raven, but she was already gone, the front door standing ajar.

"Come back here, brat!" they shouted and rushed outside.

Once they were gone, a small figure emerged from a shadow at the other end of the room.

"Amateurs," Raven muttered.

-------

Like this the days passed; during the day she would attend her classes and spend the noon break imprinting skills in the Divine Library - to her great amusement, the staff had put up a big sign after her first few visits, ordering students to put back the scrolls where they belonged after reading them. To everyone's joy, the Battle Strategy class had moved on from their brief history lessons to actual battle strategy, and had started teaching the first years how to efficiently attack and defend in a group. Needless to say, Raven shined brightly here as well. However, since she was supposedly raised by mercenaries, people weren't to surprised.

Outside of her classes, Raven used her exquisite senses to constantly avoid the snobbish troop of nobles, whom grew increasingly annoyed at how seemingly impossible it was to get Raven, or Javelin, on their own, without either the twins or an elder present to uproot their plans. It was almost uncanny how they might think they had succeeded, only to have an Elder walk around the corner a second later. As for her new friends, they had quickly grown accustomed to Raven's sudden prompts to switch locations, and even found some amusement in it.

As for the further rumors that Dunlin and Jack had threatened with, Raven had to admit that she was slightly impressed by the insanity of it all. By now they had graduated from the tales Hog had talked about and moved on to sheer imagination. There were even those who accused Raven for cannibalism - that she ate babies for breakfast.

"Little Baby Night, steals babies in the night! But put up a fight, and you'll give him a fright!" some would chime when Raven walked past them.

However, despite the pair's best efforts, the rumors had failed to take a strong hold in the groups Raven actually came in close contact with. This was partially due to Javelin and the twins helping out, but mostly it was because Raven's prowess in both group fighting and Spirit Control continued to impress her fellow classmates. Additionally, while Raven definitely acted cold and distant, she was never mean, and would even give helpful pointers every once in a while, causing those same classmates to start liking her. Eventually, even the Sarus siblings and Robin's crew refrained from taking part in further spreading of the nasty gossip around Raven.

While Raven waited for Hoatzin to return with information about the Empress' treason, she spent whatever extra time she had sneaking around the Headmaster's office to see if she could find anything odd that might explain how her background came out. Unfortunately, short from attempting to break in, Raven had run into a dead end. None of the people whom had been present seemed inclined to spread the information on, and all Elders she had met seemed to have heard the rumors from the students first.

On the eight day after she entered Sky Academy, she had yet to gain anymore insights to the rumor's source. She had however learnt that there were, in total, four elders whose names started with a W, and three of them were not from Sky Empire. She was currently sitting in her dorm room, looming over a piece of paper with background information on these three when she looked up towards the window with a smile on her face.

She stood up and walked over to the window. Opening it, she extended her pale hand outside. Seconds later a small bird landed on it.

Chapter 40: Setting Things in Motion

Author's note: Due to some great points I got on the last chapter I have changed the time span for Raven's wait from 4 days to a week.

"Welcome back, big brother," Raven pulled in her hand but left the window open, "how has your week been?"

Hoatzin's bird form seemed to sneer up at Raven. "Tedious," he answered in hey mind, "I have a new found respect for spies."

"You have been gone longer than I expected - did you learn anything about Empress Nene's situation?"

"Well . . . yes and no. . . . I'm a bit confused."

"Tell me."

"The charges against the Empress is that she was attempting to sell the secret of rearing Everest Hawks and other spirit beast birds to a Council Elder of Sea Empire."

Raven stared at her brother. "Those are grave accusations. . . . " she said with a heavy voice.

The secret techniques of raising aerial spirit beast that could be controlled by any spiritualist was highly guarded and even though full grown beasts could be sold to the other empires selling the former was high treason. As the saying goes: give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Sky Empire had no intentions of feeding the other nations for a lifetime.

"It is, and the proof against her is nearly perfect. There are dozens of letters sealed with the Empress' spirit essence and prepared scrolls with detailed descriptions on how to raise the beasts. There are even very reliable eyewitnesses that claim to have seen the Empress meet up with a foreign man in a tavern on the Business Tier!"

Raven frowned. The eyewitness and prepared scrolls could have been planted but sealing letters with someone else's spirit essence? She didn't think it was even possible.

". . . You said it was just nearly perfect?"

"That's the part that has gotten me confused," confirmed Hoatzin and unfolded one of his wing to rub the underside of his beak in a very human-like gesture. "The thing is, despite the spy master's assurance that the information they have gathered is valid, the Emperor himself doesn't believe the Empress is guilty."

"The man could be blinded by love," Raven conceded, although she didn't want to admit what that meant Forge Empress innocence.

"I don't think so. I heard them arguing about a resent visit they made to the rules of both Earth and Sea Empire. Apparently, it had been done in utmost secrecy so no one except the rulers themselves should have known about it. For good reasons to, since one of the things they had discussed ear of they should more openly share the empires' secrets. The aerial spirit beast techniques had been offered, but the other emperors actually declined the offer."

Raven sat silently for a moment. "This is the Emperor's reason for believing the Empress is innocent?"

"Of course it is; it makes no sense for the Empress to be selling a secret to someone who had already declined it. "

Raven grew silent once more. She could think of many reasons for such a sale to be made even after the other rulers disinterest. For one, there is no guarantee that just because an emperor said no, every one in his empire would agree. At the same time, simply saying no to something doesn't necessarily mean that you don't actually want it.

"Did you find out what the Empress was trying to get in return for the techniques?" she finally asked.

"They didn't bring it up," Hoatzin's little head shook left and right, "and it wasn't like a could read any of the documents from outside the window. . ."

'Interesting,' thought Raven, 'the talk about all of it in detail but don't mention what would have been in it for the Empress? Is it because they don't know, or because what she stood to gain is something she actually wants?'

"So what now, Sister?" asked Hoatzin. "The Emperor wanted to drop the charges but the Empress said it was unwise until they knew who had tried to frame her and why."

"That is not such a bad approach. If the Emperor released his wife too easily, it might lead to discontent in his court. Which might be what the supposed treason is all about." Raven paused and looked towards the door. "Do you think you can get a hold of the spy master's report, big brother? I would like to read it."  Raven now spoke directly to Hoatzin's mind.

"I can try," he replied as he looked at her with perplexed eyes, "why the switch?"

"We are about to get company."

Raven walked over to her bed and sat down cross-legged, with Hoatzin on one of her knees. Just as she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, the dorm room door opened and Javelin walked in. He had clearly just come from the dorm showers since his golden hair was damp and slightly dripping. A fluffy towel was wrapped around his waist, doing nothing to conceal the tanned and well developed muscles of his upper body. Javelin might only have lived for ten years, but by the standards of Raven's old world, no one would have believed him to be under fifteen.

Javelin paused when he saw Raven sitting on her bed, seemingly meditating. The past week had done nothing to change the fact that his heart skipped a beat whenever he saw the red eyed youth. This reaction continued to annoy him and had Raven not been his roommate then Javelin would perhaps have tried to avoid her completely, but as it was he had instead figured that over exposure might do the trick just as well.

Javelin's eyes finally fell on the small white creature sitting on Raven's knee.

"Oh, you're back . . . Tzin, was it?" Javelin walked over to his closest to retrieve a clean set of robes. "Have you been exploring Sky City perhaps?"

Just as Javelin was about to start changing into his clean robes when he hear a shrill screech behind him and looked over his shoulder just in time to see a white streak zoom towards him with astonishing speed. By reflex, Javelin activated his spirit essence and formed a light golden shield between him and the approaching projectile.

Raven suddenly opened her eyes and shouted, "Stop!" In the next instant she appeared next to Javelin and slammed into his side, causing him - and his shield with him - to stumble a few steps to the side. Milliseconds later, the Hoatzin's white body passed through the space Javelin had been occupying with a whistle.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" she spat.

"Sorry," grumbled Javelin as he let his shield disperse, "I did it on reflex."

"Not you," retorted Raven angrily and jabbed her finger towards the hovering bird. "You! He's a mid Spirit Adept, you bird brain; did you really think you would be able to hurt him?"

"But he was about to..." Hoatzin started to defend himself but Raven cut him off.

"I am well aware of what he was about to do but if you had slammed into his Divine Oyster Shield at that speed you could have died!"

In a freight, Hoaztin flew over and hid behind Javelin's back. "I'm sorry! I too only acted on reflex!"

"Reflex my ass!" Raven walked towards Javelin with firm steps while the latter looked at the approaching youth with an odd look in his eyes. The one sided conversation he heard between Raven and the bird was highly confusing for him. Even ignoring the fact that Raven seemed to be having a conversation with a bird, Javelin had never seen this much emotion coming from Raven before - this alone seemed strange to him and suddenly he felt a bit pained.

'Night seems very fond of this bird. . . . Why a bird?' Javelin frowned at his thoughts. Why did he care at all?

When Raven was about to extend her hand behind Javelin's back to grab the now squeaking bird, Javelin decided to intervene. He caught Raven's wrist and looked down into those blood red eyes that always seemed so cold. A brief moment of surprise flashed across them before they glared at him disapprovingly.

"No need to get so angry at the little bird, Night" said Javelin, sounding more genuine than he felt, "I'm sure he meant no harm."

The red eyes glared at him for a moment longer before the anger subsided from them. "I guess if you forgive him then so should I."

The bird landed on Javelin's shoulder and silence filled the room. Javelin's mind was oddly blank as he continued to look into Raven's eyes.

"You can let go off me now, Javelin." Raven's voice snapped him back to reality and he quickly took a step back, using the hand that had been holding Raven to scratch his neck.

"I'll be visiting my Uncles tonight," said Raven and moved towards the door, "see you tomorrow." With a whistle, Raven left the room closely followed by the white bird.

Left in their room Javelin looked down at his hands before he sighed in frustration. 'What is going on with me?' he wondered. 'I get agitated when the boy is around but frustrated when he leaves.' Javelin sank down on his bed.  Absentmindedly he pulled out a drawer from his bedside table and withdrew a gold and blue bracelet from within. He fiddled with it as he stared at the opposite bed lost in thoughts unknown.

Suddenly his eyes flickered and he stood up. Activating his spirit essence he dashed from his bed to the Raven's.  Frowning he turned and dashed back, now utilizing one of his more profound movement skills that caused small flecks of lightning to shoot out from the soles of his feet as he moved. The return to his bed was almost instantaneous but the frown only deepened.

"How in the seas did Night manage to reach me fast enough? He only started moving once I activated the Oyster Shield but still arrived before the bird. Even with a my speed when using a Divine Skill, the reaction time alone should have made it impossible for him to get to me in time. . . . And I only barely felt any spirit essence being used!"

Javelin stared at the door Raven had left through in shock. Slowly his mouth widened into a big smile before ha started laughing.

"Haha, I guess there are more amazing things Night has yet to show us!"

---------

Half an hour later, Raven's dark clad figure arrived moved through the lamp-lit streets of the Business Tier. On the way here, Raven had changed into more inconspicuous clothes while Hoatzin had continued going through the details he had uncovered.

"Weren't we going to see the mercenaries?" he asked, still perched on Raven's shoulder.

"Of course not! It's only been a week . . . ," Raven replied mentally. "Besides, I received a letter saying that they were to be sent on a mission so they are not in the city at the moment."

"Then where are we headed?"

"I'm headed to the tavern where that bar keep saw the Empress meet with a foreigner."

"You're visiting the Black Eagle? That's hardly a place for a young girl!" retorted Hoatzin.

Raven only snorted. "While I go investigate the witness I'd like for you to our old clan mansion on the Mansion Tier; I've heard that the Talon clan has taken it over. Don't go inside, just observe who comes and goes. It high time we start learning more about our own enemies."

Hoatzin's eyes immediately turned solemn and he nodded before swiftly flying off into the dusk sky.

It didn't take long for Raven to reach the tavern in question. The Black Eagle was located on one of the few unlit streets of the Business Tier but despite its solitary location, the business must be booming - if the golden painted rims around the windows were any indication. Sanding in a dark corner of the street, Raven observed the building for a while before pulling up a scarf to cover the lower half of her face and entering the tavern.

Once inside the smell of fermented beverages assaulted her nose. However, apart from the smell, the interior was surprisingly well organized with multiple small booths and all guests kept their voices low, efficiently drowning in the loud music a group of not-so-skilled youths were providing.

'This is quite a good place for secret meetings,' thought Raven as she looked around. Letting some of her masculinity slip, Raven sauntered over to the bar with ill executed discretion. Anyone who saw her would assume that she, yes she, was perhaps a spy in training; trained enough to partially hide her sex but too young to know how to not draw attention to oneself.

Behind the counter stood a weasel of a man that reminded Raven so much of the rat-man they'd met in Kinglet Grove that she almost figured them relatives. The man glanced at Raven though dirty spectacles, taking in all of her mannerism, before leaning over the counter to whisper, "wa du ye wan, miss?" in Raven's ear.

Raven jumped back in surprise and the little skin she showed under her hood and scarf turned slightly red. "I'm that obvious, huh?" she muttered to herself, but the weasel of course heard her. He laughed. "Don't worry, you will get the hang of it," he said with much more warmth than Raven had expected and his broad accent was gone.

"Your accent . . ." she started but was interrupted by the man.

"What can I help you with?" he asked again ignoring her question.

Checking that her scarf and hood was still in place - much to the bar keep's amusement - Raven moved closer once again.

"My Mast... I mean my  employer wishes to arrange a meeting with some foreign friends to discuss some private matters, only these friends might not be so friendly. . . ." She looked around nervously.

"So he wants to meet somewhere public, but not too public, am I right?" finished the bar keep and Raven sighed in relief.

"Would they stand out?" she asked. "The foreigners I mean. . . ."

"Well, we don't get a lot of them around here normally but recently there's . . . ," the man stopped mid sentence as if he'd remembered something. "It will be fine," he reassured instead.

"And if - just if - if my employer is a woman . . . "

"Ah. That will be harder. We haven't had a woman in here for years," he smiled and looked down on Raven, "well not a full grown one at least."

"Really? I thought I heard of one being here not too long ago . . ." she was muttering again. "How unfortunate," said Raven loader to the man as she looked a bit forlorn and turned to walk away. Although see seemed to have stopped paying attention, she did not miss the sudden change in the man's appearance as he when from surprised to afraid.

"Wait," he called out, causing not only Raven's head to turn towards him.

"Yes?" answered Raven with eyes twinkling of new found hope.

"Ah, never mind," said the weasel nervously, "good luck."

Underneath the scarf Raven's mouth twitched into a smile. 'When caught off guard he would remember not to talk about the foreigners but forget about a woman ever entering his tavern? Most likely there is some truth to his statement about meetings with foreigners but the Empress is most likely not involved.'

To the bar keep witness Raven bowed slightly and once more turned to leave. Just as she put her hand on the doorknob her entire body froze. In one of the corners of the tavern two men where having a slightly heated discussion about gambling; betting on fights to be precise. Earlier Raven had ignored them but their latest bet caught her attention.

"I'm telling you, the fight is going to get rigged. No way that Nightingale purist bastard is going to be allowed to win. Especially not against a Talon" said the first.

"Rigged? Bullshit! Why would Fiscal would need to have the match rigged for him to win?" refuted the second.

"Well then we agree, yet another obstinate Nightingale will die tonight!"

Chapter 41: A Slip of the Hand

Without even so much as a glance towards the two men whom were discussing the supposedly unavoidable death of one of her family's supporters, Raven resumed her departure from the Black Eagle. For her, being inside or outside the tavern didn't make that much of a difference - she would hear what was said anyway if she stayed close enough.

Once outside, Raven made a quick right turn and walked around the corner of the building, melting into the darkness of the alleyway.

"Are there any other interesting fights I should know about?" The two men inside begrudgingly moved on from their expectations regarding the Nightingale versus Talon match-up. Neither of them were spiritualists and rather seemed to make, or at least attempt to make, a living by instead gambling on spiritualist's fights.

"Not really; Limpkin is gonna be back, but the odds are too low with him for it to be really interesting."

"Any newcomers?"

The conversation dragged on for a while longer before they wrapped it up. After agreeing to meet an hour before the battles started, the two of them got up from their table and left. Outside of the tavern they parted ways, one heading south, the other north.

Five minutes after they had departed, Raven's figure emerged from the alleyway and calmly started making her way north. There were roughly 300 meters between her and her target but she didn't need line of sight to track him and his dull-grey presence. After a while, the man stopped, looked around, to make sure he wasn't followed, and ducked in between two rather rundown buildings. There was very little maneuver space in that passage, and most people would overlook it completely.

Raven, still 300 meters behind him, smirked. That narrow passage would normally have made following someone tricky for any tracker whom wished to not be seen; no doubt the intention of whoever chose to base their operations at the other end of it. Unfortunately for them, the passage was too short so Raven had no problem listening in on their conversations without entering. Instead, she once more stepped to the side and hid in the shadows of a nearby crate.

"Your membership medallion," said one of the people that greeted Raven's target in the small hut located at the end of the passage. The voice belonged to a woman, a very voluptuous woman - if her manner of speaking was anything to go by. The man moved to pull something out of his pocket and the already alluring voice grew even more seductive; "Welcome to Combat Abyss' betting service. How may I be of assistance tonight, sir?"

"I'd like to place ten gold on Fiscal in his slaying, five on the rat in the bout and ten on Limpkin in all his fights."

"Naturally, sir," a small pause, and then, "hmm . . . those are all low odds bets, sir. A rugged man like yourself surely wants to earn a bit more?" The woman practically purred as the spoke and leaned forward, most likely to accentuate a well-endowed bosom. "I so admire a man willing to take risks. . . ."

"Ah, well . . . " the man swallowed and resisted for a moment but clearly the woman knew what she was doing for he quickly yielded; "of course I will - I'm not one who fears living on the edge! I'll bet forty on the first newcomer who fights!"

"Most impressive, sir," said the woman in well-faked awe, "that will be seventy five gold, sir."

Raven couldn't help but laugh silently. 'Her employers made wise choice in hiring this woman, she tipped the bets further in favor of the house with ease.'

After placing his bets, the now rosy-cheeked man came back out from the passageway and Raven continued her quiet stalking him as the sun was slowly disappeared below the mountain range. Eventually, the man made the mistake of walking down a deserted street and, noticing that not a soul was out and about within a 400 meter radius, Raven made her move.

Silent as the night, Raven picked up her pace and caught up to the man within the time it took for his heart to beat but once. Since the man was taller than her by a couple of decimeters, Raven kicked the back of his left knee to force him to the ground - she only used a fraction of her strength as the man was, after all, only a normal human; with her body strength alone she would have no problem snapping his leg in two if she used too much force. As the man sunk towards the ground, Raven used one hand to cover his mouth whilst pinning one of his arms arm behind his back with the other.

She used no Divine Skills but she let her spirit essence flow out around her anyway. The man, who had initially intended to struggle, instantly froze and started to cold sweat; he might not sense the spirit essence, but the killing intent that was merged with it spoke to his most primal instincts.

"Good boy," whispered Raven in his ear with a sweet voice. It sounded almost as if she was talking to a puppy, and the extreme contrast it made to the heavy blood lust in the air sent shivers down his spine. "I have a few questions I was wondering if you could help me answer. Do you think you can do that?" The man nodded frantically. "And no shouting; I'm not too fond of loud noises, and it would be a shame if I accidentally broke your neck in shock, right?" He nodded even more frantically.

Raven lowered the hand that covered his mouth and lightly pinched down on the windpipe in his neck instead. "What is Combat Abyss?"

The man seemed confounded by her question, but mustered up the strength to answer it nonetheless; "a ba . . .  battle arena run by the Mercenary's and Assassin's Guilds."

'An Assassin's Guild that people know about?' Raven was a bit surprised by this. Based on the other conversations and the mannerisms of the man in front of her, he did not hold a high position in neither normal society nor underworld; if he knew the guild existed then it was likely that most people were aware of it.

"They organize fights every night at midnight," the man continued without needing extra urging, "ev . . . everyone knows this. . . ." There was an underling tone of doubt in his voice, but he squealed like a pig when Raven twisted his trapped hand into an unnatural position and stopped questioning her.

"sch, sch..." she cooed, and slowly lessened the pressure on his wrist. "Go on. Can anyone attend these arranged battles?"

"Anyone who shows up can pay a minor fee watch or fight - either a bout, or a slaying - but if you want to bet, you have to be a member. I . . . I can give you my membership medallion - it's in my breast pocket - you can have it, if you want! It's not linked to me so they won't know. . . . Ple . . . please don't ki . . . kill me. . . ." By now the man was sweating even more profusely.

"Tell me about Fiscal and his opponent."

"Fiscal of the Talon Clan? He is one of the top fifty fighters in the Abyss right now. Tonight he's fighting a member of his own clan to the death, in a slaying."

"His own clan?" Raven frowned.

"Bill - that's the other guy's name - he used to be a Nightingale but rumor has it that ever since the Talon's took over, Bill's been resisting the shift of power. I don't know why he agreed to a slaying with Fiscal though, Bill's only a low Adept whereas Fiscal is a high Adept; Fiscal is going to slaughter him."

Raven was silent for a while as she tried to recall anyone by the name of Bill in the Nightingale Clan, but, as one of the three strongest clans of the empire, it had consisted of nearly a thousand people. Raven hadn't even met all the Nightingales that had lived in the prefecture capital. She had been fascinated by who seemingly effortless the Talons gained control over the Nightingale Prefecture; perhaps this Bill could give her some insights.

The man in her clutches apparently took Raven's silence as a sign of disapproval so he quickly added, "But Bill has it coming though. Who would deny his Lord Nightingale's dying wish and refuse to accept the Talon's just because Lady Anhinga is a woman?"
Raven grew cold.

"Lord Nightingales's what?" the sweetness in her voice was gone without a trace and swirls of blood-lust infused spirit essence filled the air. At once, all living creatures in the area stilled; birds stopped singing, insects stopped moving and without knowing why or even realizing what they did, people indoors lowered their voices, opting to speak in hushed tones.

The man in her arms started shaking; "I . . . he . . . Lady Anhinga, she found a recording, in the ruins after the fire, where her dying brother begged . . . asked, the Lady to merge the Nightingale Clan with the Talon Clan and take care the prefecture!" Mid-through the man had started sobbing uncontrollably, "She didn't want to at first but then she graciously . . . I'm sorry, please don't. . . ."
Even before he had the chance to finish his plea, the hand around his windpipe gleamed with a dark green light and contracted with unimaginable force. With an oddly undramatic *click*, the trachea and all the internal blood vessels between Raven's fingers were crushed beyond recognition in an instant.

As the man's life force was slowly draining away, Raven lifted the weakly struggling man by his neck and turned him around. It was with sheer horror that this dying man's eyes locked with hers; the red in her eyes had now spread to fill even their whites and the more the man stared, the more he felt like he could see countless souls drowning in that endless sea of blood.

"My father made no such requests, that bitch lies!" As Raven spat out the last words, her spirit essence stirred once more and an invisible beam shot from her all-devouring eyes into the man's. In the same instant, the struggles stopped; his soul had evaporated like smoke.

Tossing the man to the ground, Raven stood still, panting, for a moment. Her hands opened and closed repeatedly as she slowly collected herself. Eventually she closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Once she opened them again, the red color had retracted back into her iris and her breathing had stabilized.

'The Crocodile Grapple was more effective then I had imagined.' Raven had utilized one of her new Divine Skills in action for the first time, and she was quite pleased with it. 'I've improved in the Ode of Woe as well. . . .'

Raven looked down on the lifeless body on the ground and sighed; she hadn't really intended to kill the guy. Now he laid there - his previously dark hair as white as snow, his malformed jugular slowly turning purple from internal bleeding and his face locked in everlasting terror. She bent down to collect his medallion but suddenly swore, halfway through the action.

'Damn. I forgot to ask him where the arena is located. . . .'

With the medallion in her possession, Raven ignored the corpse she left behind and started walking away. As she considered her options, Raven got an idea she figured worth trying. Sensing that he was still close enough, Raven focused on the connection between her and Hoatzin; "Big Brother?"

A sort pause and then, "Sister? What's wrong?"

"Have you heard of a place called Combat Abyss?" she asked back.

"Of course I have! It's a huge thing among the more fight crazy people in Sky City. We even visited it once during Battle Strategy Class with Academy; not that we were allowed to take part in the fighting, but it was considered a good experience to watch as well. Why do you ask?"

Raven considered telling her brother what she had learnt, but she neither wanted to bring his hopes up for nothing or distract him from his current assignment so instead she said, "I heard some people talking about it and found it interesting. Is it true it's partly run by an Assassin's Guild?"

"Haha, why am I not surprised that my dear little sister would find and arena of life or death battles interesting?" Hoatzin laughed. "And yes it is; both the mercenaries and the assassins use the Combat Abyss to help rank their members."

"Isn't a public assassins guild a bit . . . contradictory?"

"Not at all. As I understand it, the Assassin Guild is allowed to exist exactly because it's public. Supposedly, it functions sort of like a balancing chip between spiritualists and non-spiritualists; by only allowing the latter to hire them to 'take care' of the former if they feel like they have been mistreated." As Hoatzin explained, Raven noticed his voice getting a bit strained; it didn't seem like he approved of the set up. "The sums required are, however, very high and the imperial family is naturally off limits."

Raven considered this for a while. It was an interesting solution to the problem of spiritualists acting too arrogantly towards the common folk; if a spiritualist was too unreasonable, they risked getting assassinated for it, even without it being by orders of the Emperor. Of course, considering how valuable and relatively scarce spiritualist were, the fees ought to by so outrageous that several people, if not hundreds, would have to work together to pay for it.

"Am I right to assume that I will be on observation duty alone tonight?" asked Hoatzin even though he knew the answer.

Raven smiled.

---------
A few hours later, the setting sun had been replaced by a bright half-moon high in the sky and thousands of stars decorated the heavens like rivers of diamonds. Under such brilliance, Sky City did its best to mirror the view above by lighting several street lanterns along the roads on every Tier.

Despite the late hour, the Business Tier was still bustling with activity, especially around the eastern peak, where a huge sign of flaming letters spelled out Combat Abyss above a man-made cave entrance which faced out over the city's ground level below.
The entrance itself was wide enough for 800 people to walk though it, side by side, and two gigantic sculptures in bronze stood on ether side of it. One was an eagle - whose lifelike gaze stared off at the horizon, daring the sun to rise - the other was a wolf - which instead bared its fangs as it snarled at the moon above.

Currently, groups of people were making their way towards this cave, stopping here and there to buy food, beverages and other trinkets along they way. There where people of all ages here, even a few children, and every single one had faces filled with excitement. For many of them, watching these fights at the Combat Abyss was as close as they would ever get to a spiritualist battle.

Suddenly, a large gong rang out from within and the crowd looked towards the cave entrance. Walking out of the cave, dressed in armor so revealing that it hardly could help protect their owners, came eight overwhelmingly beautiful women. In one hand they held a spear, in the other a shield.

"Greetings," they spoke in uncanny unison, with voices smoother than honey, "midnight is upon us and the Abyss welcomes you all."
With loud cheers, the crowd flowed into the cavern. Surprisingly enough, although many people stopped and stared, no one walked within five meters of either one of the armor clad ladies.

One of those who paused for a moment to observe the eight women was a short figure wrapped in a black cloak. The well shrouded person snorted softly, muttering "brittle glass dolls. . . ." before continuing deeper into the cave.

The expression on the man who had been standing next to this figure darkened. Enraged, he was just about to call out a reprimand for insulting the Combat Abyss's own goddesses, when the figure stopped and turned towards him. The lower half of the figure's face was hidden behind by black fabric and the upper was shielded by the hood of the cloak, but the man could still sense two eyes locking unto him, daring him to speak. He shivered and said nothing.

After what felt like an aeon, the figure averted its gaze and moved on, disappearing into the crowd. Sighing a breath of relief, the man thought to himself, 'that was close; I almost insulted a contestant!' He then frowned. 'Odd, I don't remember any fighters who are that short. . . .'

Chapter 42: Things You Live For

With a vicious looking spear strapped to his back, Fiscal of the Talon Clan breathed in deeply as he stepped out into the enormous arena located at the heart of the eastern peak of Sky City. Smiling broadly he took in the sights and smells of one of his favorite places - the Combat Abyss. He had been coming here since he was ten, and had started fighting in bouts only a couple of years later - he had mostly lost at first, naturally, but over time Fiscal had grown stronger, and more vicious, resulting in victory after victory.

By now the Abyss had almost become something like a second home for him; he knew every inch like the back of his hand and could describe every one of the nearly ten thousand shields that covered all the walls inside. He loved the Combat Abyss; here, his temperament was appreciated - here, he was someone.

Of course, ever since the Talon Clan took over the Nightingale Prefecture he was someone out there as well.
With large strides that caused the people around him to scurry out of his way, Fiscal walked over to the section restricted for one hundred highest ranked mercenary contestants and took a seat on the metal bench marked 'Top 40'. Looking around at the occupants of the other benches in this area, he counted roughly thirty contestants present - some sitting on the three benches in front of him, but most of them sitting on the six benches behind him.

His smile widened with pride. It had taken him twenty years to get into the top forty on the Combat Abyss's mercenary ranking and had only a year ago made the breakthrough - to high Spirit Adept - that made such an accomplishment possible. He was aware that this didn't mean that he was even in the top hundred, or perhaps even top thousand, spiritualists of the nation as a whole - after all, most Spirit Champions preferred military employment over mercenary life - but he felt prideful about it anyway.
As the sound level in the arena was growing increasingly intense, a movement in the opposing restricted area caught his attention.

'So the rumors are true,' he thought with an odd look - halfway between awe and contempt - stuck on his face, 'Limpkin is back.'

Taking hit seat at the very first row of the section for assassin contestants was a man who, apart form their similar age, contrasted Fiscals appearance in every way. While Fiscal was muscular, dark haired, and covered in metal armor, Limpkin seemed tawny, had grey-blue hair and wore nothing even remotely close to armor.

Even their accomplishments were in stark contrast to each other, for whereas Fiscal had struggled for twenty years to make it to the top forty, Limpkin had only needed ten to break into the top ten, despite not yet having made the breakthrough to Spirit Champion. As such, Limpkin was one of the very few Adepts in Combat Abyss history who had managed to best low Champions in the assassin's ranking.

*DONG!*

The Abyss's bell rang out in the hall bringing immediate silence from the audience. The gate beneath the exclusive section opened up and the eight Abyss Angels walked out in two neat lines. Already drooling, Fiscal ignored those so called angels and stared at the open gate behind them.

Moments later a true goddess walked out: her hair was like a golden veil that touched the ground behind her; her voluptuous but and elegant body was draped in a white dress so thin it bordered on transparent; her clear, copper rimmed, eyes shinned like embers in the torch light. Contrary to the cold expressions on the Angels, this woman smiled warmly. All the new visitors, whom had already been entranced by the eight Angels, nearly lost their minds at the sight of her.

"Damn, that woman drives me crazy," groaned Fiscal and liked his lips. "One day, I'll have my way with her . . ." Had not the two guilds running the Combat Abyss been any less protective of the nine ladies currently on stage, Fiscal would have forcefully tried to bed them long ago.

"Spiritualists, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all to the Abyss this night." the goddess spoke and several men, including Fiscal, started panting heavily with arousal. "We have twenty three registered battles tonight, which of, five are to be Slayings." The parts of the audience who had retained their wits cheered. "As always, anyone is welcome to make a challenge at any time and contestants above the rank of fifty may not refuse such a challenge."

Fiscal smirked. 'What newcomer in their right mind would start of by challenging someone that highly ranked?' This thought reminded him of his own battle tonight, causing him to turn his head around. With a smug smile, Fiscal's eyes fell on a slightly older man sitting a few benches behind him.

'Bill, you obstinate fool,' Fiscals smile grew malicious as their eyes met, 'had you accepted the Talons, like me, then perhaps you would still be stronger than me! Tonight I will pay you back for how you've treated me. . . .' Fiscal was just opening his mouth when the Abyss's goddess spoke again, snapping his attention back to the stage.

"Remember that, in a bout, it is strictly forbidden to continue fighting once one party has forfeited." The woman waved her and, in perfect synchronization, the eight Angels spread out along the rim of the fighting stage. "A request has been made; tonight we will start with the Slayings. First up: Fiscal of the Talon Clan, mercenary rank 39, versus Bill of the Talon Clan, mercenary rank 68."

For a moment Fiscal was surprised - Slayings were usually saved for last - but it quickly turned to vicious glee as he looked up at the exclusive area.

'The boss wants me to set an early example . . . ,' he concluded, 'count me in!'

As Fiscal and Bill made their way towards the stage, the thousands of people in the audience started discussing the upcoming match.

"This is a no-brainer, this one..."

"Bill's only a borderline mid Adept, no way he's gonna win."

"Limpkin can defeat people of higher cultivation, perhaps Bill . . ."

"Are you an idiot? How could you even compare them?"

"I heard Bill's the one who made the challenge though."

Once the two fighters reached the middle of the stage, a huge steel cage was lowed down around them, sealing them within. This was done for every Slaying and indicated that one one would leave it alive.

Fiscal unhooked the spear on his back and let his spirit essence surge through it so everyone could tell that he was indeed a high Adept. Sneering he glared at his opponent "Do you regret it now, Bill, resisting the Talons? We both know you won't leave this place alive. If you at least admit your mistake, I will make your death a painless one."

Bill's face was growing red with rage. "You traitor! I don't care what that witch says - I will never be a Talon!"

Fiscal laughed mockingly. This was exactly the response he had been hoping for - a messy death was always more amusing. "You are calling me a traitor? How ironic."

A slightly muffled bell rang out indicating the start of the match and with a roar Bill dashed towards Fiscal with his sword held high. Spirit essence swirled around the blade, instantly covering it in apple green flames caused the temperature in the hall to rise slightly.

"Oh, that's Bill's signature move, the level four Divine Skill Blade of Borax! That's a Prefecture Clan for you - even the normal members have fairly high level skills," exclaimed someone in the audience in awe, but Fiscal only snorted.

He flexed his spear arm and deflected the incoming blade with ease and then using the blunt end of the spear to strike back at the head of the still advancing Bill. There was not a lot of force behind the strike, barely enough to disrupt Bill's balance, but enough for Fiscal to easily step out of Bill's path. Practically no one noticed the blackish green shimmer that had covered his stick on impact only to fade seconds later.

"Impressive! He deflected a level four skill so easily! Can you tell what skill he used?" asked another in the audience, but he got no answers.

"Haha, you wield a blade like a girl - all show and no action!" Fiscal laughed and thrust his hips forward repeatedly in an obscene gesture. The few women in the audience booed, but the sound was drowned out by cheering men, the eight Angels around the stage remained stone faced, but the goddess - now seated in the exclusive section - narrowed her eyes noticeably.

Bill grunted and attacked once more. What followed could be explained by nothing else then a cat playing with his food; Bill would continue to charge at Fiscal, utilizing the Blade of Borax, but every time, Fiscal deflected it before giving Bill a light smack with his spear, finally following up with insults on Bill's manhood. By now' the right side of Bill's face had swelled immensely, his eyes were blood-shot and his breathing was growing ever more ragged.

"It's the level four Deflective Secret Spear!" The crowd finally realized what Divine Skill Fiscal was using to avoid the blows. "Unless Bill has a higher level skill, he won't stand a chance. . . ."

Eventually, Fiscal got bored of only using the blunt end of his weapon and switched to lashing out with the spear head instead. It didn't take long before Bill's body was covered in cuts, slowly seeping blood. Interestingly enough, Bill did not change his tactic, are he seemed to rush at Fiscal with almost frenzied anger.

At this point, when Bill attacked for perhaps the hundredth time, Fiscal finally increased the amount of spirit essence he was deploying and instead of merely deflecting the blade, the entire sword was blasted out of Bill's hand. Nonetheless, Bill kept going, and instead took a swing at Fiscal with his fist. Amused, Fiscal simply ducked under the arm and retaliated with a punch of his own.

Spitting out a mouth-full of blood, Bill flew across the stage and slammed into the cage. Barely conscious, Bill slumped on the ground.
Fiscal walked over and hoisted Bill up by the collar. "No, no, no," he said, "you are not allowed to faint now, old fool. Don't you remember the drills you forced me though as a kind?" Fiscal slapped the already swollen face, "no rest until you fight like a man! Remember?"

Another couple of slaps. The crowd grew silent; they could tell the match was about to come to an end and were excited to see who Fiscal would choose to end it.

"Come on! Stop being such a woman!" With a bloody hand Fiscal slapped Bill yet again before whispering  in the latter's ear "Is this the best a Nightingale-loving sissy can pull of?"

Suddenly a shiver ran through his body and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Instinctively he looked up in fear but he almost snorted at his idiocy as he did it. Turning his focus back to the bloody lump of a human in his grasp, he was about to deliver his seventh slap when a clear and icy voice pierced the air.

"I wonder, what gives you the right to insult me so?"

Everyone immediately turned looked around for the person who had spoken, but due to the construction of the arena, determining where the sound had originated was not easy.

"Who speaks?" yelled Fiscal. He had been quite pleased with his choice of final words to Bill, and now the moment had been ruined.

"Who am I?" this time people were prepared and thousands of gazes fell on a short black figure graciously moving down one of the stairways towards the stage. "Let's just say I'm a representative of the so called lesser sex."

The entire body of this figure was covered by the hooded robe worn on top, but observing the flowing, almost feline, way the person moved, no one doubted that this short person was, indeed, a woman.

"As such, Fiscal Talon, I challenge you, right now; let's see if you are still so cocky after fighting a real woman!"

Fiscal stared at the black figure, whom had come to a halt right outside of the circle made by the eight Abyss Angels, in utter disbelief. A woman wanted to fight him? Was this a joke? Noticing that the woman seemed to be staring at him intensely, Fiscal burst out laughing!

"Haha, sure little girl, I'll play around with you for a while! Just let me take care of this first." Fiscal fished out a dagger and was about to sink it into Bill's throat when the melodious voice of the Abyss Goddess boomed out into the arena.

"Stop! A challenge has been made by a newcomer. As per the rules of the Combat Abyss, ranked participants must accept such a challenge immediately. The Slaying will be put on hold until after the challenge has been answered."

"What!?" Fiscal was noticeably shocked. What the Goddess said not exactly false but interpreting the rule as that it would lead to postponing an ongoing fight was unheard of. Then again, so was challenging someone while they were already fighting.

"Newcomer," the Goddess ignored Fiscal's outburst, "in accordance with the rules, you are welcome up on stage to fight partake in a bout against the man you've challenged. Likewise, it will only be a bout, if either of you call for a forfeit the fight will be over."

The black figure curtsied deeply as the huge cage creaked and was slowly raised back up to hang above the stage. Two of the Abyss Angels moved forward to collect the now completely unconscious Bill from Fiscal, who tossed the former to ground grudgingly. All this was getting on his nerves.

"Little girl," he neglected to retrieve the spear from the ground and instead tossed his dagger from one hand to the other, "you should know better to interrupt a man when he is fighting. You need a spanking!" He wasn't the only man laughing at that. "But if you beg and plead, we can move this rumble to another arena." Fiscal smiled wolfishly at the covered girl; although it was impossible to say much about the body beneath, her movements were enticing enough to have him interested.

There was a few heartbeats of silence, and for a moment Fiscal thought the girl was actually considering it - the girl was even shaking in fear - but suddenly an icy cold giggle bubbled out from under the fabrics covering the girl's face. Slapping her knees, the short woman eventually bent over herself, laughing. Although the laughter was filled with much amusement, most who heard it felt cold to the core.

"What's so funny?" asked Fiscal angrily just as the muffled bell rang out to indicate the start of the bout.

The girl stilled and straightened up and Fiscal could have sworn he saw a flash of red under her hood.

"Why, it's you, silly," she said and disappeared.

Acting on reflex, Fiscal turned just in time to use his small dager to intercept the black short sword aiming for his throat from behind.

"Bitch! How dare you sneak attack me?" He used his other hand to swing at the girl but she was long gone before his fist even came close.

"To say that you have the aim of a girl," the girl now stood over by his discarded spear, "would be an insult to my own sex."

"Why you little wench!" A large vein was burgling on Fiscal's forehead; the girl's comment had clearly his a sore spot. He started running towards her but she ignored his approach and instead bent down to pick up his spear, paying extra attention to the dull end.

"So it was poison," her comment was said absentmindedly but inside, Fiscal turned cold; he had been given that poison by his boss, it should be nearly undetectable.

Fiscal hadn't been the only one who heard the girl and suddenly the entire arena was buzzing with conversation.

"Fiscal used poison?"

"I thought Bill was acting a bit weird, attacking like crazy. . . ."

Fiscal felt his vein bulge even more; although poison wasn't forbidden in the Combat Abyss it was generally frowned upon. This little girl's revelation would ruin his reputation for years!

"Girl, don't think that just because I was surprised a moment ago, that I can't crush your neck in a heartbeat." Fiscal pumped his spirit essence out into his hands, causing swirls of wind to start surging around them. Every spiritualist present could feel that he was indeed a high Adept.

"That's another level for skill," muttered some in the audience.

"The girl is a goner. . . ." muttered others.

To everyone's surprise the girl showed no reactions to his display of power. Instead, she calmly weighed the spear in her had, feeling the balance of the weapon.

"Do you want to know what I live for?" she suddenly asked.

Fiscal blinked; he had not expected such a question and he couldn't help but loose some of the focus on his anger.

"Well do you?" the girl asked again.

"To become the woman of a strong man?" he suggested mockingly but a shiver down his spine stopped him from laughing.

"I live to rid the world of people like you," whispered the girl as oddly murderous spirit essence flowed to her limbs.

Chapter 43: Saving a Madman

Saving a Madman

The moment the malicious whisper left the woman's mouth and her spirit essence was activated the spiritualists in the arena dropped their jaws.

"She's almost a high Adept too!" they gasped with as much shock as Fiscal was feeling as he stared at his suddenly murderous opponent.

Since the spiritualists cultivation level wasn't as important for healing spiritualists, few females stepped into the Champion realm before the age of fifty but the voice of the hooded woman carried no such age. That alone indicated that the woman was a pure martial spiritualist.

With Fiscal's vicious looking spear in one hand and her own black short sword in the other, the girl leaned forward, sinking slightly towards the ground and Fiscal would have sworn that he could smell the metallic sent of blood filling the air.

"Try to keep up," she hissed as she pounced like a cheetah at Fiscal, who was still startled by his opponents strength and ferocity.

However, Fiscal could be considered an Combat Abyss veteran, so he quickly gathered himself from the surprise and swung at the approaching blur with his already prepared Divine Skill. Unfortunately for him, his target had already shifted out of his fist's path and before Fiscal had even registered that this had occurred, a brief stabbing pain ran through his throat. His eyes narrowed in confusion as all sensations of Fiscal's lower body disappeared from him. In his final moments of muddled thinking he couldn't understand why his nose seemed to have been exchanged with a spearhead.

---------

The Combat Abyss might as well have been deserted; so silent were the thousands of people who sat there as they stared at the stage. Raven landed softly on her feet and nearly ten meters away, Fiscal's headless body still stood upright, whilst his severed head had been pinned to the arena floor - by his own spear - a few feet further away.

With a flick of her wrist, the blood on her black blade was flung of in a thin line before the sword disappeared under her robes.

Indifferently, Raven curtsied toward the so called Abyss Goddess and turned to walk back onto the stands. It wasn't until she stepped past the row of armored girls that Fiscal's body collapsed to the ground and the arena exploded in shocked outbursts.

"What happened!?"

"One minute they are talking about something and the next Fiscal's . . . Fiscal's been killed!"

"But I thought Fiscal had the higher cultivation?"

Everything had progressed too quickly; those who were not spiritualists hadn't stood a chance at seeing what happened and those who were spiritualists still couldn't believe what they had seen. As a result, both areas reserved for contestants - as well as the exclusive stands - were still oddly quiet, but eventually the golden haired woman woke from her stupor.

"Wait," she called, and gracefully stepped forward. "Newcomer, congratulations! You have won your first challenge." Across the fighting stage, Raven stopped at the very bottom of the steps and turned around. "Since your opponent was the 39th ranked mercenary you may take his place as 39th in the mercenary ranking or instead take the 50th place in the assassin ranking. Which do you prefer?"

"I strike to kill," answered Raven.

"Assassin it is then." With a graceful movement the woman tossed a small token across the stage, which Raven caught with ease. "What shall we call you, newcomer?"

Raven considered it for a moment; "Singer."

"Very well. Welcome, Singer. If you want to make any further challenges tonight, just let us know."

Raven curtsied yet again and walked away. Behind her, the Goddess stared at Raven's departing back for a moment longer before she asked a few attendants to clear the stage and announced the next battle. Since Bill's opponent had perished, his yet unconscious body was carried off the stage. Raven breathed a sigh of relief when she felt him being lowered down on a cot right beyond the gate located below the exclusive section.

As Raven made her way towards the assassin's area she reflected over her "performance". She had initially been taken by surprise when the unnaturally beautiful woman - referred to as simply the Abyss's Goddess by the people here - had announced a change in the battle line-up. On Raven's way to the Combat Abyss she had learnt the normal schedule and made her plans thereafter. The change made her original plans useless and Raven had felt a bit at a loss when Fiscal and Bill started their fight. How was she to save the man now? It wasn't like she could publicly announce that she wanted to save Bill. . . .

Fortunately, Fiscal, just like most grown men Raven had come across as of late, had a blatant disregard for females. Noticing that even the so called Goddess - who surprisingly enough had a really strong cultivation - seemed to disapprove of Fiscal's continued degrading comments, Raven finally couldn't wait any longer and decided to go out on a limb, only hoping that it would work.

Stealthily removing her Limiters and pulling them into her spacial ring, Raven had issued her challenge and, as Raven had hoped, the  Goddess had jumped at the opportunity to punish Fiscal a bit - even though Raven had her doubts about whether the woman actually believed Raven had a chance of winning, disrupting Fiscal's gloating had obviously been enough.

The actual battle had then turned out even better than Raven had desired; Fiscal had been her strongest opponent yet and her victory had not been a hundred percent assured but, in the end, it had been easily obtained regardless. Pleased with her achievement, Raven took a seat on the fifth bench in the assassin's section. Many heads turned her way and she could hear a variety of whispers about her. One conversation caused her to smile secretly underneath her scarf.

"How many did you count?" asked an elderly man seated next to Limpkin on the first row of assassin contestants. His voice was flat with disbelief.

"Four," answered Limpkin in an equally disbelieving tone. "Three level three and one level four."

"I got four as well," agreed the older man; "quite extraordinary."

'It wasn't four, it was five, if I may," smirked Raven. The men were, indeed, discussing Raven's quite unique deploy of Divine Skills. The pair had quite astutely noticed that Raven used a variety of skills that were seamlessly merged into one - only they misjudged how many.

Usually, spiritualists would perhaps combine two Divine Skills - one for movement and one for attack - but over that last week, Raven had made successful imprints with 113 Divine Skills whose physical movements were almost identical with martial arts techniques she had learned in her previous life. With only some alterations in her fighting style, Raven could now infuse practically every thrust, step and stab with powerful spirit essence. As she had made her way through the perhaps a third of the first floor, Raven had noticed that she seemed to have the highest affinity for skills that focused on boosting speed and strength while sometimes utilizing thunder and wind.

Moments ago, she had used a wind-based movement skill to advance, a pure power-based skill to jump from below, followed by her Silent Pierce of the Sonic Sword to sever Fiscal's neck, a second wind-based movement skill to turn around mid-air and finally a thunder-based attack to thrust the head-donned spear into the ground.

---------

Raven watched the rest of the matches with varied enthusiasm; most of the battles were quite unimpressive, and even though the few Champion realm battles were undoubtedly very spectacular, the practitioners lacked the technical finesse required to spike Raven's interest. Limpkin's three matches did, however, catch her attention. In all his matches, be it the two bouts or the single slaying, Limpkin executed his skills with impressive clearness. The fighter spirit within her itched to challenge him, and had it not been for the fact that she couldn't risk injuries tonight, she would have done so long ago.

'Once I've heard what Bill has to say, I'll return,' she thought as he small hands clenched down around the metal seat she was sitting on, 'I really want to test my new Divine Skills against that man!'

After nearly three and a half hours of fighting, this night's Combat Abyss came to an end and the thousands of people in the crowds made their way out of the arena. Raven had hung back a bit to see what would happen with Bill, but clearly the Abyss felt no responsibility for its wounded combatants; the still unconscious Bill was simply hoisted away from the arena, carried out of the cave and dumped under a nearby tree.

Raven stood in the cave opening, hesitating to approach the man - as far as she could tell, at least four people were silently observing her at the moment, but Raven could also sense that something was growing increasingly wrong with Bill. If she let him lie there while she got rid of the watchful eyes, it might be too late by the time she returned.

With an overly dramatic sigh, Raven walked over to the unconscious man. "Oy," she said and poked Bill's ribs with the tip of her toes, "you still alive?"

No response, except for his raspy breathing.

She bent down and checked his breathing before she grunted and scratched her forehead. "Well, not much point in intervening once if I don't intervene now." Her voice was not much more than an whisper intended for her ears only, but she had no doubt the people observing her could hear it.

With yet another grunt, it was Raven's turn to hoist Bill over her shoulders. As his body-weight settled, she walked off towards the center of the Business Tier. An hour later, Raven's dark figure walked through the doors of the small house her mercenary uncles had hired on the outskirts of Sky City, ground level.

---------

In a poorly lit room two shriveled up old men were discussing with each other, frowning deeply.
"So this Singer girl interrupted the fight? Do you think she wanted to save Bill?" asked one, with a voice so hoarse that his vocal cords must be even more shriveled up than their faces.

"No, I don't think so, " answered the other, "Fiscal kept badmouthing Bill, saying he was no better than a woman and so on. Apparently the woman snapped. She didn't seem to care about Bill at all."

"But she carried him away afterwards?"

"According to the report, she did it mostly on a whim. She didn't seem to know who he was."

A knock on his door interrupted their  discussion. "Enter," called the man with the ruined voice. The door opened and a scrawny youth draped in black stepped into the room. Actually, calling him a youth was a bit of a stretch - he was at least forty, but compared to the other two, he was indeed a youth.

"Greetings Councilor Talon," the younger man bowed respectfully towards the man who had called out before bowing to the second one as well; "Clan Elder."

"So, who is she?" asked the Clan Elder.

"Well . . ." the youngster hesitated, "we followed the woman for nearly half an hour but . . ."

"Oh, for crying out loud, spit it out boy! What happened?" commanded the hoarse Councilor.

". . . we lost her, sirs," said the youth and looked down embarrassingly.

The two old men stared at their junior with disbelief. Noticing this, the man hastily continued; "the . . . the girl suddenly started singing, and before we knew it she was nowhere to be found!"
"Are you telling me that two Champions lost a mid Adept because she started singing!?" roared the Clan Elder, "Get lost you, useless piece of shit!"

The man didn't hesitate to do as he was told and within a heartbeat only the two shriveled up men remained in the room.

"Such an embarrassment. . . ." muttered the Clan Elder before turning to his companion, "what now?"

"What now?" repeated the Councilor, "there is nothing to be concerned about; Bill will die or grow insane by the poison and whoever this girl is, she is of no concern to us."

"Of no concern? She had brought shame on the Talon name!"

The councilor laughed - although it sounded more like a cough. "She followed the rules of the Abyss. There is nothing we can do." He then smiled viciously. "But she's in the top fifty now, if she returns to the Combat Abyss, she too will have to follow the rules."

A flash of realization crossed the Clan Elder's face before he too started laughing smugly.

---------

Back down, on the ground level of Sky City, Raven was observing the still practically unconscious Bill, who was sprawled out on the living room floor. On the way here, Raven had been force to stop on several occasions to administer some first aid healing with the Blessed Hand just to keep him breathing.

By now, his breathing was a bit steadier and he had even started to regain his senses. Suddenly, Bill moaned and his eyes fluttered. Slowly they opened, but the moment his gaze fell on Raven, who was leaning against a wall not too far away, Bill shouted in anger and struggled to throw himself towards her.

Easily stepping out of his way, Raven slapped him lightly on the only part of Bill's face that was passably human. The sudden pain brought a brief moment of clarity to his eyes, but it quickly faded and that primal rage returned.

'I was afraid of this...', thought Raven dejectedly. Although she had not been certain about what poison Fiscal had used, she had her suspicions, and any of those which effects lasted even after five hours were not good news.

Grappling Bill's hands behind his back, Raven forced some of her spirit essence into his body. Bill tried to resist but in his state of mind, he could do little against her intrusion. As her spirit essence approached Bill'd soul prism, his body shivered and stilled; he almost started whimpering, like a small animal.

Despite her concentration, Raven couldn't help but smirk slightly. The killing intent that had fused with her spirit essence had proven more useful than she had anticipated.

Returning her attention to the matter at hand, Raven carefully inspected Bill's soul prism. Small, worm-like lines squiggled around just below the prism's surface, slowly expanding. After letting more of her own spirit essence converge around the soul prism, Raven made an attempt to force her way in, but no matter how hard she pushed, Bill's prism wouldn't let her in.

'Fenris made it seem so simple . . . ,' sighed Raven. Her soul might be strong but without overwhelming cultivation or the person's imminent death, Raven had no way of entering another's soul prism. 'But if I don't get in, I won't be able to fight the poison! In a few more hours the poison will have completely corrupted his soul from within . . . .'

Sighing, Raven was about to give up when an idea struck her. "It's crazy . . . ," she mumbled, "but if I do nothing, he will be lost nonetheless." Turning Bill's body around under her, so that he faced her, Raven used her free hand to force him to meet her gaze. As their eyes interlocked, a formless beam shot from Raven into Bill, causing his feral eyes to widen in absolute terror.

As the Ode of Woe forced it's way into Bill's mind, the cumulative pressure of Raven's sea green soul surged over his spirit prism, coercing it to link with the over 350 blood-lust infested spirit connections Raven had with the world. At first, Bill's spirit essence tried to protect him, but as the pressure grew, small cracks started to appear on the surface of the prism. Noticing the change, Raven quickly withdrew her attack and instead used the cracks to penetrate the crystal surface.

Once inside, Raven wrapped the black lines of poison in her own spirit essence and started pulling them out of the soul prism. The process was slow and every time she managed to get one bit of poison out some of her own spirit essence was drained. Slowly, sweat started gathering on her forehead. Another four hours later, Raven finally withdrew from Bill's prism and slumped, exhausted, on the floor.

She glanced at the middle aged man who was resting, rather peacefully, on the living room floor- or, perhaps, not so peacefully after all, every now and then his body would shudder as his face contorted in fear.

Bill's life was no longer in danger, but how much of his sanity would remain once he woke up . . . only time could tell.

Outside, the sun had already risen; two hours from now, the morning classes would start for the day.

Chapter 44: The Soul Stirs

Author's note: I made a little addition to the previous chapter (inspired by some entertaining comments). It dosen't really affect the story so you can continue reading without a care but if you want some more fluff to the story, check it out. If you read chapter 43 after the 2/2/2016, then nevermind ;)

The Soul Stirs

Leaving the deeply sleeping Bill to be watched over by her brother, a thoroughly exhausted Raven presented herself for the Battle Strategy morning class, as if nothing had happened the night before. It wasn't so much the lack of sleep, but rather the utter depletion of her spirit essence that had brought her to this dreary state - though she hid it well. She would need some quiet meditation to get her vigor back, and had it not been for the severe punishments carried out against students who skipped class, Raven would instead have headed straight for her dorm room.

Completely ignoring the stares of her classmates, Raven walked to the very back of the room and sank down behind one of the vacant desks. She looked around the classroom with a bored expression before closing her eyes indifferently. This was the first time since entering Sky Academy that a lesson was held in a furnished room - raising much curiosity among the other students - but Raven couldn't care less at the moment.

As it was, the grumpy Elder Stork, who had held the first history lessons and shown Raven to the Divine Library, walked in moments later and started his lecture. Apparently today's subject was a first introduction to military strategy and warfare - the students were expected to pay extreme attention and take notes. Raven did neither.

"Junior Student Night," Elder Stork suddenly barked, "since you are not taking any notes I assume you are already an expert on the subject of strategic warfare!"

Raven opened her eyes and stared at the man. She was not in the mood for this.

"As such, I'm sure you can enlighten the class and tell us if there is anything more crucial to the outcome of a war than the armies' size?" The elder had a small snicker on his face; he was annoyed by Raven's rocket launch entry into the Academy and had been looking for a way to push this student down a notch. Considering Raven's . . . meager background, military strategics shouldn't be a strong point.

Raven closed her eyes again, but just as Elder Stork was about to yell at her for insubordination, she opened her mouth instead.
"Whilst it is true that most armies tend to focus strongly on increasing their numbers, due to over-all power this provides, it is equally true that no war is won by numbers alone. It cannot be denied that, under the right circumstances, an army of 500 could defeat one of 5 000. Therefore, the most important aspect of any warfare strategy is it's ability to know, and understand, your enemies."

She opened her blood-red eyes and drilled them into the Elder's at the last word, causing him to swallow nervously before laughing off Raven's insights as "having done her homework in advance". Raven closed her eyes again and the lesson continued as if the exchange never happened. The elder didn't bother her again.

By noon, Raven was once more on the first floor of the Divine Library, sifting through various scrolls. She still felt a bit tired, but it was no longer at the point where she felt an immanent collapse skulking around the corner. Just as Raven unrolled yet another scroll to scan its content, she lifted her head and frowned slightly. At that moment, Dunlin's familiar presence had passed through the library doors, accompanied by Jack Tanuki and the presence which Raven had come to know belonged to the prefecture heir Auk Wren.

Shifting her body slightly, Raven moved out of their line of sight but it would seem someone had told them where she was because they ignored the stairway that lead to the upper levels and instead headed straight towards the back of the first floor. For a moment Raven considered escaping by climbing over the shelves - if she timed it right, she would be able to leave without them ever even laying eyes on her.

'I don't know what's the bigger hassle here, avoiding them or talking to them. . . .' In the end she decided to stay.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the slave boy! Digging through the garbage, are we?" snickered Jack.

"Me?" asked Raven with eyes of pure innocence. "I thought that was more of a tanuki thing, young master Raccoon."

The irony in his remark had been too obvious for Raven not to take advantage of, but she almost regretted it even before all the words were out of her mouth. As Auk Wren couldn't resist letting out a muffled laugh, Jack's face turned black with anger in an instant. Dunlin glared harshly at Auk before stepping between Raven and a now seething Jack Tanuki; they were after all not completely alone here and making a mess would be troublesome.

"What point is it to have a quick tongue if you can't back it up?" snorted her cousin.

'Better a snake of mine, then a troll of yours,' thought Raven, but this time she held kept it to herself.

"I dare you to be witty again and I'll pummel you for it," continued Dunlin as he took a threatening step forward. "Your little twin friends aren't here to save you this time, slave boy," he hissed.

"Are you sure about that?"

Two nearly identical voices suddenly spoke up behind the Dunlin trio; Javelin and the Griffin twins had arrived and from what Raven could tell, they had been running to get here. Especially Javelin had a faint string of moist drops donning his forehead.
Dunlin swore under his breath, but backed away a few steps from Raven. "Soldier boy to the rescue once again," he muttered disdainfully without looking away from her. "Perhaps we should start calling you slave girl instead! It seems more fitting as you're doing such a good job at being a damsel in distress."

Raven showed no reaction to Dunlin's comment but Javelin shuddered slightly, as if he had suddenly realized something. Now it was his turn to have his face change color - but to pink rather then black. Just as Javelin was about to reject the statement, Martin started laughing.

"Haha, Night, that's not such a bad thing to be called by a Talon. I heard one of the Talon clansmen got utterly massacred by a mere girl at Combat Abyss yesterday. She was practically a midget too. Apparently, calling their opponent a girl is something a Talon does before defeat." Martin winked at Raven who answered with a rare smile.

Dunlin's eyes narrowed in vicious anger for a splitt second before he tried to hide it by shrugging nonchalantly."The man was practically only a guard, besides, he wasn't even a real Talon. A spiritualists early years are the most important and he started as a Nightingale. . . ."

Raven's fists turned white as she pressed down on the scroll she was still holding and her mouth filled with the metal tang of blood. 'Patience . . . ,' she repeated like a mantra in her mind, as she once again found herself forced to push back the impulse to end her cousin's hateful life.

But Raven wasn't the only one infuriated by Dunlin's comments. Without a warning, Javelin suddenly took a swing at Dunlin with full force. As his arm moved toward its target the distinct sound of gashing water filled the first floor accompanied by a light sea breeze in the air. The attack was truly profound and held great potential to do serious damage, but unfortunately, it would seem like Dunlin had expected this all along. He took a step to the side while Jack made a low kick towards Javelin's feet with lightning speed.

Javelin was a fairly skilled fighter for his age and under normal circumstances he would have no problem with both hitting Dunlin and parrying Jack's advances, but as it was, Javelin had let himself get blinded by his emotion so his reactions were a bit slow. In the last minute he narrowly dodged the approaching leg but lost his balance instead, causing him to slam into Raven who had been standing on the opposite side of Dunlin. Since Raven had sealed her strength with her Limiters, and also was concentrating on not starting a killing spree, the sudden impact was enough for her to loose her balance and tumble backwards together with Javelin.

The two of them hit the stone floor with a loud bang and the scroll Raven had been holding clicked into the floor next to them and rolled away. Impressively enough, Javelin had managed to get his arm around Raven, efficiently protecting her head from hitting the ground. His other arm suspended him only inches above Raven's face.

Their eyes met and in that moment something extraordinary happened. Their rage evaporated like due in the morning sun, and the world around them seemed to fade away. For Raven, there was only the boundless depths of Javelin's wondrous eyes. She felt them enveloping her in a galaxy ment solely for her, as if she had finally found her place. Her soul quivered and all the pain and horrors in her two lifetimes suddenly seemed so far away, so . . . insignificant.

For Javelin, the cold red light of Raven's eyes mesmerized him. He wouldn't look away, he couldn't, not for anything. The more he stared, the more he wondered how he ever could have considered these red eyes as cold. They were not cold, they were an inferno; burning with more passion than he had ever experienced. Suddenly the red in them flashed, and for a split second he could have sworn that Raven's eyes shifted color to a luscious green - a green so familiar and full of life that he couldn't help but shiver.

Instinctively, Javelin lowered himself closer to Raven, who made no attempts of stopping him. It wasn't until their noses touched that the sudden jolt of sensation snapped them back into the real world. Red as a lobster, Javelin jumped up from the floor and took a few steps back, scratching the back of his head nervously. Raven remained still on the floor for a few more seconds while she collected herself. Surprisingly enough, her heartbeat was calm and steady - she felt more at peace with herself than she had in ages.

However, not so surprisingly, it didn't take long before the silence in the room was broken by three people's hysterical laughter; "haha, who would have guessed? The admiral son is a pansy! The army will tare him apart!" Jake served the first stab, quickly followed by Dunlin; "perhaps the slave boy actually wants to be a slave girl, how pathetic!" Auk said nothing but laughed wholeheartedly with the other two.

Two people who weren't laughing was Martin and Lark. "Hey!" shouted Martin with a glance towards his brother, "People can love whomever they want!" He then looked at Javelin's now paling face and quickly added, "not that Javelin is in love with Ra . . . I mean, with Night! They were just . . . surprised, that's all!"

"Yeah, yeah," dismissed Dunlin, "say whatever you want to justify being friends with a pair of poofters." As if the four youths were no longer of any concern to them, Dunlin and his gang turned around and started walking away, still laughing uncontrollably.

"No wonder the little slave stays on the first floor, I bet he checks out the boys as they climb the stairs to the next floor, drooling all over the place," suggested Jack mockingly.

"Naw, I just don't think his poofter brain is good enough to be able to learn the more complicated Divine Skills," countered Dunlin as Auk continued laughing, "I bet he'll spend his entire ten years here on the same four skills."

"If he stays that long," ended Jack and all three laughed even harder.

Behind them Raven looked at her dispirited friends and sighed. Javelin looked like he'd seen a ghost, Martin had a worried frown on his face as he looked from Raven and Javelin to his brother, who in turn almost seemed so very frail all of a sudden. 'This won't do,' she thought and decided to call out to the departing trio.

"Oy," she called as she pulled out one of the few scrolls that shined with a truly dark blue luster in Raven's eyes. She tossed the scroll towards Dunlin even before the latter had turned around. Nonetheless, he caught it with ease.

"What do you want with this?" he asked distastefully.

"It is a challenge," replied Raven calmly. "I assume you have at least a spare slot left, in case a truly amazing skill would come your way. This is a simple level three skill, surely you can master it in a jiffy. . . . "

"Of course I can," Dunlin spat before Raven had a chance to finish, "so what?"

"You may pick any skill on this floor for me to learn, and then we'll see who masters their skill first," continued Raven, unfazed by his interruption. "What do you say? Are you man enough for the challenge?"

Dunlin snorted, "this is rediculous! Why would I bother with such a silly thing?"

"If you don't dare, just say so."

"Who said I don't dare!" Dunlin practically shouted back. "Fine! Then you learn this one!" He stormed over to the closest shelf with level three skills on it and pulled one at random.

Raven tilted her head to the side, "sorry, I've already learnt that one."

Dunlin clicked his tung angrily and pulled out another scroll, "this one then!"

"Nope, I know that one too."

Dunlin narrowed his eyes but pulled out a third scroll, however, Raven just shook her head at it.

"Bullshit!" bellowed Dunlin, "You've only been here for a week, how could you possibly have mastered three Skills already?"

"I already knew them when I arrived," lied Raven with a meek shoulder shrug.

"Are you trying too fool me, slave? Where would you get your hands on three level three Divine Skills?"

"I was raised by mercenaries," answered Raven patiently, as if it explained everything. "I can demonstrate them for you if you want. . . ."

Dunlin was about to call her bluff when a small murmur broke out in the room. All the commotion had drawn quite the crowd by now and they were eagerly commenting on the unfolding events. Not wishing to make a fool out of himself if, by chance, Raven was actually telling the truth, Dunlin chose to grit his teeth and instead asked sarcastically, "well, where can I find skills you haven't learnt then, little genius?"

Raven pointed to one of the shelves she hadn't looked through yet. With a grunt, Dunlin walked over and pulled a forth skill that he tossed to Raven without waiting for an okay. In Raven's eyes the scroll she caught shined with a bright green hue. She unrolled it and almost smiled when she saw the skill described inside; Dunlin couldn't have picked a more perfect match for her. It was thunder based attack whose physical movements were stunningly close to what Raven had learnt during medieval fencing lessons - yes, medieval; she had been in a odd period in her life at the moment.

She pulled out her identification stone and unlocked the scroll, holding up the 2/4 text for everyone to see. Many gasped when they realized that this was only the second skill she had unlocked for imprint so far. Everybody already knew, through gossip, that she had picked the Spacial Dash on the second floor, and then spent the rest of her time sifting through scrolls on the first floor. They had all assumed that she would have imprinted with at least a few of them by now.

To the side, the still pale faced Javelin furrowed his brows slightly in confusion. A few days ago, he had felt the sudden urge to see how Raven was doing and had sneaked up on her while she was reading in the library. While he observed her, he had clearly seen her imprinting with two different skills. He thought it reckless at the time and almost stopped her from wasting her slots on such low level skills. Little did he know, that Raven had noticed his presence and was instead being restrictive with her imprints that day.

Dunlin, on the other hand, smirked as he too unrolled his skill. In his mind, the fact that Raven was only now imprinting with her second skill at the academy ment that she had most likely lied about the other skills and was only hoping to impress the crowds. Without even reading the description, Dunlin unlocked the imprint on his scroll with his own identification stone. Contrary to Raven's, Dunlin's stone warned him that he had now filled all four of his slots.

"Let's make our imprints at the same time," said Dunlin still smirking, "and if I haven't mastered this skill within a month I will declare it your win!" His words echoed through the hall and many of the students drew in surprised gasps. Mastering a Divine Skill in one month would, even if it had been a level two skill, be quite an accomplishment.

"That's a true Advanced Student for you!" called someone.

"So confident!" exclaimed someone else.

Raven looked at her cousin calmly. "And if I learn my skill before you . . . ," her question trailed off.

"Ha! Then I'll stop calling you a slave, slave," answered Dunlin with a snort, "in fact, I'll even start calling you senior Night! How about that?"

A brief flash of mocking triumph crossed Raven's face before it was replaced by a cold smile.

"Sounds good enough for me," she said.

Chapter 45: Merciless

Merciless

Dunlin and Raven glared at each other one more time before both of them closed their eyes and their scrolls lit up slightly for everyone to see. Raven's cold smile widened as the imprint for her new Divine Skill, called Thunder Lock, filled her soul with divine instructions.

The imprint process only took a second for her and when she opened her eyes again she was looking at a now pale Dunlin, who still stood before her with his eyes closed.

'That's what you get for not reading what kind of skill I handed to you before agreeing,' snickered Raven secretly as she thought back on the skill she had picked for her cousin.

She had imprinted with it herself only yesterday and although it wasn't a very powerful skill - the spirit essence implementation part was fairly straightforward and, on the surface, the skill seemed very simple - but, the physical aspect of the skill was almost identical to one of the most hard learned martial techniques ever created in her old world. Then, it had taken Raven - an already elite martial artist - nearly five years to master just this one move; if Dunlin mastered it before he graduated, Raven would very be impressed already.

A few breaths later, Dunlin opened his eyes and looked down on the scroll in his hand bitterly. "Fuck! What's with this skill . . . ," he swore so quietly only Raven heard it. She would have thought that this skill was famous at the Academy for how impossible it was to learn, but it would seem like at least Dunlin hadn't known of it.

"So," started Raven nonchalantly, "just to make sure we're in agreement: one month from now, you will have mastered the Frozen Onslaught, proving you're the better spiritualist," Auk Wren visibly twitched at the skill's name, however Raven continued as if she hadn't noticed it; "but, if I master the Thunder Lock before that, you will start calling me Senior Night. Right?"

Dunlin's already pale face paled a bit more. He might not have heard of the Frozen Onslaught before, but from the imprint itself he could tell that it was a very profound skill; to master it within a month would likely be hard for him. Then again, her was still convinced that he would fare better than the slave. After a pensive moment, his eyes lit up as he was struck with an idea.

"Haha, sure!" he started, readily, but then paused for a moment. "I feel like I'm being a bit unfair to you," his face was benevolent to the extreme, "you are after all only a first grader. . . . How about this, if you can gain the same degree of understanding for your Divine Skill as I do of mine, by the time of the Lunar Trials, I will consider it your win."

Raven smirked inwardly; the term's first Lunar Trial was in 42 days, efficiently giving Dunlin another twelve days to gain some insights to the Frozen Onslaught and generating an air of generosity for him at the same time. 'Not that it will do him any good. . . .' she mused as she shrugged at Dunlin's suggestion.

"On the other hand," said Dunlin when he saw her silent acknowledgement, "it also isn't fair that you're the only one who stands to gain something out of this. . . ." Once again Raven made no objections, so he continued, "after the Lunar Trials - if you loose - you will have to start calling us 'Master' and work like the slave you are for us!"

If Dunlin had managed to deceive any of the other students by his previous generosity, the current viciousness in his voice aught to convince them otherwise. Even the heavily distracted Lark and Javelin snapped out of their stupors and were about to retaliate against Dunlin's statement when Raven stretched out a hand to block them.

"That's fine," she said calmly. Dunlin raised an eyebrow in surprise; he had thought that Raven would object to it a bit more.

Malicious chuckles rang out next to Dunlin as Jack put is arm over the former's shoulders and stared intensely at Raven. "Foolish slave! Here I thought you at least had some wits. . . . You might as well start practicing right away! Hmmm, Master Tanuki . . . it has a nice ring to it." He laughed even more but for once Auk didn't join in and was instead looking a bit worriedly at Dunlin.

"You have a point. . . ." said Raven with a pensive frown. She turned to Martin, "would Master Griffin mind assisting me?"

"Night?" Martin looked very confused at Raven's sudden shift in behavior.

"Would you mind lending me one of your long swords and then attacking me with a similar weapon?" Raven bowed respectfully towards her friend as she spoke.

Now Martin wasn't the only one who was confused; the Dunlin trio, just as most observers, had assumed Raven was joking around with Tanuki's mockery, but asking to be attacked was something else.

A flash of realization, followed by a new type of bewilderment, crossed Javelin's face, causing him to nod when Martin looked over at him moments later; he wasn't sure what Raven was planing, but yesterday's events in their dorm room had given Javelin a new reason to trust his roommate.

"Okay," shrugged Martin and a large two-handed sword materialized in his hand. A few of the younger students gasped in admiration. Spacial rings were perhaps not extremely rare among the high nobility, but for commoners it was practically the stuff of legends. Martin handed his sword to Raven before retrieving a second one for himself. "What do you want me to do?" he asked her.

"I was given the advice to practice, so that is what I intend to do," she answered with a serious face, causing the observers to raise their brows in unbelieving surprise.

Dunlin and Jack started laughing. "Did you hear that?" said the latter as he smacked Dunlin's on his chest, "he's going to start right now! I bet you five gold he'll trip on his own feet within five seconds!"

"Ha! I bet he won't even manage three seconds," replied Raven's cousin with disdain. 'Trying to execute a skill right after imprinting?' he thought, 'that's pure hubris!'

Raven ignored their comments and focused on Martin. "Strike at me with either an over head swing or a forward thrust, please," she instructed as she started activating her spirit essence in accordance with the Thunder Lock skill.

After looking intently at Raven for a moment - so as to make sure that he hadn't misunderstood anything - Martin did as he was asked and swung his huge sword towards Raven's head. He used no spirit essence but the mere weight of the sword was enough to do great damage to Raven, should it hit her.

While the blade approached her, Raven altered her body's position ever so slightly and released one of the hands that she was holding her long sword with. Suddenly, the underside of that arm, and the chest area beneath it, was covered in tiny electrical sparks.

With apparent ease, Raven side-stepped the falling blade completely, as it passed next to her, her electrified arm coiled around the blade and pinned it to her side with herculean strength, immobilizing it, her skin safely protected by the layer of sparks. Once the sword was lodged within her grasp, Raven stepped forward sharply, using just one free sword arm to thrust the two-handed heavy long sword at Martin's gut.

As soon as Raven's sword started moving towards Martin, electrical sparks shot out along her second arm as well, traveling towards the tip of her weapon with incredible speed. Simultaneously, the sparks around Martin's grappled sword started flowing down that blade as well, rapidly surging towards his hands.

The room was in utter silence as everyone, Javelin included, stared at Raven in deep shock. They recognized the technique that was being executed - it was none other than the 0 Raven had imprinted with only moments earlier.

By now, Raven's sword was only inches any from Martin. She glanced over at the sheer horror she could see in her cousin's face and snickered; 'you won't get away that easily, my dear cousin Dunlin - that would be such a waste. . . .'

It was at this point, with the sword barely an inch away from its target, that Raven shifted her spirit essence and body motion slightly off the correct track, causing the electrical sparks to flicker and fade while the pouncing sword in her had drooped noticeably towards the floor, as if her arm strength had suddenly failed her. The tip of the sword clanged into the stone floor only half a breath later.

Raven straightened with an flustered smile and released the sword she had still been clutching under her other arm, revealing a hefty tear in the outer layer of her uniform. "Hehe," she laughed, embarrassed. "Level three skills really are tricky . . . I now understand why one might need a bit over a month to grasp them fully."

She effortlessly flipped around her borrowed long sword and stretched it out towards Martin in an attempt to give it back, pommel first, but Martin just stared at her. The entire first floor of the Divine Library was deathly silent. "What?" she asked and looked around with perfect ignorance.

Nobody managed to say anything before, all of a sudden, a muffled bell rang out outside of the building.

"Ah, afternoon classes are about to begin - we'd better not be late." Still holding the borrowed sword, she locked arms with the two Griffin twins and started moving towards the exit. "Aren't you gonna walk us to our class, Jav?" she called back as they passed Dunlin's crew, giving the latter cold glances in the process.

Pulled out of his daze, Javelin nodded and hurried off after the departing trio.

"What did you just call me?" he asked as the library doors closed behind them. Raven stared at him for a moment, surprised that this was his leading comment, until she eventually started laughing - her first genuine laugh in a long time.

Still within the library building, Dunlin and his two companions, as well as the ten or so other students that had gathered over the course of their discussion still stood in silence as they stared at the closed library doors. As the realization of what they had just witnessed, excited whispers started to spread through the crowd.

"Did you see that!? Raven almost managed to preform the Thunder Lock on his first try!"

"Had I not seen it myself then I would never have believed it!"

"Perhaps it was a trick? Could he have learnt the skill before?"

"Impossible, the identification stone wouldn't have increased it's counter if he had."

While different theories about what had just happened filled the room, three people remained silent. Jack and Auk were looking a Dunlin with shock, whose face had gone from slightly pale to deathly white and was currently turning a mixture of red and blue - the combination of rage and oxygen deprivation.

'That little bastard tricked me - he must have!' he howled inside. A myriad of ideas concerning how this could have been done but none of them seemed very reasonable, causing him to strain his brain even further.

"Talon?" asked Auk carefully and placed a hand on his friends shoulder. Dunlin instantly drew a deep breath and shrugged off the hand.

"It's not possible," he hissed and starred at the ground.
"It was most likely only a fluke," suggested Jack, but he didn't sound very convinced by his own words.

After staring at the floor for a moment longer, resolve filled Dunlin's face. "I know someone we can ask," he practically growled as he motioned for his fellows to follow him, storming out of the library.

---------

The rest of the day was rarely uneventful as Elder Willow had been called away for some unknown reason just before the lesson started, leaving the students with the instructions to self-study, and once it was time for Advanced Class, Dunlin and Jack were nowhere to be found; according to Javelin, Dunlin had skipped the earlier class as well. Today, the original teacher for the Advanced Classes had returned and he was not happy about his missing students.

The elder was a large grown fellow, with suntanned skin and long blonde hair who, as his appearance indicated, was originally from the Sea Empire. He was addressed as Elder Wrymouth and was, despite the fact that he had moved to Sky Empire nearly four decades ago, one of the three foreign elders who were on her suspect list for the mystery 'Elder W' - including Elder Willow.

Elder Wyrmouth had decided to collectively punish all Advanced Students for the two who were missing, so the evening class was spent in training so grueling that even Raven thought it a bit extreme - though that might be more due to her lack of stamina after the previous night than the training regime.

Thoroughly spent, Raven and Javelin collapsed on their respective beds inside their room, breathing heavily and with all their limbs feeling like jelly.

"Man, that was hell!" wheezed Javelin between his panting.

"Are all Sea Empire instructors that demanding?" asked Raven, her breathing quickly stabilizing.

"Pretty much," laughed Javelin, quickly regretting it when his laughter turned to coughs.

"It's so typical," sighed Raven and leaned over to give Javelin a ironic look, "Dunlin manages to be a pain in the ass even when he's not there!" Javelin's coughing grew more violent as he laughed even harder. Eventually the coughs stilled and he too propped himself up to look at his roommate.

Their eyes met and in the next instant Javelin's face turned bright red. He quickly looked away, his hand instinctively lifting towards his neck. At that moment, the sleeve was pulled back slightly, revealing a blue and gold bracelet around his wrist. The moment Javelin laid eyes on it, he froze in place as his previously red face paled and was replaced with an expression of immense loss that quickly mingled with that of shame.

Raven frowned as she observed this sudden shift. Sitting up straight, she looked at the bracelet more closely and couldn't help but gasp - she recognized that bracelet! She had made herself two years ago, and had sent it to Javelin as a small thank you for the Twilight Lullaby that he had gifted her the year before. That very evening, Raven's entire family had been exterminated, leading her to forget about the bracelet completely.

Looking at it again, the emotions from that night came welling back up as she thought back on everything she had lost. A lone tear trailed down her cheek.

Sensing her stare, Javelin looked up from his wrist, and despite all the pain and shame he felt, the sight of that lone tear pierced through it, making his heart constrict even further.

"Night?" his voice was concerned, almost pleading.

Raven stirred and quickly wiped away the tear. "Ah, sorry," Raven smiled meekly as she searched for the right words, "you . . . you just seemed so sad all of a sudden."

Some of Javelin's worry eased, only to once more be replaced with the pain of loss as he looked  back to the bracelet.

"I . . . this . . . " he too faltered as he tried to speak. "This was a gift from a girl I met once," he finally said.

"Met once?" asked Raven carefully.

"She . . . she was the most wondrous creature I've ever met. I can't really explain it, but the moment I saw her, it was like something in me clicked into place." Javelin's voice grew surprisingly steady for a moment; "I know it sounds stupid but I just knew - she was mine, she had always been mine."

Raven sat in silence. Three years ago - not to mention six years ago, in her old life - Raven would have indeed have found Javelin's words stupid, insane even. Today however, she wasn't as sure. Wasn't what he described similar to what she had experienced only hours earlier? Raven pushed the thought away; surely it hadn't been that intense.

"This bracelet . . . arrived the day after I learnt that not only she, but her entire family, had died in an accident. Not . . . not a soul survived." Javelin's voice wavered as two streaks of tears trickled down his face. "I . . . should have been there! Her brother invited me. Had I only accepted then maybe I . . ." His jaw and fists clenched, his knuckles instantly turning white. He looked down on his hands.

"Javelin . . ." Raven slipped off her bed and crouched down on the floor in front of him, forcing her way into his field of view. "What difference would that have made? You were only eight, what could you have done?"

"I could have protected her!" Javelin almost shouted, "or at least not let her die alone!"

Raven felt herself drawing in a deep breath in shock and the sudden urge to slapp him welled up. But she didn't, instead she breathed out tried to comfort him; "she wasn't alone. Her family was with her, right?"

Javelin shook his head. "No! I know she was alone, I could feel it!" he slammed a fist into his bed post, cracking the wood. He was silent for a moment before he spoke in a steadier voice; "I felt her sorrow. She grieved alone. She died alone. I swore I would carry her with me forever, so she wouldn't be alone again, and yet . . ." he briefly looked at Raven before turning away his face in intense shame.

With wide eyes Raven realized the inner conflict within the boy. He had felt something for her today, perhaps even earlier considering his initial discomfort around her, and now Javelin feared that he was falling for someone else - and a boy at that.

For a moment Raven hesitated, she really didn't want anyone to know that she was still alive, but surely Javelin would want to protect her and guard her secret with his life? It would be so nice to have someone more to share to burden with. . . .

"Javelin, I . . ." she started, but at that moment a slightly panicked voice filled her head.

"Sister! Bill is awake and acting really strange; I need your help!"

Chapter 46: Memories

Author's note: Many warm thanks to R. Kayne for your donations! it is much appreciated :D

Recently, the donation regulations here att Royal Road have changed so from now on the donations I receive here (including R.K.'s contribution) will be added to the chapter queue on my own website (thereby contributing to the release speed of chapters). However, no promises are made that the releases on RR will be exactly the same as on my site. Since quite a few of my readers there help me out with spotting any errors I miss, I tend to wait a bit before releasing it here.

Memories

For a moment Raven sat, frozen stiff, on the floor in front Javelin. Her mind was blank as she tried to decide what to do.

"Raven?" Hoatzin's voice came to her once more, this time with even more urgency.

This distressed voice was like a bucket of cold water over Raven's head; her entire body jolted and instantly she was on her feet, backing away from the still agitated Javelin.

"Javelin, I'm sorry," she said while pulling at her robes, "I shouldn't have pried. . . ."

Javelin looked up at Raven. "You didn't, I just . . ." Raven held up a hand to stop him from saying anything more. "It's okay, I understand. I'll give you some space," she said and left their room before Javelin had a chance to object. With the door safely closed behind her, Raven leaned her back against it for a moment as she pulled her hand over her tightly fastened hair and sighed.

'What was I thinking?' she chided herself. 'Telling a ten-year-old a secret like mine just because he's sad over loosing his first crush? This is even worse than with Eric . . . ' She closed her eyes and involuntarily thought back on her second to last mission in her past life; it had not ended like Raven wanted it to.

She shook her head. 'Get a grip, Raven!' she commanded of her self before she finally hurried off down the hall. Her red eyes, once again, emotionless and cold.

Inside the room Javelin stood with one hand resting on the door leading to the hallway, his head was lowered as he stared at the floor in a daze. He wasn't really sure what just happened; Raven had decided their conversation was over and then left all of a sudden. Javelin felt a sudden surge of déjà vu as he watched the lean boy's swift depart from the room.

Frowning, he shrugged it off as his mind playing tricks on him; Javelin might have had a demanding upbringing but he'd never been left behind. Sighing heavily, he sank back down on his bed, looking out at the dimming sky outside the window.

'Why do I feel so ashamed telling him about her?' wondered Javelin. He had felt oddly obligated to explain to his roommate about his past love, the young lady Nightingale. He felt desperate to let Raven know that . . . he frowned.

'Know what? That I'm still in love with a ghost? That I'm unavailable?' Javelin snorted and grumbled, "he's a boy, for crying out loud! Besides, even three years ago my fiancé was already . . ." Javelin's eyes widened.

He shot off his bed and rushed out of the room. 'How did he know?' thought Javelin as he headed off along the path Raven most likely took, 'I never said when she died! Could Night know something about what happened?'

This slim possibility made his heart beat with excitement. He had always thought that the death of the Nightingale main family was a bit odd. How could such a prestigious clan make such a novice mistake, and overestimate their abilities while handling a spirit beast? It made no sense! Apparently a Records Orb had been found in the rubble, but such orbs were the specialty of the Sea Empire and Javelin knew that they weren't infallible; a skilled spiritualist might alter the stored information.

'If Night knows something, I must learn what it is!'

Strangely enough, no matter how hard he ran, Javelin couldn't seem to catch up to his roommate, who seemed nowhere to be found. Javelin ran all the way from the Southern Dorms to the grand academy garden in a flash but no sign of Raven. Just as he stepped outside the southern gate and stopped to consider where he should search next, two familiar voices called out to him in unison.

"There you are, Javelin!"

He turned to the left and saw the Griffin twins come jogging towards him. Martin was smiling broadly with a bit of peevishness in his eyes. Lark was smiling too, but the smile wasn't quite as honest as his brother's.

"Have you two seen Night?" Javelin asked the twins, but their reactions answered his question even before they had the chance to speak.

"We assumed he was with you," said Lark, looking a bit worried. "Don't tell me you've yelled at him again."

"No, I haven't!" answered Javelin, quite a bit firmer than he had intended, "and what do you mean by again!?"

Both twins raised their eyebrows - uncanningly in sync - as if saying "oh, really?"

Javelin suddenly remembered, and he scratched the back of his neck. "Right, the Spirit Hall Tower thing. . . ." Javelin thought back on that evening and his spirit fell a bit. "Lark, did you tell him about her?" he asked.

Lark needed no clarification to know what Javelin was referring to. He shook his head with genuine remorse. "I'm sorry I told him Javelin, but I had to explain why you reacted the way you did. I . . ."

Javelin interrupted him. "Did you say when it happened?"

"Sorry?" Lark looked confused; this was not the reaction he had been expecting from his friend.

"Did you tell Night when she died?" Javelin asked again, more insistent now. The intensity in his eyes caused Lark to back up defensively.

"No!" he replied in haste.

"You sure?" Javelin stepped in closer.

"No . . . maybe? I don't know, Javelin. . . ." Lark backed away again, but this time Martin stepped in between them. "What's going on, Hake?" he asked with a stern look, "you're acting a bit weird, man."

Javelin's eyes met Martin's and held them for a moment before yielding. "Sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to get so riled up." Javelin backed away and gazed out over the garden with distant eyes. 'Where did he disappear to?'

Martin glanced over his shoulder at his brother, but neither of them seemed to have any idea of what was going on. They wanted to ask, but had learnt over the past years that when it came to matters concerning Raven Nightingale, it was best to leave it alone.

"You came looking for me?" Javelin eventually asked.

Jumping at the change of subject, Martin gingerly put his arm around Javelin's neck. "Yep," he said, "you and Night actually, but I guess we'll have to make do with you." The mischief was ripe in him once more.

'Oh, boy,' thought Javelin but said nothing.

"Remember the fight we told you about? The one with the mystery woman killing a Talon Clan member during her first fight at the Combat Abyss." Javelin nodded and Martin continued. "We were thinking . . . " Lark coughed. "Well, I was thinking that we might as well visit the Abyss tonight and see if we're lucky enough to watch her fight." Martin's smile twisted into a smirk as he added, in a lower voice, "perhaps even give her a medal for her services to mankind."

Despite everything, Javelin found himself laughing wholeheartedly. Once his laughter calmed down, he looked up at Martin, who was still hanging over Javelin's shoulders, with warm eyes - Martin might seem easygoing and simple but he was quite astute. Clearly this was his attempt to lighten the mood, for both Javelin and Lark.

"A medal dosen't sound good enough, if you ask me," Javelin joked back. Suddenly he got a flash of insight; perhaps they weren't the only ones considering a journey to the Business Tier.

"Sure, let's go," he said. "There are quite a few hours left before it starts. If we're lucky we might find Night on the way; I think his uncles are mercenaries staying at the Business Tier."

---------

The first thing Raven noticed as she approached the small house owned by Hog and his companions was the faint noise of rhythmic banging coming from inside it. The sound wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear it, but Raven could. Once she got close enough, she could sense the somewhat dimmed and erratic presence of Bill. He was sitting in the hallway closet, swaying back and forth, slamming into the wall in front of him every time he leaned forward.

'Guess he didn't survive the night's treatment unscathed . . .' Raven couldn't help but feel a bit dispirited and she paused a moment on the doorstep before entering the house. Immediately, she was greeted by the flapping white wings of her brother shooting towards her face.

"Sister, you're here!" Hoatzin sounded very relieved.

"How is he?" asked Raven mentally, so as to not disturb the already unnerved Bill.

"Hard to say," replied Hoatzin as he landed on her shoulder. "When he woke up he seemed to be fine at first, apart from being confused about where he was. Then, all of a sudden, he started to shake and scream. It sounded like he was speaking but I couldn't understand what he was saying, like he was speaking another language. Eventually, he tried to run for the door but when he looked out the window he turned white as a ghost and, well, he's been like this ever since. . . ." Hoatzin extended a white wing towards the closet door.

Raven glanced out the window but saw nothing out of the ordinary. 'Did he see someone, or something?' Raven wondered as she walked closer to the closet. She gently tried the handle, but it had been locked from the inside.

"Bill?" she asked in the softest voice she could muster. For a moment the banging stopped, but it soon started again, now with even more fervor. Raven tilted her head to the side, frowning. 'Is he saying something?'

Straining her ears to the max Raven started to faintly hear the practically silent words that were pouring out with each of his breaths. Considering her hearing, she doubted Bill would even be able to hear it himself - if he'd been aware of what was going on, that is.

"Snälla," he breathed, "sluta . . . jag klarar . . . inte mer!"

Raven's eyes widened in shock; she recognized those words, but they were not of this world - they were words that belonged in her old world! There they had been spoken by the last remaining survivors of a small northern country which had been nearly wiped off the map during a great world war, fought ages before Raven was even born. Her blonde bed-mate, and only friend, that Raven had been forced to kill before the age five had been from that part of the world.

'How can he speak it?' she was baffled, but as Raven tried to understand what was going on she heard more words from within closet.

"Näktergalen . . . de kallar mig Näktergalen. . . ."

In that instant she realized what had happened. With a sudden surge of spirit-essence-powered force, Raven yanked open the closest door, pulling it off its hinges. Bill yelped as he looked up at her with utter terror. Raven did everything she could to push her killing-intent-merged spirit essence out of her own eyes as she clasped her hands around Bill's head and forced him to face her. Instinctively, he closed his eyes.

"Look at me," she urged with a firm voice. "Look at me, Bill," she repeated, but Bill's eyes were still clamped shut. "Titta på mig!" she demanded.

Finally, her commands had effect; Bill's eyes popped opened and met Raven's with an unfocused gaze.

"There you go, Bill," cooed Raven. "Keep your eyes on me, okay? Can you do that?" Bill slowly nodded. "Good, boy. Now, repeat after me: my name is Bill and I'm from Sky Empire."

"My name is Bill. I'm from Sky Empire." Bill said the words but with very little conviction in their meaning.

"Again, Bill," Raven urged.

"My name is Bill. I'm from Sky Empire."

Bill was told to repeat this one sentence like a mantra, over and over again, until slowly, life returned to his eyes and he spoke the words with growing confidence.

Once he had become a bit more stable, Raven led the now nearly lucid Bill into the house's kitchen and served him a cup of warm brew to calm him further. It took over two hours, but eventually Bill looked up at Raven - he was still clearly shaken but he also seemed to be relatively sane.

"Miss Nightingale. . . ." there was a mix of pity and fear in his voice. "I . . . you . . . how can you live with that. . . ."

Raven shook her head.

"Can you give us a minute, brother?" she asked and although Hoatzin gave her a long, piercing look, her brother did as he was asked and flew out of the house. Sensing that he was out of earshot, Raven leaned back in her chair with a concerned, almost motherly, expression on her face.

"How much did you get?" she asked.

Bill was quiet for a while. "I don't know. . . . There is so much I don't understand." He grew quiet again but Raven just waited for him to continue. "I saw the cave where you mourned your families death and I . . . think I saw your birth? But most was before then." He shuddered. "There was so much . . . pain. To have experienced that . . ."

'So it was true then,' thought Raven. She had read that sometime, when spiritualist made temporary connections with each other to transfer Divine Skill imprints, some memories might be transferred as well.

As a person grew older and experienced more aspects of life, their soul would grow stronger. But what made it stronger? It was exactly those memories, those really life changing experiences that stayed with you for the rest of your life.

When Raven had forced her spirit essence into Bill's soul to deal with the poison, some of her memories had been transferred as well. Just like with imprints, the information in her soul was copied unto Bill's. These memories wouldn't become truly his, but he could recall them much like someone would recall a dream.

"I'm sorry you have to see it," she said. Getting only the strongest of her memories, from a life filled with mostly pain, death and torture, would not be easy to deal with - even if he barely got a fraction of them. Raven had been trained for it for almost as long as she could remember, Bill had not.

". . . you saved me, this is a small price to pay," he answered, but Raven wasn't as convinced. She had dealt with people given sudden traumas before; he might be alright at the moment, but no one could know for sure how long it would last. Most likely he would never sleep another nightmare free night again.

'Only time will tell. . . .'

Deciding to change the subject, Raven instead asked Bill to talk a bit about himself before eventually moving on to the subject of the Talon Clan and their take-over. It turns out that Bill and his family had worked for and been members of the Nightingale Clan for generations. They never held very high positions in the clan but were respected for their diligent work.

When Raven's family had been killed and Lady Anhinga showed up with the recording of their Lord's dying wishes, no one had reacted at first. However, time passed and the Talons made ever increasing changes to the prefecture, changes that many of the old Nightingales knew Lord Maleo wouldn't have approved of - like demanding higher taxes even of people with little to no income.

Some started voicing their objections but it didn't take long before accidents started happening. It could be anything from rare diseases to faulty stairs and midnight robberies. Bill was ashamed to say that he had chosen to lay low, keeping his opinions to himself. It wasn't until he happened to overhear a conversation about milking out more money from the prefecture residents for the benefit of some foreigner, that Bill figured he'd had enough.

Of course, he was not so tired of living that he'd shout this from the mountain tops. Instead he started undermining the Talons' actions from within, but apparently he hadn't been discreet enough. Fiscal, also a former Nightingale but who had shifted his loyalties quite quickly after the regime change, had been sent to provoke Bill into challenging him at a slaying in the Abyss, leading to where they were now.

Raven asked many questions as Bill talked, and learnt a great deal about the current situation in the Talon house hold - especially when it came to the number of spiritualists the Talon's had at their disposal. However, no answer was available for the largest mystery: Who was this foreigner?

Chapter 47: Visions

Author's note: A big thank you to this chapter's sponsors! And on another note, a friend of mine is helping me proof the earlier chapters right now so soon they'll be error free ^.^

Visions

As the slim crescent moon rose over Sky City, Raven and Bill were still sitting in the kitchen of the little house located on the outskirts of the ground level. Hoatzin had long since been called back, and was now perched on the rim of a mug filled with the same broth Bill had been drinking.

It was nearing midnight and much had been discussed. For the most part, it had been Raven asking Bill for information about the Talon's or the city in general. However, Bill had a few questions of his own for Raven, mainly concerning what actually happened on that dreadful day two years ago and how Raven managed to survived it. Raven choose to be mostly honest about it, but skimming over the details of her cultivation and completely leaving out the fact that her brother survived it too - albeit, not in the same form.

Oddly enough, Bill asked nothing about the memories he had received from Raven's previous life; every once in a while he would grow deadly still, staring of into the distance in a daze, but he never said a word of what he was thinking about, or remembering, at those times. Perhaps he was afraid that talking about it would make him lose his mind again.

"So," said Raven after Bill had snapped out of yet another trance, "as far as you know, the Talon clan has at least nine mid Champions, and close to a hundred low Champions?"

"Huh? Ah, yes, miss . . . um, mam."

"But how is that even possible!? The Nightingale Clan only had one mid Champion - my father - and as far as I know, there was no one even close to breaking through in either the Nightingale or Talon Clan!"

"I don't know how it happened, mam. I just know there are nine clan elders, who all follow your aunt's commands very closely, and all of them are mid Champions."

Raven couldn't quite wrap her head around this part. It might not sound like a big step between a low Champion and a mid Champion, but the difference was enormous. The average spiritualist would need about 25 years of training to increase their cultivation to the bottleneck between the Adept and Champion realms. If they managed to make the breakthrough, an additional eleven years would likely be needed before they could even consider themselves being close to mid Champions. Additionally, if you were above thirty five and had yet to reach the mid Champion level, you were unlikely to ever make it there.

"There are rumors, though," added Bill, "that they found some sort of treasure, that has helped them increase their cultivation. There are quite a few people in the clan who have been improving faster than normal, so it makes sense."

Raven couldn't help but think of Dunlin's odd spirit essence. Was it linked somehow?

"Sister, how come the Imperial family hasn't reacted to this?" asked Hoatzin." If the Talons keep growing stronger like this, then their position as ruling clan would be in jeopardy."

"Oh, they might have reacted to it, there's just nothing they can do about it," sighed Raven. "You know as well as I do how strong the traditions are in our empire; the strongest clan rules, and that's that. If one of the prefecture clans, or even the imperial family itself, try to move to restrict the development of the others, retaliation would be swift and absolute."

Bill, who had heard nothing of the sibling's conversation, took the silence as a cue to continue speaking, and said, "then again, there are also rumors that there are more experts hidden within the clan, who might be even stronger!"

Hoatzin's little bird body shook violently as he choked on the broth he'd just sipped up in his beak.

"Is it true?" asked Raven with a concerned frown.

"It's a rumor, mam; the whole point is that you don't actually know," Bill smiled meekly, "but, there have been a lot more letters being sent by instant transfer since the Talons took over. I know that for sure cause I'm . . . I was, in charge of keeping the equipment ready to use at any time."

Raven's eyes lit up. "Do you know who they sent it to?"

"Sorry, mam. All I know is that most of the letters weren't sent very far away, judging by the materials spent."

"Do you know any way for me to intercept those letters?"

Bill was silent for a moment and Raven almost feared he was about to sink into another trance before Bill spoke again. "If mam wants to see the letters, there's nothing that can be done, 'cept sneaking in, either at the mansion or wherever the letters get sent to." Raven's face fell, it was as she had anticipated. "However," continued Bill, "if you want to find out about the hidden experts then the Assassin Guild might be able to help you with the information. . . ."

Bill gave Raven a quick glance before looking away, while her brother looked at Raven's now grinning face quizzically. "Why would the assassins know that?" he asked.

"One of the most important things for an assassin is to know their target, especially if you're in the business of hunting spiritualist. If nothing else, how would they otherwise be able to set appropriate fees?" Raven spoke out loud, as if confirming her suspicions with Bill. "They must have quite an extensive spy network."

Both Bill and Hoatzin nodded, although for different reasons. "Right," said Bill, "I don't remember much about yesterday, but I'm sure that mam could . . ." Bill's sentence trailed off before he could reach the end; his body stilled and his gaze grew distant.
Raven's eyes had traces of pity in them as she looked at the momentarily apathetic man in front of her and sighed. When he was like this, Bill's presence dimmed considerably, as if covered by a dull grey membrane.

"Will he be okay?" asked Hoatzin.

Raven shook her head. "I don't know. . . . But I'm afraid that unless he can come to terms with this, Bill won't be making any more advancements in his cultivation. . . ."

Raven got up from her chair and walked over to the kitchen window. Outside the sliver of the moon had almost reached its peak - midnight was nigh.

"Brother, I will be heading out." Raven sent the message to her brother without looking away from the window.

"You're going to the Abyss, right?" Raven nodded.

"You can't," Raven turned around and gave her brother an apologetic look. "What if someone recognizes you later?"

"No one has to see me with you. I could follow someone else in."

Raven's face turned stern. "I said no, Hoatzin." She pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled down a message for Bill - for whenever he resurfaced - and swiftly left the house.

Inside, Hoatzin flew over to the window sill next to the door and saw Raven's dark figure disappear into the shadows. Even though his face was that of a bird's, his eyes were filled with deep sorrow.

'I'm no fool, dear sister,' he thought as pain filled his heart. 'Whatever memories you have left of your past life, they are enough to drive a grown man insane. . . . Oh, what horrors have you been forced to live through?'

Without being able to control it, spirit essence flowed within him, condensing at the corner of his eyes, where it gave birth to two sparkling tears. The two crystal tears drifted downwards like snowflakes, disappearing the moment they came in contact with the wooden surface beneath Hoatzin's small claws.

---------

Moving expertly from shadow to shadow, Raven quickly made her way through the Business Tier towards the eastern mountain peak and Combat Abyss. She had taken a hawk from the ground level to the western side of the Business Tier and then zig-zagged down various alleyways to make sure no one could tell where she had come from as she approached her destination.

She arrived perhaps an hour late, so most people had already made their way inside, but Raven clearly felt how a handfull of people were quietly observing her from various positions that they'd considered hidden. Raven had to force herself not to stare at one man in particular, who practically stood in the middle of the road, seemingly waiting for her; although her eyes couldn't see him, his deep red presence was like a beacon in a dark night for the rest of her senses. Whatever he did to stay invisible did nothing to hide his presence.

Ignoring her observers, Raven headed straight for the Abyss's cave entrance, only briefly glancing up at the two huge stone statues she passed on the way. As she moved further in, the symphony of smells, sounds and leaking spirit essence, that was unavoidable when dealing with very large groups of people, pricked at her senses, to the point where it was almost painful.

'I didn't like being in large crowds before, and I like it even less now!' Hadn't most of Raven's face been carefully hidden beneath layers of wrapped cloth, people would have assumed she'd just swallowed a lemon.

However, very few noticed her arriving in side at all, and the reason was that on the fighting stage a brutal battle was going on. It wasn't a slaying, because the metal cage still hung from the ceiling, but the two men were evenly matched and seemed to hold a deep grudge against one another.

Doing her best to filter out all unnecessary noises and presences, Raven made her way over to the area restricted for the top assassin participants. She needed to find a way into the guild, and this was the fastest way she could think of.

'Word seems to travel fast here too,' she noted amused when nearly sixty sets of eyes turned towards her as she slid into her seat at the fifth bench from the front. There were a lot more ranked people here today - yesterday there had been barely thirty - and they all started whispering about yesterday's events when they saw her.

"So you dared come back."

Raven turned around on her bench to see the man she yesterday had identified as Limpkin come walking down the stands. She smiled an almost hungry smile, which she knew he couldn't see through her fabrics - her senses had not been mistaken, he had been the invisible man standing in the middle of the road outside.

"I like a woman with balls," he said mischievously.

"A personal reception from Limpkin, the famous wonder Adept. I'm honored," said Raven with a overly graceful nod. "Do you meet with all new assassins the same way?"

Limpkin's eyes flashed for a moment before a pleasantly surprised smile crept across his face. "Only the interesting ones, my dear. Only the interesting ones," he answered with a wink before he continued down the steps.

'Interesting indeed,' thought Raven, still smiling, as she watched him depart. She hadn't forgotten his battles from yesterday, and would very much want to fight him tonight, if the opportunity came.

A snort next to her, drew Raven's attention away from Limpkin. The sound had come from her bench neighbor, who was a surprisingly regular looking guy with an appearance that made his age hard to guess. For an assassin, his looks were close to ideal.

"Typical," he muttered. "Of course the girl has to start flirting the moment she gets here."

Raven raised a bemused eyebrow. 'Flirting? Oh, poor thing. . . .' In Raven's book, that had barely counted as a greeting - she could flirt her way into a puritans bedroom if she wanted to. Shaking her head, Raven had intended to focus on the on going fight instead, but the average man rolled his eyes and spoke again.

"I can't believe I have to sit next to the girl. . ." He grunted and nudged his other neighbor. "What if her girly strength rubs off on me?" He laughed mockingly, and was too absorbed in himself to notice the temperature dropping slightly around him. "I mean, Fiscal was a dick. I bet she only won because he was to busy getting turned on by the thought of fighting a girl." He started laughing again, but this time he noticed that none around him was laughing with him. In fact, the man sitting next to him rather seemed to look at him with pity. The average man frowned. "What?"

No one replied.

At that moment, the gong indicating at a winner had been decided rang out and the match in the center on the arena came to an end. The entire crowd started cheering as the victor howled to the skies. Well, almost the entire crowd cheered. The area around Raven was oddly still.

Through all the noise, a extremely girly voice rang out behind the average looking man's ear. "Um, excuse me mister," said Raven as she used a finger to poke him insistingly on the shoulder. Surprised by the sudden contact, the man twitched and tried to move out of the fingers way but to no avail. At fist the man had only seen Raven's pitch black hood and robe but now, finally, his eyes met hers. He shivered as his face lost all its color. "Would you please tell me how I make a challenge?"

---------

"Wha! Did you see that finishing move?" exclaimed Martin with more enthusiasm than he felt.

This over dramatic amazement made Javelin chuckle slightly, although it quickly turned a bit bitter. The evening had not gone as he had hoped. Not only had they not been able to find Raven on their way to the Combat Abyss but they had run into Dunlin and his crew instead. Nothing truly worth mentioning had happened but the encounter left him and the two twins with a sour aftertaste.

To make matters worse, the first hour of bouts in the Abyss had been particularly boring. It was as if every spiritualist who actually knew anything about fighting only sat and watched as pure amateurs had it out in the center. They might as well have been poking each other with sticks as far as Javelin was concerned; there was no finess, only brute force and bloody noses.

"I'm getting tired," sighed Lark, as the yet another bout ended, "isn't it about time we leave?"

Javelin couldn't agree more.

"Fine," said Martin dejectedly. "I tried at least."

"That you did!" Lark patted his brother on the shoulder and the two of them stood up to leave. As Javelin did the same commotion spread through the arena. An impromptu challenge had been made and would take place before the next bout. None of the three boys reacted to this, since it was nothing out of the ordinary here, but just as Javelin took his first steps up the exclusive stands where he and his friends had seats he nonchalantly looked over his shoulder to glance at the stage.

There, making her way out on the battle stage, was the very vision of a fairy, clothed in a dress of shimmering blues and copper. Her dark purple hair floated behind her as if suspended in water,  her hands were pale as white jade and her face was covered by a sheer veil. The soft chiming of bells filled the air with every step she took as she moved with all the grace of heaven and earth.

Javelin's heart stopped beating. He gasped, but no air entered his lungs as he stared at the woman in frozen shock.

"Raven Nightingale," he breathed so silently that not even he himself heard  it.

Chapter 48: Familiar, yet Unfamiliar

Author's note: A big thank you to this chapter's sponsors! Also, as some of you know, I was a bit wishy-washy concerning Raven's new alias and kept changing between Songstress and Singer. However, after writing this chapter (and starting on the chapters to come) it has become clear that Singer will fit my needs better - sorry for the confusion.

Familiar, yet Unfamiliar

Javelin stood frozen in place as he stared at the fighting stage - not one cell in his body moved. The only thing he could think of was that she was still alive; Raven Nightingale lives!

All of a sudden, Javelin felt a stern tug at his arm and the world reeled around him. Before he knew it, his gaze had been forcefully torn away from the center of the arena and he was instead facing an oddly worried Martin.

"Javelin!" shouted the red-head, "what's wrong with you!?"

Faced by his concerned friend, Javelin instead felt annoyed. He tried to turn back towards the fighting stage, back towards her, but Martin wouldn't let him.

"What are you doing? Let go of me! Can't you see her?" Javelin used one of his arms to forcefully push Martin away, while the other extended towards the stage. "See!? It's her! It's . . ."

Javelin's words came to an abrupt end; since he was once again free from restraints, Javelin had turned to face the stage, but to his dismay, the fairy-like existence of Raven Nightingale was gone. In her place was a short-grown woman, so well-covered by her black robes and other strips of fabric that Javelin couldn't be a hundred percent sure that she was a woman at all. Standing across from her was a very nondescript man - if one could excel in being average, this man did.

"But, I . . ." Javelin didn't know what to say, and while the twins were looking at him with growing concern, the crowd around them started whispering excitedly.

"That's her, that's Singer!"

"I hoped she'd show up tonight, this'll be interesting."

"Interesting? I saw her yesterday - this will be more than just interesting."

Hearing the crowd's comments, and taking note of Javelin's dazed focus, Martin and Lark glanced at each other, seemingly coming to a silent agreement. With synchronized ease, the two twins slipped up on either side of Javelin and practically hoisted him off his feet.
Together they half carried, half dragged, Javelin the short distance back to their seats. As far as the twins were concerned, anyone who caught Javelin's attention to this degree should not be ignored. Especially not since this person was actually alive.

Javelin himself barely noticed being moved back to his seat, all his attention was on the fighting stage. The average looking man and the black robed woman stood facing each other. None of them moved or spoke, but for every second that passed the man seemed increasingly less willing to remain on the stage.

"Singer, assassin rank 50, has challenged Chen of the Anser Clan, assassin rank 45, to a bout. The winner shall retain the highest ranking and five pieces of gold." It was the Abyss Goddess that spoke. She too was seated in the exclusive section, just as Javelin and his friends, but the golden haired woman sat at the very front. When the Sky Academy had visited the Combat Abyss for the first time, Javelin had thought that woman to be pretty beyond belief. Now, however, she seemed rather dull and boring.

The gong marking the start of the fight rang out in the arena, but none of the competitors moved. Seconds ticked by where nothing happened but, just like before, Chen grew evermore reluctant to be there. A faint murmur spread through the audience; no one understood why both parties just stood there. Finally, the woman started walking forward, causing the audience to immediately quiet down in anticipation - you would have been able to hear a pin falling to the ground.

The woman's movements were slow but fluid to the point of being feline - she advanced like a lioness stalking her prey - and with every step she took, the man's face turned a shade paler. Even through the confusion, Javelin felt impressed by this woman; she was facing a blood hardened assassin, who was perhaps two heads taller than her and had stared death in the eye countless of times, and yet her mere presence was enough for him to have doubts about fighting her.

Eventually, when the woman was only three steps away from the man, her body shifted slightly as spirit essence condensed at her feet and she disappeared.

"I yield!" yelped the man in the same instant and, with a clang, his sword dropped to the ground. Then, silence.
The majority of the crowd hadn't realized what had happened yet, but at the average looking man's average looking neck was a black blade and diagonally behind him stood the woman, as still as a statue, with her robes still moving in the wind caused by her previous movement.

It wasn't until the voice of the Abyss Goddess eventually broke the silence, that the black clothed woman withdrew her sword and backed away from the her bested opponent, assassin Chen.

"The winner, and now ranked 45th among assassins, is Singer!"

A lone drop of blood trickled down from the point where Singer's sword had been. When Chen noticed the blood on the hand he'd used to check his neck with, his knees turned soft under him and he nearly fell to the floor.

Even after the Goddess had declared the winner, it took a while for the crowd to react to what had happened, but gradually the arena was filled with chatter.

"Did you see anything!? Singer moved so fast all of a sudden. . . I couldn't even see how she ended up behind Chen!"

"I bet only the stronger spiritualists had a chance to keep track of her. . . ."

"But Chen's pretty amazing too - to realize he would lose and forfeit so quickly. . . A millisecond later and Singer would have killed him!"

Hearing the comments around them, Lark clicked his tongue. "Oh, please! Chen yielded the moment this 'Singer' started walking towards him - it was pure luck that he said it out loud in time. . . ."

Martin nodded firmly in agreement but Javelin said nothing. He was too busy staring at Singer. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen this woman somewhere, even though his first impression was clearly off the mark.

'Why did I see her earlier? It can't be her . . . right? Even if she somehow survived, she couldn't possibly be a mid Adept - she would only be six!' For a brief moment, Javelin's thoughts flashed to his cold and reserved roommate - the six-year-old wonder child - but the connection made no sense to him, so he quickly pushed it aside.

On the stage, Singer had already started moving back towards the assassin's section. Out of nowhere a stout man seated in the mercenary section abruptly stood up and shouted out over the arena; "I, Jasper of the Stormhawk Clan, challenge Singer to a bout!"

Martin and Lark snorted. "Figures," they grunted and when Javelin looked at them quizzically, Martin leaned in closer to explain. "The Stormhawk Clan are kind of like the Talon's private servants. I bet they've been ordered to deal out some payback for yesterday, without making it seem like the Talons hold a grudge." As he whispered this, Martin nodded towards a group of people sitting in the far right section of the exclusive stands. "That would explain why there are so many high ranked Talons here tonight."

"It's most likely so," agreed Lark. "Do you think she'll agree to the challenge? Jasper is a high Adept, if I remember correctly. . . ."

Martin looked doubtful and was about to disagree when Javelin, whose attention was back at the fighting stage, cut in before him. "She will," he said.

"What makes you so sure," asked Martin and followed Javelin's gaze towards Singer. "It seems more like she's ignoring him."

Martin had a point. Singer had simply kept walking towards the assassin's section as if nothing had happened.

"She will," Javelin insisted again. His eyes narrowed slightly as he realized that Singer seemed to be talking to one of the other assassins, who was seated on the first row.

The man was young, 25 at most, had blueish grey hair and, like most other assassins, he wore pliable clothes rather than armor. The beginning of a growl gathered at the back of Javelin's throat when a smile - that was clearly up to no good - donned the young assassin's face and his bleak blue hair swayed as he nodded in agreement to something.

"Hey, Singer!" The shout was so loud Javelin almost jumped to his feet; he had nearly forgotten about Jasper and his challenge. "You afraid, are ya?" the stout man mocked from across the stage.

Singer's body stiffened and the man she'd been laughing with earlier got a bemused look on his face. Slowly, the woman turned around and, even though her face was hidden, no one doubted that this 'Singer' was glaring viciously at Jasper.

"Didn't your father teach you to not interrupt someone when they're talking?" Singer's voice was cold and domineering - like an ice queen addressing her subjects. "It's very rude."

Jasper laughed an unkind laugh, and was about to reply when Singer lifted up a gloved hand to silence him. Oddly enough, Jasper choked on his words, straining to remain silent. It only took a moment for him to realize what he had done, but by then it was too late, Singer had spoken first.

"Sure," she said, "I'll fight you."

Jasper smiled triumphantly and was about to say something when the woman cut him off yet again; "only. . ." she added, as if it was a minor side note, "be careful to resign, before it's too late."

The disregarding tone in Singer's voice was obvious, and as soon as Jasper registered her words he turned red with rage. He stormed to the center of the fighting stage, waiting impatiently for Singer, who flowed there with slow, predatory grace. The Abyss Goddess announced the fighters and in the very instant the bell rang out to start the fight, violent sparks erupted from Jasper's back, propelling him forward. A huge ax materialized in his hands, no doubt from within a space ring, and as he swung the ax up high, it too was covered in electrical sparks.

"So much brute force," breathed Martin in awe. He was a user of heavy weapons himself and truly appreciated this type of pure strength displays.

"Ha, what's the point of strength if it doesn't hit the target?" snorted Lark on the other side of Javelin, just as Singer's body flickered and disappeared from her original position only to reappear in the air behind Jasper.

Contrary to Martin, Lark specialized in the usage of daggers and other short swords for fighting. It could actually be quite eerie to watch these two identical people dueling each other with such fundamentally different styles. However, although the two twins still looked pretty much identical, their opposing fighting styles had started to show signs of taking their physiques down different paths.

Immediately a bickering war broke out between the two twins and, stuck in the thick of it, Javelin sighed deeply as he tried to focus on the fight in front of him. On the fighting stage, Singer had utilized her advantage-point and used her black short sword to stab down at Jaspers back. Clasping the sword with both hands, the black blade had turned momentarily golden and a thunderous *clap* rang out in the arena as she descended.

"You want to challenge me, a Stormhawk, to a contest of using lightning? Think again!" roared Jasper as he turned around on the spot and held up his battle ax as a shield. The moment Singer's blade came within a centimeter of the ax, the latter lit up and a yellow membrane shot out, forming a crackling shield between Jasper and his assailant. The two forces collided and Singer's body ricocheted backwards through the air.

The crowd drew in a deep breath as they thought that she would slam helplessly into the ground, but Singer found her balance mid-air, landing effortlessly on both feet.

Jasper laughed, "haha! You might be impressive, for a woman, but there ain't no way you can match up to a high Adept!"

"He has a point," muttered someone seated behind Javelin. "Surpassing levels is not easy."

Javelin suppressed the sudden urge to turn around and clomp the speaker in the face; had it not been for the fact that Singer was once again on the move, he might have done it anyway.

The fight continued for what seemed like hours; Singer calmly avoided swing after swing that Jasper took at her, but Jasper's protective membrane blocked Singer's advances just as easily. At first the crowd figured Singer to have a snowball's chance in hell to win this bout, after all, it would only take one slip up from her to be smashed to pieces by Jasper's war ax. However, as time went on, Jasper's breathing grew labored, his movements sluggish.

"What's going on?" wondered the annoying man behind Javelin.

"It's obvious, Jasper's running low on spirit essence," answered someone next to him.

"But shouldn't Singer run out first? She is a lower level spiritualist, and should have less essence than Jasper."

Javelin had to agree with the annoying man. It was odd that while Jasper was growing noticeably exhausted, Singer didn't even seem winded in the slightest.

Out of nowhere, Singer suddenly jumped back a few steps, efficiently disengaging from Jasper. The latter took a deep, well needed, breath as he observed the black figure standing no more than five meters away from him.

"Tired?" asked Singer with a steady voice, "wanna give up?"

"No," wheezed Jasper. He might be growing tired, but he still had no problems keeping up with Singer. Most likely Jasper couldn't accept the fact that someone with a lower cultivation than him could outlast him, Singer must just be hiding it well.

"It's a pity," said Singer with a light sigh, "you forgot my advice."

"Huh?" replied Jasper confused but as the word left his mouth, a sudden gust of wind flew through the arena and Singer dashed forward with twice the speed she'd utilized before. Jasper's eyes opened wide with fear filled shock and his mouth was about to follow suit, when a ear-deafening sound wave slammed into everyone in the arena. There was no audible sound, but the extreme shift in air pressure caused everyone to look away and clutch their ears in pain.

When the pressure subsided, people's gazes returned to the stage where Singer stood with her sword sunk deep into Jasper's chest, only, now there was a gaping hole around the blade where his heart used to be. It was large enough to fit a clenched fist through.

Like a sack of potatoes, Jasper's lifeless body slumped to the ground, dying it red with his blood. Yet again the crowd was unnaturally quiet with wonder. However, it lasted shorter this time and once the crowd started cheering there was no stopping them.

"Was that the Whispered Blast, the fifth level of the Sonic Swords?" asked Martin in a daze.

"Yep," answered Lark with equal wonder. It was quite rare to see cultivators who bothered to train in the Sonic Swords at all. The skill worked much like the identification stones at Sky Academy; it would naturally unlock higher levels of the skill once the lower ones were mastered to a certain degree. The only difference was that the designer of the Sonic Swords had been a lot more strict with what counted as 'mastered'. Thus, it simply took too long to gain enough insights of the higher levels for it to be worth the effort.

"Are there anymore challengers?" asked Singer in a cold but strong voice, "I will fight any Adept here." Immediately the cheering stopped.

The silence held for a while, and Javelin started wondering if her sudden victory made the others fear her to much. However, eventually a few hands rose to the air as roughly seven people indicated that they wanted to fight.

"Half of them are additional Talon Clan cohorts," whispered Martin to Javelin.

'So they won't give up so easily,' though Javelin as he looked over the various challengers, frowning. 'Will she be okay? She just finished a really long fight. . . .'

However, it turned out that Javelin's concerns were unfounded. Singer calmly fought against one opponent after another, sometimes ending it quickly, other times drawing it out to virtual marathons. Nearly an hour later Singer fought six bouts and had yet to lose a single one, or even receive a injury for that matter. Through some odd coincidence, every person affiliated with the Talon's had ended up dead - they hadn't yielded in time.

As Javelin observed Singer's fighting, that feeling of familiarity had only grown stronger, to the point where he now was one hundred percent sure that he had met this woman before  - he just couldn't figure out where or when.

After the sixth victory, Singer once more returned to the center of the stage to await her next opponent. The seventh person, a dark skinned man in his late thirties, stood at the brink of the stands but seemed reluctant to take the final step onto the fighting stage. He looked up towards the Talon's seated in the exclusive section hopefully, but whatever he was hoping for didn't come. Instead, his face dropped. Just as he was about to step out, the Abyss Goddess got to her feet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid we've run out of time. This will have to continue tomorrow."

The entire audience let out a disappointed sigh but no one dared complain. Slowly, the thousands of people present started to move out into the aisle, queuing up to exit the arena. Javelin and his two friends got up as well, but while the twins started moving for the exit, Javelin kept looking at Singer, who had walked over to the same scoundrel assassin who she had been talking to before.

He wasn't quite sure what he was waiting for, but he was waiting for something.

Chapter 49: Recognition

Author's Note: Sorry this came up here a bit late - today's been really hectic :/
As always, a big thank you to this chapter's sponsors!

Recognition

Javelin kept his eyes firmly fixed on Singer's black figure.

'Turn,' he found himself thinking, as his stare became increasingly intense. 'Turn and look at me. . . .'

As if Singer had heard him, her head snapped around and locked onto Javelin. For a brief moment, an intense feeling of danger washed over him, but it was gone as quickly as it had come. Singer indifferently turned away and once again began talking to the first-row assassin standing in front of her.

"Are you coming, Javelin?" called the twins from half-way up the stands.

Javelin sighed and finally turned to leave. Oddly enough, he had felt less bothered by Singer's bloodthirsty stare, than by her subsequent disregard. With Martin's arm around his shoulders, Javelin and the twins left the Combat Abyss arena.

The journey back to Sky Academy was a silent one; despite the two twin's attempts to spring up some form of conversation, no subject lasted more than a few sentences. Javelin didn't feel like sharing what he had experienced at the Abyss with his friends - too little of it made any sense - and he had little space for other thoughts. Why did Singer make him think of Raven Nightingale? And, as she couldn't possibly be Raven Nightingale, why did the woman feel so familiar? In his brief life, Javelin had only met a handful of female martial spiritualists and even fewer fit Singer's cultivation level and build.

Once back in his dorm room, Javelin was still so confounded by what he had experienced that he barely registered the fact that his roommate had yet to return. With a loud *thump*, Javelin collapsed face down on his bed. In his mind, hundreds of questions floated around in circles, but no reasonable answers were found. Eventuallly, Javelin fell asleep.

---------

It was winter. It had to be, cause the snow almost reached my knees and the sun's light was too weak to give any real warmth. The sound of crunching snow caught my attention and I looked up. A woman with untamed beauty was walking towards me, wearing way too little clothes for the winter day - she always wore too little. . . .

Usually she would be so cold towards me - colder than the snow now surrounding me - but at that moment she was smiling. I liked her smile; it made the thin scar running down her cheek seem less vicious.

But the smile didn't last long. The sky darkened above her and she suddenly looked sad, so very sad. I tried to embrace her, but she effortlessly slipped out of my reach. Did she always have to be so agile? Before I know it, she's turned her back to me and left.

In my heart I just knew that . . . that was it; it was over before it ever really began.

---------

In his bed, Javelin groaned and for a brief moment his eyes flickered open. He knew he'd been dreaming, but before he could try to remember what he dreamed about, his consciousness faded and he fell asleep yet again. This time, he slumbered too deeply to dream anything at all.

---------

Meanwhile, as Javelin and the twins had returned to the Academy and their waiting beds, Raven had instead accompanied the ninth ranked assassin, the oddly charming Limpkin, to the renowned Assassin Guild.

She had approached him after her first bout at the Abyss, asking about where she might find employment for their . . . peculiar line of work, and he had merrily agreed to bring her to his guild. "If you prove yourself worthy," he had added jokingly, as if being placed 45th in the assassin's ranking wasn't enough.

However, Raven didn't mind fighting a bit more - it was after all a splendid opportunity for her to train with her entire cultivation unlocked. As it turned out, she had been quite pleasantly surprised by her own stamina. Although Raven's spirit core was smaller and a bit weaker than her opponents', her 373 spirit connections more than made up for it, tenacity wise. It was like a river supplying a small basin; as long as you don't empty it all in one go, there would always plenty of water available.

Needless to say, the bouts had been easily won. Thanks to the information gathered during the imperial banquet, Raven even took the initiative to rid the world of a few Talon supporters in the process.

She had been startled by Javelin's intense stare at the end though. At first, his presence had been drowned in the sea of people present, and it wasn't until the others started leaving that Raven had sensed that someone was still observing her intently. When she turned to face her observer, Raven had for a split second worried that Javelin might recognize her, but why would he? Even if he found something about her familiar, the difference in cultivation level should be more than enough to push him off track with his deductions.

Raven figured that her best cause of action would be to ignore Javelin and his friends completely - anything else would only cause more suspicion. Pushing her worries aside, Raven had instead argued Limpkin to take her to the Assassin Guild, something he readily agreed to.

Now, as she stood outside the Assassin Guild Hall, Raven was rendered speechless; the building was way too extravagant! The entire thing was carved out of a smooth, deep blue stone that was by means not local to the region, and every little nook and cranny was decorated with intricate golden reliefs. No one could pass the building without stopping to gawk at its over-the-top grandeur for a moment.

"It's a tad old-fashioned, if you ask me," Limpkin joked with a wink when he noticed Raven's pause.

"Ever heard of discretion?" muttered Raven in response.

"Why would we ever bother with something so boring?" Limpkin winked yet again before entering the building without further ado.

'Something is seriously wrong with the assassins in this world. . . ,' thought Raven to herself as she followed the man in through the grand doors of the building.

The inside of the guild hall was just as grand as the outside, with crystal chandeliers hanging from the gold-decorated ceiling and a faint whiff of acacia flowers lingering in the air. Several pearly-white counters were placed around the hall, each manned by gorgeous silver-haired women, who looked very similar to the Abyss Angels, only not in armour. Most clients wore masks to cover their faces - some used simple cloth fabrics, others donned creations fitting for a masquerade ball - and diffuse membranes enveloped every seller-client pair, efficiently sealing the sound of what was being said within.

"You have got to be kidding me. . . ," breathed Raven; she was completely flabbergasted. The few attendants who weren't currently preoccupied with any customers, looked up and smiled sweetly at Limpkin and Raven as the duo entered the hall.

Limpkin looked at her with an amused smile. "You really aren't from around here. Listen, assassination is a business, like any other, and our clients are wealthy people; we have to make sure they feel comfortable." He walked off towards a side door. "Follow me," he said, and Raven did.

The next room was significantly more ordinary and basically only contained a single counter, a couple of additional doors and a large board with long lists of names on it.

"This is where we guild members come to pick our targets." Limpkin stopped in front of the board. "Here you can find every available target, their rewards and difficulty level. There are six levels, A-F, ranging from hardest to easiest. The Combat Abyss ranking of 31st, that you achieved tonight, gives you clearance for levels C and below, but once you reach the top 25 you will be able to take on level B targets as well."

Raven looked over the list of names on the board and noted there were a lot more names present than she had expected. 'A lot of people have been offended by spiritualists, it would seem. . . .'

Suddenly a familiar name caught her attention. "Someone has put a hit on the Headmaster of Sky Academy?" she asked.

"Hmm?" Limpkin looked up in a daze. He had been trying to inspect Raven's cloak-hidden body - in hopes to gain more insights to this mystery assassin, no doubt - but now sheepishly followed her gaze to the board. "Ah, yes. There are a few anti-spiritualist groups out there who would like to see the spiritualist's place of learning ruined. The request has been up there for ages though; none of the assassins are willing to accept it," he explained.

"Really?" Raven didn't sound convinced. "The reward is astronomical. . . ."

"True, but we're all spiritualists here; killing off the man who raises the next generation doesn't feel right." Raven tilted her head and looked at Limpkin, who then quickly added, "besides, see that star where the level should be? That means that he's an S-level target. You have to be at least a high Champion before the guild would even consider giving you the job."

Raven nodded to show that she understood. "Is there anymore information on the targets besides their names?" she asked. "I prefer not going in blind."

"Of course there is information," laughed Limpkin. "The Assassin Guild has the most extensive records in the country, covering nearly every spiritualist in Sky Empire!" Limpkin sounded very proud as he spoke. "Naturally, this type of information cannot be given willy-nilly to anyone who asks. The rules are that you are only allowed access to information on targets at your own level or bellow. The records are kept through there," he said and pointed at one of the other doors in the room.

Limpkin then returned his attention to Raven, giving her a slightly lopsided grin. "Are you gonna pick a target right now, or do you want to join me for a pre-dawn drink?"

Raven smiled, despite herself; had it been in her old life, she wouldn't have hesitated for a second to take Limpkin up on his offer. As it was, however, Raven shook her cloth-covered face.

"Another time, Limpkin - I have business to attend to."

"Very well," he sighed melodramatically, "another time." Without waiting for any response, Limpkin turned and ambled out of the room. "I'll see you around," he called over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

'I bet he'll be waiting for me outside, in his invisible mode,' thought Raven, without being too worried about it.

She glanced over the name lists once more before she picked three seemingly random C-level targets. None of names belonged to Talons, in fact, they weren't even members of the so called servant clans. Something that the three of them had in common, however, was their reputation to be exceedingly generous during their interactions with the Talon Clan.

Based on the nobles' gossip, that she had overheard not even a week earlier, Raven had come to the conclusion that these three individuals had most likely been bribed - or otherwise convinced - to treat the Talon Clan very favorably when doing business with them. These three made sure that what ever goods the Talons were exporting, those goods would pass through customs quicker, and sell at higher prices, than their competitors. Getting rid of these three wouldn't be a huge blow for the Talon Clan, but it would be an annoyance, which would have to do for now.

After registering her choice of targets with the girl at the counter, and receiving a token stating her clearance level, Raven headed into the records room. The records room was actually quite similar to the first floor of Sky Academy's Divine Library, only this one was a bit more well populated. Robed figures stood looming over various scrolls, reading up on their intended targets.

'This will take a while. . . ,' sighed Raven and headed over to the C-section. She spent the remaining hours before daybreak looking through as many scrolls she could find on the Talon Clan, as well as her three current targets, and was actually quite impressed by the level of detail in the recorded information. Not only were current cultivation levels stated but there were also lists of confirmed Divine Skills, weapons of choice as well as confirmed allies and repetitive habits.

By the time the first rays of dawn had filtered in through the windows located in the ceiling, Raven's head was reeling with information. If the records were correct, then she had managed to skim through the information on pretty much every C-level spiritualist related to the Talon Clan that the guild had. Of course, there was no information on the more important assets of the clan - they would be in higher levels.

As she read, Raven had noticed a few discrepancies in the records that would indicate that some people were missing, but overall the information seemed solid. Nevertheless, she would have to return for a closer look if she wished to find their hidden assets. That would, however, have to wait until another day. Classes would start soon, and if Raven had guessed right, then she would have a few tails she needed to shake off on her way back to the academy.

Hardly surprising, Raven had guessed it right. This time, eight presences - 'invisible' Limpkin included - started following her the moment she left the Assassin Guild Hall. But, just like the time before, she easily gave them the slip - mostly thanks to the Divine Skill that Javelin had given her years prior, the Twilight Lullaby.

---------

Most of the day passed without incident. Raven cultivated through yet another war strategy lecture in the morning, spent the midday break in the library, and yet again completed all tasks given to her by Elder Willow during afternoon Spirit Control. The twins didn't ask why or where Raven had gone the night before. Instead Martin went on and on about the new, rising star of Combat Abyss, Singer.

"You should have been there Raven!" he whispered excitedly for the hundredth time. "She was extraordinary! Lark and I had a hard time just keeping track of her movements, even though she's only a mid Adept. . ."

Raven rolled her eyes and gave him a cold smile. Martin didn't take the hint.

"Oh, you should have seen her techniques! She basically only used level three skills or lower but she beat the shit out of everyone anyway. Oh, but she did use . . ."

"Martin Griffin," shouted Elder Willow out of nowhere. "One more word out of you about this nighttime singer of yours and I will kick you out!"

Martin's eyes widened. "Oh! That's great, Elder! She's our Nighttime Singer . . . um, Night Singer? . . . no! Our Midnight Singer! That's it!"

*BANG!* Elder Willow produced a gust of spirit essence that slammed open the courtyard gates. "Out!" he bellowed.

Still brimming with pleased joy, Martin left the courtyard. Raven shook her head and looked over at Lark sitting next to her. "Latrine cleaning duty for . . . a week or a month?" she asked jokingly but Lark only shrugged, causing Raven to instantly narrow her eyes. Something still seemed to be wrong with him.

However, mid-lesson was not the time to dig deeper into the issue, and once the class was over, Elder Willow called out to Raven, informing her of a change in her lesson schedule. Frustrated, Raven had no choice but to rush off to the Advanced Class. Apparently, Elder Wrymouth had made an impromptu decision to start today's lesson earlier - on account of the missing students the day before.

Once she arrived, she barely had the chance to say hello to Javelin before they were shuffled into their respective training rooms and the grueling training commenced.

Chapter 50: Confrontations

Author's note: As always, a big thank you to the sponsors!

Confrontations

The evening training eventually came to an end, and Raven left her Pressure Room feeling more tired than usual. It would soon be three full days since Raven had gotten any sleep and it was clearly starting to take a toll on her.

Spreading her senses, Raven couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief; it would seem like Dunlin and company were still in their rooms, no doubt getting punished by Elder Wyrmouth for skipping class the day before. Someone who was out of their room, however, was Javelin. He was already on his way out of the building so Raven increased her pace to catch up to him. She did so just as they left the building.

"How did today's lessons go, Javelin?" she asked.

Javelin barely looked up from the ground as he answered, "fine," and continued to walk towards the academy garden with brisk steps. Raven frowned.

"Um, Javelin?" She grabbed his robes and tugged him to a stop. Finally, Javelin looked at Raven, but he seemed a bit . . . distant, or perhaps even annoyed. Despite herself, Raven felt her frown deepen with worry. "I'm sorry for yesterday," she said sincerely, "I too have things I'd rather not talk about, so I should have known better."

For a moment, Javelin's gaze softened but it didn't last long. "Don't worry about it," he said, "I brought it up first." He was about to turn around and leave when he paused and instead asked, "Night, how did you know that I was eight when Rav- . . . when it happened?" His stare grew intense as he waited for Raven's reply.

'Shit,' thought Raven to herself but instantly answered, "Lark told me about it after the tower thing." She looked confused, as if Javelin was asking an obvious question he already knew the answer to.

Javelin breathed a dejected sigh. "I see," he said and actually turned to walk away.

"Hey, Javelin, I wanted to talk with you about Lark," called Raven after him, but he shook his head. "Another time," he called back without turning around.

Raven grunted as she watched her roommate leave. 'What's gotten him all wound up?' she wondered as she headed off in the same direction as Javelin, only at a slower pace. For a moment Raven felt oddly compelled to follow Javelin and see what he was up to, but she had things she needed to do herself, so it would have to wait.

"Big brother?" Raven probed mentally, "how's Bill doing?"

A moments silence, and then "he's fine." Hoatzin's voice sounded agitated.

'Not you too,' thought Raven but instead asked, with obvious concern, "Is something wrong, big brother?"

"Oh, no, nothing is wrong," answered a clearly annoyed Hoatzin, "it's just that my little sister left to join an assassins' guild nearly eighteen hours ago and I haven't heard anything from her. . . ."

"Oops. . . . Hoatzin, I'm sorry! It slipped my mind. . . ." Not that he could see it, but Raven actually looked quite ashamed at the moment. She was too accustomed to acting alone when it came to assassin work and it had been so simple to fall back in old habits.

"Slipped your mind? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I couldn't even speak to you in case I might distract you! That's it, next time I'm coming with you!"

Raven didn't argue. She had no intentions of introducing her brother to her assassin ways, but there was no point in arguing about it now. Instead, Raven apologized a few more times, until her brother seemed to accept it, before inquiring about Bill yet again.

"I told you, he is fine," answered Hoatzin, "and in general that is true. When Bill surfaced, after you had left, he read your note and decided to stay for at least a couple of days - he talks quite a lot to himself, this one. Not long after that, he tried to get some sleep, but he kept breaking out in cold sweats and waking himself screaming. . . ." Hoatzin made a deliberate pause. "A few hours ago, he gave up and finally mixed the herbs you had mentioned - he is out like a light now."

Raven nodded approvingly. She had written down the recipe for a heavy sleeping draft that could be made by the few herbs that were available at the house. If used frequently, the concoction could become quite addictive, but sometimes getting a full night's sleep was more important.

"What are your plans for the evening, sister, and can I come along? It's getting a bit boring watching over a sleeping man. . . ."

"You can come, but it won't be very much more exciting - I need to sleep tonight too," answered Raven. "I'm just going to see if I can find out why Dunlin and Jack were absent from the afternoon classes yesterday first, and if I can find Lark in the process that would be great."

"Lark? What for?"

"He seemed upset today. I had hoped that my little bet with Dunlin would cheer him up, but not enough apparently."

"Hmm. . . . Well, I should come and help you search then," replied Hoatzin with a chipper voice. Clearly he hadn't been exaggerating when he said he was bored.

"Then head to the building where the advanced classes are being held - if the rumors about Elder Wyrmouth are accurate, the two of them will be there for quite some time. I'll ask around a bit - hopefully someone saw something."

---------

For half an hour, Raven moved from one group of students to the next, asking about Jack and Dunlin. Of course, most students were too afraid of either Raven herself, or Dunlin's later retribution, that asking straight out wouldn't work. Instead, she would usually walk past the students, just close enough so that they could hear her grunting angrily; "bloody Dunlin! You just have to get the Elder pissed off by skipping class! If I found out where you went, I . . ."

After that, it was only a question of staying within earshot from the passed students - an easy thing to pull off with Raven's hearing - and wait for the comments to come raining in. Unfortunately, all students had themselves been in class at the time so no one seemed to know where the two had gone.

'This isn't working. . . .' Although far from every student had been 'questioned', the fact that they would have been in class wouldn't change. Raven figured that her only options right now were to either confront the duo directly, or try to coax it out of one of the Elders who hadn't been busy teaching at the time. Either way, Raven would need to head back to the southern part of the academy.

"Any movement from Dunlin and Jack?" she asked her brother as she made her way back.

"Unfortunately no," replied Hoatzin with a sigh. "This isn't much better than watching Bill sleep. . . ."

Raven smiled.

"Oh, wait! Speak of the devil, they seem to be done." He sounded thrilled as he spoke. "Haha, you should see this - they look awful!"

"A courtesy of Elder Wyrmouth no doubt," chuckled Raven.

"If Wyrmouth is our mystery elder, then he is at least doing a good job at keeping up appeare . . ." Hoatzin started replying before he grew silent for a moment. "Sister, you better hurry."

Raven frowned and picked up her pace before she even asked why. "What's wrong, brother?"

"Well, the good news is that I've found Lark," Raven started running, "the bad news is, so have Dunlin and Jack."

"Martin and Javelin?"

"Not here, nor are there any elders in sight."

'Shit.'

By now, Raven was alternating between three different Divine Skills to push her speed to the max. One for fast straight running, one for maneuverability and a third for explosive boosts after making turns and evasions. At the same time, she employed Void Tracker to counter sound, air resistance and her spirit essence. She had yet to completely master the skill but at least it partially hid her spirit essence - she didn't need to hide it completely, since anyone that saw her would know that she was using some Divine Skill to move so fast, but she preferred it if people didn't realize which skills she were using.

Raven dashed across campus with astonishing speed. She was so fast and silent that some didn't even register her passing them, but as she rushed through the gates to the southern peak, the usually relaxed Elder sitting by the gates flashed open his eyes and nearly toppled off of his chair. Raven noticed his reaction but didn't bother stopping; Hoatzin had just informed her that things weren't going very well over at his end.

Finally, Raven was close enough to sense the three boys, standing huddled and slightly secluded behind a building a few hundred meters away. Hoatzin was seated on the roof above them. Grinding to a halt just around the corner of the building, Raven paused to listen to what was being said.

"So what are the flowers for, Larky?" mocked Jack.

"I said it none of your business, now step aside!" Lark did his best to sound assured of himself but he couldn't hide his nervousness from Raven's ears.

"Or what? You'll tell your dad? I bet he'd like to hear why his oldest son is growing flowers, rather than increasing his cultivation," laughed Dunlin. "If only you were headed towards the girl's dorms, I could kind of understand it."

"Pointless," snickered Jack, "women are best claimed by shows of might! Flowers will only make them look down on your masculinity."

Raven shook her head; she had heard enough. "You'd be surprised by what a mere flower might lead to," she said coldly as she stepped around the corner. Immediately she got a clear view of the three boys; apart from Lark, the other two had their backs towards Raven, and clutched in Larks arms was a medium-sized pot of exotic-looking daffodils.

Both Dunlin and Jack spun around in surprise - they had not heard Raven's approach at all. However, their initial shock didn't last long. Instead, the two of them sneered as they glanced at each other.

"I know, perhaps it isn't a woman he's trying to impress," suggested Jack smugly.

Dunlin's eyes widened in over-acted realization. "Oh, you're right! They do say that birds of a feather stick together - if the slave boy is a pansy, then maybe this one is too." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder towards Lark, whose face had started to turn slightly green.

"Slave boy, huh?" Raven's insinuating tone caused Dunlin's smile to drop, but Raven didn't let him go so easily. "How is the Frozen Onslaught going? I've heard it can be quite tricky. . . ." she said with a cold smile.

"You bastard slave!" roared Dunlin and took a hostile step towards Raven, pointing at her with a shaking finger. "You knew, didn't you!?"

"Knew what?" asked Raven, bursting with innocence.

"You knew that no student has been able to master that damned skill at all!"

Raven didn't have to act her surprise. 'No one has mastered it? It wasn't that impossible of a skill. . . .' she thought to herself and suddenly had to force herself to not start smiling; 'I wonder how he would react if he knew I'd mastered it already?'

Controlling her emotions, Raven instead looked at Dunlin with newfound awe. "I must say I'm impressed by Senior Dunlin; to be daring enough to stake your honor on learning such an impossible skill within less than two months. . . . Impressive!"

Dunlin took another step forward, and Jack followed behind him. "Don't you try fooling me, you dipshit! Admit it!"

Just as Dunlin was about to move forward yet again, a shrill shriek filled the air and a white projectile shot down towards Dunlin's head. Taken by surprise, Dunlin barely managed to jump out of the way before the spot he'd been standing in was pierced through by the white shadow. Before he had a chance to gather himself though, the white beam targeted him again.

Raven observed her brother taking repeated shots at Dunlin with extreme attention and mixed feelings. She had preferred to not flaunt Hoatzin's existence in front of Dunlin, but on the other hand, her cousins current expression was utterly priceless.

However, it didn't take long before Dunlin's shock turned to anger and he started activating his odd spirit essence.

"That's enough!" called Raven to her brother so only he could hear it and, immediately, Hoatzin stopped his assault and landed on Raven's shoulder. He would rather have picked Dunlin beyond recognition but he trusted his sister's judgement and knew his current body's limits.

Seeing the white bird perched on Raven's shoulder, Dunlin's eyes narrowed in newfound rage. The bird had truly surprised him, and even managed to get a hit in, causing a small, bloody nick on his left cheek. "What kind of abomination is that?" he bellowed. "Kill it now, or I will!"

Raven grew stiff.

"Did you hear me, slave! As prefecture heir I demand that you kill it!"

Raven said nothing. A faint, red shimmer started forming around her, but it was too diffuse for anyone to notice.

"Suit yourself!" shouted Dunlin and dashed forward. His legs and hands were wrapped in a black glow only Raven could see, but right now she didn't care. As Dunlin approached her, the world seemed to move in slow motion. In her mind, she saw her parents and brother surrounded by ever-burning flames, she heard the Talon family laughing as the flames consumed the only family she'd ever known. 'It would be so easy to kill him right now. . . . '

Without even reflecting over it, a dagger was willed out of her spacial ring and hidden in the palm of her hand. Murderous spirit essence surged towards the hand holding the dagger. 'It would be so easy to kill him right now. . . . '

Dunlin was only milliseconds away from reaching Raven but at that moment a huge oppressing force pushed down on everyone in the ally. The sudden pressure caused Dunlin - whose stance wasn't stable enough to resist - immediately slammed into the ground and the weaker Lark almost followed suit, but managed to stay standing on one knee. The pot of flowers however, slipped out of his hand and clashed towards the ground, breaking on impact. At the same time, Hoatzin almost fell off Raven's shoulder, but she managed to move her arms enough to catch him.

"What is going on here!?" The angry voice echoed off the surrounding buildings, making it hard to pinpoint it's origin, but Raven could, and she only hoped that its owner hadn't noticed her murderous intentions only moments before.

"Sorry respected Elder," grunted Jack through clenched teeth. "We were only exchanging some pointers."

"You know the rules," boomed the voice, "if this happens again, there will be consequences! Understand?"

"Yes Elder," answered all four students, and the pressure subsided.

"Return to your dorms," ordered the voice, now with less anger, before Raven sensed the man walking away. She sighed a breath of relief. 'So that's the pressure of a high Spirit Champion.' Raven shivered. 'I doubt he even used part of it though. . . .' The man who had intervened was same elder who usually guarded the gate to the southern peak.

Brushing off some dust from his robes, a red faced Dunlin got to his feet. He looked at Raven viciously. "Count yourself lucky this time," he snorted, "and don't think your little parlor tricks yesterday fooled me - I've got you all figured out, slave boy!" Stomping his feet loudly he finally walked away. Jack attempted to step on Lark's flowers as he followed after Dunlin but Lark managed to scoop them up before Jack got the chance to do any damage.

Raven made an obscene gesture with her hand towards their departing backs before she turned her attention to Lark.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered unconvincingly.

"Where are Martin and Javelin? It's rare to see you alone."

"They went to the Combat Abyss," he answered and then added, "it's a fighting arena in the Business Tier."

"Ah."

Silence.

Raven nodded towards the flowers. "Those are pretty. Will they be okay?"

Lark sighed. "Once I get them a new pot, yes."

"They're Frost Bell Daffodils, right?"

Lark's eyes brightened slightly. "You know your flowers, alright; it's quite rare."

Raven only gave him a bittersweet smile. It was indeed a rare flower. Its frosted golden flowers only bloomed at high altitudes and only during a few weeks of spring. Her mother had once taken Hoatzin and her to a field full of them - it had been a magical sight and a sudden gust of wind had filled the air with the soft sound of bells.

"I've been growing them as a hobby," continued Lark when no further explanation came from Raven. "I mentioned it to some of the girls at the Healing Department, but Elder Willow overheard me and asked if I could show them to him. The Frost Bell Daffodil makes good medical herbs."

Raven continued smiling, but it was a warmer smile now. "Do you want me to escort you to him?" she asked with a wink as she extended a hand to her friend.

"Haha, wouldn't that be a sight?" chuckled Lark as he let Raven pull him to his feet. "But I think I should head back and replant these first; I don't want them dying on me."

Table of Contents

- - Table Of Contents -
- The Prologue
- Chapter 1: Life Begins Anew
- Chapter 2: Spirit Essence
- Chapter 3: Three Years Pass
- Chapter 4: Time To Enroll
- Chapter 5: Sky City
- Chapter 6: Foreign Might
- Chapter 7: An Unexpected Gift
- Chapter 8: Twilight Lullaby
- Chapter 9: Hoatzin Returns
- Chapter 10: A Token of Depreciation
- Chapter 11: Light, where have you gone?
- Chapter 12: Hope?
- Chapter 13: Moving Forward
- Chapter 14: Hungry Persuit
- Chapter 15: Faked Bravado
- Chapter 16: Masquerade
- Chapter 17: The Thrall of Her Voice
- Chapter 18: The Prefecture Border
- Chapter 19: Finding "Cover"
- Chapter 20: Rumors and Consequences
- Chapter 21: Entering the Passage
- Chapter 22: Ambushed
- Chapter 23: To Help...
- Chapter 24: ...Or Not to Help?
- Chapter 25: Sending of the Dead
- Chapter 26: Answers
- Chapter 27: The Debt
- Chapter 28: Development
- Chapter 29: News from the Capital
- Chapter 30: Morning of the Exam
- Chapter 31: The Exam Begins
- Chapter 32: Unprecedented
- Chapter 33: Admittance
- Chapter 34: Imperial Banquet
- Chapter 35: The Dare
- Chapter 36: The Library
- Chapter 37: An Arbitrary Amount of Skills
- Chapter 38: The Fake's Performance
- Chapter 39: Threats and Lies
- Chapter 40: Setting Things in Motion
- Chapter 41: A Slip of the Hand
- Chapter 42: Things You Live For
- Chapter 43: Saving a Madman
- Chapter 44: The Soul Stirs
- Chapter 45: Merciless
- Chapter 46: Memories
- Chapter 47: Visions
- Chapter 48: Familiar, yet Unfamiliar
- Chapter 49: Recognition
- Chapter 50: Confrontations