Shattered Remnants of a Dream

46. Blackened Fate

For the second time in only a few hours, Nathan Marks had already received another set of visitors to his small cot in the Guild infirmary. This time, he sat up to greet Azuka, Cliff, Eden, and Vance. "H-hello. Good to see you all."

"So you're the one Naomi found in Sagacia?" Vance stared down at Nathan with curiosity. "How old are you, kid? Twelve?"

"I'm...fifteen," Nathan spoke clumsily.

"Wow, fifteen? You guys sure start 'em young."

"You're only three years apart..." Cliff rolled his eyes. "And besides, Nathan is a special case. He got a perfect score on the Guild's written exam, something that no one's ever done before – even our own captains."

"It-it's not really that special," Nathan stammered. "I mean, I pretty much failed the physical examination."

A frustrated expression twisted its way onto Vance's face. "Still, that means you're smarter than everyone else here, right?"

"I'm really not," Nathan said meekly. "I just studied a lot, that's all."

Vance let out an amused snort. "Why are you so adamant on tearing yourself down?"

Eden elbowed him. "Vance, don't you think he's been through enough today? Let him be. Hi Nathan, my name's Eden. I'm a Knight of the 4th division as well."

Nathan looked up to the woman nervously. "I-I know, I've seen you before. It's n-nice to meet you, Miss Eden."

"You don't have to call me miss," Eden laughed. "We're equals."

"R-right." Nathan muttered. "That was stupid."

"Did Naomi say anything strange to you when you saw her?" Eden asked.

"She said she was looking for Vance," Nathan said, "and that it was urgent...but then she attacked me. I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have run. I was just really s-scared..."

"Coming back to report it as soon as possible was the best thing you could have done," Cliff said. "Isn't that right, Captain?"

"The question is what happened to her after that..." Azuka looked at Vance with irritated eyes. "Ravi searched all over Sagacia, and still wasn't able to find Naomi. And that is why you never let an enemy like that get away!"

Vance let out a groan. "How is it my fault that you couldn't find her? Maybe she had a tunneler."

"A-anyway," Nathan meekly interrupted, "it was nice to meet you all."

"Come on," Azuka said, waving her students away. "Nathan needs his rest, and you're all far too noisy to let him get any."

The four shifted out of the small infirmary and began walking down one of the Guild's many transparent hallways. With the tournament only a few days away, the headquarters were alive with busy Knights.

"So what did you do for the past few weeks?" Cliff asked Vance, unable to stifle his curiosity any longer. "You and Averyl, I mean."

Vance's fingers disappeared into his dark hair as he scratched his head. "Well, he threw me off a cliff at the beginning. Then, I climbed back up. And he explained some stuff to me."

"What kinda stuff?" Eden asked.

"Well, you know..." Vance started, "About the nature of our powers, the nature of psynergy. That guy can do some crazy things."

"Right." Cliff frowned. "But he's our enemy, Vance. There has to be a reason why he's after you."

"No he's not." Vance said quickly. "After living with him for months, I'm sure of that. He's not on our side, that's true, but...he's not on their side either. He helped me, Cliff."