KYMALIN IARO cannot give up. With her brother running out of time and their mother powerless, Kymalin embarks on a journey to find a cure. So when a powerful organization becomes her only hope, she has to prove she belongs to it, even if it means ge...
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2411 Strilaxis 11, Briss
Kymalin tucked her hands inside her wool coat, grateful for the heat the fur deposited into her system. Last night's rainstorm had been so strong it's miracle the roof of her shack stayed glued over the walls. Otherwise, she would have been left to absorb rainwater throughout the evening. Some wonders ophurie glue does.
Her footsteps squelched against the ground, the soil still a bit slippery due to the storm last night. Occasionally, her shoulders would receive a few droplets of water edging down from the leaves making up the canopy. A misty veil hung in the air, guarding the horizon and making the trees' trunks be nothing but thin but dark silhouettes.
The smell of blood, sweat, and upturned mud assaulted Kymalin's nose. It was something she had to get used to after camping in Asopus. Managed to kill any appetite she had but that's about the impact it had to her health. She wouldn't die just from inhaling the fumes wafting from the butchers' square a few miles down here.
She blew a breath, watching it crystallize in a puff of smoke near her nose. It's always a cool thing to observe, even when she was back at the Temple. Her stomach soured at the thought. Veril, the spirit she entrusted to watch over her brother, had reported two days ago about Vaeri's condition. It wasn't good. The fact that nothing changed and it's the same report since the last time the spirit appeared wasn't good.
It had been a few years since she had been serving the Heiress but she couldn't get the purchase to ask how many more missions she had to send Kymalin into to fulfill her wish. First, it was rude and would probably anger the Heiress. Second, it would definitely anger the Heiress.
The leader of Cardovia had a timeline of her own, and judging from the whispers and bits and pieces of conversation Kymalin gathered from her fellow magistrates, the Heiress was gearing for something big in the near future. Kymalin had to be there when that happens, hence the stakeout in Asopus. She needed to gather more information regarding the additional mission the Heiress had given her in secret.
Find the Virtakios.
A few years ago, when she was first made a Magistrate, she didn't know what it was. Now, as she devoured the meager tomes she could get her hands on about it, she realized some of the Heiress' goals. Not only was the Virtakios the rarest branch of magic in the island, it was also the strongest. With the ability to alter the very aspects of the world, the Virtakios could give anyone the power to mold reality to what they saw fit.
During one of the correspondence with the Heires about the details on how Kymalin was supposed to start her search, the Heiress had stared at her with obvious annoyance and pain in her eyes. "I felt its presence appear fifteen years ago but vanished just as quickly," she said. "When I checked the place out and weeded some vermin that needed extermination, I was able to know that some have hidden it."
Kymalin had knitted her eyebrows then. "Where do you think they hid it?"
The Heiress rolled her shoulders, making the pins on her coat clink against each other. "That's going to be your job," she said. "The last trace of the people who had the information are in Jehnasson. I can track all of them one by one but it would take time. Time I sure can give to other...pressing things."
