Tales of Six

Chapter 2 : The house

In the darkness of the house, a small ray of light illuminates the two swords against each other. The mystery man is clearly stronger and Kaen's sword starts to get closer to her face, even as she resists with all her might.

Suddenly, a gust of wind pushes the attacker back, towards the door. Kaen takes a defensive stance as she readies herself for another attack. She then remembers the silhouette from when she walked in, and turns to look at it, just in time to dodge the flow of water coming towards her. Nothing of the man remains, only a wet puddle on the ground.

An illusion bait ?

The man with the sword now has a circle of water floating around him. He stays mostly hidden by shadows, but despite the lack of luminosity, a long and wide scar is visible on his left forearm.

Man- Looks like we have to do this the hard way.

Kaen- You take one more step I scream and the whole neighbourhood knows. You won't get away with this.

Man- With what exactly ? Tell me.

Kaen- You ... attacked me ?

Man, calmly-  You were trespassing on private property.

Kaen- I'm on a mission ! From the Citadelle ! I said it when I entered !

Man- And you think that gives you the right to do what you want ?

Kaen- I...

Kaen starts to think and the man takes the opportunity. A sprout of water comes out of the circle and goes straight to her in a thin arc. She has no time to evade it so she cuts it in half with her sword, but the remaining water hits her cheek. It hurts and surprises her, while the man disappears into the shadows. Kaen runs to the door and looks around. No sign of the man, and almost no one is in the street. She hears a faint sound on the ground and looks down. She kneels to take a better look. A drop of blood on the stone. She is about to look up when she sees another drop falling. From her face. She touches where the water hit during the fight, and her fingers are bloodied. Damn water mages. She stands back up and starts heading to the Citadelle when she sheathes her sword and sees the blade is dented. Damn fucking water mages. Frowning, she turns around.

After some walking, Kaen approaches a blacksmith shop. The man behind the counter is tall and muscular, wearing a blacksmith apron and holding a dirty piece of cloth. His beard is full and the same chestnut brown as his hair. She waves at him and he answers with a big smile.

Man- Hey Kaen, so good to see you. Wait, aren't you supposed to be in class ?

Kaen- Today's a mission day, not a class day. I uhm.. need you to fix my sword

Kaen pulls out her sword and shows it to the blacksmith.

Man- Oh that's nasty. What happened ?

Kaen- I'm sorry Ribo, I can't talk about it.

Ribo- I told you to call me dad.

Kaen- I told you I'm not calling you that.

Ribo- *sigh*... So once your mission is done you just flander around the capital ?

He takes the sword from Kaen and notices the blood on her face.

Ribo- What is .. you're hurt ?

Kaen- Oh yeah, but it's just a surface cut.

Ribo- It could get infected, you don't know where people keep their swords.

Kaen- It .. wasn't a sword...

Ribo- Oh *looking at Kaen's dented sword* oh.

Kaen- So uuhh.. when will it be ready ?

Ribo- Probably near the end of the afternoon. I have other customers, sorry sweetie.

Kaen- Don't call me that.

Ribo- I'm your dad, I call you what I want.

Kaen- You're ...

Ribo- You're just as much my daughter as this is my shop. I chose to be a blacksmith, and I chose to be your father.

Kaen shakes her head and walks away.

--

At an intersection, Kaen stares at the spire of the Citadelle for a full minute, before changing direction and going back to the mystery house.

When approaching this time, she tries to be more careful. She waits first while observing the house, staying vigilant for anyone who would give it attention, she then looks around the house, searching for hidden exits or backdoors. She tries to look through gaps in the windows. No luck. Nothing special about this house. And at almost midday, the sun is too bright to see anything inside. She resolves to just enter the house and hope no one is there. She puts her hand on the handle and slowly pushes it down. The door opens without resistance, and the interior still looks pitch black from outside. She steps inside and listens intensely. Not a single sound. She closes the door and starts looking around. The furniture hasn't moved, and apart from some more wet spots there are no signs of what happened less than an hour ago.

She tries to search, but the lack of illumination makes it hard. She removes what she can from the windows, but it's still all darkness. All shadows. All. Shadows. Of course.

Kaen sits on the ground in meditation in the middle of the room. A few moments pass and she opens her eyes. The normal silvery violet iris has been replaced with a bright purple disk. Her vision has been changed and she now sees only the shadows while everything else is empty depthless whiteness. Kaen stands back up and starts looking around. She isn't used to having this vision on and she regularly needs to grab onto furniture to keep her balance. The light from the windows allows for a stark contrast and the details from the shapes in the shadows amaze Kaen. Eventually, she sees a faint glow coming from the ground near a chair. The object seems small, but she can't see it correctly this way. Her eyes turn back to normal and she sees colours again. It looks like a metallic ring. Confused, she puts it in her pocket and finishes checking the house. Nothing else stands out. Time to go make her report.

Back at the Citadelle, Kaen asks for Ortelius, but the secretary says he's still occupied. Kaen recognises another teacher passing through the hall and goes to him while calling his name and holding the ring in her hand. When she gets to him, she shows him the item while explaining what happened, and he takes it delicately. He blinks and his blue eyes turn the same bright purple in an instant. Another blink and they're back to normal. He then looks at Kaen very seriously.

Teacher- This is silver. Grade I silver. We need to warn the Council if this was found in an abandoned house.

The teacher goes to the secretary and asks for Ortelius to come to the hall.

Kaen, whispering- Wow, real silver. I had real silver in my hands.

Barely a minute later Ortelius comes down the stairs, a bit short of breath.

Ortelius- Maximilien, is this real ? An unknown illusion mage had a silver I ring on him ?

Maximilien- That is what appears to be, yes.

Ortelius- We need a sub-council meeting.

Maximilien- I was thinking of directly getting the Council involved.

Kaen- I mean it's just silver isn't it. Don't all researchers have some ?

Maximilien- They have Grade II silver, the more common one. Grade I silver isn't just any material. Its magical properties are grand and only rivalled by... *with a look of horror to Ortelius* Oh no the training grounds.