Seekers of Light

Four - Ayame and Miyuki

AYAME

Her entire body was sore and her head was throbbing with intense pain when she woke up. She was no longer surprised. These were the consequences of everything she did last night -- from practicing with fire, her weakest element, and using three different elements in one night.

The amount of pain she had to endure for such little attempts at element manipulation was always not worth it. Always, including last night.

This was the reason she had tried her best to learn weaponry in the past but, unfortunately, she sucked big time -- as if most of her efforts were geared toward not killing herself with her own sword. By the time she turned fifteen, she knew she was just not cut out for weaponry. Since then, she had abandoned it completely.

On the other hand, combat using sheer strength was something she was relatively good at. She was swift and she was graceful when fighting with just her own body and nothing else. Sometimes she would even note that her body was quicker than her mind. Grandpa once told her elementalism had something to do with it -- that being in tune with the elements around her, even without actively controlling them, greatly facilitates her body's movements and enhances her senses.

Her palms were still burning beyond what was imaginable. She had both hands bandaged with special medicine last night and she knew she was going to have a hell of a time removing them later. Fire was a wicked, wicked element. There was still no way she could use it without burning herself. But she just could not convince herself to give up yet, and there was no way grandpa would let her -- it was, no doubt, the most useful and most destructive element. Mastering it, although currently almost impossible, would be greatly advantageous.

Also... if what grandpa had told her -- about the duty she would be serving in camp -- was true, she would have to force herself to master everything. Every little thing.

Ayame got up and folded her futon quickly, reminding herself that she was scheduled to go for the morning hunt today. The sky outside, as seen through a small window from her room, was just as dark as it had been the night before, although it surely had become considerably foggy and misty outside.

After changing into her black kimono top and red hakama pants, she snatched up her scarf, her bow, and her old, worn-out quiver carrying only seven or eight arrows.

As she was tying her hair up with a white ribbon, she heard a commotion downstairs. She could barely hear the voices of grandpa and grandma, but mostly grandma's.

" -- not even a note? No notice, nothing? Despicable. No wonder the palace has fallen this far already. That witch you call the 'empress' still has not learned anything about decency,"

Ayame heard her grandma yell, which made her break into a sprint down a few flights of stairs.

"I am sorry. I am just following orders -- " said a familiar voice of a young man.

"Well then. If this is how the palace decides to deal with us, there would be no deal between us after all. Remind that witch, and the fools who choose to remain under the service of that lunatic, that I am still the same woman they won't want to mess with," grandma firmly said, and Ayame figured out they were by the front door.

Her grandpa, a tall and slender man with silver hair and a graceful stature, just blocked the door with his hand as grandma, an equally tall and lean woman with graying hair, attempted to smash the door close while a sturdy figure of man stood right outside.

"Chiyo, don't -- " the old man told his wife with a firm but concerned glare.

Ayame stopped just a few feet away from them. The moment she locked eyes with the man by the door, she recognized him instantly, in spite of a mask covering the lower half of his face. It was the man he had crossed paths with last night, or -- rather, it was the man she'd helped escape from the beasts earlier.