For the Murder of Evil

Ninth and Tenth

"Dang it. And he just told us the biggest clue of this mystery." Zae put his hands on his hips.

I clenched my fists. "How can you react calmly to this? Someone just died!"

Zae sighed. "Maybe it's just because I've seen a lot of people die, but I don't feel bad when people die." He shook his head. "Maybe I am evil because of that."

None of us could say anything about that.

Xan touched Desire's body. I probably saw his eyes (err, eye) widen as he did, but it was four a split second, so it must've been a trick of the light.

Xan got up. "Zae," he said, and he whispered something in his ear.

That's when Zae's eyes widened. He looked at Desire and said, "You're right" in a voice so soft I could almost not hear it.

And the lights went out.

When they went back on, it was Xan this time that was on the floor.

"Xan!" Zae cradled his brother in his arms and inspected him a little. Then, he looked up and surveyed where he was at. He looked back down at his brother again, saying, "Rest in peace, dear brother Xanolemnad."

He lay his brother on the ground and got up. As he faced us, I could see a hint of a tear starting up. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be in the other room for a second." And he left.

We understood why he did. We men weren't used to crying in front of others, even if the others were men.

But that made me think of how there were only four people left.

And were we really evil? I mean, we already put in the fact that the murderer is after our magic, but we could be evil, can't we? Keeping a secret like that from my friends... it does make me evil. Maybe the Bible is wrong, and we are never forgiven of our sins.

... you aren't going to say anything, Daichi? No, because I personally don't care whether or not I'm evil, and like you, I don't believe there's a God up there.

My thoughts stopped as Zae came back, his fists clenching hard.

And the lights went out again.

Zae was on the floor this time.

Wait, what's that in his hand, Daichi asked.

There was something. I opened up Zae's clenched hand to reveal a paper. As I was reading it, Ikuto and Jellal came over and read it over my shoulder:

Ikuto, Jellal, Reiji, Reiji's other personality,

If you're reading this, I'm "dead". Because I'm not really.

I don't know how I didn't notice it with the first seven people. Maybe it was of the excitement. But Xan showed me that there were still Rook going in and out of Desire's body. Not much, but still some. It was the same with Xan's body.
If I hadn't said it before, the Rook are life forces, so if they are going in and out of your body, you're still alive. The number of Rook shows how close you are to death.

So that's why Melody's Sensory Link was still working. It's because we have a little bit of magic left in our bodies, enough to keep a small spell like Sensory Link going. I don't know why the murderer kept it. Maybe he was working fast.

But the murderer is around us, which is why I pretended Xan was really dead. Now, go find this vault Desire was talking about. If you break it, you can set free our magic, and the magic should go back to the original owners.

But you only get one chance, since the murderer would find out and be out to "kill" you all. Hurry!

Oh, and it would be nice if you could capture the murderer too.

Signed,

Zaecondis

That was a clever plan; Zae is a mastermind.

True, and I have a plan, but it involves me taking over you.

---------------- author ------------

Oh yeah, question. Who do you think is the murderer? Just take a guess. ;-)