Those Who are Not

Chapter 7: The Keys

     Some strange things happened while I was on assignment today. I was with Velxic, a wind conjurer and a master at his spear. His green trim and wind patterns compliment his shadowy gray hair, blowing around in his own wind. His spear has a unique power in which he can transform it into a bow by pushing the center outward. An emanating black line forms between the top and bottom of the spear, creating a bowstring in which he can shoot arrows infinitely.
     This was our first time on assignment together, although I have seen him around the castle a couple of times. He can use the surrounding air to just float around, so he always makes Vaix and Praxun irritated.
     "Walk like a normal person!" they always say, but Velxic always says, "I'm not a normal person, remember?" After that, every time, he slowly walks to his room in defeat with frozen hair or with his cloak patched with blue flames. He's very sarcastic but he seems to try too hard to be noticed. He felt like this assignment with me will at leaat boost his 'self esteem' for a while.
     But the strange part wasn't the assignment itself, but rather afterwards at the mansion, where it was only me and Saxi there.
     "You haven't seen Xancel anywhere?" Saxi questioned as she pulled off her hood. "Should we go looking for him?"
     "I'm sure he's still on assignment, he'd never bail on us." I assured, handing her an ice cream. Xancel gave me personal access to his stash just in case something like this would happen. He gave me a bronze key to his ice cream feeezer, blackened with soot from his hands.
     "If you lose it, you're not getting another!" He bickered as he handed it over and I grabbed it greedily. I always keep it in my cloak pocket for good luck.
     I saw Xancel back at the castle waiting outside my room. His usual smile was diminished and his positive attitude was somber and lacking. Saxi already went to her room after I said goodbye at the main entrance, so it was just him and me standing in the empty stone corridor.
     "Hey Xance, you missed the meeting! Where were you?" Xancel looked away, obviously hiding something.
     "Noxcron, hey! Sorry, I had to do a meeting with the boss and everyone else." He looked in the direction of the Tall Room as if that proved his point. "Marxed said that everyone but you and Saxi had to report immediately after assignment."
     "What, why?" I suddenly became nervous. They're gonna kick us out, they're gonna kick us out, they're gonna kick us o-
     "Well, I'm not exactly allowed to say. It's not a bad thing though, I promise!" Xancel put on a fake smile and changed the subject. "At least you got to use that key I gave you! You still have it right?" I showed him the blackened key to prove I didn't lose it. He patted my head before walking down the hall into his room. I put the key in my pocket and walked into mine.
     The next morning, I decided to talk to Praxun, one of Marxed's second in command. Praxun was the one who met me in the hall after I met Xancel for the first time. He has long cyan hair with a turqouise trimmed cloak. Stars line the bottom as his pattern, and according to Xancel, he can go crazy if he gathers enough essence from the moon's light, causing his morning star, aptly named 'Moonlight,' to emit blue flames. As such, he's only allowed to go on assignment at night, which means he's around the castle helping out during the day.
     "Why does it concern you, gem?" Praxun was just leaving the armory when I asked him about the meeting last night.
     "Well, I heard that it was about me and Saxi, so I felt like I should at least know." I looked at him in a concerned way. There is a giant scarred X that I never really noticed in between his eyes spanning all the way to his temples and cheeks, just above his nose.
     "You and them were not there for a reason." He said, walking away without locking the armory door.
     I had gotten curious as to why Praxun was in there, since that's reserved for Marxed only, just in case someone loses their weapons so he'll know about it. I snuck in and grabbed the spare key to the left wall. On the adjacent side were all of the husk's weapons; halberds and knives, shields and sickles, and everything else we had at our disposal. However, not a single gem was present in the armory, and one weapon stood out from the rest that no other member has. Two wrapped up chains, each fixated with a large flat four-spiked star sat on the center table. I decided to leave the spare key behind as I left in a hurry.