Dzyl Archipelago, Island and Town of Duruk [Southern parts of the Spire Sea], local time [1794.04.17]

  “Because it was an area far from cities and other towns… and also because the edge of the continent was close, there was a small aerostation near our little town. It worked as a trading hub for all nearby settlements. Aerostats of a few bigger merchant companies were stopping there to resupply, too. They were returning from a long flight, or preparing to leave the continent, so our place was convenient for them. My parents paid a one they knew well to prepare things in Barhal city. Like a fund in a commerce Guild… or lodgings and transport from the aerostation… and some official things at the city’s office. The city was far, far away. Weeks of flight away…”

  At last, it seemed that Sibi’s emotions calmed down.

  The story she started narrating was flowing out of her mouth steadily, despite the shadows of her internal turmoil crossing her face. Most of them involved sad acceptance, nostalgia, and even anger, showing that she was slowly recovering from her initial shock.

  “The merchant had also agreed to take us with him the next time… after selling imported stuff at the capital. We had to wait for over two months, but everything was going smoothly. He left a lot of free space on his second trip and docked for a few days so we could move our things…”

  “I see. As expected of Landlords, you had a lot to bring with you,” Zeph commented, nodding to himself.

  Sibi’s cheeks reddened slightly. “N-no, we weren’t that wealthy or anything. And the aerostat wasn’t that big. But Dad was working with wood and metal and refused to leave anything behind. There were a lot of tools and materials to pack up… Also, the people who normally worked with Mom wanted to go with us. I heard they were worried about Mom… and for their future…”

  “Is that so? Weren’t your parents administering over that town?” Makani asked confusedly.

  She shook her head abashedly. “We didn’t have much land inside the town, I think. We had a big house near the wall and were renting some land for a shop or two? There was also the warehouse near the aerostation’s docks… But, we had big farmlands and forests. And I remember that Mom always complained that her family was leeching us, so the money was becoming small…”

  Zeph had to look away to stop a chuckle coming out of his mouth.

  “A-anyway, I understand that taking half of the income is too much, but we still were left with a lot. So, I think, there were other things, too,” she elaborated clumsily.

  “Well, halving your direct income before paying off farmhands, workers, maintenance costs, and utility charges can be rough,” Makani nodded wisely. If Zeph didn’t know any better, he would assume that Makani’s time as the Head of the Aeroplanning and Ingeniators Department taught him something.

  However, he knew how much of the work the man was delegating to others…

  “So, you were preparing for a long voyage…” Zeph said, putting the discussion back on track.

  Sibi nodded. “Two days before the planned flight, a group sent by Mom’s family arrived. They were… very overbearing,” she shivered at the memory. “And looked very wealthy… Especially Mom’s cousin. But I didn’t like how he looked at everyone…” her voice petered out at the end.

  “They were there to take over the land?” Zeph guessed.

  She nodded weakly. “Mom said they were… I thought it was a formality. I was so wrong… so stupid,” She once again hugged her legs. “I knew... No, I was expecting some kind of negotiations to take place. It always does when trading is involved. And I knew that our situation wasn’t simple. But what the Imrah guy started saying... That’s Mom’s cousin’s name,” she explained shortly, throwing a glance at them.

  They nodded, gesturing for her to continue.

  “He started by insulting us…” she continued, turning back and hiding her head between her knees. “He was so… so absurdly rude that I was feeling pain in my chest when listening to him.” She made a pause, her body tensing.

  Zeph couldn’t tell if she trying to contain her tears or anger at that moment. Maybe both.

  “He said we were useless and had to be replaced because of it. That Mom was a half-brain and a failure. That Dad was half-blood t-trash… That we were allowed to work for them only because some people of the family pitied us…” She stopped there suddenly, her body was shivering.

  Zeph’s frown was deepening with every sentence. He wanted to hear what have happened but at this point, he felt that he heard enough regarding that particular individual.

  “Sounds like a provocation. What did he want, in the end?” he asked in a voice much harsher than intended.

  The girl stilled suddenly after hearing him.

  Silence ensued.

  Thankfully, the tension was slowly leaving her body as the silence stretched out.

  Finally, after almost a minute, she raised her head. Zeph could see vestiges of a pure fury fading from her amber eyes. A deep, dark resignation started settling in them instead.

  “Umm… more money? Our contacts… The workers that were about to take with us…” Sibi started listing, more depressed with each sentence. “Everything…”

  “Let’s pause here. We all should take a deep breath,” Makani interjected, sending Zeph a knowing gaze. “No need to rush. You two are getting too emotional.”

  It was a very good suggestion, so they listened to him involuntarily.

  After a few deep breaths, the tension in the air started to dissipate.

  “huuuh…” Sibi exhaled for the last time. “I needed that…”

  “Yeah, same here,” Zeph said while slowly releasing the air from his lungs. It was a while from the last time he tried to apply meditative breathing. He almost forgot about it because of the forceful methods available thanks to the Willforce Morphon. It seemed that those weren’t always the best choice. “I apologize for being so… insensitive.”

  “No, I know I am not mentioning a lot of important details. You should ask when it’s something important,” Sibi said resolutely.

  “Those were some painful details, but let’s try to stay calm about it,” Makani said just before hitting Zeph’s shoulder, making him flinch. “Try focusing only on the things that caught your attention. There is no need to relive what had happened.”

  The girl nodded and started gathering her thoughts.

  A few moments later, she looked up and resumed her story.

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  “Imrah accused Mom of many things. The worst was about betraying the family’s trust… He even showed some old documents, focusing on an old oath signed by Mom’s grand-grandmother… sounding as if we owed them our lives because of it,” she said, sulking. “He said that Mom broke that oath and family’s rules many times. That she s-sullied Durand’s bloodline by having a child with a Maanalai…” she paused there and bit her lip, looking away. “Dad wasn’t even a half-blood… I don’t know why he hates them so much. But it was clear he saw the Maanalai as enemies. As something to be purged… he said that himself.”

  ‘Maanalai’? This doesn’t sound familiar, Zeph thought, trying to place the strange word. But… This dialect is also used for naming the Youlasa, I think. Another sub-race of the elf-like people maybe? Hmmm… Maana here should mean something like a ghost or a moon? A strange one…

  “Riiiight…” was all Makani could say to that. “Why does it sound…”

  “Like a religious zeal?” Zeph supplied, his eyebrow rising.

  Makani waved his hand in denial. “Anyway, what was the result?” he asked Sibi.

  “We had to pay some fines. The workers that wanted to come with us had to stay behind until a new crew would be trained,” she said depressingly. “And we had to leave anything that was even loosely related to the Durand lineage…”

  Zeph loudly sucked the air through his teeth hearing that, slightly startling Sibi.

  “W-well, my parents didn’t seem to care much?”

  Makani also sighed. “Sibi, it sounds like he tried to preemptively cover his tracks... or rather, he took away any possible proof the Durand lineage was involved with that aerostat you were going to ride. Everything except you and your family…”

  Her eyes widened as she started realizing what had transpired back then.

  It was much easier to connect the dots when looking at the past from the perspective of an observer. Her preconceptions were probably the reason she never thought of that possibility.

  “That’s not all,” Zeph said in a low tone. “He took control of the administration fully back then. If your parents were to die during the trip… the people would be hesitant to leave. Whatever business that family was doing through your mom, it was secured in its entirety. And it was going to be fully operational from the very beginning…”

  “No! His involvement would be clear as day to the people that would die later at the aerostat,” before the girl could even start comprehending the implications, Makani interrupted. “That’s not how people operate here, Zeph. Even if he somehow convinced himself that it was necessary, the amount of backlash he would receive from the victims could easily break his Soul.”

  “You say that, but wasn’t he provoking them from the very start?” Zeph argued. “I can bet my arm that if they answered with aggression, he would either kill them right there – avoiding the backlash from the bystanders and any legal consequences – or would catch them to be ‘judged’ and executed. He arrived practically a day before their departure despite having literal months to complete the formalities. You think that was a coincidence?”

  Sibi started sobbing silently in the background as the two of them argued. Noticing that they schooled their faces and calmed down.

  A squabble was the last thing she needed right now.

  In a sense, the damage was already done – their words seemed to stir her dark thoughts – but none of them apologized. It seemed they both felt that it had to be said aloud – the earlier the better.

  “I-I’m good,” Sibi said after a moment, trying to stop her tears. “It’s just… just that… if we were more aware, maybe my parents wouldn’t…”

  “Thinking about possibilities of the past is only good if you plan to learn from it,” Zeph softly commented, interrupting her. “But whatever you did in the past, if it was the best choice you could make at the time, it’s not worth crying over. Believe me, it’s not…”

  Makani and Sibi sent him surprised gazes, but he looked away. He wasn’t in a mood to talk about his past, even if both of them knew he was a Terrien. They had more pressuring matters to discuss, anyway.

  Makani sighed again, shaking his head. “Whatever… Going back on the topic, I still think no reasonable person would want to risk their sanity to merely take over an organization. And your previous insinuations that it has something to do with the Temple of Pure Souls is even more outlandish,” he calmly commented.

  Zeph shrugged. “Sibi didn’t finish. Also, I was only half joking about the Temple at the time… But if too many coincident events happen in a short period of time, then I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. We can’t rule out a third-party’s interference at this point.”

  Makani tilted his head, seemingly trying to understand what he was talking about.

  “Ummm… what do you mean?” Sibi asked the unspoken question. Her tears have stopped rolling down, but because her cheeks were still wet, she was trying to wipe her face with her hands.

  “Lurona city should be under siege by the beasts right now. Sibi’s town is a strategic location – it’s close, has huge merchandise traffic, and it’s a stratum-one settlement. Moreover, if it coordinates with bigger cities on the continent, it should be possible to block supply routes or, at least, earn a lot by rising prices of goods and services.” He paused, making sure they understood the implications.

  Makani nodded a few times, muttering to himself silently. “I see… I should have looked at the bigger picture from the start...”

  “But we have a bigger problem. This conflict is three-sided. Temple of Pure Souls is known for supporting the rebelling cities in the Fuminao Legacy Kingdom, which is the third faction here. And that faction, as a whole, already meddled in Lurona, trying to weaken it during the New Year’s beast attack. They also tried to destabilize the internal power structure, but it has been cut at the bud by the local forces.”—of course, he wasn’t going to mention the Gibbons and what role they played in that regard—“In normal circumstances, I would be guessing that the neighboring powers – those of Hiruk continent included – are trying to simply make money using this opportunity. War is always profitable for neural factions.”

  “But?” Makani asked, crossing his arms.

  Zeph nodded. “After hearing how much Imrah cared about the purity of his lineage… without having a good reason for that, by the way,” he glanced at Sibi and she nodded in confirmation.

  For people connected to the System, their bloodline meant little. Double so if even the unconnected people from the same lineage didn’t care. Having access to Exchange entries was a separate subject, though.

  “I think someone is messing with susceptible people. We are already suspecting that the Temple of Pure Souls has a strong backer, probably from higher strata. This might be a missing link. Or, at the very least, a branching trace. Either way, this whole situation is too suspicious,” he finished, leaning forward on his chair.

  “Maybe he just hates the Maanalai?” Makani asked another obvious question. “It wouldn’t be the first person looking down on other humanoid races that I’ve met.”

  “But… why would he look the same way at other humans in the town?” Sibi asked quietly.

  Makani paused, not sure what to say.

  “Also, I know that he was especially cruel towards us…” she continued after recalling something. “But my family wasn’t the only one of mixed heritage? But he never stopped to comment on anyone else?”

  It was Zeph’s turn to sigh deeply.

  “Is there a need to comment on a bug?” he asked rhetorically. “That’s not important, though. You see, Sibi, Makani,” he said, looking at them both in order. “When you manage to convince someone that they are fundamentally better than the others, an ideology is always the first culprit. Religious, economic, racial… it doesn’t matter. And people like that are easy to manipulate further. I am not saying that he is a member of that Temple. More than that, I think he can be unaware of its existence whatsoever. What I am trying to say is that someone is using similar methods. And taking into account that they managed to succeed on stratum zero, the chances are high that the same people are meddling with Hiruk’s continent politics as well.”

  Makani frowned. “You have said it as if the method is something special. It certainly doesn’t sound like that.”

  “Because It’s not,” he admitted. “But going by the Empathy Enhancement, it shouldn’t be easily applied. Also, it’s the second time that I suspect something like that is being used. Only the second time, Makani. And I dabbled in Lurona politics… But even if I’m wrong, does it change anything?” he finally asked, challenging the Manacaster to disagree. “I am still sure they will try to hamper Lurona rather than make pure profit from supporting both sides of the conflict. You don’t forcefully take over a strategic location if all you want is long-term wealth.”

  Makani clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction. It seemed he was out of arguments. “I can see your point, but those are all speculations.”

  Zeph smiled. “Of course! If you find any logical gap in that theory, or if you can think of a better one, I will happily cook a rare dish for you as a thank-you!” he said, surprising the Manacaster.

  “You are strange sometimes…” he said, making Sibi giggle. “Ah, right,” he turned to the girl. “The story isn’t finished, isn’t it?”

  Her mirth dissipated almost instantly. “There isn’t much left to say.” She tried to keep her composure, but her eyes betrayed her. She hesitated for a moment.

  “We flew. Two aerostats surrounded us at some point. They had air surfers…”

  “Frix! I am sorry!” Makani suddenly exclaimed in panic. It was the part where her parents have died.

  She shook her head; her face hardening. “My parents were the targets. Because the traffic was always high, we didn’t notice that we were surrounded. Mom and Dad… disappeared from the deck before I knew what was happening. The surfers took them. And not long after…” she gulped. “The world has become a pure pain…”

  Makani shut up. His hand returned to the handrest of his chair.

  When someone was expressing their steadfastness and determination in such a direct way, the only thing one could do was to sit and listen.