The morning was a groggy one as it always was. The city was waking up from a long empty night and its denizens were performing their morning rituals. Work was a constant in this capital city of Midgard, from the Prime Minister down to the child who ran a lemonade stand in one of the city’s many residential areas. Yggdrasil was just that in the morning. Sleepy city waking up for the first time in hours. Of course, this sentiment did not apply to everyone.

Clang!

Embla slid back from the force of her master’s blow. She fell to one knee and wiped the sweat from her brow. Her red eyes caught sight of her master walking towards her nonchalantly with a training sword in his hand.

Samuel had extended his stay in the city for a few more weeks. The incident regarding the attack of two unknown Arts users had garnered the attention of the Sages. However, not all of them could stay. Yuki’s mother had left the week prior.

“Get up kid,” Samuel said.

“Give me a sec,” Embla gasped. She stood up. Embla undid the tie on her jacket and took it off. “Much better,” she said.

“Hmph,” Samuel grinned.

In a burst of speed, Embla disappeared from view and reappeared behind her master.

Samuel lazily turned and parried her oncoming attack with his blade. Embla flew into the air. She raised her arm and threw one of her swords at Samuel.

Samuel moved his head to the side, narrowly avoiding impalement. He turned his gaze back to the empty space where his apprentice had once been. His eyes scanned his surroundings.

“Sixteen Fold Dance!” Sixteen afterimages of his apprentice appeared around him and swarmed him like bees.

“Not bad, kid,” Samuel said. He gripped his sword tightly and swung it with immense force. A gust of wind comparable to that of a tropical storm exploded from Samuel, dispersing all the afterimages and sending Embla flying into the wall.

“Gah!” she gasped. Blood spilled from her mouth and Embla slid to the floor.

“Ya done?” Samuel asked.

Embla’s left eye flashed gold and she got up instantly. Unstable red energy crackled and coated her blades. She swung them, sending a slashing wave of destructive power at her teacher.

“Still can’t control it?” Samuel asked. Black flames coated his practice sword. He slashed the energy waves, cutting them in half. It was the fifth time Embla had seen her Master’s Arts.

Her left eye flickered upon hearing his words. She dropped to the ground on all knees panting and fatigued. “No… I still can’t… I’ve been trying to force it but Val went on a weekend back to our house to grab things! She’s coming back today to teach me,” Embla said, sitting on her sore butt. She flinched when she felt a cramp coming on.

Samuel threw the destroyed sword on the floor and walked over to her. He sat down next to his apprentice and patted her head.

“What’s that for?” she asked. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy it. She was just too tired to bat her master’s hand away.

“Do you know what my Arts is called?” Samuel asked.

“Destroyer. The Divine Right to Induce Calamity,” Embla said. “It’s in every book. You have this ability to generate and produce destructive black flames capable of penetrating even the Absolute Defense of Eschamali’s Central Master! There are only a few people in this world with Arts surpassing yours!”

“Yeah but like you, I didn’t have much control over it. I kept breaking everything I touched and well… my sister was the only one who could touch me,” Samuel said, smiling wistfully at the memory of her.

Embla went silent. Her master’s sister was a heavy topic for both of them. She sighed. “I… Ma-... no, Uncle,” she muttered.

Samuel’s eyes widened. She hadn’t referred to him as uncle in a long time.

“I know how you… you don’t like talking about her but this is a story about my Arts. She’s bound to show up,” Samuel said. He smiled softly and patted her back.

“I know. I’m sorry,” Embla said.

“Anyway, it was a time of war. My Arts forcefully awakened during the Battle of Mumei Pass in Alfheim. The entire field was wiped out by black flames that didn’t stop coming out of my body. The only reason it stopped was because my sister used her Arts to nullify mine. After that, I began trying to control it. At first it was hard. I tried to force the power under my control. I tried putting a leash around it. However, Destruction can’t be chained…” He opened his palm and summoned a black spherical mass. It sucked in all the light around it yet at the same time, radiated an eerie, alluring light. “My point is that I learned how to control it!”

“How?” Embla asked. “I keep trying to summon it at will but it only summons itself in high stress situations or when my emotions run wild.”

“Well, are you forcing it?” Samuel asked.

Embla grimaced. It was like properly learning to control her mana all over again. The only problem was she was going in blind. Her face told her teacher everything he needed to know.

He sighed. “Well, for starters, I can’t help you with the other aspect of your power. Creation is beyond me but the destructive part I can help with as well as generally controlling your Arts. So take my advice for now. To control an Arts, you have to allow the energy to flow through your body, not try to choke it. You can’t beat a river into submission. Instead, you can control its flow by opening different channels,” Samuel said. The orb in his hand changed shape into a knife, then into a spoon, a fork, and back into an orb.

“Let it flow? What am I even looking for? This energy you’re talking about,” Embla asked.

“No one knows but some people are born with it. The energy inside… we once took to calling it the Power of God because that’s all we could call it until suddenly, out of nowhere, Hilde called it Eitr. Heh, sis and her naming schemes,” Samuel said.

“Huh? Hmmm… well, the sun’s almost in the middle of the sky. I have to get back to the house,” Embla said, getting up.

“Quest?” Samuel asked.

“No, it’s my turn to buy food for the party and Val’s coming over to visit today since she’s getting back in a few hours. I want to make the house presentable for her at least,” Embla said.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Samuel asked.

“Huh?” Embla responded as she put her jacket back on.

“Your kransen. You left it over on the bench,” he said, pointing to the gold rune hairpin.

“Oh thanks! Can’t lose this,” she said. “See ya tomorrow, old man! I hope you can teach me some magic tomorrow!”

“You guys! The house, is it clean!?” Embla asked frantically. She could cook but she was no master chef. The reason she was in charge of buying the groceries on this night was because of her sister. This was the first time Embla had invited her sister over for dinner since they reunited. She wanted to feed her good food rather than the slop Cal made every other night.

She wiped some sweat off her brow as she stirred the goulash.

“Em, the house is clean. I’m sure your sister will love it,” Red said, cutting some meat. “Man, if only Yuki were here.”

“Yeah but she said she had to go home to take care of some personal business,” Embla said.

The same week Mizore had left with Kaguya, Yuki had tagged along with them. She had some personal business to take care of back home and had left Red in charge of the entire party in her absence. It had been nearly two weeks since she had left and Red had gone to the guild building to make calls to her frequently.

“Hey, Red, when did Yuki say she was going to come back?” Embla asked.

“Well,” Red said as he sprinkled the meat in pepper, “she said something came up so she might be back sooner than expected in a different way.”

“In a different way? That doesn’t sound good,” Embla said.

“Different doesn’t mean bad but yeah, from her tone, I didn’t really like the sound of it. Sometimes, I can’t really tell what she’s thinking about,” he said, letting out a sigh.

“I thought you two were dating,” she asked.

“Dating doesn’t mean that we know what’s on each other’s minds all day. It’s just that even for me and Kaguya, Yuki’s like a puzzle. She’s smart when she wants to be and dumb when she’s not using her brain properly,” Red replied.

“Ehehe… ow.” She winced when a pain flared up in her left shoulder.

“Still getting phantom pains?” Red asked.

“Yeah… from time to time, Kaguya does not hold back. I need to get her back someday,” she said, turning the stove off.

“Someone’s at the door!” Pandora called.

“You want me or Pandora to get it?” Red asked.

“No, I can. It’s my sister,” Embla replied. She untied her apron and threw it on a chair. Embla walked to the door and opened it.

Valentina stood on the other side with multiple bags in her arms. She eyed a bag from a well known bakery down the street from their house and several other bags with no brands or names on them. Her sister was in her most casual attire. And by most casual, Valentina wore an ensemble that could best be described as business casual.

“That’s your most casual attire?” Embla asked.

“Hey, I don’t have many clothes! I outgrew most of them,” Valentina said. “Also here. I went back home…well, I guess I’ll give them to you later. I also got gifts for your entire party.”

“You didn’t have to…” Embla took the bags from her sister and led her inside.

“Well, I need to thank someone for taking you in. Having you wander around Midgard was one of my dumbest mistakes,” Valentina replied. “In fact, I-”

“Holy crap! It’s the Valkyria!” Pandora said.

The two sisters turned to the top of the stairs where they saw Pandora dressed in a white sweater.

“Err, hi? You are Pandora, right?” Valentina responded. She was a little perturbed by the girl’s enthusiastic greeting.

“Oh my gosh! She said hi to me. Um, hello! Ca- Can…” she stuttered while she descended to the first floor.

“Can?”

“Can you please sign this!?” Pandora pulled out a small card with Valentina’s face on it.

“Eh? A card? Sure,” Valentina answered. She held her hand out and took the card. Valentina pulled a pen out of her pocket and signed it.

“Wooow! I got her signature! I can die happy!” Pandora said, rubbing her face against the card.

“Um, Val, come on. I need to finish introducing you to the rest of the party,” Embla said, dragging her sister into the living room. “Cal, get your lazy ass off the chair! My sister’s here to visit!” Embla barked.

Cal looked up and saw her glaring down at him. His yellow eyes then moved past her face and saw Valentina smiling at him. He got up and saluted her. “My name is Caelum Izayoi. Thank you for visiting our house, Ma’am.”

“Ehehe, no need to salute me. I’m not your commanding officer and please, just refer to me as Valentina or Val,” she replied.

Cal’s posture softened and he smiled. “Well, still, it’s nice to meet you. Embla talks very highly of you.”

“Really? She does? Should I tell you some stories about her?” Valentina asked.

A wicked smile spread across Cal’s face. “If you don’t mind and in exchange, I’ll tell you some stories about her.”

“No, no! None of that!” Embla got in between the two and pushed them apart. “No one’s telling any embarrassing stories.”

“Oh? How did you know the stories I’m going to tell are embarrassing?” Valentina asked, poking her sister’s left cheek.

“No, I know they are! It’s been seven years but I know you really well, Big Sis,” Embla said. She crossed her arms and huffed, causing her sister to burst out laughing.

“I see that everyone’s here now,” Red said, walking out of the kitchen.

“Ah, I remember you. You’re Princess Shirayuki’s Personal Guard. I saw you back in Alfheim three years ago,” Valentina said.

“Yes, the Princess mentioned that you were there investigating the cause of the Plague. It’s nice to meet you again, Miss Feuerdrache,” Red said, bowing to her.

“Same here. Thank you for taking care of my baby sister. I know she can be a handful but still, thank you,” she answered.

“Sis…” Embla glared at the back of her sister’s head.

Dinner went off without a hitch. Valentina and Memento Mori had gotten along far better than Embla had expected. She was a little disappointed that Yuki wasn’t there but at least her sister got to meet the other members of her party. She smiled, watching Pandora ask her sister all sorts of questions about the Knights and the Grandmaster. Of course, her sister took it as an opportunity to embarrass Koji with a multitude of shameful tales from their adventuring days. Her stories only seemed to attract Pandora even more to the man.

“What about Em? Do you have any embarrassing stories about her from her childhood?” Cal asked.

Embla glared at him for asking such a question.

“Em? Well, let’s see. I have a lot so I’ll only tell one. This one’s my favorite. When Embla was eight years old, she had this pet wolf… well, it was more a plushy. One day, when I was took her out to the playgrounds in our town, she was playing with it. She named it Mister Fenny. Em got invited by some kids to play tag and I looked away for a few minutes. Can you guess what happened?”

“Vaalll!” Embla placed her head on the table and hid her increasingly red face.

“Did she lose it?” Red asked.

“Yup. She lost it. Embla cried for days on end. She went to her teacher and asked him to help her look. If I didn’t start making her a new one, her teacher would have turned the entire town upside down just to find that wolf doll,” Valentina said, laughing. “Oh my Odin! You should’ve seen her face! ‘Sisss! Mister Fenny ran away!’ ‘Losing Mister Fenny is like losing my Kransen! We have to find him!’ and things along that line.”

“Pfft! Bwahaha! You cried over a lost stuffed animal! Hahaha!” Cal leaned back in his chair and cackled at Embla’s embarrassed face.

“Mmmmm! Vaal!” Embla pouted. Older siblings were always like this. She knew Cal and Valentina would get along because of their statuses.

“Ahahaha… well, I got you all some food and things from our hometown. I might as well give them to you before I head out,” Valentina said.

“Head out? So soon?” Embla asked.

“Mhm. There’s a delegation coming tomorrow so I have to run that. Koji and Azalea are busy doing something regarding Muspelheim so I’ll be busy dealing with it. I’m just glad I got to spend time with my baby sis,” Valentina said. She turned around and pinched her sister’s cheeks.

“Wet me wo Val!” Embla cried out, prying her sister’s monstrously strong grip off her face.

“Mmm. Thank you for the dinner. Mister Red, I have to say that your Bukkatsu was really good. The way you seared the Saehrimhir meat reminded me of how my Mom used to make it,” Valentina complimented.

“Eh? Well, um, I don’t know what to say. Thank you,” Red said.

“It was nice meeting you, Pandora. Other than Em, I’ve never had a fan before,” Valentina said.

“She- She… I can die happy,” Pandora said.

“Cal. I can tell we’ll get along very well. Please continue looking after Em. That goes to all of you,” Valentina said.

“I’ll go with you to the door,” Embla said, getting up.

“Mmm. I left the bags in the living room. You guys can look at them later. I have something for you too so I’ll give it to you after we leave the house,” Valentina said.

“I’ll go with my sister for a bit. See you guys later,” Embla said. She followed after her sister, who was already waiting for her at the door. The two left the house and walked down the street.

“I got you this. You left it at home after you… followed after me,” Valentina said, pulling something out of her pocket.

“Huh? Is that my locket?” Embla took the locket from her sister’s hands and opened it up.

A photo of their family. Back when her parents were still alive. She recognized her mother’s white hair and blue eyes and felt the warm gaze of her father’s red eyes staring back at her. Though she was young, the love of her parents remained with her throughout her life and she remembered them fondly with what little she could recall.

“Mmm and this too.” Valentina summoned something in her hand and held it out for her to take.

“Mister Fenny. You grabbed him too? Val, I’m too old for plushies,” Embla said.

“You’re never too old for plushies. Come on, he missed you,” Valentina said.

Embla sighed but accepted it gratefully nonetheless. A nostalgic smile appeared on her face when she saw her sister’s sloppy stitching on the back of the wolf plushie.

“Val,” Embla said.

“Mmm? Teacher…err, Uncle said you can help me with my Arts training. Can you?” Embla asked.

“You’re training your Arts? I suppose it can’t be helped. Alright, I’ll help you. Meet me tomorrow morning before the Sun rises and I can give you a quick rundown,” Valentina said.

“Oh right! Sis, who’s the delegation that’s coming?” Embla asked.

“Ah. It’s a delegation from Alfheim.”