A body in an unusual condition was found in the penthouse belonging to Calum Little, one of the culprits in the murder of Esmer Philo.

A statue lay on the king bed. It raised its hands, its eyes wide, its tongue sticking out like a portrait of a man terrified to see a wild dog.

Civil guards and coroners had swarmed the scene for the sake of investigation. The corpse was not just posing like a rigid statue. The corpse... was a statue. Its body seemed to be plated with twenty-four carat gold. Pure fine and brittle, like a golden ingot. On the wall behind the bed, there was a gold inscription. Its shape resembled a pattern of flowing blood, but turned into frozen gold.

‘NO ONE SHALL SLEEP PEACEFULLY UNLESS ALL TRUTHS ARE UNCONCEALED! NO ONE SHALL DESERT THE TOWN EXCEPT TO TAKE DEATH WITH HIM!’

Seeing the condition of the body, the coroner could at once identify that the corpse was a victim of the abuse of magic—the worst case, black magic. The writing plastered on the wall right above Francis Little’s head was a threat to his son, Calum Little, his two other friends, and possibly the entire Trinketshore. Yes, Calum Little did not encounter Hades. He was with his mother huddled in the living room corner. Mother’s eyes were puffy from wailing in shock. The son was as shaken as the mother. His gaze was hollow, not knowing what expression to form on his face.

At the grand Crimsonmane residence, Nadine and Gilmore were having a war of words regarding the murder of Francis Little. Nadine looked pleased with the killing, thinking that the culprit was on the haunt mission of the girl’s perpetrators. The ones who manipulated the law, so low even Themis dared herself to open her blindfold, gazing at them in contempt. Gilmore, the devil’s advocate, challenged her notion. He thought that as long as no one does not make a public confession, all the townspeople—including the triplets—are the cattle, lining the slaughterhouse. There was no point in appreciating yet supporting the act of killing.

While they were busy arguing, Alicia was on the telecomm with her young brother, who would come home that day. She warned him to weigh his decision to go home, considering the situation at Trinketshore was in a state of discord.

“Even if I want to enjoy my summer vacs in Eidyn rather than the ‘lost city’ of Trinketshore—Both are boring, by the way—I have to come back, like it or not,” explained Leith from the telecomm line.

“Could you not entice papa to come with you?”

“Cannae dae that, Liz. Papa’s still pure hoachin’ throughout the week. All those black magic messes happen in the whole country, not jist yer dearest Trinketshore, ye ken?”

Alicia went silent for a moment. She tried to understand, but her mien was already irritated. Donar’s little girl was trapped in a small town along with a serial killer, but he sent his son back instead. The man was busy minding other affairs instead of his children’s safety. ‘How come papa is always nae around whenever we need him?’ she thought. ‘Papa didn’t even call me after the town square’s incident at all!’

“I must go home because I need to prepare something prior to papa’s homecoming,” he added. “But papa already knows what happened in Trinketshore. So he’ll send an elite wizard unit as reinforcement soon, the REAL Magisterium wizards, ye ken? The experts of fighting black magic, unlike those minions back in Trinketshore.”

“Hold on. You said you need to prepare something? What preparation?”

“Uh... not the braw time for a storytelling session, sis. I’ll grass on anything when I’m home, as promised. Catching the train now, bye!” Leith straight up closed his telecomm.

Gilmore had his back to the sofa. “So, yer brither’s coming home today?”

“Yeah,” answered Alicia, “And he said reinforcement wizards from the capital will come as well.”

“Wow, what a relieve,” Nadine retorted with a sarcastic tone while her eyes were fixed on the telemedia screen.

In the late afternoon, the two of them decided to return to their respective homes after staying a few days. Leith also informed her he was getting close to Trinketshore, asking Alicia not to pick him up, because of feelings of prestige and other puberty nonsenses.

Alicia then lay on the bed with the door slightly ajar while waiting for her brother. Amid boredom, she raised her hand as if to touch the room ceiling. Her eyes then fell on the bandage stuck to her right hand—which she got from Orb scalding her hand the first night she made contact. Alicia realised she had changed the bandage several times but noticed nothing enticing but bare skin coated with a mix of blood and cellulose fluids. It sure looked disgusting when she looked closely. But Alicia didn’t feel any pain from under the bandage, so she took it off. The skin around the wound was still scaly. Fortunately, the wound itself was dried up. Unfortunately, such a lesion will last a lifetime.

Another deficiency added to the girl’s physical shortcomings. Sounded worrying, didn’t it? However, Alicia seemed not to care about it. She was too curious about the fact that her wound formed a peculiar symbol—A human figure as if to protect a globe between her big hands. What kind of ball was that? A depiction of earth? Or was it actually the picture of Orb?

‘Oh, it’s a sign that we’ve become one,’ answered Orb in a song. It seemed to know what the girl had in mind.

“It cannae be that simple!”

‘Yes, the symbol could have said something more. But ... It’s beyond my own will. You have to find out yourself, in time.’

“Lame.”

She then juxtaposed Orb with her scorched hand. She contemplated her current strength. Alicia had spent two days practicing her shooting accuracy and close combat with Orb. But she knew that there must be something else that could be done with its magic, instead of just shooting and hitting people in the head with a tossed magic ball. Alicia recalled her battle with Caleb Dune. She was able to create a force field that cushioned the impact when she fell, and somehow her power also neutralized the addict’s black magic.

The young Crimsonmane got up. She held Orb with both hands and tried to align herself with it. Alicia slowly spread out her hands, with the energy attached to her hand expanding too. The bluish plasma energy formed a glowing bubble around her. Sparks and energy streams danced around it.

Alicia looked at Orb that was still floating on her chest. She focused on draining more or less plasma from her hand, manipulating the size of the force field.

“Orb, how strong is this force field?”

‘Depends on your focus and strength,’ answered Orb.

“Depends on my focus and strength. Aye, right.” Alicia rolled her eyes.

Orb gave a signal of admonition, ‘Of course, anything is about focus and strength, Alicia. That’s thaumaturgy 101! That’s why you won’t harness my power in full potential if you cannot synchronise with me properly!’

“Awright, awright. Sorry...,” she retorted. “At least that explains the self-turning shot, or sometimes, the shot has no effect at all. Maybe I should learn to control my panic better.”

Alicia then continued again. “That being said, it’s not much different from magic in general, right?”

‘Well, yes, of course, there’s not much difference. It’s just my power—including one that forms this force field—is mightier because it can deflect, even remove the Protos particles!’ said Orb proudly.

“Protos particles, eh? If I’m not mistaken, that’s a term for a substance that produces black magic, isn’t it? The Khaos energy? Haven’t heard that term in a long time.”

Orb gave a signal of agreement.

“Hold on. During the investigation and also the last moments of fighting the black mage, I remember your power neutralised every black magic that came in contact with.”

Again, Orb gave a signal of agreement.

“And every shot he received made him more vulnerable to incoming attacks, multiplying the pain.”

It was the third time Orb gave a signal of agreement.

Alicia was pensive, rummaging through the memory files in her brain. She finally relived the time when she read an encyclopaedia of magic, and her mother explained to her about an energy that had similar characteristics.

“Divine mercy, Orb... don’t tell me—”

“What the—WHAT IN THE BLOODY HADES IS THIS?”

The exchange between the girl and the ball was interrupted by a scream coming from the front door of the room—which was now wide open.

Leith, who was already standing with a horrified face, watched Alicia trapped in a vortex of purplish-blue glowing plasma. Alicia was silent for a split second before screaming at her brother’s presence! The alignment was automatically broken, and the force field forthwith disappeared, followed by a harmless small wave outburst, enough to make the two fall upside down!

Alicia’s room was a mess due to the wind from the force field, now it was further shattered by the sudden wave that just appeared.

“L-Leith!” shouted Alicia. “Y-y-you just come home? H-how d-did you get in? No! Have ye, ever not thought about knocking on the room first, let alone the girl’s room?

Leith rose with his messy hair, rubbing his head that just hit the wall. “Have ye, ever not thought that each resident in this bit has their own house key? Yer door was dead open the whole time and yer things were scattered all over the place because of… w-whatever happened in that room of yours!”

“Then t-that thing!” Leith pointed at Orb “W-where did you get that thing from!?”

“I-I can explain! I found Orb in the cemetery—”

“—You call that thing, ‘Orb’?”

“What? You expect me to call it ‘Boonie Knight Lancelot?’ I don’t name things with weird epithets just to be treated like a delusional husband, okay? ‘Orb’ is enough!”

Orb joined Alicia’s defense by chanting a threatening tone of voice. Leith looked down at Orb lying on the floor, putting on a face of complete disbelief. “This thing… talks?”

Orb let out a louder tone, making Leith jump and take a few steps back.

“‘This thing’ has a name, Leith. ‘Orb,’ Alicia said. “Orb says not to put on such an ill-farrant face. What, never seen a magic ball before?”

Leith was still in shock. “Let me guess. You found Orb in Languoreth’s tomb?”

“Well, not exactly inside her tomb, but it did happen to appear on Languoreth’s mausoleum, anyway. Wait, how did you know this?”

Leith’s head was spinning from being overwhelmed by these pieces of information. He paced the room, muttering.

“I don’t believe it’s here. That source of power is here! There’s no doubt! I thought this whole search would take like forever! But how the Silent Divine has cursed me. It was here, right in my sister’s room! And she played it like a bloody trifle! And shite, it bloody talks!” Leith chuckled like a madman. “Naw, naw, naw. Noo jist hauld on! My sister, Alicia Crimsonmane, controls the pure Arcane. Doesn’t that make her a mage? ALICIA CRIMSONMANE IS A MAGE? Ellie’s wrath, what happened to Trinketshore lately when I was away?”

Leith should have been relaxed for all the investigation, the search, the archeology matters, and other family mandate baloneys were completely gone in the flick of a finger. But seeing Orb ‘submitted’ to his sister, wild speculation began to emerge in the youngest’s mind. Seeing her brother grumble like a stressed human being, Alicia resuscitated him.

After coming to his senses, Leith gave his sister a serious look. He said, “Sis, I think we need to talk.” []