-Fundamental Sin-

[Crimes, such as Necromancy, that are considered

to be crimes against nature. These crimes can

result in Soul Blackening.]

Kared casually meandered over to the couch and took a seat, “So, you’re all awake now, sorry about that,” she said, not even a hint of regret in her voice. “Indeed,” Nadred picked up the conversation, “Since you’re here early, and we’re all awake, shall we discuss the plan for tomorrow?”

“A good idea,” Oroske began his response, “My idea was Kared and I will go handle the more formal investigation, talking with city officials and all that. Meanwhile, the rest goes and does the practical investigation, probing the site of the rumors and seeing what you can find. Thoughts?”

“Hmm,” Nadred hummed as he thought, “Normally I’d ask why Kuro wouldn’t be going with you, but I’m guessing you have some stuff to talk to Kared about. That works for me. What do you two think?” He turned to Jarou, then to me, nodding his head.

“I kinda wish I could go with Kared,” Jarou voiced his opinion, “but I’m sure I’d just get in the way of whatever they need to talk about.” It seemed like Nadred and Jarou understood Oroske’s reason better than I did.

“Sure, I’m alright with that,” I yawned unintentionally. I supposed I was much more tired than I thought.

“Great,” Nadred brought the conversation back to him, “depending on when we all finish our respective tasks, we’ll either take on the target tomorrow or the day after. For now, we should all try to get some rest.” He paused for a minute and looked seriously at Kared, “Especially you, you workaholic.”

She simply laughed and shrugged, conceding to his order, and followed him into his room.

Oroske sleepily waved his hand and bid us good night as he went back to his room. Unsure of what else to do, Jarou and I returned to our room, where he promptly fell back asleep quickly. As for me, I struggled to fall asleep despite my exhaustion. After a good long while, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

---

I awoke to knocking on the door, groggily sitting up in my bed. Jarou looked like he had already been awake for a little while as he got out of his bed and walked to answer the door, finding Oroske on the other side. “Good morning,” Oroske greeted, “We’re going to have breakfast and discuss some stuff, so come out whenever you two are ready.” Jarou murmured a thank you, and closed the door. Turning around he made sure I heard what Oroske had just said.

After I nodded, he began getting dressed properly, finishing his outfit off with flourishing his cloak as he put his arms through the sleeves.

I stretched my arms over my head before getting out of bed and doing the same.

Going outside the room, I was greeted by our senior Hunters, all dressed in their cloaks. I was surprised to see an extra spot of red color, Kared’s cloak was a vibrant red, brighter than her hair. It was designed very similarly to Jarou’s, the actual cloak part being a suit jacket. Unlike Jarou, however, she wore a darker red vest under it, with a black dress shirt underneath, a full three piece suit.

“Surprised to see I’m a red cloak, Kuro?” She teased, apparently my shock was visible. “A little, yeah,” I undermined how surprised I was. I had no real idea how to approach her, in any way. “I mean, I was surprised to get invited to join the red cloaks,” she said as I sat down, “I’ve always been causing trouble for Danfis, so I was surprised he wanted me to join his inner circle.”

“Oh, you know why he wanted you to join,” Nadred teased, nudging her shoulder with his elbow.

Around that time, Oroske had finished making breakfast and brought it to the dining table. A simple meal of scrambled eggs and toast. Apparently he had woken up long before anyone else and went shopping. As we ate, Oroske and Nadred filled Kared in on the rumors and information we currently have, capping off with what me and Oroske learned the previous night. “So, it looks like the chance of a Necromancer being involved is much higher than previously expected,” She commented calmly, taking a moment to think, “Very well, shouldn’t be a problem regardless of how strong they are, we’ve got far more strength than we could ever need for a mission like this. When do we want to head out?”

“There’s no real rush,” Oroske said, gulping down another bite of food, “The target probably won't be active until the evening. That said, you and I should probably go a bit earlier, this city has so many people we need to talk to.” He sounded annoyed with that last statement, taking another aggressive bite out of his meal.

“Okay, we’ll head out after we’re done eating,” Kared said, even though she was already finished, “How about you Nadred, when will your group head out?” He took a moment to think, chewing on his food thoroughly, before swallowing and saying “We’ll probably leave around the same time, if not shortly after. We’ll focus on learning more about rumors and the like as we progress towards the site of the rumors.” Kared simply nodded with her eyes closed.

After Oroske finished eating his share, he stood up and pat Kared on the shoulder, indicating he was ready to leave. The two rinsed off their dishes quickly, then headed towards the door. Before leaving, Oroske turned around and said, “Sorry you can’t come along, Kuro, normally I’d want you to experience this side of the investigation, but I’ve got some top secret stuff to talk to Kared about.” I affirmed it was okay with a wave. I knew I’d have another opportunity to see that side of things sometime.

“Why wouldn’t it be you that talks to Kared, Nadred?” I asked him.

“There’s a couple reasons,” he started, “First off is a matter of trust. The fact of the matter is the information Oroske needs to talk about is stuff typically only Red Cloaks would know about, and I haven’t earned that level of trust with Danfis,” he muttered this next part quietly, “nor would I want it.

“Second off is Oroske and Kared’s relationship. I imagine Oroske would tell you someday anyway, but Kared was Oroske’s first apprentice.” This shocked me, I had assumed Nadred was close in age to Oroske, and figured Kared would be the same. I figured I’d ask after he finished speaking. “As such, while Kared and I are both married and each other’s Second Soul, those two have always had a special relationship with each other. That only deepened when Oroske got his first invitation to join the Red Cloaks, which surprisingly was when Kared was already a Red Cloak. I never really strived to earn that level of trust with Danfis, so any time they need to talk about Red Cloak business I have to be left out.” He seemed saddened by this, but he masked it well and quickly with an air of pride in his partner.

“So wait, how would Oroske train Kared, I thought all three of you were close in age?” I asked finally.

“Very astute of you to notice,” he chuckled, “Yes, Oroske is a couple years older than Kared and I. And, being Second Souls, Kared and I are actually only a few hours apart in age, though she was born before midnight and I was born after, so it’s counted as a day.” He seemed fake-annoyed by this, “And despite Kared being born outside the Clan, we were all Navy Cloaks around the same time. Oroske of course was ahead of the curve, already a Navy Cloak by the time Kared joined up with the clan. He decided to train her in secret before she joined as well, just so that she’d be able to defend herself better. I tagged along most of the time, helping in whatever way I could. When we were all found out, Danfis invited her to join the Clan properly. Then when she was getting ready to earn her Navy Cloak, she chose Oroske to continue being her mentor. And for some reason, Danfis allowed it. He trained her all the way up until she got her Black Cloak, which was only a month or so after he got his. Paired with his mentor’s advanced way of doing things, this allowed him to become the youngest White Cloak in the Clan’s history.

“An achievement only shadowed by Kared being the youngest Red Cloak. Granted, she’s a special case in almost every sense,” he paused as he realized the time, and how he got carried away with another lecture, “but that will have to be a story for another time. We should probably get going.”

We hurriedly finished the small amount of our food that was left, and cleaned up the dishes with the same speed. We finished our preparations and rushed out the door. Once we were out on the street, Nadred abruptly stopped. “I have no idea which library it is,” he admitted defeatedly, hanging his head toward the ground. “Oh, are you three Hunters?” a young lady with curly, light-blue hair asked, as she almost walked past us. “Oh, yes,” Nadred said, lifting his head up, “How can we help you?”

“You said something about not knowing which library something is, maybe I could help you?” Her voice was calm, but her eyes glittered with excitement, and her body language indicated she was anything but calm. “Uh, I wouldn’t say no to directions, but I can’t ha-” Nadred was suddenly cut off by her barging in, “Are you here about the Restless sightings at the Old City Library?”

“Uhh, yes?” Nadred hesitantly answered.

“Yessss!” She exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement, before clearing her throat dramatically and calming down. “It’s in the Old City District, are you familiar with it?”

“Admittedly, I’ve only really heard of it,” Nadred began his reply, “due to its semi-abandoned nature there’s rarely any reason for Hunters to venture over there, and I’ve never been on one of the Hunts that go there.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Would you like me to guide you there?” It was clear she was trying to hide her excitement. Over what I wasn’t sure. “Sure, that would be helpful,” Nadred said, then adopted a stern tone, “but once we’re at the district, we part ways, understood?” She was reluctant but she agreed.

She began leading us toward the hill in the center of the city, explaining the Old City District is up at the Northern end of town. As she led us, she and Nadred got deep in conversation about some advanced magic and academic stuff that I didn’t really understand. It looked like Nadred was really enjoying having someone to talk to about this stuff that could actually keep up with him.

As we circled the hill, the School of Towers loomed overhead. The towers throughout the entire city were impressive for sure, but the Academy’s towers made them look small. According to Jarou, there were seventeen towers, all interconnected by bridges. “Each tower supposedly represents different skill and knowledge levels,” he explained, “with the higher number towers being comprised of only the most skilled magic users in the world. The number of people who actually attend the seventeenth tower is apparently really low, so they use it for dorm rooms, extra classrooms, and research facilities. This is just a rumor I heard last time I was here, but apparently if you get accepted into the seventeenth tower, you’re allowed onto the roof of the tower. I bet the view is incredible from up there, being the center tower as well as the tallest.” He spoke with a sense of amazement I would’ve expected from Nadred. We only had to walk a third of the circumference of the hill before we parted from it.

It wasn’t too much longer before we arrived at the edge of the district, where we were met with a large gate, set in a stone arch. It was in a noticeable state of disrepair compared to the rest of the city. Passing through, practically ignoring the warnings posted on the gate, it opened up into a large valley, with the seemingly abandoned ruins almost completely visible to us. In the center was a large, tiered tower. Seeing it made me realize the rest of the buildings were normal sized houses and structures.

“This place was abandoned a long time ago,” our guide began to explain, “when the name City of Towers was officially decided on. Since then, it’s become something of a slums district. For official reasons, it’s fully abandoned, but in reality, there’s tons of people squatting in the various buildings. Well, I know better than to stick around when Hunters told me to leave, best of luck to you all.” Despite her resolve present in her voice, I could tell she was reluctant to leave, turning around and waving goodbye. As she was about to close the gate behind her, she turned around and spoke once more. “Oh, Nadred, if you ever wanna chat again, look me up! The name’s Selr Sentem!” She wore a smile and shut the gate.

Nadred stretched, rolling his head around on his neck before speaking, “Now then, let’s get to work shall we. I believe the library is that large building dead ahead. On the way there, keep an eye out for distorted Aether.” While those instructions might have sounded like we’d cautiously make our way to the library, Nadred ran full speed ahead, practically leaving us in the dust.

As we ran, I examined the surrounding buildings. Most were falling apart, some were completely destroyed already. Nearly all of them had plant life growing on them in some capacity. There was almost no sign of life, save for the occasional thing here and there, such as buckets of water or smoke coming out of a chimney, or a light being turned on. Whoever was living here could not have been very comfortable.

As we neared the central tower, already looming overhead, despite still being well over a hundred feet away, Nadred suddenly stopped. “That’s definitely the place up ahead, the Aether is distorted all the way out here.”

“What does that mean?” I asked as I approached him, out of breath from all the running.

“Could mean one of a few things,” he began, “One, and this is the best case, whatever Restless are here have been wandering around the surrounding area a lot. Two, which is just as bad as three, depending on the way you look at it, there are a lot of Restless. Or three, the Restless present is powerful enough to have influence all the way out here.

“Our next step is looking for blackened Aether.” He finished explaining, he began moving toward the tower once again, much slower this time, before suddenly stopping and turning to me. “Right, you don’t know much about Necromancy yet, huh?”

I simply shook my head, the only thing I really knew was that Necromancers were our enemy. “Okay, if we find a good example, I’ll have another lesson for you,” he spoke as he continued searching around, as Jarou did the same. I figured the process would be similar to finding the disturbed Aether like when searching for signs of a Restless, and soon enough I was proved correct.

We were at the steps to the main entrance of the library when Nadred beckoned me over to look at something. There, on the decrepit hand rail, was a weird spot of darkness. It was almost fuzzy, and flickered like a flame, but was pitch black.. When I wasn’t focusing on the surrounding Aether, I couldn’t see it at all. “This is blackened Aether,” Nadred began his lesson, “It is the result of committing what are called Fundamental Sins. Necromancy is one of the most severe examples of these sins. The typical short explanation of Fundamental Sins is that they are any act that goes against the fundamental rules of nature. In this case, the cycle of life and death. Every now and then this cycle gets disrupted by natural causes, which leads to Restless showing up without the influence of a Necromancer. It’s about a 50/50 split between cases as of right now.

“Getting back on the main topic,” he said, clearing his throat, “When you commit a Fundamental Sin, your very soul becomes blackened. Normally souls and Aether are a wide spectrum of colors. If we were able to perceive the full spectrum of Aether as a whole, it would be a rainbow-like mess. The only two colors missing under natural circumstances are white and black. The same goes for our souls. So, when your soul becomes blackened, parts of the surrounding Aether go with it. The more and more of these Sins you commit, the darker your soul becomes, until eventually it becomes pitch black, at which point there becomes no salvation.

“Here, I want you to see for yourself why this blackened Aether is dangerous.” He manipulated the dark spot so it would rest in my hands, if it fell naturally. “Now, be very, very careful, and let out a small amount of whatever magic you want. I’d recommend fyrun since it’s not one of your affinities, and it’s easy to see visually.”

I did as he instructed, focusing hard to ensure I let out only a small flicker of fire. When I did, however, it blasted into a large explosion, many times larger than what I had planned for. The shock from the explosion caused me to lose my balance, and I fell on my butt, landing on the stairs.

“See? This small, seemingly insignificant piece of blackened Aether was able to make a small spark into a large explosion. It can also distort your commands, depending on what you try. I’ve seen a handful of people get hurt by their own spells when black Aether is present. Soul Blackening is similar to Beastification in a sense because of this, both in terms of benefit and detriment. Both allow the user to become more powerful, but if the effect isn’t reversed quickly, and/or they push it too far, they have to deal with potentially dangerous, and very permanent side effects.”

“How would you use soul blackening to become more powerful?” I asked, “Just by changing the Aether around you and using that?”

“Ah, I don’t believe we’ve explained that part of magic to you,” Nadred paused, leaning on the hand rail, “When you use magic, there are three major things that get used. First,” he raised his hand and pointed out his thumb, “The surrounding Aether. Second,” He pointed his index finger out, “The Aether pass-throughs in your body. And finally,” lifting his middle finger, “a small amount of your soul burns with the Aether. It’s a negligible amount, and it grows back quickly, but as you saw earlier, a small amount of blackened Aether is enough to amplify the effects of a spell by a large margin.” As he was finishing up his explanation, he looked up and past me, as though he saw something, before looking back and finishing the lesson.

Sure enough, he did see something, as I suddenly felt a firm hand on my shoulder. I jumped with a yelp, and summoned a weapon from my Demon Sheath out of reflex, turning around to face the person who scared me. “Hey Kuro,” Oroske laughed, amused by my shock. As I calmed down, taking a deep breath and storing my weapon away, he turned to Nadred, “So, how are things looking?”

“There’s blackened Aether out here, meaning there’s definitely a Necromancer involved.”

“Great,” Oroske sighed, “Have we verified that this is their base of operations? And do we have a power estimate?”

“No and no, sadly,” Nadred said flatly, “Considering the strength of the distorted Aether, I would imagine this is the base. As for how much power the Necromancer has, I have no idea.”

“Eh, we’ll be fine,” Kared chimed in, “After all, we have us three. I’d love to see a Necromancer who can hold their own against even one of us.” She finished with a laugh.

“This is true,” Oroske conceded, “I would like for our apprentice’s to get some experience with fighting against Necromancers, but if they’re too strong, one of us will have to step in.” He started walking in the direction we came earlier, hands on the back of his head, “Let’s go back to the hotel, and we can make plans there. We’ve still got a few hours before it gets dark.”

“Oroske,” Kared started as she caught up, “Your battle-addicted side is showing. That’s when you want to attack, right?”

“You know me too well, of course that’s when I want to attack.” He turned around to face us stragglers, “Let’s get back, we attack at midnight!”