Chapter 31: Fyodor

In the morning, she was all ears pressuring him into giving away his secrets, and the additional time that he had gained before this confrontation had come had not prepared him to answer her. What compounded the issue were his muddy clothes, still sitting in a ragged pile atop his chest from the previous night because he had not had the energy to tidy them away or take them down to the washhouse. That meant that he somehow had to fit getting muddy into his cover story, and Kira desperately searched for a way to do this without making himself seem like a total idiot. Eventually, inspiration came to him, and he mumbled some excuse involving the park and some dogs. Aura did not look convinced.

Fortunately, the interrogations could not last for long because of the necessity of them leaving to go to their respective workplaces, and this landed Kira into another few days of monotonous tasks. This was how the winter months went as they approached the New Year, which was to be marked by a celebration. Kira essentially turned his brain off during the weeks aside from the occasional moments that he stole away for practising manipulations, and then he went to see Cat on each of his off-days to fight with him. He also tried to leave some time for exploring Ostermark with Aura because those seemed to be the only times when he was truly at ease in all of his stay there.

Learning more about her past, he grew to be more sympathetic towards her desire to leave Ostermark and began considering asking her if she would like to go with him when he tried to leave himself. This was only wishful thinking though, he told himself, because they would both have with the manipulator's mark, and so to escape from any pursuit, she would probably be left behind regardless. Besides, he thought, he would find more use from having Cat go with him, and Cat was good enough company on his own.

During this time, much to his own and the cleaning staff's annoyance, his progression seemed minimal, which lent itself nicely to the continuing rhetoric of there existing a large gap of power between even a weaker manipulator with an ability and a manipulator without. Kira put his defeats down to Cat's superior skill in hand to hand combat which he further attributed to the greater extent of his opponent's practise. However, it would have been impossible for him to deny the effect of Cat's ability entirely. Sometimes, when Kira had him in a tight spot, the boy found no difficulty in changing the shape of various components of his body on the fly so that nothing of his was hit or producing peculiar weapons of bone with which to strike at him. Had Kira been a normal person, he would have died a hundred times over in these engagements.

At this point, winter fell upon the city with its full force bleaching the view from Kira's window white and reflecting sparkles of light merrily back at him from the clear, blue skies. Unfortunately, beyond this illusion of peace and quiet, the snow had a rather negative effect on the roads. Having been trodden into the mud and stained brown, it seemed to be filled with malicious intent grabbing up at people's clothes and feet as they hurried on by, with their breath steaming out in front of them, each eager to find their own quaint piece of the little warmth that remained. Kira thought the conditions to be most extreme and the ice to be a little too plentiful, but that was likely a product of him spending most of his childhood among the warm sands of Illyria as Ostermark was not too far north.

There was no particular worst part to this season, he decided, the constant threat of falling on stone paths that seemed clear and the cold that stabbed into his lungs and chiseled away at his nose and cheeks were, on their lonesome, bearable. Together it was an entirely different matter. But, there could be no escape, and so he would have to bear any minor discomforts until spring came and the white lifted to reveal the much friendlier greens of exposed grasses.

In the week before the New Year celebrations, James asked him to deliver a letter to Lady Meera and, armed with directions to her office, he headed off to do just that. Snaking his way through the maze of servant passages, hidden within the palace walls, he only lost his way once and quickly regained it, retracing his steps and starting again, turning left instead of right only at one particularly confusing junction. Arriving outside the door, he knocked twice and headed inside after a friendly voice had called him. This voice belonged to a demi-human slave sitting at a raised table to the right of a second door leading into the inner chamber. The slave worked on parchment stretched out before him, and his quill scratched over its surface with a rhythm of its own.

"I have a letter for Lady Meera," stated Kira, explaining his presence and in response, the boy, the demi-human slave was still young, told him that he could enter straight away.

The child seemed to be distracted from Kira by his work and so, doubtful that he could simply enter and disturb the Lady's privacy, he waited a moment outside the door, carved to show a large, central falcon staring back at him, to see if any other instructions were to be given. None came, and he pushed on the falcon to open the door, surprised by how easily it slid open. As it turned out, this was a mistake because the opening of the door cut off, mid-sentence, the man that Lady Meera was in meeting with so that he had to stop speaking, "Yes, it came from Gracea and…."

Unsure what to do and aware of the nobles' eyes on him, Kira started to try apologizing, and he was joined by the demi-human from beside the door who, clearly flustered, started telling Lady Meera how this was his own fault. However, before she could respond, the man beside her said, "It's fine. In fact, this is perfect; why don't you come inside?"

The man was tall and slender, sitting across from Kira over a low table, and he rested his head on two hands propped up by his elbows. On the top of his head, a brown leather hat rested, covering his ears and being framed by white fur that lined its interior. The rest of him was similarly dressed, seemingly entirely unfit for such a formal environment and in insult to the fact that this room was one of the warmest in all of Ostermark that winter. Despite this, and the presence of Lady Meera whose great influence essentially made her the queen of western Krinestadt, he dominated the room, and Kira struggled to look away from this person's own piercing blue eyes. Without waiting for the Lady's confirmation, Kira stepped forwards, instinctively following his orders.

The room was split into two areas. The first was the space that Kira now found himself in, with its centre dominated by an oak table and several high-backed chairs arranged around it. The other was visible under an arch that separated the spaces and contained Lady Meera's own desk. Lining many of the walls were tall self-standing sets of shelves that were stacked high with leather-bound books, a rare sight indeed in this land dominated by scrolls, which served to hint at the wealth of who owned them.

Opposite the entrance into the inner chamber was a smaller door which looked as though it led to a cupboard of sorts but undoubtedly attached to the myriad of servant's passages because Aura stood by it. Not expecting to see her here, Kira had to remind himself that she was working as a servant to Lady Meera. He noted that she too was watching him intently as he crossed, mindful to try and not dirty the thick red carpet that covered the floor, to stand before where Lady Meera and this man were sitting.

"This is…" started Lady Meera before she was cut off by the person sitting across from her.

"Kira, it's a pleasure to meet you again so soon." smiled the visitor without bothering to stand or extend a hand or to even actually look up to where Kira was standing as he remained with his eyes firmly facing towards Lady Meera. But besides all of that, Kira was certain that he had never seen him before, and he struggled to form any reply.

Meera ignored the odd wording, "This is Fyodor," she explained, "He's the deputy-leader of Krinestadt's manipulators and the only one not bound to the royals. He was just passing through after some business in the west."

Hearing this, Kira had to suppress any reaction because now he knew how Fyodor could sit so nonchalantly even here as he was likely one of the strongest beings that existed in Anadora, being such a master manipulator to rise to the top of Krinestadt's organization. Not just that, but he wondered as to why Meera had gone on to mention that he was not bound to the royal family.

Such a piece of information was important and made the manipulator even more dangerous as his actions were not being restrained, but there had been no reason to mention that to a slave. The only reason that he could think of was as a warning for him because Fyodor had displayed an interest in him specifically.

Kira couldn't get much further before, entirely without prompting, the manipulator turned to talk to him directly, "How well do you know the city?"

This question took him off-guard, but he supposed that he had to answer, so he mumbled a reply, "I do go and look around it in my days off. But…"

Fyodor seemingly didn't care for his response because he interrupted Kira, entirely ignoring Lady Meera, "Well, let's be off then!" before standing, wrapping his left arm around Kira and marching him to the door whilst grabbing up a coat with his right hand. This action was so spectacularly sudden and unexpected that the demi-human boy, still standing outside the door, had to throw himself out of the doorway to not collide with them. Not just this, but Lady Meera had no chance to say anything to him and evidently decided that rushing up after him was beneath her, so she stayed where she was obviously offended.

Assuming that Fyodor couldn't be oblivious to the harm he was causing, Kira was left to assume that he simply did not care and probably believed that the people around him were irrelevant to his goals. It took Kira a few moments to realize after this shock that he would have to head outside, and he protested this vigorously, asking for a moment to at least go and collect some winter clothing. No response came, but they paused for a moment at the door so that Fyodor could drape his coat over his back like a cape. Seriously wondering if he actually could be a powerful manipulator, Kira reluctantly followed him outside.

The flagstone paths through the palace gardens had been rained on the previous day, with the water now frozen to form a thin layer of near-invisible ice. Trying to avoid this, Kira opted to walk along the snowed-over grass beside the path as he hurried to keep up. His hands wouldn't be available to help him keep his balance for the rest of the trip to the compound's gate either because he kept them firmly shoved within his pockets to try and keep at least some of the feeling within fingers. Arriving beside the entrance, Fyodor drew back the lock on the smaller gate himself and stepped through, leaving the guards to close it behind him as they watched, confused at how quickly he had passed them without bothering to ask for the day's password.

Once in the street, Fyodor led the way, clearly needing no guide, out and into the crowds of people who barely had any time to pause and watch the underdressed slave hurry after his master. It wasn't long until Kira could tell where he was being led, over towards Gretyl's shop, but he told himself that Fyodor couldn't possibly know about its presence.

Neither of them spoke with their breaths misting out before them, and he viewed this as something favourable because his teeth chattered together so violently that he doubted his own ability to get out any words. When they arrived outside of the church opposite Gretyl's shop, momentary relief filled him as it seemed that this was the building they were headed for.

This was terribly short-lived, and any hopes were immediately dashed as their direction changed to be, once again, heading towards the shop. After all, what business would a manipulator have with the church, Kira asked himself, as the two disciplines never seemed to get along. Gretyl's shop, alternatively seen as little more than a shed from the outside, was looking as inconspicuous as ever when they approached it, squeezed in between two other overhanging buildings, but, confident as ever, Fyodor led the way inside.

The door opened easily into what, Kira noted, was an entirely different space than had previously been there, but it retained the same cluttered nature and was still filled with shelves stacked precariously with random jars and exposed flasks of coloured liquid. Passing quickly through a corridor of sorts leading deep into the ability space, Fyodor did not bother looking from side to side as Kira did, eager to see if anything interesting could be seen.

The most interesting thing was a side passage that led a few paces back into a wide space with a roaring fire that gave off no heat and that was far too wide to possibly fit between the two shelves it was situated between. Facing towards the fire, but still angled in Kira's direction far enough so that he could see who was sitting in it, was a high backed chair with light flickering over it, and it was occupied by a drowsy-looking Cat who waved as Kira passed by.

Further into the room, the space transformed before Kira's eyes so that they were now walking towards a second space, much like the one that Cat had occupied, but with four chairs. The area reminded him of studies back in Illyria because of the dark wood that coated the walls, and it was lit by a second; also heatless, hearth. Gretyl was sat calmly watching and waiting for them, and the two took up positions leaving only one of the seats clear. Kira wondered if that particular one had been left open for Cat, but the boy did not join them, and a small moth fluttered above their heads, observing the happenings.

It took a while for anyone to speak and a deep veil of silence hung over the group that anyone would have found hard to pull aside. Eventually, Gretyl looked up from the tea she was sipping and asked Fyodor directly, "Why come back here? Surely it has not happened so soon?"

"I believe so," he replied, leaving Kira entirely in the dark about what they were alluding to.

Gretyl's eyes widened slightly as she took in this news, "Then how many? I thought only two!"

"Only two?" smiled Fyodor, "Why, that's what I was going to tell you about, but it seems that you have your own sources."

"Your brother talks with both of us, I suppose."

Gathering himself, Kira did try and interject, "Fyodor's brother?" but was ignored aside from a passing comment.

"He occupies the abyss." the comment was, but Kira did not know what it meant.

The conversation went on like this for a time, but they were clearly wary of dispelling any meaningful information in front of Kira and Cat, whom Kira thought Fyodor had already noticed. "Right then," said Fyodor looking over menacingly to Kira, "Shall we try proving, or at least providing evidence towards, the first?"

With no idea what this entailed, Kira looked over at Gretyl for some advice as to how to respond, but she betrayed his hopes nodding slowly and adding, "Go on then, but I hold you responsible for whatever happens to the boy."

"Don't worry, Kira, if I'm right, then this won't hurt a bit."

Fyodor clicked his fingers, and nothing happened. The tension remained for a few long moments but then was dispelled as Kira assumed that he had passed the test, whatever it may have been. With that, the meeting was over, an unconscious agreement having been reached, and they stood to part ways.

Before he passed out of the shop, Gretyl passed him a small drink of thick liquid saying, "It's for the cold, oh, and don't expect to find me here again because I have to close up this place for a while."

He wasn't able to thank her or inquire after what she meant because he was bound to follow Fyodor, but she had been true to her word, and the cold no longer seemed to bother him once he had made it outside. They headed together back towards the palace, not stopping for a moment's rest on the way, meaning that if Kira wanted to ask anything, he would have to act quickly, and so he did, asking, "So, who is the other one of these two?" He did not expect a reply or an honest one if any words were indeed spoken, but he was still hopeful because Kira felt as though he was allowing himself to fall into something that could come back later to bite at him.

Unfortunately, the reply was exactly as expected, "Wouldn't you like to know. But you should know that all times have bad aspects to them and good aspects. You just have to be careful not to miss them or all times become terrible." Fyodor said with a small smile. However, the question seemed to have put him into the mood to start talking again, and he stated, "You'll have to keep listening for when Arkadia's legacy comes." creating more confusion than it resolved.

Arriving back, Fyodor wasted no time leaving Kira's side and disappearing off to some unknown place. But Kira's day was not quite over because Lady Meera sought him out to inquire if Fyodor had let anything slip whilst they had been together. Partially telling the truth and hoping to appeal to how he thought Lady Meera did not have a particularly large amount of respect for the manipulator, he replied, "To be honest, I'm not certain…" before trailing off and cursing himself for how guilty he assumed that he looked. However, she seemed to accept this and left too with several servants trailing after her, all probably wanting confirmation for the completion of various tasks.

This gave him only one remaining duty for the day that was probably the most terrifying, explaining what happened to Aura because she would have more time than Meera to interrogate him. When he arrived back in his room, any worrying seemed like it had been for nought as Aura had had a long day leaving her less than energetic in questioning, and the same excuse worked. Stubbornly maintaining this lie lasted him until she finally settled down to sleep, leaving him time to try and think about Fyodor's words.

The only conclusion that he could reach was that he was not yet meant to understand it, and he moved back into his daily life, just paying more attention to the conversations of people around him and trying to read deeper into their words. What Arkadia's legacy was remained elusive, and he hoped that it did not refer to him as the last prince because he had long forsaken that role.