Sayon Twilight (1)

Edico compromised and said that he'd ride for Lemora if she ate breakfast. She agreed. As he called room service for a meal, Sara cleaned the bathroom before taking a bath. Ubis didn't deserve such consideration, but his underpaid workers did.

Breakfast consisted of solsmeat and ramona, a dish similar to corned beef and hash but with meat from a bearish creature, and a fried vegetable that tasted like lemon-soaked potatoes. It was a local dish, an acquired taste that proved you "lived there," much like menudo in Hispanic neighborhoods. Sara suspected Edico recommended it in hope she'd lose her appetite and stay another day, but he had no such luck. Her smile as she ate expressed the feeling that she was eating—truly eating—for the first time in years. It had been eight months since she set out for Dantal to make her stand against Agronus, so it was good to get a taste of home.

Edico sighed. "It seems you have an appetite, after all."

"Always." Sara took another bite.

"Are you sure you still want to ride?"

"Yep."

He sighed and buckled his armor onto his body, staring at the ceiling as if praying to the gods that nothing [else] happened.

"By the way," Sara said, pointing her fork at his breastplate. "Don't forget to put your pin back on."

Edico's body turned stiff, and he looked down with choppy movements. When he saw that his insignia was missing, he released a divination spell in a panic, sending mana pulsing through the room. "Where is it…?" he asked.

She furrowed her brow. "You didn't take it off to hide your title?"

"No, I didn't."

"Did you drop it?"

"You can't drop it," he replied, walking to the door with a bold stride. "The only way to remove it without the sycount spell is if someone—"

"Hey, hold up, psycho boy," Sara said as he threw the door open. "We're not supposed to be here. If you lose your shit again, this will have been for nothing."

Edico stopped, and his face contorted, gashing deep lines into his skin as his lip curled and his nose scrunched in.

"Let's go around the back," Sara suggested. "If it's not there, you can walk in front as a prospective customer."

"Okay," he said. "Let's go."

2

Before they left, Edico studied Sara's expressions carefully. He had been watching her since they left Lemora for Moonlit Grove, and while the item blended into his mana-reinforced armor when he was wearing it, if it left him, it would light up. Between his obsessive divination pulses and the fact that only sycounts had the spell necessary to remove it, it was impossible for her to have taken it. But that's not why he was watching her. It was the coincidence. Everything kept conveniently happening out of his sphere of perception, and this was no exception.

Regardless, Edico still had to move, so he released a divination spell, found a back door, and led her around the back of the tavern into the main street. Then he held her back, closing his eyes. "Hold on. Let me do a check."

He released another divination spell, this one stronger. The second it released, Edico's eyes shot open, and he grabbed Lady Reece's hand by reflex, pulling her into the crowd of bystanders.

"Hold up! Where are we going?" Lady Reece asked.

"I found it!" Edico replied. He pulled her two blocks north before hanging a right and entering a bustling market. There on the ground was a beggar sitting on a blanket with a cup. He was old and weathered, missing half his teeth, and had little hair. When he saw Edico reaching for his hilt, he scrambled back. "W-Wait, Sir! I ain'ts got no problem with you!"

"Where is it?" Edico asked, slowly unsheathing his dagger.

"T-The…." Suddenly, the beggar's attention shifted from the primal danger before him and turned his attention exclusively to Sara, as if his life suddenly didn't matter. Then his lips started quivering, and he pointed at her. "I-It's you!"

Edico grabbed him from his tunic's collar, whiffing the man's wretched scent of urine and rotted vegetables. "What are you talking about? Speak clearly."

"I-It's her. An adventurer with hair as blonde as the sun. That's what she's said. She's said I needed to come here today. To sits right here to meet her. Now here she is!"

"Who?" Edico asked, putting his blade against the man's throat.

"T-The Goddess!"

"What Goddess?"

"Edico. Let him answer your questions," Sara said, walking forward. "Which Goddess?"

"D-Delina," the beggar replied. "She's said I've been unfaithful. That I've done her disjustice. B-But she'll forgive me. She's said so."

"Get to the point," Edico said, slamming the beggar against a stone wall.

"S-She said I just had to give her a message! The adventurer with hair as blonde as the sun."

Sara furrowed her brow. "What's the message?"

"She's says that trouble's comin'. Says she must prepare for it."

"What trouble?" Edico asked. "Speak."

"A-A Beast is coming from the north. She's has to follow it. The Goddess says it will leads to what she needs."

"What I'll need for what?" Sara asked.

"I-I's don't know, I swears it," the beggar said, trembling. "N-Now please leave me be. I's ain't your enemy. I's done nothin' to harm you."

"Oh, yeah?" Edico asked, reaching into the man's tunic and pulling out his insignia. "Then how do you explain this?"

"I-I forgot! I swears it. T-The Goddess gave it to me. Swear to Emanasa!"

"Your Goddess sure makes things convenient for you."

"Stop, Edico," Sara said. "We've received what we came here for."

Edico turned to her. "This?"

"A fate encounter."

The hairs on the back of his neck hardened, and he took a deep breath, thinking back to the instructions he got from King Escar.

Once you deliver the flower, pay attention to everything you see and hear and report it, no matter how insignificant it seems, King Escar had said.

Are you expecting something? Edico asked.

I am. As to what, I'm unsure. That's why you must report everything.

Edico had found those instructions strange, as if the man was looking for fate itself. Now, after hearing this warning randomly, it felt uncanny. "Then how do you explain the insignia?" he asked.

"It brought us together, didn't it?" Sara asked. "Unless you think he could steal it from you."

Edico looked back at the man and dropped him onto his ass with a loud thud. Fate was the only possible explanation for everything that had happened in the last week, even if it were to say that Lady Reece was fate itself. Still, the man had his insignia, and he wouldn't pardon that on a flimsy argument of destiny.

"Edico, we have what we need," Sara said. "So unless you plan to haul him back to the capital on your monta, we need to leave. The Trial's coming up and we need to establish a core. So whatever you do, do it fast."

Edico pursed his lips. Taking the beggar back to Lemora was the logical thing to do. He had information, and they should interrogate him. However, Lady Reece was right. This was exactly what King Escar wanted, and he didn't want to tempt it. "No. We'll send people for future questioning if necessary."

The beggar clasped his hands. "T-Thank you, Sir. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank her." Edico looked at Lady Reece.

"Thank you, M-My Lady."

"This… is getting seriously uncomfortable," Sara said, turning toward the stables. "I'm leaving. Come if you want to."

Edico gave the beggar one last piercing glance and then followed her to the stables.