10 / Too Many Surprises

The sewers were just as eerie and smelly as ever. Azelae and Fiora were nowhere in sight, but I hoped they weren't too far ahead. I searched the sewers looking for them.

Now that I was alone, I wondered what that voice I had heard was. The only stories I had ever heard about anything like that were from old stories, and I could hardly call those reliable sources of information. Either way, I haven't heard it again, and I felt like that was the right decision.

"Faux!" I heard Azelae call out from the darkness ahead of me.

Azelae and Fiora emerged from the Shadows into the light from the dimly lit lamp that hung from above. 

"You're bleeding!" She had noticed some of the cuts from my battle with Mikal.

"Don't worry, this is nothing,"

I could see she didn't believe me, she pulled out some bandages from a pouch and tended to my wounds.

"You should be more careful," she said coldly, "you could have relied on me more, and then this might not have happened."

"I appreciate the sentiment; I will remember it." 

While she seemed kind and earnest, I still couldn't trust her. It wasn't just her; I had a hard time trusting anyone.

"Did anyone follow you down here?"

I shook my head, "And I don't think they'll figure out where we went for a while. But we should keep moving. I want to get out of the red-light zone before they can catch us."

Once we got out of zone one-thirty-six I doubt they would send anyone after us. I'm sure it wouldn't be worth the effort for them. We traced back the pathway I took to get into the Manor, and ended up in the same alleyway I went in through. Just as we all made it out a man walked into the alleyway.

He was tall and well built, his hair a blue color, matching the inside of his black suit. He had a mask on that looked to be fashioned in the design of a skull. This was the other bounty I had seen, Ironskul.

"Where do you think you're taking my property?" he said, his voice as elegant as his clothing.

"Sorry, but she's an important lead. I can't let you have her," I said as I drew my blades.

Azelae also readied her railgun. It was two against one, and one of us was a guardian. I hoped that would be enough to cause him to back off, but I was wrong.

He unsheathed a long sword, the blade made entirely of ether.

"O father of the void, grant me your power, bless the faithless, curse those you love," he said as he slid his finger across an inscription on the side of the blade. 

Suddenly some kind of dark matter formed in the air around him, flowing into the blade. The inscriptions on the side became black and the sword was covered in black flames.

This is not good, I thought to myself.

Whoever this guy was, he was not your average rich snob, and this power he had was something I had never seen or heard about. He was stronger than any guardian I had ever seen. I knew that I was not going to win.

He lunged forward with so much speed that I could barely even see him, I threw one of my blades up to block, but it didn't stop it, his blade cut my ether blade clean in half. He seemed to have only gone for my blade on purpose.

"Now that you know the overwhelming difference in our power, hand over the girl and you can leave here unscathed." He said as he lowered his blade to his side.

Unparalleled power was staring at me, and I had no choice but to submit. If I tried to fight him both me and Azelae would end up dead. Just as I was going to accept his terms I heard it,

"Do not worry,"

It was the same voice I had heard earlier.

Suddenly a giant spear came roaring down in front of me, impaling the concrete pavement below. A girl followed shortly behind landing to pick up the spear. Her build was very small, so small that it would be easy to mistake her for a child. I couldn't even imagine how she handled such a large weapon. Her silver hair glistened in the moonlight.

"So, you're the successor?" she said, "Don't worry, I've been told to help you."

This girl had some connection to the voice I had heard, but I didn't know what that connection was.

The girl turned back towards Ironskul, pointing her spear at him.

"If you want to fight, I'll be much more entertaining."

Ironskul laughed and sheathed his blade, "No need. I will make my departure here. I am not so prideful that I would fight when I know I am outmatched."

He bowed and then left with such speed he appeared to vanish into thin air.

The girl stared at me as if she were gauging me, "You're not ready yet." She was gone as quickly as she came. I had a lot of questions, but I had a feeling I'd see her again.

Fiora fell to her knees from shock at what had just transpired.

"It's alright," Azelae said, putting one hand on Fiora's shoulder. "it's over now."

We helped Fiora to her feet and made our way out of the red-light zone.

"I need to report back to my Captain," Azelae said with a tinge of guilt. "But let's meet up at the guild around dusk."

"I guess that's fine."

I wasn't exactly sure why she wanted to meet up, but after the ordeal we had just gone through I figured it couldn't hurt to see if she had any information.

We split ways with Azelae, but before we headed to my apartment, I needed to go see Erkko. The wounds from Mikal weren't severe, but they would take a long time to heal on their own.

For the entire walk to Doc's office, Fiora held on tightly to my shirt. I could tell she was afraid still, but she had at least started to trust me a little.

"So how'd you end up in Belle's Manor?" I asked her, but she was quiet. 

I didn't want to press too hard, but I needed to see if she would answer any of my questions.

"Do you know anything about that man who was trying to buy you?" 

I still received no response. 

I had hoped that she might be a little more open to talking now that things had calmed down, but it looked like it was going to take some time before that happened.

I noticed Fiora was looking around anxiously like she feared someone was coming to find us. I didn't know if she was worried about the man from before, or if it was someone else she was watching for.

"You don't need to worry, I won't let anyone take you," I said, trying to reassure her.

She looked up at me, her cheeks had a slight blush. Her eyes lit up and I could see her face relax a little.

"Thank you…" I heard her whisper softly as she looked away.

I was slowly making more progress.

As we entered Doc's office Kaisa was the first to see us.

"Faux, you're hurt!" Kaisa ran over to me, examining my wounds.

"It's just a few scratches," I said as I sat down on the examination table.

"Always getting into trouble, eh?" I heard Erkko's deep voice come from the backroom. He walked out holding a vile of concentrated ether oil.

"And who is this?" he asked, looking at Fiora.

"I guess you could say she's a new friend. Her name is Fiora."

Kaisa slammed a needle into my side with more force than usual.

"Ow!" I shouted. Kaisa puffed her cheeks as she filled another syringe with the oil.

Erkko let out a hearty laugh. I don't know why Erkko found my displeasure so enjoyable, but it seemed to lighten the mood.

"I'd like you to do an examination on her, make sure she isn't hurt," I said to Erkko, nodding my head toward Fiora.

"No problem, Kaisa please take Fiora to the back and do an examination. I'll finish up here."

Kaisa took Fiora by the hand and led her to the back room. I could hear Fiora protesting, but it sounded like Kaisa ended up winning.

I knew that a lot of different kinds of people came through Doc's office, so I was curious if he had ever met anyone who mentioned hearing a voice.

"Doc, you ever had any of your patients mention they heard a voice?"

Erkko was silent while he injected the second shot of ether oil into my abdomen.

"There was one man, but he died a few years ago. Never heard the specifics, but he did say that he knew he was going to die because a voice had told him so."

"What was he like?"

Just as Erkko was about to answer Fiora came running out of the backroom, hiding behind me. Kaisa came out following her with a large syringe in hand.

"Come here… It won't hurt…" Kaisa said in her soft voice.

"Leave me alone!" Fiora yelled as she ran around in circles trying to escape Kaisa.

Looked like I was going to have a pretty hectic life for the foreseeable future.