"My husband was nothing like your father. He just... left us. When I was pregnent"

Ayame said, keeping a straight face. She rested her head back on the pillow to prevent tears.

"My boy was born way after he left and they just took him too. As for being damned. I was not.. I honestly don't know anything about it" she admitted.

"How did grandp... your father, how did he die?" Aoki asked.

She tilted to face Aoki. The curtains flew bringing strong breeze into the room as the windows weren't shut. The sky seemed to be packing a storms worth. She was silent for a while. She hadn't confronted her grief. Clearly. Aoki regretted and tried to pull his question.

"You know what?...It's okey. Don't have to answ..."

"He obliged with the Al quafentino and left with them. Without a word, right in front of me. It was as if he was waiting for them and to abandon me. He never approved of my husband. I had nothing. No one" she sighed. " That's when I decided to end my life. But then your mother came along and convinced me to stay with you. At that time, I was excited that I'd get to see you again. Atleast another version of you but, my heart swelled with sadness whenever I saw you" she stopped to clean a tears with her knuckle.

She smiled lightly "I know how it feels to loose what you love" She said and paused.

"I wanted you to hate me so that you wouldn't be sad when she.... When she's gone. She is putting her life on the line, not being considerate, you're still young...and, and I didn't want to get.... Close, I don't know what I'll feel, I lost you once, that was more than what I could endure" she continued with a shivering voice.

Aoki couldn't digest this sudden tonal shift from her But seeds of sympathy were sown by her words. He slowly approached the bed side and rested the plater of food on the Table, there was a cylindrical glass tube containing illuminating sand like particles on the same tabel. It was like a hour glass but without a squeeze in the middle, the sand particles at the top were glowing red, and the bottom ones were glowing yellow, the red particles were slowly turning into yellow as they fell down like snow within the glass enclosure. The majority was yellow, red ones were about to depleted. He figured it was some kind of health monitoring device of Max's.

He joined his hand with her's and gripped. He felt multiple emotions but couldn't express any of it properly.  He just smiled. She smiled back.

"She won't die. She can't, she always said life is unfair, the most important people from our lives could be taken way, but.., there will always be a spec of hope in any devastating situation, that spec of hope is so powerful that it will either bring us to them or to death" He paused and looked at the cloudy sky. "She's chasing her  spec of hope, and I'll do the same" he added.

He looked down and she was fast asleep. All the red particles in the glass cylinder have been turned to yellow. Suddenly he felt a slight tingle behind his head.

"She'd never behave this way"

Max said from behind, carrying a bunch of boxes. Aoki was alarmed.

"Max!?" He yelled

"What?"

"You were Supposed to knock"

"Why?"

"To let us know that you are here"

"Well, you see me don't you?"

"Yeah, but it's polite to announce one's arrival"

"Ah, Didn't you feel my presence ?" Max asked as he dropped the boxes on the floor.

"Oh Yeah, actually, I did" Aoki admitted" But still cultivate the habit of knocking" he added.

There was an awkward silence for a moment while max unboxed.

"What was that you said earlier?" Aoki asked.

"She's on a sedatives, it's very powerful,
So whatever she said was her true intentions, things that she wouldn't admit under normal circumstances" Max explained.

Aoki didn't doubt her honesty but now the fact was reassured, he looked at her with a whole new viewpoint.

"Why did you say that though?" Aoki asked.

"She's been acting very calm and patient ever since the first dose, you know, opposite to normal, I said in case you were wondering why the immediate change" Max elaborated.

The device on the table glowed increasingly brighter

"Umm, Max?, What's that?"

"I forgot!, Is it full?" Max rushed towards it and picked it up gently without disturbing the golden dust settled at the bottom.

He noticed a branding on it as Max lifted it up

"What's PCSAMT?"

"That's the abbreviation for one of the magical technology centre at Supreme Province, the place where this was manufactured" He said while he took it towards the box he just brought in.

"This corporation is one among many, it's Provincial Centre for Sorcery Abided Medical Treatment" he added.

Aoki was very curious to watch Max's work. He twisted the ends of the cylinder and the brightness reduced, he carefully stationed it down. Max lifted a steam punk looking  machine from the box with both his hands.

"Could you move that box?" Max asked.

Aoki crouched down and removed the empty box from below and helped him place it on the ground, the machine was odd looking and had a bunch of cables connected to a helmet. He was intrigued.

"So how's Mel?" Max tried to start a conversation while he worked on the machine. Aoki was jarred, he was not able to see her, she remained mad presumably.

"Great, it's all good" he said awkwardly. "You're lying" max said without eye contact. "He's a spirit specialist moron, He can easily tell, why did you think he asked? God you're hopeless" Mel finally talked.

"Go on, tell me what happened" Max said.

"Okay but Tarou should never know" he warned.

"Deal" Max  agreed.

"This story is going to be completely biased, isn't it?" Mel said and  sighed.

"This was a bad idea"  Ashwa  whispered while getting up, grunting out of pain.  He was unprotected form the rain as he was thrown down.

"What?" Ayame asked who was fighting a solider dodging his sword nimbly wearing a transparent plastic raincoat.

"I SAID THIS WAS A BAD IDEA" he yelled.

"you're really good at pointing out the obvious, you know that?"

"Ugh this women!" He said under his breath.

"This is futile and you know it, surrender now to die without suffering" the mage said, who levitate above Ashwa he dropped something on the ground as he spoke, which Ashwa notice, it was way too small to be clear.

"A little help here" Ayame yelled distracting him.

Ashwa crushed the soldier's armour turning him into a bloody mush like a crushed grape. Squeezing out all the blood. Just by a stare.  Ayame was drenched in blood and gasped.

The mage was enraged he teleported taking Ashwa to the sky. He held his hands out while he was being pulled up by his throat, 2 pieces of flat scrap metal plates followed behind. The mage stopped after a few hundred feet, Ayame watched helplessly.

"How did you get out of your chains?" The mage asked.

Ashwa couldn't talk as he was being chocked, but he tried comically.

"Never mind, I've always wanted to kill a lithore"
The mage said and dropped him. Ashwa wasn't falling, much to the mage's surprise, he was standing on the scrap metal pieces that he pulled.

They threw punches at each other in the air, both sustaining damage.

"Let us use your portal back to Heavensworth" Ashwa demanded

"Why would I ever want to do that?" The mage asked and chuckled.

"Why aren't you using your attribute?"  Ashwa questioned.

The mage hesitated to answer but diverted the question.

"How is she Able to perform magic? You know what happens to humans who perform magic don't you?"

The mage threatened.

Ashwa was reminded of the hesitation she had when talking about her magic. He glanced at her, she was bending a piece of wooden stick.

"No, I don't" he said expecting an answer.

"Oh you don't know?, Well I'm going to kill you both anyway now, Makes the job easier for the Helldwellers" the mage said. Ashwa was shocked but he contained it.

"Your attribute is flora, isn't it?" He said after a short interval of fighting. The mage was stunned.

"And for an attribute like that, soil fertility goes a long way, Fortunately this isn't the best place for that, your spirit must be cerebral type too, not much of a fighter are you?"  Ashwa deduced.

"How did you..?"

"I saw you drop the seeds. It didn't work obviously"

"Yet you still don't stand a chance, you might have a neat abilities but I have more combat experience than a measly lithore and a human" The mage said and screamed while preparing to throw a punch.

Ashwa started to build stairs of junk descending behind him with more scrap metal lifted off from the ground. He started walking backwards down the steps as new ones  were being formed. He held his hand out and attracted a long piece of solid iron rod and held it like a sword before his vision carved the edges out flat making them sharp. He took a deep breath, the mage pulled out his daggers and they clashed on the fabricated levitating stairs.

"Just tell me how to get to Heavensworth" Ashwa kept demanding while being striked.

" You must be a fool" the mage said while dodging each fatal blow.

"Only a portal mage can open a portal to Heavensworth from outside, that includes mages ranking 2 or below" he said. Ashwa was disheartened "You are lying" he replied.

"I would much rather give hope to the victim and then kill them, hence you can assume"

"Then how will you get back?"

"I'm a serving civilian at the Supreme Province, I can call upon a portal any Instant. From an authorised portal mage of course, and my hole home is still active. I can end you and leave whenever I please" the mage said. Ashwa looked around, the mage laughed out loud. "Your awfully oblivious, it's only visible to me you dumb oaf"

Ashwa aimlessly swung the sharp ended rod and it slipped from his hands. All hope was lost, he knelt down as the mage approached and lifted him by his clothes, towards his face.

"This time I'm going to end my prey when it has given up all hope" he said with a cold smile.

Suddenly the mage caught an arrow just before it was going to pierce his throat, the arrow head was centimetres from his neck, both of them were taken aback, Ayame was disappointed, it was the only arrow she was able to make.

"Your woman is feisty I will admi.."

Before the mage could finish his sentence Ashwa forced the arrow through his neck and out the other side just by looking, shaking in pain he let go of Ashwa and tired to cover his wound desperately, he gagged and grunted violently, blood sprayed through his finger gaps while applying pressure, he walked backwards as more blood came from his mouth and fell off the steps on to the ground and died after a few head twitches.

Ashwa disintegrated the steps except his foothold and lowered himself to the floor.

Ayame approached him from behind, both stood staring at the corpse. She dropped her DIY bow.

"We'll never get to Heavensworth" Ashwa said.
Ayame turned and walked away.

"You are damned aren't you?" He asked abruptly, Ayame stopped.

The rain started to Sting, acid clouds weren't going anywhere. Both of them ran to a nearby shelter. Ayame sat down on the ground.

"You do know what that means don't you?" He asked without skipping a beat.

"Yes I do, let's just please not talk about that" She avoided him.

"So you're telling me that we could be killed by fucking Helldwellers and you don't want to tell me about it that's just rich. He smiled angrily "tell me. How's that fair?... I'm risking my life for you"

"IF IT WASN'T FOR ME YOU'LL BE WEATHERING AWAY HOPING TO DIE SOONER, YOU WOULDN'T EVEN BE SCAVENGED, HOW'D A DEAD KNIGHT SAVE HIS PRINCE?" Ayame bursted out in Anger.

Ashwa was going to reply but his face completely changed. He had a scared expression accompanied by some confusion. He looked behind and around hectically.

Ayame slowly got up looking at him. "What is it?" She asked softly. "Somebody -- somebody is watching us!" He said. She too looked around.

"Impossible, there's not a single person in atleast fifty kilometre radius" she said confidently.

"They are lurking. I can sense them" he added.

"Plural?" She asked frantically.

"I got this sensation...and now it's gone" he said.

"You're terrifying me right now" she expressed.

"For all I know, they might be Helldwellers" He said after a pause and walked towards the mage's body. Ayame was speechless and scared at the same time.

"That's it?, They just watch us? How are you okay with this?" She asked.

"If they ever feel confident enough, they'll confront.  Also. Calm down, I'm a knight, I can protect a lady" Ashwa said as he walked away.

Ayame felt bad, she does consider his reasoning to be fair, but she is ashamed to open up.

She slowly slid down against the wall, Ashwa was beginning to dig a grave, she gradually fell asleep.

An eye filled with tears, looking mercifully as fire spread around it, burning away lashes, brows and skin, but the eye conveyed the same emotion. The flame caught up to the lids vaporizing the tears and gouging out the eyeball from its socket with optical nerves still attached, it dangled for a second but the flames cut it free, at last remained the skull alone, empty and lifeless.... Slowly...the brightness of a light posed a reddish haze on her closed lids.

Ayame woke up gasping to a huge fire, raging in front of her. Ashwa stood beside it as the darkness of the night made it the brightest source of light.

Ayame approached Ashwa who was fidgeting with something.

"I thought you were burying"

"I will, after the spirit is released" he said looking up at the edge of the flames. The warmth forced her to come closer with folded hands

"After a mage dies the body should be cremated to release the spirit, or it will be bound to the dead body for eternity" he said.

She looked up after him, to see the Ambers of the flame condensed to form a silhouette of a person at the edge of the fire,

Ashwa smiled looking at it, Ayame was awestruck by the sight as she unfolded her hands. The silhouette dispersed into ambers and faded away.

"What are they?" She asked.

"That's a result of one's choice, choice of a dead person to be accurate" He said and Ayame frowned. Ashwa looked at her with a smile.

"Every mage has a choice to donate their soul when they're alive. Most of us do, and once we die, our soul is claimed and turned into spirits to further serve Heavensworth. A lifeless magical being with no memory of its past life, a fresh start, the only thing they carry through is their magic...and some personality" he explained.

"That means, they can be reunited with their loved ones... again"

"Yes. but. the spirit wouldn't recognise them" he said.

Ayame looked into the fire with filled eyes holding back tears.

"What happened?" He asked. She fully realised the layers behind that question, one that can cover both past and present. She consciously dodged...again.

"Nothing. I was just reminded of something" she replied.

Ashwa was feeling bad for interrogating her aggressively. She did save his life. 

"I see pain in your eyes. guilt, grief and regret, it's eating you away from the inside, if you consider 'crying' to be a  weakness, you're wrong. It's the best way to heal yourself" he said and walked away to continue shovelling.

No amount of crying is going to heal her, she's aware of that. The only thing that can heal her now is Aoki's happiness and she's on the path to achieving the same.

A tingling in the back of Ashwa's head reemerged. He raised his head quickly, grabbing her attention and alerting her.

"Act natural" he said and went back to shoveling.

The bright light of the cremation was visible even from as far as the school building which was seven kilometres away. The very buliding where the stalkers hid. Watching. Waiting.