There must've been a clock in the library.

Everything besides the ticking sounds, echoing across the shelves and out the windows to the gardens, lots were silenced.

Atomu recalled the few words one of the brothers said about leaving moments like these for precisely nothing.

To gather power, courage and the strength to move forth.

This time, however, it seemed that he needed those gifts, as Quanzi's face slightly lit up when his hand ventured closer towards the ring that found itself above the rest of Atomu's neatly laid clothes.

The lithium armour was still there, despite Mihua asking him to take it off earlier. It was covered by a shirt that resembled Sam's design, with its collars standing uptight towards his black and white earring.

"The r-ring?" The Paladian quickly asked, breathing in. "It seems a part of the problem, that's for sure."

"How so?" Quanzi asked, opening the book Atomu had earlier taken and flipping towards somewhere in the middle. His fingers scanned the writing, etched in bumps, letting touch do the work.

It almost always looked like the master's eyes were closed. Atomu stared for a few seconds, before daring to spout.

"W-Well. Chyuuichi said it's the reason why I haven't been as strong these past couple of days. Atop... not necessarily being too hungry."

"Too hungry? The reports down there said you ate a lot." he nodded.

"You keep track of all that?"

"Let's say, on par with a few here, we like to keep things in order," Quanzi explained. "Everyone's usually going to bed in a few hours from now on, and as I said earlier, we don't read in the dark. That's why I came here too. Something was out of order, and I immediately found someone new with a curiosity as old as time."

Atomu rubbed his head, glancing back as if making sure no one was there.

Again, only the clock's ticking welcomed him, and a few arrows away pointed to numbers.

Quanzi in turn, chuckled, continuously moving through the pages. "You seem surprised."

"It's..." he shook his head, before closing his eyes. "I'm sorry for breaking a rule!" He quickly bowed.

"They're not set in too much hard stone, and people tend to bend them to achieve something greater. Bancho was exactly like that, wasn't he?"

Atomu looked up with a curious glance.

"Doing things you never thought were possible. Making great sacrifices for small things." he chuckled. "The little things that made him unpredictable, and just as interesting, likewise with you."

"P-Pardon?" Atomu straightened up.

"Maybe the way that you resisted to fight against Mihua even if it was to cost your life?" he proposed. "Your morals didn't make me worry that something would be out of order if you stepped into the library." he sighed. "The ring, too. It's proof you wouldn't cause harm, even if you tried, figuratively and literally. Dibs on your Mirillian friend then." he turned, closing the book. "You'd need quite the smart one to even make that connection with details like these."

Atomu rolled his eyes, before breathing out.

"It's not a typical trinket you're wearing. I doubt it's the first one either. Did the name of War Customs ever bounce off your ears, Paladian?" Quanzi turned.

"War Customs?" Atomu asked, raising a brow and squinting one eye. "War Customs..." he scratched his chin. "It reminds me of something, b-but I can't quite put my finger on it. Sir. Master."

"The title of the book you picked up is War Kustons. Same thing in modern Manjuno, but the cover is the only thing that's clear as day. The writing inside is jumbled." he opened it again, pointing around. "Only a finger can feel the Morgonian letters hidden beneath the mix of the olden speech."

"M-Morgonian?" Atomu asked.

"Pretty much modern Manjuno with a different alphabet. I have to admit that I'm only a rookie in understanding much of what was written since this book doesn't belong to me. I wasn't born into it to grasp the concept. Simply, much like Bancho, I am keen on researching the idea itself. You're part of the equation, it seems."

"The ring?"

"You didn't pick this book up on accident. Want to tell me the whole story?"

"Ah." Atomu turned away for a moment, before taking the Glyph Vial out of his pocket and handing it over to the master.

"A Glyph Vial?"

"You know...? Sir."

"They must've played a nasty trick on you, Atomu." he chuckled. "Giving you it all but revealing completely nothing."

"It was a gift from Madam Mariam in Orania." he fixed his shirt. "I thought it was a witch's craft."

"Witches tend to write off the few inconveniences in life, but as War Customs say." Quanzi put the vial down. "Everything has a reason hidden beneath thousands of pages. Letters only few can decipher, with generations to come and learn the history of this world."

Putting both clenched fists on the table, the Ainan took a seat, instructing Atomu to do the same. Turning away from the book, his finger landed near the ring again, as the Paladian focused, gulping.

"If you can't recall, then their magic worked. Yours did too. Not just any type of spell, though." Quanzi whispered. "It means you're part of them."

"What?" Atomu shook his head.

"Blessed by everything. Even the curse of never knowing the answer, am I right?"

Quanzi read him like a book there. Atomu gulped, focusing on his finger, and the ring down there. The necklace itself started itching, as it slid against his bare skin and left tiny marks.

The master, as if to respond to the Paladian's grounded teeth, furrowed his brows and inched closer.

The clock ticked again, with a few footsteps outside echoing in.

Morio stumbled through the hall, feeling pulses of the fading headache while trying to maintain a smile on his face.

It hurt a bit, frankly, but he couldn't pinpoint the reason. Trying to weave through and make it to bed to finally rest, his eyes and ears landed near the slightly ajar door of the library, with light gleaming inside.

He took a quiet stop forward and glanced through, sliding it open. A few more footsteps ahead, and with a shake of his sheath, he peeked right around the corner.

The Paladian's breaths turned weary, and Quanzi's, as calm as the rain that slowly appeared outside of the windows.

Jyuzou glanced outside, and away from his book of various wonders, appreciating the moment. Chyuuichi quickly ran back inside the temple, with Callem instructing Muddy to take shelter under one massive leaf elsewhere. Zhen simply stared, with folded arms, while the two brothers took this opportunity to run out through the backdoor and battle against the tides.

As for Morio, or Atomu, it was nothing but more noise that obstructed the silence, atop a vow being broken.

With one twist of the finger, the chain that held the necklace together split into two, and the ring dropped on the wooden table, spinning for a few seconds before landing.

Atomu blinked a few times before his eyes shrunk. Nails grew out, quickly concealed and hid under the table, and a gasp followed.

"Do you remember now?"

"War Customs," he repeated, with some confidence in his voice. "Right." he turned to Quanzi, raising his brows. "There was an entrance with those words near the-"

"Orawood Waterfalls." Quanzi continued. "The last bastion of their hope, as said, and a reason for one man to come here."

"Y-You know that too?"

"I haven't been to the place myself, but Axel spoke of a great fortune lying in its basements. That's where they all are, to put it bluntly. The fate that binds the world together, and keeps things secure."

"I-I've been to the basement."

"Not the library, I assume."

"So... that's what the door was." Atomu scratched his head. "I used the ring to get in but except for a few notes and a still-lit lamp, there was really... nothing else. Except for-" Atomu's eyes widened. "A book. It had Orania's tree as its cover!"

"You're connecting more dots than I ever did."

"So it's their invention."

"From what I was told, and from what I can decipher, they're the reason we have half of what we still preach. Put it bluntly, Atomu, they're the ones keeping all the secrets intact."

Morio moved a little closer, before ducking down and listening in.

"Have you ever wondered why we know nothing but the spare parts of the Second War?"

"N-Not really. Rowan, a Tributal friend of mine, once said that they're to cover footsteps so no one would repeat them. It's a blank in the books."

"The people who kept them secret were the War Customs. Remember about the war, they said, and keep the old world so we can craft a new one. They retained everything, or so I've been told. Items like the Glyph Vial were remnants of what we can't craft nowadays, but their secrets are left to the one holding the key of fate. Their successor, as once said."

"Is it me?"

"I doubt it, unfortunately," Quanzi added, and Atomu put his head down. "Although, there was one that came here beforehand. His name was Saluk. He wore a similar garment to the earring of yours."

"This?" Atomu quickly took it off, putting it in both palms. "Oh, master, it's just a family thing. We as Turons always wore it."

"Think of what I said. Learning from the old so we can never repeat the mistakes of the past. Finding the good in evil." he pointed. "Black and white."

Atomu gasped a little, covering his mouth.

"I don't know, though. War Customs were as protective of their identity as they were of their secrets. A family thing, they say, but if you were to ask, maybe you'd learn."

Atomu couldn't really ask. His family thought he was long gone, and if he returned a demon, that would only cause a fuss.

Then again, black and white. Demons were supposed to be evil, but he was the good one, supposedly. Guardian Demons were demons, but they worked in your favour, in the very end.

"Saluk was the one who brought this book here. Likewise... trickling too far into the mystery led him to find out things no one would rather want to know. His Guardian Demon was cursed because the demon that rested inside was still alive, somewhere out there. Then again, he swore it was his bloodline, his wretched story, and his parents who failed to pass on the gift of understanding Morgonian speech. Maybe then, we'd know."

Atomu glanced at the earring again, before putting it back where it once was.

Morio listened eagerly, with a rather blank expression.

"Restoring the goods of life comes with fault. You can always try to make something right, but in the end, the shadows will still chase you. Maybe that's why he gave me this world to explore. Black and white means that maybe, somewhere out there, there is a true balance where both sides are sometimes wrong and sometimes right. Curses prove that you're bearing something important to the world, as Bancho once said. Carry it as far as you can, before you're to run out of time."

Quanzi's eyes landed on the empty darkness beneath a few bookshelves.

Morio legged it, at that very moment, with Atomu raising a brow and glancing over.

"M-Morio?" he asked, before moving back a little, recalling the words he overheard last night.

What was it that he bore?

***

A few days later, the news of the Kabun Clan's willingness to help out the new Demonears spread around Saphrith faster than a fire would consume a forest. That comparison came from a rather worrisome tale about not playing with matches near Orawood, but either way, it seemed too late to back out from that now, since anything and everything concerned the events at hand.

Literally. Even people who weren't the newly-passed Demonears made sure to slip a few questions Zenon's way, who wasn't necessarily too educated about the subject.

With a sigh, some things were decided after a makeshift speech in Oldenklow. All the Demonears, and then, a good chunk of people who could be deemed as strong enough via the process of yet another go at the course, (although shortened and made safer with a few concerns) were invited.

That turned into chaos, despite solutions taking place. More concern landed on Sandy's shoulder, since the second he finished all the actual Guardian Demons, he was supposed to be in charge of making the few mock weapons for the course, and later on, setting out towards Malikan.

From thereon, though, when everyone's hands were busy, some people looked out for the few that could've gotten left behind. Sparrows were sent in the direction of Galliath and Shimori, and it seemed that everything honed into a great Demonear meeting right there.

Sebastian was stressed out by the possibility of Quanzi being overwhelmed with the amounts, but Zenon digressed, supported by the late Bancho's words.

If he was still here, he would've joined them too. Maybe he'd be one of the key trainers, helping everyone understand the weight of the task and continue pushing hope as is.

Either way, it wasn't something to ponder over for too long. Hope was found elsewhere, perhaps in remembrance. A few words in the streets talked of how great of a warrior he was, even reaching the insides of the Mokota workshop, where Judy struggled to pack all of her stuff into two bags, in turn using Sam's as leverage.

Ranpa would stay behind, without even considering doing the course again. He talked for a few about leaving things behind and finally heading for Prope Portam, and Sam only nodded, clearly more concerned with a more important job. Although Demonears weren't necessarily paid for existing, so there was that.

One other Demonear at hand though was Rowan. Likewise, with the Paladian, they would stay behind too. Not to protect Saphrith from demons, since Zenon was to do the deed, but rather, to take care of the unsolved that still needed answers.

"I'm sorry, Rowan, it's final."