Chapter Two

           “Mum!”

            Timothy plopped his eyes open to find Miss Skye blocking the Demon Dog’s attack with her knife. Her shaking rough hands tried to push back the weight of the Demon Dog’s sharp claws. Her blood-chocolate hair dangled below her in a braid and her eyes squinted in fierce determination.

            “Timothy! Run while you have the chance!”

            “No! I won’t leave you alone, Miss Skye!”

            “Timothy! Foolish boy! Stop!”

            Timothy ripped off a nearby broken panel and charged at the dog-beast, overcoming his fear. The Demon Dog leapt off Skye and galloped towards Timothy. Leaping with a turn, the dog’s tail singed Timothy’s leg with a lash.

            “AAaah!”

            Timothy fell to the ground, clenching his singed leg with tears.

            “Timothy!”

            Stupid boy!

            Skye lunged at the dog-beast and cut into one of its legs, breaking the joint of the visible bone.

            “That’s why I always sharpen my knives. Just in case for a beast like you.”

            The Demon Dog fell to its shoulder with a howl of pain. Out of its pointy mouth, the dog spewed fire and singed Skye’s arm. She dropped the knife, but she did not scream or cry.

            Damn you, beast! I only have a few minutes before Timothy dies from the poison of your flames! And now, you have burned me too! Damn it!

            Skye picked up her knife with her other hand, ready to lunge once again. The Demon Dog faced her and gave a quick, loud bark. The bones of its leg regenerated back like a set of floating blocks.

            I need elemental water to defeat the beast. Too bad I don’t have a Veritas Scroll on me right now.

            Skye looked around for a bucket, but she could not find anything near her.

            Great, now what I am going to do? Push it into the water? It is too quick and smart for that.

            She hit the dog’s tail and blocked a swipe of its claws.

Too hard. I guess I’ll have to figure out a more strategic plan on what to cut....I need enough time to get Timothy and myself out of here.

            Skye began to skim the dog’s body. The Demon Dog leapt at her and she dodged quickly out of the way. The dog’s tail whipped towards her, but she blocked the tail with her knife. Sparks began to fly around them as the dog offensively attacked and Skye defended.

            It’s getting fiercer...

            Skye noticed a round ball of bone, connecting together all of the bones within the dog’s ribcage.

            Aha!

            The Demon Dog leapt once again and Skye quickly slid underneath the dog. The elemental fire singed the tips of her loosened hair-strands as she aimed her knife for the round, central bone. The knife flew in the air, but…it stopped…everything stopped.

            What? What’s going on? I can’t move.

            Everything was frozen, still in time. From what she could see, Timothy’s stilled face screamed after her. The Demon Dog’s eyes seemed caught in determination with its body still leaping in mid-air. Skye’s knife was stuck at an angle; an inch from hitting the dog’s round bone. A smell of strong, plain incense filled Skye’s nostrils.

            “Release, Sakura.”

            The Demon Dog was liberated and it tumbled to the ground.

            “Let me kill this human b*****d for you, master!”

            A figure with silver eyes, masked in black cloth, stared down at Skye. His gloved hands touched Skye’s hair gently in observance. The Demon Dog stomped towards Skye, but it was stopped by the figure’s raised hand.

            The Demon Dog growled.

            “Why? She’s just a human. A human who sliced the bone of my leg! It was horrendous!”

            “No! She cannot be killed, Sakura.”

            The figure took off his gloves, revealing intricate metal-webbing entangled around his fingers and wrists. Within the golden setting of the webbing, a green rock of chrysoprase lied in the middle of each palm. He took out a small, black scroll of papyrus from within his cape (probably a hidden, inside pocket).

            Skye looked at the black scroll intently.

            Is that what they call an Occulo Scroll?

            The Demon Dog growled again.

            “You are going to heal her?!? That’s a felony!”

            “No one will know. You are my only eyewitness and I control you, even to the point of sealing your mouth.”

            “But this is-is too dangerous! Someone will surely catch us!”

            “If they do, our punishment will not be so severe. We will live.”

            “WHAT?!? Come on! Is she really that important to get our backs whipped again?”

            “Yes. Very.”

            Skye stared at the strange man.

            Who is he? And why does he want to heal me instead of kill me so intently?

            “Just as I thought, she has a lot of Veritas power, enough to slightly break the bonds of the time-space. It takes a lot of strength to even make her eyes move like that. Not many people can do that. I wonder if she can hear us, breaking the bonds of frozen sound?”

            Skye’s forehead shivered, but no bead of sweat fell from her face because of this bondage of time.

            “She even moved her forehead slightly! That is very interesting, especially for an Acolyte...”

            The Demon Dog slapped down its paw.

            “Heal her already before the others come! I do not want to get caught when they arrive!”

            “Indeed. Let’s make this quick.”

            Skye watched as the figure untied his black scroll, revealing a short list of strange symbols. Finding a drawn skull near the bottom of the list, her forehead shivered again.

            The Mark of the Mors Mortis!

            His palm’s chrysoprase stone began to glow with a green light; a strange symbol began to piece in front of Skye’s vision like a floating puzzle.

            “If you can hear me, do not worry, mademoiselle. This has nothing to do with the darkness, but only a simple healing cast. The Veritas Wielders are not the only ones who can heal.”

            Placing his palm over Skye’s wound, the symbol oozed into the singed pores of her skin. She could smell a scent of peppermint as her burnt patch of skin began to restore. The man did the same to her singed hair.

            “Might as well heal the little boy too while I am at it.”

            The Demon Dog sighed.

            The man walked over to Timothy, pouring the same green light over the boy’s singed leg.

            “Hurry up, Soren! I feel the presence of the Occulo Master getting nearer!”

            “Alright, alright. I am done. Let us leave.”

            The strange man waved his hand over his black scroll and another strange symbol circled into appearance. The purple symbol flashed once in the air, giving the scent of lavender. A swirling, purple hole swerved into existence behind the Demon Dog.

            The man’s silver eyes briefly glanced back at Skye.

            “Hopefully, we will meet again, mademoiselle.”

            The man’s cape swooshed behind him as he and his Demon Dog disappeared into the purple hole. The purple hole swerved to a fade and a grayish darkness began to surround the sea port. Everything was still stuck in time.

            “Well, well. What do we have here?”

            The mysterious voice echoed from behind Skye. Her eyes could barely see over her shoulder. She could not make out a shape, other than a blurred blob of reddish-black.

            “Sei, you can come out now. My time-space has been set into motion.”

            Another one?!?

            With a swift and blurring movement, a tall woman with blonde hair appeared before Skye. The woman’s curvy body was clothed with intertwining black metals and tough threads. Her forehead was dotted across with rose tattoos, with their ending vines framing her emerald-green eyes. A pair of forked Sais peeped through her gloved hands.

            Skye’s eyes opened wide in shock.

            The Neco Thief from earlier! Ho-how did she survive? I stabbed her in a fatal spot and I watched her life drain out! Wh-what’s going on? How is she alive?

            “Ah, there you are, Sei.”

            The blonde Neco Thief kneeled down in respectful honor.

            “Yes, High Master?”

            Skye’s eyebrows furrowed.

            High Master? Could the blob and mysterious voice be the Occulo Master, the leader of the Mors Mortis?

            Skye tried to move again to see the strange blob more clearly, but the time-space’s power was too heavy in weight for her to move her whole head.

            “What has happened here, Sei? And where are Sakura and her master, Soren?”

            “I do not know, sire.”

            “Report what you do know.”

            “Soren, Sakura, and I tried to infiltrate Sanctimonia for more Veritas stones, but we were caught in the act. So, we ran. One of the Wielders caught up with us and tried to throw an exploding fire ball at us. It backfired on him, killing him instead, as well as knocking out the rest of the Wielders with him. To our luck, the Wielder must have been a new initiate--

            “So, basically, you failed.”

            Skye’s brown eyes popped.

            The fire ball...that must have been the ‘boom’ sound Felix and I heard earlier.

            The Neco Thief swallowed hard.

            “Basically, but I do have more to tell.”

            “Hmm...go on.”

            “I am not sure were Soren went, but I remember the Demon Dog, Sakura, getting caught up in the crowds. Her invisibility was of course of no use because the crowds would have noticed her soon enough with all their pushing and shoving. So, she left her invisibility off…which caused a big stir. Someone threw some ocean water at her, leaving her confused and blind for a little while, temporarily distinguishing her elemental flames. I tried to reach Sakura, but someone caught me and stabbed me in the back. I died and someone later revived me. Probably Soren. If it was Soren, that means he probably took Sakura back home to Letum with him. When I was revived, all I found was this woman and the young boy stuck in time. Based upon the flying cutter’s knife here and the woman’s position, this woman probably was fighting someone until you used your time-space to come and rescue us. The woman’s enemy was probably Soren or Sakura.”

            The mysterious blob laughed.

            “Interesting, but did I hear that right? Rescue you? Silly girl. I came here only to keep Soren and Sakura safe as I noticed the chaos stirring here in Fanum. You are nothing more to me than a pawn, woman. Soren and Sakura are allowed to make mistakes because of various reasons that you know of, though I will make sure they will receive some kind of punishment when I return to Letum....however, a high-ranked officer like you, Sei, should not be making mistakes…and you know how I do not like failure.”

            The Neco Thief gulped.

            “I-I’m so"

            “No need for those meaningless words, pathetic one. I have one more question for you. So, quiet your shivering and answer me. Who killed you?”

            Sei quickly leaned down on her knees, observing Skye’s knife.

            “Most likely this girl, lying on the floor, killed me. For I remember this knife and her dark brown eyes....and my wounds match the knife’s edges.”

            “Her?!? This tradeswoman! How pathetic! How weak! First of all, you failed your mission and then next, you get killed by this low-life. How disappointing for a high-ranked Neco Thief. How very disappointing!”

            A whip threw into Skye’s vision, leaving a bloody mark on the Neco Thief’s face.

            “I-I am sorry, High Master. I will make sure I do better next time.”

            The young woman’s blonde hair drooped at the sides of her face. Her knees began to buckle in fear. Her green eyes were wide as a deer’s.

            The blurred blob moved into Skye’s vision-range, next to the Neco Thief. His face was fully-masked with a smooth scarf of black silk and his long robe was lined with red velvet. His hands were gloved and a red sheath protruded from within his cape, along with a hanging, curled whip. A silver-onyx Baphomet dangled from his neck and his eyes pierced with the purest black one could never imagine.

            “Now, now, Sei. Silence those weak words. You are a high-ranked officer. You are supposed to be strong, not giving into humility and fear. And as to doing better next time---         

            The man slipped off his glove, revealing golden webbing entwined around his fingers with a milky-white opal placed in the center of his palm.

            --there will not be a next time.”

            The man slapped the white opal down on the Neco Thief’s forehead with a blaring, green-black light. Dark veins began to push and crack down Sei’s fair skin. The Neco Thief woman screamed in agony as her body rumbled into dust.

            The man fitted his glove back onto his hand, waving away the horrible scent of burning sulfur.

            “Such a pity. She was a beautiful and loyal woman.”  

            He brushed off his broad shoulder some of the woman’s dusty remains. He pulled out a black scroll from beneath his cape and untied it. Skye’s brown eyes flared in dark bronze anger.

            How horrible! To kill someone so-so unmerciful!

            “Now, let us see where Sakura and Soren truly went off to.”

            The man, or ‘High Master’, took off his other glove and pulled from his scroll a steamy, strange symbol of yellow. He circled the symbol with his hand around the vicinity, where Skye and the boy Timothy laid. When he was finished, he clenched his fingers together in a fist and the symbol disappeared, leaving behind a whole cloud of yellow mist and a scent of fresh lemons.

            Two bold lines of red and green slowly appeared in the mist, tracing the steps that two beings took.

            “This red line is Sakura’s trace.”

            The man followed the line to above Skye, near the time-stuck cutter’s knife.

            “It seems this woman’s enemy was Sakura. It also seems when I stopped time, the Demon Dog was caught here in mid-air just before getting hit by the knife, which would explain the woman’s sliding position on the ground. Once stuck, someone must have released Sakura from the time-space.”

            The man touched the steamy, green line that lied near Sakura’s red line trace.

            “Soren was here. He watched, probably in invisibility, and then must have released Sakura when my time-space went into motion. Based upon the thickness of the green line, he stood here, most likely observing something.”

            Why is he talking out loud? He is a Mors Mortis, not some intellectual stiff! He is the ‘High Master’! Well...he was stiff with the Neco Thief....damn it! Who are these people really? And why would one of them heal me?!?

            The man looked down at Skye and touched her arm, which had a thick cloud of green trace above it.

            “Looks like he probably healed this woman. I wonder why? He knows that is a felony.”

            The man touched his milky-white opal to Skye’s arm. A fire flared up in her and she felt like she was falling endlessly in a pit of darkness. A shining crystal of diamond appeared before her briefly, but then she was swooshed back to reality.

            “Ah. She is a Wielder. But it seems most of her Veritas powers are constrained. She must be an Acolyte. Hmm, silly boy. He was always too compassionate, even to enemies. That is Soren all right. But I wonder why he took the risk of a felony to save this particular Acolyte? And looking over there, I can see from here that he healed the human boy too. Most likely because the peasant boy was important to the woman, or the woman important to the boy, based upon the boy’s contorted face. Hmmm. I will be sure to have a chat with Soren when I return to Letum.”

            Yes, return! So I can stop listening to your boring talk!

            The man continued to follow the two steamy lines of trace until they ended with a complete stop at the end of Skye’s body.

            “Well, it looks like that pathetic Sei was right. He took a portal somewhere, bringing Sakura with him. Probably back to Letum. I should report back to the Mors Mortis. My followers are probably wondering where I am anyways. It looks like this chaotic mess held no real interest for me at all in the end. Pity.”

            The man pulled from his scroll the same purple symbol Soren used before. With one flash of the purple symbol, the man’s portal arrived and he put his scroll back into his cape. But before he entered the portal, he briefly looked back at Skye with his fully midnight eyes.

            “Still, I wonder why Soren took the risk of healing this woman. She is very pretty, even for a tradeswoman.”

            The man took one step towards Skye, but then hesitated.

            “Hmm. I sense a Wielder advancing. I guess the answer to this question will have to wait.”

            Entering the portal, the man disappeared with a flash of purple smoke. 

Author's Note

Sorry about the spacing! It happens with trying to paste from a Word document! Enjoy!