What can we do?

Returning to the kingdom of Reinaria was terrible. First, we had to carry the body of Markus Terracota, at least it was covered in sheets. Second, after his death, his Stanza stopped working, so all our belongings inside the stone chariot were ejected and we had no transport to make the journey back. Nikolay’s Stanza could only transport one at a time, besides himself, and it couldn’t take us directly to the castle, also with his broken leg that was not a possibility.

Hiyoku joined us and we all returned in silence, with too much in our minds. With us were the Original Poems of Lightning, Alchemy, Earth, Nature and Ice, but we didn’t have anything to do with them at that moment.

After a long and sad journey, we reached the capital of the king and were quickly accepted into the castle. The first thing that happened when we entered was King Pompovisky hugging and kissing his son like any lovely father would.

“My son! I missed you so much. I’m so glad you are home!”

“We don’t have time to this, father. This is not a good moment.”

After noticing the seriousness in his son’s voice, he led us all to the throne room, where we were met by the colorful Eight Paladins. Even if it was not the appropriate moment to do hugs, Gengis opened an uncharacteristic smile when he saw Rita Fiori with us. Without wasting any time, we relay everything that happened in our journey.

“So, it’s clear that we have to stop Amaru now,” the king said.

“What we need is to recover from everything… that was a lot to my apprentices…” Ember Lascander said it to us, but I think she was the one suffering the most.

“That is right, you kids have done a lot already. We have entered in contact with another surviving Heroes, but now that we lost the three strongest… sorry! I was already thinking about that, but we can call warrior from outside of Reinaria.”

“I’m not against anyone to rest, but I think I know where the Original Poem of Water is,” said Hiyoku surprising us. “I can go with Nikolay and return quickly.”

The boy just made thumbs up, but his father didn’t like that.

“My boy just returned! I can’t let him go with all those dangers. Look at his leg!”

“Father, I’m a Hero, and what we need now is Heroes. Besides, you know I never liked to be in this castle.”

“Don’t worry, my king,” continued Hiyoku. “If it is where I think it is, there will be no danger there.”

“Fine… there is still the Turquoise Demon and the Original Poem of the Sky to deal with. I will send other Heroes to look for it and for Amaru, when you are rested and the outside help comes, we can solve this problem once and for all.”

“I don’t think this is all…” everyone in the room stared at me. “We still need to find the Original Poem of the Void.”

“There is no record of an Original Poem of the Void. And when the cult summoned their Demons there were only eight,” Gengis told us.

“I don’t think there is a… Gray? Gray Demon yet, but The Poet created all nine Stanzas, so I’m certain that there is an Original Poem of the Void, and I don’t want my father to find it.”

“Very well, we will expand the search for the Original Poem of the Void. You are all Heroes of this realm, and we will be always in your debt for what you have done. You deserve a good rest.”

We thanked the King and left the castle, trying to rest, knowing that our life kept changing, no matter the path we chose.

The next few days were calm and sad. The good news is that Hiyoku and Nikolay returned to Venati and found the Original Poem of Water in a secret vault that Matteo owned.

“It was very simple to find it, Matteo could control the Demon of his element and all the others that have done that so far have their Original Poems,” said Hiyoku with a smug expression on her face.

About the Original Poems, each of the ones we had stayed under the protection of the Paladin with the same element. They were thinking of research all the effects the Poems had once the kingdom was at peace again.

As people from foreign lands arrived in the capital, we kept gathering ourselves. Reikokuna Takai and Agnes Stein helped each other, since they both knew Markus Terracota better than the other apprentices did. They invited me in, but I wanted to stay alone.

Rita Fiori returned to her duties in the castle and as an apprentice of Gengis, while Helia Vivarium helped organize the other Heroes that came in, bringing together information about all our targets.

Nikolay had a huge work, as when he was in the castle he tried his best to represent the entire kingdom, even if he didn’t like it much, so he and Hiyoku were welcoming the foreigners.

The problem was that no one was around for Ember Lascander, although she did say she preferred to be alone. Sometimes I met her over Markus’s grave, and it was very sad to see someone with that much passion so down.

I joined her one of these days, but didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry, Nina. I should be here for you. I just… don’t know what to do now.”

I grabbed her hand.

“I’m sorry too. I had my new dad for such a short amount of time. But I truly loved him.”

“I know, and you can be sure you can count on me for anything you need. I’m not as much as a family gal as Markus was, but…” she didn’t know how to continue, and that was fine. “Tomorrow the king asked all of us to a feast. Apparently, he wants to introduce us to this Stanza user from outside. He was nice and said that we didn’t have to go or participate in the next missions.”

“But you do want to go, right?” I asked.

“Markus died protecting us all, and his killer is still out there.”

“I’m sorry about him.”

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault that the man who brought you into the world is a villain, and you can be sure that he was never your father, you have no responsibility about his actions.”

“Thank you… mom. So, I see you tomorrow?”

“You betcha!” she said, forcing a smile.

She left as I wanted to stay a little longer with Markus Terracota. After a few minutes, when I was ready to go, I heard a voice.

“Nice skirt.”

I had never seen that woman before. She had long white hair, covered with braids. I looked down and noticed how dirty my skirt was, it almost didn’t look white anymore.

“Thanks, I guess… are you one of the fighters the king called?”

Her clothes looked different, more ancient, so that made sense to me.

“Oh, no. I’m just a traveler. I heard what happened to this guy,” she pointed to the grave. “Was he important to you?”

“He was… my father.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks, I guess… and you are?”

“As I said, just a traveler. I’ve watched a lot of things happen in this world. I guess I just want to see how this is going to end.”

She was weirder than me.

“Okay, I’m going to go now,” I told her as I started leaving the cemetery.

“Good luck to you, Nina Nune.”

I looked back when she said my name, but she was not there anymore, leaving me more confused than ever.