Trail of blood and feathers

The academy was busy preparing for the expedition so class schedules became more lax and Hale took the opportunity to drop by the Tenebris territory a week ago. Because he received a most unsettling news.

“BREAK UP WITH HIM!” The teenager roared.

Auretta’s cat-like eyes reddened. It was the first time her brother had yelled at her. And, as far as she knew, at anyone.

The siblings had the same black hair but in different shades. Hale’s jet black hair was kept short save for the messy bangs that reached under his nose. Auretta’s was ebony, and when it caught the light you can see the olive undertone in the black. The neat, straight hair, styled in a waterfall braid, had already grown to her waist. It felt like yesterday when a maidservant carried Hale to see the ugly bald monkey in the midwife’s arms.

Hale caught the gloom in her face and tried to get a hold of his emotions. He breathed out slowly and, this time, the sharp voice was much softer.

“Please, it’s for your own good. I won’t object to anyone else but William won’t do!”

Auretta’s face turned pale and she bit her lip. “But it has to be him.”

“You don’t understand anything. Hale, you idiot!” The girl ran away as though a monster was chasing her. An overwhelming sense of desolation filled Hale as he let her go. Was it no use after all? He didn’t want her to be thrown away like a used rag and face those persecuting gazes as in the story. Was he unable to save his sister again? Did he have to watch Auretta be the villainess?

ↂ

Tormented by worries, Hale tossed and turned restlessly and decided to go for fresh air. Slender fingers touched a cold button and the upper section of his sleeping pod parted, allowing the dim night light to reach his eyes. He blinked a couple of times to adjust and stepped out of the pod. Its cover closed after his leave, the machine emitting a soft whirring as automatic cleaning commenced.

Hale left the dorm quietly. The space housed dozens of pods and even though he knew they were soundproofed, it felt like he would become public enemy number one if he so much as breathed.

The Harmondia Academy spared no expenses. They rented the Seraph’s Wings, a high-tech airship with extravagant facilities, just to send the group at the greatest speed in tip-top condition.

Hale tapped different parts of the wall and a hatch opened in the ceiling. After the trafficking incident, he developed a mild agoraphobia and had to familiarize himself with the structure of his destinations beforehand. Seraph’s Wings was occasionally let out to high profile personnels so the map wasn’t hard to obtain but Lily had to pull some connections for the original construction site plans.

As the opening was made by and for the winged, there wasn’t a rope, ladder or transmitter. But Hale wasn’t daunted. The pale boy bent his knees and jumped up, using bursts of wind magic for a soft landing. Undead generally had poor aptitude for magic because their bodies couldn’t retain much mana, but small, low-powered spells were doable.

Like the rest of the ship, the cabin had a whitish color scheme—the Celestials loved light and bright colors—and didn’t look like it hadn't been used in decades. The Guild compared various editions of the map with the original plan and found that the room disappeared from the map about 30 years ago.

Chase smelled a conspiracy and demanded for Hale to investigate because information was money. It definitely wasn’t because he got to go on a trip in a luxurious aircraft while they were stuck handling work. (To be fair, Hale brought a lot of work too.)

Sleepless nights were the best time for covert operations, so there Hale was.

Unfortunately, he appeared to have been preempted.

A strong, metallic smell hit his nostrils and Hale hurried towards it. He didn’t want nightmares from people dying in front of him after all. He felt like the siblings in the woods with a breadcrumbs trail as he followed the bloodied feathers but instead of safety he was being led into the unknown.

The feathers had a soft appearance, were platinum and looked freshly plucked. They looked pure, holy even. And the urge to seek justice from the cruel wrongdoer rose.

But he immediately wanted to turn back the moment he saw who they belonged to.

“Who’s there!”

No matter how beautiful his shell was, Hale really didn’t have a good impression of this person. But he was already noticed and he still wanted to investigate this cabin. Besides… Hale looked at the silver blood on the floor. His admirers would kill Hale if he bled out all alone here.

Hale made sure the glasses artifact was still on his face, bit the bullet, and stepped out of the shadows.