Chapter 18
Obsidia Krauze is a lot of things. I only knew her by reputation, like most people. She was, supposedly, the last remaining member of the Krauze family — Rasha was, of course, only a rumor to most of the rest of the population of the world. The Krauze family have an insanely long history as powerful mages. They were the last people to know the location of any of the four Hecatus stones. Obsidia herself is nearly as infamous as the rest of her family combined. She was a magic prodigy that was chosen to become a Spectrum at a very young age, only thirteen years old. As far as Spectrum go, she is also known to be one of the most powerful. She is known far and wide as Obsidia the Whirlwind, an insanely powerful, insanely talented… insane person. She has fought against — and beaten — two different Witches, on multiple occasions, along with a whole host of other beasts from the Abyss. On the record. Off the record? Who even knows. Aimerik was certainly smart in deciding to go to her for protection against the Yellow witch. Although, I heavily suspected that the decision had been more of Reginald’s doing than anything else.
But I digress.
“First, I want to say that those two,” I said, gesturing to Koreo and Souta, “Are completely innocent, and they have nothing to do with what I am about to tell you.” I waited for both Aimerik and Reginald to nod. “Great. My name is Spikora Mori. I spent a looootttt of money buying this guy,” and here I gestured to Rasha, “from a very illegal auction down in Kiiren. We’ve been on the run ever since because not only did all of the people I outbid hire goons to come after me but also spies from your government have been after us this whole time.” Aimerik looked alarmed, but Reginald. Reginald. I could tell, both from his sudden shift in posture and the look on his face, that he recognized us. I turned to address him directly. “Does my name ring a bell?”
Reginald looked hesitant, looking between me, Rasha and Aimerik for a few moments before heaving a sigh. He crossed the room and sat in the so far empty chair we’d requested just for him.
“Based on the description alone I thought there might be a chance that you are the two people that our entire network of spies are looking for right now,” he admitted. “Even though I have not been in Astor in some time, nor even anywhere near Kiiren, I still got word to look out for two people that match your descriptions.” He was frowning. “So. You are the infamous Spikora Mori, then, and that would make you Rashaga Krauze.” He turned to address Rasha now. Rasha nodded, hesitant, and Reginald shook his head. “No, don’t worry. We agreed that nothing said in this room would leave this room. I have no intention of trying to capture you or hand you over to our government. Consider it our way of repaying you for vanquishing that Witch for us.”
“Do you know why the Astorian government is after Rasha?” I asked, and Reginald shook his head.
“No, the communications I receive usually do not include any sort of reasons. This time it was simply that I needed to keep a look out for two people matching your descriptions, and that if I spotted either or both of you that I was to detain you if I could and assist in your capture specifically, Rashaga.” Rasha frowned.
“Please, just call me Rasha. Or, better yet, call me Kir instead,” he requested. Reginald nodded.
“If I had to hazard a guess as to why you are both wanted by my government, I have a few different theories,” he continued.
“Really, now?” I asked. Consider my interest piqued; I had thought it could only be for the main reason, because Rasha was one of the only remaining members of the Krauze family.
“Obviously, they are after you because you are a Krauze, and the Krauze are the last people to be in possession of one of the Hecatus stones,” Reginald said. Rasha and I both nodded. That was basically public knowledge. “But I suspect that as specifically Obsidia’s younger brother, they are certainly hoping to use you as leverage against her.” I blinked and opened my mouth to ask why the heck they would need leverage against her, but Rasha spoke up first.
“So, she is actually getting serious with her anti-Astorian stance,” he said. I looked from Reginald to him so fast that I nearly gave myself whiplash.
“Huh?” I asked. Rasha gave a sad little grin.
“Well, my family and Nixian in general have historically never really been friends with Astor. The merger of Xian into Astor happened when we were both kids, so we kind of grew up hating Astor a lot. When she became a Spectrum she vowed to use that power to drive the Astorians out of Xian and take it back. I guess she’s finally gotten strong enough to start acting on that vow.”
“To put it mildly,” Reginald said, with a chuckle. “She’s been drumming up support for a rebellion for some time now according to our intelligence, but only recently has she truly begun any serious efforts. And now with the war happening in the north it’s only a matter of time before her and the rest of the pro-Xian rebels move to act. So in addition to potential knowledge of the whereabouts of a powerful magical artifact, they could also potentially gain a bargaining chip against your sister.”
Rasha snorted.
“Please. Obsidia would never fall for that,” he said. “She’d just tell them to let me die.”
“Harsh,” I said with a wince. “But from what I’ve heard about Obsidia…not out of character.” I turned back to Aimerik and Reginald. “But I’m confused. You know Obsidia is an enemy of Astor and yet you, an Astorian prince, are going to her to seek her protection against a Witch?”
“Well, we don’t exactly have a lot of options,” Aimerik pointed out. “There aren’t a lot of well-known Witch slayers out there, especially not anywhere in the Astorian empire.”
“Most people that are powerful enough to even go toe-to-toe with a Witch have managed to keep that to themselves, like you have, or they are elusive hermits that either live in the edges of the world or move around so often that nobody can find them.” Reginald added.
“...fair point,” I conceded.
“And I was also thinking that with my roguish good-looks and boyish charm I might win over Lady Obsidia and get her to soften her stance on Astor,” Aimerik added, smirking.
“Yeah, that is so not going to happen,” Rasha immediately replied. Aimerik visibly deflated with a pout. “You really aren’t her type.”
“...ouch,” he whined.
“So, you need basically indefinite protection from the yellow Witch,” I said, gesturing to Aimerik. He perked up.
“Or I need to find a way to get out of the deal I made with her!” he said, looking hopeful.
“A feat that historically has never happened, and that nearly everyone believes to be impossible,” I said. He looked crestfallen. I sighed and reached over, putting a hand on one of his shoulders. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I’ve been trying to break a Witch’s curse for over a decade now. I get it.” He reached up and put a hand over my hand and I valiantly resisted the urge to snatch my hand away. “Anyway. You need protection from the Witch, and we need protection from your government. Why don’t we trade favors?” I looked at Reginald. So did Aimerik, looking over at him like an over-eager puppy.
“That seems like a fair trade to me,” Reginald agreed with a nod.
“And maybe you could help us get an audience with Lady Obsidia?” Aimerik turned to ask Rasha. Rasha shook his head.
“If you say you’re with us that might actually lower your chances.” Rasha said. I extracted my hand from Aimerik’s shoulder while he was distracted by Rasha’s response.
“Your sister must really hate you,” Aimerik said, looking sad. Rasha shook his head.
“I don’t know if hate is necessarily the right word but… you aren’t too far off,” he replied.
“We won’t be arriving in Nixian until tomorrow evening,” I said. “And I seriously doubt that the Witch will be able to get back out of the Abyss before then. We should be relatively safe for the rest of this train journey.”
“Here’s hoping,” Reginald sighed, standing up. “In the meantime, Milord, perhaps we should go back to our compartment?”
“Oh, yes, of course. I would like to get that nap,” Aimerik agreed, also standing. Reginald nodded to us, Aimerik waved, and with that they left the compartment. I slumped back into my seat, tilting my head back and letting it rest against the wooden wall behind me with a huge sigh.
“A nap sounds fantastic right now,” I muttered. I closed my eyes for just a second. “But that can wait. I’m sure you all have questions. I sure do.” I opened my eyes and tilted my head back to normal, to see both Rasha and Souta looking at me from across the table and Koreo leaning onto the table. They all wore identical looks of concern. Koreo hesitated but ultimately spoke up first.
“Um, Spikora, you…” she trailed off, looking lost. I gave an irritated huff.
“Yeah, after hearing what happened to Aimerik I’m pretty certain that my mother is a Witch,” I said. Rasha nodded, but Koreo and Souta both looked shocked.
“...huh?” Koreo asked.
“Seriously?” Souta echoed her sentiments. I stared at Rasha.
“You don’t seem surprised,” I said. I was trying not to be too accusatory, but it was hard not to. He nodded again.
“Earlier when you cast the spell, I could feel something was not human about you, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. When Reginald said it was something Abyssal I had my suspicions, and Aimerik’s story only confirmed it for me,” Rasha replied. “But it wasn’t just that, Spikora. There’s your incredible physical strength and dexterity. Your astonishingly high level magical abilities and mana capacity, even if you can’t cast right now. The fact that you were able to easily dive into the Abyss much further than Aspen. The fact that your hair always returns to that color no matter how much you dye it. And,” Rasha paused here for a second to take a breath. “You may not actually know this about yourself, but when you cast that spell earlier? Your hair and eyes were bright purple.”
Koreo perked up and leaned a little further on the table at that. “Oh, yeah! That’s true, Spikora! I thought I was just seeing things, but he’s right!”
I blinked a few times, shocked. I grabbed a lock of my hair but it was the same not-glowing shade of purple that it always was, turning gradually lighter as it got longer. I frowned. “Are my eyes still purple? Do you have a mirror? It’s not that I don’t believe you, but—”
“No, no, they’re back to the usual blue,” Koreo assured me. “But they were purple earlier, and I do remember them turning purple even back when you cast those couple of spells to get those thugs off our backs when we were escaping Kiiren ten years ago.”
I sat back with a frown. Lucien and Aspen had never said anything about my eyes turning purple, and I’d never noticed my hair turning brighter either.
“You don’t believe us,” Rasha accused. I sighed.
“No, no, I do, it’s just… a lot to take in,” I managed to reply. I tilted my head back and stared up at the metal ceiling of the train. “I never even considered it possible that a Witch could have a child with a human, let alone that I might be a Witch’s child. Like, biologically it shouldn’t be possible? All the ones I’ve seen or read anything about have all been described as being really small, just like the yellow Witch was today. Their bodies are way too tiny to carry a human-sized kid to term. And in all the research I’ve done I’ve never heard of Witches taking human forms. I didn’t know they could do that.” No-one said anything for a few moments. In the silence that followed, all I could hear was the quiet sound of the train rushing along the tracks.
“Are you alright, Spikora?” Koreo eventually asked.
“Does this change how any of you think of me?” I asked. I looked away from the ceiling, back down at the three of them. Koreo shook her head emphatically, Souta did the same, and Rasha looked like he was considering the question before ultimately shaking his head as well. “Then yes. I’m alright. I’ve got a lot to think about, but I’m alright.”
“It does make some of the things the Witch was saying to you make sense, now that I think about it,” Rasha said. I nodded. The “half-breed” comment now made a chilling amount of sense, but also did not bode well for Aimerik’s daughter. The comment about being important to two of the other Witches made sense now, too. But this still opened up a lot more questions than it did answers for me.
“I wonder if Lucien knew.” I wondered, silently, if Aspen knew, too. I winced.
“I guess we’ll just have to ask him if we ever meet him again,” Koreo said. I nodded.
“I think tracking down Lucien is going to be what I do next after we finish our business in Nixian,” I said. “Speaking of which, do you think your sister will agree to help Aimerik?”
“If she thinks she can use him in her rebellion against Astor,” Rasha said with a nod.
“Do you think she’ll help you?” Souta blurted out. Rasha heaved a sigh.
“Oh, she will,” he replied
“Why does your sister hate you, if you don’t mind me asking?” I said. He frowned.
“She doesn’t hate me. She’s actually quite fond of me, I think, but she has a very…um, aggressive way of showing her love? She really seems to enjoy bullying me, but when we were kids she was always the first person to stick up for me, even to my parents. And to be fair to her I was an annoying little shit when we were children.”
“Ah, the older sibling instinct,” Souta said, with a sage nod. “I would kill for Maki, but there are also a lot of times that I want to kill Maki for being annoying.”
“Is she as insane as all the rumors make her out to be?” I asked. Rasha grimaced.
“She’s probably worse,” he replied.