Legacies of light

-Break-

After running around for a while, we eventually found a secluded area to sit down. While there, the man started to patch up the boy’s injuries and said to the boy, “So can you tell me why you would do something as foolish as stealing?”

“It’s none of your business old man,” the kid says. But moments later, he is slapped in the face by the man.

“You fool, something has driven a young boy like you to fall into the theft. Of course that’s my business, so whatever it may be, I will certainly come and help you, so please tell me why.”

The boy who freezes up for a second, says with his head hanging low, “There is someone I want to use this sword to kill.”

“My god, why would you want to do such a thing.”

“You see, my father and I came to Deno to expand our family business. But when we arrived a few years ago, a man who claimed to be an expert in helping small business rise came up to my father. As this man promised, he helped my father little by little. Gained our trust, and one day when we trusted him with a large amount of money, he made off with it and ever since that day we have been struggling to get by. But I saw him in Deno today, so I thought this would be the perfect chance to get revenge.”

“I see now, and I understand But, YOU FOOL,” he says as he hits him on the head. “Killing for such a reason is pointless, especially if it can be avoided. Don’t taint yourself with the blood of such a detestable man.”

“So, I should just like him go for what he did.”

“Oh, heavens no, I will get your money back without murder.”

“Telling us what he looks like will be a good start.”

Turning his face to me, the boy says, “But you have no reason to help me.”

“Of course I don’t, but why not? I am pretty fast and have good senses. I am sure if I help, this process will speed up tremendously, so could you give me some physical description of the man.”

“Well, he has a ruff bearded face, short curly brown hair and red eyes. He is also pretty old, in his thirties. One thing about him is he has a pretty stupid smirk.”

This is ringing a bell in my head, it all sounds unusually familiar. While thinking why this description rings a bell, Sparrow and Cyrus come up behind us. Cyrus says, “O-O-O-Orb, we finally found you.”

“Sorry I was dragged away, and then I started to help these two.” Looking at the face of the kid who told me the story, I see he has a shocked expression. “What’s wrong.”

He says in return, “It was him,” while looking at Sparrow. So that’s why it sounded familiar. After I hear this, I stand up and restrain Sparrow by turning his arm around his back.

“OW, OW, OW, Orb, why are you doing this?”

“I have just been informed that you robbed that boy.”

“I have been sick this whole time. How could I have robbed anyone?”

Twisting his arm even more, I say, “Not today, but a few years ago, you pretended to be a financial advisor and made off with their money. Look at the kid’s face and see if it seems familiar.”

“I have seen so many people in my life. Do you think I remember some plain-faced kid.”

“Ok, then let me ask you a different question. Did you pretend to be a financial advisor to steal people’s money in Deno at any point in your life?”

Sparrow goes silent, so I twist his arm to the almost limit and say, “It was a straightforward question, did you ever do such a thing? My patience runs thin.”

“It sounds like something I would do.”

“I see,” I say right before I knock him unconscious. Of course, he did such a thing, but that doesn’t matter. So, I go to the bag Cyrus has, then I take out all our remaining lupas and give it to him. “This money is rightfully yours, so you should take it.”

“Are you sure.”

“Of course I am, and I would give you more, but I don’t have any money on me.”

The man beside him says, “See, everything worked out, and not a single head had to roll, so you should be a good boy and thank God for your fortune. Now run home to your father.”

As the kid is about to run off, he hands me the sword and says, “That woman earlier stole this. I heard her bragging about it, that’s why I took it, but I have no use for it, so here,” and with that he runs off waving us.

I have no use for this, so I throw it to Cyrus and say, “Keep a handle on that for me, ok Cyrus”. Fumbling with it, he eventually catches it as I pick up Sparrow and say, “Now, on to our destination.”

When I said this, the man behind us says, “If you guys are going somewhere, I can lead you the way.”

“Why?”

“Well, since you guys aren’t from around here, I thought it would be best to give you some help. Think of it as gods repayment for helping that child.”

“Well, if you are offering, I won’t say no.”

“Wonderfully, so where are you heading?”

“To the giant building in the distance.”

“Oh, to the church. I will be able to help then.”

So as we walk, I ask the man, “Hey this is a port city, right.”

“Yes, you are correct.”

“So why is the church the biggest building here? No other building is close in size.”

“It is because Deno and its sister city Cordum were set up by the church.”

“Isn’t it weird for a church to run the two biggest trade cities in the world?”

“Trade is the life of a country and people’s ability to survive if you want to make people happy, of course, the church would need to make sure it operates well, and besides, there is usually lots of foul play, so the church as a mediator to make things as fair as possible.”

“Still, I find it strange that the holy nation hasn’t raised any of its flags here then since they would own this city.”

“Oh, I think you must be confused. The church here isn’t under the holy nation.”

“Huh,” I say out of confusion.

“You see, the church that works here is the church of the messiah while the church at work in the holy nation is the church of Lux. Apparently, both were one and the same at one point, so people who lived in rural or secluded areas tend to get confused.”

Hearing the words that come from his mouth, my right eye starts to sting a lot. I can feel a horrible throbbing pain in it. The pain caused me to stop walking, which the man leading us noticed and turned around to me to say, “Are you both ok? You’re clutching your right eye.”

Wait, he said both. I turn my head beside me to also see that Cyrus is clutching his right eye. What the hell is going on? The man in front of us lets out a quick prayer, and suddenly, it stops.

That was strange. That has never happened before. But the worrying part about it is that this is my legacy eye. “Where fine now? Thank you for worrying.”

“Well then, let’s go,” he says as we continue to walk. After a few moments of silence, the man says, “Sorry for this, but I have a question earlier. Why did you take the risk of exposing your legacy? This city has many people who would risk their lives to capture you, and you exposed yourself in front of everybody.”

“Simple maths.”

“Maths?”

“If I didn’t help, two lives would have been taken, which could accomplish numerous things for humanity and add happiness where they go. The only price I have to pay to receive such a great reward is having some annoying people after me.”

“I like that answer, but I wouldn’t take the lengths people are willing to go for someone such as yourself lightly, or has all the power your legacy has given you made you think you’re invincible.”

“Don’t worry, I am well aware I am not invincible.” That man Porto would of without question, killed me if Maple hadn’t stepped in to help.

“You’re rather grown up for a child.”

“Thanks for the compliment,” I say proudly.

“Where almost at the church. So, what are you going there for anyways.”

“Why do you want to know.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be like that. It is just that I have some connections over there, so I could put in a good word for you with them regarding what you want to do.”

“Isn’t that nepotism?”

“No one has to know.”

“Well, we are going there for a grant. You see, from where we come from lots of people are fatally ill, and we need the money to buy medicine for them. I want them all to live as long as possible, so I have no choice but to get that money, even if I have to get on my hands and knees to get that it.”

“What a good boy you are,” the man says as he suddenly starts crying.

Surprised by this, I ask, “Are you ok.”

“Yeah, I am. Don’t worry but let me guarantee you won’t be licking anyone’s feet.” He says as we arrive at the church.

Moments after we arrive, a group of people head out of the building in robes and say to the man standing in front of us, “Head priest, where have you been?”

“Head priest,” I say, shocked.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you, but I happen to be head of the church of the messiah in Deno. My name is Timothy. So how about we get that grant for you.”

We were escorted inside, and all sat in a room to talk. “Sorry about not telling you sooner. I think people are more natural around me when they don’t know my position.”

“I just can’t believe a grubby-looking man like you is the head of the church here.”

“Hey, that’s rude.”

One of the priests standing behind him says, “Your outfit is rather unfit for this place. Do you wish to spit in gods face with such conduct,” after he says this, the priest snaps his fingers, and a group of people walk in and grab Timothy.

As he screams for them to stop, the priest who snapped his finger says, “Sorry about his conduct.”

“Oh, it’s no bother. I was just wondering how no one was able to recognise him.”

Suddenly the screaming outside stops, and Timothy walks in his full priest garbs. He looks so different that I am completely taken aback.

“As you can see, when he is fully dressed up, he looks quite different. You would never be able to tell he is sixty years old.”

“That’s a lie.” Timothy looks as young as Cyrus, no way he is sixty.

“It is the truth,” Timothy says.

“How?”

“I had to spend thirty years of my life looking after my siblings, so God told me in a dream one day that I would give those thirty years back. That is why I look so younger.”

“You sure you are not a witch.”

“I would have you know it is the height of disrespect to equate the miracles of god to the devil.”

“Sorry,” but this is weird. But I wonder if I opened him up, if I would figure something out about his cells. The very thought of it has me laughing maniacally.

“So Orb, now I want you to tell me the full reason you want this grant and don’t you dare lie to me,” he says with a deadly serious expression.

So, in response, I tell him all about the reason I want this, but I leave out the part about Basileia. I don’t think spreading the word about our involvement will help us.

“So, do you have any proof of this sickness?”

“Cyrus, could you please so them.”

As Cyrus takes off his covering to show the effects of the crystals toxins, the people start making noise, with one of them saying, “A dragon”. I guess none of them would know that.

As the noise in the room continues to increase, Timothy says, “Compose yourselves,” and then the noise vanishes. So, Cyrus shows Timothy his body. Then Timothy says, “So Cyrus, how has Orb been treating you?”

“H-H-HE has been constant-t-t-tly helping me and everyone. Orb is nice.”

“Ok then,” he says right before he puts a big smile on his face. “Sorry about all the formalities. I just had no other choice. I needed to make sure you weren’t trying to hustle us, but I don’t have any reason to believe you are lying.” Timothy then writes something down on a piece of paper and hands it to me “This is the amount I was thinking of giving you. Is it enough?”

Looking at the piece of paper, I see a ridiculous number. This is five times the number that Sparrow previously had. “This is too much money. Why would you give this to us.”

“I doubt you would only need medicine to care for those people. This should cover your clothing and food expenses for the foreseeable future since you look like a person who would give away most of his money.”

“But this is too much. I don’t want to leave you out of pocket.”

“Don’t worry. We also double as a bank. All the Lupas in the world come from us.”

“Come again.”

“That’s why many countries use lupas instead of commodity currency like gold. It is the insignia between the church and the partner countries of their promise to keep this country neutral,” a nun behind Timothy says.

“I see. So, if this doesn’t put you in the red, I would be happy to accept.”

“Well then, since you said your destination is Seirei, you can still get boats to their today.”

“Well then, we will be off after collecting our money.”

“It will take some time to get one but until then, I would like to do some service for you two.”

“Service?”

“Yes, we here know some ways to hide your legacies from people, and we will find some clothes for you Orb that is less indecent.”

Did he call my clothes indecent. I guess the clothes Capti made me show my legs are very thin and incredibly light. But I happen to be wearing underwear, so it’s okay. Before I can say something in return, a group of priests and nuns grab Cyrus and me and lead us away.

-Break-

“You guys happen to be looking great”, Timothy says.

When they took Cyrus and me, they dyed our hair to be only one colour and gave us a colour contact, so now both my eyes are blue, and my head is pure white. The dye covers the changing colour of my hair, so only little streaks of the colour show.

Aside from that, they gave me new clothes. I was given a long puffy priest robe with a gold cross and lining throughout it. They also gave me a pair of pants which is incredibly weird to wear. The only time I wore pants was when I broke into Basileia.

But for Cyrus, they gave him clothes like a noble would wear. With the black sword, he looks like a warrior sworn to protect his princess. The nuns were praising him for how he looks.

Walking up to them, Timothy says, “I told you only to dress Orb.” But taking a look at Cyrus, he says, “Good job.”

“Thank you, sir. We custom-made those clothes.”

I wanted to know why my robes differed from everyone else, but they just made them over the hours we were here.

I go up to Timothy and ask, “Can we have our old clothes?”

“Do you not like these?”

“It’s not that. It is just that those are important to Cyrus and me. Cyrus was a gift from Pine, and mine was from Capti.”

“Do you mean Capti as in Captivant?”

“Do you know him.”

“Well, I grew up on his books.”

“So did I,” many nuns and priests say as they talk about him.

“His books were filled with such a passion for all of this world, so many people including me, have been inspired by him. His books made me want to help people, so I became devoted to God and became a priest. I can almost guarantee you that lots of people have similar stories.”

So, with a giant smile, I say, “Capti was a great person. Now I guess I have to be as well.”

After collecting our money and clothes, we say “GOODBYE THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING.”

“BYE, HAVE A NICE TRIP”

With that, we head to the port with our money and an unconscious Sparrow and board the ship headed for Seirei.