Legacies of light

“I guess such a person would be in the palm of your hand, but as long as no solid proof can exists of such a person’s identity and whereabouts, no matter whom you tell they wouldn’t be able to do anything, especially if it comes for people as despised as CN.

“That was actually a bit smart coming from you. While it is true that lots of people have spent years trying to discredit us, so if I was to publish said story, they might not fully believe me, but I want you to stop for a second and imagine how all those people are currently feeling.

They are all incredibly angry and are looking for something to point their anger at, so I am sure, even if they wouldn’t want to believe me if I gave them a convincing story they would look into it, especially if they have a direction to go in.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Holding out her hand an Omega butterfly lands on it. “Do you know what this is?”

“It is an omega butterfly; you use it to send news across the world.”

“That is correct, this wonderbeast is an incredibly useful one which CN has monopolised, but it has quite a few other functions, you see this beautiful beast can record images, then send those imagines to other butterflies, and this entire time I have been recording an image of your face. So now all your enemies have something to look out for.”

Crap, she got me, my guard was too low this entire time. “And you see while we were in Basileia this thing caught an image of a large horned wonderbeast, the one all the prisoners escaped with.”

She must mean Willow the 2nd.

“So you see, we have spent quite a lot of time trying to track down said wonderbeast. Every day for the last week or so, we found said wonder beast running back and forth from around the easternmost part of Terrafide. And after following it back, we eventually found this pretty amazing cave system underground, can you believe it!”

My facial expression grows grim, as I finally realize how badly I have messed up.

“So now, I have your identity, proof that links you to the Basileia incident, and the location of your base, all of which I could give to who knows how many people. All of which would be coming after the Basileia crystals in your possession.”

Think Orb, there must be something you can use against her. As I am about to say something in response she interrupts me with, “You think I was done there is still one more layer of control that I have over you.

Seirei, the spirit nation, has been pretty crazy the last few days because a rather dangerous person has been taken out of the country. So Seirei has now put out a notice, that if you spot two boys whose descriptions match yours and Cyrus’s perfectly, they should be put under arrest as criminals in that nation.

They have even been sending representatives to harass the church of the messiah in Deno because apparently one of the boys where wearing church robes, so I am sure they think this is one giant ploy against them.”

“But they have nothing to do with this.”

“So did the workers at Basileia who were turned into slaves because of the events that took place.”

I am unable to respond to her words.

“Now that I have finished talking about what was just on my head, we can get back to our main discussion, Orb what can you offer me for my help in finding this missing sister?”

I have nothing left, no information of any worth that I could give to her, she has complete control over this whole conversation.

“Oh, nothing, I thought that was about right, but since you have no information, I would like it if you were to offer me something with a bit more real value.”

“You couldn’t mean.”

“Yes, I do, Basileia crystals. Specifically, I want you to sell them for me and then I want ninety percent of the profits.”

“Ninety percent. That’s too much.”

“You don’t seem to understand the situation you’re currently in Orb, you have no leverage in this conversation, the fact that I am giving you any is something you should be thankful for, I could ask you for a hundred percent of the profits and you couldn’t say a thing about it, that is how much power I have over you in this instant. And the fact that you can’t understand that has upset me, so I will be taking ninety-five percent of the profits now.”

“But-.”

“Ah, ah, ah, no complaining or do you want me to take ninety-eight percent. But to be honest, if you just abandon all your friends and run away to Fimbulwinter I will have no leverage again.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I know that, so what do you have to say to our deal,” she says stretching her hand out.

Dammit, I have been utterly defeated, I am so sorry everyone, even after I said I will take responsibility for all of you, I couldn’t work it out at all. I have no other option than to agree so I stretch my hand out to accept said deal.

As our hand are about to touch, she takes her hand and places it on my head saying, “So how was your first defeat Orb, I am sure all that misplaced confidence came from the fact that no one has ever beaten you before. But I, a non-combatant have completely left you at my mercy.”

As she says this my frustration grows even more, and I say, “You only won because you were being unfair.”

“You see this is why adults are scary, they will use all their knowledge and influence to extort kids like you without a second thought. Adults have no concept of what you refer to as fair, and now you have ended up in a situation where all the lives under you could be ruined.”

“So is this your form of taking pity on me.”

“Yes, but also no, I don’t feel like just helping you for free anymore, so I will offer you an alternative solution, do you accept?”

“Can I hear it first?”

“But it is either this or the ninety-five percent option.”

“I would still like to hear it.”

She clicks her tongue at my suggestion, then says, “Ok then, mister buzz kill I would like you to become my son.”

“Huh, why?”

“You see Orb, I happen to love little kids,” she says with a completely serious expression.

“You really aren’t taking this seriously, is it really that fun to mess with me?”

“I AM SERIOUS, kids are cute, adorable, wholesome, don’t hold malice, try their best, and give love unconditionally, all kids what deep down inside is to be loved and I will provide that, no matter how or who they are: dumb, smart, fat, skinny, boy, girl, I will always be there for them, because they exist. Children are god’s gift to this world.” Ai drools as she gives me this speech.

I think I am starting to see why Capti didn’t marry this woman. She is frightening me again but in a completely different way than before. All my senses are telling me to run at full speed.

“So, you know Orb, that also extends to you. Your extremely cute Orb and I nee-want you to be my son, and if you have any other pretty little friends, I can adopt them too. Any child who has come under my protection is always in an unending state of happiness.”

She trapped me from the beginning, this was all a way for her to force me to accept this, she really has gone this far to make sure I become hers, what a psychopath, I really, really don’t want to be anywhere close to this woman, but I don’t have the opportunity to decline, she has me completely backed into a corner.

“So, Orb how about it.”

Begrudgingly I say, “I accep-.”

“Orb, are you ok?” I hear a familiar voice say.

Looking over to my side I see Suzuka. “What are you doing here?”

“Your thoughts have been going crazy for a while, so when I started feeling better I decided to come check on you.”

Seeing Suzuka, I immediately give her a hug and rub up on her tails. “Orb what are you doing.”

“Sorry Suzuka, I just needed some Comfort from this evil woman behind me.”

“Do you want me to beat her up for you?”

“No need, she already has both of us utterly defeated.”

Turning around I say, “Sorry about that.” But to my surprise, I see Ai completely dumbstruck with water dripping from her mouth and tears falling down her face. “Are you ok?”

“That girl is a goddess. She is the most adorable child I have seen in decades. Orb who is she?”

“This is one of my many friends Suzuka Gozen, the said important person from Seirei.”

Standing up and slamming her hands against the table she says, “No way if a child this cute was in Seirei the other member of CN would have reported it to me, I swear they have not been telling me about all the cute children recently.”

Looking at her face, I understand what is going on, the other members of CN probably didn’t tell her what Suzuka looked like, because they are aware of her behaviour. God bless those people.

“Hi there Suzuka, my name is Ai Kumo, would you like to be friends,” she says while trying to touch Suzuka.

Knocking her hand, Suzuka glares at her, and says, “You almost reduced Orb to tears, you think you can do that and touch me, vile woman.”

“But I.”

“Get away from me this instant you bitch.”

Despairing at Suzuka’s words, Ai flops back down on the table. Seeing all this has given me an idea, so I whisper into Suzuka’s ear, “Follow my lead.”

“Ok, Orb.”

So Sitting down I say to Ai, “So let’s continue our conversation from before.”

“Ok then,” she says barely springing herself back to life. But as she gets up, she sees a sight that gets her to ask me, “Orb, what the hell are you doing.”

“It is just that you have really tired me out, so I need to recharge by rubbing up on Suzuka’s tails, aww, the softness truly is unparalleled, it is like a cloud given form.”

Ai for the first time, today has a look of defeat which reenergises me. Gritting her teeth she says, “So, Orb, do you agree to my deal?”

“Wait a second, let me enjoy Suzuka’s tails a bit more.”

Taking glances at her, I see she is biting down on her teeth and gripping her fist so hard that blood is coming out, that’s the level of jealousy I want to see. “Suzuka is such a nice girl allowing me to do this. Getting to touch her tail like this makes me feel so happy, especially since the only people allowed to do this are her friends, and the friends of her friends. Isn’t that right Suzuka.”

Taking a second to read my mind, Suzuka says, “Of course it is Orb.”

Hearing this Ai perks up and says, “Orb me and you are friends right, so I can touch her tail.”

“Since when have you and I become friends.”

“Then will you become my friend?”

“You think my friendship is that cheap, if you really want to become friends with me you will have to pay an adequate price.”

“Then I will give you -Censor- lupas.”

“Not, good, enough.”

“Then what do you want.”

“Oh, you know what I want, and just to make me happy, you better throw in a bit extra.” As she sits there contemplating what I said, all I can think is: this is going to be fun.