The Hidden World

[You did more training than I thought while you were gone,] Akira commented.

‘I needed to,’ Yuki replied. ‘What do you think?’

[We should compare notes later,] she said. 

‘Whenever you want.’

“Archmage,” Jericho, interrupting their conversation, “do you want to say any words to the brothers and sisters?”

‘I should, shouldn’t I,’ Yuki thought.

[Yes. Ease any remaining doubts. We might be able to use them in the future.]

“I do,” Yuki said. “It’ll be quick though.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you.” She turned to the crowd and gave them all a quick look over. Their hoods still hid their faces, but the general feeling she got from them was neutral for the most part. “Hello, brothers and sisters. I know that it has been a chaotic few days with the passing of Sophie and the appointment of me who is someone that you know little to nothing of.

“I hope that your confidence in my abilities have been improved with what you all just witnessed. I hope that the credibility of my selection has been solidified at least a bit.” 

She paused for a moment.

“I don’t expect you all to trust me immediately. I would be foolish to think that. However, I do hope that you give me a chance to prove that I am the right person. Have faith. In me and also Sophie. She chose me and I trust her wisdom and judgement as I’m sure you all do as well.”

“One last thing,” Yuki said, her voice quieting. “On the matter of Sophie’s passing, I will try my best to see if we can do something about it. It’s out there. We just need to find it.”

‘And I think I may know where it is,’ she thought, keeping that to herself. She didn’t want to give false hope no matter how confident she was. 

“When I get information about this, I’ll be sure to tell all of you. For now, that will be all.”

The crowd stayed silent. Jericho tapped Yuki’s shoulder and motioned for her to start to leave.

“They won’t go until you do,” he explained in a whisper. 

“Oh. Follow me then, we need to talk,” Yuki said. She nodded at Akira, telling her to follow as well, and strolled out of the chamber. “I have an office, right?”

“Yes,” Jericho replied. “Let me take you there.”

As they walked down the hall, Yuki heard the soft steps of people as they left the chamber after them. None of them passed her though, all of them heading in the opposite direction.

‘I need to see a diagram of this place.’

After a minute of walking, Jericho stopped before a door and gestured toward it.

“This is your room,” he said. “Do you want to see if it's satisfactory?”

“I’ll check,” she nodded. “Wait out here.”

She twisted the knob of the door and pushed it open, the door swinging smoothly and without a sound. Inside, the room looked much like the one at the meeting site that Sophie used. There was a large bed accompanied with many filled bookshelves. A desk was placed at the back of the room. It was a simple wooden desk with two drawers and a few books stacked neatly to the side, but other than that was barren. There were no papers or pencils lying about. The entire room looked abandoned.

Yuki stepped out and shut the door softly behind her. She glanced at Jericho, wondering whether or not he had been inside the room before.

“Has anyone touched this place since Sophie disappeared?” she asked.

“No,” he replied with a shake of his head. “We left the room as it was. The former archmage enjoyed her privacy. Do you want us to clean it out?”

“It’ll be fine,” Yuki said. “I was just curious.”

‘She didn’t tell anyone she was leaving then. The room looks like someone packed up.’

“Is this my office?” she asked.

“No. I brought you here because it was on the way. Your office is a bit further down.”

Sure enough, Yuki found another door a few steps away. This one looked to be much more like an office when she peeked inside with a desk along with bulletin boards and a computer which seemed out of place in the room with its rough stone walls. It seemed cleared out just like the bedroom.

“Come on you two,” Yuki said, pushing the door wider. “We need to talk.”

There was only one seat in the room which Yuki took. With a wave of her hand, she made two more from stone. 

“What I want to talk about is this group,” she said as Jericho took a seat. “The Dragons of Gaea. I am their leader, for now at least, so I need to know what we do.”

“You don’t know? Did the former archmage not tell you?” Jericho frowned.

“No. She was focused more on teaching me,” she explained. “So what is that we do? Generally. I’ll get the specifics later when I look into it more. I just want to know what I should look into.”

“I see. Then let me explain.” He shifted around in his seat. “The Dragons of Gaea are a group of mages dedicated to studying the magic of the earth. We also, by extension, monitor the earth. When something concerns us, we look into it, much like what we did when Lady Akira was born. Most of the time, however, we study and practice.”

“Like monks,” Yuki said.

“If earthen elemental magic is our religion, then I guess so.”

“So then what do I do exactly? This seems like something that can run on its own for the most part. Do I teach? Observe? Or am I just a figurehead?”

“I can only tell you what the former archmage does. You see, the Dragons of Gaea were founded, as the name says, by Gaea,” Jericho said. “The only archmage I’ve been under is the former one.”

“Tell me then.”

“She did as you suggested. She went around teaching and instructing others during her free time and when she was out of the council.”

“Anything else?”

“Well, she is a leader figure to the dragons in general. Not an actual leader, but someone that people look at with respect and expectations. So she also helps others outside of the Dragons of Gaea.”

“I see. Thank you for telling me. I think this will be all for now,” Yuki said. “Is there a way for me to contact you if I have any more questions?”

“There’s a button to contact me on the desk somewhere,” he replied. “Otherwise, you can go to the libraries and I will most likely be there.”

“Alright. You're dismissed.”

Jericho stood and gave Yuki a bow before leaving the office, the door shutting behind him. The chair he stood on melded back into the ground. 

“So what are you going to do?” Akira asked.

“I’ll probably look at what Sophie has in here and see if it can give me a better idea about things.”

“There doesn’t seem to be much here,” Akira observed.

“True,” Yuki smiled. “I’ll look in the bedroom as well. I don’t expect much, but something is better than nothing. It’ll give me a better idea of what I can do with my position.”

“Want me to go back to others and tell them what happened?” Akira asked.

“Tell them, but no need to go back. You can tell Erica, right?” 

“I can try. Might be a bit far.”

“I’m sure you can do it. I would do it myself, but our bond is still pretty new so it’s not as strong yet. Just tell them that everything is good.”

“Alright. I’ll knock when I’m done,” she said as she stood up.

“Alright,” Yuki nodded. 

As Akira walked out, Yuki began snooping around the desk and its drawers for anything that would be of interest to her. A few notebooks were lying around which she gathered into a pile to look at later. 

Deeper in one of the drawers was another notebook that had a piece of paper attached with three words written neatly on it. 

“Get over it”

‘What’s this?’