Chapter 10

The healer nodded happily and looked back towards Mount Nightblade. “Not worth mentioning, little angel. So, before it gets dark, I’m going to look around a bit. I guess up there is the path we need to follow to get to the top of the mountain. I’ll take a closer look at it, maybe I’ll find a reference to the House of the Elders… I would also like to get an idea of the stability and safety of the path. It is possible that due to the lack of lumenium, some places are in danger of collapsing… Well, I’ll see you later, my two bunnies, don’t run away, will you? Hehe.” With that, Glaczio passed Cheyenne and Sasha stood up, as did Adocaz. It seemed as if the young woman had no objections and she approached her friend. But the girl was also curious and wanted to accompany the healer. “Wait a minute, Glaczio. Can I come along? I’d also like to familiarize myself a bit with the surroundings.” The healer stopped and looked at her over his shoulder out of the corner of his eye. He seemed surprised that Cheyenne wanted to go with him voluntarily. Sasha also seemed to be a bit confused, because after all, it was actually Glaczio who followed the two friends every step of the way and not the girl herself. Hm, I think that came unexpectedly for the two of them. But sitting around here and waiting until I have enough strength and concentration to do magic again wouldn’t be right for me… I’d really like to check the way… Something like the Klissave Mountains should not happen again… Cheyenne tried to clarify the situation a bit. “Well, I just mean. I would also like to see for myself, four eyes see more than two, right? I don’t want something like the Klissave Mountains to happen again… That’s actually the only reason I want to come with you and because I know you wouldn’t let me go alone.” The healer now seemed to understand and agreed. “If that’s the case… Of course, you can accompany me, although it won’t do you much good, because I doubt you can determine how much lumenium content the soil has. Even if you could find out… would you know the data, or could you calculate it to make a comparison? If you could do that, you’d have to factor in weather, time, load, other controls, and all possible probabilities in your calculation to determine the approximate percentage of safety. Don’t be mad at me if I tell you this now, but I doubt that you understand much about mathematics and physics, let alone know how to handle them so well that you can calculate all the values in your head without making some mistakes that lead to a falsified result in the end. That’s exactly what I find so sad about you… If you had attended a good school, you could do all this, I’m sure, but unfortunately the circumstances were not given. So it wouldn’t do you much good if you went with me. You’d better listen to the result, you’ll be the first to know, because I can deliver a one hundred percent correct analysis. This was scientifically proven to me, I even got an award for my intelligence, you can ask Sasha Mouse, hehe. In addition, I sometimes feel when there is a lot or too little lumenium in a place than there is in general. It’s because I’m a healer and the chosen one at that… Hehe, but for a brief moment I really thought you wanted to come with me because you can’t bear to be without me. Well, it’s understandable that the noble princess misses her beautiful hero, hehe. She just can’t live without him anymore.” Cheyenne blushed in the face and gave him the cold shoulder, while she raised her head in a feigned arrogant manner. “Hmph, I already said that I would have gone alone, that has nothing to do with you. But if you want to know exactly: In the past I would never have gone anywhere voluntarily with you, but now I’ve gotten used to your way and stuff, so it doesn’t bother me anymore. And I would have taken advantage of it, but what you just said will probably be true. I really can’t calculate that well. But then you really have to tell me the truth, I don’t want anything to happen to anyone, but I don’t think you do either.” The healer tilted his head and grinned as he waited for Cheyenne to look at him again. “Little angel… what is supposed to mean, I quote, ‘In the past I would never have gone anywhere voluntarily with you, but now I’ve gotten used to your way and so on, so it doesn’t bother me anymore’? Was that an indirect offer of friendship?” Cheyenne thought for a moment, she hadn’t really meant to imply that, but she thought about possibly accepting. Hm… Well, actually he hasn’t done any stupid things since Wacoralis that would have harmed Sasha, Adocaz and me, on the contrary, actually he has always helped us wherever he could. But if we are connected by the label ‘friendship’… well, friends have to trust each other, but I can’t, shouldn’t and don’t want to do that with him… On the other hand, it would be a sign of my gratitude that he always frees me from dicey situations and somehow we are already something like friends. Hm, I’m just going to say yes now so that he knows that I’d be willing to trust him and maybe he’ll take it so much to heart that he’d have too guilty a conscience to ever harm me in any way again. Well, a guilty conscience and Glaczio don’t really go together, but it’s worth a try. Maybe I’m thinking about it for nothing. Either way, Sasha will rip my head off.  Cheyenne sighed and turned back to Glaczio. She crossed her arms, nodded and smiled defiantly. “Hm, if you understood it as such, then yes. We’re already as good as friends, the only thing that stands in the way of that designation is that I’ve only seen you as a companion so far, and you know why. But even if we maintain a friendship now, the old conditions still apply, yes?” The healer nodded and bowed skillfully acting. But he seemed to be seriously happy and winked at Cheyenne. “Hehe, it’s a real honor for me to welcome you to my circle of friends, little angel. So then, I’ll see you later.” Glaczio raised his hand in farewell and disappeared behind the rocks.

Cheyenne turned to Sasha and Adocaz and looked into stunned faces. The young woman’s jaw had dropped and she had raised an eyebrow. Adocaz raised a paw and stroked his muzzle with it as if he were ashamed. The girl clasped her hands on her hips and tilted her head reproachfully until she realized that it had no effect on the fairy wolf and her best friend. So she lowered her shoulders, sighed, let her arms and head hang and then shook it slowly. But Cheyenne didn’t really want to justify herself, because after all, she had known exactly what she was doing. That’s why the girl changed the subject. “Um, Sasha, stop staring at me like that, yes? I already know what I’m doing, don’t worry, you’d better tell me what we’re going to do now. I don’t really want to sit here all the time waiting for Glaczio to return… I guess that would be too boring for you too.” Sasha sighed as well and Adocaz whimpered and dropped to the side. But the young woman trusted Cheyenne and accepted her decision. “Hm, well, it’s up to you what you do, but I warned you. Now he’s guaranteed to be even more annoying than ever. But you wanted it that way. I’ll keep an eye on him anyway and you can’t trust him too much, but I’m assuming you’re aware of that. Well, um, yes, I don’t want to sit around here either. So, I’m hungry, how about we go pick some pears? Then I remember that I’m the only one, except Adocaz, who ate something yesterday. Glaczio was with you the whole time and you slept so long. In the evening I completely forgot to ask you if you want a pear. Unfortunately, that’s all there is here. Adocaz has caught a rabbit, but I don’t really know… I mean, of course we could kill one, but I’ve never cooked anything in my life and Glaczio… um… Well, you can imagine that he feels the same way as I do. Yes, and these pears are really not bad. I wouldn’t even call them an emergency solution, they taste too good for that, hihi. So, come on, let’s go pick our dinner. Is that a good suggestion or what?” Cheyenne nodded and smiled, then Sasha beckoned her over, Adocaz stood up and the three walked back part of the way they had come to get to the pear trees.

The young woman raved about the fruits that hung from the branches in yellow and light green. “Well, Cheyenne, I’ll tell you, those pears will knock your socks off, they’re so awesome, you won’t believe it. We’re really lucky that they grow here and we get them completely for free, hehe. If there are anywhere near such insanely good fruits on markets at all, they would certainly be insanely expensive.” Cheyenne only exchanged a somewhat incredulous look with her fairy wolf trotting at her side. Will I be as enthusiastic about the pears? Hm… Pears… We have rarely had any in the house, they are only available on the market in the capital and they are imported. Grandmother always said that these fruits were very rare in Luminastrelle anyway. We have quite a lot of apple trees and near Mediasilva I saw many berry bushes as well as various nut trees. Well, the growth conditions of the fruits are probably better on the respective continent. Hm, now that I think about it… Actually, I’m not really hungry at all. Funny. Well… maybe it’s because I’ve slept so much… But I’ve been walking around all day today, so I don’t really understand it. Sasha said that Glaczio didn’t eat anything either… That probably won’t be because… we are chosen? But I don’t understand that, in the past I would have died of hunger… Why am I only changing so much now… Cheyenne sighed softly, but Sasha didn’t notice.

When they arrived at the pear trees, the young woman climbed on one of them and separated some fruit from the branches. She let it fall down, where Cheyenne was already standing and caught them. A small overripe pear that fell all by itself landed directly on Adocaz’s head with a dull sound. He whimpered briefly, then barked in fright and bit the fruit. He sneezed, raised his lips, licked his mouth wildly with his tongue and shook himself, because the taste was obviously not his cup of tea. The two friends laughed and then continued to collect fruit while the fairy wolf moved a little away from the trees.

When they had collected enough, Sasha jumped back down to the ground and took half of the fruit from her friend so that she didn’t have to carry so much. With Adocaz at the head, the three companions went back to the rocks. The young woman headed for the lake. “Cheyenne, let’s wash these pears off a bit. Then they are cleaner and even have an invigorating effect.” Cheyenne nodded and followed her friend to the shore. There they both sat down. Adocaz drank some water for a moment, then he saw a rabbit and rushed after it. After a short time, he had killed it and returned to the two friends with the loot. He lay down in the grass and chewed on the dead animal with relish.

Sasha started to dip the pears into the water. “I think we’ve collected enough for everyone, so if the icicle also wants a pear, that wouldn’t be a problem. Although he could also get some himself.” Actually, the expression ‘icicle’ is pretty nasty, considering that his body temperature was involuntarily lowered so much… But I think Sasha calls him that out of habit and it doesn’t seem to bother him much. Nevertheless, I would be really interested in why she always treats him so meanly. I mean, yes, he’s a complete idiot, but still… What happened that she hated him so much?  Cheyenne also dipped a pear into the water and decided to ask Sasha, but this time she would really make it clear that the answer should be given on a voluntary basis, because Glaczio had already told her to keep her curiosity under control. This was such a situation. “Um… Sasha? So, I’m just curious, but I don’t want you to give me an answer if you don’t want to. You shouldn’t feel pressured to make a statement, or anything… So… I would really be interested to know why you don’t like Glaczio at all. He may be exhausting and sometimes say things that he should keep to himself, but still. I think that alone is not enough to hate someone so much… The experiment that allows you to shapeshift is also not a good reason… He told me something about it and said that it wasn’t his fault, but some idiotic researchers stole his data and I believe him… I guess you know it’s true too, but you don’t want to admit it, or accept it… He confided in me that it sometimes hurts him a lot when you are so mean to him, but he still seems to understand your behavior. So don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to be friendly to him now, no, actually he deserves it, if we’re honest, but still… I’m really sorry that I’m so curious, but I’d just really like to know how childhood friendship can lead to such hatred. You don’t have to answer, I would understand, I know that this is a sensitive topic…” Sasha stared out at the lake and seemed frozen. Then she sighed and looked at the pear in her hand. “I understand why you’re asking, but it’s not so easy to explain… You should know the whole truth… But I told you anyway that I’m going to tell you everything about me, so… I guess now is the time to tell you my life story.”

Sasha put the washed pear next to her and lowered her gaze. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Then she began to talk. “I was born in the capital and from then on I lived with my family, consisting of mother, father, aunt and brother in a small, dilapidated house in the undercity. I may have seen you before, but then I can’t remember it. Xaver doesn’t look familiar to me either. My family didn’t even have a field to cultivate and my father had to make do with underpaid work that even endangered his health. Sometimes he had to clean the upper city and other things like that. Most of the time he worked in the metalsmith’s shop, which is now only a ruin in the undercity and had almost no windows, only very small ones that could hardly let in fresh air. You may know them, after all, you were once a small child and they like to play in such places. My father made armor there for the knight’s apprentices and lesser knights, whose equipment is not really special, all day without a break. Sometimes also swords, or other things for the upper city. The knights let the poor people produce everything ‘unimportant’ because they knew exactly that we always urgently needed money and would accept hard work for it. Besides, they had also put us under pressure. Once I was at my father’s blacksmith’s shop to pick him up from work. There was such hot, stuffy air in there that I could hardly breathe and afterwards I had enormous lung pain because there were poisonous gases in the air, the fire was fanned with burned garbage… I was never surprised when my father had coughing fits at home… He often collapsed because he worked too much and hard, but he went back to work every day because he really wanted to raise money for us and my mother. At some point, he didn’t come home. I was four and sat in front of the house until my aunt brought me in. I asked her when dad was coming home, but she just started crying and my brother came to me and hit me. He has… broke three fingers full of anger and grief, so that I would finally be quiet and never ask again when my father would come home. Then he ran away and I didn’t see him again for the rest of the day. My aunt took care of my fingers and explained to me that father no longer has to suffer and is in a better place. His lungs… had simply been damaged too much in his work in the smithy, I heard that again and again when I overheard mother and him when I couldn’t sleep… In any case, from that sad day on, my whole life was doomed to failure… My brother took over father’s work and he got sick as well. This made him so angry that… he started beating me every day and hurting me… My aunt just watched, she didn’t want to interfere, for fear that my brother would do something to her. And my mother was already so sick at that time that she couldn’t even get up… It got worse and worse with her, but I could never help her and I didn’t even know what illness she had… At some point she could no longer speak and… died in her sleep… I was the first to notice this and I… I then snuggled up to her side in bed all day and cried until I fell asleep from exhaustion. I was woken up by my brother, who dragged me away from mother and yelled at me that he somehow didn’t like that I was with her… He was so angry that he tried to drown me, but luckily my aunt intervened when I was already half dead. She took a few blows for it, but I was saved… A few days later, the forge went up in flames and then collapsed. My brother didn’t survive it… I don’t know if he was burned or beaten to death, I only know that I didn’t cry… My aunt couldn’t take care of me on her own and sent me begging. In the upper city, it was clear to everyone that I came from the undercity, because of my clothes and my unkempt hair and such… I was already five years old and saw Glaczio for the first time. I hid and watched him lovingly play with his sister Genevieve in front of his huge house. He was so good with her that I liked him right away. But I stayed hidden and in the evening I returned home without money… Just then two knights came to my aunt’s house, they wanted to collect taxes and when they saw me, they recognized me, the girl who went begging upstairs. It was forbidden to be seen in the upper city for someone from the undercity and I was everywhere, not only in the middle class but also in the aristocratic district and that was an even bigger crime. My aunt told me to run away, she wouldn’t let them kill me, so I obeyed her. But I only did that because I saw that the tin cans already… . It was a long night then and I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t really know anyone in the undercity, my brother forbade me to leave the house… Somehow I remembered Glaczio and I went to the house where I had last seen him. But I couldn’t discover him, only his sister, who was one year older, was back in front of the house in the afternoon and played with dolls in the grass. I watched it because it distracted me from hunger, thirst, exhaustion, grief and tiredness. When it got dark, I got closer to the house and looked inside through the windows. The pharmacy and healing practice area confused me because I had never seen anything like it before and the living area was gigantic and beautifully furnished. I started dreaming until I heard voices. Again I hid and saw Kommandant Atropax and Glaczio standing on the street. They said goodbye to each other and the icicle was just about to go to his house when he somehow noticed me and found me. My condition really frightened him and he asked me to wait a moment. He got a plate of food from the house and gave it to me. A warm blanket was also included. Then he showed me a place in the basement of his house where I could sleep. I was so glad he helped me. After a few days, when we had already become good friends, even though he was almost never there, because he always did his training and was taught at the tin cans, he introduced me to his parents and persuaded them to help me. I… was even allowed to live in his house for a few days… I got a dress from his sister, which was so incredibly beautiful… And she wanted to throw it away because she didn’t like it anymore… But this silence was short-lived, for soon the tin cans became aware of it. I was a thorn in their side and even more so at the time because I had contact with the chosen one. Genevieve never liked me and did everything she could to persuade her parents to throw me out… She even accused me of theft and things like that, but Glaczio always defended me. Over time, his parents changed more and more and didn’t like me so much anymore, I didn’t feel comfortable in the house anymore. Then two knights came and said that they had a better home for me, with foster parents who take care of me all by themselves. The operation was that I let a few, according to the tin cans ‘harmless’ experiments do with me. Somehow it seemed strange to me that they suddenly wanted to help me, but since I didn’t feel comfortable anymore anyway and Glaczio’s parents advised me to do it all the time, I accepted the offer. A big mistake… It wasn’t until later that I learned that the Light Knighthood was threatening them, so they had to get me to accept the offer. The way to the laboratory in the upper city was full of anticipation of a real home and the last beautiful experience I had as a child. The last minutes in which I still felt freedom, could breathe the fresh air, could see chromastars in their brightest colors and the source of life in all its splendor. Then I was locked in a cell in the laboratory and my data was taken. The researchers there never paid attention and everything they did caused me pain. I was often sick and so exhausted that I could not get up for a few days and had to sleep on the hard wooden board hung on the wall that served as a bed, from which I had always felt all the bones after sleeping. Sometimes it was so incredibly cold that I thought I was going to die… Glaczio was also in the lab almost every day, experiments were also carried out on him, although he always refused. Since he was already doubted, the researchers were only cautious about him when he was not alone. Most of the time, Atropax was with him. Every time the icicle was there… he came to me and asked how I was doing while he had to wait for the results of the tests and experiments. We became such good friends that he was really with me every day, as often as he could. He slept less so that he could pay me a visit in the morning before his lessons. Then he was always there at noon, because he slowly started to do his own research and various tests were still being carried out with him and in the evening he was with me very late until the laboratory was locked and the researchers went home. It was rarely open overnight because of nightly experiments. Until Glaczio was ten, he wasn’t allowed in my cell, but then he started to resist all experiments and stole the key to my cell, made it and had some spare keys. I was already such an important test subject back then that the tin cans and their researchers couldn’t let him free me, so they made a deal with the icicle that he had to swear on his parents’ lives. He would never break his promise, because everyone knew how much he had loved his family. But through this agreement, he was allowed to take me out of the laboratory once a week into the fresh air, into freedom… and he could visit me as much as he liked, as long as he performed his other duties. When I was thirteen and he was fourteen, we spent a lot more time together, he didn’t have to be taught so much anymore because he already knew almost everything at that point, so he started to do more research and wanted to do something about the global lumenium shortage. I always watched him eagerly create formulas and calculate all kinds of complicated things at an insane speed. I found that pretty impressive and well… It may sound strange now… But he was the only one I had at the time, he helped me so much and did everything in his power for me and more… He spent so much time with me and… You really have to admit, he is extraordinarily handsome, he was already back then… Of course, I would never tell him that, or admit it, but just between us… In any case… I fell in love with him and it seemed to be mutual. We got together just before my fourteenth birthday and I loved him so much, you can’t imagine, Cheyenne… When I was fourteen, the horror started again… General Agamemnon got wind of Glaczio’s and my relationship and often came to the laboratory with the icicle to supposedly look over his shoulder. Yes, of course, in any case, it is already clear that someone who does not even have the beginning of a brain should understand what Glaczio is calculating. Pff. He just stared at me the whole time when he came along… The icicle made sure that I was always well-groomed and sometimes bought me nice clothes and he always told me how pretty I was… Agamemnon probably thought so too… Or, no, actually I don’t know what he was thinking, maybe nothing at all, I don’t want to know at all… In any case, he came more and more often… Glaczio didn’t like that either, but he couldn’t do anything to keep his mentor away from the lab. After all, he is a ruler and he also trained Glaczio in part. One night, after the lab was already closed… he came into my cell and locked the access door behind him…” For the first time since Sasha had begun to talk, she was silent for a moment. She obviously had to collect herself and wiped a tear from her face. The young woman seemed annoyed by her emotions and shook her head before continuing. “He came to me and held his strong, rough hand over my mouth so that I could not scream, although even that no one would have heard… The lab was small and at that time I was the only one there because the other test subjects had died from experiments. Agamemnon has sat down on the wooden bed, next to me. I tried to remove his hand from me, but… he was just too strong… When I started kicking and fidgeting, he hit me. Until I was quiet and dizzy… Then… he touched me and slowly bent over me… Has come closer and closer to me… and… he… he… has…” Again, Sasha had to pause from speaking and Cheyenne already suspected what had happened back then. She was horrified and shocked, but hoped that what she believed was not true. But her suspicion was confirmed when her friend had collected herself again and continued to talk, as well as she could in her trembling state. “He held me… the clothes were torn from my body…  partially exposed himself… then he was on top of me and lay… on me… and then… he raped me… It… was so terrible… On top of that, I was a virgin up to that point… I was so… Next to me, I couldn’t even think or scream… It was so terribly painful and unpleasant, but it didn’t bother him, this damned, ruthless, lousy, heartless, cruel bastard… At some point, I don’t remember how long, my sense of time was totally gone at that moment, in any case it seemed like an eternity to me, he had had enough and let go of me… I couldn’t cry at first, I was just scared and shocked… When he had left and his… nasty laughter had fallen silent… and when I was alone again… I screamed very loudly at first and although I was already totally exhausted, exhausted myself even more with crying, running around, tearing through my hair… I hoped it would just be a dream, but… I… no matter how many times I hit my head, the memories have remained and so has the feeling… The blows were not even enough to relieve the pain in the soul and… body… I felt so dirty, my whole body itched, I felt so sick… I had the feeling that he was still there and would come back in a moment. His smell was everywhere, I never noticed it so strong and… It was so… terrible… I couldn’t even… … At some point I must have collapsed… Glaczio found me the next day in the morning and took care of me. He was with me for three days and didn’t leave me alone… He was the only one who believed me, or listened to me at all, and didn’t laugh at me…” Sasha had to take a break again, she wiped away her tears again, but she couldn’t control her shaky voice anymore. Cheyenne was speechless and too shocked to think. Her friend told her life in such detail that she really empathized and cried silently herself. This must… must have been so incredibly terrible… I would have… never thought… that something like this happened to her… Poor Sasha… At least Glaczio was with her… but… oh no… I already know some of what comes next… At some point his wife comes into play and he hasn’t been with her so much anymore… How could he betray Sasha and leave her alone? After everything she’s been through? Now I might understand the reason, even before she goes on to tell me why she hates him so much. But maybe there is something else… Argh… When I see this Agamemnon… For the first time in my whole life, I will have no pity for my enemy!  Sasha seemed to have collected herself to some extent, because she continued to speak in a shaky voice.

“Glaczio… was all… what I had… He was able to take away my physical pain… But the mental… have stayed… Agamemnon soon made sure that he was less with me… The icicle now had to work in his father’s healing practice and was there almost all day, every day… He didn’t want to give up his research because the lumenium deficiency was getting worse and worse… and was only with me in the evening… for… a few minutes… At some point, when I was fifteen, he couldn’t get any further with such a strange formula and spent every free minute in the royal library in the castle… During that time, there were days when I didn’t even get to see him… When I was allowed to go out with him, he sent me off alone because he had to work or research… And as if that wasn’t enough, Genevieve, who worked as a secretary to her father and his healing practice and her mother, who ran the pharmacy, put all the paperwork on Glaczio because she allegedly didn’t understand the stuff and didn’t know her way around. But I know for sure that this was just an excuse, she has always mastered it since she was sixteen… All just so that he spends less time with me… Then came the damn experiment… That was two weeks after Glaczio did not get any further with this strange formula. A researcher came to me and got me out of my cell, then he took me to two of his colleagues in an experimental room and… tied me to a metal couch, so that all my joints were already in pain… Then they first injected me with some strange liquid and then locked me in the machine that Glaczio had designed. I didn’t notice much of what the thing did to me, I only remember that I was about to fall asleep and warm white, so no light, flowed around me… This was lumenium from some dead animals and humans, which had already been transformed into unphysical, also by this machine, the only problem was that the structure did not change and my body rejected the lumenium… But there was so much pressure in the small room in the machine where I was that my lumenium structure changed underneath. The machine then got out of control, due to my physical instability, some of the unphysical lumenium was mixed with mine and messed up my whole body. The machine could convert the corpses into unphysical lumenium, but it couldn’t change the structure any further, so the genetics of the old bodies were still a few percent in it and it didn’t have the ability to adapt to my body… That was the point at which Glaczio got stuck… The machine is an accelerated form of cadaver processing, but incomplete… The only thing that would come out of it are demons… I… I’m kind of… a mixture of demon and human… since the experiment… that’s why the shapeshifting and that’s why I don’t like it so much… But I prefer to call it a mixture of animal and human… both designations are partly correct… according to Glaczio… He just didn’t manage to find the formula for automatic lumenium structure transformation. He wanted to make the structure adapt to touch and thus turn corpses and useless objects back into Earth’s own lumenium. This machine was just a prototype to see if it worked as soon as he figured out his formula. It accelerated the first part of the decay process, but it failed at the second, just like nature when there is too little time. It excited and occupied him so much, he doubted himself so much, that he really sat in this library day and night… But he didn’t find anything useful in the books. If he would explain it to you now, it would certainly be easier for you to understand… I think he once said something like this: ‘With the help of this machine, I succeed in converting bodies into unphysical lumenium, dividing it into particles, but the structure cannot be completely changed and cannot be further transformed into the desired target structure. This requires this formula, but I just don’t seem to have enough intelligence to create this formula. So at the moment my invention is still useless, but I will continue to work on it, because this lumenium deficiency must be stopped’. Somehow he meant something like that… Wow… That was a better explanation in a few sentences than what I was just trying to explain… But honestly… if anyone is intelligent enough for such a complicated formula, it is probably him. You have to give him that and I even admit it, even if I can’t stand him anymore, I don’t know either, maybe he was just too young, or something… In any case… back to the actual topic… The machine ran hot and burned down… This test was extremely important to the researchers, so they just saved me, but thanks to this stuff they gave me and because of my burn injuries, I fell asleep, or fainted, I don’t know… When I woke up again, I was in my cell, with the smell of burn in my nose, stronger than anything had ever smelled before, and Glaczio was sitting next to me. All my instincts seemed to be much more pronounced than ever before. The more I woke up, the more I got in pain and no matter what he or I did, it didn’t stop and kept getting worse. My body was constantly changing into all kinds of animal shapes and that exhausted me so much that the suffering became even greater. My whole body… felt like it was burning, at the same time I was freezing cold, I couldn’t move on my own, I totally lost control… It was as if I was in some other body, or someone was controlling me without me wanting to. When I wanted to get up, my legs didn’t move an inch, my body just did what it wanted, I couldn’t control it. It was like I had nervous twitches or something… And this pain… That was the only thing I managed to do; scream. All my bones felt broken, with every time my shape changed again, it became more painful. I couldn’t breathe and my heart often just stopped beating, without Glaczio, I’d be dead now. He did everything he could to prevent me from dying, even though he really thought about putting an end to my suffering. But he probably knew that I would want to go on living… The headache was the worst, it felt like my skull was going to explode, or be crushed… That was… really terrible… I hope you never have such a headache in your whole life… Sometimes I couldn’t see anything at all and collapsed so many times that I can’t count it. I guess in this situation I had no choice but to get used to the pain. At some point it became weaker and stopped altogether. I don’t know if they’re really gone, or if I’ve just blocked them out, because when I hurt myself these days, I still feel pain. Glaczio has never left my side during this time… He temporarily gave up research as soon as he heard what had happened to me and left his work in the healing practice to the side. When I felt better after a long time, when I was sixteen, he managed to negotiate with the researchers and Atropax, so I got out of the lab cell for a whole week and was allowed to live with him. He said it would be best if I had a real break from all this crap… I thought about whether I should take the chance and run away, far away from the laboratory and out of the capital… But Glaczio had negotiated this agreement and I knew that if I was gone, his family would not fare well and I didn’t want to do that to him. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that they would do anything to the managers of the best pharmacy and the only healing practice in the capital, but… over time that seemed to have changed, otherwise they would still be alive… Anyway, I was with him for a week and often on the road with him… Our relationship got much better again… It was so beautiful back then… But then… I had to go back to the lab… Glaczio resumed his research, but was still with me a lot. At some point around this time, he found an old research report in the library that stated that the knights’ goal of restoring the old world is quite risky and unpredictable. There was still data in it about experiments and considerations that tried to guarantee the continued existence of the world after the new change, but Glaczio then sat down to it himself and made his own considerations and calculations about it. He came to the conclusion that it is very likely impossible to live without Lumenium and Umbraurore and confronted Atropax with this. He contradicted him, justified the goal of the Knighthood of Light with all his might. Glaczio rebelled against the tin cans and didn’t want to be the chosen one anymore and support them in their insane project… Fearing that he would turn to the shadow servants and divulge all chivalrous secrets to them, Agamemnon blackmailed him. He threatened Glaczio to make his parents and sister suffer and kill them with his own hands. And as proof that he was serious, he came back to me and… Half killed me… He inflicted quite deep wounds on me with an extremely sharp knife and slashed my throat… Before Glaczio’s eyes… He couldn’t help me, if he had done anything like that, that would have been it for me… Agamemnon then, for once, let it go, because Glaczio promised not to leave and complied… The icicle healed me and… then he said… It would be better if we parted… For my good and that of his family. On the one hand… Yes… of course, that was the best thing he could do, even if he loved me and knew exactly that I… will be more than just broken, but I also understood him somewhere. He just didn’t want anything to happen to those he loves and hoped for me that if he stayed away from me, the tin cans would lose interest in me, let me go at some point and stop hurting me because of him… Glaczio was then really angry with the Knighthood of Light, because it was destroying his life more and more and that of others. He still fulfilled his duties, but deliberately made mistakes that really upset Atropax. The icicle played dumb, but so clever that no one could accuse him of that… The metal idiots had to get him to be sane again and distract him from his anger… So… I don’t know how much he’s told you about it now, but… The king, on the orders of the knights, has paid the father of a girl to introduce her to Glaczio… This guy basically sold his own daughter to the king… And the idiot icicle has fallen in love with the girl… Pff… Now all of a sudden he is allowed to have a girlfriend just because she comes from a noble family… And he? How can he be so stupid and a few weeks after our separation, think again about the reason for falling in love with another girl? He could have thought that things could happen to her, like to me, when he doesn’t listen to what the tin cans are telling him…  And… I mean, did he have no feelings for me anymore, or what? Argh… That’s when the drama with him already started, the weirdo just left me to the side, for someone else. I mean… We had known each other for thirteen years, I was already seventeen at that time, and he had only known the girl for a few days and fell in love. He said she was the woman of his life, oh, listen, listen… Grrr… And what was I? Well… I’ve heard of such cases in the meantime, there should be, but to experience it myself… just like that… to be ‘replaced’… And perhaps her aristocratic ancestry offered her a bit of protection from the danger posed by the tin cans… Well… I’ve finished with the icicle and wouldn’t want to have him back now, the times are over, too much has happened… In addition, he has now lost his life and p… constantly changes from one girl to the next, this complete idiot… and now I have my life. I finally got it right… Back to the topic… The girl I’ve been talking about all the time was called Gwendalynn, she was seventeen, just like me, Glaczio was eighteen at the time, she had light orange, beautiful, wavy hair and light brown eyes, she was slim, polite, well-behaved, intelligent and pretty. Pff, I’d really like to say something bad about her, like that she was snooty or something, but then I’d be lying, she even made friends with Genevieve. The girl was… so… they… Argh… She was an angel, but I hated her anyway, just to be clear, yes? Although she sometimes visited me when Glaczio didn’t have time and kept me company… She knew that it could possibly have consequences, but she was there anyway and annoyed me… Hmpf. She always said how much Glaczio misses me and that he often talks about me because I am his best friend and so on… I really got pretty sick sometimes… betrayed and felt lousy… The two then married, at the insistence of the knighthood… Glaczio came to visit less and less, as did Gwendalynn… and I was alone. The lab slowly went down the drain because the knighthood focused more on the labs outside the capital and Glaczio still made so many mistakes that… well, let’s put it this way, he sometimes deliberately blew up the experiments and destroyed half of the laboratory and things like that. But at least he always made sure that nothing happened to me… Well and then… came this one day… that was to change both of our lives forever… The king apparently had a scratch somewhere, Glaczio, who was already nineteen at the time, refused to heal it, because he thought it was a waste of energy and preferred to help other, really suffering people. That was… not so good for everyone involved… The king apparently told him to his face that Gwendalynn’s father was paid to have his daughter here and it was somehow a coincidence that Glaczio and she liked each other so much. She’d only be here so he could have children with her, I’m sure he’s already told you that. That was too much for the icicle and he told the king his opinion, but properly. The knights then attacked him, Atropax was not in Luminastrelle at the time to prevent the whole thing, he was only there more often anyway, when Glaczio was still smaller and he still had to train him. But Agamemnon could have said something, but no. He personally gave the icicle a proper wound before he set the other tin cans on him… Glaczio always claims that this refusal was the best thing he could do, even if the consequences destroyed his life, he wouldn’t want to undo it… The bastard Agamemnon then made off with the dust, knowing full well that he had now lost the chosen one and that didn’t bother him so much, because Atropax wasn’t there and he had had a problem with the icicle for a long time anyway. He doubted him since Glaczio was three and he didn’t like it at all that he constantly resisted him. There was certainly a huge dispute with Atropax afterwards, but he probably accepted that. He was also tired of the threats and wanted to follow up with action, to see people suffer again. So he gave the order to have Glaczio’s family killed. While he was still fighting and finally winning covered with wounds, his whole family was already slaughtered. They were all dead and his house was on fire when he got there. Agamemnon is a bloodthirsty, disgusting bastard… He rejoices in the suffering of others… He’s just crazy and a real psychopath… His actions are unpredictable, but always cruel. That night… he came back to me, the laboratory was closed in the meantime and I was eighteen, but I was still being held captive, as a means of exerting pressure on Glaczio… Agamemnon… told me that everything that would happen to me from now on didn’t matter anymore. He said that Glaczio could never take care of me anymore, because he would run away from the capital if he wasn’t already dead. And even if he could escape, he said, he would not survive long, because the knights would find him and kill him. Then… was all… like back then… When I was fourteen… He came back to me and… Has again… raped me… Then he ran away… I was completely exhausted and just sat on my wooden bed and hoped that it was just a dream… I knew that from now on… he would come to me every day, he said as he walked out. Until tomorrow, my little darling, he whispered. He now thought I was only for his own… disgusting purposes and I was not only in pain, but really afraid. I wasn’t sure if I would survive this… If he… every day… A-anyway, somehow Glaczio came to the lab and destroyed the small window in my cell with his magic. He said we couldn’t stay here and had to flee. He sounded distraught, but I was just too shocked and preoccupied with my own tears and problems to be able to keep up with him. I didn’t really realize all that… The knights seemed to have chased him and I didn’t know if he had noticed what had happened to me at that moment … In the meantime he knows… Then he just left me alone and ran away, I mean, yes, he had to go, but he shouldn’t just let me down, I wanted him to be with me at that moment… he should have hidden instead of running away altogether… Somehow I understand that, but I still hate him for it… and about the Gwendalynn thing… I know that all this is not really his fault, but I… I guess I just had to blame someone at the time, it helped me… And that has stuck with me so much that I still hate him now, although I actually know that there is not really a good reason for it… Then he was gone and another day passed. That night I was freezing tremendously and I just didn’t know what to do… The next day in the evening, Agamemnon came, but this time I managed to escape him. Out of fear, I climbed out of the destroyed window, I barely got through, then I ran away. I ran as fast and far as I could out of the capital. For some time I wandered aimlessly until I met one of the shadow servants. He noticed my hatred about the tin cans and asked me if I didn’t want to get on his side. I immediately agreed, I want the Knighthood of Light to become history and I will personally rob Agamemnon of his life. But that doesn’t bring back the lost part of mine either… It’s still my goal. I want to kill him and if I had to die for it myself, I wasn’t the only one to whom he did such terrible things… I know that… Well, and then at some point I met you when I was on my way to Saraley. I came from my shadow nest in the Klissave Mountains, saw you and rescued you. And yes, you know the rest. Another reason why I can’t stand Glaczio anymore would be that he always flirts with you like that, but not only because I once had something with him, but because it’s just annoying, not only for me, for you too… and… because he’s become so unpredictable now, I can’t be sure he’ll really stay on our side, or go back again when he realizes that the Shadow Servants would rather kill him than accept his help. I really have no idea… I don’t even know if he still cares about anything… That’s the problem. He is a miserable liar and has betrayed the whole knighthood and me too. Why shouldn’t he do it a second time? It was good for us that he left the metal idiots, but it was still betrayal. I can’t believe him anymore, especially not after everything he’s done to you and how he always deals with girls. It could all be a trap and he has already returned to them and is now luring you somewhere so that the metal idiots can kill you… On the other hand… I don’t really think he would be capable of such cruel things, but… he has just changed so much… Oh, don’t worry, I’ll protect you from anyone who wants to do anything to you, Cheyenne, I swear on my life. I’ll do everything in my power to prevent anyone from hurting you… Neither Glaczio, nor anyone else… and… certainly not… General Agamemnon… It’s gotten late, I guess… I told for quite a long time… I’m sorry, but all the answers to your questions should have been in there. I… go collect firewood for a moment so that we don’t freeze at night… See you later, Cheyenne, Adocaz, take care of her…” With that, Sasha got up and walked quickly towards the pear trees.

The source of life had long since disappeared and the chromasters were becoming paler and paler. Cheyenne was still shocked by Sasha’s story. She had also seen clearly that her friend only wanted to distract herself with the last sentences, because her memories had stirred her up so much that she had to pull herself together not to start crying properly. She seemed to prefer to hide her feelings and Cheyenne would have liked to run after her, but she suspected that Sasha preferred to be alone now and accepted this. So she remained sitting on the shore and continued to wash the pears, depressed. She felt infinitely sorry for her friend, but there wasn’t really much she could do for her. Cheyenne was nevertheless very impressed by the strength of her companion. I really hope that Sasha will be able to take revenge on Agamemnon one day… I feel so sorry for her, but I know she doesn’t want pity, so I’m going to keep it to myself and try to be as normal to her as possible. It was really a great vote of confidence that she told me all this… Oh, Sasha…

When Cheyenne had finished washing the pears, she took them to the rocks, where she spent the night. At that moment, Glaczio came around the corner. Glaczio… I could have imagined everything… but I would never have guessed that he was with Sasha… But if he was so fixated on relationships back then, why doesn’t he have a girlfriend now, but always another girl? I mean, yes, it’s his life and he can do whatever he wants, but these girls are always hoping for a relationship, as I’ve noticed, but Glaczio seems to disappear every time before it gets serious… and breaks their hearts… Why? Sasha is absolutely right with this question… I’d be interested in it too… Well, he will have his reasons. But I could bet that it has something to do with his past. He lost the two girls he really loved… Maybe… he doesn’t want to go through something like that again. Is he afraid of the pain of loss? If so… then I understand him… but it is still not right to fool the girls. And Sasha… She said it, but has she really finished with him? Well, her reaction is understandable when Glaczio flirts with any girl, at least she knows that she will be very broken pretty soon… But can’t that also be jealousy? It’s hard to say with her… Oh, I don’t really think she wants Glaczio back, that would be pretty absurd, after all, she wanted to kill him and hates him. I can’t blame her anymore, with everything she’s been through… But Glaczio also had to take quite a bit… The two have suffered so much that my past… well… seems harmless… But I’ve already suffered from death… of my loved ones, how bad must it have been for the two of them? No one has ever really hurt me, unlike them… No wonder they are so strong now, if they were able to overcome their past and… Sasha is actually so happy… If I… would have been raped… I don’t think I could be like them… And Glaczio rebelled against the knights, thus made an enormous number of enemies, then lost everything and still tries to get ahead in life and find the right way… I’m really at a loss for words… They are just so incredibly strong…

Cheyenne placed the pears on the grass floor and noticed that Adocaz was standing behind her, fixing the healer, who was just standing next to his new friend. She straightened up again and stared at him for a while. She didn’t really know how to react to him, after everything Sasha had just told her. Glaczio seemed to find his protégé’s behavior a bit strange, but he was not bothered by it and reported on his exploration. “The path we will be on is quite certain, but it doesn’t look so good further up. But we won’t go that high anyway. So don’t worry anymore, do you?” Cheyenne just nodded silently, slowly turned her head away from the healer and looked at the ground. She couldn’t get Sasha’s life story out of her head. Glaczio seemed to have already noticed that the young woman was missing. “Hey, little angel, where’s Sasha mouse? By the way, don’t think I didn’t notice that something was bothering you. What was going on, huh? Can’t you girls be left alone for a moment, hehe…” Cheyenne sighed and looked at the healer again. Adocaz had started growling, but was ignored. The girl took a deep breath before giving Glaczio an answer, because she would have to address the extremely difficult topic of the past for an explanation. “Um… Sasha is at the back of the pear trees and is looking for branches for a fire… Don’t go to her now, she wants… so I think at least she would like to be alone… She has… told me her whole past…” The healer closed his eyes for a moment, then averted his gaze a little embarrassed before looking at his protégé again. “Did she tell you everything at once? Without interruption?” Cheyenne nodded, because Sasha hadn’t really taken a break, then the healer continued. “Oh… This girl… Hm, then you know everything now? Do you hate me now, too? That would just explain your look… Hehe… I had no other choice… At least not at this moment… I had to run away… Meanwhile, I regret that I was so cowardly… To be honest, I don’t understand my reaction anymore… I have… not even thought about it… That’s better than ever the case with me… She was actually the last thing I had left and I just let her down in this… Situation… No wonder she hates me and can’t trust me anymore. I would never ask her to do that. I’m just glad she’s feeling better now… I hope one day she can take revenge on Agamemnon… Did she really tell you everything?” Cheyenne nodded. She understood both Sasha and Glaczio, although each of them had a completely different view of things. She could almost put herself in the shoes of her two friends. Now that the healer had finished his testimony, the girl was sure again that she wouldn’t hate him because of his past, no matter how Sasha felt. Neither of them had it easy and neither of them deserved to be hated. At least that’s how Cheyenne saw it for herself. She relaxed her gaze and took a step closer to Glaczio, who seemed to have buckled. He tilted his head a little and tried not to look too sad. Cheyenne had rarely seen him in such a state, the fate of his ex-girlfriend really seemed to affect him very much. She knew that he, like Sasha, didn’t want pity, but the girl thought it was better to say something anyway instead of remaining silent. “Glaczio… I don’t hate you. Of course, that’s all… difficult… I understand what Sasha feels, but at the same time I can somehow understand your behavior… You had a much harder time than I did… and you are so incredibly strong… I really wish you had been spared all the suffering… I admire your will to live…” Cheyenne was so touched and could feel the despair as if she had been there then. It was as if she were looking at what she had experienced through Glaczio’s eyes. She turned around and wiped away a tear. Why am I crying now… I hate the knights more and more… If I’m the chosen one… there is no one else who can stop them… And I don’t want there to be any more cases like Sasha’s… That is, I… I want to try… to put an end to the knighthood, so well, I succeed… But I’m going to go my own way… Maybe Sasha is so happy now because she lives in freedom. She is no longer locked up anywhere. And Glaczio is also free, but seems to have changed in only a few things. I’ve always lived in freedom… As long as I didn’t know who I was… But actually… my grandparents and I, well… No, we weren’t really free either. We were under threat from the knights… Just like many other people. If I am the chosen one, I can take advantage of this and work for people to be free… Defeating the knights brings freedom and the salvation of the world… Survival… Maybe I should… use my fate… to help. So many people are in a bad way… Sasha just showed me that very clearly… But I don’t want so much suffering to happen in the world… And the lumenium shortage caused by the knights slowly destroys everything… Maybe I can change that… If I’m really the chosen one… I won’t run away anymore, but face this task… for my friends and for the whole world… and somehow also a little bit for me and my future… Grandmother said that all hope rests on me… and I don’t want to disappoint anyone’s trust, but help… No one shall suffer from the knights any more. Not if I can prevent it. Sasha said that a lot of people sacrificed their lives for me. I want to return the favor and no longer watch someone die for me. Did Glaczio mean that? With the path of freedom? That I do not follow my destiny that has been given to me, but that I freely decide to strive for the same goals as those of my destiny? In my own way… I do not submit to my destiny… I only do what I think is right and decide for myself about my life. They happen to be the same goals, but different ways to achieve them. So I’m going to fight for freedom and survival… for a better world… I know I won’t be able to do this in my current state… I have to get stronger to achieve this… and it will take me a lot of effort to pursue these goals with body and soul… But as long as Glaczio, Sasha and Adocaz are by my side, I’ll manage it somehow… Hopefully… What if I fail? No, it must not come to that… ‘You must not die. I will not allow it. Don’t be afraid, my dear Cheyenne. Not yet’. The sea dragon didn’t let me die… Does that mean he believes I can do it? Well, I’m trying to do my best… If I… should be… the… Chosen…

Cheyenne suddenly regained her courage and shook her head wildly, then she turned around and looked at Glaczio. “For the freedom of this world. No one should suffer from the knights anymore, like you, Sasha and my grandparents… I will not surrender to my fate, but use it to my advantage, just as you taught me. I only use it for my goals and purposes. I will make my own decisions and walk on the path of freedom. I want to… no longer hesitate and run away… I will face up to the responsibility of my decisions and actions because I have chosen them freely. I just hope that one day I’ll be strong enough to carry this heavy burden… I don’t want to watch the world slowly die and people suffer like this without having done anything about it. I’m going to fight… for all those who still have hope for a better future, for all those whose dream is to be free, for all those who love the world and want it to recover, and for all those who just want to live.” Cheyenne tried to sound convinced, but a sense of uncertainty overwhelmed her, leaving her wavering between hope and despair. It was just too much, still. Glaczio looked at his friend kindly and proudly. He seemed to notice that she was pretty much at her wit’s end. “Little angel… Don’t worry, right? Your attitude is very commendable, you are really unique… Now you have finally understood it. The path of freedom. How could I ever doubt your strength of soul? Hehe. You will make it. You are not alone, there will be countless people at your side. The first step to achieving the goals you have just set is hereby done. But if you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t achieve what you desire… You have to stand behind it with all your soul. No matter how desperate you may be, your dreams and goals must be a haven where you can find new hope. Nobody knows what the future holds… So I believe in you, until the end. Just like every single shadow servant and Sasha. Little angel… learn to have confidence in yourself…” After Glaczio’s words, Cheyenne was already much better and she was no longer as insecure as before. She would have liked to hug the healer, she was so grateful to him, but she decided not to do it after all.