The heavy oak doors of the Bureau clicked shut, the sound echoing like a coffin lid.
"Eirene, still concerned about your mother?" Plasma muttered through my thoughts
"Yes Plasma, I want to know more." I thought
The two guards from before were still there, loitering like nervous puppies.
"Lady Eirene!"
These two retards were waiting for me, like I was the wife of a pure escort, they didn't bother me, they didn't want to see my brother rage between the two guards.
They chirped in unison, scurrying to escort me back to the gates. I didn't see them. I didn't hear the clatter of their armor or the hushed whispers of the knights we passed. My mind was already falling back through the years, spiraling into the dark, honey-colored warmth of a memory that had been buried under layers of ash and blood.
Six Years Ago - Town Allure
The air in the meat shop always smelled of cold iron and sawdust. It was two weeks since Elias had left for Caria, and the house felt cavernous without his laughter. I was only twelve, my hands too small for the heavy cleavers, but Linera was a patient teacher.
She was radiant then, her long silver hair reflected the sunlight and it's crimson eyes were no joke, despite the exhaustion. Her pregnancy had reached the point where her movements were slow and rhythmic. My older sister, Elicia, had stopped wrapping the day's cuts to press her ear against our mother's swollen womb.
"What is the name of our little sister, Mama?" Elicia whispered, her eyes bright with a future she could almost touch.
Linera smoothed Elicia's hair, her hands stained with the work of the shop but her touch as soft as silk.
"Come to think of it, I don't have a name yet. What do you name her, Elicia?"
Elicia bit her lip, her brow furrowed in deep thought.
"Oh, Mama... Evelyn."
"Yes, let's name your future sister Evelyn."
Linera smiled, a soft, maternal light in her crimson eyes.
She turned her attention to me then, tilting the heavy butchering table so I could reach.
"Eirene, look at the grain of the meat. Remove the bones first, then the tendons. Precision is mercy, little one. Never hack at what you can cut with intent."
I worked until my fingers ached, desperate to please her. I mastered the blade that day, feeling the snap of bone and the slide of sinew. But the pride I felt was short-lived. That evening, I found her in the back room, packing a weathered leather rucksack I hadn't seen in years. It smelled of old steel and high-mountain ozone.
I lunged forward, grabbing her legs, my small hands fisted in her skirts.
"Mama? Where are you going?"
"No worries, Eirene, I'm going to Caria. I'll be back in a week."
"But you're pregnant! And you're retired! You said the knights were behind you!" I cried, the tears already blurring my vision.
Linera knelt, despite the difficulty of her burden, and wiped the tears from my cheeks with a thumb that felt like home. Her expression was a complicated tapestry of duty and regret.
"It's my last mission, Eirene. One last debt to settle so you and Elicia can have a life without shadows."
She walked out the door into the fading twilight, her silhouette growing smaller until the darkness swallowed her. She was a Capital Knight, a woman of iron, she was supposed to be invincible.
I just stood there, Elicia with her silver hair flattered through the evening winds, saw my mother's departure, I promised my mother to return in a week.
A week passed. The shop was quiet. I sat by the window, the heavy appraisal books forgotten in my lap, while Elicia took over the counter, her eyes constantly darting toward the road, like me, Elicia was a skilled butcher, she was around sixteen at this point, four years older than me, by that time, she had mastered her human skill of divine regeneration.
Then came the knock.
It wasn't the rhythmic, cheerful rap of a neighbor. It was a heavy, metallic thud that vibrated through the floorboards. I opened the door, a book still clutched to my chest like a shield. Three soldiers stood there, their polished breastplates reflecting the afternoon sun. Their faces were as grim as the stone of Caria.
"Are you the daughter of Linera Rynd?" the lead knight asked, his voice devoid of any warmth.
Elicia stepped up behind me, her hand resting on my shoulder. We both nodded, the air in the room suddenly feeling too thin to breathe. The guard took a deep, shuddering breath, looking everywhere but at our eyes.
"Eirene... Elicia... your mother..."
He didn't have to finish. The way he held his helmet, the way the world seemed to tilt on its axis, I knew. They told us she was found in the mines. They told us she was unrecognizable. There was no mention of the baby. There was no mention of Evelyn. Just a cold report of a mission gone wrong and a body that had to be burned because there was nothing left to bury.
***
I blinked, and the white marble of the 8th District snapped back into focus. My hand was gripping the hilt of my hidden dagger so tightly that my knuckles were white.
My mother hadn't just died. She had been slaughtered in the same place Nautilus was now sending me. And my sister, Evelyn, the baby who never had a chance to breathe, had died with her in that dark, cold earth.
I didn't just have a mission anymore. I had a target. The incident in the mines wasn't just a monster. To me, it was the thing that had stolen the only warmth I had ever known.
I pulled my hood low, my one green eye burning with a cold, murderous intent. I wasn't going to the mountains for the Intel. I wasn't going for the gold. I was going to find whatever was left of Linera Rynd, and I was going to turn the Caria Mines into a graveyard for anything that stood in my way.