The trick had been hard to master because he needed to grab each piece in the right order and in the right way. Grabbing something with a shoulder or an elbow wasn't intuitive at all but it worked somehow.

He had thought that this day would be a great one too and he was very pleased to hear that a letter was brought from Red-water to him. It had to be some news from Galana, finally. He sent Harriett fetch it for him and she came back to their room later with a letter and a package.

Galana never sent him any packages before so he got curious right away of what it could possibly be. He grabbed both it and the letter and sat at the table to examine them from closer.

The package wasn't too large or thick and was tied by a cross of ordinary string. It was solid but pliable and rather heavy for its small size however. He pulled on the end of it to loosen it and unwrapped the plain paper to find that what it contained was a bunch of letters, his letters. Every single letter he had sent her over time were combined, neatly folded and stacked in this package, sent back to him altogether.

Emp didn't understand why she was sending them all back. She could keep them or throw them away if she wanted but Emp didn't see the use of giving them back to him. Maybe the answer would be in the letter she sent with it.

He opened the letter and started reading it, he found out that it was unusually heavy toned. The first word wasn't "Idiot!" like usual but "Sorry" instead.

Right from reading the very first word, Emp felt that something was wrong with the letter. To him, it sounded removed from reality. It didn't feel like it usually did at all, as if it was written by someone else. Even though it felt like that, he was still certain she was the one who wrote it because her writing was easy to recognize.

< sorry="" it="" took="" so="" long="" for="" me="" to="" write="" back,="" i="" just="" didn't="" know="" how="" to="" tell="" you.="" i="" tried="" many="" times="" but="" it="" didn't="" feel="" right.="" i="" guess="" the="" best="" way="" to="" say="" it="" is="" to="" go="" straight="" to="" the="">

I failed to repay the debt.

I'll be enslaved soon, they'll take my bookstore and I won't be able to send letters anymore. I suppose this is the last time I speak to you. I don't know if I should have written that letter at all. Maybe it would have been best if I just quietly disappeared?

I didn't want to trouble you.

With my problems, with my debt, with my selfish and sour character. All I ever did in those letter was to complain. I felt better when I did but it didn't fix anything. You kept being friendly to me even though I am no one, even though I keep complaining and calling you an idiot. I don't understand you, I think I never will.

I hate n.o.bles, I hate them so much, with their unreasonable demands and their thoughts so far removed from real life that I wouldn't even call them living beings at all. They ask the impossible like it was a gourd of water and expect the world to bend at their will to accomplish it.

You're a n.o.ble too, albeit a strange one. I do not know what sort of eccentric thought pushed you to send me all those letters but I thank you for them. Maybe you just found my answers to be entertaining or maybe you just liked the idea of writing to someone as inconsequential as me. They were a welcome distraction all the same. I admit I kept writing back hoping to see a new one sent to me every time.

This is why I am sorry I lied to you, about the books. I received none of them.

At first, I thought you were mocking me and didn't really send any book at all. Then, I realized that you actually were sending them but they somehow all got lost on the way to me. I do not know were they went but they never reached my store.

I kept telling you to stop sending them but you wouldn't listen. I have no idea where they all went and for that, I apologize. I was afraid that if I told you, you might stop sending me letters altogether or worse, that you might come back here to search for them, or fix my problems for me.

All of this was my burden alone, I did not want to trouble anyone with my problems. I didn't want any friends of mine to be targeted by a n.o.ble because of me and I didn't feel like being treated like a damsel in distress.

I realize that it is pretty much what I currently am but I had hoped that I would be able to overcome this on my own. I didn't want one of the n.o.bles I hated to step in to remove the problem caused by another n.o.ble. At first I also feared what the cost of that intervention would be and later, I feared that with how you tried to hide your ident.i.ty, you would have been unable to intervene at all.

It might have been misplaced but I felt for a time like I was truly a friend to you. If I had asked you to help, I felt that the ending would have been disastrous. I didn't want to feel hurt again because I misunderstood a mild interest for friends.h.i.+p and I didn't want to break what we had by asking something that you could not do without breaking your secret.

Your letters, as silly and unimportant as they were, helped me get through my days as everything kept getting worse and worse. I did not want to loose them by admitting the disappearances of the books and it is for the same reason I now send them back to you. I do not want to loose them forever along with my store and home so I sent them back. More pragmatically, I feared there might have been some secrets in them that the guards or n.o.bles here should not see.

If you thought nothing of them, you may burn them along with those I wrote myself but I'd like to think that you will keep them all as memories. It might comfort me in the times to come.

I could have just faded out of your existence but I found myself guilty. After all you did for me, the least I could do was to provide some explanation on my impending disappearance. I felt like at least you should know how the story ends.

I've had years to torture myself at the thoughts of what would be my fate once enslaved in the hands of... once enslaved. I wondered many times what torments he would put me through. Would he be so angry that he would have me tortured right away? Would he have forgotten me and simply put me to work like an ordinary slave even after going through the trouble of having my parents murdered? Maybe I will end up as a bed slave, chained in his chambers like a dog.

Now that I'm standing at the dawn of it finally happening however, I feel myself lighter. A burden has been removed from me, I can finally breath. After struggling all this time, my loss is welcome. I was tired of worrying for what might be, now I feel calm. Whatever happens to me next, I think I can face it with peace.

My mind is cleansed, I feel like a brand new me. I will not die but I might as well, nothing will remain of my past self. I do however feel saddened by everything I lost, or am about to loose, I am more angry than ever too. Yet, somehow, as I'm writing this, stillness grips my heart. My hands are not shaking anymore, my tears have dried. I feel pride in my writing, those might be the last words I'll have the chance of putting to paper. I am glad my letters are so properly formed on this sheet.

I do not think I will be a good slave, he will be sorely disappointed. I will not let myself be handled like merchandise. May all the rules, my debt, my tormentors and all those that helped them rot under the ancestors for eternity, may their bones feed the ugliest beasts around and their souls be tormented by the horrors of the night, I hate them all.

Even though you are a troublesome idiot, I am glad I encountered you that day. I might have given up without you and these letters.

I still have a dagger left, you know, the one you forcefully gave me. You told me to help myself then, do you remember?

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I wanted to stab you then, I almost did, in the alley, with those death-seekers, those thugs. I thought that if I killed you and stole your money, all my problems would just go away.

I didn't back then, I couldn't. You kept reminding me of it for the whole day even though you could have destroyed me easily. I'm sorry for that too, I kept insulting you to your back, mocking your simple ways or blaming you for things you had no control over.

Now that I am here at the end, I can't help but look back at this day and think that I was the stupid one. I still don't know, were you simply friendly that day, or deceptive like a n.o.ble? All this time I kept wandering what could possibly be your goal, why be friendly to someone devoid of any power or connection? I'd like to think that there was none, what could it possibly be after all?

As unbelievable as it seem, the only reasonable thing to think is that you made me your friend. I might never know for sure but I'll keep the thought with me as I put your words into action.

I find myself desirous to have them pay for my misery. For the first time, I will put the dagger to good use. This time, I will not falter, hopefully. With any luck, I might get the one that ended my parents, who knows?

Goodbye,

The one that would like to think she wasn't such a bad friend, Galana Whisryba.

PS. Stop doing foolish things id- Emp. >>

...

She had scratched the idiot at the end and replaced it by his name but it was still easy to read.

...

Emp felt shaken by the letter. He had not expected to receive that sort of message at all. He found the back of his throat pained as he read her lines, his eyes stinging as if they had been bitten by bugs and his breathing turned disorderly. By the time he read the last few words, he was ready to reduce the letters into tiny sc.r.a.ps.

Emp didn't understand how it came to this. She failed to repay the debt, his books never reached her?

She had told him in every letter to stop sending books but he never listened. She always dodged talking about the books too. Emp had not realized it was because she didn't get to look at them at all. He had thought she was just being stubborn but in truth, what she said was right. Stop sending them, it doesn't help at all.

He had sent so many and all of them were worth so much. He had thought that even if she sold them all well under their value, she would have paid back the debt long ago.

The first one he sent was alone worth five red dragons before he signed it. Her debt was only of 15RD. With barely three or four of the loads of books he sent she should have been able to repay it! By the ancestors, where did they all go!

If only he had known, he would have done something sooner. Was it too late now? He did not want to loose his friend because she was too stubborn to ask for help.

Even if he lost a fortune on those books, he didn't care about the books at all, he never expected to see that money again. He only worried for what might happen to her. In the letter, she was implying she'd try to stab them when they came for her. It would only make things worse! If she stayed put, he could just go there and fix things but who knew what might happen if she started a fight with them.

Emp felt sick, gripped by the fear that something bad would happen to her, that something bad might have already happened to her. That letter must have been written a month ago, a caravan needed at least four weeks to move from Red-water to Bêtéclair. Who knew what happened in that time?

Even if he ran there to help this instant, which he was very tempted to do, what were the chances that he'd be able to help?

He let the paper fall on the table while a flow of thoughts and worries swirled in his mind.

He couldn't just stay here and accept her letter as a suitable ending to anything. For him it was simply unacceptable, impossible. Something needed to be done.

It was true that he only met her for a day, that she was stubborn and just admitted she lied to him and mocked him and even wanted to stab him but she was still a friend, his very first friend. In the end, she had not stabbed him, in the end, she felt guilty, in the end, she was just tormented.

She was important to him, as his first friend and someone he enjoyed angering and annoying. He could not stand to leave things like this. For her, a friend might not be someone to rely on when in trouble but he didn't view things the same way as she did. He had to do something.

"Master, you need to breathe." Harriett told him from the side.

He was so turned over by this, he forgot to breathe again. He gulped down a mouthful of air and stood up, almost making the chair fall over, intent on doing something. The only problem is that he didn't know what to do exactly. Emp didn't spare a glance towards Harriett as he tried to focus his dispersed thoughts.

He definitely couldn't follow a caravan there because it would take too long. He might be able to run the whole way, it would only take a day then but it might still already be over by the time he got there. He didn't even know who she owed that debt to.

He wanted to think about all of this on the way while he ran but he felt like he could gain a lot of time by starting his run from Dark-glint instead. He wondered how long it would take the other him to notice the message if he asked for a recall now. It might take him long because he knew how absorbed he got into his craft when he was working on something.

Even if it took a while, it might still be faster than running there from Bêtéclair. He sat back down and summoned a piece of paper and an ink pot from the bag, writing a short recall note as fast as he could and throwing everything back into the bag just as quickly.

"Are you alright master? What did the letter say to make you so frantic?"

Emp didn't feel like talking at all right now. Harriett had the right word to describe his current state, he was frantic to do something now but he was stuck here instead. All he could do was wait patiently until the other him saw the message...

Or maybe not. He could still start running now and if he didn't have an answer by the time he got to Dark-glint, he'd continue on his own.

He grabbed every letters on the table and placed everything in his bag in a hurry while he spoke to Harriett.

"Galana needs my help now. If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I'm busy."

He rushed through his room and to the balcony.

"Where are you going?" Harriett called in worry from the table were he left her.

"Red-water."

It was faster to s.p.a.ce step down from the balcony than to walk the whole way through the school so that's what he did. He didn't waste any time explaining anything to anyone or stopping for the guards at the gate of the city and just ran.

He had ran up to Dark-glint once not to long ago so he knew what to expect from the road but this time, he ran much faster. It wasn't a casual jog this time but a full speed run on the muddy road.

He barely had any time to see the landscape around him change as he jumped from turn to bend in the road. Not long after he had started, he had already reached the first village on the way and received the answer from the other him. He quickly recalled him and let him take the relay while we slowed down on his way to Dark-glint.

With the other him running, with good lead, all he had to do now was to go tell everyone in Dark-glint where he had run off to so they wouldn't worry too much.

The Emp in the village didn't waste time, after he learned about what was going out, he ran out of the house right away. Calla jumped in surprise when she saw him rush through the main room and the girls outside got confused by his sudden hurry while he darted through the village in an instant.

No one had the time to ask him what was going on and in a blink, he was nowhere to be found around the house.

Emp had not walked up the road extending after Dark-glint in over two years. He didn't remember what most of the path looked like.

He wanted to go faster and faster, as quickly as he possibly could but the road didn't cooperate with him. He was using the blessing of s.p.a.ce in such a reckless way that he kept going out of the road and cras.h.i.+ng into the treeline. He fell into a ditch twice and ran face first into a tree once. He groaned ragefully in answer but understood he needed to control himself and calm down if he wanted to reach Red-water faster. At this speed, he was wasting more time b.u.mping into things and tripping over rocks and roots than he would by going a bit slower.

He took a breath and resumed his run, a bit slower this time. He understood somewhere in his head that going there so fast served no purpose, that everything was probably already over but he held on to the hope that somehow, he would make it in time anyway, that he wouldn't be too late.

"Why are you so worried about this person? She doesn't deserve your help." He could almost hear his mother, Love, say into his ears.

"Not almost, I am indeed here, your sudden dash made me curious so I had to take a look. I am serious, her fate does not matter, what are you doing?"

Emp didn't know she could just talk in his head like that from anywhere. That was surprising and a bit worrying but right now, he didn't have time for any of this. Galana needed help, he would not slow down further.

"She fully deserves what is happening to her, all of it is happening because of her own poor choices, it has nothing to do with you."

Emp really didn't believe that Galana deserved to suffer the death of her parents and enslavement over refusing the advances of a guy.

"But she did so much more than that, she refused the help she was given, she insulted you and many others, she's a greedy selfish weasel that only ever thinks of money and paper, she gravelly offended me and to top it all off, she tried to stab you in the back!"

She changed her mind, in the end she didn't do it. She was still his friend, he needed to help her even with all her flaws. Since Love was here and could be anywhere at all, Emp wished she would tell him if Galana was fine instead of arguing with him.

"If I told you she was not, would you turn around and go back home? What use is there to tell you anything if it won't change your mind?"

Emp really didn't understand why his mother hated her so. Just for a tiny bit of slander she never meant, Emp had never even heard it, no one was hurt from it.

"I was! Belief is a strong thing, I'd prefer it if she was to die."

A thought flew through the mind of Emp. Was Love the one who got rid of the books?

"Of course not, I'm a G.o.ddess not a petty thief like her. What would I even do with those books? I could just destroy her instantly, I don't need to use convoluted mortal nonsense."

"Then why don't you?" Asked Emp with frustration. His voice gasping from the effort of his running.

"I can't. I can be angry or frustrated or sad but I can't hate. Hate is my opposite, I just cannot muster the will to smite her, what I truly want is an apology. It is for the same reason I can't truly stop you from trying to save her. The love you feel towards her is driving you and I can't stop it."

If Love couldn't help him nor stop him, what was she even doing in his head?

"I wanted to try to convince you to not go. What will you do if she is fine? Reveal your presence to the whole city to strike down a corrupt n.o.ble? What about your plans?"

The plans didn't matter in comparison. Hiding his ident.i.ty was worthless if he had to sacrifice his friends. The whole point of trying to become the emperor was to protect them. It would be stupid to watch them suffer and claim he was doing it for them.

"And what will you do if you aren't in time? Perhaps she already died. Will you just stare at her dead body and suffer for no reason? Could you not accept her final farewells as they are and keep some good memories of her like she wanted instead?"

Emp would not be able to do that, as long as there was a possibility that she could still be helped, he would still go. If it was too late for her, he would have the culprits pay instead.

"You don't even know who those culprits are."

He didn't know for now but he was certain he could find out somehow. It couldn't be that hard, someone had to know.

He heard his mother sigh in his head and the sound soon turned into terrible screams, he was getting close to the howling hills. The wind was blowing just as strong as ever.

The hills loomed over him and the forest for an instant before he ran to its base and into the tunnel going through. The darkness surrounded him along with the ghastly howls. He had almost forgotten how impressive they were and how tormented they sounded.

Feeling the many lights already present to brighten the path weren't enough, he got his sword Ray from the bag and s.h.i.+ned its light on the path ahead. Fearing he might misstep and fall into the depths of the hills, he had to slow down as he progressed along the dark road.

The first time he went through, he had found the darkness and the howls interesting and a bit annoying but this time around, they only further accentuated his own stress. He wanted to get out as soon as possible.

Looking down into the hill from the path were he stood, he could see, deeper down and on the other side of a black gap, the end of the path on the other side of the hill. He had noticed that he could see it from up here when he went through the first time.

He should just follow the path as it twisted inside the hill but the end didn't seem that far from here. The more he looked at it, the more he felt that he should be able to just jump there. It was only a small gap.

He only hesitated a bit before he took a run-up and jumped towards the feint light at the other end of the path. He held his sword in front of him to light the empty s.p.a.ce in the air around him while he used the blessing of s.p.a.ce to travel the distance easily.

Distorted pillars of stone, narrow crumbling paths and dangerous outcroppings flashed into existence around him as he threaded the needle through them. His sword hit a stalact.i.te on the way and his arm shot back as he tried to keep the sword into his hand. He half spun in the air and the powerful wind blasted him from the side, displacing him from his initial path. His shoulder hit a piece of stone and sent him spinning the other way around.

He immediately lost track of where he was and crashed onto what he a.s.sumed to be the path, rolling on it for a while before he came to a stop. He had not hit his head but he still felt dazed. His shoulder was hurting badly and he felt bruises on his body in various places because of his bad landing.

What he had just done wasn't really smart. He shouldn't have done that. He dragged himself onto his feet and took a look around. According to the lights in place around him, he must have landed on the path which was good. He had hurt himself however which was less good. At least he should have wore his armor.

He summoned it around him and started running again. The armor would slow him down and tire him quicker but he had just learned an important lesson. By trying to go fast, he could have hurt himself badly, it was better to be safe but slower.

He felt some mild pain all over his body but he believed he was mostly fine. He didn't break anything in his fall and even though his shoulder was really pained, it didn't stop him from running.

He soon escaped the howling hills and found himself in the low woods. The next bit of the run was very pleasant despite being short lived. The path here was perfectly straight and he had the strong wind pus.h.i.+ng against his back, it was the best place to run he had found up to now.

He did not pay attention to the sea of trees bending back in front of their wind lord's will and pa.s.sed them without wasting time.

The terrifying sound of its howling was left behind and soon, the path regained its appearance of normalcy. Forests and hills then forest again, he ran through the village where the kids feared him in the past and felt glad that he was already nearing his destination.

He was feeling exhausted and had to take a few breaks between the hills and his current position. Once again, he had to stop his mad dash to take a breath because even if he was giving this run his all, it had already been hours since he left, his lungs were burning.

He stood on the road and put his hands on his knees to take a few deep breaths. That position was a bit uncomfortable in his armor but he was too tired to sit down by the roadside. If he did, he felt like he wouldn't be able to get back up.

He took a few minutes like that and once he had enough, he tried to get back up and start running.

His muscles wouldn't move an inch however.

He tried again but nothing responded, it was as if he wasn't in control of his own body anymore. He couldn't move his hands, he couldn't move his head, he couldn't even lift a finger.

Emp was gripped by fear and confusion, wondering what was happening to him until he caught something at the edge of his vision. There, an animal was staring at him.

It had s.h.a.ggy fur and a lanky body, with long curved claws and a dead tired face. The fur under its mouth was all sticky with dried blood, as were its claws. Emp had never seen such a thing but he knew exactly what it was, it made perfect sense. It was a time-stop sloth.

Emp felt like laughing in anger at how ridiculous he felt right now. Galana was the one that warned him about the time-stop sloth. She had told him to never travel alone in these parts and now that he was in a hurry to save her, he forgot and got caught.

He would have laughed but he couldn't. He had no idea how to get himself out of this situation. He couldn't cast a spell, couldn't kill the sloth, couldn't run or ask for a recall. He was absolutely stuck here, standing in the middle of the road like an idiot.

All he could do was stare at the creature as it slowly made it's way to him. The thing was excruciatingly slow. Emp would have never felt intimidated by such a creature but there was something quite dreadful in seeing something so harmless-looking moving inexorably towards you. He was powerless to do anything to stop its advance.

The animal dragged its feet on the ground as it progressed at the pace of a snail towards him. Emp felt like he could have reached Red-waters a hundred times over before the sloth extended its hand to him.

The wait only made it scarier and scarier because Emp kept trying to figure out a way to get out of this with no success. He felt hopeless until finally, its claws clanked on his armor. The thing got close and scratched at him a few times with no results except for a screeching sound. It couldn't damage his armor. Emp would have screamed in cheer.

Emp felt extremely relieved until the sloth started climbing over him as if he was a tree and started examining the armor in details, searching for a way to open it. Emp could feel its weight on his back as it tried to grip pieces here and there to see if it could remove them and how.

It was only a question of time before the creature found how to open the sh.e.l.l surrounding his prey. Emp wondered how long it would take it to figure it out, he also wondered how often people walked down this road. He couldn't wait for a caravan, one just reached Bêtéclair today so a new one wouldn't come through here for weeks.

The claws of the creature explored the joints and openings in his armor while he was silently screaming in frustration. Despite all his efforts, all he managed to do was activate and deactivate his self magic, it was pretty useless to him now since he only knew one and it didn't help in his current situation.

How would he get out of this?