We didn't come home empty-handed. The mistresses took the opportunity to shop around the black market, deciding to pick up everything they thought they might need. This was mostly Mistress Kora, who swept the shelves off of herbs and medicinal ingredients. Some were so jaw-droppingly expensive for their rarity that I even felt bad for having to spend all that money—and that was coming from me, who was earning quite a keep from the perfume shop I was running.

Well, it wasn't technically my money anyway, but then Mistress Kora told me that some of the most expensive ones he'd been picking up was for me. My ability, to be more precise. Herbs or materials that were rich in pure life energy was needed to help combat my New Moon Blues, as I'd begun calling it. And they were pretty damn expensive. I mean, one even dropped as far as two thousand per ounce.

To put it to perspective, Viron sold himself to a lifetime of slavery for just five thousand gold.

There were twelve months in a year. Although this monthly sickness of mine wasn't always so bad that I'd need to be pumped with these things to keep me stable, I imagined I would have to keep these things around to make sure nothing went wrong. I calculated in my head, and the expected expenditures for just the medicinal ingredients alone could cost me upwards ten thousand. A month. For just one night.

And that was because Mistress Kora was treating me for free. If he were a stranger and I had to pay him, it wouldn't be surprising if I get charged ten times that prize.

After realizing the adulting that I would have to face sometime soon, I wearily dragged back Maun to the Temple with the envelope in my hand.

"Your place's nearer. Can I go in and talk?" I asked.

He was very happy that I proposed this. He nodded enthusiastically and skipped all the way to his residence. Maun welcomed me inside. I respectfully left my shoes at the door and trudged inside the small living space.

To be honest, it wasn't that small. It was exactly like mine—quite bare, but otherwise livable. Nonetheless, Maun seemed to be the type to not clean too often. His place was a little messy. It wasn't dirty, per se. At the very least, no matter how chaotic the room was, there was no smelly leftover cup of noodles or moldy pizza...not that those even existed in this world in the first place. And I would assume that the canteen being available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner had a lot to contribute on the state of things. Otherwise...ay.

Feeling like a helpless mother, I went around picking up the laundry scattered on the floor. I kicked aside the pile—no, mountain—of wood shavings in one corner beside a floor pillow where I assumed he did his sculptures often.

I thought I would be able to talk to this guy right away about the contents of the envelope, but then I realized I would have to help him clean up first. Otherwise, I don't think I would be very comfortable. He might, but not me.

I mean...judging by the clueless look on his face, I would assume he lacked some awareness regarding the disastrous state of his room.

"Maun, you can't leave things like this. Your place looks like a pigsty. Try to clean at least once a week. By the look of things, you haven't even picked up a broom since you first boarded."

He scratched his head and followed me around as I cleaned. Thankfully, even if he was a messy kid, he at least knew how to follow directions obediently. He helped me go around and sort out his stuff. He even borrowed a broom from the maintenance shed to sweep away the wood shavings stacked up in the corner.

By the end of the day, we had a couple of bags of trash sitting outside his door. I was sitting on the floor with my legs folded as I drank I cup of tea to wind down. For sure, I never expected I would have to do a cleanup of a messy room. Maun seemed very embarrassed about it and apologized a couple of times.

I shook my head. "It's alright. Don't worry about it too much." I set down my cup of tea on the low table sitting between him and me, then pushed the envelope towards him. "So, I don't know if you were listening a while ago, but the information that came in related to someone I'm helping track down happens to be tied with...you."

He gazed at me with his wide eyes.

"About what happened to you and where you came from," I said while signing. "I don't really want to find out through a piece of paper, so I was wondering if you would be ready to talk about it."

"If not?"

"Well, I'm going to have read what's inside at some point," I told him. "But if it's your story...I'm still hoping you would tell me."

He bit down on his lips, lowering his gaze on his lap.

"If you're not ready, it's okay," I continued. "You don't need to feel pressured to tell me anything. We don't have to talk about it at all."

"No...I want to tell you. I want to tell Evy."

I heaved a sigh of relief. I could see him gearing up to open his mouth—or more like lifting his hands. Clearly, it was very difficult for him to begin. He probably didn't even know how to start.

Asking a person to recall a trauma was just as bad as asking them to relive that experience, hence I would have not brought this up if I had any choice. But I felt like this was bound to come sometime. Even if it wasn't today.

"I lived in a secluded forest...in a village. There weren't many of us, and there was my family," he said. "I have a brother and a sister. They were older than me."

"So, you're the youngest," I said.

With that comment, he smiled brightly, and I finally understood much of the behavior he exhibited until now—very dependent and sort of used to being taken care of.

This helped ease him down.

"When...they came, they tried to hide me, but...that only ended up with them getting killed," Maun said. "My older brother survived. We spent a lot of time...where they kept us. He died when we were trying to escape. I managed to get away somehow...And then you found me."

That wasn't a lot of details, but it was a start.

"What did they want with you...?" Was this even the right question to ask?

"I don't know...But everything hurt so much..." he said. "They did a lot of things. Sometimes someone would talk to me about how our blessing was our misfortune. They would call us Aue, but that wasn't what we called ourselves."

I looked at him carefully, silently asking a question.

He seemed to catch on to my meaning and said, "My brother said it was Azurians."

"After the Dragon of Life?" I asked.

He nodded. "There was a tale. We descend from the demi-god daughter of Azurine and a human man. My brother said that it was because of that, we were all destined to have Fate with the Domain of Life, even when we are born under a different moon."

"Azurians..." I whispered, then recalled the fish scales...or could they be dragon scales? I was debating whether to ask further, but I didn't want to push my asking way too far. "Then what could they possibly want to traffic Vertvaldenians?"

Maun pulled out an amulet...which I forgot he even had at all. "Immortality."

I paused at that.

"I think the document thing that the mistresses gave you should say more..."

"Would you like to see it with me?"

"No." He shook his head.

"Alright."

There was a bit of silence. I tried poring through my vocabulary to piece a sentence together.

Man, I was bad at this.

Maun made a humming sound, which bade me to look up from my cup of tea. I didn't even know I was observing the floating tea leaves while drifting off in thought.

"Evy? Can I ask for something?"

"What is it?"

"Can you stay with me tonight?"

Boy, if it wasn't coming from this guy, I would think something of so different. Maun was very sweet and innocent though. And we were kids—well, I guess we were entering teenage-hood.

But it shouldn't be harmful.

"Sure," I said. "Let me just get some stuff from my residence."

"No...I'll go to yours instead!" He looked nervous and embarrassed as he glanced at the hopeless mess that we had temporarily dumped to one side of the room.

"Is that so..." I trailed off, but I couldn't blame him for the decision. I didn't really mind the dump since I would forget about it sometime soon after I focused on the documents, but I could tell Maun would be very bothered.

Sensing his discomfort while waiting for my answer, I cleared my throat and nodded. "Alright. But make sure you wash up before you lay on my bed."

"A-are we sharing?"

"You can't sleep on the floor otherwise...Then you can roll up your futon and lug it over."

"O-okay!" He brightened up.

"I'll go ahead of you to prepare. Just knock when you're ready," I said.

I left Maun's residence and walked leisurely to mine. The document I was holding should answer some questions brewing in my mind right now...and also some questions which I had before. Listening to Maun just now, I suddenly had a suspicion that...what if...wait, no. No overthinking again.

I had better confirm it through the information first before expending my energy on thinking. But a part of me...didn't want to know what was inside.

"You've sighed three times in the past thirty seconds while staring at the folder. Is it that bad?"

I turned my head to the side, but realized the voice wasn't coming from anywhere else except...my head?

"Amber?"

"There's no one else."

"Quite rare for you to wake up."

I sighed, but refrained from saying more until I got into the sanctuary of my own residence. After closing the door behind me, I temporarily set down the document and then went around preparing the room for the sleepover.

My residence wasn't all that clean either. I'd have some things lying around after a morning rush, but I'd at least pick some up once I returned for the day.

In particular, my perfume table was a rather messy sight, not to mention the books piled up in the corner across of that.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Well...I believe that document has something of interest to the both of us," he said. "Aren't you going to open it?"

I sighed, squatting on the floor and slouching over with it on my lap. I relaxed, taking several deep breaths.

I then tore off the seal and pulled out the stack of papers inside.

Next chapter is Epilogue!