According to Vrana the meeting is held in the Citadel. Yet it seems to be more of a trial. Each guardian will be present as they discuss Clover and what I've done. How Vrana will explain the mirror I don't know. He cannot tell them where I got it, not after he promised to keep it a secret. Not that I have any trust for a guardian. I never asked, I was too tired to care. Nor did I want to think of the hell I created because I couldn't shut my mouth for a second.
Once I reach the Citadel, Deer is waiting for me, the orange glow in her eye sockets move like flames. She bows slightly and take a few steps back.
"I'm here to show you the way to the meeting, Orchid," she says with a fragile voice. "The guardians are waiting for you there."
"Okay," I mumble.
Deer bows once more and limps over the glass floor. She leads me deeper into the Citadel, through the long corridors with murals.
We reach a large hall where the floor, ceiling and each wall is forest green. On the walls are seven pulpits, they're decorated with bronze symbols and shapes. Below them, gentle waves caress the platform. It's already crowded by five soul wanderers – Clover, Sun, Nine, and another one I don't recognize.
I stand next to Sun. She looks questioningly at me – it's clear she has no idea why they took us here, nor do I know why Sun and Nine are present. I had expected to only see Clover.
"Why are we here?" the unknown soul wanderer asks.
His voice is dark and commanding. He's dressed in Native American tribal clothing and carries a confidence that reminds me of the guardians.
"Sage," Couleur says and the unknown soul wanderer steps forward. "We'll explain everything, until then it's better if you let us speak. You may ask questions later."
The soul wander she called Sage takes a step back. The dark eyes don't look a tad friendlier; they won't leave his guardian.
Couleur gives Vrana a glance and nods. He lays his hand on the pulpit wall and looks down at me, like he is asking me to trust him.
"There have been some rumors that the Raven had been seen in Vert," Vrana begins.
I don't dare to look at either Clover nor Sun.
"What are you talking about?" Sun asks. "The Raven had his funeral fifty years ago."
Saturn takes a step closer and looks down at us. "The funeral you attended was nothing else but a lie to make sure there would be no uprising," Saturn says.
Sun's young face grimaces of pure betrayal; she takes a step forward and clenches her fist. "And you never planned on telling us?"
For the first time I see clear sympathy in Couleur's face, something I wasn't expecting to find in her features.
"I had no reason to tell you," Saturn says with a tone of incomprehensible wonder, "unless I'm asking you to deal with the Raven there was no point with you knowing."
"I had the right to know," she hisses between gritted teeth.
Saturn frowns slightly, yet his face remains calm. I doubt he was insulted by Sun's decision to question her guardian, yet I have a feeling he isn't taking her seriously either.
First laughs and places a hand under his chin. "See, Saturn. If you don't put them in their place, they'll forget who they're speaking to in such a disrespectful way."
Couleur scoffs and the air in the forest green hall feels suffocating. "If Saturn had warned her before the meeting took place..."
"Silence," Saturn commands and Sun takes a step back.
First scoffs and makes a hand gesture, while Saturn move the star-marked eyes towards Sun again.
"There was no reason for you to know then." He turns back to Couleur. "Sun is my soul wanderer. I decide the time when to tell her. You have no right to command nor reprimand me, Couleur."
"So why are you telling me this now?" Sun asks.
"We're suspecting that the Raven is involved in a theft of an artifact in Arkaros. I apologize for the rest of us guardians, our intent was never to get off course."
This time it was Cerberus that spoke. First, he focuses on Sun and then on me – by the harsh appearance of his usual friendly face, I know he's aware I lied in the theater. That despite promising him that I'd tell him everything, I didn't and instead I poured it all out for Vrana.
"Why would the Raven steal anything from you?" Clover asks.
"He left us," Sage reminds him, "and betrayed the guardians. If he's capable of that than he's capable of stealing."
"You don't know that."
"He betrayed us. How could you still protect him?"
"I'm not protecting him. Yes, the Raven left us but that doesn't mean he has stolen anything."
First laughs and puts a hand under the amused grin. "Very interesting words coming from the man working with said thief."
There's no confusion in Clover's coal-marked face, just an annoyance.
"Silence! Nothing will be solved while you bicker with each other, both soul wanderers and guardians alike." Blomst glares at the ever-grinning First. "Besides, those are suspicions, First. Don't spread your fabrications without concrete evidence."
"Naturally you protect Clover. Are you too blinded to see how obvious it is? If he respected our authority, he would have gone to you the moment the Fox contacted him. But he didn't. Vrana had to order your soul wanderer to figure out what had happened because you'd never do it yourself. To give a soul wanderer one of Saphir's mirrors are insulting enough but that the gift came from another guardian is preposterous. As a guardian, you should be ashamed."
That was the lie that Vrana had sown. That it was him who had given me the mirror and told me to go to the well to see who Clover was talking with. It makes me feel worse. I had been driven by a selfish fear embedded with curiosity. There had been no order from the guardians, nothing forcing me to do this. I had chosen to do it myself.
"How dare you?!" Blomst hiss with bared teeth.
So much for no bickering.
The grin on First's face weakens. "Your love for your subjects is your weakness, Blomst. It blinds you."
Blomst's anger fills the hall like Couleur's had done when I first met her. Clover keeps his eyes on his guardian and won't avert them, but the crevices in his face tell me he feels the same wrath hang in the air.
First laughs, but before he has any chance of saying something, Liria speaks for the first time since she stepped into the hall, "We cannot charge someone for a crime without evidence." She turns to Blomst. "Nor can we defend anyone. Clover can speak for himself."
"All in due time," says Vrana.
"I rather deal with it now. If that is okay with you?" Clover says.
They exchange gazes and Vrana makes a hand gesture.
Clover steps forward, I can no longer see what he'll think, if he knows that it is I that have messed up.
"One month ago in human time, you met with the Fox and discussed the Raven. Is that correct?" Vrana asks.
"It is."
My stomach burns.
"Why is it that this was never brought to Blomst?" Cerberus asked, his voice darker and harder than it usually is.
"Uncertainty for the most part. Some of it was fear. I wanted to know what he was doing and what plans he had. I didn't want to expose him to any danger unless I felt that it was necessary."
First laughs bitterly. "If you understood how much damage this man could have done under the time you knew where he was but said nothing."
He neither laughs nor smiles. He's more tense and I see and feel the pure wrath in his face. And worry – he's genuinely worried what one soul wanderer could cause.
I try to tell myself that the worry and wrath I feel isn't my own. It crawls into my skin and confuses me.
"And what have you found out?" Vrana asks.
"Nothing yet."
"And what were you planning once you got the answers? Would you visit the world he was in?" Cerberus asks.
Clover shakes his head.
"Of course he wouldn't seek out Lyathus without our permission. Clover is well aware of the danger that awaits in abandoned worlds. I don't like what you're suggesting, Cerberus," Blomst says.
"I'm not suggesting anything. It's a question to a man that we're suspecting are cooperating with a forsaken soul wanderer."
"I haven't been in Lyathus. Nor have I spoken to the Raven, or the Fox after I first met him at the well."
"It's easy to say such things, Clover. But are they true?" Liria asks.
She and Saturn are the only two who has held their emotions in control. Even Vrana has a worry that hangs over him and pollutes the air.
"The only way for me to get to Lyathus would be through the Fox, and I'm not so sure he'd let me go once I was there. Like I said before – I have not been in contact with any of them after the meeting at the well."
First scoffs. "But you wanted to know what they were planning? This plea of yours isn't holding."
Clover clenches his fists. "The Raven meant a lot to me, and it played a role in why I never said anything. I can admit that. If he is a threat and has stolen the artifact, then I swear on everything that I am that I will break him myself if you so command me to do so."
Sun's face grimaces and she throws a hasty glance at Clover.
"Noble. If your words are true," Saturn says, his voice as indifferent as ever.
"Take me to the well, then you can see I'm not lying."
"Alright then, we'll take you to the well tomorrow," Vrana begins. "Before we send them out. Then we can determine if what he says is the truth."
Cerberus grips the pulpits tightly with both of his hands. "Vrana, I beg of you to think this through. This is beyond senseless!"
The others seem as confused as I am. The unfamiliar soul wanderer takes a step forward and the brown middle-aged face is contorted with frustration.
"Where are you sending us? This entire meeting has been ill thought-out. You take us here without explanation and expect us to watch while you argue amongst yourselves?"
"All in due time, Sage," says Vrana.
Sage shakes his head. "No. We have waited long enough. Tell me why we're here, why we have to stand and watch as you decide the fate of a soul wanderer I don't even know."
"Because we had little choice or time, we had to put the meetings together to one," Liria says and ignores the other guardians' glares. "We have our own problems that needs to be solved as soon as possible. And in a way, they could be connected. That's why you're here, but we couldn't ignore what Orchid saw by the well. I apologize that we took you all in at the same time. We had no choice in the matter."
"Yet you have time to argue," Nine says.
First scoffs, a slight warning to his soul wanderer. I expect Nine to say nothing else, that he'll take a step back to show respect for his guardian, but he doesn't. Nine takes a few steps forward instead, so he stands next to Clover. First lowers his eyebrows and moves his jaw and mouth in a tense motion.
"If you're short on time, you hardly show it with your endless family squabbles."
First observes Nine with an uncomfortable calmness, it surprises me he's able to stay put. Even Sage seems surprised by his sudden courage.
Vrana breaks the silence with a laugh. It's not bitter, he seems amused by it. He turns to First and smiles, in a way that's clearly supposed to get under his skin. First's face darkens.
"Interesting soul wanderer you have there, First."
First looks down at Nine. "Very interesting, indeed."
The words are poisonous and foul. Nine finally takes a few steps back like he just remembered who he was defying.
"Nine is right. We've wasted far too much time on our ... family disputes. The reason why you're here, Sage, is because we've found the location of a lost artifact, the mask of Lyndova. It is in a distorted world called Pýrgous," says Vrana.
"Is this where you're planning on sending us, to fetch a mask?" Sage asks.
"Yes. The darkness is devouring the world, destroying everything it touches. If it reaches the mask, it's lost forever. We believe that the mask is what the Raven will seek out next. We don't want it in the wrong hands, but letting it be entirely destroyed by the darkness is also unacceptable. We'll send you out there to grab it before the thief or the darkness takes it."
I've never heard about this before. Not the darkness nor the mask of Lyndova, yet not a single one of the other soul wanderers asks about it.
Sun casts a disapproving glance at the guardians. "You plan to send us straight into the darkness?"
"We don't have a lot of choice," Couleur says.
"You can go there yourselves."
"Absolutely not," First scoffs. "We'll be like magnets for the vile emptiness."
"With our presence we'll only hasten the process of worlds that has gone that far into distortion," Saturn adds.
Sun quiets down, but I can still see the clear worry behind the blue eyes.
"You'll leave tomorrow. The mirror I gave Orchid will help you find the way to the mask. And once Clover has been tested, and if what he says is true, he'll join," Vrana says.
A wave of anger washes over us and Cerberus' only eye lit up of determination. "I ask that you'll think through who you'll send. Clover has been accused of both a serious theft and cooperation with a forsaken soul wanderer. And Orchid hasn't been in the Realm long enough to even have a feeling of it, it's foolish to send them away!"
"They're not your soul wanderers to forbid from going, Cerberus," Blomst says.
"You're making a mindless mistake! Can't you see the problems you'll cause us?!"
"Orchid has done exceptionally well with the orders I've given her," Vrana says. "And Blomst doesn't seem to mind. Besides, Saphir's mirrors are rare and few in between, do you know anyone else that has used them that we have access to? Do we have the time to teach another soul wanderer when I have one here that I've already taught? You know very well the more you use it, the more you see. And if Clover can prove that what he says is true, then he can join them. He does after all have experience in distorted worlds."
I don't know what Vrana is planning, why he is lying and sending me out with the others. But I try to look confident where I stand, like I accept that they send me out on whatever this mission is. But everyone else – even Sage and Nine – have turned pale.
****
Author's note: This is the hardest chapter I've ever written. It's so many characters and so much dialogue that it was very hard to write decently. I've been dreading translating this chapter because it took ages to write, I'm so glad I'm done with it. You're also likely to get two chapters this or next week because the next one is quite short. Enjoy! ^^