Wanderer (Episode 7)

It was almost two turns of hourglass since the sun rose and yet he was looking at his letters. The letters had arrived last night, towards the high-rise of the moon.

He saw a yellow piece of paper, slammed with a red wax of a musical note. He sighed. It was from his Prey. He put it aside. He didn't want to read it. It wasn't time to hear some voices now. He wanted his mind to be clear and quiet.

He replaced his candle to a fresh one. Last night he forgot to blow it off and now the wax was all over the table. Then he saw a piece of paper, saying "Affiliation". Curiously, he tore open the letter and read it.

At first he thought it was a love letter or something more inspiring than that. But when he read it all, it was a letter telling him to choose sides. He shivered. He wondered if it was the 'Dark Lord' his master once told him about during his pilgrimage.

The words twisted and changed. The letter told him that he belonged to the 'Lux' side while the other would always remain in the 'Nox' side. He continued reading the ever-changing script. He discovered his Prey was somewhere between the Lux and Nox, but a little more shifting to a third group.

The letter mentioned this third group as the Ascension, which stood neither for the Lux, nor Nox.

He read on.

Two more people, including one of his almost-Disciple and his friend were being trapped in between these two great forces. They too, intended to join the Ascension, although the group wasn't formed yet.

The Wanderer shivered once more. Someone was applying pressure on a butterfly wings to cast a storm here, he realised. Someone nudged their hearts a little till they retreated from the tug-of-war between the Lux and Nox. At first these people were scattered, now they wanted to unite, to form a future group subconsciously.

Ascension.

It was a threatening name for both Lux and Nox.

The letter glowed brightly and burnt soon afterwards.

The Wanderer fell and sat on his bed. Was this his intended pilgrimage? A somewhat 'religious' war between people of the Grey Palace? Would he leave the Guild just to leave Lux alone? But Nox and Ascension would take away every light he had lit upon.

He buried his head in his hands, praying that his Prey would understand how much it would cost to him if his Prey created the Ascension, as prophecised earlier that his Prey would be the Founding Father of Ascension...

'Prey, come back...' he sighed silently.