Thunder roared through the streets of Plied as the dark clouds finally overpowered the Sun.
Casting their dark shadow over the city.
Shin and I were running past the common folk, who paid us no mind, as they themselves were in a hurry to beat the rain.
My mind was in the same condition as the city; I couldn't think clearly, and there were too many thoughts.
If I had to describe my current mental state, I would use the song Overwhelmed by Royal & The Serpent.
Which, of course, just so happens to be the only thought on my mind right now.
"My anxiety creeps inside of me, what's come over me...."
"How in the fuck do you know what I was thinking?"
"...I get overwhelmed so easily."
It seemed as if Shin was ignoring my question as he kept singing, but before long, he paused and looked at me out of the corner of his eyes, and the corner of his lips curved upwards.
"You were singing it out loud for the past few minutes. I like the song, so I joined in."
What?
"That can't be; I would have noticed myself singing."
Even before I finished my sentence, his head shook violently as he pointed at me.
"See, my friend, you are a classic case of an unaware mumbler."
Nah, that can't be...
"....Oh my God, you are right, I say a lot of things out loud. How come I never noticed?"
UGH
This is so frustrating. I can't believe I have been doing this for God knows how long.
Is this why I haven't gotten a promotion in three years?
"Don't think too much about it; I am sure you did not say something so out of pocket that you scared other people. All the time I have seen you say that, it is something casual like a song, or something reactive."
Hey, that brings me some peace of mind.
"But maybe that is because I have heard some truly unhinged shit, like I have heard things that will make you question if the other person should even be allowed to live or not. So as for your mumbling, I'd give it a solid 6 7 on the funny scale."
Oh...No...
For the rest of the way, my only focus was on keeping my mouth shut and not slipping up again.
Until I laughed a little.
"What's so funny?"
Shin asked in a funny tone, like a child who was dying of boredom.
"I..."
My mouth closed as I thought about what it was that made me laugh.
Then I turned to Shin and placed a hand on my mouth while shaking my head.
"I don't remember, for the love of my life, I can't recall it."
"Unc is getting old."
Pfht
"I ain't that old. It's just that I was focusing a lot on keeping quiet, and then was it a Meme or an intrusive thought? I don't know, but tell me.... I REMEMBER!"
A lot of heads turned towards me as Shin placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Quick, while the memory is still fresh."
"Do you remember the Croissant meme?"
Shin burst out laughing as he wiped a tear from his left eye.
"Ah, that was good. I have not heard anyone mention it in years. That meme was just so Quasont. I know what I am watching tonight."
HAH
Letting out a deep breath through my mouth, I looked around and realised we were right around the corner from the City Hall.
I stopped at the corner and turned towards Shin.
"How fast did we run? It only took us around fifteen minutes to get here."
"How far were we from here?"
"Around Thirteen or Twelve Kilometres."
"That's normal then."
Shin dismissed it very casually as he got ready to move towards the City Hall.
"Maybe, for Panerian Human, but I am not from Paneria, am I, nor have I been enhanced upon my arrival here."
I looked back at him as he frowned at me.
"Could it be that you are experiencing a later awakening?"
That's exactly what I was thinking, so I just gave him the simplest response in the form of a nod.
The way his eyes moved around, scanning me, before he nodded, was all I needed to know that he was considering every possibility that he could think of.
"Let's get you to An, and she can tell us if you are truly changing or not."
In a few minutes, we were inside the City Hall and could see numerous criminals being shipped off.
After waiting for what felt like a train of inmates walking past us, we were headed up the stairs.
"Hey, Jacob and Shin!"
Why him?
"Oh no."
Shin spoke as he and I turned around to come face to face with Ace.
"You guys seem to be doing laps around the place, finding it hard to get a suitable lead, or are you getting too many to handle? I will let you know that I have been working very hard to turn your arrested criminals into prisoners. I hope you bring me more criminals to put behind bars."
I've had enough of this man, today I will give it to him.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to degrade Ace and his entire bloodline, Shin placed his hand on my chest.
"The latter, and I am glad you are doing so well, the City will owe you a great debt, and we will talk to you in greater detail once all of this is finished, but for now, please forgive us, we are in a hurry."
Where did that come from?
I couldn't believe that Shin was capable of acting so in line. He used this moment to catch me off guard and take me up the stairs.
Looking back one last time, I saw Ace nod as he looked around awkwardly before going back.
UGH
"Have I ever told you how much I despise that guy? He is so so so annoying. His voice is just UGH! 'Hey guys, you guys, bye guys.' I can't with that man."
"Bro..."
Shin tried to stop me, but I wasn't having any of that.
"I will finish my rant even if it's the last thing I do. That man has an overestimated sense of his importance just because he is the only person who fights criminal cases in this city. Do you wanna know the things that man has done and said to others? No one can stand him."
The look I found on Shin's face was enough to shut me up.
He was looking at me with pity, of all things, hidden behind a gentle smile.
Pity for what exactly?
"Jacob, you know what Ninda is right?"
Ninda, a word I am all too familiar with. It is the act of speaking ill of others, criticising or slandering, behind their backs or in public.
"I may have dabbled in the matter before."
"And I believe, you must have been told more than a few times about why you shouldn't get into matters such as this."
Hmmm
He nodded and leaned back on the railing.
"Then why do you do it, you know it is one of the major sins, yet you still do it. It generates bad Karm, takes away your Sukrit. You tell me, is gossip worth it?"
Tell me something I don't know.
"I understand, Shin, I do, I just can't stop it, and besides, everyone does it in some way."
"How? Jacob."
"Look at how we were talking about Vasqe and the criminals, how we talk about them, is that not Ninda?"
Shin shook his head and held up a finger.
"What we talked about, we were stating facts about criminals, we did not do it to defame them, or because of personal hatred, we did it as an exchange of information without malice behind it. But what you just did that is Ninda; you had no reason to do it, you simply did it to disrespect Ace."
He paused before giving a sideward nod with his eyes closed.
"Now, I will be honest, I don't like him either. He chewed my brain out when I came here to drop Alu's family. But that is okay, some people are just not good at communication. Doesn't mean you make a joke out of them behind their backs or badmouth them."
He's right, what does doing Ninda bring me?
"One could say, I am doing the same to you, I am criticising you in a public space, but it isn't do you want to know why?"
"I know why you are not doing it to shame me in public or lower my reputation, you are doing it to help me and in a friendly tone."
The smile on his face grew wider as he patted me on the shoulders.
"Good, now promise me you won't do it again, wouldn't want you to ruin all the good in your life and end up in Hell. Albeit for a little while."
Does a few million years sound like a little while?
"Are you two gonna stand there and talk all day, or do you have something for me?"
A gentle yet sharp female voice came from behind us as both Shin and I looked back and up at the balcony overlooking the staircase.
To find none other than An standing there, looking down at us with her unreadable grey eyes.
When she tucked her white hair behind her ear, I had to take a double look; she had pointy ears.
The Identification of an Elf.
That would explain her potency in Magic and why she is a part of Raghav's crew.
"Indeed, we do. I was just telling Jacob a few things. Were you going somewhere?"
Shin began walking up the stairs as I followed.
An stood upright and shook her head. "Just stretching these old legs of mine. What do you have for me?"
Shin held out the cloak to her as she took it and ran her hand through the fibres, pulling out traces of Mana from it and then handed it back to Shin.
Without another word, she began moving to the alchemy lab.
"Does it belong to that woman who attacked you?"
She asked as I skipped forward to open the door for her.
"Yes, it does. Raghav was able to tear this off her with a spear throw when we found Markus murdered in his own home."
I gave her the information, which caused her to pause for a moment, before taking a deep breath and moving on.
"Then the best we can do is bring his killers to justice. Thanks to this Mana trace that I have recovered, we will be able to do just that."
Inside the Lab, I found Eldrain, Princess Aurelia, Amar, Alu and Palu, along with people whom I assume to be his family, in a corner far away from the lab equipment.
Amar and An began their experiment, using the different liquids and items that they had stored in different glass containers.
"Might I ask how Alchemy and Magic work? No one has ever explained it to me before."
The curiosity about magic has been there in me since day one. But no one ever explains it; they just say it will take a long time.
"Then I am glad, because I will tell you how it truly works."
Yes!
I moved closer as An looked at the Mana traces and how they reacted with the different colored liquids.
"As you know, magic can be used to do incredible things, using different energies, such as Mana, the primordial forces. There are three forms of Magic- Chants/Spells, Rituals and Alchemy."
"So, Alchemy and magic are not different, but rather Alchemy is a subsect of Magic?"
She smiled and nodded. "Indeed, Alchemy is the chemical and physical form of Magic, used to make potions, artefacts, magical tools, and to place enchantments on items."
Reaching behind her back, she placed her hand inside a small pouch and from it she pulled out a book, not just a small notepad.
A full blown book.
Then, from that book, she read out some chants in a language that went way above my head, and I could see Amar try his best to speak in tune with her.
Once she was finished, she looked back up from the table and handed me the book.
"What I just did was use spells in tandem with Alchemy to trace the nature of this Mana and to trace its user by binding the Mana to an object to lead us to its user."
I looked at the book to try to read the spells, but it was written in neither English nor Hindi nor Sanskrit.
"It's Parivak, the term used for the language of the Elf in English, meaning Voice of Nature. For even more common folk, it is simply called Elven. But for us Elves, it is called Alvavani as our race is called Alv in Sanskrit."
So she was using Elven spells in her Alchemy.
"Are you wondering why I used Elven spells instead of English spells?"
Was it written on my face, or can they really read minds?
Maybe I just mumbled it again.
All I gave her was a nod as she took the book back.
"The English spells are a watered down translation of Elven spells. They are less potent and lack the versatility of Elven Magic. Such as this pouch, which has been enchanted with Resize magic, which shrinks anything that I put in it, allowing me to store a large quantity of items with ease."
A whistling sound came from the table as the jar with the red liquid, and the Mana trace began to shift colour repeatedly.
An's face hardened as she frowned, staring at the liquid before it finally turned black.
Sigh
"So, before I give you the bad news, let's finish this lesson. Spells are immediate results, such as summoning fire or binding chains. It is the most basic level of Magic. Then come the rituals, which require preparing specific items and substances to complete them, for example, leaves, specific water, items and runes. Another instance of rituals is spells linked to celestial events such as solar eclipses. Alchemy is the hardest part to master, as you have to understand how things react with one another and how to use different things in a specific order to get the desired result."
Okay, that was not that hard to explain. I am gonna chew the others out on this.
"Now for the bad news, the Mana that was on the cloak did not belong to a single individual, but to thousands of different people. I only know one species which does not have natural Mana and must feed on others to replenish it."
"What species is that?"
I asked her, wanting to know what exactly we were dealing with.
"A vampire, not just any vampire, an elder. Which means I can't track them using their Mana as it would only lead us to the people they have fed upon."
"Do Vampires exist in this world?"
"They do, but only veteran adventurers and highly ranking officials know about them. Vampires stick to the shadows and remain hidden, unable to step out into the sun. A curse in exchange for their new abilities."
Eldrain spoke as he approached us.
"I am gonna give Octiv an earful when I meet him."
Who's Octiv, and what does he have to do with this situation?
"So what do I do now?"
I asked them as Eldrain clenched his jaw before answering.
"I will join you two on your investigation. Because if there is an Elder Vampire here, then it means there is an entire Bloodline of them within this city."