There she was, wondering what or who it was that was keeping a watch over her. Her mind wondered.
Was it the killer? The man behind it all?
She even wondered whether ignoring the individual in that alley was the right thing to do. Who knows, if she had chosen to pursue that individual, many of her answers might have been delivered to her.
Even if she failed, she might still have learned something about the enemy at the very least. And she was going to pursue him, but something in her blood told her to wait.
It warned her about something.
If she had followed her rationality at that moment, something bad might have happened, so she stayed put and left the area.
Which was a tad bit disappointing for me and her.
If only her senses were stronger. If only she was like the ones that I previously met, those that came close to killing me.
But I am expecting too much from a new recruit.
She was young and had a whole future ahead of her, just like Farhad.
Whether she can achieve that greatness will depend on her alone. And no one in this would help her, not even me.
So with a downtrodden mood after losing two consecutive clues in her hand, Remira got back to the library. Much to the surprise of Pierta.
"Back so soon?" She wondered, knowing that Remira was someone that likes to be thorough with her work. But being part of the Radiant eye, she was not clueless of why this might have happened?
"Failed with what you were doing?"
"Yes, and badly. But at least I found that someone had truly been following us."
"Probably the individuals that were responsible for this totem… right?" At this point, the voice of Maxim came from the side. His fingers move along the wooden board that Remira bought previously from Farhad's apartment.
Feeling the carvings inch by inch, a dazed expression appeared on his face, and then it turned a bit melancholic.
But with his lack of eyes, none of the women in the library noticed this, instead, Remira just nodded. "Probably yes, I don't see why anyone besides our enemies would be so keen on tailing me."
"Are you sure it was an enemy? Might be a third party?" Pierta tried to confirm. Coming from her background, she was well aware of how many third parties were interested in Gregory street, besides the Radiance.
Many wish to study the dream domain here, while only a few wish to end it. There are even some who treated this place as a tourist spot due to the random dreaming one suffers from.
"That I can't say, but there are only a few who can keep up with me in this city if I tried and at that moment, I was trying." By trying, Remira meant her method of hiding from the eyes that must be following him.
And knowing the personality of the Old man from the Lucien academy, there was a high chance that he might send his hounds at her.
It was a well-known fact that the Headmaster of Lucien didn't like Radiance Society at all and was one of the biggest hurdles when Radiance tried to enter this city.
Or so she was taught, but from what she could sense, the only man never bothered with her and let her go without any problem while someone else instead followed her.
Which in and of itself was a scary thing. Who knows what was the intention of this third party, he might even aim for her life.
Or so she thought, but poor Remira was not aware that I was completely harmless, I can't kill anyone or even influence much, I was just lucky with Farhad due to the boy's weak mentality.
It's not every day you find someone with such a weak personality that influencing them becomes so easy.
So at the moment, I had no means to stop her. If she wanted, she could have purified me. And if she wanted, she could have ended these dream shenanigans.
But she seemed smarter than this, she didn't ruin the game and was playing her part perfectly. It's not every day that you find such great characters in a story.
"Then our enemy is good. No, with this small slab, I am sure that he is a lot better than we might expect." Maxim said, beating the slab in his hand.
To which, Remira, who was disappointed after her recent failures, stood up and asked Maxim. "So you have a clue on what this is?" There was a hint of radiance in her eyes, a sign that her blood was active to extremes.
Much to the surprise of Maxim. Who once had the blood of radiance coursing through his veins.
But he didn't say anything, he was not someone to put their nose in other's business anyway.
"You can say that. This is one of the languages from the mundane world, but I don't know which one and what it means."
"I would have to send an imprint of this to the Heart to get any answers."
The heart of Radiance was the hub of Radiance society that existed only in a few selected locations in world. With the closest one where the three orignated from was 800km away. And it would take around three days for it to reach there by train and by adding the additional time, it would take around eight days at the minimum.
Till that time, the group would barely be able to do anything on the clue.
"Even I knew that this would be the case. Tell me something that I don't know." Remira said, well aware that someone like Maxim couldn't be learned in useless language.
Which put the poor old man a bit off, before he responded with a sigh. "I just know one of the runes in this, it's either a dream or a nightmare. The domain of sleep."
The language of runes is ever-changing and there are multiple different signs for a singular word due to the nature of power that is used.
But it doesn't mean that they were hard to deconstruct, and for someone as learned as Maxim, whose sole job was research, this was as easy as butter.
As one shouldn't forget that Maxim hadn't been with that wooden slab for more than an hour and he had already deciphered one of the runes.
"Sleep once again. It might be the medium through which he was marked."
The entity that is currently looming over this street was sleep related as well. Which made the two events connected.
"This truly was a great find, Remira. It made our work easy and we also have more proof for our thesis."
Maxim sounded enthusiastic, but there was also some dread hidden in his voice, old memories kept surfacing in his head, and even the piece of wood felt heavy in his hand. But he reigned in his emotions from going haywire.
He was hiding something that he didn't want others in his group to know about.
As for why he was doing this? Even I was unaware of it.
The reason for it was simple. Maxim had been marked before, but not by me but by a similar entity that left his soul dirty.
And I can't feel the thoughts of individuals from all that murkiness. A cleaner soul like Remira is more to my liking.
It's radiant and bright like moonlight, even the pain it gives to me is peaceful. She is strong-willed and I like her due to this.
Rarely do I find someone that can detect me and she was the first one in a while, and it was for the same reason.
When the headmaster of Lucien infected her with a parasitic worm that ate away at her brain, it activated her radiant blood which burned the worm before it could do any harm.
And it was due to her blood that made her soul stronger, making it easier for her to notice me.
But I have already found the reason, I won't make the same mistake again. Nor do I wish for the game to end so early.
****
Now let's walk a bit further from the library, but still on Gregory street.
There was a group of men in black clothes standing in the basement of a potion shop. Each one had an eerie aura around them and all of them sleeping.
They slept while standing still.
"Wake up, we have some guests." The man who was the owner of this potion shop ordered, waking up this group of people.
"Your eyes are red, it would seem the dreams haven't been kind to most of you," he said, looking that most of these cloaked individuals had red eyes and black blood leaking from their noses.
With the exception of one small silhouette. Someone the shop owner knew.
"As expected of our little enigma, you truly are special," he said, applauding the strength of the little child. "Come forward." He ordered this individual who looked like a child under the cloak.
"Yes sir?" In an adolescent voice, the child asked. Curious and a bit fearful of the potion master.
"You will lead the mission this time, and your job is a simple one." Then the man pointed at the papers. Which he took out of the bag.
And then, he pointed at the face on the paper, a face that looked slightly similar to Farhad. "You have to assassinate Marshal Maisel."
Although unaware of who his target actually is, the boy just nodded out of fear and then backed off, taking the rest of the cloaked individuals with him.
"Opportunities like this come rarely, don't miss it," he said in the air, not caring whether his words reached the ears of someone or not.
But I can say, it sure reached my ears.
And I sure am looking forward to the mayhem that might happen in the future.