Knock! Knock!
In a large room, with open balconies on all sides and windows reaching from the floor to ceiling, spanning at least the width of two metres, placed on three sides. A gentle breeze blew in from the open and caused the crops planted within the room to sway in response.
A patch of soil three metres wide ran parallel to the walls and planted in them was wheat. Seated in the centre of the massive room was the figure with the second highest authority in Garobu City, one sporting a figure that sharply contrasted it.
Apostle—Keyn Garobu!
His short stature remained a mockery among his enemies but the divinity oozing out from him shut them all up. The wheat crops seemed to be leaning in his direction, drawn to his power as they brimmed with vitality.
The wheat grown in this room was of a quality superior to all the wheat produced in the city, reserved for special occasions or to entertain delegates. It was also what he used to gift people of importance.
Garobu City was literally called the breadbasket of their continent, Deccan. And hence, their gifts were naturally high-value food products.
Oozing an air of importance, Keyn Garobu stared up from the documents he was browsing and spoke, "Come in."
"Lord Keyn, we managed to decipher some details regarding the owner of this scroll." A subordinate entered the room and handed over the scroll, unfurling it to reveal the emojis drawn by Iota.
He then took out another scroll and opened it, revealing the image of a boy, "This is the result of Spirit Tracing. The traces were very weak and there was a lot of interference, so the Guild was only able to map out his appearance. They were unable to detect his location."
"Just the boy?" Keyn placed his pen down and stared at the subordinate, "What about the girl?"
"Any leads on that?"
When they investigated Yohra's house, they obtained two leads. First was the scroll with the emojis that Iota had drawn to communicate with Yohra. Second was the bag with their original clothes that he hadn't gotten rid of yet.
He was planning to dispose them in the morning, since starting a fire at night would be pretty noticeable. Unfortunately, Winter jeopardised his plans with her impromptu escape.
The clothes were a dead giveaway that the two that had stayed in Yohra's house weren't from their continent. The style, the fabric, the weaving technique, the dye used, and finally, the strange brand logos on them, all weren't a product used on their continent.
"We couldn't get an accurate image of the girl. But we were able to determine her age, height, and scent." The subordinate said and took out two glass spheres, "They have been trained to recognise the scent of the boy and the girl respectively."
Situated within the glass sphere was an insect resembling a wasp. It lay on the floor, acting dead. The subordinate took out Spring's underwear from a sealed container, watching one of the wasps come to life and buzz while staring at the underwear.
It was an insect typically employed in investigations to track the whereabouts of someone.
Nasp!
A scent-seeking wasp was called a Nasp. When trained to a scent, the Nasp seeks that particular scent for the rest of its life, never changing its desire. Once the method to train them to a scent was discovered, Nasps were popularised and employed by pretty much all organisations.
Maintaining a Nasp was very easy. One only needed to provide them with a droplet of nectar daily. And as long as they were kept within the glass sphere, they were easy to carry around, making investigations easy.
"How many Nasps have you trained?" Keyn asked next.
"Only two per each." The subordinate replied, "As they are expensive to create, I didn't dare train more without your permission, Lord."
"It's fine, train ten more sets of the same and equip all Priests with them." Keyn said in all seriousness, "Dullip is up to something. I just know it. Father dislikes a direct confrontation between siblings, so without sufficient proof, I cannot take any action against him."
"Scour throughout the city to find the two targets."
"As you wish, Lord Keyn." The subordinate bowed in response and exited the room.
Keyn unfurled the scroll, staring at a lifelike depiction of Iota and a somewhat blurry figure of Spring. All the details uncovered about them through Spirit Tracing were noted to the side, "Strange clothes, facial expressions different from us, and a body odour foreign to our land. What the hell are you scheming, Dullip?"
Spirit Tracing was a power exclusive to excommunicated Priests. If the Deity they served died, they were abandoned. And to protect themselves, they joined the Guild, a place filled with excommunicated Priests that took up requests from the public and fulfilled them to make a living.
When an excommunicated Priest used Spirit Tracing on an object, they were able to figure out the person's identity and could imprint that on a scroll. It was through this that they figured out Iota and Spring's identities using the clothes they wore.
'None of the Priests can actually go against Dullip. So, if he interferes, the leads would die then and there. My subordinates too cannot go against him, even if they were to figure out the target's location.' Keyn thought once his subordinate had gone to investigate Iota's location, "Then…"
He took a parchment and wrote a set of words on it, followed by a stamp that proved his authority. He rang a bell and summoned a Priest, watching her arrive in a matter of seconds. He handed her the parchment and spoke coldly, "Take it to the Sect along with information about the two targets."
"I'm putting a kill order on them."
"As you wish, Lord Keyn." The Priest went ahead with the plan.
Keyn smiled, "Even if a hitman from the Sect fails, it'll create a lot of noise, which gives me enough reason to openly act against him."
Just as how the Guild was where excommunicated Priests belonged and took up missions from the public, there was a darker counterpart that wasn't known to the public, one that took requests from people of importance to kill their targets. It was where excommunicated Shamans like Yohra belonged, known as…
The Sect!