The following days were all about preparing for my trip to Prudentia.
In actuality, this just meant that I was training more frequently and that the exercises were more intense.
I had continued my training with Astress, who - like I said - had turned the difficulty up a notch.
I was already accustomed to her barbaric training methods, but even this surprised me.
My warm-ups were twice as intense and at the slightest error or wavering, Astress would make me repeat the exercise all over again.
And although the warm-ups had become harder, they were nothing compared to our sparring sessions.
I had to try my hardest to dodge her explosive fists.
She was definitely going all out on me.
And if her intentions to hit me weren't a sign of that, the words she was throwing at me certainly were.
"Too slow!"
"An infant could dodge that blindfolded!"
"Are you even taking this seriously?!"
There was this slight tone of anger not just in her voice, but in her actions as well.
I did not know what caused her to get so upset, but it was clear that it was influencing her.
"Astress, can we take a small break, please?"
"Your opponents will not grant you the luxury of a break, so stop whining. If you want to take a break, you will have to earn it."
At that moment, it felt like something snapped inside my brain.
Similar to a volcano that'd stayed dormant for a hundred years and was about to erupt, all the negative emotions and frustration I'd stored up until that point now burst out of me.
"Stop treating me like your emotional punching bag already, you stupid, self-absorbed, insensitive, maid! Tell me, what did I do to deserve this treatment from you?!"
Astress said nothing, yet she kept looking agitated at me.
She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, probably in an attempt to hide her frustration with me.
"Come on then! TELL ME!"
"NOTHING!"
Without any prior warning, Astress burst into tears.
Her arms and legs were shaking, both out of anger and defeat.
Through the sobbing, she whispered:
"You did nothing."
It was the first time I'd seen her like this.
She looked so weak and vulnerable, that it threw me off-guard.
The usually aloof Astress, now reduced to a crying mess.
Part of me felt guilty for seeing her like this, though was it really my fault?
Out of nowhere, she then said:
"Why am I so weak?! I have no right to call myself a maid of the Diablo household!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I let Lady Kia get hurt by that foul Lucifer, and I was unable to save His Majesty from passing away. I tried and tried, yet it did not work. Was there truly nothing I could have done to prevent it? Was all I could do to watch him slowly die in front of me, while clinging onto false hope? You have to be joking, right?"
She tried to wipe her tears away, but they wouldn't stop flowing.
Her words resonated heavily with me, because this was exactly how I felt when I ended up here in Fira.
The feeling of powerlessness and sense of inevitability, I knew it all too well.
It wraps around your brain and clouds your entire mind, making it practically impossible to escape.
The only thing that helped me at the time was Kia.
And just like Kia had consoled me back then, now it was my time to do the same to Astress.
I bowed heavily and told her that I was sorry.
"It was bad of me to lash out at you like that. Please, forgive me."
She looked stupefied at me and for a moment, apart from a single questioning noise, said nothing.
"However, if I may share my honest opinion, I do not think you're weak at all, Astress. On the contrary, I think you're far stronger than you give yourself credit for. Not only are you the Head Maid of the Diablo family, you're the most loyal and trustworthy person I know - and a great teacher too. You achieved so many things others could only dream of. I understand that you're upset you weren't able to prevent Azazel's death, we all are. But to keep blaming yourself for it just isn't right."
"Did Lady Kia tell you that?"
I nodded and awkwardly rubbed my hair.
"Is that so? Well, that is easy for you to say. You have not dedicated your entire life to serving someone else. Twelve years of solemn devotion, yet the only thing I could do was to watch him die."
"And do you honestly think Azazel would want you to think that?!"
Her entire body suddenly froze up.
The words I shouted at her clearly affected her deeply.
So much so, that even her crying stopped.
"I may haven't known him as well as you have, but even I can tell that he wouldn't have wanted you to keep blaming yourself for his death. Azazel died protecting his people to the very end. Should we not remember him by that fact, or are we not even going to give him that honour?"
With mouth agape, she stared straight at me.
I hoped that this would finally stop her blaming herself for what had happened.
Like I said, when you are this far down in the dumps, it's almost impossible to climb out of it.
That's why having someone who can help you is so important.
If she were to keep blaming herself for what'd happened, then I needed to tell her that blame wasn't justified.
Both Rai and Kia really taught me the importance of having someone like that who you can rely on in such times.
But back to Astress, who was still looking in awe at me.
I found the lack of sound to be quite embarrassing, so I quickly tried to end my long-winded monologue.
"A-Anyway, I just felt like I needed to share that with you. Whether you will listen to me or not is up to you, though I reckon you won't."
To my surprise, however, she whispered:
"Thank you, Shako!"
It took me a second to register what she said.
Did she really just call me by my first name, or did I not hear her correctly?
"H-Hold on! Repeat that for me, please."
She looked cross at me, but then she repeated:
"Thank you, Shako!"
"See, I knew you could be nice once in a while."
I couldn't help myself to tease her a little bit, as she'd done so many times before.
Her head turned the colour of a tomato, right before she turned it away in anger.
While Shako and Astress were in the midst of making up their dispute, Kia was sitting in her room leafing through letters and notes she received the other day.
As the new Queen of Elysium, she was tasked with reading every single one of these and answering it accordingly.
An outright tedious task, but a necessary one nonetheless.
Ever since her father had been assassinated, she had focused herself more than ever to maintain the safety of her people.
A gentle sigh escaped her lips as she glanced over all the miscellanies sitting on her table, mostly gifts sent to celebrate her coronation.
These were riches the ordinary civilian could only dream about, yet Kia did not receive even a single ounce of joy from them.
For that, she was still too worked up about her father's death.
While Shako's words had cheered her up a little bit, there remained a giant feeling of emptiness floating around inside her chest.
She sometimes found herself wondering what Azazel would do, if he was still here.
"Oh, how much I miss him." she whispered.
Since his burial, she had visited his grave every single day, praying he and her mother would watch over her while she carried out her duties as queen.
Kia isn't that fond of prayers - she is quite sceptical about religion in general - however, even she experiences a rather odd sense of tranquillity while performing them.
The Church of Charun, the largest holy body in all of Fira, would likely ridicule her for it, but she did not care about their zealous convictions.
She had more important things to worry about than the teachings of a supposed 'prophet of peace'.
While it is not like her to say such things out loud, even she can get fed up over such trivial things.
She returned her focus to the letter in front of her, when someone knocked on her door.
Expecting no guests at this hour, she was quite perturbed about who it could be.
Despite this, she stood up and slowly neared the door.
Once she opened it, she was flabbergasted by the person standing in front of her.
"Hey, Kia."
To her utter surprise, her visitor appeared to be Reath.
He was dressed in the same conspicuous attire he wore when she last saw him.
In his hands, he was holding a large bouquet of flowers.
"Oh, these are for you. Congrats on your coronation, My Queen!"
Afterwards, he asked her if he could come in.
Everything about him, from his looks to the words he used, reflected that he was quite nervous to see her.
Kia was hesitant as well and got barraged by an assortment of conflicting emotions.
Part of her wished to embrace him, to put her lips against his and never let go.
The other part wished to do nothing of the sort, as she knew committing such acts would conflict with her duties as queen.
In the end, she allowed him inside her room.
She walked back to her desk, where she laid the flowers beside all the other gifts she'd received.
"I'm…sorry, about what happened to Azazel. I thought maybe you could…use a shoulder to lean on."
Reath awkwardly rubbed the back of his head while he pushed out those words.
Kia did not know how to respond to that, so she took her time thinking of a fitting reply.
"I appreciate your sentiment, but I am fine. While at first I rejected his passing, I have come to accept it by now. I am blessed to be surrounded by such caring people, who helped support me through it all."
"I see."
A few seconds of silence passed, before Kia asked what she wanted to ask from the beginning.
"Why are you here, Reath? If it was not obvious, our relationship is a thing of the past. I do not wish to repeat the same mistake another time."
"You think our love was a mistake?"
It pained Kia having to put up a tough act.
While on the outside she appeared cold and harsh, inside she was trying her hardest not to break.
She could feel her heart physically hurting, trying to distance herself from the man whom she once loved.
"Maybe it was, maybe it was not. Who knows?"
Reath sighed heavily at hearing her answer.
"I did not come here to fix our relationship - if that was even an option."
He sat down on Kia's bed, whereafter she took a seat beside him.
"My apologies! It was improper of me to say that. Truth be told, I have not been in the best headspace recently."
"Don't worry about it. I know damn well that you've got more important things to worry about than our broken relationship."
He put his hands on her leg as a sign of sympathy.
"What did you do after my father sent you away?"
"I travelled the world. Went from one place to another. It made me realize how fortunate a life I truly have."
He stopped and stared down at the floor, almost as if a bad memory had manifested itself in his mind.
It was clear he was thinking about something, and Kia spared no time trying to figure out what it was.
"Is there something on your mind?"
Reath took a deep breath and said:
"What if I told you there are people out there who struggle every single day to come by? People who spend their entire life just to survive, not knowing what other wonders life has to offer. How would that make you feel?"
Kia knew where Reath was going with this, but answered him nonetheless.
"Sad, of course. Howbeit, the rules of life cannot be favourable to everyone. Life has its ups and downs, and it is through that endless struggle that us beings find meaning."
Reath noticed that Kia's hands tensed up as she spewed those last few words out of her mouth.
Contradictory to what she said, he knew that the one who wanted everyone to be happy the most was she - even more than himself.
Such a kind and pure girl, she was truly too good for this cruel world.
"May that be so, I can't turn a blind eye to people who are in dire need of help. It's just not in my blood."
Kia took a while to process what Reath said and then started wondering about all the things he must have seen during his travels around Fira.
For him to say such a thing, with such a quiver in his voice, things must be more dire in this world than she originally thought.
"Anyway, back to the main topic. I came here to warn you, Kia. Something evil is stirring on the horizon. A force so powerful, it could alter the entirety of Fira as we know it."
"What do you mean?"
"He's talking about The Covenant."
From the shadows of the corner of the room, the girl named Ânn appeared.
Startled by her sudden appearance, Kia jumped off the bed, when Reath told her once more to sit down again.
"Who are you?"
"My apologies for scaring you like that, Your Majesty. My name is Ânn, and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
She made a graceful bow before Kia, after which she explained why she was here.
"It was I who told Reath about The Covenant."
"This Covenant, what exactly are they? Lucifer mentioned them as well, however I was unable to find any information about them."
Ânn waited a second before sharing her knowledge about The Covenant with Kia.
"The Covenant is an ancient cult that wishes to conquer Fira, and to redefine the world order. They operate from the shadows and have members, backers, and worshippers all over the world. With every passing day, their strength and support continues to grow. It will not take long before they have the resources to launch a full-scale attack on Fira. And when that happens, the world as we know it will cease to exist. However, that is but the least of our worries."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Their leader, who named herself The Mother, is far stronger than you could ever possibly imagine. Even someone as talented as you would stand no chance against her, I promise you that."
She showed Kia her charcoal-like arm in an attempt to further intensify her claim.
Kia began to feel quite uneasy.
If what she told her was all true, then Lucifer's attack was only the beginning.
Millions and millions of Firans's lives would be at stake.
How could she ever prevent such a disaster from happening?
Her hands were trembling, and her body was shaking, panicking over the thought of what to do.
When he saw how she was acting, Reath grabbed Kia's hand and squeezed it gently.
"You're not alone in this." he told her.
Slowly, but surely, the panic in her body subsided and her courage returned.
She looked Ânn straight in the eyes and asked:
"How strong is this so-called Mother?"
She answered in a serious tone:
"We're dealing with a new god."