“Hmm….” Éclair puts her finger on Tewrick and drags her finger through all possible routes.

“Hey…Éclair…” Orik calls her as he feeds the fire wood.

“Hmmm?”

“Was it really a good idea to sneak out of town?”

“Of course. They would have chased after me, demanding that I either put the orb back to normal. Then, they would have kept me as a test subject to figure out how I deactivated it. Ah…” Éclair brightens up with realization. “Talking about deactivating…”

Éclair reaches into her pack and takes out the dead orb. With a blink, her eyes turn red and suddenly, she starts seeing all the familiar strands of time weaving in and out throughout her vision. Around the ball is the containment field she had created earlier to keep it stuck in a phase a time. She concentrates her power in her hands and sees it leaking out of her fingers, rearranging the pieces. She works at a slow and easy pace, watching as the ball grows smaller, until it becomes a glittering ruby.

“So this is what you used…” She breathes in amazement and horror at the same time.

Suddenly, the ruby starts glowing and Zephyr’s face appears in the jewel.

“Zephyr!” Éclair exclaims in surprise. Her face is not childish anymore, and she looks more like a teenager. Her hair seems longer, and she is wearing blue eye shadow.

“Hello Éclair! You found me!! Isn’t this fun?” Zephyr giggles. “I knew you would after a while, so I recorded this message into all of the Rursus. Isn’t that a cool name? That’s what I call these ball things!! Aren’t I smart!!” Zephyr’s face then changes, darkening as she sneers, her eyes turning into the same murky crimson color the orb was. “And look, I’m an Elder now too. See, it’s just so much easier to do it this way. And I’m being fair too. I’m only stealing time from people who deserve it. Look at the world, and see how corrupt so many people are! I’m only doing them a favor.”

Éclair doesn’t know when she started but it’s only now she realizes she’s crying.

“And look, it’s weird. I have horns too.” Zephyr tilts back to show two red horns growing out of her neck. “Maybe it means that I’m special, right?” Zephyr’s eyes seem to gleam hungrily at the prospect.

“Anyway, I’m closing this up. I’m going to the place where it all started to destroy that throne. Maybe you’ll meet me there. Then we could discuss this like adults. Until then, farewell, older sister.”

Zephyr’s face disappears from the ruby, leaving Éclair to stare at an empty sea of red.

“Zephyr…” She sobs.

Howdidthishappenhowdidthishappenhowdidthishappen….

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!”

Éclair jumps up. She forgot Orik was there.

“Orik…I…” She doesn’t know what to say.

Orik seems to be struggling to talk. On one side, he looks furious, and then he also looks guilty and confused.

“You…sit down…talk.” He manages out.

Éclair is about to comply before she remembers,

“No, I…I can’t.”

“Why?” Orik bites out.

Éclair has no answer for him.

“Look, that thing you did at the lab… the thing you did with the ball—Rursus—whatever that thing is called, it…people just can’t do that!! It isn’t right!! It was weird and freaky and your eyes changed color just like they did now!! And then, you’re Zephyr’s older sister and she steals people’s time and…it just doesn’t make sense!”

Éclair looks away guiltily.

“I’m sorry…but…I can’t tell you anything.”

“WHY? Terra-bury it, WHY?”, Orik all but yells.

“Because I don’t want to be judged by you!”

“Well HOW do I judge you well if I don’t have the WHOLE FREAKING STORY?”

“I have some secrets that I can’t tell and I’m sure you do too!! You just have to trust me!”

Suddenly, the argument’s wind is dead. They’re both tired.

“I…” Orik is at a loss for words. “I don’t think I can do that.”

Éclair is quiet for a few moments. Then, she nods in her solemn way, her face unreadable as her pleasant smile is plastered on her face.

“I understand. We’ll part our separate ways from here. It was nice knowing you.” She says calmly. Then taking her pack, she walks off, leaving Snowflake behind for him.

For some reason, she feels oddly disappointed to know that she’s going to be traveling alone from now on.

---

She arrives in Lyrian after a few days of wandering around. Several times she would get lost and thus have to go around looking for other travelers who might know where they were at the moment. But somehow, even with her map, she would get lost again.

Eventually however, one person had told her to follow the river upstream, and thus, Éclair found herself at her destination.

Lyrian, unlike Symphel and Tewrick, was completely unmodernized. There was no trace of any electronics anywhere.

However, Éclair found herself liking the homely village. It reminded her of her hometown, where she and Zephyr had used to live. Every street was a marketplace with sellers and buyers bargaining and squabbling. Horses with wagons and carriages populated the streets along with other people. Children were running around everywhere, laughing and fighting over balls and toys. The scene hit Éclair with a hint of nostalgia.

Zephyr!

Like a flash, Éclair turns around, looking for where she sensed Zephyr’s magic. And that’s where she catches his eye.

He was leaning against the wall across the street. Like a lone wolf, he stands out, emanating a cold aura. Messy, spiky, metal hair fall over piercing silver eyes that remind her of something, but she doesn’t know what. And across his nose is a slashed scar.

“One guy is a highly skilled assassin, known for a scar across his nose. His nickname’s Killer, since no one knows his real name.”

Éclair’s eyes widen with realization, but before she can approach him, he has broken eye contact and is disappearing into the crowd.

She follows him.

He walks at a normal pace, but with the way his hand had drifted casually towards his sword scabbard, Éclair knows that he can tell she’s following him. Nonetheless, she keeps trailing after his every step.

Turn, straight, left, left, right, turn, straight, left…

She is led into an empty alley, no one in front of her. He’s tricked her.

FwiSHING!

Her sword hits with another.

She looks at her opponent, and sees Killer, his face impassive.

“What do you want?”

His voice is like his eyes; cold, metal, piercing…Éclair pushes her observations away.

“I want you to teach me how to fight.” The lie surprisingly comes off Éclair’s tongue smoothly. He says nothing, but only gazes at her.

CLANG!

Though her face is calm, she is nearly caught off guard by his sudden attack, and manages to block. He continues to attack and slash with ease, each strike coming on faster. She protects herself from every one of them, but in doing so, she gets her body in a tight position with the wall against her back. Their faces are close together, separated by a wall of struggling swords.

“You already know how to fight.” His breath is steady; he’s not tired at all. “You don’t need me.”

He draws back his sword and walks away, leaving her there. She waits until he nearly has turned out of the alley before chuckling, knowing perfectly well that he can still hear her.

“Is that really fighting? Hmm…he must have low standards. Maybe that’s a good thing.”

She waits a while before she gets up and walks back to search for a hotel to stay at, feeling better than she had for a while. She remembers a time when she used to manipulate Zephyr like that.

---

She sees him buying fruit from a street vendor the next day as she is walking to the bookstore, and grins before going up to him. As opposed to following him, this time, to act her part of the naïve eager student, she walks by him and starts talking to him.

“Hey, I’ve always wondered…what’s your real name?”

Silence.

Even more silence.

Extra silence for five more minutes.

Éclair hums patiently as she waits him out.

It is another five minutes of following him around as he eats and buy random fruits before he says anything.

“Why are you following me?”

She looks up innocently and smiles.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Éclair smiles wider as she sees how his eyes seem to narrow just a slight bit.

“I’m not taking students.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about any extra costs. I’ll pay for my keep. And I don’t need to go anywhere specific, so I can just follow wherever you go. And I promise I won’t be any more of a bother than I am right now—“

“Why do you want me to teach you how to fight?”

Éclair puts on a serious but nostalgic look, and pauses before answering with her best determined voice that she could muster up.

“I need to learn how to fight better, so I can … so I can protect the ones that are close to me. I mean…” And here is where Éclair starts to babble to add a slightly hysteric note to her dialogue. “…I couldn’t bear to lose any more of my family or friends to bandits, or stupid-forest curses, and—and—well…who better to learn from than the best?”

Éclair knew that all the sappy romance books that she read would come in handy someday.

Killer says nothing once again, and instead munches on a peach. Éclair studies him as he eats, seeing if she can read any of his emotions. She meets a smooth steel wall.

“I’m not taking any students.” There is a tone of finality in his voice. Éclair puts on a look of disappointment and looks away, as if getting over her rejection.

She continues to follow him.

Ten minutes later, she turns back up to him with a cheerful smile, like nothing is wrong.

“You never did answer my question…”

Is that a glare she’s getting from him, or is his eyes always naturally narrowed?

“…what is your real name?”

---

AN: I'm kinda rushing the story a bit aren't I...eheheheh...and it's REALLY hard to keep Eclair in character...Oh well. Anyway, please review!