Chapter I: Steps
John was visited by his little sister the next morning, but Carson doesn’t care—as he follows Virgil to work to ask him about the clue he just learned.
– Zion Water
We meet again.
Carson’s desire to search for Crescent Squad’s clues and to find Markus again clashed… Very well. This story can continue, either way.
Once it was morning, Carson hurried out of the bed and rushed downstairs, to find John cooking something over the stove—with a pan in his hand. Today, the kitchen smelled of spices Carson couldn’t name, yet it tickled something in his memory.
“What’s this?” Carson asked, as he stood behind John.
“It’s fried rice,” John replied, swishing the pan for one last time before packing the meal into containers. Each was marked with colors, and Carson’s was the yellow one.
While John was busy cleaning up the pan, Carson ate his first meal. Despite John’s first impression, his food was better than what he had during his bandit days. It felt more like home.
And someone rang the bell.
“I’m coming!” John yelled at the door, as he hung the pan over the rack.
“It’s me, Jane!”
And John headed straight to the door, opening it for Jane.
If Carson’s memories served right, she was John’s little sister. Her resemblance to John was there, but her words sounded much more pleasant. Either way, Carson didn’t bother eavesdropping in their loud exchanges, as he had something else to do today—ask Virgil about the crescent symbol, so he could start his next plan.
Once Carson was done eating, Virgil arrived home. He greeted both Jane and John, before heading inside to grab his food container—one marked with red. “Okay, Carson. Make sure the doors stay locked, and don’t steal—”
“Hey, about the whole crescent symbol deal… Can we talk about it?”
“Oh, sure. You’re coming with me then.”
Virgil and Carson left the two siblings behind, as they head to the forge shop. A few fellow workers roamed around this place, and Carson didn’t know what to do here.
At the moment Carson was about to ask Virgil his first question, Virgil was already running around with his job—working with weapons and such. During his first moments here, Carson stayed behind, watching everyone else work.
While Carson was waiting for the moment Virgil took a break, his attention was caught by a locked box with a shiny lock. As he walked towards it, a blade tipped his neck.
“Do not,” Virgil warned, with the dagger in his hand and a glare. And he sighed, withdrawing the dagger away from Carson. “Bored?”
Carson nodded, wiping the sweat on his neck, and Virgil tossed him a bag. “Send this to the house over there, right next to the dock.”
After this request, Carson took the job of an errand boy for a while. Once the lunch break arrived, Virgil handed him a small stack of crowns, tied by a rubber band. “For today’s work.”
“Thanks. You know anyone who knows gang symbols?”
“Hmm. How long did you have that cloth for?”
“Since yesterday. John said he found it five years ago at his house.”
“Five years… Not too long for someone to write a record of it in Ironport’s library. Ask the librarian for the recent guild records—and oh, could you do me a favor? I need you to look for something in that place.”
“Sure?”
“Look for the old studies section, and find The Art of Charms. Fifth edition specifically, no more or less. Just fifth.”
Carson nodded. “You want me to borrow it?”
“Mhm.”
Virgil then continued with his afternoon work, letting Carson head to the library.
As Carson stepped inside, he noticed a familiar figure talking to the librarian. Grey hair, small figure—he only knew one person who looked like that.
“Ace?”
“What?” Ace turned to Carson, still maintaining his stoic composure like before. It was Carson’s first time seeing him outside of work, in his casual attire.
Writer's Notes
At the time of making this post, I wasn’t really at my peak state, haha… But hey, expect the next update on the 29th!
This was written on 26th April 2022, 25 words from the Storyteller, 627 words from the story itself.
Chapter I: Plan
Carson encounters Ace as he searched for the next clue in the library, and Ace knows something about the Crescent Squad!
– Zion Water
We meet again.
Carson’s desire to search for Crescent Squad’s clues and to find Markus again clashed… Very well. This story can continue, either way.
“I’m looking for the recent guild records. Where’s that?” Carson looked at Ace, who didn’t seem to expect him here—or at least, expect him to be some guy who actually visited libraries. And he had another question. “And what are you doing here?”
Ace talked to the librarian for a little moment, before turning back to Carson. “Looking for something. Which guild?”
“Crescent Squad. You know them?”
Ace nodded, before telling Carson to follow him along. And he stopped in front of a bookshelf, picking a book from it. Its cover was titled as expected of a guild record.
Carson looked over Ace’s shoulder as he flipped through the pages. “So… Where’d they end up?”
“Missing,” Ace said, as he stopped at a page. Its last line read the squad was nowhere to be seen, after this incident.
Carson’s eyes then skimmed over the page for the date—and he spotted the day he remembered the accident happening. That section detailed the attacks trailing from Ironport, Riverville, Silent Tower, Bell Villages—all the places in the Eastern Peninsula, tracing from the easternmost towards the northern—and stopping at the Bronze Grasslands.
Apparently, this attack was carried out by only ten people, and their identities hadn’t been pinpointed since then.
“Mind flipping back the page? I’m trying to see who these guys are.”
Ace flipped back the pages, revealing the details of the Crescent Squad along the way. It was an infamous dark guild operating across this continent, known for its methods to wipe people from history. They carried out their attacks once every few years, starting from roughly fifteen years ago. After the last ten years, fewer attackers were involved each time. Their motives remained unclear—though Carson noticed a pattern of the squad attacking guilds.
“You want to track their members down?” Ace asked, closing the record.
Carson nodded. “What about you?”
“I do—or at least, I have to. Care to visit my house later?”
Carson thought about his offer for a little longer. He wasn’t sure if he could trust someone who worked for Magic Council to handle this—they were known to be extremely slow with their justice-serving methods, at least from what he remembered.
But hey, there’s nothing to lose here, right?
“Sure. And you know where’s the Art of Charms book? Virgil said he’s looking for fifth edition.”
Once Carson mentioned the book’s name, he swore he could almost see Ace’s expression brightened for a second. He swore he almost saw him smile.
“Follow me.”
For the rest of Carson’s time in the library, he followed Ace around the place to grab the charms book, and to help Ace grab his books from the taller shelves here and there. Looking at the books Ace wanted him to pick up, they were either about magic techniques or law books. No in-between.
Before Carson could know, they had already left the library. As Ace walked towards a building, he noticed John’s house. And he went inside the smaller house right next to it.
He hadn’t figured out Ace was his neighbor—and his suspicions raised. Was Ace trying to use him?
Once they got inside, Ace headed inside the bedroom, searching his shelf for something among a mess of papers.
While waiting for Ace to search for whatever he sought, Carson looked around this room.
For a bedroom, it was awfully plain and tidy—to the point of making him wonder if Ace actually slept here.
Once Ace grabbed out some stacks of folded and rolled papers, he slapped the dust off some of them, and threw them on the bed.
As each paper was quickly unfolded by Ace himself, they were revealed to be hand-drawn maps, and several written documents. When Carson’s attention was on one of the maps, he couldn’t make out the sketches, but the handwriting was readable enough.
“Was this… Ironport?” Carson asked, as he tried to piece together the names of buildings together with the messy drawings.
Ace nodded, as all the papers were now unfolded. “These are what I’ve gathered about that squad’s attacks.”
Carson stared at all the papers lying in front of both of them. “You made this all yourself?”
Ace nodded in response.
“Don’t you have Magic Council guys to help you out, or what?”
“It’s easy,” Ace sighed, “they don’t care. Or at least, they had given up.”
“Oh, I see… You were attacked back then, right?”
“I was.” Ace glared at Carson for a moment, before focusing his gaze on the maps. And he picked up a continent map, with several spots marked with names of people. “I still need to pay rent and such, so I haven’t had the time to travel and investigate any of these…”
“What’s with those names?”
“Names of that squad’s members I had gathered so far. No surnames and such—they change identities, after all.”
“Huh. Say, what are you trying to do?”
“Revenge,” Ace replied with a grim glare on the map, and he picked up another document with a list of names. “Here are the guilds those names ended up at.”
Carson accepted the guilds’ name list from Ace, and his attention was immediately caught by the Sun Rage bandits being mentioned in the list.
“You saw your old group?” Ace asked.
Carson nodded.
“Remember, everyone there changes identities. If you suspect anyone of that, bring them to me, or the Silent Tower. I’ll arrange the rest myself.”
Okay. Head back to the Sun Rage bandits, track down the Crescent Squad member and bring them back, also bring Markus back with him—that was the plan he quickly thought of. And he was threatened to join the group again, he had his own threats up his sleeve.
Writer's Notes
At the time of making this post, I was a bit impatient writing this part. But hey, expect the next update on the 2nd!
This was written on 29th April 2022, 34 words from the Storyteller, 980 words from the story itself.
Chapter I: Worry
Ace gives Carson a hint, and Carson heads home to prepare for his plans. But something still lingers in his mind as he try to occupy his mind with things around the house.
– Zion Water
We meet again. From this point, Carson will follow this plan he only just came up with.
“You think you could do that?” asked Ace.
“Yeah, I’ve already come up with a plan.”
Ace didn’t reply for a moment, as he stared at Carson—like he just said something wrong.
Still unsure of Ace’s thoughts, Carson asked, “Uh, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. You know where to go next?”
“Find their camp?”
“Where?”
“Hmm. I could search around the Whispering Forest, or head to the older camps I remembered—”
“Just head to the Bronze Grasslands. If they’ve moved, it would be within a few days from there.”
“Oh, thanks.”
After being thanked, Ace was silent again. Carson couldn’t tell what was up with Ace and going quiet all of sudden—he was like this when they were still at Silent Tower too.
“Also,” Ace broke the silence, “don’t get killed.”
“Thanks?”
After his last words, Ace gave Carson the documents he showed earlier. Then Carson decided to head home to prepare things. As he stepped outside of Ace’s house, Ace’s words echoed in his head.
Don’t get killed.
Carson couldn’t tell if he needed that reminder, but he certainly didn’t know how to react.
Once Carson got inside his home, it was silent. Both John and Virgil were busy with their own jobs, so he might as well use this chance to prepare himself. Then he could head to the Bronze Grasslands later.
First, he headed inside Virgil’s room (that doubled as Carson’s room) and placed the Art of Charms book on the table. Out of curiosity, he skimmed through a few pages of it. But once he realized he understood nothing, he closed the book.
Now that it’s just Carson in this house, he often had to tinker with some items. Picking up an item, strolling around the house, placing an object down, doing something—anything to occupy his mind. But with a goal in his mind, he began to prepare things.
Food, water, daggers, maps—they were enough to accompany his mind for a while, as he packed them in a bag John gave him. It’s always nice to have something to carry things, now that he had something else more than pockets.
Now, he had no idea what to do next. It’s just him and his thoughts inside this room—thinking about what Ace just said to him. Sure, he could just do something. Literally anything. But what should he do next? Should he just leave?
As he contemplated leaving, he remembered the fact he hadn’t told Virgil and John about what he would be up to. If he were to leave right now, they would probably try to track him down. Even if that didn’t happen, there’s always Ace.
Should he just stop worrying, and take the leap?
Writer's Notes
Expect the next chapter to come out on the 10th!
This was written on 2nd May 2022, 17 words from the Storyteller, 473 words from the story itself. For this chapter in total, there were 17 words from the Storyteller, and 2020 words from the story itself.