Chapter 46 The Mirror of Eternal Shadow
Chapter 46
The Mirror of Eternal Shadow
The change of subject was so abrupt that for a moment Mitsuru merely stared at Lady Zophie.
“Adju Lupa told me,” she continued, amused by the shock in Mitsuru’s eyes. “He said Master Mitsuru possesses strange powers as a Traveler, and he is able to see people’s true forms. Perhaps you use your staff for this, no?” Her gaze went to the staff leaning against the armrest of Mitsuru’s brick chair.
“Truth be told, I’ve seen you use your staff on my servant here several times. Each time, you have the most curious look on your face.”
So she’s sharper than she lets on. Mitsuru returned her smile. “It is as you say. You are quite clever, m’lady.”
Zophie did not seem pleased. “Tell me, what did you see? I’m betting you didn’t see a thing. That is why you look at him so suspiciously. Am I right?”
Mitsuru nodded, wondering where she was going with this.
“Of course you saw nothing—for there is nothing there to see. Though my servant has the shape of a man, he is not a man at all. He is what we call a shell—a form without a soul. Though he follows his master’s orders faithfully, he has no will of his own. He feels no emotion, or pain. Yes, he can fall ill, and if you kill him he will die, so he has life. Yet it cannot be said that he lives.” A pity, she added under her breath.
“This is the first time I ever heard this word, shell, used in this way,” Mitsuru said. “I never heard of this sort of thing in the south.”
“No, of course you did not. Shells are found only in the north.”
“Is it some disease?”
Zophie shook her head vigorously. “No!”
Mitsuru squinted. “Then a drug perhaps, or magic? Or is this the effect of some external device?”
For the first time a look of fear came across Zophie’s expression. “Such frightful things you say!”
“It was only conjecture.”
The emperor’s daughter straightened herself in her seat, fixed her hair, and regained her composure. “When a man gazes into the Mirror of Eternal Shadow, he becomes a shell. There are some who think that the mirror itself sucks his soul away. Others believe that what he sees in the mirror is so fearful as to scare his soul straight out of his body. None, I daresay, know the truth. Still, no matter how strong or how wise a man may be, if he should so much as gaze upon the Mirror of Eternal Shadow, he will never speak again.”
Mitsuru’s mind raced furiously. As far as he could tell, Zophie was telling him the very thing that her father had kept secret. The secret of the Imperial Family, unrecorded in any of the many documents Mitsuru had scoured. Yet this information was coming to him courtesy of Adju Lupa. Somewhere inside Mitsuru’s mind a scale was tipping as questions formed. Did Zophie understand the meaning of what she was telling him? What was Adju Lupa’s game?
“This Mirror of Eternal Shadow—this is the first I’ve heard of such a thing.” Mitsuru shook his head. “It sounds frightful. This is here, in the north?” Mitsuru spoke calmly, as though he was merely making conversation. Zophie on the other hand was as wary and nervous as a hare who has heard the soft footfalls of an approaching predator. Scare her even a little, and she would jump into her hole, never to poke her head out again. I must tread carefully.
As expected, Zophie slowly looked up, gauging Mitsuru’s expression carefully before continuing. “My father—he did not tell you about the Mirror of Eternal Shadow? It is about as wide as I am tall, silver in color. It is quite beautiful to behold.”
“Nope. I’ve never heard of it.”
“Truly?”
Mitsuru smiled. “Really. It must be a deep, dark secret to make you so fearful.”
Zophie sighed and put a hand to her throat. It was a more theatrical gesture than was called for, but her dismay seemed genuine. “Master Mitsuru, you journey toward the Tower of Destiny, where the Goddess resides, yes?”
“That is my mission as a Traveler.”
“And you need one final gemstone. And this gemstone rests upon the crown of the Imperial Family.”
“Yes, the Crown of the Seal.”
“Ah, you know of this?” Zophie’s long eyelashes swept down, her eyes closing in thought.
“I was told it was a very important crown, that it might not be moved without proper precaution.”
“This is true. Thus my father makes you wait in this way, Master Mitsuru. Tell me, how did my father explain the need for your wait?”
Mitsuru sat up straight and recounted the details of his exchange with the emperor. Just talking about it made rage rise in him. He could feel it churning beneath his skin. He wanted to tell Zophie, right to her pretty face. I can no longer bear to wait on your father’s whim. What a relief it would be to admit how, only an hour before, he had stood on the terrace, plotting the destruction of her precious capital.
Yet Mitsuru’s anger was so great he knew he had to keep it inside. Zophie stared at his face, calm and composed. When Mitsuru was done telling her all he knew, he paused, taking a sip of cold tea.
“And this arrangement—doesn’t it strike you as odd?”
“In what way?”
“My father has not told you how important the Crown of the Seal is, or what calamity will visit us should it be moved, has he?”
“He has not,” Mitsuru said, carefully choosing his words. “I did ask, but he told me nothing more than I have related to you just now.”
Zophie suddenly leaned forward, reaching out her hand and placing it upon Mitsuru’s. “Please forgive him. I do not intend to make excuses for my father, but I believe he did not tell you because he did not wish to burden you with problems that are not yours. You see, the conditions surrounding the Crown of the Seal are, for the most part, taboo to speak of. It is…unclean. I’m sure my father felt that these were things unfit for your ears, coming from the real world as an emissary of the gods, as you do.”
“I understand,” Mitsuru replied, his hand resting under hers. “Yet, m’lady, if I’m not totally mistaken, you are now going to tell me these things about the crown?”
Zophie nodded, her eyes never leaving his. Then, with a start, she lifted her hand and stood from the table.
“I thank you deeply,” Mitsuru said, lowering his head. “But I worry. Won’t the emperor be upset?”
Zophie smiled the sort of smile one uses for a close friend who has told a valuable secret. Hurriedly, she picked up the teapot and made a motion to pour him some more tea. This was a service she was apparently unaccustomed to performing, as she spilled tea all over the table. Mitsuru quickly wiped it up with a napkin.
“Adju Lupa told me,” Zophie said, her voice little more than a whisper. “He said that when you are alone sometimes, Master Mitsuru, you look very sad.”
The rotten spy. In one corner of his mind, Mitsuru cursed the man and his prying eyes.
“I think this must be when you remember the real world you have left behind. When you recalled the faces of your friends, and those you loved. It must make one very lonely to be so far from home.”
Mitsuru did not reply, which Zophie took to be an affirmation. “Lupa said you must want to get to the Tower of Destiny as soon as possible. I think he is right. It is only natural.”
She paused. “Still, still—my father has good reason to make you wait, Master Mitsuru. Adju Lupa suggested that perhaps, with only the explanation my father gave you, you would not understand why. That is why he asked me to speak with you on this matter.”
Everything was on account of the Mirror of Eternal Shadow, she told him. “The thing that the Crown of the Seal holds at bay is the mirror. Only the noble gemstone set upon that crown has the power to resist the mirror’s horrible strength. This gemstone you seek, it is the stone we call the Gem of Darkness.”
The Gem of Darkness. Something inside Mitsuru’s chest stirred.
“This gem was brought from the Dark to Vision. That is why it is able to stop the Mirror of Eternal Shadow.”
Mitsuru couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer. “What exactly is this Mirror of Eternal Shadow? And this ‘Dark’? Is this another world, like the real world or Vision?”
A shadow came over Zophie’s lively features, and she seemed reluctant to speak. “It seems odd for me to be explaining this to you, Master Mitsuru, you being the Traveler, but please bear with me. The real world and Vision exist as a pair of opposites. But Vision exists only because the real world exists. Without the real world’s energies, Vision would cease to be. Between the two stands the Great Barrier of Light. And around them yawns the Abyss of Chaos.”
Mitsuru nodded and she continued. “To be more precise, we might say that the real world and Vision float in the abyss. We are but an ephemeral bubble drifting on the surface of an endless void. Yet I can think of no bubble more beautiful.
“A moment before, I said that the real world and Vision were a pair. This is true, yet their relationship is not equal. You see, while there is only one real world, there are many Visions. In addition to the Vision in which we live, there are many other Visions marking time beyond our knowledge.”
Wayfinder Lau hadn’t said anything of the sort, but Mitsuru wasn’t particularly surprised by this revelation. It made sense, considering that the imaginations of the real world created this one. There were many people living in the real world. With all that energy—all those thoughts and dreams and emotions—it made sense that there would be multiple Visions floating around.
“Parallel worlds, then?” Mitsuru asked, recalling something he had read in a science fiction novel once.
“Parallel?”
“No. Pay me no mind. Please, go on.”
Zophie looked to the side, as though she had lost her train of thought. This, too, seemed like a new experience for her. “In most cases, these Visions are peaceful worlds,” she continued, thinking while she spoke. “Much like the one that we live in here.”
“It is peaceful, now.”
“Yes,” she continued, choosing to ignore his comment, “but some of these Visions are filled with darkness and fear. They are dark worlds, casting shadows, knowing only animosity and destruction.”
“And these worlds are the Dark you mentioned?”
Zophie nodded. “I learned in my history lessons that the Dark are worlds that were meant to become Vision, yet failed. That is why they resent Vision, and would destroy it if they could. The darkness that swirls in those worlds yearns to infiltrate worlds like ours. It is waiting and watching always for that chance.
“Near the bottom of the Abyss of Chaos lie many seeds, as yet undifferentiated, yet each with the potential to become a new Vision,” she explained. “If they should rise and form a healthy Vision, then all is well, but if something goes wrong, and they become twisted and bent, then they fall into the Dark.”
Zophie trembled with fear as she spoke, yet Mitsuru was utterly calm. To him, it seemed odd that more worlds weren’t part of the Dark, given the people who had imagined them into being. In fact, he began to wonder if Visions like this one were not the irregularities. Mitsuru knew far too much about the evil and greed men were capable of to believe otherwise.
“Yet, if you look at their origins, both Vision and the Dark are born of the same stuff,” Zophie was saying. “That is why all Visions bear some similarities to the Dark. Perhaps you might call them connections to the Dark. It is thus impossible to have a world completely free of animosity, hate, and foolishness.”
“A very accurate observation, I’m sure,” Mitsuru said, taking the reins of the conversation back from Zophie. “So, in the case of this Vision in which we now live, this connection with the Dark is the Mirror of Eternal Shadow?”
“It is so.”
“So, if my understanding is correct, you need this Crown of the Seal to prevent an invasion from the Dark, right? If that were the case, then it would indeed make good sense that the Crown of the Seal not be moved.”
Zophie smiled, looking very much relieved.
“This is merely conjecture on my part, but might it be that the Imperial Family has, from the beginning of time, held the noble role of bearing this Mirror of Eternal Shadow, and preventing attack from the Dark?”
Zophie’s face lit up with joyful surprise. “Indeed, it is! It is exactly as you say. That is why my family wishes above all other things to unite Vision and rule it in peace. No, it is more than a desire, it is our mission. Our clan was, in the beginning of time, given responsibility for the Mirror of Eternal Shadow from the Goddess herself—we were chosen.”
“Quite a weighty responsibility,” Mitsuru said solemnly. “Hearing your story has cleared up another of my questions too.”
“Which question is this?”
“In the south, they say that the religion of the Old God followed in the north is a denial of the Goddess Creator. That is why, when I first met the emperor, I asked him first about your religion. Why, if he believed in the Old God, did he not see me, a Traveler, as a false god, and something to be abhorred?”
“I’m sorry,” Zophie said quietly.
“No, the emperor was very honest with me. He told me that this religion of the Old God is nothing more then a device to encourage opposition with the south, where the Goddess is revered above all others. In truth, you worship not the Goddess but the real world as your creator.”
“Yes, we do!”
“Yet, this does not have to be a denial of the Goddess. The Goddess does exist, and she does live in the Tower of Destiny. But she is the Goddess only of the fates of people from the real world, and she does not preside over those who live in Vision. So the emperor told me. Yet I was somewhat confused until I heard what you told me just now. Now I know that the Imperial Family is, in effect, the caretakers of Vision, ordained by the Goddess. The Goddess does not rule Vision, she has given that charge to the Imperial Family, and retired to her Tower of Destiny, knowing that the fate of her own world is in good hands.”
Zophie crossed her hands over her chest, and her face filled with light. “Master Mitsuru, you understood all this from my simple tale? This is truly magnificent. You are wiser than I dared hope.”
“No, it is all on account of m’lady’s considerate explanations.”
Zophie arched her neck in that way only girls of her age can do, and pouted ever so slightly. “If the Goddess truly governed everyone in Vision as those fools in the south believe, then it would be a simple thing for her to fend off the Dark from the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. Yet this she cannot do. That is why it is difficult for us to think of her as a true god.”
“I understand.”
“But the people of the south know nothing of these truths,” she said with such a look of cold disdain that Mitsuru was caught off-guard.
Didn’t know she had that in her.
“Still, none of this helps my cause,” Mitsuru said, putting a hand to his forehead. “If the Crown of the Seal performs such a vital function, then how can a mere Traveler such as myself ever hope to claim it?”
“Yes, you see…” Zophie leaned forward in her chair. “There’s something very important I haven’t said yet. There is another way in which the Mirror of Eternal Shadow might be sealed. Master Mitsuru, did you know of the Mirror of Truth?”
This was, of course, familiar territory. Wayfinder Lau had told him all about the mirror. He knew that on his journey he would meet people bearing these mirrors, that they were vital signposts to a Traveler, and that the mirrorbearers would be his friends on his journey, and aid him. He knew also that when he combined the gemstones he found with these mirrors, he could return to the real world—though only for a short period of time.
Just as Wayfinder Lau had said, as soon as he left the Village of the Watchers, Mitsuru had met someone carrying a Mirror of Truth.
The man was a beastkin, and as soon as he learned that Mitsuru was a Traveler, and that he needed the mirror, he asked Mitsuru to hire him. Apparently, the man made his money as a bodyguard. But Mitsuru had no intention of dragging the man along on his journey. Nor was he in need of any friends. And how could he trust someone he had to pay money to protect him?
So Mitsuru had killed him and stolen the mirror. Mitsuru wore it still.
“Yes, I know of it, or rather, them. Unlike the Mirror of Eternal Shadow of which you speak, the Mirror of Truth is not whole but has been broken into many fragments.”
“Yes, this is so. The Mirror of Truth was first broken by the hand of the Goddess herself, its fragments spread across Vision. Over time, the fragments fell into the hands of people who did not know their true worth.”
“But, if one could gather all the fragments and reconstruct a whole mirror?” Mitsuru asked.
“Yes. With its power, one could stop the Mirror of Eternal Shadow forever!” Zophie said, her voice swelling. “The Mirror of Eternal Shadow opens a path to the Dark, and the Mirror of Truth opens a path to the real world. Put them together, and they will destroy each other.”
This, she explained, is why several generations of emperors had made it their mission to gather all the fragments of the Mirror of Truth. “Sometimes they used rather violent means to do this. Yet Vision is vast, and it was difficult to cross the sea and search faraway lands with any thoroughness.”
But now the situation was changing. With powered boats, the unified north could create a unified Vision. This would make searching for the fragments and ultimately the reconstruction of the Mirror of Truth a simple task.
“If we use the power of the Mirror of Truth to stop the Mirror of Eternal Shadow, then we will no longer have a need for the Crown of the Seal. Then you will have your gemstone as you desire, Master Mitsuru. That is why my father asks you to wait. I hope you understand the depth of the reasons he has for doing this now.”
Mitsuru stood from his chair and bowed humbly. “I do understand. And I thank you for your generosity and consideration in telling me all of these things, m’lady.”
For a moment, Zophie was overcome with emotion, grabbing his hand, then clutching her own hands to her breast, and laughing. All the while, Mitsuru was thinking, coldly plotting his next move.
I wonder if this little girl or even the emperor realizes that when they reconstruct the Mirror of Truth and do away with the Mirror of Eternal Shadow forever, they will lose what right they had to special privileges as the chosen guardians of the Goddess. Or perhaps, they don’t care—as long as they unify Vision first, with them as its leaders.
Or perhaps they have grown tired, weary of their role as defenders of Vision. Being guardians of the world sounded good, yet he imagined the burden would be great. Not that any of this mattered much to Mitsuru.
“Might I ask one more question—purely to satisfy my curiosity as a Traveler from the real world?”
Zophie was refilling their cups with an unsteady hand. She nodded, her eyes bright.
Mitsuru reached out, grasping her hand. “Allow me to pour. We’ve covered some difficult territory here. Perhaps you should rest.”
“Yes, of course.”
“I was wondering, just how dangerous is this Dark? How strong are its powers? Do your scholars know anything of this?”
Zophie’s mouth tightened. “Once, and only once in the past…nearing the end of the War of Unification, for a brief moment only, the seal was broken, and the power of the Dark came into our world.”
“However did this happen?”
“It was, the histories tell us, done on purpose to defeat a formidable adversary of the Empire. They were nomads, actually, living on the wide plains. Barbarians, they had no central government, yet wherever our troops went, they nibbled at their heels, disrupting our supply lines. Consequently, the emperor at the time decided to draw upon the power of the Dark.” The demon army that came through the portal when the Mirror of Eternal Shadow was used demolished the barbarians in the blink of an eye.
“Frightful…yet, were there not injuries to the Imperial Army as well?”
“The barbarians were lured to a particular place, and the mirror was moved nearby. All care was taken in the planning of the attack, and, luckily, our losses were few. As soon as the barbarians were defeated, the seal was replaced, of course. It was open for perhaps all of an hour.”
The seal replaced, the demons that had fallen upon Vision became nothing more than dust.
“What form do these demons take?”
“I do not know. If one were to read the ancient chronicles of the war, one might find a drawing, I’d imagine…”
Mitsuru had read every account of the war in existence and found no such drawing. Perhaps whatever they did look like was too fearful to be recorded.
“The field where the demons set upon the barbarian tribes is, even today, a barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass will grow. I have never been there, though, for it is far away from this city.”
Then Zophie changed the subject with another question. “Master Mitsuru, do you know why this castle is called the Crystal Palace, though it be built of stone?”
Mitsuru looked up at the towering castle behind him and shook his head. “That I do not. Now that you mention it, it does seem quite odd.”
“It has been three hundred years since the War of Unification ended, yet it was a hundred years after that when the capital was moved here. They built a castle, setting the Mirror of Eternal Shadow in a safe place within, and that instant, the castle filled with translucent light as though it were made of crystal. The castle was called the Crystal Palace in memory of that moment. I hear that during the battle when the barbarians were defeated, when the seal on the mirror was lifted and then replaced, a similar light filled the land. I must therefore conclude that this light comes from the mirror itself. Perhaps it is the mind of the mirror revealed.”
The mind of the mirror? What exactly would a mirror think or feel, Mitsuru wondered. Was it the joy of release when its seal was lifted? Or perhaps it was merely showing satisfaction at being feared and respected.
Regardless, the discussion had taken a sudden and unexpected turn in Mitsuru’s favor.
“So the Mirror of Eternal Shadow is here in the Crystal Palace?”
“Yes,” Zophie said, nodding lightly, blanching slightly under Mitsuru’s hawklike gaze, as though knowing it would do no good to hide this truth from someone of his powers. “Yet, not even I know exactly where it is. Only my father and the high priest know that.”
“But there is a room of some sort, a place where the mirror is held safe? Perhaps a chapel? If one were to look at the blueprints for the castle…”
“No, its location is concealed behind a barrier—a magical veil. The barrier prevents anyone from knowing where the room is. They simply cannot see it,” Zophie replied lightly, but the words made a great impact on Mitsuru. It was enough to make him lean momentarily against the back of his chair for support.
A magical barrier—of course. That’s why I was unable to find the exact location of the final gemstone all this time.
Finding the four gemstones on his journey so far had been rather a simple thing. His magic staff had shown him the location where the first gemstone lay sleeping. After he’d found that, the second gemstone told him where the third lay, and so on until he had all four. All he had to do was listen to the gemstones’ voices and he would know. It was, in fact, the gemstones that had told him the final stone he sought lay in the north. Go north, meet with the emperor. The emperor knows all, they had said.
Yet, now that he was here, the staff was strangely silent. It wouldn’t even tell him if the gemstone was in the capital city. If he only knew where it was, Mitsuru could take appropriate action and have the stone in no time. Now he knew why. For the first time in days, he felt the tension in his chest melt away. The Mirror of Eternal Shadow had been guarded for generations by the Imperial Family. A barrier erected to hide such a vital room must have been created with very strong magic indeed. It was no surprise that his sorcerer’s staff, even with the power of four gemstones aiding it, had not been able to divine its location.
“I hear the barrier was created by placing magical stones at various locations throughout the capital,” Zophie said, elegantly tipping her cup to her lips. “That is to say, this city was designed for the express purpose of generating the barrier that conceals the place wherein the Mirror of Eternal Shadow lies. It would serve to reason that these magic stones are used in the foundations of all the great buildings of the capital.”
Mitsuru had to exert himself to not burst out laughing. To think she would tell him such a vital fact without him even having to ask. She was a talkative, dimwitted girl, when it came down to it. And how grateful Mitsuru was for that. The emperor’s daughter was turning out to be his greatest benefactor on his journey yet.
If the capital city itself is the barrier—Mitsuru mastered his rising elation, taking deep, steady breaths—then destroy the capital and you destroy the barrier along with it.
He wouldn’t have to destroy the capital as a mere threat to the emperor—its destruction was the very means for achieving his goal!
All the while, the emperor’s daughter was staring at him with those innocent eyes. How kind, how gentle you are. You do not doubt for a moment what the person to whom you speak might be thinking in his heart of hearts. Nor do you wonder at the true intent of the man who suggested this course of action to you—Adju Lupa.
It was only natural that the Imperial Family, after maintaining a vicelike grip on the wealth of the north for three hundred years would have many branches. In the course of time some of these relations, with no true claim to the throne themselves, would come to resent the emperor and aspire to depose him. It was for this precise reason that any path Zophie might take to the throne would be a difficult one.
Sigdora were the faithful hounds of the emperor, but even hounds have a will of their own, Mitsuru knew. And they were ever ready to switch to a new master—a stronger one, who promised sweeter rewards. Was Adju Lupa not one of these? By whispering to the emperor’s daughter he hoped to spur Mitsuru into motion, stir things up, perhaps frame whatever commotion resulted as the failing of the current emperor. And, of course, there would be someone behind him whispering in his ear, dangling some treat before his nose…
Who cares, as long as it serves my ends?
I know what you’re up to, Lupa. And I thank you for it.
Adju Lupa was as clueless as the emperor’s daughter. When Mitsuru really took action, it wouldn’t be on the level of a failing of Gama Agrilius VII. It wouldn’t even be close. They’ve sorely underestimated me—a miscalculation that will cost them everything.
“Let us call back your servants. The wind’s picking up,” Mitsuru said cheerily. “I would not be able to sleep at night if I knew you had caught a cold on my account.”
Zophie patted her blushing cheek, smiling. She reached out to pick up the silver bell to summon her servants when Mitsuru stopped her. “Tell me one last thing. If the Mirror of Eternal Shadow is so strongly protected, how can there be accidents such as the one that befell your servant, making shells out of men?”
In an instant, Zophie looked more troubled and haunted than he had ever seen her. The blush in her cheeks faded. “Well, that’s…”
“A form of punishment?”
She leaped from her chair, clinging to his hand. “Yes, that’s it. Most of them are, at least. Terrible criminals, or traitors to the Empire, those who cannot be reformed…”
“So you break the seal for a moment and show them the Mirror of Eternal Shadow on purpose?”
“Yes,” she said, wilting visibly. “It is…quite cruel, I know. But it can’t be helped.”
“I understand, I do.”
“The fact is that it is often more convenient for those who serve our family to be shells—convenient, and safe. Those who do the small work at the castle, they are not, well…they are not great warriors or scholars, you see. They are lower folk.” As she spoke, she closed her eyes as if to say she pitied them.
What a piece of work she is.
“But it’s not as if it happens all the time. To undo the barrier and approach the Mirror of Eternal Shadow, my father and the high priest must both be present, and there is a ceremony. It takes a great deal of effort. That, and the high priest is often away from the capital checking on his churches in other parts of the Empire. You have not met him yet, have you, Master Mitsuru? He’s a busier man than even my father.”
Mitsuru nodded, and his mind wandered. He imagined a scene where captives in shackles were led in a great line, like a string of beads, their every move watched by Imperial Guards. Down they were brought, down before the Mirror of Eternal Shadow. One by one, they were pushed toward the mirror.
This empire is even more twisted than I had imagined.
“So this means that many of the people who serve at the Crystal Palace are shells—and I have just not noticed.”
“Yes…but, I’d think your time wouldn’t be well spent looking for them, Master Mitsuru.”
“The thought hadn’t crossed my mind,” Mitsuru said with a winning smile. “As I said, I merely asked out of my curiosity as a Traveler.”
Zophie summoned her servants, and they began clearing the table. Mitsuru watched them, armed with his new knowledge. If he could learn to identify the shells among the people working at the Crystal Palace…
It would save him the trouble of leaving the capital to find the resources he needed.
After waving goodbye to Zophie, Mitsuru stood awhile in the Garden of Victory, the wind rustling his long hair and robes. His hands hung by his side, clenched into tight fists.
In those fists, he now held something beautiful: determination.
The fate of the Imperial Capital of Solebria was decided.