The aftermath of the fight between Burn and the Blue Repear left much to be seen.
Reece Oxford stood at the edge of the crime scene with both hands in the pockets of his long black coat. A fedora shadowed his face, and dark glasses covered his closed eyes despite the overcast morning.
The lifeless bodies of twenty plus lionheart agents lay scattered across the destroyed street.
David, his Strategos, crouched beside one of the corpses. The brown Lionheart jacket with orange highlights stood out against the gray concrete and a gas mask covered the lower half of his face.
"Third-degree burns. Some charred to the bone." David moved to another body. "And this one was melted straight through."
Oxford surveyed the destruction. Craters pockmarked the ground where intense heat had melted through the concrete, metal beams had liquefied and Scorch marks covered the buildings exteriors.
"Burn was at it again." David said.
"Yeah." Reece's voice was calm.
"But he had to have been fighting someone, most likely the Blue reaper from what I can deduce. They fought, our men tried to intervene and Burn killed them all."
David scanned the area again. "Absolute Perception covers this entire sector. You should have seen this fight in real-time."
Reece removed his glasses cleaned them and put them back on.
"I saw nothing," Reece said quietly.
David froze. "What?"
"Absolute Perception showed me nothing about a battle."
"That's impossible. Your Crest reads every pneuma signature within a hundred kilometers."
"And yet."
David stared at the bodies, then back at Reece. "I saw the craters, the melted metal and burned down buildings. But yet both the Blue Reaper and Burn left not a single trace of pnuema behind?"
"Exactly."
"How is it possible for the living to fight or do anything for that matter without leaving any traces of pneuma behind.?" Said David.
Reece turned away from the scene. "An excellent question."
David's hands clenched. "You think whatever he's using isn't pneuma."
"I think there are a lot of things happening in Vitalis that just don't make any sense." Reece began walking. "Retrieve the bodies and inform thier families."
"Understood, Magister."
As Reece left, David stared at the carnage and shook at the thought of something Absolute Perception couldn't see.
Mira Veltman sat in the center of a blizzard with her legs crossed, eyes closed and hands resting on her knees in perfect a meditation posture.
Frost had coated everything within a fifty-meter radius but sweat ran down her face.
Her pneuma only increased as she fought for control over the intensifying snowstorm.
"Master it. Don't let it master you."
Yet her mind drifted backward, seeking escape from the present struggle.
It was twelve year ago.
The Veltman estate gardens were decorated with white roses and ice sculptures that never melted.
Two families had gathered; the Veltmans and the Zhaos.
It was a wedding, and little Mira age seven sat on a stone bench watching the ceremony with a bored look in her eyes.
Her purple-gray braids were tied with white ribbons.
The groom was Konstantin Veltman and the elegant composed and beautiful bride in the traditional robe of the Zhao family was Mei. Mei Zhao.
Everyone seemed happy, the champagne flowed and the adults talked about strengthning the bloodline.
Mira didn't understand any of it.
What she did understand was that the small girl sitting alone near the fountain, wearing a miniature version of the Zhao family colors—white and red— looked miserable.
Mira approached her slowly. "Hi."
The girl looked up. She had black hair cut in a neat bob and wore glasses that were slightly too big for her face.
"Hi," she replied quietly.
"I'm Mira. Who are you?"
"Suzie." She turned back to the fountain. "Mei is my sister."
"The bride?"
"Yeah."
Mira sat down beside her. "Why do you look sad? Weddings are supposed to be happy."
"She used to play with me." Suzie's small voice cracked slightly. "Every day after school. She taught me math, helped me with my homework and we'd build things together."
"Now she's married. She'll be too busy with her new offspring." Suzie wiped her eyes behind her glasses. "I won't have anyone to play with anymore."
Mira considered this seriously. Then she stood up and extended her hand.
"I'll play with you."
Suzie blinked. "What?"
"I'll play with you all you want. Every day if you need. We can build things and do math and homework together." Mira smiled genuinely. "You don't have to be alone."
Suzie stared at the offered hand for a long moment with wide eyes and then she took it, smiling for the first time that day.
Several years passed since then and the current memory was on a bridge that overlooked the Vitalis River.
Mira and Suzie stood facing each other, both spotting the red cassock robe of the Virelia Institute.
Mira had grown tall and striking, her omega-level potential already manifesting in the way frost formed at her feet without conscious thought.
And Suzie had grown too, her Zhao bloodline giving her the analytical mind that made her top of every academic ranking.
But right now, they were just two friends having the worst argument of their lives.
"I'm sorry," Said Mira, her voice desperate. "Suzie, please, we didn't mean for it to happen...."
"Didn't mean for it to happen?" Suzie's voice was colder than anything Mira's Crest could produce."your family didn't mean to ruin the alliance."
"It wasn't like that!"
"It wasn't?" Suzie removed her glasses and made Mira stare straight into her red eyes.
"Then explain it to me"
"I—" Mira's voice broke. "I can't."
"Because you can't, or because you won't?"
"Because you wouldn't understand!"
Suzie put her glasses back on, and when she spoke again, all the sympathy had left her voice.
"I don't have a sister anymore."
"Suzie....."
"Don't call me that. We're just students who happen to be attending the same university now. Nothing more."
Suzie turned and walked away.
Mira ran after her. "Wait! Please, just let me explain—"
The bridge shuddered and cracks spider-webbed across the wood beneath Mira's feet. Her Crest had activated unconsciously, expanding inside the structural supports, weakening them catastrophically.
The section of bridge gave way and Mira fell
Time slowed down and she saw Suzie above her, the expression on her face shifting from anger to horror.
Then she hit the water and everything went dark.
A voice called from somewhere far away.
"Princess... Princess... Princess!"
Mira's eyes snapped open.
The hailstorm had intensified into something apocalyptic. Ice chunks the size of fists pummeled the ground and the temperature had dropped so low that the air seemed to crystallize.
"MIRA!"
Joel, the head maid, stood at the edge of the frozen zone, bundled in emergency winter gear and still shivering violently.
Mira exhaled, slowly and deliberately causing her pneuma to retract.
The hailstorm stopped mid-fall, suspended ice hovering in the air for a moment before dissolving into harmless mist.
The lush garden of the Veltman estate reappeared. Green grass, flowering trees and warm sunlight.
Almost as if the winter apocalypse had never happened.
Mira rushed to Joel's side, catching the woman as she stumbled. "I'm so sorry! I got carried away again."
"It's... It's quite alright, Princess." Joel's teeth chattered. "You know I'm... used to it by now."
"That doesn't make it okay."
Joel managed a smile. "The master requires your presence in the dining hall. Immediately."
Mira's expression shuttered. "I see."
She walked through the estate's corridors, passing servants who bowed but wouldn't meet her eyes. Past portraits of Veltman ancestors with their distinctive coloring and proud expressions.
Past the empty pedestal where her family's crest of honor used to sit.
The dining hall was enormous and empty. A single figure sat at the head of the table, dressed in an immaculate white suit and eating breakfast
Q looked up as Mira entered. His white hair caught the morning light, and his expression was one of mild annoyance.
"You're late."