The Red Hand

"Come on you three, it's time to get up." Kanato sighed as he looked down at the happily sleeping fairies that were curled up on a pillow. They'd slept at one of the nicer inns in the Holy City and the three fairies were snuggled in quite nicely on the fluffy pillow they'd used as a bed.

"5 more minutes..." The female fairy mumbled as she turned over and burrowed into the pillow.

"Warm bed..." One of the male fairies smiled as he snuggled in more. “Sloop...”

"Soup..." The other male fairy had a look of bliss on his face as he dreamed about wonderfully tasty soup.

{I swear...} (Kanato)

"It's like having three younger siblings..." Kanato groaned as he debated throwing the pillow out the window, but ultimately decided not to.

{No, no, no. I'm a good person, and good people don't throw fairies out windows... I think...} (Kanato)

"Fine, then just stay here and be captured by some random human slaver." Kanato turned away and pretended to leave. "I'm sure they'd love to turn your wings into fairy dust."

"NO DUST!" The three fairies shot out of bed and grabbed onto the back of his shirt.

"Well, if you come with me, then I think you'll be fine." Kanato chuckled.

"Meanie!" The female fairy puffed her cheeks as she flew in front of her face. "MEH!" She lightly punched the tip of his nose. “Bad Hero! Leave fairy to die!”

"Hey, you wouldn't get out of bed, and I gave you plenty of chances." Kanato laughed as the fairy buzzed around him like angry bees.

*GURGLE*

"Soup?" One of the male fairies' stomach growled so loudly that the other two fairies were briefly startled.

"Of course..." Kanato facepalmed. "Fine, let's get you three something to eat, and then we're going to the Cathedral to meet with Hitomi..."

{I take it back, they're not my siblings, they're my children... I already have three, and I don't want to be stuck with three more... Especially ones this high maintenance...} (Kanato)

"SOUP!" The three fairies cheered as they followed the Hero into the inn's canteen, where they shared a hardy meal together. Though, much to their disappointment, there was no soup.

"You know, I'm starting to get the idea that you fairies are actually the world's biggest threat. With the way you eat, I can imagine you swarming towns like locust and eating the world's food supply in a matter of days." Kanato laughed as he watched them consume far more food than their tiny bodies should've been capable of..

"FAIRY NOT BUG!" The female fairy pouted.

"You've got wings like a bug and buzz like one, so maybe you're related!" Kanato laughed as the three flew around him and pouted.

"Kanato mean!" One of the male fairies continued to pout.

"Mean Hero!" The other male fairy agreed.

"No bully!" The female fairy landed on his head and started jumping up and down.

"I'll think about it." Kanato continued to laugh before they finished up and headed out for the day. As they walked down the street while the Fairies continued to complain about their treatment, and after a while, they arrived in front of the massive gates of the huge white marble Cathedral that served as the Church's HQ.

"Sir Kanato." One of the guards bowed politely. "Lady Hitomi returned just this morning and has been informed of your arrival, please come in." He opened the gate and motioned for him to go inside. He'd tried to speak with his fellow Hero the prior day, but she was away on business and unavailable.

"Thanks guys." Kanato smiled as he went inside. The Fairies were nervous about being in such a place and hid inside his clothes or hair so as to keep out of sight.

"Spoopy Church." One of the male fairies commented.

"Very spoopy." The other male fairy agreed.

"Smells like Gods..." The female fairy popped out of his hair.

{From what I recall, Fairies worship those Primordials, so it's no surprise that they don't like being in a place so close to the Gods.} (Kanato)

"Just relax. They won't hurt you, and I promise that I'll protect you." Kanato pat the female fairy on her head with his finger. “You can count one me, ok?”

"Why here?" One of the male Fairies asked. "Thought wanted Ref?"

"We'll go and look for this 'Ref' after we're done here, but I want to talk to Hitomi about things first." Kanato replied. His primary goal was still to uncover the truth about the Gods and what happened on Earth, but he was currently focused on speaking with Hitomi about a Spirit being within the Holy City.

{If anyone knows about what's going on within the Church, it's her. Nothing in this city escapes her network, and her intel web goes deeper than even I probably know.} (Kanato)

After entering the massive building, Kanato was escorted by some priestesses into a lavish meeting room, complete with comfy chairs and some already ready tea. He'd been here multiple times before, but the level of luxury still took him aback, and he internally thought it was far too excessive for what was supposedly a Church.

"SOUP?!?" One of the male fairies dove toward the tea, stopping just inches before diving in and taking a small sip. "NOT SOUP! ICK!"

"You don't like tea?" Kanato chuckled as he took a sip. “Its great. My Mom actually used to make a kind of home-made iced tea that was really good.”

"Bitter!" The male fairy fell backward onto the table dramatically. “Dying from bitter...”

"Ah, I suppose that's to be expected. Tea in this world is rarely served with milk or honey, and in the North, they like a more bitter black tea." Kanato sat down and poured another cup in an attempt to get them to try it again. "Though I prefer it like this, so too bad." He snickered as the fairies each tried the tea, all having the same reaction.

"Evil not-soup!" The other male fairy and the female fairy shuddered as they looked at the tea. “Bad!”

"If you think this is bad, then try drinking black coffee." Kanato smiled. "That stuff is really bitter."

"EVIL!" The three fairies hissed. "Sweet good, bitter bad!"

{Fairies and their sweet tooth...} As Kanato enjoyed a bit of banter with the fairies, he was interrupted by a knock on the door and the entrance of Hitomi and Rafferty.

"Hitomi!" Kanato quickly rushed over and hugged his friend. "Thank the Gods! You're alright!"

"EEP!" Hitomi squeaked. She hadn't expected to be hugged so suddenly and was startled by the sudden embrace.

"Ah-hem..." Rafferty coughed to get Kanato's attention. "I think that's quite enough. You've caused Lady Hitomi some stress with your sudden touching, Sir Kanato."

"Ahhh..." Kanato quickly backed away, embarrassed. "Sorry... It's just that... I was really worried about you..."

"My, My. Confessing your love to a woman right in front of her partner?" Rafferty chuckled. "You are bold, Sir Kanato. I suppose all those rumors about you really were true."

"Rafferty..." Kanato sighed. "Why do you always..." Such teasing was nothing new and was par for the course at this point.

"Umm... It's fine..." Hitomi composed herself. "I'm... I'm glad to see that you're safe too, Kanato." She smiled. "But let's have a seat. We have much to discuss."

"Yeah." Kanato turned around. "Oh, and let me introduce you to..." He looked at the table where the three fairies were a moment prior, but they were gone. "What?!?" He scanned the room but could find neither hide nor hair of his three fairy friends.

{Where did they go?!? I can't even sense them!} (Kanato)

"Is something wrong?" Hitomi asked as she sat down.

"Uh, no..." Kanato shook his head.

{They must've left since they were afraid of Hitomi. She's linked directly to the Gods, more or less, and they probably didn't want to be around her.} (Kanato)

After regaining composure and having a seat, Kanato and Hitomi began their discussion. They each traded information, confirming that while they could recall most events on Earth, the identity of the being that defeated them was a blur. Both were convinced that this same being had tampered with their memories, but for what purpose they couldn't figure out.

"Lady Elariel said that the Gods would perform a ritual to remove the memory tampering, but I've yet to hear back from her about that." Hitomi said as she poured some tea. “She said something about it being delicate, so it may take some time before the Gods are ready.”

"I see... You spoke to her..." Kanato said quietly while looking down into his tea. "Did you ask her about what we were told?" They couldn't remember who told them the information, but Kanato and Hitomi could clearly recall it being revealed that the Gods had ordered the deaths of the Spirits under false pretenses. Kanato had tried to push that out of his mind as much as possible, wanting to speak to Hitomi before making any decisions.

"No, and as of right now I'm not too worried about it." Hitomi said as she took a sip.

"But if it's true then that means we did something horrible, Hitomi!" Kanato nearly yelled. “If the Gods really tricked us then we...”

"Are you really going to trust the evil being that sealed our memories on this?" Hitomi sighed. "For all we know they lied and I've seen no evidence to believe that the Gods haven't been truthful with us. I'd rather put my faith in them than some unknown entity"

"Come on, Hitomi." Kanato was exasperated with her unyielding faith in the Gods. "You have to admit that things are at least a little fishy! Hell, even Shiroe agreed with me that the Gods were hiding things!"

{And of course the one person that might be able to have a down to earth discussion with me is gone...} (Kanato)

"And I, the one closest to the Gods, and the one who had the most interactions with them say that I believe their word over that of some being that we only knew for a few moments." Hitomi replied curtly. "Kanato, I know that you just want to be a Hero and do right by the people of this world. But don't let your doubts cause you to lose sight of the truth. We saw with our own eyes the Spirits cause Magical Disasters and we even saw their ritual point within their Capital. So don't go falling for a Demon's tricks when you've watched the Spirits cause great loss of life with your own eyes!" They'd been shown a instances of the Spirits performing magical rituals that caused natural disasters in the past.

{Yeah, but now I'm starting to think that all that so-called 'evidence' was just a bunch of plants to make us believe the Gods' lies. Now that I think about it we never confirmed that they were causing these things with whatever ritual they were doing, it was always just ASSUMED that their magic was the cause.} (Kanato)

"I'm sorry, but I can't just ignore the possibility that we're the bad guys, Hitomi." Kanato shook his head. "If we really were doing something wrong... If our actions truly were harming innocent people... Then we have an obligation to make things right."

"And how would you even suggest we do that?" Hitomi asked. "Pretend for a second that you're right. That the Gods tricked us into killing the Spirits as part of some nefarious plan. What are you going to do? Are you suggesting we fight them?"

"I... We need to..." Kanato stammered, not having any real answer for her.

"Let me answer that for you. There's nothing that you or I could do." Hitomi's tone grew sharp. "Not only is there an insurmountable difference in power between us, but said Gods gave us these powers, and I'd imagine that they can just as easily take them back."

{And I can't imagine a scenario where the Gods who gave us these powers sit back and let us fight them with said powers. We'd be disposed of just as quickly as we were brought here.} (Hitomi)

"I know that. but..." Kanato's face grew dark. “Still...”

"Listen, I know you're a kind and caring person, Kanato." Hitomi reached over the table and put her hand on his. "You're a noble man who seeks to help as many people as possible but don't allow yourself to be drawn into conflicts unnecessarily, but don't forget that you've got a family to take care of now." The implications of her words were not lost on him.

"It still... I can't..." Kanato was still a bit flustered.

"Besides, don't forget that this world is still in danger, and it's our duty to make sure it stays safe." Hitomi smiled.

"And yet we failed..." Kanato gave a dry laugh. "We got our assess kicked and were sent back to Enoris with our minds wiped... Some Heroes we turned out to be."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Hitomi giggled. "The Gods have a backup plan to-" She was paused by Rafferty smacking her hand over her mouth.

"Lady Hitomi..." Rafferty shot her a glare and Hitomi realized that she nearly spilled very classified intel.

"What? The Gods have a backup plan?!?" Kanato's eyes went wide in shock.

{WHAT?!?} (Kanato)

"No, it's just that...” Hitomi stammered.

“Lady Hitomi is simply feeling tired from her long day yesterday and is a bit delirious." Rafferty helped Hitomi get up from the couch. "My Lady, please come with me to your room and lay down."

"Um... Yeah, I must be tired. I don't even know what I was talking about." Hitomi tried and failed to feign ignorance. Even Kanato, as dense as he was, knew that something was going on and he only grew more concerned. "I'll talk to you later, Kanato. Just remember what we talked about, okay?" She politely bowed before leaving the room.

"Hitomi..." Kanato's mind raced as he tried to figure out what was going on. "I never even got to ask her about the Spirit being held here..."

"Scary Lady gone..." The female fairy said as she floated in front of Kanato's face, followed by the other two.

"There you are! Where did you disappear to?!? I wanted to introduce you to Hitomi and Rafferty!" Kanato groaned.

"Hide... Scary Lady, scary..." The female fairy pouted as she floated onto the table.

"SCARY!" The two male fairies said in unison.

"Scary Lady? Do you mean Hitomi?" Kanato tilted his head. He knew that Hitomi was slightly off, but he'd never found her threatening or anything of the sort. “I know she's connected by the Gods but she's anything but scary.”

{Slightly messed up in the head, sure, but scary? No.} (Kanato)

"No... Ref... Scarier than before..." The female fairy shook slightly. “Scary...”

"Rafferty? Wait, she's the Spirit Ref that we came here for?!?" Kanato exclaimed.

"Maybe?" The female fairy tilted her head cutely. "Ref Scary, but this Ref even scarier."

"What do you mean? I've never seen Rafferty so much as raise her voice, let alone do anything bad." Kanato was confused. Rafferty was just a beastkin servant of Hitomi's, and was even basically her lover. She'd been within the Hero party's orbit for some time, and never once did he think she was dangerous.

"Raf has power... Not weak anymore..." The female fairy tried to explain. "Bad things happen if she got power..."

"Is Hitomi in danger?!?" Kanato asked, concerned for his friend's safety.

"Don't know..." The female fairy shook her head. "But Raf... Raf serve other master... Not Hero Lady..."

{Eh?!? Wait, but who... What's going on?!? Hitomi?!?} (Kanato)