The days after they returned there was still a search party left in the forest to look for the nanny and her child, Yphemu’s mind was divided deep in the cusp of all the things she needs to do that she collapsed in her office at one point.

During the time of her rest, she had one day of indecisive worry before the search party returned to deliver her the news that they still could not find her baby and the nanny. Not a body or any trace of the child’s presence, as if she vanished into thin air.

She thanked them for doing this for her, Lagodis a silent member of her team who helped lead the search, told her the only words of comfort he could afford to say.

“Captain,” Lagodis said as he stood with his salamander tattooed face looking at her with a stoic expression. There was a hint of sadness on his face that only a trained person could see. “We are sorry we couldn’t find your daughter.”

Yphemu was looking at the closed curtains of her bedroom as her lap was riddled with different documents that she was left to handle.

“Ma’am, we did our best using the highest shard equipment the Academy has lent to us but,” he paused looking at her with a frown before continuing. “Your magic was so strong that even any other creature within the premise could not be easily detected. All the device can detect was your magic.”

Her thoughts when she heard that dwindled into a deep breath then he continued.

“There were traces of a different magic, one from an airship, but it was too vague to know if it belonged to any person from the records of the airships within the barracks or docks. What we do know is that by the eastern sector of the forest, near a crevice, that’s where we lost a different magical signature.” Lagodis then produced a box with inlaid shards outside, they were glowing blue. Opening the box showed a glowing light with scraps of metal and wood floating inside.

“These were found around the section of the forest with a feint trail of Alchemy-shard used,” Lagodis move forward to show the scraps inside. "We suspect it was a blood-infused magic detector with at least five layers of magic spells infused to fit in one palm-size device. The number of shards only counts as one, but they seem to be mutated together with a fusion spell, which is most likely the last spell used. Unregistered and illegal, the likeliness that they are involved with the rebels is speculated but no evidence of involvement can be determined. Whether this device belonged to the same airship that dropped them off in a section of the mountains is still up for investigation.”

Nodding, she mentally reached out inside the box and felt a familiar warmth and presence although it was severely pushed back when a pinching ache throbbed in her head. She winced and then let Lagodis leave, thanking him for his service.

Lagodis paused before leaving as he kept the box back inside his work cloak, he looked at Yphemu and said, "Ma'am, please rest well. We do not want the Prime Magician to leave the way your predecessor did."

As he left behind the silently closing door, Yphemu heaved a breath and her thoughts runs forward back into the dining room as she watched Mitt, the child she dubbed her son henceforth. Her health has returned to normal, enough to attend the mass funeral held by the council for the heroes of the Ocular end ceremony.

Fairly stating that she would attend to show respect to those who died for the cause that is assisting her through the end of the Ocular. At the end of this ceremony, in the face of her family did she only state the death of her unborn child.

This piece of news struck a chord with the Saturni, from Tethea who considered Yphemu her daughter to Yphemu’s closest cousin, only under the name of Saturni, Aprilina. Hearing this news shook every citizen and even the council prompting massive condolences for her loss.

Though she didn’t let this news linger longer, and for fear of letting the anxiety of every single sympathetic pretense wrap around the citizens, she silently pondered insinuating the news of the Prime Magician's successor. Though the procedures for adopting Mitt were not disclosed, yet. She firmly insisted on Verbasi’s opinion on the matter, especially the child’s case if she was correct about Mitt.

“Young lady,” Verbasi stared at the child as Yphemu invited him for afternoon tea. “May I ask if it’s correct to assume this boy is…did you confirm his parentage? I mean, I know there’s no relation to any parentage when it comes to a Prime Magician candidate, but it’s hard for me to believe such a small child possessing that amount of magic.”

“Yes,” Yphemu said as she watched the child obediently sit on the lap of his nanny. “I’ve asked Lagodis and Sacr if they could commission someone in the Academy records and check about his origin. His blood record doesn't exist anywhere near the areas of the city or town proper. He's a child from the boonies. As for the extent of his magic, I and my subordinates can only attest to the recounts of his Light magic.”

"Well, we can't always rule out the outskirts for magicians, but what luck this child has," Verbasi said as he scratched his chin. Beside his plate of eaten shortbread was a contraption that looks like a looking glass without anything in the middle of the circular wired frame. “Using this Paniktik has always made me icky looking inside a person. But you're correct to assume he possesses great Light magic, but at this moment it seems to be latent. Several nodes in his body prevent them from growing and flowing freely, magic that is. His light is silent enough that it’s discreet and undetectable by just shallow probing. However, he is a miraculous child is he not?”

“The Academy will have a field day because of this, and Lady Tethea will surely approve of you adopting young Mitt," Verbasi said as he handed a piece of pastry on the child’s platter.

The boy's eyes looked at the two adults before he smiled, warmth from this small life pierced through Yphemu’s heart and an edging teardrop was stopped spilling from her eyes as she realized that she would have loved to watch her daughter smile for the first time.

Her mind was completely made up though, as the days counted and the year-end preparation has started, she was bound to sink deep in her work as she holds her position in the Militia. If she didn't, she might sink into a never-ending spiral of mixed thoughts and emotions she’s not prepared to face.

▓▓▓▓▓

The skies tinted blue and fading to orange graced the exterior of the Sunflora, colors reflecting against chipped paint and through open windows from each side. Sharing the warmth through the light of the lamp illuminating the mix of cool white and orange, blue from the outside in Uran’s room makes for a good place for a child to rest, especially a babe recovering from malnutrition and stress.

Soft, light blankets wrapped around the sweating baby as two caretakers from one of the families took their time taking care of her needs. This babe is the new addition to their family, the child they found on the edge of the ruined forest.

Uran took her in during the trip back and the old woman who carried her. Apprehension stepped in first before he could think but much of it had lost when he saw the child’s weeping wide eyes, staring back at him as if begging him for a hug the moment they locked eyes. He had shielded the babe from the wind's trip back with the pleasing silence the baby kept itself from crying, in confusion or fear, or whatever it ails.

"I'm not going to ask how this baby and its grandmother were in the forest but look at this child," Lotois said as he looked past the caretakers. "This child must be a newborn, no more than a day old. Who could have left their child in this forest to starve? Also, what pretty eyes she has, I’ve always wondered what those capital people would look like, and she looks exactly like what I think they would, delicate and soft.”

“No matter,” Uran said as he tweaked a knob on the side of his chair and a map chart showed with a few written words. “Have they prepared the family’s and my—”

"Rife, they don't want to talk to you as if you didn't do anything the best you can," Lotois said as he poked the babe’s cheek. “They’ll be waiting for you once we get back in the sky, but first we need to get out of this place.”

Massaging the bridge of his nose, more out of exhaustion than a headache, Uran looked at Lotois and found that everyone in the room was watching him with eyes filled with concern. It's been a long since he's felt the need to express intentions of crying, the last of which was when his wife died and all he did was look like a stiff doll. Trying his best to stay aware that he wasn’t tearing up despite his rough demeanor ordering people around what to do and when to leave places for missions.

“On that note, the wives have pumped up the engine strong enough for us to leave this place in a jiffy. Though I thought Ronata’s patience would have singled your slowness again, at least her wife pestered her to calm her knickers down because we were all shocked when we felt that magic. The stress the magical explosions did to our shards isn't as bad as she thought it would, but we cannot be sure.” Lotois kept updating.

“She's not ever going to forgive me for that one time I didn't consider coming back the moment things were going down on the abandoned caves of a poisoned shard," Uran said as he breathed in while smiling. "Her anger is much appreciated, next time I will try my best to take the time into account."

Knowing that his good engineer and friend Ronata was the type to be angry at every little anxious thing out of worry, he could only thank their sun for his friend’s forgiving nature. “I guess it’s better than crying night and day,” Uran whispered to himself.

“I would still want to hold a funeral for the family whose child was lost, and compensation."

Lotois nodded when the babe in the blanket awoke, wide eyes staring at his burly finger poking at her cheeks. Once their eyes met, by a sense of danger and confusion, her thin eyebrows knotted into a frown and her nose and eyes poured water out as she wailed.

The caretakers panicked as they soothed her with a glowing crystal that Uran lent them, a personal healing shard, a pure recovery magic shard with no other spells cast upon it. This was the last gift left from the memories of his and his wife's past. She wore this as a necklace every day during her pregnancy with their son, Amegra.

He remembered the moments he had rejoiced when she agreed to become a mother and at the time, he was fearful for her sickly body to carry out such a gift, motherhood. He didn’t openly request it from her nor asked her to bear them a child during the first years of their marriage. During those times, he was busy along with Lotois and Erizoma assisting with the founders of the Shard hunting mercenaries and the ship Sunflora.

Demanding attention in succeeding and managing the people and the ship for work, or a form of a job for them as non-citizens of the kingdom was the only way for them to become independent and well-off living as a means that doesn’t sound uncivilized and poor. The people of Sunflora are thankful to these founders, more so to Uran and his two friends.

Matters of a normal family do not come naturally to Uran who was an orphan from an early age, with his childhood sweetheart, his wife, the only family he knew since before they became a true family in a "legal sense." Their love was built on a foundation of long-held trust and loyalty no one can ever imagine, and their son was the fruit he believed to be the last memory of his wife.

If this memory was gone, should he believe that he has no purpose anymore?

“Captain,” one of the caretakers called to him.

He looked up from the map and closed the open flap from one of the nozzles of the communication tubes, his attention was divided from listening to Jaaron as he listed all the quick summary of damage they acquired, as relied upon the engine room and the crew.

“The child is quite fond of the healing shard, see,” she said as she pointed the child she carefully carried in her arms towards Uran.

True enough, the baby was clinging onto the shard with her tiny hands, dismissing the magical heat it often stung people whenever they hold the item. Something about her rosy cheeks and laughing face calmed Uran as if the turmoil inside him meant nothing. But it did, he could tell inside himself that a simmering, unsettle stayed stuck in his throat.

Above deck, he could hear Lotois' voice order a few of the crew to arrange simple lodging and space for a few people they've encountered in the mountains, on their way to escaping the ruin of the forest. Though knowing that the forest was not inhabited by any, he knew he could not put any high suspicion as the Sunflora crew themselves are unlisted citizens.

They encountered a few other stragglers on the way and taking them would not hurt their ship or the crew, but trust and the value of a helping hand was not the point of their action, the point was them acquiring hands to further increase their number of people to stock in their town for the future. Whether they become a part of their crew or not matters more to the decision of the person, but in anything and everything else, Uran knew they are willing to take them as part of their established lives.

Approaching the babe as he thought of his dead son, he could only wish his soul rest in peace, and the relief of blaming the incompetence of the current Prime Magician makes him realize that he will not let such a pawn to politics of the kingdom let their lives be taken for granted.

He could tell the strength of the Prime Magician was the magic that caused almost debilitating damage around the forest, but what was the point of such magic if it cannot control the situation. To this, he could not help but blame the many deaths on the Prime Magician's incompetence. But who was he kidding, he could tell the same on a smaller scale for his crew.

When he, without thinking, took the crystal from the babe's grip, the child stopped smiling for a moment. Eyes looking at him, a hint of bright blue and orange on the young one, like the current sundown sky. The rumble of feet and machines echoed within the halls and his room, and they felt the floor shudder as they took flight again in the middle skies of Slitark.

Uran tapped the crystal on the forehead of the child and smiled as he thought that if he remembered the smile of his wife from the giggling of the babe who found him tapping its forehead with a pointy end of the shard funny.

⸶ ᴥ ⸷