The Six Guns

"So you all use magic efficiently, what charms do you use and where are you guys hiding them?" Finn asks.

"I use paper charms sometimes" Alex says, "but I also have runic charms tattooed on both of my shoulders" he says as he rolls up his sleeves.

"Doesn't that hurt a lot though?" Finn asks.

Alex shrugs and says "it burns if I use too much magic, but no pain, no gain"

Zia quietly rolls up her left sleeve and the waist of her shirt, exposing a bracelet with a quartz charm on it wrapped around her upper arm just under the shoulder, and what seemed like a belt wrapped around the top of her waist with several obsidian charms all linked together. She simply just shows them briefly and says "these" and then she unrolls her clothes. There was a brief pause as everyone waited for Siran to share, but he seemed to not even acknowledge the question. Finn turns to Siran and asks "What about you? You seem so proficient with magic, so you gotta have something interesting".

"I don't have any charms" Siran replies.

"Nice try" Finn says, "I wasn't born yesterday. Would it make you feel better if I show you mine?". Finn takes off his shirt and exposes a vest with leather pads with charms sewn on them. "See?" Finn continues. "No biggy, just curious ya know?"

Siran rolls his eyes and takes off his shirt. Everyone stops to stare at him, including some of the homeless people they're escorting. As they look at him, they only see a clean body from the front, but as they walk around to investigate his back, all they find is one big, strange, oddly shaped scar that covers nearly his whole back. It looked like some sort of violent hieroglyph carved into him, or the omega symbol someone tried to draw while really drunk. Nonetheless, it was only a scar, and not a charm, nor does it look like he volunteered to have it put on his back.

"I can take off my pants too" Siran says.

"Please" Finn says, "do NOT take off your pants. There are children and also I don't want to see that or imagine it a second time". As Siran slips his shirt back on, Finn asks "How do you cast spells then?"

"I'm cursed" Siran says.

Finn laughs a bit then says "I really wanna know though"

"Magic" Siran says.

There was a long pause as both Finn and Alex slap their own foreheads in irritation; their facepalm was the only way they could respond to a joke that unfunny. Zia begins to giggle, but then that small giggle began to grow into a loud laugh.

"At least someone thought it was funny" Siran says.

"I regret even asking" Finn says.

"Trust me" Alex says, "I've tried asking him numerous times. He won't give an honest answer"

After a long, stress and cringe filled journey, the team arrives at the outskirts of Seeira before evening on the next day. Siran, Alex, Zia and Finn agree to part ways with the people they were escorting at the edge of town.

"This is a free land" Siran tells them all. "Find your new homes, getting some work won't be hard around here. We'd stick around to help but I'd rather avoid meeting someone who lives here for the time being".

After a long goodbye from the kids and their parents and many thanks later, the people walk off towards the busiest area of town.

"So who's this person you're avoiding?" Finn asks.

"Siran's sister" Alex lazily explains.

"You have a sister?" Finn asks.

"She's not my sister" Siran replies, "but she is like family"

"So what you mean is..." Finn says with a rather concerning look on his face "she's AVAILABLE?"

Siran just shakes his head and replies "Sure I guess, even though that's not what I said at all-"

"So why are you avoiding her?" Finn asks, suddenly more interested.

"Well, we only came here to help those people" Siran says. "If I keep showing up here, then she'll think I'm just bringing trouble to her shop"

"Shop?" Finn asks.

"She makes weapons" Alex explains. "Lots of them. She's kind of violent"

"Anyways" Siran begins to explain, "I don't need more problems, so I'm going to try to avoid her for now and-"

"Who are you trying to avoid?" Vivi interrupts as she approaches them from behind with a woven basket full of food and other groceries.

"Shit" Siran says as he turns around. "Hey Vivi, you shopping or?-"

"When are you going to stop crawling back here and causing trouble?" Vivi interrupts again.

Finn gets alarmingly close to Vivi and says "Hello, I'm Finn, and you're available?".

Vivi just stares at Finn with a face of utter disappointment and disapproval. "And who the hell is THIS!?"

"Well" Siran says as he shrugs, "... Mission accomplished?"

"You went to go investigate what was going on in Omnia" Vivi says in a stressed tone, "and you come back... with this?"

"It could've been worse..." Siran says.

Vivi grabs Siran by the ear and drags him far enough away for the other three to not hear them. However, with the loud and harsh disciplinary tone she used against Siran, they could hear everything.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Vivi yells at Siran. "When I said to go find someone to help you on your journey who is about as dumb as you are, you weren't supposed to actually find someone as DUMB AS YOU ARE! You need a better sense of judgment! You have other people to worry about, so take better care of them! Especially that quiet girl! She's the most trustworthy of your group in my opinion and that's just SAD! I don't even know anything about her but I can't trust the two other dumbasses enough to amount to the mystery that is your reckless demeanor!". Vivi nagged on and on at Siran as the other three decided to talk amongst themselves because they felt that Vivi's nagging was becoming a little too personal.

"Am I untrustworthy?" Finn asks Zia and Alex.

"I don't really care if they think I'm untrustworthy" Alex says.

"Why not?" Zia asks.

"I don't really trust any of you very much, but that's mostly because I haven't known either of you for long" Alex explains.

"That's fair" Finn says, leaning against a tree and taking it easy.

"What about Siran?" Zia asks. "Don't you trust him?"

"To be honest" Alex says, "not really. It's just, I was in The Ly'Lum long enough to know that most of the people my rank or higher were up to no good and I only wanted to help the people in my town rather than to transfer to other towns only to lie and cheat my way through a list of promotions".

"What rank were you?" Finn asks.

"Second Lieutenant" Alex says firmly, "and I knew that I had made a mistake in joining not long after I joined. By then, however, it was too late to leave. A lot of my subordinates were sketchy for sure, but it was the higher ups that I really couldn't trust".

"And you trust Siran more than them?" Zia asks quietly.

"I guess" Alex says, "but this isn't about trust. Something is going on with the world, and The Ly'Lum seems to be the center of it. However, when I decided to stick with Siran, The Ly'Lum seemed way too focused on Siran. He seemed to be the center of attention, as a high value target. In short, Siran seems to be the center of it all and I want to get to the bottom of this".

"So you accepted his help even without trusting him, or rather planning on digging into the root of whatever business Siran seems to be caught up in?" Finn asks. "And that doesn't seem like betrayal to you?".

"I don't need a lesson on ethics here, kid" Alex retorts.

"Well, I trust him" Zia says quietly. "With my own life even".

"I can't blame you for that" Alex says as he scratches his head, "but just know that if my suspicions are right and he is a bad guy after all, Siran isn't the only one standing beside you".

Zia only seems more distraught by this thought. She looks down at her feet, clenching her fists a little and says "And if he's not a bad person after all?"

"Siran's up to something" Alex explains, "and I'll prove it. I just need time. For now, just pretend this conversation never happened. I don't want to get in the way of all of you guys getting along with each other. However, I'm also not going to let people fall victim, so I'll prepare us for the worst if the worst is to ever come"

"I think you're being a little too paranoid" Finn says as he pulls out a cigarette. " I mean, sure I don't fully trust him, but he definitely seems like a really good guy".

"If he can prove he's a good guy, then I'll drop the issue" Alex says. "Until then, I'll take my time to learn about him"

"Just... promise me one thing" Zia says, still looking down at her own feet, "just please don't do anything to try to hurt him. He's already helped us this much".

"I won't" Alex says.

After a long nagging period, Siran and Vivi rejoin with the others.

"So how do you share magic anyways?" Finn asks Siran. "I've never heard of a way to share your magic capabilities with other people, it just sounds impossible".

"There's one way that I know of" Vivi says. "This art called transference magic. It's one of the forbidden magics that many generations ago people decided to stop using".

"Why's that?" Finn asks.

"I've heard of it before" Zia says. "The user grants others the ability to share their magic capabilities by sharing their natural connection to their source of magic from The Endo Realm, or the realm the magic comes from. However, in exchange, the user sacrifices a fraction of their lifespan to do so".

"Wait a minute" Finn says while processing all this information, "so Siran could die soon just for sharing his magic?"

Before Finn could finish what he was saying, Zia jumps up and slaps Siran across the face.

"What was-" Siran begins to say before he gets interrupted.

"You're sacrificing your own lifespan!?" Zia starts yelling. "Now you're being entirely too reckless! What are we supposed to do if you just die on us suddenly!? What do you think you're doing? Dying on us won't help at all!". Zia begins punching Siran several times.

"Wait!" Siran begins to beg between punches, "hold on a minute!". Zia stops punching Siran and demands "then explain!".

"I... I can't fully explain it" Siran says, "because there's a long story. A story I hopefully won't have to share. I can, however, promise you that I'm not dying from sharing my magic!"

Zia stares Siran in the eyes and there's a short pause before Siran says "I promise".

After another long pause, Vivi crosses her arms and looks over at Zia and says "I like her, she's got a good head on her shoulders". After a little bit, they begin to discuss what to do next, and how they're going to do it.

"After our last stunt" Siran says, "The Ly'Lum will likely be on high alert for a while. If we were to be spotted anywhere near Omnia, including here in Seeira or even Balphor, it'll likely only increase our problems. It seems our only option would be to drop off the radar for a bit, maybe find more people who want to join our cause"

"You mean help us expose The Ly'Lum, right?" Finn asks.

"Exactly" Siran replies.

"How do you propose we drop off the radar then?" Alex asks.

"By getting far away from here" Siran explains. "This small continent we're on now is located in the middle on The Atlantic Ocean, just north of the equator. As you know, most of the planet was terraformed during the Naris Crisis, which gave birth to this continent and the four countries on this continent. Omnia, Seeira, Balphor, and Hera. To the east of us, there's Africa, which has many trade routes by sea for materials and other goods but only air travels between here and the American continents. So the best way to get out of here would be to head east towards Africa so we can avoid being identified while trying to flee"

"But the only areas in Africa that people still inhabit enough to build a standard modern civilization" Zia says, "is the far west of Africa and all of that land is mostly just trading docks, farms, processing buildings for the materials they trade and a few small towns that likely won't be too kind to outsiders".

"Then we go east from there, problem solved" Finn says.

"Do you even know how big Africa is?" Alex asks.

"Most of it isn't easily habitable" Vivi explains, "because after the terraforming, most of the climates all around the world began to change as well to adapt to the new world that was formed. Because of that, there isn't enough water or crop to support large groups of people throughout most of Africa. However, luckily for you, they built trains that go across the continent, from east to west, so the farther east countries can actively trade with the west. The furthest eastern countries near the Middle East of the world have large cities that were suddenly built there because the weather and climate conditions changed to a favorable condition to support life. In some places, they even have a metropolis. I'm sure if you get there, you'll find somewhere comfortable to relax for a while".

"Question" Finn says as he raises his hand like a child, "where is the most easily reachable metropolis? This sounds like a lengthy journey and I'd want to stay in a big place where there will likely be something to do".

"I think the first Metropolis and likely the most busy city you'll find is still in Africa, luckily for you" Vivi says. "You'll probably be looking for Cairo".

"Cairo!?" Alex exclaims.

"Isn't that in Egypt?" Finn asks.

"Oh" Vivi exclaims quietly in a surprised tone, "so you're not a complete idiot. Yes it is in Egypt".

"But Egypt is so far!" Finn complains. "What about all the places in between?"

"The climate zones still aren't favorable in most places of Africa" Vivi explains, "and complaining wont change that fact. However, the city of Cairo was already big and luxurious before, but more people moved there because of its excellent weather. So to keep up, they kept building the city bigger and bigger. Other than that, you'll have to go to Israel or Sudan for any other Metropolis near there".

"Will we get to see The Great Pyramid of Giza there?" Zia asks excitedly.

"You'll have to go out of your way to see it" Vivi says, "but yes it is right outside of Cairo".

"So is everyone in an agreement then?" Siran asks. "Are we going to Cairo?".

"I guess" Finn says as he pouts.

"Better than nothing" Alex shrugs.

"Yes please" Zia says excitedly.

"Yes" Vivi says, "please go far away from here".