CelestaRedFlower: I know it's been quite a while since my last update but I wanted this chapter to be as perfect as I could possibly get it; it's one of the most important chapters and I didn't want to have any mistakes/plot holes. I'm starting to relax a bit so I might not update as quickly as the previous three chapters (Obviously, or this would have been up sooner ) Just so you'd know, most of the background stuff I used about sorcerers and the heavenly beings (nornir) is manga based. Anyway, on with the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

"Kira!" Cleo jumped out of bed and ran to the balcony door with Leki at her heels. She frantically flung it open letting the cold air drift inside.

"What are you doing out here?"

"I came here to finish what I meant to tell you at my house, but unfortunately we were interrupted," she spoke the last few words with venom in her voice.

A strong gale blew. Kira shuddered from the cold wind and rubbed her shoulders desperately. Cleo held the door open generously.

"Why don't you come inside?" she asked.

Kira hesitated then shook her head, "I Can't. I have to stay out here just in case…they come," Kira's voice lowered to a faint whisper.

"Who?"

"I'll get to that later, but first I need to ask you something. Are you aware of who the Heavenly Beings were?"

Cleo nodded.

"Good that will save me a lot of explaining. Are you also aware that their blood runs through the veins of sorcerers?"

Cleo nodded again.

"Good. Well…as you know my mother was an amateur archaeologist. She had digs all around our village and discovered a Heavenly Being ruin near Perthro. It had a strange chamber not found in any other excavation and a second chamber filled with archives that described what the Heavenly Beings specifically built that chamber for," Kira paused, swaying and almost falling. All the color drained from her face as she started to cough hoarsely.

"Are you okay? You look so pale…"

"I'm all right; I just haven't been in the best of health," Kira choked, "Anyway, that's not important, listen," Kira stepped away from Cleo and nervously glanced at the sky before continuing, "The archives said that the Heavenly Beings were experimenting with spell amplification. They wanted to create a tool that would activate only by their touch. For their first experiments, they tried fusing various spells together, but those were recorded as failures. They also tried mixing special elixirs and experimenting with sorcerous runes. The sorcerous runes were the only thing they found something that they could work with. Everything else they tried was a failure. In order to create the tool they wanted, they needed something that was alive to use as their catalyst."

"So? What's your point? What does this have to do with anything?" Cleo couldn't see where Kira was going with this. Who cares about what happened all those years ago.

Kira grumbled impatiently. "Let me finish and you'll see," she growled. "So, the Heavenly Beings decided to use a human girl as the catalyst. They tattooed the necessary runes on her body and placed her in the chamber. Periodically, the heavenly beings would stimulate her body with their magic thus making the runes more than just writing. Eventually this experiment was successful and the girl came to be called the 'Heavenly Tool'. This created M-alchemy."

"But wait that doesn't make sense. If what Orphen said was true about not being able to have sorcerer's blood to use M-alchemy, then how did the heavenly beings--" Kira held up her hand, cutting Cleo off.

"You misunderstood what I said. The girl was M-alchemy. You see, Orphen and all the other sorcerers, misinterpreted things. The gene just means that you hold the potential of M-alchemy. It can only be properly used by a 'wielder' in other words, a sorcerer. Trying to use M-alchemy without a wielder is reckless and unstable," Kira's voice trembled with regret.

Cleo scratched her head and thought hard. "But wait," she said, "You can use M-alchemy…is that why you've always hated sorcerers, because they have the ability to 'wield' you? I don't know what you were so frightened about; I mean you could always be like, 'no thanks' and walk away."

"A heavenly tool does not have the power to disobey a sorcerer. That's why I've always hated them, because they could come and control me any time they wanted…that is to say if they ever found out what I was," Kira's fists clenched as she remembered the encounter with the sorcerer that had destroyed the peaceful life she knew.

"That's interesting, and Orphen and Majic would get more out of it than me. What I want to know is who destroyed your home and Linnea's and murdered all the servants. Speaking of which, where is Linnea?" Cleo stared into Kira's eyes, expecting a direct answer.

"Linnea is safe. And the heavenly tools have everything to do with that matter," When Cleo gave Kira a puzzled look, she sighed, "The second part of the experiment was to make it so all heavenly beings had a tool of their own. In order to do that they needed multiple tools so they bound the rune fusion ability to the blood of M-alchemy. Once that was successful, t-they started conducting a breeding program. There were very few successes that had as much power as the original, but one success was the Everlasting line, our family. "

"You still haven't answered my question!" Cleo stomped her foot impatiently.

Kira closed her eyes, not particularly wanting to relive the events of the last few weeks, even as she realized that if she were in Cleo's shoes, she'd need to complete the story to believe. Praying for patience to deal with the barrage of questions this would trigger, she inhaled and began, "A couple of weeks ago, a sorcerer came to Perthro to study the nearby ruins. He approached my mother since she was head of the project that discovered them years ago. Apparently it didn't reach the Tower of Fang's attention until recently. So he came to our house to collect the documents and reports she had written, saying that he was a representative of the Tower of Fang. My mother didn't have much of a choice in the matter so she handed them over.

Later we found out that he was actually an imposter. He was actually an outcast sorcerer, who had been experimenting with things that were forbidden by the Tower…mainly magic amplification which in turn lead him to study about the legend of the heavenly tools. I got the documents back but only succeeded because I was forced to use my powers. I set fire to them immediately. The sorcerer found out what I was and forced me into a contract. He decided to continue his research on magical amplification and decided to use my family as test subjects, but something went wrong."

As Kira reached the end of her explanation, Cleo found herself increasingly distracted by the unreasonably cold night. Unbelievably the temperature dropped still further. She shivered from the cold air when a tiny crystal of ice fell softly on her cheek. 'Snow…' Cleo thought, 'No way, it's summer.'

Cleo heard something about how shifts in the wind or extreme changes in weather patterns were signs of bad omens. Just when she thought things couldn't get any weirder, she saw a streak of lightening across the sky followed by an earsplitting rumble.

"Lightning and snow? In summer?" Cleo watched the sky intently realizing after a moment she was looking for nothing specific. Memories of the Bloody August surged back, the raw oppressive power, sights, smells and everything. "What the hell's going on Kira?"

Kira stood beside her, speechless as they both watched the clouds begin to swirl and the black lightning become thin solid rods of energy connecting sky to earth creating a gateway. The clouds tunneled down into a tornado before being broken apart by two pairs of wings, one set red and the other blue.

Two dragons broke through the clouds and soared towards the Everlasting mansion. Kira grabbed Cleo's wrist and threw her inside her room, causing Cleo to hit the floor. Leki growled at the approaching creatures and stood protectively in front of his mistress.

"Damn, I thought I'd have more time than this," Kira hissed looking behind her.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Cleo trembled. Her heart skipped a beat at a loud crack of thunder

"No time now. Get your family out to those sorcerers you trust so much, I guess. I don't have any other choice right now. Move it!"

Cleo sat there motionless trying to process the situation. The flashes of lightning illuminated her face for a few seconds.

"Don't just sit there! GO!"

Cleo scrambled to her feet. She ran out the door and down the hall to her sister's room with Leki racing after her. She barged into her sister's room and tore off Mariabella's covers.

"GET UP NOW!" Cleo screamed.

"Huh? Cleo, what's wrong?"

"Up. Now. No questions, it's an emergency!"

Mariabella, hearing the urgency on her sister's voice and becoming aware of the sounds of the storm outside, didn't say another word as she got out of bed. When Mariabella didn't move quickly enough to suit Cleo, she grabbed Mariabella by the wrist and dragged her to their mother's bedroom.

While crossing the top of the stairs, the girls heard hammering on the front door. Cleo gripped her sister's wrist tighter and her overprotective instincts began to kick into overdrive. Leki growled at the door and his eyes started to glow.

"Shouldn't we answer the door?" Mariabella began to slow her pace.

"No!" Cleo pulled Mariabella forward and further away from the front door. Out of fear of frightening her sister, she didn't want to say the reason why they shouldn't answer the door; she didn't want to tell her that it could have been the people who murdered the servants and kidnapped their family.

Cleo gave Leki the command to blast the door. His eyes glowed briefly before the door exploded into flying shards of wood. She shielded Mariabella from the debris that went cascading into the hallway.

"Now, Cleo, why did you do that? That was completely unnecessary," Mariabella scolded.

"Oh will you shut up? I wasn't thinking okay!" Cleo grumbled.

"So reckless," Mariabella sighed.

"Mom you have to wake…up?" to Cleo's surprise, her mother was already up and dressed.

"…there you are. I was about to get you," Tistiny gave a quick hug to her two daughters, "We need to get out, and I think the back way would be best" Tistiny led her daughters back into the hallway and towards their 'emergency escape' door. Tistiny decided to get one once the house was built. Cleo never understood why, but now she was quite grateful for her mother's wisdom.

"What's going on? Mother, how come you weren't asleep?" Mariabella asked quietly following her mother's lead. Lightning flashed through the windows, lighting their way as they hurried down the stairs and towards the back of the mansion.

"Do you honestly think I could sleep with all this racket," Tistiny replied. Leaning close to Cleo afterward to add in a whisper, "I was worried that whoever seems to be targeting our family would come here. Was I right?"

Before Cleo could answer, there was a huge crash at the front door. Their hearts jumped at the sound as they froze in shock before a much more welcome sound was heard.

"Cleo!" Orphen screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Mrs. Everlasting! Mariabella!" Majic's voice followed.

"Well Cleo, it seems your champion has arrived," Tistiny smiled at Cleo's blush and silent protests. Cleo, Mariabella, and Tistiny abandoned the idea of going out the back door and hurried back to the front of the house meeting up with their protectors. Leki yipped, sitting down on the floor, pleased to see the two sorcerers.

"Come on," Orphen said grabbing Cleo's hand as soon as she was close enough pulling her towards the remnants of the door, "You're going to the tavern now. Majic will stay with you and a squad of sorcerers Hartia brought back with him, while we deal with the dragons," Orphen took the lead now and was determined to get his companions out of harms way.

"There's no reason to fight," Tistiny shouted, stopping Mariabella, who was hurrying out the door and noticing that Cleo had stopped, broken away from Majic and was moving to re-join Orphen. Knowing her youngest daughter, she wouldn't leave without both her companions, so she tried to reason with the sorcerer. "It would be best if we all left together."

Orphen looked at her when she said that and he caught her meaning when Cleo grasped his arm. "Fine…where were you heading before?"

"We have an emergency exit that will get us out and under cover till we're some distance from the house."

"Let's go." He gestured for Tistiny to lead the way.

(break)

The emergency exit was actually in a closet just to the side of the back door. Once opened, the closet led down some stairs to a surprisingly large open area that already had a couple of the maids and the butler waiting in it. Tistiny quickly explained this was where the family and servants would gather in an emergency before leaving via the underground passage. They hurried through the passage, which opened up just at the tree line. The location gave them a view of not only the house, but also the road into Totokanta.

Cleo let out a sigh of relief, "We made it."

Majic turned around to face the house and his eyes widened. "Uh…Master," Majic stuttered, "I think we have a problem." He pointed to the sky. Everyone followed Majic's gaze to see the two dragons practically hovering above the mansion.

"Damn it! Majic, take everyone to the tavern, now!"

"But Orphen…" Cleo started to protest.

"Cleo, just go!" Orphen yelled before grabbing her back when a bolt of black lightning struck only a few yards away. The blue dragon landed in the smoldering clearing that the lightning had provided. And with another bolt of lightning, the red dragon landed beside its companion.

"Shit!" Orphen pushed in front of the defenseless group and raised his hand to fire a spell. Cleo scooped Leki into her arms and held him tight preventing him from attacking the dragons or getting in Orphen's way.

The red dragon's eyes blazed furiously. It drew back its neck and began building fire in its throat. The dragon released its flames after reaching all that its throat could contain.

"Miss Mariabella, Mrs. Everlasting, stay close together," Majic directed.

Orphen chanted words and conjured a shield. The fireball spiraled towards him and was deflected by the shield.

"Fine, if that's the way you want to do things, SWORD OF--"

"STOP!"

Kira interrupted Orphen's spell and materialized between him and the dragons.

Orphen glowered at her and roared, "Move, Kira. These things are here to kill your family. Is that what you want!"

Kira returned his glare and stepped more directly in his path. She lifted her arms out to her sides acting as a human fence.

Orphen recast the spell and aimed over her head.

"MOVE!" Orphen released a bit of his energy so his hand glowed and blinded Kira.

"No." she shielded her eyes with her right hand.

The blue dragon shrieked in fury and began building the energy in its throat.

Kira whipped around facing the dragons and screamed, "Mother! Stop it please!" The blue dragon ignored her plea and released a ball of light blue energy that froze everything in its path. Kira charged at Orphen and grabbed onto him as he chanted "I spin thee, Armor of Light" putting up a light shield. Her body glowed with messages written in sorcerous runes.

A green circle glowed beneath them and Orphen's shield which usually stretched ten feet high and five feet wide, tripled in size protecting everyone from the enormous orb of ice heading there way.

The surrounding area was completely iced over except for a small patch that was protected by Orphen's shield.

"Are you alright, Master?"

"Yeah, it's just that the spell I used isn't supposed to be that powerful. Kira must have amplified it somehow."

Cleo paled, remembering her previous conversation with Kira about the 'Heavenly Tools'. She felt a small prick of jealousy and shame at not being able to help Orphen the way Kira did.

They group finally noticed that Kira had drifted off and stood before the two dragons.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it. I promise," she addressed the dragons. They nodded their heads in satisfaction and spread their wings. With a powerful flap of their wings spans, they rose into the swirling black clouds and disappeared. At their departure, the weather cleared to reveal the pre-drawn sky. All eyes were on Kira.

Orphen hadn't liked Kira when they first met. She was cold and distant, and never seemed to give a straight answer. She also spoke of sorcerers like they were lower than filth. But now he felt a strange sort of understanding. Having your family turn into dragons and attack innocent people; that was something he could relate to and explained some of her actions.

"That blue dragon was your mother? So the red dragon would be…?" Cleo couldn't believe it. Her aunt and uncle had turned into dragons, but how?

"Yes, the red dragon is my father. As I was saying before, Cleo, something went wrong." With that said Kira traced something in the air and faded away until she disappeared completely.

"What was she talking about?" Orphen demanded.

Cleo didn't know why, but she felt somewhat hesitant to share what Kira had explained to her. Whether it was out of fear of fear for herself or anyone else in her family she didn't know. 'But it was Orphen and Majic. They wouldn't do anything…would they?' Cleo asked herself. It's a funny thing how exhaustion and fear can slightly warp the trust in the ones that are close to you.

"Cleo," Orphen demanded again.

"Oh I'm too tired to explain it right now! I'll tell you later!" she rubbed her eyes gently.

Orphen just nodded and started walking towards the tavern with everyone following suit. He decided to question her about her 'little chat' with Kira after they had all gotten some rest.

(break)

Cleo lay sprawled across her bed and sighed as the recent events invaded her mind. She knew she was safe as long as she traveled with Orphen but she was worried what would happen to her family if she, Orphen, and Majic started traveling again. Well, she was worried until a legion of the Tower of Fang's sorcerers showed up explaining that the Tower of Fang anticipated an attack on her family and sent out sorcerers to guard her house.

Her eyes lazily glanced at the gap at the bottom of her door. She saw the four feet belonging to the two unfortunate guards who were assigned to make sure that she didn't leave her room. 'This is ridiculous! I feel like I'm in a prison! A prison with a very nice décor, might I add…but still!' Cleo thought angrily.

She took out her frustrations by ranting to her guards and saying things like, "I don't know why I need you two useless sorcerers. What, did they run out of the decent ones and send me you two losers?" She couldn't help it; she needed an outlet and those guards were the only people around. Complaining was the only thing she could come up with to keep her mind off of things.

After her ranting about how pathetic they were she would start complaining and asking for things like food, or something to drink, or books, or one of her friends so she could find out what was going on. Why did they always have to leave her in the dark? She didn't care how rude and vile she was being, she was scared and confused.

After a long tirade of insults, they started to whisper to each other, thinking that Cleo couldn't hear half as well as she complained.

"I don't know how Krylancelo and Majic put up with her. She's a complete nightmare," one muttered.

"I know! It's too bad she's so hot. If it weren't for her mouth I'd--"

"I can hear you, you imbeciles!" Cleo screamed throwing her shoe at the door. They stopped talking immediately. Although she thought she might have heard a quietly muttered, "Bitch."

She sighed; there was nothing worse than being locked in your room and unable to do anything. Leki gently nipped her hand to get her attention. For the longest time, she had been too busy complaining or lost in thought to notice him before.

"Sorry, Leki, I didn't mean that you were boring," she smiled at him.

He playfully batted her hand for a while. Something about her pocket caught his attention. He jumped to her side and started to sniff her pocket.

"Oh yeah, I still have Kira's ring," Cleo reached into her pocket and took out the ring. She held the ring out in her palm. "Huh? What's this?" She put the ring aside on the small table beside her bed and studied her hand. There was a sorcerous rune tattooed in the middle of her palm.

"How did this get here?" she whispered in awe and then she remembered when Kira grabbed onto Orphen when he raised his shield; she glowed all over with the runes and then she remembered something Kira said, 'When marks start to appear on your body, don't let any sorcerers touch you.'

CelestaRedFlower: I'm really sorry this took SO long. I wish that I could have a set schedule for updating but I can't. Unfortunately, my attention span is a huge problem for me. I have really bad ADD. Don't worry though, I will not leave this story unfinished; it'll just take a very long time to finish but I'll do my best.