Winter entered the city of Lómëdor in the early hours of the morning, the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon, however the air was chilled since the previous night and patches of grass were damp with dew. Winter barely cared about it as she wandered through the streets. Behind her a dark cloaked figure followed, looking around at the houses and inns dotted about the city.
"Never been to Lómëdor before," his voice was soft and sly at the same time, an extremely toothy smile showing beneath his hood as he spoke "not really what I expected."
"What did you expect?" Winter replied, her voice devoid of and sense of caring or curiosity.

"I don't know," Morkus sighed "busy marked stands, crowds of people. The odd stray girl." His lips curled greedily.
"I think we missed marked season," Winter explained "and I doubt we'll meet many people this early in the day."
"What makes you think the library will be open then?" Morkus asked, jeering at her.
"I'm not sure it ever closes," Winter replied simply, unaffected by Morkus' taunt "plus it might take us a while to get there. After all Lómëdor is a pretty big place."

Winter had picked up Morkus after meeting him in the misty forest. A bit of a scrap, an exchange of blows and a cut face later Morkus had followed Winter out of the forest. Winter never asked him why, nor did she really care. Morkus came across as a cunning but reckless individual, not one Winter would trust to win a fight anyway. Since the encounter in the forest, Morkus now had a scar clawed into the side of his face to go with his fangs and mottled skin.

"Do you know where the library even is?" Morkus asked.
"I've been here before, I know my way around." Winter replied.
Morkus chuckled silently and looked up to see the great oak doors of the library only a few feet from where they were standing.
"Satisfied?" Winter asked in an emotionless tone.
"Almost." Morkus muttered in reply.
Winter walked up the steps and opened the right hand door, stepping inside without pausing to hold the door for Morkus. The vampire followed her in anyway and lowered his his, revealing the scar down his face and the long dark strands of hair falling past a pair of blood red eyes.

"Hm, kinda roomy in here," he commented.
"Well it is a library," Winter replied in the exact same tone she used before.
She walked off, browsing the shelves for what she was looking for. Morkus followed, looking more at the interior of the building than the actual shelves. Winter moved to the section containing books about magical artifacts and weapons, looking over the different tones with a blank expression on her face.
"You sure have a lot to look through," Morkus said, looking around the shelves surrounding them on three sides and towering up high above them.
"Well we'd best start looking then," Winter said.
She reached up and pulled out a red book with peeling silver letters on the cover. She sat down and opened it to the index. Morkus pulled several promising looking volumes of the shelves himself and set about doing the same thing.

Kiesu sighed as he climbed through the library's window. Another day had gone through and yet again he had been chased almost to the point of having a breakdown. Sweat rolled down his red skin, his pitch black eyes were hidden by the cloak's hood along with his horns and his wings squirmed with anxiety. Every day was stressful for him but it was how he lived his life. He hopped down from the windowseal and sat in a chair only a couple of feet away from the window.

Moments later Morphine fluttered in, her wings were damp with the morning dew and she came and rested on the table, shivering. Kiesu smiled a bit and took off his cloak, letting Morphine use it to warm up while Kiesu looked down one of the isles of books.

He figured he may look for a necromancy spell book while he was there to see if he could learn any new spells, such as he had learned to control undead. Step one in meeting his possibly dead father for the first time in his known life. He chuckled a bit as he looked at the differant books. Some were quite silly and others dreadfully serious, they were rouped together by the title of the book since several were anonymousley written. Copies of differant books sat next to each other, yet none of them were the books Kiesu was looking for. He returned to the table and sat down to rest himself.

His attention was caught when he looked over to the doors of the library and saw two people enter. One was female with icy blue hair and pale skin while the other stayed cloaked and hidden underneath his hood. Kiesu chuckled quietly as he thought that that man was kind of like he was. He shook this off and headed down another isle as Morphine got out from underneath the cloak, warmed, and followed Kiesu with her pink glow.

Morkus turned a page over, smiling at the picture of a man holding a spike club with blood dripping from it and a corpse on the ground.
"My kinda book," he chuckled, licking his lip.
"Concentrate on what we're looking for," Winter replied without looking up.
Morkus chuckled again and carred on browsing through.

Winter was busy looking through a book containing legends of magical weapons and artifacts. However none of them seemed to be peaking her interest so far.
"Nothing but pointless myths," she muttered.
Morkus looked up at her, a comedic grin on his face.
"Find anything?" He asked slyly.
"Be quiet," Winter replied, turning a page.
Morkus laughed softly and looked back down.

Winter set the current book aside and picked up another one, turning to the index and running her finger down the yellowing page. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down, a flicker of annoyance flashing across her face as she still found no results.
"Where is it?" She grunted through gritted teeth.
Morkus chose to ignore her, and carried on scanning through very graphic images of weapons used in wars or general brawls.
"Ah, looking at these makes me hungry," he sighed.
"Just don't break your teeth on people's necks" Winter replied, her annoyance reflected in her tone.
"Thought you didn't have a sense of humor," Morkus jeered.
Winter fixed him with a venomous stare before setting her current book aside and moving onto another one.

Morkus chuckled and looked across the library, spotting another figure sitting in a chair looking exhausted.
"Looks like we have company," he commented.
"Go bite them then," Winter replied without looking up.
"Why don't I just bite you?"
"Just try it," Winter warned.
Morkus gave another chuckled and glanced over at the strangers sitting under the window.
"Think I might say hello," he said, getting out of his chair and walking over to them.
Winter ignored him and moved on to the next book, noticing something on the spine of the cover.

Kiesu watched from behind a bookcase as one of the people walked over to his location. It was the one who wore the cloak and as he neared closer Kiesu could make out that it was a vampyre. "Morphine, wait here." Kiesu said as he hurried to the other side of the bookcases. He waited on the edge of the isle until the vampyre was close enough, he then grabbed the vampyre by the neck, making sure not to strangle him. "Hello bloodsucker." Kiesu said with a smile. as the vampyre struggled against Kiesu's hold. "Don't bother, you're not escaping my grasp like that. Now what's your name?" The vampyre growled before responding. "Why do you need to know?" The vampyre scowled. "Because I'm holding your neck right now and I could rip it off." The vampyre stopped struggling for a moment to tell Kiesu his name. "It's Markos, okay! Are you happy now?" "Not until your quiet. This is a library you know." Kiesu responded as he let him go.

"You're kind of a rude demon." Markos said in annoyance. "Actually, I'm only half demon, and I don't usually do that but today, after being chased once again, I am kind of testy. So who is she?" Kiesu asked as he pointed at Winter. "Her name is winter, I know her by fighting with her." Markos said as he pointed to his face. Kiesu thought for a moment and motioned for Morphine to come. "What is that? A snack?" Markos said with a chuckle. "No, not unless you can beat her, she is pretty tough despite her small size." Kiesu said with a chuckle. "So why are you here in glorious Lomedor so early in the morning?" Kiesu asked as he sat down in his chair. Winter is looking for some books about magical items, why are you here?" "I told you, I'm pretty much hiding out, but since I'm here I decided to look for some necromancy spell books."

Morkus cracked his neck, recovering from the impolite introduction.
"Afraid you're in the wrong section," he gave the demon a fanged smile "the necromancy is in the dark magic section. You know, the one with all the dead old books and all the shadow creatures lurking around."
Morkus glanced over at Winter, still puring over various books, still trying to find what she was looking for.

"I'm wondering if she'll actually be able to find what she'd looking for," he muttered to himself "it'll probably take her forever to look through all of these." He looked up at the shelves containing all the books on the subject Winter was looking up and gave another fanged smile "No hope at all."



Winter carried on looking through the tones piled up next to her, the ones that had yielded no results lay in an untidy pile on her right side, the ones yet to read made up a teetering tower to her left. As Winter read she grew more and more aggravated. Once or twice she came across an odd reference however the paragraph went into no further detail. She threw the latest book aside and pulled the next one towards her, noticing the title on the cover:



Winter opened the book, scanning through the contents until she found the page entitled 'Deity forged weapons'. She immediately flicked over to that page, and found what she was looking for at last. Intently she began to read.



Winter skipped the passage on the Dark Blade and Holy Blade and settled on the Blade of Balance, finding the start she began to read:



Winter finished reading but held the book open. Morkus watched her, an interested expression on his face. Winter closed the book and set it back on its shelf, ignoring the rest.
"Morkus,"
"Yes?" Morkus replied.
"We're leaving,"
Morkus' face did not betray his disappointment, however he looked from Winter to the half demon.
"Already? But I haven't introduced you to my new friend," He said sarcastically "come to that..." He turned his greedy red eyes to the demon "he hasn't introduced himself either."
Winter gave Morkus a warning look and switched her gaze to the demon, however she remained silent.

Kiesu stuck his toungue out a bit as he picked up his cloak and threw it upon his shoulders before approaching Markos and 'Winter'. He kept the hood so that it would not show his face and his footsteps were silent as he took each step closer. "My name is Kiesu Shiinto. My titles I could give you a list of, but my true title is: Kiesu Shiinto the good necromancer demon with a good personality." Kiesu said with a chuckle as he got withing several feet of the two. Morphine followed closley behind him and sat herself upon his shoulder, waving at the two. "This is my small pixie friend Morphine. she is my travel buddy." Kiesu said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

His body wavered a bit before he responded as he thought of something to say. He had a general idea about who Markos was since he was not hard to describe. But so far what he had seen from Winter made him think that she was a very serious... He thought about it for a moment as he fully scanned her body. at first glance she was a full angel, but on closer examination she was only half. "So, you are a half angel huh?" Kiesu asked rhetorically. "Not really a big suprise for the way you seem to act." His face turned to his normal serious face as he continued to examine more about her. He looked at the book she was reading which was titled "Legends of the Mithril Forge."

He knew now exactly what she was looking for and he shook his head. "It will take several years for you to ever get even one fragment of that blade." Kiesu said with a firm voice. "The Blade of Balanace is kept under watch of the gods. You must be considered 'worthy' to wield that blade Winter." He tilted his head up enough so that his eyes would be seen as he looked into Winter's with a feeling of seriousness.

Winter made no reply to Kiesu's intorudtion, preffering to remain silent and let him go on with himself. Morkus still had the same, snyde expression on his face, however he was leaning against the shelf with his arms folded, watching the events unfold and curling a lock of hair around one of his fingers. Winter made no comment as the talk went on, however a person with good eyesight would have been able to noticed that her eyes grew narrow when the demon concluded her to be 'half angel'. She didn't deny the fact, however she grew irritated when people called her by her species.

Morkus chuckled at the comment.
"Not many pure angels have such small wings, I'm sure a child could work that much out." He commented, Winter ignored him and carried on watching the demon.

As Kiesu's gaze moved down to the book Winter had been reading Morkus froze mid-curl, staring at Winter, and Winter's look may have possibly grown colder than before. At the end of the comment, it was perfectly possible to notice Winter's eyes narrow this time, however the rest of her expression showed nothing but emotionless calm.
"Butting into other people's buisness is never very good for you," she replied, her voice calm and controled "and since you have no idea who I am, I wouldn't trust you to judge who's worthy and who's not."
Morkus gave another chuckled, his arm dropping to his side and his head tilting backwards, the clawed scar on the side of his face caught the light and shimmered slightly in the light.
"Seems you are unable to predict what what is warning and what is guesswork, Winter," he laughed "I'd drop that untrusting characteristic of yours, you may end up dead because of it."

Winter shot him a cold glare that seemed to lower the temperature around her, a look of annoyance flashed across her face.
"The same goes for your recklessness,"
"No room for cation when you're already dead," Morkus jeered back.
Winter made to answer and then looked away, returning his attention to the demon.
"What do you care for what I seek in the first place?" She asked "I wasn't aware that my goals were open to public opinion."

Kiesu sighed and shook his head while Winter and Markos had a small little argument. Although it was more of Markos teasing her. Kiesu thought back to when he tried to find the Blade of Balance.. It was a pain and almost got him killed on several occasions. It was also what ended the relationship with his true love, Maria Celeste. He groaned as his heart dropped in his chest andthe temperature dropped in the room.

He let out a sigh and started expulsing some of his necromatic powers to gather the attention of the half-angel. "Look, this blade will only be worth it if you are willing to give up things you hold dear. Although from your dreary attitude I do not believe yout have anything of that calibur." Kiesu growled at Winter. She was obviousley young, and maybe too young to truly go and find this blade and Kiesu made that known.

Markos seemed to slowly step away before Kiesu started again, possibly fearing a forceful control over him from the necromancer. Kiesu let out a breath of shallow air before he spoke again. "There is a saying even older then I am which goes: You do not know what you have, until you have lost it." Kiesu growled a bit as he said this. "But maybe Markos is right, you might not hae anything worth keeping.

Kiesu was darkened when he remembered the pain that the quest provided and he felt like going on a rampage, but it was against his nature and he sighed and slowly breathed in. he chuckled a bit before completley afixating his black eyes on Winter. "It is all written on your face, even a child could tell it apart from a typical emotion... But, I digress. Markos, do what you can do with her, I am going back to look for any necromatic books." Kiesu walked away and Morphine fluttered in the air with a concerned look on her face for Kiesu.

Winter's face remained calm, however her opinion of the demon was crawling downwards with every word he spoke. Despite his warnings, however, Winter didn't show the slightest change in her ambitions, she was incredibly single minded and only tended to focus on what was directly in front of her or what she desired. Once set on a course she wouldn't steer away from it unless by her own decisions.

Although, learning that this demon had once sought the Blade of Balance himself, Winter would prefer to try and get more information about it from him, such as its whereabouts and why he failed.
"Things are never achieved when you have a weak heart," she said "if you're going to give up so easily, then you deserve to fail."
Morkus gave her a funny look, somewhere between concern and anger. Winter saw none of this and continued to address the demon with the same emotionless tone.
"Say what you will, but I'm afraid my desires are set, and nothing you can say is going to change it," she went on "you can give up all you like, that will never achieve you anything."

Winter turned back to Morkus and wandered over to him, looking him straight in the face.
"Is there a problem?" He asked.
"Not especially," Winter replied "people like that can get on my nerves."
"Hard to imagine you even have them," Morkus replied "I doubt you can feel the same way he can, unless of course you lose something just as precious."
Winter sighed and bowed her head, staring at the floor.
"I have nothing to lose." She replied.

Kiesu wandered down a line of bookshelves, his hands caressing the books as flashes from his search raced through his mind. Tears came from his black eyes as he made his way down the isle. Selveral books were missing but he payed no heed to them. He stopped when he reached a small intersection in he isles as he looked at the tiles ground.

The Blade of Balance had been a burden on him when he searched for it and he knew that if that girl ahd anything other then the clothes on her back, she would lose it. "Stupid girl." Kiesu said silently as he leaned his cloaked body against a shelf of books. Morphine came by him, not doing her usual flutter and stopped on top of the shelf he was leaning against.

Morphine was wprried for him because she had not seen him like this before. Sad, enraged, these were emotions he usually kept bottles up. But he was thinking about how he lost his first true love. His head bobbled some before he continued down the isles, this time he did not caress the books and scrolls, instead he just walked, his hands beside him as he sawyed slightly to his left and right.

That girl was more then likley going to mstill go along with the journey, but it did not conern him right now, right now he just wanted to sit. He came across an intersection which had a table and some chairs, Kiesu sat himself in a chair and leaned his head on the table. He let out a sigh as he grasped the back of his head with his hands. He could feel his heart beat against his chest with tremendous force as his tears hit the wood and began to pool together.

Morkus gave her an oddly serious expression.
"You don't have a trace of feeling in you, do you?" He said "what happened to that? Where'd your childhood go all of a sudden?"
Winter gave him a blank look, although a voice at the back of her head was echoing something.
Killing is bad right?
"You could say that I never had one," she replied.
Morkus chuckled half heartedly: "Never had one? Did you live your whole life as a heartless fighter or something?"

Winter didn't looked at him, but her gaze narrowed. Morkus raised an eyebrow.
"Seems like I touched a nerve," he commented.
"Let's go," Winter said "we can't find any information here apart from what we already know."
"There are thousands of books on those shelves," Morkus commented "how can you be sure it's not in one of those?"

Winter followed his gaze, looking up at the books containing the legends, myths and the odd fact.
"I doubt such a book would be in a mere library," she mused "If I'm going to unlock the secret of the trinity I'm going to need to seek somewhere more extreme."
Morkus scratched his chin: "I know of a philosopher who researches them," he commented "perhaps he may have the information we need."

Winter looked back at him.
"You sure about that?" She asked.
"Any lead is worth following," Morkus replied "but before that, I suggest you seek his counsel." He nodded to Kiesu "if he has done the same journey, you may learn how to avoid the dangers he faced."