・ MAGAZINE BE×BOY Mar.2023 by Tanaka Suzuki & bov & Kotobuki Tarako & Kiyama Haru & Okita Yuuho...etc.

・ LYNX Mar. 2023 by Ootsuki Miu & Kuku Hayate &  Kousaka Tohru & Tange Michi & Billy Balibally & Takarai Saki...etc.

__ReiJin... 

Liza felt like her heart was beating in her throat and took a deep, ragged breath.

“Calm down,” she rebuked herself. “No need to worry, everything will be fine.”

She didn’t convince herself. She tried to look confident and collected but her hand trembled on the doorknob. She still couldn’t believe this was real, that she wasn’t just dreaming. That on the other side of the door the legendary Mage and the Executor were having tea with her foster parents. That she could personally meet with the famed Mira and Reijin.

Ever since Liza could remember she loved the stories and fables about the Star’s Chosen One and her soulmate. She knew every tale and legend by heart and she was convinced of the truth of every word of them.

Although many travelers from different worlds visited the royal palace who gladly told stories to an eager little princess, Liza heard most of the tales from Zília, her old-time friend. The woman was immortal and powerful like her legendary heroes, and she knew numerous fables which she willingly shared. She stuffed Liza’s head full with the heroic adventures of Mira and Reijin. When she was younger her favorite ones were the retellings of their undying love – how the Mage chose immortality, something she rejected before, just to be with her soulmate forever. Every time Zília came to visit she demanded this story from her to be told over and over again!

And now the Mage and the Executor had personally come to their little planet! Liza had had to sit down when the king, her father had told her the news that the Starfederation had sent them as a delegation. And now they were here, in the other room, and Liza couldn’t stop shaking. Would they live up to her expectations? Would they be more?

She took another deep breath and opened the door.

The tea-room was a cozy and bright chamber which ended as a wide balcony. The glazy double-door was open and the light breeze coming from the ocean gently fluttered the white curtains. Colorful and lush plants filled the place and with the matching flower-patterned tapestry on the walls the room looked more like a greenhouse than a meeting area. All this with the two cushy, double armchairs placed around a small, artistic table created a snug, intimate atmosphere.

The king and queen occupied the armchair facing the door; as their adopted daughter stepped inside they smiled at her reassuringly and the icy grip inside Liza’s stomach lessened. Sitting on the other armchair, with her back to her, was a foreign woman. When the royal couple looked up she also turned around to see who entered the room.

Liza saw many portraits of the Star’s Mage but none of them made any justice to the young woman who was facing her now. She was beautiful with her dainty features and curly, golden-brown cascade of hair, while intense warmth radiated from her eyes. The latter confused Liza; she was pretty sure this was the first time they met yet the other woman looked at her like she knew her. Like she was proud of her.

Liza couldn’t help herself, she embarrassedly combed through her straight, dark brown hair, effectively messing up the elaborate bun. She totally forgot about that. Quickly, she hid her hands behind her back and forcefully stopped biting her lower lip. Never in her sixteen years of life had she been this nervous.

The king cleared his throat and saved her. “Lady Mira and Lord Reijin, may I introduce you Princess Lizandra,” he announced ceremonially.

Liza stopped fidgeting, puzzled; she didn’t sense any other presence in the room. It was only the four of them, her parents, the Mage and her…

She caught a movement from the corner of her eye and spun around. From the shade of two greeneries near the wall another person stepped out. Liza watched stunned as the man leisurely walked towards her– no, not a man. A redeye.

Reijin was all that the legends described. He had an agelessness in his calm features and the lithe and silent movement of a predator. He had the black clothes, white hair and blood-red eyes like in every picture – only, he now had both of his eyes uncovered. Liza was sure that in every story and portrait she knew the Executor had only one good eye while the other was hidden under an eyepatch. Legends said he lost that left eye in a horrible way when he was young. Or that was what Zília had told her, anyway.

Reijin stopped within arm’s reach and tilted his head sideways. Liza didn’t dare to move while he studied her with piercing, curious eyes. Then Reijin raised his hand and that moment the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she felt dizzy…

“Reijin, stop testing her!”

The moment broke and Liza remembered to breath. Reijin’s hand stopped midway and the redeye glanced over his shoulder to look at the fussing Mira. There was a beat of silence between them and Liza had the distinct impression that the two of them were communicating… Then Reijin turned back to her.

“Sorry.” Although he said that his tone and smile was more absentminded than apologetic. Not that Liza minded – she was too busy with the realization that what she felt earlier was probably Reijin’s magic.

And it had been overwhelming!

There were two things Liza had always known: one, that she was adopted – her parents did not hide that as a shameful secret – and two, that she had magic. Knowing the latter, they could hardly keep the truth from her about her parentage, for in their home-world magic was scarce. There were sorcerers, yes, but nobody as powerful as a mage. Liza knew her potential was of the later; only there was nobody there who could teach her. She was mostly self-taught, had keen intuitions in many forms of magic and learned fast, but that was nowhere near enough. She was capable of much more; she knew it.

“You are beyond help,” sighed Mira as Reijin stepped next to her armchair.

“You are nearly crying you know that?” he replied nonchalantly which gained him a Look, with capital letters.

Liza tentatively moved closer to stood at her mother’s side but Mira patted the empty seat beside her invitingly. She hesitated for a minute then sat there instead. It was a weird feeling, sitting near the legendary Mage while the equally famed redeye stood behind them like a sentinel. Liza only dared to glance at them from the corner of her eye and what she saw was Reijin resting his hand on Mira’s shoulder and Mira reassuringly gripping that hand while stroking slow circles on it with her thumb. None of them looked at her but stared ahead, the Mage with unshed tears in her eyes and the redeye with a soft smile playing on his lips.

And that was all that Liza needed. She also turned ahead and poured herself a cup of tea. Just as the steam towered from the hot drink her nervousness evaporated, too. The lump in her throat disappeared and her shaking stopped. She did not imagine her heroes quite like this – she expected them to be more stern, more commanding – but something was no doubt true: Mira and Reijin loved each other deeply. It was like the last pieces of a puzzle that finally fit together and with it Liza was sure that the pair was one and the same with the ones in the legends, and that she – thanks to Zília – already knew the two of them from the bottom of her heart.

She felt as if nothing could twist and shatter her world now. Weeks later she could only marvel at her own naivety. How could she not have known? Zília with her cheeky smile and obsessed story-telling, the fact that she was adopted by an elderly royal couple of a small, peaceful, fringe planet of the Starfederation, or her own reddish-brown eyes and extraordinary potential of magic… How could she not have figured it out sooner?

Queen Mirina, proud ruler of the Folk of the Star, sat down tiredly behind her working desk and groaned. It was a long and exhausting day full of conferences and council meetings, and the Queen longed for a moment of peace and quiet, so in a brief break between two assemblies she slipped away from the councilors to find safe haven in her private study.

The workroom was located at the high end of the Palace, the namesake of Palacekeep, the sturdy capital of the Starfederation. It rose above the trimmed city with its robust structure and grand towers, and made an excellent viewpoint for Mirina. The panorama seen from her study’s windows was breathtaking. Wide roads and tan stone buildings in orderly fashion interlarded with greens, all cascading down the sloping hillside until – beyond the horizon – the collectivity of house roofs, terraces and streets were finally stopped by the massive outer wall which bordered and protected the circular city with stone and magic. It was truly a magnificent masterpiece of careful design and a one-of-kind city. The Queen couldn’t have been prouder of her Builder.

Palacekeep was indeed a great capital; however it could not govern itself, no matter how hard Mirina wished for it. The Starfederation was a confederacy of more than three hundred worlds, all united under the governmental body of the Council which was presided over by the Folk of Star. They, being the founders of the Starfederation, naturally had hegemonic position. Equality and harmony was important but peace and order was even more important, and one couldn’t achieve that without a stronger voice and a unifying hand. As the divinely chosen ruler of the Starfolk, Mirina had to be that voice and hand.

The Queen sighed again, then turned away from the windows and let her gaze wander around the room, allowing her mind to rest. Her eyes traced the exquisite carvings of her ebony desk which stood in the middle of the study. Two walls, the one behind and at the right side of Mirina, were covered floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves made from the same wood. These were full of books, file folders, scrolls and even a few knick-knacks. The wall which the working desk was facing was decorated with paintings and maps, framing the huge, ornate double door, the only entrance of the room. The arched windows which presented the beautiful scenery of the city took up the entire left-side wall and engulfed the study with bright sunlight. Or they would have, if it wouldn’t have been dusk already. Shadows were gathering at the corners of the room and Mirina sat in the twilight, only one glowing crystal illuminating her desk, not bothering to light any more lamps. She had nothing but a few minutes left of her solitude anyway before she had to join the next meeting or face the ire of the foreign ambassadors.

Mirina was relaxing in her chair deep in thoughts when suddenly a feeling prickled her senses. A strange but familiar sensation; the hair on her nape standing straight, a shiver traveling down her spine…

Someone was present in the room besides her. Someone who got in unseen and unnoticed, and now was gently letting her know that he was behind her.

Mirina knew only one person who was capable of doing that.

She offered one of her hands, not bothering to look behind her back. After a beat, an arm reached over her shoulder and placed a white orb, not bigger than a fist, onto her open palm.

It was a memory crystal used to store the unique imprint of a world which was essential in the process of opening a Gate from one planet to the other. The imprint was the topmost element of a Gate-opening, sort of an address, and the Gates were the number one mode of transportation in the Starfederation.

Five days ago a group of unidentified criminals broke into the sealed repository and stole a memory crystal which held the imprint of an off-limit world. The travel to these planets was forbidden for a reason; the theft and usage of any of the sealed crystals was considered a capital offence. After learning about this incident the Queen did what she had to do: she entrusted the Executor with the mission to get the crystal back.

Mirina didn’t have to be a Gate Opener to know that the orb in her hand was the stolen one. The Executor finished his mission; quick, silent and precise, as always. She nodded her acknowledgement while putting away the crystal and only then did she turn around in her chair to face the redeye.

Her eyebrows ran high, disappearing under her neatly cut bangs.

“None of it is my blood,” stated Reijin quickly, guessing correctly the cause of surprise and worry on the Queen’s face.

“Are there any survivors left?”

“Everybody fought.”

“I see…”

She nodded with an inner sigh because she did understand the implication of the statement. Redeyes had an altogether different attitude towards battles than humans. If somebody took up a weapon to fight that meant the person was aware of and accepted the consequences of fighting. If one wanted to kill its opponent, one must have recognized the equally plausible outcome of being killed by said opponent. Meaning that dying on a battlefield was a conscious choice, and the blame was never on the killer. The killer was just the same kind of person as the opponent, only the more skillful or luckier one.

The criminals must have all thought that they had a chance against Reijin, even though the Executer had a fearsome reputation. If they would have run or surrendered, they would have been captured to face a fair trial.

Mirina leaned back in her chair, thoughtful. This meant the criminal cell was finished, no survivors. But that didn’t tie up every loose end. She had to put more men to the job to investigate the connections and motivations. Although she would eat her crown if Kris, the head of their spy network, didn’t already know everything there was to be known of this group. She would deal with the remaining of the conspiracy in a much subtler way than a redeye could.

“You may go,” she finally said, dismissing Reijin with a wave of her hand. There was no point questioning the redeye further. He was away for five days and Mirina knew exactly how much Mira missed him. The Mage of the Star had a distant look in her eyes and an absentmindedness during these past five days. She was doing her duty halfheartedly and spent most of her time in the library, burying herself neck-deep into books and researches. She really needed Reijin as much as Reijin needed her. The redeye would never show it but a mission like this wore him out. He was one of the best warrior, mage and loyal asset she had, but he was prone to neglect his own wellbeing and push himself over his limits.

Reijin bowed his head hearing the order and stepped towards the windows – not the door – which was his favored way of coming and going.

“Oh, and Reijin…” The redeye stopped as the Queen cast a sidelong glance at him. “If you seek out Mira in this state she will kill you. Get cleaned up first.”

Reijin blinked and tilted his head sideways in a curious but puzzled fashion. He genuinely didn’t understand why was it bad that he was covered from head to toe with blood. The redness – darker than the color of his one good eye – could hardly be seen on his black clothes that clad his lithe body. Then again, there was also splattered dried blood on his arms and face, and crimson soaked his white hair too, that was usually tied up into a bun but now was messy and disorganized. Even his sword, strapped to his back in his unorthodox upside-down way, had unwashed stains on its bare blade.

Seeing the unimpressed glare from Mirina Reijin simply accepted the instruction and jumped out of the window. Hopping from rooftop to rooftop he headed towards not the library but their own house with Mira. His form soon disappeared into the growing night.

Mirina had to suppress a smile as she slowly shook her head. She was fond of Reijin. He was a relatively fresh member of her court but she liked his antics with the Mage and his not human thinking. Then her eyes traveled to the floor and she noticed the bloody footprints on her expensive, beige carpet.