Vitkus Twins

Chapter Eight

Aldona and Azuloas didn’t know why they were being called into the Paslėpta liepsna’s office, but Jakoba looked at them with worry in her eyes. It had been a month since they had been placed onto the same team and Jakoba happily called the Vitkus twins her friends.

“What’s going on?” Jakoba asked them.

“Grandfather might have a mission for us,” Aldona told Jakoba.

“We’ve been asking for missions that might help us find our cousin,” Azuloas explained.

“Viktorija?” Jakoba asked.

“Viktorija,” Aldona and Azuloas agreed.

“Are you going to tell Launce and Justus?” Jakoba asked them, while Aldona just put a plate in front of her with a stack of pancakes, Aldona made the best pancakes and someone could fight her on that.

“We’ll leave a blood clone,” Azuloas explained.

“So, no,” Aldona finished.

“We no, the Paslėpta liepsna most likely didn’t want us telling you.”

“No one knows about this.”

“I’ll keep this to myself,” Jakoba promised smiling as the twins dug into their own breakfasts, Jakoba was glad that they were trusting her with this information, but then again, she basically lived with them and would have noticed at some point. “If you find Viktorija; I’d love to meet her.”

“Let’s get going,” Aldona told Azuloas.

“I’ll do the dishes,” Jakoba told them, Aldona pulling her into a hug as she ran into her bedroom and grabbed her jacket.

“Thank you,” Azuloas told her.

- Paslėpta liepsna’s Office-

“Aldona, Azuloas,” Heikkinen greeted as Aldona and Azuloas jumped through the window, he has finally given up telling people off for jumping through the window. The two sixteen-year-olds; both have been taking random missions for two years now.

Even if they could only take them during the Academy breaks; Aldona and Azuloas were the only ones that knew what happened with the Atspoguļo Clan; at least besides from Julia, so he couldn’t ask anyone else to do it.

“Paslėpta liepsna,” Aldona and Azuloas greeted as they stood in front of his desk.

“Page has sent a message,” Heikkinen told them.

“Are they okay?” Aldona asked.

“Rescue mission,” Azuloas guessed.

“She and Launcelot are to return from their information gathering mission,” Heikkinen told them, it was time for them to come home; or for Launcelot to see his new home. “The mission has been compromised.”

“That means someone in Nýtt tungl has found out, or their coming far too close to the truth for anyone’s comfort,” Aldona comment, her tone was flat. This was a mission and she needed to act like an adult, any childish behaviour could get her, and her brother killed. “We’ll need to find the hideout they’re staying in then.”

“Page says in the one on the border of Labia and Horoguria,” Heikkinen told them.

“This is going to get complicated, isn’t it?” Azuloas asked him.

“Launce can’t know that Page is coming back, Etienne can’t know where Launcelot is,” Aldona guessed; if that was the case then they would need to go deeply under cover. “Outside this room; no one can know where they are.”

“Julia knows her daughter’s coming back,” Heikkinen told them.

“And she’s most likely torn about it,” Azuloas agreed. Page had tried killing Julia, scars like that never go away no matter how much time has passed.

“She is, told her that neither of them are allowed near the Compound,” Heikkinen admitted. “Team Justus can’t know about the mission.”

“Jakoba thinks we’re looking for Viktorija,” Azuloas told him.

“And she knows we’re going to use a Blood clone, so we can give her the seal that’ll make sure they don’t break down,” Aldona told him.

Heikkinen looked at them with regret, he wished he could give this mission to anyone else, but that would mean someone figuring out the true reason behind the attempted Atspoguļo m******e and if they wanted to avoid a second admit; then they’d have to hide this information from the public.

It was a highly delicate situation; one that could become even more delicate the more people that knew about it.

“Launcelot did tell us that there was a Montgomery Atspoguļo with them. That one of the other members planned to have him murdered in his sleep,” Aldona told him recalling one of the few letters that Launcelot had sent her. She was pretty sure he wrote it like he had written to Viktorija; so, she thought nothing of it. “It helps that Montgomery is meant to be really old.”

“And there’s only one Montgomery Atspoguļo in our records, and he was one of the founders of the village,” Azuloas added, they had to find out what they could about the man; but someone had taken their time and had almost completely removed him from their records. “And that was mention was in Rozalija Meža’s diary, and she married the second Paslėpta liepsna after the first had disappeared on a mission with Montgomery; but then there’s also a seal under said information, along with detailing what the seal did.”

“Someone messed around the a deaging seal,” Aldona told him, putting her arms behind her back and pulling said card from her deck. “And whoever did it, was successful, it worked; from what I’ve gathered from her notes. But we can’t find this information anywhere else. Maybe back at the old Vitkus Compound.”

“How long?” Heikkinen asked them.

“I haven’t known this for long, I’ve been going through Rozalija’s diaries on nights I can’t sleep. It was with the Vitkus books you had given us,” Aldona admitted, there were some pretty interesting seals, one that created chains to either tie people down or stab them through the torso. “I copied it down out of sheer boredom, it took about three weeks to complete, but I guess in this mission I might need it with we’re not to be caught at all.”

“Or there’s another Montgomery Atspoguļo and he’s been completely removed from the records and thus we can’t find him in Sashan,” Azuloas admitted, pinching his nose as he looked at Heikkinen, their research had barely taken them anywhere. “Much like the first one.”

“Gather as much information as you can find,” Heikkinen told them, before looking at his own paperwork and creating a clone. “And I’ll see what I have on him, unless they also decided to remove from the tower’s records as well.”

“Yes, Paslėpta liepsna,” Aldona and Azuloas told him, Aldona walking over and collecting the piece of paper from Heikkinen. Something wasn’t right, like something had been hidden by someone and it had something to wit the first and second Paslėpta liepsna.

And somehow; Aldona and Azuloas had a feeling that Rozalija Meža nee Vitkus.

“Leave tomorrow, get everything together today,” Heikkinen told them, Aldona and Azuloas nodding their heads before they via the window. Heikkinen still didn’t know what was wrong with the door; only civilians used it.

At least when the door open, Heikkinen knew to prepare for one of the merchant heads; along with another slightly speech about lowering taxes. Which was never going to happen, he left them as they were, the village needed money to keep the roads in one piece. Something they needed to keep up their precious wheels in one piece.

-Aldona’s Apartment-

“Mission?” Jakoba asked as Aldona and Azuloas walked into Aldona’s apartment; Azuloas’ apartment was a mess and Aldona had told him more then once, that it looked like it belonged to a teenage boy and she doubted anyone was going to risk breaking only to trip on a pair of dirty underwear. Azuloas had moved out the moment they turned thirteen; since both agreed that they needed some room for themselves and their growing book collection.

“Information pick up,” Aldona told her, she couldn’t tell Jakoba anymore then that. “Classified information.”

“Ah!” Jakoba told them, nodding her head and grinned as Hyacintha and Melanthe continued napping. One day; Azuloas and Aldona would be strong enough to allow their dragons to sleep in their mind space; that’s what Cassiopeia and Andromeda did with their partners. “Relax days, always the most boring.”

“I thought they’d be your favourite,” Azuloas admitted as Jakoba sat on the couch with her book on her lap.

“No slave masters forcing you to walk up a tree or run up and down a river,” Aldona teased.

“The slave masters feed me and make sure I’ll stay alive in my first real fight,” Jakoba told them, before grinning at them. “And they have a cute cousin I want to kidnap.”

“And they make you help with the grocery shopping,” Aldona chimed in.

“They introduced me to the wonders of the travelling market,” Jakoba commented. “And I still have the drawing of Viktorija, she looks like an underfed child.”

“Why, Jakoba,” Aldona sang, while Azuloas just looked at the two. He needed to befriend more males; Bellerophon was great, but all he wanted to do was train. Karlis now took C-rank missions with his team, while he and Bednar just didn’t share that many interests. “Who knew you had such mothering instincts.”

“I learnt from the best,” Jakoba told her.

“She got you there, sis,” Azuloas told her.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Aldona told him, before rolling her eyes. “What’s you reading?”

“I didn’t know that the Vitkus were a clan,” Jakoba told them as Aldona sat next to her; Aldona and Azuloas owned many books. In fact, both twins had turned their spare bedrooms in library’s, even if Aldona had kept a bed in hers.

Not only that, but both had book sleeves in their bedrooms. Aldona and Azuloas were never wanted to count how many books they owned, nor did they want to count the number of bookshelves they had.

“The Vitkus are one of the Forgotten Mountain tribes,” Aldona told her before looking at one of her bookshelves in the living room, which she knew there was about eight of them. “There are a few of us left, but it took three villagers about a year to hunt most of the tribes down. Sadly, we only of two clans that have living members.”

“One day, we’ll go to the old Vitkus Compound and collect anything that survived,” Azuloas told her.

“I’m sorry,” Jakoba told them.

“If you don’t know, you don’t know,” Aldona told her, before getting an idea. She would like to tell Jakoba about being the holder of the Fox of Greed and she knew that Azuloas would like to talk someone about the holder of the Dragon of Wrath. But that would mean that Jakoba needed have a basic understanding on how seals worked. “Why don’t you study this, it’s the basic of sealing; can’t teach you any clan seals. But knowing how to do a storage seal and such will be useful for missions in the future.”

Jakoba just looked at her, before accepting the book. Aldona didn’t give her things to read for no reason, like that book that was the history of medical techniques. She just smiled at Aldona at her before opening the first page.

She might as well get started, since it looked like she would need to work on her handwriting to do any of them. Jakoba didn’t know the reason behind it, but it would make sense once their comfortable enough to tell her the reason behind it.

“Demon lover,” Jakoba whispered to herself, that word that had been screamed at her once she started living with Aldona and Azuloas. Mama and Papa had tried talking to her once she went to the village market; she could see that their concerns wasn’t for her safety, since Mama kept asking her how close to Launce she had gotten.

It made her sick.

“You okay Jakoba?” Azuloas asked her while Aldona walked into the kitchen, it wasn’t almost time for lunch. She also needed to make something for their mission, she was almost out of mission meals and needed to make more. “You look confused.”

“Just something that happened at the market,” Jakoba told him, taking out a notebook and writing down a sentence and looking at the page to see if it matched.

“Demon lover?” Aldona asked her after a few minutes, a wooden spoon in her hand. “Once you understand storage seals; Azu and I will be able to explain the reason afterwards.”

“Okay,” Jakoba told her.

Aldona smiled at her before going back into the kitchen, Azuloas would clean up anything she used, and she needed to make a bit. Aldona didn’t know how Jakoba would react when they told her what happened sixteen years ago, when they told her what happened fifteen years ago in another village; it would hurt if Jakoba didn’t want anything to do with them when she knew.

But she knew that she could respect her decision, Azuloas would as well. They would ask Grandfather to move her to another team, could talk to Sekti Meyer about his granddaughter moving in with him and the reason behind it.

“After lunch, we’ll work on our handwriting,” Azuloas told Jakoba, Aldona nodding her head; handwriting was something that she and Aldona was always working on. “One mistake in a seal might result in the loss of a limb.”

“Or might end your life; depends on the seal,” Aldona told her, plates in her hands. Smiling as she placed them on the table, she was used to carrying three plates at once. A skill she was sure would randomly become useful in her future. “There are some seals we won’t try because our handwriting isn’t good enough for them, some seals can take weeks to get right.”