Bloodflowers Bloom (The Astral Wanderer Book 2)

up and waved at Acha, a reptilian squama Templar he had gotten to know in his few months at the order. Alongside him was a human woman known as Reina—not all that talkative but a skilled swordswoman—and a dwarf by the name of Pete. The three stopped in front of the group and they all exchanged greetings.
“Hey, Acha. Are you guys heading out?” Devol asked.
The squama nodded and patted the daggers on his waist. “Yeah. We accepted a retrieval mission in the Osira kingdom.”
Asla looked at him with concern. “Will you be all right in such a dry place?”
“He’ll be fine,” Pete said with a smirk and thumped a hand into the small of his teammate’s back. “We made sure to pack extra water for that scaley skin of his.”
Acha rubbed his back and nodded. “I’m not a red- or black-scale.” He chuckled and tapped his cheek to highlight his dark-green scales. “So dry environments aren’t my specialty. But Iguiza has dry climates as well. I simply need to stay hydrated.”
“I have never been to your realm, but does Iguiza have anything like our deserts?” Reina asked.
He looked at her with a sharp-toothed smile. “We call the area that the black- and red-scales call home Ember Rock Plains. The heat there can reach almost boiling levels.”
“And you can survive that?” she asked with a hint of shock in her features.
The squama’s toothy grin slimmed to a more jovial look. “Well, not without the proper precautions—like my tunic.” He stretched the blue fabric. “It’s light and breezy but it has a special coating that keeps me cool. It’s one of the few things I brought with me when I joined the order.”
Reina shook her head as Pete chuckled. “Well, you could have explained that.”
“It’s a pity about Kanami, though,” Pete remarked. Devol thought about the Tsuna scholar he had occasionally seen working with Jazai and Zier. “She badly wanted to come but the location is too much for her, at least for an extended stay.”
“So you will be gone for a while?” Jazai asked.
Acha nodded. “Possibly. What we’re looking for…well, we don’t know much yet.”
“What? Then how can you find it?” Devol inquired.
“We can certainly look for the signs.” Pete laughed wryly. “The thing is, it seems it could be rather nasty. It is something magical, to be sure, and was found by an archeology team that came through one of their many ancient sites. The team disappeared, as has anyone who attempted to search for them.”
“And you are not concerned that you are also now a team looking for them?” Asla asked bluntly.
“We will be fine,” Reina assured them and placed a hand on the ornate necklace she wore. “My majestic will keep us safe.”
“And mine will take care of anything in our way,” Pete boasted and brandished the mace he had rested on his shoulder. It was almost as long as his arm and a round white orb on the end featured cracked markings that glowed orange. “We’ll be fine and wouldn’t have been requested if we couldn’t handle it.”
“Or at least have a good chance to deal with it,” Acha added and tapped his daggers. “If it turns out to be a majestic, maybe I can claim it for myself.”
“Potentially, but given the circumstances, you know what it is more likely to be,” Reina replied.
He sighed and nodded. “Yeah, it’s probably a malefic. Oh, well. Macha mentioned that there are a couple of majestics they are ready to test so I might have to check with her once we return.” He looked at the Freki. “Speaking of which, you might want to check in with mistress Nauru.”
The wolf wildkin nodded in agreement. “We were on our way to her. We’ve just returned from a mission.”
“And this isn’t getting any lighter,” Jazai grumbled as he adjusted the sack on his shoulder.
“But why do you say that, Acha?” the hunter questioned.
“From what we were told, this isn’t the only incident like this at the moment,” the squama revealed.
“Aye, It seems a few of these odd anomalies have appeared,” Pete continued. “And all at the same time. They started to come in before you left but in the couple of days since you’ve been gone, we’ve had almost double the number of requests for aid throughout the kingdoms.”
“All of the kingdoms have similar occurrences?” Freki asked. His voice lowered as his eyes narrowed to show a more serious face that Devol only saw him wear once in a while. “And we have no clues about any of them?”
“We have many theories, all supplied by the clients,” Reina replied with a shrug. “I’m not sure how much good they are. They all seem a little different.”
“I see.” Freki nodded and motioned for the younger Templars to follow him. “Best of luck to you three. We’ll go and report to the grand mistress.”
“Aye, good fortune to ya!” Pete called as Acha waved cheerfully and Reina opened the anchor point. The portal revealed a desert of golden sand and amber skies that the trio walked into before it shut. Devol turned his attention to the castle’s main gate.
A mysterious force spreading around the kingdoms? Potentially dark magic of some kind involved? It sounded exciting!
“Hey, Heni, Coko! Are you here?” Freki called as they entered the main lobby.
“Coming!” a sweet voice responded. Two of the stewards of the order walked into the lobby from an adjacent room. Coko was a verte wildkin with the appearance of a white-and-brown spotted rabbit and Heni was a large, crimson-skinned daemoni man with curved horns who wore a double-breasted black suit jacket and slacks. “Hey there, Freki and friends. How was the mission?” Coko asked.
Heni eyed the wolf wildkin with curiosity. “I thought you were supposed to hide from your charges.” The daemoni’s voice was deep and booming but he spoke in a calm and polite tone.
Freki chuckled half-heartedly and nodded. “Yeah. I’m afraid I was discovered. But they completed the mission before they saw me.”
The daemoni