"Chosen Ones?"
On the terrace, Emilia felt slightly relieved only after explaining everything to Luvia. The pointed-eared girl looked out over the city illuminated by Gas Lamps and the night sky shrouded in black mist. When her projection had previously gone to the clan's sacred land and Grandma Qishala had asked her about it, her answer had still been that she did not want to become a Chosen One. But faced with Luvia's question now, she did not immediately refuse.
She thought of the terrible state of the city she had seen when she went out with Shade on Sunday night, of that burning city and the monsters filling the sky, and then of the two statues of elf Warriors she had seen in the creekland at the foot of Vulture Mountain not long ago. She felt that her thoughts had changed somewhat:
"I still don't want to bear that responsibility, but if I am needed to draw my sword again... can I think about it?"
"Of course. You have until the very last moment to consider it."
Luvia spoke very gently and patted her shoulder:
"Shade does not want to drag you into this, and neither do I want you to fall into the Vortex of Fate. We will all protect you, Emilia."
The long-haired figure they could not see was currently leaning against the railing and looking over the scenery of Moon Bay. She listened to the conversation between herself and Emilia, sighing inwardly that, in the end, it was all because Shade had changed.
After Wednesday came Thursday. When Shade got out of Miss Galina's entangling red hair in the early morning, he realized that today was already the thirty-first day of Thunder Month. July was about to end.
And the end of July meant that, in