At the Nation’s Mansion in the Swallow’s Nest, a blonde girl is ready to leave with her bodyguards. The Swallow insignia on her chest is the proof of her nobility and her 18 years of life are the starting point on her Essentia mastery quest. Her name is Evelyn Hartman, the daughter of Lewis Hartman, lord of Swallow’s Nest. Evelyn has large brown eyes and a slender womanly figure, which is accentuated by her outfit, a sarong skirt, and a one shoulder tank top. To complement her outfit, she has a silk blue shawl cloak. She also possesses a gold neckless with a swallow crest just like Swallow’s Nest symbol.

-Mike, Jim, it’s time to go. – declares Evelyn while fetching for the feather under her cloak, revealing a cobalt emperor swallow feather. -Before I leave for the Nation’s Institute, I’ll bring the Cobalt Emperor to father, just as my brothers did. Failure is not an option, got it?

-Yes, my lady. – respond the 2 guards in unison.

Evelyn starts channeling her Essentia to the feather, making it levitate. The feather points out to the mountains, just like the other has done for the brothers.

-It’s just like they said. This is going to be easy.

Evelyn and her bodyguards follow its direction.

*****

At the mountains, lots of people try to catch rare swallows in this season. The reasons differ each and every one: most people are trying to catch as a sign of good fortune, others as quests from their bosses, others as quests from the guild hall and others simply for gold. There are 5 types of swallows and are ranked to the rarest as it follows: the ordinary swallows, the slipper green tail swallows, the cast grey swallows, the purple wing swallows and the cobalt emperor swallows. Every year the cobalt emperor swallows are the most esteemed prize, and everyone wants a piece of it. But during their flight, they are immune to Essentia abilities and strong enough to avoid webs and other capture devices; only the elite can find their nest, where they can capture them or their younglings and only a handful of people know about the feather trick. As such, the other types of swallows are the targets for the most.

-Jax, I don’t think this is right. – says Leo guided by the feather – the birds do their nest on higher places and this thing is guiding us to the valley between the mountain ridge. Look, nobody is coming in this direction.

-I’m also worried about it; it doesn’t make sense. We already saw several swallow flocks, but there wasn’t any cobalt emperor among them. So there’s no choice, we have to believe that this feather can guide us to the bird.

-Yeah, but my Essentia levels are getting low… even when only using a few moments at a time, to make it activate its feature uses a significant Essentia portion.

-Then let’s rest a bit. We can continue to go after we eat and take a nap. Let’s settle there – advises Jax, pointing to a big boulder.

-We can eat what Sullivan send. Look at this! – says Leo getting from the bag the meat loaf meal that Jamie gave him.

As Leo is eating, Jax picks the feather and plays with it. Jax is thinking about how amusing is the feather tracking feature when he inadvertently emits Essentia to the feather. As he does it, the feather instead of remaining still or turning lighter and turn in a compass, it turned darker.

-Jax, what are you doing?

-I don’t know Leo. I wasn’t thinking and… - as Jax is finishing his sentence, the feather turned dark purple and released a faint purple light trace along the valley.

-What the?

-I guess this way is easier. Jax, I knew that you were awesome, but you always exceed my expectations. Like I always say, you are the special one. -states Leo grinning- Let’s go, we have a bird to catch.

*****

At the same time, Evelyn’s party was also on the trail of the cobalt emperor, however as they followed the compass method, her group got to a no-end.

-I don’t get it! There isn’t a single cobalt emperor here, and the damn feather is pointing to this mountain. What the hell!

-Little miss, we were searching the whole day, the sun is almost gone for the day. We can return tomorrow on safety.

-No, no, NO! I have to get it!

-But the trail ends here, so if we ask one of the other lords for some more info-

-NO! If they could do it by themselves, I can do it too!

-But it’s getting dark and –

-OK, I get it: go away! I can handle this by myself!           

-But miss…

-No buts, it’s an order! GO AWAY!

Evelyn’s bodyguards take their orders and leave. Evelyn tried to look for clues of how to proceed but in vain, and with this it past 2 hours. She is ready to leave with her empty hands and frustrated, when a purple light ray pierces through a certain spot of the mountain. She channels Essentia once again through her feather, which points on the same direction as the purple ray. She smiles.

-I don’t know how or why, but that ray sure helped me figure out how to handle this. I’ll get that fucking bird now!

Evelyn takes a few steps back and exhales. With a serious expression, she points her right index finger to the spot where the mountain is penetrated by the purple light.

“Flame style: finger beam”

A flame beam is shot from her finger like a gun. As the attack reaches the mountain, it mysteriously disappears without a trace. Evelyn looks pleased, smirking to herself.

-I got you now.

*****

-Leo, this is strange.

-What is strange?

-I stopped pouring Essentia on the feather, but the light illuminating the way remains.

-Well, isn’t better that way? You don’t need to use your essentia, so it is better, no?

-But it is strange.

-You don’t need to think too deep about this. What you need to think about it is that. – says Leo pointing to the mountain – the trail of that thing ends there. I knew this was going real smooth for us.

Jax poured Essentia into the feather once again. The purple light continued indicating a remote point on the mountain wall.

-We follow the feather until this place, we might as well continue to follow it. – says Leo while getting ready to climb the mountain.

Jax stores the feather on his cloak and prepares to follow his brother steps, but due to his abnormal condition he’s starts bleeding again. He falls on one knee. Leo gets worried and comes back.

-I knew you shouldn’t have channeled the Essentia on the feather. Look at you now, you can’t even stand up!

-Don’t be like that Leo. We accepted an assignment, we have to go all the way to conclude it right? – says Jax looking at the purple ray- We have to be close, don’t waste more time. I can rest just fine here.

-Fine. -responds Leo, angry for not being able to take care of his little brother – I’ll get what we came for, and get what Sullivan wants. Then you are going to be our top priority, you can’t continue suffering like that.

Jax smiled back like agreeing with his brother. Leo turned to the mountain and concentrated Essentia on his feet.

“Ice Burst: Icicle Drop”

Leo shot icicles through the mountain, forming an improvised stairway. The last icicles disappeared as they reached the marked spot. Leo seemed surprised, but he doesn’t want to waste more time. With the Essentia boost, he easily climbed the icicles to the ray’s location. As he gets there, he tried to escalate that point, but his left hand crosses right through the mountain: it was an illusion.

Leo looked down and see that the fall was big enough to get him good, even protecting himself with Essentia; he also got a glimpse of his brother down there, so he mustered his courage, closed his eyes, and had a leap of faith through the illusion to the mountain’s inside, without knowing what to expect. The moment he passed over to the other side, something ran into him, and made him landing on his back. Just as he fell, he was hit by something soft with an aromatic scent on his face. Turns out, Leo was hit by Evelyn’s breasts. She fell right down on Leo’s lap, and when she realizes it, she slapped him, embarrassed.

-What the hell are you doing, you perv? – says a sweaty but clearly flustered Evelyn, covering her curvy chest.

-Me? You were the one who assaulted me! I should press charges against you! But if you let me fondle you a bit, we can reach an agreement. – jokes Leo, making the gesture of fondling.

-How dare you say that?! Do you know who I am? I am from nobility! Do you have any idea what would happen to you for only insinuating something shameless like that to me?

-No, I don’t know you and if you think I care about that, you’re going to be disappointed… I admit you have a really hot body and a cute face, but your personality is terrible. – says a calm Leo while getting up.

Evelyn never was confronted by such a crude opinion about her; she felt ashamed as never before and start gathering Essentia to punish the one who insulted her.

-I will make you eat those words, you rude bastard!

-You kiss your mother with that mouth? I thought nobles would be more educated -jokes Leo as he gets ready for her attack -Let’s see what you got, miss.

-You are going to regret everything you said – says an enraged Evelyn getting surrounded on orange Essentia- “Flame Style: Tor-

Before Evelyn could attack, a big creature hiding in the shadows appeared behind her and throw her across the little cave against the far wall. Leo ran to catch her on his arms, just before she was smacked against it. Evelyn gets blushed.

-Are you okay?

-Let go of me. Because of you, I forgot about the monster– says Evelyn, as she awkwardly gets out of Leo’s arms.

-Yeah, I guess see a handsome guy like me has that effect in women.

-You bastard, how dare you-

-What the hell is that?!

The creature left the shadows, revealing to be a full grown Emperor Cobalt Swallow. An anxious Evelyn trembled as she standed in front of the magnificient beast.

-That is what I came for, and what I believe it is your goal too… it’s an Emperor Cobalt Swallow!