Crestfallen Studios

We don't know who the Harbringer is in Ep. 5. Then I had a thought.

Firstly, what do we know about him?

1) He was hired by the Guided
2) Rhue can't hit him
3) He was going to kill Cetsa

Now, this is the way I see it. Why would Gaius help the Guided? He doesn't to be particularly into them... which leads me to believe that he wanted something off of them. Like Rhue, he joined a gang so he could gain access to Cetsa, but he had a different purpose in mind...

We know that the only two people in the entire series that Rhue can't seem to hit are Gaius and the Harbinger. This suggests some sort of connection between them. Assuming that Gaius has the Illumanati sword, Rhue's Shadow Blade wouldn't be able to hit it. That explains that. So, either the Harbinger had the Illumanati sword at that time (unlikely) or he is Gaius (more likely) or he has some sort of protective spell.

Why would he want to kill Cetsa though? Well, it boils down to two things in my mind; either Gaius is so obsessed with making The Way pure that he wants to kill her himself, or the Illumanati can absorb auras like the Shadow Swords. The first one seems far more likely, as we have never heard any tales of the Illumanati absorbing auras.

There is also the way that Gaius found out Rhue had a Shadow Sword. He had fought beside Rhue before, but never commented on it. Only AFTER Rhue attacks the Harbinger and Gaius teams up with him later does Gaius say anything. Why would he wait so long? Surely the longer he waits, the more auras Rhue absorbs and the more unpure The Way becomes.

Your thoughts?

I always thought Gaius was the harbringer so he could get close to Medmur, nothing to do with killing Cetsa.

I suppose. I completely forgot about him.

Maybe two birds with one stone... who knows?

EDIT: Actually, now I think about it your idea makes much more sense. It explains why Gaius/Harbinger doesn't run after Cetsa and instead goes after Medmur.

We know that the only two people in the entire series that Rhue can't seem to hit are Gaius and the Harbinger. This suggests some sort of connection between them. Assuming that Gaius has the Illumanati sword, Rhue's Shadow Blade wouldn't be able to hit it.

Rhue isn't able to hit people who are supposedly bringers of justice...maybe that's just a condition imposed by his sword. Assuming Gaius has an Illuminati, maybe it explains why he's able to read Kloe's mind when he touches her. I mean, he was able to witness Foreman Ballar's murder through her eyes, after all. Maybe each Illuminati has a different power, dependent on the role of the sword...Gaius, if he is a "perfect blade" seems to be like a judge, going around passing sentence on others....it would make sense that his sword would give him the power to see the truth behind people's actions, so he can cast proper judgment on them.

We know that Rhue and Gaius go way back, so maybe they had a working relationship. Rhue's sword absorbs the auras of those who die nearby, thereby making him stronger. What if Gaius was originally supposed to be the one who judges others, and it's Rhue's job to carry out the sentence? It kinda makes sense...Gaius decides who deserves to be punished, and Rhue follows through with it. It deserves a thought, at least.

Problem is, in E6 Gaius says:

GAIUS: The first time we really met.\.\.\.
We were chasing\.\. someone.

Could it be Rhue And Gaius met up, they were both pursuing Jeruh, Rhue because he had midians aura and was driven by Midians desire for revenge, and Gaius for some alternate mysterious reason we shouldn't even bother with. And once he was dead Gaius was off to continue his work, again with some mystery crap.

The fact that Gaius had an alternate reason for chasing Jeruh raises the possibility that Rhue also had an alternate reason, which means there are no guarantees about whether or not Rhue had Midian's aura at that time, which means there's no guarantee that Midian wasn't the headhunter... I'm sure Lun is completely aware of this, of course.

This is more of a side note but... Maybe why Gaius never confronted Rhue earlier about his shadow sword was because he was only made aware of it when Rhue attacked him. Attacked him as he was about to kill Cetsa as the Harbringer. Though he could read auras. Maybe Rhue's was too meddled and confused, or only his Jeruh aura was readily apparent until further inspection of his mind.

The final tip-off must have been when they were fighting together. After acquiring all of the new sword auras. Auras only someone with a powerful shadow/illuminati could possess.

Okay, fwacho's hints suggest that Rhue did have Midian's aura, and Gaius had a reason for working with them.

...But then again, fwacho's hints also suggest that this reason is extremely obvious and it's made clear everywhere, so I don't trust the fucker. Until it's in The Way, it can't be certain.

Anyway, we need to work out what this reason is...