《The Hero's Sidekick》


 The Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary

    Chapter 1: The Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary


    I have ten Cardinal Rules pertaining to being a career mercenary. The first¡­always get paid up front.


    There were a multitude of reasons as to why it was just good business sense, for both employer and employee, but I¡¯ll cut to the quick: it simply means that both parties are willing to agree on a sign of good faith at the start of an exchange. Even if the employer only offers half of the agreed upon price, the fact that he was willing to give a little meant he was serious about making an honest arrangement.


    I¡¯d had a long time to come up with these rules. Yes, that¡¯s right. I made them. They didn¡¯t apply to mercenary work as a whole. They were just a bunch of rules I made and maintained over the past five years of my life, like a personal creed to live by. Just my best friend Alverd and I knew about them, and even then, he broke a lot of them without a second thought.


    My best friend Alverd was always a trusting sort. I¡¯d warned him against such, because trusting people was for suckers. It was just part and parcel to his upbringing and training. But I respected his judgment (most of the time), and he managed to surprise me with his occasional bursts of insight, so I didn¡¯t heckle him too much about my rules. He indulged me, because he always knew how to rein me in when I went too far.


    Alverd was so much the picture of chivalry that he could¡¯ve jumped out of one of his many books on the subject. He was tall and lean, with tousled brown hair, clear blue eyes, impeccably polished armor, a heroic sword and shield bearing a seal of an eagle with widespread wings, and a flowing cape of crimson. He had the face of that homely, reliable country boy you can¡¯t help but like from the moment he smiled at you. What he may have lacked in raw intelligence he more than made up for in terms of charm, charisma and reliability.


    He practically reeked of knighthood. He was every girl¡¯s dream, the proverbial and literal knight in shining armor.


    It also helped that he was no slouch when it came to a fight. Knights learned about more than just fancy language and defending noblewomen¡¯s honor and whatnot. He had a decade of training under his belt, ranging from sword fighting, horse-riding, jousting and even good old-fashioned fisticuffs. Regardless of his lack of appreciation for combat tactics or battlefield pragmatism, he compensated with strength, discipline, and undeniable leadership skills. More importantly, if he felt something wasn¡¯t on the up and up, he was usually right.


    There was a reason people looked up to him, or at the very least, gave him their begrudging respect. He led by example and worked to gain peoples¡¯ admiration. He was every bit the hero, and he deserved that reputation. Even in a turbulent time like this, when the world was full of despair, he was like a light that tried to push back all the darkness around it, shining all the brighter amidst the inscrutable gloom.


    But despite all his merits, Alverd was useless without me. The poor guy had the attention span of a dog¡­and about as much common sense. His saving grace, however, was that he was just as loyal as one. I never would have survived without him. And he without me. We were a team. Always had been. Ever since we¡¯d left home, we¡¯d relied on each other. And we had to, especially since we didn¡¯t have a home to return to anymore.


    Right, introductions. It wouldn¡¯t do for you to not know who I am, especially since I¡¯m telling this story. Can¡¯t promise that I¡¯m the most unbiased or impartial narrator, and there are definitely times when I might embellish or change a few things. But I can promise that what I¡¯m about to tell you is a story about a man I call my very best friend, and what it feels like to have his back¡­and live in his shadow.


    My name is Kuro. I¡¯m¡­a scholar of sorts. I study the arcane laws of magic, and I dabble in some of it. My friend Alverd and I had been mercenaries for five years by this point. Alverd, however, insisted on being called a knight errant, for all the difference that made. At the end of the day, a knight errant was just a more polite way to say mercenary. Soldier of fortune, sellsword, hired muscle, it all boiled down to the same thing. We got hired to do a job, we did the job, we got paid. But if you ever saw me, you¡¯d never believe that I could earn my keep as a mercenary.


    Your first impression of me would probably be unfavorable. My black hair is messy and unkempt, and it seems to constantly shine with a greasy sheen even after I wash and dry it. My eyes are a sullen shade of purple, like the color of a freshly inflicted bruise, and they sport dark circles under them that made me look like I¡¯d neglected to sleep for the past week. My arms and legs are like wet noodles and I don¡¯t exactly have much stamina, in both physical and magical endeavors. I¡¯m also pathetically short for my age and gender, just to round out the ensemble.


    But don¡¯t get me wrong. I¡¯m not useless. I have a keen eye for strategy and tactics, and my cynical attitude allows me to see things floating beneath the surface that people like Alverd would never pick up on. My tongue was as sharp as any sword when I needed it to be (and sometimes when I didn¡¯t) and I took a lot of pride in putting smug people in their place when they looked down on me, which sadly was pretty often.


    I¡¯d be the first to admit that Alverd and I made a very odd pair. We were practically night and day when it came to who we were, how we acted, what we believed and how we did our job. And yet, we made it work. Mercenary work was unpredictable and oftentimes unforgiving; every job could be our last, and it required us to compliment each other¡¯s skillsets just to see our next payday.


    But that¡¯s how it was when you were a mercenary. You took what life gave you, and when life wasn¡¯t in a giving mood, you took what you needed. It wasn¡¯t a virtuous way to live, but necessity outweighed morals sometimes. Within limits, of course. We¡¯re hardly public menaces, but we have bounties out on our heads in the country of Kiret for ¡°various disagreements with the established authorities¡± according to our bounty posters. To be honest, though, that¡¯s mostly my fault. Alverd likes to do things clean, methodical, planned out. In our line of work though, things rarely ever turned out that way.


    I mentioned that I was a scholar. The correct term was ¡°mage¡±. I¡¯m one of an elite fraternity of people who could bend the elemental energies of this world to their will. With just a bit of focus, I could make the five cardinal elements of fire, ice, wind, earth and lightning dance in the palm of my hand. Other mages could heal wounds, manipulate peoples¡¯ dreams, or even speak to the dead, although that last bit fell into a sort of gray area as far as magical law was concerned. Obviously, those kinds of talents were in high demand, so Alverd and I usually didn¡¯t lack for job offers. Mercenary work tended to be the only kind of work we could get. Nobody wanted to hire an ex-knight and a fledgling mage to sweep streets, after all.


    As such, while passing through the country of Guilford, specifically the capital city of Bertweld, we found ourselves low on coin; our prospects certainly weren¡¯t looking good. We were forced to stay the night in some two-bit tavern. Guilford was a country on the far western part of the continent of Selarune, the only landmass in existence. It was pockmarked by small mountain ranges that isolated it from its neighbors and was plagued almost year round by snow and cold weather. Not exactly a tourist trap.


    We barely had enough money to afford two bowls of lukewarm soup (the owner claimed it had some kind of meat in the broth but I wasn¡¯t convinced it was chicken like he claimed), and only paid for our stay in the ramshackle tavern by performing scut work in the tavern¡¯s kitchen after closing.


    As I sat on one of the beds in the meagerly furnished two-person room, I called over to Alverd, who was already making preparations to sleep. ¡°So. Any reason why we had to come to this icy wasteland, friend? We¡¯re kind of pushing it.¡± I placed my staff beside my bed within easy reach, just in case.


    After placing his shield against a nearby nightstand, Alverd stretched his arms towards the ceiling as he yawned vigorously. ¡°We don¡¯t want to be skirting too close to Kiret. You know how persistent the bounty hunters are in that country. I know Guilford is probably the second-to-last place you want to be, Kuro, but I¡¯d rather be here than some cell in Kiret.¡± He flopped back onto his bed, the frame making an audible creak as he did so.


    As he rolled over and pulled the cover onto himself, he looked at me. ¡°I know what we did was for a good cause, Kuro, but I think you went a little far. Rescuing those slaves was more than enough to embarrass that merchant prince, but you had to go and put a delayed-detonation fireball in that cart and wheel it straight through the front door of his villa. Any Kiretian headhunter could take an early retirement with the price on our heads.¡±


    I smiled to myself juvenilely as I remembered how gleeful I felt in that moment, the ball of fire pulsing as I sealed it into the cart before rolling it down the hill towards the villa at the foot. The guards had simply leapt aside as the entire ensemble smashed through the front doors before exploding fantastically, destroying the merchant prince¡¯s vacant summer home as the support columns gave way and the second floor collapsed in on itself.


    ¡°Ahh, he had it coming. When you deal in slaves you deserve every bit of ill fortune you come across. Sometimes, though? Some well-meaning individual has to help that ill fortune along to make it stick.¡± I gave him a toothy grin. ¡°The whole country runs on the slave trade, Alverd. What we did barely makes a dent, although I bet those elves we liberated will tell the elven resistance all about it and then that rat bastard will never live it down.¡± I tucked myself in, satisfied with myself.


    My lifelong friend sighed. ¡°Maybe. But it matters how a thing is done, Kuro. You can¡¯t defeat your enemy by using their tactics. It makes you no better than them. I want to believe that we did something good, but I can¡¯t help but feel that what you did sours the entire affair.¡± He picked his sheathed sword and held it across his chest, a nervous habit he¡¯d picked up sometime over the past few years. I didn¡¯t blame him. We¡¯d learned the hard way it didn¡¯t pay to not be paranoid.


    I turned back towards him, propping my head up with my arm. ¡°Alverd, you get too hung up on that. I know it seems wrong what I did, but I¡¯m the one who did it. You had no way of knowing it was gonna happen until it did. But you should be happier about the fact that twenty elves are gonna go to sleep tonight free in a haven run by their brothers and sisters instead of in chains. You did a good thing, buddy.¡±


    From his bed, Alverd snorted. ¡°I guess you¡¯re right. And the explosion was quite an adequate distraction. The guards were all standing there with no idea what to do. We just ran down the road with the wagon full of elves and were gone before they could pick their collective jaws from the ground.¡± He turned his head to me, and smiled again. ¡°Thanks for that. Sometimes it¡¯s hard to remember that we did do some good, even if we had to cause a little chaos to do it.¡±


    I chuckled as I rolled back onto my pillow. ¡°Anytime, old friend. Anytime. Tomorrow morning I¡¯ll head down to the bounty board, see if there¡¯s some work we can do. If we¡¯re gonna be stuck in this frozen wasteland for a few weeks, we might as well get paid while we do it.¡± I reached my hand to the lamp on the table, snuffed out the flame, and let sleep carry me away.


    The next morning, as I stumbled into the tavern¡¯s common room in a bleary-eyed haze, I examined the bounty wall for some easy work. The pickings were pretty slim; there wasn¡¯t much to choose from that would pay enough gold for Alverd and I to survive while we kept our heads down. I was about to give up when I spotted one of the newer postings, with ostentatious lettering at its head.


    Some puffed-up lord was offering a generous reward for the return of his kidnapped daughter, and it was the deal of a lifetime. A reward of two thousand gold coins was more than enough for Alverd and I to get back on our feet and start anew. I took the flyer back to Alverd and we both agreed that it was the right decision. Within the hour, we headed to the poster¡¯s home in the upper class residential district of the city.


    Guilford is a chilly place, made all the colder by its people. The guardsmen looked down upon Alverd and I, sneering at us as we passed them by. Even the common folk saw us as foreigners and outsiders. Their disapproving stares were icier than any blizzard nature could conjure in this god-forsaken corner of Selarune, and I could feel a chill crawling along my skin that had nothing to do with the cold.


    Guilford was nestled in the bosom of two separate mountain ranges, and its winters were the harshest on the entire continent of Selarune. Guilfordians boasted that they were the only people in Selarune tough enough to stand up to the cold, amongst other things. The way I saw it, their prideful boasts didn¡¯t prove anything other than they were too stupid to pack up and move somewhere warm where their crops wouldn¡¯t freeze overnight if the wind was blowing, but that was neither here nor there.


    It was a country run by cowards and traitors as far as I was concerned. Thinking about it made my blood boil, but not hot enough to keep me warm. Alverd was right; it stung to know that we needed the blood money these gussied-up backbiters were offering, but there was nothing I could do at the moment.


    Somewhere deep inside, I hoped that there would be a time when I could.


    Like any city, Bertweld was separated into several different districts. The Nobles¡¯ Quarter was sequestered in the north side of the city, built against a mountain¡¯s slope. An old woman we stumbled across in the market gave us directions, and warned us that the nobles were less trustworthy than devils and twice as likely to screw us over. We thanked her for her advice, threw her an extra silver coin for her trouble, and made our way over to the Nobles¡¯ Quarter in search of the bounty¡¯s poster, Baron Everetti.


    Like the rest of the citizenry of Guilford I¡¯d seen so far, the market was about as lifeless and dull as a tavern outside of happy hour. Many of the vendors barely had any food to showcase, and what goods they did have looked tough, unappetizing and bland. Even the vendors themselves had no energy. A fishmonger selling freshwater fish merely glared at me as I walked by.


    Call me spoiled, but having come from a country where people always had plenty to eat and just as much to offer, I guess I felt like I could look down on these people. Again, it was because I resented them. But as much as I hated them, there were others I hated more. A coward is hated because they stand by and do nothing when evil happens right in front of them. But one shouldn¡¯t forget the one perpetrating the evil in the first place.


    Alverd had to pull me away from a butcher who was futilely trying to chop a stringy piece of¡­something on a cutting board. The man was two seconds away from going on a murder spree; he finally slammed his cleaver into the board and gave up. I waited until we had passed the butcher and were out of earshot before I let loose my snippy comment.


    ¡°Guess he wasn¡¯t the sharpest knife in the set if he thought he was gonna cut meat with that dull cleaver of his.¡± I elbowed Alverd, patting myself on the back for my perhaps not-so-clever play on words. He stared back at me coldly before speaking. ¡°Kuro, this is no jest. You know why these people are in the situation they¡¯re in.¡± He pointed at a woman trying desperately to sell something that looked like produce that was a week past its prime.


    I snorted derisively. ¡°These people put themselves in this position, Alverd. As far as I¡¯m concerned, their problems aren¡¯t my problems. And before you start feeling sorry for them, I¡¯d like to remind you that they had their chance to prove they deserved better.¡± I grabbed Alverd¡¯s cape and pulled him past the haggard looking woman, who tried her sad act on Alverd. I was pretty sure he managed to press some gold into the woman¡¯s hand, but as I was too busy looking forward, I couldn¡¯t be sure. Her joyful blubbering indicated he probably had.


    Alverd¡¯s bleeding heart wasn¡¯t news to me. It wasn¡¯t a practical trait, and that made it very hard for me to tolerate him sometimes. For Alverd, doing good things for others was just baked into who he was. It wasn¡¯t even a byproduct of his days of training to become a knight. He had always been a good person, a veritable goody-two-shoe, since the day I met him. His penchant for helping the helpless was almost a reflex, and I had long since lost count of how many times it had landed us in unnecessary trouble.


    And yet, it was the thing I admired most about him.


    I tried not to make too much of a scene as I yanked him away from the woman. We traversed the rest of the way to the Noble Quarter without any further incident. The homes of the rich and powerful were constructed mostly of imported wood, treated to resist the perpetually cold weather, with stone foundations and walls surrounding each home. Guards patrolled in meticulous lockstep, looking for troublemakers with wary eyes. I tried not to look too suspicious as I passed them, and failed abysmally at it; I got a few sideways looks from them.


    The estate of Baron Yanos Everetti was typical noble pomp. Gardeners fluttered about, maintaining the impeccable floral arrangements and fountains with their crystal clear water. It was almost something out of a fantasy storybook. I was tempted to ask how the gardeners were maintaining the floral arrangements in the cold when I noticed that the flowers were actually made entirely of translucent crystal. The Baron had spared no expense in surrounding his home¡¯s entryway with such blatant luxury. Typical noble, I thought to myself.


    The gardeners weren¡¯t the only ones around. A smartly dressed servant was standing beside the front door of the estate, his eyes watching us as we approached. Alverd and I paced down the stone walkway and presented ourselves to him. He pushed the front doors open and announced us; another man just inside ran off to call the lord of the manor.


    Baron Everetti was not what I would have called a very benevolent looking man. He was tall and skinny to the point of being almost a scarecrow, right down to the off-putting look on his face. He was all sharp angles and harsh features, and I felt as though I would cut myself simply by shaking his hand. His cheekbones alone looked like he could slice through a glass window if he rubbed his face on it. His expression didn¡¯t change as I grasped his hand, and I couldn¡¯t tell what he was feeling behind his impassive expression. When he leaned forward, I caught a flash of silver along his ear; they were long and pointed, adorned with several expensive looking bands pierced through it. Figures. It didn¡¯t surprise me that Everetti was elven.


    Elves are an intellectual lot, and they show it in everything they do. Slender, attractive, and famously long-lived, they¡¯re the subject of many poems and ballads featuring unrequited love and broken hearts. They make humans look dour and plain, and beastmen like animalistic brutes. Beastmen made up for it by looking human but having animal traits depending on what breed they were. Some had the enhanced smell and hearing of wolves, others the strength of bears, and on and on and so forth.


    Made humans look bad by comparison. All humans could do was reproduce like rabbits. Sure, we had a crude but adaptable nature that let us outthink beastmen and fight better than elves, but otherwise there wasn¡¯t anything really special about us. Still, the fact that humans outnumbered beastmen and elves on the continent of Selarune meant something. Being human myself, I took pride in my quick thinking. After all, it was all I really had going for me.


    The good Baron spun us some tale of woe about how his daughter had been kidnapped by some thugs who were now demanding an obscene ransom. They were holed up in some abandoned mining camp on a nearby mountain that the local mining guild didn¡¯t use anymore, as it was prone to avalanches and the like. Baron Everetti didn¡¯t have any guesses on how many men there were or how well armed they were, but that had never stopped us before.


    From what the Baron could surmise, the men who had kidnapped his daughter were a group of bandits who¡¯d likely come to prey on the miners in the mountains. They¡¯d made easy work of pillaging the mines, driving the miners back down the mountain with nothing to show for it. When the bandits realized that nobody was coming back to evict them, they got even bolder.


    They then decided to group together, kidnap Baron Everetti¡¯s daughter (knowing her father was close to the Economic Advisor), and told the Baron that if they weren¡¯t sent tribute on a continuous basis, they¡¯d not only start targeting nearby mining sites, but they¡¯d execute his daughter. So far, a group of soldiers had been dispatched. They came back dragging their wounded, numbering twenty three of the thirty men sent out to begin with.


    I latched onto that number. ¡°You sent thirty men into the mountains?¡± Everetti nodded. ¡°That would be correct, young sir.¡± I sat back in my chair, my head leaning into my palm in exasperation. ¡°Well there you go. No wonder you all got trounced. Thirty men in armor tromping up into the mountains that the bandits have probably set ambushes in would be the height of stupidity. Those men walked straight into a trap.¡± I leaned forward again. ¡°That has to be one of the dumbest things you lot could¡¯ve done. Who gave that order?¡±


    Everetti tugged at his collar uncomfortably. Ah, I thought. The only reason he wasn¡¯t threatening me with his noble authority to back it was because it was his fault. Still, I felt Alverd nudge me. He spoke up, and was far more diplomatic in his approach. ¡°Baron, forgive my companion. He has the tendency to speak plainly. What if we offered to go, just the two of us? Two men will sneak by the enemy far more readily than thirty. And we will not fail.¡± He clasped his balled fist against his armor as he bowed respectfully.


    I sighed. Even after all this time, and with no need to do so, he was still a knight, and he was going to respect the nobility, even if there was nothing noble about them. I didn¡¯t want to jeopardize our odds of getting the job though, so I kept my mouth shut. He and Alverd hashed out the details, the payment, and the other fine print, although Alverd insisted, as per my rule, that we receive half the money up front. We walked out of Everetti¡¯s home with half of the reward and the promise of the rest upon the completion of our task.


    We found the mountain trail easily enough. It was situated just outside the city, and a large contingent of soldiers were now keeping watch at the checkpoint set up at the base of the mountain. They¡¯d erected wooden barricades and some of them were holding leashes attached to vicious looking war hounds. We showed the soldiers Everetti¡¯s writ of passage, explained that we were here to rescue his daughter, and waited for a response.


    The captain smirked. ¡°Only two of you? Why should I believe that two of you lousy sellswords will do what thirty of my best men couldn¡¯t? Why don¡¯t you run back to the inn and knock back a couple of ales, and let the real men do the job.¡± His men all laughed, a mixture of genuine amusement and because it was what their captain was doing. I waited for the laughter to die down before pointing over at the triage tent nearby. ¡°That¡¯s why we¡¯re here. We¡¯re the real men who are gonna fix this problem. If memory serves, you might make happy hour at the tavern if you leave now.¡± I smirked back at the captain, daring him to take another shot at me.


    And he did. The captain reared his armored fist back to punch me, but Alverd stepped forward and caught the man¡¯s attack in his own hand. ¡°There¡¯s no need for this. We both want the same thing. Antagonizing each other is pointless.¡± He gave me a small but pointed back-kick in the shin to emphasize his point. I winced, but ultimately he was right. I grumbled, and then walked past the captain and up the trail. After a second, Alverd released the captain and followed me.


    Alverd waited until we were out of earshot of the guardsmen to speak up. ¡°You know better than to make things harder for us then they need to be, Kuro. Someday that mouth of yours is going to land you in more hot water than I can pull you out of.¡± I waved my hand dismissively. ¡°Alverd, if I ever land in hot water that deep, you¡¯ll be thrashing around in it right next to me. Those men needed to be taken down a peg. Lots of people do, and my mouth is more than happy to be of service.¡±


    I meant it, too. My mouth moved a little too fast for my brain to filter sometimes. But I never saw that as a bad thing. All too often in certain circles words were just as sharp as any sword or dagger, and they accomplished twice as much. Alverd wasn¡¯t placated, though. He sighed and shook his head in annoyance. ¡°You say that, Kuro, but I know you know better. Sometimes I wonder if those rules of yours aren¡¯t just excuses to say whatever you want, whenever you want.¡± He plodded ahead, not waiting to hear if I had a response.


    I did, but I kept it to myself. It took me a second to catch up to Alverd and his longer stride, but I managed it. ¡°So what do you think? Standard hostage rescue?¡± My friend nodded. ¡°It would seem that way. We¡¯ll have to take a look at the situation once we get up the mountain, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be too hard to figure out.¡±


    Alverd and I had handled many different situations in our time as mercenaries. Hostage rescue was just one of the many things we had plenty of experience in. At its heart, a hostage situation boiled down to a very simple plan of attack: neutralize the bad guys in one swift stroke, save the hostage, and collect our payday. Of course, that didn¡¯t mean we could just barge in, swords swinging. We needed a plan, and I had plenty of time to come up with one as we made our way to the mountain in question.


    The mountains made the cold and snowy terrain utterly unbearable. With each step, I could feel my feet crunch through the layers of dirt and snow, reaching almost up to my knee. It only got worse as we ascended, and every single breath I took came out as a wisp of white fog. Thankfully, my robe was thick enough to keep me relatively warm, but I could only imagine how bad Alverd was doing. He seemed to be fine, but I could tell he was trying not to let his teeth chatter.


    Alverd was a trooper like that. He wasn¡¯t going to let anyone lose faith in him. It wasn¡¯t a question of postering. He genuinely didn¡¯t want others to worry about him. I¡¯d seen him do it more than enough to see through it every time. After fifteen years of being his best friend, I could see through a lot of his behaviors. Thankfully he was an honest man, because if it had been anyone else I would have assumed otherwise. Seeing him strive forward, I redoubled my own efforts. If my armor-clad friend could climb this mountain, then so could I.


    The road up the mountain vanished after a few hours of travel. At first I thought the heavy snowfall had blanketed the trail, but it became more and more apparent that the road was unfinished. At some point, Alverd and I passed an abandoned camp filled with tools and materials, proving that the work had been halted at some point. I wasn¡¯t sure why the job had been left half done, but if I had to hazard a guess, it was because someone wasn¡¯t willing to pay the workers what they were due.


    It took Alverd and I half a day to hike up the trail to the miners¡¯ camp. The kidnappers in question were hiding out in the camp¡¯s barracks, where the off-shift miners had spent their downtime keeping warm, gambling or catching some much-needed shuteye. We could see the lights through the windows, although we couldn¡¯t get close enough to count how many men there were or where they were hiding the Baron¡¯s daughter. We waited until dark, and hid ourselves in the trees to observe our enemies. Ideally, there would only be a small group; if that were the case, one well-aimed magic spell would get most of them out of the way. Alverd¡¯s swordsmanship would account for the rest.


    There wasn¡¯t even cause for worry. When the sun began to set, the barracks door swung open and a grumpy looking man clad in cold weather clothes stumbled out, dead drunk. One of the other bandits planted his foot in the middle of the first man¡¯s back, and he landed face first into a pile of snow. Through the open door, I could see everything. There were only ten men in total. And in the back of the building, housed in what had once been the barracks¡¯ storage room, was the Baron¡¯s daughter. I could just barely see her through the tiny window installed in the middle of the storage room door.


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    This made things a great deal simpler.


    The storage room was designed to be able to withstand explosions and fires, given that the Guilfordian ore brought out of the mines was often coated in powder residue volatile enough to be flammable before it was properly processed. Since the bandits had essentially locked the poor girl in the one room capable of surviving a random explosion in the event of an unforeseen accident, I grinned as I arranged for the entire barracks to suffer one such ¡°accident.¡±


    I didn¡¯t even need magic. I ran to a nearby shack, taking great pains to avoid the drunk man still stumbling around the barracks in a lopsided circle. The lock had frozen solid, so a quick application of force shattered the chain and allowed me to open the shack. I mentally crossed my fingers, hoping that what I was looking for was still there. My faith was rewarded when I pried open a box full of short, tubular sticks with string-like wicks poking out their ends.


    Dynamite.


    Most of the magical community scoffed when dynamite was invented, citing that it was unpredictable, unstable, dangerous and encouraged reckless behavior. The man who invented it not that long ago showed up one day at the prestigious Academy of Advanced Magical Study in the country of Algrustos, missing his left arm and sporting a peg leg to replace the loss of the bottom part of his right leg, to protest that one could say the exact same thing of magic. A protest that the Academy¡¯s Senior Headmaster would have dismissed with great disdain and flippancy¡­had he not been missing his right hand, his entire left leg, and sporting a glass eye in his right eye socket.


    All that aside, it was a tool and tools existed to be used. And in the hands of the resourceful (and sometimes, the foolhardy), a tool could accomplish so much more than what it was originally intended for. I motioned to Alverd, who was still hiding in the brush, to move on the drunk bandit on patrol. He nodded at me, then disappeared back into the brush. Meanwhile, I waited for the drunkard to round the corner of the barracks, then snuck over to the building as quietly as I could.


    As I jammed five sticks of dynamite at regular intervals along the wall of the barracks, trying my best to dig them as far under the building as I could, I could hear the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath. A second later, there was the familiar sound of a man gurgling, the kind of sound someone makes when a long, narrow metal shaft pierces through their skin and bones with the intent of ending their life. There was no further sound, not even the sound of the body being lowered to the ground. Then Alverd came around the side of the barracks and hunched down next to me.


    ¡°So¡­what¡¯s our plan, Kuro?¡± He leaned down to see why I was digging a small hole in the snow. I showed him the stick of dynamite, my last one, before shoving it into the hole as hard as I could, lodging it tight so that it wouldn¡¯t tip over while I tried to light the damned thing. Alverd¡¯s eyes widened in shock. ¡°Are you mad?!¡± He whispered at me angrily. I grinned back at him. ¡°Well, I certainly don¡¯t think so. But then again, if I were, would I know that I was?¡± I chuckled at my own joke as I pulled out the flint I¡¯d looted from the dynamite shed.


    Alverd took one look at the flint in my hand and tried to reason with me. ¡°You¡¯re going to kill the girl, too!¡± I didn¡¯t even look at him. ¡°Relax, Alverd, I have everything figured out. She¡¯ll be fine, I swear it on my soul. Besides, it¡¯s kind of a moot point now.¡± Alverd cocked his head to the side. ¡°What do you mean?¡± I pointed at the stick of dynamite I¡¯d just planted. While I had distracted him, I¡¯d used the flint to light it, and the flame was eating its way down the wick.


    ¡°That¡¯s why.¡±


    I¡¯d never seen a man in full armor move so fast in my entire life.


    The explosion was quite spectacular, though to be honest I¡¯d seen better, and conjured better, not to toot my own horn or anything. Just as I¡¯d predicted, the five-stage explosion utterly annihilated the barracks, disintegrating the entire building and all of its occupants. And when the smoke cleared, just like I¡¯d predicted, the storage space where the girl was being held was still standing, though it looked a lot worse for the wear.


    The door to the storage room fell off its hinges, and the girl, visibly shaken, began to bawl like a newborn, screaming for her precious Daddy to come save her. And as soon as we had released her from her bonds, she pushed me aside in a swirl of golden blonde hair and a shower of tears and ran over to Alverd, hiding behind him as though he were some shield she could use to keep me at bay. I sighed heavily.


    Sigh. Just as I¡¯d predicted.


    We began our long trek down the mountain, and all the while the damnable girl clung to Alverd and gave me the occasional accusatory glance, as if she expected me to blow her up too at the drop of a hat. Eventually, she stopped, but only because she was so intent on crushing the life from Alverd with her bare hands. She had her arms wrapped around him like her life depended on it.


    She was sporting a pretty heavy blush in her cheeks. I refused to believe it was because of the cold. Alverd stood on one side of her to keep the cold wind from hitting her, even going so far as to offer his cape to insulate her from said wind. She wrapped herself in it and got very close to my friend, her sky blue eyes shimmering as she gazed at him with unabashed longing. I could almost feel my own heart skip a beat for a second, simply because I forgot everything in the face of her elven beauty; then reality re-asserted itself when she shrunk away as she noticed me looking at her.


    At some point Alverd stumbled on a rock or took a bad step, and he had to brace himself by leaning against the girl. Despite being a wisp of a thing, she was able to stop him from toppling over. He had to put his arm around her to avoid tumbling, though, and once she felt his hand on her hip her face turned beet red and she glanced away, likely to hide her embarrassment. I grunted in disgust. Typical.


    Alverd just had that effect on girls. Perhaps it was that handsome face or his warm voice, or maybe his generally helpful attitude that made him irresistible to women. Although Alverd expended all of his energy making sure our bedraggled charge was alright, the only thing I could think about was the two thousand gold waiting for us.


    Maybe that¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t able to see the double cross coming.


    The minute Alverd and I entered the Everetti estate, the Baron had us arrested. We barely had time to walk into his foyer when we were jumped by eight Guilfordian soldiers. Four blades caressed the skin on my neck, with four more doing the same to Alverd¡¯s. The Baron¡¯s daughter ran to her precious father¡¯s side and embraced him tightly; the last thing I saw on the smug son of a bitch¡¯s face was the look of a man who was quite satisfied with outplaying those he deemed beneath him.


    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you two saw reason and brought my daughter back to me.¡± The rat bastard smirked as he took a sip from an immaculate tea cup, his pinkie extended in pretentious noble fashion. ¡°Unfortunately, we Guilfordians do not negotiate with kidnappers.¡± As a soldier slammed my head against the ground, I looked up at him with naked scorn. ¡°Kidnappers, no. But I guess the same can¡¯t be said of filthy slavers and bloodthirsty barbarians, huh?¡±


    The Baron looked down at me with narrowed eyes. He set his tea cup down on a nearby table, then raised his cane and struck me across the face with it. My vision swam and I nearly lost consciousness; I had enough time to think that Alverd had been right about my mouth before I felt myself being hauled off the floor and dragged away from the Baron. I could feel my staff being wrenched from my hand as I struggled to avoid blacking out.


    A pair of cold metal manacles were locked shut around my wrists with an all too familiar snapping sound. I was yanked back to my feet and pushed away from the still smirking Baron alongside Alverd. The last I saw of him before a soldier smacked my head to keep me facing forward was one of the guards handing the Baron my staff. Inwardly, I stewed, but I knew I could do nothing in the moment without it.


    With our hands clapped in irons and our weapons confiscated, Alverd and I were led out of the estate and into one of those barred-window carriages that were used to cart prisoners through the public. I saw the arrogant guard captain who¡¯d nearly assaulted me open the door to the carriage and my heart sank. As I stepped into the carriage, I realized that we¡¯d been set up from the very beginning.


    We were dragged before a seneschal, who whipped out a long list of falsified and trumped up charges against us. Our ¡°trial¡± included testimony from several ¡°witnesses¡± who claimed that we were part of the group who had stolen the Baron¡¯s daughter away, and then the Baron himself testified that we had come to him specifically to demand ransom.


    As Alverd and I stood before the seneschal, in the middle of a chamber filled with Guilfordian citizens who had nothing better to do than watch a sham trial, I regarded the entire room with disdain. To be surrounded by such filth, to hear them level false accusations against me, was too much. At last, the seneschal finished his list of lies and looked down at me from behind his gavel and podium. ¡°Do you have any last words?¡±


    Before Alverd could say anything I retorted. ¡°Someday it¡¯ll be Guilford¡¯s turn. And nobody will come to save a country that breaks its bond. You sold us all out for some gold and a pat on the back from people who will put a knife in it soon enough. Our country burned yesterday. Yours will burn tomorrow. And I won¡¯t shed a tear for any of you when that happens.¡± I then hocked a giant wad of spit at the foot of the seneschal¡¯s podium, satisfied with my rant.


    To my utter surprise, Alverd spoke up in support of me. ¡°He is right. You betrayed your word to a country that pledged peace to you in good faith. And the ones who urged you to do so are only a mountain range away, building their strength with each passing day. When they come for you, death will be a mercy. It might be preferable to the shackles and whips that wait for those who survive.¡±


    A few people in the room laughed, but the seneschal did not join them. Instead, his already grim expression became even more severe. ¡°You waste your last words on scare tactics. The people of Guilford are not soft. Generations of our proud brethren were born and bred of this harsh land, and we have not only survived, but thrived. Your people were soft, and they chose to be reliant on others. And if you aren¡¯t working a field under your new masters¡­¡±


    The rat bastard leaned down from his podium to make himself seem more imposing. ¡°¡­then I¡¯d wager you ran for your lives and left all those people you supposedly care about behind. So who¡¯s the real coward here, boy?¡± The entire room broke into full mockery as they pointed and jeered at me. I felt my teeth begin to grind in my mouth. I should¡¯ve known better.


    You can¡¯t humiliate people who don¡¯t feel shame.


    We were thrown into jail, penniless, deceived, and distraught. I kicked myself for my poor judgment, especially since it was my job to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Alverd sat on his bunk, still wearing his armor, which the guards had been unable to pry him out of, meditating serenely. He was calm in spite of everything we¡¯d been through and what we were about to go through, a product of years of training.


    That was just one of the many things I envied about my longtime friend; his ability to stay calm no matter what seemed to befall him. I was one step away from losing my tenuous grip on my composure. I wanted to focus on anything but our impending execution, perhaps a way to weasel out of our predicament. But nothing came to me, and the threat of imminent death hung over me like a patient specter.


    Two hours later, we were marched out of our cell and brought to the gallows in the middle of the castle town square, where we were sentenced to hang until we were dead. My wrists were bound with rope and tied to Alverd, who was in turn led forward by a man holding the rope tied to Alverd¡¯s wrists. I knew escaping would be pointless, as with Alverd and I bound thus, I¡¯d be dead weight to him once I ran out of stamina.


    Then I saw it before me; a wooden platform with the hangman¡¯s noose swaying gently as the hangman himself tied it tight, awaiting the moment when he would slip it over my head. The lever that would sweep the floor out from beneath me sat off to the side, leaving me to dance one final jig before I passed to the other side. My hands reflexively went to my neck, and I could almost feel the rope digging into my skin.


    The hangmen were in a good mood today. The one minding my rope looked at me and chuckled. ¡°I didn¡¯t know we was ¡®anging children today. I wonder if ¡®e¡¯s even ¡®eavy enough to ¡®ave his neck snap in one go. But if not, we can always watch ¡®im dance before ¡®e dies.¡± The other was no better. He saw Alverd¡¯s armor and laughed too. ¡°This one, though, e¡¯s gonna go in one drop. All that armor, ¡®e¡¯ll go down like a stone in a pond. Make a right proper snap, ¡®e will.¡± They guffawed in morbid glee together.


    That was when I saw it. The Baron was in attendance, and he was using my magic staff as a cane. The staff in question was a four foot long oaken stick, imbued with magical properties. In my hand, it became a tool of destruction capable of allowing me to channel the power of magic to its fullest potential.


    The Baron was also holding Alverd¡¯s sword, inspecting the blade as he pulled it from its scabbard; it was steel, marred with bites and cuts in the blade where it had seen battle, but still with a polish that made it shine. The Baron nodded in approval, and then sheathed the sword and held it at his side. He even had Alverd¡¯s shield attached to the scabbard.


    Ha! The old fool. The strongest of mages were so in tune with their instruments of magic, that the very staves they used to conjure were almost an extension of their own bodies. Even if a mage were separated from his or her staff, the inherent magical energy within the staff, carved by the user him or herself, would allow the mage to reclaim their staff through telekinetic means. It was something that all mages learned to do once they graduated from apprentice level, and that made it possible for even an unarmed mage to be dangerous.


    Yeah. Kinda wished I could do that.


    Unfortunately for yours truly, I was still at apprentice level. And to rub salt into that particular wound, I was never good at much of anything other than destroying stuff. And even then, I couldn¡¯t manage that without my staff. To see it so close at hand, and yet so far away, stung me like a razor sharp barb. There was another reason why I couldn¡¯t just yank the staff out of the Baron¡¯s grip either, but just thinking about it made me even angrier.


    I wrung my hands violently in desperation, in anger¡­only for me to sense something very, very wrong. I looked down and saw that the ropes binding my hands were loose; my abnormally thin wrists had ensured that the ropes could not hold me as tight as they could Alverd¡¯s. With only a minor bit of effort, I could slip my entire hand through the rope circle and essentially be free of my restraints.


    Huh. I guess it didn¡¯t pay to be all muscle-bound after all.


    I immediately hatched a plan. It wasn¡¯t good, smart, or even a sane plan. But it was the only plan I had, and I could count on it working for exactly the three seconds I would need to get my staff back from Baron Scarecrow, hopefully before any of his guardsmen could hopefully react. When the hangman stood me before the noose, and made ready to slip it over my neck, I made my move.


    Screeching like some wounded animal, I swung my balled up fists into the hangman¡¯s face. He obviously wasn¡¯t expecting it, because he hit the ground like a lead weight. It hurt my hands immensely, but I didn¡¯t have time to worry about that. Making another cry, I dove forward off the gallows and straight at Baron Everetti.


    His beady little eyes opened wider than I had ever seen. He tried to scramble back, but it was too little, too late. I landed on top of the backstabbing little weasel like the wrath of an angry god, flailing my weak little fists at his face, now free of my ropes. Finally, he let go of both my staff and Alverd¡¯s sword, and I grabbed both. Just for good measure I swung the staff at the Baron¡¯s face and clubbed him with the blunt end; he crumpled to the ground with little resistance. What goes around comes around, oftentimes with some extra karma to boot, I thought to myself.


    Alverd, being the savvy knight he was, followed my lead. He too attacked the hangman next to him, though he was unable to slip free of his restraints. A two-fisted swing to the hangman¡¯s stomach caused him to buckle, and Alverd followed up by slamming his balled hands down onto the back of the hangman¡¯s neck, flooring him.


    Several guardsmen ran up to the gallows to catch him; however, Alverd leaped off the platform and barreled into a group of them like an armored missile, knocking them to the ground. He ran to me, and I swung his heavy sword as precisely as I could despite my weakness and the sword¡¯s weight. Alverd barely had time to hold his wrists to the sides before the steel of his longsword scythed down onto his ropes.


    Thank the gods for adrenaline. I managed to cut the ropes in one swing, without cutting off his hands or fingers. I flipped the sword out of my hands, and he caught the handle with practiced precision. I threw him his shield, its eagle emblem shining in the midday sun, and he slipped it onto his left arm. We wheeled around, and faced our enemies.


    There were maybe eight or nine men standing between us and the gate that would lead to the main street out of this place. Beyond that, I wasn¡¯t sure how we were going to escape. I couldn¡¯t even begin to guess how many guards stood between us and the city entrance, and how we¡¯d get to safety beyond that. Best to worry about that later, I thought.


    I chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ll take the ones on the left,¡± I confidently boasted to my friend. Alverd laughed. ¡°Of course you would take the side with fewer enemies. Fine with me, old friend.¡± He veered off to the right and charged at his foes with his sword at the ready. I had just enough time to smirk about his lighthearted quip before I twirled my staff and faced the four men who were now moving towards me, spears pointed as they ran.


    Magic requires power from a catalyst in order to form. In this instance, I ¡°reached¡± for the presence of water in the chilly mountain air and pulled it toward my staff. I could feel the energy being concentrated into the staff, adding power to the spell. For a simple spell of elemancy, the doctrine of basic elemental attack magic, such was the foundation; taking existing elemental forces and using them to augment my spell was as basic as counting to ten.


    There was no need for an incantation or any other means of enhancing the spell. I had everything I needed to accomplish what I wanted of the magic. I pressed my staff against the ground, and when I released the power gathered within it, it spread out across the stone tiles of the town square, covering it in a sheet of ice. The ice crept up the feet of the charging soldiers, freezing them where they stood, the spread of ice stopping just after locking the men¡¯s knees in place. The men tried to pull free of the ice, to no avail.


    As far as magic went, it was a pretty weak effect. As an apprentice level mage, I didn¡¯t have much in the way of actual power under normal circumstances. But in my mind, it was all about application. Finding the right way to make my weak magic effective bridged the gap in power between me and an actual mage. While the soldiers tried to chip away at the ice, I ran past them to get a head start on Alverd.


    Alverd had little difficulty dealing with his own enemies. He sidestepped the first soldier¡¯s blind swing and stabbed him through his unprotected flank. The second soldier tried to bring an axe to bear, but Alverd parried with his shield and thrust his sword straight through the man¡¯s armored breastplate, killing him instantly.


    The third man tried to keep distance with a spear, but Alverd pushed the point of the weapon away with his shield and dispatched him with a clean horizontal swipe of his sword. Alverd bashed the next man in the face with his shield, knocking him unconscious in a single blow, and then killed the final soldier with a brutal spinning slash that nearly severed the man in half at the waist. Blood splattered across the icy cobblestone as we made good our escape.


    We didn¡¯t have time to rest on our laurels. As the two of us took off, there was a scream of rage behind me. Turning back, I saw that Baron Everetti had recovered and was hot on our heels with nearly a score of his personal soldiers. Peasants were roughly pushed to the side as the soldiers ran toward us, while others ran for the safety of homes or shops flanking the street to avoid being trampled by the tide of angry men. Fear gave renewed strength to my feet, and Alverd and I fled down the stone path towards the marketplace. Our only hope was to lose our enemy in the crowd, and make our way to the city entrance.


    A few of Everetti¡¯s men began to pull away from the others, outrunning them due to their lighter armor. Stealing a backwards look, I could see that they were crossbowmen, trained to wear less armor and be far more mobile than standard infantry. One of them stopped running and brought his crossbow up to fire, aiming at Alverd. He didn¡¯t come to a full stop before doing so, however, and his foot slid on the slick, ice-crusted cobblestone, interfering with his aim.


    The crossbowman¡¯s shot went wide and hit a man a full foot to the left of where Alverd was running. The poor peasant fell to the ground screaming, the bolt lodged deep in his shoulder. Blood was already soaking his tunic. A young girl, probably the man¡¯s daughter, was screaming over his body helplessly. No one went to help either of them, looking on in fear from the sides of the street or from the safety of their homes.


    Alverd screeched to a halt, took one look at the scene before him and began pushing all of the civilians near him away, first to his left, then his right. He strode out of the crowd with a defiant air. A second crossbowman lifted his crossbow to fire, and loosed the bolt at Alverd. Without flinching, Alverd brought his shield up and deflected the bolt to careen harmlessly off its angled surface and off into a nearby lamppost. Even if these people were not his own, even if they were subjects of his enemy, they were innocents, and he would allow no harm to befall them on his watch. With a face set like stone, he dared the enemy to come after him.


    Raising his sword, he screamed a challenge. ¡°Filth! Bad enough you make a mockery of the law, now you endanger your own citizens?! I¡¯m right here! Face me if you have the nerve, bastards!¡± He slammed his sword against the ground, throwing up some sparks when the blade hit the stone. The soldiers glanced at each other, scared of the stand my friend was making. A few peasants finally pulled the man and his daughter away, looking at Alverd with both appreciation and disbelief.


    From where I stood, I shook my head, but I could not fault him. That was Alverd; he would never allow others to be hurt if he could help it. While I was looking at the ground in resignation, I saw a dandelion growing from a crack in the ground between several small tiles. I grinned, another plan coming to mind.


    I reached down and pushed the dandelion to the ground, placing the whole of my palm against the cold stone tile, feeling for the earth beneath it. I could sense it, cold, damp, so full of life. I pulled the energy from it into myself and through my staff. I looked at where the twenty men were surging towards my friend, and took aim with my spell. A glowing brown ball of energy began to form at the tip of my staff, and I grit my teeth as it grew.


    This was going to be tougher than the last one. What I was about to do was more than just coat some feet in ice. I was going to redirect the energy of nature into a hostile effect. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused as hard as I could. I could feel the magical force surge out of the ground, through my body, and into the focal point of my staff. If I lost my concentration, the spell would either fizzle out harmlessly or discharge haphazardly without any means to control it. Luckily I didn¡¯t have to hold it for long.


    I released the energy as the soldiers came into range, sending the gathered power back through the staff and my body and into the earth. The ground beneath them erupted, and the smooth stone tiles became jagged edges that thrust upward at janky angles, skewering the soldiers and throwing them into disarray. They shrieked in pain as the stones pierced and shredded, and none of them could escape. The crowd backed away from me in fear, and many of them made holy warding gestures, like I was some monster.


    As if I had time for that nonsense. The men coming after us were all fair game in my eyes. They were just following Rule Eight of my ten rules: you¡¯re loyal to your employer, not his cause. Their need to kill us was just an unfortunate side effect of their job. I didn¡¯t pretend it was that simple, but it was a lot easier to kill people when you decided to look at life in black and white. It¡¯d taken a long time for me to reach that level of detachment, and it wasn¡¯t something I liked to boast about.


    Before I could remind the terrified townspeople that a crossbowman had fired on them not a few moments earlier, I began to tip over as the rebound from my spell stole the strength from my knees. My legs buckled beneath me and I toppled over before the first word could leave my mouth.


    Alverd snatched me before I hit the ground. Magic like that was quite exhausting for an apprentice-level mage like me. He grunted with exertion as he lifted my arm over his shoulder and started hauling me down the street. ¡°This is why you need to think before you do things like that, Kuro! You know how hard it is to carry you after you do magic of that caliber¡­come on, use your legs!¡± He made his way past the civilians, who cleared the way as they watched me warily.


    As tired as I was from my previous spell, I could still spare plenty of energy to resent the townsfolk for their reaction. It was nothing new for me to be the object of either ridicule or fear, but that didn¡¯t mean I enjoyed it. Even if Alverd tried his best to advocate for me, there were times when I¡¯d never be disappointed when it came to expecting the worst from people.


    Alverd took a right and began jogging down a side alley, taking cover under an archway. By that time, I¡¯d recovered enough to stand on my own. We watched the soldiers tromp down the main street, unaware that we¡¯d taken shelter nearby. We carefully made our way down backroads and over fences until we had gotten almost to the city¡¯s entrance, a large set of wooden gates built into an imposing stone wall.


    We reached the front gates before news of what had happened in the upper part of the city had reached the guardsmen standing watch. We brushed past them, and found a small convoy of merchants who were taking the main road east. I had stolen Baron Everetti¡¯s coin purse while I was busy wailing on him, and when we told one that we would give him gold in exchange for passage, no questions asked, he took it solemnly, motioned to the back of his cart, and didn¡¯t say another word.


    The merchant, a beastkin, probably wolf by the look of the tall, furry ears sticking out of the top of his human-looking head and bushy, swinging tail, took a second to bite down on one of the gold coins, and, satisfied that they were real, pocketed the rest. He was so lost in counting the coins in the purse that he seemed to forget all about us, which was fine by me. The less attention on Alverd and I, the better.


    We rode on the back of that cart for about three hours, watching as the capital city faded into the distance behind us. Guilford wouldn¡¯t be able to send horses after us, thanks to the fact that they didn¡¯t have actual cavalry to chase us with. Horses didn¡¯t really enjoy being ridden over the rough, unforgiving terrain that Guilford was known for, so the merchant convoy was being driven by a herd of gridaban, small, four-legged animals akin to an ox that were strong and sturdy enough to pull carts but not big enough and too temperamental to ride. Even with the burden of a cart, a gridaban¡¯s top speed was sufficient enough that there was no hope anybody would catch up unless they felt like sprinting to make up the head start we¡¯d gained.


    However, I knew that catching up on foot was unnecessary. Thanks to magic, Baron Everetti would no doubt send messages via magic communication sphere to every city in Guilford. He would have artists sketch our likenesses to go along with it, and by the time we made it to whatever city this caravan was bound for, the authorities would have everything they needed to know to arrest us. We needed a new plan.


    I pulled out my compass in frustration as I tried to put something together. To my anger, I found that it had been damaged. The entire thing had been smashed, probably when I had tackled the Baron. I threw the broken thing away with a snarl. Alverd sat next to me in silence, unmoving except for the occasional jostling of the cart.


    ¡°Damn it,¡± I whimpered. ¡°I have no idea how we¡¯re getting out of this one, Alverd.¡± I held my face with my hands in exasperation. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, old friend. I should¡¯ve been paying attention. I should¡¯ve known that sonuvabitch Everetti was going to betray us.¡± I slammed my hands down on my knees.


    He patted me on the shoulder. ¡°Peace, Kuro. Simply because you didn¡¯t see it coming doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s your fault. People are not sunrises, Kuro. You can¡¯t always predict their motives or behaviors. If we could, imagine what it would be like. Utter madness.¡± Alverd chuckled to himself. I snorted. Yeah, he was right. It would be chaos. Unfortunately, his brief moment of clarity did little to alleviate our current situation.


    Despite Alverd¡¯s tendency to think simplistically, I never really thought of such a quality as a detriment. He was always level-headed, and offered strangely profound sentiments every now and then. Even after being his best friend for a decade and a half, he could still surprise me with his occasional bursts of intellect. I guess it was comforting to know that underneath his practiced chivalry there were a few original thoughts rattling around in that big empty head of his.


    I sighed, looking off to my right at the majestic mountains with their snow-tipped caps, reaching up towards the sky. I lost track of time as I focused on those peaks. Suddenly I was jarred out of my daydream by the cart shifting directions. I looked and saw a sign on the side of the road. It read, ¡°DANGER: DO NOT GO THIS WAY¡±. The path led off toward the mountains I was looking at. I leaned back and spoke to our driver. ¡°Hey, where does that path go?¡±


    The merchant shivered visibly. ¡°My generous friend, that leads to the Devil¡¯s Jaw. It¡¯s a mountain pass that connects Guilford with Ishmar. You really don¡¯t want to go there.¡± The man made the same religious gesture on his chest the townspeople had. ¡°You ask anybody on the whole damn continent of Selarune, they¡¯ll tell you the same thing. Ain¡¯t nothing in Ishmar but death and damnation. Nobody crosses that path, and even if they did, well, the Ishmarians would gut you as soon as look at you.¡±


    He turned his attention back to the road, then muttered, ¡°besides, they say that pass is haunted. The ghosts of some battle hundreds of years ago can¡¯t find rest there. Place is supposed to be littered with the corpses of strange beasts made of iron and steel. But if you don¡¯t believe me, well-¡°


    As the beastkin merchant rambled on and I kept my eyes on the mountains and at the path that was overrun with vegetation and mud from years of not being taken. I looked at Alverd meaningfully. He nodded. Together, we slipped off the back of the cart soundlessly.


    The cart continued on, its driver either blissfully unaware of our decision or completely at peace with it. My friend and I stared down that long, winding road leading into the heart of the mountains. And then, grimly, we started down it. Step by step, we began walking toward those mountains. It may have been Ishmar on the other side, but if it meant escape, it was a risk we had to take.


    Had I known what would await us there, I probably would have changed my mind. Had I known what would have transpired beyond the Devil¡¯s Jaw, I never would have even considered it. But I didn¡¯t have the power of foresight. That was what had gotten me into trouble with Baron Everetti in the first place. I¡¯d violated one of the Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary. The First Cardinal Rule was to always get paid up front. It was important, hence why it was the First Rule. But in my mind, the Second Rule was always more important.


    The Second Cardinal Rule of Being a Mercenary is to always expect your employer to betray you¡­especially if they pay up front.

 Chapter 2-On the Run (Part 1)

    Honestly, sometimes I wondered what was going through his head.


    While I was musing to myself, Alverd began rooting through the bushes, trying to rustle up some game. Given what I know of the world, it astounded me that Alverd, who had hunted before, insisted on using himself as live bait. He was swinging his sheathed sword at the snow-covered bushes and making weird little chittering noises as he did so.


    Sometimes, people baffle me more than the mysteries of the universe.


    It had taken us a full day to reach the mountain pass and climb to a point where we felt no one would consider coming after us. Thus we were here, in the wilderness, looking for food instead of staying in a nice warm inn or drinking ale in a boisterous tavern. As far as I knew, the entire country of Guilford was still looking for the two of us, and if they caught us¡­


    I didn¡¯t want to think about that. I pulled my arms tight around my body, trying to warm myself. My cloth robe wasn¡¯t thick enough to insulate me from the cold, and the perpetual fog layer at this elevation guaranteed that the sun would never shine upon this freezing place. The only illumination was coming from the small lighting spell I had cast. The little ball of blazing radiance hovered around my head, but even then visibility was barely twenty feet in front of us. If it started snowing, I would bet easy gold that that number would drop down to single digits.


    After another day of trekking through the dark and hoping for the best, it became apparent that nobody was chasing us. It was safe to assume that the Guilfordians thought we would freeze to death up here. Knowing that, we slowed our pace to keep an eye out for wild game. Unfortunately, food was scarce on our second day, and despite our efforts, we weren¡¯t able to scare any game out of the brush as we pushed on through the murk. I called out to my friend, who had begun to wander a bit too far away.


    ¡°Alverd! Try not to stray too far from the light. If we get separated, we might not find each other again.¡± He gave the bush one last swipe before giving up. He jogged through the thick snow to me, thick clouds of frost-laden breath heaving out of his mouth. ¡°Peace, friend. I¡¯m not so foolish as to chance such odds.¡±


    I noticed his teeth were chattering; I could hear them clicking together even from several feet away. He tried to pretend it wasn¡¯t so bad, but I saw through it. ¡°Alverd, are you alright? If you¡¯re getting frostbite, we should find shelter. That armor of yours will kill you up here.¡±


    It was true. At such low temperatures, Alverd¡¯s armor was more of a detriment than a help. The armor was designed to stop blades and arrows, not the cold. I could have sworn I saw a layer of ice starting to form on its surface. If we didn¡¯t find somewhere to warm ourselves and get some food, we¡¯d be corpses in a matter of hours. Alverd nodded, and pulled his cape tighter around himself.


    The hard truth was that we weren¡¯t likely to find anywhere to make camp. Even if we did, it probably wouldn¡¯t be conducive to building a fire. With every step I was losing hope that we would make it through this frozen hellhole. The likelihood that we¡¯d even reach Ishmar on the other end was infinitesimal. Minutes turned into hours and I could feel myself starting to get sleepy. Still, I pressed on, knowing that if I stopped to rest it¡¯d be the last thing I ever did.


    At some point, the light floating around my head pointed out a dark shape looming from the fog ahead. It was huge, bigger than Alverd by a significant margin. As I drew closer, I waited to see if it would jump out and attack. I angled my staff at the shape, the tip pointed straight at the center of mass. I moved forward carefully, waiting for Alverd to catch up to me. We continued our slow and steady approach, but when the shape made no effort to attack, we laid down our arms.


    The object turned out to be the corpse of one of the ¡°steel beasts¡± the merchant had mentioned. Both sides of the beast¡¯s carcass had multiple wheels, like a cart or chariot. It had a head of sorts seated upon its large, box-shaped body. The head had a long, narrow snout that pointed into the nothingness, an assortment of icicles hanging beneath it. At the front of the beast was a hole, burned through the outer shell by a force that had to be magical, because it was perfectly circular and made with pinpoint accuracy. I looked through the hole to sate my curiosity, only to recoil in horror when I saw the skeletal remains of a person long since dead inside.


    Had the steel beast consumed the man, and in his futile attempts to escape, he had blasted a hole through the beast¡¯s metal skin? As much as I wanted to stay and find out, we didn¡¯t have time. Alverd¡¯s teeth were chattering even harder than before, so much so that he could no longer hide the sound. Given how many icicles I could see inside the belly of the steel beast, it didn¡¯t look like it was any warmer inside of it. Besides, I didn¡¯t really feel all that certain about crawling into some dead thing¡¯s stomach to stay warm.


    A series of loud creaks and bangs echoed through the air. Alverd perked up his ears to listen, as did I. Making our way in the direction of the sound, we stumbled across a crumbling fortress, a giant structure made of stone with parapets of cold granite jutting out of the snow. The front gate was swinging in the howling wind, crashing against the stone wall periodically, producing the sound we¡¯d heard earlier. We rushed inside, eager to escape the cold. After passing what had probably once been a stately courtyard, we pushed through another set of frozen doors and into the fort itself.


    Snowdrifts lay across the interior courtyard, left to build over countless years. The corpses of soldiers in unfamiliar garb lay strewn about, many of them leaned against walls or slumped over makeshift barricades. The was no way to identify the fallen soldiers given their long exposure to the elements. But based on their positions, it seems each of them had died defending the courtyard from some foreign attacker. Given how the door leading into the fort itself had been broken open, it was apparent they¡¯d failed to repel the invaders.


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    The interior of the fort was a disaster. The place looked like it had been ransacked with any remaining furniture torn and slashed to pieces. From the looks of things, we¡¯d entered some kind of guard post. Rusted weapons lay abandoned on racks of weathered wood, and tattered tapestries hung along the walls.


    At first it seemed likely that the fortress was some kind of early warning post, designed to send word to Bertwald in the event of an Ishmarian invasion. But as Alverd and I pushed further into the fortress, the less my hypothesis made sense. I didn¡¯t recognize any of the imagery of the few tapestries that had survived, and even then those had been ravaged by time to the point where they were barely intact. Another odd point was the lack of corpses inside the fort. It was almost as though the entire garrison had made their stand in the courtyard.


    If the place was a guard post, then there had to be a pantry somewhere, even if it was a long shot that any edible food was still in it. We searched, but no luck. Alverd and I prowled the halls, lit up for the first time in gods knows how long by my light spell. Eventually we found our way to the common room, and when we got there, we realized we had intruded on someone¡¯s home.


    ¡°Hey,¡± cried Alverd. ¡°I think something¡¯s here.¡±


    Alverd had opened the door to the common room while I was still rooting through a cabinet, looking for any food that may have been preserved by the cold. I ran over to the door, determined not to be left behind. I flung the door wide and found Alverd rooted to the spot, right in the middle of the doorframe.


    And he was staring down a tarketan. The beast took one look at the two of us, and rushed forward to attack, jaws open. Suddenly the lack of corpses made perfect sense.


    Imagine a bear. Now give that bear curved, bull-like horns, a second set of arms ending in razor sharp claws, and the self-assured superiority complex of an apex predator. Its dark fur looked as though it was stained with blood in the dim light of my spell. Its eyes glowed a malicious red, and its slavering jaws were peeled back to reveal jagged teeth. Its horns even had what appeared to be dried blood splattered along their glistening length.  I saw Alverd slowly reach for his sword as he backed slowly into the room I was in.


    With a roar that shook the icicles hanging from the ceiling, the tarketan swiped a set of massive claws at my friend. Alverd jumped back, his sword sliding free of its sheath with a metallic clang. The swipe carved through empty air. His shield was already held in front of him, the eagle emblem shimmering in the dim illumination as it angled toward the tarketan. The beast let out another roar and swung a paw at it. It impacted the shield with a dull thud, but bounced aside as if it were deflecting a rock. Alverd snarled and lifted his sword, then struck. In a sweep of steel, the tartekan¡¯s lower-left arm hit the ground in a bloody mess.


    The monster screamed in agony, a jet of crimson spraying from the stump. Alverd pressed his advantage by aiming a stab straight at the creature¡¯s midsection. The tarketan countered with another savage blow from its opposite arm, but Alverd simply ducked under the swing with a quick spin, which he leveraged into a powerful stab straight through the creature¡¯s chest. I saw the blade go straight through the creature¡¯s body and out through its back. Yet, the creature still attempted to tear Alverd¡¯s head off with another swipe.


    Barely managing to duck the wild attack, Alverd tried to pull his sword from the tarketan¡¯s torso but the blade was nearly buried up to the hilt in the beast and it wouldn¡¯t give. If Alverd let go of his shield to use both of his hands, he would have lost his only defensive tool. At such close range, there would be no way he could defend against three other arms. I could hear Alverd grunting with effort as his exhaustion, poor position and desperation combined to put him in a terrible spot from which he could not extricate himself.


    As Alverd struggled with the monster, I was already moving to help him. Despite how tired I was, adrenaline gave me the strength I needed. I took the simple light spell and pumped as much arcane energy into it as I could. The ball drew power from the elements around it; water from the air, sparks from my nerves and fire from my own body. The swirling orb of magical might swelled to triple its size as I aimed it at the tarketan.


    Alverd took one look at my spell and immediately let go of his sword, flinging himself away from the tarketan with his shield raised. With a grunt of effort, I willed the ball of light at the monster. It streaked away with a shrieking noise, barreling straight for the monster¡¯s head. As the spell closed the distance, I threw my arms up to shield my face.


    There was a flash of overwhelmingly bright light and a wave of force knocked me halfway across the room, slamming me back first into a support column. Splinters of wood flew by me and I thanked the gods none of them hit my face. I could feel my ears pop as a sonic boom swept past me. Then, as soon as it had begun, the explosion subsided. An eerie quiet descended as I gasped for breath. After a few failed attempts at regaining my wind, I looked over at where I had last seen Alverd.


    I don¡¯t know why I was worried. His shield had absorbed the brunt of the blast, leaving him completely unharmed. Not a hair on his head was mussed. Sure,  his cape in a state of disarray, but other than that he was totally fine. Damn it. Even when it comes to earth shattering explosions, Alverd¡¯s unfazed. It¡¯s just not fair, I grumbled to myself internally. How he managed to come out of such things not only unscathed but looking good while doing so¡­


    ¡­that just confused me the most out of everything. It kind of made me angry, too.


    But he was my best friend. What could I do?


    ¡°So¡­if I recall,¡± I yelled over to Alverd as I massaged my sore behind. ¡°Tarketan makes for some good stew.¡±


    Alverd barked a laugh that was almost a wheeze. He struggled over to what remained of the tarketan and pulled his sword out of the beast. The blade had sticky red blood all over it. He wiped it off on the beast¡¯s still-smoking fur with disgust. As he slid the sword back into its sheath, he gave me a smile. ¡°So, which part do I get?¡±

 Chapter 2-On the Run (Part 2)

    Half an hour later, we were enjoying some delicious tarketan stew by the fire of the hearth in the common room. It was a little stringy (in my defense, it was the first time I had ever made stew out of such a beast) but it was still robust and flavorful. I would¡¯ve preferred something more normal, like venison, but when you live the merc life, you take your meal ticket when you can get it. As we ate, I brought up the issue that I had been thinking about for some time.


    ¡°So, Alverd, I guess I¡¯d better mention something¡­¡±


    My friend paused in the middle of a large bite of the meat in his stew. He set his bowl down and crossed his arms. ¡°I¡¯m all ears, friend. Speak your mind.¡±


    ¡°We haven¡¯t really had a chance to slow down and talk about our plan. We really need to figure out how we¡¯re going to cross through Ishmar safely.¡± My friend¡¯s face turned dark when I mentioned that name. I didn¡¯t blame him. I could feel my own voice grow spiteful at the mere mention of it. And we both knew why.


    Ishmar. Dragon country. A land ruled by barbarians who raised, bred and tamed dragons for everyday use. A land of warmongers who struck fear into the hearts of every other country in the world due to their military prowess and bloodlust. A place that we two were quite familiar with, even if we had never set foot on its soil, for a reason that still haunted my darkest nightmares.


    No matter what corner of Selarune you called home, you could ask any stranger you met on the street about Ishmar, and they¡¯d tell you the same stories. They¡¯d tell you about the limitless legions of black-armored soldiers goose-stepping across the blackened wastelands, of the ruthless riders who could darken the skies like plagues of locusts, and of their fanatical desire to dominate all of Selarune through the rule of the strong. As far as anyone was concerned, Ishmarians weren¡¯t people. They were monsters. I was inclined to agree.


    ¡°So, what are you trying to say, Kuro?¡± Uncrossing his arms, Alverd took another bite of his stew.


    ¡°Now that we don¡¯t have to worry about the Guilfordians following us, we need to consider our options. Fleeing to Ishmar was the only option we had at the time, but I don¡¯t know if illegally entering a country full of angry dragon tamers is the smartest thing to do. The way I see it, we¡¯ve only got two options.¡± I held up my hand, extending two fingers to emphasize my point.


    ¡°First option: we go back to Guilford, and take our chances.¡± I put one finger down. ¡°Granted, it¡¯ll take us at least eight days to get from the foot of the pass to the Guilfordian border by gridaban convoy¡­if we¡¯re lucky enough to find one, and if we avoid any cities.¡±


    I paused to take another bite of stew. ¡°On foot, it could take anywhere from three and a half to four weeks, and we¡¯d still have to avoid populated areas. And even then, I¡¯m sure the Border Guard will know our faces by now, so they¡¯ll stop us immediately.¡±


    I took a short swig of my soup before I continued, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. ¡°The second option,¡± I said as I put my last finger down, ¡°is we continue forward into Ishmar and enter the country illegally. We find the nearest town or village, find out where we are, and make for the border as quickly as possible while attracting as little attention as possible. Even if Ishmar doesn¡¯t have an extradition treaty with Guilford,¡± I gestured at both of us, ¡°you and I both know we have plenty of reasons for not wanting to get caught by those lizard-riding murderers.¡±


    We both had no love for that country. It had taken a great deal from us. But desperate times, as they say, call for desperate measures. Fleeing to Ishmar was a lot less riskier than going back to a country where everyone already knew who we were.


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    On the other hand, there wasn¡¯t a great deal of support as to why we should take our chances with Ishmar either. Ishmar wasn¡¯t exactly known for its good neighbor policies. That tended to happen when your military might was made up of mostly dragon-riding soldiers that could swoop down from the skies breathing fire on your troops. As such, Ishmarians didn¡¯t take kindly to heavily armed people attempting to illegally cross the border, going in or going out.


    Another wrinkle in that plan was that mages weren¡¯t welcome in Ishmar under any circumstances. Dragons were known for their hard scales that could break steel weapons. But a mage could turn a dragon into a giant ice sculpture with a simple gesture and a quick incantation. As a result Ishmar¡¯s eastern neighbor, Algrustos, the supposed ¡°birthplace of magic¡±, was always at odds with them. There were politics involved, of course, but at the end of the day, it boiled down to ¡°Ishmarians hate magic¡± and ¡°Algrustrians hate uncultured barbarians.¡±


    Stories of Ishmarian brutality were a gold coin a dozen, but I believed every one of them. I¡¯d seen it for myself. They were merciless, monstrous. There were even rumors that the Ishmarian King even condoned ¡°witch hunts¡± to find children born with the talent for magic, only to slaughter them without pity or remorse. Supposedly, people who found mages or turned in children who showed any sign of having magical ability were not only rewarded, but praised for doing what was considered ¡°a patriotic duty.¡±


    It made me sick to my stomach. Being hunted for something you were born with, something that was out of one¡¯s control¡­I could imagine the confused look on a child¡¯s face as some unfeeling zealot prepared to end their life. I shook my head violently to shake the thought from my mind. Better to focus on our own problems now. If Alverd and I were caught, the Ishmarian Border Guard would execute me on the spot.


    That is, if they discovered that I was a mage.


    After all, I didn¡¯t look much like a mage. I didn¡¯t have the pointy hat, my staff looked more like a short walking stick and I didn¡¯t wear a traditional robe. The Ishmarians wouldn¡¯t mind Alverd. They¡¯d see him as some merc who polished his armor too much. Considering the alternative, I guessed that we had a real shot at making it into the country and fleeing across the border before anyone was the wiser. It beat the noose waiting for us back in the Guilfordian capital.


    When I thought about it, mages like me weren¡¯t welcome anywhere, really. Just like the people back in Guilford, the people of Ishmar would treat me like the spawn of evil. Most people were only familiar with the helpful applications of magic, such as healing and communication. Those peasants had seen raw elemancy, the power of the elements, which only had one real application.


    Combat.


    I didn¡¯t blame them for their reaction. It was a harsh wake-up call to the even harsher realities of life. But while the peasantry of Guilford would shrink from me in fear, I would receive no such treatment in Ishmar. Man, woman and child would pick up torch and pitchfork to lynch me on a tree if they caught me practicing any form of magic. And that was if the rabble caught me. I didn¡¯t want to think about what would happen if I was apprehended by actual soldiers.


    I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d ever go to Ishmar. Not taking our history into account, anyway. But as I said before, desperate times call for desperate measures. Our lives were on the line, and we needed to make ourselves scarce. As long as we didn¡¯t go too far into the country, we would be fine. Alverd and I knew quite a few things about laying low.


    Maybe, if I had more time, I could¡¯ve come up with something else. Maybe if I was a better mage, I could find a different solution. But those were just what ifs. Our backs were against a wall and it was time to just own up to the only logical course of action we had left. We were just two men against the world. And there were worse ways to go than dying while flinging lightning at some smug son-of-a-bitch who thought riding a dragon made him the deadliest thing in the world.


    ¡°Well. We¡¯ve done dumber things,¡± I muttered. ¡°I guess we¡¯re heading to dragon country.¡± I slurped down the last of my soup and placed my bowl back on the floor, stoking the fire while I watched for Alverd¡¯s reaction. My lifelong friend smiled again. Gods, how I hate it when he does that, I thought.


    He gets all the girls when he smiles.

 Chapter 3-A Princess of Dragontamers (Part 1)

    Chapter 3: A Princess of Dragon Tamers


    Alverd says I worry too much, sometimes. That I¡¯ll get premature gray hair before I hit twenty-five.


    Someone had to do it. I mean, one could only get by on blind optimism for so long. And I found it quite insulting that he would insinuate that I¡¯d feel so damn old by the time I was twenty-five. I was only nineteen, for crying out loud! He was two years older than me, so if I was old by then, he¡¯d practically be ancient by his standards!


    I had to plan things out step by step. At each step, I had to make sure we were staying the course. If we deviated from the plan, I saw it as an opportunity for everything to go horribly awry. But Alverd wasn¡¯t so concerned with details. He was always someone who preferred to do things in the moment. Even for something as dangerous as illegally entering Ishmar, he was sure that everything would go off without a hitch.


    I wasn¡¯t so sure. As far as I was concerned, being paranoid was what kept us both alive. I always made sure to have a contingency in case the worst came to pass. There was the possibility I would be pleasantly surprised, and if not, prepared. This time though, Alverd was right. All the planning in the world would do little to stop us from being killed by dragon-riders if they found us.


    It did little to comfort me as I tried to sleep in the dying light of our campfire, deep within the fortress.


    We rose the next morning, assuming it was morning because we had no way to tell otherwise, our stomachs rumbling with hunger and a little sniffly from the cold. We¡¯d left the tarketan meat to dry overnight, and it hadn¡¯t spoiled. We chowed down on the meat, making sure to save some for later in case we couldn¡¯t catch any game in the future.


    We trekked through the pass for another two days, making good use of the camping gear we had salvaged from the outpost to bunk down when night fell. The supplies included everything from tents that sealed themselves against the cold air and wind to tarketan repellent, which we deployed around our campsites liberally before sleeping. Nevertheless, we took turns taking three hour night watch shifts. Old habits die hard, but I¡¯d rather be dead tired than just dead.


    I still wondered what we were going to do when we reached Ishmar. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure if there would be a presence waiting for us on the other side of the Devil¡¯s Jaw. It wasn¡¯t likely given what the merchant had said. Even if Guilford had the brazen desire to invade Ishmar through the Devil¡¯s Jaw, they¡¯d be at a huge disadvantage. If Alverd and I were lucky, there would be a few dragon-riders and that would be it. If we were extremely lucky, there¡¯d be none at all.


    Dragons ridden by Ishmarian soldiers are not city-dwarfing monstrosities like the ones in ancient legends. Since the wars of hundreds of years ago, smaller breeds of dragons had sprung up throughout the land, likely the ones that had avoided being hunted into extinction in the aftermath. Ishmar was known as the only place on the continent of Selarune to domesticate the creatures. Many modern dragons were about nine or ten feet tall, could accommodate one or two riders, and were capable of breathing fire, though not on a scale comparable to dragons of old.


    Larger varieties of dragons still existed, but they were rarer. I¡¯m not an authority on dragon physiology or anatomy though. I know enough to know that Ishmarians use dragons to carry troops, supplies, weapons and other gear, and to conduct raids in which they eliminate key defensive weapons or drop shock troops behind enemy lines. If Alverd and I were to encounter dragon riding Ishmarians on the other side of the Jaw, the jig would be up before it even started. But there was no point in worrying about it now.


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    On the third day, we emerged from the fog and beheld a view that took my breath away; wide pastures of green  and clear blue skies. We stumbled down the mountain range hurriedly, trying not to slip in our excitement to be out of that freezing death trap. The temperature became warmer and warmer until at last, I could no longer see my own breath curling from my mouth like wisps of smoke.


    At the base of the mountain, Alverd and I made camp once more. We decided that there was no rush to blunder further into the country without being fully rested. We sat on the ground, eating tarketan meat (it was unbelievable how long that stuff will keep if you prepare it properly) and admiring the natural beauty around us.


    If I had to say something nice about Ishmar, it would be the scenery. Beautiful seas of lush green grass with the occasional tree swaying gently in the summer breeze. The sky didn¡¯t have a single cloud and was the clearest blue I had ever seen in my life. My eyes passed over smooth hills and fields of dracobells, flowers indigenous to Ishmar. They were stunning little things with orange buds and scintillating aromas. Given what I knew of the country, I half expected the place to be full of craters and scorched earth. In fact, the place was so bloody peaceful I half expected to fall asleep right there.


    I flopped back onto the ground, crossing my arms behind my head to cradle it as I peered up at the sky, completely mesmerized by it. A light breeze gently stroked my face, whistling past as my eyes became heavier and heavier. I took a deep breath and finally closed them, allowing the air to carry me off to a light afternoon nap.


    I dreamt of better, simpler times, of a man whose face was burned into my mind. Gregor Farnus, already the old, cantankerous sort when I was first introduced to him, had been my magic teacher for nearly ten years. I dreamt of the time he had tasked me with the simple job of showing some of my fellow apprentices how to conjure a fireball. I had taken the lesson to be just simple instruction for them, but in fact, it had turned out to be a serving of humble pie for me.


    Pulling the heat from my body to form the basis of the spell, I had decided to wow the other apprentices. I pulled more heat from my body than was safe, producing a larger fireball that pulsed with power. However, I immediately keeled over in a fit of shivers as my body temperature immediately plummeted, my fingers and lips turning blue in seconds before my eyes. The fireball sputtered out of existences as I collapsed unto the ground, my teeth clacking loudly as I rubbed my arms across my chest furiously to warm myself.


    Old Farnus stood over me, laughing uproariously, telling the gathered students, ¡°pride goeth before the fall¡±. He repeated that rule many times during our instruction and it became ingrained in my heart, as did the memory of my three-day stay in the infirmary after the incident.


    The dream flowed into my second bedridden day and how he had waltzed into the infirmary with a knowing smile plastered across his wrinkled face, his hand perched upon his gnarled staff. He sat down next to my bed and sighed deeply. After a moment, he spoke.


    ¡°You know something, Kuro? I¡¯ve noticed something about you. You don¡¯t seem to have a lick of sense in your head.¡± He lifted his hand and scratched his chin in that self-righteous manner that adults have when they think they have all the answers.


    I had retaliated by saying something along the lines of ¡°Well, once I¡¯m your age, old man, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be telling someone like me the exact same thing.¡± Farnus simply laughed at that. ¡°That¡¯s the thing, Kuro. Mages like you and me rarely live to see my age!¡± We both shared a laugh at that. Once I had recovered, I made an effort not to embarrass myself again with only partial success. It pained me to admit that I wasn¡¯t a very versatile mage. Or a quick learner for that matter.


    My dreams took me to another place. A simple shop with blue flowers in its window planters. The sweet aroma of baked goods floating out of its open door. A smiling girl with dark hair was pulling me inside to show me all the things the shop had for sale. I¡¯d never forget this place, even if I did live to see Professor Farnus¡¯ age, I¡¯d never lose the memory I associated with this shop.


    Such was both a blessing and a curse now.

 Chapter 3-A Princess of Dragontamers (Part 2)

    Suddenly a roar split the afternoon calm like an axe through a log; the sound was unmistakable as one of the most trauma-inducing things I¡¯d ever heard in my life. I leapt to my feet with my staff at the ready. Alverd was ready too, his sword drawn and shield raised. We searched our surroundings frantically to try and determine the direction the sound had originated from, but no dice. The roar came again but this time we could sense that it coming from behind us. We whirled around at the same time.


    A blurry shadow shot over us as quick as a flash. A wave of force from the beating of large, leathery wings knocked us both from our feet as the shadow reeled into the air for another pass. I looked up and saw the unmistakable outline of a dragon.


    Most people have different ideas about how dragons look, but the consensus is that they¡¯re large creatures, big enough to fit an entire cow in their mouths. A fully grown dragon, perhaps, could be large enough to do so, and sport a wingspan that would dwarf anything known to man. This dragon was big, but not as big as a fully grown, adult dragon. It was still taller than three men though, with wings stretching at least the length of two-and-a-half. Its mouth was lined with sharp, wicked looking fangs meant for the express purpose of ripping flesh from bones. Small horns protruded from the back of its skull, and its scales glittered a bright yellow-green in the afternoon sun. The dragon bellowed again, revealing its teeth, then swooped down for another attack.


    Alverd had his sword out, for all the good it would do. Dragons had scales that were virtually impervious to steel. I couldn¡¯t figure out for the life of me what he was thinking until he started dancing around and screaming at the dragon whirling overhead.


    He was luring it toward him and away from me.


    Recognition gave speed to my will. I picked up my staff and began focusing on a spell. My best bet was to use an ice spell on the dragon¡¯s scaly underbelly, cooling it to the point of shattering. Then, Alverd could deliver a killing blow to the heart straight through the unprotected area. Unfortunately, that would require careful timing; if I failed to get it right, Alverd would be within striking distance with no means of counterattack or defense. The dragon¡¯s fiery breath would melt Alverd¡¯s shield in an instant, and charbroil him. If the fire didn¡¯t do it, its claws would slice through shield and armor like a blade through parchment.


    Despite being at the base of the mountain, there was still plenty of chill in the air to supply the water I needed for an ice spell. The ball of freezing cold swirled into existence at the tip of my staff, drawing upon the water vapor in the air. Slowly, the dragon circled ever closer to Alverd, wings beating furiously.


    The dragon¡¯s jaws opened wide. Alverd saw what was coming and leapt off to the side with all the speed he could muster. A blazing torrent of red shot from the dragon¡¯s open maw and scorched the ground where he had been standing seconds ago. Green grass turned to blackened, smoking ash, soil to cracked dust. At last, the creature ceased its destruction and saw that it had missed Alverd completely. The beast slammed onto the ground, landing on all fours, then reared up and roared once again.


    There was my chance.


    With a primal scream, I sent the orb of cold at the dragon. It smashed straight into its chest, staining it with a coat of shimmering ice. The dragon let loose an earthshaking cry. The force of the spell caused the dragon to hit the ground in a sprawl, and it fell to its side with its frozen underbelly exposed. Weakened by the expulsion of my spell, I fell back on my ass as the dragon thrashed wildly.


    Like a hawk, Alverd came shooting down from the sky, sword raised, the point angled down to pierce the dragon¡¯s hide. There was a cracking sound as the sword met the ice, then an unsettling squelch as the blade sank into the dragon¡¯s flesh. The dragon let out a screech of pain, and fell silent. The corpse twitched a few times before it ceased moving. Alverd pulled his sword from the dragon¡¯s carcass, flicked the blood away, and sheathed his sword. He turned to look at me, smiled, and gave me a gesture of thanks. I returned the gesture thinking that we were out of the woods.


    At that moment, a human female came scrambling over a nearby hill, waving her arms. She had shoulder length blonde hair, sky-blue eyes, a lithe frame, and a short stature. Her skin was fair but lightly tanned, typical for people who lived in a part of the world where the sun beat down on them constantly. She was wearing a dragonhide leather cuirass that was normal for the tamers of Ishmar. Several belts tied to the one around her waist were swaying to and fro, and her arms were clad in leather gauntlets bound with straps. She was also wearing tall boots that reached past her knees.


    She may have looked human, but when she got closer, she proved to be more terrifying than the dragon.


    As she approached she started screaming a long line of obscenities that even sailors would find offensive. She was also waving a nasty-looking two handed maul with a head wrought of finely polished metal with draconic imagery inlaid into its design with gold etching. Weapons like that were the kind that could smash skulls like they were made of glass. She was wielding it in just one hand, which was impressive given that its handle was nearly as long as she was tall. She was also carrying several knives on the straps around her legs, which I had a bit of a phobia about. Despite her barrage of colorful language, she didn¡¯t appear to be out of breath; either she was incredibly fit, or she hadn¡¯t run far. Both looked equally likely.


    And she was headed straight for us.


    When I was young, I was bullied by other kids because I spent all my time with my face buried in books. As such, I never really developed any ability to defend myself apart from setting peoples¡¯ clothes on fire, which apparently wasn¡¯t acceptable, for reasons that still elude me to this day. Once I made friends with Alverd, though, he always protected me.


    So when I immediately hid behind Alverd, it was purely out of reflex and not because I was afraid that the crazy girl was going to turn me into dragon chow with her maul. Yup. That¡¯s my story and I¡¯m sticking to it.


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    The girl finally closed the distance and she immediately got into Alverd¡¯s face, spittle flying from her open mouth. She looked practically rabid. I took one look at the pure, unadulterated murder in her eyes and shrunk behind Alverd even more. Up close, I could see that she was shorter than I¡¯d originally guessed; she was closer to my own height, probably only a hair¡¯s width taller. She looked like she was in the later parts of her teenage years, around eighteen or so.


    She was wearing dragon bone earrings in both of her ears and a solid gold tiara inlaid with eight sapphires on her head. There was a symbol on her armor that I dimly recalled as a numeral in the ancient Ishmarian language of Ishratan. I also noticed that even though she was short, her arms and legs were lean with plenty of muscle to them. She could probably beat me in arm wrestling and send me flying off a table if I tried to challenge her. Then, she opened her mouth again and started berating Alverd in a shrill, high-pitched voice.


    ¡°What the hell is wrong with you idiots? Do you have any idea of what you¡¯ve done?¡±


    Alverd and I traded looks. Finally, Alverd answered. ¡°Um¡­we killed a dragon? But to be fair, it attacked us first.¡±


    This revelation seemed to only make the girl angrier. She waved her maul again, and my eyes tracked it nervously. At such close range, I would never be able to outrun such a weapon. She would chase me down easily and turn my head into a splattered tomato with that giant metal block on a stick. While I was processing this, the girl continued screaming.


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you useless commoners couldn¡¯t see the saddle on that dragon¡¯s back?¡±


    Alverd and I traded looks. Slowly, we glanced over our shoulders at the dragon¡¯s corpse. Sure enough, a leather riding harness was fastened to the dragon¡¯s back at the base of its neck. It was rather inconspicuous, which explained why we had missed it in our struggle for survival. Tiny straps with metal fastenings looped under the dragon¡¯s neck and arms to secure the harness, and could barely be seen unless one was on the lookout for them specifically. Alverd looked at me again, a pained look of recognition on his face.


    ¡°It was my fault,¡± Alverd told the girl. He immediately cut off my attempt at a retort with a sweep of his arm. ¡°It was my blade that killed your dragon. I will be the one to take responsibility for this misunderstanding.¡± To emphasize his guilt, he stepped forward and clapped his hand against his armor. There he went again with his heroic self-sacrifice shtick. He didn¡¯t even realize he did it or that it drove the ladies crazy. Even when he¡¯s trying to defend me, he annoys me, I thought resentfully.


    The girl crossed her arms over her chest, her maul still held tight in her right hand. ¡°Damn right you will. The both of you are going to be brought to the Castle of Brimstone to answer for this crime! You could both be foreign spies trying to interfere with the Rite of Succession. Only a few people knew I would be training out here, and you killing my dragon like this could be some kind of ploy to remove me from the Tournament!¡±


    Uh-oh. I had forgotten about that. Ishmar was undergoing a transitional phase at the moment. Whispers in all circles, from merchants to mercenaries, claimed that the King of Ishmar was ill, and his time was quickly running out. His many children would be vying for the throne in Ishmarian tradition; through ritual combat. Each of his children would pit their personal pet dragons against one another, and the last one standing would be the one to take the throne.


    Although killing another child¡¯s dragon outside the Rite was forbidden, if the dragon was killed by an outside party, that particular child would have no choice but to give up their chance at ascending the throne. It was all needlessly complex, and supposedly would prevent blood feuds, but I don¡¯t think it was as effective a deterrent as the previous Kings had thought. All that political instability was just another reason why it had been a bad idea to come.


    I already suspected as such, but it didn¡¯t hurt to confirm my suspicion. I tentatively leaned out from behind Alverd to ask my question. ¡°Then, does that mean that you are one of the Princesses?¡±


    The girl¡¯s attitude immediately changed from irritation to arrogance. She confidently thrust her nose in the air and took on a haughty tone. She puffed out her chest and placed her hands on her hips, probably in an effort to command our attention further. Not that she had any success in that manner. The only way her self-introduction could get any more dramatic would have been if a personal entourage burst out of nowhere with fanfare and confetti.


    ¡°Ah, so you finally figured it out, hmm? Yes, I am one of the princesses of Ishmar. I am Alicia Helgart Irva Dragontamer VIII, the Eighth Princess of Ishmar! Now, you will bow in my presence, commoner! Be grateful that I grant you such an honor! Beg for my forgiveness, dogs!¡±


    The two of us stood there staring at the princess. We were completely at a loss for words. Even I couldn¡¯t come up with a sarcastic reply to such a line when delivered with the conviction she had.


    Then the other thing she had said finally registered. She said that we were going to be brought to the Castle of Brimstone. The Castle of Brimstone was supposed to be the capital of Ishmar, a great stone fortress built upon a dead volcano. If we were taken there, my identity as a mage would probably cause some serious problems for my life expectancy.


    It was bad enough that we had just killed a dragon belonging to a member of the royal family. My status as a mage would most definitely cement us as spies or saboteurs. I doubt there would even be a trial. A quick nod, a sentencing, and then our heads would roll.


    Then I remembered that she was alone and no longer had a dragon.


    ¡°So,¡± I ventured, ¡°you¡¯re going to take us to the Castle of Brimstone, huh? You and what army?¡± I folded my arms and gave her the smuggest smile I could manage. Weasel out of that logic, dragon princess, I thought with childish satisfaction.


    Alicia answered my smile with one of her own. Then she raised her fingers to her mouth and gave a shrill whistle. A few moments later, six dragon riders crested the hill, forming a perimeter around us. The dragons each of the men were riding weren¡¯t as big as the Princess¡¯ had been, but they were still large and intimidating. Each rider wore black armor with red stripes, carrying spears with wickedly sharp blades. Each soldier had the same Ishmarian numeral emblazoned on their shoulders in blue signifying their loyalty to their Princess. Even their dragons had ebony armor plates held in place by leather straps, and their captain had an ornate helm as black as the midnight sky.


    The leader hefted his spear and held the point in our direction, and his fellow riders did the same. Alverd and I stood back-to-back, their blades hovering just inches from our faces.


    Alicia¡¯s smile grew even wider. ¡°I trust this army will be sufficient?¡±


    Some people have said that the gods work in mysterious ways. Personally, I always thought they were sadists. Everything made perfect sense when you looked at it like that.


    It would certainly explain my luck.

 Chapter 4-The Castle of Brimstone (Part 1)

    Flying is not nearly as much fun as it looks when you¡¯re not wearing a harness or safety belt. As prisoners, we had been robbed of our weapons by the Princess¡¯ guards. They then forced us onto their dragons, without any kind of further restraint. The guard captain, the one with the decadent helmet, snickered at me. ¡°You¡¯ll be riding with me, mage. Better hold on tight, because if you fall off, I won¡¯t be coming after you.¡± I had a brief image in my head of me plummeting through the air at breakneck speed and I gulped, much to his satisfaction.


    He then mounted up on his dragon with a short leap, swinging his leg over the saddle with the familiarity of experience. Two other guards pushed me onto the saddle right behind him, and then tied my wrists together after looping my arms around the captain¡¯s waist.


    Alverd was in much the same boat as me; another set of guards was doing the same to him, although they also took an extra second to secure him with a set of leather belts. When it was determined that Alverd wouldn¡¯t slide off his rider¡¯s saddle, the rest of the guards saddled up as well. Alicia climbed up behind one of them, and after she had secured herself, the dragons pushed off in the air, almost in unison.


    I swear, the captain must have been pulling all those twists and turns simply because he thought it would be funny to watch a mage lose his lunch. I had no choice but to ride behind him, holding on for dear life. Right up until we landed on the large open balcony designed to receive visitors, my escort seemed determined to make me sick or die trying. Three times he corkscrewed through drafts, six times he dipped without warning, and each time I prayed to the gods that it would be the last.


    When we reached the Castle of Brimstone, we flew over a large castle town lying at the base of the structure. A sprawling city lay beneath the Castle, filled with buildings that reached almost forty feet high, with bazaars and market squares visible. The streets were teeming with people, who looked like ants scurrying about from my elevation. Before I could crane my head to try andI couldn¡¯t get a good look at much beyond the buildings and squares, but before I could crane my head to try, the captain veered hard left and swooped down towards the cCastle.


    A series of landing zones had been set up on small crags and outcroppings surrounding the castle itself. Our group angled for one towards the side of the castle facing away from the city beneath it. I got a good look at a huge, elaborate stadium of some kind, its seats vacant. It was easily sixty feet high, a small way down a beaten path from the castle. Again, I didn¡¯t get a chance to see much of anything before the captain began a sharp descent to the platform below, and he intentionally made an abrupt stop to rattle me before touching down.


    Oh well, the joke was on you, pal. I got both my feet on the ground before I spewed out a stream of vomit. I will note with some satisfaction that I managed to throw up on him. He clobbered me over the head with his steel-plated gauntlet, but I didn¡¯t care. I was also treated to some extra brutality by the guards I was being handed off to, who knocked me to the ground and pinned me with their spears. Once they determined that I was simply throwing up and not conjuring up skin-melting acid from my mouth, they hauled me back to my feet. As the furious rider ran off to wash himself, the other soldiers escorted us into the cCastle.


    The Castle of Brimstone was, in a word, depressing. The stone of the walls was a blackened color, as if it had been scorched by some massive heat, and every part of the keep was reflected in its guards, who wore ashen armor that echoed the bleak surroundings. Each hall we traversed, every room we passed, even the various decorations were all the same lifeless ebony color, with only the barest hint of gold to break up the monotony of it all. Many of the walls and the floor were comprised of some volcanic stone. when I took a closer look; fitting, given that the Castle was built upon one. The Ishmarians had taken the natural abundance of solid stone and turned it into a workable citadel. Not surprising. Ishmar was a land plagued by shortages of food and many amenities other countries took for granted. For them to take a giant extinct volcano and build their capital into its side was pure pragmatism. It also emphasized a kind of rugged strength that the entire barbarian culture was obsessed with. Nothing screamed to the world how fearless the Ishmarians were like building their royal palace on top of a volcano. Not sure that meant anything when the volcano was dead, but barbarians weren¡¯t known for their mental acuity, in my opinion.


    We were led through a series of corridors and chambers until we reached a pair of large golden doors, which were a welcome sight after all that bland and repetitive interior decorating. The doors were engraved with dragons intertwined and, breathing fire. We were held outside for a short period of time, with Alicia watching over us. Several of our escorts entered the throne room first. After about five minutes, they exited and nodded to Alicia.


    ¡°The King has been informed. He is ready for you now, Princess.¡± Alicia motioned to the two guards flanking the doors to push them open, and Alverd and I were shoved into the throne room by our enthusiastic escorts.


    The throne room was no different than the rest of the castle; gloomy, morose, and in serious need of some new d¨¦cor. The room was designed to draw attention to the man seated on the tall throne, the so-called King of Dragon Tamers. Obsidian pillars stood aside a crimson rug that stretched from the door all the way to the throne itself. The throne in question was made of a material I had never seen; it was clear, like quartz, which gave it the appearance and fragility of glass. Given the King¡¯s physical health, it was coincidentally well-suited for him. Alicia broke into a bit of a run before, stopping only to kneel before her father. That¡¯s when I noticed that we were not alone with the kKing.


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    A young man stood next to the glass throne, clad in glittering golden armor and a black cape. He possessed a helm in the shape of a dragon¡¯s head, complete with jaws reaching over his face, and horns sloping back majestically. A look of haughty disinterest was on his face, but when he saw Alverd and me in the background, his eyes widened in amazement. He managed to rein it in quickly, though. He regarded us coldly as the guards brought us forward, the way one looks down on others they don¡¯t consider a threat.


    The King had obviously seen better days. He was a wizened old man, with a long, scraggly beard, sunken eyes, and thin, wispy hair beneath his golden crown, and his gnarled hand held a gilded scepter topped with a brilliant ruby, which had to be bigger than my curled fist, cradled in the grasp of a miniature dragon, also made of gold. His eyes, though blue, were faded and unfocused, as though he were on the verge of blindness. His robes hid what I suspected to be a frail body, wracked with age and the ravages of his illness. Yet, when he spoke, his voice still held the authority earned by decades of power.


    ¡°I see we have a pair of foreigners in our midst. Do tell, what are a pair of vagabonds like yourselves doing in our country, hmm...?¡± His voice was clear as a bell, still masculine, without a hint of stutter. Yet, it also contained a hint of amusement as if, as though he could scarcely believe what he was seeing. He widened one eye as he waited for a response.


    The two of us did not answer. I tried to maintain eye contact with the King, but it was hard to do so with all the sweat cascading down my face. I fumbled as I tried to wipe my face on my sleeve, trying to brush it away. His eyes narrowed when I did so, and I flinched slightly. Alicia stood up and walked to the side of the throne, then leaned over to speak into her father¡¯s ear.


    ¡°Father, I caught them near the mountain pass. They killed my dragon. They claim to be nothing more than travelers, but I defer to your wisdom on this.¡± She backed away respectfully and resumed her position off to his left. The other man¡¯s eyes also narrowed. I could tell he had heard Alicia¡¯s statement, but if he had any feelings about it he didn¡¯t show them. Instead, he looked back over at Alverd and I, waiting for the King to speak.


    The King turned his eyes back to us. ¡°Is this true, vagrants?¡±


    Alverd didn¡¯t hesitate. He stepped forward. ¡°Yes, that is true, Your Highness. But I alone am to blame. My friend is¡­¡±


    Alverd never got to finish. The King slammed the scepter on the ground, cutting my friend off, and making the man in the golden armor jump slightly. When the echo finally died down the King spoke once more. He certainly knew how to throw his weight around, despite his age and illness. It was humbling, even for me, who would normally be ready with a sarcastic comment for just this kind of situation. I decided to keep my mouth shut for the time being. Probably for the best. When the echo finally died down the King spoke once more.


    ¡°Do not insult my intelligence, boy. I know damn well that no mere man can kill a dragon with a weapon made from steel. Only a mage can kill a dragon, or assist others in doing so. Therefore, both of you are culpable for this offense.¡± For good measure, the King rapped his scepter on the ground again, and the empty hall echoed with the sound. It did a good job of masking the sound of my jaw hitting the ground.


    Well, I thought, this is it. The two of us were as good as dead now. I had a vivid image in my head of being fed to a dragon, its teeth sinking into my delicate mage flesh. I had no doubt that the dragon would savor the experience by chewing me into tiny little pieces before eating me, and nightmare scenarios began running through my mind. Would I live long enough to suffer through the whole process, or would I mercifully expire before I became an over-sized chew toy? Damn my overactive imagination!


    While I began imagining my inevitable and painful death, the King began speaking again.


    ¡°In accordance with Ishmarian law, the affected party will be the one to pass sentence. Therefore, your fates will be left to the mercy of Eighth Princess Alicia.¡± He gestured to Alicia, standing to his right, still looking very much like the cat that ate the canary.


    No, scratch that. She looked worse. She looked like a cat that had just cornered a mouse¡­ the kind of cat that plays with its food before eating it. Gods only knew what she had planned for Alverd and me. A new plethora of horrendous situations presented themselves, each one worse than the last. Again, damn my imagination!


    Alicia walked back in front of us and addressed her father. ¡°In that case, Father, would you agree to allow me to bind these two with the Rite of Reconciliation?¡± His eyebrow quirked up in surprise. I didn¡¯t say anything. I¡¯d never heard of this Rite, so I decided to listen for the time being.


    The King spoke again. ¡°For someone to bind a mage with the Rite of Reconciliation¡­it has never been done in the history of our country. Since the dawn of our kingdom, we have hunted those who use the repugnant devilcraft of magic. Every King and Queen before me would have sentenced these men to death with a swiftness that would rival the fleetest of dragons.¡±


    But then the King leaned back in his throne, resting back against the tall clear back. ¡°But as I said, ultimately, the decision lies with you, Alicia. If you feel that is the best course, you are within your rights to do so. Very well. I hereby sentence both of these men to the Rite of Reconciliation.¡± He leaned forward again, addressing me and Alverd directly. I got the distinct impression that he was grinning behind his beard.


    ¡°You belong to the Eighth Princess, now. May Evros, the Progenitor Dragon, have mercy on your souls.¡±

 Chapter 4-The Castle of Brimstone (Part 2)

    The young man standing off to the King¡¯s other side evidently objected to this as much as I did. For the longest time he had stood beside the throne in silence, but growing visibly more agitated as time had gone on. Having finally had enough, the man spoke up for the first time since we¡¯d arrived. He turned his surprised face to meet the King¡¯s haggard countenance.


    ¡°Father, is this really wise? They could be Algrustian spies! If the small one is really a mage, then we should torture them for whatever information we can before executing them! Think about this, Father.¡± Great. Apparently senseless bloodlust runs in the family.


    The King fixed his stony gaze on the young man. ¡°You dare question our laws, Marcus? You dare question your King? You will hold your tongue! You are not yet king, no matter how much you wish it so. Do not dare challenge my authority in front of foreign criminals. Use what little brains you have, boy!¡± He rapped the scepter against Marcus¡¯s head, displaying far more strength than I would have expected from the ailing man. Marcus recoiled away, embarrassment on his face.


    The King bellowed again. ¡°The scouts reported that these men were found at the foot of the Devil¡¯s Jaw. That means they came from the direction of Guilford, not Algrustos. The only people who cross into Ishmar from Guilford are either mercenaries or fugitives, or both, and if they took the treacherous mountain pass, with its beasts and foul weather, then they did it out of desperation. If you would actually pay attention to anything other than yourself for more than half a second, you would be able to tell a desperate man when you see one.¡±


    HeThe King narrowed his eyes as he looked at Alverd and me again. ¡°You can smell it on them. Look at the way this one stands. Probably ex-military, knight training if I¡¯m not mistaken. Look at the polish on his armor. No mere spy would willingly attract so much attention. No, it is a habit formed from experience. Any fool could see that this boy was a knight once.¡± The King squinted a bit, then sneered. ¡°Or at least, pretends that he could be one.¡±


    I glanced at Alverd¡¯s face, and I was surprised by what I saw. Although Alverd¡¯s face was set in an even stare, I could see¡­ turmoil set in his features. I knew right away what he was thinking. I was willing to bet Alverd was feeling the same hate as me knew what was stirring beneath that eerily calm fa?ade. We were face-to-face with the man who had stolen everything from us. Our home, our friends, our lives. No wonder he was struggling to contain his fury. We had lost so much, as a result of this man¡¯s ambition and arrogance. Alverd was feeling the same hate as me, but was still struggling to contain his fury.  However, now was not the time for him to lose his cool.


    Odd as it was for me to play devil¡¯s advocate in this situation, when my life was on the line, I felt it an appropriate role to play. I elbowed Alverd, and he broke eye contact to look at me. I very slowly shook my head. He got the message and relented. There was precious little we could do anyway, not without weapons. The sad truth is, without my staff I had very little fine control over my magic. Even if I did manage some kind of spell, it would, best case scenario, kill everyone in the room quickly. Worst case, it would probably just kill me.


    A staff acts like a grounding rod for all the magical energies a mage channels during the casting of a spell. Without it, it would be like running around in a thunderstorm carrying a twenty foot metal pole straight up. The moment I conjured the power necessary to use the spell, the magical force would surge through my body uncontrollably and burn me inside out in a heartbeat. Then, whatever raw magical energy I had managed to unleash would be free to rage out of control in the environment around me.


    Normally, a staff only served as a conduit for magical power. Whatever magic a mage used had to pass through some kind of exterior focal point, and the staff served that function by creating said point at its tip. Otherwise, the focal point would originate somewhere inside a mage¡¯s body, which would kill the mage the moment the spell was cast.


    There are a few documented cases of people actually casting spells without staves, but I have only read one such account; of a mage from Algrustos who had managed to control the wind around him in an attempt to stop a tornado from destroying his village. His village had long been ravaged by seasonal natural disasters, and every year he lost people dear to him. Finally, after coming of age, he decided to take a stand. Although he succeeded, he died immediately afterwards, with only a burnt out husk remaining.


    Even then, the ¡°account¡± I had read was little more than a legend, one told to Algrustian children at bedtime, so I had no way of knowing if it was even true. But so many others had tried, and all of them ended up with the same fate: a one-way trip to whatever waited beyond this mortal coil.


    I didn¡¯t know about Alverd, but I really didn¡¯t want to die at this juncture. I¡¯d follow my best friend anywhere, but not if he wasn¡¯t thinking clearly. Fortunately, the decision was moot, for at that time, Alicia piped up.


    ¡°Father? If you wouldn¡¯t mind, I¡¯d like to take the prisoners away now. If I may have your leave?¡± She followed her request with a modest yet respectful bow, which I wouldn¡¯t have expected from her. The King¡¯s face flickered, but the change in his tone was almost too subtle to catch.


    ¡°Yes. You and your prisoners may go, Alicia.¡± There was a sense of warmth in his voice that wasn¡¯t present when he had berated Marcus moments ago. I didn¡¯t have time to dwell on that, however.


    A guard grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me out of the room. I saw that the other guard was taking a different approach to moving Alverd. He poked Alverd in the back with his spear, which didn¡¯t register because of his armor. Alverd, however, moved quite readily, and the soldier didn¡¯t have to repeat his brutish gesture. We were pushed out of the throne room almost as quickly as we had been tossed in, probably because the guards were eager to see us tortured.


    The guards led us down a corridor lined with portraits of previous kings and queens. Other than all being blond, I noticed that they all shared an edgy look to them, a ruthlessness in their faces that each artist managed to capture flawlessly. Perhaps it was even intentional, given that each ruler was known for some conquest, famous battle, war, or some slaughter.


    Each ruler wore that distinction like a medal, adding to the barbarous reputation of Ishmar as a whole. The current King most likely had a portrait in this hall as well, painted at the height of his rule, and at some point, maybe even Alicia would. Or worse, maybe that Marcus bloke. I shuddered at the thought.


    Speaking of the angry little she-devil, Alicia strolled ahead of us with a spring in her step, probably thinking about the horrors she was about to inflict on us once she got us to the dungeon. Meanwhile, I was sweating nonstop. I felt as though I was about to pass out. The thing about mages is that we have a bit of a low pain tolerance. That¡¯s what happens when you study books nonstop instead of exercise, eat healthily, breathe fresh air and get the occasional bit of sun. It¡¯s the reason we don¡¯t fight on the front lines; we¡¯re squishy and don¡¯t like it when people with swords, maces or bows try to kill us. So, thinking when I thought about all the various torture implements waiting for us, I almost cried.


    Finally, we reached a large pair of ornate doors made of shimmering ivory. The two guards opened them, and unceremoniously tossed me in like a sack of potatoes. Alverd was also shoved in. Alicia closed the doors behind her after the guards left, bowing their heads as they did so. Thank goodness I had landed on a fur rug, it really helped cushion the¡­ Wait. Fur rug? I looked up.


    The room was beautifully decorated with fine silks and tapestries, a large fireplace with flawless marble, and a canopy bed that could probably fit three grown men side by side, with luxurious sheets and embroidered pillows filled with goose down. I found that I was lying on a tarketan fur rug, and that it easily dwarfed the one Alverd and I had killed only a few days ago. Finely crafted furniture and hand-carved tables rounded out the room, and through an open armoire I could see dresses of the highest caliber, made from materials highly sought after in this part of the world. There was only one conclusion. We were in Alicia¡¯s room.


    The princess in question locked the door behind her and sat down in an enormous chair, crossing her legs idly. We stared at her in awkward silence for a moment. What was there to say? We were in a room alone with a girl. She had locked the door. Now she was staring at us with expectation in her eyes. What were we supposed to think? Visions of torture changed to visions of¡­ indecency. I didn¡¯t have any better explanation for her behavior. Finally, the Princess broke the silence and the awkward atmosphere. When she spoke, the haughty tone from before had returned.


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    ¡°So, now that you are aware of the law of our land, will you submit to my judgment, or do we do this the hard way?¡± The look in her eyes was starting to get on my nerves. But I was more intrigued by what she had said than annoyed by her expression.


    Alverd looked puzzled. So was I. He asked, ¡°What do you mean, ¡®submit?¡¯¡±


    Alicia sighed in exasperation. She began toying with her shoulder-length hair, looping a stray strand around her finger absent-mindedly while she spoke.


    ¡°In this country, when one commits a crime against another and is caught, the victimized party has the right to invoke the Rite of Reconciliation. In that case, the perpetrator is forced into servitude to pay off the weight of their crime. In this case, you¡¯d be my servants until I felt that you¡¯d atoned for your slight against me. The alternative is immediate execution. What do you think?¡±


    She began drumming her fingers on the armrest of her chair impatiently. My mind was racing furiously. But in the end, there were no pros and cons to weigh; it was a simple matter of life or death. Which was why Alverd interrupted my thoughts. He immediately agreed to Alicia¡¯s terms while I was still working on realizing the futility of weighing pros and cons.


    ¡°My lady, it is my solemn duty to atone for the grievous insult I have inflicted upon you. It would be my honor for us to make it up to you in whatever manner you see fit.¡± He¡¯s making that face again. His stupid smile of total compliance. I stood there, flabbergasted, as Alverd signed our souls over to a girl who would probably feed us to an overgrown lizard as soon as she was done with us.


    We were as good as doomed, now. But since we were dead anyway if we refused, it didn¡¯t really matter. Damned if you do¡­


    What I didn¡¯t understand was why Alverd was being so nice. This girl was our enemy. She was the daughter of the King of Ishmar, the man who had the blood of countless innocents on his hands. Even if he was simply observing his knightly training and treating Alicia with respect simply because she was a princess, it didn¡¯t change any of the facts. Fortunately, I had never sworn any such oath of chivalry, so as soon as I was able, I planned to let Alicia know exactly where I stood on the servitude issue. Preferably when Alverd was out of earshot, since he had a tendency to disapprove of my vulgar vocabulary.


    Alverd quickly slapped his hand over my mouth. I guess he assumed I was thinking of making some snide comment, which I found offensive, since I wasn¡¯t planning on saying anything. I guess he just assumed I would. Not that he would have been wrong, he¡¯s just playing it safe. Not a bad idea though.


    ¡°And Kuro here will do the same. I¡¯ll make sure to keep him in line, Princess. You¡¯ll find he can be very observant and diligent.¡± He added that almost as an afterthought, as though trying to convince Alicia of my worth. I felt a kind of subtle loathing gnaw at me from deep within at his words.


    I forced myself to give a facetious smile after I pulled his hand away. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s just that sometimes other people don¡¯t like it when I diligently point out the things I observe about them.¡± Alicia frowned, but then smirked. ¡°Go ahead and be blunt, then. I guarantee I can be blunt, too.¡± She hefted her fist and I realized she¡¯d outplayed me. I felt a tiny bit of respect, for just a fleeting moment.


    Satisfied at the outcome of our little verbal spar, she stood up and walked over to the fireplace before turning, turning to face us. When she did so, however, her expression had become grim and serious. She paused, and when she spoke, the haughtiness from before was replaced with apprehension.


    ¡°What happened to my dragon¡­ wasn¡¯t entirely your fault.¡±


    I was shocked, but not shocked enough to come up with an unnecessary sarcastic remark.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what was that? I could¡¯ve sworn I heard the beginning of an apology in there somewhere.¡± Alicia looked miffed at my tone, but mostly my little quip had done little more than annoy her. I had hoped to insult her more, but I guess she was made of sterner stock.


    Alverd gave me a pointed look. Then he tried to placate Alicia.


    ¡°Please excuse my friend. He can be rather¡­ harsh, sometimes. It comes from his upbringing. He can¡¯t help himself sometimes, poor soul. But he means well.¡± Alverd elbowed me brusquely, and I tried to smile sarcastically by showing all of my teeth.


    On the inside, though, I scowled. I hated it when he tried that. Trying to make me look nobler than I was. I told the truth because that¡¯s the way I was; I didn¡¯t need to sugarcoat things. Especially when I was talking to people I had no respect for. Well, truthfully, it was more that I didn¡¯t want to sugarcoat things. The world had dealt me a pretty bad hand, and I felt no need to make things easier for people who I felt were better off than me.


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell the whole truth in front of Father or my siblings, but now that it¡¯s just us¡­ I can reveal something.  I¡­lost control of my dragon. He went feral while I was feeding him, and flew off. Then he attacked you, and you had no choice but to slay him. I fear that the royal soldiers will inform Father eventually, but I could not bear the shame if any of my siblings learned of such an incident¡­¡±


    The girl before us looked very different than the one who had only hours earlier been swearing at us in a blind rage. She seemed even smaller, frail, as if she were a porcelain doll about to crack under pressure. When she continued, her voice was choked with stifled tears.


    ¡°To lose control of one¡¯s dragon is a sign of one¡¯s ineptitude. It means that I am unworthy of my station as a dragon tamer. It means¡­that I am unworthy of being a princess.¡± Her hands balled into fists, and I could almost imagine her fingernails digging into the skin of her palms. ¡°If it were to be madecome public, then I would be stripped of my royal title and cast out, and shunned by all of Ishmarian society. I¡¯d be worthless.¡±


    Alicia began shaking visibly. She was now sobbing as well. Tears streamed down her face in rivers. Alverd strode over to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. When she looked up, she saw his reassuring smile.


    ¡°Do not fret, my lady. Regardless of what others say, we have sworn service to you. We will stand beside you, no matter the trouble.¡± Gods, sometimes I forgot the impact Alverd had on women. The handsome devil could charm the birds out of the sky if he wanted to. Against a girl like Alicia, who probably had never had anyone pay such earnest attention to her, there was simply no hope at all. I once saw him talk down an irate mercenary captain with his smile and the promise of a tankard of ale; compared to that, this Princess was easy prey.


    Alicia stopped sobbing just long enough for a look of confusion to cross her face. Then she scowled, and moved away from Alverd, her face wary, guarded. Her posture seemed to suggest that she thought Alverd was only being so nice so he could shove a dagger in her ribs. But despite her initial reaction, she quickly composed herself.


    ¡°I¡­ I will inform Father of your decision. I¡¯ll have a room prepared for you two before the evening is out. We have much to do tomorrow, so make sure you get some sleep.¡±


    With that, Alicia marched us out of her room. She immediately rushed off. About half- an- hour- later, a maid came and informed us that our accommodations were ready, and led us to our guest room. I was certainly glad. A hot meal, a warm bed, and my head still firmly on my shoulders was a great way to end a day. At least, if you overlooked our unending enslavement to a spoiled princess for the rest of our lives. Reminded of this, I whirled around to face Alverd, who was in the process of bedding down for the night.


    ¡°I notice that you had nothing to say to that girl, Alverd.¡± I walked to his bedside and scowled. ¡°You and I both know what her father did. And yet you treat her with respect and civility! What in the seven hells is wrong with you?¡±


    HeAlverd shook his head. ¡°Kuro, I¡¯m surprised at you. Even if you didn¡¯t have lessons on chivalry every day for years on end, one would hope that a fine young man like yourself would accord himself properly in the presence of a lady. She confided in us, and that took a great deal of trust on her part. Trust that I plan to repay in the immediate future, and that you should think about repaying as well. If you think on the matter, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find yet another reason underneath it all as to why this girl deserves our respect.¡±


    With that, he turned over and pulled the covers tight. I returned to my own bed, still fuming. I lay beneath the expensive silk sheets, racking my brain regarding Alverd¡¯s final comment. Nothing came to me, though. My frustration was blocking my ability to think straight, and I finally gave up after about a half hour. Curse Alverd! I loathed his nonchalant attitude. I knew that he still harbored certain thoughts about home. For him to act like he did around Alicia galled me far more than anything. I wanted to smack some sense into him, but I realized it wouldn¡¯t do much good. I pulled the sheets closer, and decided that I would think on it further in the morning, after a good night¡¯s rest.


    Little did I realize that sleep would offer no respite.

 Chapter 5-The Grand Ball (Part 1)

    I knew right away I was dreaming because I¡¯d had the dream before. Actually, it was more accurate to call it a full-blown nightmare.


    I found myself on the stone cold floor of an all-too familiar library coughing on the smoke and ash in the air. For the umpteenth time, I pushed myself up, turning to see the slumped form of a girl, a mage, against the wall. Blood trickled from her open mouth, her hand still grasping the arrow lodged in her abdomen. Her robe was stained dark, and with foolish hope I crawled to her and fumbled for her neck to feel for a pulse. There was none. I closed the girl¡¯s eyes, giving her the appearance of a blissful slumber.


    From where I was, I could see aisles upon aisles of books on wooden shelves, all ablaze. Tapestries with proud eagles on them were engulfed in flames. I could hear the sound of steel clashing over the crackling of the fire all around me. Soldiers screamed as blades and arrows pierced flesh. I ran for the door. I threw my shoulder into it, and the door burst open. I stumbled out into the courtyard beyond.


    I saw a great castle crumbling as flaming boulders crashed into once beautiful spires, flames spreading everywhere. Knights and mages ran to and fro, some fighting the fires while others fought the invaders. A group of knights dressed in silver armor that caught the dancing glow of the flames, rushed forward to meet another group of black-armored knights. They clashed and swords whirled and spun in the air. The courtyard I emerged into was a scene of violence and madness. Then it became worse.


    A creature out of a child¡¯s darkest nightmare screeched from the sky. A dragon, covered in ebony armor plates soared above me, and I could barely make out his rider against the night sky. Following him was a squadron of dragon riders flying in a tight, disciplined formation. They angled toward the group of silver-garbed soldiers fighting a fire in a corner of the courtyard. A few of the riders broke off and the small group swooped down over the soldiers. They never saw the dragons coming. I could hear them screaming, never having time to reach for their weapons. The dragons tore into them with the ferocity of hungry wolves. I could hear wet, ripping sounds and I almost retched


    Hiding amongst a pile of crates with the hopes of not being spotted by the dragon riders overhead, I could hear more innocent lives being ended by the blades of the Ishmarians. I couldn¡¯t help any of those mages without a staff. I peeked out from behind the crates to see if I could find anything I could use to defend myself.


    My old instructor, Professor Farnus, was limping along in the background while trying to guide a group of children clothed in mage pupils¡¯ robes to safety. The squadron leader steered his mount in their direction; I reached out my left arm and screamed, but no sound emerged from my mouth. I could only watch in silent agony as the dragon barreled toward my old master.


    Professor Farnus was no spring chicken, but all of his years of experience made up for it. He saw the dragon rider coming a mile away. Leveling his staff skyward, Farnus willed energy out of his body and along the staff, lightning sweeping up and over the length of the oak. By the time the bolt of bright blue light had reached the end of his staff, it was gleaming with power; it surged into the air, but the dragon rider corkscrewed out of the way, dodging it by a hair. The dragon nose-dived towards Farnus at breakneck speed.


    In anticipation, Farnus raised his gnarled staff high, and a shimmering field swept over him and the children. Like a transparent sphere of glass, it flickered into being, surrounding him and the children. The children held tight to Farnus, cowering as the dragon swooped down at its rider¡¯s command. The old wizard bared his teeth in exertion, as if daring the rider to come after him. The dragon opened its jaws and answered the challenge with its flaming breath.


    I could not turn away. No matter how much I wanted to, no matter how much it hurt, I had to relive this moment in my mind whether I was awake or asleep. Farnus¡¯ shield faded, unable to hold the barrage of hellish power assaulting it, until it eventually failed, and Farnus and his staff fell to the ground. He cried out to the children to flee. They scattered, running as a group. The rider saw them and steered the dragon in their direction. Again I cried out, in vain. The dragon roared and blew fire once more.


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    Was it quick? Was it merciful? I didn¡¯t know. Those children didn¡¯t stand a chance. They didn¡¯t even have time to cry out before the wave of fire washed over them and snuffed them out like candles in the wind. Farnus screamed out in fury and loosed a poorly conjured lightning bolt at the rider out of sheer desperation; it clipped the saddle keeping the rider attached to the dragon, and he fell to the ground, rolling into a combat stance. Fueled by what had to be raw fury my mentor scrambled to his feet with more speed than I¡¯d ever seen him manage.


    The rider pulled an axe and rapier from his belt, then rushed at my mentor. Farnus swept his staff across the ground and pulled a barrage of stones from the earth. The barrage went needling toward the rider, but her sidestepped the stones. I could see Farnus struggling to call upon every reserve left in him as he shot another bolt of lightning straight at the rider, the hissing blue lightning searing the air as it shot forward.


    The bolt impacted the rider in the chest, but only managed to slow him down. Farnus poured more intensity into his spell, sustaining it into a continuous blast, but the rider kept advancing. My teacher¡¯s eyes were practically bulging out of his skull, his teeth set in a defiant snarl, blood spilling from his mouth as he threw everything he had into his attack. He was killing himself with the amount of effort he was exerting, likely burning his own life force like kindling to continue his attack.


    It didn¡¯t matter. At last, the rider got close enough to knock the staff from Farnus¡¯ hands. With one strike, the rider buried his rapier up to its hilt in Farnus¡¯ chest. The old man retched as the blade pierced out his back. The rider yanked it free and Farnus hit the ground, coughing profusely. He lifted his head just enough to spit blood on the rider¡¯s boot. In response, the rider lifted his axe and brought it down on Farnus, ending him with the cold precision of a practiced killer.


    To feel so powerless was the true horror of this nightmare. To see such barbarism unfold when I could do nothing to stop it was what made this stay with me after so many years. The rider pulled his bloodstained axe out of Farnus¡¯ corpse and went off to direct some of his fellows to look for more helpless victims to butcher.


    Crawling out from behind the crates, I ran to my fallen mentor¡¯s side. He lay on the ground, his robe quickly turning dark from soaking up his blood. His eyes were still open, staring lifelessly into oblivion. I cradled his head in my lap as I closed them. Grief caused me to forget that I was in the middle of a war, drowning out the sounds of battle all around me.


    Then, I spotted Farnus¡¯ staff lying nearby.


    My mind still swimming, I reached over and picked up Farnus¡¯ fallen staff. The oak was finely sanded as per Farnus¡¯ inclination, smooth and without a single errant splinter. I pulled the staff close and I could feel tears, hot and messy, sliding down my face to meet at my chin. I screamed my anguish to the sky above. Suddenly, I heard the clank of armo, behind me.


    The rider who had just killed Farnus and the children had returned, flanked by two more Ishmarian knights. Their armor was far more ornate than the soldiers I¡¯d seen earlier, but with my vision distorted by tears and the heat haze I could barely tell the difference. The knights unsheathed weapons and began stalking towards me, the one in front already rearing his arm back to throw a hand axe at me.


    A black-haired girl in a cloth jerkin knocked me to the ground, and the hand axe sailed past me harmlessly. Straddling me, she reared back and aimed a crossbow ahead of her. Without hesitation, she loosed the bolt and it lodged itself in the tiny opening of the visor of one of the knights, flooring him. He collapsed in slow motion, a gurgling sound echoing from his helmet. The girl whipped around, her ponytail swinging, and in that one smooth motion drew the shortsword on her hip, dropping the crossbow as she did so. With her left hand, she grabbed my collar and lifted me up. I was still in a daze as I felt my feet plant themselves on the ground, and as the girl yanked my face to look at her, I recognized one of the only friends I¡¯d ever had.


    ¡°Kuro! Thank the gods you¡¯re alright! We¡¯ve got to go, now! Stop staring off into space!¡°


    I turned, and the lead knight burst into a full-on rush towards us. He lifted his axe and with an eerie cry ran toward the two of us. I tried to back away but I was rooted to the spot. The knight rushed forward, and raised his bloodstained axe high¡­

 Chapter 5: The Grand Ball (Part 2)

    ¡°KURO!¡±


    I snapped out of the dream, gasping for breath. I turned and saw Alverd standing beside my bed. He looked as though he had just rolled out of bed himself. His hair was even more unkempt than usual, and his movements seemed sluggish. I looked down, and found that my right hand was grasping the staff from the dream, which I normally kept within arm¡¯s reach. It was Farnus¡¯ staff, a four foot long stick of oak with a twisted end, much like the root of a tree, now marred along its length by the battles I¡¯d faced. I crawled out of my own bed and looked at myself in the vanity mirror in the corner of the room. As usual, I looked terrible.


    ¡°You were tossing and turning. Were you dreaming about¡­ home?¡±


    Home. Alverd always knew when I was dreaming about home. It wasn¡¯t all that hard to guess from the way I was clutching that staff. We¡¯d been gone for four, five years? Had it really been that long?


    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s been a few years since we left. And here we are, in the last place we thought we¡¯d ever end up.¡±


    Alverd smirked, but I could sense the pain behind it. Even if it had been several years, the two of us remembered the pain like it had been only yesterday. The images of the children, mostly, still burned in my mind. I pushed away the persistent thought as I tried to clear my head. I splashed some water in my face from the bowl sitting on the vanity, but it did little to help my appearance. ¡°Alverd, do you ever¡­do you ever think about¡­¡± I struggled to finish my sentence, too afraid to bring up the name of the girl in my nightmare.


    Laura. The specter of my deepest regret. A mutual childhood friend to both Alverd and myself. Seeing her in the dream with her frenzied expression and wavering voice struck a painful chord. That wasn¡¯t how I wanted to remember her. When I thought of her, I thought of baked goods and juvenile teasing and play-acting in the streets of our home. That dream was the only time I could recall her looking like that, and for that, I was glad.


    Before I could finish my sentence, a maid announced herself. She told us that Princess Alicia was expecting us in her quarters. We quickly dressed (I insisted on wearing my usual robe, since I wouldn¡¯t be caught dead wearing fancy clothes) while Alverd donned a formal outfit that would probably have made girls swoon en masse. He had chosen a smart black officer¡¯s suit with golden tassels, complete with white dress gloves and golden cufflinks. Apparently, it was reserved for Ishmarian officers or generals on formal occasions. He looked almost like a noble in those clothes. However, he insisted upon fastening his knightsword to his hip. I didn¡¯t have the strength to argue with him. I decided to leave my staff in the room, against my better judgment. Better not to attract unwanted attention.


    Once we finished primping, we quickly made our way to Alicia¡¯s room.


    When we arrived, we saw something unexpected. Alicia had traded in her form-fitting leather armor for a very attention-grabbing dress. It was dainty and yet accentuating, a tasteful blue color designed to match her eyes, with white ribbons. The neckline was modest yet deep enough to draw attention and came with long gloves that reached almost to her shoulders, which had poofy, transparent plumes. A golden tiara fitted with eight flawless sapphires was seated upon her head, and she had chosen not to do anything ostentatious with her hair, though she had two braids caressing the sides of her face down to her chin. The gown was obviously the work of a master, a visionary in the clothing arts. And yet, its beauty was completely wasted on the person wearing it. Well, that was my opinion at least.


    Alicia¡¯s face was bright red, a stark contrast to all the blue and white. She began fidgeting, her hands pulling at some handkerchief, and eventually, she just lost her temper.


    ¡°Well? Do I look good or not?!¡± She didn¡¯t even make eye contact when she demanded it. She gave the floor a reproachful glare that she probably would have aimed at us had she not been so embarrassed. I was at a loss for words.


    Alverd, ever the personification of tact, saved the day with his talent for saying exactly what needed to be said. ¡°You look splendid, my lady. If I could have the honor of escorting you this evening?¡± He offered his right arm like a perfect gentleman.


    Escort? Wait, is there some shindig going down? I flat out asked Alicia what was what.


    ¡°What do you mean? Is there a party or something?¡±


    Alicia looked at me with disdain, the color fading from her face as she was distracted from her own embarrassment.


    ¡°You know, for such a smart-ass, you really are an idiot. Tonight is the Grand Ball of Succession. All of my family members will present themselves before the King and confirm whether they will attempt to take the throne. Next week, they will ride their dragons against each other in a tournament. The dragons and riders fight to the death, and the last one standing gets to be King. Any survivors must renounce their nobility and leave the country. Forever.¡±


    I knew about the tradition, but only the major details. I decided to ask Alicia more.


    ¡°But if you lost your dragon, doesn¡¯t that mean you would have to renounce your claim to nobility as well?¡± It seemed only logical that she would be excluded on such grounds. Alicia shook her head.


    ¡°Normally, no. By not participating, I would still retain my place as a noble, albeit one who bears the shame of losing her dragon by lack of skill. But I plan to enter anyway. And that is why I need the two of you.¡±


    Alverd and I stopped mid-step. Needed us for what?


    ¡°Surely, my lady, you don¡¯t expect us to fight in your dragon¡¯s stead?¡± I pictured the two of us alone in a battle with seven dragons. Yeah. That wouldn¡¯t end well at all.


    Alicia laughed. ¡°Hah! You two would be roasted on a spit in seconds. No. I have another solution. But it is dangerous, and I will require your help for it. But I will speak more of it later. First, we have a ball to attend. Sir Alverd, you may escort me. Your friend can just mind himself.¡± I tried valiantly to strangle the biting retort that wanted to come out of my mouth, barely succeeding.


    When Alverdoffered Alicia his arm, her face turned hostile again. ¡°But remember! I¡¯m only doing this because I need your help. Don¡¯t get any ideas, sellsword. If you try anything, I¡¯ll be more than happy to remind you of your place!¡±


    This girl was starting to thoroughly get on my nerves. Stupid nobles with their stupid emphasis on appearances. I didn¡¯t see the point, really. By now, it would be fairly common knowledge what had happened to her dragon. Trying to pretend everything was fine by attending some insipid party in a fancy dress wouldn¡¯t change anything. I had to resist the urge to slap the little brat across the face.


    Worst of all, she was treating Alverd like dirt. Granted, Alverd took it with grace, but only because of his ¡°chivalric education.¡± He may have been too much of a gentleman to hit a lady, but I had no qualms about smacking the haughty tone out of her voice if it went on for much longer. Servant or not, we were people, and I was not going to tolerate-


    I was interrupted mid-thought by Alverd glancing in my direction. He gave me a look that said, ¡°drop it.¡± I was surprised by the severity of it. As quickly as it had come, it was gone and Alverd was all smiles and patience again. I sighed in exasperation, bit my tongue, and decided that it wasn¡¯t worth pursuing. There would be plenty of time later to worry about such trivialities.


    Alicia also composed herself, grabbed Alverd¡¯s arm a bit more roughly than she had to, and led him toward the throne room. I followed and wondered to myself what Alicia¡¯s contingency plan could possibly be.


    Not much had changed inside the throne room for the Grand Ball in terms of decoration. The chandeliers, however, were ablaze with fresh candles and tables packed with food stood off to the side. The entire middle of the room was alive with dancers twirling across the floor in synchronized harmony, swaying to the music emanating from the musicians sitting in the corner. The King, still on his throne, watched all of it with the same grave look stamped on his face.


    Alicia immediately led Alverd to the floor, and the two began to dance as well. Alverd was a terrific dancer. He¡¯s even graceful when he¡¯s wearing his armor. When he was the man could dance like it was the last night of the world; another thing for me to be envious of, I guess. I was born with two left feet, not that I ever had an opportunity to test the validity of that particular saying.


    I could see the look of amazement on Alicia¡¯s face, even from where I was standing over by one of the tables. She stepped up her game with a series of complex twirls and fancy footwork, and Alverd easily kept up. It was quite amusing. I could feel a smile tugging at my face. I picked an apple off the table and bit into it, watching as the two weaved and bobbed through the swarm of dancers, moving in time to the music and becoming one with the crowd with every dip and turn.


    It¡¯s so easy to forget that there¡¯s  joy in life. People dwelt too easily on the negatives, people like me. I guess that''s why I thought of Alverd as such a good friend. He¡¯d had plenty of opportunities to give up on me over the past fifteen years. And yet, he never did. He was living proof that the world wasn¡¯t always as hopeless as I thought.


    I don¡¯t rightly know how much time passed. Waltz after waltz played, and I had to turn my eyes away from the mesmerizing scene of the dance floor lest I become drowsy. I tried to mingle, but I stood out like a sore thumb in my cloth robe with its blue and gold color scheme. Most of the people dancing and populating the room had black mixed in with their clothes. A few people took note of me but for the most part I stayed out of the spotlight whenever possible.


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    A fanfare jostled me from my thoughts. All of the dancers cleared out of the center of the room. A second fanfare sounded, and seven people with Alicia being one of them, stepped forth. They stood before the King, two men and five women, and knelt as one with their heads bowed. Beside her siblings, Alicia looked even smaller. There could be no doubt that she was the runt of the litter, which explained her desire to prove herself. The King, with some difficulty, rose from the throne and lifted his hands.


    ¡°On this day, we honor our ancestors through our traditions. Today, the children of the dragon will rise up and seize their birthright through strength, as is our custom. The bond between man and dragon will forge a new ruler for our glorious kingdom. Step forth, children of the dragon, and declare your intent!¡±


    One of the men stood. I recognized him as Marcus, the one who had incurred the King¡¯s wrath the day before. He was wearing armor that glinted like gold with a black cape billowing behind him. He wore a helm that resembled the jaws of a dragon, complete with teeth and horns. He removed the helm as he approached the King revealing short blond hair. He did this with a great air of theatricality, swinging his head side to side. I could hear several ladies swoon and giggle to themselves nearby. The cocky bastard even turned in their direction and smirked at them, causing them to giggle more. Finally, the man knelt before the King, and spoke.


    ¡°I, Marcus, First Prince, declare my intent to rule the land as King.¡±


    The King waved his scepter over Marcus¡¯s head. ¡°Then it shall be. The First Prince has declared his intent.¡±


    The nobles in the room applauded, and the girls squealed with more girlish laughter as the King made his proclamation. Marcus backed away from the King to take his place in line once again. Another man stepped forth with similarly gaudy armor. He didn¡¯t have a helm, so I got a good look at his face. His hair was even shorter than Marcus¡¯s, and his face had a kind of brutish look to it. He seemed taller and more muscular than Marcus, and when he stepped forward to kneel before the King, I could see that his armor was built around all that extra bulk. I shuddered a bit at the thought.


    ¡°I, Deacon, Second Prince, declare my intent to rule the land as King.¡±


    The King repeated his actions and words as he had for Marcus. The nobles applauded again, however there were no girly cries this time. After Deacon had returned to the line, the first of the princesses strode forth. She was a delicate looking thing, shorter than Marcus but taller than Alicia. She was very plain, from her looks to her medium length hair and a height that was not too tall but not too short. Even her dress was uninspired, as it made no effort to accentuate anything, adding to her plain appearance. She knelt before her father and spoke.


    ¡°I, Shannon, Third Princess, declare my intent to rule the land as Queen.!¡±


    Again, the nobles clapped. Shannon returned to the lineup. The next girl to come up was, well, drop dead gorgeous by normal standards. A very attractive face, silky hair that reached down to her elbows, and¡­ahem, let¡¯s just say the gods had been kind to this girl¡¯s figure. The excessively daring dress she was wearing was not helping, either. She wasn¡¯t my type though. I preferred redheads.


    The girl sashayed up to the King and bowed deeply. I noticed that several of the young men in the room leaned forward slightly when she did so. I rolled my eyes. Boys will be boys, I thought to myself.


    I¡¯d never be attracted to any of these people. Like the two men who had preceded them, these two women both had the same hard eyed looks in their eyes. The eyes of killers. Murderers who reveled in the act of slaughter. I knew that the royal family had participated in the invasion of my homeland. I knew that their King had personally taken to the field to bloody his sword. Each of the royals was a gods-be-damned criminal, parading around in a fancy outfit, pretending to be human. They were all monsters prancing around in fancy clothes as far as I was concerned.


    ¡°I, Leila, Fifth Princess, declare my intent to rule the land as Queen.!¡±


    The disparity in order snapped me out of my angry haze.


    I muttered to someone standing next to me, ¡°did they just skip someone?¡± If I knew my mathematics, then I was pretty sure four came after three and before five. Unless basic counting was different here in Dragon Land, which for all I knew, it was.


    The person replied, ¡°The one who¡¯s missing is the Fourth Prince, Edgar. They say he ran away a year ago after his dragon went feral. Nobody has heard from him since. It was such a strange incident. I¡¯m afraid I remember little about it.¡± The man spoke with the bored indifference of what I had come to expect from his ilk. He looked me over, clearly disapproved of what he saw, and turned back to what was taking place. Fine with me.


    The next girl was Eliza. She stood before the King and bowed.


    ¡°I, Eliza, Sixth Princess, declare my intent to rule the land as Queen.!¡±


    This woman was far different than her siblings. She was maybe as tall as Marcus with unbelievably long, slender legs. She wasn¡¯t wearing a dress, but a modified version of the suit that Alverd was wearing, a dapper officer¡¯s uniform with black cloth and gold tassels. In fact, if the girl didn¡¯t have her modest bust and somewhat feminine low ponytail, I could¡¯ve mistaken her for a man. Even her voice had a masculine tone to it, with a no-nonsense tone to it that indicated that this girl preferred action to words. If that didn¡¯t make it obvious  the way she rested her hand upon the rapier at her side spoke it plainly, as did the numerous medals and accolades mounted on her outfit. I realized in horror, however, that she had several trinkets dangling from her belt. Marevarian trinkets.


    I recognized several charms that Marevarian knights would carry for protection. She had several rosaries, too. The kind Marevarian mages fashioned as focusing aids for their magic. The woman was brazenly carrying these trophies in public as a point of pride. When I looked at her face, though, I felt a sudden wave of dizziness in my head. Like there was something hiding beneath the surface. Something about the way she looked and carried herself struck a chord in me. I¡¯d never met this girl before. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯d remember if I met Ishmarian royalty.


    I narrowed my eyes, focusing on her face intently, trying to make sense of this unusual feeling. The woman decided to look in my direction just at that moment, and caught me. She stared back at me with narrowed eyes that almost gave me the impression that she was deciding whether to disregard me or try her rapier out on me for daring to make eye contact. I looked away as quickly as I could and when I finally worked up the courage to look again, she had returned to the line to make way for her younger sister.


    The seventh Princess, Deanna, struck a middle ground between Leila and Eliza. She was average height, leanly muscled, and had long hair done up in a magnificent bun with various ornaments. Her gown was a study in contradictions, showy yet decent, tempting yet chaste. Several men¡¯s eyes followed her as she stepped forth and knelt before the King.


    ¡°I, Deanna, Seventh Princess, declare my intent to rule the land as Queen.¡± The King performed his bit, and she stepped down. As she rejoined her siblings in line, any ambient noise in the room ceased.


    It was Alicia¡¯s turn.


    Alicia strode up to the King with confidence and poise. I could¡¯ve cut the tension in the air with a cleaver. The atmosphere was so heavy. Nobody said a word. All eyes were focused on little Alicia. A few of the nobles began whispering as Alicia passed, and I would¡¯ve put gold on it that none of those whispers were flattering. Alicia, undaunted, continued her walk until she stood in the exact same spot her siblings had been before her. She curtsied in front of her father, awaiting his judgment. After what seemed like an eternity, the King spoke, his voice as passive as glass.


    ¡°My dear Alicia. You have no dragon to put forth for this tournament. Have you anything to say?¡±


    I noticed Alicia hesitate ever so slightly. A breath hastily taken, then a pause as if she were trying to summon the words for her situation but stumbled on them. A hushed murmur rose from the crowd.


    Then, Alicia mustered her courage and proudly stated, ¡°I, Alicia, Eighth Princess, declare my intent to rule the land as Queen!¡±


    The crowd went into an uproar. I watched from my shadowy vantage point by the fruit table as the verbal chaos erupted in the room. Her father let it continue for only a moment before slamming his scepter on the ground. The noise died quickly but not fast enough; he snarled at the nobles, a visible show of contempt that cowed the remaining rabble-rousers into silence.


    After quiet had been restored, he turned again to Alicia. ¡°And how, my dear, do you intend to participate, having no dragon to command?¡±


    Alicia pointed at Alverd. ¡°I intend to take those who wronged me to the Nest. There, I will tame one of the wild dragons. When I return, I will prove my worthiness in the tournament!¡±


    The crowd laughed unanimously. From where I stood, I could see Alicia standing defiant among them, trying hard to maintain an aura of pride and composure. However, even her siblings, save Eliza, were laughing at the poor girl. But no one laughed harder than Marcus, the First Prince.


    He strolled leisurely behind Alicia to pat her on the head, his laughter giving way to that cocky smile again.


    ¡°My dear baby sister,¡± he mewled, ¡°the dragons that live up in the Nest are worse than feral. You would not last ten seconds there. There is no shame in accepting a life of luxury. You might as well. I know you wouldn¡¯t survive outside Ishmar.¡± He turned to the audience. ¡°I¡¯m sure once I¡¯m king, I could find some nice little niche for you. How does my personal court jester sound?¡± The crowd burst into a fresh round of hysterics, and I saw Alicia¡¯s face waver. Marcus circled her until he was face to face with her, and I got a good look at his expression.


    His smile made Alicia¡¯s look as innocent as a newborn puppy by comparison. He continued to insult Alicia. ¡°You know, I¡¯m sure it would be easy for you to learn. You always did know how to make people laugh. Look now! You¡¯ve got everyone in this room in stitches!¡± The crowd continued to laugh. It wasn¡¯t surprising to me.


    Nobles loved being called noble, but they often were anything but. I guess even here in Ishmar what passed for noble was any better than any other corner of the world. The way Marcus carried on while his sister tried valiantly not to cry was nothing short of sadistic. He was so busy mocking Alicia that he failed to notice Alverd removing one of his white dress gloves.


    ¡°Don¡¯t cry, baby sister! I¡¯ll take good care of you! You can sit at the foot of my throne with a pretty collar around your neck instead! And when I throw a ball, you can go fetch it for me, and when you bring it back I might give you a piece of food as a reward, like a good little bi-¡°


    The sound of the glove smacking into Marcus¡¯s face brought an immediate silence to the room. Everyone stared in shock and horror as the First Prince reeled from the blow. My jaw practically unhinged. The Prince looked as if he had been stabbed with a bloody knife. Even the King¡¯s eyebrow was raised. Alverd removed his other glove and pulled his sword from his scabbard. I couldn¡¯t hear everything the crowd was saying, but many were expressing shock at how Alicia had apparently allowed one bound by the Rite of Reconciliation to carry a weapon. On top of that, he had just drawn that weapon on a member of the royal family. They whispered amongst themselves, pointing at Alverd and occasionally Alicia. Alverd, undeterred, took up a stance with his sword leveled at the flabbergasted First Prince.


    ¡°I do believe you have besmirched mine lady¡¯s honor, knave. I challenge you to a duel.¡±


    Marcus snarled at Alverd, ¡°You fool! You dare strike me in front of my father! A lowly criminal has no right to challenge a prince of Ishmar!¡± He whirled around to look at his father, as if expecting the King to take his side.


    The King waved his hands in a commanding gesture, putting an end to the frenzied whispering in the room. Again he stood, with difficulty, and addressed his errant son. ¡°He is considered retainer to Princess Alicia and thus he is beholden to her. You opened the door for this challenge when you humiliated her. I will not bar this challenge. If it is Alicia¡¯s will, then it will go forward.


    All eyes turned to Alicia. I saw her wipe her tears away, then stare defiantly at Marcus. ¡°My servant acts with my approval. I give him permission to act in my stead.¡± The whispers started up again, mostly about the audacity of allowing a foreigner to duel on behalf of a princess. Marcus, infuriated by this turn of events, clenched his fist at Alverd.


    ¡°Then we settle this with steel. I look forward to gutting you, knave.¡±


    I snorted. This idiot had no idea what he was getting into. Maybe this was going to be our kind of party after all.

 Chapter 6: The Duel (Part 1)

    I¡¯ve only killed a man in cold blood once.


    I mean¡­ I have killed people before, but never without a reason. The reason wasn¡¯t always the most compelling or vindicating, but a cause is a cause. That reason could be as simple as me doing my job as a mercenary; sometimes it was what put coin in our pocket, food on our table, or roofs over our heads. Sometimes it was because my life depended on it, or other peoples¡¯ lives depended on it. Sometimes good people needed help, or bad people needed to disappear. But I always needed a justification in the end.


    I told Alverd about this habit once and he told me that needing so much soul-searching after every man I killed proved I wanted to believe what I was doing was good. Maybe it was true. Evildoers never have to care about the lives they ruin, right?


    If that was the case though, why was Alverd so calm after he killed people?


    Was just a byproduct of his knightly training? It could be he was desensitized to that sort of thing. Maybe it was because of the past¡­ No. I was overthinking things. Alverd was complicated, but also incredibly simplistic. Whenever he did something, he did it because people needed his help, or because it was the right thing to do. It made predicting his behavior ridiculously easy.


    He never badgered people for payment either, even when it was owed to us. And he always had a coin to spare for some hungry urchin or poor mother trying to feed her child. So I knew he wasn¡¯t a cold-blooded killer. It could be that he did it as some kind of protective mechanism, so he didn¡¯t have to deal with his baggage, or maybe he didn¡¯t wish to share the emotional burden with me, since I had plenty to carry on my own shoulders. I didn¡¯t have any idea how it all worked; I¡¯d been his friend since childhood and I still didn¡¯t understand it. I¡¯d have been a fool to doubt it though.


    When we had been brought before the King was the first time I had ever seen such conflict in his eyes. Alverd, like all knights, saw the world in black and white, not the gray that most mages did. Although there were all kinds of extraneous rules and conditions set upon it, I believed he was honor-bound to avenge his fellow knights¡­ including our friend, Laura.


    Laura. The image of her in my nightmare surfaced in my mind again. I pushed it away, reaching for the happier memories I kept close to my heart. Professor Farnus, my instructor, had taken me to a bakery when I was four to pick up food for the other children in his magic school. While I was there, I saw two children, maybe a few years older than me, talking in a corner. I wandered over to see what they were talking about.


    The boy, Alverd, invited me to join them. I was reluctant at first, fully expecting some kind of mockery or attack, but I took a seat at their table anyway. The girl, Laura, said her parents owned the bakery and that they regularly donated food to the orphanage/magic school Farnus ran. She looked at me with stars in her eyes.


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    ¡°I¡¯ve never met a mage trainee like this! Most of them don¡¯t really talk much. You have to tell me all about the school! Can you teach me any magic?¡± She talked a mile a minute. It was overwhelming at first.


    I loosened up over time, however. After an hour, I practically became best friends with the two. Laura was vibrant and a bit of a tease. She loved poking fun at young Alverd who, even back then, was still the same: stoic, unfazed, and patient. After instruction was over, I found myself neglecting my studies just to spend time with the first two people who I called friends, and who regarded me as a friend in return.


    At least, until the damn Ishmarians had come. Fire everywhere. Screams of pain and agony. Pools of blood and volleys of arrows. Nothing but madness and insanity in every direction while stones fell, men burned, and children cried for parents who would never come to save them. The only bright spot in my life had been torched with dragon fire, like so many other places and people. I¡¯ll never forget what the capital city, Irinholm, looked like as I fled with Alverd, a dying Laura in his arms.


    Did he really think that revenge was pointless? Personally, I didn¡¯t care. I wanted revenge enough to kill for all the people we¡¯d lost. The only thing stopping me was¡­ I didn¡¯t know. Something nagged at me. Something I couldn¡¯t put my finger on. Some vague reason was stopping me from calling up a thunderbolt and performing some badly needed regicide. It was irritating, like a relentless mosquito on a humid summer day. Alverd telling me that I should know why wasn¡¯t helping things in the slightest. I¡¯d figure it out eventually, but it would bother me until then, like an itch I couldn¡¯t scratch.


    Both Alverd and Marcus drew their swords, facing each other no more than twenty paces away. A man dressed in smart but humble clothes, obviously a servant, stepped between the two combatants. He raised his right arm, and looked at both Alverd and Marcus.


    ¡°This duel is to be carried out in the traditional fashion. The first man to disarm the other is the winner.  Drawing blood will not stop the match. The duel will commence when the handkerchief hits the ground.¡±


    The ¡°dueling ground¡± turned out to be a small courtyard just outside where the Ball was taking place, essentially a viewing platform so that the court could adjourn from the throne room to look over the city below. It had been designed to be spacious, so that people could view the stars above. Torches had been placed in a crude circle that formed the boundaries of the fighting area. Just beyond, the crowd flocked to see the spectacle about to take place.


    The Ishmarian nobles thought the deck was seriously stacked against Alverd on this one. He was still wearing that ridiculous monkey suit while Marcus was wearing his full armor. Some idiot had even started a pool that was quickly filling up with the odds against Alverd going almost thirty to one. I put all the money I had (thirty nine gold pieces, my emergency stash from my pack) on Alverd. The noble running the gamble laughed at me, but the joke was on him. I was no stranger to combat, so I knew full well that Alverd had more than a fighting chance.


    The servant procured a white cloth from his pocket and held it high. The nobles and onlookers in the courtyard became quiet as the man let go of the handkerchief. He quickly ran out of the makeshift arena as the cloth gingerly floated down like a butterfly. I saw both Alverd and Marcus tighten their grips on their swords. I saw the polished steel of Alverd¡¯s knightsword, its long, symmetrical blade catching the light from the torches. Marcus twirled his scimitar, its wickedly curved edge mirroring the smug smile on its wielder¡¯s face.


    The instant the cloth hit the ground, both swordsmen blurred forward.

 Chapter 6: The Duel (Part 2)

    Alverd, anticipating Marcus¡¯s aggressive attack, dropped into a defensive stance, holding his sword sideways. Marcus opted for a powerful overhead slash, but Alverd deflected the blow rather than blocking it directly by angling his sword diagonally, bracing it with his forearm. Marcus¡¯ blade slid off to the side, and his momentum carried him past Alverd. My best friend pivoted deftly, which moved him out of the way of the attack. Marcus fumbled and lost his balance, and Alverd neatly struck the Prince with the haft of his sword, drawing blood from the Prince¡¯s mouth.


    It was as I had expected; I suspected that the Prince had training, but his knowledge of battle came from ¡°knights¡± who fought riding dragons whose concept of a fair fight was to have their dragons breathe fire on anybody who looked like they could actually put up a struggle. As a result, I had guessed  the Prince knew very little about actual, practical fighting, regarding it more as a hobby than anything serious. He probably hadn¡¯t fought against anyone who could actually fight back, and given that this fight was merely to save face, he didn¡¯t take it seriously. However, after that vicious blow, I imagined that that was going to change.


    Alverd was wearing no armor, which was another advantage, albeit a risky one. Normally, Alverd was a clunky force on the battlefield. His armor protected him from blades and even some arrows, however it slowed him considerably. Without it, he was fast and light on his feet, owing to the combat training he had received in both armored and unarmored fighting. Marcus¡¯s armor made his already uncoordinated strikes and flourishes blocky and slow and left plenty of openings for Alverd to exploit. It also made reading Marcus¡¯s attacks easy as pie, since he practically advertised every move like some crier at a marketplace.


    Alverd deflected another wild blow and clouted Marcus in the face again with the haft of his sword. He had been training in the art of battle since eight when he became a page to one of the best knights we had ever known. For the past thirteen years of his life, he had dedicated himself to the path of chivalry, honor, and duty. Plenty of healthy competition and friendly banter had challenged him to be the best knight he could possibly be, and no self-respecting knight would ever lose to some puffed-up misogynist like Marcus.


    After  another blow to Marcus¡¯s face, the crowd started getting into it. They began to laugh uproariously, and Marcus¡¯s face turned red, seemingly more from embarrassment than from the beating he was taking. He had a nasty cut above his left eye and he spat out a tooth contemptuously as he twirled his scimitar. With an angry cry he lunged at Alverd again.


    This time, however, Alverd sidestepped his haymaker slash and smacked Marcus in the ass with the flat of his blade. This went over well with the crowd; they immediately laughed and began insulting Marcus. Alverd looked over at where Alicia was standing; she was cheering up, and now had a grateful smile on her face. Alverd returned the sentiment with his own smile and quickly twirled, avoiding yet another ill-timed attempt by Marcus to take his head off.


    Personally, this was all very entertaining. There¡¯s a special kind of fuzzy feeling you get when you watch villains get what they deserve. It¡¯s warm, like drinking a bowl of hot soup. At least that was how it felt for me. I looked over where the nobles had set up the gambling booth, and a great deal of the blighters were all trying to get their money back. The guy in charge wasn¡¯t having any of it, but he was looking pretty concerned. I smirked at him, and the man gave me an obscene gesture before returning to crowd control.


    At this point, Alverd decided that the Prince had been humiliated long enough. When Marcus lunged at him again, Alverd lunged as well. But despite Marcus¡¯s greater momentum, Alverd had a great deal more muscle, experience, and guts. He was unable to stop Alverd from ramming his elbow straight into his neck. As he choked and gasped for breath, Alverd kicked the Prince¡¯s sword from his hands. With a final effort, he planted his foot straight into Marcus¡¯s knee, then pushed him onto his back. As the Prince hit the floor, the crowd erupted into a cheer.


    Alverd placed the tip of his blade against Marcus¡¯ throat. Normally, such a gesture would seal the deal and end the duel right there. But I saw that same look, the one from the throne room, creep onto Alverd¡¯s face again. He regarded Marcus with animosity in his eyes that was completely out of character. I looked closer and noticed that his hand was shaking slightly as though he were restraining himself to the best of his ability.


    Alverd was jerked out of his little trance when Alicia came over and lifted his other arm into the air in a victory pose. She bounced around like a child. Slowly, he let a cautious smile touch his face while she continued to laugh without a care in the world. The little Princess probably couldn¡¯t have cared less that Alverd had just defended her honor. She was probably happier that Alverd had kicked her smug brother¡¯s ass.


    For once, I actually agreed with her.


    Alverd bowed deeply to his audience. Many of the nobles cheered for him, though some of them were crying their eyes out over their lost gold. I wouldn¡¯t say it was a battle hard won, but it was a moral victory and those were always worth settling for. Alverd let it sink in with humility and grace, but Alicia was hamming it up for all it was worth.


    I sauntered over to the gambling booth to pick up my winnings. The man at the booth had conveniently put all my gold in one big sack. I hoisted the giant sack over my shoulder, grinning like an idiot the entire time. Many of the other nobles watched with hate in their eyes as I walked off with their gold. Heh. I looked over at Alverd and Alicia, and for the first time since we arrived in Ishmar, I smiled from the heart. I quickly changed my expression.


    The King watched the spectacle unfolding before him with an expression of slight amusement on his face. Then he rapped his scepter on the ground, and the area fell silent once more. All eyes turned to him as he commanded full attention with his gravelly voice.


    ¡°The duel is finished,¡± he declared. ¡°The winner is Alverd, champion of Princess Alicia.¡±


    As the crowd cheered once more, Marcus lifted himself from the ground, brushing blood off his face. But in all the confusion, nobody noticed him pulling a small dagger from the inside of his boot. He quickly charged toward Alverd, who had his back turned to his assailant.


    Oh, hell no. There was no way I was gonna let that spoiled little rat bastard kill my friend in such a fashion. I dropped the bag of gold and threw my hands out in front of me, summoning the latent electrical energy in the air into a focal point in front of me. A spark ignited and a small ball of crackling golden lightning appeared. With a quick application of will that was akin to a snap of my wrist, I yanked a small amount of bioelectric energy from the currents within my own body and focused them into the ball. In a heartbeat, the power surged into a ball of lightning in front of me and I willed it forward. It shot forth with blazing speed, sharpening itself mid-flight into a more traditional thunderbolt-like shape.


    The lightning bolt I had sent at Marcus was a simple affair; at best, it would paralyze him for about ten seconds, at worst, it would probably just knock him on his ass. But I didn¡¯t have time for finesse. The glowing yellow bolt slammed straight into Marcus¡¯s torso and he sailed back six feet and landed on his back, sprawled like a drunkard on the floor. He groaned in pain, more likely from the impact of his head on the ground than from the bolt itself.


    The Prince¡¯s knife clattering on the ground was the only noise in the courtyard after that. All eyes had suddenly turned on me. The looks on the peoples¡¯ faces registered from amazement to stupefaction to anger. I had lit a powder keg, and it was about to explode.


    Mages were the bane of dragonkind, and I¡¯d just revealed my powers to an entire room full of lords and ladies, not to mention heavily armed and armored guards. Up till this point, nobody outside the king, Alicia, and the small group of guards who had brought us in knew I was a mage.


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    Now it was public knowledge.


    I felt something leak out of my nose. Huh. I held my finger up to my nostril, expecting snot, but it came away red. I stared in disbelief at the blood on my finger. Alverd and Alicia gaped at me in shock. Then my vision went screwy.


    I remember pain, which was probably my head hitting the ground after I tilted backwards. The last thing I remembered seeing was Alverd and Alicia above me shouting incoherently. I blinked several times and each time my eyelids became heavier and heavier. I finally closed them and stopped fighting. I floated away into the domain of darkness.


    I woke up a few hours later in the guest room Alicia had prepared for us. Alverd was seated next to the bed polishing his sword with a slightly bloody rag. My eyes swam in and out of focus. I noticed my bag of gold seated on the ground next to him. I tried to call out to Alverd, but mush tumbled out, as well as some drool. It sounded vaguely like ¡°arggle vuved¡±. Alverd looked at me and then at the gold. He laughed.


    ¡°I thought you might like to know that I brought the money. I figured that would be the first thing you¡¯d ask when you woke up.¡±


    I tried to laugh. But it came out hoarse and made my head hurt, so I had to stop. My head swam for what felt like hours. Finally, the pulsing pain in my head ceased enough that I was capable of basic speech patterns. I asked Alverd what had happened after I blacked out. Or, at least I tried to. After a few false starts, Alverd was able to figure out what I wanted to know, and he filled me in.


    According to Alverd, it had been Alicia who had truly saved the day. She had stepped in front of me, shielding me from the guards and nobody was more surprised than Alverd. She immediately started barking at the soldiers in her authoritative voice.


    ¡°¡®And what do you think you¡¯re doing? This mage¡¯s life is in my hands, you know. Will you defy the law of our land?¡¯¡± When the guards registered confusion, she had gone ever further. ¡°This man is bound to me by the Rite of Reconciliation! Anything you do to him is a transgression against me as well! Do you understand?¡¯¡±


    The men had little choice. They bowed and stepped away from the Princess. Another group of them picked up the dazed Marcus and dragged him away. His humiliation would probably sting a lot more than any injuries he had received. Just as well, the man needed to be taken down a peg.


    Everyone kept trying to look at me while a team of healers got a stretcher to move me, trying to get their best glance at an enemy they never expected to see up close. It was common knowledge that war had broken out between Ishmar and its magic-using neighbor Algrustos several times in the past, but the front lines of those wars had never really pushed deep into either nation¡¯s territory. Nowadays, the two nations were content to give each other the evil eye from across their borders. Skirmishes between scouts and spies trying to find their way across the borders were frequent, but not enough to ignite a full-scale conflict.


    The last war between Ishmar and Algrustos had ended about twenty years ago. Algrustrian forces had managed to push past the Ishmarian border and across the volcanic plains, taking a pair of critical fortresses that would have served as a stepping stone for the next wave of invasion. Then the Wizard-King and the Witch-Queen had been assassinated. The Prime Minister, forced to serve as Regent seeing as how the daughter of the now deceased royals was still a baby in her crib, called for a ceasefire and agreed that he would pull his troops out of Ishmar immediately provided the Ishmarians did not pursue or engage in any further hostilities. When he received word that the King of Dragon Tamers would allow such a retreat under the caveat that the Prime Minister instruct his troops not to engage in ¡°scorched earth¡± tactics, the pact was sealed and the Algrustians pulled out. They hadn¡¯t even made it halfway to the Castle of Brimstone.


    My point was all the way in the heart of Ishmar where these stuck up nobles played at politics and their endless social butterfly antics, nobody had to worry about the possibility of having magic thrown at them, or they didn¡¯t until my little act of selfless heroism.


    For most of the Ishmarian nobility, that act had been the first time they¡¯d seen magic up close. And not the friendly, practical magic that most people were willing to let go in most cases. I¡¯d attacked a member of the royal family, and many of the nobles present wanted my head to roll, Rite or no Rite. Alverd had maintained his silent vigil over my comatose body until the medics (who had no idea if I was alright given they knew nothing of magic) declared me safe to move, and then he and Alicia escorted me back to our room under the fearful stares of all the lords and ladies present.


    She had gone off in order to change back into less formal attire leaving Alverd to watch over me. The medics had determined that I wasn¡¯t in danger of death and that I didn¡¯t have a concussion, so they had left (Alverd noted that they seemed very eager to leave). We talked for a bit until there came a knock at the door. Alverd, his sword at the ready, crossed over to the door and warily opened it a tad.


    It was Alicia. He let her in. She was wearing an ankle-length night robe made of loose-fitting cotton,which was hardly appropriate attire to be wandering the castle at such a late hour. Once Alverd closed the door, however, she burst into a fit of laughter. This continued for a few seconds and then she threw her arms around Alverd, laughing like a demon the whole time.


    Maybe it was because I was still woozy, but even I thought that what was going on was weird. Sure, the Princess was smiling, but this smile was... I don¡¯t know... natural. She seemed less like a mean-spirited tyrant and more like a teenage girl; she seemed so carefree and happy. I tried to smile with her, but it probably came off wrong. Alicia pointed at me and laughed again, then nestled her head against Alverd¡¯s chest.


    It only took her a split second to realize what she was doing. She released her stranglehold on him, her face flushing redder than a fresh-lit fire. She backed away, pretty quickly. Again, maybe it was because I was still out of it, but I could have sworn I could see steam rising off of her head.


    ¡°Forget I just did that! If you ever tell a soul what I just did, I¡¯ll have you tarred and feathered!¡± She turned to face me. I must have still been grinning like a slack-jawed village idiot because she turned her vitriol on me next. ¡°And you, I¡¯ll have you thrown in a stockade and let little children throw rocks at your head!¡± I had a vision of some kids chucking rocks at me, and it stirred up some long buried childhood memories. I wiped the smile off my face with all haste. Seeing as how she¡¯d successfully bullied me into submission, Alicia glanced back at Alverd.


    He just grinned like he always did. The man was the epitome of calm and collectedness. But hell, it was catchy. There wasn¡¯t anything like putting a guy in his place, and we had earned it. I think that entitled us to be a little snarky about it. Alicia, her face still red, turned away from the two of us, although that didn¡¯t stop her from barking orders.


    ¡°Rest up. Once Kuro is all better, we go to the Nest. It¡¯ll be tough, so make sure you two are up to it. I¡¯ll be by in the morning to come check on you. So¡­ that¡¯s all. Goodnight.¡±


    With that, she rushed out of the room, slamming the door just a little too hard to be casual. Alverd shrugged and went with it. He changed into his own night robes and slid into his bed, pulled the covers up, and blew out the chamber light. He was out quick enough. I lay awake, pondering for some time.


    How does one tame a wild dragon? As far as I knew, most dragons were domesticated from an early age in Ishmar. That way a dragon and its tamer grew together, allowing the two to bond upon mutual experience. Some said that tamers could even understand their dragons, and that such understanding came from treating them like family. So how in the seven hells was Alicia going to tame a dragon that had had no human contact before? The idea seemed simply ludicrous. The wild dragons are more likely to swallow her whole than bow to her. These thoughts did me no good. I tossed and turned for an hour, but could find no solution.


    Instead, I focused on the future. Now that my identity was known to all, it would certainly change a few things. I doubted that anyone would try to kill me in my sleep; Alicia had assured me that her father would post guards outside our room, and since my life belonged to her killing me would be a slant against a member of the royal family. Although I, at first, doubted that this was a sufficient deterrent, she went on to say that the offender would then be executed, and their entire family publicly humiliated for all time. Given what I knew of nobles and politicians, who preferred death to social suicide, I reluctantly accepted her word. So, for the moment I was safe.


    I checked to make sure my staff was at arm''s length. It was stupid of me to have left it behind. The stunt I had pulled today could¡¯ve easily been my last, especially since I was still an apprentice. It was embarrassing to admit, but I had never passed my final tests. I didn¡¯t even have my own staff; instead, I had taken my fallen master¡¯s staff, like a common grave robber. Every time I used that staff, I felt as though I was dishonoring Farnus¡¯ memory.


    It was too much to dwell on at the moment. I had more important things to think about, like how I was going to help a pint-sized princess take on one of the nastiest and most belligerent creatures in nature.

 Chapter 7: Nature vs Nuture (Part 1)

    After everything I¡¯d been through recently, the last thing I wanted to do was go for a stroll, here I was.


    It was three days after the incident at the Grand Ball. I had finally recovered enough after two days of bedrest to walk around and eat solid food again. So, Alverd insisted on ¡°physical therapy¡±. He made me walk around the Castle, although he always made sure to escort me when I did so. Alicia tagged along too, insisting that she keep an eye on me. I wasn¡¯t sure if she was more concerned about my well-being or my potential to cause trouble.


    When she was confident that I wasn¡¯t going to topple over, she led us to the front gate. As we passed through the massive doors, I saw the full majesty of the castle town below. The entirety of the castle town had been built upon the slopes of the volcano. A central road had been paved from the front gate of the Castle that cut through the town all the way to the base of the volcano itself. The sheer, jagged cliffs of the volcano¡¯s rock outcroppings formed natural barriers that functioned like walls, meaning that only those who could climb vertical surfaces or fly could bypass them.


    The buildings themselves were constructed mostly of stone. I wasn¡¯t sure what kind of stone it was, but it wasn¡¯t volcanic; likely they had been made with rock excavated from quarries. From my vantage point, I could see a crowded marketplace arrayed almost like a farmer¡¯s market with citizenry packed tightly together as they vied for the sellers¡¯ wares. Banners depicting the proud dragon emblem of Ishmar lined the streets, and teams of black-clad soldiers patrolled in disciplined groups.


    Alicia began walking down the stone steps. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t fall behind. I don¡¯t want to have to look for you if you get lost in that crowd.¡± Alverd fell in step behind her, but answered with a question.


    ¡°Are you sure this is wise? We don¡¯t look like royal guards. Won¡¯t people get suspicious?¡±


    The young Princess waved her hand dismissively.


    ¡°As long as you and Kuro don¡¯t do anything weird, it¡¯ll be fine. That¡¯s why I made him leave his magic stick back in his quarters. There¡¯s something I want you two to see.¡± She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for me to follow. Seeing as how there was no arguing with her, I did as I was told.


    ¡°Something we have to see for ourselves?¡± I asked. ¡°What could there possibly be to see that we haven¡¯t seen before?¡± We started our long trek down the walkway. It took us the better part of an hour to reach the top of the castle town where a small guard post manned by a squad of soldiers in jet-black armor had been erected. These men and women were different from the normal soldiers I¡¯d seen up at the castle. Their black plate mail had patterns that looked like the overlapping scales of dragons. It took me a moment to realize who these soldiers were. They were Black Scale Legionnaires.


    Of all of Ishmar¡¯s forces, even more so than their berserkers, the Black Scale Legionnaires had the most notorious reputation in all the land. They were the most elite, most ruthless, and most well-trained warriors on the continent of Selarune. Whether it was on the ground or mounted on a dragon, a Legionnaire was a fearsome combatant, ready to slay any enemy and die in the name of the King of Dragon Tamers. They were blindly loyal zealots who obeyed any order without question. Their reputation had spread far and wide for a reason. These people were responsible for conducting the infamous purges Ishmar had conducted over the eight centuries it had existed. They had to train long and hard to fight mages, and thus they had been assigned the task of weeding out and executing Algrustian spies. A lot of people had died under their watch, and I was willing to bet not all of them had been truly guilty.


    About once every five years, they¡¯d also enact another wonderful Ishmarian policy known as the Culling. They¡¯d sweep the entire country searching for children under the age of ten who were suspected of being able to use magic. These children were then put to death oftentimes in public spectacles meant to teach the people the penalty for the use of magic. It was a filthy, barbaric display that had been thought up by, you guessed it, a bunch of filthy barbarians.


    The Legionnaires had been part of the invasion of Marevar. They¡¯d been the vanguard, the first wave of dragon riders swooping down from the skies to soften our defenses and pave the way for the rest of their troops. They¡¯d marched into Farnus¡¯ magic school and used their training to put my fellow mages down like sick animals. I felt a surging hatred boil in my blood as we passed by them. They saluted Alicia as she went by; she gave them an at ease and they let us pass without incident. I grimly reflected that it was lucky I didn¡¯t have my staff. But I still wasn¡¯t sure who was luckier for it, them or me.


    Once we passed the guard post, we entered the city proper. The common folk of Ishmar were hardy people, which didn¡¯t surprise me. The majority of them had some degree of muscle, the product of living in a tough and unforgiving land. Many of them were in the process of crowding a nearby market. Long lines were piled up in front of vendor stalls selling what appeared to be produce and meat from chickens, cows, and even fish. Still, the lines were unnaturally long. Men and women, all with the same weary look in their eyes, waited impatiently to purchase food from the various stalls. Signs hanging from each stall proclaimed ¡°NO HAGGLING¡± in bright white paint. As the Princess led us past the line, the shocked citizens bowed as she passed. Near the front, I caught some of the conversation.


    Apparently the person at the front was not satisfied with the amount of food they¡¯d purchased.


    ¡°Hey, this is smaller than the portion you sold me last week!¡± He yelled. He was waving a head of lettuce in his hand. I grimly noticed that it was unmistakably of Marevarian origin; vegetables had been one of the country¡¯s biggest exports. It was indeed a small head, certainly not capable of lasting for a week, especially if the man had more mouths to feed than just his own.


    The vendor shook his head.


    ¡°You get what you get. Everybody gets the same portion. You know that. Don¡¯t try to lie and say you¡¯re being cheated unless you want to lodge a complaint with the guard?¡± As if on cue, the cadre of armed Ishmarian soldiers flanking the various stalls stamped the hafts of their polearms on the ground. One came over, a brutish-looking woman covered head to toe in black armor.


    ¡°Is there a problem here?¡± She growled at the offending peasant.


    Faced with such an intimidating foe, the peasant had no choice but to back down. The people behind him grumbled, a murmur of empathetic remarks making its way through the line. ¡°We¡¯re starving out here!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got kids to feed!¡± Near the back of the line I swore someone called out ¡°easy for you to stand guard all day while we break our backs!¡±


    The soldier slammed her greataxe on the ground, baring her teeth through the opening in her helm. ¡°You know how it works. Everyone will get their fair share. You complain, you go home hungry! Is that clear?¡± Again, another series of resentful murmurs, but then a mutual cry of ¡°yes ma¡¯am¡±.


    The three of us watched as the peasantry fell back into line, literally, to await what they were allotted. The man who had spoken up paid for his paltry portion and left with a surly expression on his face. I couldn¡¯t help but feel like he directed some of his resentment towards Alicia as he went. She remained stone-faced until he left, then pulled on Alverd¡¯s cloak. We followed her away from the market towards a city square.


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    Unlike virtually every other city square I¡¯d seen in my life, there was no fountain in this gathering spot. Instead, an imperious monument of an absolutely statuesque (no pun intended) barbarian king stood. The word ¡°extravagant¡± failed to encompass how utterly gaudy the statue was. It was wrought of solid gold, polished to the point of being able to see one¡¯s own reflection in the shine, and standing almost fifteen feet tall. It depicted the well-built, muscled warrior king that had founded Ishmar. A plaque hailed him as Deyovar Lasver Miltila Dragontamer I. He was holding a magnificent sword aloft as a dragon coiled around his body, holding the sword aloft. The plaque stated that the great Mother Dragon, Evros, had gifted Deyovar with the knowledge necessary to craft the weapon, which he called the Sword of Evros.


    As soon as Alicia entered the plaza, the nearby guards started roughly pushing people aside to make way for her. The peasants got the message quickly and cleared out. The guards formed a perimeter around the plaza, watching the entryways. They moved to manhandle Alverd and I, but Alicia waved them off. We had plenty of privacy since the size of the square put us out of earshot of the guards.


    Alicia sat upon the marble railing beneath the statue of Deyovar. ¡°So, you see then? How the people are treated here?¡± She tilted her head back towards the market we¡¯d come from. ¡°People were a lot worse before. It¡¯s gotten better in the last few years, but before, people could starve in the street. Father cracked down on the citizens when there was a revolt. There simply wasn¡¯t enough food to go around.¡±


    Alverd seated himself next to Alicia. ¡°Why would they do that, Princess?¡± She leaned back, sighing heavily. ¡°When you get hungry, you get desperate. You decide that safety no longer matters. Like wolves. They get hungry enough, they¡¯ll attack men with swords and spears if it means fresh meat. Here in Ishmar, the military always gets the first take. Whether it¡¯s food or medicine, if it benefits our soldiers, they get the lion¡¯s share.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve got to change that. The people are the backbone of our country, not the soldiers. Without our people, there is no country. We might as well be like the tribes of old before they were united by Deyovar, fighting each other for dominance. Truth is, my people aren¡¯t as unified as you outsiders think we are.¡±


    I took the opportunity to take a seat next to Alverd. I looked over at the guards and the zealous way they barred anyone from entering the plaza.


    ¡°So what are you saying? That those rumors about the mage child hunts are lies?¡± I glared at Alicia with the intention of putting her on the spot. I wanted an answer and I wasn¡¯t going to let her deflect from it.


    Fortunately, she wasn¡¯t in a mood to jerk me around. ¡°It¡¯s true. Children suspected of having magic are turned over to the guards. We used to have the hunts once every four months, actually, but at some point we started having larger intervals between them for some reason. It¡¯s considered patriotic to hate magic . But I¡¯ve always wondered if it was really necessary. To me, it just seems like cruelty for cruelty¡¯s sake.¡±


    Her response was surprising to say the least, but I pressed her further.


    ¡°So what are you saying? That you think it¡¯s wrong?¡±


    Alicia shook her head. ¡°I can¡¯t say that it¡¯s right. My mother taught me magic was evil, and that those who use it are evil. But after you risked your life to save Alverd? I don¡¯t know for sure anymore. Would someone with no heart or soul risk their life for another?¡± She looked me in the eye, and it made me uncomfortable. It was like she was trying to see into me, see past the surface.


    The young Princess folded her hands in her lap. ¡°I had to witness one, you know. When I was very little. A six-year-old boy had been accused of the use of magic. His parents did nothing. Didn¡¯t even fight it. They handed a crying child over to the guards. Up until about a year or so ago, they used to hang the bodies on the stairway we took to get here. But my father finally decreed that the practice of displaying the bodies would end. He felt it wasn¡¯t doing what it was intended to do, which was to intimidate people into rejecting magic.¡±


    I could feel my hand ball into a fist. I wasn¡¯t sure where Alicia was going with this, but I hoped she was going somewhere relevant, and fast. Hearing her speak of the injustices inflicted on children made my skin crawl.


    ¡°And your point is what? That your father showed some modicum of decency by it? Don¡¯t make me laugh.¡±


    For my comment, I was rewarded with a harsh glare from her.


    ¡°I¡¯m not saying what he did was the right decision for the right reason. The real problem is that we allow the mage hunts in the first place. Someday, we need to change our stance on how we view magic. Ishmar is far behind when it comes to things that other countries take for granted. If we had access to magic, we could fix the poor situation our country is in.¡± She nodded back towards the marketplace. ¡°Most of our agriculture is exported from the conquered territory of Marevar. We can¡¯t grow enough food on Ishmarian soil alone to feed our country. I¡¯m afraid that was the reason why my father invaded your country.¡± She cast her head down in shame, unable to look at Alverd. My friend didn¡¯t respond, but I could sense some tension in his expression.


    So that was it, plain and simple. Our country had the fertile farmland necessary to feed not just our own people but the surrounding countries, as well. When push came to shove, instead of making any diplomatic motions to our country, Ishmar had come in and taken what didn¡¯t belong to them by force. I felt sick to my stomach.


    I had suspected as much during the five years Alverd and I had traveled across Selarune as mercenaries. Geographically, Marevar was situated between four different countries. Guilford was to the west, Ishmar to the north, Kiret to the east, and Margloom, the only country worth calling an ally now, to the south. One of the reasons Alverd and I had escaped the Ishmarians was because Margloom, upon learning of the invasion, occupied the city of Elorik, a Marevarian trade city near the southern border. The Margloomian Forgeborn Army created a refugee zone there for those fleeing the invaders.


    Sadly, Margloom didn¡¯t have the power to retake Marevar. Their odd steam weaponry was powerful, but they simply did not have the numbers or mobility to fight the Ishmarians. The only reason the Ishmarians didn¡¯t take their war to Margloom was because they already had their prize. Still, they defied the Ishmarians when no one else did. The slavers in Kiret and the traitors in Guilford likely took their blood money and watched our country fall under the sway of Ishmar¡¯s totalitarian rule.


    When Alverd and I had arrived in Elorik along with hundreds of other scared people, I had seen for myself the power of the Forgeborn Army. Composed of soldiers wielding fire-belching polearms and hulking bipedal contraptions carrying portable siege weapons, I thought they had come to liberate us. But we soon discovered that they simply had orders to protect fleeing civilians rather than risk retaking territory from the Ishmarians. Still, we were grateful for what they had done, even years later.


    I remember a Margloomian medic examining me with some strange handheld contraption, some wand-shaped device with a glowing crystal attached to it. I couldn¡¯t look her in the eye. My eyes were full of tears. There were some refugees who thought the Margloomians had come across the border to invade, just like the Ishmarians, who fell to their knees in defeat at the sight of the hulking machines. It wasn¡¯t until the Forgeborn Army started assisting people that we realized they had come to help us.


    She had cradled my head in her hands to get me to look her eye-to-eye. I remember thinking that she was too matronly; she looked more like someone¡¯s mother than a soldier. She spoke soothing words that I only half understood as I broke down whimpering, and she had embraced me until Alverd came to sit with us. I didn¡¯t want her to leave at first. It was like being hugged by a loving parent. I felt safe for the first time since the invasion as that woman had held me like some scared child. Eventually she had to go, to attend to others who needed her help, and I watched her go running off with a deep regret in my heart.


    The only member of Marevar¡¯s royal family to survive was Prince Esnik. He had been on a diplomatic visit to Margloom and was on his way home when the invasion reached Irinholm. I think I actually saw him at some point, sitting in a tent speaking to a Margloomian general about the situation. He was a small man, barely out of his teens, still wide-eyed and unsure about the nature of the world. He had the same straight brown hair as his mother, who I¡¯d seen countless times in public. It had been jarring to see him looking so hollow as the general informed him of the deaths of his parents and the fall of the capitol.


    Now, he was in asylum in Margloom¡¯s capitol. As the third child of the King and Queen, he¡¯d lost a mother, father, brother and sister. As a prince, he had lost a nation full of subjects. So much had been thrust upon him in such a short time, and now he had the burden of countless lives on his very young and unprepared shoulders.


    That was the day I learned what most commoners don¡¯t realize: that royals had troubles of their own.

 Chapter 7: Nature vs. Nurture (Part 2)

    Alverd took up the lead of the conversation, intending to steer it in possibly a better direction.


    ¡°So what is it that you want us to do? Telling us all of this¡­ what will it accomplish?¡± He was fighting to keep his tone fair and even. She¡¯d just admitted to her father¡¯s motivation and the both of us were likely trying hard not to take it out on her. She slipped off the railing and turned to face us both.


    ¡°I just wanted to be honest with you. If I¡¯m going to have you around, I need you to understand me just as much as I understand you. I need to know how the two of you feel about me, as well. Don¡¯t take this the wrong way, but a lot of people who get close to me don¡¯t do it for my own good. And you two didn¡¯t have a say in the matter. Think of it this way. I don¡¯t trust you two just yet¡­ but I want to. And I want you to know you can trust me.¡±


    I was surprised she was being so up front, for sure. Giving credit where it was due, she was trying to bridge a gap and build trust between us. It was a tall order to set aside my resentment, but for the moment I appreciated her gesture, even if it had been clumsy and roundabout.


    Alicia motioned to the guards surrounding the plaza, and they let people back in, going about their daily routines while grumbling that those routines had been disrupted in the first place. As we walked back towards the Castle, passing by irate peasants and deferential guardsmen, Alicia spoke again.


    ¡°I can¡¯t change the way our country is. Not yet. And hopefully, Evros willing, I will find a way. Maybe you two can help me with that.¡±


    My best friend nodded his head.


    ¡°If that¡¯s what you want, then that¡¯s what we¡¯ll do. It¡¯s a worthy cause, and I would prefer to see your country take a turn for the better rather than continue on the path it is now.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but notice that his expression was still grim. ¡°But it seems you have an uphill battle on your hands. And if you want us to help you with it, I confess I¡¯m not sure what it is you think we can do.¡±


    She climbed in silence for a moment, then responded.


    ¡°I want you to come with me somewhere. A place that is beyond sacred for us. It¡¯s called the Nest. A den of wild dragons situated in a valley within the treacherous mountain range known as the Mother¡¯s Spines. I¡¯ll get you some books and records when we get back. I¡¯m sure Kuro will love them.¡± She gave me a snide, yet playful smirk over her shoulder.


    I¡¯ll admit, I was intrigued to learn more. But I was also worried about going to a den of untamed dragons. For now, though, I had to trust that Alicia had everything in hand. I followed the two back up to the Castle.


    After we arrived, she had us taken back to our guest quarters and within an hour, a servant dropped off several large tomes about the Nest. I picked up the heaviest one and flipped it open, scanning through the pages  to get a feel for the level of detail. I wasn¡¯t disappointed; there were long pages of text, diagrams of the dragons found within, and even a number of passable artistic depictions of the Nest¡¯s geography and flora. But one page caught my eye, and I stopped flipping to get a better look.


    It was a man, minuscule in the scope of the picture, standing before the reclining form of some monstrously huge creature. It was unmistakably a dragon; its prehensile neck ended in a head replete with long, sloping horns, finlike ears, and a scaly snout full of sharp teeth. Its large eyes stared down at the man in an expression that was equal parts amusement and curiosity. The notation beneath said, ¡°Deyovar braves the Nest to meet with Evros, the Mother Dragon¡±.


    So this is the creature the Ishmarians worship. Not hard to believe that a country of barbarians would choose to worship something as powerful as a dragon, but it still left a few holes in the story. Dragons capable of sentient expression had been killed off a long time ago, mostly after some ancient war that happened centuries ago involving the end of the world and religious nonsense like that. The odds of a ¡°true¡± dragon surviving  were practically nonexistent if the Church of the Balance, Selarune¡¯s established religious authority, was to be believed.


    As I closed the book, however, something fell out of the spine and onto my lap. It was a perfectly cut red crystal. It wasn¡¯t a proper gem, like a ruby; it had a kind of translucent nature to it that wasn¡¯t a property of gemstones. I turned it over in my hand to check to see if it contained any kind of outstanding properties, and that¡¯s when I felt it.


    It was magical.


    There was a faint kind of pulse deep within the crystal. It was too weak to be caught by anything except a more thorough examination. What an artifact like this was doing in a book about Ishmarian history, I wasn¡¯t sure. But there was no way it could¡¯ve been a coincidence. I checked the spine of the book where it  had fallen out .


    The spine of the ancient tome was unremarkable, except I¡¯d seen its kind before. Trick tomes had hollow spines that allowed mages to hide small objects in them, like wands or gems. They were designed to be opened only by mages, and they reacted only to the presence of magic. For this book to have spit this crystal in my lap meant that when the book was written, someone had to have placed the crystal inside, then sealed it magically.


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    I didn¡¯t know what to think at first. The idea of a mage having hidden this book in an Ishmarian library was strange enough, but that the mage had intended for this crystal to be discovered by another was troubling to another degree. I placed the crystal in my pocket and put the tome back on my nightstand. The candle I¡¯d been using for light was burning down, and I blew it out as I climbed into my bed.


    It was a mystery I¡¯d have to solve later, but one I¡¯d have to be careful about looking into. It was bad enough that I¡¯d been outed as a mage, so if other Ishmarians decided I was up to no good then, Princess¡¯ decree or not, they¡¯d execute me in a heartbeat. I pulled the covers up and tried to ponder why such a crystal even existed, but exhaustion quickly pulled me into a feverish sleep.


    I had the nightmare again. I woke with a start in my bed, cold sweat dripping off of me. The dream was happening with greater frequency as of late, no doubt because I was so close to the people who had given me the nightmare in the first place. Of all the things to dream about, it had to be that. I wished it didn¡¯t have to be that way, but like so many other things in my life I had no control or say in the matter.


    After lighting the candle next to my bed, I pulled one of the other books off the nightstand and opened it. It was a dry history about the taming of dragons and the way they had factored into Ishmarian history since the country¡¯s founding, and eventually I stopped trying to read it and started flipping the pages. I was about to close it in disgust when a series of diagrams caught my eye.


    There was an image of a person standing before a dragon. Based on the captions it was about taming a feral dragon. There was an entire process for doing so, but was stated by the book to be an act of desperation, as dragons rarely heeded the actions of men. As I began to read the section about the steps, I heard a commotion by the window.


    I slid out of my bed and crossed to the window, the book tucked under my arm. Looking down from the window I could see a number of soldiers circling a very small dragon, only half the size of the one we had killed. I also spied Alicia, dressed fully in her leather armor, standing in front of the dragon. A thick metal collar was clamped around the dragon¡¯s neck, and the soldiers were struggling to keep it lashed to the ground with thick chains.


    Alicia stepped forward, then nodded to the soldiers. Together, they let the chains loose. The collar fell away and the chains went slack. The dragon, no longer bound by its restraints, surged forward with jaws open to bite Alicia¡¯s head off.


    With more speed than I expected from her, Alicia sidestepped the dragon¡¯s lunge and wrapped both of her arms around the neck of the dragon, twisting her body to snap her onto the dragon with one impossibly smooth motion. Yanking the dragon¡¯s head back, she launched a brutal backward kick with her right leg into the base of the dragon¡¯s wing, causing it to tumble onto the ground.


    I opened the book and began to compare Alicia¡¯s technique with the methods described in the book. The book¡¯s notations made it clear that a dragon only respected the idea of a superior aggressor, so only through nonlethal pacification would a feral dragon stoop to serve a human master. There was no actual ¡°method¡± to the entire process; the ritual shared more in common with a drunken tavern brawl than some sacred covenant between man and beast.


    The dragon started to thrash against the ground, bucking wildly in an attempt to throw Alicia off. She held fast to the dragon, her arms now encircling the dragon¡¯s mouth to keep it clamped shut. The dragon¡¯s tail whipped around and nearly slapped Alicia in the face. Hunkering her head down, she began digging the heel of her boot into the shoulder joint of the dragon, and I could hear its stifled cry of pain even from my vantage point several stories above.


    For several minutes that felt like hours, I watched Alicia wrestle the dragon into submission. With every passing second the dragon¡¯s resistance became more frenzied; its tail cracked across a soldier¡¯s chest and floored him instantly. His companions dragged him to a safe distance while the rest continued to watch the spectacle unfolding in front of them. Just when it seemed like Alicia was gaining the upper hand, the dragon did a jerking roll that slammed her head against the ground.


    Alicia was knocked off the dragon¡¯s neck by the force of the blow, and she turned over on the ground with a pained expression on her face. The dragon righted itself and advanced toward her prone form but the soldiers moved as one to intercept it. Chains and the collar came with them; in the space of a second they were working together to weigh the dragon down, lashing it with the chains and snapping the collar around its neck again.


    One soldier stood over Alicia with his spear held at the ready. Regaining her feet, she limped away as the soldier covered her retreat. The other soldiers finished fixing a muzzle over the dragon¡¯s jaws, and with the chains now secured to the platform by thick hooks, it was in no position to attack anyone. It still thrashed against its captors¡¯ bonds, but it was only a matter of time before it calmed down and realized that struggling was pointless.


    As the soldiers attended to Alicia, who looked crestfallen at her failure, I read the final passage in the book. Taming a wild dragon was significantly harder as the dragon¡¯s size increased, and fully matured dragons were far less likely to take to the taming. It stressed that imprinting on newborns was far more successful in creating lasting bonds between tamer and dragon and that feral dragons were not suitable as life companions anyway.


    Knowing all this, I could tell we were going to have an uphill battle. Alicia had just failed to tame a dragon half the size of her old one. Taming a fully grown mature dragon was going to be next to impossible. But there was no alternative. She was counting on us to help her. And it wasn¡¯t like I had a choice. Sighing heavily, I went back to my bed, threw the book back onto the nightstand and blew out the candle.


    Sleep came soon enough. And luckily for me, this time I didn¡¯t dream.

 Chapter 8: The Nest (Part 1)

    I woke the next day feeling no more at ease than the night before, and the crystal in my pocket certainly contributed to that.


    There was no time to do a more in depth analysis of the crystal. I was barely out of bed when a knock came at the door. A maid announced herself and bowed deeply as she informed me that Princess Alicia requested our presence for breakfast and for ¡°preparations¡±. Alverd clumsily tumbled out of his own bed, his foot catching on the sheet as he yawned loudly. The maid didn¡¯t seem all that disturbed by our state of disarray, and left after she gave us the message. We quickly changed into our clothes; I slipped on my robe and helped Alverd into his armor. I made sure to grab my staff on the way out the door, checking to make sure the crystal was secure in my pocket. After being certain there was no risk of it falling out, Alverd and I made our way to the Castle¡¯s dining hall.


    The dining hall was evidently reserved for the exclusive use of the royal family because it was extravagant to the extreme. Gaudy marble sculptures of previous rulers stood at the base of every pillar. The stone floor had been filed down until it was smooth unlike other parts of the Castle. A forty-by-ten foot table dominated the center of the room with a line of butlers and maid staff standing at attention as Alicia tapped her fingers on the table.


    She was seated in a resplendent wooden chair carved from wood that must have been from the more verdant parts of the country. Already dressed in her customary leather armor and with her maul leaning against the chair; she looked all the more intimidating as she drummed her fingernails. I guess the only thing scarier than a barbarian was a hangry barbarian.


    Alverd and I took our seats opposite the table from her, and no sooner had we been seated when the maid staff swooped down and fixed a set of napkins around our necks, stepping away with their work complete in a matter of seconds. Another set of maids placed covered plates before the three of us, lifting the covers so we could see what had been prepared.


    There was an impressive amount of breakfast meats, including eggs, sausage, and even bacon. I started shoveling the food into my mouth because I was starving and needed to distract myself from thinking about the crystal still in my pocket. We sat in silence for most of our meal.


    Alicia didn¡¯t use her bare hands to eat like I suspected all Ishmarians did, but she wasn¡¯t exactly cultured in the way she wielded her dining implements. She also plowed right through her food in the space of minutes, showing atrocious table manners the entire time from having her elbows on the table to wiping her mouth with her arm. Alverd took his sweet time using his knife and fork to eat, so he was the last of us to finish his food.


    As Alverd leaned back from his empty plate, I noticed Alicia staring at me pointedly as she awkwardly scraped at her teeth with her fingernail in the hopes of trying to dislodge something stuck in them. I frowned, mostly from disgust.


    ¡°You look like you want to ask me something, Princess. Just ask me. I¡¯m a big boy, I can take it.¡± Alicia snorted, but she didn¡¯t seem too miffed by my attempt at sarcasm.


    Instead, she asked me a rather innocent question. ¡°What happened during the ball? How come you passed out after you hit Marcus with that lightning bolt? Is that normal for mages?¡± I started to give a sarcastic reply, but when I saw the earnest look of concern on her face, I stopped myself. I gave her the truth.


    ¡°Mages need their staves to cast magic effectively, and that trying to do so without one was literally playing with forces we can¡¯t control. I risked death to save Alverd.¡±


    Alverd looked troubled when I brought it up.


    ¡°Kuro, I could have handled the Prince. I knew enough about his nature to know that he would resort to some unsportsmanlike conduct. You needn¡¯t take your life into your own hands to save mine.¡± I wondered if he realized that he did the same for me on a regular basis. I decided not to argue the point because Alicia was still waiting for me to answer her questions.


    ¡°The spell I used was not quite as dangerous as others. Because I relied on an outside source, the electric charge in the air instead of the bioelectric impulses in my body, the backlash had been significantly reduced.  I expelled the energy before it had time to gain enough magical mass to draw upon the electricity in my body.¡±


    Alicia didn¡¯t quite grasp the magical theory behind my explanation, because she blinked several times with a very blank look on her face. I sighed, then picked up a fork.


    ¡°Why do we cook food on sticks? Because it¡¯s too hot to hold meat to a fire long enough to cook it. Same for eating it. If you tried to hold your food after cooking it, you¡¯d just burn your hand. The way I use my staff is kind of like how we use forks and spits.¡± I speared one last piece of sausage on the fork then hovered it in front of my face.


    ¡°No need for me to endanger myself when I can use a tool to prevent myself from getting hurt. But on the night of the Ball, I didn¡¯t have that tool; my staff. So I had to do the magical equivalent of cooking meat without something to roast it on. If I wasn¡¯t careful, I ran the risk of burning myself¡­and potentially others, too.¡± A gross and childish oversimplification, but then again I was explaining a concept that was utterly foreign to Alicia so there was no helping it.


    Apparently the metaphor was enough, as Alicia nodded in amazement. ¡°Wow. You must have been quite a powerful mage back home, Kuro. To understand so much and make such a call on such short notice.¡± She folded her hands in her lap pensively.


    I looked down at my feet miserably. My turn to be embarrassed. ¡°Actually, the truth of the matter is¡­ I¡¯m only still at apprentice-level.¡±


    She cocked her head to the side. ¡°Apprentice? So you¡¯re still a learner?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Yeah. I was all set to take the final trials necessary to become a fully-fledged mage, and then I would have gained the right to carve my own staff in recognition of my status. The trial is different for every mage, since our instructors usually take a close hand in educating us. So they usually tailor each individual trial to suit each mage. But why am I telling you this? I¡¯m violating Rule Six.¡±


    Alicia tilted her head again. ¡°Rule Six? Of what?¡±


    Alverd spoke up. ¡°He¡¯s talking about the Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary. It¡¯s just a set of silly rules Kuro came up with over the last five years. For him, Rule Six is ¡®your history is not someone else¡¯s problem.¡¯ It¡¯s a crude way of saying that other people should mind their own business instead of prying. But I suspect he¡¯s trying to be rude, and sneaky about it to boot.¡± He fixed me with his disapproving scowl.


    I had to bite back a curse. ¡°Alright, alright. Maybe it was kind of rude. But I still think it¡¯s kind of pointless¡­ ¡±


    She was quiet for a moment. ¡°I can sort of understand that. I don¡¯t really believe in that, though. Here in Ishmar, we can¡¯t escape what people say about us because most of the things people say are true. We are barbarians. We pillage, plunder, and destroy what isn¡¯t ours. I told you about the child hunts. We deserve our reputation.¡± She lifted her head. ¡°I¡¯ve always wondered why it had to be that way, though. I can¡¯t help but imagine what we could be if we could use magic, not to put down others but to enrich our own lives. How many of my subjects would recover from injuries if we had magic to heal them, instead of herbs and bandages? How many more crops could we grow if mages could use their magic to enhance the harvest?¡± She crossed her right leg over her left as she looked at me.


    ¡°It¡¯s how it¡¯s been for as long as anyone can remember. Ishmar was founded hundreds of years ago on the principle that magic was a scourge, and that¡¯s why we¡¯ve always treated it as such.¡± She fell silent again. A moment later, she worked up her nerve and spoke. ¡°Back when you were first taken to my father, I remember the two of you behaved a bit oddly. I could see it in your faces.¡± She leaned forward. ¡°What do the two of you have against my father?¡±


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    There was silence for a moment. It was a very obvious question for her to ask with a very obvious answer. However, I knew the reason she was asking; any person from Marevar had  legitimate issues with the King of Ishmar, but she wanted to know why we personally wanted him dead. I glanced at Alverd, insinuating that I expected him to answer for me.


    He picked up on it right away. ¡°We lost friends and family in that war, our home. When we learned about the betrayals by Guilford and Kiret that allowed our country to be taken, it made the whole thing hit harder. Betrayal is really the only word for it, and it doesn¡¯t go far enough to describe the cowardice displayed by those countries.¡±


    The diminutive Princess shrunk in her chair. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­ this can¡¯t be easy for you, explaining this all to me.¡±


    Alverd grimaced slightly. ¡°How could you? It¡¯s not like we told you. You needn¡¯t worry, Princess. It wasn¡¯t your fault.¡± I wrung my hands uncomfortably, then pitched in.


    ¡°Yeah, I mean, it¡¯s not like we blame you personally.¡± Alverd gave me a reproachful glance, and I tried to give him a nonverbal cue that indicated that I didn¡¯t mean anything by my comment. I don¡¯t think it worked, though.


    Another moment of awkward silence passed before Alicia spoke again. ¡°Would you mind walking me through it?¡± I nodded,  folding my hands together as I rested my elbows on the table.


    I knew exactly where to start.


    ¡°Five years ago, the Kingdom of Ishmar invaded Marevar from the north. We lost contact with two cities in the north. Our so-called allies in Guilford claimed nothing was wrong, and that they would send soldiers to aid us in our efforts to find out what had happened to the two cities. We sent a small army north headed by Alverd¡¯s mentor, Sir Chandler, Knight-Commander of Marevar.¡± I shifted my weight. ¡°No one ever came back. Alverd and I didn¡¯t find out until later that Guilford had sold us out in exchange for a vast sum of gold and some of the territory Ishmar conquered. Anyway, the citizens in the capital, Irinholm, feared that something terrible had happened. They mustered as many soldiers as they could, thinking that we could wait out whatever was coming. ¡±


    Alverd picked up for me. ¡°The dragon riders came, chasing what remained of the soldiers we¡¯d sent to find out the fates of our northern cities. We watched in horror as they toyed with the men, swooping over them, and killing them one by one. In the end, the dragon riders flew off where they¡¯d come, and not even ash remained of the brave knights who had been dispatched.¡±


    I saw Alverd clench his fist. ¡°They came in force two days later. A sea of soldiers in black armor, hordes of dragon riders blocking out the sky like locusts, all come to destroy us. We stood no chance. The dragons flew over our defenses and destroyed what few weapons we had. Arbalests, trebuchets, they were all razed before they could be utilized. When the Ishmarians broke down the front gate with their battering ram, we had nothing left to stop them.¡±


    I took the responsibility of explaining the next part. ¡°We lost a lot of people who were close to us. Parents, friends, mentors. Alverd and I barely escaped with our lives¡­ and that came at a huge cost. We were lucky, I guess. We ran as fast as we could. The Ishmarians took their time securing Irinholm. By the time we heard that they were moving to conquer the rest of the country, we¡¯d made it south to Elorik where the Margloomian Forgeborn Army had set up a refugee zone. We didn¡¯t learn about Guilford¡¯s betrayal until some time later.¡±


    I scowled as our sorry tale came to a close. ¡°We were just a bunch of quiet, happy farmers who never bothered anyone. But you dragon riders swept down from the sky and took our land for themselves. And your father? He was responsible for it.¡±


    Alverd glared at me harshly, but Alicia nodded her head in agreement.


    ¡°My father did do something terrible. He razed Marevar to the ground and I did not know why, nor did I ever care to learn. But after that, he seemed¡­ different. I don¡¯t know. He began to dote on me more in little ways so my other siblings wouldn¡¯t notice. Most of them didn¡¯t, and the ones who did didn¡¯t really care all that much. Something about what we did to Marevar changed him. I¡¯m not entirely sure why¡­¡±


    She took a moment for herself before she continued. ¡°Father oversaw my induction into special martial training, he made sure I was excelling in my political studies, he even made sure I knew diplomacy¡­ I wasn¡¯t sure what he was doing; he kept pushing me to be¡­ something more. But at the same time, I saw a side to him that I¡¯d never seen before. He was not a leader, but a father.¡±


    Alicia picked up her fork and started twirling it absent-mindedly. There wasn¡¯t anything else to talk about. At least, nothing that wouldn¡¯t reopen more old wounds.


    ¡°Are you two going to try and kill Father?¡± I noticed all of the maids narrow their eyes, and that¡¯s when I noticed something. The gleam of metal in each of their sleeves. These were not maids. Dressed like them, maybe, but certainly not simple servants. My blood ran cold as I made the realization.


    We¡¯d spent the entire morning talking about borderline seditious things in front of a group of assassins.


    Alicia must have noticed my face blanching and she waved her hand. The ¡°maids¡± bowed and stepped away from the table. ¡°You needn¡¯t be afraid. They¡¯re just bodyguards. They won¡¯t tell my Father anything I don¡¯t want them to. They¡¯re only here for my own protection. I knew this wasn¡¯t going to be a pleasant conversation, and I just wanted to be careful.¡±


    I¡¯ll admit, I had not expected to be so easily outmaneuvered by Alicia. She didn¡¯t show the kind of cutthroat cunning I expected from a hardened killer, and that was probably why I¡¯d underestimated her. But I was definitely going to be more careful in the future. As the maids stepped back, I saw Alverd subtly relax his shoulders. He¡¯d been just as on edge as me.


    Alicia sighed, and returned to her question. ¡°What will you do in regards to my father?¡±


    Neither of us had an answer for that, everything was so complicated. My life had been spared and then saved by the daughter of the man who had destroyed everything I had ever loved? Even with my gray outlook on life, I didn¡¯t know where I stood on that front. As far as I was concerned, it had contributed significantly in turning me into the jaded, pessimistic person I was today. It made me a bitter human being by hitting me with the revelation that happiness was fleeting. I was consumed by a desire for revenge, and I didn¡¯t care how it started or ended so long as the Ishmarians paid for their arrogance.


    And Alverd, he had even more reason than me to kill the old King. All I¡¯d lost paled in comparison to his. In less than a week, he had lost his teacher, his parents, his home, his childhood friend, his childhood, and his dreams of being a proper knight. As a knight-prospect of Marevar, he was honor-bound to avenge the death of his liege and the countless innocent people who had been killed during the invasion. For him to sit here calm and collected while I told Alicia everything about our sordid pasts was a testament to his incredible patience.


    He sighed. ¡°It isn¡¯t something that can be settled so easily, Princess. I¡¯m sure your father does love you, but the fact remains that he is responsible for killing so many of our brethren. If it comes to it, I am not sure if I could allow such a transgression to pass.¡± He stood up, and tucked his chair back to the table. ¡°Perhaps it is not my fate to end your father¡¯s life. But many of our friends would certainly rest easier if I did so.¡±


    Alicia cast her gaze downward, frowning. ¡°It¡¯s so hard for me to imagine that my Father could allow such a thing. I was younger then. Had I been old enough, I might have joined my siblings in the attack. That invasion was how my siblings tasted blood for the first time. You¡¯ve seen Elijah and how quick he is to resort to violence. I cannot apologize on their behalf. I doubt you¡¯d even accept it.¡±


    ¡°I also want to apologize again if I¡¯ve treated you poorly. That¡¯s my own fault, and the fault of others. I have trouble trusting people. A lot of people who said that they had my best interests in mind have proven to be false friends. I¡¯ve made a habit of pushing people away by making myself hard to be around. I figured eventually they¡¯d see me as unworthy of their time and they¡¯d leave me be. At first, I thought you two might be the same. I honestly don¡¯t think you two are like that, now that I¡¯ve been able to see who you really are.¡±


    She looked over at Alverd. ¡°You really are the kind of person to stake your life for honor, for your friend. You can be trusted, especially when your back is against a wall.¡± Then her eyes met mine. ¡°And you? You didn¡¯t care that revealing your powers would make you a dead man. All you cared about was Alverd¡¯s safety. That says a lot, really.¡± She smiled at me again.


    My cheeks burned a bit. I wasn¡¯t sure how to take praise from Alicia. Even if she was being honest with us, I was still plenty bitter about the situation. A horrid little philosophical debate was going on in my head about whether one good person in a crowd of bad made up for the lot. Logically, I wanted to try and realize that Alicia wasn¡¯t like the rest on parchment, but emotionally, I thought she was guilty simply for being born the daughter of a murderer.


    Quiet reigned in the hall. I saw Alverd¡¯s mouth move, possibly to say something, but he closed it before he could. I broke the awkward silence.


    ¡°Rule Ten, Alverd?¡± My old friend nodded his head, glumly. Alicia looked in confusion from me to Alverd. She didn¡¯t know about the Tenth Cardinal Rule of Being a Mercenary, and I didn¡¯t feel the need to educate her.


    Alicia stood up from her chair and motioned for the bodyguards to leave. They did so, albeit reluctantly. Perhaps a little desperately, she looked at Alverd with a pleading look, as if expecting him to explain Rule Ten to her. I overheard him whisper to her ¡°I¡¯ll tell you them later.¡±

 Chapter 8: The Nest (Part 2)

    Alicia gestured towards one of the doors. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go. If we plan to reach the Nest, we need to leave soon. There are some last minute preparations being carried out, but they should be done by the time we reach the dragon kennels.¡± I numbly followed Alicia and Alverd through the door, lost in thought. I already had enough to brood about, I didn¡¯t need some moral dilemma to add to that. To do so was a violation of Rule Ten anyway. But as we passed through a lavish, narrow corridor, we bumped into a familiar face.


    The amazon from the Grand Ball, Eliza, came strolling down the passage, flanked by two of her guardsmen. She wore a simple outfit, mostly a leather riding suit, with mesh covering any skin not protected by the leather. And that mesh covered her whole body all the way up to her neck in what had to be skin tight fittings. She still carried her rapier, which was fastened to her left hip with a cord of golden chain. Even without armor, Eliza¡¯s height and surety of movement made her quite dominating. I stepped to the side to allow her to pass, but she made no movement to do so.


    ¡°Mage.¡± I could hear all of her country¡¯s prejudice concentrated into a single word. ¡°What were you up to on such a splendid day?¡± She shifted her weight, but it was not an idle gesture; it was that of a soldier who expected action, something I had seen Alverd do countless times. I didn¡¯t want to fight with this woman, so I looked to Alicia for support, but she didn¡¯t have much to offer. I turned back to Eliza.


    ¡°Well, my friend and I have a debt to pay off under your Rite of Reconciliation. Got to get right on that, or else I¡¯ll just be under your nose forever, completely untouchable, smarting off at you whenever I damn well please.¡± I directed my pointed remark at Eliza. I wasn¡¯t in a gaming mood after our conversation with Alicia, so the last thing I wanted to do was get into a tussle with any of her siblings. Reminding her that her own country¡¯s laws prevented her from doing anything to me was the quickest way to getting her to buzz off. I stood my ground, expecting Eliza to acknowledge that I was untouchable. Unfortunately, and perhaps not surprisingly, she decided that she wanted to get in the last word.


    ¡°Perhaps you should take care in how you address me, spellslinger,¡± she said, curling her lip in disgust. ¡°I could kill you as easily as I would swat a fly.¡± Eliza turned to face Alicia. ¡°You should keep your dogs on a shorter leash, Alicia. Someday, they might bark at something that bites back. Or are you incapable of even that?¡± A haughty smirk pulled at the older dragon tamer¡¯s face. Alicia scowled but didn¡¯t respond, so Eliza continued.  ¡°Do you think anyone will accept you as the next Queen if you continue to prove just how weak-willed you are? Even your dragon could figure that out, from what I heard¡­¡±


    At that point, Alverd had had enough of staying silent. He stepped forward and placed himself between me, Alicia and Eliza.


    ¡°There¡¯s no call for any hostility. I ask that we may pass--¡±


    Alicia¡¯s hand moved to Alverd¡¯s arm, which silenced him. I knew he was only trying to be diplomatic, but this was definitely one of those times when it would fail.


    ¡°No.¡± Alicia¡¯s words were directed at Alverd, but she kept her eyes on her sister.


    ¡°Ah. Your champion,¡± Eliza said with a hungry expression. ¡°I would think twice before challenging such a noble warrior. Perhaps, though, he should prove his mettle against a worthier foe than our dear brother. I must admit¡­ the prospect of a challenge is enticing.¡± Eliza¡¯s hand caressed her rapier tightly.


    ¡°Back off, Eliza. You¡¯ve made your point that you¡¯re not intimidated by me or my servants. Now leave, or maybe Father can reprimand you? I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll have the same words for you as he did for Marcus after his little stunt at the Ball.¡±


    She leaned forward menacingly, highlighting the clear difference in height between her and her younger sibling. ¡°You can¡¯t run and hide behind Father forever, Alicia. Someday he will be gone, and then what? Your threats are just words. And words are not the weapon of a true warrior.¡±


    Eliza pushed past me, throwing me one last heated look as she did so, and disappeared down the hall with her escorts. After she had left, I made an obscene gesture down the hall in the direction she had gone. Alverd glared at her, his own hand sliding down to the sword at his side. Thankfully, the incident ended there, and we continued through the corridors to the dragon kennels.


    The dragon kennels were located on a subterranean floor of the castle, which was part of the volcano but not technically underground. The kennel was a hollowed out and expanded tunnel complex with various stables for the dragons that the riders kept. One such tunnel had been painstakingly enlarged to allow dragons to walk through, and I could see the light of the outside world at the end of it.


    I walked over to one of the stables. True to its name, the stable was a large metal pen that housed a dragon within it. This particular dragon was as tall as three men, and it barely fit in the small confined space that was its designated home. Like a horse stable, the dragon could lean its head out in order to look around, and I noticed a feeding trough outside that was within easy reach of the dragon¡¯s head.


    A handler came by and dumped something large into the trough. I stepped away in surprise when I realized the man had dumped the still bleeding hindquarters of some livestock animal into the bin. The dragon plunged its head into the trough, and I turned away so I wouldn¡¯t have a visual to go along with the  tearing and gnashing sounds. My stomach turned, and I fought to keep my breakfast down. Only a few days ago, it could¡¯ve been me in that trough.


    I decided to distract myself by looking at the racks of saddles kept on an adjacent wall. Each was made of leather and riddled with belts reinforced with metal loops and fastenings. Several of them had been modified to accommodate multiple passengers. Yet another handler was checking each saddle, examining them for tears or other faults. I hoped he was thorough; it would be hazardous for a rider¡¯s health if he or she fell off their dragon in mid-flight.


    Another handler was outfitting a rider with a much smaller dragon. The dragon had only a small harness, and the soldier riding it had a canister slung over his back. The handler gave the soldier a large scroll who placed it within the canister. The rider patted his dragon under the neck, and it lumbered toward the opening at the end of the tunnel.


    I wasn¡¯t surprised to see that Ishmar was still using couriers to deliver messages. It was an inefficient way to do so, especially when nearly the entire world had faster means of communication through magic. Taking into consideration how much Ishmarians hated magic, it made sense that they had banned such a method. It was a matter of fear and hatred overriding common sense, something I absolutely loathed.


    A small group of handlers was bustling about a group of larger dragons, fastening loads of extra harnesses to the undersides of the dragons. The riders ushered the dragons to the cave opening and they hobbled off in unison. Alicia came over to where Alverd and I were standing.


    ¡°Those dragons are going to be carrying our supplies. I intend to stay at the Nest for as long as it takes. My father has assigned twenty men to aid us in our endeavor, and we are to leave immediately. So step to it!¡± She walked over to one of the stables. One of the servants led the dragon out and assisted the Princess in climbing the creature by bending over and becoming a human stepping stool for her. She swung her leg over the dragon¡¯s back and fastened the restraints to her belt. She motioned for us to follow.


    I called up to the Princess as she pulled several of the belts on her restraints tight.


    ¡°So, why are we going to the Nest? Couldn¡¯t you just take one of these dragons and compete in the Tournament with one of them? Seems like we could save a lot of trouble if we did that.¡± I knew already that it was a stupid question, given what I had witnessed her trying to do only the night before, but there was no need for her to know I¡¯d been privy to that incident.


    Alicia yanked the last of the belts taut to secure it before turning her attention to me.


    ¡°All of these dragons are bred for transportation and speed, Kuro. They are smaller and quicker, and would not hold up in battle against the larger breeds that are raised for war. Besides, a dragon fit for a royal must be worthy of that royal just as they must be worthy of said dragon. These dragons were trained to accept any rider, but the dragons that fight our wars bow only to those they respect. For me to have any chance in the Tournament, I need a powerful dragon. Thus, I need to go to the Nest.¡±


    I supposed that made a good deal of sense. If I were a dragon, I wouldn¡¯t want just any human telling me what to do. Still, it was an inelegant solution. If, by some astronomically unlikely chance Alicia managed to tame a dragon from the Nest, would it still obey her during the competition? We were talking about wild dragons. There was no way to know if they would react in the way we needed them to. I guess, at this point, we didn¡¯t have much of a choice. I strode over to the dragon that was to serve as my mount.


    Alverd had no trouble mounting his dragon. The bloody beast even lowered its head to allow him greater ease in doing so. My dragon, however, decided to be difficult. I swear, it knew about my powers and had no intention to be ridden by a mage. It took five men to calm the dragon enough to let me get in the saddle, and even then it wouldn¡¯t follow my orders. Only after I threatened the creature with a rider¡¯s crop did it relent. Together, the three of us shambled down towards the end of the tunnel.


    Alicia led the way. As we reached the end, she spurred her dragon on faster and faster until its beating wings lifted it off the ground. Dragon and rider shot out of the tunnel mouth like a bolt from a crossbow and Alverd and I followed suit. We joined the twenty riders and four supply-bearers already waiting for us and flew northwest in the direction of the Nest.


    The four supply-bearers were an interesting sight. The four dragons were slightly larger than the rest of the convoy¡¯s out of necessity. Each of the four were carrying large crates dangling from their underbellies by rope harnesses. I guessed that all of our food and camping supplies were stored in those crates. I began to wonder how long we were going to be out at the Nest. Alicia needed to find a dragon soon, so haste would necessitate that we wouldn¡¯t be there long.


    The other twenty riders rode two to a dragon. Each of them were wearing the traditional charcoal armor of the Ishmarian royal guard. I saw that they also had the number eight painted on their shoulders; these were Alicia¡¯s personal soldiers. I was slightly reassured knowing that we weren¡¯t going alone into wild dragon territory without backup. Granted, twenty men weren¡¯t exactly the ideal backup I had envisioned, but it was better than nothing.


    According to Alicia, it would take us about four hours to reach the Nest seeing as how our dragons could circumvent the treacherous canyons and other obstacles that would¡¯ve plagued a journey by ground. I questioned having a capital so close to a place overrun with wild dragons, but I suppose the Ishmarians considered it a sign of their reckless bravery.


    I was shaken from my thoughts when my mount flew through a draft. The dragon navigated through the change in wind pressure with no trouble, but I was utterly unprepared for it. I was slammed in the face by what felt like a solid wall mid-air, and I felt the back of my head smack against the back of the saddle as I was twisted backwards. Even worse, I yanked hard on the reins in my left hand and my dragon immediately barrel-rolled in a counterclockwise corkscrew before nosediving, taking me with it.


    I screamed, but I could barely hear it over the sound of the wind rushing past me. My world kaleidoscoped around me as the rocky canyon below and the empty sky above revolved wildly. My only hope was to grab the other rein and pull my dragon out of the death spiral I was in, but I couldn¡¯t overcome the force of the wind. I reached out feebly for the rein, my hand fumbling feebly.


    Then something snatched hold of the rein, ending the roll. Alicia had launched into her own nosedive and was now flying next to my dragon, and by sheer force of her own strength, had forced my dragon into a straight flight. With minute but calculated adjustments to her own flight she pulled close enough to me to place the rein in my hand, then grabbed me by my collar and wrenched me forward. After placing my free left hand on the saddle¡¯s grip, I yanked back on the rein in my right hand and pulled out of the nosedive. As I leveled out, I saw that I was coasting less than thirty feet above ground. Alicia had saved me in the nick of time.


    Alicia had a mean scowl on her face, but I could tell it was more out of concern than anything else. ¡°Pay attention next time! You never doze off in the middle of a dragon flight. A proper dragon rider can go for hours without sleep in the saddle! What kind of man are you?¡± She harrumphed and then angled off to return to the formation. I could see Alverd looking down at me with a look that simply said ¡°be careful next time¡±.


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    I scrambled to reinforce my grip on my saddle; my complacency had very nearly killed me. I wondered how much longer it would take to reach the Nest. I would rather fight these bloody things than ride them. Facing down dragons? I could do that. I mean, I knew how to do it. As if that wasn¡¯t enough, Alicia had assured me that her twenty soldiers would be able to hold their own as well. With them, Alverd, the princess, and myself, we weren¡¯t in any danger of being killed by any wild dragon. Each of the soldiers sent with us had experience in handling dragons, and each one was armed to the teeth.


    I tightened my grip on my harness and checked to see if my belts were still secure. When the next draft hit, I was ready for it; the dragon flew through it and I held fast to the saddle, closing my eyes tight against the wind, gritting my teeth. Every subsequent draft after that was handled in the same fashion.


    Finally, as the sun climbed into the sky to mark midday, we reached a massive canyon hewn into the base of a mountain range. There was a clearing just outside the ominous-looking valley, thick with an unnatural looking fog. The entire congregation alighted in this area, kicking up dust in all directions. I was quite eager to get off my dragon, and it was equally happy to be rid of me. Within moments, the soldiers had all dismounted and were setting up a base camp, checking their personal weaponry as they did so.


    Their weapons lacked a metallic sheen to them. Although I could see reflections in them, like any metal, they had rough finishes that gave them dull appearances, unlike the bright shine on Alverd¡¯s sword. I called over to Alicia, who had yet to dismount.


    ¡°Say, Princess. Those weapons don¡¯t look like any kind of metal I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±


    Although she was in the process of unfastening her safety tethers, the Princess had no trouble answering me as she did so.


    ¡°That¡¯s because the weapons carried by the royal family and their personal guards are made from dragon fangs. We pull a special material from the center of the tooth and use a unique forging process to turn it into a weapon that¡¯s superior to steel, but doesn¡¯t weigh more. Our family¡¯s national treasure, the Sword of Evros, was said to be the first sword forged in this way with the metal taken from the fang of the great Evros, the dragon that was mother to all.¡±


    Alicia launched into the story. ¡°Evros is the greatest and most powerful of all dragons. She is said to be hundreds of years old with a hide so thick that no arrow or spell can pierce it. Her wingbeats can unleash hurricanes, her breath can melt mountains, and her teeth and claws are so sharp that nothing in this world can survive them. She is the Progenitor, the birth mother of all dragons.¡±


    She hefted her two-handed maul, and I could see that, despite its fine craftsmanship, it possessed the same properties as the guards¡¯ weapons. ¡°Our legends say that the first King of Ishmar was a barbarian chieftain, one of the first to tame dragons for domestic use and warfare. His ambition was to rule all of the barbarian clans, so he set out to prove his worth. He decided to seek the favor of Evros herself. With her blessing, he would surely be accepted by the other clans as their king.¡±


    I thought back to the statue of Deyovar in the city square and his depiction in the historical tome Alicia had provided me. The book had provided me with Deyovar¡¯s history, but I wanted to see what Alicia thought of him, so I kept my mouth shut and listened to her narration.


    ¡°After much searching, he found Evros. She tested his bravery and resolve and found him worthy. She gave him one of her fangs, and told him how to pull the metal from the interior to forge a sword with no equal. It was a blade capable of slicing through common steel, peerless in every way. She taught him how to extract the metal in the teeth of dragons, and to forge that metal into weapons and armor without equal. With her blessing, the barbarian set out to conquer the land.¡±


    Alicia smiled, as if she found the telling of her tale amusing. ¡°For ten years, he slowly fought his way across the volcanic plains, uniting the clans. Finally, every chief bowed to him, and he was crowned the first king of Ishmar. But, in his efforts of conquest, he had forgotten the secret to forging weapons like the Sword of Evros. Yet, the method had not been lost entirely, and that is why when a soldier is entrusted with a weapon made of dragon metal instead of regular steel, it is an honor of the greatest magnitude.¡±


    I had noticed that not every Ishmarian had the same weapons as Alicia¡¯s guard. The men who roamed the halls and stood guard over doors or such had standard steel weapons and armor. Alicia confirmed my guess that a large amount of metal was needed to make a single weapon or suit of armor, so it wasn''t a standard issue. And a good thing, too. Ishmarian steel was already dangerous enough. I shuddered to think how different today¡¯s world would have been had they been able to harness the full power of dragon tooth metal. Armies of soldiers with blades that could carve through enemy swords, armor that could shrug off magic as if it were a light breeze¡­ such power would have been unstoppable.


    A soldier dropping a crate snapped me out of my reverie. Our group had taken a great deal of equipment and provender, far more than a few days¡¯ worth. Alicia had anticipated that we would be here longer than just a day or so, but that troubled me more than it should have. She only had about three days to catch a dragon, right? So why so many supplies? Surely we had brought enough food and water, but there were still a few bundles left over that had yet to be unloaded. I still had no idea how she was planning to tame a wild dragon, but I figured now was as good a time as any to find out.


    ¡°So, Princess. How do you intend to tame one of the most vicious creatures to ever crawl out from under a rock with just a handful of men?¡±


    The Princess looked annoyed that she had to entertain my curiosity, as if her plan was patently obvious. There was a short pause as she considered my question. Then she responded with a smug look on her face.


    ¡°Ever the inquisitive one, eh Kuro? I assure you, I know what I¡¯m doing. Once the soldiers establish our base camp, I¡¯ll inform both you and Alverd of the plan.¡±


    She strolled away to begin giving orders to her men. Alverd came over to where I was standing, and already I could tell he was lost in thought.


    ¡°Remember when your mother told you that your face would freeze like that if you kept making it, Alverd? I guess she was right after all.¡± I barked a laugh, remembering the exact scrunched-up look his mother used to make when she scolded her son. It looked as if someone had replaced the sugar in her recipe with salt. It was hilarious.


    My sarcastic remark elicited a chortle from my friend. However, he quickly grew quiet. I knew I¡¯d put my foot in my mouth far too late. Alverd had lost his family shortly after being knighted. The death of his parents was still a poorly healed wound, and I¡¯d gone and poked at it without thinking.


    I had never known anything about real families. I had no parents, no brothers or sisters. Nobody even knew what happened to my parents. They never left any note, never told anyone why they were leaving me, and never told anyone where they were going. I was left at an orphanage as a baby, and that was that. Or it would have been had I not been born with the ability to use magic. After four years of suffering at the hands of the other children, they finally pushed me too far. One day I caught one of my childhood bullies throwing rocks at a defenseless fox, a pitiful little creature I¡¯d fed and befriended in secret. I remember lunging onto his back, scratching at his eyes in utter fury. When the scratching didn¡¯t do anything, I opened my mouth and sank my teeth into his shoulder, biting him hard enough to draw blood. He threw me off and picked up a rock to bash me in the head.


    Suddenly a golden lightning bolt launched him through the air, like a kite on a windy day. It had been purely by instinct. One second he was standing over me, the next my hands were in front of me. I felt pain in my head, and some force expelled itself out of me. The little dastard landed in a heap about thirty feet away, his leg making a horrendous snapping sound as he landed at a funny angle. He screamed and cried, and the other children nearby called for the head of the orphanage. As I watched, the fox seemed to regard me with something like approval before disappearing into the nearby brush.


    That was the only thing I¡¯d cared about, really. That the innocent animal had escaped, not that I¡¯d nearly killed another kid. To this day, I still felt the same way. Even if that kid had been crippled for life, I wouldn¡¯t have cared. If he didn¡¯t want his leg broken, then maybe he should¡¯ve thought twice before bullying something that couldn¡¯t fight back.


    The incident was sufficient enough for the orphanage to call for Professor Farnus to take me away. He quickly spirited me away to join the small school he taught for Marevar¡¯s magically inclined children. He brushed off the idiot orphanage keeper¡¯s claims that I was dangerous and instead chose to listen to my side of the story first. He concluded I had acted in self defense and shown compassion for defending the fox, and that I was to be commended for showing the courage to stand up to a bully without knowing I had magic.


    Farnus had understood me in a way few people did. He inducted me into his school as soon as we arrived in the capitol. It was tough, but I was ready to meet the challenge of learning magic. I wanted to repay this man for placing his faith in me, and the best way to do it was to not squander the chance I¡¯d been given. I took to my studies with gusto and learned to read, write, and learn what little magic I could.


    Thanks to that school, I met Alverd and Laura, the only two bright spots in my unremarkable life. Laura¡¯s parents ran a pretty popular bakery and they were constantly donating baked goods to the children, since Professor Farnus¡¯ school was a bit of an orphanage itself. They became my family in a way. After magic lessons, I found myself drawn to Laura¡¯s bakery where I would while away the hours in good company with the only two people I had ever called friends. That¡¯s how I eventually learned that their two families had been old friends for as long as they could remember.


    It also didn¡¯t take long for me to learn about Laura¡¯s interest in Alverd. Even at a young age, I could see her eyes linger on him while he helped out around her bakery. When Alverd enlisted as a page, she quickly did so too, despite her parent¡¯s protests. Unfortunately, Alverd was a bit thick in that regard. He devoted himself to his knightly training, and Laura eventually ended up becoming a huntress, one of the finest I¡¯d ever known.


    When Marevar was attacked, the first thing Alverd remembered was his home being set ablaze by dragons. Much like the rest of his part of the castle town, it had been burnt to the ground during the initial part of the attack. He didn¡¯t even have time to see if his parents had been evacuated or not because he had to report for duty and hold the castle wall against the Ishmarians. My insensitive jab had drudged up some unpleasant memories. I started to blurt out an apology.


    Of course, Alverd knew what I was thinking before I did. He clapped his hand on my shoulder, and gave me a reassuring look. The benefit to having a friend like Alverd for so long was that he knew when I said things purely by reflex. The two of us sat in the shade of a large rock, watching the royal soldiers scurry about like ants. Finally, Alverd broke the silence.


    ¡°She¡¯s a strong one. Hard to believe she¡¯s still so young.¡±


    My friend¡¯s expression was wistful. I looked into his eyes, and a surge of hate that had been buried since our discussion from before came roaring back. I had managed to stifle it for a while, but it was still there, like the bitter aftertaste of cheap ale. I couldn¡¯t figure out why Alverd could be so nonchalant toward this girl. But then it finally clicked.


    I was so completely selfish. All I ever worried about was my own hide. It was easy for me to fall into such a habit, since I didn¡¯t have any loved ones to lose. Alverd had figured it out from the beginning. He had made the choice to treat Alicia as innocent long before I, the supposedly smart one, could come to that conclusion. Hell, she¡¯d even admitted she¡¯d been too young to be involved in the invasion five years ago. I was a fool. I would have killed an innocent girl simply because she was a daughter to the one I hated. She was completely innocent of that crime, but I, blinded by my hate and anger, had been unable or maybe unwilling, to see that. Alverd had figured it all out long ago.


    Having apparently finished ordering her peons around, she trotted over to the two of us. She stood before us, one hand holding her intimidating maul, the other holding some kind of odd instrument slightly resembling a whistle or flute. I had to admit my curiosity was piqued.


    ¡°Are we going to lull a dragon to sleep with that? Soothe the savage beast and all that nonsense?¡±


    She snorted. ¡°No. This flute attracts dragons. It produces a sound very close to a mating call. We will lure a dragon out of the Nest and attempt to tame it.¡± She fiddled with the strange instrument.


    Oh. So there was a plan. That was good to know. It still seemed pretty slipshod to me, but at least there was a plan. Alicia strode purposefully over to the hole in the cliff near our camp, and raised the strange instrument to her mouth. She blew into it, but no audible sound came out. But as soon as she lowered the horn, an eerie silence descended on the camp. Birds stopped chirping, critters went silent, bugs seemed to stop buzzing. Suddenly, it occurred to me that using a calling device was a bad idea. I mean, we were sitting outside a canyon infested with wild dragons, right? Using the flute was probably going to work, but would it work too well? If more than just one dragon emerged, we were going to die. Twenty heavily armed men or not, we were going to die, and then be eaten.


    Unfortunately, the damage was already done. The soldiers gripped their weapons tight as the last of the ambient noise faded. We stood there in the shadow of the rock face for minutes that stretched on for centuries. I finally began to think that the flute must have been broken or something.


    Then came the screeching of a dragon. Then two. Then three. Countless other cries filled the air. The domesticated dragons in the camp raised their heads and roared as well. From the cliff face, the biggest dragon I¡¯d ever seen emerged, its malevolent red scales gleaming, smoke wafting from its fang-laden mouth. At nearly two-and-half stories high, it dwarfed any of the domesticated dragons we¡¯d brought with us. Its claws were easily longer than Alverd¡¯s sword, and probably a lot sharper. The dragon opened its jaws wide, revealing rows of serrated teeth meant for only one purpose. The soldiers realized that their enemy was far bigger than expected and beat a tactical and hasty retreat.


    I took one look at the giant beast and lost my capacity for rational thought. I¡¯d been up against a dragon before, but never one like this. It was huge, far bigger than the one Alicia had lost control of, and tasty little humans were scurrying around beneath it. I snapped out of my trance when the ground shook beneath me, and without any further ado, turned.


    Professor Farnus always told me I wasn¡¯t a typical mage. Why? Because I could actually run.

 Chapter 9-To Tame a Dragon

    Fear is the great equalizer; it is what allows a meek, timid peasant to kill a well-trained knight. Fear is the ice in your veins that saps your ability to fight, yet it is also the surging will that drives a man to extraordinary feats. You can take any man or woman close to you and claim to know who they are, but you never really know a person until you see them in the throes of fear. Only then do you learn who they are at the core of their being.


    I¡¯m a big fat coward apparently.


    When that dragon came crawling out of the rocks I ran as fast as my short legs and flat feet would carry me. My lungs were burning for air, and I could feel the earth pounding under my feet as the dragon clawed through the narrow pass. I ran toward Alverd and Alicia. I saw Alverd unsheathe his useless steel sword, and Alicia twirl her maul. I kept running until I was behind him. Only then did I turn and stand my ground. I always found Alverd to be a¡­ reaffirming presence, especially when his heavily armored body was between me and the bad guys. What more could a mage possibly ask for, except for maybe fire-retardant robes and some alchemic ice bombs, maybe?


    By the time the dragon squeezed through the hole in the crags, I had my staff pointed at the beast¡¯s ugly face. I wasn¡¯t facing some mercenary scum or dirty bandit though. I was facing a full-grown dragon, much larger than Alicia¡¯s had been. I would need a little more firepower behind this spell.


    Normally, mages don¡¯t need much to use magic. We pull power from the elements either around us or within us, amplify it, direct it through a staff, and then unleash it. It¡¯s a deceptively simple and efficient process to use magic. In battle, a mage with a cool head could whip out spells left and right with deadly accuracy and speed. However, those spells are usually only mid-tier in power. Sometimes you just need that extra punch, or more power than what your body can provide. So you beseech a greater power than yourself to aid you in your endeavor.


    Basic magical knowledge states that ethereal beings live all around us, watching our every move with varying degrees of interest. Every person is believed to have a personal spirit, akin to a guardian angel, who provides us with strength and guidance when we sorely need it. We learn to ask this guardian angel to grant us the power to vanquish our foes by using a forgotten dialect. The problem is, these spirits are said to be finicky and won¡¯t respond to simple commands like ¡®give me more power¡¯. Our teachers hypothesize that it is a safeguard to prevent people from abusing them for their own personal gain. Thus, the idea of incantations was eventually created. The gist of it is while you were busy channeling the power of the spirits around you, the incantation served as a means to convey to the spirit your intent. An incantation, although a sterling example of theatricality bleeding into magical practice, focuses the mage¡¯s mind while aligning them with a spirit willing to lend them their power.


    I¡¯m rather good at coming up with incantations. They require a great deal of improvisation. Spirits tend to like concise yet colorful phrases that mirror the emotional state of the invoker. Like people, spirits are entities that understand concepts like good and evil, love and hate, even attachment and theatricality. Nobody in the whole wide world has ever heard of an incantation failing, so the only real downside would be getting killed while I¡¯m in the middle of it.


    A mage is a sitting duck during an incantation. We have to stand still and reach out to the power around us, which basically lets every archer within a hundred feet see that, ¡®Hey! I¡¯m doing magic over here! Shoot me in the head!¡¯ Having Alverd stand in front of me gave me some measure of security, though it would be little comfort when the dragon stepped over his mutilated and charred corpse to get to me.


    I listened past the din of the dragon to what was in the air around us. There was moisture in the canyon, probably enough to form the basis of an ice spell. More importantly, I could feel the presence of otherworldly beings. I could almost sense them, like wraiths moving through the air, tuning in to my magical ability. As the spirits converged on me, I willed the water in the air to form into a ball at the tip of my staff. The water hardened into ice and began growing in size, pulsing with magical might. Calling to the spirits surrounding me, I spoke my incantation.


    ¡°On the howling winds of the mountaintops, bring the eternal winter here with all its fury! Seal my foe in a tomb of everlasting frost! Let the blood of my foe run cold as the night itself!¡±


    One spirit responded, then a second. Tdheir power surged into me, cold and adamant, but immense. I felt as though I had died, and that my life was ebbing from my body, but still I held tight. A third spirit came to me and lent me its strength, and I could feel my spell almost grow out of control. The small ball of light on my staff swelled to triple its size, glowing as it drew even more power into itself. As the dragon moved to attack, I threw the ball of ice at it. It streaked toward the dragon, shrieking like a banshee.


    The ball of magic impacted the dragon straight on the head. A huge explosion of white snow and ice rocked the narrow valley. The spell flash-froze the dragon, frost spreading all over the dragon¡¯s scales in seconds. The dragon¡¯s movements slowed; it attempted to cry out, but the frost covered its head, coating it in a thick layer of clear ice. Finally, the dragon froze completely. I looked over the results of my handiwork with great pride.


    I gasped in exhaustion; I had overpowered the spell. At best, it would take me another few minutes before I could focus on another blast like that. After all, it wasn¡¯t like I went and fought dragons every day. As I attempted to stand up, I saw Alicia¡¯s mouth agape. Obviously, it had been her first time seeing such powerful magic up close. I smirked and waved at her. Her expression turned to annoyance.


    But then the sound of a loud crack reached my ears. The coating of ice I¡¯d spread over the dragon was shattering, like cheap pottery. Within moments, the damned thing had smashed through the icy layer I¡¯d placed on it, and it let loose another roar, this one full of rage and pain. A viscous liquid too red to be saliva or blood was now pouring from the dragon¡¯s mouth. Its movements became erratic and jerky, like a puppet dancing from a single string. But I didn¡¯t have the strength to do anything now.


    Despite the fact that I had drawn power from an outside source, I had still used my body as a conduit for the channeling of the spell. The fact that three spirits had answered my summons had also taken an immense toll. Never in my illustrious career had I ever channeled more than one spirit. To say that I was tired was an understatement. It was rare to be able to channel more than one spirit, since it was discouraged by the more experienced. After all, the human body had limits, and if one drew too much power into themselves, staff or no, they¡¯d burn themselves out anyway.


    As I regained my wind, I saw that the soldiers with us had not run like cowards as I first suspected, but had instead moved into position with special equipment. The men were carrying strange planks of metal that I quickly realized were shields; they were angled in such a way as to deflect incoming fire rather than outright block it. I didn¡¯t have time to compliment the genius behind such a design because the dragon took aim and opened its jaws to unleash flaming hell on us.


    Fire shot in a massive jet from the dragon¡¯s mouth. It cut across the ground like a blade, searing everything around it. The stream of fire caught one soldier who wasn¡¯t lucky enough to deflect the fire with his shield. In an instant the man burst into flames, his armor fusing into a solid piece. He only cried out for a moment before he burnt alive like a piece of meat on a stove. What was left of him hit the ground as the fire swept towards its next target.


    The next soldier was ready. He hunkered down, planting his shield firmly on the ground. The fire was pushed to the sides of him, his shield creating a safe haven as the flame poured from the dragon¡¯s mouth in a steady stream of death. I could only imagine the pressure the soldier was feeling, the kind of force he had to endure; not only was he stopping a giant blast of fire, but a wave of pressure that threatened to crush him if he didn¡¯t stand his ground. After a moment, the dragon realized that it wouldn¡¯t be able to kill the soldier, so it shifted its attention elsewhere. The dragon tried to roast a few of the other soldiers, but they too had planted their shields to protect themselves from the blazing breath.


    Another group of soldiers who were carrying a bunch of long, shafted weapons that were too long to be spears circled around the dragon. They threw the weapons at the dragon, and they immediately pierced the dragon¡¯s hide. It roared in surprise and pain, and prepared to shoot fire at the men. It didn¡¯t get the chance.


    Another group of soldiers flanked the other side of the dragon, and they too threw the weapons at the dragon. They buried themselves in the dragon¡¯s abdomen, like the others. This time, however, I noticed that they had barbed points and rope attached to the other end. It took only a moment for me to grasp what was going on. They weren¡¯t spears, they were harpoons.


    The two groups of soldiers pulled, and the dragon was yanked to the ground, its wings pinned by the ropes. The dragon reared its head back to try and breathe fire, but before it could, an unfamiliar cry pierced the air. Alicia came running toward the dragon¡¯s head, her maul held back for a strike. With inhuman strength, she drove the maul straight down onto its snout. The dragon reeled from the blow, bits of scale flakeing off as its head shook to and fro. Alicia immediately wound up and dealt another shattering blow to the dragon¡¯s head, this time snapping the horn on the dragon¡¯s nose in two. She gave the dragon no quarter; with every blow, it seemed that her attacks became more and more savage.


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    I¡¯d heard the stories about the berserkers of Ishmar. About warriors who surrendered to a rage so deep, that it drove them to destroy their enemies while ignoring even the most mortal of wounds. But to see it in person was nothing short of amazing¡­ and frightening. Alicia¡¯s eyes had a strange hollowness to them; it was as if there was no longer a soul inside her tiny body, only the need to smash the ever-living daylights out of her foe. Berserkers had been involved in the attack on Marevar, as well. They were designed to be shock troops, frontline soldiers capable of breaking the morale of their enemies with their seemingly unstoppable advance. Alverd himself had told me that he had seen soldiers, their bodies studded with arrows, still running forth with weapons in hand, their only objective to crush under heel the enemy before them.


    I could scarcely believe that such an unassuming girl could summon such iron will, yet there it was in front of me. She rained blow after blow down on the dragon¡¯s skull, and despite her rage she did it with a nearly emotionless look on her face that chilled the blood in my veins. Goosebumps broke out all over as I watched the grim spectacle unfold before me.


    After a few moments, the dragon she was beating seemingly decided that it was done playing by her rules. It reared back with such sudden force that it tore the ropes from the hands of the soldiers restraining it, freeing itself. No longer bound by the coordinated efforts of the soldiers, the dragon snarled and made for Alicia. Without a shield, the tiny Princess would be unable to block its fiery breath. As if it were reading my mind, the dragon opened its jaws wide, and a wave of flame shot toward Alicia.


    Alverd lunged in front of her, his shield held high, its eagle emblem glistening. The jet of fire slammed into the shield, knocking it right off Alverd¡¯s arm and sending him flying. The  shield, or rather what was left of it, fell to the ground steaming, now nothing more than a lump of molten metal. Alverd regained his feet, and still he stood in front of Alicia, his puny steel sword held in a posture of defense. It wouldn¡¯t do him much good; without one of the specially designed Ishmarian shields, Alverd wouldn¡¯t survive a single blast from the dragon, and neither would Alicia, for that matter.


    I had a moment to see the dragon¡¯s face clearly, and what I saw astonished me. It had to be¡­ sick. Parts of its scaly hide were peeling off at an astonishing rate, which had nothing to do with the beating Alicia had inflicted upon it. Blood was flowing out of the dragon¡¯s mouth and its pupils were dilated so much that I had to wonder how the creature could even comprehend the concept of sight at the moment, much less utilize it. I didn¡¯t know if dragons willingly attacked people the way this one had attacked us, but that seemed out of place to me as well. Something was very wrong.


    I didn¡¯t have time to question the ramifications. If the dragon was ill, then killing it was doing it a favor. I wasn¡¯t a fan of culling sick animals. Death was still death, even when disguised as mercy. But at this point, it was it or us. And as selfish as it sounded, it made things clearer than a bell for me. I knew what I had to do.


    I willed the moisture in the air into my hand, freezing it into another ball of exploding ice. I didn¡¯t have time for an incantation, so I immediately tossed the ball at the dragon and hoped for the best. It crashed into the dragon¡¯s face, and the explosion engulfed it in a shower of white. As the dragon reared back in anger, I aimed my staff at its feet. Searing lances of lightning shot forth from the staff, seeming to almost slither across the ground as I tore the earth beneath the dragon apart with wanton disregard. No longer stable, the ground began to crumble beneath the dragon¡¯s massive weight. As the dragon struggled to stay upright, I directed the lighting towards the canyon walls, triggering explosions that sent showers of stony shrapnel at the dragon¡¯s head.


    I had to knock the dragon down. If I could get its head back down to the ground, Alverd and Alicia could kill it. And the only way to do so was to bury it. I could feel the strength leaving my body as I kept feeding it into my staff, blasting the rocks and earth indiscriminately to get the dragon to lose its balance.


    Screaming incoherently, I held tight to my staff. At last, the ground gave way, and a hole opened up in the ground. The dragon lurched forward, no longer able to support itself, and its head came crashing down to the ground. As the dragon let out a pained screech, I felt the staff fall from my hands, the lightning winking out with a sizzling sound. I buckled to my knees, gasping for breath.


    Alverd saw his chance; he charged ahead, and with a mighty effort, thrust forward, burying his sword straight in the dragon¡¯s unarmored chin. The blade slid all the way into the hilt, and was yanked from Alverd¡¯s hands as the dragon¡¯s head pulled back. The dragon¡¯s neck snapped once, and then fell back to the ground, shattering the icy coating on its head with a thunderous crack.


    Silence fell upon the valley once more. Alverd, with some difficulty, pulled his sword from the dragon¡¯s skull. It had been coated with the dragon¡¯s thick, almost syrupy blood. With casual grace, Alverd flicked the blood from his sword and sheathed it, not even stopping to glance at it.


    Alicia strode over to where I was. As I looked, I saw that the sanity had returned to her eyes; they were clear and focused once more. At first I thought she was going to thank me for my contribution to her rescue, but I was sorely mistaken.


    She clocked me in the face with her fist. It really hurt, even without the berserker rage behind it. It wasn¡¯t a heavy blow, but it was enough to make me fall onto my back. With difficulty, I regained my balance and stared at her, uncomprehending. Alicia glared at me, which, despite her tiny frame, seemed quite menacing. She grabbed me by the collar of my robe, pulled me close, and started screaming at me.


    ¡°You idiot! Watch where you¡¯re throwing that magic of yours! You¡¯re gonna bury us all under a rockslide! Warn me next time! No wonder so many of my people think you¡¯re dangerous!¡± I thought I detected just a hint of remorse in her eyes after she said that last bit, but she was still glaring at me as if daring me to refute her.


    Well, you¡¯re welcome. Save somebody¡¯s life, and they show you their right cross? No thanks. I already had a bone to pick with her and her entire kingdom. I didn¡¯t need more fuel for that fire, thank you very much. Hmph. I was only trying to save Alverd.  I wasn¡¯t going to put up with Alicia¡¯s crap, especially not after that fiasco, so finally, I let her have it.


    ¡°Well maybe I wouldn¡¯t have the opportunity if we weren¡¯t out in the ass end of nowhere about to get eaten by giant lizards! I¡¯m sooooo sorry I wasn¡¯t born in a country that nurtures the asinine notion that dragons should be tamed! Not all of us solve our problems like you barbarians, with every muscle but the ones in your heads!¡±


    I¡¯ll be damned if I was going to let that spoiled little brat dictate my life, Ishmarian law or not. In fact, if not for her stupid shield-wielding escorts, I probably would¡¯ve killed her a couple times over. Or found some way to hold her hostage long enough for the King to be aware of her predicament, before killing her. I wanted the King to suffer, and if killing his beloved daughter would accomplish that, then so be it.


    However, I couldn¡¯t forget that the little wench had saved my life. I choked that realization down bitterly, trying to squirm out of the logic of it all. No dice. I opened my mouth again, this time to reluctantly apologize, but Alicia rammed her fist into my face again.It hurt a great deal more this time. Her expression suggested that I had hit a bit of a soft spot, as she was grinding her teeth audibly.


    ¡°Do you understand what I had to do there? I had to do that to save not just your useless hide, but the lives of my men! That dragon was out of control! That was¡­that was¡­¡± The maul fell from her trembling free hand. At first I drew a blank. But then she continued. ¡°That was the first time I¡¯ve ever killed something in a berserker trance, and I did it to save an ungrateful little bastard like you!¡±


    She looked pretty distraught, to be honest. I felt a little bad about it now. If that dragon was indeed the first thing she¡¯d ever killed¡­ you never forget that sort of thing. It wasn¡¯t something that could be easily forgotten. Men sometimes spent their whole lives drowning themselves in gold, drink, pleasures of the flesh or any combination of the three trying to forget the first time they ever killed another living being. And now, Alicia was struggling with that very same trauma.


    I was about to apologize sincerely, but then she hit me again. This time, it wasn¡¯t like the first two attacks. The fact that I was still conscious was a miracle. I supposed I deserved such after having said something so insensitive, but I really did try to apologize. I threw up my arms as I struggled back to my feet.


    ¡°Look, Princess, I¡¯m trying to say- ¡±


    Alicia raised her fist to strike me again, but I didn¡¯t give her the chance. I ran. Again. I was able to make out Alverd in my peripheral vision, smirking at me as if to say, ¡°you get what you ask for¡±. Smug bastard. I don¡¯t see anybody giving him a hard time. He¡¯s in the same damn boat as me, but nobody ever calls him out on it. I ran frantically, the screaming little hellcat dead on my heels while my only friend left in this world took pleasure in my misfortune.


    Gods be damned, I never could catch a break. Never.

 Chapter 10: Specters

    One concussion later, I was alone with my thoughts in the middle of our base camp.


    I sat, canteen in my hand, sipping water as I watched the soldiers bury their fallen comrade. The group solemnly said a prayer for their fellow soldier before they sealed his grave, planting a crude marker in the ground. Then they dispersed to fulfill whatever jobs they needed to do around the camp. They attended their duties with a strange quiet; most likely because they were still mourning. I stood, placing the canteen back in my pack, and sought out Alverd who was gazing intently at the mountain pass from which the dragons had come. His hand was resting on the sheath buckled to his hip. His face was serene, but I could sense that he also had a lot on his mind. Our battle with the dragon seemed like a dream; an all-too intense dream, like a nightmare come true. We had experienced our fair share of scrapes, but never had we gone and fought a full grown dragon like that. Even though the beast probably was at Death¡¯s door thanks to whatever illness it had contracted, it had still nearly killed the whole lot of us. It was a sobering thought to know that there were things out there that considered you to be beneath them in such a way. I pulled up next to Alverd, trying to scrutinize the fog-filled depths of the canyon before us.


    ¡°So. Nice to see that we¡¯re still alive.¡±


    He grunted. I could tell he was only half listening to me. His eyes were fixed forward, as if searching for something within the mist-shrouded valley before him. Alicia came over to where we were standing and joined us. There was silence for a moment before she spoke.


    ¡°Do you ever really forget it?¡±


    We both looked at Alicia. There was no easy answer to her question. She looked lost, haunted, as though she could still hear the dragon¡¯s death cries in her ears. She was shivering, too. From the look of it, she hadn¡¯t been able to detach herself from the emotional aspect of dealing with her first kill. I had to at least give her credit for being able to recognize what she had done while she had been in her berserker trance. Judging by the stories, berserkers weren¡¯t really the kind of warriors who cared about what happened ¡°later.¡±


    Alverd replied to Alicia¡¯s question before I could figure out how to respond. ¡°With luck, you won¡¯t, Princess. I know it sounds cruel to say this, but you should carry that weight with you. It¡¯s important to remember the first life you¡¯ve taken, because from now on you¡¯ll know the full extent of what that entails. Every time you raise your weapon from this point onward, you will remember what you felt when you struck someone or something down, and what that means for you as you kill more and more.¡±


    My best friend rubbed his armored hands together. ¡°The first man I ever killed¡­ I was terrified. My troop was stationed on the outer castle wall and our assignment was to protect the trebuchets. But the dragon riders swooped down on us and a few of them jumped from their mounts and engaged us in close combat. My commanding officer told me and the other recruits to stay with the trebuchet crew. He and his men took care of the first wave. But then three more Ishmarians dropped onto the battlement. Berserkers. They ¡­ they slaughtered their way through our best troops. I saw one of them throw the commanding officer off the rampart like he was a straw doll. By the time they reached us, two were dead, but the last one kept coming. I¡­ I tried to stab him, but the sword went through his chest and he kept swinging. I fell on my back, and he tried to swing again, but I twisted the blade¡­he just collapsed on top of me. His helmet came off, and I saw. It wasn¡¯t a man, but a woman. I nearly retched.¡±


    He reached up to rub his chin. ¡°Then the trebuchet went up. Another dragon rider had torched it during an aerial attack on the wall. I kept hearing men screaming about abandoning the wall, that it couldn¡¯t hold, but more men kept screaming about how if we lost the wall, the Ishmarians would get in and we¡¯d never stop them¡­ It was chaos. And I just lay there, trying to get the taste of bile out of my mouth. And it would take me quite a few more years to get the memory of that berserker¡¯s dead, sightless eyes out of my mind.¡±


    Alicia said nothing at first. When she did speak, her voice was very soft. ¡°My father let me join the berserker training school about three years ago when I was fifteen. That¡¯s three years before they accept applicants. Everything I was taught was designed to tune out pain, grief, any kind of distraction. But no matter what I try, I can¡¯t forget the way the dragon screeched when it died¡­ it just flies in the face of everything I was taught. My mother told me on her deathbed that if I was going to be a berserker, I had to be as strong as my other siblings. After all, their mothers were no doubt pushing them a lot harder to be stronger than any of the others at any cost.¡±


    Alverd looked confused, but I knew right away she was talking about. Marcus, Deacon and all the rest were half-siblings. The King of Ishmar obviously had taken multiple wives who had all borne him multiple children. That would certainly explain the sibling rivalry. It would also explain why the King didn¡¯t favor any of his particular children. As a result, Alicia had had her own share of troubles growing up.


    It didn¡¯t change a damn thing in my eyes. Her people had taken our home from us. I could still see the burning towers, the falling stones, and the blood-stained knights in their blackened armor, waving their weapons of war. I tried to remember that Alicia was blameless in such matters, but it wasn¡¯t an easy task. I tried to think about her saving my life, too, however, that was difficult when I knew I would never unsee the death and the destruction caused by her father.  In all likelihood, I would never forgive, either.


    I stared forward into the fog of the valley, lost in my thoughts of the past. I knew Alverd would condemn me for hurting Alicia. He was rational like that. He knew nothing would come from hurting her. And I couldn¡¯t risk losing my only friend. It was so confusing, and I couldn¡¯t make sense of it, even without the pulsing pain from the damn concussion distracting me.


    Alverd and Alicia continued to talk about the burdens of taking life, and I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I focused on the memory of Laura, but the first thing to come to mind was her role in my nightmare, standing above me, her sword drawn and her dark hair swirling in the ash-laden air. I pushed the image out of my mind with some difficulty, and searched further back for a happier memory.


    Alverd and Laura were both older than me, and when Professor Farnus brought me to Laura¡¯s bakery for the first time the two went out of their way to make me feel welcome, especially after they overheard Farnus tell Laura¡¯s mother about the incident that had prompted him to come get me in the first place. Laura had given me a small bag of cookies ¡°on the down-low¡± to help me feel better about coming to a new and unfamiliar place. Later, back at the mage school¡¯s dormitory, I took one bite of that sweet, chewy cookie, tasting chocolate for the first time, and almost cried. I ran back to the bakery the next day to thank her in person for the sweet ambrosia she had offered me.


    Over time, I became their friend. They treated me like their kid brother, which I enjoyed, because it provided me with a semblance of a family. Sometimes Laura would tease me, but I knew it was all in good fun. It was just the kind of girl she was, a tomboy through and through, who had no problem following Alverd and me on whatever misadventures we could get ourselves into. Tomboy or not, it was the only logical reason why she¡¯d willingly follow him anywhere, even on some of our ¡°messier¡± adventures. The looks she gave him, her body language and her demeanor around him were so obvious.


    She¡¯d always look directly at him when he spoke. She always made sure she was the one standing closest to him in a group. She¡¯d fidget anxiously if another girl started talking to Alverd, and she¡¯d step in and lean on his shoulder if he spoke to that girl for too long. She always had that sly but snide look in her eye when other girls tried to ask Alverd for some time alone, and I could tell from her tone that she was trying not to let her jealousy show in her voice when she told them that he was ¡°unavailable¡±. How it wasn¡¯t incredibly obvious to Alverd was a mystery to me.


    But despite that, I never felt like the odd man out. Even as we grew up and Laura¡¯s feelings matured from a young girl¡¯s crush into something much more serious, we still had the same camaraderie that we had built in our childhood. Of course, she never got over her penchant for teasing me. The only difference was, now, she started asking when I¡¯d ever get my act together and find myself a girl. I still remembered every detail of that particular conversation. It ended with her putting me in a headlock until I admitted that my type were busty, long-haired redheads with blushing cheeks and shy personalities.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    That amused her to no end. ¡°Gods, you¡¯re such a pervert, Kuro! You have such specific tastes, don¡¯t tell me you have dreams about those types of girls!¡± She laughed at me with that insufferable glee, and I tried to defend myself. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with knowing what I like! I just have a realistic understanding of what I find attractive in a girl.¡± When Alverd joined the conversation a minute later, asking what was so funny, I decided to get back at her. ¡°Hey, Alverd! Help me out here. You¡¯ve definitely thought about what you find attractive in a girl, right?¡± I remember clearly that Laura stopped laughing and became very quiet, anticipating Alverd¡¯s response. After a moment, he shrugged his shoulders. ¡°You both are impossible!¡± She screamed as she chased after us for the rest of the afternoon.


    The day Alverd completed his training as a squire, Laura brought us to a tree outside the castle town¡¯s walls. It was a normal tree, nothing special or outstanding. But when we arrived, Laura pulled a book out of her satchel and addressed us.


    ¡°So, I was reading this story. It¡¯s very good, it¡¯s all about brave, honorable warriors fighting to unite a war-torn land. The very first chapter is about three strangers who swear an oath to restore peace and order to their country. I think we should try it, too.¡±


    I took the book from her and skimmed the first chapter, and was aghast at what she¡¯d left out.


    ¡°Laura, these men swore a blood oath! There were knives involved!¡± Laura yanked the book out of my hands.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say we were gonna recreate the scene in complete detail, you moron! We can do something symbolic. Gods!¡± She was more flustered than she needed to be. But there was something about the idea of it that appealed to the romantic in me. Alverd and I both agreed, and we held a mock ceremony, reciting a pledge we concocted together. Laura began the pledge, placing her hand out, the palm facing down. ¡°We three, friends since childhood, swear on this day an oath that transcends friendship.¡±


    Alverd placed his hand on Laura¡¯s, and he missed her face blushing as he did so. ¡°We will remain together, bound together by an oath of loyalty, to uphold peace, maintain order, and serve justice.¡±


    I placed my hand on top of his. ¡°We vow to carry out our oath until the end of our days. As of now, we join our fates together to face the future and whatever it holds.¡±


    Our oath sealed, we spent the rest of the day lounging beneath the tree, lazily passing banter between us. That moment was perhaps the only clear memory I had left of those days.


    My focus wavered, and I found myself recalling the memory of that horrible night, the night when the world decided to remind me that nothing good ever lasts. I thought again of the moment when I had taken a life for the first time.


    I could see Laura in my mind¡¯s eye, swerving to meet her attacker, a warrior clad in ebony armor, a small but wickedly sharp axe in his hand. They exchanged blow after blow, Laura weaving in and around each swipe with grace and skill until she knocked the axe from the warrior¡¯s hand. He didn¡¯t even flinch. He drew the sword at his side, a rapier, and fought with vigor renewed. At some point, I flung the knight into a cart with my magic, and when he crawled free, he reached behind his head to pull the helm off¡­


    But for the life of me, I could not remember what came next. It was if I had somehow succeeded at forgetting what I¡¯d done to take that first life. I knew it had to be at that moment, because after all had been said and done, Alverd and I had escaped the capital with Laura dying in Alverd¡¯s arms. But the ¡°how¡± was eluding me. Maybe it was a blessing that I¡¯d forgotten, but some nagging feeling told me to keep pushing, to try and remember every detail. I tried to push through the fog, to unearth that elusive shred of memory¡­


    I was mercifully jarred out of my efforts by Alverd roughly shaking me, motioning to the mouth of the Nest. Straining my eyes, I caught movement. The swirling mists within the valley churned ominously, as if something were stirring them. Within a heartbeat, my staff was in my hand. If another dragon showed up, I was going to be ready for it. Alverd had his sword drawn, and Alicia followed suit with her maul. The three of us stood there, breath held, listening intently for any sign of a dragon.


    Seconds passed in what felt like hours. No dragon emerged, but I could still sense a presence of some sort. I closed my eyes and reached out with my magic tentatively to try and find the source. I was immediately assaulted by the auras of wild dragons filling the valley. I tried to pinpoint the single presence I had felt before, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I sifted through the various auras, but the dragons lurking in the valley simply drowned out the smaller one.


    Trying to use such a technique around animals was risky. Unlike people, animals were creatures of instinct, driven by the desire to survive. Humans were complex in that they possessed emotion, reason, logic, and restraint. This simplicity of nature was overwhelming, and trying to find one thing among a location crawling with ancient beasts was tantamount to kicking a hornet¡¯s nest. If I wasn¡¯t careful, the dragons would sense me and would show me just how hungry they really were.


    I opened my eyes. Evidently I would have to try something different. Before I could think about what to do, I saw it gleaming in the mist like a beacon. An object was coming closer, cutting through the opaqueness like a knife through butter. I could feel my disbelief rising as my brain tried desperately to explain what it was that I was seeing.


    A light, bouncing to and fro, was swaying in the fog like a will o¡¯ the wisp.


    Both Alverd and Alicia saw it too. They were captivated by the light. Alicia looked like she was on the verge of some kind of breakdown. I could sympathize. As a mage, I was taught to be open to the existence of unexplainable phenomena, but to actually see something like this in person was beyond crazy. Every book I¡¯d read, every bedtime story I¡¯d been told, I¡¯d never actually seen anything to suggest that those stories were anything more than that; stories. And yet, the proof was here.


    Alicia snapped out of her amazement and pulled on Alverd¡¯s arm. ¡°Come on! Let¡¯s go check it out!¡±


    For once, I think Alverd wanted to agree with me. It was an unnatural light bouncing in the fog as if it were trying to lure us into the canyon to our deaths. Even my limited common sense could tell me that following that light was a bad idea. But she wanted to chase that unknown light into a dragon-infested hellhole? Where is the logic in that? Alas, it was too late to worry about such things. Alicia was already dragging Alverd through the narrow opening in the cliff face. I thought about warning the other soldiers, but there wasn¡¯t enough time. I quickly ran after the two.


    The light began to recede further in the valley. We gave chase as best we could, but the light always seemed to be just a few steps ahead of us. I scrambled over the rocks at the mouth and ran behind Alicia and Alverd. I tripped over a rock and landed on my face. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t fall on any gravel, so I picked myself up and continued to run. I could feel myself becoming winded with every ragged breath. I wanted  to stop and catch my breath, but Alverd emerged from the fog and grabbed hold of me. He picked me up and  held me under his arm the way some rich noblewoman would carry a small dog. As much as it was helpful not to be the slowpoke, it hurt my pride to be carried in such a fashion. We continued our sojourn deeper into the Nest, and the miasma around us only became deeper as we went.


    The thickening fog made navigation difficult; we could barely see more than three feet in front of us. The bouncing light was our only proof that we were still on the right track, but we were losing ground fast. The ground beneath us became rougher and more mountainous and we were forced to move slowly, stumbling on rocks and branches, struggling in order to keep up. Vegetation snagged our heels and clawed at our faces, but still, we focused solely on the light, still bouncing through the gloom ahead of us.


    Which was probably why we never saw the traps.


    I heard Alverd step on something strange, most likely a trigger mechanism. There was an odd noise, like the kind of groan a ship makes as it settles in dock. Something swung from the mist and clotheslined Alverd, which sent me flying. As he hit the ground, reeling from the blow to his face, a massive log swung from the mist and slammed into Alicia¡¯s abdomen. She landed in a heap and didn¡¯t stir. I tried to crawl toward her, but another log sailed out of oblivion. I rolled to the left, timing it just so that the log would pass over my head harmlessly. I forced myself to my feet and ran to Alicia. She was out cold but still breathing, which was a good sign. I frantically scrambled over to where Alverd was lying. With his armor, I couldn¡¯t tell whether he was still breathing, so I felt for a pulse in his neck. As soon as my fingers pressed against his skin, his eyes fluttered open, unfocused. Blinking, he managed to take in my face, but then his eyes widened, focusing on something behind me.


    I turned around too late. Something very solid hit me in the mouth. I hit the ground hard, and my vision became clouded. The last thing I remember before blacking out was the light. It hovered over me; at such close range I could see the hazy silhouette of a lantern. It was carried by a figure in a worn, raggedy black cloak whose hood obscured his face. The figure strode over to where Alverd lay and slammed the haft of his walking stick into Alverd¡¯s face. Alverd¡¯s movement ceased immediately. Then, the dark figure returned to my side and knelt next to me. In my bewilderment, I dared to look straight into the figure¡¯s face.


    And the empty blackness beneath its hood stared back.

 Chapter 11: The Pariah

    When I awoke, my head was pounding. Again.


    Two concussions in one day. That wasn¡¯t good. I needed my brain. It was essential to my wizardly prowess. I needed the little magic instruction that had managed to stick in my head to stay where it was. But that aside, I was alive, which was a start. I waited for the grogginess to abandon me so I could have a look around.


    I was in a cave of sorts. The occasional torch illuminated the cave walls, casting twisting shadows. I was in a cell with crude metal bars sealing me in. The bars were ancient, covered in rust, and when I gripped them tightly they shifted, like they weren¡¯t entirely secure. They wouldn¡¯t budge enough for me to wrench any of them loose, however. I cast my eyes elsewhere for a means of escape to no avail. I spied Alicia and Alverd near me, both still unconscious. After checking them for obvious injuries, I took stock of the situation.


    The last thing I remember was seeing a figure in a black cloak. Now I was trapped gods-knew-where or why, and my staff was gone. There weren¡¯t a whole lot of options as far as I was concerned. I needed to focus. I pushed my foot into Alverd¡¯s back, and did the same for Alicia. The two stirred and awoke. I watched as they rubbed their eyes, realizing the predicament we were in.


    Alicia was the first to grasp what was going on. ¡°What the hell? The last thing I remember was getting hit by a bloody tree on a rope, and then¡­ Where are we?¡± Alverd crawled over to the metal bars. After kicking them several times, he gave up on using brute force.


    ¡°Whoever that man was, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s alone. How else could he have dragged us all to wherever we are? I¡¯m wearing armor.¡± It was a thin argument at best in my opinion. For all I knew, Mr. Black Cloak could¡¯ve been stronger than a troll. Knowing our luck, he had probably dragged us all back in a net or something and dumped us in this cell after stripping us of our weapons. Either way, it didn¡¯t bode well for any of us regardless of how we ended up here.


    We had too many questions and not enough answers. I sat back down on the stone floor and began thinking about our predicament. I had to be rational. I didn¡¯t want to inspire panic in Alicia and, to a lesser extent, Alverd. I tried to make sense of it all, hoping to find some way to get us out of here.


    Whoever had taken us had stripped us of our weapons, but not our armor. They had also taken my staff. That probably meant that whoever had taken us knew that I was a mage and had taken proper precautions. And yet, our mystery assailant had left Alverd his armor. There was that damn favoritism again. Of course nobody would strip a knight of his armor, but if there¡¯s a mage prisoner, you take away everything he has. I was just about to will great vengeance on the thief when the sound of footsteps echoed from down the corridor interrupting my train of thought.


    The three of us hushed instantly. The echoing footsteps came closer and closer, the pace getting heavier, as though the one walking had some kind of limp. A light shone down the corridor, and as the figure-in-question rounded the corner. The light came from a lantern slowly swaying back and forth to the rhythm of the figure¡¯s unruly gait. The light made its way down the corridor painstakingly slowly until at last it rounded the corner and we could see the man holding it once more.


    Mr. Black Cloak looked at us from behind his cowl. We could hear his heavy breathing. After a moment, he removed his hood. As he did so, long, unruly blond hair spilled out. The light revealed a stubble-covered face, sunken blue eyes, and gaunt cheeks. The man¡¯s cloak opened and beneath it was tarnished gold armor covered in dirt and scratches. The man looked at the three of us, but his gaze lingered on Alicia.


    ¡°Hello, baby sister. It has been far too long.¡±


    Alicia broke free of her stunned silence long enough to recognize the stranger. ¡°Edgar? Is that¡­ really you?¡±


    The man called Edgar smiled faintly. It pulled at his face, highlighting the wear and tear. The haggard Fourth Prince had apparently been hiding here in the Nest for at least a year and had learned how to survive amidst the dragons. And now, after that self-imposed exile, we had stumbled into his lair, like rats into a trap.


    Edgar¡¯s gaze shifted to me. ¡°A mage, heh? You keep strange company, sister. I wasn¡¯t aware so much had changed in my absence. How fares the war against Algrustos?¡±


    Alicia told him everything from our first encounter, the King¡¯s decree, the Ball, the duel, and finally ended with the battle with the sick dragon. Edgar listened intently, but right around the point when Alicia mentioned Marcus¡¯s challenge, his face darkened. Once Alicia had finished, Edgar procured a key from his robe and opened our cell. He motioned for us to follow.


    ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry about your accommodations. I barely had time to load the three of you onto a cart to bring you back to my little hovel. If I hadn¡¯t been following that dragon you slew at the mouth of the Nest, I may never have realized that you were here. I admit, I didn¡¯t know what to do when this one,¡± he gestured at me, ¡°caught sight of me. I had to resort to more¡­  ¡®draconian methods¡¯ than I was comfortable with in order catch you.¡± He snickered at his little play on words. ¡°Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had ensnared a mage, as well! I had to take a few precautions. You understand, of course.¡± Edgar chuckled to himself as he limped down the passageway.


    Precaution or not, I still wasn¡¯t happy about it. Without my staff I felt practically naked. I had no way to protect myself without it, and if I didn¡¯t get it back soon then I wouldn¡¯t be of much help to anyone in a fight. That is, if one broke out. I was not one to tempt fate, but that didn¡¯t mean I liked to fly blind and remain eternally optimistic. That was how you ended up face-down in a ditch with a knife in your back.


    ¡°How the hell did you outrun us?¡± I simply had to know. Watching Edgar hobble his way down the hallway, there was no way he could¡¯ve led us on that merry chase through the ravine.


    Edgar called back over his shoulder. ¡°I gave the lantern to one of my pets. They are quite quick on their feet once trained. And you were none the wiser.¡± I noted to myself that Edgar was not as stupid as he looked.


    We followed the limping Prince down the torch-lit corridor to a wide open room that was occupied by a crude table. The Prince began poking around in various cabinets for food. As we sat ourselves at the table, Edgar spoke again. ¡°Marcus was always the overzealous one. He always felt that as the First Prince he had an entitlement that no other royal should possess. And if he challenged you in such a fashion, it can only mean that he¡¯s stepped up his plan. If we don¡¯t warn Father, I fear that Marcus¡¯s ambition will destroy us all.¡±


    Alicia cocked her head to one side in bewilderment. ¡°What do you mean? Marcus¡¯s always been overbearing, but he would never jeopardize the kingdom with his antics. What are you talking about?¡±


    The Prince returned to the table toplace some stale-looking bread before each of us as he took his seat. He shifted his weight as he sat to accommodate his weak leg. When he had settled, he leaned forward. ¡°Now, Alicia. You know it¡¯s been just a little over a year since I fled the Ishmarian court, right? It was right after my dragon went feral and died, if you recall.¡± Alicia nodded. ¡°You see, after my Freya died, I became suspicious. After all, she died through no fault of my own; I always took good care of Freya, and there was no reason for her to just up and go wild on me. I knew there was something wrong. She didn¡¯t respond to any of my commands. It was only after six men stabbed her to death did I realize that there must have been some other circumstance. But I refused to believe that she simply suffered some fit of madness or rebelliousness.¡±


    Edgar folded his hands together. ¡°Now at first, nobody wanted to take my suspicions seriously. They all insisted that I was trying to foist the blame elsewhere, that I didn¡¯t want to admit that I had lost control of her, and thus dishonored myself. So I took it upon myself to investigate further. I managed to trace it all back to about four or five years ago¡­ when Ishmar invaded Marevar.¡±


    I twitched a bit at the mention of my homeland. I knew the conversation was going to go in a very bitter direction, but there wasn¡¯t anything I could do about that now. I put some bread in my mouth to stifle any rude comments I might make and continued to listen. Alverd had the same idea; he was being awfully quiet. His eyes were still cold as ice, but I could tell that he was trying to hold back his emotions. I didn¡¯t think that Edgar would intentionally antagonize Alverd, but the thing about telling the truth is that you often don¡¯t do it to spare someone else¡¯s feelings. Edgar was one of the people who had participated in the invasion, and that made me wary of anything he had to say. But I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt¡­ for now.


    ¡°Now, Father didn¡¯t fight in the war because he was sick, but he did accompany us to the front lines. Officially, we went to war with Marevar because we needed their farmland to support our armies. But I think he intended to treat the war as some kind of test to see if we had the mettle to take up the throne after his passing. Of course, Alicia wasn¡¯t there, seeing as how she was too young to fight in a war, but the rest of us were. It was in Marevar that I received the wound in my leg that plagues me today.¡± His hand went to rest on his leg.


    ¡°Our soldiers didn¡¯t sit well with the idea of bribing Kiret and Guilford to stay neutral in our invasion, but we couldn¡¯t afford to have them come to Marevar¡¯s aid. While we may not have enough food, we have no shortage of gold and other expensive baubles from our mines. Those greedy fools in Kiret and Guilford were more than happy to take their money and betray Marevar.¡±


    ¡°The promise of glory was enough to quell the thought of rebellion amongst our soldiers. The delivery of food from our conquered foe would stifle any further plans for sedition within the peasantry. It was a gamble, but one that paid off in spades. Marevar was a ripe target with so few defenders to protect such a perfect prize.¡±


    Edgar paused a moment, then spoke again. ¡°Each of us¡­we killed so many. When we returned to Father, we were all covered in blood. It didn¡¯t matter whether our enemies were worthy foes or unarmed peasants. We lost ourselves in the revel of battle, and we became intoxicated by our bloodlust. But none of us compared to Marcus. Not only did that sick son-of-a-bitch take to it like a fish to water, he seemed to feed off it. He needed it.¡±


    The Fourth Prince was skating on very thin ice. Alverd may not have been the sort to strike an unarmed, injured man out of anger, but I was. But I could see the grim facade on Alverd¡¯s face begin to crack. We both were thinking the same thing. How many people had Edgar killed? How many soldiers, how many civilians? Did he enjoy it? I could feel my hand ball into a fist underneath the table. Killing him seemed like a great idea. Damn the consequences.


    I think the part that made it all worse was that Edgar was trying to say that what he¡¯d done was nothing compared to Marcus¡¯s role in the massacre. I saw no difference. Both had spilled innocent blood. I didn¡¯t care who had spilled more. I could feel my teeth starting to grind in my mouth. Alverd allowed his grimace to become more pronounced. I think Edgar picked up on it, because he quickly moved on to the next part of his story.


    ¡°Father never said a word after that. He took our armies home and changed a great deal. He no longer showered us with praise, he didn¡¯t recognize our strength. He began chastising us for our simple thinking and our brutish ways. And when my dragon died and I suspected foul play, Father merely brushed me off. I knew something was wrong. My own guardsmen thought I was grasping at straws until I cornered one disposing of some kind of weird potion. He was feeding it to some baby dragons in a small kennel out of sight of the rest of the other soldiers. I watched as the baby dragons died quickly, but not before going completely crazy. When I questioned the man, he tried to dodge me. I was forced to kill him, but I was able to confiscate what was left of his poison. But when I tried to bring it to my Father, I was ambushed by some of Marcus¡¯s personal guards¡±.


    I broke off another chunk of the stale bread while Edgar continued on. ¡°They managed to break the bottle of poison. I killed them, but knew that if I went to my Father without proof, Marcus would have me killed to cover his tracks. So I took what I could and fled the Castle. I stumbled across this strange place shortly after I came to the Nest. I was surprised to find a fortress hidden here. No Ishmarian would dare brave the Nest, save Deyovar himself, so why this place exists is beyond me. But I found some odd things deep within its depths.¡±


    Edgar¡¯s expression became somber. He limped over to a crude cupboard, a broken thing that was literally leaning on its last legs. He opened the weathered doors and began rummaging through it, soon emerging with my staff. He tossed it to me. Then he motioned for us to follow him down yet another corridor. ¡°I believe it would be easier if I simply showed you.¡±


    We followed Edgar down the corridor, which had a distinctly downward curve to it, stopping at what looked like a jagged rock wall. Edgar pushed a stone jutting out of the wall like it was a button, and a section of the rock wall slid aside. He walked through the opening, his lantern illuminating the room ahead. The three of us stepped into the room and beheld a truly amazing sight.


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    We had entered a laboratory of some sort. A large table sat in the center of the room, with vials, beakers, and lamps of all shapes and sizes sitting on it. Cabinets with potions lined one of the walls, and on the far side of the room sat cages with young dragons. As the light of Edgar¡¯s lantern fell across them, the dragons stirred, and immediately began making a ruckus in their cages. Edgar lit the torches in the room one by one, and I could see that one corner of the room was filled up with stacks upon stacks of books, their covers coated with dust. I moved to one and picked it up.


    The Incalculable Applications of Alchemy: Potions Edition. I noticed that among the heaps of books this particular book was the only one that did not have dust on it.


    I turned to face Edgar, pointing at the vials on the table. ¡°I see you¡¯ve been busy. The only question is, what have you been up to? Alchemy is hardly a layman¡¯s science.¡±


    Alchemy: the process of creation through transmutation, or changing one thing into another. It¡¯s a science that many people mistake for magic; and given its potential, it was hardly surprising. You can create a great deal of incredible things with alchemy, but as a whole, its practice is highly restricted given its potential to be abused. After all, the ability to turn lead into gold is a pretty big temptation. In the past, entire countries fought over possession of those talented few who understood the intricacies of alchemy.


    Edgar smiled wryly. ¡°I had plenty of time to kill, and more than enough books to indulge in. This one caught my eye, though. Because it contains within its pages a draught that can drive a dragon, even a fully matured dragon, utterly insane with only a single dose. The dragon you fought earlier was one I¡¯d been observing after feeding it the draught. It confirms my suspicions that Marcus used some foul sorcery to kill my dragon.¡± That explains the liquid coming out of the dragon¡¯s mouth, I thought.


    Edgar picked up a beaker of a dark red liquid on the table. ¡°I¡¯ve tried to remain in contact with a few of my old servants at the Castle. I¡¯m aware that Marcus has been making overtures to do away with the old traditions in order to ensure his ascendancy to the throne. When my sources reported that your dragon went feral, Alicia, I knew that Marcus was responsible. I was running out of time, so I stepped up my efforts in order to bring the proof to our father once and for all.¡±


    Turning to us, there was a grave expression on his face. ¡°But it goes so much further than just taking the throne. Marevar was the start. It only gave Marcus the taste for blood. But I have sense enough to see that even we, as powerful as we are, cannot take the world alone. Our nation has isolated itself. Our pride has alienated us from potential allies. Should we go to war with all our strength, commit our troops to full out assault, we will be crushed by all who hate us. And there are many who despise us.¡±


    He replaced the beaker from its spot on the table. ¡°Marcus¡¯s dreams of invading Algrustos may be delusional, but he has some method to his madness. We are a nation of conquerors; we literally feed off our enemies¡¯ defeat. It is the only way to support our troops for as long as we have. But left to stagnate as we have these past five years, we will consume ourselves before anyone makes a move against us.¡±


    Edgar crossed over to the dragon cages, opening a hatch on top of one of them. He reached in and grabbed one of the baby dragons by the neck, pulling it to the top of the cage. Edgar forced the beaker into the dragon¡¯s mouth, emptying the contents down its throat. Then he released the dragon and sealed the hatch and backed away from the cage. It only took a moment; the dragon suddenly began thrashing wildly in its cage, frothing at the mouth. All of us sat in stoic silence as the creature screeched angrily, throwing itself at the walls of its cage in futile agony. Without warning, the dragon suddenly keeled over, and blood began running from its mouth. ¡°The younger the dragon, the quicker the effects, as well as its inevitable death. For the dragons bound to our siblings, it¡¯ll take far longer, given that they are of a mature age, but make no mistake, it will kill them all the same.¡±


    The Fourth Prince turned to us with a weary expression. ¡°Testing the poison on that dragon you killed confirmed all of my suspicions. Marcus has created something that can pass for simple madness in the short term. Given enough time, the true nature of the poison is revealed, but because the first symptom is uncontrollable bloodlust, the infected dragon would normally be put down to protect those around it. The poison can¡¯t progress if its host is dead, after all.¡±


    Alicia cut in. ¡°But Edgar, he can¡¯t just kill the other dragons! It¡¯s a violation of our tradition.¡±


    Edgar snorted. ¡°I don¡¯t claim to know what goes on in Marcus¡¯s twisted mind, but I agree. He must have some plan still up his sleeve to take advantage of the situation. But now that we have proof of his plot, we can finally bring him to justice and, hopefully, avoid a war that will sign our death warrants.¡± A shadow passed over Edgar¡¯s face. ¡°Once, the entire world feared us. But in their fear they found common ground. I see that now. For all our strength, for all our glory, it will mean nothing when the march begins. Algrustos may lead the charge, and when they sound the call, it will be answered.¡±


    During Edgar¡¯s monologue about the pathetic nature of his country¡¯s back-assward philosophy, I found myself wandering the lab. Passing by the various apparatus and supplies, I found my attention drawn towards a metal rod sitting alone in a corner. It had a tripod base with a four-pronged head that was shaped in such a way as though it implied something would fit there. As I stepped closer, I felt some magical force emanate from my pocket. Almost by instinct, my hand pulled the red crystal from my pocket. While it had been translucent before, it was now opaque and pulsing in my hand with a steady rhythm. As if in a trance, I lifted the crystal to the metal rod¡¯s head. By the time Alverd turned his head and saw me about to slip the crystal into place, it was too late. The crystal locked into place in the prongs.


    The room burst into a kaleidoscopic flurry of lights and flashes. The room fell away and was transformed into a massive, dark cave. As the walls seemed to solidify around us, I became aware of a horrendous creature lurking behind Alverd, Alicia, and Edgar. They followed the line of my stare and looked behind them, then staggered away from the apparition taking shape.


    Behind them, a dragon loomed out of the darkness. Cast across its body in countless crisscrossing lines were thick metal chains. Each link was almost as large as my own body and was anchored to the walls, floor, and ceiling, and inscribed with countless interlocking magical runes. The head of the dragon, wound shut by chains and pinned to the ground, rose and fell in the predictable pattern of one asleep.


    But then an eye, gold and black and filled with malice, opened. A gravelly voice so deep it rattled my bones, yet feminine enough for me to know with certainty who it belonged to, rumbled out of the dragon¡¯s mouth.


    ¡°Who dares? Who enters this place and dares not kneel before me?¡±


    A footstep upon stone directed our attention to the intruder. An Ishmarian man, his dark-tanned skin marred by long healed scars, strode forward. He was swathed in animal furs, likely tarketan, and he sported a modest yet bristly beard of sandy blond hair that reached up his cheeks and onto his head. His eyes were dark blue, like the deepest part of a pond. He was built of muscle and sinew and little else, and as he entered he drew a sword from his back, only to throw it to the ground before the dragon.


    ¡°Great Mother Evros,¡± the man proclaimed. ¡°I am Deyovar. I seek the wisdom of the greatest of all dragons. And more importantly, I seek your strength. My wife and I will unite the scattered tribes of Ishmar, and build a kingdom to honor you as our ancestors once did. And when I have such power, I will free you of your bonds.¡±


    He looked in our direction, and I realized that the entire vision was being ¡°projected¡± from the perspective of a person. It had to be Deyovar¡¯s wife, as he has gestured in the ¡°viewer¡¯s¡± direction when he made mention of her. As he stood before Evros, the dragon stirred, and the chains rustled in the black.


    ¡°You presume much to ask of me and only seek to return the favor later down the road, warrior. How am I to know that you will hold to your end of this pact?¡± The dragon¡¯s guttural voice echoed through the cave with an unnerving reverberation.


    Undaunted, Deyovar stood his ground. ¡°You will have to trust me, Great Mother. What choice do you have?¡± The dragon¡¯s eye narrowed, knowing that he spoke the truth. She snarled, but I could hear the defeat in her voice.


    ¡°Very well. When you have united all of the tribes, you shall return to me. And to assist you in your task, I will grant you this.¡±


    The dragon made a grinding sound with her mouth, then spat something out of it. It was a small (at least for a dragon) tooth. Deyovar picked it up, which was impressive given that it was almost as long as his arm from the tip to its base. ¡°I will teach you to make a blade so fine, born of the steel within my tooth. Something you will teach to all of your faithful. It will forge a weapon without equal, and with it, you shall be a king.¡±


    Arms reached out from the ¡°perspective¡± of the woman witnessing all of this, slender and lean. She took the tooth from Deyovar. The warrior kneeled before the dragon¡¯s head. ¡°Then tell me what I must do.¡±


    The scene then collapsed in on itself, swirled into darkness before reshaping into the familiar image of the cave. A woman¡¯s voice, nothing like the dragon''s, spoke to her husband as the two of them entered Evros¡¯ domain. ¡°Then we are agreed?¡±


    Deyovar nodded. ¡°I am already committed to this path. It is what is best.¡± From the darkness, the mewling voice of the dragon emerged.


    ¡°Fool. I decide what is best. Speak, so that I may be amused by your ramblings.¡±


    Deyovar pulled his sword from its sheath. It was utterly beautiful; its blade was reminiscent of the dragon tooth blades wielded by Alicia¡¯s guards, but with a finish that was like that of traditional steel, with an ornate golden hilt inlaid with a giant ruby. I heard Alicia and Edgar gasp in unison.


    ¡°The Sword of Evros¡­¡± they muttered.


    ¡°I vowed to free you of your chains, Great Mother Evros,¡± Deyovar proclaimed. ¡°But the truth is, once you are free, what good am I as king? What is a king to a god? When I release you, the tribes I shed blood to unite will offer you their fealty instead of me. So I think you will remain where you are, and I will inform the others that you have granted me your favor.¡± He sneered as he jabbed the tip of his sword against the dragon¡¯s snout.


    Evros strained against her chains, but they barely budged. ¡°You little worm! Command your wife to free me now, and perhaps I will not devour you whole as punishment for your lapse in judgment!¡±


    Deyovar laughed. ¡°My wife will do no such thing. And neither shall any mage for that matter.¡± And with that, he turned to the woman through whose eyes we were watching this all unfold, and plunged the blade into her chest. The room spun as Deyovar¡¯s wife tilted back and fell, hitting the ground.


    There was a gurgling sound as the vision swam in and out of focus. The last thing we all saw was Deyovar removing a familiar red crystal from the grasp of his dying wife. Her hand reached up toward Deyovar¡¯s face, but whether it was to claw at it or caress it wasn¡¯t clear. ¡°If magic will undo your chains, Great Mother, then I will see to it that magic fades from all of this land. You had your time to rule, Evros. Now it is mine.¡±


    As the vision faded to full darkness, we heard Deyovar¡¯s voice one last time. ¡°My newborn child will learn of the evils of magic, as will his children, and theirs, and all of their children. I will guide our people to glory, and you Evros, will remain here to rot, as befitting a fallen king.¡±


    The light of the crystal faded, ending the vision. We stood dumbfounded, in the lab, as the last of its light sputtered out. Alicia was the first to break the silence.


    ¡°That¡­ that¡¯s why? That¡¯s why we hate mages? Because of Deyovar?¡± She placed her head in her hands and screamed into them. I couldn¡¯t blame her. I wanted to scream too.


    Edgar shuffled over to the crystal, plucking it from its place.


    ¡°All this time, Deyovar passed the knowledge of his crime to each of his successors. He knew all along where Evros, our goddess, was! And yet he selfishly chose to hide her from us so he could rule instead¡­?¡± Suddenly he whirled around, and when he did there was a new look in his eye. His face was already distorting into a lopsided, demented smile. ¡°Think about it! What folly! We could¡¯ve had Evros¡¯ help all this time! We could have freed her and gained control of all of Selarune! Even the servants of the gods would be cast down before her might!¡±


    He stalked over towards me, and I backpedaled to try to keep my distance. He held the crystal out to me, pleading. ¡°Mage! Invoke the crystal again! Make it show me where Evros is! When she awakens, when she flies again, she will usher in a new age! Show it to me!¡± He slid a knife out of the fold of his cloak, and it gleamed malevolently in the low light of the torches. ¡°TALK!¡±


    Alverd rushed to help me, but Edgar savagely backhanded him, the thick metal gauntlet slamming into Alverd¡¯s face and knocking him flat. Alverd fell onto his back, groaning as he struggled to remain conscious. I felt the stone wall of the lab press against my back and knew there was nowhere else to go.


    Edgar continued to advance, his eyes full of fire and glee. ¡°This will change everything! With Evros leading us, every other nation will crumble! The mages of Algrustos will watch helplessly as their Witch-Queen is devoured! They will see their heathen temples and faithless magics destroyed as their people are offered to appease Evros¡¯ hunger! They will-¡°


    Without warning, Edgar fell to the ground as Alicia swung her maul directly into the crook of his good leg. There was a loud, distinct cracking sound followed by a cry of both surprise and pain from Edgar. He looked to the side in disbelief just in time to have Alicia knock him out with a solid right hook straight to his face.


    Alicia grabbed me by the arm and started shaking me. ¡°You alright?!¡± I nodded feebly, and she clapped my cheek with her hand to steady my nerves. ¡°Then let¡¯s get out of here. Grab that book. We need it to prove to Father that Marcus is up to no good. With both his legs broken, Edgar won¡¯t be coming after us anytime soon.¡± She took hold of Alverd¡¯s arm and hoisted him back to his feet, which was a testament to her impressive physical strength.


    As Alverd shook off his dizziness, I ran to the table and grabbed the book on alchemy. It was a long shot, but if it could be used to convince the King that Marcus was up to no good, then there was no harm in taking it. Against my better judgment, I also took the red crystal from where it had fallen on the floor too and placed it back into my pocket. We exited the lab, moving as fast as we could.


    We weren¡¯t sure where to go at first, but given that we had descended to get to the lab, the most logical direction to go at the moment was up. The corridors curved gently upward, and eventually wooden slats in the ground appeared to give traction for our feet so we wouldn¡¯t trip. After rounding another corner, we could see a weak light at the end of the tunnel, probably the dim light of the outside world. We rushed forward, but froze when we heard voices echoing down the tunnel.


    Suddenly, the sounds of dragons came from outside the cave. The shouting of soldiers could also be heard. It was faint, but I believe I heard the soldiers¡¯ captain say something along the lines of ¡°Kill them all¡±. This proclamation was immediately followed by the sounds of clanking metal and hurried grunting. Then, six men dropped down through the opening and started charging down the tunnel towards us.


    I really should have seen all this coming. I¡¯d like to think I¡¯m smart enough to have done so. That¡¯s what concussions will do to you.

 Chapter 12: A Dagger for Your Throat and a Knife for Your Back

    My head began to hurt, and it wasn¡¯t from the concussions. How did this happen? More importantly, how did I allow this to happen? How could I have not seen this coming? This was exactly the kind of thing I was supposed to be on guard for. Heavens knew that Alverd wasn¡¯t capable of seeing this sort of thing coming, so such foresight fell to me. It was a blow to my ego that I hadn¡¯t suspected this level of brazen and frankly predictable treachery from Marcus .


    As I held my head in self-loathing, the Ishmarian soldiers began running down the corridor. I could hear their armor clanking as they moved and the sound was becoming louder with every passing second. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they would be on top of us.


    Alverd drew his sword, the steel sliding free of his sheath with a metallic ring and turned to face them. Alicia took up a position flanking him, her maul at the ready. But I knew we would stand no chance in conventional battle. We were surely outnumbered. Alverd had no replacement for his shield and  the princess was a conflicted berserker who was still dealing with the ethical dilemma of killing for the first time. My mind raced as I put all the variables together. I knew Alverd would be fine under pressure, despite his shortcomings in the weapons department. On the other hand, I knew that Alicia, while heavily armed, might not be willing to raise her hand against other Ishmarians, at least not ones that were simply doing what they¡¯d been ordered to do.


    Once again, it would be up to me to save the day.


    One of the hardest parts of magic is aim. Concentrating the myriad powers of the universe into a miniature ball of death? That was the easy part. Hitting a moving target with it? That was significantly harder. All the power in the world meant diddly-squat if you couldn¡¯t hit your enemy when it counted. It was one of the reasons why mages didn¡¯t fight on the front lines, but behind others where they could safely concentrate and aim their spells properly. Here, in the cave with its narrow passageways, there would be no shelter from my magical might.


    I willed energy into my hand; a spark ignited, and it grew to the size of a rock as I fed it with the bioelectric impulses running through my body. I had long ago figured out that, for some reason or another, armor made lightning magic far more effective. Metal seemed to draw and amplify electrical energy, especially if it was close in proximity to such power, hence why people placed lightning rods atop their homes. Now, that knowledge was about to serve me well. I raised my hand towards the enemy and spoke my incantation.


    ¡°Oh gods of the infinite sky, hear my earnest plea! Cast your anger down upon these wicked souls and let there be none who remain in its wake! Answer me, oh lords on high! Smite my enemies now!¡±


    A spirit of air trapped within the walls of the ancient fortress, answered my call. Its power surged through my staff and into the ball of lightning already gathering in my left hand.


    A massive bolt of golden light shot from my left hand with the intensity of a sun. The bolt lanced toward the knight coming down the corridor. It slammed into the knight¡¯s torso, but instead of simply electrocuting him, the bolt burned through his armor like a hot knife through butter. The bolt shot out his back into the next soldier. The bolt lost a bit of its power, though, but it did manage to shock the soldier, causing him to jerk like a rag doll.


    The lightning continued to arc to several other soldiers, achieving similar results. In all, I managed to kill six men for the price of one spell. Granted, I had once again overdone it, but I had just increased our odds of survival significantly. Not bad. I bent over, struggling to regain my breath. Alicia gave an impressed whistle. ¡°Not bad. For an apprentice, I guess.¡± I smirked back at her.


    The last of the six men didn¡¯t die right away; he screamed good and loud as the electricity coursed through his body, and his cries of pain carried up the corridor back to the cave mouth. After he finally ceased his screams and his body stopped twitching, there was a moment of dead silence while we waited for our enemy to make the next move.


    Perhaps heeding the lesson learned from their prior mistake, the rest of the bastards started coming in one at a time. And one against three was definitely better odds for us.


    The first soldier to come down the passage held his sword high, yelling incoherently. He was rewarded for his stupidity with a sideways slash from Alverd, which neatly managed to slip between the narrow space between the man¡¯s breastplate and the bottom of his helmet, severing the man¡¯s head. The dead body tumbled past Alverd, the head and helmet clattering down the hallway.


    The second soldier fared no better; Alicia swung her maul at the man¡¯s helmet. It connected with brutal force, and I could have sworn I heard the man¡¯s neck breaking as he smashed into the wall, his sword falling from his lifeless hands. Alicia¡¯s eyes were empty and steely, a sure sign she had tuned out any regret through her berserker training. Although she had dispatched her foe with ruthless efficiency, I had to wonder if she would feel remorse later.


    The third soldier thrust an ornate spear at Alverd and he quickly sidestepped the attack. He swept his sword at the enemy, but the blade bounced off the soldier¡¯s armored gauntlet. The revelation of Alverd¡¯s useless blade came too late; the soldier pulled his spear back for another thrust. Alverd immediately lunged, his arm outstretched; the blade sank into the space between the man¡¯s visor and the lower part of his helm. There wasn¡¯t even a sound; the man simply sank to his knees, then keeled over backwards, the sword still protruding from what was left of his face. It was a one-in-a-million shot, and my friend had made it look easy, as per his idiom.


    Our enemies would eventually run low on manpower, especially at the rate they were losing soldiers. I liked those odds, and they were getting better all the time.


    Then the cowards who were left tried a new tactic.


    A wave of fire shot down the corridor. The scorching heat swept down the stone passage like the flames of perdition itself, and only by backing up to the antechamber were we spared its wrath. The Ishmarians were most likely using their dragons to breathe fire down the narrow passage in an attempt to roast us alive. But that only gave me another idea.


    As soon as the fire dissipated, I started screaming as though I were in pain. The others looked at me quizzically, but after a short bout of pantomime, I conveyed to my companions that I had a plan. They quickly caught on and started caterwauling. Alverd was quite convincing, Alicia was overselling hers a bit too much I thought. The four of us ceased our death rattles.


    There was silence for a moment. Then, a voice.


    ¡°You two! Go down there and make sure they¡¯re dead.¡± The sounds of clattering metal were soon heard. This was the best chance we would have. When the two men rounded the corner, I blasted them with some fire of my own, a simple mid-tier spell with no incantation behind it. Without the massive dragon-fighting shields from before, the men had no chance of surviving the magical flame I had conjured. The two men cooked like lobsters within their armor. Ignoring their screams, I turned to my companions.


    ¡°There has to be some other way out! We stay here and they¡¯ll overwhelm us eventually!¡±


    Alverd, quick thinking bastard he was, knew what to do. He immediately pulled his sword free of the soldier¡¯s corpse and ran back the way we came. Like me, he knew that we had descended to get to the lab, so he located the only way that led upwards and scrambled along it in a mad dash. I struggled to keep up, but given that Alicia was behind me I was quite motivated not to slow her down.


    We had to break through several obstructions to get through. Partial cave-ins of the ceiling had rendered the passage almost untraversable without stopping to move stones or wooden slats that had collapsed from old age. There was no way Edgar could¡¯ve dug out this way on his own with his hobbled leg. But at this point, it was either take a shot or stand our ground.


    The corridor eventually opened up to a larger room, and on the far side we saw a large door made of carved stone. Alverd and Alicia threw themselves into it, their shoulders straining against the heavy rock. While the two of them pushed against the door, I swept my staff back the way we came, ready to attack the first soldier to blunder into my sight.


    But the walls of the room caught my eye. There were depictions of historical events on the dust-covered stone, crude images of humans kneeling before an immense dragon. Seated upon a grandiose throne was a woman dressed in a flowing robe of gold and crimson, a shining crown upon her head, holding a scepter in her right hand. A scepter that was wreathed in magical fire.


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    The thing that made even less sense was that I could read the script flowing across the walls. As my eyes took in the full mural of the worshippers trekking across the volcanic wastes to pay homage to this woman, the unfamiliar writing began to shimmer and twist into letters I could understand, reacting to the presence of a mage. They told me the story I had heard in Edgar¡¯s lab¡­but with a stunning new twist.


    Alicia saw me gawking at the walls and shook my shoulder. ¡°Kuro, the door! We could use your help¡­what are you staring at?¡± She was distracted by my unfaltering gaze and open gaping mouth and looked at the walls. ¡°What does it say? Who is that woman?¡±


    I moved forward and placed my hand against the mural, sweeping the thick coating of dust away from the image of the woman. The writing beneath, presumably the lost language of Ishratan, the precursor civilization of Ishmar, began to reform itself into the common script of the universal trade language of Selarune. My voice cracked as I read the words, one by one.


    ¡°All pay tribute to our lady eternal, our glorious beacon. We offer our lives, our fealty, to Evros, the King of Fire. May Ishrati bask in her glory for all time.¡± I turned my head slowly to Alicia. ¡°She was a sorceress. The dragon your people worship was once a person. A mage.¡±


    I think that was the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back for Alicia. She stammered, unable to figure out what she wanted to say. Not that I blamed her. Today was proving to be quite a red letter day for her. It wasn¡¯t every day that everything you knew for certain was proven to be built upon a complete lie, especially when that lie led you to accept certain atrocities as just the price of living.


    The sound of soldiers coming through the corridor snapped her out of her own head. With a howl of truly impressive rage, she threw her shoulder into the door again. With a loud grinding sound, the door began to creak open, swinging outwards, allowing the sunlight outside to stream in. With a grunt of combined effort, Alverd and Alicia forced the door open all the way and stumbled outside¡­


    And straight into the waiting arms and spears of more than a dozen Ishmarian soldiers.


    Outside, we found that the door had opened out into the same place we¡¯d made camp. The door was part of the cliff face, which explained why it had been so hard to open, and why we hadn¡¯t noticed it before. As we tumbled out into the light, we saw that the entirety of the Princess¡¯ escort were now on their knees, hands on their heads, surrounded by Ishmarian bodyguards clad in armor marked with the numerals of the First Prince.


    One of the Princess¡¯ bodyguards saw Alicia and her eyes widened. ¡°My lady!¡± She cried out before rising up and yanking the spear from one of her captors, and rushing in our direction. She made it about three steps before someone turned and stabbed his sword right through her chest. The spear fell from her lifeless hands. The murderer-in-question turned around and we saw Marcus, with that same pretentious, smug little half-smile on his face.


    Dropping the corpse of the bodyguard, Marcus waved his hand. Within moments, all three of us were relieved of our weapons. We too were forced on our knees, although the soldiers grabbed hold of our arms and bound our wrists behind our backs. Alicia¡¯s bodyguards openly wept at watching their princess being treated in such a way.


    Marcus wasn¡¯t alone. His gold-clad soldiers were accompanied by a smaller squad of black-armored soldiers who were led by a knight in lighter armor. The armor was designed to allow ease of movement, yet afforded its wearer protection against weapons, covering the chest, hips, arms, legs and shoulders, with black mesh covering the unprotected areas. But when the knight removed the helm, I saw that mere rank wasn¡¯t the only reason for its extravagance. Eliza was its bearer, and she fit the helm under her arm as she stepped into the clearing with her rapier in her other hand.


    Seeing her in that armor struck a chord somewhere in my head again. The fog in my mind refused to lift, however, and no matter how much I tried to focus, I couldn¡¯t place it. Before I could try any harder, though, I was distracted by Marcus, who began walking toward the three of us with a victorious look in his eyes.


    Marcus chuckled ominously as he stopped in front of his helpless sister. He bent over slightly so his face was right in front of Alicia¡¯s. ¡°So, dear baby sister? Did you have fun? Out here trying to fix your own failures?¡±


    I saw Alicia do something very unbecoming of a young woman, yet my opinion of her immediately soared. She spat in Marcus¡¯s face. I had to resist the urge to break out into laughter. Marcus, on the other hand, was completely unamused. He immediately backhanded her with his gauntleted fist, though it did little to break the look of raw hatred on her face. He grabbed hold of her chin and forced her to look at him.


    ¡°That was very rude of you, sister. But hitting you won¡¯t teach you the error of your ways. I have a much better way to teach you what happens when you disrespect me.¡± He gave a motion with his hand, and Eliza, who had moved over to where Alicia¡¯s bodyguards were being detained, unsheathed her rapier. I turned my head reflexively away from them, but I could do nothing to stifle the cries of pain that soon followed.


    Nineteen more cries. Nineteen more deaths. One after the other. I couldn¡¯t even imagine how furious Alicia was at such a barbarous display of cruelty. I chanced a look in her direction. But she wasn¡¯t furious. There were tears streaming down her face. Marcus waited until the last of his sister¡¯s bodyguards was slain before releasing Alicia¡¯s face.


    A number of Marcus¡¯ men emerged from the tunnel, carrying a half-conscious Edgar. Marcus sneered when he saw the bedraggled Edgar, still unable to stand, thrown before him.


    ¡°Well, long time no see. Your source back at the Castle was very talkative once I found him, you know. Turns out that being forced to send you disinformation in return for his life was quite motivational. He¡¯s a loose end, though. And as you can see, I don¡¯t much enjoy having those around.¡±


    He grabbed Edgar by the collar and dragged him over to Alicia. ¡°Untie her hands. But hold her. And kill her companions if she tries anything.¡± He pulled a dagger from Edgar¡¯s belt. ¡°Now look at me, Alicia. I only want to have to teach you this lesson once, so for your sake and Edgar¡¯s you¡¯d better listen to me.¡± Alicia glared at him defeatedly, but did not resist. When Alicia¡¯s restraints were undone, he pressed the dagger into her hand. She made no effort to try and attack him.


    Marcus continued. ¡°Now. Edgar here, is a coward. And we Ishmarians just hate cowards. But Edgar can still serve a purpose, and if he serves that purpose, he¡¯ll live. And that purpose is: to show exactly what we do with cowards in the coming kingdom.¡± He lifted Alicia¡¯s hand up, placing the point of the dagger against Edgar¡¯s forehead.


    ¡°Carve the mark of cowardice into his forehead, Alicia. You do that, and he¡¯ll spend the rest of his days in a stockade in the city square. He¡¯ll be fed and cared for simply so he can continue to serve this purpose. A bit of momentary pain to spare him from a lifetime of such. Because here¡¯s the lesson you need to learn, Alicia. As a berserker, I could stab and cut and peel the skin from your bones, but you won¡¯t feel that pain.¡±


    The half-smile on his face turned into a full half moon of teeth. ¡°But I can hurt others. And through their pain, you¡¯ll feel pain. Because you¡¯ll see that I can hurt as many people as I want, and you¡¯ll be powerless to do anything about it. You can prevent that, all you have to do is admit that you are a failure. Inferior. Weak.¡± He let go of Alicia¡¯s wrist, which was now shaking visibly, and waited.


    I could see Alverd¡¯s eyes tracking Alicia and Marcus. But he was just as powerless as I was. We both had six spears aimed at our throats. Our lives were completely in her hands now. Alicia looked at Edgar, her eyes now red. Her tears were still flowing like a river after a winter¡¯s thaw. But with one swift motion, she took the dagger, and instead of doing what Marcus had commanded, she slit Edgar¡¯s throat in one clean cut.


    Edgar was dead before he even hit the ground. Blood was already pooling from the nasty, messy wound left behind by the dagger. Alicia, her eyes now filled with fury, looked at her brother in a way that could put fear into the heart of even a dragon.


    ¡°You of all people know Ishmarians hate traitors more than cowards, brother. It¡¯s a lesson I¡¯ll be teaching you personally.¡±


    Marcus stood dumbfounded for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed. When he finished, he glared at his sister.


    ¡°Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you really are an Ishmarian. You certainly know how to murder like one.¡± He lashed out with his boot and delivered a savage kick to Alicia¡¯s face. The blow was enough to knock her unconscious, and she hit the dirt. One of Alverd¡¯s guards reacted to my friend attempting to rise to his feet by slamming the shaft of his spear into the back of his head. Alverd¡¯s eyes rolled upwards and he too lapsed into unconsciousness. I waited for my turn. Sure enough, a blow to the back of my head knocked me forward, but it wasn¡¯t enough to knock me out. Before I could even wince in pain, an armored hand grabbed my collar and forcibly pulled me up.


    I looked at my tormentor. It was Eliza. She had the same smug grin that I¡¯d seen her with a long time ago, so full of herself and so detached from her actions. I watched as she lifted the narrow blade of her rapier up to her mouth, then licked the blood of Alicia¡¯s bodyguards from it. And then it clicked. I knew why Eliza had invoked a long buried thought, why it had tickled my brain so. It was a memory, and it came flooding back into my mind with chilling clarity. When she saw my eyes widen, Eliza chuckled with childish glee.


    ¡°You¡­¡±


    ¡°So you do remember! Finally! I¡¯ve been waiting to see if you would remember my face, spellslinger. Because now¡­¡± I was so busy staring into her crazed eyes that I didn¡¯t notice that she¡¯d placed her rapier¡¯s blade against my face. She slid the tip of it across my cheek, all the way to the base of my ear, and although it was a shallow cut, I could feel something warm start to run down my cheek, and I would bet money it wasn¡¯t sweat. Eliza then traced her tongue along the cut, lapping up my blood like a gods-be-damned vampire bat, until her mouth was right next to my ear. ¡°¡­It will be even more satisfying when I kill you.¡±


    Then, there was another sharp blow to my head. I didn¡¯t know where it came from, or what had hit me. The blow was too solid, too sudden, for me to guess. I felt myself fall, then hit the ground, then my vision swam out of focus. I was¡­ tired. I needed to close my eyes. Forget everything else¡­ just¡­ rest¡­


    My last conscious thought was, that if I kept getting concussions at this rate, I would have to invest in a helmet or something. Seriously, I needed my skull intact in order to use magic. Or live, for that matter.


    And then darkness took me. Again.

 Chapter 13: Harsh Truths (Part 1)

    I had the nightmare again, but somehow it was even worse than before.


    I waited it out. I watched as events unfolded just as they did every single time the dream had occurred in the past. The burning library. The collapsing towers. The dragon rider. Farnus and the children. Each detail had been seared into my memory with chilling clarity. But when Laura drew her sword to face the black-clad knight, Fate decided that She would grant me a glimpse even deeper into my own private hell.


    Laura had always been light on her feet, despite her above average height. Without any armor, there wasn¡¯t a soul alive who could outrun her. The knight lifted his axe high, and brought it down with the intention to bury it in her skull, but she parried with her shortsword and stepped to the side. As she did so, she nailed the knight in the shin with her foot, and he stumbled, losing his grip on the axe. It fell to the ground, and I could see that it was smeared with blood, marring its surface like tar.


    The knight drew a sword, a slender little thing from his hip, and attacked Laura again with a fencing maneuver. Despite his armor, the knight was quick and merciless; he quickly pressed hard, pushing her back. It wouldn¡¯t be long before he would gain the upper hand. Her shortsword wasn¡¯t built to handle fencers and their techniques, and the knight was slowly backing her towards a stone wall.


    I crawled to where Farnus¡¯ staff lay on the ground, where I¡¯d dropped it after being tackled by Laura. I grasped it and pulled it close to me. I rolled onto my back and took aim with the gnarled wooden staff at the knight¡¯s head and, with a heartfelt scream of rage, I pointed it at the black-clad attacker¡¯s head with the intent of unleashing magical hell on him. It was a serious long shot and I knew it. A mage could not simply pick any stick off the ground and use it as a staff. As part of a rite of passage, a mage must carve their own staff, infuse it with magic given freely of their own body, and thus bond with it. For a mage to use another person¡¯s staff was practically unheard of for reasons that were quite clear within the magical community. But I didn¡¯t have my own staff, not even the training staff that was designed to aid an apprentice mage like myself, so I used the only weapon I had available to me.


    When I took aim, I could feel the staff ¡°resisting¡± me. It knew I was not its rightful owner, and thus it attempted to deny me access to its power. But I fed it images, conjured up images of Farnus teaching, raising, and protecting me. I showed the staff that I intended to avenge Farnus. The lingering spirit, the small bit of Farnus¡¯ soul left within the carved wood felt my connection to my old mentor, and relented.


    I reached to the dry air, feeling the harried currents buffeted by dragon¡¯s wings, and shot a blast of wind at the black-clad knight.


    The force of the gale slammed into the knight with deafening force. I saw him sail through the air and slam into a cart of hay, upending and crumpling it like a piece of parchment. Laura drew in a breath of relief, but it was far too soon to be relieved.


    The knight crawled out from the wreckage of the cart. With some effort, he found his feet and twirled his sword. But when he pulled his helm away in anger, I froze.


    Or did I? Was it because that was what I had done five years ago during the destruction, or because now, the pieces had finally fallen into place? At last, the fog lifted from my mind. The details I thought I¡¯d locked out of my head, the memory of my supposed ¡°first kill¡±, became clear, and I saw the whole picture for the first time in five years.


    Blonde hair fell from the helm as it was pulled from the knight¡¯s head; it was fitted in a short ponytail at the back of the wielder¡¯s head. Eyes blue as the sky yet narrowed and angry, darted back and forth and glared at us both. Blood trickled from a mouth dead set in a vicious snarl. I saw the face of my enemy. At last, this final epiphany revealed the cruel twist that Fate had concealed from me all these years.


    The woman I would eventually come to know as Eliza screamed and charged ahead, her rapier set to thrust. Laura parried, but Eliza brusquely knocked her aside and continued charging at me. I fumbled and fell back on my ass, knowing death was barreling towards me. Eliza leveled her rapier with my head and leaned her right shoulder back for the killing blow.


    Again, Laura saved me with inhuman speed. She grabbed onto Eliza¡¯s arm, and the two girls sailed over me and landed in a heap just past me. But before Laura could recover from her mad stunt, Eliza pinned her to the ground and forced her to drop the sword still clutched in her hand. Eliza brought her rapier back, and thrust down.


    I knew why I chose not to remember this. No human in my position, no man claiming to be of sound mind would ever want to relive a moment like this. The rapier sank into Laura¡¯s chest, and I could see her look of pain and disbelief as it did so. The look of arrogant triumph and blatant hunger on Eliza¡¯s face chilled me to my very core. I saw Laura grasp at the blade of the rapier with her left hand feebly, as though she were trying to pry it out of her body. Eliza twisted the blade, most likely because she was a psychotic bitch than anything else. Laura jerked violently before her hand fell away.


    Eliza pulled the rapier from Laura¡¯s chest. I could see that she was still breathing, but she was bleeding heavily and coughing up blood. Eliza, as was her style, made a great show of licking the blood off her sword. That¡¯s crazy, I thought. Only crazy people do that! She started inching toward me with a bloodthirsty grin on her sadistic face.


    Something in me snapped. My dear friend bleeding to death stirred something dark in me. It crawled up from the very depths of my soul, the darkest parts that I would never let see the light of day, and wormed its way into my heart. I reached out to the fire all around me, and it answered. Bales of hay left ablaze answered. Thatched roofs left to burn answered. Flames engulfing the towers answered. All of it swept toward me and gathered at the tip of Farnus¡¯ staff. I aimed it at Eliza, who saw the power gathering and paused.


    I saw fear. Her eyes were lit by the flame and I saw fear in them. It fed me as well, and I put even more power into the spell. I wanted her to suffer. As the spell grew, I found my way to my feet and began to advance. Now I was the hunter, the apex predator. No, in a way I had always been that. What I saw before me was some upstart, a mewling, pathetic creature that sought to kill not for survival but for pleasure. I never wanted so badly in that moment to hurt a living being in my entire life. In Eliza I saw a representation of everything wrong with the world. I was afraid, but I wasn¡¯t going to let her wield that against me. Perhaps out of desperation, Eliza finally stopped backing away and stood her ground.


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    ¡°Go to Hell, you filthy little monster!¡± She brought up her rapier and rushed at me. But I wasn¡¯t afraid. The rage of some puny berserker could not match mine. I took aim at her, and she only became an easier target as she ran straight at me. In slow motion, I watched the staff align with my target. When the energy grew to its climax, before I lost control of it, I spoke the incantation, the shortest I¡¯d ever done, given strength and focus solely by the sheer fury backing it.


    ¡°YOU FIRST!¡±


    A spirit answered my call. But it was not benign or righteous. Even as I felt it enfold me in its embrace, as its power flowed into me, I could feel nothing but rage. Whatever spirit I had called upon burned with the same desire as me. It felt as though my very veins were aflame, as if the blood in them had caught fire. For whatever reason, this spirit wanted Eliza dead just as badly as I did. Maybe even more.


    The power I had gathered became a typhoon of flame. It lanced forward and carried Eliza off into the night. With the force of a bolt shot from a ballista it launched her into the air. Tongues of fire swept into the spaces between her armor, surging past plating that could stop a steel blade like child¡¯s play, seeking their way to the soft flesh beneath. Her agonized scream was the only noise I could hear over the cacophony, and she disappeared from sight. Soon, the only sound left was the crackling of the embers in the runic circle etched into the ground at my feet.


    I sank to my knees, struggling to fight the presence of the spirit in my mind. Like a thick haze, it settled into my mind and refused to lift. For a moment, I was afraid it might try to take over my body. But with a sensation not unlike low, unearthly cackling, the entity released me, dissipating back into the night. Finally, the last of the foreign presence left me, and I knelt there, gasping for breath


    I heard Laura cough and sputter, and it brought me back to my senses.


    I dropped Farnus¡¯ staff and ran to Laura. I cradled her head ever so gently, and cried. There wasn¡¯t anything I could do with a wound so severe, even if I had any skill as a healer. That she was still alive was a cruel miracle. She didn¡¯t deserve this. I palmed both my hands together and pressed them down onto Laura¡¯s chest in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. As soon as her warm blood began to coat my hands, seeping through my fingers, I felt sick to my stomach.


    Laura was obviously in shock; she was starting to spout gibberish in between the blood now flowing from her mouth. In all likelihood, Eliza¡¯s rapier had punctured one of Laura¡¯s lungs, which explained her shallowness of breath. I could feel tears pouring out of my eyes as I watched her struggle to keep breathing.


    Her eyes cleared, and focused on me. ¡°Kuro? Is¡­that you?¡± I chuckled nervously. Any attempt at humor was all that I seemed to have left.


    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m here. Sorry it took so long. I had to deal with some crazy blonde who was trying to kill me with a sword. What is it with blondes? That¡¯s why I prefer redheads, heh heh heh¡­¡± I was jabbering. I was one step from losing it and slipping.


    Laura tried to laugh at my little joke. She coughed up another wave of blood and I could feel my composure failing.


    ¡°Hey, watch it, Kuro¡­ you think I¡¯m gonna let you get away with manhandling me like this?¡± I tried to push harder, but the blood kept pouring out through my fingers. ¡°Oh you know, plugging a bleeding stab wound, feeling you up, no reason I can¡¯t do both at the same time, right?¡±


    Laura choked out another chuckle. ¡°I¡¯ll allow it. It wasn¡¯t like¡­ you were ever¡­ going to get¡­ with a girl¡­ anyway.¡± I barked another laugh, this one a bit more genuine.


    ¡°Oh, thanks. Try and keep it above the belt, yeah? You know I¡¯m sensitive about that.¡± I was in full denial. I was gonna lose her, and there wasn¡¯t a gods-be-damned thing I could do about it.


    Laura¡¯s eyes lost focus for a second. ¡°Where¡¯s¡­ Alverd?¡± I chuckled again, but I could hear the panic in my voice. My hands pressed down on her wound even harder. ¡°What? I¡¯m not good enough for you? That hurts, you know. He¡¯ll be here. I know he will. And you can tan his hide for being late. Hell, I¡¯ll even help you. Useless bastard is never around when you really need him.¡± I gently started slapping the side of Laura¡¯s face when her head turned away. ¡°Hey! HEY! Where are you looking? He¡¯s not over there! I¡¯ll tell you when he gets here, just please¡­  DON¡¯T LOOK AWAY!¡±


    I¡¯d lost it. No more pretense of control. She was going to die and it was gonna happen soon. I couldn¡¯t pretend anymore. I bawled like a child. I screamed Alverd¡¯s name into the night in every direction. Pure, unfiltered desperation. And with every cry that went unanswered, I fell further into despair. This. This had to be what Hell was like, to feel so helpless, so useless, when it really mattered, especially when that person had given everything to save someone like myself, so utterly without merit. It was a tragedy beyond words. Even more so, knowing that you were the one who didn¡¯t deserve to live.


    No parents. No siblings. No friends amongst my fellow mages. And no girl to call a lover. I wasn¡¯t skilled in any kind of magic other than the power to destroy and hurt. I had no right to continue existing. Not when Laura had so much more to offer the world. But she hadn¡¯t hesitated at all. She¡¯d thrown herself into the fire to save my worthless life, and given up her own in the process. I couldn¡¯t stomach the injustice of it all. It wasn¡¯t fair. It wasn¡¯t right. But the world didn¡¯t care about any of that.


    I don¡¯t know how long it took before Alverd eventually found us. In the dream, in my memory, he came to us covered in the blood of our foes, but unharmed. He knelt with us and picked Laura up in his arms. She cried and tried to call his name but she kept choking on her own blood. We ran. We just kept running, the three of us, not looking back. We didn¡¯t bother with horses. We ran until the castle was a glowing cinder on the horizon.


    At some point, Laura had opened her eyes again. She looked up at Alverd, who was making no effort to hide his own tears. She was like a fairy tale princess being carried by her prince. She¡­smiled. It had been the most obvious sign of affection Alverd had ever shown her, but it was too late. Then, Alverd turned after looking over his shoulder to see if we were being pursued, and I lost sight of her. We ran along the road for what felt like an eternity made all the worse by the knowledge that at any moment, a squad of dragon riders could swoop down from the sky and add us to the destruction.


    Along the way, Laura died. Either her heart had just given out or she had lost too much blood. By the time we had reached the lone tree that marked the crossroad to our home and two other towns, she was dead. Once, we had pledged our eternal devotion to each other under this tree, three would-be heroes who were going to fight injustice side by side. Now it was all gone. We buried her at the foot of that tree. We left a crude memorial and some prayers and then we left. There wasn¡¯t a thing we could do. Cold, unfeeling. The only thing that mattered was surviving.


    By no right should Laura have lasted as long as she did. The only explanation I could accept was that she was waiting for Alverd. She wasn¡¯t going to leave this world without seeing him one last time. That¡¯s what I told myself. Her love for him was so strong that she¡¯d suffer just a little bit longer if it meant seeing him before the end. It offered no comfort, but I knew it in my heart to be true anyway. That last smile I had seen was probably the exact moment when she stopped fighting the inevitable. And it hurt me to watch one of my best friends die with her greatest dream left unfulfilled.


    Just as I watched Alverd lay Laura¡¯s body into the ground, I awoke.

 Chapter 13: Harsh Truths (Part 2)

    Our fortunes hadn¡¯t improved much. For the second time in less than two days, we were in a prison cell; I didn¡¯t have my staff, and I was incredibly angry. This cell, however, was far better maintained than the one Edgar had thrown us into. The bars were thick and shiny without the slightest hint of rust. Unused manacles hung from the wall above me, and I thanked my lucky stars that my arms weren¡¯t shackled in them. As I fought through the haze in my head, I saw Alicia lounging on the bunk, her arms folded casually beneath her head. Alverd, on the other hand, was meditating on the floor, his legs crossed and his eyes closed in blissful silence.


    I immediately noticed that Alverd wasn¡¯t wearing his armor. Instead, he was wearing the simple blue tunic he wore beneath the armor. I looked outside the cell, and sure enough, hanging on a mannequin, was his armor.  My staff, Alverd¡¯s sword, and Alicia¡¯s maul were neatly placed on a weapons rack.


    Such a smug thing for that bastard to do. It smacked of arrogance that Marcus would leave our weapons so close by. I¡¯d underestimated how obsessed he was with the throne. Thinking back, the man had set us up for this. His brash challenge, his loss in the duel, his behavior toward his sister. It was all to cultivate an image of an idiot prince with no sense. He had played us from the get-go, and he had played us well. But just because he¡¯d gotten the drop on us didn¡¯t mean the game was over.


    I was going to enjoy killing him. I tried to picture in my mind how I would do it. Lightning? Fire? Ice? There were simply so many possibilities to draw out his suffering for as long as possible. Men like Marcus were the worst possible people, and they deserved to die screaming for their trouble. And he would scream, oh yes he would.


    Then I thought about Eliza.


    How had she survived? I had sent enough fire at her to roast her ten times over. I was looking forward to torturing an answer out of that bitch as soon as I was done making Marcus pay for his role in the deaths of our countrymen. I wanted to have plenty of time to inflict every horror I could on that woman. I wanted her to understand all of the agony I¡¯d felt in watching Laura slip away from me, not that Eliza would have the heart to understand such a concept. I figured I could make her understand, though. Probably by burning her alive, one body part at a time.


    I¡¯d spare her lungs, though. I wanted to hear what she¡¯d sound like as she suffered.


    I was shaken from my reverie by the sounds of footsteps. A squad of royal soldiers came down the corridor with Marcus, looking smug, in the middle. After a moment, Eliza sauntered in as well, though she stayed more to the back. Like before, she was wearing the light fencing armor she had shown up in back at the Nest, and her hand was firmly grasping the rapier at her side. Even as Marcus moved to the front to address us, she stayed behind him; her eyes were fixed on the Prince, as though she were watching him intently.


    They stopped  outside our cell, and the crocodile grin on Marcus¡¯s face grew to epic proportions. He started chuckling as he looked at us languishing in the cell.


    ¡°See where you end up? You were so eager to believe that I was a fool. That I was just some idiot who reeked of entitlement. You were ready to believe all of it because of your hate for me, your disgust. And now you¡¯re the biggest fools in the room.¡±


    He leaned forward, taking note of where Alicia was in our cell. ¡°How¡¯s my little murderer doing? Had enough time to come to terms with what you did to poor Edgar? You¡¯re one of us, now. Just another Ishmarian Princess, ready to kill at a moment¡¯s notice. Seeing you like this pleases me. All this time, you spouted nonsense that isn¡¯t befitting of an Ishmarian, or a warrior.¡±


    Alicia regarded him coldly. ¡°You really are just like Deyovar. Our whole kingdom was rotten from the start. I should¡¯ve known that it was never worth fighting for.¡± She turned away from him, so she was facing the wall. ¡°I don¡¯t even understand why you¡¯d do all this, Marcus. ¡±


    Marcus growled menacingly. ¡°I am the firstborn of the King of Ishmar. For as long as I¡¯ve lived, I¡¯ve dreamed of ascending the throne. But instead of inheriting it like every other firstborn son in every other kingdom on this wretched earth, I must instead follow a moldy old tradition that dates back to the founding of our country. Why should I have to fight my lesser brethren for my birthright?¡±


    He pounded his fist against the bars, and I recoiled away from them as the hideous sneer on his face turned savage. ¡°When I am king, I will do away with these foolish traditions, and I will forge a better future for our nation. I will crush those magic-using dolts in Algrustos just like Father crushed Marevar! The whole world will tremble at our feet, as they should!¡±


    My eyes narrowed at the mention of my homeland, my fear forgotten in an instant. Alverd, too, opened his eyes and trained his steady gaze on him. His grimace turned to a sick smirk. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s right; I recognized the seal on your shield the very moment I first saw you. All of us have trophies from your homeland. Our soldiers go on and on into the night about how weak the Marevarians were, how unprepared for their destruction they were. It¡¯s fitting that they were put in their place. Now they tend the fields to send us food like good little sheep. As. They. Should.¡±


    Marcus paced back and forth. The smirk on his face grew. ¡°You know, I must have lost count of how many Marevarians I killed. Soldier, peasant, it didn¡¯t matter. They all screamed the same, they all begged the same, and they all died the same. It was wonderful. No one who is willing to beg for their lives should have the right to live.¡±


    That sick smirk got even wider until it looked like it wouldn¡¯t even fit on his face. ¡°But don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ll be reunited with your friends and families soon enough. When historians look back on this day, your pitiful little country won¡¯t even warrant a footnote. Long after your bones turn to dust in the dragon pens, my kingdom will live on as the one the unified all of Selarune! I will surpass my father, his father before him and his father before him! Me! No one else!¡±


    Marcus leaned his head back and barked out an evil laugh, the laugh of a man not right in the head. If I needed any further proof that Marcus was insane, though, I need only have looked at the fact that he had insulted our home. In front of my friend. As far as I was concerned, Marcus was a dead man walking.  It was simply a matter of when and where. The only thing stopping me from punching a hole in his chest right now with a giant thunderbolt was the fact that I was staffless, which almost seemed like it would be worth giving my life for. However, that would mean that Alverd and Alicia¡¯s lives would be forfeit, as well as my own. As long as I was alive, a way out would present itself. At least, that¡¯s what I kept telling myself.


    It was incredible, in a way. Marcus¡¯ arrogance was so great that he truly believed that his so-called birthright justified his wanton disregard for others¡¯ lives. It was one thing to read stories of villains who were so detached from reality and another thing entirely to meet one in the flesh. But in my mind, it also highlighted how unfit Marcus was to rule. If he was crowned king, he would sit upon a throne comprised of corpses¡­those of his enemies and his people.


    Finally, Marcus¡¯s hysterical laughter came to an end. Alicia spoke once again.


    ¡°So why not just murder all of your siblings? ¡± She spat to the side. ¡°Evros knows what a coward you are, Marcus. It¡¯d be child¡¯s play for you to take such a path.¡±


    Marcus frowned. ¡°As direct and easy as it would be to do such a thing, the country is still mired in the old ways. Were I to resort to such methods, the people would never accept me as their king. They would doubtless call for my head on a pike. No, as much as my worthless kin deserve such a fate, such will not come to pass.¡±


    Eliza snorted. ¡°Take care of how you address me, brother. Perhaps you forget who it was who located Edgar¡¯s hiding place. Or maybe you forget who it was who poisoned Alicia¡¯s dragon? If I truly am so worthless, then maybe you should just kill me too¡­ if you have the stones for it, that is.¡± There was a derisive tone to her voice, as if she were almost goading Marcus for a violent response.


    An animalistic growl emerged from Marcus¡¯ throat as he addressed his sister.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to outsmart me, Eliza. If thinking were your strong suit, I¡¯d have had you killed long ago. The only reason you¡¯re alive is because you know how to swing a sword better than most. Threaten me again and it¡¯ll be the last time.¡± Marcus turned to look Eliza dead in the eyes. ¡°If you think I haven¡¯t accounted for any betrayals from you, you¡¯re sorely mistaken. If I die, then I¡¯ll drag you down to hell with me, one way or another.¡± Eliza growled back, but relented, stepping back from him.


    Marcus swiveled back around to us, his grin back on his face. ¡°Right now, Father is headed to the Royal Tomb to mourn your passing. Officially, you died attempting to redeem your honor at the Nest. Father will be holding an all-night vigil at the Tomb to honor your memory, which is why it will be so delicious later when you somehow cheat death in order to murder him and the rest of your family when no one else is the wiser.¡±


    ¡°You see, if my disgraced sister and her newly acquired criminal outsider underlings were to kill the royal family in an attempt to gain the throne, but were stopped by the heroic First Prince,who was unfortunately unable to save his beloved father or siblings from her wrath, then not only would I gain the throne, but the people would rally behind me. They would see me as their savior, their guiding light in a wave of new expansion.¡±


    Marcus spread his arms wide. ¡°I will step up our military development. Soon after I take the throne, my spies will make a startling discovery that Algrustian assassins tried to help my sister in her plot. We will march to glorious battle and wipe them out like we did the Marevarians! No longer will we tolerate the presence of those moldy old bookworms. No longer will we sit within our borders, stagnating. I will see this land united under our rule, or I will burn it all to the ground!¡±


    The mad prince burst out laughing again. He was a stone-cold psychopath. His soul was black and twisted, and held no remorse for his actions. His premeditated plot for the future of his country did not take into account the welfare of his people,  only his selfish, childish ambition. Killing him wouldn¡¯t just be personally satisfying  it would be a favor to the rest of the bloody world.


    His laughter finally came to an end, and he leered at us from behind the bars. ¡°The Rite of Succession begins tomorrow morning, only a few hours after Father returns from the Tomb. My men will plant the poison before the Tournament begins. The dragons of my siblings are of sufficient age that they will be able to resist the effects just long enough for the fighting to properly begin. When the dust clears and I send soldiers to investigate what happened, they will find your mangled bodies in the dragon pens, with the poison in your possession. It will be clear as day what happened.¡±


    Marcus shrugged nonchalantly as he addressed us one last time. ¡°Come tomorrow morning, you¡¯ll all be dead. And with a tie to the Algrustians, it won¡¯t be long before I bring them the blazing ruin they so richly deserve.¡± He looked at me with his smug face. ¡°And you, you¡¯ll get to be the match that starts the whole fire, mage. You can think about that as you await the end.¡±


    With a quick, practiced hand motion, Marcus signaled to his guards. They turned and began marching out of the dungeon. He sneered one last time, then followed the guards as they goose-stepped out of sight. I spat out between the bars, for all the good that it did. I grunted in frustration and laid back on the cold stone floor, completely at a loss for words.


    And then Eliza re-entered the room. I glared at her, trying my best to show my utter hatred for her with my eyes alone. I knew who she was now. I knew what she¡¯d done. What I¡¯d done to her. All this time, she had known who I was. Unlike me, she hadn¡¯t tried to repress her memory. When she saw the spark of recognition in my eyes, her thin lips quirked up in amusement.


    ¡°Mage. I must say, I¡¯m a little insulted. It took you so long to remember who I am.¡±


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    I bared my teeth. ¡°How did you survive?¡±


    Eliza raised her hand to her breastplate and tapped it. ¡°The royal family has armor forged with dragon tooth metal. When forged in that fashion, it becomes remarkably fire-resistant, able to absorb and disperse heat up to a very high temperature. When we wear a full suit, nothing short of an adult dragon¡¯s breath itself can burn us to death.¡±


    Eliza removed the gauntlet on her left arm. ¡°But magic is a sinister force that does not follow rules set by mortal man. When you threw me, the fire swept into my armor and tried to boil me alive from the inside. My face and head were spared, but as you can see¡­¡±


    Eliza removed the glove from her left hand and pulled her sleeve up. I could see that her flesh was marred by extensive burn scars, long since healed, all along her arm and stretching back up past where her sleeve began. No doubt the burns covered the whole of her body below her neck, which explained why she had opted not to wear a dress during the Ball.


    ¡°¡­The rest of me was not so fortunate. I had to pry my own armor off to avoid being cooked alive. Our strategists were fools to think you were helpless. We were right to destroy you. Given time, you would¡¯ve become a threat, and any warrior knows that the best time to eliminate an enemy is before they become strong enough to challenge them.¡±


    Alicia tried to appeal to Eliza, turning away from the wall. Her voice was starting to crack.


    ¡°Eliza, you of all people must see that Marcus is wrong, the destruction he will cause to our home. Why help him? Why poison my dragon? Marcus¡¯ plan will cause our nation¡¯s downfall! Don¡¯t you care about your family?¡±


    Eliza¡¯s face hardened. ¡°Our family? Those airheaded fools who parade in their fancy clothes at their fancy balls? Those same idiots who barely know what it means to truly fight? They slaughtered commoners in the war, sister. I earned my place fighting soldiers. When the time comes, I will lead our armies to victory over the Magister Lords of Algrustos, and the Witch-Queen herself. It is a role I am far better suited for than the throne, and one I would not mind playing.¡±


    She suddenly broke into a crooked smile. ¡°And who knows? Perhaps a time will come when an opportunity to advance myself even further may present itself. Marcus is many things, but stupid is not among them. But even he is no stranger to complacency. In time, he may forget that I will always be watching and waiting for him to show the slightest bit of weakness.¡±


    Suddenly, without warning, Eliza lunged forward and slammed her fists against the bars, bringing her face less than six inches from my own, which caused me to reel back in surprise.


    ¡°Perhaps I should kill you just to be safe, mage. Just like I killed your little friend. That raven-haired wench. You¡¯re not the only one who relives that night, spellslinger. I have wondered for years if you survived the slaughter. And now for you to waltz into my home under my sister¡¯s protection! It must be Fate at work.¡±


    This close, I could see straight into her eyes, and they sparkled with deep-seated madness born of rage. The terror I¡¯d once felt when I first saw Eliza came surging back, and I could feel my blood almost freeze in my veins. I wanted to be anywhere else than here, in front of this terrifying woman and her unhealthy obsession with me.


    Then she removed her hands,and took a step back. ¡°Unfortunately, Marcus needs you alive for the time being, so you can ¡®testify¡¯ to being an Algrustian spy sent to cause a power vacuum that will weaken Ishmar. If it were up to me, I would put my sword through your heart right now¡­and I would savor every moment of it.¡± Eliza ran her tongue over her lips after she spoke, as if she wasn¡¯t creepy enough already.


    Alverd narrowed his eyes, but remained where he was. ¡°So you¡¯re the one. You¡¯re the one who killed Laura.¡± There was an uncharacteristic edge in his voice, like he was trying to restrain himself but barely succeeding. ¡°Kuro told me, the night we escaped, how Laura had died. He might have forgotten your face, but I haven¡¯t forgotten what you did. I¡¯ve always hoped I¡¯d get to meet the one who killed our friend so I can repay you in kind.¡±


    Gods, Alverd was scary. He was clearly losing his restraint. Eliza turned her head to Alverd, and spoke to him in a flippant tone that conveyed a total lack of remorse and empathy.


    ¡°What¡¯s it to you? You weren¡¯t even there. I don¡¯t fear you, knight. You¡¯re just a failure, a weakling not worth my time. Just like that girl. Talk all you want, because even if you did have a blade, you¡¯d still be nothing.¡±


    Eliza smirked one last time as she locked eyes with me. ¡°Enjoy your last moments, mage. Maybe beg that girl to forgive you. In a little while, you¡¯ll be dead. Just another notch on my blade.¡±


    Eliza turned and headed for the door. Without a word, she opened the massive iron door, stepped through, and closed it. I could hear her slamming the bolt on the other end, like a death knell for any shred of hope I may have had left. Again, I fell back and laid upon the floor, staring up at the ceiling.


    Silence reigned in the cell for hours. I watched Alverd silently open and close the fingers of his right hand, grinding the fingernails against his palm whenever he made a fist. He was trying to fight the anguish, the hate, and I¡¯d never seen him like that before. For hours, he did that, his eyes clouded as he struggled with his feelings. The late afternoon sun began to dip beneath the horizon, casting a ray of red light through the window of our cell. I lay there, thinking about the situation.


    What had happened in Guilford seemed so far away and insignificant now. Hard to believe it had been less than a week since Alverd and I had stumbled out of the mountain pass and into Alicia¡¯s life. I could scarcely believe that such a simple act of Fate had gone and dragged all of my demons out into the light, had exposed the ones Alverd tried even harder than me to conceal, and brought all of it crashing together in this huge, chaotic mess.


    And then there was Alicia. I took a second to see what she was doing. She was hugging her knees in the corner, pulling them tight against her chest as she cried to herself quietly. The wall of steel I¡¯d erected around my heart cracked for a second. I had forgotten that even though I¡¯d gone through so many unpleasant memories in the past few hours, Alicia was suffering through all of this for the first time.


    Having no blood family, I wasn¡¯t the best person to judge whether what she was going through was as bad as what had happened to me. She had, up until now, tried to hold her family close, despite knowing full well that someday she¡¯d have to fight her brothers and sisters. She¡¯d wanted to believe that, even though they weren¡¯t all full-blooded siblings, that they could be a family. But the past few days had been nothing but a series of rude awakenings for her.


    Only a few hours ago, she¡¯d had to kill Edgar to spare him from a life of suffering at Marcus¡¯ hands. She had learned that Marcus was going to kill off all of the other royals simply because they were in his way. She¡¯d had to sit there and see with her own eyes that Marcus considered his siblings to be mere obstacles, not people; obstacles that he was intent on removing, like they were just stones at his feet that he could just kick out of his way.


    And what Eliza had done. That she had been the one to poison Alicia¡¯s dragon and dishonor her in front of the entire Ishmarian court. That she was willing to help Marcus butcher her kin just so she could keep killing more people. And someday, even turn on Marcus himself. And that both of the treacherous royals planned to place all of the blame for the entire disaster squarely on her shoulders, for a reason that I wasn¡¯t quite clear on yet. I wanted to think it went beyond simply ¡°it was convenient¡±.  Knowing Marcus, there had to be something else, some other reason why it had to be Alicia to take the fall.


    She took a moment to lift her head and wipe her eyes. They were red and raw and shone way too bright in the moon¡¯s light. I realized that¡­ I felt sorry for her. As she was now, I had once been. I¡¯d wanted to believe once, that there was a family waiting for me out there. Who would love and cherish me forever and ever. When I realized that that was never going to happen, the bloom came off that rose and I gave up on that dream. I¡¯d been four at the time.


    But Alicia had been born into a family. Tumultuous, rough and with an unhealthy amount of competitiveness, but a family nonetheless. She¡¯d maintained the naive notion that they could be a family even after they had to turn on each other to determine the next ruler of Ishmar. She¡¯d believed that right up until just now, when Marcus decided to twist the knife he¡¯d plunged into his sister¡¯s innocence for his own sick amusement.


    She was younger than me. Not by much, but the fact remained. She hadn¡¯t had the time to see that the world was a cruel place that laughed at the notion of fairness. She didn¡¯t deserve to have her little bubble burst like this, though. Nobody did. It was her Father (and mother, I reflected bitterly) who should have let her down gently over the course of her teenage years. But she had to learn it all at once, at the hands of those who didn¡¯t care, and with blood.


    I didn¡¯t feel like comparing anymore. I¡¯d come to the realization that it was bad all over. Didn¡¯t matter what a person¡¯s circumstances were. If it could happen to me, it could happen to a princess. It could happen to knights. It could happen to lovestruck girls. And it could happen to mages, too.


    I looked at Alicia one more time and stopped feeling pity for her. It felt¡­condescending, like it cheapened the weight of the things she¡¯d been through. I half expected her to stand up and glare at me, to say, ¡®How dare you take pity on me! I should tear your arm out of its socket!¡¯ Instead, I decided that the two of us had finally found some common ground. It was tenuous, and it was a hard sell, but pain had a way of bringing people together sometimes. It was how Alverd and I had found our way after fleeing Marevar.


    In time, maybe Alicia would find her own way forward, too.


    More importantly, in the time that I had been feeling sorry for myself, I found a way out. I watched as a ray of moonlight from the window hovered over the bars of our cell, eventually settling over the lock. A small circle of light hovered over the locking mechanism, and as it dwindled away, I had an idea.


    In one swift motion, I leapt to my feet. I ran over to the lock on the bars, and placed my hand over the mechanism. I whispered arcane words of focus as I squeezed my hand tighter over the lock. As I gripped the lock, a piercing pain shot through my head, and I could feel blood start to leak out my nose, but I kept at it. Slowly, the metal turned red. I released my grip on the lock; it quickly returned to its usual black color, but the metal now had a warped texture to it. My theory was correct.


    I showed both Alicia and Alverd the lock. Alverd, impressed, patted my head in a way that didn¡¯t feel condescending. Apparently, he too had been pondering possible escape, because he shared a plan for it with us after he was done examining the lock. I had to admit, his approval went a long way to boosting my morale. Alverd and I didn¡¯t always see eye-to-eye, which was why it always filled me with strength when he approved of my actions.


    ¡°We will wait until morning, before the Tournament begins. Then, we¡¯ll break out of this cell, grab our gear, and try to find the King. If we can explain what¡¯s going on here, they could cancel the Tournament, find Marcus, and possibly stop him from poisoning all of your siblings¡¯ dragons. It¡¯s our only hope.¡±


    Alicia looked helplessly at Alverd. In the end, she quietly nodded. However, she pulled me aside. ¡°Kuro, hold a moment.¡± She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, a frilly white affair made of some material softer than I had ever felt in my life, and shoved it into my hand. I stared at her skeptically. She pointed to my nose and the crimson flood flowing from it. I wiped it frantically. I didn¡¯t offer it back.


    It took a moment for it to sink in that her gesture was one of kindness. She already knew that my actions at the duel could have cost me my life. Now I had risked it again to secure our escape. Giving me her handkerchief was a sign that she might be finally warming up to me. I folded the handkerchief and placed it into a pocket within my robe, smiling at her. She smiled back at me, albeit weakly.


    She walked back to the bunk, laid down, and turned to face the wall. I watched as her tiny body shook periodically. It was obvious that she didn¡¯t want anyone to see her cry. Even in the midst of all this, she was still trying to put on a strong front. She¡¯d had to do that so much, it was practically a reflex by now. The moment when she¡¯d given me her handkerchief was a shining example of the girl¡¯s capacity for pure kindness. She¡¯d built walls to protect herself from all the people in court who saw her as nothing but a nuisance. I reflected on the horrible impression I¡¯d built of her when we first met. How poorly she¡¯d treated Alverd. And I realized that all of that was connected to this, too. When Alverd had shown her concern and respect, she¡¯d been suspicious of his intentions. She¡¯d been wary because she¡¯d been hurt before. But Alverd would never hurt her. She¡¯d begun to let those walls down around him, to accept his gestures of chivalry and good will.  Alverd had brought her out of her shell, and found the real person beneath.


    He¡¯d saved her, much like how he¡¯d saved me.


    He¡¯d been right all along. And this time, I was gonna follow his example.


    I took the thin blanket that had been provided for me and strode across the cell to where Alicia lay. Gingerly, I placed the blanket over the girl¡¯s body. As I stepped away, Alverd looked at me with more approval before returning to his meditation.


    It had taken me awhile, but I guess I was finally learning. Alicia was her own person, and judging her based on her family wasn¡¯t fair. In fact, it seemed to me like being the black sheep in her family had turned out to be a good thing. It would still be a while before I would openly trust her, but after tonight I couldn¡¯t doubt that she had her heart in the right place.


    I huddled in a corner, pulling my arms into my robe to warm my body. Alverd volunteered to take the first watch; in a few hours he would wake me and I would allow him to sleep. When the sun rose, we would make our move.


    Heh. I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d ever start to care so much about any of this. Gods knew I was jaded, but I never would have thought I¡¯d care about something like this. I¡¯d learned a long time ago that  people who wore their hearts on their sleeves, like Alverd, and to an extent Alicia, always ended up being the ones who got manipulated or hurt by malicious people, like Marcus or Eliza.


    That was why the Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary existed. Five years of dealing with the lowest of the lows had taught me more about the world and people than anything I¡¯d read in a book. The Tenth Rule was the epitome of all my distrust, the lessons I¡¯d learned the hard way: the only thing a mercenary can¡¯t afford to have is a heart. Of all the rules I¡¯d made, it was the one I adhered to the most. But I guessed it was time to add an Eleventh Rule.


    Sometimes, rules are made to be broken.

 Chapter 14: The Sword of Evros

    I¡¯d spent a great deal of my free time after magic school reading stories of heroes and villains. Never did I imagine that I¡¯d ever be in one of those stories, following a hero into the jaws of glory and death. There were a lot of things I didn¡¯t see myself ever experiencing when I was young, and now I was about to engage in a life or death race against time to help someone I never thought I¡¯d ever sympathize with.


    Funny how life was like that.


    What surprised me was that our ¡°accommodations¡± weren¡¯t designed to hold mages. It was probably because nobody expected to find mages so deep into Ishmar¡¯s territory before, but it was a stroke of luck I was willing to accept. After waking both Alverd and Alicia, I melted the lock off the door and we grabbed our gear.


    Of course, I had to spend some time recovering from the feat of melting a steel lock without my staff. I got another nosebleed and massive headache, but other than that, I didn¡¯t have any lasting damage or trauma. I had gotten off lucky again. I¡¯ll admit, I wasn¡¯t a big fan of pushing my luck. It had a nasty tendency to run out when I needed it most.


    I had a moment while I was waiting for Alicia to help Alverd into his armor to wonder again why Marcus had left it so close by. If he were really as smart as he claimed to be, he would¡¯ve thrown our gear into the deepest hole he could find and left us to rot in the cell. He¡¯d even left my staff here. I couldn¡¯t help but feel like he was playing us. It couldn¡¯t have been just his arrogance. The sound of Alicia rapping her knuckles against Alverd¡¯s plate armor to let him know he was secure put an end to my speculation, but it was still nagging me.


    With a fair degree of gusto, I conjured up a bolt of lightning and blasted the reinforced door Eliza had sealed off its hinges. The door sailed forward and impacted the opposite wall with a satisfying crunch. Fortunately, there didn¡¯t seem to be any guards in the adjacent corridor, so the noise from the impact didn¡¯t bring anyone running. So far so good.


    Just as we were about to set out, Alicia stopped us. ¡°Wait. What do we do if we run into any guards? What if Marcus has already informed Father of our supposed betrayal? I don¡¯t want to kill innocent men because of his treachery.¡±


    My opinion of the tiny Princess took another leap in the right direction. Even amidst all this, she still put the welfare of her subjects above her own safety. In retrospect, despite her temper and slightly disagreeable personality, she obviously would have made a great queen.


    Alverd reassured her. ¡°Regardless of what they know, I will do my best to keep whatever guards we encounter alive. We will make for the throne room with all haste. If anyone can convince your father of the threat Marcus poses, you can, Princess.¡±


    She smiled for the first time in what had been an eternity. Then she hefted her maul and ran for the door. ¡°Follow me, then. We go to the throne room first. Father will see reason, I know he will!¡±


    We followed her down the corridors and hallways of the castle with Alverd carrying me for the first bit of the way since I was still a little groggy from my jailbreak. We didn¡¯t run across any guards or soldiers, which was odd. As we got closer to the throne room, that odd feeling turned into full blown suspicion. Where were all the guards? Could they really all be at the arena by now? It didn¡¯t seem plausible. We didn¡¯t even see maids or other servants puttering around. We finally found ourselves outside the massive doors of the throne room. Hesitantly, Alicia put her hands on the doors, and pushed them open.


    The throne room was empty, save the King on his throne. Alicia gasped in surprise, a smile of relief spreading on her face. As she stepped closer, that smile vanished. There was a knife protruding from the King¡¯s chest. His eyes stared blankly into oblivion, his mouth open in what I could only deduce was surprise. His hand gripped his scepter tightly and his head lay tilted to the side. From poking his hand, I could tell his skin was pallid and cold; he had been dead for some time. It was obvious what had happened.


    Alicia sank to her knees, tears freely flowing from her eyes.  A horrible sob shook her body. Alverd leaned down to comfort the poor girl. She looked up at him, and I saw none of the strength she had exhibited before.


    She was just a young girl whose father was dead.


    ¡°Why? Why did this happen? Father¡­I¡¯m so sorry¡­¡± I stood there holding my tongue. It was not my place to say that justice had been done. This man had been responsible for the destruction of our home. He had raised seven children who craved war, death, and bloodshed, and unleashed them on the unsuspecting people of Marevar. For him to die like this was not the justice I had envisioned, but it was still what he deserved.


    And yet, one still wept over his dead body. Despite all the evil he had perpetrated, the one child who had remained pure still cried for him. The scene before me was difficult to swallow, honestly. Alicia had earned my respect by demonstrating an earnest heart, but that was only one drop of water in a raging sea. I didn¡¯t care how pure of heart Alicia was. It didn¡¯t make up for the blood spilled by the King or the rest of his foul progeny.


    I felt torn. I¡¯d only gotten through the last five years because every night, I¡¯d reminded myself that I still had a reason to keep living. To keep fighting. I had to avenge Laura, Farnus,  all  the Marevarians who¡¯d died. I did so by envisioning the King of Dragon Tamers. What he must have looked like, so smug on his throne of blood and death, sneering at the pain he caused others. What it would feel like when I finally killed him.


    Now he was gone. I¡¯d been robbed of my chance. I glanced over at Alverd and saw a similar anguish in his features.  We knew closure would only come by killing the King, something Alverd had sworn he would never do in cold blood. It was all gone now. While Alicia continued to wail at her Father¡¯s feet, I saw Alverd¡¯s hands shaking, his fingers opening and closing in the same gesture I¡¯d seen in the dungeon.


    ¡­for the second time in our lives, we were little boys lost in the woods, with nowhere to go and no idea how to get there.


    After Alicia regained her composure, she lowered her father¡¯s eyelids. Then, she reached into his robes, fishing for something. She pulled a key out and slipped it into one of her pockets. She kissed her father¡¯s forehead gently, the last gesture of affection she could show for him.


    When she stood up, I saw a new resolve burning in her eyes. It wasn¡¯t vengeance. It was just¡­determination. No matter how this played out, she was going to get justice. Her brother had gone and done the unthinkable and she was the only one who was going to take him down for it. If that meant his death, then her eyes told me that she had made peace with that.


    The sound of the throne room doors opening drew our attention to the four guards who had just entered. Behind them stood a knight in black armor, the signature scaled motif making it clear he was a Black Scale Legionnaire. Even more damning than that was the Ishmarian numeral for one painted on his shoulder, making him one of Marcus¡¯ toadies. The Legionnaire smirked as he saw us, then pointed his gauntleted finger across the hall.


    ¡°Well, well. The First Prince was right. The Eighth Princess¡¯ plot is already underway. And now the King is dead. As if that wasn¡¯t heinous enough, she¡¯s relied on foreign spies and mages to help her carry out her sinister plot.¡± He backed towards the door. ¡°Detain them. I will bring word to the other royals.¡±


    No. That nagging feeling from before became a full realization. Marcus had wanted us to escape. And he had counted on Alicia running straight to her father. Now we were caught standing over the King¡¯s dead body with the murder weapon still sticking out of him, and a Legionnaire ready to ¡°swear¡± he¡¯d borne witness to it all. I felt sick. Not because he¡¯d pulled such a simple ruse on me, but because he was willing to bet on his sister¡¯s weakness to play straight into his hands.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    A sudden burst of rage surged out of me and into my staff. Almost by pure instinct my hands shot up and I aimed the staff in the direction of the guards. It was a wonder of last minute willpower that I remembered that we were trying to avoid casualties; instead of channeling lightning, I instead blew a gust of wind down the hall at them.


    The gust buffeted into the four guards and threw them against the far wall, and their heads slammed against the stone hard enough to make their helmets rattle. When they hit the ground, however, they were still groaning. One reached feebly for his sword, but I ran over and slammed my staff down on his helmet, knocking him out for good. With a groan, he fell silent.


    Alicia was right behind me. She smacked the haft of her maul into another guard to knock him out. Alverd brought his shield down on the last two. With all the guards incapacitated, we took a moment to catch our breath.


    The young princess¡¯ eyes were ablaze. ¡°If that¡¯s the way you want to do this, Marcus, then so be it. An eye for an eye has always been the berserker¡¯ way. If you want to take what¡¯s most precious to me, then I¡¯ll do the same.¡± Quick as a flash, her leg lashed out and smashed open the throne room doors.


    She motioned for the two of us to follow.  When we returned to the corridor, she took us in the opposite direction from the arena. We followed in confusion.


    ¡°Why are we going in this direction? You said the arena is the other bloody way. It won¡¯t be long before your brother¡¯s Legionnaires come looking for us in force! Or maybe your sadistic sister Eliza will hunt us down like dogs. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be thrilled to know that her archenemies are running loose in the castle.¡± I shuddered at the thought of Eliza catching up to me. The thought of that woman licking her bloodied lips sent a chill down my spine.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to get something first. It¡¯ll help us!¡±


    We ran through empty halls and silent rooms until we stood before a door made of solid gold. Flanking the door were tapestries of a great dragon, so big that it dwarfed entire mountain ranges. I recognized them as being similar to the murals from the Nest. They were depictions of Evros, the Mother Dragon.


    A lithograph of a man with arms outstretched to Evros was carved into the door. It had to be Deyovar, first king of Ishmar. In the very center, a nondescript keyhole could be seen. Alicia pulled the key from her pocket and jammed it into the keyhole. I could hear the door mechanisms grinding within; the door had obviously not been opened anytime recently. The door swung open slowly to reveal a vault full of treasure. I had to shield my eyes from the dazzling vision that assaulted my eyes as the light hit what lay within.


    Piles of gold lay before us. Relics and baubles of incalculable worth filled my vision. Gems of every color sparkled like the rainbow itself, and even the draconic statues flanking the treasure room were made of solid gold. Beautiful jewelry lay strewn about the room, adorning busts of ancient kings forged from gold and silver. But nothing drew attention like the sword seated upon a pedestal in the very center of the room.


    The sheath of the sword was a beauty to behold. Unmistakably the work of a master, it glittered with rubies and gold filigree and a flawless blue lacquer finish. A thick, golden thread was fastened to the top of the sheath and wound around it several times since it was meant to be tied around the waist of the one who wielded it. The sheath was rectangular in shape, curved at the tip to fit the sword hidden within and it commanded attention with its presentation. I could feel my mouth dropping in awe of  the bloody thing, and I didn¡¯t even care about swords in that way.


    Alicia gingerly picked the sword up from its resting place in both hands. Then she crossed to where Alverd stood and offered him the sword. He took it slowly, admiring the weapon. He wrapped his hand around the golden hilt of the sword where a deep, blood-red ruby as big as my eyeball was set where the hilt ended and the blade began. He pulled it  from the scabbard, revealing a blade that seemed at first no different from any other. It was long with two graceful edges ending in a sharp point. But upon closer inspection, unlike any of the Ishmarian blades I had seen prior, this blade sparkled like normal steel, giving it a bright and astounding appearance that put all of its imitations to shame.


    ¡°You saw this back at the fortress in the Nest,¡± She said. ¡°This is the Sword of Evros. Our greatest treasure, forged from the metal pulled from the tooth of our goddess. What she gifted Deyovar before he¡­ turned on her. This blade will tear normal steel asunder. It carries the Great Mother¡¯s hopes for freedom and her terrible rage. And now¡­ I offer this sword to you.¡±


    Alverd looked at Alicia in confusion as she continued. ¡°Think of it as payment for services rendered. You two are mercenaries, right? Well, consider this your new job. Help me avenge my father. Help me save my family and my country. Please.¡±


    He hesitated. He turned the sword over in his hand, admiring the blade when it caught the light. She giggled. ¡°You know? I just realized something. I think¡­ I think my Father saw all this coming. For the past four years, he¡¯s changed. He was kinder to me, indulged me in some of my sillier pursuits, and the day I learned the final doctrines of the berserkers, he was incredibly proud. He told me that one of the most important things I learned was not to harness my rage, but to control it.¡±


    Alicia looked at the key in her palm. ¡°This key¡­ none of my siblings knew about it. Father told me that, if anything were to happen to him, I was to take the key from his body and use it to get the Sword of Evros. To take it as far away as I could, away from my siblings. I thought at the time that he wasn¡¯t serious. But now, I see that he was wiser than I ever knew. I think¡­ Father must have wanted me to take the throne.¡±


    That was when it clicked in my head. The thing that had been bothering me earlier. I filed away my little private epiphany for now, since it was only a theory at the moment. If the opportunity arose, I¡¯d be able to see if it was true or not. I kept my silence and let Alicia continue her own revelation.


    ¡°He wanted someone without the burden of innocent blood on her hands. He must have planned this for years. The leniency I was given in our trip to the Nest¡­ in truth, my failure to control my dragon should have been grounds for my exile, or at the very least, the stripping of my title and right to the throne, even if we know now that it was baseless. But Father didn¡¯t know that. He let me stay, and let me continue to fight for the throne. But now I have no allies, and my own family cannot be trusted.¡±


    Alicia motioned to the sword in Alverd¡¯s hand. ¡°Please. Take this sword and help me avenge this wrong. I know that I have no right to tell you to do this, not after what my people did to yours, but please. You two are my only hope.¡±  She actually knelt down and prostrated herself on the ground. Alverd stammered, fully caught off guard by what he was witnessing.


    When she looked up, her eyes were shimmering with the effort to hold back a flood. She turned those big puppy dog eyes on Alverd. Even I started to melt a bit, looking at how pathetic she was. Of course, it was completely unnecessary. We would have helped her out anyway for a multitude of reasons.


    For decency. For justice. For righteousness. And in my case, revenge.


    The thought of payment never crossed our minds. Granted, my major motivation was still revenge, but I still knew that Marcus needed to die for the good of Ishmar and potentially the rest of the world. And Eliza needed to die to let the ghosts of Marevar rest.


    Alverd held his hand to Alicia. ¡°Milady, there is no need to humiliate yourself in such a way. Rest assured, we have come this far, and we will finish what we started. I am honored that you consider me worthy of such a sword, and I will do my utmost to live up to your expectations.¡± Alicia took his hand, and he lifted her back to her feet. Slowly, he carefully slid Evros back into its sheath, as if it were some glass bauble about to break.


    ¡°Both Kuro and I will help put an end to this sordid affair to the best of our abilities.¡± Alverd shot me a pointed glance. I didn¡¯t have the energy to argue.


    I turned to Alicia. ¡°I swear, too. As much as it would please me greatly, I promise I won¡¯t kill your siblings. I¡¯ll do my best to stop this scheme without killing any of them. You have my word.¡± I had to grit my teeth for that last bit, but I managed to spit it out.


    She, however, didn¡¯t seem to mind. She was too busy wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. After some sniffling, she steeled herself for the trials ahead. It took her a moment before she could form complete sentences, but I didn¡¯t need to hear her say anything to feel her happiness at our acceptance of her terms.


    Alverd fastened Evros to his hip, although he still favored his old sword. I knew that he couldn¡¯t throw away such a thing.  He was a man of sentiment. That sword had been bequeathed upon him during his knighting, and come hell or high water, he would never let go of that sword. As much as my staff meant to me, that sword meant just as much to him. Alicia looked at him questioningly.


    Alverd glanced at Alicia. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I just¡­ can¡¯t. Some things are meant to be remembered. When the time comes, I¡¯ll be ready.¡± Alverd leaned down and picked up a shield lying on the ground. Though it was gaudy to the extreme, Alicia confirmed that it was combat-ready, and we made our exit from the treasure room.


    The arena was on the other side of the castle from where we were, yet we could already hear the celebrations beginning. According to Alicia, the king would sit in a special area that was secluded from the rest of the people. There would be no one to tell that he was dead, and would attribute his silence to his worsening health. If Marcus¡¯s men were coming to get his body, we had just missed them by seconds. It seemed fortune favored our cause. About time something had gone right for us. If Fate was truly on our side, then perhaps the day would end in the way it should: with Alverd¡¯s new blade straight through Marcus¡¯s black heart.

 Chapter 15: The Fa?ade Falls Away

    I really don¡¯t like the concept of making up the plan as you go along, because if you¡¯re that desperate you definitely screwed the pooch already.


    When you¡¯ve been taught from a young age that preparation and careful application of thought and restraint are key to controlling your greatest gift, it gets ingrained in you that to do spontaneous things is pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. Magic was already unpredictable enough when mages were doing everything they could to control its variables. I was fortunate that I¡¯d had a few years to teach me that the ability to think under pressure was just as vital to my survival.


    I was barely able to keep pace with Alverd and Alicia as we ran down the last corridor to the Arena proper, as discussing the plan between my inhaled breaths wasn¡¯t easy. Once inside, we would have to go to the dragon stables to try and stop Marcus¡¯s men from poisoning the dragons of Alicia¡¯s remaining family. It was a desperate gambit and we were racing against the clock.


    The Arena was connected to the Castle, but housed in a separate part of the volcano. It was a repurposed crater that had been formed when part of the volcano had exploded out the side many centuries ago; the Ishmarians had built their arena within it, taking advantage of its circular, widening design to build a stadium to showcase their brutal ascension ceremonies. It had two entrances, one that was open to the common folk of the castle town, which required them to trek through a subterranean tunnel, and one for those in the castle who merely had to follow the twisting halls towards it.


    Much like the Castle of Brimstone, the Arena was a massive place that housed several key structures within the stone interior of the volcano, including a kennel for the dragons so they could be prepped for the fight ahead, a barracks for the royals to check their equipment, and large amphitheater-style seating for the commoners to occupy. The bottom of the Arena itself was covered in rocky protrusions for dragons to land on, along with plenty of nasty stalagmites for falling people to be impaled on.


    Alicia filled us in as we ran. ¡°There¡¯s a special waterworks system that we use to carry water from the ground floor of the arena up to the stables. If Marcus¡¯ men take control of it, they could poison the entire reservoir and spread the poison to every stable in the Arena. The water would be delivered to the royal stables and nobody would be the wiser. We have to make that our first target.¡±


    We pushed through the doors at the end of the corridor. The ornately decorated halls of the castle gave way to the black stone of the volcanic rock that made up the arena¡¯s walls. The irrigation system used to supply water to the royal dragon stables was located on the bottom floor, and was heavily regulated by guards. That presented our first obstacle. If Marcus¡¯s soldiers were already down there, it was a safe bet that they would be watching for possible tampering with the plan. Fortunately, they would be easy to spot with their gaudy armor and their numeric identification, but that didn¡¯t make me feel any better.


    The second obstacle were the dragons themselves. Any nearby stables would be full of dragons that would likely attack us if Marcus¡¯ men decided it was in their best interest to throw them at us to buy time to carry out their plan. And these would be mature dragons, not younglings like the ones Edgar was keeping in his lab. The image of a dragon¡¯s teeth and claws ripping flesh flashed in my mind, but only for a moment. I refused to get distracted, especially by something so worrisome as the potential gruesomeness of my imminent death.


    No one wanted to consider the worst possibility: the dragons were already poisoned and that the next part of Marcus¡¯s scheme was already in motion. We had to believe that we could still make it in time. If we didn¡¯t, I didn¡¯t think I could bear seeing that heartbreak in Alicia¡¯s eyes. No. We had to succeed.


    But I still had doubts. If Marcus had arranged for our escape so he could have witnesses ready to place the blame for the King¡¯s murder on our shoulders, would he have been so brilliant or paranoid enough to have a contingency plan in case something went wrong? Only a few guards had come to the throne room. It stank to high heaven. Every bone in my body wanted to believe Marcus was counting on us to put in one last appearance before his plan came full circle.


    Yet another fanfare sounded as we descended the stairs to the dragon pens. We could hear the crowd¡¯s cheering surge through the empty halls and rise to a crescendo as the tournament geared up to the main event. The cries of the masses spurred us to move faster. I had to abandon any further thinking about what Marcus¡¯ convoluted plan might have been, if only so I could concentrate on following Alicia.


    We arrived at the entrance to the stables to find a bloodbath. The area in front of the entrance was awash in blood, and the bodies of six guards lay on the floor and slumped against the walls. Four of the guards hadn¡¯t even had time to draw their weapons; the two at the back still clutched their swords even in death, their armor torn to shreds. Some even had their throats slashed, while others had puncture marks straight through their torsos. Someone had gone to great lengths to ensure these guards were dead, and to say it was excessive was an understatement.


    Alicia averted her gaze, but strode over to the door. These people had been surprised before they had a chance to defend themselves. It was violence beyond what was necessary to keep them quiet, and was no doubt at Marcus¡¯ command. I felt bile rising up in my throat, and it wasn¡¯t because I was squeamish at the sight of all the blood.


    Alverd knelt next to one of the men who¡¯d managed to draw his sword before dying. He lifted the man¡¯s visor, but was greeted by a vacant stare. He had most likely died before Marcus¡¯ men decided to turn him into a pincushion. Alverd closed the man¡¯s eyes, then slid the visor back into place. I took the liberty of checking the other man, but he, too, looked as though he¡¯d been killed by the first or second blow. Small mercy, I suppose. I crept over to the door, listening for any sign of the enemy. Hearing nothing, I gingerly pushed the door open. The sight I beheld was no better than the mess we had found outside.


    The next room, where they kept the dragon feed, was worse than I feared. The bodies of eight men and women lay strewn about on the ground. The difference was that these people wore the simple clothes of servants. Even if they had struggled, they would have been no match for heavily armed soldiers. They had died in pain and confusion, and their innocent blood now stained Marcus¡¯s hands. Alicia brought her free hand up to cover her mouth; whether it was to suppress a sob or her gag reflex I couldn¡¯t say. Seeing dead guards or soldiers was one thing. Seeing dead civilians was another entirely.


    The sound of metal scraping against something diverted our attention. There was a large reinforced door leading to the kennels proper, and the sound emanated from behind it. Alverd slowly inched to the door, and pulled it open slightly, which wasn¡¯t easy given that it was massive and heavy. I moved to the other side of the door and peeked through the crack in the door.


    There were eight men. All of them wore the gilded armor of royal Ishmarian soldiers, but they also had the personal seal of the guard of the First Prince on their shoulder plates. Some of them were still holding blood-stained swords. A couple of them were handling something out of my line of vision while the others were on guard for any interference.


    I focused my power into a small ball in my hand. Unlike the other spells in my repertoire, this particular spell wasn¡¯t destructive. Instead, when it was released, it would illuminate the area around it with a strong light. It was basically the spell I had used to guide Alverd and myself through the cold mountain pass between Guilford and Ishmar. When I applied more power to it, however, it would release a blinding radiance and deafening sound that would gain us the opening we needed.


    I tossed the little ball of light into the room, and Alverd quickly held the door shut. There was a sound like thunder, muffled by the door, and then screaming. Alverd flung the door wide and charged in, sword raised. Within the space of a second, he lunged at the man closest to him, aiming for the small gap between the man¡¯s helmet and his breastplate. The man¡¯s neck burst into a crimson jet and as he fell to the ground, Alverd ran for the next two soldiers.


    The closer of the two couldn¡¯t react in time, because he was still dazed by the explosion. Alverd batted his sword aside and thrust into the unarmored area below the man¡¯s breastplate. He crumpled and fell to the side, and Alverd pulled his sword from the man¡¯s corpse. He whirled to face the last man.


    Meanwhile, Alicia had gone into a berserker rage, and justifiably so. She had run into the room screaming at the top of her lungs and made a beeline for two men standing near the door. She ran up to her first victim and swung her maul with both hands, dealing an uppercut blow that connected with a sickening thud. The man¡¯s head hit the ceiling, propelled by the sheer force of the blow, before crumpling back to the floor in a lifeless heap. Alicia turned to face the second man, and rushed him.


    The man recovered just in time to see Alicia barreling toward him. He could do nothing but scream shortly before Alicia caved his head in with a two-handed overhead swing. The scream itself was cut short as the maul smashed his skull like a glass mug. Alverd finished off his last opponent with a quick strike to the leg, followed by another stab through the gut, just underneath the breastplate.


    The last two men weren¡¯t in any position to oppose us. As Alverd and Alicia went after their targets, I reached for the moisture in the water tub behind them, solidifying it into a lance of ice, while the rest flowed out of the tub and around the feet of the second. The massive javelin of pure magical ice punched through the first man¡¯s chest, skewering him cleanly, and he twitched helplessly for a moment before he expired. The second man had his feet frozen to the ground, and he dropped his sword in his frantic struggle to free himself. He did not succeed.


    Alicia came over and punched the man l had frozen and he crumpled to the ground like a house of cards. With the threat gone, we turned our attention to the matter at hand. Over by the far side of the wall, there was a set of chutes. The chutes were used to supply water to communal tanks that provided water by way of irrigation to kennels on each floor of the arena, in order to lessen human involvement (and thus, casualties) in dragon feeding. By one chute, labeled ¡°Royal Kennel,¡± lay many vials of the poison. All of them were empty.


    We were too late.


    Alicia roared and hit the wall with her maul furiously, shattering a healthy portion of it in her rage. There was no stopping it now. The only hope we had now was to save Alicia¡¯s family from Marcus and expose his treachery to the people. And I had no idea on just how to do it. Alicia, however, did.


    She pulled the unconscious soldier up from the floor and shook him awake. I noticed that her eyes were mad with fury, a sure sign that her berserker rage was bordering on a psychotic break. Any pity I felt was quickly swept away by my remembrance of Marcus¡¯s crimes, however. The soldier was obviously not the bravest in the bunch. As soon as he saw the look of unchecked bloodlust in Alicia¡¯s eyes, he started simpering like the coward he was.


    ¡°Please! Please don¡¯t kill me! I was only following my orders!¡±


    The fool¡¯s words only fueled Alicia¡¯s rage. She shook the man like a rag doll, then screeched in his face.


    ¡°Where is my brother? Start talking or your life is forfeit!¡±


    Maybe it was just because I had bad memories, but it kind of unnerved me to see Alicia resorting to intimidation to get the soldier to comply with her demands. Given all she¡¯d been through, with barely any time to stop and take stock of it, the poor girl was definitely fraying at the edges and was on the verge of losing what restraint she had left. Part of me wanted to point this out, but in her current state, she¡¯d never listen. Another other part of me, though, kind of wanted this guy to get what was coming to him.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    The blubbering soldier tried to compose himself to no avail. ¡°P-p-please! I don¡¯t know. I was told to put the poison in the troughs. We weren¡¯t supposed to let anyone get in our way.  Please, I didn¡¯t kill any of them! I swear! Please, release me!¡± The man continued to cry pitifully. Alicia snarled and lifted her maul.


    Alverd caught her arm, however. When she glared at him, her eyes practically spat venom at him; however, he still gripped her arm firmly. I could see him straining to do so, but he didn¡¯t waver. ¡°To kill an unarmed man like this is beneath you. Do not become like your brother or sister.¡± He gave her a look that was firm, solemn, and slightly judgmental; it was the look of a parent giving their child one last chance to come clean about something they were hiding.


    She glared at him, but her eyes had lost a bit of their edge. ¡°Fine. You deal with the fool.¡± She flung his body back onto the ground.  ¡°But what must be done has to be done. He can¡¯t get away with it.¡± She wanted to look tough, but Alverd could see her hand twitching. She had taken more lives, and it was weighing on her now. Soon that weight would catch up to her. And knowing Alverd, he was going to find a way to lighten that burden any way he could.


    Alverd glanced over at me. ¡°Perhaps you¡¯d like to handle this, Kuro?¡±


    In times like these, a different kind of intimidation was called for.


    Alverd came over to me and whispered into my ear. ¡°Just scare him a little, Kuro. He¡¯ll talk if you just rattle him enough.¡±


    I sighed. ¡°In my opinion, this scum doesn¡¯t deserve to live. And if he does, who¡¯s to say he won¡¯t run straight to Marcus or Eliza?¡±


    Alverd made a stern face. ¡°Kuro. Don¡¯t make me repeat myself. Killing this man in cold blood is not the right thing to do. I¡¯m trusting you with this. Do not let me down.¡± He stared into my eyes with a very deliberate expression that I recognized from years of seeing it just like this. It was the closest Alverd ever got to threatening me.


    Whether he¡¯d make good on his threat was never in question. It was more a reminder for me to recognize when I¡¯d gone too far, or had the potential to go too far. But in those cases, I¡¯d had no emotional stake. The first time I¡¯d seen that look, I¡¯d been idly rolling a ball of lightning in my hand in the middle of interrogating a slave trader whom I¡¯d doused in water first. That time, the slaver had walked away, albeit into a locked jail cell where he was still rotting as far as I knew.


    However, I didn¡¯t care so much if this man died. He was a monster. He worked for a monster. And if need be, I¡¯d show him that there were much, much scarier monsters out in the world. Namely, me. I thought Alverd would understand. He was just as furious as me. He had to understand that what was about to happen was necessary. To that end, I put my plan in motion.


    I moved over to the nearby trough and picked up a big handful of the slop within it; it stank of things I couldn¡¯t even mention. It made my eyes water. I came back and began slathering it all over the man¡¯s face. His eyes widened in recognition and he began sobbing uncontrollably. I waved my staff and levitated him in the air, drifting him toward the chute and pushing him in headfirst, dangling him halfway. He began thrashing wildly, screaming at the top of his lungs.


    ¡°Hey now, you shouldn¡¯t move around so much,¡± I cajoled. ¡°You do that, and you might just make me lose my concentration. I imagine that would be¡­ unpleasant.¡±


    The soldier whimpered, his movement ceasing. I pulled him out of the chute, although he remained floating in the air. He locked eyes with me, awaiting my inquiry. I stared back, then voiced my question. ¡°So what were your orders, then? What did Marcus command you to do?¡±


    He answered immediately. ¡°I-I can¡¯t say. Don¡¯t do this, you don¡¯t have to do this¡­¡± The man squeezed more crocodile tears out of his eyes to emphasize his statement.


    I shook him violently. His limbs flailed like a ragdoll. ¡°What is Marcus¡¯s plan? This is the last time I ask nicely. You don¡¯t answer, or you jerk me around, I¡¯ll dump you down the chute and it¡¯s chow time.¡±


    The man kept on blubbering like a damn fool. I was starting to lose my temper. Just because I could, I slammed the hapless soldier against the wall, his armor rattling like a tin pot full of stones.


    ¡°Kuro!¡± Alverd cried. His voice was stern and disapproving, maybe even angry. I ignored him. I didn¡¯t care all that much that I was hurting him, which surprised me. Even though I ended up playing the pragmatist more often than not, I didn¡¯t relish doing these kinds of things. Though the man was a coward, he was still unarmed. But then again, I¡¯d always been the one to conduct the interrogations. I knew that Alverd would never do this. He didn¡¯t have the stomach for it.


    I didn¡¯t understand Alverd¡¯s concept of honor, or the concept of honor in general. He¡¯d kill a man in a fair fight, but the second his opponent threw down his sword, Alverd couldn¡¯t be bothered to finish him off. It never made sense to me. Now I could feel his judgmental eyes boring a hole into the back of my skull. A stray thought crossed my mind, a thought that I¡¯d held down in the depths of my heart, hoping it would never see the light of day.


    Alverd was the knight. The shining example of honor and chivalry. And I was Alverd¡¯s shadow, the one who lived  out of sight, doing the things he would never do. But I was tired of it. I hated having to sully my hands with the things that he would never bother with. And now, with this witless buffoon crying like a slapped child in front of me, I finally just gave into my simmering resentment and took it out on the bastard. Even though I knew that it made me a damned hypocrite, something I loathed almost more than anything else in this world, it was necessary.


    I slammed him against the wall twice more. The man¡¯s cries devolved into painful whimpers. I was wasting my time. This fool wouldn¡¯t help us. But at the same time, I knew that what I was about to do would earn me my best friend¡¯s scorn.


    ¡°Last chance to talk,¡± I yelled. ¡°Where is Marcus, and how is he going to deal with his siblings?¡± The man choked out a few words in a broken voice.


    ¡°Please. I have a family¡­if I betray him, they¡¯ll die! Have mercy- ¡±  he sputtered, and a bit of blood flew out of his mouth. I didn¡¯t have the patience to play games with this joker anymore.


    ¡°You had a family?¡± I snarled at him. ¡°So did the people you murdered, I¡¯ll bet.¡±  I let go of the magic field holding him and pushed him down the chute. His screams didn¡¯t last long; he hit the bottom quickly, and armor or not, little stood in the way of a hungry dragon and its fangs.


    Alverd glared at me. ¡°What the hell was that for? I told you not to kill him!¡±


    I returned Alverd¡¯s heated gaze. ¡°He had no intention of helping us, Alverd. At this point, leaving him alive so he could warn Marcus was the worst thing we could¡¯ve done. I made the decision, so his blood is on my hands. I can live with that. Just like I have for the past five years.¡±


    My friend looked at me with a distaste I had never seen in his eyes before. I felt a tiny twinge of regret. Ever since we had left Marevar, I had put on a strong front. I needed to be the heartless, practical one; I had to be strong in ways he couldn¡¯t understand, yet at the same time, I needed his approval to validate it. If that indicated weakness, well then, dammit, I was weak.


    Alverd¡¯s distaste switched to anger. Seeing that only egged me on. I finally let him have it.


    ¡°You act like you¡¯re so much better than me. And maybe you are. But not by much. You¡¯re human, too, and no matter how much you try to hide it, I know there¡¯s something somewhere in you that agrees with me. These people are monsters, Alverd. I don¡¯t feel any worse about killing these bastards than I would stepping on a cockroach.¡±


    Alverd¡¯s face grew fierce. ¡°Maybe they are monsters, Kuro. But choosing to act with dignity and integrity is what separates us from them. I still follow my teachings because they taught me to be better than those who took advantage of those lesser than them.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°Look around you, Alverd! Do you see any more Marevarians here? The only ones I know of are back home, probably slaving away in a field somewhere while some Ishmarian whips them like cattle. You think we¡¯re gonna get anywhere by taking the high road?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t going to be intimidated by me, so he tried one last time to appeal to my non-existent better half. ¡°I know things have never been easy for you, Kuro, but that doesn¡¯t mean you get to play the victim. I¡¯ve made peace with myself¡ª¡±


    That was the last straw. It was such a lie. And I wasn¡¯t gonna let it slide. ¡°That¡¯s a load of crap and you know it! I¡¯m sick of you getting to play the hero of justice card! Do you know what it¡¯s like to live in your shadow? Watching you soak up the praise and adulation from everybody we meet? Meanwhile, I have to play the devil¡¯s advocate, so we don¡¯t end up broke and sleeping in a stable!¡±


    He staggered back, his mouth agape. I pressed my advantage. ¡°You¡¯re on my case for living in the past. But you know what? I haven¡¯t moved on. I can¡¯t forget. Not like you. And I don¡¯t know how you could. So if I kill somebody who would just as easily do the same in my position, excuse me if I don¡¯t feel any remorse for it.¡±


    ¡°You had everything: a mother and father, friends, comrades! And you dishonor all of them by choosing not to slay the ones who took them from you! I had nothing until I met you and Laura! NOTHING! And I¡¯m willing to fight for what little I did have. How can you just stand there and tell me that you don¡¯t feel anything?! Is that the kind of man you are?! If I die in the next hour, are you gonna forget about me, too? Do I matter as little to you as everyone else you¡¯ve left behind?!¡±


    I was so busy screaming at Alverd, so busy trying to avoid crying during the last part of my tirade, that I didn¡¯t see it coming. He punched me. Hard. His steel gauntlet slammed into my face with enough force to knock me on my ass. When I looked up, Alverd was breathing hard, like he had just run a marathon. I¡¯d done it. I¡¯d finally pushed him too far, and now he was gonna speak his true feelings. Alicia stepped back, either out of shock or just wanting to get out of the way, or both.


    ¡°You think I don¡¯t feel anything, Kuro? Do you think I¡¯m that heartless?¡± Alverd sneered at me. His fist stopped shaking and he uncurled it, the fingers clanking as he did so. ¡°You think that I don¡¯t hear the screams at night, or see the blood on my hands, or feel Laura¡¯s ragged breath on my neck when I close my eyes? I have my own nightmares of killing, watching my comrades fall one by one, how they all bought time for others to flee with their lives.¡±


    Alverd sniffed. I saw that he was now struggling to hold back his own tears. ¡° I abandoned my post to find you and Laura. Do you think I didn¡¯t suffer when I made that choice? I told myself so many times, ¡®it wouldn¡¯t have mattered if you stayed, the wall would have never held¡¯? I make rationalizations, too, Kuro. But that doesn¡¯t mean I get to blame the world for suffering through them.¡±


    He leaned forward and grabbed me by the collar of my robe. He yanked me up so I could see straight into his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t blame anyone but myself, Kuro. But thinking that killing for the sake of others is justification enough isn¡¯t right. And if that¡¯s what you think, that becoming a murderer like Marcus or Eliza, is something you¡¯re okay with¡­¡± I felt something cold against my neck. I realized in horror that it was his sword. ¡°Then the man I called a friend died a long time ago and has become an enemy of everything that I stand for.¡±


    I saw the stark, utter disapproval in his eyes, and I felt a dam burst inside of me. I felt betrayed. And it hurt me in a way I didn¡¯t think was possible. My breath became shallow and my heart sped up, but it had nothing to do with the sword caressing my jugular. His words cut deeper than any sword ever could. Finally, he let me go and I fell to my knees. I heard him sheath his sword with a little too much force. Alverd backed away from me.


    I¡¯d never felt so empty inside. I thought that watching Laura die was the most horrible thing I¡¯d ever seen in my life. That the way it made me feel would be the worst thing I¡¯d ever go through. But somehow, watching my friend threaten me on the grounds that he thought of me as a monster? It felt as though someone had carved a hole in my chest and ripped out my heart. I didn¡¯t know what to do.


    But I didn¡¯t have time to process that particular revelation, as Alicia broke the ice with a decisive and terse cough. Alverd turned away from me, but I could see his irritation still resided with him in the way his head was bowed. Alicia had the good sense not to bring up what had happened, but it would have to be addressed sooner or later. Until then¡­ I decided the best thing I could do was not add any more fuel to the fire. I¡¯d keep my mouth shut, for the time being.


    We had more pressing concerns, anyway.


    Only after we had returned to the ash-colored halls of the arena proper did it strike me that we still had no plan. Alverd turned to Alicia. ¡°Is there anything we can do at this point?¡± His voice sounded stiff.


    Alicia shook her head. ¡°The only thing I can think of is to warn my siblings directly. They should still be getting ready, putting on their armor and such. If we hurry, we could probably catch them before the Tournament actually begins. But it¡¯s a long jog up to the barracks on the sixth floor, and the halls are likely to be crawling with Marcus¡¯s toadies by now.¡± The two fell back into silence.


    I took stock of the situation. The only way to get to the barracks where the rest of Alicia¡¯s siblings were was to climb five stories, and we were rapidly running out of time. As if to punctuate that, I heard a dragon screech from the direction we had come; it had finished its impromptu meal.


    As I turned, inspiration struck. Perhaps the most idiotic idea I had ever come up with popped into my head. ¡°Hey.¡± I sheepishly pointed in the direction of the kennel, intentionally avoiding Alverd¡¯s gaze. ¡°I have an idea.¡±

 Chapter 16: A Plan Up in Smoke

    A few minutes later, we were riding a particularly feisty dragon through the air outside the arena. Alicia had strapped a large saddle to its back, which was big enough to fit her up front steering and both Alverd and myself in back. The creature allowed Alicia to affix the harness and saddle with no difficulty, and it regarded her the way a puppy would look at a small child. It was already stretching its wings and hopping in place as she pulled the last harness strap tight, ready to fly off with its rider.


    However, Alverd and I were seated behind the dragon¡¯s wings, making our perch precarious and unsafe. Alicia had no problem guiding the dragon we¡¯d stolen from the kennel through the air currents, but I was too busy regretting my poor life choices to congratulate her on her stellar technique. We hurtled through the sky outside the arena, heading for the barracks on the sixth floor.


    She peered over her shoulder. ¡°There¡¯s a small landing outside the barracks on the outside. If we land there, it¡¯ll only be a few feet from where my brothers and sisters will be preparing for battle.¡± Her head swiveled back just in time to navigate a particularly nasty draft. ¡°If Marcus and Eliza are there, we can expose their treachery in front of my family, and we can take them together!¡±


    Alverd and I had no real way to reply, since we were both gritting our teeth and hanging on for dear life. The dragon went for a few, what I thought to be, unnecessary rolls and turns before the landing area came into view. It was a very small outcropping, a balcony capable of holding maybe ten people, but certainly not a dragon. Yet Alicia goaded the dragon into a dive, zooming toward the balcony at breakneck speed. As we began our rapid descent, the choice to commandeer said dragon to bypass the trip up to the top of the Arena bumped itself to the top of my ¡°bad life choices¡± list that was still going on in my head.


    Mere seconds before we would have smacked into the black stone of the wall above the balcony, the dragon leveled out and spread its leathery wings wide, slowing its suicidal descent. The dragon hovered over the balcony, and the three of us dismounted. Free of its riders, the dragon flew off, roaring contentedly. While Alicia and Alverd landed on their feet, I stumbled out of the harness and hit the ground on my side. ¡°Oh ground, I¡¯ll never leave you again. I take back all the terrible things I ever said about you being dirty and hard and bad for my back,¡± I whimpered.


    Alicia rolled her eyes and grabbed hold of my robe¡¯s collar, yanking me to my feet. ¡°Stop being dramatic, Kuro. You act like you¡¯ve never flown before.¡± I wriggled out of her grip and stuck my tongue out at her. ¡°I have, and every time I¡¯ve done it since I¡¯ve only confirmed that I hate doing it.¡± And without any further argument, I rushed through the doors into the barracks beyond.


    Alicia led us to a section that went from the armory to the arena where the siblings would present themselves to the crowd before mounting their dragons and doing combat. A balcony with just enough room for the siblings to stand side by side upon small pedestals was visible at the corridor¡¯s end. We hurried past confused guards and flabbergasted servants towards the bright light at the end of the corridor. We could see a few of her siblings dressed in full regalia for battle. She called out to them.


    Two girls, whom I recognized as Leila and Deanna, turned around at the sound of their sister¡¯s voice. They had exchanged the gaudy and daring dresses they had worn during the ball with form-fitting leather armor similar to Alicia¡¯s. Leather plates covered their shoulders and hips, and they wore golden breastplates that shone brilliantly with polish, the crimson emblem of two intertwined dragons emblazoned on the front. The two princesses had yet to don their decorated helms, and their long blonde hair swayed in the draft from the opening at the end of the hall.


    Leila, the older one, spoke first. Her voice mirrored the confusion in her facial expression. ¡°Alicia? How did you get here? We were told you had perished in the Nest. How could you possibly be still alive?¡±


    Alicia waved away her elder sister¡¯s concern. ¡°There¡¯s no time. Who told you I was dead? Was it Marcus? Where is he now?¡± I had to admire her drive. She was really taking command of the situation despite her smaller stature.


    Leila was obviously put off by Alicia¡¯s tone. ¡°Alicia¡­ what¡¯s wrong-¡±  Deanna and Leila exchanged glances. Stamping her foot, Alicia cut her off.


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°Our brother is to blame for everything. He was the one who killed Father and who knows how many others! Where is Marcus now? Or Eliza? Do you know where she is?¡±


    Deanna and Leila exchanged glances. Then they looked at Alicia with disbelief. ¡°What are you talking about? Father isn¡¯t dead. He¡¯s seated in his private box down in the arena. See for yourself.¡± Deanna moved aside to gesture to the open door that led to the arena.


    We shielded our eyes against the wind, and looked down at row upon row of people on their feet cheering. We looked several floors down and saw the king¡¯s private viewing box, a resplendent affair decorated with banners and a throne. From where we were, we could just make out a figure on the throne waving his hand, as if to return the sentiment of his subjects.


    That¡¯s impossible, I thought. The real King is busy being very much dead in the throne room of the Castle of Brimstone. Who is this impostor? It mattered little. We were running out of time. Soon, the siblings would mount their dragons and do battle in the air above the arena. If they did so and the dragons went feral, they would be either torn apart by the wild beasts or thrown from their saddles to plummet to their deaths. Either way, it wouldn¡¯t be pretty.


    A fanfare sounded. With it, the crowd cheered loudly. Deanna and Leila looked out toward the crowd and put on their golden helms. Deanna turned to Alicia. ¡°Whatever you need to say, spit it out. If this is some trick to gain the upper hand, I warn you, we will not fall for such a thing.¡±


    Alicia blurted out the truth. ¡°Marcus killed Father. He tried to kill Edgar years ago in violation of our traditions and forced him into exile. Marcus also poisoned your dragons with some vile concoction that makes them go wild. He¡¯s already fed it to all of your dragons though the water system, and he¡¯s waiting for the opportune moment to profit from the ensuing chaos. Eliza is helping him in exchange for a position of power after his coup. They plan to use this mage as a scapegoat to justify reigniting open war against Algrustos.¡± She pointed at me, and I nodded as emphatically as I could.


    Her sisters shared a look between each other again. They seemed to be considering Alicia¡¯s words, weighing their truth against that of their brother. Finally, after much deliberation, they lowered their heads.


    ¡°Since Marcus lied about your death, there¡¯s a good chance everything you¡¯re saying is true. And if he was indeed holding you prisoner to blame at a later date after our¡­ untimely deaths, then what you say makes a fair deal of sense. Very well. You have our attention. Sister, go tell the others. See if we can find Marcus and ascertain the truth,¡± Leila said. Deanna hurried away down a small side passage toward where her other siblings were waiting.


    The large metal doors leading down to the dragon pens loomed ominously, and I could see several figures standing in front of them. Every moment we wasted out here talking was another moment closer to the dragons going feral, and we were already a step behind Marcus¡¯ timetable. Deanna made her way over to the loitering figures, and began conversing with them. Marcus was nowhere to be seen. I would have recognized his armor and the smug look of satisfaction on his face otherwise.


    I did, however, see Eliza among the royals out on the balcony. It took every ounce of my willpower to not conjure a blast of air and throw her over the side. Right now she was our best bet at exposing Marcus, so we needed her alive, sadly. As Deanna explained things to Deacon and Shannon, Eliza¡¯s expression darkened. Deacon and Shannon turned to face Eliza and started yelling at her, but it was impossible for me to determine what was being said. I watched Eliza¡¯s hand slide down her hip to the rapier at her side. She took a step back, most likely to give herself space to react, but then a piercing cry shook the air.


    The reinforced metal door that led from the stable into the open air of the Arena creaked as some massive impact slammed into it from the inside. The impacts increased, and the door began to buckle under the weight of the blows. I ran out onto the balcony and looked at the door that separated the kennel from the arena. This door wasn¡¯t as reinforced as the interior door leading to the barracks and it certainly wasn¡¯t designed to be fortified from the inside. Something big smashed against the door once, twice, three times. Finally, with a groan, the door was wrenched off its hinges, and all hell broke loose.


    A horde of dragons, each one easily taller than four or five men and packing wingspans that were probably that length across, burst through the opening, clawing, screaming, and breathing fire. Each dragon, foaming at the mouth, tore at the others with reckless abandon, as wild as the berserker rage I had seen in Alicia.


    I turned to Alverd, whose mouth had fallen open. Alicia had nothing better to offer and followed suit. All of us, even Alicia¡¯s siblings, stood transfixed as everything went straight to hell in the space of seconds. As the dragons flew into the sky above the Arena, screeching like banshees, I finally managed to muster up something to say.


    ¡°So¡­ anybody got a Plan B?¡±

 Chpater 17: I Need a Hero

    I¡¯d seen firsthand the scale of destruction of which dragons were capable of five years ago when Marevar was attacked. But after looking at the dragons fighting in the arena¡¯s airspace, reduced to nothing but raw animal instinct and the need to tear their prey asunder, I was filled with a sense of awe and dread in equal measure. Each dragon was a killing machine, their claws and teeth tearing at their foes, and breathing fire that could melt armor like candle wax.


    The people scattered like ants beneath them; many were not fortunate enough. Some were trampled by the dragons as they were smashed into the scenery, others were set ablaze by errant blasts of fire. One dragon had broken off from the rest, and, bloodied and bruised, turned its wrath on the civilians, believing them to be easier targets.


    If this was what dragons were capable of unchecked, it was no wonder Ishmar had the most powerful military in the world. A single dragon was worth at least thirty men. It was an engine of destruction that rivaled magic itself. I watched in a stupor as the dragons continued their slaughter, only to be snapped out of it by Alicia who grabbed and shook me. When I turned to face her, she looked to be on the verge of tears.


    ¡°Please.¡± That was the only word that fell from her quivering lips. She ran to Alverd and did the same. Her gaze met Alverd¡¯s, and his face hardened. He drew his sword, and ran down to where Deanna and the rest of the royal family were still standing, dumbstruck. He pushed past them, even Eliza, and disappeared into the dragon kennel beyond. But still I stood, rooted to the spot, staring at the dragons still screeching below me.


    Only then did I notice something unusual. I focused my eyes and counted. There were six dragons flying around in the chaos below. One had already fallen to the arena¡¯s floor, its gut torn in countless places by the cruel claws of the other dragons. Yet another was now terrorizing the peasantry fleeing the third floor, and three were having an airborne wrestling match while spewing fire in random directions. The final dragon was limping away from the body of the dead dragon, its wings a bloody mess.


    Six. Six dragons before me. Only six members of the royal family still had dragons.


    Deanna. Eliza. Shannon. Deacon. Leila. And Marcus.


    What could Marcus possibly gain from poisoning his own dragon? According to his insane drivel, he planned to make war on the entire bloody world after he became king, so what good would it do him to sacrifice his most powerful tool in order to do so?


    Then it hit me. Marcus was like a sinister chess-master. The one thing that struck me most about him was that he differed from all the villains in all the books I had ever read. He was completely willing to swallow his own pride in order to make us think he was a spoiled, empty-headed prince with no knowledge of battle or politics. No matter what indignity he would suffer, if it furthered his goals, nothing was off limits for him. He was already thinking three steps down the road while his opponent was dealing with the here and now.


    And now he had sacrificed his queen to take the king.


    The people of Ishmar would see him as a victim. That, in spite of losing what was a symbol of strength, he would rise above it and emerge a stronger, dedicated leader. They would see him as a man who would succeed in spite of the hardship and tragedy of losing his staunchest ally to his traitorous half-sister. The sheer scope, the magnitude of his scheming, finally hit me. It was a fiendishly brilliant plan. Hundreds, no, thousands, of patriotic young men and women would flock to join his armies. They would rally under his banner and declare war on his enemies. Like a plague, they would sweep over the land, consuming everything in their way. I tried to imagine the carnage that would be unleashed if the dragon riders were loosed upon the unsuspecting nations of this world like they were back in Marevar. There would be no war, only slaughter. Not even magic would be able to stop such an advance. What man or mage could stop an army of dragons? Where one dragon would be struck down, it would take dozens of men with it. Even then, ten dragons would replace it. A never-ending tide of fire and ash, raining down upon every country until only one remained. It didn¡¯t take a genius to see what bleak future would come to pass.


    It was a good plan. But it didn¡¯t take into account a few things.


    Alverd, for example. Or me.


    I squinted through the chaos at the King¡¯s private box to see he was no longer present; apparently the imposter had done his job and Marcus¡¯s plan was in motion. I was about to inform Alicia of this development when another group of dragons burst from the kennel.


    Riding one of the dragons was the unmistakable golden armor of an Ishmarian prince, wielding a lance with a long silver point. Marcus had taken a spare dragon and was winging his way up to where I stood, but I was more transfixed and horrified by what the dragon held in one of its scaly claws. I saw Alverd¡¯s form struggling against the dragon¡¯s clutches. Marcus steered the dragon up to the parapet where we stood, and landed brusquely, slamming Alverd to the ground. I heard a groan from my friend, but from where I stood he looked more or less intact. Thank the gods.


    Almost as an afterthought, the dragon swept its claw across the ground and threw Alverd toward us. He landed in a clattering heap in front of me and I ran to him. His armor had been heavily dented where the dragon¡¯s claws had dug in for a better grip, and long scratches ran across the already scarred plate. Alverd was gasping for breath, but he still had a death grip on his sword. Alicia and I assisted him in finding his feet.


    Alverd weakly leveled his steel sword in front of him, waving it in Marcus¡¯s direction. The prince looked down at us from where he was perched with the look of a predator spreading across his face. Like a shark, he bared his teeth at us, as if he were about to tear us apart himself. He urged the dragon forward. Up close, I could see that it was easily two times taller than me, all muscle and scale, and fire-breathing calamity given form. I reflexively took a step back, but at such close range, there was no escape from its fiery breath.


    Alverd, however, wasn¡¯t ready to back down from this fight. He was still trying to keep his sword arm steady.


    ¡°I see you had to bring a dragon into this, you baseborn coward. Why not fight me like a real man? Or are you more comfortable up there, plotting your childish schemes where nobody can hurt you?¡±


    Marcus¡¯s face scrunched up at that remark. ¡°You confuse genius for cowardice. Foolish knights think their notion of honor must apply to everyone. You¡¯ve got guts for someone who¡¯s so obviously out of his league. Or maybe you¡¯re just too stupid to know when to quit? That¡¯s the problem with soldiers. They think they can solve everything with their weapons. Can¡¯t see the bigger picture. ¡± Marcus gave his mount a swift kick to its side.


    The dragon roared and unleashed a jet of scorching heat at us. I reacted without thinking, pushing Alverd aside and swatting aside the blast with my magic-fueled staff. The hastily conjured defensive spell barely held as the giant fireball slammed into the wall behind me, exploding fantastically. As impressive as the feat was, there was no way I¡¯d be able to keep it up for much longer. The dragon shot another fireball at me, which I batted aside, this time feeling the exhaustion in my limbs. Marcus spurred the dragon even closer and the three of us were backed up against the wall at the top of the arena, the only way out was blocked by the dragon.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    I didn¡¯t have the mental fortitude to conjure up another shield. They weren¡¯t my speciality, and to try and erect them on such short notice was not something I could accomplish repeatedly, even if they were being used to block something a lot less intense than dragon fire. I tried to look intimidating, but my shaking knees gave me away. If Marcus struck now, I wouldn¡¯t be able to protect Alverd and Alicia.


    Marcus grinned again. ¡°No one is more qualified than me to lead this country. Not Father, not our siblings, and certainly not you.¡± He pointed at Alicia.  ¡°The first thing I¡¯ll do once I take power is to institute a new policy. Anyone who can¡¯t prove their worth will be left to die. As! It! Should! Be!¡±


    Marcus yanked the reins in his left hand, so that the dragon¡¯s head up was level with our bodies. ¡°I knew you would escape if I dangled your gear in front of your jail cell. I wonder if you had to kill any innocent guards to try and stop my plan. At this point, Alicia, with my plan already in motion, I figured there was no harm in hammering home how pointless any more of your struggling would be. I enjoy the idea of you soiling your hands with the blood of your own countrymen just to stop me.¡±


    That bastard prince shrugged arrogantly. ¡°Of course, there was a risk in letting you roam free, even if it was a minimal one. I could¡¯ve taken Eliza¡¯s advice and had you killed a long time ago. But if I did, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to frame Algrustos for this tragedy.¡± His voice was dripping with mock sadness. ¡°But somehow, you managed things  no mage has ever been capable of. You should be dead several times over.¡±


    I sneered. ¡°What can I say? I just love messing up the plans of megalomaniacal madmen like you. I usually manage that at least twice a week, if I¡¯m lucky.¡±


    Marcus laughed at that. ¡°Well I hope you enjoyed it, because now I am officially at the end of my patience. You know how it goes. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Not that he would know,¡± he jabbed a finger in Alverd¡¯s direction, goading him. Then he looked back at me. ¡°I suppose Eliza should¡¯ve killed you when she had the chance. Her loss.¡±


    Marcus kicked the dragon again; the dragon¡¯s head shot forward and its jaws opened wide, revealing unbelievably sharp teeth. Alverd pushed me aside at the last second. Before I hit the ground, I heard the sound of metal giving way. I knew right then that Alverd was dead. The dragon¡¯s fangs had pierced his armor. I raised my head hesitantly. I wasn¡¯t ready to confront the death of my friend.


    However, Alverd was still standing. The metallic sound had been his steel sword being snapped like a twig between the dragon¡¯s teeth. Alverd stared at his once trustworthy sword, a memory of everything he had overcome. I saw the loss in his face as he watched the steadfast symbol of his lifelong dedication to chivalry become useless. The broken blade fell from his hand and clattered to the ground. Marcus sneered from atop his mount, seeing victory in my friend¡¯s moment of anguish.


    ¡°Once a knight, always a knight. Like your precious sword your ideology will inevitably fail you. No one will miss your kind once you¡¯re gone.¡± He leveled his lance, pointing it forward at Alverd like a jouster. ¡°And Alicia! Still fighting even though you have no hope! Now you and your little pet knight can die together! You have no idea how pleased that makes me!¡±


    I saw Alicia go and stand behind Alverd, bracing him as he fought to keep his footing. The princess looked smaller than ever before, despite radiating an aura of pure defiance.


    Damn it! If this is how I was going to die, then I sure as hell aren¡¯t going to die quietly. I went to stand beside my friend. I stared Marcus in the face, and let loose the little theory I¡¯d left stewing in the back of my mind. No point in holding it back now, anyway.


    ¡°It¡¯s fitting that you kill Alicia yourself, huh? I guess that¡¯s fair, considering that the King favored her over you, you heartless zealot.¡±


    Marcus¡¯s face contorted in pure rage. I grinned smugly. I knew it. I had not only hit a nerve, but I¡¯d done so with a salt-tipped harpoon. I continued, egged on by my success. ¡°I guess the King realized that a man like you would only lead Ishmar to ruin, and it¡¯s not hard to see why. It¡¯s true that you¡¯re clever. I mean, you had an almost airtight plan. But the one thing you couldn¡¯t hide was your ambition. I bet your father knew you would destroy Ishmar with your blind greed. Couple that with the fact that your sister is a better choice thanks to her selfless love for her people, and it¡¯s fairly obvious that the King wanted her to assume the throne.¡±


    Emboldened by my words, I stepped forward. ¡°Why else would the King allow Alicia to travel to the Nest with such a heavy escort? Why else would he give her the chance to regain a dragon to compete in the Tournament, despite such low odds of success? Why else would he allow her to train as a berserker before the required age? Because he wanted her to succeed. He just didn¡¯t count on the fact that you would kill anyone in your way to make your plans come to fruition.¡± I smiled at Marcus accusingly, daring him to refute me.


    ¡°But it didn¡¯t stop there. You¡¯re so sick and twisted that you had to go further than that. You had to tarnish the thing your father loved most about Alicia: her pure soul. You forced her to kill Edgar to save him from what you would do to him. You forced her to take her own brother¡¯s life to spare him, because you knew it would hurt your father even more to know that your sister had become just like you. Isn¡¯t that right, Marcus?¡±


    Alicia¡¯s voice broke behind me. ¡°I¡¯m ashamed to call you my brother. What Kuro is saying sounds too insane to be true, but somehow I still believe it. You¡¯re sick, Marcus, and I¡¯ll never forgive you as long as I live for what you¡¯ve done to us all.¡±


    I went back to heckling Marcus. ¡°See? Even Alicia can¡¯t condone your crimes, and she, more than anyone, wants to see the good in you. But I guess living with your daddy issues for as long as you have finally cracked the shell off the nut. So how does it feel, First Prince? How does it feel to have everyone know that your father was going to cheat you out of your so-called ¡®birthright¡¯?¡±


    He glared at me with absolute hatred, then burst into a fit of hysterical laughter. He gave me a look that suggested that he had finally completely gone around the bend. ¡°You mages think you¡¯re so smart? Do you feel brave now, spellslinger? My father is dead. My siblings will soon be dead. You¡¯ll be dead. What difference does it make? I¡¯ve won. Do you hear me?! I WON!¡±


    With a brutal kick to his dragon, Marcus lunged forward with inhuman speed. The dragon hurtled forward, jaws agape, with Marcus ready to thrust forward with his spear. I waited for the moment when either his lance would run me through or when his dragon¡¯s teeth would clamp down on me. I closed my eyes and threw up my arms, not willing to look as death swooped down upon me.If I was going to die, I sure as hell wasn¡¯t going to watch, dammit. Instead, I heard only the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath accompanied by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.


    I opened my eyes.


    Standing before me was Alverd, his cape billowing impressively in the stinging wind. In his hand was the Sword of Evros shining brilliantly in the sunlight, stained in dark red blood. He had thrown aside the golden shield he had picked up in the vault to wield Evros with both hands. The head of Marcus¡¯s dragon lay on the ground behind me, bleeding copiously; its jaws flopping open and closed like a fish out of water. The corpse of the dragon fell to the ground, throwing Marcus off, who landed in a heap. The corpse continued to twitch and shudder, its wings beating furiously.


    Marcus emerged from his dying dragon, slowly regained his balance, and stared in uncomprehending awe at the glistening blade in Alverd¡¯s hand. I could hear Alicia gasp in relief, maybe because she was impressed, from behind me, and I felt a rising courage as Alverd pointed Evros¡¯ bloodied blade at Marcus. Even from where I was standing, I could feel the strength and conviction behind his stance.


    For once in my life, I wasn¡¯t jealous. I was so incredibly enamored with this blazing embodiment of justice, this righteous avatar of retribution, that it simply took my breath away. I watched as Alverd stepped forth out of the shade of the arena walls and further into the sunlight. As he did so, he spoke the only words that needed to be said, in true heroic fashion.


    ¡°Not while I¡¯m still standing.¡±

 Chapter 18: ...And Into the Fire

    It¡¯s always a very delicious moment when the bad guy realizes how much trouble he¡¯s in.


    Marcus¡¯s mouth dropped open and attempted to move, as if he were trying to form words.  The spear fell from his hand, completely forgotten in his bafflement. He tried to edge back from Alverd, who only stepped forward and matched his pace. The Sword of Evros gleamed sinisterly in the light, as if it were itself aware of the crimes committed by the First Prince and just as eager as Alverd to avenge them. Marcus began to stammer as things finally began to dawn on him.


    ¡°How¡­ how did you get that? It should be locked in the vault¡­ even I don¡¯t know where the key to the vault was kept¡­ h-how did you get your hands on our sacred sword?¡± He practically spat out that last part, still trying to deny the reality in front of him. Alicia placed her hands on her hips, condescension evident in her voice.


    ¡°Father always told me that he kept the key to the vault on his person,¡± Alicia said. ¡°He told me that if he was ever to die before his time, to take the key and never let any of my siblings know. He told me that when I was thirteen years old. I never knew the significance of it until now. Our father never fully trusted our siblings, and he especially didn¡¯t trust you, Marcus.¡±


    Alicia fished the key from her pocket. The small gold trinket had taken on a new significance in light of recent events, and she gazed at it with a newfound reverence. ¡°I think all along, Father realized that if tradition was upheld, it would perpetuate a cycle that would lead Ishmar to ruin. For generations reaching back farther than we can remember, Ishmar has held the Tournament. Each time, brothers and sisters fight each other for the right to rule our land. But each time, we grow a little weaker.¡±


    She looked past the key, focusing on where Marcus now lay on the ground. ¡°Because each time a new ruler takes the throne, he or she becomes more and more tainted by the legacy that comes with it. Only the ruthless take power in our country, and without compassion or understanding, we¡¯ll destroy ourselves from within. We will fall to our own lust for power long before the mage lords of Algrustos and their armies cross our border and besiege the Castle of Brimstone.¡±


    Alicia raised the key, lifting the small golden chain over her head. She fastened the key around her neck, and it settled over the leather armor covering her chest. ¡°Father knew that I was his best chance to break the cycle. To forge new traditions. To lead our people to a better future. In this, you and I are the same, Marcus. We both want to do away with the traditions that were stifling Ishmar¡¯s growth.¡± As she spoke, Alicia hefted her maul, bearing it with a new resolve that shone in her eyes. ¡°But the similarities end there, Marcus. You want power only for yourself. Your path would drag us to ruin, and I won¡¯t let you doom what¡¯s left of our home.¡±


    Alicia¡¯s grip on her maul tightened. When she looked up, I noticed a familiar expression of anger in her eyes. But under that anger was more than just battle rage. There was a hunger for justice that gave righteous fire to her fury. Her eyes burned like an avenging archangel, and no longer did she seem small. She moved with purpose, each step accentuated by it, and she would not yield to any who stood in the way of her goal.


    Marcus scrambled to his feet, incredulous. ¡°Power? Power! You know absolutely nothing about power. I have power, sister! I¡¯ve had power since the day I was born! I am the one who made all of this happen, and I will not surrender it to some latecomer simply because our delusional father decided to go soft in his waning years! It does not matter if you wield Evros! It wouldn¡¯t matter if you had a legion of mages to back you up! This kingdom is mine! MINE!¡± Marcus yanked his sword from its scabbard and screamed. He made to charge, but stopped abruptly. His face turned from rage to confusion, then to fear. I was ready to taunt him when I realized that he wasn¡¯t looking at me, but past me. Before I could look over my shoulder, Alicia brusquely grabbed my collar and yanked me aside.


    I guess berserking gave the user heightened senses, because an arrow whizzed through the air. I hadn¡¯t been able to detect it, because of the howling wind at our height. Alicia barely had enough time to pull me from harm¡¯s way before the shaft shot through the space where my head had been. Had I still been there even a second more, I would have been stuck like a prize boar on a hunt. As I attempted to overcome a fit of shivers, she whirled around to face her attacker.


    Deanna. She was carrying a bow, and she neatly fitted another arrow into place in one smooth motion, never taking her eyes off her half-sister. Behind her, I could see Deacon and Leila, who were flanking Eliza. Shannon was skulking near the back, a mace in her hand. Deanna moved closer, her hands steady, the bow shifting targets from Alicia to me. As the group moved closer, I could see that both Deacon and Leila were restraining Eliza. Deacon also had Eli¡¯s rapier hanging from his belt. She was trying to struggle, but to no avail. As she approached, Deanna spoke.


    ¡°We heard everything. The Marevarian knight accused Marcus in the stable. Our distinguished elder brother ran for his life. He and the knight escaped on a dragon. When we attempted to confront our darling sister Eliza, she pulled her sword on us.¡± She turned to glower at Eliza. ¡°She talked well enough after we disarmed her. And now, here you all are, plotting in our absence.¡± The remaining siblings moved up, fanning out, attempting to flank Alicia and me. I waved my staff at Deacon and Leila, who shirked away.


    ¡°It¡¯s obvious that something must be done about this state of affairs, but I¡¯m not the type to throw false accusations without proof to back them up. I don¡¯t know how deep this plot goes, and I have no idea how many of you are in on it, which is why you¡¯re going to throw down your weapons until we get this all sorted out.¡± She nodded her head at her sister. ¡°You too, Alicia.¡±


    Alicia protested. ¡°What? Why should I? I¡¯m the one who came to you to warn you about Marcus¡¯ scheme! You can¡¯t possibly believe that I would throw my lot in with Marcus, would you? I only wanted to help¡­¡± I could hear the sting of betrayal in her voice. The weight of so many back-stabbings were starting to wear on her. Deanna scoffed as she pointed her bow at Alicia.


    ¡°This is exactly what I¡¯m talking about. You were content to live in your insipid little bubble your entire life. You knew someday that you¡¯d have to kill us or be killed,  and now that the moment is upon us; this very well could be a ploy of yours so you can triumph without spilling our blood? You sicken me, Alicia. I have no reason to acknowledge you. So last chance. Put down your weapon or this gets ugly.¡±


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I couldn¡¯t hold it in anymore. ¡°So what happens then? Are we supposed to trust that you¡¯re going to figure this all out? Why should I trust you lot, especially when you were the first to threaten us?¡± I flicked my eyes towards Deacon and Leila, who were still restraining Eliza. ¡°You already have Eliza. Make her talk right now. And then you¡¯ll see that there¡¯s no need for any of this posturing.¡±


    I noticed Shannon circling around to my left, her mace and gauntlet ready to go. Every second we wasted on this pointless exchange was giving them more time to put us in a bad spot. I felt cold sweat on my neck break out when I figured it out: they had no intention of letting us walk from this. They were just as angry about my little reveal as Marcus. ¡°But I guess that doesn¡¯t matter, huh? I guess your father was right about the lot of you after all. Fancy that.¡±


    Deanna turned her bow on me again, and I became instantly mindful of the arrow pointed at my head.


    ¡°Don¡¯t talk to us about worthiness, mage. Why should you have the right to use magic, and not us? We earned our strength. You had yours handed to you by Fate. But our father considers us unworthy?¡± Her grip began to shake, and the arrow twitched.


    Deacon spoke up from behind her. ¡°Our father was the one who wanted us to kill, fight, and slaughter those who were weaker than us. He betrayed us all!¡± I could hear his fist grinding his dragon tooth metal gauntlet, and a vein appeared on his forehead.


    From beside him, Shannon pointed her mace at me. ¡°We all proved our worth, while Alicia was still a child, unworthy of her proud heritage! We are Ishmarian! We did only what was expected of us!¡±


    The four of them were moving now, with Deacon dragging the still-dazed Eliza along the ground. I knew what they were up to. They were trying to flank us, box us into a small area so they could gain a combat advantage. Thankfully, Alverd seemed to be aware of this, as he spaced himself away from me, trying to turn the situation into a face-off. But even if he could do it, we were still outnumbered.


    Leila was the last to speak, and she chuckled. ¡°But all this? It stays here. We of Ishmar speak with actions, not words. Everything Alicia has done flies in the face of our beliefs. As sweet as her words are, that¡¯s all they are to our people. Words.¡± She pointed at me, with a familiar, haughty tone. ¡°The fact that you are a mage is proof enough that you cannot be trusted. For my sister to protect you and the knight with the Rite of Reconciliation is evidence enough of her betrayal. Any true Ishmarian would have had your heads on pikes.¡±


    Alverd grimaced as his eyes followed the siblings¡¯ slow, deliberate attempts to fence us in. ¡°Are your people truly so gullible? Do you really think you can pull the wool over their eyes after what happened today? That you brazenly killed your kin in clear violation of your most ancient laws?¡±


    Shannon scoffed. ¡°The people will believe whatever their new king or queen says. And besides, as the mage said, we have Eliza here. With enough torture she¡¯ll sing like a bird about how she and Marcus orchestrated this whole fiasco with Alicia¡¯s help. The truth of the matter is, the fewer rivals we have, the easier it will be to take the throne.¡± As if agreeing with their sister, Deacon, Leila, and Shannon all grinned sinisterly.


    So that was what it boiled down to. At the end of the day, all these fools saw was an opportunity to eliminate some of the competition. They had no love or respect for each other, even as blood related siblings. I was filled with an intense loathing. People like them made me glad I was an only child.


    In typical Ishmarian fashion, the siblings were the ones to get the fight started.


    Deacon roughly pushed Eliza to the ground, slamming her face against the floor. He then proceeded to draw a humongous sword from the scabbard on his back. It was too long to be a normal sword; my guess was that it was a claymore or something. He grunted brutishly and stepped on Eliza¡¯s back for good measure as he stepped forth. He gripped the claymore with both hands and assumed a defensive posture about two feet in front of Deanna, which made him closer to me but no more or less of a threat.


    Leila unsheathed a small hatchet from some holster on her leg, and a short sword from a similar holster on her opposite leg. She twirled them twice, making a good deal of ceremony out of her flourishes, probably in some vain attempt to intimidate me. Nevertheless, if she had opted for such light weaponry, she must have done so in order to emphasize speed over power, so I would have to keep a wary eye on her. She started pacing next to Deanna, her weapons continuing to casually spin in her hands.


    Shannon moved from the back and held her mace behind her, her other arm held forward in some kind of warding gesture. She had a crude, angled deflection plate built into the gauntlet on her left arm; it was too light to be made for dealing with physical weaponry. It must have been made to deflect magic spells like fireballs or lightning bolts, which carried too much force to stop directly. I guess Ishmar had been at war long enough to know that the best way to fight such magic was to avoid its true power by any means necessary. I immediately bumped Shannon to the top of my ¡°to incapacitate¡± list.


    Finally, that left Deanna. Aside from the absurdly tall bow she was currently wielding, she had a simple sword in a scabbard at her side. I didn¡¯t see any other weaponry, but if she planned to back up her siblings with that bow¡­that would be problematic. The last thing I needed was for her to stick me like a pincushion while I was dealing with her kin. I¡¯d need some kind of shock-and-awe tactic to get that bow out of her hands.


    Conflict was written all over Alicia¡¯s face. What Deanna had said was true; it was beyond naive to think that the siblings would have some strong relationship when they¡¯d been told since birth that one day, they¡¯d have to kill each other in order to take the throne. But the way Alicia looked, she seemed as though something had died in her, like she had given up. Her hands were shaking, and her lips were quivering.


    But then her shaking ceased. She bent her knees and took hold of her maul¡¯s grip with both hands. ¡°I tried so hard to care about you all, even when you treated me like the useless runt of the litter. But I see now that you¡¯ll never change. You¡¯ll always be warmongers. You¡¯ll always be concerned with glory in battle instead of leading your people. And that¡¯s why, as a princess of Ishmar, it¡¯s my responsibility to serve my country the only way I know how¡­ by stopping the entire lot of you.¡±


    I had to admit, Alicia¡¯s resolve was inspiring. She was finally displaying qualities worthy of a princess. Beneath that extremely rough and unpolished exterior was a heart of gold. I thought back on my dilemma, deciding whether to kill her siblings or not. I decided to fulfill the oath I¡¯d made. I owed it to this girl. She had finally made her decision, and I was proud to back her. I stood at Alicia¡¯s side as her siblings prowled forward.


    I sized up the four siblings as they crept towards us. Alicia called out over her shoulder to Alverd. ¡°I have to do this for myself. Make sure Marcus is occupied. Kuro, you¡¯re with me. If my siblings will not see reason, then we¡¯ll just have to beat it into them.¡± Alverd nodded, not even turning to face me.


    I tried to clear my mind of my anguish and focus it into my magic. I reached within, to the heat generated within my own body, and conjured a ball of fire in my hand, its flame churning in the air, awaiting my desire to throw it at someone¡¯s deserving head. The four siblings shrank away in reaction to this, andeven Deanna¡¯s steady hands faltered. I took some confidence in that, and put on a ghoulish smile.


    ¡°So¡­how many of you were taught not to play with fire?¡±

 Chapter 19: Sibling Rivalry

    Magic, as any practitioner will tell you, is about misdirection. So when the ball of fire took shape above my hand, I was really casting a modified shielding spell. So when Deanna let loose the arrow, it passed through a barrier made of pure fire in front of me, melting the arrow instantly. It did no damage whatsoever and failed to scare me in the slightest. As if on cue, the rest of the siblings charged forward, weapons raised and screaming battle cries. Alicia didn¡¯t reply; she simply blurred forward and swung her mighty maul. There was a deadly concentration in her movement, as though she were restraining her berserker fury in order to maintain focus on her objective. She gave no battle cry as she charged towards her siblings. She was going to stop them at all costs. Before Deanna could fit another arrow, Alicia was right in front of her, delivering a two-handed swing straight into her gut.


    Her bow was knocked from her hands and she fell back, but Deacon charged forward, his sword already sweeping in a horizontal cut aimed at Alicia¡¯s head. She ducked the blow and countered with a mean left cross, her fist slamming into Deacon¡¯s helm and sending it flying from his head. He staggered back, only to have Shannon swoop in with her mace.


    With a whispered word I sent a blast of air forward at Shannon. It slammed into her and sent her sprawling through the air, the mace falling from her hands. The air blast was the perfect choice since I knew that Shannon wouldn¡¯t be able to redirect it off her gauntlet shield, since the area of effect was simply too large. Shannon flew for a few feet, and landed in a heap not too far from where Eliza was still face-down on the ground. The spell itself would do no damage, but at this point the only objective I had was to prevent Alicia from being overwhelmed. Berserker or not, one small girl against four heavily armed and armored opponents was an uphill battle.


    Luckily, mages are force multipliers. Any mage worth his salt is as good as ten swordsmen. I may still be an apprentice, but I¡¯m hardly some neophyte. A mere second after releasing the air blast, I was already preparing a follow up lightning blast at Leila, who was about to attack while Alicia recovered from punching Deacon. Shouting, I launched the bolt at Leila. It struck her in the left shoulder, burning off the leather plate, and flooring her like she had been clotheslined. The blast also caused her to lose her grip on her shortsword; it went spiraling away, barely missing Shannon as she tried to regain her footing.


    Everything I was doing was a stall tactic, however. In such a frenzied battle, I didn¡¯t have time to use anything other than the most basic of elemancy, simple attack spells that even novices could use.  If the siblings realized they could divide-and-conquer, Alicia and I were lost. If I tried anything fancy, they¡¯d overpower Alicia. If she tried to fall back and protect me, we¡¯d be surrounded. So long as I kept the siblings at bay, hopefully they wouldn¡¯t have time to figure out how precarious our situation truly was.


    But even basic elemancy wasn¡¯t something I could throw out forever. Eventually I¡¯d feel the fatigue from the constant barrage of magic. Either my reaction speed would slow down or I¡¯d exhaust myself, and then Alicia would have no cover. My mind raced furiously for a solution as the siblings geared up for another round.


    Meanwhile, Deanna had clambered to her feet and drawn the shortsword from her hip. She ran forward, swinging. Alicia spun effortlessly and brought her maul to bear, jamming the bottom of the weapon¡¯s haft into Deanna¡¯s stomach. She buckled, and Alicia dealt her a follow-up with a nasty uppercut that slammed straight into her face, drawing blood from a broken nose. Deanna stumbled back, dazed, as Alicia stepped back to establish a ready stance, both hands gripping the handle of her maul tightly.


    I looked over my shoulder to see how Alverd was faring. He and Marcus were locked in their duel. The other siblings must not have considered him or Alverd much of a threat, and had decided to just overwhelm me with superior numbers out of fear of my magic. Alverd clearly had the upper hand. With every swing Alverd pushed Marcus back. Forced to be on the defensive, Marcus was trying desperately to change the flow of the battle with fancy footwork but he had no room to maneuver. He¡¯d be up against the wall soon enough. An inhuman scream caused me to turn my head back to my own battle.


    Deacon had decided that I was a more vulnerable target and came after me with his gigantic sword. I quickly raised my staff to block his overhead slash out of reflex, willing as much energy into a shield as I could. The sheer force of the attack would have carved the staff in two, but instead, I took a page from Alverd¡¯s book; I angled the surface of the shield to deflect rather than stop it outright. I stepped back and let his momentum carry him forward. The big goon lumbered past me, carried by his own momentum, and I swung the staff at the back of his head with both hands. It made a satisfying crunch as it connected at the base of his skull. He crumpled to the ground with a whimper. I only had a moment to laugh at how pathetic it was that a brute like him had just been taken out by a guy who had beanpoles for arms before I warmed up my next spell.


    Shannon lunged at me with her mace, catching me off guard. I had no time to react, as her weapon barreled down on me from above. My staff was at my side, and I didn¡¯t have time to conjure another shield. But before the blow could connect, Alicia rammed into her shoulder first, halting the attack. Shannon rolled with the punch and redirected her mace at Alicia. The mace hit Alicia in the hip, and the princess grunted in pain. Shannon avoided Alicia¡¯s counterattack and backed away.


    The blow actually caused some slight damage. Even if a berserker was able to tune out pain, they could not ignore the toll fractures and broken bones took on the body. I could see Alicia stagger as she tried to put her weight on her leg, redirecting it immediately when she realized that she had been injured.


    Yet, she didn¡¯t cry out in pain. The expression on her face didn¡¯t even falter for a second. She pushed herself back up, and the injury only seemed to magnify her rage. She dealt an earth-shattering blow to the gauntlet shield on Shannon¡¯s arm, and I could have sworn I could hear the bones breaking from the sheer force of the attack. As Shannon cried out in pain, Alicia followed up with a blow straight to her chest with the maul, and it caved in the gilded metal like it was made of tin. Shannon collapsed, gasping for breath.


    Leila had recovered from the lightning bolt enough that she was trying to get her bearings. I twirled my staff and unleashed a blast of frost at her. The vapor in the air hardened into crude needles of ice, which zoomed toward her with frightening speed. Most of the little projectiles broke harmlessly against her armor and her outstretched arm, but many embedded themselves in her unprotected legs, burying themselves deep into her flesh. She screamed in agony, and I didn¡¯t blame her. Blood began leaking from the countless wounds, and she continued to howl in pain.


    I turned to see Alicia trying to fend off Deanna. Somehow, the older dragon tamer had managed to gain the offensive, utilizing her sword¡¯s greater reach to force Alicia into a defensive posture. I reached into my own body, pulled more body heat from within, and conjured another fireball into my hand. As Deanna kicked Alicia¡¯s legs out from under her, I threw the fireball at her. The speeding ball of flame impacted her in the chest, exploding violently. The force of the explosion threw Deanna against a nearby wall, which she impacted against with a sickening thud. However, she was still alive; her body, having suffered little actual damage due to her armor, twitched periodically, and she groaned.


    I took a moment to survey the damage. Shannon, Leila, and Deanna were all out of the fight, either wounded or completely unconscious. I turned around to see if Deacon was still out cold behind me. Standing over me like a towering tarketan, he had his sword raised high in preparation for a killing blow.


    I froze. I stared in horror as death stared back, his dulled dragon tooth sword about to seal my doom. I heard Deacon roar, as he prepared to split my skull with triumphant glee. Alicia blurred into sight in front of me. Adrenaline forced everything into slow motion as she swept past me, her shoulder-length hair flowing behind her and her teeth clenched tight. With one fluid motion, she swept her maul low, smashing into the backs of Deacon¡¯s legs and causing him to somersault backwards. Even as he lurched backward Alicia gave him no reprieve. Still moving like a mighty river, she swung her maul over her head and rained it down on Deacon¡¯s still falling body, right onto his armored torso, fracturing his breastplate in half. Alicia¡¯s attack forced Deacon down to the ground, which he hit like a ton of bricks. If he hadn¡¯t been wearing that armor, she probably would have shattered his rib cage, and I was willing to bet that at least a few of his ribs were cracked, if not broken entirely.


    The wind blew Alicia¡¯s hair across her face, hiding her eyes from me. But when she met my gaze, her eyes had lost the murderous rage within them. They were once again the clear, only-somewhat-innocent eyes of the conceited princess I had come to know over the past week. Her free hand was massaging the spot on her hip where Shannon¡¯s mace had struck her, and it was a fair bet that she had a fracture at the very least. She smiled at me wistfully, and I smiled back.


    ¡° Good to know I¡¯m not the only one who gets bashed by you.¡±


    Alicia laughed. Gods, how long had it been since she last laughed like that? Alverd¡¯s duel in the throne room seemed so far away and long ago. ¡°Yeah, well, in this instance I believe my siblings deserved it more than you. But only for now. The day is still young, you know.¡± We both laughed, though secretly I shuddered at the thought of her maul denting my skull. I didn¡¯t need a reminder of the previous damage I had suffered at her hands.


    I turned my head to see how Alverd was doing. Turns out, in the space of the time it had taken Alicia and I to dispatch her siblings, he had managed to put Marcus on the ropes. The prince was feverishly defending himself from a veritable storm of strikes from the Sword of Evros. Alverd pressed his advantage relentlessly, pushing Marcus back with every swing. The two warriors locked blades, and I could see that Marcus¡¯s sword had deep scars running along the length of the blade, its once flawless edge now sporting jagged bites in it.


    Marcus countered with a dirty kick to the shin. Alverd fell to one knee, unable to maintain the lock, and Marcus crowed in triumph as he reared back his sword for a fatal attack. Alverd parried the blow easily with a counterattack, sweeping Evros up to meet Marcus¡¯s scimitar. He continued the assault with a punch to Marcus¡¯s face, and I could only imagine the prince¡¯s jaw rebounding from such an impact. Marcus tore his dragon helm from his head, throwing it aside angrily, and with a garbled roar he swung his sword with both hands at Alverd¡¯s head.


    He saw through Marcus¡¯s feint and twisted sideways, the scimitar passing within inches of his head. Alverd¡¯s spin turned into a ferocious slash that nearly parted Marcus¡¯s head from his body. The two combatants separated, then returned to battle with a fervor I had never seen in my life. It was as though every soul who had died an unavenged death in Marevar was there to guide Alverd¡¯s hands, each innocent lending him strength beyond counting. As Marcus faltered and grew weaker, Alverd only seemed to grow stronger and stronger, and with every attack, he grew bolder and fiercer.


    At long last, Alverd gave one final slash with the Sword of Evros. Marcus tried to block with his sword, but Evros carved through the battered blade like it was made of wood. Marcus¡¯s scimitar fell away in two parts, and Evros bit into his breastplate like the fangs of the Progenitor herself. Marcus stumbled away, blood falling from his mouth, holding his hand to the jagged cut in his armor. He fell and landed on his ass, and started scuttling away from Alverd as best he could, until his back was up against the railing of the arena section we were in. He looked up at Alverd, with a look of unabashed scorn.


    ¡°I¡­ was so close¡­¡± he mumbled. ¡°Everything would have been perfect if only you had just learned your place, you damn fool. Marevar is gone. Killing me will not change that. You should thank us for ending their pitiful existences the way we did. It was merciful!¡±


    Alverd seized the prince by the cape and pulled him up until their faces were next to each other. ¡°You killed thousands of my countrymen and claim it to be merciful? I see only genocide. Be thankful that it is not my place to determine your fate. Your sister can decide that.¡± With that, Alverd smashed the prince against the railing, pushing him ever closer to the edge.


    Marcus laughed deliriously, blood flying from his mouth. ¡°What? Can¡¯t do it yourself? Just like I said. What kind of man are you? Does my sister have you on such a short leash that you are not free to kill a man you despise so righteously?¡± Marcus spat blood at Alverd¡¯s face in contempt. ¡°Kill me, you worm! I know you want to! What are you waiting for? Coward!¡±


    I saw the anger rising in Alverd¡¯s eyes, overriding his reason. He slammed Marcus against the railing again, and I knew that he was quite close to throwing the prince over. I waited, anticipating it with bated breath.


    Yet, no matter how much I wanted it, the nagging voice in my head would not be silent. The insight Alverd had grasped right away, when we had been placed under Alicia¡¯s command, that I¡¯d been unable to figure out, finally  clicked. The epiphany hit me like a charging stallion.


    I realized now why I had hesitated back in the throne room, when we had been dragged in front of the king and sentenced to serve his youngest daughter; in that moment, we stood before the man who had taken our home, our brethren, and our families from us. I could have killed him, even if it cost me my life, even if it cost Alverd¡¯s, in order to put our ghosts to rest. And yet I didn¡¯t.


    If I had done so, I would have been just like him.


    Perhaps not on the same scale, of course. The king was responsible for the wholesale destruction of an entire kingdom and its people; I would only claim one life. Still, it would make me no better. Earlier, I struck down a dying man incapable of defending himself simply out of malice. The scales may have been imbalanced, but they still judged the same crime. I would go to my death with the same taint on my soul as the one that stained my enemy¡¯s.


    Not once had Alverd shared the true extent of his shame with me in the years since Marevar¡¯s destruction. Not once had he burdened me with the grim reality that he was no better than a deserter, consumed by guilt that he had survived when others more worthy had stood their ground and paid with their lives. Even if we were more alike than I ever realized, I couldn¡¯t let him become¡­ me. If he went and killed Marcus, something would die in him, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life. As his best friend and someone who already knew what it felt like to be a monster, I refused to let him fall so far.


    Alicia limped forward and tapped Alverd on the shoulder. Immediately, the anger in his eyes faded, and he turned to look at her face, which was set like stone. I was too much of a coward to look Alverd in the eye, so I called out from behind Alicia.


    ¡°He¡¯s baiting you, Alverd. Kill him, and you¡¯re no better than he is.¡±


    Alverd¡¯s eyes grew wide. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he were berating himself for forgetting something so simple, something he¡¯d known all along. He let go of Marcus, and Alicia¡¯s hands immediately replaced his. She stared into Marcus¡¯s eyes with the unflinching gaze of a berserker.


    ¡°Marcus. You have committed a grave crime against the country of Ishmar. You sought to kill your siblings, you murdered our father, start war for your own gain, and bring ruin to our people. For this, death is not enough. But it is a start.¡± Alicia raised her maul high, one last time, to end Marcus¡¯s worthless life.


    Suddenly, the sound of metal scraping against metal came from behind us. I turned around and saw a scene right out of my nightmares. Eliza had somehow managed to free herself. A small dagger, probably taken from Deanna or Shannon, lay off to the side, as well as the ropes that had bound her hands. A small tide of blood was cascading down the side of her face, from a gash on her forehead from being slammed against the floor; it accentuated her hideously sadistic smile. In her hand was the rapier that she had taken from Deacon, its point scraping against the ground aimlessly as Eliza stalked toward us with an unsteady gait.


    The smile only got wider as she slowly made her way over to where we were standing.


    ¡°So, this is how it plays out, hm? It¡¯s very convenient, you know? All my enemies in one place at the same time. I can get rid of you all right now!¡± Eliza brought the rapier up to her mouth and licked the blade again. ¡°And you too, Marcus! I believe your time is up before it ever began. How sad¡­¡± She let loose a low, menacing giggle.


    Eliza ran her hand along the length of the blade. ¡°The plan won¡¯t change. I¡¯ll just be the one in charge. And if anyone has any objections¡­¡± She cockedher head to the side and then to the other, and her neck made two audible popping sounds. Oh, gods. Her murderous grin was still plain to see. Somehow her head tilted just so made her look every bit the psychopath I knew her to be.


    She chuckled sinisterly as she sidled over to us, her movements becoming less jerky as she worked off Deacon¡¯s little cheap shot. ¡°I¡¯m still wondering if I should kill you, Marcus. It¡¯s either that, or let you rot in the deepest, darkest dungeon I can find. I wonder which is simpler?¡± She paused, and looked at her rapier. Then she giggled again. ¡°Oh. I guess the answer is pretty obvious, huh?¡±


    Marcus sneered. His voice came out raspy from exerting so much of his energy against Alverd. ¡°Fool. The one thing I¡¯ve learned in dealing with you and the rest of that trash who call themselves dragon tamers is to always have a contingency plan. I may have been sidetracked for a moment, but only for a moment. I always have more pieces to play.¡± Without another word, he pushed Alicia away and hauled himself over the edge.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I ran to the railing and looked over; Marcus fell only a few dozen feet before landing on a dragon flying amidst the chaos. He laughed and flew the dragon away, keeping clear of the feral dragons still flying around in the air. Not that it mattered; up until this point, the dragons flying loose in the Arena had been content to go after each other or the common folk on the bottom seating areas. Even the dragons that had been freed from the kennel by the poisoned royal dragons were just flying free. There was no doubt in my mind that Marcus had planned this stunt in the event of a quick getaway should he need it.


    I bit back a curse; there was no way I could hit him at such range, and we had more pressing concerns anyway. But then, I saw him wheel around, and two more dragons took up flanking positions on him, each with a rider wearing golden armor emblazoned with the Ishmarian numeral for the number one. The three dragons swept long around the arena, giving the still-fighting dragons a wide berth, angling to sweep around. He would likely be long gone in a few minutes. His plan had succeeded, more or less. No need to expose himself to needless risk.


    Eliza snorted.


    ¡°Craven wretch! I¡¯ll get him later. For now, I¡¯ll deal with you.¡± Eliza took up her fencing stance, angling her rapier ahead of her. ¡°Now. Let¡¯s keep it simple. I want the mage. I want him dead. And if I have to go through you to get to that rotten little spellslinger, I will.¡±


    Alverd inched toward Eliza, clutching the Sword of Evros in both hands. He was by no means a master swordsman, but he knew enough to challenge a fencer. Thanks to his height and bulkier, heavier armor, he was much bigger than she was and had more reach, meaning that only her thrusting attacks would pose any real threat to him. Although it was easy money that her rapier was forged with the same dragon tooth metal as all of the other siblings¡¯ weapons, it would still take a significant amount of momentum to pierce his armor.


    On the other hand, Eliza¡¯s lighter armor allowed her a greater degree of flexibility and agility, and doubtless she would use that to her advantage. Even if she had to fight both Alicia and Alverd, her ability to stay on her toes would give her the edge she needed to keep up.


    Alverd stopped moving forward, the Sword of Evros leveled in a standard defensive posture.


    ¡°I will ask once and once only, Eliza. Will you surrender? I make this offer only because I swore an oath to try and take you alive. Refuse, and I will avenge my friend, and all of my brethren, and loved ones. I will take no pleasure in killing you. So throw down your sword, and give up your foolish endeavor.¡±


    She chuckled. ¡°You think I¡¯m just going to give up? Fool! If you want justice for your friend, then take it! I¡¯ve killed dozens like your little whore-of-a friend and I¡¯ll kill hundreds more! If you want to be the next corpse on the pile, then so be it!¡± She snarled and flourished her rapier, spitting out a mouthful of blood.


    In truth, I had hoped it was going to play out this way. Even Alicia could see that Eliza was beyond help. As if reading my mind, Alicia spoke up. ¡°Eliza, if you won¡¯t lay down your sword, then you leave me no choice. I hereby charge you with high treason, and sentence you to death. To be carried out immediately.¡± In response, Eliza laughed. She laughed and laughed, then abruptly stopped, jerked upright, and took a deep breath.


    Then, she had to go and make things far, far worse.


    Eliza exhaled, and closed her eyes. A moment passed, and something¡­ changed. Even with the wind drowning out sound around us, it seemed like I could hear her pulse quickening. In an instant, she exerted some unseen force on a level I had never experienced before. It was similar to what I had seen with Alicia, but then that would mean¡­


    When she opened her eyes, there was no mistaking it. They were narrowed, with the same dull, hollowed look to them that Alicia had when she was berserk. And yet, the sheer aura of power that she gave off dwarfed Alicia¡¯s by a huge margin. She hadn¡¯t been bluffing when she claimed that she¡¯d been training for the past five years. Her control over her berserker trance was almost tangible, like a chain wrapped around a wild animal to keep it secure.


    Alicia had no more patience for any of her sister¡¯s shenanigans. She screamed a battle cry and ran at her sister with both hands gripping her maul, her injury forgotten. Her first swing was a major miss. Eliza sidestepped the blow entirely. I watched as the two sisters engaged in battle, two berserkers locked in a mortal struggle.


    Alverd wasn¡¯t about to let Alicia fight alone. He jumped in with the Sword of Evros. However, Eliza ducked his slash, and countered by trying to thrust into his chest. Alverd twisted his body and just narrowly missed being stabbed, the point of the rapier sailing through empty air. Eliza jumped back to reestablish space, and thrust again.


    He parried with Evros, but he could only deflect the blow to the side, and again only just barely avoided being stabbed, this time in the face. He tried an overhead slash at Eliza, but not only did she step to her left to avoid it, she slapped the blade aside with her hand mid swing. Carried by her slapping motion¡¯s forward momentum, she spun around and back-handed Alverd in the face with the hand guard of her rapier.


    She¡¯s too good.  Being able to see an attack in progress and counter it by smacking it aside with her hand was an entire league above anything Alverd was capable of. He and Alicia were out of their depth. Eliza wasn¡¯t like the rest of the royals. She was a warrior, and she fought to kill.


    As he stumbled, Eliza turned and deflected another blow from Alicia¡¯s maul. The maul¡¯s shape made it much harder to block than a sword or axe, but Eliza not only managed it, she didn¡¯t even seem to register the additional force behind the attack. She fended Alicia off with a few feints and jabs, and the younger princess had no choice but to back off, lacking the reach or speed to deal with such a barrage.


    Again, Alverd went in to attack. He aimed a horizontal strike at Eliza, a much safer prospect given it was harder to dodge or deflect. She had no choice but to parry, and I could see the Sword of Evros dig into the rapier as the two swords clashed. However, this time he took advantage of his larger stature and threw his shoulder forward, unbalancing her and pushing her back. Alicia dashed in with her maul. She tried another haymaker swing, but Eliza was no longer unsteady. With feline grace, she braced her rapier with both hands against Alicia¡¯s attack, and then shifted her weight so that Alverd¡¯s momentum worked against him. He lurched forward and slammed into Alicia, and the two of them tumbled to the ground. Instead of finishing them, Eliza backed off, spinning her rapier in her wrist idly. She was toying with them. The sick, disturbed bitch was toying with the two of them. She knew that she could kill them at any time.


    Alicia recovered first. She scrambled back up and lunged at her, and the Sixth Princess caught the maul with a horizontal block braced with both of her hands. But even Eliza couldn¡¯t fight the laws of nature; the sheer force of the attack pushed her back, and Alicia used the short moment when Eliza was adjusting her footing to force a lock, the two weapons grinding against each other, throwing small sparks as they tried to unbalance the other further. When it became obvious she wasn¡¯t going to overpower Alicia through brute force, Eliza decided to use underhanded tactics. She kicked Alicia in the knee, forcing the Princess to the ground, and pulled her arm back for the finishing blow.


    A vision of Laura emerged in my head while seeing this all play out in front of me. I wouldn¡¯t let it happen again. I screamed and lifted my left hand, and I pulled heat from inside my body again to form a fireball in my hand, launching it at Eliza. The blazing globe slammed into her, but not before she saw it coming and threw her hands up to shield herself from the blow.


    A cloud of smoke engulfed the area, but was quickly swept away by the wind. Eliza had suffered little damage from my hastily cast spell. However, when she opened her eyes, they were no longer hollow; now they were engulfed by a seething animosity the likes of which I had only seen once, five years ago on that fateful night. I knew the fireball would get her attention, but I apparently didn¡¯t think the last bit through; I had just pissed off an already angry berserker. Eliza finally let her discipline slip and gave a scream of fury, then rushed at me with blinding speed.


    However, Alverd intercepted her. With her tunnel vision, Eliza didn¡¯t even see him coming. He cut her off and sliced with the Sword of Evros. The blade cut through the armor plate on Eliza¡¯s hip, drawing blood and severing the plate in half. The blade didn¡¯t go deep enough into her thigh to sever the bone, but it was enough to be a crippling blow. Eliza, however, was driven by so much blind rage, that such a wound didn¡¯t matter to her. She rounded on him and knocked him off his feet with an absolutely unbelievable kick to his stomach. Maybe it was just the sound of metal on metal but I could have sworn I could hear something going crunch when her foot connected.


    Alverd hit the ground hard, wheezing. The disadvantage of wearing such heavy armor was that getting smacked around like that took its toll on the wearer as much as the attacker. He¡¯d lost his grip on the Sword of Evros. It lay just out of reach. He tried to put out his hand for it, his fingers slipping against the pommel, not quite able to grasp it.


    Eliza grinned at me horribly as she stalked over towards Alverd. He was crawling now, trying to grab the Sword of Evros. Eliza lifted up her rapier, gripping the hilt with both hands, angling it to come down straight through Alverd¡¯s back. Alicia screamed out, but she was too far away, and she¡¯d never stop Eliza in time, not with her hip wound slowing her down.


    Gods-be-damned. I had no choice.


    I sprinted as fast as I could, my staff still in my hand. I let it slide down my fingers until I was holding one end with both of my hands, like a club or mace. I ran, but it felt as though I were wading through a swamp, almost like I had in my nightmare. Time slowed, and all I could see was that damn rapier¡¯s point. I might have started screaming a battle cry at some point, but I tuned it all out.


    When I got close, though, I realized too late that it had been a ploy. Eliza swiveled her head back to me, then pivoted her body, and I saw that she planned to ram her rapier back towards me. At this angle, it¡¯d go right through my chest. Eliza¡¯s mouth opened wide, and a triumphant snarl emerged from it.


    Then Alicia¡¯s maul, spinning like a tomahawk, slammed into Eliza¡¯s shoulder. The heavy blow staggered the older dragon tamer, but it didn¡¯t stop her. It merely knocked her aim from a surely fatal blow to something else. I felt a sharp pain shoot through my stomach, like a bolt of lightning, and looked down. Eliza¡¯s rapier was jutting out of my abdomen, six inches of dragon tooth metal being stained red by my blood. I didn¡¯t even have the strength to cry out.


    Eliza yanked her rapier free, and I felt a brand new wave of agony go shooting up my body. This time, I felt myself scream, though it sounded more like the whimper of a wounded animal. Eliza grabbed hold of my throat, her gauntleted fingers digging into the soft flesh. She ran her tongue across her sword, tasting my blood, the red staining her lips, and then placed the point against my chest, right over my heart.


    ¡°I have been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time, spellslinger,¡± she cooed softly, her voice full of satisfaction.


    I smirked back at her, and her smug expression faltered. ¡°Yeah? Well, so have we.¡± There was a sound, a weird, squishy, squelching sound, and Eliza¡¯s face went blank. She coughed, and a stream of blood, her own blood, spewed from her mouth. Some of it hit my face. With great effort, she looked over her shoulder. Alverd, still on the ground, had thrust the Sword of Evros into the side of her stomach, under her breastplate where there was no armor. Eliza made one last choking gasp, and her fingers tightened around my neck.


    ¡°Mage¡­¡± she growled, stretching out the last syllable in a death rattle. Her grip loosened, and her hand fell away from my neck. She collapsed to the floor, blood already pooling from the wound. I, too, hit the ground, and could feel my life ebbing away as my precious lifeblood leaked from my body. My fingers and toes were growing cold, and that cold was starting to move into my hands and feet as well.


    And yet, despite all that, I felt¡­ at peace. As though I could go to whatever awaited me with a clear conscience. Maybe I was kidding myself, maybe it was just to make myself feel better¡­ but it was working. I wondered vaguely if Laura would have approved of what I had just done, of giving my life to save Alverd and Alicia. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to earn her forgiveness


    I guessed I would have the opportunity to ask her in person soon enough, gods forbid.


    But another voice, not Laura¡¯s, called out to me. It was too high-pitched to be hers. I dimly recognized it as Alicia¡¯s. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and her voice kept breaking. I had a vague sensation of being lifted and dragged. I just wanted to sleep. I opened my eyes to tell Alicia to bugger off and let me sleep, and then-


    Light. Blinding light. I was propped up against one of the steps in the viewing section of the arena, still up near the top where we¡¯d waged our battle against the other royals. Alverd had torn off part of his crimson cape and was wrapping it around my stomach while Alicia pushed her hands against my wound to staunch the bleeding. I looked down and saw her hands covered in my blood and at the tears on her face.


    Is she crying for me? That didn¡¯t make sense. I wasn¡¯t her friend¡­ was I? But there she was, doing her best to keep me alive. When she saw my eyes flutter, she pressed harder, and a surge of fresh misery forced me to open my eyes again. She took a moment to punch me in the chest, which I barely registered thanks to the rest of the torment I was feeling.


    ¡°You stupid mage!¡± She shouted, her voice breaking for the umpteenth time. ¡°Did I give you permission to go and throw your life away? Stupid, stupid, stupid! You¡¯d better live through this, because I plan on kicking your ass so hard! Do you hear me?¡± She tried to hit me again, and her fist smacked against my face with as much force as if she were a four year old child. But I knew what she was trying to convey.


    I lolled my head to my left and looked at Alverd. Up until now, he¡¯d been occupied with tying the strip of cape around my wound. Now that he¡¯d wrapped it around my body several times, tightened it and then knotted the ends, he took a moment to smack me in the head as well. Unlike Alicia¡¯s little love tap, his hand hurt a lot more.


    ¡°Gods-be-damned, Kuro, are you insane?¡± He wasn¡¯t crying, but he seemed angry. I honestly couldn¡¯t tell if he was trying to put up a front or if he was genuinely cross with me. I was leaning toward the latter, though. ¡°Do you know what would have happened if that blade had gone just a few inches higher?! You¡¯d be dead right now! Gone, forever!¡±


    I smiled weakly. ¡°But you would still be alive. Both of you.¡± That stopped them both in their tracks. I sighed, which was a mistake since it made me cough hard.  I tried my best to smile again. ¡°Think what you will of me, I¡¯m a monster, a murderer, or a coward. I¡¯ve long since stopped caring what others think of me.¡± A bald-faced lie, but that wasn¡¯t important now.


    ¡°But,¡± I continued laboriously, ¡°I still have a heart. There are things even monsters care about. You¡¯re my best friend, Alverd. Always have been¡­ always will be. You could¡¯ve left my ass behind years ago. You could¡¯ve minded your own business and never given me the time of day. But you didn¡¯t. You tried to give someone who¡¯d given up on life a chance to redeem himself. And today, hopefully, I did.¡±


    I turned my gaze up. The sky was so blue, as blue as Alverd¡¯s eyes, as blue as the cloth tunic that Laura used to wear, and the flowers her bakery kept in the window. ¡°I know we¡¯ve never always seen eye-to-eye, and that at times, I¡¯ve disappointed you. But I¡¯ve never stopped wanting to be like you, Alverd.¡±


    Hewas stunned. ¡°What are you talking about, Kuro?¡±


    My smile turned into a somber expression. ¡°I chose to live in your shadow because I never wanted to bring you shame. If everyone always looked at you, the paragon of justice, they¡¯d see hope. They¡¯d see that people still cared about justice and chivalry and honor. They wouldn¡¯t have to see me, doing all those dishonorable things and sullying myself. The world doesn¡¯t need more people like me.¡± I reached out my arm and pushed my index finger against Alverd¡¯s breastplate to illustrate my point, and I could see every scratch, every scar, that had been dug into it over the past six years. ¡°It needs more people like you.¡±


    Slowly and gingerly, I moved my finger to point at Alicia, acutely aware of how it was getting harder to stop it from shaking out of control. She frowned at my finger. ¡°And it needs more people like you, princess. I may not agree with everything you¡¯ve said, or done, but when I look at you now, I can see exactly what your father saw. You¡¯re not all that innocent¡­ but I can¡¯t think of anyone better suited to turning this hellhole around.¡±


    Alicia took hold of my shaking hand with both of hers and squeezed it tight. ¡°But, I don¡¯t know the first thing about ruling a country! And my people¡­ they¡¯d never accept the runt of the litter. They want war, and I can¡¯t convince them otherwise. I wouldn¡¯t know where to start¡­¡±


    I choked out a short chuckle. ¡°Then you make them see. You¡¯ve got guts, princess¡­ Alicia. You show those barbarians who¡¯s boss. If all they respect is strength, you show them you¡¯re the toughest one out there. And you¡¯ll have Alverd to guide you. You¡¯ll be alright.¡±


    When I said that last bit, Alicia blushed. Her eyes flicked over to him for a second, and then back to me. ¡°If-if you say so¡­¡± she muttered. ¡°But you¡¯ve got to be there too! When I build a statue to honor you two for everything you¡¯ve done for the people of Ishmar, I¡¯ll need your ugly mug to get the details right! So just hold on, okay?¡±


    Alverd placed his hands over Alicia¡¯s, and I could feel him squeeze, too.


    ¡°Kuro¡­ you¡¯re right. There have been times when we¡¯ve argued over the best course of action, and there were times when I couldn¡¯t understand why you¡¯d try so hard to advocate looking out for ourselves. But the truth is, I need you as much as you need me.¡±


    My turn to be shocked. Alverd kept talking. ¡°I want to think that people are naturally decent, that everyone has the potential for good in them. Without you, Kuro, the world would have chewed me up and spit me out. You always knew to look beyond the surface, to find truth, to keep the two of us safe. And I¡­ didn¡¯t appreciate that as much as I should have. Or you.¡±


    He took one of his hands and clapped it on my shoulder, not hard enough to jostle me, but firm enough to show he was serious. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I said those things to you, Kuro. Had I been more understanding, had I been more considerate, you would have never needed to walk the path you did. If you can forgive me all the hurtful things I¡¯ve said¡­ then I¡¯d be happy to do the same for you. Friend.¡±


    I squeezed my friends¡¯ hands back as hard as I could. It was the best answer I could give.


    And judging by their happy faces, it was more than enough for them. They were starting to convince me. Maybe it wasn¡¯t time for me to go yet. If these two people wanted me to stay, a monster with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, then maybe there was still hope for me in the mortal world. Maybe a chance to find something to live for. To make a new family.


    Hell, maybe even find a cute girl with red hair, a curvy figure, and abysmal judgment when it came to men.


    I was about to try standing when we all heard the roar of a dragon. I looked towards the center of the arena, and saw Marcus and his two flanking riders had not fled as I had first suspected, but were now streaking towards us. In a minute, they¡¯d be on us. All three of us looked at the coming riders with bated breath.


    Then, I heard something else.


    It was a groan, a grunting, of something in great pain. I looked past Alicia and Alverd in abject terror, and they turned around to see what I was seeing. Eliza, her teeth grit and her eyes almost bulging out of her skull, was trying to stand. Using her rapier to brace herself, the princess hauled herself to her feet, blood still flowing down her face, out her mouth and through the gaping hole in the mesh that the Sword of Evros had made. She found her balance, and, after leveling her rapier at us again.


    ¡°I won¡¯t die¡­¡± Eliza murmured, her footwork becoming more solid and her sword arm steady. ¡°Not until¡­ not until¡­¡± Her mouth, that damnable mouth, quirked up again into that familiar, bone-chilling grin. ¡°Not until¡­ I kill you.  Hahaha¡­hahaha¡­Ha¡­ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!¡± No longer concerned with any inkling of sanity, she broke into a fit of murderous laughter as her soldiers inched forward, their spears still pointed straight at my friends.


    Conventional thinking wasn¡¯t going to work in this situation. Unfortunately, I only had one unconventional idea, and frankly, it wasn¡¯t going to end well for anybody.


    Especially for the mage.

 Chapter 20: To Stand Against the Wind

    The very first thing, the absolute first thing we were taught as mages was that magic was in all things, all around us.


    Magic was in the earth, in the water, in the air, everywhere. We breathed it in, breathed it out, baked it into pies, chopped it down for firewood, smelted it into armor¡­you name it, magic was there. When we mages used magic, we drew upon the raw elemental forces that surrounded us to give shape to a power we barely understood, to make it do our will. But one thing that we were also taught was that we could use existing power to not only fuel our magic, but enhance it to a degree that no mere human could conjure on his or her own.


    Further research eventually led to the discovery of spirits. Even further inquiry into the matter led to the development of incantations, which allowed man to attain immeasurable power by communing with the spirit world. This allowed magic to branch into various forms, from basic attack magic to healing to more advanced subjects like necromancy and puppetry. But as more and more branches opened up, more mages left the fold and left the research of standard elemental attack magic behind, believing it to be a simple field with no need of refinement.


    Even as a child, I showed no proficiency in any field of magic other than elemental magic. I couldn¡¯t heal anyone beyond the simplest of wounds or ailments, and my attempts at controlling golems or puppets failed abysmally. I couldn¡¯t manipulate the dreams of sleeping people, or hold a conversation with a ghost or shade that lasted more than a minute. But when it came to manipulating the five elements, I was unparalleled.


    Old Farnus always joked that I would get myself killed someday. Now, holding his staff, the only thing I had to remember him by, I reflected on the truth in that statement. I now had the power that I didn¡¯t have back then. I didn¡¯t have the courage, the gumption or the sheer disregard for my personal safety to do it back then.


    I did now, and that was all that mattered.


    I reflected on my life. It had been short. It had been traumatic. It had been¡­eventful, to say the least. But it had also been very unfulfilling. I reflected bitterly that I had so much left to do, that I would never get to do so. I¡¯d never know a mother¡¯s loving embrace or a father¡¯s reassuring shoulder. I¡¯d never know what it would be like to amount to something, to achieve something great. To be respected by my peers, or even by my enemies.


    Hell. I¡¯d never even know what it was like to kiss a girl.


    But my life could at least have some meaning. I¡¯d finally, at least I¡¯d hoped, made peace with myself. I had earned Alverd¡¯s forgiveness. I had earned Alicia¡¯s respect. I¡¯d resolved myself to give my life for a greater cause. It wasn¡¯t about glory, or being remembered, or even about revenge anymore.


    I just wanted them to live.


    Enough doubt and delay. The longer I dwelled upon it, the more I started to think it was a bad idea. It was a bad idea, of course, but I had to go through with it. I sighed, and pushed myself up. With a great deal of exertion, I stood up and staggered past a stunned Alverd and Alicia. Eliza was still moving forward. I looked ahead, and steeled myself, fighting past the pain in my stomach. With only a slight hesitation, I let my staff fall from my right hand. After a moment, I let my blood-soaked left hand dangle by my side.


    What I was about to do had never been attempted, and for good reason. Not even the oldest of mages, with their years of experience and their penchants for experimentation, would have even dared to attempt what I was about to try. There was a good chance I would die before I would even get past the initial stage, much less the part where I could actually do some good. But again, I couldn¡¯t worry about that now.


    As Eliza began to charge, I listened to the untamed wind swirling around us, the screaming of a primal force. Such power was meant to be free, uncaged, able to flow like a mighty stream up here in the heights of the arena. I whispered to it, seeking its trust, calling out to it to lend its aid to a humble son of man. The wind hesitated, then rushed to me, heeding my call.


    At that moment, I opened my mind to the presence of the spirits around me. This was the dangerous part. While the incantation was the equivalent of a single beacon, the method I was using now was tantamount to lighting dozens of bonfires. I was inviting any spirit within range, regardless of intent or alignment, to share its power with me, through me, to have some impact on my world. Malevolent spirits could just as easily use me as any other in this state, and there was no guarantee that they would quietly return from whence they came after the deed was done.


    I anticipated maybe a dozen or so, but instead I was bombarded by the auras of nearly a hundred ambient spirits. Unlike any of the spirits I had seen, though, they were distorted, warped by some unseen force. I called to each of them, beseeching them for their aid, and to my surprise, nearly all of them answered.


    Images flooded my head. Centuries upon centuries of barbaric, ritualistic fratricide had taken place in the arena, and the spirits here had borne silent witness to all of it. Through every Succession, they had been slowly tainted by the unmitigated evil perpetrated within the walls of the Castle of Brimstone. More than anything, these spirits sought a release, an end to the cycle they had had no power to end themselves. I whispered a promise to them, and they all flocked to me, calling their brethren to aid me.


    Spirit after spirit lent me power. With each spirit, I could feel a rushing sensation, as though the blood in my veins had been set ablaze. It was not a wholly painful experience, but it was unpleasant, as though I would burst at any moment. Yet more and more power swelled into me, each spirit crying out for an end. I could feel their thoughts as they whispered to each other. They summoned their brothers and sisters to me, a mage; at last, they had a conduit through which to express their rage.


    Each spirit had a story. They didn¡¯t need to tell me in words. As each lent me its power, I could feel the event that had anchored it to this place. Each one was different, but the theme was the same. They¡¯d been lured here, drawn by the strong emotions of hope and anticipation. But the distortions carved upon the fabric of reality over the Arena were centuries old. Like a giant rabbit trap, it had lured the spirits in and locked shut behind them. Only I, a mage, could open the door for them, to let them leave this supernatural cage.


    I could feel their pain as if it were my own. Six hundred years of brothers and sisters murdering each other in this bloodstained place, their lives and ambitions cut short by the blades of their kin. The cheering of the oppressed as they watched their oppressors fall. Each king and queen regarding their fallen children with disgust for not being strong enough. The spirits howled their agony in an unearthly chorus of not-voices that threatened to tear my sanity to shreds.


    My feet slowly lifted off the ground as the wind infused me with its power. My hands rose, feeling lighter than air, and I could sense the currents winding over my outstretched arms, gathering at the focal point suspended in front of my chest. I closed my eyes and allowed the wind to wash over me, as gentle as an autumn breeze, to become a raging tempest in the growing orb of power still manifesting in front of me. The power began to flow out from my body and into the focal point. I could feel the magic in my body being drained, every last drop, and push its way out of the wound and into the glowing ball of magic. I wasn¡¯t gonna take any chances. If even one soldier was left standing after this, if Marcus or Eliza remained, then it was all for naught. I¡¯d put every fiber of my being, every ounce of power the spirits could offer me, into saving Alverd and Alicia.


    I opened my eyes. Eliza had stopped dead in her tracks, aghast at what she was seeing. Marcus and his escorts were still headed straight toward us, and I could see him seize a lance from one of them, winging his way toward me with murder written across his face. Again I could see the terror in Eliza¡¯s eyes, her mind racing to decide whether her vengeance was worth facing her fear.


    This was it.  Staff or no staff, there was no way my body would survive the strain of channeling so many spirits. But I needed more power. I had to take them all out. I screamed to the spirits mentally for the power I needed, and they became wary; the spell began to falter, and the spirits glared at me with accusatory eyes shifting like fog. They whispered in their silent voices, echoing in my head; I was no different than those I sought to destroy.


    You are no better. One voice, then two, then a dozen, then more. All of them coming together in eerie unison, clear as a bell despite the wind whipping around me. You desire death, you desire killing. Your anger drives you. Your anger fuels you. You are no better. The voices started to blend together, drowning out rational thought as it built to a crescendo in my head.


    Just like them. You are just like them. A mortal child with nothing but hate in his heart.


    Revenge doesn¡¯t factor into this, I told them. It¡¯s for Alverd and Alicia. There isn¡¯t anything I can do for the dead. The dead are gone. Avenging the dead was for the benefit of the living only. I knew this, now. But if I could save a life that was worth living? It would validate my meaningless existence. It would make my sacrifice worthwhile. Alverd was my friend. I was willing to lay it all on the line for him. And I had come to see that Alicia was a good person. I felt good knowing that my life would buy a future for the two of them, however long it would last.


    Closing my eyes, I recalled images from my past. The spirits peered into my mind. They saw my memories:  the spiteful boy who¡¯d cursed the world, my decade of happiness with Alverd and Laura, the joy of learning magic from a firm yet fair mentor, the night of the invasion,  broken spires and bleeding bodies. They saw me screaming over Laura¡¯s body as I tried to delay the inevitable.


    I do have hate. I am guided by anger. I can be a foolish, selfish, arrogant boy. But I don¡¯t have to let that be who I am now. Let me do the right thing. Help me do the right thing. I pleaded with the spirits. I needed them. Do what you want with me. But don¡¯t punish my friends for my failings.


    My words struck a chord with the spirits. They saw the resolve, the desire to save my friends, and they surged back. The spirits fed me their power once more, and the spell stabilized and began growing again.


    I think I heard Alverd¡¯s voice at that point. It was impossible to make out, since I could barely hear anything over the ruckus that was going on. He was probably trying to tell me to stop before I killed myself. At this point, it was irreversible. Even if half the spirits I was channeling backed out, I still had enough power to burn myself out dozens of times over. Even with my eyes closed, I could see him plain as day, his aura shining amongst the shifting wind currents like a lighthouse. A soul, blazing like a sun, shone next to him. I let a content smile spread out across my face. Even surrounded by spirits who had no tangible presence in our world, I could recognize my friend for what he was. Like ghosts, they tried to reach out to me, but when they saw that there was no chance, I saw Alverd push Alicia to the ground and cover her with his body. He knew what was coming.


    Marcus¡¯s dragon and escorts finally came into range. They hovered just over the edge of the railing, and he finally realized exactly what was happening. I could feel the black, sickly aura, like dripping tar, of the First Prince as he tried to take in what was going on. He recovered quickly, however, and charged forward with his spear raised. I lifted my left hand, palm open, and in the firmest voice I could manage, spoke the last words I would ever speak.


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    ¡°Oh, damned souls who walk the earth eternal, scream thy anguish that the living may know thy torment. Fill the air with thy lamentations even as you drag the guilty with thee to the grave. Let the wind carry your sorrow to the four corners of the earth. Howl for me now! Bring the gale, the zephyr, the typhoon! Bring the four winds in all their splendor! Howl for me now!¡±


    The wind surged out of me and toward all of my enemies in a visible wave of energy. The blast pooled at Eliza¡¯s feet, lifting her off her feet and tossing her into the railing on the edge of the seating area with brutal force. Eliza stabbed her rapier in the ground, trying desperately to avoid being sucked into the air. I could see her screaming in exertion; at some point she even began clawing at the ground with her armored hand.


    Marcus wasn¡¯t so fortunate. The sheer force of the wind at that range not only tore him from his saddle, but buffeted him back with near bone-breaking momentum. His two escorts also suffered the same fate; they were knocked from their mounts. But the wind didn¡¯t stop there. It tore at the dragons, spinning them like tops. The gale-force winds ripped their delicate wings, and they screeched in anguish, loud enough for me to hear even over the unholy din I had unleashed.


    The spell carried all of them over the edge of the railing and the entire group fell, still screaming, into the arena below. The last thing I saw was Marcus screaming as his face disappeared from sight. At seven stories, it would mean certain death for him. But somehow, Eliza had managed to remain rooted to the spot, her rapier dug into the ground, gasping for breath. The energy didn¡¯t stop there; it swept up into the air past where the dragons were still fighting in the sky. The clear sky darkened immediately, and then lightning tore across the blackened clouds. The clouds swirled forebodingly.


    I should have been dead. Instead, as each spirit withdrew its power from me, one by one, each one ebbing away back into the shadowy other world they called home, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of warmth; it was as though they were expressing their thanks for helping them to undo the wrongs committed in this place. I could sense joy and relief as they crossed back into the spirit world. But I didn¡¯t understand why I was still alive. As the last of the spirits left me, I felt my feet touch back to the ground, and immediately fell to my knees. I felt so utterly empty, as though my soul had vacated its earthly vessel.


    As I knelt there, on what surely had to be the paper-thin boundary between life and death, I swore I saw something. A blurred figure materialized in front of me.  It looked like it had draped itself over me, like a curtain. Though the shape was too blurry and obscure to fully perceive, it appeared to be almost human shaped, with strands of long hair and smooth clothes. The figure wrapped its arms around my neck, and I could have sworn that it pushed what felt like its lips against my forehead. After it did, any pain I felt vanished completely. The figure seemed to be pleased with what it had done, and its face seemed to suggest that it was smiling.


    I heard a shy, feminine voice whisper to me, ¡°You¡¯re safe now. It¡¯s over.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re safe now! It¡¯s over.¡±


    My eyes jerked open and saw Alverd, who was cradling my body. It looked like he had caught me right before I could tip over. He looked at me with concern. ¡°Kuro, what in the gods¡¯ name was that? I¡¯ve never seen anything like it!¡± I wasn¡¯t in any condition to answer, and I wasn¡¯t likely to pull any more tricks out of my hat for the rest of the day. But I remembered something. I pulled at the cape-bandage Alverd had used to stop my bleeding earlier; he tried to stop me, but was just as surprised as I was when I removed it, only to reveal smooth, healthy skin. As though I¡¯d never been injured at all.


    ¡°Can you stand?¡± Alverd blurted out. I couldn¡¯t, despite my miraculous recovery; my legs felt like jelly.  My head was now swimming and I couldn¡¯t shake the odd tingling sensation on my forehead. Looking past him, I saw that Eliza was no longer where I remembered her being.


    I felt Alverd pull my arm over his shoulder, and to my surprise, Alicia moved to my left side to do the same. She grunted with exertion as she did so; she was no longer in the throes of her berserker rage and her injured leg was now giving her trouble. I pulled myself together enough to voice an immediate concern.


    ¡°Umm¡­so now what?¡± The words tumbled out of my mouth like soup from an overturned bowl.


    Alicia steered us in the direction of the kennel entrance. ¡°We need to leave now,¡± she muttered through gritted teeth. ¡°There¡¯s no telling how many soldiers take orders from Eliza. And the fact that we just took out the rest of the royal family won¡¯t do us any favors either. If we can get to the stable, I might be able to fly us out of here.¡±


    I tried to focus my eyes. A small blood trail led toward the barracks. I guess Eliza had decided that enough was enough, discretion was the better part of valor and blah, blah, blah, and got out while the getting was still good.


    I had to admit, fleeing actually sounded like the last thing I wanted to do. Eliza needed to be hunted down. If she escaped, there was no telling what kind of hell she would unleash on innocent people. Not only that, but she¡¯d spread the falsehood that Alicia was responsible for everything that had happened, and with Marcus and the King dead, the citizens of Ishmar were  likely to believe her.


    Alverd grimaced. I guessed that he was thinking something along similar lines, but there was nothing we could do. Eliza had enough of a head start, and we would only end up being captured or waste valuable time chasing her. He followed Alicia to the kennel entrance. He stopped once to pick up my staff where it had fallen.


    I didn¡¯t want to leave things as they were, but we had little choice. I tried to move my feet, but they were stubborn and responded sluggishly. The two continued to carry me until we reached the door to the stables.


    Alicia pushed the frail wooden door open brusquely with her foot. The remaining dragons in the stable were all crowing, screeching, straining against their restraints as they sensed their brethren outside in chaos. She dropped my arm to undo the restraints from a medium-sized dragon that could fit the three of us, not much larger than the one that had carried us up to the barracks. Alverd steadied my weight, and laid me down upon the floor. I managed to sit up, and he cradled me as best as he could. I wheezed a bit before breaking out into a fit of laughter. Alverd looked at me incredulously. I tried my damnedest to stop, but our situation was hilarious. We were the bloody good guys, and we were about to run with our tails between our legs; the bad guy had already hightailed it and we were about to do the same damn thing. I regained my breath and grabbed Alverd¡¯s shoulder for support.


    ¡°Gods¡­ who would have guessed that we would be here of all places? Your parents would be proud of all you¡¯ve done today, old friend.¡±


    Alverd gave me his reassuring smile. ¡°They would be proud of you too, Kuro. More so, even. But this all just proved my point, really. Vengeance never really accomplishes anything.¡±


    That made me laugh even harder.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I sputtered, ¡°but it made me feel good.¡±


    He sighed. ¡°Avenging our families and homeland is all well and good, Kuro. But I think what our families would really want is for us to live; we carry their good will with us. More than anything, I think they would want us to do all the living they couldn¡¯t, and make something of our lives. I don¡¯t claim to be an expert on this sort of thing, but I really think they would want that.¡±


    It was my turn to sigh. I looked him straight in the eye. ¡°Is that what you think Laura would¡¯ve wanted?¡±


    He didn¡¯t say anything at first. I  admit I¡¯d hit him below the belt. He smacked me over the head with his fist. It wasn¡¯t a hard hit, but it was enough to get my attention.


    ¡°You listen to me, Kuro. You know as well as I do that she would not have wanted this;  she would never have wanted us to kill for the sake of killing, or to try and get revenge on her behalf. She would have been the first to scream bloody murder if someone committed a slight against someone she cherished, but she would have never stooped to her enemy¡¯s level.¡±


    ¡°But how do you-¡± I was in the middle of my retort when Alverd cut me off. ¡°Just because I don¡¯t seek revenge for her doesn¡¯t mean that I don¡¯t care about her. If she were still alive, if she were here¡­  she¡¯d tell us to live. I¡¯m not going to throw away my life on a fool¡¯s errand, Kuro. Where there is life, there is always another way. And deep down you know it too. You¡¯re just too scared to let go.¡±


    And there it was again, the ugly truth in my gut that had festered like a bad wound for the past five years. I had always thought that Laura might have left the duty of avenging her death to me, since we both knew Alverd was too much of a softy to kill in cold blood. I also knew that she might never have wanted for me to stain myself in such a way. I¡¯d done a lot of things as a mercenary that I wasn¡¯t proud of, and every time, I wondered if she disapproved of the choices I¡¯d made.


    It was too hard to let her go. I thought of her coy smile and gentle laughter. I didn¡¯t want to forget that. But Alverd, damn him, was right. This wasn¡¯t where she would want me to die. I could feel a tear slide down my cheek as the vision of her in my mind began to blur. Alverd saw the tear. I let another loose, and another until I couldn¡¯t control them.


    ¡°Alverd¡­ I don¡¯t want to. She was¡­ she was¡­¡± Alverd nodded his head. ¡°I know. She was just as important to you as she was to me, old friend. But the best thing we can do now is to keep on living. And when we finally reunite in whatever life awaits beyond this one, we¡¯ll have one hell of a story to tell her.¡±


    I laughed, though it came out more like a hacking cough. He was right. He¡¯d been right all along.  Wiping away the rest of my tears on the sleeve of my robe, I said, ¡°I doubt she¡¯ll believe us. But then again, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s watching over us. I guess¡­ I guess I¡¯m not entirely ready to accept all of this. I just need some time. You¡¯re right, Alverd. Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±


    I struggled to my feet, shouldering my pack and tucking my staff securely inside. The dragon ambled over to us, cooing softly. I clumsily threw a saddle on its back, trying to fasten the unwieldy thing. Alverd came over to help me secure the harness on the dragon¡¯s other side, his hands replacing mine. He looked at me and I could see the approval in his face. I hadn¡¯t conquered my anger or mastered my desire for revenge. I put it aside for now. After all, if I died, there would be no one to mourn our dead. There were other ways to avenge the dead than just killing. It made sense to flee now. Our chance had been lost, and if we threw our lives away, they would never rest.


    A loud thunderclap from outside drew both Alverd¡¯s and my attention. We looked out the opening where the kennel door had once been to see that a tornado had begun to form. The magic I¡¯d used, backed by the hundred spirits, was completely out of control. The tubular spout was descending from the sky, reaching down towards the ground with alarming speed. The dragons, still tearing at each other, paid the oncoming storm no heed. It was enough, however, to spur both of us into redoubling our efforts.


    Alicia finally came back with the secondary harness, as well as a leather pouch slung over her back. She took one look at the tornado forming outside and quickly fastened the harness to the dragon.  The three of us climbed aboard its back ready to fly.  The sound of clattering metal emanated from the doorway; soon the sound was accompanied by the shouts of men, most likely more soldiers working for Eliza. Indeed, as the kennel door burst open, one of Eliza¡¯s men appeared, demanding that we dismount and surrender. But Alicia would have nothing of it. She leaned back and told us to hold on, and we launched out of the kennel and into the sky.


    We shot past the still fighting dragons in midair, but giving them plenty of space turned out to be unnecessary. The three mighty dragons ceased their aerial fight and began what I thought was choking. Blood splattered from their mouths as they roared, and the three titans plummeted from the sky. We watched their unearthly descent, slow and inexorable, until they hit the ground in three separate bloody messes. There was no grace in any of it. Three terrible yet beautiful creatures had just died pointless deaths, added to the weight of the lives already lost in this whole senseless ordeal.


    Below us, the two remaining dragons met similar fates. Their heartrending cries shook the very air itself, and then, they began coughing up blood. Their necks wrenched left and right, and they too, fell to the ground, dead. The entire arena was littered with the bodies of the slain, man and dragon alike, a testament to the bloody history of this horrible place.


    Alicia began tearing up again, and turned away from the destruction. As if on cue, the tornado touched down in the middle of the arena, and engulfed the ancient structure in its screaming fury. Even from our distance, I could see the corpses of countless people and dragons being hurled to and fro. Our mount turned to the east, and we flew against the wind, leaving the arena behind us. With every beat of the dragon¡¯s wings, the carnage became further and further away, though it didn¡¯t make it any scarring. It was only as the arena faded from my sight that I grasped the true wisdom of fleeing. There was no cowardice in it. Only sense and rationality.


    Those who run, live. Those who live, fight another day.

 Chapter 21: A New Day and A New Job

    We flew for hours in complete silence. It gave me time to contemplate the future. The setting sun was our only indication that time had passed at all. I wanted to try and talk to Alicia, but what was there to say? A kingdom lay in ruins, its royal family severely fractured. In time, the vacuum would be occupied by a bloody power struggle, and regardless of who came out on top, Ishmar would suffer for quite some time before it recovered, if it ever did.


    It was a safe assumption that the Monarchy of Algrustos would learn of Ishmar¡¯s power vacuum. In time, an invasion would be the only logical outcome. Algrustrian mages would surge over the border, and like the confusion that took over the Castle of Brimstone, it could be weeks before Ishmar¡¯s already woefully inadequate communication network could coordinate an organized defense, and by then the magister generals would have a firm, solid foothold. A second invasion would follow, and the might of magic would overcome the divided armies of Ishmar. A siege of the Castle of Brimstone would be the last step to the total capitulation of what had once been the mightiest nation in the land.


    There was a kind of justice to it. The people of Ishmar would suffer like those of Marevar; their homes would be set ablaze, their fields trampled, their children weeping over their parents¡¯ dead bodies before being left to starve. Everything would come full circle as all things did. But as I thought about these things, I felt strangely conflicted.


    Can I really blame every Ishmarian for what happened? The soldiers and the royals were one thing, but the innocent peasants who tended farms or forged weapons? Were they to blame as well? No, they were just working hard to keep on living, like the people of Marevar had. They would be the first to suffer when the mage armies came, stealing their food, treating them like livestock, and executing anyone they wanted. It was just a matter of time.


    It was a sad, sobering thought. Alicia¡¯s father wished for his country to shed its old hatreds and fetters in order to gain a new age of prosperity, yet Marcus¡¯s plan would have doomed it to follow the same self-destructive course it had for almost all of its existence. There wouldn¡¯t be a chance for Ishmar now, given that its expansionist nature had alienated it from potential alliances. In fact, in the worst case scenario, Algrustos might not be the only nation to take advantage of the political fragmentation. Other nations seeking either reprisals or glory would flock to Ishmar like vultures to a kill, waiting to greedily devour what remained.


    I thought about Edgar and how he had predicted this. How he had seen that, even with all the preparation in the world, Ishmar couldn¡¯t stop Algrustos from rallying as many allies as possible to stand on equal footing with them. And it had plenty. Algrustos was a major exporter of goods, magical and not, and had established strong ties with several medium-sized independent mercantile nations that would donate goods, funds, and maybe even soldiers to a campaign against Ishmar. Even kingdoms like Guilford would gladly lend Algrustos their swords in exchange for a hand in the spoils.


    I sat in the saddle with my arms around Alverd, lost in my speculations. Nothing really mattered now. If Fate had decided that Ishmar¡¯s end wouldn¡¯t come at our hands, then I could do nothing but watch as She did the job Herself.


    The sky progressed from blue to the darkened red of late afternoon. I stared down at the endless fields and lonely trees as we soared into the unknown. We passed a village at some point, but Alicia ignored it. We all knew it was too dangerous to land there. We had to just keep going. So we continued east, with nowhere to go and no destination in mind. It was a situation Alverd and I were intimately familiar with, and it brought a twinge of pain associated with old memories.


    At long last, Alicia directed the dragon to land in a small clearing as the setting sun made the nearby trees cast long, stretching shadows. She unloaded a variety of gear from the underslung part of the harness, then slapped the dragon¡¯s hindquarters. The beast lifted off and flew away without pause. Alicia limped to the center of the clearing and threw camping gear on the ground before carefully removing the leather sling on her shoulder and taking a seat on a nearby stump, cradling the pouch gently in her lap.


    Alverd and I were immediately drawn to the pouch¡¯s design. It was reinforced to supply protection without being bulky or cumbersome. She reached in and pulled a large egg from the bulging recesses.


    The egg was unremarkable in itself, other than the fact that it didn¡¯t fit in the princess¡¯ tiny hand. It was rough and coarse and an odd shade of beige. I reached out to touch the thing, and she drew her hand back sharply. She rested the egg firmly in her lap.


    ¡°What are you two staring at?¡±


    ¡°Is that a dragon egg? When did you have time to grab that?¡±


    Alicia scowled as she admonished me. ¡°What business is it of yours? You got a problem with this?¡±


    Alverd put his hands up. ¡°Of course not. Now, if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡± He walked away to prepare his own sleeping accommodations. I grabbed some of the gear and went about setting up a tent as well. I quickly put up my own tent, taking the bedding cloak from the pack so I wouldn¡¯t have to sleep on the cold hard ground. After an hour, as the sun began to disappear on the horizon, the camp was finished. Alverd came over to me as I poked our freshly lit campfire with a stick, stirring the embers absent-mindedly.


    ¡°Hey,¡± he said. I didn¡¯t even look at him. I kept hacking at the campfire with my makeshift poker, until the stick itself caught fire and I was forced to toss it into the flame. He seated himself next to me and nudged me with his shoulder. ¡°You know, we never did figure out why you survived that spell back at the arena. I¡¯m no mage, but I¡¯m pretty sure you should be dead. Care to share your thoughts?¡±


    Honestly, I didn¡¯t have any concrete theories on that either. I only had one that made any sense, and it was crazy. It only seemed logical because of the stupid old bedtime story about the man from Algrustos, who had saved his home from the wrath of a tornado, and the old magical theories about ¡°guardian angels.¡± I knew it was crazy, but considering what I had survived, I was willing to accept divine intervention as a reason at this point.


    ¡°Well,¡± I ventured, ¡°I think what happened was, the spirits in the arena¡­there were nearly a hundred of them, Alverd. They were trapped there, shackled by the atrocities committed within its walls. Like ghosts. So even though most spirits don¡¯t have any connection to our world, that attachment allowed them to manifest. Only when they combined their power were they able to actually affect our world. They were like the people who died in the tornadoes in that old Algrustian bedtime story. Eventually, the man who resisted called upon them to help him defy the gods and protect what was dear to him.¡±


    Alverd scratched his head. ¡°So, what you¡¯re saying is, they were rooted to our world by the traumatic history of the Arena, and thus granted a connection to our world?¡±


    It wasn¡¯t that simple, but he was on the right track. ¡°Sort of. But when they merged powers to become an entity with actual substance, they were bound by this world¡¯s rules and laws of magic, not their own. So, my guess is¡­ I was their staff. After I released the spell that killed Marcus and brought that tornado down on the arena, they were free. They went back to where they came from.¡±


    Alverd gave me a look that suggested that he thought I was pulling his leg. I realized that I would have to explain things a bit more delicately. It took a few tries and a lot of dumbing down, but eventually he understood. By using me (an ¡°object¡± with magical power) as a focal point and grounding rod, as all staves were used, the spirits had cast the miniature hurricane that had carried Marcus to his doom, and the following tornado that had swallowed the arena. The more I explained it, the simpler it became to accept it as true.


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    ¡°...and that¡¯s it, really.¡± I finished. Alverd nodded his head; I wasn¡¯t sure if he truly had wrapped his head around the finer aspects of the topic but at this point I was too tired to keep trying to simplify it. But my theory was sound.


    While my body was used as the transference to the focal point for the spirits¡¯ spell, once it had been cast, the power flowed through my body in an instant. There wasn¡¯t enough time for the accumulated power to ravage my body beyond what it had done. I had seriously lucked out on that count.


    Alverd laughed, and I joined him, as we both saluted Lady Luck, that fickle-hearted bitch, for the first time in a long, long while.


    I figured there was no need to tell Alverd about my ¡°guardian angel,¡± the strange figure who had kissed my head. I had already done the impossible, and straining Alverd¡¯s mind by attempting to explain such a foreign concept to him was more effort than I wished to expend at the moment. So I simply sat there and stayed quiet. I figured that if it was really all that important, I would find a way to explain later. In much smaller words, of course.


    We sat together in front of the fire for a time. Alicia hadn¡¯t come out of her tent since she finished setting it up. I was about to write her off as asleep when she came out and seated herself on the log opposite our side of the fire.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she said. ¡°I need to talk to you two about something. It¡¯s kind of important.¡±


    We looked at each other, and then I shrugged. I was sure the princess had a lot on her mind, and the least we could do at this point was hear her out. We gave Alicia our undivided attention. She fidgeted for a bit before speaking.


    ¡°I intended to pay for your services with the Sword of Evros since you went above and beyond when you stuck with me as long as you did. Any common mercs would¡¯ve cut and run immediately after we broke out of prison. Yet you stayed, and fulfilled whatever oath I held you to, despite the fact that I could in no way enforce the punishment for deserting it.¡±


    Alicia turned her face down. ¡°The Sword of Evros is our country¡¯s greatest treasure. It is a fitting weapon for one so noble as you. I would have no qualms with letting you walk away with that sword, so long as you continue to use it for just purposes. Now, I have no power to hold you, so I release you from your obligation to me. You are free from the bonds of the Rite of Reconciliation. I am no longer a princess, and there is no need to follow me.¡±


    It sounded very much like it had pained her to say such things. I knew that she was looking away so we would not see her cry, and that she was doing her best not to let us hear that her voice was about to break. She probably assumed we would abandon her now in the cruel world that would not care if she was former royalty. I didn¡¯t know what to say. I wasn¡¯t the man who possessed the tact to say anything that wouldn¡¯t result in a flood of tears.


    Alverd both saved and doomed us in that moment. He knelt before her, gently lifting her tear-streaked face to meet his gaze. He gave her his irresistible smile and laid his hand gently upon her knee. ¡°It is true that you are no longer a princess, but that makes you no less noble, milady. The Sword of Evros is indeed a priceless treasure and I will accept it only if you truly think it is fitting compensation for what we have done.¡±


    Alicia¡¯s crying stopped there. As comprehension dawned on her face, it struck me as well. Surely the fool wasn¡¯t-


    ¡°Indeed, the Sword of Evros has value beyond simple gold¡­and until you pay off the debt you owe by being rewarded something beyond what you think fair, you would have to remain in my employ until you worked off such excess.¡±


    Oh no. Oh dear gods, no.


    His smile widened. ¡°And until such time, you would still be our employer, and we would continue to be loyal to you until you agree that the debt was fully absolved. Even if you no longer have a kingdom, we didn¡¯t owe you our loyalty because you were a princess. We owed you our loyalty because you are our employer. And until our contract is up, that¡¯s the way it¡¯s going to go.¡± He looked at me facetiously. ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, Kuro? I believe that¡¯s Rule Eight, isn¡¯t it? Loyalty to the employer, not the cause, am I right?¡±


    Oh, you mad fool what in the seven hells are you doing?!


    I wouldn¡¯t have left Alicia to fend for herself, especially with her injury, but frankly, she wasn¡¯t our responsibility anymore. Swords were a dime a dozen, and I¡¯m sure Alverd could find another one easily enough. He didn¡¯t need some legendary blade! And I certainly didn¡¯t need the aggravation of that horrible girl using me as her personal manservant.


    The man was trying to beat me at my own game. Indeed, that was what Rule Eight of my Cardinal Rules said. We owed our allegiance to the one paying the bill, not whatever cause or purpose they were hiring us for. For Alverd, who was normally ignorant about this sort of thing, to beat me on a technicality really stung my pride. Worse yet, there wasn¡¯t any way for me to weasel out of it, either. The only thing I could do was beg him to reconsider.


    I opened my mouth to voice my vehement protest. However, Alverd cut me off. He laughed and turned to me.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t this wonderful, Kuro? It would seem our contract is going to continue for a bit longer. That¡¯s great, hmm? It¡¯s always good to finish a job with a fair degree of closure. Leaving things as they are now would leave a bad taste in my mouth.¡± He laughed again, a deep, throaty laugh I hadn¡¯t heard in quite a long time.


    Well, that was all well and good for him. He wasn¡¯t the one getting picked on all the time. He wasn¡¯t the mousy little mage, he was a big, hulking brick of a man whom Alicia couldn¡¯t hurt even if she tried. He was the confident, charismatic goody-two-shoe girls swooned over the moment they saw his handsomeness and chivalrous personality. It didn¡¯t help that Alicia was already starting to fall for him.


    Oh, yes, I hadn¡¯t fallen off the apple cart yesterday. The damn girl wasn¡¯t exactly subtle. She practically screamed it every time her face flushed, the way she looked at Alverd when he wasn¡¯t aware. It was even in her body language; when she addressed Alverd, she relaxed her shoulders and always looked him in the eye. A blind man would be able to tell that the damn princess was becoming as smitten as a little lost puppy.


    Join the queue, I thought bitterly. You can stand behind every other peasant girl, merchant¡¯s daughter or up-and-coming young noblewoman we¡¯ve rescued in the past.


    Alicia was no longer in poor spirits. Her face was beaming, and her smile could have easily outshone the sun even at its zenith.


    ¡°Then get moving, dogs! I expect a feast for dinner. I hope you fools are capable of satisfying a former royal¡¯s sophisticated palate. Now go. I wish to dine on only the finest venison!¡± To emphasize her newfound authority, she smacked the ground with her maul. I resigned myself to my fate and began shuffling away to make the necessary preparations for a meal. However, she called my name with the same level of arrogant expectation she had used when I first met her. Wearily, I turned to face my old taskmaster.


    ¡°Not you, mage boy. You get the honor of massaging my feet while I await my dinner. Now get over here and get to work!¡± She kicked her leather boots from her feet, and removed the cotton stockings, wiggling her toes in anticipation. She grinned at me, the same feline grin from long ago that irked me right away. She sensed my hesitation and lifted her maul menacingly, her eyes full of playful malice. ¡°Now, servant! My feet ache ever so much.¡± She lifted her head and laughed facetiously.


    I cursed the gods above. I would have put gold on it that they too laughed at my suffering. Filthy sadists. As my hands gripped the princess¡¯ oddly dainty foot (they smelled terrible), I wondered what the people of Marevar, Laura in particular, would¡¯ve thought of this development. It only took a moment to realize that they would probably be laughing as well. I looked over to where Alverd was sneaking away, making a poor attempt to stifle his mirth behind his gauntlet.


    Filthy bastard. One of these days, I¡¯ll get my due. The world may be a cruel place sometimes, especially for the guy who always gets that extra kick in the ass, but mark my words: there¡¯ll be a reckoning someday.


    I just hope I survive long enough to see it.

 Book 2 Prologue: The Red-Haired Stargazer

    Deep in the forest, a lone girl sat upon a tree branch gazing upon the full moon above her.


    Despite the commonality of her clothes, the girl herself would have turned heads no matter where she went. With such lovely long hair as red as a flickering flame and pale skin like a marble sculpture, she looked almost like a doll. Her clothes had at one point been a simple, long-hemmed peasant¡¯s dress and corset over a hooded robe, but now showed signs of so many repairs, yet it only added to the girl¡¯s charm.


    Her eyes, golden like the sun, hid beneath the shadow of her bangs, peeking out like curious children. She sat upon the branch, her legs swinging back and forth one-by-one as if she were walking. There was an air of impatience about her. She had been waiting a very, very long time.


    He was coming. That was what she had been told. Her knight in shining armor. All she had to do was wait. That was what SHE had told her. The demon. No, that wasn¡¯t right. She was a demon, but she¡¯d said multiple times she wasn¡¯t a bad demon, and the girl believed it. After all, demons couldn¡¯t lie. It was just the way they were. So, when the demon whispered promises in the girl¡¯s ear, she was more than happy to believe them.


    It wasn¡¯t like she had anything to lose after all.


    She was an exile cast from her home for a crime that she had committed with her own two hands. In a moment of weakness, she¡¯d made a choice. But then again, all of life was full of consequences as the girl had learned when the cruel men and women of her home had exiled her, left her to die, thrust into the merciless world beyond her village.


    And the demon had come to her, freed by her own hand, now shackled to her by a contract made of the girl¡¯s own free will.


    It was how it worked. The girl had struck a bargain with the demon, and both parties knew what they would receive at the end of their business. To the girl, it didn¡¯t matter so much. After she had heard what the demon had had to say and to offer, she didn¡¯t need much persuading. The demon had said it herself: ¡°¡®those with nothing to lose have everything to gain¡¯¡±.


    The girl was wary at first, as too many times she¡¯d believed in others only to be disappointed in the end. But the demon had been the first in a long time to keep a promise, and when she made a second the girl was happy to take her up on it. And thus, here the two were in a forest in the Monarchy of Algrustos waiting for the girl¡¯s one true love.


    It had been agonizing to wait for so long. The girl had lost track of exactly how long it had been.


    Normally, the girl wouldn¡¯t have patiently waited for something so important to fall into her lap, but considering how long it had been she was beginning to wonder if she was going to go insane at this rate. Then she giggled, cupping her face in her hands. Of course I¡¯m crazy, she mused to herself. Love makes people that way. Then the red-haired girl sighed. It was a deep and weary one. Years had gone by, but the time wasn¡¯t right, the demon had said. How many times had she said it? The girl didn¡¯t remember. It was almost like breathing, she¡¯d heard it before, and she¡¯d hear it again. But now, the demon said the time had come. At long last, it was time to reveal herself to her prince.


    Her soulmate.


    The girl sighed again as she thought back to the days of her youth, how the people of her village had held such contempt for her. They¡¯d assigned her to a thankless duty and whispered catty little things behind her back. Children had thrown rocks at her and called her useless; the adults were no better with their mocking side glances and rumor-mongering. The girl¡¯s teeth began to gnash as she thought of the smug faces and pointing fingers.


    The girl thought of her cruel, spiteful father and her pompous, sniveling older sister. The two had conspired to make the girl¡¯s life miserable and forced her to sacrifice her dreams and desires to fulfill an obligation that no one wanted. They had made a laughing stock of her when she finally had the chance to make something of herself.


    But those people were far away and out of mind now. None of them mattered. The girl cared little if they thought she was long dead. The only reason the girl still remembered them was because of her burning desire to prove them wrong, and she would, once her soulmate finally arrived. And what better way to get on his good side than to offer him a gift? He¡¯ll love it, she thought, just as he¡¯ll come to love me too.


    The girl looked down at her lap, where her materials lay. She had decided on a pair of matching bracelets. One already adorned her wrist, and the other was still in the process of being completed. They were made of strong, interwoven strands of red twine, so thick so that they wouldn¡¯t break, enchanted by the tailor she¡¯d purchased them from so that they would not wear out over time.  It¡¯s a more meaningful gift if I made them myself, she thought to herself. It had taken many tries but at long last, she¡¯d made the bracelets to her liking. It wasn¡¯t like I didn¡¯t have time, she reflected bitterly. It had taken her a little over a month to make them acceptable.


    And when that was done, there were the charms. Made of bone from a tarketan, she¡¯d acquired them from a merchant traveling along the roads. She¡¯d pestered him until he sold her a bone that she could carve that wouldn¡¯t get scratched or break. Now, she was in the process of hooking the untouched bone charm onto the unfinished bracelet. The charm would soon bear the same sigil she¡¯d etched into the one on her own wrist.  The sigil stood for, ¡°predestined.¡±


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    In her homeland, a belief prevailed that no matter how far away two soulmates were born destiny tied them together with an unbreakable red thread. They would meet someday, fall in love, and live together for as long as fate allowed. Nothing could break this thread, not even time or death, as the thread even bound their souls together as they waited to be reincarnated. As a child, she¡¯d believed in this wholeheartedly and wondered who her soulmate would be.


    Suddenly, a presence weighed down upon the girl, like some creature climbing onto her back.The demon had returned. Like an incorporeal fog, the entity settled around the girl, almost threatening to imbalance her from her branch. The discomfort was only temporary; the pressure relented as the girl waited for the demon to settle beside her.


    The girl had seen the demon¡¯s true form in her dreams. That form was inaccessible to the demon at present, as circumstances prevented her from manifesting a physical form. The girl thought the demon beautiful, regal even, befitting her claims as a being of immense power and wisdom. If all went to plan, the girl would meet the demon in person soon enough. If things went according to plan, that is.


    It was a few minutes before either of them spoke. The demon¡¯s sultry voice whispered into the girl¡¯s ear. ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll be ready? This is what you¡¯ve spent years preparing for,¡± the voice cooed. The girl smiled the kind of lop-sided smile a young girl would make when she was about to concoct some mischief.


    ¡°Of course I am,¡± she reassured the demon. ¡°Everything will go exactly as it should. You¡¯re sure he¡¯s coming?¡±


    The demon sounded offended. ¡°My child, have I ever lied to you? Need I remind you that I gain nothing by not fulfilling your wishes? The ethereal voice seemed to roll off the demon¡¯s nonexistent tongue like melted caramel. ¡°You want what you want, and I want to help you achieve it. Because in the end-¡± the demon prompted.


    ¡° -getting what I want helps you get what you want.¡± The girl finished.


    ¡°Can I see him one more time?¡± She implored. The demon sighed in exasperation.


    ¡°You are so very needy, child. You can wait another month, can¡¯t you?¡± The girl chewed her lip. She knew the answer to that, but didn¡¯t feel like saying it out loud.


    ¡°Oh, very well.¡± The girl went back to carving the charm in her lap. She jabbed the bone with her knife. She was allowing the demon to dictate quite a few things, including her appearance, on little more than the demon¡¯s confidence that she was right. The girl even agreed to wear a new set of clothes the way the demon had insisted upon because it would appeal to her soulmate. She¡¯d acquired them in the nearby city just today and she was none too pleased with them.


    Her new dress included a skirt that was a little too short for the girl¡¯s liking, lace stockings; a corset that ended just below the girl¡¯s chest, and the neck of her robe plunged too far for the girl¡¯s taste. She¡¯d sewn lines of thread into the bottom of the split-open neckline to make it less likely for her chest to spill out, which was the only time she¡¯d defied the demon¡¯s insistence that ¡°¡®men were quite susceptible to such displays¡¯¡±. The demon protested but ultimately allowed the modifications.


    The girl¡¯s focus was entirely on the bracelet. As hours flew by, she remained dedicated to her task. Eventually she even forgot about the demon still watching as she worked. Only once did her clumsy fingers slip; she narrowly avoided slicing her finger with the knife. The girl clucked her tongue and then went back to work more carefully this time. I got a little carried away there, she thought. I need to slow down a little. She took a deep breath in, let it out in one giant sigh, and then began to work again, taking care not to repeat her actions. You can¡¯t let your excitement get the better of you, she said to herself with some irritation.


    She kept on carving with a slow and uneducated hand. Hopefully, her soul mate would look past the little imperfections and see only the amount of hard and earnest work she was putting into the bracelet. She smiled, a heat in her cheeks making them flush. Of course he would.And because he was the one, he¡¯d look past her disheveled exterior and see something of worth in her.


    At last, the last notch was made. She held up the charm, an almost perfect copy of the one around her wrist. Smiling wide, she looped the charm into the newly made bracelet, tying off the end tightly. ¡°Soon,¡± she said to the empty night, speaking to the demon who was there and yet not there. ¡°Soon this will adorn the wrist of my one true love.¡±


    The sound of the demon¡¯s voice echoed in the girl¡¯s ear again. ¡°Yes, yes it will. But first we must wait. And you should save your strength. When he comes, we¡¯ll have to put on a show. Test him to see if he is indeed worthy.¡± The girl shook her head.


    ¡°No, he is already worthy. He was worthy the very first moment I laid eyes on him. I just need to make him aware of that. And I think I know just how.¡±


    ¡°How, dear child?¡± The girl could almost envision the lopsided smirk spreading across the nonexistent face of the demon as the question was asked.


    The girl dangled the bracelet before her eyes. It was ugly yet beautiful. It would make the perfect gift. That moment when they stood face to face, the moment when she would profess her undying love¡­ it was coming. The girl picked up her new dress and slipped off the tree branch, landing on the ground with a soft crinkling of leaves. She walked towards a nearby cave, a stone opening stretching down into inscrutable darkness. She held the bracelet tight.


    ¡°By making him feel like the hero he is.¡±


    With that, the girl disappeared into the cave with her demon. She walked deep into the dark recesses and followed a path she could see even in total blackness. Finally, on the cold stone ground she curled into a ball. One more month and all of her pain, patience, and sacrifices would be validated.


    As the girl closed her eyes, a tear rolled from one of them. It was not one of sadness, or of great relief. It was of joy that she would finally be given what she deserved. As the girl nodded off into the solace of dreams, the demon did not. Instead, she chuckled to herself. Everything was going according to plan. For she too was waiting for the girl¡¯s ¡°soulmate¡± for her own reasons.


    ¡°One more month, my child,¡± she whispered. With a hand that was not truly there, she ran her fingers across the girl¡¯s cheek, lightly. ¡°One more month and we both get exactly what we want.¡±


    Then there was silence, except for the low cackling of a satisfied monster echoing from the depths of the cave.

 B2 Chapter 1: Alicia: Here There Be Witches

    I¡¯d been out in the wide world for a little over a few weeks now, and I didn¡¯t like it.


    My boots had stopped crunching through black sand and lifeless dirt. After a while, we¡¯d finally reached a point where the dirty black and brown gave way to green, and even the occasional flower dotting the landscape. We were rapidly approaching the limits of my country¡¯s territory.


    According to my companions, Alverd and Kuro, we were nearing what little woodland Ishmar possessed along its southeastern border. As we got further from the Castle of Brimstone, I was experiencing my fair share of new sights and sensations. Thinking about how the state in which we¡¯d left made my heart fall into my stomach though. I felt a familiar, gnawing pain start to eat at my chest and I had to force it back down before it could take hold of me.


    Out here, away from the capitol, nothing mattered but the law of the strong. Out here it didn¡¯t matter that I was, or rather, had been a princess. I had only two men I barely knew to guide me, and who were partially responsible for the mess I was in.


    A sudden blast of cold wind made me pull the tattered cape I¡¯d been given closer around me. I edged closer to the dying campfire. Kuro had insisted on only a small fire, easily doused if attention was drawn to us. Feverishly, I rubbed my hands together before facing my palms towards the flames. All of this was a far cry from what I was used to, even if I had had some training in survival out in the wild.


    I, Alicia Helgart Irva Dragontamer VIII, until just recently, had been one of eight people in line for the throne of Ishmar. I was the youngest member of my family, hence why everyone looked down on me for being ¡°the runt of the litter¡±. All of that meant little, now, since my home was in complete disarray, and many of my siblings were either dead or in no shape to assume the throne.


    My half-brother Marcus, the First Prince of Ishmar, decided that he wanted to do away with the centuries-old traditions of our home and seize the throne for himself. In doing so, he orchestrated the deaths of my father, my half-brother Edgar, and countless innocent people. In the end, he didn¡¯t even succeed, and the rest of my family was either dead or missing. It hurt to leave the only home I¡¯d ever known in such a way, but I had no choice in the matter.


    Even though I was unsure of the fates of most of my half-siblings, I knew one thing for certain. My elder sister Eliza had proven herself to be the vilest of them all. Worst yet, I had good reason to believe that she had somehow survived the tornado that had destroyed the Arena, which had been conjured by one of the young men who had started the whole mess.


    I brooded in front of the campfire, staring into the embers. Kuro rolled over in his sleep, mumbling to himself under his breath. Kuro was a mage, which made him one of Ishmar¡¯s greatest enemies. Mages were one of the few people able to fight dragons on their own, and as such they were very threatening to the dragon riders that made up much of Ishmar¡¯s military forces.


    If the mages of the Monarchy of Algrustos were anything like him, then it was little wonder why the war between them and Ishmar had never really gone anywhere. An army of dragons and their riders against an army of mages who wielded the elements seemed like a war destined to stagnate. Of course, Kuro was the only mage I¡¯d ever met in the flesh, so maybe I was being premature in thinking all mages were like him.


    He was overly sarcastic and very pessimistic, and he didn¡¯t always show the proper respect I deserved as his employer, master and superior. He had big black bags under his eyes and when he wasn¡¯t being a royal pain in my arse he was being a pain in the arse to his friend or whoever else was around. His hair always looked like it wasn¡¯t washed and he slouched constantly. He was also pathetically short, barely any taller than me. Other than his magical ability, he wasn¡¯t good for anything more than practice for my hammer.


    However, I did owe him. Towards the end of our misadventure, he stood with me against my jealous siblings. He had my back, an Ishmarian, someone he had a right to hold a grudge against, but instead he had swallowed his pride and helped me fend off four of my royal siblings when it counted. I still didn¡¯t fully understand the depth of his feelings about my people, but at the very least, we could be more or less civil towards each other.


    I shifted my weight slightly, pulling the dragon egg I had stolen from my pouch so I could hold it to the fire. I¡¯d lost the dragon that was my bond-mate to a misunderstanding. Kuro and his friend Alverd had stumbled across my dragon while I was on a training outing and killed it. That one event had set off the whole debacle that had ended in me being here now. When the egg hatched, it would bond with me and I would finally have a chance to start anew. Hopefully.


    I was reminded of the injury in my right leg. Just a little something to remember home by, it was something one of my siblings had inflicted before we had fled. Kuro¡¯s lack of knowledge regarding healing magic meant that he could not heal the injury, although he could cast a basic pain-killer spell that nullified the throbbing for a while. It was obviously wearing off.


    It was nothing new to me that Kuro was being inconsistently helpful. Alverd was much more dependable in every regard.


    As if on cue, Alverd walked out of the darkness and sat in front of the fire. Despite having been on his feet for close to two-thirds of the day now I could see in his eyes that he was still alert to any danger lurking in the dark. He took a seat in front of the fire and threw some branches he¡¯d gathered into it, prompting it to throw sparks into the air. He carefully stoked the fire with one of the branches until it began to grow, then tossed it into the pile. I moved closer to the fire.


    Unlike Kuro, Alverd was quite striking. He was very handsome, with fair brown hair and clear lake-blue eyes. He wore battle-scarred armor that seemed to augment his reassuring aura of courage and confidence. He was also obedient and chivalrous, and had treated me with nothing but decency and respect. Yes, I much preferred Alverd¡¯s company than Kuro¡¯s.


    N-Not that I liked him or anything like that. I mean, it was thanks to Alverd that my dragon died in the first place. Ironically, if not for his slaying of my dragon, I might not even be alive now. I¡¯d lost count of how many times he¡¯d saved my life over the past few weeks. When you also took into account what my father had done to his home, it was even more unbelievable.


    Alverd and Kuro once lived in a country called Marevar, the breadbasket of our continent of Selarune. But one day, about four or five years ago, my father decided to invade Marevar, shattering the neutrality truce the country had with its neighbors on all sides. It was now an annexed territory of Ishmar, with only a small city on its southern border maintaining independence with the help of a foreign ally¡¯s army.


    At the time, I¡¯d been too young to participate. And after the war, my father began to change his views on Ishmar¡¯s standing in the world. I learned later that he had pinned his hopes on me, thinking that I would change our beloved country for the better. It was a lot to place on my shoulders. I didn¡¯t know if I was still able to carry out his ambitions anymore.


    But there was a darker side to Alverd. He¡¯d done things he was ashamed of, things I didn¡¯t understand fully. He spoke of being a deserter, of how he ran from his home during our invasion. In my culture, being a deserter was a mark of deepest shame. It was cowardice, plain and simple. Yet Alverd was no coward in my eyes. He¡¯d abandoned his post to save his friends. I didn¡¯t see that as the act of a coward.


    I wasn¡¯t sure Alverd was as convinced of that as I was, though.


    I wasn¡¯t involved in the war that cost him his home and his friends and family. But that didn¡¯t mean I was blameless. If my father was still alive, he would¡¯ve left me to fix his mistakes and make amends for the crimes my country had committed against Marevar. I wasn¡¯t a diplomat, though. I didn¡¯t know the first thing about any of that.


    Alverd didn¡¯t seem to blame anyone for the deed other than himself. I mean, I would¡¯ve understood if he desired revenge, like Kuro did, but instead, Alverd was more private about it. He told me that the man responsible for Marevar¡¯s destruction was dead, and that nothing could be done about avenging his friends and family. I wasn¡¯t sure if I fully believed that. I still didn¡¯t know him well enough to know if he was capable of lying that well, but every instinct I had told me to trust him. He¡¯d proven reliable so far.


    Alverd left me to watch over his sleeping companion while he went off to gather ingredients for a balm that I could apply to my leg. That alone told me that he trusted me, at least. When he returned, I watched as he mixed the plants in a bowl and ground them up. Eventually, he added some water to turn it into a paste. He handed me the bowl, and I applied it to my swollen leg. I nodded to him in thanks.


    Alverd stared into the fire. Time seemed to stand still while the two of us sat in awkward silence, with only the crackling of the fire and the ambient sounds of the nocturnal wildlife to accompany us. Crickets chirped in the tall grass and a wolf howled in the not-so-far-off distance. When Alverd finally broke the silence, I nearly jumped in surprise.


    ¡°So¡­Princess, have you given any more thought as to what you wish to do?¡±


    Ugh. Princess. I had told Alverd not to refer to me as such at least six times over the past few weeks, but still he chose to do so. I was no longer a princess. I had no power or authority. His decision to refer to me as such was a formality. Again, I tried to remind Alverd of this, but this time I decided to try a new approach.


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    ¡°You know, I¡¯ve told you that I¡¯m technically no longer a princess. I don¡¯t have the right to lay claim to such a title. So why do you insist on referring to me as such?¡± Alverd seemed to consider my words carefully. When he spoke it was in an even tone, as if he had anticipated such a question and had an answer waiting for me.


    ¡°Just because you have no power or fancy clothes or a crown does not mean you are not a princess, milady. I continue to serve because you are a princess in spirit. You have a noble soul, even if you have, forgive my bluntness, a rough exterior. In spite of that, you care for your charges in your own way. Even if you had only rags and were unable to pay us, I would still consider you a princess because of your concern for your people.¡±


    I felt a surge of heat rise up in my face. I quickly averted my gaze so Alverd couldn¡¯t see my face flushing.


    ¡°D-D-Don¡¯t say such stupid things! You don¡¯t mean any of it! You have to say that because I¡¯m your employer and I¡¯d clobber you if you didn¡¯t!¡± When Alverd didn¡¯t respond, I timidly turned my face back to see what he was doing. He was beaming at me with that stupidly charming smile that seemed to make my anger just¡­ fade away.


    It was partly a reflex on my part that I said such a thing. ¡°Urgh. I can¡¯t believe you can just say that with a straight face to me. Lucky for you, you¡¯re not like those sycophants I knew growing up. So I¡¯ll let you get away with it now. Don¡¯t think you can just flatter me so flagrantly.¡± Secretly though, I could still feel my heart hammering in my chest a little.


    Alverd was still looking at me. His expression hadn¡¯t changed, although he was now looking me straight in the eye. When he saw that he¡¯d gained my attention again, his smile got a little bit wider.


    Uuuggghhh. I wanted to be mad. But looking at that smile, there was no way in hell I could still be mad. I¡¯d have to be a real downer to still be angry after looking at that brilliant smile. I smiled back at him. When Alverd saw the smile stretch across my face, his own grew wider in victory, to the point where I wondered how it could even still fit on his face. Then the smiles faded and the moment passed. We stared into the fire again, listening to the crickets.


    Kuro turned over in his sleep again, muttering something about how mage girls needed shorter skirts or some perverted nonsense. I made a mental note to smack him later for being such a pig, and to ask Alverd about the ¡°reasoning¡± behind Kuro¡¯s sleep-talking. Alverd chuckled at his friend¡¯s sleep-induced ramblings.


    Finally, Alverd manned up and asked me the pertinent question again.


    ¡°Princess, where is it that you wish to go? We cannot stay in Ishmar, or else we risk Eliza¡¯s wrath. Kuro and I have been in this type of situation before, and staying in the country is a very bad idea.¡± I recognized Alverd¡¯s question for what it was: he was fishing for an answer. ¡°Of course, our solution wasn¡¯t all that much more effective, either.¡±


    Right. Alverd told me that before he and Kuro ended up in Ishmar, they had been hired for a job in the country of Guilford, a country Ishmar had bribed to stay neutral during the invasion in exchange for a cut of the profits for the conquest. The two mercenaries decided that, instead of being hanged for a crime they didn¡¯t commit, they would flee to Ishmar, seeing as how there would be no extradition, and then find their way to a different country. That plan had backfired when they got tangled up in the political upheaval that eventually ended with the three of us on the run from my half-sister Eliza.


    The question was: where would we go? Would Eliza bother sending assassins after me? I wondered. Deacon, Deanna, Shannon and Leila aren¡¯t exactly smart, but together they are dangerous. Given that the four of them had worked together to try and kill me, they¡¯d do the same to beat Eliza.


    I didn¡¯t have that luxury, I had to leave. Yet, I didn¡¯t fully believe it. I don¡¯t think I have the strength to leave my home the way it is. I stammered, but ultimately nothing came out of my mouth.


    Alverd sat there, mulling it over. Now, I never pegged Alverd as smart. Loyal, maybe, courageous, definitely, but smart, no. Kuro said as much, too. So when Alverd opened his mouth and suggested something utterly outrageous, I was half-expecting it. And yet, Alverd¡¯s idea was so out there that even I was completely shocked that he would even suggest it.


    ¡°How about Algrustos?¡±


    ¡°You have to be kidding me,¡± I sputtered. The Monarchy of Algrustos was the nation on Ishmar¡¯s eastern border. It was populated by mages. However, these weren¡¯t just your run-of-the-mill mages, like Kuro. Algrustos was powerful and militant, and they had no qualms about using their magic for war. I had heard many rumors about how Algrustian politics made Ishmar¡¯s look tame by comparison.


    Every Ishmarian soldier had a horror story to tell about the mages of Algrustos. During my berserker training, I¡¯d heard my instructor tell stories about fighting demons and even the shambling undead during a border skirmish. Such practices were considered to be the work of pure evil. I¡¯d never experienced magic used until meeting Kuro. And his magic was weak by mage standards, if my instructor was to be believed.


    So for Alverd to suggest such a thing was dumb. Absolutely dumb. He wanted to dive out of the cooking pan and into the fire. I could feel my mouth open, but what came out was ¡°uhhhh¡­¡±. It was just such a dumb idea. I couldn¡¯t see his reasoning. Meanwhile, my mouth just stayed as it was, half open and gawky.


    Alverd continued, ¡°If we flee to Algrustos, we will be out of your sister¡¯s reach. It¡¯s a gamble, but given what Kuro knows about Algrustian border protocols, the border guardsmen have to report any captives to their superiors in Ethenia, the capital city. If we surrender to a patrol, your identity as a princess of Ishmar could get us an audience with the Witch-Queen.¡±


    As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. ¡°It seems like a long shot. But we do have a saying in Ishmar: the truest path is straight through the heart of the flame. It¡¯ll be dangerous and it might not even work, but if it gets us before the Witch-Queen then that¡¯s half our problem solved already.¡±


    From what little I knew, the current ruler of Algrustos was a young woman, barely older than me. Apparently, there had been some kind of assassination attempt when she was young, or something. It had happened about twenty years ago before I was even born. The Algrustians had declared war on us and pushed into our territory, but suddenly the deaths of their Wizard-King and Witch-Queen had halted the attack.


    The Prime Minister, acting as regent, denounced Ishmar for the deed, but negotiated a cease-fire; he would pull all Algrustian forces from our territory in exchange for the safety of his troops. My father had agreed to the terms, and the Algrustians retreated with no fear of pursuit from Ishmarian forces.


    The assassination attempt had failed to kill the baby daughter of the royal family. Hopefully, she was someone I could negotiate with. I wasn¡¯t confident about it though, especially if she also believed that Ishmar had been behind the deaths of her parents. Assassination wasn¡¯t typically how we solved our problems; Marcus and Eliza had been outliers. If she went into that negotiation already holding such prejudice, then any peace talks would likely be doomed from the start.


    Unfortunately, as far as options went, I didn¡¯t have a better one.


    Even if she didn¡¯t think we had assassinated her parents, it was a gamble. If the Witch-Queen hated Ishmarians as much as the next Algrustian, then we were sunk. I doubted she would take the news of a potential invasion by Ishmar led by a bloodthirsty psychopath like Eliza lightly. In fact, she might even mistake my warning for a formal declaration of war. The last thing I wanted was for Ishmar to reignite a full war with Algrustos.


    I didn¡¯t want that. I didn¡¯t want more suffering. Even though I¡¯d never seen death or pain on the same scale as Kuro or Alverd, I was appalled by it all the same. My people had so much blood on their hands, and as their future ruler that blame fell squarely on my shoulders. Even if I offered the Witch-Queen peace, I¡¯d be bargaining for the moon with only a handful of dust to trade. But still, I had to try.


    My half-sister Eliza would find some way to claim the throne, of this I was certain, and when she did, the people would never rally behind her, not after she oppressed them. My sister knew only the path of the soldier, and would likely declare martial law. The people would chafe under her short leash, and eventually they would demand her abdication. So if I were to return to dethrone her, they would support me wholeheartedly. To do that, I would need an army, I thought. If I can appeal to the Witch-Queen of Algrustos, I could reclaim my home. It was asking a great deal, but it was the only plan I had.


    ¡°Alright, you win. We¡¯ll go to Algrustos. Maybe we can appeal to the Witch-Queen. The sooner we get moving, the better.¡± I slipped the dragon egg back into my pouch, and laid down on my cloth sleeping cloak, slathering the rest of the paste on my leg. The stars overhead were brighter than I had ever seen them, as if they were telling me to remain hopeful.


    Alverd leaned back, his smile still on his face. ¡°I had a feeling you would decide this. I hear that she is just and wise, unlike her predecessors, and if nothing else, we are guaranteed a fair hearing. I¡¯m sure she desires peace and cooperation as much as you, Princess. We¡¯ll have plenty to worry about in the future. For now, we should enjoy what peace we have.¡±


    With that, Alverd dug the toe of his armored boot into Kuro¡¯s back. The mage muttered something about black gartered stockings before waking up.


    ¡°Gaahhh. Alverd, if you want to wake me up, just shake me or something.¡± With that, Kuro grabbed his wooden staff and shambled off to take his turn as the night watch.


    Alverd, fully armored still, laid down and gazed up at the endless sky. Within seconds, his eyes closed and his breathing slowed, and he slipped into blissful slumber. I took a moment to glance at Kuro, now sitting on a nearby log with that same surly look on his face. ¡°What are you looking at, huh? There something on my face?¡± He growled at me. I stuck my tongue out at him. Yeah. I definitely liked Alverd more than this moron.


    Kuro grimaced at me. ¡°You better get your rest, Your Highness.¡± He made a sound under his breath that sounded an awful lot like a snort. ¡°Come a few hours, it¡¯ll be your turn to stand watch. Princess or no, everyone pulls their weight out here.¡± He pulled his staff close to his chest. ¡°What were you and Alverd talking about? He was making an awfully smug expression before he went to sleep.¡±


    I glared at him. ¡°Nothing you need to worry about, spellslinger. You worry about the watch.¡±


    Kuro snorted again. ¡°Fine, fine. Don¡¯t tell me. I¡¯ll just ask Alverd about it in the morning. Have a nice rest, Your Highness.¡± He had that snooty tone when he said it. And yet, even though it irritated me, I found it oddly refreshing. Kuro wasn¡¯t the kind of person who hid what he was thinking. I found it oddly refreshing. He was more honest with me than even Alverd was.


    Not that I¡¯d ever give him the satisfaction of knowing that, of course.


    Exhausted, I settled back and looked up at the sky. Never before had I ever noticed how beautiful the stars were. I had taken this view for granted. Only now, when I was about to lose it all, did I fully appreciate it. So I laid there and took in the view of the night sky.


    I still had hope. For now, it was all I had.

 B2 Chapter 2: Alicia: No Mans Land (Edit Version)

    Say what you will about Algrustians, they know how to police their borders.


    But I¡¯m getting ahead of myself. It took four days for us to reach Ishmar¡¯s eastern border, and another day to travel along the border to a point that wasn¡¯t being actively guarded by Ishmarian soldiers. It would take another day to reach the Algrustian border, provided we didn¡¯t run into one of their reconnaissance parties through the heart of no man¡¯s land.


    No man¡¯s land. The stretch of territory between the established borders of the two nations. A desolate place scarred by centuries of battle, inhospitable and unforgiving. There would be little place to hide there, and it would be crawling with bands of scouts from both sides probing enemy lines, looking for spies attempting to cross over. Traversing it would be no easy task, though once we were firmly within the Algrustian side of the territory, we could surrender ourselves to the first patrol we came across, and that would be that.


    Speaking of which, Kuro was not pleased when we informed him of the plan. At first he laughed for two minutes straight. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t kid with me about a stupid idea like that,¡± he said as he finally managed to regain some control of himself. Alverd waited patiently for Kuro to stop chuckling before he repeated himself. ¡°It¡¯s not a joke, Kuro. We¡¯re crossing into Algrustos. As per the will of our contractor, if I might add.¡±


    Kuro turned livid. ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware we took suicide missions, Alverd. Especially not from people who don¡¯t actually have money.¡± His sullen gaze fell on me. ¡°All she has is that fancy sword of hers. And even if she did have money, the answer would still be no.¡± I growled at him. ¡°You don¡¯t have a choice. I¡¯ve made my decision, and it¡¯s your job to do as I say.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t care if the Sword of Evros is the most priceless thing in existence. Money is no good if you¡¯re too dead to spend it. We could easily just turn south and head somewhere else. I hear Shardin is nice this time of year.¡± I gripped the handle of my maul and his eyes grew a little wider. Alverd stepped in between us with his hands up. ¡°Enough! There¡¯s no need for you two to fight. We know where we¡¯re going. No sense arguing about it now.¡±


    The sword in question was hanging from Alverd¡¯s belt like it belonged there. Forged from the tooth of the great Mother Dragon Evros, progenitor of all dragons, its unnaturally sharp blade could slice through steel. When I had used it to pay for Alverd and Kuro¡¯s services, Alverd had reasoned that it was beyond what was owed, and thus they continued to serve me much to Kuro¡¯s chagrin.


    ¡°Do you have any idea what Algrustian mages are like?¡± Kuro was distraught. ¡°Algrustian mages know all manner of dark magics, from necromancy to demon summoning. They treat such magic as common practice, and you want to go there and talk to their Witch-Queen? You truly are insane. She¡¯ll have our heads roll for her dinner entertainment, and that¡¯s actually if we survive to meet her. The border guard all know how to raise the dead, at the very least, and you think we can just waltz past them?¡±


    Necromancy. I was not familiar with the practice. ¡°Necromancy? What¡¯s that?¡± Kuro had to stop in the middle of his rant to look at me. ¡°Necromancy is the art of raising the dead, but it isn¡¯t as flowery as bringing loved ones back. Instead, it takes dead bodies and infuses them with a mockery of life, making them slaves of the mage who conjured them. Necromantic slaves are nigh invincible and relentless. It takes a great deal of power or the death of the necromancer to stop the reanimated. And that¡¯s just the tip of the iceberg.¡±


    Kuro began waving his arms to make himself look bigger and more intimidating, which only made him look more clownish. ¡°Some Algrustian mages can even summon demons. Big, foul-tempered beings from parallel dimensions that crave human flesh. Algrustian border guards are known for feeding spies to demons they summon purely for entertainment, and you want to cross over the border illegally and tempt their wrath?¡±


    Alverd grabbed Kuro¡¯s arms, and the squirrelly mage stopped bouncing. ¡°Peace, Kuro. Hear me out, old friend. We don¡¯t plan on entering the country illegally. If we announce our presence to the Border Guard, then we could be taken before the Witch-Queen. If we say that we have a Princess of Ishmar with us that chance increases. Look, I know it¡¯s a dumb plan, but we don¡¯t really have much in the way of options.¡±


    Kuro visibly sagged at that point. ¡°Very well. But don¡¯t blame me when the Border Guard gets their jollies by watching our corpses dance the Algrustian Tango.¡± The haggard-looking mage ambled off in the direction of the border. Alverd and I somberly followed.


    Between Alverd¡¯s balm and Kuro¡¯s painkiller spell, I found that movement was tolerable, if still annoying. I walked with a noticeable limp, and struggled to keep the bag with my precious dragon egg from bouncing around too much. Alverd offered his arm to steady me, but I refused his offer every time until, at last, I found that I could bear it no longer. I leaned on the armor-clad knight and he braced me with his shoulder.


    Being so close to Alverd was¡­ odd. He¡¯s just a mercenary. He fights for money and that¡¯s that. But he was¡­ how do I describe it? I don¡¯t have to have my walls up around him all the time. He¡¯s not like those phony sycophants who tried to earn my favor so they could advance themselves in the court. He smiled at me again and I tried to hide the color in my face as I leaned against him. So why do I feel so conflicted in his presence?


    I could not understand what this feeling was. Was it guilt? That seemed the most likely. Here he was, doing his utmost to help me, and I still didn¡¯t trust him fully. He was willing to throw his life away for his precious honor, long after that honor should have gotten him killed, and here I was, doubting him. I felt sick to my stomach. But for the life of me, I could not understand why. I shook the thoughts from my head. They were distractions. There would be plenty of time to think about them later.


    I lost count of the hours as we trekked slowly through no man¡¯s land. We passed by craters and large ditches, and the remains of fallen soldiers. One such was an Ishmarian. He was little more than a skeleton inside his rusty black armor, leaning against the skeletal remains of a dragon. The dragon¡¯s bones had been bleached white, and its massive jaws and rows of teeth were quite visible. The soldier was still clutching a spear in one hand, as though his last moments had been of defiant resistance. A clean, perfectly circular hole punched through his breastplate told me that he had probably been killed with a blast of magic.


    Nearby was a group of fallen scouts. Four skeletons lay in a jumbled heap not twenty feet away from the corpse of the Ishmarian soldier. Their mouths were all open, like they had died screaming, and the bones were charred black like the ash they laid in. Whatever weapons they had had either burned away or simply rotted from exposure into dust. These men were Algrustians. Even without colors or flags, I could tell. A death from dragon¡¯s fire was not something one easily forgets.


    Eventually, the blackened landscape started to give way to a less depressing atmosphere. The black ash of Ishmar started to turn into brown soil and overgrown grass. It was the first thing I noticed as we continued walking. I was actually surprised to see anything growing at all. We were still quite far into no man¡¯s land, and I expected that the entire place would just be death and lifelessness.


    Alverd had something philosophical to say, which I¡¯d grown accustomed to by this point. ¡°Even in death¡¯s wake, life flourishes¡­it makes me think that our plan isn¡¯t so foolish. If life can go on even despite this, then maybe our plan to forge an alliance between Ishmar and Algrustos really can happen. Can¡¯t you imagine it, Princess?¡±


    I nodded my head. ¡°Yes. It may be crazy, but I really do believe now that it¡¯s the right thing to do.¡± A little ways in front of me, Kuro snorted. I didn¡¯t pay him any mind. I wasn¡¯t looking to start a fight, and it was the last thing I needed.


    Soon enough, the vegetation grew more diverse. The tall grass reached my waist. Fortunately, a dirt road had been paved through the area, and we were making good time despite my injury. We took breaks every so often so that Kuro could renew the spell he had cast on my leg, since we had long since run out of the paste Alverd had made for me. I felt like a burden. The two mercenaries were doing their best to make progress despite my injury, and even Kuro was valiantly trying not to insult me, even in jest.Maybe I¡¯d lucked out in more ways than I had originally thought.


    We only had one incident on the road leading to the border. Despite looking as though he would collapse from exhaustion at any moment, Kuro had extremely sharp eyesight. ¡°The only reason I¡¯m still alive today,¡± he joked, ¡°is that I¡¯m paranoid as hell. Also I¡¯m pretty smart, but mostly the paranoia bit.¡± At one point during our trek he stopped, stood up ramrod straight, and then dove off the path and into the tall grass lining the road. Alverd and I followed suit, and the three of us crawled away from the road. Five minutes later, a large patrol came marching down the very path we had been treading.


    I had never seen Algrustian soldiers before. I assumed that, like all mages, they wore robes like Kuro, carrying staves and rods and broomsticks. And of course, all the stories I had heard never failed to mention pointy hats. But seeing the mages in person, at the height of their alertness, was another matter entirely.


    The man in the lead wore a cuirass of a material I had never seen before. It was too garish to be leather, and it was fastened over the man¡¯s body in ways that differed from the armor worn by Ishmarian dragon tamers. His hips and legs also bore plates of the same material, and his forearms and shoulders had the same armor bent around them and fastened with belts. On his back, he carried a staff that was easily longer than he was tall. He moved with the discipline of a soldier, as though he were expecting to burst into movement at a moment¡¯s notice.


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    The rest of his entourage was dressed more in the style I was expecting. There were ten men and women, each wearing long-sleeved robes with a pointed hat, the colors differing from red to green to blue to gold. Each carried a staff with a small jewel embedded in the top, simple weapons that fit the Algrustrians¡¯ pragmatic approach to their combat equipment. On the front of each mage¡¯s robe was an emblem: two criss-crossed staves with a flame hovering over them. The rear of the group was made up of an odd carriage pulled by a team of jet-black horses.The carriage was well-crafted, yet not ostentatious enough to warrant more than a passing glance. It probably belonged to some field commander on inspection. The group continued its solemn procession, unaware of our presence.


    We waited and waited, not daring to breathe, until the sounds of the horses and the stomping feet had faded into the distance. I noticed again how close Alverd¡¯s handsome face was to mine and felt the same heat burning my cheeks. Had he turned his head to look at me, he would have seen it plain as day.


    Get a hold of yourself! I thought to myself. You are a princess of Ishmar, not some smitten child. I shook off my embarrassment and strained my ears to listen for the carriage. A few seconds later the rumblings of the wheels disappeared from earshot. Only then did we emerge from the grass and resume our journey into the heart of the lion¡¯s den.


    The quiet became unsettling after yet another hour of following the road, counting my steps to keep me sane. I decided to break the ice by appealing to Kuro¡¯s pride. ¡°So, Kuro, what kinds of magic do the mages of Algrustos practice? Other than necromancy and demon summoning, I mean?¡±


    Kuro didn¡¯t even turn to face me, which caused a short flare of anger in my chest, which I held down with some difficulty.


    ¡°Well, I would imagine that every mage learns to use the five cardinal elements of nature. Those are the basics of attack magic. All mages learn that the elemental forces of wind, lightning, water, fire, and earth can be called upon to grant a mage strength and focus. I did it multiple times back in Ishmar. That¡¯s elemancy, or standard attack magic.¡±


    He turned around and started walking backwards, in order to emphasize his lecture with hand gestures. ¡°Then, there¡¯s alchemy, although technically that¡¯s not really magic. It¡¯s more like science, which is magic that is accomplished through the manipulation of the laws of reality. After that, there¡¯s shamanism, which teaches people to seek insight from animals and nature. There¡¯s also narcomancy, which allows the user to see into and manipulate other peoples¡¯ dreams.¡±


    Kuro began counting on his fingers. ¡°There¡¯s also good old-fashioned healing magic, which can cure anything from the common cold to gaping wounds. Shapeshifting allows mages to change their physical appearance, and finally there¡¯s what I call ¡®ambush magic¡¯, or runecraft. It¡¯s pretty amazing stuff.¡±


    I had never realized that there were so many different types of magic. My knowledge of magic was limited to what I had seen Kuro do, and he mostly favored his ¡°elemancy¡±, which I knew was beyond destructive. A brief memory of the Ishmarian Arena being torn apart by a tornado crossed my mind. I brushed aside the memory, focusing on the now. ¡°Ambush magic? Why would you prefer that name over its actual name?¡±


    Kuro grinned mischievously. ¡°Ambush magic is a far more fitting term to refer to magic that has to be set up waaaaaay in advance. Usually it involves sigils or glyphs, which can take hours to trace, in order to entrap their victims. A mage has to cast the glyph like any other spell, and then the spell itself only activates if certain requirements are met or if the caster triggers it. It¡¯s basically a big magical booby trap.¡±


    Suddenly, the smile on Kuro¡¯s face vanished. He motioned for us to stop. I prepared myself to jump into the tall grass again, but this time, Kuro held his staff forward over the dirt road ahead. At first, I thought he was just being stupid again, but then his staff pushed against something in the air. I could see what looked like ripples in a pond emanating from where the staff had touched, and the air distorted slightly, as if I were looking at a heat mirage.


    Alverd grimaced. ¡°Speak of the devil. One step further and that spell would have gone off.¡± Kuro began muttering some sort of incantation under his breath, waving his staff in the air in circles. ¡°Heavens know what kind of nasty effect that kind of spell would have, but this close to the Algrustian border, I imagine it would have been¡­ unpleasant.¡± As Alverd finished his sentiment, Kuro swept his arm across the obstruction. There was a sound similar to breaking glass, and a blast of wind shot out from nowhere. I braced against it, and it washed over me harmlessly.


    Kuro laughed manically. ¡°Hah! You¡¯d think the Algrustian Border Guard would have better guard spells this close to the end of no man¡¯s land, or at least do better in hiding them! That spell would have blown us to smithereens if I hadn¡¯t caught it!¡± He began dancing a weird little jig in place. ¡°So long as we go further up the road, we should be fine. The border shouldn¡¯t be any more than a few hours away. Then we find a patrol, surrender and then we meet the Witch-Queen. And hopefully, we don¡¯t die.¡±


    Kuro began goose-stepping forward while laughing uproariously. We followed suit, shaking our heads. I hadn¡¯t seen him in such high spirits in a while, and it was oddly refreshing to see him not sulking or pouting or just being¡­him. We were having so much fun; it was hard to believe that we were on our way into enemy territory with an uncertain plan that was practically doomed to failure.


    It was enough to distract us from the next ambush.


    There was no deafening explosion, no flash of light, no disorientation or trauma. One moment there was empty space and the next, there were walls of translucent light all around us, boxing us in. The sparkling walls of light quickly began forming a dome over our heads, attempting to trap us inside. Kuro reacted quickly. In a blast of wind, he lifted Alverd and I up and out of the shrinking hole at the top of the trap, and we barely made it out before the magical cage sealed shut. We landed just outside in a heap.


    As if to compound our shame, the earth outside the prison erupted. Eight beams of light burst from the ground, and from each leapt a staff wielding mage, each wearing the same colored cuirass as the soldier we had seen before. The leader, a severe-looking woman with long blonde hair tied in a braid, wore armor similar to the one I had seen on the patrol leader earlier. She also carried an air of authority, which set her aside from her peers. She motioned to her allies, and they surrounded us methodically and without hesitation. Four of the mages took up position around us with their long staves pointed at us.


    With a feral scream I rushed blindly at the closest man. I swung my maul at him, all the while feeling the stinging pain in my leg. He deftly parried my attack with his quarterstaff, moving with speed equal to my own. He pushed me back with a double-fisted thrust and blasted me with a bolt of lightning that emerged from the tip of his staff. The bolt hit me in the knee, and I fell to the ground screaming in pain. My entire leg then suddenly went numb, and when I tried to move it, it didn¡¯t respond.


    That didn¡¯t just happen. I couldn¡¯t make sense of it. Everything I¡¯d been led to believe about Algrustians was that they were our martial inferiors. Yet this mage just outmaneuvered and disabled me in seconds. What just happened? This warrior mage had taken me out of the fight faster than any Ishmarian berserker or even Black Scale Legionnaire could¡¯ve hoped. As my head made contact with the dirt, I lay there, still trying to understand what had happened.


    Alverd ran to my side, fending off the mages by pointing the Sword of Evros at them. At this point he was more concerned with defending me than attacking them. ¡°Please!¡± He cried as he waved the Sword frantically, putting his arm around my waist to pull me closer to him. ¡°We don¡¯t mean any harm. We came seeking help. She was just startled, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Once we were contained, the woman spoke a single word. ¡°Disperse.¡± With that, the walls surrounding Kuro fell away, and the mages closed in, taking Kuro by force and throwing him in with me and Alverd. Alverd placed himself squarely between me and the leader, lowering the Sword of Evros to make himself look less threatening. There was no way he could take all of the mages, but it was good to see him prioritizing his defense of his comrades rather than just taking a swing against bad odds. But I guess Alverd knew that force was no longer a viable option, because he lowered his sword. Instead, he tried to appeal to the leader again.


    ¡°Please, we are not here to cause trouble. If you allow us, we can explain everything. There¡¯s no need for further hostilities. On this, I swear.¡± He gestured towards me. ¡°This is Alicia of the royal family of Ishmar. She has procured our services in order to be brought here, to Ishmar.¡± The leader furrowed her brow, although the confused look on her face faded quickly.


    ¡°There will be no more talk while you have weapons. Lay them down, and we can have palaver. It¡¯s either that, or I leave you here for the carrion birds.¡± She clucked her tongue impatiently, her gaze still fixed on Alverd¡¯s sword.


    Alverd and Kuro immediately put their weapons on the ground, and I reluctantly did so as well. As much as I hated the idea of my weapon being taken, I had to do what I was told. This was what we expected, after all. Several mages stepped forth to take our weapons. When they had done so, a look of disgust spread across the woman''s face when she spied the tiara on my head. I saw her eyes narrow as she counted the eight sapphires set in the small headpiece, verifying Alverd¡¯s claim for herself. When she spoke, her voice was dripping with venom.


    ¡°Wonderful. And to what do we owe the unexpected pleasure of a visit from Ishmarian royalty? If I¡¯m not mistaken, the Eighth Princess herself?¡± The jewel embedded in the handle of her staff glowed ominously as she planted it firmly on the ground. Some of the mages chuckled to themselves. I was surprised that the Border Guard knew how to identify me, although it might have made sense in hindsight. A target like me would make a fine prize for her superiors, and now she¡¯d probably get a promotion for turning me in.


    Alverd stepped forth, his arms still up in the air. ¡°Good ser, we have business with the Witch-Queen. We seek an audience with her, and would be most grateful if you would take us to see her. It is a matter of grave importance.¡± His face was completely serious.


    The mage soldiers all laughed in disbelief, but the woman didn¡¯t bat an eyelash. She made a chopping motion with her hand, and the soldiers¡¯ laughter ceased immediately. Then she stared at me again.


    ¡°That¡¯s Captain Irina McFarlane to you, outsider. You have strange companions, lizard princess. It is within my authority to kill you all and be back at the barracks in an hour for afternoon tea and crumpets, but the presence of a mage changes things.¡± She gestured at Kuro, who let his mouth fall open dumbly.


    ¡°There may yet be truth in what you say,¡± she continued. ¡°I¡¯ll take you back to the forward operating base. Lord Albrecht can decide what happens to you from there. Personally, I hope the lot of you are all full of it. We haven¡¯t had a decent execution in years.¡± McFarlane waved her hand at her troops, and they stepped back into a flanking position. Her soldiers boxed the three of us in, cutting off any hope of escape. Not that I¡¯d get very far on my injured leg. And with that, we began our slow march to the Algrustian border with our new escorts.


    So far, everything I had heard about Algrustian mages had proven true. They were smart, cunning, tenacious and capable. Many of the finest strategists in Ishmar were stymied time and time again by the utter chaos the mages could unleash on their well-thought-out battle plans. I could only hope that the Queen herself was different from the mages we had just encountered.


    If not, the negotiations were going to be very short indeed.

 B2 Chapter 3: Kuro: Warm Welcomes (Raw Version)

    I never expected my fellow mages to be so hostile. Then again, I didn¡¯t know what to expect, so I guess their treatment of us was pretty standard in retrospect.


    It took only an hour, like Captain McFarlane said, to reach the barracks for the Border Guard. As soon as we arrived, a group of guards ran up and pointed their combat staves at us. They also got chains and manacles for us. We each had our feet and hands bound together, and then we were roped together like a bloody chain gang. I didn¡¯t like where this was going.


    I guess I¡¯m both surprised and not surprised this is the second time in a short while that I¡¯m being led away in chains. It hadn¡¯t been all that long ago that Alverd and I had been captured by Alicia¡¯s bodyguards. I think that says a lot about the kind of life I lead. Nothing good, for sure.


    Alicia put on a brave face as we had our hands and ankles secured with our new restraints. I could see her stoic expression waver, however, when the mages prodded her to move along. By now, the mages were well aware of her limp, although none of them made any move to accommodate her injury. We¡¯d walked that entire hour with her suppressing any wincing or utterances of pain. Even now she still has her pride. Can¡¯t exactly blame her. Were I in her shoes, I could guarantee that I wouldn¡¯t be as able to hold my head high and soldier through it.


    The compound itself was a miniature fortress. Walls of stone reached more than fifty feet high, with mage guards patrolling the parapets, watching for any infiltrators or scouts. We were ushered through the front gate to what looked like a command post, where we had been fitted with chains. McFarlane took a moment to speak with the man at the post, probably the one in charge of the compound. He waved us all in the direction of what he called ¡°the barracks¡± and we were subsequently sent in that direction by McFarlane and her soldiers.


    McFarlane must have caught me staring at the guards, because she came over and threw her arm over my shoulder, sneering at me. ¡°You should be impressed. When your enemy can come swooping down from the sky at any moment, you have to be prepared. There are dozens of forts like this scattered along our border, ready to defend against the barbarians at a moment¡¯s notice.¡± Pushing her face uncomfortably close to mind, she drew her finger across her throat slowly. ¡°I almost want them to come. Nothing would please me more than to swat some pompous dragon rider right out of the sky.


    Her men, and a few of the nearby guards, laughed and raised their staves in a cheer. Alicia looked distraught at their gung-ho attitudes. If this is the mindset of the people, she¡¯s got her work cut out for her, I thought. She¡¯s got to undo centuries of prejudice to pull this off. McFarlane released me and gave me a slap on the back to keep me moving. Alverd, for his part, walked in silence, his face serene.


    The mage barracks weren¡¯t anything special. It was a series of buildings and facilities housing about fifty men and women, providing places for them to sleep, store their weapons and armor, train or simply relax on their downtime. We passed a group of mages performing a group exercise, where they were all working together to draw some arcane symbol in the air, probably some more ambush magic to replace the trap that we had fallen prey to earlier.


    Alicia paused in midstep to watch the mages. McFarlane came over to get her moving again, but before she could strike or push the princess, she spoke. ¡°Do all of you really hate us so much?¡± The captain looked genuinely taken aback by the question. Her men fell silent, anticipating her response.


    The captain folded her arms somberly. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve seen what your Black Scale Legionnaires do in the field, princess, but I¡¯m going to assume you don¡¯t.¡± She pulled at her collar, yanking it aside. A jagged scar ran down her neck past the collarbone; I¡¯d bet good money that scar went for quite a ways further than that. ¡°They don¡¯t care who gets in their path. Man, woman, child? No difference to them. They¡¯re not soldiers.¡±


    She leaned in close to Alicia, her face turning vicious. ¡°They¡¯re animals. Murderers. They¡¯re worse than your berserkers. At least a berserker is so high on their rage they can¡¯t truly be blamed for what they do most of the time. It¡¯s like letting a feral dog off a leash.¡± Alicia flinched at the mention of berserkers. McFarlane may not have known it but her attacks were starting to get more than a little personal.


    ¡°A Legionnaire is fully aware of what they do. And they choose to do it even when they have the chance to think about what it is they¡¯re about to do. So when they slaughter people who can¡¯t fight back, they do it because they want to. Killing a berserker is like putting down a sick animal. Killing a Legionnaire is doing the whole damn bloody world a service.¡±


    Another cheer arose from the assembled mages. McFarlane put her arm on Alicia¡¯s shoulder and shoved her, albeit more lightly than her men had, to get her moving again. ¡°I want to say that killing Ishmarians is just my job, princess. I knew what I was going to do when I signed up for this army. But there¡¯s nothing that says you can¡¯t enjoy your job.¡± She leered at Alicia again, looking quite pleased with herself for putting the small princess in her place.


    Alicia swiveled her head around to glare at McFarlane. ¡°I thought you had a point right up until you said that last part. Frankly, I don¡¯t see any difference between you and a Legionnaire if that¡¯s the way you rationalize things.¡± All the mages nearby stopped their joint exercise and their mouths fell open. Even Alverd paused, and his expression told me he was preparing to leap to Alicia¡¯s defense if McFarlane tried anything.


    His concern was unnecessary. McFarlane scowled, then answered. ¡°Maybe if people like the Legionnaires didn¡¯t exist, soldiers like me wouldn¡¯t be needed to keep them in check, princess.¡± She shoved Alicia again, this time much harder. ¡°The only way you fight a monster is if you get monsters of your own.¡± The march continued, with a far heavier air hanging over us all. I bit my lip. This was going south fast.


    Captain McFarlane brought us to one building that was a bit larger than the rest, and hustled us into a room that was devoid of features, except for a small pedestal with a clear glass ball sitting on top of it. It was a bubble, a magical communication device that allowed conversation over long distances.


    She impatiently pushed us over to the glass ball, then waved her hand over it. The ball glowed for a moment, then smoke began swirling inside of it. When the smoke cleared, a man appeared. He was middle-aged with a sharp, angular face, and he was wearing a decadent robe with all the prestige of a noble. He had brownish hair that was flecked with streaks of gray, a short goatee with similar streaks, and very noticeable cheekbones. When the image of the man solidified, it spoke. ¡°Captain. I trust you have a good reason for using the emergency contact bubble?¡±


    Alicia¡¯s mouth fell open as she stared at the bubble. It was her first time seeing such a device; in Ishmar, her home, magic had been strictly outlawed, so even such a convenient innovation as the bubble was considered taboo. It was just another piece of evidence that supported the theory that Algrustos had the means to stand on equal footing with, maybe even surpass, Ishmar¡¯s military prowess. Poor girl. A lot of firsts for her today. Wish they could be more pleasant.


    While Alicia stood marveling at the magnificent device, Captain McFarlane bowed deeply. ¡°Lord Albrecht, I have several¡­prisoners who wish to be brought before the Witch-Queen. One of them is a princess from Ishmar. They were captured while attempting to illegally cross the border. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re telling the truth that they wish to simply speak to the Witch-Queen, but I can verify that the girl IS the Eighth Princess.¡± She reached over, plucked the tiara off Alicia¡¯s head, and held it in front of the bubble. Alicia growled, but could do nothing.


    The man called Lord Albrecht conversed with someone outside the glass ball¡¯s sight. After a moment of feverish debate, he addressed Captain McFarlane again. ¡°Captain, I have talked the matter over with the Witch-Queen. She is intrigued by the implications, and wants to meet this princess. You are hereby ordered to bring the princess and her companions before the Witch-Queen as soon as possible. I have a unit near your area. I¡¯ll redirect them to your outpost to aid you in delivering the prisoners to the Ivory Court. Expect them within a day. Until then, guard the prisoners with your lives. Lord Albrecht out.¡±


    With that, the figure of Lord Albrecht disappeared, and smoke engulfed the interior of the bubble. McFarlane turned to us, and motioned to the guards still standing behind us. They pulled us out of the room and back outside to the grounds, leading us to another section of the camp. An ominous looking building rose up before us, outfitted with bars over its windows and heavy steel doors. We were ushered into the prison by McFarlane¡¯s soldiers. As the last man entered, he sealed the massive bolt on the door, and as it slid into place, my heart sank. There¡¯d be no escape that way.


    The three of us were thrown into a cell. Given the building¡¯s dilapidated appearance, I thought that the cell would be cut-rate, but alas, disappointment seemed to be the special of the day. Bars of magically reinforced, alchemically forged dormicite, the hardest known substance in the world and highly resistant to magic to boot, served to imprison us. This is why it doesn¡¯t pay to be an optimist, I thought to myself. I resigned myself to my fate immediately. Alicia, on the other hand, began slamming her fists against the bars in a rage.


    ¡°That won¡¯t do a damn thing and you know it.¡± I muttered. I looked at Alverd. He had seated himself on an empty bunk and taken up his meditation again. Despite his armor, I could see his body shifting as he breathed deeply, rising and falling as he calmed himself. Alicia continued to futilely attack the bars. I saw a familiar look in her eyes and shuddered.


    If Alicia went berserk here in this cell, Alverd and I would effectively be trapped in a cage with someone who could probably rip my arms out of their sockets and then beat me to death with them. I forgot. It¡¯s never so bad that it can¡¯t somehow get worse. I edged away from Alicia slowly, trying not to gain her attention. I found a corner and shrunk into it as much as I could.


    Alicia screamed in frustration, kicked the bars one final time with her good leg, and then hobbled away to sit on the bunk next to Alverd. She crossed her arms and scowled. ¡°You could at least give us some food! Or some medicine for my leg!¡± A guard seated at his post down at the end of the hall snorted and guffawed at her. ¡°Keep it down in there, ¡®Your Highness¡¯. As much as your screeching amuses me, I need to catch up on my beauty sleep.¡± The guard returned to his ¡°beauty sleep¡± as Alicia turned to me. She seized control of my collar, pulling my face close to hers.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°This is all your fault, Kuro! These are your people! Do something!¡± She began shaking me back and forth, and my head lolled uncontrollably. After a moment, she relented, and gibberish tumbled out of my mouth. I got my act together and tried to placate the ornery princess.


    ¡°Look,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Even if these mages would listen to me, do you really think they¡¯d do anything? Think about this for a moment. You represent everything these people hate. If anything, they¡¯d make our ¡®accommodations¡¯ even shabbier. Count your blessings, Princess. We could be in some rat-infested hellhole. Instead, this cell is really not bad. So why don¡¯t you just settle down? We¡¯ll only be here for about a day or so. Then¡­well, then it¡¯s up to Fate, really.¡±


    I don¡¯t think I said the right thing, because Alicia¡¯s eyes narrowed and that dull look appeared in her eyes again. Her grip on my collar tightened and she held up her fist. Her knuckles were white from how tightly they were clenched, and I could hear her fingers grinding against her palms. I gulped. ¡°Alicia! It¡¯s not my fault! Really! There¡¯s nothing I can do! Please don¡¯t kill me! I didn¡¯t do anything! Not in the face! Anywhere but the face!¡± I threw up my hands to shield my face.


    Alverd had no intention of allowing Alicia to splatter me across the walls, however. He gently pulled the feisty princess off of me. ¡°Princess, this is no way to act. Please let go of my friend. It is as he says. No one is to blame for what happened.¡± Alicia grumbled under her breath, then finally let go of me. Alverd continued. ¡°Besides, this is exactly what we wanted. We should be able to reach the Ivory Court faster than we intended. Once we explain everything to the Witch-Queen, everything should be fine.¡±


    I breathed a sigh of relief. Alverd was always the diplomatic sort, which was why I saw him as the official ¡°leader¡± of our little group, despite Alicia¡¯s status as former royalty. Before, I¡¯d harbored some disdain for that overly positive attitude, but now I was appreciating it more and more. If it kept Alicia from beating me senseless, then I was okay with his idealistic tendencies. Sometimes you learn something you never knew about the people you thought you knew best.


    Alicia snorted. ¡°I hope you¡¯re right. After this reception I don¡¯t have high hopes. Worst of all, she could see this as a provocation and declare war on Ishmar. There are too many things that could go wrong, Alverd.¡± Alicia folded her arms across her chest and flopped down on the bunk, staring at my friend with pleading eyes.


    I had to admit, she had a point. The Witch-Queen was the big unknown at this point. Granted, the fact that she wanted the three of us delivered intact indicated that she wanted to speak with us at the very least, but that still guaranteed nothing. She could easily dispose of us afterward. Maybe she simply wished to grill us for information before getting rid of us.


    Alverd was unfazed by Alicia¡¯s words. ¡°There¡¯s no point in thinking about what might happen now. Worrying will accomplish nothing. We should instead focus on what we intend to tell the Witch-Queen. That you are an exile seeking a potential alliance in order to regain control of your homeland, in order to seal a more permanent peace between your countries. If we are sincere, and show that we have nothing to hide, then the Witch-Queen will have no reason to suspect us.¡±


    Despite my best efforts, I had to roll my eyes at Alverd¡¯s naivet¨¦. ¡°I¡¯m sure the Witch-Queen will look at us making doe eyes at her and just agree to everything we ask, Alverd.¡± This whole plan was crazy. It had been crazy the moment these two had thought it up, and it hadn¡¯t gotten any saner since. Again, it was out of my hands, since we were technically still ¡°employed¡± by Alicia, so all my whining and begging did little to sway Alverd into backing out of the whole mess.


    At least Alicia was starting to see reason. I hadn¡¯t expected that from her. Before, she had been all hellbent on meeting the Witch-Queen, but the wind had gone out of those sails pretty quickly. I guess the grim reality has finally sunk in now that we¡¯re imprisoned and looking at execution. I wished it could have come sooner. I was pretty sure at this juncture we were beyond the point of no return.


    Alicia grunted, then moved to the bunk I was seated on. ¡°Ugh, fine. I guess there¡¯s nothing we can really do about it. Maybe the Witch-Queen will be as you say. We¡¯d better hope so. Otherwise, all this will have been for nothing.¡± She started staring at me with a determined glare. I stared back. She glared at me harder; I realized that she wanted to monopolize my bunk for herself. Huh, not a bloody chance in hell. I stared back with malice in my eyes. She responded by raising her curled fist.


    Oh, fine. If you want to be so childish about it, then go ahead, I thought. I pushed myself off the bunk and offered it to her. The princess pushed me aside and laid upon it, pulling the thin blanket over herself. I moved over to where Alverd was sitting on the other bunk. He tossed me the blanket from his bunk.


    ¡°Here, old friend. There¡¯s some room on the floor over here.¡± And with that, he turned over on the bunk and went to sleep. I stood, mouth agape, as the fool shamelessly left me to find some spot on the cold hard ground to sleep.


    Some friends I have. I was beginning to wonder why I stuck around. Mind you, this was just the irritation talking, but I still felt that my attitude was justified. I mean, this was not my fault. None of it was. So why did I have to sleep on the floor? That was discrimination or something. It was unfair. Eventually I gave up on feeling sorry for myself and found a spot near the cell door; I pulled the blanket tight around me to ward off the cold night air. I¡¯d need my strength for tomorrow.


    The next morning, I was roused from sleep by a boot digging into my ribs. The owner, a mean looking man wearing the same kind of armor as Captain McFarlane, dragged me to my feet and barked orders to his men to have the prisoners prepared for transport. I had magic sealing cuffs slapped on my hands as the mages dragged me to a cage on wheels, pulled by horses, in the middle of the barracks. Captain McFarlane, along with the other members of her unit, were standing nearby; the fierce looking woman was having a conversation with the man who had awakened me.


    ¡°I want them where everyone can see them at all times. Don¡¯t let them know, but their lives are considered invaluable. Lord Albrecht wants them brought to the Witch-Queen alive and unharmed. I know it¡¯s hard to follow an order commanding us to protect an Ishmarian, but we have no choice in the matter.¡± The other man spat on the ground and growled something under his breath I couldn¡¯t hear. McFarlane nodded. ¡°Once we get to the capitol it¡¯s someone else¡¯s problem. I don¡¯t like it any more than you do, but I have¡­specific orders to carry out. Just do what you have to.¡± Any attempt to eavesdrop further was interrupted by the arrival of a large carriage, which stopped near where I was standing.


    This carriage was unique in its design, however. While it had the same basic design as a carriage, it had bars along the sides, allowing several mages to grab on and ride along the side, sparing them from walking. McFarlane¡¯s men jumped up on the sides of the carriage, while the Captain herself rode alongside the driver. I saw the other man board a similar carriage just ahead of the cage, also bristling with mages. I sighed heavily. So much for escape, if it was necessary. I did notice, however, that Captain McFarlane was carrying our weaponry in a small holster next to her seat. There would¡¯ve been no need to keep our weapons if they planned to just kill us, I reasoned. And if it comes down to it and we need to make a break for it, we might have a fighting chance with our gear.


    Alverd, Alicia and I were packed into the cage like circus animals. After that, our little convoy departed the outpost and headed due east at a good speed. We rode for nearly a week and a half, passing fortresses and villages, never entering any of them. When we made camp, the mages made every effort to keep a low profile. We were never let out of our cage, except to relieve ourselves, and even then we were guarded heavily. When we needed to resupply, a small group of our captors was sent to procure food and water from said villages. Alicia nudged Alverd after witnessing one such supply run.


    ¡°Why not just pass through the villages? We don¡¯t even turn off the road. I don¡¯t understand.¡± Alverd watched as the mages packed a crate of preserved salted meat into the back of one of their carriages. ¡°They probably don¡¯t want us to draw attention. A heavy escort like this is sure to turn heads.¡± I piped up from the corner. ¡°Maybe they think the villagers might try to harm you, princess. I overhead-¡±


    ¡°You overheard what?¡± The sudden appearance of McFarlane next to the cage made me jump, and I hit my head against the top of the cage. As I nursed the bump on my head, the surly captain crossed her arms. ¡°That I¡¯m to bring you to the Ivory Court unharmed?¡± I nodded, biting back a curse. The captain shrugged without uncrossing her arms. ¡°Believe it or not, there are people out there with even less restraint and tolerance than me. If they saw an Ishmarian, they¡¯d likely take matters into their own hands. I¡¯d prefer that not to happen.¡±


    Alicia scoffed. ¡°Why not? Afraid they¡¯d prove no better than the barbarians they hate so much?¡± McFarlane scowled, then turned away. As she hauled herself back onto her carriage, she called back to us. ¡°Better watch that mouth of yours, princess. I don¡¯t have to harm you to get you to shut up.¡± The cage lurched as our convoy got underway again, and Alicia sulked in the corner.


    Finally, after two and a half weeks of suffering, the capital city of Algrustos, Ethenia, appeared on the horizon. I almost wept for joy. Even if the Witch-Queen executed me, it would mean a sweet release from the torment I had endured for the past month. No doubt about it, I was about to accept my fate no matter how the cards played out at this point.


    Captain McFarlane dropped off of the carriage she was riding and began walking alongside our cage. ¡°You see that, kids? That¡¯s the end of the line. Once we get there, the Witch-Queen decides what to do with you. Me, I can¡¯t wait. I hope she decides you can¡¯t be trusted. Executions are always good for morale, you know. And given what¡¯s going on nowadays, we need morale to be as high as it can be.¡± McFarlane smirked. ¡°Bloody lizard people can kill each other all they like, as far as I¡¯m concerned, because the goddess knows they¡¯re doing a bang up job of it.¡± She spat on the ground contemptuously.


    Alicia obviously didn¡¯t like McFarlane¡¯s tone, because she moved over to where the Captain was walking and let her have it. ¡°You watch your tongue, spellslinger! Even if that¡¯s true, nobody deserves to have their own countrymen out for their blood.¡± Alicia shook the bars impotently. ¡°It¡¯s easy for you to say such things when you¡¯re safe on the other side of these bars, coward!¡± She growled menacingly.


    McFarlane¡¯s face lit up in a tiger-like smile. ¡°Perhaps, lizard princess. But circumstances dictate otherwise, so why don¡¯t you just sit tight and-¡° Suddenly, she broke off, her head jerking to the side. She cocked it sideways, her ear lifted up, to the east. The other mages in the convoy were doing the same. All the horses lurched to a halt. It was then that I noticed that an eerie silence had descended on us. On either side of the paved dirt road, the tall grass was the only thing moving, swaying back and forth slightly in the breeze.


    Without warning, a booming sound rang out. A mere second later, a massive explosion annihilated the carriage ahead of us, blowing it to pieces and sending the horses panicking. A lance of magical energy had slammed into the front of the carriage from the side of the road, obliterating the driver and the entire front end of the vehicle, destroying the horses¡¯ reins and scattering the other mages who had been riding it. They were strewn about by the force of the explosion, dazed but otherwise alright.


    In the space of a second, attackers appeared all around us. From the tall grass, they rose up. Men and women in strange robes, bearing unusual helms that covered their faces. The helms were misshapen and twisted, probably intentionally, to appear disturbed and unnerving. Their robes were red like blood, but covered with wreaths of greenery, which had probably allowed them to hide in the grass. Each carried a long staff, similar to the kind wielded by McFarlane¡¯s troops. They circled us like sharks, just out of reach, waiting, waiting, waiting¡­


    And then one stood up. Her helm was adorned with what looked like rivers of blood cascading from its eye sockets. She raised her staff above her head, and her cohorts shrieked out ululating cries, like ravenous beasts awaiting the slaughter. Over the din, I heard her cry out: ¡°Take them! But spare the dragon princess! We need her alive!¡±


    And then they were upon us.

 B2 Chapter 4: Alicia: The Other Side of the War (Raw)

    If I didn¡¯t hate mages enough already, I definitely hated them now.


    As soon as the masked mage screamed the order, her cronies surged out of the tall grass. Most of them engaged what remained of our escort at close range; a few began flinging magic from a distance. McFarlane, to her credit, recovered quickly. ¡°Get to your feet! Rear guard, move into the grass and counterattack! Front guard, form a line around the prison transport!¡±. The six men and women who had rode on the rear carriage broke formation and began attacking our ambushers at will. The mages up front scrambled over to where we were.


    It was a bloody melee outside our cage. I could barely make sense of the chaos at first. As the battle intensified, however, I began to get my first real look at how mages did combat.


    Those mages who engaged at close range used their long staves to attack, but every now and then, they tried to blast their opponents with bolts of energy launched from the tips. With spins and lunges, these mages demonstrated all the prowess of a properly trained frontline soldier. I was almost mesmerized by them, a carefully choreographed ballet of death taking place mere feet away. It¡¯s so different from the way we Ishmarians fight, I thought. These mages are all so graceful in the way they fight.


    The more I watched, the more the fight made sense to me. The mages twisted their bodies to try and line up their shots even as they spun to avoid being shot in return, all while batting at each other with their staves to throw their enemy off balance. Any error, no matter how small, could give the opponent the chance to end the battle. Other than the magic, they fight just like us. Deep down in my heart, something stirred. We¡¯re more alike than I thought.


    An explosion nearby rocked the cage. A fireball had gone off only a few feet away, rattling our prison and sending two mages spiraling through the air. They looked to be the attackers, as their robes were red and they had strange, animalistic masks that didn¡¯t have equal proportions on both sides. I felt an eerie chill slide up my spine as one of them landed in front of the cage. There was a short, choking gurgle from behind the mask before the body lay still.


    With the speed of a leaping gazelle, one of the ambushers landed in front of the cage. He pointed his staff at us and the tip began to flare with an intense heat as fire was pulled towards it. He means to roast us alive! I looked at Kuro, but he was just as frightened as me. Without his staff, he couldn¡¯t do anything to save us.


    The spell would¡¯ve gone off had one of our guards not intervened. Rolling along the ground, he spun his staff upwards in a rising crescent swing. The attack threw the ambusher¡¯s aim skyward, and his fireball flew up to explode harmlessly above. The two engaged in a quick, vicious exchange of high-speed blows, with the ambusher slamming the guard against our cage. As he tried to aim his staff for the killing blow, however McFarlane¡¯s man bashed his opponent in the head with a vicious horizontal swipe; the sound of the man¡¯s neck snapping was audible even over the sound of battle. The ambusher crumpled to the ground as the guard ran off to assist his fellows.


    I only thought of stopping him when he was too far away to grab. ¡°Hey! Wait! Let us out and we¡¯ll help you! Give us our weapons back!¡± But no one came. As the seconds became minutes, mages fell all around us and nobody came to let us out. Alverd grabbed hold of my wrist and draped his arm over me. ¡°Princess, it isn¡¯t safe. Stay back here and try not to draw attention to us.¡± I could feel my cheeks burning a bit as he pushed me against one of the cage¡¯s corners to cover me with his body.


    Sweet Mother Evros, is now really the time for me to be having these thoughts?


    Thankfully any further inappropriate thoughts were stopped when two of McFarlane¡¯s men stepped in front of our cage. Standing side by side, I was able to see very little of their faces as they were looking away from us, out into the grass. Four ambushers stalked out of the grass, their staves aimed at the two guards. Before my eyes, the two guards lifted their staves in two-handed grips and charged forward.


    As they did, I saw a blade of translucent but seething light emerge from the tip of the guards¡¯ staves, taking the form of thin, ornate blades. Suddenly the guards were wielding spears made of magical energy, not crude wooden sticks. The ambushers didn¡¯t even have time to fall on their behinds before the first two were cut down. These must be the combat mages my berserker instructor told me about, I guessed.


    These ¡°combat mages¡± were some of the most unusual and dangerous of the foes our soldiers had engaged. As a general rule, mages were not suited to fighting a traditional soldier, much less our berserkers. But the Algrustrians had trained some of their number to excel at close range combat with their reinforced staves, fighting like warrior monks while retaining their magical powers. Now that I could see them in person, in action, I was awestruck. They were disciplined, skilled, and very, very deadly.


    Now I know why we¡¯ve never truly invaded Algustos. Our enemy is far stronger than I was ever led to believe. I gained a newfound, albeit reluctant, respect for the mages. The ones still crouched behind the carriage were taking out the ambushers with well-aimed lightning bolts and thrown icicles. I could see McFarlane, standing out in the open with not an ounce of worry, aiming her staff at an ambusher and firing a giant blue beam of light from the jewel embedded in its tip; the beam streaked off and slammed into the torso of her target, and he gave a very short shriek before the beam seared its way through one of his lungs, turning that shriek into a death rattle. He fell, still making that horrid noise.


    Mage combat was so different from what I had expected. In Ishmar, combat was simple; we engaged our foes at point blank, with our weapons. Here, it was about thinking ahead of the enemy, taking aim, and using cover. Imagine what we could accomplish if we worked together, I thought bitterly. Instead we use what makes us different to justify war rather than advocate for coexistence.


    My chain of thought was interrupted when Alverd lurched forward, slamming me against the cage corner and making me hit my head. ¡°Hey! What are you doing? This isn¡¯t the time or place for-¡± Then I saw the coating of ice along his shoulder pauldron, as well as the many tiny needles of ice still embedded in his cape. Had he not been shielding me, that spell might have hit me full force.


    Alverd grunted, his face contorted in pain. Then he tried to smile at me. ¡°Apologies. It isn¡¯t my intention to be so brusque.¡± Another stray chuck of ice rebounded off one of the cage bars and fell to the floor of the cage. The damn thing was bigger than my fist. Alverd winced a bit, but he seemed okay; he had protected me once again. ¡°You don¡¯t have to go to such lengths! I didn¡¯t say you had to kill yourself to-¡± My admonishment was cut short when Kuro gave a yelp and flattened himself to the floor, covering his head with both hands.


    A moment later, a bolt of magic energy struck the ground near our cage, rattling it. One of the ambushers sailed through the air, screaming, his robe engulfed in flame. Several of the defenders who had been dazed by the ambush were now falling back to the burning carriage to regroup, and they were throwing fireballs into the tall grass, igniting it to flush their attackers into the open. Several of the ambushers stumbled out of the grass, trying to flee the fire. They were immediately struck down by our escorts.


    But they could only do so much. Our foes seemed legion; one by one, the mages taking cover were taken down by blasts of magic. I looked at Kuro, who was cowering next to me, and Alverd, who was now struggling with the lock on our cage. Outside, stepping back as she shot blasts of lightning from her staff, Captain McFarlane attempted to rally what remained of our escort. ¡°Form up around the carriage! Flush and eliminate!¡± She leaned down to grab the collar of a guard who had fallen and started dragging him towards the downed vehicle.


    After pulling the man to safety behind the carriage, she leaned out just enough to try and locate any targets. An ambusher appeared from the tall grass, springing up with his staff leveled at the carriage. A howling red blast of fire shot from the staff and slammed into the carriage, rocking it. The mages behind it had to brace it to prevent it from flipping. They can¡¯t hide behind it forever. Sooner or later they¡¯ll get flanked and then they¡¯re done.


    McFarlane peered out from behind the carriage, took a second, and breathed out a cold mist. With a wave of her hand, the mist swirled into solid form, conjuring a lance of ice in her grip. Waiting for a moment, she impaled the ambusher who had struck the carriage when he stood up to attack again. The icicle went into his torso with no resistance, and his spell, a bolt of lightning, shot up into the sky harmlessly. She leaned back behind cover just in time to avoid a fireball, swearing under her breath.


    ¡°Hey!¡± I called out to her. When she looked back at me, I pointed at the ground, where our weapons were lying. ¡°Throw us our weapons! We can help you. Get us out of here!¡± McFarlane grimaced, but when a stray lightning bolt shot past her face, she reached down, grabbed our weapons, and ran to the cage. While McFarlane fiddled with the lock, Alverd pulled the Sword of Evros from its scabbard, its flawless blade pulling free with a metallic ring. McFarlane threw her hands down angrily. ¡°Ach! It¡¯s jammed!¡±


    ¡°Allow me to assist with that.¡± Alverd said calmly as he swung the Sword at the lock. With the ease of a hot knife through butter, the Sword cleaved through the lock and part of the bars. McFarlane¡¯s mouth fell open. ¡°Is that¡­¡± Then she shook her head. ¡°Forget it. Make yourselves useful. Don¡¯t make me regret this.¡± She picked up her staff, and a burning scythe-like blade burst into being at its tip before she ran off.


    With a single swipe, Alverd severed the cuffs on Kuro¡¯s wrists, then removed mine in the same fashion. He handed Kuro his staff, and I grabbed my maul, the familiar weight of the dragon tooth metal feeling most reassuring in my hand. Together, the three of us jumped out of the cage. I winced as I hit the ground, as the impact jarred my leg and sent a fresh jolt of pain searing through my side. Can¡¯t worry about that now, I thought.


    As soon as he hit the ground, Alverd streaked off toward the burning carriage. The mages there had been surrounded and were being overrun by our assailants. The bastards had grown overconfident. A group of them, four in number, were pushing towards the carriage, smashing its remains with a barrage of magic. They didn¡¯t see Alverd coming at all. He charged into their flank and started carving them up with the Sword of Evros. Even if they had been wearing armor it wouldn¡¯t have saved them from the might of Evros; the keen, unnaturally sharp edge of the true dragon tooth metal would have ripped through it like cloth.


    Kuro, on the other hand, took cover by the other carriage and conjured a fireball by¡­pulling fire from his own chest. Mother Evros, no matter how many times I see that, it never ceases to frighten and amaze me. The ball of fire in his left hand swelled as Kuro began to mutter something under his breath. I realized that he was uttering an incantation. I saw his intended target, an ambusher who had isolated himself and was about to use his own incantation to destroy the fortification that the other mages were still using. I only caught the last of Kuro¡¯s words¡­


    ¡°¡­let ash be all that remains!¡±


    Kuro flung the fireball at the ambusher. The ball smashed into the man¡¯s side, and an instant later, exploded with ridiculous force, incinerating him in the space of a millisecond. A shockwave of force threatened to knock me from my feet, flattening the tall grass and exposing a number of other ambushers who were quickly floored by the explosion. However, Kuro¡¯s celebration was cut short, as he leaned on the carriage for support as he caught his breath.


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    I thought as much. As destructive as Kuro was, he had no staying power whatsoever. Sure, I¡¯d seen Kuro do things that boggled the mind. He¡¯d frozen a greater dragon, conjured a tornado, and batted aside dragonfire like it was nothing. But the man had absolutely no ability to pace himself. You couldn¡¯t count on someone who got winded after his first contribution in battle.


    It¡¯s not fair to rag on him all the time, it¡¯s not like he¡¯s without redeeming qualities. Despite being an utter bastard sometimes, I¡¯d also seen him show some nobility too. He had stood up to my sister Eliza, who scared even me, and even survived being on the wrong side of her rapier (quite literally, too). He had been willing to sacrifice himself to save Alverd and I, too. Little bastard has it where it counts, I guess.


    I tightened my grip on my maul, breathing out heavily. My maul was made of pure dragon tooth metal, designed to destroy armor through blunt force, with a long grip that allowed me to wield it with two hands for extra power. I took a second breath, let it out, feeling the familiar haze in my mind grow thicker. I took one last breath, slow, letting it fill up my lungs, preparing for what was to come.


    As my lungs began to fill, I reached deep within and called forth a memory. The memory was crisp, clear, untarnished by age, and played out perfectly in my mind. In it, my late brother Marcus was taunting me, back in the throne room of the Castle of Brimstone. His words seared into me like flaming arrows, and as I recalled them, something began to boil. My blood became like fire, and I could sense my own heart beating faster and faster.


    ¡°You can¡¯t change being the runt of the litter.¡± I could see the sneer as clear as if it had been yesterday and hear the mockery in his voice with perfect clarity. ¡°You¡¯ll never amount to anything. I wouldn¡¯t even consider you useful enough to lick my boots. You¡¯re a whelp and you will always fight for my table scraps like the rest of the dogs you call your siblings.¡± His words became laughter, and his features began to contort as the haze in my head sharpened into focus.


    The sound of Marcus¡¯s cackling laughter was the last straw I needed. Something inside me snapped. Remember what your teacher said. It¡¯s not about letting the rage control you. YOU control IT. I almost envisioned myself wrestling a wild animal, not trying to kill it but to confine it, to make it submit. Your rage is a tool, a weapon, and it is meant to be wielded. I felt my knuckles crack as my fingers tightened around the handle of my maul. With one last grunt, I seized the anger like I was grabbing a person by the neck.


    Your rage is akin to a bursting dam. You don¡¯t fight the river. You don¡¯t turn the river. You don¡¯t swim against the river. Direct the river where it needs to go and watch it sweep your enemy away. The creeds of the berserker echoed in my mind, words I had repeated to my instructors so many times that I could never hope to forget them. I felt my body tense as every muscle prepared to direct my rage where I wanted it to go.


    When I opened my eyes, time appeared to crawl around me. Bolts of lightning and fireballs were suspended in the air, transfixed in flight. This moment, however, was temporary. The moment would only last a heartbeat, and then time would resume; the only difference would be that I would move at a speed that these foolish mages could only pray they could follow, and that their pathetic attempts to wound me would only serve to enrage me further. The pain in my leg faded away, leaving me with a somewhat contradictory sense of peace. It¡¯s always so odd to know that this is what comes before the rage takes over, I mused to myself. It¡¯s like the calm right before the storm.


    Then I became the storm, and struck with the fury of one.


    The first man to feel my wrath lay off to my right. I surged up to him and swung my maul one-handed at his skull. He didn¡¯t even see me until I was right on top of him. The man didn¡¯t have time to scream before my maul smashed his skull like a clay urn. He crumpled to the ground, his staff tumbling from his hands. Even as his body was in mid-fall I was already angling to move towards my next enemy. Another mage, less than ten feet away, a ball of energy forming around the tip of her staff, became the focus of my attention.


    My second victim saw my kill and aimed her staff at me. She screamed in fury and a blast of light emerged from the tip of her staff. I ran toward her, and the blast of light turned into a miniature fireball. The fireball glanced off my thigh, but I didn¡¯t even register the pain. Instead, I opened my mouth and let out a feral roar. The woman fell back, tripped, and tried to aim her staff at me again, but I simply leaped into the air and brought my maul down on her head, same as I did the first man. She didn¡¯t scream either, not that I¡¯d register it in the throes of my trance.


    Something struck me, hard, in the back at that point. There was a muffled sound like a gust of wind rushing through a tunnel. An explosion? I turned in the direction of the attack to see the leader, Bloodface, her staff pointed at me. She twirled the staff, and started speaking the words of an incantation. I tried to move, but found that I couldn¡¯t move my leg; I looked down to see that blood was streaming from an open wound. The injury I had sustained prior had turned my fractured leg into a full-blown broken bone.


    You idiot, you pushed too hard. You know better than this. You can¡¯t squeeze blood from a stone. Only a fool tries to ignore their own limit. One of the only disadvantages of berserking was that while one could ignore pain, it also meant you ignored what was wrong with your body. Pain was a natural indicator that your body was sustaining damage. So while I didn¡¯t feel pain from the leg wound, it also meant I hadn¡¯t realized it was there until I could no longer move my leg. I cursed myself for forgetting such a basic lesson. It was one of the first things my instructor had drilled into me during my days in berserker training.


    Bloodface aimed the staff at me. Her incantation complete, a golden ball of light blazed to life at the tip of her staff. Over the noise, she screamed. ¡°It is unfortunate that this must play out this way, but we will make our intention clear! Death to Ishmar! Glory to Algrustos! Down with the Witch-Que-¡°


    And then a golden bolt of lightning slammed into Bloodface¡¯s torso. It knocked the crazy spellslinger off her feet and her staff out of her hands. I looked behind me, and saw Kuro, still holding onto the carriage, his staff held out before him, still struggling to catch his breath. He gave me a sarcastic salute and fell to the ground, wheezing. I couldn¡¯t stop myself from smirking, satisfied that he couldn¡¯t see me doing it. Like I said. Kind of a bastard, but not all that bad.


    Alverd ran over to where Bloodface lay on the ground, gasping for breath. He hauled her up, and her mask fell away, revealing a haggard looking woman with heavy bags under her eyes. Her brown hair was a mess, and had mud and twigs floating around in it. I guessed that she must have been waiting for days to prepare this ambush. When McFarlane came over to see her, Bloodface laughed eerily.


    ¡°You think this changes anything?¡± Bloodface wheezed. ¡°So I failed. There will be others. No one in this country will sit idly by while the lizard people lie vulnerable. They have wronged us, and now is the time to settle the score. We will not be silent. If the Witch-Queen will not move, then she must be made to see!¡± Bloodface cackled again, though it soon devolved into a hacking cough.


    McFarlane hit Bloodface, hard. ¡°You know not what you speak, rabble-rouser! The Witch-Queen will do what she decides is best for us. If she decides that the Ishmarians can kill themselves without our involvement, then that is her will. I¡¯m perfectly willing to wait until Ishmar destroys itself. But then, a traitor like you wouldn¡¯t know the first thing about patience, now would you?¡±


    Bloodface laughed. ¡°You¡¯re just a bitch, an attack dog on the Prime Minister¡¯s leash. Who¡¯s the real traitor? And there will be more of me, bitch. Just wait and see.¡± Suddenly, Bloodface¡¯s hands lit up, and fire appeared in them.


    McFarlane leapt back. Alverd pushed Bloodface away, but it proved to be unnecessary. Instead of turning the flame on us, Bloodface simply stood there, and the flame spread from her hands to the rest of her body. Within moments, her entire body was ablaze. The only thing left was her laughter, and that soon faded as well, leaving only the crackling of the fire.


    McFarlane spat on the ground, cursing to herself. She called out for her troops to fall in. Of the fourteen men and women who had been assigned to protect us, only six remained, herself included. She ordered the five remaining mages to take the bodies of their fallen comrades and load them into the cage and remaining carriage, so that they could be given a proper burial in the capital.


    I have to give her credit. Even after a battle like that, she still knows what needs to be done. And she has enough compassion to show her own men, at least. Despite the circumstances, despite being a career soldier, she still cared about her troops, even the deceased ones, enough to go to such lengths. I half-expected her to throw me, Alverd and Kuro back in the cage and push on, but instead, she asked us to help look out for further ambushes on the way to the capital. That surprised me, but it was a welcome change.


    One of McFarlane¡¯s men saw to my leg. ¡°It¡¯s broken. Bleeding is probably the bone slicing it open from the inside.¡± I winced at his description of the injury. He looked at me incredulously. ¡°You¡¯re grossed out by that? I thought you berserkers were all made of iron or something.¡± I glared at him. ¡°I¡¯m human like anyone else, jerk. You cut me, I bleed. Just takes me longer to feel it than you would.¡± He smirked at me. ¡°True enough.¡±


    The mage whispered arcane words and passed his hand over my leg, and a tingly sensation overrode the pain; within moments, the pain subsided and I could walk perfectly. The wound had sealed and the blood was easily wiped away. ¡°Um,¡± I stammered. He looked at me quizzically. I swallowed the lump in my throat. ¡°Thanks. For the healing.¡± He shrugged. ¡°I mean, I¡¯d probably be dead if you and your buddies hadn¡¯t gone in and helped us out. So call it even, princess. Not saying I¡¯m ready to bury the hatchet but you saved our lives and that¡¯s good enough for me, right now.¡±


    I tilted my head. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re okay with it.¡± He shrugged again, letting out a heavy sigh. ¡°Not everybody is a hardliner like the Captain. I¡¯m out here doing my job. Killing may be part of it, but it¡¯s not something I enjoy. And believe it or not, not everyone in Algrustos thinks we should march straight to Ishmar and turn it into a smoking crater.¡± He pat me on the leg where the wound had been. ¡°I¡¯d keep the weight off it for a while. Give it a day or two and you¡¯ll be walking just fine.¡±


    As he stood up, he surveyed the area. Our battle had gouged deep wounds in the ground, the bodies of fallen mages were strewn everywhere, and the tall grass was still on fire. ¡°If the Captain says you¡¯re talking about peace, then I say let you speak to the Witch-Queen. People can demand war all they want, at the end of the day it¡¯s the soldiers who have to fight it, and see stuff like this.¡± He looked me straight in the eye, and I could see weariness in them. ¡°If you can help stop that, what¡¯s the harm in trying?¡±


    Somehow, despite all of our differences, I couldn¡¯t help but agree. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡± He nodded at me before walking away to tend to his comrades. ¡°That¡¯s all one can do sometimes.¡±


    It took less than ten minutes to load up all of the corpses of McFarlane¡¯s fallen escorts. It felt disrespectful to pack five of them in the cage, because we had to stack them like firewood to fit. McFarlane¡¯s eyes were still filled with sorrow. After Kuro and I closed the door on the cage, she came over to the two of us and lowered her head. ¡°Peace to you, brothers and sisters. I will see you home, at the very least.¡± She then walked back to the head of the convoy, her expression grim. We decided not to say anything. Sometimes there really just isn¡¯t anything that can be said. Better to just say nothing at that point.


    Another half day¡¯s march, and the front gate of Ethenia finally appeared before us. The gate guards were initially quite suspicious, but as soon as Captain McFarlane stepped forward to vouch for us, they stepped back and opened the gate. McFarlane spoke to us one last time as the guards called over reinforcements to handle the carriage and cage full of bodies. ¡°You¡¯ve done a great deal more for me than I expected, Princess. I don¡¯t know if what you wish to say to our Witch-Queen will be received well, but I hope it goes well, at the very least.¡± I nodded. ¡°Thank you, Captain. I want to prove to your ruler that there doesn¡¯t have to be war between us.¡±


    Alverd smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°The Princess is very sincere. Hopefully the Witch-Queen will see that.¡± McFarlane scoffed just as the guards from the palace to escort us. ¡°Well, here¡¯s hoping then, eh?¡± With a nod, the two new guards turned around and marched up the street at a brisk pace. We were taken through busy streets and crowded squares straight to the Ivory Palace, so called for the absolute white gleam of its parapets and walls.


    McFarlane brought us all the way to the door of the throne room. She told us that this was as far as she would go; she had reports to file and troops to bury. My heart went out to her, but I had an important task of my own to perform. This was it. Beyond the door was the Witch-Queen. The woman I had to convince to ally with me. I had no idea who she was, what her beliefs were or how she would react. If there was ever a time to take a leap of faith, it was now.


    The guards opened the door, and after a moment¡¯s hesitation, I stepped through, into the Ivory Court.

 B2 Chapter 3: Kuro: Warm Welcomes (Edit)

    I never expected my fellow mages to be so hostile. Then again, I didn¡¯t know what to expect, so I guess their treatment of us was pretty standard in retrospect.


    It took only an hour, like Captain McFarlane said, to reach the barracks for the Border Guard. As soon as we arrived, a group of guards ran up and pointed their combat staves at us. They also got chains and manacles for us. We each had our feet and hands bound together, and then we were roped together like a bloody chain gang. I didn¡¯t like where this was going.


    I guess I¡¯m both surprised and not surprised this is the second time in a short while that I¡¯m being led away in chains. It hadn¡¯t been all that long ago that Alverd and I had been captured by Alicia¡¯s bodyguards. Says a lot about the kind of life I lead.


    Alicia put on a brave face, but I could see her stoic expression waver when the mages prodded her to move along. By now, the mages were well aware of her limp, although none of them made any move to accommodate her injury. We¡¯d walked that entire hour with her suppressing any wincing or utterances of pain. Even now she still has her pride. Can¡¯t exactly blame her. Were I in her shoes, I could guarantee that I wouldn¡¯t be  able to hold my head high and soldier through it.


    The compound itself was a miniature fortress. Walls of stone reached more than fifty feet high with mage guards patrolling the parapets, watching for any infiltrators or scouts. We were ushered through the front gate to what looked like a command post, where we had been fitted with chains. McFarlane took a moment to speak with the man at the post, probably the one in charge of the compound. He waved us all in the direction of what he called ¡°the barracks¡± and we were subsequently sent in that direction by her and her soldiers.


    McFarlane must have caught me staring at the guards, because she came over and threw her arm over my shoulder, sneering at me. ¡°You should be impressed. When your enemy can come swooping down from the sky at any moment, you have to be prepared. There are dozens of forts like this scattered along our border, ready to defend against the barbarians at a moment¡¯s notice.¡± Pushing her face uncomfortably close to mine, she drew her finger across her throat slowly. ¡°I almost want them to come. Nothing would please me more than to swat some pompous dragon rider right out of the sky.


    Her men, and a few of the nearby guards, laughed and raised their staves in a cheer. Alicia looked distraught at their gung-ho attitudes. If this is the mindset of the people, she¡¯s got her work cut out for her, I thought. She¡¯s got to undo centuries of prejudice to pull this off. McFarlane released me and gave me a slap on the back to keep me moving. Alverd, for his part, walked in silence, his face serene.


    The mage barracks weren¡¯t anything special. It was a series of buildings and facilities housing about fifty men and women, providing places for them to sleep, store their weapons and armor, train or simply relax on their downtime. We passed a group of mages performing a group exercise, where they were all working together to draw some arcane symbol in the air, probably some more ambush magic to replace the trap that we had fallen prey to earlier.


    Alicia paused  midstep to watch the mages. McFarlane came over to get her moving again, but before she could strike or push the princess, she spoke. ¡°Do all of you really hate us so much?¡± The captain looked genuinely taken aback by the question. Her men fell silent, anticipating her response.


    The captain folded her arms somberly. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve seen what your Black Scale Legionnaires do in the field, princess, but I¡¯m going to assume you don¡¯t.¡± She pulled at her collar, yanking it aside. A jagged scar ran down her neck past the collarbone. ¡°They don¡¯t care who gets in their path. Man, woman, child? No difference to them. They¡¯re not soldiers.¡±She leaned in close to Alicia, her face turning vicious. ¡°They¡¯re animals. Murderers. They¡¯re worse than your berserkers. At least a berserker is so high on their rage they can¡¯t truly be blamed for what they do most of the time. It¡¯s like letting a feral dog off a leash.¡± Alicia flinched at the mention of berserkers.


    ¡°A Legionnaire is fully aware of what they do. And they choose to do it even when they have the chance to think about what it is they¡¯re about to do. So when they slaughter people who can¡¯t fight back, they do it because they want to. Killing a berserker is like putting down a sick animal. Killing a Legionnaire is doing the whole damn bloody world a service.¡± Another cheer arose from the assembled mages. McFarlane put her arm on Alicia¡¯s shoulder and shoved her, albeit more lightly than her men had, to get her moving again. ¡°I want to say that killing Ishmarians is just my job, princess. I knew what I was going to do when I signed up for this army. But there¡¯s nothing that says you can¡¯t enjoy your job.¡± She leered at Alicia.


    Alicia swiveled her head around to glare at her. ¡°I thought you had a point right up until you said that last part. Frankly, I don¡¯t see any difference between you and a Legionnaire if that¡¯s the way you rationalize things.¡± All the mages nearby stopped their joint exercise and their mouths fell open. Even Alverd paused, and his expression told me he was preparing to leap to Alicia¡¯s defense if McFarlane tried anything.


    His concern was unnecessary. McFarlane scowled, then answered. ¡°Maybe if people like the Legionnaires didn¡¯t exist, soldiers like me wouldn¡¯t be needed to keep them in check, princess.¡± She shoved Alicia much harder. ¡°The only way you fight a monster is if you get monsters of your own.¡± The march continued, with a far heavier air hanging over us all. I bit my lip. This was going south fast.


    Captain McFarlane brought us to one building that was a bit larger than the rest, and hustled us into a room that was devoid of features, except for a small pedestal with a clear glass ball sitting on top of it. It was a bubble, a magical communication device that allowed conversation over long distances.


    She impatiently pushed us over to the glass ball, then waved her hand over it. The ball glowed for a moment, then smoke began swirling inside of it. When the smoke cleared, a man appeared. He was middle-aged with a sharp, angular face, and he was wearing a decadent robe with all the prestige of a noble. He had brownish hair that was flecked with streaks of gray, a short goatee with similar streaks, and very noticeable cheekbones. When the image of the man solidified, it spoke.


    ¡°Captain. I trust you have a good reason for using the emergency contact bubble?¡±


    Alicia¡¯s mouth fell open as she stared at the bubble. It was her first time seeing such a device; in Ishmar, her home, magic had been strictly outlawed, so even such a convenient innovation as the bubble was considered taboo. It was just another piece of evidence that supported the theory that Algrustos had the means to stand on equal footing with, maybe even surpass, Ishmar¡¯s military prowess. Poor girl. A lot of firsts for her today. Wish they could be more pleasant.


    While Alicia stood marveling at the magnificent device, Captain McFarlane bowed deeply. ¡°Lord Albrecht, I have several¡­ prisoners who wish to be brought before the Witch-Queen. One of them is a princess from Ishmar. They were captured while attempting to illegally cross the border. I don¡¯t know if they¡¯re telling the truth that they wish to simply speak to the Witch-Queen, but I can verify that the girl IS the Eighth Princess.¡± She reached over, plucked the tiara off Alicia¡¯s head, and held it in front of the bubble. Alicia growled, but could do nothing.


    The man called Lord Albrecht conversed with someone outside the glass ball¡¯s sight. After a moment of feverish debate, he addressed McFarlane again. ¡°Captain, I have talked the matter over with the Witch-Queen. She is intrigued by the implications, and wants to meet this princess. You are hereby ordered to bring the princess and her companions before the Witch-Queen as soon as possible. I have a unit near your area. I¡¯ll redirect them to your outpost to aid you in delivering the prisoners to the Ivory Court. Expect them within a day. Until then, guard the prisoners with your lives.¡±


    With that, smoke engulfed the interior of the bubble. McFarlane turned to us, and motioned to the guards still standing behind us. They pulled us out of the room and back outside to the grounds, leading us to another section of the camp. An ominous looking building rose up before us, outfitted with bars over its windows and heavy steel doors. We were ushered into the prison by her soldiers. As the last man entered, he sealed the massive bolt on the door and as it slid into place my heart sank. There¡¯d be no escape that way.


    Given the building¡¯s dilapidated appearance, I thought that the cell would be cut-rate, but alas, disappointment seemed to be the special of the day. Bars of magically reinforced, alchemically forged dormicite, the hardest known substance in the world and highly resistant to magic to boot, served to imprison us. This is why it doesn¡¯t pay to be an optimist, I thought to myself. I resigned myself to my fate immediately. Alicia, on the other hand, began slamming her fists against the bars in a rage.


    ¡°That won¡¯t do a damn thing and you know it.¡± I muttered. I looked at Alverd. He had seated himself on an empty bunk and taken up his meditation again. Despite his armor, I could see his body shifting as he breathed deeply as he calmed himself. Alicia continued to futilely attack the bars. I saw a familiar look in her eyes and shuddered. If Alicia went berserk here in this cell, Alverd and I would effectively be trapped in a cage with someone who could probably rip my arms out of their sockets and then beat me to death with them. It¡¯s never so bad that it can¡¯t somehow get worse. I edged away from her slowly, trying not to gain her attention. I found a corner and shrunk into it as much as I could.


    Alicia screamed in frustration, kicked the bars one final time with her good leg, and then hobbled away to sit on the bunk next to Alverd. She crossed her arms and scowled. ¡°You could at least give us some food! Or some medicine for my leg!¡± A guard seated at his post down at the end of the hall snorted and guffawed at her.


    ¡°Keep it down in there, ¡®Your Highness¡¯. As much as your screeching amuses me, I need to catch up on my beauty sleep.¡± The guard returned to his ¡°beauty sleep¡± and Alicia turned to me. She seized control of my collar.


    ¡°This is all your fault, Kuro! These are your people! Do something!¡± She began shaking me back and forth, and my head lolled uncontrollably. Gibberish tumbled out of my mouth.


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    ¡°Look,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Even if these mages would listen to me, do you really think they¡¯d do anything? Think about this for a moment. You represent everything these people hate. If anything, they¡¯d make our ¡®accommodations¡¯ even shabbier. Count your blessings, Princess. We could be in some rat-infested hellhole. Instead, this cell is really not bad. So why don¡¯t you just settle down? We¡¯ll only be here for about a day or so. Then¡­well, then it¡¯s up to Fate, really.¡±


    Oh, that might have been the wrong thing. Alicia¡¯s eyes narrowed and that dull look appeared in her eyes again. Her grip on my collar tightened and she held up her fist. Her knuckles were white from how tightly they were clenched, and I could hear her fingers grinding against her palms. I gulped. ¡°Alicia! It¡¯s not my fault! Really! There¡¯s nothing I can do! Please don¡¯t kill me! I didn¡¯t do anything! Not in the face! Anywhere but the face!¡± I threw up my hands to shield myself.


    Alverd gently pulled the feisty princess off of me. ¡°Princess, this is no way to act. Please let go of my friend. It is as he says. No one is to blame for what happened.¡± Alicia grumbled under her breath, then finally let go of me. Alverd continued. ¡°Besides, this is exactly what we wanted. We should be able to reach the Ivory Court faster than we intended. Once we explain everything to the Witch-Queen, everything should be fine.¡±


    I breathed a sigh of relief. Alverd was always the diplomatic sort, which was why I saw him as the official ¡°leader¡± of our little group, despite Alicia¡¯s status as former royalty. If it kept Alicia from beating me senseless, then I was okay with his idealistic tendencies.


    Alicia snorted. ¡°I hope you¡¯re right. After this reception I don¡¯t have high hopes. Worst of all, she could see this as a provocation and declare war on Ishmar. There are too many things that could go wrong, Alverd.¡± Alicia folded her arms across her chest and flopped down on the bunk, staring at my friend with pleading eyes.


    I had to admit, she had a point. The Witch-Queen was the big unknown at this point. Granted, the fact that she wanted the three of us delivered intact indicated that she wanted to speak with us at the very least, but that still guaranteed nothing. She could easily dispose of us afterward. Maybe she simply wished to grill us for information before getting rid of us.


    Alverd was unfazed. ¡°There¡¯s no point in thinking about what might happen now. Worrying will accomplish nothing. We should instead focus on what we intend to tell the Witch-Queen. That you are an exile seeking a potential alliance in order to regain control of your homeland, in order to seal a more permanent peace between your countries. If we are sincere, and show that we have nothing to hide, then the Witch-Queen will have no reason to suspect us.¡±


    Despite my best efforts, I had to roll my eyes at Alverd¡¯s naivet¨¦. ¡°I¡¯m sure the Witch-Queen will look at us making doe eyes at her and just agree to everything we ask, Alverd.¡± This whole plan was crazy. It had been crazy the moment these two had thought it up, and it hadn¡¯t gotten any saner since. Again, it was out of my hands, since we were technically still ¡°employed¡± by Alicia, so all my whining and begging did little to sway him into backing out of the whole mess.


    At least Alicia was starting to see reason. I hadn¡¯t expected that from her. Before, she had been all hellbent on meeting the Witch-Queen, but the wind had gone out of those sails pretty quickly. I guess the grim reality has finally sunk in now that we¡¯re imprisoned and looking at execution. I wished she could¡¯ve figured out sooner that this wasn¡¯t a good idea. I was pretty sure at this juncture we were beyond the point of no return.


    Alicia grunted, then moved to the bunk I was seated on. ¡°Ugh, fine. I guess there¡¯s nothing we can really do about it. Maybe the Witch-Queen will be as you say. We¡¯d better hope so. Otherwise, all this will have been for nothing.¡± She started staring at me with a determined glare. I stared back. She glared at me harder; I realized that she wanted to monopolize my bunk for herself. Huh, not a bloody chance in hell. I stared back with malice in my eyes. She responded by raising her curled fist.


    Oh, fine. If you want to be so childish about it, then go ahead, I thought. I pushed myself off the bunk and offered it to her. The princess pushed me aside and laid upon it, pulling the thin blanket over herself. I moved over to where Alverd was sitting on the other bunk. He tossed me the blanket from his bunk.


    ¡°Here, old friend. There¡¯s some room on the floor over here.¡± And with that, he turned over on the bunk and went to sleep. I stood, mouth agape, as the fool shamelessly left me to find some spot on the cold hard ground to sleep.


    Some friends I have. I was beginning to wonder why I stuck around. Mind you, this was just the irritation talking, but I still felt that my attitude was justified. I mean, this was not my fault. None of this is my fault. Why do I have to sleep on the floor? That was discrimination or something. It was unfair. Eventually I gave up on feeling sorry for myself and found a spot near the cell door; I pulled the blanket tight around me to ward off the cold night air. I¡¯d need my strength for tomorrow.


    The next morning, I was roused from sleep by a boot digging into my ribs. The owner, a mean looking man wearing the same kind of armor as Captain McFarlane, dragged me to my feet and barked orders to his men to have the prisoners prepared for transport. I had magic sealing cuffs slapped on my hands as the mages dragged me to a cage on wheels, pulled by horses, in the middle of the barracks. Captain McFarlane, along with the other members of her unit, were standing nearby; the fierce looking woman was having a conversation with the man who had awakened me.


    ¡°I want them where everyone can see them at all times. Don¡¯t let them know, but their lives are considered invaluable. Lord Albrecht wants them brought to the Witch-Queen alive and unharmed. I know it¡¯s hard to follow an order commanding us to protect an Ishmarian, but we have no choice in the matter.¡± The other man spat on the ground and growled something under his breath I couldn¡¯t hear.


    McFarlane nodded. ¡°Once we get to the capitol it¡¯s someone else¡¯s problem. I don¡¯t like it any more than you do, but I have¡­ specific orders to carry out. Just do what you have to.¡± Any attempt to eavesdrop further was interrupted by the arrival of a large carriage, which stopped near where I was standing.


    This carriage was unique in its design, however. While it had the same basic chassis as a carriage, it had bars along the sides, allowing several mages to grab on and ride along the side, sparing them from walking. McFarlane¡¯s men jumped up on the sides of the carriage, while the Captain herself rode alongside the driver. I saw the other man board a similar carriage just ahead of the cage, also bristling with mages. I sighed heavily. So much for escape, if it was necessary. I did notice, however, that Captain McFarlane was carrying our weaponry in a small holster next to her seat. There would¡¯ve been no need to keep our weapons if they planned to just kill us, I reasoned. And if it comes down to it and we need to make a break for it, we might have a fighting chance with our gear.


    Alverd, Alicia, and I were packed into the cage like circus animals. After that, our little convoy departed the outpost and headed due east at a good speed. We rode for nearly a week and a half, passing fortresses and villages, never entering any of them. When we made camp, the mages made every effort to keep a low profile. We were never let out of our cage, except to relieve ourselves, and even then we were guarded heavily. When we needed to resupply, a small group of our captors was sent to procure food and water from said villages. Alicia nudged Alverd after witnessing one such supply run.


    ¡°Why not just pass through the villages? We don¡¯t even turn off the road. I don¡¯t understand.¡±


    Alverd watched as the mages packed a crate of preserved salted meat into the back of one of their carriages. ¡°They probably don¡¯t want us to draw attention. A heavy escort like this is sure to turn heads.¡± I piped up from the corner. ¡°Maybe they think the villagers might try to harm you, princess. I overhead-¡±


    ¡°You overheard what?¡± The sudden appearance of McFarlane next to the cage made me jump and I hit my head against the top of the cage. As I nursed the bump on my head, the surly captain crossed her arms. ¡°That I¡¯m to bring you to the Ivory Court unharmed?¡± I nodded, biting back a curse. The captain shrugged without uncrossing her arms. ¡°Believe it or not, there are people out there with even less restraint and tolerance than me. If they saw an Ishmarian, they¡¯d likely take matters into their own hands. I¡¯d prefer that not to happen.¡±


    Alicia scoffed. ¡°Why not? Afraid they¡¯d prove no better than the barbarians they hate so much?¡± McFarlane scowled, then turned away. As she hauled herself back onto her carriage, she called back to us.


    ¡°Better watch that mouth of yours, princess. I don¡¯t have to harm you to get you to shut up.¡± The cage lurched as our convoy got underway again, and Alicia sulked in the corner.


    Finally, after two and a half weeks of suffering, the capital city of Algrustos, Ethenia, appeared on the horizon. I almost wept for joy. Even if the Witch-Queen executed me, it would mean a sweet release from the torment I had endured for the past month. No doubt about it, I was about to accept my fate no matter how the cards played out.


    Captain McFarlane dropped off of the carriage she was riding and began walking alongside our cage. ¡°You see that, kids? That¡¯s the end of the line. Once we get there, the Witch-Queen decides what to do with you. I hope she decides you can¡¯t be trusted. Executions are always good for morale, you know. And given what¡¯s going on nowadays, we need morale to be as high as it can be.¡± She smirked. ¡°Bloody lizard people can kill each other all they like, as far as I¡¯m concerned, because the goddess knows they¡¯re doing a bang up job of it.¡± She spat on the ground contemptuously.


    ¡°You watch your tongue, spellslinger! Even if that¡¯s true, nobody deserves to have their own countrymen out for their blood.¡± Alicia shook the bars impotently. ¡°It¡¯s easy for you to say such things when you¡¯re safe on the other side of these bars, coward!¡± She growled menacingly.


    McFarlane¡¯s face lit up in a tiger-like smile. ¡°Perhaps, lizard princess. But circumstances dictate otherwise, so why don¡¯t you just sit tight and-¡° Suddenly, she broke off, her head jerked to the side. She cocked it sideways, her ear lifted up, to the east. The other mages in the convoy were doing the same. All the horses lurched to a halt. It was then that I noticed that an eerie silence had descended on us. On either side of the paved dirt road, the tall grass was the only thing moving, swaying back and forth slightly in the breeze.


    Without warning, a booming sound rang out. A mere second later, a massive explosion annihilated the carriage ahead of us, blowing it to pieces and sending the horses panicking. A lance of magical energy had slammed into the front of the carriage from the side of the road, obliterating the driver and the entire front end of the vehicle, destroying the horses¡¯ reins and scattering the other mages who had been riding it. They were strewn about by the force of the explosion, dazed but otherwise alright.


    In the space of a second, attackers appeared all around us. From the tall grass, they rose up. Men and women in strange robes, bearing unusual helms that covered their faces. The helms were misshapen and twisted, probably intentionally, to appear disturbed and unnerving. Their robes were red like blood, but covered with wreaths of greenery, which had probably allowed them to hide in the grass. Each carried a long staff, similar to the kind wielded by McFarlane¡¯s troops. They circled us like sharks, just out of reach, waiting, waiting, waiting¡­


    And then one stood up. Her helm was adorned with what looked like rivers of blood cascading from its eye sockets. She raised her staff above her head, and her cohorts shrieked out ululating cries, like ravenous beasts awaiting the slaughter. Over the din, I heard her cry out: ¡°Take them! But spare the dragon princess! We need her alive!¡±


    And then they were upon us.

 B2 Chapter 4: Alicia: The Other Side of the War (Edit)

    If I didn¡¯t hate mages enough already, I definitely hated them now.


    As soon as the masked mage screamed the order, her cronies surged out of the tall grass. Most of them engaged what remained of our escort at close range; a few began flinging magic from a distance. McFarlane, to her credit, recovered quickly. ¡°Get to your feet! Rear guard, move into the grass and counterattack! Front guard, form a line around the prison transport!¡±. The six men and women who had rode on the rear carriage broke formation and began attacking our ambushers at will. The mages up front scrambled over to where we were.


    It was a bloody melee outside our cage. I could barely make sense of the chaos at first. As the battle intensified, however, I began to get my first real look at how mages did combat.


    Those mages who engaged at close range used their long staves to attack, but every now and then, they tried to blast their opponents with bolts of energy launched from the tips. With spins and lunges, these mages demonstrated all the prowess of a properly trained frontline soldier. I was almost mesmerized by them, a carefully choreographed ballet of death taking place mere feet away. It¡¯s so different from the way we Ishmarians fight, I thought. These mages are all so graceful in the way they fight.


    The more I watched, the more the fight made sense to me. The mages twisted their bodies to try and line up their shots even as they spun to avoid being shot in return, all while batting at each other with their staves to throw their enemy off balance. Any error, no matter how small, could give the opponent the chance to end the battle. Other than the magic, they fight just like us. Deep down in my heart, something stirred. We¡¯re more alike than I thought.


    An explosion nearby rocked the cage. A fireball had gone off only a few feet away, rattling our prison and sending two mages spiraling through the air. They looked to be the attackers, as their robes were red and they had strange, animalistic masks that didn¡¯t have equal proportions on both sides. I felt an eerie chill slide up my spine as one of them landed in front of the cage. There was a short, choking gurgle from behind the mask before the body lay still.


    With the speed of a leaping gazelle, one of the ambushers landed in front of the cage. He pointed his staff at us and the tip began to flare with an intense heat as fire was pulled towards it. He means to roast us alive! I looked at Kuro, but he was just as frightened as me. Without his staff, he couldn¡¯t do anything to save us.


    The spell would¡¯ve gone off had one of our guards not intervened. Rolling along the ground, he spun his staff upwards in a rising crescent swing. The attack threw the ambusher¡¯s aim skyward, and his fireball flew up to explode harmlessly above. The two engaged in a quick, vicious exchange of high-speed blows with the ambusher slamming the guard against our cage. As he tried to aim his staff for the killing blow, however McFarlane¡¯s man bashed his opponent in the head with a vicious horizontal swipe; the sound of the man¡¯s neck snapping was audible even over the sound of battle. The ambusher crumpled to the ground as the guard ran off to assist his fellows.


    I only thought of stopping him when he was too far away to grab. ¡°Hey! Wait! Let us out and we¡¯ll help you! Give us our weapons back!¡± But no one came. As the seconds became minutes, mages fell all around us and nobody came to let us out. Alverd grabbed hold of my wrist and draped his arm over me. ¡°Princess, it isn¡¯t safe. Stay back here and try not to draw attention to us.¡± I could feel my cheeks burning a bit as he pushed me against one of the cage¡¯s corners to cover me with his body.


    Sweet Mother Evros, is now really the time for me to be having these thoughts?


    Thankfully any further inappropriate thoughts were stopped when two of McFarlane¡¯s men stepped in front of our cage. Standing side by side, I was able to see very little of their faces as they were looking away from us, out into the grass. Four ambushers stalked out of the grass, their staves aimed at the two guards. Before my eyes, the two guards lifted their staves in two-handed grips and charged forward.


    As they did, I saw a blade of translucent but seething light emerge from the tip of the guards¡¯ staves, taking the form of thin, ornate blades. Suddenly the guards were wielding spears made of magical energy, not crude wooden sticks. The ambushers didn¡¯t even have time to fall on their behinds before the first two were cut down. These must be the combat mages my berserker instructor told me about, I guessed.


    These ¡°combat mages¡± were some of the most unusual and dangerous of the foes our soldiers had engaged. As a general rule, mages were not suited to fighting a traditional soldier, much less our berserkers. But the Algrustrians had trained some of their number to excel at close range combat with their reinforced staves, fighting like warrior monks while retaining their magical powers. Now that I could see them in person, in action, I was awestruck. They were disciplined, skilled, and extremely deadly.


    Now I know why we¡¯ve never truly invaded Algustos. Our enemy is far stronger than I was ever led to believe. I gained a newfound, albeit reluctant, respect for the mages. The ones still crouched behind the carriage were taking out the ambushers with well-aimed lightning bolts and thrown icicles. I could see McFarlane, standing out in the open with not an ounce of worry, aiming her staff at an ambusher and firing a giant blue beam of light from the jewel embedded in its tip; the beam streaked off and slammed into the torso of her target, and he gave a very short shriek before the beam seared its way through one of his lungs, turning that shriek into a death rattle. He fell, still making that horrid noise.


    Mage combat was so different from what I had expected. In Ishmar, combat was simple; we engaged our foes at point blank, with our weapons. Here, it was about thinking ahead of the enemy, taking aim, and using cover. Imagine what we could accomplish if we worked together, I thought bitterly. Instead we use what makes us different to justify war rather than advocate for coexistence.


    My chain of thought was interrupted when Alverd lurched forward, slamming me against the cage corner and making me hit my head. ¡°Hey! What are you doing? This isn¡¯t the time or place for-¡± Then I saw the coating of ice along his shoulder pauldron, as well as the many tiny needles of ice still embedded in his cape. Had he not been shielding me, that spell might have hit me full force.


    Alverd grunted, his face contorted in pain. Then he tried to smile at me. ¡°Apologies. It isn¡¯t my intention to be so brusque.¡± Another stray chuck of ice rebounded off one of the cage bars and fell to the floor of the cage. The damn thing was bigger than my fist. Alverd winced a bit, but he seemed okay; he had protected me once again.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to go to such lengths! I didn¡¯t say you had to kill yourself to-¡± My admonishment was cut short when Kuro gave a yelp and flattened himself to the floor, covering his head with both hands.


    A moment later, a bolt of magic energy struck the ground near our cage, rattling it. One of the ambushers sailed through the air, screaming, his robe engulfed in flame. Several of the defenders who had been dazed by the ambush were now falling back to the burning carriage to regroup, and they were throwing fireballs into the tall grass, igniting it to flush their attackers into the open. Several of the ambushers stumbled out of the grass, trying to flee the fire. They were immediately struck down by our escorts.


    But they could only do so much. Our foes seemed legion; one by one, the mages taking cover were taken down by blasts of magic. I looked at Kuro, who was cowering next to me, and Alverd, who was now struggling with the lock on our cage. Outside, stepping back as she shot blasts of lightning from her staff, Captain McFarlane attempted to rally what remained of our escort. ¡°Form up around the carriage! Flush and eliminate!¡± She leaned down to grab the collar of a guard who had fallen and started dragging him towards the downed vehicle.


    After pulling the man to safety behind the carriage, she leaned out just enough to try and locate any targets. An ambusher appeared from the tall grass, springing up with his staff leveled at the carriage. A howling red blast of fire shot from the staff and slammed into the carriage, rocking it. The mages behind it had to brace it to prevent it from flipping. They can¡¯t hide behind it forever. Sooner or later they¡¯ll get flanked and then they¡¯re done.


    The captain peered out from behind the carriage, took a second, and breathed out a cold mist. With a wave of her hand, the mist swirled into solid form, conjuring a lance of ice in her grip. Waiting for a moment, she impaled the ambusher who had struck the carriage when he stood up to attack again. The icicle went into his torso with no resistance, and his spell, a bolt of lightning, shot up into the sky harmlessly. She leaned back behind cover just in time to avoid a fireball, swearing under her breath.


    ¡°Hey!¡± I called out to her. When she looked back at me, I pointed at the ground, where our weapons were lying. ¡°Throw us our weapons! We can help you. Get us out of here!¡± McFarlane grimaced, but when a stray lightning bolt shot past her face, she reached down, grabbed our weapons, and ran to the cage. While she fiddled with the lock, Alverd pulled the Sword of Evros from its scabbard, its flawless blade pulling free with a metallic ring.


    She threw her hands down angrily. ¡°Ach! It¡¯s jammed!¡±


    ¡°Allow me to assist with that.¡± Alverd said calmly as he swung the Sword at the lock. With the ease of a hot knife through butter, the sword cleaved through the lock and part of the bars. McFarlane¡¯s mouth fell open.


    ¡°Is that¡­¡± Then she shook her head. ¡°Forget it. Make yourselves useful. Don¡¯t make me regret this.¡± She picked up her staff, and a burning scythe-like blade burst into being at its tip before she ran off.


    With a single swipe, Alverd severed the cuffs on Kuro¡¯s wrists, then removed mine in the same fashion. He handed Kuro his staff, and I grabbed my maul, the familiar weight of the dragon tooth metal feeling most reassuring in my hand. Together, the three of us jumped out of the cage. I winced as I hit the ground, as the impact jarred my leg and sent a fresh jolt of pain searing through my side. Can¡¯t worry about that now, I thought.


    As soon as he hit the ground, Alverd streaked off toward the burning carriage. The mages there had been surrounded and were being overrun by our assailants. The bastards had grown overconfident. A group of them, four in number, were pushing towards the carriage, smashing its remains with a barrage of magic. They didn¡¯t see Alverd coming at all. He charged into their flank and started carving them up with the Sword of Evros. Even if they had been wearing armor it wouldn¡¯t have saved them from the might of Evros; the keen, unnaturally sharp edge of the true dragon tooth metal would have ripped through it like cloth.


    Kuro, on the other hand, took cover by the other carriage and conjured a fireball by¡­pulling fire from his own chest. Mother Evros, no matter how many times I see that, it never ceases to frighten and amaze me. The ball of fire in his left hand swelled as Kuro began to mutter something under his breath. I realized that he was uttering an incantation. I saw his intended target, an ambusher who had isolated himself and was about to use his own incantation to destroy the fortification that the other mages were still using. I only caught the last of Kuro¡¯s words¡­


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°¡­let ash be all that remains!¡±


    Kuro flung the fireball at the ambusher. The ball smashed into the man¡¯s side, and an instant later, exploded with ridiculous force, incinerating him in the space of a millisecond. A shockwave of force threatened to knock me from my feet, flattening the tall grass and exposing a number of other ambushers who were quickly floored by the explosion. However, Kuro¡¯s celebration was cut short, as he leaned on the carriage for support as he caught his breath.


    I thought as much. As destructive as Kuro was, he had no staying power whatsoever. Sure, I¡¯d seen Kuro do things that boggled the mind. He¡¯d frozen a greater dragon, conjured a tornado, and batted aside dragonfire like it was nothing. But the man had absolutely no ability to pace himself. You couldn¡¯t count on someone who got winded after his first contribution in battle.


    I tightened my grip on my maul, breathing out heavily. My maul was made of pure dragon tooth metal, designed to destroy armor through blunt force, with a long grip that allowed me to wield it with two hands for extra power. I took a second breath, let it out, feeling the familiar haze in my mind grow thicker. I took one last breath, slow, letting it fill up my lungs, preparing for what was to come.


    As my lungs began to fill, I reached deep within and called forth a memory. The memory was crisp, clear, untarnished by age, and played out perfectly in my mind. In it, my late brother Marcus was taunting me, back in the throne room of the Castle of Brimstone. His words seared into me like flaming arrows, and as I recalled them, something began to boil. My blood became like fire, and I could sense my own heart beating faster and faster.


    ¡°You can¡¯t change being the runt of the litter.¡± I could see the sneer as clear as if it had been yesterday and hear the mockery in his voice with perfect clarity. ¡°You¡¯ll never amount to anything. I wouldn¡¯t even consider you useful enough to lick my boots. You¡¯re a whelp and you will always fight for my table scraps like the rest of the dogs you call your siblings.¡± His words became laughter, and his features began to contort as the haze in my head sharpened into focus.


    The sound of Marcus¡¯s cackling laughter was the last straw I needed. Something inside me snapped. Remember what your teacher said. It¡¯s not about letting the rage control you. YOU control IT. I almost envisioned myself wrestling a wild animal, not trying to kill it but to confine it, to make it submit. Your rage is a tool, a weapon, and it is meant to be wielded. I felt my knuckles crack as my fingers tightened around the handle of my maul. With one last grunt, I seized the anger like I was grabbing a person by the neck.


    Your rage is akin to a bursting dam. You don¡¯t fight the river. You don¡¯t turn the river. You don¡¯t swim against the river. Direct the river where it needs to go and watch it sweep your enemy away. The creeds of the berserker echoed in my mind, words I had repeated to my instructors so many times that I could never hope to forget them. I felt my body tense as every muscle prepared to direct my rage where I wanted it to go.


    When I opened my eyes, time appeared to crawl around me. Bolts of lightning and fireballs were suspended in the air, transfixed in flight. This moment, however, was temporary. The moment would only last a heartbeat, and then time would resume; the only difference would be that I would move at a speed that these foolish mages could only pray they could follow, and that their pathetic attempts to wound me would only serve to enrage me further. The pain in my leg faded away, leaving me with a somewhat contradictory sense of peace. It¡¯s always so odd to know that this is what comes before the rage takes over, I mused to myself. It¡¯s like the calm right before the storm.


    Then I became the storm, and struck with the fury of one.


    The first man to feel my wrath lay off to my right. I surged up to him and swung my maul one-handed at his skull. He didn¡¯t even see me until I was right on top of him. The man didn¡¯t have time to scream before my maul smashed his skull like a clay urn. He crumpled to the ground, his staff tumbling from his hands. Even as his body was in mid-fall I was already angling to move towards my next enemy. Another mage, less than ten feet away, a ball of energy forming around the tip of her staff, became the focus of my attention.


    My second victim saw my kill and aimed her staff at me. She screamed in fury and a blast of light emerged from the tip of her staff. I ran toward her, and the blast of light turned into a miniature fireball. The fireball glanced off my thigh, but I didn¡¯t even register the pain. Instead, I opened my mouth and let out a feral roar. The woman fell back, tripped, and tried to aim her staff at me again, but I simply leaped into the air and brought my maul down on her head, same as I did the first man. She didn¡¯t scream either, not that I¡¯d register it in the throes of my trance.


    Something struck me, hard, in the back at that point. There was a muffled sound like a gust of wind rushing through a tunnel. An explosion? I turned in the direction of the attack to see the leader, Bloodface, her staff pointed at me. She twirled the staff, and started speaking the words of an incantation. I tried to move, but found that I couldn¡¯t move my leg; I looked down to see that blood was streaming from an open wound. The injury I had sustained prior had turned my fractured leg into a full-blown broken bone.


    You idiot, you pushed too hard. You know better than this. You can¡¯t squeeze blood from a stone. Only a fool tries to ignore their own limit. One of the only disadvantages of berserking was that while one could ignore pain, it also meant you ignored what was wrong with your body. Pain was a natural indicator that your body was sustaining damage. I cursed myself for forgetting such a basic lesson. It was one of the first things my instructor had drilled into me during my days in berserker training.


    Bloodface aimed the staff at me. Her incantation complete, a golden ball of light blazed to life at the tip of her staff. Over the noise, she screamed.


    ¡°It is unfortunate that this must play out this way, but we will make our intention clear! Death to Ishmar! Glory to Algrustos! Down with the Witch-Que-¡°


    And then a golden bolt of lightning slammed into Bloodface¡¯s torso. It knocked the crazy spellslinger off her feet and her staff out of her hands. I looked behind me, and saw Kuro, still holding onto the carriage, his staff held out before him, still struggling to catch his breath. He gave me a sarcastic salute and fell to the ground, wheezing. I couldn¡¯t stop myself from smirking, satisfied that he couldn¡¯t see me doing it. Like I said. Kind of a bastard, but not all that bad.


    Alverd ran over to where Bloodface lay on the ground, gasping for breath. He hauled her up, and her mask fell away, revealing a haggard looking woman with heavy bags under her eyes. Her brown hair was a mess, and had mud and twigs floating around in it. I guessed that she must have been waiting for days to prepare this ambush. When McFarlane came over to see her, Bloodface laughed eerily.


    ¡°You think this changes anything?¡± Bloodface wheezed. ¡°So I failed. There will be others. No one in this country will sit idly by while the lizard people lie vulnerable. They have wronged us, and now is the time to settle the score. We will not be silent. If the Witch-Queen will not move, then she must be made to see!¡± Bloodface cackled again, though it soon devolved into a hacking cough.


    McFarlane hit Bloodface, hard. ¡°You know not what you speak, rabble-rouser! The Witch-Queen will do what she decides is best for us. If she decides that the Ishmarians can kill themselves without our involvement, then that is her will. I¡¯m perfectly willing to wait until Ishmar destroys itself. But then, a traitor like you wouldn¡¯t know the first thing about patience, now would you?¡±


    Bloodface laughed. ¡°You¡¯re just a bitch, an attack dog on the Prime Minister¡¯s leash. Who¡¯s the real traitor? And there will be more of me, bitch. Just wait and see.¡± Suddenly, Bloodface¡¯s hands lit up, and fire appeared in them.


    McFarlane leapt back. Alverd pushed Bloodface away, but it proved to be unnecessary. Instead of turning the flame on us, she simply stood there, and the flame spread from her hands to the rest of her body. Within moments, her entire body was ablaze. The only thing left was her laughter, and that soon faded as well, leaving only the crackling of the fire.


    McFarlane spat on the ground, cursing to herself. She called out for her troops to fall in. Of the fourteen men and women who had been assigned to protect us, only six remained, herself included. She ordered the five remaining mages to take the bodies of their fallen comrades and load them into the cage and remaining carriage, so that they could be given a proper burial in the capital.


    I have to give her credit. Even after a battle like that, she still knows what needs to be done. And she has enough compassion to show her own men, at least. Despite the circumstances, despite being a career soldier, she still cared about her troops, even the deceased ones, enough to go to such lengths. I half-expected her to throw me, Alverd and Kuro back in the cage and push on, but instead, she asked us to help look out for further ambushes on the way to the capital. That surprised me, but it was a welcome change.


    One of her men saw to my leg. ¡°It¡¯s broken. Bleeding is probably from the bone slicing it open from the inside.¡± I winced at his description of the injury. He looked at me incredulously. ¡°You¡¯re grossed out by that? I thought you berserkers were all made of iron or something.¡± I glared at him.


    ¡°I¡¯m human like anyone else, jerk. You cut me, I bleed. Just takes me longer to feel it than you would.¡±


    He smirked at me. ¡°True enough.¡±


    The mage whispered arcane words and passed his hand over my leg, and a tingly sensation overrode the pain; within moments, the pain subsided and I could walk perfectly. The wound had sealed and the blood was easily wiped away.


    ¡°Um,¡± I stammered. He looked at me quizzically. I swallowed the lump in my throat. ¡°Thanks. For the healing.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°I mean, I¡¯d probably be dead if you and your buddies hadn¡¯t gone in and helped us out. So call it even, princess. Not saying I¡¯m ready to bury the hatchet, but you saved our lives and that¡¯s good enough for me, right now.¡±


    I tilted my head. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you¡¯re okay with it.¡± He shrugged again, letting out a heavy sigh.


    ¡°Not everybody is a hardliner like the Captain. I¡¯m out here doing my job. Killing may be part of it, but it¡¯s not something I enjoy. And believe it or not, not everyone in Algrustos thinks we should march straight to Ishmar and turn it into a smoking crater.¡± He patted me on the leg where the wound had been. ¡°I¡¯d keep the weight off it for a while. Give it a day or two and you¡¯ll be walking just fine.¡±


    As he stood up, he surveyed the area. Our battle had gouged deep wounds in the ground, the bodies of fallen mages were strewn everywhere, and the tall grass was still on fire. ¡°If the Captain says you¡¯re talking about peace, then I say let you speak to the Witch-Queen. People can demand war all they want, at the end of the day it¡¯s the soldiers who have to fight it, and see stuff like this.¡± He looked me straight in the eye, and I could see weariness in them. ¡°If you can help stop that, what¡¯s the harm in trying?¡±


    Somehow, despite all of our differences, I couldn¡¯t help but agree. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡± He nodded at me before walking away to tend to his comrades. ¡°That¡¯s all one can do sometimes.¡±


    It took less than ten minutes to load up all of the corpses of McFarlane¡¯s fallen escorts. It felt disrespectful to pack five of them in the cage, because we had to stack them like firewood to fit. McFarlane¡¯s eyes were still filled with sorrow. After Kuro and I closed the door on the cage, she came over to the two of us and lowered her head.


    ¡°Peace to you, brothers and sisters. I will see you home at the very least.¡± She walked back to the head of the convoy, her expression grim. We decided not to say anything. Sometimes there really just isn¡¯t anything that can be said. Better to just say nothing at that point.


    Another half day¡¯s march, and the front gate of Ethenia finally appeared before us. The gate guards were initially quite suspicious, but as soon as Captain McFarlane stepped forward to vouch for us, they stepped back and opened the gate. McFarlane spoke to us one last time as the guards called over reinforcements to handle the carriage and cage full of bodies.


    ¡°You¡¯ve done a great deal more for me than I expected, Princess. I don¡¯t know if what you wish to say to our Witch-Queen will be received well, but I hope it goes well, at the very least.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Thank you, Captain. I want to prove to your ruler that there doesn¡¯t have to be war between us.¡±


    Alverd smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°The Princess is very sincere. Hopefully the Witch-Queen will see that.¡± McFarlane scoffed just as the guards emerged from the palace to escort us. ¡°Well, here¡¯s hoping then, eh?¡± With a nod, the two new guards turned around and marched up the street at a brisk pace. We were taken through busy streets and crowded squares straight to the Ivory Palace, so called for the absolute white gleam of its parapets and walls.


    McFarlane brought us all the way to the door of the throne room. She told us that this was as far as she would go; she had reports to file and troops to bury. My heart went out to her, but I had an important task of my own to perform. This was it. Beyond the door was the Witch-Queen. The woman I had to convince to ally with me. I had no idea who she was, what her beliefs were or how she would react. If there was ever a time to take a leap of faith, it was now.


    The guards opened the door, and after a moment¡¯s hesitation, I stepped through, into the Ivory Court.

 B2: Chapter 5: Alicia: The Court of the Witch-Queen (Raw)

    The Ivory Court was, simply put, amazing.


    The columns and walls were made of shimmering ivory, true to its namesake, with rugs and tapestries of crimson hung here and there to please the eye. Candles mounted upon candelabras were placed at strategic intervals to illuminate the darkened hall. There was barely enough light for us to see where we were going, although guards stationed alongside the carpet helped to orient us in the right direction. They were dressed like combat mages, although their armor was more ceremonial looking, probably because they were royal guards. We walked the length of the room to the end, and beheld an even grander sight.


    The back of the room played host to a magnificent stained glass window. The moon¡¯s light shone through, depicting a mage receiving a divine spark from a dark-haired woman reaching down from the moon. The woman was flanked by what looked like four black dogs, and her long hair was filled with stars. The light cast the throne in silhouette, obscuring the figure seated upon it.


    Off to our sides, twelve seats lay occupied, six to a side. Their occupants rose as one, and moved into the light of the candles. Each one carried an intricate staff, a unique design with a different jewel embedded somewhere within its workings. They were all men and women of varying ages, and wore robes that color-coordinated with the jewels in their staves. They moved to surround us, and quickly boxed us in.


    My hand reflexively went to my hammer. Alverd, however, caught my hand. I looked up at him, and he shook his head gently. I scowled, but decided to trust him. Begrudgingly, I moved my hand away. I didn¡¯t know what Alverd was thinking, but I hoped he knew what he was doing. This situation was swiftly moving from bad to worse. As I thought this, the twelve finished encircling us, closing off the loop. They stood in silence, their faces as neutral as stone.


    Kuro was gripping his staff tight, eyeing the mages surrounding us on both sides. Six on one, six on the other. Twelve against three. Not good odds, and that was before we factored in the royal guards. Kuro was probably trying to come up with a plan, but I didn¡¯t think even he could come up with something insane enough to get us out of this. Again, I thought of the hammer hanging from my hip. But I looked at Alverd, and he was still passive. His expression was not one of defiance, but of patience. I didn¡¯t know how he could be so calm, given the circumstances.


    Thankfully, my panicking was unnecessary. A figure rose up from the Ivory Throne. She walked forward, towards the steps that lay before the throne, and into the candlelight. Once she was no longer silhouetted by the moonlight, I got a good look at the Witch-Queen for myself.


    She was indeed young, probably not much older than myself. And her legs! Ridiculously long legs! Mother Evros, they seemed to go on forever! A black felt hat with a silver crown was perched upon her head, seated upon short, fiery red hair with bangs that reached down to cover the right side of her face, hiding her left eye eye from view. Her left eye was a stunning shade of deep green, like a fresh leaf on a tree in summer. A pair of spectacles, an odd thing I¡¯d seen only rarely, were seated upon a petite nose. Her cheeks were rosy, though I think she was nervous, not because they were naturally that color.


    Then my eyes wandered down and instantly regretted it. The girl was¡­gifted. I scowled in frustration as I compared her bust to my own meager chest. Even before I had met Alverd and Kuro, I had felt this particular inadequacy; my older sisters had all been more endowed than me. It was just another burden for me to bear. I looked at the Witch-Queen with jealousy. And her attire didn¡¯t help any. So lewd, for her to show so much of her chest off! The rest of her was dressed in a more normal fashion¡­at least, whatever passed for normal among mages, I suppose. She had white, shawl-like cloth covering her shoulders, and her legs were wrapped in a short skirt that ended in long stockings with long, thigh-high boots made of something expensive-looking. Her corset was made of fine brown leather with impeccable brass buckles, and the rest of her dress was a dull sort of red, like dried blood.


    When she looked up, the brim of her hat lifted as well. At that point, I saw the most unusual thing about the Witch-Queen. She had long, pointed ears that had been hidden under her hat¡¯s shadow, now visible to us all. I¡¯d never seen an elf before. They were very uncommon outside their homeland of Kiret, and even rarer in Ishmar. I guess that explained the long legs and unearthly poise. I¡¯d heard that elves were possessed of such traits. I wasn¡¯t so sure about her chest, but at this point, I wouldn¡¯t have put it past her if all elves were so well-endowed.


    By chance, I turned to look at Kuro. The idiot mage was staring at the Witch-Queen with the damnedest expression. His mouth was hanging open, and he had the dumbest look of starry-eyed stupidity on his face. Bloody pervert. I should have known what was going on. He was probably concocting some lewd fantasy in his head, and not caring at all what a spectacle he was making of himself. Somehow, seeing him in that way just infuriated me more. I made a mental note to smack him over the head later.


    I looked back at the Witch-Queen. Her line of sight was fixed past me, at Alverd, and a smile touched her face. There was something else in that smile, some kind of faint hunger. She had a twinkle in her eye, like an excited child about to receive a new toy. Majestically, she stood, with a very dramatic flourish and a swish of her hair, revealing her other eye for only a second. In her eagerness, the Witch-Queen took a step forward¡­


    ¡­and proceeded to trip, falling down the steps spectacularly. She landed on her face at the foot of the steps, groaning in pain. Several of the mages who had ¡°welcomed¡± us into the room winced. Whether it was because they sympathized with her pain or were lamenting her phenomenally bad first impression, I couldn¡¯t say. A soft moan of discomfort emerged from the Witch-Queen, and again, I couldn¡¯t tell whether it was pain or her embarrassment at her blunder.


    I almost burst out laughing. I had to restrain myself. It took every fiber of my being to stop myself from doing the most undiplomatic thing I could possibly do, but I managed it. The mages on our sides were still in shock, and another man emerged from the shadows beside the throne and moved to the Witch-Queen¡¯s side to assist her. I immediately recognized him as Lord Albrecht, the man from the bubble.


    ¡°Sheena, dear, are you alright?¡± Lord Albrecht delicately lifted Sheena to her feet. The girl, Sheena, gingerly tested both of her feet, leaning heavily on Lord Albrecht as she did so. When she saw that neither of her ankles had been sprained, she let him go. ¡°Peace, Uncle. I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m alright.¡± Sheena stood up, and tried to regain her aura of poise and grace, but failed halfway. Hard to recover such a thing after such a foolish display, I wagered.


    Lord Albrecht was even more striking in person. He carried an air of authority that hadn¡¯t been conveyed when I had seen him in the bubble. Yet, there was something almost fatherly about the way he fussed over Sheena. Having lost my own father only recently, a short pang of guilt and loss stung me deep down. There was genuine concern in Albrecht¡¯s eyes, like a parent waiting to catch his baby daughter if she tripped during her first walk. But when Sheena brushed herself off, he stepped back, although the look in his eye did not change.


    She turned to face us. ¡°So, you are the ones who came from Ishmar. I have been waiting quite some time to meet you. I admit, I am very curious as to why you have come here, and I¡¯ve anticipated this moment since the very first time I saw you all in my scrying crystal.¡± I stepped forward to address the Witch-Queen, and she stepped forward, too, but she unexpectedly brushed right past me. My gesture of goodwill was abandoned halfway as I turned around to see where she was going.


    Instead, she went straight to Alverd, grasping his hands tightly and gazing into his eyes intently. ¡°I have especially waited to meet you, sir knight! You have no idea how much I have longed for this moment!¡± Her eyes were twinkling, almost like how Kuro¡¯s were only moments ago. ¡°This is quite possibly the happiest moment of my life! To have met a true knight in the flesh, it is like a dream come true!¡± The girl squealed with excitement, giddy as all hell. She was practically bouncing. It was more than a bit surreal.


    Alverd was just as much in shock as I was at first. He just stood there in stunned silence. Finally, he stuttered for a moment, then managed to speak. ¡°Uh, um, well, I¡¯m quite flattered, Your Majesty, but I¡¯m not sure I deserve such praise¡­especially when I¡¯m completely unclear as to what I have done to warrant it.¡± Mother Evros, at such close range I could see that the Witch-Queen was only a matter of inches shorter than Alverd. He must have been overwhelmed by her proximity.


    The Witch-Queen, Sheena, squealed again. She let go of Alverd¡¯s hands and cupped her face, her cheeks flushing red again. ¡°Uuuu! Such humility! It¡¯s just like in my old picture books! You¡¯re the spitting image of my childhood dreams!¡± Sheena laughed, a merry, innocent sound. ¡°To have an actual knight in this court! It¡¯s probably never happened in the entire history of Algrustos! This is amazing!¡± Sheena twirled away, laughing madly to herself.


    Forget tripping and falling on her face. The impression I was getting now was far weirder than that. Here was a royal, a queen no less, and she was acting like a child. I watched her swoon this way and that, ruining any chance at restoring her image. I just¡­didn¡¯t know what to think. At the very least, she was being refreshingly honest about things. I did appreciate that, but it was hard to figure out just what exactly the girl was thinking at the moment. I decided to just wait it out.


    Fortunately, Lord Albrecht sighed, running his hand through his hair exasperatedly. ¡°Please forgive my niece. She tends to get a little¡­excitable sometimes. Sheena, dear, our visitors are here for a reason. Sheena¡­¡± Lord Albrecht raised his voice just enough to make his words firm. ¡°Sheena, darling. Come here. We have business to attend to.¡± His stern voice finally snapped her out of her little reverie, and she sauntered back to him, with a facial expression similar to a little girl who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Sheena nodded, out of breath and still bubbly. The smile on her face was in danger of reaching her ears. She bolted back up the steps to the throne, seated herself, and folded her hands in her lap, crossing her left leg over her right. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s hear it. Why is someone like you, a princess of Ishmar, attempting to enter a hostile nation, and with only two men as escort?¡± Sheena leaned forward slightly to hear my answer. For once, I had her undivided attention. And unlike her, I wasn¡¯t going to squander my first impression.


    I cleared my throat, stepped forward, and puffed out my chest. This was it. I only had one chance to make my case, and I wasn¡¯t going to screw it up. ¡°I am Alicia Helgart Irva Dragontamer VIII, and I am here to formally request your aid in building a permanent peace Algrustos and my glorious home of Ishmar!¡± My piece spoken, I stood with my hands akimbo, awaiting the Witch-Queen¡¯s response.


    Sheena cocked her head to the side. ¡°Is that all?¡± She reached for the staff sitting idly by the left side of her throne. It was longer than she was tall, crested with twin blades that cupped a beautiful emerald. She took it up in her left hand, and strode down the steps (carefully this time) to where I stood. ¡°You come here to offer me peace when you have no power to do so? How curious.¡± Sheena laughed again. ¡°I daresay you must think me a fool.¡±


    Sheena walked away, towards Kuro. When she stood before him, Kuro reigned in his slack-jawed look and composed himself. He offered his hand to the Witch-Queen, who moved to shake it, but then she drew back. Kuro¡¯s face darkened slightly, and I think he was either offended or bewildered as to why the girl refused to shake hands; nevertheless, Sheena offered her own hand and they shook, Kuro being a bit too energetic to be casual.


    Sheena addressed Kuro after their hands parted. ¡°So then! I know one name. I do believe your companions owe me names as well. Please, enlighten me.¡± Kuro stammered as he stared at the Witch-Queen¡¯s radiant beauty. He tried once, twice, three times to spit out his name. Finally, on his fourth attempt, he managed it. ¡°My name is K-Kuro, milady Queen. H-H-How may I s-serve?¡± The doe-eyed look in his eyes had not yet faded, and he was fighting hard to maintain eye contact¡­not an easy prospect, since the Witch-Queen was taller than him. That bobbing chest of hers was certainly not helping in that case.


    Sheena bowed. ¡°A pleasure, Kuro. I am Sheena Reinhardt, Witch-Queen of Algrustos.¡± Kuro¡¯s face flushed again as the Witch-Queen bent forward. He tried to look elsewhere, but it was far too late for him to feign being the gentleman now. For some reason, I grew irritated again. I guessed I was just ashamed at how my hired man was behaving himself. Anything he did was a reflection on me. If he did something lecherous now, it would only put a damper on the entire reason for being here. However, Sheena ignored him completely and returned to Alverd, grasping his hands again. ¡°And you, sir knight? What is your name?¡±


    Alverd stood straight and cleared his throat. ¡°I am Sir Alverd, milady. A member of the Knighthood of Marevar, now a humble mercenary. At thy service.¡± After his introduction, Alverd knelt down on one knee, bowing his head. Another cry of pleasure escaped the Witch-Queen as she viewed his standard display of common chivalry. I guess chivalry was the same in every realm, because his actions weren¡¯t so different from knights of my own homeland. But to the Witch-Queen, I guess it had been the firs time she¡¯d been addressed in such a way.


    ¡°Oh dear¡­everything is as my divinations foretold. The only thing missing is¡­¡± Sheena motioned to a guardsman standing in the shadows. He emerged solemnly and handed something covered in cloth to the Witch-Queen, taking her staff from her so she could take the item from him. It was heavy, because she strained slightly when the package was laid in her hands. Nervously, Sheena approached Alverd. She held the item forward.


    ¡°Sir Alverd, of the fallen order of Marevar. I give this unto you. I had it commissioned a month ago when I first saw you in my divinations. I knew that you would make your way to this land, though I did not know your purpose. Now that you are here, the truth shall come to light, and we may yet find an answer that benefits both Ishmar and Algrustos.¡± She offered the item with both hands, smiling again.


    Alverd took the object from the Witch-Queen and began unwrapping it. When the cloth fell away, it revealed a shield with a familiar emblem. I¡¯d seen it before on the trophies brought back from the war against Marevar. It was the seal of an eagle with widespread wings, swooping down majestically, the seal of the Knights of Marevar. The surface of the shield was flawless, with a mirrored finish that was so perfect that I could easily see my reflection in it. Alverd admired it with awe, and slipped it onto his left arm. It fit snugly over his armored gauntlet.


    Sheena was beaming with pride. ¡°It was forged with dormicite. It disperses heat instantly and is resistant to any form of physical force. Any magic spell that is cast against it will either be reflected or simply pushed aside. Nothing short of an act of the gods will destroy this shield.¡± At this point, Sheena sheepishly wrung her hands behind her back. ¡°It cost a rather extravagant sum to have this shield made¡­after all, crafting dormicite of this caliber is exorbitantly expensive. Just one of my little indulgences¡­heh¡­heh¡­¡± Sheena kicked at the ground with her pigeon-toed feet.


    Somehow, I was beginning to feel a bit angry. What right did this girl have to just bestow this gift on a man she just met? She barely even knew him! I mean, when I handed Alverd the Sword of Evros, it had been in a moment of national crisis, a necessity based on the circumstance. This girl was starting to get on my nerves. I decided the only thing to do was to (subtly) convey that I was the one who had come to see her, not my hired servants.


    I placed myself between Alverd and the Witch-Queen. ¡°A-Anyway,¡± I asserted, ¡°I¡¯m sure you have something you wish to clarify? I mean, I just offered you an olive branch. Do you doubt my words, or intentions? Or is it my sincerity?¡± I put my hands back on my hips. ¡°Do you have a problem with my declaration? Do you really not believe that I am here for the good of both our nations?¡±


    Sheena shook her head. ¡°Not at all,¡± she answered. ¡°To be honest, you have no right to claim anything of what you offer, Princess. You do not have the throne, so you have no authority. In fact, the only possible reason you would come to me is if you had the audacity to ask me for aid in reclaiming your country. I¡¯m sorry for leading you on as I did, but I wanted to see if you would be truthful or if you would give me the runaround.¡± She clasped her hands in front of her in a gesture of apology. ¡°I hope that wasn¡¯t too offensive or anything. Truly, I am sorry if it was.¡±


    My eyes opened wide in shock. Despite her clumsiness, this girl was sharp. She had seen through my ulterior motives like a hand of cards laid on a table. I was about to reply when the Witch-Queen raised her hand and cut me off.


    ¡°Now, I didn¡¯t say I wouldn¡¯t help. Quite far from it, as it so happens. I have my own problems here, and I need¡­outside help in dealing with them. Your arrival is more than just fortuitous, it may even be destiny at work, if I may be so bold.¡± I noticed that her eyes flitted toward Alverd as she spoke that last bit. ¡°You see, Algrustos has been in a bit of an uproar these past few months. Ever since we caught word that the King of Ishmar was deathly ill, many of my people have pushed for me to step up military preparations for war.¡±


    I felt another pang of regret when my father was mentioned. Father had indeed been deathly ill for some time, almost a year. He¡¯d soldiered through his illness like a true Ishmarian, never allowing it to show in public. But even a man as strong as my father could not defeat time and the frailty of his body. We had tried to suppress the news of his sickness, but if it had even reached Algrustos, the only answer was that spies had reported such news back to the Witch-Queen. I wanted to feel indignant at that, but again, I remembered that I was here to ask for her help, not berate her for her political decisions.


    The Witch-Queen¡¯s eyes fell to the ground in wistfulness. ¡°When I refused, saying that I would not resort to the same actions as my parents, I found out just how vicious my people could be. There was an attempt on my life. Only my Uncle¡¯s intervention spared my life.¡± I saw Lord Albrecht nod his head from his place beside the throne. I noticed that he seemly awfully well-built for a magelord; he looked capable of holding his own in a fight, if need be. A physical one, not this hand-waving mystical mage tomfoolery, either.


    ¡°You are mercenaries, are you not?¡± Sheena asked. ¡°Then I shall hire you. That shield shall be the down payment. Should you discover who is behind the plot to end my life, and the reason for such, I will not only reward you with gold, but provide you with troops to retake Ishmar. It pains me to think that, either way, I must declare war on another country, but the thought that we could forge peace between our two countries is a risk worth pursuing.¡±


    I clapped my hands together. ¡°Excellent! Then we have an deal!¡± I turned to Alverd and Kuro. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get going. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we get my soldiers! Move it, you dogs!¡± I was just about to start waving my hammer at Kuro when I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I turned around, I found that the Witch-Queen was standing right behind me. She¡¯d gone and grabbed me with so little notice, that it looked like it was more an impulse than something she¡¯d thought through.


    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± She fumbled for a moment, then gathered up her courage and spoke. ¡°I believe that, since you¡¯re on my payroll, I¡¯m the one who gives the orders¡­if I¡¯m not mistaken. I mean, I¡¯ve never hired mercenaries before. So¡­um¡­if you don¡¯t mind¡­¡± She let go of me, and moved over to Alverd.


    She hooked her right arm into Alverd¡¯s, who was still trying to figure out what was going on, and started leading him away. I could hear her offering to show him around the various hotspots and sights in Ethenia, and Alverd, too much of a gentleman to say no, allowed her to lead him down the hall and out the door.


    I stood there, dumbfounded, with only Kuro as company. Lord Albrecht and the twelve mages slowly shuffled out and disappeared. I looked at Kuro; I could almost hear the sound of his heart breaking from where I was standing. For once, I actually felt sympathy for the poor bastard. But more importantly, I was wrestling with the unpleasant and unfamiliar feeling that was worming its way through my own heart at the moment.


    Ugh, what was this feeling?! This irritability and malice that seemed to come from nowhere? I tried to figure out what it was and where it had come from, but had no success. Finally, I gave up. I grabbed Kuro¡¯s arm and roughly shook the catatonic mage. ¡°Hey! Spellslinger! Let¡¯s go! No sense in just standing around all day!¡± I raised my fist to punch him in the face if need be, but froze when I saw the look on his face.


    Kuro looked at me with blank, listless eyes. Mother Evros, I had never seen such a lifeless expression. ¡°Yes,¡± he responded in an expressionless tone. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± He didn¡¯t resist when I pulled him out of the throne room, intent on chasing after Alverd and the Witch-Queen.


    It seemed that my charges were in need of a little lesson in regards to loyalty. A dragon cannot have two masters. In Ishmar, we taught our pets with a large amount of roughhousing. Discipline was the cornerstone of good upbringing when it came to taming. If I had to beat some sense into both Kuro AND Alverd, then Evros damn it all, I was going to do it. I hadn¡¯t come this far to simply have what little going for me be snatched away by some delusional witch girl. I clenched the knuckles of my free hand into a fist.


    Time to reestablish who was in charge around here.

 B2 Chapter 6: Kuro: Wolves in the Flock (Raw)

    I must have done something to offend some god or something. It¡¯s the only explanation for this.


    Sheena was damn near perfect. She was almost everything I looked for in a girl. A charming smile, red hair, curvy figure, good at magic. She was almost a work of art, some celestial masterwork of a god who had long since broken the mold. Her shy, awkward and clumsy behavior had captured my heart like nothing had ever before. Even for an elf, known for their beauty and grace, she¡¯d stood out amongst any elves I¡¯d ever met, and I¡¯d met quite a few.


    And then she had gone and clung to Alverd like a drowning man to a piece of flotsam in a storm.


    Why? What possible reason could there be? Why else would the girl of my dreams simply walk into my life, only to continue walking right past me and into the arms of my best friend? I couldn¡¯t reconcile it in my head. I went over my past actions, feverishly trying to recall if I had slighted any deities or gods. Sadly, there were quite a few potentials on that list. And that was only taking into account the immortals. The list of living people I¡¯d offended was longer than I cared to think about.


    As Alicia dragged me through the streets of Ethenia, desperate to keep pace with Alverd and Sheena, my legs refused to move in sync with my body. I had been drained of strength. I had no desire to watch my best friend hit it off with the girl of my dreams. Even if Alicia¡¯s intention was, as I suspected, to act as chaperone, I still wanted no part in it. Just thinking about how Sheena would gaze at Alverd longingly at every opportunity was a dagger to my heart. Finally, Alicia stopped behind a cart and pulled me down next to her. She peeked over the cart, trying her best to be subtle. When I made no motion to do the same, she grabbed me by the collar and hoisted me up so I could see.


    Sheena was pulling Alverd into some sweet shop. The woman behind the counter, a chubby, homely looking creature with a wide smile, handed Sheena two caramel apples. Sheena handed one to Alverd, who had no idea how to eat it; Sheena demonstrated by taking a healthy bite out of her own. Alverd followed suit, and the two left the shop in high spirits. Unfortunately, Alverd¡¯s bite left a large smear of caramel on his cheek. Sheena laughed and used her thumb to remove the caramel, and the two shared a chuckle over it.


    Another plunge of the dagger into my heart. I could feel a sickening feeling pooling in my stomach. I wanted to just curl into a ball and cry at this point. I had never felt this kind of pain before. Jealousy, I was no stranger to. But never before had I applied jealousy to a matter of the heart before. Girls had never really been interested in me, for a multitude of reasons, mainly because of my blunt personality and inability to get along with others. Not that I minded, all that much. Many of the girls in Marevar¡¯s capital, Irinholm, were not only not my type, but were stuck up and pretentious. They regarded me as beneath them, simply because of my orphan status. So I brushed them off. My childhood friend Laura was the only girl to tell me that I had redeeming qualities, and that was a long time ago, in a distant memory that brought a familiar, bitter taste to my mouth. With some effort, I shelved the memory back where it belonged as I stalked the darkened streets of Ethenia with Alicia, as public service workers lit the lamps flanking the roads.


    I really didn¡¯t want to do this. I really, really didn¡¯t want to be doing this. Spying on my friend was one thing. Spying on him as he was doing something with such a beautiful girl that I had feelings for? It just felt¡­wrong. I wanted to be anywhere but here. But I couldn¡¯t escape the vice that was Alicia¡¯s grip. She pulled me along, the frustration on her face growing by the minute. For once, I think I could relate with her.


    We tailed the two for at least an hour. I hated every minute of it. I tried to distract myself any way I could. Alas, there were no birds or even insects buzzing about, and there were few people littering the streets despite the fact that the night was young. We only passed one guardsman, and he seemed quite bored. Sometime after passing him, something clicked in my head.


    Only one guardsman? Surely there would be more as night fell. In a kingdom of magic, regulation of crime would be necessary. I looked across the street again as Alicia yanked me along. Somehow, the lone guardsman had disappeared. In his place, a few other people had now mysteriously come out of the woodwork. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen. Something wasn¡¯t right.


    Although there were only a few, they were all dressed the same; dark, baggy cloaks that were designed for ease of movement and concealment of small weapons. Three had appeared on the opposite end of the street, and two more were walking towards us, in front of where Alverd and Sheena were still eating their apples. I casually looked over my shoulder, and saw another four behind me. When the four saw that I had sussed them out, they gave up all pretense of being bystanders and picked up their pace.


    They also pulled wands from their baggy robes. Wands were like the concealed weapons of the magic world. They possessed only a fraction of the power of a staff, but their size made them useful for sneaking them into places where staves would be detected simply by the naked eye. Much like a normal assassin would carry daggers or knives as their weapons, these magical assassins used wands to launch their cowardly little sneak attack. Still, given that they outnumbered us, any shortcomings in the firepower department would be compensated by the good old rule of quantity over quality.


    This was going to get ugly. I was lucky to still have my staff. Sheena didn¡¯t have hers, so she would be unable to use magic. Alverd had his sword, and Alicia her hammer, but three against nine was not good odds. As we all kept walking, we made the odds worse; in just a few seconds, Alverd, Sheena, Alicia and I would be trapped between the nine assassins and we would be in even deeper trouble. I decided that, in this case, subtlety was not the best way to go about things.


    I turned around, staff in hand, and pulled a spark of lightning from my body. The spark fed off the bioelectric impulses in my body, growing stronger as it pulsed in my hand. Magic had to come from somewhere; oftentimes, the best source for power comes from one¡¯s own body. In this case, conjuring the lightning bolt I was about to throw by feeding it with power from my body was an efficient, quick and commonplace method to do so. Or it would have been, had I been using my own staff.


    See, my staff technically didn¡¯t belong to me. It was the staff of my late mentor. Because it didn¡¯t belong to me, it made it harder for me to use magic, tiring me out more and requiring more of my focus to use higher level magic. I didn¡¯t know what it took to carve my own staff, and even then, I had never passed the trial to graduate from apprentice level, so I couldn¡¯t even consider carving my own staff. But I didn¡¯t have time to worry about any of that now.


    As I coerced the electrical energy from my body and into my hand, I could feel the familiar exhaustion tugging at me, as though I¡¯d pulled a piece of myself out of the whole. By now, I¡¯d grown accustomed to the sensation. There was simply nothing I could do about it. Instead, I focused through the fog and the slight pain that came with it, and unfurled my fingers, allowing the concentrated energy to take the form of a projectile.


    The bolt took form in my hand. I threw it at the four figures still walking up behind me, unaware that I had anticipated their attack. Only one was able to react to my preemptive strike in time to erect some sort of protective barrier, a shimmering wall of glowing blue light that flared to life with a wave of his staff. The other three took the lightning blast as it forked at them and were thrown back, wands knocked from their hands as they sailed through the air.


    I saw the last mage unclench his left fist, and his wand began to glow with a soft blue light as he directed magical energy to form in the palm of his hand. Instead of drawing it out of his body the traditional way, he was using a quick and dirty method of ¡°speed-casting¡± his spell, feeding the energy into his hand by redirecting the impulses to gather in his hand instead of pulling it from across his body through the focal point at his chest. It was sadly an effective, if dangerous, way to speed up a process that was potentially just as fraught with peril to the user as the intended target.


    I had enough time to time to catch the dumbfounded look on Alicia¡¯s face before I dove at her, knocking her to the ground to avoid the surviving mage¡¯s counterattack. A bolt of lightning, just as bright and intense as the one I had thrown mere seconds ago, flew past my head with a sizzling sound. Alicia and I hit the ground, me on top of her, in a sprawl. Alicia snarled and punched me in the jaw, pushing me off of her with more force than was necessary, scrambling to get to her feet and grab her hammer. As I rolled over, I glanced over at Alverd and Sheena.


    Alverd had reacted quickly, just like I knew he would. The Sword of Evros was already in his right hand, the dormicite shield in his other. He had pulled Sheena behind him, and now he was staring down five men and women with wands, each about to throw magic at him. He neatly deflected a fireball with his new shield and assumed a defensive posture in front of the young Witch-Queen.


    ¡°Milady Sheena, stay behind me. I won¡¯t let them hurt you.¡± He bounced another attack off the shield, an ice spike, and it zoomed off into the night and embedded itself harmlessly in the wooden entryway of a nearby storefront. He leveled his sword at the nearest mage assassin, who took a step back, waving his wand in as threatening a manner as he could.


    Sheena, however, put her hand on Alverd¡¯s shoulder. Her face was still as red as before, but now she looked quite serious. ¡°I appreciate your concern, my dear knight,¡± she purred, before aiming her right hand to point at the men and women before her. ¡°But I am far from a damsel in distress.¡±


    Sheena then lifted her hands and screamed out a word, ¡°Kelda!¡±. In a crimson flash, something materialized in front of Alverd, something big. A swirling cloud of fog condensed into the form of an animal, a red-furred wolf, except no wolf could ever have been so large. The beast was easily as big as a lion, and had teeth and claws that I bet could tear through flesh with ease. The wolf-creature darted forward toward the mages, its slavering maw open, gleaming white teeth on full display.


    They panicked as the wolf closed the distance rapidly. They changed their target from Alverd to the wolf, but it was too late. The wolf pounced upon the closest one, and he screamed as the wolf wrapped its unnaturally large maw around the man¡¯s neck. Alverd slammed into the next one with the dormicite shield, flooring him with a bash to the face. The shield made a satisfying thumping noise as it collided with the man¡¯s jaw, sending two teeth spiraling through the air. A spinning slash put down the woman next to him, and Alverd whirled to face the last two mages in front of him, his weapon steady and his gaze steely.


    A familiar. Sheena had summoned a familiar, a magical creature bound to her will. Any mage who had passed their rite of passage into full magehood had a familiar; the creature¡¯s shape varied from person to person. I guessed in her case, it was this giant monster wolf. But at the end of the day, it was an ally, so I was glad to have it on our side. Speaking of the monstrous beast, it had finished dealing with its first target and took up Alverd¡¯s flank, growling sinisterly at the two mages he was staring down. I honestly couldn¡¯t tell who the assassins were scared of more: Alverd, or Kelda.


    Behind me, Alicia was engaging the mage who had blocked my lightning bolt. He threw aside his wand and reached into his cloak, pulling out a small, baton-shaped piece of metal. A gemstone embedded in its middle flared to life, and the baton suddenly extended to the length of a quarterstaff, just like the ones used by Captain McFarlane and her soldiers. He was no slouch with it either. He neatly deflected Alicia¡¯s attacks by predicting them through her huge wind-ups, although he made no move to go on the offensive. Instead, he held his ground and tried to push Alicia back by striking her elbows and shins, keeping her off balance.


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    His fighting was a delaying action; soon, the three mages I had taken out with my lightning bolt would find their feet and rejoin the battle anew. My mind raced as I tried to find a solution to the problem.


    As I did, I looked over my shoulder, only to behold something amazing. Sheena held her right hand out, palm up, and breathed out, a wisp of white smoke emanating from her mouth. It swirled into her hand, shining brightly, a cold, mirror-like sheen coating it. I wanted to scream at her, to ask what the hell she was doing, but I didn¡¯t get the chance. Without any ceremony, she threw the iceball at the remaining two mages Alverd was facing. The iceball exploded with more force than any I could conjure, and the two mages were utterly engulfed, their screams cut short as they were flash frozen in the space of a second.


    I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. Sheena had just used magic without her staff. It was a feat that no mage was supposedly capable of performing. Yet she had not only managed it, but she had made it as easy as breathing. She was not the Witch-Queen for nothing. Sheena gazed at her handiwork impassively, as if she felt nothing for killing her would-be murderers. The look in her eye was colder than the magic she had just conjured. I felt a shiver run its way down my spine.


    Alicia cried out, turning my attention back to my original plight. Sure enough, the other mages had returned to their feet and were in the process of weaving spells. The three were combining their power to form a giant runic circle, which hung in the air, like a malevolent mirror. Even with wands, a spell powered by three different mages would still be powerful enough to kill several times over. With their headstart, I had no chance of beating them. Alverd was too far away to help, and it looked like Alicia and I were about to get blitzed by a magical assault.


    And then the ground shook.


    The mages stopped their spells, just as shaken as we were. The ground shook at steady, almost consistent intervals, like footsteps. There was a general confusion, followed by a mad scramble to discern the direction the noise was coming from. We were saved the trouble when, from a side alley, the biggest, meanest looking golem I had ever seen emerged, headed straight for the enemy.


    A golem was what mages called a construct, an artificially created being powered by magic and given a purpose, controlled by one skilled in the art of puppetry. The construct was fueled by a tiny bit of the puppeteer¡¯s soul, giving them greater control over the end result than a necromancer would have over his thralls. This ¡°piece of the soul¡± was then placed within a powerful shell of solid steel or stone, shaped like a man, capable of incredible feats of strength. But when the hulking golem stepped into the illumination of the streetlights, I could see that it was crafted entirely of dormicite, its sparkling surface reflecting the surroundings perfectly. The golem was easily ten feet tall, with thick arms and legs, a head in the shape of a knight¡¯s helm, and glowing red ¡°eyes¡± peering out of the darkness of its visor. It took one look at the mages and raised its hand.


    One mage threw a lance of ice at the golem; the projectile shattered against the golem¡¯s dormicite skin like a snowball. The golem countered by shooting a similar lance out of its hand, skewering the mage and sending him flying back for several feet. The golem raised its other hand, and a golden bolt of searing lightning shot forth, electrocuting the woman next to him, leaving only two mages left.


    I¡¯d only read about golems in books. They were quite rare, even the ones made of stone. One had to be a high level practitioner of magic to create a golem, as well as have access to alchemical research and materials to form the golem¡¯s body. For a golem to be made of dormicite would have taken near phenomenal levels of skill as well as a significant monetary investment. From what I was seeing, though, it was definitely worth every gold piece.


    The biggest oddity, though, was how the golem could use magic. A golem was an extension of its controller, so the idea of a golem using its creator¡¯s magic wasn¡¯t unheard of. But again, this was the first time I¡¯d seen a golem in real life, so the awe and terror I felt were doing a good job in interfering with my thought process. As I gaped at the new arrival, the golem turned and started stomping towards new targets.


    The other of the two remaining mages tried to turn tail and flee, but the red-furred wolf ran him down and leaped on him. I turned away as his screams were cut short by the beast¡¯s cruel fangs. I was just in time to see the golem pick up the mage attacking Alicia in one of its hands. Without any hesitation, the golem smashed the mage against the wall of a nearby shop, crushing him like a rotten piece of fruit. I winced as the golem let go of the man¡¯s lifeless body, allowing the corpse to hit the ground in a pulpy mess.


    A man stepped out of the alleyway from which the golem had emerged. I recognized him as one of the twelve people I had seen in Sheena¡¯s throne room. The man was an elf, but significantly older than Sheena. Crow¡¯s feet pulled at his eyes and wrinkles ran down his cheeks to his lips. His graying blond hair was short and sparse, as though he were in the early stages of balding, and the diamond in his staff sparkled in the glow of the street lamps. He wore a white robe with a black and red trim, adorned with gold filigree. He had no trouble making his way over to us, so I guessed that his advanced age wasn¡¯t hindering him yet. When he reached us, he bowed deeply, the dim light glinting in his dark grey eyes.


    ¡°My Queen, are you hurt?¡± The man asked. When she stood back up, Sheena returned the bow. ¡°Thanks to your intervention, Lord Kertouli, I am unharmed. You came in the nick of time.¡± When she stood back up, she caught her giant witch hat before it had time to tumble off of her head, although she had to fiddle with the crown to get it back into place without tipping. I guess she really was self-conscious about those elf ears of hers. Not that I could understand why. Was there some kind of local prejudice against elves or something?


    As Lord Kertouli spoke to Sheena, I saw that the golem had taken up a flanking position on our rescuer. I deduced that Lord Kertouli must have been the puppeteer controlling it. I came over to the conversation and joined by asking a question. ¡°Um, not to be rude, but who exactly are you?¡±


    The newcomer turned his attention to me. ¡°Forgive my rudeness. My name is Emberal Kertouli. I am one of the Twelve Magister Lords, Third Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Puppetry, and one of Ethenia¡¯s most powerful nobles. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Kuro. Any guest of my Lady Queen¡¯s is welcome here in our city.¡±


    Lord Kertouli gestured to the alley once more. ¡°Lord Necce! There is no need to be shy! Come and meet our new arrivals! You disgrace yourself with such a display!¡± As soon as he said that, a man slunk out of the shadows and sidled up to us. Unlike Lord Kertouli, this man was neither graceful nor refined. He was too skinny and pale, his hair was too messy, and his movements were jerky and uncertain. He sidled up to Lord Kertouli and growled at us under his breath. The ruby in his staff flared several times during his approach, as if reflecting the sinister glow in his shifty eyes.


    Lord Kertouli was not amused by this. ¡°Zajj! These are guests! Behave yourself as befits a noble of Algrustos!¡±Kertouli gave the man a stern look, and Necce growled again, but this time he settled down and stood up straight, clearing his throat. ¡°My name is Zajj Necce¡­Ninth Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Elemancy. Just so we¡¯re clear, I have no intention of being chummy with an Ishmarian princess and her little pets. Of that, you can be certain.¡± He emphasized by spitting on the ground, more or less in Alicia¡¯s direction. She scowled, and I could see a vein come dangerously close to popping on her forehead.


    Lord Kertouli shook his head and sighed. ¡°Please forgive his rudeness. Lord Necce does not possess the dignity and bearing one would expect from one of his station. I will chastise him later. But I am still glad that you are unharmed, Milady.¡± He tilted his head reverently in Sheena¡¯s direction.


    Sheena waved her arm in our direction. ¡°I owe such to my new companions. If not for them, I would not have survived long enough to be rescued by you. It would seem that I made the right choice about these mercenaries.¡± Sheena hooked her arm around Alverd¡¯s again, pulling him close. ¡°Especially this one! Oh, if only you could have seen him, Lord Kertouli! He was so brave! To see him in action was to see poetry in motion! My heart could burst!¡± Sheena let out another giggle of satisfaction as she nuzzled against Alverd.


    Again my heart sank. Watching how close the two of them were, I knew I didn¡¯t stand a chance. After all, I was just a lowly mage apprentice. I was short, weak, pathetic and unnoticeable. Depression settled into my mind again like a fog as the two Magister Lords split off from the group, offering to escort us back to the Ivory Palace.


    However, I did need to know one thing. I approached Sheena with my question. I also tried my damnedest to keep the depression out of my tone when I addressed her. ¡°Hey, Sheena? How was it that you were able to use magic without a staff? No mage could ever accomplish such a feat!¡±


    Sheena was about to answer my question when all of a sudden her wolf lunged and landed on top of me. It knocked me to the ground and started growling, baring its huge teeth at me. Its menacing growl echoed in my ears, and I could see the predatory gleam in its eyes. I hadn¡¯t the strength to push the oversized wolf off of me, and fear paralyzed me nonetheless. The teeth came closer and closer, and I could feel the wolf¡¯s hot breath on my face. It was seconds away from tearing me to pieces the way it had done to the assassins.


    But then I heard Sheena¡¯s voice. ¡°Kelda! Bad girl! Heel!¡± The wolf turned its head, and finally the beast moved off of me and trotted back to her master. As if things weren¡¯t bad enough, she even sat in front of Alverd, panting like a dog. Alverd even pat the creature on the head, and the bloody beast let him, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. Just another heap of indignation on top of everything else.


    I picked myself off the ground. Sheena looked apologetic. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Sir Kuro. My wolf, Kelda¡­she gets so playful sometimes. But she¡¯s usually a better judge of character¡­I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a good reason why she almost chewed your head off¡­¡±


    My jaw fell open. ¡°YOU THINK?!¡± I yelled hysterically, not caring that doing so might have been too much. I stared at where the wolf was now letting Alverd play with her face. I sighed again, then posed my question to Sheena once more, as calmly as I could manage given all the crap the universe was throwing at me at the moment. ¡°Well¡­anyway, about your use of magic. Shouldn¡¯t you be dead? Or at the very least, incapacitated?¡±


    Sheena laughed. It was a nice laugh, not condescending or anything, and it was melodious to the ear. ¡°Well, you have a good point. Yes, I should be dead. But in my veins flows the blood of the royals of Algrustos. That blood carries the power to use magic without a staff, at least, the lower and middle tiers of magic. Higher tier magic still requires the use of my staff, but I am far from helpless, as you can see. My ancestors attributed this power to a pact with an ancient spirit, but it could be a fairy tale for all I know.¡±


    It seemed plausible enough. I had heard that people could gain power through deals with spirits or demons, and that said deals could pass down family lines. I didn¡¯t have any evidence to point to the contrary, so I was willing to accept it as an explanation. I was going to inquire further into the topic, but then Alicia cut in.


    ¡°You two! This wouldn¡¯t have happened if you two weren¡¯t just walking down the street completely oblivious of your surroundings! If you would pay attention, we never would have walked into that mess!¡± She waved her hammer menacingly at Sheena. ¡°I¡¯ve almost had it with you and your cavalier attitude! You need to get it through your head that your life is in danger! Use your head!¡±


    I really, really, REALLY had to resist the urge to take Alicia¡¯s hammer and smack her with it. She was berating the one person who could decide whether aid would be given in her quest to retake her homeland. Like a shortsighted fool, she was jeopardizing any chance she would have in defeating her lunatic sister. I shot Alicia a look, but it did little to deter her. ¡°And on the subject of that¡­¡± She continued, ignoring me entirely. I gave up and decided to think instead about things that might actually matter.


    I barely noticed Alicia¡¯s ramblings on the way back. I was lost in my own musings. I grappled with my unpleasant thoughts, thoughts I knew were wrong to think, but thought anyway. Even as I was brought to a guest room, even as I settled into bed, I lay awake with those thoughts. As Alverd drifted off to sleep in the bed next to mine, those thoughts kept me up the better part of the night. Finally I managed to shift my focus to something more productive.


    The assassins we had encountered had pulled us into a trap. We had been attacked with no chance or time for guards to assist us, and we had been hit in a narrow street where we would have been unable to flee should the battle have gone sideways for us. As far as plans had gone, it had been pretty good, all things considered.


    Sheena was right. There were indeed wolves in the flock. Her own people were ready and willing to raise arms against her, their Queen, to go to war with Ishmar. If we didn¡¯t get to the bottom of this, she would likely have no choice but to declare war on the dragon tamers¡­or die to appease her subjects.


    It was a no-win scenario either way. I pulled the covers close. I lay there for another hour, thinking, thinking, thinking. But the more I lay awake, the more my mind lingered towards the jealousy I harbored toward my friend. Finally, exhaustion overwhelmed me, and sleep came to claim me.


    That night, I dreamt of caramel apples. The bitterest caramel apples in creation.

 B2: Chapter 7: Kuro: The Slumbering Calamities (Raw)

    Understandably, I did not wake up well-rested or feeling any better than I did when I retired the night before.


    Sleep was no escape from the grim reality that was the real world. I saw that the moment Alverd and I stepped into the well-lit throne room with Alicia, summoned by Sheena for some manner of urgent business. The nature of said business was not yet known to us, but the messenger was quite adamant that we show ourselves before the Witch-Queen with all haste, so we did as we were told.


    Even in my just-rolled-out-of-bed state, I noticed that the Palace had a greatly different feel to it in the daytime. The many windows let in plenty of the morning sun, allowing the corridors to bask in its radiant glory. So much of the walls and knick-knacks in the hallways had enough gold to catch the light that I had to shield my eyes. But it wasn¡¯t extravagant, like in Ishmar. Here, the beauty that I beheld was muted, as if trying to be humble in its presentation. I suppose the architect had tried to make a statement, but damned if I knew what it was.


    Alicia was looking unusually wary this morning. Her eyes weren¡¯t shadowed like one who didn¡¯t have enough sleep, but they were narrowed. I¡¯d seen that look before. She was anticipating a throw-down with Sheena about Alverd¡¯s rightful ¡°ownership¡±. Normally, I¡¯d tell her that it was a waste of effort and to do so might jeopardize her chances of getting her country back, but I already knew she wasn¡¯t a morning person. And I didn¡¯t want to give her any more reason to take out her frustration on me. I didn¡¯t deserve that.


    When we entered the throne room, Sheena nearly tackled Alverd, enveloping him in her arms. She giggled madly, pulling him towards the center of the room. Alicia and I skulked after them. I noticed that the twelve men and women who had been present during our first encounter in this room were here again, and I recognized Emberal and Zajj amongst them. I also spied Sheena¡¯s uncle, Lord Albrecht, next to the throne itself. Sheena let go of Alverd¡¯s hand and ran up to the throne, seating herself upon it. When she did so, all of the Magister Lords seated themselves, and Lord Albrecht stepped forward.


    In a commanding voice, Lord Albrecht spoke. ¡°I have convened the Council of Magic at Her Majesty¡¯s request, pertaining to the incident that took place last night in the marketplace. This marks the second time in this month that my niece has had her life endangered, and still we are no closer to finding those responsible. I would have the Council¡¯s opinion on how to proceed.¡±


    One of the members who had not been introduced, a woman in her thirties, spoke up. Her dark brown hair was done up in a bun held by a pair of needles, and she had a very intense pair of blueish eyes. She was wearing a purple robe with white and blue trim, with odd shapes emblazoned on it seemingly at random. Her staff had an amethyst embedded in it. ¡°I would like to say something, Prime Minister.¡±


    Albrecht nodded in the woman¡¯s direction. ¡°The Council recognizes the Fourth Attendant, Keeper of Necromancy, Lady Sino Laspa. What say you?¡±


    Lady Laspa stood up, and then gestured at me, Alverd and Alicia. ¡°Who are these people? I understand that they are mercenaries and the girl is the Princess of Ishmar that we were expecting, but who are they really? Are we to trust them merely because our Lady Queen saw their arrival in her divinations? I am afraid that I need further proof of their good intentions before I am willing to trust so quickly.¡±


    There was a general murmur of agreement among the remaining Magister Lords. Lord Albrecht waved his hand again, and the murmuring ceased. Sheena leaned forward. ¡°I know it is difficult for you to have faith in this troubled time. But what I have seen in my divinations is not deceit or falsehood. It is hope. These three are the key to bringing about something wonderful. They will help me change this kingdom for the better. I understand you all have reservations, but I ask that you have faith in me, your Queen. There is a peaceful solution to this.¡±


    Sheena pointed her staff at Alicia. ¡°This Princess crossed no-man¡¯s land to carry the gift of hope to us. I intend to show the Ishmarians that we can coexist together as allies. There is no need for hostilities between us. The past shall be forgiven, as it should be.¡±


    There was a round of slow, reluctant-sounding clapping from the Magister Lords. I took note of the ones who were the slowest or the least enthused. Zajj looked ready to throw up, his hands flopping together like two dead fish. Laspa had much the same reaction. Kertouli, however, was dignified and prudent with his applause. I wasn¡¯t familiar with all this hierarchy stuff yet, but if Kertouli, like I suspected, had as much pull as he did, having his support would go far in rallying the other Magisters behind Sheena¡¯s proposal.


    At this point, Lord Kertouli spoke up. ¡°Prime Minister, if I may?¡±


    Lord Albrecht waved his hand toward her. ¡°The Council recognizes Lord Emberal Kertouli, Third Attendant and Keeper of Puppetry.¡±


    Lord Kertouli stood up. ¡°Milady Queen, I do not think we should be so quick to disregard the past. Was it not Ishmar who assassinated your parents twenty years ago? You were merely a babe then. Had Lord Albrecht not saved you from the assassins, we would have lost the entire royal family. He is not of the royal family, nor is he related to you. Should you die, we will lose everything. Are you really so quick to forgive a nation that has taken so much from you?¡±


    Sheena cast her gaze down. ¡°I cannot say. My parents died before I could form my own memories of them. But Uncle¡­even if Uncle is only related by the bond of memories and love, and not blood, he is still my Uncle. He was my parents¡¯ close friend and advisor, and has helped me fill their shoes admirably. All except for sating my countrymen¡¯s desire for war, it would seem.¡±


    Alicia quickly expressed her displeasure at this. She stomped her foot on the marble floor to command everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°My people would never stoop so low! You¡¯re all lying! My father would never send assassins to deal with you! What proof do you have to back up this ridiculous slander?!¡± She was hunched over, breathing hard, her teeth gnashing in fury. She looked ready to bite someone¡¯s head off.


    Emberal leveled his eyes at Alicia. ¡°We have ample evidence to the contrary, little girl. The ones responsible were slain by Lord Albrecht himself, who found papers on their bodies ordering the deaths of the royal family. Plus, they were armed with weapons made of dragons¡¯ teeth. We have considered every possible explanation, and the likeliest scenario is that Ishmar sanctioned an assassination. Do not presume to think that your father would not sink so low as to use such means to accomplish his ends, child.¡±


    Emberal looked calm as ice when he spoke, but even I could detect a downward change of tone at the mention of the Ishmarian assassins. His normally passive eyes had flashed with malice for a moment before smoothing out to their neutral hue, and I caught every moment of it. Alicia was really playing with fire here. If the Magister Lords decided to reject Alicia¡¯s proposal through a majority vote, then not even Sheena could stop them. At that point, we¡¯d just be two mercenaries and an enemy of the crown on foreign soil. As calmly as I could, I motioned to Alverd to try and get a handle on the situation before it could get any worse.


    Thankfully, my old friend got my nod and moved to stand. He had to cross the throne room to get back to where Alicia and I were, and in that movement all chatter hushed. Alverd, as calm as could be, all dignity and honor made form, strode across the length of the throne room and commanded the attention of all. It was hard to tell what attracted each individual to give his or her undivided attention. At the end of the day, my friend just had the charisma to make it work.


    Alverd interjected before Alicia could do any more damage to our position. It was obvious he wanted to make sure she couldn¡¯t start turning this meeting into a pointless ethical debate. ¡°So the people would prefer war then? They would rather go to war with Ishmar now rather than take the chance that Ishmar would destroy itself?¡± He took up a position flanking Alicia, putting his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. She stiffened, but eventually she did calm down.


    Sheena nodded. She pushed her left hand against her chest, as if she were trying to soothe some invisible ache. ¡°It is as you say. It is the nearly unanimous wish of my people to declare war on Ishmar and conquer them while they are divided due to the power struggle taking place in their country. But while my strategists all agree that now is the perfect time to attack, it simply seems¡­cowardly. Underhanded. Those were the tactics we used in the past. But not anymore.¡±


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    Sheena then swept her hand wide over her subjects. ¡°Diplomacy must be our first attempt. If we can find a way to resolve our differences peacefully, then we can find a way to erase our bloody histories and forge a better future. That is why I wish to put aside the past. That is why I welcome Princess Alicia into this court. That is why I wish to take the first step forward. For all of us.¡±


    I had to admit, Sheena¡¯s speech was quite stirring. She had a gift for oration that Alicia did not, which, in the hands of an authority figure like her, could make all the difference. The lives of men and women could hinge on the words of a king or queen, and Sheena was definitely one of those rare few who possessed the gift to inspire those with words alone.


    The Magister Lords conferred amongst themselves. Even Necce leaned over to his left to address the woman sitting next to him, speaking in low tones that I could not pick up. But all eyes were on Sheena now. Even despite Alicia¡¯s outburst, the entire room¡¯s reaction hinged on who would speak next. And speak they did.


    Another of the Magister Lords put his hand up. Lord Albrecht motioned to him. ¡°The Council recognizes Lord Casper Mattigen, Second Attendant and Keeper of Summoning.¡±


    Lord Mattigen looked about as old as Lord Kertouli, but far more wrinkled and withered. He was also quite human, as he lacked the elf ears of Kertouli. His robe was pitch-black, and an onyx was affixed to his staff. I suppose it fit a demon summoner. After a short cough, he spoke. ¡°Perhaps the Council would be more willing to accept such a proposal if Milady Queen would be willing to awaken the Slumbering Calamities? As a precautionary measure, of course.¡±


    Sheena was taken aback by that comment. I could see it in her face, her body language. But the Magister Lords were all serious, showing no reaction. Some may have agreed, some may have disagreed, but they were also completely passive, betraying no emotion to the suggestion.


    Sheena retorted. ¡°You wish for me to awaken the Slumbering Calamities?! Are you insane? That would be the clearest declaration of war this world has ever seen! Those abominations have only one purpose, and have been that way since the day they were created!¡± Sheena stamped her foot on the ground. ¡°Never! I will never allow it! As far as I¡¯m concerned, those things can rot beneath the Palace forever!¡±


    I had never seen Sheena so angry. Gone was the klutzy, sincere, yet pushy girl. Now she was so caught up in such righteous anger that I barely recognized her. Alverd moved to her side. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him. Her face turned red when she saw how close his face was to hers.


    ¡°Milady, you shouldn¡¯t behave in such a manner. It is degrading to one of your station. Perhaps if you explain, calmly, it would paint a better picture of the problem?¡± Sheena stuttered for a moment as she fumbled for a reply. Just out of curiosity, I looked over at Alicia. Sure enough, she was grinding her teeth again, her hand curled into a fist. I sighed, then turned back to Sheena and Alverd. Girls will be girls, I supposed.


    Sheena shied away from Alverd, albeit reluctantly, her face still red. ¡°Of course¡­the, um¡­the Slumbering Calamities. They¡¯re, um¡­uh¡­¡± She finally shook her head, violently. ¡°Right. Slumbering Calamities. They¡¯re a series of golems. Eight of them. Fifty feet tall, made of pure dormicite. They were created a long time ago by powerful wizards and witches for some of the earliest kings and queens of Algrustos, to fight off Ishmar. Every time Ishmar has invaded us in the past, we used the Calamities to fend them off. They are our ultimate weapon.¡±


    Sheena folded her arms. ¡°But we have never used the Calamities for offense. They are¡­shrouded in mystery. Each time they were activated in the past, many people died, including the kings and queens who ordered their activation. Our scrolls and records on them are not as detailed as we would like, and much of our lore and literature is damaged. I would not commit such a powerful tool to war without the ability to create more for defensive purposes. This decision was met with great disapproval. In truth, I do not even know how to activate the Calamities.¡±


    Lord Albrecht interceded at that point. ¡°Do not trouble yourself, my dear. I am working tirelessly to discover the answer. But still, even if I did, would it affect your judgment? A sword can be used for offense or defense. A weapon does not discriminate. This is something you must learn yourself, Sheena. I cannot help you in that.¡± I noted the fatherly tone in his voice, firm but fair. By now, he¡¯d know how to rein his niece in when she got carried away. ¡°Although,¡± he suggested slyly, ¡°I wonder if this knight here might get you to listen. Gods know you¡¯ve wanted his counsel for quite some time now¡­¡± He made little effort to conceal his mocking tone or knowing snicker.


    Sheena went red again. ¡°Uncle!¡± She started flailing her fists against his broad chest. ¡°You! You embarrass me!¡± Alverd watched the spectacle unfold with a kind of wistfulness in his eye. I knew he was thinking about his own parents. What would they say if they had known their son would find himself in the company of queens and princesses? They¡¯d ooh and ahh, and wonder what they did to deserve such an honor.


    Would mine have felt the same way?


    Before I could think any further, Sheena turned to us again. ¡°So now you know my dilemma. I have consulted my scrying crystal many, many times but found no answers. It¡¯s as if Fate does not wish me to find my way.¡± Sheena sighed. ¡°So many things are going wrong all at once¡­I don¡¯t understand¡­divination is not an exact magic, but still, it has never led me astray before¡­¡±


    Alverd cocked his head. ¡°Scrying crystal?¡± I filled him in. ¡°It¡¯s a glass ball that mages use. It has minor prophetic capabilities. Sometimes they can see the future, or the past, or anything in between. Not the most reliable tool, but being informed of things in advance¡­¡± I gave Sheena a sly, cockeyed grin, ¡°¡­obviously makes it far easier to prepare certain things, like gifts from heads of state. Am I right, Milady Queen?¡±


    At this point, Alicia snorted. I turned around to look at her. She had been mostly quiet through this entire conversation, but now she had apparently hit her limit. Her fist was still clenched, and I could see the veins popping out on her forehead. I guess the whole being able to see the future thing had been the last straw for her. She marched up to Sheena and started yelling at her.


    ¡°You have to use some crystal ball to tell you all the answers?! What the hell are you mages on about?! You think staring into the abyss or whatever is gonna tell you the future?! If that was all it took, then Algrustos would rule the entire bloody world! We¡¯d all be ruled by bloody mages! I think your divination is a pile of dragon crap! Unless you think you can prove me wrong!¡±


    Sheena looked very put off by Alicia¡¯s tirade. ¡°Divination is not all about seeing the future! What one sees through divinations are truths veiled in mystery. They reveal more about people than they do about abstract concepts such as time. How do you think I learned so much about you all without even meeting any of you? It was not coincidence that you came here. It was meant to be.¡± She snuck a glance back at Alverd for that last part, and that only served to make things worse.


    Alicia was not amused, and she was going to jeopardize her chances of an alliance if this kept up. ¡°Oh yeah? Then why don¡¯t you put your gold where your mouth is? Let¡¯s see what you can find out with this stupid little divination of yours. If you really are some high and mighty witch, then prove it!¡± Alicia put her hands on her hips, radiating pure defiance.


    There was deathly silence in the room for a moment.


    And then, the sound of a single person clapping.


    Every head turned towards the throne. Beside it was the Prime Minister, still clapping in a slow, steady rhythm. ¡°Well then! There¡¯s some fire. I daresay we find our honor challenged. Well, little princess, I¡¯m afraid we aren¡¯t going to just lie down and take such an egregious tongue-lashing. We have our pride, and our honor. When we say that divination can or cannot do a thing, only to have someone mock one of our sacred traditions, what are we to do but prove our aggressors wrong?¡± He snuck a wink at his niece, who took his meaning.


    ¡°Very well. I will hold a divination ceremony later today in the ceremonial chamber. I will require all three of you to attend. Hopefully we can put your¡­issues to rest after we have had a proper reading. I want you to trust me, Princess. If this is the only way, then so be it.¡± She gave the irate Alicia a knowing smile, which was probably intentional, and I heard Alicia¡¯s teeth being ground together from several feet away.


    Inwardly, I fumed at Alicia¡¯s immaturity. She was only behaving in such a manner because she was jealous of Sheena¡¯s closeness to Alverd. But that made me the pot and her the kettle in this scenario. So rather than put my foot in my mouth, I decided to just play it cool for now. Besides, I had never seen a professional divination up close, and I was quite curious to see what it all entailed.


    Lord Albrecht clapped his hands once more. ¡°Then it is decided. This meeting is adjourned for now. We will reconvene on the morrow for further deliberation as to the matter at hand. You are all dismissed.¡± Slowly the other Magister Lords left, and silence reigned in the throne room. Alverd looked at Sheena.


    ¡°Milady, what exactly will this divination ritual reveal? Though my curiosity is piqued, I am afraid that I am a bit nervous about the concept. Will everything turn out alright?¡±


    Sheena laughed, then allowed her face to become deadly serious. ¡°Just wait and see, my dear knight. Just wait and see.¡± As she broke into another round of mock laughter, I couldn¡¯t help but feel just a bit nervous myself.


    I made a note to get Alicia back for this later.

 B2: Chapter 8: Alicia: Divinations (Raw)

    I was starting to wonder if people were pulling my leg about this whole magic business.


    I mean, it wasn¡¯t very consistent. There were solid, believable things like the healing magic McFarlane¡¯s man had used on my leg, or the elemancy Kuro used, and then there were things like this so-called ¡°divination¡± that Sheena claimed that she was a student of. Thunderbolts and lightning? I could believe that. Seeing the future? That was a whole different story.


    Kuro wasn¡¯t pleased about my behavior in the throne room. He made it very clear that I had been skating on thin ice (whatever the hell that meant, since we didn¡¯t have ice in Ishmar) the moment we were standing outside the divination chamber, which had a door emblazoned with a circular orb sitting upon a wooden table. I admit, I wasn¡¯t really listening to him all that much. But one thing did stick out in particular.


    He called me immature.


    I remember seizing his collar and pulling his head down half a foot so his eyes would be level with mine. ¡°Look, Kuro, you better watch what you say. I may not be a princess anymore but I can still crush your windpipe like cheap glass if I feel like it. That¡­witch thinks stealing peoples¡¯ contracted servants is fair game, so you¡¯re lucky I didn¡¯t feel like smashing her head in like a clay urn. Which is exactly what I¡¯ll do to you if you ever call me immature again.¡±


    When I let him go, Kuro scowled at me. ¡°You know, maybe it¡¯s just because you were spoiled rotten growing up, but that has got to be the most entitled comment I¡¯ve ever heard in my life. When we walked into that throne room, the only thing you were thinking about was how to get Sheena to help you. But then you call her out in front of her entire ruling council. You need to start thinking about the consequences of your actions. You let your temper own you like that again, and even Alverd might not be able to stop what¡¯s coming to you.¡±


    I was about to punch him when what he said clicked in my head. I had indeed gone and done exactly what Kuro had said. I felt the strength in my knees fail me, and I almost tilted over and fell. Luckily I caught myself. ¡°Oh gods¡­you¡¯re right. I came all this way to ask the Witch-Queen for help, and I ended up screaming at her. Ugh! How stupid could I be?!¡± Kuro scrunched up his face, as if he were trying very hard to keep his opinion to himself. I was too worried about salvaging my own standing in the Witch-Queen¡¯s eyes, though.


    Kuro composed himself, then tried to talk to me. ¡°Look, maybe if you apologize, tell her you just ran a little hotter than normal, and that you¡¯re just a stranger in a strange land, you don¡¯t know how to act around mages, maybe she¡¯ll just let it go? She seems the sort to let water flow off her back, if you get my meaning.¡±


    I didn¡¯t, so Kuro had to explain that ducks, for some inexplicable reason, couldn¡¯t get wet, as water just flowed right off their backs. As I had never seen a duck in my entire life, it sounded like rubbish to me, but he told me it was the thought that mattered. We rehearsed an apology between the two of us, so that we could get back in the Witch-Queen¡¯s good graces.


    Kuro and I waited outside the divination chamber for a few minutes. Suddenly, the Witch-Queen appeared, rounding the nearby hallway corner with none other than Alverd still on her arm. Apparently they¡¯d been on a tour of the halls, because the witch was smiling ear to ear and wouldn¡¯t stop blabbering. Alverd, good natured bloke that he was, listened with patience and indulgence. The damned girl clearly couldn¡¯t tell she was running her mouth.


    It brought that unfamiliar feeling bubbling back to the surface, the same one I¡¯d felt the night we arrived in Ethenia, when she¡¯d taken him to see the castle town. But as much as I wanted to let it speak for me, I had to be diplomatic. Hard to accuse her of something I didn¡¯t understand, too. So I took in a deep breath, and waited for the two to come within speaking distance.


    Finally, the pair came to a stop in front of the divination chamber doors. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you let me take you on this tour. I¡¯m sorry if any of it seemed terribly boring¡­mage history is not something one can take all in one sitting, heh heh heh¡­¡± She blushed again and fiddled with the brim of her hat. When she finally noticed me and Kuro, the blush faded. ¡°Oh. You two are quite early, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    As I had rehearsed, I bowed my head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about what happened in the throne room earlier, Your Majesty. It was hardly appropriate for me to act in such a manner. I bring shame on myself and my ancestors with such a display.¡± It was hard to say the words, but they needed to be said. Then I straightened up and looked at the Witch-Queen, waiting for her answer.


    Sheena waved her hand dismissively. ¡°There¡¯s hardly a need for that, Princess. Lord Kertouli ambushed you with that accusation about Ishmarian assassins. Truth be told, we have no way of knowing for sure if they were Ishmarian. They did indeed have dragon-tooth weapons, but such things could be purchased at black markets all over the world. And the documents we recovered from their bodies were written in cyphers, which we never cracked. For all we know, the assassins could have come from anywhere. But we¡¯ve been blaming Ishmar for all of our political woes for years, so it¡¯s hardly a surprise that the assassins would be blamed on them too.¡±


    She then shrugged her arms. ¡°As for your outburst, you were put on the defensive and needed something to latch onto. When I mentioned that divination wasn¡¯t perfect, you saw an opening and you pounced. Anyone in your position would have done the same. I¡¯ll be sure to let the Council know in the future that antagonizing diplomatic guests, even ones from Ishmar, isn¡¯t acceptable.¡±


    Well. That went better than it had any right to, I guessed. I nodded to show my appreciation. ¡°I thank you for that. I know I¡¯m not the easiest person to get along with, but I really do thank you for your understanding.¡± Eager to change the subject, I cocked my head in the direction of the door. ¡°So, tell me about this divination ritual. How does it work? What does it do?¡±


    Sheena tried to elaborate. Divination wasn¡¯t so much seeing the future as ¡°reading things¡± about people. Whatever difference that made. To me, it sounded as though she was trying to say that what she could find out through her divinations was completely random. I told her I¡¯d had to see it to believe it.


    The redheaded witch snapped her fingers. The door opened with no fuss, as if it had been awaiting the command. ¡°Yes, well, that IS what we¡¯re here for, isn¡¯t it? Come in, make yourselves comfortable. There¡¯s much to be done in very short order. And don¡¯t worry about the door, it¡¯ll close itself.¡±


    The divination chamber was a medium-sized room with no windows, with only four torches for light, and four incense burners hanging from the ceiling. With an absent wave of her hand, Sheena lit the torches, red fire roaring to life out of nothing. She took each individual incense stick and lit them from the torches, placing them back in their burners gently, circling the small room while murmuring to herself, too low for me to hear properly.


    Alverd and Kuro sat next to me on soft rugs, while Sheena sat across from us, a small table separating us. A small, clear crystal ball was seated in a dais on the table, polished to impeccable standard and reflecting my face perfectly. Sheena procured a deck of cards in her hands, humming to herself. Every so often, she would perform little feats of sleight of hand; making the cards disappear only to reappear in her other hand. She explained that the incense was part of entering a ¡°trance state¡±, whatever that meant, though to me that just meant a bunch of extra nonsense that was meant to mislead me. The cards, she explained, were a set up to the actual divination, which involved seeing what the cards foretold in the confines of the crystal ball, or scrying crystal.


    Finally, she set the deck on the table, and pointed at me.


    ¡°You were the one who asked for this, thus you shall be the first to have your life read.¡± Sheena¡¯s normally refined voice had taken on a dull, monotonous tone. Her eyes had lost their youthful glow, and the color had drained from her cheeks. Sheena drew three cards from the top of the deck and laid them face down in front of me. After a moment, she flipped the one on my left face up.


    The card had only one word on it, below the numeral VI, ¡°Messenger¡±. As Sheena pushed the card forward, she spoke. ¡°The Messenger signifies that you have a higher calling. You seek to fulfill a greater purpose, one far larger than you can carry alone. You seek aid in order to fulfill this purpose, and thus you come to me.¡± As Sheena¡¯s hand lifted from the card, I could see that it depicted an angel passing a scroll to a priest, who was accepting it on bent knee.


    Sheena¡¯s hand went to the middle card, and flipped it over. This time, it had the numeral 0, and was titled ¡°Traveler¡±. Sheena continued to narrate. ¡°However, you have no experience or knowledge of how the world is outside your longtime home. You are beyond naive, and have made little progress in growing since you left the comfortable life you took for granted. But there is hope. From here, the only way to go is up.¡± Sheena¡¯s hand lifted, and the card depicted a man carrying a pack, walking up a mountain.


    I thought her remarks were cutting too close to home. I made to stand and retort, but Alverd stopped me, pulling me back down. He motioned for me to be calm, and look at the last card. Sheena flipped the last card over.


    The card¡¯s number was XIV. One word was upon it, ¡°Catastrophe.¡± Depicted on the card was a city, burning as lightning struck it from a blackened sky. Sheena spoke. ¡°But lo, your path is paved with destruction. Your goal lies at the end of a road steeped in suffering, not just your own. Innocent and guilty alike will be brought before the gates of judgment as a result of your desire for peace, princess. Only the strength of your resolve will tell whether these lives will be claimed in vain or not.¡±


    I shuddered. Even if Sheena was indeed yanking my chain, she was telling the truth on some counts. If I marched into Ishmar at the head of an army of mages, there was no guarantee that the people of Ishmar would support me. In fact, in my heart, I feared that it would only paint me as the greatest traitor of all. How many of them would take up arms and resist the Algrustians out of fear or hate? If I succeeded, would they even appreciate the sacrifices I made on their behalf? Such thoughts had plagued me ever since the night I lay looking up at the stars back in Ishmar.


    Sheena pulled the three cards off the table and shuffled them back into the deck. She waved her hand over the scrying crystal, and the interior of the glass ball became cloudy. ¡°Gaze upon but one future, one branch of the river of time. See what lies down but one path, should you pursue it.¡± I leaned closer, to see what was within the deepening shadows of the crystal.


    I saw¡­myself. Locked in battle with someone all too familiar. It was a still image, but the person whom I was fighting I would have recognized plain as day in the middle of a howling storm. Dressed in splendid dragon tooth armor, a mantle of finest silk draped across her shoulders, was Eliza, my elder half-sister. She had a wide-eyed look of maddened glee on her face, and her bloodstained rapier was angled at me. I was suspended in midair, looking to bring my hammer down on her head. But the most unsettling thing was the crown, my father¡¯s crown, perched on Eliza¡¯s head. She was Queen. The Queen of the dragon tamers.


    And then the image vanished back into smoke. I shook my head, trying to control an outbreak of goosebumps on my arms. If this was what this kind of magic could show, just one possibility among countless others, then maybe that was why mages weren¡¯t all powerful. They could easily be dissuaded by what they saw as much as they could be motivated by it. It was all a matter of perspective, not hard truth.


    I leaned back and took in a breath. Alverd and Kuro were looking at me, concerned. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s with your faces?¡± I asked. Alverd spoke. ¡°Your face went ashen, Princess. We didn¡¯t see anything in the crystal, but your face went whiter than a sheet.¡±


    I was about to reply when Sheena interrupted me, still in her monotone, but now with a bit of an edge to it. ¡°In this room, what is seen is for the seer only. If she wishes to tell you, it must be outside the confines of this room. I¡¯m sorry, but this is how it must be.¡± I gave an inward sigh of relief. I wasn¡¯t yet sure what to think about this development. Meanwhile, Sheena finished shuffling the cards again and laid the deck on the table.


    She gestured to Alverd, but he held up his hand. ¡°I¡¯m a bit shy about this. But fair is fair. Deal away, milady.¡±


    She doled out three cards onto the table before her. She placed her hand on the leftmost card, and flipped it face-up, revealing it for the three of us.


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    It bore the numeral II, and the word ¡°Knight¡±. Upon it was a knight in armor and horse, holding a jousting lance. Sheena waved her hand over the card. ¡°You are a man of great character, above reproach. More than a decade¡¯s worth of training and learning have made you a paragon of justice in a dim time. Your kind is exceedingly rare, and getting rarer by the moment. But sometimes this quality makes you a thorn in the side of great and terrible people.¡±


    Sheena turned over the middle card. Upon it was the numeral IX, and the word ¡°Rival¡±. It depicted two men with swords crossed. ¡°You have many enemies, now and in your future. Why they are your enemies will change from person to person, but all of them will share something, some small thread that binds them to some greater evil. But what that greater evil may be, I cannot say.¡±


    Sheena reached for the third card and turned it over. It revealed the numeral V, and the word ¡°King¡±. The King in question was dressed in a robe of gold, with both hands grasping the handle of a flawless silver blade. ¡°But you are a born leader. Had you time, you would have ascended the ranks and become a fine captain. Your honor and your natural charisma are as much weapon as your sword and shield. So long as you remember this, you will prevail over any obstacle that rises up in your way.¡±


    Alverd looked torn. I immediately remembered his confession that he had abandoned his post to go searching for Kuro and their childhood friend during the Ishmarian invasion of their homeland, Marevar. Instead of staying to hold the line, he had left his comrades to die and run from his responsibilities as a knight. It was one of the things that haunted him. So for him to hear such things, that he was noble and brave, was probably the last thing he would have believed.


    There was nothing I could do or say that could make up for that.


    Alverd took a good look at what lay within the scrying crystal, and his face darkened. When he sat back on his cushion, his face was a mask of disbelief. Again, there was nothing I could do. What he had seen was for him alone, and no amount of prying from me would get him to confess to it. I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked at me. I tried to smile at him weakly, to show him that everything would be okay. He smiled back, but I could see that he was still rattled.


    With that, Sheena took the cards and placed them back in the deck. ¡°Kuro, it is your turn.¡±


    Kuro gulped. Sheena turned to face him, then fanned out three cards onto the table. When she flipped the leftmost card over, the numeral IX was visible, along with the words ¡°The Lost¡±. The card depicted a man at a crossroad. A nearby roadsign was of no help, having a large question mark painted upon it.


    Sheena narrated, in her unnerving tone. ¡°You are plagued by doubt and misgivings. The source of these doubts comes from within and without. You wonder how you can emerge from the trials ahead with your honor intact while staying true to your beliefs, however misguided they may be.¡±


    Sheena turned the next card over, and a surprise awaited. The card was upside down. It had the numeral XV on it, and the word ¡°Hope¡±, but Sheena¡¯s tone grew darker. ¡°But despite your efforts, you will tread an increasingly darker path that will take you where you never dreamed to tread. And there, you will find the greatest foe of all¡­¡±


    Sheena¡¯s hand hesitated above the last card. Finally, she flipped the card over. When she did, she finally broke her monotonous tone and drew back in horror. Kuro, too, gasped at what had been revealed. Alverd and I leaned in for a closer look at the card on the table.


    The numeral on the card was XIII. It depicted a tiny mage at the bottom of the card, but rising above it was a massive shadow, with a nightmarish face, looking down at the mage with a look of malice and evil. The two words on the card were ¡°The Detractor¡±.


    After a moment of silence, Sheena finished her divination. ¡°¡­the greatest foe of all. Yourself. For even when demons whisper in your ears and monsters crawl into your dreams, only you can choose to answer them or not. Even if the great Master of Chaos, the Detractor, Imbalancer of Scales, tries to tempt you, so long as you resist, you can stay true to yourself no matter the trials.¡±


    Kuro nervously leaned forward to gaze into the crystal. But instead of screeching in terror, as I was expected, his brow furrowed and he leaned back, his mouth moving but not making words. He looked around, puzzled, as though something in the room might have explained what he had seen, but to no avail. As he did, I took a closer look at the card.


    I may not have been a mage, but even I could tell that something like this ¡°Detractor¡± was bad news. I mean, with a title like ¡°Master of Chaos¡± or ¡°Imbalancer of Scales¡±, it was hard not to assume the thing was evil as all get out. I was just about to ask more when Sheena took the cards and shuffled them back into the deck, then laid the deck back on the table. After she had done that, she closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. When she opened her eyes, she was back to her normal self.


    ¡°Well! I do believe that was an interesting little diversion! I think you all learned something about yourselves today! What shall we do now?¡± Sheena moved to get up, but I cleared my throat loudly. Kuro jumped in his seat a bit. ¡°Not so fast, Witch-Queen. I have a few questions for you.¡± Sheena blinked, then looked into my eyes. ¡°Very well,¡± she ventured. ¡°What do you wish to know?¡±


    ¡°First off, what is the big deal about this Detractor thing? I mean, is it just some kid¡¯s story to frighten them into behaving?¡± If there was one thing I didn¡¯t need at the moment, it was to be left out of the loop. And in my deepest heart of hearts, I was genuinely curious. I wanted to know why two mages looked as though I had insulted their mothers merely for asking about this subject.


    Kuro and Sheena stared at me for a moment. Kuro then looked at Sheena with a face that seemed to say ¡°should I?¡±. Sheena nodded. Kuro turned to face me. ¡°The Detractor is the most powerful of a series of spirits of Chaos, Alicia. In this world, spirits are all around us. Many of them are neutral beings that have differing amounts of interest in the affairs of humans. But spirits of Chaos, they¡¯re different. They take an active role in plaguing humanity. They take pleasure in seeing men suffer. And the Detractor is the worst of these spirits. It is old and powerful. Ancient records even state that at one point, the Detractor even ruled the world, and forced the masses to worship it at shrines placed all over the known world.¡±


    I snorted at this theory. ¡°Yeah? So what happened to this all-powerful being?¡±


    Kuro shook his head. ¡°Well, obviously, the world isn¡¯t ruled by an all-powerful spirit of Chaos. So, either the records are wrong, or something happened. Maybe the people rebelled, or maybe something happened to force the Detractor to give up its throne. Who knows? Why do you want to know?¡±


    I crossed my arms. ¡°Well, I just wanted to know what the big deal was. I don¡¯t like not being informed of things that other people know of. And while we¡¯re on the subject¡­¡± I picked up the deck of cards and pushed it in front of Sheena. She looked at the cards quizzically. I also punched Kuro in the arm. ¡°You, spellslinger. Do that divination thingy on Sheena.¡±


    Kuro looked at me with his eyebrow raised. ¡°Uh, you realize that divination isn¡¯t really my strongpoint, right? I mean, I can enter the trance state and all, but I may not be as effective as¡­¡± He finally saw the look on my face and shut up. He picked up the cards and began shuffling, breathing in and out. Sheena, however, began to protest. ¡°This isn¡¯t really necessary, is it?¡± I gave her my best homicidal grin. ¡°Turnabout is fair play, Witch-Queen. You think you can peer into my head and say a bunch of hoo-ah and get away with it? Oh, no. It¡¯s your turn now. Suck it up and stop being such a baby.¡±


    Sheena looked at me with an expression of dismay. ¡°But¡­you asked me for this. You specifically asked me to demonstrate this because you wanted me to disprove your theory that all of this was a load of bunk. I remember that quite clearly.¡± Sheena looked to Alverd, partly for confirmation and partly for his support.


    I waved my hand impatiently. ¡°Details, details, details! Nobody needs them at this point! Just be a good girl and accept it with grace already.¡± Sheena, a look of defeat on her face, settled back into her seat dejectedly. Inwardly, I smiled at my little win over the self-righteous spellslinger. Yes, it was incredibly immature of me, but no one ever accused an Ishmarian of such.


    At least, no one had ever gotten away with it without grievous bodily harm, that is.


    Kuro finished shuffling the cards and placed them on the table. He laid out three cards in front of Sheena, and flipped the one on her left over. It had the numeral IV, and said ¡°Queen¡±. Much like the King card, it had a simple depiction; that of a Queen, dressed in great finery, holding a scepter with a gleaming diamond with beams of light streaking out from it.


    Kuro spoke, using the same monotone that Sheena had used when it had been her turn. ¡°You bear a great responsibility that you are not wholly sure you are ready for. You are riddled with worry that you will let both yourself and your people down. But your fears are unfounded, for the most part. You have the strength you seek, but you don¡¯t yet realize it.¡± Kuro moved his hand to the next card.


    The card he turned over was also upside down. I realized by now that, if the card was upside down, it must have meant that the card¡¯s original meaning was reversed. The card bore the numeral I, and was titled ¡°Mentor¡±. It depicted a man in a robe reading a scroll to a young boy, a lantern illuminating the words he was reading. Kuro continued his drawl. ¡°But beware. All those who teach, all those pledge to serve, among them there is one who delights in your weakness, in your reliance on them. Someone among those who are meant to be allies will betray you. Those whom you would trust whole-heartedly wait like wolves to devour a sheep who trusts too easily. There is a fall coming in your future, and not far off.¡±


    Sheena shuddered. A chill ran down my own spine. Alverd, on the other hand, did not even flinch.  He shot Sheena a reassuring look, the same look he had given me many times to say that everything was ok. A pang of irritation shot through me again when he did so. Grr¡­again with this feeling¡­I still couldn¡¯t figure it out. But every time he gave Sheena that smile or reassured her, or encouraged her behavior, I felt this twisting feeling in my heart¡­blast it all, I¡¯d figure it out sooner or later. Until then, I¡¯d take it out on Kuro. That was all the little bastard was good for anyway. Speaking of the diminutive mage, his hand had moved to the last card and was just about to flip it over.


    Kuro¡¯s hand did not hesitate, unlike Sheena. He flipped the card and revealed it to us all. On the card was the numeral VII, and the word ¡°Deliverance¡±. On the card was a picture of a man being guided to heaven by a beautiful angel. ¡°But through the actions of another, you will emerge from your trial a changed woman. Although your circumstances will have changed drastically, you will have gained much¡­and lost much as well. But such is life. It all is a matter of perspective. Where you go after the journey brings you to this point¡­is up to you.¡±


    And with that, Kuro exhaled heavily, and exited his trance. He opened his eyes, and blinked a few times. He looked at Sheena. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m afraid I¡¯ve never done this before¡­so I wasn¡¯t sure how to make the crystal for you. But given what was said, you probably might not be too keen on finding out what lies in your future, are you?¡±


    The witch girl frowned. ¡°No, you¡¯re right. As much as I¡¯d like to know who is plotting against me, to accuse someone on the flimsy evidence of a divination ritual wouldn¡¯t be enough. As I said, a divination only reveals one such future among hundreds, and only to the one who gazes into the scrying crystal, so nothing I could say would be verifiable. You did well for a first attempt, Kuro.¡±


    Kuro¡¯s face did this thing I¡¯d seen once when my very well-endowed sister Leila had given a dancing partner a seductive wink that meant so much more than words could convey. His mouth scrunched up in some lopsided grin, and his cheeks went red, and he giggled to himself a bit. Had his mouth been open any wider I would have worried that drool would come falling out of it. It was a dumb, pointless expression, and I knew exactly what was going through his useless mind.


    But then he actually punched me in the shoulder, and with more force than I expected from him. ¡°Are you happy now? She wasn¡¯t trying to be invasive with her readings, you know. You can be such a handful. I can¡¯t believe how petty you are.¡± Kuro continued to scowl at me.


    Huh. Fine time for the bastard to grow a spine. The only reason he was being so outspoken was because he wanted to impress Sheena. I didn¡¯t need magic to see that. But he would definitely need magic to escape from my wrath later. No Ishmarian worth her salt would let a mage get away with something like what Kuro had just pulled. But before I could start planning my revenge, Sheena made a choked sound over where she was sitting.


    She looked distraught. Granted, she had every right to be. Even if all of this was just tripe, it had to be jarring for her to be told that someone was planning her death. Sheena¡¯s hands fell to the table, and they were shaking visibly. But Alverd scooped them up and held them tight. Again the agitation shot through me.


    ¡°Do not fret, milady Queen. We are here to help. I don¡¯t always profess to believe in things like fate or destiny. And there are definitely times when I believe that something like divination can¡¯t be trusted. But if it causes you distress, then all you need do is ask, and I will do everything in my power to set your mind at ease.¡±


    Mother Evros, I don¡¯t think Sheena¡¯s face could get any redder. She looked quite ready to pass out. She stammered as Alverd squeezed her hands tight. She tried to get the words out, but failed over and over again. I could almost see steam rising off of her head. I could also see a look of pure resentment on Kuro¡¯s face. It was the first time I had ever seen such an emotion¡­I knew that he and Alverd were best friends, so it was odd for me to see such an expression directed towards his friend.


    Finally, Sheena pulled away from Alverd, her face still as scarlet as her hair. ¡°W-W-Well, I think w-w-we¡¯ve had enough f-f-f-fun today. Maybe we should focus on something else¡­anything else, really. All this incense is starting to get to me.¡± She waved her hand around. ¡°Let¡¯s go get something to eat, yes? A good meal after a divination can¡¯t go wrong, right?¡± She stood up and marched out of the room at top speed, giggling awkwardly the entire time. Kuro stalked out after her, and Alverd after him. I took up the rear.


    I still didn¡¯t want to believe in this divination nonsense. To be frank, I didn¡¯t put much stock in any magic. Maybe it was just the way I was raised. And to be honest, it would probably be the way I would continue to feel for the rest of my life. I had no reason to believe that any of the things I had witnessed in that room would have any bearing or significance. Kuro¡¯s divination of Sheena could have been completely off the mark, even if it had unnerved her.


    But apparently, divination was an ancient art, still practiced today because it was grounded in truth. Mages had supposedly relied on divination in many different forms for as long as Ishmarians had been forging dragon tooth metal. If Sheena was rattled, then she might have already known who was coming after her. In Ishmar, we were taught to never trust magic and those who wielded it. And like they so often said in Ishmar, where there¡¯s smoke¡­


    ¡­there¡¯s fire.

 B2: Chapter 5: Alicia: The Court of the Witch-Queen (Edit)

    The Ivory Court was amazing.


    The columns and walls were made of shimmering ivory, true to its namesake, with rugs and tapestries of crimson hung here and there to please the eye. Candelabras were placed at strategic intervals to illuminate the darkened hall. There was barely enough light for us to see where we were going, although guards stationed alongside the carpet helped to orient us in the right direction. They were dressed like combat mages, although their armor was more ceremonial looking. They must be royal guards. Presentation is key when distinguishing them from the rank and file, I thought. The vast hall had a circular back area with a red rug leading all the way up to the throne at the far end.


    The back of the room played host to a magnificent stained glass window that stretched up the wall behind the throne itself. The moon¡¯s light shone through, depicting a mage receiving a divine spark from a woman with dark, flowing hair reaching down from the moon. The woman was flanked by what looked like four black wolves, and her hair was filled with stars. She was adorned in a flowing purple battle gown with a silver breastplate, a shining greatsword held in her left hand. The light cast the throne in silhouette, obscuring the figure seated upon it.


    Eternity. She Who Presides Over Time and Darkness. The Goddess of War. Even I knew who the woman in the window was. It was considered blasphemy to worship Eternity in Ishmar, for it was said that during the War of the Five Kings, she had imprisoned Evros within the earth. She had given wolves angelic forms to act as her generals, and only four had survived. I had been instructed on the beliefs of those who worshiped Eternity to prepare for the day when I would meet her followers in combat.


    Or maybe, I realized, Father wanted you to understand the people you¡¯d likely have to make peace with someday. The Doctrine of the Heavenly Siblings was the most prominent religion in Selarune, and some of its followers worshiped Eternity¡¯s older brother, Creation, instead. If memory served me correctly, the Doctrine had been established at the end of the war with the founding of the Theocracy of Shardin, ruled over by two angels, one who served Eternity and the other Creation.


    Now¡¯s not the time to try and remember your religious studies, I told myself. You need to put your best foot forward. The Witch-Queen is your only hope for an alliance and the salvation of your homeland. I swallowed the lump in my throat and kept pace with Alverd and Kuro as we moved into the rotunda. I had a moment to admire the depiction of the constellations of the night sky on the ceiling before movement caught my eye.


    Off to our sides, twelve seats lay occupied, six to a side. Their occupants rose as one, and moved into the light of the candles. Each one carried an intricate staff, a unique design with a different jewel embedded somewhere within its workings. They were all men and women of varying ages, and wore robes that color-coordinated with the jewels in their staves. They moved to surround us.


    My hand reflexively went to my maul. Alverd, however, caught my hand.


    ¡°We are not here to start a fight, princess. They know that.¡± I scowled, but decided to trust him. Begrudgingly, I moved my hand away. I don¡¯t know what Alverd is thinking, but I hope he knows what he¡¯s doing. This situation was swiftly moving from bad to worse. As I thought this, the twelve finished encircling us, closing off the loop. They stood in silence, their faces as neutral as stone.


    Kuro was gripping his staff tight, eyeing the mages surrounding us on both sides. Six on one, six on the other. Twelve against three. He was probably trying to come up with a plan, but I didn¡¯t think even he could come up with something insane enough to get us out of this. Again, I thought of the maul fastened to my back. Somebody has to make a move here because this feels like intimidation and if it is, I won¡¯t stand for it.


    Thankfully, further panic was unnecessary. A figure rose up from the Ivory Throne. She walked forward towards the steps that lay before the throne, and into the candlelight. Once she was no longer silhouetted by the moonlight, I got a good look at the Witch-Queen for myself.


    She was indeed young, probably not much older than myself. And her legs! Ridiculously long legs! Mother Evros, they go on forever! A black felt hat with a silver crown was perched upon her head, seated upon short, fiery red hair with bangs that reached down to cover the right side of her face, hiding her left eye from view. Her right eye was a stunning shade of deep green, like a fresh leaf on a tree in summer. A pair of half-moon spectacles were seated upon a petite nose. Her cheeks had a rosy shine to them, but they seemed more like the product of nervousness than makeup.


    Then my eyes wandered down and instantly regretted it. The girl was¡­ gifted. Of course she¡¯s the picture of feminine grace and beauty, I grumbled. And her attire didn¡¯t help any. A halter with criss-crossed laces seemed to barely manage to keep her modesty protected. The rest of her was dressed in a more normal fashion¡­ at least, whatever passed for normal among mages, I suppose. She had a white, shawl-like cloth covering her shoulders, and her legs were wrapped in a short skirt that ended in long stockings with tight thigh-high boots made of expensive looking material. Her corset was made of fine brown leather with impeccably polished brass buckles, and the rest of her dress was a dull shade of red, like blood.


    When she looked up, the brim of her hat lifted as well. At that point, I saw the most unusual thing about her. She had long, pointed ears that had been hidden under her hat¡¯s shadow, now visible to us all. Elves were very uncommon outside their homeland of Kiret, and even rarer in Ishmar. I guess that explains the unearthly beauty and poise. I¡¯d heard that elves were possessed of such traits. I wasn¡¯t so sure about her chest, but at this point, I wouldn¡¯t have put it past her if all elves were so¡­ well-endowed.


    By chance, I turned to look at Kuro. The idiot mage was staring at the Witch-Queen with the damnedest expression. It took me a moment to realize what was going on. Bloody pervert. I should have known. He¡¯s probably concocting some lewd fantasy in his head, and not caring at all what a spectacle he¡¯s making of himself. Somehow, seeing him in that way just infuriated me more. I''ll smack him over the head later for that. .


    I looked back at the Witch-Queen. Her line of sight was fixed on Alverd, and a smile touched her face. Something about that smile rubs me the wrong way. She looks like a kid being shown her new toy. Majestically, she stood with a very dramatic flourish and a swish of her hair, revealing her other eye for only a second. In her eagerness, the Witch-Queen took a step forward¡­and proceeded to trip, falling down the steps spectacularly. She landed on her face at the foot of the steps, groaning in pain. Several of the mages who had ¡°welcomed¡± us into the room winced. Whether it was because they sympathized with her pain or were lamenting her phenomenally bad first impression, I couldn¡¯t say. None of them tried to help her at all.


    I almost burst out laughing. How the hell is this girl the queen of an entire country? I¡¯ve seen drunkards with better balance than her. Another man emerged from the shadows beside the throne and moved to the Witch-Queen¡¯s side to assist her. I immediately recognized him as Lord Albrecht, the man from the bubble.


    ¡°Sheena, dear, are you alright?¡± Lord Albrecht delicately lifted Sheena to her feet. She gingerly tested both of her feet, leaning heavily on him as she did so. When she saw that neither of her ankles had been sprained, she let him go.


    ¡°Peace, Uncle. I¡¯m fine. I¡¯m alright.¡± She stood up, and tried to regain her aura of poise and grace, but failed halfway. Hard to recover after such a foolish display, I wagered.


    Lord Albrecht was even more striking in person. He carried an air of authority that hadn¡¯t been conveyed when I had seen him in the bubble. Yet, there was something almost fatherly about the way he fussed over Sheena. Having lost my own father only recently, a short pang of guilt and loss stung me deep down. Albrecht was like a parent waiting to catch his baby if she tripped during her first walk. When she brushed herself off he stepped back, although the look in his eyes did not change.


    ¡°So, you are the ones who came from Ishmar. I have been waiting quite some time to meet you. I admit, I am very curious as to why you have come here, and I¡¯ve anticipated this moment since the very first time I saw you all in my scrying crystal.¡± She had a luxurious tone to her voice, allowing her words to roll off her tongue with the coy detachment of an elegant enchantress.


    I stepped forward to address the Witch-Queen, and she stepped forward, too, but she unexpectedly brushed right past me. I turned around to see where she was going.


    Instead, she went straight to Alverd, grasping his hands tightly and gazing into his eyes intently. ¡°I have especially waited to meet you, sir knight! You have no idea how much I have longed for this moment.¡± Her eyes were twinkling, almost like how Kuro¡¯s were only moments ago. ¡°This is quite possibly the happiest moment of my life! To have met a true knight in the flesh, it is like a dream come true!¡± The girl squealed with excitement, giddy as all hell. She was practically bouncing. It was surreal.


    Alverd was just as much in shock as I was at first. He just stood there in stunned silence. Finally, he stuttered for a moment, then managed to speak. ¡°Uh, um, well, I¡¯m quite flattered, Your Majesty, but I¡¯m not sure I deserve such praise¡­ especially when I¡¯m completely unclear as to what I have done to warrant it.¡± Mother Evros, at such close range I could see that the Witch-Queen was only a matter of inches shorter than Alverd. He must have been overwhelmed by her proximity.


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    Sheena squealed again. She let go of Alverd¡¯s hands and cupped her face, her cheeks flushing red again. ¡°Oooo! Such humility! It¡¯s just like in my old picture books! You¡¯re the spitting image of my childhood dreams!¡± She laughed, a merry, innocent sound. ¡°To have an actual knight in this court! It¡¯s probably never happened in the entire history of Algrustos! This is amazing!¡± Sheena twirled away, laughing madly to herself.


    Forget tripping and falling on her face, here was a royal, a queen no less, acting like a child. I watched her swoon this way and that and didn¡¯t know what to think. At the very least, she was being refreshingly honest about things. I did appreciate that, but it was hard to figure out just what exactly the girl was thinking at the moment. I decided to just wait it out.


    Fortunately, Lord Albrecht sighed, running his hand through his hair exasperatedly. ¡°Please forgive my niece. She tends to get a little¡­ excitable sometimes. Sheena, dear, our visitors are here for a reason. Sheena¡­¡± He raised his voice just enough to make his words firm. ¡°Sheena, darling. Come here. We have business to attend to.¡± His stern voice finally snapped her out of her little reverie, and she sauntered back to him, with a facial expression similar to a little girl who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.


    Sheena nodded, out of breath and still bubbly. The smile on her face was in danger of reaching her ears. She bolted back up the steps to the throne, seated herself, and folded her hands in her lap, crossing her left leg over her right. ¡°Alright then, let¡¯s hear it. Why is someone like you, a princess of Ishmar, attempting to enter a hostile nation, and with only two men as escort?¡± Sheena leaned forward slightly to hear my answer. For once, I had her undivided attention, and unlike her, I wasn¡¯t going to squander my first impression.


    I cleared my throat, stepped forward, and puffed out my chest. ¡°I am Alicia Helgart Irva Dragontamer VIII, and I am here to formally request your aid in building a permanent peace Algrustos and my glorious home of Ishmar!¡± My piece spoken, I stood with my hands akimbo, awaiting the Witch-Queen¡¯s response.


    She cocked her head to the side. ¡°Is that all?¡± She reached for the staff sitting idly by the left side of her throne. It was longer than she was tall, crested with twin blades that cupped a beautiful emerald. She took it up in her left hand, and strode down the steps, casting her eyes downward briefly to make sure she didn¡¯t trip again, then made her way to where I stood. ¡°You come here to offer me peace when you have no power to do so? How curious.¡± She laughed again. I was starting to get a little irritated with how flighty she was being.


    Sheena walked towards Kuro. When she stood before him, he reigned in his slack-jawed look and composed himself. He offered his hand to her, who moved to shake it, but then she drew back. Kuro¡¯s face darkened slightly, and I think he was either offended or bewildered. Nevertheless, she offered her own hand and they shook, Kuro being a bit too energetic to be casual.


    She addressed Kuro after their hands parted. ¡°So then, I know one name. I do believe your companions owe me names as well. Please, enlighten me.¡± Kuro stammered as he stared at herradiance. He tried once, twice, three times to spit out his name. Finally, on his fourth attempt, he managed it. ¡°My name is K-Kuro, milady Queen. H-H-How may I s-serve?¡± He was fighting hard to maintain eye contact, which was not an easy prospect, since the Witch-Queen was taller than him. That bobbing chest of hers was practically at his eye level.


    Sheena bowed. ¡°A pleasure, Kuro. I am Sheena Reinhardt, Witch-Queen of Algrustos.¡± Kuro¡¯s face flushed again as the Witch-Queen bent forward. Far too late for you to feign being the gentleman now. For some reason, I grew irritated again. I guessed I was just ashamed at how my hired man was behaving himself. Anything he did was a reflection on me. If he did something lecherous now, it would only put a damper on the entire reason for being here. However, Sheena ignored him completely and returned to Alverd, grasping his hands again.


    ¡°And you, sir knight? What is your name?¡±


    Alverd stood straight and cleared his throat. ¡°I am Sir Alverd, milady. A member of the Knighthood of Marevar, now a humble mercenary. At thy service.¡± After his introduction, Alverd knelt down on one knee, bowing his head. Another cry of pleasure escaped her. She was obviously enjoying this way too much.


    ¡°Oh dear¡­everything is as my divinations foretold. The only thing missing is¡­¡± she motioned to a guardsman standing in the shadows. He emerged solemnly and handed something covered in cloth to her, taking her staff from her so she could take the item from him. It was heavy, because she nearly dropped it, even though she was using both her hands, and she let out a little grunt of exertion as she lifted it back up. Nervously, Sheena approached Alverd. She held the item forward.


    ¡°Sir Alverd, of the fallen country of Marevar. I give this unto you. I had it commissioned a month ago when I first saw you in my divinations. I knew that you would make your way to this land though I did not know your purpose. Now that you are here, the truth shall come to light, and we may yet find an answer that benefits both Ishmar and Algrustos.¡± She offered the item with both hands, smiling again.


    Alverd took the object from her and began unwrapping it. When the cloth fell away, it revealed a shield with a familiar emblem. I¡¯d seen it before on the trophies brought back from the war against Marevar. It was the seal of an eagle with widespread wings swooping down majestically, the seal of the Knights of Marevar. The surface of the shield was flawless, with a mirrored finish that was so perfect that I could easily see my reflection in it. Alverd admired it with awe, and slipped it onto his left arm. It fit snugly over his armored gauntlet.


    Sheena was beaming with pride. ¡°It was forged with dormicite. It disperses heat instantly and is resistant to any form of physical force. Any magic spell that is cast against it will either be reflected or simply pushed aside. Nothing short of an act of the gods will destroy this shield.¡± At this point, she sheepishly wrung her hands behind her back. ¡°It cost a rather extravagant sum to have this shield made, and so quickly¡­ after all, crafting dormicite of this caliber is exorbitantly expensive. Just one of my little indulgences¡­ heh¡­ heh¡­¡± she kicked at the ground with her pigeon-toed feet.


    What right does this girl have to just bestow this gift on a man she just met? She barely even knows him! I mean, when I handed Alverd the Sword of Evros, it had been in a moment of national crisis, a necessity based on the circumstance. This girl was starting to get on my nerves. I decided the only thing to do was to subtly convey that I was the one who had come to see her, not my hired servants.


    I placed myself between Alverd and the Witch-Queen. ¡°A-Anyway,¡± I asserted, ¡°I¡¯m sure you have something you wish to clarify? I mean, I just offered you an olive branch. Do you doubt my words, or intentions?¡± I put my hands back on my hips. ¡°Do you have a problem with my declaration? Do you really not believe that I am here for the good of both our nations?¡±


    Sheena shook her head. ¡°Not at all,¡± she answered. ¡°To be honest, you have no right to bargain, Princess. You¡¯re not the queen, so you have no authority. In fact, the only reason you would come to me is if you had the audacity to ask me for aid in reclaiming your country. I¡¯m sorry for leading you on as I did, but I wanted to see if you would be truthful or if you would give me the runaround.¡± She clasped her hands in front of her in a gesture of apology. ¡°I hope that wasn¡¯t too offensive or anything. Truly, I am sorry if it was.¡±


    My eyes opened wide in shock. Despite her clumsiness, this girl was sharp. She had seen through my ulterior motives like a hand of cards laid on a table. I was about to reply when she raised her hand and cut me off.


    ¡°Now, I didn¡¯t say I wouldn¡¯t help. Quite far from it. I have my own problems here, and I need outside help dealing with them. Your arrival is very timely, maybe even destiny at work, if I may be so bold.¡± I noticed that her eyes flitted toward Alverd as she spoke that last bit. ¡°You see, Algrustos has been unstable these past few months. Ever since we caught word that the King of Ishmar was deathly ill, many of my people have pushed for me to step up military preparations for war.¡±


    I felt another pang of regret when my father was mentioned. Father had indeed been deathly ill for some time, almost a year. He¡¯d soldiered through his illness like a true Ishmarian, never allowing it to show in public. But, even a man as strong as my father could not defeat time and the frailty of his body. We had tried to suppress the news of his sickness, but if it had even reached Algrustos, the only answer was that spies had reported such news back to the Witch-Queen. I wanted to feel indignant at that, but, again, I remembered that I was here to ask for her help, not berate her for her political decisions.


    Sheena¡¯s eyes fell to the ground in wistfulness. ¡°When I refused, saying that I would not resort to the same actions as my parents, I found out just how vicious my people could be. There was an attempt on my life. Only my Uncle¡¯s intervention saved me.¡± I saw Lord Albrecht nod his head from his place beside the throne. I noticed that he seemed awfully well-built for a magelord; he looked capable of holding his own in a fight if need be. A physical one, not this hand-waving mystical mage tomfoolery, either.


    ¡°You are mercenaries, right?¡± Sheena asked. ¡°Then I shall hire you. That shield shall be the down payment. Should you discover who is behind the plot to end my life, and the reason for such, I will not only reward you with gold, but provide you with troops to retake Ishmar. It pains me to think that, either way, I must declare war on another country, but the thought that we could forge peace between our two countries is a risk worth pursuing.¡±


    I clapped my hands together. ¡°Excellent! Then we have a deal!¡± I turned to Alverd and Kuro. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get going. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we get my soldiers! Move it, you dogs!¡± I was just about to start waving my maul at Kuro when I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I turned around, I found Sheena was standing right behind me.


    ¡°Ummm¡­¡± She fumbled for a moment then gathered up her courage and spoke. ¡°I believe that, since you¡¯re on my payroll, I¡¯m the one who gives the orders¡­if I¡¯m not mistaken. I mean, I¡¯ve never hired mercenaries before. So¡­ um¡­ if you don¡¯t mind¡­¡± She let go of me, and moved to Alverd.


    She hooked her right arm into Alverd¡¯s, who was still trying to figure out what was going on, and started leading him away. I could hear her offering to show him around the various hotspots and sights in Ethenia, and Alverd, too much of a gentleman to say no, allowed her to lead him down the hall and out the door.


    I stood there, dumbfounded, with only Kuro as company. Lord Albrecht and the twelve mages slowly shuffled out and disappeared. I looked at Kuro; I could almost hear the sound of his heart breaking from where I was standing. For once, I actually felt sympathy for the poor bastard. But more importantly, I was wrestling with the unpleasant and unfamiliar feeling that was worming its way through my own heart.


    Ugh, what is this feeling?! This irritability and malice that seemed to come from nowhere? I tried to figure out what it was and where it had come from, but had no success. Finally, I gave up. I grabbed Kuro¡¯s arm and roughly shook the catatonic mage.


    ¡°Hey! Spellslinger! Let¡¯s go! No sense in just standing around all day!¡± I raised my fist to punch him in the face if need be, but froze when I saw the look on his face.


    Kuro looked at me with blank, listless eyes. Mother Evros, I had never seen such a lifeless expression. ¡°Yes,¡± he responded in an expressionless tone. ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± He didn¡¯t resist when I pulled him out of the throne room, intent on chasing after Alverd and the Witch-Queen.


    It seemed that my charges were in need of a little lesson in regards to loyalty. A dragon cannot have two masters. In Ishmar, we taught our pets with a large amount of roughhousing. Discipline was the cornerstone of good upbringing when it came to taming. If I had to beat some sense into both Kuro AND Alverd, then Evros damn it all, I was going to do it. I hadn¡¯t come this far to simply have what little going for me be snatched away by some delusional witch girl. I clenched the knuckles of my free hand into a fist.


    Time to reestablish who was in charge around here.

 B2: Chapter 6: Kuro: Wolves in the Flock

    I must have done something to offend some god or something. It¡¯s the only explanation.


    Sheena was damn near perfect, charming smile, red hair, curvy figure, good at magic. She was a work of art, some celestial masterpiece of a god who had long since broken the mold. Her shy, awkward and clumsy behavior had captured my heart like nothing had ever before. Even for an elf, known for their beauty and grace, she¡¯d stood out amongst any elves I¡¯d ever met¡­and then she had gone and clung to Alverd like a drowning man to a piece of flotsam in a storm.


    Why? What possible reason would the girl of my dreams simply walk into my life out of nowhere, only to continue walking right past me and into the arms of my best friend? I tried to think if I had done anything to tempt fate or slight any divine beings lately. Sadly, there were quite a few potentials on that list. Well, just last month you unleashed a tornado on an entire castle. Pretty sure that had to make somebody angry.


    As Alicia dragged me through the streets of Ethenia, desperate to keep pace with Alverd and Sheena, my legs refused to move in sync with my body. I had been drained of strength. I had no desire to watch my best friend hit it off with my dream girl. Alicia being territorial isn¡¯t something I need to be party to, especially since she¡¯s probably going to use me as a human stress ball later. But Alicia had a firm grip on my arm and there was no way I was going to get out of that hold, so I had no choice but to be dragged along.


    Watching how Sheena gazed at Alverd longingly at every opportunity was a dagger to my heart. Sound and sensation seemed to fall away as the dagger twisted deeper and deeper. I couldn¡¯t register Alicia¡¯s fingers digging into my skin, or even hear the words Sheena was saying. All I could feel was that icy gnawing inside, hurting more than anything I¡¯d ever felt since watching my childhood friend die in my arms.


    It was one thing to feel guilt over the death of a friend like Laura. Somewhere in my brain I knew that her death could be blamed on someone I could hate, without need to fear nuance or circumstance tainting my decision to feel that hate. In this case, though, I could feel jealousy towards Alverd and I knew it was against him personally, and I didn¡¯t want to feel that way about my best friend.


    Jealousy was something I thought I was accustomed to. By now, it had been pretty standard that Alverd and I would meet a pretty girl, she¡¯d throw herself at him and that would be that. Guess that¡¯s just another instance of you lying to yourself again. But this time, it actually hurts. Because this time, you wanted it to be you. I could feel my eyes start to sting a little. I hurriedly wiped my face with my sleeve. I refused to let Alicia see me like this. The last thing I wanted was for her to notice how hurt I was feeling. I¡¯d never hear the end of it.


    Finally, Alicia stopped behind a cart and pulled me down next to her. She peeked over the cart, trying her best to be subtle. When I made no motion to do the same, she grabbed me by the collar and hoisted me up so I could see.


    Sheena was pulling Alverd into some sweet shop. The woman behind the counter, a chubby, homely-looking creature with a wide smile, handed Sheena two caramel apples. Sheena handed one to Alverd, who had no idea how to eat it. She demonstrated by taking a healthy bite out of her own and Alverd followed suit. It was such a wholesome picture and somehow it just made it worse in my mind at how natural the two looked together.


    Alicia¡¯s teeth were clenching so hard in her mouth I could practically hear them grinding like rocks being smashed together. ¡°Do you see what¡¯s going on there? Shameless! I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she engineered this whole situation!¡± She grabbed my head and made me track the couple as they walked down the street. ¡°Don¡¯t you have anything to say? You of all people?¡±


    ¡°Leave it alone, Alicia.¡± She looked taken aback by the despair in my voice. ¡°Let them do what they want. It¡¯s probably better this way.¡± I tried to shrink back behind the cart, out of sight of the open street. Out of sight, out of mind, right?


    Several emotions flickered across her face, a bit of empathy maybe, but it was quickly replaced by disgust. ¡°Mother Evros, this is pathetic.¡± She turned me around so I had no choice but to look her in the eye. ¡°If you want to be more than a piece of the scenery to that girl, then you gotta stop shrinking into the background!¡± Balling her hand into a fist, she slapped it against her chest twice. ¡°If an Ishmarian saw someone make eyes at their girl or guy, you can bet the offender would be about to catch some hands¡­ or maybe a handaxe, depending on the situation.¡±


    I scowled at her. ¡°How utterly barbaric. Sounds exactly like how you would handle the situation.¡± I realized a little too late how I had made the remark a deliberate jab, but I was surprised to see that she wasn¡¯t bothered by it at all. Instead, she growled at me.


    ¡°At least I wouldn¡¯t take it lying down! I¡¯d fight tooth and nail to make sure that nobody messes with what¡¯s mine!¡± Just like me, she had a last second revelation that she had said the quiet part out loud and her face turned bright red.


    There was a moment of awkward silence where we both had to decide who would apologize first. Alicia beat me to it. ¡°Look, the point is that some girls know what they want, and some wait to see if a guy has what it takes to impress them. And some girls need a little motivation before they go out and make a move.¡± She placed her hands on her hips. ¡°I can tell you right now that the Witch-Queen isn¡¯t going to fall for you unless you prove you¡¯re her type, and right now you¡¯re failing at that abysmally.¡±


    My brow furrowed in frustration as I stood up. ¡°What she wants is a knight in shining armor. I¡¯m no knight and I sure as hell aren¡¯t strong enough to wear shining armor, much less walk up to her and pick her up so I can princess-carry her into the sunset.¡± I held my arms out to show off how my robe hung loosely off them. ¡°Do these noodles look like they could lift a girl?¡±


    Alicia smacked her forehead theatrically. ¡°It¡¯s not literal, Kuro. ¡®Knight in shining armor¡¯ probably just means she wants a guy who will stride in with confidence and sweep all her problems away. Unless she really is that childish mentally, which to be honest I wouldn¡¯t put past her at this point, I doubt that¡¯s what she¡¯s actually after.¡±


    ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± I retorted.


    Alicia crossed her arms, ¡°because if it were literal then Alverd would¡¯ve had to have come in on a majestic steed or something.¡±


    I thought of that image and almost barked out a laugh. ¡°That¡¯s the one thing Alverd struggled to learn, actually. Horses just don¡¯t like him that much. First time he tried to ride one, it bucked him off and then back-kicked him through a stable wall. If he hadn¡¯t been wearing his armor at the time that horse might¡¯ve broken some of his ribs.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Alicia asked.


    ¡°Yup. He didn¡¯t walk for days after that.¡±  We both looked at each other and began snickering.


    It was weird to share a memory of our old days with Alicia. It felt like letting her in on it was an imposition, but at the same time liberating. I think she appreciated the gesture though, because she finally stopped being grumpy about what was going on behind her and smiled again. Then I noticed over her shoulder that Alverd and Sheena were walking further down the street.


    Alicia followed my eyeline, ¡°Oh crap! They¡¯re getting away!¡±  We started running.


    We tailed the two for at least an hour and a half. The streets of Ethenia were orderly, symmetrical, and well-maintained, a far cry from the rough-hewn stone and uneven ¡°layer upon layer¡± construction of the slums in Ishmar. A street consisted of ground level shops and stores, while living quarters were stacked on the stories above. On some streets, the tops of the buildings flanking the streets were so tall I couldn¡¯t see the moon in the sky above. Now past normal business hours, many of the shops had already closed for the night and their owners retired to their homes.


    Unfortunately I didn¡¯t have many opportunities to ask Alicia for more details on her inside track on deciphering the mysterious thoughts of the fairer sex as Sheena pulled Alverd one way and then another. She seemed preoccupied with bombarding him with explanations about the city life and the products of the various shops, and how she would take him to see the ¡°real¡± sights at a later date. We only passed one guardsman, and he didn¡¯t seem all that alert despite the night having clearly fallen.


    Only one guardsman? Surely there would be more after dark. In a kingdom of magic, regulation of crime would be necessary. I looked across the street again as Alicia yanked me along. Somehow, the lone guardsman had disappeared. In his place, a few other people had now mysteriously come out of the woodwork. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stiffen.


    One of them went over to a lamppost flanking the street. A tall metal pole standing maybe three meters tall, it was topped by a transparent lantern with a magical flame burning in it, illuminating the street. As the man passed by the lamppost, he made a flicking gesture with his wrist and the flame blew out like a candle in the wind. I saw a small jewel on the cane in his other hand blaze with light for a second as he did so. A staff cane. Not many people carried those, and they unfortunately all came from the same profession.


    Although there were only a few, they were all dressed the same; dark, baggy cloaks that were designed for ease of movement and concealment of small weapons. Three had appeared on the opposite end of the street, and two more were walking towards us, in front of where Alverd and Sheena were still eating their apples. I casually looked over my shoulder, and saw another four behind me. When the four saw that I had sussed them out, they picked up their pace.


    They also pulled wands from their baggy robes. Wands and staff canes were the concealed weapons of the magic world. They possessed only a fraction of the power of a normal staff, but their size made them useful for sneaking them into places where staves would be detected simply by the naked eye. Much like a normal assassin would carry daggers as their weapons, these magical assassins used wands to launch their cowardly little sneak attack. They probably thought quantity over quality would make up for the lower power of their weapons.


    This is going to get ugly. I was lucky to still have my staff. Sheena didn¡¯t have hers, so she would be unable to use magic. Alverd had his sword, and Alicia her maul, but I didn¡¯t know if these guys had backup.


    I turned around, staff in hand, and pulled a spark of lightning from my body. The spark fed off the bioelectric impulses in my body, growing stronger as it pulsed in my hand. I could feel the resistance from my mentor¡¯s staff, something I¡¯d grown partially accustomed to, trying to interfere with the flow of the energy. Focusing through the distortion, I maintained the link from the power source to the spell in my hand and it snapped into being, a sizzling spear of blue electricity now capable of sustaining itself.


    Lightheadedness struck me as I tried to aim the bolt at the attackers. Fighting the distortion was taxing and after an already brutal fight earlier in the day, I wasn¡¯t at my best. Still, I couldn¡¯t let Alicia fight alone and I wanted to be useful, so I planted my foot to steady myself and shook my head to clear my sight.


    I threw the bolt at the four figures still walking up behind me, unaware that I had anticipated their attack. Only one was able to react to my preemptive strike in time to erect some sort of protective barrier, a shimmering wall of glowing blue light that flared to life with a wave of his staff. The other three took the blast as it forked at them and were thrown back, wands knocked from their hands as they sailed through the air.


    I saw the last mage unclench his left fist, and his wand began to glow with a soft blue light as he directed magical energy to form in the palm of his hand. Instead of drawing it out of his body the traditional way, he used a quick and dirty method of ¡°speed-casting¡± his spell, feeding the energy into his hand by redirecting the impulses to gather in his hand instead of pulling it from across his body through the focal point at his chest. It was an effective, yet dangerous, way to speed up a process that was potentially perilous to the user and the intended target.


    I had enough time to catch the dumbfounded look on Alicia¡¯s face before I dove at her, knocking her to the ground to avoid the counterattack. A bolt of lightning as bright and intense as the one I had thrown flew past my head with a hissing sound. Alicia and I hit the ground in a sprawl. Alicia snarled and pushed me off of her with more force than was necessary, scrambling to get to her feet and grab her maul. As I rolled over, I glanced over at Alverd and Sheena.


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    Alverd had reacted quickly, like I knew he would. The Sword of Evros was already in his right hand, the dormicite shield in his other. He had pulled Sheena behind him, and now he was staring down five men and women with wands, each about to throw magic at him. He neatly deflected a fireball with his new shield and assumed a defensive posture in front of her.


    ¡°Milady, stay behind me. I won¡¯t let them hurt you.¡± He bounced another attack off the shield, an ice spike, and it zoomed off into the night and embedded itself harmlessly in the wooden entryway of a nearby storefront. He leveled his sword at the nearest mage assassin, who took a step back, waving his wand.


    She, however, put her hand on Alverd¡¯s shoulder. Her face was still as red as before, but now she looked quite serious. ¡°I appreciate your concern, my dear knight,¡± she purred, before aiming her right hand to point at the men and women before her. ¡°But I¡¯m not quite your typical damsel in distress.¡± She lifted her hands and screamed out, ¡°Kelda!¡± In a crimson flash, something materialized in front of Alverd, something big. A swirling cloud of fog condensed into the form of an animal, a red-furred wolf, except no wolf could ever have been so large. The beast was easily as big as a lion, and had teeth and claws that could tear through flesh with ease. The wolf creature darted forward toward the mages, its slavering maw open, gleaming white teeth on full display.


    They panicked as the wolf closed the distance rapidly. They changed their target from Alverd to the wolf, but it was too late. Kelda pounced upon the closest one, and he screamed as the wolf wrapped its unnaturally large maw around the man¡¯s neck. Alverd slammed into the next one with the dormicite shield, flooring him with a bash to the face. The shield made a satisfying thumping noise as it collided with the man¡¯s jaw, sending two teeth spiraling through the air. A spinning slash put down the woman next to him, and Alverd whirled to face the last two mages in front of him, his weapon steady and his gaze steely.


    A familiar, Sheena summoned a familiar! Any mage who had passed their rite of passage into full magehood had a familiar; the creature¡¯s shape varied from person to person. I guessed in her case, it was this giant monster wolf. But at the end of the day, it was an ally, so I was glad to have it on our side. Speaking of the monstrous beast, it had finished dealing with its first target and took up Alverd¡¯s flank, growling sinisterly at the two mages he was staring down.


    Behind me, Alicia was engaging the mage who had blocked my lightning bolt. He threw aside his wand and reached into his cloak, pulling out a small, baton-shaped piece of metal. A gemstone embedded in its middle flared to life, and the baton suddenly extended to the length of a quarterstaff, just like the ones used by Captain McFarlane and her soldiers. He was no slouch with it either. He neatly deflected Alicia¡¯s attacks by predicting them through her huge wind-ups, although he made no move to go on the offensive. Instead, he held his ground and tried to push Alicia back by striking her elbows and shins, keeping her off balance. His fighting was a delaying action; soon, the three mages I had taken out with my lightning bolt would find their feet and rejoin the battle anew. My mind raced as I tried to find a solution to the problem.


    As I did, I looked over my shoulder only to behold something amazing. Sheena held her right hand out, palm up, and breathed out, a wisp of white smoke emanating from her mouth. It swirled into her hand, shining brightly, a cold, mirror-like sheen coating it. I wanted to scream at her, to ask what the hell she was doing, but I didn¡¯t get the chance. Without any ceremony, she threw the iceball at the remaining two mages Alverd was facing. The iceball exploded with more force than any I could conjure, and the two mages were utterly engulfed, their screams cut short as they were flash frozen in the space of a second.


    Sheena used magic without her staff! It was a feat that no mage was supposedly capable of performing. Yet she had not only managed it, but she had made it literally as easy as breathing. She was not the Witch-Queen for nothing. She gazed at her handiwork impassively, as if she felt nothing for killing her would-be murderers. The look in her eye was colder than the magic she had just conjured. I felt a shiver run its way down my spine.


    Alicia cried out, turning my attention back to my original plight. Sure enough, the other mages had returned to their feet and were in the process of weaving spells. The three were combining their power to form a giant runic circle, which hung in the air, like a malevolent mirror. Even with wands, a spell powered by three different mages would still be powerful enough to kill several times over. With their headstart, I had no chance of beating them. Alverd was too far away to help, and it looked like Alicia and I were about to get blitzed by a magical assault.


    Then the ground shook.


    The mages stopped their spells. The ground shook at steady intervals, like footsteps. There was a general confusion, followed by a mad scramble to discern the direction the noise was coming from. We were saved the trouble when, from a side alley, the biggest, meanest looking golem I had ever seen emerged, headed straight for the enemy.


    A golem was what mages called a construct, an artificially created being powered by magic and given a purpose, controlled by one skilled in the art of puppetry. The construct was fueled by a tiny bit of the puppeteer¡¯s soul, giving them greater control over the end result than a necromancer would have over his thralls. This ¡°piece of the soul¡± was then placed within a powerful shell of solid steel or stone, shaped like a man, capable of incredible feats of strength.


    When the hulking golem stepped into the illumination of the streetlights, I could see that it was crafted entirely of dormicite, its sparkling surface reflecting the surroundings perfectly. The golem was ten feet tall, with thick arms and legs, a head in the shape of a knight¡¯s helm, and glowing red ¡°eyes'''' peering out of the darkness of its visor. It took one look at the mages and raised its hand.


    One mage threw a lance of ice at the golem; the projectile shattered against the golem¡¯s dormicite skin like a snowball. The golem countered by shooting a similar lance out of its hand, skewering the mage and sending him flying back several feet. It raised its other hand and a golden bolt of searing lightning shot forth, electrocuting the woman next to him, leaving only two mages left.


    I¡¯d only read about golems in books. They were quite rare, even the ones made of stone. One had to be a high level practitioner of magic to create a golem, as well as have access to alchemical research and materials to form the golem¡¯s body. For a golem to be made of dormicite would have taken near phenomenal levels of skill as well as a significant monetary investment. From what I was seeing, though, it was definitely worth every gold piece.


    The other of the two remaining mages tried to turn tail and flee, but the red-furred wolf ran him down and leaped on him. I turned away as his screams were cut short by the beast¡¯s cruel fangs. I was just in time to see the golem pick up the mage attacking Alicia in one of its hands. Without any hesitation, the golem smashed the mage against the wall of a nearby shop, crushing him like a rotten piece of fruit. I winced as the golem let go of the man¡¯s lifeless body, allowing the corpse to hit the ground in a pulpy mess.


    A man stepped out of the alleyway from which the golem had emerged. I recognized him as one of the twelve people I had seen in Sheena¡¯s throne room. The man was an elf, but significantly older than Sheena. Crow¡¯s feet pulled at his eyes and wrinkles ran down his cheeks to his lips. His graying blond hair was short and sparse, as though he were in the early stages of balding, and the diamond in his staff sparkled in the glow of the street lamps. He wore a white robe with a black and red trim, adorned with gold filigree. He had no trouble making his way over to us, so I guessed that his advanced age wasn¡¯t hindering him yet. When he reached us, he bowed deeply, the dim light glinting in his dark grey eyes.


    ¡°My Queen, are you hurt?¡± The man asked.


    When she stood back up, Sheena returned the bow. ¡°Thanks to your intervention, Lord Kertouli, I am unharmed. You came in the nick of time.¡± When she stood back up, she caught her giant witch hat before it had time to tumble off of her head, although she had to fiddle with the crown to get it back into place without tipping. I guess she really was self-conscious about those elf ears of hers. Strange thing to be concerned about, especially right now. We have more pressing matters than that to deal with.


    As Lord Kertouli spoke to Sheena, I saw that the golem had taken up a flanking position on our rescuer. I deduced that Lord Kertouli must have been the puppeteer controlling it. I came over to join the conversation.


    ¡°Um, not to be rude, but who exactly are you?¡±


    The newcomer turned his attention to me. ¡°Forgive my rudeness. My name is Emberal Kertouli. I am one of the Twelve Magister Lords, Third Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Puppetry, and one of Ethenia¡¯s most powerful nobles. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Kuro. Any guest of my Lady Queen¡¯s is welcome here in our city.¡±


    Lord Kertouli gestured to the alley once more. ¡°Lord Necce! There is no need to be shy! Come and meet our new arrivals! You disgrace yourself with such a display!¡± As soon as he said that, a man slunk out of the shadows and sidled up to us. Unlike Kertouli, this man was neither graceful nor refined. He was too skinny and pale, his hair was too messy, and his movements were jerky and uncertain. He sidled up to Kertouli and growled at us under his breath. The ruby in his staff flared several times during his approach, as if reflecting the sinister glow in his shifty eyes.


    He was not amused by this. ¡°Zajj! These are guests! Behave yourself as befits a noble of Algrustos!¡± Kertouli gave the man a stern look, and Necce growled again, but this time he settled down and stood up straight, clearing his throat.


    ¡°My name is Zajj Necce¡­ Ninth Attendant to the Council of Magic and Keeper of Elemancy. Just so we¡¯re clear, I have no intention of being chummy with an Ishmarian princess and her little pets.¡± He spat on the ground, more or less in Alicia¡¯s direction. She scowled, and I could see a vein come dangerously close to popping on her forehead.


    Kertouli shook his head and sighed. ¡°Please forgive his rudeness. Lord Necce does not possess the dignity and bearing one would expect from one of his station. I will chastise him later. But I am still glad that you are unharmed, Milady.¡± He tilted his head reverently in Sheena¡¯s direction.


    She waved her arm in our direction. ¡°I owe such to my new companions. If not for them, I would not have survived long enough to be rescued by you. It would seem that I made the right choice about these mercenaries.¡± She hooked her arm around Alverd¡¯s again. ¡°Especially this one! Oh, if only you could have seen him, Lord Kertouli! He was so brave! To see him in action was to see poetry in motion! My heart could burst!¡± Sheena let out another giggle of satisfaction as she nuzzled against Alverd.


    Again my heart sank. Depression settled into my mind again like a fog as the two Magister Lords split off from the group, offering to escort us back to the Ivory Palace.


    However, I did need to know one thing. I approached Sheena with my question. I tried my damnedest to keep the depression out of my tone when I addressed her. ¡°Hey, Sheena? How was it that you were able to use magic without a staff? No mage could ever accomplish such a feat.¡±


    Sheena was about to answer my question when all of a sudden her wolf lunged and landed on top of me. It knocked me to the ground and started growling, baring its huge teeth at me. Its menacing growl echoed in my ears, and I could see the predatory gleam in its eyes. I hadn¡¯t the strength to push the oversized wolf off of me, and fear paralyzed me nonetheless. The teeth came closer and closer, and I could feel the wolf¡¯s hot breath on my face. It was seconds away from tearing me to pieces the way it had done to the assassins.


    ¡°Kelda! Bad girl! Heel!¡± The wolf turned its head, and moved off of me and trotted back to her master. As if things weren¡¯t bad enough, she even sat in front of Alverd, panting like a dog. Alverd patted the creature on the head, and the bloody beast let him, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. I couldn¡¯t believe what I was seeing. Just another heap of indignation on top of everything else.


    I picked myself off the ground. Sheena looked apologetic. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Sir Kuro. My wolf, Kelda¡­ she gets so playful sometimes. But she¡¯s usually a better judge of character¡­I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a good reason why she almost chewed your head off¡­¡±


    ¡°YOU THINK?!¡± I stared at where the wolf was now letting Alverd play with her face. I sighed again, then posed my question to her once more, as calmly as I could manage given all the crap the universe was throwing at me at the moment. ¡°Well¡­ anyway, about your use of magic. Shouldn¡¯t you be dead? Or at the very least, incapacitated?¡±


    She laughed. It was a nice laugh, not condescending or anything, and it was melodious. ¡°Well, you have a good point. Yes, I should be dead. But in my veins flows the blood of the royals of Algrustos. That blood carries the power to use magic without a staff, at least, the lower and middle tiers of magic. Higher tier magic still requires the use of my staff, but I am far from helpless, as you can see. My ancestors attributed this power to a pact with an ancient spirit, but it could be a fairy tale for all I know.¡±


    It seemed plausible enough. I had heard that people could gain power through deals with spirits or demons, and that said deals could pass down family lines. I didn¡¯t have any evidence to point to the contrary, so I was willing to accept it as an explanation. I was going to inquire further into the topic, but then Alicia cut in.


    ¡°You two! This wouldn¡¯t have happened if you two weren¡¯t just walking down the street completely oblivious of your surroundings! If you would pay attention, we never would have walked into that mess!¡± She waved her maul menacingly at Sheena. ¡°I¡¯ve almost had it with you and your cavalier attitude! You need to get it through your head that your life is in danger! Use your head!¡±


    I really, really, REALLY had to resist the urge to take Alicia¡¯s maul and smack her with it. She was berating the one person who could decide whether aid would be given in her quest to retake her homeland. Like a shortsighted fool, she was jeopardizing any chance she would have in defeating her lunatic sister. I shot Alicia a look, but it did little to deter her.


    ¡°And on the subject of that¡­¡± She continued, ignoring me entirely. I gave up and decided to think instead about things that might actually matter.


    I let Alicia try to justify the decision to stalk Alverd and Sheena on the way back, as I was lost in my own musings. I grappled with my unpleasant thoughts. Even as I was brought to a guest room, even as I settled into bed, I couldn¡¯t shake them. As Alverd drifted off to sleep in the bed next to mine, those thoughts kept me up the better part of the night. Finally I managed to shift my focus to something more productive.


    The assassins we had encountered had pulled us into a trap. As far as plans had gone, it had been pretty good. The only way it could¡¯ve gone so well is if it had been engineered using inside knowledge only available to people who knew the Witch-Queen well enough to predict her movements and behaviors. It felt as though there had been a plan in place, but a slight complication had ruined its execution, said complication being the presence of Alverd and the rest of us.


    Sheena was right. There were indeed wolves in the flock. Her own people were ready and willing to raise arms against her to go to war with Ishmar. If we didn¡¯t get to the bottom of this, she would likely have no choice but to declare war on the dragon tamers¡­ or die to appease her subjects.


    I pulled the covers close. I lay there for another hour, thinking. But the more I lay awake, the more my mind lingered towards the jealousy I harbored toward my friend. Finally, exhaustion overwhelmed me, and sleep came to claim me.


    That night, I dreamt of caramel apples. The bitterest caramel apples in creation.

 B2: Chapter 7: Kuro: The Slumbering Calamities (Edit)

    I did not wake up well-rested or feeling any better than I did when I retired the night before.


    Sleep was always just a temporary escape from reality. In my case, one can hardly call it an escape sometimes given how bad my dreams are. I had gone to bed a jealous, bitter young man and woke up a jealous, bitter young man who needed some breakfast. As I swung my legs out of the bed, I yawned loudly, then looked around.


    The guest rooms Alverd and I had been assigned were extravagant to the extreme. I had slept on a mattress filled with the softest material I¡¯d ever felt in my life, beneath cotton sheets that kept me warm without making me uncomfortable. The finely manicured carpet felt soothing to my toes. A pair of heavy drapes kept the harsh morning sunlight at bay, allowing only enough to filter into the room to give me the ability to see. I gathered my robe and staff from a wardrobe carved from fine, polished wood and waited in the hall outside for Alverd to get ready.


    It feels so strange to be in a place where mage robes are the norm, I thought to myself as I watched a gaggle of young mages pass me by. They had to be the children of some of the castle staff, but even they had the junior robes of mage apprentices. I recognized the same bronze filigree on their outfits that I myself had once worn when I had first started mage school. I¡¯d eventually made it up to the gold filigree robe I wore now, but even then that only signaled that I was on the cusp of graduation into being considered a full mage.


    One of the mages, a precocious little girl maybe only eight years old, did a double take when she saw me. ¡°Hey, why are you still wearing an apprentice robe?¡±


    I grimaced. ¡°Long story, kid. All I can say is stay in school.¡± The girl blinked, then allowed an all-too familiar, leering smile creep over her face.


    ¡°Oooooh, a dropout. I guess you¡¯re what my mommy would call a cautionary tale.¡±


    It was entirely too early in the morning to deal with this kind of attitude, and I didn¡¯t care that it was coming out of some snot-nosed kid. ¡°Run along, child. It would be a shame if they gave you bucket duty for being late.¡± I remembered the times I¡¯d been made to magically levitate a bucket full of water for an hour as punishment. The amount of mental endurance it took to manage such a feat was exhausting. The girl didn¡¯t seem too deterred by my warning, though.


    ¡°My mommy would never allow it. She says I¡¯m a prodigy.¡± She sounded so arrogant. It was like listening to the older kids who bullied me at Professor Farnus¡¯ school. ¡°But I guess anyone would be a prodigy when compared to a non-Algrustian like you. You¡¯re practically a bunch of country rubes.¡± She then stuck her tongue out at me and walked away with way too much swagger in her step.


    I was briefly entertaining the notion of lighting the child¡¯s clothes on fire when Alverd put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. And I say, stop thinking about it, Kuro.¡±


    I growled audibly. ¡°Come on. Just one spark. Nobody has to know it was me.¡± The hand squeezed tighter and I winced a little. ¡°Oh, fine. Ruin all my fun.¡± I waited until the little she-demon turned the corner at the end of the hall, gossiping with her friends about me no doubt.


    ¡°No wonder everyone hates Ishmar AND Algrustos. One of them thinks the rest of us are weak and need to be conquered, and the other thinks we¡¯re all ass-backwards and need to be taught what to think.¡± I gave an indignant huff. ¡°Can¡¯t go anywhere on this continent without bumping into some elitist thinking he¡¯s better than someone else for some reason.¡±


    Alverd snorted. ¡°That¡¯s kind of what¡¯s wrong with people in general, Kuro. We¡¯re all far more alike than we realize, and that¡¯s probably why we can¡¯t stand each other. You know what they say, familiarity breeds contempt.¡± I blinked in shock.


    ¡°Since when did you start reading books on philosophy?¡±


    My friend gave me a cock-eyed look. ¡°Surely it¡¯s not that surprising that I did?¡±


    My head swam, partly because I couldn¡¯t comprehend that my friend had just said something wise and accurate and also because I was still hungry. ¡°I am not ready to have any kind of intellectual discussion about the inherent flaws of mankind until I have a plate of breakfast meat in front of me. Where¡¯s the mess hall around here?¡±


    Alverd shook his head. ¡°Actually, Her Majesty wished for us to dine with her in the throne room today. She made a rather insistent request that we do so in private.¡±


    I felt my heart do a simultaneous somersault and nosedive in my chest when I thought of Sheena. ¡°Oh. Oh. Well. Hm.¡± Good thing Alicia isn¡¯t here. She¡¯d mock you for sure if she saw you stumbling over yourself like this. ¡°I guess we¡¯d better not keep her waiting.¡± Pull yourself together. You still have time to make a good impression on the Witch-Queen.


    Even in my just-rolled-out-of-bed state, I noticed that the palace had a greatly different feel to it in the daytime. The many windows let in plenty of the morning sun, allowing the corridors to bask in its radiant glory. So much of the walls and knick-knacks in the hallways had enough gold to catch the light that I had to shield my eyes. But it wasn¡¯t extravagant, like in Ishmar. Here, the beauty that I beheld was muted, as if trying to be humble in its presentation. I suppose the architect had tried to make a statement, but damned if I knew what it was.


    Alicia was looking unusually wary this morning. She had her own room in the guest wing. Alverd had insisted that we not be far from her, in case we needed to protect her. Sheena had nearly fallen off a chair ranting about the nature of chivalry and approved Alverd¡¯s suggestion. It had happened right after we had gotten back to the palace after our little nighttime stroll. I had been too tired to take note of how it made me feel, but now that I was awake I was keenly aware of how it just added to my bitterness.


    Alicia¡¯s eyes weren¡¯t shadowed like one who didn¡¯t have enough sleep, but they were narrowed. I¡¯d seen that look before. She¡¯s anticipating a throw-down with Sheena about Alverd¡¯s rightful ¡°ownership¡±, I bet. Normally, I¡¯d tell her that it was a waste of effort and to do so might jeopardize her chances of getting her country back, but I already knew she wasn¡¯t a morning person. And I didn¡¯t want to give her any more reason to take out her frustration on me. I don¡¯t deserve that, especially not before breakfast.


    When we entered the throne room, Sheena nearly tackled Alverd, enveloping him in her arms. She giggled madly, pulling him towards the center of the room. Alicia and I skulked after them. I noticed that the twelve men and women who had been present during our first encounter in this room were here again, and I recognized Emberal and Zajj amongst them. I also spied Sheena¡¯s uncle, Lord Albrecht, next to the throne itself. Sheena let go of Alverd¡¯s hand and ran up to the throne, seating herself upon it. When she did so, all of the Magister Lords seated themselves.


    I nearly jumped out of my skin when a thirty foot long table materialized out of thin air in the center of the crimson carpet that ran the length of the room to the throne¡¯s dais. The Magister Lords¡¯ chairs levitated off the floor in eerie unison, ferrying them to seemingly random places at the table. As I watched the intricate dance of magically moving furniture, a high-backed chair made of carved wood zoomed across the room and halted right in front of me.


    Two chairs had likewise made their way over to Alverd and Alicia. I hesitantly placed my rear in the seat, and no sooner had I put my full weight into it did the seat catapult me over to the head of the table, near where Sheena¡¯s throne was now gracefully gliding to the place of honor. Alicia screamed out as her own chair careened over to place her at Sheena¡¯s left, while Alverd ended up at Sheena¡¯s right. My place was right next to Alverd, and he, to my chagrin, was between me and the Witch-Queen.


    Lord Albrecht clapped his hands in an exaggerated manner and the twin doors of the throne room opened, and a flood of white-clad servants spilled into the room carrying plates, silverware, and trays of food. The servants did not bother to lean over the attendees to place anything upon the table. They merely used wand-like cooking implements to place the food they¡¯d ferried in onto the table with magic. I cased a plate stacked high with sausage and bacon as it passed through the air to land not far from my seat.


    Sheena waved her hand and took a pair of loaf cakes from a plate, along with a small assortment of berries and fruits. Alicia brusquely reached her hand into the meat plate and grabbed a handful that she slapped on her plate disgracefully. When Alverd awkwardly tried to poke at said plate with his silverware, Sheena brought the plate lower with a twirl of her finger, and he was able to get himself some eggs, bread, sausage and bacon.


    The Magister Lords had all piled their plates full of food, but none of them made any move to eat. They instead stared at us from their side of the table like one of us had belched out loud. Given how Alicia was already shoveling her food into her mouth I, at first, thought she was to blame, but then Lord Albrecht loudly cleared his throat.


    In a commanding voice, he spoke. ¡°I have convened the Council of Magic at Her Majesty¡¯s request, pertaining to the incident that took place last night in the marketplace. This marks the second time in this month that my niece has had her life endangered, and still we are no closer to finding those responsible. I would have the Council¡¯s opinion on how to proceed.¡±


    One of the members who had not been introduced, a woman in her thirties, spoke up. Her dark brown hair was done up in a tight bun held by a pair of thin ivory needles, and she had a very intense pair of blueish eyes. She was wearing a purple robe with white and blue trim and odd shapes emblazoned on it seemingly at random. Her staff had an amethyst embedded in it.


    ¡°I would like to say something, Prime Minister.¡±


    He nodded in the woman¡¯s direction. ¡°The Council recognizes the Fourth Attendant, Keeper of Necromancy, Lady Sino Laspa. What say you?¡±


    Lady Laspa stood up, and then gestured at me, Alverd, and Alicia. ¡°Who are these people? I understand that they are mercenaries and the girl is the princess of Ishmar that we were expecting, but who are they really? Are we to trust them merely because our Lady Queen saw their arrival in her divinations? I am afraid that I need further proof of their good intentions before I am willing to trust them so quickly.¡±


    There was a general murmur of agreement among the remaining Magister Lords. Albrecht waved his hand again, and the murmuring ceased. Sheena leaned forward. ¡°I know it is difficult for you to have faith in this troubled time. But what I have seen in my divinations is not deceit or falsehood. It is hope. These three are the key to bringing about something wonderful. They will help me change this kingdom for the better. I understand you all have reservations, but I ask that you have faith in me, your Queen. There is a peaceful solution to this.¡±


    She pointed at Alicia. ¡°This princess crossed no-man¡¯s land to carry the gift of hope to us. I intend to show the Ishmarians that we can coexist together as allies. There is no need for hostilities between us. The past shall be forgiven, as it should be.¡± Alicia froze in the middle of putting no fewer than eight strips of bacon into her mouth to awkwardly wave at the Magister Lords with her free hand.


    There was a loud silence before a round of slow, reluctant-sounding clapping from the Magister Lords. I took note of the ones who were the slowest or the least enthused. Zajj looked ready to throw up, his hands flopping together like two dead fish. Laspa had much the same reaction. Kertouli, however, was dignified and prudent with his applause. I wasn¡¯t familiar with all this hierarchy stuff yet, but if he had as much pull as I suspected he did, having his support would go far in rallying the other Magisters behind Sheena¡¯s proposal.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    At this point, he spoke up. ¡°Prime Minister, if I may?¡±


    Albrecht waved his hand toward him. ¡°The Council recognizes Lord Emberal Kertouli, Third Attendant and Keeper of Puppetry.¡±


    He stood up. ¡°Milady Queen, I do not think we should be so quick to disregard the past. Was it not Ishmar who assassinated your parents twenty years ago? You were merely a babe then. Had Lord Albrecht not saved you from the assassins, we would have lost the entire royal family line. Should you die, we will lose everything. Are you really so quick to forgive a nation that has taken so much from you?¡±


    Sheena cast her gaze down. ¡°I cannot say. My parents died before I could form my own memories of them. But Uncle¡­ even if he is only related by the bond of memories and love, and not blood, he is still my uncle. He was my parents¡¯ close friend and advisor, and has helped me fill their shoes admirably. All except for fulfilling my countrymen¡¯s desire for war, it would seem.¡±


    Alicia quickly expressed her displeasure at this. She stomped her foot on the floor to command everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°My people would never stoop so low! You¡¯re all lying! My father would never send assassins to deal with you! If we wanted to kill you we¡¯d do it straight to your faces!¡± She was hunched over, breathing hard, her teeth gnashing in fury. Then she shrank back into her chair.


    Emberal leveled his eyes at Alicia. ¡°We have ample evidence to the contrary. The ones responsible were slain by Lord Albrecht himself, who found papers on their bodies ordering the deaths of the royal family. Plus, they were armed with weapons made of dragons¡¯ teeth. We have considered every possible explanation, and the likeliest scenario is that Ishmar sanctioned an assassination. Do not presume to think that your late father would not sink so low as to use such means to accomplish his ends, child.¡±


    He looked calm when he spoke, but I could detect a subtle change of tone at the mention of the Ishmarian assassins. His normally passive eyes had flashed with malice for a moment, and then it was gone like it had never been there at all. Alicia is really playing with fire here. If the Magister Lords decide to reject her proposal through a majority vote, then not even Sheena can stop them. At that point, we¡¯d just be two mercenaries and an enemy of the crown on foreign soil. As calmly as I could, I motioned to Alverd to try and get a handle on the situation before it could get any worse.


    Thankfully, my old friend got my nod and moved to stand. Alverd, as calm as could be, all dignity and honor made form, commanded the attention of all. It was hard to tell what attracted each individual to give his or her undivided attention. At the end of the day, he just had the charisma to make it work.


    ¡°So the people would prefer war then? They would rather go to war with Ishmar now rather than take the chance that Ishmar would destroy itself?¡± He took up a position flanking Alicia, putting his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her. She stiffened, but eventually she did calm down. ¡°Forgive me for saying so, but I call into question how many of the esteemed lords and ladies before me have seen war with their own eyes. I have. And I have no desire to see more of it.¡± There was an air of unmistakable surety in his voice that gave weight to his words.


    ¡°If I may be so bold, it is not the nobility that ends up fighting wars, but regular folks like me. I am merely a humble knight, and I swore an oath like many of my brothers and sisters to be a shield for the weak and innocent. I did not learn the grim reality of being a knight until it came to Irinholm and took away what I was supposed to be responsible for protecting.¡± I sensed the pain in his voice, that he was trying to convey to the Magisters with utmost sincerity. ¡°In war, everyone suffers, from the peasants to the nobles. I can say that if you demand war recklessly, you will get it.¡± He leaned on the table, shooting an almost menacing glare at the Magisters. ¡°And everything that comes with it.¡±


    Silence permeated the room. Alverd continued. ¡°The ones who push for war are always the ones who are least prepared for what happens when they lose or win it. Because at the end of the day, they care only about the war itself.¡± He again placed his hand on Alicia¡¯s shoulder. ¡°The mistake of the Ishmarians of old is that they found more glory in the act of war than in the prosperity of their people. I implore you to impress upon your citizens the danger of making the same mistake.¡± Alicia reached her hand up to squeeze Alverd¡¯s wrist. It was a small gesture, but I could tell how much it conveyed her faith in him. These were words she should¡¯ve been speaking, but she trusted him to speak them on her behalf.


    Sheena spoke up next. She pushed her left hand against her chest, as if she were trying to soothe some invisible ache. ¡°It is as you say. It is the nearly unanimous wish of my people to declare war on Ishmar and conquer them while they are divided due to the power struggle taking place in their country. But while my strategists all agree that now is the perfect time to attack, it simply seems¡­ cowardly. Underhanded. Those were the tactics we used in the past. But not anymore.¡±


    She then swept her hand wide over her subjects. ¡°Diplomacy must be our first attempt. If we can find a way to resolve our differences peacefully, then we can find a way to erase our bloody histories and forge a better future. That is why I wish to put aside the past. That is why I welcome Princess Alicia into this court. That is why I wish to take the first step forward. For all of us.¡±


    I had to admit, Sheena¡¯s speech was quite stirring. She had a gift for oration that Alicia did not, which, in the hands of an authority figure like her, could make all the difference. The lives of men and women could hinge on the words of a king or queen, and she was definitely one of those rare few who possessed the gift to inspire.


    The Magister Lords conferred amongst themselves. Even Zajj leaned over to his left to address the woman sitting next to him, speaking in low tones that I could not pick up. But all eyes were on Sheena now. Even despite Alicia¡¯s outburst, the entire room¡¯s reaction hinged on who would speak next.


    Another of the Magister Lords put his hand up. Lord Albrecht motioned to him. ¡°The Council recognizes Lord Casper Mattigen, Second Attendant and Keeper of Summoning.¡±


    Lord Mattigen looked about as old as Lord Kertouli, but far more wrinkled and withered. He was also quite human, as he lacked the elf ears of Kertouli. His robe was pitch-black, and an onyx was affixed to his staff. I suppose it fit a demon summoner. After a short cough, he spoke.


    ¡°Perhaps the Council would be more willing to accept such a proposal if our Queen would be willing to awaken the Slumbering Calamities? As a precautionary measure, of course.¡±


    The Witch-Queen was taken aback by that comment. I could see it in her widening eyes and the way her body tensed like a cat about to pounce. But the Magister Lords were all serious, showing no reaction. Some may have agreed, some may have disagreed, but they were also completely passive, betraying no emotion to the suggestion.


    Her face turned livid. ¡°You wish for me to awaken the Slumbering Calamities?! Are you insane? That would be the clearest declaration of war this world has ever seen! Those abominations have only one purpose, and have been that way since the day they were created!¡± She stamped her foot on the ground, but this time it was not the act of a child throwing a tantrum. It was the act of a woman filled with righteous fury. ¡°Never! I will never allow it! As far as I¡¯m concerned, those things can rot beneath the Palace forever!¡±


    I had never seen Sheena so angry. Gone was the klutzy, sincere, yet pushy girl. I barely recognized her. Alverd moved to her side. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she looked at him. Her face turned red when she saw how close his face was to hers.


    ¡°Milady, you shouldn¡¯t behave in such a manner. Perhaps if you explain calmly, it would paint a better picture of the problem?¡± Sheena stuttered for a moment as she fumbled for a reply, the anger and color draining out of her in an instant. Just out of curiosity, I looked over at Alicia. Sure enough, she was grinding her teeth again, her hand curled into a fist. I sighed, then turned back to Sheena and Alverd. Girls will be girls, I suppose.


    Sheena shied away from Alverd, albeit reluctantly. ¡°Of course¡­ the um¡­ the Slumbering Calamities. They¡¯re, um¡­ uh¡­¡± She finally shook her head, violently. ¡°Right. Slumbering Calamities. They¡¯re a series of golems. Eight of them. Fifty feet tall, made of pure dormicite. They were created almost six hundred years ago by powerful wizards and witches for some of the earliest kings and queens of Algrustos, to fight off Ishmar. Every time Ishmar has invaded us in the past, we used the Calamities to fend them off. They are our ultimate weapon.¡±


    She folded her arms. ¡°But we have never used the Calamities for offense. They are¡­ shrouded in mystery. Each time they were activated in the past, many people died, including the kings and queens who ordered their activation. When the Ishmarian assassins killed my parents, they set a fire in their private study, and the documents and literature pertaining to the Calamities were destroyed. In truth, I don''t even know how to activate the Calamities.¡±


    Lord Albrecht interceded at that point. ¡°Do not trouble yourself, my dear. I am working tirelessly to discover the answer. But even if I did, would it affect your judgment? A sword can be used for offense or defense. A weapon does not discriminate, only its wielder. This is something you must learn yourself, Sheena. I cannot help you with that.¡±


    I noted the fatherly tone in his voice, firm but fair. By now, he¡¯d know how to rein his niece in when she got carried away.


    ¡°Although,¡± he suggested slyly, ¡°I wonder if this young knight you¡¯re so fond of might get you to listen. Gods know you¡¯ve wanted his counsel for quite some time now¡­¡± He made little effort to conceal his mocking tone or knowing snicker. Oh yeah. That¡¯s definitely the tone of a godparent teasing their ward.


    She went red again. ¡°Uncle!¡± She started flailing her fists against his broad chest. ¡°You! You embarrass me!¡± Alverd watched the spectacle unfold with a kind of wistfulness in his eye. I knew he was thinking about his own parents. What would they say if they had known their son would find himself in the company of queens and princesses? They¡¯d ooh and ahh, and wonder what they did to deserve such an honor.


    Would mine have felt the same way?


    Before I could think any further, Sheena turned to us again. ¡°So now you know my dilemma. I have consulted my scrying crystal many, many times but found no answers. It¡¯s as if Fate does not wish me to find my way.¡± She sighed. ¡°So many things are going wrong all at once¡­ I don¡¯t understand¡­ divination is not an exact magic, but still, it has never led me astray before¡­¡±


    Alverd cocked his head. ¡°Scrying crystal?¡±


    I filled him in. ¡°It¡¯s a glass ball that mages use. It has minor prophetic capabilities. Sometimes they can see the future, or the past, or anything in between. Not the most reliable tool, but being informed of things in advance¡­¡± I gave Sheena a sly, cockeyed grin, ¡°¡­obviously makes it far easier to prepare certain things, like gifts from heads of state. Am I right, Milady Queen?¡±


    Alicia snorted. ¡°Too bad she has all this magical power and wastes it all on frivolous nonsense.¡± I got the feeling that she intended to say it more quietly, but a lull in the conversation on the far end of the table made it so that her comment was heard by all. Now the center of attention, she dug in her heels. ¡°What? You just admitted you have the ability to predict the future and we¡¯re having a debate about whether war is a good idea or not? You have to be pulling my leg here.¡±


    Sheena looked very put off. ¡°Divination is not all about seeing the future! What one sees through divinations are truths veiled in mystery. They reveal more about people than they do about abstract concepts such as time. How do you think I learned so much about you all without even meeting any of you? It was not a coincidence that you came here. It was meant to be.¡± She snuck a glance back at Alverd for that last part, and that only served to make things worse.


    Alicia was not amused, and she was going to jeopardize her chances of an alliance if this kept up. ¡°I spent the last month being dragged across your border alongside a mage who destroyed an entire castle with a tornado and here you are telling me that magic has limits. Which is it? Are you mages all-powerful or not?¡± She folded her arms defiantly.


    Look what you did now, Alicia.


    And then, the sound of a single person clapping.


    It was the Prime Minister, still clapping in a slow, steady rhythm. ¡°Well then! There¡¯s some fire. I daresay we find our honor challenged. Well, little princess, I¡¯m afraid we aren¡¯t going to just lie down and take such an egregious tongue-lashing. We have our pride, and our honor. When we say that divination can or cannot do a thing, only to have someone mock one of our sacred traditions, what are we to do but prove our aggressors wrong?¡± He snuck a wink at his niece, who took his meaning.


    ¡°Very well. I will hold a divination ceremony later today.  I will require all three of you to attend. Hopefully we can put your¡­ issues to rest after we have had a proper reading. I want you to trust me, Princess. If this is the only way, then so be it.¡± She gave the irate Alicia a knowing smile, which was probably intentional, and I heard Alicia¡¯s teeth being ground together from several feet away.


    Inwardly, I fumed at Alicia¡¯s immaturity. She was only behaving in such a manner because she was jealous of Sheena¡¯s closeness to Alverd. That makes you the pot and her the kettle in this scenario, I had to remind myself. Still, I had never seen a professional divination up close, and I was quite curious to see what it all entailed.


    Lord Albrecht clapped his hands once more. ¡°Then it is decided. This meeting is adjourned for now. We will reconvene on the morrow for further deliberation as to the matter at hand. You are all dismissed.¡± Slowly the other Magister Lords left. Alverd looked at Sheena.


    ¡°Milady, what exactly will this divination ritual reveal? Though my curiosity is piqued, I am afraid that I am a bit nervous about the concept. Will everything turn out alright?¡±


    Sheena laughed, then allowed her face to become deadly serious. ¡°Just wait and see, my dear knight. Just wait and see.¡± As she broke into another round of mock laughter, I couldn¡¯t help but feel just a bit nervous myself.


    What could possibly go wrong?.

 B2: Chapter 8: Alicia: Divinations

    I was starting to wonder if people were pulling my leg about this whole magic business.


    Magic wasn¡¯t very consistent. There were solid, believable things like the healing magic McFarlane¡¯s man had used on my leg, or the elemancy Kuro used, and then there were things like this so called ¡°divination¡± that Sheena claimed that she was a student of. Thunderbolts and lightning? I could believe that. Seeing the future? That was a whole different story.


    Kuro was not a typical mage. By his own admission he was not to be treated as a concrete example of what mages were like, as his unique circumstances had forced him to learn most of what he knew secondhand or on the way to where he was now. Algrustos was showing me that like in Ishmar, no two people were alike, even if they were raised in the same country, had the same beliefs, and possessed similar abilities.


    The mousy mage and I were escorted across Ethenia by a squadron of royal guards. Alverd was a few steps ahead of us, his eyes open and watching for any potential danger. The city looked so different in the daylight with people going about their business like they had done the day before.


    I was struck by how casual the citizens were. Many of them had finer garments than the peasants that lived in Ishmar¡¯s capitol, and they looked healthier and better fed. Children chased each other merrily, ducking and weaving through crowds of adults. A robust marketplace complete with a fountain depicting the goddess Eternity raising her hand to the sky had dozens of people haggling over everything from fresh food to imported goods.


    Two women were having an argument over who would pay more for a bolt of silk from the nation of Kierhai, whom the shopkeeper reminded his customers had the best silkworms on the entire continent of Selarune. A burly man carried a crate of vegetables to a stall in a corner of the market, stopping abruptly to avoid trampling a child chasing a rolling ball. Three mages were comparing the prices on a line of crystalline artifacts laid out for display in a glass case and griping about how quality was getting worse every year.


    Ethenia was so full of life. These were people who didn¡¯t have to worry about the same things my subjects had to. Poverty, hunger, lackluster housing, and incredibly strict laws had led to my people suffering immensely to the point where they had been willing to support an invasion of a country we had a truce with just so we could have food to feed ourselves with. Even though the Algrustians thought everything I was seeing was just their version of normal, it was anything but for me.


    This is what I want for my homeland. Walking past the marketplace, I spied two young mages sitting together on the edge of the fountain, sharing a book with each other. I saw the woman squeeze the hand of the man she was with, and he wrapped his arm around her, pulling them closer together. She leaned her head on his shoulder, the perfect picture of young love on a clear day without a care in the world. I stopped in my tracks when I saw their intimate moment. I wasn¡¯t sure what about it made me so distracted. I didn¡¯t move until Kuro stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the two. He waved his hand in my face.


    ¡°Hey, Alicia? What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Pushing his hand away, I growled at him. ¡°I¡¯m fine, get your hand out of my face. I was just looking at all of¡­ this.¡± I pointed at the busy marketplace. Alverd, who had noticed that we were no longer following, came over and followed my gaze.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, princess? Everything seems perfectly normal over there.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just it!¡± I said. ¡°This is normal for you. All of this¡­ you take it for granted because everywhere you¡¯ve ever been, this must be what passes for normal.¡± I could hear my voice crack as I remembered how different things were in Ishmar. ¡°I¡¯ve never known your ¡®normal¡¯. You saw what things were like, how people had to line up to be given portions instead of a fair share. So much of this is¡­ overwhelming for me.¡±


    Kuro bit his lip like he wanted to say something. After a moment, he tried again. ¡°If this is what you want for your people, Alicia, then you should remember something. You shot your mouth off a few times when we were in front of the Council of Magic. It has to be hard to listen to them sling mud at you, but if you keep antagonizing them they¡¯ll vote to overturn the Queen¡¯s decision.¡±


    ¡°Wait. I thought she was the Witch-Queen. Doesn¡¯t she have the final say?¡±


    Kuro shook his head. ¡°She does in theory. If she doesn¡¯t agree with the Council of Magic¡¯s decision she can override it, but what will happen then is that it will be clear to all of her people that she¡¯s willing to use her authority to ignore their demands for war. The attacks on her will increase, and if she¡¯s assassinated then any hope you have of brokering peace is gone.¡±


    He was right, and I hated that. You don¡¯t have any good options here. Remember who you¡¯re doing this for. I took one last wistful look at the marketplace before nodding. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I almost ruined everything.¡± I let out a long sigh. ¡°I want all of this so badly, but at the same time I have so many things to worry about. I don¡¯t want Ishmar becoming a vassal state of Algrustos when this is over. I want real equality.¡±


    Kuro shrugged. ¡°Then show the Witch-Queen you¡¯re not a barbarian. Best way to prove to her that your people can grow beyond the perception the continent has built of them for hundreds of years is for you, their representative, to take the first step. And that means holding your tongue when people talk crap about you. Believe me, I¡¯d be the first person to think about lighting some guy on fire if he talked about me the way some of those Magisters did about you, but if I have to behave, then so do you.¡±


    Alverd rolled his eyes. ¡°Kuro, if you had self-restraint we wouldn¡¯t have prices on our heads in Kiret-¡±


    Kuro whipped around. ¡°Oh come on. That merchant prince had it coming and you know it. A whole country of slavers and that one had to be the guy who decided to have his bodyguard spit on my shoes. It was his own fault for having so much lantern oil in the back of his carriage.¡± He saw me looking at him incredulously. ¡°It¡¯s a long story. Maybe I¡¯ll tell you about it someday, when we¡¯re not in a rush.¡±


    ¡°Please do,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ve piqued my curiosity.¡±


    The guards escorted us along the roads through the city for some time after that. In the light of day, the city was so picturesque. People hung wet laundry outside their window sills, citizens greeted patrolmen with waves and smiles instead of fear. Everything was so surreal. After rounding a street corner, I could finally see the sky unobstructed by the tall buildings flanking the street, and one of our escorts pointed at a set of taller buildings in the distance. One of our escorts took it upon himself to tell me about  the grandest one.


    ¡°That¡¯s the Academy of Grand Sorcery and Magical Enlightenment. We have the world¡¯s foremost experts on the magical arts, magical theory, the history of magic and the research of its applications there. We also have an extensive facility for divination that the Queen has reserved for private demonstration.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but hear the pride in his voice. He didn¡¯t have a condescending tone, just satisfaction in telling me how wonderful this school was.


    It took another ten full minutes of walking to reach the front of the Academy itself. A resplendent stone archway stood over the walkway into the Academy grounds. Each stone within the archway was carved with a rune representing a different school of magic, according to the guard. The runes glowed with blue fire, but when I reached out to touch one that was close to the ground, I felt no heat.


    Inside the grounds, students wandered freely across a grass lawn. Statues depicting great witches and wizards dotted the gardens, many of them old and wizened. A small amphitheater had been set up on the grounds where more than a dozen students were watching a professor give an in-depth lesson on some kind of magical phenomenon. The professor waved her staff and a giant creature materialized in front of her, a bear born from smoke and nothingness. The students oohed and ahhed and took notes on pieces of parchment.


    We were led to the largest building on the campus, which was almost as big as the Castle of Brimstone. Like the Ivory Palace, its entrance was held up by two massive sparkling pillars of stone that sat before a set of giant double doors. The doors swung openly imperiously on our approach, and I saw that no one had done anything to make them do so. They swung shut behind us as we entered.


    The interior of the building was spacious, but that was because the majority of the initial room was taken up by a gargantuan device I couldn¡¯t even begin to understand. Kuro¡¯s jaw dropped as he ran forward excitedly. ¡°It¡¯s an orrery! And not just a standard one, but one that uses magic to recreate actual depictions of the planets and their various rotations around our solar system!¡±


    The center of the ¡°orrery¡± was a blazing globe, like one of Kuro¡¯s fireballs. Circling around it at differing speeds were thirteen orbs of unequal size. One orb had a name projected across its flickering surface, marking that it was Selarune, the world we called home. Lights streaked across the empty space, and it took me a few seconds to realize they were the stars. At last, it hit me. The orrery was a way to track what went on in the night sky.


    On either side of the orrery, three separate stories of the building were dominated by shelves of books. Students and teachers hurried through the cramped space between shelves, running to their classes or other responsibilities. I was so amazed at what I was seeing that I didn¡¯t even notice that Alverd had moved next to me until he spoke.


    ¡°Incredible, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°Someday, maybe a school like this could exist in Ishmar. The first thing I¡¯d do is abolish and outlaw the mage hunts. We could benefit so much from what magic has to offer. And no one should have to be afraid of having their children taken away, or consider it a mark of patriotism to give them up because of fear.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good to hear.¡± The three of us turned to see the Witch-Queen herself stroll over to us. ¡°One of the things that makes us so wary of Ishmar are the mage hunts. The entire continent knows of that practice, and I think it more than anything contributes to your lurid reputation.¡± She folded her arms, looking at me sternly from beneath the brim of her hat. ¡°I¡¯m glad you got to see how life could be if this truce works out, princess. I really do think that it¡¯s a goal you can achieve if we can cooperate.¡±


    I narrowed my eyes. ¡°So it was by design? You wanted me to see all those happy people on my way here, didn¡¯t you?¡±


    Sheena waved her arms in a mock display of innocence. ¡°What? That? Hahaha, you give me too much credit. I really did want to bring you here to conduct the divination ritual, and if you happened to see anything on the way, more power to you.¡± The crooked grin I¡¯d seen on her face when we first met reappeared.


    Breathe, Alicia. BREATHE. She may be childish but she did you a favor. Even if it was roundabout. I took a deep breath in through my nose, held it for a few seconds, and then breathed out through my mouth.


    ¡°Well it was eye-opening, and I did see a lot that I want recreated in Ishmar when we finally retake it. But first things first. We came here to talk about this divination thing.¡±


    Sheena clasped her hands together. ¡°Indeed. I¡¯ve set up in one of our chambers in the back, near some of the research labs. Let¡¯s be on our way.¡± She grabbed hold of Alverd¡¯s arm and yanked him away. Again, I took a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth, relying on my berserker training to control my anger. The last thing I needed was to lose my temper because I was being territorial.


    The guards took up a position around us. A few people stopped to stare at Sheena, but a lot more of them were staring at me. I¡¯m probably the first and only Ishmarian to ever set foot in this school. I could see a few of them whispering and pointing. Bet they¡¯re not saying anything flattering about me.


    Just out of curiosity I took a step towards a group of the students. They recoiled away from me as if I were a venomous snake. I didn¡¯t mean anything hostile by it, but I could tell by their reaction that what they were thinking. Kuro was right. You¡¯ve got a lot of hearts and minds to change. Clearing my throat, I tried to address them. ¡°You there.¡±


    The mage in front gulped audibly and pointed meekly at himself. ¡°Um¡­ m-me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, you. Your school is very impressive. Especially your¡­ ornery.¡± I bit my tongue on the odd word. The mage looked at me quizzically before recognition dawned on his face. ¡°Oh, the orrery! Yes, it¡¯s the pride of the school. I hope you like it.¡± I could see he wanted to be anywhere but here.


    I put my hands on my hips. ¡°Maybe someday you could build one of those in Ishmar. I¡¯m sure we¡¯d be eager to learn about the sky like you do.¡± The mage exchanged skeptical glances with his two friends, who were using him as a shield.


    ¡°Haha, maybe. Well, we have classes to get to. But it was¡­ nice talking to you. I think.¡± And before I could say anything else, they scurried away.


    Kuro scoffed. ¡°Well that was disgraceful. I mean them, not you. You, actually, handled that pretty well.¡± I gave him a sideways smirk.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°I¡¯m learning.¡±


    Kuro raised his eyebrow. ¡°Okay, but let¡¯s not get carried away with all the back-patting. When you can keep a cool head in front of the Magisters, then we can celebrate. Come on, we better catch up to the others.¡±


    Alverd and Sheena were standing in a room not far behind the main hall. The door had been left open; inside I could see a small table with four seats, one on the far side and three on the closer side. A crystal ball and a deck of cards lay on the table. The floor had a rug with a five pointed star emblazoned on it that filled most of the space, with tall metal braziers at each of the star¡¯s points. Four incense burners hung from the ceiling in the corners of the room, which had been lit and were already starting to fill the room with some kind of mild yet soothing fragrance.


    When Kuro and I entered, the door shut behind us. She motioned for us to seat ourselves across the table from her. Before she could speak, I cleared my throat. ¡°Before we begin, I just wanted to say I¡¯m sorry about what happened in the throne room earlier, Your Majesty. It was shameful of me to act that way.¡± It was hard to say the words, but they needed to be said. Then I straightened up and looked at her, waiting for her answer.


    Sheena waved her hand dismissively. ¡°There¡¯s hardly a need for that, Princess. Lord Kertouli ambushed you with that accusation about Ishmarian assassins. Truth be told, we have no way of knowing for sure if they were Ishmarian. They did indeed have dragon-tooth weapons, but such things could be purchased at black markets all over the world. And the documents we recovered from their bodies were written in cypher. For all we know, the assassins could have come from anywhere. But we¡¯ve been blaming Ishmar for all of our political woes for years, so it¡¯s hardly a surprise that the assassins would be blamed on them too.¡±


    ¡°As for your outburst, you were put on the defensive and needed something to latch onto. When I mentioned that divination wasn¡¯t perfect, you saw an opening and you pounced. Anyone in your position would have done the same. I¡¯ll be sure to let the Lords know in the future that antagonizing diplomatic guests, even ones from Ishmar, isn¡¯t acceptable.¡±


    Well. That went better than it had any right to. I nodded to show my appreciation. ¡°I thank you for that. I know I¡¯m not the easiest person to get along with, but I really do appreciate your understanding.¡± Eager to change the subject, I cocked my head in the direction of the crystal ball ¡°So, tell me about this divination ritual. How does it work? What does it do?¡±


    She took the deck of cards in her hand and began to shuffle them, laying them out into several stacks. ¡°People often assume that divination can tell us the future. In a way that¡¯s true, but that would be like saying rain always heralds the arrival of a thunderstorm. In most cases, it does turn out that way, but not always. Divination can tell us things that could happen, as well as help us glean insight into what is already happening.¡±


    When the last of the cards had been distributed, she looked at me from behind her spectacles. ¡°As with all forms of open interpretation, divination isn¡¯t a way to get concrete answers. It can set you on the right path, or lead you down a false one. Sometimes having the ability to know what¡¯s coming puts you in the way of the harm you were trying to avoid. It might be too late to change peoples¡¯ perception of what divination is and what it can do, but we can always try to warn them of its dangers and potential.¡±


    She separated three stacks and placed one of them in front of each of us, then pointed at me.


    ¡°Please remember to take everything you hear with a grain of salt.¡± Her normally refined voice had taken on a dull, monotonous tone. Her eyes had lost their youthful glow, and the color had drained from her cheeks. She drew three cards from the top of the deck and laid them face down in front of me. After a moment, she flipped the one on my left face up.


    The card had only one word on it, below the numeral VI, ¡°Messenger¡±. As Sheena pushed the card forward, she spoke. ¡°The Messenger signifies that you have a higher calling. You seek to fulfill a greater purpose, one far larger than you can carry alone. You seek aid in order to fulfill this purpose, and thus you come to me.¡± As her hand lifted from the card, I could see that it depicted an angel passing a scroll to a priest, who was accepting it on a bent knee.


    Her hand went to the middle card, and flipped it over. This time, it had the numeral 0, and was titled ¡°Traveler¡±. ¡°However, you have no experience or knowledge of how the world is outside your longtime home. You are beyond naive, and have made little progress in growing since you left the comfortable life you took for granted. But there is hope. From here, the only way to go is up.¡± Sheena¡¯s hand lifted, and the card depicted a man carrying a pack, walking up a mountain.


    This is seriously creepy. I don¡¯t know if she¡¯s pulling my leg or if this is real. Alverd¡¯s hand folded over mine. He nodded at me. I felt relieved, albeit not by much. She then flipped over the last card.


    The card¡¯s number was XIV. One word was upon it, ¡°Catastrophe.¡± Depicted on the card was a city, burning as lightning struck it from a blackened sky. Sheena spoke. ¡°But lo, your path is paved with destruction. Your goal lies at the end of a road steeped in suffering, not just your own. Innocent and guilty alike will be brought before the gates of judgment as a result of your desire for peace, princess. Only the strength of your resolve will tell whether these lives will be claimed in vain or not.¡±


    I shuddered. What if she¡¯s right? What if I return home with an army of mages and my people see me as a traitor? What if I have to kill my own citizens to achieve my dream? Can I really go through with that? My mind wandered to the idea of starving peasants being conscripted and I felt a cold dread inch its way up my spine.


    Sheena pulled the three cards off the table and shuffled them back into the deck. She waved her hand over the scrying crystal, and the interior of the glass ball became cloudy. ¡°Gaze upon but one future, one branch in a tree of many. See what lies down but one path, should you pursue it.¡± I leaned closer, to see what was within the deepening shadows of the crystal.


    I saw¡­ myself. Locked in battle with someone all too familiar. It was a blurry image, but the person whom I was fighting was familiar. Dressed in splendid dragon tooth armor, a mantle of finest silk draped across her shoulders, was Eliza, my elder half-sister. She had a wide-eyed look of maddened glee on her face, and her bloodstained rapier was angled at me. I was suspended in midair, looking to bring my hammer down on her head. But the most unsettling thing was the crown, my father¡¯s crown, perched on Eliza¡¯s head. She was queen. The Queen of Dragontamers.


    The image vanished back into smoke. That was unnerving. I was beginning to understand why Sheena had warned us not to put too much face value on this. It was too easy to draw some terrible assumptions from what I had just seen.


    I leaned back and took in a breath. Alverd and Kuro were looking at me, concerned. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s with your faces?¡± I asked.


    Alverd spoke. ¡°Your face went ashen, Princess. We didn¡¯t see anything in the crystal, but your face went whiter than a sheet.¡±


    I was about to reply when Sheena interrupted me, still in her monotone, but now with a bit of an edge to it. ¡°In this room, what is seen is for the seer only. If she wishes to tell you, it must be outside the confines of this room. I¡¯m sorry, but this is how it must be.¡± I gave an inward sigh of relief. Meanwhile, she finished shuffling the cards again and laid the deck on the table.


    She gestured to Alverd, but he held up his hand. ¡°I¡¯m a bit wary about this, but I¡¯m ready. Deal away, milady.¡±


    She doled out three cards onto the table before her. She placed her hand on the leftmost card, and flipped it face-up, revealing it for the three of us.


    It bore the numeral II, and the word ¡°Knight¡±. Upon it was a knight in armor atop a horse, holding a jousting lance. She waved her hand over the card. ¡°You are a man of great character above reproach. More than a decade¡¯s worth of training and learning have made you a paragon of justice in a dim time. Your kind is exceedingly rare, and getting rarer by the moment. But sometimes this quality makes you a thorn in the side of great and terrible people.¡±


    She turned over the middle card. Upon it was the numeral IX, and the word ¡°Rival¡±. It depicted two men with swords crossed. ¡°You have many enemies, now and in your future. Why they are your enemies will change from person to person, but all of them will share something, some small thread that binds them to some greater evil. But what that greater evil may be, I cannot say.¡±


    Sheena reached for the third card and turned it over. It revealed the numeral V, and the word ¡°King¡±. The King in question was dressed in a robe of gold, with both hands grasping the handle of a flawless silver blade. ¡°But you are a born leader. Had you time, you would have ascended the ranks and become a fine captain. Your honor and your natural charisma are as much a weapon as your sword and shield. So long as you remember this, you will prevail over any obstacle that rises up in your way.¡±


    Alverd looked torn. I immediately remembered his confession that he had abandoned his post to go searching for Kuro and their childhood friend during the Ishmarian invasion of their homeland, Marevar. Instead of staying to hold the line, he had left his comrades to die and ran from his responsibilities as a knight. It was one of the things that haunted him. So for him to hear such things, that he was noble and brave, was probably the last thing he would have believed.


    He took a good look at what lay within the scrying crystal, and his face darkened. When he sat back on his cushion, his face was a mask of disbelief. Again, there was nothing I could do. I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked at me. I tried to smile at him weakly, to show him that everything would be okay. He smiled back, but I could see that he was still rattled.


    With that, Sheena took the cards and placed them back in the deck. ¡°Kuro, it is your turn.¡±


    He gulped. She turned to face him, then fanned out three cards onto the table. When she flipped the leftmost card over, the numeral IX was visible, along with the words ¡°The Lost¡±. The card depicted a man at a crossroad. A nearby road sign was of no help, having a large question mark painted upon it.


    She narrated, in her unnerving tone. ¡°You are plagued by doubt and misgivings. The source of these doubts comes from within and without. You wonder how you can emerge from the trials ahead with your honor intact while staying true to your beliefs, however misguided they may be.¡±


    The next card was turned over, and a surprise awaited. The card was upside down. It had the numeral XV on it, and the word ¡°Hope¡±, but Sheena¡¯s tone grew darker. ¡°But despite your efforts, you will tread an increasingly darker path that will take you where you never dreamed to tread. And there, you will find the greatest foe of all¡­¡±


    Her hand hesitated above the last card. Finally, she flipped it over. When she did, she finally broke her monotonous tone and drew back in horror. Kuro, too, gasped at what had been revealed. Alverd and I leaned in for a closer look at the card on the table.The numeral on the card was XIII. It depicted a tiny mage at the bottom of the card, but rising above it was a massive shadow, with a nightmarish face, looking down at the mage with a look of malice and evil. The two words on the card were ¡°The Imbalancer¡±.


    After a moment of silence, Sheena finished her divination. ¡°¡­the greatest foe of all. Yourself. For even when demons whisper in your ears and monsters crawl into your dreams, only you can choose to answer them or not. Even if the great Master of Chaos, the Imbalancer of Scales, tries to tempt you, so long as you resist, you can stay true to yourself no matter the trials.¡±


    Kuro nervously leaned forward to gaze into the crystal. But instead of screeching in terror, as I was expecting, his brow furrowed and he leaned back, his mouth moving but not making words. He looked around, puzzled, as though something in the room might have explained what he had seen, but to no avail. As he did, I took a closer look at the card.


    I may not have been a mage, but even I could tell that something like this ¡°Imbalancer¡± wasn¡¯t good news. I mean, with a title like ¡°Master of Chaos¡± or ¡°Imbalancer of Scales¡±, it¡¯s hard not to assume the thing is evil as all get out. I was just about to ask more when Sheena swept the cards and shuffled them back into the deck, then laid the deck back on the table. After she had done that, she closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. When she opened her eyes, she was back to her normal self.


    ¡°Well! I do believe that was an interesting little diversion! I think you all learned something about yourselves today! What shall we do now?¡± She moved to get up, but I cleared my throat loudly. Kuro jumped in his seat a bit.


    ¡°Not so fast, Witch-Queen. I have a few questions for you.¡± She blinked, then looked into my eyes.


    ¡°Very well,¡± she ventured. ¡°What do you wish to know?¡±


    ¡°First off, what is the big deal about this Imbalancer thing? I mean, is it just some kid¡¯s story to frighten them into behaving?¡± If there was one thing I didn¡¯t need at the moment, it was to be left out of the loop. And in my deepest heart of hearts, I was genuinely curious. I wanted to know why two mages looked as though I had insulted their mothers merely for asking about this subject.


    Kuro and Sheena stared at me for a moment. He then looked at her with a face that seemed to say ¡°should I?¡±. She nodded. He turned to face me. ¡°The Imbalancer of Scales traces all the way back to the War of the Five Kings. Not too much survived that era, so not a lot is known about it, but the holy men in Shardin say it was the other dimensional being that the Five Kings summoned on accident, starting the whole war. It¡¯s a symbol of all-consuming destruction and the hubris of mankind.¡±


    I snorted at this theory. ¡°Yeah? So what happened to this all-powerful being?¡±


    Kuro shook his head. ¡°Well, obviously, the world isn¡¯t ruled by an all-powerful spirit of Chaos. The official holy books say that Eternity and her brother Creation banished the Imbalancer back to its own world. Why do you want to know?¡±


    I folded my arms across my chest as I leaned back in my seat. ¡°There¡¯s just so much I¡¯m learning for the first time. I know I¡¯m the odd one out here. I¡¯d rather you explain these things to me now rather than play catch-up later.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you some more later. I¡¯ve got some basic texts that could help you understand. Remind me when we get back to the Palace sometime.¡±


    Alverd leaned forward. ¡°I have to say, I¡¯m beside myself. You have a very unique gift that you can interpret so much from cards and crystals. And from what I saw, I think you know more about me than I first realized.¡± He fixed Sheena with his steady gaze and I saw the color rise up in her face. ¡°If it¡¯s alright with you, perhaps you can help me interpret what I saw?¡± She nodded mutely, unable to speak.


    Finally, Sheena turned away from Alverd, her face still as scarlet as her hair. ¡°W-W-Well, I think w-w-we¡¯ve had enough f-f-f-fun today. Maybe we should focus on something else¡­anything else, really. All this incense is starting to get to me.¡± She waved her hand around. ¡°Let¡¯s go get something to eat, yes? A good meal after a divination can¡¯t go wrong, right?¡± She stood up and marched out of the room at top speed, giggling awkwardly the entire time. Kuro walked out after her, and Alverd after him.


    I was about to follow when I felt my foot slip on something. Looking down, I saw that several cards had fallen on the floor. A stack of three. Did Sheena accidentally knock these off the table while she was doing her ritual? I fanned them out. They were the ¡°Queen¡±, the ¡°Knight¡± and a card I had not seen before. The Knight was upside down in the stack.


    The image on the last card sent a shiver up my spine. A human was being pulled out of a cage by both a devil and an angel, both pulling said human in different directions. The card was entitled ¡°Freedom¡±.


    Did she remove these on purpose? I didn¡¯t know enough about how this ritual worked to know what the cards signified or what would happen if cards had been selectively removed. I slipped them into my pocket. I¡¯ll ask Kuro about it later.


    Sheena¡¯s divinations had been way too accurate for my liking, especially given how little she knew about us. There had to be some trick I was missing. I¡¯d been warned many times during my training about a mage¡¯s affinity for misdirection, but sometimes it was worth looking into smoke and mirrors to see just what a mage was trying so hard to conceal. After all, as we said in Ishmar, where there¡¯s smoke¡­


    ¡­there¡¯s fire.

 B2: Chapter 9: Alicia: Visitors in the Night (Raw)

    Today I learned a very important lesson. I just wished I didn¡¯t have to learn it the hard way.


    The lesson? Mages fight dirty. They were the most underhanded, unfair, backstabbing little sons-of-bitches I had ever fought against. My countrymen fought with melee weaponry, swords and maces and spears and the like. But mages used spells that could wipe out a whole company of men with a wave of the hand. Even a dragon could be brought down with magic. Mages possessed far too much power for one person. It made them arrogant.


    It also made them stupid.


    Take away a mage¡¯s staff and he became helpless. Get too close to a mage and she couldn¡¯t defend herself. A mage¡¯s true weakness was pride. They thought simply because they had power that they were invincible, and that was where they were wrong. A mage bleeds as readily as any other man.


    Every teacher I had growing up, from statecraft to combat training, told me that those who lost respect for their strength lost the respect of their peers. The ultimate lesson of this came during my berserker training. My instructor, without even entering the berserker trance, bested another berserker who had been getting full of himself as of late. My instructor had warned us, his students, against the perils of thinking ourselves invincible while he had his foot planted on the offender¡¯s neck.


    It had been the reason why Eliza had been such a deadly foe. Unlike our siblings, she had taken her power to new heights without thinking herself unstoppable. She had nearly killed Kuro during our fight back in the Ishmarian Arena, and fought Alverd and I to a standstill. Even now, I was sure that she was adhering to her diligent training, fantasizing about the day when she could kill all of us herself.


    But the important thing was, I had never met a single mage who struck me as honest or fair. Captain McFarlane didn¡¯t count, seeing as how she was a special forces soldier who did whatever was necessary for a mission to succeed. Kuro most definitely didn¡¯t count, because the weaselly little bastard had the cold, calculating mind of a tactician, prioritizing victory over morals. And finally, I didn¡¯t know squat about any of the members of the Council of Magic, or Prime Minister Albrecht, which meant I couldn¡¯t trust them either.


    Sheena? I was still on the fence about her.


    I¡¯d been watching her like a hawk since the moment we¡¯d been brought before her, and I still couldn¡¯t figure her out. Was her clumsy tumble down the steps of her throne room an accident, or just a calculated ploy to feed us a false image? She¡¯d already demonstrated a devious side to her when she managed to point out that she was now Alverd¡¯s employer. Everything about her was a paradox. I didn¡¯t know if she was just some air headed bimbo or  a cunning master of manipulation.


    I think I was starting to lean towards the latter.


    I made that call when she gave out assignments for guard duty that night. She insisted on Alverd being right outside her bedroom door. Even the Prime Minister wasn¡¯t fond of that idea. She had voiced such in the throne room, without any of the Council members present, much to his dismay. The older gentleman leaned down so that he could look his niece and liege in the eye, a stern and disapproving tone creeping into his voice.


    ¡°Sheena, dear, must I remind you that having a man stationed right outside your bedchamber is the height of impropriety? Your chamber only has one entrance, and it can easily be guarded at the end of the hallway where you wish for Sir Kuro and Princess Alicia to stand guard. While I know this knight won¡¯t do anything to jeopardize your¡­virtue, I simply must protest.¡± He ran a hand through his greying brownish hair. ¡°I don¡¯t need to grow any more grey hair on account of worrying about you and your¡­inclinations. Please, just indulge your paranoid uncle just this once.¡±


    Sheena wasn¡¯t happy, but she eventually gave in to his pleading. ¡°Fine, fine. If it helps you sleep better at night, Uncle, I¡¯ll have Sir Alverd wait out in the hall with his companions.¡± She looked a little crestfallen. But I wasn¡¯t born yesterday. I knew exactly why she was disappointed. I¡¯d been around long enough to know what that wanton little witch had planned for.


    And so, the hallway was where the three of us stayed. Not like it mattered much; Sheena¡¯s room door was only about twenty five feet away, so it was only a short dash away in the event of an emergency. Her room windows were made of a special glass that neither magic nor blade could break, not that it mattered considering that the fact that Sheena¡¯s room was five stories above the ground. The hallway was a natural chokepoint, according to Kuro. Provided that the enemy didn¡¯t come from both directions at the same time, the three of us could easily work together to dispatch any enemies that may have come for Sheena¡¯s head.


    It was still early when I wrapped up my patrol around the area for about the sixth time or so. Kuro had turned the small area in front of the Witch-Queen¡¯s bedchamber into a miniature fortress. He had large, thick wooden tables propped on their sides, all the better to shield from projectiles of the magical (and possibly nonmagical) variety. He was also talking to a group of royal guardsmen, about six in total. I walked over to deliver my report and see what he was telling them.


    Kuro was giving out orders. ¡°I want you to split into groups of three, and start patrolling the floor below. Make sure you always remain in sight of each other. Assassins have many tools to try and separate guards so they can eliminate them silently, one by one. Report any strange noises, and watch each other¡¯s backs. Now get out there and report back to me after you¡¯ve finished your sweep.¡± He made a dismissive gesture and the six guards marched away.


    Kuro saw me approach and hailed me. ¡°Hey. You find anything on your sweep?¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, nothing. I sent the two guards I was with to watch the east corridor. We didn¡¯t even hear a peep. Are you sure that something is gonna happen tonight?¡± I leaned on one of the wooden ¡°barricades¡±, giving him a look of skepticism. ¡°Say, where¡¯s Alverd?¡±


    Kuro¡¯s face scrunched up. ¡°About that¡­¡± He looked over his shoulder, at the door that led to Sheena¡¯s bedchamber. ¡°Turns out the Witch-Queen is more devious than we thought. She asked Alverd to come check on her every so often. He¡¯s been in her room for about five minutes now.¡± His expression turned grumpy. ¡°I know Alverd isn¡¯t the type to take advantage of women, even if that¡¯s what they want him to do. That¡¯s the only reason I allowed him to go in there.¡±


    I climbed over the makeshift barricade and joined him. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked, in a way that was a little too revealing of my intent. Kuro placed his staff against the barricade and crossed his arms over his chest. ¡°Yeah. Besides, I¡¯m sure you need an ear right now. Something¡¯s bothering you, and I think I know what it is.¡±


    I had forgotten that of the two, Kuro was the brains of the operation. He was very, very perceptive. I leaned against the doorframe, placing my hammer on the ground. ¡°There are two things, actually. Care to try and guess them?¡± I decided to make Kuro work for it, so that if necessary, I could beat him for going too far.


    Kuro took a moment to collect his thoughts. ¡°So, first and foremost? You must have seen something pretty nasty during the divination ritual.¡± I sighed. He was playing the safe game for now. I figured he¡¯d ask about Sheena first, but if I could figure things out, so could he. But I did want to discuss what I¡¯d seen, because I had found it disturbing.


    ¡°You first,¡± I told him. Kuro sighed, but he spoke anyway. ¡°I don¡¯t really know what to make of what I saw. I saw¡­someone, in a cloak. I couldn¡¯t see their face. The person was talking to two children. A boy and a girl. Telling them some kind of riddle. I can¡¯t remember all the words, something about a curse following them, and of something their mother did, that they had to pay for. None of it makes any sense to me. I don¡¯t even know what the damn crystal was trying to tell me, if it even had any poignant message for me at all.¡± He shrugged, then motioned at me. ¡°Your turn.¡±


    I leaned into the wall some more to steel myself. ¡°I saw myself, in battle with Eliza. But not as we were back in Ishmar not too long ago. It was a different battle. We were fighting in the throne room¡­and Eliza was Queen. Queen of the Dragon Tamers. Crown and all. But something was off about her. She looked even more crazed then usual. I don¡¯t know how to put it in words.¡± I saw Kuro scowl.


    ¡°Pretty sure your sister was bereft of any inkling of sanity before we left Ishmar. If that wound Alverd gave her hasn¡¯t finished her off, there¡¯s no telling how mad she is now. I suppose hoping for her to get her throat slit in the middle of the night is off the table, seeing as how your kind doesn¡¯t believe in assassination.¡±


    I seized upon the relevant topic to prevent him from asking about my attitude toward Sheena. ¡°So, you and Alverd seem to know a thing or two about preventing assassinations. Not exactly something someone reads in a book, is it?¡± I was genuinely curious. Knowing little about the topic itself, I wanted to know everything about it that I could, and since Kuro was in such an accommodating mood, I figured I might as well strike while the tooth metal was hot, so to speak.


    I¡¯d never had to deal with assassins before. In my home country, assassination was frowned upon for several reasons. First and foremost, it was the coward¡¯s way to ensure one¡¯s ascendancy to the throne. It was even worse when the assassin was never apprehended, because then the blame could fall on any of the royal family, thus staining all of their reputations. Second, assassins did not have the ability to deal with dragons; their lightweight weaponry and equipment ensured that they could do no harm to our constant companions.


    Kuro didn¡¯t pick up on my attempt to change the subject at all, which was good. He launched right into it. ¡°Well, Alverd and I have learned a few things working with other mercenaries over the years. We¡¯ve never assassinated anyone, mind you. We¡¯ve prevented a few, though. Just merchants who pissed off the wrong people, nobody of any consequence. Assassins, they¡¯re all the same. Just a bunch of heavily armed opportunists. Lazy as hell. Predictable, too.¡±


    The young mage pulled out a map of the floor that had been provided by Lord Albrecht. ¡°I¡¯ve already ruled out the windows. I tested them earlier, and they held up to my elemancy, so any assassins who somehow manage to climb the five stories of sheer castle wall won¡¯t get in that way. So I¡¯ve fortified the chokepoints in the halls, scheduled patrols and made sure that at no point are any of the guardsmen alone. Assassins will always attack targets of opportunity. And they¡¯ll do it from shadow, so that they won¡¯t be seen.¡±


    He motioned to the torches lining the hall. ¡°Every torch on this floor has been lit. There won¡¯t be any place for the assassins to hide, and all of the guards know to signal for help the moment that they see anyone out of place. Visibility is an assassin¡¯s worst enemy. If we force them to make themselves known, we turn this into a fair fight. And if there¡¯s one thing assassins loathe, it¡¯s a fair fight. Buggers are terrible at those.¡± He chuckled to himself as he folded the map and put it back into his pocket.


    Then his face hardened, and a frown appeared. ¡°Now, if only the high and mighty Witch-Queen would let Alverd do his bloody job instead of bending his ear about sweet nothings, then I would be utterly convinced that our security is impenetrable.¡± His tone went straight into disdain in a second. ¡°Honestly, what is that woman thinking?¡±


    I thought at first that this could be a trap. A way for Kuro to suss out my resentment towards Sheena without seeming too ready to pounce on me about it. I decided to throw caution to the wind. ¡°Yeah. She doesn¡¯t seem to care much that something could happen. Did you see the way she fought out on the street? She had no problem sending that giant wolf beast of hers to kill those assassins.¡±


    He nodded in agreement. ¡°You know, I asked Lord Albrecht about that. He said that Sheena has been fighting off assassins since she was six. Six! Can you believe that? She might have more blood on her hands than me or Alverd. And that¡¯s saying something. When I was six, I could barely conjure a tiny spark, much less a gigantic bolt of lightning.¡± He jut out his lip. ¡°I guess after a while, you just¡­adjust. Like with Alverd and I. Eventually the act of killing didn¡¯t faze us the way it did when we spilt blood for the first time.¡±


    Suddenly I remembered something. ¡°Oh right. You were gonna ask Sheena a question out on the street the other day. What was it?¡± I was genuinely curious, as everything I¡¯d seen so far of Algrustos was alien to me, and I wanted to understand my surroundings better.


    Kuro leaned in close and whispered to me. ¡°I asked Lord Albrecht earlier today. Apparently, Sheena¡¯s ancestors made a deal with a powerful spirit. That¡¯s what allowed her to do magic without a staff the other night. It¡¯s an exceedingly rare thing, because not every spirit is willing to make those kinds of contracts with mortals. I think Lord Albrecht mentioned that her magic powers manifested earlier than most mages, so she became an assassination target right after she took the throne at only six years old. She had to survive her first assassination attempt mere days after her decision not to redeclare war on Ishmar.¡±


    He raised his hand and scratched at his chin. ¡°But if she¡¯s been killing that long, it couldn¡¯t have been good for her. Maybe that act of hers is just a way to hide the pain, or the guilt. I would say we just give her the benefit of the doubt, but if she keeps on interfering with my plan, I may have to just drag Alverd out of there myself. You agree?¡±


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°Yeah. Queen or not, she¡¯s making our job harder, not easier. After all, you two still owe me big. If anything, you should be taking orders from me, not her. Isn¡¯t that how mercenaries work? One contract at a time? Isn¡¯t she breaking some ¡°cardinal rule¡± of yours or something?¡± I realized too late that I¡¯d voiced my insecurity about the matter. I looked at Kuro squarely, trying to gauge his reaction.


    His eyebrow raised slowly. ¡°Ah, I see. So that¡¯s what it¡¯s about, then. You¡¯re not happy about this arrangement. Well, neither am I, but if it bothers you so much, maybe you ought to-¡° He was interrupted by a gust of wind that flew down the corridor from behind me. The gust flew past me, past Kuro, and doused all of the torches along the way, leaving only the moonlight from the windows.


    And then the screaming started.


    It came from down the corridor, and it wasn¡¯t long before the sounds of battle followed. The guards were combat mages, clothed in their not-metal armor and wielding their long staves, and yet I didn¡¯t think they would be of much help in this situation. The enclosed halls and narrow corridors would turn this into a close quarter battle. And then I heard something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.


    The sound of metal clashing.


    Someone had changed the game. Rather than try a magical assault on Sheena, these new assassins were going to go the old-fashioned route; with good old fashioned steel. The sounds got louder, and I heard a cry of pain from the end of the hall. Kuro threw himself against the barricade and yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°Alverd! Gods be damned, Alverd, get your armored arse out here now!¡±


    There was a crash from behind us, and a few seconds later, Alverd emerged from the door we were standing in front of, his sword drawn and his shield leveled. ¡°Where are they? How many?¡± He yelled. Then Sheena came running up behind him. She was dressed in a dark red silk nightgown that left a great deal of her shoulders and all of her arms utterly bare, hardly attire for her to be running around in. She ran up to Alverd and grabbed onto him. ¡°Are they here? Oh, Sir Alverd! Protect me, good sir knight!¡±


    I felt that familiar anger flare up again. I wanted to just smack her for acting like a pathetic damsel in distress when we all knew damn well that she was anything but. But there wasn¡¯t time. From the left, the door burst open and a pair of assassins with wands came through. In the space of a second, they both pointed wands in our direction.


    Alverd brought up his shield, and when the two mage assassins fired, twin streaks of blue light lancing forward through the air, he braced himself. The two streaks slammed into the shield, bouncing off with no effect. They redirected into the ceiling and made a small explosion that shook the now doused torches, but nothing else. Kuro peeked his head over the barricade and took aim with his staff. A golden bolt of lightning sailed out of the tip, striking one of the mages and sending him reeling from the blow.


    Before the other mage could react, he received an ice lance that pierced through his chest like a nail into wood. I looked behind me and saw that Sheena had thrown the lance. Alverd quickly pushed her back into the safety of the doorway. ¡°Milady! You¡¯ll be safer in your room. Leave this to us.¡± Sheena, however, was done with her little damsel routine. ¡°I can help you! Let me go get my staff and I¡¯ll prove it, sir knight!¡± And with that, she ran off to her bedroom.


    I didn¡¯t have any time to make any comments, because from the opposite direction, another door was kicked open and another group of assassins, three this time, came through. These others were carrying more traditional assassin weaponry; knives, daggers, a sword. This surprised me. So now, whoever was trying to overthrow the Witch-Queen was bringing in foreign muscle to help them out? This was a new development. While the Witch-Queen could probably deal with mages on her own, I doubted that she would be able to anticipate an attack from conventional mercenaries like these. Even with her unusual ability to use magic without a staff, fighting this many assassins alone would be a losing proposition. Fortunately for her, MY mercenaries were not cut-rate hacks like these fools were.


    When it came down to it, I wasn¡¯t surprised that mages would resort to such distasteful methods to solve their problems. If it was racism for me to think so, then damn it, I was racist. Everything I had seen so far had done little to show me that mages preferred to figure out their problems with pleasant conversation. But if they wanted to stoop so low as to hire assassins, then I wouldn¡¯t stand for it.


    I didn¡¯t even need my berserker trance to deal with little cutthroats like these idiots. I vaulted over the barricade and made for the three new arrivals. The one closest to me waved his puny little knife at me, as if he thought that it would be enough to persuade me not to attack him. Not bloody likely. He stabbed at me with a great deal of speed, but I had raw power behind me. I swung my hammer with both hands, the flat surface of its dragon tooth head turning the bones in his hand into gravel. He howled in pain as he dropped his knife. I spun, delivering a roundhouse kick to his face to knock him out. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.


    The second assassin pulled out another dagger, then lunged at me. I was forced to step back to avoid his rapid thrusts. While I was dealing with him, the sword wielding assassin rushed past me, angling towards Alverd. Before he could even reach the barricade, however, a chest high wall of ice appeared from nowhere. The man crashed headlong into the wall and rebounded off of it, dropping his weapon and groaning.


    Sheena had reappeared in the doorframe, her long staff pointed in the man¡¯s direction. Before he could get up, she started firing little blue blasts of ice, wrought from the air at the blade tip of her staff. The assassin threw up his arm to shield himself from the barrage, his other hand searching for the hilt of his sword. Still clad in her nightgown, she advanced on the man, the intensity of her attacks increasing. Once she was standing in front of him, she swung the bladed end of her staff down, burying it in the man¡¯s chest. He twitched once, then lay still.


    The scariest part of it all was that Sheena didn¡¯t seem to care one bit that she had killed someone. Her face was inscrutable. When I had killed my first living being, I had felt sick to my stomach. I was still coping with the gravity of taking life, even now. If what Kuro had said was true, she would have been very much at peace with killing these men.


    Speaking of which, I still had someone to deal with. I whirled back to face my attacker, who had taken advantage of my distraction to come at me with his twin daggers. My hammer wasn¡¯t built to deflect attacks, so I had no choice but to dance around him as he swung his arms frantically, never leaving an opening for me to exploit. Playing defense was not my strong suit, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he made a mistake.


    And then I found it. His weakness. When he swiped at me with one of his daggers, then the other, I noticed that he always swung high. He left his legs and lower body unguarded. I wrapped both hands around the shaft of my hammer, and waited for him to swing again.


    This time, he lunged again, the knife in his right hand sailing towards my face at great speed. But my reflexes were better than that. I spun around the attack, dodging the knife and swinging my hammer into his unprotected chest. He let out a loud ¡°whoomph¡± noise as the air was pushed out of his lungs, and he fell to one knee. I swung again and let my hammer find the side of his head. It wasn¡¯t heavy enough to be a killing blow, though. I wanted to take these men alive, to find out who had hired them in the first place. The man hit the ground, moaning as he cradled his head.


    Another group of assassins, three in number, came from the door on the opposite corridor; another man with a sword, and two men armed with both wands and daggers. Alverd climbed over the barricade as quickly as he could (with Kuro shouting ¡°what¡¯s the damn point of these things if we¡¯re aren¡¯t going to use them properly?!¡±) and charged at the man with the sword.


    But to my great surprise, Alverd¡¯s sword didn¡¯t carve through the other man¡¯s weapon. Only one material could possibly be strong enough to stand up to a weapon like the Sword of Evros: another blade made of dragon tooth metal. It wasn¡¯t easy to get a dragon tooth metal blade; they were given only to high ranking soldiers or royal bodyguards. Perhaps what Lord Kertouli had said about my country¡¯s assassination attempt had some truth to it.


    As Alverd and the sword wielder traded blows, the two men with wands sidestepped them and made for Kuro¡¯s barricade. Waving their wands, they threw fireballs at us in a steady stream. Several of them impacted harmlessly against the makeshift barricade, and I even bat one aside using my hammer. Still they pressed their attack, especially when they saw the Witch-Queen behind us.


    Alverd was in top form. He parried another thrust by his attacker and countered by bashing his enemy with his shield. The man, off balance, tried to swing at Alverd but the attack sailed through empty air. Alverd dodged to the left, smacked the assassin in the face again with his shield, and then thrust the Sword of Evros through his chest. As the now lifeless assassin slumped to the ground, Alverd turned around and rushed at the two mages who had gotten around him.


    He caught up with the first one just as the man raised his wand to fire. The Sword of Evros ran him through as easily as if it were cutting parchment. The wand fell from the man¡¯s hand, and he made a choked gurgle as his life left his body. Alverd planted his boot on the man¡¯s back, then pushed to yank his sword free of the man¡¯s back.


    Sheena rushed past Kuro and mantled the barricade, much to his growing annoyance. She ran forward to engage the last of the assassins with her bladed staff. Swinging it with expert precision, she slashed the bladed head across the man¡¯s legs, forcing him to his knees. She was uniquely graceful, her movements fluid and flexible. In a way, she was even a better fighter than Captain McFarlane, in that she didn¡¯t allow her emotions or anger to influence her fighting style.


    When the man fell to his knees, Sheena placed the bladed edge of her staff against the man¡¯s throat. ¡°You¡¯ve lost, assassin. Tell me who sent you and you may yet live.¡± There was ice in her tone, and she sounded nothing like the woman I had met in the throne room only a day or so ago. When the man made no effort to answer, she pressed the blade against his neck harder, and a tiny drop of blood came leaking out of the newly formed cut.


    Then he started to laugh. Just like Bloodface, his laughter did not stop and possessed no reason or rhyme.


    And then we looked at his hands, and saw the wand start glowing.


    The light from the wand was blinding, and it only got brighter. The wand began to shake, vibrating intensely, as the glowing increased. The man stared the Witch-Queen in the eye, still barking mad. Alverd leaped across the room, pulling Sheena behind him, angling his shield towards the man¡¯s coming suicidal attack.


    And then Kuro sprang in front of us all, a blazing blue ball of light growing from the tip of his staff. He thrust the staff forward, and a dome of bright blue energy blazed into existence. He had used a shielding spell. But whether it would be enough was anybody¡¯s guess.


    Then came the explosion, and everything went dark for a moment.


    When I came to, I was half-buried under a pile of rocks. Kuro¡¯s barricade was smashed to bits, and there was a new hole in the wall where the suicidal assassin had cast his final spell. I looked around, in a daze, unable to focus on anything clearly. That is, until I saw someone approach. I tried to lift my arm, my hammer, but it was pointless. It was only Alverd. Sheena was clinging to him tightly, as though holding on for dear life.


    Alverd walked over to me, holding out his hand. ¡°Are you alright, Princess?¡± I took his hand and pulled myself up from the floor. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine.¡± I replied, a bit too snippy than was necessary. Alverd went back to go check on Sheena. Aside from being shaken by the gravity of the situation, she seemed to be fine. But when we went to find Kuro, we found him in quite a predicament.


    Kuro had been buried in a small pile of rubble, where a section of the wall had collapsed on him. He was in no obvious danger, but the collapse had pinned his legs and he had no hope of moving the heavy stones on his own. His staff lay just out of reach, but it definitely looked like it had seen better days. It was cracked all along its length, and looked ready to break. Kuro himself didn¡¯t seem to be in pain, but he was raising plenty of hell about the situation. When the three of us came over to him, he started whining.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t just stand there! Help me! For the love of all that¡¯s holy, get me out of here!¡± He looked so pathetic. I decided to have a little fun. I put my foot on top of the pile, then leaned forward, putting my weight onto that foot. I saw Kuro wince a bit, which only amused me further.


    ¡°You know, if you¡¯re such a powerful mage and all, why can¡¯t you just lift these rocks yourself, hm?¡±


    Kuro scowled at me. ¡°You know damn well why, you bloody twit! I¡¯m just an apprentice and this isn¡¯t my staff! And furthermore, your big fat foot is on top of me! Even if I were the most powerful mage in the world I still wouldn¡¯t be able to lift your fat carcass off of me!¡±


    I was just about to instruct Kuro in the proper use of his eyes when I heard Sheena gasp. Alverd and I both turned to look at her. She was cupping her head with her hands. ¡°You are only an apprentice? And you wield a staff that does not belong to you? How did this come to be? It is¡­it is unthinkable! No wonder you are so terrible at magic!¡± She laughed as she clapped her hands. ¡°It all makes perfect sense now!¡±


    Kuro¡¯s expression looked like he had been stabbed with a molten hot poker iron. I had never seen such a crestfallen look on his face. It was utterly pathetic. Then the Witch-Queen continued.


    ¡°To be honest, I never really looked too closely at the two of you,¡± Sheena said, pointing to me and Kuro. ¡°My attention was focused elsewhere. But if Sir Kuro here really is only an apprentice¡­that complicates things. He must undertake the Trials. I would feel much better knowing that he has completed them.¡±


    Kuro looked ready to die. I think I could even see tears beginning to form in his eyes. Not that I blamed him, really. Even I had to admit that this was a terrible situation. After all, Sheena was mercilessly talking about him like some piece of meat while he was within earshot, and buried beneath a pile of rocks to boot. Even I wasn¡¯t that heartless.


    I mean, I knew that Kuro was still an apprentice. I knew that he had apparently taken his staff from his dead mentor. All these things meant that he couldn¡¯t use magic as easily as a normal mage. Yet despite that, I¡¯d seen him risk his life to protect me and Alverd. Even if the little bastard was a bit rough around the edges, I couldn¡¯t fault his courage, at the very least. His poor judgment, maybe, but definitely not his nerve.


    Ugh, I couldn¡¯t believe I was trying to justify defending him. It wasn¡¯t worth my time. Fortunately, I didn¡¯t have to, because Alverd did it for me. I preferred it that way. Alverd knew more about his best friend anyway. He¡¯d know how to protect his friend without wounding his pride¡­or at least, what little pride he did have.


    Alverd stepped in, just as I predicted. ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it if you wouldn¡¯t belittle my friend like that, Milady. It is true that he has a few issues, but he is my best friend, and a valuable ally.¡± He quickly changed the subject before Sheena could reply. I guess I had gauged Alverd wrong. He could be smooth when he wanted to. ¡°What would be entailed, then? How does a mage go about passing the Trials?¡±


    Kuro finally opened his mouth. ¡°The first part of a mage¡¯s Trial is usually the same across all schools. The binding and taming of a familiar, or spirit animal. Like Kelda.¡± Kuro tried to shift the rocks again but failed. ¡°But where would we go to find one? You can¡¯t just conjure familiars out of thin air, you know. I mean, until you form a contract with one.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s crooked smile stretched across her face. ¡°Leave that to me.¡±

 B2: Chapter 9: Alicia: Visitors in the Night (Edit)

    I¡¯ve learned a very important lesson regarding mages during my time in their company.


    Mages fight dirty. My countrymen fought with melee weaponry, swords and maces and spears, and the like. But mages used spells that could wipe out a whole company of men with a wave of the hand. Even a dragon could be brought down with magic. Mages possessed far too much power for one person. It made them arrogant. Ironic for an Ishmarian to make that accusation, but true all the same.


    Take away a mage¡¯s staff and he becomes helpless. Get too close to a mage and she can¡¯t defend herself. A mage bleeds as readily as any other man, and when they have no armor nor muscles to carry said armor, they tend to bleed more easily.


    Every teacher I had growing up, from statecraft to combat training, told me that those who lost respect for their strength lost the respect of their peers. The ultimate lesson of this came during my berserker training. My instructor, without even entering the berserker trance, bested another berserker who had been getting full of himself as of late. My instructor had warned us against the perils of thinking ourselves invincible while he had his foot planted on the offender¡¯s neck.


    It had been the reason why Eliza had been such a deadly foe. Unlike our siblings, she had taken her power to new heights without thinking herself unstoppable. She had nearly killed Kuro during our fight back in the Ishmarian Arena, and fought Alverd and I to a standstill. I thought of the vision in the crystal ball, her poised to run me through, and I shuddered. If I knew Eliza, she was likely still training feverishly, awaiting her chance at a rematch against us.


    It didn¡¯t seem fair that mages were born with the inherent power to use magic. Ishmarian soldiers had to train day and night to hone themselves into the warriors who were feared across Selarune. We had to maintain that training to keep ourselves in tip top shape, for a blade that is not properly maintained grows dull and useless. Mages may have had to learn how to use their magic, but simply having that power from birth gave rise to a kind of entitlement that differed from the one displayed by my own countrymen.


    I was lying on my bed in the lavish room Sheena had assigned to me at the Ivory Palace, trying to visualize the fighting style of McFarlane¡¯s combat mages. Visualization was a technique my instructor had taught me early on and served several purposes: the first was to foster the ability to analyze a fighting style based on observation and memory, and the second to act as a kind of meditative exercise.


    With my eyes closed, I slowed my breathing, trying to recreate the scene in my mind¡¯s eye. The way McFarlane¡¯s soldiers seemed to flow with, rather than against, the force of their attackers told me they had to be masters of not only predicting attacks but also reacting to them. What can I take away from this? What techniques can I make work for me? The way they seemed to lean into a spin, or twirl to add extra force to an attack was something I already knew how to do, but their ability to deflect with a staff then pivot into an attack was something that intrigued me. Hard to recreate with my maul, sadly. The weight is centered at the top rather than evenly distributed, but maybe I can make that work for me?


    After a while, though, I lost focus and found myself thinking more about the behavior of the Council and Sheena¡¯s manipulative behavior. Was her clumsy tumble down the steps of her throne room an accident, or just a calculated ploy to feed us a false image? She¡¯d already demonstrated a devious side to her when she pointed out that she was now Alverd¡¯s employer. Everything about her was a paradox. I didn¡¯t know if she was just some air headed bimbo or a cunning master of manipulation.


    Maybe she¡¯s both, I realized. Maybe she just has a different perception of what she thinks up in her head and what actually happens when it plays out for real. Not that it made things better, though.


    This line of thought was an issue only because of what happened when she gave out assignments for guard duty earlier today after the divination ritual. She insisted on Alverd being right outside her bedroom door. Lord Albrecht wasn¡¯t fond of that idea. Sheena had waited until none of the Council members were present before proudly announcing her decision. The older gentleman had leaned down so that he could look his niece in the eye, a stern and disapproving tone creeping into his voice.


    ¡°Sheena, dear, must I remind you that having a man you barely know stationed right outside your bedchamber is the height of impropriety? Your chamber only has one entrance, and it can easily be guarded at the end of the hallway where the normal guards are posted. While I know this knight won¡¯t do anything to jeopardize your¡­ virtue, I simply must protest.¡± He sighed in exasperation. ¡°I don¡¯t need to grow any more gray hair on account of worrying about you and your flights of fancy. Please, just indulge your paranoid uncle just this once.¡±


    Sheena wasn¡¯t happy, but she eventually gave in to his pleading. ¡°Fine, fine. If it helps you sleep better at night, Uncle, I¡¯ll have Sir Alverd wait out in the hall with his companions.¡± She looked a little crestfallen.


    I wasn¡¯t born yesterday. I knew exactly why she was disappointed. Even if her intentions weren¡¯t that raunchy I wouldn¡¯t have put it past her to try and lure Alverd into her room to talk his ear off. The thought of it soon drowned out any peace of mind and I could feel my teeth clench together.


    ¡°Why am I standing guard? Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I¡¯m really curious as to why you think I should be doing something so strange.¡± I was genuinely confused as to why Sheena wanted me to stand watch, given my heritage and all.


    She waved her hand and smirked. ¡°I¡¯m testing you. If I¡¯m to trust you, what better way to prove that trust is well-founded than to put my life in your hands? If someone comes to kill me, you¡¯ll be my last line of defense. I think you¡¯ll do just fine, though.¡± The smirk turned into a crooked grin that was becoming way too frequent for my taste.


    And so, the hallway was where the three of us stayed. The area was shaped like something Kuro called a tuning fork: the hallway leading to Sheena¡¯s room was the handle, with the two prongs being the twin staircases leading down to the foyer below, with us standing in the junction where the two stairways met. Her door was only about twenty-five feet away.


    The room windows were made of a special glass that neither magic nor blade could break without resorting to great force. It was also five stories above the ground with sheer walls making up the length of the tower that housed said room, making scaling the outside nearly impossible. The hallway was a natural chokepoint, according to Kuro. ¡°Provided we cover the two stairways and maintain the high ground, we¡¯ll have a clear advantage,¡± he assured me. I was too tired to argue, and to be honest he seemed very confident, so I didn¡¯t bother pushing the topic any further.


    It was shortly before midnight when I wrapped up my patrol outside the foyer for about the fourth time. Kuro had turned the small area in front of the Witch-Queen¡¯s bedchamber into a miniature fortress. He had large, thick wooden tables propped on their sides, all the better to shield from projectiles of the magical, and possibly non-magical, variety. He was also talking to a group of royal guardsmen, about six in total. I walked over to deliver my report and see what he was telling them.


    Kuro was giving out orders. ¡°I want you to split into groups of three, and start patrolling the floor below. Make sure you always remain in sight of each other. Assassins try to separate guards so they can eliminate them silently, one by one. Report any strange noises, and watch each other¡¯s backs. Now get out there and report back to me after you¡¯ve finished your sweep.¡± He made a dismissive gesture and the six guards marched away. Huh, so even Kuro can sound competent when he¡¯s in his element. Who knew?


    Kuro saw me approach and hailed me. ¡°Hey. You find anything on your sweep?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°No, nothing. I sent the two guards I was with to watch the east corridor. We didn¡¯t even hear a peep. Are you sure that something is gonna happen tonight?¡± I leaned on one of the wooden ¡°barricades¡±, giving him a look of skepticism. ¡°Say, where¡¯s Alverd?¡±


    Kuro¡¯s face scrunched up. ¡°About that¡­¡± He looked over his shoulder, at the door that led to Sheena¡¯s bedchamber. ¡°Turns out the Witch-Queen is more devious than we thought. She asked Alverd to come check on her every so often. He¡¯s been in her room for about five minutes now.¡± His expression turned sour. ¡°I know Alverd isn¡¯t the type to take advantage of women, even if that¡¯s what they want him to do. That¡¯s the only reason I allowed him to go in there.¡±


    I climbed over the table and joined him. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked. He placed his staff against the barricade and crossed his arms over his chest.


    ¡°Yeah. Besides, I¡¯m sure you need an ear right now. Something¡¯s bothering you, and I think I know what it is.¡±


    Sometimes Kuro is just a little too perceptive. And yet, sometimes not nearly enough. I sat on the balcony railing, placing my maul on the ground. ¡°There are two things, actually. Care to try and guess them?¡± I decided to make Kuro work for it, just to see how good at reading me he actually was.


    He took a moment to collect his thoughts. ¡°So, first and foremost? You must have seen something pretty nasty during the divination ritual.¡± I sighed. He¡¯s playing the safe game for now. I figured he¡¯d ask about Sheena first, but if I could figure things out, so could he. But I did want to discuss what I¡¯d seen, because I had found it disturbing.


    ¡°You first,¡± I told him.


    He sighed, but he spoke anyway. ¡°I don¡¯t really know what to make of what I saw. I saw¡­ someone, in a cloak. I couldn¡¯t see their face. But I could tell it was a woman by her voice. She said that not knowing is like a slow death, but certainty is poison you have to live with.¡± He shrugged, then motioned at me. ¡°Pretty sure it has to do with thoughts I¡¯ve had about being orphaned. Nothing new there. How about you?¡±


    I took a deep breath to steel myself. ¡°I saw myself in battle with Eliza. But not as we were back in Ishmar not too long ago. It was a different battle. We were fighting in the throne room of the Castle of Brimstone¡­ and Eliza was Queen, crown and all. But something was off about her. She looked even more crazed than usual. I don¡¯t know how to put it in words.¡± I saw Kuro scowl.


    ¡°Pretty sure your sister was bereft of any inkling of sanity before we even arrived in Ishmar. If that wound Alverd gave her hasn¡¯t finished her off, there¡¯s no telling how mad she is now. I suppose hoping for her to get her throat slit in the middle of the night is off the table, seeing as how your people don¡¯t believe in assassination.¡±


    I seized upon that to prevent him from asking about my attitude toward Sheena. ¡°So, you and Alverd seem to know a thing or two about preventing assassinations. Not exactly something someone reads in a book, is it?¡± I was genuinely curious. Knowing little about the topic itself, I wanted to know everything about it that I could, and since he was in such an accommodating mood, I figured I might as well strike while the tooth metal was hot.


    I¡¯d never had to deal with assassins. First and foremost, it was the coward¡¯s way to ensure one¡¯s ascendancy to the throne. It was even worse when the assassin was never apprehended, because then the blame could fall on any of the royal family, thus staining all of their reputations. Second, assassins did not have the ability to deal with dragons; their lightweight weaponry and equipment ensured that they could do no harm to our constant companions. Training an assassin was a waste of time and an admission of weakness.


    Kuro didn¡¯t pick up on my attempt to change the subject at all, which was good. He launched right into it. ¡°Well, Alverd and I have learned a few things working with other mercenaries over the years. We¡¯ve never assassinated anyone, mind you. We¡¯ve prevented a few, though. Just merchants who pissed off the wrong people, nobody of any consequence. Assassins, they¡¯re all the same. Just a bunch of heavily armed opportunists. Lazy as hell. Predictable, too.¡±


    The young mage pulled out a map of the floor that had been provided by Lord Albrecht. ¡°I¡¯ve already ruled out the windows. I tested them earlier, and they held up to my elemancy, so any assassins who somehow manage to climb the five stories of sheer castle wall won¡¯t get in that way. So I¡¯ve fortified the chokepoints in the halls, scheduled patrols and made sure that at no point are any of the guardsmen alone. Assassins will always attack targets of opportunity. And they¡¯ll do it from the shadows, so that they won¡¯t be seen.¡±


    He motioned to the torches lining the hall. ¡°Every torch on this floor has been lit. There won¡¯t be any place for the assassins to hide, and all of the guards know to signal for help the moment that they see anyone out of place. Visibility is an assassin¡¯s worst enemy. If we force them to make themselves known, we turn this into a fair fight. And if there¡¯s one thing assassins loathe, it¡¯s a fair fight. Buggers are terrible at those.¡± He chuckled to himself as he folded the map and put it back into his pocket.


    Then his face hardened, and a frown appeared. ¡°Now, if only the high and mighty Witch-Queen would let Alverd do his bloody job instead of bending his ear about sweet nothings, then I would be utterly convinced that our security is impenetrable.¡± His tone went straight into disdain in a second. ¡°Honestly, what is that woman thinking?¡±


    I thought at first that this could be a trap. A way for Kuro to suss out my resentment towards her without seeming too ready to pounce on me about it. ¡°Yeah. She doesn¡¯t seem to care much that something could happen. Did you see the way she fought out on the street? She had no problem sending that giant wolf beast of hers to kill those assassins.¡±


    He nodded in agreement. ¡°You know, I asked Lord Albrecht about that. He said that Sheena has been fighting off assassins since she was six. Six! Can you believe that? She might have more blood on her hands than me or Alverd. And that¡¯s saying something. When I was six, I could barely conjure a tiny spark, much less a gigantic bolt of lightning.¡± He jutted out his lip. ¡°I guess after a while, you just¡­ adjust. Like with Alverd and I. Eventually the act of killing didn¡¯t faze us the way it did when we spilt blood for the first time.¡±


    Suddenly I remembered something. ¡°Oh right. You were gonna ask Sheena a question out on the street the other day. What was it?¡± I wanted to know, as everything I¡¯d seen so far of Algrustos was alien to me, and I wanted to understand my surroundings better.


    He leaned in close and whispered to me. ¡°I asked Lord Albrecht earlier today. Apparently, Sheena¡¯s ancestors made a deal with a powerful spirit. That¡¯s what allowed her to do magic without a staff the other night. It¡¯s an exceedingly rare thing, because not every spirit is willing to make those kinds of contracts with mortals. I think Lord Albrecht mentioned that her full magic powers manifested earlier than most mages, so she became an assassination target right after she took the throne at only six years old. She had to survive her first assassination attempt mere days after her decision not to redeclare war on Ishmar.¡±


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    He raised his hand and scratched at his chin. ¡°But if she¡¯s been killing that long, it couldn¡¯t have been good for her. Maybe that act of hers is just a way to hide the pain, or the guilt. I would say we just give her the benefit of the doubt, but if she keeps on interfering with my plan, I may have to just drag Alverd out of there myself. You agree?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Queen or not, she¡¯s making our job harder, not easier. After all, you two still owe me big. If anything, you should be taking orders from me, not her. Isn¡¯t that how mercenaries work? One contract at a time? Isn¡¯t she breaking some ¡°cardinal rule¡± of yours or something?¡± I realized too late that I¡¯d voiced my insecurity about the matter. I looked at Kuro squarely, trying to gauge his reaction.


    His eyebrow raised slowly. ¡°Ah, I see. So that¡¯s what it¡¯s about, then. You¡¯re not happy about this arrangement. Well, neither am I, but if it bothers you so much, maybe you ought to-¡° He was interrupted by a gust of wind that flew down the corridor from behind me. The gust flew past me, past Kuro, and doused all of the torches along the way, leaving only the moonlight from the windows.


    Then the screaming started.


    It came from down the corridor, and it wasn¡¯t long before the sounds of battle followed. The guards were combat mages, clothed in their not-metal armor and wielding their long staves, and yet I didn¡¯t think they would be of much help in this situation. The sudden loss of the light would¡¯ve been enough distraction to take several guards out. Then there was the sound of something distinctly out of place for the setting


    The sound of metal clashing.


    Someone decided to play by different rules than everyone else. Rather than try a magical assault on Sheena, these new assassins were going to go with a different tack; with good old fashioned steel. The sounds got louder, and I heard a cry of pain from the end of the hall. Kuro threw himself against the barricade and yelled at the top of his lungs. ¡°Alverd! Gods be damned, Alverd, get your armored arse out here now!¡±


    There was a crash from behind us, and a few seconds later, Alverd emerged from the door we were standing in front of, his sword drawn and his shield leveled. ¡°Where are they? How many?¡± He yelled. Then Sheena came running up behind him. She was dressed in a dark red silk nightgown that left a great deal of her shoulders and far too much of her damn legs utterly bare, hardly attire for her to be running around in.


    She ran up to Alverd and grabbed onto him. ¡°Are they here? Oh, Sir Alverd! Protect me, good sir knight!¡± Mother Evros, she sure knows how to lay it on thick. Too thick, honestly. Who does she think she¡¯s fooling with that song and dance?


    There wasn¡¯t time for me to say anything. The foyer door below us burst open and a pair of assassins with wands came through. In the space of a second, they both pointed wands in our direction.


    Alverd brought up his shield, and when the two mage assassins sent twin streaks of blue light racing forward, he braced himself. The two streaks slammed into the shield, bouncing off with no effect. They redirected into the ceiling and made a small explosion that shook the now doused torches, but nothing else. Kuro peeked his head over the barricade and took aim with his staff. A golden bolt of lightning sailed out of the tip, striking one of the mages and sending him reeling from the blow.


    Before the other mage could react, he received an ice lance that pierced through his chest like a nail into wood. I looked behind me and saw that Sheena had her hand pointed in the assassin¡¯s direction, frost wafting from her palm. Alverd quickly pushed her back into the safety of the doorway.


    ¡°Milady! You¡¯ll be safer in your room. Leave this to us.¡± She, however, was done with her little damsel routine. ¡°I can help you! Let me go get my staff and I¡¯ll prove it, sir knight!¡± She ran off to her bedroom.


    Another group of assassins, three this time, came through. These others were carrying more traditional assassin weaponry: knives, daggers, a sword. While the Witch-Queen could probably deal with mages on her own, I doubted that she would be able to anticipate an attack from conventional mercenaries like these. Even with her unusual ability to use magic without a staff, fighting this many assassins alone would be tough. Fortunately for her, MY mercenaries are not cut-rate hacks like these fools.


    I wasn¡¯t surprised that mages would resort to such distasteful methods to solve their problems. Everything I had seen so far had done little to show me that mages preferred to hide behind pleasant conversation even while they sharpened daggers just out of sight. If they wanted to stoop so low as to hire assassins, then I wouldn¡¯t stand for it.


    I didn¡¯t even need my berserker trance to deal with little cutthroats like these idiots. I vaulted over the barricade and made for the three new arrivals. The one closest to me waved his puny little knife at me, as if he thought that it would be enough to persuade me not to attack him. Not bloody likely. He stabbed at me with a great deal of speed, but I had raw power and the momentum of my fall to give me the edge. I swung my maul with both hands, the flat surface of its dragon tooth head turning the bones in his hand into gravel. He howled in pain as he dropped his knife. I spun, delivering a backhanded fist to his face to knock him out. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.


    The second assassin pulled out another dagger, then lunged at me. I was forced to step back to avoid his rapid thrusts. While I was dealing with him, the sword wielding assassin rushed past me, running up the stairway towards Alverd. Before he could even reach the barricade, however, a chest high wall of ice appeared from nowhere. The man crashed headlong into the wall and rebounded off of it, dropping his weapon and groaning. Unable to regain his footing, he tumbled down the stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom.


    Sheena had reappeared in the doorframe, her long staff pointed in the man¡¯s direction. Before he could get up, she started firing little blue blasts of ice, wrought from the air at the bladed tip of her staff. The assassin threw up his arm to shield himself from the barrage, his other hand searching for the hilt of his sword. Still clad in her nightgown, she advanced to the balcony, the intensity of her attacks increasing. By the time she reached the table propped against the railing, the man looked like a pincushion. He gave one last soft groan and lay still.


    What unnerved me was that Sheena didn¡¯t seem to care one bit that she had killed someone. Her face was inscrutable. When I killed my first living being, I felt sick to my stomach. I was still coping with the gravity of taking life, even now. If what Kuro had said was true, she would have been very much at peace with killing these men. Ice cold, just like her magic. A shiver ran down my spine, and it wasn¡¯t because of the nearby ice wall.


    I still had someone to deal with. My attacker, who had been distracted like me at Sheena¡¯s arrival, chose to come at me with his twin daggers. My maul wasn¡¯t built to deflect thrusting attacks, so I had no choice but to dance around him as he pistoned his arms frantically, never leaving an opening for me to exploit. Playing defense isn¡¯t my strong suit, but he has to make a mistake eventually.


    And then I found it. His weakness. He always tries to feint with his first thrust before aiming high with his follow-up. He left his legs and lower body unguarded. I wrapped both hands around the heft of my maul, and waited for him to swing again.


    He lunged again, the knife in his right hand sailing towards my face at great speed. Remembering the way McFarlane¡¯s man had moved with the direction of his attacker to seamlessly counterattack, I spun around the knife and swung my maul into his unprotected chest. He let out a loud ¡°whoomph¡± noise as the air was pushed out of his lungs, and he fell to one knee. I swung again and let my maul find the side of his head. It wasn¡¯t heavy enough to be a killing blow, though. I wanted to take these men alive, to find out who had hired them in the first place. The man hit the ground, moaning as he cradled his head.


    Another group of assassins, three in number, came through the door; another man with a sword, and two men armed with both wands and daggers. Alverd climbed over the barricade as quickly as he could. Kuro shouted, ¡°what¡¯s the damn point of these things if we¡¯re not going to use them properly?!¡± as Alverd charged past me towards the man with the sword.


    To my great surprise, Alverd¡¯s sword didn¡¯t carve straight through the other man¡¯s weapon. Only one material could possibly be strong enough to stand up to a weapon like the Sword of Evros: another blade made of dragon tooth metal. It wasn¡¯t easy to get a dragon tooth metal blade; they were given only to high ranking soldiers or royal bodyguards. Perhaps what Lord Kertouli had said about my country¡¯s assassination attempt had some truth to it.


    As Alverd and the sword wielder traded blows, the two men with wands sidestepped them and made for Kuro¡¯s barricade. Waving their wands, they threw fireballs at him and me in a steady stream. Several of them impacted harmlessly against the makeshift barricade, and I even batted one aside using my maul. Still they pressed their attack, especially when they saw the Witch-Queen behind him.


    Alverd was in top form. He parried another thrust by his attacker and countered by bashing his enemy with his shield. The man, off balance, tried to swing at Alverd but the attack sailed through empty air. Alverd dodged to the left, smacked the assassin in the face again with his shield, and then thrust the Sword of Evros through his chest. As the now lifeless assassin slumped to the ground, Alverd turned around and rushed at the two mages who had gotten around him.


    He caught up with the first one just as the man raised his wand to fire. The Sword of Evros ran him through as easily as if it were cutting parchment. The wand fell from the man¡¯s hand, and he made a choked gurgle as his life left his body. Alverd planted his boot on the man¡¯s back, then pushed to yank his sword free of the man¡¯s back.


    Sheena rushed past Kuro and mantled the barricade, much to his growing annoyance. She ran forward to engage the last of the assassins with her bladed staff. Swinging it with expert precision, she slashed the bladed head across the man¡¯s legs, forcing him to his knees. She was uniquely graceful, her movements fluid and flexible. In a way, she was even a better fighter than Captain McFarlane, remaining calm and collected even as she handled the staff like a seasoned martial artist.


    When the man fell to his knees, Sheena placed the bladed edge of her staff against the man¡¯s throat. ¡°You¡¯ve lost, assassin. Tell me who sent you and you may yet live.¡± There was ice in her tone, and she sounded nothing like the air-headed woman I had met in the throne room only a day or so ago. When the man made no effort to answer, she pressed the blade against his neck harder, and a tiny drop of blood came leaking out of the newly formed cut.


    Then he started to laugh. Just like Bloodface, his laughter did not stop and possessed no reason or rhyme.


    Then we looked at his hands, and saw the wand start glowing.


    The light from the wand was blinding, and it only got brighter. The wand began to shake, vibrating intensely, as the glowing increased. The man stared the Witch-Queen in the eye, still barking mad. Alverd leaped across the room, pulling Sheena behind him, and angling his shield towards the man¡¯s coming attack.


    Then Kuro sprang in front of us all, a shimmering blue ball of light growing from the tip of his staff. He thrust the staff forward, and a dome of bright blue energy blazed into existence. I recognized his shielding spell, as he had used it several times during our escapades in Ishmar. Mother Evros, will it be enough?


    Then came the explosion, and everything went dark for a moment.


    When I came to, I was half-buried under a pile of rocks. Kuro¡¯s barricade was smashed to bits, and there was a new hole in the wall where the suicidal assassin had cast his final spell. I looked around, in a daze, unable to focus on anything clearly. Someone pulled the heavy rock I was pinned under off of me. It was Alverd. Sheena was clinging to him tightly, as though holding on for dear life. She was covered in soot and dust from the destruction of the wall.


    Alverd held out his hand. ¡°Are you alright, Princess?¡± I took his hand and pulled myself up from the floor.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine.¡± I replied, a bit too snippy than was necessary. Alverd began to fuss over Sheena. Aside from being shaken by the gravity of the situation, she seemed to be fine. When we went to find Kuro, we found him in quite a predicament.


    Kuro had been buried in a small pile of rubble where a section of the wall had collapsed on him. He was in no obvious danger, but the collapse had pinned his legs and he had no hope of moving the heavy stones on his own. His staff lay just out of reach, but it definitely looked like it had seen better days. It was cracked all along its length. Kuro himself didn¡¯t seem to be in pain, but he looked furious. When the three of us came over to him, he started whining.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t just stand there! Help me! For the love of all that¡¯s holy, get me out of here!¡± He looked so pathetic. I decided to tease him just a little. I put my foot on top of the pile, then leaned forward, kicking one of the rocks off the pile. I saw Kuro try to move the pile on his own, but his wimpy little arms didn¡¯t even budge the stones. It was a little funny to watch, actually.


    ¡°You know, if you¡¯re such a powerful mage and all, why can¡¯t you just lift these rocks yourself, hm?¡±


    Kuro scowled at me. ¡°You know damn well why, you bloody twit! I¡¯m just an apprentice and this isn¡¯t my staff! And furthermore, your big fat foot is on top of me! Even if I were the most powerful mage in the world I still wouldn¡¯t be able to lift your muscle-bound carcass off of me!¡±


    I was just about to instruct Kuro in the proper use of his eyes when I heard Sheena gasp. Alverd and I both turned to look at her. She was cupping her head with her hands. ¡°You are only an apprentice? And you wield a staff that does not belong to you? How did this come to be? It is¡­ it is unthinkable! No wonder you¡¯re so terrible at magic!¡± She laughed as she clapped her hands. ¡°It all makes perfect sense now!¡±


    Kuro¡¯s expression looked like he had been stabbed with a molten hot poker iron. I had never seen such a crestfallen look on his face. It was utterly pathetic. Then the Witch-Queen continued.


    ¡°To be honest, I never really looked too closely at the two of you,¡± Sheena said, pointing to me and Kuro. ¡°My attention was focused elsewhere. But if Sir Kuro here really is only an apprentice¡­ that complicates things. He must undertake the Trials. I would feel much better knowing that he has completed them.¡± She started monologuing to herself in what she probably thought was a low whisper but what was easily audible to all of us, even over the wind whistling through the hole in the wall.


    ¡°Simply unbelievable. Irresponsible. For a mage apprentice of such an age to not have taken the Trials, much less not have their own familiar¡­ it won¡¯t do. It¡¯s a wonder he¡¯s survived as long as he has¡­¡±


    Kuro looked ready to die. I think I could even see tears beginning to form in his eyes. Not that I blamed him, really. Even I have to admit that he doesn¡¯t deserve this level of torture. After all, Sheena was mercilessly talking about him like some piece of meat while he was within earshot, and buried beneath a pile of rocks to boot. Mother Evros, read the room, lady.


    I mean, I knew most of Kuro¡¯s circumstances about why he had so many things working against him when he used magic. Yet despite that, I¡¯d seen him risk his life to protect me and Alverd. Although the little bastard is a bit rough around the edges, I can¡¯t fault his courage, at the very least. His poor judgment, maybe, but definitely not his nerve.


    Ugh, I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m trying to justify defending him. What¡¯s wrong with me? Fortunately, Alverd decided to come to his friend¡¯s rescue. I preferred it that way. Alverd knew more about his best friend anyway. He¡¯d know how to protect his friend without wounding his pride¡­ or at least, what little pride he did have.


    ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it if you wouldn¡¯t belittle my friend like that, Milady. It is true that he has a few issues, but he is my best friend, and a valuable ally.¡± He quickly changed the subject before she could reply. He could be smooth when he wanted to. ¡°What would be entailed, then? How does a mage go about passing the Trials?¡±


    Kuro finally opened his mouth. ¡°The first part of a mage¡¯s Trial is usually the same across all schools. The binding and taming of a familiar, or spirit animal. Like Kelda.¡± Kuro tried to shift the rocks again but failed.


    Then he held his arms out. ¡°Now could someone please get me out of here? I¡¯m starting to lose feeling in my legs. If there¡¯s one thing I hate, it¡¯s that weird prickly sensation you get when you don¡¯t have proper blood flow.¡± He looked like a toddler who wanted to be picked up. ¡°Hop to it Alverd. Make yourself useful, for goodness'' sake.¡±


    With a grunt that was part irritation and part exertion, Alverd started to shift the rocks off of Kuro. After a few moments, Kuro was able to pull his legs free and stand up, slapping his robes to brush the dust off of himself. ¡°On the subject of familiars, where would we go to find one? You can¡¯t just conjure them out of thin air, you know. I mean, until you form a contract with one.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s crooked smile stretched across her face. ¡°I know just the place.¡±

 B2: Chapter 10: Kuro: The Forest of Familiars (Raw)

    Apparently the gods think I hadn¡¯t suffered enough lately.


    I mean, on top of introducing me to the girl of my dreams, who was hopelessly smitten with my best friend, now the girl in question believed that I wasn¡¯t up to snuff. I mean, it was technically true. I was only apprentice level. I never carved my own staff, I didn¡¯t have my own familiar, and I didn¡¯t have the stamina to keep up with normal mages in combat. So¡­I guess, in retrospect, Sheena had a point.


    Damn it.


    So here we were, outside this godforsaken forest, with the full moon peeking out from behind a cloud. Alicia was glaring daggers at me. She was not amused by the fact that she was missing her beauty sleep simply to oversee some mage¡¯s rite of passage. Naturally, Sheena¡¯s insistence that Alicia be present had insured that I had probably lost a good deal of our recently gained goodwill, so I was on thin ice.


    The Forest itself was one of many places in the world where wild, untamed spirit creatures ran free. Mages would venture into these areas to bind a familiar to them, a contract between spirit and mortal, that would last until the end of the mage¡¯s life. The city of Ethenia had purposefully been built near this particular forest so that its mage acolytes could be supplied with plenty of familiars for its fledgling population.


    Familiars were a mage¡¯s constant companion. They shared their master¡¯s life, served them until death, and were sworn to protect their master. A familiar could not be killed unless their master was killed as well. They were intelligent, intuitive creatures and obeyed any order given them by their masters. I had long wondered what my own familiar would be like; alas, with the fall of Marevar, and my lack of knowledge in how the binding ceremony worked, there had been little chance for me to get my own familiar. Here, now, I thought I finally had a shot.


    Sheena gestured to the two guardsmen standing watch over the wrought iron gate that served as the entrance to the Forest itself. A large ¡°fence¡± had been built along the Forest¡¯s border, designed to keep anyone from entering. I could recognize magical wards placed at regular intervals along the fence¡¯s length, which no doubt functioned in some manner to keep people from climbing over it. But then I had to question myself. Was it truly designed to keep people out¡­


    ¡­or to keep whatever was inside, in?


    I¡¯d read a few books on the subject of familiars, but that had been years ago and not all of that knowledge had stuck so well in the cavernous expanse between my ears. Most of the things that I had managed to retain were about how familiars were animal in nature and thus possessed animal-level intelligence, with very few exceptions. And like animals, familiars had no problems with demonstrating aggressive animal instincts as well.


    And then, Sheena hit me with yet another revelation.


    ¡°You need to go in alone.¡±


    I stared at her. Surely she couldn¡¯t be serious. It was a forest. A dark, creepy forest. A dark, creepy forest full of big, nasty spirit creatures that would probably bite my head off and eat the rest of me given half the chance. And if Sheena¡¯s pet wolf Kelda was any indication, those creatures were definitely the kind to kill me first and ask questions later.


    And yet I had no choice. Alverd, Sheena and Alicia saw me off at the entrance. Carrying nothing but the staff of my mentor, I made for the opening in the trees. Sheena called out to me. ¡°If you survive, I¡¯ll teach you how to carve your own staff!¡± I was not reassured by her choice of words. Not that the woman could see the look of abject terror on my face. I walked down the beaten path into the dark, scary woods, my heart beating fast.


    I walked and walked and walked, jumping at every little sound and movement in the brush. The sound of beetles and dragonflies buzzed all around me. I pulled some heat from my body to cast an illumination spell. A spark of light flickered to life at the tip of my staff, condensing into a ball of light that hovered around my head. The moon above provided plenty of light, but it wouldn¡¯t be long before I entered the heart of the forest, where the entangled branches of the trees would block out the moon¡¯s radiance. I gathered up what courage I had and plunged deeper into the darkness.


    While I walked, I took a look at my staff. It had long, jagged cracks running along the length, probably from when I had used it to shield everyone from the assassin¡¯s suicide attack. I knew that if I used any more high-tier magic, the staff had a good chance of shattering. Then I would truly be utterly helpless. And most likely, somebody¡¯s dinner.


    As I wandered through the forest, I wondered just what exactly I was supposed to be doing here. How exactly was I supposed to form a contract with a familiar? Sheena had not elaborated on the details necessary for forming a contract. She had provided only the basics. She had also delivered them in a rather manner-of-fact tone that I had found somewhat irritating, as though she were talking down to me like some problem student who didn¡¯t do his studying. In all likelihood, that was probably how the older mage saw me.


    ¡°Familiars are drawn to strength of character,¡± she had said. ¡°You must draw them out by revealing who you are at the core of your being. If you prove yourself worthy, then a familiar will bend its knee to you, and you can bind it with an incantation. If it accepts, then it will stay. If not, it will flee back into the forest.¡±


    Strength of character? Then I was doomed. I wasn¡¯t exactly the most courageous man. Or the most honorable. Or reliable. What manner of familiar would ever consider me worthy? My spirits fell as I stumbled through the brush, since the dirt path had disappeared some time ago. I had to watch my footing, as the gnarled roots of the various trees snaked across the ground, threatening to trip me up. Great, I thought to myself. If it came down to me running, odds were I¡¯d trip and get dragged into the dark by some toothy monster. I shuddered again, trying to block out the image of said toothy monster forming in my mind.


    After a bit of time had passed, I began to notice something. Everywhere I went, I felt that I was being watched. I could feel eyes on me from all around. Cautiously, I looked around. Sure enough, eyes glowed in the dark undergrowth of the trees and bushes surrounding me. However, they were not hostile; instead, they seemed to regard me with wariness, maybe even fear. Out of curiosity, I took a step toward a cluster of these eyes; they scattered back into the darkness, the rustling of the plants heralding their departure. I was perplexed.


    Why were they afraid of me?


    Mages had long hypothesized that animals possessed a sixth sense that gave them a kind of foresight into certain matters. Even my old mentor Professor Farnus had been convinced that his dog had had the ability to sense whenever he was in trouble when he had been a child. Many non-mages attributed this to animal instinct, but what they didn¡¯t realize was that mages equated that instinct with the sixth sense. They were one and the same.


    These creatures were fleeing from me. They sensed something¡­wrong about me. Somehow they knew that I was a threat and were regarding me as an intruder, and chose to flee rather than fight something they knew they had no chance against. With this revelation, I let out a heavy sigh.


    I backtracked to a clearing I had stumbled across, seating myself on a stump in the middle. I looked up at the moon. ¡°I just can¡¯t get anything right, can I?¡± I smiled bitterly at the glowing ball in the sky. But then bitterness gave way to full-on anger. I rose up and began swinging my staff in impotent rage. I screamed angrily, then slammed my left hand against my chest, drew lightning from it, then threw the bolt at a nearby tree. The bolt nearly split the tree in half. I turned, pulling electricity from my body for another lightning bolt, and made to throw it¡­


    ¡­and found myself face to face with a girl.


    The girl was¡­cute. Very cute. She was adorned in a kind of outfit I¡¯d never seen the likes of, even after five years of constant travel; it had long red pants that reached all the way down to her sandaled feet, tied with a bow just below her plump bust. From there, her upper body was clothed in a loose white robe that had red stitching. What was weird about it, however, was that extra stitches had been sewn haphazardly over the bust area to draw it tighter, as if to hide her chest. Crude straps of white cloth had also been sewn into the robe to go over her shoulders, as if she were afraid it would slide off, exposing too much of her already noticeable chest. Her petite hands were covered in white gloves that continued up her arms, and disappeared into her sleeves. Hanging from the sash keeping her pants bound to her waist was a very small knife in an ornate sheath.


    Then I stopped looking at her odd clothes and looked at the girl herself. She had long hair that spilled down her back, as dark red as a summer bonfire. She had eyes the color of gold, that seemed to accentuate the moonlight that poured down from above, hiding under her thick, unruly bangs. Her rosy cheeks were slightly flushed, as if she were embarrassed. The healthy amount of skin I could see due to her low-cut robe was pale, almost as pale as the stars in the sky. Her mouth fell open in surprise, and I could see that she had cute little tiger teeth among her pearly whites.


    We stared at each other, speechless, for a few seconds, less than half a foot away from each other. I stammered. Then, finally, I took a step back, nearly tripping over myself. The girl had been carrying a lantern in her left hand, a no frills affair with a candle burning inside of it, on a short stick; she dropped it suddenly as her hand covered her mouth, and it rolled away with a metallic thud. The blush in her cheeks became so intense I could almost feel the heat radiating off of her face. Then I realized the heat I was feeling was in my own face. Words tumbled out of my mouth. ¡°Oh, uh¡­I guess I didn¡¯t see you there.¡±


    Her face turned even redder and she backed away. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry¡­am I getting in the way?¡± Her quiet, shy voice and apologetic tone struck me like a thunderbolt from the sky. She was grasping a staff in her other hand, a four-foot long piece of mahogany with a wrought metal head consisting of several prongs of polished brass, cradling a flawless ruby. ¡°I hope I didn¡¯t throw off your concentration on¡­whatever it was you were doing.¡± Oh gods. She was so adorable. I wasn¡¯t afraid to admit that I found shy girls attractive. That naive, almost helpless look on her face really suited her.


    I fumbled for something to say. This girl was amazingly cute, but nothing came to me. Damn my mouth and brain! I could find something to say when my mouth could get me killed, and yet I was speechless when it came to pretty girls! Ugh! Think, dammit!


    Finally, the impulse to introduce myself and apologize won out. ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry. I just got frustrated, is all. My name¡¯s Kuro. I was out here looking for a familiar. Who are you?¡±


    The girl walked back to me, clutching her staff close to her chest. ¡°I¡¯m Deotra. I¡¯m also looking¡­I¡¯ve been in this forest for a while now. I¡¯m starting to think maybe I¡¯ll never form a contract. Then I¡¯ll never achieve my dreams¡­¡± She sniffled, her eyes becoming a little watery, and her mouth turned downward into a frown.


    It was a terrible expression, because it turned her beautiful face into a picture of depression. I felt a great deal of sympathy for her. Her feelings of doubt echoed my own. Her fears of inadequacy reminded me more of myself than I was comfortable with. I couldn¡¯t let this girl fend for herself. I boldly took her hand. ¡°Heh. Well, looking together might be a good idea, hey? I mean, I could use the company. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯ll go crazy at this rate if I go it alone.¡±


    Deotra blushed again when my hand gripped hers. Gods, she was too cute. This was my chance. If I could just man up and prove myself to this girl, there could be hope for me yet. I reluctantly let go of Deotra¡¯s hand and picked up her lantern, and pointed toward a hole in the brush. ¡°I think there might be another clearing in that direction. Should we check?¡±


    Deotra nodded. ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s go.¡± She moved next to me and and grabbed onto my arm tight with her left arm, and I could feel her full bosom pushing into my elbow. I felt the heat rise up in my face again, and was grateful she couldn¡¯t see my face. Unfortunately, she must have felt my body stiffen, because she let go and backed away in surprise.


    ¡°Oh my¡­is this the first time you¡¯ve ever been so close to a girl? I¡¯m sorry¡­I didn¡¯t mean to make you uncomfortable¡­¡± Despite the concerned look on her face, I got the feeling that she seemed oddly satisfied that she had been the first girl to initiate physical contact with me of her own free will. I waved my hand nonchalantly. ¡°No, not at all. You¡¯re not making me uncomfortable,¡± I lied. ¡°If it makes you feel better, you can hold my arm. I was just¡­not expecting it, was all.¡±


    She snuggled up to me again. Her grip on my arm tightened too. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not being a burden¡­¡± Gods, this was why I loved shyness in a girl. She was too adorable! As we began walking away, deeper into the forest, I chanced a look at her face. Her face was buried into my shoulder, a content smile plastered on it. She was making happy little purring noises, too.


    I found it very odd, to be honest. We¡¯d known each other for maybe three minutes but she was perfectly fine with grabbing hold of me like I were a piece of driftwood in a raging sea. I had never met this girl (and trust me, I would definitely remember if I¡¯d ever met a girl who was the walking representation of my ideal woman), and I was starting to get very suspicious. But in the end, I decided there was no harm in enjoying the attention; there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to be so close to such a pretty girl.


    We made our way through the brush, scaring away the familiars around us. Poor Deotra. Just by being close to me, I was ruining her chances of finding her own familiar. The longer she stood by me, the longer I perpetuated my lie of omission. I didn¡¯t want to part from her; her company went a long way to not only feeding my ego, but ending my own pitiful loneliness.


    As we walked beneath a canopy of trees that once again blocked out the moon, leaving only trace amounts of moonlight to guide our path, Deotra pushed up against me more. In an attempt to make her feel more at ease, I tried to break the ice. ¡°So¡­you said you needed to form a contract too? How long have you been looking?¡±


    In her small, shy voice, Deotra answered. ¡°A very long time. But the conditions were never right. I¡¯ve been patient for a very long while, but I¡¯m sure that with your help, I¡¯ll find what I¡¯m looking for.¡± She smiled at me bashfully.


    I could not believe how quickly this girl was melting my heart. It was almost like she knew exactly what to say, to do, to make me fall for her. More disconcerting was how ready I was to talk to her. I wasn¡¯t exactly the social type, but here I was all the same, trying to learn more about her. Then I started telling her about myself. The reason why I had ended up in the Forest of Familiars in the first place.


    ¡°I understand. I probably would have become a full-fledged mage about five or six years ago, had my homeland not been invaded. My best friend and I ended up becoming mercenaries. This isn¡¯t even my staff, it belonged to my late mentor.¡± I showed her the cracked staff. I couldn¡¯t believe how easy it was to spill my guts to someone I had just met.


    Deotra cocked her head to the side, which made her so cute that I almost swooned. ¡°So, you only have your mentor¡¯s staff? You never tried to carve your own?¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah. I don¡¯t know what goes into it. The way it was described to me, it sounded like it involved more than just magical power. Something that had to be applied, or some technique I wasn¡¯t aware of. Trust me, if I knew, I¡¯d have made my own staff years ago.¡± I looked down at the cracked staff in my hands. ¡°Not that it makes much of a difference.¡± I said bitterly.


    My new companion let her gaze fall to her feet. ¡°I understand. There are a lot of things I don¡¯t know how to do either¡­and the people from my home were very unforgiving. I guess that was one of the reasons they kicked me out. They just¡­didn¡¯t want a little screw up like me around.¡± I could detect a hint of anger in her voice, but mostly she was sad that it had happened. I wondered for a moment if I should press for details, but decided not to. Her past was her past, and if she wanted to discuss it then I¡¯d let her bring it up.


    Still, my curiosity was piqued. I decided to let slip a few details about my own tumultuous childhood to try and get her to open up about her past. ¡°Yeah, when I was a kid nobody wanted me around either. I¡­I don¡¯t even know why my parents didn¡¯t want me in the first place. I was raised in an orphanage until I was about five years old. Then I discovered I had magic and¡­well, I got lucky, I suppose. My mentor caught wind of my potential and took me to the capital city of Marevar to receive training. And I met my first real friends there¡­Alverd and Laura¡­¡±


    I felt a short pain in my heart when I mentioned Laura. She was still a sore topic, given how close I¡¯d come to avenging her death and yet failing at it. But I continued on. ¡°Alverd and Laura¡­my two best friends in the world. We¡¯d spend as much time together as possible¡­¡± I glanced in Deotra¡¯s direction for a moment, but then trailed off. She was staring at me with wide eyes, two golden orbs hidden by red curtains. She was chewing her lip nervously, as if anticipating an answer. Finally, she spoke, barely above a whisper. ¡°This girl¡­you were close to her?¡± Her eyes bored into mine with almost frightening intensity.


    I didn¡¯t see how that pertained to anything, but I had nothing to hide. ¡°Well, to be honest I always saw her as more of a big sister than anything else. I always thought she and Alverd would end up together. And they probably would have, had she not¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t help but notice that Deotra¡¯s voice had gained an edge to it when she mentioned Laura. I was certain it was nothing, but I looked at her again just to be sure.


    If I had noticed anything out of place, though, it had only been for one fleeting moment, because Deotra was right back to being shy again. ¡°Ah¡­I see.¡± Again, she seemed somewhat pleased by my answer. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. My big sister was¡­well, to be honest she wasn¡¯t a very nice person. Neither was my father. My mother died when I was very young, and it kind of sent my family down a dark path. My home started to feel less like a home with every passing day.¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I could feel her right hand tighten around my arm. ¡°My sister told all kinds of nasty lies about me, and my father never listened to me because he always favored her. But my mother, before she died, said that I was destined for better things. So when I was exiled from my home, I swore I¡¯d make her proud, and I¡¯d never be dishonest if I could help it.¡± There was a waver in her voice when she mentioned being exiled. I couldn¡¯t tell if she considered such a thing a boon or a bane. ¡°I guess when you stop and think about it, being exiled isn¡¯t so different from running away from home¡­¡±


    I felt a sharp spike in my chest when she said that. Thinking about home always brought a bitter taste to my mouth. Deotra let go of my arm and put her hands to her mouth. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry¡­I didn¡¯t mean to make you think about that¡­I¡¯m sure you lost a lot of people you cared about when those dreadful Ishmarians invaded. I was appalled when I heard about it. A lot of other kingdoms condemned that action, but then they didn¡¯t do anything about it. It made me sick to my stomach.¡±


    Strangely, this was the first time I¡¯d ever been so interested in hearing about the fall of my homeland from someone else¡¯s perspective. ¡°Yeah. When Alverd and I found out later that the Guilfordians had sold us all out for a massive sum of gold, we were livid. But there wasn¡¯t anything we could do. We were just two people, and we didn¡¯t have any way of taking our revenge on anyone, much less an entire country or its king.¡±


    Deotra wrapped her arm in mine again and leaned into me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We have a saying where I come from. ¡°Any one who carelessly sets fires will one day be burned by them.¡± The Ishmarians and Guilfordians will get what¡¯s coming to them. Just like¡­¡± She cast her eyes down. A dark cloud seemed to roll in over her, and I fidgeted awkwardly, as I had no way to contribute to her line of thought. Then I saw a pair of silver streaks fall down her cheeks. She was trying very hard not to openly cry in front of me. When I saw those tears, my mouth fell open uselessly and realized that I could say nothing to comfort her.


    Fortunately she slid her arm across her face, wiping the tears away with her sleeve, then smiled at me with that overwhelmingly charming shyness of hers. ¡°But I¡¯d rather not talk about that. I¡¯m glad that I found you, Kuro.¡± She giggled, a short, quiet laugh that made me think of younger, more innocent times. ¡°I guess I just needed some help finding my confidence. And maybe you just needed someone to do the same for you, too.¡±


    This time it was my turn to be bashful. I reached my free arm back and scratched the back of my head in an absent-minded gesture. ¡°Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for that.¡± And it was the truth. Even since the two of us had paired up, I hadn¡¯t thought once about whether I was a failure as a mage, or if the animals would eat me, or even if I would fail at finding a familiar. Having Deotra with me made me feel as if I could do anything.


    We talked like that, back and forth, for a little over twenty minutes. We wandered aimlessly, not seeming to care that we both had a job to do here in the forest. But eventually, we stumbled across a clearing with a pond, just outside of a large cave. The massive opening yawned like the maw of some beast, waiting to swallow us up. Deotra peered into the gaping darkness. ¡°I can sense something big. Something ancient. A powerful familiar dwells within.¡± She picked up a rock and tossed it into the inscrutable depths. The rock echoed as it bounced a few times, then silence reigned once more.


    I didn¡¯t want to go into that cave, even to impress a girl like Deotra. It was literally walking into a monster¡¯s den. Fortunately, I was a mage, and I had options. I set the lantern down next to the cave entrance, then coaxed the lantern¡¯s flame into my hand. The lantern extinguished itself as the red flame within bounced into my hand. I nodded to Deotra. She moved away from the opening. Counting to three, I threw the ball into the cave, and watched as it worked its way through.


    After I lost sight of it, something roared deep down in the recesses of the cave. Something monstrous shot out of the opening. It had teeth, claws, scales, and horns. As I fell on my arse in shock, I wondered how in the seven hells my luck could possibly be so bad.


    Familiars could take on any form they desired to test a mage¡¯s skill. More often than not, they chose forms that played upon a mage¡¯s fears, a classic move to see how the mage would respond under pressure. The process of gaining a familiar was a test on every level, not just a measure of a mage¡¯s power. As the beast reared up, I saw the form it had taken; Alicia¡¯s dragon.


    Perhaps the word form was not the best way to describe it. The familiar had taken on the shape of the dragon, but there were no details, no features. Instead, the entire mass resembled a pool of mercury given shape. Distorted images played across the mirrored surface of the familiar¡¯s ¡°skin¡±, making it hard to tell where it was looking. But then the thing¡¯s ¡°head¡± swiveled in my direction and looked straight at me. I could tell, because I saw my own reflection staring straight back at me, dropped jaw and all.


    The beast hissed and shot fire from its maw. I rolled away and began running from the dragon. In the clearing, I did not have the luxury of cover, nor did I have Alverd to distract the dragon. I searched frantically for Deotra, but couldn¡¯t find her. The dragon roared again, and when I turned to look, I saw it was ready to spew more fiery death at me.


    I hastily conjured a defensive spell. Like the shimmering shield that my old mentor had once used, it wouldn¡¯t hold against repeated attacks, but it would be enough to hold the first blast. As the dragon¡¯s breath washed over me and the shield, I frantically hatched a plan.


    When the fire subsided, I searched for Deotra. She had taken cover behind a row of trees. I called out to her. ¡°I need you to distract it for a few seconds!¡± Deotra was scared, I could see it in her eyes, but she nodded firmly and leaped out of her hiding spot. My opinion of her soared. Brave girl. With a twirl of her staff, she launched a ball of blue fire at the dragon, which impacted the beast in the chest. It roared, and wheeled around to find the source of the attack. It quickly located Deotra, and moved to counterattack.


    When the dragon turned away from me, I began my incantation. I opened my mind and called out to the spirits in the area. The spirits I sought, not the simple servant creatures that could be bound, were true spirits, entities of power that would only lend me their strength if they looked into my heart and decided that I was worthy. The spirits within the pond flowed toward me, drawn by my invitation. A ball of ice swirled into being at the tip of my staff, growing larger as the spirits drew closer.


    But then something began to happen. I saw the cracks in my staff begin to spread. As the power surged through the staff towards the tip, the cracks elongated. Snapping sounds began to punctuate the spread of the cracks. I gripped the staff tighter, struggling to aim the ball at the dragon. I saw Deotra trip as she leaped out of the way of a blast of fire. Time seemed to slow as the dragon circled over the fallen girl like a vulture eying a corpse.


    If I didn¡¯t release my spell, the familiar would kill her. I didn¡¯t have a choice. No staff outweighed a life. I didn¡¯t even hesitate. I threw as much power into the spell as I could. I pulled all the moisture from the surrounding air as I could get, and reinforced it with more from my own body. The glowing ball of ice grew yet again, pulsing now. The vibrations from the staff were almost too violent for me to hold back. I begged whatever gods who were listening to let the staff hold just long enough to safe Deotra¡¯s life. Slowly, the staff aimed at the flying dragon.


    When I lined the dragon up, I spoke the incantation.


    ¡°Oh, frozen glory! Return this hated memory to its rightful place! Bind it within a coffin made from impenetrable frost! Let it be buried for all time in the darkness from whence it came!¡±


    The ball shot forward, and the staff splintered into pieces with a small but violent explosion. The dragon paused to breathe fire at Deotra; it never saw the spell coming. With a thunderous crack, the spell slammed into the dragon¡¯s side, just under its wing.


    Instead of doing what had happened the first time I had cast a similar spell against this dragon, however, the entire creature shattered into fragments, as though I had taken a mace to a mirror. The fragments disintegrated into vapor, which in turn disappeared into thin air. I marveled at what I had done, and then the grim reality sunk in.


    I had killed the creature. I had just destroyed my chance, and also Deotra¡¯s chance, of creating a contract with this creature, whatever its true form had been. I fell to my knees, weariness spreading through my limbs like a cancer. I barely even noticed when Deotra kneeled down next to me, looking up at what few pieces of the not-dragon were still fading away.


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, Kuro.¡± Deotra put her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her, then did a double-take. This close, I could see right down the plunging neckline of her robe. I¡¯d felt her chest push up against my arm earlier, but, as I wasn¡¯t rude enough to stare openly, I had tried (and not really succeeded) averting my gaze from her breasts before. They were perfect. So round and full, but not big enough to just be obscene¡­dammit, it wasn¡¯t my fault! I was just being a young man! I couldn¡¯t help but look!


    Deotra must have seen the color rising in my face, because she looked down and saw where my eyes were really aimed at. Her face turned a shade of red that I didn¡¯t think was actually possible in a human being. She quickly yanked her robe closed, pulling the folds over her chest, which only served to make her even cuter in her embarrassment. She then sighed in relief. I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her that she was even more adorable in her alarmed state.


    I sat in that clearing with Deotra for a moment. The moon¡¯s light shone down on us, ceasing only when the occasional errant cloud eclipsed its light. I asked Deotra what she planned to do.


    Deotra sighed again. ¡°Well, what¡¯s done is done. I should have been more careful. Wild familiars are dangerous, and we both knew that. If anyone should be sorry, though, it¡¯s me. Your staff is nothing but splinters, now.¡±


    She was right. I was still holding what was left of Farnus¡¯ old staff. It had broken straight in the middle, and now it was completely useless. Without it, I couldn¡¯t use magic. At least, not without killing myself anyway. I wasn¡¯t like Sheena, a spirit contractor, whose spirit blood had been granted her by countless generations of her ancestors. If I attempted it, I would be killed by the very energies I attempted to harness and control.


    Deotra leaned closer to me. ¡°You know, you saved my life, Kuro. I know it¡¯s little comfort, but I¡¯m very grateful to you.¡± I sighed. It was indeed a platitude. It was what every girl said. Every single girl who ended up being rescued by Alverd and I in the past five years had ended up saying that. But they had always said it to Alverd, never me.


    It felt surprisingly good.


    I turned to answer Deotra when all of a sudden she leaned in towards my face. In my shock, I didn¡¯t even realize at first that Deotra was kissing me. I had never experienced the feeling before, so it was no wonder I didn¡¯t realize what was going on until her lips found mine. Even then, my short-circuiting brain still didn¡¯t figure it out until a few seconds later.


    I don¡¯t rightly know how long the kiss lasted, because my brain was refusing to work properly and my concept of sanity was going haywire. Finally, Deotra broke off the kiss, leaning back a little bit so she could look into my eyes. As I l looked into hers, I felt a chill go down my spine. There was still a hint of the shy, almost naive innocence I¡¯d seen before, but now her expression was that of extreme want. But it wasn¡¯t lust I saw.


    It was just¡­need. She had the expression of a woman who hadn¡¯t eaten food for weeks, only to finally be given a loaf of bread. It was what she needed, but it just wasn¡¯t enough. She needed more, because it was essential to life. But for Deotra, it went beyond that. Her face seemed to say that she had been waiting a lot longer than just a few weeks.


    I stammered. ¡°Deotra? What¡¯s going on?¡± She only answered by kissing me again. She was being very aggressive, and I needed to breathe. As¡­stimulating as her enthusiasm was, I really had to draw the line at that point. I pushed Deotra off of me. When I looked at her again, she was staring at me with that same hungry look in her eye, and when she smiled, her teeth flashed at me, gleaming white.


    ¡°I¡¯ve waited so long¡­you have no idea, Kuro.¡± Deotra giggled, but this time it wasn¡¯t so cute. This time it sounded downright creepy. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? I¡¯m so happy you¡¯re finally here¡­aren¡¯t you happy to be here? Aren¡¯t you happy to be here with me?¡± Deotra shrugged her shoulders, and despite the straps on her robe, it began to slip off. Her whole face looked like that of a drunkard¡¯s after a few pints. ¡°I thought you¡¯d like this¡­I thought you liked me. Don¡¯t you understand how I feel? How my heart has ached for the past decade and a half?!¡±


    Despite what she said being true, I wasn¡¯t about to just knock boots with some girl I had just met. I pushed her off of me and then crawled back slowly, never facing away from her. ¡°Look, Deotra. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s come over you, but this isn¡¯t really the place, alright? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong. You are insanely gorgeous, definitely top notch. But I barely know you! Where I come from, we don¡¯t just kiss complete strangers.¡± Suddenly I stopped in my tracks, as something she said finally registered in my brain. ¡°Wait¡­what do you mean, a decade and a half? What are you talking about?!¡±


    Something changed in the girl standing before me. The lovestruck expression on her face faded immediately. Her eyes, once vibrant and sparkling, became narrowed with a kind of quiet hostility. Her teeth ground together audibly as her mouth went from smile to grimace. I felt something cold, like a blast of winter air, sweep up from behind Deotra and flow past me. Something, like garbled laughter, rode that air until it swirled back around and hovered before the girl, distorting the air above her like a heat mirage.


    Then that air spoke. I didn¡¯t have a better word to describe what I was hearing, because even though the sound was akin to a person speaking through a closed window submerged in mud, I could hear it clear as day. And I didn¡¯t have to understand it to see the effect it was having on Deotra. The poor girl was frantic, her eyes watering and desperate, practically begging with the not-voice.


    ¡°I told you he wouldn¡¯t respond to such aggression! Now look. He¡¯s suspicious of me. I worked far too long and far too hard for this. No, you said that he would be completely receptive to this approach.¡± She started pacing back and forth, waving her arms in the air furiously. ¡°I can¡¯t let him leave. Don¡¯t ask me that. Don¡¯t. Please, don¡¯t make me¡­¡± Her voice, once filled with what sounded like righteous anger, was now full of desperation and pleading.


    ¡°But I did as you asked! You failed to fulfill our bargain¡­¡± I could hear a sob forming in her voice. ¡°I know you¡¯ve never been wrong so far¡­but you¡¯re asking me to do¡­to do the impossible. You cannot¡­I knew I never should have trusted you¡­¡± Tears appeared in her eyes, and she fell on her knees. ¡°I¡­I¡­I know that you said that, but he¡¯s right here¡­please¡­¡±


    The presence, hanging like a dark cloud, slid around her, until it was between the girl and the entrance of the cave. I felt a wave of pressure as the not-voice clawed at my mind, rich and smooth but alien, and I knew something was wrong. It only took me a moment to figure out what was going on.


    Deotra was carrying on a spirited argument with a demon. Very, very few people could get away with such behavior, even mages, in anybody¡¯s book. She went on and on, and I felt another chill scurry up my back as her animated conversation took its course. I was still frozen in place, trying to figure out what I was going to do, when Deotra turned around and started walking away.


    Deotra picked up her staff from where it had fallen after she had tripped during our battle with the familiar. She took a tentative step towards me, but when I reflexively took a step back, the agonized look of pain on her face intensified. Now entirely on the verge of crying, she let the staff fall to the ground. After dropping the staff, she started moving away from it, towards the cave from which the familiar had emerged.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that this had to happen the way that it did, Kuro.¡± She was now standing by the cave mouth. ¡°This wasn¡¯t how I wanted our meeting to go. But if she says I lost my chance, then I have to abide by her terms. But know that for the short time I got to be with you, I was happy¡­happier than I¡¯ve ever been. So don¡¯t worry about me¡­¡±


    Then she reached down, picked up the lantern, and with a wave of her hand, lit the candle. A bright blue flame sparked to life within the lantern. I felt my mouth fall open. Even such a small display of magic without a staff would have had some kind of consequence. But Deotra merely stood there, the same look of hopeful expectancy on her face. I took another step back, not knowing what to make of this development.


    Deotra threw the lantern to me, and despite my state of unease, I caught it. The blue light within flickered, but stayed lit. ¡°Please¡­you need to leave now.¡± I looked at her with disbelief. Something else was going on, something I couldn¡¯t put my finger on, but my priority at the moment was to save Deotra from the demon. I held my right arm out to her. ¡°Hey, look at me! I¡¯m not letting that¡­thing take you away. Take my hand. It doesn¡¯t have to end like this.¡±


    Deotra shook her head sadly. ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid it does. I overstepped. I did what I wasn¡¯t supposed to do, and now I have to accept my punishment for that. She¡¯s very disappointed with me, and I won¡¯t run away from what I¡¯m due.¡± Something growled, something big, from the cave behind her. Suddenly, a dozen hands, human in shape, surged out from its depths, each of them feeling along the ground. Deotra stepped towards the hands, and I screamed. ¡°NO! Stop! I can help you! Don¡¯t give in! I can help you fight the demon!¡±


    I bent down and picked up Deotra¡¯s staff. The moment I grabbed it, I felt a power surge into me from it. It was unlike anything I¡¯d ever felt before. High on adrenaline, I pointed it at the hands. ¡°Deotra, stop! It¡¯s never too late! Fight it!¡± Deotra turned back to me, her eyes still full of tears. ¡°Take what I¡¯ve given you and leave this place, Kuro.¡± The hands, on arms that stretched like rubber, leaped up and latched onto her, wrapping around her like snakes.


    ¡°NO! Let me help you! Don¡¯t submit!¡± I tried to push forward, but it was like my feet were rooted in swamp mud. Deotra smiled wistfully as the hands grabbed at her. ¡°Don¡¯t weep for me, Kuro. Nobody will miss a whelp like me. Instead, promise me one thing.¡±  She didn¡¯t even fight against the hands. Instead, she took the small bracelet around her left wrist and threw it at my feet. I stopped struggling against the power now running rampant through my body, and strained my ears to hear her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t come back for me.¡±


    Then the hands took hold, and she was dragged into the dark.


    I screamed in anguish. But then the fire in the lantern roared, and there was a flash of light so bright that I had to shield my eyes. And in the forefront of my mind, I heard it. The dark voice of the demon, a voice rich and full and seductive, so replete with self-satisfaction that it made me sick. It filled my mind like viscous tar, blanketing my consciousness with a horrible, syrupy evil.


    ¡°A fitting fate for a liar.¡±


    And then all was black.


    When I awoke, Sheena, Alverd and Alicia were above me, looking down. Alverd lifted me up, helping me to my feet. I shook my head, trying to clear out the cobwebs and fog. As I gathered my wits, I saw that I was at the entrance of the forest. The iron lantern, still lit with its unnatural blue light, lay to my left, and in my right hand, was Deotra¡¯s staff. The smooth mahogany staff fit in my hand as if it belonged there, and the ruby on the top glittered ominously. As I stared at it, I thought of Deotra¡¯s tormented face. I shuddered and let go of it, dropping it as if it were a burning coal.


    Sheena spotted the staff and tried to pick it up for a closer look. However, when her hand alighted upon the staff, she recoiled away as if she had been shocked; in fact, she had. The staff had discharged a blast of electricity when Sheena had touched it. Sheena looked at the staff warily, the way someone would regard a cobra that was within striking distance.


    ¡°I have a very bad feeling about that staff.¡± Sheena remarked. She poked at the stick with her own staff, and the ruby gleamed malevolently again, almost as if it were sentient. ¡°How did you get it? Surely you didn¡¯t find it in the forest, did you?¡± She looked to me for confirmation of her theory.


    ¡°As a matter of fact, I did.¡± I looked Sheena in the eye. I was just about to tell her about Deotra when the image of her forcing her mouth against mine crossed my mind. I immediately rescinded the thought. ¡°I, uh¡­found it. In a clearing. While I was alone. All alone. Yeah.¡± I scratched the back of my head to hide the fact that I was fidgeting, then asked Sheena a question to throw attention away from me. ¡°Say, Sheena? How many other mages are running around in that forest?¡±


    Sheena blinked. ¡°Sir Kuro, you were the only one. The forest is too dangerous for lone mages to be traversing it at night. It has one entrance that is watched over by guardsmen day and night. That is why I had you come now. I figured that if you got into trouble, we could come help you. Why would you ask such a thing?¡± Sheena cocked her head to the side, a look of confusion stamped on her face, mirroring the one on mine.


    In the confusion, I noticed that Deotra¡¯s bracelet was wedged underneath me. The others hadn¡¯t seen it because of that, and the fact that the staff was distracting them from it. I quickly pocketed the bracelet. It was made of red twine and had a charm on it, with some kind of rune or character carved into it that I didn¡¯t understand. I figured I¡¯d get a better look at it later.


    I was sure there was a rational explanation for what I had just gone through. Of course, if there was one, it was eluding me. The only thing I could think of was Deotra¡¯s bubbly laughter, and how I¡¯d left an innocent girl to the nonexistent mercy of a demon. I felt sick to my stomach as that haunting sound echoed in my memory.


    All the way back to the Ivory Palace, my mind was preoccupied with that laughter. It haunted me all the way there, and straight into my dreams.

 B2: Chapter 11: Kuro: Lies and Half-Truths (Raw)

    I spent the next morning answering the various questions my companions had about my escapades in the Forest of Familiars. And I straight up lied about nearly all of them.


    Why did I lie? I wasn¡¯t rightly sure myself. I felt some kind of compulsion to do so. It was as though I didn¡¯t want to let them know what had truly taken place, not because I didn¡¯t want them to worry, but rather because I didn¡¯t want them to understand what had transpired. Besides, would they even believe me? That I had been¡­involved with some mage girl who had given me a staff out of the blue and then got taken by a demon? A mage girl who shouldn¡¯t even have been there in the first place?


    I knew better than that. Alicia would have scoffed and call me a liar. She¡¯d think I invented the entire thing to make Sheena jealous. She was stupid like that. Sheena, I didn¡¯t know well enough to know what she would think, but I doubt she would take anything I said seriously. Alverd¡­well, even my best friend might not believe me. It was that ridiculous, after all.


    So I sat there and spun some ridiculous lie about how I had found the staff in a clearing, how a familiar had ambushed me and broken my staff, and how I had lost consciousness and ended up at the entrance to the Forest with the group trying to wake me up. And yet, even as the words rolled off my tongue, they made perfect sense to me. It was as though the words weren¡¯t coming out of my mouth, but rather someone else¡¯s. But I didn¡¯t question it. I made my lies and I made them quick.


    The next series of questions were about my new staff. The beautiful, hand-carved mahogany and polished brass was unmistakably striking, and the ruby set in its length sparkled when I took the staff in hand. Sheena was the one to call me on this line of questioning. She folded her arms (which did nice things to her chest) and started grilling me.


    ¡°You say you found this staff, right, Sir Kuro?¡± She intoned inquisitively. She looked at me with eyes like a child¡¯s, as if she were doubting my sincerity. ¡°In the middle of a clearing?¡± Her emerald eyes seemed to pierce deep into my own as she stared at me. I stammered for a moment. But then I remembered what I was doing and swallowed. When I finished, I gathered up my courage and lied again.


    ¡°Yes. It was just lying in a clearing, near a stump. I was so entranced by its beauty and the oddity of a staff being left out in the open that I didn¡¯t sense the familiar until it was practically on top of me. It attacked me in the form of a dragon, and in the course of my defense, my old staff shattered. I lost control of my spell because of that, and blacked out after casting it.¡± I made sure to add just enough plausibility to my story to make it seem palatable, while throwing in enough self-degradation in order to make it believable to Alverd and Alicia. It looked to be working, too.


    Sheena was not so easily deterred, however. She tried several times to touch the staff, only for it to rebuff her with electric shocks. Everytime she did so, however, she simply muttered to herself under her breath, scratching her chin in reflection. I didn¡¯t know if I should¡¯ve been worried or scared but they came in equal measure. Fortunately Sheena gave up after a short time and decided it wasn¡¯t worth it.


    Alverd fixed me with his gaze. ¡°How did you end up back at the entrance to the Forest? We heard a loud roar, and thought you might be in trouble. But when we entered, there was some barrier in place preventing us from getting too far in. Then suddenly, the barrier disappeared. Do you know anything about that?¡±


    Now that was news to me. The roar was probably the dragon-familiar attacking Deotra and I, but this barrier business wasn¡¯t something I had known about. I suspected that it had been the demon¡¯s handiwork. It made sense; it remained functional just long enough for Deotra to talk to me, prevent others from interfering, and then apparently teleported me back to the Forest entrance. Where my companions quickly found me.


    Puzzles pieces fell quickly into place even as I intentionally tried to jumble them up. Alicia grilled me about the dirt and grass stains on my robes, which I attributed to tripping in the brush. Alverd asked about the roar, which I explained was the territorial display of some large creature I had crossed paths with. When Sheena wondered why I had been found unconscious with my broken staff nearby, I simply feigned memory loss.


    None of them bought any of it. I could tell.


    But they eventually stopped asking me questions. I think by the end of it, they were all thinking the same thing. I could see it in their eyes. They didn¡¯t even make much of an effort to hide it from me. I think that was what got to me the most. I looked into their eyes and saw something familiar, something that I had come to expect from nearly everyone.


    Pity.


    I could make a good guess what they were thinking. They probably thought I had lost my nerve and fled from the familiars in the Forest. They probably believed the bit about the staff (in lieu of a better explanation), but they were all thinking that I had taken the coward¡¯s way and run from the familiars. And then, by chance, I had broken my staff, knocked myself out and ended up back where I started.


    But in a way, they were right. I was a coward. I¡¯d allowed an innocent girl to be snatched away by a demon. I knew damn well what demons were capable of. Growing up, my mentor, Professor Farnus, had counseled all of the mage recruits in the basic dangers of dealing with demons. They were oftentimes quite silver-tongued, capable of conning young and even more seasoned mages into contracts. They offered what the mage wanted most, and in return, they demanded obedience or even the life force of the mage in question.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what the demon had offered Deotra. Some of the things she had said made no sense. But whatever she had wanted, the demon had considered their bargain fulfilled, and had dragged her into that cave to no doubt feed off her life force¡­and if left to its own devices, Deotra could easily be dead within a few days.


    Hell. She could even be dead right this moment, as far as I knew.


    But I refused to believe that. I wasn¡¯t one to put faith in blind optimism, but something in me wanted to believe that she was still alright. I could picture her, crying in the dark of that cave, and instead of bringing me despair, it only stirred anger in me. Not even anger at myself, but just¡­anger. I knew there was something I could do. If I had to march down into that cave to save her, then I was gonna do it. But¡­


    Sheena¡¯s voice interrupted my musings. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Sir Kuro. Perhaps this would be easier if you knew more magic than simple elemancy. If you would like, I could teach you a few other spells. Then maybe you could come back here and try again?¡± My ears perked up at that. When I looked at Sheena, I could see no pity in her eyes anymore. She was genuinely offering to help me.


    Something clicked in my head. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Sheena was a powerful mage, multi-talented and well-versed in the use of her magic. If I could learn even a few things from her, I might have the strength needed to storm the demon¡¯s cave and rescue Deotra. Yes, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. I grasped Sheena¡¯s hands in my own. ¡°Would you? I would definitely appreciate it!¡± I hoped that I wasn¡¯t crushing her delicate hands in my grip.


    Sheena didn¡¯t seem to mind though. She smiled at me gently. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll have the entire thing set up in an hour. We¡¯ll have so much fun!¡± She giggled to herself. ¡°Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind. I¡¯d like you to be there as well. Ohhhh, I can¡¯t wait!¡± She pulled her hands free of mine, cupping her head with them like a young schoolgirl.


    I paused. ¡°Wait, why does Alverd need to come?¡± I looked to my friend, and he shrugged. ¡°Indeed. Why would my presence be required at a mage¡¯s training session?¡± Sheena waved her hand. ¡°Well, it would be better to have a live target, and with your shield, you¡¯d be in little danger. I want to see this new staff in action, and if it performs as I suspect it will, Sir Kuro will need a far more effective target than straw dummies.¡± Before either of us could say anything, she had scurried off on her own. Alverd and I returned to our own room, although Alicia said that she wanted to wander the halls for a bit. Sheena told her that she would summon a guide for her, and the dragon tamer princess agreed to return to her private room until then.


    Having no reason to just stand around, Alverd and I returned to our room for the time being. I picked the mahogany staff up again, and the ruby flashed quietly. I took a small cloth from my pocket and began polishing the gem. It seemed to pulse, like a heartbeat, which only served to freak me out even more. I wondered where Deotra had come upon such a staff, and what secrets it held. Then I told myself that I could ask her in person when I rescued her.


    As promised, a servant came to fetch Alverd and I an hour later. The servant led us to the Palace¡¯s east common garden, which Sheena had turned into a kind of training ground. Stationary targets were placed helter-skelter, and the occasional straw scarecrow had been planted in the ground. Sheena had even gone so far as to paint comically absurd expressions on the scarecrows¡¯ faces. As I surveyed the training ground, I appreciated the effort that she was going through all the more.


    And yet, I also felt a pang of guilt, too. My thoughts meandered back to Deotra. The sweet, kind Deotra. I felt conflicted. I also felt confused. Her words were still a jumble in my head. ¡°A decade and a half¡±? What did that mean? I didn¡¯t know what to think of that. Then again, the girl had said a lot of things that didn¡¯t make sense.


    I shook my head, scattering those thoughts to the wind. I had training to do. I would ponder Deotra¡¯s words and actions later, if I had the opportunity, for instance if I actually managed to save her. For now, I planned to take full advantage of this opportunity. Sheena directed me to stand about twenty feet away from one of the targets and conjure a basic fireball.


    It started the way it always did. I reached inside, to the heat generated within my own body, and when I ¡°pulled¡± my left hand away from my chest, a fireball ignited in my hand. But this time it was different. When I had wielded Farnus¡¯ staff, it felt as though I was yanking a piece of my chest out every time I did it. This time, with the new staff, the process was smooth, effortless, and I barely noticed that I had expended any energy in fueling the fireball with my own essence. I then proceeded to throw the fireball at the nearest straw dummy. It exploded with far more force than any fireball I had ever conjured in my entire life.


    I looked at the staff in my hand. I had no idea why it worked so well. But there it was, all the same. I couldn¡¯t deny the rush I seemed to experience as the power had flowed out of me and into my spell. Just to feel it again, I yanked the bioelectric pulses in my body out and conjured a lightning bolt, and tossed it at one of the stationary targets. It impacted with grimly devastating force, shredding the wooden target like parchment. I laughed maniacally.


    Sheena nodded in approval. ¡°Good. You seem to have the basics down. You have good form, plenty of practice¡­perhaps the only thing holding you back was your old staff after all.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but feel pride at her praise. Maybe I was just a sucker for a pretty girl, but hearing Sheena compliment me made me feel pretty good about myself. I tried to prevent myself from blushing, and just barely managed it. I remembered why I was here, doing this, and it gave me focus.


    ¡°Milady, is there any quick way to increase my power? Simple things that I can learn in just an hour or so? If I¡¯m to help keep you safe, then I need to learn to control my magic or sharpen my senses. And just in case, is there any advice you could offer in regards to fighting demons?¡± I realized too late that letting that last bit slip might have been tipping my hand a bit too much, but the deed was done.


    Sheena cocked her head to the side, a gesture that reminded me of Deotra for a fraction of a second. ¡°Demons? Why would you ask that? That¡¯s awfully specific¡­¡± I quickly spit out another lie, surprised at how easy it was becoming. ¡°Well, to be honest¡­what jumped me in the Forest of Familiars? I think it may have been a demon. It didn¡¯t feel like a familiar. It was more interested in eating me than testing my character. I know I have to go back into the Forest eventually¡­if you have any insight, I would gladly take it¡­¡±


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The redheaded witch seemed to consider my words carefully. I got the feeling she wasn¡¯t fully swayed by my lie, but if she had any reservations, she kept them to herself, because she gave me a straight answer. ¡°Demons are not something one just stands their ground against. I have a few tomes you could borrow on the subject, but from what I can tell you from personal experience, if you had indeed come across a demon in the Forest, you probably wouldn¡¯t be standing here talking to me right now.¡±


    Alverd, who up until this point had been polishing his brand new shield, spoke up. ¡°Are demons really so powerful? I wouldn¡¯t know, since Kuro here is quite adamant about taking jobs that steer us away from crossing paths with them.¡± Sheena gave him a nod. ¡°They¡¯re incredibly devious and cunning. More often than not, they are interested in snaring prey by offering deals rather than outright aggression. They can offer whatever your heart desires most¡­and in return they drain the life from those they prey upon.¡±


    Sheena took her bladed staff and drew a circle in the air, which immediately separated into seven different circles. ¡°In magical theory, there are seven circles of Hell. Each circle pertains to a different mortal sin. Each Hell punishes its residents in a manner that relates to that sin. The circles are Pride, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth and Greed. Demons have their own hierarchies within each circle, but all of them are known to prey on mortals through their deals. But just because demons are powerful, doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re invincible.¡±


    The magical glyphs Sheena had conjured swirled in the air, orbiting each other with no discernible pattern. ¡°Demons are only able to manifest through physical vessels in our world. These vessels can be killed like any other mortal form. Also, they are masters of persuasion, but their logic is limited to their circle. For example, a demon of Pride would easily be able to grasp the concept of Pride, but when subjected to the logic of, say, Greed, the Pride demon wouldn¡¯t be able to comprehend that particular concept, and thus have no hold over someone who¡¯s greatest sin is Greed.¡±


    Alverd spoke up at that point. ¡°So, they¡¯re selective about those who they try to tempt?¡± Sheena smiled. ¡°Correct. Knowing what circle a demon belongs to can allow a person to outwit a demon, even if their particular sin corresponds to the demon in question. There are many stories and plays where mages escape a horrible fate by outsmarting demons with knowledge of their shortcomings.¡±


    Hearing this, I felt heartened. This was good stuff. More importantly, it was knowledge I could put to practical use. I had to be careful though. If I showed too much enthusiasm, Sheena would ask more questions, and that was the last thing I needed. But then Sheena muttered something under her breath. ¡°There¡¯s one other way to combat demons, but it¡¯s risky. Exceedingly so. Something that even our Magister Lord of Demon Summoning, Lord Mattigen, had to pay a heavy price to discover.¡±


    The circles in the air began to merge together, forming elven script that I could not read. Then it vanished, like mist on a sunny day. Sheena continued, her voice growing dark. ¡°If you speak a demon¡¯s true name, you can control it. By binding a demon with the use of its true name, you can force it to do whatever you want, without any immediate repercussions. But once you do that, you are marked. A demon will remember your face, your voice, your very life essence¡­and demons hold grudges. Once that demon is no longer bound, it will do everything in its power to kill you.¡±


    I felt a familiar chill go up my spine. It didn¡¯t surprise me to learn that demons were spiteful creatures. But the idea forming in my head was not to my liking. If it came down to it, could I really have the courage to compel the demon to spare Deotra in exchange for having to look over my shoulder for the rest of my potentially short life? I¡¯d made a lot of enemies in the past five years, but having a demonic monster after me was a step up from the norm.


    I was so lost in thought that when Sheena spoke again, I nearly jumped out of my skin. ¡°It¡¯s odd that you crossed paths with a demon, Sir Kuro. We have patrols regularly sweep the Forest every week to root out any demons that might have infiltrated the place. No one can enter the Forest without my guards knowing. We have wards around the entirety of the Forest to prevent just anyone from wandering in, man or demon. So how could a demon have gotten in without our knowledge?¡± She scratched at her chin absent-mindedly.


    I didn¡¯t like the direction the conversation was heading, so I decided to change its course. I placed my left hand against my chest and pulled some more energy out of my body. A yellow bolt of lightning seethed in my hand, seeking a way to get free of my fist and destroy something. I took aim at one of the straw dummies and let fly. The bolt flew the air and impacted the straw dummy with great force. There was a small explosion as the bolt blew half the dummy into the air, which corkscrewed several times before landing a full five seconds later on the ground.


    The look on Alverd¡¯s face was priceless. He¡¯d seen me do some crazy things, but the sheer efficiency with which I had dispatched the dummy was a great deal more than he¡¯d come to expect from me. With great relish, I pulled another spark from my chest and repeated the throw on another dummy. Then another. And another. In the short space of a minute, I annihilated the remaining dummies with precision and childish glee.


    When the last dummy was nothing less than a smoking crater, Sheena clapped her hands. ¡°Very interesting! Perhaps we should try it on a moving target now? Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind?¡± Alverd actually looked pretty scared for a moment. I didn¡¯t blame him; I had just obliterated six targets with casual ease. But my friend was no coward. He picked up his new dormicite shield and took up a position about thirty feet away from me, shield raised in a defensive posture. ¡°Alright, old friend. I¡¯m ready for you!¡±


    I¡¯d be lying if I said I didn¡¯t enjoy what happened next just a tiny bit. I just wanted to clarify, since I seemed to be doing an awful lot of that lately. Lying, I mean. I conjured up another bolt of lightning and tossed it at my friend. The bolt streaked through the air and careened off his shield with a loud thwump. The bolt then shot through the air until it hit a nearby tree, scoring a neat little scar across its trunk.


    Sheena whistled. ¡°Impressive. But you won¡¯t have the luxury of a stationary target in battle. A neat little trick when engaging a moving target is to channel your spell through your staff rather than by throwing it. Throwing your spell with your hand is a very wasteful action. It requires time to aim and time to wind up for a toss. So let¡¯s just skip that part and use your staff to aim. It¡¯s much more intuitive and saves a great deal of time. Try it, Sir Kuro.¡±


    I did as she said, bringing my new staff up to my eye level and aiming down its length as though I were sighting down a crossbow. Gripping the staff firm with both hands, I willed the electricity flowing through my body into the ruby at the tip of the staff. I could feel the energy course its way through my arms and into the staff, until the ruby began to spark with the stored power I had coaxed into it. Taking aim, I saw Alverd, who was now dancing back and forth, ready to defend against my attack. With a stern command, I directed the energy out through the ruby, and the lightning bolt shot out with a thunderous roar.


    Maybe it was because I had actually involved the staff in the process of refining the bolt¡¯s power and directing it through the staff¡¯s focus, but the lightning bolt I launched at Alverd had more oomph behind it. The spell slammed into the dormicite surface of Alverd¡¯s shield and rebounded harmlessly into the sky, but the sheer impact of the bolt nearly knocked Alverd off his feet.


    Maybe it was just adrenaline, but I began to feel maniacally overpowered. The staff was definitely going to my head. Somehow, it just felt right to be with me. The damned thing gave me a level of confidence that was beyond anything I¡¯d ever experienced in my life. And it didn¡¯t stop there.


    I spent the next twenty minutes throwing all manner of elemancy at my best friend. Lightning bolts, fireballs, ice javelins, even miniature tornadoes and earthen spikes. They all bounced off his dormicite shield, but Alverd still had to scramble to angle his shield in the proper way to deflect every attack. But after twenty minutes of deflecting spells in heavy armor, my friend finally got winded.


    A lightning bolt snuck under Alverd¡¯s shield and struck him full in the chest, knocking him back ten feet. He landed in a heap, groaning. I wasn¡¯t concerned, though. My friend was sturdy and had been through far worse, so I knew he would be up and back on his feet in no time.


    But Sheena didn¡¯t know that.


    She ran over to Alverd in a fit of panic. She knelt down next to him, cooing softly and asking if he was alright. She was practically fawning over him. Alverd told her, in his usual idiom, that he was fine and that he had had worse, and she squealed with girlish laughter over his bravado. Then I saw her do something unexpected. ¡°Please, don¡¯t try to get up, Sir Alverd. You can rest here for a while.¡± And then she placed Alverd¡¯s head in her lap, cushioning his head with her thighs. He looked up at her in shock, as did I.


    Sheena¡¯s face turned beet red, and her breathing became erratic and heavy. ¡°D-D-Don¡¯t you worry about a thing, my dear sir knight¡­you can stay right here until you¡¯ve recovered¡­it¡¯s the least I can do¡­for someone as brave as you¡­¡± I got the feeling that such an action had taken quite a bit of bravery on her part, but it didn¡¯t change the judgment I made against her at that moment.


    She was a damn pervert, plain and simple.


    I mean, sure, some girls could be direct. Some girls could be shy. Sometimes, they were a combination of both. But in Sheena¡¯s case, it wasn¡¯t because she was shy that she was blushing and breathing heavy. This was the fulfillment of a longtime fantasy, a wish come true in physical form. I was sure her longings went further still, but I didn¡¯t want to think about any of that. Besides, it didn¡¯t take a genius to know what her intentions were, anyway.


    That¡¯s when it hit me. Alicia was not here. She¡¯d conveniently taken a tour of the castle rather than oversee my impromptu training session. Sheena had capitalized on Alicia¡¯s curiosity to manufacture a scenario where she could put the moves on Alverd under the guise of caring about his well-being. In that way, I was a tool, a means to an end. She¡¯d probably figured that I harbored at least a small amount of resentment towards my friend, and in a way, this manipulation might have also been retribution for all the lies I had told earlier.


    Well played, Sheena. Bloody well played.


    It wasn¡¯t a matter of paranoia or overthinking it. I remembered how I¡¯d been told that Sheena had managed to survive assassinations since the age of six. One didn¡¯t survive that long without becoming very good at reading people and learning how to manipulate them for her own gain. I admit that mind games were never really my strong suit, which most likely made me easy prey for a practiced veteran like Sheena.


    I watched as Sheena fussed over Alverd. She insisted on using healing magic to check to see if he had sustained any injuries. She waved at me to come over to where she was, so that she could teach me some basic medical magic. I hid my disappointment and anger and walked briskly over to where the two were. But inside, my blood boiled and bubbled.


    I barely listened as Sheena explained the basics of the healing spell she was demonstrating for me. In a curt manner, I recreated the spell perfectly (most likely the product of my staff¡¯s compatibility). After that, I told Sheena that I wasn¡¯t feeling all too well, and if we could reschedule our little training session. She agreed, a bit too eagerly. I left, heading back to the Palace as quickly as my feet could carry me.


    What a fool I¡¯d been. Once again my sterling ability to pick up on subtle social cues had left me wanting. I¡¯d been played like a damn fiddle. Worse yet, I¡¯d allowed my feelings to get in the way of my better judgment. I found the fact that I was still somewhat infatuated with Sheena to allow her to use me in her little scheme incredibly insulting. And yet, there was no one to blame but myself.


    I made it back to the guest room I was sharing with Alverd and started preparing for what was likely going to be my last action as a free man. I began to write a letter, grabbing parchment from my pack and a quill from the nearby desk. I penned a letter to Alverd to be opened only if I were to disappear for any reason. In it, I wrote that I had gone to claim a familiar and, in the event of my death or disappearance, to lead an expedition to hunt down a demon of unknown origin that was preying on mages in the Forest.


    I had just signed my name at the bottom of the parchment when there came a knock at the door. I quickly slid the letter into my pocket, since there weren¡¯t any other places for me to put it out of sight at the moment. I ran over to the door and opened it. To my surprise, it was not Alverd or Sheena, but rather, Alicia. And she looked very, very perturbed. Her fingers were making a very audible grinding sound as they gripped her heavy warhammer.


    ¡°If you¡¯re looking for Alverd and Sheena,¡± I said wearily, ¡°they¡¯re outside shooting the breeze. They¡¯re certainly too busy to help me with simple requests. Now if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡± I made to close the door, but Alicia shoved the hammer into the threshold, stopping me from closing the door. ¡°Just one second, Kuro.¡± She said to me, her voice full of irritation. I loosened my grip on the door and let it swing back open.


    Alicia gave me a glare with true malice in her eyes, and I almost took a step back reflexively out of fear. ¡°You say that they¡¯re together? Alone? Are you mad? Why on earth would you leave the two of them unchaperoned? Have you no brains?!¡± The exasperation in her tone was becoming more and more apparent. She grabbed hold of my arm with her left hand and dragged me out of the guest bedroom, and I was powerless to resist.


    I had hoped to leave with nobody aware of what I was up to until it was too late, but it seemed that I was out of luck on that count. Once again, I found myself subjected to Alicia¡¯s will. Every moment I spent lallygagging was another moment Deotra was suffering, maybe even getting closer to death. But there wasn¡¯t anything I could do now. Alicia had me in her grasp and there was nothing for it but to follow her to the Palace commons where we¡¯d conducted our ¡°training session¡±. Perhaps I¡¯d find some way to sneak away and go rescue Deotra. The clock was ticking, and her life was on the line.


    And, quite incidentally, so were all of ours, as well.

 B2: Chapter 10: Kuro: The Forest of Familiars (Edit)

    The gods really know how to kick a guy when he¡¯s down.


    On top of introducing me to the girl of my dreams, who was hopelessly smitten with my best friend, the girl in question believed that I wasn¡¯t up to snuff. I mean, it¡¯s technically true. As someone who has never passed any of the Trials necessary to be recognized as a full-fledged mage, she isn¡¯t wrong. I haven¡¯t carved my own staff, bonded with my own familiar, or been formally graduated by a teacher. As much as I hated that Sheena was right, it didn¡¯t change the facts.


    Damn it.


    The night after the assassins¡¯ latest attempt on Sheena had failed, she brought me to the edge of the large forest bordering the grounds of the Academy. The moon was rising into the sky, almost full, heralding the lateness of the hour and blanketing the ground in its gentle glow. The forest was cordoned off using high walls with barbed iron fences atop them, magical lightning dancing across the metal to further discourage people from recklessly climbing over.


    Or is it to prevent things from climbing out? I wondered. As part of my preparation for tonight¡¯s festivities, Sheena had confined me to a library to study the ancient traditions regarding the binding of a familiar. Some of the knowledge was remedial, but I had in fact learned a few things about the process that I hadn¡¯t known before, so it hadn¡¯t been a complete waste of time. But to be honest, I¡¯m sure she just wanted to have an excuse to keep me out of the way. Gods only know what she and Alverd got up to while I was studying.


    Alicia looked grumpy as all hell. She was not amused by the fact that she was missing her beauty sleep. Why is she even here? I thought to myself. Then it hit me. She probably got ¡°separated¡± from the other two during the day. Knowing her, she¡¯s just here to make sure Sheena doesn¡¯t try anything. I was in no position to judge though. I actually sort of empathized with her.


    The large gate we were approaching was similar to the one marking the entrance to the Academy, but in the moonlight I could see that the runes etched in each stone had clear meanings in runic script. I recognized the commands for ¡°contain¡±, ¡°suppress¡±, ¡°commune¡± and ¡°seek¡±, the magic suffusing not only the gate but the wall itself. A lot of magic went into making sure this wall does what it was intended to do. I felt a bead of sweat form on the back of my neck. Is it going to be dangerous?


    According to the books I had read in the library, the Forest of Familiars was one of many places in the world where wild, untamed spirit creatures ran free. Mages would venture into these areas to bind a familiar to them, a contract between spirit and mortal, that would last until the end of the mage¡¯s life. The city of Ethenia had purposefully been built near this particular forest so that its mage acolytes could be supplied with plenty of familiars for its fledgling population.


    As creatures born entirely of magic, familiars required an environment brimming with magical energy. Even on this side of the wall I could feel the magic of the forest, charged like a stormcloud. A familiar could not sustain itself outside of such a place, and fed off the magical energy of their contractor in exchange for loyal service.


    They were intelligent, intuitive creatures and obeyed any order given them by their masters. I had long wondered what my own familiar would be like; alas, with the fall of Marevar, and my lack of knowledge in the intimate details of the binding ceremony, there had been little chance for me to get my own familiar. Even in other countries I had been denied the chance to access that information or places where I could attempt to bond with a familiar due to being labeled a foreigner; I learned quickly that each country closely regulated the distribution of that knowledge to ensure it would not be abused.


    I couldn¡¯t shake a weird feeling growing in the pit of my stomach. It feels like we¡¯re doing this out of order. Shouldn¡¯t I be focusing on making my own staff first? As it stands, with my current one damaged, replacing it should be the greater priority. I looked at the cracked staff of my deceased mentor. The explosion from last night had put the old relic on its last legs. I wouldn¡¯t trust it enough to put my weight on it, much less channel potentially explosive magical force through it.


    The behavior of the Witch-Queen was as predictable as the sunrise, but her motives not so much. I might have to revise my initial opinion of her. She seems airheaded at times but sharp as a tack at others. So far we don¡¯t really know who the real her is, and until I do everything she does or says has to be taken with a grain of salt. In all of my five years as a mercenary, I had never had such a quixotic client.


    Sheena gestured to the two guardsmen standing watch over the metal gate that barred the opening in the runed stone archway. This close to the Forest¡¯s entrance the sensation of stepping into what felt like congealed magical power was even more overwhelming. It was like being a step away from walking into a fogbank, and I could feel every hair on my body stand on end. Something about this place gives me the willies. It¡¯s like the whole Forest is watching me, somehow.


    The books I¡¯d perused explained how familiars were animal-like in nature and thus possessed animal-level intelligence with very few exceptions. Like animals, familiars had no problems with demonstrating aggressive and often territorial instincts as well. The book insisted that apprentices were encouraged only to form contracts under the supervision of a senior mage and preferably in broad daylight to lessen the risks. While there were only a handful of documented instances of apprentices actually dying during the process, the fact remained that there was a non-zero chance.


    And then, Sheena hit me with yet another revelation.¡°You need to go in alone.¡±


    Surely she can¡¯t be serious. It was a forest. A dark, creepy forest full of big, nasty spirit creatures that would probably bite my head off and eat the rest of me given half the chance. If Sheena¡¯s pet wolf, Kelda, was any indication, those creatures were definitely going to kill me first and ask questions never.


    ¡°Tell me you¡¯re joking,¡± I retorted. ¡°That¡¯s a death trap. And you want me to walk into it alone?¡±


    Sheena put her hands on her hips and nodded. ¡°Yes! This is part of your Trial. I have a few suspicions I need confirmed, and this might be the perfect opportunity to see if they are correct. I have the utmost faith you¡¯ll pull through.¡± She winked, but this time it did nothing for me. ¡°Now get going. You¡¯re burning moonlight.¡± She made a petulant little shooing motion with her hand.


    I forced the lump in my throat back down and choked down any sarcastic reply I wanted to make. I was now on the spot and I didn¡¯t like being there. The two guards silently and ominously opened the gates, the metal screeching as they swung it open for me. As I passed over the threshold, Sheena called out to me. ¡°If you survive, I¡¯ll teach you how to carve your own staff!¡±


    I was not reassured by her choice of words. Not that the woman could see the look of abject terror on my face. I walked down the beaten path into the woods, my heart beating fast. Not surprisingly, the path vanished and was replaced by the gnarled, twisting roots of the trees. Treading carefully, my eyes darted left and right, looking for any sign of an attacker.


    I walked and walked and walked, jumping at every perceived sound and movement in the brush. The sound of beetles and dragonflies were my only company, as the forest was eerily devoid of the sounds I would normally associate with it: the creaking of the trees, the rustling of their leaves in the wind, and the keening of the wildlife. It¡¯s almost as though everything here is holding their breath.


    I pulled some heat from my body to cast an illumination spell. A spark of light flickered to life at the tip of my staff, condensing into a ball of light that hovered around my head. A couple of splinters flaked off the end of the staff when I did, and I felt cold dread creep through my veins when I realized that if it broke I would be defenseless. What was Sheena thinking? More importantly, what was I thinking?


    The moon above provided plenty of light at first, but it wasn''t long before I entered the heart of the forest, where the entangled branches of the trees blocked out the moon¡¯s radiance. I gathered up what courage I had and plunged deeper into the darkness.


    As I wandered through the forest, I wondered just what exactly I was supposed to be doing here. I knew my objective, but how to achieve it was another matter entirely. I reached into my robe and pulled out the book I had ¡°borrowed¡± (not my fault I didn¡¯t have a library card) from the Academy and began flipping through a section I had bookmarked earlier in the day, rereading some key passages.


    ¡°Familiars are drawn to strength of character,¡± the book said. ¡°You must draw them out by revealing who you are at the core of your being. If you prove yourself worthy, then a familiar will bend its knee to you, and you can bind it with an incantation. If it accepts, then it will stay. If not, it will flee back into the forest.¡±


    Strength of character? Then I¡¯m doomed. I wasn¡¯t exactly the most courageous man. Or the most honorable. Or reliable. What manner of familiar would ever consider me worthy? My spirits fell as I stumbled through the brush. I had to watch my footing, as the gnarled roots of the various trees snaked across the ground, threatening to trip me up. Great, I thought to myself. Even the ground wants to remind me that everything here is setting me up for a fall. Literally.


    After a bit of time had passed, I began to notice something. Everywhere I went, I felt that I was being watched. It was happening too consistently to be paranoia. I would catch a sudden spurt of movement out of the corner of my eye, something lurking in the dark. Cautiously, I looked around.


    Sure enough, eyes glowed in the dark undergrowth of the trees and bushes surrounding me. However, they were not hostile; instead, they seemed to regard me with wariness, maybe even fear. Out of curiosity, I took a step toward a cluster of these eyes; they scattered back into the darkness, the rustling of the plants heralding their departure. I was perplexed.


    Why were they afraid of me?


    Mages had long hypothesized that animals possessed a sixth sense that gave them a kind of foresight into certain matters. Even my old mentor, Professor Farnus, had been convinced that his dog had had the ability to sense whenever he was in trouble when he had been a child. Many non-mages attributed this to animal instinct, but what they didn¡¯t realize was that mages equated that instinct with the sixth sense. They were one and the same.


    These creatures were fleeing from me. They sense something¡­ wrong about me. Somehow they knew that I was a threat and were regarding me as an intruder, and chose to flee rather than fight something they knew they had no chance against. It¡¯ll take me all night to try to figure out what¡¯s going on, and that¡¯s if I had a clue where to even start. As things are, I¡¯m screwed. And I don¡¯t even know why.


    I backtracked to a clearing I had stumbled across, seating myself on a stump in the middle. I looked up at the moon. ¡°I just can¡¯t get anything right, can I?¡± I smiled bitterly at the glowing ball in the sky. But then bitterness gave way to full-on anger. I rose up and began swinging my staff in impotent rage. I screamed angrily, venting about being useless and powerless and how nobody wanted me and just when I thought I couldn¡¯t feel any more pathetic¡­


    ¡­I turned and found myself face to face with a girl.


    The girl was¡­ cute. Very cute. She was adorned in a simple cloth dress that had been patched dozens of times in mismatched colors, making it look more like a quilt than a piece of clothing. She wore a small black bustier with laces over the dress, and it was low cut enough to show off quite a bit of her plump chest and collarbones. Her petite hands were covered in white silk gloves that continued up her arms, easily the most expensive part of her eclectic outfit. Hanging from the sash wrapped around her hips was a very small knife in an ornate red sheath. A bracelet of twine was affixed to her wrist, attached to some kind of carved charm.


    Then I stopped looking at her odd clothes and looked at the girl herself. She had messy, unruly long hair that spilled down her back, the perfect shade of red. She had eyes the color of gold, that seemed to accentuate the moonlight that poured down from above, hiding under her thick bangs. Her rosy cheeks were slightly flushed, as if she were embarrassed. The healthy amount of skin I could see due to her low-cut dress was pale, almost as pale as the stars in the sky.


    We stared at each other, speechless less than half a foot away from each other. I stammered. Then, finally, I took a step back, nearly tripping over myself. The girl had been carrying a lantern in her left hand, a no-frills affair with a candle burning inside of it on a short stick; she dropped it suddenly as her hand covered her mouth, and it rolled away with a metallic thud. The blush in her cheeks became so intense I could almost feel the heat radiating off of her face. Then I realized the heat I was feeling was in my own face. Words tumbled out of my mouth.


    ¡°Oh, uh¡­ I guess I didn¡¯t see you there.¡±


    Her face turned even redder and she backed away. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry¡­ are you alright?¡± Her quiet, shy voice and apologetic tone struck me like a thunderbolt from the sky. She was grasping a staff in her other hand, a four-foot long piece of mahogany with a wrought metal head consisting of several prongs of polished brass, cradling a flawless ruby. ¡°I heard shouting. I came over here and saw you, um, yelling. Is everything okay?¡± Oh gods. She was so adorable. I wasn¡¯t afraid to admit that I found shy girls attractive. That bashful look on her face really suits her. What is it about the shy ones that makes me so attentive?


    I fumbled for something to say. Damn my mouth and brain! I can find something to say when my mouth could get me killed, and yet I¡¯m speechless when it comes to pretty girls! Ugh! Think, dammit!


    Finally, the impulse to introduce myself and apologize won out. Struggling to recompose myself, I gave a short bow. ¡°I¡¯m terribly sorry. I just got frustrated, is all. My name¡¯s Kuro. I was out here looking for a familiar. Who are you?¡±


    The girl walked back to me, clutching her staff close to her chest. ¡°I¡¯m Deotra. I¡¯m also looking¡­ I¡¯ve been in this forest for a while now. I¡¯m starting to think maybe I¡¯ll never form a contract. Then I¡¯ll never achieve my dreams¡­¡± She sniffled, her eyes becoming a little watery, and her mouth turned downward into a frown.


    It was a terrible expression, because it turned her beautiful face into a picture of depression. I can relate. It¡¯s almost like looking in a mirror. Except this girl shows plainly the things I¡¯d rather not let other people see. I offered my hand, palm up to her.


    ¡°Maybe we can look together? At the very least it¡¯ll be nice to have such a cute girl as company.¡± It took a moment for me to realize how casually I¡¯d blurted that last part out. Dammit, Kuro, you don¡¯t want to sound overeager. The last thing you need to do is scare this girl by being too forward!


    Deotra blushed again. ¡°You¡­ you think I¡¯m cute?¡± She buried her face in her hands and turned away from me. She made a series of high-pitched squealing sounds that might have been embarrassment or excitement, and I could see her feet go pigeon-toed as she fidgeted. Then she turned abruptly and grasped my hand in hers. ¡°I¡¯d be delighted. I think I¡¯d enjoy your company more than you think, Kuro.¡± She gave me a small yet radiant smile.


    How can any girl be this cute? This is my chance. There could be hope for me yet. I reluctantly let go of her hand and picked up her lantern, and pointed toward a hole in the brush. ¡°I think there might be another clearing in that direction. Should we check?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes. Let¡¯s go.¡± She grabbed onto my arm tight with her left arm, and I could feel her full bosom pushing into my elbow. As her head nestled against my shoulder, I felt the heat rise up in my face again, and was grateful she couldn¡¯t see my face. Unfortunately, she must have felt my body stiffen, because she let go and backed away in surprise.


    ¡°Oh my¡­ is this the first time you¡¯ve ever been so close to a girl? I¡¯m sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t mean to make you uncomfortable¡­¡± Despite the concerned look on her face, she seemed oddly satisfied that she had been the first girl to initiate physical contact with me of her own free will. I waved my hand nonchalantly.


    ¡°No, not at all. You¡¯re not making me uncomfortable,¡± I lied. ¡°If it makes you feel better, you can hold my arm. I was just¡­ not expecting it, was all.¡±


    She snuggled up to me again. Her grip on my arm tightened too. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m glad I¡¯m not being a burden¡­¡± My heartbeat was so fast I felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. As we began walking away, deeper into the forest, I chanced a look at her face. Her face was buried into my shoulder, a content smile plastered on it. She was making happy little purring noises, too.


    In spite of everything, it does seem a bit odd. We¡¯d known each other for maybe three minutes but she was perfectly fine with grabbing hold of me like I was a piece of driftwood in a raging sea. Something about this feels off. Deotra is basically everything I would look for in a girl and she just magically appeared out of nowhere. I tightened my grip on my staff. If she tries something, best to let her think she¡¯s got me right where she wants me. I¡¯ll be ready¡­ I hope.


    We made our way through the brush, scaring away the familiars around us. Still, if she really is who she says she is, I¡¯m ruining her chances of finding her own familiar. Not to mention I feel bad for suspecting her of ill intentions. I didn¡¯t want to part from her; her company went a long way to making me feel like I was special. It was intoxicating to have someone treat me like I was their hero.


    Is this what it feels like to be Alverd?


    As we walked beneath a canopy of trees that once again blocked out the moon, leaving only trace amounts of moonlight to guide our path, Deotra pushed up against me more. In an attempt to make her feel more at ease, I tried to break the ice. ¡°So¡­ you said you needed to form a contract too? How long have you been looking?¡±


    In her small, shy voice, she answered. ¡°A very long time. But the conditions were never right. I¡¯ve been patient for a very long while, but I¡¯m sure that with your help, I¡¯ll find what I¡¯m looking for.¡± She smiled at me again. ¡°Maybe you¡¯ll be my good luck charm.¡±


    Hrrrrrrrnnnnnnggggggg. It was almost like she knew exactly what to say, to do, to make me fall for her. More disconcerting was how ready I was to talk to her. I wasn¡¯t exactly the social type, but here I was all the same, trying to learn more about her. Then I started telling her about why I had ended up in the Forest of Familiars in the first place.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°I understand. I probably would have become a full-fledged mage about five or six years ago, had my homeland not been invaded. My best friend and I ended up becoming mercenaries. This isn¡¯t even my staff, it belonged to my late mentor.¡± I showed her the cracked staff.


    Deotra cocked her head to the side, which made her so cute that I almost swooned. ¡°So, you only have your mentor¡¯s staff? You never tried to carve your own?¡± I nodded.


    ¡°Yeah. I don¡¯t know what goes into it. The way it was described to me, it sounded like it involved more than just magical power. Something that had to be applied, or some technique I wasn¡¯t aware of. Trust me, if I knew, I¡¯d have made my own staff years ago.¡± I looked down at the cracked staff in my hands. ¡°Not that it makes much of a difference.¡± I said bitterly.


    My new companion let her gaze fall to her feet. ¡°I understand. There are a lot of things I don¡¯t know how to do either¡­ and the people from my home were very unforgiving. I guess that was one of the reasons they kicked me out. They just¡­ didn¡¯t want a little screw up like me around.¡± I could detect a flash of anger in her voice, but only for a second. I wondered for a moment if I should press for details, but decided not to. Her past was her past, and if she wanted to discuss it then I¡¯d let her bring it up.


    Still, my curiosity was piqued. I decided to let slip a few details about my own tumultuous childhood to try and get her to open up about her past. ¡°Yeah, when I was a kid nobody wanted me around either. I¡­ I don¡¯t even know why my parents didn¡¯t want me in the first place. I was raised in an orphanage until I was about five years old. Then I discovered I had magic and¡­ well, I got lucky, I suppose. My mentor caught wind of my potential and took me to the capitol city of Marevar to receive training. And I met my first real friends there¡­ Alverd and Laura¡­¡±


    I felt a short pain in my heart when I mentioned Laura. She was still a sore topic, given how close I¡¯d come to avenging her death. But I continued on. ¡°Alverd and Laura¡­ my two best friends in the world. We¡¯d spend as much time together as possible¡­¡± I glanced in Deotra¡¯s direction for a moment, but then trailed off. She was staring at me with wide eyes, two golden orbs hidden by red curtains. She was chewing her lip.


    Finally, she spoke, barely above a whisper. ¡°This girl¡­ you were close to her?¡± Her eyes bored into mine with almost frightening intensity.


    I don¡¯t see how that pertains to anything, but I had nothing to hide. ¡°Well, to be honest I always saw her as more of a big sister than anything else. I figured she and Alverd would end up together. And they probably would have, had she not¡­¡± I couldn¡¯t help but notice that her voice had gained an edge to it when she mentioned Laura. I was certain it was nothing, but I looked at her again just to be sure.


    If I had noticed anything out of place, though, it had only been for one fleeting moment, because Deotra was right back to being shy again. ¡°Ah¡­ I see.¡± Again, she seemed somewhat pleased by my answer. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. My big sister was¡­ well, to be honest she wasn¡¯t a very nice person. Neither was my father. My mother died when I was very young, and it kind of sent my family down a dark path. My home started to feel less like a home with every passing day.¡±


    I could feel her right hand tighten around my arm. ¡°My sister told all kinds of nasty lies about me, and my father never listened to me because he always favored her. She was the talented one, the one that could do no wrong, the one everyone said was going to change the world.¡± There was no hiding the bitterness now. Venom started to creep into her tone when she talked about her sister. ¡°But nobody ever cared about how she treated me. As long as she was the golden child, it didn¡¯t matter if she treated me like garbage. Because that¡¯s what everyone felt I was compared to her.¡±


    ¡°But my mother said that I was destined for better things. So when I was exiled from my home, I swore I¡¯d make her proud, and I¡¯d never be dishonest if I could help it.¡± There was a waver in her voice when she mentioned being exiled. I couldn¡¯t tell if she considered such a thing a boon or a bane. ¡°I guess when you stop and think about it, being exiled isn¡¯t so different from running away from home¡­¡±


    I felt a sharp spike in my chest when she said that. Thinking about home always brought a bitter taste to my mouth. Deotra let go of my arm and quickly put her hands to her mouth. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t mean to make you think about that¡­ I¡¯m sure you lost a lot of people you cared about when those dreadful Ishmarians invaded. I was appalled when I heard about it. A lot of other kingdoms condemned that action, but then they didn¡¯t do anything about it. It made me sick to my stomach.¡± She frowned and her eyes flashed maliciously. ¡°If there¡¯s anything I hate, it¡¯s people who say one thing and do another. Liars are the worst.¡±


    Strange. This is the first time I¡¯ve ever been so interested in hearing about the fall of my homeland from someone else¡¯s perspective. ¡°Yeah. When Alverd and I found out later that the Guilfordians had sold us all out for a massive sum of gold, we were livid. But there wasn¡¯t anything we could do. We were just two people, and we didn¡¯t have any way of taking our revenge on anyone, much less an entire country or its king.¡±


    Deotra leaned into me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We have a saying where I come from. ¡®Those who start fires recklessly always get burned in the end.¡¯ The Ishmarians and Guilfordians will get what¡¯s coming to them. Just like¡­¡± She cast her eyes down. A dark cloud seemed to roll in over her, and I fidgeted awkwardly, as I had no way to contribute to her line of thought. Then I saw a pair of silver streaks fall down her cheeks. When I saw those tears, my mouth fell open uselessly and realized that I could say nothing to comfort her.


    Fortunately she slid her arm across her face, wiping the tears away with her sleeve, then smiled at me. ¡°But I¡¯d rather not talk about that. I¡¯m glad that I found you, Kuro.¡± She giggled, a short, quiet laugh that made me think of younger, more innocent times. ¡°I guess I just needed some help finding my confidence. And maybe you just needed someone to do the same for you, too.¡±


    This time it was my turn to be bashful. I reached my free arm back and scratched the back of my head in an absent-minded gesture. ¡°Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for that.¡± And it was the truth. Having Deotra with me made me feel as if I could do anything.


    We talked like that, back and forth as we wandered aimlessly, not seeming to care that we both had a job to do here in the forest. Eventually, we stumbled across a clearing with a pond, just outside of a large cave. The massive opening yawned like the maw of some beast, waiting to swallow us up.


    She peered into the gaping darkness. ¡°I can sense something big. Something ancient. A powerful familiar dwells within.¡± She picked up a rock and tossed it into the inscrutable depths. The rock echoed as it bounced a few times, then silence reigned once more.


    I gulped. Even to impress a girl like Deotra, this seems a bit much. It was literally walking into a monster¡¯s den. Fortunately, I was a mage, and I had options. I set the lantern down next to the cave entrance, then coaxed the lantern¡¯s flame into my hand. The lantern extinguished itself as the red flame within bounced into my hand. I nodded to Deotra. She moved away from the opening. Counting to three, I threw the ball into the cave, and watched as it worked its way through.


    After I lost sight of it, something roared deep down in the recesses of the cave. Something monstrous shot out of the opening. It had teeth, claws, scales, and horns. As I fell on my arse in shock, a dark shadow fell across me, eclipsing the light of the moon. As I looked up, I heard words tumble out of my mouth. ¡°Well, shit.¡±


    According to the book in my robe, familiars could take on any form they desired to test a mage¡¯s skill. More often than not, they chose forms that played upon a mage¡¯s fears, a classic move to see how the mage would respond under pressure. The process of gaining a familiar was a test of the mage¡¯s calibur on every level, not just a measure of their raw power. As the beast reared up, I saw the form it had taken: a dragon.


    However, there were no details, no features. Instead, the entire mass resembled a pool of mercury given shape. Distorted reflections played across the mirrored surface of the familiar¡¯s ¡°skin¡± making it hard to tell where it was looking. But then the thing¡¯s ¡°head¡± swiveled in my direction and looked straight at me. I could tell, because I saw my own reflection staring straight back at me, dropped jaw and all.


    The beast hissed and shot blue fire from its maw. I rolled away and began running from the dragon. In the clearing, I did not have the luxury of cover, nor did I have Alverd to distract the dragon. I searched frantically for Deotra, but couldn¡¯t find her. The dragon roared again, and when I turned to look, I saw it was ready to spew more fiery death at me.


    I hastily conjured a defensive spell. The shimmering shield that appeared wouldn¡¯t be able to hold against repeated attacks, but it would be enough to hold the first blast. As the dragon¡¯s breath washed over me and the shield, I frantically hatched a plan.


    When the fire subsided, I looked for Deotra. She had taken cover behind a row of trees. I called out to her. ¡°I need you to distract it for a few seconds!¡± She was scared, I could see it in her eyes, but she nodded firmly and leaped out of her hiding spot. She can be brave when she needs to be. I like her even more now. With a twirl of her staff, she launched a ball of blue fire at the dragon, which impacted the beast in the chest. It roared, and wheeled around to find the source of the attack. It quickly located Deotra, and moved to counterattack.


    When the dragon turned away from me, I began my incantation. I opened my mind and called out to the spirits in the area. The spirits within the pond flowed toward me, drawn by my invitation. A ball of ice swirled into being at the tip of my staff, growing larger as the spirits drew closer.


    But then something began to happen. I saw the cracks in my staff begin to spread. As the power surged through the staff towards the tip, the cracks elongated. Snapping sounds began to punctuate the spread of the cracks. I gripped the staff tighter, struggling to aim the ball at the dragon. I saw Deotra trip as she leaped out of the way of a blast of fire. Time seemed to slow as the dragon circled over the fallen girl, like a vulture eyeing a corpse.


    If I didn¡¯t release my spell, the familiar would kill her. I didn¡¯t have a choice. No staff outweighed a life. I didn¡¯t even hesitate. I threw as much power into the spell as I could. I pulled all the moisture from the surrounding air as I could get, and reinforced it with more from my own body. The glowing ball of ice grew yet again, pulsing now. The vibrations from the staff were almost too violent for me to hold back. Please, Eternity, if you¡¯re listening, if you save this girl I¡¯ll never ask for anything ever again. I aimed at the flying dragon.When I lined the dragon up, I spoke the incantation.


    ¡°Oh, frozen glory! Return this hated memory to its rightful place! Bind it within a coffin made from impenetrable frost! Let it be buried for all time in the darkness from whence it came!¡±


    The ball shot forward, and the staff exploded into pieces. The dragon paused to breathe fire at Deotra; it never saw the spell coming. With a thunderous crack, the spell slammed into the dragon¡¯s side, just under its wing. The entire creature shattered into fragments, as though I had taken a mace to a mirror. The fragments disintegrated into vapor, which in turn disappeared into thin air. I marveled at what I had done, and then the grim reality sunk in.


    I killed it. I had just destroyed my chance, and also Deotra¡¯s chance, of creating a contract with this creature, whatever its true form had been. I fell to my knees, weariness spreading through my limbs like a cancer. I barely even noticed when she kneeled down next to me, looking up at what few pieces of the not-dragon were still fading away.


    ¡°It¡¯s not your fault, Kuro.¡± Deotra put her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at her, then did a double-take. This close, I could see right down the plunging neckline of her robe. I¡¯d felt her chest push up against my arm earlier, but, as I wasn¡¯t rude enough to stare openly, I had tried (and not really succeeded) averting my gaze from her breasts before. They were perfect. So round and full, but not big enough to just be obscene¡­ dammit, it wasn¡¯t my fault! I was just being a young man! I couldn¡¯t help but look!


    Deotra must have seen the color rising in my face, because she looked down and saw where my eyes were really aimed at. Her face turned a shade of red that I didn¡¯t think was actually possible in a human being. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest and made an adorable whimpering sound. ¡°You¡¯re such a pervert. And here I was worried about you.¡± There was huffiness in her tone, but it sounded like it was mostly for show, because she eventually relaxed and looked back at me.


    I sat in that clearing with her for a moment. The moon¡¯s light shone down on us, ceasing only when the occasional errant cloud eclipsed its light. I asked Deotra what she planned to do.


    She sighed again. ¡°Well, what¡¯s done is done. I should have been more careful. Wild familiars are dangerous, and we both knew that. If anyone should be sorry, though, it¡¯s me. Your staff is useless now.¡±


    She was right. I was still holding what was left of Farnus¡¯ old staff. It had broken straight in the middle. Without it, I couldn¡¯t use magic. At least, not without killing myself anyway. I wasn¡¯t like Sheena. If I attempted it, I would be killed by the very energies I attempted to harness and control.


    Deotra leaned closer to me. ¡°You know, you saved my life, Kuro. I know it¡¯s little comfort, but I¡¯m very grateful to you.¡± I sighed. It was indeed a platitude. It was what every girl said. Every single girl who ended up being rescued by Alverd and I in the past five years had ended up saying that. But they had always said it to Alverd, never me.


    It felt good.


    Something warm pressed against my cheek. In my shock, I didn¡¯t even realize at first that Deotra had kissed my cheek. I had never experienced the feeling before, so it was no wonder I didn¡¯t realize what was going on. Even then, my short-circuiting brain still didn¡¯t figure it out until a few seconds later.


    Brain. Brain. Are you there? Pretty girl. Brain. Smooch. Heh heh. Finally, she broke off the kiss, leaning back a little bit so she could look into my eyes. As I looked into hers, I felt a chill go down my spine. There was still a hint of the shy, almost naive innocence I¡¯d seen before, but now her expression was that of extreme want. But it wasn¡¯t lust I saw.


    It was just¡­ need. She had the expression of a woman who hadn¡¯t eaten food for weeks, only to finally be given a loaf of bread. It was what she needed, but it just wasn¡¯t enough. She needed more, because it was essential to life. Her face seemed to say that she had been waiting a lot longer than just a few weeks.


    I stammered. ¡°Deotra? What¡¯s going on?¡± She only answered by kissing me, this time on the lips. She was being very aggressive, and I needed to breathe. Wait, what is happening here?! I pushed Deotra off of me. When I looked at her again, she was staring at me with that same hungry look in her eye, and when she smiled, her teeth flashed at me, gleaming white.


    ¡°I¡¯ve waited so long¡­ you have no idea, Kuro.¡± Deotra giggled, but this time it wasn¡¯t so cute. This time it sounded downright creepy. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? I¡¯m so happy you¡¯re finally here¡­ aren¡¯t you happy to be here? Aren¡¯t you happy to be here with me?¡± Her whole face looked like that of a drunkard¡¯s after a few pints. ¡°I thought you¡¯d like this¡­I thought you liked me. Don¡¯t you understand how I feel? I don¡¯t want to wait any longer.¡±


    Despite what she said being true, I wasn¡¯t about to just knock boots with some girl I had just met. I crawled back slowly, never facing away from her. ¡°Look, Deotra. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s come over you, but this isn¡¯t really the place, alright? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong. You are insanely gorgeous, definitely top notch. But I barely know you! Where I come from, we don¡¯t just kiss complete strangers.¡± Suddenly I stopped in my tracks, as something she said finally registered in my brain. ¡°Wait¡­ what do you mean, a long time? What are you talking about?!¡±


    Something changed in the girl standing before me. The lovestruck expression on her face faded immediately. Her eyes, once vibrant and sparkling, became narrowed with a kind of quiet hostility. Her teeth ground together audibly as her mouth went from smile to grimace. I felt something cold, like a blast of winter air, sweep up from behind her and flow past me. Something, like garbled laughter, rode that air until it swirled back around and hovered before the girl, distorting the air above her like a heat mirage.


    Then that air spoke. I didn¡¯t have a better word to describe what I was hearing, because even though the sound was akin to a person speaking through a closed window submerged in mud, I could hear it clear as day. I didn¡¯t have to understand the words to see the effect it was having on Deotra, either. The poor girl was frantic, her eyes watering and desperate, practically pleading with the not-voice.


    ¡°I told you he wouldn¡¯t respond to such aggression! Now look. He¡¯s suspicious of me. I worked far too long and far too hard for this. No, you said that he would be completely receptive to this approach.¡± She started pacing back and forth, waving her arms in the air furiously. ¡°I can¡¯t let him leave. Don¡¯t ask me that. Don¡¯t. Please, don¡¯t make me¡­¡± Her voice, once filled with what sounded like righteous anger, was now full of desperation.


    ¡°But I did as you asked! You failed to fulfill our bargain¡­¡± I could hear a sob forming in her voice. ¡°I know you¡¯ve never been wrong so far¡­ but you¡¯re asking me to do¡­to do the impossible. You cannot¡­ I knew I never should have trusted you¡­¡± Tears appeared in her eyes, and she fell on her knees. ¡°I-I-I know that you said that, but he¡¯s right here¡­please¡­¡±


    The presence, hanging like a dark cloud, slid around her, until it was between the girl and the entrance of the cave. I felt a wave of pressure as the not-voice clawed at my mind, rich and smooth but alien, and I knew something was wrong. It only took me a moment to figure out what was going on.


    Deotra was carrying on a spirited argument with a demon. Very, very few people could get away with such behavior, even mages. I have to do something. If I don¡¯t, that demon will kill us both. They¡¯re not known for messing around. I was still frozen in place, trying to figure out what I was going to do, when she turned around and started walking away.


    She picked up her staff from where it had fallen after she had tripped during our battle. She took a tentative step towards me, but when I reflexively took a step back, the agonized look of pain on her face intensified. Now entirely on the verge of crying, she let the staff fall to the ground. After dropping the staff, she started moving away from it, towards the cave from which the familiar had emerged.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that this had to happen the way that it did, Kuro.¡± She was now standing by the cave mouth. ¡°This wasn¡¯t how I wanted our meeting to go. But if she says I lost my chance, then I have to abide by her terms. I¡¯m really glad I got to meet you. I know this must not make any sense to you, but you don¡¯t need to worry about any of it. It¡¯s better that way.¡± There were tears streaming down her face now, and it made my heart ache even through the panic and confusion.


    Then she reached down, picked up the lantern, and with a wave of her hand lit the candle. A bright blue flame sparked to life within the lantern. I felt my mouth fall open. Even such a small display of magic without a staff would have had some kind of consequence, but Deotra merely stood there, the same look of sadness on her face. I took another step back, not knowing what to make of this development.


    She threw the lantern to me, and despite my state of unease, I caught it. The blue light within flickered, but stayed lit. ¡°Please¡­ you need to leave now.¡± I looked at her with disbelief. Something else was going on, something I couldn¡¯t put my finger on, but my priority at the moment was to save her from the demon. I held my right arm out to her.


    ¡°Hey, look at me. I¡¯m not letting that¡­ thing take you away. Take my hand. It doesn¡¯t have to end like this.¡±


    Deotra shook her head sadly. ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid it does. I overstepped. I did what I wasn¡¯t supposed to do, and now I have to accept my punishment for that. She¡¯s very disappointed with me, and I won¡¯t run away from what I¡¯m due.¡± Something growled, something big, from the cave behind her.


    Suddenly, a dozen hands, human in shape, surged out from its depths, each of them feeling along the ground. Deotra stepped towards the hands, and I screamed. ¡°NO! Stop! I can help you! Don¡¯t give in! I can help you fight the demon!¡±


    I bent down and picked up Deotra¡¯s staff. The moment I grabbed it, I felt a power surge into me from it. It was unlike anything I¡¯d ever felt before. High on adrenaline, I pointed it at the hands. ¡°Deotra, stop! Fight it!¡± She turned back to me, her eyes still full of tears.


    ¡°Take what I¡¯ve given you and leave this place, Kuro.¡± The hands, on arms that stretched like rubber, leaped up and latched onto her, wrapping around her like snakes.


    ¡°NO! Let me help you! Don¡¯t submit!¡± I tried to push forward, but it was like my feet were rooted in swamp mud. She smiled wistfully as the hands grabbed at her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t weep for me, Kuro. Nobody will miss a whelp like me. Instead, promise me one thing.¡±  She didn¡¯t even fight against the hands. Instead, she took the small bracelet around her left wrist and threw it at my feet. I stopped struggling against the power now running rampant through my body, and strained my ears to hear her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t come back for me.¡±


    Then the hands took hold, and she was dragged into the dark.


    I screamed in anguish. But then the fire in the lantern roared, and there was a flash of light so bright that I had to shield my eyes. In the forefront of my mind, I heard it clearly for the first time. The dark voice of the demon, a voice rich and full and seductive, so replete with self-satisfaction that it made me sick. It filled my mind like viscous tar, blanketing my consciousness with a horrible, syrupy evil.


    ¡°A fitting fate for a liar. One you shall share if you return for her.¡±


    And then all was black.


    When I awoke, Sheena, Alverd and Alicia were above me, looking down. Alverd lifted me up, helping me to my feet. I shook my head, trying to clear out the cobwebs and fog. As I gathered my wits, I saw that I was at the entrance of the forest. The iron lantern, still lit with its unnatural blue light, lay to my left, and in my right hand, was Deotra¡¯s staff. The smooth mahogany staff fit in my hand as if it belonged there, and the ruby on the top glittered ominously. As I stared at it, I thought of her tormented face. I shuddered and let go of it, dropping it as if it were a burning coal.


    Sheena spotted the staff and tried to pick it up for a closer look. However, when her hand alighted upon the staff, she recoiled away. The staff had discharged a blast of electricity when she had touched it. She looked at the staff warily, the way someone would regard a cobra that was within striking distance.


    ¡°I have a very bad feeling about that staff.¡± She remarked. She poked at the stick with her own staff, and the ruby gleamed malevolently again, almost as if it were sentient. ¡°How did you get it? Surely you didn¡¯t find it in the forest, did you?¡± She looked to me.


    ¡°As a matter of fact, I did.¡± I looked Sheena in the eye. I was just about to tell her about Deotra when the image of her forcing her mouth against mine crossed my mind. Things look bad enough as is. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t tell Sheena about the crazy girl trying to make out with me in the creepy woods. ¡°I, uh¡­ found it. In a clearing. While I was alone. All alone. Yeah.¡± I scratched the back of my head to hide the fact that I was fidgeting, then asked Sheena a question to throw attention away from me. ¡°Say, how many other mages are running around in that forest?¡±


    Sheena blinked. ¡°Sir Kuro, you were the only one. The forest is too dangerous for lone mages to be traversing it at night. It has one entrance that is watched over by guardsmen day and night. Why would you ask such a thing?¡± She cocked her head to the side, a look of confusion stamped on her face, mirroring the one on mine.


    As the three discussed amongst themselves what to do, I noticed that Deotra¡¯s bracelet was wedged underneath me. The others hadn¡¯t seen it. I quickly pocketed the bracelet. It was made of red twine and had a charm on it, with some kind of rune or character carved into it that I didn¡¯t understand. I figured I¡¯d get a better look at it later.


    I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a rational explanation for what I had just gone through. Of course, if there is one, it¡¯s eluding me. The only thing I could think of was Deotra¡¯s bubbly laughter, and how I¡¯d left an innocent girl to the nonexistent mercy of a demon. I felt sick to my stomach as that haunting sound echoed in my memory.


    All the way back to the Ivory Palace, my mind was preoccupied with that laughter. It haunted me in my dreams, all the way into the morning.

 B2: Chapter 11: Kuro: Lies and Half-Truths (Edit)

    Taking breakfast in the throne room of the Ivory Palace, the four of us ate in relative silence except for brief lines of questioning. Only a handful of guards had joined us, and they had been delegated to the door at the far end of the room, where they were well out of earshot. The Witch-Queen evidently did not want them in on the conversation, which already made me wary of her intentions. I knew Alverd and even Alicia were genuinely worried about me, but I still didn¡¯t know where Sheena¡¯s head was at.


    I spent the next morning answering the various questions my companions had about my escapades in the Forest of Familiars. I straight up lied about nearly all of them.


    Why am I lying? Makes no sense not to tell the others what happened. Yet I felt some kind of compulsion to do so. Somehow it seemed like the better option. Besides, would they even believe me? That I had been involved with some mage girl who had given me a staff out of the blue and then got taken by a demon? A mage girl who shouldn¡¯t even have been there in the first place?


    Against my better judgment I kept everything about Deotra to myself. Most of the details were fuzzy anyway, much like how one has trouble remembering a dream shortly after waking. If Sheena thinks I have a demon influencing me, she might find some nice cell for me to languish in, too. And that¡¯s if I¡¯m lucky and she doesn¡¯t decide to just have me killed.


    So I sat there and spun some ridiculous lie about how I had found the staff in a clearing, a thing of beautiful, hand-carved mahogany and polished brass and a ruby set in its length, how a familiar had ambushed me and broken my staff, and that I had lost consciousness and ended up at the entrance to the Forest with the group trying to wake me up. Even as the words rolled off my tongue, they made perfect sense to me. It was as though the words weren¡¯t coming out of my mouth, but rather someone else¡¯s. Still, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little sick in the pit of my stomach. Deotra¡¯s words about liars pulled at my heart even as I spun my little web.


    was unmistakably striking, Sheena was the one to call me on this line of questioning. She folded her arms and started grilling me.


    ¡°You say you found this staff, Sir Kuro?¡± She intoned inquisitively. She looked at me as if she were doubting my sincerity. ¡°In the middle of a clearing?¡± Her emerald eyes seemed to pierce deep into my own as she stared at me. I stammered for a moment. But then I remembered what I was doing and swallowed. When I finished, I gathered up my courage and lied again.


    ¡°Yes. It was just lying in a clearing, near a stump. I was so entranced by its beauty and the oddity of a staff being left out in the open that I didn¡¯t sense the familiar until it was practically on top of me. It attacked me in the form of a dragon, and in the course of my defense, my old staff shattered. I lost control of my spell because of that, and blacked out after casting it.¡± I made sure to add just enough plausibility to my story to make it seem palatable, while throwing in enough self-degradation in order to make it believable to Alverd and Alicia. It looked to be working, too.


    Sheena was not so easily deterred, however. She tried several times to touch the staff, which I¡¯d left on the table for examination. Each time, it rebuffed her with electric shocks. Every time she did so, however, she simply muttered to herself under her breath, scratching her chin in reflection. I didn¡¯t know if I should¡¯ve been worried or scared but they came in equal measure. Fortunately she gave up after a short time and decided it wasn¡¯t worth it.


    Alverd fixed me with his gaze. ¡°How did you end up back at the entrance to the Forest? We heard a loud roar, and thought you might be in trouble. When we entered, there was some barrier in place preventing us from getting too far in. Then suddenly, the barrier disappeared. Do you know anything about that?¡±


    That¡¯s news to me, I thought. The roar was probably the dragon-familiar attacking Deotra and I, but this barrier business wasn¡¯t something I knew about. I suspected that it had been the demon¡¯s handiwork. It made sense; it remained functional just long enough for Deotra to talk to me, prevent others from interfering, and then apparently teleported me back to the Forest entrance, where my companions quickly found me. For once, I told the truth. ¡°I didn¡¯t even know about any barrier. I never saw or felt anything remotely resembling such.


    Puzzle pieces fell quickly into place even as I intentionally tried to jumble them up.


    Alicia grilled me about the dirt and grass stains on my robes. ¡°You looked like something had thrown you around. Was that the familiar?¡± I nodded.


    ¡°Yes. You know how I don¡¯t like fighting things in close quarters. Damn thing chased me all over the place. But I managed to defeat it in the end.¡± Having made her contribution to the interrogation, Alicia then excused herself to pile her plate full of food.


    Alverd asked about the roar. ¡°So the familiar, in the form of a dragon, made that noise?¡± Again, I nodded.


    ¡°I was just as surprised as you. I wasn¡¯t expecting it to assume a form like that, much less attack me in the same manner as a dragon.¡±


    He crossed his arms. ¡°Well I¡¯m glad you¡¯re unharmed. Not that I¡¯m surprised. You¡¯re a quick thinker, Kuro. That¡¯s probably why Lady Sheena thought you¡¯d be fine on your own.¡±


    I stifled a gag by putting a fresh blueberry muffin in my mouth. Not sure what exactly Sheena thinks of me, but I doubt it¡¯s much. Or at all, for that matter.


    Eventually they stopped asking me questions. I think by the end of it, they were all thinking the same thing. I could see it in their eyes. They didn¡¯t even make much of an effort to hide it from me. I think that was what got to me the most. I looked into their eyes and saw something familiar, something that I had come to expect from nearly everyone.


    Pity.


    They probably think I lost my nerve and fled from the familiars in the Forest. They probably believed the bit about the staff, in lieu of a better explanation, but they were all thinking that I had taken the coward¡¯s way and run from the familiars. By chance, I had broken my staff, knocked myself out and ended up back where I started.


    In a way, they were right. I was a coward. I¡¯d allowed an innocent girl to be snatched away by a demon. You let her down. She may have said to leave her behind, but it was you and you alone who decided to heed her words. The muffin went sour in my mouth as the image of Deotra¡¯s pained expression surfaced in my mind. The demon compelled her to do it. And only I can save her from it.


    Growing up, my mentor Professor Farnus, had counseled all of the mage recruits in the basic dangers of dealing with demons and other magical threats. They were quite silver-tongued, capable of conning young and even more seasoned mages into contracts. They offered what the mage wanted most, and in return, they demanded obedience or even the life force of the mage in question.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what the demon had offered Deotra. Some of the things she had said made no sense. But whatever she had wanted, the demon had considered their bargain fulfilled, and had dragged her into that cave to no doubt feed off her life force¡­ and if left to its own devices, she could easily be dead within a few days.


    Hell. She could even be dead right this moment as far as I knew.


    There¡¯s also the very real possibility that it was all some kind of farce. The demon was real enough, there was no way to fake that dread I felt in its presence. But Deotra, her contract, her fear? That¡¯s not difficult, and right up the alley of a demon.


    Infinitely diabolical, demons were masters of deception. There was no length they weren¡¯t willing to go to in order to corrupt an innocent soul. Farnus warned us that dragons, people, and recklessness were all obvious threats, but demons topped them all due to their capacity to reason and their centuries of experience in preying on the hearts of mankind.


    I wasn¡¯t one to put faith in blind optimism, but something in me wanted to believe that she was still alright, and that she wasn¡¯t to blame for any of this. I knew there was something I could do. I¡¯ve decided. I¡¯m going to rescue her. But to do that¡­


    Sheena¡¯s voice interrupted my musings. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Sir Kuro. Perhaps this would be easier if you knew more magic than simple elemancy. If you would like, I could teach you a few other spells. Then maybe you could come back here and try again?¡± My ears perked up at that. When I looked at her, I could see no pity in her eyes anymore. She was genuinely offering to help me.


    Something clicked in my head. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. She was a powerful mage, multi-talented, and well-versed in the use of her magic. If I could learn even a few things from her, I might have the strength needed to storm the demon¡¯s cave and rescue Deotra.


    I grasped Sheena¡¯s hands in my own, not even realizing what I was doing. ¡°Would you? I would definitely appreciate it!¡±


    She didn¡¯t seem to mind though. She smiled at me gently. ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll have the entire thing set up in an hour. We¡¯ll have so much fun!¡± She giggled to herself. ¡°Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind, I¡¯d like you to be there as well. Ohhhh, I can¡¯t wait!¡± She pulled her hands free of mine, cupping her head with them like a young schoolgirl.


    I paused. ¡°Wait, why does Alverd need to come?¡± I looked at my friend, and he shrugged.


    ¡°Indeed. Why would my presence be required at a mage¡¯s training session?¡± Sheena waved her hand. ¡°Well, it would be better to have a live target, and with your shield, you¡¯d be in little danger. I want to see this new staff in action, and if it performs as I suspect it will, Sir Kuro will need a far more effective target than straw dummies.¡± Before either of us could say anything, she had scurried off on her own.


    Having no reason to just stand around, Alverd and I returned to our room for the time being. I picked the strange staff up again, and the ruby flashed quietly. I took a small cloth from my pocket and began polishing the gem. It seemed to pulse, like a heartbeat, which only served to freak me out even more. Where did Deotra get this thing? And why does it feel like it just¡­ belongs in my hand? Gods, I have so many questions for her.


    As promised, a servant came to fetch Alverd and I an hour later. The servant led us to the Palace¡¯s east common garden, which Sheena had turned into a kind of training ground. Stationary targets were placed helter-skelter, and the occasional straw scarecrow had been planted in the ground. Someone had even gone so far as to paint comically absurd expressions on the scarecrows¡¯ faces complete with wagging tongues and googly eyes. I sincerely hope she didn¡¯t scavenge these things from a youngling training yard. That would make me feel kind of bad, and more than a bit stupid.


    I also felt a pang of guilt, too. My thoughts meandered back to Deotra. Sweet, kind Deotra. My entire mind was a total mess, trying to make sense of what she had said and the implications of it all. She¡¯d been waiting for me? What does that even mean? The not-knowing is killing me. More than anything, the familiar anxiety of having no clue what was going on would eat away at me until I got the answers I craved.


    I shook my head, scattering those thoughts to the wind. You can get those answers when you save her, and you can¡¯t do that if you blow yourself up five seconds out the gate. Like Farnus once said, the only thing you get when you rush is closer to your own grave. For now, I planned to take full advantage of this opportunity. Sheena directed me to stand about twenty feet away from one of the targets and conjure a basic fireball.


    It started the way it always did. I reached inside, to the heat generated within my own body, and when I pulled my left hand away from my chest, a fireball ignited in my hand. But this time it was different. When I had wielded Farnus¡¯ staff, it felt as though I was yanking a piece of my chest out every time I did it. This time, with the new staff, the process was smooth, effortless, and I barely noticed that I had expended any energy in fueling the fireball with my own essence. I then proceeded to throw the fireball at the nearest straw dummy. It exploded with far more force than any fireball I had ever conjured in my entire life, incinerating it entirely.


    What in the name of the gods? I had no idea why it worked so well. But there it was, all the same. I couldn¡¯t deny the rush I seemed to experience as the power had flowed out of me and into my spell. Just to feel it again, I yanked the bioelectric pulses in my body out and conjured a lightning bolt. There was a tingling sensation instead of the familiar burning as the magic warped into being in my hand, arcing between my fingertips. Just by pointing at the next dummy, the lightning jumped to it faster than I could blink, burning a hole straight through its painted face. I laughed maniacally.


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    Sheena nodded in approval. ¡°Good. You seem to have the basics down. You have good form, plenty of practice¡­ perhaps the only thing holding you back was your old staff after all.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but feel pride in her praise. Hearing someone as accomplished and powerful as her compliment me made me feel pretty good about myself. Focus, pal. There¡¯s only one pretty girl you need to think about and it ain¡¯t this one. That ship has sailed. I couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit smug about that last thought, petty as it was.


    ¡°Milady, is there any quick way to increase my power? Simple things that I can learn in just an hour or so? If I¡¯m to help keep you safe, then I need to learn to control my magic or sharpen my senses. And just in case, is there any advice you could offer in regards to fighting demons?¡± I realized too late that letting that last bit slip might have been tipping my hand a bit too much, but there was no taking it back now.


    Sheena cocked her head to the side, a gesture that reminded me of Deotra for a fraction of a second. ¡°Demons? Why would you ask that? That¡¯s awfully specific¡­¡± I quickly spit out a reply. ¡°Well, to be honest¡­ what jumped me in the Forest of Familiars? I think it may have been a demon. It didn¡¯t feel like a familiar. It was more interested in eating me than testing my character. I know I have to go back into the Forest eventually¡­ if you have any insight, I would gladly take it¡­¡±


    The redheaded witch seemed to consider my words carefully. I got the feeling she wasn¡¯t fully swayed by my lie, but if she had any reservations, she kept them to herself, because she gave me a straight answer. ¡°Demons are not something one just stands their ground against. I have a few tomes you could borrow on the subject, but from what I can tell you from personal experience, if you had indeed come across a demon in the Forest, you probably wouldn¡¯t be standing here talking to me right now.¡±


    Alverd, who up until this point had been polishing his brand new shield, spoke up. ¡°Are demons really so powerful? I wouldn¡¯t know, since Kuro here is quite adamant about taking jobs that steer us away from crossing paths with them.¡±


    She gave him a nod. ¡°They¡¯re incredibly devious and cunning. More often than not, they are interested in snaring prey by offering deals rather than outright aggression. They can offer whatever your heart desires most¡­and in return they drain the life from those they prey upon.¡±


    She took her bladed staff and drew a circle in the air, which immediately separated into seven different circles. ¡°According to magical study, there are seven circles of Hell. Each circle is an ever-increasing gauntlet of insanity and depravity, each filled to the brim with horrors we don¡¯t have words for.¡± The circles arrayed themselves in a column, with the one at the bottom glowing a terrible red.


    ¡°Supposedly, the final circle is a portal to other realms. Some are benign, others are doorways to cosmic nightmares beyond imagining. The religious texts written in the wake of the War of the Five Kings claim that the Imbalancer of Scales was drawn through the Seventh Circle by the King of Fire, the sorceress who was blamed for instigating much of the War to begin with. The lesser creatures that followed the Imbalancer are the demons we know today, who guard the circles as they await a chance to call their dark master back through the Seventh Circle once more.¡±


    The magical glyphs Sheena had conjured swirled in the air, orbiting each other with no discernible pattern. ¡°Demons are only able to manifest through physical vessels in this plane of existence. These vessels can be killed like any other mortal form. Sadly, a demon deprived of its mortal vessel is sent back to Hell, rather than destroyed. It takes a special ritual or equipment to ensure a demon¡¯s permanent destruction.¡±


    Alverd spoke up at that point. ¡°So, how do mere mortals deal with demons?¡± Sheena smiled.


    ¡°While they utilize a mortal vessel, a demon is subject to the laws of our world. Things like gravity, for example. Whatever limitations the mortal vessel has, the demon must abide by, such as the lack of lungs meaning the vessel cannot breathe underwater. Like familiars, demons must feed off immense amounts of magic to sustain themselves without a vessel, so there is always the danger of running into one where familiars dwell. Think of them as a kind of competitor species.¡±


    I chimed in. ¡°So the quickest way to defeat a demon would be to incapacitate the vessel?¡± Sheena nodded. ¡°Yes. Even nonlethal wounds take their toll. Demons are like wildfires. The more power they expend, the more they have to feed off their host, and once the host passes out from exhaustion, the demon is forced into dormancy. Burn hot, burn fast. Once the demon is rendered powerless, it¡¯s a simple matter to exorcize it from the body with the proper ritual.¡±


    Hearing this, I felt heartened. This was good stuff. More importantly, it¡¯s knowledge I can put to practical use. I had to be careful though. If I showed too much enthusiasm, Sheena would ask more questions, and that was the last thing I needed.


    Then Sheena muttered something under her breath. ¡°There¡¯s one other way to combat demons, but it¡¯s risky. Exceedingly so. Something that even our Magister Lord of Demon Summoning, Lord Mattigen, had to pay a heavy price to discover.¡±


    The circles in the air began to merge together, forming a script that I could not read. Then it vanished, like mist on a sunny day. Sheena continued, her voice growing dark. ¡°If you speak a demon¡¯s true name, you can control it. By binding a demon with the use of its true name, you can force it to do whatever you want, without any immediate repercussions. But once you do that, you are marked. A demon will remember your face, your voice, your very life essence¡­ and demons hold grudges. Once that demon is no longer bound, it will do everything in its power to kill you.¡±


    I wasn¡¯t surprised to learn that demons were spiteful creatures. But if it comes down to it, could I really have the courage to compel the demon to spare Deotra in exchange for having to look over my shoulder for the rest of my potentially short life? I¡¯d made a lot of enemies in the past five years, but having a demonic monster after me was a step up from the norm.


    I was so lost in thought that when Sheena spoke again, I nearly jumped out of my skin. ¡°It¡¯s odd that you crossed paths with a demon, Sir Kuro. We have patrols regularly sweep the Forest every week to root out any demons that might have infiltrated the place. No one can enter the Forest without my guards knowing. You saw the wards around the entirety of the Forest that prevent  anyone from wandering in or out, man or demon. So how could a demon have gotten in without our knowledge?¡± She scratched at her chin absent-mindedly.


    Just to make sure my earlier spells hadn¡¯t been a fluke, I placed my left hand against my chest and pulled some more energy out of my body. A yellow bolt of lightning seethed in my hand, seeking a way to get free of my fist and destroy something. I took aim at one of the straw dummies and let fly. The bolt flew through the air and impacted the straw dummy with great force. There was a small explosion as the bolt blew half the dummy into the air, which corkscrewed several times before landing a full five seconds later on the ground.


    The look on Alverd¡¯s face was priceless. He¡¯d seen me do some crazy things, but the sheer efficiency with which I had dispatched the dummy was a great deal more than he¡¯d come to expect from me. With great relish, I pulled another spark from my chest and repeated the throw on another dummy. Then another. And another. In the short space of a minute, I annihilated the remaining dummies with precision and childish glee.


    When the last dummy was nothing less than a smoking crater, Sheena clapped her hands. ¡°Very interesting! Perhaps we should try it on a moving target now? Sir Alverd, if you would be so kind?¡±


    Alverd actually looked pretty scared for a moment. I don¡¯t blame him, the man may be dense but he isn¡¯t blind. He picked up his new dormicite shield and took up a position about thirty feet away from me, shield raised in a defensive posture. ¡°Alright, old friend. I¡¯m ready for you!¡±


    I¡¯d be lying if I said I didn¡¯t enjoy what happened next just a tiny bit. I conjured up another bolt of lightning and tossed it at my friend. The bolt streaked through the air and careened off his shield with a loud thwump. The bolt then shot through the air until it hit a nearby tree, scoring a neat little scar across its trunk.


    Sheena whistled. ¡°Impressive. But you won¡¯t have the luxury of a stationary target in battle. A neat little trick when engaging a moving target is to channel your spell through your staff rather than by throwing it. Throwing your spell with your hand is a very wasteful action. It requires time to aim and time to wind up for a toss. So let¡¯s just skip that part and use your staff to aim. It¡¯s much more intuitive and saves a great deal of time. Try it, Sir Kuro.¡±


    I did as she said, bringing my new staff up to my eye level and aiming down its length as though I were sighting down a crossbow. Gripping the staff firm with both hands, I willed the electricity flowing through my body into the ruby at the tip of the staff. I could feel the energy course its way through my arms and into the staff, until the ruby began to spark with the stored power I had coaxed into it. Taking aim, I saw Alverd, who was now dancing back and forth, ready to defend against my attack. With a stern command, I directed the energy out through the ruby, and the lightning bolt shot out with a thunderous roar.


    Maybe it was because I had actually involved the staff in the process of refining the bolt¡¯s power and directing it through the staff¡¯s focus, but the lightning bolt I launched at Alverd had more oomph behind it. The spell slammed into the dormicite surface of Alverd¡¯s shield and rebounded harmlessly into the sky, but the sheer impact of the bolt nearly knocked Alverd off his feet.


    Maybe it was just adrenaline, but I began to feel maniacally overpowered. The staff was definitely going to my head. It¡¯s like we were made for each other. The damned thing gave me a level of confidence that was beyond anything I¡¯d ever experienced in my life. And it didn¡¯t stop there.


    I spent the next twenty minutes throwing all manner of elemancy at my best friend. Lightning bolts, fireballs, ice javelins, even miniature tornadoes and earthen spikes. They all bounced off his dormicite shield, but Alverd still had to scramble to angle his shield in the proper way to deflect every attack. After twenty minutes of deflecting spells in heavy armor, however, my friend finally got winded and made a mistake.


    A lightning bolt snuck under Alverd¡¯s shield and struck him full in the chest, knocking him back ten feet. He landed in a heap, groaning. I wasn¡¯t concerned, though. My friend was sturdy and had been through far worse, so I knew he would be up and back on his feet in no time.


    Sheena, however, ran over to Alverd in a fit of panic. She knelt down next to him, cooing softly and asking if he was alright. She was practically fawning over him. Alverd told her, in his usual idiom, that he was fine and that he had had worse, and she squealed with girlish laughter over his bravado. Then I saw her do something unexpected.


    ¡°Please, don¡¯t try to get up, Sir Alverd. You can rest here for a while.¡± And then she placed Alverd¡¯s head in her lap, cushioning his head with her thighs. He looked up at her in shock, as did I.


    Sheena¡¯s face turned beet red, and her breathing became erratic and heavy. ¡°D-D-Don¡¯t you worry about a thing, my dear sir knight¡­ you can stay right here until you¡¯ve recovered¡­ it¡¯s the least I can do¡­ for someone as brave as you¡­¡± I got the feeling that such an action had taken quite a bit of bravery on her part. It was still a little creepy how hard she was breathing, though.


    That¡¯s when it hit me. Alicia was not here. She¡¯d conveniently taken a tour of the castle rather than oversee my impromptu training session. Sheena had capitalized on Alicia¡¯s curiosity to manufacture a scenario where she could put the moves on Alverd under the guise of caring about his well-being. She¡¯d probably figured that I harbored at least a small amount of resentment towards my friend, and in a way, this manipulation might have also been retribution for all the lies I had told earlier.


    Past Kuro would definitely say I was being overly cynical, I thought at first. Watching Sheena debase herself without an ounce of hesitation, I would¡¯ve told Past Kuro to hold my mead.


    I recalled how I¡¯d been told that Sheena had managed to survive assassinations since the age of six. One didn¡¯t survive that long without becoming very good at reading people and learning how to manipulate them for her own gain. Mind games were never really my strong suit, which most likely made me easy prey for a practiced veteran like Sheena.


    I watched as Sheena fussed over Alverd. She insisted on using healing magic to check to see if he had sustained any injuries. She waved at me to come over to where she was, so that she could teach me some basic medical magic. When I arrived, however, I cleared my throat so she would look at me.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s best I go review the basics somewhere else. I think I¡¯ll head back to the library and brush up on a few training exercises.¡±


    There was no way Sheena would pass up the chance to be alone with Alverd. Just because I suck at mind games doesn¡¯t mean I know how to outsmart someone so easy to read. Sheena barely acknowledged me.


    ¡°Yes, I agree. You can find your way, yes? Good. Let me know if you have any questions.¡± She was so eager to be rid of me, it was pathetic. I took my leave, glad to be away from her.


    Upon my return to the library, I ¡°borrowed¡± another book without anyone noticing. The heavy tome was a bit more difficult to conceal than the one I¡¯d used earlier to learn about familiars. Bound in aged leather, the faded silver writing on the cover read ¡°The Encyclopedia Demonicus: Binds and Wards Against the Demon Scourge¡±. Luckily no one was interested in accosting me to ask if I had a library card (if they were so important why did you need to jump through flaming hoops to get one?!) so I snuck out with my prize intact.


    I made it back to the guest room I was sharing with Alverd and started preparing for what was likely going to be my last action as a free man. I began to write a letter, grabbing parchment from my pack and a quill from the nearby desk. I penned a letter to Alverd to be opened only if I were to disappear for any reason. In it, I wrote that I had gone to claim a familiar and, in the event of my death or disappearance, to lead an expedition to hunt down a demon of unknown origin that was preying on mages in the Forest.


    I had just signed my name at the bottom of the parchment when there came a knock at the door. I quickly slid the letter into my pocket. I ran over to the door and opened it. To my surprise, it was not Alverd or Sheena, but rather, Alicia. She looked like she was ready to murder somebody. Her fingers were making a very audible grinding sound as they gripped her heavy maul.


    ¡°If you¡¯re looking for Alverd and Sheena,¡± I said wearily, ¡°they¡¯re outside. Now if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡± I made to close the door, but she shoved the maul into the threshold, stopping me from closing the door.


    ¡°Just one second, Kuro.¡± She said to me, her voice full of irritation. I loosened my grip on the door and let it swing back open.


    She gave me a glare with true malice in her eyes, and I almost took a step back reflexively out of fear. ¡°You say that they¡¯re together? Alone? Are you mad? Why on earth would you leave the two of them unchaperoned? Have you no brains?!¡± The exasperation in her tone was becoming more and more apparent. She grabbed hold of my arm with her left hand and dragged me out of the guest bedroom, and I was powerless to resist.


    I had hoped to leave with nobody aware of what I was up to until it was too late, but it seemed that I was out of luck on that count. She had me in her grasp and there was nothing for it but to follow her to the Palace commons where we¡¯d conducted our ¡°training session¡±. Perhaps I¡¯d find some way to sneak away and go rescue Deotra. The clock was ticking, and her life was on the line.


    Quite incidentally, so were all of ours, as well.

 B2: Chapter 12: Alicia: The Enemy Within (Raw)

    At one point in my life, I said that mages were the biggest backstabbers in the world.


    Understatement of the bloody year.


    It began like a normal day. At least, as normal as what passes for normal in a land of mages. I woke up after a wonderful night¡¯s sleep in a luxurious bed completely refreshed and in a wonderful mood. A hearty breakfast with a surprisingly refreshing something called ¡°tea¡± provided a strong start to my day. It seemed to set a perfect precedent for what my day was going to be like.


    It took a while for the grim reality to set in.


    A servant graciously took me on a tour of the Ivory Palace. He told me that he had been sent on the Witch-Queen¡¯s behalf to guide me. I left my dragon egg in my room (hidden, of course) and allowed the servant to explain the rich history of the Palace as he began his tour. For several hours, I followed him through glistening halls and lavish rooms, each one rivaling the beauty of my own home, the Castle of Brimstone.


    I found it to be incredibly boring. When I said I wanted a tour of the Palace, I meant to see what the Palace had to offer, like a tour of the barracks or training grounds, how they managed the training of their soldiers, or things like that. The servant took it to mean that I wanted a long-winded explanation of the history of his country and started guiding me down halls full of portraits of deceased rulers.


    Finally the servant stopped before a pair of portraits. ¡°And this would be the late Wizard-King and his wife, the late Witch-Queen.¡± The King was a very regal elf with long pale blond hair, and very noticeable green eyes, but also very sharp features, notably his long, pointed ears. The Queen was fair, with long, straight red hair and very familiar looking green eyes. Her ears, however, while pointed, weren¡¯t as long as her husband¡¯s and were more rounded at the tip. I pointed this out to the servant, and he nodded.


    ¡°That would be because the Witch-Queen was only a half-elf. The kingdom found it odd that the Wizard-King would take a half-elf as his bride, given that possessing even a drop of human blood denies the bearer elven longevity. It used to be a punishment among the elven community, you know, to ¡°infect¡± an elven criminal with human blood to force them to live only as long as a human does. It¡¯s quite the shame, really. More than twelve generations of proud, pureblood elves ruling this land, and then the King goes and marries a half-elf. The entire bloodline is tainted, now. Such a shame.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°That¡¯s some way to talk about your ruler. Maybe I should let the Witch-Queen know how you feel about her parentage.¡± The servant looked at me nervously. ¡°I-I-I was merely repeating the sentiment of the common folk! Just because some feel that way, doesn¡¯t mean I do! Please don¡¯t mention what I said to Her Majesty, or gods forbid, the Prime Minister! He¡¯d carve out my heart if he heard what I said!¡±


    Cocking my head questioningly, I asked about his fear. ¡°What does it matter if I tell him or not? If you don¡¯t want people telling the guys in charge how you feel, you shouldn¡¯t be flapping your lips.¡± The servant quailed. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. The Prime Minister is like a father to the Witch-Queen. He raised her himself. And I¡¯m sure it¡¯s common knowledge how much a father can dote on his daughter.¡±


    That struck a chord in me. Only recently had I discovered my father¡¯s ambitions for me, and it was still very much a sore spot that he had been killed by my eldest half-brother. I decided there was no point in heckling him on the subject, so I let it slide. ¡°Yes¡­quite right.¡±


    The servant turned as though he were about to guide me down the hall further, but then stopped, and then abruptly about-faced. ¡°Well, that¡¯s all there is to see here. Nothing down that way but some busts of ancient kings and whatnot. Why not head this way and we can-¡°


    I blocked his way. ¡°You seem awfully eager to leave. A minute ago you couldn¡¯t shut up about these old kings and queens. Now you say there¡¯s nothing down that way? Fess up. There¡¯s something you don¡¯t want me to see down the corridor, isn¡¯t there?¡±


    The man¡¯s expression went sour, fast. I could almost hear him debating in his head about whether it was worth tempting my wrath or not. After a moment, he decided he was screwed either way, and had the grace to see that his game was through. He sighed heavily before leading me down the hall to a very ornate memorial. I could tell it was a memorial because a grave marker, wrought of dormicite and draped in finery, made up the majority of the display. Etched on the memorial were two names: ¡°King Lascow Reinhardt¡± and ¡°Queen Mirka Reinhardt¡±. The man drew my attention to a display case at the forefront of the memorial.


    In the display case were three knives. I recognized their make immediately; they were Ishmarian. The dull sheen and non-reflective surfaces of the knives gave them away as dragon tooth metals. They were clean, as though someone had taken great pains to make them presentable. When I looked back at the servant, he sheepishly took a step back. I glowered at him. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± I asked with a growl in my voice.


    The servant gulped audibly. ¡°This is a memorial dedicated to the Wizard-King and Witch-Queen. Milady Sheena¡¯s parents. They were felled twenty years ago by Ishmarian assassins. These daggers are the proof, plain and simple.¡± He gingerly took a few more steps away from me. ¡°I was given explicit orders not to show you this particular part of our history, given how you took offense to the accusation that your people were involved in the assassination of our former rulers.¡±


    I had to admit, it made sense. Showing me alleged ¡°proof¡± that my country had committed regicide against a country that I was trying to get on the good side of? That wasn¡¯t a good idea. I was already trying to wrap my head around the idea that Ishmar had allowed such a thing to happen. In my homeland, assassination was frowned upon. It was the weapon of opportunists and cowards. For us to betray our principles in such a way, even to try and gain the upper hand against our most hated foes? I could scarcely believe it.


    Or maybe, it was that I chose not to. I had only just recently learned of my father¡¯s plans to install me as the new Queen of Dragontamers, defying centuries of bloody traditions in an attempt to pull us up from our barbarism and old hatreds. Something didn¡¯t fit right, here. I struggled to try and figure it out, but that was out of my wheelhouse, so to speak. I wasn¡¯t the one to do much thinking, as much as I hated to admit it.


    I had a short moment where I actually wished Kuro was here. He probably would¡¯ve found the link between my father¡¯s change of heart and his attempt at assassinating the rulers of Algrustos. As it stood, I wasn¡¯t able to find a connection, though not by lack of trying. It didn¡¯t make sense. Why would my father order the assassination of the rulers of Algrustos, only to change his mind fifteen years later and try to make peace with them through me?


    I understood the ends, but the means eluded me. After the knowledge that their monarchs had been slain by Ishmarians, no Algrustian in their right mind would accept peace with Ishmar. And yet the person who would have had the greatest reason to hate me wanted peace the most. Nothing made sense anymore. Furthermore, the way the Witch-Queen acted had me on edge. All that shameless fawning over Alverd made me wary, and her bossing him around was doing little for my mood.


    But why was I so angry about it?


    It was like a slow, but sure, burning in my chest. It was just a dull ache that I could never put my finger on. Just watching Sheena act the way she did, so frail and clumsy and¡­the way she was, with Alverd, annoyed me in a way I couldn¡¯t place. Maybe it was just the way she played damsel that did it. In Ishmar, a woman was expected to be just as tough, and at times even tougher, than a man. Every one was expected to pull their weight and then some. So to watch Sheena act all girly and princess-like was weighing on my patience.


    That was when it clicked. That must have been it. Seeing Sheena act the way she was had to be it. It was completely off-putting and it was insulting as well. Ever since I was young, I was taught that to act like some powerless waif was to show weakness. Looking at my half-sisters, it wasn¡¯t hard to see that they¡¯d been given the same lecture. Even the most voluptuous and sensual of my siblings, Leila, had learned to use her good looks to her advantage.


    I pounded my fist into my palm, pleased that I had been able to figure it out. I was so satisfied with myself however, that I had almost allowed the weaselly guide to get away. The little bastard was sneaking away while I had been thinking to myself. I quickly grabbed him by the collar and got right back to intimidating him. ¡°And why did you think I didn¡¯t need to see this part of your history, huh?¡± I growled at him.


    The little man gulped for the third time. ¡°Look, it wasn¡¯t me. The Prime Minister wanted you to know about our history, but he didn¡¯t think it would be a good idea for you to see this part. He knew you¡¯d have¡­thoughts about it.¡± I glared at him, baring my teeth for good measure, before I said, ¡°And where is your oh-so-wise Prime Minister right now?¡± The servant offered to guide me to the Prime Minister¡¯s study, and we both set off.


    When I arrived there, I burst through the study doors furiously. Albrecht was seated at his desk, the light of the early afternoon sun filtering through the curtains. He raised his head, saw me, and went back to whatever he was writing, though he politely addressed me. When he saw that I had no intention of leaving, he motioned to a nearby chair and I sat down. He smirked at me.


    ¡°What can I do for you, Princess?¡± The words rolled off his tongue, without a hint of condescension. He wanted me to know that I was free to ask him any question I could think of. I was about to show him the error of his ways on that account.


    ¡°Who ordered you to keep me occupied for the entire day? Was it the Witch-Queen?¡± Even now, I could not bring myself to say her name. Whether it was because I was being formal or just petty didn¡¯t matter to me at the moment. All I cared about was answers. Lord Albrecht sighed heavily and sat back in his seat.


    ¡°Please do not misunderstand. My niece did not have any sinister intent. She merely wanted some time alone with your companions.¡± Lord Albrecht put aside his quill and leaned forward. ¡°She is still so much like a child, sometimes. But perhaps that is my fault, for raising her that way. Alas, there is little I can do now, of course.¡±


    I snorted, loudly. ¡°Maybe a little less doting and a little more discipline, and she wouldn¡¯t have turned out to be the way she is. I¡¯m sure she could stand to learn a little restraint.¡± That was the last thing I should¡¯ve been accusing someone else of, but again, I didn¡¯t give a flying hunk of dragon crap at the moment. I leveled my steely-eyed gaze at Albrecht, as if daring him to speak back at me.


    Albrecht placed his quill back into an ink well and folded his hands. ¡°Perhaps that¡¯s true. However, thinking it and wanting it are not the same thing, and she is too old now to easily learn something as complicated as restraint. But I think of that quality as quite charming. It gives her an air of¡­sincerity. As you can imagine, she hasn¡¯t had much opportunity to trust others. Hence her fascination with knights. Bastions of truth, honor and chivalry. It¡¯s no wonder she latched onto such a romantic ideal, given everything she¡¯s been through.¡±


    Albrecht stood and turned to face the window. ¡°Twenty years it has been since that night. It was just after she¡¯d been born. The assassins came in the shadows and killed her parents. I heard a commotion and came running, and found the bastards about to kill Sheena, just a babe in her crib. I killed all three, saving her life. But there was no hiding the truth. Our King and Queen lay dead. I had to quell our peoples¡¯ desire for revenge.¡±


    ¡°I told them that one day, our princess would decide Algrustos¡¯ fate. I entrusted that to her. I have protected her as best as I can, even though she is not my blood. She is¡­all I have. When I agreed to Ishmar¡¯s cease-fire, the Magister Lords nearly called for my resignation. They wanted to continue our war, even after losing their King and Queen. But in the end, I had the authority to call back our troops, and I did.¡±


    I could see Albrecht¡¯s hands wringing, even as he continued to stare out the window. I couldn¡¯t even see the midday sun, thanks to his imposing height. When he spoke again, his tone was full of wistfulness, and the gruffness from earlier seemed softer than I remembered it ever being.


    ¡°You must understand. Before I became Prime Minister, I was nothing. Just some wanderer with magical talent who caught the eye of royalty. Many resent me for that, how I ascended from nothing to the position of power I have now. Her father did me a great kindness in assigning me to this post, and in return, I will not let Sheena be harmed.¡±


    Even though he was facing away from me, I could feel the quiet resolve in Albrecht¡¯s tone. He was dead serious about his dedication to the Witch-Queen. I felt the same spirit in him that I felt with my late Father. I could respect him, even if he had gone and helped his niece manufacture some excuse to get me away from Alverd so she could be alone with him.


    Mother Evros, why did that bother me so much? Was it because Alverd didn¡¯t seem to consider keeping me safe his number one priority anymore? Was it because he kept paying attention to the Witch-Queen? And why did those realizations just make me even angrier?! Grrr! Too many questions and not enough answers! I started chewing on my lip angrily as I tried to wrap my head around my sudden attitude change.


    Lord Albrecht must have turned around and saw me fuming or something, because he chuckled. ¡°Goodness. If I didn¡¯t know any better, I¡¯d say you were jealous, Princess. Your face is all red. If it bothers you so much, perhaps you should go find them. Last I heard, they were all on the eastern common garden, though I heard one of your companions returned to his room and has not emerged since.¡±


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    I stood and bowed deeply to the Prime Minister. ¡°Thank you for your help, Lord Albrecht. I hope you forgive my actions. Where I come from, we don¡¯t suffer people taking what¡¯s rightfully ours.¡± And with that, I turned and rushed out of the study before he could utter so much as another word.


    I had enough time to return to my room and retrieve my hammer. I felt that I was going to need it for some heavy disciplining in the near future. I then ran straight to Kuro and Alverd¡¯s room and banged on the door with my fist. Eventually Kuro opened the door. He looked distracted, and more than a little exasperated, but when he tried to close the door on me, I jammed my hammer into the doorframe to keep him from shutting me out.


    ¡°Hey! What¡¯s with you?¡± I pushed the door open, and entered the room. ¡°What the hell is going on, Kuro? What are you doing skulking around in your room? What happened to your magic training?¡± Kuro gave me a distant look. ¡°That¡­that¡¯s on hold for now. If you¡¯re looking for Alverd, or Sheena, they should still be out on the Palace commons.¡±


    ¡°WHAT?!¡±


    I shrieked at him. ¡°Are you stupid?! Why on earth would you leave those two alone?!¡± I gave him an earful about leaving Sheena alone with Alverd, but he still looked like he was a hundred miles away, mentally.


    Finally, the mage looked me in the eye. He scowled at me. ¡°What¡¯s it to me if they¡¯re alone together? What do I look like, their chaperone? I¡¯m not Alverd¡¯s keeper. Nor is it my job to watch Sheena. If she wants to make some move on him, then she deserves it for being smart enough to get him alone in the first place. And it was your choice to learn more about the Algrustians anyway. So you¡¯re just as much at fault as you claim me to be.¡±


    I wanted to smack him, but he had a point. I had allowed Sheena a great deal more freedom with my appointed servant than I should have allowed. I grabbed hold of Kuro¡¯s collar, and he made no effort to try and break away. ¡°We¡¯re going. Show me where the Palace commons are.¡± Kuro sighed heavily, but again he didn¡¯t try to resist. He brushed my hand away, then grabbed his staff. After that, he walked back out into the hallway, and I followed him close behind.


    The two of us made our way down to the palace garden on the eastern common. Sure enough, we found Alverd and the Witch-Queen lying on the ground, making small talk as they gazed up at the clouds drifting lazily by. I made a beeline for the two, my hammer at the ready. As soon as she saw me, the Witch-Queen jumped to her feet, mortified to see me.


    ¡°Oh! Um, Princess! What a surprise! I didn¡¯t expect to see you so soon!¡± Mother Evros, her face was so red I doubted she had any blood left for the rest of her body. ¡°Uh, how did you like the tour of the Palace? Was it to your liking?¡± I ignored her and continued marching straight up to her, until I was right up in her face.


    ¡°You think you¡¯re so smart, don¡¯t you, Witch-Queen? Thought you could send me on a snipe hunt while you try to snake my servants out from under me? Well I¡¯m onto you now! I¡¯ve been tolerant of your tomfoolery up till now, but this is the last straw!¡± I waved my hammer menacingly. ¡°These two are MY servants, and I don¡¯t care what you pay them! They were contracted to me first, and they still haven¡¯t paid me back in full, so I don¡¯t see why they should be pledging themselves to any other person until they¡¯ve paid their debt to me!¡±


    Sheena kind of shrunk back from me, putting her hands up in a placating gesture. ¡°You must understand! I was¡­I was just curious about the lifestyle of a knight! I haven¡¯t had much time to speak to Sir Alverd, and I just wanted to ask him a few questions about what it was like to be one¡­and as for hiring while still on a contract, you certainly didn¡¯t offer up any objections when I bought their services earlier. Why bring such a thing up now of all times?¡±


    I was about to open my mouth and retort when I realized that she had a valid point. If I had wanted to raise a stink about a conflict of interests, I should have done it back when Sheena had ¡°hired¡± Alverd and Kuro in the first place. ¡°Well¡­¡± I sputtered. Sheena was quickly stealing the high ground out from under me. She stood there, head cocked, waiting for my answer.


    ¡°I¡­I just don¡¯t want their attention to be split too many ways! They¡¯re my bodyguards, after all. They have yet to fulfill their obligations to me, so until that time comes that I release them from that responsibility, they are mine. Don¡¯t you get it?¡± I waved my hammer around, not in a threatening manner, but enough so as to show that I meant business.


    Sheena countered with another fair point. ¡°But protecting you and protecting me are not mutually exclusive goals, Princess. In fact, by taking on this second contract, nothing has changed substantially. So I don¡¯t see the harm in allowing your bodyguards to expand their duties to another. It¡¯s a compromise, plain and simple.¡± She replied with a smirk that was just a little too self-satisfactory.


    I could barely hold back my growing anger. ¡±I see what you¡¯re doing. You plan on taking them all for yourself! Well, guess again, spellslinger! Deal or no deal, these two morons are off the table! We Ishmarians don¡¯t do compromises!¡±


    ¡°Then perhaps that is why no nation would ever consider peace with you, lizard princess.¡±


    I turned my head to face the origin of the voice that had just joined our conversation. I beheld Zajj Necce, one of the Council members, walking toward me with a personal entourage of mages in red and blue robes. Well, walking wasn¡¯t really the proper word. Slithering was a far better choice. As he came close, his thin lips became a grim smile. It did little to make his face any more bearable to look at.


    ¡°You Ishmarians, so quick to anger and so eager to engage in violence. Your natural response to anything new is to bludgeon it to death with a rock like the savages of old. That you managed to tame dragons is a mystery even the great sages could not answer. And yet she wonders why her people stand alone against a suspicious, wary world? I need no further proof that you are barbarians, through and through.¡±


    Necce¡¯s soldiers, four in number, began to fan out and surround us. Two of them were wearing the same combat mage armor that Captain McFarlane had been wearing, and were also carrying the long quarterstaff weapons as well, rubies and sapphires set along their lengths. I didn¡¯t like where this was going.


    Neither did the Witch-Queen. She took up a stance, her staff in her left hand, her right held forward in a warding gesture. ¡°Lord Necce, what is the meaning of this?! Are you allied with the seditionists?! What are you doing?!¡± Her pleas fell on deaf ears, however.


    Lord Necce laughed. ¡°You know the only reason I¡¯m on the Council is because my seven older brothers were all in the military, don¡¯t you, my Queen? And each and every one of them died in the service of the crown, against our hated enemies. But when I pushed to escalate our efforts against Ishmar, back when you were only six years old, you refused. You put my motion down without even allowing the Council to debate it. And since then, I have seethed with righteous fury. And now, I will have my revenge. My brothers shall rest easy this night.¡±


    And with that, our enemies completed their maneuvers. They had effectively corralled us in a small space, our backs to the outer wall, making us easy targets. I backed up until I could see Alverd at my side, his shield at the ready and the Sword of Evros in his right hand. I looked over my shoulder and saw Kuro with his new staff, waving it at two of our enemies. Our ¡°employer¡± was firmly secured behind the three of us, but she wasn¡¯t having any of this. She slammed her staff into the ground and a flicker of icy cold streaked out of her chest, along her arm, and up the staff into the emerald at the top. The only thing I heard from her was, ¡°so be it.¡±


    I didn¡¯t need to be told twice. I pulled one of the knives from my left hip holsters and threw it at the closest mage; he didn¡¯t react in time and the small knife buried itself in his upper leg. He screamed in pain and dropped his staff, falling to his one good knee. One of the combat mages came barreling towards me with her staff leveled like a jouster¡¯s lance, and I ran forward, ready to intercept.


    Behind me, Alverd slowly closed the distance between him and the other combat mage. He blocked several offensive spells with his shield, advancing steadily until the combat mage twirled his staff and attacked with physical force. Meanwhile, Kuro had taken on the role of defender, and was staring down the two mages he had been eyeing before.


    Both mages attacked at the same time, throwing fire and ice with lethal accuracy; however, Kuro effortlessly created a barrier of shimmering blue and both attacks dissipated harmlessly against it. I¡¯d never seen him do something so efficient or effective before. But I chalked it up to his new staff; Sheena had bent my ear for several hours about how much raw power was contained within it.


    As the combat mage closed the distance with me, he planted the staff in the ground and tried to plant both of his feet into my stomach. The blow snuck under my hammer and knocked me back, almost off my feet. That pain, the pain of having taken an attack that I didn¡¯t need to, enraged me. I could feel my rage beginning to flood through my blood from the center of my chest to the tips of my fingers and toes. As my attacker regained his feet and yanked his staff free of the ground, I grabbed hold of my hammer with both hands and charged him.


    My enemy obviously hadn¡¯t expected me to recover so quickly. He swung his staff up with both of his hands, narrowly blocking an overhead swing I¡¯d aimed at his head.


    The bastard put an impressive amount of strength behind his defense. But nothing, absolutely nothing, stopped a berserker. I pushed off my back foot, hard, and forced him back. Unprepared for such a show of force, the bastard dropped his guard, and his footing. As he tried to steady himself, I swung another two-handed blow sideways at his head. He pulled up the bottom of his staff in a pathetic attempt to stop it, but my attack knocked his staff from his hand. A follow up attack sent him spinning through the air. He landed with a sickening thud, and his body didn¡¯t even twitch.


    I threw Sheena a look over my shoulder to see if she was alright. She had planted her staff in the ground beside her and was now throwing small javelins of ice at her attackers. Her staff itself was linked to the shield Kuro was now using to keep two of our attackers at bay. As far as I could tell, it was like the two magical forces were combining to make the shield stronger; many of the spells directed at it either shattered harmlessly against the shield or bounced off.


    I noticed that Sheena didn¡¯t really need her staff to conjure her ice javelins. Growing up, I¡¯d been instructed by every martial instructor I¡¯d ever had that mages required their staves to use magic. The lessons had always been the same: rob a mage of his staff, and his attack options dropped to near zero. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for mages to go out in a literal blaze of glory through self-sacrificial final attacks, but most simply didn¡¯t have that kind of gumption.


    Sheena, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t just making do with her situation. She was thriving in it.


    Both of the assassins menacing Kuro had no choice but to back down in the face of Sheena¡¯s offense. Kuro saw an opening and let go of his shield, instead channeling a lightning bolt forward. The glowing arc splintered into multiple forks that slammed into the assassins, causing them to fall to their knees as electricity danced across their forms.


    Alverd was having the easiest time of it. The mage who had thrown the initial opening attack was now slowly being overtaken by his advance. He swept his combat staff for Alverd¡¯s feet, but the knight jumped over the sweeping attack and then bashed the front of his shield into the mage¡¯s face. The mage reeled from the blow, and lost his grip on his staff. Alverd leaned back, then made a short leap forward, ramming the shield into the mage¡¯s face again. This time, the mage crumpled to the ground with a meaty thud.


    No longer needing to waste his time with a shielding spell, Kuro turned the intensity on his lightning up a notch. The golden beams streaking from the jewel on his staff arced across the two, causing their bodies to jerk uncontrollably as the lightning ravaged their bodies with indiscriminate fury. Finally, the two expired. Their bodies ceased to move, and both fell to the ground, lifeless. Kuro glanced around warily, watching for any attempt to flank him. When he saw that he was safe, he lowered his staff, holding out an arm to keep Sheena behind him.


    Lord Necce was not pleased to see his servants having so much trouble right off the bat. He raised his own staff skyward, and a gust of wind shot past me as it attempted to knock me off my feet. He conjured a lightning bolt in his hand, and began chanting something. ¡°Spirits of rage, I beseech thee! I offer you tribute in the form of blood. Take my offering and unleash thine anger upon all who displease me! Destroy what has no place here!¡± His lightning bolt crackled and arced, growing until it covered his whole body. But then another voice came from behind me.


    It was Sheena¡¯s. ¡°Wandering souls, I grant you release. Let go of thy hate, for it shall avail thee nothing. I speak unto thee, a humble soul, to quell thy anger. Sovereign agents of judgment, set your sights instead on these impure souls!¡± She grabbed hold of her staff and hoisted it in the air.


    Lord Necce¡¯s spell rocketed forth and streaked toward us with blinding speed. But Sheena caught it with her staff. Redirecting it skyward, the lightning surged up her staff and back into the sky, harmlessly.


    Lord Necce fell back, his face contorted in rage and fear. ¡°You little bitch! You waste the power of your royal blood! We have every right to destroy Ishmar! Have you no shame?!¡± He tried to fling a fireball at us, but Sheena batted it aside with her staff.


    Sheena started to walk toward Lord Necce. ¡°Lord Necce, I hereby place you under arrest. You will henceforth provide the names of all who were involved in the conspiracy to dethrone me, and depending on your level of cooperation, will be punished according to the law of this land.¡± Alverd and Kuro began moving close as well, ready to help her restrain Lord Necce if necessary.


    Lord Necce wasn¡¯t about to go down without a fight, though. He raised his staff again. ¡°You¡­you don¡¯t realize how many people want this, do you? You can¡¯t win. There are too many of us. Our voices shall not be silenced! Glory to Algrustos! Death to Ishmar!¡± And with that, he aimed his staff forward, fire swirling into form around its tip, at Sheena.


    And then a gaping hole appeared in the Magister Lord¡¯s chest.


    As Lord Necce fell backwards, we all turned and stared. We stared at Kuro, who was breathing hard. His staff was pointed in Lord Necce¡¯s direction, lightning still crackling around the brass-cradled ruby at its tip. Necce hit the ground with a thump, smoke still curling from his corpse.


    In the aftermath, there was silence. Everyone was staring at Kuro. But then Sheena strode over to him. ¡°Why did you do that, Sir Kuro? If we had taken him alive, we could¡¯ve learned who else was behind the conspiracy! What was your reasoning? Please, tell me!¡± Kuro began to squirm a bit, but I could see the bitterness in his eyes. I could put two and two together. He wasn¡¯t happy to be chewed out by someone he had a crush on.


    Kuro didn¡¯t answer. He just kind of cast his eyes down and scowled. Alverd tried to put his hand on Sheena¡¯s shoulder, as if to tell her to ease off. She relented, and we all walked back to the Palace in silence.


    In the aftermath, we looked over our attackers. I had killed mine with the blow to his head. Alverd had snapped the neck of his attacker. Both of the mages Kuro had shocked had no pulse. Sheena glared wearily at Kuro when we confirmed the deaths. In a way, she had a right to be angry. With Lord Necce¡¯s death and the death of his cronies, we had no lead on the conspiracy against Sheena. We trudged back to the Palace with heavy hearts and exhausted limbs.


    Kuro walked the slowest. He seemed to be lost in thought. Was he regretting what he¡¯d done? I couldn¡¯t say. From where I was standing, it could¡¯ve been an accident. But the look in his eyes after he let his spell go was¡­chilling. His eyes had been empty, without remorse. As if he didn¡¯t plan on regretting the choice he was about to make. But later, when I learned how he had stormed away from training (figures Alverd wasn¡¯t able to see the deeper connection behind such behavior), I guess it made sense that Kuro would act that way. I just hoped that a good night¡¯s sleep would help the little mage feel better the next day.


    The last thing we needed was another enemy amongst our own.

 B2: Chapter 13: Kuro: To Face Ones Demons (Raw)

    They say that when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.


    I say that none of those people have ever been in my situation.


    As I had mentioned before, jealousy has never been a stranger to me. But I had never envied Laura¡¯s affections for Alverd. The two were, in my opinion, destined for each other. I felt that, in time, I would meet someone who would see past my sarcastic outer shell and see me for who I truly was: a lonely soul, one who put forth a strong front to hide the pain inside. Laura had always told me that as long as I kept hope in my heart, I¡¯d meet a girl who would make me feel special.


    Gods, if only she could see how true her words had been.


    I fished the bracelet Deotra had thrown to me out of my pocket. I hadn¡¯t had the guts to look at it before, but now I needed the motivation to do¡­whatever it was I was planning to do. It was simple red twine, attached to a charm made of some kind of animal bone. A strange rune had been carved meticulously into the bone. I had never seen writing of its kind, and could only guess at its meaning. I slipped the bracelet onto my left wrist, and it fit there snugly. I took a deep breath, and forged ahead.


    I stormed down the path that lead to the Forest of Familiars. Before me rose the entrance, the black iron gate with its pair of guards in their colored cuirasses. They moved to stop me; with a wave of my new staff, I picked the two men up and threw them against each other. Their heads smacked together with a satisfying crack, and they crumpled to the ground. I stepped over their unconscious bodies and into the Forest with a spring in my step.


    This wasn¡¯t like me. I wasn¡¯t the sort to go off without a plan. Yet I couldn¡¯t stomach the idea of an innocent girl being devoured by a demon. Even if that girl had raised a lot of red flags with her words. I knew damn well what I was getting into. But I was seriously winging it. I had no right to expect anything less than the very worst.


    With all the trouble we had gotten into up to this point, I had had plenty of time to see that I was the one who contributed the least during battle, possessed the least control. Alverd and Sheena would never say such things to my face, but Alicia¡­she wouldn¡¯t beat around the bush. Our contract was to protect Sheena (just another detail that made me twitch), and if I couldn¡¯t be relied upon, then I was just dead weight. I knew that doing what I was about to do was nothing but gratifying my own ego. To try and save the damsel in distress.


    I was also angry. Angry at how Sheena had chewed me out on the Palace commons after Lord Necce decided to try his little assassination attempt in broad daylight. She had no right. By leaving herself alone with Alverd, she¡¯d made herself a prime target. Her selfish, childish behavior had nearly gotten herself killed. If not for me and Alicia, she might have just done that.


    I was so busy making sure that no one had seen me gank the guards that I didn¡¯t notice the eyes on me until I looked in the direction of the Forest. In the middle of the path, sitting there like it had every right in the world to, was a fox. A simple, red-furred fox. It cocked its head at me and stared at me with its golden eyes. Then, after a moment, it yipped, turned, and ran back into the Forest.


    I found the encounter odd. On my first trip through the Forest, the animals had all given me a wide berth. Perhaps this one creature¡¯s curiosity had been too great for it to contain. Then I remembered that I had always had a strange affinity for foxes. They used to follow me around in my youth, back in the days when I was still in the orphanage. They¡¯d watch me from the shadows of trees or the underbrush, then scamper back to obscurity when I got too close.


    The oddest encounter I¡¯d ever had with a fox, however, was shortly after I had arrived in Irinholm, and placed in the dormitory for the mage apprentices. I was a child with no friends who didn¡¯t know who to avoid and who to be wary of. After a long day of being made fun of by my ¡°upperclassmen¡±, I had gone to bed stifling tears. But after a short bout of restless sleep, I had awoken to find a fox curled up on my stomach.


    It had woken up, looked at me with its wide, golden eyes, and then stared at me until I realized that it wasn¡¯t going to leave or do anything else. I dismissed it as my sleepy mind playing tricks on me. In the morning, all of the children who had bullied me found their clothes and robes slashed to bits. Even Professor Farnus couldn¡¯t figure out what had gone on, but I was smart enough to put two and two together. In a fit of childishness, I chose not to inform him of the nighttime intruder who was no doubt responsible for the act.


    Then a story from my childhood surfaced in my mind. Professor Farnus had told us that, when it came time for an apprentice to find a familiar, that there was was a far more insidious danger lurking in the forests where they dwelled. Sometimes demons would hide in the woods, waiting for foolish apprentices to make contracts with them, pretending to be familiars until it was too late. Once the contract was made, the demon would eat up the mage¡¯s life, enslaving them until the day they died. I remember having a nightmare about that the very night Farnus told that story.


    It started with me approaching a simple dog in the forest. A harmless looking dog. But before my eyes, it transformed into some shapeless horror, a cloud of bulging darkness with horrible glowing eyes and a gaping mouth of yellowed teeth. It seized me with deformed arms made of muscle and rotting flesh and made to shove me into its jaws. I screamed and no sound escaped my lips, and I watched my doom come closer and closer.


    But something had happened. That nightmare had ended in the strangest way. A blazing ball of light, small but almost as strong as the sun, zipped forth and slammed into the demon. It shrieked in pain and let go of me, dropping me to the ground. I watched as the light smashed into the demon multiple times, and it slunk back into the dark of the woods, making the same hurt noises as a wounded dog. The light bounced over to me, and then took the form of a fox, nuzzling my face with its muzzle affectionately before disappearing like a snuffed candle.


    Odd that I¡¯d remember that dream now. But it served to teach me that nothing was ever as it seemed. That was what scared me now. Who was to say that Deotra wasn¡¯t some demon mimicking the form of what I considered perfection incarnate, setting up some ornate trap to snare me and turn me into its food and plaything? I shuddered. If it was true, if Deotra really was a demon, then she could be any kind of hellish abomination. But given what she had tried to do to me, I figured she had to be a certain kind of demon. A succubus.


    Succubi, and by extension incubi, their male counterparts, were demons that fed off the life force of their victims. Although years of mythology and the bastardization of those myths said that they stole peoples¡¯ life force through the act of sex, it wasn¡¯t entirely true. Succubi tempted men with whatever they wanted; power, prestige, earthly delights¡­so long as they corrupted the judgment of their prey, it was easier to feed off them without realizing it¡­until it was far too late.


    What didn¡¯t make sense, however, was why she had let me go. Without my staff, I had been helpless. She could have easily overwhelmed me, taken me against my will, sucked every last bit of my life force out of my body like a vicious spider and left only a mindless husk. Instead, she¡¯d given me a new staff and disappeared. A perfect opportunity, wasted. Was she playing some bigger game? I couldn¡¯t tell. And at this point, I didn¡¯t care.


    I looked at the staff in question. The smooth, polished mahogany wood fit in my right hand perfectly. The ruby set in its tip sparkled only when the staff was in my possession. When I wielded the staff, I no longer felt the exhaustion after a single spell that I did when I had used Farnus¡¯ staff. When it was in my hand, my concentration deepened, and I could tune out distractions easier. It was as though the staff had been made for me. I shuddered when I thought of the implications.


    But it didn¡¯t matter. Even if I had been a bit freaked out by Deotra¡¯s shameless advances, part of me had reveled in it. Welcomed it. Needed it. It was the first time I had ever kissed a girl. And before Deotra had gone off the deep end, before her eyes became filled with that horrifying emptiness, I think she had still been that same sweet, helpful girl who had reached out to me in my time of need.


    It was beyond stupid for me to think that way. That look in her eye should¡¯ve been the confirmation of her demonic nature. Demons were characterized by their hunger; it didn¡¯t matter what type of demon they were, at the end of the day it always boiled down to the same thing. They were creatures of insatiable hunger, always looking for their next meal. And the longer they went without feeding, the more dangerous they became, like packs of feral wolves.


    And judging by the look I had seen in Deotra¡¯s eyes, she had looked very, very hungry indeed.


    Demons also possessed great magical knowledge. For hundreds of years, bards had told stories, composed songs, and even wrote entire operas about how demons could bestow the secrets of magic upon those willing to pay the proper price. And for once the spoony bastards were right. Mages could indeed become vastly powerful if they bargained with demons for the means to further their own magical strength.


    But there was always a catch. A price to pay. The demon would always collect, and the story would always end the same way it was meant to be told; a cautionary tale designed to teach the foolhardy that it wasn¡¯t worth the risk. And now, I was about to head into the domain of one such creature.


    It was reckless for me to pursue this. Even if my motive and heart were in the right place, even if I wished to stop being the dead weight, all it meant was that Deotra had exactly what she needed to hang me from the yardarm. She¡¯d tempt me with all the power I desired, and the moment I sealed a contract with her, CHOMP. I¡¯d spend the rest of my very miserable life as her mindless slave as she fed off my energy. Then I¡¯d die, and she¡¯d find some new sap to ensnare. The nature of the beast, and the law of the jungle, hand in hand and on full display.


    I had to operate on an assumption. It was the only way to stay focused. And the only assumption I was willing to stomach was that Deotra was a victim of the demon, and that there was still time to save her. I would fight tooth and nail for her.


    I hurried through the forest, paying no mind to the familiars scattering from my path. I headed for the clearing where I had fought the dragon-familiar, and where I had made my first connection with another soul. At last, I broke through a line of trees and into the clearing. The cave I sought loomed before me, its dark maw rising up as if to swallow me whole.


    As I entered the clearing where I¡¯d saw her last, the often-ignored corner of my mind that housed what little common sense I possessed screamed at me full tilt. Run, it said. Run and don¡¯t look back. This is your last chance. I¡¯m warning you. But I pushed it out of my head. I had made my decision. It was a stupid decision fueled by my anger, at Sheena for playing me and at me for swallowing her lies, and I was determined to see it through, damn the consequences. If it really did end up like Farnus had warned me, then nobody would ever have to worry about me again.


    I wondered if anyone would even care if I was gone. I decided to not ponder that further.


    Slowly I inched to the mouth of the cave, peering deep into its depths. Like it had before, the dark recesses of the cave were too deep for me to see, and I doubted that even my lighting spell would be of much help down there. I picked up a pebble and threw it into the cave, mirroring Deotra¡¯s action the first time I had met her. The pebble bounced in the darkness a few times, then fell still. I waited, expecting another creature to come racing out, but nothing happened. I moved up to the very edge of the cave mouth, and called out in a voice barely above a whisper, ¡°Deotra?¡±


    Nothing. At first, there was nothing. Then a burst of air came sweeping out of the cave mouth. It blew over and past me, and it carried a voice. ¡°You came back. How quaint.¡± The voice hadn¡¯t changed from before. It was velvety smooth and vaguely disinterested, almost as though it regarded me as a nuisance. I shouted back down the dark tunnel. ¡°You get one chance, demon. You give me the girl or I go in there and kick your incorporeal arse until you do.¡± I tried very hard not to let my voice shake. I didn¡¯t succeed.


    The demon was silent for a moment. Then a bout of laughter came tumbling out of the cave. It wasn¡¯t raucous, overblown, or villainous. It was just the sound of a very amused, very skeptical entity calling my bluff. But then something came hurtling out of the dark, slamming into my face and knocking me on my butt. When I picked myself off the ground and looked at it, I winced.


    It was Deotra¡¯s lantern. And it had very deep claw marks dug into it.


    The demon was sending me a very clear message. She wasn¡¯t afraid of me. She had every right not to be. She didn¡¯t know fear. She didn¡¯t know honor. She only knew hunger. But I was definitely going to find out if she could feel pain. I grabbed the flimsy lantern and held the ruby in my staff to the wick on the candle. It lit, and I held the lantern aloft in my left hand, staff gripped in my right. I took a deep, deep breath, and walked into the cave.


    The cave itself went straight for the first five minutes of my walk. Then it began to slope downward. The descent wasn¡¯t steep, but the uneven stone floor made sure I had to watch my footing. Another five minutes in, the floor began to become slippery with loose gravel. I took note in the event I might have to beat a hasty retreat that I wouldn¡¯t be able to rely on the ground beneath me.


    As the descent became more bearable, I heard the voice once more. In the narrow tunnel, it echoed off the walls and ceiling and gave it a more menacing quality. ¡°Ohoho¡­so you still think you can wrest her from me, do you?¡± I shouted back down the tunnel. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving. Not without her. Be a good little soul sucking monster and give her to me alive. Then I go right back out without having to punch a few holes into whatever you call a face.¡± Again, my knees were knocking hard. If I encountered the demon, I had no idea what I¡¯d do to stop her from killing me.


    ¡°Is that so? How romantic. You think you can ride off into the sunset with the damsel, boy?¡± As I heard those words, there was a strange sound, almost like someone taking a deep breath. The loose stones on the ground rattled. Then a huge gust of wind came roaring down the tunnel. ¡°AND WHAT MAKES YOU WORTHY OF SUCH AN END, WHEN ALL YOU REALLY DESERVE IS TO DIE HERE IN THIS CAVE?!¡±


    The gust and the sheer force of the scream knocked me back. I lost my footing and fell. The lantern hit the ground and the light went out. I curled into a little ball and held my head between my arms, squeezing my eyes shut. I was afraid. More afraid than I¡¯d ever been in my life. Nothing had ever frightened me as much as this one moment.


    The voice came again, this time soft, but dripping with haughty disdain and arrogance. ¡°Oh dear. I¡¯ve lost sight of you, worm. Come now. Spark a light, if you have the courage. IF you have the courage to admit that you¡¯ve lost. Come now, boy. Light the lantern, and I¡¯ll show you just what the girl is.¡± I fumbled for the lantern in the dark, finally managed to grasp the iron ring at its top. I stood up the best I could, and, fearing the worst, lit the wick again.


    It was scrawled everywhere. The ground, walls, even the ceiling. It hadn¡¯t been there before, but now it was there, plain as the eye could see. A word, scratched over and over and over again across every surface, with jagged edges as though they had been dug into the stone by cruel, unfeeling claws. Just. One. Word.


    MINE.


    Not gonna lie. I whimpered softly as the fear really took hold of me.


    Only now, when faced with the prospect of utter terror, did I realize just how screwed I was. What a harebrained thing I¡¯d done. I had vastly underestimated my foe. I had run into her den without truly being ready. This was the moment when it really just¡­hit me. The odds that I was going to die here in this cave were so much higher than I¡¯d believed.


    And yet, there was only one thing to do.


    I pressed on. Holding the battered lantern in front of me, I continued down the cave path. The floor began to level out, and I was no longer in any danger of tripping over my own feet. As I made my way through the dark, I could hear the low laughter of the demon in the distance. Then her voice slid its way back to my ears. ¡°I suppose there¡¯s no point in telling you to turn back at this point. You¡¯ve always been a fool, boy. Why didn¡¯t you make them pay? Those children who bullied you in the orphanage. They would have had it coming, so why didn¡¯t you?¡±


    I froze in my tracks. The demon had somehow dredged up a terrible childhood memory. How could she possibly know about such a thing? I¡¯d never met her before. I would have known if I¡¯d crossed paths with a demon so far back in my childhood. But I wasn¡¯t going to let her shake me so easily. Even if I was scared beyond all reason, I wouldn¡¯t give her the satisfaction. I called back out into the emptiness. ¡°You don¡¯t know a damn thing about me, demon. You don¡¯t frighten me.¡± An abject lie, but she didn¡¯t need to know that.


    The demon¡¯s voice came back with a retort of its own. ¡°Really? Then how about those magelings back in Marevar? They mocked you because all you could do was basic elemancy. You were consumed by self-loathing. And because you couldn¡¯t perform even the simplest of healing spells, you had to watch Laura die. Shall I go on, child?¡±


    I wanted to howl bloody murder at the demon for bringing up Laura. About bringing up my insecurities about my own skills. I¡¯d didn¡¯t even care how she was managing to rake me over the coals with her uncanny ability to conjure up my past for her own sick amusement. I wasn¡¯t going to take that crap from a demon. ¡°Enough!¡± I shouted. ¡°You had your fun, bitch! Come out and face me, if you¡¯re so convinced that you can take me!¡± My voice echoed down the tunnel, and then¡­silence.


    After what felt like an eternity, I heard the voice again. ¡°If you are so eager to die, boy, then perhaps I can indulge you. The girl yet lives. Claim her, if you have the nerve. Come closer¡­let me show you my teeth.¡± A guttural growl resounded through the tunnel, not unlike that of a hungry beast. I steeled myself, remembering that Deotra¡¯s life hung in the balance, and moved forward.


    After another five minutes, the tunnel opened up into a chamber. Stalactites and stalagmites littered the floor and ceiling, and I could hear the steady dripping of water from somewhere in the room. Inside the cavernous expanse, bioluminescent mushrooms provided dim light, allowing me to get a sense of the size and shape of the cavern. All around me, small pools of water littered the floor, catching the moisture falling from the ceiling. And in the very center of the room, propped up against a pedestal, was Deotra.


    She was unconscious. She didn¡¯t appear to be hurt, but I hurried over to her to check. Upon closer inspection, I could see that she was barely breathing. I put the lantern down to the side and picked up her right hand in both of mine; although her hand was cold and clammy, I could feel a pulse in her wrist. I cupped her head in my hand, trying to stir her. ¡°Deotra? It¡¯s me, Kuro. We have to leave. Please, wake up.¡±


    Then the demon¡¯s voice came, echoing across the chamber walls. ¡°It¡¯s no use, boy. Her life is mine. She is bound to me by contract, and there is nothing you can do to stop me from draining what is left of her life. That is, unless¡­¡± The demon interrupted herself to utter a sick, sadistic chuckle. ¡°¡­you make a bargain with me?¡±


    I stood back up, looking left and right to see if I could sense the demon¡¯s location. No dice. ¡°You think me a fool? I know better than to make deals with demons. Give me the girl before you piss me off further.¡± As I spoke, I noticed something move off to my right. I whipped around, waving the lantern in its direction. Like a cockroach, the oddity scattered from the light, until it slipped behind the pedestal. But then it reared up, claws made of smoke and black fire slamming into the ground between me and Deotra. I gazed straight into the seething mass of ebon flame that was the demon, and a face-at least, what passed for a face in this instance, emerged, gazing at me with blazing red eyes. A mouth opened, revealing twin rows of horrible, pointy yellowed teeth.


    At this point, it was do or die. With a scream half rage and half fear, I lifted my ruby-tipped staff and struck. Lightning coursed out of my chest, down my arms, and out through the business end of my staff, blasting the demon square in the torso, if it could be called that. The damned thing let out a piercing shriek, either from pain or surprise, and reared back. With a wolflike snarl she swept one of its shadowy claws at me in a blind haymaker. Pumped full of adrenaline, I saw the windup of the attack and ducked under it as best I could.


    The claw came closer than I was comfortable with. Again, I willed the electrical impulses in my body into the staff in my hands. Another brilliant bolt of golden fury lanced across the room, illuminating the darkness even as it slammed into the demon¡¯s chest. The demon threw up her claws to block my next shot. My next thunderbolt splashed harmlessly against the demon¡¯s defense. In return, the demon opened her mouth and from it spewed a torrent of black flame. I crossed my arms in a warding gesture, just in the nick of time. Augmented by my new staff, a shimmering sphere of blue light enveloped me, protecting me from all around, pushing the unholy fire to the side. I was amazed at how much stamina I retained after the flame subsided; the staff in my hands seemed to make all forms of magic effortless for me.


    The demon faltered as I let the shield spell fall away. I pressed my attack, willing electricity from my body into the tip of the staff. Yet another thunderbolt shrieked forward and impacted the demon¡¯s chest, and it roared in pain and anger. I took a few steps forward, intensifying the thunderbolt. I wanted that demon to suffer. I didn¡¯t even realize that I was screaming in my own fury, pushing as much power into my attack as I could muster.


    The demon finally gave up the ghost. I could see cracks developing across its skin, with golden light streaming through them. The demon gave one last swipe of its claw at me, but faltered halfway through, missing me by a foot. Then, it shattered into a million pieces, fragments of dark matter sprinkling down like rain.


    Breathing heavily, I ran over to check Deotra again. Her skin was warmer now, and her breathing not so ragged. When I touched her face, her eyes fluttered open, wide and scared, until they focused on me. ¡°¡­Kuro? Is that you?¡± I reached my arm under hers and gently pulled her up off the ground, leaning her weight against my shoulder so she could steady herself. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me. We need to get out of here, now. I don¡¯t think that demon is ready to give up the ghost. It¡¯ll be back soon enough, I¡¯d wager.¡± I started to drag her towards the cave entrance when she pulled on my robe.


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t leave yet¡­¡± She pointed at the pedestal. ¡°That¡¯s where the demon was sealed. We have to reactivate the seal or the demon will be free to do as she pleases. Help me¡­¡± I nodded, then pulled her back over to the pedestal.


    It was wrought from flawless ivory, its white finish a stark contrast to the pitch black surrounding it. Strange runes were etched all over the ivory like the chickenscratch of a young child. Upon it was some sort of relic. As I drew closer, I could see that it was some kind of idol. It appeared to be made of silver, and was fashioned in the shape of a woman in a cloak, wielding a long staff that was taller than herself. It wasn¡¯t the work of a master, but that wasn¡¯t what was so special about it; instead, I sensed a powerful magic pulsing from it, steady and strong, almost like a heartbeat.


    ¡°How do I do this?¡± I asked her. I had never seen anything like this. I¡¯d never had any practice with sealing magic. Deotra put her hand over the idol. ¡°Here. Let me show you.¡± She took hold of my hand and put it on the idol. Luckily for me, she didn¡¯t see me blush when she grabbed my hand. I could feel the pulses of magic through my palm, echoing up my arm and into my chest. ¡°Now, imagine a key turning in a lock. Focus on that image as best you can, and put forth your energy into the idol.¡± I did what I was told, and as I did, the magic of the idol changed, its power now radiating outward at great intensity.


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    I expected a lot. I expected fire, or lightning, or monsters, or even a boulder, but nothing happened. For a few seconds, I stood there, the idol in my hands, expecting the worst. Then, light sprung out of the pedestal. Bursts of color, like little will o¡¯ the wisps, emerged. They swirled in the air, painting a picture. It took me a minute to realize that it was a map of the known world. Once the entire map was complete, five dots appeared. Red, green, blue, brown and yellow. They streaked to different parts of the map, hovering over five areas like buzzing bees. They painted lines that I eventually recognized as the borders of countries. But the borders didn¡¯t match any modern maps that I knew of. The dimensions were all wrong. Territory I knew belonged to certain nations intersected with other countries. I moved closer, trying to make sense of the strange map. The five lights ceased their flight and hovered over five distinct locations, pulsing like fireflies. I squinted in the dim light, trying to make out the locations.


    The first was simple. The brown light was hovering over the nation of Kierhai, which was south of Algrustos. The green light had streaked southwest and was hovering over a tiny island near the coast of the industrious country of Margloom. The yellow light had settled over an area just to the west of the now annexed territory of Marevar, indicating it was in the country of Guilford. The blue light had zoomed down to the southern part of the map, to the Theocracy of Shardin. And the red light was now seated in the very far northwestern part of the map¡­in the country of Ishmar. I reached up to try and touch the lights, as if touching them would help me understand the significance of what I was seeing.


    And then, I heard laughter.


    Slowly I turned. Sure enough, it was Deotra. But something was very different. Her once sparkling eyes had now become narrow and sinister, and she was radiating an aura of pure malice. When she grinned, I could see that her canine teeth had elongated. She looked very much like a predator waiting to devour its prey. She pushed past me, ignoring me completely, and traced her arm through the air, memorizing where the dots were.


    ¡°And now I know exactly where you all are. She tried to hide you from me, and now her failure is almost complete. I¡¯ve waited a very long time for this¡­and now I can finally do what I¡¯ve wanted to do for centuries.¡±


    Her voice had changed, too. But it wasn¡¯t the voice I¡¯d heard when I¡¯d ¡°angered¡± Deotra the night before. This was a new voice, as if it belonged to someone else. It was deep, husky, sultry; the voice of a temptress. It was thick and luxurious, like melted caramel, and it would have instilled a feeling of arousal in any young man who heard it¡­had they not been terrified of the face that went with it.


    Suddenly, she turned to me. Her wicked grin became even wider. A chill ran all the way down my spine. Whatever this¡­thing was, it wasn¡¯t Deotra anymore. It was something else entirely, some force I couldn¡¯t comprehend. It had to be a demon. A demon that could show me anything I wanted if it helped accomplished its goals.


    I had a chilling revelation. The demon had said ¡°contract¡±. It was very likely that the demon had already devoured Deotra¡¯s soul and was now using her body like a sock puppet to lure me in. I began to move away, towards the cave entrance, but the demon saw me, and rounded on me menacingly. Her voice, still rich and confident and seductive, poured from her mouth again, filled with a sadistic glee that frightened me to my core.


    ¡°And I have you to thank for this. I¡¯m so very pleased to meet you, Kuro. I¡¯ve had my eye on you for some time now, and I admit, I had to question whether you would come through for me. The little vixen put on quite the song and dance for you. Had you eating out of the palm of her hand. So cute and helpless and innocent. Guess that sort of thing really lit your fire, so to speak? Heh heh heh¡­¡±


    Deotra chuckled sinisterly to herself. ¡°I have quite a low opinion of your kind, Kuro. Yours is an untrustworthy lot, and unreliable to boot. I think you only helped me because of your misguided feelings towards this girl. Easily manipulated. Not a good quality¡­or is it?¡± As she laughed again, I found myself clenching my teeth. I didn¡¯t see this ending well at all.


    She came over, reaching toward me with her hand. I was rooted to the spot. I stiffened and braced myself for something horrible. Instead, she ran her index finger across my cheek, then my lips, then my other cheek. When she¡¯d passed me, she drew that same finger back to her own face, sliding it up to her mouth. ¡°In the end, it could have been anyone, really. But she chose you. She thought you were so noble! I didn¡¯t see it. But I saw other things in you, things that I found useful for my ends. Things that I found¡­appealing.¡±


    Her lips parted and she gave me a haughty, amused smile. ¡°Am I so frightening that I¡¯ve scared you into silence? Come now! Speak! Tell me how it feels to have been tricked so easily! To fall for such a simple ruse. I always knew you were smart, so it¡¯s a bit odd to see you abandoning good sense so you could fulfill some stupid manly instinct! Not that I¡¯m complaining. I¡¯ve had a lot of time to plan this little snare, and you¡¯ve fallen into it exactly as I¡¯d hoped.¡±


    The hairs on the back of my neck bristled when she said the word ¡°snare¡±. I had a horrible image of some demonic creature chewing me up and spitting out my bones. ¡°I only did it for Deotra. And maybe you¡¯re right, maybe you fooled me, and maybe I¡¯m gonna die, but at least I can die knowing I did what I did because I¡­¡± I hesitated. ¡°Because I wasn¡¯t of sound mind.¡± Deotra laughed again. ¡°Love makes you crazy? That¡¯s your reason? That¡¯s rich. You can put that on your gravestone, along with the millions of other men who died because they were too busy staring at a pretty girl to think straight.¡±


    ¡°Still, I¡¯m pleased to see that everything worked out nicely. I had to restrain the little girl quite harshly to ensure she didn¡¯t give away the surprise before it was time. I¡¯m so glad this little vixen finally managed to pull off her role in this charade, and to have kept herself in control for as long as she did. To be honest, I expected her to do more than latch onto you and wrestle you to the ground the first moment she was able. I¡¯ve lived a very, very long time, and I thought I¡¯d seen it all¡­I guess I stand corrected.¡± Deotra laughed again, moving closer to me. Oh gods, the look on her face was the stuff of nightmares.


    I stepped back, nearly tripping in the dark. ¡°Who are you? Reveal your true form to me!¡± I pointed my staff at Deotra. I watched her like a hawk, waiting for a response.


    My defensive stance did little to deter her. Instead, she made a gesture with her hand, and the staff flew out of my hand and into the darkness. I was now completely helpless, utterly powerless before her now. I backed up, but found myself pushed back against a stalagmite, with nowhere else to go. Deotra stood before me, her grin reaching her ears, a malicious gleam in her golden eyes.


    She knelt down, putting her face mere inches from my own. My eyes peered deep into hers, the depths of complete madness going on for forever. ¡°Oh, no no no. It¡¯s not time for me to reveal who I am. But know that I am no simple parasite. You could call me a spirit. I¡¯ve been very interested in you, Kuro. As is the little vixen. I believe you might be the one we¡¯ve been looking for.¡± She grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently. ¡°But you are so dense! I had that girl hand you the bloody Staff of Farewells, the most powerful magic staff in the world, and you squander its power, its potential!¡±


    What the bloody hell was she talking about? ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re blathering about! You¡¯ve got to slow the hell down and explain to me! I don¡¯t have any idea of what it is you want me to get, here! Help me understand!¡±


    Deotra scowled, and her eyes flashed evilly. ¡°You don¡¯t tell me what to do. Perhaps you don¡¯t understand what¡¯s going on here, young Kuro.¡± She picked me up, effortlessly, and I felt my feet dangle uselessly as they left the ground. Deotra¡¯s face was twisted into an expression of satisfaction and triumph. ¡°You¡¯re mine, now. I¡¯ve seen men stronger than you, better than you. I¡¯ve broken every single one of them. So trust me when I say that a whelp like you is nothing but child¡¯s play to me. I¡¯m going to teach you exactly what your place is in this world! It¡¯s on all fours, crushed beneath my heel!¡±


    Deotra began radiating waves of force that slammed me into a nearby wall. I thanked my lucky stars I hadn¡¯t hit something pointy; when the wave subsided, I fell to the ground. The next wave slammed me against a stalagmite, snapping it like a twig and sending a fresh wave of pain up my back and into my shoulders. When the pressure ceased, I crawled forward, taking shelter behind the ivory pedestal. After a few moments, the waves ended, and I peered over the pedestal at Deotra. She was floating two feet above the ground, an aura of golden light surrounding her. She spied me, and floated back down to the ground. She started walking toward me, and I hid back behind the pedestal. But there was no place to hide. Deotra walked around the pedestal, until she could plainly see me. With a wave of her arm, she yanked me up to her eye level. Her magic was powerful, too powerful for me to fight against.


    I awaited the moment when she would kill me. But instead she kissed me.


    But it wasn¡¯t like before. There was no suffocatingly overwhelming need behind this kiss. It was¡­innocent, pure. The kiss of a young girl pouring all of her feelings into one expression of her affection. When she parted lips from me and stepped back, I could see that the angry, violent alter ego had disappeared, and the soft side of Deotra had somehow returned. Her golden aura had also faded, though a bit of it lingered like an afterglow, giving her an unearthly but gentle beauty. She smiled at me shyly. ¡°It¡¯s me, Kuro.¡± I let loose the deepest sigh of relief I¡¯d ever made in my life.


    Deotra bowed to me deeply. ¡°You¡¯ll have to forgive me. I¡¯ve only gotten as far as I have because of that spirit. She¡¯s not really a demon, and she doesn¡¯t share much with me, but she did tell me her name¡­it¡¯s Drache. She has a bad habit of trying to put people in their place, and she can be a bit heavy-handed. But she knows potential when she sees it. Given time, you could be everything that we hope you to be. Therefore, it is in my best interest to keep you safe¡­as I always have.¡±


    I blinked. ¡°So then¡­all of this, was just a test?¡± Deotra nodded. ¡°I¡¯m really sorry that it had to be like this. But Drache insisted that this was the best way to test your character. You have no idea how happy it made me when I saw you come back¡­¡± She bridged her fingers together as she smiled. ¡°I¡¯m usually not a fan of deceiving others, or telling lies. But the truth would have been too much for you. So I had to trick you, for a little while. Thank goodness that¡¯s all over with.¡±


    I could still feel the blood pounding in my veins from Drache¡¯s display of anger. Some of the things she said, however, still stuck in my mind. I went fumbling around in the dark for my staff, finding it after a moment. I showed it to Deotra. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the Staff of Farewells? I heard that demon say something about it just now.¡±


    Deotra frowned at me. ¡°Please, Kuro. She¡¯s not a demon. She¡¯s a spirit. There IS a difference, you know.¡± She said that rather petulantly. Then she walked over to me. ¡°This is a relic of great power. And it belongs to you now. Drache doesn¡¯t want me to tell you too much about it. She wants you to try and unlock its true powers yourself. Think of it as a test.¡±


    She leaned over and tapped the ruby on the tip of the staff. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do just fine with such a powerful weapon. I¡¯ve waited a very long time to give this to you. There were times when I was scared you¡¯d die without me beside you. So I helped you, as best I could, without your knowledge.¡±


    My attention was drawn away from examining the staff in my hand. ¡°You said something about that before¡­how you¡¯d been following me for a decade and a half. Have you really been shadowing me for the past fifteen years?¡±


    Deotra¡¯s smile widened, her long, sharp canine teeth on full display. ¡°Yes. I have been beside you far longer than you think. I¡¯ve followed you ever since you were just a child in Marevar. I¡¯ve been making sure to intercede only when absolutely necessary.¡±


    Then she sheepishly wrung her hands. ¡°Although sometimes, I admit that I used my powers a little frivolously¡­to make sure you were taken care of. I know you didn¡¯t have parents, so I wanted to look after you¡­¡± Suddenly that nightmare made sense. The fox that had protected me from the demon. ¡°You used magic¡­you chased away my nightmares! When I was a child, every nightmare I ever had always ended the same way. Always a fox, wreathed in golden light, chasing away everything that scared me¡­that was you, too?¡±


    Deotra smiled again. ¡°Yes, that was me. I couldn¡¯t bear to watch you suffer. In any way. If it was within my power to keep you happy, I did what I had to. Drache always scolded me but I wanted you to always be the same boy that I¡­¡± She trailed off for a moment, but then made a herculean effort to look me straight in the eyes. ¡°¡­the same boy that I fell in love with.¡±


    I stammered. I didn¡¯t know what to say. Deotra had just come out and told me that she loved me. Every conscious thought in my head came to a grinding halt. I¡¯d never had a girl, or anyone for that matter, tell me that they loved me. It was a novel sensation. I could feel my heart speeding up, my lungs become short of breath. The earnestly on Deotra¡¯s face communicated her feelings to me as plain as day. I had no words to express the way I felt. I didn¡¯t need any.


    Then Deotra became depressed, and she hugged her arms tight around her chest, in what looked like self-loathing. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I have a bit of a temper. And being called out like that, I realized that I¡¯d pushed too hard. I wasn¡¯t mad at you, Kuro. I was mad at myself. For not being able to ease into it. For scaring you. I want you to understand me, to understand my feelings. And I think, the best way to do that is to tell you the truth.¡±


    Deotra seemed to gather up her courage, and took a deep breath. Then, she made an effort to turn her golden eyes up from the ground and look me in the eye. ¡°The truth of the matter is, I am not human.¡±? Deotra quickly turned her eyes away from me in shame. But instead of being afraid, as I should have been, and had every right to be, I felt confusion.


    I blinked. ¡°If you¡¯re not human, then what are you?¡±? Deotra looked at me with sadness in her eyes. ¡°I am what your kind would call a familiar.¡±? I blinked again. Then I registered surprise. ¡°Wait, what?! You¡¯re a familiar?!¡± I looked Deotra up and down (a bit slower than necessary), as if looking for proof she was yanking my chain. She looked perfectly human. Very heavy emphasis on the ¡°perfect¡± part.


    Deotra averted her gaze again, her soft voice trembling. ¡°I want to show you, but I worry¡­I worry that you will reject me. Please believe me when I say that I have good reason to suspect such. I don¡¯t know if I could take that kind of rejection. I¡¯ve suffered it for so long, and from so many; if you rejected me too, I think I¡¯d I just want to stop living.¡±


    She looked really sad. I couldn¡¯t blame her. Rejection was no stranger to me, either. We all had secrets. If we were lucky, we¡¯d find people we could trust with those secrets, who¡¯d stand beside us in spite of those secrets. Deotra, whatever she was, was going out on a limb. She was reaching out for me, asking me to trust her. I didn¡¯t know if I could. In a place like this, where nothing was as it seemed, I wasn¡¯t sure if I could trust her. But I looked into her eyes and saw all I needed to see.


    So much pain. So much betrayal. I saw a little girl crying alone as everyone around her laughed with mouths as wide as hungry wolves¡¯. I saw her running and running, but never escaping. I saw tears and sobs that went on for years. There was no way anyone could fake what I was seeing. This pain was all too real, too visceral, to have been the product of a falsehood.


    I reached out and took Deotra¡¯s hand. She stiffened when I did, and she almost pulled her hand away. Her other hand wrung itself around the glove, as though she thought I had tried to remove it. ¡°What are you¡­¡±? I gripped her hand and cupped it in both of my own.¡±I won¡¯t reject you. Whatever it is you have to show me, I will not run. I will not abandon you. Show me what you must.¡±


    Instead of shrinking away, like I thought she would, Deotra took a step forward. Her normally shy voice gained a strange edge to it. ¡°Do you promise?¡±? I was taken aback by her sudden change in tone. But she pressed again. ¡°Do you promise, Kuro?¡±? I stammered a reply. ¡°Um, yes. Of course.¡±? She took another step forward and the tone in her voice became almost frenzied. ¡°Say you promise! I won¡¯t believe you until you say that you promise you won¡¯t run!¡±?


    From that dusty corner of my brain, my common sense screamed at me that something was very wrong and that this was my very last opportunity to run and save myself. But I pushed it aside again. I calmly spoke the words she wanted to hear, so there would be no mistaking my intent. ¡°I promise I won¡¯t run away, Deotra. Show me what you must.¡±


    When I said the words ¡®I promise¡¯, her eyes glittered. She clung to those words, as if she were but a child trying to find truth in an adult¡¯s lies. ¡°Alright¡­remember, you promised¡­¡±? Deotra pulled her hand free, and then, closing her eyes, spread her arms and enveloped herself in a bright light, blue flames emanating from her feet, spreading up her body with blinding speed.


    The fire spread up, past her chest and up over her head. The light became too bright for me to see past, and I shielded my eyes with my hand. After a moment, the light began to fade. As the blue flame died away, I removed my hand, and beheld Deotra in her alleged true form.


    I had to look down to do it. Because sitting where Deotra had been only a moment ago was a fox. A very familiar red-furred fox. It looked up at me, yowled, and then shimmered in form; the little fox disappeared again, and in its place was Deotra. I stammered for a moment, becoming aware of the expectant look on her face. I knew I had to be diplomatic with my answer.


    ¡°Then you¡¯re¡­a fox familiar?¡± I had heard of such familiars. They were incredibly rare, had a talent for transformation, and generally did not end up as mage familiars due to their low magic power. I knew that Deotra would think I was judging her based on her being a fox familiar; because a fox familiar would be of no use to a mage who regularly saw combat¡­like me.


    Which explained why she could appear human. As a familiar who specialized in shapeshifting, it made sense that she could assume human form. I had no way of knowing if fox familiars could really do that, given that I¡¯d never met one or anyone who had, but everything checked out so far. I was about to comment on how peculiar it was for her to be out here when I noticed her fidgeting. She was waiting for me to make a judgment about her revelation.


    Gods. She looked so pitiful. Nothing I¡¯d seen before could compare to how pathetic she looked now. She seemed smaller, as if she wanted to just fade from sight by sheer force of will. There was no way in the seven hells I was going to blame this girl for a circumstance that was out of her control. I didn¡¯t know if a platitude would be enough to settle her doubts, but I had plenty to choose from, having followed Alverd for so long. Good to see that I had learned something from that thickheaded lug.


    I moved next to Deotra and put my hand on her shoulder. ¡°Hey, you know what? So you¡¯re a fox familiar. So what? I¡¯d be damn lucky to have someone as thoughtful as you as my familiar. I mean, sure, it was kind of weird when you forced yourself on me, but it¡¯s not like it wasn¡¯t all that bad. I kinda like you, Deotra. You helped me out, and I¡¯d like to do the same for you, given the chance.¡±


    Deotra¡¯s face lit up like the morning sky when I said that. Gods, she wasn¡¯t cute then. She was beautiful. I was stunned, in awe of this girl who, despite having only just come into my life, made me feel special. She nestled against me, and I embraced her as she cried tears of joy into my robe. We stood together like that for awhile, lost in a moment that I didn¡¯t want to end. But end it did.


    She looked at me with an uncharacteristic amount of determination in her eyes. ¡°I won¡¯t let her hurt you like that again! She may be powerful and wise and really, really angry, but it¡¯s my body we share, so if she gets out of line I¡¯ll forcibly take control. Now that I¡¯m finally by your side, I won¡¯t let anyone harm you in any way. I promise¡­¡± Her attempt at putting on a tough face was adorable. She looked like a big kid, trying to convince her parent she was more of a grown up than she looked.


    Suddenly, she blushed and turned her face away from me, covering her face with her gloved fingers. Her eyes peeked out at me from beneath her bangs. ¡°By the way, this is what I really look like¡­I swear I¡¯m not changing my appearance with my fox magic. I hope¡­I hope you approve of it. I¡¯ll change anything you want, you just have to tell me¡­¡± She waited with bated breath, her eyes drilling into my own with a subtle intensity.


    At first I thought it was a trap. That whole ¡°never tell a woman she isn¡¯t your type¡± sort of crap drunk men would spout after too many mugs of cheap ale. But looking at her, silently awaiting my judgment, I realized that she was serious. But even if I hadn¡¯t made that observation, it was a moot point. Everything about her was my preference. Long red hair. Curvy figure. Shorter than me but not too short. Even the slight blush in her cheeks was adorable. And her shyness? Arrow to the heart. She was, for lack of a better word, perfect. I stammered a bit before getting my reply out.


    ¡°N-N-No! You¡¯re great! To be honest, you couldn¡¯t be more perfect than if I¡¯d built you from scratch with alchemy. You¡¯re¡­oh gods, how do I say this¡­you¡¯re absolutely gorgeous. And I¡¯m not just saying that. You don¡¯t need to change a thing.¡± When I said that, Deotra blushed harder, and stared at the ground; I could hear little bursts of gibberish emerge from her mouth, but she sounded happy, so I let her have her moment.


    It was good to see this version of Deotra back in charge. Seeing what her demon friend was truly capable of was nothing short of terrifying. After calling my staff back to me (a neat little trick Deotra instructed me in) I took her hand once more, and together we walked back out of the cave. When we reached the clearing again, the moonlight greeted us with its gentle radiance.


    I turned to face Deotra. ¡°So¡­I know you¡¯ll be my familiar now, but¡­can I at least take you out, maybe get something to eat? I imagine that even familiars eat, right?¡± I fumbled for something to say. I wanted to spend more time with Deotra, to get to know her. I wanted to talk for hours, just about her. I wanted to know every little thing about her. Was that the effect of love? Again, I didn¡¯t know. It was all so new to me.


    Deotra frowned. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Kuro, but you mustn¡¯t tell any of your friends about me. We can only be together in secret for now. I fear that if my existence were to be discovered, I would be locked away forever.¡± Deotra¡¯s eyes began to water. ¡°Drache told me about men who would take me away. She called them scholars.¡±


    That made sense. Standard familiars, while able to change their form, had never had the power to assume human form. If Deotra was indeed a fox familiar as she claimed, then revealing such would lead to her being locked up in some academy where researchers would poke and prod her for the rest of her life. I would never let such a thing happen. I instantly promised her that I would keep her secret. I noticed that when I used the word ¡°promise¡±, her eyes flickered again. It was almost too quick to catch, but since I had seen it before, I was able to recognize it a second time.


    But then a thought struck me. ¡°Maybe if you maintain your humanoid form, nobody would see through it? Then you could accompany me everywhere. No one has to know.¡± Deotra smiled wearily. ¡°It¡¯s an option. I¡¯ll think about it. Because nothing would make me happier than being by your side, Kuro.¡±


    Then she took my hand. ¡°I see you still have the charm bracelet I made. That¡¯s good.¡± She pulled a similar charm from the sash around her waist and placed it on her right arm. ¡°I made these before you came here. Where I come from, there¡¯s a belief that two people who are destined to be soulmates are bound by an invisible red thread. They¡¯re meant to find each other, no matter how far apart they are. I knew one day I¡¯d find you, so I made these. I hope you¡¯ll take good care of it.¡± I tugged at the red twine to make sure it was snug around my wrist. I didn¡¯t want to lose it, not after what Deotra had said.


    Suddenly Deotra smacked herself in the forehead. ¡°Gah, I¡¯m so stupid! Our contract hasn¡¯t been completely finalized, yet.¡± She held her hand out to me, and a small blue flame sparked to life in her palm. ¡°If you would be so kind, Kuro. Place your hand in mine and claim me as your familiar. I will share your life, and join you in death. Go ahead.¡±


    I slowly put my hand over hers, and at that moment I was struck with how delicate and frail Deotra seemed. Even under the glove, I could feel how soft and small her fingers were. The blue flame wrapped around my hand until it engulfed it; strangely, there was no heat or burning sensation. Her face flushed again. ¡°Alright. Now you declare your intent to take me as your familiar. My full name is Deotra Tsukishiro. Claim me as your familiar and our contract is complete.¡±


    I was a bit embarrassed myself, sheepishly holding her hand. But then it occurred to me that this was a moment Deotra had probably looked forward to her whole life. I wasn¡¯t going to deny her that. I took a deep breath, and  did what I was supposed to.


    ¡°My name is Kuro. From this day forth, Deotra Tsukishiro, you are my familiar. From now until my last breath, you and I are bound together. I promise to look after you and care for you for here on out.¡± As I finished my fumbling declaration, Deotra reached her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. I was a bit embarrassed by her sudden show of affection, but considering that she was keeping that demon of hers under control, I let it slide.


    At last, she let me go. ¡°Oh, Master. With this, it¡¯s official. I¡¯m yours, and you are mine. As your familiar, I¡¯ll follow you anywhere, obey your every command, and protect you until the end of your days. This I swear upon my name, Deotra Tsukishiro, formerly of the Clan Tsukishiro, Third of the Ten Fox Clans.¡± She clasped her hands together and gazed at me lovingly. ¡°There¡¯s just one last thing I need to make certain of, Master. Those girls who accompany you¡­the angry blonde, and the dim-witted witch. You¡¯re not interested in either of those girls¡­are you?¡±


    I could have sworn I saw the spark of something malicious in her eyes when she said that. Such an offhand question, but there was something wrong about the way she looked. I told her the truth. ¡°Alicia prefers to just abuse me and Sheena¡­well, she¡¯s obsessed with Alverd. So, the answer is no.¡± Still, the look in her eyes bothered me, so I pushed it further than I should have. ¡°Why would you ask me something like that?¡±


    Deotra seemed very surprised to hear that. ¡°Oh, Master¡­you¡¯re so silly.¡± She said that with what she probably thought was an innocent giggle. Then she leaned in close, so that her face was inches from mine. Her eyes suddenly went dull, and she gave me a toothy, predatory smile. ¡°I just had to make sure. Because you belong to me now, Master. And if there¡¯s one thing you can be certain of¡­¡± She leaned in even closer, so that her mouth was next to my ear.


    ¡°¡­it¡¯s that I suffer no one to take what is mine.¡±


    I felt a chill run the length of my entire body, and it had nothing to do with the night air.


    But then Deotra backed away, and she was sweetness and shyness incarnate again. ¡°As long as you remember that, we won¡¯t have any problems, Master. For now, I must take my leave of you. Drache requires me to go back to the cave, so we can look over that map. But when you need me, I¡¯ll be there. You need only call my name, and I¡¯ll be by your side. Farewell for now, my Master. I¡¯m looking forward to our long, happy lives together.¡± She leaned forward one last time, and planted a chaste but firm kiss on my cheek. And with that done, she disappeared in a swirl of blue smoke, leaving me alone in the clearing.


    I stayed in the clearing for a moment, contemplating her words. Then I began the long trek back to the entrance of the Forest. When I arrived, I found quite the sight waiting for me.


    A small hunting party was gathered at the mouth of the Forest. Alverd, Alicia, and Sheena were at the head of a group of ten combat mages. Sheena was issuing orders, presumably for a search-and-rescue mission. When I stepped through the gate, however, all chatter stopped, and all eyes fell on me. Silence reigned for a few moments.


    Alicia ran up to me, ready and raring to go. She opened her mouth and screamed all kinds of obscenities at me, mainly about my little field trip into the Forest was depriving her of precious sleep. I brushed her aside, and her ranting instantly stopped. She¡¯d never seen me stand up to her in such a way, and I was astounded that I¡¯d even consider doing such a thing. Alverd started to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, he merely stepped aside and let me pass. Sheena moved as well, to my surprise.


    I¡¯d never felt more confident in my entire life. And it was all thanks to Deotra. As I walked towards the Palace, the image of her bashful smile and the sound of her girlish laughter swam through my mind. This time, it was a pleasant memory. For once, things were looking up.


    For the first time in my life, I was wanted. And it felt amazing.

 B2: Chapter 12: Alicia: The Enemy Within

    At one point in my life, I would¡¯ve said without any hesitation or uncertainty that mages were the biggest backstabbers in the world. Even now, years after I¡¯ve learned to make up my own mind about things like that, I¡¯ve met enough mages to believe that assumption still had weight to it.


    I woke up after a wonderful night¡¯s sleep in a luxurious bed completely refreshed and in a wonderful mood. Amazing what a few hours of sleep will do for you, I mused as I climbed out of bed, sliding my feet into a pair of soft indoor slippers. Despite having been dragged out to the forest to watch Kuro undertake some rite of passage the night prior, I was more intrigued by what I had learned to have too many lingering frustrations.


    Not long after I had dressed, a servant escorted me to the throne room to join my companions. There, alongside breakfast, I joined in on Kuro¡¯s interrogation. There isn¡¯t any other word for it. What Sheena and Alverd put him through? No reason for them to push so hard if they believed him. I gave him a softball question and let him be.


    I don¡¯t know what Kuro had to go through in that forest, but I can¡¯t help but feel like he¡¯s hiding something. Maybe it was my newfound empathy with his situation, but something about the way he had fidgeted through the questions posed seemed off. His answers came too readily, like they¡¯d been rehearsed. It¡¯s not like him to share so much, but it¡¯s also none of my business what he does. Besides, I¡¯ve got better things to think about.


    The fact that mages sent their students into the dangers of the unknown was a shock to me. For years many of my fellow Ishmarians assumed that mages just spent all their time with their heads in books, without any practical knowledge of how to survive in the wild. Sending Kuro into that forest alone, even if it wasn¡¯t exactly standard, does away with that belief. Sure, under normal circumstances it¡¯s supervised but it¡¯s not all that different from what we do in Ishmar.


    When I had progressed to the final stage of my berserker training, my instructor had blindfolded me and stranded me in the unforgiving badlands north of the Castle of Brimstone. There I had to survive for an entire week on nothing but what I could forage, hunt or scrounge. Every berserker had to learn how to fend for themselves if cut off from their allies, including treating their own wounds.


    The badlands were open, mostly flat terrain with the occasional rock formations jutting out of the ground like the bones of fallen dragons, with almost no vegetation or game. The lack of tree cover meant that the sun would bear down all day, and any water had to be checked to make sure it wasn¡¯t acidic. No sane person would ever venture into that territory expecting to survive for very long.


    Like an idiot, I managed to wound myself on the first day. Thinking I¡¯d gotten lucky in spotting a boar, I slipped from a crag and hit my head, also managing to twist my ankle in the process. For two days I slipped in and out of consciousness, feeling hunger gnaw at my insides. By the end of the second cold, lonely night, I broke down in tears. It had been the first time I¡¯d allowed myself to cry in years.


    I remember how I wished for Father to come save me. How weak I was for wanting it. I wished for a lot of things as I lay there. Well, pleaded more like. I felt a little bit disgusted with myself as I recalled that memory. I begged Evros to just make it so my family would stop fighting with each other all the time, and that the rest of my siblings would treat me like a real sister.


    I could almost feel the stinging cold of the falling night, the throbbing pain in my ankle, and the hot tears on my cheeks all over again. Evros didn¡¯t answer me. So I had to save myself. Every day since, I¡¯ve had to remind myself of that. Until I met Alverd and Kuro, that is.


    It wasn¡¯t until I heard a snuffling sound that I snapped out of it. Somehow, in a stroke of fortune, the boar I¡¯d tracked had come back. I played dead until it got close, then bashed its head in the moment it let its guard down. Building a fire in the aftermath was agony, but the prospect of fresh meat was enough to get me to fight through the pain. I was so famished at that point that I finished eating despite being in excruciating pain before I attended to my foot. I had to make a splint out of the boar¡¯s ribs and some of my belts, and though the end result was clumsy, it was functional.


    After the interrogation ended, I asked Sheena if there was a place where I could learn a few things about her country¡¯s history.


    ¡°Ah, a splendid idea! I will send someone to help you, princess. Please understand that I will not be able to accompany you for now, but if you have questions about anything later, don¡¯t hesitate to ask.¡± She ran away before I could say anything else. Eventually, a primly dressed elf girl in the customary black and white maid¡¯s dress showed up and curtsied before me. ¡°I¡¯m pleased to be of service, princess,¡± she growled.


    Are maids supposed to sound like they want to murder you in your sleep? Still, it didn¡¯t hurt to try to be courteous at first. ¡°Just Alicia is fine. And you are¡­?¡± She glared at me unflinchingly.


    ¡°Leticia.¡± Yikes, I thought. She really does not like me at all. The girl had pale platinum blonde hair done up in a pixie cut, with the lightest hazel eyes I¡¯d ever seen. She had slightly bronzed skin that suggested she¡¯d seen plenty of outside work, and a mole on her chin.


    With her buttons done all the way up to her neck and not a single wrinkle in her pressed blouse, she looked like the personification of the word prissy. ¡°Her Majesty has arranged for you to take a tour of the Palace. You asked to learn about our history, and she has graciously assigned me to guide you.¡± Judging by the way she hissed that last bit out of her teeth like a snake, she probably would¡¯ve preferred scrubbing chamber pots over escorting me.


    I returned to my room briefly to get changed. I left my dragon egg in my room (hidden, of course), but slung my maul over my shoulder. Given how often Sheena had been targeted lately, it just made sense not to leave my trusty weapon behind. For several hours, I followed Leticia through glistening halls and lavish rooms, each one rivaling the beauty of my own home, the Castle of Brimstone.


    I found it to be incredibly boring. ¡°When I said I wanted a tour of the Palace,¡± I whined at her,  ¡°I meant I wanted to see how you wage your battles, or things like that. I want to know about the wars you¡¯ve fought against Ishmar from your perspective.¡±


    Perhaps equally frustrated that I was wasting her time, Leticia sighed heavily. ¡°Your wish is my command.¡± A few minutes later, she was guiding me down halls full of portraits of deceased rulers, stretching back hundreds of years.


    On the left hand side, the portraits were of more recent rulers, while the right hand wall had ones of rulers from Algrustos¡¯ founding age and onward. I ignored the ones on the right and searched for the one I wanted to see most: Sheena¡¯s parents. Perhaps, reading my mind, Leticia waved me over to the end of the hall.


    She motioned to the last portrait in the line. ¡°This would be the late Wizard-King and his wife, the former Witch-Queen.¡± The King was a very regal elf with long pale blond hair, and very muted blue eyes, but also very sharp features, even aside from his long, pointed ears. The Queen was fair, with long, straight red hair and green eyes that glinted with a familiar air of mischief. Her ears, however, while pointed, weren¡¯t as long as her husband¡¯s and were more rounded at the tip. I pointed this out to the servant, and she nodded.


    ¡°That would be because the Witch-Queen was only a half-elf. The kingdom found it odd that the Wizard-King would take a half-elf as his bride, given that possessing even a drop of human blood denies the bearer elven longevity. It used to be a punishment among the elven community, you know, to ¡°infect¡± an elven criminal with human blood to force them to live only as long as a human does. It was quite the scandal. More than twelve generations of proud, pureblood elves ruling this land, and then the King goes and marries a half-elf. The entire bloodline is tainted, now. Such a shame.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°That¡¯s some way to talk about your ruler. Maybe I should let the Witch-Queen know how you feel about her parentage.¡± She sneered at me.


    ¡°Her Majesty couldn¡¯t care less about her heritage. Never is that more apparent in the way she conducts her affairs, political or otherwise. People talk behind her back all the time, and she¡¯s rather used to it by now.¡± I didn¡¯t like the smug look on the elf girl¡¯s face. Something about it made me want to lash my hand out and smack it right off.


    ¡°Well if not Sheena, maybe Lord Albrecht? I bet he wouldn¡¯t appreciate you badmouthing his niece to anyone, much less a foreign dignitary.¡± Folding my arms, it was my turn to smirk. ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll go tell him right now the catty things you like saying when you think nobody is listening.¡±


    The sudden change from haughtiness to fear caught me off guard. The elf¡¯s eyes widened and her expression broke. ¡°Please! I spoke out of turn. There¡¯s no need to inform the Prime Minister.¡± She held up her hands in surrender. ¡°He is quite protective of Her Majesty. Perhaps overly so¡­¡±


    Cocking my head questioningly, I asked ¡°What does it matter if I tell him or not? If you don¡¯t want people telling the guys in charge how you feel, you shouldn¡¯t be flapping your lips.¡± The servant quailed. ¡°You don¡¯t understand. The Prime Minister is like a father to the Witch-Queen. He raised her himself. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not hard to imagine how a father can dote on his daughter¡­¡± She leaned in close to me and whispered, ¡°...or burn the world to protect her.¡±


    That struck a chord in me. My mind dredged up the image of my own father, coughing on his throne, watching me declare my intention to compete for the right to rule Ishmar against all the odds. I let it slide. ¡°Yes¡­quite right.¡±


    Leticia turned as though she were about to guide me down the hall further, but then stopped, and then abruptly about-faced. ¡°There¡¯s one last thing to see at the end of the hall. But¡­¡± She began to fidget.


    ¡°Well? Spit it out.¡± I said.


    The girl¡¯s expression went sour, fast. I could almost hear her debating in her head about whether it was worth tempting my wrath or not. ¡°I must ask that you remain calm, prin-I mean, Alicia. What I am about to show you might be a bit triggering for you.¡± She glided down the hall before I could ask for details. She led me to the very end of the hall, where there was a large memorial stone seated upon a gold dais nestled in a dead end. Etched on the memorial were two names: ¡°King Lascow Reinhardt¡± and ¡°Queen Mirka Reinhardt¡±. The woman drew my attention to a display case at the forefront of the memorial.


    In the display case were three knives. I recognized their make immediately; they were Ishmarian. The dull sheen and non-reflective surfaces of the knives gave them away as dragon tooth metals. The guards were standard steel, but the gold interlaced patterning of the hilt was a common Ishmarian practice. They were clean, as though someone had taken great pains to make them presentable.


    I glared at Leticia. ¡°So you didn¡¯t want me to see these?¡±


    Her face didn¡¯t betray any emotion, but the intensity of her stare told me volumes, as did her voice. ¡°I heard you denied that assassins were involved in the deaths of our king and queen. Truth stands even if others deny it. Ishmarians murdered our rulers, Alicia. I have no reason to think you are any different than the assassins themselves.¡±


    Something itched at me. Something was definitely weird about this situation. I can¡¯t put my finger on it, though. Why leave me alone with this girl who absolutely seems dead set on angering me? What was Sheena thinking? Is this some kind of test?  ¡°Maybe it¡¯s time you stop talking, Leticia. Next time Sheena asks you to do something you don¡¯t want to do, you should just tell her to find someone else.¡±


    Leticia balled her hands into fists. ¡°Her Majesty didn¡¯t ask me to do anything. I volunteered for this so I could-¡± She cut herself off. ¡°Could what?¡± I pressed. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as my berserker instincts kicked in. I¡¯m alone in a secluded part of the Palace with my back to a dead end. If some moron wanted to target me, now would be the perfect time.


    Leticia opened the fingers of her right hand and a wand slid out of her sleeve. Her expressionless face twisted into one of smug satisfaction. ¡°Oh, what does it matter? The Magisters, of course. They hate the idea of a mongrel like you running around our hallowed halls, and they hate the idea of Her Majesty bandying the idea of peace even more.¡± She waved the wand and a blue spark ignited at its tip, sizzling like a stovetop.


    I pulled the maul off my back and waved it at her. The familiar bubbling sensation of rage was already starting to churn at the bottom of my gut like a stewpot on a fire. ¡°That¡¯s all well and good for them. A pity they were too cowardly to come tell me that to my face, and had to send some errand girl to do it for them.¡± I twisted my fingers around the haft of the maul, the sound of my skin on the metal bouncing audibly off the narrow walls of the corridor.


    For a brief moment, I saw Leticia¡¯s lip curl. Then she reasserted control over herself again, albeit with some difficulty. There¡¯s her tell. Pretty obvious one, but good to know her buttons are easy to push. ¡°No need for them to waste time dealing with you. Let their hands remain clean. It¡¯s why people like me exist, princess.¡± She uncurled the fingers of her left hand and another wand appeared from her sleeve, then licked her lips. ¡°For them, it¡¯s business. But for me, it¡¯s a pleasure.¡±


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    Well, shit.


    There was no warning before the glass broke. One second Leticia was standing in front of me, the next I felt a piercing pain as something stabbed into my shoulder. A second later, whatever had hit me yanked itself out of my back and flew over my shoulder, accompanied by two other objects. I saw the three knives from the display case, now orbiting Leticia¡¯s upper body like the celestial bodies in the orrery at the Academy, her left hand tracing a circular motion lazily as her right hand pointed the wand at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m actually sort of glad it¡¯s so hard to kill a berserker,¡± Leticia said as the knives began to revolve faster around her. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want this to be over too quickly. I was honestly expecting to get the job of killing Sheena, but I guess I can settle for you, princess.¡± Then the mocking tone crept back into her voice. ¡°Try to make this at least a little difficult. There¡¯s no enjoyment for me if you don¡¯t make me work for it.¡±


    Be careful what you wish for, bitch. You don¡¯t stand against the river, you direct it where to go. From the sensation of bubbling and boiling came the surging torrent of anger, the feeling of indomitable adrenaline that flowed into every muscle, filling me with strength and sharpening my mind¡¯s eye into a razor. The blood haze ringed my vision, blotting out everything but the elf and her floating knives.


    My first swing, however, proved that Leticia had played me better than I had realized.


    The maul collided with the wall and bounced off the sturdy stone with a resounding clang. In my rage-haze, I hadn¡¯t realized that I¡¯d been too close. A sharp sting across my upper left arm followed by another sting on my left thigh were enough to focus my mind back on my attacker, so that the third knife didn¡¯t hit me in the throat. Ducking to the left, I nearly slammed into the opposite wall. There was barely seven feet of space between the two walls, and no culverts that would shelter me from the knives.


    With her right hand, Leticia sent a series of small red orbs down the corridor. Two hit me in the chest, and while I felt the impacts I didn¡¯t know they were miniature fireballs until the smell of burnt leather hit my nostrils. She¡¯s got me pinned. If I advance, she¡¯ll blast me. If I stand my ground, she¡¯ll cut me to ribbons. The knives wheeled back around, coasting back to their orbit around the assassin.


    ¡°You¡¯ve bled us slowly for years, princess. Every time your illiterate hordes try to invade, you kill and pillage everything you come across. You¡¯re worse than locusts. Every single time we lose good men and women who had bright futures. And for each lowly barbarian we cut down, you have ten more waiting behind them to keep running straight at us.¡±


    The knives shot forward again. I swung blindly at them with my maul but only managed to clip one. The other two sank into the skin of my forearms, deep enough to draw small torrents of blood before sliding free to float back over to Leticia. Another small fireball hit my knee, threatening to knock me off balance.


    Think! THINK! I tried to quell the panic in my head. Don¡¯t let her control the space. Don¡¯t let her control the environment. Failing those, don¡¯t let her stay in control of herself. The only way you win this is if you drag her down to your level and sock her in the jaw. ¡°If you aren¡¯t good enough to keep us out then how strong are you really? Who¡¯s the bigger failure, the vermin or the idiots who aren¡¯t smart enough to put us down for good?¡±


    The marble floor twisted as an entire section of it morphed into a solid, narrow spike that shot up and through my shin. The sheer pain of sustaining such an injury was enough to make me bite down hard to choke back a scream, and I dropped my maul as the blood haze fought to stop me from losing consciousness. I sank to one knee, and I felt blood begin to trickle down my leg from the now gaping wound.


    I slouched against the wall, knocking the painting of some crusty old king from its place. ¡°You mages call us uncultured, but you¡¯re the one playing with your food right now.¡± I threw my arms open wide, snarling at her. ¡°Meat and potatoes! Come and get me!¡± I wiped some of the blood from my arm and smeared it across my cheek, tracing it in a line across the bridge of my nose.


    Leticia¡¯s mouth curled again. ¡°What are you even saying right now? I¡¯ve barely scratched you and you¡¯ve already lost your mind.¡± She took a step closer, aiming with the wand in her right hand. ¡°I already said I wasn¡¯t going to make this quick, princess. But by all means, keep provoking me. I can find ways to draw this out.¡±


    Which is what I want, you nimrod. Guess you really aren¡¯t the sharpest knife in the drawer. I chuckled out loud as I realized how relevant my idle thought had been.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny, princess?¡± Leticia cursed as she spun her left hand faster, making the knives circle her head like angry wasps.


    ¡°I was just thinking about how some of those Magister Lords must be compensating for something with those staves of theirs.¡±


    All three knives plunged into my stomach. I saw them sink into my skin, penetrating the leather cuirass I wore like it was made of wet parchment. Everything below my rib cage immediately went numb and I lost my balance, teetering against the portrait frame to remain upright. The knives yanked themselves free of my torso and I felt cold as blood began to run from the wounds.


    Oh Evros. This isn''t smart. I know it¡¯s not but it¡¯s the only plan I have. And I¡¯m only going to have one shot at it. I held my hand to my abdomen to try and stem the bleeding and all I could feel was how hard it was getting to keep the red blood haze from turning black. This must be what Kuro feels like whenever he gets in over his head. I hate it. No wonder he¡¯s so grumpy all the time when it comes to bad planning.


    Weakly, I pointed at my forehead with my left hand. ¡°You can¡¯t aim worth a damn, can you? Right here. Put ¡®em right here.¡± I tapped a spot just above the space between my eyes. ¡°Show me a party trick like the cut rate street magician you are.¡± With my bloodsoaked right hand, however, I let go of my stomach and quietly took hold of my maul.


    Taking the bait, Leticia gave a full throated cry of anger and loosed the knives at me. When I saw them hurtling through the air at me, I grabbed the frame of the portrait with my left hand and pulled the heavy painting in front of me. The three knives hit the thick surface of the canvas and split it easily, but the steel handguards caught on it and stopped them from going all the way through.


    Slamming the portrait against the wall, I braced the head of the maul against the back of the portrait and the bottom of the haft against the now uneven floor, effectively pinning it and neutralizing the knives as weapons. Propelled by a renewed burst of vengeance-driven fury, I sprinted down the hallway at Leticia, my arms held out in front of my face.


    Eyes widening, Leticia tried to throw more of her fireballs at me. I felt them hit my arms, some bouncing off the reflecting plates hidden beneath the leather exterior, some not. It doesn¡¯t matter. This ends with me face down in a puddle of my own blood or with my hands wrapped around this bitch¡¯s throat.


    When I was about three feet away, I saw raw fear in her eyes. She saw her death coming straight at her. In the space of a few precious seconds she had gone from the hunter to the prey. Just as nobody was coming to save me, it was likely no one was coming to save her either. I leaned down to barrel shoulder first into her chest and I heard the air push out of her lungs as I thrust my elbow into the space just under her ribs. I let the momentum carry us forward, then grabbed both of her legs and lifted, throwing her up and backward so she landed on her back.


    In an instant I was on top of her, my hands around her neck. The blood haze was so thick all I could see was crimson, almost blotting out everything but the sight of Leticia¡¯s face. She tried to pull my hands away from her neck, but at this point it was hopeless. I could hear the choked sounds of her struggling to breathe, and something happened.


    No. No. You¡¯re not enjoying this. You¡¯re not taking joy in watching another person die. Not like this. My hands began to quake, and they let go of her neck. I fell back and off of Leticia, and she rolled away, coughing as she forced herself to breathe. I buried my face in my hands, feeling the warm blood against my skin. The familiar nausea that I felt when I killed for the very first time filled my body.


    When I killed for the first time, I was sick to my stomach. Every time I killed after that, I had to tell myself it was because I had no choice. But this is a choice. To surrender to the deepest part of my rage is to stop being a person, and become a rabid beast. To become like every Ishmarian that came before you. To continue the cycle you want to break. I opened my mouth and I think I screamed at that point, but if I did I couldn¡¯t hear it.


    The river is carrying you away. Don¡¯t get swept away. Don¡¯t let it sweep you away.


    The image of a river swirled through my mind¡¯s eye. I could see myself standing in it, looking at a version of myself that looked like a scared child screaming for someone to come save her. The water turned from white-blue to a red that I knew wasn¡¯t water, but blood, and I felt a chill in the depths of my very soul.


    The voice of my instructor echoed in my head. Drown in blood, yours or your enemy¡¯s. You do not stand against the river, but you don¡¯t let it carry you away. You stand in the river, the sieve and the rudder, and you kill and kill and kill until you yourself are killed. It is the fate of all berserkers to drown, child. I wrestled the blood haze for control, like a tamer wrapping a chain around a bull. As the haze began to subside, the last of my teacher¡¯s words came to me.


    Pray that someday there will be someone to pull you from the river. When the time comes, all berserkers drown alone.


    As the world seeped back into focus, I became aware of how utterly numb I felt. I could barely move or feel my fingers or toes. My vision was swimming and even sitting upright didn¡¯t feel possible. Leticia made her way back to her feet and came back to me, her wand back in her hand.


    ¡°Like killing a rat. No remorse, no hesitation. Just doing a service to the rest of the world.¡± The tip of the wand flared with a ball of red flame, illuminating the hall with eerie dancing light.


    In the light, I saw Lord Albrecht, who came up behind Leticia and in one smooth motion, slapped the wand from her hand with his right hand and then wrapped a muscular arm under her neck. A second later he hoisted the elf off her feet, squeezing her throat in the crook of his left arm. She made a few sounds, either surprise at this new attacker or her attempt at not choking.


    Lord Albrecht looked me in the eye. ¡°Suffocation is a terrible way to die. Slow, painful, full awareness from start to finish. You don¡¯t deserve this mercy.¡± There was a sound like a loaded spring being released and a knife appeared in his right hand. He twisted her body to the side and stabbed it into the space between her shoulder blades, severing the spine in one clean thrust. Leticia¡¯s eyes bulged, then her entire body went slack. ¡°But I will grant it all the same.¡± He released her, and her corpse hit the ground like a sack of hammers.


    The next thing I knew, I was being lifted gently in Lord Albrecht¡¯s arms. ¡°You are most fortunate, princess. My apologies for not arriving sooner.¡±


    My eyes met his. ¡°How did you know where to stab her to kill so cleanly?¡± I saw the knife glinting in his hand, and to my great shock it was identical to the ones Leticia had used to nearly kill me. ¡°Who are you really?¡±


    He gave me a faint smile. ¡°Today, I am the one who will pull you from the river.¡±


    I choked in surprise, then coughed up a mouthful of blood. ¡°Try not to exert yourself, child. Rest for now. And know that for my old friend¡¯s sake, I will not let his daughter die today.¡±


    ¡°Wait¡­how do you know the berserker creed? Who are you? Tell me¡­¡± I tried to stay awake but I could not fight the agonizing numbness spreading through my limbs.


    ¡°All will be told in good time, child. I must find your friends, and my niece. It is time we put our contingency plan into motion.¡± No longer able to keep my eyes open, I slipped away, swaying in the strangely comforting grip of Albrecht¡¯s arms.


    When I woke up, my eyes saw the open blue of the cloudless sky. There was the faint rustling of tree branches in a light breeze, which I could only feel on parts of my face. As my vision sharpened, I saw Alverd and Kuro lean forward and over me. Kuro waved.


    ¡°Hey, Alicia. Don¡¯t take this the wrong way, but you look like you¡¯ve seen better days.¡±


    I was about to reach up and strangle him when a fresh jolt of pain shot up my arm. I moaned, and instantly remembered how hurt I was. Alverd laid his hand on my shoulder to stop me from sitting up.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try to move. We just finished bandaging you. You¡¯ll tear them ope-


    ¡°Where were you?¡± I wheezed at him, and I felt tears start to emerge from the corners of my eyes. My arm shot out and before I knew it, my fingers wrapped around his hand, squeezing tight enough to make him wince. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what to do¡­ where were you?¡± The sobbing made my chest hurt but I didn¡¯t care. There was a far greater pain in my chest that needed attending to and it wasn¡¯t going to stop until I got an answer.


    Alverd¡¯s eyes cast themselves downward, at first not willing to look at me. Then he gingerly held my hand up to his chest. ¡°Not where I should¡¯ve been.¡± He placed his other hand on top of my head, brushing my hair in a way that reminded me of how my mother had done when I was little. ¡°And I promise it¡¯ll never happen again.¡±


    I wanted to make some biting remark, to make him feel bad, but I didn¡¯t have the energy. I could already hear how guilty he was from the tone of his voice. He¡¯s here now. That¡¯s what matters. Instead, I took a slow breath in. ¡°Where¡¯s Albrecht?¡±


    Sheena appeared, kneeling on the ground next to me. ¡°He¡¯s here. He went to throw our pursuers off our tail for a moment.¡± After a moment, she bowed her head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, too, princess. This only happened because I was thinking of myself.¡±


    I shook my head, slowly. ¡°No point in hashing it all out now. Tell me everything I need to know.¡±


    Kuro spoke up. ¡°Lord Albrecht carried you out to the training ground and said you¡¯d been attacked. You were bleeding and barely breathing. A bunch of the Magisters¡¯ personal guards showed up trying to claim that you killed someone in the Palace then attacked us the moment we told them we didn¡¯t buy their story.¡± He took a second to seat himself fully, then continued.


    ¡°We¡¯re in the Forest of Familiars right now. According to Sheena, it¡¯s the only place where mages can¡¯t use scrying to find our exact location and hunt us down. Eventually they¡¯ll figure out we¡¯re here, but it¡¯ll take a full-fledged team of veteran mages to come in and find us.¡± He kept looking around with a worried look on his face. ¡°I won¡¯t lie, Alicia, it looks bad. The wall will stop any of us from escaping and it encircles the entire forest perimeter. So at some point, the only way out is that gate at the front.¡±


    Alverd spoke next. ¡°For now, we¡¯re going to move further in. When Lord Albrecht joins us, we¡¯ll come up with a plan. He and Sheena have talked about hiding supplies and a contingency plan here in the forest, and once he gets here he can lead us to it.¡± He locked eyes with me. ¡°Just try to shut your eyes and rest. We¡¯ll be here.¡±


    His words were more soothing than any medicine could¡¯ve ever been. My eyes fluttered shut, but then opened. I stared at him intently. ¡°Wait,¡± I stammered. I reached my hand out and grabbed his hand again. ¡°If I fall into the river again, pull me out, okay?¡± I tugged at his fingers and interlocked mine into his. ¡°Promise me you¡¯ll pull me out.¡± I babbled.


    I could see he didn¡¯t understand. How could he? He never studied the berserker creed. ¡°I promise, princess. Rest. I¡¯m not going anywhere.¡± Finally reassured, I tilted my head back against the ground and let myself drift off. My last thought was that Albrecht was going to have a lot to answer for when he got back.


    Maybe mages don¡¯t have a monopoly on backstabbing after all.

 B2: Chapter 13: Kuro: To Face Ones Demons (Edit)

    They say that when you hit rock bottom the only way to go is up.


    In my experience, anytime I thought I had hit rock bottom I got hit in the head with a shovel. One time, quite literally.


    Night had fallen over the Forest of Familiars, and brought with it a sense of paranoia. Albrecht had still not returned, and combined with rumbling stomachs we were all at the ends of our ropes.


    As agreed upon, we had moved further into the Forest to make it harder for anyone sent by the Magisters to locate us. Alverd removed his cape to make a stretcher for Alicia, who was still passed out. She had finally stopped tossing at least. Even I felt bad for her, watching her whimper in her sleep. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s dreaming about, but it can¡¯t be good. I know that feeling.


    Although Sheena had put on a brave face, I could tell she was probably pushing herself, too. She volunteered to help Alverd stand watch, but it wasn¡¯t long before she was passed out. He laid her down next to Alicia and placed his spare cloak over them both to keep them warm, as we couldn¡¯t afford to build a fire and risk revealing our location. As I pulled my arms into my robe to pat my chest and keep myself from shivering, he sat beside Alicia and held her hand.


    ¡°She was really scared, huh?¡± I said. Alverd nodded silently. ¡°What was that she said? About rivers?¡±


    He gazed at her face for a second before turning to me. ¡°She said to pull her from the river. I¡¯m not sure what it means. But there was real terror in her eyes, Kuro. I let her down. I won¡¯t do so again.¡±


    Because you failed once before when it mattered, and you lost someone you can¡¯t get back. The laughter of a mischievous raven-haired girl echoed in my mind, and it brought a bitter taste to my mouth. I pushed my arms back out of my sleeves and hugged my knees to my chest. I know what it¡¯s like too, and I don¡¯t ever want to go through it again.


    The memory of Deotra being pulled into darkness flashed before my eyes. I can¡¯t let it happen. I won¡¯t let it happen.


    I fished the bracelet Deotra had thrown to me out of my pocket. I hadn¡¯t had the guts to look at it before, but now I needed the motivation to do¡­ whatever it was I was planning. It was made of a simple red twine attached to a charm made of some kind of animal bone. A strange rune had been carved meticulously into the bone. I had never seen writing of its kind, and could only guess at its meaning. I slipped the bracelet onto my left wrist, and it fit there snugly. Almost as if it were made for me, I thought with a shudder.


    ¡°Hey, Alverd.¡± He didn¡¯t look at me at first. ¡°I¡¯m gonna scout around, see if I can find a better place to hide. Like a cave, or something.¡± He regarded me with a skeptical look.


    ¡°You sure? Might not be good to split up right about now.¡± I waved my hand dismissively.


    ¡°I just want to take a look around. If I run into anything, I¡¯ll come right back.¡±


    Looking back at the sleeping girls, he nodded. ¡°Alright. Don¡¯t take any unnecessary risks, Kuro.¡± Gods if you only knew, Alverd. I stood up, brushed off my legs.


    ¡°I won¡¯t be long. And I¡¯ll be careful.¡±


    I knew exactly where I was going. Even though my heart was pounding I knew the path I had to take. When Alverd was out of sight I broke into a run, hurtling through the shadowy boughs to where I had last seen Deotra.


    This isn¡¯t like me. She said a lot of things that made no sense and should¡¯ve scared me off. Yet here you are about to run headlong into a demon¡¯s lair to save her. For once, I had no reason to expect anything less than the very worst. Steeling myself, I pushed away from the tree to continue onward and found I wasn¡¯t alone.


    In the middle of the path, sitting there, like it had every right in the world, was a fox. A simple red-furred fox. It cocked its head at me and stared at me with its golden eyes. Then, after a moment, it yipped, turned, and ran off into the darkness.


    That was odd. On my first trip through the Forest, the animals had all given me a wide berth. Maybe this one was curious? Then I remembered that I had always had a strange affinity for foxes. They used to follow me around in my youth, back in the orphanage days. They¡¯d watch me from the shadows of trees or the underbrush, then scamper away when I got too close.


    The oddest encounter I¡¯d ever had with a fox, however, was shortly after I had arrived in Irinholm, and placed in the dormitory for the mage apprentices. I was a child with no friends who didn¡¯t know who to avoid and who to be wary of. After a long day of being made fun of by my ¡°upperclassmen¡±, I had gone to bed stifling tears. But after a short bout of restless sleep, I had awoken to find a fox curled up on my stomach.


    It had woken up, looked at me with its wide, golden eyes, and then stared at me until I realized that it wasn¡¯t going to leave or do anything else. I dismissed it as my sleepy mind playing tricks on me. In the morning, all of the children who had bullied me found their clothes and robes slashed to bits. Even Professor Farnus couldn¡¯t figure out what had gone on, but I was smart enough to put two and two together. In a fit of childishness, I chose not to inform him of the nighttime intruder.


    I remember I had a dream the following night. Well, a nightmare.


    It started with me approaching a simple dog in the forest. A harmless-looking dog. But before my eyes, it transformed into some shapeless horror, a cloud of bulging darkness with horrible glowing eyes, and a gaping mouth of yellowed teeth. It seized me with deformed arms made of muscle and rotting flesh and made to shove me into its jaws. I screamed but no sound escaped my lips.


    But then a blazing ball of light, small yet almost as bright as the sun, zipped forth and slammed into the demon. It shrieked in pain and let go of me, dropping me to the ground. I watched as the light smashed into the demon multiple times, and it slunk back into the dark of the woods, making the same hurt noises as a wounded dog. The light bounced over to me, and then took the form of a fox, nuzzling my face with its muzzle before disappearing like a snuffed candle.


    Odd that I¡¯d remember that dream now. Farnus said the dream was meant to teach me that nothing was ever as it seemed. That was what scared me now. Who was to say that Deotra wasn¡¯t some demon mimicking the form of what I considered perfection incarnate? I shuddered. If it was true, if she really was a demon, then she could be any kind of hellish abomination. But given what she had tried to do to me, I figured she had to be a certain kind of demon. A succubus.


    Succubi, and incubi their male counterparts, were demons that fed off the life force of their victims. Although years of mythology and the bastardization of those myths said that they stole peoples¡¯ life force through the act of sex, it wasn¡¯t entirely true. Succubi tempted men with whatever they wanted: power, prestige, earthly delights¡­ so long as they corrupted the judgment of their prey, it was easier to feed off them without realizing it¡­ until it was far too late.


    What didn¡¯t make sense, however, was why she had let me go. Without my staff, I would have been helpless. She could have easily overwhelmed me, taken me against my will, sucked every last bit of my life force out of my body like a vicious spider and left only a mindless husk. Instead, she¡¯d given me a new staff and disappeared. A perfect opportunity wasted. Was she playing some bigger game? I couldn¡¯t tell, and at this point, I didn¡¯t care.


    I looked at the staff in question. The smooth, polished mahogany wood fit in my right hand perfectly. The ruby set in its tip sparkled only when the staff was in my possession. When I wielded the staff, I no longer felt the exhaustion after a single spell that I did when I had used Farnus¡¯ staff. When I channeled elemental energy, my concentration deepened, and I could tune out distractions easier. It just seems too convenient. This staff is perfect, better than perfect, and it just happened to find its way to me like it was meant to be?


    Even if I had been a bit freaked out by Deotra¡¯s shameless advances, part of me had reveled in it. Welcomed it. Needed it. It was the first time I had ever kissed a girl. I want so badly to believe that the version of her before that hunger came out was the real her. I need to believe it, because it¡¯s the only thing that gives me hope she can be saved. If she is a demon, that¡¯s exactly what she¡¯s counting on, though.


    Sheena¡¯s books had caught me up to speed on the basics of demonology. They were creatures of unending hunger, always needing to sate said hunger through the consumption of life force and magical energies. Sure, they can offer incredible power in exchange for all that they take. A dumber mage than me would probably take that deal, too.But there¡¯s always a catch. You can¡¯t worm your way out of a demon contract. Once you seal that pact, you¡¯re a cautionary tale waiting to happen.


    I placed my head in my hands for a moment, taking a second to breathe in deep. I know this is so gods-damned stupid, but I¡¯m doing it anyway. Why am I doing this? Logically I knew my actions were irrational, and were very likely going to be the death of me. There was no sane answer for my behavior.


    Emotionally, however, it made perfect sense. You care too much. You can¡¯t stomach the guilt. Even if it¡¯s a trap, even if Deotra isn¡¯t real or alive, you have to try. Because you can¡¯t live with the idea that you could¡¯ve tried to save someone who needed you and you didn¡¯t. Laura¡¯s laughter bubbled up again and I shook my head violently to stop thinking about it.


    I had to operate on an assumption. It was the only way to stay focused, and the only assumption I was willing to stomach was that Deotra was a victim of the demon, and that there was still time to save her. I¡¯m gonna fight tooth and nail for her.


    I hurried through the forest, paying no mind to the familiars scattering from my path. I headed for the clearing where I had fought the dragon-familiar. At last, I broke through a line of trees and into the clearing. The cave I sought loomed before me, its dark maw rising up as if it was ready to swallow me whole.


    The often-ignored corner of my mind that housed what little common sense I possessed screamed at me one last time. Run, it said. Run and don¡¯t look back. This is your last chance. I¡¯m warning you. But I pushed it out of my head. I had made my decision. It was a stupid decision but it was my decision and damned if I wasn¡¯t going to see it through to the end.


    As I approached the cave, I closed my eyes and breathed in one last time. Laura, if you can hear me, look out for me. Gods know I need your courage right about now.


    Slowly I inched to the mouth of the cave, peering deep into its depths. Like it had before, the dark recesses of the cave were too deep for me to see, and I doubted that even my lighting spell would be of much help down there. I picked up a pebble and threw it into the cave, mirroring Deotra¡¯s action the first time I had met her. It bounced in the darkness a few times, then fell still. I waited, expecting a creature to come racing out, but nothing happened. I moved up to the very edge of the cave mouth, and called out in a voice barely above a whisper.


    ¡°Deotra?¡±


    At first, there was nothing. Then a burst of air came sweeping out of the cave mouth. It blew over and past me, and it carried a voice. ¡°You came back. How quaint.¡± It was velvety smooth and vaguely disinterested, almost as though it regarded me as a nuisance.


    I shouted back down the dark tunnel. ¡°You get one chance, demon. You give me the girl or I go in there and kick your incorporeal arse until you do.¡± I tried very hard not to let my voice shake. I didn¡¯t succeed.


    The demon was silent for a moment. Then a bout of laughter came tumbling out of the cave. It wasn¡¯t raucous, overblown, or villainous. Something came hurtling out of the dark, slammed into my face, and knocked me on my butt. When I picked myself off the ground and looked at it, I winced.


    It was Deotra¡¯s lantern, and it had very deep claw marks dug into it.


    Dear gods.


    I grabbed the flimsy lantern and held the ruby in my staff to the wick on the candle. With a spark it lit, and I held the lantern aloft in my left hand, staff gripped in my right. I took a deep, deep breath, and walked into the cave.


    The cave itself went straight then it began to slope downward. The descent wasn¡¯t steep, but the uneven stone floor made sure I had to watch my footing. At some point, the floor began to become slippery with loose gravel. I took note in the event I might have to beat a hasty retreat that I wouldn¡¯t be able to rely on the ground beneath me. Keep going. Remind yourself what¡¯s at stake. The thought of Deotra crying alone in the depths of this cave filled me with righteous fury, and I kept my pace.


    As the descent became more bearable, I heard the laughter once more. In the narrow tunnel, it echoed off the walls and ceiling and gave it a more menacing quality.


    I shouted back down the tunnel. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving. Not without her. Be a good little soul-sucking monster and give her to me alive. Then I go right back out without having to punch a few holes into whatever you call a face.¡± Again, my knees were quaking hard. If I encountered the demon, I had no idea what I¡¯d do to stop her from killing me.


    The laughter grew louder until the reverberations caused by the noise felt like it would shatter my ear drums. A huge gust of wind came roaring down the tunnel. The loose stones on the ground rattled. The shaking, combined with the deafening cacophony, caused my head to feel like it was being subjected to immense pressure, and I stumbled as my knees threatened to buckle beneath me. Then a huge pressure wave shot down the tunnel, carrying with it the high-pitched and unmistakable sound of a girl¡¯s scream.


    The sheer force of the scream knocked me back. I lost my footing and fell. The lantern hit the ground and the light went out. I curled into a little ball and held my head between my arms, my eyes shut tight. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP IT HURTS DEAR GODS MAKE IT STOP.


    When the wind mercifully died down, I lay on the ground hyperventilating. Eventually the voice sounded in the darkness, dripping with haughty disdain and arrogance. ¡°Where are you, little boy? I can¡¯t see you. Light the lantern, and I¡¯ll show you just what the girl is.¡± I fumbled for the lantern in the dark, finally managing to grasp the iron ring at its top. I stood up the best I could, and lit the wick again.


    MINE.


    Fuuuuuuuck me.


    Scratched over and over and over again across every surface with jagged edges, that word took was all I could see. Shit. I had to fight the urge to curl into the fetal position again. You¡¯re going to die in this cave, Kuro. You brought it on yourself and now there¡¯s no turning back. You vastly underestimated your foe. You ran into her den without truly being ready, a truly stupid mistake.


    Pick your stupid arse up and keep going. I forced myself to take a step forward and then another and then another. Still clutching the battered lantern, I continued down the cave path. Even as I forged ahead, the word was still etched across every surface, glaring tauntingly at me in the lantern¡¯s light. Don¡¯t lose your nerve. That¡¯s what the demon wants. She wants you afraid, and she knows you will be. The trick is to remember what Farnus told you.


    Bravery isn¡¯t the absence of fear. It¡¯s being terrified as hell but doing what you know you have to do in spite of it.


    It was some time before the demon¡¯s voice came floating down the empty tunnel again. ¡°Still haven¡¯t turnt tail and fled? I¡¯ll need to try a little harder.¡± My next step forward put my foot on a downward tilted slope. I pitched forward and fell into a darkness so deep that the lantern did nothing to illuminate it. After rolling down a rocky slope for a bit, I tumbled into a brightly lit area.


    The tunnel had widened into an open space in which a full three-story house sat before me beneath a black, stormy sky. Rain pelted my face, the sensation disturbingly real. In an instant I knew where I was. The orphanage from my childhood. The demon conjured it up and it¡¯s here, now, right in front of me. Cold dread seized my heart as the door slowly swung open, daring me to come inside.


    There wasn¡¯t any other path or way forward. Even if there were, you know that there¡¯s only one right answer to this. The demon wants you to play her game, dance to her tune. You¡¯ve got no choice but to indulge her, Kuro. Swallowing hard, I trekked through the mud to the front door and passed over the threshold.


    Inside was a perfectly recreated representation of the orphanage, but somehow the dimensions were wrong. The walls seemed to stretch unnaturally, elongating to exaggerate their length. A door to my right distorted itself before my very eyes, almost seeming to breathe as it twisted within its wooden frame. From further in the voices of children sang an eerie, unfamiliar rhyme.


    ¡°Little boy, useless toy, something new for us to destroy. No one wants you, no one cares, no cherry pies or city fairs. No mother¡¯s love, no father¡¯s arms, no one to cry to when you come to harm.¡± What the hell. That is not anything like what those children used to sing. What is this?


    Then the door opened at the end of the entry hall, and in the opening was nothing but empty blackness. An amalgamation of a dozen children¡¯s voices spewed out of the doorway, sounding demonic as their pitch warbled in an unholy chorus. ¡°WHERE ARE YOU, NEW KID?¡± Fear froze my legs in place.


    ¡°COME HERE, BRAT. WE JUST WANNA PLAY. YOU¡¯RE GONNA LIVE HERE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE WITH US!¡±


    Please no. This isn¡¯t real. It can¡¯t be real. Gods in heaven above, tell me it isn¡¯t real. The creaking of the floorboards was enough to snap me out of my trance, and my feet carried me back and away. You need to run. You know what they¡¯ll do if they catch you. You know all too well they won¡¯t let you off nicely.


    When I whirled around to run, however, I came face to face with a young boy. Despite being only eight years old in appearance, however, he was over three feet taller than me, his hair a shock of dirty blond and his skin pallid and gray like a corpse¡¯s. No way. Dylan? Idiot Dylan who bullied anyone with a pulse? It can¡¯t be him, but it looks just like him!


    My childhood tormentor started running toward me, rebounding off the shifting dimensions of the orphanage¡¯s entry hall. ¡°I¡¯LL THROW AS MANY ROCKS AS I WANT, YOU LITTLE SHIT. STUPID FOXES ARE EASY TARGETS.¡± Burbling laughter came out of his freakishly huge mouth. ¡°IT¡¯S YOUR OWN DAMN FAULT FOR BRINGING THEM HERE. TRY AND STOP ME IF YOU DON¡¯T LIKE IT!¡±


    Run run run run! Get out of this madhouse! I threw my shoulder into the door to my left and tumbled into the common dormitory, shredded clothing flying everywhere as I fled at full speed. I had to vault over my rickety old bed to reach the other end of the room, and I saw the door leading to the outside on the far end. No more of this! I don¡¯t want to be here anymore!


    I hit the door with my body, but it didn¡¯t even budge. Reaching for the doorknob, I twisted it repeatedly only to find it wouldn¡¯t open the door. On the far end of the room, Dylan started to force himself into the room through a frame too small for his body, his face starting to transform into a hideous parody of itself with long, sharp teeth. ¡°I CAN ALWAYS TAKE IT OUT ON YOU INSTEAD. THAT¡¯S MORE FUN, BECAUSE YOU CAN¡¯T RUN AS FAST AS THEY CAN!¡±


    Frantically I slammed my fists against the door, finally feeling my composure snap. ¡°Is this the best you can do, demon? Summon up some bullshit from my childhood to scare me? That¡¯s amateur hour! Do your worst, I dare you! You don¡¯t got shit on me!¡±


    Despite everything, I heard the demon¡¯s whisper on the other side of the door as clear as day. ¡°You asked for it.¡± Then the door opened without warning and I fell through, landing on my face in the deepest circle of my own personal hell.


    The smell of burning flesh. The screams of dying innocents. The flapping of leathery wings. Instantly I knew where I was. You idiot. You fucking idiot. Look what you did. You had to act all tough and now look at what you did. A dragon flew through the night sky above, spewing fire at a house as its black-armored rider gave out a cry of triumph. The demon had repainted a picture of Marevar to punish me for my defiance.


    It was when I looked forward that I saw her. NO. NO. Don¡¯t look. I squeezed my eyes shut. There was a body lying on the ground ahead of me, maybe twenty feet ahead. A girl with dark hair, a bloody hole in her chest, and a pool of crimson around her. No no no no, you don¡¯t want to see this. Anything but this. You¡¯d rather pluck out your own eyes than see that again.


    There was still a part of me that knew the only way out was forward. My feet moved forward as if they were encased in stone, each step agonizingly slow. Gods, you¡¯re blind. Veer to the side a little bit. The last thing you need is to trip over¡­ something that isn¡¯t real. Somehow that reminder didn¡¯t convince me as much as I hoped it would. Still with eyes closed, I continued forward. One foot in front of the other. Focus on that. One, two, three¡­


    I¡¯d taken at least thirty steps when I heard the voice somewhere behind me. ¡°Kuro? Where are you going?¡± It was scared, choking on blood and raspy, just as I¡¯d remembered it. ¡°You¡¯re not going to leave me here, are you?¡± Fuck, fuck, fuck. It¡¯s not real. You know it¡¯s not real. Just like everything else. Stop telling yourself it¡¯s fake and KNOW that it¡¯s fake. It¡¯s all that demon¡¯s fault.


    The voice pleaded with me again. ¡°It¡¯s so cold, Kuro. I don¡¯t want to be lonely. You don¡¯t either. Why would you leave me behind?¡± Keep going, keep going. The demon is getting desperate. It¡¯s all an act. Once you get past this she¡¯s got nothing left to throw at you.


    ¡°Everyone dies, Kuro. But you¡¯re going to die today, all alone. Right here, right now.¡± There was a sick, demented little chuckle where Laura¡¯s voice briefly became that of the demon¡¯s. ¡°I¡¯ll be waiting. Then I won¡¯t have to be alone anymore.¡±


    I fell again, my foot not finding solid ground in front of me. I landed in some kind of hole. I pulled myself up and winced. She¡¯s losing and she knows it. Just a little more. You¡¯ve come this far, it¡¯s time to see it all the way through. I opened my eyes. I was lying in an open, shallow grave. Next to it was the freshly filled grave Alverd and I had dug for Laura, the crude marker stuck in the ground in the roots of the old tree.


    ¡°Don¡¯t make me wait too long, okay?¡±


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    FUCK THIS.


    Swinging the staff in a wild sideways arc, I directed a burst of magical force through the ruby and a searing blue light scythed through the darkness of the scene. Like cut parchment, the light slashed through the air and revealed the entirety of what I¡¯d gone through as an illusion, causing it to collapse all around me as the light burned it away. Screaming like a crazed lunatic, I waved the staff in every direction, sending the light into every corner and slashing the false vision to ribbons.


    When the last of the illusion dissipated all that was left was a large cavern. Stalactites and stalagmites littered the floor and ceiling, and I could hear the steady dripping of water from somewhere in the room. Inside the cavernous expanse, bioluminescent mushrooms provided dim light allowing me to get a sense of the size and shape of the cavern. All around me, small pools of water littered the floor, catching the moisture falling from the ceiling. In the very center of the room, propped up against a pedestal, was Deotra.


    She was unconscious. She didn¡¯t appear to be hurt, but upon closer inspection, I could see that she was barely breathing. I put the lantern down to the side and picked up her right hand in both of mine. Although her hand was cold and clammy, I could feel a pulse in her wrist. I cupped her head in my hand, trying to stir her.


    ¡°Deotra? It¡¯s me, Kuro. We have to leave. Please, wake up.¡±


    Then the demon¡¯s voice came, echoing across the chamber walls. ¡°It¡¯s no use, boy. Her life is mine. She is bound to me by contract, and there is nothing you can do to stop me from draining what is left of her life. That is, unless¡­¡± The demon interrupted herself to utter a sick, sadistic chuckle. ¡°¡­you want to make a bargain with me?¡±


    I stood back up, looking left and right to see if I could sense the demon¡¯s location. No dice. ¡°You think I¡¯m going to bargain with you after what you put me through? Give me the girl now!¡± As I spoke, I noticed something move off to my right. I whipped around, waving the lantern in its direction.


    Like a cockroach, the oddity scattered from the light until it slipped behind the pedestal. But then it reared up, claws made of smoke and black fire slamming into the ground between me and Deotra. I gazed straight into the seething mass of ebon flame that was the demon, and what passed for a face, emerged, gazing at me with blazing red eyes. A mouth opened, revealing twin rows of horrible, pointy, yellowed teeth.


    ¡°GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HER!¡± Opening my palm, I channeled a burst of light through it and towards the demon. Recoiling away from it, the demon shrank away from the light as its shadowy skin sizzled like meat on a spit. As it howled in rage, I ran to Deotra¡¯s side and stood before her, standing in front of her prone body like a mother bear defending her cub.


    With a scream half rage and half fear, I lifted my ruby-tipped staff and struck. Lightning coursed out of my chest, down my arms, and out through the business end of my staff and blasted the demon square in the torso, if it could be called that. The damned thing let out a piercing shriek, either from pain or surprise, and reared back. With a wolflike snarl she swept one of its claws at me in a blind haymaker. Pumped full of adrenaline, I saw the windup of the attack and ducked under it as best I could.


    The claw came closer than I was comfortable with. Again, I willed the electrical impulses in my body into the staff in my hands. Another brilliant bolt of golden fury lanced across the room, illuminating the darkness even as it slammed into the demon¡¯s chest. The demon threw up her claws to block my next shot.


    My next thunderbolt splashed harmlessly against the demon¡¯s defense. In return, the demon opened her mouth and from it spewed a torrent of black flame. I crossed my arms in a warding gesture in the nick of time. Augmented by my new staff, a shimmering sphere of blue light enveloped me, protecting me from all around, pushing the unholy fire to the side.


    The demon faltered as I let the shield spell fall away. I pressed my attack, willing electricity from my body into the tip of the staff. Yet another thunderbolt shrieked forward and impacted the demon¡¯s chest, and it roared in pain and anger. I took a few steps forward, intensifying the thunderbolt. Suffer, gods-dammit. I want you to suffer. The demon tried to shrink away, tried to throw its hand in the way of my attack to shield itself and in an instant the hand disintegrated under the force of my magic. Emboldened by the demon¡¯s weakness, I began to scream as I concentrated even more energy into the attack.


    The demon couldn¡¯t hold up under my magical assault. I could see cracks developing across its skin, with golden light streaming through them. The demon gave one last swipe of its remaining claw at me, but seized up halfway through, missing me by a foot. Then, it shattered into a million pieces, fragments of dark matter sprinkling down like rain.


    Breathing heavily, I ran over to check Deotra again. Her skin was warmer now, and her breathing not so ragged. When I touched her face, her eyes fluttered open, wide and scared, until they focused on me. A wave of relief so strong I almost lost my balance swept through me, and tears began to pull at the sides of my eyes. A quick wipe with my sleeve cleared my sight. Put on a brave face. You need to show her you¡¯ve got it all under control.


    ¡°¡­Kuro? Is that you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me. We need to get out of here, now. I don¡¯t think that demon is ready to give up the ghost. It¡¯ll be back soon enough, I¡¯d wager.¡± I started to drag her towards the cave entrance when she pulled on my robe.


    ¡°No, we can¡¯t leave yet¡­¡± She pointed at the pedestal. ¡°That¡¯s where the demon was sealed. We have to reactivate the seal or the demon will be free to do as she pleases. Help me¡­¡± I nodded, then pulled her back over to the pedestal.


    It was wrought from flawless ivory, its white finish a stark contrast to the pitch black surrounding it. Strange runes were etched all over the ivory like the chicken scratch of a young child. Upon it was some sort of relic. As I drew closer, I could see that it was some kind of idol. It appeared to be made of silver, and was fashioned in the shape of a woman in a cloak, wielding a long staff that was taller than herself. It wasn¡¯t the work of a master, but that wasn¡¯t what was so special about it; instead, I sensed a powerful magic pulsing from it, steady and strong, almost like a heartbeat.


    ¡°How do I do this?¡± I asked her. I had never seen anything like this. I¡¯d never had any practice with sealing magic.


    Deotra put her hand over the idol. ¡°Here. Let me show you.¡± She took hold of my hand and put it on the idol. Luckily for me, she didn¡¯t see me blush when she grabbed my hand. I could feel the pulses of magic through my palm, echoing up my arm and into my chest.


    ¡°Now, imagine a key turning in a lock. Focus on that image as best you can, and put forth your energy into the idol.¡± I did what I was told, and as I did, the magic of the idol changed, its power now radiating outward at great intensity.


    For a few seconds, I stood there, the idol in my hands, expecting the worst. Then, light sprung out of the pedestal. Bursts of color, like little will o¡¯ the wisps, emerged. They swirled in the air, painting a picture. It took me a minute to realize that it was a map of the continent of Selarune. Once the entire map was complete, five dots appeared. Red, green, blue, brown, and yellow. They streaked to different parts of the map, hovering over five areas like buzzing bees. They painted lines that I eventually recognized as the borders of countries, but the borders on this map didn¡¯t match any modern maps that I knew of. The dimensions were all wrong. Territory I knew belonged to certain nations intersected with other countries. I moved closer, trying to make sense of the strange map. The five lights ceased their flight and hovered over five distinct locations, pulsing like fireflies. I squinted in the dim light, trying to make out the locations.


    Then, I heard laughter.


    Slowly I turned. It was Deotra. Her once sparkling eyes had now become narrow and sinister, and she was radiating an aura of pure malice. When she grinned, I could see that her canine teeth had elongated. She pushed past me and pointed at each of the glowing dots on the map. .


    ¡°And now I know exactly where you all are. She tried to hide you from me, and now her failure is almost complete. Five kings, five failures, five chances at revenge.¡±


    Her voice had changed, too. The voice of the demon spoke through Deotra¡¯s mouth, supplanting her normal tone with the same casual disdain I¡¯d heard as I ventured down into this cave. It was a trap, just not how I imagined it. She needed me for this seal, but why? What is going on here?


    Suddenly, she turned to me. Her wicked grin became even wider. A chill ran all the way down my spine. I bit back a curse. You knew this was the likely scenario. Why did you kid yourself? Did you want to play hero so badly that you blinded yourself to what you knew was the truth? So stupid. I gulped.


    She made her way over to me, and as I tried to backpedal I tripped over something and fell. I tried to scrabble away but she sauntered over and stood over me, her gentle face twisted into a haughty sneer.


    ¡°I have you to thank for this. I¡¯m so very pleased to meet you, Kuro. I¡¯ve had my eye on you for some time now, and I admit, I had to question whether you would come through for me. The little vixen put on quite the song and dance for you. Had you eating out of the palm of her hand. So cute, helpless, and innocent. Guess that sort of thing really lit your fire, so to speak? Heh heh heh¡­¡±


    ¡°I have quite a low opinion of your kind, Kuro. Yours is an untrustworthy lot, and unreliable to boot. I think you only helped me because of your misguided feelings towards this girl. Easily manipulated. Not a good quality¡­ or is it?¡± As she laughed again, I found myself clenching my teeth. I don¡¯t see this ending well at all. Why is she drawing this out, though?


    She reached toward me with her hand. I stiffened and braced myself for something horrible. Instead, she ran her index finger across my cheek, then my lips, then my other cheek.


    ¡°In the end, it could have been anyone, really. But she chose you. She thought you were so noble! I didn¡¯t see it. But I saw other things in you, things that I found useful for my ends. Things that I found¡­ appealing.¡±


    Her lips parted and she gave me an amused smile. ¡°Am I so frightening that I¡¯ve scared you into silence? Speak! Tell me how it feels to have been tricked so easily! To fall for such a simple ruse. You¡¯re not as smart as you¡¯d like to think. That must make you furious, right?¡±


    The hairs on the back of my neck bristled. ¡°I only did it for Deotra. And maybe you¡¯re right, maybe you fooled me, and maybe I¡¯m gonna die, but at least I can die knowing I did what I did because I¡­¡± I hesitated. ¡°Because I wasn¡¯t of sound mind.¡±


    She laughed again. ¡°Love makes you crazy? That¡¯s your reason? That¡¯s rich. You can put that on your gravestone, along with the millions of other men who died because they were too busy staring at a pretty girl to think straight.¡±


    ¡°Still, everything worked out nicely. I had to restrain the little girl quite harshly to ensure she didn¡¯t give away the surprise before it was time. I¡¯m so glad this little vixen finally managed to pull off her role in this charade, and to have kept herself in control for as long as she did. To be honest, I expected her to do more than latch onto you and wrestle you to the ground the first moment she was able. It seems she chickened out when it came down to it, though.¡± Deotra laughed again, moving closer to me. Oh gods, the look on her face was the stuff of nightmares.


    I¡¯m sick of this bitch using Deotra like a puppet! ¡°Gods damn you, demon! Show me your true form instead of hiding behind a mask!¡± I pointed my staff at Deotra. I watched her like a hawk, waiting for a response.


    My defensive stance did little to deter her. Instead, she made a gesture with her hand, and the staff flew out of my hand and into the darkness.


    She knelt down, her face mere inches from my own. My eyes peered deep into hers. ¡°Oh, no no no. It¡¯s not time for me to reveal who I am. I¡¯ve been very interested in you, Kuro. As is the little vixen. I believe you might be the one we¡¯ve been looking for.¡± She grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently. ¡°But you are so dense! I had that girl hand you the bloody Staff of Farewells, the most powerful magic staff in the world, and you squander its power, its potential!¡±


    What the bloody hell is she talking about? ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re blathering about! And even if I did I wouldn¡¯t do what you want! So why don¡¯t you go fu-¡±


    Deotra scowled, and her eyes flashed evilly. ¡°You don¡¯t tell me what to do. Perhaps you don¡¯t understand your place yet, young Kuro.¡± She picked me up, effortlessly, and I felt my feet dangle uselessly as they left the ground. Her face was twisted into an expression of satisfaction and triumph. ¡°You¡¯re mine, now. I¡¯ve seen men stronger than you, better than you. I¡¯ve broken every single one of them. You will obey me, and if you don¡¯t I¡¯ll-¡±


    Suddenly she dropped me, clutching at her head. ¡°No! I didn¡¯t say you could come out! I am in control now! How dare you disobey me, you impertinent-¡±


    Her head lolled down, then rose back up, and when I saw her eyes they had softened back to a more familiar look. ¡°Mmm¡­ I hate when she does that.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Kuro? Are you alright?¡±


    I whimpered in relief. ¡°Oh thank the gods. Deotra, I was worried sick.¡± I propped myself back up on my elbows. ¡°What happened? How did you wrest control back from that demon?¡±


    She looked confused, then her eyes widened in recognition. ¡°Oh.¡± Her soft voice echoed in the empty chamber. ¡°It may not seem like it, but she¡¯s not a demon, Kuro. She¡¯s just a very aggressive spirit.¡± I raised my eyebrow. She waved her hands apologetically. ¡°I have control of my body, but sometimes she can take control to carry out some of her whims. But I can always seize control back if I feel she¡¯s gone too far.¡±


    She bowed to me deeply. ¡°You¡¯ll have to forgive me. I¡¯ve only gotten as far as I have because of that spirit. She doesn¡¯t share much with me, but she did tell me her name¡­ it¡¯s Drache. She has a bad habit of trying to put people in their place, and she can be a bit heavy-handed. But she knows potential when she sees it. Given time, you could be everything that we hope you to be. Therefore, it is in my best interest to keep you safe¡­ as I always have.¡±


    There¡¯s that again. Time for some answers. ¡°Deotra, you need to come clean with me. What does that even mean? Please just stop talking in riddles and tell me the truth.¡±


    Her smile widened, her long, sharp canine teeth on full display. ¡°Have you ever felt like you had a guardian angel sometimes? That¡¯s me. I¡¯ve followed you ever since you were just a child in Marevar. I¡¯ve been making sure to intercede only when absolutely necessary.¡± She sheepishly wrung her hands. ¡°Although, sometimes, I admit that I used my powers a little frivolously¡­ to make sure you were taken care of. I know you didn¡¯t have parents, so I wanted to look after you¡­¡±


    Suddenly my nightmare made sense. The fox that had protected me from the demon. ¡°You used magic¡­ you chased away my nightmares! When I was a child, every nightmare I ever had always ended the same way. Always a fox, wreathed in golden light, chasing away everything that scared me. That was you?¡±


    Deotra smiled again. ¡°Yes, that was me. I couldn¡¯t bear to watch you suffer. In any way. If it was within my power to keep you happy, I did what I had to. Drache always scolded me but I wanted you to always be the same boy that I¡­¡± She trailed off for a moment, but then made a herculean effort to look me straight in the eyes. ¡°¡­the same boy that I fell in love with.¡±


    ¡°Y-y-you what? You love¡­ me?¡± Wait, what? I feel like I¡¯m about to suffocate, but in a good way. The earnestness in Deotra¡¯s face communicated her feelings to me as plain as day. This is not how I expected this to go. I came in here expecting to die and now a girl is professing her love for me? Am I dreaming? Did I hit my head somewhere in the tunnel and this is all some weird fever dream?


    ¡°Hold on. Back up. In the clearing, you came on to me really strong. Then you sort of had a little panic attack. What was that about? I mean, don¡¯t get me wrong, the flirting was nice and all but at some point it got a little intense.¡± I felt heat rising in my face as I recalled the sensation of Deotra¡¯s lips on mine.


    She hugged her arms tight around her chest. ¡°Drache pushed me a bit too hard. She thought you¡¯d be like any other boy who wanted nothing but physical pleasure. I insisted you weren¡¯t like that, so I humored her just to prove her wrong.¡± Her eyes wandered to the floor. ¡°It was her idea to put you through that gauntlet. She said that if you were really the one I was waiting for, you¡¯d make it through. And you did.¡±


    Her arms fell away and she clutched her hands in front of her chest. ¡°I didn¡¯t know she was going to put you through that hell. But you fought through it and showed so much courage. I know you doubt yourself, think that you¡¯re not worth anything, but you proved today that you can push yourself to do the extraordinary when need be.¡± She gave me a faint smile. ¡°You just needed the right motivation.¡±


    Part of me was still mad about this, but seeing her smile sort of took most of the anger and snuffed it like a candle in the wind. Somehow, I do believe that she wouldn¡¯t have agreed to what I went through if she knew, especially the last part. ¡°Still, Deotra. Why should I believe all this? I get the sense you¡¯re still hiding something from me.¡±


    She pouted, then bit her lip. ¡°I want you to understand me, to understand my feelings. I think the best way to do that is to tell you the truth, even if it¡¯s going to be hard to believe.¡±


    I blinked. She seemed to gather up her courage, and took a deep breath. Then, she made an effort to turn her golden eyes from the ground and look me in the eye. ¡°The truth of the matter is, I am not human.¡± Deotra quickly turned her eyes away from me in shame. But instead of being afraid, as I should have been, and had every right to be, I felt confusion.


    ¡°Then what are you?¡±


    She looked at me with sadness in her eyes. ¡°I am what your kind would call a familiar.¡±


    I blinked again. ¡°Wait, what? You¡¯re a familiar?¡± I looked Deotra up and down, as if I would find proof she was yanking my chain. She looked perfectly human to me.


    Her soft voice trembled. ¡°I want to show you, but I worry¡­ I worry that you will reject me. I¡¯ve suffered because of it for so long, and from so many; if you rejected me too, I think I''d just want to stop living.¡±


    Gods, I do know what that¡¯s like. I can¡¯t imagine what she¡¯s running from, but it has to be terrible if she¡¯s this scared of rejection. I reached out and took Deotra¡¯s gloved hand. She stiffened when I did, and she almost pulled her hand away.


    ¡°What are you-¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t reject you. Whatever it is you have to show me, I will not run.¡±


    Instead of shrinking away, like I thought she would, she took a step forward. Her normally shy voice gained a strange edge to it. ¡°Do you promise?¡± I was taken aback by her sudden change in tone. But she pressed again. ¡°Do you promise, Kuro?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    ¡°No, say you promise! I won¡¯t believe you until you say that you promise you won¡¯t run!¡±


    From that dusty corner of my brain, my common sense screamed at me that something was very wrong and that this was my very last opportunity to run and save myself. I shoved that voice back into its corner and calmly spoke the words she wanted to hear.


    ¡°I promise I won¡¯t run away, Deotra.¡±


    Her eyes glittered. ¡°Alright¡­ remember, you promised.¡± She pulled her hand free, closed her eyes, spread her arms, and enveloped herself in bright, light blue flames emanating from her feet, spreading up her body with blinding speed. The light became too bright for me to see past, and I shielded my eyes with my hand. After a moment, the light began to fade. As the blue flame died away, I removed my hand, and beheld Deotra in her alleged true form.


    Sitting where Deotra had been only a moment ago was a fox. A very familiar red-furred fox. It looked up at me, yowled, and then shimmered in form. The little fox disappeared again, and in its place was Deotra. I stammered for a moment, becoming aware of the expectant look on her face. I knew I had to be diplomatic with my answer.


    ¡°Then you¡¯re a fox familiar?¡± Sheena¡¯s book had a section on fox familiars, and I recalled what I had read as quickly as I could. They were incredibly rare, had a talent for transformation, and generally did not end up as mage familiars due to their low magic power. So that¡¯s why she¡¯s afraid. In terms of general usefulness, a familiar like her ranks near the bottom.


    She stared at me and fidgeted in place. Her lower lip was jutting out and quivering, and it made her look like a child with a skinned knee. Her legs went pigeon-toed and she wrung her hands.


    Gods. She looks so pitiful. I moved next to Deotra and put my hand on her shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m not going to judge you based on what kind of familiar you are. As a person, you seem like a really nice girl, and I¡¯d really like to get to know you better if you¡¯ll let me. So how about we revisit the discussion after we¡¯ve had time to get properly acquainted?.¡± I bowed and kissed her gloved hand, trying hard to imitate Alverd and his chivalrous ways. ¡°I¡¯m Kuro. I¡¯m not exactly a capable mage, but I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    Her face lit up like the morning sky when I said that. Gods she¡¯s beautiful. She nestled against me, and I embraced her as she cried into my robe. We stood together like that for a while.


    Then she pulled away, wiped away some tears from her eyes, bounced in place twice, and cleared her throat with the cutest little ¡°ahem¡± I¡¯d ever heard. ¡°I¡¯m Deotra. I¡¯m so happy to finally meet you for real, Kuro. And of course, my friend¡¯s name is Drache. I¡¯m sure she¡¯s pleased to meet you in her own way. Now that I¡¯m finally by your side, I won¡¯t let anyone harm you in any way.¡± She pointed at the staff that I had completely forgotten about in my hand. ¡°Also, she entrusted you with the Staff of Farewells. She wouldn¡¯t do that if she thought you couldn¡¯t handle it.¡±


    I looked down at the staff, and the ruby glinted at me in the lantern light like it was winking at me. ¡°Oh that¡¯s what the demon called it, right?¡±


    Deotra frowned at me. ¡°Please, Kuro. She¡¯s not a demon. She¡¯s a spirit. There IS a difference, you know.¡± She said that rather petulantly. ¡°This is a relic of great power. It belongs to you now. Drache doesn¡¯t want me to tell you too much about it. She wants you to try and unlock its true powers yourself. Think of it as another test.¡±


    She leaned over and tapped the ruby on the tip of the staff. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be much safer with such a powerful weapon at your disposal. There were times when I was scared you¡¯d die without me beside you. So I helped you, as best I could, without your knowledge.¡±


    ¡°So then,¡± I said, making a sweeping motion at the cave, ¡°was all just a test?¡±


    Deotra nodded. ¡°Again, I¡¯m really sorry that it had to be like this. Drache insisted that this was the best way to test your character. You have no idea how happy it made me when I saw you come back¡­¡± She bridged her fingers together as she smiled. ¡°I don¡¯t approve of deceiving others, or telling lies, but the truth would have been too much for you. So I had to trick you, for a little while. Thank goodness that¡¯s all over with.¡±


    I could feel the blood returning to a pounding in my veins from Drache¡¯s display of anger. But, looking back from the staff to Deotra calmed my boiling blood. It was good to see this version of her back in charge. That curious feeling that had shown itself after she had told me she loved me was back.


    ¡°I only ever planned on coming back to find you, even though it might have been the stupidest thing I¡¯ve ever done on my own.¡±


    She blushed. I took her hand once more, and together we walked back out of the cave. When we reached the clearing again, the moonlight greeted us with its gentle radiance.


    I turned to face Deotra. ¡°So¡­I know you¡¯ll be my familiar now, but how does this all work? I¡¯m kind of at a loss.¡± I fumbled for more to say. I wanted to spend more time with Deotra, to get to know her. I wanted to talk for hours, just about her. I wanted to know every little thing about her. Is that the effect of love? It¡¯s all so new to me.


    She frowned. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Kuro, but you mustn¡¯t tell any of your friends about me. We can only be together in secret for now. I fear that if my existence were to be discovered, I would be locked away forever.¡± Her eyes began to water. ¡°Drache told me about men who would take me away. She called them scholars.¡±


    That makes sense. Standard familiars, while able to change their form, had never had the power to assume human form. The book claimed fox familiars were exceptionally rare and were coveted for their shapeshifting abilities in fields of magical study.


    ¡°I won¡¯t let that happen, I promise I¡¯ll keep your secret.¡± I noticed that when I used the word ¡°promise¡±, her eyes flickered again. It was almost too quick to catch, but since I had seen it before, I was able to recognize it a second time.


    ¡°Maybe if you maintain your humanoid form, nobody would see through it? Then you could accompany me everywhere. No one has to know.¡±


    Deotra smiled wearily. ¡°It¡¯s an option. I¡¯ll think about it. Nothing would make me happier than being by your side at all times, Kuro.¡±


    Then she took my hand. ¡°I see you still have the charm bracelet I made. That¡¯s good.¡± She pulled a similar charm from the sash around her waist and slid it onto her right wrist. ¡°I made these before you came here. Where I come from, there¡¯s a belief that two people who are destined to be soulmates are bound by an invisible red thread. They¡¯re meant to find each other, no matter how far apart they are. I knew one day I¡¯d find you, so I made these. I hope you¡¯ll take good care of it.¡± I tugged at the red twine to make sure it was snug around my wrist. I didn¡¯t want to lose it, especially not after what Deotra had said.


    Suddenly she smacked herself in the forehead. ¡°Gah, I¡¯m so stupid! Our contract hasn¡¯t been completely finalized, yet.¡± She held her hand out to me, and a small blue flame sparked to life in her palm. ¡°If you would be so kind, Kuro. Place your hand in mine and claim me as your familiar. I will share your life, and join you in death.¡±


    I slowly put my hand over hers, and at that moment I was struck with how delicate and frail Deotra seemed. Even under the glove, I could feel how soft and small her fingers were. The blue flame wrapped around my hand until it engulfed it; strangely, there was no heat or burning sensation.


    Her face flushed again. ¡°Alright. Now you declare your intent to take me as your familiar. My full name is Deotra Tsukishiro. Claim me as your familiar and our contract is complete.¡±


    I was a bit embarrassed. But then it occurred to me that this was a moment she had probably looked forward to her whole life. I wasn¡¯t going to deny her that. I took a deep breath, and did what I was supposed to.


    ¡°My name is Kuro. From this day forth, Deotra Tsukishiro, you are my familiar. From now until my last breath, you and I are bound together. I promise to look after you and care for you from here on out.¡± As I finished my declaration, Deotra reached her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. I was a bit embarrassed by her sudden show of affection, but considering that she was keeping that demon of hers under control, I let it slide.


    At last, she let me go. ¡°Oh, Kuro. With this, it¡¯s official. I¡¯m yours, and you are mine. As your familiar, I¡¯ll follow you anywhere, obey your every command, and protect you until the end of your days. This I swear upon my name, Deotra Tsukishiro, formerly of the Clan Tsukishiro, Third of the Ten Fox Clans.¡± She clasped her hands together and gazed at me. ¡°There¡¯s just one last thing I need to make certain of. Those girls who accompany you¡­ the angry blonde, and the dim-witted witch. You¡¯re not interested in either of those girls, are you?¡±


    I could have sworn I saw the spark of something malicious in her eyes when she said that. I told her the truth. ¡°Oh heavens no. Even if I were, they only have eyes for Alverd.¡± Still, the look in her eyes bothered me, so I pushed it further than I should have. ¡°Why would you ask me something like that?¡±


    She seemed very surprised to hear that. ¡°Oh, Kuro¡­ you¡¯re so silly.¡± She said that with what she probably thought was an innocent giggle. Then she leaned in close, so that her face was inches from mine. Her eyes suddenly went dull, and she gave me a toothy, predatory smile. ¡°I just had to make sure. Because you belong to me now. And if there¡¯s one thing you can be certain of¡­¡± She leaned in even closer, so that her mouth was next to my ear, ¡°¡­I won¡¯t let anyone get away with harming what¡¯s mine.¡±


    I felt a chill run the length of my entire body that had nothing to do with the night air.


    Then she backed away, and she was sweetness and shyness incarnate again. ¡°As long as you remember that, we won¡¯t have any problems. For now, I must take my leave. Drache requires me to go back to the cave, so we can look over that map. But when you need me, I¡¯ll be there. You need only call my name, and I¡¯ll come rushing. Farewell for now, my love. I¡¯m looking forward to our long, happy lives together.¡± She leaned forward one last time, and planted a chaste but firm kiss on my cheek. With that done, she disappeared in a swirl of blue smoke, leaving me alone in the clearing.


    I stayed in the clearing for a moment, contemplating her words. Then I began the long trek back to where Alverd and the girls were.


    He looked tired, with his eyes drooping shut and struggling to remain upright. When I sat next to him, he nearly jumped. ¡°Gah, Kuro. Give me some warning. I nearly jumped out of my skin.¡±


    I smacked his shoulder. ¡°Pfft. You need some sleep. I¡¯ll take over for now. I didn¡¯t find anything and I think we¡¯re safe for now. Get some rest, you earned it.¡±


    I don¡¯t think he remained awake long enough to hit the ground. He simply keeled over and was snoring softly as he lay upon the dirt next to Alicia. He was still holding her hand, fingers interlocked with hers. I looked at my own hand with the bracelet tied around it.


    Damn, I should¡¯ve asked her what this symbol means. The small charm dangled from the end of the bracelet, catching the light of the moon. I better make sure to do so next time.


    An hour or so later, Sheena finally stirred from her rest. She leaned up, glared jealously at Alverd and Alicia, and came over to me. ¡°I can take watch now.¡± I nodded and lay down on the ground, exhaustion already pulling me under. I had a dreamless sleep, but in retrospect that was fine by me.


    I had no need to dream of foxes anymore.

 B2: Chapter 14: Alicia: Mentor (Raw)

    I was polishing my dragon egg the the next day when the epiphany hit me.


    That night, I had gone to bed wondering when Kuro had gone and flipped his mood. He had sauntered off with a smug look on his face, completely different from when he had been so despondent before. Talk about mood swings.


    We were out on the training ground Sheena had set up the other day, on the palace commons. Kuro was still practicing his magic, which seemed just as powerful before, only now he seemed to have more stamina and control over his powers. He easily dispatched the immobile targets with ease. We decided that now was as good a time as any to ask why he had decided on going into the Forest of Familiars.


    He wasn¡¯t very forthcoming with why he had decided to brave the Forest of Familiars on his own, in the middle of the night, without any backup whatsoever. Instead, he said he had ¡°given up¡± on finding a familiar and that he didn¡¯t need one. Sheena wasn¡¯t so pleased with his answer.


    ¡°You do understand that without a familiar, you don¡¯t really have a right to call yourself a full-fledged mage, do you, Sir Kuro?¡± She said. ¡°You¡¯re missing out on some of the most basic principles of mage teachings, as well as some of the more advanced ones. If you just try again, perhaps this time things will turn in your favor¡­¡±


    Kuro nodded his head. ¡°Look, I¡¯ve spent the last fourteen years of my life without a familiar, and I don¡¯t see how getting one will change things. I¡¯ve always relied on my head rather than my magic, and so far such a practice has steered me in the right direction. You worry too much, Your Highness. I¡¯ll be fine.¡± He gave the Witch-Queen a cocky smile, but Sheena did not return it.


    Instead, she raised an eyebrow in suspicion. ¡°You say these things now, Sir Kuro, but perhaps you will change your mind after you find out just how useful a familiar can be.¡± With a snap of her finger, her red-furred wolf, Kelda, appeared next to her. The creature took one look at Kuro and began growling. Kuro took a few steps back, but the wolf kept pace with him, baring her teeth angrily.


    ¡°Hey¡­we talked about this. Keep that wolf away from me.¡± Kuro began to panic, waving his staff menacingly in Kelda¡¯s direction. ¡°I mean it! It¡¯s not funny! Knock it off!¡± Kelda pinned Kuro against a wall, then began to sniff him thoroughly. Then she bared her fangs again, before running back off to Sheena. She pet the wolf¡¯s head, as the creature barked at her.


    ¡°What¡¯s that, Kelda?¡± Sheena cooed. ¡°Sir Kuro smells like¡­fox? How odd. No that doesn¡¯t mean you can eat him, my dear. As for why he smells like fox, perhaps he could answer that question for us?¡± Sheena cast an accusatory glance over in Kuro¡¯s direction. He grit his teeth, then leaned against the wall.


    Kuro took a look around him, namely, at the three of us, not including Kelda. He folded his arms and dodged the question. ¡°How should I know? Maybe I stepped in some fox crap or something. The Forest is full of animals. Now look, I appreciate that you were all worried about me but you can stop interrogating me. Everything went fine and I learned a major lesson. Having a familiar just isn¡¯t in the cards for me, I guess.¡±


    I hadn¡¯t know Kuro for very long. We were talking less than a few months by this point. But I knew he was hiding something from us. On one hand, I was a bit curious as to why he was ducking our line of questioning, but at the same time I was too apathetic to push any further. It was all mage stuff anyway, and it¡¯d probably have gone over my head. So long as he wasn¡¯t dying in front of me I was perfectly fine with letting sleeping dogs lie.


    It was afternoon, now. Today, I insisted on being present for ¡°training¡±. Kuro was throwing powerful magic left and right, with Alverd weaving and bobbing to avoid or deflect his friend¡¯s spells. Sheena stood off to one side of the training ground, watching what was transpiring with a close eye.


    Kuro had apparently made some kind of improvement, because he wasn¡¯t getting winded like he normally did in the past. He still had only one skill though, and that was making things go boom. Still, even someone like me, who couldn¡¯t tell one lightning bolt from another, could tell that his magic seemed stronger than it had the day before. Every time a bolt or fireball ricocheted off Alverd¡¯s shield, I saw the knight struggle to maintain his stance.


    Had Kuro been training in secret? That didn¡¯t make any sense. He¡¯d only had a day since he stormed off from Sheena¡¯s little deception and into the Forest of Familiars. In the space of only a day, had he really made so much progress? No. I blamed his staff, again. It must have been the staff. It was the only explanation that made sense to me. Kuro was a horrible mage. Horrible people did not become talented overnight.


    I sat there, on the grass, watching Kuro demonstrate his newfound powers. While I found his new strength reassuring, I didn¡¯t like the look in his eyes. They were filled with a damn near suicidal overconfidence. He looked like he was ready to take on the world. People with that mindset were dangerous, and for all the wrong reasons, too. That¡¯s the kind of attitude that got people killed.


    After a few hours, Alverd finally slumped down on the ground, spent. He was drenched in sweat, and gasping for breath. I didn¡¯t blame him; if I had had a crazy mage throwing magic at me all morning, I¡¯d have been tired too. I noted that Kuro had a little too much enthusiasm behind his barrages; the look of excitement on his face didn¡¯t help matters any either.


    I continued to polish the egg that lay in my lap absentmindedly, looking up at the clouds lazily drifting along up above me. I sighed to myself. We were still no closer to solving this bloody mystery than we were when we first arrived in this city. It was beginning to grate on my patience. Watching how Sheena made her shameless advances on Alverd put me off further still. But then, like I mentioned before, I had the epiphany.


    I was jealous.


    It came as a shock to me, that much was certain. When the realization struck me, I almost burst out laughing at the sheer absurdity of it. But the more I thought about it, the more things made sense. My reactions, the feelings I had, the pain I felt¡­jealousy was the only rational explanation. And I had plenty to be jealous of. Sheena had quite the alluring figure, an approachable personality, and was a damn Queen. I was just an angry little Princess that looked half my age physically. How could I compete with that?


    Simple, my brain thought. You go down there and you claim what¡¯s rightfully yours. Alverd was your protector first. You show that girl that who¡¯s in charge around here! I heartily agreed. I picked up my hammer, and stored my dragon egg in my pouch. I ran down the hill I¡¯d been sitting on and made my way over to where the others were taking a break.


    The Witch-Queen was just about to start flirting with Alverd again when I ran between them. ¡°Hold on a damn second, Witch-Queen.¡± I was in no mood for her games. ¡°Just because you hired us, doesn¡¯t mean you can monopolize Alverd. He has things to do, like worry about the safety of others who have sought his protection. I too, have paid for his services, and your behavior endangers my life.¡± I pointed at the Sword of Evros. ¡°He himself acknowledged the price I paid was beyond what was owed. If you continue your selfishness, you risk your alliance with Ishmar. Will you really ruin such a chance because you couldn¡¯t reign yourself in?¡±


    The Witch-Queen looked very miffed at my little outburst. But then she smiled. ¡°It wasn¡¯t my intention to monopolize him, dear Princess. But as you can see, we are quite safe here. There¡¯s no harm in innocent dalliance when there are no blades or staves nearby to kill us with. I apologize if you think I am encroaching on your contract, but the fact of the matter is, we have to learn to share.¡±


    That only served to make me angrier. ¡°I can¡¯t trust any of you mages. You all have ulterior motives! Always sneaking behind peoples¡¯ backs, always planning in secret! In fact, I never would have figured any of this out if it weren¡¯t for your damn Uncle! He¡¯s the only one who seems to understand how your damn mind works, Witch-Queen! He always knows where you are and what you¡¯re doing! He¡­¡±


    I trailed off for a second. I had a single, horrible thought.


    ¡°He knew where you were. He knew where Kuro was, and what you and Alverd were doing. And yet, we weren¡¯t attacked until we all regrouped¡­¡± I racked my brain, trying to put the pieces together. ¡°Lord Necce didn¡¯t show himself until after we all got back together. Why? Why didn¡¯t he strike when you and Alverd were alone?¡± I was fumbling for something, looking for an elusive needle in a haystack. ¡°Did he want us all together? I don¡¯t understand¡­¡±


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Kuro picked up on my line of thought right away. ¡°You¡¯re right. Necce didn¡¯t attack until after we all got back together. Either he had the worst timing in the world, or killing you wasn¡¯t his real intention. But that still doesn¡¯t explain why he waited until we were together instead of attacking us while we were separated. It would make more sense for him to single us out.¡±


    The Witch-Queen stared at me, puzzled. ¡°Are you accusing my Uncle of treason?! Have you lost your mind, Princess Alicia?! My Uncle would never commit such a crime! He has been my most ardent supporter, and my only light in a sea of darkness. He would never turn on me! Never!¡± Her voice, however, broke at some point during her rant.


    ¡°Are you so certain, my dear? I¡¯m so glad I inspired so much loyalty in you.¡±


    All of us turned, to see that Lord Albrecht had arrived. Flanking him was Captain McFarlane, her hand tightly gripping her combat staff. Albrecht had his staff for the very first time since I had met him, a five foot long oak staff with a topaz worked into its apex. He was also accompanied by fifteen men and women, all of whom were adorned in the same manner as McFarlane, making them combat mages.


    As they approached, I saw Kuro reach for his staff. I slowly reached for my hammer. The hairs on my neck all stood on end. I didn¡¯t need to be a genius to know why the smug bastard was here.


    ¡°Why not tell your niece what¡¯s going on, Albrecht? I know you¡¯re involved in this little rebellion. Your game¡¯s up. Might as well come clean.¡± I spun my hammer in my hand. ¡°Go on. Or you could just waste all of our time with some lies instead. Makes no difference to me.¡±


    Albrecht sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging visibly. ¡°Very well. Lying would not serve my cause, so I will not resort to such pathetic drivel. As you are all aware, there is currently a group of individuals who seek to force the Witch-Queen to declare war on Ishmar. As it so happens, I am the leader of this group. And I have been for the past twenty years.¡±


    Sheena began to stammer in disbelief. Albrecht gave her a short glance before continuing. ¡°As for Lord Necce, the little bastard went and tried to corral you together so that we could use your new friends against you, Sheena. I know you¡¯d fight tooth and nail, so if I put your new pet knight in danger, you¡¯d back down in a heartbeat. But that idiot Necce attacked you instead of waiting for the rest of us to arrive.¡±


    The Prime Minister paused a moment to spit on the ground. ¡°The damn fool allowed his stupid pride and moronic prejudice to override what little sense he had. Because of that, we let slip that the conspiracy went all the way up to the Magister Lords. I knew we had little time to act, so I organized this little escort to ensure you cooperate, Sheena.¡±


    Sheena was distraught. Her eyes were wide and tears were beginning to form in them. ¡°Why, Uncle? I don¡¯t understand¡­why do this? You are supposed to be loyal to the crown! You have been my most loyal supporter! I don¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t understand!¡± She fell to her knees, her staff clattering to the ground uselessly.


    Alverd took a step forward so that he was between Sheena and the Prime Minister. I could see both Albrecht and McFarlane¡¯s eyes tracking Alverd¡¯s movement, and McFarlane tightened her grip on her staff. But neither made any effort to move. Instead, Albrecht continued to speak.


    ¡°Really? You don¡¯t? I know you¡¯re smarter than this, Sheena. I know you better than anyone. I raised you, after all. But maybe that¡¯s the problem. I know you, my dear. But you never bothered to know me as anything more than your doting uncle. Maybe if you were to open your eyes a bit more, and chose to see more than only what you wanted to see, then you would have seen through me a good deal sooner.¡±


    At this point, McFarlane motioned to her fellow mages. They began to spread out, circling our flanks. Alverd¡¯s hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword, but I doubted the mages were intimidated by him. After all, they outnumbered us. Kuro glanced over at me meaningfully; I knew what he was thinking. Things were going to get very ugly, very fast.


    And then Albrecht spoke again.


    ¡°I am, or perhaps it is more appropriate to say, was, an Ishmarian spy. I was sent here to Algrustos a long, long time ago with the mission to assassinate the entire Council of Magic, along with the Wizard-King and Witch-Queen.¡±


    I felt my jaw drop open. An Ishmarian spy capable of using magic? I had never heard of such a thing. In Ishmar, all children born with the capacity to use magic were sentenced to death¡­no exceptions. For Lord Albrecht to have been telling the truth, then¡­


    I voiced my question. ¡°But if you¡¯re telling the truth, then that would mean that my father had you trained in magic in order to infiltrate Algrustos! Is that right?!¡± I couldn¡¯t believe it. It couldn¡¯t have been true. But Albrecht slowly nodded in agreement.


    ¡°Aye. Your father had me trained in magic because he saw a golden opportunity. An infiltrator that thought like the enemy, knew the enemy¡¯s power, and wore the face of the enemy. Say what you will about the King of Dragontamers, he was no fool. Even if he was a racist old son of a whore who feared what he could not control.¡±


    Albrecht began wringing his hands. ¡°I had every intention of taking Algrustos for my own, and turning its armies loose on Ishmar. The damn fool Dragontamer King thought I would remain loyal. He was wrong. But once I became Prime Minister, I began to realize that I belonged here, in Algrustos. The Wizard-King, however, proved to be no better than the King of Dragontamers. Because he wanted nothing but war, as well.¡±


    Albrecht¡¯s right hand balled into a fist. ¡°And yet, he was even worse. Because, he would go to any length to prevail over the dragon tamers. Including sacrifice not only the lives of thousands of his subjects, but of a life that should have been precious above all else¡­that of his daughter. You, Sheena. You see, there is only one way to activate the Slumbering Calamities.¡±


    Albrecht dug a yellowed scroll from a pocket in his robe. He unfurled it, and a diagram depicting a body being drained of some red fluid appeared. The fluid was being pulled into a giant golem looking thing. It took me a moment to realize, with horror, that the fluid was blood.


    Sheena did not take this news well. The color drained from her face. Her voice broke as she tried to find the words to express her shock. ¡°Uncle? What are you talking about?¡± Albrecht did not even blink. He turned to face his ¡°niece¡±. ¡°It is very simple, Sheena. The only way to activate the Calamities is to power them with the blood of a member of the royal family of Algrustos. And seeing as how your parents are dead, that duty must now fall to you. I will take the Slumbering Calamities to Ishmar and avenge all of those who have died under the heel of the dragon tamers¡­as well as save all future children born with the gift of magic.¡±


    Albrecht smiled. ¡°It wasn¡¯t all that hard to convince the majority of the Council to ally with me. There are a few who still entertain the notion that war is not in our best interests, but once they see the Calamities marching west at the head of our armies, they will join their strength to ours. I¡¯m terribly sorry it must fall to this, my darling niece. I wish it did not have to happen this way.¡±


    Sheena was sobbing now, tears rolling down her face. ¡°Uncle¡­you killed my parents? It was you?¡± Albrecht sighed again. ¡°Sheena, dear, I know this is a huge shock to you, but you simply must keep up. Your parents were going to sacrifice you as a baby to awaken the Calamities. I simply delayed the action by killing them. I knew that by manipulating you, cultivating your trust, I could steer Algrustos in just the right direction for as long as I needed to¡­and here we are. Now, we are finally ready to enact my plan to destroy Ishmar once and for all.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t believe it. Up until now, Lord Albrecht hadn¡¯t seemed like the untrustworthy sort. Sure, he was vague and mysterious, but he had never struck me as a traitor. But his intentions were clear now. I could hear the sound of metal scraping metal as Alverd drew the Sword of Evros from its scabbard. He inched forward, until he was squarely between us and Lord Albrecht. Once he was sure he was capable of blocking an attack, he spoke to the Prime Minister.


    ¡°Why now? Why would you wait so long? Why not simply kill Sheena as a youngling and seize control of Algrustos for yourself? You had the opportunity. You could have declared war on Ishmar twenty years ago. So why did you hesitate?¡±


    It was a good question. Albrecht seemed to ponder a moment, then answered. ¡°Chalk it up to foolish sentimentality, I suppose. When I first held Sheena as a babe, I could not bring myself to end her life, even for my noble ambitions. But logically, even if I had killed her, I did not have any support amongst the Council. If I had usurped the throne, I could not have taken the other Magister Lords alone. So I spent the next twenty years earning their trust, preparing all of this, so that we could act when the time was right. When the King of Ishmar fell ill, we saw our golden opportunity.¡±


    Alverd spoke again. ¡°Then why would you send assassins after Sheena? Why not kill her? Why this charade? What do you gain from this?¡± Albrecht laughed. ¡°To get her to trust me, knight. I foiled the assassins in the past. It was all a ploy to get her to trust in me all the more. I have never steered her wrong¡­because I have only steered her in the direction I wanted her to go in.¡±


    Albrecht brought his staff to bear, the topaz gleaming. ¡°You see, Sheena can either give her blood freely¡­or it can be taken by force. I would have preferred the former, but I can see that you might not be so willing after everything I¡¯ve just revealed. Therefore, you leave me no choice.¡±


    That was basically my cue to run forward and bash Albrecht¡¯s self-righteous skull in, but instead I felt this immense pressure in my head. I fell to the ground, and an insidious darkness wormed its way into my skull. I cried out in agony as the darkness writhed in my brain. I saw Alverd and Kuro in similar straits, convulsing on the ground in pain, clutching their heads and screaming, though I could barely hear. As my vision grew dim, I could see a man in jet-black robes; the Magister Lord, Casper Mattigen. Beside him was a creature I could only describe as nightmarish to the extreme. It was a off-putting shade of green, with a long neck, a gargoylish face and leathery wings, as well as a muscular body with long sharp claws on its hands and feet. It had to be a demon. And it was exerting its dark powers on us.


    I struggled the best I could. But the darkness overwhelmed me. My sight was the first to go. Darkness enveloped my vision like a fog, and eventually, I couldn¡¯t even hear my own screams. This must have been what death felt like.


    It was cold. Colder than ice, and darker than the night itself. I felt myself slip away, into nothingness.

 B2: Chapter 15: Kuro: Tribute in Blood (Raw)

    I really should take up lock picking.


    I mean, considering how many jail cells I¡¯ve ended up in in the past five years, you¡¯d think it would be a useful skill to learn. Maybe even a life-saving skill. There¡¯s just no reason not to have considered it sooner. But, in my infinite wisdom, I had chosen not to worry about such things, and now, I was trapped in yet another cell, along with Alicia and Alverd, stripped of our weapons and awaiting the beginning of Albrecht¡¯s war.


    Really regretting that decision in hindsight, now.


    Lord Mattigen¡¯s demon had incapacitated us pretty quickly. I wasn¡¯t exactly an expert on demon lore, but I knew enough to recognize the handiwork of a greater glavornak. Greater glavornaks were pretty powerful demons that could knock out groups of soldiers with their mind-manipulation abilities. Mages had only just developed countermeasures for these abilities, but they didn¡¯t always have time to use those countermeasures. Add those mind powers to several pounds of lean muscle, and the ability to channel fire elemancy, and you had a demon that would roast and eat your face in seconds.


    What surprised me was that we were still alive. Albrecht had no reason to leave us still alive, now that he had Sheena to enact his plan. There were a few things that didn¡¯t add up. Holes in the logic, so to speak. Some of the things Albrecht had mentioned had big gaping flaws in the reasoning, and I desperately tried to unravel them as I stood up.


    Alicia had mentioned that Albrecht had claimed he would never hurt Sheena, and that he had killed her parents to keep her safe. That he was seizing control of Algrustos to take revenge on Ishmar for what was done to other children whose only crime was being born with the gift of magic. That he had gained the support of the Council of Magic in order to further his scheme. And that he had fooled Sheena into believing that he was her loving guardian.


    But not all of the pieces fit in this puzzle. Not all of Albrecht¡¯s motives made sense. I couldn¡¯t believe I was one step away from attempting to justify what he was doing, but somehow, I couldn¡¯t just dismiss the notion that something bigger was going on here. I checked Alverd and Alicia; they were still soundly out, so I decided to take a little risk. I knew that my only chance lay in contacting someone who had ancient knowledge of magic, the only person who I could rely on in a crisis like this. I prayed for luck as I closed my eyes, and very quietly, I whispered, ¡°Deotra?¡±


    I didn¡¯t even hear her approach. I merely turned around, and there she was, in the cell, with me. She greeted me with her toothy smile, a carefree look of happiness on her face. ¡°How may I be of service, Master?¡± That made my heart skip a beat. Master. I could feel my cheeks flush a bit. Any other boy in my position would probably be thrilled to have such a cute girl call them Master, but I didn¡¯t have those kinds of perverted delusions. Well, maybe not THOSE kinds. I shook my head to clear out the inappropriate thought still taking form there.


    ¡°Ok, first? Don¡¯t call me Master, it¡¯s weird. Second of all, how much do you know about the Slumbering Calamities?¡± Deotra made a pouty face, jutting her lip out. ¡°Why can¡¯t I call you Master? That is the basis of our relationship, isn¡¯t it? I thought you would like it¡­¡± She folded her arms and I was momentarily distracted by her chest. I quickly regained my train of thought.


    ¡°Look, Deotra, try to focus here. I need your help. Is what Albrecht said true? Can he activate the Slumbering Calamities by using Sheena¡¯s blood?¡±


    Deotra frowned again. ¡°You know, I don¡¯t think I like that witch girl. I¡¯ve seen the way you looked at her, and it makes me very jealous, Kuro. Am I not also attractive? Did I not tailor my appearance upon your heart¡¯s desire? And yet, you haven¡¯t complimented me on my beauty, or ogled me or even tried anything untoward! I¡¯m beginning to think you don¡¯t like me. So, until you acknowledge me as the only girl you need, I refuse to help you.¡± She then smiled at me smugly.


    I sighed. Even though this side of Deotra was indeed preferable to that of ¡°Drache¡±, I was beginning to see that this Deotra had her quirks, too. But a little jealousy was normal, right? I guess I could humor her for now. ¡°You are the most attractive girl I¡¯ve ever laid eyes on, Deotra. In my defense, I hadn¡¯t met you when I looked at Sheena the way you accuse me of. So, from now on, I have no reason to look at her in such a fashion. Will that placate you?¡±


    Deotra¡¯s smile grew wider. ¡°It¡¯ll do for now. So what exactly did you want to know, Ma¡­I mean, Kuro?¡±


    I reiterated my question. ¡°Lord Albrecht said that the Slumbering Calamities needed the blood of the royal family to activate. Is he telling the truth? Because some of the things he said before don¡¯t add up, even if I¡¯m having trouble figuring out what isn¡¯t fitting in and what is.¡±


    Deotra¡¯s face became serious. ¡°The Slumbering Calamities. It has been quite a long time since I¡¯ve had to think about those. But I do believe that this Lord Albrecht is correct. The Calamities must be powered by royal blood. It was meant to be a failsafe, so that they could not be activated by just any individual. Only the Wizard-King or Witch-Queen, one who carried the burden of responsibility, would be granted the privilege and cost of activating the Calamities. But that¡­might not be the only way.¡±


    Deotra scratched at her chin with her hand. ¡°I observed this man, Albrecht. I believe as you do, that there is something else at work, here. His motives are not what he claims them to be. The fact that you are still alive is evidence enough. If he truly wanted nothing but revenge against Ishmar, his first course of action would have been to execute Alicia publicly, along with the two of you. And yet here you are, drawing breath.¡±


    Deotra was right. Albrecht¡¯s first act would have been to publicly execute us all. But then again, maybe the shrewd bastard was just waiting for the perfect time. After all, why execute us now when he could do it after the Calamities were awake? Then, he¡¯d have the perfect way to start his war. The first drop of Ishmarian blood to be spilled in a long, bloody war.


    But I didn¡¯t know who¡¯d come out on top. The Calamities were, at this point, an unknown. But if they were designed with the purpose of killing dragons, I could only imagine how they would carve a bloody swath through the dragon tamers¡¯ lines. The fiery breath and dragontooth blades of the enemy would have no effect on their dormicite skin. It would be a slaughter, plain and simple.


    But the dragons were legion. Their ability to swoop down from the sky and rain fire from above would decimate the ranks of mages on the ground. Their riders would deal death mercilessly from atop their backs, each one a fanatic fighting for their home. They would fight to the last man, that much was certain.


    I turned to Deotra. ¡°Who do you think will win? If this all comes to pass?¡±


    Deotra shrugged. ¡°Who¡¯s to say? I really don¡¯t care, to be honest. The only thing I care about is you, Kuro. Neither Ishmar nor Algrustos are innocent, you know. Each side has blood on their hands. Rest assured that I will not allow any harm to come to you. And woe to any who think otherwise.¡± A sinister gleam twinkled in her amber-colored eyes for a moment, the same kind that her split personality often showcased. I gulped.


    Then she cocked her head. ¡°Someone approaches. I¡¯m sorry, but I must leave you now, Kuro. But I am not afraid. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find the answer you seek. Whether you¡¯ll be able to salvage this situation is another matter entirely. I¡¯ll be watching out for you¡­as I always do.¡± She giggled one last time, and then she disappeared as she did back in the Forest.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    The door outside our cell opened, and Captain McFarlane appeared, a large sack slung over her back. She dumped the sack at the foot of our cell, and kicked the bars with her steel-toed boot. Alverd and Alicia were roused by the noise, and their eyes sleepily focused on McFarlane, unbelieving. When they realized who was standing outside our cell, they sprang up, though they were still unsteady; the glavornak had obviously been more effective on them then it had been on me.


    McFarlane waited patiently for us to give her our full attention. Then she opened the sack, revealing our weapons. Alverd¡¯s eyes opened in surprise, then narrowed in suspicion, as did mine. We stood in silence for a moment, and then McFarlane spoke. ¡°We are running out of time. My Lord requires your aid, posthaste.¡± She pulled the key to our cell from her pocket, which only added to our confusion.


    Alicia piped in. ¡°What the hell are you gibbering about? Why the hell should we trust you? Your Lord just tried to kill us all. Why would we help him?!¡± I could see the bloodlust in her eyes, and I immediately scoot myself back a few paces from her. I definitely didn¡¯t want to be the first target of her berserker rage.


    McFarlane reached into the sack she had laid at the foot of the cell. When she withdrew her hand, Alicia¡¯s dragontooth hammer emerged. ¡°Because my Lord is playing a bigger game than you think, lizard Princess. As much as it pains me to do so, I am here to release you and guide you to where the Magisters are attempting to revive the Calamities. We have to stop them, and you three are the only ones who can help.¡±


    I could feel the wheels in my head turning as I finally put two and two together. If Albrecht indeed was trying to pull one over on the Magister Lords, then it might explain what was going on around here. But I was still wary. Just because Albrecht wanted our help in defeating the Magisters, it didn¡¯t mean that he wouldn¡¯t try to stab us in the back after the deed was done. He himself had admitted that he couldn¡¯t take them alone. After they were dead, he could just get rid of us, usurp the throne and then march on Ishmar.


    But no matter what Albrecht¡¯s true intentions were, our straits were infinitely better outside of this cell, armed. Even if Albrecht tried to backstab us later, we¡¯d be armed to the teeth and ready to fight back. I don¡¯t think the old man would be able to handle a guy like Alverd, that¡¯s for sure. I didn¡¯t think any of those Magister Lords would be able to deal with my friend, either.


    Speaking of which, my friend¡¯s eyes were smoldering with a righteous but restrained fury. He got up and walked to the bars. ¡°You would willingly arm us and then throw us at your enemies? Enemies whom we cannot distinguish from supposed allies? Are we to be your killers by proxy again? Or was Lord Necce a necessary sacrifice in your game?¡±


    McFarlane snorted. ¡°Lord Necce couldn¡¯t hold back his anger. We had no place among our number for a man who could not follow simple instructions. Besides, if he is gone, your job is easier. One less Magister to deal with. Do you want out or not? The Witch-Queen¡¯s life is in your hands.¡± McFarlane finally inserted the key in the lock, but didn¡¯t turn it. She gazed meaningfully at us.


    I looked at my companions. We were, technically, under contract to protect Sheena. But beyond that, we had honor. We had to save her. The thought of her bleeding out, surrounded by those who had betrayed her, was mortifying. I would not wish such a fate on her, even after what she had done to me. Even if this was a trap, it would be one I was willing to rush into headlong.


    Alverd agreed with me. ¡°Of course. We will not sit here and wait for Milady Sheena to die. Release us. But know that if you do anything suspicious, we will not hesitate to cut you down, Captain. I want that to be perfectly clear.¡± Gods, Alverd could be scary when he wanted to. The look in his blue eyes was like ice. I saw McFarlane flinch just a bit, but she was a soldier. I don¡¯t think a mere death threat would be enough to faze her so easily.


    Alicia was also eager to get out. ¡°And I¡¯ll be the one to do it. I¡¯ve had it up to here with you bloody spellslingers. The things I have to do to get a damn peace treaty signed! It seems we can¡¯t go anywhere without landing in the middle of some horrible debacle. Well, I¡¯m done with diplomacy. I¡¯m gonna start smashing some heads, and when I¡¯m done, THEN we can talk about peace!¡±


    Yeah. Those are my friends. It¡¯s a wonder I¡¯m still alive, isn¡¯t it?


    But then again, I can be just as bloodthirsty, if not more so. I mean, I had a knife sticking out of my back too. I had plenty of reason to get mad. So if I wanted to visit great vengeance upon my enemies, was I not entitled to in this situation?


    McFarlane turned the key and opened our cell. She handed Alicia her hammer, and I quickly pulled the Staff of Farewells from the sack. Alverd lifted his weapons from the sack, tying his sheath to his back and securing his new shield to his left arm. In minutes we were ready to move out. Alicia turned to look at McFarlane. ¡°So where are we going, anyway? I assume you know where Albrecht took the Witch-Queen?¡±


    McFarlane nodded. ¡°Aye. The Magister Lords in league with Lord Albrecht took her beneath the Palace, to the catacombs where the Calamities sleep. There is an altar there where the ritual to awaken them must take place. If we hurry, we can make it there before the ritual is complete.¡± She hurried off, her combat staff held to her side, checking the corridor outside for any guards. She gave us the all-clear, and we filed into the corridor stealthily.


    I couldn¡¯t help but suppress a chuckle. To be in such a similar situation so soon. It seemed like only yesterday when we had been running through the blackened stone halls of the Ishmarian Arena. But when I thought about it, it began to grow distant in my mind. I had to focus on the now. Sheena needed our help. I had a quick image in my head of Deotra making her faux-hurt expression as I mustered my courage, but pushed it aside.


    We rushed through the corridors of the Ivory Palace, descending staircase after staircase, following Captain McFarlane as she ran headlong. We pushed by guardsmen and soldiers, but they did not impede us; as soon as they saw McFarlane, they bowed out of the way, and we passed them in a blur. I was thankful for that; I didn¡¯t want to waste time dealing with small fry when every second mattered.


    Eventually, we entered what had to be the catacombs. The atmosphere changed the moment we opened the large steel door, assaulting us with a musky smell, years of rot and decay rushing out of the tombs below to greet us. We descended the stairs into the catacombs, and both McFarlane and myself activated our lighting spells to pierce through the gloom.


    That was a mistake. All around us were tombs. Entire walls were dug into, with coffins snugly fitting into the openings. Columns of skulls held up the ceiling at regular intervals, covered in dirt and cobwebs. Suits of armor, clutching their weapons of war, lined the passage leading deeper into the dark. I could hear Alicia whimper behind me; Alverd placed his arm around her, and she blushed heavily, though whether he noticed in the dim light was anyone¡¯s guess. We moved down the creepy tunnel as a group, waiting for something to just leap out and attack us.


    But nothing did. We got all the way to the end of the tunnel without any mishaps. It took a while, and I was starting to wonder if we were still under the Palace, or even under the city, for that matter. Just as I was about to ask about that, a giant door, made of dormicite, blocked our path. McFarlane waved her hand over it, and it opened slowly, grinding against the ground audibly. I shuddered at the sound. I hoped that it wouldn¡¯t give us away. The last thing we needed was for our enemy to discover that we were coming after them.


    Once the door had swung open, we went through and entered what appeared to be a different area of the castle. Walls were now bleached white, illuminated by fresh torches. Suits of armor like the ones from the crypt were stationed along the walls. Alicia pulled the visor up on one; she recoiled back in terror when she saw that it was occupied by a skeleton, long since decayed. She stifled her screams, at the very least. We reached the end of the tunnel, and peered over the edge of the balcony we had emerged onto, surveying what was going on below.


    I saw an intricate ivory altar, resplendent with decoration. An earthen jar lay upon it, and several Magister Lords were now restraining Sheena as she fought futilely to break free. I spied Lord Albrecht nearby, Sheena¡¯s staff in his hands, giving orders to Lady Kertouli and Lord Mattigen. Lord Mattigen¡¯s demon was nowhere in sight. I didn¡¯t know if that made me feel better or more worried.


    At this point, I realized that we didn¡¯t have a plan. Sure, we had gotten here. But we didn¡¯t exactly know what we were gonna do once we got here. But that dilemma was solved for me when Alicia, screaming a battle cry, mantled the balcony and ran for the group ahead of her. So much for stealth. Oh well. As I pulled fire from my chest, I grinned. There was a time for subtlety, and then there was a time for action.


    Now was definitely a time for the latter.

 B2: Chapter 14: Alicia: The Role of a Mentor

    I slipped in and out of consciousness over the course of two days, falling in and out of my memories into waking daylight and back again.


    When I was awake, periodically I would find Sheena sitting next to me, her hand pressed against my arm. Her hand was unusually warm, with a soft blue light emanating from it. There was a steady rhythm of pulses that seemed to push outward from where she was touching, bringing that warmth to every corner of my body. Her eyes were closed in concentration and her mouth formed silent whispers as she did so.


    It was on my third time coming back to this that I realized what she was doing. She was trying to heal me. Each time I passed out and came back, my body felt lighter and lighter. After the fifth time, Sheena leaned back and wiped sweat from her brow. She looked utterly exhausted, like she needed sleep, a hot meal and a bath.


    ¡°She¡¯s stable, for now. I¡¯ll finish closing her less severe wounds tomorrow. Make sure you change the bandages and make sure to clean th-¡±


    I heard Alverd¡¯s voice, firm but reassuring. ¡°I understand. Please get some sleep. You¡¯ve been at it for hours.¡± Struggling to stay awake, my eyes betrayed me and slid shut as the sound of metal told me that Alverd was now next to me. I felt his hand grip mine and interlock our fingers. ¡°I¡¯ll make sure her wounds are attended to.¡±


    His other hand stroked my hair, running through it in a smooth, repetitive motion, soothing and slow. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Alicia. I¡¯m here. I won¡¯t let you fall into the river.¡± My heart skipped a beat. Mother Evros, I hope I¡¯m not blushing. Now would be a terrible time for that. Between his promise, the hand-holding, and the brushing of my hair, it wasn¡¯t long before I fell asleep again.


    The memory that came with sleep was one I couldn¡¯t forget, as I¡¯d spent years of training ensuring I would not ever forget it. As I beheld the black stone walls of the Castle of Brimstone, the rows of armored soldiers flanking a crimson carpet laid out before me, feeling the weight of a mantle woven of thin dragon scales, I knew what day it was.


    Graduation Day. The proudest day of my young life, a mere two years ago. A small ceremony with only my father, my private guard, and the man who had mentored me in the ways of the berserker. My instructor, Rutger, came down the carpet, holding in his hands the maul I had requested to be commissioned as a gift for my completion of the training. I remember how small I had felt as Rutger stood before me, a behemoth of a man nearly seven feet tall and covered in more scars than skin.


    Despite everything I knew about his reputation, that he had served an extraordinary thirty odd years as a warrior on the front against Algrustos, his face was softer than I expected. Even hidden behind a salt and pepper beard his eyes were lively, clear blue and full of spark. He looked at me with a mixture of pride and anxiousness, and I puffed out my chest and tried to look strong when he regarded me. His expression did not change; he handed the maul to me, offering it in his twin-fisted grasp, and spoke the words of final initiation.


    ¡°In all our time, we have walked this harsh land with our heads held high not because we are wary of what rules the sky above. We look above to see what remains to conquer. We look forward to see what enemies stand in our path. When one falls, others press on. When one drops his sword, his follower takes it upon herself to take up his blade and cause. We have no time for pity, for tears, or weakness. We look only forward.¡±


    I took the maul from him, holding it to my chest. ¡°I walk forward with your blade. Walk with me until it is your time to fall, honored teacher. When the time comes, I will ensure one walks in my stead.¡± The soldiers knelt in unison, fists slammed against breastplates. Rutger knelt too, and even then I could barely see past him to where my father sat on his throne. I tried to lean subtly to the side to see him, but I must have done it too fast as he looked straight at me with his steady gaze.


    Then he pounded his fist against his chest, albeit slowly, causing him to cough. ¡°My daughter joins with the mightiest of our legions today. As a king, I know joy that such an honor was bestowed on one so worthy.¡± Then his voice changed, and it seemed like it was directed solely at me. ¡°As a father, I am filled with pride that she has earned such a distinction with the sweat of her brow and the strength of her arm.¡±


    I could not contain the swelling in my heart, and I remember smiling. Rutger cleared his throat audibly, glaring at me. Not accusingly, but merely to remind me that now was not the time for such sentiment. I had to scowl, but I couldn¡¯t forget the feeling it gave me to know how proud my father was of me.


    It was the best thing a daughter could ask for, to know she had made her father proud.


    In the aftermath, Rutger made the unusual request to retire from his position as a berserker trainer to fulfill one last service to the crown; to become one of my bodyguards. My father had granted the request with his blessing. I was so excited at the time to know that he was going to be right there with me from that moment on.


    Even as I began lessons on what I needed to know in order to fulfill my duties as queen, Rutger was always present, hovering nearby to ensure my safety. Of course, sparring with him was the best way to clear my head after an exhausting session of reading how to best kill mages in various scenarios. Still, he insisted I return to my studies eventually, much to my chagrin.


    I never could say no to Rutger, even when he dumped piles of scrolls on your desk and demanded they be read. He¡¯d point to his scars and say that each one was an example of what he¡¯d do differently if he were my age again and able to learn from his mistakes. I used to laugh at him for that.


    ¡°So you had to spend hours reading too? Huh.¡±


    I recoiled sharply, a strange feeling given I was in a dream. As I did, there was a sensation of crispness, as if the air itself had dropped dozens of degrees in temperature only to rebound back in the same second, and when it was over the dream felt more¡­ real. Almost as if it were reality. Sitting on my desk, her legs kicking back and forth, was Sheena. I scooted back away from the desk and she hopped down from it, scattered my reading materials everywhere.


    ¡°Wait, what¡¯s happening?¡± The dream continued to solidify around me with blurred edges turning sharp and marred vision becoming clear. She waved her staff over me and immediately my mind snapped forward and back as if someone had opened my skull and slapped my brain. When I regained my footing I snarled at her. ¡°What is going on? What in Mother Evros¡¯ name did you do?¡±


    Sheena shrugged, sticking her tongue out of her mouth peevishly. ¡°Have you ever heard of narcomancy? It¡¯s not exactly a very common realm of magic study but it does have its uses. Not to mention it''s fun to take out for a spin every now and then. Narcomancy allows one to see and sometimes manipulate dreams, Alicia.¡±


    She seated herself in the chair I¡¯d been in only a moment earlier and crossed her legs. ¡°You¡¯re tossing and turning in your sleep right now. I offered to peek into your mind to make sure you weren¡¯t having a nightmare. At Master Alverd¡¯s request, of course.¡± She grinned, looking quite pleased with herself, almost like a cat offering its owner a dead rat like a trophy.


    So, it¡¯s ¡°Master¡± Alverd now. Didn¡¯t take long to attach some overinflated honorific onto him. ¡°Well as you can see, I¡¯m fine.¡± You don¡¯t have to get so bitchy with her, I reminded myself. You know she means well. But in a way you know that she¡¯s getting back at you for monopolizing all of Alverd¡¯s concern right now. ¡°You can let Alverd and Kuro know I¡¯m alright.¡±


    Sheena looked past me at the room, which was now crystallizing fully into my personal bedchamber. ¡°Who is he?¡± She pointed at Rutger, who was about to walk past her to place yet another bundle of study materials on my desk.


    ¡°That¡¯s Rutger. He¡¯s¡­ my teacher? Bodyguard. A mix of things. Right now he¡¯s trying to be my taskmaster.¡± I sighed, and it brought back a feeling of nostalgia. In spite of who he was, Rutger was very patient with me. Can¡¯t imagine why, though.


    ¡°He reminds me of my uncle. The way he fusses over you, at least.¡± She chuckled as the dream version of Rutger placed the scrolls on the desk, then flickered. ¡°It would seem we both had very stern teachers growing up.¡± She idly waved her hand, and the room¡¯s walls melted away like candle wax, only to reshape themselves into another place entirely. An open air training circle within the Castle¡¯s inner sanctum appeared, various other students watching


    I could almost fear the cold dusk air and the slight breeze that had been present that night on my skin. Standing across from me was a tall, muscular bear beastman. Although humanoid in the shape of his face and body, the hair on his limbs and rounded ears gave away his true race easily. His arms ended in huge gauntlets, designed to prevent his claws from inflicting unnecessary harm during the training exercise. Belbrin. His name was Belbrin, and he was the one who taught you what it meant to be afraid of the river.


    Fists clenched, I rushed forward and began swinging my fists at him. I fought Belbrin barehanded, no pun intended. It was so unnerving to relive something I thought I¡¯d never have to think about ever again, and to be a passenger in my own body as I did so. I tried to remember what the lesson had been. Rutger was never a proponent of using only brute force to overcome the enemy. If I recall correctly, the point of this exercise was to demonstrate that bigger didn¡¯t always mean better.


    Sure enough, after I had grappled with Belbrin for a minute or so with no apparent victor, I went for his legs. Pulling away from his mammoth arms, I dove at Belbrin¡¯s left leg, throwing my whole weight into a final second shoulder thrust. The top heavy bear beastman¡¯s foot was swept out from under him and he toppled forward with a grunt; I quickly scurried onto his back and pulled his other leg back behind him, pinning him. He gave out another cry and slapped the ground in surrender.


    The other students pounded their chests or slapped the ground in solidarity, cheering and hooting like wild animals. Rutger gave me a cloth to wipe away sweat on my face. ¡°Like any problem, you tackle it from the bottom and work your way up. You don¡¯t get to challenge your strongest opponent until you work your way up to them. As it should be.¡±


    He nodded to the students. They saluted with more chest pounding and yelled as one, ¡°as Mother Evros decrees, as it should be!¡±


    Then Belbrin¡¯s gauntlet flew through the air and hit me in the head, not hard enough to leave a scar, but enough to draw blood. I reached up reflexively to touch the place where it had hit, just above my left eye. Belbrin stood, tearing away his other gauntlet and pointed at Rutger.


    ¡°I grow tired of being used to train your whelps!¡± He threw his other gauntlet aside, his long, thin black claws now on full display. ¡°You deem me unworthy of anything else, Rutger! And now you have this runt of a princess come in to help you embarrass me? She¡¯s been a berserker for a month and already you have her here, putting me in my place!¡± He roared, shaking the training ground with his fury.


    Before I could do anything, Belbrin lunged forward with his claws extended, aimed for my throat. Rutger moved to meet him, barreling into him,  and slamming into his upper body. Planting his feet, giving his own roar of challenge, he drove his fist into Belbrin¡¯s stomach. The beastman responded by digging the claw of his right arm into Rutger¡¯s abdomen.


    Oh no. I remember now. I remember how this ended. Slowly but surely, Belbrin pushed Rutger back, alternating his swings to continue carving out chunks of flesh from his opponent. The sound of my instructor¡¯s feet sliding against the ground grew louder as he ceded more and more to his attacker. SOMEBODY HELP HIM. I screamed it out loud at the same time my mind remembered the words.


    The other students, caught unawares, rallied at my command. A dozen of them jumped onto Belbrin, restraining his arms, pulling at his face, striking at him with weapons. It took almost twelve more seconds for them to finally put the screaming beastman down, and by the time that had happened, two students had suffered deep wounds of their own, and Rutger had been pushed to a place only a foot in front of me.


    The trainees yanked Belbrin¡¯s lifeless body away from Rutger and set about confirming his death, stabbing the corpse with blades over and over again. I rushed in front of Rutger as he collapsed to his knees. His eyes were wide open and frenzied, unfocused and staring straight ahead. His fingers, curled into claws, were twitching wildly.


    ¡°Teacher! It¡¯s me!¡± The dream-me grabbed hold of his face with both hands. The eyes swiveled towards me and I could see how bloodshot they were. ¡°You did it. I¡¯m alright. Come out of the river, teacher. I¡¯m here to pull you out of the river.¡± I grabbed his hand, then winced as his fingernails dug into my skin. ¡°Look at me, teacher! I¡¯m here!¡±


    Slowly, Rutger¡¯s eyes focused. He blinked, and let out a long, pained sigh. ¡°Oh. So I don¡¯t have to die alone¡­ after all.¡± When he slouched forward I tried to catch him, but I knew before I propped him back up that he was gone. I cried there, and I didn¡¯t care how many people were watching. I held onto him until the guards came to take his body away for a warrior¡¯s pyre.


    Before my eyes, Rutger was carried away, and as the men carrying him faded into blackness I felt my body fall back under my own control. As I stared at my own hands, Sheena gave a derisive snort. ¡°Can¡¯t say I¡¯m all too surprised. I guess there¡¯s truth in what they say about Ishmarians.¡± I whirled around and growled at her. She threw up her hands in a mock gesture of fear. ¡°Oh, sorry about that. I didn¡¯t want to interrupt, but trust me, I¡¯ve been here the whole time. It¡¯s one thing to hear about the tales of your peoples¡¯ barbarism, it¡¯s another thing entirely to remember it from your perspective.¡±


    ¡°You watch your mouth, or you¡¯ll be gumming your meals for the rest of your life.¡± I stomped over to her, which didn¡¯t have the intimidating effect I was hoping for without ground to stomp on. ¡°My father used to say that a harsh land births harsh people. We do what we have to in order to survive, and if you don¡¯t want to try and understand why we are the way we are, that¡¯s your failing, because it¡¯s also your choice, Sheena.¡±


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The Witch-Queen wrinkled her nose, sneering at me. ¡°Why do you think I did what I just did? I wanted to see that memory from your perspective. To remember how you felt, why you felt it. You felt pride at being recognized by your father, to fulfill his expectations. You felt sadness and guilt at your teacher¡¯s sacrifice. It¡¯s not you I condemn, Alicia. It¡¯s the way your people see violence as an end-all solution to everything.¡±


    ¡°Narcomancy allows me to understand the feelings associated with the memories and dreams they accompany. I wanted to bridge a gap, and perhaps you might understand my situation a bit more once you see things from my side. Let me show you something from my own past, Alicia.¡±


    Sheena waved her staff again, and the imagery of the Castle of Brimstone became  shimmering columns of ivory. There was no moon in the sky, as I could see through the lone window on the far end of the room. The only light in the room came from several candelabra with candles half-eaten away, casting eerie twisting shadows on the walls. Nestled against the wall was a lavish bed, upon which a screaming young girl lay, her hand outstretched, a swirling ball of ice already beginning to take shape in her palm. Across from her, seemingly also frozen in time, were three cloaked figures batting aside her magic with shimmering blue shields not unlike the kind I¡¯d seen Kuro use to block dragon fire.


    ¡°Truth be told, we¡¯re not all that dissimilar.¡± There was a cold, almost detached disdain in Sheena¡¯s tone, and it was a far cry from anything I¡¯d heard her say up until now. ¡°When I was a child and first heard about the rituals and crimes of Ishmar via our spies, I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. At first I didn¡¯t think our two cultures could be any more different.¡±


    She turned and faced me, her right hand raised. ¡°I know better now.¡± With a wave of said hand, the vision began to move.


    The first of the assassins swatted Sheena¡¯s hand aside and grabbed her, throwing her out onto the floor. Another assassin pulled out a thin pommel and a magical dagger buzzed into being with a sound like igniting flame. As he reared his arm back to strike, however, a sword ran through his chest, and he was brusquely thrown against the wall. Standing in the candlelight was a younger Lord Albrecht, his face set in a dark grimace.


    The second assassin tried to turn and face Albrecht but the Prime Minister swept his blade in an impossibly quick motion, decapitating him with one clean stroke. The head bounced across the ground, splattering blood across Sheena¡¯s face. She screamed as the final assassin reached down to try and slit her throat with his own magic blade, but Albrecht thrust out his hand and a bolt of blue light shot out, hitting the man in the chest, and propelling him into the bed, shattering it and cracking the wall behind it.


    Albrecht continued to pummel the assassin with more blasts, each impact accented by the shattering of ribs and other bones. After an excruciating six consecutive blasts, the assassin tumbled forward and hit the ground like limp wet clothes. Albrecht knelt before his niece and enfolded her in his arms. She screamed and cried, and he could only console her wordlessly.


    Sheena¡¯s face betrayed no emotion, but I imagined she had to have some lingering feelings about what she had shown me. ¡°Those three were later discovered to have been career soldiers. Nearly thirty years of loyal military service between them, and they were ready to kill a child because they disagreed with her desire for peace.¡± There¡¯s so much bitterness in her voice. Has she really been bottling that all up, all this time? ¡°When I saw Alverd for the first time, I remembered a better time. Before all of this, before the world became much more dangerous for a girl too young to know why there were men coming to kill her in the dead of night.¡±


    Sprawled across the room were various picture books, one of which was open. Depicted in the open pages was that of a knight in armor riding a majestic steed to the base of a tower, where a fair maiden waved to him from a window at the top. A childish fantasy, but then again she was a child. And she had to grow up too quickly, just like me. I shook my head.


    ¡°Sometimes children want to grow up way too fast, and sometimes they don¡¯t have a choice. We never find out that being one is a luxury until it¡¯s too late.¡±


    I folded my arms. ¡°But that¡¯s no excuse to say what you want about my people. You just admitted you had spies in my country. You want to act like you¡¯re better but then you resort to dirty tricks? Are you stupid? Where do you get off on judging me?¡±


    Sheena scowled. ¡°Well then. Let¡¯s have a real heart to heart, then. Why don¡¯t we finally meet for real, where all the false pretenses no longer have to be considered, shall we?¡± The scene of her childhood trauma vanished, and we were now sitting in a gazebo on the Ivory Palace¡¯s grounds, a table for two set with tea and sweets laid out in front of me. ¡°No more fake smiles or grandiose gestures. Just you and me, as people, not royals. Let¡¯s talk.¡± She seated herself at one end.


    Hesitantly I took the seat at the other side. ¡°Alright. Honestly? I¡¯m glad you¡¯re not some airheaded moron. I could do without the sinister wheels-within-wheels kind of thinking you seem to indulge in, but if it¡¯s kept you alive this long, more power to you I guess.¡± I placed a set of biscuits on a plate, but wondered if it would even taste like actual food. It is a dream. Anything is possible, right? I took a bite and marveled at how it did indeed taste like buttermilk. ¡°Also the excessive fawning over Alverd is irritating. He¡¯s a human being, not some fantastical ideal.¡±


    She sipped her tea. ¡°On the contrary. Master Alverd is a symbol, true enough. He represents everything he¡¯s meant to: chivalry, honor, duty, and an appeal to the better nature of all. More simply, he is just¡­ my type, I guess.¡± She blushed slightly. ¡°When I was young I had an image in my head of what my knight would look like when he would come to take me away from my horrible life, and it just so happened that he looked just like it. Coincidence, yes, but a happy one.¡± Her expression turned bitter again. ¡°Of course, I¡¯m sure he would be far less accepting of me as I actually am, so I dredged up a long dead memory of who I used to be to present a far more sympathetic face to him.¡±


    Outside the gazebo, scenes of our two lives swirled through the void, intertwined with no true distinction. I saw pieces of memories of my half-siblings mocking me as a child weaving in and out of memories of Sheena spending time with her uncle. Almost as if on cue, the memories of our first meetings with Alverd seemed to play out side by side, juxtaposing my antagonistic one with her more even-keeled approach.


    ¡°Alverd wouldn¡¯t judge you for that.¡± I pointed at the memory of me shouting at him accusingly over the death of my dragon. ¡°Have a little faith in him. He¡¯s a lot smarter than he looks, and loyal to boot.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s brow wrinkled. ¡°Yes, quite loyal. I am aware.¡± For only a brief moment, I caught sight of Sheena¡¯s memory of him holding my hand as I lay on the ground in the void behind her. Ohhhhh, so she¡¯s still jealous about that. I guess even now she¡¯s still putting up a facade with me.


    ¡°He¡¯d be a lot more open with you if you show him who you really are.¡± She blinked at me, her mouth slightly open. ¡°He manages to accept me for what I am. And if you say that the old you, the current or the fake you is the real one, he¡¯ll accept that too. The nice thing about him is that he¡¯s not going to judge you for that. So far he¡¯s demonstrated that he¡¯d rather judge people by their actions, not anything else.¡±


    There was a crack in the so-called mask, and then Sheena placed her tea cup back on the table. ¡°Well then. If what you say is true, then he¡¯ll figure out which is the real me soon enough.¡± She crossed her legs again and smiled at me wistfully. ¡°In the meantime, perhaps it would be better if you and I started over. I would like it if we could be friends, Alicia. It¡¯s been far too long since I¡¯ve had any worth keeping.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d say sure, but be careful what you wish for. I¡¯m still learning how this friendship thing works, and I¡¯m not very good at it either.¡± We both awkwardly smiled at each other for a second. Behind Sheena, another image of her past appeared. I would¡¯ve looked away if I hadn¡¯t spotted something I recognized: the Ishmarian dagger that Lord Albrecht had hidden up his sleeve.


    I nearly knocked the tea table over as I leapt to my feet. ¡°That one! That right there. Is that a memory or a dream?¡± Sheena turned and looked behind her. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I don¡¯t recall a time when I experienced this event, and I don¡¯t know if it holds enough symbolic importance to be a dream.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, as the narcomancer holding this dreamscape together, sometimes it can be very difficult to look at what you see with unbiased eyes. Just like self-reflection tends to be harsher than outside criticism, I have trouble looking at my own dreams and memories via narcomancy with the same clarity. It¡¯s just a limitation of the magic school.¡±


    ¡°Can you make it clearer?¡± I leaned up against the railing of the gazebo, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.


    ¡°Yes, let me see. But again, remember that what you and I see differs based upon the emotions I might have experienced at the time of the image¡¯s creation.¡± Her brow furrowed as she concentrated. ¡°I feel¡­ agitation? There isn¡¯t anything that resembles coherent thought. Just a jumble of raw emotion without any real higher reasoning behind any of it.¡±


    The cry of a baby echoed across the empty space outside the gazebo as the whole of the void became a projector for the scene Sheena was concentrating on. As the images began to solidify, I could see a room take shape. It was the exact same room as the one she had been attacked in, leading me to believe it was her bedroom. So is this a memory of her as a baby? Can she even remember anything from that far back?


    Through the eyes of the infant, I beheld two faces, huddled together and looking down. I recognized them as the Wizard-King and Witch-Queen from the portraits in the hall where I¡¯d nearly been murdered. They were Sheena¡¯s parents. Albrecht said they were assassinated not long after Sheena was born. So then that might mean¡­


    As if to confirm my suspicion, the Queen cried out as she was dragged away from the sight of the infant, and a shrill scream was cut short. The Wizard-King picked up the child and stepped back, allowing Sheena and I to see the rest of the room. Standing on the other end of the bedroom were three figures. Two of them were clad in dragonscale leather and black cowls that hid their faces, but the one in the middle, a gleaming longsword in his hand, had his cowl pulled down.


    It was Albrecht.


    He threw the lifeless body of the Queen to the side, her blood staining the longsword and dripping onto the floor. Albrecht took a step toward the Wizard-King and extended his left hand. ¡°Give me the child, Lascow. I won¡¯t tell you again.¡±


    Another voice from out of sight, the King¡¯s, rebuffed him. ¡°Gerhalt, you know I can¡¯t do that. The future of all mages depends on this child.¡±


    Lascow¡¯s hand lashed out and an explosion launched a dozen slivers of shimmering ice at Albrecht and his cronies. Both of his men were too slow to react, and they were taken out by the attack, but Albrecht swept his cloak forward and knocked the icicles from the air. He tried one last desperate shot that hit Albrecht¡¯s arm, knocking the sword from his grip.


    There was a familiar sound like an uncoiling spring, and the dagger I knew so well by now appeared in Albrecht¡¯s hand. Unlike the normal dragontooth metal daggers in the display case, this dagger was forged of the same metal as the Sword of Evros, the purest alloy from the tooth of an elder dragon. It was unmistakable.


    As the dagger slid into Lascow¡¯s chest, Albrecht¡¯s face loomed into view. ¡°Easy for you to place your burden upon another for your own glory. Heavy should be the head that wears the crown, Lascow. Allow me to remind you of that.¡±


    He twisted the knife, and there was a hiss as Lascow breathed his last. Albrecht gently pried the baby from Lascow¡¯s grip as he fell away, the dagger retracting back into his sleeve. ¡°Where you fall, I shall pick up your blade and cause. And when the time comes, another shall walk in my place.¡± With his finger he poked at the infant. ¡°Come little one. This is no place for a child.¡±


    I reeled back, my head spinning. Sheena caught me, her face filled with concern and questions. ¡°What did you see?¡±


    I raised my eyebrow. ¡°You didn¡¯t catch any of that?¡± She shook her head. ¡°No, all of it is a blur. Spoken word is gibberish. I can¡¯t make heads or tails of the entire thing. It¡¯s just flash and noise.¡±


    It must have been because she was the baby. The only thing she can see or hear were faces and voices she didn¡¯t know how to remember or understand, but as an outsider looking in, I can see the whole picture for what it is. ¡°It¡¯s the day your parents died. I think¡­¡±


    Oh Mother Evros, should I tell her? And what even is his end goal, anyway? The knife in his sleeve not only confirms he¡¯s an Ishmarian, but the quality of the blade says that he had to have acquired it from someone like my father.


    I saw Sheena¡¯s worried face and made my choice. She deserves to know. The only way she¡¯s going to deal with this is if I tell her everything. I spilled the beans on the entire memory, every detail, recounting it for her without leaving anything out. Her eyes widened in shock as she came to grips with the reality that her uncle was responsible for the deaths of her parents and had hidden that from her for her entire life.


    She fell back into one of the chairs, tears streaming down her face. ¡°My uncle was the one who did all of this? I don¡¯t understand.¡± I sat back down at the table, pulling the other chair over so I could sit beside her. ¡°I don¡¯t want to sound insensitive, which is weird coming from me, but maybe the best way to get answers is to confront Albrecht.¡±


    Sniffling, Sheena wiped her eyes with her arm. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t want to be like this. It¡¯s just, I don¡¯t know who to be right now.¡± In that moment I saw the same scared girl crying into Albrecht¡¯s arms after the assassination attempt, the one who needed someone to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be alright.


    That¡¯s the real you. The one that found out that she¡¯s gonna have to figure it out as she goes. I grabbed her by the shoulders. ¡°Time for you to find out, Sheena. There¡¯s no sense running from this. It might just be my berserker blood talking, but if Albrecht really did spend your whole life lying to you, he¡¯s gonna have to explain himself after I¡¯m done knocking out all of his teeth.¡± I cracked my knuckles. ¡°One Ishmarian to another, in the way we deal with liars and kinslayers.¡±


    Sheena blurted out a choked laugh. ¡°You¡¯re not really doing much to dissuade me from thinking that all Ishmarians do to solve their problems is just use violence, you know.¡± I snorted at her. ¡°Well if you want, I can get a bunch of your fellow mages and have a stupid committee vote on whether he should get punched in the face. Maybe it¡¯ll happen sometime in the next decade.¡±


    Her next laugh was a lot more natural, and it managed to slip out more easily than her last. ¡°If we leave it to the Magisters we could be talking more than a decade. We¡¯ll be lucky if we¡¯re not sporting gray hair by the time they reach a consensus on how face-punching is too barbaric.¡± We both shared a laugh at that, and for the first time I felt like she and I were on the same level. I pat her on the shoulder reassuringly. ¡°You ready to go back?¡±


    ¡°Alright. Your wounds are mostly healed, but you should take a second to catch your breath when you wake up. You haven¡¯t been moved in over a day, so your joints are likely to be a bit stiff.¡± As I hauled her up, she whispered to me. ¡°Please don¡¯t tell Alverd how foolish I looked?¡±


    I drew my finger over my chest. ¡°Cross my heart. I can¡¯t speak for all Ishmarians, but this one honors her word.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Brace yourself. Waking up from a narcomantic episode is jarring, to say the least.¡± With one last wave of her staff, everything around me imploded in a flash of searingly bright white light, then expanded back outward in an explosion.


    I bolted upright, and regretted it when every muscle in my body screamed in protest. Alverd was knocked back, falling over like a tipped vase. He recovered quickly, to his credit.


    ¡°You two had me worried. You¡¯ve been under for almost an hour. Kuro went off on his own to scout out the entrance. Is everything alright?¡± He tried to put his hand on my forehead, but I waved him away. ¡°We¡¯re good. Thank you for worrying.¡±


    Beside me, Sheena lifted herself off the ground, groaning loudly. ¡°Oh dear. This part never gets any easier.¡± She pressed her hand into the small of her back to smooth a crick in her back out. As she fussed over herself, I leaned toward Alverd. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you about the river later. And really, thanks for looking out for me.¡± I smiled at him, and he gave me one in return. Mother Evros, was he always this handsome?


    The sound of rustling brush was followed by Kuro tumbling out of the foliage nearby. ¡°We need to figure out what to do, and fast. We¡¯ve got bad news, lots of it, coming our way.¡±


    Alverd picked his friend off the ground and brushed him off. ¡°What kind of bad news?¡±


    Kuro pointed in the direction he¡¯d come, towards the entrance of the Forest of Familiars. ¡°A squad of mean looking combat mages just walked in, as well as some of those Magister chumps.¡± He wheezed, caught his breath, and continued. ¡°And that son of a bitch Albrecht is leading them.¡±

 Quick Update

    So I started feeling some severe pain in my hand today and the symptoms align with those of carpal tunnel. Really hoping it isn''t that, but even after ice, aspirin and a brace it still hurts so I can''t finish my chapter for editing. I need to make an appointment to get it checked out. Also, because of the holidays coming up I''m going to only post once in November and December but it will be the raw and edited versions of Chapters 16 and 17 respectively. I''ll try to get 15 posted later this week.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Q: what does the fox say


    A: do I look like I know how to cast Speak with Animals

 B2: Chapter 15: Kuro: Hunting Party

    I really don¡¯t get how out of shape I am given how much running I have to do in my line of work. It just makes no bloody sense how I have so little stamina when I¡¯ve spent five years running from soldiers, bounty hunters, criminals, monsters, and now dragons and combat mages.


    On a hunch I¡¯d gone to scout out the entrance to the Forest of Familiars. While Sheena and Alverd stayed with Alicia, I figured I¡¯d at least make sure we weren¡¯t in danger of being blindsided by the eventual attempt by the Magister Lords to hunt us down. While the Magisters were likely to be cautious about being overwhelmed by wild familiars or even damaging the fragile magical ecosystem of their forest, their patience was bound to run thin eventually.


    Sure enough, my hunch was right. From my vantage point about sixty feet from the forest¡¯s gated entrance, hidden behind a tree with a wide trunk, I could clearly see the column of combat mages marching in through the warded gate. Walking in two-by-two, combat staves in hand, gleaming white and gold uniforms with blue half capes hanging over their right shoulders, the combat mages looked like more than just standard rank and file.


    The way they fell in behind the two Magisters in perfect lockstep led me to believe that they had to be the personal guard of the Council. Both of them had four mages. I would¡¯ve brought more than that. Either these guys are better than they look or they must be seriously underestimating us. I squinted to try and get a better look at the Magisters themselves.


    One of them was Zajj. The Attendant of Elemancy stood out like a sore thumb with his doom-and-gloom aesthetic. Dark eyes, dark robes, bitter-looking expression, the man looked like he had woken up this morning and chosen violence. The other Magister was one I didn¡¯t know the name of. She was of middling height and build, but had a pair of antlers protruding from her brown hair, a gold circlet perched on her forehead, and a number of shiny magical trinkets swaying from said antlers. She had bronze skin and amber eyes, an angular face with a sharp chin, and a pair of necklaces with nearly a dozen runes strung into each one.


    My heart nearly stopped when I focused on the necklaces. The runes were designed to intercept, negate, and counteract magic, specifically in the process of its casting. She was a practitioner of nullification magic. Godsdammit. That¡¯s going to complicate things. Any spell I try to cast is gonna fizzle out before I can even aim, and I¡¯m willing to bet those runes will even work on Sheena too. Nullification runes weren¡¯t cheap, and they were worth every gold piece because they were a proven method of shutting down a mage fast.


    I didn¡¯t realize the Algrustians had a whole school built around nullification magic. But if this Magister is here, that means she¡¯s gotta be the ace up their sleeves. A quick glance confirmed my suspicions: she was the only one with nullification runes. Makes sense. Wouldn¡¯t want their own guys to get caught in the area of effect. It was at that moment that I saw a man enter the Forest at the head of yet another group of mages, and my eyes widened in shock.


    Lord Albrecht was decked out in a combat mage¡¯s uniform, albeit a more extravagant one with a reinforced plate of metal over his chest, and both a rune-enchanted sword at his hip and a combat staff in his hand. He wasn¡¯t a captive. He was the one in charge of this incursion. I felt bitter bile rise up in my throat. It was him! He was the one behind all of this!


    It makes perfect sense. All the while he pretends to be at odds with the Magisters and Sheena¡¯s only ally, but in reality he¡¯s working with them to undermine her. He knows how to play off her fears, insecurities and failings to hand the Magisters the rhetoric they spoon-feed to the Algrustian public. My mind raced as I put it all together. Then I frowned.


    But then why bring Alicia back to us? If he and the Magisters are all buddy-buddy, it would make sense that he¡¯d at least know about the assassin, and probably be the one who ordered the hit. So why save her? As I tried to make sense of what was going on, Albrecht began to issue orders to the mages.


    ¡°My guard will remain here at the entrance. Zajj, you and Katrile will take your men and scour the Forest for the others. Do what you will with the Ishmarian and her hangers-on, but we need Sheena alive.¡±


    Zajj spat on the ground. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me what to do, Albrecht. I can think for myself. We wouldn¡¯t be in this situation if you had-¡±


    Albrecht cuffed the smaller human man over the head with his staff. Zajj snarled, then brandished his combat staff, a searing red blade of magical energy shaped like a hooked eagle talon emanating from its tip. ¡°Try it again, lizardblood scum! I dare you! I¡¯ll rip your entrails right out of you!¡± Growling like a territorial dog, he took up a stance with bent knees, ready to pounce.


    Then his staff¡¯s magic blade fizzled and popped before fading out of existence. The other Magister, Katrile, had put out her hand. Several of the runes on her necklaces were cycling between red, blue, and black flashes of light, and she sneered at Zajj.


    ¡°Save it, Zajj. Ishmarians aren¡¯t known for being smart. You, on the other hand, have no excuse for acting like a whiny brat.¡±


    Ishmarian? I was thrown for a loop for a second. Albrecht is Ishmarian? And the Magisters know about that? What the actual hell is going on? Alverd had mentioned that Alicia had muttered something nonsensical about him during her period of unconsciousness, but he hadn¡¯t given me any details. Regardless, if what I was hearing was true, then the conspiracy against Sheena was even more complex than I thought.


    I wanted to stay and see what else I could find out, but I knew that every second I did was a risk of being discovered. Maybe Sheena can shed some light on this. Right now, I¡¯ve got to get back. I was about to sneak away when Albrecht spoke again. ¡°Yet I was the one who found out about the Slumbering Calamity hidden beneath the Academy. The one that was never accounted for. I also found out how to activate it without the help of your illustrious Council. So what does that make you, Katrile?¡±


    Wait. Hold up. I shrank back against the tree. Sheena said the Calamities were weapons of war. That they were giant golems hidden beneath the Ivory Palace. So why is there one under the Academy? And what does that mean, unaccounted for? I was going to lean forward to hear better when something tugged at the hem of my robe. I whirled around in surprise.


    A small, red-furred fox was pulling at my robe with her teeth. Now having my full attention, she pawed at my leg before pointing her snout in the direction I¡¯d come from, back towards my friends.


    ¡°Deotra, wait.¡± My little familiar yowled at me indignantly, then took hold of my robe again and started trying to pull me away. It was cute, but ultimately futile. ¡°Stop that!¡± I mumbled. I tried to pull my robe out of her mouth, but as I did so I put my weight down on my foot, which was precariously perched on the root of the tree. I lost my balance as my foot slipped sideways off the root, and in the process of throwing my hand out to cushion my fall, it fell upon a twig and snapped it in half.


    Shit.


    A second later, a beam of glowing light hit the tree about seven inches above my head, gouging a hole straight through it and filling my nostrils with the scent of scorched wood. I rolled onto my back, grabbing Deotra and pulling her tight to my chest. Three more beams proceeded to disintegrate the tree, two of which would have hit me had I not moved away in time. Scrambling to my feet, Deotra still held securely, I ran as fast as I could.


    I wasn¡¯t going to outrun the mages, not by a long shot. Still, I could slow them down. Concentrating body heat into the staff Deotra had given me, I waved it at the surrounding vegetation. It caught quickly, almost too quickly for me to believe, and as I ran the scenic forest behind me turned into a blazing inferno. Did I just threaten the entire Forest ecosystem with that fire? Probably. Do I have time to worry about that? Nope.


    A lucky shot glanced off my right shoulder, pushing me to the left and into a nearby tree. Rebounding off of it, I landed flat on my back, nursing the front of my face where I had impacted the bark. Over the sound of the fire, I heard Zajj¡¯s voice.


    ¡°Go around! Find the Witch-Queen. And I don¡¯t care what Albrecht says, if she won¡¯t come quietly then take her by force.¡± From my place on the ground, I watched his upside-down form stroll through the fire as his staff parted the flames like some kind of devil straight from a nightmare.


    ¡°I¡¯ll deal with this one.¡±


    The talon-shaped blade emerged from his staff, and he made his way over to where I was lying. I rolled to the side and stood up, trying not to sway as I put my weight on my unsteady knees. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose we could settle this over tea and crumpets, could we?¡± Zajj let out a war cry and pulled a fireball from his chest, the seething orb painting eerie orange light over his already villainous face.


    ¡°Guess not. Oh well.¡± I leveled my new staff at him, finding my footing at last. ¡°Come on, tough guy. Hit me with your best shot.¡± The greasy-looking Magister flung the fireball at me, and almost without thinking I waved my staff in front of me, conjuring up the shimmering shield I¡¯d used in the past to block similar spells.


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    This time, however, as my hands guided the staff through the motion, I could feel an invisible force tug my arms through a different set of loops and twists. The circle became a figure eight, and when the shield burst into being, it was a burning dark blue like a freshly lit match rather than the normal ice water color it had before. Zajj¡¯s fireball impacted it head on, and instead of it exploding, the shield ¡°ate¡± the spell, absorbing the magic into itself without so much as a whimper.


    Zajj¡¯s mouth fell open in shock. Seeing his guard down, I pointed the staff at him. ¡°You oughta get that looked at, pal. You could be that one in five mages the doctors are always talking about.¡± Then I propelled the stored magical energy out through the ruby and Zajj¡¯s fireball shot back at him, now blue and three times bigger to boot. He was able to throw up his own defensive spell, but the fireball detonated on contact with it.


    I saw him get thrown against a nearby tree, the spot where he¡¯d been only a second earlier now a smoking crater. As he lay on the ground groaning, I saw Deotra dancing around my feet, a pleased look on her vulpine face. I leaned down and patted her head, and she purred with satisfaction. As Zajj hauled himself back up, I willed energy into the staff for a lightning bolt.


    Power flowed into the staff, but instead of it coming from a singular source within my body like normal, it seemed to draw from my fingers, feet, heart and mind all at once. It¡¯s almost like the staff is able to intuit my attack and aid me in the casting. The trick is not to fight it, but work with it. I had to cut off the flow from my heart, as a sudden burst of pain in my chest caught me off guard. Crap, maybe a little too intuitive. Moderating this thing is gonna take some doing.


    Still, there was more than enough juice to not only put a lightning spell together, but to make it more effective than ever. I hope this guy likes it extra crispy. Angling the staff, I bent my back knee to brace myself and let my spell loose.


    The sheer force of the bolt that came out from the staff was almost enough to knock me off my feet, even with my foot dug in and my weight pushed forward. Instead of a singular bolt, the front end of the Staff of Farewells discharged a continuous stream of multi-pronged lightning, gouging streaks into the ground and nearby trees as it sought out Zajj. The Magister was unable to shield himself in time and several bolts converged on him, electrocuting him, and pinning him against the tree he¡¯d hit earlier.


    After a full ten seconds of turning Zajj into a human lightning rod, my staff finally ran out of power and the bolts faded. I don¡¯t even feel winded at all. Hell, I bet I could do a dozen more of those. I may not fully understand what¡¯s up with this staff yet, but damn if it isn¡¯t exciting. For his part, Zajj coughed and sputtered, his clothes smoking, the air smelling like burnt skin and torched fabric.


    ¡°What¡­ What the hell are you?¡± He wheezed, barely able to stand. ¡°Your elemancy is on a completely different level. I¡¯ve studied it my entire life and I¡¯ve never conjured power like yours.¡± He weakly patted out a small flame on his shoulder. ¡°How can some idiot from a rural hellhole hope to match a premier practitioner like myse-¡±


    I shot him straight in the chest with a weaker lightning bolt, although I was sorely tempted to make it stronger. ¡°Whaaaaat? You¡¯re actually not on top of the food chain after all? Shocker.¡± I chuckled immaturely. ¡°Listen, jackass. If you know what¡¯s good for you, you¡¯ll tell me what Albrecht¡¯s plan is. And lose the high and mighty act while you¡¯re at it.¡±


    Like a sniveling weasel, Zajj shrunk into himself for a moment while he considered his options. Seeing that he had none, he sighed and tried to straighten himself a bit. ¡°High and mighty? You don¡¯t know the half of it. Albrecht doesn¡¯t bother keeping me in the loop. I¡¯m just the Council¡¯s attack dog. You know how it is with elemancers. No nuance, no subtlety, just big explosions. I¡¯m not important enough to know about the big picture, just enough to get rid of the obstacles in its way.¡±


    Well, that¡¯s an interesting take. Not sure I¡¯ve ever heard anyone admit they weren¡¯t essential to the giant evil conspiracy that the big boss man was cooking up before. ¡°You¡¯ve gotta know something, otherwise you¡¯re just wasting my time.¡±


    Zajj spat on the ground. ¡°I was getting to that. What I do know is that Albrecht needs the Witch-Queen alive for something. Involves the Slumbering Calamity he found.¡±


    He grunted in pain, then continued. ¡°The former Wizard-King had some fun little notes stashed away somewhere, and Albrecht found them. Figured out that some time ago, a previous ruler found a way to build a bigger, better Calamity than the ones we already had. But it wasn¡¯t just about making it more powerful, it was about fixing a key design flaw that the older Calamities had.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the specifics. He didn¡¯t inform me of why he needs Sheena alive. But I¡¯m smart enough to guess.¡± He smirked at me, baring his teeth. ¡°Every time the Calamities were activated, people died. Ishmarians, Algrustians, and even members of the royal family. It makes you wonder. A fifty foot tall golem made of dormicite that can yank a dragon out of the sky and stomp on it like vermin? Capable of shooting magic in every direction with more power than a dozen mages can accomplish working in tandem?¡±


    He leaned forward with a manic look in his eyes. ¡°Where does something like that get its power from? Why can¡¯t it just operate indefinitely? Eventually the Calamities have to go back to sleep and we let them lie dormant for years before the Ishmarians come back and we have to do it all over again. The power has to come from somewhere, right?¡±


    As the blood froze in my veins, Zajj continued. ¡°Sheena is a spirit contractor. Her blood is infused with the power of magic, reinforced over countless generations of pureblooded elf royals all gifted with magical talent. Even someone like me can read the writing on the wall, especially when it¡¯s written in blood.¡± He began to laugh.


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna bet she¡¯s the final ingredient. Somehow, using her, this new Calamity will be activated and remain functional permanently. And when it works, we¡¯ll have the weapon we need to crush Ishmar once and for all, and no more annoying Witch-Queen to stand in the way of that war.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°I guess this is the part where you lament that you would¡¯ve gotten away with it if not for us meddling adventurers, huh?¡±


    ¡°No, this is the part where I express amazement that I distracted you long enough for my men to sneak up on you.¡±


    The Staff of Farewells reacted before I did, pulling my arm up and into the series of movements needed to conjure a shield, although this time it was in the shape of a box with an x through it. The shield flickered into place as two blasts hit me from behind, the twin lances of ice molding into the surface of the shield without a sound.


    Looking over my shoulder, I could see two of Zajj¡¯s guards running towards me, their combat staves pointed forward like spears, more ice lances shooting out, twin blades of crimson energy already angling to skewer me. Pushing off from the tree, Zajj screamed and ignited his talonlike blade, also charging from the complete opposite direction.


    Dammit Kuro, you forgot Rule Four. Never let the other guy monologue, just blast him in the face and be done with it. With my attackers bearing down on me, I tried to decide which ones to respond to. There¡¯s not enough time. I could hit Zajj but his minions will run me through, but if I turn he¡¯ll slice me like beef at the butcher¡¯s block.


    Then something bounded off my shoulder and towards the two combat mages. A tiny blue ball of fire, foxlike in shape, landed on one of them, scrabbling up onto his face, and proceeding to claw at his eyes furiously. With the most adorably murderous battle cry ever, Deotra savaged the combat mage¡¯s face with teeth and claws. He dropped his staff and tried to pry her off, but to no avail. His friend stopped to try and pull her off, but a swipe of her tail sent blue fire into his eyes and he too shrieked in pain. That¡¯s my girl.


    Staring down Zajj, I lowered the shield and ran towards him. Holding onto the Staff of Farewells with both hands, I could feel it feeding an image of what it could do into my mind. The power to turn my enemy¡¯s strength against them, to wield it even as I steal it out from under them. There isn¡¯t any kind of magic in the whole world like this. As Zajj swung his staff at me, I thrust the Staff of Farewells forward to parry.


    As soon as the horizontally oriented Staff of Farewells made contact with Zajj¡¯s, his blade sputtered out. The ruby at the end of the Staff of Farewells sparked once, twice, then turned a deep amethyst before a clear, glasslike teardrop-shaped blade of humming purple light emanated from it. Both Zajj and I stared at it, the majesty, beauty, and unexpectedness of such a spectacle enrapturing us both.


    At that moment, while he was mesmerized by the blade, I pivoted my left foot, stepped forward on my right, and with a twist of my body, swung the front of the staff forward and sliced his head clean off his shoulders. There was barely a sound as the teardrop blade scythed through his neck, and not even a hiss of exhalation as his head parted from his body. A second later, both hit the ground, and I was left standing, the victor in our little scuffle.


    I was about to catch my breath when Deotra barreled into me in her humanoid form. She wrapped her arms around me and nuzzled my face with her own, her eyes full of tears, her fox ears plastered against the sides of her head in worry.


    ¡°Are you alright?! I was so worried. I let my guard down and those men snuck up on you. Please forgive me.¡±


    I ran my hand through her messy hair, scritching the back of one ear. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not hurt. You did well, Deotra.¡± She squeezed me tighter, and I found it a little difficult to breathe. ¡°Okay, okay, I get it. You were scared. I promise I¡¯m not angry.¡±


    She looked up at me, sniffling. ¡°I¡¯ll do better next time, so don¡¯t hate me. Please don¡¯t abandon me.¡±


    Oh gods. Her eyes. She had a desperate look, like she had jumped to the worst possible conclusion and was already thinking of ways to make it worse. ¡°Hey, calm down. I said I wasn¡¯t angry. I¡¯m not going to abandon you.¡± I hugged her tight. ¡°I should¡¯ve been paying better attention. It¡¯s not your fault. If anything, you¡¯re the reason I¡¯m still alive.¡±


    By chance, I looked over her shoulder at the two dead combat mages behind her. I immediately regretted that decision, as they no longer had any recognizable facial features to speak of. I felt my stomach lurch, but averted my gaze before it could get any worse. Beneath me, Deotra spoke, and her voice was full of hate and determination. Her eyes were dull and hollow, and seemingly devoid of anything resembling compassion.


    ¡°That¡¯s right. I¡¯d never let anyone hurt you. Never.¡±


    Why do I get the sense that the danger hasn¡¯t yet passed?


    I coughed tersely. ¡°I have to warn the others. Can you do me a favor?¡± Deotra¡¯s eyes lit back up, sparkling at the prospect of earning my approval.


    ¡°Anything for you.¡± I shuddered a bit, then spoke. ¡°Can you scout for the rest of the mages, then meet me back at our camp? I may have an idea on how to get us out of this.¡±


    She cocked her head to the side. ¡°How do you plan on doing that?¡±


    I gave her a sly grin. ¡°Trust me, you¡¯re probably going to enjoy it.¡±

 B2: Chapter 16: Alicia: Loyalty (Raw)

    I made a mistake. I underestimated one of the most powerful forces in the world, even though I had been aware of it, touched by it, and was alive because of it. I¡¯m profoundly ashamed that I didn¡¯t recognize this sooner.


    When I ran forward, roaring at the top of my lungs, the only thought I had in my head was to cave in somebody¡¯s skull. Even as Lady Laspa and Lord Mattigen lifted their staves to attack, I barreled toward my enemies with my rage at its height. Unfortunately, a blast of wind forced me back, knocking me flat as I tried to control my fall. I rolled with the attack, assuming an attack posture as the two Magister Lords placed themselves between me and the altar.


    Lady Laspa raised her staff and started chanting in some language I didn¡¯t recognize. It was airy yet ominous, and as she spoke it, a grey mist seemed to seep from her mouth. The mist flowed up and past where  we had come from, and into the suits of armor in the hall. The mist flew into the visors of the suits, and they began to rumble; with a horrible sound, they walked. They raised their weapons and came clattering down the hall with the intention of killing us all.


    Kuro and Alverd turned around and made to deal with their new adversaries. I saw Kuro pull fire from his chest, throwing a fireball at the nearest suit; it did little to stop its advance. Instead, the now flaming suit of armor brought its axe up, but Alverd swiftly moved in and parted the thrall¡¯s head from its body with a well-timed slash of his sword. The helmet went clattering away.


    Yet this was not enough to stop the thrall. It still kept coming. Alverd was forced to parry the axe with his shield, and counterattacked with a slice to the suit¡¯s body, bisecting it in one clean blow. The suit collapsed to the ground, and Alverd kicked its axe away. And yet, seven more of the suits were still coming down the hall to reinforce Laspa.


    I turned my attention to her. Kuro had mentioned before that only the death of the necromancer could stop her thralls. I sorely hoped that he was right. With another battle cry, I made a dash for Laspa, my hammer held in both hands.


    Apparently Laspa was too busy controlling her minions to be able to protect herself. She made barely any move to stop me, but as I drew near, Lord Mattigen tried to hit me with another spell. He waved his staff and threw fire at me, but this time I saw it coming; my berserker-enhanced senses easily allowed me to duck under the tongue of flame blazing over me. Even as I slid under the fire, I reared back and prepared to swing my hammer.


    Laspa finally responded in earnest to my attack, but she was too sluggish to evade. My swing knocked her staff from her hands, causing it to fly back to where Sheena was being restrained by several of the other Magisters. As soon as the staff was parted from her hands, the suits of armor attacking Alverd and Kuro fell to the ground, lifeless once more. With the tide of battle shifted, we all moved to attack the Magisters in earnest. I watched as Alverd, McFarlane, and Kuro caught up to me, and together we surged forward.


    But then Albrecht stepped up. With one motion, he slammed his staff on the ground, and a wave of force shot out in all directions, stopping us in our tracks. Even the Magister Lords behind him seemed to quake in their boots at the display. I had to admit, Albrecht could command attention. We skid to a halt before him, and when he saw that we weren¡¯t making any moves to challenge him, he spoke.


    ¡°This has all gone on long enough.¡± Albrecht roared. ¡°This nonsense ends here.¡±


    Albrecht waved his free hand. ¡°I see we have an audience for what is about to transpire here. Good. After twenty years of lying, I can finally tell the truth for once. And it will be a liberating experience.¡±


    And with that, Albrecht threw a massive lance of ice at where the two Magisters were holding Sheena. The lance landed next to the two, exploding violently. Shards of ice rocketed into their bodies, missing Sheena by fractions of inches. The two fell to the ground like bloody pincushions, and Sheena, no worse for the wear, fell to her knees. Lady Kertouli, however, immediately moved behind her and grabbed a knife on the altar, holding it across Sheena¡¯s neck, a look of surprise and fury on her face. ¡°You fool! What are you doing?! Why do you turn your magic on your allies?!¡±


    Albrecht snickered a bit as he swiveled around to face her. ¡°Allies? Oh, how mistaken you are, Embera. I have no intention of allowing the Calamities to awaken. I have sworn to protect Sheena, and now that I have proof positive of your treason, I will see that every single one of you hangs for this offense. Then, with the Council of Magic gone, Sheena¡¯s rule as Witch-Queen will be unquestioned, and if she desires peace, then there will be no Council to oppose her will in such matters.¡±


    Sweet Mother Evros. Lord Albrecht had pulled the mother of all triple crosses. My brain was still, sad to say, struggling to keep up with all the revelations being dropped here. But then, Albrecht continued. ¡°I never had any intention of allowing you to sacrifice my darling niece to fulfill your insane ambitions. I joined your conspiracy merely to uncover how far it went. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that nearly the entire Council agreed on the course of war at all costs.¡±


    Albrecht cocked his head to the side, a strangely off-putting grin spreading across his face. ¡°Did you know that about five or so years ago, the King of Ishmar sent me a secret missive ordering me to begin pushing Sheena to accept the possibility of a truce with Ishmar? It surprised me as well. It was right after Ishmar invaded and took over Marevar. I never could¡¯ve imagined that my hated enemy would consider his youngest daughter his best hope for peace between our nations. Secretly, I was conflicted. I still wanted revenge against him for what he had done to me, and to other mage children. But I decided to trust in Sheena.¡±


    Lady Kertouli snarled at us. She used her knife to make a cut along Sheena¡¯s arm, drawing blood. The blood began to flow through the air, into the urn sitting on the altar. ¡°There¡¯s nothing you can do now, traitor! You come any closer, I slit her throat and bleed her quick!¡± Sheena stared at us, mostly at Albrecht, perhaps still trying to come to terms with what was happening.


    We were at a standstill. Lady Laspa managed to retrieve her staff in the meantime, and stood next to Lord Mattigen, pointing her weapon at us. As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, the ground shook in a familiar manner; Kertouli¡¯s golem stomped out from a side passage and placed itself squarely between us and the two Magisters now staring us down. I¡¯d seen the golem¡¯s dormicite skin repel magic before, and I was willing to bet that even dragon tooth metal might not be up to the task of taking that monster down.


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    The golem made the first move. It started tromping over towards us, its hands raised. Arcane circles appeared around its hands, signaling a magical assault. I threw myself to the side, narrowly escaping a lance of ice that would have impaled me through the chest had I not seen it coming. The other spell, another ice lance, whizzed past Kuro, who fell on his arse in surprise. Remaining on the defensive wasn¡¯t going to cut it.


    I was about to prepare my berserker trance when I noticed something. In all the chaos, we had forgotten about Captain McFarlane. She had disappeared, and only now did I see her, creeping along the tops of the hidden alcoves, slowly maneuvering herself above where Kertouli was holding Sheena. I needed to buy the Captain the time she needed. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was suicidal, but I threw caution to the wind and rushed the golem, fury narrowing my vision as I charged.


    Time seemed to crawl as I raced at the golem. It lifted its arm to punch me, but I feinted left before sidestepping right. Driving into the golem¡¯s center, where its immense reach would not help it, I drove my hammer into its chest with a vicious, two-handed swing that I felt all the way to my shoulders.


    Maybe it was just in my head, but I could¡¯ve swore I knocked that monster back. It staggered, and I saw with satisfaction that a large set of cracks were spider-webbing out from the point of impact. So much for being the toughest metal on earth. But I wasn¡¯t done with the golem yet.


    I rolled under the golem¡¯s legs, one step ahead of its lumbering arms. Because it had bent down to try and grab me, it was relatively easy to scramble onto the golem¡¯s back. It wasn¡¯t easy getting a grip, but I locked my legs around the golem¡¯s head and proceeded to bash it with my hammer as many times as I could. After a few strikes (I had to use a one-handed grip), cracks formed in the golem¡¯s head. Invigorated, I redoubled my efforts.


    The golem tried to grab me with its arms, but suddenly, a huge ball of ice formed on its right arm. Kuro had conjured a huge ball of ice to encase the golem¡¯s arm, weighing it down to the point where the monstrosity could not even lift it. After accomplishing this, he did the same for the other arm; without any way to stop me, the golem lurched forward to try and dislodge me, but my grip was too tight. With a roar of triumph, I swung the hammer one last time.


    The dormicite finally gave way under my vicious assault. The hammer struck deep into the golem¡¯s skull. A wisp of white smoke blew out of the hole with the force of a geyser, knocking me off the golem. The giant metal man keeled over and fell to the ground, causing a miniature quake as it smashed the floor. In the aftermath of its passing, a stunned silence settled over the room.


    And in that moment, McFarlane struck. She hurtled down on Kertouli from above, her staff raised to strike. As Kertouli was currently too busy being shocked at the fall of her champion, she didn¡¯t see the Captain at all. McFarlane slammed down onto Kertouli, knocking Sheena away. Without Kertouli¡¯s influence, Sheena¡¯s blood stopped flowing into the urn on the altar. McFarlane dragged Sheena to safety, and Albrecht stepped in front of her to shield them. As Sheena stumbled to her feet, Albrecht greeted her with her staff and his warm smile.


    ¡°I promised that I would never let them harm you, Sheena. It¡¯s time for me to make good on that promise.¡±


    Sheena embraced her uncle, tears running down her face in rivers. Her uncle finally broke the embrace, pushing her away gently. He turned to face our foes. Alverd moved to his side. He brandished Evros at Kertouli. ¡°The tide has turned, witch. You would do well to surrender. Unless you favor death to punishment?¡± Alverd¡¯s eyes flashed menacingly. ¡°Your choice. Either way, your scheme ends now. Make your decision.¡±


    Kertouli¡¯s face twisted into a scowl, but quickly gave way to a crazed smile. ¡°You have changed nothing! You have only delayed the inevitable. Now you shall witness the legacy of our nation, the reawakening of the Slumbering Calamities!¡± Kertouli lifted the urn off the altar, holding it above her head, screaming like a banshee. The urn began to glow, and the blood within poured out and away through the air towards a nearby column.


    The blood saturated the column, spreading over it like a sickly paste. But as the blood began to coat the column, the room shook. The column slid into the ground, and suddenly, the catacombs shook violently. An unearthly cacophony filled the room, and only after it subsided did we hear Kertouli laugh over the noise. ¡°It has begun! Though I only have enough blood to awaken one Calamity, I can easily get more. You have not stopped us, fools. We are Magisters! The world quakes before our power! We will silence you, and then we will destroy Ishmar!¡±


    As the ground shook, we could feel something stir behind the altar. Rocks fell from the ceiling as something gave way; the entire wall behind the altar collapsed, and we saw as something huge rose from the debris. It continued to rise, destroying the ceiling and ripping through the earth above, allowing sunlight to leak through. There was no mistaking what was happening.


    The first of the Calamities had awoken.


    The massive giant continued to stand up, until at long last, it stood at its full height of fifty feet. From our precarious position at the construct¡¯s feet, we could see that it was indeed made entirely of dormicite, its skin glistening in the afternoon sun. Several tons of dirt, stone and other detritus rained down as the Calamity rose up through the soil above, punching through the ground outside of Ethenia¡¯s front gate.


    As the din finally subsided, I could hear Kertouli laughing in the background. ¡°You see? With this power, nothing in this world can oppose us! It is not too late! Return to the fold, Prime Minister. With the Calamities, we can easily secure victory over the dragontamers! Isn¡¯t that what you want, Gerhalt?! Isn¡¯t it what you wanted for more than two decades?!¡±


    Albrecht grinned. ¡°I see you still don¡¯t grasp why I¡¯m doing this, Embera. I want to save Sheena more than conquer an entire nation. So rather than help you destroy Ishmar and Algrustos, I will stop you here and protect my niece, at all costs.¡± Albrecht suddenly conjured a fireball in his hand. ¡°Sheena¡¯s ancestors are not the only ones who gained power by consorting with spirits and demons. It was a terrible sacrifice to make, but if it saves her life, then I deem it a necessary evil.¡±


    Love. Albrecht¡¯s love for his niece was so great, that he was willing to gain the power to use magic without a staff¡­by selling his soul to some otherworldly being? At first I couldn¡¯t fathom such a thing, but then I realized why. He loved Sheena like she was his own daughter. It had been the same sacrifice my father had made for me. The willingness to surrender anything to ensure the safety of one who was precious to him. I almost teared up in that moment.


    Lady Laspa scoffed. ¡°If that is the way you feel, then you can die along with these rabble!¡± She opened her mouth and the horrible grey smoke wafted out again, but this time, the smoke wafted into the coffins lining the walls of the room we were in. The coffins were wrenched open, and more undead knights shuffled out, their rust-covered weapons raised.


    As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, Lord Mattigen made a gesture with his staff. With a horrendous screech, a rift appeared in the air next to Mattigen; after a moment, something crawled out of the rift. It was the demon that had knocked us all out. The demon looked more than eager to rip the flesh off our bones; his contractor wasn¡¯t any better with the grin spreading across his weathered face.


    I raised my hammer in a two-fisted grip. In my peripheral vision, I saw Alverd, Kuro, Albrecht, McFarlane and even Sheena preparing themselves to face their new adversaries. With so much backup, I knew that I would have no problem using my berserker trance without worry. As the rage consumed me, the only thing I saw ahead of me was the enemy, still shambling towards us.


    Time to bust some heads.

 B2: Chapter 16: Alicia: Might vs Magic

    When Kuro came back to us with his insane plan, I couldn¡¯t help but shake my head. I didn¡¯t have a better one so I bit my tongue.


    To make it work, he needed us to buy him time. We knew we were up against the personal guards of the Magister Lords, and as far as I was concerned they were just slightly better versions of the mages that had accompanied Captain McFarlane during our journey to the capitol. Still, if her soldiers were any indication, these goons wouldn¡¯t be easy to deal with.


    ¡°Alicia, will you be okay to fight?¡± Alverd asked me after Kuro had laid out his plan.


    I rolled my right arm, trying to work some stiffness out of it but managing not to wince. ¡°Of course I am. I¡¯ve been sitting on my arse for too long and I¡¯m ready to take it out on somebody. Might as well be these guys.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. And you¡¯ll be there in case anything goes wrong, right?¡±


    He gave me a stern look, but then sighed. ¡°Alright. But if you feel outmatched or overwhelmed, don¡¯t be afraid to fall back. Kuro said we only needed to stall. I still don¡¯t know how he¡¯s going to pull off his trick, so we need to be able to give up ground if it buys him extra time.¡± I think he¡¯s trying to subtly tell me not to fly off the handle. I know he means well, but I guess I¡¯m just a little offended that he thinks I can¡¯t keep myself in check.


    Then realization hit me. No, he¡¯s worried about you being cut off. If you get separated from him or Sheena. Come on Alicia, you should know by now that he¡¯s more concerned you¡¯ll get killed like you almost did back in the Palace. The sight of Leticia and her levitating daggers appeared in my head, and I bit my lip. He didn¡¯t let you down. You went off on your own. You¡¯re just too scared to tell him that.


    ¡°I know. My first priority is to hit the mages to get their attention then lure them back to this clearing. Once I do, we strike them together from three angles where they don¡¯t have any tree cover. After that, we hold until Kuro¡¯s plan goes off.¡± I put my hands on my hips and winked at him. ¡°I¡¯ve got it. I won¡¯t mess this up, I promise.¡±


    Alverd still looked concerned, but then he shook his head. ¡°Remember. Fall back as soon as they¡¯ve taken the bait. You¡¯re our ace in the hole against that Magister since you have no magic for her to nullify.¡± It gave me a boost of confidence to know that Alverd was putting so much faith in my ability to take down the Magister. Don¡¯t let him down. You owe it to him to prove you can take care of yourself.


    It was a lot of pressure, but I had no right to call myself a warrior if I couldn¡¯t handle it. ¡°I¡¯ll be back before you know it.¡± I moved away only to find myself face to face with Sheena. She was fidgeting uncomfortably.


    ¡°It pains me to say this, but with Lady Katrile out there I¡¯m next to useless. Her nullification runes will stop my magic cold.¡± She coughed to clear her throat. ¡°So please try not to get hurt. We both have a lot riding on surviving this, and I don¡¯t just mean the future of our countries.¡± Her eyes flicked over to Alverd. In my mind, I rolled my eyes. Mother Evros, this girl and her damn priorities. Oh well, I guess that¡¯s the closest she¡¯s going to get to expressing actual concern for me.


    ¡°I got it. Don¡¯t worry about it, Sheena.¡± I brushed past her.


    I could feel her eyes boring a hole in the back of my skull as I stepped into the bushes. That girl. Is that a coping mechanism or does she seriously not realize we have more important things to worry about? I shook my head, then strained my ears to listen for the sounds of movement in the brush. Then again, impending death does have a way of making one reconsider what¡¯s important and what isn¡¯t.


    As I moved as quietly as I could, I tried to calm the flow of my thoughts. Try as I might, I couldn¡¯t stop myself from fixating on how little sense things made when Kuro had explained the situation. I remembered the panic on his face and in his voice, the disbelief mixing with his lack of breath. ¡°Albrecht is leading the mages. He¡¯s here and the Magisters are taking orders from him.¡±


    Sheena had been beside herself. ¡°You must be mistaken, Sir Kuro. It must be a trick or illusion.¡± I could hear the truth in her quavering voice, though. After what we saw in her memories, she knows that what hesays is the truth. She knows that Albrecht isn¡¯t what he seems, and I think she¡¯s afraid of confronting him because he¡¯ll confirm what she already knows.


    Kuro had told us everything he¡¯d overheard, and what Zajj had said before his death. He warned us that Zajj¡¯s rambling was to be taken with a grain of salt, but even with my limited understanding of magic it made some sense. The power has to come from somewhere. If Sheena¡¯s family line really is that strong, it would follow that her life would be what was used to make a giant golem move.


    Understandably, she wasn''t taking any of it well. She listened to Kuro¡¯s story but her expression became more and more distraught as it went on. By the end of it, she looked like she was ready to cry. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. Why would my Uncle do this? How could I not know he was Ishmarian all this time? Why hide it from me?¡± Tears welled up in her eyes and she struggled to wipe them away. ¡°All this time he hid this from me. Why?¡±


    Alverd pulled her into his arms and held her to his chest, embracing her gently. She didn¡¯t try to take advantage of her situation; instead she leaned into him and continued sobbing. Can¡¯t say I blame her. This is a lot to deal with all at once. It¡¯s not everyday you find out your only father figure was lying to you your whole life. I winced when I realized how we were both sort of in the same boat.


    Sheena eventually pulled away from Alverd, sniffling. ¡°I¡¯ll be alright. I need to focus. Focus.¡± She clapped her hands against her cheeks twice, then shook her head. ¡°Okay. Just tell me what to do. Better to think about how we¡¯re going to escape from this forest than anything else right now. Although we also have to figure out where we¡¯re going after we escape.¡± She picked up her staff and looked at us all. ¡°There¡¯s two ways Uncle, I mean Albrecht, can play this. He can try to do this without causing a citywide scene, or he starts a manhunt. We need to find out what he¡¯s gone and done.¡±


    From my right, Kuro nodded. ¡°Either is bad in its own way. Keeping it on the down-low means he can use whatever underhanded means he wants to catch us. Avoiding public scrutiny will prevent the Magisters from trying to wrest control of this whole fiasco from him, too. On the other hand, informing the public turns everyone in Ethenia into a potential enemy. Considering the sentiment against Sheena currently, we could be looking at mobs of people hunting her down.¡±


    Her eyes narrowed and her tone turned to ice. ¡°If they want to try and take me they can certainly try. Anyone who raises a hand against me will find I¡¯m not easy prey.¡±


    I shuddered a bit. ¡°But they¡¯re your people!¡±


    Her tone didn¡¯t change when she answered me. ¡°If they attempt an assault on me, they are not ¡®my¡¯ people. Simple as that.¡±


    There was an awkward silence. I know she¡¯s had it rough, but at the same time I can¡¯t fully support her attitude. A queen is supposed to protect and serve her people, not threaten them. I was about to reply when Kuro cleared his throat.


    ¡°We can have a philosophical debate about the necessity of dealing with civilians if it becomes relevant. For now, I have an idea for how we can punch a hole through these mages and get out of the Forest.¡±


    He held up his staff. ¡°I¡¯m going to try and draw the attention of as many familiars as I can. Then, I¡¯ll set them on a collision course with the mages. The point is to get them to stampede right over the bastards. Once we get to the front gate, we get the hell out of here.¡± The ruby on the end of the staff flared with crimson light, and he hopped in place a few times. ¡°That¡¯s why I need you to buy me some time. I can only run so fast.¡±


    Sheena held up her hand. ¡°Wait. I know what we need to do after we escape.¡± All eyes turned to her. ¡°Once we¡¯re clear of the Forest, we need to head to the Academy and find this Calamity. I will destroy it myself. If I can use it to destroy the other Calamities, even better.¡±


    I gulped nervously. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen her so angry before. She¡¯s suggesting we destroy possibly the greatest weapons her country has, possibly out of nothing other than spite. Despite her reasoning, though, a part of my barbarian brain thought of the idea of taking an enemy¡¯s weapon and wielding it against them with smug satisfaction. I guess it¡¯s too bad I kind of like that idea.


    Alverd and Kuro exchanged glances. Finally Alverd spoke. ¡°Is this really what you want, Sheena?¡±


    She nodded energetically. ¡°Yes. Consider it your new charge. I command you, sir knight, to accompany me on this quest of righteous reprisal against my betrayers. What say you?¡± She extended her right hand to him, fingers curled down. He took the hand in his and knelt.


    ¡°As you say. Lead on, my lady.¡± Then he planted a kiss on the back of her hand.


    WHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTT?! My brain did a backflip. Sheena¡¯s face turned bright red. I know you needed to play along with her theatrics but did you really need to go that far?! Mother Evros do you people have any shame?! I felt my teeth gnash in my mouth.


    ¡°Alright, enough clowning around! Are we going to talk about it or do it?¡± I stepped forward between Alverd and Sheena, facing her. ¡°Come on! Time is wasting!¡±


    Sheena snapped out of her embarrassment quickly. ¡°Yes. I think our best chance of delaying our enemy would be to take out Lady Katrile. Her nullification runes could be put to good use against not just the Magisters, but Albrecht too. I can use them, but getting the runes is going to be the hard part. She likely won¡¯t part with them without a fight.¡±


    I gave her my best homicidal grin. ¡°Well lucky for you I know how to start them, and end them.¡±


    She could tell I was being supportive, because she chuckled at me. ¡°I believe it.¡± She sniffed one last time. ¡°Goodness, you¡¯ve seen some ugly sides of me today, all of you. I apologize. I didn¡¯t mean to put on such disgraceful displays.¡± With one last wipe of her sleeve, she finally dried her face. ¡°I¡¯ll hold it together. Although I can¡¯t make any promises after this is all over.¡±


    We went our separate ways. Kuro dashed further into the Forest, Alverd and Sheena lay in wait in the clearing, and I started moving through the woods to find the mages. Off to my left, I heard the snapping of twigs. Slowly I leaned around the edge of the tree to see if I could spy the source of the sound. I got a good look for maybe a second before a howling blast of blue light shot towards me.


    With my reflexes it was easy enough to pull back in time, but the blast was followed by several more. Soon the tree was being torn apart by a steady stream of projectiles that came from four different directions. Four directions, four different attackers. Imagine the battlefield like the face of a sundial. I closed my eyes, breathing in and out slowly, the image of a sundial¡¯s surface appearing beneath my feet. I¡¯m facing away from them. I¡¯m midday. Twelve.


    My ears tried to pick out the distinct sounds of the magic being thrown at the tree. Seven. Nine. Five. One of them is at four but it¡¯s close to three. He¡¯s moving, trying to flank me. I needed to act fast, because two flankers coming from opposite directions meant one of them would hit me in the back while I dealt with the other. I can get Nine first. I¡¯ll try to get Seven too, and then I need to get back to the others. I still didn¡¯t know if any of them were the Magister, but I could hope.


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    I wanted to use my berserker rage, but I needed a clear head for this. You have a job to do and Alverd is counting on you to do it. Do only what he said and then fall back. I breathed out one last time, opened my eyes, and then rolled to my left and broke into a dead run straight toward a mage who was in the process of aiming his staff at the tree. He saw me charge at him and tried to adjust his angle, but missed me with his ice lance as I ducked and weaved randomly. When I closed the distance, I jumped at him like a feral animal and whipped my maul around with both hands.


    The satisfying crunch of his skull as the maul connected with it told me that he was down and out. As I landed, I folded my knee and rolled past his still falling corpse as two more blasts of magical force shot over my head. The world revolved chaotically as I fell out of my roll and onto my feet, looking in the direction of my attackers. Seven was in plain view, although whoever had thrown the second lance wasn¡¯t.


    Seven was already preparing his follow up shot. A fireball came straight at me, and I had to hold up the angled gauntlet on my left arm to deflect it. The sheer force of the fireball snapped my arm back, but not enough to do any damage to my bones, and the ball bounced to the left and hit a tree behind me. I reached down to my leg and pulled a knife from one of my holsters, then threw it at him.


    The knife hit him in the knee, and he cried out in pain as he lost his balance. Two more fireballs came out of the brush, missing me by closer margins than I was comfortable with. It¡¯s time to get out. I¡¯ve definitely got their attention now. I turned and fled back through the trees, ducking my head and hunching forward to present a smaller target as more fireballs singed the air around me.


    The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and a weird smell filled my nostrils. Bits of rock and loose twigs began to levitate off the ground in front of me, and every instinct I had told me not to be standing in that area. I threw myself to the side a mere second before an enormous lightning bolt rained down from the sky and hit the ground, glassing the spot instantaneously. The strange smell and tingling air told me another bolt was on the way and I sprang off to my right just in time.


    It has to be the Magister. One shot from one of those and I might not be crawling away from her. Every bit of my training roared at me to unleash my rage and confront her, but I choked down the instinct and kept running. The second bolt slammed into the dirt behind me, and some ways in front of me another strike was already en route.


    It wasn¡¯t easy to weave in and out of the strike zones with only a scant few seconds to react. I can¡¯t rage. Even if it makes my reflexes faster, I can¡¯t do it. You¡¯re almost back to the clearing. I could see the break in the trees about sixty feet ahead of me. Don¡¯t let him down. You¡¯re almos-


    The lightning bolt that hit me didn¡¯t come from above, but rather from the side. Burning straight through the undergrowth, the bolt caught me in the abdomen from the right, hard enough to knock me off my feet, my muscles seizing as blue-white light danced across my vision and seared my skin. I screamed as the air sizzled, clogging my nose with the scent of burnt leather. I hit the ground spasming, unable to control my own body.


    A woman in a fancy robe with two separate necklaces and antlers stood over me, her face twisted into an expression of smug satisfaction. ¡°Stay still, bug. I¡¯ll put you out of your misery soon enough.¡± She pointed her staff at my face, and the end of it began to crackle with lightning, blue bolts arcing as it edged closer. She pressed it against my shoulder and I felt it burn, the bolts discharging into me. ¡°Soon, of course. Not right away.¡±


    I could barely hear my own cries of pain over the sound of the lightning. I¡¯m sorry, Alverd. I know I said I wouldn¡¯t, but I don¡¯t have a choice. The look of unabashed sadism on Katrile¡¯s face was enough to spur the deep rage to come roaring out of me, and as soon as it took hold the lightning was nothing more than a soft tickle. I wrestled with the rage, fighting it for full control, refusing to let it dominate me.


    With a furious grunt I lashed my foot out, hitting Katrile in the shin. The tall mage buckled down, and I rolled onto my feet and swung my left arm at her, my hand balling into a fist. I felt the satisfying impact of my curled fingers as they shattered her jawbone, everything moving in slow motion. Before I could bring my maul around for an attack, she vanished in a puff of mist, only to reappear about thirty feet away.


    Letting out a garbled cry thanks to her now loosely swinging mouth, Katrile aimed her staff and shot a lightning bolt that forked into three separate prongs. Where the prongs hit the ground, however, they created three foot tall beings that looked like walking humans made of blue energy. They lumbered towards me, ¡°arms¡± outstretched.


    Ugh, that is creepy as all hell, like something out of a nightmare. The monsters had enough solid surface to be struck by my maul though, which was proven when I hit one with an underhand swing that knocked it six feet in the air before it disintegrated. The second one leapt at me, but I planted my boot in what would¡¯ve been the face on a normal human. It hit my foot full tilt, and I pushed forward and stomped it onto the ground where it fragmented in a flash.


    Without stopping, I ran forward and swung at the third, but it slid under my legs and jumped on my back like an angry monkey, grabbing at my face with spindly fingers made of electricity. As I thrashed left and right to try and dislodge it, I felt something wrap around my legs. Looking down, I could see the vines and roots of the brush crawling over my feet and up my legs, locking me in place. Katrile was still trying to cast her magic, slurring her words as she concentrated on restraining me.


    I hit her like a wagon careening down a hill, pushing her back and up against a tree. Alternating between my left and right arms, I started throwing haymakers at her, hitting her in the stomach, chest, face, and shoulders with no consistency to any of it. At some point I hooked my fingers and started scratching at her too, anything to make her hurt. Eventually she put her hand against my face and I felt electricity surge out of it and into me, blinding me and causing my muscles to slack as they got zapped. I fell back, still tearing at her, and she vanished in a cloud of mist again.


    When she reappeared behind me, again thirty feet away, I anticipated her attack. Rolling to one side to avoid a bolt of lightning that would¡¯ve hit me square in the back, I ran at her, scooping up my fallen weapon along the way. As I charged, I saw her eyes widen, and she tried to throw up her hands in some kind of arcane gesture, but as lightning began to glisten along the edge of her staff, I saw it fizzle out with a sputter. Seeing my chance, I aimed my maul at her head.


    The sweeping sideways blow clipped her face, and there was a loud snap as part of her left antler broke off. She hit the ground, her jaw broken in two places now. Gurgling, choking, and with blood cascading down her face, the pathetic mage tried to form words but nothing came out but gibberish. Based on the look of seething hatred on her face, it wasn¡¯t hard to guess what she was trying to say.


    I knelt down and picked up the broken antler, holding it like a knife, as I approached her. I knelt down next to her, and she continued to try and curse at me. I put down my maul and put my left hand on her neck to hold her still. ¡°Like I told your assassin, don¡¯t play with your food.¡± Then I jammed the antler into her chest, straight into her heart. I leaned down to stare into her face. ¡°And when you corner an animal, finish her off quickly. Because animals are always more dangerous when they¡¯re cornered.¡± She jerked twice, then laid still.


    Letting go of the antler, I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to let my rage subside. I visualized myself stepping out of the river, and slowly the red haze left my vision. As I took a deep breath in, I became aware of something wrapped around my hand. Looking down, I saw one of Katrile¡¯s necklaces had caught on my wrist during my assault.


    The runes on the necklace were flaring in a variety of colors. Many of them were the same blue as the lightning the Magister had conjured during the fight. Was that why she couldn¡¯t stop me in the end? I held it up, and that was when my mouth opened in shock. While the runes weren¡¯t anything I could hope to understand, the metal blocks that comprised the necklace were made of refined dragon tooth metal. This is the same stuff as what we use to make weapons for Black Scale Legionnaires and armor for the royal family.


    My head spun. Why would we export this metal to Algrustos? Under no circumstances would this be allowed. Our methods for working dragon tooth metal are jealously guarded secrets and even being in possession of the metal without authorization is punishable by life in prison. So why does an Algrustian Magister have two whole necklaces made of the stuff, and how is she using it for her magic?


    I grabbed the other necklace from around Katrile¡¯s neck. Sheena might know. And if not her, then that backstabbing bastard Albrecht will. If I have to beat the answers out of him I will. If he knows my father like he said he did, then he has a hell of a lot of explaining to do. I stuffed the necklace in my pocket, then looked at the one I had wrapped around my wrist.


    Something tickled my brain, almost like an instinct. I broke the chain holding the necklace together, then wrapped it around the head of my maul. It took some doing and a small bit of extra twine from my pouch, but I managed to secure the necklace to the weapon. It was an ugly sight, the metal runes against the majestic gold filigree of the hammer head, but if it was capable of interrupting a mage¡¯s spell, then having it at hand would give me a serious edge in battle.


    Immediately after I had finished wrapping the runes around the maul, the ground started to rumble. I nearly lost my footing and had to lean against a tree to avoid falling. Looking down through the trees, I saw a horde of animals coming straight at me. Oh Mother Evros, the madman actually pulled it off! I hauled myself up the tree and off the forest floor mere moments before the stampede passed by.


    Creatures as small as squirrels and cats and beasts as large as wolves and bears surged past, all headed in the same direction. Given their speed, it wouldn¡¯t take long for them to reach the Forest¡¯s gate and give Albrecht¡¯s men a nasty surprise. Clinging to the side of the tree, about ten feet off the ground, I was pretty sure I was safe from the horde.


    Then the fox passed by.


    That is the biggest damn fox I¡¯ve ever seen. It was huge, covered in red fur and burning with white-bluish flame, its eyes a blazing golden color. It stood taller than any other familiar, walking instead of running, so colossal and majestic that there was no doubt it was the leader. I could almost feel waves of force radiating off of it, as though it were compelling the other familiars to action.


    It looked at me, and my blood froze. Will my maul even work on that thing? Would it send the others after me if I attacked it? The giant fox cocked its head to the side, then sneezed. At least, it sounded like a sneeze. Then it went forth, leading its army of magical animals away from me. When the last of the stampede faded off in the distance, I dropped down from the tree.


    Shortly afterward, I heard footsteps behind me. ¡°Alicia, are you alright?¡± Alverd and Sheena jogged up to me, his armor clanking loudly. I waved at him.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine. I got to safety before the familiars came through.¡± I put my hands on my hips. ¡°Kuro really came through, huh? Good for him. Glad to know we keep him around for some reason.¡±


    ¡°I heard that.¡± The mage in question stumbled forward, clearly out of breath. ¡°Damn it, you¡¯re all taller than me, cut me some slack.¡± He leaned against the tree while he wheezed. ¡°Just give me a second. I¡¯ll be okay.¡± He weakly held up his hands to give us a thumbs up.


    Sheena¡¯s gaze was fixed on my maul. ¡°Wait, why are the runes active?¡±


    I looked at the runes, which were still flashing various colors. ¡°Oh. Katrile tried to do magic on me while I was holding them and then her spell stopped working. Here.¡± I handed her the other necklace. ¡°You can stop Albrecht with just one, right? I think I¡¯ll hold onto this one, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Shenodded dumbly, taking the necklace without a word.


    She wrapped the necklace around her wrist, making a kind of bracelet. Like mine, it began to flash bright colors in a seemingly random sequence. ¡°Now, for the next part of the plan. The destruction of the Calamities won¡¯t stop the war, but it will definitely delay it. Without the Calamities, the Magisters will have to fight the Ishmarians at a severe disadvantage, and that means they¡¯ll have to put off starting the war to make additional preparations.¡±


    Alverd scowled. ¡°I caution you against the course of action you want to take, my lady. To say it¡¯s dangerous is an understatement.¡±


    Sheena shook her head. ¡°We have the chance to do this, here and now. If we flee, that chance is lost forever and countless lives will be lost with it. I know it¡¯s a lot to ask of you all, but I need to do this. It¡¯s up to you to decide whether you¡¯re with me or not.¡±


    Kuro coughed, then held his thumb up again. ¡°All in. Not like it matters. I would like to see the look on Albrecht¡¯s face when we blow up his whole scheme in his face.¡±


    Alverd sighed but then drew his sword. ¡°I¡¯m with you. Lead the way.¡±


    I cracked my knuckles, then my neck side to side. ¡°Do you even need to ask if I¡¯m ready to knock some more mages¡¯ heads?¡±


    Sheena smiled wistfully. ¡°Thank you. Then it¡¯s official. We¡¯re going to make our way into the bowels of the Academy, and I¡¯m going to try and activate the Calamity.¡±


    ¡°And then I¡¯m going to use it to destroy the others.¡±

 B2: Chapter 17: Kuro: One Life for Another (Raw)

    I. Hate. Necromancers.


    No, seriously, I do. Necromancers are some of the worst kind of mages. They¡¯re a disreputable bunch for a number of reasons, and that¡¯s before you take into account their lovely habit of raising the dead for their nefarious purposes. Necromancy was a dark art, and its use perverted its users, luring them down a slippery slope to even darker powers.


    I think I had brought up before that the fastest way to take out the thralls of a necromancer was to kill their conjurer. Of course, getting through the sea of undead now lurching our way would prove to be troublesome. And, on top of that, I had to deal with Lord Mattigen¡¯s glavornak, too. Not to mention that the two Magister Lords would be throwing magic at us the entire time.


    But compared to some of the scraps Alverd and I had been in, this wasn¡¯t so bad. We¡¯d faced necromancers before. We¡¯d even gone toe to toe with a demon summoner once. Those encounters hadn¡¯t gone all that well, but we had emerged victorious nonetheless. But those mages had been cut-rate criminals. These were powerful Magister Lords, the cream of the crop. Even with Albrecht and McFarlane backing us up, I wasn¡¯t sure we could match the sheer numbers of Laspa¡¯s thralls or the power of Mattigen¡¯s demon.


    No time for doubts, though. The glavornak gave a screech, taking to the air and sweeping toward Alicia. She ducked under the demon¡¯s claws and continued her run toward the undead. The demon, deciding that a mage would be a better target, angled toward us and roared as it careened through the air. As it came close, it opened its claws and made to rip my face off.


    Alverd dove in front of me and blocked with his sword. Surprisingly, the Sword of Evros didn¡¯t cut through the demon¡¯s skin; the glavornak had impacted the blade with its claw, sparing its hand from being severed. Alverd wrenched the sword from the glavornak¡¯s clutches and bashed it in the face with his shield, causing it to take flight once more. McFarlane threw an ice lance at the demon, but missed as the creature soared through the air, making eerie sounds as it did so.


    Alicia slammed into the first undead, sending its head sailing upward after a vicious swing with her hammer. She kicked the headless body in the abdomen, knocking it into another shambler, and followed with another hammer blow to the chest of another undead. She had begun yelling in some language I couldn¡¯t understand, and every ¡°kill¡± she accrued only fed her bloodlust. But the little Princess was about to get swarmed by the horde.


    Alverd charged ahead and raised Evros high. He bisected a skeleton with a clean cut, then bashed to his left with his shield. It didn¡¯t take him long to reach Alicia¡¯s side. I reached into my body and pulled heat into a fireball, throwing it at a large group of undead that were preparing to flank the two warriors. The fireball exploded fantastically, eliminating the undead through intense incineration. Not even ashes remained.


    Sheena wasn¡¯t about to let me show her up. With a scream, she conjured a bolt of lightning and nailed the glavornak with it. The demon didn¡¯t look too pleased; it gave a piercing cry and swept down to attack Sheena with its talons. However, when the demon had gotten closer, Albrecht waved his arms and whispered something under his breath.


    The glavornak¡¯s wings chilled and turned icy with frost, and it tumbled from the sky in an undignified heap. Hissing painfully, the demon raised its hand to cast a fire-based spell. But Captain McFarlane gave the beast no quarter. Already she was upon it, her quarterstaff twirling and spinning, striking the demon¡¯s head and arms repeatedly.


    During all this, Lady Kertouli was still performing her ritual at the altar. Blood was still flowing from the urn to the pillar, but what had once been a steady stream was now fading fast. Kertouli looked into the urn and scowled. She placed the urn back on the altar and grabbed the staff leaning nearby. In anger, she raised her hands and yelled a curse at Albrecht.


    ¡°We shall have her blood, Gerhalt! And if I must spill yours to get it, then I will!¡± Kertouli raised her staff and flung a lightning bolt at Albrecht, but he merely sidestepped the spell. He countered with a bolt as well, and the old woman had to duck to avoid having a hole burned in her head.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what was going on here. There was a horrible battle being waged, sure, but there was no sense to it, just chaos reigning in full swing. It occurred to me that the best thing we could do was get Sheena as far away from that altar (and the crazy Magister Lords) as possible. To that end, I called out to Alverd. He had just decapitated another thrall, and happened to make eye contact with me. I impressed upon him the need to get the hell out of dodge, and he nodded in agreement before impaling another thrall with the Sword of Evros.


    We had to double back out of this area, through the catacombs and back to the Palace. If we made it there, we could escape and not have to worry about the thralls overwhelming us. We¡¯d have to get through those thralls to make it to the catacomb entrance, but if the six of us worked together, we could probably get through them. But we¡¯d have to worry about the Magister Lords dogging us.


    But it was either that or stay in this cramped room waiting to die at the hands of these traitors. I knew we stood a better chance with the Royal Guard on our side. They¡¯d see the thralls and know that the Council was orchestrating a coup. Unpopular or not, Sheena was still the Witch-Queen, and the Guard answered to her, not the Council. And even if that weren¡¯t the case, I was sure Albrecht could manipulate them somehow.


    I turned to look at the corridor that led out of here, back towards the catacombs. At the moment, nobody was looking in that direction, since, for some odd reason, no thralls were coming from the tunnel. However, I could hear something trudging down that tunnel. Even over the noise, I could hear something, the steady beat of footsteps. I brought up my staff, ready to strike down whatever was heading toward me. But I couldn¡¯t believe what emerged from the shadow of the tunnel.


    It was Deotra. But judging by the look on her face, it was her other personality, the aggressive one. She was dragging the ¡°corpse¡± of a thrall behind her with her left hand. She locked eyes with me, and her psychotic grin bloomed on her face again. With her free hand, she beckoned to me. She pointed down the corridor, looked back at me once more, and then began walking down into the dark again, dropping the thrall. She gave me one last seductive wink, and then disappeared into the dark.


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    It had happened so fast, that I didn¡¯t have time to really react to Deotra¡¯s appearance. But an explosion less than five feet away from me brought me back to my senses. I turned back, and saw that the battle was shifting out of our favor. Alverd and Alicia, despite their valiant efforts, were slowly being hemmed in by the thralls. Albrecht was cutting down a few of the thralls with his magic, but McFarlane and Sheena were struggling to fight the glavornak still hovering over their heads.


    Laspa and Mattigen were still throwing magic of their own, and had decided to target me thanks to my moment of distraction. Their concerted effort had resulted in a near miss, but had they actually managed to tag with their spell, I would¡¯ve been plastered across the walls. This was definitely the time to retreat. But we¡¯d need a suitable covering action to do so.


    I ran over to where the three mages were making their stand. I yanked on Albrecht¡¯s robe, and the man looked at me. ¡°We have to retreat, Albrecht! If we make it back to the Palace, we can get the Guard on our side! But we must go now!¡± I threw a bolt of lightning back at Mattigen, who was in the middle of winding up for another attack.


    Albrecht grimaced, but he nodded. He pulled Sheena away and motioned for her to move back to the corridor. I called out to Alverd and Alicia. ¡°Alverd! We have to leave, now! Let¡¯s go!¡± Alverd sliced one last thrall in half, then grabbed Alicia¡¯s arm and pulled her towards us. We ran towards the tunnel together, as Sheena, Albrecht and McFarlane covered us with blasts of magic.


    Just as we were about to make it, however, an ice lance pierced McFarlane in the leg, and she fell to the ground in pain. Albrecht double-backed and dragged McFarlane through the tunnel, and Sheena and I rushed forward. We pelted our pursuers with fire and lightning, driving them back. Even the glavornak would not brave such an onslaught, and its frenzied cries echoed down the corridor menacingly.


    We made it all the way back to the catacombs when McFarlane knocked Albrecht¡¯s hand away. She pushed herself up against a pillar, overlooking where we had come from. She held her staff tight in front of her, staring down the darkened tunnel. She glared up at us, her face set in snarl. ¡°You go without me. I¡¯ll buy as much time as I can.¡±


    Albrecht shook his head. ¡°You are coming with us, Captain, and that is a fact. I will not leave you to die here like this.¡± McFarlane laughed. ¡°This? This is a glorious end, Prime Minister. A finer death than any soldier could ask for. In service to my liege, I will lay down my life. As it should be.¡± She waved her hand at us.


    Sheena sobbed again. ¡°Captain, please, reconsider. We can carry you!¡± McFarlane snorted. ¡°I¡¯ll not be carried like some damsel in distress, Milady. Leave me the dignity of a warrior¡¯s death.¡±


    The sound of growling from the tunnel snapped us back to reality. We didn¡¯t have time to debate this. Alverd nodded once and grabbed Sheena¡¯s arm. ¡°Sheena, we must go. We can¡¯t dally here. If the good Captain wishes to lay her life down for you, we must abide by her wishes. Please, we have to leave.¡± Sheena sobbed one last time, and then shook her head in agreement. We left the Captain against the pillar and fled back up the stairs and into the Palace.


    Almost immediately after leaving the catacombs, we stumbled across a pair of guards. Lord Albrecht called out to them, and they rushed over. ¡°Lord Albrecht, is something the matter? We were told that the ritual was taking place¡­we¡¯ve succeeded in diverting any and all soldiers who aren¡¯t in on the plan away from the area. We have nothing else to report, sir.¡± Suddenly, one of the soldiers spied Sheena at the back of our retinue. ¡°Hey, what is she doing here? Lord Albrecht, what is the meaning of this?¡±


    Albrecht already had conjured the ice lance that was now protruding from the man¡¯s chest when the man had focused on Sheena. Alverd swiftly took a cue from the Prime Minister and and cut down the second man before he could react. Both men toppled to the ground, lifeless.


    Alverd turned to the Prime Minister. ¡°If what they said is true, then help is beyond our reach. Is there some other avenue of escape?¡± Albrecht scratched his chin in thought. ¡°There is one way. It is an ancient runecraft circle. It¡¯s hidden in the Throne Room. In the event of a siege, the circle could be used to teleport its users a significant distance from this castle, about ten day¡¯s ride by horse, if I¡¯m not mistaken. It was created for the express purpose of allowing our royalty to escape death.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s head perked up. ¡°But Uncle, will it have enough power to carry all of us to safety? The portal of which you speak was not meant to transport more than a few people. Will it really work?¡± Albrecht laid his hand on her shoulder. ¡°It will work, Sheena. You must trust me on this. I have a plan. And everything is going according to it, so far. We must hurry.¡±


    We fled to the Throne Room with all haste. There were no more corrupt Guardsmen, thankfully, but that did little to ease my mind. It meant that there was no chance of any loyalist (if there were any) guards coming to our aid. As we pushed through the doors to the Throne Room, Albrecht ran to the center of the room, where the empty chairs of the Council of Magic loomed before the imposing throne overlooking them all.


    As soon as Alverd cleared the door, he took the massive deadbolt and rammed it shut, effectively barring the door. The door was made of dormicite, so it would probably hold for a while, but I wasn¡¯t willing to tempt fate on that. Albrecht strode to the very middle of the circle of chairs and laid his hand of the ground. As if responding to his touch, the edges of a runecraft circle flared to life around him.


    But it wasn¡¯t enough. Almost a second after the circle began to glow, it sputtered out. Albrecht snarled a curse and tried again, but achieved the same result. He was about to try again when something hit the throne room door, hard. All of us turned our eyes to the door.


    While the door was made of dormicite, the deadbolt was plain old wood. Laspa¡¯s thralls were already making a mess of the flimsy reinforcement with their steady pounding. It wouldn¡¯t be long before they were through. Albrecht waved at us. ¡°You just need to buy me some time. I think I know what¡¯s wrong with this stupid circle. A few minutes, that¡¯s all!¡± Hmph. A few minutes against an army of undead was a damn lifetime as far as I was concerned.


    But it didn¡¯t faze us. Alverd and Alicia bravely took up the front line, with Sheena and I right behind them. When those undead freaks broke through, we would make damn sure they¡¯d pay. And I knew just how to do it.


    With a whisper, I focused my energies on my staff. I drew heat from within, drawing it into the Staff of Farewells in my hand. As the power collected into the ruby, I aimed the staff at Alverd¡¯s sword. As I finished the short incantation, the Sword of Evros erupted in flame. It was a spell Alverd and I had used a few times over the years, a neat little piece of ingenuity I had come up with all on my own. The magical fire danced all along the length of the blade, sparing my friend¡¯s hand through my own will.


    Sheena thankfully seemed to understand the theory behind my spell, since she mirrored my action by coating Alicia¡¯s hammer in similar flame. The four of us stood there, waiting as the deadbolt finally gave way. The dormicite doors wrenched open, and the thralls came flooding in. I downed one immediately with a fireball.


    One down. About sixty more to go.

 B2: Chapter 17: Kuro: Rot Runs Deep

    All actions have consequences, seen and unforeseen, and we have to accept them as they come.


    The familiars I¡¯d set on the rampage cleared the way to the entrance of the Forest. The creatures were still smart enough not to cross the enchanted gate, and had dispersed after the last of the mages that had retreated through it. They were completely unprepared for us to come through and mop them up, and with the final obstacle removed we had time to catch our collective breaths.


    The way to the Academy was likely to be one giant slog through the streets of Ethenia, fighting through legions of combat mages. We¡¯ll never make it. If we don¡¯t come up with a different plan, we¡¯ll be surrounded in no time. The journey from the Forest was thankfully brief, and we didn¡¯t encounter any other mages on our way.


    Moving into the city itself disproved my thought, however. The outskirts were completely devoid of any opposition. Maybe they fell back? If Albrecht is smart enough to predict Sheena¡¯s motives, he might have positioned his forces at the Academy instead. If he did, we¡¯re sunk. We can¡¯t fight that many mages head on, even with those nullification runes.


    Alverd practically read my mind as he stopped in the middle of the street, his shield and sword at the ready. ¡°Where is everyone? I have a bad feeling about this.¡± The four of us carefully made our way down the street, and the more we saw the more it unsettled me.


    Doors to homes swung open haphazardly. Windows weren¡¯t shut. Baskets and debris were strewn everywhere. It was as though everyone had simply started running toward the city center and abandoned everything in the attempt. It wasn¡¯t until we turned a corner that we saw where everyone was.


    The length of the entire cobblestone street was littered with bodies. There was no sign of any exterior injury or trauma; every person, soldier or civilian, looked like they had simply laid down and died of natural causes. Each person had glassy, milky eyes, and mouths hanging open in what looked chillingly like silent screams. A woman had fallen in the middle of the street hugging her young child to her chest and I thanked the gods I couldn¡¯t see their face.


    I¡¯ve seen too many dead children as it is. I don¡¯t need another one burned into my memory for the rest of my life.


    There were so many bodies we had to weave through them for fear of tripping. Alicia had a pensive look on her face, as though she wasn¡¯t sure whether she should be angry, disgusted, or afraid. Maybe all three. This is a lot of death, and I doubt she¡¯s used to seeing it like this. She turned her head away when she passed the dead mother and her son.


    Sheena nearly stumbled over a dead combat mage, and Alverd reached out to steady her. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. What happened to all these people?¡± I looked around, trying to make sense of the situation. Based on the positioning of the bodies, I quickly reached a tentative conclusion.


    ¡°I think the mages were herding these people.¡± I pointed with my staff to accentuate my observations. ¡°This one over here, he¡¯s the one who gave the order, and his men carried it out. They started moving these people towards the inner part of the city, but something killed them while they were en-route.¡±


    Alicia valiantly choked down an attempt to throw up as she passed yet another child, a girl of maybe ten years old in a plain white robe, who would¡¯ve looked like she was asleep if not for the look on her face just like the others. ¡°What could do something like this? Is there even magic that can do this?¡±


    Sheena bent down and laid her hand on the shoulder of a dead combat mage, a middle-aged woman with the pointed ears of an elf and dirty blonde hair. ¡°I don¡¯t sense any magic in her. Which is terrifying.¡± She stood back up. ¡°All living beings have magical energy in their bodies, and the ability to use magic is just the training of the mind to utilize that energy and harness it. But this corpse doesn¡¯t have any residual magic in it.¡±


    On a hunch, I leaned down and placed my hand on the neck of one of the civilians, a young beast man with broad shoulders and horse-like features. There is no spark in him. In a corpse, the magic leftover would be like a candle burning down, close to guttering out. There¡¯s nothing. It¡¯s like something just sucked the magic out of him.


    Alverd stood up from examining another corpse. ¡°The bodies are fresh. No stiffness to any of them. Whatever killed them happened within the last hour or so.¡±


    Alicia made it to the end of the lane and paused to catch her breath, which she had let out in a shaky sigh. ¡°This is wrong. Something is really wrong about this. It¡¯s like they all just lost their will to live right in the middle of the street.¡±


    Something came to me then: Zajj¡¯s words. About the Calamity we were on the way to the Academy to commandeer. I remembered the glee in his voice, the anticipation as he told me his suspicions. The conversation played itself out in my memory, reaching the crucial piece of information I needed to recall.


    The power has to come from somewhere.


    ¡°Sheena, you know what¡¯s happening, don¡¯t you?¡± I addressed her without looking in her direction. The redheaded witch froze in her tracks. ¡°You know why these people died the way they did, and what¡¯s about to happen, and you don¡¯t think we should know?¡±


    All eyes turned to her. She fidgeted for a moment before clearing her throat. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to jump to any conclusions. But given what we¡¯re seeing, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any other explanation. I think the Magisters are trying to activate the Calamity, and they¡¯re siphoning magic from any and all available sources to do it.¡±


    She continued, ¡°The Calamities need enormous amounts of magical energy to function. The easiest way to acquire it is to steal it from living beings. Even those not proficient in the use of magic still can be used, although a mage who can control magic is a better source.¡± She nudged her boot against one of the dead combat mages. ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but the Magisters must have figured out how to activate the Calamities when even I couldn¡¯t. I thought there was some secret ritual or special process, but if all that¡¯s required is a large amount of magical power then they have all the supply they could need right here.¡± I could hear the hate bubbling in her voice, although whether it was aimed more at the Magisters or the Calamity I wasn¡¯t sure.


    Alicia crossed over to where she was standing and put her hand on the taller girl¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Are you gonna be okay?¡±


    Sheena gave her an icy stare. ¡°Of course. I¡¯m not going to fall apart now. We should get going.¡±


    When she tried to turn away, Alicia¡¯s hand slipped down and grabbed her arm, stopping her. ¡°Let me rephrase. Are you sure you¡¯re gonna be okay confronting your uncle?¡±


    She made a short, stifled sound that made me think she had almost started sobbing, but caught herself at the last second. ¡°My uncle has made his choice, and I must make mine.¡± Alicia let her arm go. Sheena began to walk towards the Academy, its towering edifice still visible in the distance. ¡°His decision proves this country¡¯s cancer goes deeper than I thought. As a queen, I¡¯d like to say that bringing his plan to ruin is my duty, but that¡¯s not why I¡¯m doing this.¡±


    She turned and her face was streaked with tears, but twisted into a determined snarl. ¡°As his goddaughter, and someone who loved him like a father, I want to hurt him in any way I can.¡± I was taken aback at how angry she looked, but then realized that it was only natural. In her position, I would want the same. Only I wouldn¡¯t be so eloquent about it.


    Alicia shouldered her maul. ¡°Well then, what are we still doing here? Shouldn¡¯t we be hurrying on to the Academy?¡± I got the feeling that she wasn¡¯t fully satisfied with Sheena¡¯s show of bravado, but she did have a point: we were burning daylight when we could be burning down some traitorous bastards.


    The number of bodies increased the further we advanced into the district. The area was mostly commercial, so there was a staggering number of civilians lying out in the open who likely perished with no idea what was happening to them. Sheena ran past them without a second thought. She has to be conflicted. Based on what she said before, these are likely all people who didn¡¯t care about her the way she hoped they would.


    Hard to see the other shoe drop, but again, I can¡¯t blame her.


    The rumbling of the ground came on so suddenly that we were completely caught off guard by it. Before we knew it, we were struggling to keep our feet; the earth beneath our feet shook so violently that I expected the cobblestones to crack, but after a few seconds the quake stopped.


    ¡°That can¡¯t be a good sign,¡± I said. ¡°I think Alicia¡¯s right. If we don¡¯t get a move on, the Magisters might find a way to unearth that monster.¡±


    We broke into a full run, and I thanked the gods the Academy was so close. I couldn¡¯t hope to keep up the pace for a marathon with my short legs and weak stamina.


    As we ran, Alverd brought up a burning question. ¡°Based on what Kuro told us, Zajj implied you were likely the ultimate power source for the Calamity. We might be playing straight into Albrecht¡¯s hands by going to the Academy now.¡±


    Alicia was the one to answer, with a surprising amount of insight. ¡°If we don¡¯t destroy the Calamity, Albrecht turns it against Ishmar and starts a full-blown war between the two most powerful nations on Selarune. Without Sheena, he¡¯ll have to keep it powered by sacrificing hundreds of people to it.¡±


    Sheena, her long legs allowing her to keep pace with Alicia, nodded. ¡°Exactly. We¡¯re most assuredly walking into a trap, but it¡¯s my responsibility to put an end to this.¡± Her eyes became steely. ¡°Not because I am queen. Because I let my feelings blind me. Albrecht got away with everything because I wasn¡¯t willing to suspect him of treachery. If anyone is responsible for taking him down, it¡¯s me.¡± We arrived at the front door of the Academy, the tall doors giving way under a fierce kick from Alicia.


    The orrery room was filled with corpses. Dozens of researchers, instructors and students were strewn about, each with the same expression as the civilians on the city outskirts. I cringed in sympathy. ¡°Gods. They didn¡¯t even have time to figure out what was happening to them.¡± I saw a pair of students who had been sitting at a desk, both of them now slumped face-down in the books they¡¯d been studying. ¡°This is horrific.¡±


    Suddenly a thought occurred to me. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say Albrecht was researching how to activate the Calamities?¡±


    Sheena¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Yes. He took charge of figuring out how, seeing as how the secret is passed down only from royal to royal. He said my parents had a manual from their predecessors that contained the secrets of the golems, and that it had been damaged in the assassination attempt.¡± She growled. ¡°The attempt I now know he was behind.¡±


    I waved my arm at the corpses. ¡°Something doesn¡¯t make sense to me. If you were the last thing he needed to activate the Calamities, then why not sacrifice you as a baby? If his end goal was to start a war, why not kill the entire royal family to remove the Magisters¡¯ only obstacle to full power over the country and then hand you over to them to fuel their ultimate weapon?¡±


    Alverd stopped abruptly. ¡°Kuro, while I appreciate that you¡¯ve made an intriguing point, we don¡¯t have time to stop and ponder it.¡±


    I stomped my foot impatiently. ¡°No, I mean it. We¡¯re missing something here. There¡¯s a thread hanging just out of my reach and it¡¯s bugging the hell out of me that I can¡¯t reach it.¡±


    Alverd came over and grabbed my arm. ¡°Kuro, please. We can find out when we find Albrecht.¡±


    I hate that he¡¯s right. At this point the ¡°why¡± is less important than ¡°how¡±, but I can¡¯t help but feel like knowing his motive is the key to unraveling this whole conspiracy. ¡°Well fine. How do we find the Calamity? I doubt there¡¯s a sign or something that will point the way.¡±


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    Sheena wandered around the orrery, her gaze fixed on the blazing orb that represented the sun at the center of the projection. ¡°He said underneath the Academy, right?¡± Her eyes went to the plaque at the base of the orrery, and when she waved her hand over it, a series of glowing runes appeared over it. ¡°The only thing beneath the Academy to my knowledge is the machinery that powers the orrery. We purchased a great deal of it from Margloom, and it required a dedicated space to house it where the average person couldn¡¯t meddle with it.¡±


    The ground began to shake again, but instead of a quake the floor slid open to reveal a revolving stairwell that curved around the base of the orrery. ¡°If there is another space beneath that machinery, that¡¯s where this Calamity must be.¡± There was a hollowness to Sheena¡¯s voice that was very unsettling, as if she were leaving out something important.


    Alicia hesitated, then spoke. ¡°Everyone in this building was going to die anyway, weren¡¯t they?¡±


    Sheena slowly nodded her head. ¡°Yes. When the Calamity emerged, it would¡¯ve taken out the entire foundation of the building. The whole structure would have collapsed in on itself with little warning. People might have been pinned beneath rubble to die slow, miserable deaths. At least this way, their deaths were relatively quick.¡± She started to step down the stairs.


    Alverd caught her from behind, wrapping his arms around her. ¡°You don¡¯t have to try so hard to act like it doesn¡¯t affect you.¡± She stopped dead in her tracks. ¡°Regardless of how they treated you, a part of you knows this isn¡¯t their fault. And you must feel a little guilty that they had to die for a plot that involved your death.¡± She squirmed in his grasp.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. I don¡¯t care what happens to them.¡±


    You¡¯re not fooling anyone, especially Alverd. The quavering in her voice was obvious. She sounded like she wanted to cry, to curl up into a ball and feel sorry for herself. He¡¯s right. These people didn¡¯t deserve it, and even if you don¡¯t feel responsible for them as their queen, you feel guilty for them as a person. Sheena¡¯s arm reached up to try and pry herself free of Alverd, but he simply grasped her hand tightly, causing a choked sob to escape her.


    ¡°I never wanted this for anyone. I just wanted to live normally. But everyone always wanted me to be something I wasn¡¯t ready to be.¡± Tears began to run down her face. ¡°A queen. A leader. A warmonger. Strong, brave, fearless. I didn¡¯t want to be those things. I wanted to just be me. I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do and instead I had a whole country of people demanding I only be what they wanted me to be.¡± She broke into a full sob. ¡°It¡¯s not my fault. It shouldn¡¯t have to be. I didn¡¯t want this, I didn¡¯t want this¡­¡±


    Alverd hugged Sheena tighter. ¡°Too few people ever get what they deserve, good or bad. For now, we can focus on making sure Albrecht gets what¡¯s coming to him.¡± He finally let her go, and she turned around to look at him. ¡°We¡¯re with you, milady. Once Albrecht and the Magisters are dealt with, you¡¯ll finally get to decide what you want to do with your life.¡±


    She wiped her eyes. ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. Goodness, I¡¯ve really come apart at the seams.¡± She sniffled. ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to see that.¡±


    Alverd shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s hard to pretend to be something you¡¯re not for the sake of others. Believe it or not, I know what that¡¯s like.¡± Her eyes widened in surprise.


    Don¡¯t I know it. Guess Sheena gets to find out even knights in shining armor don¡¯t have all the answers. Lucky for her this one still intends on rescuing her from her crappy situation.


    Readying his sword, Alverd started down the stairwell, his shield held up in front of him. Once we had descended about two stories, light from the room above was no longer able to reach us. Standing behind Alverd, I held up the ball of light from my illumination spell to guide him. The further down we went, the less polished the stone of the stairwell became until it was roughly hewn and no longer even at all.


    Without a clear frame of reference for calculating distance, I lost track of how far we had gone down sometime after the fourth story. Seems awfully strange to put a room for maintaining the orrery this far down. Eventually, the staircase ended in front of a metal door with several runes in place of a doorknob. Sheena waved her hand over the runes and the door swiveled open.


    Inside the room was a massive boiler, pipes feeding into the circular center of the stairwell and up to the orrery above. Piles of firewood for maintaining the boiler were heaped to the side. The majority of the room itself was taken up by pipes and valves, and a central mechanism that gave complicated readouts from magically powered gauges about the boiler¡¯s temperature, projected fuel consumption rate, and steam accumulation, as well as other information. I couldn¡¯t make sense of all of it, but given that most of the readings were in the green I could guess that everything was operating smoothly at present.


    It was the slightly ajar door labeled ¡°Authorized Personnel Only¡± that was suspicious as all hell. What should have been a secure, locked entrance was now hanging open as if begging us to tempt fate. Alverd moved to the door and nudged it open all the way, and when nothing came screaming out to try and explode our heads he moved through the opening with his shield raised.


    On the other side of the door was a metal platform with a cage mesh and a sliding door, suspended in place by four chains attached to the platform at the four corners. An elevator. Inside the elevator room was a lever with several stops highlighted on its track. Currently it sat at ¡°4: Boiler Room¡±. I moved into the elevator to read the other stops. ¡°3: Holding Pens¡±, ¡°2: Acquisitions¡±, and ¡°1: Special Project¡± were the other choices.


    Alicia shuddered. ¡°Anyone else a little weirded out by what the mages might have down here?¡±


    Sheena strode into the elevator and placed her hand on the lever. ¡°We¡¯ve come too far to give up. Whatever the Magisters are doing, it gets buried with the Calamity when I destroy it.¡± With a yank, she pulled the lever to the first position, and the elevator¡¯s mechanism whirred to life. Alverd and Alicia got in just as the door slid closed, and the ramshackle metal box began its descent.


    Passing through the floor, we entered the third basement, the holding pens. It was a wide open, cavernous space that looked like it had been hollowed out by years of excavation. Looking out through the mesh, I saw dozens of small pens below, sorted into rows and columns. As we descended further, I saw what was in them. Alicia gasped, as did I.


    Dragons. Of the same size as the ones typically ridden by Ishmarian warriors, the pens were being used to contain dozens of them. Upon closer inspection, however, I could see that these dragons had scales and flesh falling off their own bodies, eyes glowing with baleful green fire, and in many cases visibly protruding bones. A truly foul odor wafted up to meet us, that of rotting meat and decay, and I had to fight back the urge to vomit.


    Alicia stared in horror as the elevator made its way down. ¡°This is wrong. This is so wrong. How can this even happen? What did the mages do to them?¡±


    Sheena, her face buried in her sleeve, coughed before she answered. ¡°Necromancy. This is Lady Laspa¡¯s handiwork. It¡¯s one thing to understand the art, but another to practice it to such a degree. What she¡¯s done here is utilize necromancy with the intent to weaponize it for war. That¡¯s a clear violation of the laws signed in the wake of the War of the Five Kings. If the Theocracy of Shardin found out we were violating those laws it would invade us, and be justified in doing so.¡±


    We passed a docking station for the pens, sinking through the floor to the next, ¡°Acquisitions¡±. Somehow I don¡¯t think what they¡¯ve got here is going to be any better. I was disappointed to discover I had been right when we were greeted by the sight of similar holding pens filled not with dragons, but people.


    Or to be more clear, what remained of people. Shuffling around in the pens were the battered, decaying remains of Ishmarian soldiers, many of them still in damaged armor, some missing limbs or with extensive signs of battle damage on their now necromantically reanimated flesh. Their eyes also blazed with the same unearthly green fire as the dragons, and a low chorus of damned moans reverberated off the cavern walls as the zombies wandered aimlessly in their enclosures.


    The cavern itself was even larger than the dragon pens, with the length of it going on for so long I couldn¡¯t see that far in the darkness. ¡°They¡¯ve been doing this for a long time. Probably have an entire army down here. They must have been scavenging the bodies off border raids for years to have this many.¡± A chilling thought came to mind. ¡°Or maybe this is what happens to all the prisoners they take. Drain them for the Calamity and then send the bodies here so they ca-¡±


    ¡°Kuro. Stop talking.¡± Alicia snapped at me. She was hyperventilating slightly, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she tried to maintain control of her no-doubt intensifying anger. For once, I¡¯ll indulge her. Last thing I want to do is be stuck in a tiny metal cage with someone who can rip my arms out of their sockets. Pressing up against the mesh, I tried to make a guess at how long some of the ¡°acquisitions¡± had been here.


    I was no medical expert, but based on the sheer decay of some of the zombies they had to be at least several years old. What remained of their skin had turned a pallid gray and their movements were jerky and uneven, clear signs of rigor mortis. I¡¯ve seen a lot of disturbing stuff in my time as a mercenary but this takes the cake. The Magisters are willing to incur the wrath of the entire world just to snuff out the Ishmarians once and for all.


    Alverd, the only one making no effort to cover his face, growled. ¡°Just another injustice that has to be corrected with all haste. Albrecht has a lot to answer for, as do the Magisters.¡± When the elevator passed the docking station and slid through the floor into the next cavern, we got to see the Calamity itself.


    The room below the zombie enclosure had to be the most extensive one yet. Over one hundred feet tall, the entirety of the chamber was dominated by the enormous gleaming golem in its center, dozens of platforms reaching out of support structures alongside it to allow researchers access to its sensitive internal workings. The skin of the golem was a glassy copper with a perfect sheen, so pristine I would bet I could see my reflection in it. The head was carved in the likeness of a wizard, a rigid beard and crown topped with several orbs of magical origin, its most prominent features.


    Three layers of conjoined bracelets on each of the golem¡¯s wrists had several embedded sapphire gemstones bigger than a fully grown human in them. Focusing armlets. The golem probably attacks by amplifying magical energy and channeling it through those armlets, then expelling the energy towards its foes. With that much power it could probably shoot a dragon out of the sky like it was swatting a fly.


    As the elevator made its way to the ground floor, the researchers looked up from their stations to watch us descend. Guards started to hustle down to the docking station. Great, a welcoming party. Well, we knew we were heading into the belly of the beast so it¡¯s not like we didn¡¯t anticipate this. I held the Staff of Farewells tight to my chest. When the elevator stopped, the door slid open.


    Alverd came out first, already placing himself squarely between us and the half dozen combat mages who had formed a line not twenty feet away. The mages were holding position with their staves pointed at us, and when Alverd stepped forward each of them ignited glasslike blades of translucent energy, red and hissing like snakes. I came out next, the Staff of Farewells in both hands, and put myself behind Alverd.


    Alicia took a stance next to Alverd, the nullification runes tied to her maul still flickering in different colors. When Sheena left the elevator, she spoke without any hesitation in her voice. ¡°Where is he? I want to look him in the eye when he dares to justify this to me.¡± The mages did not move, either to acknowledge her or attack.


    Behind them, maybe about twenty more feet was a set of machinery similar to the boiler we had seen above. This machinery was far more intricate, with a boxlike structure anchored to the ground by redundant planks of metal secured with thick bolts driven into the stone. Pipes fed from the box structure into the cave walls, valves gave readouts on things I couldn¡¯t make out at this distance, and seven mage researchers were trying to make sense of it all. They were standing around a pod with an open glass door, large enough for a person to fit in. Countless tubes and pipes fed into the pod, and there were thick leather restraints built into the interior that were probably there for a singular purpose.


    The pod looked like it could accommodate a person that was probably around Sheena¡¯s build, I noted. Almost as if it had been intended that way.


    Several of the Magister Lords were milling about, observing the researchers. When Sheena announced herself, they turned to face us. I recognized Mattigen, Laspa, and Kertouli. The demon summoner, the necromancer and the puppeteer. Couldn¡¯t have picked a worse trio of magic users to make up the members of an evil plot. They didn¡¯t come any closer, but then again they didn¡¯t need to.


    Albrecht came skulking out of the shadows, clad in something that resembled more like what an Ishmarian would wear; reinforced leather armor with deflection gauntlets, bandoliers filled with knives and throwing hatchets, and in his right hand was his rune-enchanted sword. Damn. If he¡¯s carrying something like that then he can probably fight and use magic at the same time. Things keep getting more complicated.


    Albrecht came to a stop behind the line of his combat mages, taking enough time to look at each of us. ¡°There¡¯s no justification for any of this. Nothing excuses what I have and am about to do. Even if I could continue to pull the wool over your eyes, Sheena, you would never forgive me for any of it.¡± He seemed almost melancholy as he said those words. ¡°And I would never forgive myself for letting it go on for as long as I have.¡±


    Sheena leveled her bladed staff. ¡°I¡¯m sick of this, Uncle. I¡¯m sick of playing your games and dancing to your tune. I¡¯m sick of your lies, Uncle!¡±


    Albrecht gave a long, tired sigh. ¡°And I am sick of lying. Almost thirty straight years I¡¯ve been lying, to your parents, to the people of Algrustos, to the Magisters, to you. And to myself. No more lies. Now, we shall have the truth.¡±


    Then there was a sound like an uncoiling spring, and with a thrust of his left arm Albrecht slid his concealed sleeve blade across the throat of one of the combat mages standing in front of him. The entire side of the mage¡¯s neck exploded in a jet of crimson, showering the man next to him with blood, and he went down with a gurgle. All eyes turned to Albrecht as he flourished his glowing rune-blade, his sleeve dagger retracting slowly back into its holster.


    ¡°Now, we shall finally have blood.¡±

 B2: Chapter 18: Alicia: Forgiveness (RAW)

    I guess magic is useful after all.


    When my hammer burst into flame, my first instinct was to drop it. But when the fire didn¡¯t burn my fingers, I was left to marvel at the power of magic. The precision of it all was astonishing. I couldn¡¯t believe that magic could be used in such a way. I waved the hammer side to side, and the fiery field stayed with my hammer. As the thralls broke through the door, I stood ready to intercept them.


    The first thrall caught my flaming hammer on the chin. It was slammed back through the door, bowling its compatriots down on its way through the opening. Beside me, Alverd bisected a thrall with a vertical slice, guaranteeing that it would not get back up and attack again. The remains of the thrall crumbled to ash as the fire engulfed them, littering the ground in grey.


    Behind the two of us, Sheena and Kuro made ready to attack with spells. Two bright jets of fire shot past us and into the doorway, flooding into the hall beyond and incinerating the thralls. I saw more, however, shambling over the ashen remains of the others, still attempting to kill us. Even worse, I could hear the screeching of the demon coming from not far off. Whatever we were gonna do, we had to do it fast.


    The demon yanked its way through the doors, mowing down a pair of thralls in its frenzy to get at us. But I was ready. I delivered a two handed blow to the demon¡¯s body, stopping its forward momentum cold. I could hear bones snapping; the ribs of the monster were probably snapping like twigs. The demon screamed in agony, beating its wings wildly as it fell to the ground. With a herculean effort, I raised my hammer high and brought it down on the demon¡¯s skull. The beast cried out. I struck it again, and its cries ceased. I struck once more, for good measure, and stepped away from the demon¡¯s corpse. I turned my attention back to the task at hand, that of holding the door.


    Alverd was still fending off thralls. But his efforts were flagging. Even though his opponents were slow and stupid, they were relentless, and eventually Alverd would tire and make mistakes. Soon enough, we would be overwhelmed. Even if we fled through the stained-glass windows and survived a four story fall, we would still have to escape the city itself. Albrecht¡¯s circle was our only hope now.


    I could just imagine Kertouli, Laspa and Mattigen just plotting as the thralls continued to stream in. They¡¯d wear us down and then kill us all, and then take Sheena back to fuel the other Calamities. But I¡¯d be damned if they took me down without a fight. As I dusted another thrall with my hammer, I whirled around to face my next would-be attacker.


    But instead, the entire Palace began to shake. Like an earthquake, the tremor engulfed everything, causing cracks to form in the pillars and floor. Before I could react I had fallen to the ground. Rubble fell from the ceiling as the shaking grew in intensity. And suddenly, the ceiling gave way in its entirety.


    Through the opening, I could see the Slumbering Calamity that Kertouli had activated. It had grabbed a healthy chunk of ceiling in its shiny hand, which it discarded absentmindedly by tossing it like a piece of trash. The mighty colossus reared back, balling its giant haymaker into a fist, and I knew what was coming. I dove for cover, though I knew nothing would stop such a powerful force.


    The fist slammed into the Palace with a noise I could only describe as destruction incarnate. Debris rained down around me, drowning out my screams. When the dust settled, I dug myself out from the pile of rocks I was buried under and beheld a gladdening sight; the brunt of the attack had been stopped by a massive force field, in place of the wall that the Calamity had punched. But the field was flickering. It probably wouldn¡¯t hold up against another attack.


    Abrecht was still hunched over the circle, trying to activate the magic contained within. The circle flared to life again, but flamed out once more. He looked at his hand for a moment, then drew a dagger from a fold in his robe; with a quick motion, he drew it across his hand. A few drops of blood dripped onto the circle, and it began to glow steadily.


    However, a voice coming from the hallway caught my attention. It was Kertouli. ¡°This is your absolute last chance, Gerhalt. You see what the Calamity is capable of. Imagine what its brethren will do! We shall be unstoppable! All you have to do is turn Sheena over and we can still complete our plan! Do it now and I¡¯ll spare all of your lives!¡±


    It was a lie and we knew it. Kertouli would have us slain the moment we gave up. But what could we do against a five story tall behemoth like the Calamity? Kertouli¡¯s golem had been one thing. But the Calamity dwarfed it on a massive scale. To stand up against such a monstrosity would require strength beyond human limits. And even then, where would one even strike to take down such a terror?


    The Calamity punched the barrier again, and this time the shimmering field gave way with a shudder. The golem reared back, surveying its destruction passively. I knew what was coming. Pretty soon, Alverd, Kuro, Albrecht and myself would be splattered against the ground by the hand of the Calamity. I didn¡¯t have anything to bring to the table at this point. I was helpless.


    But Kuro and Sheena weren¡¯t. With barely a nod between the both of them, they focused. Their eyes closed and they chanted together in eerie unison, their arms lifting slowly as arcane power flowed through their bodies and into their staves. Orbs of light began to from at the tips of their staves, coruscating in multiple colors, growing in intensity as even more energy flowed into them.


    Then suddenly, the power surged into the Sword of Evros. Alverd didn¡¯t even flinch as the power rippled and crackled along the length of the sword like living fire. Blue lightning and silver ice flashed and flickered as orange flame coated the blade; there were no words to describe the spectacle, even as I witnessed it with my own eyes.


    And still, the two mages continued to chant. Finally, their chanting rose to the point where I could make out the words they were speaking, even over the wind outside. ¡°Together we stand in this, our darkest hour. We call upon the three elements of nature that reside within all mankind to assist us in this our moment of dire need. Fire that sustains us, we beseech thee. Lightning that sustains us, we beseech thee. Ice that sustains us, we beseech thee. Come together and strike down that which no man can defeat with only the strength of his arm alone. Aid us now that we may triumph over any foe!¡±


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    Alverd gripped the Sword of Evros tight with both hands, holding it back. The three elements blazed along its edge fiercely, almost out of control. When the Slumbering Calamity reached down into the hole it had punched in the ceiling to grab him, he swung up with his sword, meeting the Calamity¡¯s outstretched hand.


    There was a sound, a horrendous sound, like metal being rent by the claws of a dragon. I could see Alverd, still standing, being sandwiched between the ground and the Calamity¡¯s hand, but still, he stood, trying his damnedest to resist. Bracing his legs, the Sword of Evros clashing against the Calamity¡¯s fingers, Alverd kept trying to swing up and into the Calamity¡¯s hand.


    The three elements charged in the sword went wild, engulfing the Calamity¡¯s hand in a show of dazzling destruction. Fire raced across the palm of the hand, ice coating the spaces between its fingers, lightning dancing from fingertip to fingertip. Slowly, slowly, the hand began to lose ground, being pushed back up by the sheer force of the power being unleashed upon it.


    Alverd began to cry out. A scream of fury escaped his lips as the Calamity¡¯s hand was forced further upward. Emboldened by his strength, Kuro and Sheena fed him more power, and I could see the sweat on their faces, the exhaustion in their limbs, as Alverd continued to fight the massive golem. It was a battle of wills, three opponents locked in battle against a construct with no fear, no anger and no mercy.


    There had to be something I could do to help. I felt so useless. With only my hammer and muscles, I could not fight something as insurmountable as the Calamity. But when the golem tightened its grip, forcing Alverd back to his knees, I knew I had to do something. I ran to Alverd¡¯s back and threw myself against him.


    The pressure was instantaneous. Waves of magical force thrust down upon me like a hurricane. Breathing alone became a struggle. And yet, I still managed to throw my shoulder into Alverd¡¯s back. I pushed as hard as I could. I had to brace him. I could feel my knees screaming in agony with every pounding wave, and I grit my teeth in exertion as I felt Alverd fight back against the Calamity.


    But it was working. Again, Alverd turned the tide against the golem. With me to brace him, there was no fear of slipping up again. With one last herculean effort, Alverd completed a full slash with the Sword of Evros, unleashing the magical energy that Kuro and Sheena had empowered it with.


    The magic surged up and over the Calamity¡¯s hand, streaking along the arm. The three elements sizzled and crackled as they writhed up and over the arm, but as I watched, cracks formed all along the arm, starting at the wrist and spreading upward with frightening speed. Light began to shine through the cracks, adding to the visual chaos already taking place. Finally, the magic and the cracks collided at the golem¡¯s elbow.


    There was an explosion. Massive, loud enough to make my ears pop. All of us were floored by it. More debris rained down, but it was the dark brown of the dormicite that made up the Calamity¡¯s skin. Looking up, I could see that the entire left arm of the Calamity up to its elbow was gone, and the golem was reeling in what looked like pain. Even with all the noise I could hear Kertouli from the hallway, shrieking a curse. I guess she hadn¡¯t expected her ace in the hole to be susceptible to damage of such magnitude.


    The explosion apparently had done something to Laspa, because the surviving thralls immediately fell to the ground, lifeless once more. Swords fell from loose hands and armor clattered as they all collapsed to the ground in useless heaps. As the dust settled from the aftermath of the explosion, we were left to catch our collective breath. The blast had also brought down the door, meaning that nothing was coming through anytime soon.


    We had won ourselves a reprieve.


    All of us stumbled over to Albrecht. Despite everything that had happened, the circle had remained intact and was now glowing steadily. Albrecht was nursing his hand, which was now covered in blood. But as we drew near, he fell to the ground. Sheena gasped and ran to him, pulling him up. Albrecht coughed, and smiled weakly as he stared up at Sheena¡¯s face. His hand loosened its grip, and we saw the reason for his distress.


    He had slashed his wrist. Blood was flowing from the cut in a veritable stream, and his face was pale. Kuro knelt down to examine the circle for the first time since he had entered the room, then recoiled harshly. ¡°A blood circle? That¡¯s ancient magic¡­there¡¯s no other way it could be activated than by pure life-force. He did this on purpose. He knew all along this was a one-way trip¡­¡±


    Albrecht coughed again, and his eyes focused on his niece. ¡°I did it, Sheena. The circle should be ready now. You¡­you need to go now. Before Kertouli gets through that door.¡± He waved his hand at the circle. ¡°You must leave me behind. I will destroy the circle on this end so that Kertouli cannot send pursuers after you.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s face was streaked with tears. ¡°No, Uncle! You¡¯re coming with us! I can¡¯t believe you would do something so stupid! You didn¡¯t need to use so much blood! Just stay still, I¡¯ll use my magic to seal the cut¡­gods, Uncle, how could you do this?!¡± Sheena reached for her staff, but Albrecht caught her hand.


    ¡°No, my dear. That circle will only take so many people. I cannot risk it leaving you here. You have, for the first time in your life, friends, Sheena. Strong friends who will stand beside you when you need their help. I could only shelter you for so long, my dear. I regret that you will have to learn so much without me¡­but know that I will be infinitely proud of you as I watch from the world beyond.¡±


    Albrecht looked at Alverd. ¡°I entrust you with that which I hold most dear, knight. Take her away from here, as far away as you can. Show her all the wonders of this world, so that she might forget her grief. This is what I ask. Would you do that for a foolish old man?¡± Alverd smiled. ¡°Aye, Milord. It would be my honor. I will protect Milady Sheena with my life. I vow this on my honor as a knight.¡± With that, Albrecht closed his eyes. ¡°Good. Then please, stand in the circle. We haven¡¯t much time.¡±


    I hurried into the center of the circle, Kuro just behind me. Alverd practically had to drag Sheena with him, as she was crying out and begging Alverd to bring Albrecht with us; but Alverd said nothing as he gently pulled the distraught woman alongside us. Albrecht dragged himself to the edge of the circle, leaving a prodigious blood trail in his wake, until finally he turned and saw us all in the center.


    ¡°This is goodbye, but only for now, my dear,¡± Albrecht said. ¡°We will see each other in dreams and memories. And I will be at peace, my dear. Never forget that. Please. Do not waste any more tears on me. Go. Be happy.¡±


    Sheena only spoke one sentence. ¡°I love you, Uncle.¡±


    And with that, Albrecht slammed his hand down on the circle.


    Light surged up from the edges of the circle, almost like the trap McFarlane had captured us in so long ago. It enveloped us, and I could feel a warmth wash over my feet as it flowed upward. The last thing I saw before the light passed over my eyes was Albrecht, now lying down on the ground, his body limp. And then, a blast of strong wind, stronger than any I had felt in my life, lifted me up. I squeezed my eyes shut.

 B2: Chapter 18: Alicia: Cycle of Hatred

    At first, no one moved as the body of the dead mage hit the ground, blood still spouting from the cut made by Albrecht¡¯s hidden dagger.


    For everyone in the room, there was a different thought, a different reaction. The Magisters stood with mouths agape. Alverd, Kuro, and Sheena were stunned. The scent of blood and my growing hate towards Albrecht made me react purely on instinct, and I stormed forward with my maul raised, ready to stove his head in.


    As expected of any self-respecting Ishmarian warrior, Albrecht¡¯s speed rivaled my own. While the combat mages were still trying to figure out what was happening, he grabbed the one who had been standing next to the fallen mage and hauled him into the path of my weapon. The man¡¯s skull collapsed beneath the weight of my blow, and Albrecht threw the dead weight of the man forward and onto me as he tried to swing his rune-engraved sword around at my flank.


    Clever. Very clever. I can¡¯t underestimate him. Using his own tactic against him, I pushed the corpse of the dead mage to the side, blocking Albrecht¡¯s swing. With added force, I shoved the body against Albrecht¡¯s arm, unbalancing him and knocking his sword arm back. Rather than try to push my advantage, I held back and waited for my comrades to join the fight.


    Alverd was the first to jump into the fray. Sword raised, he gave a loud battle cry and lunged ahead, barreling into two of the mages like a battering ram. One of the mages was floored by the impact, but the other planted their feet and moved around Alverd, their staff already flaring with red light. The light took the shape of a long, pointed spear blade, and he began to spin back around to stab Alverd in the back with it.


    I pointed my maul at the mage. I didn¡¯t know why it felt so intuitive, or why I just seemed to know it was what I needed to do; as the maul¡¯s head aligned with the mage¡¯s staff I thought of a word in my head. Negate. The runes on the maul shone a bright white, and the man¡¯s staff gave a sputter as its bladed head winked out.


    Is it really that easy? I thought this magic stuff was supposed to be super complicated. When the runes sparked with their magical light, however, one did not last. When the runes returned to their normal pattern of soft glowing, one of them had gone completely black. I guess the runes don¡¯t have unlimited uses. Better save the rest of them for when it counts. A quick check told me that I still had six charges left.


    A concentrated needle of searing energy passing inches in front of my face brought my attention to the Magisters, who had finally snapped out of their little trance. Laspa had taken cover behind the railing of the elevated platform where the strange machinery and pod were, and she was now throwing magic at me. I couldn¡¯t see Mattigen or Kertouli. In this case, not knowing where they are is dangerous. I better find them before they blindside me.


    ¡°Kuro!¡± I called out. ¡°You¡¯re with me! We¡¯re going after the Magisters!¡± A combat mage, still not sure who was friend or foe, lashed out at me with a glowing scythe blade from his staff. I had to step back and bring up my maul to parry, and he pulled away after his blow connected to spin, presumably, to try and catch me off guard with his follow-up attack. I sidestepped right and dealt a light blow to his stomach with my maul, and he leapt backward to create space while he contemplated his next move.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice!¡± With a series of movements, his staff wove a symbol in the air, a glowing blue circle with many strange runes at six separate points. From the center of the circle an arcing blue bolt of lightning shot forth, carving a path through the center of the walkway up to where the Magisters were hiding. Kertouli finally peeked his head over the railing and brought up his staff to shield the entirety of the platform with a shimmering blue shield. Even engaged as I was, I could see the strain on the old elf¡¯s face as he struggled to hold up against Kuro¡¯s assault.


    Kuro continued to sustain the bolt for as long as he could. I had to deal with the combat mage, but I was surprised that he wasn¡¯t tired after only a few seconds. I¡¯m impressed. A good warrior learns that she has to pace herself, and if even Kuro can learn such a basic lesson, then there¡¯s hope for him yet. The combat mage swung at me again, and I parried as best I could.


    The strange shape of the blade made fighting against it difficult. Even if I cross counter him, he¡¯ll do a lot more damage. His speed and the deftness with which he wielded his awkward weapon gave him an edge over my raw strength. If I can bait him into swinging at me horizontally I might have a way to get that weapon away from him.


    Over the din of everything, I heard Kertouli yell out. ¡°Protect the machinery! It¡¯s still drawing power from the districts. We¡¯ll drain the entire city if we have to!¡± Kuro¡¯s bolt finally faded, and Kertouli pointed his staff at Albrecht. ¡°Capture Sheena now, and kill that traitorous dog while you¡¯re at it!¡±


    Over my shoulder, Alverd finished off the second of the two mages he¡¯d attacked. He finished them off before I could deal with my opponent? I¡¯m slacking. With both hands on my maul, I lifted my arms over my head to do an overhead strike. Seeing me open, the mage attacked me from my left flank. Just what I was hoping for. Gotcha, sucker. Forgoing the strike, I pushed the shaft of the maul forward, connecting with the staff in midswing. As my weapon hit against the scythe blade, I wrenched my body leftward, yanking the weapon out of the mage¡¯s hand as I pushed against the blade itself. Without any means to protect himself, I reversed momentum and swung my maul back right across his face. There was a loud snap and he fell to the ground, unmoving.


    The last mage came at me with her staff already angling for my head, a similar scythe blade of bright green hurtling through the air. I brought the maul around to hit the blade on the point, and the two weapons rebounded off each other. Before the mage could recover, Sheena came charging past me, screaming like a banshee. She ran the mage through with the bladed head of her staff, going so far as to kick the mage¡¯s lifeless body free after the deed was done.


    ¡°I¡¯m right behind you.¡± I patted Sheena¡¯s shoulder. Her eyes were blazing with anger, her teeth set in a snarl. ¡°Anger is good. Just don¡¯t let it decide what you do. Channel it, direct it, release it.¡± With no more obstacles to deal with, the two of us looked at Albrecht, his rune sword at his side. He took up a stance, the runes glowing a bright blue in the dark of the chamber.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you hate me a great deal, Sheena.¡± He said. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve hurt you more than words could ever convey, in ways both intended and not. I won¡¯t defend anything I¡¯ve done. All of it, whether necessary or not, is done. We can¡¯t turn back time.¡± The runes shone brighter, illuminating the years of weariness on his face.


    She took a step forward, her staff still pointed at him but wavering slightly. ¡°That¡¯s it? You¡¯re not even going to try? You feel like you don¡¯t owe me any answers?¡± I could hear the sadness in her voice, how Albrecht¡¯s betrayal was tearing at her heart more than she cared to show. ¡°I think you do. I want to see if you can manage telling the truth or if you¡¯ll just lie to me again.¡±


    Albrecht sighed, the sigh of an old man getting tired of the same old games. ¡°What could I tell you? That your parents never wanted you? That you were always intended to activate the Calamity? How we used the technology we acquired from Margloom to find out how to siphon life magic to power it? Or perhaps you¡¯d like to know how we spent the last two decades outfitting that technology into the underside of every district in Ethenia to funnel power to the Calamities under the Ivory Palace?¡± He waved at the giant golem behind him. ¡°Or this one?¡±


    Every district? Then they could kill everyone in the city with the same thing that killed those people in the marketplace? Albrecht began to prowl forward, the light from his sword growing brighter, Sheena edging away nervously in response. ¡°One by one, the districts will be sacrificed to activate the Calamity. Once the monstrosity is awake, you will be integrated into its inner workings via that pod. There, in a state of suspended animation, your body will provide continuous power rather than your blood being used for only a single activation cycle as previous royals had done.¡±


    Suddenly, he lunged forward with frightening speed, so fast even I could barely track his movement. His sword swept forward and drove Sheena back, throwing up sparks as it ground against the shaft of her staff, she needed to plant both her legs just to hold him off.


    ¡°Maybe if I told you that the only reason you lived long enough to see your twentieth year was because I convinced the Magisters that if we let you grow in power you¡¯d be a better source of power for the Calamity, you¡¯d gain the nerve to strike at me?¡± His face leered at her in terrifying emotionlessness.


    Sheena let out a roar of pure rage, breaking the lock by holding up her hand and unleashing a blast of light straight into Albrecht¡¯s face. I saw him throw up his arm and suddenly the flash seemed to die before it could ever fully form, and as he jumped back I saw a number of nullification runes strung along a bracelet on his arm. Of damn course. It figures a guy like Albrecht would come prepared. Well unfortunately for him, two can play his game.


    I ran past Sheena with my maul raised, trying to hit Albrecht before he could fully regain his footing. Caught in midstep, he had to tumble back in a half-prepared roll that put him on his knees, the head of my maul cratering the ground where he¡¯d been a second before. He swept his sword across the ground, the rasping sound of metal on stone my only warning before he threw gravel and sparks at me.


    Then his sword flared blue and the sparks turned into white lightning, chaining between the chunks of gravel like a net. I felt pain all over my skin as the lightning burned all over, the gravel superheated to the point where they felt like coals straight out of a fireplace. I screamed, closing my eyes so I wouldn¡¯t be blinded by his barrage, and inward I felt the fury begin to rise, begging to be let free of its cage.


    I want to rage, to rip these scum limb from limb. The Magisters, Albrecht, that giant stupid golem. All of Sheena¡¯s life has been one giant lie, fattening her up for slaughter, it isn¡¯t fair, and I WON¡¯T LET IT SLIDE. With a howl of wrath I opened the floodgate and felt the river wash over me. I could feel the reassuring warmth of my unbridled anger fill my body with strength, purpose, direction. Control, control, control. Direct the anger. Albrecht is by rights Sheena¡¯s responsibility. But the Magisters are mine.


    With a sweep of my arm, I shoved away the cloud of electrified stone, the rage sharpening my senses to the point where I could practically smell the burning scent of the charged air. Behind Albrecht, the three Magisters were pelting Alverd with fire and ice from their raised platform, stalling his advance.


    Kertouli whipped his head around when a light began to shine on the machine behind him, steam screaming out from the pipes attached to it. ¡°Laspa! Watch the pressure on the machine! Change district to residential quarter. The Calamity is almost awake! Mattigen, I require assistance!¡± Laspa hurried to the machine, pulled a lever and twisted a dial to carry out her orders.


    Mattigen himself crouched back down behind the railing, and a second later there was a flash of sickly green light followed by a horrible wail. A tear appeared in the air, like a black, festering wound, leaking tar-like ichor as it opened with a sickeningly organic sound.  A sound like nails on a chalkboard heralded the arrival of a creature so foul at first I didn¡¯t even know if it was real.


    A pair of claws forced the opening wider, and the sinuous form of a demon emerged in a grotesque imitation of birth. It had scaled red skin covered in blotchy, diseased-looking patches. A pair of misshapen, asymmetrical wings forced themselves out of the opening before two chicken-like legs snapped out. The claws were attached to long, spindly arms that had spines jutting out randomly along their lengths, ending in a torso pockmarked with small mouths full of gnashing teeth. One swollen eye with red veins swiveled madly at the ¡°front¡± of the demon¡¯s body, searching for targets.


    Kuro practically wet himself. ¡°Stay away from that thing! Don¡¯t let it get those teeth in you and watch for the spines, they¡¯re poisonous!¡± A mere second after his warning, the mouths on the demon let out a chittering cry that sounded like a swarm of locusts before the spines on its arms shot out like crossbow bolts towards Alverd.


    Three bounced off his shield, and one was a glancing blow that ricocheted off his armor and nearly hit Kuro. He yelped as two more came within inches of skewering his head. The demon leapt (no way I would call that flying) over the railing and scrambled toward Alverd. The creature¡¯s unsteady gait and unholy racket would¡¯ve been enough to rattle an ordinary man, but Alverd stood his ground and braced himself.


    The demon whipped its arm at him with blistering speed when it got close enough, the claws raking across the surface of his shield with a screech. The force of the blow pushed Alverd back, but he stepped forward in the wake of the blow to strike with the Sword of Evros. The dragontooth blade cut into the demon¡¯s flesh, drawing a long line across the red skin and causing viscous black blood to spew across the stone.


    Back on the platform, Laspa finished whatever she was doing. ¡°The machine is leeching the magic from the residential quarter. In less than a minute, the entire district will be drained. Are we still directing it towards this Calamity?¡±


    . ¡°No! Direct it to the lesser Calamities at the palace! Then we must regroup!¡± Kertouli shouted back. She nodded and turned another knob on the machine, and it rumbled as it did its infernal work.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I could¡¯ve sworn I heard the screams of dying people as the magic of hundreds of innocent souls were funneled through the machine, life taken to give life to a monstrous abomination that would only cause more slaughter. Kuro, seeing what I could see, had had enough. Waving his staff, I watched him pull an entire chunk of rock from the wall.


    Before my eyes, the rock crushed and contorted itself into the shape of a spear, the point sharpening itself as his magic sheared it and reshaped it. Blue and red sparks played along the length of the spear as the spell turned the stone into a weapon sharp enough to pierce a diamond, cutting away the rough exterior to turn the edge into a gleaming blade.


    His voice took on an ethereal quality as he spoke the incantation, the magic words he told me he needed to channel the true power of his destructive power. ¡°Let fury turn dull words into righteous metal. Take this blade hewn from the resolute stone and send it to seek the heart of a wicked soul. Let the earth punish you for this transgression!¡±


    Laspa twisted her upper body to throw up her left hand, her right still manipulating the machinery, and a blue shield flickered to life in front of her. Again, purely by instinct, I raised my maul and aimed it at her. The runes on my weapon danced and lit up, and I smiled in satisfaction as I knew that Laspa was dead.


    Not today, bitch.


    The shield failed to coalesce, and the last thing Laspa saw was the stone spear coming at her. It impaled her between her shoulder blades, going straight through her body and into the machine in front of her. She made an astonished gurgling noise, then went limp, her body held in place by the spear, like a coat hanging from a nail. The machine, which had been lit up, went dark as the spear came to rest in its internal workings.


    In what was perhaps the most disturbing thing I¡¯d ever seen magic do, Laspa¡¯s mouth opened and a small green ball of light escaped. As soon as the floating orb left her mouth, her body aged rapidly, her skin shriveling and collapsing in on itself until all that was left was a husk. The orb flew up and away, out of sight, vanishing up the opening in the ceiling where the elevator had come from.


    Seeing the tide of the battle turning against him, Kertouli cowered behind the railing as he formulated his escape plan. ¡°Mattigen! Leave the demon behind. Laspa has the right idea. We have enough to activate one Calamity. It¡¯ll be enough.¡± I could hear him chanting some kind of magic, but before I could do anything about it, the demon lashed out one of its arms and knocked Alverd down.


    Landing on his back, Alverd groaned. Kuro ran up to him and tried to lift him up, groaning as his weak arms struggled to move his armored friend. I looked at the two of them, then back over at Sheena and Albrecht, who were engaged in a fierce battle of their own.


    They both need help. But Kuro and Alverd will be fine on their own, I think. Sheena¡¯s the one who I¡¯ve gotta help now. Breaking into a full run, I barreled toward Albrecht like a horseless wagon, maul held behind me and ready to swing.


    Albrecht could see me charging up behind Sheena and slashed his sword through the empty air, throwing a sheet of ice across the ground under her and my feet. Without missing a beat, I jumped as high as I could before the sheet could spread under my foot. I landed ahead of Sheena, where there was no ice, but not before I heard the sound of what I assumed was Sheena losing her footing.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for a chance to kick your arse, Albrecht! I¡¯ll show you how a real Ishmarian fights!¡± Twirling the maul in a repeated circular motion, holding the bottom of the shaft, I became a dervish of dragontooth metal. I was determined to block his path to Sheena until she could find her feet. Albrecht might not have sheer brute strength like me but he¡¯s got cunning to spare. I can¡¯t take any chances with him.


    I was doing well until he swung at me with his sword in what I thought was a standard swing, but as the blade came around toward me I saw it flicker as though it wasn¡¯t actually there. I saw through the illusion too late; blocking high, my maul was out of position to intercept the sword when it raked across my leg. Where the blade cut into my skin, fire sprang up, fire so hot it caused agony even through my berserker rage. I fell to one knee, my blood feeling like it was ablaze, and he backhanded me with his fist, knocking me away.


    She had to crawl across the ice to find a place where she could stand up but Sheena was back in the fight faster than I thought. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she lashed out blindly at Albrecht, her bladed staff sailing through the air ineffectually as she propelled herself forward on pure adrenaline.


    ¡°Undisciplined. I know I taught you better than that.¡± Twisting his arm and upper body with more agility than I would have thought possible, he slapped aside the staff and smacked her across the face with the flat of his blade. ¡°I should¡¯ve known that even when I gave you every reason to hate me, you can¡¯t bring yourself to end me.¡±


    Wait, what? Something¡¯s not right here. His words struck a strange chord in me almost as if they¡¯d been rehearsed. With his outstretched palm he unleashed a blast of wind that knocked Sheena down, and she grunted in pain as she hit the ground hard.


    ¡°You hesitate. You know what you have to do. But your foolish feelings prevent you from doing it. What do I have to do to make you hate me enough to kill?¡± Then he brought his leg back and kicked her in the stomach. She let out a pitiable cry that was half grunt and half sob, and writhed on the ground in pain. He placed his heel on the side of her face and pushed down, the same emotionless look on his face. ¡°How far do I have to push you, Sheena? What do I have to say? That you¡¯ve never meant anything to me? That I used you, the Magisters, everyone, for my own ends? What will it take?¡± He leaned harder, and she screamed as the pressure of his weight dug into her.


    ¡°You won¡¯t survive the world out there if you lack the nerve to do what you have to. It won¡¯t suffer your hesitation, and it will not be kind to those you care for if you let them down. I thought you had that steel in your soul but I was wrong. I might as well kill you right now.¡± The sword¡¯s blade turned red hot and he held it close to her face, the heat from the metal sizzling. Her eyes widened in fear as the blade inched closer. Her hand tried to conjure something, but he reached out his arm and the nullification runes on his wrist shorted out her spell. Her last ditch effort thwarted, she started to cry, her tears visible by the light of Albrecht¡¯s sword.


    FUCK YOU, OLD MAN. I¡¯VE HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT. Rolling forward, I sprang up and sprinted toward Albrecht, maul swinging. The weapon hit Albrecht in the shoulder, knocking him back, but to my surprise he didn¡¯t stagger nearly as much as I was expecting. FINE! YOU WANT MORE?! I¡¯VE GOT PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM! Battering him with a rapid series of wild strikes, I dove deeper into the river than I¡¯d ever gone.


    The pure, unadulterated feeling of rage I felt at watching him batter Sheena was unlike anything I¡¯d ever felt. There was something beyond primal about the idea of this man abusing her trust to the degree that he had that made me want to end him in the most brutal way I could. It¡¯s not about relatability. It¡¯s not about sympathy. It¡¯s just the idea that this man could be so evil and I¡¯m able to stop him.


    And I will, Evros willing. If no one else, I damn well will.


    Albrecht did a decent job of protecting himself at first, but soon his defense faltered. Not even the most accomplished duelist could outlast a berserker at close quarters for long. My attacks began landing on his arms and legs. Soon I¡¯d be breaking bones.


    When I smacked his sword from his grip, I thought victory was mine at last. My maul leaned back, then went straight for his head. But to my surprise, the weapon passed through his head like it wasn¡¯t there. The smug look on his face was the last thing I saw before the illusion faded, the image of Albrecht fading away to reveal him standing a full foot to my right, his blade already in position to strike.


    White-hot pain shot through me as the sword stabbed into my side. It felt as though my insides had caught fire, and I was burning from the inside out. I sank to my knees. He could¡¯ve sliced my head clean off with the opportunity he had. He could¡¯ve run me right through the heart. Instead he¡¯s chosen to deal a nonlethal blow? Why? Cruelty for cruelty¡¯s sake? I screamed as the pain intensified. Can¡¯t¡­ think. Too much pain. I can¡¯t¡­


    ¡°Easy enough. Like every berserker, once you¡¯ve set your eyes on the enemy that¡¯s all you can see, even when that enemy isn¡¯t truly there.¡± His blade was yanked out of my body with a jarring lurch, but Albrecht staggered back as three large lances of ice lodged themselves in his shoulder. For the first time since the fight had begun, his blank expression was gone, now replaced with one of shock. Then he steeled himself, yanking the three lances out simultaneously with one pull. ¡°There you are. There¡¯s the killer I raised. So that¡¯s what I had to do.¡±


    Sheena, breathing hard and her face covered in dirt from his boot, aimed her staff at him. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare lay a finger on her. On any of them. You touch them and I end you, Uncle.¡± She stepped forward, the blades on her staff already arcing with gathering magical power.


    He chuckled. ¡°After all this you still call me uncle. Stop thinking of me that way, Sheena. It will make what has to come next easier.¡±


    Gnashing her teeth, she screamed at him. ¡°It¡¯s because you were my uncle that I have to do this. Because I didn¡¯t want to think you could be just like everyone else. I should¡¯ve known better. It has to be me.¡± A ball of light began to form at the end of the staff, growing in size and power. ¡°I want this, for me. Not for anyone else.¡±


    He smirked, but somehow I got the feeling that it wasn¡¯t arrogance behind it, but pride nonetheless. ¡°Then do it. Strike me.¡± He pulled the nullification runes from his wrist and dropped them to the ground, then held his arms wide. ¡°Do it. Seize your courage and end me. I know you won¡¯t. You¡¯re not strong enough to do it.¡±


    Sheena growled in fury and aimed her staff straight at Albrecht¡¯s heart. I waited for a lightning bolt or a fireball or even the earth itself to split open, but nothing happened. After a moment, the orb shrank and then disappeared, and all I could hear was her sobbing. Evros bless it, he¡¯s right. She can¡¯t bring herself to do it.


    I couldn¡¯t move. It was taking all my concentration to dull the excruciating pain of Albrecht¡¯s attack through my berserker training, and if I tried to attack him I was afraid I might pass out from shock. How am I still in pain? The sword is gone, but I¡¯m still feeling it like it¡¯s lodged in my gut. Through bleary eyes, I saw Alverd and Kuro fighting the demon, which was flailing wildly against them with its talons and teeth.


    ¡°You always did need to be motivated to do anything, my dear.¡± He squeezed his left hand shut, and the ache in my body turned into full blown agony again. I screamed, not expecting it. For a few seconds all I could feel was my skin burning, my bones shattering and knitting and breaking all over again. Then it all stopped and I lay panting on the ground, barely able to think.


    Out of the corner of my vision, swimming in and out of focus, I saw him point his sword in the direction of Kuro and Alverd. ¡°How much more incentive do you need, Sheena? How much more do I have to hurt them before you do what you have to do? Hesitate and they die! Did you learn nothing?¡± The sword glowed bright blue and then the pain started again.


    Evros please, make it stop, I can¡¯t do anything, I don¡¯t want to die like this¡­


    Then the pain ended as abruptly as it began. Not only did it end, but it vanished entirely, not even the lingering pain I¡¯d felt earlier. My vision cleared, I was able to sit up and see what had happened. Sheena had rushed forward and run Albrecht through with her staff. The twin blades on the end had punctured through his leather cuirass, and blood was already running down the front of his chest. He sank to his knees, his mouth silently trying to form words.


    She wouldn¡¯t have any of it. She pulled her staff free of his chest, and he fell. She rushed to my side, her hand already glowing with gentle blue light. ¡°Hold still. He cursed you. I¡¯ll remove it now, but then I need to go help Alverd and Kuro.¡± She pressed her hand against my stomach, where he had stabbed me, and I felt a familiar warmth as the wound closed.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I wasn¡¯t more of a help.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You did what you had to, so I could do what I had to.¡± She stood back up, looking shaky but ready to keep fighting. She ran off to aid the others.


    Finding my balance, I stumbled over to Albrecht¡¯s corpse. His eyes were closed, but despite that he looked like he was at peace. Godsdamned bastard doesn¡¯t deserve this. He should¡¯ve gotten worse. There were still so many questions I had to ask, that would never be answered now. I turned to join the fight against the demon when his hand shot out and grabbed my ankle.


    I gasped, but instead of attacking me his eyes opened and he pulled a thin, small book out of his cloak, likely a pocket journal. He held it out to me in his shaking fingers. ¡°I want¡­ you to know. Whether you tell Sheena¡­ up to¡­ you¡­¡± I took the small book, and he went limp, his eyes now sightless.


    Is it really worth honoring the last wish of someone like him? I looked it over. It was an ordinary thing, bound in hide and small enough to fit in a cloak pocket. Under normal circumstances I would toss this into the dark. Maybe Kuro can figure something out from it, since he wanted to know the ¡°why¡± so badly. I secured it to my hip with one of my belts, looping it around the book several times to ensure it wouldn¡¯t get loose.


    The demon had put Kuro and Alverd through the wringer, but with two new combatants entering the fray it didn¡¯t have a chance. Battered by sword and maul, pelted by magic, the demon withered under a combined assault. Kuro put another stone lance through the creature¡¯s eye, and upon death it melted into a pool of bubbling black blood that smelled nauseatingly like tar.


    Our attention turned to the platform. Kuro ran up to the platform with his staff ready, but there was no one there. ¡°There¡¯s a runic circle on the ground. Mattigen and Kertouli must have teleported back to the Ivory Palace.¡±


    I looked at the lifeless machines. ¡°Is there any way to stop what they were doing?¡± I asked.


    He shook his head. ¡°I doubt it. With everything broken, they probably carried out the last command, which was to drain the residential quarter of life. If Laspa was able to reroute that power to the Palace, then those people are already dead.¡± I felt cold despair in the pit of my stomach. Hard to believe that it could be so simple, to kill that many people and then just rationalize it. I hope I never have to find out how that feels.


    We gathered around the strange pod seated on the platform. The interior had a molded chair designed to fit one passenger, and the inside was smooth, without any features at all. Sheena examined the pod, then started to climb in. Alverd tried to stop her. ¡°Milady, wait. Isn¡¯t this what Albrecht was going to make you do? Is this wise?¡±


    She pushed him aside. ¡°It¡¯ll be alright. He intended for me to be incapable of deciding my own actions. As I am now, I¡¯ll be in complete control of the Calamity. Theoretically.¡±


    Alverd¡¯s eyebrow raised. ¡°Theoretically, Milady?¡±


    She climbed into the pod, avoiding the straps that were meant to restrain her. ¡°I need to focus. If I take control of this Calamity, I can destroy the entire Palace before the Magisters can launch a counterattack. We¡¯re wasting time.¡±


    Alverd tried to object but Sheena fixed him with a stern gaze. ¡°I¡¯ve hesitated enough. I¡¯m going to do this. I won¡¯t let people I actually care about get hurt because I couldn¡¯t muster the courage to save them when it mattered.¡± She closed her eyes and breathed in deep. ¡°Please let me do this. It¡¯s not my duty, but it is my responsibility.¡±


    Biting his tongue, Alverd leaned back from the pod. ¡°As you say. We¡¯ll be here if you need us.¡± He and Kuro took a few steps back. I took a second to debate whether it was worth mentioning Albrecht¡¯s journal, then decided against it. Instead, I reached into the pod and patted Sheena on the shoulder.


    ¡°Give ¡®em hell.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°I intend to.¡±

 B2: Chapter 19: Alicia: Back Where We Began (Raw)

    We were still camped out where we had been deposited by the blood circle a day later.


    There wasn¡¯t anything to say to Sheena. Kuro and Alverd had been in her position once, but that had been long, long ago. The only person who could really talk to her, was, well¡­me. I¡¯d been in her position only a month ago. But what could I possibly say to her to make her feel better?


    Ever since I¡¯d met her, I¡¯d had to stifle my irritation at her shameless manipulations, her subtle flirtation, and her starry-eyed stupidity. To say that she annoyed me would be a monumental understatement. But I knew in my heart that I was the only one who could get through to her.


    We had made camp in the area we had appeared in, a small woodland Sheena identified as the forests along Algrustos¡¯ southern border. Alverd insisted that Sheena get some rest, and after that, she had sat herself down on a stump, staring off into space while everyone else tried to scrounge together a campsite. Even as night fell, she left only to retire, and come sun-up the next day, she was back to sitting on the stump, contemplating nothingness in utter silence.


    Today there were no tears. She¡¯d cried herself dry the first day, and now she didn¡¯t have anything left. She refused food and drink and simply sat on that stump, lost in her thoughts. As the midday sun climbed into the sky on the second day, I wandered over to where Alverd and Kuro were talking and joined their conversation. They were talking about where to go next.


    Alverd voiced his opinion first. ¡°Albrecht did say we are ten days¡¯ ride from the Palace, but staying here is unwise. We should consider choosing a course of action and a direction to travel. I profess I¡¯m at a bit of a loss, since I have no idea about the geography around here. That¡¯s usually Kuro¡¯s job.¡± Kuro snorted indignantly. ¡°Yeah, and I didn¡¯t have time to figure out what the political climate is like around here. We could just as easily wander into the arms of someone who would send us straight back to Kertouli on a silver platter.¡±


    I hadn¡¯t thought of that. While Algrustos rivaled Ishmar in terms of military power, it also had alliances with several other nations that lined its borders. If we wandered into one of those nations and got caught by the authorities, I was sure their leaders would sell us back to the Magister Lords for favor and profit. These sort of things didn¡¯t completely go over my head.


    But it didn¡¯t present any solutions, instead it only offered more problems. It all traced back to Sheena. Loathe as it was for me to admit it, Alverd and Kuro were still technically under contract to fulfill her wishes, and in the absence of any orders, we were just sitting here, twiddling our thumbs. As I sat, I pulled my dragon egg from my pouch and began idly polishing it.


    The afternoon gave way to the darkened red skies of dusk. Kuro got a fire going and Alverd went off in search of game for dinner. Sheena was still seated on the stump. After staring at her for awhile, I figured that there was no point in putting it off further. I put my egg back in its pouch and strode over to Sheena¡¯s stump.


    I stood next to the Witch-Queen, looking up at the copper-colored sky as the last of the sun¡¯s light began to fade. She didn¡¯t even register my presence. I waved my hand in her face, and she finally turned to look at me. Her eyes were no longer red from the crying, but she still looked ready to break at any moment. When I was certain that I had her attention, I spoke.


    ¡°You know, this far out in the wilderness, the stars shine all the brighter.¡± I smiled a bit. ¡°That first night I spent after Alverd and Kuro smuggled me out of the Castle of Brimstone, I noticed that the stars seemed to shine brighter than they did back at the Castle. I never even noticed that before. It was one of the first things I learned about the outside world.¡±


    I leaned my head back some more. ¡°I¡¯m not so good with words. I¡¯m really bad with words. I¡¯ve always been the type of person who let my fists do the talking. Alverd keeps telling me I would have made a great Queen, but I think he¡¯s just embellishing it. I mean, could you see me running a country? My solution for everything would be to overreact and then just pound it with my hammer.¡±


    My comment drew a small snort from Sheena. Just for a second, a smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth. I took that as a good sign and continued. ¡°But they stuck by me, you know? They didn¡¯t have to, and they did. And they¡¯ll do the same for you. I know what it feels like to lose someone you love¡­and I know it¡¯s really quite crass of me to say that you¡¯ll come to terms with it in time, but I did. My father is dead¡­he knows I¡¯m in good hands.¡±


    Sheena nodded slightly. I was gaining momentum. ¡°So¡­I guess what I¡¯m trying to say is, you don¡¯t need to feel all that bad. I mean, really! Who cares about all those people back in Ethenia, anyway! They all wanted you to go to war! They never considered your feelings or understood your reasoning. They never bothered to try. Seems to me that you might be better off. Wandering the world searching for a new calling might be just what you need to shake off your depression.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s eyebrows perked up. For the first time in a day, she spoke. ¡°Wandering¡­¡± There was a brief twinkle in her green eyes, so quick I almost didn¡¯t catch it. Her head turned to me quickly. ¡°You said Sir Alverd and Sir Kuro could have left you, yet they didn¡¯t, right? Why was that?¡± I was taken aback by the question, as well as why she was asking me it out of the blue, but I answered truthfully.


    ¡°Yes, they could¡¯ve. Technically they fulfilled their obligation to me. But Alverd said that his payment, the Sword of Evros, was worth far more than what was owed. So in order for the scales to balance, he said he would continue to serve me until I deemed that his service was worthy of the price I paid.¡± I narrowed my eyes. ¡°Why is it so important, all of a sudden? Aren¡¯t you more concerned about your people, or what your Uncle said, or anything like that?¡±


    Sheena turned away, scratching her chin. She looked deep in thought. Finally, she looked back at me. ¡°Thank you, Princess. You¡¯ve given me an answer¡­maybe not the answer I was looking for, but perhaps something is better than nothing. I know we haven¡¯t gotten along all that much since you arrived in Algrustos, but I really must thank you¡­coming over here to talk to me must have taken no small measure of courage.¡±


    I seated myself on the ground next to the stump. ¡°Well, I have to admit, we haven¡¯t really¡­meshed¡­all that well. But most of that is my fault, really. Yeah, even I can admit that I can be quite a handful.¡± We both laughed at that. It was good to see Sheena laugh. The more she opened up, the easier it would be to put it all behind her. She¡¯d still grieve. Hell, I was still grieving. But in time, the scars wouldn¡¯t hurt so much. And then, they might not hurt at all.


    Sheena sniffled just a bit. ¡°But, it¡¯s not like you didn¡¯t have cause. I was a bit¡­overzealous in my intentions. You had every right to be on guard. But I think, now, we can figure it all out. I mean, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re going anywhere.¡± We laughed again. Sheena plucked the giant witch hat from her head, pulling the crown from its place around it. ¡°How much do you think we can get for this in the next town? It¡¯s not like I really need it anymore, and I get the feeling money is going to be tight for awhile¡­¡±


    Stolen story; please report.


    Kuro came from nowhere and plucked the crown from Sheena¡¯s hands. ¡°I¡¯ll take a look and make an educated guess. You two okay? I heard a lot of laughing over here.¡± He looked at the two of us. Sheena smiled at him. ¡°We are just fine, Sir Kuro. Would you do me a favor and let me know when Sir Alverd returns?¡± Kuro nodded, then returned to the fire to examine Sheena¡¯s crown more closely.


    Meanwhile, we had returned to our own discussion. Sheena pressed me with another question. ¡°It¡¯s so hard to believe, isn¡¯t it? That we two royals are here, without anything of our old lives, relying on the kindness of two strangers to survive. And yet, here we are. Such strange circumstances, eh, Princess?¡±


    I laughed again. But once I had finished, I offered the former Witch-Queen my hand. ¡°Not Princess. Not anymore. Now I¡¯m just Alicia. And now, you¡¯re just Sheena. Friends don¡¯t need titles, right?¡± Sheena actually looked very surprised when I said that. But soon enough, she smiled, gripped my hand tight, and shook. ¡°Well said and well met, then, Alicia. My friend.¡±


    We sat looking up at the now emerged stars while we waited for Alverd¡¯s return with dinner. Finally, the knight reentered the clearing with several wild rabbits and a whole boar (Evros only knows how he had managed to catch such a beast). Kuro called out for us, and we all sat in front of the fire. As Kuro set to the task of cooking our food, however, Sheena stood up and motioned for our attention. We all gave it to her, silent as she worked up her nerve to speak her mind.


    ¡°Um¡­if I could have your attention, I have an announcement. As of now, I am no longer the Witch-Queen. It is a burden I have carried for twenty years, and one that I am now glad to be rid of. But now I find myself in a very precarious position. I have no gold to my name, and the shield I gave Alverd was a down payment made in good faith¡­so I have no means with which to keep you in my service.¡±


    Alverd and Kuro exchanged glances. They¡¯d been here before. I¡¯d done it to them shortly after our escape from the Castle of Brimstone. But I knew them. They wouldn¡¯t leave Sheena to fend for herself. They were gentlemen. Well, at least Alverd was. Kuro, not so much. But even he wouldn¡¯t do something so heartless. Even if she had broke his heart.


    Sheena¡¯s voice started to waiver. I knew what was coming. Soon she¡¯d ask us to escort her to safety, then find some way to set her up comfortably so she¡¯d have an easy life. It wouldn¡¯t be the life she once had, but she wouldn¡¯t have to worry about crazy mages or bloodthirsty assassins. Maybe she could tell fortunes for a living. I sat back and waited for her to make her selfish request. ¡°So, to that end, I would like to ask you two¡­if you would train me to become a mercenary like the two of you!¡±


    Wait. What?


    Sheena continued, since both Alverd and Kuro were dumbstruck into silence. ¡°Please! I have no home to return to, and even if I did, I have no desire to. I want to see everything in this world, and I want to do it by your side, Sir Alverd! I promise to learn quickly, and will do anything you ask of me! I¡¯ve always wanted to leave Algrustos, and in the presence of such a handsome knight! My childhood dream has finally come true!¡±


    Alverd finally recovered from his stupor and phrased a question. ¡°But, Milady, doesn¡¯t the fate of Algrustos bother you in the slightest? Surely you would not abandon your subjects to the mercy of the Magister Lords, would you? Knowing the kind of individuals they are, they would risk everything in a war with Ishmar. Does that not rile you?¡±


    Sheena waved her hand impatiently. ¡°As I said, there is no reason for me to return. My subjects have made their will known to me for my entire life. They wanted war, and I would not give it to them. Let the Magisters give the people the war they crave. When their sons and daughters shed their blood needlessly on foreign soil, they will only have the Magisters to blame. I bear no responsibility for any of it. I say good riddance, in fact. Nobody wanted me. My parents only had me to power the Calamities. The people tolerated me because I could declare war. The Magisters put up with me because they thought they could manipulate me. Only my Uncle loved me.¡±


    Sheena wiped away tears that were starting to form in her eyes. ¡°Please, Sir Alverd. I promise, I will not be a burden. You know I have great magical talent, from combat to healing to divination. I can learn anything you require me to. Just¡­just let me stay by your side.¡± She sniffled as she turned her big green puppy eyes on Alverd.


    There was no way Alverd would agree to this. I mean, it was absolutely ludicrous. Sheena had no real world experience¡­okay, maybe it wasn¡¯t fair for me to cast stones in this situation, but it was still true. And besides, Alverd and Kuro were still under contract to me! That meant they had to do as I said. I was about to remind Alverd of this when he spoke up.


    ¡°Of course, Milady! I would never leave you to struggle for yourself, not when you have not a coin to your name and no idea how to survive on your own. If it is your wish to learn the way of the mercenary, then I will do my best to instruct you. You can stay on with us. To be honest, it will be quite helpful to have someone skilled in healing magic and divination on our side. Kuro tries his best, but those fields are not his strengths.¡±


    Kuro guffawed unhappily. ¡°Says the man who thinks he can solve his problems by talking. Let¡¯s see you fix a broken bone, eh?¡± The two broke into laughter, and Sheena nervously joined in. I, however, was still not amused. I asserted my anger in the most eloquent manner possible.


    ¡°NO! I forbid it! I¡¯m the one in charge here and I refuse to let her come along! You two are my slaves! I met you way before this harpy!¡± I waved my arms furiously as my face burned with anger. ¡°Did you not forget who is in charge around here?!¡± But Alverd just looked at me with his stupid charming smile. ¡°Oh, come now, Princess. I hardly think one more will make any difference. I think the two of you will get along splendidly!¡± Alverd began to laugh. Out of desperation, I looked over at Kuro.


    The little bastard gave me a look that seemed to tell me that he was going to derive great amusement from having Sheena join our band. ¡°I agree with Alverd. Sheena¡¯s talents could go a long way to helping us out. Besides, it¡¯ll be nice to have another girl around to talk to, right?¡± He smirked at me facetiously as he said that last bit. I made a mental note to kick his arse later.


    Sheena squealed with happiness and took the opportunity to run up to Alverd and engulf him in her arms. Of course, she was such a tall girl, she nearly bowled him over with her momentum. Alverd looked a bit nonplussed by Sheena¡¯s reaction, but he respectfully returned the gesture and held her until she finally released him. ¡°Oh, Sir Alverd! I¡¯ll do my very best! But I insist you just call me Sheena. I¡¯m no longer royalty. You needn¡¯t give me special treatment. I understand if you continue because of your training and all, but I want you to know that there shouldn¡¯t be any barriers between us¡­¡± Sheena blushed heavily as she took a step back. ¡°I mean¡­uh¡­you know. Because¡­I want to be close to you is all¡­¡± Her face turned even redder and she looked away.


    Oh, please. As if that shrinking violet routine was gonna work on Alverd. I¡¯d been with him long enough to know that subtlety went straight over his head. As if to emphasize my point, Alverd just gave his signature smile. I don¡¯t think he comprehended Sheena¡¯s attempt at flirtation. Just as well. I didn¡¯t need Sheena sweeping my slave out from under my thumb.


    Kuro, on the other hand, just burst out laughing. I knew he was thinking the exact same thing as me. The little spellslinger was clutching his side in laughter as both Alverd and Sheena regarded him quizzically. I stomped over to the hare-brained jackass and grabbed his collar, and started force-feeding him my fist. He cried out, whining about what he did to deserve it, but I didn¡¯t let up. He knew.


    Sheena took the opportunity to snuggle up next to Alverd as he poked at the fire, stoking it to cook our dinner. I wouldn¡¯t let her get the best of me. I¡¯d watch her like a hawk. I¡¯d question her every motive, look beyond all her words, to make sure she didn¡¯t try to take what was mine. I¡¯d have to be on my toes, but that wasn¡¯t new. So I¡¯d tolerate her, for now. After all, it was a big world out here. Who knew what could happen?


    Sooner or later, I guess we¡¯d all find out.

 B2: Epilogue: That Which Was Left Behind (Old)

    Epilogue: That Which Was Left Behind


    It took an hour to dig through the rubble of the Throne Room, even with the assistance of the Slumbering Calamity. Kertouli was not pleased with the slow progress. Sheena had slipped through his fingers, and she was going to relish torturing Albrecht for this. Without Sheena¡¯s blood, there would be no way to awaken the other Calamities. The blood had been enriched with the power of spirits, forged through a contract made long ago, and was the only thing capable of powering the ancient golems. Kertouli¡¯s hand balled into a fist as he thought about how this development would affect the war.


    The wreckage was slowly being cleared away by a combination of soldiers and thralls. Laspa had sustained a minor head injury during the battle when a rock had knocked her unconscious, but she was in a good enough condition to aid the search effort with her puppets. The search was going slow, however, and Kertouli was close to despair. He might not find what he was looking for at all.


    The blood circle had been damaged, confirming his worst fear. His intent had been to follow Sheena through the circle and capture her before she could escape, but with the circle out of commission, there was no chance of that. Sheena was now out of Kertouli¡¯s reach. The worst case scenario had come to pass. Kertouli lifted a piece of rubble with his magic and threw it against a wall in anger.


    Mattigen called out from the other side of the room. ¡°Idle anger will solve nothing, Emberal. We mustn¡¯t lose our heads. We can alert the Border Guard to be on the lookout for Sheena. She will not slip through our fingers again.¡± Mattigen was kneeling next to his fallen demon, cradling its head gently. He closed the beast¡¯s eyes gently and stood once more.


    ¡°Emberal, it should be clear what our course of action is. We should delay the declaration of war. The people saw what transpired here. They see the Calamity, they see its wound. Unless we recapture Sheena, our people will never commit to a war. We must be careful. Either that, or we find another way¡­¡±


    Laspa snapped at Mattigen. ¡°There is no other way. Without the blood of a spirit contractor, we have no way to awaken the Calamities. But every minute we sit here thinking about the impossible is one more minute we give the enemy time to learn of our plans! It will not take long for other nations to hear that one of the Calamities is awake. The news will spread like wildfire. Then we shall face the dragontamers¡¯ wrath.¡±


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    Kertouli whirled around so he could see both Magisters. ¡°Enough! This debate is pointless. We shall reconvene the Council in one hour. We shall decide on the matter of how to proceed once all the remaining Magister Lords have joined us. So still your tongues!¡± Kertouli stomped his foot to emphasize his displeasure.


    But his foot stepped on something soft. He nearly lost his footing in surprise. Looking down, he found that the rock he had thrown with her magic had uncovered something more valuable than anything he could have asked for.


    The corpse of Gerhalt Albrecht, Prime Minister of Algrustos.


    And spirit contractor.


    Kertouli had seen him wield magic without his staff during their battle in the catacombs. Only spirit contractors were capable of such feats. Sheena¡¯s family had all been spirit contractors, and the ability had passed down the bloodline to her, making her a candidate for awakening the Calamities.


    And now Kertouli had the body of another contractor, right here in front of him.


    Kertouli¡¯s smile spread wide across his face. ¡°Mattigen! Laspa! To me! I have found us the answer!¡± With his staff, Kertouli began to lift more stones from atop Albrecht¡¯s body, confirming that he was very much dead. The other Magisters were stunned only for a second, but they soon pitched in as well. Within minutes, they had dug the Prime Minister from the rubble.


    Laspa giggled. ¡°With his blood, we could potentially awaken two or three, maybe even four more Calamities! With such power, we would certainly destroy Ishmar!¡± She tightened her grip on her staff. ¡°So, Lord Kertouli, what shall we do?¡±


    Kertouli folded his arms and sneered. ¡°We shall convene the Council and tell them of this development. I¡¯m sure that they will all agree on our course of action. Once the people see the Calamities reach skyward once more, they will cry out for blood. Ishmarian blood. We will march west with the Calamities at the head of our armies. We shall send word to our allies to send their strongest armies and mightiest warriors. Ishmar will know defeat. And we shall be poised to rule in their stead.¡±


    Two soldiers reached down and lifted Albrecht¡¯s corpse onto their shoulders. Laspa licked her lips as she prepared the spell to drain the body of blood. A river of red flowed from the wounds all over the Prime Minister¡¯s body, flowing into the urn Kertouli had brought with him. Thankfully, a great deal of blood had remained within the body; the urn was completely topped off when the body ran dry.


    With its use exhausted, the soldiers allowed Albrecht¡¯s body to fall back to the ground. Kertouli placed the lid on the urn, securing it tightly. Snickering, he motioned for all of the Magisters to follow him back to the catacombs. Before the day was out, he would awaken the Calamities, as many as he could. The damage to the already awakened Calamity would be repaired. And then, the march against Ishmar would begin.


    Today was just the first of the blood to be spilled. Tomorrow, there would be more.


    Tomorrow, there would be war.

 B2: Chapter 19: Kuro: The Only Way to Be Sure

    Returning to street level, I had a little bit of time to think to myself about what was about to happen.


    Few people can ever say they¡¯ve witnessed what you¡¯re about to. You¡¯re about to watch Sheena take one of the most powerful magical constructs ever created and use it to wipe the Ivory Palace out of existence. Emerging from the Academy, Alverd, Alicia, and I put as much distance between us and the building as possible.


    Even several stories up with solid rock and metal between me and where the Calamity was powering up, I could feel the distortions in the magical energy around me. To me, a magically-sensitive individual, the Calamity was like an open furnace eagerly consuming whatever energy it could get its mitts on while throwing off heat in every direction. It¡¯s almost like it¡¯s alive. Like it hungers. That¡¯s not natural.


    In the center of that roiling heat was a single speck of magic that I knew was Sheena. Like a shard of ice, she remained solitary in the middle of that seething mass of magical energy, unfazed by it. I hope she can handle this. It¡¯s not like we have any idea what we¡¯re doing. Then again, when do we ever?


    Years of dust shifted from the upper parts of the Academy as the shaking intensified. The pillars holding up the building began to crack. Windows shattered. The three of us moved further away from the Academy when the cobblestone surrounding it began to collapse in on itself. When the quaking became so strong I could barely stand, the Calamity emerged.


    The entire structure caved in on itself, the ground beneath it no longer able to support it. Even as it fell, the shining copper skin of the Calamity rose up through the rubble, like some horrid creature birthing itself from a stone egg. Its arms came up and through, pushing aside the two halves of the Academy as it climbed out of its resting place.


    It was equal parts awe-inspiring and terrifying to watch. I was rooted in place, unable to turn my eyes away. How could anything so breathtaking be so horrifying at the same time? I almost forgot that this was a weapon of war. In the maelstrom of magic force, I could sense Sheena, directing the magic as it swirled around her.


    What surprised me was the way it responded to her. To make the legs move, she had to focus her will to put magic into the legs, to move the joints so that the monstrosity would walk. To move the arms, she had to move her own arms in similar motions to ¡°relay¡± the action to the Calamity. Energy then flowed to the arms to carry out the action, returning back to the central ¡°heart¡± to await further instruction.


    For all intents and purposes, Sheena was the heart of the Calamity. Oddly, it¡¯s fitting. She¡¯s the emotional core of an emotionless machine. Two halves of a whole working in tandem. As the last of the Academy¡¯s walls crumbled to the ground, it drew itself to its full height, one hundred feet of pure destruction awaiting the command to unleash its power.


    The Ivory Palace was visible in the distance like a shining beacon in the midday sun. It stood high above the tops of the buildings surrounding it, the gleaming spires seeming to dare the Witch-Queen to turn her wrath against them. The Calamity¡¯s right foot raised, and with a thunderous sound the giant golem took the first step towards the Palace.


    The impact of the foot against the ground sent a shockwave that didn¡¯t just physically ripple through the area. I could feel magical reverberations, the very fabric of reality seeming to bend beneath the weight of the Calamity, straining not to break. The existence of it was an affront against the natural order, and to stand in its shadow evoked dread in me I hadn¡¯t felt since the Arena back in Ishmar.


    It felt strange for there to be no response as the Calamity closed the distance to the Palace. There were no throngs of screaming people fleeing for their lives, no guards rushing to defend against the invader. The entire city is dead, most likely. Gods only know if there are any survivors and where they might be. Somehow, I¡¯m not sure Sheena cares at this point. The Calamity took another step, passing through a city plaza.


    The plaza had several small statues in it, built to honor famous wizards and witches of eras past. The Calamity swept them aside like a wave crashing against sand castles. A three-story building collapsed as the golem brushed against it, taking out most of an entire wall with barely any contact.


    As the building density increased, so did the amount of wanton destruction. Sheena had no patience to maneuver the golem delicately through the maze of buildings that barely came up to the height of the Calamity¡¯s waist. She bulldozed through several more. I¡¯m not sure if I should be impressed or disturbed by how single minded she is. I wouldn¡¯t have pegged her for an ¡°at any cost¡± kind of person.


    She was about two hundred yards away from the Palace when the ground began to shake even more violently. Two of the spires flanking the Palace toppled as the ground gave way, and from the dust and rubble came two familiar shapes. Not unlike Sheena¡¯s version, the other Calamities had vaguely humanoid shapes with carved human faces, although both of them only stood half as tall.


    She raised the arms of her Calamity, pointing at both of her aggressors. With a loud mechanical whirring, the gauntlets on the arms opened, elongated and exposed their inner workings, drawing in power as they prepared to fire. Again, I could feel a sense of cold hunger as the armlets greedily sucked what energy they could into them, and I thanked my stars I wasn¡¯t closer.


    Off in the distance the two Calamities raised their own arms, armlets activating on each. Time to find out if size really does matter, I mused as the energy gathering in Sheena¡¯s weapons reached their peak. The armlets cycled the energy between their three rings, amplifying and magnifying the power the way a blacksmith folded the steel of a sword, reinforcing it with each pass. Oh man. This is going to hurt.


    When Sheena discharged her weapons, I thought I had gone blind at first. The blue beam of light that shot forth from both of her Calamity¡¯s arms took up the whole of my vision, searing my eyes so badly that I could see the light even with them squeezed shut. It felt like being on the surface of the sun; there was a sensation on my skin of simultaneous prickliness and burning, as though someone were lightly pricking me with dozens of needles.


    A cacophonous sound like a million trumpets heralded the firing of the weapons, assaulting my ear drums and making me go weak in the knees. An invisible wave of magical force washed over me like a summer heat blast, raising every hair on my body and making me feel hot and cold at the same time. I was in a state of such intense sensory overload that I couldn¡¯t tell if Alverd and Alicia were suffering the same as I was.


    Then the sensation passed, and I became aware that I had sunk to my hands and knees, I was breathing heavily, and that I had a massive headache. Alicia, apparently not affected as heavily as I was, hooked her arm under my chest and hauled me to my feet. ¡°Get up, spellslinger! Now¡¯s not the time to have a nap.¡±


    Looking up, I saw the aftermath of Sheena¡¯s attack. Deep ruts had been furrowed in the ground leading all the way to the Palace, any infrastructure unlucky enough to be in the way gone. The sheer heat of the attack left glowing scorch marks in its wake, smoke lazily wafting into the air. The only things standing were the two opposing Calamities, which had thrown up barriers made of shimmering blue light.


    Not unlike a standard shield spell, but cranked up to a magnitude of about a thousand. Maybe even ten thousand. And those are the smaller Calamities, too. The Palace was still standing, having been fortunate enough to be positioned behind where the two constructs had stood their ground. If the other Calamities are still beneath the Palace, then that means the Magisters know that if it falls then the golems will be buried beneath the rubble. It would take months to excavate them, which is time they don¡¯t have.


    The pieces were in place, the lines had been drawn. All Sheena has to do is destroy the Palace before the Magisters take her Calamity out, and even then destroying her construct just puts them at a disadvantage. Nice to see that the odds are stacked in our favor for once. Both of the enemy constructs then let loose with their own attacks, shifting out of defense and into offense by funneling the energy from their shields into their own focusing armlets.


    Four beams of blue light shot forward, streaking toward Sheena with a sound reminiscent of the shrieks of the damned. Crossing her Calamity¡¯s arms, she threw up her own barrier, a kaleidoscopic array of multicolored lights solidifying into a convex shape. The angled surface of the shield deflected the attacks rather than blocked them entirely, causing several of the beams to go off in unpredictable directions.


    One such beam came within ten feet of our position. I was again blinded by the proximity of the light, and I almost lost my footing as the blast wave slammed into the three of us. I was knocked into Alicia, who was able to somehow steady me and keep her balance at the same time.


    ¡°Mother Evros. How did we ever think we could defeat the Algrustians?¡± Her face had an incredulous look.


    ¡°You can¡¯t. Magic doesn¡¯t play by the rules that barbarians think it should.¡± I glanced over at Alverd to see if he was okay. He¡¯d taken a stray bit of debris to the head and was now bleeding from a minor cut above his right eye, but otherwise he was unharmed. ¡°Magic rarely plays by the rules wizards think it should too. Fact is, magic doesn¡¯t require mortals to define its limitations.¡±


    The two opposing golems marched forward, taking up a position in front of the Palace. The jig was up; the Magisters had to know that Sheena was willing to do whatever it took to collapse the Palace to bury the other Calamities. Standing close together, the two constructs were able to focus their individual shields into a much larger, thicker one that covered the entire front of the Palace, daring her to strike.


    Sheena drew energy into her armlets again, preparing for another attack. ¡°The truth is that mortals think they can define what magic is to be used for, and this is what they conjure up,¡± I continued. ¡°End of the day? The best we can come up with is ways to kill each other.¡± I let out a sarcastic laugh. ¡°I guess mages and barbarians aren¡¯t so different in that way.¡±


    Alicia gave me a weary look. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t have to be like that.¡±


    The best I could muster in response was ¡°I know.¡±


    Sheena¡¯s next attack blazed through the air, twin lances of azure energy slamming against her enemies¡¯ joint barrier. The barrier was strong, but not enough to fully withstand the full force of her attack, with sections of it cracking like glass as it struggled to maintain itself. I doubt it can take another hit. Sheena has them beat in terms of raw firepower, but it¡¯s still two against one.


    Four arms began to draw in more power. The Magisters were going to concentrate their counterattack, hoping to down Sheena before she could take the Palace out. There¡¯s nothing we can do. I can¡¯t do anything. What can I possibly hope to do against something like that?


    As I looked on, I felt something stir in the Staff of Farewells. Glancing at the ruby on its tip, I felt a power pulsing within it. Opening my awareness to the staff, I tried to ascertain the nature of the power; to my surprise, I discovered that the ruby housed a truly massive repository of magical power within it, like a waterskin full to bursting.


    Why didn¡¯t I notice this earlier? The staff was still a mystery to me. Deotra had said it was up to me to unravel its secrets, but I couldn¡¯t help but feel like it was convenient that only now was I being made aware of this extra power. I don¡¯t want to jump to any ridiculous conclusions, but it¡¯s almost like the damn thing wants me to know it had this power, and waited for this moment to reveal it to me. But, that¡¯s a dangerous rabbit hole to tumble down, there¡¯s the possibility that this thing is alive and aware. I shuddered at the thought of Drache, wielding Deotra like a puppet on a string, her eyes full of gleeful malice.


    I found myself drawn to the interior of the ruby. The flawless gemstone was cut beautifully, nestled securely in its brass mooring like a dragon egg in its mother¡¯s lair. I couldn¡¯t tell if the inside was sparkling because of the refraction of light through it or because it had some inner fire burning inside of it. The visual effect was mesmerizing. I couldn¡¯t turn my eyes away from it. It seemed to pull me deeper into it, whispering not in words but in feelings how much power it held, and how I could use it. By intuition rather than actual understanding I felt an image surface in my mind, that of myself standing upon a stone dais in a dark, starry void, clad in a resplendent robe, holding the staff as I pulled cosmic forces together to weave into creation itself.


    Everything around me melted away until the vision became all-consuming. The feeling of absolute power was intoxicating. I held a star in my hand, a little blazing ball of primal fire that held power beyond my wildest dreams. It was mine to wield, to command. I span the star in my hands, marveling at the infinite possibilities.


    ¡°It could all be yours, you know. I¡¯m curious to see what you would do with that power.¡± I spun around to see Deotra standing behind me, her arms crossed behind her back, watching me with a gentle smile on her face. ¡°It¡¯s why we gave it to you. I believe you¡¯ll do great things with the Staff of Farewells.¡±


    ¡°But why would you think that?¡± I asked her. She paused, then put her finger up to her chin. ¡°Let me put it this way. The true test of a person is to give them power. One who has never had real power their entire life is destined to react in one of two ways.¡± She held up her palms, and two small globes of blue fire appeared in them.


    In the ball on her left hand, there was an image of me in a fine gold and white cloak, surrounded by adoring people who were showering me with praise as I sat in a finely furnished throne room, a crown of wrought silver upon my head. ¡°You could either respect the power you¡¯re given, use it wisely, become a paragon of magekind, and be remembered for all time as a benevolent figure.¡± In the other ball, however, I saw a version of myself clad in a black and red robe, sitting on a pile of corpses, watching and laughing as I rained fire on an entire kingdom, watching as all burned beneath me. ¡°Or, you might abuse that power as those who victimized you did, lording over those weaker than you as you go down in history as a notorious tyrant.¡±


    Then she waved her hands and both flames guttered out, and she placed them on her hips. ¡°I¡¯m hoping you turn out like the former. I just have a very good feeling about you.¡± She came over and wrapped her arms around me, burying her head into my chest, nuzzling her fuzzy ears against my chin.


    ¡°If you were the kind of person to do what you did to that boy to save a helpless animal, I know you¡¯re the kind of person who¡¯d wield this power the way it was meant to. Sometimes you have a heavy hand, but not without mercy or restraint. When you¡¯re at the height of your power, something like the Calamity won¡¯t be able to touch you.¡±


    Before me, the scene I¡¯d left behind swirled into view in the empty black space. Four beams of energy slammed into Sheena¡¯s Calamity, tearing through her shield and burning into the dormicite skin. She was still standing, but the damage was noticeable. Her shield was failing and would likely not protect her from the next exchange. I was transfixed until Deotra gently pulled my face down to meet her gaze. She was still smiling, but I couldn¡¯t help but shiver at how cold and obsessed her eyes looked.


    ¡°It¡¯s my job to get you there. To protect you. To stand by you as you become who you were meant to be.¡±


    Behind her, in the window back to reality, I could see Alicia and Alverd fighting. One of Laspa¡¯s zombified Isharians lurched into view, swinging an ill-maintained sword at Alicia. She easily parried the zombie¡¯s wild swing and sent it flying away with a counterattack, but she was outnumbered and flanked on multiple sides. Alverd wasn¡¯t faring any better, as he was trying to fend off a zombie missing its entire arm using his shield.


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    Deotra¡¯s eyes seemed to glow in the shadow cast by her bangs, and she bared her sharp incisors as her grin widened. When she spoke, it was no longer her voice but that of Drache¡¯s dark, deeper tone. ¡°Help them. But stay alive. We still need you, boy. And you will not fail us, not when you have so much to fight for.¡± She pushed me away, and I fell down and backward into the void.


    Deotra, or rather Drache, had one last parting say before it all faded to black. ¡°Remember, boy. When you have everything to fight for, you have everything to lose.¡±


    When I snapped back into my own body, my consciousness lurching back into the solid confines of my skin, I felt Alicia smack me in the back of the head. ¡°Look alive if you want to stay that way, Kuro!¡± I blinked and screamed as a zombie swung a rusted sword at my face. Alicia pulled me back and swung her maul one-handed at the dead man, sending him flying and his sword clattering to the ground.


    Alverd cleanly removed the head of a zombie from its shoulders with a swipe of his sword, then kicked away the flailing corpse, which crumbled into dust, leaving only its damaged armor behind. ¡°Kuro! Now is not the time to doze off!¡± He neatly parried an attack from his right by a zombie with an axe before splitting its head in two down the center with a vertical slice. ¡°We have a necromancer to deal with.¡±


    Off in the distance, standing in the middle of a city street intersection, was Laspa. At least, I thought it was her. The body had the same features, but looked significantly younger, as if she¡¯d aged in reverse by about twenty years. Typical. Leave it to a necromancer to always have another flesh puppet vessel in reserve.


    That explained where her soul had gone after I¡¯d ¡°killed¡± her in the cavern below the Academy. Her true body had probably expired long ago, ravaged by the continued exposure to her necromantic energy, so she¡¯d had to cobble together secondary vessels for her soul to inhabit through vile rituals involving the use of dead flesh. The body she was inhabiting now was the product of graverobbing and sins against the natural flow of life into death.


    How do you permanently kill someone who shed their mortal body? I wracked my brain to figure out what her weakness might be. As I did, Laspa pointed at us, her arm making audible creaking sounds as the ¡°fresh¡± vessel resisted the action. Guess she hasn¡¯t had time to break it in yet. She really wasn¡¯t expecting us to get the better of her.


    A stream of words in the language of demons emerged from her mouth, guttural and deep. The zombies rallied, the green fire in their eyes burning brighter as they responded to their mistress¡¯ order. Green smoked wafted from Laspa¡¯s mouth as she spurred her minions towards us. ¡°You may have destroyed the zombies I had below the Academy, but I assure you I have more,¡± she rasped. ¡°Now that everyone in Ethenia is dead, I have plenty more troops to raise. I will especially enjoy adding you to my collection.¡±


    Well that¡¯s just peachy. I bet you were the kind of kid that practiced vivisection on her dolls growing up. It would certainly explain a great deal. There were at least twenty zombies behind Laspa, and more were emerging from the alleys and streets on our flanks. The three of us found ourselves backing towards where Sheena was making her stand, keeping a wary eye on the attackers still multiplying in number by the second.


    Now under the direct command of their creator, the zombies coordinated their attacks like living beings. They came after Alverd and Alicia in waves, pushing forward even as they were cut down one by one. Alverd chopped the leg off one of the zombies, only for it to stubbornly grab onto his leg. ¡°Damn it! Unhand me!¡± He felled another zombie with a hasty slash before stabbing the point of his sword into the other zombie¡¯s skull, and the creature loosened its grip and lay still as the fire in its eyes died out.


    On my other side, Alicia was having similar trouble. Her maul was adept at shattering bones, but only by crushing the skulls of the zombies did they stay down for good. As they crowded her, she was struggling to swing her weapon with enough force to land killing blows. The lack of space meant that every swing was leaving her open to attack, and even with her speed it was only a matter of time before there¡¯d be so many zombies she wouldn¡¯t have time to wind up.


    I decided to try something a little different. There was little magic that wasn¡¯t being actively pulled towards the titanic battle between the Calamities to work with, but there was enough for my needs. With the Staff of Farewells, I concentrated air into a small ball in the middle of the zombies attacking Alicia. Then, I willed the ball to expand, rupturing it and throwing them into the air as though gravity had reversed itself.


    Ten zombies lurched skyward as the miniature explosion went off. The spell sent them flying in every direction. One unlucky zombie flew over Alicia and towards where Sheena¡¯s Calamity was standing. It landed in a heap, but it was still intact. It started to crawl back to us, but then the focusing armlets realigned and started to draw in magic power.


    The armlets sucked the necromantic energy away from the zombie like oxygen from a fire. The zombie¡¯s eyes guttered out and the corpse let out a raspy sigh as its power was drawn from its body, green fire drawn out and into the armlets along with everything else. Without its animating force, the zombie turned to dust.


    That¡¯s it. ¡°Alicia, Alverd! Get close to me. Keep those zombies off of me as long as you can!¡± Pointing the Staff of Farewells at the Calamity, I opened my mind¡¯s eye to the flow of power within the golem. Like before, I saw Sheena¡¯s pod as the heart, but I was searching for something else. After a moment, I found what I was looking for.


    Located just below Sheena¡¯s position and tucked behind a solid mass of dormicite plating was the true heart of the golem, a massive crystal infused with magical force. With the Staff of Farewells I homed in on the crystal, seeking to create a bridge between the ruby affixed to it and the Calamity¡¯s power source. It took a second to concentrate but I felt the invisible connection snap into place. The Staff was now a conduit for the crystal¡¯s power.


    Conduits flow both ways. Sheena needs more power and Laspa looks like she¡¯s got plenty to spare. In my mage sight, Laspa was cloaked in a haze of green necromantic magic, emanating from her like steam. Maybe we can take that and put it towards a better use. Focusing the Staff toward the energy she was radiating, I began the task of creating the conduit.


    In order to create the link and leech Laspa¡¯s power, I had to navigate past her thralls and avoid accidentally linking to them instead of her. Obviously this would be something that could be more easily accomplished without distractions, but that¡¯s not a luxury I can afford. It¡¯s up to Alverd and Alicia now. Through my staff, I envisioned a thread of green light extending towards Laspa, the manifestation of the bridge I was creating between us.


    Behind me, the Magisters took their next shot at Sheena. Thanks to my connection to the Calamity, I almost felt the beams of light cut through her barrier and into the golem itself. The beams gouged through the legs and torso of the Calamity, tearing out the delicate innards and forcing it to its knees. Sheena cried out even as she tried desperately to prevent the monstrosity from tipping over, a feat she managed only by slamming its right hand on the ground to catch itself.


    Time¡¯s running out. Sheena can¡¯t hold up against the Magisters. I need to make sure her next shot has enough juice to get through to the Palace or we¡¯re sunk. In front of me, Alverd and Alicia were carving up and knocking down the undead, weapons swinging. Alicia grimaced as a zombie slammed a mace across her face, then swept her maul across his hard enough to remove his head from his neck.


    ¡°Whatever you¡¯re doing, do it faster, Kuro!¡± She cross-checked two zombies with her maul¡¯s handle to establish spacing. ¡°We can¡¯t hold them off forever!¡± Alverd swept his shield left and clobbered a row of three zombies, knocking them away but not out of the fight. He parried another zombie¡¯s swing of its sword then ran said zombie through the face. ¡°


    What¡¯s the play here, Kuro?¡± He yelled. ¡°We¡¯re running out of space here!¡±


    I felt the magic weave past six more zombies, arcing like a drunken firefly as it drifted towards Laspa. Finally, the thread made it to the necromancer. Like a snake, it coiled around her leg, then shot upward to tangle itself around her body. She recoiled in fury, slapping her arms and legs as though trying to swat a rat climbing up the inside of her robe. That would probably look hilarious to anyone not able to see what¡¯s actually happening. Too bad we don¡¯t have time to appreciate the humor of it.


    The thread whipped and writhed until it was thoroughly woven around her, who snarled angrily as she tried to remove the charm. ¡°What is this? You¡¯re trying to bind me? A Magister? Do you not have any inkling of who I am?!¡± She made eye contact with me, and I heard the focusing armlets on Sheena¡¯s golem slide into position to draw power into them again. I aimed the Staff at Laspa and grinned wickedly.


    ¡°Yeah. A dead woman walking.¡±


    The thread snapped taut, turning from green to red, locking itself into place around both Laspa and the crystal heart of the Calamity. As the focusing armlets drew in power, the crystal did the same, the furnace-like sensation clawing at the connection to the necromancer greedily. She howled as her magic was torn from her as though she were tied to a wagon tumbling downhill at breakneck speed; the green haze was sucked away like a fire caught in a tornado.


    As the necromantic energy was siphoned out of her body, it aged rapidly, the skin rotting away at unnatural speed. Soft tissue decayed in seconds, exposing bleached bones that quickly turned black and then crumbled to dust. Laspa screamed, but even that was mercifully short-lived; in the space of only about six seconds, all that was left of her was a pile of black dust, still giving off a faint whiff of green smoke.


    With the weight of centuries of necromantic energy now funneling into the heart of the Calamity, the armlets flared bright blue, brighter than before. Sheena fired, and the beams of light that emerged from the arcane sigils conjured by the Calamity outshone the sun, forcing me to turn away for fear of burning my eyes. The sound of screeching metal filled the air as the blast wave slammed into me, and I was thrust down to the ground by the sheer force.


    When I dared to look, all I could see were what remained of the two Calamities before the Palace were the legs and waists. The entire upper torsos of both golems had been burned away, but in their final moments the two had managed to shield the Palace from Sheena¡¯s attack. The Palace was still untouched, and as the remains of her adversaries teetered and fell, Sheena cried out.


    Sparks were flying out of every joint of her Calamity. The sound of metal being forcibly bent under pressure heralded the failure of its internal structure. I could feel the crystal heart fragmenting, unable to sustain itself after pushing the monstrosity far past its limit. The giant golem fell to its knees, plates of its armor falling off in droves. It lurched forward and hit the ground, and Sheena was thrown against the glass covering of her pod, which was still twenty feet off the ground.


    Alverd ran over with his arms outstretched. ¡°Jump, milady! I¡¯ll catch you.¡± With great difficulty, Sheena waved her arm and the pod slid open with a lurch, and she half-crawled, half-fell out of the pod and into his waiting arms. I wanted to believe she had used magic to slow her descent just enough to land safely in his grasp, but he lost his footing and fell on his behind in the process. Alicia and I ran over to see how she was doing.


    She¡¯d sustained several injuries. A gash on her forehead was leaking blood down the bridge of her nose, her left glasses lens was cracked, she had several minor cuts on her arms and was a bit dazed. The most serious injury was the shard of glass buried in her abdomen, knocked loose from the shielding of her pod during the battle. It was protruding three inches out and I prayed to the gods that that was the longer end of it.


    She took in a long, ragged breath, her hazy eyes focusing on Alverd. ¡°Is¡­ is it done? Did I destroy¡­ the Palace?¡± He brushed her bangs from her forehead softly.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. It¡¯s still standing. The Calamities are gone but the Palace was untouched.¡±


    She bit back a curse, sucking in air as she winced from the immense pain she must have been in. ¡°Shame. I had hoped to make sure that the Magisters would all perish in the blast, but it seems like they might have time to escape now. We should give chase and-¡± Her words were interrupted by a cough, and she spat up a wad of blood. ¡°Oh, dear. That¡¯s not good.¡± Despite her attempt to sound tough, we could all hear the fear in her trembling voice.


    Alicia leaned down and grabbed hold of Sheena¡¯s hand, squeezing it. ¡°Don¡¯t try to talk. Save your strength.¡± She nodded to Alverd. ¡°I know it¡¯s not a good idea to move her but we have to get out of here. Don¡¯t pull out the shard until we can get her somewhere safe or she might bleed out. Kuro, get over here and help us.¡±


    I was about to do so when I felt something shift in the air. The feeling of a vacuum sucking in everything around it was quite familiar by now, but it was unrestrained and out of control. Turning to look at the burnt out husk of the Calamity, I knew why. The heart was malfunctioning. In a desperate attempt to stabilize itself, it was forcibly drawing in as much magic as it could.


    Problem is, without Sheena to stabilize it and distribute it, the heart can¡¯t regulate that power. With the Calamity damaged as it is, there probably isn¡¯t any way to distribute that power evenly to avoid a catastrophic system failure anyway. As the concentration of energy grew, I knew that it would lead to only one logical conclusion.


    The godsdamned thing is going to explode, and we¡¯re sitting right next to it.


    I stood transfixed in front of the mechanical beast, watching as my death stood before me like a snake rattling its tail. There was no way to run, no way to escape. My jaw fell open as the heart gave off pulses of magic, signaling that it was getting closer and closer to its final beat.


    Behind me, Sheena let out a small sob. ¡°I wanted so much more. I don¡¯t know if I deserved it, but I still wanted it.¡± She coughed heavily. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have a noble steed that could whisk us to safety, would you sir knight?¡±


    Alverd scoffed. ¡°Sorry, milady. I¡¯m afraid I was always terrible at horse riding.¡±


    I was so engrossed in the inevitability of the end that I missed it at first. Over the din of the heart sending out shockwaves, the sizzling of the air and the tortured metal, I heard it. Deotra¡¯s voice, in the back of my mind. ¡°This isn¡¯t where you¡¯re meant to be. This isn¡¯t where your journey is supposed to end. Take the Staff and see with your mind¡¯s eye where you wish to be.¡±


    I called out to her in my mind. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. What do you mean, where I wish to be?¡±


    Her voice came back, full of worry. ¡°Think of safety. Evoke the image of what safety means to you, and allow the Staff to guide you. Hurry! I can¡¯t help you unless you give the Staff the power to do so!¡±


    The ruby began to glow, and the inner fire swirled like a celestial body, like a nebula moving at great speed. It seemed to call out to me, the infinite potential of the cosmos, all at my fingertips, begging, pleading, to be wielded. I was bombarded with what felt like intent, the consciousness of some ancient force longing for something that I couldn¡¯t identify.


    This staff has power I could never hope to understand. But I don¡¯t need to understand it to use it. In my head resurfaced the image of the tree in Marevar where Alverd, Laura, and I had made the best memories of our lives, us growing from children to young adults. Even as we changed, the tree remained the same save the passing of its leaves from green to brown to green again. It was the closest thing to safe that I could think of.


    ¡°There. The concept of safety, that¡¯s what you need to focus on. Take your friends and survive, Kuro. I¡¯ll be with you. I¡¯m always with you.¡± The phantom feeling of her warm arms wrapping lingered with her words. I ran over to my companions and slammed the Staff of Farewells into the ground.


    ¡°Everyone grab on and think of the safest place you could be. Something that has significance to you. Picture it clearly in your head and focus only on that.¡± The three of them looked at me quizzically. ¡°Do we look like we have time to debate this? Just do it!¡± I smacked the ground again with the staff, and they reluctantly took hold of it with one hand each.


    ¡°Now, don¡¯t stop thinking of that safe place. I admit that I don¡¯t really know what¡¯s going to happen when this goes off.¡±


    Alicia¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°What do you mean you don¡¯t know?! Are you crazy?¡± A fresh shockwave buffeted into us, and she tightened her grip on the Staff as she gnashed her teeth. ¡°If we live through this I am so going to bonk you over the head later.¡±


    Just gonna ignore that for now. I felt the presence of my companions in the spell the Staff was already weaving around us. Once again it acts like it¡¯s a living thing, with a will and the means to fulfill its own goals. If I live through this, I¡¯m not going to give Deotra a break until she explains this to me. She owes me that much.


    Each of us contributed to the spell, light taking the form of a sphere around us. Forming from the ground up, it spun itself in a weaving pattern of gold, blue, red and purple as it enclosed itself over our heads. When the next shockwave hit, it washed over the dome like a wave over a sand castle.


    Sheena¡¯s eyes fluttered, her gaze losing focus. ¡°I¡¯m sleepy¡­ wake me when it¡¯s over. Don¡¯t let me oversleep¡­ ¡° She closed her eyes and lay still. Alicia was about to say something when the same happened to her, and she sank to her knees and fell asleep still sitting up.


    Alverd, struggling to stay awake, fixed me with a steely stare. ¡°Kuro, I can¡¯t stay awake. Something¡­ whatever it is you¡¯re doing, it¡¯s eating away at my strength. I hope you know what you¡¯re doing.¡± He had to grunt that through his grit teeth, sweat rolling down his face. ¡°I know you won¡¯t let me down. I trust you, Kuro. Don¡¯t lose sight of that fact. We¡¯re counting on you.¡± His head dipped, and he fell unconscious. The dome solidified into a glasslike consistency, now a true shell, sealing us all in and hopefully protecting us against the outside.


    ¡°No more distractions, Kuro. You know what you have to do.¡± The feeling of Deotra hugging me from behind, her slender arms clasping around my chest, became the only sensation I was aware of. ¡°Draw from the Staff. Draw from yourself, your friends. Make desire, reality. Make thought, action. Take what the Staff gives you and make it your own.¡±


    Make it my own. What will be the symbol of my own desire? It only took a second to come to the answer. My left hand pressed against the wall of the sphere, pushing form and thought into it. The will took the image of a golden fox, curled around the dome like a mother protecting its young, fiery eyes glinting defiantly at the dying Calamity. I felt no small amount of approval from my familiar as the golden fox wrapped its tail around us.


    ¡°And so begins the journey true, boy. I cannot wait to see what happens next.¡± Drache¡¯s venomous voice dripped in my other ear. ¡°I look forward to it with the utmost anticipation. Try not to disappoint me. You¡¯ve finally started to prove interesting, after all.¡± Then, like a bird lifting from my shoulder, she was gone.


    The heart of the Calamity beat once more, the metal skin glowing white hot as its innards fused together under the intense heat. The last gasp of the monster would take the remainder of Ethenia with it, and hopefully the Magisters and the remaining Calamities as well. I could only hope now. I closed my eyes, wrapped my arms around my unconscious friends, and pulled them in close.


    The heart beat for the last time, and then the light consumed everything.

 Epilogue Book 2: Alicia: Party of Four

    A week later and we were still walking through the countryside headed southeast.


    Kuro had said that we could find shelter in some country bordering Algrustos, a place called Kierhai. Despite being Algrustos¡¯ direct neighbor and closest trading partner, Kierhai had refused to take their side in their simmering conflict with the Ishmarians.


    ¡°If anything, we can head to Kierhai and get our bearings, then figure out what to do next.¡± He explained.


    Sitting by the fire on my first watch, I took a second to go over everything that had happened in the wake of the explosion. I closed my eyes, wary not to fall asleep, and used my visualization techniques to paint a picture of recent events to help process them against what Kuro had told me when I¡¯d come to.


    I had awoken to a scene from a nightmare. On all sides of us were the signs of a massive explosion, the ground having been scorched black and very few, if any, buildings standing. What few structures did remain had been stripped to their bare bones.


    I hate to admit it, but Kuro really surprised me. When he¡¯d admitted he had no idea if his plan was going to work I was worried we were all about to die, but seeing the aftermath of what had happened and the small patch of safety he¡¯d made to protect us, I had to give him credit. This is the second time he¡¯s come through in a clutch for us. Maybe I should start putting a little more faith in him.


    He was nodding off next to the campfire we¡¯d built, his eyes fluttering as he tried to ride out the rest of his night shift. After nearly twelve straight hours of trekking through the wilderness, he had to be bone tired, and he had drawn the first shift with me. He had pulled his cloak around himself to be warm, but every so often I could see him shiver in the cold.


    Alverd lay off to my right, barely a foot away from Sheena. We¡¯d removed the shard of glass from her body and stabilized her shortly after waking when we¡¯d found that we were no longer in any real danger. Her wound was thankfully not life-threatening, although Alverd fussed far more than he needed to about treating her in my opinion. I guess the first potentially fatal wound is the hardest. She¡¯ll get over it.


    Kuro had gone and confirmed that the Palace had collapsed. The entire structure had fallen in on itself, the hollow cave network beneath it subjected to so much physical force from the explosion that it had essentially swallowed the entire building when it caved in. Anything unfortunate enough to be in those caverns now was buried under tons of rock, and if the Magisters were somehow alive down there, it would be a long while before they could tunnel to safety.


    ¡°Thankfully, even if those sons of bitches could teleport, all they could manage is themselves. There¡¯s no way any person, not even a magelord, could move something as big as a Calamity with teleportation magic. Not to mention that the dormicite skin of those things would interfere with such attempts. For now, I think we¡¯re safe, but we should still think about leaving as soon as possible,¡± he¡¯d said upon his return.


    Alverd thought about it for a while. ¡°We could try Kierhai. It¡¯s the opposite direction from Ishmar. More importantly, it¡¯s not Kiret. Bad enough that Kiret is one giant slave market, we also have bounties on our heads there.¡± I could hear the raw disdain in his voice at the mention of Kiret¡¯s cavalier attitude regarding slavery. Makes sense. A man like Alverd would never tolerate slavers. I wonder what they were doing in Kiret to begin with? I should ask Kuro sometime.


    Sheena had said precious little during our week long journey, lost in her own thoughts as she walked almost in a fugue state. It¡¯s so jarring to see her like that. Most of the time she¡¯s a bundle of energy, but now she seems so depressed. This must be how I looked after what happened in Ishmar. But if that¡¯s the case, she¡¯ll find her feet just like I did. Especially since she¡¯s got good people to offer her hands to pull her up with.


    The sound of snoring drew my attention out of my private thoughts and over to Kuro, who had fallen asleep. Rolling my eyes, I pulled the small journal that Albrecht had given me off my belt and tossed it into Kuro¡¯s lap. He snapped upright with a snort. ¡°Buh! I didn¡¯t do it, you can¡¯t prove anything!¡±


    ¡°Relax, spellslinger. Take a look at that, will you?¡± I pointed at the journal. ¡°Albrecht gave it to me as he died. Said it was up to me to decide whether I told Sheena about what was in it.¡± He picked it up, examining the cover.


    ¡°So what¡¯s in it?¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Don¡¯t know. I tried to read it a few nights ago, but it¡¯s written in Ishratan. I can¡¯t read it, but I remember you said you could.¡±


    He shook his head, his eyes incredulous. ¡°I do remember saying that. What you need to know is, I can¡¯t actually read Ishratan either.¡±


    ¡°Huh? How is that possible? You read that mural back in Ishmar just fine.¡±


    He shifted his position so that he was sitting cross legged, now fully awake. ¡°I couldn¡¯t read the Ishratan writing, but when I got close to the mural it felt like the language changed, as if it could tell I needed help to read it. Before my eyes the writing turned into Selarunian Common. That¡¯s how I could read it, Alicia.¡±


    So now mages can write in secret languages that only they can read? ¡°Maybe it works the same way for the writing in Albrecht¡¯s journal?¡±


    He flipped it open, turning to the first page with writing, his eyes widening. ¡°It¡¯s happening. The text is rearranging itself on the page. I¡¯m not even doing anything either.¡± He gave me a worried expression. ¡°Alicia, this is huge. The nation that preceded Ishmar worshiped a sorceress. Your people still worship her, albeit in her dragon form. Their language had the power to intuit people¡¯s linguistic limitations and compensate for them.¡±


    I don¡¯t like where this is going.


    ¡°Alicia, I think you might be descended from mages yourself.¡±


    I barked out a laugh. ¡°What, me? You can¡¯t be serious.¡±


    He pointed at the runes tied around my maul. ¡°You have to have magical aptitude to use those nullification runes. You may not have formal training, but since their application is more about reaction and instinct, you were able to tap into their power to negate Laspa¡¯s shield. I saw it myself. I¡¯m sure Sheena would agree.¡±


    Wait, really? The idea that I could wield magic threw me for a loop. ¡°Kuro, if what you say is true, then my father¡­ ¡° I trailed off. There was an awkward silence between us, which I finally broke. ¡°How long before children start showing signs?¡±


    He bit his lip nervously. ¡°It¡¯s not the same for every child. It depends on a lot of factors and their own inherent potential, but generally as early as three and definitive proof by age five.¡± He folded his arms. ¡°I don¡¯t want to jump to conclusions yet, but if you showed signs of magical talent then it might explain why your father acted the way he did towards you, and entrusted the task of forging peace with Algrustos to you.¡±


    This paints it all in a much different light. It was hard to admit. Kuro didn¡¯t exactly have a whole lot of compelling evidence either. I shook my head. ¡°Put that aside for now. What does Albrecht¡¯s journal say?¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    He kept flipping through the pages. ¡°There¡¯s a lot here. I¡¯m going to need time to read through it all. Some of it looks like a diary, but there are other sections dedicated to plans and plots of some kind.¡± I scooted over to him, taking a seat beside him.


    ¡°Skip all that. Is there anything about Sheena in there?¡±


    He kept turning pages until he settled on one section. ¡°Here¡¯s mention of her. Looks like it was made after her parents were assassinated. Or rather, when he had them assassinated.¡± He cleared his throat. ¡®This child deserves life. She reminds me too much of myself. No one should be condemned by the circumstances of their birth. I can convince the King of Dragontamers that I will manipulate Sheena as she grows, guide her down the path he desires. He will not be any the wiser.¡¯¡±


    We both reeled. ¡°So he was an Ishmarian spy. Reporting directly to your father. Although it sounds like he didn¡¯t relish that duty.¡± Kuro said, and then turned back to an earlier section. ¡°Says here he was born in Ishmar and taken from his family during the mage hunts. Killed a Black Scale Legionnaire during an escape attempt. He was brought before the King and offered a chance to prove his worth for such a feat.¡±


    ¡°He was molded into a spy, trained in the disciplines of a Legionnaire, and¡­ ¡° He scowled. ¡°He was allowed to hone his magical powers to better blend in with the people he was infiltrating.¡± He smacked his palm against his head. ¡°I can¡¯t believe your father thought that Albrecht would stay loyal. What could possibly motivate him to obey the King after what he went through?¡±


    The mage hunts. ¡°See if there¡¯s anything in there about me.¡± He took a full three minutes to sort through entries before he found something. ¡°¡®I received a message from Ishmar today. He cannot stop heaping praise upon his youngest, how bright and eager she is. He says she is the future of our homeland. He wants to move forward with the plan soon. A part of me still wondered if I could find a way to betray him, but when he sent me the letter, I discarded those thoughts immediately.¡¯¡±


    ¡°¡®He told me of her. This girl who challenges the way her entire country thinks. The one who has yet to spill blood. He believes that she and Sheena would get along. I think he¡¯s mad. But the idea of peace, of an end to the mage hunts¡­ that is an aim worth betting on. No child should be murdered because of a gift they were given at birth,¡¯¡± I said, shaking my head. ¡°¡®Though I hold no love for the King and who he used to be, I admit¡­ I have come to admire the man he is becoming.¡¯¡±


    He turned the page. ¡°This is the second to last entry in the diary section. ¡®¡®I¡¯ve received word of the coup. All of our plans, up in smoke. I must carry on with my own plan now. The time will come when Sheena, my dear girl, must stand on her own two feet. I cannot shackle her to this country. I will not have her waste her life trying to right a sinking ship. If that means I must make her hate me with all my heart, then it is a sacrifice I am willing to make.¡¯¡±


    ¡°¡®I love her as if she were my own daughter. She is cunning, shrewd, naive, foolish, strong, weak, determined, afraid. She should be a normal girl who deserves to live her life the way she wants, and become who she wants. But I know she has a sense of duty, that she would never abandon it. She is stubborn, just like the man who raised her.¡¯¡±


    His voice faltered as he read the last part. ¡°¡®The only way to make her leave Algrustos would be to take away her only reason for staying. I must accelerate my plans. When the noose tightens and she looks to me to save her, I must be the one to twist the knife. I hate that her final thoughts of me will be of anger, of betrayal. I love her so deeply, so much so that I want what is best for her even if it means the best does not include me.¡¯¡±


    I felt my eyes begin to mist up, my vision growing blurry. ¡°The last entry. We should read it.¡± Kuro said blankly. I nodded. ¡°¡®She looks at that knight almost the same way she looks at me. I know now that all will be well in the end. I apologize to you, sir knight, that I am burdening you with my irresponsible goddaughter, but I believe you to be the only one who can support her. To the princess of Ishmar, I ask for your patience. Young mage, I ask that you teach Sheena of the nuances of the outside world.¡¯¡±


    ¡°¡®I don¡¯t know if she¡¯ll ever read these words. That depends on you, and if I live long enough to pass this journal to one of you. If so, and you are reading this, Sheena: I love you, and I did what I did because of it. Hurting you was the hardest thing I¡¯ve ever had to do in my life, even if I knew it was to help you in the end. No act of love should ever have to hurt so much. For that, I am so very sorry, and I hope you can forgive me someday. I wish you all the best, because you deserve it, and so much more. Your uncle.¡¯¡±


    The two of us sat in the light of the fire, the only sound being the snapping of the firewood and my stifled sobbing. Kuro said nothing, his face a scowling mask of conflicting feelings. ¡°What should we do?¡± He finally said. ¡°I can¡¯t say one way or the other if there¡¯s any benefit to her reading this. At least, not yet. She¡¯s had enough bitter pills as it is.¡±


    ¡°I agree,¡± I said as I wiped away some tears. ¡°We¡¯ll wait for her to get to a better place. For now though, getting out of Algrustos is the best idea.¡±


    He took another log and threw it into the fire. ¡°Alverd and I have a friend in Kierhai. Merc, like us. She¡¯ll take us in for a little while. She owes us after the last job we did for her.¡± He turned to me with an expression of dead seriousness. ¡°If she asks you for help with anything that involves chickens, you turn her down hard. I¡¯m not even kidding. You let her talk us into another chicken job and I¡¯ll strangle you.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°Not with those noodle arms, you won¡¯t.¡± We both chuckled, glad to shed some of the heavy atmosphere. ¡°What kind of place is Kierhai?¡± I asked.


    He leaned back on his palms so he could look up at the starry sky. ¡°A couple hundred years ago Kierhai was made up of a number of small city-states that eventually were unified into a single country. Now the entire region is an amalgamation of those various cultures smashed together, having ironed out most of their differences and capitalizing on their similarities.¡±


    ¡°It is a culturally rich place that places a lot of emphasis on aesthetics and tradition, keeping their history alive through dramatic reenactments and theater productions. They¡¯re very superstitious, place a great deal of value on personal honor, and have a rigid social structure that reveres the rule of law.¡±


    Then he shrugged. ¡°Sorry, I sound like a travel brochure. You¡¯ll see for yourself when you get there. You might get along with the mercs there. A lot of them will probably respect you a lot for your martial skill. If that doesn¡¯t please you, the food will keep you happy.¡± He drooled slightly as he rubbed his stomach. ¡°I¡¯ve had some of the best meat dishes of my life in Kierhai. Beef, pork, and fish, you name it.¡±


    My own stomach rumbled at the thought. ¡°Now you¡¯re talking. How much longer do you think it will be before we get there?¡±


    He thought about it for a moment. ¡°I¡¯d say only about two more weeks if we stay on foot. Closer to the border we might be able to catch a trade caravan, barter for passage. That would cut our travel time significantly. If we do, I¡¯d say no more than a tenday.¡±


    We could put this whole thing behind us in as little as a tenday. Well, at least I can. For Sheena, it¡¯ll be a lot longer. She lay on the ground, the blanket covering her rising and falling softly with every breath. Her hand had snaked out of the blanket to hold Alverd¡¯s, who was oblivious to everything as he lay close to her.


    A fresh spike of jealousy made me grind my teeth. One thing is for sure, there will be no more of that once she gets better. If she thinks playing the damsel in distress is gonna monopolize his attention she¡¯s got another thing coming. Then I scowled. N-N-Not that it matters to me that much. Alverd is no fool. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m worried he¡¯ll get suckered by her so easily.


    Kuro raised his eyebrow. ¡°You okay, Alicia? You look kind of angry¡­¡±


    I crossed my arms and kicked another log into the fire. ¡°Never mind that. I¡¯m just tired and hungry. I¡¯ll feel better in the morning after some breakfast, I¡¯m sure.¡± He shrugged.


    ¡°Well, alright. It¡¯ll be jerky and boiled river water again, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.¡±


    He gave me back Albrecht¡¯s journal. ¡°No offense, but I¡¯d rather not have to make this decision. Got plenty to worry about for myself as it is. Now if you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± He made his way over to Alverd and nudged him awake. ¡°Up and at ¡®em, Alverd. I need sleep.¡± Alverd grumbled, then sat up, wiping his eyes.


    Kuro lay down on his bedroll and was out in moments. Before I went to my own bedroll, I sat down next to him. I pressed the journal into his hand. He deserves to know too. It¡¯s going to be a long road ahead, and better he¡¯s on the same page as us. All of us are adrift, and Alverd is the rock that keeps us together.


    ¡°Is it okay if we talk for a bit? I have a few things on my mind..¡±


    He yawned, then smiled at me. ¡°What about?¡±

 B3: The Heros Sidekicks and the Hand of the Usurper: Chapter 1: Sheena: Looking Back and Forward

    As the wagon made its way down the bumpy country road, the afternoon sun moving ever closer to the horizon, we moved further away from the broken heart of my homeland, nothing more than a city of corpses and ruin now.


    Good riddance.


    I pulled my legs up from where they were dangling off the back of the wagon, hugging them to my chest, and glared off into the distance.


    No, no more tears. You promised you were done with the crying. I wiped my face on my sleeve, not succeeding in stifling the sniffle I made when my arm brushed my nose. As I readjusted my spectacles, I leaned my chin back onto my knees. What¡¯s done is done, you did what you had to, and there¡¯s no point in obsessing about it.


    Someone sat down next to me, his armored legs clanking as he tried not to accidentally misjudge his weight and tumble off the back of the wagon. He¡¯d never do that. He¡¯s too graceful for that. Even with all his armor, he¡¯s still so sure of himself. Alverd looked at me with his ice blue eyes and his gentle smile and I could already feel myself wanting to stop ruminating about the recent events that had me down.


    Merciful Eternity, I could stare at that face all day. Especially that smile. I wonder if I could just lock Alverd up in a room with me for hours and hours until I figure out just what it is that makes me feel so at ease when he does it. Then the impropriety of the thought caught up to me and my cheeks flushed. I turned away quickly.


    Honestly, Sheena. Why are you even embarrassed? This man, and his friends, put their lives on the line to save you. It would only be natural to develop feelings for someone like that, right?  What¡¯s stopping me now? I never had any problem flirting with him before. My heart rate tripled, heart pounding so hard it felt like it was taking a hammer to the inside of my chest.


    As I had my mental dilemma, Alverd gave a small sigh. ¡°I think I know what you¡¯re going through, milady.¡±


    I nearly jumped out of my skin, stammering wildly. ¡°Y-Y-You do? How? I mean, what do you mean? How do you mean? Umm¡­ ¡° Arms flailing, I nearly fell off the wagon. Alverd had to reach forward and grab my wrist to steady me, and the moment his grip tightened on my arm I felt my face catch fire again.


    When his hand moved away I felt a wave of regret wash over me that I hadn¡¯t taken the opportunity to just fall into his arms. ¡°It¡¯s strange to say that I¡¯ve been through it when in truth, I¡¯ve been through it three times now. The fall of Marevar, the coup in Ishmar, and now this. I¡¯m becoming a bit of an expert in running away from my problems.¡± He was still smiling, but it didn¡¯t take a genius to see the strain behind it.


    ¡°Running away from a problem always presents a very specific conundrum. In my case, no matter how far away I run, whenever I look back I always see the things I can¡¯t forget magnified until they drown out everything else that happened.¡± He gazed out in the same direction I had, his smile finally turning into a grimace. ¡°I¡¯m starting to forget things that I shouldn¡¯t, and I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s good or bad.¡±


    I scooted closer to him. ¡°Like what? I mean, if you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡±


    He took a heavy breath, slow in, slow out. ¡°I¡¯m starting to forget what my mother¡¯s shepherd¡¯s pie tasted like. Which is only natural, given I haven¡¯t tasted it in five years. But you¡¯d think that I wouldn¡¯t forget my favorite meal in the whole world cooked by the woman who loved and raised me. I would assume that it should be a treasured memory, but it¡¯s fading more and more every year.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s getting harder for me to recall the memories I have of growing up in Marevar with Kuro and my friend Laura,¡± he continued. ¡°I think it might be because when I think of Marevar now, all I can think of is how my people are being enslaved by the Ishmarians. It makes me angry, and then all I can do is fixate on the negative. I almost want to fixate on it. It takes all my focus to remember that if I do that to myself, I¡¯ll never get past it all.¡±


    His face darkened, the eyes growing distant and tinged with anger. ¡°By contrast, I remember every detail of the berserker I killed. Her face. Scar running down her chin and neck. Spittle flying out of her mouth, the blood after my blade went through her heart. Eyes so wide and bloodshot. I¡­ I don¡¯t want to remember that.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I do, though. I kicked her corpse off of me while she was still twitching and prayed for her to just lie still, even letting go of my sword. I can remember how relieved I was when she finally died, the sword still sticking out of her.¡±


    He looked at me again. ¡°It¡¯ll take a long time, but I hope you can reach a point when you think of Algrustos and still remember all the happy memories you might have of it.¡±


    I grumbled, breaking eye contact, ¡°Maybe. You do make a lot of sense, though. I¡¯d say you¡¯re probably on the right track.¡±


    Be bold. It¡¯s just you and him. The only way you¡¯re going to find happiness is to seize it when it¡¯s within your grasp. I leaned my head on his shoulder, putting my weight into it, almost snuggling up to him. ¡°You may not have been the knight in shining armor I was expecting, but you might just be the one I needed, Sir Alverd.¡±


    Leaning in, I steeled myself. Just like in your fairy tales and storybooks. Just lean in and kiss him. How hard can that be? My eyes were starting to flutter closed when a brutish voice let out a cry of rage and the rapid footfalls of leather boots told me that I was in imminent trouble.


    Alicia came charging back from the front of the wagon¡¯s storage area, muscling her way past the crates within to get at me. She wedged herself between Alverd and I, parking herself squarely between us while forcing us to the edges of the wagon¡¯s lip. ¡°Alright, cart driver says we¡¯ll make it to the border by nightfall. We¡¯ll make camp at the border crossing and then it¡¯s another week of travel to the nearest city in Kierhai. Where are we going from there?¡±


    There was an edge in both her voice and her eyes as she shot me a look that said ¡°I¡¯m onto you¡±. I was a bit irritated, but it was my own fault for not seizing the initiative when I had the chance.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Once she was sure that there would be no further romantic overtures, she spoke again. ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that you had an acquaintance in Kierhai? That she might offer us shelter?¡±


    Alverd nodded. ¡°Yes. A mercenary like us. She was part of a local guild. She always talked about splitting off and forming her own guild though, one with more stringent requirements for joining. She said her current guild was too willing to let in people with lax moral standards. When we proved we were her kind of mercs, she let us stay with her for a while in her family¡¯s home.¡±


    Wait, the woman let you stay in her home? That is a red flag. And we¡¯re going to meet with her and possibly be invited to stay at her home again? No no no. It would be the height of foolishness to let a woman with prior history try to seduce Alverd. I bit my thumbnail, chewing on it as my mind raced. Patience for now. I¡¯ll have to assess this new threat when I meet her.


    Kuro joined the conversation, standing behind us as there was no room left to sit. ¡°Her name is Yuzuruha. She¡¯s got five younger siblings to take care of, so she¡¯s got plenty of space in that home of hers. We should make sure we aren¡¯t intruding before we ask if we can stay.¡±


    I seized upon Kuro¡¯s words. ¡°I agree! It would be a huge imposition to take valuable living space away from such a large family.¡±


    He shrugged. ¡°On the other hand we don¡¯t exactly have a lot of money. If we can¡¯t earn some before we arrive in Blossom City, we might have to beg her for help. Once we get there, we¡¯ll find merc jobs easily enough. It¡¯s the getting there part that concerns me.¡± He sighed heavily. ¡°Heavy burdens and light pockets. Always seems to be our lot in life.¡±


    Alicia leaned back so she could face Kuro. ¡°What¡¯s she like?¡±


    Kuro snorted. ¡°You¡¯d probably like her, Alicia. She¡¯s got the foulest mouth of any person I¡¯ve ever met, but she¡¯s also tougher than nails and down to earth. Can¡¯t abide people stepping on the little guy or beating on people who can¡¯t fight back. I¡¯d say she wears her heart on her sleeve too much, but that¡¯s how you know her heart¡¯s in the right place.¡±


    Alverd laughed. ¡°That¡¯s one way to put it. She has a lot of respect for people who are honest, so as long as we explain to her why we need her help, she¡¯ll find a way to do so. Our first hurdle is getting through the border checkpoint, then making it to Blossom City. We¡¯ll have to pass through Standing Stone to get to Blossom City if my memory serves.¡±


    Somewhere in my mind, my old lessons on geography clicked into place. ¡°Standing Stone is the closest city to the Algrustian border, correct? It¡¯s supposed to be built more like a fortress than a city.¡±


    Kuro nodded. ¡°That¡¯s correct. The stone in question is a meteor fragment left over from the War of the Five Kings. The Kierhaians hollowed it out and made it a military base while building a city around it.¡±


    To think that people without magic could accomplish such things. It almost makes me wish I had done a diplomatic visit to Kierhai. Perhaps if I had, relations between our countries might have been better. As of now, I imagine we could¡¯ve been allies instead of neighbors with good fences.


    ¡°I wonder if news about Ethenia has reached Kierhai yet. If it has, we might have issues at the border,¡± Kuro continued. ¡°If the Magisters are still alive, they could¡¯ve shut down the border on all sides of Algrustos in anticipation of us crossing.¡± He gave me a tense look. ¡°I know you won¡¯t have any problem fighting if it comes to it. What I want to know is, are you ready to leave your home possibly for good?¡±


    It was a heavy question, one I¡¯d grappled with for the entirety of our journey so far. I was no closer to convincing myself that it was the best option than I had when we¡¯d first camped out near the ruins of Ethenia. There is nothing for you left. Everything is ash, and the uncle who loved you was a liar. It should be easy to answer his question. Something about it feels wrong though. I can¡¯t put my finger on it but I can¡¯t help but feel like I¡¯m missing something. I know in my head that I want to leave. Is it really what my heart wants though?


    A tenday of travel had given me enough time to let my anger burn out to the point where I could think more rationally about everything. The way Albrecht had hurt me felt too on-the-nose, as if he were playing the villain in a children¡¯s story, where subtlety would have flown over the heads of its intended audience. He had come on too strong, played his role straight to the hilt, and said exactly what he needed to say to cut me deep.


    Almost as if that were his intention all along.


    I closed my eyes, willing those thoughts away. You don¡¯t know enough about his intentions to start second-guessing yourself now. Even if you did, what¡¯s done is done. You ended him with your own two hands. I squeezed my fingers into fists, clenching and unclenching them slowly as I remembered the look on his face as the blades on my staff had dug into his chest. He had looked surprised, no trace that it had been part of a plan. Whatever his true goal, he¡¯d taken such knowledge to the grave.


    The discussion amongst the others fell away as I tuned out the noise of everything around me. My emotions were all over the place, and I tried to rein them in to no avail. It¡¯s far too late to turn back. Why must I go over this yet again? Why must it eat at me with every waking moment? I knew in my mind that it was pointless to do so, but my heart kept pulling me back down the rabbit hole.


    Finally, my inner turmoil was interrupted when a metal-clad hand clasped my shoulder. ¡°Are you alright? You seem lost in thought.¡± Alverd had reached over to check on me.


    I stammered, then got a hold of myself. ¡°Yes. I¡¯m just having a lot of issues right now. I think after we cross the border things will get better. The more distance we put between us and Ethenia, the better.¡±


    Alicia blinked, then her expression softened. ¡°Hey. If you want to talk about it, we¡¯re here. Nobody is saying what you went through was easy. All that crap with Albrecht and the Magisters was really miserable. If you need time, that¡¯s okay too.¡± She was being very supportive, and it made me initially suspicious.


    Come now. That¡¯s an old habit, and a bad one at that. Alicia is too blunt to rely on subtle manipulation, and it¡¯s not her style anyway. She seems like she¡¯s actually worried about me. I guess I¡¯m going to have to unlearn that habit, if I¡¯m to get along in the future.


    I sighed. ¡°Maybe. I think it would help if I finally got it out there, but I want some time to get my thoughts and feelings in order. Then we can talk about it in full, if you¡¯re still willing. It wouldn¡¯t hurt if the change of scenery was more pleasant than usual.¡±


    Any further discussion was cut off when a shrill whistle came from the front of the convoy, loud enough so we could clearly hear it even though we were four wagons behind the leader. The entire convoy ground to a halt, our wagon lurching as the driver yanked at the reins, horses whinnying. People from the wagons behind us jumped off their vehicles and stood out in the open, looking at something ahead.


    We disembarked and took a look for ourselves. A column of smoke, still distant but rising high into the sky, was directly ahead. Off in the far distance, I could see a structure of some kind. Squinting, I could make out an outpost, likely the border checkpoint we would¡¯ve had to cross through to make it into Kierhai.


    The smoke was coming out of the outpost. In fact, it was safer to say that the outpost itself was the source, as several of the buildings were on fire.


    What¡¯s going on? Who would dare attack an Algrustian border outpost? Surely not bandits or highwaymen. Border outposts weren¡¯t fortresses but they had competent crews of well-trained soldiers manning them. It was standard for a typical Algrustian outpost to have anywhere from thirty to forty permanent soldiers stationed in one at any time, each able to perform multiple duties to keep the outpost self-sustaining if cut off from a supply line.


    Alverd leaned over to me. ¡°What do you make of this, milady? I doubt this is the work of the Magisters.¡±


    I nodded my head in agreement. ¡°It makes no sense for them to weaken their own security at this point. We need to get over there and find out what¡¯s going on.¡± I ran to the lead driver, a grizzled lion beastman with a bushy beard. ¡°Sir! We should investigate. There might be people in need of help.¡±


    The leader looked down from his wagon at me with incredulity. ¡°You¡¯re crazy. You want to go towards the obvious signs of trouble? Lady, we¡¯re a merchant caravan. If there¡¯s a bunch of ne¡¯er-do-wells in there, we can¡¯t fight them off.¡±


    I placed my hands on my hips and scowled at him. ¡°Then leave it to us. You can put it towards our travel expenses.¡±


    He thought about it, trying to weigh the cost of delay against his profits versus paying us out of pocket to solve his immediate problem. ¡°Alright, fine. I¡¯ll get you closer but you better be as good as you say.¡± He waved to the others. ¡°All of you, stay here. You can move up if you see a white flag flying over the outpost.¡±


    I ran back to the others. ¡°I may have solved our problem of earning our transportation, but now we have to clear out that outpost. Any objections?¡±


    Alverd shook his head. ¡°None. How do you want to approach this?¡±


    Grateful for the distraction, I allowed myself to put my intellect towards solving a problem with an achievable solution. ¡°Alright, here¡¯s what I was thinking¡­ ¡°

 B3: Chapter 2: Alicia: A Dragon Casts a Long Shadow

    The outpost was no better to look at up close than it was afar.


    The wagon stopped about two hundred yards away, which was a lot closer than I thought the driver would allow. Perhaps his own curiosity had gotten the better of him, as no one tried to attack us even as his wagon noisily made its way towards the outpost. By the time it pulled to a stop, I was wondering why we weren¡¯t already up to our necks in bad guys.


    If this is an ambush, the ambushers are taking their sweet time springing it. Either they¡¯re holed up in the outpost itself or they aren¡¯t there at all. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was a good thing or not; I had little experience with common bandits. For all of its faults, Ishmar had no bandits, for no one was stupid enough to provoke the wrath of a dragon rider. By now mages would¡¯ve hit us from a safe distance, so if there were mages lying in wait they¡¯d squandered their best chance to take us out without a fight.


    As we got close, I got a better sense of the outpost¡¯s layout. On all sides, it had a thirty foot tall wall of gray stone, although the stone bore deep scorch marks now. A thick wooden double gate with a rampart was wide open, with one door having been ripped off its hinges and thrown aside. The other door was riddled with crossbow bolts. Alverd moved cautiously into the gate, his weapon drawn. When he was certain it was clear, he waved us over and we followed him in.


    I was the second through, my maul at the ready. My nerves are all on edge. Something isn¡¯t right. Kuro came up behind me, his staff pointed at the two-story building directly on our right after passing under the gate. On our left, a man lay with three crossbow bolts jutting out of his chest. His white robe, now stained red with blood, told me he was a mage. His magic staff lay off to his right snapped in half.


    It was when we rounded the building that we saw the source of the smoke. A pyre had been built in the center of the outpost, which had hidden it from our view on approach. A large amount of wooden furniture had been piled at the base of the pyre to serve as kindling, but it was what had been burned that made my stomach turn.


    Six bodies lay lashed together with chain in the center of the pyre. They¡¯d been burnt to the point where they were nothing but blackened husks. The embers of the fire were still smoldering, and that was a concern in itself. This couldn¡¯t have happened too long ago. If the fire is dying out whatever happened might have been as recent as last night.


    Sheena made a choking sound, her breathing turning shaky as she fought the urge to vomit. Kuro stepped to the left, motioning at one of the other buildings. ¡°We have to make sure this place is empty. There¡¯s four buildings we have to account for. Should we pair off and investigate?¡±


    The last thing I want to do is split our party now, but he has a point. The sooner we determine if it¡¯s safe or not the better. And it¡¯s not like we¡¯ll be alone. ¡°Alright,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll take Sheena with me and check the west side.¡±


    Kuro nodded. ¡°Okay. Alverd, we should start with this building. It looks like the armory.¡±


    I put my hand on Sheena¡¯s shoulder. She was still trying not to show her discomfort, but her shallow breathing was a clear sign she wasn¡¯t dealing with the situation well. I gently but firmly pulled her away from the pyre. ¡°Hey, that building isn¡¯t going to check itself. Push it out for now. Plenty of time to deal with it later.¡± I smacked her arm gently, and it snapped her out of it.


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. I¡¯m sorry. This is a lot to process.¡± She took one deep breath, then shook her head. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m ready. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    The building we were looking at was a one-story longhouse. The roof had caved in, or been blown open, by some force and debris from its construction was strewn everywhere. We had to step over shingles, stone blocks, and wooden slats to get to the entry door. The door was made of thick metal set into the stone wall and was locked. My maul quickly fixed that; when I struck the door the entire wall in which the frame was set gave way.


    ¡°Be careful! The entire structure looks ready to collapse as it is.¡± Sheena protested behind me. The interior of the longhouse looked no better than the exterior. Large amounts of fire damage was readily apparent. The only things I could recognize were the slagged remains of many metal bed frames and more than a few charred corpses. The longhouse had been the dormitory, and these mages had likely been scrambling to answer an alert when whatever had torn off the roof incinerated them.


    I have a sneaking suspicion about what did this. But it makes no sense. Dragons don¡¯t live outside Ishmar. Even if this were the work of dragons, who tied those bodies up and burnt them? We were on the wrong side of Algrustos for there to be Ishmarians running around killing people. My people were rampantly isolationist and incredibly averse to subterfuge and espionage.


    If there are survivors, we might get answers. But my people aren¡¯t exactly known for leaving survivors. Taking prisoners, maybe. Given the state of this outpost, if Ishmarians were involved, they didn¡¯t intend to leave witnesses. I was still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Ishmarians being so far from their territory, especially given the political turmoil surrounding the coup my siblings had launched. If it were me, I¡¯d call all of our forces back into our lands immediately. As of now, I still don¡¯t know who actually took the throne or if there even is someone sitting in it currently.


    I didn¡¯t want to think of the possibility that Eliza was the one who was running the country now. It didn¡¯t seem like it was likely given how wounded she had been at the end of our last battle, but she had the raw ruthlessness necessary to accomplish it. It turned my stomach to imagine what Ishmar would look like under her rule.


    She was a talented warrior, a natural born killer. She was the best student the berserkers had seen in years. But all that talent was funneled towards killing. She had little patience for statecraft, politics, or governance. She was the kind of person who only knew how to command loyalty and compliance through fear and force. Even the previous kings and queens of Ishmar had never once had to rule through such means, even to enforce the mage hunts.


    The mage hunts were conducted once a month under the old ways. If Eliza were in charge, there¡¯d be one every week, perhaps more. Her insane paranoia and intense hatred of mages made her see enemies everywhere. If she could have her way, the tighter her grip became the more willing she¡¯d to harm innocent people to fight villains that didn¡¯t truly exist. Which might explain the presence of dragons here on the Algrustian border. I don¡¯t know what she intends to do by attacking border outposts on the far side of the country but it can¡¯t be good.


    Sheena stumbled over something and the sound brought me back to the here and now. ¡°Sorry,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll try to pay better attention.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°If you need a minute, take it. We¡¯re not really in a rush. I doubt there are any survivors.¡± I left out the part about that being a mercy; if Ishmarians had hit this outpost, then anyone left alive would have been tortured heavily before being left to die. Pretty sure Sheena knows that, but she doesn¡¯t need a reminder right now.


    There wasn¡¯t anything to disprove my theory in the dormitory after I started searching. The mages had been surprised and then killed swiftly, in line with most Ishmarian military doctrine. ¡°All a mage needs is a staff¡± was one of the first things an Ishmarian soldier learned about how easy it was for a mage to decimate what would take ten heavily armed and armored men to replicate.


    An explosion went off outside, rocking what remained of the dormitory. I staggered but kept my feet. Sheena lost her balance but scrambled upright using her staff to steady herself. ¡°What the hell was that?¡± I yelled as the dormitory was pelted with a shower of debris and dust. Without waiting for a reply, I ran back to the door and peered out.


    The building Kuro and Alverd had chosen to inspect had a giant hole in its second story, the edges still smoking with the force of whatever had inflicted it. Something tumbled out and hit the dirt below in an undignified heap. It rolled over and groaned; it was a man dressed in the white robe of an Algrustian mage. He pushed himself off the ground, then reached for a staff that had fallen nearby.


    Our eyes met. He had to be about thirty feet away, an easy distance for me to cover in only a few seconds. His face went white as a sheet. ¡°Oh gods, another one. Leave me alone, Ishmarian scum!¡± He pressed his hand against the ground and the jewel at the end of his staff flashed with green light.


    Instinct took over and I threw myself to the right and out of the doorway just as a sharp stone spike shot out of the ground in front of me. The spike clipped my arm, opening a long but shallow gash across my upper left arm. The familiar feeling of rage simmering beneath the surface bellowed like a caged beast, and I fought to keep it under control.


    If this man knows what happened, I have to take him alive. He¡¯ll be in no mood to talk if I smash his skull. Tucking into a roll, I came out the other end back on my feet and broke into a dead sprint towards the man, who yelped and turned to flee. Despite his mousy frame and skinny legs, he took off like a frightened stag and kept running, towards one of the buildings we hadn¡¯t checked yet. I beelined after him, my faster strides allowing me to close the distance easily.


    It became clear a few seconds later to both of us that a skinny mage like him had a snowball¡¯s chance in hell of outrunning a berserker in her prime. The mage slapped his hand against his chest, uttered something I couldn¡¯t hear, then swept his arm in a wide arc before his body split into three different copies. Each looked solid and life-like with no discernible difference from one to the other. As soon as the copies appeared, they ran in random directions.


    From above and out of the hole in the armory, Kuro¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Only one of them is solid, Alicia! Figure out which one is the real one quick!¡± Still running, I leaned down and scooped up a large rock with my left hand. With only a moment to aim, I chucked it as hard as I could at the closest of the three. The rock passed through the mage harmlessly, and the copy ran off to my left and out of sight.


    The last two had circled back after seeing me go after one of the decoys and were now headed toward the building. It was a three-story tall stone command post that served as the headquarters for the command staff, and had been damaged extensively by fire and physical impacts. The roof was completely missing and a good chunk of the top floor had gone with it. The door was a reinforced steel slab that was hanging open, and the two mage copies were heading towards it as fast as they could go.


    Kind of defeats the purpose of your spell if you¡¯re headed to the only place you can find shelter. Then again, he is panicking. Probably doesn¡¯t have time to think those things through. I bent forward and pumped my arms as I charged after him. I¡¯ll catch up and tackle the first one to try and go through the door.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Then the mages turned around and took up a stance. Both of them held up their staves and began conjuring a magical attack aimed straight at me. Swirling vortexes of blue energy sparked into being in front of them, growing in size as I ran forward. Which of them is real? I¡¯ll sucker punch the real one, but I have to figure out which is which.


    I saw it on the ground as time seemed to slow around me. The deep grooves of the mage¡¯s bootprints were etched into the dirt, heavy footfalls left behind by his shoes as he had run away. The one on the right had left a neat trail leading straight to where he was now making his stand. I smirked as I changed course.


    Gotcha.


    I barreled into the mage full force, hearing him grunt as I bowled him over like a poorly planted fencepost. We smashed into the heavy metal door and I felt the impact even through his body. With all the air pushed out of his lungs, the mage wheezed as he fell to the ground, his eyes blinking and unfocused. I was about to pick him up by his collar when he suddenly lashed out at me with his staff, smacking me across the face with it.


    The rage within tore at its cage, but I forced it back down. Your own damn fault for thinking that was enough to incapacitate him. The mage tried to crawl away, still gasping for air. I grabbed his left leg and dragged him out of the doorway. ¡°Come here, you little shit. We¡¯ve got questions for you.¡± His other leg shot out at me haphazardly in an attempt to hit me in the face. I swatted it aside with my left hand while I kept pulling his other leg.


    He aimed his staff at me. ¡°Away with you!¡± he yelled. A concentrated wind current so strong it felt like I¡¯d been hit by a boulder slammed me in the torso, knocking me off my feet. The mage tried to point his weapon at me. Before he could, his staff was blasted out of his hands by a lance of ice.


    It had taken Sheena a moment to catch up, and she was breathing heavily when she came up to me. Sorry, long legs. You actually have to exercise if you want to be a good sprinter. Still panting, she extended her hand to me. I nearly tipped her over when I took hold, but she was able to hoist me back up.


    ¡°Goodness. You run too fast,¡± she wheezed. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I reached down and snatched up the mage¡¯s staff before he could crawl over to it.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m fine. Thanks for that.¡± I glowered at the mage, and he gulped. I towered over him and let a low growl escape my throat, causing him to whimper. ¡°Look, pal. We just want to talk. If we wanted you dead then I would¡¯ve crushed your bones by now.¡±


    The mage turned pale and I realized that I wasn¡¯t exactly coming across as nice and friendly. ¡°Right. Sorry. What I meant to say is, we¡¯re not with the people who took out your outpost. We just want to know what went on here. We can help you.¡± Behind me, Alverd jogged up, his clanking armor announcing his arrival. Kuro came along soon after, panting and complaining about his lack of stamina.


    Alverd put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°May I? Perhaps he might respond better to a lighter approach.¡± I grunted, but he had a point.


    ¡°Fine. It¡¯s not like he would talk to me anyway.¡± I stepped aside. He knelt down to look the man in the eye. ¡°Look here, stranger. No one is going to hurt you. I¡¯m Alverd. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    The mage hesitated but then he spoke. ¡°Nevin. A-Acolyte Nevin. Second Class.¡± His eyes flicked over to me. ¡°Are you sure that Ishmarian isn¡¯t going to kill me? They¡¯re all barbarians, you know.¡± I growled, but Alverd gave me a look and I took a few steps back and away from Nevin. ¡°She¡¯s not like the ones that attacked. Why don¡¯t you tell me what happened, Nevin?¡±


    He propped himself up on his hands, then sighed. ¡°We were closing up the outpost for the night. Locking down the gate, guards were about to rotate for the night shift. We didn¡¯t see or hear anything at first. Not until the gatehouse exploded.¡± He pointed at the ruined gate we¡¯d passed through upon entry. ¡°The garrison commander was killed instantly. She was in that gatehouse when it¡­¡±


    Alverd patted the man on his shoulder. ¡°I know it¡¯s not easy to relive it, but we need to know what happened. I promise we won¡¯t leave you out here alone. We¡¯ll take you with us to Standing Stone and you can stay there until you get yourself sorted.¡± Nevin looked a little more reassured after Alverd¡¯s gesture. Damn. Alverd really is way too good at earning peoples¡¯ trust. How does he do it?


    ¡°The first thing I remember after the explosion was the screaming. I was in the dormitory at the time, putting on my gear. I¡¯m on the night shift, so I was just waking up. I got my boots on and suddenly it was the end of the world out there.¡± He shuddered. ¡°Stumbled outside, and there were dark shapes up in the sky. My comrades were all running around throwing magic into the air, not hitting anything. It was complete chaos.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re doing great, Nevin. What happened next?¡± Alverd prompted.


    ¡°I ran as fast as I could toward the armory. My equipment was over there. I did have my staff but I didn¡¯t have the rest of my gear. There were other mages being cut down by crossbows. I didn¡¯t even know it was dragons attacking until one flew low and took out the command post.¡± He waved at the three-story building he had tried to flee toward. ¡°It was big. Bigger than normal for any dragon ridden by an Ishmarian. Covered in black armor, too.¡±


    Alverd¡¯s face took on a dark grimace, and I could tell he was already suspecting what I knew for fact. ¡°Can you tell me about the Ishmarians that attacked? Did you see any of them?¡±


    ¡°Yes. One cuffed me over the head when I got to the armory. I think he was lying in wait for anyone who was trying to arm up to fight back. I don¡¯t remember much but I do remember managing to kill him.¡± Nevin¡¯s hands were shaking, and his breathing became shallow. He sounds like me after I killed for the first time. I felt sympathy for him. Mages get scared too. Kuro taught me that. Poor guy.


    Nevin reached into his pocket and held something out to us. ¡°I got this off of him. After I killed him, I crawled over to the concealed hatch in the floor in the armory and sealed myself in the basement. I hid there for the entire day. I only came up about an hour ago to look for food and survivors. I¡¯m such a coward.¡± After I took what he had offered, he shrank into himself, pulling his knees towards his chest.


    I looked at what I held in my hand. It was a soldier¡¯s insignia, a small trinket of wrought steel. It was shaped like an upright dragon¡¯s head, entirely black, with glittering hexagonal scales dotting the entirety of its neck. I winced. The insignia of the Black Scale Legionnaires. Of all the maniacs that could¡¯ve been running around outside our borders, it had to be them.


    Along with the berserkers, the Legion was the most notorious group of soldiers in Ishmar, reviled across Selarune for their brutality and mercilessness. Although many Ishmarians saw them as patriots, I knew better. They were responsible for carrying out the infamous mage hunts, tearing children away from their families to be executed if they showed any signs of magical aptitude. The Legion was composed of Ishmar¡¯s most seasoned soldiers, often veterans of the endless border skirmishes with Algrustos, and were used as shock troops thanks to their ability to deploy alongside and coordinate with dragon riders.


    I can see a platoon of Legionnaires operating near the border, but we¡¯re on the far side of Algrustos. I can¡¯t imagine how they could¡¯ve made it all the way here without alerting anyone. Anyone with eyes could see a dragon in the sky a mile away, let alone the number deployed in a typical group. A standard Legion platoon has forty foot soldiers, ten of which can perform battlefield triage, and ten more with accompanying dragons. There¡¯s no way such a large group could operate so deep in enemy territory without backup or supplies.


    A tap on my shoulder shook me out of my thoughts. Sheena had come over to me while Alverd continued talking with Nevin. She saw the insignia in my hand and her face twisted into a snarl. ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± I nodded without saying anything. ¡°What would those butchers be doing so far away from Ishmar?¡± She wondered aloud.


    ¡°More importantly, why hit a border outpost?¡± I gazed at the destruction all around us. ¡°No faster way to draw attention than to cause this kind of destruction at a border crossing where anyone could find it and then pass along the information. Whoever did this wanted someone to find it. There¡¯s a lot of disturbing explanations for that, none of them good.¡±


    The idea of a rogue commander slaughtering their way across undefended Algrustian territory was bad enough. But if that commander was operating under orders, it meant that only someone who understood the value that terror and senseless butchery had on innocent people had ordered them to do so. My thoughts drifted back to my sister Eliza, my last memory of her covered in blood and smiling like the Reaper himself.


    Kuro came over and inserted himself into our conversation. ¡°Looks like the coast is clear then. Nevin says he didn¡¯t find any food in the larder, so the Legionnaires probably hit this place to resupply.¡±


    I blinked. ¡°You knew it was them?¡±


    He scowled. ¡°I¡¯ve seen their handiwork. Hard to forget. Nevin¡¯s hurt. Can you look at his wounds, Sheena?¡±


    She nodded, then went to tend to Nevin, though not before shooting me a look. She definitely wanted to talk more later. Kuro watched her leave, then looked at me. ¡°I''ll let the caravan know we can pass through. Given what we know, it might be safer to push on through the night to Standing Stone. I¡¯d feel a lot safer in a fortress city than a destroyed outpost.¡±


    ¡°How much farther is Standing Stone?¡± I asked. Kuro scratched his chin.


    ¡°If we move at our current pace, we might make it there in two more days. More importantly, there¡¯s a forest near here. We can hide the wagons in the foliage to avoid anyone looking from above.¡± He watched Sheena kneel in front of Nevin and place her palm gently against the side of his face to calm him. He was still rocking in place, his eyes wide.


    ¡°Alicia, be real with me. Do you think there are Legionnaires out looking for us?¡± I snorted.


    ¡°No way. Eliza¡¯s petty, but she¡¯s not that petty. She has a lot more to worry about than us, like however many siblings she still has aiming for her neck. Not to say anything of the fact that if she is the new Queen of Dragontamers, she has a country to run that¡¯s probably already tearing itself apart.¡±


    I returned his gaze. ¡°Besides, she¡¯s the type that would rather savor the act of hunting us down herself. You know that more than anyone.¡± Kuro whimpered, and I realized I had probably said too much. ¡°You too, you know. After what you put her through, you¡¯ve got just as big a target on your back as the one on mine.¡± As Sheena and Alverd gently lifted Nevin back to his feet, I felt a shiver go down my spine.


    ¡°Tell me something I don¡¯t know.¡±


    A few hours later, the caravan was safely hidden beneath the treetops of a sprawling wood. The caravanners had decided against building a campfire and were doling out dried meats and fruit to tide us over.


    Sheena came to where I was setting up my bedroll, not far from the wagon we had hitched a ride on. She sat down next to me and let out a deep sigh. ¡°Nothing makes sense anymore. One minute you have a life that you hate, then you have nothing but freedom but you don¡¯t know what to do with it. It¡¯s all so overwhelming.¡± She looked very vulnerable, nothing like the happy-go-lucky, irresponsible woman I¡¯d first met when I arrived in Ethenia.


    I crossed my legs, propping up my maul on the ground and leaning on the haft. ¡°I hear that. You go your whole life thinking everything''s meant to work a certain way, then somebody throws it in a barrel and kicks it down a hillside. A few months ago I wouldn¡¯t have thought I¡¯d be in Algrustos talking to the Witch-Queen herself. Uh, former Witch-Queen.¡±


    She gave me a small, tired smile. ¡°And I wouldn¡¯t have imagined speaking to a princess of Ishmar. One who could potentially use magic, as well.¡± My eyes opened in shock. ¡°You knew about that?¡± She waved her hand dismissively. ¡°Of course I did. I knew since you first told me you used the nullification runes. Without magical aptitude, they¡¯re just metal blocks carved with fancy symbols.¡±


    Remembering the conversation I¡¯d had recently with Kuro, I saw an opportunity to get some answers. ¡°Kuro said that I might have mage ancestors. I¡¯ll tell you the details later, but there was some evidence that at one point we were ruled by a powerful sorceress.¡± Sheena¡¯s jaw practically dropped. ¡°You¡¯re kidding. That flies in the face of everything that is known about your country.¡± I nodded. ¡°I know. Maybe you should ask Kuro about it when you can. He saw a mural in an old ruined fortress depicting the Ishmarian people bowing before a woman in crimson robe. He also said that the mural was written in Ishratan, if that helps.¡±


    Sheena practically keeled over in surprise. ¡°Ishratan? You understand that¡¯s a dead language? No one knows how it was spoken, let alone how to recreate its writing. The people who could all died during the War of the Five Kings. I¡¯m afraid you¡¯re mistaken if you think those were Ishmarians in the mural. They had to be Ishratan.¡±


    A shiver ran up the back of my neck, and Albrecht¡¯s journal weighed heavily in my pack. Dead language? So no one knows how to speak or write it anymore? Then how did Albrecht know about it? ¡°Would anyone know how to go about translating it?¡± She shook her head. ¡°As far as I know, the last people who knew the language perished during the War of the Five Kings. Ishrati was one of the nations that was destroyed during the War, and the first if I recall correctly.¡±


    There¡¯s that war again. Kuro¡¯s mentioned it before. ¡°They don¡¯t teach us anything about the War of the Five Kings in Ishmar. Would you mind telling me about it sometime?¡± Sheena nodded. ¡°Sure. Maybe when we get to Standing Stone. I¡¯m not surprised Ishmarians don¡¯t know anything about the War. The common Ishmarian would probably think the idea that mages once ruled Selarune is ridiculous, although they¡¯d be eager to believe that mages were responsible for almost destroying it.¡±


    The heavy subject killed the conversation instantly. We sat in awkward silence for a minute as the caravanners went about their night watch. ¡°Well, now isn¡¯t really the best time. We can pick this conversation up later.¡± She nodded again, without a word. As we were standing up, I thought about what had happened earlier. ¡°Hey, Sheena? About what happened on the cart¡­ ¡°


    She chuckled awkwardly. ¡°What can I say? I saw a chance and I took it. Can you blame me?¡± I scowled. ¡°Strange as it is for me to admit, I sort of get it. But maybe we ought to set things straight about it.¡±


    Sheena leaned back, propping herself on her palms. ¡°What¡¯s there to talk about? He is a man, we are women, we all want what we want. I don¡¯t see how it has to get in the way of us being friends, or trying to become friends, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re getting at.¡± I blinked in surprise. ¡°I don¡¯t understand how we could be trying to get the better of each other and still try to be friendly, is all.¡±


    She waved her hand dismissively. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I believe a little friendly rivalry might be good. We both seem the type to appreciate a competition.¡± She gave me a sly grin. ¡°If your concern is that I might not be in my right mind or anything, I can wait until we get to the capitol. Plenty of time to process and then we can have it out for real.¡±


    It kind of irritates me how flippant she is about the idea of romance, but at the same time she did hit the nail on the head. All¡¯s fair in love and war. ¡°Well, alright then. We wait until we reach Blossom City, then we¡¯re off to the races.¡± I offered her my hand. She gave me a familiar crooked smile and took my hand, shaking it.


    ¡°May the best royal win.¡±

 B3: Chapter 3: Kuro: Old Friends and New Enemies

    Given how bad our luck had been over the past few months I half expected Standing Stone to be awash in flames when we arrived, but thankfully the fortress city was intact and bustling when it came into view.


    As I had predicted, we reached Standing Stone late in the afternoon with the sun already beginning to dip below the horizon. A hazy, red glow saturated the air as we crested one last hill, looking ahead to see the city coming alive as dozens of lights began to flicker to life within the many buildings sequestered behind its outer wall. In the very heart of the city, a massive chunk of celestial rock loomed over everything, standing imperiously like a spear that had fallen from the sky.


    The infamous edifice that the city was named for was nearly three hundred feet high, about one hundred feet across, and lodged thoroughly in the earth, although the Kierhaians had built additional structures around the base to shore up the stone where its tilt made it uneven. Walkways had been carved across its outer shell with openings leading to its many interior rooms where barracks full of soldiers were quartered. Anti-siege weapons were installed on the higher levels of the Stone, including magical defenses designed to fell flying creatures.


    With the diligent pragmatism Kierhaians were known across Selarune for, no expense was spared in ensuring that every aspect of Standing Stone was prepared to defend against a siege. The outer wall was twenty feet high with a secondary wall behind it that was twice as tall with twice as many archers and crossbowmen manning it. Ballista and trebuchets were housed behind angled metal slabs to better protect them against magical or draconic assault. The double gates meant that any attempt to breach the outer wall would have to survive against two layers of defenses before any real assault on the city itself could commence.


    There was a saying that I¡¯d picked up in Kiret. ¡°Never ask a Kierhaian to tell you the difference between pragmatism and paranoia.¡± It had been meant to be derogatory (as many things in that racist hellhole often were), but seeing how well prepared the city was for battle, I couldn¡¯t help but be impressed. The reason why it was meant as an insult was that despite all of its immaculate preparation, Kierhai had never been invaded by any foreign power in the entirety of its existence as a sovereign nation, calling into question if those preparations were necessary at all.


    If Irinholm had been built like this, could we have held the Ishmarians off?


    I pushed the thought away . That¡¯s a rabbit hole with a dead end at the very bottom. Better to spend your time thinking about where we¡¯re lodging for tonight and how we¡¯re paying our way to Blossom City in the morning.


    The guards at the outer gate stopped us for papers and trade permits. The caravan leader turned over his manifest and permit and quickly vouched for us, saying we were hired muscle and leaving it at that. It was only when several of the guards inspecting the caravan wagons for contraband found Nevin shivering in the back that things got interesting.


    A guard clad in black armor made of iron plates tied together with thick blue strings called me over. ¡°Who is this?¡± He pointed into the rear wagon, where Nevin had sequestered himself in a makeshift shelter between two large wooden crates. ¡°He¡¯s wearing an Algrustian border guard uniform. We do not wish to cause any kind of diplomatic incident. Any failure to explain will result in us refusing you entry.¡±


    Nothing for it but to tell the truth. I quickly explained the situation to the guard, leaving out the likelihood that the attack on the outpost had been carried out by Black Scale Legionnaires. Once the whole story comes out, gods know what will happen. Right now we need to put distance between us and Algrustos. After a few questions, the guard took Nevin into custody citing the need for a full debrief about the attack on his outpost.


    Sheena had to look him in the eye to calm him down. ¡°Everything will be fine. These men are taking you somewhere safe. They¡¯ll ask you some questions about what happened.¡± Nevin was still shaky, but he nodded mutely. She gave him a small smile. ¡°Hold your head high. What you tell the Kierhaians might save peoples¡¯ lives.¡±


    He nodded weakly again, but he clenched his fists and took in a deep breath. ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll do as you say. For my comrades.¡± He walked away with the guard, who took him up onto the rampart via a manually operated dumbwaiter platform. He waved at us as the platform took him up and away; Sheena waved back to him until he disappeared inside the guardhouse on top of the parapet.


    As we were being cleared to pass through the second gate, I looked up at the rampart above. No fewer than eight soldiers were looking down at me, faces partially hidden behind their bowl-shaped helmets and demonlike masks. Each carried a fine wooden crossbow or tall bow, but that was not what drew my attention. Sitting within easy reach of each soldier was a small leather satchel with a wick sticking out of it.


    The hairs on the back of my neck bristled. Blackpowder bombs. Light and drop, and everything in this narrow space gets blown to bits. There was barely twenty feet between the gate we had passed through and the gate we were standing in front of. No escape if the guards think we¡¯re out of line.


    Alicia must have noticed my face because she elbowed me. ¡°Hey, Kuro. What¡¯s with you?¡±


    I nodded my head towards the rampart. ¡°You ever heard of blackpowder?¡± She shook her head. ¡°It¡¯s nasty stuff. It causes explosions that can rip a man in half. Enough of it might take a dragon out too. The guys above us have enough to blow the entire caravan to smithereens.¡±


    Her face didn¡¯t betray any reaction, but she had to be either impressed or afraid of the situation. ¡°Well, I guess we better be on our best behavior, then.¡± After five more minutes, the gate swung open, the twin metal doors creaking as two sets of soldiers had to pull them open from the other side.


    Our wagon trundled down a paved stone street and while I had at one point been in a Kierhaian city and knew what to expect, Alicia and Sheena did not. The girls oohed and ahhed as we passed under paper lanterns bearing runic script strung between buildings flanking the street. Bright and colorful streamers hung from every windowsill shaped like fish, dragons, or birds. As we passed a crossroad, they stared at the guardian statues on each corner.


    Each street intersection in Standing Stone, just like in Blossom City, had four guardian statues that sat on the four corners of the streets. Depicting noble animals draped in Kierhaian finery sitting at attention, the statues were well-maintained and so life-like it was easy to believe that they would come alive at any moment.


    After passing three sets of these statues, Sheena¡¯s curiosity got the better of her. ¡°What eccentric decorations. Do they serve a practical purpose?¡± She pointed at them as we passed a fourth set.


    I gingerly reached over to where she was sitting at the edge of the wagon¡¯s back and pulled her hand down to her side. ¡°The Kierhaians believe that spirits walk through their lands at will, and the statues are there to remind people of that. Please try not to look like you¡¯re making fun of them.¡±


    Alicia chuckled. As we passed by a group of people, however, any commentary she was about to make was cut off as her eyes were drawn to their clothing. The group comprised of six women all with dark hair of varying lengths with various fine jeweled hair pins. Each was wearing a beautiful robe made of silk, some resembling wraps held in place by sashes around the waist while others were full dresses with gilded necklines. The woman in the lead wore a form-fitting blue dress with long sleeves that left very little to the imagination, her long legs visible through a slit in the side.


    ¡°Is that silk? Are those women wearing clothes made of silk?!¡± She gawked at the women as the wagon passed, and the lead winked at her as she led her procession along. Alverd smiled.


    ¡°It is. Silk is one of the cornerstones of Kierhaian commerce. The climate in this country is just right for cultivating silkworms. If possible, we could visit the market towers later.¡±


    ¡°Market towers?¡± Alicia asked.


    Alverd elaborated. ¡°Because there¡¯s limited space inside Standing Stone¡¯s wall, the marketplace expanded vertically to allow for more space for buildings dedicated to other purposes. There are four towers built in a rectangular formation that have bridges between them. The towers themselves house the actual vendors and each tower is dedicated to certain goods. The bridges often draw performers or entertainers looking to make coin off the passerby.¡±


    Still excited, Alicia watched the women fade off into the distance. ¡°We could never have luxuries like this in Ishmar. Even before the annexation, Kierhai never exported silk to Ishmar directly. Once Marevar was taken, the only way we could acquire silk was through Kiret, who charged ridiculous prices for it. Not that anyone other than the most powerful could afford silk clothes anyway.¡±


    For once, Alverd seemed to pick up on something. ¡°You know, when we get a chance we could try looking at the market towers. Perhaps tomorrow. We might find some interesting things there that would catch your eye.¡±


    She scrambled over to him, nudging me aside as she crawled through the wagon to get to him, her eyes sparkling. ¡°Really?!¡±


    Irritated, I coughed loudly. ¡°With what money? A robe like that would cost us more gold than it would take to put the four of us up for lodging for a week.¡± I felt a little bad when Alicia¡¯s smile drooped, like a puppy who had just been kicked. Way to go, Kuro. Once again you know just what to say to bring the mood crashing down.


    Alverd clapped his hand on Alicia¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sure after we finish a job or two we can afford a few luxuries. After what we¡¯ve been through, we deserve to indulge a bit.¡± Alicia smiled again, her hope restored. Part of me was in awe at how quickly and easily he had turned her mood around. Why can¡¯t I have a way with girls like that?


    A sudden pressure on my shoulders, almost as though some small animal had jumped onto them, made me almost fall over. Oh, right. I guess I do have some charm, although damned if I know what it is. There was a nuzzling sensation on the back of my neck, as if some small animal was poking me with its nose, then disappeared.


    Maybe Deotra will know something that might help me out. No harm in asking. I¡¯ll have to arrange some private time to speak to her later. For now I had to respect her wish to remain a secret to Alverd and the others. Even if she hadn¡¯t requested that, I would¡¯ve by virtue of keeping Drache as far from them as possible.


    The Traveler¡¯s District was far away from the merchants¡¯ lodgings, so we had to disembark from the wagon eventually. The caravan leader graciously paid us a little extra saying it was his way of being thankful for good fortune. ¡°You lot be careful,¡± he said as his wagon rolled away. ¡°You get out of this what you put into it. If ever in doubt, do what you must knowing it will come back to you someday.¡±


    Alicia quirked her eyebrow at the leader¡¯s strange advice. ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±


    Alverd scratched at his chin. ¡°He was saying that what goes around comes around. He did us a good turn in the hopes that in the future one will be done to him. I can¡¯t argue with that logic, actually. Compassion is something you can never run out of no matter how much you give away.¡±


    Dear gods, that¡¯s a corny statement. If it were anyone but Alverd I¡¯d already be mocking them. Alverd started leading the group down the street, talking about the various sights and sensations to be found in Standing Stone¡¯s market towers, of the food and curios to be found. I felt a nagging sensation, like someone was watching me.


    I turned around and found myself face-to-face with a guardian statue. It was a fox sitting on its high legs and upright like a human and clad in a long robe decked out with charms and bead necklaces. Even carved in stone, the expression of the fox was clear, a smug look of satisfaction on its smirking face. I stepped around the statue.


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    ¡°People have such interesting ideas about us,¡± Deotra¡¯s voice mewled in my mind. ¡°If only they knew we aren¡¯t so dissimilar.¡±


    I spoke to Deotra in my mind¡¯s voice, trying not to lose track of what I was doing in the meantime. ¡°You¡¯ve been awfully quiet for the last few days. You haven¡¯t even snuck into camp in your fox form to keep me company while I¡¯m on watch. Is there something I should know?¡±


    There was a pause, and though I couldn¡¯t see her I could almost picture the way Deotra chewed at her lip nervously while thinking her answer over that I¡¯d noticed the first week after we¡¯d left Ethenia¡¯s ruins. Then she answered. ¡°Coming back to Kierhai is strange. How should one feel when they come back to a home they don¡¯t feel welcome in? Or a home that isn¡¯t really home anymore?¡±


    Well, now. That¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of this. Deotra had indeed come to me during my night watches to speak about various subjects, mostly about how to use the Staff of Farewells, and on two occasions just frivolous things about my childhood. She¡¯d never opened up about herself, and I was too afraid to broach the topic. Even in my head, I could hear the quaver in her tone telling me she was bitter or indifferent about coming home, or maybe a little of both.


    ¡°So you were born in Kierhai?¡± Instantly an image took shape in my mind¡¯s eye to that of an entire town hidden deep in a forest where humanoids resembling fox beastmen lounged around lazily in the sun napping without a care in the world. Each one possessed unearthly physical beauty and grace, prancing about in clothes similar to the women Alicia had seen earlier.


    Deotra fed me a memory of herself as a child. She was adorably small with her hair even messier than it was now so much so that I could barely see her eyes beneath the unruly bangs shrouding her face. She was wearing a white robe with red pants that had huge, billowing legs that flared out at the bottom like a dress¡¯s hem. She looked utterly miserable, and it made me strangely angry rather than sad to see her looking that way.


    Emotional transference. The memory is so strong in Deotra¡¯s mind that I can intuit and resonate with the emotions she feels when she conjures it. Emotional transference was not uncommon between a mage and familiar, but considering Deotra¡¯s human-level sentience and intelligence it made for a unique form of communication that conveyed her feelings better than words ever could.


    Then the full force of the anger hit me, and I nearly choked. A red hot, seething black feeling took hold of my heart, like someone had poured molten metal over it. It simmered and boiled and hissed all at the same time, coiling over my innards like a snake, squeezing tight. My breath seized in my throat and I doubled over, leaning against the statue to remain upright.


    There was something truly wrong about the anger. It was inaccurate to describe it as anger, for anger was too tame a word to encompass the full and complete loathing coursing through me like blood through my veins. My hand grasped at my chest, as if I were trying to rip my own heart out to make the sensation stop.


    Hatred. Pure, simple, focused. I knew this feeling for I too harbored it deep in my own memories. Left to fester and boil over the course of years of self-reinforcement, ever present beneath layers of masks and armor we built to hide it away from the world. Like one¡¯s shadow, it wasn¡¯t always visible, and could be hidden for a time, but ultimately it was always there, always watching, always waiting.


    My heart beat uncontrollably, haphazardly, no longer a steady rhythm but an uneven frenzy. ¡°Deotra, stop.¡± I pleaded. ¡°Make it stop. I can¡¯t breathe¡­¡±


    The image of the sad little girl vanished and was replaced with a swirling void of thoughts, memories and dreams blending together as they streaked past me, or through me. Then I stood, seemingly within an empty space that slowly began to illuminate.


    My eyes beheld a Kierhaian shrine, constructed of red wood and festooned with streamers and white charm papers with exorcism sutras written on them. The strings upon which the charms were hung crisscrossed with no apparent pattern or sense, draped across trees and stones and posts. I was standing beneath a massive red wood arch, a spirit gate, decorated with scraps of parchment upon which childrens¡¯ wishes were written in faltering handwriting. Despite having seen shrines like this in Blossom City, I was never sure if the shrine was a temple, a grave,  a monument, or some combination of all three.


    Then Deotra was hugging me, her short body pressed up against me, slender arms wrapped around my chest tight, her face buried under my chin. She looked up at me with her huge, watery golden eyes and quivering lips. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t mean for you to feel all of that. I didn¡¯t want you to see that.¡± Tears were already forming at the edges of her eyes. ¡°Please don¡¯t be mad at me. I promise I won¡¯t do it again. I¡¯ll control myself better. Please.¡±


    ¡°No, I¡¯m not mad. It¡¯s alright.¡± I placed my hand on her head and ran my palm through her silky soft tresses, stopping to scritch one of her perky fox ears. ¡°I just wasn¡¯t expecting it, was all.¡±


    She took a deep breath, in through her nose and then out through her mouth, allowing the soothing sensation of my hand in her hair to calm her. ¡°I was worried that if you saw, it might change the way you see me. You might come to fear me, or worse, hate me.¡± A tear ran down her cheek, down to her chin. ¡°I¡¯m not a good person. I¡¯ve done terrible things. I don¡¯t deserve you.¡±


    ¡°Hey, stop that. Don¡¯t say those things. I¡¯m not going to hate you without knowing why. Plus, if you¡¯ve been following me around since I was in that orphanage then you know I¡¯ve got a lot of things I¡¯m not proud of either.¡±


    Using the technique of emotional transference, I sent her a memory of a wheat field on fire, the screams of dozens of Ishmarian soldiers ringing out. She shuddered as she felt my grim satisfaction, my desire to watch them burn. She lowered her face back into my chest, shivering as she shook off the memory.


    Her arms held me like a vise. ¡°I guess you¡¯re right. We really are two of a kind.¡± She sniffled, then giggled, but as she did the giggling started becoming unhinged, a kind of hitching laughter that deepened until her voice had undergone a transformation. When Deotra looked at me again, her tone and facial expression told me that she was no longer in control.


    ¡°You two really deserve each other.¡± The smugness now dripping from Drache¡¯s voice made me want to vomit. ¡°But as usual, she only tells you part of the story. There is so, so, so much more to it than that.¡± Another memory forced its way into my mind, Deotra in the same outfit but older, closer to the appearance she had now, disheveled and with tears on her face, her emotions a jumble of pain, fear, confusion and betrayal. She was walking toward the rock from the shrine, tearing away the streamers and charms around it, drawn to it by some pulsing warmth emanating from it. As she came closer, I could hear through Deotra the sound of velvety, familiar laughter.


    ¡°Drache. Figures you¡¯d have to weigh in.¡± Breaking out of Deotra¡¯s grip was impossible, and even then I was still trapped in an empty mindscape, so I had to just accept my situation. ¡°You never show up unless you want something. So kindly say what you came to say so you can be on your way again. You unsettle me, and that¡¯s me being nice about admitting it.¡±


    Drache smiled with Deotra¡¯s face, turning what should have been an innocuous gesture into something sinister. ¡°You cut me to the quick, boy. Perhaps I simply wish to congratulate you on your continued survival.¡± Then she sighed. ¡°But since you asked, I will not beat around the bush. There is something in motion in Kierhai, a series of events that could result in thousands of people dying if nothing is done.¡±


    I was skeptical, but the faster I indulged her the faster I could escape. ¡°Ugh, fine. Make it quick. I don¡¯t have the patience for dealing with you.¡± A feeling like a snake¡¯s body wrapped around my waist, pulling me close, crushing me up against Deotra¡¯s body. ¡°Enough!¡± I yelled. ¡°Don¡¯t try me! Or maybe you need to be reminded that you still need me to do your bidding?¡±


    There was a brief hint of sulky irritation on Deotra¡¯s face, replaced by haughty indifference. ¡°Well, well, well. How like you to take all the fun out of playing my role. Very well.¡± She released me, stepping back. Behind Deotra, the image of a great tower appeared with patrols of guards stationed on walls surrounding it.


    ¡°There is something I need here in Kierhai. A relic known as the Hand of the Usurper. It is necessary to my plans. The Kierhaians hold it in a repository for dangerous artifacts left over from the War of the Five Kings here in this country.¡± She waved Deotra¡¯s hand, and something sparked into existence in front of me. A small dagger with a symmetrical, thin, triangular blade and gold hilt appeared. Set into the grip was a glittering amethyst, the same color as my own eyes. In the metal of the blade, however, I saw only chaos.


    Depictions of atrocities so foul and heinous they defied explanation reflected themselves in the metal sheen imprinting upon my subconscious and then fading away mercifully an instant later to be replaced by some new horrifying vision. The knife had seen death, the deaths of beings beyond my ability to comprehend. It took enormous will to tear my eyes away from it.


    ¡°What you see is a weapon of immense power. Granted unto mortalkind not as a gift, but as a burden. The Hand is a tool for slaying abominations of near godlike power, and I require it for that purpose.¡± Drache¡¯s gaze fell upon the Hand, looking at it with almost childlike wonder and admiration. Her hand stroked the handle of the knife the way one would admire a work of art. ¡°You will get it for me. And no, I will not tell you why I need it.¡± She smirked at me. ¡°I trust we understand each other? You do as I say, Deotra spends time with you, you get to play hero. Everyone wins.¡±


    That is beyond narcissistic. But if Drache thinks I¡¯ll just do as she says, I guess I can play along and hope she lets something slip. If there¡¯s one thing I can count on, arrogance always ends up being the undoing of her type. ¡°Whatever gets me out of this conversation faster, Drache. Get the Hand, give it to you, don¡¯t ask questions. I can handle it.¡±


    Deotra¡¯s expression became an arrogant smirk. ¡°Good. Nice to see I don¡¯t have to train my new dog too much. Now, begone with you. I daresay your friends are probably curious as to where you are.¡± I blinked. ¡°What do you mean, where I a-¡±


    My eyes unfocused, then refocused, and I saw I was no longer out on the street but in an alleyway. It was now dark, the only light coming from a lantern string. I stumbled out of the alleyway and into the light.


    Somehow, in my fugue state, I¡¯d lost at least two hours. It was now fully night, with the moon overhead and the stars out. In a trance, I¡¯d managed to blindly stumble through Standing Stone, to somewhere unknown. Looking at the light, I saw that it was coming from a post covered in red paper lanterns. I saw them and my face went just as red as them.


    Dear gods. Of all the places I could get lost in, I had to end up in the Red Lantern District.


    Across the street was a resplendent three-story building with paper windows, a steepled roof and elegantly painted red wood sign boards advertising the illicit services offered within. A few women were standing outside of the building, all in differing states of alluring undress, done up with makeup and cooing to passersby.


    Two of them were human, possibly twins, with long brown hair that ran almost down to their feet, their robes falling from soft shoulders and barely managing not to outrage their modesties. A short, slim elf girl with blonde tresses stood with them, her more lithe frame concealed between a bright red dress held by a rather loose-fitting sash. The last woman was a tall cat beastwoman with ginger hair done in twintails, making little mewing sounds and fluttering her eyelashes seductively at a mercenary who was now blushing slightly at the attention he was receiving.


    I know it¡¯s a brothel, but someone might be able to give me directions. Against my better judgment, I crossed the street, avoiding an inebriated guard who was staggering around out in the open, and made my way to the front door. Once the girls noticed me, the cat beastwoman clucked her tongue and sashayed over to me.


    She knelt down, partially because I was at least a foot shorter than her and also to allow her ample bosom to nearly spill from her decadent robe. ¡°Hey there, little mouse. You look lost. Why don¡¯t you come over here and play with me?¡± She winked, sticking her tongue out to look cute.


    I sighed. ¡°Ma¡¯am, while you are right in assuming I¡¯m lost, I actually need to be somewhere else right now. Could you kindly point me towards the Travelers¡¯ District? I need to get there, now.¡±


    She smirked and leaned forward even more. ¡°Aww, you gonna go back there? Won¡¯t you be cold and lonely? Why not stay here? You could rub my belly until I purrrrrr.¡±


    Somewhere in the back of my mind, a searing flash of incandescent rage ignited like a blue flame. The weight on my shoulders manifested again, and I felt something akin to a fox¡¯s tail curl around my throat possessively. A low hiss echoed in my ear. Uh oh. I better get the message across before this girl gets a lot hotter under the collar than she already is.


    I was about to tell the nice cat woman that I was more of a fox person when a heavy hand clad in a metal gauntlet landed on my shoulder. ¡°You said you were lost, kid? Seems to me you¡¯re in the Red Lantern District.¡± A gruff voice rumbled from somewhere behind and above me. Gulping, I slowly craned my head to see who it belonged to.


    My face blanched when I saw the black armor and draconic-looking helmet of a Black Scale Legionnaire and his buddy standing behind me, grinning like children in a candy shop. ¡°Now that we figured out that you aren¡¯t lost, why don¡¯t you do us a favor and get lost?¡± They laughed, and I nearly gagged on the smell of alcohol that wafted towards me. Great. Can this night get any worse?


    The guy on the right, the one who wasn¡¯t holding me, burped loudly and then looked at me again, his unfocused eyes seeing my staff. ¡°Hey, wait a tick. This one¡¯s a mage.¡± The blood in my veins froze.


    The first Legionnaire hiccuped and then chuckled. ¡°Izzat right? Little pipsqueak¡¯s a spellslinger? What luck.¡± His grip tightened, and I winced as his metal-clad fingers dug into my soft flesh.


    The cat woman¡¯s attitude changed instantly. She leaned back up, and she looked ready to rip the Legionnaire apart. ¡°Hey now. Mister Customer here was just about to play Cat in the Cradle with me, and if you lay a hand on him you¡¯ll be violating our laws. Believe it or not, there are some rather strict rules about starting brawls in the Red Lantern District.¡±


    I applaud her courage but reasoning with a Legionnaire is like trying to bash through a brick wall with your skull. You can try all you want but all you¡¯ll end up with is a headache. The Legionnaire not holding me stepped forward, until he was face-to-face with the beastwoman. ¡°Rules ain¡¯t shit if you ain¡¯t got the muscle to enforce them. Unless you¡¯re hiding some under that pretty outfit of yours.¡± He leered at her, chuckling lustfully.


    The cat woman grinned, her pearly teeth shining in the lantern light. ¡°Oh, I haven¡¯t an ounce of muscle on me, sir. Her, on the other hand, you should worry about.¡± The man turned his head to follow the cat woman¡¯s eyes and swiveled his head just in time to have a large studded club slam into his face. The man flew five feet through the air before hitting the ground and rolling another five.


    My instincts screaming, I threw myself to the ground. Above me there was a sickening crunch and a cry of surprise before the sound of metal hitting the street some ways away. Then someone stepped in front of me. I looked up at a tall woman clad in black iron armor and purple overcoat not unlike the kind worn by the guards at the gate, the now bloodied club in her left hand. Her jet black hair was done up in a short ponytail and her eyes were of a purple shade similar to my own. She reached her hand down to me.


    ¡°Yuzuruha. Gods am I glad to see you.¡±


    I grasped her hand and winced slightly as she pulled me up in one smooth motion, not even breaking a sweat as she hauled me to my feet. She brushed a bit of dust off my robe with her right hand and gave me an amused smirk. ¡°I¡¯m glad ta see ya too, Kuro. Now let¡¯s get outta here. Yer friends are lookin¡¯ for ya.¡±


    My fellow mercenary waved at the cat woman, tossing her a small pouch. ¡°Oh look, some shiny objects,¡± she said without attempting to hide the sarcasm in her voice. ¡°Surely they¡¯re so distractin¡¯ that you didn¡¯t see two guys get their asses beat outside yer establishment.¡±


    The cat woman laughed, then tossed the pouch back to Yuzuruha. ¡°Keep your money, she-wolf. This one¡¯s on the house.¡± She sauntered back to the brothel where the other girls were already making a big show of how utterly oblivious they were to the smackdown that had just taken place.


    I followed Yuzuruha through the street, taking comfort in knowing a heavily armed and armored person was now watching over me. When we were some distance away, she laughed out loud. ¡°Goddamn it, Kuro. I turn around for three years and here you are getting back into trouble like it was just yesterday. Your friends are lookin¡¯ all over Standin¡¯ Stone for ya. Guess that means your buddies will be buyin¡¯ the first round when we all get back to the Travelers¡¯ District.¡±


    I rolled my eyes. ¡°Good to see you¡¯re looking forward to drinking us all under the table again. That aside, what¡¯s been going on in Kierhai? You do know those were Black Scale Legionnaires you just left in the street back there.¡±


    Yuzuruha¡¯s expression became grim. ¡°Yeah, I know. Things took a pretty bad turn about a month ago, and Kierhai is turning into one big powder keg. Here¡¯s hoping a mage like you ain¡¯t the spark that lights it.¡± She nudged me, playfully, but I wasn¡¯t reassured.


    ¡°I make no promises. Now, tell me everything. Down to the last detail.¡±

 B3: Chapter 4: Kuro: Recipe for Disaster (Edited)

    An hour later, Yuzuruha had successfully brought me to the Travelers¡¯ District. Yuzuruha took me to a tavern near the market towers frequented by mercenaries, which was getting pretty lively based on the large crowd inside. The tavern had no wall between the interior and exterior seating areas, nor windows. There were cloth-draped tables with cushions that required one to be kneeling or sitting cross-legged throughout the interior.


    Alverd and the others were sitting at one of the indoor tables with plates of food, and when they saw us, Alicia got up and ran over.


    ¡°You wand-waving whacko, do you have any idea how worried we were?¡± She punched me in the shoulder, and it did hurt a little. I was about to make a retort when I could see that her eyes were somewhat red. Dear gods, had she been crying over me?


    Alverd de-escalated the situation in his usual manner by exerting calmness and putting his hands on both of our shoulders. ¡°Now, now, Alicia. I¡¯m sure Kuro has a good explanation for why he¡¯s been missing for the last three hours.¡± He gave me a neutral yet meaningful look. ¡°Alicia was very concerned, Kuro. We¡¯re aware there are Legionnaires in the city, and when she found out she ran out to look for you.¡±


    She stared at the floor, wringing her hands. ¡°I-It wasn¡¯t like I was worried. Kuro can take care of himself. I-I just know that Legionnaires fight dirty, so I wanted to make sure you weren¡¯t getting your arse beat in an alleyway or something.¡± She finally folded her arms in a huff.


    Real convincing. You got me completely fooled. Alverd ran his hand through her hair, and her cheeks turned bright red. Her expression melted into one of smug self-satisfaction as she nearly purred like a kitten. ¡°I just know that if you lost your best friend, it would hurt a lot, Alverd. So I wanted to make sure he was still kicking, that''s all.¡±


    I rolled my eyes mentally. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s weirder, that she did this to get brownie points with him, or if she was really worried that I¡¯d get gutted by a Legionnaire. Honestly? I¡¯d bet the latter. She¡¯s not Sheena. I guess I should still be grateful though.


    ¡°Thanks, Alicia. I appreciate it.¡± She blinked at me seemingly in disbelief, but when she saw that I was giving her a chance to get out of the discussion, she cleared her throat loudly. ¡°Ahem. Where were you anyway?¡±


    After we had seated ourselves at the table, Yuzuruha spoke up. ¡°Oh, I found yer friend in the Red Lantern District about to get thumped by some of those punk Legionnaires.¡± She laughed then swatted me on the back hard enough for me to nearly lose my footing. ¡°Lucky fer him, he ended up near Fei¡¯s house. Even if I hadn¡¯t come along, she woulda taken ya in long enough ta help ya out.¡±


    ¡°Fei?¡± I asked. ¡°The cat woman who was hittin¡¯ ya up. A lot of the guys in my merc outfit go to her place when they¡¯re not on the job. The Cradle. I figured I¡¯d go ask her if she¡¯d seen you around, let some of the other girls in the District know to keep an eye out fer ya. Also, Fei don¡¯t take shit from nobody, as you saw. She probably woulda scratched that tin man¡¯s eyes out if she thought you were really in trouble.¡±


    ¡°Good to know.¡± At that point, Alverd finally addressed the elephant in the room. ¡°Kuro, how did you end up in the Red Lantern District in the first place?¡± I swear the way Alicia and Sheena¡¯s eyes turned into lifeless lumps of coal when he said that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.


    ¡°Yes, Kuro. How did that happen?¡± Sheena asked, her voice sweet when her face was anything but.


    ¡°Look,¡± I started, but then Yuzuruha leaned on the table. ¡°Hell, poor kid probably lost his way and started following the signs. Believe it or not, most of the streets here are designed to funnel people one way or another. Some hoohah about the way the city was built. Somebody smarter ¡®an me once told me that the city was built outward from the Standin¡¯ Stone, by architects who knew what they were doin¡¯. Wouldn¡¯t surprise me if they also built it ta make sure people found their way to the brothels easily enough.¡±


    Taking the opening she¡¯d given me, I built upon it. ¡°I got distracted by some of the scenery and when I turned around, you guys were gone. I went down a few streets, but didn¡¯t find you. I tried to ask for directions, but ended up getting lost anyway. Eventually, I saw the red lanterns and figured I could ask someone there for help.¡± I looked at everyone¡¯s faces to gauge whether they thought I was being truthful or not.


    For the most part, everyone seemed to buy it. When I looked over at Yuzuruha, however, her eyes were sharp and looking straight through me. I gulped. Alverd¡¯s made that face before. It means you-and-I-are-going-to-talk-later. Problem is I think Yuzuruha wouldn¡¯t hesitate to beat it out of me if she thought I was withholding anything from her.


    Then her face lightened up and she waved at a barmaid in a stained red robe trying to make her way in between a pair of tables packed with mercenaries. ¡°Hey, another round for my friends here! Put it on the Noble Wolves¡¯ tab.¡± There was a raucous round of laughs and whistles from the gathered mercs, and the poor waitress nodded and made her way back towards the bar.


    Alverd watched the girl maneuver through a crowd of drunk merrymakers before turning back to Yuzuruha. ¡°So you¡¯re still with the Noble Wolves? I thought you were going to strike out on your own.¡±


    She leaned back in her chair, a somber look on her face. ¡°Y¡¯all remember my younger siblings, Alverd? All five of them?¡± He nodded. ¡°They left. The eldest of them decided she was tired of me makin¡¯ all the decisions, so she took the kids and skedaddled.¡±


    Oh, shit. I put my hand on her shoulder. ¡°That¡¯s horrible. How long ago was that?¡± She sniffled, trying not to show how it was affecting her. ¡°A year back. I did the only damn thing that made sense after they left. I dove headfirst down a bottle and tried ta¡¯ figure out what I did to make them wanna leave.¡± She grabbed her flagon and downed it, which was impressive seeing as how it was filled with whiskey so strong I could almost feel it burning my stomach from just watching her. ¡°Took a while. And a lot of bottles.¡±


    She finished, belched, and then slammed the flagon back on the table. ¡°Anyway, one day I stumble into the guild headquarters in Blossom City lookin¡¯ fer a job, an¡¯ I trip on goddamn somethin¡¯. An¡¯ when I looked up, there was this white-haired angel and his younger sister lookin¡¯ down at me, and they helped me up.¡± Her eyes went a little dreamy for a second. ¡°Roland and Alouette. Used to be riflemen in the Margloomian Forgeborn Army. Now they¡¯re part of the Wolves. Me an¡¯ Roland are together too, for just under a year.¡± She gave a very deep and contented sigh, like someone smitten at first sight.


    Then she shook her head and broke out of her little daze. ¡°So, it weren¡¯t in the cards fer me ta¡¯ uproot myself. The three of us have been livin¡¯ in my home in Blossom City, and we¡¯re trying ta¡¯  do the best we can, given everythin¡¯. Not so easy given what¡¯s been happenin¡¯ lately.¡±


    Alicia scowled. ¡°Indeed. The presence of Legionnaires says that something is very wrong, or that it¡¯s about to be. Death follows them wherever they go, and no Legionnaire was ever known for keeping a measured hand on his blade.¡± Yuzuruha huffed. ¡°Yeah, but thing is, trouble came ta¡¯ our neck o¡¯ tha¡¯ woods before those maniacs showed up. Group callin¡¯ themselves the Divernian Swords.¡±


    Something sparked in the back of my mind, an old feeling that usually heralded bad news. Where have I heard that name before? I wracked my brain furiously. In a flash, I recalled the knowledge.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°It¡¯s a reference to the Five Kings, isn¡¯t it?¡± A few mercs at some of the nearby tables stopped their conversations and were openly staring in our direction after Yuzuruha name dropped the Swords. A quick glance at their guild affiliations, worn openly on their armor, however, confirmed they were also Noble Wolves like her. The emblem of a seated wolf howling at a crescent moon was present somewhere on every single merc in the tavern, which actually made me feel better. Good. These are her people. If there¡¯s trouble, they¡¯ll rally with us.


    Sheena adjusted her glasses. ¡°Divernia was the name of the temple the Ishratans built at the command of the King of Fire, correct? And then later, where the ritual was conducted by the Five Kings to bring about the end of the world?¡±


    Yuzuruha nodded. ¡°Yup. That¡¯s how the old records say it went down. The guards who stood watch over the temple were known as Swords, so the name is a pretty obvious tip o¡¯ the hat to those bastards. These modern Swords, they¡¯re bastards in their own right.¡±


    The waitress returned, placing our drinks on the table from a precariously balanced tray she had propped against her shoulder. ¡°Here you go. Try not to spill anything, it doesn¡¯t wash out.¡± Judging by the many brown colored stains on her robe, I decided to take her word for it. I took a flagon of mead (the honey would mask the taste of the alcohol) and took a sip. Alicia took her drink and downed it in one go. When she put the flagon down, a white stripe was left on her lips. She looked at me grumpily.


    ¡°What? It¡¯s milk. You really want me to drink something that will make it harder for me to control my temper?¡± She wiped her face petulantly as I stifled a snicker.


    A loud hiccup across the table drew everyone¡¯s attention. Sheena had her hand held up to her mouth. ¡°Sorry.¡± She hiccuped again. ¡°This might be a bit too strong for my constitution.¡± She pushed the half full flagon across the table. Based on the smell, it was probably ale. She made a crude sound that was a mixture of burp and hiccup, and her face turned slightly green. ¡°It might be some time before I can drink something like that with any kind of gusto.¡±


    Alverd took his flagon of ale and drained half with a steady, paced gulp. ¡°With many things, the key is moderation. You needn¡¯t push yourself.¡± He took some silver coins out of his pocket, but Yuzuruha shook her head.


    ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it. Tonight¡¯s my treat. And I¡¯m more n¡¯ happy ta¡¯ put ya up in my place fer a bit when we get back. I¡¯ll introduce ya¡¯ to Roland and Lou.¡±


    She took another swig of her whiskey. ¡°Right, so about a few months ago this group of shady sorts comes in from out of nowhere. Start hittin¡¯ caravans and traders passin¡¯ in between the cities here in Kierhai. Gets to be a real problem, so all of a sudden mercs like me are in high demand. We got hit during a job to bring some weapons and medical supplies to Standing Stone, and during the fight we managed to take one of these idiots alive.¡±


    ¡°Goddamn cultists is what they are. Spoutin¡¯ off about how the Kings aren¡¯t dead, just waitin¡¯ fer their chance to come back and rule the world they almost destroyed. Gotta be messed in the head if ya wanna help bring back the nutjobs that nearly killed everyone in the world jus¡¯ cause they all wanted ta¡¯ have a giant staff measuring contest with the universe at stake.¡± Sheena blushed heavily across the table, obviously put off by Yuzuruha¡¯s colorful language.


    ¡°So I¡¯m beating this guy over the head and he tells us everythin¡¯. Mostly about some heist his group is plannin¡¯ in the near future. Apparently his little book club wants this artifact that¡¯s currently holed up in Blossom City. Somethin¡¯ about killin¡¯ gods or crap like that. As if things like that actually exist.¡±


    Alarms started ringing in my head. ¡°You mean like a weapon?¡± I ventured.


    ¡°I dunno, after that the guy bit his goddamn tongue off and refused to talk. Lunatics, every one of ¡®em. My squad turned that guy over ta¡¯ the authorities and that was the end of it. Next thing I knew, we had Legionnaires demanding entry to our city.¡±


    Alicia chimed in. ¡°When did that happen?¡±


    Yuzuruha scratched her chin, deep in thought. ¡°Think it was about a month and a half ago. Whole group of these dragon riders landed outside and wanted to speak to the man in charge of Standin¡¯ Stone, the Steadfast. Took three hours of tense negotiation before a select group of Legionnaires were allowed in to accompany their general.¡±


    Alicia leaned forward. ¡°A general? There were only three active officers with that rank when I¡­ I mean, last time I heard about it. Did you catch a name?¡±


    Yuzuruha took a deep breath. ¡°Uhhh, hm. Think it was Guun? No, too short. Oh, Guunzel! General Guunzel. Big scary bastard who looked like he¡¯d turn his own momma in for a pat on the head from his king if he thought the old bitch had magic.¡±


    I watched as the color drained from Alicia¡¯s face. That¡¯s something I¡¯ve never seen before. Normally she¡¯s not the type to let fear show. Alverd nudged Alicia. ¡°Who¡¯s General Guunzel?¡±


    She swallowed, then answered nervously. ¡°Somebody my father didn¡¯t want anywhere but on the eastern front where he could slaughter mages by the dozens. His name isn¡¯t well known because my father didn¡¯t want the other countries to know the kind of atrocities he was committing. Anything you¡¯ve heard the Legion accused of doing? He¡¯s not the one who established the doctrines, but he did write a series of treatises on how to execute them to the fullest extent.¡±


    Great, a mass murderer who fancies himself a philosopher. Next you¡¯ll tell me he¡¯s a poet, too. Sheena lifted her head out of her hands for a second to chime in, her face still the picture of sickness. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of him. He was practically the bogeyman among the noble elite of Algrustos. He¡¯s the quintessential picture of what we thought was the typical Ishmarian. His methodology was the reason why Algrustos has spent so long circulating propaganda across Selarune regarding the Legion.¡±


    Alicia¡¯s head swiveled to face her. ¡°You really did that?¡±


    Sheena shook her head, slowly. ¡°The Magisters¡¯ idea. Best way to build popular support for your cause is to dehumanize your enemy. The idea that your enemy was one that threatened you because they didn¡¯t understand concepts like empathy or compassion has a great way of uniting people behind a singular thought, like ¡®Ishmarians are all mindless barbarians¡¯. The Magisters started the practice before I was old enough to crawl.¡±


    There was the sound of a throat clearing. ¡°As I was sayin¡¯, big scary black armor guy comes into the city and wants to meet with the Emperor. The Steadfast agrees to arrange a meetin¡¯, but only if the bulk of Guunzel¡¯s men stay here in Standin¡¯ Stone and behave themselves. It¡¯s been a few weeks since the General left his soldiers here, and in the time since they¡¯ve made asses of themselves with the populace.¡±


    ¡°They pick fights with everyone around. Idiots seem ta¡¯ think diplomatic immunity extends ta¡¯ them too. It don¡¯t. They also think they¡¯re so tough nobody will mess with them. There have already been a few standoffs with the local authorities and some mercs. Nobody has been killed but a few people got roughed up on both sides. Worst was when a Legionnaire started beatin¡¯ a mage in the street. Six mercs jumped on him to save the mage and left the lizard boy near death.¡±


    She waved to the waitress for another drink. ¡°Legionnaires wanted blood for that. The Steadfast proclaimed that the Legion was out of line and that any further tomfoolery would have them expelled from Standin¡¯ Stone. Yer lucky I came along when I did, Kuro. Those guys probably remember what happened to that other schmuck and were gonna take it out on ya.¡±


    They can get in the bloody queue with all the other people who want a go at me. ¡°I guess it would be in our best interest to move on to Blossom City at first light, then. No need to stick around when the Legionnaires know my face.¡± Typical. I haven¡¯t been in the city for a day and already I¡¯ve got people who want to kill me. Same shit, different country I guess.


    Sheena made another hiccup-burp sound and went facedown on the table. ¡°Urrrrgh. How do you people live like this?¡± She mumbled. ¡°I don¡¯t like this. It¡¯s like I have butterflies in my stomach, but made of fire that wants to come out my mouth.¡±


    Yuzuruha laughed. ¡°Well excuse us, princess. Next time we¡¯ll pull out the lace doilies fer¡¯ ya and serve champagne. Y¡¯all are okay to come back with me and my gang. We can make room fer¡¯ ya on my wagon. I don¡¯t like leaving ya alone on the road after what happened.¡±


    Alverd again tried to bring out his coin pouch. ¡°We¡¯re grateful, Yuzuruha. If there¡¯s anything we can do to repay you¡­¡±


    She pushed his hand away. ¡°Stow that, yer gonna need it. Y¡¯all can make it up ta¡¯ me by doin¡¯ some housework or sumthin¡¯.¡± Her drink was put down on the table by the overworked waitress, and she scooped it up. ¡°Might be best if you bunk in the Noble Wolves¡¯ encampment tonight. Don¡¯t like the idea of you out in the wind with all these tin men walkin¡¯ around.¡±


    I sighed in relief. ¡°Thanks. I know my bones appreciate it.¡± I took another draw from my own flagon, finishing the rest of my mead. ¡°Now, some grub and unwinding and then I think I¡¯m ready for bed. It¡¯s been a long day.¡± I leaned back, stretching my arms. When I leaned forward again, however, Alicia was looking past me toward the tavern entrance.


    ¡°Sorry, Kuro. But it looks like that day isn¡¯t over yet.¡±


    Cautiously, I followed her eyes. Standing at the entrance to the tavern were two Legionnaires. They were scanning the crowd who were looking back at them. One of the Legionnaires spied Yuzuruha, and pointed at her. I saw that he was one of the men she¡¯d left in the street back in the Red Lantern District, only now he had an ugly purplish black mark on his face where her club had impacted it. ¡°There¡¯s the bitch! I¡¯m gonna tan your hide when I get over there!¡±


    He moved forward, but the three Wolves sitting at the table closest to him stood up in unison with a motion so fluid that their silver-colored iron armor didn¡¯t even make a sound. A second later, every other Wolf in the establishment was on their feet, thirteen armored men and women now ready to throw hands. The bartender and waitress looked at each other and ducked behind the bar.


    Yuzuruha leaned back in her chair, a gigantic shit-eating grin on her face. ¡°Oh yeah? You and what army, lizard boy?¡±


    The second Legionnaire who had a crude brace around his neck fashioned from overlaid strips of thick cloth whistled. A total of fifteen Legionnaires shuffled into view on the street outside, their polished black armor on full display in the low light of the paper lanterns hanging over them. Yuzuruha and I had the same thought at the same time, voicing it simultaneously.


    ¡°Well, shit.¡±

 B3: Chapter 5: Sheena: The Not-So-Glamorous Life of an Adventurer, Day One

    On the first day after the destruction of Ethenia, after we began our trek towards the border of Kierhai, I asked Alverd what it took to be a professional mercenary.


    He scratched his chin thoughtfully, taking time to ponder my question. Finally, he answered my question with another question. ¡°Do you want to learn how to be a mercenary, milady?¡±


    I nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t really see any other path for me at this point. And from now on, you can drop the ¡®milady¡¯ part. I¡¯m not going to hang on to that pompous title anymore.¡± I stoked the campfire absentmindedly while I thought about it. ¡°It¡¯ll be tough, I¡¯m sure. But there¡¯s nothing for me here. The only way to keep going is forward.¡±


    Alverd stared into the fire. He was lost in his own memories. When he finally cleared his throat, he looked me in the eye before speaking. ¡°I¡¯m afraid there isn¡¯t any formal or official training I can put you through. The best I can offer is mentoring you in the ins and outs of what it means to be a mercenary. Although, if you want a more cynical, detailed analysis, you¡¯re free to ask Kuro about his Cardinal Rules.¡±


    This is the first I¡¯ve heard of these. ¡°Cardinal Rules?¡± Alverd nodded. ¡°Kuro has this set of ten or so rules to being a professional mercenary. I see them more as suggestions, really. They¡¯re crafted from his rather unique view of human nature rather than any hard experience we¡¯ve had over the years, so take them with a grain of salt.¡±


    Alverd walked me through the first two. Not surprising that Kuro is deeply distrustful of others. Comes with the territory, I guess. The Third Rule stated, ¡°a bad feeling in the gut is worth more than the money on the table.¡± He was able to break it down to the much simpler idiom ¡°trust your instincts¡±.


    ¡°Surely Kuro could be more concise when it comes to his Rules?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. He claims there¡¯s a lot of nuance into how he phrases them. At times, it feels like the way they¡¯re worded allows them to bend them when he pleases, although I can¡¯t complain since he bends them in our favor nearly as often as he tries to use them against me.¡± He smirked, throwing another bundle of sticks into the fire. ¡°Besides, he knows he can¡¯t strong arm me into going against my conscience. I know he just wants me to try and think things through a bit before I commit to any acts of selfless self-sacrifice.¡±


    ¡°You know him very well. Just as he knows you.¡± Alverd leaned back and looked at the night sky, taking a deep sigh. ¡°He¡¯s my best friend. It¡¯d be hard to call him that if I didn¡¯t understand him as well as he did me.¡± We sat together for some time, and then he spoke again. ¡°If you want me to help you adjust to the life of a mercenary, I can offer some pointers. Of course, you can always ask for help if you need it.¡±


    I tried not to let the burning in my cheeks show when I smiled and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a deal.¡±


    Watching a bar fight break out all around me, the best I could do was feebly smack my arm against Alverd¡¯s armor, mumbling as I did so. ¡°Toooooo looooouuuuudddddd.¡± I moaned, as the sound of breaking glass assaulted my delicate ears. There was shouting now, and each spike in noise felt like a blackpowder cannon going off a foot away from me. My vision swam as I tried to push myself to my feet.


    From the side of me, I heard Kuro¡¯s distorted voice. ¡°How much did she even have?!¡± I felt Alicia¡¯s arm hook itself behind my back and grip my hip, and she hauled me up, pulling my arm over her shoulder. ¡°Not even a full flagon. She¡¯s a bloody lightweight.¡± I was about to open my mouth to protest when another round of nausea bubbled up in my stomach and I had to put my left hand up to my mouth to stifle a burp.


    How do people enjoy this swill? Is this really a desirable state of mind to be in? Why is everything so unbearably, agonizingly loud? The entire world lurched to the left, then the right as Alicia yanked me upright and onto my feet, everything a blur as my vision swam in and out of focus. Urrrggghhh, please, be more gentle. My head feels ready to split open.


    No sooner did Alicia remove me from the table when the large mercenary woman who had rescued Kuro slammed a Legionnaire onto it. She had grabbed him mid-charge, utilized his forward momentum, and lifted him up and over her shoulder so that he fell back first onto the small piece of furniture. It collapsed under his weight, and he groaned as he lay amidst the splintered wood. Yuzuruha grabbed him with both hands and with a grunt of rage shoved him headfirst through the flimsy wooden wall like a miniature battering ram..


    I did not really understand what happened next. One second Kuro was screaming, the next a burly man dressed in Kierhaian iron armor was tackling a Legionnaire over the bar. Black armored soldiers swarmed into the tavern and silver armored mercenaries met them with fists, bottles and harsh language. A Legionnaire started smacking a Noble Wolf¡¯s head against the bar, only for the bartender to yank said Legionnaire¡¯s helmet off and smash a large bottle over his head, spilling brownish liquid and broken glass all over the countertop.


    Alicia yelled next to me, making my eardrums feel like they were being stabbed with needles. ¡°Kuro! Blast them or something!¡± Kuro¡¯s equally loud and equally painful voice was preceded by the sound of his brass staff whacking something metallic. ¡°Do you want me to blow us up too? Alcohol is flammable, you know!¡±


    Wait, really? Is that why it felt like my throat was on fire after I drank that disgusting drink? Bleh. My brain struggled, unsuccessfully, to understand how a liquid could be flammable when it was meant to be consumed like water as Alicia steadied me. Alverd took his shield, holding it like a dinner tray, and bashed it across another Legionnaire¡¯s face, making another loud noise that almost made my head split open. Dear Eternity, please make it stop. My kingdom for some earplugs, my bloody head hurts so badly.


    Any further thoughts I had on the subject were interrupted when Alicia let go of me. My knees were as wobbly as a newborn calf¡¯s and certainly in no state to hold me up, and I landed on my rear. A Legionnaire was swiping at Alicia with a broken bottle, the sharp glass still dripping with what had been in it. She was grappling with his wrist, trying hard to stop him from driving it into her eye. Both of her hands were clasped around his arm, muscles bulging in her arms as she grunted with effort.


    Slowly, she bent the man¡¯s arm back and then violently jerked it to the side and twisted it to force him to drop the bottle. With a cry of pain, the man bent at the knee, unable to maintain his balance. Alicia then reared her head back and with a shrill battle cry slammed her forehead into his face. With his visor up nothing stood in the way of her headbutt. He crumpled, and Alicia swayed slightly before she righted herself.


    Her eyes were sharp, gleaming with barely contained fury. ¡°SCREW IT!¡± she screamed. With another high pitched wail she ran, stepped up onto one of the floor tables, and jumped off of it and into three other Legionnaires, bowling them over and taking them all to the ground. Like a rabid animal, she set about savaging them with her bare hands, smacking their heads together, and making even more damnable noise.


    With another strike from his metal staff, Kuro knocked out the Legionnaire who¡¯d been assaulting him. He stumbled back, high on his adrenaline, his eyes darting everywhere to find a way out. ¡°There has to be a back door or something. Probably in the back. That¡¯s where I¡¯d put it.¡± My goodness, he¡¯s right. The logic of it is so simple. How did I not think of that? I nodded sagely, regretting it instantly as my vision blurred again. As I fought back another wave of nausea threatening to come up my throat, another Legionnaire grabbed Kuro by the shoulders.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The young mage was hurled across the room where he landed on the bartop with a groan of  pain. As the Legionnaire pushed her way through the crowd to get to him, he reached over to the bottles on the shelf behind the bar. He grabbed a large bottle, flicked the cork out with his thumb, then stuffed something into the lip. As the Legionnaire reached for him, he ran the jewel on the end of his staff against the mouth of the bottle and it ignited in flame. With a scream somewhere between war cry and shrieking seven year old girl, he swung it at the Legionnaire¡¯s face.


    The bottle shattered, coating her in now flaming liquid. She screamed, and my mind went blank for perhaps maybe the umpteenth time since this entire fiasco had begun as white hot needles pricked my brain. Honestly, these barbarians. They act like they¡¯ve never had fire thrown at them before. Pansies. The Legionnaire hit the floor, writhing and moaning as she tried to slap at her own face to put out the flames.


    Realizing I no longer had anyone looking after me, Alverd bashed another Legionnaire out of his way and appeared by my side. He looked at me with his piercing ice blue eyes and his windswept hair (Was there wind in here? How is his hair doing that?) and stood before me in all his chivalric glory, the paragon of knighthood come to rescue me. He gently pulled me back to my feet. I¡¯d swoon, but at this point I¡¯m not sure if I could do it in his direction. Was standing always this hard? I think I¡¯d remember if it was.


    When he spoke, his voice was the only thing that didn¡¯t cause me immediate pain. ¡°Excuse me, Sheena. Are you alright?¡± I giggled like a smitten little girl, my half-functioning brain unable to control itself. The one time you need to be in control of yourself, and you¡¯re hammered like a blacksmith¡¯s anvil. You were a queen, act like it!


    I wanted to say, ¡°now that you are here, good sir knight¡±, But what came out of my mouth was more like a series of mumbles and drooling incoherence with some drunken tittering. He folded his right arm around me, pulled me tight against him, and held up his shield to cover my head. ¡°Stay with me. Things are becoming a little hectic in here.¡±


    I could die a happy woman right now, I thought as I felt his warmth, even as my cheek pressed against the cold steel of his breastplate. Gods, can you hear me? This is all I¡¯ve ever wanted. I burped, and when I giggled again at the absurdity of it all I could taste bile in my mouth.


    All around, mercenaries and soldiers continued their bar brawl with great enthusiasm. The discipline and tactics of the Legionnaires met the camaraderie and anything-goes fighting of the Noble Wolves. It was a surprisingly even fight, with no one side seeming to have any real advantage, even temporarily. The Legionnaires tried to maintain a tight formation to avoid being overwhelmed, but they were being assailed on all sides by the Wolves, who, true to their namesakes, were swarming around them.


    In the middle of the crowd, Yuzuruha threw a Legionnaire to the ground and then jumped up in the air, landing on his face elbow first and then crushing him with the entire weight of her armored body. Kuro was now throwing more of his flaming bottles with wild abandon from behind the bar while laughing like a maniac. Alicia was being grappled by two Legionnaires, but she kicked one of them in the head before yanking the one grabbing her from behind over her shoulder and slammed him onto the ground.


    I looked up at the beautiful, beautiful, perfect knight still shielding me, an oasis in a sea of uncivilized chaos, and he took my breath away. I cleared my throat, tried to suppress the surge of sickness, and enunciated carefully. ¡°Is¡­ Is it always like this?¡±


    He smiled and it made me feel like the world had finally achieved perfection in earthy form. My heart beat fast, and this time it had nothing to do with the alcohol. ¡°Not always. Sometimes it gets downright unpleasant.¡± I sighed, then hiccuped, again tasting something nasty at the back of my mouth. Goddess Eternity, are you there? Please make this moment last forever.


    Then a Legionnaire swung a bottle at Alverd¡¯s head, and he went down. Still in his embrace, I went down with him. He hit the ground hard, me on top of him. His eyes fluttered, unfocused. The Legionnaire looked at the now broken glass in his hand, and then at Alverd, and grinned. He pulled his arm back to strike.


    Something about this caused an already fragile chain to snap deep in my heart. With no restraint or reason to stop me, all I could see was this filthy barbarian gloating over his cheap shot, and his desire to kill this specimen of physical perfection with something as uncouth as a broken bottle. Not on my watch. You get your disgusting hands away from my champion.


    I pointed my staff at the Legionnaire. It took me a second for my eyesight to clear enough to realize that I was not holding it. In the back of my mind, I remembered it was still leaning against the wall behind me, and what I was actually pointing at the Legionnaire was my middle finger, using a foul gesture that Alicia had assured me was universal, and certainly not Ishmarian in origin. Based on the Legionnaire¡¯s reaction, I now knew that to be untrue, because he gave me a rage-filled shout and turned his weapon on me.


    My fingers twisted, no longer insinuating that his bird should be inverted (what a dumb way to insult people) but now assuming the motions of a spell. As the Legionnaire pulled his arm back to thrust, the air grew cold around my fingertips. In an instant a shard of ice as long and thick as my arm solidified into being and with a flick of my pointer finger shot forward and into the narrow space between his helmet and breastplate, embedding itself in his throat.


    He choked, his eyes bulging, as the long shard penetrated far enough to exit partially out the back of his neck. He had enough time to reach futilely for the shard before his eyes rolled up into his head and he pitched backward, a long gurgle his final word. When he hit the ground, everyone nearby backed away, and suddenly it became deathly quiet in the tavern.


    Within seconds, the fight stopped. All eyes were on the dead Legionnaire, blood already pooling under his head. I shambled forward swaying as I fought to maintain my balance. I looked at all the people in the tavern, Ishmarians, Kierhaians, my comrades, who were all staring at me. I burped again, then grit my teeth.


    ¡°I¡¯ll only say it once. Keep your fucking hands off my man.¡± And with that, I hunched over and projectile vomited the contents of my stomach across the floor. My stomach thoroughly evacuated, I then fell over to my right and blacked out.


    When I came to some time later, it was in a tent. I was lying in a bedroll with a blanket thrown over me. My head was still hurting, but at least I was no longer nauseous. With some effort, I pushed myself upright. Through the tent flap, I could see a camp full of Noble Wolf mercenaries, most of them being tended to by medics who were patching up cuts, scrapes and bruises. Yuzuruha came in sporting a bandage on her face under her left eye, which now had a purplish bruise forming under it.


    ¡°Good ta see yer awake. Yer friends were worried about ya.¡± She helped me up, and thankfully my legs were able to steady me this time. ¡°Had to pick ya up and drag ya out of there kinda fast. I¡¯m afraid things are a lot worse than we thought.¡± She brought me outside. Based on the fact that I could see the moon in the sky, it had only been a short time since the bar fight had ended.


    The Noble Wolves¡¯ encampment was a large open air fort cordoned off from the rest of the city by stone walls, making it a fort within a fort. The encampment had a modest armory, medical tent, a barracks for permanently quartered mercenaries, and a building where clients would go to hire out the Wolves¡¯ services. In the middle of the camp, six wagons were being prepped for departure, and I could see Kuro, Alicia and Alverd by them.


    Kuro was unharmed miraculously. He waved at me, his teeth flashing as he showed no remorse for any of his actions. Alicia had a number of bandages on her arms and upper body but nothing too serious, and her customary scowl had reappeared. Alverd, on the other hand, was leaning heavily against the side of the wagon, a set of bandages wrapped around his head. There was a concerning red smear on the side where he had taken the bottle, and my heart sank with guilt when I saw it.


    Alverd held up his hand to stop me before I could say anything. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me, Sheena. It¡¯ll take more than a bottle to the head to take me out. Although I did lose consciousness for a moment.¡± A part of me was glad that he had not been witness to my outburst after he¡¯d been hit, but the other half was disappointed. You finally managed to confess how you feel, albeit in a clumsy way, and he wasn¡¯t even able to hear it. It figures, I suppose.


    Already climbing into the wagon, Kuro made an impatient sound. ¡°Hey, less bellyaching and more moving. We need to be out of this city now. The death of a Legionnaire is going to cause shockwaves through the entire city, and if we mean to slip the lawful authorities we gotta be gone before they figure out what happened.¡± He leaned down and helped Alicia into the wagon.


    She glowered at me before taking a seat. ¡°Make sure to check yourself, Sheena. Wouldn¡¯t want to lose anything that belongs to you.¡± I felt a cold sweat on my forehead when she said that, her merciless eyes boring holes into me. Goodness. All may be fair in love and war but it¡¯s still quite the catty affair. Yuzuruha pushed me up onto the wagon before hauling herself into it.


    I nervously looked at Alverd who seated himself behind Alicia and next to me. He saw me staring and I chuckled nervously. ¡°So, how did I do on my first day of being a mercenary?¡± I braced myself.


    To my relief, he smiled at me. ¡°All things considered, not bad. I¡¯ve definitely seen worse.¡±


    Ahead of us, the gate to the encampment opened, the double wooden doors bearing the guild symbol of the howling wolf. The wagon ahead of us didn¡¯t even start moving before a small army of men, dressed in the same Kierhaian iron armor as the men at the gate, shuffled in and barred the way. One of them, with a helmet that had two long pheasant feathers protruding from a prop on the top, along with a pair of golden wings on its sides, came up to our wagon.


    He saw us and held up a scroll of parchment, which he looked at, then squinted at me. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s her. By the authority of the Stalwart, guardian of Standing Stone, I hereby place you under arrest. You¡¯re to surrender your arms and come with me.¡±


    Behind me, Kuro swore viciously, and for the first time, I finally began to understand the cynicism behind his Cardinal Rules.

 Chapter 6: Kuro: The Right Man for the Job (Edited)

    At least this time, we weren¡¯t led away in shackles.


    The Kierhaian authorities escorted us in a tight formation through the city streets, boxing us in on all sides as they moved in practiced unison. As we were ushered through the street, what few pedestrians remained at this time of night quickly made way for the procession, eager to not run afoul of the guards clad in their beetle-like white iron armor.


    I wasn¡¯t going to run. Cooperation was our best chance at getting through this. Based on what Yuzuruha said the Legion has been causing trouble in Standing Stone for a long time. If we testify that the Legionnaires came to that tavern and started the fight, I¡¯m willing to bet the Steadfast will rule in our favor. I wasn¡¯t sure why I was being so optimistic about our chances, but I had a gut feeling we had a strong case.


    Sheena looked a bit unsteady, still grappling with the aftereffects of her first bender I assumed. Alicia¡¯s eyes were darting back and forth, probably devising a plan on how to take them out if it came to it. Alverd was cool as ice, walking in time with the guards and not betraying his emotions at all. His face was as passive as stone, neither concerned nor frightened.


    You gotta keep your cool. I know Alverd is worried about how this will go, but if he can keep it together then so can you. I took a deep breath. Instead, you should concern yourself with other details. That likeness they had of Sheena was spot on. Start with that.


    The Kierhaian guard captain had shown us the parchment he had used to identify Sheena. It did indeed have a depiction of her that was accurate to the last detail, including a note about the color of her heterochromatic eyes. Someone who had known her for a great deal of time had provided the Kierhaian authorities with that likeness, and it didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out who.


    We knew it wasn¡¯t wise to think the Magisters were dead when we couldn¡¯t confirm their deaths. If not them, it could also be Eliza¡¯s doing as well. Someone is either aware that Sheena is alive and well outside of Algrustos, or they¡¯re hedging their bets and sending out notices to see if they can catch her. Either way, we¡¯ve got someone breathing down our necks.


    My money is on the Ishmarians. Why else would they send a diplomatic envoy to Kierhai headed by a man who has fought mages successfully for years? The bigger question is what Eliza gets out of getting her hands on Sheena now. The only thing that makes sense is appeasing the fear mongering her nation has fostered toward mages for so long.


    My line of thought was interrupted after much speculation when I nearly stumbled over a stair. We had reached the front of the Standing Stone itself, and a small stair preceded the imposing metal door that had been fitted into the rock. The procession made its way to the door, which opened by lifting vertically into the rock to allow us in. On the other side, twin lines of guards were pulling ropes in tandem to lift the door up on a metal track. Interesting design choice. It begs the question though, is the door designed to keep people out, or in?


    Inside the door, the entry hall was filled with several stone fortifications aimed at repelling anyone who had forced their way in. Raised platforms with cover bristled with crossbowmen, all standing at attention. On either side of the room, twenty foot tall openings served as paths to other parts of the fortress. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of the same black meteor stone as the exterior, but the interior torchlight caused the stone to flicker and upon closer inspection I could see flecks of crystalline material that caught and refracted the light.


    For the first time since the tavern brawl, Sheena¡¯s eyes finally returned to normal and she seemed to straighten up. ¡°Oof. I will never touch another drop of alcohol ever again.¡± She blinked, then looked around. ¡°Could somebody fill me in? I think I¡¯ve spent a bit of time spacing in and out and I¡¯m not quite sure where we are.¡±


    Is this girl for real? I know she¡¯s not the sole reason we¡¯re here, but she¡¯s definitely one of the bigger ones aside from that riot we started. Either she¡¯s really this clueless or she¡¯s up to something. Her gaze kept shifting around the room, the way a bleary-eyed drunkard would after being spun in place. Whatever. I have more important things to worry about right now.


    The captain motioned to a few of his men, and the majority of them broke off from our group. Most of them disappeared down side corridors. After a few moments, a new set of six guards wielding long polearms with bird-like motifs near the blades appeared. Unlike the guards who had escorted us to this point, these guards were all women of various races, clad in gold and red dress armor that looked more ceremonial than practical, and instead of capes they had tails to their armor reminiscent of a bird¡¯s feathers.


    The women all had the same grim expression like that of career soldiers, and each of them was well into their late twenties. Their coordination and poise told me that while their armor was most likely just for show, their skills were not. I couldn¡¯t see any distinguishing rank or insignia that meant any one of them were in charge, so they must have had a different command structure than the guards who had brought us this far.


    One of the human women, who I think was maybe the youngest of the bunch and at least an inch or two shorter than the rest, addressed Alverd, who was at the head of our group. Like the others, she wore a golden circlet that invoked the image of a bird with outstretched wings. She had boyishly short brown hair and very intense brown eyes, and just the hint of a short scar just under her chin. Her voice was deeper than I expected, and all business.


    ¡°I am Yong of the Gilded Feather Guard. I have orders to take you straight to the Steadfast. He requests your presence urgently.¡± She gave a curt and formal bow, not leaning too far forward but enough so that her intent was clear.


    Alverd blinked. ¡°I thought we were under arrest.¡±


    The woman shook her head. ¡°The Steadfast apologizes for the deception. He is, as you say, playing a very dangerous game with the Ishmarians. They are already lodging several protests citing diplomatic breeches. To maintain the illusion of impartiality, the Steadfast issued a warrant for your arrest as a pretense to have you brought here under armed escort for your own safety.¡±


    I sighed in relief internally before speaking. ¡°So the Steadfast thinks we¡¯re innocent?¡±


    Yong scowled and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. ¡°Whether you are innocent remains to be seen. You can explain what happened to him personally. His Lordship simply did not want the Legionnaires tearing half the city apart looking for you to exact their vengeance.¡±


    Alicia put her hands on her hips. ¡°So what are we waiting for, then? Let¡¯s go see this Steadfast guy.¡± She took one step and Yong moved in front of her. Instinctively, I moved back. Uh oh. I sense a confrontation. The alpha females are about to butt heads. I made my way over to Alverd and took shelter behind him.


    ¡°Just one second, Ishmarian.¡± Yong¡¯s voice wasn¡¯t accusatory but it was edged as if she were expecting the authority she was leveraging to be heeded without question. ¡°You are all to surrender your weapons while you meet with the Steadfast. He may be willing to extend you the olive branch, but it is our responsibility to guard him. The weapons will be returned once you have seen him.¡±


    Alicia¡¯s eyes narrowed, that familiar sheen of simmering anger burning in them. ¡°Why would I turn over my weapon? I¡¯m no-¡±


    Yong swiftly moved the bottom of her polearm between her legs, hooked it behind the young princess¡¯ right foot, and with a backwards dragging motion, flipped her backwards by knocking her leg out from under her. Even before Alicia fully hit the ground, the polearm whirled around in a golden flash so that its long curved blade was inches away from her throat. Her expression was still neutral, and I wasn¡¯t sure if there had been enough time in the entirety of her movement to take a single breath.


    Her voice still had the same even tone when she spoke. ¡°That was not a request.¡±


    Alicia cursed under her breath, then unslung her maul from the holster on her back, sliding it across the ground to one of the other Guards. Yong kicked it up with the toe of her crimson-armored boot, her hand shooting out to catch the haft of the weapon before holding it at her side. Yikes. These women don¡¯t mess around. When the Guard next to me extended her hand I quickly relinquished my staff to her without a second thought.


    The journey to the meeting hall where the Steadfast awaited us was a nearly twenty minute ordeal that involved climbing upward through narrow halls and carved stairwells, oftentimes winding in a tight circle. The walls were made of the same glittering stone throughout the fortress, and what few decorations were statues carved of the same material. It¡¯s like the Kierhaians carved each statue while they were hollowing out the Stone for their fort. I can¡¯t imagine the kind of foresight necessary to keep aesthetics in mind while planning a defensive structure¡¯s layout.


    After ascending eight stairwells, we emerged onto a floor that was spacious enough to accommodate a fifteen foot tall statue in a thirty foot high hall. The massive statue was also made of the shining rock that made up the fortress, and a closer inspection of its base confirmed that it had been carved, not anchored after construction. The statue was just as much a part of the floor as the rest of the fortress.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.The statue was that of a woman with long hair that almost reached the floor, her hands gripping a long greatsword with its point buried in the floor. The contours of the statue were fashioned into a suit of armor, although there was no detail where the face should¡¯ve been. It was Eternity, the Goddess of Time and Darkness, maintaining a vigil among the many warriors milling about.


    The soldiers in the room were dressed different from each other in four distinct styles. A mix of men and women of all races intermingled through the room, some sparring while others were in deep discussion about everything from politics to the food being served in the mess hall. There were more Gilded Feathers in one corner, the familiar red-gold armor and all-female group maintaining their weapons at a series of whetstones, sparks jumping from the stone wheels as they sharpened their glaives.


    The other three styles that I saw were an all male group of red-clad soldiers in helmets that resembled tiger heads, another group of mostly elves that wore uniforms that glowed like green crystal and carried beautiful tall bows, and the last group was a human and beastman ensemble that had armor that almost had the same look as the glittering rock of the fortress.


    Sheena, now fully seeming to recover from her previous ordeal, looked at the odd sights around her like a child on holiday. ¡°They all are so different. Is there some reason your soldiers are clothed like that?¡±


    Yong guided us all to the large set of double doors on the far side of the hall. ¡°Each group represents a different city-state in Kierhai. Before Kierhai was one nation, we were many cultures that did not see eye-to-eye. Thanks to the guidance of the Goddess¡¯ servant, we were able to put aside our differences and become one people. You see the greatest warriors those territories have to offer, each ready to protect Standing Stone and our shared nation.¡±


    ¡°You have met the Gilded Feather. The Blood Tigers are known for their speed and ferocity. The Flawless Jade can see a bird flap its wings a hundred feet away and put an arrow through it at twice that distance. The Unmoving Earth yield no ground against any enemy, no matter the odds.¡± As we passed, the various groups stopped what they were doing to watch us foreigners being escorted.


    ¡°The philosophy of Four Stand as One guides our defense of Kierhai. If one pillar falls a house will collapse. Thus each city must play a pivotal role in shaping the future for our country. It is important for no one group to be solely responsible for one aspect of governance. A mixture of people from each city must offer differing perspectives so that no one doctrine that favors one city over another comes to power. With our military, however, we are able to maintain our individuality and pride while still contributing to our homeland.¡±


    When we arrived at the door, the Feathers moved to the sides of the door and stood at attention, still moving in perfect unison. Yong swiveled around on her heel and faced us. ¡°The Steadfast will ask his questions. You will answer. You will give nothing but the truth, nothing more and nothing less. Be truthful and respectful and he will show you the same in kind.¡±


    The door opened from the inside, swinging inward as she finished talking. She bowed, then stepped aside. Alverd took the first step into the room, his head held high. I followed after him, Sheena behind me, and Alicia bringing up the rear. When we had all made it in, the doors closed, a pair of robed beastman attendants pushing the enormous doors shut by themselves.


    The room had a shape and design almost similar to that of a temple. An honest-to-gods sand pit encircled the center stone dais upon which a large beastman sat on a humble lounge cushion, his long legs crossed. The bent, furry ears on his head were streaked with gray much like the rest of his hair, which ran long and fell to both sides of his head and across his shoulders. He had a wizened face but his eyes were still sharp, as were the teeth in his mouth. A short bushy tail swayed gently side to side against the dais. He was clad in a dark black robe with a red sash, and drinking wine from a small cup intermittently as he examined a stack of parchment piled next to him.


    The sandpit was flanked by many guards, an even spread of the four factions. One frail-looking old elf in a muted green robe was stepping from stone to stone in the sand pit, dragging a rake across the surface and leaving long trails of intricate patterns as she went.


    When the coyote beastman saw us enter the room, his eyes moved but other than that he made no move to stand. Instead, he called out to the elf. ¡°Baba. We have guests. Do be a dear and put some tea on.¡± The old elf nodded and made a short hop to the edge of the pit, where she set down her rake and toddled off to a nearby table where she set about pouring water into a pot and drawing leaves from a beautifully decorated lacquer box.


    Four of the guards stepped in front of us and laid cushions similar to the ones the beastman was seated upon on the ground. Alverd nodded in thanks and sat cross legged on the cushion, laying his hands in his lap. I sat down on mine, taking a moment to distribute my weight so I wouldn¡¯t fall off.


    The beastman waited until the elderly elf had set the pot over a small stove before he addressed us. ¡°I am the Steadfast. But I also don¡¯t believe in standing on ceremony at my old age, so if you wish you may simply call me Mingsheng.¡± He leaned forward enough to bow respectfully without imbalancing himself. His voice was firm and clear but not severe, as though he had the manner of a doting father rather than a military official.


    ¡°Honored to meet you.¡± Alverd returned the gesture, replicating the same forward lean easily. ¡°I appreciate that you sent out your soldiers to have us arrested so quickly. Given what I¡¯ve heard about what¡¯s going on in Standing Stone, I¡¯m sure it was only a matter of time before the Legion started pillaging in the streets.¡±


    Mingsheng shook his hand dismissively. ¡°The Legion. Pah. Flies on carrion, parasites all of them. Lickspittles following their bootlicking thug of a general.¡± There was clear but restrained anger in his voice, and just the hint of an animalistic growl. ¡°I have had no choice but to deal with their foolishness for more than a month since General Guunzel arrived seeking an audience with the Emperor.¡±


    From her seat, Sheena spoke. ¡°If I may, I have a question. If you have such a dim view of the Legion, why invite them into the city at all?¡± He took another swig of his drink from the tiny cup.


    ¡°Under normal circumstances, I would not. The Steadfast¡¯s authority is independent from the Emperor¡¯s, so if left to my own discretion I can decide things without his approval. The Emperor happened to be visiting Standing Stone when Guunzel showed up, and thus he overrode my decision to bar the gate to the Ishmarians to indulge his curiosity.¡±


    Alicia was the one who spoke next. ¡°Wait. So you¡¯re saying you don¡¯t have to obey your Emperor?¡±


    Mingsheng leaned back, pouring himself more of his drink. ¡°Only in military matters, and in the absence of direct orders from the Emperor. The function of my station is to run this fortress, not participate in politics. I would¡¯ve identified the Ishmarians as a potential threat, and expelled them immediately.¡± Abruptly, his voice became tinged with anger and it showed plainly through the cracks in his calm demeanor. ¡°The previous Emperor would have understood my decision. Alas, his successor is nothing more than a mongrel stumbling around in the darkness cast by his father¡¯s shadow.¡±


    Ouch. A lot more poetic than most condemnations I¡¯ve heard, but still pretty damning all the same. ¡°So the Emperor is dead?¡± I asked.


    The beastman shook his head. ¡°No. He is unable to perform his duties as his time is nearly upon him. With age comes wisdom, but also the knowledge that one¡¯s death is inevitable. He is simply preparing his son to assume the throne when he passes. The boy is the Emperor in name only for now.¡±


    There was an awkward silence that was broken by the steam whistling from the teapot. Baba came back with a tray, gingerly pouring each of us a cup of tea and leaving it in front of us. She seemed to have more spring in her step than I gave her credit for, and her eyes were bright and intelligent, as well as an unusual shade of blue-green. I wasn¡¯t going to drink tea fresh from a pot while it was that hot, so I let it sit while I asked my next question.


    ¡°Do you intend to keep us here for very long?¡± There was a flash of something in Mingsheng¡¯s eye, as though he had been caught off guard. He chuckled, a low rumbling sound like distant thunder.


    ¡°No. Only for a day. I¡¯ve given orders to have the Legion removed from the city. Officially, all four of you are rotting in the dungeon in the basement. Of course, that isn¡¯t true. We don¡¯t even have a basement.¡± He laughed, taking another drink from his cup.


    ¡°That having been said, my good will does not come without cost. I want you to speak with the Emperor and tell him based on your first hand experience that the Legion is not to be trusted. I will ensure you have an audience with him.¡± He snapped the fingers of his left hand twice and Baba returned. ¡°Baba, the scroll. I will affix my seal, now.¡± She nodded, then crossed the sand pit to stand beside him.


    She picked a piece of parchment off the pile, opening it and laying it before the Steadfast. He took a brush, dipped it in an inkwell sitting beside him, and began to write out a message, all the while still conversing with us. ¡°I am certain there is some greater purpose the Legion wishes to conceal from us, that their presence here is the precursor to something terrible. Death follows Ishmarians wherever they go, after all.¡±


    Alicia bristled, but kept her silence. Oh thank the gods. The last thing we need is a repeat of what happened with Yong. I doubt Mingsheng would be as merciful as her. ¡°There¡¯s more to it than that,¡± he continued. ¡°While the Emperor allows his fascination with the Legion to occupy his attention, the Divernian Swords cause chaos by targeting trade between the cities. His lack of governance is allowing innocent people to die.¡±


    The sharp eyes of the beastman flashed malevolently. ¡°I do not buy that the Swords are mere raiders. I believe that they are up to something bigger than attacking caravans. Agents of the Gilded Feather have caught far too many of their ilk attempting to secure positions in local garrisons or emergency response teams. A fortress is designed to protect against invaders, not infiltrators, and I have a rat infestation that grows worse by the day. I need the Emperor to focus on the real threat, not posturing buffoons riding giant lizards.¡± He gave the now completed order to Baba who crossed the sand pit to place it in Sheena¡¯s hands.


    Then he laid down his cup and folded his hands in his lap, interlocking his fingers. His nails, while trimmed, were still sharp like claws. ¡°What I ask is this: in exchange for dropping charges against your friend in the Noble Wolves, I want you to do two things for me. Report to the Emperor on my behalf to urge him to reject the Ishmarians¡¯ calls for any kind of alliance with their country, and to look into the matter I discussed with him regarding his personal security.¡±


    Alverd¡¯s face darkened and there was ice in his voice when he spoke. ¡°You would blackmail us, then?¡±


    My heart stopped beating in my chest. Oh no. One of the few things I¡¯ve seen Alverd handle poorly is the idea of people blackmailing us by endangering other people. He¡¯s never been able to truly control himself well under those situations. I snuck a sideways glance to my right, where he was still seated but glaring intensely at the Steadfast.


    The Steadfast must¡¯ve picked up on the shift in Alverd¡¯s attitude, because he put some edge of his own into his response. ¡°I would prefer not to. As it stands, your associate violated the law by attacking two Legionnaires in the Red Lantern District. Had they instigated violence first she would¡¯ve been cleared to protect someone, but as she started the conflict she must abide by the fact that no one is above the law.¡±


    I ground my teeth in my mouth. He¡¯s right. The Legionnaires hadn¡¯t done anything to hurt me before Yuzuruha swung at them. He has her dead to rights. ¡°What kind of issue with his security?¡± I asked.


    Mingsheng shifted his weight, then pulled a scroll from the bottom of his pile, causing the entire stack to collapse. He tossed the scroll down to Alverd. ¡°A threat was made against the Emperor. Someone had the audacity to claim that his security was less than foolproof and that they would be seeing him soon.¡±


    Alverd unfurled the scroll and examined the writing. After a moment he closed it and sighed. ¡°I have good news and bad news for you, Steadfast. The good news is that your Emperor is in no danger.¡±


    Mingsheng¡¯s eyebrow raised, his voice incredulous. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    He handed me the scroll, and I opened it. Skipping past the concise message and looking straight at the bottom, I saw an immaculate signature in curving letters next to a stamp that looked suspiciously like a wolf¡¯s paw. The name, signed in blue ink, was ¡°Monaco the Swift¡±.


    I groaned. ¡°The bad news is that your mystery woman isn¡¯t an assassin, but a thief. One of the best in the business. Someone we have a history with.¡± From behind Alverd, I could see Alicia and Sheena¡¯s faces twist into familiar expressions of pre-emptive jealousy. Pretty warranted if they knew Monaco¡¯s stance toward Alverd, but I won¡¯t be the one breaking that to them.


    Hanging on my every word, Mingsheng shook his hand impatiently. ¡°So? You know how to outwit her then?¡±


    I rolled the scroll back up and threw it over my shoulder. ¡°That¡¯s the thing. The last time we crossed paths, we didn¡¯t exactly stop her. We prevented her from stealing the thing she claimed to be after, but we didn¡¯t stop her and her crew from purloining a couple hundred bars of gold bullion right from under our employer¡¯s nose.¡± A real black stain on our reputation. The only reason we got paid is because I got the part about protecting the original targeted item in writing. Thank my Cardinal Rules for that.


    There was another long silence in which nobody moved. After a bit, Mingsheng took the entire bottle of his alcoholic refreshment and downed it, decorum cast aside in his frustration. He let out a long sigh as he slammed the bottle back down beside him, then leaned forward threateningly.


    ¡°Then for your friend¡¯s sake, I hope that this time things play out differently.¡±

 B3: Chapter 7: Kuro: Valley of the Last Sunrise (Edited)

    We spent the night in a set of VIP guest rooms in the upper part of the Standing Stone fortress at Mingsheng¡¯s insistence. He assured us that while we were on his secret mission our presence would be concealed from the Legion and the public story would remain that we were being imprisoned for the time being. Considering that our rooms had guards on the doors, it still felt more like we were prisoners than guests.


    He had come up with a decent plan on how to get us out of the city without any Legionnaires noticing us. As part of his command for us to speak to the Emperor, he had a wagon outfitted for us to take us down one of the now defunct roads to Blossom City. Yuzuruha, being a potential criminal and still in a position where the Steadfast could use her against us, was being made to drive the wagon and was going to meet us at the east gate.


    He had only asked one question. ¡°Are any of you claustrophobic?¡±


    That¡¯s never a good question to hear. ¡°No, I¡¯m not.¡± Having been stuffed into cargo compartments and smuggling holds several times during my career, I was used to wedging myself into cramped spaces, although it wasn¡¯t as though I relished the experiences. As soon as I had said that, an Unyielding Earth lion beastman picked me up and crammed me into a barrel before I could scream.


    I was ashamed to admit that I fit into the barrel with no trouble. Mingsheng laughed. ¡°Good. Then you¡¯ll have no problem being taken out of here with the rest of the provisions for your journey. Don¡¯t worry about your staff, I¡¯ll have it loaded into a crate with everyone else¡¯s equipment.¡± As the grinning beastman put the lid of the barrel over me, I heard Mingsheng ask who would be next.


    It took an excruciating two hours of being jostled and carried before my barrel was finally set down and not picked up again. I¡¯m not supposed to open the barrel until Yuzuruha lets us out. Hope she hurries up, because my leg fell asleep ages ago and the pins and needles feeling is driving me crazy. After a few more minutes, I felt my barrel being lifted onto something that creaked and rocked. That must be the wagon.


    I strained my ears to listen in on what was going on outside the barrel. A voice, which I could barely recognize as Yong¡¯s, was talking to Yuzuruha. ¡°You are to deliver these mercenaries to Blossom City intact. The Steadfast recommends you use the old road through the Valley of the Last Sunrise to avoid detection. Once the matter is resolved, any and all charges against you will be dropped and your mercenary¡¯s license will be reinstated.¡±


    Her voice was easily heard through the wooden slats of the barrel and sounded incredulous. ¡°Are y¡¯all serious? What in the gods¡¯ name makes you think I¡¯mma go through there? Place is haunted all ta shit.¡±


    There was a pause, then Yong spoke again. ¡°Would you prefer I have you arrested now?¡±


    I heard a growl, then a sigh. ¡°Fine. And yer gonna make me explain ta them why we hafta pass through a giant graveyard ta get ta Blossom City. Thanks a lot.¡±


    It was another ten minutes of the barrel rocking to and fro to the steady rhythm of a girdaban cart before Yuzuruha yanked the top off of my barrel, her face looming over mine. ¡°Well lookitcha, all crammed in there like a bunch of pickles. And just as sour-lookin¡¯ too.¡± She chuckled. ¡°Get me out of here, musclehead.¡± I growled at her. She reached in with both hands, hooked them under my armpits, and with a strong yank pulled me out of the barrel with a sound that was a bit like a cork popping off a bottle.


    Yuzuruha got Alicia out of her barrel next, who went and released Sheena. The tall, elven girl had a tough time, as her longer legs meant she was now thoroughly wedged in. Alicia had to pull part of the barrel apart with some tools, driving a wedge between the slats to peel away sections of it. When enough room was made for Sheena to poke her legs through, she unfolded herself, sticking her legs through the holes and then standing up, allowing her to step up and out.


    Alverd was a much trickier task. He¡¯d been forced to take off his armor to fit in his barrel and even then his wide frame meant he was stuck in there like an overweight cat with its butt in a ceramic bowl. The women had to work together to demolish his barrel piece by piece without harming him to get him free, a process that took all three of them working in tandem with the tools in the back of the covered wagon. As they worked over the course of an hour to remove Alverd from his predicament, I sat in the driver seat holding the girdabans¡¯ reins.


    Girdaban were quadrupedal with a body shape and mass similar to a cow but with far more musculature in their fore and hind legs. Their rib cages were sturdier than any other beast of burden and their livers were extremely efficient in filtering out natural toxins in their food. They seemed to have no necks and heads that were oblong and ovaloid in shape, with drooping jowls beside pronounced snouts with flaring nostrils on the end. A lack of horns made them less dangerous than an ox, but even a girdaban could be harmful if it accidentally stepped or rolled on someone. They often weighed in excess of four hundred pounds.


    Unlike oxen, girdaban were even-tempered creatures that were extraordinarily difficult to spook. They were dumber than dirt and slow as molasses, but their unique constitution allowed them to flourish under a stunning number of bad weather conditions. Their ability to store water in a special organ in their body made them suited to long distance travel and thus they had earned an enduring legacy as one of the best pack animals in the world.


    I felt Deotra¡¯s weight on my shoulders and her phantom tail curling around my neck as I watched the two girdaban trek across the dirt road. Thank goodness I have someone to talk to. Let the girls fuss over Alverd for now. How have you been? I got a flood of warm butterflies in my stomach, and the sudden fire in my cheeks told me that Deotra was blushing. Damn, this emotional transference thing is wild. Her feelings are coming in so strong and clear, it¡¯s like they¡¯re my own.


    There was a shimmer of glowing blue light and Deotra appeared on the seat next to me, holding her finger up to her mouth. Her voice sounded in my head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. They can¡¯t see me. Just keep talking to me as we normally do. It¡¯s been too long since we had a chance to be together.¡± Her hand reached over and squeezed mine, and it felt real, like she was actually there.


    ¡°Phantom sensations? Or are you really there and just invisible?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°We¡¯re bonded through a familiar¡¯s contract, so we share stimuli. Whatever your eyes can perceive or ears can hear, I can too. In return, I can create sensations that only you can feel or notice. So the feeling of your hand being held is easy for me to recreate.¡± She blushed again, her face turning down to hide her bright gold eyes beneath her bangs. She fidgeted in the seat next to me, her short legs swinging over the front of the wagon seat like a child¡¯s.


    ¡°So, what do you make of everything we¡¯ve been through, Deotra?¡± She mused over it for a moment, her face drifting into an expression of deep thought. Gods, she¡¯s so adorable. I must have used up my whole life¡¯s worth of luck to meet this girl. Finally she looked at me, still swinging her legs back and forth.


    ¡°You have some very interesting karma, Kuro. It swings all over the place, one moment towards good and then right back to bad all over again.¡±


    I laughed internally and she smiled. ¡°Don¡¯t I know it. But it always seems to balance out in the end. For all the tough breaks I¡¯ve caught recently, I¡¯m still lucky to have met you.¡±


    Deotra squirmed in her seat, her smile turning lopsided and childish as she fiddled with her fingers. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t say things like that. You might make me die of embarrassment.¡± She made a cute little mumbling noise in my head as she tried to avoid making eye contact with me.


    ¡°If you want some alone time we could look around Blossom City together. Maybe find a nice quiet place to sample local delicacies? Or a public monument so you can tell me everything you know? What do you think?¡±


    A wave of excitement rippled out of her and through me, raw and giddy like a child¡¯s. ¡°Oh, I would love that! There are so many places we could go where we could just be off in our own little world. As soon as we do what Drache asked us, of course.¡±


    I felt my brow furrow. Deotra picked up on my frustration right away, and the sensation of her hand squeezing mine returned. ¡°I know it¡¯s hard to trust her. So trust me instead. Remember that if she ever gets out of line I can always reassert control and cut her off. I don¡¯t like doing it because it¡¯s forceful, but even she has to remember that she can¡¯t just be mean to people while expecting them to do what she wants all the time.¡±


    She leaned against my left shoulder, her head resting on me, and I could feel the weight. ¡°I want you two to get along. Drache can be intense but she¡¯s the only friend I have. It¡¯s not too much to ask the two most important people in my life to at least try to tolerate each other for my sake, is it?¡± There was a pleading undertone to her voice that bored into me, weakening my stubborn resolve.


    ¡°Maybe it would help if I knew a bit more about her, or at least what she wants. For now, all I know is that she wants me to find some kind of weapon. There has to be something you can tell me,¡± I said. She mulled it over, and I felt the complex tumbling of emotions mixed with logic in her mind and heart like a dog chasing its tail as she weighed her decision. Finally, she sat back up and fixed me with her big golden eyes.


    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll tell you what she told me. Any more than that and I¡¯ll have to ask her permission first.¡± Well, it¡¯s a start. And I¡¯d prefer to hear this from Deotra than Drache. She¡¯ll give it to me straight and not get confrontational about it. Deotra closed her eyes, and an image rushed into my mind.


    A platform made of floating rock, hanging in a sky of crackling storm clouds, hovered far above a great temple wrought of volcanic rock hewn into the side of a mountain. The temple itself had to be at least a hundred feet below, and the platform had a dais upon it around which five people in stately dress stood. Each held a bejeweled scepter and wore a crown.


    ¡°The Five Kings wove their ritual to grant themselves power on par with that of gods. Drache believes they had good intentions, but whether that¡¯s true or not, she doesn¡¯t know for sure.¡± I could almost feel the stinging wind and hear the rumble of thunder as I drew nearer to the Kings. Up close, their figures blurred, their faces obscured by mist and motion.


    ¡°I can¡¯t see their faces or bodies. What¡¯s going on?¡±


    Deotra¡¯s voice was clear, even over the sound of the thunder. ¡°I don¡¯t know what the Kings looked like. Everything that you see is just what I imagine this must have looked like, based on what Drache told me. If I knew, I could paint a better picture but this is unfortunately the best I can do.¡± As she said that, a brilliant purple flash brought a swirling black portal into existence in the air above the dais.


    ¡°What the Kings didn¡¯t count on was that their ritual would call a being of incredible evil to this universe. By opening what they thought was a door to limitless knowledge, they instead created a bridge to a universe where a monstrous entity had already devoured all life it could find. That entity was the Imbalancer of Scales.¡± The portal began to destabilize, growing in size until a monstrous appendage forced its way through, grabbing one of the Kings and dragging them through the opening.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    I was forced to watch as the King, still just a blurry outline of a humanoid figure dressed in regal finery was bent and twisted, bones snapping, skin ripping, screams turning into snarls. What was once potentially human became something monstrous made of shadow and blackness with no discernable features, but radiating a powerful aura of evil and bloodthirst. It bounded through the empty space it had been dragged into and forced its way out of the portal, lunging for the other Kings.


    The next image was hard to ¡°look¡± at. I found myself standing on a castle rampart, looking out at the sky and the horizon. Except the entire sky was filled with monsters. Misshapen, shrieking, demented beyond comprehension, they fell upon the castle from above like a swarm of locusts. An open air market behind the castle walls was engulfed by them, more screaming being drowned out by the sounds of battle and death.


    Then the King landed on the rampart next to me, the stones nearly giving way under its weight. The monster was still vague in its shape, but I could make out two white ¡°eyes¡± glowing like miniature suns in its black mass. It was still throwing off a suffocating cloud of malice that made me want to choke, before it let out a howl that while distorted, still sounded disturbingly human.


    Deotra appeared next to me and pulled me away from the image, and it receded into the black emptiness of the mindscape. ¡°So what happened next?¡± I asked. She wrapped her arms around my torso and pulled me to the side, and another image appeared. Streaking through the space I¡¯d been floating in were a series of lights, shooting stars, that fell to a planet below me.


    As the lights descended, they became angels, their featureless bodies unfurling wings made of brilliant light. They blazed through the armies of demons, cutting through them like wheat in a field. From the ground below, armies seemed to rise up from the dirt, representing the mortals inspired to fight alongside their heavenly allies, swords and spears and bows all trained to the sky to aid in the battle.


    Then she appeared. The form of the goddess Eternity herself, clad in a robe of black and purple coated in starlight, wielding a silver sword in her left hand nearly as long as she was tall, cleaved her way through the sky with a single slash. Thousands of demons fell, their forms disintegrating into nothingness. But even as the goddess continued to wipe away their filth, more poured from the portal left behind by the Kings, now an enormous opening in the sky above the world.


    Then one mortal rose from the armies and spread their arms to the sky, and the goddess floated down to meet them. She placed three objects into the mortal¡¯s hands before returning to the sky to continue her battle. ¡°What did she give that person? Do you know, Deotra?¡±


    We floated over to the mortal, and for the first time since the vision had started I could see their features clearly. It was a young woman clad in a modest red robe, with tanned skin and long dirty blonde hair, crimson eyes streaked with tears. She held a staff, a knife, and a grimoire in her arms. In an instant I recognized the brass head and ruby of her staff. It was the Staff of Farewells, no question.


    The knife was the same as the one Drache had shown me not too long ago. This time, however, looking at the blade didn¡¯t trigger any weird visions; the blade was clear and reflective, giving it the appearance of a normal weapon. That has to be the Hand of the Usurper. If it was just given to this woman, it must not have borne witness to the atrocities I saw in its surface yet. Good. Last thing I need is to see all that crap again.


    The tome was leather bound with a silver metal trim on its spine and covers. In the center of its cover was a long, thick golden line that splintered into many others at its top, with each line splitting off into more and more lines. It took me a moment to realize what it resembled. It looks like a tree. Looking at the book made my head hurt, as if I were trying to perceive a dozen things at the same time. No. Not a dozen, but hundreds, maybe even thousands. It¡¯s like my eyes are trying to pull my brain in a thousand different directions to look at a thousand different things and claim they¡¯re what¡¯s real while everything else isn¡¯t.


    The sensation of Deotra¡¯s gentle hands turning my head broke my line of sight to the book, and the unpleasant feeling ceased instantly. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t stare at that. People have gone insane staring at the Tree of a Thousand Branches.¡± Her face filled my vision, her eyes wide with concern. When she saw I was more or less okay, her small smile returned. ¡°That¡¯s the danger in seeing all the things that could be, and might not ever be, all at the same time.¡±


    I was tempted by some force outside my sound mind to look back at the tome, but I wasn¡¯t able to move my head. ¡°Tree of a Thousand Branches?¡±


    Deotra shook her head. ¡°Drache didn¡¯t tell me much about it, but she said it was the true means of victory, the greatest, and most terrible of the three weapons Eternity burdened mortalkind with.¡±


    The three objects rose from the woman¡¯s hands and ringed around Deotra, orbiting her as she narrated. ¡°The Staff of Farewells has the power to draw out a mage¡¯s true potential and amplify it a hundredfold. It can turn you into the ideal version of yourself. The Hand of the Usurper was crafted to allow even a mortal to have the power to slay a divine being. But it could never be wielded by anyone but a mortal, so that it couldn¡¯t be turned against Eternity or her servants.¡±


    The tome floated back in front of Deotra, and the familiar pull of the book¡¯s energy tugged at me again. ¡°The Tree of a Thousand Branches is by far the most dangerous of the three. Imagine time as a tree, and where we are now as its trunk. The Tree allows you to look to the future, see the hundreds of potential timelines that splinter away from the trunk and all the hundreds of possibilities that fragment further and further. You could see any future you wish, including the one you desire to see fulfilled.¡±


    Deotra threw the book into the swirling black void, and I took a sharp breath of relief as the book¡¯s influence vanished. ¡°With the Tree, you could find a way to make that ideal future come to pass, knowing every twist and turn of Fate to avoid or guide the flow of time to that outcome. Such power was only allowed to remain in this mortal¡¯s hands for the purpose of finding the perfect time to strike with the Hand.¡±


    The next image was that of the woman, face still streaked with tears, plunging the Hand into the chest of a massive dragon, its gleaming red scales reflecting the young woman¡¯s face. The dragon fell down, down, down into the featureless abyss until it disappeared from sight. ¡°Drache says that after the Hand was used to wound the Imbalancer, it retreated through the portal and left the Five Kings to be defeated by the angels. The angels then separated the souls of the Kings from their monstrous forms and sealed them in magical shrines.¡±


    ¡°So what happened to the monsters themselves? Can they sustain themselves without souls?¡± I asked.


    Deotra paused, as if she didn¡¯t know how to answer. ¡°From what Drache said, the bodies were used to create a barrier. Using the Imbalancer¡¯s own power against it, to guard against a second incursion. Without the souls, the bodies cannot move or think, so it made sense to use their essence to fuel the creation of the barrier. So long as the souls remain detached, the bodies cannot die and thus the barrier cannot be unmade from this side.¡±


    ¡°From what I can infer from Drache¡¯s words, she wants the Hand to correct some wrong that was done to her. As a weapon of incredible power that can slay divine beings, the wrong she seeks to correct must be terrible indeed.¡± I could sense the trembling in Deotra¡¯s voice. She¡¯s spooked, but whether she¡¯s more afraid of Drache or this terrible thing, I¡¯m not sure.


    I¡¯m missing something here. This is a lot to process, sure, but there¡¯s some detail I can¡¯t put my finger on. If the corpses of the monsters the Five Kings became are already being used to cordon off our world from the Imbalancer, then they¡¯re dead. As far as I know, the only divine beings still left in the world are the angels governing the Theocracy of Shardin. So does that mean Drache wants the Hand to kill them?


    Deotra returned to my side and stared at me. ¡°When the time comes, Drache will tell us why she wants the Hand. Remember, if you cannot trust her, trust me instead. I don¡¯t have the heart to lie to you any more than I already have.¡± She snuggled against me, burying her head in my chest. I hate to use her guilt against her, but that¡¯s a pretty good reassurance. As heinous as it is to rely on it to keep her on my side, if it means she¡¯s less likely to listen to Drache for the time being then so be it. I ran my hand through her hair, soothing her.


    Then her ears shot up, quick as a flash. ¡°Oh no. We¡¯re almost there. I thought we¡¯d have more time. Listen, Kuro. Don¡¯t heed the voices and don¡¯t stray from the path. I¡¯ll find some way to guide you, I promise.¡± Before I could ask for clarification I pitched backwards without actually moving, and I came back to the real world still upright in the driver¡¯s seat, where Yuzuruha had forcefully pulled the reins from my hands and brought the wagon to a halt. The sun was now hanging low in the sky, painting the horizon orange.


    ¡°Y¡¯all there still, Kuro?¡± She said as she waved her armored hand in front of my face.


    I pushed it away. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m here. What¡¯s going on?¡±


    She frowned at me. ¡°Well with the way y¡¯all been starin¡¯ straight ahead like a goddamn zombie we thought you died. Y¡¯all have been out for hours. We need ta stop fer a second.¡± She pointed ahead.


    Somehow, the air had become much heavier, tinged with hints of fog and inclement weather. We were no longer on an open plain but passing down a narrow cliff towards a rocky crag, with an opening maybe fifty feet across up ahead. Sheer cliff walls flanked the opening, maybe sixty or seventy high on both sides. Loose stone and rampant plant growth choked the passage, where a cobblestone road had fallen out of repair ages past.


    In front of the opening was a single stone monument, an obelisk inscribed with Kierhaian language. Surrounding the obelisk were rows and columns of neatly arranged small grave markers, each a tiny pillar of stone carved with symbols. As the group disembarked the wagon, Yuzuruha placed her hand on the obelisk, then clasped her hands in front of her in a kind of prayer.


    ¡°Never thought I¡¯d see the Valley of the Last Sunrise fer myself. Been told ghost stories ¡®bout this place since I was a little girl.¡±


    Alicia lifted her eyebrow. ¡°Ghosts? Really? You¡¯re scared of those at your age?¡±


    Yuzuruha scoffed. ¡°Maybe back in Ishmar y¡¯all have plenty of other things ta be scared of. But here in Kierhai, we have ghosts. The way I understand it, this valley has some kinda scar on it left behind by the people who died here.¡±


    Standing behind the monument, facing the east and the opening, was a single statue of a man clad in the traditional iron armor I¡¯d seen soldiers wearing back in Standing Stone. He stood tall, his sword by his side, the face hidden by the mask worn under his bowl-shaped helmet. The ornament on his helmet resembled a sun flanked by wings. Compared to the road and the monument, the statue was eerily well preserved, with the mask resembling a snarling demon with almost lifelike features, including a pair of long, curving fangs.


    ¡°From the stories I was told, back when Kierhai was first comin¡¯ together as a single nation, the Emperor gave the go ahead to build Standin¡¯ Stone. We needed a show of strength and unity, so he thought buildin¡¯ a big fort outta a big rock would do it. The construction lasted all through his rule, and even as he reached the end of his life the fort still wasn¡¯t done. So he passed the secret instructions he¡¯d given the Steadfast to the next Emperor ta continue the work.¡±


    She circled the monument so she was looking at the statue. ¡°Problem was, when the new Emperor found out that the Steadfast had the power ta act without his authority, he took it ta mean that the Steadfast could possibly rebel against him. So he sent an army of seven thousand men down the fastest road ta Standin¡¯ Stone with the intention of destroyin¡¯ it.¡±


    As the last light of day began to fade, Yuzuruha took a torch from her pack and lit it, casting its flickering light across the area and causing the demonic visage of the statue¡¯s mask to leer hideously at us. ¡°When the Steadfast found out what was comin¡¯ he put out a call ta round up an army ta defend the Stone. But a patrol of fifty men and women decided ta come here, ta this narrow pass, ta block the way for the imperial soldiers.¡±


    ¡°Along the way they begged every village and town they passed for volunteers. By the time they got ta this valley, they numbered two hundred and thirty. Nowhere near enough ta stop seven thousand. But the soldiers blocked the pass, rolled boulders up tha hills, made the villagers fashion spears out of sharpened sticks. When the Imperial Army arrived, they held their ground.¡±


    Sheena gazed at the opening, adjusting her spectacles. ¡°With the way the valley is formed, it seems like the right play. Block the opening and the enemy¡¯s numerical advantage is removed. Attacks from elevation, staggered retreats, scorched earth tactics. You wouldn¡¯t be able to hold it forever, but that wasn¡¯t their objective, was it?¡±


    The mercenary nodded. ¡°Yeah. Seven days and seven nights the soldiers held. Each day they had to give a bit o¡¯ ground. But they made the Imperials pay fer every inch with blood. On the seventh day, they were forced ta this end of the valley. By that point they were down ta six soldiers and only thirty villagers. They put their backs to tha west, to tha sunrise, and fought like hell.¡±


    She put her right hand against the statue¡¯s chest, in a show of solidarity. ¡°Dawn rose on the eighth day and the Steadfast¡¯s army arrived to find the last soldier and six villagers strugglin¡¯ ta hold the entrance. When the battle was over, the last defenders perished of their wounds. When word came back to Blossom City that the Emperor had almost instigated a civil war he was removed from his post and executed.¡±


    A chill wind blew through the empty valley and Yuzuruha took a step back in fear, almost dropping the torch. ¡°What I was told was that some nights, the defenders rise up from the graves ta stand at attention. They think it¡¯s the seventh night all over again, and that they need ta hold till mornin¡¯. Never seen it fer myself, but I ain¡¯t one ta tempt that shit if I can help it.¡±


    Alicia rolled her eyes, strolled forward and grabbed the torch from Yuzuruha¡¯s hand. ¡°Ridiculous. There are plenty of things to actually be scared of in this world, and ghosts shouldn¡¯t be one of them.¡± She took five bold steps towards the entryway, turned, and then glared at us. ¡°See? Nothing to be afraid of.¡±


    As the sun disappeared and the sky turned dark, the fog seemed to intensify. The last rays of sunlight gave way to the long dark and starry sky, and the air stood still, as if time had frozen. Like the exhalation of a giant, another blast of wind came from behind Alicia and snuffed out the torch, blowing the fog away.


    From the grave markets, wisps of white smoke began to rise. They bulged and surged and twisted into humanoid shape, some taking the form of elves, other beastmen. A few were even human, all clad in the simple clothing of farmers and common laborers. Some dragged pitchforks, hoes, and crude spears with them, seeming to take solid shape as they rose up and stepped out of their resting places.


    They marched over to where Alicia was standing, forming ranks. The little princess had to stifle a shriek as they advanced on her, then passed through her harmlessly. She ran back towards us, but just as she made it back to the statue another ghost stepped out of it. Clad in the same armor, drawing its single-edged blade in one smooth, practiced motion, it nearly gave her a heart attack as the figure stepped down from its elevated platform to the ground.


    She stepped to the side as the warrior passed her, marching to the opening as the farmers fell in behind them. As one, the entire group turned their backs to the monument, raised their weapons, and gave a silent war cry. Yet the fear, the knowledge that this was their last stand, was etched across all their faces. Even now, unaware that they were long dead, they knew this was their last night alive.


    The barbarian ran back to Alverd, who grabbed her to prevent her from falling over the side of the cliff nearby. As she gasped for breath, Alverd tried to maintain his composure. This too was a bit much for him, but he couldn¡¯t show that he was just as overwhelmed. Instead he held Alicia, trying to steady her so she wouldn¡¯t panic.


    I wasn¡¯t so courteous. Without even looking at her, I let loose a quip without thinking about it, as my brain did what it did best: acting without thinking.


    ¡°Tell that to them.¡±

 B3: Chapter 8: Alicia: A Scar in the Skin of the World (Edited Version)

    When you lived in a country that vilified magic, there were things you accepted as true even if you had never seen them with your own eyes. In fact, not seeing them made it easier to believe that they couldn¡¯t be true, and so the kings and queens of Ishmar had pulled the wool over the peoples¡¯ eyes for generations. One such thing we were led to believe was that ghosts were the product of magic¡¯s vilest practices.


    Laspa of the Magister Lords had demonstrated what magic could do to a corpse, and Kuro had used the spirits of the vengeful dead to call down a tornado on the Arena back in Ishmar. Those two things were not the same in my mind; while Laspa had selfishly used necromancy to harm and steal, Kuro had given those wayward souls peace, even if his method had been destructive.


    Nuance was such a difficult thing for any warrior, let alone a berserker, to grasp. It was so much easier to let everything be defined as right or wrong, for or against, friend or enemy. The moment nuance found its way into anything, it made you question everything you knew.


    I was trying to be better about that.


    Growth and open-mindedness were the only means by which my nation could survive. I had to be ready to convince my people to throw aside age old hatreds and fears, and they would be resistant. Hopefully, with all the things I was learning out in the world, I¡¯d be prepared for that day and know the words I¡¯d need to say to convey my feelings to my countrymen.


    For now, I was struggling to cope with the appearance of a battalion of ghosts standing at attention before the opening of the Valley of the Last Sunrise, their shimmering forces becoming solid and distinct as they stood beneath the darkening sky, watching the last soldier march toward the cleft in the stone with sword drawn.


    Alverd held me and I leaned into him, allowing him to hold me as I tried to regain control of my breathing. That caught me off guard. Bloody ghosts just came out of the ground! Is that normal? Are they all like that? The initial shock wore off quickly, and when the ghosts showed no hostility towards us, my fear vanished. Why do they look so frightened?


    The thirty farmers looked tired with the same thousand yard stare I¡¯d seen in veterans coming back from the eastern front. Their eyes told stories they refused to tell with tongues, how they jumped at every single sudden sound or screamed in their sleep. These villagers had the same haunted looks in their eyes, as if they expected to meet Death himself at any moment. Knowing what I knew, they weren¡¯t wrong.


    Many of the farmers had armor they¡¯d likely stolen from their fallen foes, hanging loosely from their bodies or secured improperly. Most of them had spears too, although a few were carrying bows, swords, and axes. They look so young. Some of them look barely older than me. What could¡¯ve inspired them to give their lives for this?


    Inspiration was a bit of a new concept for me. For so long, Ishmarian royalty ruled through intimidation, whether by fear of force or the fear caused by the use of it. The former kings and queens before me had no qualms about using their power to keep their subjects in line, and it wasn¡¯t just with the mage hunts. To be able to make people follow you willingly because you personify something heroic seems like a better option. I know I¡¯d follow Alverd anywhere because of who he is and his values.


    I watched the lone soldier pause at the entrance of the Valley, their back to me, sword still pointing at the ground. What made this one soldier so compelling? What did they do to get so many to follow them into certain death? I eased myself out of Alverd¡¯s grip and before I knew it, I was inching towards the ghost soldier, my steps becoming surer and faster as my fear fell by the wayside.


    Sheena was the first to notice that I was getting too close. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t do that! It¡¯s not safe, you don¡¯t know if these ghosts are able to attack the living!¡± Despite her warnings, she didn¡¯t pursue me. ¡°Come back here! Your maul isn¡¯t going to work on that thing!¡±


    I passed by Kuro, who watched me in dumbstruck confusion. ¡°Woah woah woah, hold up! You¡¯re messing with stuff you don¡¯t understand!¡± He grabbed my arm, but was unable to stop me as I comically dragged him towards the soldier. I could hear his boots scraping against the ground, trying to dig in his heels to stop me. ¡°No no no no, don¡¯t take me over there! Alicia! Snap out of it!¡± He grunted as he kept trying to pull me away to no avail.


    I circled around the ghost, Kuro still trying to pull me away, until I was facing them. He realized where he was and retreated behind me with a whimper. I looked at the soldier¡¯s face, only the eyes visible behind the demonlike mask they wore. They¡¯re like Alverd¡¯s eyes. They¡¯re clear, focused, and fixed on the goal ahead. Without thinking I extended my hand towards the soldier¡¯s face, almost as if I were about to try to remove the mask.


    Then the soldier reached up and undid the clasp that held it in place. When it came away, I saw the features of a youngish beast woman, a scar running across the bridge of her nose and right cheek, tufts of hair reaching down from the inside of her helmet, two long incisors visible in her mouth. I couldn¡¯t tell what her beast heritage was, but her muscular frame had been enough to make me mistake her for a man under all her armor.


    Behind me, Kuro started muttering. ¡°What¡¯s happening? There¡¯s something wrong with my staff. The air here is wrong somehow.¡± He pulled it out and the ruby headpiece was flashing with small pulses of red light, like a beacon. ¡°Alicia, we should step away from the ghosts. I have a really bad feeling about this.¡± He shook my arm, worry written across his face.


    When he gets scared like that there¡¯s good reason to be. If he says we need to leave, I believe him. I¡¯m intrigued by this warrior, but for now I think he has the right idea. I turned to move back the way I came when a sudden gust of wind came from the Valley, pushing me forward and unbalancing me. Pulled along with me, Kuro lost his balance on the smooth stone and tripped, his face smashing into the ground. He didn¡¯t even have time to make a sound before he passed out cold.


    In front of me, the soldier¡¯s face turned feral. Her eyes narrowed into slits and she gritted her pointed teeth, and drew her sword in a long, deliberate arc into a fighting stance with it gripped in both hands over her head. It doesn¡¯t take a genius to know that¡¯s an attack about to happen. Can I even block a ghost¡¯s sword with my weapon? Will it even hurt me?


    Instinct took over, my muscles roaring into action while my brain remained mired in indecision. I reached down, grabbed Kuro, and lunged backwards. I tucked the mage into my body, using my back as a shield as I hurled us away from the ghost. Guess I¡¯m going to find out.


    There was no searing pain from sharp metal nor splitting of my skin and bone. Instead, I landed on top of Kuro, back on the stone floor of the Valley. Oof. He¡¯s gonna be pissed about that one. Maybe he doesn¡¯t have to find out that I nearly broke his back. I threw a glance over my shoulder to see if the ghost was about to strike again and my eyes widened in shock.


    I was still on the ground, still in the Valley, but the light from a full moon was now streaming down on me. It was still too early in the evening for such when we had arrived. The edges of the canyon had a blurry feel to them, like I was looking through fogged glass, the surfaces of the stone looking distorted and unnatural. The air was heavier, and a second later I could smell blood, not quite fresh, from further down the path.


    I pushed myself up onto one knee, shaking my head. Looking in the direction I had come, I could not see any of the others. Instead, there was a camp of tents with thirty villagers milling about, now flesh. They were not pale wisps with transparent skin. They were real, and my heart froze in my chest when I realized that I was trapped in something I could not explain.


    ¡°You should not be here.¡±


    My head whipped around, and at the same time I grabbed Kuro again and pulled him closer to me. My right hand went to the haft of the maul slung over my shoulder. Standing in the middle of the canyon, despite the fact that she had not been standing there a second earlier, was the soldier from before.


    Now that the ghost was flesh and blood, I could make out more details about her. The hair poking out from under her helmet was red, her eyes golden, the armor she wore black with gold trimming and filigree. For some reason the scar on her face had disappeared, and she seemed much younger, almost childlike. Did she shrink? I could¡¯ve sworn she was taller. Then again, maybe my mind is playing tricks on me. It¡¯s not like I meet ghosts everyday, after all. Her voice is so soft and girlish, too. Nothing like what I imagine a real soldier would sound like.


    Somehow, the soldier was now roughly my own height, maybe even shorter without her armor adding extra bulk to her form. Maybe it¡¯s because she was a ghost a second ago? I admit I wasn¡¯t really paying attention to whether she was looming over me before, but I swear she looked bigger than this.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I cleared my throat. ¡°Are¡­ are you talking to me?¡±


    The soldier nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. You don¡¯t look like one of the villagers. How did you chance upon this place?¡± A cold sweat ran down my back. I don¡¯t know the first thing about dealing with ghosts. I have no idea what I should say or do here.


    I stood up fully and let my hand fall away from my weapon. ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± Is she aware that it was her attack that made me jump into the Valley? Is she playing dumb? Dammit Kuro, now was a perfect time to knock your stupid ass out.


    The soldier knelt down next to Kuro, running her hand across his hair. It was a gentle gesture that seemed out of place for some reason, like it clashed with my perception of her from only a minute ago. She smiled, pure and simple like a child¡¯s happiness and in a way that made my heart seem to swell. She¡¯s like a whole different person now. Am I seeing the real soldier or only what I want to see?


    Eventually she stood back up and offered me a hand. I took it and she pulled me up to full height. ¡°Take care of him. He¡¯s your only way back to the world you reside in.¡± She pointed down the path, through the narrow canyon ahead. ¡°He can open the way on the other side. You must return to the reality you belong in, before the reality of this place becomes your reality.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to explain that one to me. I don¡¯t know the first thing about magic or ghosts or how any of this works. Short words would help, please.¡±


    The soldier¡¯s brow furrowed, then she sighed. ¡°Alright. This is not your world. It is what a mage would call a ¡®pocket dimension¡¯. It¡¯s a space where the laws that govern the world you live in don¡¯t apply properly, or even at all.¡±


    ¡°Okay, with you so far. Is it dangerous to be here for too long? And in what way?¡± I asked.


    The soldier nodded. ¡°You could be trapped here with no way to go home. You could become part of the loop, the event that created this scar in the skin of the world. If that happens, you¡¯ll be doomed to repeat it over and over again until you forget you were never originally part of it.¡± She reached out and pinched the skin of my upper arm.


    ¡°Hey! What the hell was that for?¡± I yelled as I flinched away. She looked at me gravely.


    ¡°You felt pain, yes? You will for every cycle. When that cycle repeats, you will feel pain again. Eventually it will be all that you know. Even a berserker like you would go mad from the repetition in time.¡± Her face became frighteningly void of emotion for a second, her voice hollow and ominous.


    I let my hand reach back up for my maul again. ¡°How did you know I was a berserker?¡± This is unnerving. Every instinct I have is telling me not to trust this girl, to grab Kuro and just run. And the first thing I learned in my training was to always trust my gut. I took a step towards Kuro¡¯s prone body, already debating in my mind whether I could outrun the girl while carrying his dead weight.


    Something fearsome sparked in the girl¡¯s golden eyes when I took the first step. In the moonlight, she almost resembled a wolf staring out of a dark forest, seeing me as potential prey. The feeling of imminent danger intensified to the point where I felt every hair on the back of my neck rise and goosebumps form on my arms. This girl is giving off seriously bad vibes. I need to get out of here, now.


    She held up her hand. ¡°Wait. Let me help you. You obviously don¡¯t know what you¡¯re up against.¡± She reached up and removed her helmet, and when she did a mess of long, tangled red hair fell out, along with two long perky fox ears popping up. ¡°I can guide you, and help you fight against the obstacles blocking your path. You seem like you¡¯re out of your depth here.¡±


    The girl looked even smaller without the ornate helmet, and the fox ears made her look comically childish. I almost expect her to be a child standing on another child¡¯s shoulders under that armor. What is with this girl? One second I¡¯m deathly afraid of her and the next I feel like I¡¯m going to burst out laughing at her.


    Almost as if reading my mind, the girl spoke again. ¡°Stop trying to make sense of things. That¡¯s your mind rebelling against the alternate reality trying to impose itself on you. In smaller words, as you asked, the longer you stay, the harder it will be to break free of this place.¡± Again, the slight edge in her tone was extremely off-putting. ¡°We need to move. If we tarry too long it won¡¯t be a matter of being unable to leave, but of you not wanting to.¡±


    Nothing for it, then. You¡¯ve got no choice but to follow her for now. But if she tries anything I¡¯ll bash her big dumb head in. Alverd would never forgive me if I got his friend killed. Or trapped in some weird ghost world. I leaned down and scooped Kuro up, hoisting him over my right shoulder and holding him there with my right arm. Shit, this little bastard is heavier than he looks.


    The soldier¡¯s eyes flashed again. ¡°Be careful with him. I¡¯m not kidding.¡±


    I snarled back at her. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I get it, mages are fragile, too much wand-waving and not enough exercise. You don¡¯t have to tell me twice.¡± Ghost or not, I will not be pushed around by someone who looks like a kid. ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±


    She considered it for a moment. ¡°What¡¯s the point in knowing my name? Once you leave here you¡¯ll never see me again, probably.¡± I groaned in exasperation.


    ¡°Evros above, you¡¯re like an actual child, which is rich coming from me. Just make something up so I don¡¯t have to call you Ghost Bitch in my head or something.¡±


    The fox beastwoman glared at me. ¡°Fine. Call me Deotra, then.¡± She unsheathed her sword, and the length of the blade erupted in an unnatural pale blue flame. ¡°Come along. The sooner you are gone, the better, barbarian woman.¡± She turned, then whipped her head back around, her eyes blazing. ¡°And nothing had better happen to that mage, or you¡¯ll have to deal with me for the rest of forever.¡±


    Any other time I would¡¯ve smacked the snide out of this bitch¡¯s tone a long time ago, but she¡¯s a ghost and for all I know this is some whacko dream I had from hitting my head on a rock. The sooner I get out of here the better. I fought the urge to say something vile, restrained my violent impulses, and took a deep breath in through my nose and out through my mouth.


    ¡°Alright, protect the mage. Got it. I¡¯ll be careful.¡±


    I unslung my maul and held it loosely in my left hand, the dragontooth metal head dragging along the ground. The nullification runes tied to the haft glowed in their steady pattern of magical light, shifting color as they bounced against each other. I¡¯m starting to get the hang of using these things. Lucky for me they recharge, although it¡¯s a bit inconvenient they take so long to do so.


    We¡¯d discovered that the runes I¡¯d taken from Magister Katrile were able to regain their power over time, although it took several days for even a single rune to restore itself. Since our journey to Kierhai had taken almost a full tenday, the runes had recharged to full power, and that meant that I had four total chances to disrupt a mage¡¯s spell. It¡¯s a wonder the Ishmarians never bothered adapting this as a weapon. Hopefully it¡¯ll work on ghosts too if they get in my way.


    As I followed the soldier down the canyon, the stone cliffs on either side solidified into greater detail as I got closer, as if a painter were in the process of creating the road ahead as I walked. I still couldn¡¯t see all the way to the far end,  a blinding whiteness was all I could see. It hurt to look at, not in the way looking at the sun would burn your eyes, but rather it gave me a headache that got worse the longer I stared. Eventually I gave up on trying to figure out what was up ahead.


    Things I had not seen appeared out of nowhere as we pushed forward, as if we were rolling back a fog curtain. The bodies of villagers, of soldiers wearing iron splinted armor like the kind I¡¯d see back in Standing Stone, littered the ground. Blood ran everywhere, making my boots squelch as I tried not to trip over a corpse. I had to sidestep a boulder that had been rolled down one cliff, and an arm was all that was visible of the soldier that had been crushed beneath it.


    Deotra was completely unnerved by her surroundings, and at one point she kicked aside a corpse so she could make the way easier for me to traverse. Yikes. There is something seriously creepy about this girl. I¡¯ve seen Legionnaires show that kind of disdain for the dead, but watching someone else do it doesn¡¯t make it any easier.


    ¡°Keep up. Your presence is making the dead restless. I¡¯d rather not fight my way through if I can help it.¡± She didn¡¯t even bother turning around. The sheer hostility in her voice was enough to send another chill down my spine. It¡¯s almost like she¡¯s become another person. Kuro was right, there¡¯s some seriously bad shit about to go down here.


    Then a stray thought occurred to me. She said that reality doesn¡¯t work the way it does in the normal world, right? So maybe there¡¯s a way to make that work to my advantage. But that would mean using magic. I still had no way of knowing how to use my supposed magical talent. I had been meaning to ask Kuro if he could teach me some tricks for how to begin exploring it, but something had held me back when I tried.


    You wonder if that¡¯s really a good idea, to embrace something that your people vilify. When you return to them, they¡¯ll either see you as the person destined to bring the change they need or the exemplar of everything they fear. You¡¯re rolling the dice on saving them, and that makes you pause.


    I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn¡¯t notice Deotra had stopped, and I bumped into her. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s going on?¡± The girl didn¡¯t answer at first. Then she swung her flaming blade to the right, just as the form of an imperial soldier lunged from behind a rocky crevice. As the blade made contact with the soldier¡¯s head, there was no spray of blood but instead an unearthly wail as the entirety of the soldier¡¯s body was engulfed by the blue fire on Deotra¡¯s sword, burning him to ash in seconds. Only the smell of burning flesh remained, and then even the ashes evaporated into wisps of familiar-looking smoke.


    ¡°Someone has stirred the restless spirits. That idiot girl outside is rousing their fury. We have to go. Now!¡± She grabbed hold of my weapon arm and yanked me forward. ¡°In only a few more seconds, every restless soul here will be on us. Move faster!¡±


    Behind us, more of the monstrous wails sounded, all blending together into one discordant sound. ¡°You don¡¯t have to tell me twice!¡± I gripped Kuro as tight as I could and broke into a full run, moving as fast as I could under his weight. She stopped just long enough to conjure an enormous ball of blue fire in her hand and threw it past me, then fell in behind me.


    On both sides of me, the bodies of imperial soldiers seemed to crawl out of the stone, almost as though they were passing through invisible walls. Each was making that damned sound, grating on my nerves as I rushed past. One reached out his arm for me and I swung my maul one-handed at him, knocking his arm away and possibly snapping the bone at the same time.


    As I kept running, chaos ensued and all hell really broke loose. Arrows began to shoot past me. A boulder rolled right through me, passing through me with no ill effect. Spears rained down on all sides, I knew there was no point to avoiding them. God I hate ghosts. I¡¯m never getting mixed up with them again.


    I lost track of how long I ran. It couldn¡¯t possibly have been long, but it also felt like I¡¯d been running forever. Time felt like it would slow to give me time to fear an oncoming barrage of arrows, but then speed up as they hit me and went through without hurting me. I just want to leave, is that too much to ask? If you want me gone, I won¡¯t argue, just show me the way out!


    Finally the white light ahead turned into an opening in the canyon. There was empty space on the other side, no tents or camps or armies of bloodthirsty soldiers, but sweet escape. Spurred on by the possibility of freeing myself, I put on a burst of speed.


    I was only about ten feet away from the opening when something grabbed the back of my head. It was a hand, but the fingers seemed to bore into my skull, pinching with enough pressure to send waves of pain across the skin. I screamed in surprise, then agony, as I sank to my knees. The pain wasn¡¯t just in my flesh, it was in my mind, like it was on fire. I felt Kuro slip off my shoulder and slump to the ground, still unmoving, unaware of the peril I was in.


    Then I heard Deotra¡¯s voice. ¡°Not yet. I¡¯m not letting you leave just yet. You know too much, barbarian. And I¡¯m going to make sure you forget before you go.¡± It was the disgust in her tone that struck me. It was so unrestrained, as though she had wanted to kill me for such a long time that it had twisted her up inside to hold back for so long. Another wave of white hot pain pulsed in my head, and I couldn¡¯t even hear my screams anymore.


    The world started to feel fuzzy. My vision failed me, turning to blackness. My breath wheezed out of my lungs, my heart seized in my chest, and my mind burned to ash. Her voice was fading too, sounding like it was coming from a far distance. ¡°Don¡¯t struggle. It¡¯ll only make what I have to do hurt more. Just let it happen. I guarantee you won¡¯t hold it against me.¡± The last sensation I felt was tears rolling down my cheeks as the dark engulfed me.


    ¡°It will all be over soon.¡±

 Small Update

    I love D&D, so when it came time to reboot my original story from the childish first draft it came from it was a ntural fit to include elements of my brand new obsession with it. (I basically wrote the first draft at a time in my life when mentally I was that kid from the vine swinging an umbrella screaming that he has the power of god and anime on his side, dark days were those)


    I debated making Alverd a Battle Master at first, because with leadership comes tactical flexibility and the power to command the battlefield. But Alverd was a rank and file knight, never reached the point in his training where he would''ve been taught such things and besides, thinking is supposed to be Kuro''s strength. While Champion is boringly straightforward, it makes sense; Alverd isn''t the focus, just the glue that sort of holds the group together. He hits hard, fights hard, tanks hard, and keeps his party safe as a typical vanilla sword and board hero. The decision to make it so he keeps his feelings bottled up inside is there to ground him and give him a side of vulnerability and relatability that challenges the previous assumption that nothing gets under his skin.


    Wizards are not my class of choice, or any dedicated spellcaster for that matter. I have a terrible memory, so remembering tons of spells with ridiculous effects is a nightmare for me. Kuro is great as an evocation wizard because he''s not going to take spells that require me to remember giant blocks of text, it''s mostly just "point at bad guy, bad guy goes boom, what flavor is explosion?" What makes Kuro an interesting character to me is that he takes spells and finds out of the box usages for them, which is always a hit or miss thing in D&D; sometimes you get that Dungeon Master who listens to you explain how a well-aimed Fireball can trigger an avalance from the explosion that wipes out an army climbing a mountain, but sometimes you also get that fuddy-dud DM who can''t use their imagination for beans. Lucky for Kuro, God is rooting for him, but He is gonna make the poor sucker work for his wins.


    Describing what rage was like was such a fun concept for Alicia. I like the idea that rage isn''t something that barbarians control so much as just point in a direction and let it run wild. In that way, rage isn''t so different from magic, which makes her interactions with Kuro and Sheena so much more nuanced and fun, and in that way they might find common ground just like a real D&D party. Her tsundere behavior comes from my personal love of the character trope, and I always get mad when I see ignorant tryhards dismiss it as a "one dimensional" character identity. Tsundere are people and they deserve love and respect too.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Sheena was born out of several weird character concepts that I''ve seen in my years of playing tabletop; the spoiled rich girl thrust into the real world without daddy''s money and a spellcaster who firmly believed that magic was the solution to everything. I had just started watching the sublime anime My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom and the idea of a hyperaware yet oblivious protagonist was also very appealing to me; what makes the Sorcerer class so interesting is that it doesn''t have any natural advantage over the Wizard, instead relying on the use of tactical flexiblity to enhance their magic to work in different situations, a trait I think Sheena would need to survive her many assassination attempts.


    Monaco is not a typical rogue, as she likes to get in close and personal. As a Mastermind, her deal is about setting her foes up to be taken advantage of by her allies, which is why she never works alone; Rogues are infamous for going off on their own in D&D, so the idea that this party''s rogue likes to run with the pack makes her an interesting subversion in my mind. We have yet to see her fight, but I''m looking forward to seeing what you guys think of her.


    Deotra...let''s not go there. No need to let the fox out of the bag just yet.


    Yuzuruha was the last character I played in a dedicated campaign and sadly she never got to see it through to the end (the DM was a nightmare who allowed his girlfriend to be the main character and ejected me when I called him out on how he allowed her to talk down to me when I called her out). Even more tsundere than Alicia and quick to anger, she nontheless had her own code of honor that wasn''t something that could be explained in a single sentence. I''m glad she gets to make a little cameo in this game in this Asia-inspired country but she is a minor character that won''t be joining the group permanently. Samurai is a lesser played subclass in the game but when built correctly you can do obscene amounts of burst damage with one; my jerkass former DM derisively said that she was basically just a shounen anime protagonist and to that I agreed, because the angrier she got the more powerful she became.


    Again, sorry about the delays and I hope to get my life back on track soon (don''t we all in these trying times). There will be a post this weekend and then a three week gap until the next chapter, and no concrete info on when the edits will resume. Hopefull when summer ends and the heat dies down things will get better.


    Thanks for sticking around.

 B3: Chapter 9: Sheena: Light at the End Part 1 (Edited Version)

    When Alicia and Kuro disappeared, everything changed for the worse.


    The ghosts standing at attention vanished into thin air, like puffs of smoke caught in a strong wind. The soldier in front was gone as if they¡¯d never been there at all. An eerie wail washed down and over us from the valley entrance, chilling me to the bone.


    I always did like scary stories, but I prefer them to remain on the written page, not real life.


    Alverd was the first to break out of his stupor, running forward to look for our lost companions. ¡°Alicia! Kuro! Are you there? Can you hear me?¡± He called down the valley¡¯s narrow expanse, his voice echoing. ¡°Are you both alright? Answer me!¡± There was no reply except for his pleas. He ran back to me, placing his hands on my shoulders. ¡°What happened? Are they hurt?¡±


    It took a moment to focus on the here and now, because I was so distracted by the fear in Alverd¡¯s eyes that I didn¡¯t know what to say at first. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve even seen him so distraught. I¡¯ve never had reason to believe he could be like this. He¡¯s not a knight, he¡¯s a human being and he¡¯s scared.


    It was so jarring to see the culmination of all my childhood fantasies reduced to such base fear. Knights aren¡¯t supposed to be like this. They¡¯re unflappable, they ride into battle against impossible odds on noble steeds with swords and armor that gleam like the summer sun. But the true and raw fear in his eyes said otherwise. Under his armor and oath he¡¯s a man. Men fear and men falter. You¡¯ve seen enough of your own mages demonstrate that.


    But this is different. I need him to be strong, invincible, unshakable. My skin began to crawl, a shudder running up my back, cold sweat breaking out on my brow. When I see him like this, I can¡¯t be brave. I can¡¯t be what he needs me to be. I need to see him be the knight I saw in my dreams. My teeth clenched in my mouth, grinding as I tried to deny the reality in front of me.


    I need him to be brave for me, because I can¡¯t be brave without him.


    It was a pathetic thought to have; one such as I, the almighty Witch-Queen, formerly Her Dark Majesty of the most powerful country in Selarune, reduced to a cowering wretch. Yet I couldn¡¯t help myself. Why am I so paralyzed with fright? This isn¡¯t like me. I tried to remain calm as his mouth opened in silence, my mind and heart racing.


    Then, he grabbed hold of my face in both of his hands, firm but gentle enough. ¡°Sheena! Get a hold of yourself! I need you to focus!¡± I blinked, and then inhaled sharply.


    ¡°Yes! Yes, you¡¯re right. I lost myself. I¡¯m here.¡± He let me go, stepping back.


    Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind of distracting thoughts, pushing away the image of Alverd¡¯s frightened face. He needs me to be strong for him. After everything he¡¯s done, that¡¯s the least I can do. I promised myself I wouldn¡¯t be a burden, and I¡¯ve got to make good on it. Envisioning a clear blue eye in the center of my mind, I willed my gathering magical power to inhabit my own eyes, the better to see what I could not see before.


    The valley¡¯s entrance was awash with a vortex of phantasmal energy, a whirlpool drawing in the essence of magic around it. I felt drawn to it, knowing that the vortex was already trying to drag me into it, and I had to plant my feet to steady myself. Some force is trying to stabilize itself by siphoning raw power from its surroundings. Whatever we did, we awakened something here and now it¡¯s looking for a snack.


    It had to be just now, because even without my magical sight I could¡¯ve felt the presence of this vortex earlier. When Alicia and Kuro disappeared, they must have triggered something to release this entity. Entity was the right word for the magic in the whirlpool was already beginning to take shape, the forms of humanoid figures already massing in the opening. They were hazy still, but I could see eyes, small globes of incandescent golden light burning in the dark.


    If we don¡¯t pass through that mess, we leave Alicia and Kuro to a grim fate. Ghosts will feed off of anything once they get vicious enough, and if this place was the sight of a bloody battle then they¡¯re already inclined to be agitated. We don¡¯t have time to go the long way around, though. I stomped back to the wagon and shook Yuzuruha¡¯s arm.


    The tall woman was plastered against the side of the wagon, her breathing irregular and her eyes open wide, but otherwise still mostly in control of herself. ¡°By the fur of the Wolf Lord, what is goin¡¯ on here?¡± She whimpered. Again, I shook her.


    ¡°Listen to me! We have to act fast. Do you have a lantern in that wagon?¡± She nodded dumbly, reaching over to the front of the wagon and pulling the small lantern mounted next to the driver¡¯s seat free. She handed it to me, her eyes never leaving the valley opening.


    Holding the lantern in my hand, I took a deep breath. I breathed out, allowing my breath to become a bright orange flame that lit the candle in the lantern, the tiny light blazing with all the radiance of a wildfire, containing courage born of desperation. It danced within the tiny glass casing, almost like it was trying to break free. I closed the case and held it aloft, the bright light nearly blinding me.


    Beside me, Yuzuruha gasped. Her expression softened as her purple eyes watched the orange flame. Then she grit her teeth, grabbing her studded club and pounding her chest with her right fist. ¡°Well, hot damn, literally! The hell we still doin¡¯ here? Y¡¯all got a plan or are we gonna sit on our asses fer the next I don¡¯t know how long?¡±


    I smiled. Such a simple thing. A spell to inspire. It¡¯s not much, but it¡¯s enough. I took hold of the lantern in my right hand and walked back to Alverd. ¡°Okay, I know what to do. We have to cross through the valley as quickly as we can. My powers will hold the ghosts at bay, but not forever. If we find Kuro and Alicia we have to pull them out of there before the ghosts devour them.¡±


    Alverd winced just enough that I caught the change in his face, but it was only for a second; then he was attentive and composed again. The flame is doing its job. He¡¯s finding his bravery again. ¡°Anything else we should know?¡± He asked.


    I nodded. ¡°My magic must be devoted solely to maintaining our barrier against the ghosts. Your weapons will not cut that which isn¡¯t alive.¡±


    For a second, Yuzuruha¡¯s newfound courage faltered. ¡°Wait, so what happens if tha ghosts decide ta attack us?¡±


    I looked at her and tried to reassure her. ¡°If it comes to it that my barrier can¡¯t hold them, I¡¯ll transfer my power into your weapons, make it so they can cut and strike the incorporeal. But I can¡¯t do it forever. Once we venture into the valley, the clock starts ticking. We find the others, drag them to the other side, and then the truly dangerous part comes into play.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to force open a path on the other side. I¡¯ll be doing three different things at once by that point, so you¡¯ll have to protect me. Only as a last resort, though. If we can get through without provoking the ghosts, that¡¯s the ideal solution. If Kuro is able, he can assist me in opening the path, but I¡¯m not going to assume the best just yet.¡±


    Alverd put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°Well now. You sound a bit like Kuro. Just do me a favor and try not to let yourself get too jaded.¡± He gave me a quick smile. The light in the lantern roared for a second, the flame growing so big it nearly burst out of its case.


    ¡°O-O-Of course. It wouldn¡¯t do for me to be all gloom and doom after I made up my mind to put that all behind me.¡±


    Standing before the valley, feeling the swirling energy of death tearing at the thin veil that held it back, I lifted the lantern. The flame sparked and created a bubble around me, big enough to encompass both Alverd and Yuzuruha. The ghosts hissed and recoiled away from the light, retreating back into the valley. They scrambled over each other like a horde of rats, moving in ways that were inhuman and unnatural.


    Yuzuruha made a disgusted sound. ¡°Urgh, that¡¯s freaky. Turns mah stomach.¡± She held up her studded club, holding it tight with both of her hands. ¡°So we jus¡¯ gotta get through, right? No takin¡¯ swings at tha ghosts?¡± I nodded at her.


    ¡°Yes. Anything we do could incite a frenzy. The barrier will keep a few of them from attacking but it won¡¯t hold up against a swarm. The more of them come after us, the harder it will be to maintain it.¡± The lantern¡¯s light flickered across the stone cliff walls, casting eerie shadows this way and that. ¡°We should move quickly.¡±


    Alverd unsheathed his sword. ¡°What¡¯s the plan when we get to the other side?¡± I squinted, trying to see as far as I could down the canyon.


    ¡°We can leave the wagon here and collect it in the morning. We make camp on the far side until morning, get the wagon and then make it to Blossom City. Once the sun rises the ghosts should return to their graves.¡±


    It was odd to see such a large, heavily armed mercenary on the borderline of having a panic attack, but Yuzuruha was clearly at that point based on her shallow, rapid breathing. ¡°How do y¡¯all know that?¡± I clucked my tongue.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    ¡°Most magical anomalies cannot endure under direct exposure to sunlight. It¡¯s why nearly all hauntings occur at night. There¡¯s no concrete explanation for why, but the fact remains that the sun has much the same effect on ghosts as soap has on dirt. Unfortunately a technical explanation on the science will have to wait until later.¡±


    Muttering something about her disdain for wizards, Yuzuruha fell in behind me with her club held in a defensive posture. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll watch the rear. Sooner we get through the better.. Don¡¯t much like tha idea of fightin¡¯ something I can¡¯t hit with mah club.¡±


    Alverd stepped ahead of me. ¡°I¡¯ll go first. As long as I stay in the light I¡¯ll be alright?¡± I nodded, and he smiled at me. ¡°Then I shall be your shield, milady.¡±


    Again, the lantern light leaped and swelled as my heart beat faster. ¡°R-Right. Let¡¯s get started.¡± He moved into the opening and held his shield in front of him, his sword arm down but ready. I tried to maintain a constant distance of about three feet behind him to give him room to swing if necessary. Yuzuruha was a little too close for comfort behind me but given her feelings about wandering into a ghost nest it was understandable.


    The dimensions of the gorge were easy to navigate at first. There was at least fifteen feet between the walls, meaning we had plenty of space. The ground was mostly even and the stone cliffs on either side were sheer, placing at about forty feet high. After walking for about ten minutes, however, the walls began to close in on us, fencing us in. They became more jagged and uneven, and the ground was harder to traverse.


    The light of the lantern did strange things to the contours of the walls. Several times I thought I saw faces looking at me, distorted and mangled by the flickering light. Then I realized they were faces. The ghosts were watching us, unable to attack but observing the intruders in their territory. Normally ghosts would be little problem for an experienced mage, but this deep in their personal hell, they have the upper hand. A psychic scar like this one has remained in this land for so long that the haunting has self-reinforced into something far more dangerous.


    The emotions here are a jumble of bravery, fear, surprise and fury. It¡¯s almost impossible to tell the difference between the peasants and the imperial soldiers. Maybe at first the haunting was more distinct but now it feels like a giant pit of magical slurry. The sensation of the ghosts probing the barrier, poking and prodding it to test its limits brought me back to the present. I could see the specter of an imperial soldier, an arrow protruding from his neck, pressed up against the curvature of the light barrier, his face a twisted mask of scorn.


    Behind me, Yuzuruha was doing her best to stay calm, and failing. Stammering and hyperventilating, her steps were uneven and scuffing against the ground. I turned my head. ¡°I know this is unsettling. Don¡¯t fixate on them. Think of that man you mentioned. Think of him waiting for you back in Blossom City. Think only of how it will feel when you see him again. Drown out any fear you have.¡± I was drawing on the fuel of the barrier, the spark of courage I¡¯d placed in the lantern, to amplify my words.


    I could feel the power flow out of the lantern, infusing her with bravery. She took in a deep, sharp breath, then let it out. ¡°Yer right. Rol would want me to be brave. Gods, I¡¯m gonna hug that bastard so hard when I get outta here.¡± Better not overdo it. If I draw too much power away from the lantern it won¡¯t hold up.


    Wielding the power of a spirit contractor wasn¡¯t something that could be necessarily taught. It was true that education had helped me to understand the theory, practice and application of my magic, but only trial and error had instructed me on how to use it properly. I¡¯ve made a lot of mistakes in the past about how to apply my powers. So I know my limits better than anyone. Still¡­


    Ahead of me, Alverd seemed to soldiering on without any fear. He¡¯s putting on a brave face now. But I can feel the conflicting emotions in him. Fear for the safety of Kuro and Alicia, his duty to protect me, concern for all of us. There¡¯s a whirlwind of conflicting desires and emotions but it¡¯s all the same. He¡¯s too busy thinking of others to worry about himself. He really is the best of us. I wanted to send him a bit of reaffirmation from my lantern, but then smiled as I knew he didn¡¯t need it.


    The passage of time was impossible to track inside the valley. The moon above was shrouded in a thick haze of ghostly energy, distorting the night sky and even the positions of the stars. Behind me, I could see the ghosts of the imperial soldiers rising out of the ground, slinking out of the walls, holding translucent weapons. At first I thought they were closing ranks, but they were actually merging and melding into each other, a distinct individual suddenly becoming one with another only to split back as the ghosts became a roiling mass of disturbed psychic power.


    Oh gods. That¡¯s the agitation I was worried about. Our presence is making things worse.


    I reached forward and tapped Alverd¡¯s shoulder. ¡°We need to pick up the pace. The ghosts are getting more and more restless. We¡¯re running out of time.¡±


    He looked past me, saw the ghosts rallying, and his eyes widened. ¡°That¡¯s not something you see everyday. I¡¯ll go faster.¡±


    It was tough to match his increased pace, but I managed. The stone walls were now only eight feet apart, making it feel cramped to the point of claustrophobia. Ahead of us, ghosts were making way, shying away from the lantern, but their faces were becoming more and more fierce, eyes burning with intense hatred. They made inhuman snarling sounds as we passed, which combined with their demonlike face masks made me so nervous the flame started to flicker in the lantern.


    Up ahead, the cliffs started to open up again, widening as the exit to the valley appeared in the distance. The far side was an open plain, a monument similar to the one on the side of the valley we¡¯d entered visible in the opening between the rocks. Not far from the exit, too prone forms lay on the ground. As we drew closer, I recognized Kuro and Alicia.


    Kuro was unconscious. His eyes were closed and his chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm, almost as if he were asleep. Alicia on the other hand was spasming on the ground, her eyes wide open, her mouth trying to form words but only emitting choked gurgles. Alverd ran to her, shaking her gently.


    She didn¡¯t respond. Her eyes stared sightlessly at something past him, as if he weren¡¯t there. I knelt down beside Alverd to examine her. ¡°She doesn¡¯t look like she was attacked by the ghosts. They would¡¯ve drained her life energy, not this. She¡¯s in no state to fight. We have to get her out of here.¡±


    Alverd put his arms under Alicia and lifted her as gently as he could. ¡°Now what?¡± He asked.


    With Yuzuruha still watching the rear, I took a look at the exit. Like the entry, it had a tangled mess of magical distortion over it. The concentration of the energy on this side was far more condensed, though. Makes sense. If what Yuzuruha said is true, the imperial army suffered many casualties pushing through the valley. The number of deaths here at this entry point would be enough to create this tangled web. Fortunately, I know how to unmake it.


    Akin to unraveling a ball of yarn, it started with finding the last death in the chain. Like a stray string, it was easy enough to find. Tracing it back to its origin was far more difficult. It¡¯s like trying to find a single card in a deck that someone is shuffling constantly. With so many deaths overlapping, it¡¯s a wonder I can concentrate on just the one. I have to trace the last death here all the way through to the first death, then force a path open.


    A wave of emotions slammed into me as I latched onto the last death. The will of a young man who had little notion of the greater gravity of what he had been sent to do intertwined with my mind. He was young, too young to understand the politics behind the command to march to Standing Stone. He had marched under the idea that he was going to quell an insurrection against his Emperor.


    There was pride. Pride taken in doing his duty, of being useful, hope that he would distinguish himself in combat. Ambition. Then uncertainty. Fear. Then trepidation. He didn¡¯t know what to think when he saw peasants fighting against the imperial army. He couldn¡¯t understand why he had to kill innocent people. Confusion. His commanding officer ordered him to kill everyone who resisted. Regret. The fright at seeing blood on his hands for the first time. Never forget. Then, pain, fear, sorrow, then nothing. Death. He died with a spear through his stomach. It wasn¡¯t quick. Thrown by someone who barely knew how to use one. Went through his torso, but not a clean kill. Nobody stopped to help him. He bled out on the ground. He wanted to go home, to see his family again. He¡­


    I had to disengage from the thought, shaking my head furiously. No, you can¡¯t get too drawn in. You lose yourself otherwise. The sad truth is not everyone gets what they deserve in life, good or bad. I don¡¯t know if he deserved to die, but it¡¯s the fate he received either way. Untangling from him, I traversed further through the thread, passing through more emotions.


    There were soldiers who reveled in the death, others who had mixed feelings. The commanding officer had no pity or shame and only felt indignation when a boulder had rolled off the cliff above and crushed his lower body, pinning him to the ground. Like the soldier he¡¯d left behind, nobody tried to assist him. Eventually shock and internal bleeding had killed him, and his last emotions were rage that he had been defeated by some filthy farmer rolling a rock onto him.


    Maybe there is some justice in the world after all.


    On the periphery of my vision, Yuzuruha had woken Kuro, who was stumbling to his feet. I could hear them shouting vaguely. Behind me, the surge of phantasmal force told me the ghosts were massing, preparing for an attack. We¡¯ve overstayed our welcome.


    I was about to link myself to the final spirit in the chain when I was suddenly severed from the spell I had cast. A sensation like snakes coiling around my arms pulled me out of my trance. The seal had reached out with ghostly tendrils that were now wrapping around my arms, still translucent. Redirecting power from the lantern, I burned away the tendrils with a burst of orange fire. I turned to tell the others that I was going to need more time when I saw him.


    The officer who had led the attack was standing in front of a mass of ghosts, which were in the process of phasing in and out of each other, the lines of their bodies fading as they seemed to blend into one being before separating again. His legs were a pair of mangled stumps of flesh, the armor jutting from the bleeding skin like jagged shards of glass. The mask he wore had a grimly smiling demon with red skin and four curling fangs, and his helmet bore a broken crescent that had likely snapped off during the battle that claimed his life.


    The eyes of the officer glowed in the sockets of the mask, twin red orbs full of unfettered rage. He already had his sword in hand, a curved single edged blade dripping with crimson. The ghosts behind him undulated and growled, like a pack of wolves awaiting a signal from their alpha. Slowly, they moved forward, and one by one they began to assimilate into the officer.


    With every ghost that became one with him, the officer grew larger. His arms lengthened, thickening with the sound of cracking bone. His legs turned double jointed, and his chest swelled to twice its size. No longer able to contain the growth of his body, his ghostly armor shattered, pieces of it falling away before melting into viscous slime on the ground.


    The last part of the officer¡¯s transformation was his head. The mask and helmet fused together into a solid piece, until they were no longer ornaments but the actual head of the freakish monstrosity taking shape in front of us. The mouth of the mask became the jaws of an actual demon, dribbling saliva from its crooked jaws. It loomed over us, still absorbing more ghosts, until it was almost fifteen feet tall.


    ¡°The goddamn hell is that?!¡± Yuzuruha yelled, pulling Kuro back and away from the monster.


    Holding the lantern in front of me, I ran to her side. ¡°I don¡¯t know. This is not typical for ghosts. I¡¯ve never read anything about this sort of thing happening. Something must be feeding them, making them act abnormally. And it has to be local.¡± Alverd set Alicia down and stepped back over to me, drawing his sword and shield once more.


    I searched around frantically, trying to find the source of the ghosts¡¯ atypical behavior. ¡°Hauntings like this are bound by the circumstances of their creation. Anything outside those parameters shouldn¡¯t have an effect on how they play out. Something is responsible for making this happen, but I don¡¯t know what it is!¡±


    The monstrous ghost opened its mouth and roared, loud enough to jar loose debris from the cliffs. When it stepped towards us with newly formed talons digging into the stone floor, plodding along on malformed legs, I opened the glass case of the lantern and pointed at Alverd, then Yuzuruha. The flame jumped out of the case, split into two, and then streaked over to them.


    When the flame reached Alverd, it leaped onto the Sword of Evros. The blade erupted in bright red flame, an unnatural solid crimson with no white, orange, or blue anywhere along its length. There was no heat, only the essence of magic itself infusing the weapon to allow it to affect the incorporeal. He flinched at first, but when he saw that he was in no danger from the fire, he took up a position in front of me.


    ¡°Then find it. We¡¯ll buy you as much time as we can.¡±


    When the flame touched Yuzuruha¡¯s club, it took a very different form. Instead of fire, the spark became purple lightning, crackling along the length of the club and arcing from the metal studs embedded in it.


    ¡°Well hot damn. That¡¯s more like it.¡± She grinned manically as she bent her knees, the club held in front of her in a fighting stance. ¡°If I¡¯ve got a fightin¡¯ chance, thas¡¯ more than enough. Do what y¡¯all hafta do, lady.¡±


    Kuro stood next to me, worry stamped on his face. ¡°How long do you think you can hold that spell for?¡± I placed my bladed staff on the ground, holding the now empty lantern close to my chest.


    ¡°I¡¯ll hold it as long as I can. Help them. I need to focus on finding the cause for all this.¡± He swallowed, then nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll do the best I can. But you and I know something the two of them don¡¯t.¡± He lowered his voice.


    ¡°You can¡¯t kill ghosts.¡±


    I returned his nervous stare. ¡°I know. But they can kill us.¡±

 B3: Chapter 10: Sheena: Light at the End Part 2 (Edited)

    Closing my eyes always helped me focus. I told myself it was to shut out distractions, prevent the sensation of sight from interfering with what I needed to do. Tuning it out would help me sort my thoughts. For a long time I believed that until recent events confirmed for me what I had begun to suspect: that it was because I was tired of seeing what I didn¡¯t want to see.


    Right now, I definitely did not want to see the horrible monster crawling towards us.


    Unfortunately, to read the flow of magic in the area, I had to ¡°see¡± the monster, albeit in a different fashion. As I closed my eyes, I reached out with my magical senses, allowing them to paint a picture of my surroundings with perception that my eyes alone lacked.


    First came the lines. Like drawing contours on a topographical map, they shot out in every direction, defining hard edges and boundaries, tracing the geography around me. Stones, walls, even the texture of the rock became clear in my mind as my sorcerous powers drew me a map of the surrounding area with the speed of a dozen cartographers working in tandem.


    Next came something more complex. The power to see with my magical abilities showed me things more as they were in a metaphorical sense rather than the concrete physical that my naked eye did. Beside me, Kuro¡¯s being flared into existence as a flickering blue spark within the outline of his small frame.


    The spark shrank and sputtered constantly to mirror the fear in Kuro. The magic sense I¡¯d invoked was no true window to the soul but it did allow me to intuit the strongest feeling I could lock onto in a person. As my senses spread out further, Yuzuruha¡¯s aura became known to me; despite the presence of fear in the hissing and crackling purple spark of her soul, there was something that was stronger than that fear on top of it.


    Longing. She had spoken of people waiting for her back in Blossom City. A loved one. The raw feeling clashed with her doubts, attempting to reassert itself like an animal fighting another for dominance whenever her fear tried to get the better of her. As scared as she is, she knows that she has to fight. She¡¯ll never see those two again if she falls here.


    When Alverd¡¯s soul was bared to me, I nearly lost concentration on my extrasensory spell. His soul was no spark but an open flame, burning with certainty and purpose. Goodness. Even his soul is beautiful. He¡¯s like a furnace. I could look at that all day¡­


    I was about to lose myself when my range of perception encompassed the monster. The soul, if it could be called that, was a sickly green-black mass of tumor-like magic that pulsed slowly and weakly like a dying heart. A creature like this shouldn¡¯t be capable of manifesting this kind of presence. For it to have the power to do so, it would have to be responding to a mage¡¯s power or some kind of artifact, otherwise whatever remains of it would be too weak¡­


    The tumor-heart lurched forward and lumbered towards Alverd and Yuzuruha. I could see the outline of its malformed body in uneven lines dripping with ectoplasmic slime, bounding forward like a demonic dog. Despite being initially bipedal, it had opted to drop down to all fours to move with greater speed. The way its unnatural legs propelled it reminded me of an injured dog, half-stumbling but still closing the distance rapidly.


    What I didn¡¯t expect was the nature of its attack. After it had gotten close enough, the creature¡¯s jaw opened and a lashlike tongue shot from its mouth like a whip. Alverd brought up his shield just in time to deflect the bulbous head of the tongue, which struck with enough speed and force to have likely decapitated him. Not losing a beat, Alverd ducked under the tongue and ran toward the monster, his sword raised.


    As he struck, the monster buckled its knees and hit the ground, executing a clumsy but effective roll to its right and out of the path of Alverd¡¯s flaming sword. The tongue whipped back around even as the monster rolled, again going for his head. The momentum of the monster threw off its own aim enough that Alverd was able to bounce the tongue off of his shield again, but it was clear that he would have trouble pushing his attack if the creature proved faster than him.


    On Alverd¡¯s left, Yuzuruha charged in with her club raised. She had anticipated the creature¡¯s end point and was already poised to strike when the monster righted itself. Her weapon slammed into the creature¡¯s hide, discharging a blast of purple lightning into the skin of the creature that arced across its body. The monster let out a shriek and lashed out a misshapen arm at her. Planting her foot, she swept her club back around and up and batted the arm away, another explosion of electricity jolting the creature.


    Where is the distortion coming from? The ghosts aren¡¯t just acting abnormally, they¡¯re reacting to some kind of stimuli that is actively distorting their normal pattern of behavior. Weaving my spell into a kind of net, I reached out to find places within the immediate area where anomalies in the flow of magic might account for the ghosts¡¯ actions. There¡¯s too much chaos going on. Nothing is making sense.


    My approach to magic was different from a standard mage¡¯s in that it relied heavily on instinct and emotion rather than practice or established theory. Under normal circumstances my intuition would allow me to find the answer I was seeking, but I couldn¡¯t find any patterns or aberrations that gave me a clue as to what was happening.


    My method did have one clear advantage, though. ¡°Alverd, look out!¡± I cried as a surge of rage rippled out from the monster, like movement through a web. The rage was like a blade aimed in his direction, a cloud of almost palpable toxic gas that roiled in the vision of my magical sense like smoke. The warning was enough for Alverd to raise his shield and bash aside the monster¡¯s leg when it raised itself and shot out at him, elongating unnaturally to stab at him like a pike.


    The longer we take to figure out how to defeat this thing, the worst it¡¯ll get. It¡¯ll feed off whatever is making it like this continuously and grow too strong for us to fight. If we cut it off from the source, it should return the haunting back to its normal state, but with all the interference it¡¯s going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.


    Yuzuruha ran forward with her club raised, and the monster opened its mouth. The tongue shot out and swept out her leg in midstep, causing her to faceplant on the ground. Alverd attempted to attack while it was distracted but the ghost rolled again while flailing its arms, assailing him with three whip-like appendages.


    This is going to be dangerous but I don¡¯t see a choice. I called out to Kuro. ¡°Help them. I need to create a bridge to the ghosts to find out where they¡¯re feeding from.¡±


    His aura turned several different colors rapidly, signaling his concern. ¡°A bridge? Are you sure? What if they try to reverse it? They¡¯ll eat you alive.¡±


    I grinned at him, or rather I tried to without being able to ¡°see¡± him with my actual eyes. ¡°Have a little faith. I can handle some dusty old ghosts.¡± That¡¯s the bravado talking, but he doesn¡¯t need to do that. He is right, though. If the ghosts are able to turn my link back around on me they could feast on my magical energy and shrivel me like a raisin.


    He grimaced. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll try to distract the ghost, but you¡¯re only going to have a few moments regardless.¡±


    I gritted my teeth. ¡°More than I need.¡± He took hold of his staff and darted forward, holding it aloft. The ruby on its tip blazed in my magic sight as power gathered into it before coalescing into a bolt of energy that sailed out and into the ghost¡¯s body.


    The monster¡¯s reaction was immediate. It leaped past Alverd and Yuzuruha, sailing through the air and landing in front of Kuro. Its tongue shot forward and wrapped around his staff, attempting to wrest it from his grip. While he was able to maintain his grip, he was yanked off his feet and towards the ghost¡¯s gnashing jaws.


    With a battle cry, Yuzuruha hit the monster¡¯s head with her club, another burst of purplish lightning knocking it aside. The tongue slid free of Kuro¡¯s staff and the young mage landed in a heap. Yuzuruha helped him up, hauling him to his feet by grabbing hold of his arm with her free right hand.


    ¡°Up and at ¡®em, Kuro! Y¡¯all make me do all the work and I¡¯mma charge ya fer it.¡±


    He shook himself, then planted his feet. ¡°You don¡¯t have to rely on melee attacks, you know. If you direct your weapons at the monster, you can utilize the magic that Sheena empowered your weapons with. The only way we¡¯re gonna keep it at bay is by staggering our attacks from different angles. If we time our attacks properly, we¡¯ll paralyze it into confusion; it won¡¯t know who to attack first.¡±


    He pointed at the ghost. ¡°Just will the energy in the weapon at the ghost. The magic will do the rest.¡± Yuzuruha looked like he¡¯d just tried to explain the entirety of magical theory to her in five seconds, but she nodded.


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll try.¡± Alverd, who seemed to understand more of what he said, looked down at his sword, then swept it in an underhanded rising swing that scraped the stone floor of the valley.


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    Upon contacting the ground, the sword¡¯s fire ignited a trail of blazing crimson that raced along the rocks to where the monster was preparing for its next attack. The line of flame leapt up and seared across the skin of the ghost, tracing a line across its body and back and narrowly missing its head. The ectoplasmic skin of the ghost hissed as the magical fire ate away at it, tearing a hole in its shoulder that attempted to sew itself shut only to be torn open again by the fire.


    Seeing his example, Yuzuruha ran around to the far side of the monster and aimed her club at the beast with both hands. A concentrated stream of amethyst lightning shot out, crackling across multiple parts of the ghost and ripping new holes in its body. Kuro waited for the creature¡¯s head to swivel back around to her before launching his own attack, holding his staff aloft and sending out a barrage of small glowing light orbs that impacted the monster in the chest.


    The three kept up their coordinated assault, stripping away the outer layer of the monster¡¯s ectoplasmic skin. The more of the gooey transparent slime fell away the easier it was to feel the ghost¡¯s hunger, and where it was drawing the power from. I could almost see a thin line of magic take shape tied to the cancerous heart. Just a little more. I just need a second to trace the connection of the magic and I can shut it down.


    Then a horrid lurching feeling nearly swept me off my knees. It was as though someone had grabbed my heart and wrenched it violently. I felt bile in my stomach threaten to escape upward as I swayed but ultimately kept my feet. Damn. I thought I had more time. If I don¡¯t cease my connection with the monster now, it¡¯ll start feeding off of me instead. I was about to sever the bond when I finally saw where the other end of the thread was.


    The trace of magic was wrapped around Kuro¡¯s staff, which was radiating energy haphazardly in every direction like a beacon. How is that possible? How can he be so unaware of how much power he¡¯s putting out of that staff, and why isn¡¯t he able to control it? What was even stranger was where the energy was going.


    The magic coming out of the ruby embedded in the head of the staff was sending out waves of power that were then wrapping around and infusing Kuro¡¯s body. He was completely clueless to the phenomenon. Much of the power was lost as it flew off in random directions, but a steady stream of it was reinforcing his magical aptitude, almost like a reservoir he could draw from to amplify his spells.


    I knew there was something odd about that staff. I¡¯ll have to get some answers out of him later. For now I focused on a solution to our current problem. If the ghost is feeding off the magic from the staff, then perhaps we can gorge it so much that it can no longer sustain itself once it gets that supply cut off. If I can redirect the current of power straight to the ghost and then shut off that feed, it¡¯ll cannibalize itself to maintain its present shape until it falls apart.


    Alverd and Yuzuruha went in for simultaneous attacks, weaving in and out of the ghost¡¯s wild swings to strike one after the other. The ground was slick with the translucent slime falling off of its tattered body, filling the air with a sickly sweet but burnt smell. Feeling a second tugging at my heart, I severed the connection between the ghost and myself, ending my concentration on my magic sight. The world returned to the colors and solid shapes of normal reality, and when I opened my eyes I sprinted forward to where Kuro stood.


    The young mage was aiming for the creature¡¯s legs, trying to time his shots between the flailing of its arms. ¡°Did you figure out how to deal with the ghost?¡± He panted, not even turning to look at me. I reached out my right hand and grabbed the staff above his own hands, channeling my magic into it. ¡°Hey, what the hell are you doing? Stop that!¡± He yelled.


    Overwhelming him, I pointed the ruby at the ghost¡¯s head. ¡°Just concentrate. Direct your focus through the ruby and towards the ghost. I¡¯ll do the rest.¡± Just as I was about to release my gathered power, I felt an oppressive weight land on my shoulders, like something heavy had jumped onto me. A horrific feeling of dread and hate flooded my consciousness, causing my breath to catch in my throat.


    What is that? Is that the ghost? I didn¡¯t feel anything like this while I was linked to it earlier. Something wrapped around my throat, strong as steel, but when I tried to scream it squeezed tighter. Beside me I could hear Kuro yelling. ¡°No! Stop it! You can¡¯t do this!¡± Who is he talking to? It doesn¡¯t sound like he means me.


    If I don¡¯t do it, we¡¯ll die. We can¡¯t keep this fight up forever. Against the pressure, I kept pulling the staff in line with the target, my vision starting to fade as I struggled to breathe. Kuro¡¯s words became a far away sound, garbled by the chaos. Please work. Please just let this work¡­


    Then suddenly the pressure was gone. The oppressive feeling on my body vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and without any further issue I willed all my power through the staff and towards the ghost to establish the link anew.


    The ghost felt the link solidify and reacted faster than I expected. It lurched past the two warriors trying to engage it and made its stumbling way towards us, its body swelling and its ectoplasmic skin reforming at terrifying speed as it greedily fed on the magic it absorbed from the staff. If this doesn¡¯t work I won¡¯t live long enough to regret it. The ghost will eat both Kuro and I, and without my empowerment Alverd and Yuzuruha won¡¯t be able to fight it. It¡¯s all or nothing here.


    With its body bulging and contracting as it gorged itself on the magic from the staff, the ghost grew in size until it was nearly twenty five feet tall. Seemingly random mutations sprouted from its body, from an extra arm to several wiggling appendages that looked disturbingly like fingers. Beside me, Kuro gulped loudly.


    Finally, the moment I was waiting for arrived. The ghost¡¯s need to consume had outpaced its ability to sustain itself, and now it was stuck on that magical line like a fish on a hook.


    ¡°Now, Kuro!¡± I shouted.


    With a cry of exertion, I forcibly cut the connection from his staff to the ghost, and he wrapped his hand around the ruby, using his own magic to effectively smother the magical artifact like he was snuffing out a match. Without a food source, the ghost thrashed about wildly, no longer able to sense where its power had come from. Tossing slime in every direction, the ghost¡¯s skin began to dissolve as it literally ate itself to sustain its form. The creature let out a chorus of screams, and we all watched as the many ghosts that comprised its form sloughed off the main body, pooling at its feet as it continued to devour itself. The lesser ghosts sounded like the souls of the damned, and I pressed my palms over my ears to try and dull the horrible sound.


    It didn¡¯t take long for the ghost to liquidate into a puddle of frothing ectoplasm. Soon the only thing left of the ghost was a sizzling pool of frothing goo. I could still hear growling and snarling noises emerging from the pool, so I had no desire to get close enough to see if the ghost was well and truly defeated. When it didn¡¯t try to reform, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.


    Alverd walked over and prodded the pool with his still-flaming sword. When the edge of his blade touched the slime, the entire puddle slithered back into the recesses of the narrow valley opening, the ghosts wailing at the top of their nonexistent lungs. He nearly fell over himself scrambling away, but when he saw that he was in danger he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.


    ¡°Everybody sound off. Are there any injuries we should know about?¡± Yuzuruha shook her head, still trying to catch her own breath.


    Kuro fell to his knees and patted his body with his free hand. ¡°Nope. Still in one piece. But I definitely need a vacation after that.¡±


    I went to check on Alicia, kneeling by her side. She was still unconscious, but didn¡¯t appear to be hurt. Her chest was rising and falling slowly, and she had enough color in her cheeks to confirm that she was physically alright. ¡°Kuro, if you could be so kind as to start working on that seal. I want to check Alicia before we attempt to move her.¡±


    ¡°Right. Either way though, we can¡¯t stay here. I won¡¯t be long.¡± Removing his hand from the ruby, he walked over to the chaotic energy that was blocking our path and began to unravel it. I¡¯ll get him alone later and press him on what happened. He needs to know that that staff of his was to blame, and we need to know if it¡¯ll continue to present danger to the rest of us.


    I placed my palm on Alicia¡¯s forehead. Her skin was warm, and she hadn¡¯t broken out in a cold sweat. All good signs. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she just slipped and bumped her head. Stranger things have happened. I was about to let go when something surged up my arm as if it had caught fire. Fear gripped me, cold and empty like a winter¡¯s night. There¡¯s some kind of psychic stain on her mind. It left an imprint of pain on her memories.


    It took a great effort to rip my hand away from her head, but I did. ¡°Alverd! Come here, quickly!¡± The knight was by my side in a flash.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Is Alicia okay?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°There¡¯s some kind of magical affliction on her. Sort of like a curse. We need to get her as far away from this valley as possible.¡± He knelt down next to me, his face full of worry.


    ¡°Can you fix it? Will it cause her harm?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I should be able to undo part of it, but it seems very complex. I would prefer to get the help of a cleric before attempting any kind of treatment. How far away from Blossom City are we?¡±


    He scowled, definitely not a good sign. ¡°A few days away. We¡¯ll go as fast as we can.¡± He lifted up Alicia in both of his arms. A pang of irritation shot through me as I saw her limp form tucked safely in his strong, manly arms. That¡¯s starting to become a habit. And more than a little annoying.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± His voice brought me back to the here and now.


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine.¡±


    ¡°You look angry for some reason.¡± I waved my hand dismissively.


    ¡°I simply wish to be as far away from this nightmare valley as soon as possible. That reprehensible ghost tried to eat my magic power like a bunch of grapes on a platter. Were we not in an emergency, I¡¯d have half a mind to go hunt that disgusting thing down and teach it a lesson.¡±


    Yuzuruha came up, her face scrunched up disapprovingly. ¡°Hey, y¡¯all can go runnin¡¯ off after ghouls n¡¯ ghosties but leave me outta it. Got more than I bargained for on this trip already.¡± She pointed at the far end. ¡°Kuro¡¯s got the seal open, so maybe we get while the gettin¡¯s good.¡± She lumbered away quite fast for a woman in such heavy armor.


    ¡°What about the wagon?¡± I inquired.


    Alverd shrugged. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait until morning to retrieve it. All of our supplies are in it, so we can¡¯t just leave it behind. The ghosts will be a lot less active once the sun rises.¡± I blinked in honest shock.


    ¡°How did you know hauntings stop being active during the day, Sir Alverd?¡±


    He shrugged again. ¡°I think Kuro mentioned it a while back. We may have pulled a job or two involving areas known to be haunted, that we had to do during broad daylight despite the inherent risk. Of course, if this situation taught me anything, it¡¯s that I¡¯m glad we went during the day on those jobs now.¡±


    Together, we stepped out of the narrow valley through the opening Kuro had made. It was like stepping out of a building that was cool on the inside and emerging into a summer heat wave on the outside. The sense of normalcy that was the real waking world reasserted itself as I passed the threshold, and everything on the far side of the valley was as it was before we had dove headfirst into that hellhole.


    There were the remains of a poorly maintained road beneath us, and a dirty, ill-tended monolith meant to memorialize the battle on this end. We moved off the road and to the side of the clearing, putting significant distance between us and the opening to the valley. When we were finally far enough to take shelter beneath some thick trees, Yuzuruha planted herself beneath one and fell straight asleep.


    ¡°Well. Some people certainly do not waste time.¡± I said.


    Kuro snorted. ¡°Can¡¯t say I blame her. Lots of Kierhaians are pretty superstitious, although they don¡¯t always show it. That fight with the big ghost probably took a lot out of her.¡± He sat down on the ground near her. ¡°On that note, I¡¯m going to catch some shut eye, too. I¡¯ll take the second watch.¡± He lay down and folded his arms under his head, then was out like a light.


    Alverd set Alicia down on the ground next to him, facing the valley. He leaned back against the sturdy trunk of one of the trees. ¡°You can go ahead and sleep, too. I¡¯ll take the first watch.¡±


    I planted myself on the other side of Alicia. ¡°My mind is too wound up to try to sleep. I¡¯ll see what I can find out about Alicia¡¯s condition.¡± He nodded, then started his silent vigil.


    Inwardly I was afraid, though. Kuro¡¯s staff, his odd behavior, the ghost going into a feeding frenzy. I¡¯m going to get to the bottom of this. I laid my palm against the side of her forehead, preparing to try and untangle the magic within.


    Somehow, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to like what I find.

 Book 3: Chapter 11: Kuro: Burdens and Curses (Edited)

    When I woke for my watch, I waited until the forms of Alverd and Sheena had settled into the steady rhythm of sleep before I hatched my plan.


    I wanted to speak to Deotra, and I wanted to do it face-to-face. What she pulled back in the Valley could¡¯ve gotten us all killed. The least thing she owes me is an explanation. Maybe if I¡¯m lucky there¡¯ll be an apology in there too.


    On the other side of the campfire from me, Yuzuruha poked at the fire, and fed a fresh bundle of sticks she¡¯d collected into it. She sat facing the Valley¡¯s entrance, staring at it over my shoulder. Since she¡¯d been roused from sleep, she¡¯d never taken her eyes off it, even when she would gather more fuel for the fire.


    I could tell the stress was getting to her. She apparently hadn¡¯t slept at all during her down time, her head nodded and bobbed and I caught her closing her eyes multiple times, but she never succumbed. Under normal circumstances I¡¯d go over there and dump some cold water on her head but this might actually work out better for me.


    When her eyes drooped shut, I waved my hand, whispering softly. Drawing power out of my staff, I invoked the power of enchantment to help Yuzuruha drift off to sleep. Before I was rubbish at stuff like this, but with the Staff of Farewells I can probably manage it. My hand completed the motions, and I directed the spell towards her.


    She yawned, loud and obnoxious, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. Then she swayed left, right, then fell over backwards, asleep before her head hit the ground. I was now the only person awake in our camp. Standing up, I tiptoed away from the fire and made my way towards the monument at the entrance to the valley.


    The valley itself was now eerily quiet, the ghosts having been sent scurrying away by our display of magic and might. Standing beside the monument, I opened my mind to that of my familiar, addressing her mentally rather than with spoken words. ¡°You and I need to talk, Deotra. About what happened in the valley.¡±


    I felt her fear and anxiety in my mind, and could almost imagine her with her head hung in shame. Her presence recoiled away from me, scurrying away in my mindscape in her meek little fox form. Oh no you don¡¯t. Come out here right now. We are going to have a conversation. The fox yelped and ran away faster, burrowing into an imaginary hole in the equally imaginary dirt. Her glowing eyes peered at me from the safety of her hidey-hole, but I wasn¡¯t letting her off the hook.


    I¡¯m going to count to three. Deotra shrank away, still cowering in her den. Extending a projection of my arm forward, I beckoned for her to come out. One. She made a series of tortured mewling noises, like she wasn¡¯t sure what to do. Two. Her tail covered her face, her body quivering in the dark. Thr-


    Then I was slammed in the face by some unseen force. I fell over backwards, staring up at the starry sky. Wincing, I leaned forward and picked myself up, and found I had new company in our little camp.


    Seated on a log near the fire, where Alverd had perched himself during his watch, was a woman. She had unbelievably long, silky blonde hair that fell down her backside and past her waist, crimson eyes that stared at me accusingly, and a form-fitting red and gold gown that left little of her hourglass figure to the imagination. She didn¡¯t possess an abundance of finery or jewelry but sitting on her head in a cheeky tilt was a small crown with several embedded rubies.


    The woman herself had to be in her late twenties, young enough to still be beautiful but old enough to look wise and learned. Her skin was of a tan shade slightly darker than Alicia¡¯s but utterly flawless, unmarked by any sign of physical exertion or damage. She was scowling at me, her eyes filled with disgust. When she spoke, I recognized the familiar tone of disdain from all the times she¡¯d spoken to me prior.


    ¡°Leave her alone. If you would speak, then speak with me, boy.¡± Drache growled in her low, menacing tone. My mouth fell open, and I was so in shock at first that I didn¡¯t have anything to say. ¡°You¡¯ll attract flies. Close your mouth. You look even more idiotic than you normally do.¡± With effort, I pushed my jaw shut with my hand and then sat cross legged in front of the log I¡¯d been seated on, unwilling to chance falling off of it again.


    Finally, after working up my courage I spoke. ¡°So you¡¯re Drache. I honestly expected you to look a lot more demonic.¡± She folded her arms gracefully, never taking her eyes off me.


    ¡°What you expect is irrelevant. It is no fault of mine that you allow your imagination to run off on you.¡± She took in a breath and let it out, which I found odd given she was likely not even truly sitting before me.


    ¡°Again, leave. The. Girl. Alone. She¡¯s already in a bad way after what happened, and she does not need you berating her while demanding answers.¡± Wait. Is Drache¡­ defending Deotra?


    ¡°What¡¯s it to you? As far as I can tell Deotra is just a means to an end for you. As am I.¡±


    The woman scowled at me again, her immaculately trimmed eyebrows furrowing. Despite everything, she is rather beautiful, in a melancholy sort of way. Her eyelashes make her look delicate, her bearing is regal. If she smiled, she¡¯d probably look like a typical noblewoman, maybe even a queen. But of course I have to question how much of this is real and how much is a fabrication. This entire persona she¡¯s showing me could just be her way of lulling me into a false sense of security.


    ¡°Can one not develop fondness for something they fancy? You mortals keep pets and develop sentimental attachments to inanimate objects. It¡¯s not that different, I believe.¡± There was a hint of smugness in her voice, and then her thin lip curled up at one end in a visible smirk. ¡°Both you and the little vixen are endearing when you¡¯re not questioning me. I find myself entertained by your antics.¡±


    This bitch is trying to get a rise out of me but I¡¯m not playing her game. ¡°I¡¯m nobody¡¯s pet. And I¡¯m no one¡¯s slave either. So let¡¯s get something straight, you treat me like an equal or we both get nowhere.¡± I put some steel in my voice. Maybe it was still the adrenaline from the events of a few hours prior still flowing in my body but I wasn¡¯t about to back down, even if it was Drache making light of me.


    Her eyes narrowed even more, becoming almost mere slits. Her pupils seemed to glow in the dim light, and for a minute my foolhardy courage faltered. Another growl escaped her lips, and it sounded far more animalistic than human. Then she stood. ¡°I have no desire to speak in front of your associates. Come with me.¡± She then walked towards the valley¡¯s opening.


    ¡°Are you crazy?¡± I whisper-shouted at her. ¡°We just busted our asses trying to get out of there and you want to just waltz right ba-¡± The woman glided across the stone, her dress flowing over the ground without friction, ignoring me entirely. I knew it. Whatever I¡¯m seeing, it¡¯s not really there. Drache is speaking to me, but it¡¯s a projection. She can¡¯t actually hurt me.


    When she was in front of the opening, she looked over her shoulder at me with her contemptible eyes. ¡°You¡¯ve figured it out by now, haven¡¯t you? If not, you¡¯re slower than I gave you credit for. The ghosts will not come back. And even if they do, you bear the Staff of Farewells. You¡¯ll be fine.¡± She waved her hand impatiently. ¡°I do not have all night, boy. If you desire answers then you¡¯ll have to dance to my tune. You should be well acquainted with that notion by now.¡±


    Ugh, she¡¯s got you there. But if she¡¯s willing to talk, even if most of it will be at me, I might learn something. I pushed myself off the ground and strode after her. As I grew near, Drache crossed the threshold into the valley. Taking a deep breath, I walked in after her.


    The atmosphere inside the valley wasn¡¯t as suffocating as before, which was likely due to the ghosts having fled. Still, I could sense the scars of our recent battle, the residue of Sheena¡¯s spell hanging in the air like morning fog. I took a sniff and could even detect traces of the ectoplasm left over by the ghosts, even though the entire pool had dried up or disappeared.


    Drache stopped about ten paces ahead of me, then spread her arms wide. Her fingers hooked like claws, she raised them, and around her images appeared. Smoke-like energy coalesced into the familiar forms of my companions, each frozen in place in the heat of combat. The monstrous ghost began to reform as well, but I had no reason to panic. It too was merely a projection, created as part of the spell Drache was weaving.


    I had to step off to the side when one of the smoke beings materialized in front of me. Before my eyes, the cloud of otherworldly haze took the form of Sheena wrestling with me for the Staff of Farewells. But the smoke added another detail: on top of Sheena¡¯s head was an angry fox, her paws dug into the half elf¡¯s hair and hanging on for dear life.


    ¡°So it was Deotra. I could sense her attacking Sheena, even if I couldn¡¯t see her with my eyes.¡± I walked around to the other side, observing the fury in Deotra¡¯s tiny eyes as she tried to get a solid enough grip to try and bite Sheena¡¯s head. Instead she settled for wrapping her long tail around Sheena¡¯s neck and attempting to tighten it like a rope to suffocate her.


    As the scene played out around me, Alverd and Yuzuruha struggling against the ghost and with me trying to corral Deotra, another unforeseen detail came to light. Deotra was forcibly removed from Sheena¡¯s neck by some invisible force, propelling her back to me and into my cloak. When I felt that happen I thought it was because she obeyed my command. But it was Drache?


    Slowly I looked at her. ¡°So that was your doing?¡± She nodded grimly.


    ¡°Deotra was being overprotective. And she was misinterpreting my instructions. I told her that the Staff of Farewells is to remain in your possession at all times, and that no one else is allowed to wield it. Unfortunately, she can be a bit simple minded. She did as she was told, but not as I asked. It was only after I reminded her that her attempts to interfere with the Witch-Queen¡¯s plan were putting your life in danger did she relent.¡±


    The scene played out to the point where Sheena had utilized the Staff of Farewells to carry out her plan. Through Drache¡¯s neat little trick I could see the flow of magic, the intricacies of Sheena¡¯s spell, and the intent and execution of said spell. ¡°Quite a clever solution. Her power still requires training and refinement but there¡¯s no doubt she could be quite a talented velenskir in time.¡±


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    The word was both familiar and yet odd to my ears. ¡°Velenskir?¡± I asked.


    ¡°An old Ishratan word. You call them spirit contractors. In my age, velenskirs were just starting to emerge among the people. It was the culmination of several generations of flourishing magical study during a golden age, the distillation of the brightest minds and talents of my people into a select few.¡± For a second, the hostility in Drache¡¯s voice gave way to something more like awe, as she hovered mere inches away from Sheena, examining her face closely.


    I suspect it, but better I confirm it just to be sure. ¡°In your age¡­ are you Ishratan?¡±


    She made a scoffing sound. ¡°I still am. The fall of an empire does not diminish the blood that flows in my veins. An empire is its people, not its buildings or even its legacy. Even the girl who suffers from Deotra¡¯s curse bears the blood of Ishrati within her, and someday she might awaken to its potential. Anything is possible.¡±


    I opened my mouth but Drache waved her hand. ¡°Again, do not fault Deotra. I ordered her to erase certain memories so that the girl would not reveal anything to your companions. Secrecy is the means by which we have survived and old habits are hard to break. But if you wish, I will ask her to face you.¡±


    Guess I should take advantage of how agreeable she¡¯s being. I don¡¯t want to be too harsh on Deotra, though. ¡°Fine. Bring her out.¡± Drache motioned with her hand. ¡°Come out, little vixen. We must have a little chat. Time to face the sun with heads held high.¡±


    A sudden weight in my coat fell onto the ground. The little ball of fluff made her way over to Drache¡¯s side, then behind her before morphing into the form of my familiar. She was still so very tiny in comparison to Drache, who towered over both of us. She hid behind her like a child would hide behind her mother when meeting strangers, trying not to make eye contact with me.


    She only said a few words. ¡°Are you mad at me?¡± There was a hitch in her voice, like she was trying to be brave but was ready to falter like a dam about to burst. I sighed.


    ¡°No, Deotra. I¡¯m not angry. I¡¯m just frustrated that you didn¡¯t tell me what was going on.¡±


    She gripped the side of Drache¡¯s dress, shrinking against the taller woman. ¡°I was just so confused. I had my orders but I also saw your life in danger, and I knew I couldn¡¯t intervene without revealing myself. And when Sheena tried to grab onto the Staff I just reacted. I didn¡¯t mean to endanger you.¡± She was already crying, tears flowing down her face.


    Godsdammit. Even I can¡¯t stay mad after that. ¡°Look, stop that. I promise I¡¯m not mad.¡± She peeked her head out from behind Drache¡¯s body. ¡°I was in that fight, and I didn¡¯t know what to do other than what Sheena told me. As far as I knew you were trying to kill her. But as long as we cleared up the misunderstanding and nobody got seriously hurt, then there¡¯s no issue. Although someone needs to explain to me if Alicia is going to be alright.¡±


    Deotra finally came out from behind Drache, standing apart from her while still looking extremely nervous.


    ¡°She¡¯ll be fine,¡± the little fox squeaked. ¡°The curse isn¡¯t so much a curse as it is a way to make her memory loss seem more natural. She¡¯ll think it was just the trauma of the event, rather than being forcibly made to forget me. Sheena will twist herself into knots trying to undo it, but that¡¯s because she still thinks it¡¯s a curse. Confirmation bias will lead her down the wrong path and by the time you find a cleric able to address the issue it¡¯ll no longer be detectable.¡±


    That¡¯s concerning. A spell that allows one to modify memory and leaves no trace of the tampering? As if reading my mind, Drache spoke. ¡°You wonder if I¡¯ve used such a spell on you at any point. It would be fruitless to convince you that I didn¡¯t. After all, I¡¯d have no way to prove it. So suffice to say that I¡¯ve never seen a reason to, because even though we¡¯re had a fair amount of animosity between us I gain nothing by messing with your memories.¡±


    It sort of makes sense, but I¡¯ll have to look into ways to counter such magic in the future, just in case Drache decides to change her mind about it. ¡°Fine. We don¡¯t have to make a big deal out of it now. What I want to know is why you need that artifact so badly.¡±


    Drache scowled. ¡°I thought I told you that you didn¡¯t need to know about that.¡±


    I stood my ground. ¡°If you expect me to cooperate even when I know you could just rewrite me any way you want, you have to give me something to work with. Besides, if you feel like I¡¯ve learned too much you can just remove it later. So what¡¯s the harm?¡± I smirked as I tightened the noose around Drache¡¯s argument.


    She sighed. ¡°Very well. Then let us start from the beginning.¡± She waved her arm and the figures around us collapsed like statues crumbling into dust. From that same dust rose tall spires, solidifying into greater detail as they elongated into the sky. Deotra clung onto Drache, who stood amidst the chaos without any ounce of concern.


    The spires became buildings, the buildings became streets, the streets gave way to monuments and people who shambled into existence from the magical dust. The dust became gold, giving color to the people, structures, and atmosphere. Before me stood a window into the distant past. It was Ishrati at the height of its golden age.


    We stood on the balcony of a grandiose palace, overlooking the city as it expanded out in every direction. People toiled in fields on the outskirts of the city that shimmered like gold, and I realized they were massive swaths of wheat. So in the past Ishmar was capable of producing its own food on a scale necessary to feed its people. That alone contradicts everything the Ishmarians claim about their history.


    The outer ring of the city was protected by a wall that was less of a wall and more of a massive aqueduct that ran through every district, bringing water to every section of the outer city. Dragons similar in size to those ridden by Ishmarians lounged lazily on the aqueduct, while others lifted heavy burdens or even assisted in tilling the fields. Squads of dragon riders flew through the sky in tight formations, patrolling for any sign of danger.


    The middle city was filled with sprawling monuments, each placed before modest yet expansive buildings that upon closer examination I realized were centers of learning. Everything from stone masonry to jewel-making to the study of the sciences was considered a sacred institution; each building was its own testament to the importance its people played in Ishratan society. I counted no fewer than nine different magical academies.


    Bet that detail would anger some Ishmarians. Begs the question though, if Ishmar was built upon the ruins of Ishrati, then how did the kings and queens pull the wool over the eyes of the people for so long? Why bother doing it? If the modern day Ishmarians embraced who they were in the past, they could stand on equal footing with the Algrustians.


    At the heart of the city was the palace we were standing on. To say it was extravagant was an understatement. Carved of the same volcanic rock that so many of the structures in the city were made from, the palace nevertheless seemed to glow as though it were infused with magic, as if the builders had worked magic into every step of its creation. I could almost feel palpable pulses of dormant power slumbering in the stones.


    By chance I looked at Drache and nearly fell off the balcony in shock. Gone was any of the hostility I¡¯d seen before. Instead she looked wistful, like someone gazing at a portrait of a lost loved one with longing and sadness. She was wringing her hands, her breathing erratic and short. It doesn¡¯t take a genius to know this affects her. How much of it is true though? Is this some calculated ploy to try and earn my trust?


    Deotra crossed to me and hooked her arm in mine. ¡°Come over here. Drache wants to tell you everything this time.¡± I allowed Deotra to guide me to the railing where Drache stood, overlooking her home.


    ¡°It¡¯s glorious,¡± I said. ¡°It really does seem like the Ishratans were living lives most can only dream of. And I can see that magic had a large role to play in that.¡±


    She pointed out at the fields again. ¡°It¡¯s true that we owed much of what we were to magic. But let it not be said that those without it didn¡¯t carry their share of the burden either. We had a saying in Ishrati: ¡®a palace needs many hands to shape the bedrock upon which it is built¡¯. It meant that no one¡¯s labor was taken for granted, and everyone¡¯s contribution, no matter how small, mattered.¡±


    Another sigh, this one longer and heavier, escaped her. ¡°Of course, that eventually gave rise to the idea that perhaps some mattered more than others. And naturally, it was the rich and powerful who felt that way. Those who had influence, those who could speak words of ill intent where they would have the greatest effect. Namely, the ears of the King of Fire.¡±


    Suddenly another person materialized on the balcony. A woman with features very similar to Drache¡¯s manifested next to me, startling me. The woman¡¯s hair wasn¡¯t quite as long as hers, but her crimson eyes and tanned skin matched. Signs of age were visible on the woman¡¯s face, from the wrinkles around her cheeks to the crow¡¯s feet around her eyes.


    ¡°Is that¡­?¡±


    Drache nodded. ¡°Yes. My mother. Evros, the King of Fire, last ruler of Ishrati.¡±


    Again my jaw dropped. Evros. As in the dragon that the Ishmarians worship. How did a monarch that presided over a kingdom of magic users get so distorted by her descendants that we got what Ishmar is today? I looked over at Drache.


    ¡°Why show me this? What is your aim?¡±


    Above me, the sky darkened. Clouds twisted and swirled, dust coming together to form a structure that I¡¯d seen only once in a religious text. A manmade island floating in the sky, a chunk of volcanic rock enchanted to fly with a temple wrought of prideful gold, brought about as a testament to the hubris of mortalkind. Divernia, the place from which the end of the world would begin.


    Drache¡¯s voice carried over the din of the sounds of creation, clear in my ears like a ringing bell. ¡°I believe that the ability to choose for oneself is a great gift. The only real freedom any person has is the ability to choose their own fate. Even if that fate is an illusion, even if fate is actually predetermined, a person can choose to believe in their path to the bitter end. I will not tell you the full scope of my goal only because I wish for you to arrive at your own conclusions, boy.¡±


    Three objects floated down to the balcony, and I recognized one of them as being the Staff of Farewells. The other two were a knife and heavy tome, and I could already guess what they were. The Hand of the Usurper and the Tree of a Thousand Branches. The holy relics given by the goddess to end the War of the Five Kings.


    ¡°One should never mistake a burden for a gift. A sacred duty is not a calling, but a weight upon one¡¯s shoulders, just as a crown is a weight upon one¡¯s head. A kingdom eager to lift you up is also a weight firmly secured around one¡¯s ankles, ready to drag you down when it falls.¡±


    Drache¡¯s voice became bitter again, bringing a familiar edge to her tone. ¡°A burden is more unbearable when one is forced to shoulder it because another more deserving refuses it. And thus, if you find me insufferable, now you know why.¡±


    The Staff fell into her waiting hand as if it belonged there. ¡°I have waited hundreds of years to be given a chance to share this burden, and unfortunately you have little say in it. The sooner you help me undo it, the sooner we all get to the happily ever afters we seek.¡±


    I gawked at her. ¡°You understand that you¡¯re coming across like a raving lunatic. Speaking in half-statements isn¡¯t going to convince me you¡¯re telling me the truth, or anything at all.¡± Drache glared at me, her crimson eyes seeming to smolder like burning coals.


    ¡°That¡¯s because I don¡¯t intend to tell you, boy.¡± She reached out her other hand, palm up. ¡°I wish to show you, if you¡¯ll let me.¡±


    Deotra tightened her grip on my arm. ¡°I know it¡¯s a lot to ask, Kuro. But she did this for me too. Once you see what Drache has to show you, everything will make a lot more sense.¡± I looked her straight in the eye. If I have to agree to this, then I can at least make sure I¡¯m not being played. And I know just how to do it.


    ¡°You aren¡¯t lying to me, are you?¡± This is another low for me. Taking advantage of Deotra¡¯s feelings wasn¡¯t something I wanted to do right now but this might be the only way to know if Drache is baiting me. I watched Deotra for any sign of distress, any subtle change in her facial expression or posture that would indicate discomfort.


    To my surprise, her face remained determined. ¡°I promise you, Kuro. Drache isn¡¯t trying to deceive you. I swear to you on our sacred bond as mage and familiar that no harm will come to you. Please trust us.¡±


    Deotra doesn¡¯t seem like the kind of girl who could succeed at lying to me without giving me some kind of tell. She¡¯ll also be here in case Drache tries something funny. I hate having to let so many unknowns slide but I¡¯m also really curious to get a glimpse of what Drache wants. If she really is up to something nefarious, then this is the best way for me to find out. Even if everything she shows me isn¡¯t true I can still make some guesses about her motives based on what she does and doesn¡¯t show me.


    My wizard brain was telling me to go for it while my common sense once again took a back seat to any decision making process in my head. It¡¯s a calculated risk. I stand to gain more than I could lose, I think. I reached forward and put my left hand in Drache¡¯s, wrapping my fingers around her hand and gripping tight. ¡°Alright, Drache. Show me.¡±


    There was a rush of light, as though everything around me spiraled down and became a tunnel. The sensation of falling backward as though gravity had somehow ceased to exist caused my organs to somersault in my body and I felt sick at first, but I didn¡¯t want to close my eyes. Centuries of history passed by me as I was propelled backwards in time, things I couldn¡¯t fully understand rushing past me in a blur. I caught one image of what I thought were two humanoids with massive white wings racing through the blackened, storm-wracked sky, bearing weapons of light.


    Then I felt my back slam into something hard, and in my sudden pain I squeezed my eyes shut. Time, direction, sense and reason lost all meaning as I tumbled forward and then back, finally ending up with the feeling of something soft beneath my back. I was lying on something, encompassed in softness and feeling warmth on my face.


    Slowly I opened my eyes. I beheld a ceiling made of volcanic stone, the jagged black edges sparkling with soft magical glints of gold. I was lying in a truly lavish bed made of solid gold bedposts and finely carved wood, with cotton sheets. I sat up, looked down, saw the unfamiliar tone of the skin of my hands. On the far side of the room was a balcony overlooking the capital of Ishrati, and in the sky was a gaudy temple built on a floating stone platform. I knew what was going on instantly.


    I was Drache. I was looking through her eyes. And I had woken up on the last day of the kingdom of Ishrati, the end of her entire world.


    ¡°Well,¡± I said, and Drache¡¯s voice came from my lips. ¡°Shit.¡±

 B3: Chapter 12: Kuro: Reaching for the Sun (Edited)

    The first five minutes of whatever dream or illusion I¡¯d found myself in was spent trying to figure out the exact nature of my situation, from which I learned precious little.


    Scrambling from the luxurious bed, I ran in my borrowed body to the balcony. Gods, these silken pajamas are ridiculous. Who would I have to murder to get my hands on fabric this soft? My bare feet crossed the soft carpet and then the polished marble of the balcony. The igneous stone made up the walls, ceiling, and pillars of the room but artisans had made sure to put proper floors in so that no one would trip over the uneven ground.


    The morning sun and the fresh air welcomed me onto the balcony. Below me, past the edges of the plateau the central palace had been built on, I could see the entire western side of the capital. It was one thing to see it in Drache¡¯s projections. Those were silent with a kind of ethereal quality that was jarring enough to remind me that I was looking at something that wasn¡¯t real.


    But here on the balcony, I felt the warmth of the morning sun and the wind from the great height. The sounds of people stirring and going about their early day business wafted up to me. My senses could perceive these happenings as real, tangible, not phantoms. The cool marble under my feet was firm, the beating of Drache¡¯s heart in her chest was steady.


    If this is an illusion, it¡¯s the best damn illusion I¡¯ve ever been subjected to. It¡¯s like emotional transference but taken to a whole new level. Her memories aren¡¯t just sharp, it¡¯s also the sheer weight of the emotion she¡¯s attached to them that makes them feel real enough that I see them like I was in her own body.


    At the moment, within the memory, there was palpable excitement but an undercurrent of worry, mixed with a tinge of fear of the unknown. Something big is happening today. Something potentially life-changing for the people of Ishrati. But as with everything that has the power to change the lives of thousands of people, Drache wasn¡¯t sure if that change was going to be good or bad.


    Suddenly, I felt my consciousness shunted out of Drache¡¯s body, and I found myself floating next to her on the balcony. Floating was an accurate word because when I looked around to get my bearings I couldn¡¯t see my feet. Everything below my waist was a wispy vapor and my skin was transparent, making me look like a typical depiction of a ghost. Then to my shock, Drache turned her head to look directly at me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t take it so personally. I just don¡¯t like the idea of you inhabiting my body. You are a young boy, after all.¡± Her smug attitude had returned, and with her bedhead, silk pajamas, and toothy grin she looked eerily familiar. I can see how this woman is distantly related to Alicia. Almost every detail is the same. My eyes wandered down below her chin, where a loose button at the top of her pajamas revealed some skin. Okay, almost every detail.


    Seeing my line of sight waiver, Drache¡¯s grin grew wider and she feigned coquettish embarrassment. ¡°See what I mean? Already your thoughts are preoccupied with such vulgar inclinations.¡± I growled at her, and my voice sounded almost like an echo in an empty cave.


    ¡°You did that on purpose so I would look.¡±


    She shrugged. ¡°Perhaps. But you didn¡¯t have to take the bait, boy. And you did. So you¡¯re still in the wrong.¡±


    Good thing Deotra isn¡¯t here. Don¡¯t think she would¡¯ve appreciated that little stunt. ¡°So your thoughts and emotions are all over the place. Care to let me in on what¡¯s going on?¡± She looked out past the horizon, where the sun was rising up into the clear blue sky. A pair of dragon riders in gleaming golden armor swooped past on their dragons. They looked nothing like the riders of modern Ishmar; their armor was decadent, but also designed to invoke the image of protectors. There were no harsh angles or brutish practicality in the riders¡¯ armor. Instead, they were like works of art, statues come to life.


    ¡°Today is, or rather, should have been, an auspicious day not just for Ishrati, but all of Selarune.¡± Secured into their harness with thick golden cords, the riders did a graceful turn and saluted to Drache as they passed. She waved back to them, and I saw her smile for the first time. I¡¯d pinch myself if I wasn¡¯t aware of what was going on. That was definitely one thing I wasn¡¯t expecting to see today.


    The dragons themselves looked fierce, as trained beasts of war would, but they looked healthier and more regal, too. Almost like they themselves understood they were guards, not plunderers and raiders like the Ishmarians. The dragons had several pieces of golden armor plate strapped to their thighs and shoulders, secured with thick leather belts. The two riders flew past the side of the palace and disappeared from view, and she let out a heavy sigh.


    Below us, civil servants and volunteers were overseeing the final preparations for a glorious ceremony. Decorations had been hung from oil lamps flanking the streets, which had been swept clean. I could see people already finding places on the sidewalks all the way to the outer districts, where the main road wound through the city to where I could no longer see it.


    ¡°The other members of the Five Kings are coming here to celebrate a grand occasion. Our nations are about to mark this year as the apex of our civilizations, to commemorate our achievement for all time.¡± She leaned on the guardrail, palming her cheek as she drew in a breath through clenched teeth. ¡°It was on this day that my mother did something unforgivable. It changed the course of history forever, and led to the fall of Ishrati and the ruin of our entire solar system.¡±


    She turned to me as we watched the citizens wrap up their daily doings to avoid getting caught flat-footed by the visiting royals. ¡°How much do you know about the War of the Five Kings?¡± I shrugged, which I felt more than I saw given how see-through my body was.


    ¡°Not a whole lot. The scriptures say that the Imbalancer of Scales destroyed the other worlds in our reality, one by one. His armies of demons descended on every world and darkened their skies, yadda yadda yadda, poetic romantic depictions of wholesale slaughter, you get the idea.¡±


    Drache was quiet a moment. ¡°The Imbalancer struck Selarune first. He didn¡¯t even have to do much. He turned the Five Kings into his monstrous servants and they did most of it for him. The goddess and her angels were so busy defending the other worlds that we were left to fend for ourselves at first.¡±


    ¡°But I¡¯m getting ahead of myself. No need to skip ahead when I can show it to you one step at a time.¡± She waved her hand in a wide arc, and her pajamas morphed into the more familiar red and gold gown I¡¯d seen her in earlier. ¡°When the Kings arrived, they ascended to Divernia to discuss matters of state. We must be going.¡±


    She lifted off the ground, almost as if gravity no longer existed. Some invisible force grabbed hold of me, gently but unexpectedly, and propelled me up beside her. As we flew up and over the palace, my stomach churned. Oh gods. This may not be real but my guts don¡¯t know that. I wonder what will happen if I get so sick I puke?


    My intrusive thoughts aside, I didn¡¯t need to panic for too long. Drache brought us up swiftly, taking care not to jostle me. I saw the sun streak across the sky to mark the passage of time, ending sometime just after noon. Drache has total control over everything I¡¯m seeing. Grain of salt here, Kuro. You¡¯re gonna see what she wants you to see, but that won¡¯t stop me from reading in between the lines.


    We alighted upon a flat platform level with the base of the temple¡¯s first floor. While the stone that held up Divernia was rough hewn, the top had been sheared to create space for the structure, among other things. A lavish garden with finely attended hedges and marble statues flanked a perfectly polished road of gleaming stone, stretching for about two hundred feet to the entrance of the temple itself.


    The platform was painted with a large, intricate teleportation rune. Composed of four rings positioned along the cardinal points of a fifth larger ring, the rune hummed with magic. The central ring was a solid red, with flecks of magical fire twisting around its edges. The western ring was green and emanated a low whisper like a soft wind. To the east was a brown ring interlaced with sparkling stones. The northern ring was white and had icicles growing out of it. Finally, the southern ring was blue and crackled with similarly colored electricity.


    Even as I looked at the central ring, the strange runes written within it twisted into words I could understand. They read, ¡°the quest for greater power is rooted in the search for truth, for both are synonymous with one another¡±. Each of the four smaller rings also had pearls of wisdom written inside of them.


    The green ring bore the inscription, ¡°pride in one¡¯s achievements should never become complacency¡±. The blue ring¡¯s rune became the words, ¡°the ability to rule is not a right, but a privilege, and never an entitlement¡±. In the brown ring were the words, ¡°look but never step backward, and you will always find the way forward¡±. Lastly, the words in the white ring said, ¡°revenge requires strength of body and will, but forgiveness requires strength of the heart¡±.


    Yeesh. That¡¯s some real self-righteous crap there. Considering what the scriptures say went down at this temple it seems hypocritical to put this thing here. Then again, history is always written by the victors so if the intent was to vilify the Five Kings, then it would make sense to bury anything that painted them in a sympathetic light.


    Drache must have noticed me ogling the teleportation circle, because she clucked her tongue at me. ¡°Each of the precursor kingdoms contributed to the construction of Divernia, and the words inscribed here are meant to reflect the sentiments of the Kings who agreed to be here for the final unveiling.¡± She stood apart from the circle, almost as if she were wary of stepping into it.


    Noticing her hesitation, I asked a question on impulse. ¡°What was the purpose of Divernia?¡±


    Drache¡¯s expression darkened, not in anger but in reflection. ¡°Of all the things that aren¡¯t clear in the excessively flowery language of the scriptures, it¡¯s what the original intention was. Was it a monument? A testament? Or a means to bring about the end of the world?¡±


    She was about to answer when the rings lit up. The runes gave off a burst of blinding colored light before a series of flashes illuminated the arrival of five humanoid shapes, each standing in the center of the rings. The shapes, at first amorphous and featureless, turned into their various true forms, like liquid suspended in air being shaped by an invisible hand.


    Within the earth circle stood an average height, heavyset human man in a fancy burgundy dress shirt that was cinched under his protruding belly by a strained yellow cord. He wore similarly colored trousers with gold filigree and leaned heavily on a cane. His skin was ruddy and flushed, like he¡¯d exerted himself from climbing too many stairs, a pair of beady blue eyes hidden beneath thick brown eyebrows streaked with white. A monocle clung to the side of his beaked nose and above an immaculately trimmed mustache. Well, he certainly looks like what I¡¯d imagine a king would. Some old man getting fat off his subjects¡¯ hard work.


    In the ice circle was a painfully skinny and pale human girl who looked barely out of her teens, her hazel eyes peeking out from under a shock of short frost-blue hair. Her crown seemed too big and was more of a headband than an actual crown, given the way it was diagonally fastened around her forehead. Her dress was white with only bits of green, barely showing any of her skin other than her hands. Even her neck was covered by a high collar fixed with a cravat, and she had no jewelry or even any metal at all on her besides the crown. She fidgeted in place, her right hand tugging at her left sleeve nervously. She reminds me of Deotra. Definitely doesn¡¯t look like she wants to be up here, although given the way she looks ready to engage fight or flight I¡¯d chalk it up to antisocial tendencies rather than fear of heights.


    The wind circle unveiled a tall, slender man with flowing flaxen hair and the unmistakable bearing of a pureblooded elf, if the pointed ears weren¡¯t enough of a giveaway. He had a heavy, multi-layered silken coat of many colors, all of which could be attributed to the season of autumn. His hair made it all the way down to his waist and despite the heady wind at this height, he was able to keep it from flying all over the place. Across his face and covering his eyes was an embroidered blindfold of green cloth, covered in arcane runes written in elven. Blind, but how? Self-inflicted or some other reason? I wasn¡¯t expecting a blind king.


    The lightning circle¡¯s occupant was the tallest yet; a seven foot beast of a man with broad shoulders and a barrel chest, with a truly magnificent bushy reddish yellow beard that ran down the upper half of his torso. A lion¡¯s ears poked from the mane on his head, the only thing about him soft and rounded. His eyes were fierce and had an amber glow to them, and he was adorned in a blue and purple robe that seemed like it would be comfortable to move around in rather than turn heads with its pageantry. I kind of like this one. He seems like the complete opposite of what a king would be, and that wins him some points. Plus he looks like he would rather solve a matter of state with an arm wrestling match instead of some stuffy diplomatic meeting. An oddly refreshing thought.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Not surprisingly, Drache¡¯s mothe,r Evros, came out of the fire ring, dressed in an ostentatiously gaudy golden dress with red embroidery invoking the image of flames along its hem and sleeves. Ugh, Evros on the other hand looks the part to a T. I wonder how much of her rubbed off on her daughter. Beside me, Drache¡¯s face twisted into a snarl of contempt. Maybe not as much as I think? Let¡¯s hope not.


    ¡°They¡¯ll address me as if I am here, because this is my memory,¡± her voice said as it sounded in my mind. ¡°I can still converse with you. No one in this memory can deviate from their course, given this has already happened. So even if I don¡¯t respond because I¡¯m talking to you, they¡¯ll carry on as if I had answered.¡±


    Ah, that makes sense. Well that¡¯s helpful. She can keep me apprised of the situation while we go through it without having to pause for them. Without skipping a beat, Drache stood off to the side of the rings, waiting for the Five Kings to get their bearings. I floated beside her, ready to make my observations.


    ¡°Tell me about them.¡± I asked. ¡°You might be the only person in all of existence who knows anything about the Five Kings anymore.¡± She blinked, her expression shocked. ¡°You called me a person. Not a demon.¡± Huh. I guess I did. Didn¡¯t even think about it.


    ¡°Well, you¡¯re sharing a lot of stuff with me. A demon probably wouldn¡¯t do that, even if the ultimate goal was to just trick me into trusting them. So I¡¯ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.¡±


    Again, she gave me a small smile, but it looked genuine, or the very least not sinister. ¡°Hm. I hardly gave you reason to trust me. So I suppose you were right to be cautious. Deotra did make a point of telling me off a bit about the need to give you a reason to trust me, so perhaps she was right all along.¡±


    It was my turn to blink. ¡°This was Deotra¡¯s idea?¡± She shook her head.


    ¡°Not quite. This was my idea, but her suggestion that I do something to earn your trust. I have few ways to do so other than outright manipulation of your memories, and even those have their limits. So I thought this might be the only way.¡±


    Something writhed in my heart a bit, and a dark thought crossed my mind. ¡°You hate them, don¡¯t you?¡± The smile vanished instantly. ¡°You must really hate them to show a complete stranger all of this. Is it about revenge? I may not know much about a lot, but I know vengeance and how it eats people alive. I know firsthand what people will do to get it.¡±


    She paused, contemplating me. Then she made her way to her mother¡¯s side. ¡°Not all of them. The other Kings were good souls who got caught in what my mother unleashed. If anyone deserves my wrath, it is her.¡± She stopped before the form of her mother, who had now fully materialized within the ring. ¡°She ruined everything.¡± There was such hate in her voice that it made me shudder, that familiar cold feeling creeping along my spine.


    ¡°We¡¯re wasting time. There is one thing I have to show you before your friends wake.¡± As she waved her hand, time propelled itself forward again, the Five Kings walking together across the vast garden to the temple entrance.


    ¡°Wait,¡± I asked. ¡°When I took your hand, it was still only a little past two in the morning. Are you saying that I¡¯ve lost a few hours?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°You¡¯re essentially dreaming. It¡¯s easier to overlap my memories onto your sleeping mind for you to view because so much of your body is in an inactive state. Your mind can devote more of its energy to interpreting the memory as it was when I experienced it. Deotra can communicate this way with you as well, although her abilities exceed even my own. As a being of pure magic, she can make up for any deficiencies far more readily than I can. Her bond with you also allows her to use emotional transference as a kind of cipher code to better translate what she wishes to share.¡±


    Woah. I really did miss out on the benefits of having a familiar. Then again, I doubt it would matter if I didn¡¯t have one like Deotra. It felt like there was a piece of myself missing without her in the memory. I¡¯d expected her to be with me. I¡¯ll share everything I learned here with her later if she doesn¡¯t already know. Maybe it¡¯ll be a good way to get her take on things.


    Plus I just owe the poor girl some time alone like I promised. I don¡¯t really want to make our first private outing too much like an interrogation. The pang in my heart took me by surprise at first.


    ¡°Try to focus here, boy. You can worry about where you¡¯re going to ask your familiar later.¡±


    Yikes. So this is still a two way street. Drache is connected to me but that means I¡¯m also connected to her. So while I¡¯m seeing this, she¡¯s learning about me too. ¡°That¡¯s right, boy.¡± She said, causing me to figuratively jump out of my non-existent skin. ¡°Oh don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t intend to learn anything too invasive about you. I just want to get a better sense of who you are.¡±


    ¡°So that was your game. You offer me this glimpse into your past and while I¡¯m looking out the window you look into it. Well played.¡±


    She scoffed, just as we reached the front of the temple as a group. ¡°You helped me remember that it isn¡¯t right to just demand without offering something in return. You can¡¯t take without giving. That makes you a tyrant. That would make me like my mother.¡± She bit down hard on that last word, her teeth grinding as she spat it out like something bitter.


    It was very unusual to see the Kings moving together without hearing words, oblivious to everything around them, eagerly discussing something while Evros looked ahead without glancing back. They passed under the massive arch of the temple exterior and through its massive double door, made of metal so clean and polished I could see their reflections in it. The procession moved across the carpeted interior with unnatural speed to the round table at its heart.


    The room inside the temple was one massive space that encompassed the entire structure. The glass rotunda above the center of the room was so huge that it had to make up at least half of the actual ceiling. Along the edges of the room were homages to the various lands the Kings hailed from, each contained within a section color coordinated to the King¡¯s teleportation circle and their chair at the round table.


    Said table was the only modest decoration in the room. It had no drape or covering, only a depiction of a map of Selarune within the center, not carved but a painted wooden plank inserted into the middle. The chairs at the table were far more elaborate, with padded cushioning and golden emblems depicting the corresponding elements attributed to each King mounted upon their tops.


    Each King took their seat at the table, with Drache standing just behind her mother¡¯s chair. Evros leaned back in her seat, glancing at each of her guests. ¡°It¡¯s taken a long time to reach this point,¡± she said in a steady voice. She doesn¡¯t sound like Drache. Her voice doesn¡¯t have the same impulsive or abrasive quality to it. She sounds like someone who understands the value of a calm appearance.


    As I hovered quietly next to Drache, she pointed to each of the Kings. ¡°The older human is Burundus, the King of Earth. The tall elf is Vigiro, the King of Wind. Gallardos, the lion beastman, is the King of Lightning, and the young human girl is Festahl, King of Ice. We met on this day to determine what was going to be the future of all our nations. At least, that¡¯s what I had been led to believe.¡±


    The discussion got heated. Through the accelerated passage of time, I saw the Kings get more and more animated, each growing more frustrated while Evros sat in her chair, passive and unmoving. Eventually all four of the other Kings were railing against her, some waving fists, some slamming the table, some shouting. Only Festahl remained seated and calm, although she was glaring daggers at Evros.


    Finally, Evros stood, smiled, and placed her hand on the table. Time slowed back to its normal pace. ¡°I can see we will find no common ground on this issue. I had thought you would all possess enough wisdom to see my point of view, but alas you disappoint me.¡±


    Burundus adjusted his monocle before speaking in a nasally voice. ¡°You are talking about murder, Evros. Murder of your own citizens! Murder of our citizens! Based on a what if? A complete hypothetical? You¡¯re mad.¡±


    Vigiro spoke next, and even though his voice was calm I could detect an undercurrent of rage beneath it. ¡°You have not the authority to strike down your own people, let alone those in our countries. What you are proposing could be construed as a declaration of war. It will not stand. If you make a move against us, we shall respond with force to protect our own.¡±


    The gigantic lion beastman Gallardos beat his chest with his right fist, a clear sign of his solidarity with the others. ¡°I agree. Nobody wants a war, Evros. There¡¯s never been a reason for us to go to war. And you want this? Sounds a lot like you might be getting too big for your britches.¡±


    Evros turned to Festahl. ¡°See reason, Festahl. Your own people killed your parents. Their bodies hadn¡¯t even gone cold before you were placed on your father¡¯s throne. Why should you be beholden to those who murdered your family?¡± The older woman¡¯s eyes were no longer sage but now savage, with a horrible and terribly familiar gleam to them. Well if I needed any more proof, there¡¯s the familial resemblance. Drache may not want to admit it but I see where she gets her crazy eyes from.


    The mousy young woman spoke, her voice as cold and empty of sympathy as a glacier. ¡°My parents wanted to do what you told them. What you told all of us. And a concerned individual might have warned her people what her parents were planning. I loved my parents, but if they were going to aid you in what amounts to an inquisition?¡±


    She crossed her arms. ¡°Then they¡¯re no parents of mine. I didn¡¯t want my throne. I don¡¯t believe I¡¯m ready for it yet. But if it means opposing what you want, Evros, then it¡¯s a sacrifice I¡¯ll make.¡±


    There was virtually no warning when a spark shot out from Evros¡¯ hand, traveling across the table to each seat. In the space of a second each of the Kings were immobilized as their chairs discharged a blast of magical energy, wrapping them in excruciating chains of fire that materialized out of thin air and pinned them in place. ¡°I was hoping it wouldn¡¯t play out like this, but even a king can lack vision.¡±


    Lines of magical energy emerged from the bound Kings, coming together above the center of the table. Evros extended her hand to cradle the coalescing energy in the palm of her hand. Another line shot straight up, through the rotunda¡¯s ceiling, into the sky where it turned clear blue into smoky black. Some tore in the air, and in horror I realized what she was doing.


    ¡°She¡¯s ripping a hole in the boundary between worlds.¡± I frantically turned back to Drache. ¡°Is this how it happened? Is thi-¡± She waved her hand to cut me off.


    ¡°Watch. Listen. It is not over.¡±


    The glass shattered, but the individual shards didn¡¯t fall. Instead they rose upward, into the sky where the rift was growing. Loose stone, the objects in the room, eventually even the walls themselves crumbled and were yanked up into a growing tear in the fabric of reality. There was a sound that could not be described in words I knew emanating from the tear, that was growing louder with every passing second.


    ¡°I have a part to play in this, even if it means nothing. It reminds me that I failed and that I too am to blame.¡± Drache pointed her right hand at Evros¡¯ back and a brilliant lance of golden fire streaked forward, piercing the older woman between her shoulder blades. She let out a choked gurgle, her head turning with great difficulty to regard her daughter. Her eyes were blazing with hate, the same hate I¡¯d seen in her daughter¡¯s eyes before.


    ¡°I expected this from your kind. But not from you, my dear. How¡­ ungrateful.¡± She moved her left hand back and opened her fingers, a light growing in her palm. I didn¡¯t have time to question whether I¡¯d be affected by what was about to happen when the light exploded, and my skin felt like it was on fire. I tumbled back through the air, cartwheeling with no way to stop myself, instinctively smacking my arms against my body to put out nonexistent fire that I was sure was there.


    Both Drache and I landed on the floor some ways away, which was now fracturing and being sucked upwards towards the growing rift. The Kings were all still trapped in their chairs, screaming, struggling, trying desperately to break free. Beneath us, cracks formed in what remained of the ground, light shining through. As chunks of marble and stone lifted up behind me, I could see a swirling void beneath us, with a bright light at its center.


    At the bottom of a vortex of chaos was the camp where I sat in a complete stupor, oblivious to my surroundings, Deotra still clinging to my arm. Something pulled me towards it, a deep instinct yelling at me that this was the only way out. I turned my head to the side, where Drache lay, her hair whipping around in a frenzy. She was holding on to the floor for dear life, but even still she reached out her hand to me. Without thinking, I reached out for her and grabbed hold.


    Above us, the rift opened fully, a window into the empty hell of a distant universe, and like viscous tar an oozing black substance leaked out, gleaming with a million stars that twinkled like eyes. My skin crawled just looking at it.


    The alien liquid fell down from the tear and upon the table, splashing all over the Kings. They let out horrific screeches of inhuman agony as the liquid turned their skin ashen and cancerous, veins bulging with black necrosis only to turn yellow then red. Evros screamed but was cut short as the vile fluid covered her head, mercifully obscuring my vision from what it was doing to her. The table lifted up, the chairs breaking away from it, all of them falling up towards the sky and the mass of wrongness hanging above it all like doomsday waiting for its moment.


    ¡°Why is she doing this?¡± I screamed at Drache. She had barely contained fury on her face.


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing, boy. Even after all this time, after centuries of wondering and hypothesizing, I don¡¯t know.¡± Then the floor beneath me sundered, and without anything to hold me I felt my legs dangle. Somehow gravity was pulling me down towards the portal leading back to my own reality even as the rift pulled Drache up. We locked eyes, and I saw steel in them. ¡°But I intend to find out.¡±


    And with that, she let go of me, and I fell down, down, down towards the waking world, tumbling over and under, my vision turning and tumbling out of control as she spun up and away towards certain doom. I passed through the thin veil at the bottom of the vortex and felt my body righted slowly, gently, as my spirit form realigned with my physical body. When both became one, my eyes burst open and I tried to scream.


    Deotra¡¯s hand clapped over my mouth, stifling the outburst. She hugged me tight with her other arm. ¡°Shhhh. It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m here. It¡¯s all over now.¡± She nestled her head against my cheek, nuzzling me with her soft hair and fuzzy ears. ¡°I don¡¯t know exactly what you saw, but if it was anything like what she showed me it had to be intense. Take a moment. Breathe. I¡¯m here with you.¡±


    I breathed in through my nose, holding the breath a few seconds before shakily exhaling through my mouth. A full minute passed as I forcibly slowed my racing heartbeat, Deotra still holding me the entire time. When at last my pulse slowed down enough, Deotra let go of me and smiled. ¡°There. It¡¯s all over now.¡±


    Shivering, I sat beside my familiar. When I didn¡¯t speak, she embraced me gently, humming softly. I felt the soft, steady beat of my heart in my chest, resonating in time with the pulsing magic within her. My eyelids fluttered, my head feeling heavy. The humming began to drown out all of the sound of the night; no more insects or gentle breezes, just the soothing sound of her voice draping itself over my senses like a warm blanket.


    I still have so many questions. There¡¯s so much to ask and I don¡¯t understand anything, I need to know. Now isn¡¯t the time for sleep. The sensation of a hand stroking my head, fingers weaving through my hair, repeating the motion over and over again, cut that thought off instantly. The hum was all I could hear.


    The fear, the anxiety, the frantic energy of that turbulent vision was drawn out of me, draining away as the hum became my whole world. I could see, smell, hear and even taste the hum like it was pure euphoria overlaid onto my entire existence. It was my favorite food, song and drink all at the same time, wrapped up in the feeling of sleeping in a comfy bed and the warmth of clean sheets. What is this? Is this what heaven feels like?


    Any and all negative thought and emotion left me, exhaustion fading and being replaced with strength, clarity and energy. Whereas before I had been fighting to stay awake, now I felt alert and keen. When I opened my eyes, Deotra was glowing with a soft blue light, the same color as the fire she conjured. That too faded, and we were sitting alone under the starry sky in the night air.


    ¡°W-W-What was that?¡± I was still a bit woozy after the state I¡¯d been in, and my words sounded like they were alien to me at first. Deotra looked at me, her signature gentle smile on her face.


    ¡°I just used my emotional transference to take away all the residual malaise from Drache¡¯s vision. Her method is, to put it one way, inelegant. It leaves a serious stain on your psyche. Left unattended it can fester into a full blown malady that brings out the worst in you.¡±


    She withdrew a bit into herself. ¡°I can¡¯t imagine what Drache has gone through, having to deal with all that for as long as she has. She doesn¡¯t have anyone to remove that kind of poison from her, and that means she was sealed for hundreds of years with no way to be free from that. So please, don¡¯t be too mad at her.¡± Her eyes watered and she smiled wider. ¡°We¡¯re both there for her now. We can help her carry her burden.¡±


    ¡°I have a lot of questions.¡± I said. ¡°But for now, let¡¯s just say that I won¡¯t say yes but I won¡¯t say no. After what I just went through, all I can think about is sleep.¡± Despite what I said, I didn¡¯t feel the least bit tired. Deotra¡¯s cleanse had removed all the bad juju out of my mind and I felt better than I had in years. She giggled. ¡°You¡¯re not sleepy. I know. I can answer them when we get to Blossom City. We still have a lot of time.¡±


    Sighing, I fell backward and lay on the ground looking up at the stars. Somewhere around I could still hear Yuzuruha sawing logs. ¡°Alright, you got me. I should finish up my watch first.¡± Deotra blinked, then laid beside me. My heartbeat quickened, and I knew that her own pulse was as well.


    ¡°Can I stay with you until morning?¡±


    Her hand crept along the ground until it was close to my own. Without turning my head too much, I looked in her direction. She was looking at me expectantly. My hand moved over to hers and interlocked with her fingers, tightening as we held them together.


    ¡°I¡¯d like that.¡±

 B3: Chapter 13: Alicia: Unwelcome Guests (edited)

    It was apparently not until a few days later that I finally came out of my coma, and by then we were almost to Blossom City.


    As I expected, Alverd was the first thing I saw when my eyes fluttered open. I was in the back of the wagon, staring up at the fabric covering. Room had been made for me to be laid down on one side, and he was seated next to me, making sure no stray barrel or box would shift and fall on me. When he saw me wake, he gave me his signature smile and I felt more at ease than I had since we first arrived in Kierhai.


    ¡°Good afternoon, sleepyhead.¡± He said as he ruffled my hair gently. ¡°You gave us all a bit of a scare. We thought for sure we¡¯d need to bring you to a cleric in Blossom City when you didn¡¯t wake up yesterday.¡± He took hold of my hand and pulled me up, propping my back against a nearby crate. My head swam a bit from the sudden motion. More importantly, my stomach loudly rumbled.


    ¡°I thought you¡¯d be hungry. I saved the last of the boar jerky for you.¡± He handed me a few slices of dried meat that smelled absolutely heavenly. Without any more words I took the food and crammed it into my mouth. He waited patiently for me to finish eating before he brought me up to speed.


    ¡°Yuzuruha says that, barring any further unforeseen issues, we should arrive in Blossom City just after sundown. She¡¯s going to let us stay at her home while we conduct the Steadfast¡¯s business. All we have to do is mind the others in her home.¡± He grimaced. ¡°We¡¯re imposing on her so much already. The least we can do is make sure the Steadfast can¡¯t threaten her any longer.¡±


    My instincts told me that Alverd was hiding the true extent of his anger about the matter, so I poked and prodded a bit. ¡°The way the Steadfast manipulated you. It really got under your skin, didn¡¯t it? Why is that, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡±


    Alverd cleared his throat. ¡°Any self-respecting knight would balk at the idea of anyone using blackmail in such a way, especially to wield the law to add legitimacy to it.¡± His hand balled into a fist, the metal parts of his gauntlet grinding together. ¡°The law exists to maintain order. But there will always be those in positions of power who use the law to shield themselves while bending it to their will. One in my place would be expected to obey, not question his superiors.¡± There was noticeable disgust in the way he said ¡®superiors¡¯, so much so that even I could pick up on it.


    ¡°My mentor Sir Chandler used to tell me that it was a knight¡¯s duty to serve, but a good man¡¯s duty to do what was right, and that on an ideal day one could be both at the same time.¡± His hand unfurled and his posture relaxed a bit. ¡°He was one of the only ones who thought that way. Even some of his other pupils would mock his views as naive. There was one who went so far as to call Sir Chandler a fool to his face.¡± He chuckled, which was something I wasn¡¯t expecting.


    ¡°So what happened to that guy?¡± I asked.


    ¡°His name was Rickard, the son of a noble family who paid for his chance to be a squire with old money. But he soon learned that all the money in the world can¡¯t buy a true knight¡¯s honor.¡± He smirked at me. ¡°Sir Chandler forced him to wash the chamber pots for the entire barracks. With his bare hands.¡±


    I snorted. ¡°Sounds like he got dealt a shit hand there.¡±


    Alverd let out a loud bark of laughter, spontaneous and genuine, and in that moment he was just a normal young man laughing at literal toilet humor. I grinned at him. ¡°You have a nice laugh.¡±


    The words were out my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. The air became way too thick, and suddenly the inside of the wagon was unbearably stuffy. He continued to try and contain himself, but I was feeling heat rise in my cheeks. Why the hell did you say that? What a weird thing to compliment someone on. Just because you¡¯re alone in here with him doesn¡¯t mean you get to let yourself get all overconfident.


    Stammering, I deflected the conversation away from my stupid comment. ¡°A-A-Anyway, tell me more about this mentor of yours. He sounds like a good man.¡± Alverd¡¯s laughter died down immediately.


    ¡°He was,¡± he said. ¡°He died during the invasion. Some of our knights went to find out what happened to the city on our border with Ishmar. He came back with dragon riders on his heels.¡± He cast his eyes downward, unwilling to meet mine. ¡°Alicia, before you say anything, know that I don¡¯t blame you. It¡¯s very important that you know that.¡±


    Instantly my heart sank in my chest. ¡°Even still, my country was responsible for what happened. My fath-¡±


    ¡°Your father made choices, yes. He did so as your king. You are not him, nor were you in any position to stop him. So please understand that I harbor no ill will for you.¡± His eyes were clear, and the way he was staring into my soul made me believe that he was telling me the truth.


    ¡°I spent half a decade consumed by anger. Anger at the King of Dragontamers, at Ishmar, at myself. But knowing what I know now about your father, about Albrecht, their plan? I see more than I did five years ago. Armed with that, a good man would reconsider his feelings and try to make the best of his circumstances.¡±


    I looked back at Alverd unflinchingly. ¡°What would a good knight do?¡±


    He sighed. ¡°A good knight would¡¯ve died in Marevar fighting to the death for his liege, his people, and his kingdom. So I guess in Sir Chandler¡¯s eyes, I¡¯m doing right by him. Even if it doesn¡¯t feel like it sometimes.¡±


    It was my turn to sigh. Then I took his hands in mine and squeezed. ¡°To quote something I heard Kuro say a while back, nuances suck.¡±


    He squeezed my hands back, and I found comfort in his act. ¡°Indeed.¡±


    Mercifully, Sheena had fallen asleep in the front of the wagon next to Yuzuruha, who was driving. Kuro had elected to sit on the back stoop and kept to himself for the rest of the ride. Well, if the others are going to give me this much free time with Alverd, then as the saying goes, you snooze you lose.


    I listened to Alverd tell me more stories of his youth. Most of it were things I¡¯d heard from Kuro during our night shifts together, but it was nice to hear them from his perspective. Despite the fact that it was obviously painful for him to recall most of it, there were some things that still brought that smile to his face that I was so fond of.


    ¡°My mother would make the greatest shepherd¡¯s pie. It was the pride of my parents¡¯ tavern.¡± His eyes lit up for a moment as he described his mother and father. They were wholesome, hardworking people who were proud of the fact that their son managed to excel so much in the militia that he had gained the attention of a knight like Sir Chandler to the point where he had been invited to compete for the right to become his squire.


    ¡°Dad was sure I¡¯d be a laborer like him, but he was so proud that I was eventually selected to be a squire. Mom was more on the fence about it. She was terrified about my safety but ultimately she said it was alright if I was learning how to fight from Sir Chandler.¡± I¡¯m so tempted to know about his parents. He¡¯s so lucky he had such a good relationship with them. My own mother cared for me I¡¯m sure, but I can¡¯t be certain she didn¡¯t have her own agendas for me. And I don¡¯t even want to get started on where I am about my father. But I know that asking him would be like digging at an old wound. The last thing I want to do is open it up again and make this harder on him.


    ¡°Not to get distracted, but what¡¯s shepherd¡¯s pie?¡± I asked, hoping to steer the topic away before Alverd touched on something that would drudge up a bad memory. His face lit up again.


    ¡°So you take meat and potatoes¡­ ¡°


    By the time the sun was dipping on the horizon, my stomach was rumbling all over again. I had a desperate need to try shepherd¡¯s pie with all the different choices in meat availability. ¡°I wonder if they have it in Blossom City,¡± I asked aloud. Alverd thought about it for a moment.


    ¡°Blossom City has a lot of different dishes, but being situated on the east coast of Selarune means they have access to a lot of seafood. That alone might be a new range of things for you to try.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°True. Ishmar isn¡¯t landlocked, but all our coast is dominated by mountain ranges, and a lot of them are infested with wild dragons. I¡¯m definitely eager to try a few new things.¡±


    The wagon ground to a halt, and I heard Yuzuruha say something that sounded like it was probably some kind of region-specific slang, though given her tone it was probably vile in nature. Alverd and I exchanged glances, then got up and looked out the wagon.


    Ahead of us, a platoon of soldiers in silver colored armor were standing on both sides of the road. They were flanking a pair of wagons whose occupants were lined up on the edge of the beaten dirt path, being interrogated one by one. At first it looked like a routine inspection, but when a pair of soldiers lifted a man covered in bloody bandages from the back of one of the wagons, it was clear something else had happened.


    Yuzuruha waited until one of the soldiers walked up alongside the wagon before addressing them. ¡°Hey. What¡¯s the hold up?¡±


    The soldier reached out his hand, waiting for documents. ¡°A caravan was attacked earlier today. Another group of traders were passing through, stumbled on the aftermath. Looks like the handiwork of the Divernian Swords.¡±


    Pressing her mercenary credentials into the guard¡¯s palm, Yuzuruha growled at him. ¡°Don¡¯t y¡¯all think it would be better ta¡¯ let these people into Blossom City ta¡¯ get help instead of detainin¡¯ ¡®em outside city limits? Man looks liable ta¡¯ die if he don¡¯t get help soon.¡±


    The soldier took his time examining her identification, turning the small piece of parchment to hold it up to the fading light as if trying to determine whether it was fake. ¡°A medic has been dispatched from a local guild to deal with the injured. We don¡¯t want any potential infiltrators to get an easy ticket into our city.¡± Yuzuruha snorted.


    ¡°Yeah, because lettin¡¯ myself get stabbed is a surefire way to get in.¡±


    Grimacing, the soldier handed her back her documents. ¡°Look lady, I get paid, I do what I¡¯m told. And I was told to bar entry until we determine these people aren¡¯t spies for the Swords. Now state your purpose and cargo.¡± Alverd leaned out of the wagon and over the driver¡¯s seating area to address him.


    ¡°Mercenaries returning to Blossom City. No cargo to speak of.¡± The soldier squinted at Alverd, sizing him up.


    ¡°You don¡¯t look like a Wolf. In fact, you look foreign.¡± His hand slid down to the hilt of his sword, sheathed at his side. ¡°Far as we can tell, most of the Swords are foreign types. How do I know you¡¯re not responsible for the attack that happened on the road?¡± Great. We¡¯re not even in the city yet and already we¡¯re not welcome.


    Before Alverd could reply, something smacked into the back of his head. By reflex I caught it before it hit the ground. It was a scroll, affixed with the wax seal of the Steadfast. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Kuro making his way through the wagon to us. ¡°Show him that. It¡¯s our all-access pass, courtesy of Mingsheng.¡± I handed the scroll to Alverd, who passed it to the guard.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    He was skeptical at first, but after examining the seal of the Steadfast, he waved us through. The soldiers made enough room for our wagon to pass by the stalled ones, and we pulled ahead to where the imposing outer gate of Blossom City opened to allow us entry.


    Unlike the gate of Standing Stone, which had been built with militaristic practicality, Blossom City¡¯s gates were a work of art. The thirty foot tall double door was a slab of polished metal depicting twin warriors locked in battle dressed in fantastic armor. The walls surrounding the city were made from a gleaming white stone that looked sturdy enough to take a hit from a trebuchet. Even the guardhouses stationed along the wall at regular intervals incorporated animal decorations at the points of their sloped rooftops. It took me a moment to realize that they were fish with mouths open in a wide circle.


    More of the city¡¯s guards parted ways so that we could stop in front of the gate. The one in charge raised an eyebrow when shown Mingsheng¡¯s seal, but rather than make a stink out of it he motioned to the guards on the parapet above the gate to let us in. I guess the idea of things being above one¡¯s pay isn¡¯t a concept solely unique to Ishmar.


    Two teams of eight guards began to pull at a pair of massive chains flanking the guardhouse above the gate. The doors began to pull back and inward, revealing the city inside. The architecture inside the city was similar to the buildings in Standing Stone, although there was a subtle difference that took me a second to place.


    The area on the immediate other side of the gate was a large wide open space, a round-about with a small statue of a fox standing on its hind legs dressed in a flowing robe and holding a long scroll that reached all the way to its feet. Other wagons were dispersed throughout the round-about, tended by workers who were either loading or off-loading crates of cargo. Several workers motioned for us to fall in with the wagons circulating the round-about so that we could enter the city seeing as we had no cargo to be rid of.


    The inside of the city isn¡¯t the same in terms of its defensive capabilities. Standing Stone¡¯s streets were narrow and designed to stall large numbers of invaders trying to spill in from the gates. The streets here are wide and there¡¯s so much space between the buildings. There were a number of wheeled carts operated by duos of shopkeepers, many of them selling various food dishes. As our wagon rolled past them, the smells wafted over to us and my stomach rumbled again.


    The majority of the vendors had meat based dishes. I could detect the familiar scents of chicken and beef, and even a few pork entrees. Some were being cooked on grills that were slabs of stone heated by miniature furnaces in the wagons themselves. One wagon had a giant pot built into it where the vendor was lowering thin strips of beef into boiling water alongside fresh vegetables.


    ¡°Mmm. That¡¯s hotpot. I¡¯ll treat y¡¯all ta¡¯ that later. Ain¡¯t nothin¡¯ like it.¡± Yuzuruha said as she licked her lips.


    A group of about a dozen young men and women wearing white and red robes were moving with speed towards us with one other woman trailing behind them. She was trying to have a conversation with one man in the back, who looked to be older than the rest. As our wagon got closer, I heard the tail end of their conversation.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, miss. Until your guild certification is processed I cannot allow you to assist. Now, I must ask that you leave. I have a job to do.¡± The group hurried towards the gate, and I saw that each of them was carrying a handbag overflowing with strange tools and bandages.


    The girl in the back stopped as our wagon pulled up beside her. ¡°Yuzu? Is that you?¡± Her soft voice was unlike the gruff ones native to Kierhai, and I detected an accent that I couldn¡¯t place.


    Yuzuruha pulled the wagon to a swift halt and I nearly bucked forward and over the driver¡¯s seat as it lurched. ¡°Well I¡¯ll be damned. Lou! What are y¡¯all doin¡¯ out here?¡±


    Lou was barely taller than me, with short black hair in a bob and wide green eyes. She wore a powder blue vest with matching pants that brimmed with pouches, and a leather bandolier over her chest that contained an unusual curved object that I didn¡¯t recognize and several small metal objects, as well as a tiny but easily accessible knife. When I saw the silver pin on her vest¡¯s collar, however, I knew exactly who she was. I pulled myself into the seat and sat down next to Yuzuruha to get a better look at the girl.


    ¡°You¡¯re Margloomian. Forgeborn Army, if that pin is right.¡± The pin in question was a long silver valve spewing steam, with a small circle at its bottom with a cross in it. The cross part was unfamiliar to me, but even I knew enough about Ishmar¡¯s neighbors to know the insignia of one of its most dangerous potential enemies. ¡°What¡¯s a Margloomian soldier doing so far from home? Isn¡¯t Margloom on the far side of the continent from here?¡±


    She recoiled away from me with such speed that at first I thought she was about to attack me. Yuzuruha threw up her hands. ¡°No no, Lou! It¡¯s okay. I know she¡¯s Ishmarian, but it¡¯s alright. She ain¡¯t gonna hurt ya.¡± She scowled at me. ¡°Come ¡®ere. I¡¯m sure she didn¡¯t mean ta¡¯ scare ya.¡± Like a startled animal, Lou took a tentative step forward, then after seeing I wasn¡¯t going to bite her, rushed over to Yuzuruha and tried to hug her.


    The huge mercenary jumped down from the seat and enveloped the smaller girl in a giant bear hug, lifting her off the ground and nuzzling her cheek to cheek. ¡°Awww, I¡¯m so glad ta¡¯ see ya. Where¡¯s yer brother? Where¡¯s my little guardian angel?¡± She¡¯s like a whole different person now. A second ago she looked ready to tear my tongue out, but now she¡¯s giddy and carefree with her.


    Lou whined a bit as she tried not to get crushed. ¡°Yuzu! Stop! You¡¯ll set my gun off.¡± Yuzuruha let the small girl go, and she immediately pulled the curved object out of its holster and did something with it.


    ¡°Good. No residual powder. These things are sensitive, Yuzu, unlike you.¡± The remark drew an overblown and sarcastic response as Yuzuruha flung her arms open with faux shock.


    ¡°What are y¡¯all on about? I¡¯m plenty sensitive. That¡¯s me, sensitivity coming out my ass all day long.¡± Lou cracked a smile, and the two women hugged again, albeit more tamely this time.


    ¡°What are y¡¯all doin¡¯ out here? Was that punk givin¡¯ y¡¯all trouble?¡± There was an edge to her voice after they separated.


    Lou put up her hands and shook her head. ¡°No, no. You know how it is. The Wolves are just taking their sweet time processing our applications. So until I¡¯m an official mercenary, I¡¯m not allowed to assist on certain jobs. Even when it¡¯s something as crucial as medical support.¡± She patted the handbag slung around her waist weighed down with tools similar to the others we¡¯d seen.


    ¡°I can hardly blame them. The entire city has been on high alert since the attempted break in at the Repository a few days ago.¡± Behind me, Kuro was about to say something; he inhaled but then caught himself, disguising his intentions with an awkward cough. ¡°Break in? At the Repository? Who the hell¡¯d be stupid enough ta¡¯ try that?¡± Yuzuruha scoffed.


    ¡°This woman would,¡± Lou said as she dug a wanted poster out of her bag. She held it up for us to see. The arrogant face of a smirking wolf beast woman with braided hair looked back at us. The poster declared her to be ¡°Monaco the Swift, known associate of the Four Winds Retrieval Guild based in Margloom¡± and offering a hefty sum of one hundred thousand gold coins to anyone who brought her in, although the poster stipulated that she was wanted alive.


    Both Alverd and Kuro groaned in unison. Kuro swore loudly, forgetting he was in public and drawing the ire of several customers at the nearby food stalls. Yuzuruha hoisted herself back up into the driver¡¯s seat and motioned for me to make room. ¡°Well hop on, Lou. Y¡¯all can tell us all about it while we head back home. Is Rol there?¡± Lou nodded as she reached up to grab the metal bar on the side of the driver¡¯s seat, and I held out my hand to help. She hesitated, but then grabbed my hand and pulled herself up. She was still wary of me, but at least I was doing my part to try and win her trust.


    ¡°Yeah, Rol¡¯s been worried sick about you. You know how he gets when you¡¯re not around. You said you were only going to be gone a few days, and then you disappear for almost two weeks. He¡¯s like a big dumb puppy. I¡¯ll bet he might have started chewing the couch up at this rate.¡±


    I leaned over to Alverd. ¡°Why would there be Margloomian soldiers here in Kierhai?¡±


    He shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Margloom is too far away to have any treaties or alliances with Kierhai. The Forgeborn Army is well known across Selarune but they have no real presence outside their own country. But that pin on her collar tells me she¡¯s a field medic. I saw dozens more like her during the humanitarian crisis that followed the Ishmarian invasion. They all wore pins like that.¡±


    Guilt pulled at my heart for a moment. Ugh, I knew I was gonna step in that sooner or later, like a giant pile of dragon shit. Well, might as well go with it if we¡¯re already knee deep in turd. ¡°You mean when the Forgeborn Army had to occupy Elorik to establish the refugee zone.¡± He nodded.


    ¡°Yes. Hundreds of people turned up, many of them frightened and injured. Some didn¡¯t survive wounds inflicted on them by the invaders. Others had traveled miles on barely any food and water. Kuro himself needed to be tended by a medic for a short time.¡±


    ¡°I can hear you two gossiping back there,¡± Lou said, causing us both to jump. ¡°I¡¯ve got very good hearing. Yes, my brother and I were there when the Forgeborn Army created the refugee zone. I was treating people fleeing the Ishmarians.¡± She turned around and fixed me with her steely gaze, boring holes into me with her accusatory stare. ¡°Hard to forget that.¡±


    Part of me wanted to bite back at her but something in her voice told me that she was more than game to start some scrap with me if I did. Despite what she said, I kind of like this girl. She¡¯s a tiny, skinny little twig of a thing yet she isn¡¯t scared of me. I can respect that. I just wish I had a chance to explain to her that I¡¯m not like the rest of my family. Lou turned back around and sulked in the front seat, and I chewed on my food for thought for the rest of the trip.


    Sheena finally decided to grace everyone with her presence by choosing that moment to wake up from her ridiculously long nap. She climbed over the partition behind the driver¡¯s seat and settled in with Alverd, Kuro and I. ¡°Goodness. I must have been more tired than I thought,¡± she said as she yawned, putting her hand up and over her open mouth.


    ¡°I¡¯ll say. The last few days you¡¯ve slept like the dead. Even when you were awake you looked like you were in a daze.¡± She didn¡¯t respond to Alverd¡¯s comment, instead seating herself on a nearby crate.


    ¡°My head feels so foggy. I can¡¯t remember much from the last few days.¡±


    Before I could say anything Kuro chimed in. ¡°Maybe it was something you ate.¡± She mumbled a bit before rubbing her palms against her face, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes.


    We caught her up to speed as the wagon made its way through the streets. I didn¡¯t have much to offer seeing as how I¡¯d been unconscious for part of the journey myself, so I looked at the scenery instead. Stone lanterns built into the sidewalks held orange flames that glittered in the dimming light. Colorful streamers depicting various animals were hung from the sides of buildings and over the streets. I noted with curiosity that despite the beauty of the buildings themselves, many of them had thin parchment over their windows instead of glass.


    The people of Blossom City were adorned much like those in Standing Stone, favoring light robes that seemed easy to move around in. Wealthier folks wore silk, which were dyed in bright colors like red or orange and had detailed embroidery depicting everything from the beautiful trees with the pink flowers to fierce animals like tigers or wolves. Not many people wore jewelry, and those who did limited them to rings or earrings rather than the armlets or necklaces that were common in Ishmar.


    Guard presence was high with every patrol I saw having no fewer than five per group. They moved in tight formation and marched almost in unison, carrying long polearms with curved silver blades. The hafts of the blade each had a long ribbon attached to them, each symbolizing one of the clans that protected Kierhai. It must be because of that break in that Lou mentioned. I want to ask her about it, but maybe I¡¯m not the best one to do so.


    Kuro, probably because of his paranoia or curiosity or some combination of both, read my mind and asked for me. ¡°So what happened to make routine patrols like this so necessary?¡±


    Lou leaned back in her seat. ¡°Someone tried to steal something from the Repository. It¡¯s a fortified storehouse for magical artifacts left over from the War of the Five Kings. Think of a massive vault with both magical and physical security measures to safeguard some of the most dangerous weapons left over from a war that nearly destroyed all of reality.¡±


    Well that sounds just great. Last thing anyone needs is one of those out in the wind. Lou continued, ¡°Nobody knows if the perpetrator succeeded or not, or what they wanted. All I know is that the Imperials say nothing is missing, which sounds to me like damage control. Last thing they want to admit is that they failed.¡±


    Alverd spoke up. ¡°So how does Monaco factor into this?¡±


    ¡°The Four Winds legitimize themselves outside of Margloom by calling themselves a retrieval service. Back home, everyone knows they¡¯re just some gussied up thieves¡¯ guild. But that means outside Margloom, the Four Winds has to play by other countries¡¯ rules regarding mercenary guild regulations. Here in Kierhai, that means submitting identification and proof of guild membership to the Imperial Authority.¡±


    She handed us the wanted poster again. I took it and unfurled it to take a closer look. ¡°When the break in occurred a few days ago, the Imperial Authority checked the travel records stretching back a few weeks and found out that Monaco and her team had been here for two weeks. That put them squarely at the top of the suspect pool. She hasn¡¯t been seen in public so the Authority decided to put out these posters. They¡¯ve already made up their minds that she¡¯s the culprit.¡±


    Kuro chuckled. ¡°Well what did you expect? Registering with the Authority was her biggest mistake.¡± The smile on his face vanished. ¡°Which is kind of odd, honestly. Monaco doesn¡¯t strike me as the type to make such a rookie mistake. So maybe there¡¯s something else at play here.¡±


    The wagon ground to a stop in front of a series of buildings, medium sized homes that looked uniform in design. Each of them were two stories with sloped shingled rooftops, and the one we¡¯d stopped in front of had a plaque mounted to its entryway. When I got out to move to the door with the others, I examined it. In the common tongue, the plaque declared that the home belonged to the Tanaka family. Beneath it was a metal piece inscribed with the name ¡°Tanaka, Yuzuruha¡±. Five other plates beneath it, however, had been defaced with a sharp object to scratch out the names written on them.


    Yikes. She wasn¡¯t kidding when she said that there was some drama involved. The gouge marks were deep and haphazard, making me think it had to be done in anger. Was it her or her sister who did this? Guess bad sibling relationships are alike no matter what nation you come from. Underneath the ruined plates were two brand new ones made of pewter. They were inscribed with the names ¡°Roland Veillantif¡± and ¡°Alouette Veillantif¡±.


    So they¡¯re basically like her new family. I wonder if I¡¯ll have something like that someday? Alverd passed by me to wait by the door and my heart beat a little faster in my chest. Okay, calm down. That¡¯s a whole different thing you¡¯re thinking about. Don¡¯t get ahead of yourself. The last thing you need is to make Sheena hyperfocus on stupid shit again.


    Yuzuruha was reaching for the front door when her hand stopped. ¡°Wait. Where¡¯s Rol? None of the lights are on.¡± She was right. No light streamed out of the parchment covered windows on the first or second floor.


    ¡°Maybe he went out.¡± Sheena chimed in, still yawning behind all of us.


    Lou shook her head. ¡°I dunno. He¡¯s barely left the house since the robbery.¡±


    Sliding the door open, we stepped into the house. The entryway was an open room with several pieces of furniture, including some imported from out of the country like an easy chair and a couch. Sitting on the couch was a young man with messy white hair and green eyes the same shade as Lou¡¯s. He was of average build, with a babyface that made him look way too young to be her older brother. He was sweating profusely, a look of intense shock on his face. Before anyone could say anything, though, he winced. The light from the street lamps outside spilled enough through the open door to illuminate who was sitting on the couch next to him. A tall woman with long legs, brown skin, braided black hair and wolf ears and tail was holding a serrated knife against Roland¡¯s torso, positioned just beneath his rib cage.


    Monaco the Swift smiled, although it was terse. ¡°Took you long enough. All of you inside, now. No sudden moves. Close the door behind you.¡± When no one made any immediate moves to comply with her demand, she pushed the tip of the dagger against the side of the young man¡¯s body, causing him to flinch.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got some things to discuss.¡±

 Chapter 14: Sheena: Beware of Cornered Animals (Edited)

    I am certainly not awake enough to deal with this fresh drama.


    There was so much going on and I had so little time to process any of it. Right. So to start with, this woman who has history with Alverd broke into this home and held this young man at knifepoint and is now demanding we talk. Under normal circumstances, I would be encasing her in an ice block up to her neck, but the hostage does complicate things.


    In the doorway, ahead of me, the crude mercenary who had brought us here was grinding her teeth hard enough to chew through a leather belt. She made no move to attack, however. The gleam of the knife in the light coming through the open door was plain to see, and Monaco was making sure we knew she had the leverage. She¡¯s clever. But the problem with being clever is that it¡¯s like trying to outrun an arrow in flight. The first slip up is usually the last.


    I was the last person to enter, and slowly I reached behind me and slid the door closed, never taking my eyes off Monaco. As soon as the door was shut, Lou drew her weapon and pointed it at the wolf beastwoman, thumbing the hammer back with a loud click. Her aim was shaky though, and we could all see her wrist struggling to keep the weapon steady.


    The weapon was a pepperbox, a technological achievement made possible by Margloom¡¯s advances in the sciences rather than magic. A curved wooden handle met several metal tubes filled with shot and powder, which would propel a metal projectile at intense speed at its intended target once the trigger was pulled. Many mages scoffed when the first pepperboxes and their longer barreled cousins first appeared, but behind closed doors those same mages spoke in hushed tones of uncertain futures.


    The pepperbox and musket were a way for those without magic to become dangerous, and with only a fraction of the instruction that a mage required. Every member of Margloom¡¯s Forgeborn Army carried them, and under the right conditions a skilled marksman could shoot the rider off a horse long before said rider could close the distance. In the halls of the Ivory Palace, the Magisters had debated whether formal action would be needed to curtail Margloom¡¯s martial prowess, but I had put a stop to that every time.


    Watching Lou¡¯s twitching arm made me understand a new side of the Magisters¡¯ fear, though. She¡¯s more likely to hit her brother in this state. She knows it, and so does everyone else in this room. We need to de-escalate the situation. Twirling my fingers behind my back, I gathered the cool night air around Lou¡¯s hand towards the top of her pepperbox, creating a small layer of ice on the small hammer that would create the spark necessary to ignite the weapon and fire it.


    ¡°You get away from him, now!¡± There was fear in Lou¡¯s voice, making it sound more like pleading than a demand. ¡°I won¡¯t tell you again!¡± She couldn¡¯t even keep the gun aimed straight anymore. A bead of sweat ran down the side of her face. Alverd, without moving, spoke.


    ¡°Lou, please. Put it down.¡± In front of me, Kuro and Alicia were motionless, not willing to risk spooking the poor girl.


    Monaco smirked. ¡°Think you need to put that attitude of yours on ice, sweetness. I only came here to talk. Specifically, to some old associates of mine.¡± When Lou didn¡¯t immediately react, the wolf woman rolled her eyes. ¡°Kuro, do me a favor. Tell her that she¡¯s not shooting that gun anytime soon.¡±


    Lou bent her hand to look at the gun, seeing the coating of ice now jamming the hammer upright and coating the spark plate. Frantically, she tried to scrape at it with her fingernails, but before she could succeed in removing it Kuro reached over and pried the weapon out of her hands. ¡°Stop that. If she wanted anybody dead she¡¯d have done it by now. Stand down.¡± He growled.


    The young woman took in a deep breath, letting it hiss out from between clenched teeth. She took a step back, raising her hands to show she wouldn¡¯t try anything else. ¡°And the big girl, too. That spike stick of yours is making me nervous.¡± Snarling, Yuzuruha threw her club off to the side, the weapon landing with a heavy thud off in a corner.


    ¡°If you¡¯re intending to act in good faith you¡¯re off to a very poor start, Monaco.¡± I couldn¡¯t see his face but I recognized Alverd¡¯s tone. That¡¯s the same voice I heard when Mingsheng strong-armed us into this whole mess. Alverd said he hated being blackmailed, and now he¡¯s in that position again where he has to play by some ne-erdowell¡¯s rules.


    Monaco evidently knew she was treading on thin ice because she paused to consider Alverd¡¯s tone and words before slowly moving her dagger away from her hostage and then holding up her hand. When she did so, I saw the weapon slide back down into her sleeve on the end of a mechanical device. She has a spring knife in her sleeve. I¡¯ve read about those in some of my adventure books. Thieves and villains always seem to have them. As if I needed another reason to distrust this woman.


    ¡°Alright. I admit it wasn¡¯t the best move I could¡¯ve made. But with so many unknowns, I had to have at least some kind of bargaining chip.¡± She pushed the young man away from her, and he limped away and into Yuzuruha¡¯s arms. She was a few inches taller and had broader shoulders, so when she pulled him into a hug it looked like she was going to crush him. She growled audibly at Monaco the way a mother wolf would at someone threatening her cubs.


    Kuro was the first to take a step forward, using his staff to light the lamp in the room so that we wouldn¡¯t be standing in the dark. ¡°Speaking of unknowns, why are you here? Don¡¯t tell me you followed us.¡± She scoffed indignantly.


    ¡°Kuro, please. I have a whole team of people with me. Some of them are here in Blossom City and the rest are in Standing Stone. I keep in regular contact with them. I did get lucky on a few counts, though.¡±


    She crossed her legs idly and pointed at Roland. ¡°Some of my little busybodies in Standing Stone found out you¡¯d been arrested. They ¡®persuaded¡¯ a few guards to pass along some information about you and that¡¯s how I learned about your mercenary friend here. After that, I did a little checking on my own here in Blossom City and found the address she has on her guild registry, and when I told this charming lad I was a friend of hers he let me right in.¡± She winked at Yuzuruha, prompting the woman¡¯s growling to intensify.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you were arrested. ¡®Drunk and disorderly conduct¡¯ is the official reason. But you don¡¯t need guards that answer directly to the Steadfast to bring in people for that. All I know is that you left Standing Stone with a Noble Wolf, and I figured if I waited at that Wolf¡¯s home I¡¯d get to ask her about your business here, then track you down myself. Loverboy there was just supposed to be my insurance in case she decided to start a row with me, but I wasn¡¯t expecting her to bring you straight to me.¡±


    She sighed in exasperation. ¡°When you got here, my guys at the front gate sent me word you were coming. But you followed the woman all the way to her home. I actually only had a few moments to drag him out to the couch and position myself to welcome you. You know me, I adore pageantry in my work.¡± She smirked at Yuzuruha again. ¡°He was a very good boy while we waited for you. Except for all the things he said about what you would do to me. He made quite a few threats, you know.¡±


    Yuzuruha dragged Roland back behind us, her angry gaze never leaving the intruder on her couch. ¡°He knows I don¡¯t make threats. I make promises.¡±


    She got a facetious response from the thief. ¡°Rawr, somebody woke up and chose violence today.¡± Leaning on the arm of the couch, she patted the cushion next to her. ¡°Why don¡¯t you come sit next to me, Alverd? We can keep things civil. Plus I think you¡¯d prefer putting yourself in harm¡¯s way over an innocent, right?¡±


    Ohhhh, this woman! Utterly infuriating! The nerve of her thinking she can play him like that. Then to my surprise, Alverd crossed the room and sat down on the couch next to her, scowling. ¡°Fine. No funny business from you. Why did you seek us out, and why go to such lengths to do so?¡±


    Without skipping a beat, Monaco rotated herself so that her legs draped over Alverd¡¯s lap, lying back to prop herself against the armrest. A spike of anger flared in my mind, so white hot that words failed me. There are no words. No words for this audacity. This brazen homewrecker is so smug and irritating that there are just simply no words. I started chewing on my lip, so close to drawing blood because of how angry I was.


    ¡°Oh, because, Alverd. You and Kuro may not have seen through my entire plan the last time we crossed paths, but that was because you had so many unknowns to deal with at the last second that it¡¯s a wonder Kuro managed to figure out what my real goal was at all. Not to mention that your skill as a fighter meant you were a match for my entire crew in a fair fight. I¡¯ll admit, I was very impressed with the both of you.¡±


    She gave him a sly wink and smile. ¡°I¡¯ll be frank. I want you on my crew for this one. I could really use your talents. Between Kuro¡¯s intuition, your combat skills and my ingenuity the job would be a walk in the park.¡±


    Beside me, Alicia threw in her two gold pieces, her voice as full of anger as mine would¡¯ve been. ¡°Why should he cooperate with you?¡±


    Monaco clucked her tongue and waggled her finger at Alicia scoldingly. ¡°Ah ah ah. I wasn¡¯t talking to you. Be a good girl and stay out of this conversation.¡± Before Alicia could respond, Alverd interjected.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Show some respect, Monaco. Even if I was considering your proposal, it would be a non-starter if you didn¡¯t include Alicia and Sheena. And you still haven¡¯t even told me what this job of yours is.¡±


    The wolf woman sighed, her chest bobbing as she squirmed on the couch so she could cross her legs on Alverd¡¯s lap. ¡°Alright, alright. I was hired to ¡®acquire¡¯ something from inside the Repository. I was given a description of the item, but so far my attempts to case the Repository haven¡¯t borne much fruit. The entire tower is fortified from the ground up. My crew doesn¡¯t have any way to get into the tower, so for now I¡¯m sunk.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like you¡¯re mad that you can¡¯t take the easy way out.¡± The words were out my mouth before I could realize I¡¯d thought them. My voice was dripping with disdain. The wolf woman looked at me with casual disinterest, frowning. ¡°Being good at my job means I do whatever I need to in order to get it done. Ruling out whether there¡¯s an easy way to do it or not is just common sense. If I have to work a little harder to get it right, well I don¡¯t get paid for sloppy work. I get paid to deliver, and that¡¯s what I¡¯ll do, in whatever method I deem best.¡±


    She picked at her fingernails, which were trimmed and immaculate, not long and sharp like many beastmen tended to have them. ¡°A smart person weighs all their options before making a decision. I knew Alverd and Kuro were here in Kierhai so I decided to see if they would help me. A long shot, true. But there¡¯s no harm in asking.¡±


    Alicia spoke up. ¡°Who hired you anyway? And what are you trying to steal?¡±


    Monaco clucked her tongue again. ¡°Oh no no no. First rule in my profession, we don¡¯t hand out client information. Discretion is the mark of a professional, and we are nothing if not professional. My client wanted the best the guild had to offer, and that¡¯s me. I don¡¯t kiss and tell.¡± Her eyes flicked over to Alverd. ¡°At least, when it comes to my job.¡±


    Oh this little bitch. I didn¡¯t want to resort to such language but it¡¯s really the only way to convey how much I want her to disappear into thin air.


    Kuro had leaned against the wall of the living room, but had positioned himself close to one of the two windows in the room. ¡°Long shot is putting it mildly. You know he¡¯s a knight. He¡¯d never willingly break the law. End of the day, you can call yourself a retrieval specialist but that still translates to thief. What¡¯s stopping us from turning you in for the bounty?¡±


    Something picked at the hairs on the back of my neck. I had an immensely bad feeling, like I was about to turn a blind corner and get hit by a speeding wagon. She walked in here thinking she was going to get Yuzuruha alone. If things went sideways she would¡¯ve had a way to deal with her. Which means even if the number of people has changed, Monaco still has a contingency plan in case things go wrong.


    My eyes darted around the room. Did she plant something in the room? Are her goons outside? There was only one door, and all of us were more or less blocking her path to it. My brain sprang into action trying to run every possible escape attempt through my head, but I couldn¡¯t figure out how short of magic that she could get past us.


    ¡°Well this has been kind of a waste of time. Very disappointing, but I didn¡¯t have high hopes you¡¯d agree to my terms anyway. I think I should take my leave now.¡± She tried to sit up but Alverd wrapped his hand around her wrist. ¡°You¡¯re not going anywhere.¡± He said in a terse voice.


    Whether on purpose or accidental, a blush rose in her cheeks as she grinned. ¡°Oh, if only the circumstances were different those words could¡¯ve been so much more magical. I guess chivalry truly is dead. Don¡¯t take this personally, Alverd.¡±


    Suddenly she leaned back and whipped her legs up, wrapping one around the back of Alverd¡¯s neck and wrenching him forward, causing him to tilt forward off the couch and hit the floor head first. Even as he tried to roll out of the sudden attack, Monaco sprang off the couch and swung her left arm, discharging a cloud of thick smoke from her sleeve that billowed through the room.


    I heard Alicia give a short shriek followed by the sound of her body hitting the ground. Yuzuruha grabbed the nearby Lou and lunged off to the left, carrying both Roland and his sister to the opposite side of the room from Kuro. I lost sight of the young mage as the smoke filled my vision, and then I was coughing. The smoke itself wasn¡¯t poisonous but it stung my eyes and throat, making breathing difficult.


    Kuro let out a battle cry but it was cut short. The next noise was the sound of ripping parchment, then a thump outside. Did she go through the window? Is that why Kuro was standing in front of one? He yelped as things continued just outside the house. ¡°Let go of me! Stop that! Agh my arm okay okay, I get it, just stop twisting so hard!¡±


    Inwardly I rolled my eyes. So she just took another hostage. One who apparently can¡¯t fight back. Alicia scrambled back to her feet and leapt through the now open window onto the street outside. I used the door like a civilized person, knowing that leaving it open would help vent some of the smoke faster.


    It didn¡¯t take long to figure out where Monaco was. She was moving away from the housing block as quickly as possible, her arm wrapped around Kuro¡¯s neck. His discarded staff lay on the ground outside. Alverd will have to pick that up later. I can¡¯t touch the blasted thing. Besides, annoying or not, saving his best friend is more important. By the time Alverd stumbled out the front door, Monaco had rounded the nearby street corner and vanished from view.


    ¡°She¡¯s over there! She can¡¯t get far, dragging Kuro along like that. If we hurry we might catch her.¡± Suddenly Alicia¡¯s eyes widened as they focused on something behind and above me. ¡°Look out!¡± She cried as she barreled into me. I felt the impact of her small yet muscular body against my torso, propelling me back just before something exploded where I¡¯d been standing.


    There was no heat from the explosion, but instead a bunch of soap-like foam that expanded outward rapidly. Yuzuruha came out the front door of her house, her club at the ready. ¡°Alright, which one of y¡¯all sons of bitches is gonna die first?¡± She took one step off the porch when a similar explosion went off next to her.


    She was coated across her left side, the foam billowing out and forming all along her leg, arm, and upper body. As the clumps of beige foam ballooned in size, they hardened, and then she suddenly lurched to her left and fell over as the strange substance weighed her down. She let out a truly atrocious stream of unladylike words as she thrashed her free arm wildly, trying to pull herself off the ground.


    More alchemical trickery. No thief would ever be a match in a fair fight against someone like Alverd or Yuzuruha, which is exactly why they decided not to fight fair. Being wrenched upward made me remember that I still wasn¡¯t safe myself. Alverd raised his shield just in time to have a blast impact it, and he had to drop the shield as it became too heavy to hold. To my great surprise, Alicia hefted me up and over her shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ve gotta get out of the open, we¡¯re too exposed!¡±


    No sooner had she said that when two shots hit her back and leg. She threw me away from her, and I landed nearby as the bloom nearly encompassed her whole body. It was a stroke of luck that it didn''t cover her face and stop her from breathing. As she screamed in fury, two figures on a nearby rooftop awning raised their hands, and I could see they had vials of the substance ready to throw at me.


    Behind me, there was a loud boom, and the leg of one of the men buckled out from under him in a spray of crimson. He screamed as he dropped his vial, which cracked open at his feet. The resulting bloom covered him and part of his ally, who dropped his own vial. When it blossomed, the roof was no longer able to support the massive increase in weight and snapped as the awning came crashing down to street level twenty feet below, covering the two thieves in a shower of debris. Their moans of pain told me they were still alive, although they probably wished they weren¡¯t given how they were carrying on.


    Looking back to the house, I saw Roland standing in the doorway, holding a three and a half foot long metal tube aimed out past me, hazy white wisps wafting out of the end. I could see his green eye through the aperture of a miniature spyglass installed on the top of the weapon, just past the trigger. He pulled a metal rod protruding from the side of the weapon, and a piece of still smoking brass shot out the other side, clattering on the ground.


    ¡°Not on my watch. I may not always be at my girl¡¯s side but I¡¯ve always got her back.¡±


    Lou peeked out from behind him, and when she saw the coast was clear she came out on the porch and knelt down next to Yuzuruha. ¡°I¡¯m fine, go check on the others.¡± She said, still trying to free herself of the gunk. ¡°Stay still, I¡¯ll dissolve it.¡± Lou said as she pulled a small vial out of her bag, uncorking it and sprinkling it over the hardened substance. Almost immediately it curled in on itself and fragmented, and Yuzuruha was free.


    The young medic came to each of us, using a few droplets of the foul smelling liquid in the bottle to remove the gunk. ¡°Eww. Thank you for that. What even is this stuff?¡± Alicia asked as she wiped the now dust-like junk from her clothes.


    Lou put the cork back on her bottle as she answered. ¡°It¡¯s a Margloomian alchemical treatment we use to seal wounds that bleed heavily, and in some cases save hemophiliacs. It¡¯s a stopgap measure meant to simulate blood coagulation until proper treatment can be administered. It¡¯s also sterile to prevent risk of infection.¡± She scowled as she helped Alicia brush off the last of it. ¡°Apparently this woman¡¯s crew found a way to turn it into a nonlethal weapon to subdue people. Of course someone took a great idea and found a way to weaponize it.¡± There was hate in her tone when she said that, and a haunted look in her eye. I didn¡¯t press the matter further.


    By the time Lou was able to remove the foam from Alverd, Monaco was long gone. Alicia moved over to the two thieves, of which only one was conscious. The other had landed face first and been knocked out, but the other had only landed on his shoulder. Judging by his whimpering, he¡¯d either broken a bone or was just whining. She put her hands together and cracked her knuckles loudly, smiling sinisterly. ¡°I can make them talk. Just give me a chance.¡±


    Roland came over and put his hand on Alicia¡¯s shoulder. ¡°What? You got a problem with me putting the hurt on them?¡± At first I thought that was exactly what he was going to say, but then his face turned grim. ¡°Not out here. Bring them back to the house. You get one, I get the other.¡± When she looked surprised, he frowned. ¡°No witnesses that way.¡± Her expression turned to understanding, then a predatory smirk.


    That¡¯s distasteful. Torture shouldn¡¯t be the first option in a case like this. No one was hurt, so it seems a bit much to start with the threat of physical harm. I watched as Lou helped Alverd crack the last of the hardened foam off his arm, and I felt my fingers twitch. Then again, Monaco lost control of the situation and decided to play dirty. If we try to play this game like we¡¯re better than her, she¡¯ll get the better of us again.


    As Roland tried to drag one of the men, I came up and assisted him. Then Alverd joined us. ¡°I want to say right now I don¡¯t condone torture. So let¡¯s consider that a last resort. I¡¯m just as worried about Kuro as the rest of you, but we shouldn¡¯t do anything drastic just yet.¡± Roland scoffed. ¡°Your friend was just kidnapped. You aren¡¯t willing to do anything it takes to help someone you care about?¡±


    Alverd fired back heatedly. ¡°Not so much that I¡¯ll do wrong to make a right. I don¡¯t think Monaco will hurt him. If she bothered to take him alive then she must see some use for him, and as long as he¡¯s useful he¡¯ll stay alive. And since Kuro is smarter than me, that means he knows that too. So he¡¯ll stall as long as he can and have faith we can get him in time.¡±


    When we got to the porch, Yuzuruha took the man from us and threw him bodily into the home without even looking to see if he would land safely. ¡°Y¡¯all sure about that? Seems ta me we¡¯re makin¡¯ some assumptions here.¡±


    Alverd looked her in the eye. ¡°We have to. I have to. I need to believe that Monaco isn¡¯t so much of a monster that she¡¯d kill a hostage, and have faith that Kuro will take care of himself for the time being.¡±


    Roland shook his head in exasperation. ¡°That sounds like a lot of wishful thinking.¡±


    Alverd passed him and entered the house without giving him a second glance. ¡°That¡¯s the thing about crossing lines. Once you start, it gets easier and easier to keep doing it. Some are lucky enough to regret it in time to catch themselves. Others realize too late how second nature it¡¯s become to compromise who they used to be.¡±


    He sat down on the couch, glaring at the now terrified thief still bound by his own alchemical foam. ¡°Then there are the ones who embrace who they¡¯re becoming. And I adamantly refuse to become one of those people. So if I have to lie to myself to do it, it¡¯s a small price to pay. Kuro has his rules, and I have mine.¡± He reached down and grabbed the thief by his collar, hoisting him up to eye level.


    ¡°But as Kuro has told me before,¡± he growled with uncharacteristic anger, ¡°rules are made to be broken.¡± The man gulped audibly. Alverd shook him once, gently before setting him back down, propped upright by the foam.


    ¡°So. What shall we talk about first?¡±

 B3: Chapter 15: Kuro: Knives in Backs and Swords in Hand

    I stopped trying to break out of Monaco¡¯s grip after a couple of blocks. It was a pointless waste of my energy, which was better served taking note of my surroundings as she half-pulled, half-dragged me through a back alley towards wherever she was taking me.


    She obviously didn¡¯t intend to bring me along, otherwise I¡¯d have a bag over my head. The decision to take me prisoner had to be spur of the moment. Monaco might be good at acting on the fly when her plans don¡¯t go exactly the way she expects them to, but that doesn¡¯t mean she¡¯s able to course-correct back to her original goal.


    Drawing a mental map of the area wasn¡¯t really my forte. I knew that I had started in a residential district called the Wolf¡¯s Clearing, where housing belonging to members of the Noble Wolves guild and their families had been built. Yuzuruha said that the Clearing was on the west side of the city more or less. So wherever I end up, it¡¯s just a matter of orienting myself to that location and making a reasonable guess.


    At some point, Monaco was forced to leave the back alley due to a dead end. The familiar feel of something sharp pushed against my back made me well aware of what she expected of me. I¡¯m still willing to bet she¡¯s not going to risk my life just yet. But there¡¯s no need to tempt her either. I¡¯ll play along for now. While she¡¯s distracted with keeping a low profile, I¡¯ll see what landmarks I can identify.


    I was in luck. Across the street from where we¡¯d exited the alley, there was a fiendishly gaudy building with red curtain windows and a giant cat statue with looming amber eyes dressed in a red and golden robe, its left paw waving in a repetitive back and forth rocking motion. The building was a bank, the Fortunate Feline, and a nearby sign bragged that it was the largest and most reliable banking institution in Blossom City.


    Okay. So, I guess the Feline is going to have to help me figure out where I¡¯m being taken. I doubt Monaco is going to circle back around, so that means her hideout has to be in the direction we¡¯re headed. Question is, are we going north, east, or south?


    Before I could think anything else, she pulled me down the street, her right arm draping my own over her shoulder. With a quick motion, she kicked me in the back of my leg, causing me to yelp in pain. ¡°Stumble a little bit. Act like you¡¯re drunk. We¡¯re just out for a stroll and you had too much to drink,¡± she hissed in my ear. Her left arm was still against my back, hidden from view, and she still had that spring-loaded contraption in her sleeve.


    ¡°I get it, I get it. You didn¡¯t have to kick me so hard.¡± I growled. I walked with my fake limp, doing my best to sell the bit without slowing us down. Without turning my head, I tried to take in as many sights as I could to get my bearings.


    It had been a few years since Alverd and I had been in Blossom City. Although the city¡¯s layout had obviously not changed in such a short time, there were bound to be places I would and wouldn¡¯t recognize; brand new food stalls, closed businesses, ramshackle housing. Nothing really stood out to me after the bank, but even that told me something.


    Monaco might be leading me to the Broken Mirror district. There¡¯s nothing but ruined warehouses and nests of criminals over there. If memory serves, it should be on the southwest part of the city too, so we might not be that far from the Clearing. Plus, it makes sense that she¡¯d go find a bunch of ne''er do-wells to hide out with.


    After about ten minutes of walking on the street, she found another alley for us to duck into. The street decorations here were more sparse, and there were signs the windows had been replaced several times on the buildings with some featuring parchment paper that had been stitched together crudely with strings. The people nearby had simpler clothing that looked ill maintained or made of common materials as opposed to the cleaner threads I¡¯d seen near the entry gate.


    After hooking around two corners and emerging onto a street that was even dingier than the one we¡¯d just left, Monaco paused to catch her breath. ¡°Finally. I don¡¯t think your friends are fast enough to keep up with me, even with you slowing me down.¡± She looked around. ¡°Once I get my bearings, we¡¯re moving. Don¡¯t get comfortable.¡±


    I tried to crane my head to see behind me, but couldn¡¯t turn far enough. I didn¡¯t want to chance a full turn, as it would let Monaco know I was trying to see if anyone was following us. Alas, with me being shorter than her and being held tight, I wasn¡¯t able to do much. It does not pay to be short sometimes. If I was six inches taller this would not be happening right now.


    As I mumbled under my breath, I did manage to turn my head far enough to the left to see that there was a fox sitting on the sidewalk not four feet away from me. It was a very familiar looking fox with red fur who looked at me with inquisitive golden eyes. If I didn¡¯t know better, I would have said the fox was glaring fiercely at Monaco.


    ¡°Deotra? Is that you?¡± I said in my mind. ¡°She didn¡¯t hurt you, did she?¡± Even in my head, I could hear the worry in her tone.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m alright. For now I think she needs me in one piece.¡± Deotra didn¡¯t come any closer, but she shook her head, making her cute, fuzzy ears twitch. ¡°Say the word. There won¡¯t be enough of her left to fill a clay urn.¡±


    Before I could respond, Monaco turned around. ¡°What? A fox? Where did that come from?¡±


    I coughed tersely. ¡°You¡¯ve been in Kierhai how long and you don¡¯t know? Foxes are sacred around here. They can wander freely. There are some pretty strict laws about harming them, too. So watch your step, because that one seems to have taken a liking to you.¡±


    As if on cue, Deotra arched her back and bared her fangs at Monaco. The thief was less than impressed though. ¡°You have an odd idea of what ¡®liking¡¯ looks like, Kuro. Try not to bother me, we¡¯re almost where we need to go.¡± She yanked me along, although with less urgency than before. ¡°Now, word of caution before we get there. Keep your mouth shut. These aren¡¯t the types of people who want to have friendly chats with loners out after dark. So let¡¯s not draw attention to ourselves.¡±


    I agree. Broken Mirror is the entrance to the criminal underworld of Blossom City. One can get lost down there and never be seen again. As Monaco pointed out, we might not even get to where we need to go without getting accosted. Sheseemed extra fidgety, her right foot tapping impatiently on the ground in a clear nervous tic.


    ¡°Where the hell are Merond and Calgris?¡± She said. ¡°They should¡¯ve given your friends the slip by now.¡± The tapping sped up as her tail swished back and forth irritably. ¡°Typical. I ask the Guildmaster for one little favor and it goes sideways in five minutes. If they¡¯re not here in two minutes, I¡¯m taking my chances.¡±


    Maybe I can convince Monaco to spill some of the beans on what she was hired to do. I still have no idea how I¡¯m gonna get away from her, but while she¡¯s distracted thinking about the current state of affairs I might be able to get some answers.


    ¡°Seems kind of risky bringing newbies into a high stakes heist like this.¡± She swirled her head around and down to face me. ¡°If you¡¯re desperate enough to try and rope Alverd and I into helping you, then you know you¡¯re punching way above your weight class on this one. We both know you brought me along to help you plan the heist, so why don¡¯t you tell me what you¡¯re after?¡±


    Her eyes flicked back in the direction of the street, then back to me, before looking back at the street again. ¡°Let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves, Kuro. It¡¯s not nice to interrupt a girl while she¡¯s thinking.¡± The brown eyes of the beastwoman narrowed as she weighed her options.


    ¡°I can practically hear the gears grinding in your head, Monaco.¡± I taunted her. My eyes, however, were focused on Deotra. ¡°You¡¯ll never get what you came here for. You¡¯re a mess. You¡¯re wound like a top and it¡¯s starting to show.¡± She tightened her grip on my shoulder.


    ¡°Be quiet. Your prattling is distracting me.¡±


    I pressed my attack. ¡°Any smart thief would¡¯ve considered cutting and running by now. I¡¯ll bet good money that your goons got caught by Alverd and the rest. If so, it¡¯s only a matter of time and some broken bones before they track you here. Also, I¡¯m your only bargaining chip, yet I¡¯m also an iron weight wrapped around your ankle. I¡¯m slowing you down every step of the way, but if my friends catch up to you you need me to reason with them.¡±


    Something sharp pushed against my back and I nearly yelped as it pressed into my skin. ¡°I said shut up. Any more out of you and I¡¯ll knock you out and drag you.¡± There was a lot of barely restrained frustration in her voice, and I knew my tactic was working.


    ¡°Sounds like you needed to suck up to your Guildmaster for something, too. Now your emotions are getting the better of you. You sure you¡¯re not in over your head?¡± I said with snark in my voice.


    I wasn¡¯t ready for what happened next. Her hand slid back from behind me and out in front of me, and I felt cold steel press against my neck. ¡°I can¡¯t kill you but I can definitely hurt you, Kuro. Alverd will take you back even if you¡¯ve got a few scratches in some unpleasant places. Remember that.¡±


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Despite having been shown the consequences of my actions, I did what any self-respecting adventurer would do and learned nothing from them. ¡°Now I know this is personal for you. Thieves don¡¯t resort to violence so easily. It¡¯s not in the playbook to cause unnecessary trouble for yourselves like that. This isn¡¯t just any heist for you. You¡¯re desperate.¡± I expected a strike, but instead Monaco let go of me. I turned around and looked at her. Her right hand was opening and closing, fingers curled like claws, but the knife in her sleeve was nowhere to be seen. ¡°Listen. Alverd may not be willing to help you steal, but he won¡¯t turn a blind eye to someone in need, even you. Tell me what¡¯s going on.¡±


    She clenched her teeth, growled, then let out her breath in a hiss. ¡°Fine. I need the Hand of the Usurper. This isn¡¯t a typical job. The client went through the Guildmaster direct, and when I told her I needed a favor she hooked me into this. Told me that the job was completely off the books, and she¡¯d give me a handpicked crew. Turns out they¡¯re all her men, not people I normally work with.¡±


    I cocked my head. ¡°Anything unusual about that? You don¡¯t sound like you have a lot of trust in your Guildmaster.¡± She shook her head. ¡°You don¡¯t get to be the head of a thieves¡¯ guild by being friendly and trustworthy, Kuro. Her policy has always been one hand out front for shaking, one hand behind her back with a knife just in case. Every job that goes through our guild has to be vetted and put on the records. For her to take a job that doesn¡¯t stinks to high heaven.¡±


    ¡°So why take the gig, then?¡± I asked. She shifted weight from her right to her left leg. Then she fished something out of one of the leather pouches on her belt. She tossed it to me, and I caught it in both hands. It was a small blue bottle able to fit in my palm with a gold seal and no cork. A label proclaimed it to have once contained ¡°Seraph¡¯s Mercy¡±. It was empty.


    ¡°Are you kidding me? This is, I mean was, a bottle of Seraph¡¯s Mercy. This is practically miracle medicine. Cures infections, lowers fevers, quiets coughing fits. I hear it even treats stuff like diphtheria and tuberculosis. A bottle of this stuff can easily cost more than ten thousand gold.¡± I was practically holding the holy grail of all medical remedies, and my fingers trembled.


    Monaco strode forward and plucked the bottle from my hands. ¡°Yes, and it¡¯s the only thing keeping my father stable. He¡¯s been sick for months. No other medicine or treatment seems to work on him. My mother and I have been draining the personal savings my father and I put aside from our guild work to pay for these. And the Guildmaster promised me an entire crate if I bring her the Hand of the Usurper.¡±


    I gawked. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make any sense. Mercy is curative, after enough doses your father should¡¯ve recovered.¡± She shook her head.


    ¡°We thought that too. He got better, then two weeks after he ¡®recovered¡¯ he started coughing up blood during a meal. He¡¯s been bedridden for the last two months. My mother fears that if we stop the dosages he might die. I¡¯ve talked to every doctor in Dawnbreeze City and none of them have any idea what¡¯s wrong with him.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be possible. How can multiple trained doctors not have any clue how to treat a man?¡±


    Monaco¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°I know. Something is fishy. Once I get back to Margloom with the Hand, I¡¯m going to file for leave from the guild so I can look into it. Getting that medicine is my top priority though. So that¡¯s why I was willing to consider asking for your help.¡±


    I cocked my eyebrow. ¡°So why didn¡¯t you mention any of this to Alverd? Why not come to us with this instead of taking a man hostage?¡± She returned my gaze sternly.


    ¡°You two have only crossed my path once. We met only briefly, and in that time you saw how cunning and manipulative I can be. If that¡¯s all you know of me, would you give me the benefit of the doubt?¡±


    I chuckled. ¡°Absolutely not.¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Exactly. Better I lean into the expectation you already have of me and force you to work with me, albeit begrudgingly, rather than try to buy your loyalty with pity while making you expect a knife in your back. Besides, the fewer people know about my family¡¯s circumstances the better.¡±


    Deotra¡¯s voice sounded in my mind. ¡°A likely story. She could¡¯ve stolen that bottle and made up that story while she had a knife against that man¡¯s back. I know her type.¡± A choking wave of intense anger accompanied her words. I shook them off as I replied.


    ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± Another wave of hate preceded her response.


    ¡°She uses her family as a prop. Even if she was telling the truth, she¡¯s relying on your emotions to overcome your good judgment.¡±


    ¡°Even so, just knowing she could be playing us might work in our favor. We know to stay on our guard, so what¡¯s the best way to keep an eye on a shifty wolf? You keep it in sight at all times. Which will be a lot easier when you have a shrewd fox to watch the wolf where she can¡¯t see them.¡±


    There was a hint of confusion in Deotra¡¯s response. ¡°Are¡­ are you complimenting me?¡±


    ¡°Yes? I meant it that way, at least.¡± A flood of warmth made its way from my head down to my heart as I felt a mix of pride, embarrassment, and resolve twist through the fiber of my being.


    ¡°Um¡­ okay. I¡¯ll make sure she doesn¡¯t try anything stupid. In the meantime, I trust that you know what you¡¯re doing.¡± She ambled over to me and started pawing at my leg. I leaned down and extended my arm, and she climbed up and onto my shoulder.


    ¡°Huh,¡± said Monaco. ¡°Well don¡¯t you have a way with animals. Didn¡¯t take you for an animal lover.¡±


    I gave her a toothy smile. ¡°There¡¯s a lot you don¡¯t know about me either. Remember that I almost caught onto what you were doing the last time we crossed paths. So maybe don¡¯t underestimate me.¡± I crossed my arms and tried to puff out my chest.


    ¡°Well without your staff I doubt there¡¯s a whole lot you can do. Smart or not, no staff means no magic.¡± Her eyes fixated on something behind me. ¡°Which we might need in a few moments.¡± As I turned to look where she was looking, she rushed up to me and pressed something into my hand, which she pulled behind my back and out of view. It was thin and made of wood, smooth as if made by a craftsman¡¯s hand. A wand, for spellcasters trying to conceal a weapon on their body.


    In front of us, a small crowd of locals was walking up to us. They were festooned in colorful tattoos, some vicious looking animals and others with runic script I couldn¡¯t read. They had tattered clothes with only bits and pieces of actual leather armor strapped to arms and legs, as well as knives and short swords that had definitely seen better days. In total, six thugs were coming out of the shadows of nearby alleys and darkened doorsteps to confront us.


    Two of them were taller than the rest with lithe builds and a scaly green sheen to parts of their skin. They had yellow eyes with black vertical slits above angular mouths, marking them as snake beastmen. The three in front of them were humans, clad in moldering black cloaks that did little to hide their muscular frames. The one in front was a short elf with tufts of blonde hair protruding from under a sweat-soaked headband. She glared at us with her granite blue eyes, seizing us both up, her hand on her hip and close to a scimitar.


    ¡°My friend and I want no trouble. But if you¡¯re looking for it, you found it.¡± Monaco put some fire in her voice, the rumble of a growl echoing in her throat just above me. The elf woman snorted.


    ¡°Look bitch, if you had any bite you¡¯d have had ¡®yer fangs out already. This doesn¡¯t have to get ugly if ya don¡¯t want it to.¡± She smirked and looked around in an exaggerated way. ¡°Me ¡®n my boys here have been lookin¡¯ ¡®fer a girl what fits yer description. I was told ¡®ya had somethin¡¯ I wanted. Hand it over and you and yer boyfriend can walk away.¡± The scimitar slid free of its sheath and was pointed at us, its chipped blade covered in nicks and scratches. Knives came out of cloaks and the goons closed in.


    Monaco pulled me back. ¡°You say that but you bared your fangs first.¡± She was guiding me back toward the streets we¡¯d come from, but those were far enough now that we¡¯d never make it. I grimaced, shuffling my feet and determining who was going to get blasted in the face first. This is the problem with wolves. They bite off more than they can chew, mainly because they can¡¯t chew in the first place. She made a rookie mistake taking that job. She tried to rope Alverd and I into it. I shouldn¡¯t be offering her help, especially after what she just pulled. But what that ruffian said concerns me. Matching a description? Waiting near the entrance to the Broken Mirror District? If it looks like a setup, smells like a setup, and has six hooligans ready to ambush one person, then it is what it is.


    The goons fanned out, stepping up their paces. ¡°Wolves are pretty tough cookies. At least until they¡¯re alone. Lone wolves don¡¯t last out in the wild, for good reason.¡± The elf licked her lips as she ran her gloved finger along the length of her scimitar. ¡°Last chance. I want the knife, and I¡¯ll gut you if it ain¡¯t in me hands in the next three seconds.¡±


    Behind the elf, no longer obscured by her much taller compatriots, a familiar fox was padding along at an even tilt. Her eyes were glowing, twin beacons of gold in the darkness. ¡°When I say run, run, Kuro. Don¡¯t stop for Monaco, don¡¯t stop for anyone. I¡¯ll catch up to you.¡± Deotra¡¯s voice said, full of steely resolve.


    I shook my head instinctively. ¡°No. I¡¯m not leaving you behind.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re worried about me, but you needn¡¯t be. I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± Blue fire emanated from the fox¡¯s paws, and she began to swell in size as the fire grew in intensity. ¡°I¡¯d rather you not have to see this.¡± The light from the fire drew the attention of the ruffians, and they turned to see where it was coming from. Babbling gasps fell from their mouths as they beheld the majesty of an eight foot tall red fox blazing with blue ghost fire, looming over them like a vengeful specter.


    With the goons distracted, I whipped my arm out from behind my back and pointed the wand at the ground behind them. The wand strained as it pulled power out of my body to create my spell, willing moisture from the air to coat the dirt and then supercool it into an icy surface. They didn¡¯t even see the slick ground until they backpedaled onto it and fell, still cowering in Deotra¡¯s radiant fury.


    When Deotra pounced, I grabbed Monaco¡¯s arm and bolted. I ran as fast as my tiny mage legs would take me, back towards the well lit streets that would have witnesses and guards. Behind me, screams of fear quickly became cries of pain and shrieks of terror. There was a sound like tearing flesh and I felt the bottom of my stomach threaten to rise up my throat and out my mouth. Keep running and don¡¯t look back. That¡¯s not something you need to see.


    After a minute of running Monaco and I burst out of the decrepit back alley that had led us to the district and back into a more populated area. The street in question was dotted with a number of middle class citizens making their early evening rounds, seeking out places to dine or conduct business in the waning hours of the day. In the distance, across the dirt street, a pair of guards in turquoise splint mail were conversing with a street merchant.


    I took one step in that direction before Monaco yanked me back into the shadow of the alley. ¡°Hey! What¡¯s the big idea?¡± She clapped her hand over my mouth.


    ¡°Did you forget the authorities have a bounty out for me? We have to get back to Alverd, before that damn monster eats us both. Or more of those stupid bastards catch us.¡±


    She hooked her left arm under my arms and around my chest, pulling me up against her body and tucking me against her chest. Then she pulled something off her belt, bringing it up in front of my face as she examined it. It was some kind of weird gauntlet with a spring loaded mechanism attached to a length of coiled rope that ended in a metal hook. Sliding her arm into it, she pulled the straps tight with her teeth, flexing her fingers around a small trigger in her palm.


    On the street, four more criminals dressed similarly to the ones who had accosted us earlier saw us skulking in the shadows. They pointed in our direction. One ran off in a different direction, but the remaining three booked it towards us. As they passed under a pair of street lamps, I saw something burned into the flesh on their forearms. It was a tattoo in the form of a sword wreathed in black fire, the same as the one on every warning poster plastered throughout Blossom City.


    Monaco¡¯s crew sold her out to the Divernian Swords. And if that crew answers to the Guildmaster, then that means the rot goes straight to her. The Swords are her client and they want the Hand of the Usurper. As the Swords charged towards us, Monaco took in a sharp breath, tightened her grip around me, and lifted her arm.


    The hook shot up into the air, the rope spiraling off of her arm as it sailed up and up and away. Just when I thought it would disappear from view, it snagged on the top of a nearby building, the rope going taught.  The Swords were only about ten feet away, and drawing blades from beneath their cloaks.¡°The thing about being a lone wolf,¡± Monaco said, ¡°is that the whole bloody world is often against you. But silver lining? The world truly does love an underdog.¡±


    Then we were catapulting up through the air, and the chase was on.

 B3: Chapter 16: Kuro: A Vow Sworn on a Blue Flame (Edited)

    Nuance is an annoying thing, even if it is necessary.


    Today it taught me that while I was not afraid of heights, I was clearly afraid of sudden changes in elevation at very high speeds. I screamed high enough to crack glass as Monaco and I shot up towards the roof of the building, not stopping until she grabbed the ledge and heaved us both over it and onto the rooftop.


    ¡°Knock it off. It wasn¡¯t that bad.¡± Monaco said as she yanked the hook free of its mooring. With a flick of her wrist, she snapped the hook shut, sliding the talon-like protrusions back into place in their metal ¡°head¡±. When the head was closed, it fit snugly back into the gauntlet, ready to be fired again.


    I stood up and dusted myself off. ¡°Says you. Maybe jumping across rooftops is standard procedure for you, but we usually charge hazard pay in my profession for that kind of stuff.¡± I chanced a glance over the side of the building. We were now three stories up, there were a few angry looking Swords on the street below, and as far as I could tell, they had no way to get up to us. Yet.


    There were a few adjacent buildings of equal height, although of different aesthetics. While the building Monaco and I were on wasn¡¯t fancy or decadent, it was built in a far more modern style that didn¡¯t have the frills of typical Kierhaian culture. It was a rundown tenement building with no roof access. The building across from where I¡¯d looked down had a stairwell shed on the far side, and a much more traditional look with sloping edges and shingles. If the Swords realize they can climb one of the other buildings they could get up here. We have maybe a few minutes.


    ¡°Kuro what the hell happened?¡± Monaco said as she took in a deep breath. ¡°One moment that fox was on your shoulder, the next it was gone. Then it just appeared behind the thugs and started laying into them. Is there something you¡¯re not telling me?¡± Her voice was heavy with suspicion.


    ¡°Uhhh about that. It¡¯s a reaaaaaally long story and we don¡¯t have time to get into it now.¡± The last thing I need is to explain to Monaco that I have a six hundred year old sorceress living rent free in my head who tells me what to do. Nor do I want to tell her about Deotra. ¡°We can get into it once we make it back to Alverd. But you¡¯re gonna have to tell him that you¡¯re on our team and promise him that you¡¯ll behave.¡±


    I was expecting her to be sly or facetious in her reply but instead she was all business. ¡°Fine. You¡¯re right. We should focus on getting back to the Wolf¡¯s Clearing. But you better vouch for me. I have a feeling your friends might want to attack me on sight if we go straight back to them.¡±


    That¡¯s gonna be a real hard sell. After the shit you pulled, it¡¯s gonna take more than an apology and my good word to set things right. But we can deal with that when we get to safety. ¡°Alright. So how do we get back to the Wolf¡¯s Clearing alive?¡± As I asked my question, the door to the stairwell on the adjacent building and three thugs stepped out of it.


    Monaco wasn¡¯t called the Swift for nothing. There was a sound like an exhalation of breath behind me, and then a small metal object like a long nail shot past my left ear. One of the thugs on the other rooftop clutched at his neck as blood spurted from the new hole that had been bored into it. The other two raised crossbows and fired.


    Moving with incredible speed, she slid her arm around my chest and yanked me aside, causing the bolts to go sailing through empty air. Adrenaline flooded my veins as she pulled me toward the far side of the roof. Wait wait wait there¡¯s nothing to grab onto and the other roof is too far what are you doi-


    Ten long seconds passed as she hauled me towards the ledge, pumping her long legs furiously and dragging me along for the ride. There was no way in hell we¡¯d make the jump. Even if we did, the building was traditional Kierhaian and had a slanted roof with shingles, making the prospect of a solid landing nearly impossible. Still, she hooked her arm under my shoulder and held tight. Oh gods oh gods I¡¯m going to die I¡¯m going to die I don¡¯t want to die like this oh gooooooooods!


    Behind me, I heard the sound of the crossbows firing, the whistling of bolts in flight. Monaco and I stepped onto the lip of the roof and jumped off, or rather she jumped off and carried me with her. Screaming, I looked down and saw the ground thirty feet below, dirt and stone that would likely crack my skull open like an egg.


    Then we were falling. Monaco aimed her free arm forward and the grappling hook fired out of her sleeve gauntlet, arcing toward the rooftop on the far end. The hook overshot the edge of the roof, but as we accelerated toward the ground she twisted her fingers and the rope yanked back into her gauntlet.


    The hook, now being pulled back towards its owner, snagged on an ornamental fish statue on the canted roof. We were no longer falling, but now we were swinging straight toward a very solid wall. I braced myself, pulling my legs in toward my chest as best as I could. When I hit the wall, however, I felt something crack in my left elbow and I let out a cry of pain. Monaco barely made a sound, but only a second after our impact she was using her hook to pull us up.


    When we got to the rooftop, though, she didn¡¯t pull me over immediately. She let out a pained grunt of exertion and threw me up onto the roof, and I landed on my elbow. I rolled around, screaming through my clenched teeth. If it¡¯s not broken then it¡¯s definitely fractured. This day just gets better and better. When Monaco finally made it onto the roof, she proved that it could indeed actually get much worse.


    She had two crossbow bolts sticking out of her, one buried in her right thigh and one that had gone far enough through her shoulder that the bloodied metal head was sticking out of it. Her eyes were wide and frenzied, and already her clothes were darkening with bloodstains. Godsdammit. I didn¡¯t even open my mouth to put my foot in it yet and I can already taste leather. She lay there, panting furiously, no doubt in far more pain than me.


    On the ground below, three of the Swords who had failed to catch us were now circling below like sharks. With my right hand I pulled Monaco¡¯s wand out of my pocket and waved it. This thing doesn¡¯t have much juice in it. Best I can do is some rudimentary elemancy, but if I don¡¯t do something we¡¯re sitting ducks. Manipulating the power of wind, I yanked a few shingles loose from the roof and started pelting the Swords below with them.


    Aiming was hard given my position and the pain interfering with my concentration. Some of the Swords had crossbows, which were already being aimed when the shingles flew at them. I hit one directly in the head before he could fire, and he staggered, but it wasn¡¯t enough to knock him out. A bolt whizzed past me and I retaliated with a shot that missed the attacker by a whole foot. Dammit, I¡¯m not gonna be able to hold them off for long.


    While the first Sword was reloading, I looked off to my side. This is stupid. I know it is, but it¡¯s all I¡¯ve got. Willing energy into my fist, I gripped the wand hard and slammed my hand into the roof, jarring all of the shingles loose with a burst of kinetic energy. Rolling onto my back, I swept my hand in a large arc and exhaled, taking the burst of expelled air and using it to catapult the dozens of shingles I¡¯d loosened at the Swords like a clay hailstorm.


    The Swords were obviously not prepared for the barrage. They watched in horror as the curtain of shingles descended on them like a plague of locusts. By the time I ran out of shingles, all three thugs were out cold on the ground. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I heard a whimper on my other side.


    Monaco was slipping off the roof. My little stunt had made the entire rooftop completely unstable, and she was now sliding towards the edge. Her fingernails scratched frantically at the rooftop, trying to find purchase, her eyes full of fear. Purely by impulse I reached out and grabbed her hand, and my elbow immediately reminded me that it was not pleased with my decision. Then I found myself being pulled towards the edge, too.


    You have a choice to make. You can let her go and maybe you might be able to get out of this. She¡¯s not your problem. She dragged you into this. The devil on my shoulder made his argument to let Monaco go, and I was ashamed to admit I was tempted. None of this is your problem. You know your Cardinal Rules. Rule Number Three. ¡°Just because trouble might find you doesn¡¯t mean you should go looking for it yourself.¡± Let her go.


    Her eyes met mine. She was in pain and desperate. There were no allies she could call on, no safe place she could crawl to in order to lick her wounds. If I let her go, even if she survived the fall, she would not survive the night. Either she¡¯d bleed to death or the Swords would hunt her down. I think she could tell I was weighing my options, because her gaze never left me. It was almost like she was daring me to let go, or just trying to figure out what my next move was.


    Shit shit shit. I always get after Alverd for his bleeding heart. I don¡¯t like making choices like this. I¡¯m not good at making them. I don¡¯t want this anxiety. I don¡¯t want this responsibility. Her fingers were slipping through mine. If I didn¡¯t do something she would fall.


    Because if she dies I can¡¯t pretend it¡¯s not my fault.


    Screaming at the top of my lungs, I lurched forward and grabbed her wrist. She grunted and swung her other arm around to grab onto my arm. The roof beneath me could not hold me, and we both slid forward and over the side. Well, that was dumb. Of all the ways I could die, death by fall was not what I expected.


    A brilliant flash of ghostly blue streaked across the street, pushing pedestrians aside and leaving trails of pale flame on the ground. Deotra didn¡¯t stop when she reached the base of the building, instead running straight up the side of it and towards me. I threw out my right arm, losing my grip on the wand as I wrapped myself around her body. The sudden change in direction was enough to dislocate my left arm, but Monaco managed to hold tight to me as we rocketed back up to the rooftop.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Deotra carried us all the way to the straight wooden beam at the top of the canted roof, depositing us both safely. She nuzzled me, her wet nose poking my face. ¡°Are you alright? I should have been here sooner. There are dozens of Swords all over the streets, and I think they may have paid off some of the guards too. I was attacked by tons of people on my way here.¡±


    The city guard? They¡¯re on the take? ¡°Just to be clear, the same guards who know it¡¯s a capital offense to harm a fox tried to harm you?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes. Either the Swords did a good job bribing them or they¡¯re Swords themselves. Regardless, we need to get out of here.¡± She rubbed her face against my cheek. ¡°Get on my back. I¡¯ll carry you to a safe place. Nobody knows about it but me.¡±


    The adrenaline must have worn off because a fresh jolt of agony in my now useless left arm flared up. ¡°Godsdammit!¡± I launched into a short bout of epithets as I tried unsuccessfully to tune out the pain. She took my right sleeve in her teeth and pulled gently. ¡°If you¡¯re hurt, we have to get out of here. I won¡¯t let you get hurt anymore.¡± She was practically pleading with me.


    ¡°Wait. We can¡¯t leave Monaco here.¡± The wolf beastwoman was staring at Deotra with equal parts fear and apprehension.


    ¡°Leave her,¡± Deotra said with impatience. ¡°She¡¯ll slow us down.¡±


    ¡°No. Like it or not, she¡¯s neck deep in this like we are. ¡°Maybe my motives aren¡¯t altruistic like Alverd¡¯s. But even I have my limits. Monaco might have tried to screw us, but then she tried to save me too. So at the very least, I have to square that away.¡± Deotra¡¯s head pulled back enough for her luminous golden eyes to meet mine, but she said nothing.


    Her eyes stared into mine unblinking. If she¡¯s trying to unnerve me, she¡¯s gonna have to try harder than that. Then her nose rubbed against my temple. ¡°Only because it¡¯s you. And only because I¡¯m happy to see you being a better person than I could ever be.¡± She knelt down, the flames on her back fading away. ¡°Hurry, before more Swords show up.¡±


    Lifting Monaco onto her back was difficult, made harder by the need to not harm her any further. Bad as her wounds are, pulling those bolts out of her will just make her bleed out faster. I hope Deotra has medicine and tools in this safe place she mentioned. I had to settle for draping Monaco against my back like a cape and using the rope from her hook to tie her to me so she wouldn¡¯t slip off.


    ¡°Okay, Deotra. Let¡¯s get out of here.¡±


    I had just enough time to wrap my right arm around her neck when she bounded forward and off the rooftop. The pit of my stomach leaped up as gravity took hold, all three of us plunging down to the street below. One of the Swords stirred, groaning as he pushed aside a number of shingles that had nearly dented his head. He screamed before Deotra landed on him, the sound of bones crunching drowning out my cries of terror for a second before we were tearing through the streets together.


    We shot forward across the streets of Blossom City at speeds horses could only envy. Deotra was the epitome of grace and agility, weaving in and around wagons and carts and leaping over people in one fluid movement. She seemed to flow around every obstacle like river water around stones, without even thinking about every minute adjustment. Even when bystanders reacted in unpredictable ways, she was able to intuit and respond without hurting them. An elderly couple crossing the street at the wrong moment froze as they saw the giant flaming fox barreling toward them, and instead of bashing into them Deotra leapt over them like an antelope.


    The looks on their faces were that of awe. They probably think this is a profound omen or something. Or maybe they¡¯re just too dumbfounded to be scared. Deotra landed on the other side of the crossing with barely a sound on the stone road and kept going.


    Perhaps it was because she was so busy concentrating on our escape, but I was able to feel waves of emotion radiating off of her in a steady rhythm, like the beat of a drum. Or a heart. Beneath everything there¡¯s worry, fear, anxiety. But under that, there¡¯s also this overwhelming sense of determination wrapped around her core like a shield. No matter how afraid she might be, her need to protect me is pushing all that fear away.


    Is that part of what love is? Being more worried about someone else than yourself? Her feelings suffused me with confidence as our bond allowed emotional transference to share her resolve. I already know it goes both ways. If this is her way of telling me to be brave and trust her, then the least I can do is let her know that I do.


    It was hard to convince myself that I wasn¡¯t scared. Reasoning with an abstract concept and then persuading myself not to feel that way was absurd. But at the same time, even though I was injured and had a dying woman literally strapped to my back, I also had a fierce little fox who would fight for me. Even though I hadn¡¯t known it, she¡¯d been with me my whole life, and had my back every time.


    She just needs to know it. That I know she¡¯s there.


    I held onto her tighter, pushing thoughts of support and admiration towards her. I let my fear slide off of me like water off a duck¡¯s back, clinging tight to the sense of relief I felt when I saw her coming to save me. Beneath me, the determination in her heart flared like a freshly fed furnace, and she put on a burst of speed.


    All the jostling from her rapid strides wasn¡¯t doing my arm any favors, though. Every time Deotra bounded it sent a fresh wave of pain through me. My shoulder also felt damp from where Monaco¡¯s blood was still seeping into my robe, and the shaft of the bolt kept bouncing uncomfortably close to the side of my head. Gods, I can¡¯t concentrate with all this pain. There¡¯s too much noise, movement. Need to block it out¡­


    My vision was starting to get blurry and my breaths shallow. The pain was overwhelming, clouding my thoughts. I just need to close my eyes. All this movement is making my headache worse. My grip around Deotra¡¯s neck loosened, and my eyes fell shut. Just give me a few minutes. I¡¯ll feel better after that¡­


    When I next opened my eyes, I was lying on a heavily patched futon, in a brightly lit room that was spacious enough for at least twenty people to lounge in. Although the walls were in a state of advanced neglect, they were sturdy enough to keep the roof up and the cold night air out. Illumination was provided by the dozens of paper lanterns that hung from the ceiling beams, hooks attached to the walls, and left on the floor. Each lantern was of different size and color, with different words written on them in local custom.


    A warm, damp compress on my head was lifted away. When my vision sharpened, I saw Deotra kneeling beside me. Her face bloomed into a purehearted smile when I looked at her. ¡°Thank goodness. You¡¯ve been out for a few hours now.¡± She laid her hand gently on my shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t try to sit up yet. I set your shoulder magically, but it¡¯ll still be very sore until tomorrow. I had to work on her first.¡± I looked past her to see Monaco lying on a similar futon, her entire upper body and most of her right leg covered in bandages that looked like they would need changing soon.


    ¡°Removing the bolts was simple enough. Closing the wounds is something I had to ask Drache for help with.¡±


    I blinked in confusion. ¡°Wait. You can¡¯t cast healing magic?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No. In order to properly weave that kind of energy into a wound to heal it, you need to possess a certain reverence for life that I don¡¯t have.¡± But Drache does? I don¡¯t know what scares me more, that my savior doesn¡¯t respect life or that the ancient sorceress that put me through my own personal hell does.


    ¡°She¡¯s sleeping for now. I put some herbs in her food to help her drift off. Nothing too serious, mostly just local roots and things.¡± She drew my attention to the center of the room. A few feet away from me was a pot sitting in a small hearth, heated by familiar blue fire. Maybe it was just my empty stomach but the bubbling broth in the pot smelled heavenly. Above the broth was the scent of beef and vegetables. Deotra set about the task of cooking with the utmost dedication, stirring the meat and vegetables in the boiling water while occasionally adding spoonfuls of dark black sauce.


    ¡°Where are we?¡± I asked. ¡°An old shrine on the north-eastern side of the city. Many of the city¡¯s dead are buried here. An entire district dedicated to paying respects to the dearly departed.¡± She used a pair of chopsticks to remove a strip of now cooked meat from the pot, which she laid on a wooden tray.


    ¡°I found this place not long after Drache and I met. We lived here for a short time, where she told me about herself and her mission. She convinced me that my soul mate was out there and she would help me find you in exchange for being the vessel to carry her. Thankfully nobody ever bothered to come see if it was true that one of the condemned buildings here was actually haunted or not.¡±


    She gave me another smile so bright it outshone all the lanterns in the room. ¡°I was surprised to see that all of my things were still here. I guess I really did a good job of selling that haunting story to the locals. As you can see I was a bit of a magpie for a bit. But I couldn¡¯t help it! It was my first time in a big city and all I could do was filch little things to decorate my nest. And when nobody stopped me, I got bold enough to take lanterns too.¡±


    ¡°Or maybe everyone just thought it was the work of a mischievous spirit.¡± I added. ¡°Not malevolent enough to cause harm, but definitely curious enough to take something if you weren¡¯t looking.¡± She blushed. ¡°Well, I know better now. I know it¡¯s not okay to take without asking.¡± She busied herself with her cooking as a distraction.


    ¡°How long did you live here?¡± I asked.


    ¡°About a year. Drache had to teach me how to survive in mortal society, and I was her window into how the world had changed during her slumber. But every night when I slept, she¡¯d show me dreams of what we¡¯d achieve someday.¡± She pointed at the wall to my other side.


    Draped on the wall in what was undoubtedly stolen paint was an image of a woman in a red dress with long golden hair riding on the back of a dragon. Time and lack of detail weren¡¯t enough to conceal her identity from me. ¡°That¡¯s Drache, isn¡¯t it? Is that really her dream?¡±


    ¡°One among many. She never got to truly bond with a dragon because her mother forbade her.¡±


    The crude painting took up the majority of the wall space. ¡°Where¡¯s your dream?¡± I inquired.


    Deotra¡¯s face turned red again and she pointed to the small glass case sitting at the base of the wall. ¡°It¡¯s in there. I haven¡¯t had the heart to look at it. It¡¯s embarrassing.¡± She turned away, focusing on chopping the meat and vegetables to place into bowls of rice.


    The case was about a foot tall, and inside were two cloth dolls dressed in the manner of Kierhaian nobility. They had robes made of fine silk, seated side by side in a room similar to the one we were in. They were surrounded by tiny origami paper lanterns. The figure on the left had long red yarn hair and two yellow buttons for eyes, and an outfit that was typical of Kierhaian shrine maidens. The one on the right had black felt for hair and two purple buttons for eyes, as well as a distinctly familiar blue robe with gold trim.


    She had a dream of us. She built this diorama of a future she hoped to one day see. The details are so accurate, too. Somehow, Drache was able to do what thousands of mages over hundreds of years have struggled to do; predict the future. The thought alone was terrifying, and opened the door to a lot of tough questions that likely had answers I wouldn¡¯t want to hear. For now, let¡¯s not think about that. I don¡¯t want to worry Deotra any more than I already have.


    Instead I deflected by changing the subject. ¡°That smells really good. What is it?¡± Deotra took some of the broth from the pot using a ladle and poured it into the bowl with the rice. Then she laid it down next to me.


    ¡°It¡¯s a peasant dish that originated in the agricultural parts of Kierhai before its unification. Farmers were said to cook it in anything able to hold boiling water. But simplicity is just part of its charm.¡± Gently she put her hand behind my head and lifted me up. ¡°Try to sit up. Not too quickly now.¡±


    Without moving my left arm, which was bound in a crude bandage sling, I propped myself up on my right hand. She picked the bowl up and held up a piece of meat with her chopsticks. ¡°Here. Eat.¡± Her face was bright red. Isn¡¯t this kind of thing practically a courtship ritual in Kierhai? A strange custom, but she worked so hard to keep me alive. She deserves to feel like she earned something, even if it¡¯s just feeding me. I opened my mouth and let Deotra feed me. It¡¯s kind of embarrassing, but for some reason I don¡¯t entirely hate it.


    After the meal, I settled back into my futon. My stomach felt warm from the food, making me feel at ease for the first time in hours. As I gazed up at the ceiling, Deotra brought a third raggedy futon over and laid it next to mine. She snuggled into it, turning on her side to face me.


    ¡°I spent a lot of lonely nights in this shrine. I¡¯m glad I never have to feel that way anymore.¡± Then she scowled. ¡°Kuro, Monaco saw my face while I was tending to her wounds. We¡¯ll have to explain all of this to her tomorrow. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re ready to tell your friends about me, but whatever you decide, I¡¯m with you.¡± She waved her hand and all of the paper lanterns winked out, plunging the room into darkness save the rays of moonlight streaming in through a boarded up window.


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about what to do tomorrow. For now, there¡¯s no rush to get back to them. We need to take care of Monaco first. Maybe while we¡¯re laying low we can do some investigating on our own. We can try one of the markets to look for medicine and find some leads while we¡¯re at it.¡± Her golden eyes peered at me, glowing in the dark.


    ¡°Besides, I owe you that date. Especially after you indulged my decision to save Monaco in the first place.¡± Even in the dark I could see Deotra¡¯s ears twitch, straightening in excitement.


    ¡°You mean it? Can we really have our date tomorrow?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Take me anywhere you want to go. The world can wait on us for a change.¡±


    She let out a giddy sound of contentment before pulling the futon cover up to her face, burying herself in it as she squealed happily. I owe her so much. Tomorrow I owe it to her to really get to know her. It¡¯s going to be a day about us, for us. I let my eyes close, and breathed in deep.


    We deserve it.

 B3: Chapter 17: Alicia: The General (Edited)

    At first I thought it would take a heavy hand to get Monaco¡¯s cohorts to talk.


    The man with the gunshot wound in his leg was still unconscious. Roland¡¯s sister, Lou, had set about digging the bullet out of the wound, busying herself with her medical training. I didn¡¯t understand why she would help someone who had attacked us, and I watched her work from a short distance as I tried to figure it out.


    Yuzuruha had dumped the passed out thief on the floor in another room. The room was littered with things I¡¯d never seen before; tubes and wires, bulbs and pipes, tinker tools, and the like. She said it was Roland¡¯s workshop where he did maintenance on his weapon. She swept a bunch of tools off one table in a corner and left the thief there, though not before taking anything he could use as a weapon and tying his hands behind his back with a belt.


    Lou took some soap and water from a nearby basin and washed her hands, then laid out her toolbag next to the thief. She drew several instruments from it, then set about her work. She didn¡¯t say a word as she dug around in the giant hole in the thief¡¯s leg for the bullet, finally extracting it with a pair of slim tweezers.


    From the doorway, about ten feet away, I stood in silence. I was as fascinated by her skills as I was confused by her decision to treat the man. Eventually, Roland stood next to me, observing his sister as she pulled out a roll of bandages to wrap around the leg. ¡°Why bother with him? He¡¯s our enemy.¡±


    He gave a heavy sigh before he answered. ¡°Because she¡¯s a medic. It¡¯s what she¡¯s trained to do. Oddly enough, having a patient to treat calms her, focuses her. After what happened, with my life threatened by that thief, the only way she knows how to cope with her stress is to distract herself.¡±


    ¡°Still seems like a pointless waste.¡±


    There was a pause before he spoke again. ¡°She wanted to be a doctor. But we never had enough money to send her to a proper school. I joined the Forgeborn Army to help pay her tuition while she studied to pass the entrance exam. We were both working hard to make that dream come true.¡± He sighed again. ¡°Then the Ishmarians invaded Marevar and anyone with decent medical knowledge was drafted for the Medic Corps. She got deployed in the second wave, after the Army occupied Elorik.¡±


    The hairs on the back of my neck pricked up at the mention of the invasion. I know that¡¯s a really touchy subject for pretty much everyone here. I didn¡¯t poke at it because I was afraid it might cause some tension. Trying to keep a neutral tone in my voice, I danced around the subject to see what his intention in bringing it up was. ¡°So you were both soldiers in the Army?¡±


    He crossed his arms. ¡°I was the soldier, in name and rank. Lou wasn¡¯t. The commanders figured there would be a lot of civilians in need of medical aid, so they put out an emergency call to ensure they¡¯d have enough people to handle them. Lou was reporting for duty before I even found her draft notice. She was that eager to help.¡±


    His green eyes became clouded. ¡°But she wasn¡¯t ready for what she saw. My sister has a gentle heart and a pure soul. When she saw the cruelty inflicted on the commoners who made it to Elorik, she got to see the uglier side of her dream.¡± He lowered his voice. ¡°Do you know the difference between a combat medic and a doctor?¡±


    Having had little experience with doctors in Ishmar, I did not. ¡°No. We didn¡¯t really put a whole lot of importance on doctors in Ishmar. A glorious end in battle was to be welcomed, not avoided.¡±


    Roland skated around my attempt at baiting him into making a statement about Ishmarians and continued. ¡°Doctors have the luxury of working with equipment and trained staff, usually with enough supplies to help their patients. Medics don¡¯t have any of that. Lou knew going in that her odds of saving people was going to be drastically less than ideal. Didn¡¯t stop her from trying, though. And it broke her heart because she had to watch good people who did nothing wrong die.¡± I felt a twinge of regret, but he put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault. War is ugly. Doesn¡¯t matter who is on what side or what they¡¯re fighting for. So even if that man is our enemy, please indulge my sister. This is the only way she knows how to have any control over her situation.¡±


    Lou finished her bandaging, snipping the cloth with a pair of shears and slouching back in a nearby chair. She¡¯d been working for nearly an hour, so focused on her task that she was oblivious to everything around her. Now that she was no longer fixated on her patient, she turned her head and saw the two of us in the doorway.


    ¡°I¡¯m hungry. Go make me some food, Rol.¡±


    ¡°You want some tea too while I¡¯m at it? Yuzu could probably use some too. Our guests as well.¡± She nodded silently. ¡°Alright. It¡¯ll be a few minutes. Tea alright with you, Alicia?¡± At first I was taken aback by his tone. He seems like he really doesn¡¯t hold anything against me. Then again, maybe he¡¯s just better at hiding it. Yuzuruha and Lou seem like the types to wear their hearts on their sleeves, so concealing his feelings kind of balances them out.


    ¡°Yeah. Tea will be fine.¡± He swooped out of view.


    Leaving Lou with her thoughts, I returned to the living room. Sheena and Yuzuruha were seated on opposite ends of the couch. Neither were talking. Yuzuruha was sitting with her arms crossed, her signature snarl on her face, while Sheena had her eyes closed and legs crossed in a posture of meditation, her hands in her lap. Or maybe she¡¯s sleeping. Last I checked she was still pretty messed up from that liquor she had earlier.


    ¡°Where¡¯s Alverd?¡± I asked.


    Yuzuruha was the one to reply. ¡°He took that thief ta¡¯ the back room. Used ta¡¯ be mah brothers¡¯ room, now we just use it as storage. He¡¯s just been starin¡¯ at that damn thief fer the whole last hour. Bastard ain¡¯t gonna cooperate.¡± I know the thief didn¡¯t want to say anything, but has Alverd really just been giving him the silent treatment for that long?


    Following her instructions, I slid the door on the far side of the living room open and entered a hallway. At the end of the hall on my left was the room she¡¯d mentioned. I thought about knocking but saw how fragile the sliding door looked and tapped my foot on the wooden floor instead.


    ¡°Come in.¡± Alverd¡¯s voice said from the inside.


    I came in, pushing the door back shut behind me. Most of the far side of the room was stacked full of things that wouldn¡¯t fit in with the rest of the home, neatly packed into wooden crates stacked on top of each other. Like most of the house, the floor was made of wooden mat and was comfortable to sit on; I placed myself next to Alverd, who was cross-legged in the middle of the room. Seated in front of him about five feet away was the thief, who had a thick length of chain wrapped around his legs.


    Now that his gear had been taken and the alchemical foam was gone, I could make out more about him. He was a weasel beastman with wiry limbs and beady eyes. Instead of hairs on his arms he had patches of fur that began above the elbow and ended at the backs of his hands. He had slightly longer buck teeth and a nest of dirty dark brown hair, which had been hidden under a cowl. His eyes shifted from Alverd to me and back nervously, but he said nothing.


    ¡°He hasn¡¯t been very talkative. I was hoping he would be more forthcoming but he¡¯s kept his silence for the last hour,¡± Alverd said, lifting his chin in the thief¡¯s direction.


    The thief didn¡¯t respond, just continued to look at us both as if sizing us up. Bet he¡¯s wondering if he could outrun us with that chain on his legs, or some other equally stupid gamble. Occasionally he would lean left or right, switching his weight distribution as if testing something. Doesn¡¯t matter how fast he thinks he can run, I can run faster. My legs may not be that long but I can sprint fast enough to catch a wounded thief.


    ¡°Have you tried threatening him yet?¡± I asked. The thief¡¯s brow twitched so quickly that I would¡¯ve missed it if I hadn¡¯t been looking at him.


    ¡°Threatening people isn¡¯t what a knight would do. I would prevail upon his better nature to tell me the truth.¡±


    I scoffed. ¡°A thief¡¯s better nature? Isn¡¯t there some idiom about how they have no honor among them?¡±


    ¡°When I say his better nature, I really mean his best interest. After all, isn¡¯t that what scoundrels always default to in the end?¡± He said with a wink and a smile. My heart skipped a beat when he winked.  I wasn¡¯t expecting that. Evros, that actually caught me off guard. Get yourself under control. Now¡¯s not the time to get butterflies.


    ¡°So how does one appeal to a thief¡¯s best interests?¡± I asked with faux innocence.


    Alverd raised his voice a bit as he started his little game. ¡°Well a thief normally wouldn¡¯t get thrown in jail if he were part of a reputable guild like the Four Winds, provided he registered his guild card with the local authorities.¡± He gave the thief a pointed look. ¡°Which I¡¯m sure he did. After all, that¡¯s just the law. If he registered, then he has nothing to worry about.¡±


    A bead of sweat ran down the side of the beastman¡¯s face, but his expression didn¡¯t falter. ¡°As a law-abiding individual, it¡¯s my duty to report Monaco to the guard. If they find out she didn¡¯t register her card either, then I guess a city wide manhunt will be declared for her. She did mention she was going to hit the Repository, and that¡¯s a serious crime.¡± The thief¡¯s eyes narrowed. It¡¯s working. Alverd is a lot smarter than he looks.


    Now on a roll, he leaned forward. ¡°They¡¯ll also look for any contacts or associates she might have. Anything that will help them establish means or a motive. I¡¯ll be ever so happy to turn you over. And I¡¯m sure the Emperor¡¯s people will be far less conscientious about your well-being than I.¡±


    Not gonna lie, I kind of like when Alverd threatens people. I smirked, the corner of my mouth lifting as I saw the genius of his approach. I mean, it¡¯s not threatening. More like just stating facts. The hook is in, now we see whether he bites.


    More sweat was rolling down the man¡¯s face. He was breathing harder, too. Finally he sighed, leaned back, and groaned. ¡°Alright, alright,¡± he whined in a nasally voice. ¡°I get it. I got no good choices. But I wanna know what¡¯s in it for me if I tell ya what ya wanna know.¡±


    Smirking, Alverd tilted his head as he saw the bait taken. ¡°Well, if what you tell me is so helpful that I can act on it right away, I might just forget you exist. I¡¯ve got bigger fish to fry, so to speak.¡± He pulled out a map of Blossom City that Lou had given him earlier and placed it on the ground before the thief, tapping his pointer finger on it to flatten it out. ¡°Give me the location of your hideout. Tell me what you¡¯re here to steal. Then I won¡¯t turn you in.¡±


    Alverd willingly letting a thief go? I bet Kuro won¡¯t believe this. I¡¯d love to see the look on his face when we find him and tell him that he bent the rules to cut a criminal loose. The thief swallowed, then nodded.


    ¡°Broken Mirror. We hired some locals to scout around town, learn about the Repository but they ratted us out to the Glassmen.¡±


    ¡°Who are the Glassmen?¡± I asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re the local crime syndicate. They run the entire Broken Mirror district. A bunch of cutthroats who unified together to make the idea of cleaning out the Mirror too costly to the Imperial Guard. When the Glassmen found out we were planning a heist, they came demanding their cut. We had to make a deal with them.¡±


    ¡°What kind of deal?¡± Alverd prompted. ¡°The kind where you throw somebody under the wagon. Once we told the Glassmen we were here for the Hand of the Usurper, they wanted to speak to Monaco. But I doubt she would¡¯ve agreed to their terms, so we had to arrange for her to meet with them in private.¡±


    ¡°Arrange? You work for her. Why are you talking like you aren¡¯t on the same side?¡± I said.


    ¡°Because we ain¡¯t. I don¡¯t work for her, I work for the Guildmaster. I dunno all the details but she¡¯s got an axe to grind with Monaco, ¡®cause she told us to get rid of her after we got the Hand of the Usurper.¡± The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°So you saw a way to kill a whole flock of birds with just one stone.¡± Alverd said, his voice growing cold.


    ¡°Look, I won¡¯t lie. It all just kind of came together as we went. Glassmen wanted their pound of flesh, we wanted Monaco gone.¡± I had to stop myself from choking the rat bastard out, but I kept my hands by my sides.


    ¡°Where in the Broken Mirror district is your hideout? How many more of you are there?¡± Alverd said.


    ¡°Six more of us. But by now they¡¯ve hightailed it. We agreed to abandon that location once we set Monaco up. Our plan was to reconvene elsewhere. In the Silken River Markets.¡± The thief saw how angry I looked and squirmed. ¡°The rest of the crew is probably just removing any trace of us back at the hideout, then they¡¯ll scatter. If you move now, you might catch them.¡±


    Having gotten what he wanted, Alverd pushed himself off the floor and stood up. ¡°Well, then time is of the essence. We should get moving, Alicia.¡±


    I rose off the ground and cracked my knuckles. ¡°I agree. To the markets.¡± The thief¡¯s beady eyes widened.


    ¡°No no, I said that¡¯s where we were meeting later.¡±


    Alverd let out a small laugh. ¡°Which means that your crew burnt your lair by now. You¡¯re sending us on a wild goose chase. Why go looking for where they are, when I could wait for them where they¡¯ll be?¡± He dusted his hands together, then called out. ¡°Yuzuruha. We¡¯re done here. He¡¯s all yours.¡±


    The heavy footsteps of the heavily armored woman echoed in the hallway. Soon she was looming in the doorway, her face full of unrestrained malicious glee. ¡°Finally. Ah¡¯ll just drag this fool down ta¡¯ the Guard now. That is, after ah¡¯m done makin¡¯ ¡®im pay fer all the grief he jus¡¯ put mah friends through.¡± She ground her fists in her palms. ¡°Lou has her way ta¡¯ burn off stress, and ah have mine.¡±


    The thief swiveled his weaselly gaze back at Alverd. ¡°Wait! You said I could walk away! You tricked me!¡±


    Alverd crossed his arms. ¡°I said I wouldn¡¯t turn you in. That¡¯s Yuzuruha¡¯s job. I¡¯m going to walk out the front of this house and let her deal with you. You are, after all, trespassing. Not to mention you attacked her and her friends.¡± The slightest hint of a grin appeared on his face. ¡°She has every right to report you for a host of crimes. I suggest you comply.¡±


    Didn¡¯t think Alverd could be so cunning. Maybe Kuro is rubbing off on him. Not sure whether that¡¯s good or bad, but my money is on bad. They¡¯re supposed to balance each other out, not turn into each other. Following Alverd out into the hall, I stepped out of Yuzuruha¡¯s way so she could slide the door shut behind her. I heard one last whimper from the room before I walked out of earshot.


    Back in the living room, Sheena was still sitting cross-legged on the couch. Her eyes were open though, suggesting she¡¯d finished her meditation. ¡°Urgh. We simply cannot go anywhere without stumbling into trouble, can we?¡± Alverd shook his head.


    ¡°It would seem not, and we¡¯re about to go find more. Up for a trip to the markets, Sheena?¡±


    She unfolded her legs and stood up, arching her back as she stretched her arms over her head. ¡°Hrrrnnngh. Some fresh air sounds lovely. An evening stroll through a busy market could be just what I need to unwind.¡± She picked up her staff, which lay against the wall. ¡°Will everything be alright here? Your friends will be okay?¡±


    ¡°We can take care of ourselves.¡± Roland appeared, carrying a tray with a simple teapot and several plain china cups. He set the tray down on the small table in the center of the living room before seating himself in front of it, legs crossed and under the table¡¯s covering. So that¡¯s what that table was for. Kierhaians sit at it? I guess chairs are kind of an oddity here.


    Lou came out of her workshop, dabbing at her head with a cloth rag. She sat down opposite her brother, placing the weapon Kuro had confiscated from her earlier on the table. ¡°We won¡¯t get caught unawares this time. Rol and I turn this place into a proper fortress. Just make sure you come back in one piece.¡± She waited for her brother to pick up the teapot and start pouring boiling tea into the cups.


    The three of us were halfway out the front door when Roland¡¯s voice called out behind us. ¡°Hold on a moment. Miss Ishmarian.¡± I turned warily. ¡°Pardon, Alicia.¡± He did his best to keep his voice neutral. ¡°Beware the markets. I¡¯ve seen Ishmarians there lately. Men and women in gleaming black armor reminiscent of dragon scales. I¡¯m sure you know what that means.¡±


    Mother Evros, as if we didn¡¯t have enough things to worry about already. ¡°Black Scale Legionnaires. Thanks for the warning. We¡¯ll keep an eye out for them.¡±


    He nodded to me solemnly. ¡°There¡¯s talk their leader is here to make some kind of treaty with Ishmar. The previous Emperor would¡¯ve sent them packing, but his son isn¡¯t old or smart enough to see their envoy for what he is: a snake. Watch yourself.¡±


    Alverd led the two of us out into the street. By now night had properly fallen and the stars were faint in the sky above, drowned out by the lights coming from the inner reaches of the city. Sheena hailed a man standing nearby with an unusual cart to bring it over. The man, dressed in a loose-fitting orange tunic with simple embroidery, waved to another similarly dressed man not far away from him and the two brought their cart over.


    I only called it a cart because I had no idea what it was actually called. It was a coach seat on two wheels with a wooden canopy over it, with a solid metal bar encircling the front that the two men used to push the cart as they ran to us. As they screeched to a halt, the two men gave us a once over. They were identical twins, human men with dark but well-groomed hair and goatees and lean physiques.


    ¡°Rickshaw runners, at your service! See Blossom City in the most authentic way possible. We have reasonable rates, whether your aim is business or pleasure.¡± One of the men saw Alverd and then gave Sheena and I a once-over, then grinned lecherously. ¡°Well look at this. High roller out with his ladyfriends. Perhaps the latter, then?¡± His brother snickered.


    Alverd put a stop to their idiocy quickly. ¡°Business, actually. We need to get to the Silken River Markets. On the double, if you please.¡± The two men exchanged glances and then nodded.


    ¡°Aye, Silken River. Where gold and hidden treasures flow like purest springwater. Hop on, boss!¡± The man on the left gave the cart a kick with his foot, and a small staircase unfolded out of the bottom.


    Alverd helped me up into the rickety wagon, and I took a seat on a worn but comfortable cushion on the far side of the rickshaw. Alverd then stepped in, and gave his hand to help Sheena in. Once we were all in the rickshaw, the driver hooked his foot under the stair and pushed it back up into the hidden compartment it had come from, and with some grunts of effort, the two brothers took off down the street.


    Unlike the covered wagon we¡¯d used to reach Blossom City, the rickshaw gave me the opportunity to see the sights as we went. A special lane allowed us to move adjacent to the stone paths that ordinary citizens walked on, giving us more mobility in navigating the tangled mess of traffic that choked many of the city¡¯s streets. Whether they were street vendors moving their stores into place or weary workers hauling their equipment home, movement was at a standstill for the most part.


    ¡°Like a spring, all roads lead to the market, and from there wealth flows outward,¡± one of the runners said, struggling to speak in between breaths. He was definitely not expecting to haul a man in full armor and his two companions today. ¡°You can find anything you seek in the Silken River, esteemed guest, no matter how rare your taste might be.¡±


    Twenty minutes of listening to the flowery language of the runners started to grate on my nerves. Why do some people have to take so many words to say something that only requires a few? Is that really what helps sell this place to outsiders? I looked over at Sheena, who had stars in her eyes. She was soaking in the sights with childish glee, each new thing catching her attention only long enough for another shiny object to snare her.


    A teahouse with a second story open air terrace with live entertainment, a statue of a fearsome looking dog with flamelike fur and a row of dancers weaving through a crowd with synchronized grace all managed to draw her eyes for a few moments. The market in Ethenia didn¡¯t look anything like this. She¡¯s probably impressed with what she sees, and so am I, albeit for different reasons.


    To Sheena, this was simply a new culture for her to learn about. For me, it was another example of how much more alive people were outside of Ishmar. This is what I can offer my people when I return to them. But it¡¯s not enough to offer it. I need to make good on those promises. My people need food, safety, the ability to grow and learn.


    I paid less attention to the scenery as my thoughts lingered on how I would bring change home. For hundreds of years my people have been taught to hate, taught to fear. It¡¯s all they know. People resist change naturally, and when they¡¯ve been trained to do so over such a long period of time, it¡¯s all the more difficult to overcome. I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s any hope at all.


    Where would I even start? What proof could I offer them? Would they even believe me? There were so many doubts in my mind, swirling and bubbling like boiling water. This is too soon. Convincing your people is too far away a thing to worry about. Focus on the task at hand. The image of a calm river appeared in my mind, with me standing in the middle, water diverting around me as I stood without moving in the current. Don¡¯t let your stray thoughts distract you. Stay here and now.


    Suddenly the current became choppy, water slapping against me with increasing strength and frequency until they felt like full on waves. An intense feeling of sheer wrongness took shape somewhere down in front of me, howling crimson and hostile intention pointed at me like an arrow. Something comes! Steel yourself! Instinct seized control of my muscles as the wrongness forged itself into a spear and lunged forward.


    The world became a misty haze as my vision turned into a tunnel of fuzzy thought and blurred lines, and I saw the crossbow bolts hurtling towards our rickshaw as tiny streaks of glinting black coming straight at us. I raised my arms and opened my fingers, the sound of my own breathing echoing in my ears. Any other noise ceased to exist as I watched the bolts come closer and closer.


    I seized the edge of the wooden canopy. A flimsy metal bar was the only thing holding it in place over our heads. Without thinking I twisted my arms, and the metal groaned as I bent it through sheer adrenaline and force of will. With a cry of fury I pulled the canopy forward and down, the wood between our faces and the bolts.


    Time sped back up. Sound came rushing in like water through a broken dam. There were screams, panic, confusion. Not even a second later the two bolts hit the canopy and I saw the metal head of one bolt pass within inches of my face as it tried to punch through the flimsy wooden shield I¡¯d put in its way. A few inches away, the other bolt did the same, not managing to get far enough through to hit Sheena.


    It took a moment for it to sink in that she had been in danger, during which her eyes wandered to the pointed head of the bolt that was now only inches away from her chest. Her eyes widened in shock, her mouth opening and closing in disbelief. ¡°How¡­ how did you know that was going to happen?¡± She stammered.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t. It¡¯s just instinct. A good berserker can sense hostile intent, and the best ones can act before they become victims to it.¡± I pushed the canopy back up, the metal bar screeching loudly.


    With the canopy no longer in the way, I could see our assailants. Two humanoid figures in black armor stood in the middle of the road, crossbows already being reloaded. But when I looked closer, I realized they weren¡¯t Black Scale Legionnaires like I suspected.


    While the attackers were wearing black segmented splint armor that gave it the appearance of dragon scales, they also had garish golden capes and helmets with visors and golden horns. Most distinct of all were their gauntlets; among the black and gold, they also had red streaks that looked eerily like blood splattered across them. They still bore the Legion insignia as clasps for the capes, but something felt wrong about the armor itself. The armor is radiating some kind of malice from it, like bloodlust so thick I can taste it. The armor itself is¡­ wrong. Like a corpse walking or something.


    The crossbows aimed and fired again. I rolled out of the rickshaw, trusting Alverd to do what he did best. As I hit the ground and tucked into a ball to come back up in a ready stance, Alverd lifted his shield and hauled Sheena out of the rickshaw, deflecting the bolt aimed at her as he pulled her in close. The two runners, realizing they were now in the middle of a fight, hit the ground and tried to crawl under the rickshaw.


    The armored men didn¡¯t bother reloading again. Dropping their crossbows, they drew swords from their waists and charged forward silently. They moved unnaturally fast for such heavy armor; they had to be carrying at least fifty or sixty pounds of metal on them and yet they sprinted forward with inhuman speed. They had started about one hundred feet away but in the space of only ten seconds they were almost upon us. I pulled my maul off my shoulder and made ready to fight.


    The one closer to me leapt off the road and onto a nearby stone lantern, somehow managing to land on the narrow space atop the light source like some freakish cat before jumping up and drawing a second sword midair. He landed right next to me and started swinging his swords in tandem, alternating his strikes to keep me on the defensive. I had to struggle to keep up, as his speed gave him a clear advantage that my more cumbersome weapon couldn¡¯t easily counter.


    How can he keep this pace up? Even a man in peak condition couldn¡¯t fight like this for very long. Is there a demon or a man in that armor? Mother Evros, this close I can barely breathe over the stench of that thing¡¯s murder aura. The air felt sickly and acrid, like the smell of acid eating through metal. How can he breathe in there? What is this?


    In my mind¡¯s eye the river turned an ugly yellowish green, streaks of red passing through it as I fought to stay above the water. I can¡¯t concentrate. I¡¯m getting pulled under¡­ I feel like I just want to kill everything around me. It would be easier. Just give in. Just give in. Just give in. Just give in¡­


    The warrior slammed both his swords down on the haft of my maul, forcing me down on one knee. He pushed hard, trying to unbalance me so he could strike a killing blow. Waves of murderous energy washed over me like a heat wave in the Ishmarian summer, each one chewing my resolve apart. Mother Evros, no. I can¡¯t succumb. I refuse to go so easily.


    ¡°Alicia!¡± Sheena¡¯s voice cut through the fog, bringing me back into sharp focus. A lance of ice ricocheted off my attacker¡¯s helmet, knocking him away but not off his feet. She had taken cover behind the rickshaw and had her staff in hand. Alverd was doing far better against his foe, matching him blow for blow and using his shield to keep him at bay.


    ¡°Snap out of it, Alicia! Now is not the time for you to be passing out!¡±


    As if in agreement, the warrior pushed me again, the full weight of his upper body laying into my maul. Twisting my body, I let go of the maul and rolled forward. The warrior pitched forward and over, losing his balance. As he flailed, I rolled past his right flank and pulled one of the daggers he had holstered there; before he could stand back up, I drove it into this abdomen in the weak spot where the front and back plates of his armor were held together with laces, then yanked it out and stabbed him two more times.


    But I wasn¡¯t going to stop there. Driven by the suffocating aura, I let rage surge into my limbs. I hoisted the man up and then dove back, throwing him over my shoulder as I rolled backward  and pitched him through the air. He landed on the ground in a heap, but no noise escaped him. I grabbed my fallen maul and ran over to finish him off.


    ¡°Enough!¡± A deep, gravelly voice rang through the street. A man dressed in armor similar to the my attacker strode out from under the red spirit gate that marked an entrance to the Silken River Markets. He was tall, well built, and had copious amounts of grey in his hair, which had probably been a very dark brown at one point. His beard was well kept and long enough to showcase his age without being gaudy or bushy. At his side was a longsword in its sheath, and countless trinkets harvested off mages hung from his belt like trophies. I stopped in my tracks when I heard his command, and he fixed me with his weathered brown eyes.


    ¡°I know who you are. The Queen believes you dead, but as I can see, she is wrong on yet another matter.¡± The newcomer bowed to me, showing respect customary of one addressing royalty in Ishmar. ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Princess. I believe the last time I saw you, you were still hiding behind your mother¡¯s knees. But I would recognize you anywhere.¡± He straightened himself up and made a strange motion with his arm in the direction of Alverd.


    The warrior fighting Alverd disengaged immediately. Something about the way the warrior moved was unsettling and unnatural, and in the dim light I couldn¡¯t make out anything of the man¡¯s face under the visor of his helmet. Even more disturbing was that the man I¡¯d been fighting stood up, yanked the dagger I¡¯d taken out of his stomach, and slid it back into his holster without any blood coating the blade. Both warriors took up positions flanking the newcomer, standing silently just behind him.


    Sheena didn¡¯t come out from behind the rickshaw. Her eyes were locked on the tall man, her face full of unmasked anger. ¡°Don¡¯t you come any closer! You and your thralls stay over there or I¡¯ll put a lance through your head!¡± The tall man didn¡¯t flinch, but his face didn¡¯t betray any emotion as he responded. ¡°There is no need for that, Witch-Queen. You are not my quarry today.¡±


    Alverd sheathed his sword and placed himself between the tall man and Sheena. ¡°You must be General Guunzel. We¡¯ve heard all about your reputation. Imagine that¡­ behind that mask of yours is just an old man playing errand boy for his new Queen.¡±


    ¡°That my Queen would send the most capable warrior under her command on this mission speaks to my capability. If she thought any less than her best would suffice, she would have sent them instead.¡± Guunzel repeated his bow, although it was far more terse than his previous one. ¡°General Pedrias Guunzel, at your service. I apologize for the aggressiveness of my loyal Talionis. They tend not to ask questions when they catch the scent of their prey.¡±


    So that¡¯s what they¡¯re called. I¡¯ve never heard of anything like that in the Ishmarian military. What did Sheena call them? Thralls? Guunzel saw where I was looking and grimaced. ¡°This must look very confusing where you¡¯re standing, Princess. Perhaps once you¡¯ve seen what my comrades have accomplished since our mission began, you might understand what we aim to achieve.¡±


    I didn¡¯t put my maul away, although I relaxed my posture. ¡°What would that be, General?¡±


    With a sweep of his cape, Guunzel turned back in the direction of the Markets, where a crowd was watching to see if hostilities were about to break out again. ¡°Peace, Evros willing. Peace between Ishmar and Kierhai, everlasting.¡±

 B3: Chapter 18: Kuro: Collision (Edited)

    I made a promise and I kept it. The next day, at noon, I took Deotra to the market for our date.


    The Silken Rivers were the biggest open air market in Blossom City, the place where the differing cultures that made up Kierhai¡¯s population blended together to make a melting pot of sights and sounds that dazzled and amazed the senses. I had never been even when I had last been in Blossom City; now I was being guided through by someone who knew its ins and outs.


    Deotra clung to my arm, almost pulling me along with her excited pace. I don¡¯t need emotional transference to see how happy she is. This has been a long time coming for her. Today¡¯s her special day and I intend to make sure it¡¯s as memorable as it can be. As we passed under the red archway into the market, we plunged into the midst of a crowd full of people going this way and that, yet she wove through them like a snake through tall grass.


    She hadn¡¯t been able to sit still all morning. After inspecting my arm to ensure I didn¡¯t have any lasting issues with it, she made sure Monaco was stable. The wolf beastwoman had an elevated temperature, but other than that Deotra and Drache had done an excellent job of bringing her back from the brink.


    Monaco stirred but didn¡¯t wake as Deotra and I carefully removed her bandages. She mumbled something under her breath but I wasn¡¯t able to catch it. She¡¯s had a rough night. I don¡¯t know if I should tell her everything that happened or not, but sooner or later I¡¯m gonna have to tell her something. Her wounds had closed thanks to Drache¡¯s healing but she was still in no condition to go running around looking for answers.


    ¡°Are you sure it¡¯s okay to leave her here like this? If she wakes up she could bolt.¡±


    ¡°Where would she go? According to what you said, her own crew sold her out. The smart thing for her to do would be to sit tight and wait for us to come back.¡± She passed me a thin piece of parchment. ¡°Leave her a note. Tell her we¡¯re going out and will be back after dark. And that it¡¯s best for her to stay put until we return.¡±


    I did as I was asked. Slipping the note into her palm, I closed Monaco¡¯s fingers over the parchment so she¡¯d notice it right away. ¡°Alright. So. Regarding that date you wanted to go on, did you have somewhere in mind?¡± Blossom City¡¯s recreational opportunities weren¡¯t exactly well known to me, even when I¡¯d been in the city in the past. I¡¯d never had a need to avail myself of them so I hadn¡¯t bothered to learn much about them.


    ¡°The Silken River Market comes to mind. I went there often when I was living here. It was the best place to find things I needed, and a few other odds and ends.¡± She looked at her collection of paper lanterns, which were now unlit. ¡°We could get some lunch there. There are plenty of shops and tourist spots, too. And we can get something for Monaco on our way back.¡± She fidgeted a bit. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I tried to push you to abandon her yesterday.¡±


    Deotra shrank into herself, withdrawing as though she were a hermit crab trying to cram itself into a shell that didn¡¯t exist. I scoot across the floor of the shrine and put my arm around her. ¡°I know you were trying to put my safety first. I was also being irrational about saving Monaco. Any pragmatic person would¡¯ve left her behind.¡± We both watched Monaco sleep, her chest and the covers of her blanket rising and falling with each breath. ¡°It must be hard to deal with someone who contradicts himself all the time. A year ago I would have left Monaco and washed my hands of that mess in a heartbeat.¡±


    She leaned into me, her head nestling against my cheek. ¡°So what changed in that year?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Not sure. I¡¯ve been through some serious mayhem recently. Saw two regimes crumble, mostly in on themselves because of their own political nonsense. Helped two royals who couldn¡¯t be any more different escape from people who wanted them dead. Most importantly I learned things about myself, and about the best friend I thought I knew front to back. It¡¯s anyone¡¯s guess where the change actually took place.¡±


    ¡°Do you think you changed for the better?¡±


    I squeezed her tighter. ¡°I hope so. I¡¯m not really the best judge of character. Apparently even when it comes to myself.¡± We sat in silence for a moment before she spoke again. ¡°We¡¯re always changing. Change is inevitable. The question is whether we grow. Some people spend their whole lives changing into something they don¡¯t want to be or never expected. Others change so little they think they didn¡¯t change at all. Either way, how much they learn from it is never constant.¡±


    She sighed. ¡°I wonder which one I am.¡±


    That¡¯s a question I can¡¯t answer. I don¡¯t know enough about her past to compare. It¡¯s still a sore subject so I won¡¯t poke at it now, but eventually I need to find out what happened to make her leave her home forest. Familiars like her can¡¯t survive outside of a mana wellspring, and yet her connection to Drache allows her to. So how did she meet Drache?


    Abruptly, she stood up. ¡°Well, enough about that. Heavy thoughts like that are going to ruin the atmosphere. Shall we?¡± She offered me her arm, and I rose up and took it. ¡°I¡¯ll show you the sights. There are a lot of street performances during the day, and once the sun sets the more intricate ones incorporate pyrotechnics into their shows. Local folklore draws a lot of foreign visitors, especially when they can watch it play out accompanied by dancers and actors.¡±


    We stepped out of the rundown building and out into the sunshine. My eyes ached from the sudden exposure momentarily, but quickly adjusted. For more than a hundred feet, rows and columns of neatly arranged grave markers made of engraved stone columns jutted out of the ground, with paths of stone between them making it easy to walk past. Deotra and I passed through the graveyard without a word, and I did my best not to tread on any resting places for fear of disrespecting the dead. After what happened at the Valley of the Last Sunrise, better safe than sorry.


    Deotra didn¡¯t want to ride in a rickshaw down to the Silken River. When I asked her why she smiled at me. ¡°I¡¯m in no hurry to get there. Why pay a local to give you a tour when I can do that myself?¡± Together we passed under the red archway that marked the entrance to the graveyard, entering a quiet square where various vendors selling flowers and charms were peddling to those visiting the graves.


    Beyond them, the city stretched before us. Tall, towering places of business built in the Kierhaian style stood above the smaller homes, which were humble and homey. ¡°The area around the Graveyard District tends to be home to more of the older people in the city. It¡¯s quieter here, so maybe they just find it more peaceful. Or maybe it¡¯s just them being aware of their mortality. Either way, there¡¯s fewer people wandering around, so it made a great place for me to stay when I was here.¡±


    She stopped suddenly, her eyes looking off into the distance. Following her line of sight, I saw a tiny shop built into the corner of a building, an old woman perched on the steps leading into it. She was a wizened old thing, all wrinkles and faded, wispy hair, dressed in a clean white robe and swaying gently back and forth. The shop itself had over a dozen paper lanterns hanging from hooks mounted on the stall, with one very unique lantern depicting a child holding an elderly woman¡¯s hand sitting on the counter next to the old woman.


    ¡°Oh. I thought¡­ I can¡¯t believe she¡¯s still here.¡± Deotra said, her hand over her mouth.


    ¡°Who is that?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s Jun¡­ when I lived here, I used to take lanterns from her shop all the time. I thought by now she¡¯d have died.¡± She pulled me off the street and into the shade of another building. The old woman nodded her head to a passing neighbor, basking in the warmth of the noonday sun like a cat without a care in the world. She had a blank white lantern in front of her, and was in the process of painting it with a brush.


    ¡°Do you see that one on the counter?¡± She pointed at it. It was blue, and the child and old woman on it were messy as though the painter had done it with a shaky hand. ¡°Her granddaughter made that for her. It¡¯s her favorite.¡± She chuckled. ¡°I stole it without even thinking about it. It was just another day for me, and I needed another one. Also it was a very nice color.¡±


    ¡°So what happened?¡± I asked. She sighed. ¡°The next day when I went out to go buy things, I saw her running around asking her neighbors if they knew what happened to it. She was frantic. I heard her telling perfect strangers that it was a gift from her granddaughter. That it was all she had to remember her by.¡± Her voice trailed off. ¡°Turns out her granddaughter died a long time ago. By now she would¡¯ve been a fully grown woman. I waited until after midnight, then came back and put the lantern back. From that day onward I stopped stealing them.¡±


    A fair number of Jun¡¯s lanterns had a recurring theme; foxes. Several of them depicted foxes at play, lounging under cherry blossom trees, even one in a marital robe standing next to a human man. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have something to do with that, would you?¡± I said motioning at the lantern with the image of marriage on it.


    Deotra¡¯s shoulders raised, pursing her lips. ¡°I maaaaay have been caught returning it. As a fox. Because I was too scared to come back in human form.¡±


    She put her face in her hands to hide her embarrassment. ¡°She must have thought it was some kind of divine intervention or something. She always made fox themed lanterns after that, and made a habit of giving them away for free every so often. I felt so bad for putting her through it and I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her the truth. What could I tell her?¡±


    A family came by and Jun started to converse with them. She handed the family¡¯s young child one of the lanterns, with a fox flying a kite painted on it. The little girl gave her a gap toothed smile before running off with her new toy. ¡°You know, that¡¯s actually really cute.¡± I said, more to stir the pot than to reassure her.


    She moaned behind her hands. ¡°I should¡¯ve said something. Even if she thought I was crazy. I feel bad for putting her through that.¡± I scratched my chin. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe you didn¡¯t cause as much harm as you think.¡± Her eyes peeked out from between her fingers. ¡°What do you mean?¡± She said in a squeaky voice.


    ¡°Sure, she was probably scared she was going to lose the only memento she had to remember her grandchild by. But you restored her hope. You gave her something to believe in. She thought someone was looking out for her.¡± Deotra shook her head, still behind her hands. ¡°But it wasn¡¯t true! It was just me, not a god.¡±


    ¡°It might seem that way. But in her eyes, it doesn¡¯t really matter. She¡¯s putting so much more good into the world because she believes that someone, maybe even the spirit of her granddaughter, might be looking out for her.¡± Deotra sniffled. ¡°That feels like I was lying. Like I tricked her.¡±


    I hugged her, shaking her gently. ¡°It¡¯s complicated, sure. People tend not to be that simple. If you ask me, you did a good thing, even if it started out as theft.¡±


    She wiped her face on her sleeve before lowering her hands. ¡°Do you really think I did the right thing?¡± Her voice wavered the way a child¡¯s would, her eyes watery and tone shaky.


    ¡°Alverd says that if you have to think about whether you did the right thing or not, odds are you did and you just need to make sure you did. The day you stop asking yourself if you really did the right thing is the day you stop caring about whether you did or not.¡±


    I patted her on the shoulder. ¡°Try not to think so much about it.¡±


    ¡°But I do. I worry all the time that I¡¯m going to do something wrong and then you¡­ I mean, someone will hate me for it.¡± It was quick but I caught her biting her tongue. She really cares too much what I think. But that can work to my advantage a little. I rested my chin on the top of her head, nuzzling her ears.


    ¡°Well I think you did the right thing by making it up to her. So as far as I¡¯m concerned, that¡¯s the long and short of it.¡±


    Finally satisfied, Deotra let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Okay. As long as you¡¯re alright with it.¡±


    We left Jun¡¯s corner shop and continued down the street, stopping to get food at a street vendor. The badger beastman minding the stall used his tail to thump the stones that made up the street, drawing attention to himself as he set about cooking meat on a heated stone mounted on his cart. Using metal tongs, he turned over thin strips of beef as he danced in place, slapping his tail on the ground to music only he could seemingly hear. When he saw us come up, he called out to Deotra with a deep, raspy voice.


    ¡°Good gods, is that you, Red?¡± He let out a good natured chuckle. Deotra guided me over to him.


    ¡°Um, you must be Kwan. My, uh, mother knew you. She told me about you.¡± Kwan gave me a once over, his dark eyes staring at me from beneath a mess of black and white hair. He squinted, then pulled a pair of spectacles out of his pocket, big thick round lenses fogging up immediately from the steam coming off his grill. He grumbled, wiped them off on his robe, then put them back on while stepping out from behind his cart to look at me again.


    Wait. Did Deotra just tell a lie? I gave her a side glance. A wave of caution emanated out of our link, as if to tell me that I was to play along and that she¡¯d explain later.


    ¡°And who might you be?¡± He said as he towered over me, a full foot taller and with thick arms that looked like they could uproot trees. ¡°Um, hi. I¡¯m Kuro. I¡¯m, um¡­¡±


    Deotra wrapped her arms around me and sighed dreamily. ¡°He¡¯s with me,¡± she said, not bothering to clarify. ¡°My mom left Kierhai a long time ago. But she did find who she was looking for. She¡¯s living happily ever after right now.¡±


    Kwan glanced at her, then me, then her again before bursting out laughing. ¡°Ha! Well now. Isn¡¯t that something? That¡¯s good. You¡¯re the spitting image of your mother, kid. If I didn¡¯t know better I¡¯d say you looked exactly like her.¡±


    I nudged Deotra. ¡°So I take it you¡¯ve known her for a while.¡±The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The badger beastman walked back around behind his cart. ¡°You could say that. I¡¯ve been setting up on this street for almost thirty years. Almost everyday for months, this girl walks by my stall, never buys anything. She stands out. Hair like that, not surprising. Not a lot of redheads around here.¡± He did something with his claw like fingers and twirled the tongs expertly, flipping his meat strips in seconds. ¡°So anyway, one day I ask if she wants to try anything at my stall, and she freezes up.¡± He picked up a pair of meat skewers sitting on the side of his cart and offered them to us. ¡°She takes one, and the way her face lights up after she starts eating it, I¡¯ll never forget.¡±


    Deotra took them and handed one to me. ¡°My mother ate here all the time.¡± I put the skewer to my mouth and bit off a piece, and the taste of the meat, still saturated in the marinade, hit me like a speeding arrow. It was more than delicious, it was mild enough to enjoy but spicy enough to give it a kick and grab hold of my taste buds.


    ¡°So one day I invited her to take a seat, tell me something about her,¡± Kwan said. He pointed at the nearby stone benches that lined the street. She sat down and told me about how she was looking for her soulmate. We talked a good long while about it. Me, I¡¯m lucky. I met the love of my life years ago.¡± He showed me a painted picture hanging from a corner of his cart¡¯s rooftop, of him with a badger beastwoman, her ears rounder and softer than his but with the same black and white hair. They had three kids, and since they all had the same hair it was harder to tell who they took after more.


    ¡°You must be very proud of them.¡± I said.


    ¡°They¡¯re grown up now. Two of them are merchants in Standing Stone and one became a Noble Wolf. I¡¯m glad at least one of them stayed close. His mother and I get lonely sometimes.¡± He smiled at Deotra. ¡°Like mother, like daughter, huh? Looks like you managed to find a nice boy for yourself too, little one.¡± She blushed and buried her face in my sleeve, mumbling to herself.


    ¡°To be honest, I¡¯m not that knowledgeable about love or soulmates or anything like that,¡± I said. I put my arm around Deotra and held her tight. ¡°But I can tell she really loves me. So I¡¯m going to do my best to live up to that.¡± There was an explosion of warmth, color, and heat from our emotional link, surging out of her and into me, filling me with everything from happiness to embarrassment to hope all at the same time.


    ¡°Well you better. Her mother did a lot for people around here. She helped people out of binds, kept their spirits up, and looked out for us while she was here. We all missed her when she disappeared. But I¡¯m glad to know she finally found her soulmate. You tell her Old Kwan said hello and that she needs to come back for another skewer if you see her again.¡± He gave us another pair of skewers for the road, refusing payment. ¡°I¡¯m just glad to see that it all turned out well in the end.¡±


    We left Old Kwan to his stall, and he resumed beating his tail on the ground in his practiced rhythm, swaying to the beat of his own music as he cooked more meat on his stone grill. After we had gotten a fair distance away, I asked the question eating away at me.


    ¡°So how long has it been since you left Kierhai?¡±


    Deotra¡¯s ears wiggled. ¡°A little more than fifteen years. Old Kwan was always an absent-minded sort, but it looks like his vision is going, too. If he was as sharp-eyed as he was back then, he¡¯d know I look exactly as I did back then.¡± She turned her eyes downward. ¡°I know it was a lie, but if he figured out who I was, it would cause problems. A lot of them.¡± Something itched at the back of my mind, like I could sense that Deotra was hiding something from me that I really needed to know.


    ¡°What kinds of problems? The kind that might bite us now?¡±


    She fidgeted, then nodded. ¡°Part of my decision to leave was due to Drache saying I was good enough at blending in with mortals that once I made it to a new country I¡¯d have a chance to start fresh. But it was also because we caused some trouble on our way out.¡±


    She poked her pointer fingers together at the tips. ¡°When it was time to leave, Drache mentioned needing to acquire something first. She didn¡¯t tell me that she wanted to take relics from the Repository until we were on the grounds, though. When she told me her plan, I didn¡¯t have any objections so I went through with it.¡± She shrugged. ¡°We took the Staff of Farewells. Had we the time, Drache might¡¯ve also gotten the Hand of the Usurper, too. But things didn¡¯t work out that way, so we had to make do with just the Staff.¡±


    ¡°Did you also steal the Tree of a Thousand Branches?¡± I asked. The image of that accursed book reappeared in my mind and I shuddered as the sensation of perceiving dozens of possible futures came with it.


    ¡°No. The Tree isn¡¯t in the Repository. Unless it was moved there in the last fifteen years. I don¡¯t think that would be likely given that if someone could steal the Staff of Farewells from there, you¡¯d immediately want to put another relic in its place.¡± I scowled.


    ¡°So why leave the Hand of the Usurper there? Why not move that to a safer location?¡±


    Deotra shook her head. ¡°The Hand slays godlike creatures. The only beings who might be trusted with such a thing are just as easily slain by it as the Kings would be. The two angels who rule in Shardin can¡¯t touch the Hand, and probably don¡¯t want it moved about recklessly because of what it can do to people who gaze into its blade. They likely didn¡¯t relish the idea, but moving the Hand would¡¯ve created more potential problems than it would¡¯ve solved. My question is, how did Monaco confirm that the Hand really is still in the Repository? She said that she didn¡¯t even get inside.¡±


    ¡°We can ask her for more details after we get back. For now, I¡¯d rather just not worry about it.¡± Until I learn some things for sure, all I have is conjecture. I can wait a few more hours until Monaco confirms some of my theories, and then I can build from there. Besides, it¡¯s distracting from the point of this trip. ¡°Is there anything in particular you¡¯d like to show me, Deotra? Maybe something in the markets?¡±


    ¡°There are a few attractions that are made for tourists. I want to take you to one place that doesn¡¯t have anything to do with that, though. There¡¯s a place in the Silken River that I really want to show you. Should we head over there?¡± I put my hand in hers, interlocking our fingers. ¡°Lead the way.¡±


    We floated the rest of the way to the Silken River. Both of us were quite the sight, two blushing young lovers holding hands out in the open, a perfect display of a couple still too nervous to do anything too overt in public. A few passersby gave us knowing looks, everything ranging from doe eyed fawning to sly winks. Are they judging me? Or us? Why are they looking at us like that? Is this normal? Is it weird to be so happy out in broad daylight?


    Deotra¡¯s voice resonated in my mind. ¡°Some of them might be jealous, others are happy, some might be remembering things from their youth. Either way, what does it matter what they think?¡± She leaned against me, her fingers squeezing mine. ¡°We have each other. Some soulmates live their whole lives without finding their other half.¡± I returned her gesture.


    ¡°Lucky us.¡±


    A half hour later, we walked under the red arch of the Silken River, into a bustling marketplace. True to its name, the Silken River markets had several waterways flowing through the district. Large open air market squares were placed on multiple tiers, with water flowing down artificial waterfalls into central locations at the heart of each square where people could congregate to talk, eat and conduct business, surrounded by stalls manned by merchants peddling their wares. At the corners of each square a cherry blossom tree stood, its branches swaying and spreading their delicate pink petals across the area.


    Most of the vendors were selling local specialties, and Deotra was quick to guide me to the stalls where the quality of the goods leaned towards the authentic side. A hare beastwoman with snow white hair tried to sell me on a beautiful dark blue silk robe, her stall draped with similar robes that all had the same fine quality. While Deotra enthusiastically agreed I would look great in it, the price tag was well outside my means; we had to bid the beastwoman farewell, but she didn¡¯t seem too fazed.


    We stopped to watch a street performer in a loud, bright red and gold outfit as he did cartwheels and flips in a corner of the square. A group of children gathered around him as he leapt forward and started walking on his hands, his legs bent back and dangling over his head like the arms of a praying mantis. He somersaulted back to his feet and began stomping around, swinging his legs out in a comical manner as if he were some beast twenty feet tall, flapping his arms like wings. Every so often he would let out a series of long, whooping calls, then transition back into another set of gymnastics.


    ¡°What is he supposed to be?¡± I asked Deotra.


    ¡°A dragon dancer. There are some old stories about how dragons might have walked the land before Kierhai was one nation, and how they all had to hide among the mortals to survive into this day and age.¡± She scrutinized his performance before speaking again. ¡°I think the tale he¡¯s telling is about one dragon who was so proud he refused to change his behavior after assuming human form, and despite the other dragons saying he¡¯d be found out, the mortals just treated him like he was drunk.¡± I snorted. ¡°Well, if it worked, he was right.¡±


    Time flew by as we went from square to square. In the Silken River¡¯s largest market, the center of the square was a giant lake with a stone island in the middle, upon which a single cherry blossom tree and shrine stood. This district was several hundred yards across, length and width wise, making up for the space dedicated to the pond with tightly packed market rows filled with people buying clothing, jewelry and food.


    By the time we¡¯d made the rounds through the square, the sun was hanging low enough in the sky to cast the square in a dark orange hue. Yet despite the failing light, it looked as though the people were getting more excited by the prospect of nightfall. Deotra took me by the hand and guided me down to the water¡¯s edge, where many others were gathering. Some had blankets spread out for them to sit on, others had brought actual pillows. Even the children were unusually silent, each of them looking around and at the sky as if waiting for something.


    ¡°It¡¯s almost time,¡± Deotra said as the last rays of sunlight vanished. As darkness fell over the square, I felt a bit of unease. Shouldn¡¯t someone be lighting the paper lanterns strung across the square? Shouldn¡¯t that have been done already? What¡¯s going on? A feeling of calm washed over me, Deotra sending her reassurance to me through our link. ¡°Relax, Kuro. Just sit back and enjoy.¡±


    Five minutes later the dark and silence was pierced by the sound of a string instrument resounding over the still waters of the pond. It was high-pitched, but unlike any string instrument I¡¯d ever heard. Before my eyes, the island in the middle of the pond illuminated, a single paper lantern now hanging from the tree. A woman in a beautiful pink dress, with patterns reminiscent of the blossoms of the tree she was kneeling under, played a teardrop-shaped instrument with four strings. A melancholy song that spoke to me of dark times swept across the dark square, slow and low like a creeping darkness.


    The pace quickened. Her fingers plucked at the strings, and suddenly light and color burst into being as a giant figure appeared over her. The form of an enormous fox, its body a dazzling red and orange, rolled and bounced in the empty air, drawing reactions from the gathered children. My jaw dropped. Woah. How did they do that?


    I mean, it¡¯s obviously magic. But is it an illusion? Some kind of enchantment? Deotra put her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder. ¡°Stop trying to figure it out. Just enjoy!¡± Taking a deep breath, I did as she asked. It was tough, but eventually I fought the urge to let my brain try to puzzle out the how and just get caught up in the sights.


    A story played out in the air over the pond, told by shifting lights that flickered as if cast by candles. A woman with flowing black hair holding a blue green orb, of warriors marching in time, of a city being built around a massive black rock, which I realized with a start was Standing Stone.


    The woman with the black hair is the goddess Eternity. This song must be about the history of Kierhai. To my shock, I watched as farmers rose up from the ground like ghostly white phantoms to fall in behind a soldier clad in shimmering white armor, blocking the path through a narrow canyon as a blazing yellow sun climbed over them. The battle of the Valley of the Last Sunrise.


    The fox was the only constant in everything. Dragons flew over the square in a circular pattern, almost like a school of fish. Two winged humanoids clashed against armies of demons, the lights scattering and reforming into new creatures even as the pace of the woman¡¯s song reached a crescendo. Just when it looked like the two would be overwhelmed, the woman ceased her playing and the square went dark again.


    From the four corners of the square came four processions. Each was a single file line led by a warrior representing one of the four warrior disciplines that comprised Kierhai¡¯s military, lit lanterns held by those behind them. A slender crane beastwoman bore the banner of the Gilded Feather, a line of young, beautiful women in orange and red robes singing behind her.


    The Blood Tigers were led by a tiger beastman in his red armor, standing straight and tall as he carried their banner. Behind him were a mix of men and women in white and red robes, singing in a language different from the Gilded Feathers¡¯. Across the way, a tall elven woman in green and gold armor hoisted the banner of the Flawless Jade, a number of elven men and women behind her in matching robes, singing in yet another language.


    The last procession was the Unmoving Earth. Led by a human man in glittering black armor, his banner paved the way for a line of men and women dressed in black robes with silver trim. Unsurprisingly, they too also sang in a language different from the others. ¡°Each of them are singing in the language of their respective cultures, before the unification. These days many are taught the common tongue, and the old languages are kept only for ceremonial purposes.¡± Deotra said as she watched the spectacle unfold.


    When the four warriors reached the water¡¯s edge, they paused. Planting their banners, they spoke together in the common tongue. ¡°From this day forth we are one nation. Four as one, one forevermore. In the name of the angel, the Noble Wolf, first servant and left hand of Eternity, we pledge to be one people.¡±


    The surge of excitement among the children in the crowd peaked as they all looked up, fingers pointing as if looking for something¡­ or someone. A tiny pinprick of light quickly became a falling star as it streaked downward, coming to rest on the island where the woman began to play her instrument again. The light morphed slowly into the form of a man dressed in gleaming silver armor, a green cape billowing behind him, his head hidden beneath a helmet shaped like the head of a wolf. The light ¡°folded¡± itself into him like wings before disappearing, and the children cheered as their nation¡¯s hero, the Noble Wolf, stood before them.


    The music picked back up, into a frenzied but measured tone that seemed to release the energy gathering in the crowd like it were cutting a taut rope. The Noble Wolf began to caper about the island, his cape swirling as he howled long and wild to the moon above. ¡°Who shall answer my call? Who shall march under the banner of justice and peace with me?¡± In response, dozens of children ran to the water¡¯s edge, and to my great surprise, walked into the water.


    Or rather, onto it. The children stepped onto the surface of the water as if it were solid. A few very young children had to be guided onto the water by older siblings who held their hands, but they too rushed to join the others when they saw their feet hold steady. The Noble Wolf began to dance across the surface of the lake, the children gathering behind him, each of them howling as they did some kind of freakish war dance around the center island.


    Then Deotra pulled my arm. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s go too.¡±


    ¡°Wait, won¡¯t it be weird? It¡¯s mostly children out there.¡± I protested.


    ¡°Nonsense. Nobody will care. And even if they do, I don¡¯t. Please, indulge me one last time.¡± She gave me a pleading look. Oh, no way in hell I can argue with that face.


    ¡°Okay. But I¡¯m terrible at dancing.¡±


    She laughed. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t call what they¡¯re doing a dance. Just do your best to keep up.¡±


    I was nervous all the way to the water, made worse by the fact that so many people were pointing at Deotra and I. Like the people outside the Silken River, there were mixed reactions, but this time it was mostly people poking good natured fun at the boy being embarrassed at the cute girl dragging him out onto the water to dance in public. When we got to the edge, I tentatively put my foot on the surface, and was shocked when it was as firm as the stones of the street. I put my full weight down, and when I didn¡¯t plunge into cold water, I stepped out onto the lake in full.


    An odd sensation took hold of me as I moved in time with the children, who more or less romped across the lake like animals trying to walk on two legs. Deotra was the picture of grace, swaying to the music of the instrument as though she knew the steps. Her feet swept across the surface without a sound, not even a ripple showing where her sandals touched the water under her flared pants. She closed her eyes and allowed the music to show her where to go, her arms held in a circle over her head.


    She was the center of attention. Even the children looked at her like she was the goddess herself come to dance with them. In the light of the lanterns, she exuded purity and poise, and even the musician was enraptured by her, seeming to adjust the tempo to Deotra¡¯s steps. Her gentle hand never left mine, as she pulled me through the steps I placed my hand around her waist and tried to keep up.


    The song went on and I didn¡¯t know for how much longer, for as far as I was concerned the world outside the square ceased to exist. The crowd, the children, the performers all melted away as Deotra and I became the only things that mattered. My heart felt like it was thumping against my ribs, ready to burst out of my chest with happiness. Without a doubt, this is the best moment of Deotra¡¯s life. Her joy is so overwhelming she can¡¯t contain it. She waited so long for this, and now it¡¯s finally here.


    The music revved up again, building to a climax. When the musician plucked her final note, only the warbling sound of that final delivery remained in the air, before applause shattered the immersion. Deotra and I stood on the placid water, and she opened her eyes. They sparkled like stars, and I could see my reflection in her golden irises. Then she buried her head in my chest, making soft mewling noises.


    ¡°Oh gods I¡¯ve never done something like that. Am I still on the ground? I feel like I could just float away.¡±


    I hugged her, patting her on the back. ¡°Me too. Let¡¯s get off the lake and go find somewhere to sit down.¡± She nodded.


    ¡°We should wait for the crowds to filter out first. We can sit by the water¡¯s edge and let them leave first. You sound like you need to catch your breath.¡± She wasn¡¯t wrong. My heart was still pounding, partly from exertion and the rest from the emotional transference.


    We took a seat on a stone bench, watching as the performer playing the Noble Wolf and the musician took their bows. Then the Noble Wolf took the musician by the hand and escorted her across the water. The four processions turned and marched out of the square together, and I wondered if they were performers or actual soldiers. Either way, it was a stellar show. A far cry from the quiet life back in Marevar.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± Deotra said as she snuggled up against me. ¡°Today really was the best day of my life. And in no small part thanks to you.¡± She planted a quick kiss on my cheek, and my face caught fire.


    ¡°Well. Um. I¡¯m just glad I did so well for my first date. It¡¯s not like I have a lot of experience on the matter.¡± She smiled. ¡°Neither do I. But we made it through, as we always do. I¡¯m looking forward to many more.¡±


    The people emptied out of the square in short order, leaving only a handful of vendors to show their wares to a dwindling number of shoppers. ¡°Shall we head back? We still have to get something to eat for Monaco.¡±


    She scowled, jutting out her lip like a pouting child. ¡°Can¡¯t we stay out a little longer? Please?¡±


    I laughed. ¡°Oh, alright. Just for a little¡­¡± My voice trailed off when something caught my eye. There was a soldier moving across the square, skirting around the lake. Off to my left, another soldier in the same outfit, black and gold armor resembling a dragon, was angling towards us. Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I saw two soldiers standing at the top of the steps of the amphitheater-style seating area, blocking off our escape.


    Legionnaires. They look like Legionnaires. The blood in my veins froze. I pulled Deotra close. ¡°We have company.¡± She gnashed her teeth, but then gasped.


    ¡°Wait, there¡¯s something wrong with those men.¡± She sniffed the air. ¡°Their armor smells like death. Death and bloodlust. It¡¯s wrong. Why does it smell like that¡­¡± Her legs scrabbled against the ground as she tried to burrow into me to get away. ¡°My head¡­ I can¡¯t think¡­¡±


    Her more animalistic instincts are telling her to run. But I can¡¯t. It¡¯s like my legs are frozen. Why can¡¯t I move? My legs are so heavy¡­


    The first soldier stopped in front of me. Black vapor came out of his visor when he exhaled, a raspy choking gurgling sound that made me think of a dying man¡¯s last breath. I stammered, but choked on spit and the rising bile in my throat. I wanted to scream but somehow could not.


    The soldier reached out a black gauntlet with dried blood on it towards me, and all I could do was watch.

 B3: Chapter 19: Sheena: To Fight Monsters, You Must Make Monsters (Edit)

    It made me exceedingly uncomfortable to be near a man like General Guunzel, so I retreated behind Alverd as we entered the Silken River Market, but making sure to keep the imposing man in my line of sight at all times.


    Guunzel is a living legend. An Ishmarian who fought us for decades, finding ways to even the odds against mages that would turn his armies to ash given half a chance. I expected him to be so much scarier in person, but he¡¯s just a tired old man with eyes that look through you rather than at you.


    As we walked through the market, bystanders gave us plenty of space, their faces full of worry as they watched us pass. Only a few openly showed fear, but many also had anger hiding behind the mask. The Kierhaians despise them. I don¡¯t blame them. Is that hate reserved more for Ishmar or for these men in particular? The Talionis marched silently, not reacting to any of the civilians as they boxed us in on all sides.


    Up close, I could tell several things about the Talionis. All of them were nearly seven feet tall, yet moved with fluid grace that I would not expect from someone in metal armor. Then I saw that the armor was not held in place by straps or braces, but to my horror was grafted onto the skin of the occupant. Crude metal bolts screwed into the armor anchored it into the body, meaning that the armor was more a carapace than a suit, like a giant beetle or armadillo.


    Suddenly it began to make sense. The bloodlust emanating from the armor, the disturbing way they moved, the ability to exert themselves in ways no normal soldier could. They¡¯re undead. The armor is not only directly feeding the aggressive animus to the corpse, but protecting it. This goes beyond simple necromancy. This is advanced magic, beyond dark and horrifically unethical. Guunzel transformed this wretched soul into an undead killing machine through the use of magic most foul.


    I couldn¡¯t hold my tongue any longer. ¡°These things are filthy, godless abominations.¡± The venom in my voice was so great that even Alicia¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. ¡°You used the darkest sorcery you could find to create these monsters, and you did it by treating your own men like guinea pigs. I refuse to believe you succeeded in creating these creatures on your first try.¡±


    Guunzel turned around long enough to give me a piercing glare. His eyes were wary, as if he was unsure if my intention were to state a fact or provoke him. ¡°Sacrifices are always inevitable. A soldier knows that. A queen should as well.¡±


    I returned his gaze and put more poison into my tone. ¡°Spoken like someone who expects others to sacrifice in his stead, for his own glory.¡±


    There was no mistaking my intent that time. The general stopped and swiveled around fully, and Alverd¡¯s hand reflexively went to his sword. ¡°I am no berserker, but my patience has limits. Test them at your peril, Witch-Queen.¡± The general coughed, bending over as he put his hand against this chest. When he stood back up, however, his eyes were filled with barely constrained rage, so much that my breath caught in my lungs. ¡°A loyal dog I might be, but I am a dog who bites, not barks.¡±


    The loathing in his eyes was so intense that it drowned out the murderous aura exuded by the Talionis. My knees threatened to liquify as his stare bored through me, fear gripping every one of my muscles. Alverd caught me as my legs wobbled and Alicia steadied me on my other side. Then the feeling faded, and Guunzel was just an exhausted old man who looked ready for bed instead of a hateful zealot. He marched on, not bothering to wait to see if I regained my footing.


    Fear the old in a profession where many die young. They were words used to describe Guunzel among the Magisters, who had regarded him with both awe and revulsion. The term ¡°border skirmish¡± doesn¡¯t do the conflicts Algrustos had with Ishmar justice. Anytime our forces clashed, the land would be scarred, hundreds would die, and many others would come home with wounds that took months to heal. Some would be traumatized. But Guunzel survived all of that, even thrived in that environment.


    What kind of man do you have to be to flourish in chaos like that? Alverd tapped me on the shoulder. ¡°For now it might be best not to antagonize him, Sheena.¡± I nodded.


    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re right. But that last bit was disgusting. The part about sacrifices. Tell me that didn¡¯t make your blood boil, Sir Alverd.¡±


    He scowled. ¡°Of course it did. But this is our best chance to find out what Guunzel¡¯s plans are and why he¡¯s here. I also want to know something else, related to Kuro.¡± We kept moving, and if the Talionis had enough awareness to care about us whispering amongst ourselves they didn¡¯t show it.


    As we walked, I tried to examine the closest Talionis. He walked four feet away, more like stalked his way through the street. His shoulders and spine were hunched forward slightly, the way a vulture would look sitting on a perch above a potential meal. The raspy sound coming from his helmet had to be breathing but was so tortured and hideous that it sounded more like soft screaming.


    Maybe he is screaming. Perhaps the man inside is in so much agony from the magic assaulting his body that the sound is him trying to signal his distress. The magical aura coming off the armor was impossible not to sense at such close range. It resonated and pulsed, almost with the beat of a heart, which made me even more sick to my stomach. Each piece of the armor linked to each other, like a conduit, allowing the magic to circulate through it like a perfect recreation of a bloodstream.


    I didn¡¯t want to draw too much attention to myself; probing the intricacies of the armor¡¯s design would require me to actively use my magical senses, which I wouldn¡¯t be able to hide. For now, I had to be content with just glances and guesses based on surface observations and reading the flow of the armor¡¯s magic. It¡¯s exceedingly complex. Only someone with years, maybe decades of magical experience could forge something like this armor, and not without some idea of where to start.


    The armor is too well crafted to have been an accidental discovery or mistake. The Ishmarians had to have found a blueprint for it, then maybe kidnapped or coerced some magical scholar or practitioner to do the enchantments while a master blacksmith crafted the armor itself. But bolting it directly to the skin? Why take such an excessive measure?


    He finally swiveled his head in my direction, the raspy noise turning into a full growl. I backed away, bumping into Alverd. The visor was so thick and dark that it obscured the face underneath, but I was sure that the man had to be snarling at me like a rabid animal. ¡°Do be careful. Even before he became a Talionis, Yegor was not a patient or forgiving man. I wouldn¡¯t provoke him if I were you.¡± Guunzel had a smugness in his voice that made me want to throw an ice lance at his head, but I took a deep breath and let it go instead.


    His pets herded us through the Silken River¡¯s lesser markets and towards the center of the district. I heard some of the regular Legionnaires walking alongside him converse with him, catching snippets of their conversation over the din of the market. At certain points I heard talk about ¡°¡®finding the rats¡¯¡± and ¡°¡®an unexpected discovery¡¯¡± and that the Talionis had ¡°all persons of interest in custody at the central market¡±. He listened with rapt attention, enough that he didn¡¯t turn around to see if I was focusing on his words.


    For his part, Guunzel related to the soldier that the ¡°¡®persons are to be held without harm¡¯¡± and to ¡°¡®clear out the central market¡¯¡±. I caught one final thing about ¡°¡®a contingency in case we do not have the information we require¡¯¡±. After that, the soldier nodded and split off from the group, disappearing into a crowd that parted to make way for him. The general led us to the central market, which was now firmly under control of the Legion.


    At least thirty men and women in their black armor were milling about the market square, some seated around the edges of a large, manmade lake while others were eating or resting. In one section, about twenty soldiers stood in a square, five columns with four soldiers in each, all standing in perfect unison with no movement at all. Their golden capes and gauntlets identified them as Talionis. That¡¯s eerie beyond words. Even when the rest of the soldiers take breaks, the Talionis stand together. They¡¯re almost like ants with no individual will of their own.


    Then something caught my eye. A group of Legionnaires were detaining a pair of people near the water¡¯s edge. One was a young fox beastwoman with red hair, clad in white and red robes that looked like the local style, and the other was Kuro. The tired-looking mage looked more haggard than usual, his signature look of abashed spitefulness on full display on his face. The girl clung to him, shivering as her golden eyes darted between the Legionnaires, her tail twitching nervously.


    Kuro didn¡¯t look hurt; there were no signs of external injury, and the fact that he didn¡¯t have restraints on him meant that he hadn¡¯t tried to resist. But who is that girl with him? Kuro¡¯s eyes met mine, and widened. There was a second where he looked unsure of what to do, but then he blinked and his normal sour expression came back.


    Guunzel led us down to the lake, stopping some distance away from Kuro and the strange girl. ¡°I found a friend of yours here in the market, Alicia. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the one who nearly killed our current queen. I made sure to issue an order that he was not to be harmed. You might be more willing to listen to me if you can see I have no intention of harming you or your friends.¡± Again, his voice had that arrogant undertone that suggested that even though he was acting like he was accommodating Alicia, he was truly insinuating that his ¡°consideration¡± was going to come at a cost.


    It¡¯s blackmail, plain and simple. Kuro and that girl are hostages and any second now we can expect to hear him lay out his terms. It¡¯s only a matter of what he wants, and how he expects us to give it to him. I chanced a look at Sir Alverd, and his grinding teeth told me he was thinking along similar lines.


    Alverd didn¡¯t leave my or Alicia¡¯s side, even to run to where Kuro was. He remained as civil as he could under the circumstances, his furious face the only thing giving away his true disposition. It was only after we were taken to the lake¡¯s edge that he knelt down to speak to Kuro.


    ¡°Are you alright? They didn¡¯t harm you?¡±


    ¡°N-No. They dragged me over to this side of the lake but they didn¡¯t do anything more than that. I can tell they wanted to, though.¡± He aimed his foot at a nearby Legionnaire and kicked them in the shin. The Legionnaire barely registered the attack, grunting angrily at Kuro but not striking him back. ¡°So what are you doing here? Decided to take a shopping trip before you came to rescue me?¡± Now that he was reunited with his best friend, some of his familiar snark crept its way back into his tone.


    ¡°Something like that. We had a strong lead that we might be able to find you here. Looks like it checked out.¡± He gave Kuro a stern look. ¡°Anyway, that¡¯s not important. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alright, but I¡¯m sure the general here didn¡¯t help you out of the goodness of his heart.¡±


    ¡°Save me? What are you¡­ no, he grabbed me while I was just wandering around.¡±


    Wandering around? What is he talking about?


    From behind me, Alicia spoke up. ¡°Huh? You mean you got away from Monaco?¡± I grimaced. The whole point of Alverd tiptoeing around the subject was to make sure she wasn¡¯t mentioned. Sigh, it is true what they say about loose lips sinking ships. As if on cue, Guunzel swooped down into the conversation like the overgrown buzzard he was.


    ¡°Monaco? The thief? The one currently on the run from the authorities? What would one of your companions be doing mixed up with someone like her, Princess?¡±


    Even Alicia knew she¡¯d made a blunder at that point, because she grimaced before answering. There was no point hiding it now. ¡°She attacked us. Tried to pull a fast one on us. She dragged Kuro away as a hostage or something. We haven¡¯t seen him in a while.¡± She gave the bare minimum of the truth so as not to arouse further suspicion.


    Guunzel didn¡¯t look fully satisfied with her answer, but didn¡¯t push the matter. ¡°Is that so? Well, you¡¯re fortunate that nothing befell him. Mages can be quite vulnerable when left alone.¡± He motioned to his soldiers and they stepped away from Kuro and the girl. Kuro rose and helpd the girl to her feet, covering her with his arm as he pulled her away from the Talionis. As soon as Kuro was safely back with us, Guunzel scratched his chin thoughtfully. ¡°You and your companions are of no importance to me, Princess. But I still see a way we can help each other. In exchange for letting you leave without reporting your presence here back to the Queen, I¡¯ll take any information you can offer on the whereabouts of Monaco the Swift.¡±


    Alverd didn¡¯t miss a beat throwing Guunzel off the scent. ¡°We interrogated one of her cronies. He pointed us in the direction of the Broken Mirror District, but that was a decoy. We came here to find the rest of her thieves before they could regroup. The hope was that by catching them we could force them to reveal where Monaco¡¯s backup hideout would be.¡± He carefully put himself between Kuro and Guunzel. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll take you and your mind some time to search the entire Silken River for them, so I hope you don¡¯t mind that we take our leave now.¡±


    We were in the middle of turning to leave when Guunzel sighed. ¡°Oh well. It won¡¯t matter either way. Once the Emperor sees the writ from the Queen of Dragontamers, I¡¯ll be free and clear to take the Hand of the Usurper from here.¡± I froze in my tracks, as did everyone else. ¡°Did he say what I think he said?¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°I did, indeed. I have an official writ of reclamation from the Queen of Dragontamers stating that it is our sovereign right to ask for the Hand to be returned to Ishmar through official diplomatic channels.¡± That arrogance snuck its way back into his voice, only more noticeable this time. ¡°Seeing as how the one who returned the Hand to the angels after the War of the Five Kings was Ishmarian, it stands to reason they would recognize our claim to such a powerful artifact. Any concerns you have about it are irrelevant. It is a weapon to slay gods and demons, not mages or armies.¡±


    Kuro¡¯s mouth hung open in utter shock. He stammered, words dying half-born in his mouth, then shut his jaw before he could say anything provocative. Unfortunately, Alicia was more than happy to say what he wanted to say for him. ¡°You¡¯re insane if you think the Emperor would willingly let you and Eliza have the Hand. You¡¯re just a lapdog for a kinslayer.¡±


    The fire returned to Guunzel¡¯s eyes, and I reflexively took a step backward. ¡°The Emperor would not agree, true. But it is not him who sits on the throne now, rather his imbecilic son. In three days'' time, the Emperor will have to concede his rule to the boy, and at that point he will have no choice but to acknowledge our claim.¡± He drew his sword, but didn¡¯t brandish it at us. ¡°If your information is true, I must move quickly to seal off the district. The Emperor won¡¯t like it, but his son invited me here and gave us the freedom to act. I have no further use for you. Leave.¡± He turned and lurched away. ¡°But if I find out you have deceived me, I will hunt you down. Then I¡¯ll show you how much bite this old lapdog has left in him.¡±


    In minutes the Legionnaires were up and filing out of the market square, splitting off into squads. Each squad had several Talionis with them, and even the regular Legionnaires gave them plenty of space. The regular Legionnaires must be terrified of the Talionis. Even when we were brought here, the normal soldiers always kept a few feet between them and the thralls. I need to know more about how they are made, or at least what magic was used on them. If we have to end up fighting them, knowing about potential weaknesses would save us a lot of trouble.


    In the chaos of the withdrawal, I pushed up against Alverd and waved my hand in an arcane gesture, weaving a simple pattern to invoke a spell that would allow me to probe deeper into the Talionis¡¯ magic aura. The trace went beyond the armor, past the murderous feeling permeating the metal, and into the person underneath. To my shock, the person inside the armor did not possess the spark of life as we typically knew it, but was somewhere between death and a comatose state.


    I put my other hand up to my mouth to stop myself from throwing up. Kuro tapped my shoulder before pushing me forward. ¡°Don¡¯t stop and think about it. We can discuss it when we get out of the Silken River.¡± I nodded, pushing the thought from my mind. Let¡¯s put more distance between us and Guunzel before I tell everyone what I¡¯ve found out.


    Alverd brought up the rear with me, making sure his friends were all in his line of sight and that we weren¡¯t being tailed by any of the Ishmarians. ¡°So, Kuro. I think you¡¯ve got some explaining to do, as do we. But first, we need to find a safe place to lay low. Can you and your¡­ friend make it back to Yuzuruha¡¯s place?¡± He gave the young fox beastwoman a sideways glance.


    ¡°I can do you one better. She has a place we can hide out that¡¯s closer. In the Graveyard District. Once we¡¯re there we can make sense of all this.¡± The girl clung tighter to Kuro, so much that I thought he might lose the ability to breathe. She remained silent, her nervous eyes flitting from each one of us to the other constantly.


    ¡°Well, what are we waiting for? The sooner we lose Guunzel the better. Those Talionis of his rub me the wrong way.¡± Alicia was the first to pass under the red arch and out of the district. ¡°Lead us to where we need to go. And make it snappy.¡±


    An hour later, we were all shacking up in a rundown shrine in a corner of an old graveyard, huddling around a mess of paper lanterns. Alverd sat serenely in the middle of the room, taking in his surroundings calmly as he sipped tea from an earthen cup that had been taken from a mismatched set, provided by the nervous fox beastwoman.


    The beastwoman in question was sitting in front of her hearth, brewing a second pot of tea, her lower lip quivering as she waited for the inevitable interrogation to begin. She sat next to Kuro, who had a defiant scowl on his face, their hands still joined as they had been since they first joined us. Alicia was off to the side, watching Monaco like a hawk, drinking her tea out of a ceramic cup that had a pink flower motif. I suppose it falls to me to break the ice, so to speak. Very well.


    ¡°So, Kuro. Tell us about your companion.¡± I chose my words diplomatically, as I had little knowledge of the girl, her clothing and certainly not her occupation. She¡¯s a scared girl squatting in an abandoned shrine with barely any furnishings. I¡¯d rather not judge, but everything I can clearly see with my eyes suggests she¡¯s some kind of transient. Watching the girl¡¯s face intently, I tried to gauge her reactions to gain insight into her temperament.


    The way she clung to Kuro didn¡¯t seem manipulative or fake. If she were playing him for money or some other kind of goal, she didn¡¯t give any outward signs. She avoided eye contact with me, which told me she was afraid I¡¯d see through her or she was genuinely nervous to meet strangers. I¡¯ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now. If she were a simple con artist, she would¡¯ve run for her life the moment the Legionnaires caught her with Kuro.


    ¡°This is Deotra. She¡¯s a shrine maiden and a local. Monaco and I ran into some trouble after she dragged me away, and Deotra came to our rescue and let us stay here with her while Monaco recuperates.¡± I lifted my eyebrow.


    ¡°Here? In this dilapidated building?¡±


    Suddenly, the girl leaned away from Kuro to speak. ¡°This has been my home for a long time. I¡¯m sorry if the slovenly appearance offends you. But there are many good memories attached to this place, so I stayed here. You¡¯re welcome to stay too.¡±


    I don¡¯t detect any falsehoods in her voice. Her tone is steady, her emotional inflections aren¡¯t staged. She means what she says, and that¡¯s usually a good tell that¡¯s being truthful. Albrecht had taught me how to size up peoples¡¯ intentions for years, helping me root out those who came to me with legitimate concerns and those who simply wanted to curry favor with me. Good thing I had those lessons. Even if they didn¡¯t help me figure out he was just as bad as the rest of them.


    Putting my personal thoughts aside, I continued questioning her. ¡°So it happened like Kuro said? You came across him and Monaco being attacked by Divernian Swords near the Broken Mirror District?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I saw them trying to flee. By that time Monaco had already been hurt, so I intervened as soon as I could.¡±


    ¡°How did you intervene? I have a hard time believing a group of thugs like the Swords would be scared of a young shrine maiden.¡±


    Kuro spoke up, his voice neutral but with a clear air of urgency that I caught right away. ¡°The Swords were trying to keep things hush hush. But a big blunder on their part started to turn things into a public spectacle. Once Deotra started calling for guards, the Swords decided to run for the hills.¡±


    Kuro was too quick to jump in there. Like he was anticipating he would need to fill in. I think he¡¯s hiding something, but then again, isn¡¯t he always? I¡¯ll find him later and question him about what¡¯s going on, but for now I¡¯d rather stay on topic. ¡°So then we¡¯re caught up. While we spent today questioning Monaco¡¯s man, you laid low here and tended to her wounds. You went to the Silken River to look for food and medicine, we went to follow up on our lead and we all ran into the Ishmarians there.¡±


    He nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. Now that we¡¯re all on the same page, we need to talk about what Guunzel said, and about those Talionis of his.¡± So eager to deflect and redirect the conversation. Too eager for my liking. He¡¯s definitely trying to hide something from us. The wheels in my head turned frantically, trying to make sense of his machinations. You can¡¯t fool me. Whatever it is you¡¯re trying to hide, I¡¯ll bring it to light. Or I¡¯m not the former Witch-Queen.


    ¡°I¡¯ve had plenty of time to examine the Talionis up close while I was being kept prisoner. I suspect you¡¯ve already figured out what¡¯s wrong with them too, Sheena.¡± I took in a breath. ¡°Yes. Somehow, Guunzel has found a way to turn a man into a hybrid undead by stranding the souls of his soldiers on the boundary between life and death. It¡¯s extremely potent necromancy, the kind you would need a senior practitioner with decades of experience to perform.¡±


    Alicia choked on her tea, spilling some of it on her clothes. ¡°Necromancy? You mean that icky green magic that makes dead things¡­ not dead?¡±


    Kuro scoffed. ¡°Not the most eloquent way to put it, but yeah. Normally, necromancy is about taking something that¡¯s already dead and making it ¡®alive¡¯ in the sense that it can move around and act according to basic orders. But you¡¯re not actually making it alive again, just a puppet.¡±


    I picked it up from there. ¡°What Guunzel has done is a bit of the inverse. His soldiers were alive, but he killed off parts of their bodies while keeping their souls intact and encased in the body. I suspect that the reason the armor is bolted onto the flesh of the Talionis is because they serve as an actual prison for the soul inside.¡± Alicia¡¯s face contorted in revulsion. ¡°Why would anyone willingly allow themself to be subjected to that?¡±


    In response, I picked up my staff and poked her arm with the bladed end, not enough to pierce her skin but enough to make her recoil away from me. ¡°Pain is the body¡¯s way of telling you that its physical limits are being tested. For a soldier that prides themself on being in peak physical condition, pain is the surest way to know when to ease off for fear of causing self harm.¡±


    I looked her square in the eye. ¡°What then, makes berserkers so dangerous, Alicia?¡±


    Comprehension dawned on her face as her eyes widened. ¡°We ignore pain. We push past it to accomplish things that others can¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Exactly. Imagine a soldier that retains their conscious mind, with all of its higher reasoning, but without pain to impair its physical prowess. Combine a berserker¡¯s raw brute strength with a Legionnaire¡¯s cunning, without fear of injury or death, and you create the perfect soldier. All you need at that point¡­ ¡°


    ¡°Is the armor.¡± Kuro finished my thought perfectly. ¡°The armor is enchanted to inflict a near-psychopathic urge on the soul inside the armor. Almost like it¡¯s conditioning it into a killing machine. Which means whatever magic Guunzel is using, it isn¡¯t a perfect process.¡±


    Alverd calmly took another sip of his tea, but his expression had turned quite dark. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°If the process was perfect, the soldier in the armor would be able to use higher reasoning and act as they did in life. The aura would be unnecessary. I suspect that if we were able to examine the armor more closely, we¡¯d also find a means for him to control the Talionis directly through something like simple verbal commands or hand gestures. I think the Talionis might still be in the development phase. Like prototypes.¡±


    Alicia shook her head, scooting over to join our conversation in full. ¡°No, no, no. There¡¯s no way Eliza would allow this. Remember how much she hates magic? If she knew that magic was involved, she¡¯d lop Guunzel¡¯s head off and mount it on a spike herself without a second thought.¡±


    ¡°What if she doesn¡¯t know?¡±


    Our eyes all turned to the mousy redhead still seated next to Kuro. Her hand was raised, and she looked more sheepish than before. ¡°Sorry, I know it doesn¡¯t concern me but after everything that¡¯s been said, I feel like I should point this out. What if this Guunzel man isn¡¯t telling his Queen everything? What if he¡¯s acting on his own?¡±


    It¡¯s a valid point. Even if Guunzel could prove his Talionis can perform, it means nothing if his actions are construed as treason. Which means this suddenly got a lot more complicated. ¡°Maybe he doesn¡¯t intend to use the Talionis long term. Maybe he just needs them to accomplish a singular goal, then he sweeps the evidence of what he¡¯s done under the rug before he reports back to the Queen.¡±


    Kuro snapped his fingers as he seized on something. ¡°Guunzel claimed he had a writ from Eliza saying that Ishmar can ask for the Hand to be given to them? That has to be a lie, right?¡±


    Alverd nodded. ¡°It has to be. Ishmar wasn¡¯t even a nation that existed after the War of the Five Kings. It was founded later, right?¡±


    Kuro pulled out a small book from his pouch. ¡°But there was that mural I found in the Nest, remember? The one written in Ishratan? And the memory we saw in the hidden fortress. I doubt anyone really knows for certain when Ishmar itself formally recognized itself as a kingdom. Guunzel could play on that uncertainty to try and forge some kind of diplomatic document and pass it off as the real thing.¡±


    Alicia was beside herself. ¡°Woah, slow down. This is making my head hurt. How is Guunzel going to convince the Emperor that he has some hundreds of years old order that says he can take a magic knife away from here?¡± There was a sound like someone grunting, and from the side of the room, Monaco propped herself up and grinned at us.


    ¡°Either he has the mother of all forgeries to present to the Emperor, or he¡¯s going to wait three days and try to trick the Emperor¡¯s son after his official coronation.¡± Even still recovering, the woman was absolutely insufferable. ¡°From what I heard, the coronation doesn¡¯t require the previous Emperor to be present, and if he¡¯s as sick as the people say, he¡¯s probably bedridden. The Imperial Heir is a half-wit, and he¡¯ll be easy for someone like Guunzel to fool.¡±


    ¡°How long have you been listening in?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Oh, the whole time. I¡¯m really good at playing dead. I wanted to see you lay all the cards on the table before I dealt myself in.¡± With a grunt of effort, she leaned against the wall to steady herself. ¡°Can¡¯t say I feel bad for my traitorous crew. That¡¯s what dishonesty gets you. Karma¡¯s a bitch, huh?¡± She said as she looked at Kuro.


    He folded his arms and glared at her. ¡°Back to the topic at hand. This whole plan of his falls apart the second it''s exposed to enough scrutiny. But if we operate under the assumption that Guunzel is acting on his own, purely in some kind of snatch-and-grab capacity, he just needs a few quick and dirty solutions and he can get what he came for and get out before anyone is the wiser.¡±


    Monaco nodded sagely. ¡°Now you¡¯re catching on. Stop thinking of him as some scary general and more like some run of the mill conman, and it starts making more sense.¡±


    ¡°So I suppose you have some brilliant way to stop him?¡±


    Monaco folded her arms behind her head. ¡°Nope. But I¡¯ve got three days to come up with one. I think you¡¯ve got no choice now, Alverd. Fortune has put us on the same side for once.¡± She gave him a maddeningly alluring look, mischievousness gleaming in her brown eyes.


    ¡°For now, yes. I¡¯m not looking forward to the idea of having to steal, even if it is to keep dangerous artifacts out of the hands of murderous lunatics.¡± He said as he finished the last of his tea.


    ¡°Hey now. Try to keep an open mind, Alverd. You never know. Once you¡¯ve felt the rush for the first time¡­¡± She licked her lips suggestively, rolling her shoulder just enough to pop her collar open and show off a bit of her decolletage. ¡°...You might just get a taste for it.¡±


    I will end you. I will bury you where not even the Goddess will ever find you, she-wolf.


    ¡°Um, if you want you can stay here tonight. It¡¯s not much, but my home is open to you all.¡± Deotra tried to smile, but she still looked painfully nervous. ¡°Mister Kuro was so brave in fighting against those Ishmarians! I¡¯d feel much safer with him here.¡± She wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder.


    Alicia smirked, then stretched her arms. ¡°Well. We can worry about all of it tomorrow. Right now, I¡¯m drained mentally. I need sleep.¡± She curled up on one of the futons and pulled a blanket over herself. ¡°Too much thinking and worrying. Bother me with it in the morning please.¡±


    Alverd was next, putting himself down near the door to be ready to respond to any intrusions. Monaco folded herself back into her blanket, chuckling lustily to herself. Enjoy yourself while it lasts, Monaco. I fully intend to keep your grubby paws far away from Alverd. Just then a bolt of inspiration hit me, and I made my way over to the far corner where Kuro was lying down in a futon next to Deotra¡¯s. I sat down in front of the two of them, taking note that they were in two different futons.


    ¡°I figured it out.¡± I said, matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Figured what out?¡± Kuro asked cautiously.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on here, of course.¡± I pointed at him and Deotra. ¡°The lies, the deception, the misguiding. I know everything. You thought you could pull one over on me. I¡¯ve dealt with schemers who lied right through their teeth at me, and you don¡¯t measure up to them.¡± His face didn¡¯t waver, but nervousness crept into his voice. Deotra nestled against him, trying to look like the picture of innocence. ¡°I know what really happened.¡± I said, triumphantly. ¡°You didn¡¯t try to find your way back to us earlier in the day because you were too busy fooling around with this girl, weren¡¯t you?¡±


    Kuro¡¯s mouth fell open, and Deotra let out a little gasp and burrowed her face into him. ¡°Aha! I knew it!¡± I whisper-yelled at them. ¡°You were so busy doing things of an improper nature that you forgot all about us!¡± He closed his mouth, tried to speak several times, closed his eyes and spoke. ¡°Yes. Absolutely. I was so busy being a skirt chaser that I completely forgot about my boon companions. Bravo, Sheena. You cracked the case.¡± His deadpan tone told me that he had accepted his guilt, as he could no longer hide it after I¡¯d nailed him to the wall.


    ¡°Hah! No one can outsmart the great and mighty Witch-Queen. Lucky for you, I¡¯ll overlook it this time since you kept Monaco away from Alverd for so long. I got to spend some quality time with him in a rickshaw, so I¡¯m in a great mood. Be grateful that I won¡¯t snitch on you to Alverd for your incredible lapse in judgment.¡±


    He nodded emphatically. ¡°Oh, yes. Thank you, oh great and mighty Sheena. Truly all my schemes could not be hidden from your infallible intellect.¡± He settled into his futon. ¡°I¡¯ll try not to let my libido get in the way of my judgment in the future. Thank you so much for showing mercy on me.¡± He turned away from me, obviously to hide his look of shame.


    I crawled into my own futon, filled with pride. Today had certainly been a day of ups and downs, but somehow I¡¯d come out ahead by all estimations. I daresay my fortunes are in for a change of pace. Perhaps tomorrow will be the start of my eventual triumph in love! Oh, the sky''s the limit!


    Tomorrow and the next few days were certainly going to be challenging, but suddenly I wasn¡¯t dreading the future.


    In fact, I was rather looking forward to it.

 Bonus Chapter: Monaco: Wolf in Foxs Clothing

    My eyes never left the fox as she expertly cut the ingredients for her stew, tracking every flash of the light of the paper lanterns glinting along her knife.


    She never looked at me. Like I wasn¡¯t worth her time. She was too busy fawning over Kuro, who was lying unconscious on the far side of the shrine from me. She made soft little cooing sounds every time he grunted or moaned in his sleep, rushing over to check on him and run her fingers along the side of his face affectionately.


    Then, she¡¯d alternate between checking on her stew and glaring at me with the coldest eyes I¡¯d ever seen in my life. I was starting to think at some point she was going to chop me into little pieces to put into the pot.


    My shoulder and leg felt like they were on fire. My clothes were still soaked through with blood and none of my muscles seemed like they wanted to move. Gods, I¡¯m a prisoner in my own body right now. The thought sent a chill down the back of my neck and to the base of my spine.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try anything,¡± she said coldly. She had a soft, feminine voice, but it had more ice in it than the Tempest Coastline in Margloom during the winter. ¡°You¡¯re in no position to move, much less fight. If you don¡¯t cause trouble then I¡¯ll think about letting you go without issue.¡±


    That¡¯s what they all say. Doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s some full-of-himself noble or hardened bounty hunter they always pull that card and wait for you to buy in before they send you up the river with a full house. Taking in a deep breath, I tried to keep things civil. ¡°Okay. I mean I¡¯m not dead yet, so as long as we keep it that way I¡¯m open to a discussion.¡±


    She shifted her sight back to the pot, but not before she took a slightly smaller one off the hearth, and set it down by her side. Steam was rising off of it, curling out from under its stone lid. She gripped the small handle on the lid and lifted it, allowing the steam to burst out. To my shock, she reached into the pot and pulled out a wet cloth, seemingly unfazed by how hot it must have been.


    Her head turned back to me, and suddenly her golden eyes were now a deep crimson shade. ¡°Hold still.¡± Her voice was deeper, like that of a mature woman rather than some young girl. Before I could do anything, she rolled up the cloth and then pressed it against my shoulder.


    I bit down hard as the cloth met the wound on my shoulder, a soft hiss escaping through my clenched teeth. The girl put her hand on my collarbone to push me down and hold me so I wouldn¡¯t thrash about. I wanted to bite her again, to gnash her soft skin for what she was doing to me. You little bitch you little bitch I¡¯ll tear your arms out what the hell are you doing to meeeeee¡­


    Then she pulled the cloth away, which had soaked up the blood, and placed a cold compress on it. She placed her hand on top and started whispering. The pain began to fade, slowly but gradually, until all that was left was a pulsing beat like that of a heart in my shoulder, and the sensation of something flowing through my body, like liquid rushing to the wound.


    ¡°What¡­ what are you doing?¡± I mumbled feebly. ¡°I am directing the energy of your body to the wound to speed the healing. This is something your body does naturally, I¡¯m simply doing it at a much faster pace. It¡¯s much more effective than just doing magic to try and close the wound. By involving the body¡¯s own natural healing factor, I¡¯m ensuring your wound will suffer less residual pain after the healing is complete.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± I said grumpily. ¡°I meant why did you slap me with that boiling hot cloth?¡± The fox¡¯s expression didn¡¯t change from casual disinterest.


    ¡°Oh. Well, it needed to be disinfected. If I sealed it up now, the wound would fester. Then I¡¯d have to cut you open and remove the diseased bits before closing you up again.¡± The chill returned when I heard the matter-of-fact tone of her voice.


    This bitch is crazy. Utterly, completely crazy.


    There was also the fact that she was a monster, too. I¡¯d passed out from shock during the attack, but I did remember waking for a brief moment during the aftermath. My eyes had flickered open and beheld a graveyard, and in that second I thought I had crossed over to the next world.


    Then, I¡¯d been dumped on the ground as whatever was carrying me was no longer under me, supporting my weight. I hit the dirt, sending fresh pain shooting through my body. Standing over me and the limp body of Kuro was a small fox beastwoman wreathed in blue fire, the only hint I had to tell me that something otherworldly had intervened in our battle against the Swords.


    Her eyes had been so full of anger when she looked at me. Somewhere deep in my brain the fight-or-flight reflex told me that I needed to run. There was something behind those eyes though. Something lurking behind like Death itself. Then she had dragged Kuro into the shrine and came back for me, taking care to move me into the building without injuring me further.


    That care ended the moment it came time to treat me. Without warning, she grabbed the bolt sticking out of my shoulder and yanked it out all the way through. Her hand clapped over my mouth to stifle the scream, and tears welled up in my eyes as my shoulder erupted in a surge of hot pain. Then she did the same with the bolt in my leg, and she did it with such flippancy that I sank my teeth into her fingers.


    She barely even registered it. Instead, she waited until I stopped thrashing, then removed her fingers, which somehow weren¡¯t even bleeding. That was when I saw her eyes had somehow turned a different color.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    ¡°Well that¡¯s gratitude for you.¡± She hissed at me. ¡°This will go a lot smoother if you work with me instead of fight me.¡±


    ¡°Tell it to somebody who might fall for that,¡± I growled at her. Adrenaline was pumping through me, and it was making me a little more cocky than was healthy. ¡°Why should I believe you?¡±


    The fox shrugged. Then she turned away to take out her cutlery and food and start making stew like it was the most natural thing in the world. Despite everything, my stomach rumbled slightly as the smell wafted over to me.


    ¡°Why go to all this trouble? You could¡¯ve left me at the Broken Mirror.¡± She sliced a head of cabbage in half and started chopping the halves into pieces, scooping them up and sliding them into the pot.


    ¡°I could¡¯ve. But he didn¡¯t want me to.¡± Her voice had softened again. ¡°He would think lesser of me if I did. He has more compassion than me.¡± She paused, and her hand clutched at her heart. ¡°That¡¯s why¡­ ¡° The fingers on her hand tightened, gripping the front of her robe and wrinkling them. ¡°I want to be more like him. I want to know how he can show compassion. I want him to teach me how to do it.¡±


    I nearly barked out a laugh but it came out as a cough. ¡°Compassion? Seriously? Why would you need someone to teach you that?¡±


    Her eyes seared into me again, but stayed golden. ¡°Didn¡¯t you learn it from someone? If not, then I guess you were just born with it. Either way, you¡¯ve had it for so long you take the ability to feel it for granted. So when you look at someone like me, all you feel is contempt.¡± Goosebumps raised on my arms as I pondered the truth of her words. Can¡¯t believe I¡¯m being lectured by a monster.


    As the stew bubbled and boiled, the girl would pause every so often to gaze lovingly at Kuro. Take that in. Remember that. This girl has some weird split personality or she¡¯s possessed. Either way, she¡¯s unstable. But if I have to, I can use Kuro against her. Either the threat of his life or exposing her true nature to him might be enough to keep her in check until I can get out of here.


    Playing all the angles was a thief¡¯s bread and butter. Every heist, every con, every contract was just another riddle to solve, a puzzle box to rotate in my head until I had solved it. My father had brought home the most confounding devices and puzzles from every corner of the continent on his travels and dared me to solve them, and I hadn¡¯t failed yet.


    Dad¡¯s fighting for his life, and now so am I. Like father, like daughter. I grit my teeth. I can¡¯t let him down. Even if I have to crawl all the way back to Margloom with that gods-be-damned relic, I will. Nothing¡¯s gonna stop me from saving Dad. I tried to roll my shoulder just to test if it was functional. My arm refused to listen; I couldn¡¯t muster enough strength to rotate my shoulder, and I feared even if I did, I would just injure myself further.


    My mind raced as I assessed my situation. Okay. My shoulder and leg are still useless. I don¡¯t know exactly where I am in Blossom City. I can¡¯t trust my crew. The Divernian Swords are in the city looking for me. Every second I spend here is another second Dad is fighting for his life. And I have this murderous fox watching my every move.


    Oh, and I still have to find a way to sneak into a heavily fortified tower full of magical security measures that I know nothing about to steal a legendary relic that can kill divine beings. Great. All caught up. Gnashing my teeth, I tried not to let the smell of the stew distract me. I¡¯ve got to focus. Distraction is gonna get me killed.


    Yet the pleasant aroma of meat crossed my nostrils at that exact moment, snapping me out of my thoughts instantly. Hell with it. I need food and rest. Like it or not I¡¯m not going anywhere. ¡°If you haven¡¯t killed me yet, that means you have a use for me. Let¡¯s not pretend. You don¡¯t strike me as the kind of person that likes roundabout talk.¡± I fixed her with a steady gaze. ¡°You expect something of me. So tell me what it is, and maybe we can work something out.¡±


    Come to the table reasonably and you can convince the other party that you¡¯re open to parley. Give a tiny bit and you set the table for your opposite to do the same. Even if she offers nothing, her reaction can give me an idea of how to approach this. She glared at me again, but this time there was something behind that glare, as if the wheels were turning in her head at my suggestion.


    ¡°That depends. I can think of something. In the grand scheme of things, I have no need to kill you. But if it helps you believe me, we can make a deal.¡±


    Although the mention of making a deal made me smile inwardly, it also sent another chill down my back. She¡¯s so much like a devil. I half expect her to pull out a fiddle when she lays out the terms of this deal she mentioned. Still, it was the best odds I had all day. ¡°What did you have in mind?¡±


    She nodded her head back towards the unconscious Kuro. ¡°He¡¯s important to me. More than you can possibly know. If you swear on pain of death to protect him at any cost, I promise to let you live when this is all over. To do you no harm in any way, shape or form.¡± She extended her hand, palm up. ¡°If you swear, do it knowing that I will hold you to your word.¡±


    Easier than I thought. But then again, when you let emotion guide your judgment, you become an easy mark. One of the first things any thief learns is how to spot a target. ¡°Alright. Deal.¡± I put my hand in hers, shaking it.


    The agony that blazed up my arm was unexpected, to say the least. My hand burst into blue fire, which shot up my sleeve until my whole arm was engulfed. It felt like torchfire being pressed against my bare skin. I nearly bit my tongue in two as I stifled a full blown scream from leaving my mouth. The fox watched me, her eyes crimson again, her face a mask that didn¡¯t betray any emotion, not even disgust.


    When she finally let go of my hand, the flames disappeared instantly. In the palm of my open hand, there was a symbol that looked like it had been tattooed with red ink. It vaguely resembled a fox¡¯s head, but at the same time the image seemed to twist before my eyes, taking on the shape of a letter in a language I didn¡¯t understand.


    ¡°There. The pact is sealed. No turning back now.¡± The girl¡¯s voice had been replaced again by the more mature one. ¡°Perhaps you should consider the potential consequences more carefully before you make such decisions, wolf. Oh well. Too late now. You will abide by our terms, and I will know if you don¡¯t. Don¡¯t doubt that I will visit true terror on you if you violate our deal.¡±


    Still whimpering, I tried to shy away from the girl. ¡°Who are you? Are you possessed? Are you a devil?¡± My mind raced, thinking of the stories of the monsters who came with the Imbalancer across time and space. Fear made even the most outlandish answer seem plausible, and I had never been more afraid in my life than I was in this moment.


    ¡°A devil?¡± The girl chuckled, and the sultry voice never seemed more out of place than it did right then. ¡°I might as well be, given what I¡¯ve done. But no, I am no devil.¡± She leaned forward, her mouth opening to show her teeth, the ends of her mouth curling up into a horrifying smile. Her red eyes gleamed in the flickering light, and had my leg not been hurt I might have jumped through a window to escape.


    ¡°I am far worse than that. And if you don¡¯t behave yourself, wolf, you¡¯ll find out sooner rather than later what that entails.¡± She ran her hand over my brow, brushing my hair with a gentle touch reminiscent of a loving mother, a gesture that made my skin crawl. ¡°Try not to worry yourself. Stay on our good side, and you¡¯ll have nothing to fear.¡± Her fingers ran down my face to my eyelids, and she pulled them closed softly.


    ¡°Do what the rest of the people in this world do best for now. Turn a blind eye. Have not a care in the world. Be a good little sheep and just do as you¡¯re told.¡± I felt the sensation of a bandage wrapping around my hand to cover the sigil, and I was too afraid to open my eyes again.


    I wasn¡¯t sure I would like what I would see if I did.

 B3: Chapter 20: Kuro: The Heist of a Lifetime

    ¡°Alright, gather round. Let¡¯s take stock of the situation before we start putting a plan together.¡±


    Illuminated by the lanterns, Alverd, Alicia, Sheena, Monaco, and I sat in a circle in Deotra¡¯s rundown shrine looking at a map of Blossom City. Deotra was at the hearth cooking more food as the sun began to set outside on our first day since agreeing to work together to steal the Hand of the Usurper.


    Monaco had made a list in the morning of equipment she needed, mostly things that had been left behind in her crew¡¯s lair in the Broken Mirror district. She had given said list to Alverd, who scowled in a familiar, disapproving way.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s mildly insulting that you believe I know where to find some of the items on this list, Monaco.¡± He had said at the time. ¡°Although it isn¡¯t as insulting as you believing I can acquire them with no issue.¡±


    The thief had winked at him, causing Sheena to grind her teeth so loud I could hear them gnashing in her closed mouth. ¡°I tried to go easy on you. If it helps most of that can be found in the Silken River, and whatever you can¡¯t find just get the base components and I¡¯ll assemble the rest later.¡± She sprawled out on the floor, making me wonder if the bandages on her leg and shoulder were now just for show. ¡°Off you go. Be a good boy and be back before sundown. I¡¯ve got plans to formulate.¡±


    I was about to stand up when her hand snapped out and grabbed my wrist. ¡°Oh no, not you. You¡¯re staying here and helping me scheme. Plus if the Swords find us, you can protect little ol¡¯ me like you did the other night.¡± She gave me a ridiculous catlike grin that exuded smugness. This little pot stirrer. I don¡¯t know what your game is but it can¡¯t be good. I¡¯ll play along for now, but gods above is she going to be insufferable.


    As the day wore on, Monaco and I strategized about how we¡¯d pull off what she admitted was going to be the most difficult theft of her whole career. ¡°Going in blind changes all the variables. There is no way to get eyes inside the Repository without getting in there to see it myself. On our short timetable, we don¡¯t have the luxury of being able to forge identities or steal uniforms, nor do I even believe that¡¯s how security works for such an important location.¡±


    She had propped herself upright against the wall, and as we discussed plans I noticed every so often her testing her shoulder by rotating it. It was too overt a gesture for her to disguise as idle discomfort, and she repeated it often enough to make me think it was intentional. She¡¯s trying to see if she can rely on her shoulder. Given what Drache did, I guess it¡¯s only natural.


    As I had been the first to wake this morning, Deotra was waiting for me when I opened my eyes. She was practically hovering over my face with her inquisitive golden eyes. She led me outside, where we watched the sun creep up into the sky over the course of an hour. During that time, she had come clean about what Drache had done to stabilize Monaco¡¯s condition, although I was still worried to hear about it.


    I already knew that Deotra apparently lacked the power to cast healing magic. I wasn¡¯t expecting the explanation to take this turn, though. Deotra knelt before me and confessed to me what had gone down. ¡°Drache had to take over the healing responsibilities because I¡¯m not human. As a familiar, I¡¯m a creature of magic, so I don¡¯t have the same physical vulnerabilities as a human. I could be run through the heart by a blade and survive because my life derives from your mana, not blood.¡±


    ¡°So then that means you don¡¯t¡­ understand how mortal bodies work?¡±


    ¡°A bit oversimplified but yes. You¡¯re flesh and blood, and I¡¯m made of raw magic. Us being connected through our contract means we have an emotional and magical link, which allows me to intrinsically interpret how your body works. ¡± She tilted her head in the direction of Monaco. ¡°It¡¯s the same for her. Mortals can exist out here in the world without a need to absorb mana constantly. Familiars require that. Even if I had empathy for Monaco¡¯s life, which I don¡¯t¡­¡± Her eyes flashed malevolently, and I shivered. ¡°I don¡¯t understand enough about how mortal bodies work to treat her wounds. Even back in Ishmar, it was Drache who had to repair the damage done to you by Eliza¡¯s blade. She had to use a more direct method than the one she used on Monaco. Such a grievous wound needed an immediate response, and so she expended a lot of her mana reserves to help you. She may not have a body right now, but since she was human once, she knew how to heal you when the need arose.¡±


    I remember that. It was almost as though there were never a stab wound to begin with. , though. ¡± I pondered her words for a moment. ¡°Could you learn how to treat injuries?¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°Even if I were to read books and acquire the knowledge, there is still a block. It¡¯s like how doctors and veterinarians both practice medicine, but the anatomy of animals and humans are different fields, . the same techniques you would use on a human aren¡¯t always the ones you¡¯d use on a cat or dog, and vice versa.¡±


    An important distinction, I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Knowing Deotra and Drache¡¯s separate capabilities is helpful. It also gives me a bit more insight into how their ¡°arrangement¡± works. It seems like Drache¡¯s ability to be the active personality in control of their shared body is voluntary, and only when Deotra deems it necessary. Plus, she can wrest control back from Drache if need be based on past experience. So no matter what, Deotra has ways to assert herself over Drache if the latter gets out of hand.


    Letting out a small sigh of relief, I stretched my arms. ¡°Good to know. Is Monaco in the clear?¡±


    ¡°She will be capable of full movement by nightfall. Deotra¡¯s response was flat, devoid of concern or emotion. But I still don¡¯t trust her. In the event she tries to double cross us, I have a way to deal with her.¡± Can¡¯t help but be a little concerned when she says that. Still, if Monaco really is dumb enough to try and stab us in the back after all we¡¯ve done for her, she deserves whatever she gets.


    Deotra looked at me expectantly with her hands folded in her lap. Is she waiting for me to praise her? She looks like a puppy. I reached out my hand and ran it through her hair, scritching the space between her prominent fox ears. ¡°You did well,¡± I said. Her mouth curled into a smile and she made a happy mumbling noise as she leaned towards me, enjoying the sensation of my hand in her hair.


    ¡°Thank you. Anything for you.¡±


    The sound of Monaco¡¯s voice droning at me shook me from my daydream. ¡°Hey. You dozing off? You¡¯ve got some far off look in your eye.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. I was thinking about something else.¡± She waved her hand at me irritably. ¡°Listen here. You get distracted on a job like this and everything goes to shit. If you aren¡¯t where you need to be or taking care of your part of the heist at exactly the right time, you throw the whole thing out of whack. We¡¯ve got to be a well oiled machine, or the plan is doomed from the start.¡± She took a swig of something from a small metal flask on her belt before hooking it back in place. ¡°Doubly so since we¡¯re making most of this up as we go.¡±


    ¡°So we¡¯re just going to have to accept that we can¡¯t predict the guards¡¯ movements or patrol patterns?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Yes. With no way to get inside the Repository, we can¡¯t get information on their numbers, positions or schedules. Traps I can deal with as they come, but guards are the fly in the ointment.¡± She was making notes on a piece of parchment, which she showed me as she spoke. Most guards will follow some rules. They¡¯ll cover set amounts of ground if they¡¯re patrolling, to avoid being spread too far thin. Some are meant to remain stationary to guard bottlenecks or high traffic areas. It¡¯s just a matter of figuring out which is which. The former can be avoided, but if we encounter the latter we have to use force.¡±


    ¡°So once we have to use violence, everything falls apart, huh?¡± I asked. ¡°In that case, what¡¯s your exit strategy?¡±


    Sheonaco pointed at a map of Blossom City she¡¯d laid out on the floor. ¡°There are a few buildings near the Repository¡¯s central tower. I sent Alverd and the rest out to estimate the distance between the tower and the adjacent buildings. If they¡¯re close enough, a grappling hook and zipline will serve as the best exit.¡±


    The nearest building was a housing complex built in a more modern style, with a flat roof. ¡°What happens if the distance is too far?¡± She clucked her tongue. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you worry I have a plan for that too. Have you ever heard of a parachute?¡± I blinked.


    ¡°A pair of what?¡±


    She smirked at me. ¡°Nevermind. It¡¯ll be easier to show you rather than describe it. Tomorrow we can test it out, because if we have to rely on it there¡¯s no room for mistakes. Now. ¡°Physical traps I can manage. Anything mundane or nonmagical I can either finesse with my tools or have Alverd or that Ishmarian bust down with brute strength. It¡¯s the magical traps I need help with.¡± Monaco had a number of tools on her person, which she dug out of a pouch belted to her leg and spread out across the floor. Many of them were narrow pieces of metal with small protrusions, although a few were metal loops and fasteners and even something that looked like a lump of clay. That¡¯s where you come in, Kuro.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t Sheena help with those?¡± I said.


    ¡°Hell no, I don¡¯t trust her. I¡¯ve seen the way she looks at me, like she wants to bury me in a shallow grave. Anytime I flirt with Alverd I can sense her glaring at me, which is part of the reason I do it.¡± She smirked at me facetiously. ¡°What¡¯s life without a little drama? Pretty damn boring if you ask me. So no, I¡¯d rather have you take care of any enchantments or glyphs we might find.¡±


    I don¡¯t understand how anyone can be so astute and yet so childish at the same time, and I¡¯ve spent plenty of time in Sheena¡¯s company now. I guess for some people it¡¯s easier to present a contradictory facade than show who they really are. Although in these girls¡¯ defense, if people knew who they really were underneath those masks, they could probably use it against them.


    ¡°What kind of magical defenses are you expecting?¡±


    Monaco presented me with a small journal that had been secured in yet another part of her belt. Opening it, I saw diagrams of glyphs, magical devices, and other booby traps wizards and witches had invented over the years to guard places of great importance. ¡°Considering the danger the artifacts inside the Repository pose, all of these and more. Might be some things I¡¯ve never even seen. The angels that served the Goddess were said to have had a hand in overseeing the construction of the Repository, so they might have put a trap in there that only they would know about.¡±


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    A few of the traps in Monaco¡¯s journal were ones I¡¯d seen before. Some of them worked similar to traditional mechanical traps in that they had simple triggers and effects, such as pressure detection in the glyph causing a retaliatory blast of fire magic to engulf the offender. A more complicated device was designed to create an effect that sucked the air out of the room, suffocating anyone in it, and it was triggered by a change in air temperature. She certainly has a lot of useful information. Alverd may not agree but we would have benefited a lot from having someone like her with us during our mercenary years.


    My errant thought reminded me of a question I had been meaning to ask. ¡°Your dad must be really important, huh?¡± She froze in the middle of her calculations, her eyes slowing looking up from her parchment. ¡°Even in spite of the fact that you know that the Guildmaster double-crossed you, you¡¯re still gonna get the Hand. Are you thinking you can try to leverage it to get that medicine? Play the player, so to speak?¡±


    When she didn¡¯t respond, I pushed a little harder. ¡°You can¡¯t seriously think you can just walk back to Margloom with a knife that slays godly beings and put it in the hands of some treacherous bitch who tried to have her goons leave you for dead, do you? You¡¯ll be dead the second you enter Margloom. You won¡¯t even make it back to Dawnbreeze City.¡±


    Her lips parted and I could see her sharp, clenched teeth. ¡°Watch yourself, Kuro. I¡¯m desperate, not stupid.¡± I leaned forward, wasn¡¯t gonna back down.


    ¡°Desperation can easily lead to stupidity. The Guildmaster isn¡¯t just pulling your strings, she¡¯s pulling your heartstrings. She¡¯s relying on you making one mistake, just one, so she can nail you to the wall. If we hadn¡¯t come along, you¡¯d still be running around Blossom City with a crew itching to shank you when you least expected it.¡±


    There was silence as we stared at each other, like two predators daring the other to make a move. Finally, Monaco leaned back and hissed a sigh out between her teeth. ¡°Dad didn¡¯t want me to be a thief. Said he joined the guild so he could make enough money that I could choose whatever path in life I wished instead of resorting to crime like him. So you can imagine how much it pissed him off when I joined the guild myself.¡±


    ¡°Like father, like daughter, huh?¡± I said.


    ¡°Gonna stop you right there.¡± She held up her hand. ¡°I didn¡¯t join that guild because I wanted to prove something to him. It¡¯s what I wanted to do. Around Margloom, the Four Winds are respected enough. They¡¯re one of the only guilds willing to take in people with checkered pasts and give them clean jobs. They take steps to rehabilitate people who pay their debts to society but keep paying the price long after they get out of prison.¡±


    Then, she pulled out that familiar, mischievous grin again. ¡°Of course it wasn¡¯t long until the higher ups found out that thieving ran in our family. Once they saw I had some of my dad¡¯s talent, they put me to work as one of their retrievers. My dad hemmed and hawed but I know deep down he was kind of proud of me. The apple of his eye not falling too far away from the tree.¡± The smile faded and was replaced with worry. ¡°I wonder how my mom is doing right now. She must be falling apart. Before she only had to deal with dad being sick, now she¡¯s probably worried about me too.¡±


    The closest I ever got to parents was Alverd¡¯s mom fussing over me when I¡¯d come to visit. Alverd¡¯s mother would bombard me with questions, asking me if I was eating okay because I was so thin and small, if I was getting enough sleep, or if it was okay if she made some cookies for me to take back to the academy.


    Okay, so I can trust that Monaco will be with us right until we get the Hand. But once she has it, all bets are off. She can still find ways to leave us behind to take the fall while getting a head start on her trip back to Margloom. Let¡¯s even the odds a little bit. ¡°Well, we can make sure that her daughter gets home safe at the very least. Speaking of which, there¡¯s something I should mention about the Hand of the Usurper. I¡¯ve learned that the knife itself is extremely dangerous.¡±


    She rolled her eyes at me. ¡°Yes, yes, I know. Slaying gods and demons. I know the scripture. My mom made me go to church every week, not much of it sunk in.¡±


    Hook¡¯s in, go for the sinker. ¡°No, I mean just being near it can be hazardous. Anyone who touches the Hand has the potential to go mad. I can try to negate that power if I get a look at it first. The last thing we need is for one of us to have a psychotic break during this heist.¡± Technically it¡¯s the truth. Anyone who looks into the blade will see what I saw.


    Monaco¡¯s eyes widened slightly, then settled back to normal size. ¡°I hadn¡¯t heard that. Is your source reliable?¡±


    ¡°Extremely. I did some digging while you were recovering. The blade itself is like a window into the past, allowing you to see the atrocities committed with it during the War of the Five Kings. I¡¯d even go so far to say that it might be capable of influencing you if you stare into it. Don¡¯t know if it¡¯s true or not, but we can¡¯t take that chance either way.¡± I was incredibly careful to leave out that the information had come from Drache.


    Keep her focused on the heist, and I¡¯ll pull the wool over her eyes for once. As tough as things are with her dad, the best case scenario for all of us is that Alverd and I are the ones holding the Hand when this is all said and done. As she furled her brow in deep thought, processing my information, I tried not to betray any of my own thoughts by maintaining a neutral expression. The instant she gets the Hand, she¡¯ll burn us. One moment of distraction or misdirection and she¡¯ll slip away and leave us holding the bag. By the time the truth comes out, she¡¯ll be halfway back to Margloom. Paranoia is a poor companion but at least you¡¯ll live long enough to resent its company.


    I had to stifle a sigh of relief when Monaco shook her head and continued on with her plan. ¡°In that case, I can probably put that redhead elf on the task of providing some kind of shielding spell. Something to block mental influencing?¡±


    I nodded emphatically. ¡°Yes, it¡¯s possible. It¡¯ll require constant concentration to keep the effect up, so if you put Sheena on it I can stay free to disarm any other magical traps.¡±


    You¡¯re clever, but I¡¯m devious. I¡¯ll be able to watch you like a hawk, Monaco.Damn, I really should¡¯ve learned how to play chess. I would¡¯ve been a literal wizard at it, hahaha.


    Throughout the conversation I kept stealing glances over at Deotra. For some reason she seemed completely at ease in regards to the things being discussed. She must have feelings about the amount of danger I¡¯m going to be in, but she¡¯s¡­ calm. Not once has she stopped what she¡¯s doing to glare at Monaco or assert herself. She was in fact at the moment tidying up her home with a broom, sweeping dust into a small metal tray that she used to dump it all out of the boarded up window.


    Monaco caught me watching Deotra. ¡°So what¡¯s the deal with the girl?¡±


    My face turned red when I saw I¡¯d been caught in the act. ¡°She¡¯s, uh, um, erm, someone I met recently.¡± Deotra¡¯s back was turned to me, but her tall fox ears pricked straight up instantly. She¡¯s listening now. Thanks, Monaco.


    ¡°Nuh-uh, you¡¯re gonna have to give me more details than that. Come on, the juicy stuff. I want the sleazy, salacious, scandalous truth. Gimme gimme.¡± She gave me a wide, toothy smile. ¡°Spill it. A guy like you just happens to meet a cute little thing like that and suddenly you want to keep everything hush hush? Something doesn¡¯t add up. You¡¯re not ashamed of anything you¡¯ve done, have you?¡±


    Narrowing my eyes, I scoffed at her. ¡°Maybe I do, maybe I don¡¯t. That¡¯s none of your business, and you can run the filthy little hamster wheels in your head all you want trying to fill in the blanks. I don¡¯t kiss and tell.¡±


    The implications of my statement didn¡¯t sink in until the grin on Monaco¡¯s face got so big it threatened to stretch past the limits of her face. From the corner, Deotra mumbled, her tail curling back and forth on the ground as she shivered from embarrassment. Damn this wolf. She¡¯s nothing but trouble.


    Time passed and plans were made, scrapped, remade, modified, and refined. Alverd and the girls came back from the Silken River with most of what Monaco had asked for sometime in the early afternoon. With some instruction from Monaco, we assembled the equipment she had asked for that wasn¡¯t available in the market. That was when I learned what a parachute was. She was explaining the theory of it, using a special cloth to catch air over my head to slowly lower me to the ground when Alicia spoke up.


    ¡°That might work for most of us, but what about Alverd? Won¡¯t his armor make him too heavy?¡±


    She nodded. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fairly certain that my basic parachute isn¡¯t going to be able to hold his weight. If I had time and the right tools to make a proper parachute I would, but we don¡¯t. Alverd, did you calculate the distance between the Repository and the nearby buildings like I asked?¡±


    Sheena scowled, folding her arms. ¡°I took care of that. Based on what I saw, your contraption will have enough rope to bridge the gap. It¡¯ll still take an insanely accurate shot with a crossbow to hit the target you had me set up on that other building.¡± Monaco scoffed.


    ¡°What? Think I can¡¯t make that shot, Red?¡±


    Alverd cleared his throat. ¡°That¡¯s enough, ladies. Focus on the task at hand, please.¡±


    Sheena sulked, but sat herself down cross-legged in front of the map. When it was clear she wasn¡¯t going to start any trouble, Monaco walked us through the details of her plan. ¡°Entry into the Repository is simple enough. You¡¯re not gonna like it but it works every time. A building that size has to have a significant guard barracks to accommodate it, and that many guards means it¡¯s unrealistic to dig latrines. It¡¯ll have a sewer entrance we can use to get past the outer wall, which will open up somewhere inside the grounds.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a sewer?¡± Alicia asked. All eyes turned to her.


    ¡°Right,¡± I said, exasperated. ¡°Ishmar would be behind on implementation of basic public amenities.¡± I quickly summarized what a sewer was for her, at which point her face twisted into an expression of absolute disgust at the envisioned rivers of feces and sludge water running below the busy streets of a bustling city.


    ¡°Why would anyone think that that¡¯s a good idea?¡± She asked, but Monacoo was already moving on  to the next part of the plan.


    ¡°Once we¡¯re aboveground, we get into the Repository and make our way upstairs. I¡¯m going to guess that something as important as the Hand is way up near the top of the tower. We avoid the guards, locate the Hand and snag it, then use the parachutes and zipline at the top to escape.¡± She finished her recap and regarded us smugly. ¡°Any questions?¡±


    Sheena raised her hand. Monaco waited a moment before pointing at her, and I saw a hint of irritation on the her face. ¡°Is there anything we do know for certain about the inner tower that you¡¯re not telling us about? I get the feeling you¡¯re not being completely honest about what we¡¯re up against. Also, the fact that so much of your equipment relies on physical means tells me exactly what I want to know. You expect to find anti-magic defenses, don¡¯t you?¡±


    Well, well, well. For once, she raises a good point. Monaco didn¡¯t answer right away, instead mulling over her answer carefully. Finally, she sighed and rolled her shoulder again, this time with no difficulty. ¡°I ran into a trap like that once on a job. Half our kit was built around magical tools. When the anti-magic field hit us, we weren¡¯t ready. Two of my crew almost died and the rest were almost caught. So nowadays I try not to rely so heavily on magic in case I encounter something similar.¡±


    Deotra came and put bowls of a warm, pleasant-smelling soup in front of each of us. I drained mine quickly, although the others were still waiting for Monaco to elaborate. ¡°Look, there¡¯s no guarantee we¡¯ll even run into a trap like that. And even if we do, Alverd and Alicia can deal with anything that gets thrown at us while we undo the anti-magic field. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s a solid bubble where magic can¡¯t be used. It simply scrambles your ability to use magic so it¡¯s damn near impossible.¡±


    ¡°But, you said it yourself, Monaco. The angels who helped build the Repository might have capabilities beyond anything we¡¯ve ever seen,¡± I pointed out. ¡°What happens if it is exactly that?¡± Unphased by my question, she stood her ground. ¡°Then we have Alverd and Alicia find the source for the trap and break it. Whatever would be emanating that field would be susceptible to physical tampering. Again, that¡¯s if the Repository even has that kind of defense¡­¡±


    Returning with small trays, Deotra laid out strips of meat in front of us after placing a small cauldron of hot water in the hearth. ¡°You dip the meat in the hot water to boil it. I¡¯m preparing some vegetables too. Get started without me, I¡¯ll catch up.¡± She advised before going back to her corner to prepare more food, and the others took the opportunity to finally have blessed silence with no arguing.


    At least that¡¯s what I thought would happen until Alicia pointed at me, then Deotra. ¡°So what is the story between the two of you?¡± I practically spit out a mouthful of boiled beef. ¡°What? It¡¯s a valid question. Nobody has told me anything about what¡¯s going on. I want to know.¡± Gods, everyone¡¯s on my ass these days.


    The next time Deotra came over to place food on the trays arrayed in front of us, I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close to me. Even without looking at her I could tell she was about to go crazy; the stammering sounds and her twitching ears poking the side of my face was all I needed to tell me she was having a little breakdown.


    ¡°We found each other. I like her and she likes me. Now, is everyone done prying? Are we good? Does anyone else want to put my love life under a magnifying glass?¡±


    Alverd raised his hand and I immediately cut him off. ¡°That was a rhetorical question, Alverd, I couldn''t care less what anyone thinks. And that¡¯s the last I have to say about it.¡± I scowled at all of the, all the while listening to the sound of Deotra¡¯s tail thumping against me and the floor as she futilely tried to calm herself down.


    Fox is out of the bag now. No way to put her back in it, either. Like it or not, she¡¯s stuck with us now. Although knowing her that¡¯s what she¡¯d prefer. In spite of what had just happened, she was now hugging me, her face nestled in my robe. ¡°So now that we¡¯re done with that, I have a question of my own. What¡¯s the timetable for this heist?¡±


    Monaco rolled up the map of Blossom City and tucked it into one of her many belt pouches. ¡°The night before the coronation. Guunzel is supposed to be making some big appearance at the Imperial Palace. It¡¯s the perfect distraction. Guards will be expecting to respond to an emergency at the Palace rather than the Repository. That means we¡¯ll be going in tomorrow night.¡±


    Yawning, Alverd stretched his arms. ¡°Alright. I still have a few issues about stealing the Hand, but for now the priority is keeping it away from Guunzel. We can figure out what to do after we have it in our possession. Let¡¯s get some sleep. Tomorrow night is going to be interesting to say the least.¡±


    As the others settled into their futons, extinguishing the lanterns, I pulled the covers over on mine only to feel Deotra sneak in with me. She put her finger up to her lips, then snuggled up against me. Yeah, I was pretty forward on that one. But if I¡¯m going to have to stick with Deotra and Drache, might as well find a way to make it so I don¡¯t have to lie all the time.


    Pulling Deotra in close, I felt my eyes droop until I couldn¡¯t keep them open. Being positive isn¡¯t really my thing. But somehow, as long as I have Deotra with me, I think I can try. Let¡¯s pray everything goes smoothly for once.

 B3: Chapter 21: Sheena: By Royal Decree

    It was the night before we agreed to commit the heist when the idea occurred to me. It hit me like a lightning bolt. Inwardly I berated myself for forgetting that it was even possible. We were gathered in the rundown shrine enjoying another one of the fox beastwoman¡¯s meals when I remembered that Kuro held the key to undermining Guunzel¡¯s plan to dupe the Imperial Heir. I nearly choked on soup, but as I sputtered and coughed I was already yelling in excitement.


    ¡°Kuro! Your bag! Where is it?¡±


    Looking at me in alarm, he procured it without looking away. ¡°It¡¯s here. What do you need? Are you okay?¡± Still coughing, I seized the bag from him and dug around in it. Finally, I found what I was looking for. I pulled out the sealed scroll Mingsheng had given us.


    ¡°Remember how we used Mingsheng¡¯s authority to enter Blossom City? This scroll is affixed with his seal and has instructions to take us to meet with the Emperor. Seeing as he¡¯s not well, we could easily settle for the Imperial Heir instead. If the Heir is having his coronation tonight, we could use this scroll to gain entry to the ceremony and confront him and Guunzel directly.¡±


    Alverd seemed intrigued. ¡°Accusing him of wrongdoing in front of the Imperial Heir would be the easiest way to ensure that we keep the Hand out of his reach. Diplomatic immunity only holds up until it is proven that he¡¯s abusing it. We have a man back in Standing Stone who no doubt has already testified to the authorities that Kierhaian outposts have been attacked by the Black Scale Legionnaires.¡±


    Sure enough, the missive given to us by Mingsheng gave us clear authority to meet with the Emperor. The language was indisputable in that the Steadfast wished for us to act as his representative in order to discuss his personal security and discourage a potential alliance between Ishmar and Kierhai. Now that the Emperor was bedridden, it seemed only natural we direct our concerns to the Imperial Heir instead.


    ¡°Guunzel said he had a writ from Eliza that gave him authority to take the Hand. Maybe we could demand to see it. If anyone can vouch for whether she actually wrote it, it¡¯s me.¡± Alicia spoke up after slurping down a mouthful of noodles from her bowl. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be too hard to point out how absurd her demand is. She never was good at asking for anything she thought she could just take at swordpoint.¡±


    ¡°Then that leaves the issue of what to do after we disprove Guunzel¡¯s claim. Do we continue with the heist?¡± Alverd asked.


    ¡°Of course. Stopping Guunzel diplomatically doesn¡¯t seem like it will deter him. If he¡¯s willing to use foul magic like the kind he used to create the Talionis, he might try to steal the Hand if need be.¡± I said.


    ¡°Which might be easier than we think,¡± Alicia chimed in. ¡°Remember that not all of Guunzel¡¯s forces are in the city. He¡¯s got dragonriders with him, too. He may not have the numbers to launch a full attack on Blossom City, but if his intention is to distract away from a brute force assault on the Repository, he could pull it off. I hate to say it, but he¡¯s a general for a reason.¡±


    Kuro scratched his chin. ¡°Alright. So we go to the Imperial Palace, accuse a foreign dignitary of fraud and murder, then steal a holy relic that could kill gods from perhaps the most sophisticated magical safehouse in the known world. Simple. What could possibly go wrong?¡±


    His words hung heavy in the air. Nobody wanted to say anything at first. No one will say the quiet part out loud. We¡¯ll be walking into a pit of vipers. I cleared my throat. ¡°We can¡¯t expect everything to go wrong at the first sign of trouble. Even if all we do is prevent an alliance, that¡¯s still a win.¡±


    Alicia finished drinking her soup and set down her bowl. ¡°So what¡¯s in it for Kierhai, then? If you¡¯re going to plead your case on why they shouldn¡¯t ally with Ishmar, then you¡¯ve got to sell them on it. So imagine I¡¯m Guunzel. What¡¯s your reason why the nation of Kierhai shouldn¡¯t consider an alliance?¡±


    ¡°Political instability makes for a poor partner. You can¡¯t trust the new Queen of Dragontamers to keep her word when her country was just embroiled in a power struggle.¡±


    Alicia countered my point. ¡°The same could be said for Algrustos. The Magisters just toppled a centuries old monarchy in some underhanded coup. So there is no alternative there.¡±


    Multiple heads turned to Alicia. Kuro looked genuinely shocked. Alverd seemed surprised, but was better at moderating his reaction than the mage. Hmph. I forgot she mentioned she¡¯d had statecraft lessons. This will be interesting. ¡°Trade between Ishmar and Kierhai would be nonexistent. The only way to exchange goods would be for traders to pass through unstable regions of Selarune.¡± I countered.


    She spoke calmly and evenly, completely unlike what I was expecting from her. ¡°Trade between Kierhai and Algrustos is just as unstable due to the presence of the Divernian Swords. Ishmar carries a reputation for strength. Just the mention of our soldiers would keep your caravans safe.¡± I felt my mouth open, trying to fumble for a rebuttal, but nothing came out.


    ¡°You¡¯re trying too hard to look at this like you¡¯re still the queen of a country.¡± Alicia said, her voice still even.


    ¡°I know. I¡¯m still struggling with something similar. But our two approaches are different.¡± She turned her body to face me, laying her hands in her lap. ¡°I think too much about how my decisions will benefit our people. But you think too much about how your actions might hurt your enemy. There¡¯s not necessarily a right or wrong in that, but if the Heir thinks you¡¯re trying to find ways to hurt the Ishmarian people rather than do what¡¯s right for multiple parties, Guunzel will play you.¡±


    What? That¡¯s¡­ actually quite insightful. Astonishingly well thought out. ¡°And you¡¯re basing this on¡­?¡± Alicia looked me dead in my eyes.


    ¡°Guunzel might be a zealot and a killer, but at the end of the day he¡¯s a patriot too. In his twisted mind, he¡¯s the hero because he¡¯s doing whatever it takes to serve his country. I¡¯ve been thinking about it ever since we saw the Talionis. Eliza didn¡¯t send him because his skills as a warrior would intimidate the Kierhaians into an alliance.¡± She folded her arms. ¡°She did it because he¡¯ll know exactly what to say and how to say it. He¡¯ll sell the Imperial Heir on the idea that he can help build a better future for Ishmar and Kierhai. The Heir will believe it, because he¡¯s young and impressionable. So how do you counter that?¡± She looked at me expectantly.


    Well, well, well. I certainly underestimated you, princess. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because of bias or complacency, but I¡¯ll admit you outplayed me this time. Next time I¡¯ll remember that you¡¯re far more observant than you look.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see. If the solution isn¡¯t to tear down your enemy, then you build yourself up instead. The Heir is going to take over a country with a multitude of problems. The last thing he needs is to complicate things by putting the needs of others on his plate. So¡­¡±


    Alicia tilted her head, the beginning of a grin forming on her face. ¡°Every new ruler must accept one burden over all others when they govern. Something both Eliza and the Magisters haven¡¯t done. Seeing that, why would anyone ally with either Ishmar or Algrustos?¡±


    It clicked in my head, gears turning as Alicia¡¯s logic came full circle. ¡°The burden of rulership is to do what¡¯s best for one¡¯s country and people. Eliza and the Magisters immediately sent theirs to war against each other. But we can counsel the Heir to put his people first. Focus on quelling the unrest in his own land, uniting his people, proving his worth, so that when the time comes for him to choose Kierha¡¯s path forward, the people will stand with him.¡±


    The full smile blossomed on Alicia¡¯s face. ¡°Now that sounds like something you can get behind. Because all Guunzel can say to that is call the Heir a coward. And the best way to disprove that is to stand up for yourself.¡±


    Kuro, his eyebrows raised, stammered for a second. ¡°What just happened?¡±


    Alverd smiled. ¡°Camaraderie. Mixed with a little bit of putting oneself in another¡¯s shoes.¡±


    I sipped the soup delicately from my bowl before putting it back down. ¡°Someday you and I should really sit down and talk about what it takes to be a good ruler. If you had been in charge of Ishmar while I was still Witch-Queen, I think we really could¡¯ve finally found a way to end that war.¡±


    Alicia scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. ¡°Pfft, no. I¡¯ve only learned how to be better about thinking about that stuff because of what I went through. Honestly, I might¡¯ve been just as bad as my siblings if I didn¡¯t have Alverd and Kuro to show me how wrong I was about a lot of things.¡± She kicked out her legs and stretched. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind trying to negotiate that peace now, if someone like you were leading Algrustos.¡±


    I¡¯m not so sure I ever want to return, even if it were to finally create a peace between our nations. I haven¡¯t had as much time as I¡¯d like to sort through my feelings about it. ¡°Let¡¯s worry about angering an Ishmarian envoy and this heist first. Putting the cart before the horse in a situation like this won¡¯t do either of us any good.¡±


    Kuro looked out the window at the moon, which was steadily rising higher into the night sky. ¡°If we¡¯re going to crash that coronation, we better go now. The less time Guunzel has to pour poison in the Imperial Heir¡¯s ear, the better.¡±


    Alverd sat up, dusted himself off, and bowed to Deotra. ¡°Thank you again for offering your home and for feeding us. I¡¯m sorry for the imposition.¡±


    The fox beastwoman¡¯s ears twitched sideways before standing back up, but her facial expression didn¡¯t change. ¡°It¡¯s no trouble. If you¡¯re Kuro¡¯s friends, then it¡¯s alright with me.¡± Something in her voice didn¡¯t sit right with me, though. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing, but the way that girl looks at Alverd, I¡¯d say she doesn¡¯t like him.


    But why? The man is perfect. He¡¯s handsome, courteous, attentive and thoughtful! He¡¯s a perfect specimen of knightly valor and this girl looks at him like he¡¯s a piece of overpriced pottery in a china shop window! I put my hand on my chin, trying hard not to grind my teeth. But at least she¡¯s not trying to get on his good side. I don¡¯t need any more competition in that arena.


    She moved over to Kuro¡¯s side and gave him a hug. ¡°Don¡¯t do anything too reckless, okay?¡± She nuzzled her face against his cheek.


    ¡°I promise, I¡¯ll come back,¡± he said. ¡°No explosions, no lightning bolts, no dismemberments and absolutely no tornadoes.¡±


    She gave him a stern look. ¡°Okay, no fireballs either.¡± He hugged her back, and she relented, though not before squeezing him tight once more.


    ¡°Sheesh, get a room you two.¡± Monaco said mockingly. ¡°I¡¯ll be staying here, obviously. Last thing I need to do is sit in a room with someone who I might be robbing soon. Try not to be gone too long and steal me a souvenir, yeah?¡± She laid down on the floor, folding her hands behind her head and crossing her legs.


    Alverd, Kuro, Alicia and I climbed out of the dilapidated shrine through its broken down front door, taking care not to completely break what was left of the ripped up screen. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever get used to the idea of sliding doors with paper in them. An interesting design choice, but not one I agree with. As Alverd and Kuro ran ahead to hail a rickshaw, I motioned to Alicia to hang back.


    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Alicia came over and put her hands on her hips. ¡°I was wondering if you¡¯d tell me about what it¡¯s like to be a berserker.¡± I said. ¡°In return, I can try to teach you how to harness that magical talent you have. If you have a basic understanding, you might find it easier to use those nullification runes at the very least. If you have the talent, I should be able to take it further than that.¡±


    She thought it over, her lips pursed. ¡°Given how useful those runes have been, that sounds like a good idea. I don¡¯t know what you hope to gain by learning how we harness our rage, though.¡±


    I gave her a smirk. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised. I have a theory that the way you call upon your battle rage isn¡¯t so different from the way a spirit contractor does magic without a staff.¡±


    Her eyebrow raised. ¡°So, you¡¯re saying that if I do have magic potential, I could make ice and fire and throw it around with my brain?¡± I laughed in response.


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s not get too ahead of ourselves. As interesting as it would be to find out if you could indeed conjure magic, we shouldn¡¯t be reckless about it. I¡¯ve detonated fireballs in small rooms with far too many occupants enough times to know that we should take baby steps in this regard.¡±


    That drew a laugh from her. ¡°Oh that sounds terrible. I¡¯ve been around Kuro long enough to know that if he did that to me I¡¯d skin him alive.¡± She paused, deep in thought. ¡°Why not. You wanna talk about it on the way to the Imperial Palace? There¡¯s no way all four of us will fit in a single rickshaw.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°You¡¯ve got a deal.¡±


    Alverd and Kuro were waiting on the street with a rickshaw driver, who was busy emphatically telling them that he could not carry four people much less fit that many in his rickshaw. In the time it took for Kuro and the driver to carry on arguing, Alverd had flagged down another, who came running up. He looked at the two of us expectantly.


    ¡°Thank you, Alverd. We¡¯ll take this one.¡± I stepped into the rickshaw with Alicia coming in after me. ¡°Very well, then. Kuro! Stop giving this poor man grief and pay him already.¡± He went back to where Kuro was.


    ¡°So. Where do I start?¡± I chuckled nervously. ¡°Now I don¡¯t mean any disrespect. My people have had a lot of preconceived notions about berserkers, so if you need to set the record straight on anything feel free to do so. I guess my first question is, when you rage what does it feel like?¡±


    She breathed in deep. ¡°My teacher always described rage as a primal force, like a rushing river. To be a berserker is to stand in the middle of the river and remember that to allow your rage to overtake you is to let the river drown you. Rather than attempt to control the river, which is impossible, a berserker instead diverts the river¡¯s flow, allowing it to do as one wishes without opposing it.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re like the sieve, not the dam. You allow the water to pass through, to accomplish an aim, not bar it or control it.¡± Interesting. So many accounts we have, including the ones from captured berserkers, all emphasize the need to ¡°control¡± their rage. Like it¡¯s an animal that has to be wrestled into a cage. Alicia sees it more as harnessing rather than control. Is it a difference in technique or perspective?


    ¡°Is that a standard practice, or did your instructor choose to use that metaphor specifically?¡± I asked.


    ¡°He never used that analogy with anyone else, actually. He only ever referred to rage that way when we were sparring or training, and that was always in a one on one situation when we were alone,¡± she said. She scowled. ¡°Why? Is that relevant somehow?¡±


    I considered my words carefully before proceeding. ¡°When my uncle¡­ Albrecht was teaching me how to use magic, he made a great distinction between the way normal wizards perform the art as opposed to the method a spirit contractor would. That wizards have to understand how their magic works in order to use it effectively.¡±


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°With a spirit contractor, the magic isn¡¯t drawn from an outside source and manipulated. It comes from within. Controlling it is like controlling one¡¯s temper. A spirit contractor¡¯s magic is wielded more through intuition and emotion rather than learned technique.¡± I held up my palm, running the fingers of my other hand over it while picturing water flowing through an open sluice.


    Slowly, ice formulated into a crackling diamond shape, an oversized snowflake hovering just above my palm. ¡°What interested me most about what you said just now is that I was always told that the source of my magic is in my blood. The blood that flowed in my distant ancestor, who first made the pact, passed down from ancestor to ancestor, down to me, carries magic that empowers me with the ability to conjure ice, weave protective shields, heal injuries or even fly for short periods.¡±


    I looked straight into Alicia¡¯s eyes. ¡°When you think of the blood that flows in your veins, what would you compare that to?¡±


    Hers widened in recognition. ¡°A river. A river that flows through your entire body.¡±


    I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s right. There¡¯s a common ground in the way we utilize our strengths. That¡¯s why I feel like it might not be a difficult task to teach you to tap into any magic potential you may have. I doubt you¡¯re a spirit contractor like me, but seeing you invoke those nullification runes via instinct made me think that it¡¯s not impossible.¡±


    ¡°If you think it¡¯ll help, then I don¡¯t see why not,¡± she said as she gazed at the snowflake. ¡°The next time we train, I¡¯ll try to focus on looking at you with my magical sight while you rage. If I can better understand how the magic in you behaves while you¡¯re raging, I can instruct you on how harnessing it could benefit you.¡± I told her.


    ¡°So what do you get out of it, then? Doesn¡¯t seem fair that I¡¯m the only one who benefits,¡± she said.


    ¡°Well for now if it means you¡¯re better at keeping ruffians away from me, I¡¯ll settle for that.¡± I flicked my wrist and the snowflake melted away.


    We didn¡¯t say much for the rest of the ride. Alicia was clearly miles away, her mind focused on a myriad of other things. As much as I want to pursue this fascinating subject of how her rage might be the key to unlocking her magical potential, it would be best to let her focus on what she¡¯s going to have to say to refute Guunzel.


    The rickshaws cut a path through the busiest part of Blossom City, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic through the most packed streets in the commercial and residential districts. As we neared the center of the city, the quality of the architecture scaled upward sharply, with no sign of decay or waste. Every building was clean, maintained, and calling out for attention. The people themselves were dressed in finery or at the very least were not covered in dirt and grime.


    It was when we turned one last corner that I had to avert my eyes. A street paved with actual gold was laid out before us, flanked by statues of warriors and animal spirits standing at attention. The statues were also cast with gold, stainless and sparkling in the light of the ever burning magical lanterns illuminating the street. It was so overly gaudy that even I had to take a moment to process how excessive it all was.


    ¡°The Palace lies at the end of the Golden Approach. I¡¯m afraid we are not allowed to take you any further, esteemed ones.¡± The rickshaw driver skid to a halt at the edge of the golden street, where the sparkling road met the more mundane stone. He bowed and clapped his hands together nervously. ¡°I wish you great prosperity. May fortune follow you this day and all after.¡±


    Alicia and I stepped out of the rickshaw, and the driver took off, a little too hastily for my liking. ¡°I would not say I¡¯m a betting woman, but I do wonder if the citizens around here know that there are Legionnaires attending the coronation.¡±


    Beside me, Alicia snorted. ¡°Not taking that bet. Legionnaires draw attention everywhere they go. Guunzel was parading his Talionis all over the Silken River, so I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if everyone in Blossom City knew about them by now.¡±


    Kuro and Alverd waved us over. The young mage was already looking down the Approach, perhaps guessing how long it would take to traverse it. The road looked to be at least fifty yards, with statues all along its length. I could make out two more statues at the very end, standing side by side at the bottom of a flight of stone stairs leading up to a set of double doors in a large wall.


    ¡°Last chance for us to walk away.¡± He said sarcastically, as if there were any chance of that. Alicia glared silently at him causing him to put up his hands. ¡°Hey, I was kidding. I can at least pretend to be the voice of reason here.¡± He scratched his chin. ¡°Seriously, though. We¡¯re putting a lot of stock in that missive from Mingsheng. If this doesn¡¯t work out, we¡¯re up the creek with no paddle.¡±


    Alverd nudged him. ¡°We can¡¯t worry about that now. We know what we have to do. All we can do is hope the Imperial Heir will listen to reason.¡± Kuro rolled his eyes. ¡°Yes, because that worked out so well for us in the past. We¡¯re really on a roll when it comes to meeting reasonable people, Alverd.¡±


    Without joining in any further discussion, Alicia set off down the Approach. Turning her head, she called out to us. ¡°Hurry up. No sense stalling.¡± There was determination in her steps, but I wondered if she was merely putting on a brave face. There are only two ways to face the inevitable. You can rush toward it knowing there¡¯s no way to escape it, or resist it kicking and screaming. Alicia, to her credit, would choose the former, even if she won¡¯t admit it frightens her.


    I stepped out onto the Approach, following. The men fell in behind me. We marched the entire way in silence, regarding the statues. For the first thirty yards, the statues were of animals standing upright on two legs, dressed in robes and holding scrolls, lanterns, staves, or tools of the merchant trade. The last twenty yards had statues of humans, elves and beastmen in armor, each in the same pose, awaiting orders like they expected a general at any moment.


    The two statues at the very end of the Approach were unique. On the left was a tall wolf beastman, his humanoid face giving way to a pair of tall wolf ears protruding upward. A long cape hung down from his shoulders, and he was adorned in a gleaming silver plate that made him look like a depiction of a fairy tale knight. In his right hand he held a glaive with a hooked, curved blade resembling a crescent moon. The plaque on the statue declared him to be Sir Sirius, Noble Wolf, left hand of the Goddess Eternity. Below the title was a quote: ¡°With temperance and wisdom will you always find the righteous path.¡±


    The statue on the right was a slender woman with purely human features. She had a bob of short hair that masked the right side of her face and less bulky golden plate armor, and carried a sword in her right hand and spherical shield in her left. As opposed to Sir Sirius¡¯ more neutral stance, the woman had her knees apart and her sword pointed forward, almost in a dueling gesture, as if anticipating an oncoming enemy. A billowing long skirt flowed down from her waist around her legs, completing her noble visage as a gallant warrior. Her plaque stated that she was Lady Brunswick, Righteous Lioness, right hand of the Goddess Eternity. Beneath was the quote: ¡°In pursuit of justice one¡¯s resolve must never be allowed to falter.¡±


    Kuro¡¯s mouth gaped as he walked around the statues. ¡°The warrior angels that helped Selarune in the War of the Five Kings. Even if you don¡¯t follow the scriptures, pretty much everyone knows who they are.¡± He fumbled for a second. ¡°I mean, unless you were born in Ishmar. Sorry, Alicia.¡±


    She shook her head. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t mind.¡±


    The young princess seemed especially taken with the statue of Lady Brunswick. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I really like this one.¡± She tentatively reached out her hand, touching the base. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just the warrior in me, but something about it just speaks to me.¡±


    ¡°I rather like the statue of Sir Sirius. He reminds me of Alverd.¡± I blurted the words out before I realized what I was saying.


    If Alverd felt anything about what I had said, he didn¡¯t show it. Standing in front of the statue, he looked at the plaque. ¡°I can certainly say I agree with this sentiment. The right path rarely ever turns out to be the easy one, but that¡¯s usually how you know it is the right path.¡±


    How very like Alverd to say that. No matter how dark things get I can always rely on him to keep things in perspective. Taking a deep breath, I walked past the statues and started up the stairs. They went for another thirty feet, and a pair of guards in black armor similar to the kind wore by Yuzuruha¡¯s guildmates waited by the sides of the double door gates.


    One held up his hand when we approached. He was a grizzled beastman, his features mostly hidden under his helmet, but noticeable enough for me to tell he had vertical slits in his eyes reminiscent of a cat¡¯s. ¡°What business do you have in the Imperial Palace? We have orders not to allow any further visitors at this time.¡±


    Kuro took out the scroll and gave it to the guard. ¡°By order of the Steadfast, custodian of Standing Stone, we must meet with the Emperor on a matter of great importance.¡± There was a bit of smugness in his voice, as if he got a kick out of being able to go over the guard¡¯s head. The guard unfurled the scroll, examining its contents and Mingsheng¡¯s seal.


    ¡°Hmm. This is irregular. But it is the Steadfast¡¯s seal, and his authority allows him to send a representative in his place if he is otherwise unable to appear in person.¡± The guard looked up to appraise us. ¡°Very well. You¡¯ll be permitted entry. Show the proper deference to the Imperial Heir. And do not cause trouble with the Ishmarian envoy. You do not have immunity like he does.¡±


    The guard motioned to his fellow, who nodded and pulled a small object off his belt. Holding it to his mouth, he blew into it, producing a shrill sound. Moments later, the doors ground open, revealing the inner garden.


    If the Golden Approach had been lavish, then the palace gardens put it to shame. The entire courtyard was awash in healthy, beautiful flowers, trees with pink blossoms, and stone paths over crisscrossing waterways. Red bridges made of brightly painted red wood created a maze of walkways over the water, making navigation to the Palace steps a journey in and of itself.


    We walked in single file, passing through the gate. Twin groups of soldiers pushed the doors closed behind us. Milling about the garden were beautiful women in fine silk robes, tending to the plants and guiding others across the various walkways. There were more than a few Legionnaires in the garden, many of whom were staring lecherously at the women. They were smart enough not to start trouble, however, and their focus on the women meant they paid us no attention.


    As for the Palace itself, the main building was an extravagant multi-tiered rectangle with open air windows on the second floor. Long terraced hallways with no walls connected the ground floor of the building with several tall towers, which reached high into the sky. The sloped shingle roofing common to Kierhaian design was prevalent, as were statues of various animals. Pheasants, tigers, badgers and swans adorned the corners of every roof.


    A row of sagelike fox statues stood to one side of the path in front of the Palace¡¯s main doors. The first fox was dressed as a soldier and carried a curved, single bladed sword. The second statue had a robe and box-shaped hat, and their scroll and quill marked them as some kind of bureaucrat. The third fox was dressed as the women were in the garden, holding a folding fan seductively in front of its face. The final statue wore the finest clothes of all and stood with hands folded in front of them.


    The doors themselves were far smaller than the ones at the garden entrance, resembling those of  a normal house. We slid them open and entered. Inside, more women scurried about, holding trays of food and liquor and serving them to a congregation of people sitting on futons around a square in the center of the room.


    There were a total of sixteen Legionnaires sitting around the square, and to their credit they were behaving themselves for the most part. None of them were being boisterous or rowdy, nor were they groping the serving girls or leering at them. They sat and ate their food, showing table manners I didn¡¯t think possible in Ishmarians. At the center of the far end of the square, a young human was seated next to Guunzel. He had to be the Imperial Heir.


    He had to be no older than fifteen. He had a baby face with soft features, and it didn¡¯t seem likely he was hiding any muscles under his luxurious yellow and black robe. He did have inquisitive eyes, though. He was hanging on Guunzel¡¯s every word. The general was telling him some story that had the Heir¡¯s total attention.


    There were Imperial soldiers in the room, although they didn¡¯t look like they would be a match for so many Legionnaires in tight quarters. Upon closer examination, however, I saw that all the Legionnaires¡¯ swords had been tied into their scabbards with thick white cords. An interesting method of deterrence. I would still argue against allowing armed soldiers so close to one¡¯s ruler, but the Kierhaians must know something I don¡¯t.


    Nobody made any move to harass us until we entered the square, although the Legionnaires stopped talking, eating and laughing long enough to gawk at us. Guunzel¡¯s eyes widened slightly, then a smug grin appeared on his face.


    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t this an honor? An unexpected one, too. I¡¯m curious as to how you gained entry to this diplomatic meeting.¡±


    Kuro tossed the scroll across the room, landing it in front of the Imperial Heir. ¡°We¡¯ve come on behalf of the Steadfast. He has¡­ concerns about the measure of your security.¡± He cast his eyes around the room at the Legionnaires who were now acutely aware of the mage in their midst. ¡°He believes that your decision to welcome Ishmarian butchers into the country during a period of political unrest might put your life in peril.¡±


    When the Imperial Heir spoke, his voice quavered. ¡°Nonsense. The general has been quite courteous. And his men have followed all of our laws. There is no reason to believe that the envoy¡¯s intentions are hostile.¡± He set his jaw in what he thought was a confident act of defiance, but just sort of made him look like a child trying to look older than he actually was.


    Alverd spoke up. ¡°Not so. Guunzel¡¯s men caused an incident in Standing Stone. Fifteen of his men brazenly started an open brawl in a tavern, targeting members of a local mercenary guild. There was a death involved. The Legion is pushing the limits of what diplomatic immunity should allow and the Steadfast implores you to expel them immediately.¡±


    ¡°So it was you.¡± Guunzel¡¯s eyes flashed dangerously. ¡°I was informed of this. My lieutenants told me a mage had provoked them. That must have been you.¡± His gaze settled on Kuro.


    ¡°How did you¡­?¡± Kuro grit his teeth. ¡°Magic. You have to be using magic to communicate across such distances so quickly. Bubbles? I can¡¯t imagine you would be averse to using them if you¡¯re playing with things like the Talionis.¡±


    He leaned forward, addressing the Heir. ¡°Guunzel is playing with forces he doesn¡¯t understand, nor control. Surely your court mages must have told you already.¡±


    The Heir¡¯s eyes were flicking back and forth between Kuro and Guunzel, his resolve weakening. ¡°Um. Uh. Err¡­¡±


    ¡°According to that report, it was a mercenary from that exact guild who started that fight by attacking my men without provocation. It was within my Legionnaires¡¯ right to fight back. Not to mention certain instigators should be locked up in Standing Stone for their role in the tavern brawl.¡± He returned Kuro¡¯s stare with plenty of venom in his eyes and tone.


    This chicken and egg scenario isn¡¯t going to end well for us. We may have Mingsheng¡¯s missive but Guunzel is still a diplomatic envoy. If it boils down to our word against his, we might lose that fight. If we were held for questioning, Guunzel would be unobstructed in his attempt to steal the Hand, and we¡¯d be powerless to stop him.


    ¡°Your Eminence, if I may?¡± I approached and knelt down on the matted floor before the Heir. ¡°Perhaps things are becoming too heated. We should let cooler heads prevail. Don¡¯t you agree?¡± Alicia was right. We have to remind the Heir that he has the power here, and rely on him to keep things civil.


    The Heir coughed nervously. ¡°Yes, that sounds good. I agree. General, please.¡± He shifted so he could look at Guunzel. ¡°I am not fully aware of all the circumstances. If someone could fill me in exactly on what has happened, I¡¯d like to know the full story.¡±


    Before Guunzel could say anything, Alicia stepped forward. ¡°I¡¯d be happy to catch you up to speed, my lord.¡± She shot Guunzel a withering glare. The old man made an irritated sound that rumbled in his throat, but sat back down on his futon.


    Alicia laid out everything that had happened since our arrival in Standing Stone, even detailing our harrowing battle against the ghosts in the Valley of the Last Sunrise. She wisely elected to leave out any of our collaboration with Monaco the Swift, but pointed out that Kuro had been accosted by Divernian Swords within the city walls.


    The Heir listened carefully to Alicia¡¯s words. He seemed lost in thought for most of it, as if he were thinking about the implications of each event. Maybe we had the wrong idea about the Heir? I certainly hope he¡¯ll treat this as a serious matter. Mingsheng had little respect for the Heir, but he seemed like a bitter old man who would shake his fist at the young if they didn¡¯t think the same way as him.


    When Alicia was done, the Heir pondered for a moment. Silence hung in the room. Even the serving girls had stopped, listening to Alicia¡¯s story to the very end. Finally, the Heir stood up from his futon. ¡°In light of this, and bearing full support from the Steadfast, I must admit that I feel somewhat out of my depth.¡±


    He extended his hand, his palm open, in Alicia¡¯s direction. ¡°Here I have a princess of Ishmar, but a princess no more. She speaks ill of our guest. But these words come with a seal and mandate from the Steadfast. However, her way of verifying her story is to admit to the General¡¯s accusation that her associate started a conflict without merit.¡±


    The hand swung around towards Guunzel. ¡°On the other hand, I have an officer of Ishmar, his hands stained with blood, who came here spilling our blood, if the former princess is to be believed. He cannot accuse without admitting his own culpability. So now, I am at a loss as to what to do.¡±


    He let his hand fall to his front, where his other hand wrung the wrist. ¡°My father thinks me foolish, immature. That I am not ready to assume the burden of the throne. This would be my first act as the new Emperor, and already I do not know what to do.¡±


    Guunzel¡¯s face twisted into a snarl. ¡°And that is why you should act decisively. You have enemies within and without. Ishmar could be a strong ally, a wave of fire and scale that will scour your land free of the Swords. Make a pact with the new Queen of Dragontamers and you will know prosperity and security.¡±


    Before he could continue, I stepped forward. ¡°Your people need you now, Your Lordship. They need leadership and clarity now, not months from now. If you want to be the leader your people need, you must stand on your own two feet and show your people the same strength that brought them together.¡±


    The Heir looked at me pleadingly. ¡°I am not strong, though. I am timid, and the idea of ruling fills me with dread. The path seems too much for me. I do not know¡­¡± His voice trailed off, his eyes falling to the floor.


    Guunzel scoffed. ¡°I have no time for this. If Kierhai is so weak that they will not agree to a pact, then we will withdraw from this theater. We shall stand alone, as we always have.¡± He pushed the Heir aside, knocking the small teenager down. Every Imperial guard in the room drew their weapon, but the Legionnaires stood as well, forming a wall around the Heir and Guunzel.


    Pulling something from his pocket, Guunzel lifted it up for all to see. ¡°This edict comes from my Queen. Procured from the oldest vault in our palace, where our greatest relics are stored, this writ demands that we, the original holders of the Hand of the Usurper, be given back the weapon for safekeeping. I declare that the weak-willed Heir cannot protect the Hand, and thus invoke this edict to have the Hand returned to us.¡±


    Kuro practically spat venom. ¡°And how do we know that isn¡¯t some ridiculous forgery? Someone should examine it! As if anyone should believe the word of a mass murderer like you!¡± He was practically frothing at the mouth as he pointed at Guunzel.


    ¡°I agree! See this edict for yourself, mage! For it is not the will of my Queen that demands, but the will of the first king of Ishmar! In the ancient language that predates Ishmar, he surrendered the Hand to the angels for the power to forge his new kingdom!¡± He held out his hand and Kuro snatched the edict away.


    Looking over Kuro¡¯s shoulder, I tried to read the words. It proved to be difficult, as all of the writing was illegible at first. Before my eyes, the script on the page rearranged itself into the modern common tongue. Wait, then this edict is written in Ishratan? The lost language of a fallen empire? Kuro told me about it, but I never thought I¡¯d see it like this.


    When the words became clear enough to read, the message was clear. I read it aloud. ¡°In the name of Deyovar, first king of Ishmar, the Hand of the Usurper shall be turned over to the servants of Eternity. Should the need arise, the descendants of Deyovar might call upon the custodians of the Hand to return the relic, but only under the direst of circumstances. The Hand slays gods and demons, and must be locked away to prevent its horrific existence from abuse. I sign this in good faith that the servants of Eternity will keep their word when this day comes.¡± I paused to bite my lip, then read the last few lines.


    ¡°Signed, Deyovar, First King of Ishmar. Sir Sirius, Noble Wolf. Lady Brunswick, Righteous Lioness.¡±


    Silence fell over the room again. Then it was broken by the sound of Guunzel¡¯s arrogant laughter. ¡°I¡¯m afraid it is time for me and mine to leave, Your Lordship. I expect the Hand to be delivered to me by tomorrow morning. Then I shall return to Ishmar and inform my Queen of your decision to reject her offer of an alliance.¡±


    Slowly, he shuffled out of the room, his Legionnaires following close behind. His raspy laughter went with him, fading into the distance until the Imperial guards shut the door. Outside, a flash of light cast long shadows through the windows, before being followed by the low rumble of thunder.


    The Heir stared blankly, in a state of complete shock. Guards and servants went to his side, fussing over him and trying to lift him to his feet. Alverd motioned to me silently that it was time to leave. We moved towards the door and exited before anyone could stop us.


    Out in the garden, the servants were already running for the safety of the buildings as rain had begun to fall. Another flash of lightning and crack of thunder echoed across the now emptying gardens, and we made it to the front gate before the rain became heavy enough for actual droplets to fall, making pitter-pattering sounds on the stone.


    Past the front gate, down the stairs, we regrouped by the statues of the angels. ¡°That was a complete nightmare,¡± Kuro said. ¡°That document wasn¡¯t supposed to be real. It was written in Ishratan. Nobody knows how-¡± His voice caught in his throat, then he continued. ¡°I mean, it was supposed to be a dead language. Even if Deyovar knew how to write in Ishratan, how could he convince the angels it would be a good idea to agree to such a thing?¡±


    Alicia scowled. ¡°Deyovar. After what he did with Evros and his wife, it wouldn¡¯t surprise me he knew enough about Ishrati to know the language. But is the writ a forgery or not?¡±


    Kuro shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have nothing to compare it to. I have no way to know, but even the fact that it exists and is written in Ishratan speaks more to its validity than against. What do we do, Alverd?¡±


    All eyes turned to our leader. He paused, thinking. ¡°We don¡¯t have time to try to expose Guunzel now. Tomorrow morning he¡¯ll be back, demanding the Hand of the Usurper. Which means we have only tonight to try and steal it.¡±


    He unfolded his arms. ¡°We need to get back to Monaco. We¡¯re stealing the Hand tonight.¡±

 Chapter 22: Alicia: The First Test (Edited)

    Experiencing the sewer firsthand went a long way to explaining why my people had probably never bothered trying to build one for themselves.


    Kuro¡¯s description of the sewer didn¡¯t do it justice. It wasn¡¯t until the smell hit me that I fully understood what we were walking into. While I had an iron stomach and could take a hit better than anyone in our group, my nostrils were not ready for the assault that came at them the moment we entered the underground tunnel.


    After returning to the graveyard shrine to pick up Monaco, we filled her in on the situation, including the news that the writ Guunzel had was written in Ishratan. Whether it  was either the greatest forgery of all time or the result of some grand conspiracy we still hadn¡¯t figured that out. Letting Monaco in on what we saw back in Ishmar seems like a bad idea. The idea that our first king turned against our god and vilified magic to cover it up so he could seize power for himself shouldn¡¯t be told to some common thief, but without context she won¡¯t understand.


    ¡°If it helps, Alicia, it¡¯s not like it matters that much to me.¡± Monaco tried to reassure me as we crossed the narrow walkway that elevated us above a river of foul-smelling slurry. ¡°No offense, but the events that led to your kingdom being what it is doesn¡¯t really concern me when my father¡¯s life''s on the line. So I¡¯ve got no reason to go spreading it around.¡±


    ¡°Well if you change your mind, just know there are dozens of overzealous Legionnaires in this country who would be more than happy to bury you for knowing it. Not that they apparently need another reason.¡±


    Kuro had wrapped his cloak around the lower half of his face to keep the smell at bay, and the cloth muffled his voice when he spoke. ¡°Can we maybe have this conversation after we leave the sewer? Talking means we have to breathe more and I prefer to use my nose for that.¡± I rolled my eyes, but a part of me did agree with him.


    I didn¡¯t want to know how Monaco knew exactly where to get into the sewer or how it would get us in. Assuming it comes from her years of thievery is a safe bet. It didn¡¯t take her long to find some out of the way manhole to pry up. The part about mental-mapping as we moved away from the Repository was impressive, though.


    We had started our journey outside the walled complex where the towering Repository reached high into the sky standing well above the other buildings that surrounded it. The wall itself was forty feet high and was absolutely sheer with nothing to grab onto or dig a tool into for climbing. After observing the streets and how they curled around the Repository¡¯s outer wall, Monaco turned and started walking away while mumbling to herself.


    Twenty minutes of following her as she weaved through passerby led us to a street that ended in a dead end. A few buildings with darkened windows surrounded that end with a circular cul-de-sac made of stone set in the middle. At the very center of that circle was a heavy metal lid embedded in the ground, the top of it glazed with layers of bronze-green streaks.


    Leaving Kuro and Sheena to watch the street behind us, Monaco pulled a few crowbars out of her equipment bag. The hefty bag had been purchased in the Silken River and was nearly half as long as Alverd was tall. She passed two of the crowbars to Alverd and me, then thrust the curved end of her own into the edge of the metal lid. ¡°Alright, you two dig in here next to me. Wedge it in tight and wait for my go.¡± I did as I was told, placing the curved head into the space between the rusty lid and the street. ¡°Alright. On three. One. Two. Three!¡± We pushed down hard on our crowbars. There was a loud groaning noise as the lid popped free, scraping against the stone. Immediately a blast of sickening air emerged from the opening and I nearly retched when it washed over me.


    ¡°Sorry. Should¡¯ve warned you about that.¡± Monaco waved her hand, pointing her face away from the opening.


    ¡°Holy Evros, what is that smell?!¡± I doubled over as my gut spasmed.  The nausea came back for a second shot at making me throw up.


    ¡°Sadly, it¡¯s the combined waste of pretty much everyone living in this residential block. Suck it up, princess. Thievery tends to be a dirty business.¡± She chuckled to herself before coughing, her face turning slightly green.


    Kuro was already weaving his hands in a tight circle in front of him, a ball of light spinning into being at the tip of his staff. ¡°Can¡¯t use torches. Not after the last time I went into a sewer. The last thing anyone wants is to ignite a methane pocket or saltpeter deposit.¡± He mimicked an explosion with his hands, making his ball of light expand to emphasize his point. ¡°There¡¯s only one place for all that heat to go and it¡¯s right in our faces. That¡¯s not how I want to die.¡±


    He held the glowing orb over the opening, and the light was able to pierce the murk enough that we could see a sturdy stone platform below. A metal ladder crusted in Evros only knew what reached down to the platform. Taking a deep breath, Alverd flung his cape around his face and descended, his armor scraping against the sides of the opening as he eased himself down into the hole.


    Kuro went next, his light spell hovering over his head. Once he reached the bottom, I was able to see his surroundings better. The platform was at a crossroad of various waterways, where sludgy green-brown water was flowing from two different directions before meeting in the crossing, then flowing down into two more directions and out of sight. Countless holes in the walls with metal grates over them spewed more waste into those rivers. Mercifully, the platform had metal awnings to prevent the wastewater from falling on anyone walking under the streams from the holes.


    After Kuro made it to the bottom, I climbed in after him. I didn¡¯t even make it a few feet down the ladder before I felt an urge to puke. Mother Evros I can¡¯t even breathe! As soon as I stepped off the ladder my hands were over my mouth and nose.


    By the time Sheena and Monaco were down in the sewer with us, my eyes were practically watering. Monaco moved to the front of our group and started walking under one of the awnings. ¡°Hurry up. If you think you¡¯re miserable, remember that beastmen have stronger senses of smell than you do.¡±


    With her in the lead, we retraced our path towards the Repository. From what I could tell, it was far more difficult than navigating the streets above. While the streets had alleys and paths that allowed movement between them, the sewer had fixed passageways that followed the street structure. I gotta give her credit. I would¡¯ve gotten lost down here. Her sense of direction must be perfect if she can figure out exactly how to get back through all of this.


    Having come from a culture that valued strength more than anything, I was still coming to terms with the idea that other skills could be of equal use outside of Ishmar. Monaco¡¯s abilities might not be used for legal acts, but I can¡¯t deny they are useful. She may not be able to fight a berserker at close range, but as I¡¯ve learned not everything is about a straight up fight.


    Thanks to the light from Kuro¡¯s spell, no one had any issues maintaining their footing, even though several sections of the walkway were slick with things I didn¡¯t want to think about. We hugged the wall the best we could, trying not to touch anything or breathe in through the nose. Never again. Never again. If I ever enact a policy to build sewers in Ishmar, the people responsible for their upkeep will be paid a king¡¯s ransom. It¡¯s the least they¡¯ll deserve.


    By the time we reached our destination, we were all reaching our limit. I could feel my stomach churning with the effort not to throw up. In front of us, a massive opening covered by a huge corroded grate let a river of putrid slime pour into the sewer. A ladder next to the grate stretched up towards the ceiling.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go first. Once I grab hold of the manhole cover, douse the light Kuro.¡± Monaco said as she climbed up the ladder and pushed her hand up against the manhole to test its weight. When she saw that it could move, she nodded to the mage. He waved his staff and the light spell extinguished, plunging us all into darkness. A moment later, a ray of moonlight shone through the ceiling as Monaco uncovered our exit and poked her head through.


    Hoisting herself up, she climbed out of the hole. ¡°Come up, one at a time. And keep your heads down. We¡¯re inside the wall, but we¡¯re a lot closer to the barracks than I¡¯d like.¡± As he was closest, Kuro pulled himself up the ladder and out through the manhole.


    Alverd motioned to Sheena and I. ¡°You go before me. I¡¯ll bring up the rear.¡±


    Sheena practically dashed past me to get to the ladder and was up and out in a flash. Even from the bottom of the ladder I could hear her gasping loudly after she made it up. I can hardly blame her. Still, she could¡¯ve at least asked if she could go first.


    Fighting back the urge to sigh, I climbed up. Emerging in the clean night air, I fought back the urge to do what Sheena did and instead took a controlled breath. Pulling myself free of the opening, I moved behind Kuro and Sheena and took in my surroundings. The four of us were beside a two story building nestled against the outer wall. Pipes attached to the wall of the building fed into the ground behind us. Untended bushes gave us some cover between our current position and the corner of the barracks, and Monaco was peeking out to look around.


    I reached down into the hole to help Alverd get through. His armor snagged on the opening, requiring me to hold him in place while he angled his body to get one arm through and then rise up the rest of the way so he wouldn¡¯t fall back down. Once he was through, I gently placed the manhole back so the smell of the sewer wouldn¡¯t leak out.


    By the time I was finished, Monaco had come back from her recon. ¡°Okay, so unfortunately this was the easy part. The area is covered in patrols, and we aren¡¯t going to be able to get in just by stealing uniforms.¡± She took out a piece of parchment and a quill and started sketching a map of the inner courtyard for us.


    I wasn¡¯t reassured by what I saw. We had limited room to move about, and there weren¡¯t any shrubs, planters, or even statues to use for cover. She¡¯d also marked no fewer than five groups of guards with four in each squad, even though she didn¡¯t have their patrol patterns figured out. Still, it was enough to know that we weren¡¯t getting in the front door.


    ¡°So what now?¡± Sheena asked. She took off her hat and chanced a look around the corner. ¡°From what I can see, the entrance to the Repository is more than eighty feet away and there aren¡¯t any other points of entry. So how are we supposed to get in?¡±


    Monaco pulled a rope with a metal hook on one end out of her bag and handed it to Alverd. ¡°Kuro and I came up with a plan, albeit one that relies a bit too much on pre-established bias for my taste. We climb to the top of the barracks and look for one of the spires flanking the main tower. Besides, once we¡¯re on the barracks we can see the whole area more easily.¡±


    Alverd threw the hook up, watching it snag. He put his hands together and bent his knees, nodding to me. ¡°I¡¯ll boost you up, then you climb. Once you get to the top, you¡¯ll pull Kuro up. He¡¯ll get the rest of us to the top.¡± I didn¡¯t need to be told twice. I stepped up off his hands and grabbed the rope, planting my feet against the wall and climbing up at a steady pace.


    Once I got to the top, I hauled Kuro up. He¡¯d tied the rope around and under his arms so it looped around his chest and shoulders. Thankfully he wasn¡¯t heavy; I braced my feet against the lip of the rooftop, extended my body to its full height, and then leaned back while pulling hand over hand. I got him up and over the edge of the roof in less than two minutes.


    After he pulled the rope free, he tossed it back down. Sheena was next. After she¡¯d finished, Kuro waved his staff while I pulled the rope. This time it was significantly easier to pull. It was almost as if Sheena weighed less than half of what Kuro had. ¡°I¡¯m manipulating air currents under her to help lift her up. Not exactly flying, but it works.¡±


    After we got Monaco up, there was only one thing left to do. It took all three of us with Kuro reducing Alverd¡¯s weight via his little magic trick to help Alverd climb the side of the barracks. I¡¯m not sure how much Sheena and Monaco are contributing to this. One look at their noodle arms and I¡¯m guessing I¡¯m doing the lion¡¯s share of the work here. Sheena had her teeth clenched as she pulled with all her might, not that she was doing much on her end. Monaco might¡¯ve been actually contributing but probably not by much. Still, we were able to get Alverd onto the roof.


    From our vantage point, things were much clearer, although I still wasn¡¯t sure how we were getting in. The massive walls flanking the Repository were shaped like a diamond, with the Repository itself nestled inside the wall against the far point and the barracks across from it at the other side. At the two other points of the diamond, twin spires reaching well above the wall. The spires looked to be about seventy feet tall, and each had an ascending bridgeway that connected them to the Repository, which was even taller still. The spires had additional walkways built on pillars reaching down to the walls, with metal railings in place for the safety of those traversing them. Those walkways extended all the way along the wall to the are above the barracks, looping around to the other spire.


    From our twenty foot tall roof, I could see the courtyard below. Monaco had been right; there was next to nothing to hide behind, with open lines of sight across the entire area. A gate in the wall next to the base of the Repository tower was the only way in or out of this enclosed space, with an opening that had to be uncovered by several guards working in tandem to slide a heavy door aside to create a path barely large enough to accommodate a single wagon. And this is all nonmagical. All of these defenses were concealed behind the wall. No wonder Monaco¡¯s crew couldn¡¯t figure out anything about the defenses. The only way they could¡¯ve is if they had the ability to fly.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Then I saw the ballistae. Emerging from holes near the tops of the spires were the points of ballista bolts, their gleaming tips catching the lights from below. Safe bet says there are men with crossbows in those spires, too. Maybe even mages. So the ground is impenetrable from conventional means, while the air is guarded by heavy siege weapons. I had to give it to the Kierhaians, they were indeed paranoid, but it served them quite well.


    A stray thought occurred to me. ¡°Hey, Monaco. If the Kierhaians are known for their pragmatism, then why were there no traps in the sewer?¡± She gave me a blank look, then sighed. ¡°Right, you wouldn¡¯t know. Nobody ever puts booby traps in a sewer, princess.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± I asked.


    ¡°Because no one wants to do maintenance on traps while wading waist high in shit.¡± Kuro said for her. ¡°No sane person would consider a sewer a logical or practical entry point. Luckily, or maybe unluckily for us, we¡¯re not sane people.¡± He gave a slightly demented chuckle, and I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle.


    I was still confused. ¡°So wait, then what¡¯s to stop the crazy people from using the sewer to get in?¡± Sheena tapped me on the shoulder. ¡°If you use the sewer to get in, that means the sewer is your only way out, too.¡±


    I scratched my head. ¡°I still don¡¯t get it. I thought we had a different exit strategy.¡±


    Alverd ruffled my hair, which strangely didn¡¯t feel as condescending as I thought it would. ¡°Consider it a good sign that it doesn¡¯t make sense. It means you¡¯re more on the sane side of the scale. We can let Kuro and Monaco make up for the rest of that.¡±


    The two of them looked up from what they were doing with fake shock and indignation on their faces. ¡°Wow. How many years have we been friends and that¡¯s what you think of me. Oh, that cuts deep,¡± Kuro said in a completely deadpan tone.


    Monaco put an exaggerated quaver in her voice. ¡°Oh, my heart, how it reels from your cruel words. Alas, playing hard to get simply makes me want you more.¡±


    Then they dug back into her equipment bag, pulling out a number of tools. Kuro stood up, then waved his staff at a piece of rope Monaco held up for him. Before my eyes, the rope unfurled, revealing it to be a rope ladder with twin metal hooks attached to the end of it. Staying as far away from the edge of the barracks¡¯ rooftop, he levitated the rope ladder up towards the top of the wall.


    ¡°I can only hope the distances were measured correctly. This will be very awkward if the ladder isn¡¯t long enough.¡± Monaco scoffed. ¡°I made sure to ask for the ladders to be at least fifty feet apiece. I¡¯m more worried about someone losing their balance once we¡¯re on top of the wall.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m going first. Once I¡¯m on top of the wall, I¡¯ll place the second ladder. We climb up to the walkway and get into one of the spires. From there, we sneak past a few guards and enter the Repository from one of the upper bridges. Hopefully that means we bypass everything the Repository had on the floors below.¡±


    The rope ladder zoomed up into the air, the hooks flickering as they moved away from the torchlight of the courtyard below. When they snagged onto the top of the wall, Kuro gave the ladder a firm yank to make sure it was secure. ¡°Okay, once I get the next ladder up, make sure you come up one at a time. I¡¯d rather not test how strong those hooks are. Oh, and make sure you get a cloak from Monaco.¡±


    ¡°Cloak?¡± I asked. I flinched as my finely honed berserker instinct sensed something coming at me, only to have a cloth drape itself over my face. ¡°Here, princess. It¡¯s the same color as the wall and extra long. Put the hood up and it should let you blend in with the scenery while we¡¯re climbing. Just try not to draw too much attention and we should be fine.¡±


    I wrapped the cloak around my body, fastening it at my neck and putting the hood over my head. Several extra clasps helped close it over my torso, and it had sleeves for my arms. By the time I had it on and was ready to go up the ladder, Kuro was near the top of the wall. He secured himself to the ladder with some extra rope, then used his staff to take his second ladder and carry it up to the bridgeway above. The bottom end of the rope, however, was slightly out of his reach.


    How is he going to reach the rope? The way it¡¯s hooked onto the bridgeway, the bottom end is flapping around and maybe five feet out over open air. He¡¯d had to guide the rope out and under the bridge to get it to where it needed to go. Even if the mage could jump out and grab the rope, he¡¯d be facing away from the ledge he¡¯d be climbing towards and on the wrong side of the ladder, with no foothold to secure himself.


    He didn¡¯t jump. Instead, he waved down to us. Monaco smacked me on the shoulder. ¡°You first, princess. Consider it proof of concept. You probably weigh the least of us.¡± Off in the corner, Sheena pouted, mumbling to herself about how she doubted that. That woman. Like now is the time to worry about stupid crap like that. Although I¡¯m not sure I like being lighter than everyone else.


    It took me far less time to get to Kuro¡¯s height than he did. When I got to the top of the wall, I found him holding onto the pillar in a death grip and breathing hard. ¡°Took you long enough,¡± he growled at me. ¡°Seriously. Take your time. I love it here. I lose my grip and the view will literally be to die for.¡± There was a shakiness in his voice despite his sarcasm.


    I got to the top of the ladder, but given he was now clinging to the pillar there was nowhere for me to go from there. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re afraid of heights,¡± I scoffed. He grumbled.


    ¡°Oh no, I got over that thanks to my childhood of learning how to ride dragons. Oh wait. That wasn¡¯t my childhood.¡± He shivered probably as much from the cold air as his fear.


    ¡°Alright, I got it. Just tell me what to do.¡± I said.


    He pointed at the ladder now swinging out in the empty air. ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to climb up, obviously.¡±


    ¡°Kuro, I can¡¯t make that jump.¡± Looking down, the ground suddenly seemed so much farther than before. No. Don¡¯t do that. Your brain did that the first time you flew on a dragon. It¡¯s your mind, your fear, playing tricks on you. I blinked, slowing my breathing, and the strange elongating sensation that made the courtyard below seem like it was twice the actual distance away ended. It was still farther away than I liked, though.


    ¡°Yes you can. And you¡¯re not going to jump. When I give you the signal, you¡¯re going to walk out to the ladder, turn around, and climb up the other side. Not until I¡¯m ready, though.¡±


    My eyes widened. ¡°Kuro, that¡¯s empty air. What am I supposed to be stepping on?!¡±


    He rolled his eyes at me. ¡°I¡¯ll make it so you can walk. You¡¯re just going to have to trust me, okay?¡± He held tight to his staff, his other arm wrapped around the pillar. ¡°But the important thing is that you have to do this slow and steady. Step only when I tell you to. This is going to take supreme concentration on my end so only go when I¡¯m ready to move you.¡±


    Despite his fear, there was also determination in his eyes. He understands fully what the consequences are if he fails. I think he hates this just as much as I do because he knows he¡¯s not the one taking the risk here. Nor is he the one who¡¯ll suffer the consequences. I got ready to take my first step out. ¡°I¡¯m ready when you are.¡±


    The ruby on the end of his staff began to glow with a light similar to a blue flame. ¡°Go.¡±


    I closed my eyes and put my foot down onto nothing, but was surprised to find it found purchase. Opening my eyes, I saw my boot planted on pale blue fire, bracing me and pushing upward. ¡°Take another step.¡± He said behind me. Taking a deep breath, I let go of the ladder and put my other foot out into the void.


    This time, with eyes open, I watched my foot step down onto a patch of blue fire that sprang out of nowhere to create a flat ¡°surface¡± for it to land on. It was firm enough that it didn¡¯t dip or move when I put my weight on it. ¡°Step!¡± Kuro called out to me. I took my back foot and moved forward, finding another blue fire ready to catch me.


    We did this several times, and Kuro had to rearrange the footholds each time I stepped to get to the point where I could grab the ladder. ¡°Make sure it¡¯s secure before you put your full weight on it.¡± He said. I tugged on it a few times. ¡°Okay, it¡¯s safe. I¡¯m going to grab it.¡±


    ¡°Let me know. I don¡¯t want to let go too quickly,¡± he warned.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got it. I think I¡¯ll be okay no-¡± one of the hooks at the top of the ladder slipped off its mooring. Now only held by one, the ladder swung violently, and I had only a second to realize what was happening and hold on for dear life.


    My heart pounded in my chest as the rope ladder swung left and right, twisting and spinning me as I tried not to fall. Adrenaline flooded my body as my world spun around me, a blur of motion and fear strangling any cry in my throat. Somewhere on the edge of my mind I could hear Kuro screaming, and then blue fire filled my vision.


    Immediately, the spinning stopped. Beneath me I felt buoyancy, like I was bobbing in water. A cradle of blue flame was lifting me gently, slowing my chaotic movement and pushing me gently back toward the wall. Kuro¡¯s face was drenched in sweat, his teeth clenched, his arm fully outstretched, the ruby on his staff pointed directly at me. ¡°Climb! I can¡¯t hold you forever!¡±


    Don¡¯t need to tell me twice! Hand over hand I pulled myself up the rope, scrambling up as fast as I could. When I got to the top I tumbled over the lip of the bridgeway and onto it, falling on my back. The flames dissipated as I did so, and I lay on the ground panting as I fought the urge to have a minor panic attack. Well, I¡¯m definitely awake now.


    Investigating what went wrong wasn¡¯t hard. The hook hadn¡¯t fully caught on the lip of the bridgeway; under normal circumstances, the curved metal heads would¡¯ve dug in after landing, but this time the head had caught on a small cut in the stone. It was enough that a short pull wouldn¡¯t have dislodged it, but a full weight like a human body would¡¯ve. Careless. But I¡¯m alive and that¡¯s all that matters. Besides, it¡¯s not Kuro¡¯s fault. There¡¯s no way he could¡¯ve seen this unless he got up here, and he can¡¯t fly.


    It was fine, at least it was for about five seconds. My legs wobbled and I sank down, back against the wall, breathing hard. Why am I panicking? I¡¯ve been up in the air hundreds of times. Why would this time be different? Taking in a deep breath, I willed myself to calm down. Worry about it later. For now, let¡¯s make sure nobody is around.


    A simple look with my naked eye told me that there were no guards on the bridgeway, which was odd. Given how the spires at the end of the bridgeway were loaded with siege weapons, I expected several guards at least, but even after I craned my head out to look towards the spires I couldn¡¯t see any. That¡¯s incredibly suspicious. There¡¯s no way there aren¡¯t any guards up here.


    To my surprise, there were not. I picked myself up and crept along the bridgeway in a half-crouch, to keep my upper body hidden from the sight of the soldiers below. I made it all the way to the spire and peeked my head in through the opening to the interior, and while I saw six ballistae and several racks of crossbows, there were no guards at all.


    What in Mother Evros¡¯ name is going on right now?


    I had enough time to pass through the spire to the other end and look towards the Repository tower when Monaco came over the edge of the bridgeway. She trotted up to me. ¡°Hey, princess. Close call there, huh?¡± She still had that insufferably cocky grin on her face.


    ¡°That¡¯s all you have to say about me potentially falling almost fifty feet to the ground below and cracking my skull open?¡± I said disdainfully.


    ¡°Uh. I¡¯m so glad you didn¡¯t?¡± She said to me with fake concern plastered on her face.


    Gods, I hate this woman.


    The two of us were looking at the door to the Repository tower, which loomed over us by at least five feet. The tall door was made of some kind of glossy metal and had a scene of some battle embossed on it, although I could make out two angels with their wings unfurled flying over the battle. The bottom half of the door was dominated by an image of a monster I couldn¡¯t properly describe, as it was just a giant blob with tentacles and teeth.


    ¡°That¡¯s ominous.¡± I said. The monster in question was in the process of demolishing a city, buildings collapsing in flames around it.


    ¡°No kidding,¡± Monaco said from next to me. She put her hand on the door. ¡°I¡¯m not seeing a lock or a keyhole here. I¡¯m guessing it has to be magical. Once Kuro gets up here he can undo the enchantment on it and maybe we can get somewhere.¡± The sound of her voice got quieter as she talked, and after a second I realized that it wasn¡¯t because she was lowering it.


    Her voice was being drowned out by some kind of sound emanating from the door. It was like a low hum, like several people vocalizing together in some deep tone. It wasn¡¯t entirely unpleasant to listen to, but it also made my skin crawl for some reason. Instinctively, I felt my hand reach up and pull my maul off my shoulder. Before I knew it, the weapon was held out in front of me.


    In the distance,or at least it sounded that way, Monaco¡¯s voice faded in and out of my perception. Instead, all I could fixate on was the sound of the door, and then the runes on my maul flashed. The arcane letters carved into them seemed to glow and buzz with a similar rhythm, and the more I listened to the sound the more it seemed like a song rather than some random noise. My eyes fluttered, my senses dulled, and then the two sounds overlapped.


    In my trance-like state, the runes and door seemed to resonate with each other. I intuited rather than figured out what was going on. I can use the runes to open the door. If the door is sealed magically, then it means I can nullify the magic and then the door becomes a slab of metal. Simple as that.


    Will gave intent to my thought, and intent became action. The runes flared, and the door fell silent. The droning noise ceased instantly, and the runes went quiet as well. When I opened my eyes, there was no longer any weird sound coming out of the door. I placed my hand on the cold, glossy metal and pushed.


    There was no resistance. The door slid open without a sound, no grinding of metal on stone or the creaking of hinges. I didn¡¯t even need to keep my hand on it; without effort, it swung open until both Monaco and I could see into the Repository tower with no issue, and we were transfixed by what we saw.


    A circular walkway with handrails made its way around the wall, all along the entire length of the tower. In the middle of the tower was a massive crystal, stretching up and down and filling the entirety of our vision. The crystal¡¯s length went from the ground below to nearly thirty feet above us, its glasslike surface refracting the light from the open door in a hypnotic pattern.


    Perhaps a little too hypnotic. There was something about the way that the light sparkled, how it seemed to dance across the multi-faceted face of the crystal that enthralled me for a second. It¡¯s more beautiful than any gemstone I¡¯ve ever seen. Flawless. I just want to reach out and touch it. Before I knew it, I had taken a step forward, into the doorway.


    I collided with Monaco, who had taken her own step at the same time. The impact was enough to knock some sense into me, and I blinked as the residual hold the crystal had on me faded instantly. Monaco, however, had an eerily blissful look on her face, her eyes glazed over and her mouth hanging slightly open. Her lips were moving, almost as if she were trying to say something.


    ¡°Dad? I can hear you. It¡¯s me. It¡¯s little Mona. I¡¯m here.¡±


    Oh no. Son of a bitch, it¡¯s a trap.


    Moving on instinct I threw my arms open and wrapped them around Monaco¡¯s chest in a bear hug, pinning her arms to her sides and lifting her off the ground. I squeezed my eyes shut so I wouldn¡¯t accidentally look at the crystal again. ¡°No, stop! It¡¯s affecting your mind! Don¡¯t listen to it, that¡¯s not your father!¡±


    She didn¡¯t resist at first. She kept trying to walk forward, even though her feet were barely touching the walkway. ¡°Dad, I¡¯m coming! I just need to get your medicine. It¡¯ll just take a moment.¡± Her voice sounded dull and had no inflection to it. Shit, she¡¯s falling further under its spell. If I don¡¯t do something she¡¯ll go completely cuckoo. Sorry Monaco, but it has to be done. I stepped back on my left leg and planted it, then drove the knee of my right leg as hard as I could into the small of her back.


    Her reaction was immediate and sudden. Whereas before she had been docile, she turned feral instantly. She thrashed in my grip, teeth gnashing in her mouth. ¡°No! Let me go! Dad needs me! Let me go, you bitch!¡± Where did all this strength come from? She¡¯s a skinny little thief and yet I can barely hold onto her! Despite her best efforts, I managed to keep her under control.


    Then a pair of hands seized my shoulder and started pulling me back. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with her?¡± Sheena¡¯s voice rang in my ear.


    ¡°The crystal! It did some weird magical shit to her and now she thinks she can hear her father¡¯s voice. Help me pull her away from it!¡± Together the two of us dragged the angry wolf beastwoman out of the tower, and as soon as we were clear of the door, Sheena slammed it shut. The moment she could no longer see the crystal, Monaco¡¯s body went limp. Then she whimpered.


    ¡°Ugh, what happened?¡±


    Reluctantly, I loosened my grip. ¡°I dunno. You saw the crystal, then started babbling about your father.¡± She wiped sweat off her brow, licking her lips nervously.


    ¡°For a moment, I heard his voice. He sounded like he did when I left Margloom. I need to get his medicine¡­¡± She shook her head. ¡°Right. It¡¯s not real. I¡¯m hearing things.¡±


    Then she fixed her brown eyes on me. ¡°Wait, how did you open the door?¡±


    Sheena was still examining the door itself, and answered without turning around. ¡°She used the nullification runes on her weapon. This door has some kind of magical lock on it. It can¡¯t be picked with physical tools. Although based on what I can see, opening it the way you did is what activated the trap inside.¡±


    Monaco swore under her breath. ¡°So then the Repository has a momentum breaker set up. Gods be damned, I should¡¯ve expected that.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a momentum breaker?¡± I asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s a system of traps that works like a chain of dominos. Deactivating one trap just arms all the remaining traps in sequence. Which means by opening that door, every trap in the Repository is now ready to impede our attempt to get the Hand of the Usurper.¡±


    The three of us looked at the door, unsure of what to do. Tricks and subtlety were out the window now. The only way to solve this problem was to go straight through. Normally, that was the way I would¡¯ve preferred things.


    After what had happened to Monaco, suddenly I wasn¡¯t so sure.