A Fight for the Ages

Hisoki wakes up a little later. He’s sat at a fire next to Sadi, lying against a tree. He’s unsure why, but he can hear arguing. Sadi is still asleep so he slowly stands. Not too far away, Vic, Augustus, and Melleni are arguing about what to do with Sadi. Maiyori is sitting out of the argument.

“Look, the clown beat her, he can choose what we do. I know you want her Melleni. But she’s not yours.” Vic says.

“And what if she wakes up, huh? Will you take responsibility for her cooking us alive?” Melleni asks.

“Sure will.” Vic crosses his arms as he says it.

“You had Maiyori heal them both. My sister can do a lot, but those two are… I’ve never seen spellcasters like them. If Sadi woke up right after, I have no clue what we would’ve done.”

Maiyori speaks up. “I… did have a way to defend us.”

Augustus kneels and shushes her. “Sis, hush. Don’t say anything about that.”

“Understood, brother. Pardon me.” she says, closing her eyes, sitting there quietly.

“Hey guys, I’m awake.” Hisoki says waving at them by the fire.

Maiyori stands, very concerned. Vic walks over to the jester. “Jeez, kid, you gave me a heart attack. I can’t believe you fought her to a stalemate!” he pats him on the back. Knocking Hisoki a little forward.

“Yeah, but I used a spell I didn’t plan on using today… But I guess I slept a while so that’s good. I feel pretty refreshed.” Hisoki explains, stretching and attempting a hand stand. Struggling at first but sticks it.

Vic takes a pull from the cigarette he had in his hand. “Listen, clown… We got something important to discuss. Sadi is a nutcase. She’s completely dangerous and she needs to be removed. She doesn’t need to be a knight. I see what Lyco was talking about now in the ring. Augy and Melleni have been looking to go over my head and eliminate her from the challenge. I need to know this, what do you want to do with her? She’s yours, you got her. If you wanna eliminate her? Go for it. If you want to try and make her a deal? I don’t mind. You just gotta give me and them a decent reason.”

Hisoki stands back up and makes himself presentable to them. Thinking about this a moment while looking at Melleni, Augy, and Maiyori. “I think… I should eliminate her.”

Vic puts his cigarette in his mouth and claps. “Well, alright!”

“But I’m not going to…” Hisoki says crossing his arms.

“Oh son of a bitch.” Vic takes the cigarette from his mouth.

“Just hear me out! I know you all want her gone. But think about this. I only barely subdued her and I still got knocked out. She walked over to me. She could have taken me in that moment, but she didn’t! I think there’s more to her than you all can see. Look, if I take her now, she’ll just be back next year. Which means more potential knights will die or be torched.” as Hisoki explains this, Augy nods.

“You know, he’s making sense. And we can’t kill her.” Augy puts his massive paws on his hips, thinking. “From what Maiyori told me, two of the contestants are gone. Leaving ten of us left. The math isn’t adding up in your favor, Hisoki. She’s likely going to eliminate one of us five or one of the other four out there.”

Melleni rolls her eyes. “This is ridiculous… I’m going after her. She’s still asleep, right?” as she walks toward where she’s sleeping, Vic stands in front of her.

“Nuh uh. Don’t even think about it.” Vic declares, holding his weapon.

“Is that right?” Melleni asks, standing on her toes to get to his face.

“It is. You may not trust him. He saved my life, and I saved his.” Vic says, drawing the line in the dirt. “If he says we don’t, we shouldn’t.”

She turns her back on Vic and starts walking away. “I think I’m done here.” She pulls out her bow and fires an arrow into the forest far away.

Vic shrugs. “So what? You’re leaving?” he asks her.

“No, not alone at least.” She points to his belt; under his cloak, she’s slipped a broken arrow half. Vic doesn’t even get to respond before he teleports away.

Hisoki and Augy try to swing at her but she gives a two-finger salute and teleports too. “Damn it! Sly bitch!” Augy yells. “What the hell do we do now?!”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” Hisoki says.

“Excuse me, brother, Hisoki. We have a problem. I sense a powerful spellcaster coming. In fact… It’s the same one I felt with you, Hisoki.” Maiyori leans on her brother, as all three of them group up. A wall of water comes straight through the trees on the far end of the grasslands that connects to the forest so fast that it nearly overtakes all three of them before they can move! Splitting off Hisoki and Maiyori from Augy. The wave carries behind it three people. One of which pounces on Hisoki. It’s Gabb. She practically ignores Maiyori as Hisoki ducks and dodges, not able to draw his weapon or even reach for his bag. The other two are Tenzent and Khenen.

“Easy! Easy! Hang on a sec!” Hisoki says. “Give me a moment, have a little compassion!”

Gabb keeps stabbing and swinging. She just needs one nick, a scratch. “I don’t care about what you’re saying. I understand your illusions.” She takes a massive swing, forcing Hisoki to back flip. Which is Tenzent’s moment to shine, attempting to sling a massive ball of water at Hisoki. Augy grabs Tenzent by the face and holds him up by his head, causing his spell to drop to the grass.

Khenen says, “Stah! Stah! Stah!” which causes serious stab wounds in the shape of spears to appear on Augy’s back. Augy, in his strength, reaches back and nabs Khenen by his torso. Unable to get his face. He holds them both up. Struggling for a breath.

“Maiyori! Here quick!” Augy says. She attempts to rush over to claim one of them.

The quiet Khenen is boiling with rage. “No… Way… Are you robbing this from me!” He wiggles enough to get his breath. “Bang!!!” He yells. A massive unseen force pulverizes Augy in the chest and face, peeling flesh off down to the bone as the wave of this force causes a three-mile-wide cavitation in the clouds. Augy drops them both. Everyone looks. Even the focused Gabb and Hisoki.

Once Tenzent and Khenen hit the ground, Khenen jumps on Tenzent, slapping his hand on Tenzent’s number. “What the hell are you-?!”

“Knight!” Khenen says as both he and Tenzent are teleported away.

Gabb changes tactics, seeing Augy as free since he lies there, skin and flesh peeled off his face and chest, though the number still remains. She dashes for him so fast Hisoki can’t grab her. Augy, however, manages to get up and parries her dagger with his shield so fast that it spooks her as he comes in with his claws while regenerating. She’s on the back foot with one dagger now and Maiyori isn’t sure what to do. If she enhances her brother, she might be left defenseless again, and then Gabb might target her.

Augy is focused, but notices from the corner of his eye someone hiding in the bushes near the brush where Sadi is sleeping. “Maiyori!” Augy yells and gestures to the bushes with his chin and both her and Hisoki look to see Anthony! He panics and jumps up from the bush and starts running. Gabb takes notice quickly.

“That’ll do fine!” she says, but just as she attempts to disengage, Augy steps on her foot. “H-hey!” she stammers.

“Where do you think you’re going? Sis! It’s all on you now!” Augy lets Gabb stab him, which does nothing to paralyze him, so he grabs her number and yells, “Knight!” before the both of them are teleported away.

Hisoki and Maiyori are trying to get to Anthony first. Both are neck and neck purely because of how late Hisoki started running for him. They are closing in on him when suddenly Sadi appears, pokes him in the shoulder with her finger, and grabs Anthony. Hisoki and Maiyori stop in their tracks, looking at each other, panting. “Sorry, you two. It seems Hisoki has bailed me out of this challenge. I used my finger as the ‘weapon’ for the instant thrust spell you used on me in the earlier challenge.”

“Oh god… Oh man. D-don’t hurt me!” Anthony begs.

“Shut up, and I won’t. Hisoki. You know how I feel about you. But Maiyori… I’m so disappointed! You could have won this entire challenge if you just let go. Now here’s your chance. I don’t see Vic around here. It’s just you and Hisoki. So, you have to let go now, Maiyori. Hisoki is strong, but I know you’re hiding your strength. Show it to me! I’ll be watching eagerly.” She touches the number on Anthony’s chest. “Knight!” Sadi and Anthony disappear.

Hisoki and Maiyori stare at where those two disappeared from for a bit longer before sitting in the grass.

“What do we do now?” Hisoki asks already knowing the answer.

“I believe you know…” she says regretfully.

Moments ago. Far into the forest where Vic was first teleported. So too was Melleni. Vic has hidden and taken up cover behind one of the trees. Melleni stalks him. Luckily, Vic already removed the arrow from his belt. “Damn it, Melleni…” he whispers. An arrow whips by, hitting the tree in front of Vic. Suddenly she appears. Teleporting to that arrow, reaching out for the number on Vic’s chest. Vic already started moving when the arrow hit the tree in front of him. She misses him completely with her hand. As he runs, another arrow hits in front of him against a tree, then three more to the left, right, and diagonal. More hit along all sides, so he’s surrounded by eight arrows.

“You lose, Vic. This is my eight-point disassemble. No one has ever escaped it.” she says, teleporting between each arrow randomly. She appears for a single moment, then vanishes to the next one. Vic is a bit overwhelmed, especially when she jumps at him after teleporting to the one to his right. He barely has the time to dodge, and when he attempts to grab her hand, she disappears again to the multiple arrows, teleporting between them.

“Eight arrows… I have six shots.” Vic whispers to himself, uncovering his weapon. “Come on then. Make your move.” The moment the teleportation between the arrows stops, he turns and fires right as Melleni reaches out. She starts teleporting again. Vic is just listening for the teleports to stop. And again, they do and he fires. Then again. Then again. Suddenly, Melleni realizes what has happened.

“You’ve destroyed four of my arrows… You’re trying to narrow down where I’ll come from. Vic, it doesn’t matter anymore. I can react faster than you can fire your weapon.” she gloats.

He holsters his weapon. “Don’t kid yourself…” he pulls up some of the trap wire from his pouch and keeps a hold of it while closing his eyes. The moment the wire pulses, he draws his weapon and fires.

“Gahh!” can be heard. “Ahh… ha…” Melleni on one knee, Vic has placed a shot right on her upper thigh. “How… did you do that?” she begs. Holding onto the tree.

Vic puts his weapon away and pulls up the wire under her foot. “I laid out this wire as I ran from you. Then I waited to see your pattern in teleporting. I destroyed four out of the eight arrows, one for every time you fully appeared to grab me. Leaving only four arrows left. I had a feeling that you’d step on that wire if I pulled it a little more toward that tree. When you stepped on it, you pulled it tight against my hand. So I fired. You didn’t have the time to react, but you gave me every moment to read you.”

“Fuck this hurts…” She says sitting down.

“Yeah, it’s going to.” Vic says while reloading his weapon before both hear something loud coming from the grasslands.

“BANG!” they both fully hear the word spoken by Khenen, overhead they see the cavitation in the clouds.

“Holy…” Vic says.

“Shit.” Melleni finishes. There’s a long pause. “You think Hisoki’s dealing with that?”

“Possibly.” Vic admits while kneeling down to her. “He tends to be a little attracted to danger like that.”

She sighs. “You wanna go help him don’t you?”

“Yeah, yeah I do. But, you taught me something. Sometimes it’s alright to look out for yourself. For what is practical.” Vic puts his thumbs in his belt.

Melleni sighs. “Look, I don’t… Usually do this kind of thing. I can’t walk anymore. Nor defend myself. Even if I wanted to trick you again, I’ve already lost in the most practical sense. I’ll help you get back to him, and you can bring me with. I’ve got an arrow back at the grassland camp that I left behind. Pick me up and I’ll take you there.”

“You’re serious? No tricks?” Vic asks her.

“No, Vic. You beat me. I just want to apologize for earlier…” she says, looking away and blushing from embarrassment.

Vic picks her up. She reaches back and touches her bow. They teleport right back to the camp, where they see just Maiyori and Hisoki sitting there. Vic brings Melleni over, to Hisoki’s surprise. Maiyori is just shocked they are both still here. “Vic! You’re back! Everyone else is gone.”

“Gone? You mean those other four contenders came?”

Maiyori clarifies. “Brother eliminated Gabb, Khenen eliminated Tenzent, Sadi eliminated Anthony.”

Melleni sighs. “I warned you both to get rid of her. It doesn’t matter now though… Hisoki. I am sorry for questioning your judgement, even if you were wrong. It wasn’t my place to decide. Maiyori… I’m sorry for breaking up the team we had. I’m paying for it by not becoming a knight. Now you both have to pay for not dealing with Sadi.”

Vic nods. “You two will have to figure this out. I just came to make sure everyone is okay.”

“Figure this out is just another way of saying ‘surrender or fight’ right?” Hisoki asks.

Vic just nods and Maiyori gently puts her hand on Hisoki’s gloved hand. “It’s alright. We’ll figure this out.”

Vic kneels to the jester. “Look. This is going to hurt. I know you’ve been through a lot together. Hisoki, if you want to become a knight, you have to pull out everything you have. There’s no need to hold back anymore. This is the final challenge. She’s the only person you have to worry about. Maiyori. The same to you. You’re strong. You can beat this. I will see one of you at the end of the finish line. Let it all go, put it all out there.”

Hisoki and Maiyori look at each other and nod.

Melleni can’t help but smile at this. “Can you believe we only get to keep one of them, Vic?”

Vic pats Melleni’s good leg. “A crying shame.”

“Before you both go.” Hisoki says and hands Melleni a potion from his bag. “Take this. You should at least be allowed to walk out of the loser circle.”

She takes it, holding onto it tightly. “Thanks but my money’s on Maiyori winning this.”

Vic laughs. “Is that a bet?”

“It is! If Hisoki wins? I’ll take you out for dinner. If Maiyori wins, you take me out.”

“Fair enough. Now…” he places his hand over her number. “See you two later. Knight.” Vic and Melleni both vanish.

It’s quiet now. The only thing that happens is that the wind blows before Maiyori and Hisoki stand. “My lord has laid out another test of my faith. A trial. Hisoki, our truce has come to its conclusion. I expect you to carry out the lord’s will against me. For he will guide me back to my brother.” The ground begins to shake around her, causing Hisoki to jump back. “I believe it’s time I made you understand something. I could’ve beaten Sadi too. My brother doesn’t appreciate when I display what I’m capable of. I only gave glimpses of it against my opponents in the ring.” Her nun’s cap falls off as a halo appears, ethereal white glowing wings sprout, and she lifts off of the ground. “I have been endowed by my lord with the powers of a Seraphim. You bring the lord’s test to me. I will pass it with the lord’s might. Your illusions will not blind me in this state. I’m above such senses as a normal mortal would share.”

“You really are an Angel, aren’t you Maiyori?” Hisoki asks drawing his blade.

“I am. Though only when I choose to be. I’ve always been mortal, but Adonai blessed me with power unrivaled by all except a God Knight.” she says, her outfit turning into a full angel’s gown and her hair even grows. “Now, come at me, Hisoki. If you can, transform. Don’t hold back. This is our field now.”

Hisoki merely points his sword at her. “A transformation is just a mask. I’m a performer. I’ve always worn mine.” he sneaks a ball from his bag and drops it. It explodes in purple smoke.

“You cannot hide from me. My friend.” She sees his very soul hiding in the forest to the left, taking a breath. She zips there and grabs at his number. He gives a panicked expression before he fades into nothing, her hand phasing straight through. “How?” She looks at her hands. “That’s impossible… I don’t have the same five senses as a normal person would!”

“You’re right! You don’t have five senses. Every living thing has one to sixteen senses. You exposed your Metaphysical and Conceptual Senses to me, so all of them are mine now.” Hisoki announces from everywhere. “You acknowledged your sense of Self to me when I asked if you ‘really are an angel’.”

“It doesn’t matter. Your illusions still allow full physical movement. I’ll find you eventually.” She makes several white balls of energy and lays waste to the forest in a straight line, each ball causing massive explosions.

“Trying to destroy all of this forest to find me? Not a smart idea.” The voice from Hisoki points in a direction which she follows, flying into a massive amount of trees. Slicing through them with her wings. “Oh, I guess you did find me!”

She looks around. He sounds right here in this opening… Suddenly lines are drawn out with blue glowing thread trying to wrap around her and stick her to the trees. She dodges effortlessly as a massive net of this blue thread is woven between the trees. “Soul snares… Hisoki, you must have done some awful things to collect something like this.”

“Nope! I just returned a couple gems to a few kingdoms. They gave me what I requested. I assumed you dodged those because once those snag your soul, there’s no escape until I release you.” Maiyori can hear him talk but can’t see him. She swears she can hear something else.

It’s growling, lots of growling. Suddenly a massive dragon jumps out of the forest, and begins trying to bite and swipe at Maiyori. She summons a golden shield to block each attempt and dodges when she can. “Releasing your pet to fight me?” she fires several orbs at the dragon and a beam. Each hit, leaving no real damage, the dragon fires a beam of her own. Forcing Maiyori to fully sheild herself.

“Seems like your magic still can’t hurt her, Maiyori, but she can surely hurt you!” Hisoki says as Maiyori is still defending the beam attack from the dragon.

“I am Adonai’s sword… And he is my shield!” her shielding around her body peels forward, surrounding just her hand while she begins pushing forward so fast that she refracts the beam from the dragon. Her free hand summons a sword. “For my brother, and for this beast, I will do what you could not, Hisoki!” she yells. Getting so close so fast, she chops the head from the dragons body cleanly. As she watches the body fall limp; she huffs a bit from the actual effort she just exerted, even catching a glimpse of a Sight Sphere capturing everything she just did.

“Maiyori! Over here!” Hisoki yells. She looks behind her and sees him hanging in a tree, holding a massive amount of energy in his hand.

“No you don’t!” her sword and shield vanish and she prepares both of her hands.

“Megido!”

“All Negate!”

The explosion erupts. Engulfing both in a wave of white from both of their hands. When it dies down, there are no trees left or grass, not even the body or head of the dragon, just barren land. Both Hisoki and Maiyori are lying face down very far apart. Maiyori sits up first. “Hisoki… I take what I said back, you’re truly formidable. However, you released your illusion around yourself so I may cast All Negate and rebound some of the damage from Megido back at you. Sadly for me.” She looks back as her wings shatter like glass. “I still received a lot of it. Not to mention All Negate takes a lot out of this transformation.” Her halo remains pristine as she stands fully, dusting off her outfit. “You need not worry now, my friend. You’ll wake back in Magen, feeling better than you did when you started these challenges.” She walks toward Hisoki and suddenly she can’t move. “W-what? What is this!?” she can’t see anything holding her in place, but soon her arms are drawn outward, and she drops to her knees. The trees in the area suddenly fade back in along with the grass, and she can see now that the same Soul Snares from earlier have surrounded her, coming from the ground, sliding through her body like liquid, holding onto her soul. “You trapped me with your soul snares! How? How did you do this!? Was the Megido you used even real!?” she yells at the jester who’s still lying down. From behind her, she hears a crunch. Leaning against one of the trees is Hisoki, eating a fig.

“You assume you were even fighting me to begin with. My plan was always to get you with my snares. The injured me over there? Isn’t the real me. I modified your senses to make you think I cast Megido, but I actually used Megikav from a safe distance. Your negation didn’t matter because I aimed for your back.” as he says that, she begins laughing. Which seems completely out of character for Maiyori.

“My fear of these Soul Snares is purely for my convenience, Hisoki. Otherwise… I have to unravel my soul.” Her very soul, yellow in appearance, unravels as it frees itself from her body and the snares. The snares fall through her physical body and get avoided by her soul. “See? Although I can’t just reclaim my body at the moment. Not that I need to.” She runs at Hisoki, who’s still chewing on a bite of a fig. He doesn’t budge. Which worried her. She stops right in front of him.

“What’s wrong? Go on. You’re faster than me. So take me if you feel so inclined.” Hisoki pushing her to grab him.

“No… There’s something wrong here.” She turns around to see the injured Hisoki standing. “There are still two of you! I’m still under an illusion! What’s more, your injured self is standing…”

“Exactly, you have to make a choice. Which one is the real me. It’s gotta be me, or the injured me. Make your choice.” Hisoki says while tossing the fig to the side. The injured Hisoki speaks up. “And make it quick… I might just crack a potion and heal.”

Maiyori’s spirit kneels and prays for an answer. She suddenly opens her eyes and grabs the non-injured Hisoki. “You’re the real one!” she says as she grabs him fully with her spirit hands and floats, bringing him over to her physical body so it can claim him. Before she can, she sees the body she’s holding vanish. “N-no! But, I could touch you!”

“I told you before…” the injured Hisoki rolls over her physical body, already making closed the distance to it. “I only have a number of illusions I can cast. I’ve just been adjusting the same one.” The forest dissipates back to a barren wasteland. “I did cast Megido. You just believed I didn’t. My illusions can be touched if I make you think they can be.” Even damaged, Hisoki is about to place his hand over Maiyori’s number.

“Wait! Hisoki! You can’t do this! My brother needs me by his side, you really don’t understand! Please, I’ll give you anything!” her spirit self begs as though everything is lost.

Hisoki, injured and dripping blood speaks. “Answer this question, and I’ll make up my mind. Can a moth eat a flame?”

She calms her panic, and takes a second to think. Soon, though she comes to a conclusion. “A moth… will always be burned in the pursuit of consuming a flame. However, little by little. With each attempt. It can happen.”

“Good answer! One more thing… How was my performance? Think the people at home viewing with the sight spheres got a smile?”

“I… Um… Don’t think that’s important right now, Hisoki.”

“I guess you’re right, Maiyori. You are probably the strongest person-no… Being I’ve ever fought. Had this gone on any longer? I’d have lost. But for now…” he places his hand on her number.

“Wait! Don’t!” her spirit dives for her body.

“I need it more! Knight!” Hisoki says it right as she touches her body. Teleporting them all away.

Hisoki finds himself in a dimly lit room. He’s still looking down and notices he’s on his knees, sitting inside a glowing circle. Maiyori is gone. He looks up to see a table with everyone else who has won sitting at it. Vic, Sadi, Khenen, Lycogalia, and Augy. There’s a magical projection of the fight right in the center of the table. Augy is the first to stand from his seat. Vic follows. “Augustus… Augy. You need to calm down!” he practically shoves Vic out of the way.

Sadi does nothing. Lyco just looks away. As Augy kneels down to the jester, staring him in the eyes. “You made my sister lose… Even when she went all out against you.”

“I just needed to win…” Hisoki admits, “I didn’t do it to hurt her or you-” In a sudden motion, Augy reaches out and grabs the little jester and wraps his massive arms around him in a big hug.

“You don’t understand how happy this has made me… Sis is always in danger due to her faith. People don’t appreciate her brand of devotion. If she became a knight, she’d be in twice as much danger or more. I told her I’d take care of her, though she was adement about it. I thought there was no way anyone could stop her. I couldn’t even do it! But… Adonai brings a messenger in many ways. A-as she would say.”

“I… I don’t mean to be rude, but when your sister reflected some of my spell, she already broke one of my arms and three of my ribs or more. I think you’re breaking the rest…” Hisoki winces a little, not from the pain, but from being unable to breathe. Augy sets him down slowly. Vic walks up beside him.

“I thought you could do it as she was. When she changed though… I worried for ya. I didn’t have enough faith in you, though. Clearly you spent more time learning about everyone in these challenges than you did worrying.” Vic takes off his hat for this moment.

“I understand! Don’t worry! I do have a problem though. I don’t think I can get a potion from my bag because of my arm. Vic? Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” he reaches in Hisoki’s bag. “Oh, shit. I think this is your last one.” he says as he pulls it out and uncorks it. Hisoki takes it with his one good arm and drinks.

“I’ll get more tomorrow.” Not too worried, he tosses the empty potion bottle into the open bag, rolling his shoulder, standing on his hands with his legs up high. “Much better! I do feel really bad for Maiyori… I thought I’d get to talk to her after.”

“Nope!” Lyco says from the table. “All the winners get put here and the losers get teleported in the city somewhere.”

“And how do you know that?” Hisoki questions, clearly still sour with him. When a knock comes from the left, Nozomi is knocking on the open doorway.

“They asked me.” she says. “Hisoki, I knew you could do it.”

He flips on to his feet again and she comes over with a hug he wasn’t expecting. “Did you not think I could do it?”

“The last challenge was so dangerous because I found out too late that it was changed. I knew you could beat it, but there was a part of me that thought you’d die or give up your spot. It doesn’t matter now. We have our six new Knights this year. You’ll be given a choice for your teams tomorrow. That does mean you’ll have to appear before… Him. Again.”

“You mean Luscious?” Vic asks. “He’s a bad dude or something?”

“He’s a total prick. That’s what he is. He has the greatest number of Knights on his team, and since he gathers the greatest number of magic items among the other teams, he gets to pick from the lot of magic items to keep first. Sometimes he keeps the full bag.”

“Wow, sounds… A lot like me.” Hisoki says, a little sad about it.

“You’re nothing like him. He’s up on his magic item mountain throwing boulders down at us smaller squads and teams. All you have to do is talk to him, impress him. And then show him why you deserve to pick the team you want. For now, all of you follow me to where you can rest.” Nozomi leads them through this building to a row of six bedrooms. “You’ll be staying here until you’re all sorted into your barracks and given new homes if you need them.”

Vic raises his hand, trying to be polite. “And if we don’t need a home, we can just live where we used to?”

“Yes, though you will need to be at your barracks by your given time frame. You may not even have expeditions, guard duty, or any work to do besides patrolling or something else. You can even volunteer to venture outside of the kingdom to look for caves that may yield magic items. You can’t go inside them unless it’s an emergency, but you can document the location and bring it back to us if you genuinely think it’s a new cave that has opened up.”

Lyco, mimicking Vic, raises his hand. “If I may ask, what even causes new caves to just appear like that? And with magic items made by people from so long ago.”

“It’s uncertain exactly. Plenty of philosophers believe that magic items have ‘buoyancy’ and refuse to stay buried once a lot of them come together in one place from seismic movement. Some believe it’s due to the natural curses and unnatural items created from magic, somehow trying to cancel each other out. If you want to ask someone with better knowledge, ask the philosophers or magic item collectors in Magen.” She waves her hand and looks away briefly like she’s not too interested in the subject while at the same time, glancing at Hisoki. “Any other questions.”

Khenen raises his hand. “Yes… Um…” he quietly says. “Who’s the king?” Everyone looks back at him, asking this.

Nozomi coughs, trying to keep her composure. “The King of Magen, of this nation, is actually three. There are nine rings of Magen. There’s a king for each segment of three rings. I’d advise all of you who are defending this nation and kingdom as a whole to learn about the place you’ll be defending. The kings are very strong former knights. They’ve lived for seventy, eighty, and ninety years respectively. I won’t be discussing their names with you because I’ll leave you to research that, Khenen.”

He practically blushes through his dark olive skin from not knowing something so important. Sadi raises her hand lazily. “Is sparring allowed when not working?” she asks, already bored.

“Of course. There are massive training facilities near barracks in Magen. So, if that’s everything, relax, get something to eat next door. I’ll be back tomorrow to get you all.” Nozomi heads straight down the hallway and down some stairs while everyone picks their rooms. Vic picks his and looks back, seeing Hisoki pick his across from the one he chose. Once they both go into their rooms, Hisoki sits on the bed. The room looks very simple, more like a guest room. The linens are nice enough. Hisoki lies back, legs hanging off of the edge. Before long, not realizing exactly how tired he was, he drifts off to sleep.