The afternoon sun streamed in through the window.

  The bell tolled.

  Hayate sighed and slumped, slamming his head into the table.

  Around us, people slowly packed their bags and left, some of them turning to give us a few words of farewell as they passed by.

  “Hey, Symphonia, great job hanging in there in the semis! Come a long way since last year, where you couldn’t dodge to save your life.”

  I chuckled politely, nodding my head in thanks for their kind words.

  “You did great in the quarterfinals too, Ravel. I see you put in a lot of effort into your wall-breaking skills after the embarrassment of last year’s final exams.”

  “Haha, yeah, man, it’s embarrassing that you remember that so well. Guess I should just be happy you’re paying attention to me, huh?”

  “Setsuna! You were awesome! Your sword forms are the stuff of legends! I’ll be rooting for you at the end of year tournament!”

  The swordswoman just glowered, huffing and crossing her arms as she frowned and glared at nothing in particular.

  Kagura rolled her eyes at our teammate’s attitude.

  “Oh come on, you’ve had like four hours. You’re still upset about how it ended?”

  At that moment, one final classmate passed by to twist in the knife with his parting words.

  “Yo, Wadatsumi! I was really rooting for your team this time, shame what happened at the finals, better luck at the end of the year, ey? Third time’s the charm, right?”

  The week had gone by rather quickly.

  The start of the school year was always rather exciting; everyone’s adrenaline pumped to the maximum as the tournament grew tenser and tenser, boiling to a fever pitch on Friday when all seven year groups gathered at noon to host all of their semi and grand finals in a row.

  We had done fairly well for ourselves, managing to barely edge out some victories in a few scrappy scrambles as securing ourselves a much vaunted place on finals day.

  Sadly, our luck had ended there.

  Hayate picked himself up for a moment before slamming his head into the table even harder than before.

  “Aw, man! Come on! I still can’t believe we got second place again!”

  Setsuna’s face simply darkened even further at his words, her scowl slowly morphing into a snarl as she tried to burn a hole in the chalkboard at the back of the room with her eyes.

  “Oh, come on, get over yourself,” Kagura half-heartedly pat her cousin on the back, “nothing wrong with second place. Still makes us better than like a couple hundred students. Only four people placed above us.”

  She shrugged nonchalantly.

  Hayate groaned as he pushed Kagura’s hand away.

  “Yeah, easy for you to say, you weren’t the one who embarrassed yourself!”

  Where had things gone wrong this time?

  Well, surprisingly enough, it actually had very little to do with Kagura or I. Strangely enough, this year, we found ourselves becoming the backbone of the team’s strategy, which, in a backwards way, might have related a bit to the problem at hand.

  The issue, as odd as it might have sounded, was that Setsuna was just a bit too talented.

  Ask anyone in the year, hell, even ask the seniors – ask them who the most terrifying combatant in Nindo was, and they’d all tell you without hesitation that it was Setsuna.

  She was the undisputed greatest swordswoman to ever grace the halls of Nindo, no matter which cohort or generation you were talking about. She was capable of unfathomable feats with that impossible rusted blade of hers – summoning tornados, splitting the sea, cutting through small mountains, so on, so forth.

  If you gave her even the smallest bit of space and time to concentrate, you would find yourself facing off against a terrifying force of nature unlike any other, calling upon supernatural feats that boggled the mind of even our year’s greatest witches and wizards.

  Suffice to say, she was public enemy number one for the entire school. Teams spent entire afternoons, days, and even weeks just trying to theorise strategies to counter her Four Blades. It got so bad, it reached the point where they weren’t even practicing alone; they started practicing with each other, sharing their notes with everyone else in the year in the hopes that anyone amongst them would get lucky enough to find a winning strategy.

  For the most part, it actually worked to our advantage. Their excessive tunnel vision opened them up to Kagura’s rituals and spells, and even if they all tried to collapse on Setsuna, she was able to hang in there long enough for me to restore her enough to slowly whittle them down as Hayate did his best to peel as many of the four opponents off of her as possible.

  Sadly, however, our luck ran out in the finals, and that meticulously thought-out strategy, brought together by all of the greatest strategists and magi in our year, finally came into fruition.

  Despite Kagura and I’s best efforts, we were unable to save Setsuna and Hayate, and with our frontline gone, there wasn’t much the two of us could do by ourselves.

  “Cowardly cretins,” Setsuna mumbled darkly, “they shall know my wrath when the time comes to face me one-on-one.”

  “Ugh, seriously?” Kagura sighed as she rolled her eyes again and stood up, “Why the hell do you two care so much about this stupid tournament anyways? It’s not like it actually means anything, or represents any actual useful skills or situations in the real world. It’s not like we’re gonna be facing off against other people in teams all the time! We’ll be fighting monsters for the most part!”

  She paused for a second, grimacing.

  “Well, actually, Setsuna might be fighting a lot of other people.”

  I giggled, laughing at our two frontliners’ sullen faces.

  “Kagura, it’s fine. Let them wallow a bit. You know how competitive they can be.”

  “Ngh,” Kagura winced as she stretched lazily from side to side and picked up her bags, “hey, Estelle, want to go out for dinner? It’s Friday, so it’ll be a late night. I was thinking about ditching these two and catching a ferry down to the capital.”

  I opened my mouth, but before I could respond, Setsuna’s sharp glare burrowed in on the two of us.

  “A ferry, at this time!?” she growled, “‘Tis not the time for such indulgent luxuries! Banish thy fantasies of greed and gluttony! We must train at once, to correct this embarrassment and undo this tragedy!”

  “Uh, yeah, no thanks,” Kagura deadpanned, before quickly turning back to me, “So, Estelle, how do you feel? Anything you want? I’m feeling barbecue tonight.”

  I gave a quick hesitant glance towards Hayate, who was mumbling with his face planted in his desk about not wanting to train with Setsuna, or something.

  “Uh, sure,” I chuckled.

  I hadn’t been to Tenmai’s capital city in a while. The last time would have been during last summer vacation, when Hayate invited us over to stay at the Wadatsumi’s resort for a while.

  “Nooo!” Hayate slammed his hand on the table, almost crying as he brought himself up, “You two! You can’t leave me behind! I-I can’t be left by myself to train with Setsuna! She’ll break me! I-I’m coming with you!”

  “You!” Setsuna hissed, glaring at him, “Coward! Traitor! Thy spinelessness art the reason our formation broke in the finals! This will be rectified at once, lest it plague our years at the hallowed halls of Nindo!”

  “Kagura, save me!” Hayate leapt at his cousin, latching on to her legs, “Please, don’t leave me alone with Setsuna! I-I’ll go wherever you want! I’ll pay for the whole thing!”

  “Oi, get off me!” The frail shrine maiden fruitlessly tried to kick the boy off of her shin.

  The table behind us almost broke in half as Setsuna slammed on it as she stood up.

  “If thou art so weak, so accepting of defeat and embarrassment, so lacking in drive and yearning for victory, thy souls empty of ambition and thy bodies so feeble, then fine! I shall drive thee and thy wallets to ruin! If you wish to indulge in shallow gluttony, then witness your own undoing as I drown thy gold and bankrupt thee!”

  “...” Kagura just deadpanned at Setsuna, “You can skip the dramatics, you know.”

  Setsuna bristled and blushed.

  I giggled.

  “Setsuna, if you just say you’re hungry, it’ll be fine, you know? If you want to come with us, you can just ask.”

  An embarrassing gurgle echoed across the empty classroom.

  Setuna lowered her head as her cheeks flushed with red.

  “A-ahem, if thou art willing, would thou take along this humble vagrant, shelter her and fill her weak stomach for just one night?”

  “Wow,” Kagura raised an eyebrow, “humble vagrant, huh? That’s a first.”

  “Quiet, fool,” Setsuna hissed, “or I shall have you running laps at night until daylight.”

  “Come on, come on,” I gently patted them on the backs, passing them as I moved towards the door, “easy now, everyone, let’s go catch that ferry and drown those sorrows away with some good old barbecue, okay?”

  Lanterns lit the darkening streets of Shugokage – the capital city of Tenmai built into the World Tree’s nourishing, loving roots, its many streets and buildings caressed by its oaken embrace – as the stars flitted through from above, barely visible from the shadowing leaves of the Hinananhoro.

  A river coursed by besides us, one of Hinanhoro’s roots gently curling over it to form a natural bridge. Beneath it, many travellers and citygoers passed by on small ferries and canoes, travelling through Shugokage’s iconic lantern-lit canals.

  We admired the beautiful city from above the canal, sitting down together on one of the many roadside barbecue restaurants that were ever-so-popular for social gatherings.

  “Ah, shit!” Hayate shouted, moaning as he slammed his empty glass of juice onto the desk, “I still can’t believe we lost like that!”

  “You’re still thinking about that?” Kagura groaned.

  Setsuna quietly grunted, displeased with our performance.

  “As he should. It is due diligence to review one’s defeats to ponder upon thy own shortcomings and weaknesses.”

  “Come on!” Kagura snapped, “It’s just a stupid tournament with no stakes that they run to appease all the hormonal, hot-blooded teenagers running around! No need to whip yourself up into a frenzy about it! Save that energy for the exams!”

  “Never!” Setsuna growled and hissed, snatching a piece of sizzling beef from the communal grill before quickly making it disappear inside her mouth.

  “Thy nefarious te-”

  “Setsuna, please swallow before you speak,” I admonished her gently.

  “-sts,” Setsuna swallowed, before clearing her throat, “and treacherous exams and quizzes shall never occupy my thoughts! Those wretched words deserve nary a thought in the sacred palace of my mind!”

  “Right, well,” Kagura reached to take a sip of her glass of water, “have you maybe considered that those tests are the reason they were able to come up with that ridiculous strategy? The whole thing they did with that West-East wall and North Tide formation against your Minamiken reeks of what we covered last year with the Four Elements and Book of Five Rings. My bet’s on Reina coming up with that. She’s always going off about Genbu and the Black Tortoise. That ‘Tidal Shell’ thing they did to engage on us looks exactly like one of her spells.”

  Setsuna snatched away more meat in frustration, piling fatty beef onto her rice bowl until it formed a wobbly tower that drowned out the white grains hiding beneath it.

  “And look at how far their feeble trickery and tactics got them! All that consorting and treacherous planning, only to form a feeble imitation of my Kitaken!”

  “A ‘feeble imitation’ that kicked your ass.”

  “I am naught but a single wanderer!” Setsuna hissed, shovelling the meat down her gullet in an unruly manner, “‘Tis unreasonable to expect my lowly self to stand against the might of a thousand conniving tricksters! I am but a humble vagrant, studying the sword by my lonesome!”

  Hayate picked that moment to grumble.

  “Aren’t you the one always going on about how you and you alone shall stand against the Heavens and conquer the Realm of Man, climbing to Manusyara’s peak by yourself?”

  “Traitor!” Setsuna slammed her foot onto Hayate’s underneath the table.

  Hayate yelped, stumbling over and falling backwards on his chair.

  “Were thou not my ally in this battle? Art thou giving up on the righteous quest of retribution against those scum!?”

  Hayate just sighed as he picked himself back up and slumped onto the table, picking up a piece of roasted corn.

  “Yeah, kinda… I just want to stop thinking about it… can we talk about anything else?” he whined.

  “No!” Setsuna teared up in a rare show of childish pettiness, “This grudge of mine shall never fade until my victor’s throne has been claimed!”

  Hayate just turned to the side and planted his cheek onto the table, tiredly grabbing the tongs as he flipped over a steak he had placed on the grill.

  “Uh, how’s classes going for you two? Witches still hate your guts, Estelle?”

  Kagura groaned.

  “Seriously, do you have any tact, Hayate? And you’re wondering why we think you’re hopeless.”

  Setsuna huffed and sniffled, childishly glaring at Hayate.

  “Thou should give up on thy hopeless quest. Join me in my hunt for vengeance!”

  “Oh, come on, guys, really!? Am I not gonna get any help from you two?” he whined.

  “Setsuna, Kagura, girls, please,” I furrowed my brow at the other two girls, “please be a bit gentler on Hayate, he’s had a rough day. Please do not call him ‘hopeless’, I’m sure he’s trying his best.”

  “Urgk.”

  For some reason, Hayate was not comforted by the fact that I was on his side, flinching in hurt.

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  “Pfft! Hahahaha!”

  Kagura just snorted and laughed in an uncharacteristic unladylike manner.

  I frowned.

  Really, what was going on with these two when it came to bullying Hayate recently? Did something happen over spring break while I was gone?

  I sighed in chagrin, before putting on my best accommodating smile.

  “Everything’s going fine, Hayate. I’m not actually near the bottom of the class for once.”

  “Hm?” Hayate blinked, “What changed?”

  “We’re working on runes and rituals this year,” I shrugged.

  “Huh? Oh, right! Lady Symphonia! Those are your mother’s specialties, aren’t they!?” He cheered himself up, finding something to distract himself with.

  “Yes, they are. It’s nice to not be stressed about Magical Theory for once,” I chuckled.

  “I don’t know how you’re not more stressed, to be honest,” Kagura frowned as she poked at the grilling meats, picking them up to inspect how far along they were in their cooking, “if I had to deal with half of the backtalk you had to deal with, I would have completely lost it by now. It’s aggravating even when I’m not on the receiving end of it.”

  “Wait, why would it be worse?” Hayate blinked cluelessly, “shouldn’t they be better about it, since you’re doing better than them now?”

  I just chuckled wryly.

  “Well, maybe if the reason Mother was obsessed with rituals wasn’t because her life’s work revolves around exploring the Void.”

  I hadn’t learnt about it from Mother or anything.

  She was still rather hesitant to take me into the lab more than a couple times per year solely to run some diagnostics and analyses.

  But it was hard to escape everything when it was all anyone was willing to talk about when it came to Mother, outside of Arden at least.

  It was some kind of mysterious ‘fifth Element’, a theoretical outer-dimensional force whispered about in hushed tones, lest open discussion of it invites its madness into Manusyara.

  We were briefly introduced to it last year during our study on the ‘Book of Five Rings’, written by a master swordsman who pondered upon a force beyond the Four Elements, theorising that the key to ‘Heaven’ laid within an invisible force beyond the reach of Manusyara, manifesting in our Realm as ‘Null energy’, otherwise known to us as ‘the Void’.

  It was real, no doubt, as many of our classes discussing the history and context behind the book had undoubtedly proved – we spent many hours going over historical incidents involving those who took the Void’s power into their heart and went mad, causing great destruction to the landscape of Manusyara.

  Fallen kingdoms. Large swathes of a continent, just erased. Islands disappeared. Vortexes of water that never filled. Travel to the western coast of Litanus, and you will find yourself walking along what you will realise to be the edges of a spherical crater, where an ancient nation used to stand before the Void’s deadly Spell simply unravelled its existence.

  It was a force of indiscriminate destruction and unlimited potential beyond all compare and comprehension.

  For Mother, it was one of very few viable potential sources of unlimited energy, and possibly the only practical way to realise the Paradox Engine that was being built underneath Arden.

  No other witch or wizard besides Mother wanted to even research it. That spoke of its absolute reputation of terror and fear, if even the minds of the Citadel, who were otherwise without boundary, refused to even come close to it, fearing what it would do to their minds if they grew too close.

  And…

  I knew it had to do with me.

  Mother never said it out loud, but the way she would sometimes look at me, combined with what I had heard about the Void in the hushed whispers that murmured around the halls of Nindos about my family and I…

  I had come to learn that my existence held some perilous, dubious connection to that phantasmal force. It was not something about my body or my mana. There was something in my brain that led the energy of the Void to seemingly grow a consciousness in order to reach it.

  That was what had caused that argument between Selenia and Mother all those years ago.

  My existence was apparently the tipping point.

  I would either be the existence that proved the world right, that the Void was a dangerous, uncontrollable force that would consume everything…

  Or I would prove Mother right, and allow the possibility for her dreams of reaching the stars to come true.

  I didn’t press her about it. Her work was her work, and I wasn’t going to let the childish insults of my peers influence what I thought of her. She would tell me about it when she thought I was ready.

  We were mother and daughter. That relationship would never change, no matter what the truth of whatever was in my brain turned out to be.

  I just hoped that it wouldn’t hurt Luna.

  Strangely, the mention of that word, ‘the Void’, snapped Setsuna out of her tantrum.

  “Fools, the lot of them,” she huffed, “wasting their time being fearful of the Void. It is not a force of madness or evil, it simply weeds out the impure and weak of heart.”

  I blinked, not expecting her of all people to have an opinion on the matter.

  “You…” I stared at her in a small bit of confusion, “you know about the Void? And you’re not scared of it?”

  It was not an exaggeration to say that this was the first time I had ever heard anyone speak of it without an undertone of fear or warning.

  No, Setsuna seemed downright dismissive of those notions, if anything.

  She nodded solemnly.

  “‘Twas my master’s last work before he passed, the dream he left in mine hands.”

  We all blinked at the revelation.

  It wasn’t often that Setsuna spoke of her past.

  The most we knew of her history was that she was an orphan, picked up by a wandering swordsman when she was four years old and spent her life in his care, training under him until he passed away four years ago, when she then took it upon herself to carry on his legacy.

  “The last great mystery of the Four Blades, beyond North, East, South and West, there is the fifth and final impossible Blade, pointing beyond the world and towards the ‘Sky’. Kitaken, Azumaken, Minamiken, Nishiken and ‘Soraken’, the ‘Blade of the Sky’. Pierce the veil of the world, unearth the secret of the Fifth Element, and when you unleash the Fifth Blade, you shall find Heaven. That is the mission my master left me, that is the legacy I must fulfil with my flimsy steel.”

  She stared at me resolutely.

  “I am no witch, Estelle. I cannot speak of your mother’s work, but I know this. You need not heed their foolish, jealous whispers. To pursue the Void is not a madman’s calling, but the ultimate goal of all enlightenment. It is ascension to Heaven, a path to the stars themselves. Hold your head high, and know thy mother walks a starlit path.”

  She nodded her head humbly towards me.

  “It is a path too, that I shall one day walk. If thou art in need of an ear, of an aiding hand or of steel, then know that this Setsuna will stand by your side. If thou art not willing to stand against thy wretched, jealous witches, then I shall take up arms in your place, and scatter those lousy rumours and mutterings.”

  Hayate just blinked.

  “Wow… uh… that’s… that’s some heavy stuff,” he scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he took the steak he was observing earlier off the grill, its juices dripping down and licking the flames for a moment, letting the blaze roar even louder.

  “Huh,” Kagura raised an eyebrow, “that might be the most open you’ve ever been with us.”

  ‘A starlit path’.

  That was certainly one way to describe Mother’s dreams.

  “Thanks, Setsuna,” I smiled with gratitude, “your words mean a lot to me, really.”

  It was nice to hear people outside of Arden be appreciative of Mother’s ambitions.

  I guess I was just getting a little bit too used to being whispered about all the time.

  It was nice having someone stand by my side and have my back.

  “But, uh…” I chuckled weakly, “you don’t need to ‘take up arms’... I would rather you didn’t give a fifth of our cohort broken legs.”

  Setsuna frowned as she flicked more pieces of meat onto her bowl.

  “Thou art too caring, Estelle.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” I grinned wryly.

  “The offer shall always stand. I promise upon my blade.”

  “I’ll just take your friendship, if that’s okay with you.”

  Setsuna just paused, furrowing her brow.

  “Were we not already friends, Estelle?”

  I giggled.

  “Sure we were.”

  “Aw, look at that!” Hayate cheerily swung his arm around Setsuna’s shoulder, “We’ve finally done it! We cracked Setsuna’s shell, we’ve gotten her to admit we’re all friends!”

  Setsuna just scowled and elbowed him away, sending him collapsing to the floor once again.

  “I did not speak of my bond with you, Wadatsumi, only Estelle.”

  “Aw,” Hayate groaned, chuckling through the pain, “I know you love us too, c’mon, no need to be shy.”

  A loud stomp echoed across the table.

  “Ow! Love ya too, Setsy!”

  Kagura rolled her eyes.

  “I don’t know about the whole ‘Void’ thing and I’m not gonna freak out over it unlike the Citadel freaks, but I know that Tenmai, and the Tsukiyo family especially, has nothing but gratitude for the Black Moon Expedition. They are heroes of the nation, and any who has ever sailed on their ships into the Infinite Dark shall be remembered as legends and have their names etched onto the Hinanhoro’s bark for eternity. All those who have travelled with Lord Tsukuyomi shall be welcomed into the Tsukiyo household for the rest of time.”

  “Urgh, well…” Hayate gripped the table and propped himself back up, “I can’t say I have any connection to the Void or whatever, and I’m not as closely related to the Expedition or the Black Moon like Kagura’s family is, but!”

  He brought his hand to his chest, thumping his fist to his chest as he made a bold declaration.

  “You’ll always be an important person to me! I’ll always have your back, whether in battle, as a friend, or something else entirely! You’ll always be welcome at the house of Duke Wadatsumi!”

  I looked over everyone and their resolute stares fondly.

  “Thanks, everyone.”

  It was nice to have friends.

  Kagura looked at Hayate weirdly.

  “Really, ‘or something else entirely’... you couldn’t think of anything else? What do you even think that means?”

  “Uh, well, you know,” Hayate scratched the back of his head awkwardly, blushing, “in case, uh… something unexpected… happens. Anything could happen at Nindo, you never know!”

  I chuckled, reaching across the table to pat him on the shoulder.

  “Don’t worry about that, Hayate, you’ll always be an important friend to me!”

  “Urgk!” The red-haired boy keeled over at a sudden, mysterious pain.

  “H-Hayate!?” I panicked.

  “Pft!” Kagura chortled.

  Setsuna just ate her food.

  “Subject! I’m changing the subject!” Hayate waved his arms wildly, straightening out his back as he distracted himself by grabbing all the food on the grill.

  Spotting our empty tray, a waiter came by and picked it up, replacing it with another platter of fresh meat.

  “A-anyways! W-what do you guys think about the whole ‘Order’ thing? Pretty crazy, huh!?” Hayate laughed loudly.

  “Oh, that,” Kagura blinked, “yeah, it is a bit odd. I knew Nindo was an old fashioned school, but I didn’t think it was that old fashioned. Seriously, does the staff still think of us as children? What’s the point of all of that stuff, isn’t being separated into teams already dividing us enough?”

  The shrine maiden clicked her tongue, complaining about the odd announcement that had been given to us third-years recently.

  Hayate just shrugged and chuckled, wearing his classic cheesy grin.

  “I don’t know, Kagura, I think it’s kinda cool! It’s real romantic, isn’t it!? Getting to live out every kid’s childhood dream of being a Knight of Calybcor, swearing an Oath and fighting against monsters… man, it gets me excited just thinking about it!”

  “Ugh,” Kagura rolled her eyes, “of course you still have childish dreams of the Knights Templar. Seriously, when was the last time Orders were in fashion? It must have been a thousand years ago at the very minimum.”

  “They only go out of fashion when you let your childhood self grow up!” Hayate boldly declared, standing up as he made his statement, drawing the eyes of everyone around us.

  “What about you two, Setsuna, Estelle, what do you think about it!?”

  “Hmm, well…” I smiled.

  The announcement that was made was rather simple.

  Every student at Nindo, starting at their third year, was required to swear one of the Oaths of the Twelve Orders.

  It was not for any practical or logistical reasons, it was just a long-held tradition the school had held since its establishment many thousands of years ago, a holdover from the days of yore when wandering knights that went on quests to save damsels and princesses were still fashionable, when the legends we spoke of today were living figures.

  “I think it’s neat. Some of the oaths are really striking, and there’s a couple I wouldn’t mind swearing myself to. My sister would love it, definitely. She’s eleven this year and still dreams of the Knights of Calybcor.”

  Setsuna nodded in agreement.

  “The Knights Templar, from forgotten Calybcor. A worthy force. It would be an honour to fight alongside those valiant knights, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them against the Seven Legions. To take upon their Oaths as our own would be a blessing, an affirmation that our paths are not wrong, that our dreams and ambitions shall bear fruit. To tread the same mountains that those of Apotheosis did would be my greatest honour.”

  “C’mon, see, Kagura!” Hayate smiled brightly, “Not all of us are killjoys!”

  His eyes, brimming with ambition and yearning, swept over us as he planted his foot on the table and stood to his full height.

  “Which Oaths capture your imagination!? I know which one captures mine!”

  He stuck his thumb out and pointed it to his chest.

  “House Wadatsumi has always been on the frontlines of Tenmai’s army, leading their troops into battle as bannermen! As Wadatsumi’s first son, there’s only one choice for me. I dream of nothing more than standing at the front of our army, leading the charge against impossible foes! That’s why the Order of Herald calls to me!”

  He retracted his foot from the table, and instead, leaned to the side to pick up his massive, flagged spear, holding it over the table.

  “In dark tides, when dread pulls and terror calls, when the sands of our people are swept into the sea, I shall stand above the wave and charge, crashing upon the rocks! Upon my blood and spear, as Wadatsumi’s First, I, Wadatsumi Hayate, swear this Oath!”

  “Keep it down, would you?” Kagura mumbled uncomfortably, ducking underneath the massive, eye-catching weapon and pushing the flag out of the way to grab more meat from the grill.

  “Thy spirit is fiery,” Setsuna nodded solemnly, “thy bravery tempered, thy heart forged. Thy Oath shines bright. I pray that thy spear shall not shatter upon the rocks, and herald our storied Tenmai peoples’ victory in battle. It would be an honour to charge under such resolute command… very well.”

  She stared intensely at the spear crossing the table, and nodded in resolution.

  The swordswoman drew her own blade, holding it over the spear.

  “Seriously?” Kagura grimaced, “you too, Setsuna!? I thought you were the serious type… Sol, I’m surrounded by children.”

  Setsuna just ignored her words, making her own Oath.

  “Noble Knights of Apotheosis, heed my words, bless me with thy presence and spirit! The enemy that must be defeated is not disorder or evil, what must be shattered in the people’s spirit is not contempt or disillusion. The only foe that must be felled is the spirit of future, and the vision of my own self held within! Until this rusted blade reaches the heavens, ascending to the ranks of Calybcor, let this lowly Setsuna serve alongside thee!”

  I giggled, brimming with joy.

  “Oh, come on, Kagura, you should join us,” I teased and nudged her, staring at the two menacing weapons pointing at our side of the table, “It’ll be fun! A good memory of our time at Nindo! A promise of everlasting friendship and camaraderie, lasting beyond our years in the dorm.”

  I met the eyes of Setsuna and Hayate, meeting their own resolution with my own.

  “Can I trust you two with my life? Can I stand alongside you two for the rest of time, even when we grow into adults and go our own separate, independent ways?”

  “You bet, Estelle! I’ll always have your back no matter what! Give me a call, write me a letter, I’ll be there no matter what!”

  “We shall always be united in spirit, bound by this shared Oath, this solemn vow to serve side-by-side as Knights of Calybcor. You shall have my blade, no matter the face of the moon or the pull of the tides.”

  I smiled.

  Well, I guess it was my turn, then.

  There was only one Oath to swear for someone like me, who rejected the natural order of what it meant to be a ‘witch’, who went against reason and logic for the sake of kindness.

  Yes, for the sake of my sister, for Mother, for all those strangers out there who I would one day meet on my endless travels, for that single life I had yet to save, I would make this Oath.

  I grabbed my staff and placed it over the crossing steel.

  “The world’s cruel and lonely tide is naught but sanity. If that means kindness is madness, then the mad riptide I will be. No matter where this path takes me, no matter how many others scorn me, in the name of Estelle Symphonia, and for those who carried me here, I swear this Oath.”

  “Haha, c’mon, Kags, join us!” Hayate cheered.

  “Ugh, no thanks. And I told you, stop calling me that.”

  “Alright,” Hayate shrugged, a mischievous glint entering his sky-blue eyes, “then you don’t mind if I swear it for you, right? I remember which one you pretended to be all the time when we were kids!”

  “Ugh, no, shut up!” Kagura slammed her hands on the table, getting up as she blushed furiously, “Fine, I’ll do it myself! But I’m only doing this because we have to do it for school anyways, got it!? It’s not because I want to do this, it’s beneath my stature as the heiress to the Tsukiyo bloodline!”

  She hastily pulled out her gohei and crossed it over with the rest of our weapons, hurriedly going through the motions.

  “We are but helpless leaves carried on the indifferent winds of Fate, but still, I shall close my eyes and be carried off. For I trust in nature to be my arms and legs, for if I am weak, then the world shall be my weapon. To the Knights of Nature, I, Tsukiyo Kagura, solemnly swear.”

  “Alright!” Hayate pumped his spare fist, “Team Wadatsumi, together forever! Bound by these sacred Oaths as Knights Templar! Yeah!”

  He lifted his spear high into the sky, dragging all of our weapons along with it.

  The flashy banner of the Wadatsumi clan flourished brilliantly in the moonlight.

  “Ah, jeez, can we get back to dinner now? The meat’s burning.”

  “Ah, crap, no! My tomahawk steak!” Hayate panicked, dropping his spear to the floor and diving for the tongs.

  “Fool! I may accept thy command and banner, but that does not mean thou shalt covet my food! That steak is mine!”

  I laughed as the antics of our team’s lively dinner resumed.

  “No, god damn it, why are you taking all the corn too!? Isn’t all the meat enough for you, you pig!?”

  “Pig!?” Setsuna recoiled indignantly, “I am no pig, Wadatsumi! The swordswoman’s body is a temple! It requires sustenance! A balanced diet of meat and vegetables! Sustenance that you are stealing!”

  “I need sustenance too, I’m a growing boy! And there’s nothing balanced about the pile of slop you have every lunch!”

  “Could you two get a grip on reality? I need to focus on searing this ox tongue.”

  ‘Together forever’.

  They were silly, childish words, fitting for a promise among ambitious teenagers who dreamed of old heroes and legends.

  But it would be nice if they could be true.

  Knights of Calybcor, Eternal Voice…

  O Boy in White, are you out there, watching and listening?

  See this path of ours through to the end.

  Please watch over me, let me see this Oath through to its last day.

  And if I ever fall…

  Please, watch over my sister for me, okay?