After Serenity and I were finally dismissed, we walked as fast as we could without drawing too much attention to the mess hall, hoping there was still something we could eat. Lunch ended almost 40 minutes ago, but when we got there, one of the cooks was still cleaning up.

  “Lunch ended already,” he waved us off.

  “We were called to meet with Queen Elincia,” Serenity said, striding towards him. “If you won’t allow us to grab something quick, I can go back and-”

  “No, no. That’s not necessary,” He grunted. “There’s chicken left, some cheese and if you pick through the box there, I think there’s bread left,” He shrugged, turning away to clean a table.

  “Thank you,” we both said over top of each other.

  He grumbled and didn’t say anymore, so Serenity and I grabbed a plate and picked through the scrappy pieces of chicken, trying to find some that looked edible. They weren’t very appetizing looking so we just grabbed a roll each and some cheese and went to the table nearest to the kitchens and sat.

  “If this keeps up, we might have to find another source of food,” Serenity snorted, tearing at the rock-hard bread.

  “For real,” I nodded, nibbling at the piece of cheese. It was rather bland, but it was better than nothing.

  “The gates are shut at sunset, right?”

  “Yeah, though I know for a while they were closing the gates early, I dunno if they’re still doing that or not,” I grunted as I tried to break the bread into smaller pieces.

  “So… when are we planning to do what the queen asked us to, and how did you get that from what she said?”

  “Well, I need to get my tome back and she doesn’t have access to their libraries. What if-” I leaned closer, whispering, “what if they didn’t actually burn everything? What if they have tomes and maps detailing the eastern kingdom? Anything on whatever critter it is they’re hiding.”

  “Calling it a critter sounds wrong,” she snorted, choking on her bread. She coughed and snickered, leaning closer. “When do we want to try doing this?”

  “Well, they’re not expecting anybody to try breaking in, so really, we could go whenever,” I shrugged. “Though, we’ll need to figure out people’s patterns. Who stays late, who doesn’t. Who’s on guard duty and where. They’ve all got patrol patterns, so we’ll need to watch for those.”

  “So… Hmm… we’ll see if Kaine needs us for anything today, go get your stuff, and then spend tonight watching the tower, try breaking in tomorrow night?”

  I nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a plan,” I grinned, tossing the bread to the side.

  I stood and scraped the crumbs on my plate into the fire and set the plate on the counter with the other dirty plates and waited for Serenity.

  “What all do you need to get?” Serenity asked as we left the mess hall.

  “I’ve got some tomes and weapons, there’s a few history books that might be useful, and I’d like to check up on the dragons, truth be told,” I looked up at the dark sky, still heavy with storm clouds.

  “As much as I’d like to meet the dragons, I’m not sure I should… they don’t know me at all and I’d like to…” she trailed off before sighing heavily. “I’d like to see Shalana. It’s been two years and… I think I miss her,” she shrugged, looking at the ground as we walked.

  “Can I ask what happened between you two?” I glanced up at her.

  “I've never talked to anyone about it, which might be the problem,” she laughed dryly. “I just got fed up with her telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. I… got jealous of you for a while, actually. She was always running after you when you were in trouble, leaving me behind. One of the times you ran away from your sister, Ramira asked Shalana for help finding you after you’d been gone for hours. Secretly I hoped you’d fallen down a well or something,” she scoffed. “My… jealousy got the better of me and I snapped at Shalana a few days after that…” she stopped suddenly, sitting on a bench.

  “What happened?” I asked, sitting next to her.

  “I snapped at her because you, once again, were in trouble and I was left home on my own. I never really thought she cared about me, so I ran. Never once really looking back. The last two years, I’ve been going on hunts as far away from Eastbell as possible.”

  “I never realized Shalana came to rescue me that often… that… might’ve been the time I fell in a hunter’s trap and couldn’t get out,” I grimaced, thinking about all the times I’d had to be rescued by someone else.

  “A hunter’s trap? Seriously?” she started laughing suddenly. “Gods, you really are a klutz.”

  “Mm, yeah, sorry,” I shook my head. “She doesn’t talk about you, but she doesn’t talk about anyone. I think… maybe she trusts you. She’s never once trusted me enough to leave me on my own for long. Maybe that’s her own way of showing you she cares? She lived with you, right?”

  “Of course,” Serenity nodded.

  “Maybe she didn’t want to make you feel suffocated. I don’t know though, she keeps a lot to herself,” I shrugged.

  “Gods, does she ever,” Serenity groaned. “Y’know, I’m glad we’re knights together. I might’ve continued to hate you… well, I never really hated you. I just… I dunno, didn’t like that you held a lot of Shalana’s attention.”

  “I’m sorry I took a lot of her attention from you, I can’t imagine how that might’ve been. Elidyr never left me alone for long, even when we were both obviously done with each others’ presence. She always yelled at me for following her everywhere, but as soon as I stopped, she didn’t like that either,” I sighed.

  “Sisters… can’t live with em, can’t live without em,” Serenity rolled her eyes. “I will say, watching you fall flat on your butt a few times has been enjoyable, plus earlier, when you tried to get eaten by the dragon,” Serenity laughed. “Don’t worry about her leaving me alone though. It worked out really well. I got to meet Alisdair on one of your many klutzy escapades. He’s really cool, a lot like you actually. Just a lot better at what he does.”

  “Yeah, he and Elidyr always did pick things up faster than me,” I shrugged.

  “Maybe so, but I bet they’re not as good at artificer work like you are. I’ve never seen anyone around here use runes like you do. If the war ends and the borders open back up, I bet you would flourish with the southern kingdom’s artificers.”

  “I actually have one of their tomes… there was a girl I met at the summer festival several years ago who gave me the tome. She was studying to become an artificer and she told me I could borrow the book, but then the borders were closed and everyone was banished. I couldn’t get it back to her,” I sighed, leaning forward, my nails digging into the wood of the bench.

  “Is that one of the books you’re going to get?”

  I nodded, holding my hand out to catch some of the raindrops as it started raining again.

  “Oh right, we’d better get to Kaine before he sends out the search parties,” Serenity stood, holding a hand out to me.

  I took it and she pulled me up. I hummed in agreement and we ran through the streets, heading towards the barracks. By the time we got there, we were both soaked and freezing. I shivered, opening the door to the Captain’s barracks.

  “Excuse us,” we saluted, looking around for Kaine.

  “Can we help you?” the captain from earlier in the morning snarled at us.

  “Stand down Raira. Just because you’re in the hot seat, doesn’t mean you need to take it out on them,” another captain stood, walking towards us. “Ah, Kaine’s two show-offs, hm?” he smirked, saluting us.

  “Yes, Sir,” Serenity frowned.

  “I only tease. Truth is, we’re grateful to you both. After losing my squadrons, I lost my head and ran,” the captain in front of us drooped, holding a hand out for us to shake.

  “Captain Sam, at your service.”

  I perked up at the familiarity of the name, thinking of the Sam I knew. I shook his hand after Serenity and looked around. “Where’s Captain Kaine?” I asked.

  “He’s still recovering from this morning. Should be in the healers’ tent, if not there, then they might be able to tell you where he is.”

  “Okay, thank you, Sir,” Serenity said, turning to leave.

  “Oh, just a second,” Captain Sam turned and went back to the table, rummaging through some papers. “Aria brought these earlier, said to give them to you.”

  “Aria was here? Did she say how Princess Igraine was doing?” I asked, taking the papers from him.

  “N-no, she didn’t say anything about her,” he looked away nervously.

  “I see… Well, thank you for this,” I motioned to the papers.

  “Of course, have a good afternoon,” he said, turning back to the other captains, dismissing us.

  We left the barracks and jogged to the healer’s tent.

  “I wonder why he got so nervous all of a sudden,” Serenity muttered.

  “Probably because Aria did say something. If she told him not to tell us, then I don’t think she’s doing well. That’s all I can think of,” I shrugged.

  “She’ll be alright though, she’s got the best healers looking after her.”

  I didn’t say anything as I ducked into the tent behind Serenity.

  “Oh, it’s you again,” Samsara said, not unkindly, when we made eye contact. She seemed very different now. Quieter. Almost… kinder?

  “Yeah, me again,” I shrugged. “Is Kaine here?”

  “Just over there,” she nodded to the cot towards the back that he was on. He was sitting propped up on some pillows, chatting with a healer beside him.

  “How is he?” I asked her.

  “He’ll be fine. You… Nevermind.” Samsara shook her head and moved away, busying herself with rolling up already perfectly rolled gauze.

  I watched her for a moment, wondering if she was okay, before I turned and followed Serenity over to Kaine’s cot.

  Serenity moved towards him and he looked over and grinned. “Hey, you two.”

  “Glad to see you didn’t die,” Serenity sat on the cot by his legs. I remained standing, leaning my arm on my hip.

  “Not yet,” he shrugged. “I thought I was a goner though, seriously, thank you Riv.”

  “It’s nothing,” I said softly, looking away.

  “Well, what brings you two out here?” He asked, fidgeting with the edge of the sheet.

  “We came to check on you and figure out our next steps.” Serenity said, stretching her legs out in front of her.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” the healer smiled at him, waving goodbye as she walked away.

  “Check on me soon?” Kaine grinned.

  “I’m sure someone will,” she tossed over her shoulder at him, amused.

  “Geez, aren’t you old enough to be her dad?” Serenity shook her head at him.

  “No, I’m only 3 or 4 years older than she is,” he said rolled his eyes, settling down into his pillows. “Though, it’d be easier to pick up a date if I didn’t have you kids popping up everywhere.”

  “You love us,” I snorted, sitting on the cot next to them.

  “I guess so,” he shrugged with a smirk. “There’s a lot we need to talk about today, but that’ll have to wait,” He sighed, the smirk fading from his face, replaced by a grimace. “The Guard Captain needs to speak with you both concerning today’s mess. Apparently Burkhardt’s finally figured out that the peoples’ nickname for us is true. The King’s Cowards gave more credence to the name than anyone would like. I need you both to be on your guard,” he crossed his arms over his chest and winced. “I’ll be along once I’m released, until then, I need you both to keep doing what you do best. It’s only been two days, but you’ve shown more potential than even half of these knew recruits, most of which are noble brats in need of a rude awakening,” he shook his head and sighed. “If we had more knights, veterans and newbies alike with even half of your potential, this kingdom would be in much better shape than it currently is.”

  “A lovely sentiment, but that’s not how the world works,” Serenity shrugged. “We do what we can with what we’ve got. Rest up, sir,” she stood and saluted and I followed suit. “We’ll check back on you later.”

  “Imagine that, two days and you’re already ordering me around,” he rolled his eyes.

  “Next time, don’t get hurt,” Serenity shrugged, linking arms with me as we left the tent.

  “Shoot, I forgot to ask if he knew where the Guard Captain was,” Serenity snorted.

  “I didn’t even think about it. We could try the command room first and then his barracks, if he’s not there, then I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask around,” I glanced around at some of the knights milling around. Most were busy with their own task, but a few glanced up as we passed, either scowling at us or giving a wave.

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  “What do the papers say from Aria?” Serenity leaned closer to me to not be overheard by anyone else.

  I unfolded them and we leaned our heads close trying to keep them from getting wet. She’d written in the pirate’s code which was simply variations of runes.

  “Her fleet is standing by waiting for the Admiral’s Phoenix to raise her flag, there’s one

  I followed Serenity as she walked towards a short stone building, dwarfed by all the others around it, nestled just off the practice fields and knocked on the open door, peaking our heads in. There was no sound from inside, so she stepped in and I followed behind. The room was dark, so it took a moment for our eyes to adjust and we looked around at the empty room.

  “Not even a table?” Serenity stepped further in. The only thing left in the large room was a map of the kingdoms on the wall.

  “This is the command room, right?” I asked, looking around.

  “Yeah, Kaine brought me here when I first arrived, asking for my assignment. It was full then. Had a table, chairs, maps, books, and whatnot. I wonder what’s happened.”

  “Who knows,” I shrugged. “Let’s just see if we can find him and do what he needs us to. Laying low is what we’re supposed to do and figuring this mystery out doesn’t seem like laying low…”

  “Be for real,” Serenity snorted. “Laying low and minding our own business is not in our vocabulary.”

  “True,” I breathed a laugh before heading out of the room. “It just doesn’t seem like anything super important right now, concidering… that,” I stopped, looking at the tendrils of dark magic ising from the ground again.

  “Already?” Serenity asked, leaning on my shoulder to peer out.”What is going on?”

  “Not a clue, but let’s see if we can get up higher, I don’t like whatever this is.”

  “Agreed,” she turned and braced her back against the wall and squatted, holding her hands out to boost me up to the roof of the command room. I jumped and she pushed me up, and as I grabbed the edge of the roof, I hoisted my leg up, rolling onto the roof. I rolled over and leaned down, grabbed her arm and pulled her up beside me.

  We stood and Serenity turned to the roof next to the command room, backed up, and ran and jumped, grabbing onto the ledge and pulling herself up. I followed her with ease and we climbed up to the next roof, ran across and Serenity jumped to the next, climbed the gutter and pulled herself onto the roof.

  “Oh…” I heard her gasp, horrified. “Riv, get up here.”

  I ran and jumped, kicked off the wall to push myself up a little higher and grabbed onto the roof, pulling myself up beside her. I froze, gaping at the sight before us. The entire palace and Astral headquarters was engulfed in thick, dark, purple, green, and black tendrils of dark magic. Smaller tendrils of it were rising from the streets of the entire city.

  “What is it?”

  “Mana so thick it’s become a physical object… Normally we can’t see it, except the occasional mote in the deepest parts of Deepwood, but… I didn’t know it could be like this.” I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself, feeling uneasy.

  “What should we do?” she asked, backing towards me.

  “I don’t know…” I shook my head. We looked up as the Riders started flying from the towers, beginning their patrol of the skies. I looked down at the knights scurrying around below us and spotted the Guard Captain just as Serenity was pointing him out.

  “There he is,” she looked for a way to climb down from the roof when a twisted, winged creature dropped from the sky. I grabbed my halberd and hit it, breaking one of its wings, causing it to fall.

  “Thanks,” she said, backing away from the edge, drawing her bow. “I guess getting down is not an option right now.”

  “I really wish I had my tome,” I huffed, hitting another one, this time with the sharp part of the blade, as she shot down two more. I could continue using my halberd, but their talons were a little too sharp for my liking.

  “Do you have any attack spells you can use without your tome?” She asked as she drew more arrows.

  “A few, but they’re not very effective without the circle…” I looked around at the roof and saw a few loose nails, so I grabbed one and started carving a circle into the roof. “You don’t think they’ll mind, do you?”

  “If they do, their priorities are screwed up. I’ll cover you, do what you need to,” she shot three down consecutively.

  I was extremely glad I had the foresight to memorize as many of the runes as I could, otherwise my current task would have been utterly impossible. Once I finished, I stood in the circle and channeled mana into it, gathering as many stones as I could grab into one swirling tornado of rocks around me.

  “Okay, I think I’ve got it,” I said as I sent a few hurtling towards some of the creatures headed towards us with enough force to kill them. I lost of few of the stones, but I pulled the rest back to me before sending them at the next one.

  “Just a thought,” Serenity said as she shot more down. “Have you tried combining two elements together?”

  “Combining elements?”

  “Yeah, like the fae, I’ve seen them put different elements together.”

  “I could try… Cover me a sec so I can try something?”

  “I’ve gotcha.”

  I picked up the nail again and added some runes. I was already using wind to carry the rocks, so I added water runes to control the rain. I thought if maybe I could gather enough water and with enough force, I could create a weapon out of that too.

  “Sometime today please, they’re getting persistent! I’m almost out of arrows, too.”

  “Use the other bow! I’ve got an idea,” I started scratching more runes into the stones around her. It would take a lot of my own mana, but in theory, if it worked right, I could use my mana to help stabilize hers so she could cast the spell. I didn’t even know if that was the reason she couldn’t use magic as well, but I had to try something, right?

  “I can’t use magic like you can, Riv,” she glanced down at me.

  “So you said, but I think this’ll work,” I stood once I finished and moved back into my own circle. “Try and see if it’ll work.” I tried to pick up the rocks with the wind and water at the same time, but it was like forcing two opposing magnetic poles against each other, so I used one hand for the rocks and the other for water. I struggled to hold onto both at the same time, but once I started moving it around to attack, it got slightly easier. The rocks impaled the creatures and the water hit the creatures with enough force to break their necks.

  A few moments later, I felt another tug at my mana and glanced at Serenity who was channeling mana into the bow. When our mana connected, I realized the problem. She didn’t have much at all because there was a block of some sort in the way of it flowing freely. I’d read about mana being suppressed by someone else, but I’d never thought someone would actually do it. It always seemed morally wrong to do to someone else.

  “This is going to feel weird, but I figured out the problem and I think I can fix it. If you’d like me to anyway.”

  “Fix what?” she asked as I released the wind and water magic as I grabbed my halberd and struck a few of the creatures down.

  “Your mana’s being suppressed by a ward or something. Someone else did it, I think.”

  “Yeah, please,” she almost pleaded. “If you can fix it, get rid of it, whatever it is you need to do, do it. It’s my mana and I want to use it.”

  “Okay, I’ll channel mana into the circle so you can shoot the rest down and then I’ll put a shield up and hope I can fix your mana before any more show up,” I kneeled and pressed my palms into the cold stones and focused on pouring a good amount of mana into hers. It was quiet around us except the patter of the rain drops and the occasional clash of a creature with one of the Riders.

  “Do you think we have enough, now?”

  “Uhh.. maybe?” I made a mental note to thank Rose again for the potions. I knew her work wasn’t easy and I was very appreciative of it right then. I didn’t have much mana left, but I had to make it count.

  “Yeah, I think it’s definitely enough now, there’s another mob headed this way and they look bigger…”

  “What?” I snapped my attention up to the sky in front of us, and sure enough, they’d somehow gotten bigger and uglier. “Yikes.”

  She released the spell and I cast a simple shield around us before I got busy intertwining my mana with hers to unravel the spell that was blocking her mana from flowing freely.

  “Okay, that does feel really weird,” she shivered. “Like someone… eugh, are you done yet?”

  “Almost… I think?” It was a weird combination of runes and circles tangled and picking it apart individually without making it worse was rather difficult. I was really glad that the dark presence hadn’t sought me out again, making my job more difficult. I was still really confused about the Sage bit, but that was a problem for later. I shook my head and focused on what I was doing instead of letting my thoughts stray.

  “How’d you learn to do all this?” she asked as she snatched my halberd and hit some of the creatures away.

  “Trial and error, reading a few books I could get my hands on,” I shrugged, unraveling the last bit, and just like that, her mana started pouring out from where it had been. I untangled my mana quickly so I didn’t impede the flow and stood. “Try it now, you sh- you’re glowing.” I gaped at her, literally glowing with her golden-hued mana.

  “Riv, something’s wrong,” she looked at me terror in her eyes. “It’s too much!”

  “Channel it into the bow!” I reconnected my mana to hers to try to help stabilize it, my heart racing in fear that she would be consumed by her own mana. It was like a flooded, raging river with nothing to hold it back any longer.

  Serenity held up the bow and I helped her push the flow of mana straight into the bow. Arrows appeared in a wall in front of us with terrifying speed, even the twisted creatures around us grew wary of it, backing away. Her magic was so strong the storms around us started to dissipate, allowing the sun to shine through the thick, black clouds.

  She released the bow string and immediately pulled it back again, still overflowing with mana. “What do we do?!” she cried, panic threatening to consume her too.

  I pulled some of her mana to me and used it to send a butterfly to Deepwood, I opened a small portal and sent the mottled gold, green, and silver butterfly through it. “Shalana, she needs you!” I could only hope it would get to her in time.

  Twice more, she filled the bow before her mana flow started to slow. It didn’t slow down much at all, but it was noticeable. The twisted demonic creatures were few and far between, so the last wall of arrows I told her to aim straight into the sky to hit each other.

  “Serenity! Rivienne!” Captain Marigold flew towards us on her spectral dragon. “What happened?” She jumped off her dragon and it disappeared as she landed next to us.

  “I might’ve done something really, really stupid again!” I grabbed Serenity’s hands as she dropped the bow, pulling more of her mana into myself.

  “I’ll say!” Shalana appeared, pulling her sister away from me as she pulled more mana to herself, filling a glass orb with it. Serenity wrapped her arms around her older sister. “Why are you messing with things you don’t understand again, Rivienne?”

  “Because… she couldn’t hardly even use her magic. I thought I could help her… that’s all I wanted to do,” I said, my entire body trembling in fear for my friend.

  “How did you get it unraveled anyway? Nevermind,” she shook her head at me. “Rivienne, you know how there’s a very small number of people who have no mana at all? Well, there are some who are born with an uncontrollable amount. Serenity is one of those people.”

  “How long has her mana been blocked for? As little as she had access to, it’s been like that since she was a kid, isn’t it? It’s completely controllable, there’s-”

  “Rivienne,” Shalana snapped. “You mess with entirely too much you have no business messing with. You could have killed her or turned her into a demon if she’d been consumed by her mana.”

  “I thought-”

  “You didn’t think. Again,” she glowered.

  “She has a right to be able to use her own magic, though,” I scowled. “Maybe if you’d helped her learn how to control her mana instead of worrying about me so much, she’d be able to use her magic.”

  “Rivienne.” Shalana snarled.

  “Shalana,” I glared back.

  “Enough! Both of you,” Marigold growled as the last of Serenity’s overabundance of mana trailed into the orb Shalana was holding.

  Shalana helped Serenity to sit before she whirled on me to say something, but Marigold stepped forward.

  “You both need to take a breath,” Marigold looked back and forth between the two of us before turning to Shalana. “Shalana, right?”

  Shalana nodded, not taking her eyes off me. “Well, Shalana, why did you block her mana flow instead of helping her with it?”

  Shalana closed her eyes and took a deep breath before glaring at me again as she answered. “I have been alive since before the gods’ exodus. I was alive during the reign of the Demons and Sages and I witnessed their downfall. Your ancestor,” she all but spat, “was the cause of their downfall. The reason my people are no longer welcome in this country.” Shalana crossed her arms and sighed.

  “What?” I asked, horrified. “I thought that was because they didn’t agree with the…” the blood drained from my face in realization. The sage of water was largely responsible for start of the mage war. The first mage war. A few hundred years before the Astral and Umbral war. Suddenly the dark being’s words from earlier made sense. Why would it want revenge though?

  “Now you see? His blood is in your veins, whether you like it or not. His blood ran through the last Sage’s veins too, and look what happened.”

  “The Astral and Umbral War…” I leaned forward and pressed my palms into my knees, feeling dizzy. Now it all suddenly made sense. The demons made a pact with the sage of water which led to the eventual summoning of the demon king. The demon king… the dark being under the palace had to be the demon king. What else would it be?

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on you to make sure you don’t cause any problems too,” Shalana said, her eyes boring into me as I kneeled next to Serenity who smiled weakly at me.

  “Blood doesn’t dictate someone’s destiny,” Marigold snarled. “Never say that to her again.”

  “I was there, Marigold. It all started like this. I thought, surely. Surely, it wouldn’t happen again,” Shalana took a shuddering breath. “Twice already, I won’t risk a third time.”

  “The blood of the water sage might be in me and I may have the same shade of hair and mana, but that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t have as much mana as a sage would have, nor do I have as many spells as one would have. If anyone’s the sage in my family, it’d be Elidyr. She has almost double the amount of mana I have,” Serenity took my hand and squeezed it. “Are you okay?” I whispered to her.

  “I am, thank you. I feel better than I have in a long time,” she summoned a gold butterfly, similar to mine. “I see now why you enjoy it so much. Using that much magic at once… it was invigorating,” she grinned.

  “Yeah, yeah it is,” I grinned in understanding.

  “Now, Shalana,” Serenity turned slightly to face her sister from where she sat. “Why did you block my mana?”

  “First, Elidyr wouldn’t be a sage. She’s joined the astral order and while she has red hair, it isn’t indicative of a sage’s qualities, but we don’t have time for this right now,” Shalana shook her head as she drew her bow and shot a few stray creatures down, clearly trying to avoid Serenity’s question.

  “Agreed, but you owe us all answers, Serenity especially,” Marigold resummoned her dragon. “Shalana, I leave Serenity in your care, I think you both need to talk. Rivienne, with me. They need us in the palace.”

  “Fine, but swear to me you’ll keep an eye on Rivienne,” Shalana helped Serenity to her feet and went back to staring daggers at me like I’d blow something up any second.

  Marigold glanced at me with a smirk, making me question a whole lot right that second. Any time anyone gave me that look, they were planning something. “Fine, I’ll keep her within arm’s reach the whole time,” she climbed onto her dragon and reached her hand out for me. I picked up my halberd before I took her hand and she pulled me onto the back of her dragon behind her.

  I glanced back at Serenity who waved, leaning on her sister’s shoulder. “I’ll catch up with you later,” I waved back and she nodded. Marigold patted her spectral dragon on his neck and he took off, flying towards the palace.

  “What is it we’re going to do?” I asked loud enough to be heard over the wind and dragon’s wing flaps.

  “Queen Elincia asked me to find you and Serenity so we can go beneath the palace and get to the bottom of this. The Astral Order clearly no longer has control over the situation. You know as much as I do about this, so be prepared for anything.”

  “Do you…” I cleared my throat to speak louder. “Do you know anything about the sages?”

  “A bit, but not much more than you do, I think. I get that you’re worried about what Shalana said, but I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You may be rather reckless, but it could be much worse. You don’t have any malicious intent, though, that being said, I wasn’t there and she was. If I were you, I would ask her for more information, see if she’ll explain exactly how it all happened so you can be on the look out.”

  “I understand,” I looked out over the city below us, people scurrying to get inside still, knights patrolling the streets, taking down the twisted creatures left and right. The closer we got to the palace, the more uneasy I felt. I thought maybe if I met with the demon king itself, I might figure out what’s going on for myself. I was really hoping Marigold was right, that blood didn’t dictate someone’s fate… but what if, all this time, my ideas for magic weren’t really mine? I had to know and I would find out, one way or another. If I had to do the unthinkable and give up magic permanently to stop whatever it was fate had in store, then so be it.