After we’d gotten ourselves put back together as best we could, Mira, Raflessia, Egen, and Cereus went back home. Anna sent Kulta to the pegasus stables and we headed back to the city. Just inside the gates, we’d met with the back of the army, what was left of it anyway. We looked around, trying to figure out what was going on when I saw Jade not far from us.

  “Jade, hey, what’s going on?” I ran over to her.

  She sniffed, wiping a tear from her cheek, “We were told to retreat and now we’re all in huge trouble or something. Jamal’s dead and I can’t find Derrick.”

  “Who gave the order to retreat?” Anna asked, coming up behind me.

  “One of the squad captains,” she shrugged. “The rest followed, told us to leave. We had no business being on the field if we were just going to get ourselves killed.”

  “Don’t forget, Princess Igraine said she needed you,” Serenity whispered in my ear.

  “I haven’t forgotten,” I shook my head.

  “You didn’t happen to see Derrick still out there, did you?” Jade asked, looking at each of us in turn.

  “No.. but he might be further up in the crowd. If he’s alive, they’ll find him,” Anna lay her hand on Jade’s shoulder. “If he isn’t found… we’ll hold a memorial for him,” she promised.

  “You’d do that?” Jade sniffed.

  “Of course. We might not honor our dead as a group, but individually we will,” she put her hand on her shoulder. “Riv, I’m going to stay here with Jade. You go see the princess. I’ll see you around,” Anna smiled, but it didn’t meet her eyes.

  “Okay… stay safe,” I waved before heading down a side street towards the west side of the city where there was a secluded fountain that I would meet Igraine, well, Lady Rilila, more specifically.

  “I wonder what’s going to happen to them all,” Serenity muttered, walking beside me.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head. “It should be us with them, too.” I sighed.

  “We did what we were told, just like they did. We can’t ignore a summons from the princess.”

  I nodded, sighing again. We walked the rest of the way in silence, ignoring the strange looks we got from passerby. I shivered involuntarily as a strong breeze picked up, suddenly cold from the holes in my shirt.

  “Rivienne!”

  I turned as Silvo jogged up to us, his perfect hair askew. I fought off the smirk that threatened to take over, amused to finally see him look like he’s done some work. “Yes?”

  “Sorry, but you know I have to take it back,” he held his hand out. “It was either me or your sister, and I figured you’d rather I come back to collect it.”

  As much as I barely tolerated either one of them, he was right. I still had no interest in seeing my sister. Childish? Yeah, definitely. I sighed in annoyance and reluctantly handed my tome over to him.

  “Oh, wait.” I snatched the tome back and flipped it open and snatched my halberd out of it. I glanced at the fae rapier, remembering the promise I’d made. I’ll only use it once magic is free again. I handed the tome to him and held my halberd close to me, glad for its familiar weight in my hand again. I'd have to remember to return the other halberd.

  “Anything else?” he cocked his eyebrow up and smirked in amusement.

  “Nope,” I shook my head and turned to walk away.

  “Wait… Riv,” he said reluctantly. “Thank you for… not making this more difficult.”

  I shrugged, wishing I could find it in me to make it more difficult. To demand it back, fight tooth and nail to make the Astral Order get rid of its stupid law against magic. My parent’s hard-learned lessons made that impossible. I turned back to him and smiled. “I’ll get it back one day.”

  “Good,” he said, relaxing like I’d lifted a weight from his shoulders.

  I wanted to ask him about that, but Serenity tugged on my arm, motioning for us to go.

  By the time we finally made it through the winding streets, the sun was high in the sky and our stomachs were rumbling quite frequently. I sat on the edge of the fountain and shoved my hand down my boot, scratching an itch on my calf.

  Serenity sat next to me and lay her bow across her lap. “What are we waiting on?”

  “She should be here in just a moment, unless she got caught up by someone.” I leaned back some and let my fingers trace the top of the water behind me while I looked around us.

  “Well, while we wait, you could tell me about everything,” Serenity said, sitting on the ground to lean back against the side of the fountain and stretch her legs out.

  “Mm, yeah,” I nodded. “Well, I found out from one of the blacksmiths that we’ll be joining Captain Marigold’s squad in two weeks. I…” I trailed off, trying to think of what happened before I met with Queen Elincia, if anything else important happened. “I went to the palace to meet with Lord Silvo like I was supposed to, but Queen Elincia called for me. She had me break into the king’s study for some reason…”

  Serenity glanced back at me in confused amusement. “The king’s study? Wouldn’t she just be able to go in? I mean, he’s her husband after all.”

  “I dunno, but yeah, it’s a little odd.” I shrugged.

  “Anyway, what happened after that?”

  “Oh yeah, she showed me a map, apparently there’s, er, was, I should say, an entire country to the east.”

  “What? But isn’t that just the cliffs beyond the plains?” Serenity sat up, her eyes sparking in curiosity.

  “Apparently not, because Elincia.. Sorry, Queen Elincia asked me to research what I could about it.”

  “You? Wouldn’t she have more information on it with the library right there?”

  “She might, but she’s the queen. She might not have time to, plus… Aria said she’s up to something, maybe she doesn’t want to give anything away? Maybe she’s being watched?”

  “Oo, that’s a good possibility, being queen doesn’t seem like it would make things easy to hide. Who’s Aria?”

  “A friend of mine. I met her a few years ago when she was promoted to protect the palace. I went to the palace last night to see if I could find any information and ran into her. I asked her if she knew anything, she didn’t, but she said she’d ask around.”

  “So… we’re joining Captain Marigold’s squad and we’re looking for some mysterious kingdom? Sounds like fun,” Serenity grinned.

  I hummed in agreement and looked around, starting to get a little concerned that Igraine wasn’t there yet. “Normally when she sends for me as Lady Rilila, she doesn’t go far from here.”

  “Should we go look for her?”

  “Maybe…” I didn’t want to end up with us all going on a wild goose chase through the city. “No, I’ll send a butterfly.” I conjured one of my green and silver butterflies and whispered her name to it before I sent it off, watching as it fluttered away.

  “What is that?”

  “I used to send them to her if we got separated when we were kids. She has a tiny horse she would send to find me.” The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I jumped up, unsheathing my rapier. Serenity was on her feet, bow drawn an instant later.

  “What is it?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I looked up at the blackening sky, storm clouds rolling in unnaturally fast.

  “That’s not good…” Serenity backed against me, looking around us as dark mist started swirling along the ground.

  “No, it’s not…” I cried out as I felt claws digging into my heart, squeezing.

  “I told you little Sage, my vengeance was going to be sweet. You don’t have even a fraction of the power your ancestor had!”

  “Maybe I don’t, but I was still able to stop you in the throne room!” I snarled at the voice.

  “Rivi, what’s happening?” Serenity looked around wildly.

  “You think you stopped me that night? You might have been able to release my hold over your puny little king, but you didn’t stop me. Only showed me how weak you are.”

  I felt the presence of the cold lake mana, pushing the voice away from me, forcing it to release its hold on my heart.

  Serenity grabbed me by the shoulder, holding me up as the dark tendrils faded. The storm clouds stayed, big fat drops of rain falling from the clouds.

  “Thanks,” I grimaced. “We have to go to the palace, now,” I straightened up and she nodded, following my lead as we ran to the palace.

  As we ran, we dodged through crowds of people wandering aimlessly trying to figure out what the dark tendrils were and how the storm popped up so quickly.

  I skidded to a halt right outside the palace gates when I saw my butterfly hovering over a hedge.

  “What is-” Serenity stopped, noticing what I was looking at.

  “Igraine!” I sprinted over, jumping the hedge to find her breathing shallowly, curled up on the ground.

  “Riv-” she gasped out, moving her hand to show me her shoulder and chest where she’d been attacked with dark magic.

  “Is that Aria?” Serenity asked, looking up at the gates.

  “Brown-haired Lagonai?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah, that’s her,” I nodded, before turning back to Igraine, grabbing my tome.

  “Aria!” Serenity ran up the steps, shouting.

  I flipped my tome open, hurriedly looking for the very few light magic spells I’d learned, hoping one of them would help her. A healing spell might work, but I wasn’t sure if they would work against something cause by magic.

  “Riv… your mother… Ramira,” Igraine coughed. “She’ll know what to do.”

  I looked up as Aria jumped the last several steps and ran over, picking Igraine up like she weighed nothing.

  “Ramira!” I rushed out, hoping Aria would understand. She did.

  She took off, holding onto Igraine as we all three ran to the palace. I held my hand out and my butterfly landed on my palm. After whispering Mom’s name to it, it zoomed off, leading us straight to her in the hall outside the queen’s study.

  “Rivienne!” Marigold called from behind us. “Serenity!”

  We both stopped and turned, looking back at her, as Aria continued on with Igraine.

  “I know the princess is hurt, but Ramira will take care of her. I need you both with me, now,” Serenity turned and hurried down the hall, to the throne room.

  Serenity and I glanced at each other before hurrying after her.

  “The attacks are growing more frequent! When will it be enough for you to finally tell us what is going on?!” Queen Elincia was pacing in front of the thrones, her golden sword in her hand, piles of twisted creatures strewn across the floor around her.

  “As I’ve stated before, we have it under control.” Lord Silvo said evenly.

  “Clearly,” she snapped, her green eyes ablaze with anger.

  “I’m not certain why he’s stirring so soon, after the magic was banished, he was supposed to lose his strength, I-”

  “Enough. King Edvard may have granted you your position and power, but seeing as he is unfit for duty, it seems I must take it upon myself to get to the bottom of this and stop it,” she motioned angrily around the throne room, still in disarray from the last attack.

  “You can’t, Your Majesty,” Lord Silvo snapped. “We mages have been trying to for decades. You may have tremendous magic power, but you still don’t hold a candle to a Sage.”

  “The Sages are long dead and none have shown to have even a fraction of their power,” Elincia stopped her pacing to look at him. “What other plan do you have to stop him?”

  Lord Silvo had the audacity to shrug at her. “I don’t really have one if I’m being honest.”

  Serenity leaned close to me to whisper, “So what does he expect us to do? Put up with whatever that was earlier?”

  “I guess so,” I shook my head and shrugged, bewildered. We straightened up when Marigold threw a glare at us over her shoulder.

  “I’ve brought Iktuk and Nightingale like you asked, Your Majesty,” Marigold saluted.

  “Thank you,” Elincia walked passed Lord Silvo without a backward glance, heading down the dais steps towards us, stepping over the bodies as she did so.

  “As you’ve no doubt heard, we’ve come to a stand still. I need you both to-”

  “Where is your bracelet?” Lord Silvo glowered, walking towards us. “The agreement was that you would wear it all the time.”

  I cursed myself for leaving it… wherever it was I left it. On my cot? Did I put it in my pocket and it fell out? I started to panic as I couldn’t remember.

  “And that she would meet with you once a week. You summoned her last night and then failed to meet with her,” Elincia arched her brow. “Besides, I think it’s a little late for pretending we don’t need mages right now,” she turned back to Serenity and I. “I need you both to follow me,” she said, striding out of the throne room.

  I glanced back at Lord Silvo who was clearly angry, glaring daggers at her back. He couldn’t do anything to her, but me? I needed to tread carefully. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of him, and

  Serenity and I followed her out, Marigold following just behind us.

  “Your Majesty, has your plan changed?” Marigold asked, stretching her arms over her head, her back and shoulders cracking.

  “Not entirely, but hold on, the walls have too many ears,” Queen Elincia waltzed into the king’s study and shut the door behind us.

  “Rivienne, do you know a spell to block out any potential eavesdroppers?” Elincia asked, looking at me. She had an odd expression on her face, which gave me pause, but I nodded.

  “Yes, Your Majesty, I do.” I only hoped it would work right. I placed my palm on the door and put a silencing bubble on the outside of the door. It would hold as long as no one popped it… I made a mental note to find a better solution than that one day. It was invisible, but if someone accidentally walked through it or even touched it, it could pop.

  “Now, Serenity, has Rivienne filled you in on everything?” Queen Elincia asked.

  “I believe so, Your Majesty,” Serenity nodded.

  “Good. If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask. Just know that I may not have the answer or I may not be at liberty to tell you just yet,” she turned and walked to the bookshelf, pulling the same map down from last night.

  Serenity’s stomach growled and she slapped her hand over it, looking up in embarrassment, but no one seemed to have heard it except me. I snickered and she elbowed me, but then mine also growled causing her to snort. She stepped over to the table where Queen Elincia was unrolling the map.

  “From my understanding, long before the Astral and Umbral war started, there were Demons and Sages who worked together to do the gods’ bidding. What their specific relationship was exactly, is vague at best. Before the libraries were burned and the historians executed by the original Astral Order after the war, there were three libraries within this city alone. Those three libraries were filled with spellbooks, history books, maps, pretty much all of our written history. Now, all we have left is the library here within the palace itself. A shadow of its former self due to the Order’s meddling.” Elincia took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before releasing it slowly.

  “Originally I asked you to find the eastern kingdom, Rivienne, however, I think it prudent we find as much of our city’s history as we can instead. I was born here in the capital almost 31 years after the end of the war, so the stories my father told me of the war are still very fresh. However, he barely spoke of the sages or the demons. He only spoke of the importance of the Astral Order and how we needed to do our utmost to support them,” she leaned forward and placed her hands on the map, smoothing the wrinkles under her fingers. “I now utterly disagree. Lord Silvo’s father and my father were good friends and I find myself questioning a lot more of what I know nowadays,” she sighed, before looking up at Serenity and I. “I need you both to join Captain Marigold’s squadron as soon as possible.”

  “Your Majesty, are they even ready? A day with two battles and you’re pushing them to join my squadron? I don-”

  “I understand your concerns Marigold,” Elincia held up a hand. “However, you need two more members in your squadron. Rivienne is the mage you’ve been looking for and Serenity has what it takes to be the best archer we’ve had. She’s already a contender for one of the palace patrol units, but I know her skills will be put to better use with you. Rivienne, I can’t allow you to practice magic right now, as much as I would like for you to. The army is already talking about the Emerald Witch and I need you to lay low. Same with you Serenity. As much as I hate to say it, Lord Silvo is right. There’s a law in place banning magic for all who aren’t in the Astral Order of Mages, and as neither of you are members…” she sighed in frustration, closing her eyes. “I can’t risk either of you getting tossed behind bars. Only the king can pardon someone, and as he’s not himself…” she blinked her eyes open again, and slouched. Completely out of character for her.

  “I’ll put the bracelet back on. We’ll lay low and do our best to squash the rumors. There isn’t much I can do though… I was the mage who killed all those mages during the riots after all. Then we killed the chimera and hydra this morning, that doesn’t exactly work in our favor.”

  “Do what you can. Time is against us, but once the ceremony is over in two weeks, I need all of you to go to the underground city. Once there, you’ll be met with resistance from the Umbral Mages, but I need you to prove yourselves to them and gain their trust.”

  “What are you planning?” Captain Marigold sat on the chair by the desk.

  “Our lack of information regarding any of what is going on is going to severely hurt us should whatever this monster is attacks again. You saw what it did to my daughter. It was just a specter of itself. I would hate to see what else its capable of at full power.”

  “Do we know what or who it is yet?” Marigold asked. It struck me as odd that Elincia was talking like she’d seen the attack, yet she’d left Igraine outside to fend for herself.

  “You know as much as I do.” Elincia sat on a settee behind her, leaning her arm on the armrest. “Which is next to nothing, I’m sure you can imagine why I’m so angry with the Order. I assume you haven’t heard anything from the underground?”

  “Nothing concrete, the monks are on edge, scurrying about like mice in a granary, but none of them will talk,” Marigold propped her shiny golden boots up on the table in front of her, making herself at home.

  “Wouldn’t them keeping a threat under wraps be tantamount to treason against the Crown?” Serenity asked, shifting from one foot to the other.

  “72 years ago, yes,” Queen Elincia sighed. “That’s where the problems start. When my father, King Arthur and the late Lord Silvo the First formed the pact, they did it in such a way that they had equal power. Edvard has since rewritten the terms of the pact so the Order is one step lower than he is, but it still isn’t enough. Edvard knows what is going on, but you know as well as I that he isn’t going to speak. Gods, I can’t even carry on a normal conversation with him anymore.”

  I thought back to something I’d read years ago about possession, but I couldn’t remember much. “Your Majesty?”

  “Yes, Rivienne?” she asked wearily.

  “May I be granted permission to return home for a few hours?” I asked, glancing at Serenity, who looked at me questioningly.

  “I would grant it, but you’ll need to take it up with the Captain of the Guard. Might I ask why?” she said, curiousity sparking in her tired gaze.

  “Back when Captain Teodoric was my mentor, he gave me a few tomes. Some of which were forbidden by the Order and if I’m remembering correctly, there may possibly be a way to help the king in his present state, or at least give us some insight.”

  Elincia immediately perked up at that. “Really? Is there anything else? Actually, no, as much as I’d like to ask, we don’t have time. Go to the Captain of the Guard right away, I’ll send a letter ahead stating your reasoning for leaving and that it’s a request from me. Once you have his permission, go and gather everything you need. I’ll speak with Kaine about doing half-day training for both of you for the next two weeks. The other half, I need you both to spend gathering as much intel as you can. Rivienne, I know how often you and your friends would eavesdrop on conversations. For a while, I remember you being quite good at it. You broke into the King’s study just fine, why not try it somewhere else?” Elincia winked at me before standing and striding to the king’s desk.

  “What is she asking of you, exactly?” Serenity whispered.

  “To break into the Astral Order,” I grinned, giddy with excitement.