Chapter 10: Beasts of Prey

Sairek’s eyes blinked open in alertness, awoken by Nayleen shaking him vigorously in the very early morning hours of the day. The sky was rather dark and stars up above still twinkled, but their light was turning dimmer by the minute while the night sky was just beginning its transformation from ink black to the brilliant day blue, with purple hues on one side. Sairek slowly sat up from his sleeping bag, shaking the sleepiness out of his head, then looked back up the sky once more to gauge what time it was before shooting a heated glare at Nayleen in realization. “Didn’t you say we were going to share watch duty evenly? You practically stayed up the entire night!”

“Meh.” Nayleen shrugged.

“Don’t ‘meh’ me!” Sairek complained.

“Meh.” Nayleen repeated. “You have the burden of carrying everything in your jewel, plus you looked rather worn out already, especially with what you had endured the last couple of nights. You needed the rest.” She argued with him. “I can handle most of the watching duty if you are going to be carrying everything. Seems fair, right?”

Sairek groaned out a sigh. He didn’t want to argue, especially because he already understood how stubborn she was. Besides, whether he agreed or not, what was done was already done. “Your choice, but don’t complain to me later on if you want to take a nap. Not like there’s anything I can do about it now, anyways…”

Sairek pulled himself up from the sleeping bag he had been resting in and swapped spots with Nayleen. She giggled as she slid herself in herself. “Thanks for warming this up for me!”

He rolled his eyes at her. With the rain continuing over the night, it had gotten a bit nippy for a summer night, but with it having stopped now, the humidity had begun to catch up with him and he felt his throat feeling a bit dry. Idly he reached down at his belt for his flask of water and took a couple gulps to clear his throat. “Sleep tight, I suppose.” He replied afterwards, sealing the flask again.

He positioned himself to sit, staring out from their little alcove, bringing his knees up to his body and hugging them tightly with his arms as he sat and just… watched. Mostly looking up at the sky. Watching the sky transform slowly from ink black to blue was about as entertaining as watching paint dry. One by one over the course of minutes as he heard Nayleen’s breathing steady into a snore, he saw stars one by one beginning to fade out. After an hour of watching and his boredom at this point clouding his mind, he temporarily distracted himself by giving himself some breakfast of honey bread, a few berries and some more water to wash it all down. Then he further distracted himself for another ten minutes more by moving a few meters away from Nayleen to relieve himself and then using a careful usage of Waert to wash his face and hair for the morning. After he was done, he returned back to his ‘post’, waiting for time to further pass.

After around three hours had passed in total since Nayleen woke him up, the sky was a bright baby blue with various warm and cool hues on one side where the sun would rise from. He decided that to be more than light enough for them to travel before too long. He was apprehensive to wake up Nayleen already, but she would probably be angry at him if he didn’t, so slowly, he crawled his way over to her and as he looked down at her form, he was distracted further by his royal jewel though, and reached down to cup it in his left hand.

No longer was the jewel a brilliant, pearly white with flecks of soft blue in it, but now it was paler, and more toned towards yellow. Not quite as strong as his tabard’s color, but it was starting to match. That caused him to frown. Gems such as these tended to fade out as their energy ran lower, though he knew the royal jewel didn’t fade out, but more changed through various hues of color the closer it was to being drained before it began to fade out. Regardless, it wasn’t low enough to be concerned about immediately, but finding a well of ethereal should indeed be their priority for the day.
It was as if fate was determining he should wake her up anyways. So he released the jewel from his grip and looked down at—

“Holy, Sweet Lands!” He yelped, crawling backwards from being startled.

Nayleen was already wide awake, sitting right up in front of him. She frowned at his reaction. “Wow, rude. Your hair didn’t look fantastic when you woke up either, you know.”

“I didn’t see you suddenly wake up…” He argued.

“Wasn’t it your job to watch over me? Sheesh. You’re not a very good watchman.”

“That’s not... I—Mmmff…” He spluttered and huffed, unable to grasp at an excuse or retort. “B-But how…?”

“Eh, after being alone, I’ve gotten used to sleeping a minimal amount. You can sort of train your body to get used to it, y’know.” She commented, standing up from the sleeping bag as she stretched her body from side to side. “Yup! I’m refreshed and ready to go~!”

Sairek glared at her like she was some foreign entity. “Seriously…? Why is it that I can sleep ten hours and still feel tired, then? Does that mean I’m extremely stressed or… or just lazy?” He frowned.

“Nah, your body is just used to sleeping for a lengthy amount of time. If you slowly work your way to less hours, you won’t feel much different when you sleep as little as I do. You’ll get sleepy later on in the day much easier though. It can be good to take a quick power nap in the middle of the day to give your body rest!”

“I swear, none of anything that you said can possibly be considered healthy.”

“Well, neither is you reading books all day good for your eyes, but that didn’t stop you, did it?”

“I did not read all the time. My father would not allow me.”

“But without him stopping you, you would have. So no excuses, mister!”

Sairek sighed, shaking his head and pushed himself up to stand on his feet with her. “Whatever. Let’s just go. We already lost way too much time last night. The jewel is already showing signs of running out.” He said, tapping it for emphasis.

“Huh, so it is. Okay then, let’s pack. I’ll eat ‘breakfy’ as we ‘walky’, then.”

“Breakfy…? Lands.” Sairek muttered. “I still cannot tell if this kind of dialect is something all commoners use, or if it’s wholly unique to just you.”

The both of them packed up their items before Sairek used the jewel to store everything up again, then summoned some food for Nayleen and a little bit more for himself to keep his stomach content as they walked. After using the jewel another time though, it became a few more shades more paler and dimmer, now almost matching Sairek’s tabard entirely at this point. As Nayleen shoved some bread into her mouth, she eyed the jewel as they walked along a faded pathway curiously.

“How long do you think that has left before it starts becoming a problem?” Nayleen asked him after she swallowed her bite of food.

“I don’t know. It was never a problem before because it wasn’t linked to me. It would just fill up over time naturally.” Sairek said, looking down at it. “It goes from white, to this, to yellow, to orange, then red, then… dims out from there.”

“Hm, I see. So that’s like… six states. So it must still be like, eighty percent full! Or something.”

“...I guess if you want to look at it like that. But we also spent most of the day with some of our stuff out, so that slowed down the natural drain.”

“Does moving things in and out cost energy too?” Nayleen asked.

“Yes. There’s an initial amount, plus an amount depending on how much mass I am moving. There’s a lot of containers that do the same thing, and they all must be fueled in a similar way, but their drain is slower. The jewel can do the same thing, but it wasn’t designed specifically for that alone unlike those containers. They’re also made easier to use, because you can sort of stick your hand inside of them, then sort of imagine the item, and then it pops out. So even people pretty ignorant to magic can use them. This is a bit more complicated. It’s more than just imagining the item I want inside, but using my will to bring them out as well.”

“Well, if we have to find a cave today, then chances are that we won’t make it to the inn today, either.” Nayleen frowned.

“We’ll be fine. Tonight can’t be much worse than last night.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to ask you something last night.” Nayleen said.

Sairek turned his head to look at her. “Yes?”

“When’s your birthday? It should be soon, right?”

Sairek blinked in response. “That’s a bit of an odd question to ask. Why?”

“Just curious. Mine passed a couple months ago.”

“Well, it’s around a couple of weeks from now. I will no doubt miss it at the castle.” Sairek answered.

“Huh? So soon. Are you sure you want to leave now? Why not wait to celebrate it then go?” Nayleen asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

“Yes I’m sure. I’m glad, even. You see, when the Prince or Princess turns twelve, they’re expected to... choose a ‘lover’ if they haven’t gotten one already.” Sairek mumbled. “What would have happened is that all of the village girls would be brought to the castle and I would just have to… pick one.”

“...You’re kidding.” Nayleen responded, her voice unimpressed.

Sairek shook his head. “Nope. Like I said, Ceareste has very old traditions… Since I’m the last of the blood line, well… another hier as soon as possible is kind of important. If something happened to me and my father, well... that would be it.”

“So… were your father and your mother…?” Nayleen began to ask.

“Thankfully, they were great childhood friends, so it was fairly natural to them. Well, I supposed it was kind of forced still in a way, but at least it wasn’t from something entirely like that.”

“...You’re uh, not picking me then, are you?” Nayleen asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

Sairek tripped in his steps and stumbled to regain balance. “Of course not! I’m not picking anybody…! Especially like that! I don’t care about stupid old traditions like that. It’s dumb!” He huffed. “I could never make love to somebody no matter how long we were together from such a forced relationship. All of it just to make another heir as soon as possible? It’s ridiculous…!”

“Phew, that’s a relief. I enjoy my freedom. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the castle all day and night with you; no offense.” Nayleen commented in relief.

“I wouldn’t want you to. You’re irredeemable at times.” Sairek muttered dryly.

“It’s just part of my charm.”

“I suppose I cannot argue with that.”

“Yeah, you like it when I tease you.”

“What–? I do not…!”

“Sure you do. C’mon~ I know you’re trying to hide your emotions, but you find it funny.” She said with a grin on her face, looking at him.

“Wh–!? Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“Am I?”

“Of course you are!”

“You don’t sound very mad to me, though. Go and yell at me and tell me how ridiculous I really am then. C’mon! Get furious!”

“I—You—Cut it out, Nayleen!” He said to her, his voice raised but not yelling. It sounded pathetic and futile, so much so that she laughed at him. Instead of angry, he was just feeling a bit embarrassed.

“Come on, I saw what you did with Samuel! That’s not angry!” She snickered, but moved over from his right side and jogged around to his left and grabbed his hand with her right. “Well, whatever ‘Princey’, there’s a cave right over there, come on, let’s go explore it!”

“Princey…? Sweet Lands, no. don’t tell me that’s the nickname you’re going to give me like ‘Fancy Dude’, now.” Sairek grumbled. “What cave where?”

“It might be~ Also that one.” She answered, pointing with her free hand to a cliff face at their left, which sure enough, just had a hole in the side of it leading inwards.

“Oh. Uhh… well then…” Sairek muttered.

Nayleen guided Sairek by hand to the mouth of the cavern. He tried to peer inside of it, but it was simply too dark to see much inside past whatever the sun was leading in. He looked back behind him to look back at the sky to see the sun’s position. They had more than ample time to explore inside, and he knew the vast majority of the caves were not so complex and large that getting lost was easy in them, according to reports anyways. “I guess we’re going inside then. Remember to be careful, if it looks really dangerous, we should run back outside of the cave. Let’s not take any chances, understood?” Sairek said, looking back from the sky at Nayleen—
...Where did she go…?

Sairek’s face twisted into a grimace as he looked into the mouth of the cave. “For the love of… NAYLEEN–!!” He called out to her.

“Hurry and get your butt in here! It’s dark!” Came her voice from inside the cave.

“But you’re the one who walked in yourself and—and—I give up…!” He groaned, storming inside of the cave with annoyed steps and raising his staff as he walked in, yelling out “Balinzer!” while he did so. A flame ignited at the head of his staff and he steadied it there, keeping it alive, slowly pouring energy into it but taming it enough to where it didn’t go anywhere. It made his staff behave very much like a torch, which illuminated a moderate space around himself as he stepped in.

The cave actually opened up to be rather hollow and only became more open the further he stepped in. Balinzer was still able to stretch a good twenty feet ahead of him as far as lighting went, though. He saw Nayleen when he stepped in a little further and marched up to her. “Don’t just storm into caves like that! What if something else was in here!?” Sairek scolded her.

Nayleen just looked at him for a moment, a frown on her face. Then she turned to have her back facing him, and she began making weird… flowing… wobbling-like motions with her body and hands.

Sairek blinked at her in disbelief. “What—Just… Just what are you doing, exactly…?” He asked, his tone dry.

“Look at my shadow, man! It looks really cool with the light from your staff! Look! Shadow puppets!” She giggled.

There was a mild echoing slap of Sairek’s left leather glove coming into contact with his face. Hard. Releasing a groaning sigh into his hand, he released the energy for his spell and the cave went pitch black… including Nayleen’s shadow.

A second later, he heard sad Nayleen booing noises coming from beside himself. “Aww, Saaaiiii~! Turn it back oonnn!”

“I will, if you promise to stop goofing off.” Sairek said through gritted teeth. He knew she was just trying to be funny, but this wasn’t exactly the time for that.

“Fiiiine, you party pooper. No cake for you.”

He sighed again, pulling his left hand from his face. That was probably the best he was ever going to get from her. Besides, he didn’t want to leave them in pitch blackness for very long. Once again, he called out the incantation and Balinzer caused his staff to become lit again. Sairek moved to step beside her once more, studying around themselves, though he couldn’t see much at all but just darkness all around them and the faint outlines of walls. He and her took a few tentative steps deeper into the cave.

“...Where do you think we should even begin looking?” Sairek asked, looking around cautiously. “Have you ever done stuff like this even, or has it always been wilderness stuff?”

“Well, there was Yggdrasil, but no, not really. Also watch out, there’s a puddle at your feet.” Nayleen warned him, pointing down.

Sairek hesitated and pulled his next step back behind himself instead, looking down at the floor, he twisted his face into a curious expression. “...Nayleen? Water isn’t green.”

“Well, neither is ethereal when it’s condensed.” She responded. "Not that shade of green, anyway."

“...Soooo, what kind of liquid is it, then?”

“I dunno. You wanna touch it?”

“...No. I’ll pass, thanks.”

Sairek watched her turn in his direction with a thoughtful look, glancing up at the ceiling. “Hmm… so not water, not ethereal… what other kind of liquid forms in caves in a puddle?” She pondered out loud.

“Well, I’ll tell you what it isn’t—it isn’t what we’re looking for. Let’s just forget it and move on.” Sairek suggested.

“Yeah, I guess if we want to find ethereal, it would probably be closer to the end of the cave.”

“Alright, let’s—” He began, then stopped for a moment.

“What? What is it?” Nayleen tilted his head at him.

“...Where did the puddle go?” Sairek asked her, his voice having gone a bit cold.

She looked down at the puddle, or… at least where it had been. Then she suddenly grabbed Sairek’s arm hard, moving his staff to project the light up higher and more ahead of them and then pointed with her free hand upwards at the ceiling. “THAT’S your answer!”

Sure enough, hanging on the ceiling in front of them was a large, gelatinous blob that was the exact same color as the liquid they just had come across and it happened to be a fairly large one at that. It abruptly moved, half swinging in the ceiling towards them, making Sairek yelp and take several paces back until the light was drawn back enough that it was only just barely visible.

“Wh-What do we do?!” Sairek asked in a panicked voice. Slimes weren’t necessarily dangerous, but boy, this one was bigger than normal slimes for sure! It was bigger and wider than even both of them combined!

“You blast it with magic, of course!” Nayleen answered him.

“But if I do that, then the cave would be pitch black! How do you plan to fight it when it’s dark?!” Sairek protested.

“Use fire then! Knives don’t do very much damage to a slime, you know! Besides, it’s a BLOB, Sairek! It can’t see or hear, so how tough can it possibly—”

Before Nayleen could finish and with the two of them being too busy looking at each other, Sairek saw just from the side of his vision as a blob of goo suddenly slapped Nayleen from the ceiling with enough force to knock her off of her feet and go flying into the darkness.

Sairek yelped and moved back away again. “N-Nayleen!” He cried. “Are you oka—”

“THAT’S IT! Fine! I’ll kill it myself!!” He heard her hiss angrily from somewhere in the darkness.

“...She’s fine…” Sairek muttered dryly to himself. Though there was some relief in his voice. He turned back towards the slime which now dropped down to where they had both been standing before and was now on the ground. Sairek moved himself to his left as the slime contorted its form and reached out, swinging towards Sairek. The movement was slow so stepping out of the way was no problem, but considering how far Nayleen had gone flying, he had no desire to be smacked by that thing.
Speaking of Nayleen, he glanced to his right as she yelled out in a charge, emerging from the darkness with both of her daggers in her hands. As the slime contorted its body back into shape from having attempted to swing at Sairek, she raised both of her knives up and sank them both into the body of the slime all the way to their hilts.

...Predictably, nothing happened and the end of her attack was rather anticlimactic.

“...Alright fine, stand back…!” Sairek ordered her as he held his staff up higher and more in front of himself. The light from his staff burned a little brighter as he poured more energy into it. Nayleen yanked her daggers out and jumped back when Sairek lowered the staff, pointing it at the slime, yelling out “Balinzer!!” His voice echoed around the cavern walls as a large jet of flame spewed out from his staff, coating over the slime. Its form shuddered and wriggled as the fire glazed over it.
Sairek held out the spell for a few seconds, before his own body shuddered from the strain and he gasped and panted, bracing the butt of his staff against the floor and leaning some of his weight against it. He looked back up at the slime and yelped in surprise. No longer was it a green blob, but now it was glowing orange from the heat of his flames.

“...Well shit.” He heard Nayleen curse. “But at least we can see it in the dark, now! Hit it with something else!”

Sairek was about to do that, but out of nowhere, the giant slime abruptly just… exploded. In large chunks. Nayleen instinctively ducked down onto the floor, a couple large chunks of heated goop sailing over her. Sairek however was not so fortunate, caught off guard and winded from his spell, his reaction was too slow and a hot chunk of slime slammed into him so hard, it took his breath away. He went skidding along the floor before crashing harshly into his back against a cavern wall so hard, he only subconsciously realized he barked out in pain. His staff had left his hand at some point and had gone tumbling somewhere.

Afterwards, he just remembered waking up, as if he had just taken a short nap. He must have blacked out for a few seconds at some point. He felt a little dizzy, but he heard Nayleen desperately calling out his name.

“I’m… I’m over here…!” He gasped out, sucking in a deep breath.
Nayleen heard him and he heard her in return from her sprinting footsteps that approached closer to him. She gasped as she saw him laying rather crumpled on the ground. “Shit, are you okay–?”

“Yeah; but my back hurts… I don’t think I can get up right now… I crashed hard into the wall and my back took almost all the impact, even with the clothes…” He answered.

She muttered another curse under her breath, but reached down to help pull him up off the ground to settle him more comfortably against the wall of the cave. Sairek winced uncomfortably in pain as he felt his spine shift. “O-Ow!... Easy…”

“You don’t think you’ve paralyzed your spine, don’t you…?” She began with concern in her voice.

“Well now you’re making me worried… I don’t know, it just hurts to try and move it right now…” Sairek grumbled.

“Okay, so not paralyzed but that’s not good either way.”

“Listen, I lost my staff somewhere between my journey from over there to here.” Sairek said, pointing ahead of himself. “Do you think you can find it for me? I don’t want to be left in this darkness for long.”

“I’m gonna have to be looking pretty blindly, but I’ll do my best.” Nayleen said, her steps padding away from him as she began to look.

But as Nayleen searched and searched over the course of ten minutes, a growing anxiety was forming in Sairek’s stomach as Nayleen kept reporting that she couldn’t find it for him. He bit his bottom lip. Where could it have gone…? “Are you sure it’s not here…?” Sairek began. “Where else could it have gone...!”

“Yes! I am sure!” Nayleen began heatedly, but calmed her tone down as she continued. “My eyes are almost adjusted to this cave now. I’ve checked everywhere—twice. Can’t you just see where it is like you can with that jewel of yours?”

“No. I’m not linked to my staff like Laure did with the jewel… I should perhaps maybe have done that, though…” Sairek grumbled, then blinked, looking up past Nayleen who had returned to him. Sairek grunted as he jerked his head at her to gesture behind her and she looked and turned as well in the direction he was staring in.

A figure stood there, impossible to make out its complete shape or what it was at all; or even who, but regardless of the shape, one thing was certain; it had a pair of garnet-colored eyes which were glowing brightly in the darkness, and those two eyes were currently staring directly at the both of them.

Chapter 9: Sources of Power

They had finally set off away from Marid and had been walking for half an hour now. Because of the terrain though, Sairek at higher rises in the land could still look back and see the general foundation Marid was on in the distance and the general shape of it. This was about his third time looking by now. He looked back towards Nayleen who was staring as well, though not back at Marid, but at the sky ahead of them.

“What’s wrong?” Sairek asked, watching the expression on her face becoming a frown.

“You picked a cruddy day to set out. It’s going to start storming real soon.” She answered. Sairek himself looked up in the general direction Nayleen was looking in. It had been a cloudy day, which he was thankful for since it made the day more cool and bearable, however he could see that in the distance to the north west, far heavier and more foreboding clouds were steadily making their way towards them.

“Well, I’m not going back and postponing. That would just be embarrassing.” Sairek grumbled. “There’s plenty of large trees and cliff sides we can use as cover. Or we can just wait it out if it gets that bad.”

“I bet it’s going to be a long rain, but I guess it’s not so bad. I can teach you some basic survival stuff and what to do in these situations and if things somehow become really bad, the town isn’t too far away.” Nayleen nodded. “So we’re not stuck in the middle of the storm completely stranded, but we should start seeking good shelter from it early.”

“Let’s make as much ground as we can manage until then, I suppose.”

Soon enough, only a quarter of an hour later, the sky could be heard crackling above them. So loudly was it that Sairek and Nayleen flinched from being startled. There was a big flash, followed by a loud booming crash from the approaching storm. Nayleen covered her ears for a second while Sairek ungracefully panicked and grabbed Nayleen’s arm tightly and hid behind her back. When the crashing of the storm lowered down to a mere rumble, Nayleen gave Sairek a dull look.

“You are such a wimp.” She muttered dryly.

“Sh-Shut up… Storms were barely audible inside the castle… This is my first time I’ve been exposed to one…!” Sairek grumbled.

She sighed. “Looks like the storm is going to be worse than I thought. Running from cover to cover isn’t going to work. Keep an eye out. We’ll take the next good piece of cover we see.”

To make sure they wouldn’t be stranded in the open, the both of them quickened their movement to a near jog. Less than ten minutes later, the rain had begun to pour down, with the both of them covering their heads with their arms to stop their faces from getting as wet as possible. Thankfully, it was only needed for a couple of minutes before there was a rather large tree that was grounded against a cliff side, providing shelter from one side, while keeping them dry from the vast majority of the rain overhead as well. They managed to only get a bit damp before taking shelter underneath the tree. For a few moments, they stood side by side, looking around them as the rain continued to become more and more heavy.

“Say, I don’t suppose you can use magic to make the rain go away.” Nayleen asked with a voice dripping of sarcasm.

“...I’m an apprentice, not some benevolent being.” Sairek responded dryly. “The four spells I can cast are as basic as they can come in terms of magic. All I’m doing is gathering one of the four elements and manipulating it in the most basic form.”

“...Meaning?”

“I draw in fire, I release fire. I draw in air, I release air. I draw in water, I release water..."

“You draw in earth, you spew out rocks?” Nayleen asked.

“Yes. Or manipulate whatever element is nearby as well, with some limited ability.” Sairek clarified.

“Why not make a giant rock that shelters us over our heads and keep on moving, then?” Nayleen suggested.

“Because I don’t like the idea of having a giant boulder that I could lose concentration of at a moment’s notice, like when the thunder booms, and then having it squish us.” Sairek replied dryly.

“Oh. Yeah. Well, I guess in that case, we’re camping here tonight. It’s fairly dry.” Nayleen said, glancing around at the ground.

“But we barely just got started…!” Sairek protested.

“Hah, look at you, eager beaver. But unless you can find a way to protect us from the rain, this is where we’ll stay until it’s over. We can’t go running around out there, getting wet, cold and sick all on your first day.”

Sairek slumped his shoulders and sighed. “This is the Pits…”

Nayleen cocked her head at him for a moment. “Say uh… how does that twinkly sparkly of yours work, exactly?”

"My... My what?" Sairek blinked.

"The white stone."

Sairek looked down at the royal jewel and pinched it with his left index finger and thumb. “I just turn it on, send a signal of thought of what I want and…” He began, then there was a quick flash of light as Sairek brought out their sleeping bags, a couple blankets of cloth for them to lay on and some food and canteens of water for good measure. Within the flash, they weren't there, and then they just were, everything laying comfortably on the ground. He let go of the jewel and looked at her with a lopsided smirk on his face.

“Show off.” Nayleen commented without heat, moving to plop her bottom on one of the blankets and positioned herself to lounge on top of it. He himself moved to sit down on the opposite side of her with his legs crossed. They both grabbed a little bit of food, lazily snacking on a fairly bland and early lunch in contrast to the breakfast they had.

“This is the life you wanted, huh?” Nayleen teased with a rather amused snort as she looked around both of their surroundings again. “Is this really what you wanted? Walk a few miles, get rained on and camp under a muddy cliff and tree?”

Sairek glanced towards her, silent for a moment before speaking. “This is still more entertaining than being in the castle, you know. The only difference is that I’d be stuck in the walls and alone. At least like this, I have some companionship in you. You’re the first friend I’ve had, unless you count my maid. Certainly the first one even remotely close to my age.”

“Aww, so you can be sweet at times.” Nayleen teased gently and smiled at him.

“Just like you can be, rarely.”

“Oof.” Nayleen flinched, feigning a look of hurt now. “Sweet and cold at the same time. You know, some girls are into that kind of thing~”

“But not you?”

Nayleen shrugged. “I ‘unno. Never thought about it. I figured it would take a special kind of guy to want to deal with me.”

“I’m… not interested in that kind of thing yet.” Sairek replied softly.

“Hey, don’t flatter yourself! I’m not hitting on you.”

Sairek flinched. “Mmph... Apparently, you are nothing but just cold. My mistake.”

Nayleen chuckled at that. “Hey, a boy and a girl at our ages being alone? Some people would probably talk. It’s good to set boundaries and get that out of the way early, so there’s no confusion later on.”

Sairek nodded in agreement. “Well, no worries on that then. Anyway, tomorrow we should go looking for caves if we can.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“Because of the jewel. I got a little bit of Ethereal to make it to Lamen but it would be nice to have… more. I don’t have a good grasp on how much energy this thing takes yet.” Sairek explained. “Usually members of the monastery in Lamen go and collect the stuff and then process it, sending smaller shipments to the castle. One of such caves might be along the way. It has to be close to Lamen somewhere if they can afford to send members on foot for such errands.”

“Well, aside from the jewel, having ethereal in itself would be really useful.” Nayleen reminded him.

“Yeah… it can be used for all sorts of things.” Sairek agreed. It could be used for his gem, sure, but condensed ethereal, refined and enhanced into a pure and raw state was extremely powerful. It could do all sorts of things to making potions and medicines for curing, or even used in food since it had the same consistency to that of water. Used properly in food, it could be some type of ambrosia. Not only would the food taste absolutely delicious, but it would have medicinal properties as well and whoever ate such food would indeed feel quite mighty good for a fair while. Not even the castle got such luxurious food like that.
There was plenty of ethereal to go around, but the amount required to condense it into such a state was huge and took a long time to process. Of course, while cooking with it was also neat and all, it was seen more as a top-line luxury than useful. So of course, it was mostly just used in medicinal concoctions instead.

“Sssaaaiiiii~”

Sairek blinked from his thoughts and looked at Nayleen who was waving her hand in front of him. “Sorry, what is it?” He apologized.

“I asked why you are wearing the gem.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the treasure of Ceareste, isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be dangerous to bring it with? What if something happened to it?”

“It is mine, I can do with it what I wish, but I did ask my maid the same thing, though the whole point of it is to keep me safe, though I must be responsible with it in turn. Besides, it’s not as easy to steal as just tearing it off of my clothes.”

“How so?”

“Laure made it so the jewel and I are connected right now, So I’ll never not know where it is, at least for a good, good long distance. This thing is powerful, outdistancing me from it would be pretty tricky. Though, that’s why I have to be responsible with it. Using it too much will drain me as a result. Other than that, it’s just really powerful. Protecting me is the entire purpose of the jewel. A bit of an old tradition, but even Kior still follows that tradition of giving the kingdom’s jewel to the hier’s next-of-kin. It’s also attached to my clothes. So nobody is going to grab it, without also grabbing me.”

“Or just tearing your shirt from you.”

“Considering the clothes are also made to protect me, that’s not going to be easy. It takes long enough to actually take everything off as it is when I want to take them off.”

“Then what about when you’re sleeping? Unless you plan to not change clothes or clean them ever?”

“That’s what Inns are for. I have a couple spare pajamas in here too, just so you know.” Sairek frowned, tapping the jewel for emphasis. “Besides smelling and getting a little dirty is a small price to pay in my book in making sure nothing happens to it. Also, even if someone did try to take it in my sleep, I’d feel that, too.”

Nayleen seemed satisfied with that answer, and changed the subject. “So then, why can’t you cast awesome magic by yourself, but you can with the jewel.”

Sairek frowned and tilted his head. “Um… let’s see… do you know what dumbbell is?”

“Obviously.” Nayleen frowned.

“Do you know how to do a single rep?”

“Of course.”

“Can you do a single rep with ten pounds?”

“No problem.”

“How about five-hundred?”

“Umm… No. Five-hundred is a bit too much…”

“But you know how to lift five-hundred pounds. It's the same as lifting the ten pounds but the added weight makes it harder, so it’s just simply out of your capacity in terms of strength to do, right?”

“...Right.”

“That’s why I can’t cast advanced magic. The simple spells are like lifting ten pounds, while the more advanced stuff is like lifting five-hundred. The jewel helps me lift that five-hundred pounds, by taking four-hundred-ninety of those pounds itself, if that makes sense.” Sairek explained.

“Ahhh, I see. So like, I may not be able to lift five-hundred by myself, but with the help of other people, we could. But I assume not every spell is as simple as doing a ‘rep’, either, right? Kinda like… doing a rep, but at the same time doing a very specific dance move, or something and if you don’t know how to do the dance move while doing the rep...”

“Ahh... yeah. I guess that’s one way to put it. Though in reality, it’s all mental and forcing your will upon it. To gather and weave ethereal and to force it to form into something you want, it all takes will power, and an obscene amount of it for the more complex stuff. Not only that, but obviously bigger spells require more ‘fuel’, so that means more ethereal you must control from the air. Those who get really good at it can do things like Samuel was doing. Casting spells with just a clap of your hands and able to do things like create a sinkhole from multiple yards away.”

“Don’t remind me…” Nayleen grumbled. “I knew magic wasn’t something to be trifled with but seeing that kind of expertise is scary.”

“Usually it takes many decades to become that good. Samuel is a natural prodigy. One of the elite of the elite in the castle, but still not the best.”

“Who’s the best, then?”

“My maid, Laure.”

“Seriously?”

“She didn’t used to be a maid, but when mother died, well, someone needed to take care of me. Her and mother used to be close, so having her as my matron only made sense, I guess. Perhaps her expertise is why father lets her off more lightly than he probably wanted to on many occasions. She could crush him if she really wanted to, and if she decided to quit working at the castle, he would be losing a most valuable asset. She is certainly someone you don’t want to make an enemy of. She’s the one who enchanted my clothes before we set out as well as the jewel.” Sairek explained.

“Did she at least make you lighter with them? Would hate to have to drag you up another wall.” Nayleen retorted dryly.

“I’m not—” Sairek pressed his lips together. “The clothes are heavy and yes she did make them lighter, thank you very much...”

“Oh good!”

“Made them repel temperatures too, not enough apparently though. Even in this rain, it still feels bleeding hot.”

“Well you’re the one who is insisting on wearing them for days on end.” Nayleen reminded him.

“For protection…!” Sairek stressed. “There are monsters out here in the fields, you know! Sure they’re rare and the soldiers around Ceareste do their best to clear them, but sometimes a couple slip through the patrols or just conjure up out of nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t see any now and we’re pretty obscured. So why not? You could at least put on a simple pair of pants and shirt.”

“Even if I wanted to do that, the further away the jewel is from me, the more strain it’s going to put on me. It’s like a tether. The closer it is to me, the more energy efficient all of the enchantments and that tether will be. I’m only taking it off if I really have to, or because it’s safe enough that I can dump everything that’s being held inside of it in a corner and turn it ‘off’ for a while. Besides changing clothes like that right now would be… umm…” Sairek paused, looking at her, then away.

“Cute!” Nayleen piped up.

“No.” Sairek said, shooting her back a glare.

She giggled. “Hey, your body can’t be that ugly. If the clothes are as heavy as you claim, then it has to be a good workout for your muscles, right? Besides, you keep insisting that you’re not fat…”

“I’m not!” Sairek managed to resist pouting. Barely. “Yes, I guess I can swing my staff pretty hard if I need to…”

“Well, you overpowered Fancy Dude.”

“...You’re still calling him that?”

“I like how it sounds!”

Sairek sighed. “I only overpowered him because I was extremely pissed off and managed to gain advantage with my little surprise attack. In a more proper one on one battle, he could wrestle me down easy, regardless of how angry I was.”

“So you’re gonna just stay in them for the next three or four days.”

“There’s an inn between here and Lamen. Besides… I… like how they look.” Sairek muttered.

Nayleen cracked a smile. “Oh yeah, they do make you look handsome. Good thing I’m around so all the ladies won’t come near you.” She continued to tease.

Sairek felt a bit of heat rushing up to his face. It didn’t seem to matter if he was a Prince or not, Nayleen seemed to jab and tease him like he was just a regular folk, though did it in a friendly banter kind of way. In a way, that made him, oddly, happy. He only did something like this with Laure before but she only did it gently on occasion. Nayleen was ruthless with it, though.

“So, why do all mages use staves anyways? Why not a sword?” Nayleen asked, going back into ‘serious mode’ again, for now.

“Well, all mages don’t use one.” Sairek answered.

“Okay, why do most mages use staves, then?”

“Most mages don’t.”

Nayleen scrunched her face up, then thought for a few seconds. “Okay, why do the mages that do use a staff, use one in the first place?”

“Because staves are usually crafted out of wood and some kind of organic material like that, either fully or partially, and that wood which came from a living tree is able to hold and channel ethereal better than something like iron or steel would be able to. As for me, this staff is made from a root of Yggdrasil, so it’s the best thing around. It helps absorb in ethereal with far more ease than the rest, and it has the durability that surpasses even most metal weapons could hope for. Not even fire would burn the staff. It would just happily drink that energy up over time. It’s not invincible of course, though.”

“So then what’s the benefit of not using a staff, like what Samuel was doing?” Nayleen asked.

“He can use his fists, or channel two spells or even a singular spell at two separate points, spreading the energy easier. For example, if I wanted to build a wall of dirt, I would have to do a sweeping motion, like this." Sairek explained, holding his staff with the head pointing at the ground and sweeping it slowly from left to right. "Samuel however could build that wall at two separate points and build it twice as fast like this;" He continued, dropping his staff into his lap, holding his hands together in front, then spreading both of them out towards each of his sides. "It’s way harder to do, but as you saw, you don’t need a weapon to be dangerous with magic if you have the aptitude for it and building a wall like Samuel does takes half the time than building it the way I do it.” He finished in explanation, reaching to grab his staff once more.

“And for people who use something other than a staff?”

“You get the utility of magic, while having the option of whatever other weapon you pick. Maybe magic isn’t the best option, so you stab your opponent with a sword or smack them with a flail or whatever. It makes throwing out your willpower much harder by just doing it yourself, but it can be done to great effect with enough practice. They're usually referred to as 'spell swords', regardless if the weapon they use is an actual sword or not. It's not popular, though. Most people know of magic theory, so they can defend themselves against it, but not everyone actively practices it."

“Hmm… wonder if I could use magic.”

“Everyone can do it if they try hard enough. Most people start with having a catalyst of energy to practice just pushing the energy out first, though.” Sairek answered.

“You mean like the jewel?”

“Yeah. To use it, all I need is extend my willpower towards it, then push the energy out in the ‘shape’ that I desire it to be. The releasing of the energy is pretty simple for the more basic spells, but the gathering of it is usually the harder part until much later.”

“Must be very hard if you can’t do anything more complex even with a Yggdrasil staff.”

“No, I’m just bad at it.” Sairek sighed.

“Or like I said, it’s very hard.” Nayleen frowned.

“I mean, I suppose so, but without the staff, I basically can't cast magic at all. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. The teachers at the castle are not much help. They just say I should practice and study more.”

“They don’t sound like very good teachers. A teacher’s job shouldn’t be to just tell a student to learn on their own.” Nayleen replied, her frown deepening. “My parents when it came to teaching me how to hunt was very hands-on and would explain to me how we did something and why as they were demonstrating everything.”

“Yeah, I know, but I wouldn’t exactly call myself a favorite at the castle… When it comes to actually learning the spells, I’m okay at them. I know how to cast a few, but by myself without the staff, I can’t cast anything. Not with any usable amount of ‘oomph’ anyway. Maybe I just need to practice more without my staff, but I tried that already too…”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” Nayleen reassured him.

“I indeed hope so… anyway, is it my turn yet?” Sairek asked.

“Shoot.”

“Why is it that you use two daggers? I would figure you would use a bow or something.”

“Actually, I know how to use one. I had one, but I kinda ran out of arrows and I accidentally broke it so… now I don’t have one!” Nayleen said, toying with her ponytail behind her head a bit sheepishly. “As for the daggers… just personal preference I guess. I can skin animal hides with them, but defend myself with them just fine as well and two of them makes me twice as scary!”

“Well, I suppose it fits your rather… roguish style of apparently liking to sneak around for hunting and stuff.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then… if it came to taking a human life, what would you do?” Sairek asked.

“Them or me. Depends on the situation of course.” Nayleen answered. “Like that knight guy, he obviously didn’t want to kill me, so I wouldn’t have killed him either. All is fair in self defense.”

“Have you had to kill anyone yet?”

“Nope, but I haven’t really ran into anyone, either. Been sticking away from roads and gone more off on my own. With you though, that’s gonna change.”

“Yeah… I guess I will stick with that mindset. The idea of having to kill someone to protect myself is a bit scary. I’d rather just subdue them if possible, but…”

“It’s hard for anyone as young as us needing to consider something like that, but that’s the kind of world we live in unfortunately. Not everyone is nice and I don’t know how much you disagree with your father, but lots of people would love to take advantage of you. So if someone does try to do that, make sure to go bananas on them like you did with Samuel!”

“Err… I’ll… save that for a last resort.” Sairek replied, his tone dry.

“D’aww…”

“What are you ‘d’awwing’ about?”

“It was fun to watch!”

Sairek sighed. “You’re irredeemable.”

“Hey, it’s what gives me charm! So I guess I’ll take the first watch tonight, right?”

Sairek blinked. “First watch?”

Nayleen gave him an even look. “Y’know, someone to keep watch while the other sleeps?”

“Oh, right… I mean, I guess. I suppose I don’t have any preference...” Sairek half murmured. He had to admit that the sound of getting less than a normal night’s rest was a bit daunting. He supposed for at least tonight, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad though. He could just retire to sleep early. Not like there was much else to do; it was still raining.

“Before you go to sleep then, gimme more food!” Nayleen piqued.

“H-Hey, come on, we need that food to last. We just had brunch and an early dinner!” Sairek protested.

“Are you kidding me?” Nayleen let out, sounding genuinely surprised. “That amount of food would last anyone only a couple of hours tops. C'mon, I need food to live!”

“...I can’t believe you are the one who keeps suggesting that I am fat…” Sairek grumbled.

Chapter 8: The Diamond in the Rough

Sairek always felt a little odd when the sudden rush of consciousness came back to him after having been asleep for an extremely long time. The passage of time always felt nearly instant to him but also like it had been missing, yet his body could tell that a long time had passed, if the absence of last night’s pain, fatigue, aching and… more pain, was anything to go by. Those discomforts were now replaced by new things. Hunger; a lot of it and a vital need to use the bathroom to empty his bladder.

Sairek however, not being a morning person at all, was detestful at the discomfort of being awake in the first place and wanted to return back to the comfort of sleep once more, so he groaned and rolled around in the bed for an extra five minutes, trying in a futile attempt to return to that state of sleep despite what his bladder was telling him, but it ultimately proved too uncomfortable for him and with a grunt in surrender, he finally pushed himself a little bit off of his comfortable bed and wiped his eyes with his knuckles. He tried to rearrange his mind about the events that had happened yesterday and the night before…

He had introduced Nayleen to Laure and she had guided Nayleen to her own guest room, then he and Laure had talked for a bit, with Sairek telling her about his plans that he’d be leaving soon. He remembered that she had taken his clothes last night in ‘preparation’ for today, but he didn’t know exactly what she had meant by that.

Still rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat himself up and pushed his disheveled hair away from his face before opening his eyes.

“I’ve made a few modifications to them.”

“Ah–!” Sairek yelped startled awake at Laure’s sudden voice and clutched his left hand over his chest, eyes wide for a second before he exhaled a deep breath to calm himself. “Sweet Lands, Laure!”

“Sorry, Master.” Laure apologized and bowed.

Sairek narrowed his eyes at her. She was smirking. “...As loyal of a servant as ever, I see.” He replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Made a few modifications to what?”

“Your clothes, of course, and the royal jewel as well, for safety.” Laure answered.

Sairek blinked his eyes once. “...You can do that?”

She frowned. “Of course I can. I used my own magic. Well, the enhancements are not much given the very limited time I had, but…” She trailed off, holding Sairek’s clothes to lay them down at the foot of the bed for him, facing him. Sairek leaned his body forward to look at them as she traced her hands on the shirt slowly, almost subconsciously.
“For starters, I used the largest one you had. You’re still a growing boy after all.” Sairek rolled his eyes at this. “Secondly, I enchanted them to make them a little bit lighter. It’s not much but over the course of traveling, they should wear you out a little less. The protective enchantments on them were old, but there wasn’t enough time to renew them, so I simply removed them entirely. That will make the royal jewel easier to use, which is what I spent most of my attention on.”

Sairek figured that made sense. After all, that little jewel alone was possibly more important than he was, making sure nothing happened to it was the real concern here. Nobody wanted anything to happen to him as association to that. He wondered if he should even take it with him, but Laure was pretty insistent that he should. After all, it would help him in times of danger.

“I did add a couple of minor enchantments though, to repel the summer heat and help keep you a little warmer in times when it’s colder. They are simple and aren’t much, so still seek shelter when needed, but they will help for a little bit.” Laure warned him, which Sairek nodded. “For the jewel, many of the enchantments on it are so it cannot be lost easily. I’ve linked the jewel to your soul while you were sleeping—”

“You what?” Sairek blinked. Again.

“You were so deep in sleep, it made it easy.” Laure said. “With it linked to your soul, you will be able to find it easily if it does end up becoming lost. It will make it also easier to use it in times of emergency, however, that also comes with its own negatives that you must keep the jewel in top condition or it can start to become… stressful.” Laure warned him. “In other words, don’t over use it, or you will begin to feel a terrible strain on your body as it will begin to feed into your own energy more than you will probably like. You will need to recharge it yourself with ethereal regularly. I’ve already supplied some inside the jewel. It can be used as a storage device too, just like my apron. I guess you already knew that though, judging from last night.
“Ah yes, speaking of which, storing things in it will drain it of energy over time, with the more it holds, the more energy that will be consumed. It can hold a lot, but don’t hoard absolutely everything. Usual camping supplies and enough supplies to last you for at most two weeks should be fine, but anything more than that and you will probably have to use more ethereal than you might be comfortable with. Then finally, I've made it so it will stay attached to your clothes. So nobody can just pull it off and run with it without going through the enchantment first. This is the main thing I spend my time working on, so it should be very difficult to do. Of course, if for some reason you aren't wearing this, like when cleaning them or bathing, anyone can still pluck the clothing and thus the jewel, so please be careful."

“How much ethereal do we have, then?” Sairek asked.

“Not a lot, I am afraid. The shipment from Lamen hasn’t arrived in quite some time. Perhaps you can go investigate what is going on while you are there?” Laure suggested.

“All right, I’ll see what I can do. Then I can get my own source of the stuff while I’m there, right?”

“Correct. I’d take as much as you reliably can. It doesn’t need to be refined at all, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get your hands on it every now and then, but having a few extra bottles wouldn’t hurt. For immediate medicine, if anything else.”

“Right…” Sairek frowned. He didn’t like the idea of possibly getting critically injured, but it was best to be prepared. As much as his father kept touting how ignorant he was of the outside world, he knew very well that there were plenty of things outside of the walls to be wary and careful of. They weren’t common, sure, but they did exist. “About Lamen though…” Sairek began slowly, tilting his head slightly. “It’s not the shipment you really want me to go there for, is it?”

Laure smiled at him. “I trust you will be able to fulfill my request.” Was all she said. “Now, would you like me to go grab your friend?”

Sairek sighed but nodded slowly. “Sure. Let me make myself presentable first and get dressed, then I’ll talk to her. I’ll get myself dressed, don’t worry. Give… twenty to thirty minutes, I guess? And Laure...?”

"Yes, Master?"

"Thank you for everything."

She smiled then bowed, moving towards the door to do as she had said. Sairek sat on the bed for a moment, before letting out a final yawn, stretching and got up to take care of his morning chores. One trip to his personal bathroom to use the toilet, a quick shower and drying himself off and combing his hair back into place later, he got himself dressed with minutes to spare and busied himself by reading a book before there was a knock on his door and he moved to answer it.

Nayleen was there by herself and she invited herself in by pushing past him and closing the door with the butt of her foot. “Man, this room is so glamorous~ I still can't get over how big it is!” She cheered. She was holding something in her hand and took a bite of it with a crunch.

“...Are you... eating cookies for breakfast?” Sairek asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah?” She asked after swallowing.

“Isn’t that bad for you?”

Nayleen looked down at the half eaten cookie in her hand, shrugged, then shoved the rest of it into her mouth, her cheeks puffing out like a chipmunk’s. Sairek rolled his eyes at her. Then, he began filling her in on what Laure said about Lamen, which she listened to while she slowly munched on half an entire cookie in her mouth, just staring forward.

“...Did you get all of that?” Sairek asked.

“...Can you repeat that again? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the cookie in my ears.”

Sairek gave her a glare.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that!” She whined, then dug into her shorts’ pocket and pulled out another cookie. “Look, cookie~”

Sairek’s eyes followed the little disc of pastry with his eyes as she moved it around in a figure-eight motion. He sighed and pulled the glove off of his right hand and grabbed it before taking a disgruntled nibble of it and chewed it in his mouth, falling for her bribe of an apology. Then he took two more quick bites.

“So where are we going again?” She asked, beaming a grin at him at seeing how fast he was devouring the cookie.

“Lamen.” Bite.

“And then?”

Swallow. “We get ethereal for this thing here.” Sairek said, tapping on the jewel as he took another bite, pushing the rest of the cookie into his mouth.

“And then?”

Swallow. “I visit the monastery in Lamen to see my mother.” Sairek said and blinked his eyes. “Wow… it really has been a long time since I visited there, hasn’t it? Must have been over six years ago by now...” He murmured, dusting his right hand off from cookie crumbs, before sliding his glove back onto his hand.

Nayleen tilted her head at him slightly. “Didn’t she get sick at the Holy Magic Century ceremony?”

“Apparently. Not only was it a celebration for another new century, but also celebrating three-hundred years without a war. Well, the dates don’t exactly line up, but it’s close enough that the celebration and the century ceremony were just lobbed into one giant celebration. That was all done at the foot of Yggdrasil.” Sairek answered. “And… that’s when mother’s first symptoms started showing and she just never recovered from that...” He sighed.

“Is that why you want to see Yggdrasil so badly?”

Sairek shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll probably find nothing. It’s not like other people haven’t been there since then. I don’t have much else to go off of to figure out what happened. She originally had an attack; like a stroke. Then she seemed to recover and be fine… for a little while, but her condition gradually got worse and worse over the years.
"Somehow, this disease, or whatever it was is something we never encountered before. Maybe she had it for a while and the symptoms coincidentally just happened to start showing up right then and there, but regardless, before that happened, she was a healthy woman, then that happened and it eventually killed her…”
Sairek took a deep but slow inhale. “Me being in her womb at that time during her attack and then my eventual birth certainly didn’t help her. Giving birth to me took most of her remaining strength, though she was very grateful I apparently was a healthy baby. She was bedridden from that point on, until passing away a couple years later due to ‘natural causes’, they claim.” Sairek said, raising both his fingers in each hand to emphasize the two words.

“Natural causes?” Nayleen inquired.

“Accelerated aging... She went from early thirties to looking like she was way past her prime within a span of three years.” Sairek explained. "A speed of maybe twenty years every year after my birth."

Nayleen made a face at that. There was obviously nothing natural about that at all.

“Diseases don’t just manifest out of nowhere. They spread through some sort of cause, and I was in her womb during that time. So… what better target for a disease to spread to than the embryo that had been inside of her for nine months?” Sairek wondered out loud.

“You’re what, eleven, almost twelve now and nothing has happened, right?” Nayleen asked.

“Yes, and probably nothing will, but it has always been at the back of mind. It haunts me still.” Sairek admitted. “Who knows, maybe I am infected by it, but I just show no symptoms. For all I know, I could be a walking pandemic. We still know nothing about what it was or how it happened, even after nearly ten years since she passed away.
"It’s a shame... Father used to talk about her a lot when I was very little after she passed away, often referring to her as a diamond in the rough. I don’t have too many memories of her, but she seemed like a fantastic person. He’s still clearly very hurt by her passing. I was hurt too, of course and I suppose in a way I haven’t gotten over her death either. Here I am, still trying to figure out what happened to her still, after all...”

There was an uncomfortable silence that fell between them. Sairek broke it after a small shake of his head. “Anyway, I’m going to visit my mother in Lamen, then I guess we’ll stick to the plan of going to your place and then seeing Yggdrasil for myself. After reading so much about it in books, I want to experience the sight of it for myself anyway.”

“Well, that I can definitely help you do. It’s going to be quite a trip on foot, though. Are you sure you are ready for it? It’ll be hard to come back home once we really start making distance.”

“Definitely.”

“Then let’s get you some proper grub and set off soon!” Nayleen grinned, patting Sairek on the stomach with a hand. “Need to give you more than just two apples this time.”

* * *

Sairek and Nayleen stepped their way through the main hall after filling their stomachs with breakfast and Sairek had checked their supplies once over again. They had the ethereal, tents, sleeping bags, lots of food—some perishable which they would go through first, some basic tools, money, a couple of extra pairs of more casual clothes and bedwear, though Sairek didn’t know how much he would be using them personally. He didn’t know if there was anything else they needed. If they needed more, buying was always an option…

They had topped off their stomachs with an early brunch with Nayleen possibly eating more dessert than he thought was healthy, but after they were done, Sairek decided it was finally time and here they were, approaching the front doors of the castle and pushing them open to walk through the main courtyard. He hadn’t even bothered saying goodbye to his father. They still hadn't spoken since he had returned and if he had to be honest with himself, he preferred it that way. He loved his father, he did, but...

“You’re not having any second thoughts about this, are you?” Nayleen asked him suddenly as she walked beside him.

“...Why would I?” Sairek asked back, glancing towards her.

“I just want to make sure you’re okay with this.” She answered. “Y’know, it’s likely you’re going to get homesick, probably pretty badly since this is the only place you really know and you've never done anything like this before. Heck, I still get homesick sometimes!”

Sairek shrugged. “This is something I wanted and probably needed to do for a good while. It feels like a prison here. Other than leaving Laure behind, I don’t have any regrets, and she’s the one who has also been encouraging me anyway.” He explained, looking ahead of him towards the gates that would bypass the walls of the castle. “I’m not sure when I will want to come back, but I will have to. I am Prince. I have to someday.”

Nayleen mused at that. “Guess that makes you either very determined, or desperate. Kinda unfortunate that’s how you feel about it, though I guess I never told my parents either. I just left a note and went. They’re probably worried sick about me but if I had told them they would have never allowed it.”

“Well, this is my place to return to if I ever get tired of being out by myself, but right now, if I come back here, it will feel too soon.” Sairek drawled.

“Hey, could always hang out at my place for a bit~” Nayleen egged him with a gentle nudge of her elbow.

Sairek chuckled. “I guess, though I’m not sure how much Kior would appreciate that, but I suppose I don’t have a need to sneak into the country anymore. I can do everything officially, now.”

Sairek moved towards the gates and pushed both of them open with a bit of a grunt. There were like giant doors, but that didn’t make them any less heavy. Nayleen moved to help him, taking one side as he took the other as they slowly pushed them open and stepped through them. After stepping through, they both made their way down the hill the castle rested on top of, making their way down the walls of Marid. Sairek made his way towards the gates of the village, where two lookouts wordlessly moved to open the door to them both and nodded at them. Sairek nodded back and stepped through.

Once the doors closed behind them, Sairek looked back, seeing and hearing the large doors shut and a bolt locked them back up tight again.

“Are you okay?” He heard Nayleen ask him, causing him to turn back around to face her. “You look kind of spooked.”

“No, not spooked. It just feels surreal still. Like a dream…” Sairek murmured. “Unless you count our little escape, the only time I’ve been out of these walls last was over six years ago, and the total number of times that happened was only twice… I don’t even remember what any of the landscape looks like, besides from what I can see from my bedroom window every morning.” He answered, looking back behind him again, but this time at the castle. Even here, he could see his bedroom window, though very far away.

“Hmm, I have a plan to fix that then!” Nayleen chirped.

“Huh? What’s that?” Sairek asked, and blinked when Nayleen grabbed his left hand with both of her hands.

“First I grab you like this…” She began.

“Umm—”

“Then, I pull you over like this…!” She continued, suddenly pulling Sairek along at a sprint, yanking him forward and causing him to nearly stumble into the ground as he was pulled along with her.

“H-Hey! Come on! I don’t need to be dragged…!” Sairek argued, but she kept pulling him along and along until nearly half dragging him up towards a nearby tall cliff edge. When they reached the top, she let go of him and Sairek needed a moment to collect himself before he looked upon the view and drank it all in.

It felt like from up here, he could see for miles. It was lower than his bedroom window and similar to it in a lot of ways, but it was still a new perspective he hadn’t seen before. The landscape in Ceareste had always been fairly 'bumpy'. Little cliffs here and there, lots of hills, very mountainous and it had a lot of valleys, at least until you got much further up north, that was where it flattened itself a fair bit more. Sometimes in the southern regions though, the terrain was so mountainous, that some traveling was done underground through small caves that had been man-built, or so he had heard, anyway.

“You know, Kior doesn’t have any places that look nearly as awesome as this.” He heard Nayleen say to him as they continued to gaze at the view. “Kior’s machinery has polluted the region so badly, it’s nearly just a wasteland now and what areas are left were mostly desert regions anyway. It’s only near the outskirts of Ceareste and Kior that vegetation is still around aplenty.”

Sairek turned slightly towards her as he continued to look. “Well, it may look pretty, but that’s still going to be tough to travel through to make our way to Lamen. Ceareste does no favors in helping people who travel on foot and it makes horses fairly unpopular around these parts.” He tilted his head slightly in thought. “I remember when we went to Lamen six years ago, we went in a carriage—well, it was more like a convoy, I guess. Either way, it was so slow and difficult to get through like that… I think walking would have been faster. It should only take us three days on foot still, though. It's not terribly far, just annoying to get to from here.” He frowned. Setting the castle here he supposed was also another mechanism of defense from centuries ago when war was more rampant. An army trying to march through this stuff would have been difficult, for sure.

“Well, what better time to get started than right now? Who knows, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll get to spelunk a small cave or two along the way~?” Nayleen offered giddily.

Sairek sighed. She was serious just a moment ago and now she was brimming with such childish optimism, even more than he was.
Well, regardless, whether through thick or thin, Nayleen was his partner now, and despite knowing so little about her and it only being a couple of days, Sairek trusted her implicitly.

Chapter 7: Ironic Conspiracy

Sairek groaned out when he felt himself being dragged over a bit of rock on the ground. He hadn’t really tried to struggle out much from Samuel’s hold, there wasn’t much point. He’d rather preserve his energy at this point. Struggling right now wouldn’t help him, this he knew. So instead, he pretended to be out of it a bit more than he was letting on, biding his time, recovering and very slowly over the course of fifteen minutes, building up ethereal nice and slowly so even Samuel wouldn’t be able to detect it, though that rock he got dragged over almost ruined everything.

As they walked and he was dragged, Sairek could hear the two men forcing him and Nayleen back to the castle chatter casually to each other like they were just out on a stroll or something.

“Is that girl being any trouble?” Samuel asked.

“Not anymore. Nothing a sleeper hold to knock her out couldn’t fix. Hate having to do that, but she wouldn’t stop struggling.” The knight replied.

“Can’t be helped. Sometimes getting physical is the only thing children can understand. They may push the limits of their boundaries otherwise.”

“You say that while hitting the Prince in the face with a giant rock.”

“It was more force than anything. I held back. He wasn’t bleeding or anything, right? I'll be surprised if he even ends up with a bruise.”

“Well, it’s not my call either way. I would assume you know best on how to handle him.”

“Hardly. Though His Majesty did say quite clearly to use as much force as deemed necessary. It’s fortunate he exhausted himself from all of that running I guess. I would have had to possibly really hurt him to get him to give up. Such a stubborn boy.”

“I don’t know much about him, but he does seem genuine in how he feels. It’s not our call though, I suppose. Regardless, the kid would probably get killed out there if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Exactly. If he’s scared of facing me, he’s going to be even more afraid of someone who’s really trying to do something horrible to him.”

Sairek clenched his teeth. He wasn’t afraid, he was fed up. Also he was fed up with this conversation. He would show Samuel just how ‘stubborn’ he truly was. First, he needed to get free...

Sairek slowly turned his head to look ahead of them in the direction he was being dragged, then quietly muttered “Ethirul...” under his breath. He heard Samuel release a surprised grunt and stumble forwards when Sairek sank the ground into a small pit just where Samuel was about to take a step, causing him to stumble and twist his ankle.

“What the Flaming Lands–?” Samuel cursed. Sairek felt himself tugged harshly forwards and managed to stop himself from letting out a choked sound as the cape tugged hard against his neck, but then he felt himself be released a second later. That’s when he pushed himself up and spun around into a crouched position, pointing his staff at Samuel and shouting “ETHIRUL!!” with as much effort he could muster this time.

Both the man and Samuel turned around, but the conjuring of a large boulder had been quick and easy thanks to Sairek carefully honing most of the energy in the past few minutes. A boulder about four feet in diameter formed around Sairek’s staff, the force of its release causing him to yelp quietly as it bounced his upper half to flop right onto his back onto the ground once more.

“Wuifuy!” He heard Samuel chant quickly with a clap of his hands. Sairek looked down the length of his torso from the ground to look, sensing strong energy around Samuel’s hands in an instant as he held them out and 'pushed' them against Sairek’s boulder that had been about to slam into him. Samuel used the wind from his spell as an extra bit of force to halt the boulder and help him push it away, though him doing this caused him to be unable to move immediately.

Sairek managed to push himself back up, now onto his feet and glanced to his left slightly at the knight, who quickly placed Nayleen on the ground and stepped over her towards him. However as soon as he did that, Nayleen bounced right back up onto her feet, moving behind the man and jumped onto his back, unsheathing one of her daggers and pushed it near his throat. The knife was slightly curved, with the tip pointing at his neck. “Sit, slowly.” She hissed in warning.

“Wh-What–? You should be out cold!”

“I faked being knocked out. Duh. Now please sit down. I wouldn’t actually kill you, but… this knife is pretty sharp and I’d hate to have to use it if you don’t surrender.”

The man growled, but moved to slowly sit down, which Nayleen released her hold on him with her legs, opting to kneel slightly with her legs and feet on the ground instead, rather than remaining on his back. “Good. Just sit and watch, after all, I believe Sairek and the fancy guy have some unfinished business to take care of from the sounds of it.”

“Fancy guy…?” Samuel scoffed and grunted with a final shove, pushing the boulder out of the way and causing it to crumble into a pile of rubble against the ground. “So I guess it’s a duel after all, isn’t it Prince?”

“I guess it is.” Sairek growled. "After all, I wouldn't want to be seen as being afraid of you."

“Hmm. But really, relying on such a cheap shot?” Samuel frowned, looking down at his ankle. With him twisting it as he did, he wouldn’t be moving very much.

“I’m already exhausted, you tossed a boulder in my face out of nowhere and punched me right in the gut already. Don’t complain about cheap shots. I'll probably lose, but Laure told me it's bad to bottle my emotions in and right now I have a lot of frustration that needs letting out–!”

Samuel genuinely cracked up in amusement at that. “Right, I suppose that does make it a bit more even. Then to make it even more fair, I will do the same thing as last time and say 'whenever you decide to make the next move', Prince.”

Sairek clenched his teeth. Samuel’s confidence was worrying, but he assumed the man had every right to be. After all, the situation despite how much Nayleen and Sairek had turned everything around so far, it was still unfavorable to them. Sairek knew if Samuel wanted, he could render him helpless by releasing his true potential in just a couple moments. He doubted Nayleen would be able to respond; especially since she seemed pretty ignorant on magic as a whole. She wouldn’t be able to defend herself against him in any way. Also of course, right now, she was making sure the knight wouldn't interfere. More to the point, if this was indeed to be a duel, nobody would be able to interfere anyway, or it would render the outcome for Sairek moot, even if he did manage to win.

There was one advantage he had he supposed. Though Samuel’s ankle probably wasn’t completely unusable, it was certainly crippled at the moment and that small advantage was something he needed to press for in such a way that Samuel wouldn't be able to predict it or counter him instantly. The question was… how?
Sairek thought carefully. There was no way that Samuel would want to actually kill him. Sairek of course didn’t either; in fact, as much as he hated the man, he didn’t even want to hurt him but if his hands were going to be tied like this, then he could allow himself to be rougher on Samuel than Samuel could be back to him. Samuel had to hold himself back. Sairek didn’t.

Sairek smirked faintly as an idea formed in his head. His expression caused Samuel to slowly cock his head to the side slightly in an inquisitive manner. Sairek slowly shifted his stance as if he was about to cast a spell, Ethirul to be exact, he began gathering the ethereal for it—
Then he sprinted off directly at Samuel, yelling with his charge, raising his staff overhead with both of his hands and swung it down overhead with all of his might, even jumping up right before he swung to get the best angle on Samuel’s head as much as possible due to their differences in height.

Samuel’s eyes widened slightly from the Prince’s fairly brash charge towards him, though for him, stopping the staff was as simple as raising both of his hands up to catch it, which he did. Sairek growled however, using as much strength as he could muster with his arms to keep the force of the staff down against Samuel, causing him to wince as he was having to put more weight on his twisted ankle than was comfortable.

“Really? You’re a magic apprentice and that is what you decided to start with?” Samuel sighed.

Sairek didn’t shoot a quip back at him, instead he raised his right foot and dug his boot hard into Samuel's stomach in a stomping kick, which caused him to grunt from the force of the impact and stumble back slightly. Sairek pulled his foot back and kicked him again even harder as anger and frustrations he had bottled inside of himself for weeks at this point fueled the strength of his aggression. Samuel grunted again and this time stumbled back hard enough that he tripped on the uneven sink hole he had been standing in and collapsed on his back, with Sairek falling over on top of him. Sairek quickly positioned himself in such a way that it would be difficult for Samuel to use his legs for leverage and kick out from underneath him. He wrenched his staff back from Samuel’s grip, turning the weapon around overhead so the bottom end was pointed forwards and down, then moved to thrust it downwards towards the man’s chest. Samuel again managed to catch it as if he was stopping a sword from being stabbed into him. Sairek and Samuel struggled back and forth as Sairek tried to push the staff forwards, while Samuel struggled to push it back off of him.

“This is barbaric and unsightly for a Prince…” Samuel growled through effort.

“Barbaric…?” Sairek repeated through a growl, his emerald eyes gleaming with an icy glare back into Samuel’s own eyes. “Keeping my freedom from me—my right to life away from me, punishing me for my own individualism... THAT is what is barbaric–!!” Sairek countered. He poured the rest of the energy he needed for his spell into his staff while he continued to try and push the weapon back down onto Samuel. A boulder was growing and forming above them quickly. Samuel gritted his own teeth as Sairek shouted “Ethirul!!” and the rock nearly the size of himself in diameter launched straight up into the air above them.

Samuel knew what was about to happen in a few seconds and tried to wiggle out from underneath the Prince, but with Sairek keeping his staff on him, trying to force him down and keeping his weight on top, there was little Samuel could do in time. Sairek glanced up as his conjured rock began to fall back down and at the last second, relinquished the grip of his staff and dove off of Samuel who yelled out before his shout was silenced when the boulder crashed down and exploded in small chunks of rubble on top of him in a pile.

Sairek pushed himself up off the ground from his stomach, panting hard from the physical exertion of the struggle he had just done, having used every ounce of strength and most of his already drained stamina to keep Samuel at bay. All that while concentrating on energy for a spell and casting it in such a manner took enough mental toll on him that his head was pounding.
He looked behind him as he pushed himself to one knee. Samuel pulled himself out from under the rubble with a wheezy cough, spitting some dirt out of his mouth and was quickly interrupted as Sairek furiously yelled and dived at him again, tackling him while he was still on the ground like a viscous animal pouncing on top of prey.

Samuel rose Sairek’s own staff as a brace to prevent the Prince from overwhelming him, where the two of them soon wrestled for it, trying to gain the upper hand over one another. Samuel managed to roll Sairek to be pinned against him and the ground and Sairek in response raised his right fist, slamming it into Samuel’s left cheek, temporarily stunning him where he used the opportunity to roll back on top once again and grabbed one of Samuel’s hands as the man released the staff and tried to clap them together as he usually did for his magic. Samuel gripped Sairek’s hand with his other, trying to wrench it free as the Prince’s staff tumbled off to the side during their frantic wriggling and struggling.

Sairek’s strength and stamina was draining too much and despite putting all of his effort that he could, Samuel managed to pry the Prince’s grip free and reached up to grab Sairek by the throat, clutching at it as he tried to push back. Sairek made a gurgling choked sound. Instinctively he tried to reach for his staff, but it was a bit out of reach. He could back away to get free from the grip easily, but that would have given up his position and given Samuel the leverage he needed to counterattack more effectively. Gripping Samuel’s arm with his right hand, he reached his left up towards his royal jewel and managed to rasp out “W...Waert…!”

Samuel made a sound that sounded like “blublbllblbppfft” or something to that effect. Sairek couldn’t be sure, the powerful blast of water that released from his jewel directly into Samuel’s face muted any protests the man had. Sairek coughed twice as Samuel released his grip on Sairek’s throat in a vain attempt to use both of his hands to try and shield himself from the powerful jet of water blasting right onto his face.

After Sairek took a couple precious lungfuls of air, he reached back for his staff again, channelling ethereal into that as well while water continued to blast Samuel’s face for a few more seconds longer. After the stream of water finished, Sairek moved so the head of his staff was pressed up against Samuel’s throat and he leaned in close with his body, holding it like it was a blade pressed against Samuel’s throat. Sairek allowed the flammable energy within the staff to leak through a little raw, heating the head of his staff like it was hot iron. Samuel hissed in pain, the man’s neck, wet from the water, began to dry and heat uncomfortably with a small smoke of steam rising as it became hot when Sairek pressed down slightly further into him.

“Surrender.” Sairek ordered in a cold tone. A tone that expressed that he would release the magic within his staff with no regrets if the man showed any more resistance other than uttering his admission of defeat. Samuel stared up at Sairek’s glare, unblinking. The Prince's breath was held in; holding a lungful of air, prepared to mutter a single word in utterance for the spell as soon as he needed it.

Barbaric.

Viscous.

...Yet excellent… in his own way.

Samuel grinned and began to laugh quietly, a reaction Sairek wasn’t expecting. He stifled Samuel’s laugh as he pressed the staff down harder. “Surrender.” He ordered again, with harsher conviction.

“I surrender.” Samuel admitted. “You win.”

Sairek hesitated at the words. He didn’t believe the man would actually say them. He stayed still, staff still pressed against Samuel’s throat for a good five seconds, replaying the words in his mind before he fizzled the energy in his staff slowly and pulled back away from him.

He actually won?

What?

Sairek slowly turned his gaze to look at Nayleen and the knight. Nayleen was beaming at him like she was proud and gave him a big thumbs up. He couldn’t help but huff a small laugh and crack a smile at that. However, he was still concerned about Samuel and turned back to face the man.

“...Are you not going to get off of me?” Samuel asked.

Sairek bit his bottom lip in thought for a moment, then slowly reached his left hand to his jewel and conjured the contract his father had written, which appeared in the air and Sairek quickly scrambled to snatch it before it blew away from the wind. He turned it around so Samuel could see it. “Sign it.”

“...With what? Do you have a writing utensil for me?” Samuel asked him.

Sairek hesitated at that. He didn’t.

“Here!” Nayleen shouted and they both looked over at Nayleen as she reached and tugged at her sash, undoing one of her knives from it, then tossed it over to Sairek, who dropped his staff in alarm and managed to catch it with a bit of fumbling.

“Geez! Be careful with that thing!” Sairek growled at her in warning. “What am I going to do with a knife anyway?”

“Poke his finger with it and have him press it to the paper. If he can’t sign it with his signature, let him sign it with his blood and fingerprint.” Nayleen said.

Sairek arched an eyebrow as he pulled the knife out of the sheathe and examined the small blade. It was certainly sharp, curved in such a way that it was clearly designed to cut through flesh and even tough hide with relative ease. Definitely not some knife for cooking. He looked at Samuel, who had a… quite displeased expression on his face.

“Glove off.” Sairek ordered.

Samuel rolled his eyes and sighed, reaching his hand out, and Sairek carefully pulled the man’s glove off, setting the contract in his lap as he steadied the man’s hand and poked the tip of the dagger into Samuel’s right index finger, just enough to make it bleed a faint trickle of blood. Then Sairek sheathed the blade again setting that in his lap in place of the paper and held the contract up, steadying it. Samuel pressed his finger into the paper as steady as he could, smearing it, before pulling his hand away again. “Is that satisfactory for you, Prince?”

Sairek looked down at the contract. He wasn’t sure the fingerprint was clear enough to identify the man but the blood itself would be enough he supposed. Sairek grunted in agreement and held the jewel again, causing the contract to disappear into the royal jewel once more. He then reached for his staff, grabbed Nayleen’s knife and wordlessly pushed himself up from Samuel, walking back towards Nayleen where he handed her the knife back.

She was still holding the knight who, for his part, looked more bored than threatened by now and his eyes glanced up at Sairek with an incredulous look. Sairek glanced back down at him, then at Nayleen. “Okay, you can let him go now. Let’s go back to the castle.”

“...Weren’t you trying to escape from there?” Nayleen asked him.

“I mean, that wasn’t exactly my intention. I just wanted to have the right to my freedom.” Sairek answered, moving his left hand to tap the white jewel. “With me fulfilling my father’s little ‘condition’, he has no excuses now. It’s written and signed with his handwriting and signature, with indisputable proof from Samuel that I have acknowledged the ends of this contract. He’ll have no choice now." Sairek explained, dropping his left hand back down to grip his staff with both hands, staring at it and slowly turning it in his hands.
"If he still resists, which he might because this was definitely not in his plans, then I will contest it, of course. It would just be delaying the inevitable. If he still doesn’t follow through after that though, then that will be seen as him trying to weasel out of the contract. That will look very badly on him, and I can and will make that fact public. Not only did he refuse to fulfil a contract, but it would be with his own son at that.”

“Blackmail, eh? You’re more ruthless than I gave you credit for.” Nayleen answered, abruptly letting go of the man’s neck and relinquishing her knife from him. The man stood up, massaging his throat with a hand and clearing it with a slight cough.

Samuel by now stood up, massaging his ankle as he stood and balanced on one foot. The man looked like a mess. His fancy looking robes dirtied with rock and mud, still dripping wet, his hair completely out of place and disheveled and he was looking none-too-pleased. Which of course, made Sairek pleased himself. He looked a bit longer than he needed to, just drinking the sight in, satisfied with himself. There was no audience this time, but the justified karma the man received was no less delicious to him.

The knight looked at Samuel, then the two children. “We’re both going to get fired for this.” He stated. “I can’t believe we both just got dominated by a couple of kids.”

Samuel shrugged. “Probably, but I guess that just goes to show they can take care of themselves. In that way, we did our jobs, even if His Majesty is going to be very unhappy on the result of it.”

Sairek frowned sympathetically at that. “If you’re a knight, then I assume your part of the guild in Lamen, right? What’s your name?”

“That’s right, and it’s Kline.”

“Don’t worry then, Kline. If my father does something, then I will make it right again.” Sairek reassured him with a smirk. “For now, let us return to the castle with you guys escorting us. That was your task, yes? Let us make sure you are compensated properly for doing just that.”

Kline gave him a cautious look, but nodded.

* * *

Sairek inhaled slowly and deeply as the evening sun shone on the front gates of the castle. The doors opened for them on the inside as they approached. The castle looked like it was on alert or something, with multiple people stationed at the walls and inside the courtyard as the group of four made their way through. Samuel rested his left hand on Sairek’s right shoulder, while Kline guided Nayleen forward with a hand on her back. Sairek noticed many were staring at them and he averted his gaze towards the ground to avoid their looks.

As they made their way through the courtyard and went through the doors to enter the main hall, Sairek looked back up from the floor and could see his father already approaching them from the end of the hall where the stairs were, probably having heard word of their return and had immediately made his way back from the throne room or his own room. The four of them stopped after a dozen or so paces.

“You were later than expected.” Aayron said, examining them. “...And look pretty rough.” He noted, his gaze falling upon Sairek who averted his gaze again, this time to the side.

“You could say that.” Samuel agreed. “He didn’t make bringing the both of them back easy at all. At least the water has vanished by now from my clothes.”

“Thank you for bringing him back both of you.” Aayron said, then glanced at Nayleen, who just stared neutrally ahead. “And whoever this little girl is… I will have to interrogate her I suppose and figure out what to do with her, but for now, here.” He said, rummaging into his royal robes and pulled out a pouch for each of them, which jingled with the sound of coins. Both of them held out their hands to receive their share.

“Thank you, sir." Kline answered.

“Of course. You both deserve it.” Aayron nodded in agreement.

“Hmm. So this is your old man, huh?” Nayleen finally asked out loud, looking towards Sairek.

“Be silent.” Aayron growled, glaring at her. “We are going to discuss this, but we’re not going to do it here.” He said, looking at the other people watching them.

Nayleen fully turned towards Sairek now. “Say, how angry did you say he gets again when things don’t go his way and we ignore him?” Nayleen asked him again.

Sairek was trying to keep his face straight, but he was close to breaking out into a chuckle. “I don’t see what’s wrong with doing this here, father.” He said, louder than he needed to.

“I said we will be discussing this elsewhere. Sairek, you are in no position to be acting like this right now. If you were complaining about your precious ‘freedom’ before, then—”

Sairek reached his left hand up to his jewel and snatched the paper in the air when it appeared coolly in a smooth motion with his left hand, spinning the paper around so his father could read the contract and see the fingerprint of blood that was on the paper. “I did as you asked and as per the contract, you no longer hold any weight over me anymore.” Sairek said in a viscous tone, keeping his voice loud and clear. “I can come and leave the castle as I wish.”

Aayron glanced at the paper over, snatching it from Sairek. “What is this?”

“Samuel’s fingerprint in his own blood.” Sairek answered and smirked. “I would think that’s a better signature than just him writing his name down in his handwriting, don’t you think?”

“This could be anyone’s—”

“We can have an expert test it if you wish to dispute it, but I assure you, it will come positive with Samuel’s blood.” Sairek answered, glaring at his father’s own heated gaze. “I wouldn’t recommend going back on a contract you signed. I shouldn’t need to remind you of how big of a ‘no-no’ that is, do I?”

Aayron looked back to Samuel and Kline, glaring at them now.

“It is true.” Samuel admitted with an absent shrug. “He was reluctant at first, but eventually was desperate enough to challenge me one on one in a duel, just as the contract states and he bested me.” Samuel looked down at Sairek in front of him. “With all due respect, Your Highness, I believe he and the girl can take care of themselves. They’re more dangerous and viscious than they look.”

Kline also nodded in agreement. “...Much more dangerous.” He added.

“You both—” Aayron began, his muscles seizing for a moment as anger inside of him boiled over. “You didn’t do your jobs at all–!!”

Samuel looked at him with a confused look. “Again, with all due respect, the job was that we would find them and bring them back here. That’s what we did. Defeating the Prince in a duel was something you laid on me afterwards, but it had nothing to do with a job. In fact, you made that contract without my permission. I accepted it afterwards, so that is all fine and good, but the contract had nothing to do with the job you assigned to me.” Samuel countered. “It wasn’t in writing like that contract there, but there were a number of witnesses as we watched the Prince run away when you offered me the job. I’m sure they would be more than happy to confirm the wording you used when offering Kline and I the job.”

Aayron clenched his teeth, his hands shaking with the paper rattling in his hands. Sairek didn’t let how he was feeling be expressed on his face, but his father, finally, feeling just a fraction of the same powerlessness that he had felt for years, was more liberating and filled him with more glee than anything he had felt before. For once, his father not getting his own way would hopefully teach him some humility and though he doubted it, Sairek hoped this would push him back to having some humanity again.
Maybe it wouldn’t happen right away, his father after all would be grieving from this. Denial and anger had already shown themselves and he was sure before he left, would be bargaining with him to stay. After he left would be the depression, but he hoped it was eventual acceptance that he hoped his father would learn and begin to change for the better.

There was an uncomfortable, heated silence, where other people watched intently in the main hall. Finally, Aayron’s quivering anger seemed to subside, the rattling of the paper held still, until he suddenly scrunched the paper up into a tight ball, causing Sairek to flinch in reaction.

“When…?” Aayron growled, glaring Sairek down.

Sairek inhaled and exhaled deeply and slowly. He had thought about 'when' the entire walk back. “The day after tomorrow, in the morning.” He answered calmly.

“And her…?” He growled, his gaze moved to Nayleen, though like Sairek, she was unaffected by his intimidating glance.

“Of course she’s coming with.” Sairek answered. "And while she is here, she is to be a welcomed guest inside of the castle."

“You don’t even know who she is…!” Aayron protested.

“Nah.” Nayleen interrupted and moved to place a hand on Sairek’s left shoulder and grinned. “I’m nobody important, but if you really want to know who I am, then the answer is that I'm just a friend of his." She answered with a confident smirk, and gave an icy glare of her own with her light brown eyes. "Understand?"

Sairek glanced at her with a hint of surprise on his face, but smiled and nodded towards his father. “She's right.”

Aayron grunted in disapproval, and gently tossed the crumpled ball of paper back at Sairek, who raised his left hand and caught it. “Fine,” was the only thing his father answered with, turning back around and beginning to walk off back up the stairs, his white furred and purple cape flowing behind him as he moved aggressively as if he was forcing himself past the air like it was in his way. Sairek guessed he was going to retire to his room to stew. They watched in silence until Aayron was out of sight.

“I hate to say it but I think he’s going to fire you guys.” Nayleen muttered, her tone dry to the two adults behind her.

“Thanks. We figured that out ourselves, though.” Kline responded with sarcasm.

“I promise I’ll make it right if that happens.” Sairek replied, glancing behind his shoulder at the man.

Samuel shrugged. “It’s okay for me, you don’t have to do anything. I’ll get a pay cut probably but I’m too valuable for him to throw away and he knows it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Kline said, glaring at him slightly.

Samuel frowned. “I didn’t mean to say you were expendable—”

“Totally did.” Nayleen cut in before looking at Sairek. “So! Can I go see your room?”

“Sure. I want to find my maid. We all need to clean up from this anyway, and there's lots of things I need to do to prepare... and I really, really need to sleep...” Sairek nodded in agreement, then turned back to the other two. “We’ll be taking our leave now.”

“Then I suppose we should be taking ours as well.” Samuel nodded as well. He turned to Sairek one last time and placed a hand on his right shoulder and gave it a firm but gentle squeeze. “Take care, Prince. Stay safe.”

Sairek looked a bit sheepish and turned his head away. “Th-Thanks…” He muttered.