The three noblewomen and Ayden sat around an ornate circular breakfast table by the window eating their meal. Spiced eggs with some pour over broth. The servants also brought tea over little plates.

  Ayden was given time to bathe and adorn clean clothes. Vellis fretted over his hair and the stubble that had started to form. It felt embarrassing to have his partner mother him, but she looked anxious for breakfast with her mother and Cara.

  Cara likely agreed to it out of professional courtesy for being healed.

  Ayden tried not to slurp the eggs and broth. They tasted amazing, so he had to restrain himself.

  “You can slurp the broth with the eggs,” Cara telepathically said in his head.

  She’s right, Silk said as well in his head. You’ll have a better time not making a silly mess.

  Ayden slurped. He noticed the other three also slurped. So slurping was okay. He lifted the cup of tea and slurped.

  All three pairs of piercing eyes fell on him. Galeria with a set of dark, amused eyes, Cara with her silent gray pools, and Vellis looking like she was about to send him back down the man hole.

  Don’t slurp the tea!

  Ayden licked his lips and set the cup down.

  “So, Ayden,” said Galeria. “I’m sure your parents are proud of you being here at our prestigious academy.”

  “My parents are dead,” said Ayden. He then cleared his throat. “My lady. It’s alright. I mean not that they’re dead.”

  “I understand,” she said. “How is it that an orphan from a small town in southern Mahar managed to train so effectively?"

  “I wanted it more than everyone else,” said Ayden, this time meeting her eyes.

  “Oh?” she said, giving a bemused glance at Vellis. “My daughter tells me you’re a powerful mage. She described you as an artillery piece. Is this accurate?”

  “Yes,” said Cara.

  “Oh?” asked Galeria. “I suppose you both survived hell down there. You’ve seen Ayden in action?”

  “Twice,” said Cara.

  “Right! He was there the last time when the Dires attacked.” She gave Ayden another scan. “How quaint you find yourself in danger’s embrace so often.”

  Cara's voice came through his mind again. How is it you were there a second time?

  Ayden glanced at Cara who didn’t even look at him. She instead spoke aloud to Galeria. “If it wasn’ t for Ayden, I’d be dead. Your daughter should feel proud she found a capable mage as her man.”

  Ayden and Vellis blushed.

  She’s one hell of a hype woman, Silk laughed.

  Ayden did also save her life.

  “Are you proud, daughter?” asked Galeria, turning to Vellis.

  Vellis wiped her mouth with a cloth and nodded. “Of course, mother. He missed that first date all those months ago, but I didn’t hold it against him. Not everyday you save the civilians from Dire Mages.”

  “At the time we thought they were a rogue cabal!” laughed Galeria. “To think, if it wasn’t for this excursion, we’d never have found the rat’s nest.” A pause. Silence hung in the air. Galeria spoke again. “So Ayden, are you trying to start your career before your graduation? I suppose if you have the skills and power, you might as well. The city needs the best.”

  “That it does,” said Cara, giving Galeria a pointed look.

  “Of course,” said Galeria, with a forced smile through pressed lips. “So glad we have heroes like Ayden saving the day.”

  Cara opened her mouth, likely to save it was a group effort. And it was. Without Cara, Ayden didn’t stand a chance. Cara didn’t take the bait, but her eyes shot daggers.

  “Besides,” said Galeria. “I couldn’t be prouder that my daughter surrounds herself with such good company.”

  Vellis flashed a smile and returned to her food.

  “I’m sure we will have a full report on what happened down there,” said Galeria. “For now, let’s put business aside and enjoy ourselves. Rest you two. You deserve it!”

  Ayden gave a nod. “Thank you.” A pause later. “My lady.”

  They ate in silence.

  The silence shattered as Mage Blades approached the estates, shouting for Lady Galeria. Shouting to see if she was okay.

  “What is happening?” spat Galeria.

  The servants burst in, looking like they’d seen a ghost. “It’s Captain Oscall,” the servant said. “He says…” The servant’s eyes fell on Ayden and widened even further. “He says he’s a Dire Mage!”

  Cara stood up, knocking her chair back. She grabbed Ayden by the throat and lifted him up. “How did you know we’d be there?” she growled.

  Ayden held his hands up. “I’m not a Dire,” he croaked.

  Oscall and his Mage Blades burst through. “Hold him down,” he ordered, drawing his sword.

  Galeria grabbed Vellis by the wrist and yanked her back as the Mage Blades restrained Ayden.

  “I’m not a Dire Mage!” Ayden cried.

  “Who is Xavos?” asked Oscall, snarling in his ears as they held him down. “If he channels, kill him.”

  Ayden’s blood froze. “What? How do you-”

  Cara knelt so she was eye level with him. “Who is he, Ayden?”

  Ayden paused and gave Vellis a mournful look. “He was my mentor, but-”

  “He’s the cult leader of the Dires below,” Oscall roared. “He’s the one running the attacks we’ve been stopping. He turned himself in and claimed he’d reveal all of the locations. He revealed he had a student named Ayden from Mahar.” Oscall grabbed Ayden’s hair and lifted his head to look him in the eyes. “And he’s the one who gave you orders below till you betrayed him.”

  Ayden tried to shake his head. “I’m not a Dire Mage. I didn’t know he was one till today.”

  “How did you know we were going down?” asked Cara.

  “I spotted you…” said Ayden. It wasn’t a lie.

  “At such a late hour?” she asked. “Tell me the truth, Ayden. Convince me.”

  Ayden gulped. “A Fate…. Dana. She told me to go there and I’d find something.”

  “And did you?’ asked Cara.

  “I found you. And I found the Dire Caves. I found my old mentor. Just trouble, really.” He felt the book pressed against him and the table they’d restrained him on.

  “A Fate?” scoffed Oscall. “Really?”

  “What did the Fate look like?” asked Cara.

  “Cara, are you really taking his-”

  Cara held a hand, shutting Oscall up. Her eyes never left Ayden. “What did she look like.”

  “Dana,” said Ayden. “Red hair. Green eyes. Blue robes. She played the flute.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Vellis stepped in. “I heard the flute. We were talking and Ayden was distracted. I didn’t realize it was the flute at the time, but the music was there.”

  Galeria shot Vellis a scornful look, as if supporting a suspected Dire Mage was as good as being a suspected Dire Mage.

  Ayden gave Cara a pleading look.

  Cara’s eyes looked troubled. Did she know Dana? Had Dana met her?’

  “Let him go, Oscall,” said Cara.

  “Cara, a known cult leader, revealed many locations and people. He was one of them.”

  “He was lying,” said Cara. “I’ve met Dana. He tells the truth.”

  “Sure,” said Oscall. “About this Fate. But the rest? He was his student. You know how seductive they can be.”

  “He never trained me in Dire Magic,” cried Ayden. “He doesn’t even believe in their goals. He said he was using them to get some kind of relic.”

  “What relic?” asked Cara.

  “The Holler of Souls!”

  Everyone remained silent.

  “What’s that?” asked Vellis.

  Cara shook her head.

  Oscall shrugged to Vellis. “Cara? Explain, please?”

  “Let Ayden go,” said Cara. “He’s on our side.”

  Oscall obeyed and Ayden rubbed his neck which hurt from the bending. He slumped onto the chair, and the Mage Blades watched his every move.

  “We need to speak to the queen,” said Cara.

  “What about Ayden?” asked Oscall. “Half the barracks is already talking about the rumors.”

  “Stop them,” said Cara. “We can’t let a rumor like that spread.”

  “And Xavos?” asked Ayden. “Is he locked up?”

  “He is,” said Oscall. “We’ve got several mages watching him. He’s also been sedated.”

  “Investigate the people and places he told you about,” said Cara. “Likely some of them are true. He wanted to destroy Ayden. He almost succeeded.”

  He didn’t tell them about me, Silk said.

  Ayden wondered if it was because Xavos would have an easier time stealing it back from Ayden than from a Silterran noblewoman. He gulped. He wouldn’t feel safe until Xavos was dead.

  “Already sent patrols out,” said Oscall.

  Cara gave him a nod. “Good.” She turned to Ayden. “Why did he want to bring you down? He turned himself in.”

  Ayden felt dread start to sicken him. “He turned himself in because he knows he can escape.”

  “Impossible,” scoffed Oscall. “Answer the damn question.”

  Ayden wiped the sweat from his brow. “He trained me to join the academy. Make a name for myself. He thinks a threat is coming and he wants someone on the inside who could make a difference.”

  Oscall burst out laughing. “And you fucking believed him?”

  “I was a child!” roared Ayden.

  Red Magic shoved him back down.

  “A stupid child,” snapped Oscall. “He wanted a Dire Mage on the inside.”

  “He never mentioned Dire. I fought him tonight! I fought him when I found out.”

  “He saved me, Oscall.”

  “It’s all a goddamn plot,” said the Mage Blade.

  “Then why reveal him?” asked Cara. “Think about it, Oscall. He fits the bill of a perfect Dire Mage agent. Academy student. Courting a noblewomen. Saved another noblewoman. Saved civilians a year ago. Fought alongside us. Why reveal him?”

  Oscall rubbed his neck and paced around the room. “I don’t know. Because they fough. It’s a spiteful act. Just because Xavos isn' t a Dire Mage, doesn’t mean he isn’t loyal.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” cried Ayden.

  “Ayden,” snapped Cara. “Shut it.” She turned to her cousin. “If Xavos isn' t a Dire Mage, why would Ayden be one?’

  Oscall calmed himself and sighed. “Then what? We let him loose?’

  “We’re letting an innocent man free,” said Cara.

  Oscall pondered for a few moments before nodding. He turned to Ayden. “If you step even a shred out of line, I will kill you. The risk of me serving a sentence in prison for murder doesn’t outweigh the risk of someone like you being a Dire Mage.”

  The sense of duty would have impressed Ayden if he wasn't on the other end of his wrath. “I’m not a Dire,” said Ayden. “So I have nothing to worry about.”

  “We’ll see,” said Oscall, stepping back with his Mage Blades. “Let’s move out. We have work to do at these locations.”

  When they left Galeria let out a sigh. “An eventful day.”

  “Indeed,” said Cara.

  “Ayden,” said Galeria. “If I find you courting my daughter after today, I will have you killed.”

  Ayden’s jaw dropped. Vellis gulped, but didn’t argue. She gave Ayden a sharp shake of her head to remain quiet.

  “What?” asked Ayden, standing. A weight pressed him down. Galeria loomed over him. No one intervened.

  “I’m not asking. I’m commanding,” she said, hovering close to his face. “You are a suspect.”

  “I’m not a Dire Mage-”

  Galeria slapped his face and Ayden suppressed the urge to fight back.

  “Galeria, that’s enough,” warned Cara.

  The noblewoman held up a finger to Cara. “This is my home. Leave if you must.” She turned back to Ayden. “Not a word to my daughter. Sit away from her. If she comes to you, leave. If she talks to you, leave. If my servants catch you disobeying, I will have you killed. No questions asked.”

  “Mother…” started Vellis and Galeria’s head snapped to her daughter. Vellis flinched.

  “Not a word,” said Galeria.

  Ayden didn’t have anything to say. He gave Cara a helpless look, but she remained quiet as well, albeit a fury burned in her eyes.

  Galeria clasped her hand. “Lunch and dinner are cancelled, I’m afraid. Leave now, boy. Never come back.”

  Ayden swallowed his pride. His grief, his loss, his hate he hadn’t even started unpacking yet. It’d all hit him like a boulder when he returned to his dormitory. He gave a glance to Vellis who had tears welling in her eyes.

  She mouthed to him, “I’m so sorry…”

  Ayden gave her an understanding nod. He was just dirt, afterall.

  Cara walked with him, casting a venomous glance back at Galeria.

  “We will discuss more,” she said to Ayden as they left the estate.

  “How could one night ruin so much?” asked Ayden.

  “The same way one night so much can happen for good,” said Cara. “Forget it… We need to focus on the task at hand.”

  “What task?” asked Ayden.

  “You’re part of this war now, Ayden. Like it or not.”

  “Xavos betrayed me,” said Ayden.

  They turned down an alley and Cara snapped her fingers to get Ayden’s attention. “You don’t need him.”

  “I have no purpose,” said Ayden.

  “Xavos was not your purpose. It was to be a mage. That’s why he chose you. That’s why you’re here.”

  “Okay,” said Ayden, breathing in a deep gasp, trying to calm himself. “Yes, you’re right. I’m here to be a mage.”

  “Yes, so work with me.”

  Ayden nodded. “Right.”

  “We need to make a plan with what we know. So let’s spill everything.”

  “Like Dana,” said Ayden.

  “I’ll explain my story. You explain yours.”

  “Okay,” said Ayden.

  “Mine is simple. She appeared to me in the streets as well and told me that a threat was coming. I believe now, the Holler of Souls is that threat.”

  “What is it?”

  Silk started to answer in Ayden’s head, but stopped when Cara also began to speak.

  “It’s a mythical relic that supposedly has the knowledge of everyone who has died. That’s the legend.”

  “That’s… Insanity…”

  “The Dires want it to see the memories of their oldest leaders who were close to unlocking immortality. The horrors they caused were unimaginable. We don’t even know if their work would have succeeded.”

  “So if they get that knowledge, they can pick up where their oldest masters left off.”

  “Yes,” said Cara. “That’s the theory.”

  “But we could learn so much as well.”

  Cara gave him a sharp look. “No. It’s not worth the risk. It shouldn’t even exist.”

  “Why does it?”

  “I don’t know,” said Cara.

  It predates me, said Silk.

  “Okay, so we have to stop the Dires from finding it,” said Ayden. “Wait, Xavos wants it too. Shouldn’t we-”

  “No,” said Cara.

  “We should check if he’s truly still imprisoned. I know him. He wouldn’t have turned himself just to spite me. He has a plan.”

  Cara grew worried as well. “Fine, let’s move fast.”

  ****

  When they reached the barracks under which Xavos’s dungeon lay, he was still locked up, and sedated.

  “We should just kill him,” said Ayden.

  “I’d agree if there wasn’t more we could learn from him.”

  Ayden worried that Xavos would share Silk’s existence. He couldn’t let them take it from him. He earned this book.

  “I wish he told me what he knew of the coming threat,” said Ayden. “What it was and when it was coming.” He turned to Cara. “What did Dana tell you?”

  “As little as what Xavos did. But I believed her. Now I believe her more.”

  ****

  They returned to Cara’s room where she had a board placed up with several pieces of papers and scrawled drawings of various organizations and nations.

  “You’ve been busy,” said Ayden.

  “I’ve been mapping all of the known events of the continent. Torvic’s conquest in the east. Talks of a schism in Karth.This strange warband in the desert.”

  “Why?” asked Ayden.

  “One by one the nations are starting to collapse or drown in bloodshed. It happens. We’re… We’re a savage species sometimes, Ayden. But every time it happens, we’re primed for a continental collapse. The Crises are a great example. The First was arguably the worst as more nations collapsed then than ever before. The second was a massive depopulation, but most of the old borders remain even now. The Third happened during a Ridden War spanning across all known nations. I still don’t know how we survived it, but billions died. Billions, Ayden. Can you even fathom that number?”

  Ayden shook his head. “And then the Triscourge.”

  “Exactly. As devastating as it was, our world faced worse, and we still almost lost Ayden. The victory we ended up accomplishing was so damaging, we haven’t truly recovered. The world hasn’t truly recovered. Yet our monarchs play their games like we’re in a golden age. After every Crisis and Scourge and Ridden war, our world loses the best minds, the best warriors, and the best heroes. We lower our chances for winning the next big threat.”

  “What’s the next big threat then?” asked Ayden.

  “I don’t know,” huffed Cara. “Whatever it is, if it’s intelligent, it’s waiting for when the world’s primed again. And we’re starting to get there.”