“Four months and three weeks after you leave, you’ll be back?” The Oracle was insistent.

  “You know it. Coming back here now was entirely unexpected. I would have done it sooner but demons and all of that.”

  She understood, of course. Ludere’s life was full of interesting things that would just as quickly kill her as anything else. He wanted to avoid that. He had seen enough of his friends die.

  “You’re going to have to write me every day. I know that parchment is expensive, but you can cover the cost. A man of your status?”

  “Status doesn’t bring cash. Work does, but I think I can handle that. That should be doable.”

  He didn’t want to leave. There was only so many times he could convince himself to leave the temple quarters she had.

  “I’m going to send you back with so much paper that you’re going to have to deal with it.”

  “Hey wait a second.”

  “What?”

  “I just realized that you can’t read.”

  “I can read. I’m just blind.” Her empty eyes bored into him.

  “But you can’t see the words on the page.”

  “I fail to see how this is a problem.”

  “How are you getting my letters?”

  “I have a reader.”

  Ludere sat straight up. “You’ve got someone reading my terrible words to you? The fiddler plays on.”

  “The fiddler plays on. It’s exactly as awkward as it sounds. And yes, I make them re-read the descriptive bits.”

  Ludere would have blushed if it could make a difference. She had no shame about their relationship, so he wasn’t going to either. It just chafed against his sensibilities for her to be as open as she was, but so much of her life was at the odd ends of what humanity did.

  “I guess that I’m okay with that. I keep forgetting that you’re... you.”

  “I’ll always be me, but you need to think about what we’re doing long term, I imagine. I can’t have you coming back as the top person at the academy and then being sent somewhere inconvenient.”

  “What can I say? I’ll do my best.”

  “You had better do at least as well as Cire. I would hate to have to switch allegiances.”

  ---

  Cires’ dedicated work on the mapping project bore fruit the next day as they compared the maze that they had been working with versus what had to be the cube underground.

  “See, this first one here is the top layer of the maze. Or at least it’s the top layer as we use it. Compare that to the top layer here of what’s buried under the arena.”

  The cube worked in every configuration they had attempted. Each side had a slightly different maze than the rest. The difference was enough that they had to change their tactics, but only so much. The overall time they spent had gotten them good at using their will fully on executing the maze or the defense.

  He had gotten better. She had, frustratingly, kept her little lead. Whether it was because of her upbringing or something else, she had an advantage that simple effort and willpower couldn’t surpass.

  She had talent, but more importantly, she had her father’s money. He could meet her where she was, but as soon as he got there, she had gotten that much better.

  It was the third day back when the Oracle got him alone for an afternoon. Erebus had sent a note, and they were meeting up. Senator Celisar hadn’t been able to break free of his endless meetings. Ludere hadn’t known if he preferred it that way or not. It was certainly inconvenient for his daughter, but she was going to be fine. Her mother had not planned to be home either.

  So it was no surprise that she tagged along with him after their lesson.

  “Cire, you really don’t have to come with me,” Ludere said.

  “You’re a strategic national interest. Men like you are the exact men that my father lets me hang around, and also I can’t annoy you like this without following you. So you're stuck with me. And finally, your girlfriend told me I need to watch you.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Not surprised that you talk to my girlfriend. I am surprised that you actually followed through, but I’m an adult.”

  “Ish.”

  “Ish. I feel like this ticket doesn’t really matter when you kill a bunch of demons. Like I’ve killed dozens of demons by now, so I feel like I should be an adult. I just, you know what, I declare it.”

  “What do you declare?”

  Ludere popped a piece of cheese into his mouth, and it melted. “I declare adulthood.”

  Cire looked like she wanted to hold back a sneeze.

  “I’m so sorry. Did you just say that seriously? Because I don’t think that that’s something that you should be saying. You are a student at the academy. You are a Regnicus. You should have a bit of tact and pride in yourself.”

  “Of course. You’ve seen it and now you are witness to the fact that I’m an adult.”

  Aeros took that moment to arrive at the atrium. The three of them all took a moment.

  “How much of that did you hear?” Cire said.

  “Too much. Are we moving from rental boy to rental husband? I’m Erebus, by the way.” Erebus stood in the doorway. He looked fresh, as if he hadn’t just walked the entire way across town to see them.

  Ludere watched as Cire visibly choked up. “This is Cire Celisar. You wouldn’t know her as the daughter of my benefactor. She’s one of my classmates and we’ve been working together on some will constructs.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, milady. Unfortunately, like the rental boy here, I was raised as a citizen. I don’t have any fancy titles. I guess... Does survivor count as a title?”

  Pictures, she regained her senses. She appeared to be processing his arrival. Ludere saw her eyes go black.

  “Have you been working on your will magic?” Ludere raised an eyebrow. He enabled his soul sight and began a scan of his friend.

  Cire broke her silence. “How is your willpower so strong?”

  Ludere couldn’t even see it. Wisps of will were surrounding him. The usual thing he saw was a larger outline around the person. Now?

  “Am I missing something?”

  “No. You don’t have a big enough view. His will is larger than this room. It’s around us.”

  “Pardon?” Erebus said. “Oh that. I was wondering about that.”

  “When were you going to tell me?” Ludere asked. Circling around his friend, the man radiated power. What was less clear was how large the man’s soul was. It wasn’t at all how it appeared. He couldn’t even see his own soul, and that was probably what we happening here.

  “I was actually going to ask you about this when I got here. I was so sorry. I should have put it in my notes. There really, really isn’t any excuse. I must apologize.” Erebus bowed.

  “I should say that you really need to do that. This looks like any healer should have looked at this. Have you been working with Gia? I think she would have seen this.”

  Erebus shrugged.

  Ludere grunted. Something was going on between the two of them, and he was not going to be the arbiter. They’d gone through enough together that whatever this was, their friendship would weather it. If it were a storm, then he would let it pass right over him.

  “Cire wanted to stick around with us today. I assume that’s fine? We were going to head over to see if our other friend from the academy was around but she’s on the other side.”

  “Ah yes. Mila,” Cire snapped out of it long enough to say that.

  She was probably taking her recent streak of losses against him hard. He might need to let her win more often, but then again, she wouldn’t want him to go easy on her. Women were complex mathematical equations, and he hadn’t the first clue of the system of notation they used. They started walking and Erebus Donnie the conversation, telling him about the recent things that the staff of the arena had gone together to do.

  They weren’t officially released from their deities and in a bit a few weeks since the investigation had gone full swing. They expected to go back to work any day now, which surprised him. He didn’t think that they would go back to work at all anytime within the next month, but the demand for gladiatorial combat was far higher than either of them had imagined.

  The specter of war against demons was just a ghost that no one it was all too easy to just forget that! It was so easy to pretend when you didn’t have to think about something that didn’t happen. There was no proving this to people that weren’t there and even many of the people that were there bull needed to be some sort of hoax or stubbed. That he’d been recognized for doing such a service meant that he got through to the people that mattered. He was still a hero to the people, but he knew that many of the people were skeptical.

  He would be skeptical too if this kind of thing happened, but it wasn’t every day that somebody literally flew into the arena using matches to fill up to destroy a gate.

  One of the fundamental questions he still had was why didn’t the demons try to re-invade either using the same method or through a different pathway on a different day. He knew that would encourage himself all the time, but he wasn’t exactly sure why they chose where they were going. If the will construct was some sort of anchor tying them to a spot between their two wills that easily, then that made sense for them to go to. Without that, ideal? With all that anchor bringing them across. Then he couldn’t see why they would take the arena over any other place. Surely they could invade any place that was not will locked easily.

  They paused to get bread for Mila on the way. Truly, the amount of options for bread alone made the capital an important destination for everyone.

  “Cire, do you have any idea why demons would attempt an invasion and then not succeed but then not follow up immediately afterwards? Do you think there’s some sort of cost of traveling through the worlds that might be beyond us?”

  Erebus nodded. “You still haven’t figured out how to do this gate thing? Because I thought you would have figured that out by now.”

  Cire blushed. “Well, we understand how it works on the conceptual level. None of us is able to reconstitute a gate. So either this was some sort of cataclysmic tech or something that is beyond us. The suggestion that I’ve heard made most is that this is some offshoot of spirit magic.”

  Ludere turned to her. As if she had expected it, her cheeks were red. It had to be something to do with how much of a competing they had been having. There was no other excuse that he would accept.

  “Oh, so that’s the thing that you found out at the arena?” Erebus said.

  “How did you know we went to the arena?” Cire said.

  “Uh... well ... I know a guy. He may or may not have mentioned that certain things were going to be going on. You can imagine how much he wanted to talk to me about you in particular, Ludere. You’re a legend.”

  Ludere nodded. Of course he would think that. There was no other conclusion. He was trying not to get all wrapped up in good feelings and his own image, though. He needed to still be one of the people.