By the time they’d finished talking to the royal twins, the servants had completed setting up a tent for the Wisp Seekers next to Jarnvaror’s landing area. It was far more luxurious than their normal traveling tent. It even had a curtain, quartering off a section of the tent for Anna. They brought in bundles of wood that Anna realized were portable folding cots, so the group wouldn’t need to sleep on the ground. “Fancy,” Peter said, examining the furniture.

  “Only the best for us here,” Queen Emily said. “You’re welcome to stay in the castle as well of course. We weren’t sure if you’d prefer staying closer to Jarnvaror, though.”

  “Sol told us,” Andrew said. He looked a little uncomfortable, then shook his head. “I’m sure we’ll be fine out here. No need to have another room set up.”

  “Great,” Queen Emily said.

  “Hey! We finally caught up to all of you! Oh, and if it isn’t little Henry and Emily, too!” came a familiar voice. Anna turned and saw Jeremy Thornwood, along with his sister and their company approaching them along the path between tents. She raised her arm in greeting, but almost fell over as the two young royals dashed past her.

  “Jeremy! Hanna!” they both cried. Emily managed to regain some decorum before reaching the two. Henry didn’t bother. He dove at the pair with his arms out, almost knocking Jeremy over.

  “Glad to see you’re doing well, your Majesty,” Jeremy said.

  “Don’t you start that,” the king said.

  “I think your mother would get mad at us if we didn’t,” Hannah said. “And Aunt Thalia is scary.” The royal twins laughed at that.

  Anna looked back at Andrew and Peter. “Maybe we should give them some time to catch up,” she said in a low voice. Andrew nodded his agreement.

  Emily seemed to have heard her anyway. The young queen turned and shook her head. “Oh you don’t need to do that.”

  “Right!” the king said. “There was something else I wanted to ask you after Jeremy got here, anyway.”

  “What’s that?” Andrew asked. Both Thornwood siblings gave the king a curious look as well.

  “Well,” the king began crossing his arms to think. “You were all planning to join in one of the events, right?”

  “No,” Andrew said. “Peter was thinking about it, but we haven’t really looked at what the events are yet.”

  The king blinked. “You didn’t want to join the archery contest?” he asked. Then he turned to Anna. “And you didn’t want to join the magic tournament?”

  “There’s a magic tournament?” Anna asked. “I knew there were multiple events, but I thought the only tourney was the martial one.”

  Jeremy shook his head. “There’s martial, magical, and jousting tournaments,” he explained. “The preliminaries are done over the first three days for all three, then the final rounds are done over the second three days.”

  “All at the same time?” Andrew asked.

  Jeremy shook his head. “It alternates. Day one is the martial preliminaries, day two is magical.”

  “And it takes place over the whole afternoon?” Anna asked, looking at Peter.

  “Yeah,” Jeremy said.

  “But only you’re going to join, Peter?” the king asked.

  Peter nodded. “I was thinking of joining the martial tourney, yeah. I’d love to watch the others, though.”

  “What about you?” Hannah asked turning to Anna. “Are you sure you don’t want to join the magic tournament?”

  Anna didn’t even need to think about it. “Yes. I’m still a novice. And all I can really do are enchantments. I’ve only barely gotten some enchantments on Peter and Andrew’s armor. I don’t think I’d do well in a competition of any kind.”

  “What about that pirate in Prohr?” Henry said. “You handled him nicely.”

  Anna shivered. “That was mostly luck. And it would probably hurt a lot of people if I tried that on the wrong spell.”

  “Probably a good idea,” Peter said. “I don’t think anyone wants a spell like that breaking with all those spectators around, either.”

  “Speaking of those enchantments,” Andrew put in. “We were wondering if they would be illegal during the tournament.”

  “For the martial tournament?” Jeremy asked. “They… well they should be fine. Depends on what they are. You may need to have a proctor examine the spells before joining.”

  “What one’s don’t they allow?” Peter asked.

  Andrew shrugged. “Depends on how much they’d interact with a normal duel,” Jeremy said. “Improving the durability of your equipment is fine, for example. But wreathing the sword in fire isn’t. Defenses against magic don’t matter. Creating magical shields against normal attacks does. And so on.”

  Anna sighed with relief, grateful she wouldn’t need to undo the enchantments on Peter’s sword or armor for the tournament. She was surprised at how much calmer she felt. She hadn’t thought she’d been quite so worried about it. It took her a moment to recognize Halcyon’s influence. She glanced down at her bracelet and saw the opal was glowing dimly. She looked around, not seeing much and wondered what the Wisp was responding to.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “Well, all that’s left now is to sign up for the tournament, right?” Peter asked.

  “I’ll join you for that!” King Henry said.

  “Maybe we should check with Daniel to make sure there’s time,” Emily said.

  “It’ll be alright,” Henry insisted. “There has to be for the Nordarin prince.”

  “We should still make sure,” Emily said.

  “Alright, alright,” Henry said. “Let’s just go check.

  “If it’s alright with you,” Anna said, “I think I’d like to just stay here and lay down for a bit after the flight.”

  “You feeling okay?” Peter asked.

  “Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” she said. She rubbed the opal on her bracelet as she was talking. Andrew’s expression grew worried, and Anna felt Halcyon’s influence again for an instant. Anna glanced down at it, then shook her head. “You guys go on ahead,” she said.

  “I’ll stay here, too,” Andrew said. “You guys go and get yourselves signed up.”

  Peter looked between the two of them, then shrugged. “If you say so.” He turned to the two royals, with a big grin on his face. “This is going to be fun,” he told them.

  The other’s left, leaving Anna and Andrew alone. Anna went inside their tent and sat down on the bed. It had a cozy feel, though that was lessened as Andrew came in, his face showing nothing but concern. “Is something wrong with them?” he asked.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Anna said. “Halcyon just… responded out there when I realized I probably wouldn’t have to change the spells anymore,” she said. “I was surprised, though, since I wasn’t that worried about it.” She rubbed her thumb over the bracelet as she spoke. “I was hoping to try talking to them again and seeing if we can make any progress.”

  Andrew looked shocked for a moment, then sighed. “Oh… well, I guess everything’s fine then.” He said, scratching the back of his head and looking relieved. Anna felt Halcyon respond then, and a thought occurred to her.

  “Were you feeling anxious about the enchantments?” she asked.

  Andrew barked a humorless laugh. “I’m always worried about that kind of thing,” he said. “I hate the idea that the officials would get on us about any of it.”

  Anna held the bracelet up to her face and tried to focus on the Wisps inside. Especially on Halcyon. For Andrew’s benefit, she asked her question aloud. “Were you responding to Andrew earlier, Halcyon?”

  The Wisp recognized her. Other than that, though, she got nothing that seemed like it might be an answer. She tried to make the question more clear in her mind, to push the curiosity to the front, knowing it might be a bit before her meaning registered with the Wisp.

  “Would it be that surprising that he responded to me?” Andrew asked. “He’s responded to high tensions before.”

  Anna shook her head. “This is a little different,” she said, her eyes still fixed on the bracelet. “He responded to your relief, not the tension. He mimicked you, not the other way around.”

  She didn’t even need to look up. Halcyon’s influence became tinged with something like worry, and she heard it in Andrew’s voice when he asked, “Is that a bad thing?”

  Anna didn’t answer right away. She noticed something else as she was paying attention to the Wisp. Something she couldn’t quite put into words. She felt his influence like normal. His calm, his focus, his desire for something outside of his reach. But there was a second layer now. Unlike his normal influence, which, even weakened, came with a sense that pushed her own feelings that way, this second layer, the one containing the worry, didn’t feel that way.

  “It’s strange,” she said. “It’s different from their normal influence.” A thought occurred to her, and she found herself acting before thinking it through. She looked up at Andrew and said, “You’re an idiot, and we never listen to you.”

  Andrew flinched as if she’d slapped him. She could tell, not only from his face, but also from Halcyon, that he was more confused than angry, though the anger was starting to bubble up. At the same time she felt Halcyon’s normal influence starting to grow in strength. “It worked!” she gasped. Then she bowed her head. “Sorry, sorry! I was testing something, but I should have asked first! I’m sorry. And I do value your opinion. You’re not stupid. I should have thought that through more.”

  Even as she spoke, she was gratified te feel through Halcyon’s influence the anger fade, replaced by a more intense confusion. “What are you talking about?” Andrew asked. “Testing what?”

  “Halcyon is telling me your emotions,” she said. “He’s… somehow he’s… split his influence? Maybe? And he’s using a part of it to tell me how you’re doing, and the other is just… the same as usual.”

  “And your way of testing that was trying to make me angry?” he said.

  Anna nodded, a little sheepishly. “I didn’t think it would have worked if I’d told you,” she said.

  Andrew shook his head, and through Halcyon, she could tell that he was still a little frustrated, but more curious now. “Don’t worry about it. So, is he still doing it?” Anna nodded. Andrew grunted, leaning back on his cot. “I’m not too sure I like the idea of him being in my head all the time.”

  Anna didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure how she could respond to that. Instead, she just looked at the bracelet, and tried to focus again on a new question. “Tell me what I’m feeling.”

  This time, the response was almost immediate. The second influence changed to a curiosity that matched her own, blending with it without seam until her emotions changed to excitement. The influence caught up a moment later. “He got it!” Anna said. “He understood the question!”

  “The words? Really?”

  Anna paused at that. Then she shook her head. “No. I think he was able to pick up the feeling that I was curious if he could do to me what he was to you. That’s… well, it’s a much clearer feeling than most I try and use.”

  Andrew nodded, but a smile crept onto his face. “Well, gotta start somewhere,” he said. “I wonder why he’s doing this now.”

  Anna tried putting the question to Halcyon as best she could. Perhaps predictably, there was no real response. She shrugged. “I bet Halcyon’s been trying things to communicate with us as much as we are with him. We just miss it a lot like he does ours. This one just finally got through. Maybe with the other Wisps more stable, it’s helped him, too. I don’t know.”

  Andrew nodded his acceptance. Anna decided to try turning Halcyon’s attention back toward Andrew, though she didn’t ask the question aloud this time. It took a few moments longer, but he seemed to get it, and a moment later, she was able to feel the more muted curiosity Halcyon picked up from Andrew.

  A few minutes later, they heard voices outside the tent, and she recognized Peter’s voice, though it was still a bit too dim to pick up the words. She turned her focus back to the Wisp, wondering if he’d be able to pick up Peter’s emotions as he got closer. She focused on it as she had Andrew, waiting to see if he’d swap.

  The intense frustration startled her, and a moment later she heard the words from outside.

  “… was the whole point! How’d he miss something like that?” Peter was saying.

  “Hey, it’s alright,” came Hanna’s voice.

  “But it’s such an obvious thing! I don’t get why they can’t move things around.”

  “Well, the arena has probably had the schedule set for a long time, so they just… can’t,” came Jeremy’s voice, right outside the tent now.

  “And Daniel can’t because he’s told our hosts in the city already,” Hannah added. “So he can’t go back on his word.”

  “It’s just a few hours difference!” Peter insisted.

  “What’s going on?” Andrew asked, opening the flap to their tent.

  Anna saw Peter’s stormy expression, and guessed just before he said it, what was going on. “Our summit starts at the same time as the preliminary’s for the tournament. I can’t join!”