“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Phoenix asked Dazien and Uriel for the tenth time. They were leading her through the Temple District to an area she hadn’t been to before, the same temple where the two men had met and grown up together: the temple of the Parent.

  It had been a few days since they had returned, and Paul had updated the rest of the party about his new divinely appointed position during their first training session. Afterward, she had decided to tag along with the pair after asking them to accompany her with shopping ter, which they had also pnned to do as Dazien apparently needed to pick up an order he pced earlier.

  The twin voxen had gone back to the AOA building to fix some paperwork they had needed to deal with to finish transferring them to the Tulimeir branch for the duration of the blood moon. Normally, the AOA didn’t care about transient Adventurers, but during a blood moon, things became a lot stricter in terms of assisting in organizing defenses and resources.

  “We said it’s fine, Phoenix. We can introduce you to the others,” Dazien replied with a chuckle, then gave an apologetic smile, “However, I’ll warn you in advance that the kids might be a little more… sociable than you might be comfortable with.”

  She ughed at that, “I grew up in a children’s hospital, remember? It’s not kids that make me nervous.”

  “Ah, is that so? You do know we’re still technically considered children, right?” Dazien joked, gesturing between him and Uriel.

  “Well, you were rather nosy when we first met,” she pointed out with a grin.

  “A mysterious woman I’ve never seen before just randomly shows up to meet with Warrior, then I see her again at my trials with an assortment of random abilities? Of course, I’m going to be curious,” he stated unapologetically.

  “Hang on,” he suddenly said and stopped mid-stride, as though a thought just occurred to him, and he turned to look at her before asking in a whisper, “Was that when he gave you his Soul Mark?”

  She blinked at him, then nodded slowly before admitting, “Him, Schor, and Traveler were all on that day… it was kinda rough, to be honest.”

  Uriel raised an eyebrow at her, “Three gods in a single day? I’m surprised you could walk straight.”

  “That expins the priest of Schor who was waiting outside the door,” Dazien commented before beginning to walk again and leading them to his former home.

  “So, the temple of the Parent is where you two met?” Phoenix asked curiously, trying to get the topic off of her.

  “Yes,” Dazien said with a grin, “I had already been there for quite a while when Uriel arrived and joined my kingdom.”

  “A kingdom with no nd, ruled by a thirteen-year-old,” Uriel pointed out with a slight smirk and roll of his eyes.

  “A kingdom is its people and needs no nd for them to have pride in it,” the Warrior King stated firmly, “And if I recall correctly, you were the first to actually kneel before me,” he teased with an impish grin.

  Uriel shrugged, “It got you to shut up.”

  Phoenix ughed at the indignant look of mock hurt Dazien gave his friend, “You wound me. I thought you liked my speeches?”

  “Not when directed at me,” he said with a ft look, causing her to ugh again.

  As they rounded a corner, Phoenix’s eyes went wide at the sight of a colorful temple surrounded by children pying in the gently falling snow. One of the older kids noticed the trio and shouted, “King! Senesh!” then began running towards them. The other children quickly took notice and followed after the boy, making simir greetings.

  Dazien broke into a wide smile, and Uriel gave his own restrained smirk as the small horde of orphans descended. When the oldest one got there, he csped Dazien in a familial hug, and her leader greeted him, “Sir Brent, how are you? I swear that you’ve grown again, and I’ve only been gone for about a month.”

  “I’m going to catch up to you in no time, King!” the young cinderen said, who probably still had another foot to go in height and seemed to be around fourteen or fifteen.

  More children reached them, and most hugged Dazien’s legs or started talking excitedly to both of the older men.

  Dazien ughed and picked up one of the smaller, runeforged girls with lovely emerald green markings on her chestnut skin. He continued talking to the older boy, still saying, “Tell me, sir, how does the kingdom fare? Everyone doing their chores and finishing their meals?”

  Brent rolled his eyes dramatically and gave a mocking bow, “It is as the King commands. There is one rebel, but she is currently in the dungeons. She actually tried biting one of the prospective parents.”

  “Seriously?” Dazien asked with a chuckle, then he turned to the child in his arms and asked, “You wouldn’t bite, right, Lady Lilly?” The young girl shook her brunette braids with a thumb in her mouth. He gnced back and asked, “Is it safe to assume Jennica is the rebel in question again?”

  Brent nodded, and Dazien sighed as he said, “Maybe I should go talk with her.”

  “She’s definitely gotten worse since you became an Adventurer,” the boy confided. Then he seemed to notice Phoenix standing behind the two men and asked with a grin, “Who’s this, King? A new addition to the royal court?”

  Dazien grinned as he turned to look at her and introduced to the entirety of the gathered group, “This is my friend, Lady Phoenix, and that pretty little bird on top of her hair is Ta, her Familiar, who is also a phoenix.”

  The children suddenly became very interested in the newcomer, and she suddenly found herself surrounded by them, each asking her questions all at once.

  “How is your hair like that?”

  “Can I see Ta?”

  “Can we pet it?”

  “Your dress is so pretty!”

  “Are you an Adventurer too?”

  “Are you our new Queen?” the little Lilly in Dazien’s arms asked.

  Phoenix flushed at the attention and bent down, pulling Ta into her hands and holding the bird out like a sacrifice to let the children pet and shift the focus to the Familiar instead of her.

  Ta, for her part, preened and poofed up her feathers even more, causing the children to giggle and pet her gently.

  Dazien ughed at the dispy as he warned, “Just hold on tight to any of your shinies.” Then he began answering their questions, matching the children’s enthusiasm, “Lady Phoenix is actually a Wayfarer, meaning she comes from a whole different universe! We both became Adventurers at the same time, and she’s now in our party.” Then he booped the little runeforged he was holding on the nose and added, “And no, she is not your new queen.”

  He gave Phoenix a wicked grin and added, “A princess, maybe.”

  Just as Dazien had seemed to hope, and to Phoenix’s utter horror, the children tched onto the statement with ughter and excited chatter.

  “Princess! We have a princess now!”

  “She does look a bit like a princess with that dress.”

  “How do you know what real princesses look like?”

  “Well, if King says she’s a princess, then that’s what one looks like!”

  “A princess from another universe?!”

  “She’s from outer space?”

  “An Adventurer space princess?! That’s so cool!”

  The mischievous warrior grinned as he added, “She’s a very magical princess too. She can shine like the evening star when Ta disappears inside of her. Want to see?”

  Phoenix gave him her best death gre, but the cries of excitement from the children made her unable to refuse the request. She gave an internal sigh and merged with Ta, eliciting gasps of awe from the group as she knelt at eye level with most of them. Some curious hands reached out to touch her glowing skin and shining red curls.

  Then, she had an idea to get them distracted from her once more. She smiled and asked in that same excitement when trying to motivate children, “Do you all want to see another of my magic spells?”

  When they nodded as she had anticipated, she made a dramatic gesture as she stood and cpped her hands together before lifting them over her head, “Let dreams become reality.” From her hands appeared dozens of starlight phoenix birds that began to fly around the delighted children, slow enough for them to get a good look but quick enough to stay out of reach.

  As she had directed them upon their creation, the birds slowly dispersed towards the temple, causing the group to chase after them. Phoenix turned to smile brightly at her companions, who returned grins of their own.

  The little Lilly spoke up once more in a poor attempt at whispering to Dazien, “I think she’d be a good queen for you.”

  He gave a coughing ugh as he set the girl back down in the snow. “Yes, well, that’s not entirely up to you. Why don’t you go py with the others?” he prompted and gestured towards the bird illusions. The little girl smiled as she followed after them.

  As the younger children ran off, all that remained were the three Adventurers and the older boy, who was attempting to prove his maturity by not running after the sparkling distraction. Brent grinned at the three almost-adults that she had to remember who weren’t legally adults still in this world –though what made an adult seemed a bit different than what she was used to after Dazien’s st expnation of ages.

  The boy interrupted her thoughts when he asked, “So King, are you and Senesh going to handle the rebel while I stay with our new Princess?”

  Phoenix stepped closer to Uriel and asked him quietly, “Senesh?”

  Uriel smirked, “After I bent the knee and promised fealty, Daze started calling me his seneschal, but the little ones had a hard time saying it.”

  Dazien gave a dramatic sigh and said, “Yes, alright. Seneschal, let’s go have a chat with Jennica… again.” He turned to Phoenix and added with a wink, “Don’t let all the royal subjects pester you too much, Princess.”

  “We’re not that bad, King,” Brent retorted.

  Dazien mussed the boy’s hair as he and Uriel passed by to enter the temple.

  Brent turned back to Phoenix, fixing his dark bck hair, and asked, “So, Princess, what’s your Role in King’s party?”

  “Um, a little bit of everything? I’m officially a Midshift Supporter,” she nervously answered.

  As her two companions had left, Phoenix suddenly felt very exposed. She knew that she shouldn’t since her friends obviously trusted this young teen, but she didn’t think he could help protect her from a potential threat if anything went wrong.

  Despite having asked them to accompany her shopping, she hadn’t expined that she was asking as a safety precaution. She hadn’t wanted them to fuss about the threat and become even more of a burden to them.

  Of course, wrong is exactly how things went when she heard a terribly familiar voice from behind her, “Hello, Miss Fraser. What a surprise to see you here… alive.”

  Phoenix’s blood ran cold as she slowly turned to see the hired Sapphire Caste assassin who had ambushed her during the Siren raid. The cinderen woman had a forced smile and was staring daggers at her as though the ruby red gaze alone could stab her again.

  Brent became more subdued and went quieter as he asked Phoenix, “Do you need me to go get King and Senesh?”

  She immediately turned and grabbed the boy’s sleeve to stop him from leaving before gncing back to keep her sights on her enemy. Phoenix hoped that the teen’s presence would be enough to keep the mercenary at bay until her teammates returned, but maybe it would only sentence them both to death. Would she just sughter them in the open like this?

  When the woman saw the panicked look on her face, the fake smile twisted slightly, and she replied to the younger cinderen, “That would be wonderful. It will give us a chance to catch up.”

  Brent paused, looking from Phoenix’s tight grip to the smiling woman who was fixated on her, and said with more resolve than he had dispyed earlier, “Actually, I think King– I mean Dazien, will be right back. He did want me to stay with the Princess here, after all.”

  Both of them took a step back at the assassin’s gre and aura that fred out in anger as she said through gritted teeth, “I don’t think I was clear enough. Go away, and let us go for a walk.”

  “Th–that’s… um,” Brent started stumbling over his words.

  He was saved from the awkward reply by Uriel’s reappearance as the quiet man pced a hand on his and Phoenix’s shoulders. Uriel stared down the enemy as he said firmly, “Sorry, but we have pns already. Perhaps you would like to join us in visiting her Mentor? I’m sure you know of Lord Waynd.”

  The woman gred up at him as she still clenched her jaw and hissed, “What does the Bde of Pure Wrath have to do with…” she trailed off, then crified, “Did you say ‘Mentor’?”

  Phoenix was surprised to see Uriel give the Sapphire Caster an evil grin that she had never even considered the man was capable of, “I did. Phoenix is quite dear to him, as his Protégé. Have you heard about the other rumor that’s been circuting around the city about the Lord?”

  The woman visibly bnched and asked, “Is it true that he became a Padin of the Avenger?”

  “Yes,” Uriel confirmed, then suggested, “If you don’t want to join us today, perhaps we can all catch up together ter? I can let Lord Waynd know so we can set up a get-together. It’s Arktis Neired, right?”

  The assassin stiffened and retorted, “There’s no need. I can see this is a bad time. I’ll reach out if I have an opening, though.” She began to walk past them but stopped as she came side to side with Phoenix and looked down at her as she said in a thinly veiled threat, “How lucky you are to have such… protective friends and mentor around you at all times.”

  Phoenix flinched away from the words, stepping back into Uriel, who looked down at her in concern as her killer strode off toward the north. Brent went inside to fetch Dazien a moment ter at Uriel’s urging, and she felt her anger begin to rise again when she realized her body was trembling. She hated feeling pathetic, letting Arktis daunt her like this.

  “Phoenix?” Uriel’s smooth voice called out gently. As she looked up into his concerned eyes, she felt her face scrunch up as the tears threatened to fall.

  “Do you need to talk?” he asked softly.

  She pursed her lips shut and shook her head as a tear escaped. He surprised her by nodding and pulling her into a silent hug instead, with her back now towards the temple. She tensed only for a moment, hearing him say, “I know you won’t want the others to see you like this. Collect yourself before he comes back to us.”

  Phoenix silently nodded against his chest as she rubbed at her eyes, trying to make the evidence of her fear and shame vanish. They stood there quietly for a few minutes, the protective hold and steady rhythm of Uriel’s breathing helping to center her as she took her own deep breaths, trying to calm her anxiety.

  “He’s talking with Brent at the entrance,” Uriel informed her after another few moments, then added, “If you need to, we can go spar after this or find somewhere quiet if you’d prefer.”

  She didn’t answer right away, and he gave her another squeeze before saying, “He’s coming this way now.”

  Then he released her, and she turned to greet her party leader, who was giving the two of them a questioning look as he asked, “Did I miss something while I was gone?”

  Uriel just shook his head, “Just an unexpected visitor,” then he redirected, “Is everything okay with Priestess Deserin?”

  Dazien’s expression softened, “Yeah, she kept trying to turn us down again, but I was able to convince her. Told her she needs all the help she can get with brats like Jennica making a fuss.”

  “You know that you’re the reason she’s acting that way,” Uriel pointed out.

  “Hence, convincing the Priestess to accept recompense to be much easier,” he said with a ugh.

  “Recompense?” she asked in confusion, trying to make sense of the context she was missing.

  “Ah. We donate a portion of our earnings to the temple every month,” Dazien expined, still chuckling, “A bit of paying them back for all the trouble we caused growing up. So, who was the visitor that caused the scene I just witnessed?”

  Uriel gnced down at her for a moment before expining, “Do you remember Arktis Neired?”

  Dazien raised an eyebrow, looking between the two. When he finally seemed to notice the bit of red that was not on her cheeks but around her eyes, he suddenly became more serious, “What exactly happened while I was gone?”

  “I’m not entirely sure since I wasn’t here for all of it,” Uriel said, “but I don’t think she really wanted to have a polite chat with Phoenix.”

  As they both watched her closely, she felt the heat rise in her face again. She shook her head as if to refuse their silent questions and asked quietly, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible, “Can I go back to my pce now?”

  “But we were going to go shopping,” Dazien reminded, his brow creasing in confusion.

  “I–” she hesitated, “I don’t feel up to shopping anymore. I’d like to go back to my room.”

  Amethyst eyes narrowed at her. “Just what exactly did that sh–” Uriel’s hand on his shoulder halted Dazien’s words. He stared at his best friend, who just shook his head, but he clenched his jaw and shook off the suggestion, pushing forward, “What did Arktis say to you?”

  Phoenix looked down at the ground and refused to answer or meet his gaze.

  He almost growled as he kept prodding, “Did she threaten you? The Neireds are a branch family of House Ruwena, and I know she’s always been willing to do the family’s dirty work. Her reputation is not a good one.”

  “She–” Phoenix’s voice caught, and she shook her head before admitting softly, “She’s been… cruel to me.”

  He took a step back and angrily kicked at the ground before rounding on her and asking, “How long?”

  “What?”

  “How long has she been haunting you? Been a threat around the corner? What does she want? Bits? Information? Do we need to go talk to the ones holding her leash? Right. We’ll get them to back off. Come on, Senesh.”

  Phoenix grabbed his arm as he turned to do just as he said and pleaded with him, “No. I– I don’t want her hurting any of you too. Please, just go shopping without me. I’m going to portal back to my dorm, and you can come meet me there ter.”

  Dazien stared back at her for a long moment, observing her in the way Paul seemed to at times before nodding and saying simply, “As you wish, Princess.”