It wasn’t long before Liane and Jen walked through the door. I noticed immediately they had been hunting, as they were both carrying several rabbits.

  Hari followed them into the dome.

  “They are still travelling forward. They slowed down again once they had made some distance, but they have not stopped,” Jen informed him.

  Hari just nodded before heading back outside again. Liane turned her attention to all the cooking happening at the fire, and a moment later appeared on the ground beside me, still holding the rabbits and shoving them into my lap before leaning forward to look in the pot holding the stock.

  Liane looked at me, excitement in her eyes. “Did you make the stew?”

  I sighed, storing the rabbits, also noticing Lily’s attention turn to me when Liane asked as well. “Yes. I made the drake stew, and there is enough for everyone when it’s ready… cat and rogue.”

  Liane let out a squeak of delight, while Lily just turned back to the fire, her face aimed directly at the pot holding the stew.

  Jen made her way over and passed me her rabbits, which I happily stored for her as well, before she also took a seat beside the rest of us.

  Looking at the surrounding group, I said, “While everyone is here pretty much, I wanted to ask for some advice about what candies to make. I have frost cherries to make a sour one—apparently it tastes really nice—but I also considered making a Dilwater berry one, because that would be a flavour most don’t know or expect.”

  Milo rubbed his chin, seemingly deep in thought.

  Jen and Liane both had their eyes light up.

  “Frost nettle!” Jen said, while Liane was nodding at the idea of Dilwater-flavoured candies.

  Finally, Milo spoke. “I don’t know that the flavour will matter too much. The real question is how crazy you go on the buffs. If I’m to assume you’re going to get fire immunity regardless, keep the buffs strong but not too crazy—you only want them worth a gold.”

  Liane deflated a little. “Only one gold?”

  Milo nodded. “To start with, absolutely. Micca won’t be in any position to protect herself if she comes out with anything too strong. As much as I believe George and Darren will give their all, they’re barely level ten.”

  Micca was nodding along.

  “So what’s worth a gold then?” I asked, wondering how many items I’d need to include. I continued before Milo could answer, “I could use a wood, I suppose. That would add a magic buff along with the fire immunity and fruits—”

  “Whoa there.” Milo waved his hands. “You’re way off base. Truthfully, Trev, even with your fire immunity and wood buffs, it would be too much for one gold, and I would encourage you strongly to maximise buff time and lower potency.”

  “At most, you’d want a standard regeneration of mana or health—not both—along with the fire immunity. Nothing else. Give this maximum buff time and the lowest potency. That would still be worth more than one gold, but Micca could easily sell them without too much pressure,” Milo said.

  “Will people even buy that?” I asked curiously. I didn’t really see much use for fire immunity outside of some cooking.

  All three of them laughed. “Trev, I know you don’t do a lot of shopping for combat supplies, but our health potions normally cost two gold each. It’s why we couldn’t spare any in that very first village.”

  I shook my head. “Sorry, I didn’t realise how valuable it is.”

  I looked at the stew that was cooking. I wondered how much that alone would be worth.

  Milo seemed to follow my gaze. “About ten gold a bowl, if you’re wondering how much that stew would be worth.”

  I stared at him in shock; Micca likewise was looking at the pot in shock.

  “You said earlier you didn’t know what would be worth a platinum coin. Now that we have some sound protections: you, Trev. Your permanent stat ability would likely get you a platinum coin a meal from the highest nobles and royalty, and that’s if there are not higher coins that I just don’t know about,” Milo said.

  Liane looked at him, squinting her eyes. “What permanent stats…?”

  I saw Jen roll her eyes, then face-palm, while Milo was moving his mouth but no sound was coming out.

  He tried to change the subject. “Anyway, Trev, what matters is your buffs are wor—”

  “No.” Liane looked at everyone in the group. “What gives permanent stats?”

  “It doesn’t ma—” Jen began to say, but the glare she got stopped her.

  I sighed. Even Lily had turned to look at us, likely sensing the change in tone.

  “The dragon does,” I said simply.

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  “Permanent stats…” She asked again, now looking at me, her gaze intense.

  “Stat. It provides a single permanent Endurance,” I said.

  “You can’t have any,” Milo said. Liane let out an exaggerated sigh.

  Liane looked between us before her gaze landed on Lily, who was still watching us as we discussed the dragon. “Lily, can I try some dragon next time it’s cooked?” she asked.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as Lily just turned back to the fire and ignored her, pretending to go back to sleep.

  Liane didn’t push the topic any further as the conversation went back to the candies. It was agreed that I would make thirty-five of each: mana, health and stamina regeneration with maximised buff times. For mana I would use Frost Nettles along with powdered bark of the Mana Willow; for health I would use powdered Blood Owl beak and Blood Tears; and finally for stamina, Quickroot.

  I had to be very careful with stamina, as I could see several ingredients would give sprint ability, and I needed to avoid that.

  I got to work, pulling out my only remaining pot along with sugar and sugar reed juice—the non-alcoholic one I had—as well as some water from Milo. I also ended up getting a large stone barrel of water from Milo, which I stored away so I wouldn’t need to keep asking, finally.

  I was concerned I was going to cause Crisplet some problems, but with the rest of the red-meat stock off the fire and the boar bellies not being touched currently, it seemed Crisplet was more than able to assist me with heating up the sugar while keeping watch on the stew.

  I wasn’t overly sure how much would make thirty-five candies, so I was very much hoping for the best in that regard.

  My first one was going to be the health regeneration, and I would be waiting to add the ingredients until after I boiled the sugar, water and juice into a thick liquid, stirring it constantly to ensure it didn’t stick to the bottom of the pot and burn.

  Micca was watching me work, but surprisingly, Lily was also watching, no longer pretending to be asleep.

  It only took around five minutes for the mixture to boil down so that it resembled the same consistency as the jam I had made. After removing it from the fire, I added the powder and the dried Blood Tears before pulling out the mould.

  A small hiccup in my plan was that the mould only held twenty-four. So, I slowly poured the thick liquid into the mould, returning it near the flame for Crisplet to keep warm and stop it from setting.

  I tapped the mould on the stone table, trying to get out as many air bubbles as possible. It wouldn’t be perfect—I knew that—but if the runes on them were ever going to work, I couldn’t have any air interrupting the design.

  While I was doing this, Hari entered the dome.

  “Micca, I don’t suppose you’d be able to give me a few minutes to chat with the team alone, would you?” he asked.

  Micca just nodded, jumping to her feet and heading outside where Darren and George were.

  Looking around, I wasn’t the only one confused as Hari came over and sat with the rest of us.

  “Sorry, Trev, we’ve not really talked about last night or what it means, and how it will change things going forward.”

  I looked around at the others to see if anyone would say something.

  “Change things?”

  Hari nodded. “You likely don’t realise the gravity of Lily’s actions last night in bringing a phoenix to you.”

  Lily’s attention was now firmly on the conversation.

  “Do you mean the feather that Alira gave me?” I asked, pulling it out of my pocket, as it wouldn’t enter my storage ring or pantry.

  Milo chuckled. “That’s not a regular phoenix feather, Trev. It seems to be a very particular one that’s bonded to you, like she said. That’s not normal for phoenix feathers, which ties into what I’m sure Hari is about to discuss. But a normal phoenix feather that is shed during their life can be found and sold—traded almost exclusively to a single family.”

  Hari was nodding along. “That’s right. The royal family, to be exact. What do you know of the royal family, Trev?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing? Just that they live in the capital and there is a King.”

  Liane chuckled. “So basically nothing at all.”

  I felt embarrassed, even though I knew it wasn’t my fault—it was just something we were not taught.

  Hari did a little cough, drawing attention back to him. “Well, I won’t delve into their entire history, as I’m not even sure how much of it is true and how much is fabrication, but the Royals hold one mythical creature above all others, and that is the phoenix.”

  I could have sworn I saw Lily roll her eyes.

  “The King himself has the class ‘Phoenix Warrior’, which has given him a much longer life than others. Other members of the royal family have a variety of phoenix-related classes, rumoured to have occurred due to using equipment infused with phoenix feathers—so much so that they have a monopoly on it all,” Hari explained.

  Milo was nodding along and took over. “It’s important to note: at no point in any recorded history has the phoenix ever visited the capital or the royal family. They just have phoenix-related classes.”

  “What does that mean for me?” I asked.

  “It means you’re the only person in written history who has ever been in such a casual conversation with Alira—to not only get her name, but also a gift—which I suspect was your doing?” Hari said, looking to Lily, who had Crisplet answer with a burst of embers.

  “If I could ask Lily: the feather he was given… does it protect Trevor from harm?” Milo asked. Again, Crisplet burst into embers before stopping and appearing to think.

  There was clearly a conversation happening between Lily and Crisplet.

  Soon Crisplet created a ball of loose ash that floated above the fire, and inside it he formed a feather made of fire. Throwing a coal at it, it appeared to bounce off before it all faded to dust. Milo caught on to what was being shown faster than I did.

  “So you’re saying it’s a one-time use?” he asked.

  Crisplet burst into embers again.

  Nodding, Hari carried on, “Right. So, that feather will save your life one time. If my guess is correct—due to the public nature of Alira’s visit, and them not knowing if it will happen again or not—the Royals are going to try to get very close to you. Probably try to keep you in the capital.”

  I interrupted, “Wait… they’ll kidnap me?”

  Hari shook his head. “Absolutely not. They’ll want to be on your good side, if only to get closer to Alira. No—they’ll likely try to buy you, win you over with luxury and wealth, probably even titles, which is why I wanted to have this chat today. I want to let you know we will support you whatever your choice will be.”

  I looked at Hari, then at the others. What did he mean?

  “Um… what choice?” I asked, scratching the back of my head.

  Liane lightly slapped my arm. “You’re dense sometimes. He’s saying if you want to stay in the capital and live the life of luxury—probably as a noble—we’ll support your choice and no hard feelings.”

  “Wait, what? I don’t want to stay in the capital!” I said, waving my hands.

  “You say that now,” Hari chuckled. “But when the time comes, just know that we will absolutely respect your choice no matter what you decide.”