“Come see me in my tent after this little party, Nathaniel. I’ll teach you the kinds of things that the young ladies attending the University haven’t even conceived of yet,” whispered Baroness Olithia before she drifted back into the crowd.

  Nate glanced to his left as Kiri rejoined him.

  “Lot of help you were,” he grumbled.

  “You didn’t look like you needed help attracting her attention,” quipped Kiri, a small smirk on her face. “Besides, she’s harmless. What’s she going to do? Try and kidnap you from under both Aisling and Princess Morgane’s nose?”

  “Honestly, she’s getting more pushy. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

  Kiri smiled, “If she tries I’ll put a dagger in her. Until then, it’s kind of funny watching how doggedly she is pursuing you. Wonder what it is about you that has got her so interested…” mused his sister.

  A small flex of his mana and the Sound rune embedded in his robe to prevent his next words from leaving their vicinity, “You don’t think she knows, do you?”

  “Knows? No. Suspects? Maybe. You have been spending more time alone with the Princess than most would probably expect of a Guild member. Or maybe she just wants to compete with the Princess for your affections,” teased Kiri.

  “You know it’s not like that. The Princess..”

  “Is about the right age for you,” interrupted Kiri with a cheshire smile. “She’s what? Late twenties?”

  “Are you sure you’re not just trying to distract yourself by teasing me?” Nate countered with a pointed glance past Kiri.

  Kiri’s mouth twisted in something between distaste and distress, “You’re right. I was laying it on a bit thick. Sorry. I…just don’t know what to do. Nothing helps.”

  The entire time she spoke his sister had avoided looking over at Coralie. The Ice Mage was standing in the corner, sipping on an iced wine, with a sour look on her face like she wanted to be anywhere but here.

  “She even asked to come,” lamented Kiri. “Any advice?”

  Nate bit back his retort. Telling his sister that maybe her relationship was drawing to its conclusion was not what Kiri wanted, nor needed, to hear.

  Instead he said, “You’re doing what you can. I don’t know what else you can do. I think it’s on her now.”

  Kiri took a step away to grab a glass of wine from one of the tables and emptied it in one go, falling back into silence next to him. Nate dropped the Sound rune, ignoring the curious glances of a few of the Nobility and the pointed look from one of the Swords.

  The Princess’s tent was full to bursting and extra tables had been brought in to hold all the food and drink as servants drifted among the Nobility. Nate had to admit to a small amount of discomfort being among them. He, Kiri, and Coralie weren’t the only Guild members present. Across the room, Flash seemed to be experiencing similar awkwardness as his girlfriend Celeste had used her own noble background to get an invite. The Nobles she appeared to be speaking with wore the colours of House Landin and Nate acknowledged that the only reason he knew that was because their House was camped directly next to the Guild.

  The colourful sea of silks was only matched by the quiet thrum of power. There were at least twelve Platinums present in the tent and probably five times that number in Golds; in short, a melting pot of power. Not all gave off auras of their Concepts or Classes like the Princess and Aisling, but there were a few others who did so. They drew Nate’s attention like moths to a flame as Conceptual Insight constantly pulsed, trying to dig deeper into the mysteries on display. Even with his curiosity taking the lead, his paranoia still whispered in the back of his mind and he split his attention to check his defences.

  His Legendary Barrier bracer was fully recharged, coating him in a thin but powerful protection. Both his Spatial and Mana Release items were prepared but he doubted they would be needed. Finally, within his Runic Gallery, he could sense the various creations he had ready to call forth at a moment's notice. The only defence missing, he decided, was Aisling. The Platinum Guild member had not been invited, which he considered a shame. His mentor hadn’t seemed put out though, assuring him that if anything went wrong she would be at his side in a flash. He believed her.

  His sphere of awareness warned him of the approach of a familiar figure long before she had sidled up next to him. The way she moved through the crowd was so fluid he wondered if she could see the future, stepping out of the way of jostling nobility and their graceful servants like flowing water.

  “Evening, Hildi,” he said in acknowledgement as the Princess’s maid stepped up next to him.

  “Evening, Nathaniel. How are you enjoying the party?” she asked, very obviously ignoring how Kiri moved closer to Nate.

  He appreciated his sister's protectiveness. Especially since he still didn’t have a good read on Hildi.

  “The food is good. The company…has its ups and downs,” he answered honestly.

  “Yes. I saw that Baroness Olithia is struggling with taking ‘no’ for an answer. You handled it well though.”

  “Listening in, were you?” he asked in amusement.

  “Always,” Hildi responded with a small smile. “Princess Morgane wanted to know if you would object to her publicly acknowledging your efforts and the successful raid on the Asmuisillan army?”

  “Both of our efforts?” Nate asked, glancing at Kiri. “Not like I did it alone.”

  “Both,” agreed Hildi.

  Nate looked at Kiri questioningly to see how she felt about the offer. His sister responded with a small shrug before she nodded her agreement.

  “Excellent. I will let her know,” replied Hildi before disappearing back into the crowd and heading for the Princess.

  Nate watched as the Princess listened to Hildi before raising her glass and giving it a few taps with a spoon, “Can I have everyone’s attention please.”

  *************

  Coralie looked up from her glass as the Princess raised her own iced wine, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. It was now, or never. She spared a glance for Kiri and wished for a moment that she was as strong as her girlfriend. Wished she could stand up to her mother. Holding back a tear she activated Reflections in Ice, connecting the ice cube floating at the top of her wine to one in the Princess’s glass. Then, putting her glass behind her back, she emptied the vial of poison onto the ice cube.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  *************

  Kiri watched her girlfriend's face, rather than the Princess. She had been spending time on expanding the nature of Tethered Soul Weapons Skill. Specifically, the Soul Tethers she could use to mark and track people. Focusing on the Soul Tether she kept on Coralie she could feel the inner turmoil within her girlfriends soul, the intensity of her emotions and something that tasted like ashes in her mouth…regret perhaps?

  For the past month, ever since leaving the Capital, Coralie had been distant and cold. The beautiful little Ice Mage had been vacillating between despair and self-loathing. But whatever previous emotions had bled through the Soul Tether, they paled before the intensity she felt now. Kiri followed Coralie’s gaze to the Princess and the glass she held high.

  Oh no, she thought, desperately moving towards the Princess quickly enough to draw the attention of the Swords as she slipped through the watching crowd like a ghost.

  “...so I raise a glass to Nathaniel Weber and Kiri Beaufoy, Guild members who undertook a difficult task…” said Princess Morgane, glass lowering as she prepared to drink to her toast.

  The Swords were reacting but Kiri was much closer and she had already started drawing on her Empowered Soul Sanctuary skill to quicken her steps. Morgane’s eyes looked confused as Kiri reached out like lightning and snatched the glass from her hand. She had to know. Raising the glass to her lips she pretended like she was going to drink.

  “NOOOO!!!” screamed Coralie as Kiri felt the drink in her hand freeze solid.

  Kiri’s heart broke as her suspicions were confirmed. Her girlfriend had attempted to poison the Princess. She had been used.

  Between Coralie’s scream and the approaching Swords, the room was devolving into chaos. Kiri glanced at Morgane to see how the Princess was reacting, only to see Morgane’s eyes widen and her arms raised to protect herself. Kiri spun, her speed fully enhanced and was still too slow. A claw as long as a sword sliced clean through her, cutting her in half as some half-woman, half-monster, attacked the Princess, launching Morgane out of the tent.

  As Kiri fell to the floor, her sense of physical reality retreating, she comforted herself with the thought that her Soul Twin would restore her body.

  A second anguished scream from Coralie drowned out all other sounds as Kiri’s thoughts faded. Tears flowed down her face at the betrayal as the frozen wine filled with poison cracked beside her. Just like her heart.

  *************

  Nate frowned in worry as Kiri fell to the floor, cut in half. If he didn’t know she could recover he would’ve been more worried about her. Ignoring the chaos within the tent for the moment, he turned towards the screaming Coralie. Walking toward her, his sphere of awareness took in the rest of the room. There were blank spots, where some of the nobles were using wards and veils that kept his mana from detecting exactly what they were doing or how they were moving but it still let him know where everyone was. From that he was drawing one, undeniable conclusion: shit had hit the fan.

  As Kiri fell to the floor bleeding, some of the Nobles had begun attacking the Swords while others had begun attacking other Nobles. Nate ignored it all as the tent was torn to shreds, fights exploding in every direction. He had eyes only for Coralie and with the chaos taking place he arrived before her within seconds. The small Ice Mage looked up at him, waves of cold emanating off her and interfering with his own mana as he stared down at her, trying to decide what to do about her. Lightning arced across the sky above and he honestly considered killing Coralie for a moment. But he knew it wasn’t his decision to make. That choice belonged to Kiri. The anguish on Coralie’s face answered a question Nate had been wondering about for a while. Had Kiri shared the full extent of her Skills and Class-tier with her girlfriend? The answer, if the pain on Coralie’s face was real, was a definitive no.

  “I never wanted this!” screamed Coralie, tears of ice frozen to her cheeks. “I never wanted any of this!”

  Nate let mana flow into Conceptual Runic Mastery as he prepared to contain the Ice Mage, but before he could do anything she pulled a thin blue stick from her spatial storage. Conceptual Insight let him instantly recognise the Concept of Space embedded within it and he tried to use Conceptual Spatial Manipulation to suppress it but was too slow. The blue stick snapped and Coralie vanished. The spatial ripples remained and Nate suspected he could rip them open and follow Coralie through them. But he had more pressing concerns.

  Teleporting across the room he appeared next to Kiri. The moment he did his sister's eyes opened. It had only been five seconds since she had fallen and yet everything was in chaos. Fire, lightning, the smell of acid and the sounds of battle were flowing over the entire camp. Using his farsight sphere of awareness he sensed multiple battles taking place in the skies above, and one in particular that felt a great deal like static. The hairs on his arms tingling was enough to tell him Aisling had entered the fray and he looked at Kiri who was getting up far more slowly than he had expected. The look in her eyes was one of banked fury, hiding a well of pain.

  “Are you alright?” he asked, knowing she wasn’t.

  “I’ll live. That really fucking hurt. I’m down one Soul Twin though. So, one left..” Kiri muttered, standing up, her body covered in blood.

  “That wasn’t what I meant,” he muttered, looking around for the Princess.

  “...later,” Kiri replied. “What’s the plan?”

  “Save the Princess?” Nate suggested.

  Kiri grunted, some of her anger bleeding through, “Fine. I want to stab something.”

  Frick appeared next to them, “Packed up the tent, Boss. We getting out of here?”

  There was a hint of a Concept in the air that Nate recognised and it took him a moment to truly sense it. Illusion, and it was close. Nate began forming two runes as he prepared to teleport towards the source of Illusion, knowing Kiri and Frick could follow him.

  “No,” Nate stated firmly. “We’re getting into here.”

  *************

  Bordain marched through the opulent halls of the palace as though he owned them. He would, very soon. Beside him walked his vassals. Garnet, Obsidian, Headmaster Verian and Malachite. Sapphire was at this very moment leading his army to reinforce Prince Thane’s army, though if Amethyst had succeeded at her task, his brother Thane was already dead. Topaz should have been enough to handle his foolish sister, along with all the others he had set against her. Placing so many agents to deal with Morgane had been a necessary precaution. They had only managed to obtain four Dungeon Cores before both his countrymen and Asmuisil had reacted. Enough to suppress his Father and Brother, which left no such tools to use against his Sister. Still, she was the weakest of them. Even if Morgane survived, he could deal with her himself when the time came. That said, he doubted she would live to see the dawn.

  Shoving open the large doors that led into the Royal chamber he stared down his father, the King, as he marched between statues of his forefathers. Forefathers who had been too weak to seize true power. A failing he was about to remedy.

  “My son comes before me,” intoned Oberane, King of Etrua. “Your victory on the war front was impressive, but I don’t remember recalling you.”

  Bordain snorted at his Father’s unsubtle rebuke. The Swords around the room reacted by placing their hands on their blades. As if they could threaten him.

  “Why have you brought my son before me, First Sword Joran?” asked Oberane, looking at the man to Bordain’s left.

  Malachite, as Bordain called him, answered with the same calm tone he always used, “You have failed to choose an Heir. Failed to recognise the worth of your children. So I have made my own choice. I choose King Bordain. It is time to step aside, your highness.”

  “Desperate,” muttered Oberane. “Desperate and foolish. Is this it? Are these the forces you have arrayed to depose me, my foolish son? It will not be enough. You are too weak to face your brother, let alone me.”

  Bordain smiled as he looked around at the Swords as they prepared to draw their weapons. He had hidden himself for long enough. The gap between his Father and himself was wide, but not as much as Oberane believed, and he carried with him the tools to bridge that divide.

  “Did you know, Father, that Dungeon Cores can be used to create enchantments?” asked Bordain calmly. “And that I achieved what you and Thane could not? You are both ruled by fear, afraid to grasp for the power that should have rightfully belonged to you. Well, I do not share your cowardice. When I had the opportunity, I seized it with both of these hands.”

  With his words said he displayed his Status for all to see, revealing his level of ninety-eight, and the Mythic Primary Class he had earned with his own blood and sweat.

  “It won’t be enough,” replied Oberane, finally standing from his throne as the wall behind him began to disintegrate into sand.

  Bordain activated the two bracers he wore that had once been Dungeon Cores, sensing the absolute power as they began to suppress the Concepts of Sand and Wind, his Father’s elements.

  “Kill all who oppose me,” he commanded his vassals, before leaping towards his father, prepared to seize his birthright and prove that the only thing that mattered was power.

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