The new year began in the most standard way possible, kinda. There were fireworks and celebrations, and everyone was still enjoying their Christmas gifts, but it was the first new year that I questioned whether or not I’d be better off throwing myself from the roof of The Tower.

It had been a little over a week since my last fight with Maltor, and it was definitely still fresh on my mind. I still wasn’t quite over the betrayals of Emma and Quinn. Sure, we’d all had our suspicions about Quinn in the first war, but they had died with Amy. Emma, on the other hand, well, nobody had seen that one coming. Especially me.

And, no, I did not go ice skating. It had been a waste of my money. After violently making my internal organs external, I threw the invitation in the bin. It had been hard to even look at.

Everyone else seemed to like their Christmas presents, as well. Asbel, as usual, displayed his talent for crafting with the gifts he gave. He had crafted Ethan a sword made from Celestial Bronze, and he’d given me three more balls. They looked similar to the smoke balls, but they were slightly heavier and painted red.

‘They work similarly to the smoke balls,’ Asbel had explained when I had next seen him after opening my gift. ‘If they collide with something or are sliced open, they create a small explosion.’

‘That’d be good for a long-range attack,’ I had replied quietly. ‘Hell, I could push them forward with the wind so they collide with Maltor harder and faster.’

‘You two are a chaotic pair, you are,’ Charlotte had chimed in. ‘Asbel makes the weapons, and you come up with a perfect tactic to use them.’

I sighed as I leaned back in my chair. It creaked slightly as I did so, breaking the silence further. I stared blankly up at the ceiling.

Since my last encounter with Maltor, the press had gone wild with their coverage. Half of them had reported how much my skill had improved and how bright the future of the war was. The other half had taken all the negative views.

They let everybody know that I had faced ‘personal heartbreak’ and ‘troubling times’ on the battlefield. They told the public that this was now certainly a war and that there was no doubt about it.

How on Earth the journalists had found out about what happened with Emma and Quinn out there was beyond me, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to know.

I was still convinced that Maltor or Quinn had done something to her. There was simply no way that she had betrayed me and joined Maltor of her own accord.

Her mom’s cries still echoed throughout my head whenever I gave the issue some thought. She would definitely know by now. Just a few days after Christmas, I sent out a team to deliver the news to those who had lost a friend or loved one. She definitely knew.

It may have been a bit cruel, to send the team out just after Christmas. I wondered how many days had been ruined. Everybody had been trying to enjoy the Christmas cheer before finding out that they’d lost a loved one. I’d definitely broken a lot of people.

I wasn’t too sure whether or not Quinn’s mom had been notified. When we first came to RoCity, she had of course been invited, so she knew where he was at least. But seeing as she didn’t live in the city, I didn’t know if she’d been told that he had defected to the other side. I hadn’t specified to the team whether or not they should alert family outside of the city.

When Maltor had betrayed us during the war with Amy, we had all definitely had our speculations that Quinn had done the same. As the war ended, those speculations seemed to die, however. He had nobody to betray us for then, so he had to be on our side.

I really did feel bad for him. Ever since he had come to RoCity, his life had been miles harder than before. I had had a hard life before coming to the city, and although my life was still not easy by any means, it was nowhere near as hard as being trapped in a cage.

His own mother had refused to come to the city for whatever reason. He had been alone right from the get-go.

So, he’d taken refuge in Maltor, the one person that cared about him most. The two were practically brothers. It was only natural that when Maltor began to drift over to Amy’s side that Quinn would follow.

I punched the desk. It shouldn’t have to be this way. Life should not have been this hard.

‘I’ve been waiting for months to hear you say those words’. That’s what Maltor had said in my dream. My feelings for Emma had been important to him for whatever reason.

Had it been his plan all along to use her to hurt me? Did he somehow influence her to join his side, knowing it would make me crumble?

No. There was no way. Maltor wasn’t like that.

I usually wasn’t thankful for knocks on my office door, but this one saved me from further spiralling out of control, so I accepted it with open arms.

‘Come in,’ I mumbled.

Imagine my surprise when that one knock had been hiding six people.

All five members of my Aid walked in. First came Angela, followed by Joseph, Beth White, Kelly Hill, and Matthew Hawkins.

Beth was the only member of my Aid that was shorter than me, but she was still great. She had straight dark blonde hair that stopped just before her shoulders. Her fierce navy blue eyes looked at me somewhat impatiently as she strode in, and this fiery appearance was complimented by her beige waistcoat and white shirt and trousers. She was also the youngest member of my Aid, being only twenty-nine.

Kelly was possibly the strangest member of my Aid. She didn’t say much, but when she did, it somehow pushed everyone else into silence, even though she was always calm. Kelly also had dark blonde hair, but it was slightly curly towards the tips and she had two dark purple streaks running through either side. Her eyes were dark green, which was one of the most intriguing eye colours I’d ever seen. She offered me a grape as she walked in, which I politely declined. She always carried grapes with her, possibly because she was a daughter of Dionysus.

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Finally came Matthew Hawkins, who was the tallest member of my Aid by a large margin. He stood next to Beth, and the two of them looked like quite the odd pairing. Matthew stood at a phenomenal six-foot-three, with black hair shaved into a buzz cut, and bored brown eyes. Light stubble decorated his square chin. I always asked why he didn’t grow it out into a beard, because it would make him look terrifying along with his inhumanly large muscles, but he always said that it would get in the way.

Then Asbel walked in, which was kinda anticlimactic after the big bad Aid had made their entrances.

‘What’re you doing here?’ I said, sitting up straight.

‘They brought me here,’ he shrugged. ‘And Matthew helped me build Koning van de wateren, so I couldn’t deny him.’

‘I always forget that you two are brothers.’

Kelly held out a handful of grapes to Asbel, and he grinned and took them.

‘Sir,’ Angela said, shutting the door, ‘we really need to talk about Apercaput’s offer.’

‘No. I already explained this to Joseph. I am not accepting their ‘soldiers’.’

‘You have no good reason not to,’ Beth said coolly. ‘Our soldiers died out there the last time Maltor arrived.’

‘That is part of war,’ I mumbled. ‘As difficult as it is to say, you cannot have war without death. Simply bringing more soldiers will not stop people from dying. If anything, it will literally increase the amount of blood on my hands.’

‘It would certainly give us a high advantage,’ Beth continued. ‘If we outnumber their troops, we could end this war quickly and easily.’

‘There is no easy end to a war,’ Matthew said, his deep voice making Beth flinch.

‘Easier, then,’ Beth continued. ‘Either way, holding an advantage is a great thing regardless.’

‘If children’s lives are giving us that advantage then I am sorry to say that the answer is ‘no’,’ I replied, trying not to raise my voice. ‘I simply will not allow children to die for my cause.’

‘I told you he won’t change his mind,’ Joseph murmured, and Angela cut him a dirty look.

‘Unless you provide me with clear evidence that shows me that killing those children will help, then my answer will remain the same.’

‘I do not know what more evidence we can give you,’ Angela said plainly. ‘It will give us greater numbers, add diversity to our troops with the addition of witches and wizards, which will in turn allow for a wider variety of tactics, and it’s what the children want.’

‘To put it simply, I don’t give a damn about what those kids want. I doubt that any of them have the slightest idea of how horrible the battlefield truly is. If they even come across a dead body I don’t think they’ll be able to cope.’

‘We even have the transport sorted out,’ Angela resumed, ignoring what I had said. ‘Rex Aquarum and its one hundred and fifty bedrooms can house the students on their way back. That’s why we brought Asbel with us. He and Matthew have both said that they are more than happy for the ship to be put to use this way.’

I glared at Asbel. ‘Really?’

‘We’ve gotta consider all the angles,’ Kelly said quietly before Asbel could respond. ‘What if some of the kids only want to come down here to get closer to Maltor and defect over? If we’re being realistic, up to half of the kids we bring over could end up fighting us. We would literally be feeding him more fighters. That’d be on our hands.’

We all stared at her. Nobody said a word for a moment. During this time, I tried to assess the situation.

As it stood, me, Joseph, and Kelly appeared to be against the offer. Asbel, Angela, and Beth seemed to be all for it. Matthew was ambiguous.

I would not allow children to die for me. Unless we had a way of keeping them completely safe as they fought, then my answer would stay the same. Of course, staying completely out of harm’s way in a fight was impossible, so it was safe to say that my answer was secure.

‘If you don’t mind me asking, sir,’ Beth said quietly, ‘why did you allow your friends on the battlefield the other day but you won’t allow trained magical students?’

‘Get your facts right,’ I countered immediately. ‘The only one that I ‘allowed’ on the battlefield was Ethan, who just spent six months training with me, so I knew he could handle it. My other friends came on their own. Which, for the record, I did not want them to do.’

She stared at me blankly. ‘Then I suggest you bar them from the field if you aren’t going to allow Apercaput’s students to enter the fray.’

I realised something.

‘Hey, there’s a difference!’ Asbel cut in angrily. ‘We live here! We’re protecting our home! We’d be asking them to defend something that’s not theirs!’

‘Whilst also offering them housing, schooling and protection,’ Angela replied instantly. ‘It’s not as though we are throwing them onto the battlefield to die and not giving them anything.’

‘That’s exactly what we are expecting them to do,’ Joseph said clearly. ‘Asking them to fight is, in a sense, asking them to risk their lives. Whilst it is not guaranteed that they will die, it is highly likely that most of them will, depending on how far this escalates.’

‘If they want to come, then by all means we should let them,’ Matthew said simply, diminishing his ambiguity. ‘It would be ideal if we did not employ children, but if they want to then they should be able to.’

‘That’s horrific,’ Joseph breathed, but he was interrupted by Beth.

‘That’s a good idea, we can employ them. Pay them like any other soldier. Not only give them housing and schooling but offer them payment for every time they fight.’

‘That’s where I draw the line,’ Asbel said quietly. ‘That’s disgusting. You can’t pay them to die. You know damn well that if there’s a profit incentive then the students will fight as much as they can. If that’s what you plan to do with Koning van de wateren, then I won’t allow you to step foot onboard.’

‘Apercaput, right?’ I said, barely above a whisper.

‘Yes, sir,’ Beth replied tightly. ‘That is who made the offer.’

‘There’s no way…’

I rose slowly from my seat, my mind reeling. Grandad’s words poured back into my mind.

‘Albert? You good?’ Asbel said, worry slowly seeping into his voice.

‘I know someone who goes to Apercaput,’ I breathed.

‘Are you sure?’ Asbel asked, his eyebrows raised. ‘We’ve never been.’

‘Grandad…he told me that one of my cousins is still alive. Harvey…he goes to Apercaput.’

Nobody said a word. Nobody even moved.

My mind felt both blank and full. This was my chance. Who knew when an opportunity so perfect would next arise?

‘Don’t tell me that’s what’s changed your mind,’ Angela said quietly, her eyes wide. ‘All of our convincing and someone you’ve never met before is what makes up your mind?’

‘It’s not just ‘someone’, Angela,’ I replied defiantly. ‘He’s the only family I have left.’

Everyone stared at me in silence.

‘Sir? Are you really going to do this just because of your cousin? Couldn’t we just bring him over?’ Joseph said desperately. ‘What if he doesn’t even want to come?’

‘That could work,’ Beth replied, grinning. ‘We go to Apercaput, ask for the kids that want to come, and hope that Harvey is one of ‘em. If he isn’t then it’s tough luck, but it’s our best chance of getting him.’

‘Joseph’s right, though,’ I said quietly. ‘We can’t kill kids just cuz I want to see my cousin.’

‘How’s this?’ Angela said quickly. Evidently, she had come up with an idea and wanted to get it out before I changed my mind again. ‘Before they’re allowed on the battlefield, they’ve gotta pass some sort of test. If they can’t pass the test, then they stay at one of our schools until they can.’

I thought very hard for a moment. That was a good idea. If we were worried about them getting killed, then we just had to prep them to keep themselves alive, right? We just had to get them to show that they could fight well, right?

‘Asbel, over the next few days, you, Matthew, and a few other mechanics check over Rex Aquarum and make sure that he’s ready for the flight to Apercaput. Angela, Beth, find some teachers that are capable of making a good enough test. Joseph, Kelly, you two will check that the test is adequate. Deal?’

Everyone just stared at me. None of them could seem to comprehend why my cousin was the turning point in this whole thing.

‘Deal,’ Asbel and Matthew said together, and everyone else slowly followed. Joseph was last.

‘I apologise to those who do not agree with me,’ I said plainly. ‘But this means a lot to me. I have to meet Harvey. I’ll fly there myself if I must.’

‘So long as this truly helps win the war then I suppose I will have to turn a blind eye and be okay with it,’ Joseph responded quietly.

‘Thanks, sir. Now, come on, we’ve gotta get this whole thing ready.’