A darker skinned, lanky man stood at the doorway assessing Kaden’s every move. Slowly slipping his arms into the new robe, the man didn’t wait for him to fully dress before he entered the room and clapped his hands. The glowstone above them sparked to life and glowed brightly.

All he had to do was clap and the thing would have got brighter? He let out a laugh at the absurdity of it.

“This isn’t a laughing matter,” the man chided. “The first rider we’ve had in ages and you try starting an international war.”

“I was trying to save people.”

“You were trying to cause issues. Who put you up to it? Was it that damn Lidvus? He wanted to make me look bad, didn’t he?”

Squinting his eyes together in disbelief, Kaden popped them open again and just shook his head as his new companion started pacing the room.

“That fool planned this, I’m sure. He always wanted my job. He can’t even run a temple without Dalphina. What makes him think he can do anything here?”

Kaden let out a sigh and said, “the rebels had attacked our train and tried to steal our dragons.”

“Ah yes, the rebels. It’s always some damn rebels we can blame. You know who it was? It was probably the earth nation.”

Kaden was completely baffled that this man who was supposed to be the revered ambassador. He was the man who would speak to the rest of the world on behalf of the water nation. That man was sitting here trying to find every scapegoat he could, so he didn’t have to accept the fact that something went wrong.

“They were house of the—”

“Yes, yes. House of the Serpent.” He waved his hand away and said, “three years ago they were the Wolf Clan. Years before that, they were the Huntresses. There’s always some type of nefarious group we can blame for these things.”

“They had the pins on their bodies, we found them on their—”

“Probably planted to make it look like they were serpents and not rebel Earth hooligans.”

Kaden’s mouth fell agape at the man. “It was probably that rider you came in with. I’m sure they planned this and the fact that she was with you was the perfect excuse.”

“Sayori is innocent.”

He waved his hand again, dismissing Kaden’s comment. “No earth nation member is innocent. They all have blood on their hands.”

Sayori was an incredible fighter and had said she knew the rebels. Shaking his head, he pushed the traitorous thoughts away. “We had no idea who they were. They attacked us and tried to take our dragons. Why would they try to steal her dragon if she was one of them?”

The man stopped pacing and turned on his heel toward Kaden. “So some foolish boy would believe it and defend her. She’s about to be sent to every nation. She’s the perfect spy!”

“You’re sounding ridiculous.” He let out another laugh of disbelief and said, “I can’t believe this is what you’re doing here in the capital. You’re accusing other nations of villainy and avoiding an actual threat. It’s no wonder unrest is happening in our own nation, if even our representatives are behaving like this.”

The man leaned forward, glaring. “That’s rude.”

“And don’t you think that maybe you’re the one who’s being rude? We were viciously attacked! People died! And all you can do is think of how to be racist against the earth nation.”

The man pinched his lips together and leaned back, straightening his posture. “You’re correct. I am not listening to you. But the fact is, I don’t need to. Your thoughts, your opinions, they don’t matter to me. What matters is how I’m going to sell this mess to the council and get our country out of the line of fire.”

“You are so lucky Lord Commander Daralty was the one who picked you up,” he continued. “I have no idea how you managed to convince that stonewall of a man that you weren’t lying but he’s vouching for you.”

Kaden’s eyes cut away in thought. The Lord Commander believed them. He believed Kaden. Talking to him was the first thing he would do after he got himself out of the mess.

The door burst open, and a woman came stomping into the room. He caught Sayori slinking in behind, entering the prison cell as well.

“How dare your newbie mage cause such a disaster for my country!” she screamed.

There was apparently no professionalism between the ambassadors, he thought.

“My mage? How dare your mage bring rebels in order to destroy the rail network!”

The woman gasped. “The audacity! Why in the world would we bring the rebels anywhere? We do not support the rebels!”

“They just so happen to come from the earth nation and just so happen to know high lord rune knowledge. Puh-lease, Remni.”

“You’re gonna sit there and tell me that some random sheep loving farm boy not only got blessed by a wild matriarch, which don’t exist anymore, and happened upon a dragon in just a month’s time? Absolutely not. You country is hiding something, I can smell it.”

“All you smell is your own lies!”

Sayori slid as inconspicuously over to Kaden. He took a few steps back and joined her in the corner, away from the bickering ambassadors. She leaned over and rubbed her shoulder into his so she wasn’t fully greeting him with comfort, but she was letting him know she was there for him. He wasn’t used to people being so caring toward him.

Leaning into him she said, “did you know clapping turned on the lights?”

He couldn’t help but let out a surprised laugh. Both the Ambassador’s heads whipped over toward him, pausing only briefly before going right back into screaming at one another.

“Did she listen to what you had to say? He didn’t even really let me explain anything.”

She sighed and said, “a little bit. Once I told her how new of a magic user you were though, she got extremely angry. That’s when she marched over here. They do not like one another, do they?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Not at all.”

The two ambassadors were still yelling and throwing hands as they screamed at one another.

“I thought they were supposed to be all stuck up and professional.”

The deep voice of the Lord Commander answered with, “they are supposed to be professionals.”

Both ambassadors whirled around and gave deep bows toward the Lord Commander as they shut their mouths. Simply shaking his head at them, he made a firm motion for them to come near him, the same motion you’d make to a dog. A smirk crawled across Kaden’s face and he didn’t bother even trying to hide it.

“You two are acting like fools. These riders went about it wrong, but they were trying to save another nation’s mages. Acting like this is going to get both your nations thrown out of the court. Show them the respect they deserve.”

Both ambassadors hung their heads in embarrassment. The water nation ambassador took a deep breath, turned to Sayori and Kaden, and gave another deep bow. The earth nation ambassador quickly did the same.

“So rebels attacked you, tried to steal your dragons, you stopped them but not before they killed and injured a lot of wind mages as well as destroyed the rails?”

They both nodded in response to him. The man looked at the woman he had called Remni.

“How did rebels know they were even supposed to be on that train?”

Both ambassadors looked to the Lord Commander for an answer. His silence hung in the air. The water ambassador threw his hands in the air and let out a frustrated groan.

“First off, there are missing wind drakes, then we’ve got traps, and now straight dragon heists.” The man threw his hands in the air again before turning away from the group.

Putting her hand out toward him, the other ambassador said, “What traps?”

The ambassador’s face went red, and he looked at Kaden before turning away. He tried to physically avoid her question, to no avail.

Pointing at the two of them, she said, “what do you two know?”

“It is an internal nation matter and is of no concern of yours!”

“Clearly it is! Clearly, there is a pattern!”

Scrunching his nose up at her, his voice rose in volume again. “We don’t have to let every nation know every detail about our own internal politics!”

“Share with the class, Laramee!”

The Lord Commander’s voice cut through again and ordered them to silence once more. Without him there, Kaden wouldn’t have been surprised if the two of them had started exchanged blows with their words. They could see the irritation reflecting off the Lord Commander’s face.

He turned toward Kaden instead of the ambassador and asked, “What traps does he speak of?”

Kaden looked to the ambassador for guidance, but all he was doing was shaking his head and mouthing no to him. Looking back to the Lord Commander, the man’s eyes shimmered and reminded him once more of his vision. The commander was willing to battle darkness itself. He felt he could trust the man.

“Someone is kidnapping dragons in the water nation. They’re currently staging an investigation.”

Sayori’s head tilted, and she said, “the earth nation was sending them more glowstones to fuel this investigation.”

Remni’s gazed peered into Sayori as if it was trying to burn a hole in her soul. “Did he tell you about this? How do you know about this?”

“Deduction, Ambassador.”

“Deduction,” she rolled her eyes. “You deduced that’s what they are doing? Kids these days think they know everything.”

Sayori wasn’t going to back down being talked to that way and said, “I came into the station with a massive amount of glowstones that were being transferred right back to the water nation. You tell me why we would be sending way more glowstone than they have ever needed before if it wasn’t for a widespread investigation.”

The woman gritted her teeth and didn’t answer.

“What about Zuma?” Kaden cut in, trying to distract them from their rambling, and they all glared at him. “Did they cause any issues? Are our dragons okay?”

The Lord Commander had a hint of a smile before it faded away. “They are fine, they are being escorted into the stables as we speak.”

“Enough about the dragons,” said Ambassador Remni. “How are we going to handle this in front of the council?”

His own ambassador just huffed in response and crossed his arms. Kaden’s eyes flicked between the two of them. They were acting like stubborn children. “Maybe lean on the fact that our two nations were trying to help the wind nation?”

“Yeah, and the fact that someone was targeting the main trade rail to disrupt the entire realms economics? Focus on what we came to tell you, not our arrival.” Sayori was right in step with his thoughts. She was going to make a great traveling companion.

The water ambassador Laramee cut his hand out. “That’s giving them too much credit. They were probably just trying to steal your dragons, nothing more.”

“No one knew they were coming outside of the temples. You’re telling me that we have an internal leak?” said the earth ambassador Renmi.

“If we do, it is on your side not ours.”

“You’re the ones who are having internal investigations against dragon thievery as we speak! This is ridiculous! You’re ridiculous!”

“Enough,” the commander’s voice bellowed out again. “We are done with your behavior. This is serious. The new recruits are speaking truthfully and logically. You two are too focused on hating one another and not on what is at stake here.”

Both of them crossed their arms again and gave sideways glares before Laramee let out a huff. “Fine. Useless water boy, what do you think was the goal?”

“I think we were just a happy coincidence for them. The runed chains they used on our dragons were small and not something that would normally be used for such a dangerous task of capturing a dragon.”

Sayori nodded. “We only got news that we were leaving a day prior. That would have been a lot for them to get that info that quickly. Unless you have someone extremely deep in the higher reaches of the two nation’s temples, I don’t think they would have known we were both on that train. We didn’t even know we would both be on it. We just happened to find one another.”

Remni gave her a look of suspicion.

“If that was the main trade route, it is obvious that it would be a target, wouldn’t it?” said Kaden before Remni could make a snarky comment. “I don’t know much about economics but that should be obvious, shouldn’t it?”

The two ambassadors begrudgingly agreed. The commander shook his head at them and said, “Good, let’s go. The council is waiting.”

They both gave him an incredulous look. “No, we need more time.”

“I was ordered to come and escort the mages to the council room.”

Laramee smacked his forehead. “The council room? They’re doing this publicly? Why?”

Remni rolled her head around dramatically. “Because it’s that damn Malfor. He lives for the drama. Of course he is doing this publicly.”

The water ambassador stuck his hand out to the earth ambassador. “We will not let him make us look like fools. We attack this together.”

She hesitated briefly, but shook his hand. Kaden was pretty sure he witnessed the reality of how international deals were made. A little bit of screaming, a few insults, but ultimately they work together for a shared goal.

Immediately, both of their demeanor changed, and they seemed strangely pleasant and nice. Laramee had an unnerving smile as he nodded to Kaden and motioned them to follow the Lord Commander out the door. Sharing a look with one another, the two young mages cautiously followed.

Whatever rooms they were taken to weren’t too far from a large hall. Outside, there was a crowd of onlookers. Stairs on either side of the halls went up to a balcony above. Ornate white marble decorated everything. The whole place was extremely sterile and white. The only break in the monotony of it was a grand statue here and there.

Every eye was glued to them as they were being led down the hall toward open chambers. There were rows and rows of benches all facing a raised but curved altar that held several uncomfortable looking chairs looking down at the benches. The balcony around it also had rows of benches that were scaling up higher and higher so they could all see what was happening down below.

Kaden’s eyes were scanning the crowd when he came across a finely dressed young man staring daggers into him. His blond hair was so fair it made him stand out when surrounded by darker haired people. They all pushed themselves around him while the man was glaring at the two of them. Standing closely next to him was a redheaded girl looking panicked at the situation she found herself. She was clinging to his arm as he drove daggers through his gaze at them.

The Ambassadors advised them to sit down in some seats at the front of the council room before taking seats upon the altar. Various other important looking figures made their way toward those seats as well and the crowd quieted to a hush.

A white haired older man in the middle stood up and said, “Shall we begin? Ambassadors, please bring your mages to testify for their actions.”

Kaden and Sayori shared a look of utter fright before standing up in front of the crowd.