Raoul lay in bed, holding onto Jacob, smiling in the aftermath.
Jacob said, “He’s too far above us.”
Raoul scrunched his face. “Who— Oh. Mark? Totally. Still nice to know him, though. Total downer, but that’s to be expected.”
Jacob slapped Raoul’s chest, but he kept his head there. “Rude.”
Raoul chuckled. “We’re going with a COFR assignment anyway. If we’re lucky we might get him in our party, but I doubt it. He’s still under that… Inquisition Watch, or whatever.”
Jacob sat up, smiling.
Raoul looked up at him. “What?”
“You and I are partying, right?”
Raoul’s heart beat hard. “Yeah. I want to. You want to?”
Jacob grinned softly. “I hadn’t actually asked yet… I didn’t know.”
“Yeah. We’re in a party together, for sure. A Kinetic and a Natural is a very good start.”
Jacob scoffed.
Raoul smiled as he added, “But most importantly, you’re cute.”
Jacob laughed.
- - - -
Svea sat on the edge of the diving pool, all the water glowing and all the night dark and starry. She wasn’t the only one at the pool, for the night guard was up and Citadel Freyala never slept, even more than most places in the world. Svea loved the night life. She loved seeing the hovercars take off like dots in the night, and watching them circle Citadel beyond the wall; on patrol and guarding humanity. She loved knowing that someone was awake while she slept.
She was going to transfer her status to night guard.
Yes.
She had made the decision, just now. She was going to do it.
She hadn’t been sure of it before, but that team selection at Black Chess cleared up a lot of lingering doubts.
All of those guys were daytimers. Svea stayed up late and woke up later, and she’d much rather just live at night, like 10% of the population tried to live. That’s why she was so scared of monkey-type monsters. Trees were fucking terrifying at night. Even with the night-vision magic she was learning, it was still terrifying to be under big trees out in the forests beyond the walls. Years ago, Svea had been on a camping trip with her parents beyond the wall, in a safe part of the world, but it had not been safe at all.
It was never safe out there, and it was worse at night.
So Svea would just stay up at night from now on.
Since she didn’t want future complications from conflicting schedules, it was time to go to the night shift right now. She’d still go to sparring 101 in the morning, though. That was early enough. It would be her last stop of the ‘day’. All of her classes had night guard versions, though, and with less people in them. Maybe she’d even get better contracts from the night guard than the ones the day guard had offered her for magical training.
Svea spent the entire night awake for what might have been the hundredth time in her life.
She loved it.
- - - -
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Inside their family mansion, in the great hall, Pako knelt on the plush purple carpet in front of Grandmother.
Nala knelt beside him.
Both of them sought refuge in audacity tonight, and their audacity had been proven correct, no matter what COFR had told Grandmother on that golden-glowing phone she held in her hand. They had met Mark and had a good night! And then they had come home and been summoned the very second they stepped back onto household grounds.
Grandmother had been waiting for them like a spectre in her blue-flowered nightgown, holding onto her cane with one hand and the glowing golden phone with the other, as she stood in the great hall.
Grandmother frowned at both of them.
She would make them sit in silence as she glared at them for a little while longer, but probably not too long. They hadn’t done anything disastrous. Just ill-advised.
Grandmother tapped her cane on the carpet, the thud of it breaking the silence of the grand hall. “I do not appreciate official correspondence from Holy Mother Julia Garin telling me to control my family, and to stay far away from an official investigation.”
Oh.
That was bad.
Pako started to sweat.
Nala didn’t fare much better.
Grandmother told them, “It would not be such a bad thing, what you did, if you had come at Mark honestly. The outcome was done well. But you circled Svea, securing an invitation to a potential team selection meeting you had no part in attending, to meet with the tri-Talent who is under demonic investigation, and you spoke of dishonor to the military to make him see you as something of kin. This is too much. Even if it was a good night, it is too much.”
Pako and Nala both kowtowed at the same time. “We are sorry, Grandmother.”
“Pray that the cousins don’t hear of you tarnishing our military…” Grandmother sighed. “Tell me how it went, but first, tell me why those three children even decided to have a team selection meeting so early. It might be understandable for those three to speak to that boy about being a team this early, for they knew he would be taken from them and they had to strike, but why did you strike now? That is the problem I have. He will be here for half a year! Maybe a full year. Rise and speak. Nala; you first.”
They both straightened.
Nala said, “After hearing his disposition from Svea, and knowing of Svea’s trouble with gaining arcane knowledge, we knew we had to strike. We gave her a small tome and spoke of futures… and some minor events happened and we ended up getting an invitation, since we already knew both Raoul and Jacob.”
An abbreviated tale, for sure. But abbreviations were fine. The minutia didn’t matter much to Grandmother.
Grandmother looked at Pako. “What did you hope to gain by approaching him now?”
Pako easily said, “A long term contact. Something to come to fruition in years. We won’t be sticking around at Citadel for more than a few more weeks, anyway. We had to go now, or nevermore.”
Grandmother huffed. “You have three days to pledge yourself to Freyala, to secure the highest ranks of Chosen Power possible. You will be leaving Citadel for our Okuana embassy in a week. You will not interfere in any more demonic investigations and you will stay away from Mark Careed. If he should seek you out, you will tell him the truth of your family, if he should ask.”
Pako wanted to rail against the need to serve, but he knew he had overstepped his bounds already.
Nala crushed down her own rage.
Pako and Nala kowtowed. “Yes, Grandmother.”
“Raise your heads.” Grandmother looked upon them as kindly as she could allow, and said, “That boy will either go far, or fall hard. Pray he learns to accept the things he cannot change, because Addashield’s dragon is already acting to bring forth an age of peace to Both Worlds. He’s up to 2,500 kilograms of adamantium gifted to most large nations in the Two Worlds, 12 lesser dragons killed, 3 dragons killed, and 34 long-problematic kaijus eliminated. He even killed the Eater and gave us an ocean wall, like at Orange City. Four hours ago this happened. He was there and then gone! Too fast. A hundred kilometers of wall, done in an hour! He only requested a kinder outlook to him than what he has been getting elsewhere.”
Pako and Nala both went wide-eyed. Nala even gasped.
An ocean wall?
“Yes,” Grandmother said, “The Niger Delta has been expanded in ways we never considered possible. We do not believe it is a trap, but we are wary. Either way, all the world is changing, children. When Mark finds out that the world is going to crown him a hero for his sacrifices, and anoint that dragon an ally of humanity, Mark will either take it well, or poorly. House Shehu will not be involved in that. With any luck, the boy will be a footnote in history, though I doubt a tri-Talent could ever be a footnote.”
Pako’s heart beat hard. This much had happened already? How fast was Addashield’s dragon moving? Too fast! Way too fast! And the response from the world? To accept these gifts from the dragon?!
Gifts from a High Dragon?!
Impossible!
Pako asked, declared, “But Addashield’s dragon is a High Dragon!”
Nala breathed in deeply, agreeing with Pako, but saying nothing.
Grandmother simply said, “I am as surprised as you, but there are certain precedents. All of Daihoon used to live under dragonrule, after all. Some of them are still out there, and…”
Pako’s eyes were opened wide that night.