Alrai was the first to notice them, grinning from ear to ear. Ethra was next, with his usual expressionless face, characteristic of the Grahams. He didn’t even bother to do the fake forced smile he did to Nereus on the airship.

Velvet peeked from between the ‘bars’ of the vine jail Dianthus put her in. “Alrai! Oh, how much I missed you!”

“What did you do now?” Alrai asked, looking between her and Dianthus.

“Nothing! I am innocent!”

“We all know that isn’t true.” Dianthus said.

“It is if she pleads insanity.” Ethra said.

Velvet looked straight to him, a not well meaning smile in her lips. “I don’t know… I was pretty sober when I killed your brother.”

The next instant, several knives shot towards her. Velvet had the umbrella ready, but she didn’t even need to bother. Dianthus simply knocked the knives away with some stolen vines.

“So, about your innocence…” He started.

“I’m still innocent! He had it coming!”

Clearly annoyed at the interference, Ethra scoffed. "I have no quarrel with you. Whatever your business is, cut it short." He finished, some disdain in his voice.

“Cut it short? Why? Don’t you care for your legs?” Dianthus raised one hand, his palm open and fingers together, covering Ethra’s legs. Then, he raised his hand, covering Ethra’s head. “Or… is your head the one you don’t want?”

Ethra squinted, the threat clear in his mind. Unlike Igern, may he rest in peace, he had no reason nor desire to confront the Chosen One. His problem lay with the girl behind him, who was resting her arms against the vine bars while looking at their quarrel with a mocking smile, as if a theater play was going on.

Yes, Velvet had more than realized Dianthus wanted her unharmed. He wasn’t exactly subtle, and, since she doubted it was for a good motive, she needed to prevent it at all costs.

So, opening her mouth again, she kept on provoking. “Aww, are you scared? You know who else got scared when going against a bigger enemy? Your big bro-”

“Shut up.” Ethra said between his teeth, his patience hitting its limit.

Why can't you simply ask for help like a normal human being? Instead of doing whatever the hell you’re doing? Dianthus really wanted to sew her mouth shut. Wait, where is the other guy?

A sharp sting hit his back, and he fell like a broken toy, his spine broken.

Alrai put one foot over him, and then another, using him as a stand before doing a reverence, making sure Dianthus felt his heels’ pressure. “And thus, our beloved 'maiden in distress' gets saved by the jester.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Velvet clapped, her voice filled with emotion. “Such a heartwarming tale! Ethra, why aren’t you clapping?”

Ethra was confused, and angry, mostly angry, his attention going back and forth between Alrai and Velvet, before setting on Alrai. “Explain.”

Alrai pressed his lips in a thin line, looking at Velvet. “I can assure you, he would’ve eventually come to the answer on his own.”

“I was betting on him not doing so, so allow me to differ.” Velvet said, still behind the vines. “But I’ll give him points for not losing his cool.”

Before Ethra could complain, Alrai pressed his feet down, keeping Dianthus’ back broken and unhealed. “Ethra, why would a caged, unarmed and defenseless mage insist on provoking an enemy?”

Ethra kept silent.

“Alrai, you explain stuff like shit.” Velvet said. “Listen to me. How are magic tricks performed? And I don’t mean magic magic, I mean showman’s magic.” She lifted one hand, a string of paper figurines with their hands joined sliding down. “First, you bait people’s attention, so they don’t notice the trick, and then…” The paper figurines light up, sparking in a colorful rain.

“You show them magic.” She finished, now out of the cage.

Ethra squinted. She had toyed with him, using his hostility as a tool to distract Dianthus from Alrai. But, for what? Dianthus was protecting her, in a way. He strained his mind, not wanting to be mocked again.

Slowly, he came to an answer. Well, not much of an answer than a string of recurring events during his life. Namely, the ‘recruitment’ Arhotissian mages did to Charlampian mages every now and then to make them change fates.

Like with Nebura Dorna, it wasn’t just a singular case. Ethra now understood the reason behind the over the top hostility Velvet had against Dianthus.

It was also one of his mother's worries, since it was clearly a way to destabilize and weaken the Charlampian mage families. And it was slowly working, shown in the constantly decreasing number of mages affiliated to that region.

And it's not like they could complain, being the losing side of the war.

Still, being the last one to realize what Velvet and Alrai planned after just exchanging gazes bothered him. It wasn’t jealousy, it was the firm line between mages with field experience and housecat-like mages.

Housecat mages was the term used for the opposite of wandering mages, but it wasn’t used exactly as a compliment. Usually used for descendants of powerful families, who were raised between concerns for their safety, due to the hostile nature of mages; rich in resources, spells and knowledge, but poor in real-life situations.

An example of housecat mages included: Syon, Gertine, Creftalia and Ethra himself.

Creftalia was babysitted by Igern, and it was known how that turned out; Syon had three mages babysitting him, but he was trained by Kartal, which reduced his housecat mage state.

Gertine and Ethra had a bit more freedom, but, in reality, there was always another mage supervising them, and that ended up affecting their skills development.

In housecat mages’ defense, they had way more enemies and dangers to their life than wandering mages, so giving freedom to them was equal to putting a target on their back and tossing them into a shooting range.

That was the principal reason the Mergifari had so many safety measures to prevent murders. After all, it was established by and for ancient mage lineages, and, the older a family was, the more enemies they ended up developing with time. Murders still happened, but were extremely isolated cases, and never to members of big families.

Ironically, the majority of murders in the Mergifari had wandering mages as victims, with housecat mages as perpetrators, just the opposite of the cases outside.

Alas, if one wanted a more offensive term used for wandering mages, stray mages was the one commonly used.

Saying that, having an overprotective childhood didn’t exactly benefit them towards scheming mages.

“He’s a ‘Recruiter’?” He finally said. Alrai smiled proudly at his deduction.

Am I a what now? Dianthus thought, still feeling the heel’s pressure on his back. Well, honestly, that deduction made more sense than the truth, so he couldn’t exactly complain.

“That changes nothing.” He added, shortly after. “Personally, I don’t care if you sold yourself to Arhontissa, Idir, or whoever wanted you, you still-”

“Killed my brother, who I must avenge!” She finished the sentence, and waved her hand, not interested in discussing the morality of her murder with Ethra. “I know, I know, cut it out.”

Ethra’s brows frowned, but was interrupted by Alrai, who spoke first. “Well then, I guess our ‘truce’ is over.”

“Of course.” Velvet proceeded to raise the hand she hadn’t shown during her ‘magic trick’. A long, black chain was dangling from it, and they didn’t see the end. “I never said my goal was teaming up with you two, did I?”

Something scraped the floor around them, hidden in the debris.

Ethra refused to take a step back, even when he felt the disadvantage. And Alrai had to keep still, or Dianthus would just regenerate.

Without noticing anything, all three of them had fallen into Velvet's trap, without her having to lift a single finger.