“I thought you weren’t going to sit with us?” Amaro snickered.

“Shut your mouth, Xirxus. I merely obey the will of the emperor.”

“Well since you’re here I wanna hear more about mama’s side of the family!” Kaara said.

“I’m sure you would.”

“So tell me!”

Amaro couldn’t help but grin. Family didn’t seem to change between bloodlines.

A hand clapped on his shoulder. It was Raktus, “Brother, is it true? Were you defeated by the Tibur girl?” he said in a low whisper.

Amaro nodded, “It’s no secret, Raktus. And there’s no shame in it either. It just means I’ll have to marry her when we’re both of age.”

“Is that so? You truly are a model to follow, brother.”

“Good luck in your rematch, by the way.”

“I won’t need it, but I thank you for it just the same.”

Sancta sat across from him, arms crossed as she was slumped in her chair, “Sancta, adopt good posture at the dinner table,” Amaro said.

She rolled her eyes, “As if you’re in any position to be teaching me about manners. I’m pretty sure ‘Don’t show up looking like a pig in the mud’ is far more important dinner table etiquette than posture.”

“True enough I suppose,” Amaro shrugged.

“You don’t seem too broken up about the loss, brother. Could it be you intentionally lost?” Anitus chimed in.

“My opponent was not only Kaara, but Prince Deka as well. It was a challenge beyond my capacity, I'm afraid.”

“Probably gave up midway like you always do,” Anitus mumbled under his breath.

Amaro ignored it.

“You certainly would have had different results if you took that challenge, Anitus. Your fire element would have been useful for clearing the fog and snow golems she created. Not to mention, you’re a lot more competitive than I.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Amaro, and I know you know that.” Anitus said, hiding his smile with a sip of his drink.

“Whatcha- What are you guys talking about over here?” Kaara said, leaning in and invading Sancta’s bubble.

Amaro found it rather humorous how those two had been seated shoulder to shoulder.

“I think my siblings would like to hear about everything you did in our little game. I’m sure even they would be impressed by the level of mastery you showed with your magic,” He said.

“Oh! Yeah, well it wasn’t much, I knew your brother and Deka would be really fast and perceptive, so I covered the forest in fog first.”

“The entire forest?” Anitus said with a skeptical glance to Amaro who affirmed her claim.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh that was just the beginning of it, brother,” Amaro said with a cheeky grin.

They conversed with one another for the rest of the night. Kaara was so reserved, always stuttering a bit whenever she told her stories.

She was a bit clumsy too, spilling a few drinks when her hands spread out to describe something. The way she ate was rather cute and awkward too. Usually cutting off big portions only to lightly nibble at them.

He did wonder how her plates had ended up empty considering how slow she liked to eat. Time must have flown faster than he thought.

At the adult table, many of the nobility had gotten drunk. Some were off to the dueling grounds, others holding each other’s shoulder as they paced and stumbled about like newborn deer.

When everyone had filled their bellies on drake meat steaks and Panther Wine, it was time for the ballroom dance.

Amaro and the rest of his siblings had of course been trained in dance to help with their timing during battle. As Amaro recalled, much of xiozian dance culture was either derived from, or contributing in some way to combat.

A good dancer was also a graceful fighter, and Amaro knew exactly who he wanted to dance with.

He offered his hand to Kaara, who oh so bashfully accepted it. She stepped in tune with him, her rhythm was astounding. Was there anything she couldn’t do?

“I must say, your dancing is impeccable,” He mentioned.

“Oh! Thanks. It was my favorite thing to learn when my mother taught me.”

“It was my favorite lesson too,” Amaro lied. He had actually hated learning how to dance. He had often called it utterly useless, but right now it was the most useful skill he had learned. Dancing was awesome.

“This dance is a lot different from the ones I grew up learning. But it’s got the same rhythm, so it just came easy.”

“You’ll have to teach me that dance sometime. I’d love to have you as my partner.” Amaro said.

“Well, it’s more of a solitary dance, but I can teach it to you!” She grinned, taking a spin and trading partners, “Until next time.”

Amaro looked on, accidentally stepping over his new partner’s toes in the process. He wouldn’t forget this night as long as he lived.

He only hoped she felt the same.

By the end of the night, Lorshiir had brought him a new pair of clothes and ushered him and his siblings into their carriage.

It was drawn by four Sleipnir stallions, each of which had eight sets of limbs, and boney exoskeletons around their heads that looked like a skull mask. Wispy clouds of vapor and frost poured from their gray-black fur.

Their second pair of limbs also had strange spindly digits which allowed it to climb up cliffsides as fast as they could run across a flat plain.

Humans might have considered the monsters, but these creatures were Magakos despite their taste for meat and blood.

Despite their many limbs, it did not make their carriage ride any less bumpy, but seeing as they were crossing rocky terrain at high speeds, it could have been a lot worse.

With him were Anitus, Sancta, and his father. Raktus and Lorshiir had taken a different carriage along with a Venator Knight who had been guarding the tower.

Amaro had to wonder why.

“Oh! Look outside,” Sancta said with a rare excitement in her voice, “The World Tree is feeding on the river right now, look!”

Amaro looked outside to see several large currents of water levitating out of the river and spiraling towards the Ingen tree.

“Normally it sustains itself with the water from the clouds, but when an Ingen tree needs to store water for the winter, it will gravitate water towards it using water Aix. That’s how we know plants like trees are also capable of having souls just like us.”

Amaro smirked, she only ever got excited about nerdy facts like that. It made sense, the more she knew about biology, the stronger her magic was.

Either way, it was a breathtaking sight that only reminded Amaro of Kaara again. He saw the currents of water wrap and twist up into the branches of The Great Ingen tree. There was a pulse of light which brought an artificial morning to the night.

The branches of the Ingen Tree were burning gold like the sun itself.

“Wow! I didn’t think I’d get to see one of those.” Sancta said, her voice nearly squealing.

It was times like these Amaro was reminded of how she used to be.

“What is it? What happened?” Amaro asked.

“Ingen trees are connected to the divine cycle, and so they respond to souls as they pass on. If The World Tree’s branches are burning gold, then that means a god has just been slain and fragments of their soul are being consumed by the tree.”

Kadmus crossed his arms, “Then that could only mean one thing," He said, his face deathly serious, "A new godslayer has been born.”