Kyrion walked at a casual pace as he headed to his destination. His steps were not fast or slow; as he did so, he became harder to track, becoming one with the crowd. The smell of fried gatosarus made an excellent cover as he covered his red mane with a hood while slipping a mask over his mouth.

“Freshly hunted sarus tail get your saurs tail here!” Despite its high nutritional value and excellent taste, the vendor had a small line as many seemed uncomfortable eating monster meat.

Kyrion stopped by and ordered a skewer with a voice much deeper and more suitable for someone with his statue. It only cost him a bit of mana and a lot of control.

As he sat at the booth and began attempting to eat his prize, an armored hand gripped his shoulder.

“Sorry but we must ask that you remove your hood. There is a very dangerous fugitive rugitive supeted of murdering the captian of the city guard. The suspects name is Kyrion and he has red hair and a large build.”

“Oh? I must inform you that I am not this Kyrion.” Kyrion pulled down his hood, and like magic, his wild red hair was now a mane of curly black hair shorter than it was moments before. Even his eyebrows had shifted to match. That didn’t hide his eyepatch, however.

“Sorry for the trouble sir. Won’t happen again.” A guard bowed before retreating.

“Mistakes happen. Just because I’m big doesn’t mean that I’m your person. There are plenty of us, after all.

The guard stood there awkwardly before retreating a few feet.

Kyrion noted that the guard rested his hand on his hilt and tightened a few muscles.

“I see. What’s your name sir?”

“Sir?” Kyrion paused as people rarely addressed him with that title, which confused him.

“Your name is Sir. Are you a knight?” The grip tightened, and mana slowly began to coat the blade.

“No, Sirbastian is my name. I really should get going. I have a busy schedule.”

“Odd name. That eyepatch. Where did you get it?” The guard asked calmly.

Kyrion grabbed his food skewer from the table and reinforced it with mana using it to intercept the sword aimed at his neck.

“Oh, you're a quick one, aren’t you?”

“And you don’t know who you’re messing with.” Kyrion held the blade in place with his wooden skewer.

The guard drew their sword back and swung again, putting his full force behind the attack.

Kyrion stopped the strike aside with his skewer again with a bit of ease.

“Final chance to surrender. Shouldn’t you be asking more questions or at least try to take me in to be judged?” Kyrion stepped back, twirling the stick through his fingers with just as much ease.

“Die!” The guard thrust forward, attempting to disembowel Kyrion.

“Fledglings shouldn’t attack those much stronger than them.” Was Kyrion’s response as he drove the skewer through the wrists of the sword using guard.

“Agh! You bastard. I’ll kill you!”

“O.k. Now listen here. I don’t like threats so I’ll take this as you being blinded by grief and rage. So I’ll let you off easy.” Kyrion took the sword from the guard’s pinned hands and threw it in his domain.

The guard attempted to headbutt Kyrion as his hands were unusable.

Kyrion dodged the attack using his foot to trip the man. A second skewer was used to sever the guard’s Achilles tendon leaving him prone and writhing in pain.

The guard seemed to begin frothing at the mouth and started wiggling towards him.

Kyrion grabbed a tankard belonging to a customer that had vacated when the fight began and poured it on the madman.

The man soon stopped moving.

“So you know. I didn’t start this. You all saw him draw his sword on me, right?” Kyrion looked to the other customers, who began backing away.

“I’ll testify. This doesn’t sit well.” The chef was an older man with a scar that passed diagonally across his face and various other marks of battle. By his barring, Kyrion could tell that this man was at least a practitioner.

“Did you hunt the beast that you served yourself?” Kyrion asked the cook.

“Now isn’t the time to be asking questions.” The chef stated as he nodded his head towards where a contingent of guards headed their way.

Kyrion decided to run. Anyone strong enough to recognize him would either leave him alone or try to capture him.

As the boy entered the crowd, his eyepatch disappeared, and his outfit changed as he was now wearing a common tunic and work pants, a shovel in his hands and his short black hair made him look like your average farmer. Aside from his build, he shouldn’t be recognizable.

Still, Kyrion made sure to weave his way through crowds and actively tried to disappear.

Within minutes he was free of his pursuers and on the Norn’s campus. The boy then opened up his senses catching onto Jesse, who happened to be the closest person he knew.

The chestnut-haired boy was talking to a brown-haired boy with glasses and a streak of gray hair that seemed to show signs of stress. The most notable thing about the boy, however, seemed to be how every one of his movements was measured.

Kyrion scratched his chin and hid a smirk.

“Jesse! Who’s your friend?” Kyrion said, ending their conversation.

“Huh?” Jesse seemed shocked, while the boy in glasses didn’t even pretend that this wasn’t part of his plan.

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“Chester. I am Lady Asela’s personal aid.” Chester bowed his hand over his chest.

“I see. So you must be his apprentice.” Kyrion had a suspicion.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Chester tried to lie.

“Either Charles is training you or you’re a threat to Asela’s safety. Given that I can tell we’re both running similar con’s at our schools I recommend answering truthfully.”

“Similar? I don’t run around making a fool out of our top brass.”

“But you could. If you needed too. You just come across as an efficient person. But I digress, do you know why guards are after me?”

“Who are you?” Jesse asked before he collapsed into Chester’s arms.

“You didn… Guess you did actually. I do not know who sent them but I do know something is fishy. The captain died and a group of guards are using that as an excuse to abuse their position. Similarly I don’t know why they care about someone like you in the first place.”

“Good. Good.” Kyrion began to circle around Chester, his muscles visibly tensing as the boy seemed to eye his prey.

Chester looked Kyrion in his eyes before catching on.

Kyrion threw a wide punch meant to take Chester’s head off.

Chester rolled to the side, barely evading as the wide blow connected with something hard. A crunching sound reverberated as Kyrion incapacitated his hidden pursuer.

“Took me too long to notice that one.” Kyrion scratched his chin.

“When did he get there?” Chester asked.

“I noticed him when you knocked out Jesse. He must have just arrived as that was when the grass began to press down where he was standing.”

“How did you notice something as minute as that?”

“Training. Now can you tell me where Noah is resting?”

“He’s already entered secluded training. I can take a message.”

“Tell him that he won’t be fighting me in the upcoming tournament. Also tell him that he should have been able to counter the black sand as it was mostly metal.”

“Why give up your strategy?”

“Because I stole it from someone else. I once asked a friend how he’d deal with someone who wore armor and moved quickly. He told me to first prevent their movement, then he told me to make their armor work against them.”

“Amadeus? I guess we are similar.”

“Looks like you’ve done your research. I look forward to seeing you beat my team in the upcoming tournament.” Kyrion turned and watched as a black dagger came soaring at him.

Kyrion caught the burning dagger, looking for his attacker when a set of manacles restrained him, and his body floated two feet off the ground.

A man with stitches over his mouth approached him, and Kyrion felt his connection with his mana vanish.

Kyrion tried to cry out, but no words came out.

“Hey what are you doing!” Chester put up a front.

“Kyrion is wanted for the murder of Captain Vendral and his elite guard, as well as the slaughter of Tovile, espionage, and entering the capital without optining an entry permit.”

Kyrion floated above, a bit irritated. He would get to the bottom of this if he had to break this city apart piece by piece.

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Cordelia sat across from headmaster Caeden.

“They arrested my son and you want me to sit here and do nothing?” Cordelia’s calm tone betrayed her anger like a tiger hiding behind a veil.

The silhouette can be seen, but it has yet to make itself known.

“I can get him out by tomorrow afternoon. Thing is, this situation is tricky.”

“How so?”

“Well, he maimed a guard. Eyewitnesses say the guard drew his weapon first but….”

“He attacked a guard. While the guard was out of line, Kyrion isn’t of this land.”

“Gotta love politics.”

“What do they want?” Cordelia asked.

“Nothing so far. They don’t want trust in the city guard to drop so if they try to execute him then I imagine riots would start.”

“Mmmhmmm.”

“Anyhow they’d want to do this trial by the book. Did your son have an alibi?”

“He was carrying his girl friend back to campus after she collapsed. He didn’t run, the boy was very careful and a lot of people saw him.”

“Girlfriend? When? Who?”

“It’s complicated. The one they call Nicole.”

“Take the teleporter to Drisil and rest Kyrion should be back in a no longer than a week.”

“He’s going to try to break out? Probably succeed you can’t hold an ocean in a cup of water.”

“He was seen as a threat and has been subdued by the voiceless.”

“He isn’t even an expert.”

“But they are a third party. One that wouldn’t try to kill him without just cause.” Caeden said.

“I don’t like this Caeden.” Cordelia stood up.

“Me either. I’ll stay nearby. Just in case.” Caeden tipped over an empty glass. His body vanished as it shattered.

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“Well Brion’s going to be disappointed.” Tiffany muttered as she led Eden and Bastion to the teleporter.

“Are they going to execute Kyrion?” Bastion asked.

“Slaughter? He wouldn’t do something like that would he?” Eden asked.

“He totally would if they were bad guys.” Bastion answered.

“No, he wouldn’t. Kyrion doesn’t kill people. Monsters with levels of sentience? If they have already taken a life or will do so.”

“But the slavers…Were killed by my people. It was their choice to get revenge.”

“As for your question, if they try to execute Kyrion there are going to be quite a few problems. He’s wanted by a few organizations. Some for religious reasons others for less than reputable ones. If anything they want answers and think he is the easiest way to get them.”

“So they picked him up for no reason?” Eden grimaced.

“No. Chances are that a slaughter did occur but the culprit isn’t someone we know.”

“I see. So, everyone I knew before coming here, my friends. They’re dead.” Eden didn’t cry. It was clear she was holding it back, however. This wasn’t the time or the place to mourn.

“I’ll get you all somewhere safe.” Tiffany led the kids towards the nearest shrine to Imala. A place that lets one teleport from one shrine to another for a price. Those of devout faith, however, received a discount. Public teleportation was heavily documented, and just in case, the user was of less than honorable conscience.

Their trip back to Drisil only cost them 750 gold.

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Chester knocked on Asela’s door before taking a step back.

“What do you want? It’s almost time for lights out.” Asela said a bit grumpily from the other side.

“It’s me, Milady. I come with dreadful news. Kyrion has been arrested for the murder of the guard captain, along with some other charges.” Chester would have continued, but the sound of a body hitting the floor stopped him.

“Nicole! Get back to bed, you're exhausted.” Asela ordered.

“But Kyrion beads our help!” Nicole said in a daze.

“You’re not even speaking straight. You can wait until morning. Not much you can do now except go to your own room.”

“Oh right. What happened?”

“Kyrion carried you back after you collapsed.”

“Oh. I’ll go get some sleep.” Nicole left the room, her face as red as an apple.

“Chester, please procure transportation for tomorrow morning.” Asela looked to Chester.

“Yes milady.” The door closed.

“Thank you.” Asela whispered.