“Damned fool, I knew I should have woken up an hour earlier.” Reza cursed himself as he rushed through the grand entry of the Rewan Estate, his mood soured by the fact he was close to being late for the first day of training Lukas.

Reza stopped, knowing that he needed to calm himself before he continued. These emotions would ruin the start of Lukas’s training, and he did not want either himself nor Lukas to begin on the wrong foot and ruin the foundation they would begin to build. Reza stopped before the painting of the Broken King, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Calm yourself; you will be there on time.

Opening them, Reza took one last look at the painting and slowed, knowing he could summon Elana and be there in mere moments. Continuing to the front door, Reza acknowledged the few servants already awake at this early hour. Nodding to each as he passed, it was to your advantage not to be rude to the people employed to keep your house running. He learned to respect those working for him, from his parents, and he would do it here, too.

Sabine was nowhere to be found in the entry, though she should have already been there as she did not have to walk from the guest house in the back of the estate. Reza had not expected her to join him, but she had awoken him in the middle of the night to warn him and then inform him that she would be coming with him in the morning. She wanted one last session prior to her duel in two days.

He planned not to do much today, leaving his training with Lukas to be focused on what Lukas knew and getting a baseline on what his student knew. Reza wanted to be careful as his match was the next day, and there was no reason to risk an injury so close to the fight with how much was at stake. While he could get most things healed, healers could not heal significant wounds in a day, or they were beyond his means to pay such a person who had that skill.

“Where in the abyss is she?” Reza said under his breath impatiently. They would have to rush at this rate, and if she did not appear soon, he would have to leave her to make her way on her own. Opening the door, she looked out the front to see if she was waiting—unfortunately, only a single soldier guarding the porch. The man's eyes flashed to Reza’s, his hand on the weapon at his waist, ready for anything at such an early hour. It took only a moment for the guard to recognize Reza and nod towards him.

Reza waved, returning to their entry. He had been impressed with the guards that the Rewans employed. They had keen eyes and ears and were ready even in the dark of night for anything to happen. It showed good discipline, and they were people you trusted to do the job.

Closing the door, Reza rushed up the stairs into the Rewans living quarters. He hadn't been up here often but had been in Sabine's quarters several times.

He quickly moved down the hall to Sabine's door, which led into her suite, which was her bedroom, and knocked three times rapidly.

"Sabine, we need to go; Lukas will probably be waiting for me already," Reza tried to make sure Sabine could hear him without waking up the rest of the Rewan family. His nerves were frayed already, and didn’t need Lucien starting something because he woke him up.

The door opened, and he jumped. Reza hadn't heard her moving towards the door.

Sabine laughed and closed the door behind her. She adjusted her weapons, moving her unstrung bow and quiver to her back, before setting her attention on himself with a flat look.

"Reza, calm down. It's less than a ten-minute walk over there. We will be there in no time." She set off, and Reza followed, increasing his step to walk beside her.

"Well, let's get going. My sisters would probably rip me limb from limb if I ruined the link to the high families. Tavia already has one contract with Sulli, and I know she's eyeing more with others. I won't be surprised if your father gets wrapped into one with her now that she’s broken into the Sulli business." He said as they left the house and moved onto the street. "We should have taken the horses. I haven't ridden him in what feels like weeks; the poor boy needs to get his legs stretched.

Reza looked over to the stables. "Too late now."

"Stop worrying." She laughed. "Anyways, my father will want to one-up Sulli, so I don't doubt Tavia will have that chance. But seriously, the high families will look for links with you if you continue to rise in the contest." She placed a hand on Reza, stopping him, the smile gone from her face. "Just remember what I told you last night, don't trust some of those inquiries."

"I won't," Reza answered.

Sabine had come to the guest house and woke him up late last night. Sound asleep, Reza had almost stuck the dagger hidden under his pillow into her, having flared his power, taking a position behind her.

Had she not screamed out, it may have been disastrous. "Reza, Stop. It's me."

"What?" He rubbed at his eyes, dropping the dagger on the bed before he laid back on the bed. "Why are you here?"

She moved, sitting at the edge of his bed. "You’re in danger. There was talk about murdering you tonight."

It took him a moment to understand what she was saying. "Why? And where did this come up?" Reza asked. He would be lying if he said he was surprised it was rare for any Archon to come from someone out of the ten families. He had known this might become a dangerous prospect, but it was a risk he was willing to take for the opportunity.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"The contest, what else." She gave him a look as if there was no other possible reason. She was probably right about that. "Just an hour ago, during a meeting of the closed council. Plenty of the people on the council are open about keeping the Archons only within the families, but Lord Kejek was blunt in his opinions. He tried to push his agenda, but he was voted down. My father and Lord Sulli backed you."

Kejek. Reza would remember never to trust the man and his allies. He pushed his hair out of his face. "Thank you for the warning. I'm unsure what I can do besides not dealing with the man himself and being actively aware of the possibility."

Sabine grabbed his hand before moving to the door. "I just wanted to make sure you knew."

She left after also letting him know she would join him tomorrow morning, with Reza awake for a bit longer, thinking. He would send word to Tavia not to do business with him, his family, and maybe his allies. One less chance to make money, but Kejeck was pushing my murder so openly that we wouldn’t want to work with such a family.

Realizing he'd been deep in thought, Reza tried to regain his bearings. The road was crowded today; more people were in the district than ever, even at this hour. Unsurprising, Reza thought, with the contest in full swing and the possibility of war coming to Arkhen’s territory, many were probably returning to the city. With so many more people back, the servants of the many nobles' houses were already actively beginning their days.

He moved quicker towards Sulli's house, weaving through small groups as they went through the noble's district.

Turning a corner, Reza walked right into a man walking down the opposite street. The man didn't even stumble as Reza stumbled backward from the surprise of how strong the man felt, knocking into another man. He barely got his bearings when something tight around his neck closed off his air. What is the abyss?

Reza quickly brought his elbow back, trying to find purchase on the person holding the cord-cutting into his neck. He could feel blood already running down his body. Reza tried again this time, finally connected with the man with an elbow, forcing the cord to loosen for a moment as he grabbed onto his power. Before Reza could flare his power, another man came in, punching into his ribs. Pain shot through his body from the attack.

People screamed all around him as he flared, moving to the side about ten feet away from the attackers. Reza noticed multiple men with weapons in hand; one held a thin, bloody blade, and another man with a cord was standing next to Elana. The damn man stabbed me.

Reza couldn't feel the wounds yet; his power flowing through him kept him upright, but he knew he would be in trouble when he finished the fight. Reza attempted to grab his daggers, but he had little use of one of his arms and could not grip the hilt with his numb hand. Forgoing the second, Reza held the first one with his good hand and flared, coming in close and slashing deep across the man with the garrote's neck. He collapsed, holding his neck. Reza flared again; his mind turned only to Sabine.

Where is she? He found her with her back to a wall, with another two men flanking her as she held them off with her unstrung bow, using it like a quarterstaff. He flared behind one of the men, kicking the back of the man’s knee; Reza cut deep across the cutting deep across man's neck, leaving him to collapse on the ground, dead.

Reza breathed heavily, flaring again. He moved away from Sabine, leaving her only the one man to deal with. Unfortunately, the few seconds it took to help Sabine had given the three men time to prepare, and they were now in a tight formation, keeping their backs to each other and ready to protect each other.

Clever assassins. Reza needed to finish the fight quickly; he could feel the energy slowly waning from something insidious. While his wound was severe, his power should not be waning as much as it was. Fearfully, Reza finally saw the auras surrounding the remaining assassins. While it was not powerful, they had a dim red glow surrounding them and their weapons. It was not a wraith pact but some lower-level magic; he could not be sure from the little he could gleam. Reza knew he was on a time crunch and would need to end this quickly. Without his magic flaring through him, his body might have already failed him; thankfully, Elana’s power seemed to lessen the effects of their power.

Reza flared, appearing before the bloody knife assassin, slashing twice across the man's chest. The assassin took the slashes as he stuck out before he fell, trying to take Reza with him to the afterlife.

Reza, unable to retreat, instinctively pulled his numbed arm up, taking the man's blade across his forearm. The dagger cut easily through his forearm, leaving a deep gash several inches across. Bloody echoes.

Flaring again, Reza escaped the other two assassins' blades. They had been mere seconds from ending the fight, taking advantage of the death of their fellow assassin.

Switching with Elana twice, Reza slashed down toward his first target. Before the strike even hit, he flared again. Reza appeared in the air above the last assassin and stabbed into the man's skull with all of his strength. The man fell dead, but the dagger was ripped from Reza's weakened hand. Reza hit the ground and fell forward, trying to keep himself standing.

Just as Reza got his bearings, another dagger appeared to his right. Reacting without thinking, Reza caught the assassin’s wrist, keeping hold of the man's wrist with everything he had.

Thankfully, the dagger never reached its target. In the struggle, the assassin screamed in pain, the dagger falling from their hands to his feet. They collapsed, bringing Reza with them to his knees. His eyes fell upon the dead assassin, a dagger lodged into the side of the dead man's neck. Who?

His question was answered immediately as Sabine rushed to his side, keeping him upright on his knees. Her eyes were wide with fear as they began to examine his body. "Where are you hurt?"

Reza felt the pain rise in multiple places, the insidious magic the assassins used having sapped the last of his strength. His whole body was wracked with pain, and he could barely stay awake, his mind telling him to sleep. Reza marshaled as much strength as he could, trying to form a sentence to answer Sabine. "Stabbed…" Reza coughed, the corner of his eyes going black. The pressure to close his eyes growling every second. "Magical…"

Reza knew he was in dire straights, while he thought nothing significant had been hit. The assassin's magic had done something that made Elana’s power useless to fight it. It is evident that had the first assassin stabbed him in a more dangerous spot, he’d be dead already.

Reza felt himself be laid down on the ground by Sabine, her hand pressing hard on the wound in his ribs to stop the bleeding. She was already ordering the people close to them. "You two help me move him; we must get him to the Sulli Estate."

Reza felt the pain start to overtake him, but he fought it, fought at the blackness that wanted to creep in. This wouldn't be the end. He reached out, grabbing onto more power and forcing Elana back into the world after losing the connection momentarily. He had to hold onto her connection, not let it go, or he would die. Getting his teeth, he felt multiple people pick him up, Sabine still pressing into his ribs. Each movement brought forth pain, but it helped him keep himself awake.

"Don't worry, Marius. The Sulli house is close. We will get you help," Sabine whispered as she moved in close to him.