As the swirling vortex of golds and purples faded, Jaime lifted her head. The moment she did, her eyes went wide.

I tried to reach out to her, but found that my arm wouldn’t move.

“I’m sorry.” Jaime muttered, her breath quickening.

Looking down to my side, I saw a charred mound of flesh where my right arm had been. On the ground right beside me laid Pert’s disfigured body. It looked like someone had dunked his entire body in acid. Every limb dissolved close to the body. His body itself was covered in twisting scar tissue.

“I’m… sorry.” Jaime grabbed at her chest and started heaving.

Reaching my other arm out to her, I tried to pull her close, but she fell back out of my reach.

Tears started flowing down from her eyes as she stared at Pert’s body. Her whole body started to curl as she started bawling.

I took a step closer to her, but stopped when she cried out. “Stay away!”

Before I could move any closer, I watched as a thick blanket of shadow covered her body. Lifting her head once more, her entire body obscured from view, leaving only a vague shape, and sank into the shadows cast by the moon.

She was gone.

“-an.” Pert spoke in a soft, broken voice.

Quickly turning to him, I said. “Jaime’s gone! I don’t know how or where, but she is!”

“She’ll… be fine. Home… danger.” He said, struggling to form the words. “Hamil…”

I called Hamil over frantically.

Turning to the boy, Pert said. “South… look for… Arkan.”

“I don’t understand?”

“Take… care… Castor.” Pert spoke in a quickly fading voice.

He was gone.

Carefully lifting his body with my one arm, I walked back over to the group.

“What…?” Astrid asked, shocked at both my missing arm and Pert’s condition.

“We need to get to Renae right away.” I said.

“Why?” Charlotte asked.

“Pert said that there was danger at home.”

Hearing this, Hamil chimed in. “One of the servants here said something about our family.”

Nodding my head, I passed Pert over to Dame Austen and hurried back to where our horses had been to find them gone.

“Pert’s thunder must have spooked them.” Astrid said. “Let’s help ourselves to the Gelling’s horses.”

Returning to the Gelling’s estate, we rounded the building to the stables to find a full team of strong stallions.

“They definitely needed some strong ponies to pull themselves around.” Hamil muttered, seeing them.

Tired and injured, we led all of the horses out and rode toward Renae.

╚╩╩╩╝ Malcolm Kiech ╚╩╩╩╝

Saturday didn’t come soon enough.

To think that we would take such a major step in our old plan right after deciding to abandon it.

Hazel and I discussed it over the last couple of days that we needed to hold strong to our decision. We would still meet with Aaron, but only to have him tell Faria what we had decided, and possibly to let him know where we were going. We hadn’t quite decided on that yet.

We’d completely missed the rest of Thursday’s battles, as well as all of Friday’s. It was depressing to be stuck in a bed for an entire day, hearing the sound of people enjoying nature during the day, then the cheers of the spectators in the evening. At least I had Hazel there to keep me company.

Just as she’d predicted, Hazel recovered extremely quickly, much to the confusion of every doctor in the building. More than one had asked to examine her, only to find that absolutely nothing was wrong.

We were initially excited to be able to at least see the finals, but disappointed when we learned that Aaron wanted to see us during the finals match.

The final match, a best-of-three as Hazel explained to me, was between Douglas Wills and Francine Roman. Neither of us knew them, and their brackets were separate from our own, so we never fought them. Hazel had taken notice of their first couple of matches, though. She said that they were good, but she didn’t know that they were this good.

Waiting in our room at the infirmary, a nurse came in holding a clipboard.

“Alright, you’re both good to go. A teacher is waiting for you in the lobby.” He said, before leaving the room.

Dressed and ready to go, Hazel and I excitedly left the room and went to the lobby to see Miss Calli waiting in a seat. Seeing us, she grinned and stood from her chair.

“It’s nice to see that you’re both recovered.” She turned toward to the door. “Shall we?”

Nodding, we followed the teacher out the door and into the warm afternoon outside.

“I don’t see why they couldn’t let us out in the morning.” I complained.

“There’s a lot that needs to be done before a patient can be released. That includes paperwork, too.” Miss Calli explained.

Grumbling, I glanced toward the coliseum with envy.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to watch the finals.” Miss Calli said with a hint of humor in her voice. “We’re going to watch from a special seat.”

The teacher led us around the coliseum to a short section of wall far out from the view of anyone on or off campus. Reaching up to the wall, Miss Calli pushed against one of the stones which, after a bit of pressure, clicked in slightly. Right beside where she had pushed the stone, a section of wall pushed in and slid opposite of where we stood, revealing a steep well of stairs.

Following the spiraling stairs down for quite some time, we finally arrived at an opening into a large, brightly lit room. The entire room was the size of the coliseum itself and was completely open, save for several thick pillars placed in equal places throughout the room.

Dotting the smooth, gray stone floor were several large, dark tables covered in haphazardly placed papers. Swarming around these tables were barely less than a hundred people of widely varying ages.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Welcome to the Workshop.” Miss Calli said, gesturing to the room.

“What is this place?” Hazel asked, looking around with wonder in her eyes.

“Aaron built this place himself. Not even management knows that it exists.” She explained. “He has so many wondrous ideas that he can’t make all of them. So, we bring students and faculty that we believe we can trust to develop and build them.”

“This is amazing!” I exclaimed, looking around at all the experiments they were working on.

“I’m pretty sure that you’re wearing one of our successful prototypes.” She said, pointing to the Storage Ring on my finger. “Aaron made a set based off of a preexisting Artefact and gifted them to Faria Kiech.”

“…wait-” I tried to speak.

“I’m sorry for not treating you with the respect you deserve, Prince Malcolm.” She teased.

“How long have you known?”

“I figured it out the moment I saw you.” She said. “Faria showed you off to all of us. She always had a picture with her. She wouldn’t stop saying just how great you were. We all agree, now that we’ve seen you.”

“You… all?”

“Yup, every senior member here knows all about you.” She grinned smugly before turning and starting toward a nearby doorway. “Why don’t we introduce you to the boss, now?”

Following her through a series of corridors and up a flight of stairs and then more corridors, we arrived in a dark room. A sofa sat at the end of the room, right in front of a small hole that leaked light into the room.

“Lord Ka- Aaron, I’ve brought them.” Miss Calli called across the room.

Right as she started speaking, a person shot up from the sofa and hurried around the back and rushed toward us. I had barely gotten a good look at him before he pulled me into a bear hug.

“Brother!” He shouted before setting me back on my feet.

“Brother?” I asked, tilting my head to try and see him in the darkness.

This was Aaron. His skin was like soot, his hair like brown moss and his eyes like the summer sky.

“Oh, I guess she never had the chance to tell you, what with the castle having ears everywhere.” He chuckled. “I’m your brother-in-law!” He exclaimed, pulling me back into a tight hug.

“You two got married?” I asked, pulling myself free from his grasp.

“We didn’t do it publicly, since she’s hiding, but we did.” He held up his hand, gesturing to the simple silver band on his ring finger. “We both wished that you could be here.”

Before I could say anything, Aaron grabbed me by the arm and pulled me over to the sofa, Hazel following us. I tried to get her attention as she sat down on the sofa, but she was looking at Aaron with an odd look in her eyes.

Sitting down, himself, he turned to the hole in the wall and frowned.

“Just a sec.” He said, stretching before he held out both arms.

A blue aura flowed through his body as two Magic Rings appeared in front of his hands. After a moment, the Magic Rings disappeared and the hole in the wall expanded out to nearly cover the entire wall.

Dropping back down on the sofa, he proudly said. “One-way walls. It took some time to figure out how to work the enchantment, but it lets you see through it on one side.”

“Enchantment?” I asked. It was something that my grandfather had mentioned in one of his many notes, but it was as much a mystery to him as it was to us.

“Oh, I guess it’s not something they teach here.” He muttered before explaining. “Enchantments are a kind of unique spell that Arkans can use. It’s like a spell that casts itself until you tell it not to. Humans aren’t normally capable of casting them. I figured out how to mimic one, though it takes a bit of work.”

Staring blankly at the wall that had just become transparent, I finally started to look through it. It looked down on the coliseum’s amphitheater where people were readying for the final match.

“What were you watching?” I asked.

“Oh, I like to watch people in general. Every person is completely unique, and it’s interesting to see how people react to things.”

“I’ve never thought of that before.”

Just then, Hazel spoke, almost shouting. “Are you a Traveler?” She asked.

“Yes, I believe that’s what they call me.” Aaron answered, tipping his head to look out at the people working on setting things up.

“How did you get here? What was your world like?” Hazel asked, eyes bright and full of curiosity.

“The world I am from is one much like this one, only far, far larger. War never ceases, and the damage done to the world only grows. I was young and had to fend for myself. My country ran out of money, and people could barely even feed themselves. On the verge of starvation, I found a wound in space in my search for something edible. I could see this world through it and stepped through. That was ten years ago.”

“I met a Traveler when I was little.” Hazel said. “She told me stories of her world. It was just like what you described. She said that she tried to help, but nobody wanted it.”

“Sadly, this world is just the same.” Aaron grumbled. “This war would have been over decades ago had your father not made things worse.”

“Made things worse?” I asked.

“He has deliberately harmed innocents on both sides of the battle and framed it all to make the war worse. His first wife was a Seer, much like your sister. The woman told him that he would gain great power while the world was filled with war.”

“How do we stop him?” I asked.

“We kill him.” Aaron said simply. “He has power over the people for as long as he lives. If we can kill him and establish Faria as queen, then the war will stop.”

Was killing someone really that simple? He definitely deserves it, but is it really that easy to do it?

“Oh, look! The match is starting!” Hazel exclaimed pointing out the window.

Looking out, I could see much better than I would be able to, had we been sitting anywhere else.

We couldn’t hear the cheering, but we could definitely see it. People were losing their minds in the stands as the two competitors took their place on the giant arena.

╚╩╩╩╝

Douglas Wills was older. He was trying to become a teacher, and the requirements for that were considered ridiculous. He would have to graduate from at least half of the courses before he would even be considered for the position. The man was taller than average and stared down his opponent with light brown eyes. Warm, brown hair that moved down his face and into a beard, setting him apart from most other students.

Francine Roman was about the average height for a woman her age. She had a perpetual fire lit underneath her and always had something to say, though she kept her mouth shut as she glared at her opponent with eyes seemingly made of onyx. Straight, raven black hair flowed down to the middle of her chest with streaks of pink coming from her bangs.

Immediately after being given the call to start, the two darted away from each other. Both fighters activated their auras, both of them being blue. Francine’s Warrior aura wrapped around her body as she reached her position and Douglas’ Mage aura shone from his hands as he found a safe distance to cast.

After the fifteen second grace period, Douglas threw a hand forward and summoned a Magic Ring before holding it out of sight. He’d gotten the idea after watching Malcolm do the same.

Francine darted toward her opponent, leaving footprints embedded into the platform as she quickly closed the distance between them.

Before she could reach him, though, Douglas’ spell finished and he started forward.

Tensing her body, Francine kicked the ground hard, sending herself into the air. She was moving much more quickly than Douglas had anticipated, but it was still at a speed that his spells could keep up with.

Francine had unknowingly placed herself within Douglas’ mercy when she launched herself into the air. Before she could come crashing down on top of her opponent, a blast of air hit her in the side, throwing her out of the arena.

The referee called out Douglas’ victory and asked the two of them if they would like to take a short break before the next round or continue immediately. Both of them chose to continue.

Repeating the starting process, the fight began again.

Having blue auras, both of them had an elemental affinity. Francine could tell that Douglas’ was with wind, but he didn’t know hers, which put her at an advantage.

This time, Douglas stayed away and cast more than one spell. Not expecting Francine to move even faster than before, he began to cast more frantically.

Dodging the blades of wind that her opponent was frantically throwing at her, Francine quickly reached her opponent just in time to catch a blast of air in the face.

Taking this opportunity to relocate, Douglas made it only a few steps away before feeling something very hot getting very close. Turning around, he barely caught a glimpse of something large and fiery before a burst of red light sent him flying a short distance. Standing a short distance away with a smug grin on her face, Francine stood, casually tossing a ball of fire in the air.

The referee called out Francine’s victory this time. Being given the same choice as before, they both agreed to continue right away.

Douglas was confident that he’d seen all Francine had to offer, now that he knew her affinity. He just needed one more win.

The final bout began and both competitors started off. Both were confident in their win, but only one would truly be the winner.

After the grace period ended, Douglas started to cast a spell that he’d prepared beforehand. It was one that he’d thought up, himself, and he was quite proud of it.

Right as he’d started casting the spell, though, he heard a loud boom from the other side of the arena and saw, for barely a second, as Francine flew through the air like an arrow posed to pierce his heart.

This move was one that Francine didn’t like doing. It made her really dizzy afterward, so she would be out of commission if it failed. Compressing the fire beneath her feet, she let the pressure build until it exploded, shooting her toward her opponent.

Thankfully for Francine, Douglas didn’t think to dodge. The punch would have probably gone straight through the man’s chest, but the protection from his special uniform was made to protect from at least three attacks. The burst of red light, knocked Francine out of the air and Douglas on his back a short distance away.

Dizzily standing, Francine regained her balance and walked over to where Douglas lay. Placing one foot on his back, she posed for the crowd, garnering the cheers of hundreds of spectators.