Felix

Light dazzled around him, dancing, floating. Eagerly, it rushed to his call. A seemingly endless well of light poured into him.

Felix breathed the last word of the spell. Light gushed out of him in a ring, zooming through the air. Where it passed, blight evaporated into nothing. Halos appeared around fighters. A large one ringed the mass of spiders, while a smaller one, human-sized, appeared around a prone form in the spiders’ midst.

The light pressed farther, into the audience. Halos ringed the audience members, one after another. It passed through the princess’ barrier and lit up around some of the princesses—Eleda, the princess on the floor, Clarita and Brittany, the fae princess.

Further. The ring passed through the Arena’s walls and out of sight, out into the city. At last, Felix felt a faint strain. The light magic quavered, running thin.

He held out a hand to calm it and pulled the spell to a halt. This should be far enough.

The auras brightened. Tiny text in the ancient language swirled around the halos, something he couldn’t read. The spell strengthened, swirling slowly. Magic coursed through him, feeding the spell. Felix breathed out. He glanced behind him. “Mouse, I…”

Nothing. Spar’s back laid empty.

“Spar?” Felix asked. The spell wobbled.

“H… She’s fine. Focus on the spell!” Spar snapped.

Felix nodded. The spell. That’s most important. White light swirled around him, growing in intensity. Warmth welled up within him, washing away the blight. He breathed out, incredibly comfortable.

From out of the Arena, a short teen ran. A slash of white cut across a mop of dark hair. “You! How dare you!”

“Is that…” Felix muttered.

Spar flicked his hair out of his eyes and turned. “Zalazar? What’s he doing here?”

Blight boiled around the teen, unbothered by the purification spell. He clawed at Spar and Felix. Spider legs formed over his shoulders and punched at the pair of them.

“Hold on tight!” Spar leaped out of the reach of the claws. Felix grabbed at his mane and barely managed to hold on.

The dragon princess dropped out of the sky and kicked Zalazar in the face. The teen flew back, blood spurting from his nose. He landed in a messy pile of limbs in the sand and struggled, spider legs tangling with his human legs as he tried to climb upright.

“I know that feeling,” Spar muttered.

Felix raised a hand and commanded, “Bind.”

Sand swirled up from the Arena floor and wound around Zalazar, spider limbs and all. A thick cocoon compressed him tight. Only his face stuck out of the sand. Grimacing, he struggled. “Let me go! Foul being, you can’t cage me forever! Before long, I will reset the balance and right the wrongs of this world!”

Spar coughed. “Maybe cover the mouth as well?”

“Why didn’t the purification spell affect him?” Felix muttered. He reached out a hand and willed the light to surround Zalazar as well.

It danced around him in motes, almost afraid to form a halo. Felix urged it harder. The halo half-condensed, then shattered. Blight welled up from Zalazar and darkened the air around him. The whole purification spell shivered, halos wavering.

Felix dropped his hand and hovered it over the halo instead, pacifying the spell. The halos solidified once more, and warmth again suffused him.

Across the Arena, halos faded as the spell drew to a halt. The last one hovered around Felix, almost lovingly, hesitant to leave. He smiled and released the spell, and finally, the light faded away.

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Audience members stood, taking in the wreckage. Someone began to clap, and then another, and another. From the silence, a wild round of applause broke out, hooting, hollering, no less rowdy than the usual hubbub for an Arena champion. Felix raised his hand, accepting the applause with a small smile.

I barely did anything. I would have been helpless, if not for Spar and Mouse… Mouse!

“Where’s Mouse?” he demanded, swiveling.

Spar coughed. He tossed his head. “Promise you won’t get mad. You have to understand, she did it herself.”

“Why would I get mad? What happened? Spar, where is she?”

Spar shot him a look. Slowly, he walked over to the pile of spiders.

Felix’s brows furrowed. He glanced around among the fallen fighters, but saw no sign of Mouse, not even a gray-skinned moon elf.

Un-blighted, without any magic driving their motions, the spiders skittered away, afraid of the unicorn’s heavy hoof-falls. As the black mass of bodies thinned, a pale gray shape appeared from under them. Long silver hair half-loose from its braid, shirt torn in a dozen places, Mouse sprawled over the sand.

“Mouse!” Felix jumped off Spar’s back and sprinted to the moon elf’s side.

Behind him, Spar transformed back, a brilliant flash of light backlighting Felix. He ran alongside Felix and held him back. “Careful! He might be a darkfoe.”

“It’s Mouse! She wouldn’t—” Felix frowned. “What happened? Why is the illusion back? Isn’t she unconscious?”

Spar glanced at Mouse. “Er… yes?”

“Why does she look like a man? I thought she dispelled the illusion.”

Spar’s eyes widened. He paused. His lips moved, but nothing came out.

Felix furrowed his brows. “What? What is it?”

“It’s…” Spar’s eyes lit up. “Ah, it’s the earring on her ear. This. It’s a, er, just looking at it, it has a powerful magical aura, right?”

Felix squinted, summoning up his mage-vision. The earring lit up with a bright blue aura. “I see it.”

“It’s an illusion—no, a transformation spell. As long as she wears it, she turns into a man. Earlier, she was consciously able to dispel the transformation, but now she’s unconscious, it’s taken back over.”

Felix reached out. “Let’s take it off, then. It can’t be comfortable.”

Spar caught his hand. “Careful, Your Majesty! If she’s a darkfoe… we can’t risk you becoming blighted. Let me carry her back. Unicorns cannot be blighted, after all, as powerfully light-aligned magical beasts.” So saying, he scooped up Mouse’s unconscious body.

“But take the earring off, transformation magic is awfully uncomfortable, she—”

“Your Majesty!” Sabelyn hurtled toward them, carrying her skirts. She crashed into Felix’s arms and wilted, panting, a pathetic, sad flower. “Your Majesty, thank you so much for saving me! I thought that drow was going to kill us all!”

“That… who?” Felix asked. His arms hung loose, not at all wrapped around Sabelyn. He glanced at Spar, and Mouse in Spar’s arms, then back at Sabelyn.

Sabelyn sobbed dramatically and clung harder. “Mouse, did you already forget her? That horrible creature was blighted! She went mad in our protective barrier and almost blighted us all! Can you imagine? Our lives were at stake! We almost died!”

“Mouse…” Felix released Sabelyn and stepped back.

Sabelyn staggered. She almost fell, but seeing Felix’s face, caught herself instead. “Wh… what?”

“Mouse risked her life to save us all. She was in the Arena, investigating with me. That could not be Mouse,” Felix declared. He stared at Sabelyn with hard eyes, disappointed in her.

Seeing that, Sabelyn stumbled back. She frowned, lost. “But then… who…”

From behind her, a dusky-skinned moon elf with dark hair hurried up. She knelt low, curtseying so deep she nearly crouched on the floor. “Your Majesty, I apologize. I am Mouse’s bodyguard and body double. I took Mouse’s place while she investigated the Arena with you. Unfortunately, I was blighted during our battle with Sidd, and did not realize until it was much too late. We should have informed you. This servant deeply apologizes for her mistakes.”

Felix lifted a hand, telling her to rise. “I understand. Fear not, I saw through your deception from the start and understood its necessity. However, you must inform me in the future, or I might not be so forgiving.”

Cel curtseyed again and retreated a few steps, a concerned eye on Mouse.

Felix looked to Mouse as well. Unlike the princesses, she remained unconscious, more akin to the darkfoe-turned fighters sprawled across the Arena. He crossed to her and lifted a hand to touch her hair.

Spar lifted his arms and turned Mouse away, protectively. “Your Majesty, please. I don’t want to cast another purification this soon.”

Felix dropped his hand. He turned to the Arena. “Round up all the turned fighters and bring them to the dungeons. We must quarantine them for their own good, and for the sake of our nation.”

“And Mouse?” Spar asked quietly.

“She… lock her in her rooms. If she’s become a darkfoe…” He hesitated.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we reach it,” Spar offered.

Felix nodded. “Yes. Indeed. Yes.”

Sabelyn looked Spar up and down. “Who is this, anyways? How dare a commoner speak to you so easily?”

“Sabelyn, Sparklemuffin. Sparklemuffin… I suppose you already know her.”

Spar winced. “Please, Your Majesty, I prefer Spar.”

“This is…?” Sabelyn’s eyes widened. “But… how?”

Felix sighed out, exhausted. “I want to go back to the castle. Can I go back to the castle?”

“Right this way, Your Majesty. I’d carry you, but…” Spar held up Mouse.

Felix nodded. Silently, he followed Spar out of the Arena, while Sabelyn stared after them, jaw agape.

END VOL. I