As the magic circle faded, Jake slowly appeared. He was lying on the ground, and breathing very heavily. Due to our connection, Jake has the ability to sense my desires, and sometimes, even my emotions, but that is normally a one-way ability; however, there have been a few exceptions during extreme circumstances. Despite that, I have grown rather skilled in my ability to decipher how he is feeling. I could not tell why, but Jake was clearly distressed. He looked around the room, and summoned his armor and one of his weapons; the ones called Mori, and Aegis. “Suma, what’s going on?” He asked. His voice was ragged, and his breathing had not yet slowed down.

“Private Suma, get control over your familiar this instant, or we will use lethal force!” One of the guards surrounding the Queen demanded. Their familiars had already encircled her majesty, and were in threatening postures.

“Jake, calm down! This is the capital, and these are the members of the Royal Court. It is time for our meeting with them. Do you remember?” I said, trying to calm him down.

“Private Suma!” One of the guards yelled. Jake looked around for a moment, and then lowered his weapons. In a flash of light, they disappeared from his hands, as did the armor from his body.

“Sorry… I’m sorry.” Jake said. He seemed shaken, the same way he did the day the wyvern attacked him. The Royal Mages around the Queen settled their familiars, but they all kept careful watch over Jake for the rest of the meeting.

The room was tense, but the questioning from the council of the Royal Court continued. “We were informed that your familiar was capable of speech, it seems this was true. Private Suma, we take it that this is the familiar known as Sentinel; the one capable of Chaos Magic?”

“He is.”

“I am.” Jake said. He had not yet looked directly at the council, only glanced towards, but had not yet turned and faced them completely after walking to my side.

“Sentinel, this court has several questions for you, some of which are regarding your unique magical attribute. While answering these questions, you will be truthful, not withholding any necessary information, and you will not cast any more spells without our direct permission. Do you understand?” The court member asked.

“I do.” Jake said, now sounding calmer, but I could still tell he was distressed.

“With the court’s permission, I would like to take a moment to speak with my familiar.” I asked.

“For what purpose?”

“When he arrived, he was clearly distressed. I wish to make sure he is ready to answer the court’s questions.” One by one, the members of the Royal Court’s eyes began to glow faintly.

“Agreed. You may have three minutes.” The Court member said. I thanked the court, and Jake and I were escorted out of the room, and into the corridors. With us, came Captain Razoen.

“Private Suma, what happened in there? Why did your familiar react like that?” The Captain asked.

“Jake, are you okay?”

“I’m fine…. I’m just… I’m fine.”

“Then explain your actions.” The Captain demanded.

“I overreacted; I’m sorry.”

“Jake, I apologize for not alerting you before I summoned you. I did try, but I could not get into contact with you.”

“No, it’s fine. I was asleep. I was… seeing one of Zachariah’s memories.” When Jake said that, he seemed to be in pain, or extremely uneasy at the least.

“Was it important?” I asked.

“No… maybe… I don’t-” Jake was cut off by Captain Razoen.

“I do not understand what the two of you are talking about, and I do not care to, but what I do care about is this: are you able to control yourself for the Court’s questions?”

“Yes.”

“Jake?”

“I’ll be fine.” Jake still looked unnerved, but I accepted it for the time being, and we reentered the courtroom. We took our places once more, and Jake continued to stand next to me.

“Are you ready to begin the questions?” The court member asked.

“We are.” I said.

“Sentinel, explain to us where you are from.”

“I am from a country called England, and my planet is called Earth. I was born and raised in the city of Manchester.”

“How long have you been the familiar of Private Suma?”

“Approximately two years; although we met years before that.” Jake spent several minutes explaining the original circumstances of our meeting, making sure to leave out my inability, and unwillingness, to cast any sort of mental domination rite or ritual on him.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“It seems the two of you have quite an unusual history. Moving on to your abilities, we request that you demonstrate your magical attributes; specifically, your Death Magic. Bring out a test subject.” The court member said, and a large piece of Iggy fruit was brought out. When he said that, I immediately felt cold, and my stomach turned.

“I’m sorry. My deepest apologies to the Royal Court, but I will not now, nor will I ever, use any Death Magic.” Jake denied.

“And why not?” The court member asked, sounding both surprised, and annoyed.

“Because I have seen what it can do, and I never want to see it again.”

“We must also deny your request.” One of the Queen’s Royal Mages announced. “It would mean far too great of a risk to her majesty’s safety.”

“Ah, yes. I suppose that the wellbeing of Queen Ompera is something the Court failed to consider. Our deepest apologies, your highness.” The Queen nodded once, but did not speak. “Sentinel, our records indicate that your specific attribute is the rare ‘Inversion’, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then, with Queen Ompera’s permission, we would like you to demonstrate that ability, and we will hold the discussion of your Death Magic for a later date.”

“We are still uncomfortable with-” The guards around the Queen tried to protest once again, but were stopped.

“Hold…” The Queen, for the first time, spoke. “I too wish to see this ability. I grant you my permission.” The guard who protested looked annoyed, but kept silent.

“Sentinel, please demonstrate to us your ‘Inversion’ abilities.” The court member said.

“May I ask how?” Jake said.

“In a manner that poses no threat to the court, or the Queen.”

“I’m afraid my experience with my attribute is lacking.” Jake said, trying to sound formal. He was answering the court’s questions the same way he spoke to the Major, or any other of our commanding officers. “While I have used it in the past, I have never taken the time to experiment with all of its potential options.”

“You have not mastered your own attribute?” The court member sounded confused. I could understand why. To any normal mage, the mastery of your attribute was the most basic step when learning magic. Jake however, had not taken the standard path when cultivating his abilities.

“Sentinel’s ‘Inversion’ abilities seem take effect on other’s spells, rites, and rituals, not necessarily his own.” I interjected.

“I could summon-” Jake started to say, but the Royal Mages did not let him finish.

“No.” One of them said.

“… I could… invert a spell one of you cast?” He said hesitantly.

The Royal Mages looked at one another, and spoke quietly amongst themselves, “Agreed.” The one that denied Jake earlier, flew closer. “If I cast a spell that produces a flame, what will happen to it?”

“In the past, rather than the flame being hot, it will be cold; it’ll still look like a flame though.” Jake said. The mage nodded, and produced a flame. Jake then shrouded the flame and himself in a small cloud of mana, and kept it there. “Throw it at me.” Jake said, surprising the mage. After a moment, the mage nodded, and launched the flame at Jake. Jake flinched, but did not move, and the fire impacted his body. Once the spell dispersed, everyone saw that Jake was unharmed. Jake crossed his arms and shivered, then the cloud of mana around him dissipated as well.

“Impressive.” The mage said.

When I looked back at the Royal Court, I saw that all of their eyes were once again glowing. After the glow disappeared, the court member spoke, “Private Suma, Sentinel, this court wishes to offer you a position working for the Royal Court.”

“May my familiar and I have a moment to talk about your offer?” I quickly asked.

“The court will issue a recess for a period of one day. We will reconvene tomorrow at noon. We await your decision.” With that, we were escorted out of the courtroom, and out of the castle itself as well.

“Well, that is not good.” Captain Razoen said.

“I know, they give me the creeps.” Jake said.

“You cannot accept their offer.” The Captain said.

“I agree. Jake, I think you did the right thing denying their request for a demonstration of Death Magic. After what happened with the noble… I do not blame you for never wanting to use it again.” When I said that, the pain returned to Jake’s expression.

“Suma, I need to tell you about the memory I saw…”

“This is starting to feel like a conversation I do not want to be a part of. I will give the two of you some privacy.” The Captain said, and flew away. After he did, Jake spent the next few minutes explaining the horrors he experienced in Zachariah’s memory.

I was stunned, Jake told me about the dream, or rather memory, he witnessed. It must have been like something out of a nightmare. “I… I do not know what to say, Jake. I did not realize Zachariah was capable of such violence.”

“It doesn’t feel real, honestly. Everything I’ve seen and heard about him up till now… it just doesn’t match. But then again, he was a Viking warrior, and was no stranger to killing.” Jake was sitting on a log, and I was perched beside him; we were not far from the castle’s entrance.

“I do not doubt you, or the dream itself, but I do agree with you, it simply does not make sense. Zachariah was Ambos’s familiar, he could not have done something so horrible without his master’s permission, and I doubt the hero mage who defeated the Chaos Dragon would have agreed to slaughter innocent civilians in masse.” I thought quietly for a moment, while Jake and I sat in silence. “Even if he was a Viking, I feel as if some important detail is missing.”

“… Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter, it was a long time ago, right?” Jake sounded somber; he did not lift his head as he spoke. “What matters is, I never want to see that ever again. I’m never going to use magic like that; not for anyone or anything.”

“Jake, do you remember anything else from the memory?”

Jake was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, I think he was using runes.”

“Why do you believe that?”

Jake turned and looked at me, his eyes looked tired. “He kept healing himself. He would allow himself to become incredibly injured, and then the pain would just vanish. I never saw how it happened, but I guess he was doing the same thing I do; using runes to make up for his weaknesses.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, confused. What Jake was saying could not have been possible.

“No, I guess there could’ve been some other way.”

“I think perhaps there was. At that time, rune scrying was not nearly advanced enough to heal a mage of Zachariah’s caliber during combat.” I explained. Runes as Jake knows them, were not developed until long after Zachariah’s supposed death. “Jake, you summarized the events of the memory for me, but could you please explain in greater detail everything you saw?”

“Suma, I don’t really want to think about it anymore.” Jake said.

“I know Jake, but please. I feel as if we are missing something important.”

“No, Suma… I just… I just can’t. Okay?” Jake said, his voice was barely a whisper.

“Okay Jake, never mind.” I said, after hearing his voice. I had not seen Jake like this in quite some time. “I think it would be a good idea if you talked to Dr. Maxwell again. Will you please?” Jake did not reply, but he did nod his head that he agreed. I sent him home, and flew to the place that myself and the other members of my travel group were staying tonight.