“There’s definitely an internal reservoir of power.” Marcus was saying as they stepped through the portal connecting the island of Dimid to Lutum. He was looking down at a sheet of paper he had rubbed a pattern into from where a large gash in the temple's structure had revealed aged and decayed arcane wiring. “Obviously there’s nothing left, no power I mean, it’s empty, only residual energy is left.”

Leif walked a step behind the human, only half paying attention to the constant deluge of information. With his [Intelligence] attribute at just under seventy, it was easier to focus on multiple things at once. For his part, Marcus was making full use of the attribute, and likely several skills. Without looking he stepped around a puddle and took a turn back towards his apartment. He was almost certainly auto piloting as he walked, following the steps of a [Seeker] skill to guide him in the right direction. Marcus flipped over to another page.

“Here’s another rubbing of a different part of the same wall. Do you see how the channels move together, but remain separate? And it looks like this is a partially destroyed rune, though it's hard to tell. It’s interesting, without my most recent paper I don’t think I would have noticed.”

They continued walking in silence for several moments before Marcus glanced over his shoulder. “You’re supposed to ask what I noticed.” He said with an exaggerated pout.

“Oh, sorry. I thought you meant the runes and channels.” Leif said, trying to squeeze interest into his tone. It was interesting, and he was interested, there were just other things on his mind.

“Well, yeah. But I mean the reason why they’re like that. The purpose for having such complex magical infrastructure in a temple of all things.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure.” Marcus shrugged. “But it’s similar to the arena or the portal hubs. All the ancient buildings with importance to the civilization that built and used them have the same type of care and attention put into their design.”

“So the temple was significant?”

“Sure. But it’s more than that. You don’t need those types of enchantments and workings for something simple, like lighting. It means there’s something seriously impressive, magically speaking, somewhere in the temple. There pretty much has to be.”

That made sense. The expedition had barely scratched the surface of the buried temple complex. Some of their earth mages, including professor Nern, could partially sense through stone, and they had confirmed that at least from the rooms and chambers that had already been explored, the structure kept going.

A divining of the full layout of the building had already been attempted, but of all the [Seekers] and other classes with similar scouting skills, only Marcus had any amount of success. According to Marcus, the internal structure of the temple had a thaumatic weight to it, the walls and floors seeming far denser than they actually were. Those capable of manipulating stone too were struggling. The ancient magics embedded into the temple's foundation made simply digging through the rock both far more difficult, and far more dangerous than they otherwise should be.

But these were all superficial details, background dressing to the real mystery. Just what had attacked the amber tree, and why? It was one thing to be told by the system directly that something had killed off the beings Leif was now related to, but discovering the remains of one such entity unnerved him.

“What are the strongest kinds of monsters?” He asked, making Marcus glance up from his stacks of paper.

“I’m not really an expert on that sort of thing. I mean, I can tell you my opinions, but why do you want to know?”

“Humour me, please.”

“Okay. Well, in my, uh, where I’m from there are lots of stories of sea monsters, leviathans that dwell within the depths of the oceans. They’re why ship travel is so restricted, and why most people either travel over land, or by sky skimmer. I saw one when I was little, it rose out of the sea, larger than any building I had ever seen. It was dozens of kilometres away from the shore, but the waves it created by breaching the surface still destroyed ships and demolished homes.”

Leif had read about those monsters in the Academy library, but he doubted the leviathans were the culprits he was looking for. Records suggested that they never came ashore, and whatever had attacked the temple had most certainly done just that.

“What else?”

“Hmm. Well I guess the Dragons are what comes to mind next. Their territories lie to the south of the empire, in the deserts and wastelands. You’ve met a pseudo dragon during the expedition, but coatls are some of the smallest dragons, and some of the least deadly.”

“I fought drakes in the northern foothills.” Leif said.

“Comparing drakes to dragons is like calling a metre long river fish a leviathan. Sure, they both live in the water and are technically pretty big, but, you know, not the same thing.”

“I see.”

Marcus licked his lips and waited for a group of first years to pass by before continuing. “Dragon’s are just as likely to steal from or enslave a human as they are to kill and eat us. The southern provinces suffer attacks from them fairly frequently, but the empire pays tribute annually to some of the larger flights to stop them from raiding us. It’s a pretty controversial policy, some people think the empire should just give up the southern provinces, others think we should attack the dragons. Most people are more reasonable though.”

“What are the odds it was a dragon that attacked the temple?” Leif asked.

“Well, some of the rocks are burnt, and something definitely took clean slices out of some of the walls. But I feel like a dragon would have just obliterated the entire site and flown off, there’s clear signs of combat inside the temple so that clearly didn’t happen. I guess it could have been a dragon, assuming they wanted something inside and didn’t want to destroy… Oh. Oh, I see why you’re asking now. Damn, but would a dragon have, you know, wanted…?”

“I don’t know.” Leif said. “But we’ll find out more when we actually get to the tree. If all that's left is a burnt stump… I guess we’ll see.”

“Maybe it was the undead? You already told us how your domain was basically a hard counter to weaker undead. Could the temple have been attacked and the amber tree killed so that the undead could get onto the island?” Marcus suggested.

“Unlikely. The corpse we found didn’t have any trace of undeath energy on them. And death seems to stick around. Maybe not for over a thousand years though.”

“Yeah, probably not the undead then.”

Their conversation lapsed as they drew closer to the neighbourhood of student housing that Marcus lived within. Leif agreed to meet the man outside his apartment next morning so they could return to Dimid together, then they went their separate ways. The shadows cast by the evening sun through the brightly coloured trees lining the roads seemed longer than usual, darker.

Perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks on him.

===

“My mask doesn’t have a red nose.” Leif said, studying the image presented before him.

“But it would look funnier if it did.” Roy said, holding up the drawing.

Leif rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “You just might be correct.”

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The little boy beamed, then he went back to drawing. The paper had a depiction of both Roy and Lucia holding hands. A figure who was probably Melissa held a plate of food that was bigger than she was, and Leif in his robes and mask stood higher than everyone else, though that was because the ship he was standing on was currently in the process of coming to life on the page.

Roy began to chew on one of the coloured pencils, but Lucia prodded him in the side from her position on the couch opposite Leif. They were both reading books, though Lucia kept glancing up from hers to watch her brother, and try to silently indicate with her eyes alone that she would rather be outside in the greenhouse trying to stab him.

“Dinner will be soon. I hope you’re hungry.” Melissa called from the connecting kitchen. Roy perked up, accidentally drawing the ship's sail too large.

Leif flipped the page of his book, then looked up as a presence appeared outside the front door to the residence. A moment later Hera stalked into her own house, loudly sighing as she took off her coat, then she strode into the living room with an arrow of light twirling between her fingers.

“Did I hear something about dinner?” She asked.

“You did. Welcome home dear.” Melissa said, poking her head out of the kitchen.

“Great. I’m starving” She said, placing her hands on her hips and glancing around the room. Leif tilted his head in acknowledgement, while Lucia tried to pretend she was suddenly very interested in her own book.

“Hello miss Hera.” Roy said, looking up at her from where he lay on the paper strewn floor. He searched around for a moment, then found the drawing he was looking for. “I drew you earlier.”

Hera squatted down to get a closer look, though with her enhanced eyesight it lightly didn’t make any difference whatsoever. “Wow, very nice. Who’s that though?” She said.

Roy grinned. “That’s the scary tentacle man from the arena.”

“Really?”

“Yup, he’s covered in your light arrows.”

“I did get him good, didn’t I?” She asked with a smile.

===

Lucia flew backwards, her wooden daggers spinning off into the darkness as she landed, tumbling across the field of grass. A dozen metres away an armoured figure created out of hardened light, its spear pointed down, stood perfectly still.

“Your stance was too low, it left you unbalanced and made it harder to dodge.” Hera said, an amused look on her face. The armoured figure, a construct created from one of her core skills, casually spun its weapon in lazy arcs, the motion leaving a trail of light that further illuminated the small part of the training field they were standing in.

In response, Lucia let out a sound that was a mix between a grunt and a groan. She got to her feet, albeit shakily, and only after several seconds had passed.

“The spear is arguably the worst matchup for a dagger user.” Leif said, letting a little more vitality trickle into his [Amber Aegis], the floating motes of golden light drifting down into Lucia, though the girl didn’t seem to notice.

“Only if I’m too slow to close the distance.” She said through gritted teeth.

“You’re not quick enough.” Hera said. “Not yet anyway.”

Lucia started peering into the darkness for her weapons, but Leif mentally commanded them to float over towards her. She grabbed the daggers out of the evening air and took a stance, the sentinel of light shifting into a defensive posture. Hera’s creations couldn’t easily move from the point they were summoned, so Lucia had the liberty to approach her training opponent however she wished. Thirty seconds later, having readied herself, she darted forward, weapons poised to strike.

Ten seconds later the pommel of a spear hit Lucia in the gut, sending her rolling across the grassy field. To her credit, she didn’t let her grip on the daggers slacken this time.

“I wish I had a healer when I was her age. Training is so much more effective like this.” Hera commented, her eyes gleaming. She lowered her voice. “Do you think she’ll give up after that one?”

Leif watched as Lucia gasped for breath from where she was sprawled. Then she weakly punched the ground in frustration, slowly rolling onto her front and trying to get up. “You tell me.” He said. “For the record, I think you’re both crazy.”

“Oh, would you have given up so easily?” She teased.

“Yes. And my body literally doesn’t feel pain.”

Hera snorted, then she turned her attention back to Lucia. “You can do it, girl!” She called.

And slowly, with clear effort, Lucia got back up. Only to take a single step and promptly fall forward, collapsing down onto her face. Leif had to telekinetically pull one of her daggers out of her hand to stop her from stabbing herself. Leif walked over, pulling her up by the shoulders and letting a trickle of healing energy flow into her body.

“I can still fight.” She mumbled.

“Maybe tomorrow.” He responded.

“Heal me. I can keep going.”

“I am healing you, and no, you can’t.”

“I can’t feel it working.”

“That’s the point.” Leif said, catching Lucia as she stumbled. In the end it was easier to carry her over to where Hera was waiting. “Shall we head back?”

“Why?” Hera asked, grinning at him. “Don’t you feel like doing a little training?”

Leif almost rejected her offer out of hand, but he stopped himself. Why not? He thought. I need to get my mind off the excavation anyway.

“Sure. Are we doing it here or is there a specific place Blades need to go to use their full powers?”

“Full powers?” Hera asked with a smirk.

Leif sighed and looked down at himself. “What are the odds this outfit gets ruined?”

“I don’t know, how good at dodging are you?”

Leif grunted, then lowered Lucia up against the trunk of a purple leafed tree. He took off his outer robe, folded it, then lay it over her lap. He was wearing a sleeveless undershirt, and most of his body looked like armour, if made out of white wood. The biggest problem was the head of red leaves he had in place of hair, though in the darkness of night it looked mostly indistinguishable from the real thing. He had tried to get rid of them so his head could mimic the form of a helmet, but the leaves grew back too quickly.

He jogged back over to the middle of the field, limbering up as the clouds shifted overhead, soft moonlight filtering down from above. A quarter of season’s surface was red, tinting the night in a subtle pink. Hera dismissed her sentinel of light, then created a longsword out of hardened light. She lifted it up, taking several practice swings.

“I thought you were an archer.” Leif commented, mentally reaching into his spatial ring for a condensed sword of wood, though he ultimately chose not to summon it. He needed to get experience for [Inspiring Brawler] to get the final level he wanted, so unarmed combat was the way to go.

“I combined the [Archer] and [Fighter] classes when both reached level ten. My other main class was [Attuned: Light].”

“What did that create?”

“Weapons Expert.”

“Oh.” Leif said, glancing at her sword.

“Wasn’t the first thing I did when we met to threaten you with a sword?”

“Not going to use it in this fight?” He goaded, conjuring two pairs of golden arms and dropping into a stance. Immediately he felt his weight shift, his balance improve and his resilience rise.

“Not during a friendly spar. That sword can slice through pretty much anything without issue.”

===

The fight was quick, and it ended as Leif had expected. During his fight with Mouric, the Blade had overpowered him with brute strength and raw power, though not by so much that it had been a one sided beatdown. The main difference between him and Hera was quite simply, speed. And range too, but she didn’t use her bow during their bout.

When Leif focused on [Alacrity] the gap between them narrowed, but then his perception couldn’t keep up with the speed of the fight. When he focused on [Intelligence] the battle moved at a speed he could react to, but then his speed wasn’t enough to actually dodge or parry. It didn’t help that Hera gradually grew faster and faster as the duel progressed, until eventually there was absolutely nothing he could do.

Leif consoled himself with the fact he was half her level, and quite possibly hard countered by the ninth Blade. It didn’t stop Hera from gloating the entire way back to her home. As the three of them stepped through the entrance of the residence, well after midnight, Hera was retelling a story of when she hunted a powerful, and excessively durable mountain giant. Lucia was thrilled by the tale, and even exhausted as she was, the low level [Rogue] couldn’t help but demand her own rematch against the Blade.

He waved them goodnight as they whisper talked while ascending the stairs, then quietly stepped into the greenhouse. As he lowered himself down into a cross legged position in the centre of the garden, he reflected that even with the uncertainty of the excavation, the stress of needing to hide his identity and the worry he felt as he tried, and failed to figure out how to properly make contact with his sister, he could admit to himself that he was enjoying himself.

And so the days passed, and the world continued spinning.