Alec shook his head as he walked out of the now burnt and flooded building with Ethen and Elio. “There’s so much I could say.” He sighed. “Elio, I’m not going to give you a failing grade, but you should check with the nurse now, Ethen too. Once they clear you, I want you to jog a couple miles, just to make sure your lungs still work.”

Elio coughed. The air he let out might’ve been slightly black.

Alec turned to Ethen. “And you. You just sat there when the building was burning? Even though you could have avoided the stairwell and its smoke by going through the floor? Why?”

Ethen shrugged. “I wanted him to come to me.”

Alec glared. “Don’t wait for people to come to you in burning buildings. Have some common sense.”

“I still got him,” Ethen said. “The paint on my knife dried and burnt though.”

“I don’t care. I’m counting this one as your loss,” Alec said. “You could’ve done better.”

Ethen nodded. Honestly, being smoked out like that was completely new. He’d have to think about more ways to deal with things that couldn’t be solved directly with telekinesis.

Alec turned to Cyla once they were close to the student group. “Make sure these two get to the infirmary and tell the doctors what happened.”

Cyla looked them over and saw all the soot. “On it!” She saluted Alec and led the way.

Alec shook his head as the trio left, then turned to the rest of the flight mages before speaking. "Luckily there are a lot of these abandoned buildings, so we’ll move over to the next one.” He pointed, then pulled out his paper. “Next up is… Zale versus Malena. Malena will be defending.”

Malena stepped forward, but didn’t immediately go to the table to grab weapons. “What type of magic does Zale use?” She asked. “I’m not in magic classes, so I don’t know.”

“Water mostly,” Zale said, pulling out a canteen.

“Ah, thank you.” Malena smiled, then thought about it. If he only used water magic, he was really out of his element here, so maybe that’s why she was included. Still, if he could move water around like Lilith or apparently Ethen could move other stuff around, a canteen could be a decent weapon. However, from what she could tell, all mages had a range for their magic, so she might have a chance if she kept her distance.

She looked at the weapons. Most of the mages went for the knife, perhaps because they would be in close quarters, but if she was keeping her distance, the spear and bow both seemed like better options.

“How many weapons can I take?” Malena asked.

Alec thought about it for a moment, then glanced around at the other classes before shrugging. “You can take two.”

Malena nodded, then went forward and grabbed a wooden spear and a bow with a quiver, dipped them in the paint, and walked inside.

The room was mostly the same as the first building, except for the lack of a ruined chair. There was another cellar that no one checked, so she decided to walk over and open it. When she peered in, she could mostly only see dirt and rock walls in the darkness, along with the wooden stairs. There wasn’t really anywhere to hide in there.

Assuming this building was the same as the other building, she ran upstairs to look for the cabinets. She glanced at the second floor as she passed it: more boarded up windows, and this time several broken beds with no mattresses. She paused. She could hide under the beds if there were no cabinets here.

She continued to the third floor and smiled when she saw cabinets, as well as a mesa near one side. There were more boarded up windows here, and opposite to them near the stairwell was a wooden rack with four glass panes, like they were going to fix the windows but decided not to.

Well, she had her cabinets, so she walked over to them, and opened them all slightly, one by one as she passed them by. But when she looked at a particularly small one, she thought back to some military formations from strategy class: most of them had shields and spears, not just spears. So, she reached up and with a few yanks and tugs, managed to pull the small cabinet door off its hinges. It was a bit of an awkward shield since it had no handle, but it could work.

And now that she was at the end of all the cabinets which were now all open, she stepped into a large one and held her shield in front as she looked out and waited.

---

“Time’s up!” Alec yelled, then turned to Zale. “Time to head in.”

“Can I take the bucket of paint?” Zale asked.

“No,” Alec answered. “You can mix some of the paint with whatever water you have on you.”

“Aw, I’m gonna have to clean out the paint.” Zale frowned, but walked forward, took out his canteen, and poured a bit of paint in.

“It’s just blue dye, you’ll be fine,” Alec said.

Zale walked inside the house and looked around. All the other mages except Hana hid on the top floor, but Malena wasn’t a mage. He could see her hiding around like Hana, then striking with her bow, so he kept a small bubble of water around his canteen as a shield as he looked. He tried to be silent, but this building creaked just like the last one, so he could only do so much.

He looked behind the counter and breathed a sigh when there was no one. Then he peeked down the cellar, but there was nowhere to hide. So he went to the stairs, ran up to the next floor, and crouched to look under the beds, but it didn’t look like there was anyone there either.

He ran up to the third floor next and felt a pang of dread when he noticed all the cabinets were open. About half of them were facing his direction, but she could fire from any of those spots. He doubted whether his water could really block an arrow, especially if he didn’t know where it was coming from. So, he ran to the right side. At least there he’d be far from the cabinets on the left, and he could directly attack the ones on the right.

Malena stared out from inside one of the cabinets on the right. She was worried he might see her, and thought maybe holding the arrows would’ve been better, but she couldn’t switch now since that would give away her position. Luckily, he seemed to want to get close, so she held her spear at the ready.

Zale opened one cabinet fully and looked in. Seeing nothing, he closed it lightly, still trying to keep quiet, then moved to the next one. He opened and closed that one, and then the next, and then the next. It would be annoying if Malena wasn’t here and the cabinets were just open, but he wasn’t sure where else she’d be.

Then, he opened one cabinet and a spear thrust out at him. He tried to block it with the water, but it only slowed a little. It was just enough time for him to dodge though. And in reaction, he sent a thumb-full of the water right at Malena’s face.

Malena slowed time down as much as she could and tried to move, but the water was too fast and her body was too slow. It was spreading out and while most of it wouldn’t hit her, even a drop could be enough. However, was it small enough? She concentrated like she had with the grains of sand, and teleported some of the water just enough to one side or the other so that it wouldn’t hit her. Then, she pulled her spear back and hit him with it, panting. It felt like energy had been pulled out of her entire being.

“I think that’s your heart.” Malena said.

“Actually I think the heart is on the other side,” Zale pointed out, then squinted at her. “And how did that not hit you?”

“I guess I have good luck?” Malena caught her breath and moved the spear over.

“Huh.” He frowned. “Well dang.”

“Yeah! Go Malena!” Lilith cheered from outside again.

---

“You could’ve hit him with an arrow if you prepared that instead,” Alec pointed out. “Since you were far from the stairs, you would’ve had a few shots.”

“Yeah.” Malena sighed. “I thought of that when he was already on the third floor, but by then it was too late.”

“Well, that’s what practice is for,” Alec said. “And Zale, your strategy with what you had on you was pretty good, but you should think about carrying more water if you’re going to depend on it.”

Zale nodded. “Yeah, a canteen’s not really enough.”

“Yep,” Alec said. “But it’s what you had on you, and you never know when something might happen.” Then, he pulled out his paper and turned to the rest of the students. “Last but not least, Jatte and Lilith, you’re up. Lilith is the defender.”

“Finally!” Lilith balled her fists up and ran forward, took the knife, dipped it in the paint, and ran inside.

She was able to see some of the layout on the signs Rosina set up earlier, but she wanted a closer look. So she ran over to the cellar and practically dove inside, using sparks of electricity to light up her surroundings. It was just rock and dirt, but she walked down to check out the wooden stairs. Maybe she could hide inside them? She knocked on them, and they were hollow, so she tried using her electricity and fire magic to burn the wood in one spot since she couldn’t cut it, then poked it with her wooden knife. She was able to get through after a second, but it would take a while for a hole big enough for her unfortunately. Jatte couldn’t see down here and she could, so it’d be a good place, but she wasn’t sure she’d have things set up before her time ran out. So she ran back up.

Here, there was the bar stand, but there wasn’t much room to hide inside it, so she went upstairs again.

On this floor there were all the broken beds. She didn’t want to hide underneath them, but she did want to mess with Jatte and she had a fun idea for a time waster. She ran over and threw a bunch of them up so that they were standing on their side, using her magic to boost herself, and made a quick maze with them before running upstairs again.

Here were all the cabinets and the replacement windows. She went over to the windows first. Wispy skipped over some optics lessons recently as an explanation for why everything underwater was slightly different than what she saw, and he showed a couple neat tricks she wanted to try: one being invisibility and another being fresnel lenses. She moved two of the panes so she could fit, then tried heating up the glass to warp it, and could after a few seconds, but it would still take a while for a full lens. Unfortunately, she could feel the seconds ticking away, so she moved over to the cabinets, quickly closed them all with her magic as she ran by, and hid inside a large one. She could hear outside and could look about a foot outside with her sense magic, so she didn’t need them to be open like Malena. To finish things off while she still had time, she used her electricity and heat magic to cut a hole in the side wall of the cabinet she could fit through.

She was just done with one cut when she heard “Time’s up!” She pushed the cutout into the next cabinet and used her magic to soften its fall so it was only a light buzzing sound.

---

Jatte walked into the building with her wooden dagger and levitated off her feet when the door closed behind her. She also let her dagger fall out into its own field of gravity.

First, she floated over to the bar and let har dagger float behind it, sweeping the area before she moved to look. She didn’t want to be nearby whenever Lilith inevitably tried something crazy. But when she looked, there was no Lilith.

She flew over to the cellar, opened it, and frowned at the darkness. She might’ve had to check this again last, but she could at least try to listen for things now. Her homeland had a way of dealing with dark places like this, though she wasn’t that good at it.

She sent two large gravity fields forward and up, spinning slightly as they fell. She let them go so they could vibrate faster than she could manually shake them. And in a second, the vibrations as they spiraled in went from a deep rumble to a high pitched chirp as the fields dissipated, and the chirp echoed throughout the cellar. She listened for a bit, but it didn’t sound like anything was down there other than some hollow stairs and earth.

Upstairs, Lilith paused her cutting through all the cabinet walls. What the heck was that sound? Some giant bird? Well, whatever. She still needed more room and it didn’t sound like anyone outside was reacting to whatever it was, so she continued her work.

Jatte flew up the stairs and saw the maze made of beds. She covered her mouth, almost laughing. She’d seen hedge mazes before, and this would be just as easy to deal with.

She flew up to the ceiling and looked down, Looking for Lilith’s white and purple clothes anywhere on the ground. But… there was nothing. So she just set up this maze and left it? It seemed like a waste, but as she flew around the ceiling, there really wasn’t anywhere for Lilith to hide. So, she flew back to the stairs and went up.

There wasn’t much in the third floor except cabinets, the mesa, and a few glass panes. If Lilith was here, she’d have to be in the cabinets, and really, there was nowhere else to hide.

Jatte quickly flew by the closed cabinets, opening them up one by one with her gravity magic as she looked inside. She saw some white pants, but before she could react, there were several rings of electricity as the cabinets closed themself in the opposite direction she was flying. Confused, she looked inside the cabinet she thought she saw Lilith in, and grinned when she saw a hole in the wall, and Lilith crouching down and grinning up at her from the far end.

Then, Lilith hopped out and flew to the stairwell, Jatte following a second later.

But that headstart was enough for Lilith to fly in ahead and grip the top of the opening to the second floor, lift herself to the second floor ceiling, and drop her magic enough that it didn’t make a sound. Then she used her electricity to send a blast of air that rattled the beds.

Jatte flew down the stairs and then up to the center of the ceiling of the second floor, looking around at the different beds as they settled. Lilith must’ve knocked into one, but there was still no sign of her.

She heard some more sparks and felt some air behind her, so she turned around, but Lilith was already gone. Somehow she was quiet enough that she couldn’t hear her, so she continued downstairs. Maybe Lilith ran down to hide in the cellar next.

Instead, Lilith lightened herself with her air magic, just enough to only make a soft buzzing, and ran upstairs with only enough weight that the wood didn’t creak like the others had complained about. She looked around for Jatte for a second, then went to the glass panes, pouring all her heat magic in to make lines on one of the glass panes. She would’ve preferred the method that gave a full image with invisibility, but this method was faster.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jatte looked around the first floor, then flew down into the cellar, making a few more gravity chirps.

Upstairs, Lilith hurried making her lens, moving along line by line. After hearing the chirps, she poured out even more magic and used time magic to speed herself up, even though Malena warned against it. Soon, she had a fresnel lens that would spread all the light horizontally, which should’ve been enough since the wooden wall looked the same from left to right.

After a few more chirps, Jatte flew back upstairs and started checking the cabinets again, this time grabbing them and tearing the doors off their hinges with her magic aiding her, but there was no Lilith there. Flying to the other side of the room and doing the same, she found there was no Lilith in those cabinets either.

But out of the corner of her eyes, she realized the glass panes seemed weird. They were blurry now even though they were clear earlier. And when she looked at them, the wall behind them showed a few more white and purple spots than it should’ve. “How the heck?” She slowly flew over.

Once Jatte was close enough, Lilith jumped out and ran downstairs. “Haha!”

Jatte frowned. The cabinet thing was cool, but she wasn’t sure how much time she had left. She hurriedly went down to the next floor, flew overhead, then down to the next for a quick scan, and finally went back to the cellar. Having to check everything was starting to get annoying.

This time, Lilith actually did head into the cellar, and barely managed to carve a hole in the stairs she could barely fit through and close it up before Jatte flew in and closed the cellar door behind her.

Lilith held her breath as she heard Jatte’s steps directly above her. This was too exciting!

Jatte made another loud chirp with her gravity magic. This time, something seemed different, but she couldn’t quite tell. She couldn’t hear the echoes getting muffled in any particular direction, but as she paused to process it, the stairs felt… off.

She floated down in the darkness as she made a few tiny chirps around her, then pressed her hand against the side of the stairs, only for the wood to give away. She squinted and leapt back. If Lilith wanted to escape, she’d have to move that section of wood or another one, which she’d hear, and if she used her electricity magic it would light up the place.

Lilith waited. She wanted Jatte to be close by so she could fly off ahead of her.

For Jatte, this was taking too long. She sent a burst of gravity forward, pulling the wood away from and then towards Lilith.

Lilith held her knife forward, using some small sparks to light things up and ready to get Jatte, but only the wood fell on her. Then, a knife levitated in front of her and almost hit her before she ducked and ran out.

But Jatte was ready. Once Lilith tried to fly out with her magic, Jatte made her knife fly back and shifted gravity around Lilith so she fell into the far wall. Then, she flew over and stood on the wall above her now that gravity around them was shifted sideways. “Gotcha!” She grinned down at the collapsed Lilith.

“Oh yeah?” Lilith grinned back, then pushed her electricity magic so she could fly up despite the gravity. Purple rings levitated above her as she started to lift off the wall.

But Jatte just increased the gravity around Lilith, pushing her back down. “Yeah.”

Lilith pushed her magic even harder and pressed her hands and feet against the wall, trying to push herself off.

Jatte increased the gravity even more. This was starting to be a tough battle of magic.

Lilith pushed her magic, but she quickly started panting and she was starting to feel light headed. Still, maybe if she just pushed a little bit more, she could get up and win!

Jatte held her knife above LIlith’s throat as she struggled and let a few drops of paint fall down on Lilith’s throat. She didn’t want to risk choking her since she didn’t know how much the knife weighed in the higher gravity.

Lilith concentrated on her magic as her vision faded, but then, the gravity lightened for some reason, and she could stand. “Huh?” She tilted her head at Jatted even as she held her knife out.

“You lost.” Jatted pointed at her own throat.

Lilith touched her throat and looked at the blue on her finger. “Aww.” She frowned. “I almost got you.”

“You were pretty good,” Jatte said. “If you weren’t running away so much, maybe you could’ve won.”

“I wanted to try all my ideas though,” Lilith said, smiling. “Still, that was the most fun I’ve had in a long time!” She stepped forward, hugged, and squeezed Jatte for a moment before letting go. “Not quite as much as Cyla flying me, but still pretty fun.”

“Oh, glad you enjoyed it,” Jatte smiled back.

“Thanks.” Lilith looked up at the door, or was it ‘looked sideways’? “This is so weird.”

---

Once they were both outside, Alec walked over to Lilith with an annoyed look. “Why didn’t you attack her when she was by the glass?” He asked.

“Uh…” Lilith blinked. Why didn’t she?

“Or when you were on the second floor ceiling and she didn’t see you? You could’ve also levitated your knife like she did when you were inside the cabinets.”

Lilith thought about it some more before answering. “That wouldn’t be as fun?” She shrugged.

Alec narrowed his eyes. “This may be a game, but it’s also training for life or death scenarios. Your goal is to win, and you practically threw the match.”

Lilith grimaced. “But then I wouldn’t have been able to try out all my hiding spots.”

Alec sighed. “That is true. Your ability to hide was, well, pretty ingenious. Actually that reminds me: where did you learn to do that with the glass? I know we don’t teach that in our research courses, and your home town definitely doesn’t teach that.”

Lilith paled and froze. “Urk. it’s… a secret?”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean it's a secret?”

Sensing trouble, Malena rushed forward. “Lilith has an apprenticeship with a researcher. I think William might know more.”

Alec paused and shrugged. “Oh, so this might be some new science she’s working on.” He turned back to Lilith. “If it really is a secret, you shouldn’t be using it in class. Please tell me who you’re apprenticing with so I can tell them about this.”

Lilith paled as she thought back. She had an apprenticeship, but not much came of it. It was less like a real apprenticeship and more like a mix between a pen pal and extra homework. It was mostly letters asking about random stuff, and she got some metal panels or other material in return. Who was it with again? “Uh, Dr. Crowe,” Lilith said.

“Thank you,” Alec wrote the name down, then put the paper away. “Anyway, your plans for hiding were good except for the last one. If you can, you should always make sure you have a way to leave that isn’t the same way you came in from. However, I do expect you to take this training more seriously in the future. It’s fine if you want to play, just do it outside of class and ask for extra credit. Remember your grade is on the line here.”

Lilith nodded.

“What about me?” Jatte asked.

Alec turned. “You did fine for the most part. Just make sure you check directly above you whenever you’re dealing with other fliers. Also, you should carry a small lantern on you in case you need to deal with dark spaces, depending on how well those chirps worked.”

Jatte nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

---

After class, Lilith knocked on Jattes door. She had several planks of wood in her backpack along with her wings from before, though the wings had their t-shapes covered by leather now.

Jatted opened the door. “Oh hey!”

“Hey!” Lilith smiled. “Wanna head to the cave again?”

Jatte frowned. “If you want me to help you put stuff together there again, get Ethen, I think that’s more his thing.”

Lilith shook her head. “Actually, I was thinking of just laying these down and exploring the cave. I can carry this over, and you can carry Silene, right?”

Jatte thought about it for a moment. “So it’s a party? Like a real adventurer party?” She smiled, now eager.

“Yeah! So you’re in?” Lilith asked.

Jatte nodded and stepped into the hall. “So where’s Silene’s door then?”

Lilith ran over to a nearby door and knocked on it.

Silene opened the door. “Oh hey Lilith.”

“Cave exploration?” Lilith asked

“Sure!” Silene smiled. “Let’s see what else is in your new home.”

---

Their journey to the cave was mostly uneventful. Lilith didn’t come as close to smacking into buildings and they all kept far enough above the trees that they didn’t have to worry about bumping into anything. That was, until they flew over something large and red.

It looked scaly like a dragon, but they thought they just flew over it since they were going fast, until Silene yelled, “Behind you!”

Jatte and Lilith turned just in time to see a dragon twice as long as they were tall try to bite at where Lilith’s leg was just a moment before.

“You asshole!” Jatte moved Silene out of the way and made her gravity chirp from before, aiming it at the dragon’s head.

It made a loud yelping sound, then fell into the trees.

Lilith and Jatte tried to fly away with Silene while it was down, but the dragon roared and jumped after Jatte.

Jatte flew out of the way, barely avoiding its jaws.

This time, Lilith was pissed. This thing was going after her friends. It survived Jatte’s gravity, but could it survive her electricity?

Lilith forced her wings down and launched herself at its head while it was going after Jatte. Then, as it started to turn to look at her, she poured as much electricity as she could into its brain.

The dragon’s eyes spun and rolled back before it convulsed in midair. Then it fell into the trees, cracked a few branches, and landed with a final thud.

Lilith flew down after it, folding her wings in and slowing down so she could dodge the branches. Once she was at the forest floor, she saw the dragon with some of its scales torn out by branches and its underside pierced and bloodied. But she still stepped forward and readied her mana sense, wary. She wanted to make sure it wouldn’t come after them again.

Jatte followed, touching down before letting Silene reach the ground.

Lilith scanned over the dragon with her mana sense. It had a heart, and that heart wasn’t beating anymore. As she moved up to its head, she could tell there was no electricity in its brain anymore either.

Silene ran towards it. “Is it dead?” She asked Lilith.

“Yeah.” Lilith let out a breath in relief.

“Let’s stop here for a bit then,” Silene said. “We had to kill it, but we shouldn’t let it go to waste.” She pulled out a necklace with Haven’s symbol—a capital H with a slanted roof over it—held it in both of her hands and closed her eyes, then muttered, “thank you Haven, we will not let your gifts go to waste.”

Lilith saw Silene praying over the dragon and remembered its brain she felt in her mana sense. Now that she thought about it, its brain was bigger than her head. Did this count as the fifth person she killed?

Silene knelt down and started pulling off the scales. “Lilith, can you fetch some firewood and get a fire started?”

“Sure.” Lilith shook herself from her thoughts and looked around for some sticks.

“Why don’t you just use the wood on your back?” Jatte smirked.

“Yeah, I don’t want to burn that,” Lilith said, giving Jatte a bemused smile.

Silene pulled the scales off one by one until there was a large pile. After that, she picked up one of the sharper scales and moved over to the part of the dragon’s underside that was pierced by a branch and cut. Once the hole was big enough, she pulled out organ after organ, frowning. “We’re going to have to throw most of this away, but dragon liver is pretty healthy as long as you only eat a small amount.” She was holding a big red thing the size of her torso when she turned to see Lilith running back over with a bunch of sticks. “Oh, do you also have your metal plates on you?”

“A few,” Lilith answered. “Why?”

“We’re going to use them as cooking and serving plates,” Silene said.

Lilith frowned, but shrugged. It wouldn’t hurt them too much. So she turned to her backpack and pulled out a few of the metal sheets.

“You can light the fire too, right?” Silene asked.

“Sure.” Lilith put her plates down by the sticks, then poured some electricity into one of the dryer sticks. It was taking a while for them to catch though. “Wait, can you use your light magic for it?” She backed off the fire when there were only a few small embers.

Silene shook her head. “It takes a lot of energy for that. More than I have. If you can’t do it I’ll have to spin a stick until it smokes instead.”

“Can you come over here and try something though?” Lilith asked, smirking slightly. She wanted to know if something else Wispy taught her about optics could work.

“Sure.” Silene walked over. “What do you want to try?”

“Try creating a red light mote on the wood, since you can make colored motes,” Lilith said.

Shrugging, Silene knelt down and made a red light mote on the tip of one of the firewood sticks. Nothing happened.

“Now make it more red. Like if you were moving it from green to red,” Lilith said.

Silene frowned. “But if I do that, it’s just going to disappear and get hot.” She paused. “Oh.”

“Yep,”Lilith said, “So try it.” She knelt down and moved her mana sense to Silene’s light mote, focusing on how hot the stick was. “Also make it bright so I can tell what’s happening.”

Silene poured magic into the mote to make it brighter, then shifted the color until it was invisible.

Lilith felt the heat increase a bit, but it wasn’t at its peak. “More red.”

Silene shifted the color some more.

“More, oh, back, a bit more blue, more red… there!” Lilith said.

Silene watched as the embers on the end of the stick seemed to grow and shrink as Lilith guided her.

“Now, try lighting it with that,” Lilith said.

Silene focused on the ‘more red than red’ feeling as she guided the light mote she couldn’t see onto the end of the stick and poured even more mana into it. Soon, the end caught fire, so she moved the mote over, catching more of the stick on fire.

“Huh,” Jatte said, watching. “That’s neat, but couldn’t you do that yourself with your electricity, or heat, or fire magic?”

Lilith turned. “Well yeah, but I wanted to see Silene do it.”

---

Reinhold read over a letter from the King, then reread it. It didn’t make any sense.

“Commander Reinhold,

“You are hereby gifted the honor of working as the head knight protecting prince Keith Voldis. You will guard him as Solis choses their heir, and then until they are married. This will ensure peace between Voldis and Solis into the far future.

“Warmest regards,

“King Voldis”

Gifted what honor? He was a commander in charge of most of the knights in Solis, and now he was guarding one prince and maybe commanding a platoon? This was clearly a demotion. And on top of that it was the brat prince pretty much no one liked. He wondered if trying to form a union with that kid would be more of an insult than anything.

And why did the king want to form such a union anyway? They were doing well here. People were starting to get used to the guards and the magicite was selling as well as it possibly could. There was no reason for such a drastic measure.

He read it over once more and sighed. He might not have liked them, but he had his orders. So he walked to the door of his room, opened it, and looked down at the kid waiting for him. “You must be Keith,” Reinhold said.

The slightly chubby kid in gaudy red and gold had a scowl as he looked up. “I am Prince Keith Voldis, yes.” Then he looked around. “I was told I’d be meeting a Princess. Where is my princess?”

“Solis’s king has no heirs. We have to wait for them to decide who they want to send,” Reinhold said.

Keith grimaced. “Making me wait even longer. I already don’t like this place.”

---

After Lilith left, Malena heard a knock on her door and opened it to see her father. “Dad? You came to visit?”

“Yes,” he said, smiling wider than usual “there’s something very important happening! The king has asked his aides if they had anyone that could become an heir to the throne. He’s holding a competition for everyone that goes.” He grinned. “You have to go! This is a chance to rule Solis!”

Malena’s face turned blank as she took a while to process his words. It didn’t make any sense. She could become the heir? That meant she could become Queen and rule Solis in time.

She remembered back to a few old jokes about her being Queen and how she could just lower taxes and declare whatever laws she wanted. Now they didn’t feel like jokes. They felt like easy ways to screw up countless lives and get herself killed.

“Come with me!” He beckoned. “You gotta be the one to win!”

Malena followed in a trance. But once she thought about it, she should at least participate in whatever this competition would be. She was on the political track after all. Besides, maybe she’d find someone more fit for the job there, and then her heart could rest and she could go back to school and be with her friends.