After taking what they could from the dragon, Lilith, Silene, and Jatte flew the rest of the way to the adit and landed in front of the cave.
“Safety first,” Lilith said as she walked over to a nearby rock, lifted it, and pulled out some rope she left earlier. She tied it around herself first, then gave the rest to Silene.
“I didn’t go very deep into the cave last time,” Jatte said. “How many places are there to explore?”
“A lot,” Silene said, tying her portion of the rope before handing it off.
“So many!” Lilith said. “I think half of them are underwater, so we can’t explore them yet, but I wonder if what’s down there is different from what’s in the above water ones.”
Jatte raised an eyebrow as she tied herself. “What do you mean ‘yet’? Are you planning on turning into a fish or something?”
“Water mages can trap air in a bubble around them and explore for a while,” Silene pointed out.
“Yeah,” Lilith said. “I want to do that, just non-magical.”
Jatte thought about it, envisioning Lilith’s leather and metal wings turning into a sphere around her. “Huh. Could be neat.” She finished tying. “Well, we’re ready to go in.”
They all walked into the entrance, past a bunch of wooden boards and metal plates and around a wooden platform Lilith and Jatte made earlier, which had a single sponge lamp resting on it. They flew to the right side of a river, where a few sticks were covering a hole.
Lilith moved the sticks out of the way with her magic and stepped forward to jump in, but Jatte held her arm out.
“Sorry, I think I should go in first,” Jatte said. “I don’t know if your electrical flight will work in narrow spaces. If it doesn’t, you need someone at the bottom to catch you.” She levitated up, then down into the hole.
“Alright,” Lilith said. “Well, what do you see?”
“Not much,” Jatte said. “Silene, can you come down here? I’ll catch you in my gravity.”
Silene stepped forward, then sat down on the edge of the hole and slowly crawled in.
After a few feet of Silene climbing in, Lilith’s rope tugged her to the edge, so she levitated herself in with her electrical magic next. It was a bit harder to keep up in the narrow passage like Jatte said, but she was able to handle it with a few slight wobbles.
Silene made a few light motes and sent them out. Now that they looked around, it was a fairly cramped hall that went nowhere, ending a few feet ahead of them. But something caught Silene’s attention, and she was pressing her hand against one of the jagged rocks. “Holes like this don’t form naturally,” she said. “If it was from the river, the rocks would be smoother. I think there was something here that earth mages wanted.”
“Magicite ore?” Lilith asked.
“No, that’d be by the river.” Silene shook her head. “There’s some red rock here.” She grabbed a loose red rock from the wall and yanked it out. “I’m not sure what it is. Someone back home should know though.” She pocketed it.
“Anything else interesting?” Lilith asked.
Silene looked around and shrugged.
Lilith looked around for a moment more. It was really just a small hole in the ground. “Alright, let’s check out the next one then.” She started her flight magic and made her way back up. Once she was out and Jatte lifted herself and Silene out, she started putting the sticks back over the hole and burned in some words onto one of the larger sticks with her magic. ‘Small hall. Red rock.’
Then, they went to the next hole.
It turned out a lot of the holes were different rock veins the miners had taken earlier, and they ended up marking down how they were mostly small halls with different colored rocks in them.
That was until they came across a large entrance to another cave on the right side.
“This one’s smooth,” Silene said, moving a light mote over the entrance and into the large hall. “It must’ve been carved out by the river a long time ago.”
“So we can see something that isn’t a tiny space?” Lilith asked.
Silene nodded.
“Let’s go then!” Lilith stepped forward eagerly, and the other two followed.
The hall had a few stalagmites and stalactites along the way, a few of which they had to dodge around, but eventually it led to a giant open room with a lake that looked like it would drain into the river if it got any higher. There was also a skylight above them with a beam of moonlight pointing down on the lake, slightly lighting the room, as well as a giant deep blue rock off to the left, which looked like they were looking into a solid piece of the ocean.
Lilith’s face lit up as she walked towards the lake, slowing down a bit to not tug on the others. Once she made it, she knelt down and scooped her hand into the water as Silene sent a few motes in. Some tiny pale fish darted away as she picked up some of the water.
Silene sent more light motes into the clear lake. There were a few plants floating on the surface where the moonlight was hitting it, and some kelp underwater around there, along with the countless tiny fish.
“Cave aquarium!” Lilith said, smiling at the beauty.
The others stared for a while, taking in the sight.
Then, Lilith turned. “Wanna check out that blue rock next?” She started walking towards it.
“Yeah, sure,” Silene said. “It’s round in a weird way, like it’s not being eroded by the water like everything else.”
Since it was fairly far, Jatte picked up Silene in her magic and they all flew over. This whole area might’ve been the size of the main park back in Solis.
When they got close, Silene paled and tilted her head. “No way… Baleen?” She muttered under her breath.
Lilith walked up ahead, not hearing Silene’s mutters. When she looked closely, there were several small, flat blue gemstones, all pointing to the left. It didn’t match the rest of the cave, and that made her really want to know what this strange rock was. So she grabbed one of the gemstones and started cutting with her heat magic.
“Lilith stop!” Silene stressed as quietly as she could.
“Huh, why?” Lilith turned back, still focusing her mana sense on the gem and cutting through it. She managed to cut off a small chunk of the material, which gently drifted to the floor like a feather before she caught it in her magic.
Then, the wall moved. The part near them moved away and shifted up until they could see a sky blue underside, and the far parts curved towards them, until a head appeared on their right. It opened two black eyes that might’ve been bigger than their bodies, even though they looked small on this thing, and opened its mouth, revealing countless bristles. Then, it squinted down at them.
Silene was putting light motes in front of all of them as fast as she could, trying to make it look like there was only cave where they were standing.
Jatte and Lilith froze.
The baleen reared its head back, and then there were several deafening clicks that shook their bones, which sped up as they faded. Then, they heard a voice in their mind. It was similar to how Hana would speak to them sometimes, but it was a completely different voice. ‘Pests.’
The walls shifted even more as huge scaled wings unfurled and came together in front of its mouth. Then, a great dark ball of some energy formed. This was a dragon, not those small red things from before.
Lilith snapped out of her fear and awe, grabbed the other two, and flew up.
It was just in time, as whatever that energy was shot forth and slammed into the ground they were just on, flinging rocks and dust everywhere. Jatte barely managed to move the bigger debris out of the way with her gravity.
The giant dragon started clicking again, then turned its head towards them and swung a wing to swat them.
Jatte grabbed them all and barely managed to dodge. She remembered her chirps from before. Those clicks might’ve been something like them, which would explain why it could spot them despite Silene’s light magic. If so, maybe she could counter it with her own version. So she made a few small gravity wells around them that would spin in and serve as distractions.
Lilith remembered she could talk back to Hana, so she focused her mind. ‘Wait! Please don’t kill us!’
The dragon clicked, then made a smaller ball of energy and shot it at one of Jatte’s gravity wells. ‘Get out of my house.’
‘I’m sorry! We’ll go back to our cave!’ Lilith screamed in her head as they all moved away from the blast, not wanting it to even get close.
‘Your cave?’ The dragon replied, now staring ahead, its voice ringing in their minds. ‘You’re confused. This entire mountain range is my house.’
‘Oh,’ Lilith replied, thinking back to all the stuff she set up in the adit already. ‘O— okay. We’ll leave. We’ll go back to Solis.’ She thought about how it’d be a pain to take everything back. It wasn’t fair. She’d already set up a lot and was so excited. But surviving was more important.
‘Solis,’ the dragon repeated in their minds, then narrowed its eyes, ‘What is Solis?’
They involuntarily thought about their lives back home. Both Jatte and Lilith thought about its view from above, and flying from there to the mountains.
‘Thank you. I flew over that city. I thought it was far enough from here, but thanks to you three, I now know it isn’t.’ the dragon’s mouth turned into a frown as it readied another sphere of magic. ‘Now die. I can’t risk a swarm.’
This time Lilith grabbed them all and dodged out of the way.
Jatte made more chaff, then blocked the rocks that flew from the impact.
‘Why!?’ Lilith screamed back in her head. ‘We were just gonna leave!’
A few images filled her mind, making it hard to concentrate. She saw mages and knights from Solis swarming the dragon with countless attacks. Arrows and lightning cut into its underside and eyes, before it fell, dead.
While Lilith was shaking her head, Jatte abandoned her chaff and grabbed them, barely dodging another blast.
After the vision, Lilith frowned. It seemed like talking wasn’t going to work. This dragon was going to kill them because they viewed humans as a threat. It was kill or be killed.
Lilith held out her hands, which cracked with electricity. ‘I can do the same,’ she thought coldly. ‘I’ve killed dragons and humans.’ She thought back to the smaller dragon, Taro, and the bandits, as she drifted in front of the light screen Silene made, her lightning showing. ‘I guess this lightning will do the same to you.’
The dragon arced its head back away from the group, then focused on making a larger ball of magic, but didn’t fire it. It just let the thing keep growing. ‘So you even kill your own kind.’ Lilith could feel some fear and desperation from the telepathy. ‘I’ll just have to kill you first then. Stay still.’
Lilith panicked for a moment, her mana sense driving her crazy even though she wasn’t focusing on it, before she responded, ‘E— even if you do, I have friends back home that know where I am. They’ll come looking for me if I don’t come back in the morning, and find you.’ She thought of Malena who she told, her mother who got the truth out of her, and Hana who probably knew since she was a telepath.
The dragon squinted at where it thought they were, then lowered its head in resignation. ‘Regrettable… but they will find only rocks and corpses.’ It fired the massive ball of magic at them. ‘I can make another nest.’
Lilith was able to react quickly thanks to the time magic, but the thing was still hurtling towards them. “Back to the cave!” She screamed and pulled them all.
A half a second later, Jatte poured her own gravity magic in, boosting them enough to just barely avoid the giant sphere.
Silene switched from light magic to earth magic, strengthening them all as much as she could, bracing for impact as they approached the narrow hall.
They shot into the hall and, despite pulling away from the bend, scraped against one wall, tumbled against the next, and then slowed down enough to only slam into the left side of the adit, then fall to the floor.
Before she fell unconscious alongside the others, Lilith heard everything shake as the dragon swung its massive wings and flew out of the cave’s skylight. Then, she heard the trees rustling from the wind as everything went black.
---
Lilith woke up with a splitting headache to Silene staring down at her.
“Good, you’re awake,” Silene smiled. “I’m really glad I got practice healing injuries from that doctor.”
Lilith looked over her body. There was a massive scrape on her left side and her left shoulder felt really, really bruised, but otherwise she was fine. “Thanks.” She smiled wearily up at Silene.
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“Of course!” Silene smiled. “You weren’t too injured though. My earth magic stopped that. We’re all just completely out of mana.” She laid back as Lilith got up.
“So you and Jatte are both okay?” Lilith asked.
“Okay enough,” Silene replied. “We only got a few cuts and bruises.”
“Thank goodness,” Lilith sighed in relief, then looked to the cave where the dragon used to be. “Is it gone?” For some reason, when she looked, the danger there didn’t feel real. It was like it was part of some legend, not something real.
“Probably,” Silene said. “I’m too scared to look though.”
“I wanna check,” Lilith said. “It said something weird at the end.”
“It said it could find a new nest.” Silene frowned. “Are you really sure you want to look though?”
Lilith blinked. She thought of a bird’s nest, then thought of them hatching into baby birds. But that dragon was capable of speaking to her. It wasn’t just some chirping bird.
She felt a pang of dread as she untied her rope and powered up her electricity magic, which took more effort than usual. She still managed to fly over the river. “I’ll tell you if it’s safe.”
“Wait!” Silene stood and untied her own rope. “Wait until Jatte wakes up! It’s safer if we all go together!”
Lilith paused, then flew back and sat down by Jatte. She watched the sun rise as her headache slowly subsided.
…
Once Jatte was up, they re-tied their ropes, floated over the river, and slowly made their way into the former dragon nest.
“Are you really sure this is a good idea?” Jatte asked.
Lilith shook her head, but said the opposite, her voice shaky, “Well, it said it would make a new nest. If it left, I want to make sure.”
Once they could see the dragon’s former nest, the right side of the area was now a massive avalanche of jagged rocks, the lake was half filled with them, and the skylight was much larger than before. There were also jagged rocks and craters everywhere from the one sided battle.
Hesitantly, Lilith and Silene walked forward into the cave, towards where the dragon was.
Jatte froze and the rope tugged them back.
Silene turned. “Hey, it should be fine. If this is a baleen nest, which I think it is, then it should be safe now.”
Jatte stayed frozen. “What if the dad comes back?” She asked.
“If they were going to attack us, they would’ve done that when we were all unconscious,” Silene said.
Jatte paused, then nodded and followed.
They all stepped over the new jagged rocks, making their way around the large lake, until they were at the place where the dragon was resting before. Now that it wasn’t covering everything, they could see another small opening with jagged edges that it must’ve made with its magic. And inside, was a large light blue egg with brown speckles. It was almost as tall as Lilith.
Lilith walked forward and laid her hands on the egg. She felt another pang of guilt, remembering that the dragon could speak, and this was effectively a baby. And when she touched it, it was warmer than the cave walls around them, but it felt like it was getting cold. Then, she felt a few vibrations from it, and looked inside with her mana sense. Inside she could see a tiny dragon, shivering.
The reality of the situation finally hit her then. This really was a child. She just drove its mother away. And it would freeze to death soon. But she hadn’t done anything wrong, had she? She just explored a space she thought was empty, then tried to save her friends. She teared up. “Why?”
“Many birds abandon their nest if it’s threatened,” Silene said, repeating something she’d read. “Even if there are eggs, it makes more sense for the female to lay new eggs than risk everything for one or two in the threatened nest.”
Lilith was still focusing on the shivering dragon inside and pouring out a bit of heat magic for it. She turned to Jatte. “Can you gather some sticks?”
Jatte nodded and flew out.
Silene frowned. “Lilith, how are you going to feed it?”
“I’ll find a way,” Lilith said. “Besides, it doesn’t look like it’s going to hatch for a while.”
Jatte flew back a moment later with some of the sticks from the adit. “Actually, the sun’s up already. We were out for a while. Maybe we should just grab this and fly back?”
“Can you?” Lilith asked. “It’s huge. It probably weighs more than all of us combined.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jatte said. “Gravity magic only cares about volume, not weight.”
---
While the trio was adventuring, Malena followed her dad into a large hall filled with marble and gold tables, then to an open seat with a paper test. She looked around and spotted students from her strategy and politics courses, but no one here was taking both. There were also a few students she didn’t recognize.
The test proctors looked like research mages in lab coats and adventurers with official medals. That likely meant they had to find people that could be trusted. It made sense given this was a test for the position of queen, though she was disappointed it was a paper test and not a debate.
“That’s everyone.” One of the proctors said. “Once you finish, immediately give your test to a proctor. Now, please begin.”
She opened her test book and found a bunch of questions on the local laws. They were bullet points, so she filled those in quickly. Her father had already made her memorize them all, and her politics classes drove it in even further.
Then there was a tough question on how to manage funds that she had to think about. It seemed like a fun puzzle, but she realized this was a test to become Queen, so she couldn’t take too long on one question. She decided to use her time magic to do the math for it, just this once.
The next section was an open ended question about how to deal with a prison break, which she had fun with, and after that were a few other open ended questions she had to think about. They covered everything from church funding to public relations.
Then there was a question she thought Lilith might like: a new form of magic was discovered that allowed people to strengthen their output given different limitations, limitations that hadn’t been mapped out yet. She took a while to think about that one. It was promising if people could increase their magic, but if it limited them too much, they could be rendered useless as mages. It would effectively be a sacrifice system, so the participants should be informed that they could lose just as much as they could gain, and it should be encouraged or discouraged depending on how useful the potential magic could be.
After that, she handed her paper to the nearest proctor and sat back down, wondering what Lilith and the others were up to.
---
Hana laid back on her bed after finishing her weekend homework in the morning while waiting for Jatte, and just listened to all the voices and emotions she could hear around her. She couldn’t quite make out what they were saying without focusing, but she didn’t want to. Just feeling all of the thoughts felt nice. It was like a warm bath.
Then she noticed Jatte and the others flying back. But, they were in pain? And was that a baby? What in the world?
Instead of heading up through the bottom floor, Jatte flew over to her window, so she walked over and opened it for her. Now, she could see it. That ‘baby’ was an egg the size of a person!
“Thanks!” Jatte called out as they all flew to her.
They zoomed in and Hana instinctively ducked, before Jatte slowly pushed the egg into the room through the window.
Once Jatte and the egg were both in, Lilith landed on the window sill and stepped inside carrying Silene.
“What the heck happened!?” Hana said. Not only was there an egg, but their clothes had scrapes and holes in them that she could see some nasty cuts and bruises through.
“Dragons,” Lilith laughed.
Hana looked at the egg, then back. “Well I’m glad you’re alive, but… why? That… kid, is crying now.” Now that she was close to it, it didn’t feel quite human, but it couldn’t be called a beast either.
Lilith’s smile faded as she gave her explanation. She got the feeling her words didn’t matter as much with Hana though. She could feel her in her head when she remembered mistaking the baleen dragon for a wall, then the battle, and how it fled its nest. “If all three of us weren’t there, we probably would’ve died.” She looked away.
Hana frowned. “Maybe you should stop going out there. If there’s stuff like that, I don’t want you to risk it.”
Jatte shook her head. “Nah, Silene says it’s safe.”
Hana turned to Silene.
“From what I read, baleen dragons are territorial,” Silene said. “Lilith’s Adit should be one of the safer places outside of Solis for a while.”
Hana scanned Silene with her telepathy, but she wasn’t lying. Apparently she’d read up on all the plants and animals she could, and dragons were especially interesting. So, she sighed. “Well, try to be safe,” She said, then looked at the egg again. “I guess I’ll take care of him. I don’t think he knows he was taken from his mothers nest. It feels like he’s crying because it’s too hot. Probably from all the sun you guys got while flying.”
“He?” Lilith blinked, then moved her hands over the egg. “Well, I can cool him if he needs that.”
---
Malena considered using her magic to speed up time as she waited, but decided against it.
The test proctors had taken everyone’s papers a while ago, but they still weren’t given the okay to speak. A few people tried whispering to each other a few times and were kicked out.
Then, finally, someone opened up the large doors at the opposite end of the hall the kids came from and called out, “Malena, Takumi, come in.”
Malena hopped out of her seat and walked over, her nerves almost making her speedwalk. Who was Takumi though? She wasn’t in any of her courses. She would’ve remembered that straight black hair and those grey eyes with that stoic expression, even if she was still wearing the regular school uniform.
She actually felt a bit of hope seeing Takumi walk over calmly to the door while she rushed. Her still being in school clothes was a huge negative, but she was still someone that perfected her appearance and strode calmly even in a test to become the Queen. Perhaps she would win, and Malena wouldn’t have to worry about anything. On the other hand though, Malena herself could do a lot of good as the Queen of Solis.
The doors were closed behind them and they were both ushered to a couple podiums that had been set up on a stage. Now in the audience in front of them were countless mages, researchers, nobles, and knights.
Finally, it was the debate Malena was hoping for! She turned to Takumi, smiling, and saw that her formerly stoic face was now looking down at the audience in terror. Her hopes for someone else becoming Queen quickly started dwindling.
Then she turned back to the crowd. An old man with a crown stepped forward. Wait, was that the king? Despite his cheery white robe and crown, He looked so old and… tired.
“Takumi, Malena,” the king said. “You two gave the most satisfactory answers to the test questions. My aides and mages agreed that you were the only ones that we should bother with, and I trust them.” He paused, closing his eyes. Then, in a voice that sounded almost like a cry for help, he asked, “Our first question: why did you come here?” He looked at them both. “Malena first.”
“Thank you,” Malena said as she looked over her podium, then paused to think about her answer. Since this was an open question, she went with tactics she’d learned for debates with no real answers. She’d make it personal to draw them in, make herself the hero, thank them, and try to make them feel included if possible.
“I’ll be honest: the idea of becoming Queen is terrifying. Many people might not know about all the dangers that come with the job, but I’ve read about so many of them in my strategy class. I decided to try despite that because I don’t want to have the sword of Damocles fall on someone else simply because I was too scared. And while it can be terrifying, it’s also a blessing. All of my friends and family are in Solis, along with their friends and their family, and so on, including practically the entirety of Solis. I must thank you again for this chance to help all of Solis, and to challenge myself.” She looked to the king. “I also know the position is for a new heir. I can’t imagine what it’s like to search the community for what’s legally a new daughter, and I will still be my father’s daughter, but I’ll try my best.”
Takumi stared at her like one might stare at a bear about to maul them.
“Well, she’s good at bullshitting,” a mage in the audience said before being shushed.
The King only seemed sad throughout it all, before he turned. “Takumi, why did you come here?”
Takumi snapped her head forward, gulped, and pinched her thigh. “I— I—” She cleared her throat. “My mom brought me here. She s— said it was mostly politicians and strategists that were going, but that I should give it a shot.” She took a calming breath in, then let it out. “I’m not a politician or a strategist, but a researcher at heart. I knew the laws on the test because I need to know when to stop myself if my curiosity takes me too far.” She paused. “I came because I don’t want to see Solis ruled by a politician that can talk well while everything’s falling apart. I will calculate everything, s— so that it doesn’t fall apart in the first place.” She glanced at Malena.
Malena nodded and smiled back, trying to encourage her. Takumi clearly had stage fright, but what she said wasn’t that bad. Politicians were good at talking to people, but in the end, a King and Queen needed to act.
Takumi did a double take.
The king took a seat as a man in a black suit stepped forward, stifling a yawn before asking his question. “The two of you differed the most in your answer to the research question of new magic. Takumi, please state your argument.”
Takumi cleared her throat again, but spoke more clearly now, if a bit fast. “I defined how we should devote the most funding to magics related to smithing, mining, and farming. That is: heat, cold, earth, and bio magic. There are also specific times we should invest for each, for example: whenever we have an excess of food for the year, whenever we have food exports, we should invest in researching bio magic and its restrictions. We could find restrictions on developing common crops that could result in food shortages otherwise, but with the right timing, we’d have time to shift the burden or bring in or train bio mages.”
The man in the black suit nodded. “Malena. Your argument?”
Malena turned to Takumi. She was a pretty good opponent here. She couldn’t compete with her when it came to science, so it was better to not compete at all. “I was far more general in my answer,” she said. “It’s certainly worth investigating, and certain magics and times are worth investing in or potentially losing more than others, but I won’t pretend that I know which or when.” She turned to Takumi. “That’s what aides are for, to help me where I’m lacking. I would hope I’d have an aid as good as Takumi to guide me in this scenario, especially with her dislike of politicians. I feel like I could trust her to tell me whenever I’m wrong.”
“Takumi, your response?”
She grimaced and shook her head. “I don’t think the queen should have to rely on her aides for this. She should be the one that knows the most. I know you can’t do that for absolutely everything, but there are times when you can’t wait for someone to fill you in on all the details, and there are things that it’s so hard to explain to the common person!”
“Malena?” The man said.
Malena nodded. “I agree that the Queen should be knowledgeable. The Queen should be able to act with haste if she needs to. However! I don’t believe having knowledge of research at hand is as valuable as having knowledge of strategy or knowing exactly what to say and how to say it. Your research may help the nation grow faster, but my strategy will protect the nation and help it grow right.”
“What do you mean grow right?”
“Don’t speak out of turn!” Someone from the audience yelled.
Takumi shrank back.
“Since it’s still my turn, I’ll first say you shouldn’t be so harsh on someone like her that probably hasn’t debated at all, especially when you have to speak out of turn yourself to do it.” She glared down at the man that yelled. “And by ‘grow right’, I mean I won’t just apply battle strategies, but operations. Moving troops to the right place can win a war, but so can making sure everyone is fed and has replacement weapons in time.”
The man in the black coat nodded and sat down.
Next, a muscular man she didn’t recognize stepped forward. “There are other ways to apply strategy internally. Please state your answer to the prison break question, Malena.”
Malena nodded. “I would gather all the knights and guards around the prison area to improve the search, sending messengers to get the message out and organize as fast as possible. I’d also make sure they got word to the citizens near the prison by sending a separate messenger to cry out the news and reward for capture. That way people could defend themselves and bring in any criminals that tried to stay with them. I’d also make sure a few flight mages could see things from above. With their view, they might spot things the others didn’t. Then, earth mages or knights with better shields should be part of the investigation to see what broke in the prison itself, since they’re the least likely to suffer damage. That way, the whole area as well as Solis’s experts would be focusing on the problem, and I think we should devote that much effort, because the criminals could take revenge and wreak havoc otherwise.”
The muscular man turned his head. “Takumi?”
“I would…” Takumi paused, her shoulders sagging as she looked at the crowd. “My own answer was vague this time. I would have to depend on my aides.”
The king closed his eyes.
A few more people they didn’t know stepped forward, but Malena could tell she’d already won the debate at that point. A prison break was far more likely to occur than a new magic being discovered after all.
---
Malena was led by the King through a few side halls, and then into a large chamber, where a Voldis knight with his helmet off stood by a slightly chubby kid her age who was in gaudy red and gold. He was slumping and chewing on some food as he stood waiting.
The kid looked up as she approached, then his shoulders raised and he gawked, food still in his mouth. It was gross. Malena could’ve sworn she might’ve seen some drool.
She shifted away as they walked up. He must’ve been some thief that stole some clothes and food that this knight caught. And the knight just happened to be holding him while he waited for orders. That made sense.
“Princess Malena Pendleton, meet Prince Keith Voldis,” the king said.
Malena looked around, confused. There wasn’t anyone else in the room except for the thief and the knight, and the knight looked too old to be a prince. “Where?”