Aiken saw something move in his peripheral vision and released a flurry of icy needles. The person deflected the shards and continued on to Aiken’s opponent. He immediately felt bad. “Oh, sorry,” Aiken apologised to the judge.

He had to intervene because the fireball’s blaze wouldn’t let out and Aiken’s opponent had a disheartening scream. Aiken thawed the ice enveloping one hand, and outed the fire around the other.

Despite being a little lax on the rules, they were still quite insistent on safe matches. Aiken rued his reflexes and hoped the judge didn’t take the attack too personal. He went back into his corner to join Claire and Bryan, who came out to see his matches. In fact, a lot of prominent figures came out to see him, which was a good thing.

Now I know there’s something weird about me. This ‘Eye of Origin’ thing that Clive talked about, she said that’s the reason I see the magic diagrams, right? That’s cool and all but, why can I use magic without a staff? Can others do it as well? Aiken went deep in thought about the Eye of Origin and other differences he should be aware of.

A sandwich waved in front of his face, “Would you like any?”

Aiken took a bite without thinking, and only noticed he bit the wrong sandwich when he heard Claire’s soft gasp. “Oh, shorry!” he apologised, still gnawing on the sandwich.

“I-it’s okay,” she couldn’t look him in the eye, “I packed extra for Bryan but he brought his own lunch.” Claire shot the librarian a deathly glare.

Aiken turned to look at the man in question as well, and he could just smell the trickery oozing from him. Bryan gave a coy smile after and chuckled under his breath. Aiken realised that Bryan setup both him and Claire. But why? he asked himself. Even back on Earth, in their world, he knew Bryan did things methodically. Most – if not all – of his actions had some type of reason behind it, even if the reason was miniscule.

“So,” a voice intruded, “this is where you were.” Duchess Graham appeared with a few bodyguards around her. “And I was about to invite you to lunch. Too bad,” she said.

He chuckled, “Well, I’m a growing boy, I might need a second lunch. Give me a minute.” Aiken apologised to Claire and Bryan, then excused himself.

The duchess led him into a room, probably meant for VIPs. Despite being more than capable of normal lighting, and even magical lighting, the room was instead lit by candles, a couple of them being scented. Servers brought in the lunch, and it certainly looked as delicious as it was. “So,” Aiken looked directly at her, “Duchess Graham, how can I–”

“Call me Vanessa,” she interrupted.

Aiken felt a bit uncomfortable with the way she gazed at him. “Isn’t ‘Duchess’ an important position? It would be rude of me to call you as if you were a friend.”

“I’m not? That’s harsh. I’d only invite a friend to have lunch with me like this.”

He felt even more uncomfortable. He knew she wanted something from him. But what? He felt like something was strange about this. Sure, he saved her life during the attack on Wizzier, but she paid her dues with the public award. So, then, what was this? He became sceptical. However, the rest of their lunch was just that – lunch. They small-talked, joked, and generally enjoyed each other’s company.

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After, she poured him a glass of wine. He looked closely, to ensure it wasn’t spiked with anything unwanted. Again, he found it strange, but admittedly, he let his guard down a little. They clinked glasses, and right before the rim could touch his lips, a loud thud hit the door.

“Baldwin?” Duchess Graham called out in vain. Her eyebrows furrowed in question, “Baldwin?” Again, there was no answer.

Aiken decided to open the door. He felt pressure behind the door, and realised one of the guards’ decapitated body leaned against the door. It fell into the room, the gushing blood running across the floor. Immediately, he used ice magic to push the body back outside and slam the door shut, but just as he attempted to close it, a huge hole appeared in the door.

“Any secret exits in this room?” Aiken asked the frozen duchess. “Vanessa!” he shook her, and she limply pointed downward. He was a bit confused, but realised it was probably covered by the rug. When he flipped it over; there was indeed a cellar door underneath. “Where does it lead to?”

“A muster point outside the building,” she replied, finally getting a little grip on herself.

Something didn’t sit right with Aiken though. Shouldn’t there be people busting down that door right now? He figured if they were strong enough to dispatch Duchess Graham’s bodyguards, then why didn’t they just capture her?

His mind quickly bounced between two options. Should he use the emergency exit or fight his way through whoever lied in wait behind that bloody door? Was this an actual attempt on the duchess’ life or was there something else in the works?

Aiken was getting quite anxious. It felt like both options were bad choices. He conjured a huge slab of granite to block the door and breathed. If there wasn’t a way out of his he could trust to be safe, then he’d have to create one.

Aiken went around the walls of the room, knocking to find the hollowest parts. Once he found a good place, he encased Duchess Graham in ice and smashed through the wall with a granite lance. It led to a spiral path on the outside of the building which would place you on the ground. Once there, it would be easy to find protection. Aiken made a small staircase and let the duchess go down onto the pathway first, then jumped down after her. Luckily, the coast was clear, or at least he thought so.

A spear of ice zoomed right for the duchess but instead hit Aiken in the shoulder. It was so powerful that he fell. “Get down!” he said, unable to tell exactly where the assailant was. “Shit! Shit, shit!” he looked at the magical spear lodged right under his collarbone. Any lower and his lungs might’ve been punctured.

Other projectiles were being fired upon them, and the most he could do was defend with walls of granite and keep his head down. They were in a bad position and he knew it. Instead of taking years to make their way down, he instead made a slippery half-tubing of ice and grabbed the duchess. They slid down and quickly made their way to the ground, then ran inside the building again.

It was life as normal on the inside, as if nothing happened.

The duchess was losing her composure, but the massive wound in Aiken’s shoulder gave her something to focus on. “You need a healer!”

“Y-yeah,” he chuckled and limped. That’s when she realised that he got hit in the leg as well. She put his good arm over her shoulders to help him inside and immediately asked the guards for a medic.

Most of the medics went straight to the duchess even if Aiken was a bloody mess. Their reputation would be smeared if the public came to know that Duchess Graham was injured on the premises. Guess that’s the power of a highborn, huh?

When they actually focused on him, the bleeding was quickly stopped and some of the torn tissue was repaired with their healing spells.

He limped back to his seat near Bryan and Claire. How do I explain this? Aiken pondered for a second after Claire became an interrogator. “Sorry, missed my footing and fell. I’m not as good at landing as I thought I was,” he laughed nervously.

But he knew that Bryan knew it was all a lie. Oh well, wasn’t meant to fool him anyway. Bryan’s stare made it obvious he didn’t believe a word of it, but he had to act like he did believe Aiken’s cliché story in front of Claire.

Aiken had a few more matches, which he managed to win by using overwhelming power from the get-go instead of playing it out. He didn’t want the matches to be prolonged whilst injured.

Beside that weird occurrence, the day went by smoothly.

“…and that’s what happened,” Aiken explained everything to Bryan later that night. They sat on the balcony and watched out at the stars.

“Aiken,” Bryan sipped his wine, “Duchess Graham is setting you up.”