Skye couldn't believe it. After she left that bloody scene in the greenhouse behind, she swore she would find the man behind the stabbing and save Lucian from him to make up for her failure to intervene earlier. But she already had an uncomfortable gut feeling on who the attempted killer could be: all signs pointed to her childhood idol, Kai Dalton, former head of the Cloudgate Crusaders and current High Mage of Avriya.

At first, Skye refused to believe that Kai could be the one who stabbed Lucian. The metal mage in the greenhouse looked far different from how she remembered him. When Skye would read of Kai's exploits, none of his pictures showed him with metal limbs or a metal covering over his face. And there was no way Mr Dalton, known for his heroic acts, would take pleasure in driving a sword through an innocent man… right?

But the clues hinting otherwise were impossible to ignore. First off, were there any other metal mages in Avriya besides Kai? Skye doubted it. She had already asked around and nobody in her class knew of anyone who controlled metal besides the High Mage. Well, one of her classmates mentioned having a younger sister with a metal aura, but then he said she was seven, and the man in the greenhouse certainly did not look like a seven-year-old girl.

And then there was the matter of the "nickname" he gave Lucian. Before the man arrived, Lucian brought up how Mr Dalton would call him a certain name that involved a certain profanity, and that metal mage had addressed Lucian by that same profanity. It probably wasn't a coincidence, as much as Skye wished it was.

Dear Mr. Dalton, Skye wrote in her notebook on her bus ride home. Words cannot describe how appalled I am. I strongly advise that you repent, resign from your position as High Mage, and maintain as much of a distance as possible from the young man you stabbed if you wish to lessen the consequences of your actions. Then once she finished writing, she reviewed her page:

Not bad for a first draft, Skye thought. It's formal and gets my point across. But I still feel like something's missing…

And so, Skye flipped to the next empty page of her notebook and began writing again. Dear Kai Dalton, she continued, scratching her pencil on the paper furiously. I used to love you. I used to look up to you. You were my biggest inspiration and the source of my childhood hopes and dreams, but now you have gone and crushed them all and I am beyond heartbroken. Why? Why would you do such a thing? Are you, the honorable leader of the Cloudgate Crusaders, paragon of justice and peace, really the same as the man in the greenhouse who drove a sword through Lucian? Did you really think that boy deserved to die MULTIPLE TIMES OVER for spreading the truth about the deity you idolize— the same way I used to idolize you?!

Skye scanned through her words. Almost perfect, she thought. But it's a bit lengthy, and I don't know if Mr Dalton will be willing to read all that. Maybe I'll go for something shorter, something more direct. And so, she flipped to the next page of her notebook and started writing again:

Dear Kai Dalton, Skye began her third draft. She paused for a long moment, and after a while, two more words appeared on the page in front of her:

Fuck you.

Skye smirked. Beautiful. Perfect. 10/10. Captures my feelings about that metalbending piece of scum perfectly, she thought to herself. Skye could almost see the look of shock that would cross Kai's face once he opened her letter and discovered that his bloody crimes weren't as well-hidden as he intended them to be. And maybe, just maybe, if luck was on her side, then he wouldn't be the only one reading the letter. Perhaps the other members of Avriya's council would be reading alongside him, and then, once they found out their High Mage tried to commit a murder, (over something as trivial as a winged lady statue, too!) they'd arrest him. Somebody else would take his place, and Lucian wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of the former head of the Cloudgate Crusaders anymore.

Don't worry Lucian, I'll protect you, Skye thought. Because if I couldn't, then I'd never forgive myself.

***

The next early morning, with her letter in tow, Skye took the bus and the ferry to Avriya. The previous night she had reviewed her drafts with Ivan, who gave her advice on how to convey her honest thoughts and feelings through writing while remaining formal enough to be taken seriously (which unfortunately meant she had to remove the "fuck you" from her final letter). And in typical Ivan fashion, he made it an exchange, so Skye now had to find something for him that could strengthen his aura. "You see, Skye, I want to go to class to improve my magic as well," he said. "But if you haven't known by now, my aura is kinda shitty, so please find something that could make it less shitty so I don't humiliate myself. Thank you." Now all she needed was to find someone who would deliver the letter for her, as Skye wasn't planning on delivering it herself. No, because that would make her a suspect— to avoid a potential case of retaliation from the High Mage, Skye had chosen to write anonymously. And now she was going to find somebody to deliver the letter for her.

Fortunately, Skye just happened to know the right person (or spirit?) for the job. "Noi?" She called out in the middle of the empty street she was passing through, the first traces of day peeking through the clouds above her. "You there?"

No response.

"Hello! Noi?!" Skye shouted as she walked past a row of sand-colored townhouses, cupping her hands over her mouth as if they were a megaphone. "Where are you?"

A moment later, a pink-haired, ponytailed girl wearing a blue denim skirt with suspender straps over a pale pink button-up shirt approached Skye from the opposite direction. "Hey Skye!" The girl, whom Skye recognized as Alexis, greeted her. "I can tell you where Noi lives. You're looking for that silver-haired man who always wears long sleeves and kinda looks like a woman, right?"

Skye stopped in her tracks. "Yes, that's him," she confirmed.

Alexis leaned close to Skye, standing on her toes so she could whisper in the other girl's ear. "His address is 34 Mahogany Street, Cragmire County," she informed her. "And by the way, I know why he wears such long sleeves all the time. Noi says he's a regular guy, but sometimes I'll see his sleeves roll up, and I'm telling you, he has literal bird claws for hands."

"Okay..?" Skye replied, hesitation in her voice. "Thanks for giving me the address, but I don't think you should go around telling people Noi has… you know. He could be covering his hands because he's self-conscious about them." Then she walked on, searching up directions on her phone for the address Alexis gave her.

***

Skye knocked three times on the wooden door of a white house with a brick roof and a stone veneer. "Hello?" She called out. "It's me, Skye!"

Noi, who was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt instead of his usual robe and feather cloak, opened the door for her. "Greetings," he said to Skye, stepping aside to make space for her. "I'm sorry if the house is not as clean as you'd like it to be. You see, I've been trying to talk some sense into Lucian, but his hoarding habits have really been getting out of hand as of late…"

Skye took a look around the living room, which had a faded wall, a worn-out couch, and a rug at the center of it all. A bit shabby but at least it looked liveable. "I don't see anything wrong with this house," Skye stated. Then suddenly she heard the creak of a door opening, followed by the clatter of miscellaneous items falling to the ground.

"Can somebody help me?" A voice shouted from another room. Noi and Skye rushed over to the direction of the voice, crossing the hall and ending up in a red-walled bedroom. There Lucian stood, in front of an open closet, surrounded by every conceivable yellow or bronze-colored item, anything remotely resembling gold. Noi shook his head.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Oh Blanche, not the golden hoard again," the owl-man grumbled as he got to work on cleaning up the mess. He picked up a cracked yellow tennis ball and discarded it. "Seriously? You think this is hoard-worthy?"

"Hey! Give that back!" The dragon-spirit shouted, shoving Noi aside and diving into the trash to pick up the discarded tennis ball. He flinched once he saw that the ball was covered in brown goop, so he ran to the bathroom with it and washed it under the sink. "Don't. Touch. My. Hoard."

Noi sighed. "Ugh, fine. But some items in there may be hazardous. Don't want you cutting yourself against the glass of this light bulb, for instance," he said as he picked up a broken light bulb and threw it in the trash. Skye, not sure whether she should be discarding the items or putting them back in the closet, stood by the door awkwardly.

Lucian, meanwhile, was furiously stowing his "treasure" away before Noi could take it from him. "Oh, please! A crazy man stabbed me the other day and I survived. Getting cut by a light bulb is the least of my worries," he remarked.

Upon hearing this reminder, Skye pulled out her letter. "Noi?" She asked. Noi turned his head— and was Skye seeing things, or did he turn his head a full 180 degrees? "You see, I came here because I wanted to deliver a letter to Kai Dalton calling him out for trying to kill Lucian, but I didn't think I could deliver it myself. I was wondering if you could, I dunno, fly it over to him?"

"Sure, I can do that," Noi agreed.

Suddenly Lucian rushed to Skye, wrapping her in a tight embrace. "Finally, somebody on this island gives a damn about me!" He exclaimed. "You know what, you're my favorite human now." Skye, startled by the sudden gesture of affection but appreciative nonetheless, instinctively backed away at fist, but then she smiled politely.

"Uh, thanks," Skye responded, her face tinged red as Lucian let go of her. Then she faced Noi. "And by the way, is there any particular reason you wear long sleeves in public?"

"I bet you already know by now that I'm an owl-spirit, which means I retain a few owl features in my human form," Noi replied. "And that includes my hands, which resemble the claws of an owl. You see, I'm not particularly self-conscious about them, and I see no reason to be, as it's completely normal for spirits to resemble their respective animals in their human forms. But I still cover my claws out of consideration for humans in the mortal realm, since many of you would understandably be put off by a human with claws instead of hands," he explained. "I also do it to avoid people crowding around me once they find out I'm a spirit. It can be incredibly exhausting to deal with many people at once." And then, with a glance at Lucian, he added, "dealing with this guy is exhausting enough as is—"

"Hey!" Lucian interrupted. "Stop embarrassing me in front of Skye!"

Noi shrugged. "I'm not trying to embarrass you, I'm simply telling the truth," he stated.

***

Once Skye, Lucian, and Noi cleaned Lucian's "gold" off the floor, Noi offered to take the other two to the kitchen. "You said you had extra time before school today, is that right?" He asked Skye.

Skye nodded.

"So would you like some tea?" Noi offered. "I have green tea, black tea, cinnamon tea, apple tea, mint tea, peach tea, hibiscus tea…"

"I'd like a cinnamon tea, please," Skye requested.

"And I'll have a mint tea," Lucian followed.

Noi chuckled. "Did somebody swap your orders?" He asked jokingly before heading to the kitchen. Skye and Lucian stared at each other, dumbfounded.

***

A few minutes later, Noi arrived at the kitchen table with two cups of tea, setting them down in front of Skye and Lucian. "Thanks," both of them said as Noi sat with them. Then Noi gasped.

"Skye, I almost forgot to bring this up, but I am terribly sorry for frightening you when I brought you the notebook and the sealskin," he blurted out. "I am also sorry for flying in on you and using the sleeping spell while you were in the shower… I didn't know it back then, but apparently you humans don't like it when others intrude on them in the bathroom. I swear I was just trying to find a faster way of communicating with you; it was not my intention to make you uncomfortable. I promise I'll avoid doing it again in the future."

Skye gave an awkward laugh after sipping her tea. "Hey, at least I know I'm Polaris because of it," she replied. "If it weren't for the water in the shower triggering my transformation, I would've assumed that the selkie skin was a regular towel and everything that happened in that dreamworld was all in my head. But then again," she added, "I also had to endure three days of gross medicine and fever dreams because of you. You better apologize for making me sick on top of everything, and maybe I'll consider forgiving you."

Noi bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

"I forgive you, but only because you're my guardian owl-spirit and you didn't know better. If you were some random creepy guy instead of Noi, I would've called the cops long ago."

For a long moment, the trio sat at the kitchen table without a word spoken, and the only noise heard was the sipping of tea. Skye took the opportunity to look around the kitchen— it wasn't a bad kitchen. The floor was made of black-and-white tiles and a chandelier hung from the ceiling. The chandelier, which was really just four candle holders connected at the center, wasn't particularly grand or fancy, but it was elegant in a modest way. The kitchen countertop, which would've been a fine countertop had it not been cluttered with utensils of all shapes and sizes, was colored white and had small gray specks— hold up, Skye thought once she caught sight of a huge brown mark under some pots and pans and even more brown marks on the wall, are those burn marks?

"What happened to the kitchen?" Skye asked Noi. "The brown spots, that is."

"Oh, those brown spots? They're why I don't let Lucian cook anymore. Almost set the house on fire that time," the owl-man explained as Lucian glared at him from the other side of the table.

"Well, if you're gonna talk about me like that when we have a guest over, I might as well do the same to you!" The dragon-spirit snapped. Then he turned to Skye. "Psst— did you know that Noi swallows his food whole only to throw it back up?"

Noi shot an exasperated look across the table at Lucian. "They're called owl pellets! Not throw-up. That's different." He corrected the dragon-spirit, and at that moment, the owl-man's face contorted in an unusual way. "And speaking of pellets—" he sputtered as he gagged and picked up a napkin, "I might— need— to cough up— one right now—"

Skye, not wanting to intrude on Noi's privacy, looked away from him. Lucian stared at him with wide eyes. Meanwhile, Noi coughed up a perfectly oval-shaped pellet into his napkin. "Done," he said after he made the pellet, throwing the napkin away. "Skye, you can look now."

Skye looked up. Lucian continued to stare ahead. "Imagine being an owl and having to do that instead of eating normally," the latter commented.

Noi laughed. "Imagine being slain so many times that you grow swords in your garden."

"Hey, growing swords in a garden is badass!" Lucian proclaimed. "Every respectable dragon has a sword hoard, a gold hoard, and a hoard of sacred scrolls, and that's a fact."

"We all know your gold hoard is full of junk, your scroll hoard is really just a bunch of overdue library books, and the reason you have a sword hoard in the first place was because you pissed off a human so much he felt the need to stab you at least five times over," Noi shot back.

Skye's eyes darted back and forth between the two spirits. This whole time, I was worried for Lucian and how much pain he was in, yet here he is, joking about his deaths with Noi like they were nothing, Skye pondered. Do I really need to give this letter to Kai?

And then Skye recalled Lucian's reaction upon realizing that she wrote the letter: one of pure, unfiltered joy. And then she recalled how he looked in the greenhouse: his expressions were those of fear and agony. Mr Dalton's attacks were clearly affecting him more than he let on, but how much were they, really?

"Thanks for having me over, but I have to go now," Skye announced as she handed the envelope with her letter to Noi. "Please give this to Kai."

Noi took the envelope. "No, thank you for coming. You were a pleasure to have," he responded. "I'll deliver the letter now."

Skye left the kitchen and headed to the front door. "Bye!" She called out across the living room as she opened the door to leave. Lucian and Noi waved at her.

"Bye!" The two spirits echoed back at her.

***

Skye shut the door behind her and stepped onto the porch. A cool breeze blew through her hair, and at this point the sun had climbed a good way up into the sky. A glimmer of silver caught Skye's eye, so she turned her head to look at its source. Off to the right of the porch was a sword dug into the ground, the faintest hint of bloodstains leaving their marks on the blade. The sword appeared to have a slip of paper tied to its hilt by a string, so Skye walked off the porch to inspect the sword and the paper. Then she picked up the slip of paper and examined it closely:

Excalibur, it read.