The wagon ground to a halt. “We’ll make camp here for now, we’ve been riding for a while,” said Julius.

“Finally,” exclaimed Eustace. “ If we waited any longer I feared my rear would be glued to the seat.”

Maxwell burst out laughing. He had interacted with Eustace the least but he was quickly growing onto Maxwell. He didn’t seem to care much for the uptight regime of high society and was the most relatable to Maxwell.

“You know what I mean, Ignard?” said Eustace at his reaction.

“I don’t know what you all are complaining about,” said Sofia. She rose elegantly as if it had been no more than a five-minute ride. Bastion yawned, tensing its entire body from nose to tail before trotting after her. They really are inseparable, thought Maxwell.

Amelia was standing politely next to the carriage steps. As Maxwell stepped down she reached to close it. Maxwell grabbed it ahead of her and closed it himself. He glared at her through the corner of his eyes. She made him mad whenever he looked at her. To his surprise though she wilted under his gaze. There was no sign of her usual defiant self. Her eyes wouldn't meet his. It puzzled him slightly but he brushed it off. What do I care if she’s acting weird, there’s no way she feels remorseful somewhere in her thick skull.

Eustace crouched down at the side of the carriage. “There’s a problem with one of the wheels,” he said.

Maxwell walked over to him. He stared at the large wooden and metal wheel that was nearly as tall as he was. Even this part of the carriage was ornament-ally carved out. The metallic spokes and rim while somewhat caked in much were etched with intricate patterns that poked through it.

“I did notice a rhythmic bump while we were travelling,” said Maxwell. “Is it because of this wheel?”

Eustace snapped his finger. “You’re absolutely correct Ignard.” He poked to one of the metal spokes. It was bent slightly out of shape perhaps from when driving over a pothole or a loose stone that got stuck at some point.

“What do we do?” asked Maxwell. He looked around at the desolate landscape. “I don’t think there are any mech-blacksmiths or carpenters around.” He nearly bit his tongue trying to cover his words. That was close, I was so close to saying mechanic.

Eustace smiled cheekily. “There’s no need for that, have you forgotten what my specialty is?”

Maxwell had no idea what his specialty was. What is he talking about?.

Eustace wrapped his fingers around the spoke. He took a deep breath and squeezed it tightly. Maxwell’s eyes widened in surprise. No way. When Eustace removed his hands the spoke was completely straight. That’s right, his ability was controlling metal. Marco had told him all his siblings' abilities but he’d never seen it in person before.

“Good as new,” said Eustace, patting the large wheel.

“That’s pretty good for someone with blue eyes,” teased Sofia. “Imagine being of the Vanderbilt bloodline and fixing tires like some backwater blacksmith.”

Eustace’s mouth was agape. Maxwell facepalmed. Not this again.

“Imagine running your mouth despite being Jade Class,” he retorted.

“Imagine not being Mother's favorite child.”

“Guys guys, please don’t argue,” said Maxwell. I’ve noticed that all of the retorts seem to center around magic and their class. Perhaps it wasn’t all the time but there were very few times where he heard them give insults that weren’t related to magical ability.

“Hmph,” said Eustace. “She’s the one who started it.

“But Ignard I was simply complimenting him on his work,” said Sofia. Bastion howled in agreement.

“The campsite has been set up,” she said while enshrouded in the shadow of the carriage.

“I guess we can put this on hold,” said Eustace, turning his head. A fire had been started. As well as some simply seats. Nothing more than a pit-stop really.

The fire crackled and popped. Maxwell took a seat next to Julius who was tending to the fire.

“Julius, is it time already?” said Eustace, his eyes flickering blue. Maxwell frowned. There was something about his tone that made his hairs stand on end.

“No no, “ said Julius chuckling. “Not around here.”

“Time for what?” asked Maxwell.

Julius turned to Maxwell. “There are bandits in some of these parts, so we have to be extra careful in certain regions.” Julius glanced at Eustace, locking eyes for a second. “I suppose Ignard wouldn’t know since you never really had a reason to leave the estate.”

Maxwell looked around over the landscape. Aside from the faint outline of the capital in the distance it was desolate. I forgot bandits and thieves were commonplace in a medieval world. It was a weird concept to him. He imagined how weird it would be having to worry about bandits while going camping in his old world. The concept was entirely foreign.

“The Imperial knights used to keep them in check, if we had even one we could probably rest assured,” said Julius.

“Right,” scoffed Eustace, “I didn’t know you still believed in fairy tales, let me guess they can also run on water and cut fire with their swords!”

They are real, don’t get me wrong they're simply glorified soldiers but there’s a reason people have still heard of them.”

“Right and they can walk on water and cut the fire of a fire dragon using simply a sword.”

“They can do all that!” said Maxwell excitedly.

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“Of course not,” said Julius. “Imperial knights have served the empire for hundreds of years. They are a group of powerful knights that excel at magic but are known for their hand to hand combat. The thing is they rarely make a public appearance so there’s a lot of rumours about them. That’s how you get all those myths of them cutting fire and taking on an army single handedly.”

“They sound extremely powerful,” said Maxwell.

“They were so and so,” said Julius, “Maybe running on water is theoretically possible, but cutting fire- impossible.” Listen here Ignard, Fire magic has gone through the most advancements over the past hundred years. It’s downright impossible for fire to be affected by mere steel.” He scoffed. “I have no idea why anyone would use martial arts to fight when magic is the norm.”

He put an arm around Maxwell. “ But you don’t have anything to worry about, your brother will protect you!”

Eustace snorted. “With your Porcelain magic right?”

Julius’s face turned red.

“Are you sure you aren’t better off opening a pottery class,” said Eustace.

A crack split down Julius’s teacup. “Listen here, I'll show you exactly how weak my magic is!” said Julius raising his voice.

Maxwell stared at the crack in Julius’s cup. I feel like I’ve seen that before but I can’t quite remember where.

Bastion barked. “Julius, don't take the bait,” said Sofia. “He’s just insecure.”

“I am not!” said Eustace.

“Uhh,” said Julius, rubbing his forehead. “I’m too old for this bickering, let’s just move on with the plan.”

They were soon back onto the road again. Before long the roads became more bumpy and the bare terrain became occupied with groves of trees. Amelia opened a hatch leading into the carriage. “We’re approaching bandit-territory.”

Julius nodded. “Thanks for the update.”

He turned to Maxwell. “You know, Ignard, as I mentioned before, these regions are full of bandits. They’re incredibly dangerous and vicious. It’s not uncommon for nobles to go missing, not just for ransoms but nobles aren’t treated well by commoners in general. It could be for all sorts of reasons: jealousy, rebelling, hate.” He practically spat the word hate.

“Yeah…” said Maxwell. When he said the word hate it sent a chill down his spine.

“I’m so tired of this pretense, let’s get started.” Metal wiring from within the carriage unraveled and tied around Maxwell restraining him to the wall. They snaked and coiled around his limbs clamping him back.

“What’s going on!” he cried out.

The sound of the creaking carriage was painfully loud. They didn’t say a word. He was greeted simply by three pairs of shimmering eyes. Two blue and one green. Maxwell had been in this world for long enough to know the signs of someone activating their magic. WInd rattled the window panes.

“Guys…”

Julius scowled. Maxwell had never seen such a look of hatred on his face.

“You are undeserving to lead this family. We were willing to leave things be but then you had to go and awaken your stupid ability. You could have laid low but you had to go and ruin things. After all the time I spent trying to gain my fathers favour.” said Julius.

Maxwell stared in horror. It was like he was in front of an entirely different person. The kind warm Julius that was compassionate was gone.

“What do you mean?” said Maxwell. “That didn’t bother you!”

“Bother me, we have spent our entire lives working to bring honor to our family but for some reason you, the failure of the Vanderbilts, somehow managed to worm your way into the top!”

Eustace and Sofia nodded.

"What, that can't be..." His heart sunk in his chest. I thought we were a family. His eyes watered.

Eustace stood up. He retrieved a spoon from his pocket. “Let’s get this started.”

The spoon melted in his hand. It coated his fingers and palm in its shiny metallic color. He put a knee on the seat to get closer to Maxwell.

Eustace smiled wickedly. “Hold still and this won’t hurt very much.

“Please… “ begged Maxwell, a mix of spittle and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth when he got out that word.

He paused, “It’s not like I’m looking forward to this either,” he said in an offended tone.

“Ok maybe I lied about both of those things,” he laughed as he jammed his hand into his eye socket. Maxwell screamed in pain. He felt metal coiling around him keeping him still. He felt his optic nerve and the tendons snap as it was ripped out of his head.

A smattering of blood sprayed onto Sofia. She winced, blinking it out of her eyes. Bastion eagerly lapped at her face.

“Would you keep the mess down,” she complained.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Eustace. He extended the extracted eyeball to Julius.

“These are invaluable,” he said. His eyes glowed blue for a second and a layer of porcelain materialised and crawled along the ball's surface. If one didn’t know what it was one would assume it was a slightly unusual golf ball sized sphere of porcelain.

“Now for the next one,” said Eustace. He reached once more into Maxwell’s head. Maxwell shook under his touch as he strained his trapped limbs. Eustace’s arm recoiled.

“What happened, did you get it?” asked Julius. Eustace clutched his fingers. . “He burned me!” he exclaimed. The metal on his hand was retracted revealing his bare skin. Red welts were forming ŕapidly on his fingers.

“Hmm, seems we’ll have to put that on hold for a second,” said Julius. “I thought it might be too dangerous to simply extract them, you were lucky your whole hand didn’t disintegrate.”

Eustace’s face turned pale. “And you didn’t think to tell me that ear-”

“Sshh,” interrupted Julius. “I need to focus.” He took out a briefcase and opened it. Inside was a single syringe and a dark bluish purple vial next to it.

Eustace grumbled but remained silent. He craned his neck to look at the contents of the case. “So that’s how it looks,” he remarked. “I still can’t believe you actually got it”

Julius Smirked. “Us Vanderbilt’s have both a lot of allies and enemies, by combining them there is nothing out of my reach.”

He inserted the syringe into the vial and drawed out the liquid into it. He moved with surgical precision. smoothly and with intent, keeping his hands incredibly still. Maxwell’s skin crawled as Julius fingered a vein on his neck. “There it is,” whispered Julius. He plunged the needle into Maxwell’s throat, right into his jugular. His body instantly seized up. He bled from every orifice. His wails filled the carriage. It hurts, it hurts so bad! It felt as if getting his eyes ripped out was nothing more than a papercut. A billion magma ants tunneled under his skin, eating up his very flesh. They melted through his body into his bones and blood vessels. They concentrated at his insignia sending pain into his very being.

“What’s going on back there!” shouted Amelia.

“Shut up and keep driving!” commanded Julius.

The fluid crawled up his veins with each coursing beat of his blood.It flowed unaturally into his chest. Julius swiped his hand over Maxwell’s shirt causing it to rip to shreds. His insignia glowed.

“This cursed sun will be forever shrouded in darkness,” he said grinning. He had a crazed look in his eyes.

His veins swelled and turned purplish as they wrapped around his insignia while they strained under his skin. It was as if it was being ripped out of his skin.

His body-movements slowed down. His singular eye fixated on Julius.

“Oh how I have loathed you ever since the day you were born,” said Julius before ripping out his remaining eye. A chunk of flesh came of with it. And with that he was plunged into darkness. Julius kicked open the carriage door. The landscape flashed by them.

“Well, it was nice knowing you,” said Julius. He grabbed Maxwell’s shoulders and propped him up one final time.

“Come on say goodbye to your siblings,” he said.

“Bye Ignard,” said Eustace, waving his hand still soaked in Maxwell’s blood.

“Seems a bit much, no?” said Sofia, a hand to her mouth.

“What does it matter? He's already dead.” said Julius. “May your soul never find peace.”

He threw his body out of the moving carriage. He landed face first in a ditch, his body rolled for a moment before coming to a halt.

“Maxwell!” shouted Amelia but the carriage rattled on never stopping, not even for a second.