“I think she wants to mate!”

Ike blushed. Across from him, Clarina startled, her eyes wide. Her blush grew deeper, and she quickly averted her eyes.

“Wisp! You can’t just say that,” Ike admonished her at a hiss.

“Why not? Isn’t it friendly to share the news?” Wisp asked.

Ike put his head in his hands. “Is that how it works with spiders?”

Wisp shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t have a lot of spiders to talk to.”

“Well, it’s not how it works with humans,” Ike taught her patiently. He patted her on the shoulder and nodded at Clarina. “Thank you for waiting for us. Is the banquet going?”

Clarina quickly recovered. She straightened up and gave him a polite nod. “Yes, indeed. Everyone’s waiting for the guests of honor. Please, come this way.” She gestured for them to follow and set off down the hallway, her train flowing after her.

Wisp glanced at Ike. Ike ignored her. She kept glancing at him, blinking delicately up at him. At last, Ike relented. “What?”

“Are you going to mate with—”

Ike clapped his hand over Wisp’s mouth. “Enough with the mating.”

“Well, if she’s going to eat you tonight, I’m not sticking around.”

“People don’t eat other people in the mating process,” Ike explained wearily.

“Oh, right. I forgot.”

Ike gave her a look. He furrowed his brows. “Have you thought of me as some kind of expendable this whole time? One night and I might be gone?”

Wisp shrugged. “No. Probably not.”

Ike sighed. He shook his head. Sometimes I wonder what the hell I’m doing.

They wandered down the halls. Some of them looked the same. The same unpolished stone, the same narrow slit windows. Others were richly decorated. Thick carpets and lush tapestries colored the spaces that had only been stone before. Gold sconces perched on the wall. Soft music played from somewhere, and gold flecks sparkled overhead like stars.

“Wow,” Ike murmured, amazed.

“I’m sorry about the decorations. This is all thrown together at the last minute. If we were prepared… if we hadn’t just retaken the castle, we—”

Ike tilted his head. “It’s amazing, Clarina.”

“Oh! Thank you.” She bobbed her head. “I’m glad the domestic skills are worth something.”

“Domestic skills…? Like house-cleaning skills?” Ike asked, remembering Ket’s skill.

“Yes. The stars are a skill as well. And the carpets, I have a skill that unrolls them and resets them later. It’s not very useful in general, but it’s handy in moments like these.” She smiled, proud.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“That’s awesome. Do you have a self-cleaning skill? I’ve been wanting one of those for a while.” Ike asked.

“I don’t know why. The dirt hides your scent from prey,” Wisp opined.

Clarina laughed. “It’s not very polite to ask a lady if she cleans herself.”

Ike jolted. “I—I didn’t mean it like that.”

She giggled. Waving his embarrassment away, she nodded. “I do. Have a skill like that, I mean. Maybe I’ll teach it to you, if you stick around after the banquet.”

“You can teach skills?”

“For basic things. I can teach you the method to move your mana, and if you practice, it might give you the skill,” Clarina caveated.

Ike nodded, understanding. It’s like picking up the Sword Handling skill from practicing the sword. Or gaining Exsanguination from bleeding enough meat. “That’s more than enough. Thank you for the kind offer, Clarina.”

She nodded. Stepping ahead of them, she pushed a door open and gestured for them to go ahead. “Everyone’s waiting for you.”

“Right. Let’s not keep them waiting.”

Ike stepped forward. Wisp followed close behind. Clarina gave the two of them space. They stepped into a long, silent hallway. The sound of banquet chatter came from the far end, along with bright, friendly light.

“You know what we fucked up?” Wisp whispered, leaning in.

“What?” Ike asked.

“We freed the parents before looting the treasury.”

Ike jolted. He looked at her. “You’re right. Damn!”

“I know, right?” Wisp shook her head mournfully.

“Live and learn. Next time, loot first, then accomplish the goals. I got blindsided by the puppets and blinded by the Unique skill, but we could have it all right now,” Ike muttered. He paused. “Then again, her parents might have been executed if we delayed. We’d never get the Unique skill in the ring.”

“Yeah, but we’d have all the rest of the Unique skills in the treasury,” Wisp pointed out.

Ike sighed. “We fucked up. We fucked up big time.”

Clarina caught up to them with a mysterious drifting step that appeared like walking, but easily let her move twice their speed. “What did you… mess up?”

“Nothing.” Ike shook his head, still mourning his hasty decisions. If only he hadn’t gotten pissed off about that mental diversion…

The diversion. He looked at Clarina. “That’s right. I meant to ask. Why did you give us that map that made us look away from the puppet room?”

Wisp’s head snapped around. Shawn peeped around Ike, looking at Clarina as well.

She sighed. “That… I was embarrassed about it. Father’s mistake. He thought that using the criminals we executed for ‘something worthwhile’ was better than letting them rot. Mother and I told him it was inhumane. We argued against it, and I thought that was that. And then suddenly Roderick is telling the city about ‘the nobility’s crimes,’ and he’s seized control of the puppet room Father wasn’t supposed to have built, and…”

Ike raised his brows. He looked at Wisp. “Should we leave her dad in control?”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Wisp agreed thoughtfully. “Especially with a full treasury…”

Clarina snorted. “Don’t worry. Mother is actually stronger than Father, it’s just that Father made a move while Mother was out of town. Now that she’s back, she’ll keep Father in check.”

Another memory welled up. Ike frowned. “There was this rat-faced man with an owl spirit beast. Do you know who that is?”

Clarina tipped her head. “Rat-faced? Owl spirit beast? No, I’m sorry.”

Huh. So that guy’s still a mystery. Guess his spirit beast didn’t find Clarina… or he sent it out to look for Wisp and I, when we were already inside the castle, and it failed on basic principle.

“He seemed friendly with Roderick,” Wisp tried.

Clarina shook her head. “Roderick was a mage from outside our city. He’d lived here for a few decades, but he had plenty of friends from outside. It’s not surprising he had a friend I wouldn’t know.”

She took Ike’s hand and looked him in the eyes. “Enough of this talk. Let’s enjoy the banquet, and put all this behind us.”

“Okay.” Ike nodded and smiled.

Giving Ike a reassuring smile, Clarina took the lead. Under her breath, she muttered, “It’s like Mother said. You can’t fix poor breeding.”

Ike raised his brows. Damn, wow.

“I think your chances of mating went way down just now,” Wisp whispered.

“Believe it or not, I picked up on that, too.” Ike shook his head at Clarina’s back in disappointment. She was cute, but not cute enough to make up for a bad attitude. Getting pissed at him for asking too many questions was whatever, but that comment after all he’d done for them? Insane.

Clarina stepped out into the banquet hall. Ike, Wisp, and Shawn followed close behind her. She spread her hands, demanding silence. “Announcing our guests of honor!”

She kept talking, but Ike didn’t hear it. He stared, amazed.

Wow. So this is how mages live.