Gold plates and cups sat atop a red silk runner. Lavish dishes that emanated powerful mana sat in the center of the table. Only a few well-dressed mages sat at the table, but how gorgeous, how beautiful they were. A few servants scuttled around, carrying dishes and refilling cups. A gentle wind blew, carrying a perfume with it. Rose petals floated on the air, as if they naturally lived there. The king and queen smiled at Ike and Wisp as they arrived.

Three seats had been reserved for them. Plush and high-backed, they sat near the royal family. Clarina led them over. She sat the closest to her family, with the other three next to her. Servants immediately rushed over to fill their cups and set food on their plates.

Wisp stared at the servants. “They’re all spirit beasts. Or monsters. Like me.”

Ike looked around. “What about the mages?”

“All human.”

He grimaced. “Woof.”

“I know, right?” Wisp ran a hand over the back of her neck, then grimaced. “Fuckin’ humans. This is why I don’t try to play along and blend into human society. Even if you do, you just get shat on and treated like something lesser.”

Ike snorted. “I feel that.”

Wisp looked at him for a second, then grinned. “That’s right. Slum kid gets it!”

“Let’s eat up and blow this joint. I don’t want to stick around any longer than I have to,” Ike said. He glanced at the royals. They smiled placidly at him, and he faked a smile back. Clarina’s explanation about the puppets wasn’t quite enough to answer his questions. He didn’t trust it. Her mother would restrain her father? Sure. But if her mother was that much stronger than her father, why hadn’t she stopped him in the first place? How long had she been away, if Clarina’s father had had the time to set up a huge room mass-producing puppets?

And filling the puppets with criminals… sure. He’d been a slum kid. He knew what ‘criminals’ looked like. The ones who got caught were stupid, unlucky, or fall guys. The ones who really deserved the puppet-mash treatment—the ones like his uncle—got away scot-free. Only the little guys ever suffered.

He sighed. “I’m not cut out for this kind of life.”

“Good. This kind of life is expensive,” Wisp mumbled through a mouthful of food. She nodded at him. “Now wipe that sad look off your face and get eatin’. We only get so many shots at a banquet like this, might as well enjoy them.”

“True.” Ike laughed. Putting his misgivings aside, he set in.

The food was delicious. The wine he had no taste for, but he could appreciate the mana within it. He ate and drank, and Wisp and Shawn did the same. Despite Shawn’s small size, he put away the most food of all of them, even more than Wisp. And when it came to wine, Shawn drank enough to flood a small town without so much as getting tipsy. He kept gesturing for more, until the servants began pretending not to see his small hands calling for a refill.

There was entertainment as well. Musicians played and dancers danced, all of it finer than Ike had ever heard before in his life. Not a surprise, when his idea of music was the drunken shanties his uncle would bellow sometimes on the way home from the bar, and his idea of dancing was whatever the tired old hookers would do waiting for patrons outside the bar.

At last, Clarina took the stage. Ike looked up, curious. She smiled at him. “For our heroes, who boldly broke into the city to rescue our noble rulers, I present a gift.”

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She opened her hands. A shimmering, rainbow-haloed Unique skill orb hovered on her palm. Gently, she offered it to Ike.

Ike stood, accepting the orb. The mages applauded. He peered at it, inspecting it.

Wind. A powerful wind. Far stronger than the wind skill from the skill that he still hadn’t absorbed, the one that didn’t sit well with him. Unlike that one, this one felt comfortable. Easy to absorb. Well-suited to his lightning skills.

Ike closed his hand around it. I think I’ll sell that lower-grade skill. I’ll offer it to Wisp first, and if she doesn’t want it, I’ll sell it. I can always use more gold. I have so much gold that I’m probably close to being able to buy a high-grade skill orb at this point, so there’s no reason absorbing a low-level skill orb just because I happened to stumble around it.

He realized he was standing there awkwardly and bowed. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Clarina smiled one last time, then went to sit again.

Ike sat. He reached into his ring and offered Wisp the warm one. “For you.”

“Nice.” Wisp snatched it and tossed it in her mouth.

Ike stared.

She raised her brows. “What? It’s the natural way to absorb skill orbs.”

“If you say so.” Ike glanced around the party, then slid his freshly-gained skill orb into his ring. Absorbing it here was a bad idea, with so many potentially hostile mages around, but he wasn’t going to sit on this one like he had the poorly-suited wind skill. As soon as he had a moment to himself, he would absorb it.

“Do you want this skill, too?” he asked, showing her the weaker wind skill.

Wisp looked at it, then wrinkled her nose. “Nah. It’s imperfect.”

“Huh? Really?” Ike looked at the orb. It looked normal to him.

“Yeah. It’s super weak, but there’s a sense of imperfection to it. You haven’t absorbed it yet, right? You were probably subconsciously sensing the same thing.”

“I did feel like it would be super hard to absorb,” Ike muttered. He looked at the orb again, then shrugged. He put it back in his storage ring. Guess that’s money for me, later.

The party wound down. Ike made his excuses and headed out the door. Wisp and Shawn followed him. Out into the night, leaving the party and the castle behind.

He gazed up at the stars. The real stars, cold pinpricks of light in a vast expanse of darkness. Ike sighed. “Yeah. This is the life for me.”

“Until we get rich enough to start our own city!” Wisp cheered.

“Oh? Not a bad idea,” Ike said, nodding.

From here, he could see the next city. It loomed on the horizon. And in the far distance, the enormous mountain that overlooked all the cities. Ike pointed toward the large mountain. “I got some news for you, King Boss. And you’re not going to like it.”

“He better like it. Better like it enough to pay for it,” Wisp muttered.

“True. And you’d better like it,” Ike amended.

“That’s the spirit.”

“Going already?”

Ike turned. Clarina stood in the doorway, framed by the golden light. He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah. We ill-bred folks thought we’d better clear out. You know. Wouldn’t want to shit on your banquet.”

“You’re the guest of honor,” she said, confused.

“Didn’t feel too honored by you. Well, okay. When you gave me the skill orb, that was nice. But the rest of it.” He waved his hand. “It’s okay. You’re a princess, and I’m no one. Of course you don’t give a shit about me. Now we part, and we never see one another again.”

“Are you sure?” Clarina asked.

“Not really. I was thinking about going back and telling your father what-for. You better keep him away from puppets. Those things are seriously bad news. Seriously.”

She glanced at the floor. “I’m aware.”

“Neat. Then, see ya later.” Ike gave a jaunty wave and set off.

“You’re not staying the night?”

Ike froze. He looked back. “For what? You to badmouth me in the morning? Nah. I prefer to sleep under the real stars.”

Without another word, he grabbed Shawn and ran off. Wisp stuck her tongue out at Clarina, then followed. The two of them vanished into the alleys of the city.

Clarina leaned against the doorway. She watched them go, silent. Her eyes filled with the words she wanted to say, but couldn’t. At last, to an empty corridor, she whispered, “It’s better if you go.”

Behind her, a figure all in blue and green stepped out from around the corner. A white feather bobbed in his hat. “Couldn’t keep them? Ah, it’s all the same. You and your parents will make fine puppets.”

Clarina whirled. Before she could attack, a pale white hand gripped her throat. Her whole body froze. Only her eyes could move.

“Although I don’t appreciate the way you drove him away. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Your little priss act didn’t go unnoticed.” Llewyn gazed after the trio, then shrugged. “In the end, it’s fine. Everyone dances along to my beat. No one can escape what’s coming.”

Taking Clarina with him, he vanished into the depths of the castle.