"The Duke should be here by now" Violet observed, "I cannot see anything outside of this bubble, but he should be working to break the seal" she continued. Those words rang in my head like a bell. That was an hour ago, now it's just me and Rina in a room we were sharing. We think it's night. But because of the bubble, we can't tell.

Rina was sitting beside me, she held me by the arm, her fingers digging into me, and she gripped me as if she wouldn't let go. I turned to her, and she looked down, her expression gloomy. She began to bite her lip. I sigh. "You should stop that. You'll bleed" I said finally, she looked up at me, tears began to form in her eyes, and her grip loosened. "Rina, you-" she cut me off, wrapping her arms around me, she hugged me. "Brother, I'm sorry! That creature got into my head, I didn't mean it! I'm Sorry!" she began to sob as she pressed her face against my stomach. I chuckled. "Alright, little bug-" she chortled and started to smile, her tears starting to stop, "I told you to stop calling me that... You little stump." I snorted "'Little Stump?' You're gonna call me that when I know your weak point?" her smile dropped, and mine just got wider, she shook her head, "Don't. Please don't." which of course I did. So, I began to tickle her sides, it didn't take much to make her laugh, soon she was kicking and slapping me away, "Wait- Stop- I'm crying!" Alright, that should be enough. I help her up, my laugh coming to an end. My face becomes serious. "Rina." she turns to me, still laughing, until she sees my serious expression. "What?" shit, I don't want to say anything. "I need to ask you a favour," I replied, a lump in my throat. "I have a plan for something, I know it's completely out of my reach but... if we ever get the chance..." I don't know how to say it. "No, first... That girl. Laura-" Rina cut me off "She is Neo-Virlantis - [Virlantis is a way to refer to a SpellSword, Neo-Virlantis is a way to refer to a 'newborn' SpellSword with no affiliation] -. You want to recruit her. Train her." I nod. "The other two? You want them to join us too?" I nod again. "They aren't going to say yes to being in a Mercenary Band." "Who said anything about Mercs?" I retorted. "For what then..." she trails off, subtle realisation hitting her. Then more confusion than anything. "You want to make an Order?" I nod. "Out of the few different orders in the Snowlands, all of them work as glorified Mercenaries. All of them do something to run our reputation as a species through the dirt. Out of them, only three openly recruit Newborns. The Serpentian Order, The Caeles Order and the Phoenix Order. One is a self-centred group of extremists, another is a bunch of idiots who think sitting around and doing nothing but debate would do anything and then there are those isolationists so focused on keeping the evils of the Wastelands out of the Snowlands they don't even see the Empire getting ready to strike us all down. So yes, I want to make my own Order." A long silence followed. "You're a fool." I raise an eyebrow "You and what funds? What alliances? What subordinates? You don't have anything. Not money, not people, not trust." she stared deep into my eyes "I'm in." What? 'I'm in.' Those two words flew around my head like they were a bird. "You can't be trusted by yourself," a small grin appeared on her lips, "I'm in." I chortled at her response to my mad rambling. "You... You're crazier than I am" her smile only widened "I'm your sister. Now, we talk about this after we get out of this mess." I nod, "Agreed." I hugged her, "You've apologised but I haven't, I'm sorry Rina, I'm so sorry for saying those things..." She tightened the hug, "And I forgive you, you big oaf."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.