Nyx was waiting for us at a small table the next morning, her hood uncharacteristically off, allowing her to show off her dark purplish-black skin and even darker black hair. The tavern was nearly empty at this hour, so she would have to dodge fewer stares than usual. Despite the thick heat of the air, she was in full leather armor again. It served as more than just protection from elements and weapons; because she was an Alderi, her skin was made for thriving in dark and moist environments. She was constantly avoiding direct contact with the sun, and always carried around lotions that she had made for her at an alchemist's shop to keep her skin from peeling.

I hadn't remembered making plans the previous night to meet her here, but then again, I couldn't remember much about the night before at all. The pain that permeated through my stomach reminded me that my coping techniques for dealing with my father were sorely due to be revised.

Nyx wiggled her eyebrows at me before making a crude gesture with both her hands about the night before.

Glancing back behind me, I saw Silas hadn't appeared in the stairway yet. “Nyx!” I hissed.

She shrugged, a grin on her face. “I figured maybe Silas had finally come to his senses,” she reasoned.

“He's allowed to have his opinions,” I mumbled. I wanted to leave it at that. Silas had been my bodyguard since just weeks after Nyx had been hired to assassinate me, so we had been inseparable for years. It was only inevitable that we would form a friendship, if not more. After a year or so of a very fulfilling romantic partnership, he had abruptly broke it off and asked to revert to the friendship we'd had. He was uncomfortable with our vastly different lifespans, so I guess he found it easier to cut things off with me than to love me and lose me in what would be a blink of an eye in his own life. His opinions on the matter didn't fully make sense to me, but he was entitled to them. I just didn't have to be happy about it.

“Okay, so you're allowed to have some wild fun on our adventures, then, right?” Nyx went on, pulling my thoughts onto other things. “We'll find you some fine looking man in some city far away, and we'll keep your identity a secret from him so he doesn't charge you extra for a night, eh?” Nyx patted me on the back. “One night, hot action, and you'll never have to see him again.”

“You think it's that easy, huh?” I asked. Who was I kidding? I knew she did. Nyx had never been in a relationship, but she'd had her taste of plenty of men from all sorts of races. The Alderi weren't known for being a monogamous race, and she was no exception.

“It's the oldest profession of them all, my friend, and a woman is entitled to partake in it.”

“True enough,” I replied with a sigh. I knew she was trying to get me to feel better, or to look forward to something. I simply didn't think doing something like that would make anything better for me.

Footsteps on the stairs alerted me to Silas, and he came over to us, oblivious to our previous conversation, his bow on his back. “Are we off to see Bjorn, then?” he asked.

“Ready,” Nyx replied, pulling her hood over her head to leave her face in shadow. “As long as I don't have to get close enough to the university that I start picking up on its stench.”

“Just to the barracks. He'll be training again today, until dusk,” I explained. I had always respected Nyx's wishes not to get too close to the university; within it, after all, were the dungeons in which she'd been imprisoned. And despite my father having released her years ago, he still abhorred her, and she returned the feeling with equal passion.

Nyx led us out the tavern door and into the cobblestone streets. We made our way through crowds of citizens and tourists alike, stopping only at a merchant selling whole turkey legs so Nyx could pick up a few with her incessant hunger.

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“You want one?” She asked me as we left, holding out one of the drumsticks.

“Sure, thanks,” I replied, taking it from her. It smelled delicious and fresh. I knew not to ask Silas. Celdic elves, while not all strictly vegetarian, believed in certain rituals of respect when it came to hunting animals and eating their flesh. Silas did eat meat occasionally, but only if he had hunted the animal himself, and only if he knew he would use the entire carcass for materials and give it a proper death, as he called it, with a prayer of thanks and respect toward the animal that had given its life for a different being's consumption. I held great respect for Silas for such strongly held beliefs. I always had.

“You don't think Bjorn's going to have me kicked off the property, do you?” Nyx asked, just before tearing a piece of bird flesh from its bone. Years before, it had been Bjorn that had arrested her. In the time since, the two had never really seen one another. Bjorn's work kept him near the university, and Nyx was usually as far from it as she could be.

“No. Trust me—he's come around. I wouldn't be taking you there if I thought otherwise.”

The three of us slowly made our way uphill, the massive stone gate separating the Seran University grounds from the top tier of the city intimidating before us. Just beyond, the clangs of training weapons clashing and parrying echoed off the massive university walls. I kept my face at a downward tilt as we passed the gate and neared the training grounds. After my argument with my father the day before, I couldn't be sure he wasn't looking for me.

We hurried onto the training grounds and past the small stone wall that separated it from the university courtyard, my eyes on the lookout for Bjorn.

“Kai!”

I spun, finding Bjorn jogging toward me from a building I'd already passed.

“Where have you been, woman?” He asked, grabbing me into a bear hug. I melted in his embrace. I longed for the physical intimacy of others, and Bjorn was one of the rare people who'd ever given it to me. Perhaps my desire for it stemmed from the way my father had never shown it to me. He'd never hugged me or kissed me, even as a small child. The most he'd ever done was grab me on the wrist when he was impatient, and even then his touch had been cold.

Bjorn pulled away from me, his eyes glazed with moisture. It was the closest I had ever seen him be to tears. Glancing back at the university in all its glory, the stone walls rising upward to rival the clouds, he told me, “Come with me.”

The three of us followed Bjorn into a nearby armory. We waited until Bjorn led us into a side room from there.

Nyx pulled back her hood in the shadows of the indoors, happy to be free of her cover, if only for a moment.

Bjorn blinked at her a few times, surprised to see her. “Nyx?”

She smiled awkwardly, lifting up a hand. “Bjorn,” she acknowledged.

“I haven't seen you in years.”

“I assure you, my absence was intentional.”

Bjorn laughed heartily, which was odd considering he had been concerned just moments ago. “No need to be uncomfortable around me, my dear. I was just doing my job.”

“The same excuse didn't work for me, you lucky bastard,” Nyx replied in jest, speaking of her assassination attempt on me.

Bjorn chuckled once more. “I like your spunk, woman. Just real quick, before I get into the thick of things, let me tell you that you've proven yourself, at least in my eyes. You've become a great friend for Kai, and you started out as her enemy. The decision for that change was yours, and I thank you for making it.”

“I appreciate you saying so, sir,” she replied. It was weird to hear her use the word sir in respect. Nyx was definitely a product of her rough, brutal, and crude race, but she could still surprise me from time to time in the classy ways she could handle things if she wanted to.

“And so polite,” Bjorn grinned, before turning back to me. “Your father is outraged.”

Even though I'd expected as such, I still cringed. “Yes. I suppose he is.”

“He claims you disrespected him and left his office without waiting for him to excuse you.”

I hesitated. “Yes, I suppose I did.”

Bjorn snorted a chuckle, surprising me. “By the gods, child, you have balls made out of the finest brass.”

“They're about this big, too,” Nyx said from beside me, holding her hands about two feet apart.

I laughed at the two of them, though I felt conflicted.

“How I wish I had half the audacity you do in your dealings with him,” Bjorn went on.

“He definitely provoked it. He told me that the time I have left alive is of no concern to him.”

Bjorn's amused face faded. “He said that?”

“Yes. I told him that I wasn't sure how much time I had, and that because of my abilities he should put me into combat as soon as possible. That's when he said that and told me that the reason he was sending me on an escort mission was because I consistently failed to follow the orders of my superiors.”