Piper was tossing and turning in her bed all night. Typically, she had been able to sleep eventually, but tonight, she couldn’t. With the arrival of Kai, her suspicions skyrocketed, which was unsettling. She pulled out the small chest that she saw in the creepy lecture hall. Trying to open it she saw the symbol of the summoner’s guild; this was meant for Levi. Levi.

Piper had never thought she would be so in love with a guy ever. Of course, she had dreamed, wished, and hoped for it to happen. But her 28 years of life had slowly executed those dreams, wishes, and hopes. Then she met Levi, and he changed her mind. It was like every day he treated her well it brought them back to life. Levi was not someone she would have normally pursued. But there was something about him on that first day that really caught her attention. Piper started to cry as she thought about how devastating it would be if she never got to see him again.

“Lady Piper,” a familiar voice said. Piper looked up to see Vapor standing before her.

“Vapor!” Piper exclaimed. “You’re here so is Levi?”

“He is in his room right now,” Vapor said. Piper didn’t even say anything, she sprinted to Levi’s room without looking back. Tears and a huge smile covered her face as she would almost be reunited with Levi.

Levi got out of the shower feeling fully refreshed. Levi was grateful that he still had access to showers; it was nice to have that small pleasure he enjoyed. Levi was tired mentally but not physically. His inventory still had some stew leftover and juice; he pulled both of them out and set them on the table. He walked back into his room to pull on some clothes. Levi heard the door squeak.

“Not again,” Levi said. He conjured orbs of chaos as the person who entered his suite barreled into his room, wrapping him up in a bear hug. “Piper!”

“Hello, love,” she said softly. “You’re naked, familiar.”

“Just got out of the shower.” He changed and gave his girlfriend a big kiss.

“What the hell happened to you? You were gone for two weeks!”

“Damn,” Levi said. “I had no idea how long I was gone for. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d be awake. Thought I’d get more time to prepare my thoughts…”

“Well, I couldn’t sleep cause Kai came and that was very suspicious. Why is your face like that?” Piper asked. Levi’s face paled at the thought of Kai being here. “Levi where were you?”

“Your basement.”

“Oh,” Piper said. “Kai being here makes things much worse.”

“I’d say so yep,” Levi responded.

“What are we going to do?” Piper asked. “Are you going to kill my brother?”

“No,” Levi said. “The ones who actually took me are dead, your brother is likely a pawn and I can’t take out the king.”

“That would be preferred, even if I am pissed at him,” Piper said.

“Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”

“I appreciate that. So, what next?”

“Nothing,” Levi said. “I’m sure your dad or Kai will learn that I’ve escaped sooner or later. They’d be weary of doing it again because I knew where I was. They won’t find the bodies of the elves they hired.”

“You were attacked by elves?”

“Yeah, two of them, terrible ritualists; that’s how I was able to escape. Then they followed me and so I put them down all the way down.” Levi said without remorse.

“Are you tired?” Piper said sensing fatigue as Levi was telling her that story.

“Mentally, yeah,” Levi said. He was eating his stew and drinking his juice. Piper was attached to his side.

“We can talk about it more later,” she said and kissed his cheek. “I’m just happy you’ve come home. I missed you. I love you.”

“I missed you too. I love you back,” Levi said, kissing her forehead. The two didn’t talk much the rest of the night. They just bathed in each other’s presence until sleep overtook them for the rest of the night.

Duke Trey snuck out of bed and went to check on Levi like he had every three days. He didn’t want to make it a habit of sneaking out of bed. His wife would get suspicious. He had sent Kai to go appease the minds of Anna and Piper; that mission should be over soon. Trey immediately noticed something was wrong as he didn’t sense any magic, mana, or auras coming from the basement. He panicked and rushed down to the bottom floor. In the empty ritual room, he saw nothing but an exploded ritual circle.

“Shit,” Trey murmured. In anger, Trey punched the wall, and it completely shattered. There were a number of things that could have caused this mission to fail. The first was trusting the two twin elves to do their jobs properly. The second was not getting a proper ritualist. It seemed like the ritual circle had exploded, which could mean improper rituals. The third was not leaving more guards down here to guard the prisoner, that one, though Trey didn’t measure it as a failure, too many guards missing would have been suspicious.

There is one scenario that could work in his favor. The elves were missing, so maybe they went to retrieve Levi before he could make it too far. The duke was not impressed by the power of the boy when he last encountered him. Taking down two 3-star magic users would be nearly impossible to kill. He was confident that would be what was happening. For now, he elected to go back to sleep and check at some point tomorrow. Kai was meant to return so the two of them disappearing would be less strange.

Duke Trey went back upstairs to get some sleep. Nothing he wanted to do tonight would maintain the level of secrecy he desired with this plan. He hoped silently as he ascended the stairs that he was wrong, that something terrible had happened and the elves lived up to their wages. It was expensive to pay two platinum coins for silence and results.

“Where have you been dear?” Maddi asked her husband, attempting to sneak back into bed.

“Had to run to the bathroom,” he lied.

“Trey, for all the wonderful things you do in this life, you are an awful liar,” she chided.

“I went to check on something,” Trey admitted. Maddi stared at him for a second.

“I can’t believe you kidnapped Levi! Honey what in the all-consuming realms has gotten into you??”

“What?! How did you? What?”

“Trey, we have been married for nearly a century; you seriously don’t think I wouldn’t know when you’re lying and how badly you’re hiding something from me. If kidnapped someone you would tell me, you’re an assassin but you didn’t which meant that it was someone important and someone that is close to our family. The only person you have issues with as of late would-be Levi, soo you kidnapped Levi.”

“That’s very impressive, Mads,” Trey admitted. “It doesn’t matter because he escaped.” Maddi laughed a full belly laugh.

“Good, you deserve it to blow up in your face!”

“But Maddi the prophecy!”

“You don’t give a damn about the prophecy, you care about overthrowing Leandro, tired of being in his shadow, and Levi was your opportunity. Leandro has been good to us, Trey; let him rule; let Kai be the married in King. Trust my plan.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Trey said and got back into bed.

“Piper is not going to be happy with you, when she finds out.” Maddi said.

“If she finds out,” he pointed out.

“She’s my daughter she will find out. Hopefully, your actions won’t push her to disown the family. She and Levi are inevitable. The only way that doesn’t work is if Levi rejects her and that is not going to happen. You’ve seen them.”

“I have,” Trey said solemnly. “Best thing I can do is to apologize huh?”

“First thing in the morning, take a portal there, and bring Kai home to. Honestly, did you forget that I have a mind for strategy, and this was your plan? What am I going to do with you!”

Trey said nothing. His wife was right, he had jumped at the opportunity too quickly and because of this the aftermath could be disastrous. He would portal there in the morning as soon as he woke up and hopefully Levi and more importantly Piper would forgive him.

Anna woke up to a small black orb in her face. Once she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, she realized it was Dameion.

“Dameion!” she exclaimed. “You’re back, that must mean Levi is back!” She shot out of bed and rushed over to the summoner’s guild to find her lost friend. Anna assumed that Piper would already be there, if she wasn’t there last night. Piper was pretty upset, and Anna was grateful that Tycen could act as the voice of reason. Tycen was able to calm Piper down enough to not just walk off into the world searching for Levi with any idea where he could have been. After that they all sat and drank tea to plan how their team would operate.

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

This was Tycen’s plan. Anna thought about Tycen he was smart and strategic like she was. The idea to discuss the team dynamic that included Levi was brilliant. It had provided hope that he was still alive and helped negate all negative thoughts of having to reform or reshape their team. It had worked where the three of them felt tired enough that they would actually be able to sleep that night.

Anna and Declan had been getting closer and had been going on a few dates. It was fun, Declan was a nice enough guy. She had seen the way Tycen looked at Declan whenever the three of them were together. She couldn’t tell if it was jealousy or annoyance. Anna started to notice that Declan’s marks in the guild were dropping far behind her. She was no longer competing for top spot; it was hers to win. She wanted to talk to him about that until Professor Egret came and told her Levi was missing.

Now that Levi was back, she would be able to talk to Declan about what had happened. It was such a close competition and now it’s nothing. Anna approached the room and knocked on the door then walked in. As expected, Levi and Piper were sitting at the table holding hands drinking tea. Anna rushed over to Levi and wrapped him up in a huge hug.

“Thank the gods you are alive,” Anna whispered. Feeling tears swell in her eyes.

“It’s almost like you care about me,” Levi teased.

“Who else was I going to make fun of if you weren’t here?” she shot back.

“You got me there,” Levi chuckled. “It’s good to be back, Anna. Tycen should be here soon too.”

“When did you find out?” Anna asked Piper, finally letting go of Levi.

“Vapor told me last night,” Piper said. “I couldn’t sleep, and she was there.”

“Kai?” Anna asked. Piper nodded. “Tell us everything!” Anna said to Levi.

“Well, let’s wait for Tycen,” Levi said. “I really don’t like repeating myself.” About five seconds later there was a knock on the door and Tycen’s head poked in. A big smile was plastered on his face.

“It is good to see you’re alive!” Tycen said with a gleeful tone.

“Thanks, man,” Levi said. “Have a seat, drink some tea, its story time.”

Kai was walking back to the guild district when a portal appeared right next to him. This was not surprising as he had a portal anchor that was given to him by his father for the purpose of this mission.

“What happened?” Kai said.

“Levi escaped and the elves are missing, its done.” Trey said by way of greeting. “We must go to your sister and apologize.”

“But father.”

“But nothing. Son, we failed, it’s best to cut our losses here and save face. If we act now, then we can hopefully prevent bigger family conflict. This way you and Rayvin can still be together.”

“Wait that is an option of happening,” Kai said with slight fear in his tone.

“Of course,” Trey said. “You two fell in love but it is largely a political marriage.”

“Yes sir,” Kai said sadly. Kai loved Rayvin a lot. When his parents told him that they were going to get married he was ecstatic. The girl next door. They had spent their whole lives together and she was absolutely stunning, sweet, and smart. Rayvin never wanted to leave the city to do adventures, but she was a magic user. She wanted to be a part of the magic users who helped the normal citizens, this was rare for a low rank, but she had no desire to kill monsters.

Kai loved that about her. Rayvin knew who she was and what she wanted. That was something that Kai looked for in himself but often fell short. She had slowly been changing him for the better. Rayvin wasn’t always head over heels for the brash young boy who was a family friend. She learned to love him anyways. Her sense of love came from a different place a sense of duty and honor. She eventually fell in love with Kai, but it took a lot longer than he had. Rayvin was okay with this. It was odd to have two large aristocratic families with so little children, but this was the case of the Onyx and Vendulars.

If they had more children arranged political marriages would not have been so likely. Especially if there were that many princesses. However, there were only three and they were in some way expected to produce three of their own, each. Rayvin knew this and felt that being a non-adventuring magic user would be best to complete the wishes of her family. She was aware that Anna was never going to be like that but that was okay. Anna was a powerfully strong sorceress she belong out there killing monsters, raiding dungeons, and whatever adventurers do. That was not Rayvin’s path and she had accepted that. Rayvin would help guide the Onyx Dynasty from behind the castle gates with her husband Kai.

Kai had been thinking about this as they walked through the city of Arcross and into the guild district. They arrived to the guild square but had no idea where they would be. If Levi had returned, would he have gone back to his room or to Piper’s. Trey pushed out his senses and found Piper’s aura and started to head that way.

“What are you going to do to Uncle?” Anna asked.

“Why is that the question you two keep asking?” Levi chuckled. “Nothing.”

“You should do something,” Anna said. “You could tell my father-”

“Absolutely not,” Levi said firmly. “I have no idea what to do or say to him. Frankly I don’t care, I want to finish the studies here and go take on that dungeon that is forming. I don’t care for politics, and I learned something before those stupid elves took me.”

“What was that?” Piper asked.

“I’ll tell you after,” Levi said. He looked at the door. “We have guests.” Ever since Levi was taken, he realized he was not utilizing Dameion to his fullest abilities. The avatar could have a lot of orbs that act as sensors to warn Levi of any aura that enters the sensors. Levi had created a complex network of sensor orbs around him. The further the orbs that were tripped the less he could understand the aura. The closer they were tripped the more he could sense. The orbs had been going off for a few minutes as the beings walked through the halls of the summoner’s guild.

Levi sensed it was Kai pretty early on but knew there was another, stronger person with him. He assumed it was Duke Trey tagging along to apologize or something. Levi chuckled; this was going to be quite interesting.

Levi’s aura interacted with the duke’s. Levi felt a small bit of nervousness on it and the duke walked in. Trey walked into a very hostile environment. Levi’s group of familiars all were facing him with hostile looks. His mimic familiar was snarling and to his surprise there was a dragon there also snarling and baring its teeth.

“May we come in,” Trey asked.

“Father?” Piper asked.

“This will be good,” Tycen said softly and walked to the couch. Anna nodded in agreement and sat next to him.

“Good morning, Uncle,” Anna said.

“Oh good,” Trey said. “Anna is here too. Come on Kai.”

“First let me say, your elves are dead,” Levi said by way of greeting.

“Let me guess,” Trey said. “They followed you after you escaped, and you put them in the ground.”

“Kind of. Not really, I obliterated their bodies.” Levi said. “That’s definitely more accurate than put them in the ground. Serenity how would you describe their death?”

“Like when an insect eats leaves until there are various holes and a little bit of the stem left,” the dragon said. Trey looked nervously at the dragon. He had never seen a dragon quite so beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

“Colorful,” Levi chuckled. “She has a way with words.”

“Why are you here father?” Piper shot.

“To apologize,” Trey said. “I never expected…”

“To get caught,” Levi said.

“Yes and no. Piper I’m sorry. I never expected that your connection with this otherworlder would be this strong, but I was wrong.”

“Chaotic Paragon,” Levi said.

“What?” Trey asked.

“I’m not an otherworlder anymore, it’s fine.”

“Chaotic Paragon…” Trey said slowly. “I am not sure what that means.”

“Essentially, I have perfected the use of chaos magic. Call it an ally,” Levi responded.

“I have never heard of such a thing,” Trey narrowed his eyes. “You really aren’t evil; otherwise, why would you tell me that?”

“You were here to apologize Sir Trey,” Levi said.

“I was misguided, and I shouldn’t have organized your kidnapping, I am sorry.”

“All good,” Levi said.

“What?” everyone in the room said.

“It was a garbage plan, but you were doing what you thought was best for your family. Can’t fault you there. I’m alive and now more aware of how good at am at rituals. Don’t get me wrong, we’re definitely not cool.”

“I don’t forgive you,” Piper said. “Nor do I accept your apology.” Trey looked at Levi.

“Don’t look at me bro,” Levi said. “She makes her own decisions.”

“Piper, I,” Trey stuttered.

“Save it,” she interrupted. “This is not just about Levi. You openly tried to take Levi away when we visited you. I never heard an apology once, just words about how I chose him over my family. Then you successfully, albeit briefly, kidnap him. Then come here with sad eyes and a soft tone, expecting me to be alright? You probably still think I am choosing Levi over the family. When in reality the family chose Levi over me. You chose to view Levi as a threat. You chose to not TRUST me! You chose to not listen to my words. YOU CHOSE. SO no, I don’t forgive you and no I don’t know when I will be able to. If you really cared about me and you really were concerned about keeping the family together you would have talked to me like a damn adult.”

“Piper Vendular,” his voice was stern. “Be reminded that I am still your father. Mind your words.”

“Annnd that’s where I step in,” Levi said, standing up. “Look, man, take this as a win. The person who has every right to get revenge is letting you go—you and your son there.”

“This is none of your concern, Mr. Winters,” Trey said. His demeanor was extremely different. He had a look of fury in his eyes.

“It is,” Levi said calmly. “Sir, you’re outnumbered by a lot. You may be an assassin, but that requires planning and time. You don’t have time. Look around you. You said it yourself when we first met, I have evil-looking familiars. And that was three familiars ago. You think that they will be as accepting and forgiving of you for kidnapping me as I am? Think again.” Levi’s voice was cold and measured. “I won’t kill you because I like your wife and love your daughter. But if you keep actin a fool, you won’t make it to that door.”

“You dare threaten me!” Trey snapped.

“Yes,” Levi said.

“Listen here boy,” Trey said sharply. “I’ve lived a life four times your age. I have fought in countless wars and fought many summoners. They all fell to my hands. You think I am scared of a newborn to this world who learned magic for the first time just about a year ago? You think that I am afraid of that? That your insolence will go unchecked. Is that what you believe because I can change that in an instant and show you what true power looks like.”

“True power?” Levi said slowly. “I’m not here to see who has the bigger stick, Trey. I’m telling you to either leave free or leave injured. The choice is yours.” Five orbs of chaos formed around Levi as he said the last words. They started swirling and humming. A swarm of drones and wisps started to appear to crowd the suite space. Trey looked at each of the forms of attack and bowed his head.

“I truly am sorry, Piper,” Trey said with a tremor in his voice. “I hope one day you can forgive me.” A portal opened behind him, he and Kai entered it and left without another word.

“Thanks Levi,” Piper said softly.