Several days had passed since the end of the fight for the city known as “Dust,” with almost the entire city flattened; it had been rather chaotic. Although I was lucky enough to have avoided being anywhere near that chaos for more than a day.

I currently found myself sitting on the edge of a carriage Brimrose had offered to bring us back to the border of Berinia where another one would be waiting to pick us up according to Lotus. The city sat scattered in rubble all around me, several layers of bandages sat wrapped around my many injuries from the fight. However most of them were closed or already closing thanks to the attention of the Elven healers.

Darek and Lotus were standing a dozen or so paces away from me, talking in hushed tones to James, I tried my best to focus my hearing on their conversation but just as the vestiges of a few words could almost be made out my concentration was pulled away to greet two figures that were running towards me.

“Kiiiriiinnnn!” Lilly cried out as she ran forwards, she jumped towards me in an attempt to hug me just for Erde, the small boy following right behind her to grab her arm midair, pulling her to a stop.

“Lilly! Can’t you see she’s hurt?... Don’t go and start hurting her more…” Erde muttered out just to raise his free arm defensively when Lilly moved to swat him.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her!” Lilly whined out while I just giggled gently.

“It’s fine… Just don’t climb on me, alright?” I sighed gently with my eyes entirely pulled away from the hushed conversation I was rather curious about and now focused on the two figures in front of me. “Are you two alright? Nothing bad happened to either of you?”

“Of course we’re fine!” Lilly stated with pride as she pushed her chest out, her arms moving with elbows wide and hands planted on her hips. “After all we had you protecting us all night! Or… That’s what Miss Brimrose said.”

I was left speechless for a moment before another soft laugh overtook me, I could only shake my head a little.

“I hardly did anything important. I was just trying to keep myself and Tulip alive… But I’m glad you’re both fine, stay that way, alright?” I spoke with a smile across my face.

“Of course we’ll be fine! You need to stay fine too though!” Lilly piped up before Erde could even muster the words through his opening mouth.

“I’ll… Try and keep Lilly from being stupid again… Thank you, Kirin,” Erde spoke with a shy tone, his eyes averting away as both of them turned slowly before speaking again. “They didn’t want us to bother you much… We just really wanted to say goodbye.”

“Then, goodbye you two. And I really, honestly, hope I get to see you both again. Even if I didn’t do much with either of you, I enjoyed being around you two.” I spoke in a now sombered tone.

I was left to watch as both of the kids looked at each other, then at me with pleading eyes. With a sigh I pushed myself off of the carriage’s edge, landing carefully on my less injured leg before gently moving down onto my knees. Which was at least somewhat comfortable thanks to the many layers of sand.

“Come here.” I spoke with a soft smile once my arms spread out, the two kids turned with eyes shining to run over and give me a hug.

Honestly I wasn’t sure how I felt about them, I hardly knew either of them for a day—And yetI felt like I was attached to them in some way. Maybe it was the same reason I wanted to keep Tulip safe, just because they saw me as ‘Kirin’, and not a ‘Vulender.’

Both of them were careful to not hug too tight, something I was grateful for once I let go of them. And without a word they both turned and started running back to the groups of Elves moving out of the Keep, moving to try and repair the carnage that was left behind in their city.

“Who were they?” I turned my head to see Tulip walking over to me with a smile on her face. A smile of genuine joy as she effortlessly floated herself up a few inches from the ground to land gently on the tail of the carriage.

Tulip had been freed of her cuffs a few hours ago, with Andrew’s corpse being inspected for anything of use to identify who the one who hired the slavers was. But nothing of importance was found, and only the dreadful fact that Markus wasn’t found remained hanging in the air from them.

“Brimrose had me taking care of them for the day while you were… Trying to get the restraints off. And… They helped keep me alive when Andrew attacked right before the storm hit.” I spoke calmly, turning to press my hand into the ground. I lifted myself up before moving to sit beside Tulip.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The carriage Brimrose had offered wasn’t anything incredibly fancy, far from it in fact. It was simply an enclosed wagon that had a handful of hanging cots inside of it. The exterior was barren of any decorations, and yet it would undeniably be better to travel inside of than walking the rest of the way.

“Why would she have you take care of a bunch of kids?” Tulip asked with a confused tone, I just shrugged.

“No idea, but she did. And I’m sort of happy she did since they’re both… Ehh… Not sure how to say it.” I eventually sighed as I gave up on that train of thought before leaning back against the frame of the door into the carriage.

“We should be leaving soon, I think they were just talking over any compensation any side needed from this whole situation.” Tulip spoke casually, her gaze turned away from me as one leg pulled up towards her chest. Her red eyes gleamed in the dim morning light.

“I guess I’ll finally be getting to see that school you were so excited about too then.” I let a smile slowly return to my face, my imagination running wild with the ideas of what it could actually look like.

“Yea… I don’t even know why I’m surprised that Father didn’t care that I was missing. Never bothered to do anything about it and left it as an empty threat over Lotus and Levi… Ridiculous,” Tulip’s hand tightened into a fist as she spoke before she shook her head. “It’s fine though, I honestly wouldn’t want to see him after all of this.” She continued for a few moments before falling silent.

“I guess I’ll get to learn magic… Properly now. And just just a few days of haphazard lessons to keep us alive.” The idea of practicing magic sent an odd feeling through me as I spoke, I was… Excited about it.

“The fact that you did that much without practicing at all is beyond impressive, you know.” Tulip stated as her gaze shifted over to me.

However just as my jaw was beginning to loosen to ask further questions I was cut off by Darek who came walking back over with Lotus jumping onto the front of the carriage.

“It’s time to start heading back. I would recommend you both to get more rest while we start moving, it will be a long trip.” Darek spoke gently, his gaze shifted over Tulip and then to me, with his one eye shimmering with an emotion I couldn’t quite make out… Regret?

I didn’t have the time, or the reason to question him however. With my jaw snapping shut I nodded, pulling myself up to stand again before the door pushed open to greet sweet rest, for at least a few weeks.

And those few weeks passed by in the blink of an eye, even with the carriage being rather shoddily constructed it was able to ride through the desert with the help of magic and the two horses given with grace. Shifting over the Dunes when needed to jump between the roads that lead to Berinia.

By the end of the first week we had reached the massive mountain ranges that bordered Berinia and Elligorse, traveling up one of the three known valleys that connected the isolated country of humanity to the outside world. Tulip had told me they were called the ‘Infernus’ ranges, supposedly named that way in respect of some protector of the ranges that no one had ever seen with proof to back it up beyond hear-say.

When we were forced to change carriages to one of Berinian construction I was left confused as to how the carriage we had ridden in, and the horses that took us here would find their way back to Brimrose. But to my surprise there was an Elf waiting for us to take the carriage back to the city of Dust.

And finally in a new carriage, and within Berinia, I felt myself relaxing for the next few days. Only two remained to pass before we would reach Avernus, the city in which SilverSky was currently closest to.

The carriage slowly wound to a halt, waking both Tulip and myself as I shifted around with a groan, trying to pull the covers tighter over myself to block out the cold that was seeping into the carriage.

“Kirin, Tulip, come on out. We’re here.” Darek called out in a voice so gentle that it quickly roused me out of bed. With the cold dragging the sleep away near as fast as it could I hopped off of the creaking bed in the same moment as Tulip.

The door opened as Tulip walked towards it, her magic taking a hold of the handle while I followed a step behind her with a blanket still pulled tight over my shoulders.

As I turned my head away from the carriage and into the frost covered distance of the late Northern winter of Berinia, I felt my jaw grow loose from the sight I beheld.

In the distance I could see an island, like an inverted mountain pulled straight from the earth itself. Each rocky crag underneath it was accented by hundreds of unbelievably gargantuan crystalline growths that almost hummed with power as I gazed at them.

Four chains that were thicker than the walls of any city descended from the edges of the floating island, hooking into the ground in clear hooks embedded in parts of the city that sat underneath it. Which in of itself would have been a grand sight were it not for what sat directly above it.

The structures on top of the island looked almost like a countless series of castles, mansions, libraries, every building that could have held a reason for being well decorated and then some. While all around the edges of the buildings sat what looked like miles of green grassy plains, and even some farmland. It was so large that I couldn’t even entirely see the opposite edge of the island.

“SilverSky.” Tulip spoke simply, my heart was racing in my chest, and I felt… Pride for a moment.

I was going there, I was invited there. Me, Kirin Vulender, the daughter of the most wanted criminal in the history of the continent of Enadelle, I was going to the most prestigious school of magic in the world.