Magic, as any practitioner will tell you, is about misdirection. So when the ball of fire took shape above my hand, I was really casting a modified shielding spell. So when Deanna let loose the arrow, it passed through a barrier made of pure fire in front of me, melting the arrow instantly. It did no damage whatsoever and failed to scare me in the slightest. As if on cue, the rest of the siblings charged forward, weapons raised and screaming battle cries. Alicia didn’t reply; she simply blurred forward and swung her mighty maul. There was a deadly concentration in her movement, as though she were restraining her berserker fury in order to maintain focus on her objective. She gave no battle cry as she charged towards her siblings. She was going to stop them at all costs. Before Deanna could fit another arrow, Alicia was right in front of her, delivering a two-handed swing straight into her gut.

Her bow was knocked from her hands and she fell back, but Deacon charged forward, his sword already sweeping in a horizontal cut aimed at Alicia’s head. She ducked the blow and countered with a mean left cross, her fist slamming into Deacon’s helm and sending it flying from his head. He staggered back, only to have Shannon swoop in with her mace.

With a whispered word I sent a blast of air forward at Shannon. It slammed into her and sent her sprawling through the air, the mace falling from her hands. The air blast was the perfect choice since I knew that Shannon wouldn’t be able to redirect it off her gauntlet shield, since the area of effect was simply too large. Shannon flew for a few feet, and landed in a heap not too far from where Eliza was still face-down on the ground. The spell itself would do no damage, but at this point the only objective I had was to prevent Alicia from being overwhelmed. Berserker or not, one small girl against four heavily armed and armored opponents was an uphill battle.

Luckily, mages are force multipliers. Any mage worth his salt is as good as ten swordsmen. I may still be an apprentice, but I’m hardly some neophyte. A mere second after releasing the air blast, I was already preparing a follow up lightning blast at Leila, who was about to attack while Alicia recovered from punching Deacon. Shouting, I launched the bolt at Leila. It struck her in the left shoulder, burning off the leather plate, and flooring her like she had been clotheslined. The blast also caused her to lose her grip on her shortsword; it went spiraling away, barely missing Shannon as she tried to regain her footing.

Everything I was doing was a stall tactic, however. In such a frenzied battle, I didn’t have time to use anything other than the most basic of elemancy, simple attack spells that even novices could use. If the siblings realized they could divide-and-conquer, Alicia and I were lost. If I tried anything fancy, they’d overpower Alicia. If she tried to fall back and protect me, we’d be surrounded. So long as I kept the siblings at bay, hopefully they wouldn’t have time to figure out how precarious our situation truly was.

But even basic elemancy wasn’t something I could throw out forever. Eventually I’d feel the fatigue from the constant barrage of magic. Either my reaction speed would slow down or I’d exhaust myself, and then Alicia would have no cover. My mind raced furiously for a solution as the siblings geared up for another round.

Meanwhile, Deanna had clambered to her feet and drawn the shortsword from her hip. She ran forward, swinging. Alicia spun effortlessly and brought her maul to bear, jamming the bottom of the weapon’s haft into Deanna’s stomach. She buckled, and Alicia dealt her a follow-up with a nasty uppercut that slammed straight into her face, drawing blood from a broken nose. Deanna stumbled back, dazed, as Alicia stepped back to establish a ready stance, both hands gripping the handle of her maul tightly.

I looked over my shoulder to see how Alverd was faring. He and Marcus were locked in their duel. The other siblings must not have considered him or Alverd much of a threat, and had decided to just overwhelm me with superior numbers out of fear of my magic. Alverd clearly had the upper hand. With every swing Alverd pushed Marcus back. Forced to be on the defensive, Marcus was trying desperately to change the flow of the battle with fancy footwork but he had no room to maneuver. He’d be up against the wall soon enough. An inhuman scream caused me to turn my head back to my own battle.

Deacon had decided that I was a more vulnerable target and came after me with his gigantic sword. I quickly raised my staff to block his overhead slash out of reflex, willing as much energy into a shield as I could. The sheer force of the attack would have carved the staff in two, but instead, I took a page from Alverd’s book; I angled the surface of the shield to deflect rather than stop it outright. I stepped back and let his momentum carry him forward. The big goon lumbered past me, carried by his own momentum, and I swung the staff at the back of his head with both hands. It made a satisfying crunch as it connected at the base of his skull. He crumpled to the ground with a whimper. I only had a moment to laugh at how pathetic it was that a brute like him had just been taken out by a guy who had beanpoles for arms before I warmed up my next spell.

Shannon lunged at me with her mace, catching me off guard. I had no time to react, as her weapon barreled down on me from above. My staff was at my side, and I didn’t have time to conjure another shield. But before the blow could connect, Alicia rammed into her shoulder first, halting the attack. Shannon rolled with the punch and redirected her mace at Alicia. The mace hit Alicia in the hip, and the princess grunted in pain. Shannon avoided Alicia’s counterattack and backed away.

The blow actually caused some slight damage. Even if a berserker was able to tune out pain, they could not ignore the toll fractures and broken bones took on the body. I could see Alicia stagger as she tried to put her weight on her leg, redirecting it immediately when she realized that she had been injured.

Yet, she didn’t cry out in pain. The expression on her face didn’t even falter for a second. She pushed herself back up, and the injury only seemed to magnify her rage. She dealt an earth-shattering blow to the gauntlet shield on Shannon’s arm, and I could have sworn I could hear the bones breaking from the sheer force of the attack. As Shannon cried out in pain, Alicia followed up with a blow straight to her chest with the maul, and it caved in the gilded metal like it was made of tin. Shannon collapsed, gasping for breath.

Leila had recovered from the lightning bolt enough that she was trying to get her bearings. I twirled my staff and unleashed a blast of frost at her. The vapor in the air hardened into crude needles of ice, which zoomed toward her with frightening speed. Most of the little projectiles broke harmlessly against her armor and her outstretched arm, but many embedded themselves in her unprotected legs, burying themselves deep into her flesh. She screamed in agony, and I didn’t blame her. Blood began leaking from the countless wounds, and she continued to howl in pain.

I turned to see Alicia trying to fend off Deanna. Somehow, the older dragon tamer had managed to gain the offensive, utilizing her sword’s greater reach to force Alicia into a defensive posture. I reached into my own body, pulled more body heat from within, and conjured another fireball into my hand. As Deanna kicked Alicia’s legs out from under her, I threw the fireball at her. The speeding ball of flame impacted her in the chest, exploding violently. The force of the explosion threw Deanna against a nearby wall, which she impacted against with a sickening thud. However, she was still alive; her body, having suffered little actual damage due to her armor, twitched periodically, and she groaned.

I took a moment to survey the damage. Shannon, Leila, and Deanna were all out of the fight, either wounded or completely unconscious. I turned around to see if Deacon was still out cold behind me. Standing over me like a towering tarketan, he had his sword raised high in preparation for a killing blow.

I froze. I stared in horror as death stared back, his dulled dragon tooth sword about to seal my doom. I heard Deacon roar, as he prepared to split my skull with triumphant glee. Alicia blurred into sight in front of me. Adrenaline forced everything into slow motion as she swept past me, her shoulder-length hair flowing behind her and her teeth clenched tight. With one fluid motion, she swept her maul low, smashing into the backs of Deacon’s legs and causing him to somersault backwards. Even as he lurched backward Alicia gave him no reprieve. Still moving like a mighty river, she swung her maul over her head and rained it down on Deacon’s still falling body, right onto his armored torso, fracturing his breastplate in half. Alicia’s attack forced Deacon down to the ground, which he hit like a ton of bricks. If he hadn’t been wearing that armor, she probably would have shattered his rib cage, and I was willing to bet that at least a few of his ribs were cracked, if not broken entirely.

The wind blew Alicia’s hair across her face, hiding her eyes from me. But when she met my gaze, her eyes had lost the murderous rage within them. They were once again the clear, only-somewhat-innocent eyes of the conceited princess I had come to know over the past week. Her free hand was massaging the spot on her hip where Shannon’s mace had struck her, and it was a fair bet that she had a fracture at the very least. She smiled at me wistfully, and I smiled back.

“ Good to know I’m not the only one who gets bashed by you.”

Alicia laughed. Gods, how long had it been since she last laughed like that? Alverd’s duel in the throne room seemed so far away and long ago. “Yeah, well, in this instance I believe my siblings deserved it more than you. But only for now. The day is still young, you know.” We both laughed, though secretly I shuddered at the thought of her maul denting my skull. I didn’t need a reminder of the previous damage I had suffered at her hands.

I turned my head to see how Alverd was doing. Turns out, in the space of the time it had taken Alicia and I to dispatch her siblings, he had managed to put Marcus on the ropes. The prince was feverishly defending himself from a veritable storm of strikes from the Sword of Evros. Alverd pressed his advantage relentlessly, pushing Marcus back with every swing. The two warriors locked blades, and I could see that Marcus’s sword had deep scars running along the length of the blade, its once flawless edge now sporting jagged bites in it.

Marcus countered with a dirty kick to the shin. Alverd fell to one knee, unable to maintain the lock, and Marcus crowed in triumph as he reared back his sword for a fatal attack. Alverd parried the blow easily with a counterattack, sweeping Evros up to meet Marcus’s scimitar. He continued the assault with a punch to Marcus’s face, and I could only imagine the prince’s jaw rebounding from such an impact. Marcus tore his dragon helm from his head, throwing it aside angrily, and with a garbled roar he swung his sword with both hands at Alverd’s head.

He saw through Marcus’s feint and twisted sideways, the scimitar passing within inches of his head. Alverd’s spin turned into a ferocious slash that nearly parted Marcus’s head from his body. The two combatants separated, then returned to battle with a fervor I had never seen in my life. It was as though every soul who had died an unavenged death in Marevar was there to guide Alverd’s hands, each innocent lending him strength beyond counting. As Marcus faltered and grew weaker, Alverd only seemed to grow stronger and stronger, and with every attack, he grew bolder and fiercer.

At long last, Alverd gave one final slash with the Sword of Evros. Marcus tried to block with his sword, but Evros carved through the battered blade like it was made of wood. Marcus’s scimitar fell away in two parts, and Evros bit into his breastplate like the fangs of the Progenitor herself. Marcus stumbled away, blood falling from his mouth, holding his hand to the jagged cut in his armor. He fell and landed on his ass, and started scuttling away from Alverd as best he could, until his back was up against the railing of the arena section we were in. He looked up at Alverd, with a look of unabashed scorn.

“I… was so close…” he mumbled. “Everything would have been perfect if only you had just learned your place, you damn fool. Marevar is gone. Killing me will not change that. You should thank us for ending their pitiful existences the way we did. It was merciful!”

Alverd seized the prince by the cape and pulled him up until their faces were next to each other. “You killed thousands of my countrymen and claim it to be merciful? I see only genocide. Be thankful that it is not my place to determine your fate. Your sister can decide that.” With that, Alverd smashed the prince against the railing, pushing him ever closer to the edge.

Marcus laughed deliriously, blood flying from his mouth. “What? Can’t do it yourself? Just like I said. What kind of man are you? Does my sister have you on such a short leash that you are not free to kill a man you despise so righteously?” Marcus spat blood at Alverd’s face in contempt. “Kill me, you worm! I know you want to! What are you waiting for? Coward!”

I saw the anger rising in Alverd’s eyes, overriding his reason. He slammed Marcus against the railing again, and I knew that he was quite close to throwing the prince over. I waited, anticipating it with bated breath.

Yet, no matter how much I wanted it, the nagging voice in my head would not be silent. The insight Alverd had grasped right away, when we had been placed under Alicia’s command, that I’d been unable to figure out, finally clicked. The epiphany hit me like a charging stallion.

I realized now why I had hesitated back in the throne room, when we had been dragged in front of the king and sentenced to serve his youngest daughter; in that moment, we stood before the man who had taken our home, our brethren, and our families from us. I could have killed him, even if it cost me my life, even if it cost Alverd’s, in order to put our ghosts to rest. And yet I didn’t.

If I had done so, I would have been just like him.

Perhaps not on the same scale, of course. The king was responsible for the wholesale destruction of an entire kingdom and its people; I would only claim one life. Still, it would make me no better. Earlier, I struck down a dying man incapable of defending himself simply out of malice. The scales may have been imbalanced, but they still judged the same crime. I would go to my death with the same taint on my soul as the one that stained my enemy’s.

Not once had Alverd shared the true extent of his shame with me in the years since Marevar’s destruction. Not once had he burdened me with the grim reality that he was no better than a deserter, consumed by guilt that he had survived when others more worthy had stood their ground and paid with their lives. Even if we were more alike than I ever realized, I couldn’t let him become… me. If he went and killed Marcus, something would die in him, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life. As his best friend and someone who already knew what it felt like to be a monster, I refused to let him fall so far.

Alicia limped forward and tapped Alverd on the shoulder. Immediately, the anger in his eyes faded, and he turned to look at her face, which was set like stone. I was too much of a coward to look Alverd in the eye, so I called out from behind Alicia.

“He’s baiting you, Alverd. Kill him, and you’re no better than he is.”

Alverd’s eyes grew wide. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he were berating himself for forgetting something so simple, something he’d known all along. He let go of Marcus, and Alicia’s hands immediately replaced his. She stared into Marcus’s eyes with the unflinching gaze of a berserker.

“Marcus. You have committed a grave crime against the country of Ishmar. You sought to kill your siblings, you murdered our father, start war for your own gain, and bring ruin to our people. For this, death is not enough. But it is a start.” Alicia raised her maul high, one last time, to end Marcus’s worthless life.

Suddenly, the sound of metal scraping against metal came from behind us. I turned around and saw a scene right out of my nightmares. Eliza had somehow managed to free herself. A small dagger, probably taken from Deanna or Shannon, lay off to the side, as well as the ropes that had bound her hands. A small tide of blood was cascading down the side of her face, from a gash on her forehead from being slammed against the floor; it accentuated her hideously sadistic smile. In her hand was the rapier that she had taken from Deacon, its point scraping against the ground aimlessly as Eliza stalked toward us with an unsteady gait.

The smile only got wider as she slowly made her way over to where we were standing.

“So, this is how it plays out, hm? It’s very convenient, you know? All my enemies in one place at the same time. I can get rid of you all right now!” Eliza brought the rapier up to her mouth and licked the blade again. “And you too, Marcus! I believe your time is up before it ever began. How sad…” She let loose a low, menacing giggle.

Eliza ran her hand along the length of the blade. “The plan won’t change. I’ll just be the one in charge. And if anyone has any objections…” She cockedher head to the side and then to the other, and her neck made two audible popping sounds. Oh, gods. Her murderous grin was still plain to see. Somehow her head tilted just so made her look every bit the psychopath I knew her to be.

She chuckled sinisterly as she sidled over to us, her movements becoming less jerky as she worked off Deacon’s little cheap shot. “I’m still wondering if I should kill you, Marcus. It’s either that, or let you rot in the deepest, darkest dungeon I can find. I wonder which is simpler?” She paused, and looked at her rapier. Then she giggled again. “Oh. I guess the answer is pretty obvious, huh?”

Marcus sneered. His voice came out raspy from exerting so much of his energy against Alverd. “Fool. The one thing I’ve learned in dealing with you and the rest of that trash who call themselves dragon tamers is to always have a contingency plan. I may have been sidetracked for a moment, but only for a moment. I always have more pieces to play.” Without another word, he pushed Alicia away and hauled himself over the edge.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

I ran to the railing and looked over; Marcus fell only a few dozen feet before landing on a dragon flying amidst the chaos. He laughed and flew the dragon away, keeping clear of the feral dragons still flying around in the air. Not that it mattered; up until this point, the dragons flying loose in the Arena had been content to go after each other or the common folk on the bottom seating areas. Even the dragons that had been freed from the kennel by the poisoned royal dragons were just flying free. There was no doubt in my mind that Marcus had planned this stunt in the event of a quick getaway should he need it.

I bit back a curse; there was no way I could hit him at such range, and we had more pressing concerns anyway. But then, I saw him wheel around, and two more dragons took up flanking positions on him, each with a rider wearing golden armor emblazoned with the Ishmarian numeral for the number one. The three dragons swept long around the arena, giving the still-fighting dragons a wide berth, angling to sweep around. He would likely be long gone in a few minutes. His plan had succeeded, more or less. No need to expose himself to needless risk.

Eliza snorted.

“Craven wretch! I’ll get him later. For now, I’ll deal with you.” Eliza took up her fencing stance, angling her rapier ahead of her. “Now. Let’s keep it simple. I want the mage. I want him dead. And if I have to go through you to get to that rotten little spellslinger, I will.”

Alverd inched toward Eliza, clutching the Sword of Evros in both hands. He was by no means a master swordsman, but he knew enough to challenge a fencer. Thanks to his height and bulkier, heavier armor, he was much bigger than she was and had more reach, meaning that only her thrusting attacks would pose any real threat to him. Although it was easy money that her rapier was forged with the same dragon tooth metal as all of the other siblings’ weapons, it would still take a significant amount of momentum to pierce his armor.

On the other hand, Eliza’s lighter armor allowed her a greater degree of flexibility and agility, and doubtless she would use that to her advantage. Even if she had to fight both Alicia and Alverd, her ability to stay on her toes would give her the edge she needed to keep up.

Alverd stopped moving forward, the Sword of Evros leveled in a standard defensive posture.

“I will ask once and once only, Eliza. Will you surrender? I make this offer only because I swore an oath to try and take you alive. Refuse, and I will avenge my friend, and all of my brethren, and loved ones. I will take no pleasure in killing you. So throw down your sword, and give up your foolish endeavor.”

She chuckled. “You think I’m just going to give up? Fool! If you want justice for your friend, then take it! I’ve killed dozens like your little whore-of-a friend and I’ll kill hundreds more! If you want to be the next corpse on the pile, then so be it!” She snarled and flourished her rapier, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

In truth, I had hoped it was going to play out this way. Even Alicia could see that Eliza was beyond help. As if reading my mind, Alicia spoke up. “Eliza, if you won’t lay down your sword, then you leave me no choice. I hereby charge you with high treason, and sentence you to death. To be carried out immediately.” In response, Eliza laughed. She laughed and laughed, then abruptly stopped, jerked upright, and took a deep breath.

Then, she had to go and make things far, far worse.

Eliza exhaled, and closed her eyes. A moment passed, and something… changed. Even with the wind drowning out sound around us, it seemed like I could hear her pulse quickening. In an instant, she exerted some unseen force on a level I had never experienced before. It was similar to what I had seen with Alicia, but then that would mean…

When she opened her eyes, there was no mistaking it. They were narrowed, with the same dull, hollowed look to them that Alicia had when she was berserk. And yet, the sheer aura of power that she gave off dwarfed Alicia’s by a huge margin. She hadn’t been bluffing when she claimed that she’d been training for the past five years. Her control over her berserker trance was almost tangible, like a chain wrapped around a wild animal to keep it secure.

Alicia had no more patience for any of her sister’s shenanigans. She screamed a battle cry and ran at her sister with both hands gripping her maul, her injury forgotten. Her first swing was a major miss. Eliza sidestepped the blow entirely. I watched as the two sisters engaged in battle, two berserkers locked in a mortal struggle.

Alverd wasn’t about to let Alicia fight alone. He jumped in with the Sword of Evros. However, Eliza ducked his slash, and countered by trying to thrust into his chest. Alverd twisted his body and just narrowly missed being stabbed, the point of the rapier sailing through empty air. Eliza jumped back to reestablish space, and thrust again.

He parried with Evros, but he could only deflect the blow to the side, and again only just barely avoided being stabbed, this time in the face. He tried an overhead slash at Eliza, but not only did she step to her left to avoid it, she slapped the blade aside with her hand mid swing. Carried by her slapping motion’s forward momentum, she spun around and back-handed Alverd in the face with the hand guard of her rapier.

She’s too good. Being able to see an attack in progress and counter it by smacking it aside with her hand was an entire league above anything Alverd was capable of. He and Alicia were out of their depth. Eliza wasn’t like the rest of the royals. She was a warrior, and she fought to kill.

As he stumbled, Eliza turned and deflected another blow from Alicia’s maul. The maul’s shape made it much harder to block than a sword or axe, but Eliza not only managed it, she didn’t even seem to register the additional force behind the attack. She fended Alicia off with a few feints and jabs, and the younger princess had no choice but to back off, lacking the reach or speed to deal with such a barrage.

Again, Alverd went in to attack. He aimed a horizontal strike at Eliza, a much safer prospect given it was harder to dodge or deflect. She had no choice but to parry, and I could see the Sword of Evros dig into the rapier as the two swords clashed. However, this time he took advantage of his larger stature and threw his shoulder forward, unbalancing her and pushing her back. Alicia dashed in with her maul. She tried another haymaker swing, but Eliza was no longer unsteady. With feline grace, she braced her rapier with both hands against Alicia’s attack, and then shifted her weight so that Alverd’s momentum worked against him. He lurched forward and slammed into Alicia, and the two of them tumbled to the ground. Instead of finishing them, Eliza backed off, spinning her rapier in her wrist idly. She was toying with them. The sick, disturbed bitch was toying with the two of them. She knew that she could kill them at any time.

Alicia recovered first. She scrambled back up and lunged at her, and the Sixth Princess caught the maul with a horizontal block braced with both of her hands. But even Eliza couldn’t fight the laws of nature; the sheer force of the attack pushed her back, and Alicia used the short moment when Eliza was adjusting her footing to force a lock, the two weapons grinding against each other, throwing small sparks as they tried to unbalance the other further. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to overpower Alicia through brute force, Eliza decided to use underhanded tactics. She kicked Alicia in the knee, forcing the Princess to the ground, and pulled her arm back for the finishing blow.

A vision of Laura emerged in my head while seeing this all play out in front of me. I wouldn’t let it happen again. I screamed and lifted my left hand, and I pulled heat from inside my body again to form a fireball in my hand, launching it at Eliza. The blazing globe slammed into her, but not before she saw it coming and threw her hands up to shield herself from the blow.

A cloud of smoke engulfed the area, but was quickly swept away by the wind. Eliza had suffered little damage from my hastily cast spell. However, when she opened her eyes, they were no longer hollow; now they were engulfed by a seething animosity the likes of which I had only seen once, five years ago on that fateful night. I knew the fireball would get her attention, but I apparently didn’t think the last bit through; I had just pissed off an already angry berserker. Eliza finally let her discipline slip and gave a scream of fury, then rushed at me with blinding speed.

However, Alverd intercepted her. With her tunnel vision, Eliza didn’t even see him coming. He cut her off and sliced with the Sword of Evros. The blade cut through the armor plate on Eliza’s hip, drawing blood and severing the plate in half. The blade didn’t go deep enough into her thigh to sever the bone, but it was enough to be a crippling blow. Eliza, however, was driven by so much blind rage, that such a wound didn’t matter to her. She rounded on him and knocked him off his feet with an absolutely unbelievable kick to his stomach. Maybe it was just the sound of metal on metal but I could have sworn I could hear something going crunch when her foot connected.

Alverd hit the ground hard, wheezing. The disadvantage of wearing such heavy armor was that getting smacked around like that took its toll on the wearer as much as the attacker. He’d lost his grip on the Sword of Evros. It lay just out of reach. He tried to put out his hand for it, his fingers slipping against the pommel, not quite able to grasp it.

Eliza grinned at me horribly as she stalked over towards Alverd. He was crawling now, trying to grab the Sword of Evros. Eliza lifted up her rapier, gripping the hilt with both hands, angling it to come down straight through Alverd’s back. Alicia screamed out, but she was too far away, and she’d never stop Eliza in time, not with her hip wound slowing her down.

Gods-be-damned. I had no choice.

I sprinted as fast as I could, my staff still in my hand. I let it slide down my fingers until I was holding one end with both of my hands, like a club or mace. I ran, but it felt as though I were wading through a swamp, almost like I had in my nightmare. Time slowed, and all I could see was that damn rapier’s point. I might have started screaming a battle cry at some point, but I tuned it all out.

When I got close, though, I realized too late that it had been a ploy. Eliza swiveled her head back to me, then pivoted her body, and I saw that she planned to ram her rapier back towards me. At this angle, it’d go right through my chest. Eliza’s mouth opened wide, and a triumphant snarl emerged from it.

Then Alicia’s maul, spinning like a tomahawk, slammed into Eliza’s shoulder. The heavy blow staggered the older dragon tamer, but it didn’t stop her. It merely knocked her aim from a surely fatal blow to something else. I felt a sharp pain shoot through my stomach, like a bolt of lightning, and looked down. Eliza’s rapier was jutting out of my abdomen, six inches of dragon tooth metal being stained red by my blood. I didn’t even have the strength to cry out.

Eliza yanked her rapier free, and I felt a brand new wave of agony go shooting up my body. This time, I felt myself scream, though it sounded more like the whimper of a wounded animal. Eliza grabbed hold of my throat, her gauntleted fingers digging into the soft flesh. She ran her tongue across her sword, tasting my blood, the red staining her lips, and then placed the point against my chest, right over my heart.

“I have been waiting for this moment for a very, very long time, spellslinger,” she cooed softly, her voice full of satisfaction.

I smirked back at her, and her smug expression faltered. “Yeah? Well, so have we.” There was a sound, a weird, squishy, squelching sound, and Eliza’s face went blank. She coughed, and a stream of blood, her own blood, spewed from her mouth. Some of it hit my face. With great effort, she looked over her shoulder. Alverd, still on the ground, had thrust the Sword of Evros into the side of her stomach, under her breastplate where there was no armor. Eliza made one last choking gasp, and her fingers tightened around my neck.

“Mage…” she growled, stretching out the last syllable in a death rattle. Her grip loosened, and her hand fell away from my neck. She collapsed to the floor, blood already pooling from the wound. I, too, hit the ground, and could feel my life ebbing away as my precious lifeblood leaked from my body. My fingers and toes were growing cold, and that cold was starting to move into my hands and feet as well.

And yet, despite all that, I felt… at peace. As though I could go to whatever awaited me with a clear conscience. Maybe I was kidding myself, maybe it was just to make myself feel better… but it was working. I wondered vaguely if Laura would have approved of what I had just done, of giving my life to save Alverd and Alicia. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough to earn her forgiveness

I guessed I would have the opportunity to ask her in person soon enough, gods forbid.

But another voice, not Laura’s, called out to me. It was too high-pitched to be hers. I dimly recognized it as Alicia’s. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, and her voice kept breaking. I had a vague sensation of being lifted and dragged. I just wanted to sleep. I opened my eyes to tell Alicia to bugger off and let me sleep, and then-

Light. Blinding light. I was propped up against one of the steps in the viewing section of the arena, still up near the top where we’d waged our battle against the other royals. Alverd had torn off part of his crimson cape and was wrapping it around my stomach while Alicia pushed her hands against my wound to staunch the bleeding. I looked down and saw her hands covered in my blood and at the tears on her face.

Is she crying for me? That didn’t make sense. I wasn’t her friend… was I? But there she was, doing her best to keep me alive. When she saw my eyes flutter, she pressed harder, and a surge of fresh misery forced me to open my eyes again. She took a moment to punch me in the chest, which I barely registered thanks to the rest of the torment I was feeling.

“You stupid mage!” She shouted, her voice breaking for the umpteenth time. “Did I give you permission to go and throw your life away? Stupid, stupid, stupid! You’d better live through this, because I plan on kicking your ass so hard! Do you hear me?” She tried to hit me again, and her fist smacked against my face with as much force as if she were a four year old child. But I knew what she was trying to convey.

I lolled my head to my left and looked at Alverd. Up until now, he’d been occupied with tying the strip of cape around my wound. Now that he’d wrapped it around my body several times, tightened it and then knotted the ends, he took a moment to smack me in the head as well. Unlike Alicia’s little love tap, his hand hurt a lot more.

“Gods-be-damned, Kuro, are you insane?” He wasn’t crying, but he seemed angry. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was trying to put up a front or if he was genuinely cross with me. I was leaning toward the latter, though. “Do you know what would have happened if that blade had gone just a few inches higher?! You’d be dead right now! Gone, forever!”

I smiled weakly. “But you would still be alive. Both of you.” That stopped them both in their tracks. I sighed, which was a mistake since it made me cough hard. I tried my best to smile again. “Think what you will of me, I’m a monster, a murderer, or a coward. I’ve long since stopped caring what others think of me.” A bald-faced lie, but that wasn’t important now.

“But,” I continued laboriously, “I still have a heart. There are things even monsters care about. You’re my best friend, Alverd. Always have been… always will be. You could’ve left my ass behind years ago. You could’ve minded your own business and never given me the time of day. But you didn’t. You tried to give someone who’d given up on life a chance to redeem himself. And today, hopefully, I did.”

I turned my gaze up. The sky was so blue, as blue as Alverd’s eyes, as blue as the cloth tunic that Laura used to wear, and the flowers her bakery kept in the window. “I know we’ve never always seen eye-to-eye, and that at times, I’ve disappointed you. But I’ve never stopped wanting to be like you, Alverd.”

Hewas stunned. “What are you talking about, Kuro?”

My smile turned into a somber expression. “I chose to live in your shadow because I never wanted to bring you shame. If everyone always looked at you, the paragon of justice, they’d see hope. They’d see that people still cared about justice and chivalry and honor. They wouldn’t have to see me, doing all those dishonorable things and sullying myself. The world doesn’t need more people like me.” I reached out my arm and pushed my index finger against Alverd’s breastplate to illustrate my point, and I could see every scratch, every scar, that had been dug into it over the past six years. “It needs more people like you.”

Slowly and gingerly, I moved my finger to point at Alicia, acutely aware of how it was getting harder to stop it from shaking out of control. She frowned at my finger. “And it needs more people like you, princess. I may not agree with everything you’ve said, or done, but when I look at you now, I can see exactly what your father saw. You’re not all that innocent… but I can’t think of anyone better suited to turning this hellhole around.”

Alicia took hold of my shaking hand with both of hers and squeezed it tight. “But, I don’t know the first thing about ruling a country! And my people… they’d never accept the runt of the litter. They want war, and I can’t convince them otherwise. I wouldn’t know where to start…”

I choked out a short chuckle. “Then you make them see. You’ve got guts, princess… Alicia. You show those barbarians who’s boss. If all they respect is strength, you show them you’re the toughest one out there. And you’ll have Alverd to guide you. You’ll be alright.”

When I said that last bit, Alicia blushed. Her eyes flicked over to him for a second, and then back to me. “If-if you say so…” she muttered. “But you’ve got to be there too! When I build a statue to honor you two for everything you’ve done for the people of Ishmar, I’ll need your ugly mug to get the details right! So just hold on, okay?”

Alverd placed his hands over Alicia’s, and I could feel him squeeze, too.

“Kuro… you’re right. There have been times when we’ve argued over the best course of action, and there were times when I couldn’t understand why you’d try so hard to advocate looking out for ourselves. But the truth is, I need you as much as you need me.”

My turn to be shocked. Alverd kept talking. “I want to think that people are naturally decent, that everyone has the potential for good in them. Without you, Kuro, the world would have chewed me up and spit me out. You always knew to look beyond the surface, to find truth, to keep the two of us safe. And I… didn’t appreciate that as much as I should have. Or you.”

He took one of his hands and clapped it on my shoulder, not hard enough to jostle me, but firm enough to show he was serious. “I’m sorry I said those things to you, Kuro. Had I been more understanding, had I been more considerate, you would have never needed to walk the path you did. If you can forgive me all the hurtful things I’ve said… then I’d be happy to do the same for you. Friend.”

I squeezed my friends’ hands back as hard as I could. It was the best answer I could give.

And judging by their happy faces, it was more than enough for them. They were starting to convince me. Maybe it wasn’t time for me to go yet. If these two people wanted me to stay, a monster with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, then maybe there was still hope for me in the mortal world. Maybe a chance to find something to live for. To make a new family.

Hell, maybe even find a cute girl with red hair, a curvy figure, and abysmal judgment when it came to men.

I was about to try standing when we all heard the roar of a dragon. I looked towards the center of the arena, and saw Marcus and his two flanking riders had not fled as I had first suspected, but were now streaking towards us. In a minute, they’d be on us. All three of us looked at the coming riders with bated breath.

Then, I heard something else.

It was a groan, a grunting, of something in great pain. I looked past Alicia and Alverd in abject terror, and they turned around to see what I was seeing. Eliza, her teeth grit and her eyes almost bulging out of her skull, was trying to stand. Using her rapier to brace herself, the princess hauled herself to her feet, blood still flowing down her face, out her mouth and through the gaping hole in the mesh that the Sword of Evros had made. She found her balance, and, after leveling her rapier at us again.

“I won’t die…” Eliza murmured, her footwork becoming more solid and her sword arm steady. “Not until… not until…” Her mouth, that damnable mouth, quirked up again into that familiar, bone-chilling grin. “Not until… I kill you. Hahaha…hahaha…Ha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” No longer concerned with any inkling of sanity, she broke into a fit of murderous laughter as her soldiers inched forward, their spears still pointed straight at my friends.

Conventional thinking wasn’t going to work in this situation. Unfortunately, I only had one unconventional idea, and frankly, it wasn’t going to end well for anybody.

Especially for the mage.