I woke the next day feeling no more at ease than the night before, and the crystal in my pocket certainly contributed to that.

There was no time to do a more in depth analysis of the crystal. I was barely out of bed when a knock came at the door. A maid announced herself and bowed deeply as she informed me that Princess Alicia requested our presence for breakfast and for “preparations”. Alverd clumsily tumbled out of his own bed, his foot catching on the sheet as he yawned loudly. The maid didn’t seem all that disturbed by our state of disarray, and left after she gave us the message. We quickly changed into our clothes; I slipped on my robe and helped Alverd into his armor. I made sure to grab my staff on the way out the door, checking to make sure the crystal was secure in my pocket. After being certain there was no risk of it falling out, Alverd and I made our way to the Castle’s dining hall.

The dining hall was evidently reserved for the exclusive use of the royal family because it was extravagant to the extreme. Gaudy marble sculptures of previous rulers stood at the base of every pillar. The stone floor had been filed down until it was smooth unlike other parts of the Castle. A forty-by-ten foot table dominated the center of the room with a line of butlers and maid staff standing at attention as Alicia tapped her fingers on the table.

She was seated in a resplendent wooden chair carved from wood that must have been from the more verdant parts of the country. Already dressed in her customary leather armor and with her maul leaning against the chair; she looked all the more intimidating as she drummed her fingernails. I guess the only thing scarier than a barbarian was a hangry barbarian.

Alverd and I took our seats opposite the table from her, and no sooner had we been seated when the maid staff swooped down and fixed a set of napkins around our necks, stepping away with their work complete in a matter of seconds. Another set of maids placed covered plates before the three of us, lifting the covers so we could see what had been prepared.

There was an impressive amount of breakfast meats, including eggs, sausage, and even bacon. I started shoveling the food into my mouth because I was starving and needed to distract myself from thinking about the crystal still in my pocket. We sat in silence for most of our meal.

Alicia didn’t use her bare hands to eat like I suspected all Ishmarians did, but she wasn’t exactly cultured in the way she wielded her dining implements. She also plowed right through her food in the space of minutes, showing atrocious table manners the entire time from having her elbows on the table to wiping her mouth with her arm. Alverd took his sweet time using his knife and fork to eat, so he was the last of us to finish his food.

As Alverd leaned back from his empty plate, I noticed Alicia staring at me pointedly as she awkwardly scraped at her teeth with her fingernail in the hopes of trying to dislodge something stuck in them. I frowned, mostly from disgust.

“You look like you want to ask me something, Princess. Just ask me. I’m a big boy, I can take it.” Alicia snorted, but she didn’t seem too miffed by my attempt at sarcasm.

Instead, she asked me a rather innocent question. “What happened during the ball? How come you passed out after you hit Marcus with that lightning bolt? Is that normal for mages?” I started to give a sarcastic reply, but when I saw the earnest look of concern on her face, I stopped myself. I gave her the truth.

“Mages need their staves to cast magic effectively, and that trying to do so without one was literally playing with forces we can’t control. I risked death to save Alverd.”

Alverd looked troubled when I brought it up.

“Kuro, I could have handled the Prince. I knew enough about his nature to know that he would resort to some unsportsmanlike conduct. You needn’t take your life into your own hands to save mine.” I wondered if he realized that he did the same for me on a regular basis. I decided not to argue the point because Alicia was still waiting for me to answer her questions.

“The spell I used was not quite as dangerous as others. Because I relied on an outside source, the electric charge in the air instead of the bioelectric impulses in my body, the backlash had been significantly reduced. I expelled the energy before it had time to gain enough magical mass to draw upon the electricity in my body.”

Alicia didn’t quite grasp the magical theory behind my explanation, because she blinked several times with a very blank look on her face. I sighed, then picked up a fork.

“Why do we cook food on sticks? Because it’s too hot to hold meat to a fire long enough to cook it. Same for eating it. If you tried to hold your food after cooking it, you’d just burn your hand. The way I use my staff is kind of like how we use forks and spits.” I speared one last piece of sausage on the fork then hovered it in front of my face.

“No need for me to endanger myself when I can use a tool to prevent myself from getting hurt. But on the night of the Ball, I didn’t have that tool; my staff. So I had to do the magical equivalent of cooking meat without something to roast it on. If I wasn’t careful, I ran the risk of burning myself…and potentially others, too.” A gross and childish oversimplification, but then again I was explaining a concept that was utterly foreign to Alicia so there was no helping it.

Apparently the metaphor was enough, as Alicia nodded in amazement. “Wow. You must have been quite a powerful mage back home, Kuro. To understand so much and make such a call on such short notice.” She folded her hands in her lap pensively.

I looked down at my feet miserably. My turn to be embarrassed. “Actually, the truth of the matter is… I’m only still at apprentice-level.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Apprentice? So you’re still a learner?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I was all set to take the final trials necessary to become a fully-fledged mage, and then I would have gained the right to carve my own staff in recognition of my status. The trial is different for every mage, since our instructors usually take a close hand in educating us. So they usually tailor each individual trial to suit each mage. But why am I telling you this? I’m violating Rule Six.”

Alicia tilted her head again. “Rule Six? Of what?”

Alverd spoke up. “He’s talking about the Cardinal Rules of Being a Mercenary. It’s just a set of silly rules Kuro came up with over the last five years. For him, Rule Six is ‘your history is not someone else’s problem.’ It’s a crude way of saying that other people should mind their own business instead of prying. But I suspect he’s trying to be rude, and sneaky about it to boot.” He fixed me with his disapproving scowl.

I had to bite back a curse. “Alright, alright. Maybe it was kind of rude. But I still think it’s kind of pointless… ”

She was quiet for a moment. “I can sort of understand that. I don’t really believe in that, though. Here in Ishmar, we can’t escape what people say about us because most of the things people say are true. We are barbarians. We pillage, plunder, and destroy what isn’t ours. I told you about the child hunts. We deserve our reputation.” She lifted her head. “I’ve always wondered why it had to be that way, though. I can’t help but imagine what we could be if we could use magic, not to put down others but to enrich our own lives. How many of my subjects would recover from injuries if we had magic to heal them, instead of herbs and bandages? How many more crops could we grow if mages could use their magic to enhance the harvest?” She crossed her right leg over her left as she looked at me.

“It’s how it’s been for as long as anyone can remember. Ishmar was founded hundreds of years ago on the principle that magic was a scourge, and that’s why we’ve always treated it as such.” She fell silent again. A moment later, she worked up her nerve and spoke. “Back when you were first taken to my father, I remember the two of you behaved a bit oddly. I could see it in your faces.” She leaned forward. “What do the two of you have against my father?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

There was silence for a moment. It was a very obvious question for her to ask with a very obvious answer. However, I knew the reason she was asking; any person from Marevar had legitimate issues with the King of Ishmar, but she wanted to know why we personally wanted him dead. I glanced at Alverd, insinuating that I expected him to answer for me.

He picked up on it right away. “We lost friends and family in that war, our home. When we learned about the betrayals by Guilford and Kiret that allowed our country to be taken, it made the whole thing hit harder. Betrayal is really the only word for it, and it doesn’t go far enough to describe the cowardice displayed by those countries.”

The diminutive Princess shrunk in her chair. “I’m sorry… this can’t be easy for you, explaining this all to me.”

Alverd grimaced slightly. “How could you? It’s not like we told you. You needn’t worry, Princess. It wasn’t your fault.” I wrung my hands uncomfortably, then pitched in.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we blame you personally.” Alverd gave me a reproachful glance, and I tried to give him a nonverbal cue that indicated that I didn’t mean anything by my comment. I don’t think it worked, though.

Another moment of awkward silence passed before Alicia spoke again. “Would you mind walking me through it?” I nodded, folding my hands together as I rested my elbows on the table.

I knew exactly where to start.

“Five years ago, the Kingdom of Ishmar invaded Marevar from the north. We lost contact with two cities in the north. Our so-called allies in Guilford claimed nothing was wrong, and that they would send soldiers to aid us in our efforts to find out what had happened to the two cities. We sent a small army north headed by Alverd’s mentor, Sir Chandler, Knight-Commander of Marevar.” I shifted my weight. “No one ever came back. Alverd and I didn’t find out until later that Guilford had sold us out in exchange for a vast sum of gold and some of the territory Ishmar conquered. Anyway, the citizens in the capital, Irinholm, feared that something terrible had happened. They mustered as many soldiers as they could, thinking that we could wait out whatever was coming. ”

Alverd picked up for me. “The dragon riders came, chasing what remained of the soldiers we’d sent to find out the fates of our northern cities. We watched in horror as they toyed with the men, swooping over them, and killing them one by one. In the end, the dragon riders flew off where they’d come, and not even ash remained of the brave knights who had been dispatched.”

I saw Alverd clench his fist. “They came in force two days later. A sea of soldiers in black armor, hordes of dragon riders blocking out the sky like locusts, all come to destroy us. We stood no chance. The dragons flew over our defenses and destroyed what few weapons we had. Arbalests, trebuchets, they were all razed before they could be utilized. When the Ishmarians broke down the front gate with their battering ram, we had nothing left to stop them.”

I took the responsibility of explaining the next part. “We lost a lot of people who were close to us. Parents, friends, mentors. Alverd and I barely escaped with our lives… and that came at a huge cost. We were lucky, I guess. We ran as fast as we could. The Ishmarians took their time securing Irinholm. By the time we heard that they were moving to conquer the rest of the country, we’d made it south to Elorik where the Margloomian Forgeborn Army had set up a refugee zone. We didn’t learn about Guilford’s betrayal until some time later.”

I scowled as our sorry tale came to a close. “We were just a bunch of quiet, happy farmers who never bothered anyone. But you dragon riders swept down from the sky and took our land for themselves. And your father? He was responsible for it.”

Alverd glared at me harshly, but Alicia nodded her head in agreement.

“My father did do something terrible. He razed Marevar to the ground and I did not know why, nor did I ever care to learn. But after that, he seemed… different. I don’t know. He began to dote on me more in little ways so my other siblings wouldn’t notice. Most of them didn’t, and the ones who did didn’t really care all that much. Something about what we did to Marevar changed him. I’m not entirely sure why…”

She took a moment for herself before she continued. “Father oversaw my induction into special martial training, he made sure I was excelling in my political studies, he even made sure I knew diplomacy… I wasn’t sure what he was doing; he kept pushing me to be… something more. But at the same time, I saw a side to him that I’d never seen before. He was not a leader, but a father.”

Alicia picked up her fork and started twirling it absent-mindedly. There wasn’t anything else to talk about. At least, nothing that wouldn’t reopen more old wounds.

“Are you two going to try and kill Father?” I noticed all of the maids narrow their eyes, and that’s when I noticed something. The gleam of metal in each of their sleeves. These were not maids. Dressed like them, maybe, but certainly not simple servants. My blood ran cold as I made the realization.

We’d spent the entire morning talking about borderline seditious things in front of a group of assassins.

Alicia must have noticed my face blanching and she waved her hand. The “maids” bowed and stepped away from the table. “You needn’t be afraid. They’re just bodyguards. They won’t tell my Father anything I don’t want them to. They’re only here for my own protection. I knew this wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation, and I just wanted to be careful.”

I’ll admit, I had not expected to be so easily outmaneuvered by Alicia. She didn’t show the kind of cutthroat cunning I expected from a hardened killer, and that was probably why I’d underestimated her. But I was definitely going to be more careful in the future. As the maids stepped back, I saw Alverd subtly relax his shoulders. He’d been just as on edge as me.

Alicia sighed, and returned to her question. “What will you do in regards to my father?”

Neither of us had an answer for that, everything was so complicated. My life had been spared and then saved by the daughter of the man who had destroyed everything I had ever loved? Even with my gray outlook on life, I didn’t know where I stood on that front. As far as I was concerned, it had contributed significantly in turning me into the jaded, pessimistic person I was today. It made me a bitter human being by hitting me with the revelation that happiness was fleeting. I was consumed by a desire for revenge, and I didn’t care how it started or ended so long as the Ishmarians paid for their arrogance.

And Alverd, he had even more reason than me to kill the old King. All I’d lost paled in comparison to his. In less than a week, he had lost his teacher, his parents, his home, his childhood friend, his childhood, and his dreams of being a proper knight. As a knight-prospect of Marevar, he was honor-bound to avenge the death of his liege and the countless innocent people who had been killed during the invasion. For him to sit here calm and collected while I told Alicia everything about our sordid pasts was a testament to his incredible patience.

He sighed. “It isn’t something that can be settled so easily, Princess. I’m sure your father does love you, but the fact remains that he is responsible for killing so many of our brethren. If it comes to it, I am not sure if I could allow such a transgression to pass.” He stood up, and tucked his chair back to the table. “Perhaps it is not my fate to end your father’s life. But many of our friends would certainly rest easier if I did so.”

Alicia cast her gaze downward, frowning. “It’s so hard for me to imagine that my Father could allow such a thing. I was younger then. Had I been old enough, I might have joined my siblings in the attack. That invasion was how my siblings tasted blood for the first time. You’ve seen Elijah and how quick he is to resort to violence. I cannot apologize on their behalf. I doubt you’d even accept it.”

“I also want to apologize again if I’ve treated you poorly. That’s my own fault, and the fault of others. I have trouble trusting people. A lot of people who said that they had my best interests in mind have proven to be false friends. I’ve made a habit of pushing people away by making myself hard to be around. I figured eventually they’d see me as unworthy of their time and they’d leave me be. At first, I thought you two might be the same. I honestly don’t think you two are like that, now that I’ve been able to see who you really are.”

She looked over at Alverd. “You really are the kind of person to stake your life for honor, for your friend. You can be trusted, especially when your back is against a wall.” Then her eyes met mine. “And you? You didn’t care that revealing your powers would make you a dead man. All you cared about was Alverd’s safety. That says a lot, really.” She smiled at me again.

My cheeks burned a bit. I wasn’t sure how to take praise from Alicia. Even if she was being honest with us, I was still plenty bitter about the situation. A horrid little philosophical debate was going on in my head about whether one good person in a crowd of bad made up for the lot. Logically, I wanted to try and realize that Alicia wasn’t like the rest on parchment, but emotionally, I thought she was guilty simply for being born the daughter of a murderer.

Quiet reigned in the hall. I saw Alverd’s mouth move, possibly to say something, but he closed it before he could. I broke the awkward silence.

“Rule Ten, Alverd?” My old friend nodded his head, glumly. Alicia looked in confusion from me to Alverd. She didn’t know about the Tenth Cardinal Rule of Being a Mercenary, and I didn’t feel the need to educate her.

Alicia stood up from her chair and motioned for the bodyguards to leave. They did so, albeit reluctantly. Perhaps a little desperately, she looked at Alverd with a pleading look, as if expecting him to explain Rule Ten to her. I overheard him whisper to her “I’ll tell you them later.”