I woke up early the next morning and carefully slipped out of bed. I figured this was the only chance I was going to get to work on the repairs that my armor needed. I had put it off for too long already, and my search for appropriate tools had been fruitless. I was going to have to rely on my own Presence to do the delicate work, as if sewing the thick material wasn't going to be time consuming on its own.

I opened my bag of holding and took out the things I had purchased in the capital city at the tailor shop and put them on the table, then picked up my uniform top. It was still quite heavy, and I couldn't turn it on, since I was going to work on the wires that had been cut. I sat down on a chair and held in my sigh as I unhooked my father's Light sword from my belt. I held it in my hands and stared at it for several moments, then nodded.

Killing a dragon was a fitting final act for your weapon, father. I thought and used Presence to remove the screws and rivets in the casing. It was quite a bit more difficult than it should have been, and I remembered that I should be using mana... then ignored that thought. I had no idea what effect mana would have while I worked on electronics, so I used Presence only. Once all the screws and rivets were removed, I pulled the Light sword apart with Presence. The sight made me remember tearing up a droid to make my very first Light sword. I would love to have a fully functioning droid right now.

I put the lenses aside and looked at the various internal components. I was really regretting leaving my electronics toolkit in the backpack and hadn't had it in my pocket, because I wasn't going to be able to completely harvest the wires that attached the components together like I could have. Without melting them off with the soldering iron, I would have to use Presence to sever them as close to the contact points as possible, which meant the wires would be that much shorter on both ends.

I quickly checked the elbow of the uniform and saw that it was a clean slice through the fabric and the wires that connected the plates together hadn't been pulled out, only severed. I was going to have to patch them with smaller bits of wire to give it a little slack and then tuck it back into the seam before sewing it back together. Unfortunately, that was going to be the easy part.

I looked at the hole in the front of the uniform where Kara's Light sword had gone through, and the whole section of wires between two metal plates had been burned away by the Light sword's energy. The back was worse, because the angle of her sword had gone through two sets of wires and had eaten those away as well. I stopped my sigh before it escaped and counted the pieces of wire I was going to need. I looked back at the Light sword and counted the wires.

If I'm lucky, I can split them in half and have them work. I thought. It's going to mean a lot of exposed wires, though.

I sat there and thought about how I was going to do it, then I had an idea. I concentrated on one of the wires in the Light sword and specifically its coating, then I used Presence to slowly move it back and exposed part of the wire. There wasn't much slack in it, though. I used another bit of Presence to create a blade and severed the wire just before the contact point, let the coating go and it covered the wire end, then I did the same thing at the other end of the wire.

This... might just work. I thought and picked up the harvested wire that had extra coating on it. For the next half an hour, I slowly cannibalized all of the wires out of the Light sword and spliced them into the damaged areas on my armored uniform. Thanks to moving the coating out of the way each time I cut the wires, there was enough coating to cover the spots that I had used Presence to intertwine the wires together. It wasn't perfect, since the cut was there, so I used one of the leather working tools to shim a thin piece of leather off of the scraps I had and sewed it around the repairs, just in case.

I took the battery pack from the Light sword and hooked it up to the batteries in the armor's shoulder pads to let them charge up. There wasn't much energy left in the armor, considering how much I had used it while it was damaged, and it drained the Light sword's battery in only a few minutes.

By that time, I had successfully done a horrible sewing job on the elbow of the uniform and attached a thin strip of thick leather to cover the cut and hold it together. It was the only way, unless I wanted to shorten that arm slightly to get the fabric close enough to sew it, and I wasn't going to give up the coverage at my wrist for that. Plus, it would probably hang wrong on my arm and not be comfortable.

I disconnected the dead battery from the armor and looked at the regulating component for the focusing crystal. I'll play with that later. I thought and got back to work on sewing large ugly patches of thick leather over the holes Kara's Light sword had made in the front and back of my uniform. Unlike what people may think, even with the proper tools, I still made a complete mess of it. I had trimmed the leather piece on the wrong side and sewed it to the uniform, which made the cloth bulge out and distorted the shape of the metal plates.

I grit my teeth and had to cut the thing off, flipped it over, then sewed it back on again. It hung properly this time; but, since I had used the same holes as before, the piece was slightly loose and I could move it, even though I had pulled the thick thread tightly and tied it off at each hole. I shook my head and cut the threads to remove the piece and tossed it aside. I took several breaths and used a mental technique to remain calm, then I started over with a new piece of thick leather.

*

Maylia had woken when Hunter had left the bed; but, she didn't let on that she had. She kept her eyes closed and watched what he was doing with curiosity. When he took out the ancient artifact, her interest heightened, then she almost gasped as the thing opened up and floated apart without him touching it or using a Mana Presence Hand. She used the mental technique that Hunter had taught her to remain calm and kept observing. She had no idea what all those little things were that he was taking from the ancient artifact; but, he was putting them into his armor and that shocked her.

Her motherly instincts kicked in when Hunter started to sew his uniform. She almost hopped out of bed to take it from him so that it could be done properly, then she squashed that impulse and stayed in bed to watch him. Her heart went out to him as he made mistake after mistake, and the urge to go and help him was so strong that she opened her eyes and sat up. With the better vantage point, she saw him take the bad leather patch off completely and toss it aside, then he started over. She laid back down and closed her eyes, because if she interfered now, he would probably stop and wouldn't finish.

Maylia laid there and watched him, his mistakes and his successes, and she couldn't help herself and she smiled. She had never seen a man work so hard to get something right before, and as she watched him, his own smile appeared as he worked and she knew that letting him work it out for himself had been the best course of action to take, despite her desire to help him in all things.

She felt something warm start to build up inside of her, and she recognized it as part of Hunter's private lessons. That surprised her, considering it had been a few days since the last time he had tried to teach her those things. She became warmer at that thought, and she had to use the calming technique again to stop her thoughts from reliving one of his lessons. She took in a shallow breath and let it out, then let her body relax and kept watching the man that she had devoted herself to.

*

Allirynn woke up and looked at the woman he held in his arms. They had undressed and taken a bath, then put on proper sleeping clothes for the first time since they had been attacked. He had surprisingly slept well, and he wasn't sure why the weight he felt over the death of his friends had eased slightly the night before. He only knew that it was after he had talked to Hunter and had made his pledge. He noticed that Imiryl hadn't cried as much before falling asleep, either.

He admired her strength and her resolve, and he treasured the fact that she had survived and they could get through their despair together. If it had only been him, he wasn't sure if he would have gotten over losing them all, so he clung to her as tightly as he could. He would give up everything he was to make sure that she lived, and he was pretty sure that she would do the same thing for him.

*

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Evus the guard had tried to gallantly sleep on the floor so that Diofra the mage could have the large bed all to herself. She had vehemently denied his request for a spare blanket and told him that if he wanted to sleep on the floor like an animal, then he didn't need a blanket. If he wanted to sleep like a normal man, then he could get changed and climb into the bed with her. She claimed that there was plenty of room and she had climbed onto her side after changing into a fancy nightgown in the bathroom.

Evus had sighed and took off his armor and changed in the bathroom as well, because it was definitely too cold to sleep on the floor without a blanket, then he climbed into the other side of the bed and stayed as far away from her as possible. They both slept through the night and woke up early the next morning.

“This doesn't make us a couple.” Diofra said. “We only shared a bed and not each other.”

“I'm pretty sure that just the implication that we went to bed together is going to make people talk.” Evus responded.

“What do you mean?” Diofra asked, surprised.

“Everyone in the inn's lobby last night saw me come up here with a woman. They are going to assume we spent the night together... and we did.” Evus said.

“We. Were. Only. Sleeping.” Diofra said pointedly and sat up to glare at him.

“Of course we were.” Evus said. “No one else but us is going to believe that, though.”

Diofra looked angry for a moment, then she sighed. “It shouldn't matter what people think.”

Evus chuckled. “If only that were true.” He said and sat up as well. “Before we get out of bed, I just want you to know something.”

“What's that?”

“I still respect you, even though you slept with a stranger last night.” Evus said with a huge smile.

Diofra's face lost all expression as she sighed. “Do you really?”

Evus reached out and touched her arm briefly. “I appreciate that you took the chance to sully your virtue, just so I could have a comfortable night's sleep in the same bed with you.”

“I wasn't thinking that far ahead and what it would mean.” Diofra said, a little sadly.

“I'll take the blame for this, if it ever comes up.” Evus said. “I won't tell anyone that it was your idea.”

“You're going to guard my virtue?” Diofra asked.

“If all we ever do is sleep, then yes.” Evus teased. “I am a royal guard, after all.”

Diofra looked at his face for a moment, then nodded. “We should get dressed.”

“What for?” Evus asked. “Breakfast won't be for a while yet.”

“Are you suggesting we stay in bed?” Diofra asked, surprised.

“Unless you want to do something else.” Evus asked and gave her another huge smile.

“Are you going to keep saying things like that?” Diofra asked.

“Not in public.” Evus laid back down. “This is private between us and no one's business but ours.”

Diofra nodded and laid back down as she pulled the blanket up to her neck. They were both silent for several minutes before Evus spoke.

“Can I compliment you without you getting angry?” Evus asked.

“It depends on the compliment.” Diofra said without any inflection in the tone of her voice.

“You're the first woman I've seen wearing a nightgown like that.” Evus said without looking at her. “It's really nice.”

“Th-thank you.” Diofra said, and accepted the compliment graciously. She might have hollered and yelled if he had said something lewd about her body, as she had fully expected him to, and she had been pleasantly surprised that he complimented her clothing instead.

They laid in bed, together and separate, and waited for breakfast to be served.

*

Steven woke up in the cell with the lamia and he wasn't surprised that she had wrapped her lower half around him again. The cells weren't quite cold; but, they weren't quite warm, either. He knew she needed the extra body heat and he never objected to her whenever she used him like a personal heater. Siada had pressed her upper half onto him as well and hugged him tightly, as if she could coax even more heat out of him, and he held in his laugh at the thought.

Under the right conditions, being in jail isn't so bad. Steven thought, then he heard the dungeon door as it opened and the rattle of keys. He listened as the footsteps came closer, and then a face appeared in the little window of the door.

“I've got breakfast for you.” The guard said. “I'm still only allowed to bring one tray.”

“That's fine.” Steven said.

The guard unlocked and opened the cell door and walked in with the food tray and Steven saw that it was overloaded with food.

“Thanks a lot.” Steven said and the guard nodded and left. “You can stop pretending to be asleep.”

Siada moved her hands slightly and lifted her head from his chest to look into his eyes.

“Yes, I can tell when you're faking it.”

Siada sighed and Steven chuckled.

“I'm not trying to discourage you, I'm just letting you know that you don't have to fake it.” Steven said. “Do you feel up to eating?”

Siada nodded, so they got up and shared breakfast. When they were done, Steven sat down on the bunk and Siada slithered onto the bunk beside him. She twisted her tail around one of his legs, tapped his chest, then pointed out the door.

“No. I'm staying right here.” Steven said and she squinted her eyes at him. “Don't give me that look.”

Siada sighed and Steven put an arm over her shoulder.

“I'm sure this is all going to be cleared up as soon as possible.” Steven said. “I'm going to stay with you until it is.”

Siada mimed a blade across her throat, and it was his turn to sigh.

“Look, I'll do everything I can to stop them from killing you.” Steven said. “I'll plead, beg, and even fight if I have to.”

Siada shook her head no.

“You can't talk to defend yourself, Siada. I'm not going to let them persecute you when you can't even defend yourself.” Steven said, and she hissed at him. “I meant verbally.”

Siada nodded and they sat in silence while they waited to see what her fate was going to be.

*

The captain of the guard informed Queen Celestina of his and his wife's insights that they had the night before, and she had to go over everything the emissaries had said and done since they had arrived. Unfortunately, those insights seemed to fit the evidence and the queen sighed.

“I had expected seasoned veterans, like all of the others that had been brought here.” The queen said.

“As had I.” The captain said. “Are you sure that Hunter is their chosen hero?”

The queen squinted her eyes at him, and he held his hands up in surrender.

“I meant that he acts completely different from them, not that your ability might be wrong.”

The queen nodded. “Yes, he seems to be... more...”

“No need for more adjectives, your majesty.” The captain said and smiled. “More is enough.”

The queen let a small smile touch her lips, then it disappeared. “I'll need to arrange for some... special schooling... for the Emissaries of Light.” She said. “Their behaviour has been favorable for the most part, except when it comes to caring for others besides themselves.”

“It seems like they don't care what happens to the people when their attention can't be diverted from a task their goddess assigns them.” The captain said. “At least, that's what I've heard from a few reliable sources.”

“The driver and the guide?” The queen asked with a knowing look, and he laughed.

“I sometimes forget how good your own information gathering skills are.”

The queen nodded. “I've observed the archmage a few times now, and it's not that they don't care. They just are not as concerned when it comes to the welfare of others.”

“Will you be teaching them?” The captain asked, and she shook her head.

“No, I will leave that in the hands of a more qualified teacher. She will inform them of their lack of certain skills and will correct that failure.” The queen said. “I know you're busy, so I should thank you now for coming to see me so early.”

“I do need to go.” The captain said. “Have a good day, your majesty.”

“Oh, I will.” The queen said and let a smile touch her lips again.

*

Kara and the others were woken up and given breakfast fairly quickly, then the emissaries were asked to go to a certain room in the castle. Evangeline and Aimee were asked to go about their business while the emissaries were busy with a task that the queen needed them to do. When Kara, Josh, and Jessica stepped inside the room, it changed from one with only a few chairs and a table, to that of a traditional classroom.

“What's going on?” Josh asked and looked around.

“I don't know.” Jessica said and touched one of the desks. “It feels real.”

“It's a simple transmogrification spell.” A woman's haughty voice said from behind them. Josh and Jessica jumped a little at the scare and whirled around to look; but, Kara just turned and looked normally. A very well-dressed woman stood in the doorway, and Kara couldn't detect her. At all.

“Who are you?” Kara asked.

“For the next few days, I am going to be your teacher.” The woman said.

“What for?” Josh asked, surprised.

“We will get to that in a moment.” She said. “Please sit down so we can get started.”

Josh and Jessica exchanged glances and looked back at her.

The woman's haughty voice became sharp as a whip when she spoke. “Shall I make it an order?”

Jessica was confused about the woman's behaviour. “Ma'am, you do realize that we are the Emissaries of Light, don't you?”

“Oh, I know who you are, archmage.” The woman said with squinted eyes. “The three of you. Sit. Down.”

Jessica, Josh, and Kara were surprised when they were overcome with the urgent need to sit immediately, and they sat at the closest desks.

“Wh-what was that?” Jessica gasped.

“You people are not the only ones around here with special abilities.” The woman said, her voice full of derision. “Did you think you were?”

“No, but...”

“You believe you are better than everyone else, just because you have been summoned?” The woman snapped. “Well, I have some startling news for you. You are not.” She said. “That is one thing you will need to learn as soon as possible.”

“Hey, we're only here to...” Josh started to say.

“Quiet.” The woman said, and his mouth snapped shut. “You will sit there and you will listen. Speak only when spoken to. Give concise answers when asked a question, and do not elaborate unless invited to.”

Layer upon layer of restrictions kept the three of them in their seats and quiet, and the woman smiled.

“Let this in and of itself be a lesson for you.” She said. “There will always be someone more powerful than you.”

The three of them stared at her and didn't respond, because they couldn't. She hadn't asked a question or invited them to speak.

“Now, let's get started.” The woman said and walked to the front of the classroom and began the lesson.