The festival grounds were unrecognizable as the evening began. The entrance to the grounds was now reinforced by a gate forged from solid metal, created by me and dad. While the walls were heightened further, and a moat was almost complete.

I was busy measuring up the different beast-kin for fitting their armors. They wouldn’t do any good if they weren’t the right size. “Hey Ashes, you heard the news?” I looked at Amber and cleaned some soot from my forehead. “What news?” Amber gestured for me to lean down as she began whispering. “The scouts report the army’s near, close enough to launch a night attack.” Oh. Well, that wasn’t good. “So, expect little to no sleep?” Amber nodded.

So, back to being sleep-deprived. Well, nothing to it. I grabbed the armor I was working on and threw myself back into the fitting process. “If so, I should hurry and get this done. Amber, could see if you could brew up some healing potions?” Amber took a few steps back and put her arms behind her head. “I’m way ahead of you, my entire portable lab’s a-brewing, and the Fizbottles are helping too. Thing is, my potions won’t be done for another hour, so I got nothing to do while I wait.”

Aha, so Amber just needed some way to get her mind off of the approaching army while the brewing finished. “In that case, mind doing the measurements? It would speed up things if I didn’t need to stop my forging every time someone else needs an armor.” Amber grabbed the measuring band and got to work without a word. “Thanks.” She shot me a quick smile, then went back to working on the line of volunteering Beast-Kin.

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“I’m surprised you’re still standing after spending all that time constantly casting.” I looked up from the book I was reading. Sarirrva handed me a goblet of wine and sat down beside me as I stared into the campfire. “You’re still thinking about those Arcanas, aren’t you?”

I took a sip, shot her a glance, then resumed looking into the fire. “That’s one of many things on my mind, alright. Pearl’s always had a knack for getting under my skin. She never sugarcoats it, harsh as it may be, but that makes her a tad off-putting and frustrating to deal with.” Sarirrva remained silent as she drank from her own cup.

I looked over at her for a moment, before breaking the silence. “You said you’d be willing to go through with it, but are you certain?” Sarirrva looked at me for a few seconds. Then smiled, a gesture that made her seem, strangely gentle. “There is nothing more attractive to a dragon than power, Mordred. To me, you are the most beautiful and powerful individual I could ever hope to encounter. I’m honestly shocked haven’t jumped at you already.” She moved closer and put her head on my shoulder. The gesture made me flinch for a moment, but ultimately, it was rather nice. I’d missed this feeling of closeness, but, the idea of loss had always gotten in the way.

I hesitated for a moment, then put my arm around her. She sighed and pressed closer. “We won’t have much time for this once the army arrives, so we might as well enjoy it now.” That was another thing. Large-scale warfare was rare. The sheer destructive power of trained war-mages ensured conflicts between countries or even local lords were settled in far less costly ways. In short, war-mages were considered. What did Pearl call them again? Ah, right. “Weapons of mass destruction.” I felt Sarirrva move beside me. “Hmm?”

I blinked. “Sorry, just thinking out loud. I was just contemplating the dangers posed should this army have any war-mages among their ranks. When we consider they have been observed using Void Magic, I shudder to think what madness a war-mage using such things might come up with.” I could feel Sarirrva tense slightly. “Hmm, that would indeed be a disaster for us if such a thing came to pass.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Well, either way, we will just have to deal with such an eventuality when the time comes.” I took another deep gulp from my cup and silently cursed my inability to get drunk as I did.

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I was getting there, but it was slow-going. Organizing this mess of fractured images and emotions into proper memories was a pain in the ass, but it got easier as it went. With every sequence restored, I could feel the cloud shudder, dissipate, and become less substantial.

What intrigued me, however, was the content of these memories. This explained a lot, but also raises the question of, why? I couldn’t make head or tails of it at all, and the only one I could ask wouldn’t be very talkative about the subject, not yet. “A parasite huh, makes sense, I suppose.” The memories were falling into place, but there was still a way to go before I could remove this very last bit of the void.

Honestly speaking, I couldn’t understand what grandfather was thinking when he created the void in such a manner. It was a shock to learn that the existence of all Everything of the Void was tied to the existence of the Void itself, and even he couldn’t undo that. Which meant that as long as the Void existed, Void Magic and Remnants would exist too because their existence was part of the Void itself.

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From a human perspective, such a thing might seem nonsensical and even stupid, but I couldn’t dismiss that Grandfather was likely influenced by his Portfolios when he did so. Heavens know my own made their presence known on several times over the last century. To put it into a way a mortal might have understood, it was like an itch, an itch that you couldn’t scratch and only got worse.

I shook my head out of my idle thoughts. I couldn’t afford to get distracted. This was taking long enough as it was. Now and then the whirling cloud of void energies would take some memories I finished organizing and scatter them again. This forced me to waste time putting the blown off pieces back together. This entire thing was almost like some super hardcore level puzzle.

Which, come to think of it, might be precisely what it was in the mind of its creator. A puzzle not meant to be solved. It was unfortunate for this puzzle maker I was neither mortal nor human. While others might have struggled, or even driven insane with this thing, my Sphinx instincts only saw patterns towards a solution, and I had kept those even after my apotheosis. The thing slowing me down was the sheer volume of memories to fit together combined with the memories deteriorating now and then.

It was almost like the memories of an entire lifetime were… shit. That was it, wasn’t it? If you looked at them from that perspective and took into consideration… I threw myself back into the deciphering. This was better than I hoped, but worse than I feared at the same time. I didn’t have time to waste here, I needed to finish up and get to where Keari and the others were. The longer I took, the greater the danger they would be in, and anyone else even remotely close to that army.

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“You’re frustrated.” I looked down at Shaluna. “That obvious?” She arched an eyebrow and glanced over at something behind me. “You’re not as stoic as you believe, at least not for those who know your tells.” I followed her gaze, my tail was whipping in an erratic pattern, beyond my control. “Good to know. Yes, I am frustrated. I wish I could go as well. However, Mistress is right, I have to consider my responsibility as an ally of the wood elves.” Having half my army march off to aid the beast-kin without me was frustrating, but, there was no guarantee there wasn’t another force out there, hidden away.

Just then the door opened, and the queen entered. “Ah, King Minos, just the one I was looking for.” She shot us both a warm smile. “I’ve thought about the discussion we had with her Divine Ladyship Labyrinthia, as well as the danger currently befalling our neighbors to the north.” My ears twitched, as this sounded interesting. “Oh, and what paths have your thoughts wondered if you don’t mind me asking?”

The queen took a deep breath. “The elves of Ondul are mobilizing. We will march to the aid of our northern neighbors, and as their queen I will be joining them. Since the army will be on the march, the civilian population are evacuating via [Woodwalk] to the nearest wood elf settlement as we speak.” I grinned, Milady must have foreseen this. Why else would she order me to stay close to the queen until this is all over?

Well, I wasn’t about to disobey Milady, and since the queen was going to go… She seemed amused as she looked up at me. “So, how fast can you mobilize the rest of your soldiers?” I jumped to my feet, an act that shook the room slightly. After a few moments of awkward silence, I hurried towards the door, Shaluna hot on my heels. “Half an hour, if that much. Provided I hurry, so you will have to excuse me, your highness.” I didn’t hear her response, but I could catch what might have been an amused laugh. I didn’t care though, I would finally see some real action after so long.

The arena was fine to let off some steam, but it just wasn’t the same. Arena combat lacked the… savagery of real combat. Being all organized and pretty it was more theatrics than real fighting. However, real battle, against a foe on the battlefield now that’s where it was at, no rules, no judges, just you and your enemies locked in bloody combat to the death.

I felt Shaluna grab my arm. “Mind slowing down a bit, I can barely keep up!” I looked down at her, then scooped her up in my arms. “Oh, I’m not slowing down at all, but I can certainly make you more comfortable.” I sped up further, while carrying Shaluna like a bride in my arms. Hmm, bride…

I looked down at her, then thought back to Milady’s comments. Yes, it might be worth thinking about, but I should consider it after this mess was dealt with. That thought gave me pause for a moment. This was the first time I considered doing something for myself, just myself without a benefit for the city or Milady. It felt… nice. “Is something wrong? You look so serious.” I hesitated for a moment.

“Just thinking about the future and what it might hold for us. However, to not tempt fate I’ve postponed further thoughts on the matter until after we have kicked those invaders back where we came from.” I saw Shaluna tense up for a moment, It didn’t last long, but for an instant, she looked terrified and vulnerable, as if even the slightest breeze could shatter her into pieces from fear of being abandoned. I slowed down and pulled her into a gentle and loving embrace. As I did, I noticed she was shivering.

“There is no need to worry, it was happy thoughts, the grim expression was my annoyance that something forced me to put it aside.” Her shivers slowly stopped, then she embraced me back. We stood there like that for a while, just the two of us. The solders could wait, this moment was ours, and ours alone. A few minutes more wouldn’t matter in the long run. The only thing that mattered at this moment was Shaluna. Not even Milady mattered to me in this one instant, a revelation that was shocking but just didn’t matter.

Was this what in meant to love someone? If so, I could understand why Milady wanted me to experience it. To live for something other than just my loyalty. And Milady was obviously eager for me to learn to live for myself. To have an actual life outside of being a servant. If this was part of it, then I would embrace it without hesitation. The dawning understanding of what Milady wished for me to know was a most welcome revelation.

To live, to truly live, you needed someone to love with all your heart. I was certain this warm fuzzy feeling I was enjoying was it. And if anyone, even Milady, tried to harm Shaluna, I would strike them down without hesitation. No, not Milady, considering she was all for me becoming more independent, more… Me.