I am going to die.

The captain moved so fast, realizing that was all I had time to do. I couldn’t fight and I couldn’t run. The blade would sink into my skull and I would die. I would not live long enough to know why the captain of the guards charged with protecting Erosette from me had killed me.

My aura, weak as it was, tried to flare out of me in an instinctual defense. There wasn’t enough. The void where my soul should be was too empty and my aura gave out before it could protect me.

The tip of the knife streaked towards my head. The moment before it ripped through my skin, it stopped dead in the air.

One hand on the hilt and the pommel, the captain glared at me with his steely gray eyes. With his blade so close to my skin I thought I could feel it, he spoke. “You’re not a sorceress are you, girl?”

“No.” I squeaked, too scared to shake my head.

“Ugi, you wouldn’t let her lie to me would you?” He grunted at Arthur.

Arthur, his face far enough away from the knife wielding old man that he could shake his head, answered as if nothing terrifying had just occurred. “No sir. She’s just a girl.”

“Good,” The captain sighed and relaxed. In one smooth movement, he withdrew the knife and flicked its tip back down into the worn wooden table. There were dozens of indentations in the table top that showed his sudden action was not the first time he had done something of the sort. “I’ve told you about messing around with sorceresses, they are nothing but trouble,” He pulled out five small dymes from the coin purse. Each was the size of my thumb nail and made of the same red metal as the one I had given him. He handed them to me with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, boss. That’s the best way to tell. If you were one of those damn women wearing magic on your face, your aura would have come out to protect you.”

It almost did. I thought. The only reason that everyone in Seven Columns did not know I was a sorceress was because I had lost touch with my aura. If I had been anything close to what I had been before my first punishment, there would have been nothing I could do.

“You don’t think there is a nicer way to do that,” Arthur asked the man and took the money from my hand. “I’ll hold onto these, that dress doesn’t look like it comes with pockets.”

“No,” The captain grunted. He used his hand to slowly lower himself back to his chair. “Starting on Patience's night, I had this same sorceress try to sneak in here and sign up for a week. She had pretty eyes, maroon, and she was nice enough, but if I let one in I’ll have to let them all play.”

There was something about the captain that I did not like. I couldn’t quite tell what it was. Other than the fact that he had nearly split my skull a few moments before, there was nothing evidently unpleasant about him. He was handsome, and his features made it impossible for me to guess his age. His hair was graying and he moved like an old man, but his eyes and face looked like he was not that much older than Arthur.

What is it? I wondered. When last he spoke, It was like the sound of his voice or the words that he said had soured in my mind.

“So, you’re Trea. You from around here? You know how to play?” The captain asked, taking a small sip from his bottle.

“She’s just visiting,” Arthur said, smiling and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “I don’t really remember where you said you're from though.”

The captain scowled up at the tall man. “You should treat the young lady with more respect than that, Ugi. She looks like she’s got quite the temper on her. I’ll be waiting patiently to-”

“I’m back again, Bry,” I heard a man’s voice say from right behind me. “This lot want to drink until my pockets are empty again.”

I stepped to the side and towards Arthur.

Four or five girls, their crimson half cloaks making it difficult to count, stood behind a pale faced man with eyes the color of blood. He removed his wide brimmed hat, ran a hand back over his black hair, and smiled a devilish smile. “None of them seem eager to stay in their dorms and study since she has been here.”

The captain took another, longer, drink before he responded. “My apologies ladies, she's been quick tempered since the day I met her. You and your, uhm. . . brother, will have tougher competition than you’re used to tonight.”

“I did not tell you that he was coming, how did you know?” The red eyed man asked with one of his eyebrows cocked up.

All these years and not once have you come to play and he hasn’t,” The captain turned to Arthur. “Ugi, this is Nocti. His, er. . . brother, is the reigning champion of my little tournaments.”

“Patience is coming?” One of the girls tugged on Nocti’s sleeve and asked.

“Patience is coming!” Another declared excitedly.

All of them started chattering amongst one another. Evidently, the fact that Patience was coming brought them the same amount of joy that being freed from my punishments would bring me.

I still wanted sandals like theirs, a pair for Anna and a pair for me.

“Look at this,” Nocti sighed and shook his head. “I’m the one who cooks for them, I’m the one who cleans for them, I’m the one who keeps watch over them while they sleep, and all they want to do is see Patience,” He stuck his hand out to Arthur. “It is nice to meet you, Ugi. And the only reason he is the champion is because I let him win. He is a terrible loser, like a spoiled child really.”

Arthur returned the handshake with his eyes wide. “Are the Nocti from Amoranora? You’re a vampire aren’t you? That’s the only way the story makes sense.”

“So this is the mortal you have taken under your wing,” Nocti laughed with a glance at the captain. “You shouldn’t put so much stock in stories, my friend. And who do we have here?”

Nocti turned his blood colored eyes to me.

“I’m Trea.” I muttered, unconsciously moving backwards until my back pressed into Arthur.

Lie.

He did not say it, but I could see that he had thought it. Nocti could see through my glamor. Atleast, that was the impression he had given me the first time I had met him. I had not been Trea then, I had been a blonde haired girl named Millieme. She hadn’t been wearing shoes and had scrapes and bruises all over her feet. He had known I wasn’t who I said I was then just as much as he knew I wasn’t whoever in the fuck Trea was.

All of the red cloaked underwitchs, students at whatever school I had stumbled into on Dreamtongue’s night, had started staring at me as well.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“It is nice to meet you, Trea,” He nodded to me before returning his eyes to Arthur. “A man your size, I think I would be a bit too fast for you to beat.”

“A man your size, I might knock you out of the ring the first time I hit you.” Arthur said with a smirk.

“Ooooh.” The underwitchs howled in unison.

Nocti glared down at them. “Stop that, you all are suppose to be on my side.”

The captain waved us off. “Go have a drink, Ugi. I’ll be sure and pair you two up first thing.”

“The bracket is supposed to be random, is it not?” Nocti asked.

Arthur led me away from the captains table and into the jubilant crowd before I could hear the answer. Groups of rosy cheeked men, drinks in hand all, laughed and spoke with impassioned tones. Several different couples of women, some young and some old, clung to each other in a way that I could only describe as romantic. Armor laden guards that were dressed differently than the manor guards I knew were littered throughout, each wearing calm and placid expressions.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Fortunately, the tall man that I was not on a date with did not have to walk through the crowd the way anyone else would. Every time we approached a place in the room that would have required us to slip between people or ask them to move for us, they would part in a rise of greetings. Arthur would return the pleasantries and I would follow in his wake before the tight packed crowd could close on the space it had made.

I had no idea where we were going exactly. My mind was too distracted for me to even think to ask. Nocti being able to see through my glamor was not what was troubling, he had seemed rather uninterested in it all things considered. The dislike I had felt for the captain shortly after meeting him had not had anything to do with the man. It had been because of something he said. Nocti and one of the underwitchs had said the same word. Only, it was not a word, it was a name.

Patience.

Even thinking his name was enough to make me feel like something bitter had been slipped into my mouth.

All I knew about him was that he was one of The Mother in Red’s lovers, just as Morrow, Galahad, Dreamtongue, Go, Adrian, and Nocti were. Unlike the first three, I had not been around to learn of Patience on his night of Amoranora. Azza had seen to that. He was also unlike the red eyed man that had an unfortunate tendency to run into me whenever I committed the crime of entering the city. I had met him.

How could someone I had never met make me feel so. . . conflicted? That might not have been the right word, but it was close enough. As strong as the bad feeling was when I heard his name, there was an equal desire to see his face. There was an interest that was beyond my curiosity about the rest of The Mother in Red’s lovers, and I did not understand why I felt anything at all.

Does not make sense. I thought to myself and shook my head

“-that’s about it, what do you want?” Arthur asked me, bringing me out of my thoughts.

The tall man had stopped walking and I had been so wrapped up in my mind, I had lost track of where we were going. We were no longer in the same room the captain had been in. Arthur was looking over his shoulder at me and a woman dressed like the guards had been on Galahad’s night was doing the same from her place behind a bar. Both of them seemed like they were waiting for me to speak.

“Uhm. . .” I started, trying to recall what had been said to me with no success.

Arthur nodded to himself. “Right. You haven’t heard a word I’ve said have you?”

“No.” I answered honestly, trying to look as pitiful as possible.

“She’ll have what I’m having,” Arthur said to the barmaid and slid two small dymes towards her across the bar before turning back to me. “Are you feeling alright? I know that crowds and stuff freak you out. We can go home if you want, I can always come back tomorrow.”

I thought he would be mad that I had not been listening to he is not concerned for my well being.

He was right however. The sheer amount of people that were packed into the room I hadn’t known I had entered was overwhelming. The patrons of Seven Columns all stood outside of the seven columns I could see in the center of the large room. Through the gaps in the crowd I could see a raised wooden platform that must be where the points tournament was set to take place. Everyone in the place looked happy and excited to be there, like a festive madness had taken them. Whether or not that was because of the games they were about to watch or the drinks they were all drinking, I did not know. It was a lot for me to handle. At times it felt like too much. Just like the night I had snuck in to the city the first time, I found myself feeling alive in the madness.

“Here you go,” Arthur smiled down at me and handed me a tall tankard full of some kind of liquid. “Try it, you’ll like it.”

My friend had been right about the bread wrapped meat, so the decision to trust his opinion on the drink was an easy one. It was cold and thick like milk. It went down sweet and smooth without leaving any kind of burn in my throat.

My eyes went wide as I drained the tankard. When I placed the empty vessel back on the bar and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, I looked up at Arthur. “Can I have another? What is it?”

“Yes, I don’t know what it is though. The first time I came down here with Woolie and Springer I asked for the sweetest drink they had and this is what they gave me. It’s good right?”

“Mhmm. Very good.” I nodded, searching for the barmaid. I had money. Well, Arthur had my money, but nonetheless I could afford another one of the drinks. That small power was in Arthur’s pocket and at my fingertips.

“They guards all make fun of me for drinking it. They tell me it’s a girl dr-” Arthur started.

“Ugi!” Someone called out.

“We were starting to wonder if you got lost.” Someone else added between hiccups.

Driskt and Daphne, the two guards that Arthur had said he was going to the city with, shambled over to us with big smiles on their faces.

I felt my cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. The last time I had seen the two men, they had seen me wearing nothing but my bandages. Azza’s punishment had left me in such a poor state, I had not even cared. Thankfully, my face did not look like my own and even if my blush did show through my glamor, it could be explained away as my cheeks warm from drinking.

The two of them looked remarkably similar. Both had dark hair and deep green eyes. They were each a head and a half shorter than Arthur, but were of the same height with one another. Had they always looked that way or was I much less perceptive than I thought I was?

“So this is who you snuck off to meet, eh? What happened to that blonde girl Springer told me about?” Driskt asked, looking at me and nudging Arthur in the ribs with his elbow.

“A different girl every night,” Daphne hiccuped. He tried to look at me but his eyes could not hold their focus for very long. “Your heart is still hurting because of little Aubr-”

Arthur cut him off suddenly. “How about I buy us all a round while we wait on the bracket? It’ll make you two feel better after I walk away with the purse tonight.”

“I knew I liked you, Ugi. I didn’t know why, but now I do.” Driskt laughed.

Arthur’s heart is hurting?

“We saw her not long after she got back,” Daphne’s mood seemed like it had soured in an instant. He spoke with his eyes cast down to the wooden floor underneath his boots. “She was wearing a necklace just like that,” He nodded in my general direction. “What they’re doing to her, The Mothers,” He hiccuped and took the tankard Arthur had offered him. “It’s not right.”

The crowd began moving all at once. I drained the second tankard of the cool, milky, drink that Arthur had bought me with my heart beating heavy in my chest.

A young boy who couldn’t have been more than six or seven had climbed up the back of the bar. His bare feet stepping carefully between the different colored bottles as he hauled himself up from shelf to shelf, he pulled a large piece of rolled paper from under his arm and spread it out. He pulled two small tacks from his mouth and pinned the paper to the wood of the shelf.

“First match tonight is Trea versus Nocti!” The boy leaned back and shouted, like a pirate hanging off a rope.

The crowd cheered at his announcement. The paper he had hung was filled with angular black lines and names, the bracket for that night's tournament.

“Damn, I thought I was gonna get to play him first,” Arthur sighed. “Oh well, I hope whoever he is fighting is good. I can figure out their strategy that way.”

The tall man looked down at me as he spoke, seemingly unaware that I was the person whose name just got called.

“Arthur?” I glared up at him.

“Yeah?” He grunted as he drank his tankard.

“I’m Trea.” I said flatly.

“Ugi! You don’t even know her name,” Driskt shouted and hit Arthur in the shoulder. “We taught you better than that.”

The boy cried out again. “Trea versus Nocti!”

Through the crowd, each of them looking around for me despite not knowing what I looked like, I could see the man with the blood red eyes waiting for me on the platform in the middle of the room.

“Get up there, the captain will disqualify you if you take too long.” Arthur said, putting his big hand on my back and giving me a little push.

Once I had been moved, everyone who had been standing around looking for me found me. An uncountable amount of eyes all watched as I walked to the platform and stood opposite my opponent.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” Nocti smiled. “If you tell me how to beat your friend, I will let you win.”

I took up a ready stance with my hand outstretched.

Nocti mirrored me in perfect time, like he knew what I was going to do before I had done it.

“Nocti! Nocti! Nocti!” The underwitchs the pale faced man had arrived with chanted from the side of the platform. Every single person had gathered around the platform and quietly waited for something to happen.

Arthur elbowed his way to the front of the crowd at my right. “It’s just like the other day, the match starts when one of you moves. Go for his chest, he looks slow.”

“Slow,” Nocti flicked his eyes to Arthur and made an ugly face. “I could beat you before you ever knew I moved.”

While he was distracted, I took two quick steps forward and pushed my two fingers towards his chest.

Arthur may have been right because my strike connected and the boy that was still hanging from the back of the bar shouted out the result. “Point, Trea!

The crowd broke into applause and cheers that filled the room.

“You didn’t even move!” One of the underwitchs cried out.

“How embarrassing!” Another added.

“Patience would have won!” A third declared.

Nocti sighed and muttered something I couldn't hear.

Before we reset, while I was still standing well inside his guard, I asked him a question that had come to my mind as soon as I had met his eyes.

“You know what I am, why have you not told?” The captain and him had seemed well beyond friendly. If sorceresses were not allowed to play and the red eyed man knew I was wearing glamor, wouldn’t he feel obligated to tell his friend that someone had slipped through his security measures?

Nocti smirked. “Because. . .”

He didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he looked up at the staircase that led down from the entrance room.

“Speak of the devil.” He said, still wearing his smirk.

“Patience!” All of the underwitchs called out at once.

Coming down the stairs and walking right up to the edge of the platform, a man so attractive the only word I could use to describe him was stunning, waved up at Nocti. “Do not mind me, I will not interrupt you while you are being defeated.”

A truth so overwhelming I could not ignore it became clear to me.

I needed to get as far away from Seven Columns as I possibly could because as soon as I saw the man known as Patience, I knew that I would either kill or kiss him.

There was no in between.