I stepped through into a city. It was massive, and I could feel magic spiral about, fey flying through the streets and interacting with humans like they didn’t care about species differences.

“It’s… beautiful…”

I barely noticed that a tear dripped down my face. Humans and fey in perfect harmony, little to no prejudice, and people helping with what they were capable of.

“What? Have you never seen a city before?”

Taury raised a brow at me.

“No, it’s not that, just, in the future, fey hide themselves, and quite a few of the humans that know consider them enemies, and vice versa… it’s just nice to see harmony.”

“Well… anyways, we need to go to the castle, Arthur and I get a lot of at-”

“It’s the Lady and the King!!!”

“Really?!”

Several fey and humans swarmed us. I was pushed out of the way, it seemed that not only was I not noticed, but even Taury was overwhelmed.

“P-please, we need to get to the palace.”

“Can I get your signature?”

“Uh sure?”

“YAY!”

“They’re doing signatures!”

“”“YEAH!!!”””

I took the chance to explore. At one point, I got hopelessly lost.

I approached a group of elves playing cards.

“Um, excuse me?”

They looked at me.

“Could you please give me directions to the main square?”

One stood up.

“Even better, how about you give us your coins. Then, you can beat it. We needed more money to bet on anyways.”

I maintained my smile.

“My, do you do that with everyone who asks for directions?”

“Just insufferable brats like you, what are you, 18? Go run back to mommy.”

I blinked, and my magic began to flow. The elf froze as he felt the current rush through him.

I smiled again, a thinly veiled threat beneath my eyes.

“So, could you give me directions, or not?”

He shook, feeling the claw of my magic reaching out for his throat.

“Right that way.”

“Why thank you!”

I walked away and I heard the other elfs.

“What the heck, man?”

“You didn’t feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“His magic, it’s insane! I’m sorry, but I’m placing my life above a few lousy coins.”

I snickered to myself and wasn’t paying attention, and once again, I was lost.

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“Is my sense of direction bad, or is this city a maze.”

“A bit of both, kiddo.”

I turned and saw a knight.

“Hello there, sir. What’s your name?”

“I’m Lancelot. How about you?”

This was the famous Lancelot, his skin was clearly tanned in the sun through years of training, evidenced by his muscles.

“Nice to meet you, Lancelot. I’m William.”

“Interesting, well, William, I saw you handle those elves. It takes a big man to not cower nor resort to violence when faced with both.”

“I was stronger, there was no reason for me to hurt them.”

He laughed.

“Very true, though, that elf said something about great magic. But, I couldn’t feel anything, even with my relic, so how’d you do it?”

I smiled,

“Simply, I stretched my magic, but I didn’t release it. If you or the other elves were closer, you definitely would’ve felt it.”

“Interesting, so, with your strange clothes, I’d assume you were a foreigner, am I right?”

“Yes, in a way.”

“Heh, cryptic. Well, William, want to come and train with me?”

“In what?”

“Swordsmanship, even with magic, you will still want to use a sword.”

“Why not?”

“Wonderful, follow me.”

_

“Have you ever held a blade before?”

“Not a full sword, my blade experience is from shinobi.”

“So, trained as an assassin? Interesting.”

“No, I never was big on assassin movements. I learned martial and throwing.”

“Ah. Well, I’ll teach you slashing.”

I stood across from the legendary warrior.

“Alright, don’t use any magic, now come at me!”

I leapt at him, launching my blade at him in a slash. He blocked my strike smoothly, and spun me forward before striking me with his sword.

I flipped over his blade in an effort to strike his side. He leapt back and we clashed.

I could see how this was a legendary warrior.

Then, he sped up, his blows catching me off guard, I was barely able to keep up with his blows, and I could tell that neither of us were using magic. His physical speed simply outranked mine, and his strength was similar.

He flipped over and over, moving like a dancer. His blade, a brush, and the battle, his masterpiece.

Our battle shone as he struck at my head, as my blade grabbed for his stomach.

His battle was dark and fury, yet calm and precise. His power was unweilding, no magic in any moves, but his blows were powerful.

Mine were bright and flamboyant, baked in speed and precision. Despite my body being used to magic and moving with it, my old instincts of fighting when younger had kicked in.

Eventually his speed finally overpowered me, and he knocked the blade from my hand, launching it into the wall nearby.

I sighed, deeply breathing. Lancelot also had trouble breathing. We smiled at each other, fully aware of each other’s power.

“That was fun…”

“I haven’t fought magic free in months.”

“I’d imagine. That was impressive.”

“You were too.”

“Thank you.”

We helped one another up as I heard a familiar voice.

“Lance, we need your help!”

“Yes, Arthur? What is it you need?”

Arthur walked into the arena sighing.

“Theres a man, maybe twenty or so, he was talking with us then escaped in the chaos in the crowd.”

“Ah, he’s a criminal?”

“No, just someone interesting.”

“I’d imagine, and who’s we?”

“Me and the Princess.”

“Ah, goodness, I know you two are just friends, but I swear that people are starting to rumor that you two are a thing.”

“They do know I’m married, right?”

“I don’t think they care, anyways, who do you need help finding?”

Arthur looked up and froze.

“The… guy right next to you…”

Lancelot blinked and I smiled.

“Hi, Arthur.”

“Where were you?”

“I was exploring!”

“Exploring?”

“Please, I’d heard of this city only in stories, you really think I wouldn’t explore?”

Arthur sighed.

“I suppose that makes some sense.”

I smiled, then released a bit of my aura.

Arthur flinched.

“What was that for?!”

“Just to let the Lady know where I was>”

Sure enough, Taury had gotten the flash message, she spiraled down from the sky and landed, slamming me onto the ground.

“Don’t run again.”

I smiled.

“Don’t worry.”

“Remember, so far, we don’t trust you. We don’t know you. We don’t know if you are a threat yet, so stay close.”

“Fine, milady. I will stay close.”

My smile made Arthur raise a brow.

I got up, with Taury still holding me, so I essentially picked her up.

“So, how have you been? Were you worried about me?”

Taury flushed from embarrassment in how much ease it took with me to pick her up.

“Uhm…”

I smiled at her being flustered and put her on the ground before walking over to Arthur.

“So, where do we go now?”

He looked at me with some confusion.

“Well, we need to go to the castle, but you seem to be in the middle of training.”

“Yeah, we just finished a sparring match.”

“Wow, who won?”

“Lancelot, but we didn’t use magic.”

Arthur smiled.

“That would definetly make sense. I’ve never known a greater warrior.”

“Makes sense, his sword is also high quality.”

“Of course, his blade was made by the same smith that made my blade.”

“Really? Incredible.”

I saw the legendary smith pop up with a smug look on her face.

“Wow… hey, could I see your blade?”

Arthur smiled and unsheathed it. The legendary blade was vibrant, it’s energy billowing off of it. It was like light was it’s herald, and magic bent before it.

“Woah.”

Then Taury thought for a moment.

“Here’s an idea, why not see if you can hold it.”

Arthur looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, one of the best ways to test if someone is truthful is by seeing if they can hold the strength of the blade of truth. Of course, one can be honest without it, but it would still help.”

Arthur sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Fine…”

Then he selected a stone, and stabbed Excalibur through it.

“Here we go. Now, to prove it is stuck, Lancelot, try and pulling it out of the stone.”

Lancelot smiled.

“Sure?”

He walked up and reached out towards the blade, and, gripping it with all his might, he pulled it. I could see his muscles stiffen as his grip finally broke, and he sighed.

“Yep, stuck as last time it was in a rock.”

“Now, you try.”

Arthur turned to me and smiled, clearly doubting that I could.

I walked up and reached out my hand, then it began glowing.

“What?”

I gripped the blade, and it began to reach out to me with tendrils of light.

The mark on my arm reached out and embraced it.

“What’s happening Princess?!”

“I don’t know!”

The blade then left the stone as smoothly as if it was levitating there.

The blade understood who I was. It’s power, a mirror of my own.

It was as though the blade had a mind of it’s own and reached for me.

I held it up, and it’s vibrant power leveled in it’s grace.

“Woah…”

Lancelot dropped his blade.

“Can it do that?”

“I’ve only see it do that in the ages that I weld it.”

“What?”

Arthur and Lancelot looked at her in confusion and shock.

“That means… it considers him an equal to me.”

“Well, that’s cool… can I have my sword back?”

I tossed it to him, and he grabbed it.

“Weird… what’s with this?”

It launched back to me, dragging Arthur with it.

“YAH!”

It landed in my hand, finally getting Arthur to release it.

Then Arthur crashed into my legs, making me double over.

“AH”

I fell on the King of Camelot, and Excalibur flipped, before finally bouncing on a rock and landing with a clang.

“Goodness, are you okay?!”

“Yeah…”

I got up and helped Arthur up, then Excalibur launched into my hand again.

“That is weird.”

“Yeah, wonder why it’s doing that?”

Taury gaped.

“It’s… like… it accepted him… Does it think he’s me? Or… like me? It shouldn’t do that otherwise.”

“Well, you always say that I was good with the truth.”

Lancelot looked at her.

“Do you two have history?”

Taury sighed.

“He’s from the future.”

“The future?”

Arthur sighed.

“We have a lot to explain, let’s get to the courtroom first.”