Festus rubbed his forehead slowly, easing away the crease of his frown. His worries just kept getting bigger and bigger. It was almost as if the world had decided to stand against him and achieving his dream.

Zed had been an attribute mage, and whatever attribute he had kept a secret from them—because there was no way he hadn’t—had helped in his connection to runes. In barely a week, Festus had fought against the worry that his rune mage would for unknown reasons, suddenly become a mind mage. Now he had to battle with the fact that the man might be a blood mage.

As a blood mage, Festus would not support Zed’s growth. He didn’t know too many blood mages but he had seen and heard of enough to know that the allure of blood magic was too strong. Enough blood mages always succumbed to the temptation of its power. He remembered once upon a time when he’d been forced to hunt down a blood mage who’d been going from place to place killing people. The mage was gathering a storage of blood for certain purposes. When Festus had finally found him, the man had required all the blood he had collected to fight Festus.

Festus had never seen so much blood in one place.

Standing amidst the blood and death, he figured a lot of things could be worse. For instance, the blood aura could still be clinging to Zed. But it was not. It was slowly washing away, swaying into the air like smoke from a dowsed flame. If anything, it was a good sign.

He was still looking in Zed’s direction, eyes hovering on the axe in the mage’s hand when Oliver skidded to a stop beside him. Festus had felt Oliver coming even before the boy had taken his first step. He was surprised it had taken the boy this long to come to his sister.

“What happened?” Oliver asked, worried, as he held Ash gently by the shoulder. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Ash nodded slowly, still in a daze. From Festus’ perspective, whatever had happened had left the girl shaken.

“Abed turned on us,” Chris offered, even if she was not asked.

Oliver nodded absently in response to her, his eyes still roaming Ash’s body in worry.

“You’re sure you’re fine?” he asked her. “No bruises, nothing.”

“I’m fine,” Ash replied. Her shaking lips were slowly coming back to stillness. “Abed took us by surprise, that’s all.”

“And you killed him?”

Everyone turned to find Francis with Eitri on his back. Eitri had been the one who’d spoken.

“What would you have had us do?” Ash asked. “Let him kill us?”

Festus ignored them and walked up to Zed.

“No,” Eitri answered Ash. “But there were three of you. Two Beta mages and one Rukh mage. I’m sure between the three of you there should’ve been a way to accomplish this without taking his life.”

Chris scowled up at him. “You weren’t here.”

“It changes nothing.”

While Francis was present in the conversation by virtue of being Eitri’s legs, he paid no attention to it. He stared off to the side, eyes pinned on Zed. If anyone had been paying attention they would’ve noticed the half-hidden glare, the growing violence smothered under a stern gaze.

As the others finally gathered, waiting for what they did not know, Daniel turned his armored head around. He was like a giant in his Olympian armor. The massive jugganaut series was searching, looking. There was something in the air he was very much aware of.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“You didn’t get the chance to fight, did you?” he asked after a while.

“Wait,” Kid asked, hesitant from where he now rested from only Ronda’s shoulder. “What do you mean they didn’t…”

“Ash is a water mage,” Festus explained from where he was, tapping the axe in Zed’s hand with a foot. “There barely any water aura in the air. It’s all blood and a touch of runes. There’s a lot of earth aura too, but nothing too consequential. It’s older,” he turned his nose up as if sniffing for something. “It’s older so it’s safe enough to say it’s been too long since it was used significantly.” He returned his attention to them. “The missing mage, Abed, he went into Overdrive, didn’t he?”

Ash nodded absently.

“You say he’s dead,” Lady Long Legs asked, her voice more fatigued than the others. “But I don’t see a body.”

Ash and Chris looked between each other. A small piece of communication passed between them in the simple glance. It was something that would go unnoticed in a crowd, a look shared between people who knew only what they knew.

“You’re joking,” Jason said suddenly. “You can’t tell me he…”

Ash nodded slowly and Oliver turned skeptical glances at those who were not a part of his team.

“Zed…”

“Jason,” Oliver said warily, halting whatever else Jason was going to say.

“What?” Jason asked, turning to him. “What’s wrong?”

“I know it might not be the time,” Oliver explained. “But I don’t think Zed would be happy to have us share that specific piece of information.”

Jason paused. He mulled over Oliver’s words, thoughts running all over his face as they most certainly did in his mind.

“I don’t disagree,” he said slowly. “But are you sure? Zed’s jovial and doesn’t really mind a lot of things.”

“I’m certain. He didn’t use it in front of them even when he had enough chances.”

Jason’s lips pressed into a thin line. It wasn’t quite a frown but it wasn’t a smile either. He turned his attention back to Ash and Chris.

“He won alone,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

“What do you mean he won alone?” Ronda asked, pulling Kid along with her as she stepped up to them. Standing amidst them she towered over Jason, Oliver, Ash and Chris. The last two didn’t seem so significant considering both girls had still not gotten off the ground. Regardless, she would’ve towered over them even if they were standing.

“What do you mean he won alone?” she repeated when no one answered.

“He fought the Rukh mage alone and won,” Kid offered.

Daniel turned away from the conversation and headed off to join Festus. It seemed he had gotten all the piece of information he needed from the conversation.

“Abed took us by surprise and tried to go for the girl,” Chris answered, “but Zed wasn’t having it. And quite frankly, neither was I.”

“I thought you hated the girl,” Kid said. “Last time I checked, you were quite mean to her.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m in support of a pedophile,” Chris shot back. “Besides, he wasn’t trying to knock us out, he was trying to kill us. You don’t expect me to have just sat down and taken it, do you?”

“But you didn’t fight him for long.”

“Because we couldn’t. We were tired and weak from fighting all the monsters you see lying around…”

“And Abed was in Overdrive,” Ash added.

Chris got up from the ground and dusted her pants. She offered Ash a hand and Ash hesitated to take it. When she finally took it, her eyes were fixed on Zed in the distance.

“Zed fought him alone,” she muttered, as if to herself. “It wasn’t right.”

“You’ve never seen a Beta mage beat a Rukh before?” Ronda asked with a touch of scorn. “This is why I don’t like these places in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’ve seen a Beta beat a Rukh before,” Chris said, as if coming to Ash’s defence. “But I’m ready to bet you’ve never seen a Beta mage kill a Rukh.”

Ronda said nothing.

“So Abed’s dead?” Madam Shaggy asked slowly.

Ash nodded.

“And how sure are you? Like someone has already said, there’s no body. If there’s one thing movies have taught me, it’s that you can’t rule someone out if you don’t see a body. Are you sure you guys didn’t just wear him down and let him wander off in pain?”

“I assure you,” Oliver told her. “He’s dead.”

Madam Shaggy’s face squeezed in discomfort and suspicion. “That’s quite the confidence for someone that wasn’t here.”

Her words raised a gentle tension in the air. It was as though she had insinuated something with those simple words. Certainly she thought there was a lie brewing here. The possibility that Oliver and his team were conjuring up stories for some unknown reason filled the air.

Ronda freed her hand, the one not currently holding Kid up. Madam Shaggy pushed away from Tulip. She struggled to stand upright but seemed to prefer the struggle over the mage’s aid.

“I would like to know what happened here,” Madam Shaggy said. There was a deep authority in her voice. “The truth.”