It was now Iren, spring was in full bloom. The children escorted by heavily armed men were on their way to the Bloodwave villa. It was the first time since the threat they were off school ground officially. They had spent almost no time in the dungeon only doing the farm chores. Auna also spent time with Aku whenever she had a spare moment. The boy was loving the sea and slowly becoming more lifelike.

“So why do educational skills not have any levels at all again?” Jensen whined.

“I told you no one knows. They are just skills, with descriptions. They are normally basic, advanced, mastery of, and then the special ones.” Diego nearly growled out.

“But there is no indication on when we can get the next skill.” Jensen whined more.

“You both already have multiple advanced skills! Stop moaning about it.” Diego pinched his nose bridge.

“Look, it is a bit annoying but we both have nearly gained a level. Shouldn’t that be enough?” Auna smiled as she shook her head. Jensen was itching to gain more though.

“But my mo-” Incoming attack, fatal to Jensen. Mr. Voice spurred Auna into action. She cut the boy off mid-sentence slamming him to the ground. As soon as she did that. A blast of fire magic hit a wall behind them. The wall cracked with the force. The attack had slipped through two of the guards.

“Protect the children!” The guards began running around looking for attackers. A few jumped out from the crowd to attack directly. More magic was coming at them. Auna was still holding Jensen down.

“We need to leave now.” Ciela calmly tugged on Aunas’ mantle.

“Okay, get up Jensen.”

“Yes.” Jensen with Aunas’ help slowly got on his feet never taking his eyes off of her. “You saved me, thank you my moon.”

“Move!” The guard close to them yelled. This further spurred the children. They had an escape plan. They needed to find a quiet place to place a door.

“Are they still following?” Chloe with Ciela on her back whispered. The kids had been running around town for about ten minutes at full speed. So many people just jumped out at them with weapons along their way. They had managed to keep together only losing the guards along the way. Most likely because they were small enough to slip through gaps in the crowd and walls. Even the taller Chloe was still obviously more slender than the guards and men giving chase.

“I see no one.” Jensen said as he motioned for Auna to make the door.

“Got it, where do we go?” Auna asked.

“If we all head to the crater they’ll think we are missing. One of us should head to the villa?” Meredith said, looking like she really did not want to be the one heading to the villa. Everyone was terrified, even Chloe looked scared.

“I’ll go to the villa, everyone else to the crater.” Auna said with a tone that left no room for argument. Everyone piled into the door quickly. She had removed their permissions to go to any other door. She needed to make sure they made no mistake, as Mr. Voice directed her.

“My moon.” Jensen looked at her with a determined look.

“Fine, we will go together.” With a smile she put out her hand for him to take.

They walked through the door into the villa. It was a very quiet day at the villa. Too quiet. Slowly the children of only ten years old crept through the villa. Instead of running to safety they thought it was their duty to find someone, help if they could. Auna had changed the door permissions to allow the others to go back to the school. She was not sure if her death would allow for the doors to stay.

Attack incoming, fatal to you. Mr. Voice spoke. Auna moved out of her attackers’ way, a lean man with a knife. Attack incoming fatal to you, suggest fighting back. Mr. Voice echoed in her head. I can’t fight back. Auna spoke in her mind. You must to survive. Mr. Voice wished he could sigh. How? Auna meekly asked in her mind as her and Jensen kept dodging the man. Jensen had started throwing magic at the man, and fighting back.

Let the madness in, just a little bit. Mr. Voice soothed. No, I can’t. Auna fought. As she disagreed Jensen was knocked over sliding across the hall until he hit the wall with a sickening thud. His eyes were closed, she could not see if his chest was moving. She was moving too fast. She wondered why she did not leave him in the crater with the rest. Why had she brought him?

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

It was slow at first, she got faster more flexible. Her eyes became colder, her wings and hair glowing like the night sky. She was mesmerising to watch. It was like she was dancing. “Galaxy, a dancing galaxy how beautiful.” The man who was attacking was momentarily mesmerised. Just enough time for her to shove the sword she carried deep into his heart.

His limp body fell to the floor as she slowly came back to her mind. She shook with fear for what she had done, and fear for madness that was just on the edge of her mind. She did not notice the guards, or the Bloodwave Dukes. Who had come in to hear the man say his last words. They had watched the small child drive her sword deep into his chest.

They were stunned only for a moment before heading over to Jensen. He was coming around mumbling something about being caught off guard. Jensen was helped to his feet by Marybeth as she cooed sweet words to him. He was obviously a bit dizzy, swaying slightly. He bolted out of the Dukes’ grasp to grab onto AunaLuna.

“My moon, thank you.” Jensen was gently shaking her, though it might not have been on purpose. “Snap out of it, please. We may have more to do. What about the others who are depending on you?”

“Jensen?” Auna asked trying to focus on the boy. She grabbed onto to him burying her face in his shoulder. Trying to stave off the madness. He was right, she had people depending on her.

“We took care of the rest; however, they have set the villa on fire. We need to leave.” Edwards’ words rang in her ears, she did not have the strength to move yet. She felt the Duke lift her himself heading towards the room with the moon door.

“Be careful with her!” Jensen yelled as they ran, now he noticed the smoke coming from deeper in the villa.

“I am!” Edward yelled back, as they entered the room. To his surprise Auna laughed.

“The moon door has been sealed; my moon please open it for us.” Jensen encouraged her as she kept giggling. “The madness is taking root; you must fight it.”

“Open Sesame!” Auna giggled as she waved her hands before falling into a deep dream. One full of madness both familiar and new. Gory images of death and odd beings flashed before her closed eyes. A warm blanket of madness lulled her into a deep sleep.

Quickly everyone passed through the door. They were all welcomed by the children already in the crater. They were stuck though as the trip to the clearing was not a safe one, nor was the trip to the town from the clearing. They did not know the route to the clearing even if they wanted to leave. They spent the next few days waiting for the small girl to wake, so they may leave.

“Good morning.” Auna spoke dryly as she left her room, she saw way too many people in the small house. Waiting out the rain in the crater, though the rain would not stop her. She headed towards the patch she often danced in; she didn’t even stop when called to. Jensen pulled back the Duke who tried to keep her from leaving the small house.

After a few hours she was exhausted and renewed. It was an odd feeling however a drenched Jensen gave her a thumbs up before speaking. “There is no lightning or thunder, I filled the bath for you. One of the triplets made a wall for you for privacy as well. So, feel free to bathe.”

“Thanks! The moon door to the villa was destroyed, would you like to figure out where we will go?” Auna was already walking towards the bath, confident Jensen would do as she asked.

“Did you really just bathe in the rain, in the start of spring?” Marybeth had her hands on her hips. She was giving her a scolding look; Jensen was in the corner still trying to dry himself off.

“It is not as cold as winter.” Auna deadpanned. She was not feeling up to a scolding so she put her best disinterested look on her face.

“We will have to talk about proper etiquette again?” She sighed half asking the small girl.

“I’d rather not to be honest. My teachers’ scolding is enough.” Auna turned to Jensen. “Just magic yourself dry Ember, why are you doing that? While you are at it dry me off as well.” Auna pointed at the towel he was struggling with.

“Well, darn. I was keeping it a secret you know. Not many people have decent fire and decent water talents. Usually one or the other, come here my moon.” Jensen quickly dried them both.

“You really can use both?” Edward and Marybeth said together looking completely surprised. Auna did not take notice and Jensen was happy to pretend they did not ask.

“You two are not getting away with this. Did you guys know as well?” Marybeth turned to scold the rest of the kids, who all tried to scatter. There was no where for them to go though.

Auna sat down on the lap of Edward as she watched the other Duke scold the children. Jensen handed her some dried meat to munch on as she watched the show.

“She is not going to get anything from them, is she?” Edward asked quietly.

“I don’t think so. The triplets won’t cave easily, and the rest don’t know anything.” Jensen answered for the both of them.

“We should head back. People are most likely very curious as to where we are right now. Some might even think we all had been killed, or taken.” Marybeth gave up after an hour the triplets smirking behind her.

“Sure, did we decide where?” Auna asked stretching as she walked to the front door, she began making a new door on top of the front door. She no longer had to hum to make them, but she felt better doing so anyway. So, Jensen remained quiet until she was done.

“We want to go to the alley. Did you leave the door there?” Jensen asked.

“I did, yes. I will reach out to it. Hopefully it was not damaged.” Auna made the connection to the door. “Say before we go can we talk?”

“Of course.” Marybeth answered, everyone settling back in.

“Why did no one go back to the school? I opened the doors to do so.”

“Well, we had not checked before you came here. So, we didn’t know. Once you got here the doors became useless as you slept. That was new.” The triplets took turns explaining.

“That is reasonable, I suppose.” Auna muttered in thought. A few seconds later she spoke again. “Can we keep these things a secret? I don’t need more attention.” She addressed the guards.

All of them gave a bow. Agreeing together.

“Okay. Good enough. I’ll leave the explaining to you two.” Auna glanced at the Dukes. Then opened the door to the alley.

They all walked through the door. Auna and Jensen were last through the door. The alleyway was now very crowded.