“What would you like to talk about?” Auna asked with a small yawn. She moved herself to sit up fully while Jensen rolled over.

“He seems to have calmed down now.” The king gave a soft look to the boy who was now drooling on her stuffed toy. It had been brought in by Ciela.

“Yeah, he gets a little overwhelmed when it comes to me.” Auna snickered touching his forehead lightly.

“I have to agree.” The king put his papers together and off to the side. “How is school going?”

“It is going well. I am sure you get reports. I enjoy my second runic class. We are making different runic artifacts. It is much better than last semester when we studied only, no hands-on stuff.” Auna gave a big grin. “I made a wind-up doll.”

“That does sound interesting.” The king shifted. “Are you really going to major in magic, history, politics and religion? I mean you already have the religion major. Most children don’t score high enough to be allowed in the classes, you did it your first two years.”

“I am. I can handle it so why not? It would be a waste not to take advantage of this learning institution.” Auna waved her hands around indicating the school.

“I do understand, aren’t you afraid you are working too hard?” The king eyed her. “Jensen is following your lead as well.”

“I know, I was thinking I need to spend more time playing hide and seek.” Auna looked at Jensen with pity. She really had been stressing the poor boy out.

“That sounds good. If you do more relaxing child things you should be able to lessen these incidents.” The king stood. “Why don’t we take a walk?”

“Sure.” Auna wiggled out of bed being sure to not wake Jensen. “Stay here with Jensen.” She told Theo, Ayda, and Kaida.

“So, can I ask more questions?” The king spoke as they walked around the hospital wing, which was always brightly lit. He had taken her by the hand.

“Sure, you are the king.” Auna smirked at the cough he gave.

“Are you happy?” The king stopped as he felt the little girl stop. He waited for her.

“I think so. I eat good food, have access to great friends, I am clothed, and I have access to so many books. I think I am happy. Maybe ask me again after I turn 16 and gain my freedom?”

“I will. You need a job; you are too young though yet. Are you selling things from the beginner dungeons?” The king guided her around the corner.

“I sell things sometimes. I have time, children can get apprentice jobs at 14.” Auna gave a shrug. She was not ready to tell him about EmberMoon though she thought he might have already guessed. He was not a dumb king. “Oh, I have been practicing something neat.”

“What is it?” The king asked.

“This.” Auna melted into the shadows and poked the kings’ guard. He gave a very girlish squeak. Laughing Auna left the shadows leaving the guard slack-jawed. “Neat?”

“Wow, very neat. Did you acquire a shadow skill?” The king eyed his guard giving a chuckle. “You surprised us both. Shadow walking is fairly rare.”

“Well. I told Jensen and the gang about your guard. They came to the conclusion I should be able to do the same. What is the moon if not a mixture of dark and light? I have basic Dark magic. So, I practiced. It was easier for me than everyone else as I know what it feels like already. It was fun to learn it.” It was Aunas’ turn to stop because the king had stopped.

“Are you telling me all eight of you now know how to shadow walk?” The kings’ eyes were wide.

“That isn’t possible! It took me years to learn!” The guard yelled, only the king and she could hear him though.

“Well. It is easier to learn when someone is teaching you. It took me years to learn Moon walk, Shadow walk was much easier. I had already learnt dark magic. Everyone in my group knows the basic for dark magic as well. It was tricky I admit. We powered through though.” Auna gave a sly wink to the still shocked guard.

“You know, even that man has had trouble teaching underlings this skill.” The king gave a slight glance at the guard. “Are you telling me you are a better teacher?”

“I might be. Not everyone has the patience for teaching.” Auna remarked with a giggle.

“I heard you have quite the temper yourself.” The king sighed. “Anyway, I wanted to congratulate you on how well you are doing.”

“Thank you.” Auna beamed at the praise.

“I am really amazed how you are keeping first in every class. Well second in Etiquette. Still overall first by a lot.” The king turned them down another hall. “Can I ask you a hypothetical question?”

“Of course.” Auna fluttered her wings at that. Her mapping skill with the true friend blessing had put a sheen of green around him, his dot solid green on the map. It meant he was lying but not ill will. She was curious about this obviously not hypothetical question.

“We are going to say you are a powerful person with many people under your care. Most people love you, feel a kinship with you. Among these people there a few who are indifferent, who like you as a leader, and some who hate you.” The king gave a smile looking into her eyes.

“The people who hate you will stop at nothing. They have killed innocent people, attempted assignation attempts on your life, and much worse. You have tried everything you can think of and still can’t find the actual leader of these people.” The king turned down another hall.

“Every time you catch a person, they die never saying anything about who is actually running the operation. What would you do? Would you leave it alone, allowing more innocents to die? Would you use yourself as bait to lure out as many people as possible?” The king stilled.

“Neither. Using yourself as bait without proper planning will obviously be a trap. No one important will be lured. It would be a waste.” Auna shrugged pulling the king along the passage.

“What would you do? Just continue to investigate in safety while innocent people die?” The king pushed with his questionings.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“No. Instead I would play the long game. Bide my time. Slowly start showing little mistakes, leaving myself open for attack. Not always just sometimes. Leaving my safety more, but not often. More like I had become cocky, arrogant, and stupid. This would lull my attacker into arrogance.” Auna smiled softly.

“Then one day, it might be years later. The arrogant attacker will come to collect my head himself. When he does, I would take his as the prize.” A crazy smile crept onto her face.

“What could one do to lull such an aggressive attacker?” The king pondered out loud.

“Well. I would start leaving my palace more often, to I don’t know, visit a young girl I have publicly shown interest in? I would also walk around my capital more with the young girl or my children under the guise of spending bonding time with them. I would then start taking trips to tourist areas of my kingdom saying I needed to inspect them.” Auna took a deep breath.

“I would then throw more parties, and pretend to drink more but always have no alcohol. I would always have high security hidden while the seen security would appear lax. Of course, only my most trusted people would know about this. To everyone else in my castle I would appear lax in my attitude. Finally, I would make sure my hidden security only comes out when needed. For lower-level attacks meant to test the lax security for a trap I would make sure they stay hidden.” Auna looked at the king expectantly.

“What you are saying is to take a long time building an image of an overconfident person, who no longer feels the threat of the attacker. Then to keep this up, even if some people die, until the attacker comes out himself?” The king sighed. It did not appear like he enjoyed the plan.

“Hypothetically of course. Though the hypothetical me is always free to pick a different plan. A plan not from an eleven-year-old child.” Auna smirked at the kings' second sigh.

“I suppose you are right.” The king guided her back toward the room she had been in. “Oh, I almost forgot, remember the winged salamander you got from the blonde-haired boy?”

“Yes. Ciela named her Ziti.” Auna supplied.

“Well, the boy is called Beckett, he is about 17 years old now. I have been keeping up on the salamanders’ health through his father. His father did not have the guts to tell me a prize from me was given away. The boy may try to reclaim the salamander.” The king rounded the last corner.

“Well, he can not have it. I know he goes to school with us. So, I will keep an eye out. He has two years left right?” Auna yawned.

“Yes, he does. Did Ciela like the seeds from last year?” The king gave a knowing smile.

“She liked the seeds, said the rice will come in handy. A hard seed to get. The medical flowers too were nice.” Remembering Ciela had planted everything in the dungeon and not the school plot she quickly added. “She wants to propagate them when she has the space to do so.”

“I thought she might. There are a few children who are little farmers. That is why I picked them out. Can I assume you will participate again this year?” The king asked as he helped her back into her bed.

“Yes, what are the prizes?” Sleepily Auna asked.

“The individual arena event will feature an advance magic book; the winner will get to pick one of three. The choices will be common ones; fire, wind, water. The advance books are fairly rare and can usually cut off many years of training from basic to mastery. Most can get from just fire magic to advance by internalizing the advance material. It will also sell for a high price after it is read.” The king pulled the blanket over her yawning form.

“The group arena event will feature a set of communication stones. Worth a lot of money these stones are programmed to connect to each other. They also have room for four more connections to be made. That is a total of fourteen connections, common personal stones connect with five on average.” The king sighed sitting back in his chair. “Sleep well.”

The king spent the entire night watching over the children. He did not need as much sleep as most would. He was known for his sturdy body that did not require as much sleep, food, or care as a normal human. Many thought he might even be a hybrid of another race.

“Morning.” The king spoke as he saw both the children blinking and rubbing their eyes. Their class was not for another hour. “I was going to wake you thirty minutes before your class. Your friends had brought your uniforms and class materials last night.”

“Morning.” Both children said together.

“Did you stay all night?” Auna asked looking to the dark corner of the room she saw the guard sleeping on the floor, still inside the shadows. “How does he do that?”

“I did give my word to watch you children all night, and do what?” The king spun to the corner. “Get up we are leaving soon.” The king chuckled as the guard startled awake wiping drool.

“When your skill and job level it belongs to is a higher level you can stay in the shadows for as long as you have mana. Even if you fall asleep. If your mana pool is large enough to replenish at a rate higher than it decreases you can even sleep in the shadows.” The king gave a smug look.

“Why do you look smug when it is your guard that is the skilled one?” Jensen asked with a yawn. Leaning over he put his head on Aunas’ shoulder. “Are you okay my moon?”

“I am okay.” Auna confirmed as the guard snorted and the king shook his head, smug look gone.

“Say, Jensen would you like to play hide and seek over our spare period?” Auna dethatched herself to grab her uniform.

“Really? I would love to.” Jensen got up with a huge smile, all sleep gone from his eyes.

“I guess you two really are children.” The King stretched pointing to a washroom. “Change one at a time in there.” He then went back to his paperwork.

The morning went by very quickly. Their first classes passing without issues, they even ate quickly. Both very eager to play, Jensen not asking why the sudden change in her. Soon they were running around the campus counting loudly in the sleepy morning. Most were in their first class of the day.

“Twenty-four, Twenty-five! Ready or not here I come!” Auna gave a loud shout, she had turned her mapping skill off to be fairer. Asking Mr. Voice to alert her if anyone sneaks up on her.

“Where, oh where could you be?” Auna taunted happily. They had about twenty minutes until their next class, one last round. Non-hostile person approaching from the west. Mr. Voice gave her a warning, so when the person spoke, she did not start.

“I heard you were out here. Everyone is talking about how you two must have lost your minds. Playing childish games instead of held up in the library studying?” The boy she now knew was Beckett was walking up to her side.

“We are just eleven. Why does everyone think it is odd? Also, if you are here for the salamander, it is a no, my little sister has bonded with it.” Auna gave a smirk as the boys’ faces fell.

“Can I just borrow it?” Beckett tried.

“It is not up to me. Ciela should be between classes now though.” Auna took a deep breath. “Jensen, we need to go see Ciela.” She called out, within a few seconds Jensen came out of his hiding spot greeting the boy with a glare.

“Don’t mind him. He doesn’t like you.” Auna shrugged lightly laughing at the two boys’ facial expressions.

“Ciela, are you here?” Auna called out inside the barn used to keep their tamed animals when not in their rooms.

“Here.” Came a soft call from the stall that homed Willow, Theodore, and Ayda. They were paired together as they didn’t like being separated, they were raised as siblings. The salamanders all shared a stall as well since they were still smaller than a kicking ball.

“Hi, this is Beckett, he has a question for you.” Auna pointed to Beckett as he gave a gentlemans’ bow.

“Hello Ciela. How are you?” Beckett started.

“Hello, I am fine. What do you want?” Ciela was not one for idle chatting unless it was about farming. She held Ziti in her arms as her head was resting on Willows' side. Theodore and Ayda were by her feet resting.

“Right. I would like to borrow her.” Beckett pointed at Ziti.

“Why do you want to borrow Ziti?” Ciela pulled the creature closer to her chest.

“My dad had told me to release Ziti. I did not want to do that. I gave her to your big sister to care for. Now the king himself has been asking about Ziti and her health. My dad apparently could not own up to his own mistake and lied that Ziti was being well taken care of by us. I think the king knows I gave her to you two.” Beckett paused to look at Auna who gave a nod in confirmation.

Sighing Beckett continued. “My father has told me if I don’t produce Ziti for the king to look at this weekend our family reputation will be tarnished. He said he was willing to do anything for allowing me to have or even just borrow Ziti.”

“You’ll give her back after the weekend, on Woodday, right?” Ciela questioned.

“I promise, and I will take the best care of her possible.” Beckett gave another bow.

“Hmm, I would like payment. Rare seeds will work.” She gave a smile. “Tell your dad.”

“Deal.” Beckett shook her hand. That is how a long-standing pact about Ziti was created.