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Chapter 2: Cleansing Flames

“The Reaching Flame was born from the charitable desires of Incendians who wanted to assist the war-torn Haven. Though during the Fall_, Incendius had its own internal strife born from the_ Custodia Vampiri segregating from the Church and becoming their own independent nation, they still gave what they could to support Haven.

“I just wish that was all they turned out to be.”

Wilde Streak (Buster)

Socially Acceptable

“You kissed him!?”

Wood could barely hide his shame at that remark. With his ears folded back and his wings wrapped around him defensively, it was clear that he did not want to be seen in such a state. But even with his head ducked down, he still managed to reach over and grab Buster’s head before shoving it into the table.

“Not so loud, would you!?” growled the Draconis.

Buster, who was physically stronger than Wood despite the fact that he would never admit it, shoved his friend’s arm back and stared at him with a broad, cheesy grin. “But seriously?” he said with a barely contained whisper. “You kissed Clarke? How’d that happen?”

“I don’t know!” Wood slumped forward, covering his head with both his hands. “It just... happened.”

After such a major attack on campus, many of the classes had been outright cancelled or turned into glorified study halls. Most of the day had progressed without much fanfare though Buster, Skye and Wood had all been asked to attend some counselling considering their behaviour. Pinnacle couldn’t afford to have thrill-seekers looking for a fight. The wolf that had thwarted the attack however was given a lot of space by both the students and the faculty. Rumours about JD Clarke being the Red Lightning had spread like wildfire, which had parents questioning teachers as to why the disabled kid could suddenly jump around and shoot lightning. Rayne eventually had to make up some explanation without giving away too much of JD’s past. Thankfully the press had bought it and left him alone, but all eyes were still on the wolf who had taken out a whole team of trained assassins without taking so much as a scratch.

Now that it was lunch, JD sat quietly by himself in a tree, perched up high in one of the higher branches so no one would accost him and eating his lunch while reading something off his tablet. Wood had chosen to sit in a bench not too far away.

“So what?” Buster continued. “You went to apologise to him and you end up kissing him instead?”

“No! His dad sort of cornered me into taking JD out to dinner and a vid.”

Skye snickered softly. “Sounds like a date to me.”

“It was not a date!” hissed Wood, acid dripping from the corners of his lips.

“Oh yeah? What kind of movie did you see?”

There, Wood’s bile fell back and he lowered his head again. “For Winter’s Welcome.”

Buster couldn’t help himself and threw his head back to let out a riotous laughter. “Bro, that was so a date!”

“It wasn’t a date…” was the weak counter.

Having dealt with his own sexuality and all the trials that came with it, Buster sympathised with his friend. For a guy who was as clean-cut as Wood – despite how much he attempted to deny it – realising you were attracted to men was a scandal to the highest degree. Worse yet, the man he was attracted to was what the academy’s rumour mills were already calling ‘the local psycho’.

“Why don’t you invite your beau to come sit with us?” Buster suggested.

Wood slammed a fist into the table and growled. “He is not my boyfriend! Last night was just a… a…”

“Not-a-date?” offered Skye.

“Yes! I mean – It was an apology, okay?” Wood glared venomously at Buster. “I felt bad over how I had treated him over the past few months. I mean, he’s a goddamn war hero and do you know how he became one?”

Again, it was Skye who answered. “The Red Lightning was mauled by demons, lost all use of his legs and much of his lower body. He had to be medically and magically patched up behind enemy lines which – due to the lack of expertise and equipment at the time – led him to becoming permanently incapable of casting any form of magic using the Illuminus Weizar. At least that’s what the official documents say” The Miasman Tigris glanced towards the tree where JD was quietly sitting, swinging a leg over the branch and munching on an apple. “What I don’t understand is how he can use all those skills if he can’t use the Weizar. Shukuchi, I understand. But the lightning? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“He’s really good at using pure Force and Spirit,” Wood muttered. “So good that he can use it to charge the air with it and generate electricity.”

“Be that’d be a fun trick in bed,” Buster sniggered. He got a foul look from Wood again. “Okay, okay,” he replied, holding up his hands in surrender. “But tell me this, bro, if that was an apology, did you even say ‘sorry’ once that night?”

There was a blank look in Wood’s eyes for a brief moment… Then he slammed his fist into the table again. “Damnit!”

Buster laughed heartily with a good back-slapping against the Draconis for added measure. “Guess you’ll have to go on another ‘not-a-date-apology’ again, huh?”

“Damnit, Buster!” snarled the dragon. “It was not a date. He is not my boyfriend. And that kiss was a mistake!”

Stubborn whelp… Fine, guess I’ll have to be the mature one here.

“Alright then,” said the Bovios calmly. “If it wasn’t a date and he’s your boyfriend, that means you wouldn’t mind if someone were to go up to him and ask him on an actual date, would you?”

“Of course not!” Wood turned his head away and lifted his snout into the air. “In fact, I’d be happy for him. After what happened and the bullshit he’s had to go through, it’d be nice that he’s finding friends here. He deserves it for saving everyone and Konseral.”

“Great!”

Buster Wilde got to his feet and casually wandered over to the tree that JD was perched up. He made sure that the big, green and gold letterman jacket he wore. He always wore it with the sleeves rolled up to his shoulders as it was impossible to fit his meaty arms in the sleeves. In many ways, it made him and Wood look like brothers as they both tended to go around with their arms exposed. A nice, clean, black shirt hung over his mighty pectorals and was slimming against his gut. Though he was proud of his girth, there was nothing wrong with wanting to look good. A pair of tawny shorts hung over his things, moving smoothly with his confident strut. Covering his hooved feet were a pair of sandals. Shoes always felt so unnatural to him given he had natural padding.

He leaned against the base of the tree with one arm, curling one leg around the other casually and turned to look up at Clarke with his most charming smile accentuated by the cool, nutty brown chinstrap beard he wore.

“Hey Clarke! Watcha readin’?”

JD lifted an eyebrow and glanced down at him, looking utterly surprised. “Uh…” He glanced at his crystal tablet then back at Buster. “The… uh… the complete medical journals of Leonardi Matterson?”

“Oh. Would’ve been cooler if you said porn. I mean, you could whack out one all the way up there and no one would be able to see unless they were standing right here underneath that fine ass.”

The red Wulfun was looking a little perturbed. “I… I suppose so…”

“Speaking of that fine, bubble butt. What do you say to going out with me tonight? I hear you’re into Geo-Haven diners? Maybe we can hit a shooting range afterwards.”

Buster always had a fine intuition when it came to what people liked. He pegged that JD was the kind of guy that would prefer going to a shooting range than, say, a theatre or some fine dining. He was rewarded with a perking of JD’s large, triangular ears.

“Erm… I dunno, Buster…”

He began examining his black, hard nails casually. “Did I ever mention that I’m a Muscle Mancer?”

“A… what?”

“Muscle Mancer. Swole Spellcaster. Pump Mage. The technical term is Physiomancer but that’s just lame. Point is, I specialise in magic that amplifies or weakens muscles.”

JD flicked his ears back and forth. “That’s… Nice?”

“Yeah. Means I can do this!”

Everyone in Pinnacle had their expertise, sometimes more than one. For Buster it was his muscle mass. Even without uttering any words in the Illuminus Weizar, he channelled the magic through his arms. The muscles along his arms began to swell in size as thick vine-like veins began to pop up against the surface. But that was only the first stage, as his bones then began to grow to compensate for his new bulk. Soon his bones began to stretch to distribute the increased size of his biceps more evenly, all while underneath his skeletal structure was re-enforced to compensate for the weight. By the time he was done his arms had grown so long that his knuckles began to brush against the ground. The extra mass made him look distinctly disproportionate as his torso and legs remained the same mass. It was a good thing, he kept his letterman jacket’s sleeves rolled up or he would have torn through it easily.

He seized the tree with both hands and immediately yanked it out of the ground like a weed. A few people glanced in his direction to see what all the commotion – and JD’s panicked cries of terror – were about. But in Pinnacle, more than a few students tended to show off their skills every now and then. So the majority of those in the garden just looked away and minded their own business. Buster jostled the tree, shaking it left to right while JD clung onto the branches for dear life.

“Buuuuuster!” howled the Wulfun. “Stoooooop! I’m losing my grip!”

Sure enough, the Red Lightning eventually lost his grip on the branches and plummeted to the ground. But with such a tall tree, Buster had all the time in the world to place the tree solidly back in the ground before holding out his meaty arms and –

Whump!

… catching JD deftly.

“So now that I’ve saved your life,” he began coolly. “How about that date?”

“You’re the one that endangered my life in the first place!” JD cried, throwing his arms into the air.

“Please. You could’ve teleported away any time you wanted. You fell because you wanted to fall. Just admit you fell for me. Hard.”

JD’s expression turned sour. “Okay, if you’re going to keep using lines like that, I’m going to need some butter to go with all that corn.”

Buster lowered his captive to the ground and dismissed the spell inflating his arms, returning his limbs back to their normal size. “Come on, man. What’s stopping you?”

“Apart from the fact that you were clearly trying to use your machismo to seduce me, I’m really not interested, Buster,” JD said with a huff as he began walking away.

Huh, he’s just as stubborn as Wood, Buster mused. If these two idiots would just get over themselves, they’d actually make a cute couple.

“Why?” pressed the burly Bovios. “It’s not like you’re seeing someone, right?”

Clarke froze in mid-step. His eyes flicked over to where Wood and Skye were sitting. For a moment, the wolf and dragon locked gazes. Wood made the first move – and mistake – by immediately looking away.

“No… I guess not,” muttered JD.

Buster strode forward and wrapped an arm around the red wolf’s shoulders. “So what’s the problem? You’re not attached. You like Geo-Haven diners and I bet you’re the kind of guy that’d prefer to shoot stuff than, say go to a movie and see some chick-flick.”

JD gave him a piercing stare, his blue eyes like twin lasers that burned right through Buster’s eyeballs and melted his brain from inside his skull.

Mother Goddess! That stare could kill a man!

“For Winter’s Welcome was about two dudes.”

That snapped Buster out of his paralysis. “Wait… Really? It’s a homo film?” He scratched his beard absently. “I should go see it…” Realising that JD was starting to walk away, he decided to go for broke and pile on the pressure. “Hey Clarke, I’ll make you a deal.” The burly Bovios bounded over to JD and blocked him from processing further, his enormous form nearly eclipsing all light against the wolf’s red fur. In a soft whisper, he said, “If you can tell me that you have feelings for Wood, then I’ll lay off but if you can’t, you’re going to with me tonight after school.”

JD’s ears folded back in agitation. “What makes you think I’d even take that deal?”

“Because I’m going to keep pestering you until you give me an answer one way or another. And trust me, I’m just as good as repairing muscles as I am at making them, so no matter how much you cut me up, I’ll keep coming back.”

The Wulfun inclined his head curiously. “You can regenerate?”

The question caught Buster off-guard and his confidence was momentarily derailed. “Huh? Well… yeah. It’s one of the basic things they teach you as a Physiomancer. Why?”

“I have been trying to master regeneration for over a year!” JD’s tail was suddenly wagging excitedly. “In theory, every inch of our body can be converted into Force energy so by that logic, if I suffer damage I should be able to control the Force that consists of my body to heal the damage! Right?”

Buster held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, hold up there slugger. You can’t just go straight into repairing damage without know what the hell you’re healing. If you just close up torn flesh, you could just be hiding severe internal damage or a poison that’s going through your veins.”

“But I’ve tried accelerating my healing process as well. I just end up with really… fleshy scabs... and all my previous scars itch. A lot.”

Goddess, this kid doesn’t know what he’s doing! If he’s not careful, he might end up mutating himself.

He wrapped his arm around JD’s shoulders and led him to the table where Wood and Skye were sitting. “Okay, first of all. No. Accelerating the healing process is a really stupid thing to do especially if you can’t direct it. The body is in a constant state of repair and decay. Every second that passes, cells are dying and being replaced. If you just go and pump the replacing part full of juice, you’ll end up worse off than you were before!”

He sat down, pulling JD down with him and his arm still draped around the wolf. “That’s why even in Physiomancy, the words of the Illuminus Weizar are really important. One slip up and you could be growing another arm or something worse!”

“Please don’t tell me that anatomy is really important in this,” JD whimpered.

“It is. Really damn important. So is your diet. You’ve got to know your own limits and strengths.”

JD looked pointedly at Buster’s gut. “If you don’t mind me asking then…”

The big bull laughed and slapped his belly. “Oh this, babe? Well that’s like a camel’s hump! It’s my extra storage!” He winked at JD and flexed his big, thick arm. “No matter how you spin it, using the Weizar to make you bigger is gonna take Force energy. Doesn’t make much sense if you use Force to cast a spell that’ll make you meatier if your body can be broken down into more Force energy, right?”

The Wulfun nodded in agreement. “By the law of conservation of mass, I suppose so.”

“That’s what this is for!” Buster rubbed his belly. “Bit of ‘dirty weight’ I can get rid of if I need to put on a few extra pounds of pure muscle.”

The Red Lightning actually looked very impressed. “That’s… actually very clever.” He then glanced at his own ripped abdominals that were showing through his tight-fitting shirt. “I wonder if I should do the same.”

Wood all but lunged forward, almost pouncing on the wolf. “No!”

Buster and JD just stared at the dragon in shock. Skye coughed softly and returned to reading one of his ever-present books.

Cheeks flushed red, Wood straightened and tried to dust himself off. “You’re… uh… You’re fine the way you look.” Even Buster realised just how incriminating those words were but before he could point that out, Wood quickly said, “I mean, you don’t want to be a fatass like Buster, do you?”

Nice save, buddy. Little hurtful but nice.

JD tilted his head slightly. “I actually think Buster is quite specialised as a Physiomancer. He’s got substantial reserves to back up his magical skills and from all appearances, the knowledge on how to repair his body on the fly. He could become an amazing doctor or soldier should he wish.”

“Or a personal trainer,” Buster added, grinning broadly.

The curious Red Lightning’s ears perked forward. “Really?”

Beaming down at the wolf, Buster proclaimed proudly, “Yep! After the high school level, I’m going to stick around for about three years until I can get a good physical education degree and get certified as a personal trainer! My old man owns a bunch of warehouses near the Ultrean Docks and I was going to turn one of them into a gym.”

“Seriously? Wow. There’s a lot of people who work at the docks that would likely welcome the presence of a gym. I know a few military personnel who don’t venture too far from their ships and they constantly complain about having to use the same old machines and simulations on their ships. If you could keep up to date with the latest sims, you’d probably make a killing. Hell, I bet I could pull some strings with some of my military contacts and get you a start-up contract.”

Buster was stunned. What had started off as an attempt to play matchmaker had quickly evolved into a serious conversation about his future. There was no joke about his aspirations to be a personal trainer. His father – the owner of his own construction company – hadn’t been too supportive of his attempts to focus more on the physical sciences. Attending Pinnacle had been a sort of middle ground for them both. Go to a prestigious college, major in building his muscles and if he still felt like he wanted to open a gym be the end of his tenure, Carlton Wilde would support him. But to think that there was an actual business prospect waiting for him in Jack Denver Clarke of all people…

“You can do that?”

“Oh yeah,” JD said, making a dismissive wave. “I’m still pretty active in the military. Technically, I’m on indefinite paid leave. Something about the fact that I was essentially working for the military for free while stabbing people for about a year and a half. I didn’t really get into the details. I still keep in contact with some of my military buddies.”

“Hang on,” Wood asked suspiciously. “Weren’t The Dead Tails off the grid? How can you have military contacts if you didn’t officially exist?”

Buster kicked Wood under the table but the Draconis barely flinched.

Damn his natural armour.

“I did go to military school before Pinnacle, you know,” JD answered. “Seemed the logical place to go after being out there for a while. Made some good friends there but had to move after an unfortunate incident involving my cousin and a drunken brawl one night. Besides, after a few of the guys realised that it was me saving their asses during the war, they sort of feel like they owe me.” He turned his gaze back towards Buster. “But I am serious, Buster. My uncle, for one, is still in service and he hates having to take long drips away from the Docks to get to a decent gym. Plus, all the gyms in the city are really kind of…”

“Gay?” offered Buster. Before JD could reply, he held up his hand. “Trust me, I’m a gay bull and even I think the city’s gyms are too gay for my blood. I prefer my gyms where a man can actually get a good pump, flex in the mirror, see his veins pop and not have to worry about if he’s going to miss his yoga class, grab a disgustingly green fruit smoothie on the way out or disrupt the ‘New Age Breathing Exercises’ by slamming his weights down.”

“Exactly!” cried the Wulfun excitedly. “My uncle would kill for that!”

Buster had the vision of a big, burly wolf bearing down on him one day as he was opening up a gym and demanding to know why there was a pink coloured yoga mat in the gym. Suddenly, he was wondering if it was such a good idea to go into a business arrangement with the Red Lightning… and the Red Lightning’s uncle.

“Your uncle is… uh… like you?” he asked warily.

“Not really. Uncle Hank is a real man’s man. Way bigger than my dad. Comes from being an Ursus. When he and my dad get together, he’s usually the top.”

Buster had to replay those words in his head again. “I’m sorry… did you just say that your dad gets fucked by his brother?”

“No. I intentionally left out the fact that I call him my ‘uncle’ because he’s just a close family friend as vengeance over” – JD suddenly seized Buster’s collar and yanked the Bovios down so that they were face to face and they were staring straight into one another’s eyes – “shaking a goddamn tree with your gross, over-muscular, disproportionate arms and making me fall twenty feet!”

The poor Bovios felt like part of his soul had just died. Staring straight into Clarke’s eyes like that, he was sure that those blue orbs were on fire.

“Whoa…” Skye quipped. “What’s up with your eyes?”

JD glanced towards the Tigris in surprise and then blinked. “Damn… sorry…” He pushed Buster away and closed his eyes. Scintillating blue flames were still leaking out from his closed lids. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. When he next opened his eyes, his irises were no longer on fire.

“Do… your eyes actually catch on fire when you get mad?” asked the Tigris.

“Yeah…” JD blushed lightly, ducking his head. “Another thing messed up with me. Comes from the extensive damage to my nervous system. Seems that because I’ve tied the output of Spirit energy closer to my physical body, it actually has an impact on my physical body.”

“Come again?” Wood asked.

Skye snapped his fingers. “It’s like the Animortis.” When Buster gave him a blank look, the Tigris said, “The people who suffer from really bad magical feedback and the spell gets infused into their bodies. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t be able to access your Spirit energy without extreme training. Even normally, invoking the Illuminus Weizar doesn’t allow you to use your Spirit energy by default unless you specifically ask it to. It’d take a lot of practice to be able to reach into that well of Energy. But given that JD can’t use the Weizar, his body compensates by tying the output of both Force and Spirit energy to his body. That’s why he has some side-effects including the fiery display of his eyes when he gets angry. Spirit is tied with your emotional state, after all, so when it flares up, so does his eyes.”

The bespectacled Tigris leaned forward, green eyes narrowing. “I’m willing to wager that your below average size is actually because of this imbalance. Your natural growth is stunted because your body is internalising your magical energies.”

JD’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Yeah, that’s right. How’d you know that? It took the doctors months to figure out why I wasn’t really going through the normal Wulfun puberty and probably never will.”

“A lot of people don’t realise that the flow of magical energies is more than just saying the words and waving your paws through the air.” Skye gestured the drink bottle that was sitting in front of him. “We are all like a container. The container itself is our sheer force of will and the liquid inside is our magical energies.” He gripped the plastic and squeezed it slightly causing some water to drip from the cap. “When we use magic, we are using our will to squeeze our very essence out of us. But for you…”

Buster noticed Wood’s eyes had dropped down in sorrow as the Draconis spoke. “Your container will always be half-empty because of the damage you’ve taken…”

Ouch, Wood. Just… Ouch.

Unwillingly to let that comment get the bring down the mood, Buster said, “Right but you’ve conditioned yourself to make do with it, right?”

JD gave him a sidelong glance and a smile. “I just work with what I’ve got. I can’t squeeze as much energy as everyone else but I’ve learned to ration it and only use it when I need to.” His eyes were suddenly engulfed in blue fire again and he lend out his left paw. Blue flames immediately engulfed the appendage. “Plus I’ve learned a couple of neat tricks in the process.”

Skye chuckled and held up the book he was reading which was entitled ‘Magic without The Word’. “I’ve been researching it all since that display yesterday. As it turns out, there are multiple ways to manipulate one’s own Force and Spirit energy. For example, did you know that the Searanti on Incendius actually use the Spirit that they hold for specific individuals that have died to resurrect that same person as immortal Ash Warriors? An entire civilisation ends up forgetting about that individual as a whole and they get an unstoppable guardian.”

Everyone at the table except for JD recoiled at the thought. The Wulfun regarded the slim Tigris critically.

“You’re… serious, aren’t you?” JD asked. “They really do that?”

The Tigris nodded excitedly. “It’s quite ingenious, really. One of the Ash Priests collects all the memories, emotions and thoughts about that one individual, weaves it into the cremated remains of the person in question mixed with other things to give it more mass and then recreate that person as a sort of ash-based construct. Of course it’s entirely emotionless and incapable of individual thought but that’s what makes the Searanti Ash Warriors so devastating. They’re fuelled by pure Spirit energy from an entire civilisation about two million people strong and that’s nothing to scoff at.” Skye smacked the book with the back of his paw. “Professor Marinez of the University of Corona theorises that the Ash Warriors aren’t really immortal but their constant regenerative properties is fuelled not only by the Spirit energy preserved from who then had once been but also the Spirit being channelled into them from the civilisation from their lives as Ash Warriors. It’s why the Church never managed to colonise or subjugate the Searanti.”

Buster exchanged glances with Wood then JD. All three of them wore blank stares.

“Don’t look at me,” JD said with a shrug. “I’ve never been to Incendius. I have no clue what the Searanti do.” He slumped forward and cushioned his muzzle on the table. “And I was looking forward to go there in a few weeks.”

There was a helpless look on Wood’s face as his shoulders drooped along with his wings and ears. Skye could only look forlornly at the Wulfun, his muzzle partially open like he wanted to apologise but for what he could not say.

Once again, it was up to Buster to come to the rescue.

“Bro, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” he said.

“I suppose I’ve been expelled from a private school, military school and now an private academy so I suppose another mark on my record wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe I’ll enrol in a school down on Incendius.”

Buster rolled his eyes and gave the Wulfun’s left ear a quick flick. “That’s not what I mean, dumbass.” He grabbed JD’s head easily with one hand and twisted it towards one of the other people having lunch not too far away. “See Missy Le’Ruve over there? Her father is a convicted serial killer who sided with the demons during the Fall and she’s suspected to carry some demonic taint with her. But she’s here to control her powers.” He twisted JD towards another bunch of kids. “That there is Charlie Neil. He seized his father’s company in a brutal takeover and is the richest kid in school.”

“Hey!” Wood countered.

“Wood, that money isn’t yours and you know it,” Buster said dismissively over his shoulder. “I’m also fairly sure that Charlie moonlights as the vigilante, Nighthawk, either because he’s bored or out of some sense of justice over the corruption of his dad.”

“How do you know all this?” JD asked.

“I’m gay. I’m a gossip and a bitch.” He let go of JD’s head. “But you see my point, right? Everyone here has their own history. Their own reasons for being here. You’re just the guy that went crazy and killed a bunch of professional assassins and saved a guest lecturer at a school. That shit is pretty standard up here in Strato-Haven.”

The Wulfun’s brown-tipped ears flicked forward curiously. “It is?”

“If we go one week without some sort of magical accident, it’s a slow week.”

“I guess I never really noticed since I was a little too busy trying to keep my head down. So...” JD made a vague gesture towards the building. “… my whole dancing in a dead guy’s entrails, killing a bunch of people and acting crazy with a few witty lines thrown into a mix…”

“You probably got Pinnacle a shit tonne of sponsors and increased interest for next enrolment next year!” Buster cried, throwing his arms into the air. “I mean, think about it! The Fuck-a-ton –”

“Fuocotan,” JD corrected. “It means firebrand.”

“Right. Well if you think about it, if a student from Pinnacle was able to take down professionally trained assassins, what does that say about the rest of the school? One student, too. Just one.”

JD’s eyes fell. “Actually… those guys were trainees at most. The Fuocotan are definitely one of the more progressive of the Caecus Sorores, they are still a very matriarchal society. Men are never allowed to rise any higher than a squad leader. That woman I fought, she was the real threat.”

“And you still kicked her ass!” Buster exclaimed. He seized JD’s shoulders and gave him a light shake. “Trust me on this, man. You’re fine. No one is going to expel you.”

The tension in the Wulfun’s shoulders seemed to ease. “You think so?”

“Buddy, if you get kicked out of Pinnacle, then I’m coming with ya!” He wrapped his arm around JD’s shoulders again, pulled him tight and gave him a light peck on the cheek. The Wulfun didn’t flinch away like most men would have. “After all, I’ve got to keep a good relationship with the guy that’s going to help me start up my business, right?”

Though he wasn’t looking directly at Wood, he could feel the Draconis seething behind him. It was painfully clear what the green-scaled dragon wanted. He was just far too proud to admit it.

“Hey!” Wood suddenly exclaimed.

Huh, maybe he’s not too proud after all.

“Why don’t you have your date this weekend?” the Draconis was grinning broadly, obviously trying to appear cheerful and friendly even though there was enough acid dripping between his bared fangs to melt a hole through Pinnacle. “My mom is having a charity gala. It’ll be fun!”

Buster gave his friend and best bro an exasperated stare.

Really, Wood? That the best you can do? You invite us to your mom’s charity gala so you can keep an eye on us?

He wondered if Wood even considered that there were a hundred rooms in the guest mansion alone and acres upon acres of rich forests where he could drag JD off for some ‘alone time’ where none of the Bladebreaker’s employees would ever find them. He actually recalled that one time that he had ploughed Seamus O’Connor during one such gala. Though they had never been actually caught, he was fairly sure that little escapade was the reason that Wood’s manservant hated him so much.

“I’ve never been to a Strato-Havenese gala as an invited guest before,” JD admitted, his eyes drifting to the side. “I don’t think I have anything that’d really be appropriate to wear.”

“Just come in whatever,” Wood said with a dismissive wave. “I mean, I’m not like those other high-society Havenese assholes that need to wear all the designer clothes and who are more plastic than person. I like my friends to be real and down to earth.”

JD’s left eyebrow rose suspiciously. “Uh-huh…”

At that moment, a sing-song tone rang throughout all of Pinnacle indicating that their lunch break had ended. As a further notification, any school-authorised technology beeped and alerted them that it was time to head back to class. For Buster, it was a bracelet he wore. A shining, blueish-green holographic display sprang up from his wrist and wrapped around his meaty forearms with the words ‘Time to return to class’ flashing on the display. A small hiss emerged from the strap on Wood’s left shoulder and a little light began spat out a similar holographic display in front of him. Skye’s left earring beeped and shot a hard-light display over his eyes. Strangely, JD’s entire jacket shimmered. The individual hexagons that made up the outer layer shifted colour from white to red as if a crimson wave washed over his clothes. The Wulfun just shrugged it off and the hexagons returned to being white.

“We have Combat Class with Rayne, don’t we?” Skye said, leaping off his chair and snapping up his book. He smiled down at JD. “Will you participate in the class this time, JD?”

JD’s big ears perked up. “Uh… I wasn’t planning on it. Why do you ask?”

The green-eyed Tigris gave him a cheerful smile. “It’s clear you’re not as defenceless as everyone assumed. You really don’t have an excuse to be sitting these classes out anymore.”

Ever since Clarke had joined the same class group as them, he had always sat out Rayne’s Combat Classes. Ever since the Fall, such classes were mandatory for everyone. It was a defence measure to make sure that if there was ever a Station-wide emergency, anyone and everyone could take arms to combat the attackers.

Not that such training really helped against the assassins that came after us, Buster thought bitterly.

But Jack Denver Clarke had always just sat in the back of the training rooms, reading books, playing on his tablet or doing something else apart from participating in what everyone had to do. Rumours quickly spread that he was some sort of entitled brat or was coasting on his ‘disability’ as an excuse for being unpatriotic. Buster had to wonder how others would now see the Wulfun given that he was revealed to be the Red Lightning.

“I think I still might sit things out,” JD said, rising from his seat with the silence of the wind. Buster never realised just how quietly the shredded red Wulfun was. “I’ve got some research I still need to do.”

No one pressed him further and they headed into the hallways of Pinnacle. It was only a short distance into the training rooms for their class group. The first thing that greeted them was the broad classroom-like area with about thirty individual desks equipped with consoles. Large screens hung over the dais where their trainer, Rayne Noam, stood. Instead of a board of any sort behind Rayne, there was instead a reinforced glass pane that overlooked the training field itself. Beyond the glass was a large, white chamber with every corner filled with large, white hexagons.

Every class group generally split their Combat Classes into two parts – theory and practical. During the theory part, they would sit at the desks and analyse their own techniques or the techniques of others to better themselves. It was during the practical phase where they would get to test their own abilities against training dummies or even one another if the instructor was confident with their restraint.

Normally, Rayne was a very hands-on instructor and would much prefer to be out in the field instead of behind desks fighting boredom and heavy eyelids. Today, however, Rayne stood in front of the class with someone else out in the field.

“Welcome class,” said the purple-eyed human with an almost sinister smile. “We have a special guest with us today.”

Buster instantly looked towards JD and he noted that he wasn’t the only one.

“Can anyone guess who it is?” Rayne prompted.

No one answer though JD’s eyes narrowed. Everyone realised that both the Red Lightning and their instructor were locked in a fierce staring contest. The corner of Rayne’s lips turned upwards ever so slightly.

Eventually, JD just sighed and ran a paw down his face. He stopped with his fingers just over his eyes so he could peek between them. “Kira Kurasama. Lady Summoner of the House Kuriki.”

Their sable-haired instructor smirked. “Correct. Lady Kurasama is here because she will be one of the many chaperones that will be accompanying us to Incendius in a couple of weeks.”

JD folded his arms gruffly. It seemed like he was an entirely different person from the little Wulfun that had seemed so shy and bashful just a few minutes ago. “Bit of a high-profile person to be the chaperone of a group of students, isn’t she?”

“Let’s not beat around the bush, JD,” Rayne countered with a grin. “You know full well that she’s been after your ass ever since you saved her during the Fall.”

JD growled fiercely. “Goddamn Daitollian-inspired fanatic…”

“What’s going on here exactly?” demanded Yvette Hartley, a blonde-haired human that had some gene work done to get a particular streak of hair to naturally come out pink. “What’s the history between the cripple and that masked lady?”

Rayne just looked to JD with a taunting look.

“During the Fall,” JD sighed heavily, “I saved Kira and her family when her attempt to summon a particularly powerful beast only ended up getting demons knocking on her door and endangering the rest of her family. She took this as an affront to her honour. Now she wants to defeat me.”

Rayne smiled at Yvette. “Diatollian culture has a heavy emphasis on honour. Lady Kurasama was ‘shamed’ because of her ambitious summoning which resulting in more deaths than she had hoped to save. That she could not rectify the incident at all and our intrepid Red Lightning here was the one to do it instead is seen as insult to her honour. The way she figures it, the only way to regain her honour is either to take her own life in shame, save JD or defeat him in combat.”

“That’s crazy!” Yvette turned to JD angrily, her freckled cheeks turning red in fury. “Why don’t you just let her beat you!”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried that?” countered JD with an exasperated sigh. “But she can tell when I’m pulling punches. She won’t let me lose until she’s convinced I’ve given it my all.” The red Wulfun stormed forward, heading towards one of the side doors that would lead into the training field. He shot his piercing, laser-like stare. “This better have some educational value.”

“Oh it does,” snickered the instructor. “It does. Everyone else, take your seats and watch, closely.”

Metus Daemonium (Rayne)

Gathering Around the Flame

Rayne watched JD stalk into the white field, his eyes obtaining their fiery blue aura which indicated that he was very much angry and annoyed. Kira had been after JD for years and had been directly responsible for one of the young Clarke’s expulsions from private school. It had been her summoned beast which she used to attack the bar that JD had to defeat, revealing his abilities and thus resulting in him dropping out. She had rationalised it as saving him from lowering himself to ‘plebeian’ level, that he didn’t deserve to be hiding who he was. In some ways, Rayne agreed with her. He never truly understood why JD had opted to hide himself from the world but he could not agree with Kira’s methods.

In all honestly, if he didn’t know better, Rayne could’ve sworn Kira was infatuated with JD with how she constantly stalked him.

JD stopped a respectable distance from Kira, staring straight at her with that fiery stare of his. “I expect you to at least provide some value to the students behind that glass. You’d be wasting their time and money if this was just a simple grudge match.”

Kira, her almond-shaped brown eyes glimmering with glee, merely smiled beneath the face mask that covered the bottom half of her features. “I would not have it any other way, Clarke-sama. Will you be bringing out Validation for this?”

Rayne quickly turned to the class. “During the Fall, the Red Lightning was seen using many weapons but his primary weapon was called Validation. JD hasn’t picked up Validation in a long time.” Then he turned back towards the scene, glad to see that his class were avidly watching the exchange. Each of them had taken a seat and their holographic screens were displaying what was happening on the field from different angles.

“I don’t need Validation to beat whatever you throw at me, Kira.”

Again, Rayne turned back towards the rest of class. “Just so you know, most Diatollians attach some sort of honorific when addressing someone. That Kira called JD using his last name and then adding ‘sama’ at the end can be construed either great respect or a form of sarcasm. An even greater insult is the fact that JD hasn’t returned the courtesy even though he knows about this.”

Kira slyly brushed her short, black hair, the fringes of which hung slightly over her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. “Very well then. You must then know that the outcome of this battle will not count. I will not face you in anything less than your best.”

“Rayne isn’t stupid and I know he would’ve enforced some form of restriction on you so that you could have this little grudge match. I’m guessing you’ll only be allowed to summon Incendian creatures.”

For the third time, Rayne glanced towards the class. “He’s right, by the way. I put a Geas on her making sure she can’t summon anything but Incendian beasts.”

“Enough banter!” Kira shouted. She swept back the long, billowing, black cloak marked with silvery Diatollian script. The cloak fell all the way down to her feet and covered her entire body. As she swept flung it back, it revealed the figure-hugging silver and blue smart-fibre garments she wore. At some silent command, the long sleeve of her right arm shrank back to reveal her forearm. She took her opposite hand towards it, pointing her index finger at her own arm. A tiny, silver blade sprang up from the fingertip of her black glove and she drew it across forearm, avoiding major arteries. “We fight now!”

Her finger tipped in her own blood, she quickly drew several lines in their air. Where her finger traced, bright red lines appeared.

“Summoning is a powerful art of magic,” Rayne explained to his class. “Summoners make pacts with certain creatures, ones that are not necessarily intelligent enough to understand the specifics of the arrangement. These creatures then do the bidding of the summoner assuming they can successfully bind them or the agreement of the pact is tight enough. In exchange, the summoned creatures are nearly immortal. Their bodies can be completely obliterated by an opposing force but they will simply reform in the summoner’s ‘menagerie’ which is like a pocket dimension for the summoner’s creatures.”

“So how did Kira lose control of the beast that got her in trouble in the first place?”

It was no surprise that the question came from Skye. The bold Tigris always was quite inquisitive. “Forging pacts with creatures normally involves beating them into submission. Kira lured a particularly powerful creature to her family home that she could not dominate.”

The Lady Summoner slammed her palm against the glowing words and there was a thunderous tone like an airhorn blaring out from the impact. Three black creatures about the size of large dogs came bursting out of the blinding red light. The landed on their four, stubby legs and bared their fangs. Their long bodies were almost otter-like but their heads were more pointed and their tails stubbier. Most of their fur was black, bristly but for a streak that ran down their backs which was a fiery red.

“Fire Badgers,” JD asked, lifting one bushy eyebrow. “Testing me again?”

“Never play your best hand in the first round,” smirked the summoner. “You taught me that.”

“I also taught you…” JD was suddenly gone and reappeared a second later right behind Kira. “… that silence is golden.”

Rayne saw the faintest smile beneath Kira’s face mask. She anticipated JD’s swipe aimed at her head and immediately ducked. She flung her cape behind her and the pre-prepared summoning runes etched into the fabric glowed. Under most light, they would’ve been invisible and the lighting in the training field wasn’t necessarily the best. From the runes, two large, draconic heads burst and they immediately peeled their crocodilian muzzles open. Lances of flame rushed from their lips straight at JD.

“Holy shit!” Buster cried, leaping to his feet.

JD leapt back, tucking his body into a ball in mid-air and somersaulting backwards to avoid the torrent of flame. The Fire Badgers weaved around Kira, the red fur down their backs erupting in fire as their angrily rushed at the airborne wolf.

“Summoning doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to summon a whole creature with any given spell,” Rayne lectured. “Skilled summoners can summon just the body parts of the creatures that they need to help them in battle.” He smiled to himself. “The art of summoning is equally about reinforcing the field and controlling it at the same time.”

Kira closed her cloak, dismissing the two drake heads that had acted as a sufficient surprise to JD. Though her garments looked bulky and cumbersome, she moved quickly, strafing JD and quickly drawing runes in the air with her finger. From there, the runes erupted, letting out that airhorn-like noise again. Large arachnids with ruby-red carapaces erupted from the summoning runes. They wasted no time and instantly began spitting flammable venom towards JD. Some of the girls in Rayne’s class screamed.

“Flame Spiders,” explained the instructor calmly. “Large as a feral cow and each of them capable of spitting a flammable venom great distances. The hairs on their back act tiny matches and they can shoot it a considerable distance. The spines will ignite the venom just like…”

Each of the fiery spiders bristled and tiny red needles burst from their backs. They landed in the oily-looking venom on the ground and instantly ignited them.

“That.”

But that meant they had to move. Anyone who moved could be victim of JD’s Shukuchi.

The red Wulfun instantly appeared behind one of the spiders. His fist encased in crackled lightning, he punched the thorax of the spider, shooting greenish goo all over his body and causing more of the girls behind the glass to scream. He dragged the spider back and shoved his other paw right into the spider’s jaws.

Rayne jolted in surprise. “Oh…” he muttered. “Everyone brace yourselves!”

JD pulled out a throbbing, green sac just as the spider collapsed and immediately hurled it at the Fire Badgers who were immune to the flames created by the Flame Spiders. The gooey, bloody sac landed on the back of one of the Badgers and –

BOOM!

Exploded.

The shockwave hit the glass but didn’t break it thanks to magical reinforcement but the students felt it shake the room.

“What the hell was that!?” Wood screamed.

“JD extracted the venom glands of that Flame Spider,” Skye explained quickly. “The Fire Badgers are immune to flame but they wouldn’t be immune to the concussive blast of that explosion!”

“How does that even work!?”

Rayne grinned to himself. “The spiders’ venom glands are pressurised and compressed. That’s how they’re able to shoot it great distances. When ignited, all that venom expanded very quickly thus the explosion.”

The burst was enough to disrupt Kira from her rapid summoning and she staggered, coughing as acrid, black smoke filled the arena. JD stepped out from the smoke, the rest of the spiders and badgers lying dead around him. His eyes were afire with blue flames again. His left paw was encased with similar flames while crimson lightning crackled at the fingertips.

But Kira was not intimidated. She let out a frustrated scream, however, and charged. She swept her arm forward, summoning runes shining along her arms. A huge, hairy claw and forearm followed her swipe – the arm of an Incendian Blackfire Giant. JD leapt towards her, vanishing only to appear behind her. She jumped into the air, avoiding his low sweep and brought that hairy arm crashing back down over him. Again, he disappeared and reappeared behind her. Just as she landed, more runes sprang up around her right leg and she countered by sweeping that lag at his feet. A long, red tail appeared, following the path of her leg. It made contact and knocked JD off balance but the Red Lightning only cartwheeled in the air, landing on his left paw skilfully and hurling a bolt of lightning straight into Kira’s chest. She took the blow and was knocked back while he deftly flipped back to his feet.

Kira crashed against the glass, not breaking it or even causing a single crack. Rayne noted that she had summoned some body armour at the last second and smirked.

“Summoners can also user their abilities to call upon inanimate objects and equip them. The best of them can switch weapons and armour in a split second.” He grinned, impressed by Kira’s advancement in skills. “What you’re witnessing is the skills of a very powerful summoner for she has mastered all three of the Church-sanctioned arts of Summoning – Beast, Combat and Arms.”

“She doesn’t seem so good,” came a complaint form Camden Waltz, a Ursus with grey fur. “Clarke is kicking her ass.”

Rayne, wearing his intimidating smirk, just glanced over his shoulder at the bear. “That just shows you how good JD is.” He turned his gaze back to the scene of fire, lightning and magically summoned lightly in front of him. “But Lady Kurasama is not to be underestimated either.” His eyes went to the ground where Kira had been before JD had caused the explosion. “There was a whole twenty seconds between when she summoned those spiders and when JD detonated that venom sac.”

A huge, black fist suddenly sprang up from the ground behind JD a good distance away. Clarke had enough time to quickly dodge the blow but it took his attention away from Kira. She pounced on the opportunity, bringing forth an enormous, fiery foot that immediately collided with JD. The Wulfun was thrown back, crashing against the far wall and bringing a wince from Rayne’s class. Kira knew she could not let her opponent recover and summoned a large hand, slamming it over JD’s body and slowly choking the life out of him.

“Submit!” bellowed the summoner.

JD grit his teeth, fiery eyes locking with Kira. The ethereal flames spouting from his irises abruptly receded. But instead of fully being doused, they instead became more focused, solidifying behind his irises and giving his eyes a frightening glow. JD lifted his left paw, the one afire with blue flames.

Rayne was instantly on alert.

“JD!” he shouted, instantly banging on the glass. His punch came with enough force that it actually cracked the magically reinforced glass. “Stop!”

The Red Lightning locked gazes with him even through the one-sided glass. JD seemed defiant for a moment… before he sighed softly and lowered his paw. The glow in his eyes faded. Wild red lightning arced from his body and raced down the furry, black arm holding him down. Kira was forced to dismiss the arm and leap back before the crackling electricity could lance out at her. JD sprang up from behind her.

But she was ready.

Another black arm erupted from the ground beneath him with enough force to throw him into the air. Kira seized a handful of fur, launching into the air with the rising arm. As both she and JD were hurled into the air, she seized his foot and pulled him beneath her. Her bloodied finger traced lines through the air and –

BAM!

A gargantuan foot launched from the runes, slamming right into JD and smashing him against the ground. The concussion wave of the blast extinguished the remaining flames around them and shook the observation room.

The class went silent.

Rayne let out a sigh of relief.

That was too close for comfort, he thought miserably.

The door into the field slid open and Kira, a little worse for wear, came storming out. She was dragging JD by his cuff and deposited the wolf in front of the class unceremoniously.

“Let this be a lesson,” she huffed loudly to the rest of the gathered students. “Do not cross me. When we go into Incendius, you will obey all my commands. Any deviation will be met with severe disciplinary action. Any attempts to be clever and warp my words will be met with severe disciplinary action.”

Flicking her cloak so that is brushed over JD’s muzzle, she stormed out of the training room. Anyone even remotely close to her shied away as far as their seats would take them.

Rayne tried not to smile too smugly. He reached down and helped JD to his feet. “Analyse how that battle went,” he ordered. “I’ll take Clarke to the infirmary. I expect a full analysis and a report on each of the creatures that Lady Kurasama summoned by the time I get back.”

There was no need to make sure the students would actually do the work. Pinnacle was filled with knowledge-hungry young minds and each of them were eager to prove their worth in some way, shape or form. That JD – who a day ago had proven he was much stronger than first believed – had been soundly trounced sparked the fire of passion under each of the students in the class. Now they wanted to know how to beat the guy that had killed professional assassins and their eyes were not clouded by preconceptions of a crippled war hero.

It was good for the class.

At least that’s what Rayne told himself as he carried JD to the infirmary again. Nurse Harris was there again but she was not alone. As Rayne propped JD up on one of the beds, Alex did what any concerned father would do and hurried over to him.

“Goddess, Kira,” muttered the towering, muscled wolf. “Did you have to beat him up so badly?”

Kira scowled beneath her face mask. “If he had deigned not to hold back, he may have emerged the winner.” She shot Rayne a piercing look. “You stopped him from doing something. I demand to know what it was.”

He was not intimidated by her at all. “Suffice to say that had he executed that technique, you would not be standing here right now.”

Harris plugged her ears. “I am not hearing this! You all take care of him and I will pretend none of this every happened!”

“Thanks Talia,” Rayne said, patting her shoulder and letting the poor school nurse give them some privacy.

JD was very much conscious and though he groaned through the pain, he managed to keep himself sitting up. “I assume that this exercise was more than just bringing in Kira to irritate me again and draw attention away from me?”

“At least you aren’t holding back your keen eye,” Kira scoffed. She folded her arms beneath her cloak. “This has to do with what happened yesterday.”

“The Fuocotan and the assassination attempt.”

“Right,” Rayne said. “It struck me as extremely odd that the Fuocotan would try to kidnap Konseral at Pinnacle of all places. Hell, it even makes me question why someone would hire an Incendian assassination guild to kidnap a leader of a charity.”

Alex shot Rayne a foul look as he continued to fawn over his son. “Can we leave all this talk until after we treat my son for his injuries?”

“I’m fine, dad,” JD said, shrugging off his father’s probing paws. “Kira just made it look painful but wasn’t pulling everything she had.” He locked gazes with the summoner. “Why put your best foot forward if your opponent isn’t going to show the same courtesy, right?”

Kurasama just lifted her nose at him and sneered.

Rayne decided to continue. “It occurs to me that since you actually killed one of their more senior members, the Fuocotan will want revenge.” He gestured at Kira. “I wanted some extra protection given you’ll be walking right into their hands when you make the trip to Incendius in a couple of weeks.”

“And here I thought I would just drop out of school and go into hiding again,” muttered the red Wulfun.

“We both know that wasn’t going to happen, JD,” Alex said, plucking a bit of charred spider off JD’s tail. “Not after what happened last night.”

That piqued Rayne’s interest. “What happened last night?”

Alex’s hackles rose and he bared his fangs, an expression that Rayne had come to identify as Alex’s ‘Uber-Protective-Dad-Mode’. “Wood Bladebreaker molested my son on my doorstep!”

Sometimes Rayne wondered if JD’s lack of genuine friends was because of his father’s overprotectiveness. “Alex…”

“No!” barked the bigger of the Clarkes with a stamp of his foot. “It was uncalled for, unprovoked and tantamount to rape! I have evidence! I am going to take him to court and I am –”

“Going to be my plus one to a gala his mom is throwing,” JD interrupted abruptly.

That brought the little infirmary to silence.

“I’ve done my research as well,” said the Red Lightning. “Gloria Bladebreaker is throwing a gala this weekend to celebrate the Reaching Flame’s achievements on Haven. That’s Konseral’s charity. Given what happened recently, I have sincere doubts that Konseral himself will attend but at least one of his top representatives will be there and we can get more information out of them or at least an invitation to their private facility to poke around. Besides…” JD folded his arms, eyes focused on some point on the ground with a frown on his muzzle. “… I want to figure out why the Fuocotan would try to hit Konseral as much as the rest of you. The thing that really bothers me is that they sent trainees after the guy. The only person that was even remotely a challenge was that one woman. The rest of them freaked at the slightest indication of resistance.”

If Alex’s fur wasn’t already red, he would’ve turned crimson in fury. “He invited you to a gala!? I didn’t sign off on this!”

Rayne gave his friend a sour look.

You’re missing the point here, Alex…

“I’m not going with him, dad,” JD answered with a roll of his eyes. “Like I said, you’re going to be my plus one. We just need to earn Konseral’s trust and figure out why someone would call a hit on him.”

Kira shook her head in frustration. “Could it not simply be that some disenfranchised individual of Incendius is incensed that Konseral would be using Incendian resources to help Haven whilst their home Station is currently caught in the middle of a civil war?”

Rayne let out a thoughtful hum. “That would be the simple solution but it wouldn’t explain why Konseral would have to be kidnapped. I can understand killing him in a very public place like Pinnacle but why kidnap?” He shook his head. “No. There is something else going on here and I do not believe Konseral or the Reaching Flame are completely innocent in the matter.”

With a heavy sigh, Alex nodded and let his shoulders sag. “Fine. I suppose that makes sense. At least this time I’ll be beside you when the shit hits the fan.” He gave his son a light smile. “How’d you get the invitation to the gala, anyway?”

The Red Lightning shrugged absently. “I just made sure that during lunch I would be in Wood’s direct line of sight and brush past him during the day. That way, I’d be on his mind constantly and bring back thoughts of our impromptu kiss. I didn’t expect Buster Wilde to be the one to ask me out though.”

Alex’s eyes went wide in terror. “Who!?”

Deciding to leave the two to argue, Rayne turned and left the infirmary. Kira was right behind him. Once they were out of earshot range of the two wolves, he turned to the summoner with a critical eye.

“Can I trust you not to suddenly launch yourself at JD in the hopes of catching him unawares and settling this stupid grudge of yours?”

“My honour is not stupid,” she spat. “It is all that I am.”

He had heard the argument many times before. While he was well accustomed to Diatollian culture, Kira took it too far. Her obsession with defeating JD at his greatest was futile because JD was constantly trying to improve himself. There was a reason she could not identify the technique Rayne had told the wolf not to use.

“Your honour is defined by what you do not by how you redeem yourself for some past transgression,” he lectured. “JD didn’t mean to tarnish your honour and was just doing the decent thing by saving your life and stopping that nightmare you summoned. If you’re going to reward him by killing him…”

“I do not intend to kill him,” she snarled back. Her deep eyes were afire with a fury and rage that might have been a match for JD’s laser-like stare but where the Wulfun’s paralysing gaze was focused, icy and piercing, hers was furious, obsessive and possibly insane. “He must live in his dishonour so that I may regain mine.”

“Not sure how much dishonour he would suffer if he doesn’t see any value in it.”

“You would not understand.”

Rayne closed his eyes and forced himself to remain calm. “Just… don’t cause any unnecessary fires, okay? Incendius is going to be hell enough as it is without you two going at each other’s throats.”

Kira turned away from him, purposefully flicking her cloak in his face. “I will not harm any others. To do so would further tarnish my honour.”

Right… Like stalking a wolf pup is any better.

_ _

Silver Sniper (Alex)

General Meeting

Having Kira as a chaperone in on the trip to Incendius was not the most ideal situation but House Kiruki had a lot of influence. The Kurasama Family was very ‘Havenized’ and didn’t adhere too much to the strict Diatollian structure of tradition but Kira was the exception. Many considered her attitude to be quite caustic and it was a reason that she had so few friends. Still, if there was one reason that would make JD stay at Pinnacle it would be Kira.

Alex smiled to himself quietly as he strode through the halls of Sanctuary. The tremendous metallic walls were a stark contrast to the extravagant and _Church-_influenced structure of the rest of Haven. Many would consider plain, drab, boring but the blocky, windowless hallways were the perfect symbol for the military’s base of operations and administrative heart. They also offered excellent opportunities for quiet reflection.

A huge, black, furry paw suddenly fell on his shoulder and he glanced to his right.

“I hear your boy caused quite a ruckus yesterday, Alex!” bellowed the tremendous, Ursus. Hank Fen stood at an intimidating eight-foot-tall, towering over most of his race. Along with his height came an immense bulk that took up most doorways. Out on the battlefield, the black-haired bear was a force to be reckoned with. His actions during the Fall earned him the moniker ‘The Ashen King’. As always, there was a seemingly ever-burning cigar in Hank’s square muzzle and he flashed Alex a broad grin through his thick, salt-pepper, curly beard.

“You know how JD is,” Alex replied with a faint smile. “He saw a need and he acted.”

“Yeah. Kind of amazing that a school filled with kids training with war in mind couldn’t stand up on their own against a bunch of amateurs.”

Amateurs, Alex mused. That’s something else JD brought up. There was only one professional in that group.

“Just because they have incredible powers, that doesn’t mean they’re most than kids,” he answered miserably. “It’s cruel to force such growth and responsibility upon the young, to rob them of their childhood to protect themselves when we as adults should be the one protecting them.”

Hank’s normally cheery expression faded slightly. “You can’t rob someone of something that they’ve given willingly, Alex. You know that more than anyone else.”

His friend and fellow General was referring to none other than his son. Though they had been trapped behind enemy lines, there was no reason for JD, in his injured state, should have fought. Alex wanted to spare his son as much pain and suffering as possible. Yet the eager little Wulfun was overcome with an incredible passion. It wasn’t a desire for vengeance. It was… something else. He was driven and had an uncanny knack for killing.

To whichever deity was listening, Alex prayed the same mantra he had thought every day since that fateful day that JD took up Validation.

Forgive me for taking my son’s innocence.

“Come on,” Alex said, striding forward down the hallway once more. “We’re going to be late.”

Hank was back to his cheery state again and laughed, blowing smoke everywhere. “Alex, with your abilities, you know we can be there right now if you wanted but you just like how these hallways are goddamn silent and long. It leaves you to your thoughts.”

“Wish I could be alone to my thoughts right now, Hank,” he grumbled testily.

The Ursus gave him a slight smile. “A good friend knows when to give his buddy space.” He held up a small, crystal cube. “And when to give his buddy some help.”

Alex plucked the clear, blue crystal no bigger than his palm. “What’s this?”

“Intel.” The smoky, almost bacon-like smell of Hank’s cigar blew into his nostrils. “I did some digging. It’s not much but I thought it’d be something to go on.”

Alex’s fingers tightened around the crystal. Such information was likely highly confidential and not something that would be easily accessible to the public. The Generals had vast resources to them as a hold-over from the war. Many considered them the true leaders of Tower Thirteen even as the Church continued to recover their shattered hierarchy. In truth, the Generals were meant to be a transitionary leadership that was meant to relinquish command once state and religion had been fully separated. But as the world grew more comfortable with the idea of the twenty Generals holding both political and military might, that possibility was slowly becoming less and less likely. Having such easy access to secret information was just proof of that.

He sighed softly and pulled the cube apart, unfolding it into about the size of a normal crystal tablet. What he saw… horrified him…

“What the fuck!?” he exclaimed. “Why the bloody hell would I need to know how often Konseral masturbates!?”

Hank grinned at him sheepishly and also a little tauntingly. “Well, I figure Konseral is kind of a hunk…”

He swung the tablet against his friend’s shoulder. “Stop trying to set me up with random strangers!”

The big, brown Ursus’ features remained calm and serious even though his smile was a little mocking. “Well I figured that since you were going to that gala tonight, if Konseral is there you could pull out your usual charm, you might get some secrets out of him, Mr. Super-Spy.”

That curbed some of Alex’s outrage. “How did you know I was going to the gala?”

“How do you think? JD told me. Well, he told Kane who, in turn, told me.”

Of course JD would be the first to use all resources at his disposal to start looking for information. He probably knew Hank would get the right kind of information that might arouse Konseral for me which I could use to get in that boar’s pants.

Damn… that’s probably why he’s taking me as a plus one. I can likely get closer to Konseral than he could.

He lowered the tablet and looked at the information forlornly.

Always the assassin.

“Anything about this info that I should be overly concerned about?”

Hank reached over his shoulder and swiped across the scrolling data. “One thing. The Reaching Flame has a facility in Altima Meadows. More of a stronghold really. They own the entire mote. Granted to them by Isiah as a sign of thanks for all their work here. Isiah, though, makes note that he doesn’t entirely trust them either and thinks that they’re using their position as a ‘charity’ to both avoid taxes and illegally smuggle Incendians to Haven.”

“Any proof to this?”

“Just conjecture at this stage. Most of the people that work for the Reaching Flame are Incendians and they work the farms of Altima Meadows as a means to provide both Incendian food and supplies to those in need here on Haven.”

“That seems redundant given that Haven has recovered from the Fall.”

Hank tapped the screen with a thick finger. “Exactly the reason why Isiah is suspicious. The High Reconciler is stuck, though. He can’t kick them out.”

“There’s no grounds to,” agreed Alex as he scrolled through his fellow General’s notes. “How would the public see Isiah if he just spontaneously kicked out a charity for no reason or even worse, on charges of people smuggling without any proof?”

It’s a damn insidious plot. Build a charity, get people from your native homeland to stay in Haven, provide them with food and lodging and in turn, get them to work for you as part of the ‘charity’. Free labour, people smuggling and a gateway for more…

“Thanks Hank,” Alex said, folding the tablet back into a cube and tucking it into his pocket. “Let’s meet with the others. I’m sure they’ll have some questions for me.”

They continued their trek through the hallway and as they walked, they both uttered the key phrase.

“No light without darkness. No peace without war. No life without death.” They both slammed a fist against their chests, right over their hearts, never once stopping on their advance. “No future without sacrifice.”

The air shimmered in front of them and the hallway abruptly ended in a plain, silver door. The spell on the hallway could have someone travelling through its path for all eternity. Unless they knew the key phrase and the fact that they had to keep walking forward, then they would never find the secret meeting chamber of the Generals.

Alex opened the door. Beyond was broad circular chamber. At its very centre was a holographic display showing Tower Thirteen in all its entirety. Around the display were twenty seats, each one occupied by one of the Generals. Alex took up his seat with Hank right next to him. Each chair was customised to suit the General that occupied for Alex – the Horizon Lord, General Solomon – was made of reflective material to indicate his specialty in illusion. For Hank – the Ashen King, General Melchior – his seat was made of solid, black rock and carved to have two torches that were permanently lit beside his head.

“Now that we are all here,” said General Zachariah, the Sunburst Knight, “let us begin today’s proceedings. First on the agenda –”

A polite cough came from one of the other Generals – General Malachi, the Golden Savoir. “Excuse the interruption, my dear Zachariah. But we have a process in these meetings. Shall we have roll call?”

Zachariah grumbled in agitation. “Very well.” He waved absently in Malachi’s direction. “You may do the honours.”

Malachi cleared his throat. “Well I am clearly here. General Malachi, the Golden Savoir.”

Hank leaned towards Alex with a sneer. “Preening bastard. He’ll do anything, even if it’s as petty as this, to get on Zachariah’s nerves.”

Alex merely nodded as Malachi went around the room.

“General Methuselah,” Malachi called.

“The Mental Master is present,” answered Methuselah.

“General Obadiah?”

There was the faintest whisper of acknowledgement. “The Whisper hears all.”

“General Abraham.”

In a rattly voice that always gave Alex the impression that Abraham had one foot in the grave, the General answered. “The Graven Summoner is here.”

“General Hosea.”

Never without his potions, Hosea answered with a clink of glass like he was always containing vials somewhere around his body. “The Philosopher Master eternal.”

“General Jonah.”

Jonah spoke in the loudest voice of the Generals, even louder than Hank. “The Whale of War is ready as always!”

Malachi nodded at the giant orca with a barely patient smile. “Thank you General.” He glanced to the right, right at Alex. “General Solomon.”

“No distance is too great for the Horizon Lord,” Alex answered in his customary greeting.

“General Malachi.”

Hank answered, every word blowing out a plume of smoke. “When the smoke clears, the Ashen King shall remain standing.”

Moving to the next General, Malachi said, “General Isiah.”

It took a second for Isiah to speak. The former priest who wore his heart on his sleeve never hid his disdain for Malachi. “All shall answer to the High Reconciler.”

Unshaken, Malachi continued. “General Elisha.”

There was the faintest glimmer of green in the darkness of the private room. “The Grey King presides.”

Only then was Malachi unnerved. The Grey King ruled the Inquisition, after all. Still, Malachi was a shrewd negotiator and he brushed off the unnerving presence of the Grey King and moved on. “General Agnes.”

A feminine voice answered, loud, self-righteous and powerful just like General Jonah’s. “The Blessed Right Hand of the Goddess will carry out her will!”

“General Agrippa.”

A soft chuckle was the start of Agrippa’s answer. “The Merchant of the Mind trades in all things.”

“General Cleopatra.”

There was the softest hiss of a snake. “The Left Hand of the Goddess embraces darkness.”

“General Olympias.”

The voice that followed shifted constantly in tone with every word. First a woman’s. Then a man’s. Then a small child’s and then across a dozen others. “None may know the face of the Shapeless Siren.”

“General Noah.”

There was a loud groaning akin to a tree falling. “The Blessed Pathfinder will guide this broken world.”

“General Jezebel.”

There was a bang on the table and the Relentless Revolutionary jumped to her feet. “This is bullshit, Malachi! We can all see everyone is here! Can we just move on already!?”

Malachi lifted his hand. “Peace, General. We have our traditions. For without our past, where can we go with our future. Besides, there are only a few more Generals.”

It didn’t pass Alex’s attention that Malachi had begun with the part of the room that was farthest from Jezebel knowing full well how she would react to being one of the last Generals to be called.

Jezebel grumbled and sat back down.

“General Miriam.”

A distant-sounding voice answered like they were hearing her voice in the back of their minds. “The Embodiment of the Goddess answers.”

“General Phoebe.”

The room suddenly became very cold. “The Death Priestess utters the eulogy.”

“General Moses.”

Perhaps the most normal voice of the other Generals answered. “The Deliverer has come.”

“And of course,” Malachi concluded, turning to his left. “General Zachariah.”

Zachariah waved his hand absently in Malachi’s direction. “Yes, yes. The Sunburst Knight heralds the light. Now as I was saying, let us begin by discussing the civil war on Incendius.”

There was a collective groan from many of the Generals around the room. Not every General was from Haven with Alex, Hank and Agrippa really being the only ones born on Haven. The others were either born in the other Stations or had ancestry in the other Stations. Zachariah was an Incendian as could be made obvious by his chosen moniker, the ‘Sunburst Knight’.

During the Fall, Zachariah, a proud, strong-bodied human with fiery red hair, was one of the original ten Generals that brought an end to the war. Back then, Incendius had little in terms of technology and were millennia away from Haven. Most Incendian warships have very primitive beam cannons as well and most of the hardened shields of Havenese starships could easily shrug off any Incendian fire. However, Zachariah – with his master of Pyromancy and Luxmancy, managed to magically create the most powerful beam cannons in all of Tower Thirteen.

Woe be unto those who find themselves at the receiving end of the Sunburst Knight’s wrath, Alex mused quietly.

Similar to his magical techniques, Zachariah was a very straight-forward person and despised politics. He only agreed to become a General in the hopes that Haven would provide assistance of Incendius during the battles that had raged over there. Now, even after the fall, he stayed amongst his fellow Generals in the hopes of keeping Incendius represented in the meetings. Clearly that was not going over so well given the response of the room.

“We’ve agreed this before, Zachariah,” said Hosea. “While I admire the exotic exports of Incendius, it has no true strategic value. We must think of more important matters.”

“Such as the tensions between Diatollia and Nebulus,” Malachi said. “Nebulus is the biggest starport in all of Tower Thirteen. The majority of our navy is built there.”

“The entire Station is basically a huge manufacturing plant,” grunted Hank.

“Exactly. And it does no good that it has tensions against its neighbour, Diatollia.”

“Hey!” Jonah barked loudly. “Let’s not put the natural disasters hitting the Terrestrial Stations out of the equation! Drought has hit Arret. Fires are sweeping across Venterm and the ice caps are melting on An-Korus!”

Olympia’s voice cut through Jonah’s yelling. “We’ve got the technology to resolve that. My biggest concern is the rumours of the Custodia Goetia. I’ve heard that their influence is growing in the Mortal Stations. The tribes of Miasma are constantly in fear. There are rumours of unethical research being conducted on Phi and a strange sleeping sickness is sweeping across Nite.”

“Please,” scoffed Agnes. “So people are falling asleep in the Station of Dream. That’s expected!”

“And the Stations of Earth, Sky and Sea are suffering inclement weather!” shouted Jezebel. “The Generals don’t have the time to deal with the weather.”

“And what do you expect us to use our efforts on?” countered Zachariah. “Rumours and conjecture?” He slammed a fist into the table, his golden mail clanking loudly. “Look here, people. We cannot deal in the uncertainties. Billions of lives rely on us for leadership! We cannot act on tension between two Stations. It is our goal to allow the Stations to be autonomous, after all. Let them deal with it amongst themselves as we cannot be seen to show favouritism. We cannot mobilise our military against an organisation we claimed to have exterminated years ago and we can only provide aid to the Terrestrial Stations but cannot change the weather without knowing how it will impact the Station’s ecosystems! What we do know is that there is a war going on and that war is on Incendius!”

Leave it to the Sunburst Knight to refocus the quarrelling Generals into a single point. If they were ever to have a leader, Zachariah would be a good bet.

However…

“You lecture us on not showing favourites,” scolded Malachi, “and yet you wish to direct our attention to your home Station. Curious that.”

Zachariah sneered at his rival. “I am thinking of all of Tower Thirteen. Incendius is right next to Haven and if the war were to spill over to this recovering Station, it would be disastrous!”

Trying to get the support of the Havenese Generals, eh Zachariah?

His eyes went to General Obadiah, one of the most conniving people he knew and who earned his reputation as The Whisper.

Good ploy but there’s a reason you’re not a politician.

“Should we send all of Haven’s military into Incendius,” said Obadiah in the softest of whispers. “Then the Incendian civil war could be ended very easily. So easily in fact that one would have to question exactly which side the Generals support. Will it be the secessionists or the loyalists?” Obadiah inclined his head to the side. “Do you even know which side you support, Zachariah?”

That silenced the Sunburst Knight and poor Zachariah’s blue eyes wavered.

“We must tread carefully in these times,” hissed General Cleopatra, her golden eyes locking gazes with Obadiah from across the table. “Yes, we can force peace upon Incendius but to what ends? We would simply be silencing the voices that would speak so loudly. War is started when two or more conflicting ideals attempt to force the others into submission. We would be only be replicating the Church’s oppressive nature should we simply send the Havenese military to quell the Incendian Civil War.”

Zachariah was clearly furious at being talked down. “Then what do we do!?”

Malachi was quick to pounce.

“Focus our efforts elsewhere. The conflict between Diatollia and Nebulus –”

“I disagree,” interrupted Cleopatra quickly. “Something must be done about Incendius.” She leaned down towards the table, revealing more of her reptilian features. Her bright, orange, slitted eyes glowed through the darkness of the chamber. “Neither Diatollia or Nebulus have engaged in open violence. There is merely a cold war occurring between them.” She glanced towards Jonah, the big orca. “The Terrestrial Stations have my sympathy but these natural disasters can be managed without our interference. We must have faith in the Stations’ ability to manage themselves or they will become dependent on us.” She then turned towards Jezebel. “On a similar train of thought, the possible resurgence of the Custodia Goetia is troubling but until we know for sure it is them, it would be a waste of effort to send our military might into the Mortal Stations. It could be seen as an incursion as well and only cripple our relationship with those Stations.”

That’s why I always like Cleopatra. She knows how to read the room and can get to the point.

“Only the Incendian Civil War has shown any signs of true violence and loss of life,” continued to cunning General. “So it is my suggestion that we approach this subtly.”

Here it comes.

He felt her eyes upon him.

“Is your son, the Red Lightning, not going to be heading to the Station of the Sun shortly, Solomon?”

Alex tried not to keep himself from laughing out loud. “Yes he is. Along with a large group of highly trained students from Pinnacle. Though I would not think of endangering children for this.”

“True but the Red Lightning has proven time and again that he is more than skilled in dealing with situations that would otherwise spiral out of control,” Obadiah said calmly. “I do not think we need him out in open battlefields. Merely to make surgical strikes where they are needed and to gather information.”

“I’m honestly surprised you haven’t already gathered that intel, Obadiah,” Alex countered sharply and with a smug smile. “Or is this just a ploy to placate the other Generals into making them think we actually are doing something about the civil war while you and Cleopatra are out pulling strings?”

Obadiah only kept his calm, unwavering smile. Cleopatra frowned while Zachariah fumed.

“I am opposed to the idea of using the Red Lightning!” bellowed Jonah. “That boy is just seventeen years of age and has already done more for us than any individual soldier. He deserves his childhood.”

“His school is going into a warzone,” grumbled General Abraham. “They know what they’re getting into.”

“Out of the question! I know the kids at Pinnacle. They’re head strong and eager to prove themselves. Now that the Red Lightning has been revealed to them, they will be more than eager to find some way to prove themselves better than him. Sending them to Incendius of all places will only give them the opportunity to endanger themselves!”

That’s right, Alex mused, looking towards Obadiah. I get the eerie feeling that our two snakes had something to do with Pinnacle’s scheduling…

He mentally sighed, crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

No matter. JD will hear of this some way. He won’t take on these missions out of some loyalty to the Generals. He’ll take them on to protect the rest of the students.

“The point is moot,” he said loudly, cutting through whatever argument was going on. “Pinnacle isn’t going to be sending the students to Incendius for another three weeks. If you want action now, you’re going to have to think of some other way. I’m not going to be sending my son down there for your crusade. Unless of course you can bear to steal his education as well as his childhood unnecessarily?”

Cleopatra smiled at him with her eyes narrowing. It was a look he had often received – it was one she gave her prey when she was about to strike. “Do you remember our motto, my dear Solomon? No light without darkness. No peace without war. No life without death.” Her lips curled upwards in a sinister smile. “No future without sacrifice.”

“And you certainly cannot claim that your son is not willing to make the sacrifice,” added Malachi. “After his performance yesterday, he doesn’t seem to have lost his touch. In fact, his blade seemed to have been sharper.”

“I actually don’t recall seeing him with Validation in those vids,” grunted Zachariah. “That he can take down those fully trained assassins without his weapon…” He looked to Alex almost pleadingly. “Please, Solomon. Incendius is in need of your son’s talents.”

Alex narrowed his gaze back at the Sunburst Knight. “Are you telling me that out of all the trained spies and assassins that we have access to, it has to be my son? My son who gave his innocence to help us win the war? My son who hasn’t touched Validation for years for fear of what he would become if he were ever to wield them again?”

“Solomon,” Cleopatra began, closing her eyes likely because she deemed that she didn’t need to put her full attention to him. “Listen –”

He jumped to his feet, slamming both paws against the table. “No, Cleopatra. You listen to me.” Her eyes snapped open in surprise and that was her mistake. Her features paled as all her horrors were shown before her. Just one look into Alex’s gaze and she was under his illusion. “JD will be going to Incendius and but it isn’t because of your machinations or the civil war. It’s because of this!”

He reached into his pocket and fished out the crystal cube that Hank had given him earlier. With a furious throw, he tossed it right into the centre of the circle, right in the middle of the hologram of Tower Thirteen. The cube shattered and its particles replaced the image of the broken world. Text and images quickly scrolled before them. Cleopatra, released from Alex’s illusionary grip, looked to the information with her eyes wide in shock.

“What is this…?” whispered Zachariah, his voice dripping with terror. “No… That’s impossible! It can’t be!”

“You better not be making this up, Solomon!” Jezebel shouted, already reaching for her own tablet. All the other Generals were already doing their own research, even Obadiah. One by one, they verified what was on screen.

“This… this is impossible…” Malachi whispered. “He… He said…”

Alex growled threateningly. “I know what he said. But the facts don’t lie. JD and I are going to Incendius for one reason only.”

He straightened, lifting his gaze so that he was literally looking down his nose at the other Generals.

“Harm Chronos is back.”

Spiritual Scion (Skye)

Class 989

‘Chaperone’ was clearly a very loose term when applied to Lady Kira Kurasama. One would normally expect a ‘chaperone’ to only be present during a trip, but for Skye and the rest of Class 989, they found her intruding on every one of their classes from Combat Class, to biology, to even mathematics! It quickly became clear why JD referred to her as a ‘stalker’ and the rest of the class was quickly starting to blame him for her intrusion.

“Listen and listen well!” she barked from the front of the Home Economics class. “Incendian foods are very different from Havenese flavours! If you are going to live on Incendius for the next few months, you will need to get used to what they eat!”

Skye, on the verge of crying for this interruption to his education, couldn’t help but be a little exasperated. It was just two days since their rough introduction and he was dumbstruck that she had something to say in Home Economics of all things.

Of course, there was the constant foil to her plans.

“You do realise that we have portals that’ll take us back to Haven and buses that’ll bring us home after the end of the day, right?” JD said coolly. “Unless you’re planning to kidnap us and force feed us Incendian foods.”

“Stop putting words in my mouth!” bellowed Kurasama.

“Or what? You’ll sick your Fire Badgers at me again? Incidentally, I saw that there was a really good Fire Badger recipe in here somewhere.” JD lifted the large cookbook so that it covered his face. “Now where was it… was it a bake? A pie? A stew…?”

Kira was clearly getting very flustered. Even their real Home Economics teacher, a timid little lady, couldn’t do anything against her. “Don’t you ignore me!”

“Hang on, I think I found it… Oh nope. That’s a choux pastry recipe… Oooh… Eclairs.”

Skye, along with most of the class immediately ducked. Anyone between JD and Kira immediately moved because what came next was something that had happened far too often. The summoner flung her cloak back, the runes drawn underneath flashing briefly, before the same airhorn sound rang out across the classroom as it had done many times in the past few days. This time, she summoned a gaggle of snakes about as thick as an arm and with flames spitting from their fangs. Just as they got to JD, their heads were severed from their coiling bodies and the fell to the ground limply.

JD lowered his book, flashing the blood covered butcher’s cleaver in his paw. “Really poor choice to attack me in a place with a lot of knives, Kira.”

After the attack would then follow the routine staring match between the two of them for the next three minutes. During that time, anyone who still remained between JD’s laser like gaze and Kira’s fiery glare, would move away out of fear of bursting into flames.

“Now if you’ll excuse us,” said the Wulfun, “I believe we were going to start to learn how to make some Ever-Jiggle Pudding today from Mrs. Levian. If we’re going to have to trust your taste in food on Incendius, I’d rather have my last meals here be delicious and heavenly before I die of dysentery.”

It didn’t help that JD was purposefully antagonistic towards Kira as well. To his credit, it seemed that he was immune to the spiteful stares of the rest of the class, probably after dealing with Kira for so long. But those glares were amplified all the more when Kira would throw challenges their way in the middle of class. Some students would legitimately be able to resolve her insane demands, but JD would always seem to conquer them using some loop hole.

Skye recalled the ‘strength challenge’ where the class was challenged to lift increasingly difficult weight. The poor Tigris was still feeling the cramps from that one. Wood and Buster easily excelled there, with Buster out-lifting Wood. JD however only antagonised Kira until she summoned an Incendian Behemoth to attack him. But that was just what he wanted. With some quick acrobatics, he proceeded to tie a rope he had attached the heaviest weights to the Behemoth. The beast ended up doing all the hard work for him as he ran around the classroom dodging its strikes while it did the heavy lifting; technically winning the challenge. JD only added insult to injury when he tricked the Behemoth into severing the ropes just as it ran underneath the weights. When they came crashing down, it knocked the beast out cold, defeating Kira… again.

He was not looking forward to today’s challenges.

Kira turned angrily and stormed out of the broad, kitchen classroom. Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. As long as those two were not in the same room, they could actually do some learning. Skye crawled out from underneath the table and brushed his hair back while tip-toeing around the dead snakes on the ground while they continued to dissolve into a flurry of red particles.

“I’ll say that you’re pretty cool for dealing with Kira like that constantly, JD, but do you have to antagonise her all the time?” he asked. “I think poor Mrs. Levin is about to have a heart attack.”

“She’ll be fine,” muttered JD, already chopping up the enchanted white chocolate pieces with a different knife. Everyone else in the class was able to user their magical skills to make up time and prepare the ingredients easily. Across the room, he saw Wood casting a quick ice spell to flash freeze the raspberries to make them nice and crisp while Buster placed them in a blender.

“Kira is the kind of person that has to give up on her own,” continued the athletic, red Wulfun. “You can’t force her to surrender. She has to see it’s futile and make the decision to stop.”

I guess that’s true. All the encounters thus far have ended with Kira ending things. Whether it ends with JD being pummelled to a pulp or her turning away in frustration, it’s always her that calls it quits.

“I am sorry that she’s messing with everyone’s time here,” apologise the wolf, his blue eyes cast down. “Nothing I can do. I’m just hoping I can infuriate her enough that she’ll turn away and leave us alone on her own.”

“Don’t worry about it, bud!” came a loud, boisterous voice from across the table. Both young men looked up at the broad, grinning face of a chocolate-skinned human – Shaun Riley. “It’s pretty cool watching you go head to head with that crazy bitch! Isn’t that right, Nat?”

He nudged the rather portly, black-furred Panthrian standing right next to him. She was waving her fingers around in the air and causing all the ingredients to flitter about with ease.

“I’m busy right now, Shaun,” she said with a faint smile. Her long, white hair was in stark contrast with her black fur. She glanced towards JD with large, warm, red eyes. “But yes. Some of the things Lady Kira keeps asking us to do is just insane! I’m honestly glad you’re there to drive her away.”

JD grinned sheepishly. “Still. She’s only here because of me. If I wasn’t so much trouble, I’m sure you guys could get more out of your education.”

“Don’t be silly! I’m learning a lot!” Natalia suddenly held out a plate and right there, sitting in front of them was a perfectly golden pudding that was constantly jiggling and swimming in delicious looking raspberry puree.

JD gawked in surprise. “Holy crap! How’d you make that so fast!?” He glanced at the recipe. “You’re supposed to cool that thing for six hours for it to set or use a special spell to accelerate the crystallisation process of the gelatine!”

Natalia giggled bashfully. “Oh it’s nothing really. Cooking is really just about reorganising the atoms in something to change its shape.” She gave him a wink. “When you have the right spells and intimate knowledge of how food works, it’s easy!”

Skye smiled to himself quietly.

Natalia Sorivroska. A Gastromancer. She specialises in all things food. Her knowledge of the spells to make delicious food is simply extraordinary. Little wonder that her best class is Home Economics.

He glanced towards JD.

Though I wonder if she’d be useful in making poisons for JD given his former profession as an assassin.

“Can I try it?” JD asked, a spoon already in his paw.

“Of course!” Natalia said, beaming. “Here Shaun, you try too! I hope I didn’t make the puree too tart!”

Both JD and Shaun tried it. Their eyes rolled into the back of their heads and they looked like they were in heaven.

JD agreed, his long tail wagging happily behind him. “The perfect blend of sweet and sour! And the jiggling doesn’t stop! I feel it all the way down my throat and down in my stomach until it dissolves!”

“Mother Goddess, it’s wonderful!” squealed Shaun. The towering human with dark, black eyes swung his hands through the air and lights sprang from his fingertips. The bright wisps formed the words, ‘HEY GUY! CHECK OUT NAT’S PUDDING’ in the air.

Shaun Riley, Skye observed quietly. A nice guy and a Luxmancer with a specialisation in solid light. Where most Luxmancers would go for illusions or lasers, Shaun likes to make constructs. Very versatile but probably not as durable as Wood’s creations.

Natalia grinned broadly as the rest of the class began to crowd around her. “Awww, you guys are too sweet.”

“Hey Natalia!” JD exclaimed suddenly. “You should make some stuff for Wood’s gala this weekend!”

At the sound of his name, particularly from JD’s muzzle, the brawny Draconis who looked rather silly wearing an apron, went rigid. “Wait… what?”

“You’ve tried Natalia’s pudding, right? She should totally make something for your gala! It’ll be great!”

Skye felt something was a little… off with the offer. It came out of the blue and given that JD’s popularity had just started less than four days ago with the attack from the Fuocotan, it was a bit brazen of him.

Surely he sees that…?

“Uh… I don’t know,” Wood muttered. “We have professional caterers for the thing…”

“Have you tried her pudding?” JD pressed.

“Well, no but…”

“Here! Try then!” Without so much as another word, JD scooped some pudding from Natalia’s plate in a spoon and shoved it right into Wood’s muzzle. Whether it was the fact that the pudding was just that good or JD has just spoon-fed him, the effect on the green-scaled Draconis was instantaneous.

Basically turning into the same gelatinous mass as the pudding, Wood said, “Oh yeah… she should totally come…”

Naturally, with the rest of the class around, they pounced on one of the most popular student’s weakness.

“You’re throwing a party without us!?” Yvette Hartley whined. She curled around Wood’s meaty arms like a viper. “Why, Woody? Why would you forget us?”

Flustered, there was nothing the Bladebreaker heir could do but invite them all. “Uh… You can come too… I guess everyone could come.”

Through it all, Skye noticed that glint in JD’s eyes, the all-too-pleasant smile he wore.

He knew exactly what he was doing. This was no innocent sign of affection or shout-out of a classmate’s skills. He purposefully manipulated Wood to get the class invited… but why? To show off?

No… He’s not that kind of person. If he wanted to show off, he would’ve done that when he started school.

The rest of the class passed with the rest of them trying to replicate Natalia’s perfect pudding. She weaved through each of them trying to help them and even made a comment on JD’s ridiculously good knife-work. Skye – who was the Red Lightning’s partner – tried to observe the Wulfun and see what his game plan was for having manipulated Wood into inviting the vast majority of the class to the gala.

As they headed to their next class, his curiosity got the better of him.

He grabbed JD’s arm and pulled him to the back of the line of students heading to the training rooms. There was a clear reluctance in everyone as they knew that Kira would be waiting for them in the next room so they were approaching the next class slowly.

“Something on your mind, Skye?” asked the Wulfun, innocently enough.

Locking gazes with JD, the Tigris said, “Something’s not right.”

“Huh?”

“You manipulated Wood back there into inviting Natalia and some of the class to the gala this weekend. You barely know Natalia. Or Shaun. Or Yvette. We only invited you into our group two days ago and suddenly you’re inviting others to Wood’s party? Don’t you think that’s a little audacious?”

JD glanced away, seemingly ashamed. “Oh… Uh… I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Skye tightened his grip around the wolf’s arm. “I know you’re too clever for that, JD. You hid your abilities from us for months. You took Wood’s fireballs and Buster’s follow ups knowing full well you could doge them. You’re smarter than this.” He bared his fangs. “I admire what you did during the war but I will not let you endanger my friends!”

The innocent façade suddenly vanished and the hallway suddenly seemed to grow cold. JD’s eyes obtained that laser-like quality again and when he locked gazes with Skye, the poor Tigris couldn’t keep hold of it for more than two seconds before he dropped his gaze.

“You’re right, Skye,” rumbled JD grimly. “It was a ploy. I purposefully took up position opposite to Natalia knowing full well she’d show off her food spectacularly because Shaun was her partner. I knew how Wood would react to me spoon feeding him. Part of being an assassin is honing in on your enemy’s weak spot but also knowing your allies’ weaknesses so you can protect them.”

His eyes narrowed dangerously. “I have reason to believe that the Fuocotan will attack Wood’s gala.”

Suddenly, Skye was alert again and he lifted his gaze to meet JD’s even though the Wulfun was shorter than him. “Wh – What?”

“The gala celebrated the Reaching Flame, Skye. That’s the same charity that Konseral is the leader of.”

Oh shit… Why didn’t I see it before!?

“The Fuocotan wanted to kidnap Konseral. That means someone hired them to grab him. Further, they’re an assassination guild. The only reason why they’d kidnap someone instead of outright kill them is –”

“Because someone hired them!” Skye concluded, his eyes going wide. “They’re likely to attack Konseral at the gala or at least try something.” He looked past JD’s shoulder at the quickly departing students. “You want Natalia at the gala because her keep skills with food magic will likely detect any forms of poison. Yvette us an Acousmancer, skilled with sound. Anything that sounds off even in a crowded room, she’ll detect. Shaun could probably be used to quickly alert authorities or anyone if there’s danger.”

There was a small, impressed smile on JD’s muzzle. “Wow, that’s genuinely impressive. Nail on the head there.”

Skye grit his fangs and didn’t let go of JD’s arm. “You can’t just use people like that, JD.”

“I know but it’s either the Fuocotan try something and we catch it early or they don’t and a few other people in our class has some extra fun for one night. The way I figure it, it’s win-win.”

“But don’t you care about getting the others hurt!?”

“I won’t let it come to that, Skye.” JD pulled his arm free. “I’d rather die than let anyone else die while I watch.” His eyes were afire with determination again. “You can trust me on that. Never again.”

Skye was stunned by those words. So much so that he could only stand there in silence as JD turned and headed to their next class.

I always thought assassins were only good for killing.

But the weight behind JD’s words, the strong conviction and the strength behind them… He was utterly blown away by their sincerity. A realisation dawned upon him but he was unsure if he was right or not. He resolved to observe for now and followed the Wulfun into their next class – Practical Magic or as was often known ‘PracMac’.

Coupled well with their Magical Theory classes, PracMac involved them putting their magical skills to practice. Of course, with JD’s inability to cast magic, this was another class he usually sat out. Given that Kira was likely going to be there, Skye had to wonder exactly how this was going to play out.

Normally, the class was run by a short – almost dwarfish – Armadellian by the name of Mr. Flipwish. He carried with him a little wand made of stonelm which he used as his magical focus. With his long, flowing, white beard, he looked like a real wizard from all those fantasy books even if he did stand on a stool most of the time. While he stood at the front of the classroom, so did Kira which made Skye wonder what kind of defences he should erect in preparation for this class.

“Alright class, take your seats,” Mr. Flipwish said in his squeaky voice. “First thing is first. I’m sure you’ve already been introduced to Miss. Kurasama.”

“Lady –” Kira began but Flipwish just flicked his hand and whatever else came out of her mouth was silenced. Flipwish was usually a very cheerful fellow and took a positive approach to his teaching but clearly he was not too impressed by Kira.

“Due to the proximity of your trip down to Incendius, she has convinced me to start teaching you the finer points of Pyromancy which is the specialty of the Station of the Sun.” He cast his bright, green eyes hidden behind bushy white eyebrows around the class. “Can anyone tell me the three types of Ecclesial Pyromancy?”

Skye, who was seated right next to JD, immediately shot his paw into the air.

“Yes, Mr. King?”

“There’s the Ars Ignea Pungo or the Art of the Fiery Fist,” Skye responded without any signs of smugness. “Then there’s Fire Forging and the traditional Pyromantia.”

“Excellent! Ten points to –” Flipwish cut himself off immediately. Having come from a previous school that had constant house competitions and thus point distribution, he sometimes forgot that Pinnacle encouraged individual achievements and did not foster some sort of ‘house identity’. “Extra credit if you can identify the differences between them.”

Skye smiled softly, tilted his head to the side and shut his eyes as he tried to remember the texts he had read. “Well… the Ars Ignea Pungo is a variation of Sign Invocation. A combat magic style, they make sharp, sweeping gestures that are usually kicks and punches that form the symbols of the Illuminus Weizar that allow them to conjure fire in different forms.”

He remembered seeing videos of martial artists using the Ars Ignea Pungo. Their movements were quite beautiful to observe especially as they swept flames in all directions.

“Brilliant! Let’s give someone else a turn.” Flipwish turned to the rest of the class. “Can anyone tell me about Fire Forging?”

Wood raised his big hand. “Fire Forging is based off Runic Invocation,” rumbled the big Draconis. “You carve the runes of the Illuminus Weizar into a weapon and it can invoke flames at will. Good for quick spell casting and if you can apply a power source to the weapon, you can basically cast those spells for free. Problem is that it’s highly dependent on the kind of fuel and environment that the flames are summoned in. No room for flexible casting with Fire Forging.”

“Wonderful!” Flipwish clapped his tiny little hands happily. “What about Pyromantia? Can anyone tell me about that?”

Buster was the first time as he raised his hand enthusiastically “Oh! I know! It’s When you say the words of the Weizar and cast the spell! I saw it being cast on a vid once and the announcer called it Nova Super Penis!”

The entire class turned to look at Buster in a mixture of shock and amusement. Buster, who now seemed to immediately regret opening his mouth in the first place, ducked his head down in shame.

“It’s Nova Supremis,” chimed in Yvette from the other side of the room. “And it’s the most powerful Pyromancy spell out there. It created a miniature sun.”

Flipwish was jumping from foot to foot happily making him look like a little imp. Kira was clearly not impressed. “Perfect! Now can anyone tell me of the non-sanctioned forms of Pyromancy?”

Skye found himself drawing a blank which was often something that didn’t experience. As a bookworm, he had scoured the books on magic from cover to cover. He had heard of the non-sanctioned forms of Pyromancy but since they were not approved by the Church, books on them were scarce. The Generals were changing that but it would take time to write material on that.

When no one answer, Kira’s eyes fell on JD.

“Clarke-sama?” she prompted. “You know these.”

“Do I really?” countered the Red Lightning, appearing bored.

Flipwish smiled at the Wulfun encouragingly. “If you do, Mr. Clarke, please share with us.”

JD straightened from where he sat and shut his eyes briefly. “The non-sanctioned forms of Pyromancy… There’s the Ashland Arts.” He glanced towards Skye. “You mentioned this before, Skye. The Ash Priests of Searanti use this to art to eat away at the Spirit energy of a person, cremate them, take the memories of that person from others and infuse it into the ashes of their corpse and make golems. There are more spells to it including the ‘Red Sun’ spell that conjures a lot of ash that blots out light and turns it red, intensifying their spells.”

Skye blinked in surprise. Notes on the Ashland Arts and the priests of the Searanti were scarce. There was nothing that said they were non-sanctioned arts. Though he could’ve guessed given that practice was predominantly used by a people who opposed most of Tower Thirteen and the Church_._

“Then there’s the more obvious,” JD said. “Daemonium Ignis. Fire corrupted by demonic magic. Burns just as bad as fire but if you survive it, it generally starts corrupting you. Most practitioners use it to bind Fire Demons to their will. Usually they end up letting their Fire Demons do their work for them and they can stand back and cast their own spells from a distance while the Demons act like their shock troopers.”

He’s speaking from experience. Were these techniques he learned about during the Fall?

“Then there’s the often rumoured Adramalech’s Wings.” JD leaned against the desk, tapping it with a single finger. “Don’t know about this one, I admit. Only saw it once and wasn’t really sure if it really was that kind of magic. Basically practitioners try to embody fire. So much so that they use magic to mutate themselves to be able to cast spells or produce fire naturally.”

“That’s weird!” Yvette exclaimed.

“It’s gross, even,” JD said, turning in his seat to face her. “The lady I met had these… growths on her shoulders and palms. It could spew fire as naturally as a drake would breathe fire.”

Kira grunted in agitation. “She was very annoying. Very fast. She would launch herself into the air with those flames on her palms, steer with the ones coming from her shoulders. Completely insane, however.”

“It comes with constant pain and inability to cast magic,” added Flipwish with a nod. “By accepting these mutations, you are effectively rerouting your natural ability to cast all forms of magic through your body, causing these changes and forcing your excess Spirit and Force energy to be converted into naked flames. But our bodies are not meant to have such changes so those who practice the Wings often go mad.”

Kind of like how you work your skills, huh, JD?

Their teacher suddenly grew grim and sombre. “Then, of course, there is the most unholy of Pyromancy variations.”

The room suddenly went cold and time itself seemed to stand still.

“Chronomancy,” Skye whispered. “I should’ve guessed that was non-sanctioned.”

Flipwish nodded slowly, his usual glee gone. “Though the techniques on exactly how Chronomancers used their magic to create fire-like spells is unknown, we do know their impact. For example, the greatest of Chronomancers to use Pyromancy-like effects was none-other than Pyrannos. This Equius almost set all of Incendius alight with his golden flames until he was stopped.”

Skye shuddered at the very thought of the Chronomancers, the dark masters of time who nearly overthrew all of Tower Thirteen a thousand years ago. Even now, evidence of their reign still invoked nightmares in children all over the world. There were vids that existed of how Chronomancers would grab someone by their face and slowly drain their Time out of them, rapidly aging the poor soul until they were nothing but dust. The fact that they were also Time Locked meant that they were nearly immortal. How the Church managed to ever defeat them was a wonder.

“Though not truly a form of Pyromancy,” Flipwish lectured, waving his wand around as he spoke, “certain techniques of Chronomancy replicate the effects of fire. Perhaps the most well-known is ‘Chronomancer’s Fire’. Based on research, it would rapidly stimulate the particles in the air, creating friction for the initial burst of golden flames. Then, when applied to a target, it would cause the same reaction in the target’s very atoms, eating away at the molecular structure of the subject regardless of how strong the bonds between their atoms and releasing that all in the form of energy that would feed the golden flames. It was known as the All-Burning Flame.”

The impish teacher flicked his wand through the air. “Anyway, let us move on. This is a Practical Magic lesson and not a lecture. So…” He bowed ever so slightly towards the masked Lady Kurasama. “… if you wouldn’t mind, Milady?”

Kira nodded slightly in return and flicked her cape back. Everyone in the class – save perhaps for JD and Clive Mirasaka – flinched. The runes hidden within Kira’s cape glowed but instead of a fiery drake head or angry Fire Badgers, there emerged a strange, wry creature. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, two legs, two arms, and its body was made of a sleek, white material with glowing red lights emerging from between its joints. Its head was oval-shaped and completely featureless. If it didn’t move of its own accord, Skye would have guessed it was some sort of training dummy.

“This is a Magic Mannequin,” said Flipwish. “Only expert summoners are able to truly control them since they have no means of autonomous movement and require micromanagement to move. In the heat of battle, it will be akin to moving a second body while you defend yourself as well.”

“That seems very impractical,” said Clive Mirasaka. The black-feathered Avios sat near the back of the room, in the farthest corner from the front of the class. Ever-brooding, quiet and rarely speaking, the big, muscled bird had sharp, keen, blue eyes that almost had the same intensity as JD’s. The fact that he always wore a shitagi of Diatollian influence but made with Havenese material indicated that he had the same ancestry as Kira.

“Perhaps to the untrained,” Kira answered curtly. “However, the benefits of Mannequins are that they can be infused with any sort of magic or spell thanks to their etherium core. This allows them to either be filled with a pre-prepared spell for quick use or as suicide bombers that can be easily replenished thanks to a summoner’s ability to re-summon them quickly.”

“As you all know class,” Flipwish continued, “etherium is a special metal. Though it is as brittle as glass, it is able to store and conduct all forms of magic regardless of the school. Many of our magical-storage facilities and conduits are made of etherium.”

He turned towards the summoned Mannequin. “So today, our objective will be to defeat this Mannequin. I will infuse it with a spell from one of the three Ecclesial schools of Pyromancy. It will be your job to figure out which one it is using and how to defeat it. However you must use only Pyromancy to defeat it. Keep in mind that every school has its own pros and cons so stay on your toes!” He waved his wand at the Mannequin and the red light from its joints shone a little more brightly for a second. “So who is first?”

One by one the class stepped up in front of everyone and faced off the Mannequin. Kira controlled the Mannequin itself while Flipwish infused it with energy to maintain its magical power. Skye found it quite educational. He also got a peak at everyone’s level of Pyromancy and was pleasantly surprised at the skills of some of his classmates. Up until this point, everyone had focused on their own specialities but when forced to use a school of magic they were unfamiliar with, it was quite enlightening.

Natalia, for instance. As a Gastromancer, she was mostly a non-combatant but could user her culinary magic in a fight if needed. The entire class watched as she stepped nervously up to the front of the glass, her paws shaking. The Mannequin charged at her the moment Flipwish called for them to begin. The Mannequin was using Ars Ignea Pungo with exceptional skill. It made a few signs through the air, its fingers moving quickly to invoke the Illuminus Weizar before throwing a punch at Natalia. The poor Panthrian was slow due to her bulk and though she dodged in time, the blast of flame that followed singed her left shoulder, burning the floral pink vest she wore and burning away half of her blue tie.

Skye was halfway out of his seat when JD pulled him back down.

Natalia fell onto her rear but quickly reached for her pocket, pulling out what appeared to be a pill dispenser. She flicked a switch on the side and popped a small, red pill into her muzzle. The moment she swallowed, her eyes bulged. The Mannequin advanced coming to within melee range. Natalia quickly puffed out her cheeks before blowing out a tremendous torrent of intense, white flames. Only the Mannequin’s shins and feet were left afterwards.

“Excellent!” exclaimed Flipwish. “Your elemental pills are coming along nicely, Miss. Soriveska!”

“I think I burnt my tongue…” Natalia commented, sticking out her tongue.

Shaun didn’t have much expertise in Pyromancy but when the Mannequin whispered some spells from and launched a fireball at him, he conjured a wall of light. The ball slid along the wall and Shaun easily led it back straight at the Mannequin. Flipwish looked a little exasperated.

“Not… exactly what I had in mind but good job nonetheless.”

It just proved how inventive the members of Class 989 were.

When it was Wood’s turn, he showed off his skill both as an aspiring-Paladin and an expert weapon smith. As the Mannequin charged at him, once again using the Art of the Fiery Fist, Wood lifted his right arm. Transparent, blue cubes erupted from his back, from the four Matter Converters strapped to his back. The cubes, commanded by Wood mentally, quickly came together and formed the long nozzle of a flamethrower and the attached fuel tank. The torrent of flame that blasted out destroyed the Mannequin even before it could get close to him.

“Well… I guess it used fire,” Flipwish sighed.

Then there was Buster. Skye knew, for a fact, that he had no skill in Pyromancy. When the Mannequin, its body suddenly infused with flames, charged at Buster and its arms afire with enchanted flames, Buster charged right back at him. Buster, muscles bulging and veins throbbing, caught the Mannequin in a massive bearhug and just squeezed! There was a tremendous boom as the Mannequin’s etherium core ruptured and exploded. The smoke quickly cleared and Buster uncurled his arms, letting the destroyed Mannequin fall to the ground at his feet. He was singed and a little burned but his wounds were quickly healing.

Flipwish was speechless.

The rest of their classmates were equally impressive. Yvette – her specialty was with Acousmancy used her powerful spells to ‘silence’ the Mannequin’s abilities to use Pyromantia, rendering it useless. She didn’t even lift a finger apart from that and turned haughtily back towards her seat. Flipwish commented that it demonstrated her understanding of Pyromancy and let it slide.

Clive Mirasaka was a specialist with Hydromancy as was tradition amongst Diatollians. But he also showed clear skills with Pyromancy when he shot a blast of searing steam at the Mannequin that was so caustic it melted the doll’s joints clear off.

Flipwish was very impressed with that.

Skye took his turn. It impressed him immensely that neither Kira nor Flipwish showed any signs of exhaustion even after going through almost thirty students of spells and Mannequins. Even Rayne had a bit of trouble in that regard.

“Alright Mr. King,” said Flipwish. “Signal me when you are ready to begin.”

Skye took a deep breath and briefly closed his eyes. The rest of the class vanished around him and for a moment, he was plunged into absolute darkness as he blocked out the physical world. Then bright, ethereal lines began appearing in his mind’s eye. It was everywhere like tiny threads of mesmerising light flittering about. Each line had a particular colour and texture to it signifying the kind of magical energy it was bound to. He could see the fiery red with jagged edges that wound in with the Mannequin was Flipwish’s magic. The way the lines were wrapped around the arms and legs of the Mannequin indicated that it was using the Arts of the Fiery Fist.

For a brief moment, he looked to the rest of the class. He could see the solid, thick, silver lines that linked Wood’s Matter Converters to his magical reserves. Buster’s fleshy pink and bumpy lines were his Physiomancy always at the ready. He could even see Kira’s pure white lines which told him that summoning magic was akin to Divine Magic. Then, of course, there was JD’s pure, blue lines – pure energy – that were whisper thin and looked like a complete mess likely due to his disability. It astounded him that the Red Lightning could even live with such a disrupted system.

He looked towards the Mannequin, slowing opening his eyes. Mentally, he grasped all the free lines around him and wound them beneath him. It was almost like he was standing on stilts made of these different strings. The effect was that he was lifted about a foot off the ground.

Skye opened his eyes. “I’m ready.”

Flipwish nodded to Kira. The Lady Summoner was momentarily distracted by Skye’s display of magic and she quickly blinked to bring her full attention to moving the Mannequin. The training dummy charged forward, both its hands and feet becoming encased in flames.

Those lines of magic overlayed what he was seeing. Based on how they were moving, he could tell that the Mannequin was going to try for the leg sweep attack known as ‘Flame Sickle’. Skye immediately unwound the strings beneath his feet, letting the force of all those magical energies uncoiling like a spring propel him higher into the air. As he predicted, the Mannequin unleashed a wide, sweeping kick that would’ve hit him on the chest. Though the initial physical attack missed, a burst of flame erupted from the Mannequin’s foot, launching out in the shape of a crescent and spinning through the air like someone had thrown a flaming sickle at him.

Skye saw the magical energies bound in the spell and seized it. He pulled at the strings, winding them around his own paws and unravelling the spell. The Flame Sickle dissipated not even a foot off the Mannequin’s leg with the raging red fire winding around Skye’s paws. When the Tigris landed, he remained a foot off the ground while the flames in his paws curled and twisted through the air to form fiery, red birds no bigger than a sparrow.

Kira’s eyes widened in surprise while Flipwish was beaming in pride. Skye was his favourite student of Class 989 after all.

He launched the sparrows right at the Mannequin. The semi-sentient projectiles swerved through the air, sweeping past the Mannequin’s lifted arms as it tried to block. They smashed into the dummy’s back, each erupting in a burst of flame and smoke.

The Mannequin fell to the ground, defeated.

“Bravo! Bravo!” Flipwish exclaimed, applauding loudly. “Well done, Mr. King!”

Skye landed on the ground and bowed gratefully both towards Flipwish and Kira Kurasama. To his surprise, Kira returned the bow, a sign of respect from a Diatollian. When he took his seat, JD was smiling at him.

“That was amazing,” said the Red Lightning.

“Thanks!” Skye laughed, blushing lightly and rubbing the back of his neck. Stephen Claxton took up the next Mannequin. “Just a little trick I learned, that’s all.”

“The smallest tricks are often all we need to win a battle.”

After Stephen – who was always trying to be bigger than both Buster and Wood – was Irina Langley. The timid Vulpunus was probably the only one of the class to actually ‘fail’ the exercise as the Mannequin launched a few intimidating attacks at her and she fell to the ground, weeping. Flipwish apologised and let her go back to her seat.

Then came the last person in the class. “Mr. Clarke,” said white-haired Armadellian. “Would you like to try your hand against the Mannequin?”

JD was back to being cheery and sociable. He wrapped an arm around Skye’s neck, pointing at the Tigris with a grin. “Naw, I’m good. Don’t think I’ll be able to do anything that would ever come close what this guy did!” He clapped Skye’s chest. “Way to set the bar really high, man!”

“You mean you won’t even try, Clarke-sama?” Kira prompted.

JD’s grin faded slightly. “No thanks. I can’t use magic in any form. I’d automatically fail because I can’t beat the Mannequin with Pyromancy.”

Wow… It takes a big man to admit he can’t do anything.

“Nonsense!” Flipwish said, waving for him to step up. “Come on, Mr. Clarke. Please. Even if you cannot use Pyromancy, let us see how you deal with someone who uses it against you.”

“I’ll get burnt to a crisp!”

BAM!

There was a loud slam from the back of the room.

“Stop stalling and just do it, Clarke!” bellowed Clive Mirasaka. “Do not dishonour Lady Kurasama’s efforts here by refusing her generous offer!”

JD’s features fell back into his grim setting again and his eyes became like lasers. “Alright. If that’s what you want, Clive.” He rose from his seat, slowly. The entire class held their breath as the Red Lightning took up position opposite to the Mannequin.

Skye observed Kira and Flipwish’s magical ley lines. At the very least, they weren’t putting in more effort than before. That told him that Kira was at least honourable. What he could tell was that the Mannequin was going to use Pyromantia next. He wanted to warn JD of it but had to bite his tongue. His friend would not be able to prove anything if he got help.

“Shall we begin?” Flipwish asked.

JD only nodded shortly.

The Mannequin moved –

Then JD was gone, reappearing right behind Flipwish. The Wulfun kicked the stool out from beneath their professor and the impish Armadellian screamed as he toppled towards the ground. JD immediately seized the scuff of the teacher’s shirt, keeping him from hitting the ground. Kira was frozen in place, a single stylus just an inch from her left eye.

The entire class froze.

“Best way to deal with any form of magic,” JD said darkly. “Hit the source.” In one swift movement, he kicked up the stool once more and set Flipwish upon it. He pulled the stylus away from Kira’s eye and deftly slipped it back into Flipwish’s breast pocket where it once rested.

Skye was reminded once again that as an assassin, JD was skilled at finding an enemy’s weakness and exploiting it. He would not try to be flashy or even adhere to any sort of honour code of battle. If a weakness presented itself, he would exploit it. Flipwish and Kurasama were both so focused on the Mannequin that they never considered defending themselves. Without either of them controlling the training dummy, it would be helpless.

I wonder when he noticed this weakness…

Calibre Grade (Wood)

A Gala for Charity

Even though the event was meant to be for ‘high-society’ and a lot of Haven’s richest would be there Wood still absolutely loathed dressing up for it. Still, he knew what was expected of him. So despite his reservations, he still dressed up in a black mana-weave suit, put on polished, black shoes, added golden caps to the tip of his tail, horns and edges of his wings, brushed out his blonde mane and promised his mother that he would be as sociable as possible while being on his best behaviour. But he absolutely would not wear a tie.

He hated ties.

The Bladebreakers had their own ‘Entertainment Manor’ which was built exclusively just for entertaining guests. This was separate from Wood’s own mansion or Gloria’s and was located at the edge of the mote they owned. The purpose was for both security reasons and to impress people. It would be the only thing guests would really see when an event was being thrown and leave the Bladebreaker’s private plots away from prying eyes. It was big enough that it could easily fit over three hundred people in the four major entertainment halls – the Atrium, the Gallery, the Ballroom and the Solar.

The Atrium was the first thing everyone saw and it was filled with the big Bladebreaker logo, vid screens and was generally the noisiest of the four rooms. To its right was the Gallery. Walled off and with no windows, the gallery was filled with paintings and works of art that Gloria had acquired over the years. It was generally very quiet. To the left of the Atrium was the Solar. With one entire wall made entirely of glass and with a patio past the glass, it was the brightest of the rooms and had large, luxurious chairs where people could have quiet conversation. Deeper into the manor and connected to both the Solar and the Atrium was the Ballroom. A band was playing there and there were tables out on the edges of the dance floor. A buffet table was also available.

Wood, as the son of the hostess, was obliged to wander around the Atrium and greet anyone that came in because that was just the polite thing to do. He beamed when Skye arrived, the first of his friends to arrive.

“Hey Skye!” he said, waving at the Tigris. “You clean up really well!”

Like him, Skye wore a suit but unlike him, he kept a few of his tribal necklaces over his suit so he was never too far from his Miasman roots. He pulled Skye into a manly shake, patting his friend’s back gladly.

“I take it you’re bored witless right about now?” asked the ever-observant Tigris.

“I’m just glad you came on by,” he sighed. “You can’t imagine how boring it is greeting people with the same line over and over again.” He gave Skye a pleading stare. “Please save me.”

“Poor entitled baby.”

That voice made him bristle. Skye’s expression turned apologetic. Kira Kurasama swept forward, never without her cloak though he did spy that she was wearing a black dress beneath it. The lower half of her face was still masked, of course.

“Sorry Wood,” Skye muttered. “I ran into her on the way here and she insisted on coming.”

“You weren’t invited,” Wood growled, baring his fangs.

Her strong yet silken arms wrapped around Skye’s. “Poor King-kun lamented that he was attending this gala without a date and how Clarke-sama had found someone. I thought I would save King-kun’s night of boredom by accompanying him.”

Clearly that was not Skye’s idea as the Tigris just kept head down in apology to Wood.

“And you found a dress on such short notice too…” growled the burly Draconis.

“I am skilled with all forms of summoning. Arms summoning is trivial for me.”

Forcing a grin, Wood just said, “I’m sure it is. Why don’t you help yourself to some canapes? We’ve got a buffet in the ballroom as well. If you would care to peruse some of my mother’s art, head on to the Gallery. We’ve gone some exotic wines in the Solar too.”

Kira batted her eyes. “This place is so big. I would not want to get lost. I think I shall hover here and help you greet guests. Has Clarke-sama arrived?”

You’re so transparent.

“Not yet.”

Thankfully, he was saved when Buster entered and loudly greeted him. “Wood! Hey bud!” Wood had to buy Buster a custom-made suit just for this occasion because the bull was just too big for anything off the shelf. Even with that, however, Buster was… well, busting out of his suit. Every movement seemed to make the ablative-type suit groan in protest. It was meant to adapt to his every step but it looked like it was having a hard time keeping up with the Bovios’ enthusiastic gestures.

Right behind Buster were a few of his fellow classmates. Of course Yvette she made a beeline for Wood. Where all the other women were dressed in elegant gowns and dressed, she went for a rather short skirt and a figure-hugging red top that had such short strings that he was fairly sure it was made of some sort of floss. It did a lot to show off her ample bosom, though, and certainly complimented her red lipstick.

“Woody!” she squealed, immediately wrapping herself around his arm. “Thanks so much for inviting me! This place looks fantastic!”

“Uh… Right. No problem Yvette.”

Besides Yvette, Natalia and Irina had also come. Natalia was a little abashed as she seemed to be carrying a tray of food with her.

Did she prepare something?

“Hi Nat,” he said. “What’s that?”

If Natalia’s fur wasn’t completely black, he was sure she would have turned bright red at that point. “It’s… uhm… It’s just some Rainbow Rolls I made… I… I thought it was only polite.”

No one spoke for a long, awkward moment especially when one of the waitresses came by and offered them some freshly made, smoked salmon bites with dill cream and served on crisp potato chips. No one took any while Natalia shook in embarrassment.

Until, that is, that Kira moved forward and gently rested her hand on Natalia’s paw. “In Diatollian culture, it is custom to bring something when entering someone else’s house. It is just common courtesy.”

“Really?”

Wood thought he saw Kira smiling beneath her mask. “Yes, really.” Then Kira turned her gaze to the Draconis. “Wood, where should Natalia put these?”

“Uh…” He thought quickly. “How about you bring them to the kitchen? I’m sure the chef could find a place to put them.”

Natalia smiled shakily. “Oh… Alright.”

“I’ll go with you Nat,” Irina Langley said. One would expect a Vulpunus to be rather busty and quite sex-crazed as the stereotype around their race usually suggested. However, Irina was quite flat chested and timid. Though she stood at seven-foot-four, the fact that she always had her large ears folded down beside her tumbling, brown hair made her look smaller. Wood honestly never really noticed her that much. Even the dress she wore was a little unassuming – a simple black frock with silver edges. If the maids and waitresses weren’t dressed so differently, one could easily mistake her for one of the staff.

Buster also had some of the other guys behind him including Shaun, Clive and Stephen. He was surprised Clive wasn’t wearing anything overly dour and the Avios actually cleaned up very well. Stephen was a simple Rodetian with grey fur and was always competing with himself and Buster on who could be the most ripped and the biggest in term of size. Rodetians were traditionally quite small, barely passing six feet tall at best. Stephen was the exception, rising past seven feet and coming just a few inches shorter than Wood – though he often looked smaller because of Wood’s wingspan and horns. Wood honestly thought that Stephen was bigger in terms of muscle to him, but he could never compete against Buster who specialised in magic specially to build bulk. Strangely, Stephen’s specialty was Psychomancy – the magic of the mind.

“Hey guys!” Wood greeted, clapping Stephen’s meaty forearm with a grin.

“Thanks for inviting us,” Stephen answered.

“Though it was really JD who got you invited,” Skye quipped. “Where is he, anyway?”

As if on cue, a bit of murmuring cut through the crowd at the entrance. Wood turned and sure enough, there was Jack Denver Clarke alongside his father, Alexander Clarke. While Alex was dressed in a snazzy, black suit, JD stuck out as cutting through the norm. A jacket hung around his shoulders, its short sleeves remaining black while the rest of the jacket itself was white. Beneath that was a sleek, black shirt with the stylised emblem of a three-headed dock on it. There was a golden chain running from his right shoulder to his left hip beneath the jacket and just over the shirt. A brown, belt with the metal of the buckle shaped like the same three-headed dog held up a pair of – admittedly new-looking – hexweave blue pants. His feet were completely bare. A white scarf was wrapped around his right bicep, just hanging a little past his hip.

Wood could feel Yvette scowl even without looking at her. He found the Wulfun even more impressive for wearing something so… casual.

“JD!” Buster exclaimed, spreading his arms wide. “You made it!” The big bull stormed over to the red Wulfun and hoisted him boldly through the air. With a quick hug, JD let out a sort of strained squeak as the bull’s massive muscles constricted around him.

Buster carried the wolf all the way to the group and set him down.

“Don’t you think you’re a little underdressed?” scowled Yvette.

“I tried to convince him to put on something a little more formal,” chuckled Alex, adjusting his bowtie. “But he insisted on wearing something practical.”

JD shrugged absently. “Besides, I’m still trying to get the bloodstains out of my one and only suit.”

Blood…stains…?

Catching his classmate’s expressions, JD held up his paws and grinned sheepishly. “Oh don’t worry. It’s not my blood. Those guys never touched me. Just that when you stab someone’s jugular you just have to be ready for the splashback.” He glanced off to the side and with a sheepish smile, scratched his cheek absently. “Honestly, I’m almost tempted to just die the entire suit red if it’ll be easier. Might go with my fur!”

None of their expressions faded though Kira did roll her eyes. People were starting to stare and from the look of some of his guests’ features, they had overheard what the Red Lightning had to say. Some were already checking their phones or tablets and confirming the Wulfun’s identity.

I’ve got to get him away from the entrance before someone causes a scene. Where is the least crowded right now.

Wood glanced to his left.

The Gallery? No. It’s too quiet and people are way too attentive there right now.

He looked to his right.

What about the Solar? Bad idea. People would be buzzed and that would give them some balls to approach a legendary assassin.

The Ballroom! Yes!

“Uh… why don’t we all go into the Ballroom for some food?” he suggested. “There’s food there!”

“Sounds great!” JD said, a brilliant smile on his features. “I’m starved.”

Wood escorted the party into the ballroom. Though there weren’t a lot of people here – at least as much as the atrium – there was a sea of tables that they could easily get lost in. All the tables were positioned on the outer edges of the vast dance, wooden, chequered dancefloor. A flight of stairs led upwards from the four corners of the dancefloor to a second glass version a good distance above it. From the second floor were some walkways that led to some more private dining booths in a special second floor that the Ballroom possessed. The band was positioned at the far end on a broad stage all by themselves. The buffet, ten tables long, was on the right.

Wood’s hope of sneaking JD unnoticed into the Ballroom, however, failed the moment he realised that Konseral Darmin was in the same room.

“There he is!”

The big, booming exclamation came from the Porcinus who had occupied one of the tables close to the door. Wood felt the blood rush out of his cheeks when he realised his mother was dining right next to the guest of honour. He mentally kicked himself.

Of course, Konseral would be near the front of the Ballroom! It’s basic room positioning! The moment people sit down, they’re not going to get up so of course you put the guest of honour near the entrance so everyone can meet them!

Gloria Bladebreaker was dressed in a stunning, white dress that, in the perfect light, would shift to silver. As she moved, it was like watching quicksilver cascading down her supple figure. To match this, she had silver caps on her horns, wings tail and even over her claws. She rose from her seat and wandered over to them with Konseral right behind him.

Her bright, blue eyes looked over JD. “You must be the Red Lightning.”

Oh crap! Please mom, don’t chew JD out for his attire! Don’t embarrass me!

Suddenly, Gloria grabbed JD’s paw and instantly bowed to him. Given that she was a whole foot taller than him, it was quite a distance to bow down.

“Thank you so much!” she exclaimed.

Wood along with his companions were all stunned. Konseral and some of the nearby guests stared in shock as well.

“You saved my son that day,” Gloria said, her voice welling up with emotion. “Of all the people in Pinnacle, the experienced staff, the well-trained students and even the security officers, you were the one that acted over everyone else. You saved Wood. You saved them all. I’m sure you’re tired of thanks for that event but…” She lifted her gaze, her blue eyes shining. “… thank you.”

Stunned by her words, Wood could only whisper, “Mom…”

JD actually blushed a little beneath his red fur, tinging the whites around his muzzle pink. “You’re welcome, Mrs. Bladebreaker but I really didn’t do anything special. I was just the fastest to act, that’s all.” He gestured behind him at the other students. “Everyone here has the capacity to do what I did and probably with more style and restraint. It just so happens that with my experience out in the battlefield, I was the first to get over my shock over the attack.”

“Still,” Gloria said, releasing his paw. “I am eternally grateful to you. Please, make yourself at home and know that you are always welcome here. In fact, I heard you were bringing your father. If you would like a tour of our mote at any time, please let me know.”

“Thanks! In fact, if you want to meet my dad…” JD shuffled aside to make way for Alex who strode forward. Alex immediately took Gloria’s hand before it fully drifted to her side and bent down, kissing her fingers very lightly.

“A pleasure, I am Alexander Clarke. You’ve already met my son.”

Suddenly, Wood was caught in a different sense of alarm. Was Alex Clarke putting the moves on his mom!? He could swear Alex’s voice was even a little deeper to make it sound all the manlier. Gloria was clearly caught off guard by Alex’s presence as well and she was momentarily flustered by the display of charm.

JD picked up on the silence by glancing towards Konseral. “Mr. Darmin, did you come here alone?”

Konseral grinned at him. Like many of the other guests, he was dressed in a suit but his was white with a red trim. The emblem of his charity, the Reaching Flame was also painted on his sleeves and the back of his jacket – it appeared as a stylised hand grasping a naked tongue of flame.

“Actually no,” answered the boar. “After the events that we all shared, I have employed some personal security.” He gestured behind his shoulder for someone to head over. A tall, slim Racoorin stepped forward. She was dressed in a tight-fitting white and red, leather suit that made her look a little manly especially with her powerful square shoulders that made her comparable bust look small but she was nonetheless quite fetching. Her short, black hair was styled in spikes and her long, black and white tail was decorated by bright, metal rings. Wood recognised those rings to be Rune Rings.

“You’ll excuse my rudeness,” he said, pointing at the female’s rings. “But weapons are strictly not allowed here.”

The Racoorin gave him a pleasant smile. “What? These?” She waved her tail in front of her face, slyly and perhaps even seductively brushing it over her eyes. “They are harmless and really here just for style. After all, poor charity workers like us need to make the best of what we can to look fashionable for gold-blooded Stratonians like yourself, right?”

Wood bristled at the insult. ‘Gold-blooded’ was a derogatory term used to describe the people who lived in the high-society of Strato Haven. It was an allusion to their penchant for using gold in a lot of their architecture.

“Let’s not resort to name calling,” Konseral said quickly. “Please apologise Sylana.”

“I do apologise,” came the very quick response. Wood’s wings ruffled in agitation.

“I also had another companion join us from my security team.” Konseral glanced around, shading his eyes as he tried to look for his second companion. “Now where did he go… Ah! There he is!” He waved a meaty arm through the air. “Roran! Roran! Come meet some special guests!”

Wood turned… and felt his heart immediately stop.

From the dancefloor, sweaty and with his white jacket draped over his shoulder was a huge, towering muscle of tiger meat that he immediately recognised. There was no mistaking those thick, meaty arms built over years of working the forge or that strong powerful gait that came with the confidence and experience of fighting in one of Incendius’ most momentous conflicts. Brown eyes that remained as sharp as they always did were framed by a strong, masculine features that were made all the more handsome by the presence of a brown-haired goatee with a few flecks of grey.

“Holy crap!” Wood exclaimed. “That’s Roran Northridge!” He was practically squealing in delight, his tail thumping excitedly behind him. He did not notice at all that both Buster and Alex Clarke were paying keen attention to Roran’s sweat-stained white shirt and how they perfectly outlined his muscular structure beneath their fabric.

“Who?” JD asked. In his excitement, Wood didn’t notice the dark, calculating tone in his friend’s voice.

“He is one of the two twenty smiths on Incendius! He’s actually ranked number 14! He was the one that forged the Sundrop Crown for the Sultan of the Sunless Lands! He got the job after forging the Calamity Flame, a powerful claymore that was gifted to the Sultan! His expertise lies in fusing fire and divine energies into weapons! Anything he produces isn’t at all flashy or overly stylistic but they’re all beautiful and very practical, taking into consideration the purpose, intended users and factors that would see the weapons used! He’s one of the top 100 smiths in all of Tower Thirteen!”

“Huh…” grunted Clive. “Fanboy much?”

Wood ignored him and immediately seized Roran’s strong, calloused paw the moment he came within range. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Northridge! I’ve a fan! I’ve followed all your design processes and your career! I can’t believe you’re here!”

Konseral let out a soft laugh as Wood continued to shake Roran’s paw rapidly. “Roran signed up to the Reaching Flame a few years ago just after the Fall of Haven. He saw value in using his talents to help Haven heal and so he came with us here. In light of the recent situation, he has been equipping my security team with some weaponry to keep us safe from further attack.”

Those words prompted Wood to release Roran’s paw and he glanced around, noticing the men and women dressed in white and red. They all possessed Rune Rings, some wrapped around their wrists and others even around their necks.

I should’ve recognised Roran’s handiwork. Practical, powerful and easily accessible.

“Pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Bladebreaker,” Roran laughed softly, his deep, rumbling voice drawing Wood back into fanboy mode. Thankfully, JD and Skye were there to pull him away.

“Why don’t we let the adults talk?” suggested Skye.

“Yeah, I’m still starving,” JD added. He nodded towards Konseral. “Let’s talk again later, Mr. Darmin. Right now, this growing kid needs something in his belly.”

Konseral gave them his blessing and they headed towards the buffet. Wood was still reeling that Roran Northridge was here. They began gathering around the buffet table which, thus far, had remained mostly untouched by the guests as it was still early in the night.

“I never knew you following the smithing world so avidly, Wood,” JD commented.

“Of course!” Wood exclaimed with a bright grin, his tail constantly thumping the ground. “Why do you think I chose Matter Converters as my weapon of choice? I just love building weapons. I guess it runs in the family given my mom’s a weapons distributor.”

“I guess I always thought it was because you were waiting for your Valour,” commented Yvette who stood on Wood’s other side. “I’ve heard times when Paladins would train to use one weapon and then it turns out their Valour was entirely different and they basically have to start from square one.”

“Makes sense,” chimed in JD. “A Matter Converter would allow you to build any weapon you wanted so you could be a jack-of-all-trades until you get the right weapon.”

Wood laughed softly and shook his head. “Nah. Smithing is just my passion, that’s all. I still want to be a Paladin to help people. I’ve never been too skilled with Divine Magic but I’ve always liked the idea of creating stuff, you know? That’s why I went into smithing. It’s also why my specialty is Ferromancy, Metal Magic.”

“Maybe you can make me a nice weapon, Wood,” Yvette prompted, not so subtly leaning forward towards the food so that her buxom bosom was on display. Wood had to admit that he liked what he saw. “I’d really love to be able to carry around a piece of you with me.”

Wood found himself starting to grin. “Oh yeah?” He leaned down as well, pretending to examine the various rice dishes while actually positioning himself so that his muzzle was right against Yvette’s ear. “Think you’re strong enough for my equipment?”

She blushed and giggled.

A cough reminded him that JD was right next to him. But when he straightened, he realised it was Buster hovering beside him and the Wulfun was nowhere to be seen.

“Uh… Where’s JD?” he asked.

Buster shrugged, looking at him sourly. “I honestly don’t know. One second he was standing here then you started flirting with the slut over there. I rolled my eyes because it was just that kind of exchange and then he was gone.”

Yvette protested at being called a slut but was mostly ignored.

Oh crap! Did JD see me flirt with Yvette!? Fuck! What’d he think of me now!?

Wood looked towards Skye and Kira who only offered helpless shrugs.

“Bro, why are you even worried about him?” Stephen asked, picking up a whole rack of beef and placing it on his place. The Rodetian took no pains to show that he was a red-meat kind of guy. “You know he could handle himself.”

Well… Uh… I don’t know actually.

“When you lose sight of the Red Lightning, that is when things become interesting,” Kira said grimly. “Never turn your back to an assassin. Especially one skilled as Clarke-sama.” She shot Stephen a piercing look which cased Stephen’s big, round ears to fold back in terror. “You saw how he dealt with me and your Mr. Flipwish during Practical Magic class. Even when thrown in a situation where he is at a disadvantage he has a keen eye for singling out a target’s weaknesses and striking upon it with brutal efficiency.”

Everyone remembered JD’s assault particularly how close he came to gouging out Kira’s eye. Even the normally stoic Clive looked shaken by the memory. Except Stephen.

“Something’s been bothering me,” muttered the mouse, already starting to bite into his ribs while still standing. “Clarke seems a little… bipolar to me. I dunno. It’s like he can be this friendly kid one second and then the next he’s a total psycho. Hell, when those Fuck-a-ton –”

“Fuocotan,” corrected Buster.

“Right. When they came in, it was like he was toying with them.”

“All part of his battle style,” Kira responded. She looked over her shoulder at where Alex Clarke was seated next to Gloria and chatting happily with Konseral and his personal guard. “The Clarke Family have an innate talent for illusion. Alexander Clarke is extremely skilled with this and no doubt taught his son some tips and tricks on how to successfully manipulate the mind of his victims. Though Clarke-sama is unable to cast magic himself, those skills still come into play. He knows how to unnerve a target. A second of hesitation is enough for an assassin to pounce and deliver the final blow.”

Skye chimed in. “If you wanted to analyse it, Steve, those assassins came into our classroom fully expecting to face scared kids. JD acted the role of a psycho in order to disarm and anger them. You saw how they reacted when he started desecrating their corpses.”

Despite his bulk, Stephen’s skills with Psychomancy outstripped everyone else’s in Class 989. He too had an in-depth understanding of the mortal psyche and that was likely why he was curious about JD’s mental state. No doubt during the battle, he had peered into the minds of the Fuocotan to see what they were feeling and thinking.

The large mouse lowered his gaze, chewing at the ribs thoughtfully. “Yeah… I did get that.” He met Skye’s gaze. “You know how you once mentioned you see magic like ‘strings’ in the air? Well to me, I see people’s mental states like those visualised sound waves. When the Fuocotan started, they were calm. Had a steady beat. But when JD started moving, they were all over the place. Totally not in synch with one another.”

“And what did you see of Clarke-sama?” Kira asked.

“Cool. Calm. Collected,” answered Stephen through a mouthful of meat. “That’s why I asked if he was really crazy. Because on the outside, he was acting completely nuts but inside, he was so calm. His beat was almost deathly still.”

The summoner scoffed and turned away, her plate of food mostly empty. “And there you have just described Clarke-sama’s battle style. The man who stands on the outside is but a puppet that plays the part of the cold killer inside. It is when both the killer and the man are one in the same that you should be very afraid.”

Wood felt a chill run down his spine.

The waiters came in and brought in what appeared to be some new starters – what appeared to be some small, circular polenta cakes served with a cucumber mousse and some fish roe. Everyone grabbed a few with Clive commenting that the unique combination of colours from yellow, pale green to bright orange was quite appetising.

They sat around a table at the far corner of the room, as far away from Konseral as possible. Conversation quickly diverted to their usual school work and their upcoming trip of Incendius.

“A question, Lady Kurasama,” Clive said, every polite. “Do you have any idea what the curriculum will be once we go to Incendius?”

Kira’s perfectly maintained eyebrows rose ever so slightly. “I had a brief look. You will be going to Corona first and foremost. You are aware of the boarding options, correct?”

For students who didn’t want to make the commute – regardless of how quick – to and from Incendius, there was the option to stay on Incendius is school-sponsored locations. Most students didn’t take that option for the reason that Incendian technology was not quite up to scrap with Haven. Many students who had been to Pinnacle often complained that that they actually had to wait for water to heat up and that they had to soap themselves. Basics like toilets were a complex series of pipes and indoor plumbing compared to the magical disposal units that Haven possessed. Bed sheets and clothing were also made of primitive cotton instead of the bare minimum hexweave of Haven.

Wood, however, had opted to take this option as had Buster and Skye. He was unsure of the rest of the class.

Clive nodded to Kira’s question. “We are. Why do you ask?”

“Because as far as I know, there are more options for those who take the boarding option compared to those that do not.” Kira poked at the foot in front of her with a fork. “Students that take the boarding option will be able to travel to all corners of Incendius. Even to the Sunless Lands, from what I hear. That is why they need chaperones especially one as skilled and versatile as myself. The school cannot be at all places at once and there are some dangerous people on Incendius.”

Right… Wood thought miserably. And you’re here to benevolently look after us poor students. It has nothing to do at all with you lording your authority over JD.

“Damn,” grunted Stephen. “I was just going to stick with the basics. Think it’s too late to change?”

“You really want to be sleeping in itchy straw beds and going to a place without any natural light?” Yvette scoffed.

“It’s about the experience, girl! I honestly thought it would be the same whether we take it or not! That we’ll just be staying in the same place all the time!” He took a second to shove some of those starters down his muzzle. “But if the kids that get to stay on Incendius get to experience more stuff, I’m not going to say no to that!”

“Urgh!” Yvette scowled at Stephen and twisted her face away from him in disgust. “Learn how to eat, your savage. Look, this is how you eat.” She picked up the same polenta starter as before with her fingers delicately and took a miniscule bite off it. A few bits of chewing later and she set the little bite back down on her place. “See? That is how civilised people eat.”

Wood gave her a sheepish grin. “If you really wanted to eat like everyone else up here, you would have used your cutlery.”

Yvette paled to the laughter of the rest of the group. Even Kira was giggling. Her embarrassment faded however when he lifted her eyes towards the door. “Natalia? Irina?”

Everyone followed her gaze towards the doors from the kitchen. Suddenly, Natalia came bursting out alongside Irina. JD was right beside them, his paws on their shoulders. At his touch, the two girls straightened, almost stiffly like they were trying to swallow some sour milk. They looked around and Irina spotted the table where Wood was sitting, pointing. The three of them hurriedly made their way over, the girls looking like marionettes that JD was controlling with an easy calm.

“Nat,” Yvette exclaimed, rising from her seat with concern. “Rina. What’s wrong?” Suddenly, Yvette stumbled forward. Wood caught her and was about to brush it off for Yvette just trying to grope him were it not for what Natalia said next.

“Please don’t tell me you ate the polenta starters,” she whined.

“What?” Skye asked. “Why not?”

Both Clive and Stephen suddenly let out soft moans. Stephen’s whiskers began to droop and he had this weary expression on his face like. Clive’s eyes widened as he toppled towards the table, barely catching himself before planting into his food.

Alarm bells instantly sprang through Wood’s mind and he glanced around. Kira, Buster, Skye and himself were unaffected but many of the other guests were suddenly stumbling, staggering or outright falling to the ground.

“There’s something wrong with them!” Natalia pleaded. “Something felt off when I was in the kitchen and they were being prepared! I tried to bring it to the attention of the chef but he nearly cut me to bits!”

“The guy was crazy!” exclaimed Irina. “He would’ve sliced our tails off if JD hadn’t come in and interrupted!”

Wood glanced over at Konseral’s table. Only his mother, Konseral and that woman, Sylana, were left but all three were instantly rising to their feet in alarm as more and more guests stumbled. There was a bang and his table jumped. Stephen had slumped over and slammed his cheek against his food. Irina screamed.

JD immediately rushed to the Rodetian, pressing to fingers against the thick, corded neck. “He’s alive. Unconscious, but alive.” He glanced immediately towards Natalia. “What is it that you sensed in the starters?”

The flustered black-furred Panthrian shook her head furiously. “I… I don’t know!”

The red-furred Wulfun strode towards her, grasping her shoulders firmly. “Believe in yourself, Natalia. Don’t doubt. Don’t think. First thing that comes into your mind. What did you find in the starters?”

She pursed her lips, tail coiling back and forth. “A… A time-release sleep spell… But… But that doesn’t make sense!”

“Oh yes it does,” snarled Kira, rising from her seat. “Clarke-sama!”

“Right,” JD said firmly. “You guys stay here. Kira and I will take care of this.”

The two began to turn but Wood immediately lashed out and seized his wrist. “Wait, what’s going on, JD? What’s happening?”

The Red Lightning turned slightly and Wood was very grateful that he only saw the corner of JD’s intense, blue eyes.

“The Fuocotan won’t take lightly to having their prey stolen from them or their reputation tarnished. They are very likely to try again. This is their next attempt.”

Wood’s heart stopped for a second even though his muzzle ran away from him. “We can help!”

“Don’t be foolish,” Kira snapped. “You froze in the height of danger and only moved when Clarke-sama showed initiative. You will be useless in a fight. Stay here.”

“No!” Wood said firmly. “I am not going to let either of you fight without me. This is my house, my party.” He quickly unbuttoned his jacket and tossed it to the ground. “No one wrecks my party.”

Clive fell off his seat and onto the ground, unconscious. Yvette whimpered and drifted off into unconsciousness in Wood’s unoccupied seat. Skye, however, rose to his feet, holding his head up high to indicate that he was unaffected. Buster did the same since he was always a huge proponent of going for the mains first and forgetting any starters. Both of them marched forward and stood beside Wood.

The Lady Summoner shook her head at them. “Your show of bravado is admirable but without any weapons, you are useless.”

“I don’t need weapons,” Skye responded. “Magic is all I need.”

“And my body is my weapon!” Buster said brightly.

A third voice chimed in, surprisingly them all. “I never leave home without my elemental pills.” Natalia stepped forward, grasping her pill dispenser tightly in both paws. “I want to help too!”

Irina took up position beside her friend. “I’m here too. I don’t know how much I can do but I’m a decent Silicomancer. Glass can be pretty useful, right?”

“And I’ve got my magic too,” Wood said firmly, pumping a fist through the air. “You can’t tell us that we’re useless until we’re given the chance to prove ourselves. That’s something I learned recently.” He looked to JD whose wrist he still held firmly. “Please. Give us a chance.”

The athletic, scarred Wulfun looked to Kira.

“Absolutely not,” the stern summoner insisted. “I am not going to allow you all to endanger yourselves!”

There, JD smiled that conniving smirk of his. “If they had weapons, would you let them fight?”

“Of course!”

Now the Red Lightning was grinning broadly. “Funny that…”

Dead Tails Operation (JD)

Validation

The Fuocotan were waiting for the full effects of the sleeping spell to take effect before they attacked. A wise move. Rigging the spell to be a time-release also ensured that they could coordinate exactly when they would attack. They had about five minutes before the assassins actually made their presence known. In that time, JD had Wood lead them to the very top of the mansion, to the flat roof that – while currently closed off to the public – could be used by guests for some outdoor events should they desire.

“Kira, my dad and Rayne fully anticipated that the Fuocotan would make another attempt at tonight’s gala,” he explained, rushing up the stairs. They couldn’t take any elevators as they would be monitored. The often-unused service staircases were only used by maintenance staff and he doubted the Fuocotan would monitor them as they would likely think ‘gold-blooded’ Havenese civilians would never think to use their legs to get to upper levels. “We made preparations just in case.”

“What kind of preparations?” Wood demanded.

As they burst into the rooftop, JD turned to Kira. “Now, Kurasama!”

Kira nodded and swept her cloak back. She drew her silver nail and quickly cut her arm to draw some blood. After tracing some runes in the air, a big, red bird erupted from the summoning circle and shot into the air. A moment later, a small, black hovercar came soaring through the air and promptly released a large, silvery container. Wood didn’t get a chance to protest when the cylinder slammed into the roof in front of them.

There was a loud hiss from the container and its doors swung open.

“Holy shit!” gasped the Draconis.

JD stepped forward and gripped Rayne’s wrist in greeting. “Hope the trip wasn’t too rough on you?”

The purple-eyed Combat teacher grinned at him savagely. “Apart from the fact I was kept in a shiny coffin for the better part of three hours? I’m fine.”

Rayne was dressed for a fight. A thick, anti-projectile vest clung to his chest. The electric blue lines that ran through it indicated that it had some light particle-shielding that would disintegrate high-speed projectiles upon impact. His muscled arms were fully exposed save for his hands which were encased in fingerless combat gloves. Heavy, metal-capped boots covered his feet and his legs were fully covered in black, padded pants. For his own sense of style, a ragged black ‘cloak’ hung from his waist looking like tattered black wings that flared out from his flanks while leaving his front exposed.

Rayne glanced past JD and waved at the students. “Hey kids. I come bearing gifts!”

JD snickered. “Right. You’re a jolly old man who drops down from the sky and gives gifts to children. You’re a regular Saint Nathanael.”

The muscled man grinned as he reached into the container and pulled out a few bits of personalised weaponry. “Ho-fucking-ho.”

Wood and the others were stunned when they were each tossed some of the weaponry that they had customised and build over their first few months at Pinnacle. The big, green Draconis was given his vest equipped with the four Matter Converters – Quadrant. Buster let out a loud, ‘Aw yeah’ as he hefted the enormous sword as thick as his arm and a little taller than he was over his shoulders – Broadside. Skye was given a pair of earrings – special magical foci that he used to help him gather magical energies quicker. Natalia was given a bandolier filled with a wider variety of her pill dispensers which she called Spice Rack. A long, staff seemingly made entirely out of glass was given to Irina, her personal weapon – Refraction.

JD turned to Kira who was furiously staring at him. “You said you’d let them fight if they had their weapons.”

“So you planned for this eventuality!? Have you no shame!?” she barked. “You are putting these children in danger!”

“I won’t let them die. You know that, Kira. Besides…” He heard shouts and screams coming from the main rooms. “The Fuocotan want to take this place knowing full well they’re dealing with adults instead of just children in training. They had to resort to poisoning people to knock out more than half of the people down there because they know that the people down there are more likely to fight given that they lived through the Fall of Haven than not.” He snapped his gaze back to Kira. “Even if it was just you, me, Rayne and my dad, we’d need all the help we can get.”

She gnashed her teeth together, fists shaking. He was right and she knew it. “You have the ability to call reinforcements from the military! Why couldn’t you have called for them instead of throwing mere students into the fray!”

Kira was baiting him into saying something he could not. His dad had told him about the meeting with the other Generals and how they were now scrambling resources to figure out how Harm Chronos, the legendary Last Chronomancer, could still be alive after the Redaction Spell. Few knew about the greatest spell ever executed on Tower Thirteen. Kira was not amongst them. Though he swore never to lie, that did not mean he could not tell half-truths or outright avoid the question.

“You know why.”

The truth was, the Generals were very interested in what was happening. It was how they managed to get a military stealth ship to drop off Rayne. They would be very concerned, after all, if one of their own was killed in this little skirmish. But that could not be told to anyone. Not even Kira and especially not his classmates.

Our true objective is to gain Konseral’s trust. We have to do it. Not the military. That’s why they aren’t acting overtly.

His eyes narrowed fiercely at Kira, trying to tell her to back off on the questioning.

Stop asking questions you can’t possibly understand, Kira.

When she had no follow-up questions, JD mentally sighed and turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, you’re all armed. We will need to split up.” He held up two fingers. “Rayne?”

Their teacher and the one that held more authority than he did, stepped forward. “The Fuocotan have deployed the same jamming technology here like they did at Pinnacle. One team will need to go after them and destroy the jammer.” Rayne’s keep, purple eyes scanned the group. “Soriveska, Langley, Wilde. You’re with me. We’ll take out the jammer.”

“Why us?” Buster complained.

“Because you and I are both close-combat experts while the two girls are better suited for support and ranged combat respectively.” He hiked a thumb at JD. “Clarke, King, Bladebreaker and Lady Kurasama have vaguely the same team composition with Clarke and Kurasama at close and medium range respectively, King on support and Bladebreaker on long-range.”

Rayne reached for his pocket and retrieved a crystal tablet. “Obviously the Fuocotan haven’t placed their jamming device on the roof again as they’re not after extraction this time around. This is a full-on assassination. They’re going after Konseral. My best guess for the jammer is likely in the parking lot.”

Buster inclined his head to the side. “Why there?”

Irina spoke up, shaking with fear. “Because it’ll be a kill zone.” Everyone regarded her in surprise. “Think about it,” she chimed up. “Parking lots generally only have few entrances and exits especially if they are underground. There are plenty of places to hide and there won’t be a lot of foot traffic once everyone has arrived. Less likely chance for people to stumble upon the device accidentally.”

Rayne smiled proudly. “There’s that keen tactician’s mind.” He nodded to confirm her assessment. “And that’s exactly my thinking.”

“How are we going to get in there then if they’ve got the place blocked off ready to kill us?” Kira asked. “A frontal assault would be suicide.”

“I’ve got a plan,” Rayne smirked. He then turned to JD. “Clarke, you know your mission.”

JD nodded grimly. “The Fuocotan will have an escape route planned. It’s likely also the same place they’ve set up a monitoring station to watch and coordinate their troops. When they opt to make their escape, that’s the route they’ll take. We cut them off and prevent them from getting away.”

“And no excessive killing,” warned his instructor. “We want these guys alive so we can question them on why they keep going after Konseral if he’s just a charity worker.”

“I know.” He turned to look at Wood and his team. “Wood, there must be a service tunnel between here and outside, right? A loading dock or something?”

The big Draconis nodded. “Yeah. It’s just past the kitchens. That’s where you think they are?”

Lifting a finger, he said, “They poisoned the food meaning they’ve infiltrated the kitchen staff. It just seems logical that they’ll have set up in the loading dock as well. That’s probably how they got in.”

Wood growled in fury, acid dripping from his fangs. “Damn them…”

“We all have our missions,” Kira said sharply, turning towards the rest of the group. “Let’s get through this cleanly and alive. Once we’ve finished with our tasks, we make our way back to the Ballroom. From there, we find Konseral and corner these bastards before they can do any more damage!”

The party let out a loud cheer of confirmation, pumping fists into the air.

JD took a step forward but a hand fell on his shoulder – Rayne.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of this without being armed.”

Kira immediately froze and turned around in horror. Seeing her look, everyone else did as well. Rayne presented JD with two blades about as wide as his forearm and wrapped in two, brown leather scabbards capped with gold.

“Validation…” Kira whispered in awe.

JD stared at the swords for a long moment.

I guess I have no choice…

He gripped them firmly.

Wood’s mansion and the clear night sky suddenly vanished. They were all replaced by brilliant golden light and billions upon billions of golden cogs, gears and intricate machinery twisting and coiling all around them. He stood upon a massive glass platform roughly shaped like an enormous cog. Through the glass, he could see more gears twisting around soundlessly. Past the gears were blood-red-black clouds and in the scant few gaps between the clouds, he could make out a vast, unending desert made of black sand.

At the opposite end of the platform stood an enormous, golden throne with a single, titanic pendulum that stretched infinitely upwards ticking back and forth. Perched on the throne, really sort of floating on it, was an intimidating creature of white, gold and wings.

“Haamiah,” JD murmured, “the God of Time.” He immediately knelt, bowing his head while still gripping Validation.

The God of Time’s features were completely invisible to him. The creature wore a long, white, flowing robe trimmed with gold and with golden ribbons hanging from his wrists. No part of his physical body was actually visible. For all JD knew, Haamiah was just a disembodied entity and the robe was just there to give his mortal mind something to comprehend. What he did see past the robes, however, were the bright, golden eyes marked with the emblem of a handless clock face just around the irises. Behind Haamiah were six individual wings made entirely out of sharp swords. Each blade was specifically crafted to fit into the position of the wings with about half-a-foot between each.

“Hello again,” Haamiah said. The God spoke with voice that JD could never quite identify. Every time his mind tried to make out whether it was masculine or feminine, he would be unable to remember how the words sounded. He registered what was said but just could not tell what voice spoke them. “My Champion, you have taken up Validation once more.”

“Yeah…” With his free paw, he pressed his palm against the golden chain wrapped across his chest. “I never forgot my duty, though.”

“I know. As we agreed, I will be there to guide you should you see my help. Though I am quite pleased that you did not require it these past few years.”

“Even if you did give it sometimes voluntarily,” was JD’s snarky reply. It had actually been Haamiah’s interference that had warned him of Kira’s attack that had resulted in him getting kicked out of private school. The God had warned him of the imminent danger and how so many people could die due to Kira’s recklessness. Haamiah said that he could take the brunt of the attack and survive, keeping his secret but in turn allowing others to die or he could act, save those Kira would have killed but reveal his identity as the Red Lightning and cost him his friends and peaceful lifestyle.

He chose to save those people.

“You must realise by now that these are not mere coincidences.”

As the God of Time, Haamiah could see past, present and future. He ruled in the Machine, supposedly the core of all existence. Everyone and everything was represented by one of the countless cogs and gears that worked around him. Haamiah could manipulate the machinery to get what he wanted but the God of Time was – as ever – more of a passive observer than one to mess with the intricacies of mortal existence. The only time he ever really interfered was when he started the Machine which introduced time – and death – to the world of mortals and when he employed his first ever Champion five years ago at the dawn of the Fall of Haven.

The second instance was an extreme circumstance for Haamiah could see the endless destruction and fear in the future should the demons win the war. Alexander Clarke was pivotal in forming the Generals and winning the war but he would have lost all hope had his son – Jack Denver – died at the hands of the demons.

So Haamiah interfered.

“Yeah,” JD rumbled softly. “You planned this. You knew I’d have to take up Validation again and from that, we’d have to work together again.” He offered the God a faint smile. “It’s because of Chronos isn’t it? He’s back.”

“Yes and no. The Harm Chronos your father learned of is nothing more than a clone.” Several cogs floated in front of JD. Within their masses, JD could make out what appeared to be a vast, dark laboratory filled with what appeared to be naked, white Wulfuns all seemingly asleep. “An alliance of those leaders that were defeated with the Redaction Spell have gathered and determined that they required a symbol, a being to rally their forces behind. They once rallied behind Chronos until he was wiped from existence by the Redaction Spell. Now they seek a similar symbol. They have artificially created a Chronomancer, such as it is. Call it terrorism. Call it war. Whatever you wish to call it, they seek to defeat the Generals using the force that once united them.”

JD grit his fangs together in disgust. He never agreed with the Redaction Spell but it had been Chronos’ idea in the first place to employ it. Few knew the truth behind what really caused the Fall of Haven and what truly ended it. He still remembered that fateful meeting beneath the lemon tree in his backyard. Harm Chronos had passed on his torch to the young Wulfun back then, giving him the very scarf that JD now wore around his arm.

“Chronos knew that the world had become far too dependent on him,” he said. “This was proven when so many came to his call when he ‘rebelled’ against Haven during the Fall. Few realised he was really ousting those people under the influence of the Custodia Goetia whether they knew it or not.” JD lifted his gaze defiantly up at Haamiah. “He purposefully made himself the symbol of their rebellion only to be completely eradicated by the Redaction Spell so that his own allies would have no reason to fight! It’s not fair that this ‘alliance’ is using his name for their greedy plots!”

Haamiah agreed. “Yes. War is caused by the clash of two or more ideals. Chronos became the core of these people’s ideals. The Custodia Goetia manipulated them all, geared them to war in preparation for the day that Lumire would activate the Infinos Arcanum. Then Chronos hijacked their efforts, pretending to be their symbol of rebellion thanks to his assassination of Lumire, his own brother by adoption. The masses believed in Chronos as their leader and clung to his every word. Thus, the Redaction Spell could work to its fullest effect.”

The Redaction Spell, JD mused miserably. The only spell that can truly eliminate a Chronomancer from all existence.

The spell took an entire year to fully cast and so many Divine Mages were involved. It effectively allowed the Church – under the guidance of the Generals – to rewrite all of history in the minds of the people by attributing all the accomplishments of the Last Chronomancer to others. This allowed them to remove Chronos entirely from existence. Since Chronos had planted himself as the leader of the rebellious forces against the Church, this made the rebels vulnerable to the Redaction Spell. If he had not become that symbol, the Fall of Haven would have gone on for much longer and would have been far more devastating.

But of course there were those that were allowed to keep their memories of the Redaction Spell. The Generals, for instance, and some officials.

“I’ll find these clones and deal with them,” JD growled.

“Perhaps,” Haamiah mused. “Should your path lead that way, I encourage you to do so with an even hand. Consider their circumstances as well before you strike with your blade.”

JD was abashed at the scolding and bowed his head again. “Yes, Lord Haamiah.”

“I have another mission for you, however. The true purpose behind our meeting, in fact.”

Validation lifted off the ground and away from the red Wulfun’s paws. The turned in the air so that JD could clearly see the burnt markings on their scabbards.

“Adramalech requires your assistance,” said the God of Time. “The God of Fire has wallowed in misery for long enough. Though another will ultimately lead him to redeem himself of his guilt, there are many loose ends that are required to be resolved for him to fully forgive himself. During your tenure on Incendius, you will go to the Sunless Lands. I want you to find someone and help him.”

“Who?” JD asked.

“I want you to find Hal’Seth, Adramalech’s Champion.”

JD stared at the God of Time in surprise. Champions were special people chosen by the Gods to basically be their representatives on Tower Thirteen. In ancient times, Champions were empowered with godly strength and divine powers. Haamiah, however, didn’t give JD any special gifts except for a few warnings here and there. True Champions possessed frightening powers.

“I thought the Gods stopped making Champions eons ago.”

“They did. But that did not prevent any of the existing Champions from ceasing to exist. Hal’Seth is one such entity. I will provide you with a clearer briefing when you draw close.”

JD bowed his head again. “As you will.”

“One more thing.”

“Yes, Lord Haamiah?”

“The flow of time is being disrupted. Chronomancers once thought destroyed are returning.”

That caused JD even more alarm and he bolted to his feet. “What? How!?”

“Due to the efforts of one of the Thirteen. A technique he developed late in the Purge of Time. It allowed a select few Chronomancers to pick parts of themselves from Time and reassemble themselves from these fragments. These pieces were memories of others and the wounds they inflicted upon the world. As they these shards are not truly part of owned by the Chronomancers , the anti-Time techniques employed during the Purge were ineffective against them.”

In front of Haamiah, a single gear hovered. A single fleck, no bigger than a single speck of dust flittered off.

“Normally, this would not be a concern but the technique required coordination across multiple timelines. However, the technique is piecing back these Chronomancers from these memories. Chronos could not use his anti-Time techniques to stop this predominantly because he did not know about the technique but also to do so would damage the timeline irreparable. He’d effectively have to rewrite all of history for all Chronomancers and nullify all their deeds and actions.”

“Just like the Redaction Spell.”

“Indeed and as you know, just casting the Redaction Spell for one Chronomancer, no matter how great, was a monumental feat. Doing so for all the Chronomancers that have employed this ‘Time Compression’, would be disastrous to the timeline.”

JD, his heart pounding in his chest, shook his head and looked up at the God. “What will this technique do?”

Haamiah waved a shrouded hand through the air. A cloud of golden dust flew past JD and coalesced together, bringing a realisation to the young Wulfun. “When sufficient fragments are pieced together from all the timelines…”

“The Chronomancer will come back!”

“Exactly. You must destroy them. It will still take some time before the Chronomancers fully manifest. Some are more skilled than others in this but the Chronomancers are inherently greedy. They distort time around them, draining it and warping it to gather more power. They will emerge stronger than they were previously and have their full mental faculties about them. But I am sure you will destroy them. Nothing, not even Time itself, can withstand the might of the mortal spirit.”

JD bowed his head grimly. “Yes, Lord Haamiah.”

“Thank you, Jack Denver Clarke. Your service is well appreciated. Know that I will watch over you and guide you as you need it.”

JD opened his eyes and once again, he was standing on the roof of Wood’s manor. Not a second had passed from the moment he had gripped Validation just like the many times that he had spoken with Haamiah before. He noted that the emblem of a six-winged bird had now been burned into the scabbard of his swords – an emblem and reminder of his mission to the God of Fire, Adramalech. He slung the two blades across his back – one running diagonally from his right shoulder to his left hip and the other running horizontally against the small of his back. A faint burning sound hit his ears and he took note of the same emblem etched on his swords appearing on the right sleeve of his jacket.

He stared fiercely at his companions, now with a firm mission and armed with the truth. Though no one was likely to believe him – not even his own father – he had a purpose ahead of him.

But first, he had to get out of this mess.

“Let’s go.”