Memorizing spells in order to cast them correctly required significant effort, due to lengthy incantations and complex somatic components. The difficulty of spells also grew as they become grander in scale, duration, intensity or complexity. Recognizing these spells, on the other hand, was much easier.

I only needed to memorize the first few words of each spell, perhaps the first movements required as well, and I could immediately identify what the spell would do, how long the casting would take and what its range was. Then, of course, I would have to find the best counter to each spell but this was an issue everyone faced during battles.

Having to memorize only the beginning of spells meant I could learn many more of them in a shorter amount of time. Based on what I remembered from when I studied new spells, the time it takes for a spellcaster to properly learn one spell was roughly the time I needed to pick up the cues of more than fifteen.

This was exactly what I was studying when I heard the distinctive knock of Kard’s dagger on the wooden door of my room.

“Man is downstairs, Adel,” he said, his head creeping around the barely open door. “It’s time to go.”

“I’ll be right there,” I replied.

I closed the book at the same moment he shut the door, and I started getting ready. Krysha had prepared a series of magical items for us to wear during our meeting with the archons.

Man had of course, guaranteed our safety and also confirmed that the floor of the throne room nullified all magic effects, including items, save for the king’s. Regardless, Krysha wanted to make sure we would have the best protection, should anything happen to us prior to, or in the aftermath of, the throne-room meeting. Eventually, we’d all agreed on being equipped as she saw fit.

Even though I wouldn’t be able to carry them into the throne room itself, I wore the scabbards that Man had gifted me since my waist now felt empty without them, and started donning all the protective gear that had been designated for me to wear.

Once I had everything on me, I put on a blue robe that was only mildly enchanted but would do a lot to cover the three talismans that Krysha had insisted on me wearing.

I opened the door feeling a little awkward, my fingers barely touching each other due to the many rings on them. Seika had warned us that we might feel a little weird until the effects of the many magical items settled with each other, but she also assured us that this shouldn’t take any longer than half an hour.

I walked down the stairs to find that our little party of five was only missing me. The faces of the others wore expressions of various degrees of uneasiness.

“Are you sure this feeling will go away, Seika?” I heard Kard asking as he wafted himself with the collar of his robe in an attempt to cool down.

“It will. Give it some minutes,” replied my sister, who looked like she was handling herself much better.

“Seika and I are used to wearing multiple magical items,” said Man, “and it already took less time to attune ourselves. You’ll be fine by the time we get there.”

Kard didn’t say anything but simply nodded. We made our way toward the exit of the tower, waving goodbye and nodding in a thankful manner to all of the wishes of “good luck” echoing in the foyer.

Almost everyone living in the tower, and some who were only regular guests, came to see us leaving and wished us good fortune. So many, in fact, that we needed almost two minutes to reach the exit, but it didn’t bother me at all.

These people cared for us and we were representing them. If anything, I felt humbled by them putting their trust in us.

“Oh, and regarding the scrying device,” said Man, once we’d exited the tower, “everything is in place.”

The walk to the palace was uneventful, albeit much quieter than what we would usually expect for the merchant districts at this time of the day. The stalls and stores were populated by the bare minimum of people and once we reached the top of the hill where the path that would lead to the palace was, we understood the reason why.

Next to the palace, floating some distance from the ground, was a colossal galley. Its deck stood higher than the top floor of the palace, while giant golden chains pinned it to the ground, looking like they were keeping it from drifting away. Its white sails were still fully spread and even from this distance, I could recognize the golden staff and dagger crest of the Holy Order.

“Are we late?” I asked Man.

“We are not late,” he replied, smiling. “They came early. They want to show off that grand ship of theirs, I suppose. This is going to be most interesting.”

We made our way to the palace grounds, which were bustling with people wanting to see the ship from up close. I saw some merchant friends of ours as we approached the palace entrance and one of them specifically told me to ask the Order for the price of a ship similar to the one in front of us. I simply smiled at her and continued walking between Kard and Krysha, all three of us now completely attuned to our magical items.

Once we reached the two guards in front of the entrance, I noticed two more pairs of guards were standing behind them in absolute stillness. After saluting Man, and I thought Seika as well, two of them broke the line and led us into the palace and up to the throne room. This time we knew the procedure, and went to take off our shoes and leave our weapons before entering.

Upon setting foot on the cold throne room floor, I felt the protective magic from the various items I was wearing wash away. It was a strange feeling, but I was now much more comfortable than with all those enchantments on me.

The room was exactly as it was the day before, though there were more than a score of guards spread around the room. All of them had their backs against the walls and question marks instead of a number in their level field when I scanned them.

Upon closer inspection, I realized something was indeed different. The big table we had seen the day before was now placed on the far side of the room and was hidden by a white curtain hanging from the high ceiling. The curtain was not long enough to touch the ground but just about enough to cover the faces of anyone who would sit on the leather armchairs surrounding the marble table.

I saw someone move behind the curtain and recognized the king’s expensive baggy pants. He moved the heavy white cloth out of the way and came close to us with a smile on his face.

“My children,” he said as he approached us, subsequently grabbing Seika’s hands and kissing them. “Thank you for joining me. How are you feeling?”

“We’re feeling great, my king,” Kard answered, slightly bowing his head.

“No need for that now,” the king said, and looked at Man expectedly.

“We are all excited for this meeting,” Man said, “and a little anxious, as would be expected.”

“There is absolutely no reason for you to worry, children,” the king replied, and looked at me, then Krysha and finally Kard, before switching his black-eyed gaze to Seika. “I will never let anything happen to you. Now, if you would please take your place at the table.”

We all nodded and walked over to the stone table that looked like it was now longer than the day before. One of the guards was holding up the curtain for us to pass without touching it and another indicated our positions.

We all moved to our chairs but did not yet sit. We would wait until everyone had arrived.