I struck out my knife at Scott, the blade passing by him as he dodged to his left. While my arm was extended I swung the blade towards him while rotating my back leg to apply more force. He reacted by slamming a glass bottle into my wrist, knocking the blade from my hand. Then followed by thrusting a second bottle at my face with his left hand. I ducked and attempted to kick him with my left leg but Scott was already prepared and blocked it with his own leg. Then bringing the bottle he had thrust at me before down on my head I crumpled down to the floor. I had lost.

“Good job kid. And what, it only took you two months?” Scott chuckled to himself as he took a swig of the bottle he blocked my knife with. Thankfully the one he broke over my head was empty.

“Don’t get sarcastic with me. I know I still suck. I can’t even land a good hit on you.” I replied sheepishly as I rubbed the glass out of my hair.

“Ya, you still suck but you came close to landing a hit and that is better than most.” he said offering me some of his rum. I declined and waved my hand like I was using the force or something and my knife flew off the floor to my hand. I returned it to its sheath before getting up.

“Now go get ready for the banquet.”

“What banquet?”

“Oh right, I forgot to tell you. Mama Louise invited us to a banquet as honored guests.”

“For what?” I was now worried for my life. Mama Louise was no joke and if we refuse we might start a war.

“You know that Succubus. What was her name? Isabell, when we had that whole fiasco it ultimately resulted in the discovery of a plot that would result in Mama Louise dying. A small group of Leprechauns wanted to take control of all that Mama Louise had. The majority of Leprechauns decided war with Mama Louise was out of the question so they had the splinter group killed and the two were able to talk it out with no unnecessary casualties.” he said nonchalantly.

“Wait, then why are we involved?” I asked. It had been nearly two months since that had happened and in those two months, a lot has been done. Elysif and I had become great friends, Iscarat had taught me more magic, and I had gotten a lot of time to train with Scott. Otherwise, nothing else has happened, the changeling hasn’t shown itself in a while and the only thing we’ve really done was become third parties for small squabbles between monsters.

“We started it and not only that she also invited Elysif and Iscarat.”

“Did you remember to tell them?” I asked expecting him to say no.

He stopped and thought for a moment. I could see the gears turning in his head before he finally looked at me and for a moment I thought he was going to say yes. “No” he said. I sighed and walked to my room.

“I’ll tell them. I just got to get changed first.” I said as I shut the door.

* * *

I knocked on the door of the apartment below us and within a few seconds, Elysif had opened it. “What is it? I’m working on something that is very delicate.” she said in her usual brash manner.

“We have a banquet to get to.” I replied, ignoring her “very delicate” issue.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, blushing but also sternly putting her hand on her hip in a very sassy way.

“Scott forgot to tell you, me, and Iscarat that we were invited as honored guests to Mama Louise’s banquet. As you probably know we can’t tell Mama Louise no without good reason.”

“... I’ll be ready in a minute.” she said slamming the door with a horrified look on her face.

I waited a solid fifteen minutes before she came back out only to run back in for another five minutes saying she forgot something. To be honest she looked stunning. She had removed her usual suit and tie and replaced it with something you would see a modern celebrity wearing to their opening night. She wasn’t wearing makeup so none of her perfections were covered.

“You look good… my lady.” I said with a bow. Oh shit, please don’t kill me. I was only supposed to give her a compliment, damn it. What have I done?

“You look good as well… sir.” she replied with a curtsy before stifling a giggle. Thank goodness. Did she change her attitude with that dress?

“I wasn’t expecting that.” giggling as well before I realized I doomed myself.

“What were you expecting? And do know if you answer wrong I will dissect you.” she replied with a menacing scowl.

“Oh thank goodness, I thought maybe you weren’t the real Elysif there for a second. Like, maybe you were a changeling or something.” I said jokingly in an attempt to stop her bloodlust. God if you exist please save me.

She attempted to stifle another giggle but it instead turned into howling laughter. She laughed enough that she was on the ground having a hard time breathing. It wasn’t that funny and she was attracting a lot of unwanted attention. So doing as any sane person would, I picked her up over my shoulder and started walking towards Iscarat’s place. Elysif had a fit about being carried in such a way but not until after her laughter died down. She then chewed me out until we got to Iscarat’s.