When I reached the forest, no one was anywhere in sight, not that I could see much in the dark gloom of a starless night. Winters in Volaris rarely had snow, but thick clouds remained constant until the spring months returned. Pulling my cloak closer around my body, my hood up, I scanned a few hundred feet around me, confirming I was alone.

Closing my eyes while keeping one hand on the hilt of my sword-staff, I began cultivating, looking to pass the time until Flynn arrived. If he was smart, he would give me my gold and not make too many problems, but I doubted it would be so easy. Pride, when bruised, rarely allowed someone to forgive and move on.

Finally, several hours after midnight, I heard the soft crunch of leaves under a heavy boot. Pushing off a tree, I turned, spotting a shadowy figure making their way through the forest, stopping a few dozen feet from me. I noticed that it was not Flynn, but instead a tall, heavily built man of around thirty years old. Under his thick winter cloak, I spotted a glint of armor and the hilt of a broadsword, though no family crest was on anything he wore.

"You the guy?" he asked gruffly, folding his arms across his broad chest.

I stared at him from under my hood, replying, "Where is Sion?"

There was no point answering his question, and it would only make me appear weak.

"Too risky. Decided to send me instead." the man replied as he reached into his cloak with a grunt. A second later, he tossed a sack onto the ground between us, where it landed with a muffled thud. Keeping one eye on him, I held out a hand and telekinetically pulled the pouch to my palm. Opening it, I spotted the brilliant glint of platinum, each worth a full hundred gold coins. Without letting my guard down, I counted out fifty coins, nodding once before looking back to the lackey.

"Leave and tell no one about this, or you will regret it."

Turning on my heel, I walked away, moving fast but trying not to appear as if I was running. I had things to get done, and sitting around waiting for this fool to finish up would only waste my time.

A few hours later, I was down in Volaris, moving from shop to shop and spending more money than I had ever dreamed of owning in each. Any ordinary commoner would be lucky to have more than a few coppers at once, and I was walking around with enough platinum to buy a small village.

A healthy riding horse with a comfortable saddle and several packs was essential if I wanted to move fast. I also bought a magical tent, like the one Leon brought on our trip months prior, for when I could not reach civilization in time to rest. There were enough major settlements that I would rarely have to camp outside, but better to be safe than sorry.

Rather than buy food and water, I purchased what the shopkeeper called ration beads. Each was tiny, around the size of my fingernail but carried enough food and water to last a whole day. Although they were more expensive than most other types of meals, they were easy to store, never spoiled, and would save me a few hours of cooking and eating daily. Possibly most appealing, they produced no waste, making bathroom trips a thing of the past.

Of course, they also tasted like an unholy marriage of dirt and sawdust, but the convenience made it worthwhile.

The armorer was more than willing to provide a high-quality set of equipment, consisting of armored gloves, bracers, boots, and a chest piece over thick, heavy robes. The entire ensemble was durable and could self-repair when mana was pushed into it, though only against minor damage. It also cost more platinum than I cared to think about, but self-protection remained my primary concern.

Although I had hoped to leave by the end of the day, several things would not be ready until the following morning. Still, that left me a few hours to finish gathering supplies from the sanctum and get my plan ready.

I had around fifty pounds of chilled meat in my backpack, which the butcher assured me would simulate human flesh well. He seemed to buy my excuse that we were "testing the effectiveness of a new enchanted weapon and needed an adequate stand-in" with only a grimace and muttering about crazy mages under his breath. When torn to pieces by a powerful explosion and with the addition of several pints of my blood, drained over the last week, and clippings of my hair and uniform, it should stand up to scrutiny.

I was so focused on my thoughts that I almost missed the ambush until the last moment, just as I opened my door. I felt the slight surge of mana behind me and heard the whisper of something sailing through the air. Moving without thinking, I dove to the ground, pushing myself into a roll and popping back onto my feet, whirling to face my door.

Not to my surprise, Flynn was standing in the entrance, closing the door to my room behind him with a cruel grin. In one hand, he held a wooden scepter, with a rounded head covered in metal and glowing faintly of mana.

"Good evening, peasant," he remarked with a grin, taking a step closer to me, keeping his body between me and the door. Although I was sure I could defeat him without too much issue, I would rather not have a fight in the middle of my room. Pausing for just a moment, I focused, willing to teleport back to Cortos' sanctum.

And nothing happened. Glancing down at my hand, I pushed again, forcing my will as hard as possible, but the spell refused to activate.

"Trying magic? Sorry, but I decided to cut off that particular avenue. You brought up a good point the last we talked, and I realized you are right. I can't fight you in a direct battle of magic, so I decided not to even try." he remarked with a grin, twirling his scepter lazily by his side.

Looking closer, I spotted a sphere embedded into the top of the metal, glittering white just like his mana. Between its appearance and my inability to gather my energy, it only took me a second to recognize it as an anti-magic orb, a nasty bit of enchanting often nicknamed "mage-slayers."

I was unfamiliar with the mechanics of the enchantment, but I knew the effects. Whenever mana was pushed into the stones, they would exert a field that weakened any magic cast by anyone besides the user. While useless against mages with greater raw strength, it was a potent countermeasure against someone of roughly comparable power like us.

"What is the plan then, Sion? Kill me?" I asked, straightening, and staring at him. I needed to keep him talking while I thought of something to do.

"Of course not, you fool. Did you forget we need you alive? No, I have been given orders to return with you to my family estate, by any means necessary."

Snorting, I shook my head, replying, "And did you forget that I refuse? I do not plan on being your father's servant, working to keep you alive."

Smiling just a little too wide, Flynn retorted, "As I said, I am bringing you with me by any means necessary. I doubt he will mind if you lose a pound of flesh on the way home."

That was all the warning I got before a surge of mana rose from behind me, just a few feet away. Ducking on pure instinct, I felt something slice through my hair, narrowly missing my scalp and sending tufts of brown falling to the floor. A second later, two more blades of light flashed across the room towards me, moving almost too fast to see.

Growling, I placed on hand on the ground and push hard with both of my legs, leaping ten feet to one side towards my couch. Hitting the floor, I rolled and grabbed the table next to the seat, hurling it towards Flynn in one smooth motion. Several feet from his face, a yellow-white flash appeared, shattering the wooden table into pieces and protecting him from harm.

Ducking back down, I saw several more blades slam into the wall where my shoulder had been an instant before. It seemed that Flynn was more than willing to take off a limb if it meant bringing me along with him. Desperation was a powerful motivator, after all.

"Sion, this is insanity! My lords will realize something happened to me, and come looking! What do you intend to tell them when they find me on your family estate?!" I yelled over the side of the couch. I doubted he would see reason, but I might be able to distract him at least.

Giving an unhinged cackle, Flynn replied, "My father has it all planned. By the time that fool of a Duke Estton figures out what we did, it will be too late."

Overly cryptic, but maybe Flynn learned his lesson about saying too much after I trapped him with his own words. Nevertheless, I glanced over at the bedroom door a few feet away. Anti-magic fields were small, only a few dozen feet across, and I might be able to get out of range if I could make it the other room.

"Why not ambush me out in the forest? You had a perfect opportunity to get the drop on me?" I asked, hoping to distract him. I would only have one chance to run for it.

"So that I could slice you open myself, of course. There was not a chance I would need help defeating a commoner," he said, spitting out the word like bile. It seems the irony that he ambushed me and removed my ability to use magic was lost on him.

Grabbing another table, the smaller one between the couch and chair, I stood again and threw it hard. Without waiting to see if it impacted, I ran at full speed towards my bedroom door. Slamming my shoulder into the surface, I felt an agonizing pain in my arm and saw a flash of white pass along the doorway, throwing me back to the floor.

Looking over, Flynn gave a triumphant grin, and I swore, rolling clumsily along the ground and half-falling back towards the couch again. A sharp stab of pain came from my leg, and I looked down, seeing a bright red gash where one of his blades sliced me open. Several more thuds came from above, and a spray of feathers and wood fell down on my head, thrown up where his attacked tore open the piece of furniture.

"Uh uh, no running now! Where is your honor?!" he taunted me, and I got the feeling he was savoring every moment of this. He could easily just make his way around the couch, cut me open, and have his prize, but he was enjoying this too much.

"Honor from the man unwilling to fight me fairly? How about you disable your anti-magic orb and let us see who is the better fighter?" I said as I ripped off a piece of my pants, wrapping it around my cut. Closing my eyes, I pushed against the dense field, weighing down on my core. I could feel my mana, but it was just barely out of reach, impossible to fully grasp.

"Tempting, but after all the insults and demands you've hurled my way, I think I'll keep my advantage. We don't want you getting away and telling your brat lords on me, now do we? I'd rather keep my head if it's all the same to you."

Barking out a humorless laugh, I did not respond, racking my brain for a way to survive this. I could not use magic, and I was trapped in here. My only weapon was my sword-staff, but it was shrunken down to its dagger form now, and without mana, I could not extend it to full size. Still useful, but how could I reach him without getting sliced open just like Simon?

Remembering my friend, I felt a surge of rage rise up from my chest, but also memories. Although Flynn's blades had torn open flesh with ease, more robust surfaces seemed to resist it to an extent. Simon's water walls and the armoring on some magic beasts took multiple direct hits to pierce. I might not have access to either, but I was hiding behind something that might work well enough.

Grabbing the couch with both hands, I braced myself, lifting it with a groan, feeling a surge of adrenaline course through me. My muscles ached, protesting the sudden load placed on them, but I ignored it, twisting my body and half-roaring as I threw the piece of furniture the fifteen feet between us. As it sailed through the air, I had a brief moment to savor his shocked, horrified expression, realizing he had underestimated my raw physical strength.

Knowing I only had a second, I ran at him, seeing his barrier flash again, straining against the several hundred-pound weight that had hit it. For a master, their shield would have held up without a problem, but Flynn preferred offense, and his defensive abilities were far below that standard. With a sound like shattering glass, the surface broke apart, and he staggered backward, panic rising in his eyes.

Despite this, Flynn was still an excellent duelist, and he looked to me with a savage snarl, his hand moving horizontally and sending a blade directly toward my face. In his fury, he must have forgotten to avoid fatal attacks, but he did not count on my nearly superhuman reflexes.

Blindly moving my head to one side, I felt a hot searing pain across my face as the light carved a furrow into my cheek, missing my eye by less than an inch. By now, I was just a few feet away, and he took a step backward, his back pressed up against my far wall, eyes wide and darting around the room. He moved his hand again, ready to cast another spell, but before he could, I lashed out with my dagger, sliding it into his lower stomach several inches deep.

I winced at his undignified scream, pulling the blade out and moving in closer to strike the side of his head with the pommel. Although he might be an excellent magic duelist, just like Sig had cautioned all those months prior, mages were terrible in close quarters. The metal-shod hilt impacted Flynn's temple, and he crumbled to the ground in a heap, a small pool of blood rising from his stomach.

Taking a few seconds to catch my breath, I looked around the room, shaking my head at the chaos that had torn apart nearly everything there. After a moment, I burst into laughter, slowly sliding to the ground and rubbing my face at the irony of the situation. I had no even set my plan into motion yet, and the damned place already looked like an explosion was set off.

Staring over at the unmoving noble who had threatened me and my friends, nearly killed Simon, tried to kill me, and thoroughly planned to drag me half-dead into servitude, I felt a surge of hatred I had never felt before. I was not the type to truly despise someone and thought it was often a waste of energy, but I felt nothing but contempt for Flynn. Still, that might make what I was planning easier to swallow in the end.

After all this, I might have found my body double.