“I expected more adults,” I whispered to Julian as we entered the gardens. Many of the guests had already arrived, though they all looked like teenagers to me. There were no adults save for some of the servants and a few that were lounging in a far-off gazebo. In fact, this was nothing like the fantasy balls I had read about, where stuffy men and women stood around politely chatting with drinks in their hands while waiting for the perfect moment to dance with one another.

“Why? Almost all the guests are third or fourth years like Caldus, though there may be a few younger students that came along with their elder siblings,” replied Julian.

“This is like a teen house party,” I muttered under my breath. By the food were many lounge couches. They were occupied by guests partaking in food and wine, which seemed to flow as freely as water. Some had chosen to occupy the same couches as others and were engaged in intimate conversations. Some of them were engaged in even more intimate activities out in the open. Near the food, played a few musicians and singers, while professional dancers performed for entertainment. A few guests had even joined them; spinning and dancing wildly to the music. There was an assortment of games set aside farther away from the food and music. Still, another area featured standing tables where some students were having discussions over wine.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear what you said,” asked Julian.

“Um, is it fine for us underclassmen to tag along like this?” I replied, trying to divert his attention.

“I cannot see any reason for us to be left out seeing as my brother asked us to come,” said Julian as he gave me a quizzical look. “Oh, I spotted someone, I’ll introduce you,” he said after scanning the party. Soon I was being pulled along to the discussion tables. We zoned in on one where an elvish man and naga hybrid woman, called a nagina, seemed to be in a heated argument. A third person, an elvish girl, younger than her companions listened with disinterest.

When we approached, Julian cleared his throat to get their attention. “Excuse us for interrupting Mahar, but I was hoping to introduce you and your sister to my guest, Gettorix Batvi ” Julian said politely.

“It’s a pleasure, I’m Maharbaal, feel free to call me Mahar,” he said while sticking his hand out. “And this is my sister, Tanit. We’re of house Magonine.” He was dressed in a blue and yellow robe or rather a single sheet of cloth that wrapped around his body horizontally in a descending fashion. It began at his chest and ended just below his knees. There was also a similarly colored mantle over his shoulders. His skin was a dark bronze and his body looked lithe. A clothe decorated with jewels was wrapped around his head, though his curly brown hair seemed to escape at various points.

I gave him a quick, “It’s nice to meet you,” while shaking his hand. I did the same when Tanit offered hers. She resembled her brother, though her long curly brown hair was free to fall down her back. Her sleeveless dress was light blue with silver clasps at the shoulders. It sported a very deep but acute V-neck that cut to her sternum. Her skirt was wrapped similarly to her brother’s robes, but tighter and started only at her stomach and fell to her ankles.

“Their father is an admiral in the western navy,” Julian explained. The empire bordered two oceans. To the east it had the great barrier ocean, to the west was a vast unexplored body of water. The eastern navy was much larger as it had to patrol the shallow sea and the Barrier Ocean. The western navy also guarded against pirates, though its main purpose was supporting the supply lines of the legions stationed in those areas.

“And my discussion partner here is Iltani Eresh, her mother is the Satrap overseeing the city of Urek in the Twin Rivers.” She offered a slender, clawed hand to shake, which I promptly did. Nagini had only four defining features that set them apart from regular humans: the claws on their hands and feet, their slitted tongue, their pointed teeth, and their snake-like eyes. Her skin was a shade darker than Mahar’s, while her long, snug-fitting white dress was exceptionally revealing. She was adorned with plenty of jewels and gold with especially large gold plates in her straight black hair.

“Did we interrupt something?” I asked after the greetings were over.

“Yes, but maybe the prince should give his opinion on a possible withdrawal from the jungles of Alezon,” replied Iltani.

“I may be a prince, but I am only fourteen, besides that, I haven’t heard of any withdrawal orders like that,” offered Julian. While he was talking, an attendant gave him two glasses, one which he passed to me. Upon seeing this, Mahar poured us both a drink from the jug on the table.

“Mahar here seems to think that after the recent debacle, we will be driven out of the area entirely,” Iltani explained. Alezon was one of the more tumultuous provinces in the empire, the jungle was populated by various lizardmen clans, around half of which pledge allegiance to the empire. The other half was in constant rebellion. The jungle itself often aided these efforts as it was the perfect place for a guerilla resistance. One of Jaimie’s darkest stories that I read back on Earth was about a group of legionnaires who must find their way back to friendly territory after surviving an ambush in the jungle.

“Wait, what happened in Alezon?” I asked. There hadn’t been any mentions of a withdrawal in the book, though, at this point in the story, Gyra’s perspective would be focused on her small town in the countryside. Actually if I remember correctly there was heavy fighting in the jungles during the book.

“Ten legions were wiped out in an ambush last month. Our old allies the Sebek tribe switched sides to the rebels and led the ambush,” she explained. Ten legions would be a fourth of our standing army in the southwest. “To add insult to injury, the Third Prince was a commanding officer in Alezon, but there hasn’t been word of his whereabouts.”

“That’s why we need to answer with overwhelming force; burn down the jungle if we have to,” said Mahar.

“If that was an option, then we would have done it sooner,” she retorted. “Do you really think a massive army would survive without enough local support? You would just be sending them to die,” she continued.

“Do you think we should just withdraw? Urek could be directly threatened without Alezon,” replied Mahar. The city of Urek was very close to the Alezon jungles.

“Urek will be threatened if we lose an entire army in the jungles,” Iltani replied calmly. They continued on like that, neither gaining any ground in their arguments. Though Julian and I posed a few questions, they ultimately were more concerned with besting each other. So, the three non-combatants at the table decided to move on.

“Are those two always like this?” I asked when we had gotten far enough away from their argument.

“Those love birds? Only with each other,” she replied.

“They’re in love?” I asked, astonished.

“Let’s just say, there’s only one thing they like more than fighting each other,” she replied nonchalantly. I almost did a spit take with the wine in my mouth. “Now, I’ve been bored to death since I got here, so let’s play some trigon!”

“Oh, I’m not very good…” replied Julian.

“What’s trigon?” I asked.

It turned out that trigon was a juggling game, though this one seemed to have a drinking component. The three of us would stand in a circle facing each other. Then beginning with one, ball we would juggle it by passing to the right. Players could only catch with their right hands and throw with their left. While each round started off easy enough with only a single ball, more balls would be added, until a player was overwhelmed and missed or dropped one that resulted in a drink.

If anything, Julian exaggerated, he wasn’t just “not very good,” he was terrible. I wasn’t much better; it was particularly hard to throw the ball across my body with my left hand. With the two of us making so many mistakes, Tanit got to the point of drinking between rounds. Though, when I did successfully juggle the ball, I was able to send it flying at her so fast for an instant mistake each time.

On one such throw; I sent the ball flying a little too hard with an awkward throw of my left arm. The ball whizzed high and wide of anything Tanit could field, even when she posted an impressive vertical jump to try and catch it.

“My drink!” I yelled. In my head that also meant I had to retrieve it, so I took off running after the ball. Julian and some servants let out a protest, and in retrospect, servants were supposed to be doing such things. But I was drunk and probably running off earth logic. The ball went deeper into the gardens, past some hedges and fountains. What I hadn’t realized was that the hedges were arranged as a labyrinth. Following the general direction of the ball, I took a few rights and lefts. Only I realized way too late just how hopelessly lost I was. After realizing that fact, I started backtracking, but in my mild stupor, I couldn’t remember the way and just became more entangled in the web of hedges.

Running around, half-blind in the moonlight was how I found them. I almost ran right into a group of people in one of the clearings but subconsciously slowed to a halt at the corner when I heard their voices. There was something weird with the way they were talking. I peered out from my hiding spot into the circular open area. They were crowded around a fountain; one girl was on the ground two guys and another woman encircled her. The woman was tall with long silver hair.

In the book, Caterina had long silver hair. This was a fantasy world. I had seen a few unnatural hair colors in the time I was here. But no one under the age of fifty had anything close to that color hair.

“Shit!” I whispered to myself. Even if it wasn’t Caterina, and it obviously was, there could only be one explanation for this situation.

“Get her in position,” the woman hissed. The two guys grabbed the girl’s arms and forced her to kneel by the fountain waters. Caterina sat down on the fountain ledge by the girl’s face. “I’ll give you one last chance, tell me why you’re here?” she said.

“I-I don’t know!” she cried, her voice breaking into sobs.

“Too bad then,” Caterina replied. Then without warning, she pushed the girl’s head into the water. Her massive engagement ring shining in the moonlight. My heart started to pound in my chest. For a moment I was transfixed just watching the scene before me.

Then I started running towards them at a full sprint. I didn’t have a plan, I just sprinted as fast as I could. The next thing I knew, I was diving into the back of the man on the left. The two of us crashed into the waters of the fountain together. I pulled myself on top of him as we stopped rolling, pinning him under the waters. I brought my fist down hard, wildly hitting his upper arm. It cracked, and time seemed to freeze. I looked at my fist, realizing how much force it had brought down. This was my first fight-or-flight moment since coming to Aurelia. The first time I acted fully on instinct and used all my strength without worry.

The man screeched in pain, surprising me and forcing me back into the moment. I stumbled backward. We had flipped when we rolled, and thus I was able to look towards where we came from. The other man and Caterina had let go of the girl in their surprise. She stumbled back onto the grass on her butt, while the man gaped at me in surprise. Caterina hadn’t budged and gave me a disdainful stare.

“Run!” I yell to the girl after standing up. She scrambled back to her feet and disappeared down a path.

Caterina backhanded her lackey before commanding him to retrieve the girl. He went after her, forcing me to follow.

“Why are you making this so hard?” I yelled at her as I passed her by while chasing after him.

The two had disappeared, and by the time I caught up, they were sprawled on the ground together. He was on top of her, pinning the girl to the ground. I wound up for a heavy kick, slamming it into his side. The force of the impact lifted him off the ground momentarily, flipping him off the girl.

“Can you walk?” I asked the girl. She shook her head.

“I twisted my ankle when he tackled me,” she explained, pointing groaning man, I had just kicked.

“Fine, I’ll take you back,” I replied, before picking her up and trying to find my way back to the party. Luckily, she seemed to know the way and offered directions at each turn. This made it a much faster trip out than on our way in.

“Is this another quirk of being a Lysian I have not heard of?” called Julian as we exited the hedges. I imagine it was some sort of joke. Julian and Tanit were still where I left them, by the tables.

“Not this time, she just sprained her ankle,” I said as I set the woman on the ground. “I-I have to go back and check on something,” I continued, before sprinting back into the hedges. Caterina was alone back there. And this was the perfect chance to snag her ring. I could probably just pull it off forcefully rip it off like the bandits from the novel.