“I have it.”

“What?”

“I have it,” he reaffirmed, pointing to the pendant. She stared at him in confusion. “We’re going to be attacked.” He threw off the sheets and burst out of the room, hardly paying any attention to his clothes or the cold slowly enveloping his bare feet.

“Where are you going?” Teal asked as she chased after him. She carried his shoes and offered them to him but he waved them away.

“To my family. If we’re quick then we might be able to escape.”

He opened the door to the funeral room and rage filled Drastan as he stomped over, his fists clenched tight. “I told you last night to wear the proper clothing. I don’t care if you are family or not, leave this room immediately.”

Kieran ignored his brother and walked over to his parents. Drastan grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back. Pain shot through his shoulder. Through gritted teeth his brother spat out pointed words, “You are so bold as to disrespect Akeron and this sacred ritual? You should have been the one in that casket, not him. At least you could have scrounged and saved whatever pathetic pride you had left. Leave. Now.”

They glared at each other. If he didn’t know what was coming, he might have backed down. As far as everyone was concerned, he violated procedure for his own brother’s funeral.

Stepping in before things went out of hand, their father said, “I do not believe Kieran would do this one purpose. Let go of him, Drastan.”

He let go and Kieran rolled his shoulder, “Thank you, Father. There’s going to be an attack from a whole group of knights, at least… I don’t know, twenty or more. We have to leave right now and escape through the teleport room.”

“We are days away from the frontlines,” Drastan said. “The Overlord and General Vamz’s armies are positioned in an area that would deter a significant threat. Should there be a detachment of knights large enough to overwhelm this castle, with our royal guards bolstering the defenses, we would have heard of it by now.”

“Your brother is right,” their father said. “Word would reach us the moment they arrived at the walls as well.”

“But it won’t!” Kieran shouted. “They’re going to get past those armies somehow, they’re going to get in somehow, and they’re going to kill all of us. I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but they will. We don’t have any time. We have to go.”

From the doorway, Teal said, “I agree with the Young Master. My Flow can sense anyone who enters within a radius and I sensed multiple intrusions just now.”

That’s right!

“Who gave you the right to speak?” Drastan sneered. “You have no right to be here.”

Baumor placed a hand on Drastan’s shoulder, “Say we take your words seriously, How come the guards have not come?”

“I don’t know. They’re probably surrounded.”

“The Young Master is right,” Teal added.

“And how would you know that? You have stated before that your ability cannot distinguish between friends and foes. What if those were simply patrols returning?” Drastan said. Immediately following the allegations of Teal stealing, Drastan dug into Teal’s background and her usefulness as Kieran’s personal aide.

“The amount of people passing through my barrier is much more than the number of men in a patrol. Please, we must flee.”

Their father held up a hand, signalling for everyone to be silent. He called on multiple servants through the open door, “Go and report back the situation outside.” They quickly left, but Kieran knew that their time was limited.

He went to grab his mother’s hand, but Drastan was much faster. Once again, Kieran suffered his older brother’s powerful grip. Tendrils extended from his shadow. They wrapped around Drastan’s leg and pulled. His balance shifted, causing him to lurch forward. Drastan caught himself and threw Kieran across the room.

“Fool. You think you can use your shadows against me and expect all of us to follow along with your outlandish fantasies of an impending attack? This is your last warning. Leave.”

With the words spoken, a tension unlike before hung in the air. Teal’s demeanor, unusually steady in contrast to her usual self, wavered. Even their mother, the queen, with all her power and authority, held her breath. The priest observed the situation keenly. Baumor shied away while their father seemed reluctant to step in.

Did he not care?

Maybe he didn’t want to step on Drastan’s toes. Though the Bloodletting was years away, in which Drastan would be crowned king, many in the country spoke of him and his achievements highly. None were expected to challenge him for the throne. When Kieran rose to his feet, he didn’t turn to the door. He walked toward his family. Drastan’s face deepened with anger at each step. Right as it was about to boil over, the servants returned.

What?

They weren’t hurt in the slightest and came back much faster than he thought. They knelt before all the royal family. “Speak,” said the king. “What did you discover?”

The man at the front, around his late twenties, said, “We came across these royal guards who have returned from patrol. They will confirm the situation.”

What’s happening? This isn’t like how it was before-

Four men dressed as royal guards appeared behind the kneeling servants. His heart sank as he yelled, “They’re impostors! Teal!” In that split second he called them out, he had already raised his hand. Wind blades tore their chest armor apart and he followed up with swift but low power shadow bolts. Her reaction and lack of hesitation was insane. How much training did Alexandra put her through to get this?

All four reeled back, withstanding the attack even though blood seeped from their wounds. More spells flew at them. Though they’d been surprised, they quickly recovered and defended themselves. A heavy fist slammed into his side and Kieran crumpled, unable to breathe. “Drastan!” their mother ran to Kieran’s side. “How could you?”

“He’s gone mad! He attacked our very own royal guards without provocation. We must-”

The wall exploded. The priest was knocked over by the flying debris, blood running down from the back of his head. “Bar...rier…” Kieran croaked. Fire enveloped the room as a golden dome kept them from harm. Everything was thrown into chaos. The two actual royal guards were slain by the impostors in a surprise attack during the confusion, and knights rushed into the room.

They were surrounded on all sides. As he gasped for air and saliva dripped from his mouth, he desperately searched for an opening. There were none. The four impostors he and Teal had attacked should have been the way out, but behind them four more men, dressed fully as knights, entered. They were the four the two dead guards were supposed to keep at bay.

“Fuck…” he muttered.

Teal cast spell after spell, delaying them the best she could. It was useless. All of them were likely stronger than her. With the help of his mother, he rose to his feet while his thoughts and vision were still muddled by the strength of Drastan’s attack.

What do I do? What do I do?

His father was surrounded and being attacked from all sides. Baumor was on the back foot against two. Drastan gathered his Essence around himself. Kieran recognized it. He was an Enforcer. However, just as his Flow was about to take shape around his body, six knights charged him continuously interrupting his concentration.

“Kieran you must get to the teleportation room,” his mother whispered. A halberd swung at them from overhead. She pushed him away and the weapon dug into the ground, cleaving the bricks in two. The knights from the door swarmed her while the imposter guard tried to finish him.

Prone, Kieran used his shadows to tug on the impostor’s leg, causing the halberd to miss its mark. He fired off a shadow bolt. The impostor dodged the attack and swung again. At the last second, a wind blade interrupted his line of attack. Kieran used that chance to stand.

“Young Master!” Teal ran to him, pulling him into an embrace and spinning around. His eyes widened. She’d been stabbed through the back. She shielded him. Kieran blew the impostor away with a shadow bolt.

“T-T-Teal!”

“I’m… Fine…” she said, pushing away from him and somehow managing to stand by herself. She was covered in blood and wounds.

“How can you be fine?!”

“Alexandra… she was much… rougher than this…”

Their conversation was cut short. The impostor was back on his feet and joined by the other three Teal had been fighting. She grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and pointed her free hand at the ground. A powerful gust threw them into the air. The impostors sniped them with Essence bolts.

They crashed to the ground away from each other. Teal’s arms trembled as she pushed herself up, her bloodstained hair hanging over her face. They ignored her. Kieran was kicked over. All three surrounded him with their stolen halberds, stone-faced as they dug the pointed ends into his body, holding him down as one raised his weapon in executioner style.

A wind blade shot toward the impostors. It crashed against a barrier. Behind the impostors, the knights had finished off his mother. As Kieran stared at her mangled body, lying on the ground in a pool of blood, he turned to Teal who was being descended upon by her killers. He could feel his heart tearing in two, but the feeling paled in comparison to another, more pressing emotion.

Fear.

I don’t want to die…

He thrashed about.

No no no no no no no no I don’t want to die nononono

Before, he’d been shaken by the severe beatings and given no time to think. Now, however, as the impostor once again raised the halberd up to sever his head, fear gripped him like no other. Even as his mother’s dead body was in view, even the rest of his family was fighting for their lives, even as Teal was about to die, he was scared.

I don’t want to die-

Kieran shot up covered in cold sweat. His hands were numb from his unsteady breathing. He felt his neck, as if afraid his head would fall off at any second. Fourth time. This was his fourth time dying and yet, it was absolutely terrifying. It hurt. Memories of the pain, of the anguish didn’t vanish. It carried over. Kieran curled into a ball as his hands ran through his hair.

Now, he could no longer feel his lips. His vision was blurry and he shivered uncontrollably. Death did not come to him peacefully, it never had. What if something like that happened again? What if he went out there, and didn’t die right away? What if he felt all that pain while he had a clear and conscious mind? He’d certainly go crazy.

“Young Master!” Teal shook him out of his stupor. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder as her voice lulled him, “What’s wrong? Did you have another nightmare?”

He shook his head, “N-No…” He looked at her and opened the pendant. “I-I think I can go back in time. T-This thing, this pendant right here can do it… See? It’s showing an e-eight. When I first got it from you, it was a ten-no an eleven. I’ve failed to save anyone three times already.” Kieran took off the pendant. “H-Here.” His hands were shaking as he held it out to her. “Y-You can do much better with this than someone like me ever could.”

“Young Master…” She grabbed his hand and gently curled his fingers around the pendant. “I had always meant to return it to you. You were the one who found it, after all.” Teal had a faint smile as she recalled their venture into the hedge maze.

“B-But didn’t you hear me? We’re gonna be attacked and everyone will die!”

“All the better that I gave it to you,” she said without faltering.

He stared at her. It was Teal, so he had expected her to say something like that, but it still shocked him. As he put the pendant back around his neck, he felt relieved. When he gave it to her out of impulse, out of the fear of living that terrifying moment over and over again, his hand was shaking, not because he still feared the pain, but because he remembered the other fear.

The fear of death.

Now that the pendant was back around his neck, he calmed down.

Teal wasn’t done. “Young Master, if this time is also a failure, don’t be afraid to tell me. I’ll do everything in my power to help you. I might not be Alexandra, but at least you won’t be alone.”

He nodded, “Thank you.” With a final breath to calm his remaining nerves, he said, “I’ve got eight more trial runs before this thing runs out. In that time, let’s figure out where these fuckers are coming from and make a plan.”