(Alex, 16)

"Barry!" I call out, throwing my hand up and generating a barrier.

The flame bull slams into it, my shield breaking, but still slowing the charge enough that Barry, warned by my call, can dodge out of it. I return to focusing on my own flame boar, dodging to the side and stabbing into its neck with my sword. The boar roars, exhaling flames through its nostrils as it begins charging again, my sword yanking out of my hand.

"Sara!" I call out.

"On it!" She says, and the flame boar cries out as its hind legs give out beneath it.

I run forward and grab my sword as Sara approaches to remove the weighted line she'd thrown to tangle its legs. With my sword back in my hands, I cut down into the boar's neck a few times, killing it as Sara goes to help Barry handle the other, the pair of them killing it as I remove the boar's tusks.

Between the three of us, we've killed seven today, though they've done most of the work.

I send the tusks into my dimensional space, then approach Barry and Sara, who are removing their boar's tusks and tying them together to hang with the others hanging from Barry's belt. Jeddy runs over to us from the rocks he was hiding on, and he immediately begins mending the wound on my arm.

"Damn boars got us good," I say as I watch Jeddy's magic work, my flesh knitting back together. "Thanks, Jeddy."

"You're welcome, Boss!" He cheerfully responds. "The way ya guys fought was so cool!"

"Thanks," I say as he finishes up that injury and gets to work on the cut on my forehead. I try not to look around. "We've come across too many flame boars on this trip. Isn't it considered bad if you encounter more than five in a day while looking for them? We're traveling to another village, and we've come across seven."

We picked up a C-Rank delivery quest this morning. Even though we're D-Rank, we can complete it because there are three of us. The first thing we need to do is kill the beast that has the item, then deliver the item to the smith who wanted it. First, though, we need to actually reach the village with the smith, then go into the forest and look for some caves.

But we keep running into flame boars, which is starting to annoy us.

"Screw this," I mutter, looking at Barry and Sara. "Let's head back to Varil City, tell 'em at the guild that we tried to travel to the village and fought seven flame boars long before it was in sight. That ain't normal, and at this rate, we'll be too exhausted when we reach the village. Yeah, the plan was to do the quest tomorrow, anyway, but you both agreed this is more than you normally find when huntin'."

"Yeah," Barry nods. "Let's head back. They can have some hunters investigate this and deal with it, the extra pay ain't worth it and we're already gonna get money for the kills and the horns."

The four of us rest as Jeddy finishes healing us, then we start walking back the way we came. We traveled six hours to get this far, excluding the fights, and will reach Varil City well after nightfall. We could probably head all the way to the village in another four hours, but none of us want to risk continuing to fight flame boars. What if their numbers increase in quantity the further we go? Or something stronger shows up? Things seemed to pick up after three hours of travel.

An hour passes before I sense something in my scan spell. Frowning, I scramble to the top of some rocks and look out, then swear.

"Get on the rocks! Now!"

The others climb up without question, just in time for the flame boars to slam into them and around them. The rocks are large and firmly in the ground, and the flame boars can't reach us. They certainly want to, though.

"You knew they were coming before they were in your range, Boss," Sara says.

"I noticed small game like rabbits fleeing," I say. "Crap. How's we gonna get out of this? We're too damn exhausted to handle so many flame boars."

"Shells of frost, rise up and surround my foes! Trap them in your icy prison and relieve their prey of their woes!"

The cracking sound of ice forming rapidly fills the air, and in moments, ice surrounds us, completely encasing every last flame boar. I look around until I spot a pair of figures standing on another cluster of rocks, a boy and a girl our age. The voice I heard performing the incantation was male, so the boy is probably the magician who cast the spell. The girl has a sword on her hip, light armor on her body, her hair tied into a bun atop her head, probably to keep it from moving around as she fights.

The boy waves to us, then they hop off their boulders and move towards us, and we somehow manage to climb off and not slip on the ice as we walk over to them.

"Hey," the boy grins. "Saw you in a bit of a bind, sorry if we stole your thunder, but you looked exhausted."

"No, it was good," I say. "Thanks. I'm Alex. These are Barry, Sara, and Jeddy."

"I'm Adam," he introduces himself. "And this is my betrothed, Elise. Where are you heading? We're on our way to Varil City, after getting lost for almost two months."

"Lost?" Sara asks.

"We're from pretty far away," Elise explains. "Not many paths to really follow, and the ones that do take the long way to Varil City. We thought we'd cut through, make a shorter trip, and ended up… lost. We've come across a few towns before, and have been advised to either take the road for the long way or keep going short, but always seem to end up lost again, no matter what we do. We actually had some adventurers escorting us a couple of weeks ago, as they were heading to Varil City, too, but we got separated in a forest."

That's some really bad luck if they're constantly getting lost. Maybe following the trails would have been better for them?

"You're in luck," I say. "This path takes ya straight to Varil City, we're heading there ourselves. Were gonna go to another village to do a job, but there are too many flame boars."

"This isn't normal?" Adam asks.

"No," Barry laughs. "Sara and I are hunters, and we've gone up to five three of town before, and were lucky if we fought five of them in a day. That was ten you froze. Are they dead?"

"Well and truly," Adam smiles. "I was the best mage in our town. The plan was to attend university, but I guess we'll have to wait until we can take the exam to start next term. At long last, we'll finally finish traveling! Is it true that Varil City is so large, it can take three or four hours to walk from one end to the other in a straight line?"

"Going down Queen Street, ya," I nod. "It runs from the eastern gate to the western. King Street is almost five hours, and runs from the northern gate to the southern."

"Does everyone there talk like you?" Elise asks.

"No!" I laugh. "My accent's better when I ain't around the gang. We used to be street rats from up in Varilar, so we've got street accents. I've been doing my best to fix that since I's attending university, too, but it slips out when I'm with me gang."

"Never had to deal with street rats much," Adam says, and we all start walking. The boars are too frozen to do anything with, and he doesn't seem inclined to take pieces for selling, either. "We had 'em around, but they mostly left me and my family's bakery alone. They'd try to steal some treats from us from time to time, but that stopped once I started using magic."

"He was ten," Elise tells us. "Adam and I were betrothed at birth, even though that's not normal for us commoners. His papa owned a bakery, mine owned a forge, and I suppose they wanted to join our families. Lucky for them, we decided we liked each other as we grew up.

"I was hanging out in the bakery one day," she continues. "In the back, with Adam. Since we were betrothed, they didn't mind it so much, as long as we were helpful and not causing messes or anything.

"We were moving a pot of water," she says. "It was large and heavy, and usually not something we'd move, but we figured, we were ten, both of us were used to moving heavy things because of our families' professions, and so we were doing it. That was a mistake, and we tripped and the pot splashed into one of the ovens. Thankfully, no bread was ruined, but it put out the flames, which take time to get to the right temperature and have set.

"Adam and I freaked out, of course," she continues. "And he said 'if only I could do magic, I could just dry the logs and make them burn again!' Then, he pretended to cast a spell, and held his hands out, chanting 'logs that are wet, burn again, back to the heat you were before I accidentally put you out!' And fwoosh! Flames returned, the logs quickly drying. We did have to take a few minutes to bring them back to the right temperature, but he's been a mage ever since."

That sounds like something I can see Jason doing as a kid, and would have probably been pretty funny to witness.

"And a few weeks later," Adam nods. "We were doing some stuff, and some street rats tried sneaking into the kitchen from the back. Elise grabbed a pair of knives and I created a fireball and told them that if they valued their health, they would leave the bakery and never return. After a few incidents and one burned rear-end, they left us alone."

"Interesting," I say. "So ya do water and fire magics? Is fire your element, then?"

That assumption comes from him using fire instead of merging his water into ice and using that for the threats when younger.

"Yes," he nods. "I've practiced each of the basics so far, but that's about it. That's what most people we've met can do, if they do magic at all."

They're the easiest to do, and are often performed for daily things, such as generating water when they need just a little or starting a fire for their stove. Most people can't create a ball of flames the size of their fist or fill a pot with water, they simply don't have the magical power or mana amount.

The six of us chat as we walk, and as we do, I notice Alex and Elise wandering off a few times. They don't seem to realize they're doing that, though, and it gets worse the closer we are to Varil City. Adam apologizes a few times as I bring their attention back to where we are, saying that they usually aren't like that, and I grow suspicious.

Not of him, but of the reason they keep moving off their path. Folks with easy lives probably wouldn't think anything of it, but on the streets, ya have to notice every little thing and trust your gut. And mine says something's suspicious with the way they can't stay on the path.

We reach the city without issue, and I look at the betrothed couple.

"Would ya mind coming with me?" I ask. "We've got to stop at the guild, but then I want to introduce you to someone."

"Who?" Adam asks.

"Just someone I know," much as I'd not like to ask Jason for help, if there's something up with these two, he'll know it for sure. For commoners and not street rats, he'd probably happily help. "He'd probably like to meet someone else who's got talent in magic and started learning when they were young. He started when he was five, and if ya listen to him, he did it 'cause he was doing laundry by himself and wanted to imitate his mama and simply make the water himself, rather than draw it from the well."

"Sure," Adam says. "He's a water-specialist?"

"Fire's his element, acta'ly," I tell him. "A dragon under the divine beasts. Ya'll hear about him soon enough, and definitely if ya attend the Royal Mage University next term. He's an S-class first-year."

And he should be home, too, if he didn't die. He said he was returning through a gate once he finished with the dragons and was planning on being back by lunch.

Admittedly, part of the reason that I wanted to go on a trip that would take the weekend was to avoid waiting at his house, hoping he didn't die. It took my mind off of it until now.

We make our way to the guild and let them know about the increase in flame boars, and they say they'll have someone look into it. Then, the gang and I part ways, and I lead Adam and Elise to Jason's house. The entire time we're in the city, I'm having to constantly keep an eye on them and bring their attention back to me and following me.

Something is trying to drive them out of Varil City. Definitely not right.

Dreading finding out that Jason ever returned from his trip, I turn onto his street and let out a breath I only now realize I was holding. Prince Niko's carriage is out front. I'd recognize the black carriage with the silver and brown bear insignia like I'd recognize my knives. It's here frequently enough.

If he's here, then Jason's likely here as well, which means he's survived, and that's a huge relief, even if I still don't like the way he treats me just 'cause I'm a street rat. I'm not some charity kid.

I lead the happy couple inside and find Jason and Prince Niko looking at something on the table. Strips of cloth. They're talking in Marran, something they tend to do when talking to each other without others in the conversation.

"I see the dragons didn't eat you," I say, and Adam and Elise give me a confused look. "How did it go?"

"The mines can be used with the appropriate tributes paid," Jason looks at us, his gaze traveling to the guests. "And the missing professor apparently went to go study wyverns and probably lost track of time and might not return for a few years, until she's satisfied enough to leave wherever it is she's gone. Huh. You know, when I was expecting you to bring people over while I was gone, I was expecting it be your gang, not people I didn't know."

"What do you mean, 'bring people over'?" I ask.

"While I'm not home," he says. "I was thinking you'd bring your gang over so they'd not need to pay for the weekend or whatever it is for where they're staying. Or just to hang out without me around."

"Why would I do that?" I ask. Why is he still staring at them? "It's your place, and you're only letting me stay-"

"Until you move out," he says. "And until you move out, you're a tenant here. I never said you can't have friends over. Wait, you haven't had friends over? I guess that explains why we've had extra food when I return on Sundays. That's a nasty curse placed on you two. A misdirection curse placed by someone in upper green, targeted at keeping you from reaching Varil City. I'm guessing Alex had to constantly catch your attention and ensure you were with him? I take it you realized something was strange, Alex, and made sure they reached here?"

I guess my expression says it all, because he snorts.

"It's obvious, Alex," Jason says. "In order to reach their location, they needed someone to practically force it. I'm surprised you didn't tie a rope to them."

"I thought about it," I admit. "You were able to tell the curse?"

"Yeah," he beckons to them. "Come here, I'll remove the curse. Once I do, you won't end up wandering away from Varil City and can do whatever it is you came here to do."

"Attend university," Adam answers. "Though we'll need to wait until the test for next term, since we missed it. We're really cursed?"

"Yes," Jason nods. "Though it won't affect you while in this house, my papas and mamas enchanted it long ago to neutralize curses within. Considering they're all at least middle violet, it would take quite the powerful curse to continue to work in here. As soon as you leave, however, it'll take effect again."

Adam and Elise approach, and Jason stands as Niko watches, confused. I suppose we were talking to fast for him, weren't we? Jason will probably explain everything later, but right now, he holds out his hands, and I watch as the golden-white glow of holy magic forms around his hands, then begins to wrap around their bodies. As it does, I can see some sort of shimmering shape beneath it, but cannot make it out before it shatters with an ear-splitting crack that sends almost everyone here to the ground, hands on their ears.

When I look at Jason, he's still sitting there, cool as can be. The glow of his magic is gone, but I can still feel it lingering in the air.

"Oh," he looks apologetic. "I should've warned anyone who could to create a sound barrier over their ears. The other way to break the curse would have involved blood, the moon, and a long ritual I didn't want to perform, and it wouldn't have broken like that, but faded away."

"Blood?" Adam asks.

"Yeah," Jason nods. "It involves coating your upper torso in blood, preferably pig's blood, though goat's blood would work, too. Thankfully, the time of month didn't matter, as long as we had a clear sky and even a sliver of moon. So anytime but the new moon. Anyway, the curse has been released. I take it you were planning on renting a place during the academic year? Do you have a place in mind already?"

"No," Adam answers. "Our plan was to stay at an inn until we found one. Since university was about to start, we assumed it wouldn't be hard to find a place near it."

"You're betrothed," Jason says. "Were you looking for separate places or were you wanting to ignore societal acceptable standards and live together?"

"Find separate places," Adam answers. "And find places to work. We can make it a term on our own, but past that-"

"What are your skill sets?"

"I can work a forge and perform hunts," Elise answers.

"I can use magic, perform hunts, and grew up in a bakery."

"Did that last one come with skills, or no?" Jason asks, though his tone comes off as simply curiosity rather than sarcasm.

"I can bake," Adam chuckles. "Probably not up to the standards of the royal capital, but I can bake."

The white magic circle of Jason's dimensional space forms in the air, and he pulls out three pieces of paper, holding them out as the magical ring disappears.

"The top paper," he says as Adam accepts them. "Includes a list of apartments for one-person and two-person renters. They're all intended for students attending the Royal Knight University and the Royal Magic University, so if you end up attending one of the other ones next term, you might have a bit of a travel. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it was as of two weeks ago.

"The second paper," he continues. "Includes a list of forges and shops that sell weapons and armor that had openings for apprentices and workers as of a couple of weeks ago. Some may still have openings. The third includes a list of bakeries and cafes that are looking for workers, and was updated on Friday. Any location on the job places that have a triangle on a box is a place that also has housing above or attached to it that employees can rent that are still free."

Why does he have a list of those places? I know he probably came up with the list for apartments and such for me, but the jobs? Why would he look for one? It's not as if he's poor, being the heir to Sageson Magical Technologies.

"Thank you," Adam says. "What do we owe you for breaking the curse?"

"Nothing," Jason answers. "I suppose you don't happen to know any magicians who are upper green or lower blue, do you?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Adam answers.

"Oh, well," Jason shrugs. "If I ever see them, I'll know them by their magical signature. Such curses are illegal. Then again, I could just… yeah, I'll do that."

Do what?

The betrothed leave after that, and I look at Prince Niko, who looks like he's trying to figure out what Jason was saying. We were definitely talking too fast for him. At least the professors usually talk slower so that their students can understand… at universities not for knights and slayers.

"What are you doing?" I ask, and Jason holds up a marble.

"I recorded the magical signature of the curse in here," he explains. "So I can simply pass it to Uncle Zach and let him know what it contains and where those two are from… I forgot to ask. I'll learn it later. Once I do that, he can send someone there to investigate. Since I registered the curse and not the person, it will act as evidence, but the curse contains the caster's magical signature."

"You can record magical signatures with that?" Prince Niko asks, and I realize that Jason spoke slowly and clearly. "I was not aware that Varil has that sort of technology? I know that you can record them for the ID's, but was not aware you could do it into marbles as well."

"The marbles are an altered version of that," Jason says as he sends the marble into his dimensional space. "They're not released to the public for what are probably obvious reasons, but they've been around for awhile. Niko, did you pick?"

"Yes," Prince Niko answers, then picks up a strip of fabric, which I realize is actually three different fabrics, one a shade of red, the other two different shades of orange. "Are you sure they can make it in time?"

"Yes," Jason answers. "I already had you measured and you just picked the color scheme for your outfit. Just make sure to come here by six on Felday, and we'll perform any last-minute adjustments before the ball."

Oh, they got invited to some fancy ball at the palace, probably. Felday is the Harvest Festival for this region, as well as the autumnal equinox.

"Okay," Prince Niko answers. "Are you attending the ball as well? You never answered me when I asked earlier."

Jason quietly sends the strips of cloth into his dimensional space, looking uncomfortable, and I start to make my way to my room.

"Don't go up yet, Alex," Jason says. "I can hear your stomach growling and have a question or two for you. I haven't decided, Niko. I get sick on the equinoxes, and while it's not as severe as when I was little, I am not sure if I can handle the crowd of a ball at the palace. I'll have an outfit, though, just in case I do attend."

"Okay," Prince Niko says. "Thank you for your help, Jason."

"You're welcome," Jason smiles.

"Have a good night," Prince Niko tells him.

"You as well," Jason says, and the Marran prince leaves. Jason turns his gaze to me. "Come on, sit down."

"Decided to stop avoidin' me to break the big news to me?"

"What big news?" He makes a funny face. "I just suggested you sit down because you have literally been standing in the same spot since you arrived, the only change being when I forgot to warn everyone about the snap the curse would make and when you went to go to your room. You also look like you're ready to drop. Food is being made, so don't worry about waiting too long."

"The big news," I say. "You had a list of apartments ready, and I know you've been looking for places that can house my gang and me, you said it. You're kicking me out."

"What?" He makes an annoyed face. "No, I'm not. I was just going to ask your plans for this coming Felday, for the Harvest Festival. I'm going to a place where the natural magics aren't affected as much, so I can handle it better. If you had no plans with your friends, I was going to invite you to come with me. You mentioned that until you joined the caravan making it's way here, you'd never left Varilar before, and I know the path itself, while scenic, was… probably pretty plain."

In other words, this is the part where he finally reveals his big, nasty personality. He'll leave me there, won't he? Wherever it is, far away from everyone else. Or he'll humiliate me in front of his friends-

"And I was also wondering," he interrupts my thoughts. "If you wanted to attend the masquerade ball at the palace Felday evening. I can take someone with me as my guest, and most of the people there will have known each other for years. I know you won't have had a chance for something like this before, so thought I'd ask. If you're worried about an outfit or a mask, I can measure you now and get the outfit made before heading to the lake."

"Lake?" I ask.

"Yes," he nods. "There's a lake where the natural magics remain somewhat balanced during the equinoxes and solstices, and the ill feeling I have on them is weaker as a result. Would you like to go with me to either of those? If you don't want to go to either, I'd understand. You probably have plans with your friends already and don't want to go to some stuffy ball with a bunch of nobles."

"You get sick on the equinoxes and solstices?" I snort. "That sounds like some bull you'd-"

"It's not sick," he says. "So much as it is that the natural energies and magics in the world shift and distort. I'm especially sensitive to them, so when that happens, it messes with me, makes me feel horrible. Cosmological events such as meteors or meteor showers, comets, and the like also do it to me, as their own magical energies affect our world's as they pass by. A meteor with star iron is even worse. When I was younger, one flew overhead on the winter solstice. I was sick enough that I actually did puke, and Mama Elena had to give me a sleeping potion to knock me out during it.

"I will admit," he says. "I'm asking you to come to the lake with me mostly out of selfish reasons. Everyone else has plans for the Harvest Festival, or I would invite them all to join me as well. I would rather not spend the equinox alone, and my papas and mamas are all going to be busy. It seems Uncle Zach invited them all to the palace as well."

I can't tell if he's being serious or not, but I'm still sure he's going to pull some stunt with me. The thought of going to a lake with him, just us, makes my stomach knot up, and I hate it. It seems almost romantic when looking at just that when he supposedly just doesn't want to be alone and I'm sure he's going to be cruel.

To be honest, though, I don't think rejecting his request is an option. If he has plans to be cruel to me, there are probably contingencies to make sure I go along with it. He knows about my friends, and I am sure he has located where they live, just in case he wants to use them against me. So I'll go along with his plans, and hope that whatever it is, I can deal with it.

Though I will admit… part of me hopes that I'm wrong and he's being honest with me, but that's the part that crushes on him. I seriously need to move out of here and get out of his life. Once I move out, it will be easier, but I'm not sure leaving his training group would be a good idea.

Why did I have to join it?

"If you don't want to go," he says when I don't answer. "You don't have to, Alex. I just thought I'd ask since I see you as a friend, even if you don't want to acknowledge that."

"If we're friends," I say as his maid puts down a bowl of stew and some bread in front of me, along with a goblet of water. "Why do you keep avoiding me ever since last week?"

He scratches the back of his neck, something I'm starting to think is a genuine thing he does when he's unsure on if he should say whatever it is, but is actually honest with what he says next.

"It's complicated," he tells me. "Part of it's my studies for universities – I had to do two essays and prepare for a written test last week. Part of it's my research, I was making progress on something. I was also making my own outfit for the masquerade this Felday, in case I did decide to go. The rest… is complicated. And regardless of your answer, things are still complicated as I try to sort some stuff out. I also have another exam, on this coming Sorday, and will be making the suit for Niko, and if you accept the second invitation as my guest, then for you as well."

"Making an outfit?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers. "Mama Elizabeth is a Sage, and she specialized in clothes and magical gear that wasn't metal. She taught me how to make clothes, and I've been doing it since I was little. It takes time, but it's also cheaper than having someone custom-make it. And no, I won't charge you for it, Alex, it'll be my gift, since I'm inviting you knowing you have a limited income because of university and your chosen job."

"Speaking of jobs," I say. "Why did you have those lists made up? The ones you gave to Adam and Elise?"

"Those?" He asks, scratching the back of his neck again. "Just in case you started looking for something that wouldn't exhaust you so much on your weekends."

There's something suspicious about his tone, but I won't push it. That would be a bad idea no matter what.

"Alright," I say. "I'll go with you… to both things."

"Okay," he says. "I'll need to get your measurements before I can make your outfit. The last-minute fixes will be done when Niko's here on Felday. You should probably eat, before your stew gets cold. Thanks for coming with me, Alex."

He covers his mouth as he yawns.

"I'm taking a bath," he stands. "Then heading to bed. Good night, and I'll see you in the morning."