(Jacob, 16)

Tasha exits her bedroom, dressed in mourning greys. A simple, yet graceful dress, a ribbon holding her hair, a mask over her eyes, a pair of gloves that sleeve her arms. I offer my arm to her, and she silently accepts it.

We make our way down to the temple of Castle Meti, four of her guards following us, as well as two handmaidens and my own pair of guards. I and the servants are wearing mourning greys as well, while the guards wear a grey band on their left arm to signify their mourning state.

As we walk, I mull over Tasha's words. Papa was only mildly mad at me for revealing I was a Magus, but agreed that we would not be able to hide it forever. The Crystals Crests of Lina and I were kept secret, and an actual god spoke with me directly in a language no one else could understand. Some already did suspect, according to our spy network.

Tasha wants to reveal she is a Magus. Partly because rumors will go around now that word that I am one of the reincarnated Magi is spreading, partly because we are powerful. Those who targeted her family will hesitate to strike at a Magus when rumors say we fought gods themselves.

I advised against it, but she was insistent, and Papa told me to let her make the decision for herself. Right now, I am uncertain as to whether or not she will, but she most likely will.

We reach the temple and enter, its usual colors replaced with mourning grey. Rather than the normal priest who would oversee this, an older man wearing stoles with the crest of the Church of Enaveka stands in front of the altar. Tasha herself does not worship the normal religions, and so requested that a member of the Church of Enaveka preside over this. Even if she does not follow the religion, it is the one which most holds close to her values and beliefs. It was designed to preserve our memories and history, too.

Tasha and I reach the front of the room, and the priest raises a hand, making the mark of a star upon her forehead with his index finger. We dip our heads to him, then take a seat in the pews in front, our guards taking seats beside and behind us. I stretch out my scanning spell just in case, anyway.

We never did find out who paid the bandits for her family or her capture. My tracking spell only works on incidents within a few hours, so I could not use it to trace his trail. The Royal Guards are covering this area right now, hunting down every last bandit and interrogating them. Bear Alpha is assisting in that interrogation, due to the magical oaths forced onto the bandits we encountered.

Someone with serious power wanted Tasha captured, and right now, we do not know if it was to target me or for her. Papa approved of several policies to become active, ones used in such situations. That means actions like Bear Alpha's are permitted, now.

Assassins coming after me directly is one thing, but if someone is going after my loved ones, or attempting to capture me, it can become a lot more difficult to pin down the cause.

Tasha squeezes my arm, and I turn my attention to the priest as he begins to speak. The priest talks about the life of the Metis, and everything they have done for the kingdom. The Meti Duchy provides much of our cotton, after all – cotton which is turned into clothes citizens across the kingdom wear. It was Tasha's papa who approved several policies within the duchy which turned cotton into a far more profitable crop.

Without those policies, cotton itself would be five times as expensive, and not grown as much as it is. I am not certain entirely what the changes were, but I do know we produce much more cotton than we used to.

Not only that, but the Meti Duchy has one of the lowest amounts of ruffians, street crews, and criminal incidents in the entirety of Varil, with fewer people living in poverty. Most people could find a job working for the Meti family in their fields, their workshops, and more. It has welcomed in more than a few foreigners who wanted to start a new life in a wealthy, powerful nation.

When the priest finally stops speaking about Tasha's family, she moves to the front to address the crowd gathered here today. Merchants and nobles who work under her family, with a few high-ranking commoners from their companies as well.

"A few days ago," she says, her voice echoing through the temple's sanctuary through the use of air magic. "Bandits attacked my family. They slaughtered our guards and servants present, then murdered my papa, my mama, and my brother. Their mission was to capture me, but beyond that, we do not know the cause.

"I will mourn for my family," she states. "But I will not allow this to deter me. I will not allow the parties responsible to hold me in fear. I trust you will allow me time to adjust to my new role as Duchess and the successor of my papa's businesses. Ever since my coming-of-age ceremony, I have been versed in how things are run, so the transition to my leadership should run smoothly.

"As I am still in university," she continues. "I will not be here the majority of the time. However, I will visit regularly to oversee things and learn the finer details I may have missed these last few years. Thank you for the patience you will show me with this, and I hope I can do my heritage proud."

No doubt there are those who think it will be easy to take charge in her absence, with the change of authority. There will be those resistant to serving under her, those who already opposed her family. Everyone has enemies, especially when they are in power.

Tasha's enemies will find that she will not be easily pushed. In addition to being a Magus, she also has a gate straight here. I am certain Papa will authorize her awareness of it so that she may visit frequently enough to keep control of things. In addition, I already have several spies set up to keep an eye on things to ensure her family's business is not attacked without prior awareness to it.

"Let us descend into the catacombs," Tasha tells everyone. "So that we may put my family to rest."

I stand and join Tasha, our guards surrounding us as she takes my offered arm. We follow the priest into the catacombs through a door on the wall behind the altar, off to the side. The guests follow behind us, additional guards joining us. I feel Tasha's own scanning spell stretch out, and she gives my arm a reassuring squeeze when our spells brush each other.

It takes ten minutes to reach the chamber with the three marble beds for her family, each one dressed in simple greys. The priest blesses the late Metis, the usual blessing altered to mention the King and Queen of the gods rather than the normal mentions, then the bodies are sealed into sarcophagi and moved into slots in the walls of the catacombs.

When that finishes, everyone returns up to the temple, where the priest says a few words. Tasha then takes his spot once more to address the crowd, offering refreshments and discussion in the Great Hall. As she opens her mouth, however, glass breaks and something moves rapidly through my scanning spell.

A shimmering barrier of yellow light forms in front of Tasha, stopping the crossbow bolt. Based on where it stopped, it would have struck her in the shoulder. A non-lethal strike. The fluid on the tip of it is no doubt a poison. Knowing what we know, it was probably intended on knocking her out. She would then be captured during the panic and frenzy that followed. How they expected to manage that, I am not certain, but their boldness says they were confident in their success.

Tasha stands a little straighter, then looks up at the broken window. I enhance my gaze and find a man there, staring in shock at Tasha. He begins to scramble backwards as I note the deceased soldier on the roof beside him.

"I would not leave in such a haste if I were you," Tasha says as a hippogriff of light and wind forms beside her. The creature stretches out its fifteen-foot wingspan, then soars, briefly tucking its wings in to pass through the window. "I am Tasha del Meti, Magus of Holy, Jessica of Autumn. A poisoned arrow is far from being enough to disable me. And escape is not possible once I have set my gaze upon you."

The agent disappears behind the roof, but if this is one of her hunting birds, that will not matter. The construct flies over the roof, then disappears down behind it. A moment later, it rises back up, the man flailing in its claws. It returns to us, dropping him on the ground in front of her.

"Thank you," she gives the construct a gentle pat on the head and the construct fades as she looks down at the man. The bolt drops to the ground, landing beside his head. "Take him to the dungeons and prepare him for transport to the royal capital.

"Everyone," she looks out at the stunned crowd. "I believe the castle chefs have prepared refreshments for those present. Shall we move to the Great Hall to accept those and remember my family's adventures?"

I stand, our guards joining us as I step beside Tasha, offering her my arm. She accepts it, then we begin to walk, other guards moving to arrest the agent. When we enter the Great Hall, I spot Jason immediately. Strange, I thought he was at university right now as it is nearly noon, and since he cannot open a gate himself, that means someone brought him here. Sage Alyssa is nearby, so it was likely her.

Both are dressed in mourning greys, though Jason looks rather pale and has one of his grey crystal tablets tucked under his right arm. We approach the pair of them.

"How are you feeling?" Jason asks Tasha.

"I will be better once this is over," she admits. "I will miss my family deeply. Are you okay? You look rather pale. More so than you were earlier."

And unsteady, too. Is he feeling ill? What is he doing here?

"I will be fine," he responds.

"Will you?" She asked. "I said I was fine with waiting for that until you could set it up without risk."

"I am willing to set my healing back to help you," he gives her a kiss on each cheek. Why did he speak in the ancient tongue? "The crystal is set up in the discussed location."

The crystal?

"Did you set up a warp crystal?" I ask in the ancient tongue.

"Yes," Jason answers. "So that Tasha may travel here freely and easily without need for the gate. Uncle Zach has promised to set Royal Guards to watching it at all times, and her while she is present. I've keyed it so that only a select few individuals may use it."

"How did you acquire your crystal tablet?" I ask in Varilan. "I thought they were in your spatial storage?"

"They are," he answers. "It's been a few days since I returned, so I thought I'd be able to access my spatial magic without an issue."

"And he nearly killed himself doing it," Sage Alyssa frowns at Jason. "It could have waited, Jason."

"He is the only one who can set them up?" I ask.

"Yes," Sage Alyssa asks. "They require something through his tablets, and none of us are able to interpret it. We believe it comes from when he was Lucas."

"It does," Jason says. "Mama Elizabeth might be able to understand it, but I wouldn't be surprised if she's long-since forgotten it. She hasn't used the language in something like eighty years. In addition, it's keyed to work only for myself, so she wouldn't be able to use it even if she did understand it."

"Go back to the part where you nearly killed yourself to acquire it from your spatial storage?" I ask.

"I wouldn't have actually died," Jason says. "But I really should not be doing spatial magic for at least a month or two. Mama Alyssa is about to take me home so I can get some rest, but I wanted to see the two of you, first."

At least he will be resting after, he looks like he needs it more than a little.

"Thank you," Tasha dips her head to Jason. "For both the crystal and coming to see me."

"You are an old friend," he smiles. "And friends should support friends in times of need. I am sure Jacob can take care of your needs for now, so have a pleasant evening, and may you find rest soon."

"Thank you," she smiles.

Jason kisses her on the cheek, then shakes my hand before leaving with Sage Alyssa. I look at Tasha.

"Do not stress yourself too hard," I tell her. "You may sit if you wish to."

"I know," she responds. "But I will wait on that until I need to. I must show strength, even if I am exhausted."

I take a couple of glasses of champagne from a passing server and hand her a glass. A faint, yellow light forms at her fingertips, then she takes a drink. Sage Elena taught us how to perform that spell during the last training camp. I perform the same spell to check mine, then take a sip. A fine drink.

"Lady Tasha," a man in his forties approaches, giving her a slight bow. "My condolences for your loss. I am not sure if you remember me, but I am Thomas Melnai, and I oversee some of the production of the dyes used for the clothes made with the cotton grown here."

"I remember you, Thomas," Tasha smiles. "Though it has been a few years since I last saw you. It was at the Summer Festival four years ago. I was twelve at the time, nearly thirteen. If I remember correctly, you were suffering issues with the supply of the root used to create an orange dye."

"The issue has long-since been taken care of, milady," he tells her. "And we may be able to decrease the costs on red dyes in the next few months, at least temporarily."

And so begins the stage of the mourning ceremony where the various families now under Tasha will either suck up to her or do their best to appraise her. With her display at the temple, more will do their best to be cautious and appraise her, and a few of the more cowardly ones will suck up to her.

I take another sip of my champagne.

Things are about to drag on even longer than one of Papa's meetings regarding the kingdom's finances.

(Niko, 16)

"How is she?" I ask Jason as soon as we are dismissed for lunch.

Jason rejoined us near the end of the lesson before lunch, after having gone down to Castle Meti to do some work on something, to allow Tasha to travel between there and here easily so that she may both run the duchy and finish university. He really should be resting, and could have taken the rest of the day off university, but does not wish to miss anymore than necessary.

"Holding up," he answers as the three of us make our way to the dining hall. "There was an attempt to capture her after the ceremony, but the fool attacked a Magus. She created a construct and sent it after him, and he's currently being interrogated as we speak. When I left, they were in the Great Hall for the sucking-up ceremony."

"That is, indeed, the most important part, in the eyes of some," Lina says. "I do wish they would allow her at least some time after the funeral to mourn for her family. They were slain only a few days ago."

"Is there any news on who is behind things?" I ask.

"No," Jason answers, but I can tell that he lied. He has a tell. "As of right now, the interrogations are leading to standstills. No one can identify the person who hired them. We will find them, though."

Our conversation ends as we enter the lines for food, and the rest of university goes much the same as it has been, with our professors focusing on reviewing this past term's lessons in preparation of Sorday's exams.

After lessons, I bid Lina a good day, then she leaves as Jason and I make our way to the training room where he is testing his students from my home. They wait for him there already, so he begins the tests immediately. Today, he is testing their abilities with earth magics, shadow magics, and curse magics. My particular trio.

All ten of them struggle with the spells, but Jason remains neutral in his responses to it. None of them are quite that good at it, though I know Micah wishes he could use earth and curse magics to make golems like I do. He has a long way to go with his training to be able to say his goal has become within reach.

When their lessons finish, the ten of them leave and Jason pulls out his comm plate, calling Badger Alpha to open us a warp gate to his home. When we arrive, I sense snow in my scanning spell.

"It's snowing," Jason grunts. "Let's check on the horses."

I nod, then follow him outside, and Aurum and Korciel are waiting in the pen, rather than in the barn. They're standing at the part of it closest to the house, and when we approach, Jason starts feeling Aurum, touching under the snow.

"He's actually rather warm," Jason brushes the snow off of Aurum. "Would you mind clearing snow from the ground while I find out why they are out here?"

"It is no problem for me," I tell him, then begin to use fire magics to melt the snow and earth and water magics to keep the soil from becoming mush or mud. When I finish, I return to Jason. "What is the verdict?"

"They were too warm in the barn," Jason tells me. "I suppose I put too many heaters in there, so we can turn one or two off and see how it cools down. Let's head to the barn so we can brush them down and saddle them."

"Okay," I say.

We walk to the barn, and I agree with the horses about how warm it is. Jason adjusts the heaters as I prepare Koricel for riding.

"It should cool off while we're riding," Jason tells me as I mount. "You can get started, and I'll prepare Aurum."

I nod, then click my tongue. Koricel walks out of the barn, then I set him into a light trot. Jason joins me after about five minutes, and we give the horses a good amount of exercise. Koricel is quite a nice horse, and I am grateful to Jason for allowing me to use him for my riding practice.

"Jason," I say once we dismount in the barn and begin brushing the horses down. "It was strange, riding with my leg."

This is my first time riding a horse since losing it, and it did not seem to hinder me at all, despite me expecting it to.

"You seemed to do well," he tells me.

"Thank you," I tell him. "I may feel comfortable revealing to Lina that I am able to ride. I know that I am no professional rider, but I do feel confident in my skill, now."

"I would wait until spring," Jason tells me. "When the weather is much-better suited to riding."

"I will do that," I nod. "Did you see the scarf?"

"I did," he tells me. "It looks nice on her, too."

He looks off into the direction Steven lives in, thinking about something. Not Steven, probably. We determined that the dragon can probably tell that Jason is wounded badly and needs to rest and has decided to give us some peace until Jason recovers. Whatever he is thinking about, he eventually comes to a decision.

"There are thirty-seven members of the training group," he says. "Myself excluded, if we include Connor and Hailey. We can split that into five groups of seven, much like we did during the Festival of Spirits, except we'd have three leftover, so three groups would need to have eight instead."

He sighs.

"I want to use the training fields you and I have been setting up with the aid of my mamas and papas," he tells me. His mind is not entirely focused right now, is it? "But we're likely to receive an ice storm in this area during the session, or at least a blizzard. That would make it dangerous, and I don't want to do that just yet.

"That said," he continues. "They already added in two more training rooms to the training facility, so we can host everything inside."

"Is something wrong?" I ask.

"Yes," he answers, then sighs. "It's complicated, though. Very complicated. I guess I'm just thinking about things, Niko. Do you want to return home now?"

"Can we make pastries?" I ask. "I want to send some to Lina."

"Sure," he answers. "We'll have to head to the family's house for ingredients, though. Can you open a gate there?"

"Sure," I answer. "Do you have a box to put them in after, so that I can have them delivered to Lina? Or will I need to return to Varil to grab one as well?"

"I think we have a few boxes," he tells me. "Open the gate. I think Papa Harold might be home, so he can let us know for sure if we do."

"Okay!" I say as I open the gate. "Can you teach me how to do those sticky, sweet ones? Lina seems to enjoy them."

"I can do that," he chuckles, then steps through the gate, and I follow.

I hope Lina enjoys them.

(Alex, 16)

"I'm going to check on Jason," I tell Connor. "Then visit the crew for a bit before returning. Since I have lessons tomorrow, even if only review, I'm not going to be too late."

"Alright," he says. "I'll see you either when you return, or at breakfast."

"See you," I tell him, then leave.

It only takes a few minutes to reach Jason's home, and I'm allowed inside almost immediately. Sage Alyssa and Sage Elena are inside, as well as Miranda and Jared, the four of them falling silent when I enter.

"Jason hasn't returned yet," Sage Elena informs me. "Knowing what he's currently doing, he will probably be another two or three hours."

"What he's doing?" I ask.

"Taking his horse for a ride," she answers. "I advised him against it with his current condition, but he says that he has not ridden Aurum in too long and needs to personally exercise his horse. You can expect him to be quite sore tomorrow."

"And in worse condition than earlier," Sage Alyssa adds. "But Jason is Jason, and left without coming home. Niko is with him, though, so he might not get into too much trouble."

"Ain't half of the major things he's done been while he was with Niko?" I ask.

"This is on one of their regular things," Sage Alyssa tells me. "It's unlikely anything extreme would happen unless they chose to deviate from that."

"Okay," I say. "I'll check back on my way back home, if you're okay with that. I want to see him before going to bed. With training canceled this week, I don't get to see him at university, as he arrives at a different time than me and leaves at a different time."

"That's not a problem," she says. "We'll likely still be up."

"By the way," Jared opens up a dimensional space and pulls out a box. "You left these in the room when you left. I've been meaning to give them to you."

I take the box and look inside, then quickly send it into my spatial storage.

"Thanks," I say. "I'd wondered where those've been."

Sage Elena raises an eyebrow.

"Books," I tell her, and Sage Alyssa raises an eyebrow. "Plus some extra knives and some stuff. I may have left the street, but it ain't entirely left me."

"Sure," she says. "Don't get into trouble, Alex. You're on a thin line right now as it is."

"Don't remind me," I grumble. "Stupid warrant. How did they even connect that to me?"

I shake my head and leave, making my way to the crew's house. With the warp crystals, the trip's just a few varru and ten minutes of walking from Jason's house. Did Jason do that on purpose, so that I could visit them easier, or is it just coincidence?

Either way, it's rather nice.

I reach their apartment and enter, and the crew is sitting in a ring on the floor, several steins of ale around them. Jeddy is shuffling a deck of cards, and a pair of dice sit in front of him. Then there are several stacks of coins in front of everyone.

"What are ya doing?" I ask.

"Gambling," Jeddy answers as Mikey gets up to fetch me a drink, the others moving so that there's enough room for me to join them. I sit between Barry and Sarah and give Jeddy an inquisitive look. "So a deck of cards has fifty-two cards, sorted into four suits. Each one holds a value of one through thirteen, right?"

"Yeah," I accept the mug from Mikey as he returns to his spot.

"So what we're doing," he says. "Is everyone gets a card, then we place our bets on if our card is lower than, higher than, or equal to the sum of the dice. Three separate piles. If you're right, ya split the reward with everyone else who was right. If you're wrong, ya don't. The piles just keep growing until they're gone."

"But if ya have a King or Ace," I say. "You're guaranteed a win."

"Yeah," he says. "Eight out of fifty-two cards are guaranteed wins. That's… two out of thirteen. Ya want to join?"

"Sounds like a weird game," I open up my spatial storage and pull out some coins. "What's the max we're allowed to start with?"

"One hundred varru," Barry answers, and I pull that out and send the rest back into my spatial storage. "Minimum bet is two."

"Got it," I say. "Who came up with it?"

"Jeddy did," Peter answers. "There were more rules initially, but we nixed them."

"Knowing Jeddy, I'm sure there's a good reason for that," I say, and everyone chuckles as Jeddy blushes. "Alright, Jeddy. I think ya've shuffled enough. Time to deal! First to lose all their money has to kiss a donkey!"