(Alex, 16)

"Hey, Niko," I say, and he gives me an inquisitive look. "I was wondering something."

"Wondering things is natural for humans," he says.

"Yeah," I roll my eyes. "Anyway, after we leave here, I was wondering if ya could help me find someone."

"I am not that talented at finding people," he tells me. "And it is doubtful I would be able to assist. Jason or Jacob would be better."

I grimace at the mention of Jacob, then shake my head.

"They're Marran," I tell him, and he raises an eyebrow. "Can we talk in private?"

"We may," he says. "Come, we can talk in my room."

Niko leads me to the room he picked out here, giving me my first view of it. Most people have left their rooms plain, but Niko's given his some light decorations.

There's a bearskin rug on the floor, taking up most of the free floor space, and I don't even want to know where that came from. Three of the four walls have runes glowing on them in green, blue, and purple, with some red, orange, and yellow here and there. I'm sure if they were anything other than decorative, they wouldn't have stuck. There are some on the ceiling as well, spiraling out from the light crystal in a fractal pattern.

The runes give the room both a comforting and a disturbing feel, which ain't really my thing.

Yeah, I meant that kind of light decorations, though the bearskin rug is nice. His wardrobe isn't decorated with the light runes, but it does have a few scrolls with runic magical circles on them stuck to it. While I don't know what their purpose is, Jason would probably be able to identify the spells immediately. Or whatever they're for.

"What did you wish to speak regarding?" Nik asks, and his accent and formal tone are already giving me a headache.

"When I was younger," I say. "Around five, six years ago, I did a job in Mar. I was trying to earn up enough to have a mithril sword forged, there was a lesser noble there who had a secret mithril mine."

"A secret mithril mine?" He frowns. "I have heard of no such thing being learned of, but I am not as aware of our kingdom's resources as my brothers are."

"The noble," I continue. "Had me acting as a form of security for a bit, but then I wanted it sooner, so he sent me on… well, it's an assassination. I'm assuming she was a rival family's daughter, but there was a younger girl, a few years younger than we were, that he wanted me to kill. Well, he didn't actually tell me her age, and I was thinking she was older. I know where she was killed, though, but… I'm not sure how helpful that would be."

Niko frowns.

"How far from the southern border were you?" He asks.

"Around a day's travel," I answer. "I wanted to apologize to her family for it. With my complicated situation now, I may not get a chance to do it if I delay. As I said, though, I don't know who she was, just where she was killed and which direction she was going through. I was thinking that maybe ya could do something and find out about a girl who was killed in that area. Or… well, maybe she was considered disappeared?"

"Why would she be considered disappeared if you killed her?" He asks.

"I buried her," I explain. "So her family probably never found her. I left her carriage and guards behind, though, they didn't matter to me."

Niko mulls over something.

"Do you remember the crest on the carriage?" He asks.

"Vaguely," I shrug. "I remember thinking it was weird back then, but it's been five years, and memories aren't perfect things."

"Indeed not," he says. "Do you know where, specifically, you were when you completed your assassination of her?"

"If I had a map," I shrug. "I ain't the kind to remember the names of stuff like that, especially not when I was eleven. Varilar's locations were more important to me, and I was just doing a job. Shoulda done something to the bastard who made me kill her, but I just took the sword and left."

Niko opens up his spatial storage and pulls out a map of Mar. I guess nobility and royalty keep maps handy or something. He spreads it out on his bed, and I look at it. After locating the town where I served the noble for a brief time, I trace along it until I find the pass.

"Here," I point. "Her carriage was going from here to here, and this is where I attacked. Will that help ya figure out who she was so I can try to… I dunno. I mean, it's a crime, so-"

"You were eleven," he says. "And performing a job for another. As you were only performing the assassination and not the one behind it, Mar has special considerations. The job was performed to have a sword made for you. What was the sword being made for?"

He knows who she was?

"As a weapon to kill the former duke of Varilar."

Niko asks me several other questions, such as the specific nature of my employment under the duke, what my specific duties were, when the assassination took place, and other things relating to it. I get the feeling he's putting me on trial already. He does know who she was, doesn't he?

"Finally," he traces an image in the air, silver and black lines forming into the pattern of a bear surrounded by snow lilies. "Is this the crest that was on her carriage?"

"No," I answer. "Well, it's similar, but not exact."

He changes the lilies into orchids and asks me the same question, and I give the same response.

"I think they were roses," I say. "And the bear's head… was turned to the left, not the right."

He makes the changes, and I nod when a picture of the crest forms in my mind.

"That's it," I say. "Same colors, too."

"Put a coat on," he tells me. "I am taking you there, and I want you to show me where you buried her."

"We'll need permission from Jason or the Sages-"

"We can worry about that later," his voice and face are expressionless. Who was she? "Put on a coat."

I do, and we exit his room. I attempt to call out to the Sages in the cafeteria as we pass by, but find that Niko hit me with some sort of silencing curse. He did that without me even noticing, and it makes me think he's angry.

Outside of the building, Niko opens a gate.

"Enter," he orders, so I do, finding myself in Varilar.

Niko follows me through and closes the gate, then opens up another, ignoring the stares we're receiving. I step through before he can speak, and find in a path through mountains. He steps through and the gate closes.

Looking around, I realize I recognize this place. It's the pass where I ambushed the group. Actually, this is the exact spot, judging by the gouges in the stone cliff at the side of the pass. Those were made by their adamant weapons.

"Where did you bury here?" He asks.

"It might take a minute to remember exactly," I answer. "But I think it was this way."

I lead Niko through the woods on the other side of the pass, and we soon come across a small grove. I frown. The magic formation I'd laid over her grave so that animals wouldn't dig her up is broken. Even if I was only eleven and going off a memory from when I was Quinn, that shouldn't be right. Not unless-

"Is there where she was buried?" Niko stands on the exact spot.

"Yeah," I answer. "How did ya know?"

He opens up another gate.

"Enter."

They found her body and moved her. How did they find her, though? My spell should have made it look like the ground wasn't disturbed while preventing animals from seeking her out.

Deciding to see what Niko is doing, I step through the gate. I'm not sure I want to resist him. When I step through, I find myself higher up on a mountain, in a flat space fifty feet in diameter. A low stone wall only four inches tall protruded from it, creating an inner ring thirty feet in diameter.

Niko opens up his spatial storage and pulls out a pair of leather boots, which he then tosses to me.

"Put those on," he tells me. "Remove your coat, shirt, sword, and put them and your boots either outside the ring or in your spatial storage. Do not access it again until we have finished."

"Why?" I ask as he pulls off his own shirt and places it into his spatial storage.

"Because your boots are enchanted and have blades hidden in them," he answers. "Remove all weapons. Only the sword is allowed."

"Niko, why?" I ask.

"I," he pulls a pair of mithril swords out of his spatial storage. "Niko sul'Mar, Third Prince of Mar, hereby challenge you, Alex Amarxik, to a blood duel for the assassination of my sister, Nina an'Mar."

My entire body feels stiff as he speaks. That girl was a princess? The princess of Mar?

"Now," Niko says, his voice just as flat and emotionless as it has been. He must be containing his rage and masking it hard. "Or this will turn into a plain execution."

"I thought you said we Magi were immortal?" I take a step back, confused.

"We are," he says. "But that does not mean we can't be killed temporarily. It takes time to heal, after all. Now prepare. We are doing this the Marran way, which means no magic usage is permitted by either of us. Refusal is not an option, and if you attempt to flee, I will strike you down."

All of the memories of us as Magi and Benjamin talking with this tone resurface. It never ended well for the person his anger was directed at. In fact, I distinctly remember one time when he tormented a trio of gods. He didn't come as close to killing them as the one he used that curse against, but he did come close to being able to say he came close to killing them.

The rest of us – excluding Nolan, who wasn't present for that particular incident – agreed that had Benjamin only been facing one at that time, they may have actually died.

Aware that despite me being the more talented with a sword, I will lose against Niko, I do as he wishes. Once I am in just my pants and the boots he gave me, he tosses me one of the swords, then unsheathes the one he kept, tossing the sheath outside the ring. I unsheathe this one and toss the sheath outside the ring as well.

"Prepare yourself," Niko takes a fighting stance.

The reason I know I will lose is because he is blue in magical power. Even if he didn't train his body until a few months ago, he still developed naturally with the boosts his greater magical power gave him. Then put him through Jason's hellish training and the training group for the last four months, and that's plenty of bolstering his strength and speed.

There is always the chance I will be able to win because of my longer time training with a sword, but… Niko seems more like Jason than the rest of us when it comes to our past. Benjamin was well-trained with a sword, even if he was a mage first.

Here's hoping that whatever this 'death' I'm going to receive is, it's not too harsh. Then again, Niko's current state reminds me of the highest levels of rage Benjamin went through. Poor gods.

"Begin," Niko says.

I barely have time to move my sword to block the attack. If he's not using magic to enhance his speed, then he's much quicker than I'd thought. Niko puts me on the defensive, never giving me a chance to try to attack. His form is somewhat sloppy, but he makes up for that with sheer speed and the force behind his attacks.

"Gyah!" I exclaim as his sword slips past mine and slices into my upper right leg.

He doesn't stop there, his face expressionless the entire time. He simply continues with his attack. I manage to keep up my defense, but he slips through again after a bit more, slicing my left bicep. I grit my teeth and power through. He goes after each of my limbs, weakening me. He slashes my chest, back, stomach, and sides. His attacks are never enough to fully disable me, but it's enough to put me in pain and keep my blood flowing.

With how fast he's moving, and how much pain I'm in after the thirty-second attack that makes it past my defenses, I know I'm doomed to fail. I just can't keep up. This is Niko's way of reminding me that no matter how powerful I am, there is always someone better. His way of humiliating me, of showing me how powerless I am. His way of making me pay for what I did to his family.

Finally, at last, Niko performs a killing blow. I try to block it with my sword, but he's just a hair too fast, his sword piercing into my chest. At first, there's no pain, then it explodes outward from the new wound.

Then everything goes black.

(Niko, 16)

"Hello, Father," I say, causing my parents to jump. They likely were not expecting me when entering our intelligence vault. "Hello, Mother."

"Niko," Father says. "Should you not be at the training camp right now?"

"Yes," I answer. "But I wished to inform you that I have discovered the identity of the assassin who killed Nina."

"You did?" Father asks. "We have looked for her killer for more than five years, Niko. How did you learn it?"

"He was hired by Duke Barry sul'Rico," I say. "My best assumption is that Duke Barry wished to create a war between Varil and Mar."

I hold out the stack of papers I copied down, and Father takes them.

"It was known," I say. "That he had dealings with the now-former Duke of Varilar. A light trade agreement, as their duchies both touched the borders of our nations. The former duke had attempted to kill me and discard my corpse within our territory, near the border, with evidence I was slain by Varilans. The assassin who killed Nina was Varilan, and a kid. He no doubt assumed the assassin would be caught swiftly. What he did not expect was for the assassin to be an expert at covering his tracks, resulting in not a trace being left of his presence. In that stack of papers, you will find not just the evidence which can link Barry sul'Wuri to the former Duke of Varilar, but also other information I have found or concluded regarding this."

Father looks through the papers, then looks at me.

"You have left out the identity of the assassin," he tells me.

"I already performed a blood duel with him," I say. "His identity is no longer necessary to be known."

"A blood duel?" Father raises an eyebrow. "The last time I looked at you, Niko, you are not capable of wielding a sword."

"Do not underestimate a Magus," I begin walking, and they follow. "We hold many tricks within us."

Due to Jason's past reintegrating into him, I knew that all of my old abilities were within me. All it took was the proper internal reaching to access the swordsmanship I held as Benjamin. Unfortunately, it seems my heightened mood was the reason I was able to do that, as I am both exhausted and unable to perform at the level I did earlier.

"If you performed a blood duel," Father says. "I take it you won?"

"I did."

"What did you do with their corpse?" He asked. "Even if he killed your sister, that would not be reason to disrespect his remains."

"There was no corpse."

"You used magic?" He asks. "Niko, that is against the rules for a blood duel!"

"I did not use magic as part of my offense or defense," I state. "In actuality, I am injured in one of the ways which forbids me from participating in a blood duel. I used magic to eliminate that appearance."

"You are injured?" Mother asks. "How? Where?"

"Does it have to do with your leg?" Father asks.

Perceptive, but then, he is the king, and has lasted this long because of his observational abilities.

"Yes," I answer. "I was using magic to allow me to function without issue during the fight. Otherwise, the blood duel would not count as legitimate."

"Who oversaw the duel?" Father asks. "You know that someone of royal blood must oversee it. You do not count if you were a participant."

"Only for life duels," I remind him. "We performed a blood duel, which does not require royal oversight to ensure honesty and fairness. I would advise against attempting to require a second duel for him."

"Why is that?" Father asks.

"Because," I tell him. "He has already paid the cost. As the Third Prince of Mar, I have already seen this."

I stop outside a room and look at my parents.

Father frowns.

"A second duel?" He asks. "Niko, if you won the blood duel, then he died."

"Magi do not die when killed," I turn the knob and open the door, and it is then my parents realize we are in the infirmary wing.

I enter the infirmary and walk to the bed with Alex on it. He is wearing the pants he had on earlier, but I already removed the boots and put them back into my spatial storage. My mithril swords were returned to there as well.

After I killed him, I healed which injuries I was capable of. Only the final blow, the 'fatal' stab, remains. That injury is beyond my skills.

"Alex?" Father asks as he looks at the unconscious Magus.

"Yes," I nod. "He was unaware of who his target was, and was not even aware it was a young girl until he saw her. He came to me a few hours ago requesting assistance in locating her family so that he could apologize. When he asked me about this, he confessed to everything, and gave me all of the information he had regarding the duke. Did you know that he has a secret mithril mine? That is not in our intelligence."

"We were not aware of that," Father informs me.

"Why were you entering the intelligence vault?" I ask. "Today is the Third Honor, the Honor of the Hippogriff. Should you not be participating in the festivities?"

"We were checking on something briefly," Father informs me. "On another topic, if you were wondering what I managed to find to support Aiden, it was only forty soldiers, unfortunately. Our other borders are too-heavily in need of defenses."

"I took care of the ogre lord which caused their heavy losses," I tell him. "So there should not be too much issue."

"You dealt with the ogre lord?" Mother frowns. "What do you think that will do for your brother's troops, Niko? His soldiers are isolated from us. They are still within the religion created by the ogre lords. Your actions may have caused greater problems for your brother and that border. If they know that their enemies were felled by magic-"

"Mother," I interrupt her, feeling my anger grow. "Do not underestimate Aiden and his forces. Do not underestimate me. Remove from your mind the idea that I am incompetent. It comes from you viewing me as weak and broken."

She flinches.

"I am not weak," I state. "I am not broken, and I am not incompetent. I am the reincarnation of Magus Benjamin, a being who fought the gods and won. I am trained in magic on a level that turns me into a veritable war being. So remove from your mind those views you have held about me ever since I began to learn magic, and realize that I am not as stupid as you believe."

I open a gate and step through it without waiting for a response. Why do they still look at me this way? It was clear they truly believed I caused trouble for Aiden. At least I know he has not yet made them aware that he and his troops use magic.

But that does not matter. Even now, even with them accepting magic, they have a hard time accepting me using it. Why? Why do they have such a hard time accepting me.

I turn my gaze to the terrified guards around me.

"Bring me to King Liam," I command, and the guards are still frozen. "I am Niko sul'Mar. You will bring me to King Liam, or I will claim your lives."

With my aural sheath active, having not once released it, I know I am a frightening being to them. A being cloaked in magic who appeared through magic. Sar is our eastern neighbor which borders Varil, and Liam is their king. A man a little older than my father, and just as fearful and hateful of magic as any other who has not been enlightened to the truth.

When the soldiers do not react, I raise a hand and project a bolt of force, killing the nearest one. Things might be different in Varil and the other nations south of the mountains, but here, we are at war, and our rules of war are different. I can claim as many lives as I wish here, if it means the war ends.

Two of the other guards immediately begin leading me through the Sarran royal castle, and we eventually arrive in the great hall, where their king is feasting and drinking with many of his servants, guards, and nobles.

Everything seems to still when I am spotted, no doubt because of my aural sheath. The great sound of chattering disappears in an instant, turning the great hall to total silence. I approach Liam.

"Liam," I say.

"Niko," he frowns. "What is going on? How did you get here, and-"

"Silence," I command, and his eyes widen, face reddening in anger. "You will end the war you have with my people, or I will show you the real might of magic. The might you fear so deeply, you chose to triple your efforts in destroying my family after their acceptance of it."

"We do not listen to heathens here," he stands, drawing his sword and swinging it at me.

Well, I could do nearly anything. Now I can do anything. I wait until the sword is almost to me, then I reach up with my left hand and grab it by the blade, enhancing my constitution to ensure I am unharmed. His eyes widen in shock.

I raise my right hand and snap, and a wave of magic washes out.

"I am Niko sul'Mar," I say as my stone curse slowly overtakes them, turning even their clothes and gear into stone, not just their bodies. "Magus of Curse, and Benjamin of Decay, and Third Prince of Mar. Your lives are mine."

I release his sword and open up my spatial storage. The stone curse is almost to his neck, and he is finding it hard to move his arms. Most of his guests are struggling against it as well, but it is useless. I began shaping this curse when I arrived here, so I know it is complete and absolute.

Pulling one of my mithril swords from my spatial storage, I unsheathe it, then swiftly behead Liam sul'Sar. With force magic, I catch his head, and with water magic, I clean his blood off my sword. I sheathe it and send it back into my spatial storage, then cast a net spell on the severed part of his head, to prevent his juices from leaking out.

Once the spell is cast, I grab his head by the hair and open up a gate, stepping through it. Now, I am at our border with them, at one of their forts. Let us see how they react to knowing their king is dead. Their fear will be even greater once they find I turned everyone in their capital to stone. Everyone… and all of their pets and livestock within its walls.

(Jason, 16)

"Jason," Fael Mira says in the ancient tongue as she enters my room. "Your friend, Niko, cannot be traced at the moment. We managed to track him to Varilar, but then he disappeared from there. His gate spells are not as sloppy as your parents', making them more difficult to trace, especially if another had just been used in that spot. Do you have any idea where he might be? He took Alex with him, but it did not appear to be a willing accompany which Alex performed."

"Venting," I answer.

"Venting?" She asks.

"Yes," I answer. "He's venting."

"What is he venting?"

"His anger."

"Jason…" she says in a warning tone, and I sigh, then look up from the training orb I am etching.

"He found out Alex killed his sister," I answer. "As part of a job he did for a Marran noble to have a mithril weapon forged in secret. He challenged Alex to a blood duel, and while Alex is… unconscious from having been killed, Niko dug up what information he could regarding the noble. Then he met his parents, and felt insulted by them. So he's venting."

"Alex was killed?"

"We're Magi," I say. "You know we can't die."

"I know that," she says. "But he's also only yellow."

"I sent Papa Samuel to go stitch up the fatal wound," I say. "He should be healing him right now. Once Alex is healed, it'll take him probably an hour to wake up, then Papa Samuel will send him back here."

She sighs.

"And what is Niko doing?"

"Proving I'm not the only person who causes political incidents when left alone," I answer with a grin, and she sighs again.

"Jason, what is he doing?"

"Sar no longer has a king or an heir," I say. "As its entire royal capital was turned to stone. Ah, but before the curse hit the king's head, Niko severed it. He's now threatening the forts along their shared border using it."

I'm actually rather impressed. He's managed to keep his aural sheath up at all times. Alex lost his, but I can give him a pass on that, since he was killed.

"If you aren't able to use most of your high magics," Fael Mira says. "Including your scrying and divination, how are you aware of what is going on?"

I indicate the tablet resting beside my tools, and for the first time, Fael Mira notices it.

"I have Bear Alpha keeping an eye on things," I say. "I'm watching through his eyes, though on mute. He's masked his presence from Niko's scanning spell and is using an invisibility spell to keep from being seen."

On the screen, Niko suddenly turns to stone the commander he was speaking with, then prepares a big spell, probably to level the fort with.

"Yeah, he's just a little bit upset right now," I say.

I'm impressed, though, that he admitted his leg was injured to his papa and mama. That must have taken him a lot of courage to do, with how much he wants to avoid anyone knowing about his injury. But then for his parents to say what they did…

It makes sense that he's venting right now. And he's within the rules of warfare for the north, according to my lessons on the northern kingdoms.

Niko's ability to simply show up and start killing people is why nearly every nation not one of the northern kingdoms have their castles and palaces warded as heavily as they can manage. It is why every fort is designed to resist magical attacks and prevent projectiles from flying over it, magical or otherwise, why even servants are encouraged to learn magic.

It creates a greater defense against magicians. Normally, a ward against teleport spells is enough, and still is, for now. Niko is proving why abhorring magic can lead to a nation's downfall. He's killing thousands by himself, without anyone able to resist him.

Not that they would be able to, even if they did have mages on their side. Niko is a blue-level mage who can utilize the lost techniques of the Magi. It would take at least a violet or grey to stop him, and even then, they might not succeed. Papa Samuel knows this, which is why he's staying out of it.

Without any magical defenses, a kingdom is merely humans to a god when a powerful enough mage attacks.

"Are you going to stop him?" Fael Mira asks.

"No," I answer. "Niko is within their rules of war. The only part that's questionable is his use of magic, but that can be ignored."

Her disapproving look tells me I probably shouldn't mention to anyone what Jacob is probably planning after finding out something that happened at the Varilan royal palace this afternoon.

"On a different topic," I say. "What do you think is in my tomb?"