(Jacob, 16)

"Hello, Eran," I greet the queen of Vora as she enters my command tent. "They did not inform me you were arriving, or I would have greeted you when you came through the gate."

"That was a curious spell," she tells me as she sits across from me, beside her brother. "I have never seen one like it before, allowing us to traverse a distance as if walking. Your mage said it is not teleportation, but a gate, as if walking between gardens."

"Something like that," I confirm. "A friend of mine invented it when he was younger. He only taught it to some of our Royal Guard recently, after they finished shielding Varil City against the spell."

"I see," she says. "Thank you for the assistance in taking down the dragon."

"You are welcome," I tell her. "Though I did nothing. It was that same friend, Jason Jeshema, the son of the Sages, who took it out. He is studying in Varil at the moment. He is the most powerful mage in the world, a prodigy among prodigies. He is also the reincarnation of the King of Magic."

"Erat says," she says. "That you are the reincarnation of the King of Spring?"

"I am," I nod. "However, I do not have my old power. I must regain it over time, with training. I do, however, have access to my knowledge of many of the magics I used in ancient times. That is not why we are here, though."

"No," she gives me a sad smile. "My people are hurting from the dragon's attacks, and soon, our neighbors will look to us with the intent on claiming our mines as we recover. Your people have the ability to move great distances with ease, using spells far more precise than teleportation.

"Therefore," she continues. "I would like to strike a deal between Vora and Varil. What we need right now is greater protection from outside forces. We have adamant and, once the mine is functional again, mithril. Varil has quality equipment and powerful reinforcement spells. I propose a trade of our resources to Varil in exchange for Varilan mages to reinforce our forts with their enchantments and for better equipment for our troops. Based on the size of our forts and the power of mages, new forts can be constructed if that is the best way to create stronger enchantments."

"I have a different proposal," I tell her. "Though we can return to discussing yours, if you decline it, and doing so will not affect negotiations for trade."

"What is your proposal?" She asks.

Before answering, I pick up my goblet and inspect the wine inside. Papa will likely be unhappy when he hears what I am about to say, regardless of her answer, but he will accept it.

"Join Varil," I meet Eran's gaze. "With the magitech provided to us by Sageson Magical Technologies, we can erect a permanent gate between Varil and Vora. That would allow us to interact regularly, without needing to travel the long distance by foot, horse, carriage, or some other lengthy method.

"I am talking," I tell her. "Not as turning into Varilan territory, but rather, becoming a sort of vassal state. For the most part, Vora will remain under your control. Foreign policy will be delegated to Varil, however. Of course, there is a mutual obligation between a vassal state and the primary kingdom. If you agree to this, we will supply Vora with necessary resources to assist in its recovery from this tragedy which has befallen it. However, Vora will also be required to supply Varil with resources as well. While we would not expect you to supply us with troops for the time being, considering your size and recent events, there are other ways you can pay tribute and offer services, such as with your mines."

The agreement is not much different than what she proposed. The main difference is that Vora will hold an obligation to Varil and we will hold an obligation to them. We will be required to protect them, and when they are able, they will be required to provide us with troops.

It is an easy way to protect those mines and increase our own supply of mithril and adamant. Because Vora would be a vassal state of Varil, anyone who chose to attack it would be attacking Varil. That alone would be a deterrence, even with the war going on.

"So," I say. "Do you wish to agree to this, Eran? If you wish to discuss things with your advisers before you accept or decline this agreement, we can send you back to your capital. I can arrange for you to take a comm plate with you as well, so that you may contact us when you are ready."

"I will need to speak with my advisers regarding this," Eran informs me. "Would you be willing to wait a few days for a response?"

"I am," I tell her. "I will arrange for you to be given a comm plate and shown how to use it before you leave."

"Erat told me," she says. "That those are rectangular metal plates with some sort of enchantment on them which allows communication over vast distances?"

"That is correct," I tell her as the griffin cub jumps up onto my left shoulder, settling onto it. "Jason Jeshema and Sage Jared invented them together. They are quite easy to use once you learn how. Now, as discussions are put on hold for a few days, would you like to join me for dinner? I need to inform the staff so they can prepare the appropriate amount of meals."

"No, thank you," Eran eyes the griffin cub warily. "It would be best if I returned to the castle soon, there is much to do with regards to our recovery and repair. It is best if I am not away for too long."

"Then have a good rest of your day," I tell her. "Simply inform the mage you are ready to return, and he will open a gate back."

"Thank you," she and her brother rise, then they leave.

I lean back in my chair as I think over what Papa will say to this. He will agree to it if she agrees, even if he scolds me for not talking to him first. Reaching up, I scratch the griffin cub behind the ears, and he purrs, rubbing his head against my cheek.

"What should I name you?" I ask.

(Alex, 17)

"Who are ya?" I ask the student who came to the warehouse with Emma.

"I am Thomas," he introduces himself. "I'm in C-Class right now, first-year. We were in lessons together last term."

"I know that," I tell him. I worded my question wrong. "What are ya doing here?"

"Thomas wanted to know if he could train with us," Emma tells me. "I told him he'd have to ask you. He wishes to join Jason's training group as well."

"Look," I say. "I ain't running a training group myself. I only offered to help ya, Emma, just 'cause. But if I start training more students, it becomes a group, and that ain't allowed."

"Aren't you teaching them?" Emma indicates my Barry and Sarah. "They're students."

"They're old friends of mine," I shake my head. "They ain't counting, we've been training together for years. They're training partners. Ya are a training student. They're also part of Jason's group. Ya ain't."

"What if I paid you?" Thomas asks. "That becomes a job then, rather than a group."

"I ain't certified for that," I say. "Look, I'll take ya on as well, but we have to come to an agreement. One, no more new people. Two, I'm only doing four weeks of lessons for each of ya. Eight lessons total. No more. I know I told ya until the end of term, Emma, but I've gotta set some rules, especially since ya went and brought someone without asking."

"Sorry," she says.

"That's fine," Thomas tells me. "Eight lessons should be enough to help me qualify, right?"

"Maybe," I say. "Depends on ya. What are your affinities? I only care about any over basic."

"Fire, force, mind, and special," Thomas answers. "Are all at intermediate. Fire and special are nearly at the next tier."

"Alright," I point at a target. "Hit that with a fireball. Emma, you get to work on those orbs of wind. Remember Monday's lessons."

"Yes, sir," Emma says, then begins casting condensed spheres of wind.

Thomas summons a sphere of fire, which I put out with a blast of water.

"Hey!" He protests.

"That was too loose," I tell him, stepping up beside him. "I'm affiliated with water strongly, and fire weakly. Watch."

I hold up my right hand and shape my mana into the spell for a sphere of fire. When I activate it, flames swirl into an orb the size of my fist. I hold up my left hand and create a sphere of fire the same size above it. The flames on that one are not as contained, licking out more than on the first sphere.

"The one on the left," I say. "Is how ya did yours. The one on the right is how I did mine. There is a lot more power contained in the one on the right, and it will hold together longer as it is launched through the air. That creates more impact when it strikes something, and allows the flames to truly spread more."

I throw both fireballs, sending them to different targets. The one modeled after his more of splashes against the target, while the one I threw erupts, flames bursting everywhere.

"Like that," I say.

"Okay," Thomas says. "I don't understand, though. Why do I need to improve casting spells that aren't used for swords? How does this help?"

"One," I say. "It works on your magic control. Two, ya won't always have a sword. If I were to attack you without a weapon and ya used a sword, I would win, and that's when fighting as a normal person, not as a Magus. And that's with your magical power being around the same level as mine."

"How did you make yours so dense?" He asks.

"Two things," I hold up my right hand, casting another dense fireball. "First, magical power control. I've trained it so that I can use more magical power in my spells. Second, visualization. What ya are visualizing is just a ball of flames. I am visualizing a ball of densely-packed magical flames.

"If ya need to, I expand the fireball, letting it lighten up in density. "Create a larger one first, then condense it down."

I condense it back down.

"This is what I told Emma on Monday," I tell him. "And it's effective. Once ya are used to it, ya will find it easier to cast it densely from the start. That will save ya time and effort in a battle. If ya lose your sword, ya will want to switch to spells, even if just until ya manage to get your sword back."

"Okay," he says, then tries again, this time making a larger sphere of fire, before condensing it down into a tightly-packed orb. "I did it!"

His orb dissipates as he loses hold of his spell.

"Well," I say. "Ya did better than Emma. She released it while she was altering it."

"That would be dangerous," he says. "My mama's a mage, and she's mentioned before that if you're altering a spell and lose control of it, it could harm you."

"That's correct," I say. "Now, practice that spell over and over. Ya will notice Emma is doing the same thing, just with air instead of fire. Once it's time, we'll practice with the blade."

I return to watching them, giving them advice when I feel necessary. Thomas seems to have a decent grasp of magic, likely because of his mama the mage. However, it's just the basics he seems to have down. For a knight, that's all that's necessary. Warriors use enhancement skills and blade spells, they don't need to do the more complex things like I do.

At least, for normal ones. Ones like Royal Slayers or the Royal Knights? They'll do more complex spells for their battles. But that's another matter.

After the allotted time for spell training, I switch to swords, having them enhance their bodies before they spar against me at the same time. We use wooden training weapons, and I keep up with both, stopping every attack while whacking them with my own sword.

When we finally end, I bid them a good day. As soon as they leave, my comm plate alerts me to a call. I ain't even need to check it to guess it's Jason, that timing is way too coincidental. I pull it out and check, and yep, it's Jason.

"I'm going to the warehouse to check on Pine," I tell Jason as I leave. "I can't open a gate to it."

"There's a warp crystal near you," Jason tells me. "All Magi can use them for free."

"Do ya have Fox Alpha watching me here?" I ask as I wave to Barry and Sarah, then leave and walk towards the warp crystal down the street.

"No," he answers. "Fox Alpha is currently harassing the servants at your mansion. I was watching you through another method. You have two students now."

"I ain't wanting them," I complain.

"Normally, you'd have just kicked Thomas out," Jason says. "Since you hadn't agreed to it and he just showed up."

"Yeah, well, maybe I'm feeling generous," I say. "Considering I'm already taking over your duties for the training group, though I can't take 'em to the training fields for the advanced group, so we're just doing everything here with the full group."

"That's fine," Jason says. "Zevenas, stop that! No, you can't drink that! Because it's dragon blood!"

I don't want to ask.

"Why do ya have dragon blood in front of ya?" I ask anyway.

"I'm making a potion," he tells me. "Or, uh, trying to. Zevenas, if you don't stop, I'm not letting you go hunt tonight. Thank you. Anyway, Alex, are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

"Because you really aren't that generous," he answers, and I realize what's going on.

Jason is feeling jealous again. He was only mildly annoyed by Emma, who I realized yesterday has a crush on me, but now I'm training another guy. Because of that, Jason is feeling a little jealous. I doubt he feels like I'd go after someone else while courting him, but it's just me being with another guy that's causing this. It's bad enough he's suspicious of Barry's motives at times, even though Barry knows and accepts that I'm courting Jason now. Seriously courting, too, not a street romance.

His jealousy is probably hitting a higher point with Thomas because Thomas has a fire and special magic affinity.

"Jason," I tell him as I direct the warp crystal, then place a hand on it. "I ain't interested in anyone but ya. I'm just too exhausted with everything going on to put up much fight at the moment. That's all it is. No need to be jealous."

"I'm not jealous," he mutters, and I can hear the embarrassment in his voice.

"Yes, ya are," I tell him. "Ya are jealous that I'm spending time with other people and not ya. It goes both ways, ya know. Outside of training group and that once-a-week date, ya and I barely see each other anymore unless I head to your home before or after university."

"I've just been really busy," he tells me.

"And I am now, too," I tell him, then look around. "Oh, I warped. Huh, looks like ya got that issue fixed where the calls ended if we used the warp crystals."

That was rather annoying, having to either finish the call before we warped, or restart it after warping.

"I didn't," Jason tells me. "Papa Jared figured it out last week. I did do the updates to everyone's comm plates once he taught me the fix to it, though. Well, to the group's. He did the updates to everyone else's comm plates."

"Alright," I say. "I'm almost to the warehouse now, and I'm going to have to stop once I get there so I can talk with Pine. Before I do, how is Niko doing?"

"Still healing," he answers. "Though he's moving around a bit more than he was. He'll probably return this weekend."

"That's good," I say. "Eli was asking about him earlier, so I'll pass on the news."

"Thanks," Jason says.

"And Jason?" I say. "Ya really ain't got something to worry about. I promise."

"It's not you I have an issue with," he mutters. "Hey, I have to focus on stopping Zevenas from drinking all of this. I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye."

The call ends, and I have to stop and think about the fact that a baby dragon is trying to drink dragon blood. That is weird as heck.

Shaking my head, I enter the warehouse and approach Pine, who is in the process of cleaning a stretch of leather to prepare for the next soak. Apparently, wyvern leather has to soak for eight days, in four batches of some sort of solution. I ain't got to understand it, just deal with it.

It stinks. Bad.

"How is it going?" I ask Pine.

"Okay," he answers with thickly-accented Varilan. He doesn't speak much, so it makes sense his accent would still be quite thick, even if some of the other Marrans have worked on lightening theirs up. "I have some of the other stretches soaking again already. I just have a couple of more to switch to the fresh solution, then I'm done for today."

"Alright," I say. "I'll come by after my evening appointment. Want me to bring ya something to eat?"

"You do not need to do that," he tells me.

"I will if ya want me to," I tell him. "Ya are working hard, after all."

"It is up to you," he tells me. "I had something to eat already, but I might be a little hungry again by the time I finish."

"Alright," I tell him. "See ya in an hour or so, then."

Time to go deal with that annoying practice for the ceremony. Just two more days of this, and then the ceremony, and I'll finally be free of it.

(Jason, 16)

After finally managing to put the blood away, I stand and stretch. I'm running a little late mostly because I got caught-up with the potion I was making. Picking up Zevenas, I walk over to my professor and inform her I'm heading to Mar for a couple of hours, then I open a gate to the space where I am building the gate.

It's already most of the way done, and I can probably finish it tonight. I've had a few guards watching over it to ensure no one interferes with it, but just to make sure, I begin checking over everything after I set Zevenas down and remind him to behave.

Everything looks good, so I resume working on the gate, enchanting the last stones and moving them into place. I use a mixture of light and mind magic to protect my secrets, preventing others from observing the actual enchantments as I place them. Once they're in place, no one but the best will be able to read them, so I don't worry too hard about that.

Finishing the gate takes me a total of two hours, and once I finish it, I place a hand on a rune on the side of it, then push mana into it. All along the arch, runes begin to glow in violet and grey. Everything looks to be functional, even if the view through the gate doesn't change. I pull my hand away, and the runes stop glowing, the gate powering down.

Until I build its pair, the gate won't lead to anywhere, but I can still test to make sure it's at least functional. Tomorrow, I'll get to work building this one's pair outside of the city that used to be the capital of the Kelraran kingdom.

This pairing is the first I'm constructing, even though a border gate would probably be better. I am doing this one first mostly so that the two cities are linked, as they are the focal points of the kingdom. Then, I will build the pair between Mar and Varil, and after that, the border gates.

Rather than building the gates inside of the cities, like in Varil, I am building them outside of them here. The northern kingdoms don't have the ability to respond swiftly if the gates are seized and enemy troops pour into the city, like Varil does. The gate is built on part of the mountain a half-hour's walk away, which I leveled with my magic to make it easy to construct the gates on.

I'll still give Henry a command panel so he can shut the gates off completely from anywhere, but there will also be keys required to turn the gates on. I only have the ability to activate them without it because I built them and understand the enchantments. I can mimic the keys with my magic.

Now that the gate is completed, I open a gate into the castle and locate Henry, who is speaking with one of the soldiers who began learning magic under Papa Samuel last year. They're still amateurs, but such soldiers-turned-mages have already proven themselves useful at the border.

"Did you tell him I insisted?" Henry asks.

"I did, Your Majesty," the mage responds. "But Prince Aiden was adamant that he had no need of us. He says his force has managed to protect our borders on their own for years, and that he would prefer to keep doing things the way he is."

"First he rejects most of the soldiers I sent him," Henry says. "Then he rejects the mages. How can we show Niko that we are accepting magic now if my heir will not accept it?"

"Your Majesty," I speak up, and the two of them look at me, noticing my presence for the first time. "Forgive me for being blunt, but I believe Aiden might not be rejecting magic as a whole, but simply doesn't seen a point to changing how he does things when he's been managing things just fine. I suppose you aren't aware, but Niko has visited Aiden's troops a couple of times, and even took out an the ogre lord that had been reducing their numbers. Once it was gone, Aiden didn't need more troops, which is why he rejected most of them. He knew that your borders with Sar needed more troops, and now, you're assisting Kelrar as well, so your troops are needed there, too. Aiden is merely thinking of where the troops are better needed."

"I have considered that in regards to our troops," Henry tells me. "I was not aware of Niko visiting him, though. Knowing that does change some things in regards to what I feel his thoughts might be."

"The two seem to be bonding," I shrug. "So I'm assuming Aiden has accepted magic, but as I said, he might not feel it necessary to bring mages to his troops when they could be used elsewhere. It's also possible that Aiden is having his troops adjust to the idea of Marran magic by having Niko visit."

"I can see that," Henry says. "If Niko does visit Aiden regularly, and Aiden shows trust in Niko, then his troops would begin to trust Niko. It may be Aiden's plan to slowly introduce his troops to magic, then have Niko teach some of them it as well. Aiden's mind has always been a mystery to me."

Don't worry, Aiden does have Mar's best interest in mind. I'm going to let you believe that little story, since Aiden told me that he didn't want you knowing yet.

I'm not sure why Aiden doesn't want it made public that his own army is full of mages and knights who use magic, but I'm going to respect it. It's not my place to interfere in that.

"Anyway," I say. "I just wanted to let you know I finished constructing this gate. I'll get to work on its pair tomorrow."

"Thank you," he tells me. "Is the space I arranged enough?"

"Yes," I answer. "Enjoy the rest of your day, Henry."

"You as well, Jason," he tells me. "And again, thank you."

I open up a gate and step through it, then close the gate as I look at Aiden, who is giving me an exasperated look as he sets his spoon back into his bowl of stew.

"Again?" He asks. " You have a tendency to show up right as I'm eating dinner, Jason."

"Coincidence," I tell him, because it really is. "Your father believes that you were rejecting the mages out of rejection of magic. I let him know that Niko was visiting you regularly before his injury, so he now thinks you're slowly having your troops adjust to having a mage around."

"Thank you," he tells me.

"Why don't you want him knowing you're a mage yet?" I ask.

"I'd prefer Niko to take the stage for that," he tells me. "He grows in magic so much faster, and has a greater future ahead of him. I'm to lead Mar, yet he's a Magus. The King of Decay himself. Once Niko is not just feared, but admired, then I will be fine with revealing my army's true ability and my own power. It will take less away from Niko, who could use the stage to boost his confidence."

"Oh," I say. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I can tell," he smiles, looking at Zevenas, who has decided to jump up onto my right shoulder. "I see he's still following you everywhere."

"He will for awhile," I shrug.

"By the way," he says. "Father told me that King Zachary contacted him to ask him to wish Niko well. It seems you told the two kings he was recovering in the other's kingdom. Niko isn't in Mar, as you told me."

"Sorry," I say. "Niko really doesn't want people seeing him until he recovers. The injury he has would make it clear what he did to receive it, and he feels rather embarrassed over it. He's hiding somewhere away from others, where no one but I will know where he's at."

"You mean at the castle built of black stone to the northeast?" Aiden asks.

Right. Niko mentioned that Aiden was the one who had shown him Garoyal, which was how he found it and began recovering his memories of it.

"What castle of black stone?" I ask.

"I know Niko told you about it," Aiden snorts. "Don't act ignorant, Jason. I know he's recovering there, it's a place he'd feel comfortable, considering that it's protected by gargoyles and he is literally the creator of gargoyles."

"Yeah," I sigh. "Niko's there. He's also probably going to return this weekend, so don't go and visit him, okay? He'll just get upset and even more embarrassed."

I hate telling that lie, but it's for the best. I know Niko won't be returning this weekend, not with his mood when I visited yesterday. But it's for the best that I tell it, then make up another story for why he didn't return.

In fact, I already have it invented. And Niko will hate me for it, but he's brought it on himself. I'm going to continue making up stories similar to it until he gives up and returns just to get me to stop spreading them. He'll begrudgingly return to his studies and see how concerned everyone was for him.

Especially with the tales I'm going to tell. It's going to be fun, seeing his reaction to everyone's reactions to them. Oh, it's going to be so much fun. He's going to hate me for it, but not in the actual hate style. The kind of hate that friends have for each other for embarrassing things.

"I won't visit him, don't worry," Aiden tells me. "I respect my brother."

"I know," I say. "I just had to make sure. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what I told your father, I need to head back to the training camp now."

"Enjoy the rest of your day," he tells me.

"You as well," I open a gate and return to the camp, then look at Adam, who happened to be right next to where I was opening a gate to. "Whoops. I forgot it was time for dinner to be made."

"Uh-huh," he gives me a knowing look. "You were hoping to sneak something before we started serving."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I walk away. "I could just go to my family's home and do that."

He was anticipating me showing up and trying to steal some of the desserts, that's why he was there. He was definitely waiting for me to return.

I can't help it, though. His sweets are just as good as Mama Elena's!