(Jacob, 17)

"I found out the real reason Franklin is here in the capital," I inform Jason after the rest of the training group has left, leaving just Jason, Zevenas, my guards, and me in the training room. "It seems to not be simply to learn and train in the capital."

"Oh?" Jason asks. "What's the real reason he's here."

"You are not already aware?" I ask. "Even if your spy network?"

"It's not a spy network," Jason groans. "I tend to just find things out. And yes, I do know, but only because Franklin likes to borrow Wolf Alpha's ear and complain about things."

I will need to remind my cousin that the stuffie golem serves Jason. Anything useful, interesting, odd, or suspicious it hears, Jason will learn soon after. Our cousin also possesses the ability to listen in actively as well, which means that we never know if he may be listening in to something at any given point in time.

Though there is the chance Jason said that simply to provoke me into saying it, even though I planned on informing him anyway.

"If you know the reason," I say. "Tell me, Jason."

"He wants to give up his succession rights and become a baker," Jason responds. "His papa refused to accept that, so he became rebellious in an effort to be disowned. He's behaving here in the capital because he looks up to you and Uncle Zach, and knows things will be a lot worse if he causes a problem for either of you."

He does know.

"His papa failed to inform my papa of this," I tell Jason. "We only discovered it last night due to a lady he insulted previously visiting us, then screeching at him. She is the wife of a duke, and it seems he called her an old hag, which was the final straw for his papa."

"Mama Elena says she's an old hag, too."

"Are you talking about Sage Elena or the duke's wife?"

"The duke's wife."

"Why was Sage Elena calling her an old hag?"

"She apparently thinks that about her," Jason answers.

"Why were you discussing her with Sage Elena?"

"I wasn't," Jason answers. "The lady visited the mansion while we were training a little bit ago. She attempted to bully Mama Elena into making her an expensive potion for much less than it's worth. She's one of the people who don't respect the Sages. When the lady left, Mama Elena called her an old hag. Tiger Alpha told me."

"I see," I say. "I was hoping that perhaps we could hang out this evening? Papa gave me permission to walk through the city today."

"Sorry," Jason scratches the back of his neck as he gives me an apologetic look. "I, uh, have a meeting. The rest of the day. I'm actually about to run late for it if I don't leave in the next couple of minutes."

"A meeting?" I ask.

"Yes," Jason scratches the back of his neck again.

"For the reset of the evening?" I ask.

"Ye," he scratches the back of his neck again.

"Jason, what are you really doing?"

"It really is a meeting!" He exclaims. "Why do you think it's not?"

"I am quite aware it is a meeting," I say. "When you are telling the truth, even if only part of it, you scratch the back of your neck. This is most common when you are uncomfortable about whatever you are not saying. You did that three times. So I know you are in a meeting, you are just uncertain as to whether or not you should tell me what it is about."

"Yeah," he tells me. "It's… yeah. Anyway, I do need to leave. You'll probably find out about it from your papa soon enough."

Before I can answer, Jason opens a gate and disappears through it, Zevenas prancing through after him before the gate vanishes. I look at my guards, then shake my head in disbelief. If Jason says I will know soon enough, then I will know soon enough.

That said, I push mana into my comm cuff and call Jason.

"Yes?" He responds immediately.

"Jason, what is it?" I ask.

"Uh…" he says for a few moments. "No, I'm talking to Jacob. I do need to go, Jacob. Your papa will tell you soon enough. Yeah, he wants to know what the meeting is about. Zevenas, no!"

The call ends, leaving me wondering what Zevenas did.

Jason must feel really uncomfortable discussing the meeting with me, so I decide to leave the topic. Instead of pressing my friend, I choose to use the gift my papa gave me. I mostly asked for it because it has been too long since Jason and I spent time together as friends and cousins, due to both his work as a Jeshema and my work as Prince Jacob.

Before leaving the training hall, I change out of my university uniform and into more normal clothes, a plain pair of brown pants, a green cotton tunic, and plain boots and belt, no gloves on my hands. Then, I fuss with my hair a little bit so it does not have its normal styling.

Like this, I should appear as a normal commoner. My guards also changed into commoners' clothes as well, to make us look as three friends just walking through town. They would prefer it if we wore our usual swords, but we swap them for cheaper ones, for weapons that a common man might wear.

Their duty is, after all, more of a deterrence than an actual protection. If I am attacked, their job is to help me exit the combat zone while the Royal Guards who hide themselves around me handle the actual fight. So they do not need their normal weapons.

Jason's training helps with that as well. Both of them are much stronger than they were at the start of last term, and I am much stronger than they are, in addition to knowing magics of the Magi. We still wear the swords, however, as many young man carry swords on them, especially ones with our builds.

"Come," I tell my guards as we start walking. "Let us make our way into an area we are not regulars in."

"Jacob," Evan clears his throat. "Might I make a suggestion?"

"You may," I respond.

"Might you try," he suggests. "To speak more like a commoner as well as we walk through the streets? If you wish to blend in, speaking in your normal patterns will make some suspicious."

"Eden would likely say the same thing," I mull it over, then nod. "Yes, we should attempt to blend into the commoners with our speech as well. Wyatt, Evan, you two do the same."

"Yes, sir!" They respond.

We exit the university, then approach the nearby warp crystal. I pay the fee for us, then warp the three of us into another section of the city. A district not in poverty, but also not of wealthy. A district where three young men with swords in clothes of the style and material we now wear might walk around in.

Wyatt, Evan, and I discuss current events, though on the level of what commoners might know. We do our best to remember to use contractions and other slang, such as 'yeah' and 'nah'. While we do slip up a few times, no one seems to notice that we are different from them.

Which is the entire point of this exercise, since Jason is not accompanying us. People identify him much more easily than me due to his habit of wearing a vest without a tunic, in addition to his bracelets and necklace, but most importantly, due to his eyes. No one knows of anyone with grey eyes other than the Prince of Jeshema, Magus Jason.

After wandering through the streets for an hour, our stomachs growl, so we look for a restaurant that looks nice. As we walk, a tingle runs down my spine, a feeling of foreboding.

"Don't react to my voice, Jacob," a voice speaks in my head. "I'll hear everything you think, so don't worry about having to speak. Make a right at the next intersection."

Alex? I hazard a guess, even though the voice is familiar.

"Yeah," he responds. "I'm gonna direct you to a restaurant, tell those guards with ya that you overheard someone mention it, and that ya heard the general location."

What is going on?

"We need to talk," his voice is serious. "The restaurant is called Jeb."

Jeb?

"It's the nickname," he tells me. "For its abbreviation. Just tell those guards with ya that ya heard someone mentioned Jeb over near the Broken Eagle had some good grub. And yes, say 'grub'. That's what people say around here 'bout places like Jeb's. If ya say 'food', they'll think ya are a group of nobles."

I did see the Broken Eagle around fifteen minutes ago, so I know where to go, for the most part. If we backtrack our steps, but that does not lead us to the next right.

"Hey, guys," I say. It feels weird, just to speak like this. "I heard someone mention a place called Jeb, over by the Broken Eagle. They said it had some good grub, and that's made me curious."

It has been an hour, and I still feel weird saying this. My words likely come out stiffly right now. I know they do when Eden sometimes has me practice with him in private. At least there, only he hears it.

Jason probably does as well, but if he eavesdrops, he has never made a comment about it.

"Jeb?" Wyatt asks. "I haven't heard of su-of it."

"I overheard someone mention it," I tell him. "Let us go visit it."

"Okay, that was painful to listen to," Alex says. "'I overhead some guys talking about it, let's go check it out.' That's much, much better, ya know."

Not everyone is as fluent as you. Try talking like a noble without it coming out stiffly.

"Whatever do you mean, Prince Jacob?" He asks. "I enunciate my words perfectly clearly every time I speak. The only reason someone might not understand what I say would only be because of their own lack of education and class."

That is disturbing, how fluidly his words flowed. Then again, he is projecting his voice directly into my mind using mind magics, so it could be possible that he finds it much easier to switch this way.

Alex, how far away are you? And how are you making it through the protective ward that shields my mind from mind magics?

"That little anklet ya wear all the time?" He asks. "I'm the Magus of Mind, Jacob. TAKE A RIGHT, I SAID!"

"This way," I do my best not to jump at his voice, then take a right.

"Anyway, figuring out how to bypass a little enchantment isn't that difficult, ya know?" He asks. "Well, not for the Magus of Mind, not after he's figured out how to make the trinket ya wear to protect yourself."

That is a classified secret. No one is supposed to know how to create them except for the smith who does and her apprentice.

"Sage Jared designed the one ya wear," Alex tells me. "Take the third left from where ya are. Remember to actually go this time, instead of nearly passing it up, will ya? It'll make ya look like ya belong if ya simply walk with a purpose and without mistake. Anyway, I was borrowing some books on enchanting, and Jason loaned me the one that contained that enchantment in it. I don't think he realized that, as he'd have probably made up a new book with just the enchantments I was looking for if he did. Don't worry, I didn't share it with anyone. Anyway, since I know how the enchantment works, it's easy for me to bypass it. That's a perk of being the Magus of Mind."

We Magi are experts in our own fields, and when we are fully-fledged, the power we once held will be ours again. Sometimes, being restricted the way we are compared to the memories we hold of those lives makes me forget that we do not just rely on the memories to learn things.

Each of us is a genius in some form when it comes to magic. Alex is a genius when it comes to mind magics, even if he needed a slight boost to get started on things.

"Thanks," Alex reminds me about his presence in my mind. "Ya are a genius with some magics, too. I ain't able to do that light tracking spell ya can do, ya know, and there ain't a way on Midlaris ya could have figured it out just from your memories. Nah, ya had to have had the actual experience and knowledge of the spell, which ya didn't. Ya just saw it in the memories, then figured out how to use it. I know others don't realize that, thinking ya learned it from your memories, but I ain't gonna tell. Anyway, after ya make that left, take the second right."

I follow his directions, going in what feels like a loopy pattern, until we eventually reach the Broken Horse, a tavern we passed by earlier.

"It should be nearby," I tell Wyatt and Evan. "Keep an eye out for it."

"Whatcha lookin' for?" A young voice asks, and I turn to find Jeddy sitting on a crate a few feet away from us, swinging his feet back and forth. He's wearing a brown cloak and a normal outfit for him, looking like he doesn't have a care in the world. Did Alex tell him we were coming? "Maybe I can help ya? For a fee, of course. Ten varru."

Jeddy's tone and expression makes it seem like he does not know us and I feel that he might just be trying to extort money out of me for giggles.

"We're looking for Jeb," I tell him. "I overheard someone mention they had good grub as we discussed where to eat."

"'As we were discussing where to eat'," Alex corrects. "Sure, ya nobles remove some words to make it simpler, but it still sounds a bit different. Anyway, pay the kid, that's why he's got his hand out."

He's a young man, now, Alex.

I place a ten-varru coin on Jeddy's hand, and it disappears in a flash.

"It's in the alley to the right of the Broken Horse," he tells me. "Thanks for the money, and see maybe we'll see ya again!"

I frown a little at him, then thank him and look at the alley.

"No worries, Jacob," Alex says. "It ain't shady or anything, and no one there will hurt ya."

I am already rather concerned, Alex. I forgot to mention to the guards where we were warping to, and they do not have access to the warp logs. I have not seen any of the Royal Guards who protect me in quite awhile. Even if they received the location from Sageson Magical Technologies, they have not found me.

"There are a few around," he tells me. "They know I'm directing ya, I told them before I contact ya. Don't worry 'bout it, Jacob. I told them that your Royal Rival has some official business with ya that can't go on the books, so they're gonna stay outside."

"Let us go," I tell Wyatt and Evan, then we walk across the street and through the alley.

We make it halfway down the alley, past a few crates and compost bins, finding little here. There is a beefy man sitting on a crate beside a pair of cellar doors set against one building, but nothing else, the alley ending in after one hundred yards without another way out of it.

"The cellar doors is Jeb's," Alex tells me as we reach the cellar doors. "Just tell the bouncer 'I want to buy some of the special ale ya have, for a party with my friends'. Say it exactly like that, or ya will be rejected."

"I want to buy some of the special ale ya have, for a party with my friends," I tell the beefy man.

Without even looking at us, the guard touches the two metal cuffs on his wrists together, and the cellar doors simply vanish.

"Go on in," he says.

Wyatt, Evan, and I make our way down the stairs revealed, into what appears to be a tavern lit by magic crystals. It is not very bright, but there is enough light to see by. Only a few people are here as well. A man sitting at the bar, a pair of women sitting in a booth in a corner, a man throwing darts at the wall, a man and a woman playing a card game in a corner with two men watching, a pile of coins on the woman's side of the table, and Alex, sitting in another corner, drinking something with a plate of half-eaten food in front of him.

Other than those guests, there is is a large woman at the bar and another woman walking around, giving fresh drinks to the patrons.

I can tell just by looking at them that everyone in here is either a warrior or a mage. Most of them have a sword on them, and the ones who do not possess a visible weapon hold themselves with the air of a trained mage. Everyone holds a confidence to them which says they believe they are capable of handling themselves in a fight.

"Hey, Jake!" Alex waves to me with his mug, splashing some of his ale out of it. "Come on over! Looks like ya have Ed and Vaan with ya, too!"

A glance at my guards tells me they are bristling over what Alex called us, but I understand immediately. No one here knows who I am, so he is changing our names to keep the secret.

We walk over to his table, and I sit across from him.

"Hello, Alex," I greet him.

"Hey!" He grins. "It's fun, watching those Royal Guards above trying to get in. They don't have the password, and the cuffs won't work without the proper, ah, mana shaping. And they're about to call for someone to help, lemme do something real quick."

"Nothing illegal," I tell him, glancing around to see if anyone heard. No one is looking. "Please keep it quiet, too."

"It's no more illegal than using mind magic on the Crown Prince," he shrugs. "There we go! Their minds are slightly befuddled. It'll wear off later, but they won't remember where ya ended up, and they'll need Jace to track ya, but he's busy with something important."

"Alex!" I hiss.

"They know who ya are," he waves his stein, gesturing to the room and splashing a little more ale. "This is the headquarters of the Keeper's Resistance."

He is drunk. That is why he gave us the nicknames. Because he is drunk. I can hear it in the slight slur in his voice and the over-exaggerated movements he is making, and the fact that he called Jason "Jace", which is what he usually ends up calling Jason after several failed drunken attempts to say his name.

"What is the Keeper's Resistance?" I ask. "And are they okay with you having me down here?"

"They asked me to call ya," he tells me, and I feel my guards tensing up. Alex huffs in aggravation. "Oh, lighten up, will ya? He ain't in danger. Actually, this is connected to what Jason is in a meeting over."

"You still did not answer my question."

"If ya want them to cooperate with ya," Alex says. "Ya really got to work on talking like a commoner, Jake. Anyway, this is rather serious. It ain't that good."

"What is it?" I ask.

"Eat first," he tells me. "It might be the last time ya have a chance to today, and depending on how things go, ya might not get a chance until lunch tomorrow."

"That does not make me any less suspicious of you," I say. "Especially considering how much we conflict."

Though I do find it odd that he is not calling me Prince Jacob and Prince Jake, but just Jake. It also seems he can manage names right better with mind magic than with speaking while drunk. I suppose because his thoughts do not become slurred, though they were still surprisingly sharp and concise.

The serving woman I saw when we entered suddenly stands beside the table, startling Wyatt and Evan, who turned off their scanning spells while walking through the district, relying on my cues in case there was danger. Otherwise, they would have revealed their status as guards much more noticeably than they did.

I kept mine active, though she still startled me a little, despite my awareness of her approach. It was sudden and unexpected.

"Here ya boys go," the serving woman says as she puts down three plates piled high with food, then three mugs of ale. "Enjoy!"

She then disappears back to serving others, checking on drinks and other things.

"What is going on?" I ask Alex as my guards give the food a wary look.

"The Keeper's Resistance," he says. "Ain't your enemy. The food and drink are safe, I promise. And it's time ya and I put our issues aside. At least for now. That's why I ain't going all formal on ya."

If Alex is willing to put aside his issue with me, then this is serious.

Are you still in my head?

"No," he answers, then frowns. "Erm. Now I ain't. Sorry 'bout that."

"What is the Keeper's Resistance?" I ask, picking up the supplied fork and beginning to eat.

The food tastes strange to me, but I suppose that comes from being food served in a bar hidden underground. My guards look worried about me, but I trust Alex here. Even if he still hated me as much as he used to, he would never try to seriously kill me, especially because Jason and I are friends, and he would hate to upset Jason by killing a friend.

If he says the food is safe, then the food is safe.

"The Keeper's Resistance," Alex takes a huge swig from his stein before continuing. "Is an ancient order I discovered while acting as the Leviathan. Don't give me that look ya two, Jake here figured out it was me long ago, even if that god says otherwise."

Speaking of gods, Jaklenai finally disappeared, though Jason claims he is still around and will return when he finishes what he is doing elsewhere. I am not sure how I feel about that.

"That does not tell me what it is."

"Watch how ya talk, Jake," he says. "Seriously. It looks better on ya to them if ya don't just talk like a noble or prince all the time."

"I am a prince all the time," I tell him. "And if what you said is true, then this is a serious, formal situation which already has higher intervention going on."

"It ain't enough," he shakes his head. "That's why I called ya down here after the Keeper's Resistance called me and told me and showed me."

"Alex," I say. "What is the Keeper's Resistance?"

"An ancient order of deception," he answers.

"That makes us feel no less suspicious," Wyatt tells Alex. "And my name is 'Wyatt', not 'Ed'."

"It's Ed for now," Alex tells him. "'Cause I can't say your name right for some reason. I dunno why."

"Because you are drunk," I tell him. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Plenty," he tells me. "But I ain't drunk, Jace made me promise not to-ah. I guess I am drunk."

The redness in his face fades, and I know he has cycled his magic to return him to a sober state.

"Maybe I did have a fair bit more than I thought," he shrugs. "I had them mixing my drinks with vodka. Anyway, to answer your question, Jacob, the Keeper's Resistance is an ancient order-"

"We got that," Wyatt snaps.

"I ain't done speaking," Alex says. "And ain't ya supposed to not interrupt people when they talk? Or snap like that? Ain't that in the nobles' code? Pretty sure I read it in that book Connor's been forcing me to memorize.

"Anyway," he continues. "The Keeper's Resistance is an ancient order dating back to after the war. More specifically, six hundred years after. By then, Quinn and Ethan had left the area, leaving the two kingdoms to do their own thing.

"A young boy," he continues. "Was born into one kingdom, then moved into the other when he turned fifteen. He learned magic and combat in both, but was an expert in more, ah, shady things. When he turned twenty, he formed the Keepers, an elite, but secret, group of agents. Their mission? To watch over a creation of Magus Nolan's until the day that Magus Nolan returned to claim it."

"Keepers of the artifact," I say.

"Yeah," Alex nods. "Keepers of the artifact. Varilsy is actually over the town they operated out of. The artifact is still here, waiting for Magus Nolan to return and claim it. Don't mention it to Jason, if he hasn't remembered it even with his past having returned to him properly, then it can wait. Probably. It doesn't even do anything, as far as they can tell. He'll remember eventually."

Then we will discover that it is some artifact which could potentially end civilization as we know. This is a creation of Nolan's, after all.

"Anyway," Alex continues. "They kept themselves hidden, mysterious. They eventually renamed to the Keepers' Resistance, acting in two ways. First is to protect the true lineage of royalty in this land. Whether it's known or not, every ruler of what is now Varil, all the way back to the founding of the Keepers, has been descended of the original rulers of those two kingdoms Quinn and Ethan founded."

"They have?" I ask.

"Yeah," Alex nods. "The Keeper's Resistance ensures it. They ain't sure why, but they know it's important the monarch is always descended by blood of the joined lineage of those two families. They have a complete record of every person in all of Varil who meets the criteria, even if they're some street rat. That's why they added on 'Resistance'. They resist any other family ruling this land. More specifically, it has to be the descendants of the first monarch of the combined region – joined of the two bloodlines – who rules over this city. The rest of Varil could burn to nothing, and they wouldn't care."

So the Keeper's Resistance resists a change of blood in power and keeps to some ancient code, protecting the lineage and the artifact. But why?

"Anyway," Alex says. "Ya finished your food, that's who they are, and your guards need to eat. Because seriously – none of us might get a chance to eat again until tomorrow, possibly even tomorrow afternoon."

"Eat," I tell Wyatt and Evan. "Alex is serious."

Reluctantly, my guards eat, and once we finish, Alex stands.

"Follow me," he says, then walks to the back. We follow him back into the storage room, which is filled with crates and shelves of goods. "Change into more comfortable clothes, and put on your actual weapons. Ya might need 'em."

We change, my guards putting on their uniforms while I put on something more comfortable, including some light leather wyvern armor Jason made for me as protection. I know Alex wears a wyvern leather vest under his clothes, too. If he thinks we might need weapons, I'm wearing added protection.

When we finish changing, the woman from the bar enters the storage room and shifts aside a few crates, then stomps on a plank three times.

A hole forms in the floor, revealing a set of steps down below.

"Come on," the man tells us. "And brace yourselves. I ain't sure if ya have ever encountered something like this before, but it's ugly."

Alex descends first, then I follow him, my guards following me. Once we are all under the storeroom, the man presses his hand against the wall, and the gap in the ceiling disappears, looking like solid stone, as if the stairs lead to nothing.

He turns and walks down the stairs, using a globe of light to illuminate the way, and we follow.

The stairs take us deep, deep beneath the city, into a level I wasn't aware existed. The passages we walk through and by are damp, cool, and made of stone, carved from the land with only a few supports to keep it steady.

"Normally," the man says, setting a quick pace for us. "We don't go off our usual routes. But recently, we noticed some activity in the tunnels and followed the trails until we found, well… what we're about to show you. It takes a little while to reach, though."

"They wanted my advice on this," Alex tells me. "Since it needs to be reported. They know I'm the Leviathan who dealt with the sex trade people, and that I was probably doing it for your papa. However, they don't want guards coming down into these tunnels. The Keeper's Resistance ain't exactly entirely legal. There's a mind spell on the entrance to the alley. If your guards hadn't been following you directly with a focus on your anklet, they wouldn't have managed to enter."

A focus on my anklet? What does that mean?

"As just an example of something illegal," Alex continues. "They wouldn't have even noticed the alley. I had to have Jeddy direct ya to it because ya wouldn't have noticed, otherwise. Everyone in the area knows about Jeb's, and its general location, but ain't many who know where it actually is, or how to get entry to it. Yeah, they want to keep the secret entrances secret, and their secret passages that way, too. If the guard knew about this, they'd be patrolling these tunnels, too. They're older than Varil. Thousands of years old, with the tunnels magically supported. Ain't anyone sure who created the enchantments, but I ain't thinking it was Nolan.

"Anyway," Alex says. "The not-exactly-legal nature of what they are and do is why they ain't sure what to do. I told 'em we could trust you, and that Jason and King Zachary were already dealing with something relating to this, after they told me everything they know."

Alex stops talking there as we walk at the heavy pace for twenty minutes before we stop in front of a door with two women standing guard in front of it, one wearing a sword, the other likely a mage.

"Ya need to brace yourselves," the man escorting us tells me and my guards. "It ain't pretty."

He draws a series of runes on the door using magic, then the door disappears. Immediately, I am aware of why they wanted the Leviathan, agent of the king, to advise them.