(Niko, 17)

"Good morning, Niko," Eli greets me when I open the door to my room.

My friend is holding a tray of food, of scrambled eggs, cooked sausages, biscuits, slices of cheese, and a bowl of cut fruits with some whole grapes and berries added in.

"Good morning, Eli," I greet him as I return to the side of my bed.

Eli enters the room and closes the door, then sets the tray on my table before joining me beside my bed, looking at the tunics I have spread out on it. Lina will arrive in half an hour, and I feel uncertain regarding what I wish to wear.

Knowing this would occur, I delayed deciding on an outfit until after my shower. Had I waited to take my shower until after I decided on my clothes, then I would have run out of time for the shower, and I wish to present my best to Lina today.

She requested a day-long date for today, to celebrate my birthday. Though she will deny that it is to celebrate my birthday. According to her, it is to help me forget my past birthdays and give me something other than how terrible things once were for me to think about.

I already picked the pants to wear, as nearly all of my pants not part of my university uniform are black. That choice was easy, but deciding which tunic to wear proves difficult. What if I pick one which she does not like? Or which Lina dislikes?

"Niko," Eli says. "Why don't you sit and eat breakfast while you think?"

"That sounds like an excellent idea," I walk to the table and sit, then begin to eat.

As I eat, Eli takes my tunics and hangs them back up in my closet. I suppose he decided to select my appearance for today. I finish eating breakfast, then look at the tunic which Eli picked. It is a plain, black tunic. However, a dark green vest rests beside it. The vest does not belong to my wardrobe, which means Eli brought it with him.

Overall, the outfit would give a formal, yet somewhat casual, appearance to it.

"The vest," Eli tells me as I examine it. "Is my gift to you, Niko."

"There was no need to gift me anything," I tell him. "Just treat today as any other day."

"It is custom for someone to receive gifts from family on their birthday," Eli says. "While I might not be your family, it is not uncommon for friends to give a gift as well, Niko. However, I knew of your dislike for it, which is why I picked something more simple. I noticed Princess Lina looking at the vest with interest the other day, and felt it might be nice for you to wear for your date with her."

"Lina was looking at it?"

"Quite thoughtfully," he nods. "I could only guess, but I thought she might have been thinking about what you would look like in it. This style of vest is meant to be worn over a tunic."

"Most vests should be worn over a tunic," I pull on the tunic. "Jason ignores this, Eli. Consider him the exception, not the standard."

"Yes, sir," he responds as I pull on my belt, then the tunic. "You are already wearing the rings?"

"I slipped them back on after my shower," I state as I notice someone approaching the front doors of the mansion. "Lina has arrived. Have you eaten?"

"Yes," he answers. "Micah and I are ready for today."

"Thank you," I say.

We exit my room and make our way down to the foyer, where Lina has been shown inside.

For our long date today, she wears a dress the same green of my old eye color, with violet designs woven into it. Her hair has been fixed up with green emeralds and violet amethysts, and in addition to the bracelet and necklace I gifted her before, she also wears a silver necklace adorned with more emeralds and amethysts.

My breath catches in my throat when I see her, and it takes me a moment to realize I have stopped walking as well. Upon realizing this, I continue descending the steps, then approach Lina. She smiles at me the entire way, and when I reach her, I take her hands into mine and pull her in for a kiss.

"Good morning, Lina," I say, stepping back. "You are as beautiful as ever."

"You are as handsome as ever, Niko," she tells me with a smile. "Happy birthday."

"I am happy every day that I spend with you," I tell her.

"And I, you," she tells me. "Jacob would have joined me to drop off a gift for you, except something came up at the palace last-minute, and he needed to remain behind to deal with it."

"No one needs gift me anything," I tell her. "It is just another day. There is nothing special about my birthday, though I am happy to spend it all with you."

"Well, Niko," she pulls me in for another kiss. "To the rest of us, birthdays are special. We know you dislike yours because of the past, but it still makes us feel bad to not do anything for it."

"Spending the day with you is all I need," I tell her as she steps back.

"Yes," she smiles. "Let us be off, Niko. I have plenty of things planned for us today."

"Before we begin all of that," I say. "Would you mind if I stopped by Jason's home? Knowing him, he decided to ignore my wishes and create something for me anyway, and I would like to deal with that before the rest of the day, so that my mood may only go up, rather than down."

While Jason understands I want my birthday to be treated like any other day, he still has his own mentality regarding things. Knowing him, he wishes to turn my birthday into an experience that I enjoy, rather than just another day to me. Because of that, whatever he has created will likely be something more in-line with an actual birthday present, which will upset me upon receiving it.

Not at him, I just know that I will grow upset over the past years of nothing special occurring for my birthday. That is why I wish to deal with it immediately. If I receive it later, then it will ruin the happiness I feel at spending the day with Lina. If I receive it now, then my mood will worsen, only for Lina to make it better.

"Unfortunately," Lina tells me. "Jason found himself busy with stuff, and will be unavailable until later today. Knowing his plan, however, I promise that your mood will not sour over his ignoring of your wishes."

If Lina believes that, then I will accept it. She likely suspected the same thing as me, so spoke with him regarding the gift. Because of that, she would know how massive of a gift it is for me.

Hopefully, it is not literally massive.

This is Jason, though.

Now I am worried.

"Let us be off," Lina says again.

"Yes," I smile in response to her smile. "Let us be off."

Lina leads me outside to the carriages. Eli and one of Lina's guards joins us in ours, while Micah and her other guard act as escorts outside of it. Naturally, Lina and I sit across from each other, though I wish the next four years would pass by already so that we may marry and sit beside each other in a carriage, even travel alone in them.

The day passes with me happy, barely noticing the various things we do. I will admit, I focus more on Lina than our trip to the park, the hour-long performance at the amphitheater, our lunch, and the other things we do. Being with Lina makes me happy enough that none of those things matter.

Eventually, it grows close to dinnertime, and Lina takes me back to my mansion. My scanning spell shows it as suspiciously empty. Did she ensure everyone cleared out to allow us a private dinner? But then, why are the servants eating, yet nothing set up for us?

"We are not eating dinner here," Lina tells me when I mention this to her. "Jason is at his training facility, and told me earlier we could stop by there to pick up the present around now. We will go there and pick it up."

So dinner will occur elsewhere, then. Lina has chosen to ensure that I become happy again after the present is received.

"Would you mind opening the gate there?" She asks as we enter the mansion, a maid and a butler waiting in here. "I lack the magical power necessary to open one there in a single spell."

"I would not mind," I open the gate into the training facility's gate space in the front yard, even though I wish to not receive the present from Jason.

Lina asked me to, and I know Jason will only hand it to me the next time we see each other, anyway, so it is better to deal with it now than leave it for later.

Lina steps through the gate, then our escorts do. Oh, right, I forgot they were following us around. That is a bad habit I obtained, forgetting that others are nearby while Lina and I are on a date. I step through the gate, only to find myself surrounded by people.

The training group, the younger Marrans staying in Varil to begin at academy next term, the Sages, Jason's adoptive siblings, Miralandis, Jarenidis, Zachary, Franklin, Aiden, Kyron, and others. A giant boar slowly roasts over coals in the fire ring, with food and drinks set out. It looks like games are set up as well, along with green, silver, and violet decorations, a few flags with the crest I commonly use, a pair of wolves facing the Crest of the Magi, sewn into them in silver, the flags either the green of my old eyes or the violet of my new.

"Happy birthday, Niko!" Everyone calls out as I stare in confusion.

The sudden shouting startles me, and I stumble back, only to be pushed forward by something. Gargoyle Alpha, keeping me from falling back through my gate, which I did not close yet.

"What is going on here?" I ask.

"A birthday celebration!" Jason answers with a grin, gesturing with his hands. Suddenly, I feel my gate spell end. Since when can he end a spell like that? "We have food, we have drinks, we have games, and we have Lina, so don't you think about leaving, Niko!"

That last one was unnecessary.

"This is Jacob's present to you," Lina takes my hand in hers, pulling me closer. "A birthday celebration. Do not become sour over it, either, so lose the frown, Niko. By the time you leave here, you will have enjoyed it."

"I told you all," I say. "I did not want any celebrations!"

"Maybe not," Jason pulls me away from Lina. "But celebrate, you will, Niko! Everyone deserves to do happy things on their birthdays!"

"Doing what I said not to do does not make me happy."

"Stop being a grouch," he releases me and gestures with his hands again, and my scanning spell ends. "Where's the blindfold?"

"Kyron put it on," someone says, and I glance over to find Kyron wearing a black blindfold.

Well, he is wearing it like a headband. Wait, Kyron is here? Jason returned to Garoyal and brought my apprentice here? Aiden is here, too, now that I look around, along with some of Aiden's soldiers who I have trained, and a few more Garoyalans.

I suppose I should have expected Jason to do this. When he becomes enthusiastic about something, nothing stops him from doing it. How hard did his parents try to stop him from throwing this celebration? It looks like all of my friends were in on it, too. Lina included.

As much as I dislike this, I will try not to sour their good moods and go along with everything they have planned for me. Out of respect for Jason's enthusiasm.

"Where is Jacob?" I realize that a Magus and his bodyguards are missing.

"Still at the palace," Zachary informs me. "I believe he may have wished to not partake of this, out of respect for your wishes. I only came to wish you a good day."

"It is fine," I tell him. "If you wish to stay and partake of whatever Jason planned for us, it will not bother me. You have already come here, it would be a shame for you to stay at celebrations for only a few minutes, especially knowing Jason. Wait. Blindfold? Jason! What is the blindfold for?"

"For the first event!" Jason grins, approaching me with the blindfold in his hands. "Time to put it on! Eli! Micah! Hold him!"

Eli and Micah grab me as Jason reaches me, the two of them keeping me on the spot so that Jason can wrap the blindfold over my eyes and tie it behind my head. They will regret holding me down so that he could do this. Just as soon as this game Jason planned ends.

(Jacob, 17)

"Are you sure you do not wish to attend the party?" Evan asks. "Niko may feel offended if you do not attend, as everyone else has. He may believe that you decided to not celebrate because you do not care, not because he does not wish for it."

"I will attend the party if there is time after," I set down my pen and stretch my arms and legs. "I would much rather help turn Niko's negative thoughts regarding his birthday into positive ones than stay behind, Evan."

"Then why did you stay behind?" Wyatt asks.

"Because if I did not," I say. "Papa would have in order to deal with the paperwork I am doing now. He knows Niko did not wish for celebrations, and so would have simply asked him how his date with Lina went when they saw each other at the solstice celebrations tomorrow. Because I remained behind, he left so that at least one of us wished him a happy birthday. However, knowing Niko, Papa will be asked to stay, due to already being there."

"Then why remain behind?" Evan asks. "You said 'if there is time after'. Time after what?"

"The assassination attempt," I slide my chair back and stand.

"Another?" Wyatt asks. "I thought Wolf Alpha deals with them before they cause any problems now? At least, the ones here in the palace?"

"He does," I tap my earcuff. "He contacted me while I was preparing to change into an outfit to wear to the party to inform me that someone made it onto the palace grounds, and that they have an artifact he does not think he can handle. He asked me if I wished to contact Jason regarding it, and I told him that I will handle it."

I do not know why Wolf Alpha called me, he normally calls Jason immediately for any assassin he does not believe he can handle. It may be that he did not wish to disturb Jason as my friend prepared for the party.

"If Wolf Alpha cannot handle it," Evan says. "Then surely we should bring Jason here?"

"He described the artifact to me," I state. "I know it from my past life. While it is troublesome, the Magus of Light can handle it."

Though the question is of how well I can handle it. We are not really the Magi, not until we reach grey in magical power again, despite having many of our old memories. I know the counter to the artifact, but I do not know if it is something I can actually counter. However, I do not wish to distract anyone from turning a bad experience into a good one for Niko, our friend could use that.

"Okay," Evan says, then looks around. "Where is the cub?"

"He is with Zevenas," I answer. "Either at the training grounds for the party or with Jaklenai to keep them from causing trouble there, I do not know which. You two go on ahead to the party, but do not mention the assassination attempt."

"Jacob, no," Wyatt protests. "We are your guards."

"Yes," I say. "And only a Magus could survive the power of this artifact. If he targets either of you, I may not be able to protect you. It is better if you have left, as this is one case where you truly do not have any power to deal with the situation."

They look reluctant, but when the grey gate appears, they leave through it. Wolf Alpha closes his gate, then I stretch again.

"Did you let him know where I will be?" I ask.

"Yes," Wolf Alpha answers. "I used mind magic on a few servants to have them discuss the location, that they overheard you planning on going for a walk there."

While I do not approve of his methods, the result matters more.

"Thank you," I say. "Time to go deal with an assassin."

I leave my quarters and make my way to the palace gardens, to our hedge maze. At the same time, I use a modified version of the scan spell to keep aware of my surroundings. More specifically, of the shadows of my surroundings. With night having fallen half an hour ago, there are plenty of shadows around.

Enough that someone might not notice them moving. Without the modified scanning spell, even I would find it difficult to keep track of the assassin. It is a truly troublesome artifact, and I wish it did not continue to exist. In fact, I thought I had destroyed it, back when I was Magus Ethan.

Nolan did not craft this one, so it should have faded with time. My guess is that some god who managed to stay out buffed the enchantments as they faded, to ensure it continued to exist. Now, it has fallen into the hands of someone who wishes to kill the current ruling line.

Unfortunately for them, Wolf Alpha noticed the moving shadows and alerted me to the situation. Had he not noticed the shadows, Papa would probably have died tonight, bringing me to an early rule.

I spend more than an hour navigating the hedge maze before arriving at one of its rest spots. A small pond sits in the middle of it, with a few benches around it, along with some trees, bushes, and flowers. I walk to the gazebo near one edge of the pond and enter it, then stretch.

Time to show this assassin why anyone with hostile intent towards a Magus should run when the Magus walks alone.

Rather than holding my aural sheath inside of me, I shroud myself in it. However, it does not take on the green coloration of my magical power this time. Instead, it shines with light like the sun. Pushing with my magic, I create a field around us, blocking off all exits with walls of light.

The light from myself and the barrier weakens the shadows around us as well, though not by much. Ancient artifacts do hold immense power, after all, and one of this one's powers is the strengthening of any shadows it affects, helping sustain them even when light hits them.

Now, he has nowhere to run. It is time to find out if this is a battle I can win.

Hold out my hands, I create a pair of knives out of light. Normally, I would prefer to use a sword, but tonight, I will borrow Alex's preferred fighting style.

"That artifact you wear," I speak in a clear voice, ensuring it reaches the furthest edges of this rest area. "Can be charged over time by pouring your mana into it. The artifact has a storage capacity of less than half of my current amount of mana. If you believe you possess the ability to outlast my light, you are wrong. All I need do is wait, and you will eventually reveal yourself due to the artifact running out of mana."

Even if mana storage units are new enchantments, there were still a few artifacts which could store mana. The enchantments were lost to time, only to be rediscovered by Jason even before he recovered the memories of himself creating them.

Well, Jason and Sage Jared rediscovered them, the Sage does do much of the work. Jason mostly provides the ideas and some lighter work on many of the things, I heard.

The assassin waits where they are, and I wait here. One of us will make the first move, and I intend on it being them.

Nearly half an hour passes before a change occurs, a tendril of darkness striking at me from behind it. I watch it through my scanning spell, the tendril striking my aural sheath. The moment the tendril touches my aural sheath, the light overwhelms the shadow, burning away the shadow. The tendril continues forward a few inches before it finally stops, pulling back. The entire time, I remain facing forward with the same serious, focused expression I had before, to not show that I was aware of the attack.

Good. With how easily that was damaged, the assassin should not take too much to kill. If it took even a second to burn the shadow away, then the battle might have turned into a struggle for me.

A few more minutes pass before a second attack comes at me from behind, this one aiming at my legs. It, too, fails. Every two to three minutes, the assassin makes another attempt at striking me, each one stronger than the last.

Each one failing. Even if they put more magic into the attack, they are facing my full magical power in my aura of light. They are far too weak to breach it. Whoever employed the assassin should have sent someone with blue magical power or greater just to be sure.

However, even someone with blue magical power using that artifact would likely still fall to me. Chances are quite high they would need to be at least violet in magical power to take me on as I am now.

I am impressed by this assassin's determination, though. They are the shadows so long as they use the artifact, the tendrils a part of them. Every failed attack of theirs wounds them, and even in shadow form, they will feel the pain.

Nearly forty minutes pass, then tendrils of shadow begin to swirl around me, not touching me, but still blocking my aura, wrapping around me and leaving me in a shroud of darkness. How brave of them, my aura cannot be too comfortable for them when they are like this. They probably believe they can stop me even if I try to wound them simply by expanding the shroud, moving it away from my touch.

I strike with my knives and my feet, turning into a flurry of attacks as I shred the shroud of darkness, ripping it to pieces with my light. A shifting of shadows elsewhere alerts me to my target, and I dash forward, breaking through the remains of the shroud there with my fully body, not caring about how much damage I did to them.

Only a few steps takes me to the spot I targeted, and I stab into it with both knives. This is their main body, and my flurry of attacks wounded them enough they could not continue to hide it. Nor did they notice my approach, so focused were they on their pain.

Keeping my knives of light inside the shadows, I twist them, inflicting even greater pain as a body begins to form, pulling out of the shadows. A woman, nude except for the amulet around her neck. Only the amulet remains on the body when the body becomes shadows, so her state does not surprise me.

The assassin could not be more than a year or two older than me, Varilan. Right now, burns and cuts cover her body, and I pull my knives out as the shadows around us return to normal.

As blades of light, they do not harm physical bodies. They do not possess the extra power that the tendrils of shadow did to allow them to harm physical objects. However, the mind spell contained within the light ensured she could not sustain the shadow fusion.

Releasing the knives of light, I examine the assassin. She looks vaguely familiar to me.

"Hannah?" I realize who she is when she turns her pain-filled eyes to me.

A fourth-cousin of mine, making her a distant princess. I accidentally lose hold of the light in my aural sheath as I recognize her. The way I hear it, she would have become my betrothed had Tasha not. We have only met on a few occasions, including on my birthday, at the celebrations for it.

I am distracted just a moment too long, my reflexes just a tad too slow to avoid the tendril of shadow when I notice it.

"Gyah!" I exclaim as I feel it rip into my side, a searing pain forming from the curse contained within.

She is back in her normal form, she should not be able to manipulate the shadows like this anymore. The shadows around us shift once more, and several tendrils strike me before I notice in my scanning spell a second main body, a person rising out of the shadows.

There were two assassins.

Dropping to the ground, I try to muster up the strength to rise, feeling my aura fade away. Something struck my head, and blood has gotten into my eyes, making it difficult to see. My eyes sting from the blood, but I can still see with my scanning spell. Or could. It starts to fade as well, the curse taking hold.

Whoever the second assassin is, they were stronger than me. They did send someone stronger. Hannah's expression is one of hate, but also mild annoyance.

I know there was only one of them. While I might have been mistaken about destroying it, I do know for sure there was only one of them, I killed the person who created it before he could craft a second.

"Weak girl," a deep voice says as I start to send an outgoing call to Jason. "I told you to be more cautious, did I not? Jacob is a Magus, it is only natural he would have a way to counter this.

My earcuff is plucked off my ear before Jason answers the call. I attempt to fight back, my body weakened from the curse and the tendrils, but the man hits me with another spell, this one causing my body to slacken.

"Get up, Hannah," the man says as there is a tugging on my boots. "You know how to do some holy spells, apply them to yourself. We need to remove the cuffs and leave before we are caught."

The cuffs? Why would they remove the cuffs?

Unless they want to keep me alive rather than killing me. In that case, they believe the only way to track me would be through the cuffs. There are ways to block the spell that senses blood relations, and if they want me alive, then they likely have that set up.

Wait. If they want me alive, does that mean I was the target the entire time? Did they count on me noticing and sending Papa and my guards away? Why do they want me alive, though? What do they want me for?

My cuffs are removed as I mentally chuckle. Even if I could chuckle aloud, I would not. These fools, so ignorant of the truth. Jason's ability to track people through their magical signature is not a well-known one.

Even if they make it out of the palace grounds without being stopped by Wolf Alpha, Jason would find me within minutes of Wolf Alpha reporting this. Though that does bring up a question to my mind.

Where is Wolf Alpha? Why did he not try to step in as soon as I lost? Griffin Alpha, too.

(Jason, 16)

"Found you," I kneel beside Wolf Alpha, who is lying in the middle of a magical circle that neutralizes enchantments. "Poor guy."

I pick him up and cradle him in my arms, grateful my enchantments are powerful enough that all it did was disable him rather than actually neutralize the enchantments. Whoever did this, they predicted where Wolf Alpha would burst out from and set up a trap for him.

The neutralization enchantment was carved into human flesh that was then turned to leather. Someone's back, I'm guessing. Was it from the same group that Jacob was led to? Or did someone else do this?

"I found Griffin Alpha!" Lina calls out, pain in her voice.

I look over to find her picking up Griffin Alpha from behind a bush, and she brings him over to me.

"Another one of those wretched things is over there," she tells me. "I saw a few others."

"They probably predicted the most likely places for the stuffies to come out from," I take Griffin Alpha into my arms as well, cradling him and Wolf Alpha together. "Poor guys. It will take me some time to restore them. Thankfully, the cores are okay, so nothing will be lost."

They're essentially in sleep mode, but unable to come out of it on their own. I'll take the opportunity to upgrade their cores again, to bring them up to my current magical power level and reinforce them against neutralization traps. I'll make sure to upgrade all of them.

"You really could not find Jacob?" She asks.

"No," I stand. "Which means they are either using an artifact I haven't remembered, or a god is protecting them. However, I do recognize one of the two magical signatures."

"You do?" Uncle Zach asks as he approaches.

"Yeah," I stand. "Princess Hannah was here. Based on the patterns of magical residue, she attacked Jacob, then he wounded her, before he was attacked by the second person from behind."

Uncle Zach narrows his gaze at me.

"I did not take a sample of her magical signature," I tell him. "I just remember what it looks like from when I saw it back at the birthday celebration for Jacob and Lina. Speaking of celebrations, Lina, you should return to the one for Niko. Don't let him know about what's going on, he's enjoying himself."

A lot. My plan was a total success, and Niko is genuinely enjoying his birthday. When I left, he was happily digging into the cake, and was somewhat upset that Lina had to leave.

"Do not tell anyone," Uncle Zach tells her. "We will search for Jacob through the night, and hopefully find him before morning. There is no reason to alarm people unless we're unable to find him before sunrise."

He believes we'll find Jacob before sunrise, but I'm doubting it. Something tells me his prison is too concealed for that.

Just in case, I need to set something in motion.

"I'm going to go fix Wolf Alpha and Griffin Alpha so that I can ask them for a better picture of what happened," I tell them as I open up a gate. "Lina, head on through, and remember, stay cheerful. We'll find Jacob, so there's no reason to alarm anyone. Just let them know that Wolf Alpha got hurt and needs mending, and that's why I'm not returning. Niko will understand."

"Okay," she puts on a smile. "I will see you later, Jason."

Lina steps through the gate, then I close it and open another.

"You are planning something," Uncle Zach says.

"I am just going to fix these two up," I tell him. "As I said, they can give us a better picture of what happened, which should help us in finding them. I'll let you know what they say once I finish, it might take me a few hours, though."

"Okay," he gives me a skeptical look, and I step through my gate.

If my mamas and papas knew what I'm about to do, they would scold me and ground me for years, even knowing what it's for. However, the risk is worth it if we find my cousin and friend. I will deal with any fallout that comes from it.