The king’s brother’s steps resounded in the long spiral stairway. Through various intermediaries, he had received an urgent call from the spymaster to meet on the bell tower. “We never meet there. Why does he …”

A queasy feeling overcame him when a horrible thought popped into his head. Panting, he finally opened the door to the bell tower and sat down next to the spymaster on a bench. When the spymaster didn’t speak, he prompted: “What is it?”

“The king had a heart attack. The doctors have placed him in a temporary stasis fueled by some expensive herbs. There is only enough stock left to last for three days.”

For several minutes, he let his mind race along thousands of implications. Finally, he asked: “Do you think he is ready?”

“The prince?”

“Yes.”

“As ready as he can be. The commander and hundreds of elite palace guards will accompany him. They will carry him through. What I fear is an attack from another kingdom.”

He spurted out. “They can’t do that. The continental conventions forbid it!”

The spymaster chuckled darkly: “We both know that those one-thousand-year-old treaties would be broken, eventually. The founding fathers only expected the treaty to last for twenty years. We have been getting lax recently. The boy leading our forces around by the nose has lowered our standing. Even if he has given the kingdom a lot of trouble, his forethought is impressive.”

His palms began to sweat. “Do you think … they would invade?”

“They have already come. My reports have concluded that the kingdom of Osma has only sensei as a spy in our midst. Do you think they would only send a normal aether cultivator to conquer an empire?”

“Ghostbound”, the king’s brother whispered reverently

“That is the only explanation I can come up with to explain the immense power. Have you seen the reports of the ambush? First, that boy shot a beam of aether bigger than any of our elite guards could create. Then he escaped the ambush by flying away. Not only flying away. One moment he was there, the next he wasn’t. His passing gave off an enormous booming sound that could be heard throughout the city.”

It felt like the world was crashing down on him. “You are saying that there are more factions in this city?”

The spymaster pulled out a stack of papers from a case and leafed through them.

“The royal alchemist, Evudor, denied one of the southerner ambassadors to leave. It was an impulsive and dumb diplomatic move, but it allowed us to get a glimpse of the actual powers in this city. After Evudor left the tournament, they attacked him in broad daylight. I will read his report: ‘As I was riding in my carriage, I felt something deep in the aether around me shift. As I had readied myself for an ambush, I already had an invisibility potion on hand which I drunk. As soon as the effects kicked in, the entire carriage turned into sand. One moment it was stout wood, the next moment I was encompassed by sand. Too shocked to say anything, I rolled out of the sand mountain. My detachment of six elite guards reacted instantly. Three of them shot into the air, one cast a detecting spell and one created a shield around the sand mountain. They must have thought I was still in it. Then, the sand roiled like a living being and the bystanders screamed and ran away. The sand of my former carriage formed into spikes and impaled the sand mountain. The elite guards unleashed fire and lighting at the sand, which didn’t do much of anything. After that, the sand formed into a snakehead and it coiled and devoured a nearby female elite guard with a bite. I watched as the sand took on various shapes and forms which killed elite guards like pesky flies. Three of them tried to flee, but a storefront turned to sand and cut their escape off. Not knowing what to do, I lay there motionless. When the massacre was finished, a figure with a grey cloth bound around his face stepped out of a side alley. I could only make out the reflection of his eyes. The sand whirled around him in a miniature tornado. With a wave of his hand, the entire sand rushed into some side alley. He must have been searching for my body but didn’t find it. He kicked a wall which crumbled and shouted ‘cazzo’ with the voice of an adolescent man. The assailant left through a side alley and I hurried back to the palace.’”

The king’s brother had his face buried in his hands. As if to deepen his misery, the spymaster added: “A delegation of northerners has arrived recently. I have interviewed them and they are led by the eldest son of the ‘father of tribes’. After I got some of them drunk, they admitted that they were here to conquer Trianon as proof of maturity for the eldest son. It is customary that for a prospect for the position of ‘father of tribes’, to conquer at least one other tribe. Last but not least, the prince Akeem of Osma has come too. My theory is that they sent him in to reinforce sensei against the southerner ghostbound.”

He sat there paralyzed and felt like the future of his kingdom was slipping out of his hands. The spymaster didn’t look away, but offered a hand to help him up: “I don’t think now is the time to fall into self-pity. Have you already forgotten that the prince has over four hundred S-Tier fighters? Even the best ghostbounds are overwhelmed with numbers. We have studied the intricacies of the king’s tournament for several hundred years and have always won until now. Why should it be any different this time? Even as a last resort, we still have Plan B.”

He wiped away the tears of desperation and straightened. “You should become a motivational teacher, you know that? I, as a representative of the royal family, command you to gather all our elite palace guards. Prepare them for what is coming. We can’t wait any longer, else other kingdoms may decide it is their time to shine, too.”

The spymaster saluted and answered. “It is my honor to do so.”

He produced a mirror out of his pocket and sent signals to a guard tower. With a sense of dread and fascination, he watched the spymaster and thought: “That one already knew what I would decide. He is far too competent; I will need to remove him after all this is done.”