When Bartholomew had gotten her to join Michael in his tutoring for a means to get closer to the boy Cara had expected an elaborate plan to get the two alone as much as possible so she could work on him. As it turns out the tutoring was strict, so strict she had barely any time left for any interaction with him.

Their teacher was an old school scriptor of history and was not happy about a mixed classroom, the fact that Angela had dressed slightly inappropriate on her first day had not helped and she had learned a valuable lesson that day. The quickest way was not always the straight one, at times it was better to hide the true intentions even if it was something simple like seducing a boy.

Luckily for her Bartholomew had warned her not to overdo it with the dress. Now she was stuck here listening for the second time to the story of the dragons that split the world.

"When the first humans began to speak the high council of dragons decided to split the world into five parts to observe the humans and lead their society in different ways. Their ideas for this process was then the source of the names they gave the lands.

We here are in Guidance where the oldest and wisest dragons decided to guide our civilization and keep the interference as little as possible.

The other four lands are unknown to us and no dragon has ever told a human about them." The old man paused when Michael raises his arm to ask a question.

A vein on the teachers forehead began swelling, Michael had a knack for asking questions that pushed the teacher against a wall since he did not know the answer. A fact that the old man tried to hide, after all he was being paid enough for a single lesson to get him through the winter.

Angela was supposed to not understand the things that were put in front of her, after all who would fall in love with a girl smarter than oneself? But after hearing the stories for the third time it was hard not to know them by heart, if needed she could recite them herself.

If she was completely honest with herself she would be able to pass the entrance exams by now… Michael however was not sure about it and kept on studying, if his intellectual prowess was not something to be impressed by so was his determination and relentless focus.

“Why have there been no expeditions to find the other lands? If there are humans living there wouldn’t it be wise to seek them out?” Angela nodded pushing her eyebrows together as if she had just arrived at the same conclusion, the boy was adorably naive.

The teacher frowned, taken aback by the question.

“If I recall correctly there were a couple of expeditions into the sulfur seas and at least two that tried to cross the obsidian mountains. However to my knowledge none ever returned, It was assumed the Dragons formed a barrier to ensure no human or dragon could cross over to another land and harm the treaty.”

Angela listened up, that sounded vaguely threatening, perhaps Cara should ask Bartholomew about it later. The girl found it easier to separate the two characters she was when she addressed them rather than trying to be both at once.

Angely wondered what the other lands were like, maybe there was no war there, maybe everybody got along there. Michael was sightly not completely satisfied but the information he had gotten was enough to keep him quiet, the page in front of him was not even half filled while Angela was on her third page already.

At times like these she wondered if Michael really wanted to go to the university, he was clearly not dumb or lacked the drive to get better marks, but he got sidetracked easily.

“Thank you master Rupert.” Michael’s eyes returned to his page, scribbling down a couple of words.

Angela was wondered if she should fail as well, after all the only reason she was here was to get closer to her crush… her father would be furious though.

Her eyes fell on the boy at her side again, he was looking at the teacher with a concentrated face, she knew the expression on it, he had it whenever he was training. The teacher continued his lesson, slightly confused by the solemn answer the boy had given him, it usually took longer for his curiosity to be quenched.

“The Dragons in Guidance then created a means to communicate with the humans, their draklings, a subspecies of the dragons created with their soul and forever bound to them. These species have then taught the humans a language and began building cities of Dragons.

Each Dragon ruling over an element has one such city, but the amount of Draklings and Dragons living their vastly differs from place to place. It seems like the more powerful a Dragon is the more followers and younger Dragons are with him.

Since the cities are very hard to enter reports have been less than consistent, especially when concerning the size of the Dragons…” The old man’s voice trailed off and a strange expression appeared on his face.

Michael, noticed it and began scribbling words again, Cara made a note to herself and let Angela stare dreamily at the boy next to her.

“I believe we should stop for today, the both of you seem to distracted for any more knowledge.” Rupert frowned at the two and Angela quickly acted as if she had dropped something when Michael turned to her.

A the girl could feel a burning sensation creep into her cheeks, Michael glanced over her and quickly turned up front again when he noticed the girl looking at him. The teacher sighed, and closed the book he was holding, the sound tore the two teenagers from their dreamy glances and back into the dusty old study.

Without as much as another word Rupert left the room, mumbling to himself. The room was quiet after his footsteps had faded out. Michael was looking around the room, his breath quicker, the sweat gathering on his forehead, Angela looked down on the hands she had folded in her lap. Cara was silently celebrating, so the boy was interested in girls after all… she had begun to question it.

“So, I have combat training now… want to watch?” The boy’s voice was shivering as he slowly got to his feet, Angela smiled and nodded. Then she realised Michael was not actually looking in her direction.

“Yes! I would love to.” She said quickly, nearly choking on her own spit. She gasped for a second and then got to her feet, she quickly gathered up her things and followed Michael through the large mansion.

The Highbloods of Goldhill had ruled the city ever since it had been founded by their ancestors, the mansion on top of the hill was the ultimate noble household. Every year the family would expand it by a room, a tradition that started about a hundred years ago. The building now had over one hundred and fifty rooms, all of which were designed by a different architect making the outer walls a patchwork of different styles and the outer wall a bright work of art. The other great families had taken up the tradition after a while and now rumours had it the entire continent was doing the same.

The two of them walked in silence, and Angela closed her eyes trying to hear what was going on around them, earlier today a couple of armed men had been lead into the mansion as Angela had begun the last hour of study.

The noise of metal on metal had given them away, now she was wondering if Cara should take a look at things.

“Oh, my. I think I forgot my feather in the study, I will get it and join you in the court afterwards okay?” Angela said her cheeks slightly blushing with embarrassment, Michael smiled at her and nodded, he seemed in thought and wasn’t really paying attention.

Cara took over and quickly moved through the building, the study was only one floor above them.

Silently she ran through the building staying in the shadows whenever she heard someone approach, the staff of the mansion was luckily not too worried about someone breaking in. Slightly out of breath she arrived outside the large door, they were still closed, no guards in front of them though.

Voices sounded through the door, someone was not happy with something, she would need to get closer.

“... How did they escape? You ensured me the enemy was as good as dead! Why do you think I sent the mercenaries with you? To waste some of our gold? This conflict has already stretched for longer than any of us can afford, if we have to declare a state of emergency the people will begin to think twice about not joining a rebellion that promises to empower the commoners!” It was Torsten, Michael’s father and head of the city.

“The group of scouts were already done with the soldiers you sent to pursue them in the first, they cut their throats while they were asleep, none of them even managed to pull their weapons.” The voice was hoarse and void of any empathy.

“My soldiers were not the issue here! You maggots failed to catch them after we delivered them to you on a silver plate! Barely twelve men and women proved too much for you to handle, who would have known that we got shits for brains with all the money we are throwing your way.” Another voice, this time a finer one, Cara meant she had heard it somewhere before.

“Enough! Both of you!

Richard, are your men still near the pass?”

Torsten asked, a chair scraped over the wooden floor and footsteps came towards the door, Cara quickly fell back, her steps only a whisper over the marble tiles that covered the floor. Michael would be in the court waiting for her before starting, it had become a small ritual that she would hand him his sword before a match… she hoped the small wait did nothing to disrupt it.

When she reached the court she was slightly out of breath, not too much or he could think she was desperate or too little that she could be assumed not to care enough, just enough to send a flush to her cheeks and a little sweat onto her brow. Michael acted like he was still putting on his gauntlets when she arrived, the two were tightly bound and he was ready to go but did not want her to feel like she had kept him waiting.

Without further ado she walked up to the rack where his sword hung and lifted it off, slightly grimacing as she handed it to him a grim smile on her face, girls were not supposed to be strong.

Michael smiled his most heart warming smile as she handed him the blade, his teacher behind him launching forward his blade raised over his head, arcing downwards in an attempt to strike the boys head.

Angela was about to say something when Michael spun around his sword beating back the blow of his teacher, stepping forward his sword scrapped along the side of his teachers aiming at the man’s face.

Dodging backwards the older man was thrown out of balance and Michael pursued with a cascade of stabs and strikes against the man’s center mass two of the hits actually went past the defense and had the man grunt in pain.

When he finally got his balance back the teacher countered an especially furious attack, closed the distance between them connecting a knee with Michael’s unprotected stomach, sending him backwards.

Cara watched the scene, a kick like that would have thrown most grown men to the floor yet Michael had barely changed his stance… the whirlwind of swords before had been an impressive display of skill on both sides… There would be no way he would go down as easily as Warren had done, she would need to be extra careful from now on, there was no backup plan.