The beast came at him with tremendous speed, its red eyes glowing with terrifying menace. He drove the banner into the ground channeling huge amounts of mana into it to activate its barriers. A halo of multicolored light spun out of the banner, revolving faster and faster. Dozens of shimmers appeared around him, the shields springing up in layered scales.

The beast slammed against the outermost shield with a ferocious bang, causing the earth to shake and the shields to cave in towards him. Five shields cracked before the beast was thrown back. Landing with a dull thump, it let out a massive roar and started stalking around the perimeter of his shield.

Hands shaking, he pulled out his tools and knelt in a rush drawing dozens of glyphs trying to create a formation as quick as possible.

Dozens of Glyph Stones were placed around him and uncountable precious materials were scattered to catalyze the formation. He wasn’t going to hold back any of his reserves when faced with this level of danger.

The beast charged again, smashing another half a dozen shields, causing him to mess up his scribing. Hurriedly scraping the mistake out and replacing it with the correct glyphs he placed his hand on the activation keystone and started channeling mana into it.

The beast kept charging, each strike now shattering dozens of shields.

As the last shield collapsed the beast fell to the ground and the formation he’d created lit up. He breathed a sigh of relief as the air around him started to ripple with power.

The beast shook its head, dazed and struggled to stand.

Seeing him fading out of existence the beast growled in anger.

The beast’s energy suddenly spiked and the feeling of danger skyrocketed.

It charged forwards and he stared in shock as his formation melted wherever it passed. It moved so quickly that he was struck in the stomach and flew into a tree without being able to react.

The beast didn’t let up and rushed up, driving him against the tree.

He couldn’t breathe. Looking down the beasts face slowly morphed into his mothers.

“Purple…. Purple ….” It hissed as it continuously hit him.

Orchids eyes shot open and he struggled to breathe. Glaring at the sight of his sister jumping on his stomach he tried to move while she continued to hop and chant.

“Purple, get up! Purple, get up!”

“Stop, brat, are you trying to kill me?” He wheezed.

Dragging her off him, he rolled out of bed and fell onto the floor.

“Purple, get up!” Sun shouted in his ear. “Shiny man came for you.”

Growling menacingly, he reached a clawed hand towards her, but somehow anticipating it Sun shrieked and dashed out of his room.

Staggering downstairs he met Tynian standing in the entry way.

“What brings you here Tynian?” He asked irritably.

“Master Derek asked me to tell you that he won’t be able to go to the castle and collect the practice formation. He asks that you bring it for today’s rehearsal.” He handed over a document that gave Orchid permission to withdraw the required materials.

“Did something happen?” Orchid frowned.

“Lady Katerina fell ill, and he felt that he should stay by her side until it’s time for the rehearsal.”

“Is it serious?” Orchid was concerned.

“Just a light fainting spell and general unwell feeling I was told. The lady bid me to hand you this message.”

Unrolling the scrap of paper that was handed to him he saw Kats normally elegant handwriting had turned into a barely legible scrawl.

‘I thought it was tea’ was all that was written on the paper. Searching both sides of the paper for anything else, he felt stumped by the words she had written.

Is this a code?

Was she poisoned?

If it was poison The Professor would have said something else. Just what happened after we left?

Seeing his concerned look, Tynian consoled him.

“It’s not that bad. Master Derek himself was making soup for her recovery. I’m truly impressed by the young master. Willing to put in so much effort for his fiancée, he definitely understands what’s important in life.”

Orchid shuddered.

I’ll pray for you Kat.

“Alright Tynian. I’ll get ready and go to the castle.”

“I’ll wait for you little Purple.”

“You’re coming with me?” Orchid asked in surprise.

“Master Derek said that even though the practice ground is within the castle compound, the formation spikes are valuable enough that some people would feel tempted to attack a child for them.”

The Professors right, no one will ever say I’m imposing enough to drive away my enemies.

“I’ll get some things and we can go. There are some fruits in the chill box. Help yourself, and get me some apples.”

Walking back to his room he heard Tynian call out.

“Try something other than apples, Little Purple.”

* * * * * * *

Walking towards the castle while eating his apple, Orchid was happily chatting with Tynian about his duties in the Guard. It seemed that he’d been transferred to the chancellor’s residence along with Hans as a promotion. They were both happy as they had been assigned as guards of the compound itself and wouldn’t have to spend hours standing in front of the gate.

Tynian wasn’t a very talkative person, but had a weak spot for gossip. The juicier the better as far as he was concerned. It was the reason he had become so popular among the serving staff of the various important people around the castle. All the butlers and maids would stop to chat with him as they were passing through the Castle gate and he’d pick up some of the most unique information in the city. Scandals among the nobility, prices at some of the largest businesses, the size of the queen’s clothes, there was little that he was not aware of.

Strangely, it was due to this that Orchid and Tynian had develop their friendship despite their age difference. Orchid wasn’t the type to gossip about people since he preferred physical pranks but after a particularly nasty argument with his mother he complained about her to the newly minted Guard Tynian. Small incidents and stories about her time at home and behavior in front of her family was treated like the most precious of crystals among the Guardsmen who feared their Captain.

He was sure his mother knew where the stories were coming from, but the morale boost among the Guard when they considered her as a human rather than a walking automaton of destruction was surely a greater benefit then a little loss of dignity.

In return Tynian shared much of the gossip he received and Orchid incidentally ended up with one of the best information networks in the city. He may not know much about the big deals, or foreign affairs, but with Tynians help he had a good grasp on the politics of the nobles and Guilds who lived and worked in the capital.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have much to gossip about today so after a while they just quietly walked into the castle stores.

Collecting all the required material from a beady-eyed quartermaster they split it between them and headed for the practice grounds.

Walking out of the stores a thundering voice called out to Orchid.

“Stop! Flowerboy!”

Sighing Orchid turned to face a furious Deirdre limping towards him.

She moves like lightning when she wants to. The limp has got to be a means to put people off guard.

“Lady Deirdre! So nice to see you on such a pleasant Veilday.” Orchid faked a cheerful smile while watching the old woman warily.

To his side Tynian slunk away, distancing himself as quickly as possible.

Traitor!

“Boy. Today I will deal with you thoroughly. No amount of Jiggydoggery will get you out of this.” Deirdre snarled as she reached him.

I will try something other than Jiggydoggery then. Especially since I have no idea what you mean.

“My dear lady, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Have I offended you?”

“Don’t play with me boy! It took hours for that foul powder to come out of my hair.”

Definitely put too much of it into the Mark Three’s.

“That was only a minor prank Lady Deirdre. Surely you would not hold such a thing against a child like me. Would you?” Blinking innocently Orchid raised his voice to attract the attention of the nearby people. “A master mage like you has such capability that my prank did not work as planned. It was my mistake of course, but I wouldn’t be the only one to underestimate the skills of one such as you.”

Talking like this is a stretch.

Curious onlookers in the crowd nodded after hearing his words.

Snorting, Deirdre slammed her walking stick on the ground.

How often does she do that? That stick will snap someday.

“I don’t care boy. You need some smacking. Ill happily provide it for you, free of charge.”

Doesn’t look like I’ll be able to talk my way out of this one. Better to use my next plan now then.

Putting down the formation materials Orchid reached into his pocket and froze, his eyes glued to the sudden appearance of Deirdre’s walking stick pointed straight at his throat. Mana thrummed through the staff humming and giving off a palpable threat.

“What tricks do you have today boy?” She whispered.

One hand slowly removing an item from his pocket, he placed the other on the stick and gulped.

“No tricks this time Lady, just a trade.” He replied weakly, his smile taking on a sickly cast.

Holding a small piece of glass out on his palm he presented his proposal.

“Here’s the deal Lady.” All pretense of innocence fell off him. “I’ll give you this device, and in return you let me off for the exploding powder.”

“What makes this piece of glass so valuable boy? It seems new so it’s not a relic.”

“I’ve heard from Ilse that you complain a lot about not being able to find internal bleeding easily. It takes you lots of Spells and time to analyze an injury enough to determine that there is bleeding at all, and then its guess work until you find it. That’s what this little glass is for, if you channel mana into it and look through it. Any place where there is excessive blood should light up. It won’t give you an exact location, but will definitely save time.” Orchid was confident in this little gadget of his. The use was minimal but to people like Deirdre saving time was the best present they could receive.

He watched as Deirdre struggled internally, the desire to hit him against the interest in this device was clear.

“If it works, then we have a deal.” She said while clenching her teeth. “Don’t expect this to work again though.”

“Of course not, Lady.”

Got you. Knew this would work.

I can’t do it again anyway, I’m out of new devices. I’ll have to come up with something before I enter the academy.

Adults are always smart. To avoid punishment, bribe someone.

“Oh, and you have to tell me what Jiggydoggery is.” Feeling relief at getting away from punishment he relaxed.

“Agreed boy, but I will test it now.”

“That’s fine, should we head into the hosp….” Doubling over in pain he looked in shock at Deirdre calmly retracting the walking stick from her strike. Coughing up blood, he fell to the floor, wracked in pain.

Observing him through the glass device, she nodded and chanted a healing Spell, mending whatever damage she had just caused.

“It works as you claimed boy. All our problems are resolved with this little toy of yours. As for Jiggydoggery, it’s a word that means using slick words to avoid problems.”

Pleased with herself she started singing under her breath as she walked away from his crumpled figure, the crowd parting in front of her as horrified people backed away as fast as they could.

Just because she can heal an injury doesn’t mean she should cause them.

This is why you’re a Witch. Hag!

Cursing in his mind, he stood up and headed to the practice ground on shaky legs, resolved to get back at Deirdre for injuring him.

I’ll put 10 times the amount of powder on her next time!

Why does everyone get so satisfied from hitting me anyway?