Eulisses and Captain Blythe stood at opposite ends of the sparring field, staring at each other. Blythe held a confident grin, but his eyes were serious. He wouldn’t underestimate his opponent for something like pride, only to be met with defeat for it. On the other hand, Eulisses was still trying to settle on his strategy. From what he had seen on the duel earlier, it would be a close call if he tried to open the fight with a high tier spell, hoping on ending it then and there. The captain would surely close the distance even quicker if push came to shove, he didn’t seem in that much of a rush when pitted against Felicity earlier, focusing more on trying to evade her spells. So better not pulling a big one off right away. Don’t think I can pull off the same stunt as with the lone inquisitor a couple of days ago either. I think I’ll play dirty, literally.

Having made up his mind, he nodded towards Captain Blythe to signal he was ready. The captain raised his longsword to salute him, while Eulisses took a stance that looked like an unholy amalgamation of an actual martial arts stance and a kid playing at magic thinking they looked cool. That elicited some chuckles from the audience, save for a few that focused their attention on him, intent on seeing how he was planning to fight the captain. Felicity was among the latter group, as was the opponent himself, who promptly rushed towards Eulisses while taking care to still be able to stop or step aside at a moment's notice should he try to cast a spell in his direction.

Eulisses opted for another strategy, instead instantly gathering arcane energy towards his hands, before slamming them into the ground. Oil black as ink erupted from the impact site, spreading to bewet the earth in several feets direction everywhere around him. As he still stood at the edge of the circle, some of the audience had to retreat in fright, those too slow had their shoes and legwear covered by the greasy substance. Captain Blythe chose to halt his advance right at the edge of the formed oil carpet, having deemed it too risky to try and close in for the strike just then in fear of slipping, a fate some of the unlucky audience were actually met with.

But he would be forced to do something soon, as Eulisses slowly and carefully straightened himself, ensuring that he wouldn’t lose balance. The wizard gathered his energies for the next spell and the captain could feel it would be a big one, one to decide their match. He quickly decided on his next course of action, jumping back from the oil carpet and taking a run-up. Captain Blythe then rushed towards Eulisses again, this time pushing himself off the ground just as he was about to step on the oil, while the wizards raised his hands, palms pointing at him and was about to unleash his spell.

But Blythe was already prepared, having struck out, and threw his longsword straight towards Eulisses. It hit the wizard right in the face, his form rippling strangely in the process, as if someone had thrown a pebble in a lake, disturbing its calm surface. With a comical shriek, he slipped on the spot and botched his spell, receiving the arcane backlash for it. But the captain fared little better. As he connected with the ground again, he slipped as well and slid along, leaving the designated area in the process.

The audience was dead silent, not sure if they should cheer for a victory and to whom it would go to. Eulisses groaned, as he tried to sit up, after failing a couple of time, he frustratingly gathered some energy while lying on his back and slammed his right hand on the ground again, which dispelled his magic, the oil evaporating into thin air in the process, even the one that got stuck on someone's clothes. He then stood up and turned towards Captian Blythe, who did the same - outside of the circle. “Draw?” he asked with a grin. The captain looked a bit disgruntled for a moment, before he began to smile as well and responded with a “Draw.” of his own. They held out and grasped each others arms, signaling the end of their match.

“That was an unexpected move, to throw away your weapon without hesitation. But it worked.” Eulisses had to admit. “Maybe, but on the battlefield, we would both be dead in all likelihood. And in a duel, it would have ended in the draw it did. Had we fought with real weapons, I could have killed you though” the captain paused a second, before laughing. “Normally at least, I doubt it would have worked on you specifically.”

That educed a chuckle from Eulisses in turn. “True enough. Want a rematch? Neither of our strategies are likely to work again a second time. You wouldn’t hesitate to continue on and I would be on the lookout for flying swords.” Heh, flying swords. That reminds me of the one time with the old geezer. After I told him his cultivation method was bollocks and that you wouldn’t be able to ‘empty your mind completely’ without turning into a vegetable, he chased me all the way down from his abode in the mountain, while flying on his sword. It looked really funny with his blade barely wide enough to put his feet on, trying to keep his balance, but he came real close several times, and that with me constantly preparing short range teleport spells in an effort to lose him.

Being lost in his own thoughts, he missed the captain’s response, only being startled awake when Felicity tapped him on his shoulder. He turned towards her in confusion. “What?” She tilted her head while looking at him. “Did you not hear what Captain Blythe had said just now? He said you would be able to hold your own in a fight and that you can show him what you can do if given enough time to prepare unhindered another day. The Royal Guard already ended their sparring for the day”

Eulisses looked around and indeed, they were now alone in the courtyard, he managed to catch a glimpse of the last of the guard members entering the door leading to their quarters in the castle. Wait, they packed and left? I wasn’t out for that long now, was I? He chose to confirm with the princess, to be sure. “That may be a strange question to ask Felicity, but how long was I buried in thoughts just now?” he asked her, resorting to calling her by her first name, now that it was just the two of them again. “A couple of minutes. It looked quite strange, with you just standing there, not reacting to anything. We didn’t know what was wrong and didn’t want to make it worse, so we just left you standing there. What was the matter?”

He pondered a bit whether to tell her, but found no problem with. She would connect the dots sooner or later anyway, if they spent more time together. “You see, part of my … state includes that sensory input isn’t really a thing anymore. If I don’t actively concentrate to do so, I don’t perceive, well, anything, basically, with magic being the one prime exception. You tend to lose your sense of time as well in those situations and I may forget to concentrate on ‘perceiving’ when I’m in deep thought.” He tapped his shoulder in the same spot she did earlier. “You tapping my shoulder ever so slightly disturbed my mortal shroud I cast upon myself and that’s what woke me up.”

Felicity furrowed her brows and gave him a thoughtful frown. “That sounds inconvenient. And potentially dangerous.” He agreed. “Well, when I do it deliberately, I normally put up wards beforehand that warn me when something happens in my vicinity or the allotted time runs out. As for the other times …,” Eulisses looked Felicity in the eyes for a few moments, before he made up his mind and continued, “I would like to depend on you to pull me out of my stupor, if it happens during our journey. Can I trust you with that, Felicity?” He would make sure to have some strong defensive charms placed on his vessel in case he couldn’t but it wouldn’t be wise to mention that. If they are to cooperate successfully in a time to come, a certain amount of trust has to be placed in each other, some of it unconditionally.

Her expression brightened and she nodded enthusiastically. “Of course Eulisses, you can trust me with that!”

Having said his piece, he looked around again and asked: “Do you have something else planned for the rest of the day? I would like to spend some time reading in the library otherwise. The summoning magic seems to have given me an understanding of not only your language but also your script.” Eulisses paused as a thought came to his mind. “Maybe it latches unto your understanding of such things, as you essentially have been the one that called me here. We should test that theory if we have the time. The more we understand about the nature and mechanics of our … connection as summoner and summoned, the better.”

--

For the next couple of days, Eulisses and Felicity spent their time teaching him more about the continent and the four states that make it up, what they know about past convergences and the history of their consequences for the world.

They would spend the afternoons with the Royal Guard and its captain, Elliot Blythe. Eulisses would watch him spar with Felicity, the latter regaining her old form more and more with each day. At the end, she even managed to secure a win or two against Elliot with pure swordsmanship, for which she was commended by both the man and the wizard. From time to time Eulisses would participate in the mock duels as well and he would form a sort of rivalry with Elliot of his own, with their total number of wins and losses balancing out to a tie at the end, frustrating and pleasing them both in equal measure.

Eulisses would spend the evenings at the library, shifting through its tomes and scriptures in search of new insights into magic and his own field of interest, immortality. He would meet the First Royal Mage, Fiona Lockwood ever so often. Despite being in charge of the kingdom’s mages and overseeing the refreshment of their combat exercises - a mandatory part of the magical education - in preparation of a possible draft for the forces against the convergence, she still put aside enough time to engage in her passion of trying to uncover lost arcane knowledge in the kingdom's extensive archives. Which was similar to what Eulisses was doing and she told him one evening that it was her that uncovered the descriptions of summoning an otherworldly hero to face off against a seemingly unstoppable threat.

He would at times forget to stop and read late into the night, but Felicity always came to check up on him and break him out of his own world, as he had asked her to do. It strengthened their bond of trust and when they tried to look into what the hero-summoning had brought with it, they would know instinctively of how to work together. Other than that discovery however, they didn’t uncover anything else.

A week had passed in no time, just as Eulisses had begun to settle in his new daily routine. He didn’t meet with the king a second time and was now sitting on the comfortably cushioned bench inside a royal carriage opposite to Felicity. They left the capital behind them, accompanied by a platoon of 20 royal guards, as they made their way to the port town of Baycall.