There were many types of mouse cities, of varying sizes. The fortress surrounding the palace was, in truth, a rather unusual one. Some were large, most were small, but for all of their differences, the one thing all that mouse settlements prioritized (at least those which managed to survive for any length of time at all) was defense. Metal walls are large and cumbersome, so instead most relied on concealment, simply hoping to avoid the gaze of any would-be attackers. These settlements, usually small villages, could function well aside from one fatal weakness: they only needed to be discovered once.

Three months ago, Jerin and her family lived in such a village, not quite within the forest, but similarly not far from the concrete towers of the world of the Makers, either. Within the small gully, the grass grew tall, making it appear from overhead to just be another flat plain. Within, several families lived simple yet content lives, with an adequate yet hardly abundant supply of food and water nearby. Places like this, particularly those out of the way of humans, tended to be lower on the technological scale. They had very little in the way of constructed homes, instead relying on underground burrows, and even less in the way of scavenged tools, clothing or weapons. While on occasion they would stumble upon something useful, as even outside the human cities, there was hardly anywhere on earth where trash couldn't be found, scavenging wasn't a way of life like it was within the larger mouse communities. Beyond crudely whittled tools, virtually all material goods came from the occasional traveling merchants.

On this day, Jerin, a considerably tinier version of the already diminutive mouse, was playing alone outside near the town boundary. She hadn't developed much of a sense of curiosity at this point, rarely wondering what lie beyond the village. She especially didn't consider such things now, with her attention focused on her Champions of Xinthor action figures (these first version ones were little more than a collection of sticks bound together into a loosely mouse-like shape, relying heavily on the imagination. Despite the objectively low quality, they are considered valuable collectors items these days). The young mouse was gifted with both a long attention span, a trait which would fade as she aged, and being very easily entertained, a trait which would not. When she found something that had interested her, it could hold her focus for hours and hours. Her brother, not much tinier than he is now, on the other hand, was quite the opposite, always seeking new adventures and challenges, pushing boundaries and looking for new battles (mostly but not entirely metaphorical ones) to be fought.

While his parents actively encouraged such explorations, some of the neighbors worried that his wanderings might draw unwanted attention, dangerous creatures potentially following him home, and bringing doom upon them all. Their concern wasn't an invalid one, but in the end, they were only half-right. The doom which befell them wasn't brought upon by Aaron's sense of adventure, it came all on its own.

Little Jerin was the first to notice that something was amiss. The wind had suddenly shifted, pulling the tall grass towards the village entrance. Then there was the shadow. It was still mid-day, and while the grass offered regular shading, the sun was strong. In the distance, however, it was like a small ball of night, hazy along the edges, hovered in mid-air where there should have been light. Even stranger, it was moving. It took a lot to pull Jerin's interest from her toys, and the epic battles which they fought, but the strange anomaly succeeded in that task. While she may have been the first to see this strange disturbance, she wasn't the only one. Farmers in nearby fields (which didn't really grow crops, mostly just digging around for seeds and the like) saw it as well, and reacted like they do to most things: with fear. Even as they dropped their crude tools and fled to their underground homes, Jerin remained in place. She wasn't being brave, she simply hadn't considered that she should be afraid, so there was no fear to be overcome. She simply found herself transfixed by the strange phenomenon which drew steadily closer.

Aaron, meanwhile, was quite happy. He'd just returned from fiend slaying, bottle-cap shield at his wrist, and a long brown glass blade across his back. He pulled the body of the long, green, six-legged beast behind him, thinking he could scavenge the carapace to make some sort of armor. It was a good hunt, and a hard-fought battle (and just in case one happened to feel bad for the slain creature, there's no need to. It was quite unfriendly), and he was eager to return home to show everyone his prize. These were the sorts of monsters which adventurers typically fought, as they were among the few creatures that a mouse could reasonably defeat. These were traditionally called fiends by the people, and while they were still considerably smaller than mice, they weren't completely without danger, some varieties being significantly more threatening than others. Even as he neared his home, however, he could feel that something was wrong. The was cold and still, and an unnatural shadow blanketed the entire town, deepening as he looked further in. Everything was far too quiet. The mouse had a sinking feeling in his stomach, an overwhelming sense of dread, and as one who fancied themselves immortal, this was not a sensation which he was in any way used to. Going home would have been the obvious thing to do, but he knew that not only was something terribly wrong, but also that the source of it was just ahead. Unlike Jerin, he was what you would consider brave, because unlike her, he was deathly afraid.

Jerin still wasn't afraid as she sat face-to-face with the creature. She wasn't fascinated or curious, either, instead simply numb, unable to even blink. Until it had gotten close it was unrecognizable as a living being, and even now, it was still questionable. Black winds swirled around the massive, four-legged form, which blurred and distorted whenever one tried to focus on any specific detail of its body. Jerin had never seen a creature so large, not even close. it towered over her, filling her entire field of vision with murky blackness. A colossal paw came down right in front of her, and the grass around it immediately browned, blackened and crumbled away to dust.

"Jerin!" Her brother cried out as he ran towards her. That was when the creature shifted its focus, turning it's distorted rounded head with pointy ears towards the charging sibling and opened its eyes. Until now, everything in the vicinity was black and grey. Now, it was bright green, each eye a miniature sun, bathing everything before it in a hideous glow, at the center of each a deep black pit which stared into the young adventurers soul. He felt a massive weight on his shoulders, the green gaze pushing against his body like flowing water, and although he kept moving, it took excessive effort, and felt incredibly slow. His sister didn't look to him, hypnotized by the green light, her toys laying forgotten at her side.

It was only when she first saw the fangs, glowing a bright green from the light, whereas the rest of the beast remained tinted a muddy moss color, that she really felt anything. She tried to scream, eyes wide, but no sound came out. There were so many teeth, each looking as large as her whole body, and the creature was smiling, but the sort of smile that even Jerin, as young and unworldly as she was, recognized as a less than benevolent one. It raised a single black paw, and from it, claws, which similarly absorbed the green glow, extended, coming down towards her.

As much as Aaron tried to hurry, he seemed to move in slow motion with no hope of reaching in time. His sister, formerly frozen in place, thankfully came to her senses and was able to dive to her right side. An intense gust of wind and thrown earth engulfed the older sibling, blinding him, but he continued trying to force his way through it, nearly tripping over the deep trenches cut into the ground, one for each claw, which had torn across the entire village.

Jerin had dodged impressively, all things considered, but it wasn't quite enough. As the dust settled, her brother could see the small mouse lying in a crumpled heap. The dark lord raised its paw, examining the severed tail impaled on a single claw, giving it a quick lick with its tongue.

As horrified as the male mouse was, he didn't stop running. He gritted his teeth, drew his blade and charged, the massive weight upon him either entirely dissipated, or simply ignored through sheer force of will. "Get away from her!" he shouted, the monster's head now lowered to the prone girl, taking up the entirety of his vision. Aaron leapt towards it, blade raised, and swung it downwards with all his might, right between the two terrible green suns. That was when he stopped.

It wasn't his intention to do so, of course. He had no idea if a creature such as this would even be cut with a sword, but had no time to consider such matters. It was like the weight on him had returned, amplified a hundred fold, but rather than simply pushing down, it squeezed in from all directions. He found himself held in mid air, sword still raised, quivering in his hand, but it might as well have been encased in concrete for how little he could move it, much less any other part of his body. Within the nearly blinding green glow of the eyes before him, his own reflection was visible within the slitted blacks pupils, but it wasn't the face that he knew. The face looking back at him was dead, twisted in frozen horror. Below the monsters eyes he could make out a grey nose, which gave a snort, upon its breath the scent of decay, and below that, those terrible fangs, mouth opened wide, revealing a swirling black void of throat.

It felt as though he was frozen like this forever, unable to even breathe or look away. but in reality it had only been a few seconds. He would later feel guilt over not worrying about his sister during these moments, but the nightmare before him had consumed all of his thoughts. Without warning, he was then thrown down next to his sister. It wasn't a paw or anything else that had struck him, the creature barely moved at all, aside from to close its mouth and smirk. It was as though the weight around him stopped pressing, but only at one side, and flung him hard down into the earth. He cried out as there was an audible crack. He wasn't certain if it was his sword or the bones of his shoulder. As it turned out, it was both.

He turned to his sister, relieved to see that she was still breathing. She was clearly not well, however, her small body shivering, eyes wide and glassy, staring in horror, seeing nothing. He wanted nothing more than to stand up, grab his sister and run, but it was impossible. He couldn't move at all, and knew that even if he could, it wouldn't have mattered. There was no running from a monster like this, nor was there any hope to fight it. Even with the vague belief that he was invincible until today, he knew what death was, and that when it came for you, really came for you, that wasn't any stopping it.

Once a brave warrior, all he could do was huddle down next to his sister, close his eyes, pretend to be dead, and pray that somehow everything would turn out alright. It appeared to work. The monster raised it's head, losing interest in the pair, taking in the sight of the village. Apparently, for whatever reason this displeased the creature. The green glow from the eyes, the glow which had seemed to cover the entire world intensified, growing brighter and brighter until it ignited, bathing everything in green flames. Everything but Jerin and Aaron. Somehow, although the sky burned above them along with the earth to all sides, the flames spread along the ground to either side, bypassing the pair. It flowed like water across the land, down into the many burrows where the faint echoes of screams could be heard, the siblings remained unburnt.

"Then I guess it got bored and left." Present-day Jerin said. Mathias could only stare. "What?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing, it just kind of petered out at the end there." he said. "Wait, so your goal is-"

"That's right." She replied with a nod and a determined expression. "We're going to destroy the dark lord, Midnight."

That wasn't quite the end of the story, in truth, even if in spirit those were the events as they had occurred. Once the screams had died down, the flames fizzled out as quickly as they had appeared, leaving charred blackness all around them. The great beast closed its eyes, bathing everything once more in shadow, turned around and walked away, leaving a paw print of decayed grass wherever it had stepped on an unburnt surface. Aaron didn't dare move for a while, afraid to even look up, but eventually forced himself. He immediately regretted doing so.

The dark lord, which other mice later identified by the name of 'Midnight' was still standing in the distance. Its eyes were again open, but rather than bathing everything in green light, they were focused like lasers on Aaron, staring deep into his own. It smiled, once more, fangs a gleaming white, closing its eyes and mouth, its shape devolving into a ball of blackness which slowly diminished before fading away to nothing. Within moments, sunlight had replaced the unnatural gloom, as though it were never there at all. Aaron later realized that he had never deceived the creature by pretending to be dead. it had known all along that they were still alive, but they simply weren't worth killing. It perhaps even saved them, purely for fun. In the face of such a realization, Aaron still continued to occasionally fight, but all fantasies of being some great and heroic champion had died forever. To him, the very idea that a proper hero, a proper champion could even exist in the face of a world so terrifying had similarly died forever.

The parents of the two had survived, of course, being out to gather water at the time, and they weren't the only ones. The few others who immediately fled the village managed to live, the terrible cataclysm not having too great a range. All of those who had tried to barricade themselves indoors, however, to weather the storm, had died horribly. The surviving citizens later returned to the ruins, only to find both siblings huddled together, badly wounded, but nobody else left alive. The village was abandoned almost immediately after, with nothing left there worth salvaging and no hope of anyone feeling safe there ever again.

"Wow." Mathias said, figuring the mission would be more like a fetch-quest, maybe finding an old relic or something. Aaron looked rather pleased with himself, but his expression turned to a frown with the thiefs next words. "Okay, I'm still coming with you."

"What? Seriously? After hearing all that, you still want to fight? Did I tell the story right?" Aaron asked, flabbergasted.

"You did make one little mistake." Jerin said. "There wasn't fire, it was some kind of green smoke which turned everyone to stone."

Aaron was about to correct her, but decided against it. She must have seen one of the corpses in the burrows which resembled a statue of black ash, and gotten confused. Unfortunate, as if were it up to him, she never would have had to witness such a grisly sight. There was definitely fire, however, he was certain of that. Still, he simply nodded not seeing the matter as worth arguing about.

"It does sound a little more dangerous than I was expecting, but hey, if Jerin thinks we can win, I believe her." Mathias said. He truly did, too, even if he couldn't quite articulate why. It wasn't simply that he found her pretty, as there were plenty of pretty mouse girls out there, after all, but there was something different about her, even from that very first glance. A charisma, maybe? It may seem strange, as one usually associates such things with wit or charm, and while even with their minimal conversation, he may have already liked her, she didn't exactly have a silver tongue. Her words alone were nowhere close to enough to inspire anyone to fight and potentially die at her side. It was something more fundamental. Much like the opposite of the thiefs mask, designed to draw the eyes away, instead, it drew his eyes to her. Much like how he seemed to be able to become the center of attention largely at will, only far stronger. Even when others congregated around him, he knew full well that they didn't truly respect him, he was simply a sort of beacon. Useful, but not inspiring. Mathias briefly wondered if she had that same sort of power over others, but dismissed the notion immediately. He felt genuinely inspired, a rare and pleasant sensation for him, downright addictive and one that he would have chased after even had it not been connected to the adorable mouse girl. Still, he wondered if there was just something about her that resonated specifically with him, or if it would affect anyone. A part of him hoped that it was the first, which he found strange, as he never considered himself to be the jealous type.

"Why? Why would you believe her? Even if she was the mightiest mouse, who ever lived, which she's not, even if she was some highly experienced veteran, which she isn't, even if she was incredibly skilled with her sword, which she's not even close to, we're not talking about some fiend, here, we're talking about a dark lord. That is not the sort of creature that can simply be fought and killed!" Aaron nearly shouted, the words quickly tumbling from his mouth. He had honestly expected the story to scare the thief away, as it would anyone with even the slightest measure of sense.

"You don't know that!" She exclaimed. "And even if that was true, I have this!" she patted the handle of the sword with her paw. "A holy sword that can pierce through the blackness! No matter how dark and terrifying it may be, light shines brightest in the deepest darkness. I know that this sword can destroy it!"

Obviously, Aaron wasn't so sure. While the blade was unquestionably impressive, far beyond what any mouse blacksmith could hope to create in an entire lifetime, he had little faith in it holding any sort of magical properties. It was the sort of thing certainly better to have than to lack, and would give a strong, perhaps insurmountable advantage against other mice if wielded by someone properly skilled (and he had to admit that while Jerin was still very inexperienced, during that brief training bout, she had improved rapidly, and showed real promise), but that didn't mean it was unstoppable. You can't split the earth in two with a swing of a blade, no matter how mighty that blade might be, and while obviously Midnight wasn't as strong as the earth, so far as Aaron was concerned, the creature might as well have been.

"Oh yeah, I was going to ask about that." Mathias said, looking down at the shimmering blade. "What is that?"

"I found it in a Maker's shrine. This isn't just some piece of plastic or metal either, which was sharpened to use as a tool. It's clearly a weapon, and it was clearly made for us mice!"

Aaron couldn't deny that. The fact that the eye of the needle fit so neatly into the hand of a mouse felt like an impossible coincidence. Of course, unlikely coincidences often feel impossible or destined to those who experience them. It's simply easier than accepting that the world is largely random and occasionally works in your favor, and often against, regardless of your best efforts.

Mathias smiled. He was willing to go along even if her plan was to punch the dark lord to death, or simply talk it into suicide. No matter how unlikely those options were, he somehow felt like she could make them, make anything happen. A magical sword, however? As far as he was concerned, that boosted the odds which were already stacked in their favor to a virtually guaranteed victory, having considerably more faith in magic and mysticism than Aaron did. It also felt reassuring to have an extra variable working in their favor. It would have been upsetting to feel that his faith had been a product of pure infatuation or delusion. That knowledge ultimately wouldn't have changed anything, of course, but would have still been upsetting, nonetheless.

"Sounds like destiny." he said, smiling happily. He had always wanted to be a part of some greater destiny. Who would have thought he would just stumble into it? He supposed that was how destiny was meant to work, though.

"Do you even know how to fight?" Aaron asked. "I'm not sure that sword of my sister's will do anything against one of the dark lords, but I'm positive back-flipping will help even less."

"You'd be surprised!' Mathias responded with a continuing smile. "And of course I know how to fight! I'll have you know, I'm a highly skilled archer."

"See! A non-melee fighter! I told you letting him join was a good idea!" Jerin said cheerfully, giving Aaron a punch to the arm. "Still, wish we had one more, though. Oh well, maybe we'll find someone later."

It should be stated that the title of 'dark lord' wasn't quite as unique or impressive as it may initially sound. It was something of a catch-all term mice use to describe practically any creature that's really big and scary. The term was most commonly associated with felines and canines, the creatures which often lived alongside humans, but not exclusively. Some of the dark lords flew, but most walked on four legs, with some of them being more aggressive or fearsome than others. Some similarly has known names, others were rarely seen much less recognized, but so far as mice were concerned, every one of them was virtually indestructible and exceedingly dangerous. The notable exception to this are the Makers, the ones who walked on two legs. Those creatures held a special place in mouse society, with even a loose worship based around them, the closest thing that the city had to a large-scale organized religion (the cult of the Starman, along with several others were small, fringe organizations which, thus far, had failed to gain much traction).

The Makers were considered incomprehensible beings. The mice didn't believe that they created the universe or anything so grandiose, but did recognize that they built virtually everything around them, seemingly with ease. While somewhat feared, they weren't considered embodiments of death like the lords of darkness, which would pretty much always try to kill a mouse on sight, instead largely ignoring them. Mice had little idea how the Makers lived their lives, or why they did what they did. They just knew that they were impressed by them and tried to emulate them as effectively as they could, and that wherever those wandering towers went, they tended to leave a treasure trove of useful food and materials in their wake. Most mice were satisfied looking through refuse, being all the more impressed that such valuable things were considered worthless and expendable by these creatures, but others were far more ambitious, seeking out their shrines. These were known to be very dangerous places, and while a mouse might be largely ignored outdoors, within these sacred temples, Makers were far less tolerant of their presence. Some considered the places to be downright cursed. Despite the dangers, however, there have always been those who dared explore such realms, to plunder the riches within. It tended to go quite well, until it didn't. Many mice had become fabulously wealthy from their excursions, only to try one more, never to return. This was largely why Jerin didn't take the other weapons or scavenge for any other valuables. It was considered bad luck to defile such places, and while some could make the argument that even taking the one sword counted as defiling, most believed that it was excessive greed that got you punished.

Suffice to say, the Makers were both loved and feared, considered both holy and cursed, their lives both admirable and worthy of imitation, yet baffling and incoherent. Seeing a Maker was considered to be good luck. Being seen by one bad luck. With those strange creatures representing so many often contradicting qualities, it was little wonder that the mice looked to them with such awe.

"Okay, so the plan is go kill this big evil monster. Got it! What's the first step?" Mathias asked.

"Well, we've got to find it first, I guess." Jerin said.

Both Mathias and Aaron stopped in their tracks.

"Wait, you don't know where it lives?" Aaron asked.

"Of course not. Why would I?" she replied. A valid question. The dens of dark lords were largely unknown by the populace, and there was little reason to believe that she had access to such privileged information.

"How do you plan on finding it, then?" Aaron asked, a little embarrassed that he hadn't even considered this issue before, or thought to ask.

"Look, it's a giant darkness monster, which we know lives near the ruins of the old village. How hard could it be to find?"

Very hard, of course. While Jerin did do some general tunnel exploring, most of her life took place within the walls of this city, and she had little grasp of just how big the outside was. Aaron, on the other hand, regularly went on long and dangerous trips in his youth. A part of him regretted that he wasn't able to take his sister along to see some of the magnificent vistas he'd explored. A larger part of him, however, was simply angry at himself for being so stupid back then. It was a miracle he had never been spotted by something far stronger than he could handle.

Exploring the wilderness was extremely dangerous, especially near the Maker's shrines. They tended to cut down trees and pave over grass, which while impressive in its own right, did take away the primary weapon mice have at their disposal: stealth. The roads were particularly dangerous, not because of the massive fast moving vehicles (which were terrifying and downright deadly if one were unlucky), but because it represented a wide open plain with nowhere to hide. There were many different dark lords about, and mercifully, most of them were simply lazy and overfed, lounging about. Even these tended to be quick to chase and kill whenever they spotted a small creature scurrying about, however.

There were still large patches of grass about, and assorted pipes and other objects that one could use to hide in, but this still resulted in a pretty finite area one could safely explore without severely endangering ones self, and even these places offered less than perfect concealment and safety.

"You've seen how big Midnight is." Aaron said, resisting the urge to get angry. She didn't know better, and who knows? Maybe understanding just how absurd the goal was would help to discourage her. Probably not, but it certainly couldn't hurt. "One of their steps is bigger than twenty of ours, and they wander a lot. That creature could live virtually anywhere. It could be days of travel away, even if we knew exactly where to go. Unless it lives very close to the city or the old village, and it probably doesn't-" this was a safe guess since the village had been there for quite a long while before being destroyed by the dark lord, "-we could wander forever and still never find it, and while we're looking, we'll just attract the attention of more of those monsters."

Jerin looked to him, deep in thought, and, for once, actually appeared to be a bit concerned. Distance alone wasn't an issue, as that's what journeys were all about. If anything, distance improved a quest, adding more exciting places to see and adventures to be had along the way. The fact that they could potentially find themselves walking in the completely wrong direction and never find themselves any closer to their goal, however, wasn't a trivial problem.

"There has to be some way to find it!" she said, as her anxiety began to get the better of her.

"I don't see how. Unless you happen to know any experts on dark lords who live in town." Aaron responded. Jerin was far from a rare exception among the populace. Most of the citizens had little experience beyond the walls, many never having left the city at all. Even those who regularly did take treks outside to scavenge usually followed set paths, rarely deviating from them, with their understanding of the outlying wilderness being extremely limited. Even these well short, familiar paths were known to not be without their dangers. Even among those who prided themselves as adventurers, few ventured too far away. At least not those who managed to survive for any length of time. The knowledge of specific dark lords was even less common, with the two siblings basically being experts compared to most, having encountered one face to face, and surviving to tell the tale.

"I might be able to help there." Mathias interjected. The two turned to him, surprised.

"Really? So you're an expert on stealing, back-flips and dark lords?" Aaron asked, his voice filled with skepticism.

"I never claimed to be an expert on back-flips, I'm just really, really good at them!" Mathias said. "And no, I'm afraid I don't know much about dark lords, Midnight in particular. I might know someone who does, however."

"Another thief?" Aaron asked, still looking no less skeptical.

"No, it's my great-grandfather. He lives at the university."

"Ooh, is he a wizard?" Jerin asked, clearly excited by the prospect, her earlier concern completely melting away.

"He's not a wizard." Aaron said, dismissively.

"Yes, he's a wizard." Mathias said. "I can't be sure he'll know exactly where this 'Midnight' creature is, but if anyone does, it will be him."

"Wait a minute," Aaron asked after doing a bit of mental math in his head, "Great-grandfather? Just how old is he?"

"I don't know. Very old, though. he might be the oldest living citizen."

"You know, we really could use a wizard in our group..." Jerin said.

"We're not dragging some strange old man along with us on this suicide mission!" Aaron said, angrily.

"I really wish you'd stop calling it that." Jerin huffed back, looking to him with annoyance.

Jerin, like most young people, was fascinated by the idea of magic. Aaron, like most adults, was less than impressed with it. For one thing, he was incredibly skeptical that it even existed. Whenever there was some calamity or situation where conjuring could potentially prove helpful, they were conveniently either never around or had some excuse about lacking the proper materials or the phases of the moon not being quite right. Even beyond that, they were very strange people.

The university itself, where magic and other more advanced trades were studied, was a bizarre place. Education was respectable and important, and one could learn many useful skills on the upper levels. The deeper it went the more difficult and complex the studies became, and difficult wasn't always the same as useful, often quite the opposite, in fact. At a certain point you could learn rare, difficult to master and excessively useful talents, like the forging of blades and creating potent medicines, but beyond that, things took a turn for the impractical. Metaphysics, complex mathematics (some going so far as to create a completely new number system, base twelve, with newly created numbers called eight and nine put before ten), alchemy, and, of course, mysticism. The deeper you went into that tower, the more baffling, over-complicated and generally useless things became.

People liked the university, though, and were glad that it was there. Not only did it serve as a place to improve ones self, it also functioned as a sort of sanitarium, with the extremely elderly, infirm and insane often shuffled down to the lower levels where they had enough books and equations to keep themselves occupied for a lifetime. They were free to leave, of course, but in general, that never happened. Once you started the descent, you almost never went back up, as you quickly found yourself lost in the less tangible arts, and no longer able to relate to the issues and people of the outside world. This gave those considered lunatics a safe haven to bury themselves in literature, and made it so the everyday populace wouldn't need to deal with them ranting on street corners about how a valid numerical system should be based on the number of toes a mouse has, rather than fingers. Basically, a win for everyone.

Jerin would have normally been disappointed at the fact that they were being sidetracked, as she has had little to no opportunity to do any proper adventuring thus far. Still, she always wanted to meet a wizard. Plus, they really could use one. With two fighters, an archer and sorcery backup? They'd be unstoppable!

"I'm not sure how much help he'll be. In truth, I haven't visited him in quite a while. I'm sure I would have heard if he'd passed, however." Mathias paused. "Well, I'm pretty sure. He knows a lot about, well pretty much everything, though. Especially the dark lords."

"Plus, he can throw fireballs and shoot lightning and stuff!" Jerin said excitedly. Aaron narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't bother to speak up. She would have plenty of time to be disappointed later, an principle that he applied to far more than just magic, to the extent that it was nearly a personal motto. While he didn't like the idea of going to the university, he similarly couldn't complain about being sidetracked. Anything that delayed the upcoming battle was a bonus in his book.