When we reach Silvia’s humble one-story home, we go through the front door, toss off our shoes, actually I keep mine together neatly since it’s not my house, and then crash on the three-seated white couch in her salon. She sits on the leftmost cushion and I on the right. We leave the middle seat open between us. We’re close friends, but not close like that.

Silvia leans her head back, stretches her arms and legs out, and exhales a slow and deep yawn to relax. I just kind of sit there. After having spent an inordinate amount of time in makeshift shelters in the wilderness, relaxation to me is having a solid roof over my head. I don’t need to do any of that other stuff. Still, I let Silvia have a moment to do her thing while I stare across the room at a landscape painting on the wall.

Finally, Silvia finishes stretching herself out. “What did the Arch Lord say to you?” she asks.

I tilt my body against the couch’s armrest. “He planned to scold me about my poor performance, but I told him to go ahead and pick you as his successor.”

Her weary body suddenly perks to full alertness. “And what did he say to that?”

“He said that it’s not that simple and that there’s a lot to consider. I think he doesn’t want to subject you to a life of endless responsibilities and he doesn’t want my poor social reputation and lack of administrative experience to screw up the school.”

“Heh,” she half-chuckles, amused. “I wouldn’t mind the responsibilities. Besides, the world could use another Arch Lady since there are only three.”

I open my mouth to tell her that three out of nine isn’t bad for women relative to other power positions, but I’m cut off by the ring of the doorbell. Being lazy, Silvia grumbles audibly at the inconvenience of having to get off the couch to answer the door.

“Is that Heather?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says, lethargically slugging her way to the front door.

Silvia opens it and immediately her younger sister, Sidney, spills in. “Silvia!” Sidney cries in a panic. “Bad news! King Barthalamos has declared war on Ouroboros!”

“What?” I shout, rushing to the door. “What did you say Sidney?”

“Souladonis!” she exclaims surprised yet visibly happy to see me. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”

“Nevermind that Sidney. What did you say about the king?”

She puts her hands together just above the center of her waist and lowers her head. Speaking softly, she explains, “King Barthalamos sent heralds throughout Magali announcing his declaration of war on Ouroboros. There’s going to be a military assembly this evening to give the citizens more details and to present the leaders of the military campaign.”

Her news is an emotional blow to my heart. I physically reel back, whooping my mouth open and shut like a suffocating fish. Then, my shock turns to anger. I pound my fist repeatedly against the nearest wall. Silvia quickly comes and grabs me by the wrist lest I damage her house. “Souladonis, why are you so upset?” she asks. “What does any of this have to do with you?”

I twist to her slinging my arms down. “You don’t understand Silvia. Katherine’s father, Shaman Terranostra, sacrificed his life to save Ouroboros from Âme Kingdom 18 years ago. Now all of a sudden King Barthalamos decides to go back and finish what he started. This news is going to devastate Katherine. Maybe I shouldn’t even tell her.”

“Souladonis,” Sidney calls in her soft-spoken voice. “Maybe we can do something to convince the king to change his mind. The assembly isn’t until 5 this evening.”

I crack my knuckles, fantasizing about the joy of smacking a king. I can just imagine Barthalamos with the mark of five red fingers decorating his ugly bearded face. “You’re right Sidney. A solid slap ought to knock some sense into him. Let’s go.”

“Souladonis Rosengarden!” Silvia hollers, “You are not going to slap the king of Âme Kingdom and cause an international incident!”

“For Katherine I would.”

“Of course you would. That’s why you’re not going alone. Sidney and I will go with you. Also, I’m sure Arch Lord Aerolyso will want to hear about this. I’ll go to his office to tell him what’s happening. You should go and tell Katherine. She’ll want to know too.”

I clench my right fist, still filled with rage. I want to make King Barthalamos pay for forcing me to have to tell Katherine something that’s going to break her heart. Yet that will come later. First I have to find Katherine. Afterwards, I slap the king across his ugly face.

I leave Silvia’s house and head to the dormitory where Katherine lives. I don’t want to go directly to her class and tell her there. That would be insensitive and inappropriate. Instead, I sit on the floor in the hallway outside of her dorm room and wait for her to return.

She comes around 50 minutes later and finds me sitting at her door. “Master Souladonis,” she says cheerfully, “What are you doing here?”

I stand and look at her. My lips are pursed in remorse. Oblivious, she returns my gaze with her beaming brown eyes at their brightest. She also wears a sweet smile on her face that’s just big enough to poke small indentations into her cute dimples. I swallow my heart. I don’t want to say the words that will erase her smile and fill her eyes with tears, but I have to. It’s the right and necessary thing to do. I exhale deeply through my nose. “Katherine. Can I speak to you in private?ˮ

“Sure,” she says, moving past me to unlock the door with her key. She swings it open and beckons for me to enter. She still wears a bright smile on her face even now. Reluctantly, I step through the door.

Katherine’s dorm room is a single, meaning that she doesn’t have a roommate. What she does have is a simple wooden desk with one chair on the left, a queen-size bed in the right corner, a lot of empty space, and a single poster of some male-model-looking singer from Milieu’s famous Opera Troupe. He’s popular with the girls. Katherine’s told me his name a thousand times, but I never remember it. He’s not that good looking to me.

Behind me, Katherine shuts the door and steps into the room. “What did you want to talk about Master?”

I look Katherine in the eyes, but quickly decide that that’s the wrong thing to do. I’m not going to be able to say what I need to say while looking at her. Instead, I turn my eyes to the floor and do my best to man up. “Katherine, I’ve got some bad news for you. I just found out that King Barthalamos has declared war on Ouroboros. He’s going back to clear the ledger of the defeat that your father handed him. I think things are going to get ugly for your father’s tribe. I thought I should be the one to tell you. I’m sorry.”

“Oh no,” Katherine moans, falling to her knees. “I don’t understand. Why would he want to start a war again after all this time?”

I fold my arms, shaking my head for lack of a substantial answer. “I don’t know Katherine. But my guess is that he’s feeling the pressure of time catching up to him and he’s worried about his legacy. Barthalamos has only lost a battle once, and that one time was at the hands of a pacifist. That’s got to eat at him on the inside.”

Katherine looks up at me. There’s both desperation and tears in her eyes. I clench my fists tight. King Barthalamos is going to pay for this.

Distraught, Katherine tries to plead with reason, “But he can’t just start a war for no reason, can he? How can he justify that?”

I turn my head to the side slightly. “Well Katherine, from what I understand of politics, he will have to provide his people with some sort of bull crap reason to explain why their sons and fathers are shipping off to war, but my guess is that he’s already thought that through. Make no mistake, however, this war is about a man with an inflated ego seeking petty vengeance against a people whose only crime was defending themselves from him in the first place. Barthalamos became king by usurping the throne. He’s not the kind of man who’s concerned with justice or morality. He only cares about what he wants, and that’s why we have to stop him.”

Katherine stands to her feet with fire in her eyes. “What do you have planned Master?”

I open my mouth and point my index finger into the air as if I had a brilliant idea, but I don’t. I lower my finger and point it to her instead. I’ve got nothing.

“Actually Katherine, I have no idea what we should do. But, there’s a military assembly at 5 in Magali. I figure the first thing to do is to attend to get a better sense of the situation. We can figure out our next move from there.”

“Alright,” she agrees. “Thank you for telling me about this Master.” She summons one of her magical inventory bags and withdraws the wand of Shaman Terranostra. It’s her primary weapon. Seeing it in her hand makes me suspect that she’s up to shenanigans.

I warn her, “When we get to the assembly, don’t do anything stupid.”

“No more stupid than you.”

“Right,” I say with a shrug, “That’s what I meant.”

She smiles and steps to me for a hug. She wraps her arms around my shoulders and I wrap my arms around her waist. We hold each other close.

“Thank you Souladonis,” she says softly.

I run the fingers of my right hand through her wavy dark brown hair and tilt my nose forward so that I can smell its lavender scent. “You don’t have to thank me Katherine. You know that I’ll always stand by your side no matter what.”

“I know Souladonis, but you don’t have to.”

I don’t have to? Is she kidding me? A man in love could never do otherwise.