"Badger, where were you last night?" Onyx asked.

Cayden felt a sensation at the back of his neck, "I was with young master Riley."

Ortan narrowed his eyes, while Riley nodded.

Onyx continued, "What were you doing with Riley?"

"Creating ice sculptures for young master Onyx's birthday." Cayden answered seriously.

Onyx raised his eyebrows and looked at Riley, "Ice sculptures?"

"What? I like going all out." Riley said with a smile.

"Yeah, we're finished with this, go back in line." Onyx ordered, and Cayden's legs moved on their own back in line.

"Wait!" A voice rang out, and the two Ayuna's looked at the head butler.

"How about one more question?" Ortan reasoned.

Onyx frowned, "Which is?"

"What were the ice sculptures?" Ortan responded.

Both Ayuna's shook their heads, and Riley said, "I rather the ice sculptures be a surprise."

"But, young master Riley, this is a matter of security every question must be asked." The head butler defended.

Onyx frowned, "How is this important?"

"Head butler, is there a reason you continue to doubt me?" Riley asked with a death stare.

"Like I said young master Riley, this is a mat..." He didn't get to finish.

"Butler Ortan, would my father be happy if you are questioning the loyalty of his own son, and doubting the reliability of the Ayuna slave seal." This time it was Onyx who spoke.

"Here, let's make this quick," Riley looked at all the demi-humans in line, "where were you all last night."

There were plenty of different answers, but none of them screamed of anything suspicious.

Onyx frown deeped, and he mumbled, "The one that entered Topaz's room was one of ours, and they were wearing a servant's uniform, but none of them are here."

"Maybe, it's one of the field demi-humans?" Riley suggested.

"It could be, all they would have to do is steal a uniform, so that makes sense." Onyx muttered.

Head butler Ortan wasn't convinced, but he wasn't an Ayuna, so he had little power here regardless of how high he was in the magic path.

"You're all dismissed." Onyx said, while walking away.

Ortan stood still, and watched as everyone left the room. There was a frown on his face, and he followed where Onyx left.

Lapsa felt a huge pressure evaporate into smoke when they were dismissed, he followed behind Cayden and Cronix while they quietly planned another distraction.

"If we're going to be using another distraction for our escape, we can't do something that requires us to literally be there or it's not going to work." Cronix quietly mentioned.

Cayden nodded, "But I don't know what we could do."

"Well I was thinking, we do something with formations, we could cause explosions everywhere, but I can't do anything like that if I'm working on the teleportation array." Cronix looked at the sky and said, "I'll push myself, we have three weeks, I could do it."

Cayden shook his head, "If you push yourself it might affect the main array, I'll try learning mental energy, it could be helpful."

"You draw too much attention and the head butler is already on to us, you wouldn't be able to do it." Cronix completely dismissed Cayden's idea.

Cayden frowned, "So if I can't do it, and you can't do it, who..?"

"I could do it." Lapsa interjected before Cayden could even finish.

Cronix glanced at him, "Yeah, you could work."

"No, he can't." Cayden quickly vetoed the idea.

Lapsa frowned, "Why not? I could do it, I was able to break into young master Topaz's room..."

"And look how that turned out, Riley had to save you before you blew the whole operation." Cayden interrupted.

Cayden's words only caused Lapsa's frown to deepen, "How about today Cayden, if Riley haven't order you to say what you said, then you would've blew our whole operation, it wasn't our faults, it was the stupid slave seal."

While Lapsa's words did make sense, Cayden wasn't convinced.

"Cayden, Lapsa has as much stake in this as we do, he has the right to help in any way he can, and besides, if neither of us can do the formation idea, then Lapsa's our only option." Cronix's words tipped the scales in Lapsa's favor, and Cayden had no choice, but to agree.

Cronix looked at Lapsa, "I'll show you how to use mental energy tonight."

Lapsa nodded, and the three parted ways. Lapsa worked in the kitchen, he was one of the servants in charge of preparations of the table, serving the food, and cleaning up.

Breakfast was in a few hours, and while there were less Ayunas' since most of the older generation went to the main house, there were still the younger generation.

...

"Young master Onyx, we shouldn't just let them leave like that." Ortan still couldn't let go of what happened earlier.

Onyx raised an eyebrow, and said, "Head butler Ortan, what am I supposed to do? You want me to kill them all? Well, I'm sorry, but I can't, I would need Riley's permission."

"Young master Onyx, aren't you one of the most talented of the younger generations of the Ayuna family, why do you need RIley's permission?" Ortan put an arm around Onyx's neck, "How about you ditch Riley's opinion, and go your own way, because there is definitely something strange about Cayden."

Onyx frowned and pushed Ortan's arm off him, "Butler Ortan, what right do you have to say that? This is my father's orders, since we're both in charge, everything I do goes through Riley, and everything he does, goes through me."

Ortan frowned, but he didn't say anything.

Onyx looked at him, and sighed, "I guess I could do something."

Onyx walked to his desk where a bird cage laid, inside was a crow with a silver pattern and was the size of a hawk.

"This little lady hasn't had any time to leave the cage." Onyx said, grabbing a silver collar, and a milky white bead with a golden hue.

Ortan looked at the bead with greed, but he restrained himself.

Onyx ignored Ortan, and looked at the crow, "Do you know what this is?" He asked, holding up the bead.

The crow only disdainfully stared at Onyx .

Onyx didn't mind, and continued, "This bead is called the Focuser Bead, as its name implies, it helps the consumer focus better. As someone who's almost in the Core Creation stage, you should know how much you need to focus to create your core.

"And let me tell you, it's only going to get harder once you connect two of your stars together, because not only are you going to have to focus on getting your stars connected, but you also have to focus on keeping them connected."

The crow narrowed her eyes.

"You are only one step away from the Core Creation stage, all you need is a little boost, and I will provide you these boosts, if you just do me little favors, for example, I need you to spy on a certain demi-human and find any suspicious behavior, it'll be great if you get evidence too."

Onyx's words were tempting, and she honestly had nothing to lose, if anything, she could use this time to find Cronix while also getting the chance to enter the Core Creation stage, so she cawed, and shook her tail.

"I'll take that as a yes, he you go." Onyx took the silver collar and opened the cage door before putting the collar around the crows neck, her flawless five star Caster stage disappeared.

"Okay, as for the demi-human you have to watch..." Onyx turned to Ortan, "Do you have a picture of the demi-human."

Ortan shook his head, "No young master... But I do have an Information Tablet."

"Then imprint a picture of the demi-human and hand it over." Onyx ordered.

The head butler took out a small transparent tablet from his magic bag, and put it against his forehead. Formless energy came out of the tablet, and entered his mental expanse.

The energy lingered inside his mental expanse, before it infused with the expanse. When the energy came back out it was holding some flakes, the energy copied those flakes and came back to the tablet, the flakes were imprinted on the tablet.

Ortan handed the tablet to Onyx, which Onyx put the tablet against the crow's head, an image appeared in the crow's mind that made her freeze, and a small hint of excitement appeared in her eyes.

In the image there was a demi-human with peculiar hair, but that wasn't what excited her, it was the boy on his left with the vertical pupils.

Onyx opened the window, "Go find him."

The crow followed his directions and flew out the window.

Ortan look at the departing crow, then at Onyx, "Young master, don't you think you're playing a dangerous game, once that crow reaches the Core Creation stage the slave seal won't work anymore."

"I know head butler, that's why I'm not using the slave seal, and instead using the focuser bead to build trust.

...

Lapsa finished up dinner preparations, and as he was cleaning the scraps from earlier, he collected the little whole bits left, pocketing them for later.

With his work day finished, he left the manor. But once he left the manor, he stop to stare at the full moon high in the sky, "I wonder if you're also..."

Lapsa shook his head, and continued walking, burying any feelings he had right now. Behind him, he heard a bird's cry, it startled him for a moment causing him to turn around.

His eyes widened, in the dark of night, on a tree branch was a crow the size of a hawk, with silver feathers that fluttered in the starlight, there was a silver collar around its neck, "You're... You're Cronix's bird."

The bird flapped its wings at the sound of Cronix's name. Lapsa smiled, "I can take you to him."

The bird cawed, and flew off the tree branch and circled around Lapsa. Lapsa took that as a signal to keep walking.

Cronix traced his next line with his finger; these next few lines were the most important because if they overlapped or connected the wrong way, the whole thing would fail, and then they're screwed.

"You should take a break." Cayden said, laying on Cronix's bed while staring at the roof.

Cronix shook his head, "I only managed to do one line in an hour, and it wasn't even a hard one!"

Cronix sighed, "We don't have the luxury for me to take a break."

The door suddenly opened, and Lapsa came in.

"Where were you?" Cayden asked, with a light tone.

Lapsa smiled and ignored Cayden's question, instead he looked at Cronix, "Guess who I found?"

Cronix looked at Lapsa weirdly and shrugged, "You two are the only people I know."

Lapsa chuckled and opened the door wider. A dark object flew in and landed on the floor in front of Cronix.

"Isn't that..." Cayden raised an eyebrow at Lapsa, who only offered a small smile.

Cronix gently touched the left wing of the crow, who leaned into his hand. Cronix smiled a bitter smile, as his eyes watered, "You've gotten bigger."

It didn't take long for his watered eyes to form tears and for those tears to fall, the crow hopped closer to Cronix.

Cronix wrapped his arms around the crow, and pulled them closer, the crow's wings slowly getting wet.

The other two boys watched them with complicated expressions,

I'm jealous...