Hugo slowly sat up and looked around the soulmarking ritual circle. He had seen it several times before. It looked very different this time. Or rather, it looked exactly the same. He was just looking at it with a new perspective.

This was it. This was his last life. He was going to have to do everything perfectly from here on out. The pressure of that knowledge weighed heavily on him. He was out of second chances. There were two ritual nodes left, but at the rate they were disappearing, they would be gone in a few months. He had to make this count.

It was a strange thought. On the one hand, he was back to normal life. Most people only ever had one chance at things. On the other hand, there was a lot riding on him getting things right. Hedge mages were trying to take over the cities on the wheel and Deva was working to destroy all of them. He had to get this right. He hadn’t ever succeeded before, but he should know enough now to save everyone. He double checked his stat screen to make sure he had his name right.

Florin Baden [Domainless]

Strength 22

Dexterity 19

Resilience 9

Regeneration 7

Intelligence 24

Wisdom 20

Charisma 12

Perception 10

Rank 0

0/100 Points

Health 9/9

Mana 2/2

Skills:

Florin Baden was going to save the wheel. Well, hopefully he would. There were dozens of things he needed to get right. He was stressed about getting it right. The important thing would be to remember everything and take steps to ensure the best outcome.

Step one, make sure Alexandru didn’t talk to anyone about shimmer mountain and make Deva’s work any easier. He looked around for the man. This was his fifth time up here on the ritual circle, it was very familiar by now. Seven dead teenagers lay on the ground. A pair of human, nox, and riese parents cried over their dead children. Further out, teeangers and their guardians stood by, awkwardly looking on at the tragedy. Alexandru wasn’t nearby.

Florin’s parents weren’t haranguing the ritualist like normal and he must have slipped away. The arrogant pair only cared that their own son was alive, so they didn’t care that the ritual had killed seven kids. The other parents were too grief stricken to blame anyone yet. Hugo would just have to write Alexandru a letter.

Hugo stood up and walked to his parents. His mother was... Ana-Marie if he remembered right. She was a tall, thin woman, with straight blond hair. He vaguely remembered her saying something about her specialty being runes. He would assume that she was a runist unless proven otherwise.

His father stood near her, his glowing yellow eyes boring into Hugo as he walked up. The dark haired man was a light mage, Hugo was sure of that. He was less sure about his name. It might be Sebastian. Hugo had asked them their names just last year, but a lot had happened since then.

“Finally,” Sebastian quietly said, “Looks like you got soulmarked.”

“That’s a load off my mind,” Ana-Marie said, “I don’t think I could take climbing this damn mountain again.”

“Thank you for bringing me here,” Hugo said.

His parents both nodded at that and turned away. Hugo used their inattention to snag the letter to Marion’s parents. He knew that he could grab the silver from Cristian’s bag. He chose not to. Judging by the clothes his parents wore, money shouldn’t be a problem for this family. All three of them wore expensive clothing, soft silks, gold trim, and several runes woven into each item.

Hugo shouldered his bag and joined his parents at the edge of the plateau. They stood there while the other student’s bodies were burned and the mountain guides cleaned up. Once everyone was ready to go, they started running.

Hugo immediately stumbled.

The sensation was so strange that Hugo looked down at his legs. He hadn’t stumbled in years. With a dexterity over twenty, that was almost impossible. He felt like he still had the dexterity and strength his stat screen gave him, but his body wasn’t behaving. It took him a few more steps to figure it out. It wasn’t that he was clumsy in this body, it was that he was too strong.

The vest and pants he was wearing were runed. He didn’t recognize all of the runes on them, but he did recognize the strength one. The clothing he was wearing made him stronger. That must be why Florin never seemed to struggle when they climbed the mountain.

Now that Hugo knew what was going on, he adjusted his stride. He quickly got used to the additional strength. He didn’t run down the mountain, so much as floated down. It was so easy that he had time to think. He wanted to get everything just right.

Well before they came across the giant spiders pretending to be trees, Hugo positioned himself near the mountain guide alchemist. When they started arguing about the cost of the slowing potion, Hugo interjected.

““If you don’t hit all of the monsters at once, people are going to die. Are you having your best person take care of it?” Hugo said.

“Leave that to us, and stick to the middle of the formation,” the man in charge said.

Hugo stepped back and frowned. That wasn’t the reaction he had gotten last time he said something to the mountain guides. He had been a nox at the time. Apparently this guy didn’t respect humans as much as nox.

The alchemist sneered at Hugo and threw the potion. Hugo watched with dismay as it arced through the air. It hit most of the disguised monsters, but not all. To his utter shock, only one monster escaped the slowing effects of the potion. Previous times it had always been two giant spiders. This time it was different.

This time the single monster had the full attention of the mountain guides. It stabbed through a pair of blue barriers, but a third was erected before the giant spider’s sharp legs stabbed through a person. The guides worked as a team, expertly keeping the much stronger monster at bay.

Hugo was tempted to send a mana dart through its eye. He wanted to show the guides how it was done and get a few points for himself. He stopped himself. This was his last life. He needed to do everything perfectly, including not weirding out his parents. Both of them were soulmarked and would know right away how strange it was. Newly soulmarked couldn’t shoot mana darts.

He might have risked it if his father wasn’t a light mage. Sebastian’s high perception missed nothing. He seemed preternaturally aware of everything going on around himself. He stepped away when people were about to bump into him. He flinched when barrier shields were shattered. He shielded his eyes when the life mage’s hands started glowing in order to heal someone. The man was aware of everything.

Eventually, the giant spider was killed. Shortly thereafter, everyone made it to the safety underground. The crowd slowly trudged back to the end of the cave system. Once they all made it back to the small room, Hugo’s dad relaxed. It was finally quiet enough for him.

Hugo took the opportunity to approach his parents with his prepared speech.

“Mother, father. I made a few promises in the ritual. We had time to discuss things and it was necessary to commit to honor their last wishes. I have to do a variety of things to fulfill my vows,” Hugo said quietly it wouldn’t hurt his father’s ears. He figured that was a good excuse to talk to everyone.

“What do you need from me to fulfill your vows?” Sebastian whispered back.

“I would like to give some money to the families of those that died, but I will send that out after we get home. Today I just need to pass on a few messages,” Hugo said respectively.

Sebastian nodded and flicked his fingers away, giving Hugo permission.

Hugo looked around the room and decided to start with the toughest challenge.

“Hello Darius and Shirin of the Brambled Wood,” Hugo said and gave them both a shallow bow. “My condolences on the loss of your daughter.”

Shirin frowned and stepped forward, Darius gently grabbed her arm to hold her back. They knew the truth about the ritual and must have thought that Florin killed their daughter. Which was kind of true. Cristain had killed Lina in the ritual so Florin would have a better chance at getting soulmarked.

Hugo had to say this next part carefully, he knew Florin’s dad was listening, “I know your real names because your daughter told me. She was given a vision from The Mother before she died and she wanted me to pass it on.”

“The Mother talked to her?” Darius said. It looked like he was fighting back tears. Hugo wondered how much of his emotion could be attributed to losing his daughter. Or he was sad about losing his seat on the royal table.

“Yes, she did. Like the ritualist said, we had a lot of time in the ritual. Lina had a vision, and The Mother wants you to stop the upcoming regicide. Once everyone returns to the royal grove tree, the king is going to throw a Lofty Leap. At the celebration, someone is going to try and kill the royal family. You need to stop them.”

“Why tell us? Why didn’t The Mother tell all this to the king and queen directly?” Shirin said.

Hugo nodded along, that was a good question. Thinking quickly, he said, “Revenge. The culprits behind the attack are people you personally hate. The Mother thought it fitting that you two would be their downfall. The hedge mages will be offended when the king refuses to work with them. They will work with House Juniper to attempt an assassination. They will try to use iron laced poison.”

“Those broken twigs!” Darius said.

“This is a very detailed prediction,” Shirin said, “Not that I am calling you a liar, but most predictions aren’t nearly that extensive.”

Hugo nodded, “Yes, she said something about the ritual enhancing the powers of The Mother briefly.”

“We have much to think about. Thank you for passing along her message,” Shirin said.

Hugo nodded and walked away. Hopefully keeping the king and queen of Ettel alive would stop the hedge mages from building their drug addicted army. He would still tell the sentinels about the drug dealers just in case.

It was just too bad that he couldn’t help them out with their challenge from the Juniper family. With Lina dead, they would automatically lose the challenge. There wasn’t anything he could do about that.

Refocusing, Hugo looked around the room. Was there anything else he could do in here? Not really. None of them had connections to hedge mages or Deva. As his eyes slid past the nox parents, he had a sudden thought. Maybe there was something he could do after all.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Bandile,” Hugo said and gave them a ritual bow. The pair of them just looked at him suspiciously so he continued, “I talked to Xhosha in the stopped time of the ritual. He mentioned that your family needed a mage to rise up in society. I can’t give you your son back, but I wanted to help you out anyway. I have some contacts within the mage masters of Paarl. Would you mind if I talked to the alchemists there and get one of them to accept your sister as an apprentice?”

“My sister is long past apprentice age,” she said.

“Yes, but if I am able to arrange it, would you accept the help?”

Hugo’s former mother and father nodded warily and thanked him. They went back to their beds and sat down to cry. It hurt to see them grieving. He knew that they were good parents. They had been kind and loving to him when he was their son. He regretted he couldn’t do more.

He didn’t know any alchemists in Paarl, of course. But he figured a quick trip and a few platinums would get his former aunt an apprenticeship as an alchemist. It was the least that he could do.

As he lay down on his cot his father softly said, “That was very nice of you. Very nice.”

Hugo glanced over to Sebastian. He realized the man wasn’t complimenting him. Florin had been a massive jerk, and Hugo being nice was suspicious. Shit.

“The ritual was overseen by some gods. I have decided to be kind to everyone that lost a child in the soulmarking ritual. I don’t want to get on the bad side of literal gods,” Hugo said.

“Even if I wasn’t a light mage, I’m your father. I know when you are lying. I don’t know what kind of bizarre scheme you have going on. Just promise me this will not cause problems for house Baden,” Sebastian said.

“Yes sir,” Hugo said seriously.

Sebastian squinted at him suspiciously and then waved him on to his cot. Hugo breathed a sigh of relief and lay down. Living with a man that could detect his every lie was going to be tough. He couldn’t wait to go on to school. He hoped that they would send him to Reval and the Blue Lion Academy. It would be nice to be with friends again, even if they didn’t know him yet.

If the Baden Family lived in Tallinn, Tembisa, Paarl, or Reval, he would certainly go to the Blue Lion Academy. It was the best school for humans on that side of the wheel. He tried to think back. He didn’t remember if he ever learned where Florin lived. He would just have to find out.