“Twelve suns,” Dallion said, looking closely at the letter.

He had taken a moment to explore the item’s realm, but found it to be completely empty. There was no guardian, no creatures, and no hints; just a plain square room that had its destiny fulfilled. The seal was no different, other than it probably had enough material to create two gold coins.

The only time he’d heard anything of the sort mentioned was in Hannah’s memory. It was nothing more than a passing mention, but had come from the emperor.

“Anything you can’t tell me, Nil?” Dallion asked. He knew referring to Adzorg in his echo name annoyed the old man.

Yes, dear boy, I’m aware of what it means, and no, I prefer not to tell you.

That settled things.

“Is it linked to the skills?” Dallion put the letter away. The coincidence was too great for him not to notice.

I honestly cannot tell you, dear boy, Adzorg insisted. Not that it matters. You’ve passed the selection, so you’ll find out by yourself.

“It would have been nice if they had given a few details. How to find them, for instance.”

Just as Dallion said that, there was a knock on the door. Normally, Dallion would barely have paid any attention, but the timing made him slightly uneasy. It didn’t help that he hadn’t heard the sound of anyone approaching outside.

Who’s there? He asked the building guardian.

Taem, came the response.

“Young master.” A second knock followed. “My apologies, but might I have a word?”

“Sure.” Dallion cast a quick spell, moving his correspondence into the realm of the desk, then turned around facing the door.

The butler appeared exactly as he had ever been, from the clothes that he wore to the ever-present look of concern. Even so, there was no telling whether that was a copyette or the real person. Thinking about it, there was no telling whether there had been a real person to begin with.

“My apologies for the state of your home,” Taem said with a slight bow. “Your cousin had a rather lively gathering last night.”

“I imagine.”

“I shall put everything in order at once.”

“No, no need. I was just passing by.” Dallion moved away from the desk. “I need to see the emperor.”

“Wonderful, sir. I take it that things in your new domain are going well?”

“Perfect.” Dallion lied. “That’s what I’m here to report.”

“As you well should, sir. Unfortunately, I fear that it might be difficult to arrange for an audience with the emperor. The duchess informs me that he has been rather busy with meetings today.”

Should have known great-grandma would keep an eye on me, Dallion thought.

“I’m sure he’ll summon me when he has a moment.” It wasn’t like the emperor didn’t know he’d arrived.

“Absolutely, sir. Until then, might I recommend a pleasant stroll throughout the city?” The butler took a step forward. Carefully, he took out a small golden rectangle from his pocket and handed it to Dallion.

The item had the approximate dimensions of an Earth business card, only made of solid gold. Taking it, Dallion noticed a pattern on the smooth surface. It was so faint that only an awakened with a perception trait of over sixty would have spotted it. The pattern was identical to the Twelve Suns seal he had received moments ago. Additionally, there was a map representation of the imperial capital with a large dot in a specific neighborhood.

“The duchess is extremely proud of your achievement, young master.” Taem said, himself emanating the emotion. “As am I.”

Before Dallion could say a word, the servant bowed again and left the room.

Subtle, Dallion thought. If Duchess Elazni was involved, the Order of the Twelve Suns had to be a sort of high noble club or secret society. Getting involved with them was the last thing he wanted, but rejecting them outright was going to cause issues. No doubt the pettiest of the petty had gathered there, and while admission was difficult, ignoring an invitation could very well be viewed as hostile.

“Alright.” Dallion put the gold card away. “Let’s pay this new Order a visit.”

Finding the Order of the Twelve Suns proved more difficult than Dallion initially expected. The map on the card had helped considerably, but finding a grand and impressive building among all the other grand and impressive buildings involved a bit of trial and error. The neighborhood in question was one of the places where the imperial guilds kept their headquarters. All of them were massive, impressively built, with the arrogance of generations of architects flowing through them. Each of them claimed to be the best the empire had to offer, and each was eager to have Dallion join their ranks.

“Hey,” Dallion greeted a very well-dressed porter, as he had done three times before. “Do you accept new members?”

The porter gave him a weird look. A blocker ring prevented any other information from being gleaned. Unlike most of the guilds within the empire, here they knew exactly how valuable information was.

The porter undoubtedly knew who Dallion was. Everyone in the city did. And still, etiquette demanded that he pretended as if he didn’t.

After several seconds—enough for the pause to be noticed—the man extended his hand. That was new.

“Your card, sir.”

“Of course.” Internally, Dallion smiled. He had finally found the right place. “Here.” he handed the golden card.

“Thank you for your punctuality, Count Elazni,” the porter said with a slight nod. “We are grateful for accepting the invitation. Welcome to Zodiac.” He opened the building’s door and moved to the side.

Zodiac, Dallion thought. The word wasn’t supposed to exist in this world.

The entrance hall was a lot smaller than one would expect for a building that size. In fact, it was little more than a slightly larger corridor leading to an even more impressive door. Light crystals covered the walls, filling the room with a soft yellow light. The moment the entrance door closed, they all lit up in a bright white.

A spell circle appeared, forming a teleport spell. The symbols were easy to recognize, but even so, one had to admire the precision of the execution. A moment later, there was a flash. Dallion expected a mage to emerge, but to his surprise a noble was standing there, and not just any noble.

“Hi,” the woman said with a pursed smile. She was five foot four, wearing an elegant pair of black trousers made of onyx thread, along with a long-sleeved shirt and an emerald vest. Golden-buckled dragonhide shoes completed the outfit, containing more enchantments than most items Dallion had seen. “I’m Unnie,” she introduced herself.

“Just Unnie?” Dallion asked. He could see her awakening level and it was three levels higher than his.

“Standard ranks don’t mean anything here. Stepping through those doors is enough to prove you have the potential of being special. The question is whether you’d like to continue.”

The direct approach was rather refreshing—it saved Dallion a lot of time. However, there were too many details that seemed out of place.

“This isn’t a guild, is it?” he asked.

“You could call it that. In a manner of speaking, even the Order of the Seven Moons is a guild. People who join follow certain rules, have their own internal ranks and laws, and are ruled over by one omnipotent guild master.”

“Interesting comparison.” Dallion took a step closer. Despite his attempts, he remained unable to see anything other than the woman’s awakening level. All traits and skills remained hidden. “You’re a noble mage.”

Back at the Academy, he had heard of such instances, but never had actually met them in person. Part of him even believed that “noble” was used as a family status.

“As are you.” The woman looked him in the eye. “In part, that’s why I was selected to be your initiation guide.”

“How many of us are there?”

“We welcome anyone and everyone with the appropriate skills. I thought you’d have figured it out by now.”

“Zodiac,” Dallion said. “Order of the Twelve Suns, but they aren’t suns. They are constellations.”

“What is a constellation, but a collection of suns?”

There was no way a person of this world would know that. Why wasn’t there any shimmering light surrounding her?

“You’re an otherworlder?” Dallion moved a step closer.

“No, but the person who created the Order was.”

Magic circles appeared on all the walls, instantly covering them in paintings from top to bottom. At first glance, there was nothing unusual about them: groups of nobles hunting, drinking, eating, having fun, even playing sophisticated card games. Looking closely, certain elements popped out: twentieth century sneakers, a person wearing a wristwatch or a heavy metal t-shirt.

Dallion’s immediate reaction was to summon his aura blade. Magic circles flash around him, covering him with several layers of aether armor and protective barriers. At the same time, the woman did nothing.

“Now you understand why we can’t be open about it.” Unnie looked at one of the portraits. “Emperor Tamin the first,” she pointed. “A few decades after he’d established his exceedingly small kingdom. There was nothing special about it at the time. There had been dozens of kingdoms established by otherworlders.

“So, the emperor was an otherworlder.” Dallion didn’t put his guard down.

“Many were even larger than his. A fair amount had a lot more people and awakened. The difference was that, unlike them, Emperor Tamin didn’t put faith in providence, but skills. If someone could do well, what did it matter where they came from?”

“An order based on abilities…” Dallion mused.

“Not lineage, not traits, but skills. That was the ideal that made the Tamin Empire survive while the rest didn’t.”

In his mind, Dallion was going through possible combat outcomes. He had to assume that the woman was at least his equal, otherwise why would she have been chosen? At present, she had the upper hand. There wasn’t enough space for ranged and melee combat, leaving magic and domain ruler skills. Given that she was a member of the Order of Twelve Suns, it was safe to assume that her control of the domain would be better.

Going through the odds, Dallion lowered his weapon.

“Things seem to have changed a bit since then.” The barriers and aether armor faded away.

“A price of efficiency. The principle helped the kingdom become the empire, but by then there were too many people involved.” Unnie continued. “And most of them wanted to make an exception for their families. The emperor’s son noticed that as well, so he created our Order. We don’t bow down to the Moons, we don’t follow the Star, we rely on our own strength and that of our skills.”

That was such a human thing to do. The first emperor must have seen how the Order of the Seven Moons was structured and copied it all the way down to the name. Seeing as it hadn’t caught on, it must have slowly turned into a secret society for “the skilled.” According to Adzorg, it was next to impossible for an awakened to have all the skills. The most a typical awakened got were four or five. Even with skill gems, it was next to impossible to reach ten, as for going beyond…

“Is the emperor a member?” Dallion moved to examine another of the portraits—a massive man in full armor and a set of headphones.

“All emperors are members. Anyone who sits on the throne is required to have all skills possibly obtainable.”

The explanation didn’t pass unnoticed—it was a very lawyerly way of saying that not all members had twelve skills.

“I can tell you a lot more, but for that, you need to pass your trial.”

“I thought I already had.” Dallion pretended to be surprised. “The letter, the invitation—”

“Said that you had been selected. Your potential has been acknowledged and has led you to the entrance. The trial will see if you have what it takes to pass.”

Dallion nodded.

Any advice you can give me, Adzorg?

The former archmage remained silent.

“Our temple is divided into several halls.” Unnie went up to the door leading further in. “Past here, you’ll reach the common room. To get there, you must show the door that you have mastered your common skills adequately.”

“An awakened fight? Seems a bit cliche.”

The woman laughed.

Of the twelve skill groups, attack, guard, athletics and acrobatics were regarded as the common ones. If Dallion needed to use only those, the trial had to be related to combat.

“What if I use some of my other skills?” He joined the woman in front of the door.

“We’ll know and you’ll fail.”

Clear and simple, Dallion thought.

Taking a deep breath, he put his hand on the door’s surface.

ITEM AWAKENING