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Introduction:

The group gets some R&R and Noah works on his curse.
Think Tank

Once again, the Profane had gathered in physical and smoke form.

“So, the invasion was a complete disaster,” a woman with white hair said coldly.

“On the contrary, it was a great success,” said Scyler.

“Our army was reduced to ash, and Colbrand is untouchable. How is that a success?” a tall, lanky ghoul hissed.

“It was a mob of lowly pawns, controlled by Kaisen, not an elite or powerful force. They were our most expendable asset, and with their destruction, we gained priceless intel. We know that Colbrand is once again under the protection of an angel. Better we learn that now rather than throwing everything we have at them and getting annihilated. Besides, we’ve driven the forces of Uther out of Handent. We now have free reign.”

“Yet I am still denied my prize.” The bitter words were spoken by a human in smoke form, with long hair and a scar over his eye.

“Quit your belly aching, Liege,” growled a dwarf ghoul with a braided black beard.

“I was promised the destruction of Colbrand, and you failed to deliver.”

“You didn’t tell us the Wassengel was functional,” said the white-haired woman. “Had we gambled everything on your mediocre information, we’d have been killed. The failure is yours, and if you don’t want to pay the price of failure with your life, I suggest you do everything you can to remain useful to us.”

“The return of the Wassengel may actually be a stroke of luck,” said Scyler. “It follows the command of those with royal blood, correct? Now that we have the prince, it’s quite possible for us to take it for ourselves and use it. Colbrand lies in shooting range of the angel. How ironic would it be for their greatest weapon, their greatest protection, to be their undoing?”

“Let us not grow complacent with hope,” said Tysinger, standing among the smoke forms. “The fact that Kaisen was defeated gives pause for concern. As a Profane, he should have been unbeatable, even if he hadn’t fully healed from the operation. Carthace and Kaisen, we’ve lost two of our strongest members to the Wandering Spirit and his allies.”

“In time, we’ll be able to replace them. My creations grow stronger and more refined with each passing day,” said Curcio.

“That’s not the point. All this time, we’ve avoided striking at Uther out of fear of Adwith Tarnas, but I believe we should consider the Wandering Spirit to be our main concern.”

“Don’t tell me you’re losing your nerve because of some human,” a split-jawed ghoul taunted.

“He is no ordinary human. He bested our troops before, and I’m sure he will again. The longer we let him live, the greater the danger he poses.”

“He makes an interesting point,” said the one succubus of the group. “My Duska went out against my orders and tried to kill him. She returned, having narrowly escaped death, but with a broken spirit. She refuses to speak of what happened to her.”

“What about that woman, the one who killed the king?” Curcio asked. “She had some kind of relationship with the Wandering Spirit. Any luck in finding her? Has she tried to make contact?”

All the Profane shook their heads and refuted the hope.

“She may be one of us by blood, but we shouldn’t rely on her to carry our ideals,” said Scyler. “Still, she’s already proven useful to us once. She may do so again. Though she forced us to rush our plans, she succeeded in killing the king for us and setting things in motion. Now that the humans have retreated back to Uther, we have room to breathe. Let’s use this time to further bolster our military might. Soon, not even the Wandering Spirit will be able to stop us.”

The meeting was adjourned, and the smoke effigies were dispersed. The Liege stood, surrounded by mirrors, moments ago showing the Profane leaders and now just sporting his reflection. He turned around and opened the door behind him. It was a false wall in the back of his closet, and he stepped out into his private chambers in the palace. Outside, sunlight filled the streets of Colbrand, and he winced from the brightness. Fortunately, he was human; otherwise, his eyes would be smoldering.

There was a knock on the door. “Lord Strauss, I have those documents you requested.”

Strauss sighed and straightened his robes. Life was difficult, but a double life was exhausting.

----------

The Knight’s Sheath had hit its late-morning lull. Everyone who spent the night had woken up and left, and it wasn’t yet time to chase down lunch with a drink. The parlor was mostly empty, save for a few customers drinking and reading. Thanks to Sophia and Cyrilo’s literature program, there were now vast shelves of books to choose from. But though things were peaceful, they weren’t exactly quiet. A repeating sound echoed from the basement, like the striking of a hammer.

The source of the noise was Alexis, unleashing all of her strength on a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. Daniel had described their design and use, and she made one herself, now finding herself near addicted. Again and again, she punched and kicked the sand-filled bag, wondering how she had ever trained without one. Daniel also told her about the unique clothing used by modern athletes at the gym, the soft and stretchy fabrics, and she decided to imitate them. She wore a sports bra and tight-fitting pants with threads of alchemically-created rubber woven into the fabric. It was no spandex, but she loved it.

Every day, during her break periods, she would come down here and exhaust herself, beating the canvas bag and thickening the air with her evaporated sweat as countless drops ran down her slender frame. In the modern world, people would look at her and expect her to model on a runway, but she would be more at home in an MMA ring.

Yet, though she could drain all of her stamina, her frustration was inexhaustible, no matter how much she vented it on the canvas target. Just upstairs, in the parlor where people would come to drink and relax every evening, countless men and women, her fellow knights, had been slaughtered by Bella. Customers and working girls walked on floorboards drenched in blood and painstakingly cleaned. That night, her pride was crushed, with every hard-won victory in her life dismissed by the unholy power Bella wielded.

Against such an unstoppable foe, she was reminded of just how weak she truly was, and the limits of her human body. Endurance that shrugged off all wounds, strength that knocked back all opponents, speed that left all pursuers in the dust; how was she supposed to compete with that? Even Sir Aithorn, one of the greatest warriors in the kingdom, whom she had come to respect and admire, was left vanquished. She punched and kicked the bag with all of her strength, ever striving to improve herself and become a better fighter, but all she could think of was Bella or another mighty Profane receiving her attacks and just laughing her off before ripping her in half.

Having used up all her strength, she leaned against the bag, gasping for air and drenched in sweat. That was enough for one day. She changed out of her workout clothes, her hands trembling from the adrenaline as she unwrapped the bandages earlier applied. After cleaning herself off with a bucket of water and a washcloth, she adorned her usual work attire and headed upstairs. She found Lucius behind the bar, passing the time with a book. Everyone in the Knight’s Sheath was reading these days.

“Did I miss anything?” she asked.

“You know that dragon that was spotted yesterday? He came in and asked for the girl with the biggest tits, then left without paying for his drinks.” Alexis laughed, and Lucius closed his book. “You hold down the fort, I got an errand to run.”

“Leave it to me.”

She took his place behind the counter, and with no one to tend to, she opened her own book to read until the afternoon rush came. After a few pages, she heard the front door open, and Melinda greeted the customer. In stepped a man she had never seen before. He was garbed in a leather coat and a wide-brimmed hat, with a gold knight’s emblem hanging from his neck and a matching sword on his hip.

“Welcome to the Knight’s Sheath. What can I get you?”

“I’ll have a glass of Knight’s Ambrosia, please,” the man said with a smile as he sat at the bar.

“Coming right up.”

As she poured the drink, he looked around. “It’s been a while since I was here last. When did Cyrilo get all these books?”

“It’s part of a literature program she’s running, using alchemy to mass-produce texts from the raw materials.”

“Ooh, very interesting.” The man raised his glass, and Alexis watched him drink. There was something about him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Did she know him from somewhere? He emptied his glass with a sigh of bliss. “Always delicious. You can’t even taste the alcohol. You know, I remember the old place, so quaint and rustic in comparison.”

“It’s a shame how it burned down.”

“I know, I was there.”

“You were?”

“Yep, and boy, did I make those four little shits pay.”

Alexis’s heart skipped a beat. “Noah?”

He smiled and released his aged visage. “Hello, Alexis. It’s been a while.”

“Is that really you?” she asked, circling the bar to him with her mouth hanging open.

“That’s the second time I’ve been asked that since my return.”

She looked utterly stunned, up until the moment she slapped him across the face. “That’s for what you did to Seraph! I hated him too, but what you did was sick and demented!”

He rubbed his cheek. “So you say. Honestly, I went easy on him.”

She slapped him again on the other cheek. “And that’s for leaving me behind to get arrested! Sophia and I were disavowed from the knighthood because of you!”

Noah could have easily dodged either slap, but seeing as it wasn’t a straight punch or a kick to the balls, he decided to let her vent. “Apologies, but seeing that ring on your finger, it’s clear your exile was short-lived. Now, are you going to keep slapping me, or can we move on to the part where you give me a proper welcome?”

Alexis grunted angrily and threw her arms around Noah, hugging him tightly. “You’re a real bastard, you know that?” she murmured, her face pressed tight to his shoulder.

“It’s good to see you, Alexis. I missed you too,” he said, hugging her back.

They both heard a loud thump and turned to see Sophia, who had just dropped a stack of books with her hands still outstretched, struck with a look of shock. That look then turned into a smile as bright as the sun. “Noah!” she exclaimed, running over and hugging him like Alexis while laughing in joy.

“Ah, my dear sweet Sophia,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

“I can’t believe you’re here! I’ve missed you so much!”

“Same to you. You’re looking well.”

The compliment made her cheeks redden as if on a hair trigger. “O-oh! Thank you! You’re looking good yourself.”

“Hey, no flirting, you two,” said Alexis.

“I’m not flirting; I’m just so happy!” Sophia squealed.

“What’s with all the commotion?” Cyrilo asked, stepping out of her study. The moment she locked eyes on Noah, a wry smile crossed her face. “Well, well, well, the Knight’s Sheath’s patron saint returns. I knew it was only a matter of time before you’d strut through my doors.”

“Where else will I find the best drinks and girls in Uther? It looks like you’ve made advancements with your aging hex. Very nice.”

“Thank you. You are looking at the woman who discovered eternal youth.”

“Holy shit, Noah!” exclaimed Daniel, coming downstairs.

“Well, if it isn’t the Bard of Rock. How’ve you been, Daniel?”

“Dude, there is so much to talk about! I don’t know where to start!”

“Let’s take a seat, I want to hear everything.” They all joined around a table, Sophia looking like she wanted to sit in Noah’s lap. “I’ve already been filled in on the battle and the Wassengel, but Valia mentioned something about you guys fighting the church. What’s the story on that?”

“Well, that’s—” Cyrilo began.

“Ok, so here’s how it started,” said Sophia. It would have been silly to expect anyone else to tell the story. She regaled Noah with the details of how she and Alexis started working at the Knight’s Sheath, how Cyrilo began their literature program, and their battles against the church’s spies. She spoke so fast that she almost forgot to breathe.

“To think you asking me to hold on to that blackmail material on Ford would save all our skins. You’re the gift that keeps on giving,” said Cyrilo.

“When I found that list and realized what it was for, I just brushed it off. I can’t believe it helped you take down the church.”

“So come on, tell us about your adventures,” said Sophia. “Sir Aithorn and Lady Zodiac gave us the overview, but we want to hear the details.”

“Knowing you and your escapades, you probably got someone pregnant,” Alexis laughed. Noah just sat there, smiling, and everyone slowly gained the same look of shock, with Sophia’s cheeks again flushed. “Oh my God, you did get someone pregnant. What poor woman did you knock up?”

“The queen of the elves.”

“Very funny.”

“To be clear, I am giving good news about my child, not bragging about my conquests. Here, I took her picture before I left Sylphtoria.” He pulled out his phone and brought up his picture of Elisandra, taken while they enjoyed the summer storm. “We’re naming the child Rain. I plan to return after I’ve broken my curse and spend my remaining years in Sylphtoria.”

“That’s beautiful,” said Cyrilo.

He handed it Alexis, whose eyes widened in awe at Elisandra’s beauty. “Damn,” she gasped softly.

“Let me see!” said Daniel as he took the phone, only to immediately flip out. “Damn!”

The phone was passed to Cyrilo, who raised her eyebrows in shock and looked at Noah with an amused smile. “Damn,” she said, her tone a projection of congratulations, in more than one way.

It was Sophia’s turn to look. As expected, finding out that Noah was so intimately involved with someone, even building a family together, left her with complicated feelings. Despite her loyalty to Alexis, part of her would always love Noah, and she felt jealous from the news. Then, when she saw Elisandra, a different kind of jealousy overcame her, wishing not to take the queen’s place, but Noah’s.

“Damn,” she murmured.

“How could this even happen? What did you do?” Alexis asked.

“Ok, so first… I was minding my own business.”

Alexis slammed her hands on the table. “Bullshit!”

“I was!”

“And what happened whilst you were ‘minding your own business’?”

Thus, Noah told the stories of his adventures. He talked about Sylphtoria, both the beauty of the city and the epidemic. He spoke about how he caught the succubus, and how he and Elisandra consummated their relationship with the blessing of the spirits of nature, albeit while leaving out the more erotic details. He told them about Kisara Island and the battle against Valon, then the return to Sylphtoria and the months spent among the trees.

He mentioned being summoned by Lupin to help fight the Profane, and about Shannon and the centaur tribe. He described Welindar, his lab at the palace, and the battles that took place in its streets. He recalled the Profane prison and his tryst and battle with Carthace, reddening Sophia and Alexis’s cheeks. He addressed Lupin, the prince’s duel against Kaisen, the beastman’s return, and the mess with the fiend army. He finished with his meeting with Roroaka and the flight to Colbrand. While he spoke, he passed around his phone, showing everyone pictures he had taken. He also told Daniel about his curse and his quest to break it.

“Shit, and I was really hoping we would wow you with our church story,” said the dejected bard. “But has anyone told you about what your crazy ex-girlfriend did?”

The mood turned somber.

“Yeah, Aithorn told me. I rarely apologize for what I knowingly do, at least honestly, no matter how awful it may be, but I will apologize for any unintended consequences. I’m sorry you were left to deal with her, and things got so out of control while I was gone.”

“No, no, no, no, no, that is absolutely not true. He is totally to blame,” said Daniel. “Seriously, dude, I’ve heard the things that went on in that room from all the way down here. You didn’t just stick your dick in crazy; you poured a concrete foundation and built your house on a cursed Indian burial ground of crazy. You can’t make a girl scream like that every week and not expect her to throw sanity to the wind and lock onto you like a ball and chain.”

“My one true crime: being too good in bed. I’m cursed to bend women to my sexual will.”

“You joke, but I got stabbed in the shoulder because of you.”

“And I bet you’ve been both bitching and bragging about it ever since.” The giggling of the women confirmed Noah’s theory.

“So, how long are you in town?” Alexis asked.

“Just until Valia is all healed up, but we need to come up with a plan. Suffice it to say, we are out of leads and ideas.”

Customers started streaming into the Knight’s Sheath, and Lucius had yet to return. “Damn, I gotta get back to work,” said Alexis. “Sophia, mind helping me out?”

“Yeah, ok,” she replied, trying to hide her reluctance to leave the table.

“Cyrilo, want to keep this going in your study? I’ve got some magic stuff to talk to you about.”

“By all means.”

They retreated to her study, and Noah closed the door behind them. “So, you kept the Profane venom,” he said as soon as it was shut.

Walking to her desk, Cyrilo froze up. “Bella was bitten.”

“Spare me. Grond gave you a bottle of venom, and Bella somehow got her hands on it.”

Cyrilo sighed and collapsed dramatically into her chair. Her study had been repaired since Bella’s rampage, and much of the furniture, including her desk, was replaced. “How did you know?”

“After I got the bottle from Grond, I was curious and had it appraised. You know that muscular old guy who runs the apothecary downtown?”

“Carn? Wonderful man, nose like a hunting dog.”

“Oh, I was very impressed with his skill. But he couldn’t identify it, and I took a few sniffs myself. I spent months experimenting on Profane specimens and their low-quality venom, and it smelled so familiar, but I couldn’t figure it out. Then, when Aithorn told me about Bella, you could say it was a real “ah-ha!” moment.”

“I hope I’m not hearing judgment in your voice.”

“Just wanted everything cleared up.”

“Sophia may seem like she’s all smiles right now, but she has not forgiven me for keeping that venom. I’m not sure I can forgive myself, given what’s happened. Fortunately, she’s keeping her mouth shut. However, if it weren’t for her and that venom, I would have never unlocked the secret to eternal youth. Would you believe me if I said I was able to get my hands on some Abernathy’s Ichor?”

Noah maintained his poker face, but his eyebrows were itching to rise. “No kidding? I don’t suppose you still have some?”

A mischievous smile appeared on Cyrilo’s lips. “Maybe I used it all up, maybe not. You’re thinking it might help you with your own curse?”

“You tell me.” Noah held out his hand and projected the magic formula.

Cyrilo stared at the vast circle of runes, her face taking a new expression every second. “My God! I can’t believe you’re walking around with this etched onto your soul!”

“I managed to write the foundation of a counter spell to undo it, and have been tinkering with it for several months, but I could harness the molten core of this planet and every spark of magic on the surface, and it still wouldn’t be anywhere near the raw power I’d need to break this. I’m hoping you can help me whittle it down a little.”

Cyrilo gave a long, exasperated sigh. “I’ll certainly try. I bet it’ll be fun to work on, but damn, this is really bad.”

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed. I’m also going to speak to Sir Elyot at the knight academy. Maybe he can offer some insight.”

“Good luck. I told you before about how he and I had a falling out when his lover decided to work for me. I bet you can guess who it was.”

“Are you serious?”

“Lewis and Bella, a mess for the ages. I’m not sure he’ll be pleased to see you. Anyway, let’s change the topic to something brighter. I know you have the elven queen waiting for you, but is there any chance I could talk you into doing another show? This city aches for a display of your skill.”

“I was thinking about that, and I actually have something different in mind. Hold on.” He moved back to her door. “Yo! Daniel! Come here!”

Daniel entered the study. “What’s up?”

“Cyrilo and I were talking about me doing a show, and I thought you and I could do one together.”

A look of horror crossed Daniel’s face, but he narrowly suppressed it. “Dude, I’m flattered, really, but—”

“Not that kind of show, but your reaction was definitely worth me being intentionally vague. Suffice it to say, I can’t take the risk of word about another “lecture” reaching Elisandra or Aithorn. I’m talking music.”

“What, you want that harp guy to make you a guitar?”

“Don’t need him to.” Noah held out his hands, and an illusory guitar appeared. “Due to my wealth of life experience, I’m quite fluent in almost every instrument, and thanks to my magic, I can conjure copies of them from memory. I figure I could back you up with a keyboard, drums, or—”

Daniel grabbed Noah by the shoulders with a stern look on his face. “Noah, I’m going to ask you a very dire question, and I need you to answer me honestly.” He paused. “Can you can play bass?”

The illusory guitar in Noah’s hands went from five strings to four. “You bet your ass I can play bass.”

Daniel gained the widest smile. “Oh, hell yes! We’re getting funky up in this house tonight!”

Cyrilo was confused. “Funky? What does that mean? Is it gross? Because it sounds gross.”

“It’s a genre of music,” said Noah.

“It’s a way of life,” added Daniel.

----------

That evening, Valia left her home, riding on Shannon’s back.

“You know I trust Lord Noah completely, but pray to tell, why would he invite us to a brothel, of all places?” Shannon asked squeamishly.

“I honestly don’t know. The answer is either really good or really weird. He’s had a strange connection to the Knight’s Sheath since he first came here. It’s a big part of why we had to leave the country in the first place, and it’s had a surprisingly powerful influence on Colbrand these past couple of years. Now that he’s back, I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen.”

They journeyed across the city, arriving at the Knight’s Sheath, where Alexis was waiting for them outside. “Lady Zodiac! Welcome!”

“Alexis! So this is where you work. Who would have thought a brothel would be the source of the Age of Information?” After Valia slid off her back, Shannon assumed her human form. “Alexis, this is Shannon. Shannon, Alexis Veres, my most dedicated student.”

“Noah told me about me all about you. It’s nice to meet you,” said Alexis.

Shannon bowed her head. “The pleasure is mine.”

“Please, come inside. We have a table prepared for you two.”

She brought them into the parlor, but it was surprisingly dark, with candles burning low in colored glasses, providing just enough light to move around without tripping, while the whole back of the room was kept in total darkness. Almost every table was packed, with people wondering what was going on. Normally, the Bard of Rock would do his evening concert, but there was no sign of him. Was it canceled? Their attention was drawn to a magical beam of light shining on the stage, revealing Madam Cyrilo. Valia and Shannon took their seats as she began to speak.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special gift for you tonight. An old friend has made his way back to the Knight’s Sheath, a legend in his own right, here to join the Bard of Rock onstage. He arrived here on the back of a dragon. I’m not kidding; he was riding the dragon that was seen circling the battlefield yesterday. It is my great pleasure to introduce Noah, the Wandering Spirit!”

Madam Cyrilo transformed into a cat and hopped off the stage as more beams of magical light ignited, shining on the back of the stage and revealing Noah and Daniel, each holding their guitars, both real and phantasmal. There was a brief moment of shock and disbelief in the crowd, and then a wave of cheering and clapping swept through the Knight’s Sheath. Valia, Shannon, Alexis, and Sophia looked around with awed smiles, unable to believe the joy and excitement. Noah hadn’t even begun to play, yet he was already getting a standing ovation.

“Good evening, patrons of the Knight’s Sheath!” Noah announced, bringing down the fervor so everyone could hear him talk. “You know, the last time I was on this stage, I wasn’t making music, but it was quite the noisy affair.” Laughter bounced off the walls. “I can tell that my friend Daniel has been taking good care of you folks.”

“Man, I’ve been spoiling them rotten,” said Daniel, acting out the banter they had prepared and inciting more laughter. “But you know, I’m not sure I could ever fill your shoes. When you left, the world got a little bit bleaker. You really are amazing. No man could ever come close to doing what you’ve done, your incredible accomplishments. I could go on and on.”

“Oh, you dirty bitch! Work the shaft!”

“Excuse you?!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I like to dirty talk when someone is sucking my dick.”

In the back, Shannon loudly snorted, and Valia choked on her drink from laughing. Sophia threw back her head, and try as she might, not even Alexis could keep a straight face. Everyone else was struggling to breathe and had aching ribs.

“Ok, that’s enough jokes,” said Noah. “I think these people want some songs. What do you say, Daniel?”

“What do I say? I say play that funky music!”

Noah began to strum his illusory guitar, filling the Knight’s Sheath with thumping cords, with Daniel joining in. That concert was one no one would ever forget. It was one wild evening.

----------

The following day, Noah made the journey to the knight academy. He was a gold-rank knight, so it’s not like anyone would stop him, but he still used his invisibility to infiltrate the premises. There was nothing quite like visiting the old alma mater. There were still a couple of weeks before the end of the year, and cadets were hard at work, honing their skills under the tutelage of their superiors. He could see the sword training class out in one of the practice fields, being taught by Valia’s replacement. No matter who took over, it would be a downgrade, but it wasn’t their fault. Who could possibly compare?

A significant difference he noticed was several new buildings being constructed rapidly, courtesy of a combination of magical and physical labor. With all these new dorms and barracks, the admittance rate would double. If this growth continued, the academy could eventually churn out knights by the battalion. With the threat of the Profane, the country couldn’t afford to be choosy, yet after building the arena, it was a wonder the city could afford to be so accommodating.

He made his way to Elyot’s lecture hall beside the library. His lessons were mostly over, and he was helping cadets with their magical dissertations. While they were busy working on their projects, he stood at the front of the room, answering questions. Noah watched as a young woman approached.

“Excuse me, Sir Elyot, can you help me with this? No matter how many times I rework the formula, it refuses to activate.”

Elyot received her scroll and looked it over. “This is for a fire spell, right? Everything appears to be in order, and you’re using the correct parchment. Tell me about the ink.”

“It’s a mixture of welmer dew, silver frog saliva, skull falcon blood, and twister ashes.”

“Interesting choice.”

“The twister ashes are likely clashing with the frog saliva,” said Noah, standing in the doorway. “I recommend mixing the ashes in a pulma flower broth, boiling it down, and then drying it in early morning sunlight.”

A bitter smile crossed Elyot’s face, and he shook his head. “Noah, the Wandering Spirit. I never thought I’d see you in my hall again.”

“What, a gold-rank knight can’t pay a visit to a respected colleague?”

The announcement sent a wave of shock through the room. These cadets had spent the last year hearing outrageous rumors and stories about the Wandering Spirit, from his fights with the legendary Valia Zodiac, to his affair with Galvin’s betrothed and then his mother, to the Night of a Hundred Heads and his battle with Prince Seraph. The man was a legend, and the fact that he bore a gold-rank emblem of the knighthood, despite everything he had done, just elevated him even further.

“I hope I’m not interrupting. There are some things I wanted to discuss.”

“Come on, let’s talk in my study.” They disappeared into Elyot’s office, with every cadet standing up and watching. “I’ve heard your story from Sir Aithorn when he arrived at the port,” Elyot sighed as he sat behind his desk. “The former king and the gold-rank knights were brought up to speed on who you really are so no one would repeat the mistake of underestimating you.”

“Good, that saves me the trouble of having to explain things over and over.”

“Speaking of explaining things over and over, I suppose you’re here to talk about Bella?”

“Only if you want to. I’m surprised you didn’t hit me with, “You got a lot of nerve showing your face around here.” or some other angry shot.”

“Honestly, what happened was such a massive catastrophe that it’s hard to assign blame to anyone in particular. I’m more disheartened than angry.”

“Cyrilo told me about you and her. I had nothing to do with Bella’s actions. At least… I didn’t intentionally do anything to set her on that path, but I’ll still apologize for how things went down. I expected her to be a bit blue after I left, but I had no idea she would develop such an obsession.”

“She was a whore. I say that not as an insult, but a fact. She left me to pursue hedonism, and I left her to pursue magic. Any thought about who she was sleeping with would have been a waste of mental energy. I’m not mad about your relationship with her, just… everything else. I tried to stop her rampage, thought that in some twisted way, it was my responsibility to put her down, as the man who once loved her. I didn’t want her to be killed by someone who only saw the monster she had become, and I thought this would close the book on she and I once and for all. She didn’t deserve the fate that befell her.”

“Any idea where she’s gone?”

“Every time there is a report of a missing person, I wonder if she’s behind it, but there are no solid leads. But she’s not why you’re really here, is she?”

“I wanted to confirm you hadn’t told anyone about my magic.”

“No, I’ve kept my mouth shut. After what you did to the princes, many people assumed you were an enemy of the country, but I knew you were just doling out punishment. Frankly, I wish someone had ground Seraph into the dirt a long time ago, and I had nothing but disdain for Galvin. Besides, a cup of avenium was well worth holding my tongue.”

“I appreciate that. As time goes by, though, I find my magical repertoire expanding to the point that I don’t need to be as secretive as I used to be. Still, I appreciate your continued discretion.

Bella was the third reason I came here, and my magic was the second. The first reason is that I want to show you something. Since you know my story, I can cut right to the chase. Remember all those exorcisms you performed that went badly? This is why.”

Noah showed him the formula for his curse, and Elyot’s eyes widened. “What in the world?”

“This is a titan-level curse, what makes me the Wandering Spirit. I communed with the spirits of nature while in Sylphtoria, and they said they couldn’t break it, but that it remained possible for me to uncover the solution for myself. I’ve laid the groundwork for a counterspell, but I need help. Cyrilo has already agreed to aid me while I’m in town, and I was hoping to recruit you as well.”

“That’s asking a lot, and I don’t mean because of how complex this curse is.”

“Look, I understand things between you, me, and Cyrilo are complicated, but we aren’t your enemies. Deep down, I know you want to be able to let this go. You’re sick and tired of being angry, but your pride won’t let you consider reconciliation because you think it should be given instead of pursued. You won’t find peace that way, trust me.”

Elyot didn’t answer, gazing at the most intricate magic circle he’d ever seen, all while chewing on his unspoken refusal like a cow chewing on cud.

“You know, since coming to this world, I’ve amassed a decent collection of magical materials, perfect for all manner of runecraft. I’m talking wyvern blood, wood from ancient Sylphtorian trees, and more avenium than you’ve ever seen in your life. Help me break my curse, and I’ll make it worth your while. Besides, look at this formula and tell me you’re not itching to take a crack at it.”

Elyot finally sighed. “I can help you work on this during my days off, but let’s do this at the Knight’s Sheath. Rumors would spread if Cyrilo were to come here, and you’ve already created a splash.”

----------

Over the coming days, Noah, Valia, and Shannon settled into a comfortable routine. Noah spent his time pouring over magical research, chipping away at his curse. When Cyrilo had time, he’d visit the Knight’s Sheath, and they would collaborate. Valia, still healing, had her nose in a book, often reading beside him while he worked. Shannon busied herself with every chore and task the house could give her, providing the aide Valia needed while bedridden. Any time Noah tried to help, she’d insist it was her duty, and her pride as their loyal servant wouldn’t allow her to trouble them. True, taking care of a house was quite different from the chores she was used to when she was with her tribe, but while in Welindar, she had observed the numerous maids that once worked in the palace, and now sought to emulate them.

Every evening, the three returned to the Knight’s Sheath for some entertainment. Noah continued performing alongside Daniel on the illusory bass, keyboard, or drums. It was good practice for his magic, and being on stage was nostalgic. A glass of Knight’s Ambrosia and the chance to hear Noah play tantalized Valia, Shannon, and countless others. One night, Noah went to the Knight’s Sheath ahead of them, and they arrived to find him alone on stage, with an elegant, phantasmal piano before him. Magical lights shined upon him as his hands moved across the illusory keys. They were made of simple mana and air, but Noah could feel them against his fingers like solid ivory.

“What’s going on?” Valia asked Cyrilo, sitting at the bar with Daniel, Alexis, and Sophia.

“Noah was curious to see how people would react to modern music without the effect of Daniel’s magic, so he proposed a solo show. So far, his experiment has been a rousing success.”

“You should have gotten here sooner,” said Daniel. “I’ve never heard anyone perform ‘Hallelujah’ like him. Fucking divine.”

The tune he was playing was a lovely stretch of cabaret verve, gentle but soulful, sensual but refined, a song that Noah felt befitted the Knight’s Sheath. The loyal patrons, used to hearing Daniel’s rock music played with his enchanted guitar, were no less bewitched by the seductive melody. Numerous women were in the crowd, gazing at Noah with lovestruck eyes and sighs of infatuation. Sophia tried not to be one of them, but it was difficult. Watching him weave the notes together into a tantalizing serenade, this man who had developed a reputation as a master of the bedroom arts, it was no wonder these women fawned over him.

Eventually, the song faded out, as much as everyone wished it would continue forever. However, after a brief pause, a new melody began, and this time, Noah spoke while he played. “This next song is one that, well, just can’t be performed alone. It requires a woman who doesn’t simply know the words, but has lived them. I’d like to welcome her onstage to help me.”

On cue, a woman stepped out from behind the stage curtains. With beautiful auburn hair, a stunning red dress, and a smile that lit up the night, she left every man feeling as though their hearts had skipped a beat. Even the women were left in awe of her beauty. “I thought you’d never ask,” she purred. “How long has it been since we bid goodbye? So long? Adieu?”

“Lifetimes,” he replied.

“And yet I see your face and smile.”

Noah continued with the song, and she began to sing, filling the Knight’s Sheath with jazz that was both sweet and sad. Her mastery of the lyrics and how she shaped her voice to perfectly match the melody of the piano were not the work of someone unfamiliar with the song, or even the genre.

Valia turned to Cyrilo. “Has he been rehearsing this with one of your girls?”

“Whoever she is, she doesn’t work for me,” said Cyrilo, bewildered.

“Alexis, Sophia, was she at the knight academy?”

“I’ve never seen her before,” said Alexis, equally surprised. “Sophia?”

“No, she’s a stranger to me.”

“Daniel?”

“I don’t know, but I think I’m in love.”

“Get in line,” said Lucius.

The woman sat up on the piano, flashing Noah bedroom eyes and a sultry smile, all while continuing to sing.

“I think she’s a memory!” Valia gasped.

“What do you mean?” Alexis asked.

“Noah can turn his memories into phantasms, mimicking their appearance and sound while remaining ethereal. He can even alter this face to look as he did in other worlds.”

“I was wondering why his age seemed to change,” said Alexis, “why he’d be as I knew him one moment, then seem twenty years older the next. I thought I was losing my mind.”

“Every instrument he plays is completely immaterial, meaning he’s the only one who can actually touch them. But look at how she sits on the piano. I think she’s a phantasm as well.”

“You mean she’s a memory of someone he knew in a past life?” Sophia asked.

Valia and Shannon exchanged a glance. “I’m not so sure.”

After the show, when the parlor had cleared out, all the customers either staggered out the doors or upstairs. Noah and the others gathered around a table with a couple bottles of Knight’s Ambrosia and several glasses, talking the evening away.

“That was you?!” Daniel exclaimed.

“From a past life, yes. It takes a lot of mana to project a former visage on its own instead of wearing it on me, but I thought this would be a good chance to try it. I was basically just flirting with myself on that stage.”

“That’s not the point,” said Sophia. “We’re all just shocked that you were once… you know.”

“It’s happened several times. After every dozen or so male births, I’d end up with a female host. Bodies are merely vessels to me, temporary vehicles piloted by my soul. There is no sense of pride or identity. Rather, it’s like comparing riding in a wagon vs. sailing on a boat.”

“Are women the wagons in that metaphor or the boats?” Alexis asked.

“Whichever one offends you the most. Frankly, I was glad for the opportunity. I got to do a ton of things I never could in a male body, and see and learn things from different perspectives. I sometimes like to think of myself as a living archive of the human experience, and those lives helped me fill a lot of gaps. Do you think all my knowledge of women and sex comes from just being around them for thousands of years? No, I got an exclusive look at how the other side lives. And let me tell you, if I seem hedonistic in THIS life, you should have seen what I was like when I had a female body to play with. I made the Knight’s Sheath look like a convent.

Here, this is me during my time as an exotic dancer.”

He held out his hand and projected his mana, having it take the form of a stripper pole growing out of the middle of the table, upon which swung a half-naked woman. Obsidian-black hair, H-cup breasts, and an hourglass figure all came together into a sight that left everyone’s eyes wide.

“My penis is so confused right now,” said Daniel, watching the projection do a pole routine that would put the most seasoned strippers to shame. “I mean, you have… you have… tits! Those aren’t boobs, those are tits!”

“All natural, too. They were absolute murder on my back, but God, were they fun to play with.”

“This is so much to process,” said Alexis.

She was then shocked as the projection looked her way and got down on all fours, crawling towards her with a lascivious smile while gazing deep into the windows of her soul. Alexis stared at the beautiful woman’s face, trying to find some hint or tell to remind her that it was just a specter conjured by Noah’s magic, but the projection was perfect, and all of her instincts were telling her that the woman was real. The look in her eyes was making Alexis’s heart race.

“In another world, in another life, you and I would have had so much fun together,” the illusion murmured before leaning forward and kissing her, imparting no physical touch upon her lips, but blessing her with the scent of perfume, all while Sophia gawked. Noah dispelled the illusion, leaving Alexis sitting in her chair, looking like she had just been struck by lightning.

“Why did you keep this a secret from me?” Valia asked, amused.

“I wasn’t keeping it secret, so much as waiting for the best moment. See, I could tell you, but I could only tell you ONCE, and I wanted to make it count. So, I’ve been biding my time, trying to figure out an entertaining way to let the cat out of the bag. I’d say this is it.”

“Well done,” the elf giggled, looking at Alexis, who was touching her lips with eyes as wide as dinner plates.

“So, were all of your bodies just throwaways?” Cyrilo asked.

“Well, maybe not all of them. There were some I was actually pretty proud of for all the work I put in, whether they were loaded with mechanical implants or had been cultivated to reach the pinnacle of health. My favorite body, my absolute masterpiece, was the culmination of all my knowledge of physical fitness, gene manipulation, and killing techniques. I was a war god, bulletproof, fireproof, able to swim to the bottom of the ocean and climb the tallest mountains like it was nothing. I obliterated armies and dominated the most powerful nations with just my fists. As a warrior, that was my prime. Now, I’m just a shadow of my former self. I lived a good four hundred years or so in that body, probably the only body I ever felt truly comfortable in, that I felt was a worthy vehicle for my soul.”

“Were you ever beaten?” Shannon asked.

Noah chuckled and leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling with a wry, bitter smile. “You might call it coincidence, destiny, or an act of God, but inevitably, Mother Nature wins in the end, and she is a cruel bitch. A meteor struck the earth, erasing all life and hurling me into space, where it took me a week to finally die. There is no shame in getting beaten by the best, and I suppose I should be proud that that’s what it took to kill me, but damn. A thousand years of training, research, and struggle, combining the past and the future for the perfect body, and in the end, I was killed by a rock, like some cave goblin getting his skull cracked open by another cave goblin. I deserved a more intricate demise.”

“So, since you apparently were such a warlord badass, I guess you can solve an argument for us,” said Daniel.

“Oh God,” Cyrilo groaned.

“Noah, you rode here on a dragon. You think he could beat ten thousand ducks in a fight?”

Noah took a long, deep breath. “Do the ducks have a plan?”

“They have a plan!”

----------

The next morning, Elyot arrived at the Knight’s Sheath and was met by Sophia.

“Sir Elyot, welcome,” she said with a bow.

“Lady Rosege, hello. I’m here to help Sir Noah with his curse and was told he and Cyrilo are working together. I assume they’re in her study.”

“Upstairs, actually. They started in her study, but, well, they ran out of room. Please come with me.”

Elyot followed Sophia upstairs. “I thought you were Cyrilo’s assistant, helping her out with runecraft. Shouldn’t you be taking part in this as well?”

“Believe me, I want to help, and I try to whenever I can, but this level of runecraft is so far beyond my abilities, I just end up wasting their time needing to be explained everything. I didn’t want to get in the way, so I demoted myself to just bringing them tea and running to the market to get more ink and parchment.”

“Nonsense, you were one of my best students.”

“You flatter me, but at my level, solving this curse is like trying to put out a forest fire with a teacup. You’ll see what I mean.”

She brought Elyot to the room in question and opened the door, where Noah and Cyrilo were arguing inside. The room was quite large, too expansive to give to any courtesan, and originally used for storage. Now the walls were covered with scrolls displaying magic circles, runic formulas, and diagrams. A large table sat in the center, covered in ink bottles, rolls of parchment, and mediums for in***********ion. They had been working in here on and off over the course of several days.

“I’m telling you, this sequence here is unbalanced. We’re not getting anywhere because the diction is holding us back,” said Noah.

“And I’m telling YOU that if we change this sequence, we’ll have to come up with an entirely new medium/ink combination, which would require rewriting the entire formula from scratch.” Cyrilo countered.

“If the combination we have now doesn’t work, then we need a new one. I know the idea is to whittle down the energy required, but that doesn’t mean we should be lazy with the actual process.”

“I’ve been doing runecraft for over a hundred years. You’re good, I’ll give you that, but you might as well have learned this yesterday. You, of all people, should understand the value of experience over knack.”

“I see you two have been busy without me,” said Elyot, making himself known.

“Ah, Lewis, thank the gods and spirits alike. Maybe you can convince him.”

“Welcome to the party,” Noah said. “Let me get you up to speed. This is my curse over here.” He brought Lewis to one of the scrolls on the wall, painstakingly inked with thousands of characters copied from the original magic circle. He then directed Elyot to a second scroll beside it. “And this is my original counter spell. It’s pretty barebones, but at the very least, it serves as a proof of concept.”

“Ah, yes, a Felman-Oster Formula. I remember when we went over these in class. It’s quite impressive already. You put a lot of work into this.”

“Not nearly enough. Check the energy cost.”

Elyot skimmed through the counter spell while muttering to himself, only to fall silent. He stepped forward to ensure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. “That’s not right, that can’t be right.”

“I’ve done the math over a dozen times, and this is the power needed to break my curse. Please, check it yourself, and tell me I’m wrong. I’m begging you, tell me I’m wrong.”

Elyot gave the counter spell a more thorough look, hoping Noah’s math was incorrect, with his hand slowly rising to cover his mouth when he realized it wasn’t. The measure of energy required was so high that the exponents might as well have had their own exponents. “My God, does this much power even exist in the universe?”

“It does, but actually harnessing it just isn’t possible. Using magical tech in Welindar to perform the calculations, I managed to bring it down by about 8%, just barely cutting into the fat of this beast, and working together, Cyrilo and I have lowered it further to 12%. The problem is the intricacy of the curse. It’s so complex that it might as well be its own language. That 12% reduction basically represents the 12% of the curse we can actually read. So, ready to dive in?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Thus, Elyot joined in the work. His job was deciphering the curse, but it wasn’t easy. A rune’s definition was fixed, but its effect depended on how it interacted with the other runes in the sequence. Like math, there was an order of operations, and two runes next to each other didn’t necessarily mean that they directly correlated with each other. The ‘path’ could start on one rune and then jump to another further down the line, then to a third somewhere in the middle, and so on. The greatest sages in history had devoted their lives to isolating and studying the various patterns of the path, which were affected by everything from the ink used, to the phases of the moon.

He’d *********** a rune and try to figure out which was next in the sequence. Considering there were over a thousand runes, it was quite tedious and complicated. He’d follow a path as long he could, trying to determine the pattern, only to meet a dead end in the form of a rune that turned the sequence to gibberish, forcing him to start over. Noah had taken extensive notes through his efforts, laying out failed paths he had attempted to follow. It saved Elyot a lot of time, but it was also disheartening, finding out every idea he came up with had already failed, and it was getting harder to develop new ones. But like Noah said, 12% had been deciphered, and many paths had already been established, so there had to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

While Elyot worked on deciphering, Cyrilo was busy testing new medium/ink combinations. All materials could conduct mana, but their conductivity levels could vary wildly, same with their affinity for certain kinds of magic. Calculating conductivity and formulating combinations was a branch of mathematics all on its own, and finding an ink and medium union that befit Noah’s curse was truly testing her abilities. Avenium showed a lot of promise, but it was just one ingredient. She had to determine the conductivity of other ingredients that would complement it, and then actually figure out what those ingredients were.

Noah focused on the counter spell, trying to make it as powerful as possible. Even if they got the spell’s cost down to 1%, that would still be far more energy than his body could possibly generate. Whatever power source he would eventually use, he had to find a way to multiply it like a solenoid augmenting an electric charge.

“Were you ever able to prove the multiverse exists?” Elyot eventually xasked as he leaned back in his chair, needing to direct his eyes anywhere but the parchment before him.

“What?”

“I understand that you’ve experienced it, but do you have anything we can really go on? Maybe if we could find a runic sequence that actually depicts the multiverse and its effects, that could act as the key to opening this lock.”

“I was able to find evidence. A long time ago, I published a paper on the existence of dark matter and how it relates to the Multiverse Theory.”

“Dark matter?” Cyrilo asked.

“Dark matter, or really, dark energy—not to be confused with dark magic and Profane power—is the phenomenon of gravity being exerted without a source. Scientists studying the expansion of the universe noticed that not only was the expansion accelerating, but the heavenly bodies were moving in ways as dictated by gravity, without present mass to exert a pull. You understand this world as heliocentric, the planet revolving around the sun per its gravitational pull. However, imagine the sun was gone, but gravity was still causing the planets to orbit the empty space. That is the effect of dark energy, which makes up most of the energy in the universe.

Dark matter is a theoretical matter, basically, a placeholder until a better explanation can be found. It is described as matter that is both intangible and invisible, but still exerts a gravitational pull. I spent decades studying the energy of the cosmos and the movements of celestial objects. My theory is that dark matter is just ordinary matter, simply in parallel universes, exerting a gravitational pull that bleeds across dimensions, like water soaking through the pages of a book. If this world’s sun were to suddenly disappear, but everything continued to orbit the empty space, it was because that sun, present in universes identical to this one and occupying the same location, was applying a gravitational pull that affected our universe.

Like I said, I found evidence, but not proof. Several people disagreed with me, but no one could refute me. Frankly, it was one of my few scientific successes. I’ve spent a long time trying to crack the secrets of the universe, but though everything I made could get close, nothing ever succeeded.”

“Maybe dark energy is just mana?” Cyrilo suggested.

“Perhaps something similar, but every universe had dark energy, yet this is the first world I’ve ever come to with magic.”

“What else did you work on? I’m curious how mankind could reach such heights without magic,” asked Elyot.

“The ironic thing is that the technology of my worlds would look exactly like magic to you. In fact, applying ink to a medium is very similar to how electronic devices work. It’s all about the flow of power. For technology, we use the power of electricity, which is basically domesticated lightning. All matter in the universe is composed of particles called atoms, and atoms are made of smaller particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. Positive, neutral, and negative. When an atom has an extra proton or electron, it gains a positive or negative charge.”

Noah pulled out his phone, removed the back, and showed it to Elyot.

“My phone works by channeling electrons through metals in various sequences like mana through runes, and those sequences are turned into information. The square piece here is the battery, which contains the power. For a while, this thing was just a paperweight because I had no way to recharge the battery, but magic solved that problem. Cyrilo, I told you all this before, right?”

“Yes, there is a book in the parlor with all this information.”

“Perfect. To answer your earlier question, Sir Elyot, there was my attempt at a teleportation device. It was a machine that would use gravity to fold space the way you fold a map, allowing two locations to converge and for a doorway to open. At least, that’s what it was supposed to do. My team and I managed to manipulate gravitons to make things float and move, but we could never make it powerful enough to actually fold space and connect two locations. And that was just the best of many attempts at teleportation devices.

Then, there was my struggle with faster-than-light travel. The closest I ever got was a machine that would inflate space behind a craft and compress space in front of it, trying to mimic the expansion of the universe, like a ship riding a tidal wave with a perpetual whirlpool always in front of it. To my shame, I wasn’t the one who invented this tech. It was actually a race of planet-conquering aliens, but I repurposed it for my own uses and made some improvements. I reached 99% of the speed of light, useful for interplanetary travel, but useless for my endeavors.

And time travel, time travel remains an insurmountable wall. By manipulating gravity, we could alter the flow of time, and make things age faster and slower, but we couldn’t reverse time or open a portal and jump back to the past. The problem, I believe, was getting physical particles to be in two places at once. The atoms in your body always have and always will exist unless converted into pure energy, and nature does not like it when they occupy two spaces simultaneously.

There is something called the Double Slit Experiment, which shows that photons—units of light—actually can be in two places at once, and will change their behavior if they are observed. I theorized that if the body could be converted into pure energy through matter-antimatter annihilation, it could pass through space-time using harnessed gravitons as a guide rail, and return to solid matter in a different time period. The problem, of course, was finding a way to convert that energy back into your body, and harnessing enough gravitational power to punch through space-time without just chucking yourself into a black hole.”

Since he was a child, Elyot had been lauded as a genius. Reading and writing, mathematics, potion brewing, runecrafting; he excelled in all academic fields. Though humbled by a researcher’s lifetime of trial and error, it was rare to find a challenge that could best him or a concept that could escape him, yet so much of Noah’s explanation had gone over his head, that he wondered if he was just a rube in a robe. Now he understood why Sophia had excused herself from the project.

The three scholars worked themselves to the bone in that room. Sophia would routinely check in, offering tea and seeing if they needed her to get them supplies. Each time she entered the room, she’d find them in different places, doing whatever habit would help them come up with the next idea. They’d change their seats, pace back and forth, and make small, frustrated noises. She came in at one point to find Cyrilo lying on the table like a sacrificial altar, staring up at her work glued to the ceiling. Elyot was sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and scrolls, twisting himself back and forth to reach for whatever it was he needed. Noah resembled a painter, standing before his unfinished piece with a spot of ink on his cheek and a look of stone-like focus.

As the morning turned into the afternoon, stress and frustration caused tempers to flare and lips to loosen, and Sophia got little snippets each time she opened the door.

“No! The Knight’s Sheath did NOT start the epidemic of crotch lice! Who told you those lies?!” Cyrilo once yelled at Elyot.

“So there I was, walking the halls of the Kremlin in my scuba suit and clown wig, absolutely hungover and strung out like you wouldn’t believe, bleeding from shrapnel wounds and my scrotum piercing, and wouldn’t you know it? My boss says the mission ain’t done yet. We still got to find the gerbil that swallowed that microchip,” Noah said while doing a handstand for a reason known only to him.

“I just don’t trust dwarves,” Elyot staunchly announced during a conversation that had taken a wrong turn. “I understand what you’re saying, and I know there are good ones like Berholm, but I’ve been burned too many times. Mark my words, those little hairy bastards are up to something. You can see it in their eyes.”

As afternoon turned to evening, she found them sitting at the table with a familiar smell in the air. “Are you smoking that gonlief with the special powder again? I would have joined if you told me!”

“Just trying to shake some ideas loose. Sometimes this helps,” said Noah, looking the most normal of the three.

“I’m not sure this is helping,” Cyrilo mumbled, her head hanging off the back of her chair. “I’m having a lot of ideas, and none of them are good, at least not for what we’re doing. I still like the concept of an ambrosia fountain downstairs.”

Elyot had his ear to the desk, staring off into space. “There is so much beauty in the world.”

“Daniel wants to know about tonight. Are you performing?” asked Sophia.

“The stage is his once more. I’m taking tonight off.”

Sophia seemed dejected, but then chuckled. “For the better, I suppose, given your state of mind. Anyway, I hope you three can join us back in the parlor. I imagine some fresh air would do you good.”

It was sound advice, so Noah, Cyrilo, and Elyot called it a day. All three of them felt like their brains had been beaten black and blue by the brutal curse enigma. As someone who had spent many sleepless nights studying in med school, law school, and other academies, Noah should have been more resilient to the burnout, but even his mind felt frayed. Decoding the curse and figuring out the counter spell was taking every iota of intellect he could squeeze out of his brain, and it used up a lot of mental stamina. Noah entered the parlor just as Valia and Shannon arrived for the evening show.

“I see you’ve been working hard. Made any luck with the curse?” Valia asked, recognizing the look of scholarly fatigue.

“Some, but it feels like the difficulty just gets exponentially harder the more we advance.”

“Better to make slow progress than no progress,” said Valia before she leaned forward and kissed him.

Behind the bar, Alexis saw them and averted her eyes, something she couldn’t help but do whenever Noah and Valia showed affection. Though it shamed her to admit it, seeing Noah kiss Valia and be so intimate with her made Alexis jealous. Valia was her hero, her inspiration, and her lifelong crush. She was loyal to Sophia, and wanted to spend her life with her. Still, her feelings for Valia Zodiac, be they romantic, sexual, or professional, could not be so easily buried.

It didn’t help that Noah was her partner. He and Alexis shared a unique friendship, complicated to say the least, and nearly broken by his night with Sophia. It took all of Alexis’s strength to forgive Noah for that, and now watching him lay his hands on Valia, whom she idolized, made her feel sick. It made her feel like she couldn’t trust Noah, that he was an intruder in her life rather than a friend. She had overheard Noah and Sophia going at it, and detailed de***********ions of his fornication with Allison Crowberry and Ziradith Herald. It disgusted her how easily she could imagine what his and Valia’s sex life was like. Perhaps it was fortunate she had been disowned by her family, for Alexis feared what might happen if Noah crossed paths with her mother or sisters.

She wasn’t blind to the residual feelings between Noah and Sophia either. The two could never be just friends after what they did together, and absence made the heart grow fonder. Sophia worked hard to resist it, but Alexis could see her swooning for him, and her shared discomfort at the sight of Noah and Valia being affectionate. While distraught by Sophia’s continued subconscious pining, Alexis could not blame her, for nor could she deny feeling the same jealous pull towards Valia. Though entwined by limitless love for each other, Alexis and Sophia were both afflicted with greedy hearts.

After enjoying some drinks and Daniel’s music, Noah, Valia, and Shannon returned to the Zodiac home, where they had dinner and then moved upstairs. In the darkness, Valia and Shannon purged Noah of all his frustration, one grunt at a time. The next day, Noah and Elyot returned to the Knight’s Sheath for another round against their unbeatable enemy. Once again, the three were vanquished by the insurmountable wall of runes. They had hit a wall, and all progress had halted.

“What if the curse is incomplete?” suggested Elyot, staring out the window.

“What do you mean?” asked Cyrilo.

“I was up all night, going over the sequencing again and again in my mind, and something was standing out, though I could not put my finger on it. Now I know. Noah, maybe the reason why we can’t read the curse is because it isn’t finished yet. You simply have a piece of a much larger spell, a fragment that reached formulaic balance. Perhaps it wasn’t originally a curse, but a power for which you lost or never received the ability to control. We can’t follow the path because it trails off the edge of the page.”

“There is abundant precedent,” said Cyrilo, “numerous known instances of curses born from mages’ failed attempts to gain power. Instead of unlocking a new ability, they couldn’t balance the spell and suffer only the side effects. I was lucky since, despite the aging issue, my curse succeeded in giving me eternal life.”

“But while that explains why we’ve hit a dead end, it isn’t all that helpful. If anything, I should hope you’re wrong. Look at that curse, that big fucking curse. How much more do you think there could be? There is no way to know. For a reincarnation and dimensional time travel ability, it could be a few extra lines, or a million runes. Can you imagine extrapolating a million-rune formula from a single fragment? Imagine just trying to balance a million-rune formula.”

“All I know is it’s a possibility you should consider, because we are utterly stuck. I’ve wrung my brain like a washcloth, trying to squeeze out every last possible idea, and I’ve run dry. Unless something changes to lead us in a new direction, I have no idea where to go from here.”

“He’s right,” said Cyrilo. “We buckled down and grilled this curse with everything we had. We made definite progress, but we’ve reached the limit of what we can achieve given how the current variables are set.”

Noah rolled his head. “Shit. Just shit,” he muttered. He then held out his hand and conjured a pair of leather pouches. “Here, I made you two some goody bags as a thanks for all your help. I’m sure these materials will be valuable to you. Consider this project suspended until further notice.” He then got to his feet, retrieving his coat and his hat.

“Where are you going?” Cyrilo asked.

“I need some time to think, clear my head. I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back to collect all the work later, so please just leave it where it is.”

Noah left the Knight’s Sheath and began wandering the streets of Colbrand. He kept turning over Elyot’s suggestion in his mind, feeling his dread increase with each passing moment. Was it even possible for his curse to be broken? Or was he going to be stuck wandering the multiverse for all eternity? Eternity, the word invoked a terror in him that no one could understand. He was so tired, so mentally and emotionally exhausted, yet fate would not let him close his eyes. It didn’t matter how much he enjoyed this magical world, because, inevitably, he would have to leave everything behind and start anew somewhere else. In Buddhist teachings, existence is suffering, and he knew that better than anyone.

He continued walking, hoping the city scenery would distract him. It had been a year since he left, and though plenty had happened, the streets remained the same. Commerce flourished in the market, and food stalls and spice merchants filled the air with appetizing aromas. Hot metal chimed as it was hammered into shape in the many blacksmith shops, and beasts of burden snorted as they pulled carts and carriages across town. For a city that had just recently lost its king and been attacked by a monster army, maintaining order and prosperity didn’t seem to be such a struggle. Noah couldn’t deny that Galvin was doing an excellent job of holding everything together.

As Noah walked, he indulged in a newfound hobby: handing out alchemy diamonds to beggars and the homeless. Street orphans, hearing of his generosity, would flock to him and run off cheering and laughing with their new wealth, while also given advice on spending it wisely. Since he could generate an infinite fortune, it was only natural to share it. Inevitably, the more of these diamonds he generated, the less valuable they would become, but it wouldn’t be an issue any time soon, and by the time it did, the people he helped now would be lifted out of poverty. News of this fountain of wealth often attracted thieves. The downtrodden who approached with humility and asked politely were rewarded, while the riffraff who approached with greed and issued threats were punished. Not only did this charitable hobby help the poor and destitute, but it also earned Noah a reputation of respect and adoration.

Eventually, Noah found himself heading to the arena, driven by curiosity. There were rumors about whether or not it was finished and open to the public, but as Noah approached the front entrance, he found several hundred people had gathered, with more joining every moment. The crowd had formed before a stage upon which Galvin stood, appearing to be in the middle of some kind of speech.

“This arena stands as a beacon to our allies and enemies, telling them that even while beset by evil and stricken with tragedy, our glorious city continues to grow and thrive! We will continue to build, no matter who seeks to tear us down! The Profane are our mortal enemies, and we must unite against them! They seek to wipe us out because we are blessed by the gods! But no army can crush our spirit! No demon can get in the way of our destiny! Soon, this arena will serve as the crucible upon which the blades of Uther will grind and sharpen, where we show the world the might of humanity!”

Every time he paused, his subjects would cheer for him. After saving the city with the Wassengel, he was beloved by the public. He was their shining hero, wielding divine authority to smash the enemies of Uther. Noah hung back, surveying the scene while floating in an ocean of fervor.

“Dark times are coming, my children! The Profane are threatening us once again, and just like our ancestors, we must rise up to meet them! We must endure the troubles that await! We must remain vigilant for the agents of the enemy, always looking for a weakness to exploit! They prey on doubt, on discourse, on faithlessness, so we must remain united! One heart! One soul! We must devote ourselves to the cause, body and mind, and cast out those who seek to hinder our victory! I saw them. Ask anyone who was there that fateful day; they all saw them! The servants of the Profane! The savages of Handent! The beastmen and their unholy magic are a blight upon our kingdom! They want to destroy us, and they will succeed if we don’t fight back! The beastmen are our enemy!”

‘Ah, so that’s his game,’ Noah thought.

He had spent a lot of time immersed in politics, and learned that one of the best ways to win supporters is to cater to their insecurities and egos. Give a person someone to fear, someone to blame, and someone to call inferior, and they’ll gladly hand over all free and rational thought. Typically, propaganda is built on a foundation of lies, but Galvin had a legitimate enemy and the perfect scapegoat. The beastmen of Handent and their shamanism had been an unremitting nemesis for Uther, and the Profane had used them to try to destroy Colbrand. They could be blamed for everything, and no one would stand up for them.

The ironic thing was that Noah had tried this very strategy with Lupin, except he specified only the Pack and the Profane. Following his victory over Kaisen, Noah had sought to harness the prince’s momentum and cultivate his support among the beastmen of Welindar. He had written speeches for Lupin to recite from his balcony, poetic rants to galvanize the citizens and ensure their support. Unfortunately, Lupin saw through the intent of the speeches and objected, not wanting to participate in such manipulative tactics. It was one of the few times he hadn’t followed Noah’s advice. Galvin, however, took to it like a natural, and the crowds were eating it out of his hands.

“I stand here today before a monument built by my father, a place where the violence that plagues our society will be captured and harnessed, and where the loyal citizens of Colbrand will be rewarded with endless entertainment! The Profane killed him before he could see his work completed, so I will do so in his name! Before Knight’s Day, a fighting tournament will be held here, the first of a yearly tradition! For this, I invite all the warriors in the land to join and compete! Those who would throw their lives away in the Red Revelries, I ask you, would you rather die in obscurity in the gutter, or prove your skill and power before the adoring crowd?

The competition is open to everyone. All fighters are welcome, even knights and academy applicants. And for the winner, know that not only will your name be engraved in the annals of history, not only will you receive your weight in gold, but you will be entitled to silver-rank status in the knighthood!”

Galvin’s proclamation set off an explosion of excitement in the crowd. To be silver-rank earned great perks and respect, and claiming it just by winning one tournament was quite tantalizing. Even if they weren’t interested in joining the knighthood, there is no way any reveler could resist such a challenge. Hopefully, this would exhaust the would-be evening brawlers and satiate their need for bloodshed. And after it was over, there would still be Knight’s Day. Though Noah had no interest in taking part in the fighting, he couldn’t say no to watching. After all, if his instincts were right, he’d want a good seat, because there was no way this would end well.

Please comment! Tell me your thoughts!
3 comments

oldFReport 

2025-01-24 14:26:47
really like you leave some hope lupin survived. Also great you got daniel and noah back together. I do hope you dont let bella suffer to long. In relation to my last year post: i still dont get the importance of avantium

Ryojin JakkaReport 

2025-01-20 09:47:10
Love it. Noah's curse not being complete is distressing.

JasonSensationReport 

2025-01-17 15:49:59
Where's the sex?

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