Yarid walked into the kitchen; dawn sunlight was just starting to peer in through the small kitchen windows above the sink. Glorissa was sitting at the kitchen table, eating a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast; the skillet was soaking in water in the sink. Yarid went to the ice box and began to rummage for food. Excellent! This might be the perfect opportunity for me to ask Glorissa to forgive me and to resume her romance with me.

  “I heard that you had sex with Rose,” Glorissa said.

  Yarid blushed. “Yes. Who told you?”

  “Rose. She said she asked you to forgive her, one thing led to another and, well, you know.”

  “Yes, I do know. I was there.”

  Yarid found some smoked sausage and pulled it out and went looking in the cabinets for a plate and knife.

  “I’ve realized something,” Glorissa said. “You know, Yarid, all you do is pace back and forth and have sex with people. That’s all you do. I’ve learned that about you.”

  Yarid frowned. “Who else do you know who I slept with besides Rose and Nathan?”

  “I’ve started making friends with the neighbors on this street. It won’t hurt our cover to pretend that a real family is living here in case anyone wonders what is going on in this house. If the police come by, our neighbors will vouch for us—because of me. You seduced that boy who lives in the house across the street, and the young woman who works in the building two streets down, and the young man who drives the horse-drawn carriage for the family that lives three blocks away. And there are some particularly salacious and lewd rumors about the wife of the doctor who lives in that Manor House on the corner of our street and the things she does behind her husband’s back. Rumors involving things she does with a faerie elf man who wears a golden king’s crown and is very tall and muscular and has long blonde braided hair that he wears down his back. Do you know any other crowned elf kings who live nearby, Yarid? How many kings do you elves have anyway? With their hair done into one huge, long braid?”

  Yarid finally found a knife and a plate. He sat at the table and began to cut the sausage into slices.

  “I do other things besides just walking back and forth and having sex.”

  “How frequently?” Glorissa asked. “How often do you do other things?”

  Yarid took a bite, chewed, swallowed, and looked at Glorissa. “At a normal rate.”

  “Really, Yarid?” Glorissa asked.

  “Well… sometimes.”

  Glorissa looked at him.

  “Every once in a while,” Yarid said.

  She continued to look at him.

  “Not less than twice each month,” Yarid said. He shrugged his shoulders.

  Glorissa laughed. “I thought so. I’ve got you all figured out, Yarid King of the Elves. You’ll make a great friend—but I would never date a boy like you.”

  “You think you have me figured out,” Yarid said. “Perhaps you do. But perhaps you do not.” Oh my God, how I long to be with you, Glorissa! Yarid thought. I pray that, one day, you will see the real me, and reconsider our love. But it appears that day is not today.

  “We’ll never know for sure,” Glorissa said. “But I would wager a guess that I do.”

  “We shall see,” Yarid said. The two of them continued to eat their breakfast and said nothing else to each other.

  Kylus looked in the mirror in his bedroom. His short-cut blonde hair, young-looking blue eyes and white skin looked back at him. He frowned. His reflection frowned too. He ran his hand through his hair, swallowed, and attempted to smile. His white-toothed goofy grin smiled back at him from his mirror. This will be okay, he thought to himself. No. It won’t. Going back to the Sword fills me with dread. But I have to do it anyway. I have to return to the Barracks of the Order of the Servants of the Sword. The team needs me!

  He sighed. He tightened the collar of his green jacket around his throat with his left hand. He then lowered his left arm and placed his left hand on the knob of the handle of the sword at his hip. He caressed the handle, with greater love than he would show towards any lover. The feel of the handle against his fingers was a happy, reassuring sensation, although the sword itself was as cold as death. While his fingers brushed against the sword, he felt a single drop of cold sweat form at his forehead and trickle down to his nose. I can put this off no longer, although I fear it. Yarid is downstairs, waiting for me. Here I go! He opened his bedroom door and rushed out, going so fast that his doubts would not have enough time to slow him down.

  Yarid was sitting in a chair at the dining room table. The elf king was wearing chains in an X across his chest and had his giant sword strapped to his back. Kylus grabbed a seat at the table next to him.

  “Great to see you, Kylus!” Yarid said. Yarid smiled at him. Kylus noticed that the elf’s blonde hair was more deeply golden than his own, and almost looked like long fine strands of fiber made of real gold, whereas Kylus’s hair was a paler, whiter, less intense blonde. The fae’s eyes were also a deeper, more vivid blue, while Kylus remembered his own eyes from the mirror as being the pale water-blue of the ocean near the coast. Kylus had pink-white skin, and he was thin and had a good amount of muscle, but Yarid’s skin was so perfectly white and his body was so muscular that the elf looked as though his body had been chiseled by a sculptor from a solid block of pure white stone. He would be better-looking than me, if such a thing as sexual attractiveness existed, Kylus thought.

  “I am looking forward to conducting this raid of the Serve-Swords Barracks with you,” Yarid said. Yarid noticed Kylus examining his features, but Yarid chose not to comment on it, and neither did Kylus. There was no desire in Yarid’s eyes when Yarid looked at Kylus, in contrast to, for example, the looks of hunger and lust that Kylus had seen in Yarid’s eyes when Yarid looked at Glorissa. Instead, Yarid’s gaze at Kylus held the simple yet focused concentration of someone looking at their partner in crime. “So, Kylus, what is your plan for how you and I are to proceed with our mission?”

  “Plan?” Kylus asked. “I don’t have a plan. Was I supposed to have a plan?”

  “I had expected that you would,” Yarid said. “Our mission is to infiltrate the Serve-Swords Barracks. You know the Barracks far better than I. It was your home for years. I have never been there.”

  “I’m not a planner,” Kylus said. “I’m a soldier. The generals make the plans. The soldiers just follow them.”

  “I see,” Yarid said. “If I recall, the Dark Wizard mentioned several details with respect to our mission. He said that our goals were twofold: first, to steal Serve-Sword suits of armor, which the team will wear as disguises the night of the heist. Second, to write a set of fake names on the registry of those allowed to enter the Temple, which we will use to gain entry during the heist. Do you remember?”

  “That seems correct to me,” Kylus said. I’ll take Yarid’s word for it. Plans are not my thing.

  “Do you know where in the Barracks are the materials from which we can form disguises?” Yarid asked.

  “Yes,” Kylus said. “If you go through the Main Hall, and then past Rally Hall on the Right and the Dorms and the Mess Halls on the left, there is a big room on the right where they store the equipment that’s not in use. It’s a huge room with a ton of stuff. That room will have uniforms, armor, helmets, swords, everything a Servant of the Sword would wear.”

  “Can you lead me to that room?” Yarid asked. “Rose gave me a magical bag into which I can fit any number of things. I can use Yellow magic to turn invisible, and as an elf I also have other abilities that make the fae such legendary scouts: I can stay so still and motionless that no one will hear me, I have keen hearing and eyesight to know where everyone is in any room I walk into, and I am very good at hiding and going about what I am doing without being seen or noticed. With my fae vision and hearing, I can be aware of each human head, know in what direction those human eyes are facing, and simply teleport somewhere else within the room if they are about to look my way. If you lead me into that room, I can stuff the uniforms and such into the bag. Even if there are others in the room, I can avoid their line of sight, they will not hear me, and I can accomplish this objective without detection.”

  “That’s good, because if someone does see you or hear you, they can sound an alarm, which will storm that room with literally the entire Serve-Swords army, which lives in the Barracks,” Kylus said. “Thousands of soldiers are stationed in that base.”

  “No one sees or hears an elf unless that elf desires to be seen or heard,” Yarid said. “And I am the King of the elves. Dogs can track us by smell, but other than that, I can move unseen.”

  “The Sword doesn’t like dogs. The Sword prefers cats and hates dogs. So the Sword had forbidden the Order to bring dogs into the Barracks,” Kylus said.

  “Then I have no concerns!” Yarid said. “Do not worry about me, Kylus! Just handle your end of the raid, and we’ll do fine. Now, about that list of names. Rose and I have agreed on a list of fake names for us to use. She has the names written down, and she also handed me a piece of paper with a copy of all the names. If you can get me into wherever that register is kept, if I have access to it, I can quickly write down our fake names into it. Rose gave me a pen and a small pot of ink, and I know how to write in the language of humans. If anyone nears, I will simply turn invisible until they pass.”

  “Okay,” Kylus said. “I don’t write quickly, so I can’t do that part. I can read and write some, but when I write I need to puzzle out each letter one by one, so it takes forever. Nice of you to take care of it for me.”

  “I will, but I will need access to the registry. Do you know where they keep it?”

  “Yes, everyone knows that,” Kylus said. He paused and corrected himself. “Every Serve-Sword knows that. Once you go into the Main Hall, if you go all the way to the very end, past the tower where the Sword is kept, you come to a room that connects the Barracks to the Temple of Light. There is a door, guards surround it, and the guards have a little table with a book on it. It’s a very big book bound in green leather with the mark of the Sword on the cover. The names are written in that book. I believe the door to the Temple is kept locked, so we would need the guards there to let us into the Temple when we do the heist. I have been in that room because I was put on duty to guard the door several times. I have never been through the door that goes into the Temple of Light, but I can lead you right up to it.”

  “So the book is always guarded? I cannot maintain my invisibility spell while I move, or walk, or make any motion at all,” Yarid said. “That means I cannot remain invisible and write at the same time. I will be visible when I write in the book. Unless there is a place for me to hide behind while I write?”

  “The book is out in the open, on that table,” Kylus said. “The room does have on other item of furniture: a large wooden cabinet, in which a big bronze gong hangs, and a hammer sits on a rack in the case below the gong. When you get assigned to that shift, they tell you to bang the gong with the hammer to raise the alarm if you need help. You might be able to hide behind the cabinet and still reach the book. But if you get past the entry to the back of the room where the book is, no one will be looking in that direction. The guards are usually sitting in the front of the room, bored out of their minds because no one ever attacks that door and hasn’t in a thousand years,” Kylus said. “The guards normally play dice or cards or some other game to distract themselves, or at least they did when I was on that shift.”

  “So the guards won’t notice us?” Yarid asked.

  “No, they will notice us initially, when we enter, but not after that,” Kylus said. “The room has a front door, and when it opens to let you in, they will take notice. The book is on a table behind them, and the door into the Temple of Light is behind that. Once you’re in, if they do not notice anything, they will resume their game or whatever it was they were doing. If you can sneak past the front of the room and get into the back of the room, they probably won’t see you, if you use your magical elf abilities to dodge their line of sight if they look in your direction. I guess I can go in first and try to talk to them to distract them, so that you can sneak in while they’re looking at me, if that helps.”

  “It might help,” Yarid said. “Based on your description, if I can make it into the back of the room without being seen by the guards, I think I can take it from there. Now, that leaves the question of how we get me and you into, and out of, the Barracks. The Dark Wizard said that the outer wall which surrounds both the Barracks and the Temple of Light is impervious to my Yellow teleportation magic, but that, if you can get them to open the door, I can teleport in through that opening while it is open.”

  “Okay,” Kylus said.

  “If I remember, the Dark Wizard had a plan that you would approach them and say you left some of your belongings behind when they ejected you, and request access to retrieve them?” Yarid said.

  “That plan won’t work,” Kylus said. “I don’t remember that. I assume I was so afraid of simply being with that weird creepy Dark Wizard that I didn’t think it through at the time, while in his old scary castle. I was kicked out of the Order of the Servants of the Sword with nothing other than the clothes I was wearing. They would know that I was entitled to nothing else that I could have left behind.”

  “Oh,” Yarid said. “Do you have any other ideas for how to get in?”

  “No,” Kylus said.

  “I see,” Yarid said. “And, when you approach their front gate, will they recognize you? Will they know that you are someone whom they kicked out?”

  “No, probably not,” Kylus said. “The Serve-Swords have thousands of members, I was only one among a thousand recruits, and I did not do anything remarkable to make anyone take notice of me. They would have heard of me having been kicked out, but few of them would have known me well enough to recognize my face.”

  “Then why not simply tell the guards at the gate that you are a recruit who was not kicked out?” Yarid said. “Say that you are a Serve-Sword returning from some mission abroad, and request entry. If they do not remember you, they have no reason to doubt you. You are Green. My understanding is that Greens trust Greens.”

  “Greens do trust Greens. And Greens deserve to be trusted. Unless the guards at the gate happen to include someone who knew me personally and could identify me, your plan might work,” Kylus said. “They would open the gate to let me in, and you teleport in when they do. We meet up at the Main Hall and go from there. And most likely the guards will not identify me. Very few people knew me during my time in the Barracks. I did not make friends during the Soldier Training Program. I was basically always alone, with just me and my sword.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I see,” Yarid said. “Then let that be our primary plan for getting in. But we must still make plans just in case that small chance materializes of someone knowing who you are and recognizing you at the gate,” Yarid said. “The team has coins we can spend. Our wizards have been selling fake, well, orbs, for some time now. Would a bribe to the soldiers who guard the outer gate get them to let you in, even as a disgraced ex-Serve-Sword?”

  “The Serve-Swords have honor! We do not take bribes!” Kylus said. He heard his own words. “They do not take bribes. I no longer know the honor of serving among them. But, no, if I offer them coins, they will sound the alarm immediately and try to capture or kill me on sight.”

  “Well then that will not work,” Yarid said. “Were the guards to recognize you, and you think of something to say, please improvise and say whatever you can say to talk them into opening the gate.”

  “Improvise?” Kylus asked. “That sounds like a job for a thinker. My job is to fight, not to think.”

  “Your job right now is to complete the mission, by any means necessary,” Yarid said. “But I take your point. I suppose that, if the guards choose not to open the gate for you, we have no choice but to retreat, scrap our plans, and think of something else. Perhaps after consulting with Rose or Nathan about what to do.”

  “Or with Sylis and Glorissa,” Kylus said. “They’re both equally smart to Rose and Nathan—or perhaps smarter!”

  “They may be. I have not tested each of their minds individually to measure their intelligence,” Yarid said. “If we fail, I expect the entire team will need to meet to discuss. In any case, that completes our plan. Are you ready to go now? The day is bright outside. Would it be better to wait for night to fall?”

  “No, the Serve-Swords have the Barracks full of guards on patrol at night,” Kylus said. “They put their best troops on watch for the night patrol shift. Best to go now, during the day. If I make it in, I will be merely one man among hundreds roaming and bustling throughout the Barracks. No one will notice me within the crowd during the day. I say we go now.”

  “Then let us proceed!” Yarid said.

  The two left the hideout and headed due north, up to the northeast section of Imperia. This part of the city approached the rocky cliffs that abutted the ocean to the northeast, and seagulls flew about in the sky overhead, their noises echoing down to the streets below. Yarid ran incredibly fast, at a speed no human could match, so Kylus was forced to run as fast as he could to keep up. They soon reached the Serve-Sword Barracks. The Barracks loomed to Kylus’s left, as a low, flat castle compound made of yellow blocks of stone which had the gritty quality of sand. The Barracks was behind a high wall of pure white stone; the entire wall looked as though it was one smooth giant piece of stone, with no seams or places where different blocks of stone were joined, so it had obviously been constructed using magic. And, on the right side, also behind this tall white outer wall, was the Temple of Light.

  Four towers of white stone rose up like monoliths, also having the appearance of having been poured and cast from white stone instead of being built brick by brick, like the outer wall. Like the wall, their white was a pure white that gleamed in the sunlight so brightly it almost glowed white. Nearest to Kylus was the South Tower, a very thick, stocky white tower that was a bit shorter than the others, and whose roof was flat. The West Tower was tall and thin and topped by a narrow needle-like spire, while the North Tower was colossal, a gigantic tower that looked like its own entire castle had been squeezed into it to form one very large tower-castle. The North Tower towered above the other three towers and looked large enough to house its own complete army within one tower. Then Kylus’s gaze swept farther right, and he saw it: the East Tower, a tall, graceful, thin white tower that rose up like the neck of a swan and was capped with a sharp, pointy spire, also of white. The Crystal of Light is somewhere in there, in the East Tower, Kylus thought. He held his gaze upon the slender white tower. Do I feel anything when I look at it? No, nothing—other than my desire to break into it, steal the Crystal, and be done with it. And then… I do not know what will happen next.

  Kylus walked up to the gate of the outer wall, which was formed of two tall, smooth doors of white stone set into the wall. Above the gate, at the top of the wall, was a battlement with parapets from which guards looked down onto the street below in front of the gate. Kylus looked up and made eye contact with the guards.

  “Who are you, Green?” one of the guards asked.

  “My name is… Braedyn Sharlshyler,” Kylus said. He shuddered when he said it. I don’t know why the first name to pop into my head was the name of my first lover, but they won’t know the name of some random stable boy from Leree. He was a disgusting creep, yuck! Well, forget quickly and go on.

  “And why should we know the name of Braedyn Sharlshyler?” the guard asked.

  “You should not know it,” Kylus said. These guards definitely do not seem to recognize who I am. “I am a Servant of the Sword, come back from a mission to the south. I request entry to the Barracks.”

  “Do you, now?” the guard asked. “And what Servant of the Sword comes before the house of the Sword but is not dressed in the clothes of a Servant of the Sword?”

  “My uniform and armor were damaged while on my mission,” Kylus said. “I am a Green, like you, like all the Servants of the Sword. You can trust me.” Wow, I just thought really fast! Good for me!

  The guard scratched his head. “You may be telling the truth… and I do not feel like making the effort to find and ask whoever might be the commander who would know if you were. And you’re Green. I can always trust a Green. One Green would never lie to another Green. Open the gate!”

  I’m in! Kylus thought, and he smiled. The gates swung open. Kylus looked around, but Yarid was nowhere to be seen. Is he invisible? Or did he teleport in already, the moment the gate opened? I do not know, but I cannot stand here waiting to find out.

  Kylus walked into the mouth of the gate, which opened directly into the Serve-Sword Barracks compound. He found himself at the southern tip of the Main Hall, the massive great hall that ran north-south through the heart of the Barracks like its main artery, with other veins flowing off right and left, east and west, into the various sections of the Barracks. Kylus looked around, looking for Yarid. He did not see the elf, but his vision was filled by the swarm of Serve-Swords all around him, men and women in uniform going about their business, walking and talking, a few of them laughing, most with serious looks on their faces or their voices hushed in conversation. The walls, floors and high domed ceilings were made of the same sandstone as the entire keep, carefully polished to a brilliant shine floor to ceiling, and hanging from the ceilings were green banners with gold letters proudly proclaiming: We Serve! We Serve the Sword! Kylus craned his neck up and stared at the banners. He took a moment to drink it all in, and held his gaze to look up, not caring if anyone noticed. I’m home. I’m back, among my brothers… the brothers who rejected me, Kylus thought.

  “I’m here,” Yarid’s voice said. Kylus jumped. He looked again, left and right, and spun around to look every which way, but he did not see the elf. I guess I won’t see him. He truly is good at going about unseen. I might as well go. Kylus set out through the Main Hall, headed for the equipment room, which was northward and to the east. He passed among many groups of Serve-Swords, even bumping into people as he went, but everyone had places to go and things to do, and no one took the time to notice him or really see him. He made it to the hall that broke off to his right, leading to the equipment room.

  “Can I help you?” the lone woman who attended to the equipment room said when he walked in. She was behind a desk, but no obstructions existed to going past her and getting to the row after row of Serve-Sword equipment that hung on racks in long rows behind her. I assume Yarid is here with me. Might as well keep her distracted while he nabs the loot.

  “Hi, my name is Braedyn Sharlshyler, I’m just in from a mission in the south,” Kylus said. “I lost my armor during a fight with some raiders attacking the trade route to the Five Cities, but we valiantly won the battle and fought them off! Several pieces of my equipment were casualties of the battle. So I’m looking for replacements.”

  “Take your pick,” the woman said. She motioned to the rows of equipment.

  “Thanks!” Kylus said. He browsed the rows and selected a very good-looking suit of armor, the expensive kind that belonged only to ranked Servants of the Sword, never to recruits. “Mind if I take this?” Kylus asked.

  “Take it,” the woman said.

  Kylus took the armor and went deeper into the back of the rows, where the woman could not see him. He took off his outer clothes right there and donned the Serve-Sword armor. Then something caught his eye. It gleamed and shined, like the sparkle of stars in the black night sky.

  This should replace the one they took from me when they kicked me out, Kylus thought. He took a Serve-Sword longsword from a rack. The sword’s blade was long and sharp, and its handle was slender and elegant. The sword was very light, and the handle fit perfectly into his left hand. Kylus took a few practice swings with it, chopping with it, thrusting with it, and slashing in a series of rapid strikes. The sword passed all tests. He smiled.

  Kylus took the matching sheath from the rack next to the sword and hooked it into his belt. The new sword felt right. He walked out, back in front of the woman.

  “Thank you,” Kylus said.

  “Sure. My pleasure to serve any ranked soldier,” she said.

  Kylus walked back into the Main Hall. He had an idea. He reached his hands up and pulled down the visor on the Serve-Sword armor helmet. It covered his entire face, but he could see out of the vertical slits that ran up and down the visor, although his peripheral vision was now sharply cut. If anyone might have noticed him or recognized him before, it was now impossible for them to do so. He was just one Serve-Sword soldier among many, looking exactly like all others.

  “Got them,” Yarid whispered into his ear. He turned in the direction of the sound. Again, he saw nothing.

  “Okay,” Kylus whispered. I must get used to the fae being invisible.

  Kylus made his way along the very long Main Hall. He passed by that point in the hall where he knew that, if he looked to his right, he would see the entry to the spiral staircase leading up the room where the Sword was kept; he forced his eyes to face forward and to not look there. He eventually reached the northern end of the Main Hall. He looked at the closed door at the end, and he gulped. This is it. He knocked at the door.

  The door opened. Kylus walked inside. Seven soldiers were sitting on the floor, playing a card game. They looked up from their game.

  “Who are you?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “I am Braedyn Sharlshyler,” Kylus said. “I am a rank lieutenant! I was recently leading a mission against raiders attacking the southern trade routes, but we won the battle, thanks to my leadership! Now I have returned!”

  “Have you, now,” one of the guards said. “And why exactly are you bothering us here, lieutenant?”

  I did not think this story through, Kylus thought. The guards stared at him, waiting, while he was silent. Thing of something! What rank lieutenants did I know? My old drill instructor, Garvus! The angriest man in the world!

  “Do not question me, you worthless slugs!” Kylus said. “I’m here to inspect your readiness and preparedness for an attack! Look alive!”

  “Sir yes Sir! Apologies Sir!” the guards said in unison. They jumped up from the floor and saluted and stood at attention.

  “Turn and face each other,” Kylus said. “Do not question my orders! Just do it!”

  The guards had confused looks in their eyes, but they turned and looked at each other. Kylus saw Yarid sneak in, going around the guards, and begin to write in the book on the table. Yarid wrote quickly, gave Kylus a thumbs-up sign, and then vanished. I think he teleported away. And left me here.

  “I’m done with inspecting you,” Kylus said. “Stand at ease, soldiers. Congratulations! You passed.”

  "Sir, thank you Sir! Sir, happy to serve the Sword, Sir!” the soldiers said. Kylus turned and strode from the room.

  Kylus went back into the Main Hall. He looked around and still did not see Yarid. I think we did everything he had said we needed to do. Time to leave.

  Kylus walked back the way he had come, from the north end of the Main Hall to the south end. At the exit that led into the outer gate, he approached the soldiers responsible for telling the guards to open the gate.

  “Please open the gate,” Kylus said.

  “We are under orders only to open under orders from a rank lieutenant or above, unless you have a letter sealed under a wax seal from one of the generals,” the soldier said. “Apparently someone notified the Sword that thieves may be targeting the Temple of Light, so the Sword has told us to be extra careful about who comes in and out.”

  Uh oh, Kylus thought. “The soldiers who let me in earlier didn’t seem concerned.”

  “That’s their head in a noose then. I’m not responsible for what someone else does,” the soldier said.

  “I am a ranked lieutenant,” Kylus said. “My name is Braedyn Sharlshyler. I am giving you the order to open. Open the gate.” I can’t believe I’m doing this!

  “What regiment are you with?” the soldier asked. “Let me send a runner up to them. I just need to get confirmation of your identity before I open the gate on your orders.”

  Oh God! Think! Think! Think quickly! “I’ll tell you the real reason why you must not send a runner up, and you must open the gate for me,” Kylus said. “Do you know Garvus the Green?”

  “Yes. Everyone knows him. Meanest, cruelest, nastiest of all the drill instructors in the Soldier Training Program. But the people who graduate from his training swear by the skills that he taught them. I didn’t train under him, but I know some people who did. They love, hate, fear, respect, and despise him, all at the same time.”

  “I did train under him,” Kylus said. “Tomorrow is his birthday, and some of the other ranked officers who made it out of his class are throwing him a surprise party tomorrow. Me and all the others who trained under him and earned the rank of lieutenant are planning it together. I have been tasked with going and getting the cake from some baker. I have a bakery picked out, in the marketplace in Central District. But we can’t let Garvus know, or the surprise is ruined! So the fewer people who know, the better. Send a runner up, and word will spread like wildfire, and our surprise party is ruined. I have no reason to be leaving right now, so people will start to ask where I went. Do you know how angry Garvus would be at you if he learns that his birthday surprise party was ruined because of you?”

  The soldier made his decision in a split second. “Open the gate,” the soldier said. “Send a runner up to the gate switch. Tell them to open it, now!”

  Kylus smiled. The light of the sun shined in as the gates swung inwards, revealing the city of Imperia spread out in front of him. He walked out, a wide grin on his lips.

  Nathan was walking along the streets of Imperia at night. This late at night, the streets were deserted, except for a random drunk or high person here and there, stumbling about. He moved like a shadow, his black wizard’s robes flowing around him like a cloud of black ink. His pet slime Lucy trailed behind him, but in the darkness of night, no one on the street noticed it, or if they did, they were not sober enough to believe their eyes.

  I need to gather the spell components to cast the spell to summon that imp for the boy, Sylis, for that part of the plan, Nathan thought. I know of the secret magic store that caters to wizards of Black, but, by its own magic, it appears only at night, and vanishes by day. I must hurry to reach it to have plenty of time to shop before it exits.

  Suddenly a small brown bat came flying at Nathan. Before Nathan had time to react, Lucy flung out one of its tentacles. The slime-tentacle wrapped around the bat; the bat flittered its wings and screeched but could not escape. Nathan looked at the bat, and his eyes widened. This was no bat: it was an imp-spirit having taken the form of a bat!

  “Whom do you work for?” Nathan asked.

  “Not told to tell you,” the bat-imp said. “Told to give you this.” It spat something out of its mouth. The object fell to the ground.

  Nathan bent down and picked it up. He held it up to his eyes, closed one eye, and held it right in front of his open eye. It was a small glass marble.

  “Hello, Nathan!” a voice said; Nathan jumped with surprise.

  “An echo marble,” Nathan said. “A magical marble enchanted with Green magic so that the holders of a set of marbles can all speak to one another. Hello, Uncle Lynnard.”

  “Long time no see! Not that you can see me now, but you know what I mean,” Nathan’s uncle, Lynnard Darkchurch, said through the echo marble.

  “You and I have not met face to face in a decade,” Nathan said. “Not since the family fell from grace and disbanded and we each went our separate ways.”

  “Glad you remember that! It’s the reason I hired a necromancer to send his familiar to get this marble into your hands! I had a heck of a time finding you, Nathan: I had to give one of your childhood things that I had to this necromancer so that he could get his imp to learn the scent of your magical aura, or whatever mumbo-jumbo you wizards call it,” Lynnard said. “Cost me some silver coins and a few gold coins, too. But I had a reason!”

  “Of what reason do you speak?” Nathan said. “Please be quick, Uncle. I have plans tonight.”

  “You might change them after what I say!” Lynnard said. “You know that House Thorne and House Luke were the two enemies of House Darkchurch who caused our downfall, right?”

  “Yes, I have some small vague remnant of a memory of the event that ruined my life and defined my entire adult existence,” Nathan said sarcastically.

  “Glad you remember at least a little bit of it!” Lynnard said; he did not pick up on the sarcasm. “Anyway, House Thorne has fallen from grace at the King’s court! Lord Thorne has fallen out of the King’s favor, and House Luke is not far behind! Lord Thorne and Lord Luke made enemies of Wote and Shome, which is not smart right now! I see a chance for us to gather the family, get word out to all our old retainers and soldiers who used to be loyal to us, and stage an attack! If we take down House Thorne and House Luke, it could win us the favor of the King and clear a path to restore the noble title of House Darkchurch!”

  “Really?” Nathan said. Is this real? Can this be true?

  “Yep! And I have already sent out word for our loyalists to gather! I have a spy who has learned that Lord Thorne and Lord Luke plan to celebrate the Festival of the Darkest Night at Lord Luke’s Manor House in Imperia! I’m gathering our forces in the courtyard outside the old Darkchurch Manor House in Imperia, and that night is when we’re going to attack them! If we win that battle, I think House Darkchurch is back!”

  “The night of the Festival of the Darkest Night?” Nathan asked. That’s the night we’re planning our heist!

  “Yeah, it has to be that night! Lord Luke’s Manor House is much less well-protected than Lord Thorne’s estate, and their guards and soldiers will all be drunk and high, if what my spy said about the celebration they’re planning is true! We strike that night! And we return House Darkchurch to glory!”

  “Okay,” Nathan said.

  “You know where the Darkchurch Manor House is, Nathan. At least, I hope you do. I hope you haven’t forgotten the house you grew up in! Meet us there, on that night! See you then! And please give the echo marble back to the imp. I rented the marble.”

  What am I going to do? I cannot be in two places at once! Nathan grabbed the bat, shoved the echo marble down the bat’s throat, and pried the small brown bat from the grip of Lucy’s tentacle. The bat spit out some purple tentacle-slime, gave him a look of indignation, and flew off into the night. Nathan continued to walk along the dark streets, accompanied only by his pet slime and his thoughts.