Saturday, July 23, 4 S.E.

  The Matthersons, Kairi discovered, were surprisingly likable people.

  After the initial shock of her approach had mostly worn off, Patrick—the patriarch of the family, by all appearances—had engaged her Vanguards in a gruff but genuine discourse after spotting their unmistakable military attire, and his past as an Army Ranger had immediately struck up a friendly discourse between her escorts and the bearded Terran.

  They were even then exchanging stories about the Incursion while Kairi walked with Elise, John, and Sonya—the last of whom was peering at her openly with curious eyes. John was Ace’s junior student, she’d learned after a quick enquiry, and was undergoing trials to prove himself to the same ferocious Haelfar woman who had taken Leonidas under her proverbial wing.

  The stories described the ‘Duchess’ as a force of nature.

  Kairi remained skeptical. Terrans saw anyone above Contender as a force of nature.

  “...love the way that the city shines at night, Kairi,” Elise finished warmly, leading them along through what she called the ‘Residential Quarter’ with a sure and calm stride. “Your brother enjoys the nightlife, though he thinks no one notices him sneaking out. Our theory is that he goes to indulge in the late-night Ramen places inside the city. There are two of them in the Prosperity Quarter.”

  “Ace loves Seabura Ramen,” Kairi responded mildly, while her eyes drank in the neatly ordered homes and carefully organized laneways leading to various sections of housing. “Our parents spoiled him as a kid, and he started obsessing over it. It was rare to find where we lived in Texas.”

  “Ace doesn’t sound Texan,” John muttered, eyeing Kairi with a mix of suspicion and jealousy that she found strangely endearing. The boy clearly saw her as a threat to his relationship with Ace, which was both amusing and a little sad to Kairi. How anyone could look up to her monumental dork of an older brother to that extent was beyond her.

  It’s not the same for me, she justified internally. He’s my best friend.

  “We were raised in Florida,” Kairi explained in response, her hands in her jacket pockets as she walked. “We moved to Texas when we were a bit older, to live with our grandparents in Three Rivers.”

  “Oh? I’ve never heard of Three Rivers,” Elise said curiously.

  “It’s a small town, only a few thousand people,” Kairi elaborated casually while keeping her attention carefully peeled for trouble, a trap, or worse. The Matthersons were likable, but she hadn’t survived by being placid or overly trusting. It could still be a trap, no matter how populous and crowded the streets were. Dawnhaven was alive with life. It was strangely disconcerting after so long living with the Nomads.

  “What do your tattoos mean?” Sonya asked her abruptly, interrupting her train of thought and pulling Kairi’s gaze down to the younger girl.

  At her question, she pulled her hands out of her pockets and rolled up her sleeves, showing the coiling black dragons painfully stencilled onto her arms following the Incursion.

  “A reminder,” she said to Sonya truthfully. “A Monster-King destroyed Miami. I got these so I never forgot.”

  Sonya’s eyes fell at her words, and she dipped her head. “Sorry.”

  “Nah, don’t worry,” Kairi said with as much warmth as she could muster despite her still-racing mind. “If nothing else, they’re pretty cool, right?”

  Sonya’s expression brightened at her words, and she nodded.

  “I like how they coil to your fists, like they’ll bite someone you punch.”

  Kairi couldn’t help but laugh softly at her words.

  “Yeah, I suppose that’s the idea, kiddo.”

  Their large group turned at Elise’s lead as they passed another residential street, and entered a notably grander part of the Residential Quarter—entering a more sparsely-occupied set of laneways with observably larger housing on pristine display.

  “This is the Peacock District,” Sonya explained helpfully as they walked onward. “It’s where the majority of the Aristocracy and the wealthy Nyrfenn live.”

  “Nyrfenn?” Kairi asked immediately, her instinct for information taking over.

  “Non-Elves,” Sonya said with a smile. “It’s how the Haelfenn name people not of their blood or another elven subspecies.”

  “That includes humans?” Kairi clarified.

  “Yes, but they specifically call us Terrans. Nyrfenn mainly refers to those native to Altera, but not of Haelfenn blood.”

  “I see,” Kairi said with a nod and filed that away. “You can speak their language?”

  “We’re taught Haelfennyr here by mandate,” Sonya said with a nod. “John’s not as smart as me with languages, according to Elise, but he’s learning too.”

  “Hey!” John said in annoyance. “I just—it’s weird, Sonny. It sounds like music, and it confuses me.”

  Sonya rolled her eyes and looked back up at Kairi.

  “Ace speaks it fluently. He sounds so elegant when he does, too. Like a King.”

  Kairi’s eyebrows rose at that detail and glanced at Elise in subconscious desire for confirmation, to which the older woman smiled wryly.

  “Your brother speaks a very distinct version of Haelfennyr. I suppose you could call it Shakespearean. He sounds, to them, like one of those charming gentlemen from Bridgerton.”

  “That old show? Really?” Kairi asked with genuine amusement. “God, he’d hate that.”

  “He is not a fan of the comparison,” Elise confirmed, her eyes twinkling. “I happen to like it, though. Regency pieces were all the rage when I was your age.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Kairi tilted her head at that and then smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”

  “You’re quite fine, dear. I’m a young millennial. I know how it goes.”

  The group took another turn, this time onto a private lane, and Kairi looked around in silent assessment. No houses were present, only what looked like the occasional guard station, and there were even guards at the gated entrance to the lane—though they took one look at the Matthersons and, other than a cursory once-over of Kairi and her companions, returned to duty.

  Supremely confident, or supremely lazy. She couldn’t tell immediately.

  “Huh, that’s weird…” John said and drew their attention. “Why are the Dawnguard at the Estate?”

  Kairi’s eyes narrowed at the boy’s words, and she focused her gaze on the looming estate in the distance, her gaze sharpening with a flex of her Elite rank senses to take note of a gaggle of golden-armored Elves—Haelfenn, she reminded herself—standing outside what looked like a smaller, more direct gated access to the immense villa beyond.

  “Is that not normal?” she asked, already knowing the answer to some extent.

  “No,” Elise said quietly, her tone faintly troubled. “No, it isn’t. Patrick!”

  Behind them, her burly husband excused himself from the enthusiastic Vanguards and moved up to join them, arching a bushy eyebrow. “What’s wrong?” he said, and looked toward the estate. “Oh.”

  “What’s going on, Dad?” John asked warily, his eyes narrowed, but unafraid. “I thought Ace resolved his issues with the Dawn-Lord.”

  “It must be because of the Officer he Core Sundered,” Elise said quietly, her voice tense.

  Wait, what? Core Sundered? The fuck?

  “Sorry, did you say ‘Core Sundered’?” Larissa asked from nearby, looking between the Matthersons carefully. “As in, he destroyed someone’s Core?”

  “He did,” Patrick answered gruffly. “In a duel outside the city two days ago. The man was disrespecting his friends, so Achilles—well, he put the fool down like a rabid dog.”

  “He was an Adept, too!” John said, puffing his chest with pride. “Ace crushed him. I didn’t get to see, but Nathan did, and he said it was epic. Ace got stabbed a few times, but he walked it off.”

  Kairi’s mind raced at what she was hearing, and she subconsciously felt her abdominal muscles constrict. Core Sundering was hard. It was very hard. She’d attempted it herself several times on Fantasies she’d interrogated, and it was always an exercise in frustration. How the hell had her idiot brother managed to figure that trick out?

  “Should we turn around, ma’am?” Sheldon asked from behind. “We don’t want trouble with the local authorities. We’re here to buy supplies.”

  “It should be alright,” Elise said with an echo of uncertainty, while looking to her husband. “They wouldn’t make trouble with the Duchess. They know better.”

  “This chick sounds like a badass,” Larissa said mildly. “Can’t wait to meet her.”

  “Duchess Latherian is the Dusk-Lord of Dawnhaven,” Sonya supplied in answer, drawing the Vanguards’ attention and Kairi’s own. “She is effectively one of the two Rulers of the Thronehold alongside Dawn-Lord Uriel Aventus, at least until the Princess returns and claims her place as Queen.”

  “That’s… helpful,” Kairi said with a nod. “Thanks. You aren’t worried about being so free with that information?”

  Elise glanced at her with a tight smile, still tense from what was happening ahead, and shook her head in response. “Even if you weren’t Achilles’ sister, Kairi, it’s not something you couldn’t learn on the street.”

  Kairi nodded at that, and then nodded again toward the Estate.

  “So what now?”

  “We will go in,” Patrick said with a rumble. “I don’t intend on being intimidated by the Dawnguard. There has to be a reason they’re daring to encroach. The Duchess isn’t someone they trifle with. Very likely, they’ll just ignore us.”

  Kairi glanced at her Vanguards, received a tacit nod from Larissa, and then turned back to the Matthersons. “We’ll follow you, then, Pat.”

  The man nodded, and the group resumed their journey, closing distance with the large collection of golden-armored Haelfenn with a calm stride. As they drew closer, Kairi could read tension in many of the Fantasies outside the estate, marshalled around a figure in silver plate with blue adornments—the same adornments, she realized, that featured prominently upon the bodies of the warriors in gold.

  “What does the blue mean?” she asked quietly to Sonya as they walked.

  “Political loyalty,” the younger girl said tightly. “They’re aligned with the Prince-Royal, Braedon.”

  “I take it we shouldn’t like Braedon?” Kairi asked intuitively.

  “Not unless you like misogynistic xenophobes,” Sonya muttered.

  Kairi nodded in understanding and subtly signaled her Vanguards to spread out a little. All her people were Adept, with Larissa and Sheldon at Contender, so she was confident they could escape if it came to a fight—at least, initially. Whatever happened after was another matter, but she wasn’t about to take chances. The Matthersons had been kind enough, and she wasn’t about to abandon a chance to learn more about her idiot brother.

  The shit you get me into, Ace, I swear to God.

  When their group finally came within hearing distance of the confrontation, several meters from the backline of the Dawnguard, two of the Haelfenn turned around and raised their hands with a command of “Halt!” in accented English.

  Patrick and John both squared their shoulders at the order, but came to a halt, which halted their entire party as two of the Haelfenn approached.

  “What is your business here, Terrans?” the first of them asked, voice haughty.

  “We live here,” Patrick said blithely, shifting to show a crest on his attire. “We’re employed by the Duchess. We’ve brought some guests for her to meet.”

  “Guests?” the Dawnguard elf said skeptically, running his slanted green eyes over Kairi and her Vanguards. “More like vagabonds, it seems.”

  “Say what you will, sir, but the Duchess will want to see them, and we intend to take them to her.”

  Kairi’s eyes swept over the assembled forces in silence and then narrowed.

  There were other armor designs lurking among them, inflating the number. Grander designs in gold with winged pauldrons and helmets, still with blue additives, but with a more powerful presence, all encircling the figure in silver.

  “That is not possible, at this time,” the Dawnguard elf said firmly. “You will have to return later.”

  “Like hell!” John said abruptly, stepping forward. “We live there, man! I’m not going to be kept from my home by you lot!”

  “John!” Sonya hissed while the Dawnguard turned to the youth coldly.

  “This is not a negotiation, Terran,” the second of the two said with an edge to his voice. “You will not—”

  “Screw you! Let’s see how tough you are when the Dusk-Lord shows up!”

  The Dawnguard soldiers both paused at that and then narrowed their eyes.

  Kairi felt herself tense.

  “Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Sonya whispered at her side. “Oh god, I thought I recognized that armor. Those aren’t just Dawnguard.”

  Kairi looked down at her in askance.

  “Those are Royal Guard soldiers, and that—oh shit, I think Braedon’s here himself.”

  “Is that bad?” Kairi asked urgently, and Sonya turned to her with fear.

  “Bad? Kairi, if Braedon’s here, that means he knows what Ace and the Princess are doing. It’s not bad, it’s catastrophic.”

  Kairi opened her mouth to reply when the Dawnguard pair snapped their eyes to Sonya and drew their swords as one. A moment of consideration seemed to pass between them, and she almost hoped they’d rethink before they proved her instincts correct and doubled down.

  “She has information about the Princess,” the first said. “Seize her!”

  The reaction was immediate: more of the Dawnguard turned immediately, Patrick, Elise, and John shouted something, and the Vanguards behind her fell back on their training as weapons started materializing immediately.

  Oh fuck me running, Kairi said mentally as she fell into a ready stance and summoned her shortswords. This day just keeps getting better and fucking better!

  Please comment on what you liked or with theories you have!

  Book 2 is Complete on !

  Book 3 is currently in progress!

  60+ Advanced Chapters can be found on my .