-Callia-

  After being locked away in the dungeon, it didn’t take long for me to dislike the dreary atmosphere and intentionally unpleasant conditions. Using the travel equipment leftover in the void as well as some of the additions from our travels, I spruced the room up a bit. Clarence, the guard who was responsible for checking our block of cells, was not thrilled with the idea at first, but with a normal threat to delay his report and various benefits, he became far more accepting. I even managed to convince the guy to take me over to visit Karia. We had a relatively short chat about what was going on, and I had to give her my thanks since this whole mess was caused by Harlanou going into a murderous obsession. It just so happened that compulsion was likely all the evidence we needed to defend Karia’s position. Though it was likely she would be assigned some asinine task and barred from authority temporarily.

  On one hand, revealing the circumstances would make solid evidence of Karia’s innocence, but on the other, it would also mean I would get dragged off to the citadel for education. With a grim future of sitting in some kind of monastery learning mana suppression and doing nothing for days on end, I was more than sufficiently motivated to listen to Callen’s lessons regarding mana suppression. While all this was going on, I had become familiar with a sensation of warmth and peace whenever I woke up. While I couldn’t remember what happened in my sleep, I felt like I was inching closer and closer to some kind of breakthrough. After a week of nothing but mana suppression training, board games when the guard visited, and chatting with the slaves.

  I finally had the breakthrough. I woke up with familiarity and a new skill that appeared in my status: Tier 5 Blink. It was a genuine teleportation skill. Unlike Flash Movement or Instant Dodge, this skill functioned exactly like the shifting plates that were used extensively throughout the palace. My first real-world use dumped me right next to the guard, bypassing the cell bars. The sudden shifting of locations still dazed me from the overload of information as my mind reassessed the location of everything around me. I gave the guard a shoulder pat before blinking back into the cage. I sat down and tried to calm the headache it induced, but I also couldn’t stop smiling. Callen had his portals, but I had the power to move anywhere I could see. I froze a bit as I noticed a change in my status. Blinking didn’t use mana; it used XP. I only lost two, but it was rare for anything to give less than ten, so the change was obvious. The last time I remember getting XP amounts less than ten was butchering the small rodents drawn to Callen and me on our way into the capital.

  Still, regular use seemed entirely acceptable, as the leveling of the skill would outpace the loss of XP based on the simple usage I had tested. Though I suspect that longer ranges or different circumstances might also factor into cost. I set it aside for now, but I was eager to get some real practice with the skill in the future.

  Callen had shared with me the discovery of his new skill as well. He hadn’t even realized he had the skill until I told him about mine, and just like mine, it also had a similar cost. He had Dominate Mana, which let him use skills like runic casting without using his own mana. He could also intercept skills before activation as long as they affected someone in his Mana Zone. He accidentally burned 1000 XP in a test blocking Nightshade’s knowledge poison effect. For now he theorized a correlation regarding cost regarding his skill level, the level of the cancelled skill, and the mana used by the cancelled skill.

  While I was wasting away in prison doing my exercises, Callen was swamped with various urgent projects, so we didn’t have much time to elaborate and test our skills. On the first day he sent an elf and paladin who rushed off on some urgent task, and on the third day I got to thank Eland as he and the other Imperial Guards returned from their visit to Port Town. Sadly, Eland didn’t seem interested in chatting down here in prison, so I could only pout as he heartlessly left me behind. He seemed to have a fixation on work that annoyed me to no end. The next bit of bad news was a warning from Callen. During the defense he had dumped all his stat points, hoping the raw increase would give him a chance. He checked with Nightshade about the limit checker he had lost with his arm, and we stood at 1502/1523. Meaning he had eaten up all the potential stat distributions we could safely make in the near future! My best stats now just barely passed his worst.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Still having to wait for the buffer for stat distribution to regrow was better than losing my brother. I did, however, barter for one prank of whatever severity I wanted without retaliation. The prank war might’ve ended as we grew up, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t buy preapproved brotherly discipline. I just needed to save it for a moment in which it counted.

  My contemplation came to an end as I sensed royal guards making their way down into the prison. Without hesitation I stored all my furniture and hid the evidence of us enjoying our stay. The only thing left before they arrived was the tip I left Clarence for being a chill guy. The smile he gave me made me reconsider since he had the greedy, satisfied smirk of someone who had just been bribed. In hindsight this guy was so easy to corrupt that it made more sense that this wasn’t his first bribe. Still, it wasn’t my problem, and there wasn’t any evidence left for him to make it a problem later.

  “Ser Callia, step forward.” The Royal Guard stepped forward demanding as the others stepped back, leaving me standing confidently before the man. “Follow me.” He opened the prison door and led me up. As we reached the exit, I took an opportunity to blink back, summon some basic supplies from the void, and blink right behind the man. He looked confused as I waited, watching him with an innocent expression. Clearly he noticed my absence but didn’t understand how I left and returned so fast. A mischievous smile came naturally and I clearly felt how spooked the man was as he led me up into the castle.

  Opportunity

  Duke Harlanou looked at the urgent reports from across his domain. The accursed elves had invaded en masse. The frontline had already pushed past Lanious City, and Gilbert City was evacuating before they even tried to resist the elvish incursion. Nox City has had several skirmishes at the edge of the forest, but the elves seemed intent on waiting. He suspected that they planned to join forces with those that had just finished sacking Lanious. In barely a month his entire domain had gone from stable to on the verge of collapse. More than half of his territory fell, and human refugees scattered in every direction. However, after suppressing the instinctive hatred welling up against those destroying what belonged to him, another thought came to mind. This was precisely the catalyst that could make his army viable.

  He penned an urgent request to the royal family requesting the full force of the capital and south. The duke smiled as he imagined the royal forces beaten bloody in the bitter conflict that followed. It would weaken the grasping hands of those who sought to control him and legitimize his army as a desperate measure to retake fallen territory. He would have his knights and those in the capital bleed against the elves, but he would send the children in after to clean up and reclaim the lost territory. The perfect grinder to train up the savage and powerful humans that they needed to become to survive in this merciless world.

  With the establishment crippled, he would have the momentum necessary to destroy Talia. The elvish invasion wasn’t a disaster; it was an opportunity to bring death to order. Of course he needed to be careful in exploiting the chance; presenting his hidden cards could only be done when the children were sufficiently bloodied. In a pleased mood, he walked down to his heir’s room and entered, intending to have her assemble her forces. However, her room was empty; he intended to move on to the next location she might be when a lingering scent of something wonderful caught his attention. He investigated and found a poorly hidden vial holding a red substance. He quietly pocketed it, intending to investigate what it was later, while calling his butler to deliver the orders instead.