Morning breakfast was a simple affair, oatmeal with sliced fruit sprinkled on top, apparently, it was the Queen’s favorite food.

  Personally, I was more of a morning tuna melt kind of guy. Was it smelly? Yes. Did my siblings complain about the smell? Also yes. But did that ever stop me? Did I ever waiver in the things I wanted just because I was being judged by others? Did I ever stop arguing with them for the food I loved?

  No. Because If you love something, you’d be willing to take on the whole world for it’s sake.

  That was the mindset I was trying to get myself in while I dodged the gazes of my friends. I knew they were rooting for me, but that didn’t make any of their teasing smiles and amused looks any less annoying.

  I started stuffing my, rather chapped, mouth with spoonfuls of oatmeal, trying to ready myself for the day ahead. All of my focus should have been squarely on the Sanctum itself, yet I couldn't help myself and think only of Alice, feeling the stress of how I would approach the topic of last night’s encounter with her.

  The Sanctum is the whole reason you came here, focus. Though I knew that learning the truth of our summoning should have been top priority, my heart refused to surrender its desire of being with Alice.

  As I finished shoving the last of the oatmeal down my mouth and lowered my bowl, I managed to catch two pairs of eyes looking at me.

  The first was Alice, who quickly turned away the moment I noticed her staring. The second set of eyes belonged to Zoe who didn’t have any signs of what she was thinking showing on her face, but I could guess she was feeling quite pleased with the situation as she gave me a big thumbs up.

  Kat, having noticed Alice’s reaction, traced the direction her sister was refusing to look at, leading to her gaze also ending up on me. She stared at me with great curiosity twinkling in her eyes. She gave me a cheerful little wave before returning her attention to the food in front of her.

  This is going to be a long day.

  As I took a sip of water from my glass, I overheard Sir Nathan and Sir Maxwell whispering to one another in hushed and worried tones.

  “According to the men we sent out, some members of squadron six are missing,” Sir Maxwell said.

  “You mean to say that some of the bodies are missing?” Sir Nathan asked. Sir Maxwell nodded.

  “By our estimate, it seems three or four of them are missing, equipment and everything.”

  Sir Nathan shook his head, which caused his gaze to land on my own. He coughed slightly to which Sir Maxwell turned and noticed me as well. The two men nodded to each other before sinking back into their seats, resuming with breakfast, this time in silence.

  After breakfast, the King saw us off at the castle’s entrance. We gave our goodbyes to him and his wife before we had Father Zander begin to lead our group back into the heart of the capitol city, Silva.

  It was as we were making our way through the bustling streets of the city that we noticed something rather interesting. Every time we passed large groups of the kingdom’s citizens, the citizens would stop to bow at our group.

  “Do you think word has spread?” Mira whispered into my ear. “About our arrival? The arrival of us heroes?”

  “Doubt it. I think they're just giving their respects to Sir Nathan and Father Zander. We forget, but they’re both bigwigs of the kingdom.”

  Eventually, we made our way to the front entrance of a massive church, huge white pillars surrounded and supported the building. Leaning against one such pillar was none other than Caleb who had a completely shaved chin.

  “Caleb,” Sir Nathan greeted.

  Caleb saluted his Captain. “Reporting for duty, sir.” Sir Nathan nodded.

  “I can see that, but are you sure?”

  “Yes sir, the other guys would kick my ass if I just moped around in the barracks.”

  “Caleb...”

  “Hmm? Agh, apologies for using crass language, sir,” Caleb said after glancing back and forth between Father Zander and Kat.

  “No, not that Caleb. I was just wondering, what happened to your beard?”

  Caleb broke into a smile, a melancholic one. “It was tradition sir. Whenever squadron six would be deployed to different objectives and missions, the last one out of bed had to shave off all of their facial hair.”

  Sir Nathan smiled, patting Caleb on the shoulder.

  With Caleb rejoining us, all nine of us followed Father Zander inside the church.

  The inside of the church was absolutely beautiful. The stained glass windows that filled the building had depictions of the four gods in their elemental form as they guided humanity through the calamities of old.

  Having read Within Us, I was able to mostly understand what each story the glass windows were trying to share.

  First was Flumen, they guided humanity to safety through their control of rivers. Next there was Vapos, they used their flame to burn demon-looking forces away while bestowing the power of fire to humanity, guiding them in their darkest hour. Then there was Nubila, they took watch over humanity from high above the clouds as they blew massive storms and split the demon-like armies, allowing humanity to retreat. Lastly, there was Lapis, they were the ones to shatter the earth itself as all of the remaining demon-looking forces fell into a bottomless abyss, an abyss that humanity would then worship as a holy site.

  The final window showed the church sitting atop the abyss with people celebrating outside with a giant bonfire as musical notes appeared from the earth, sky, sea and flame.

  Was this depicting the history and creation of the Sanctum? If so, that should mean that the Sanctum is underneath our feet.

  Father Zander led us to the end of the church near an altar where an empty pedestal sat. Sunlight, from all five of the stained glass windows, struck the pedestal with all their brightness.

  “That’s kind of cool,” Luke said, “they way they all converge there.”

  “Yeah, but something is missing,” Mira said.

  Father Zander pulled out a rather old journal-looking book. “Right you are, miss,” Father Zander said as he placed it on the pedestal. “This was the journal of the first hero, though I’m sad to say that the contents that were once written inside have long since faded away.” The moment Father Zander let go of the journal, the pedestal rose to the ceiling of the church as a spiral staircase opened up beneath it. “Follow me.”

  As we entered the staircase, Father Zander muttered “Flador” under his breath, a small flame began to burn at the tips of his fingers. Every ten steps or so, Father Zander would stop to light a candle, gently tossing wisps of his flame to the candle’s wick, lighting it, before continuing to lead our descent. It wasn’t until more than five minutes later that our flight down the stairs finally came to a complete stop as we spotted a blue light from further beyond the bottom step of the staircase.

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  Father Zander sighed in relief. “Finally, lighting all of those candles was starting to take a toll on me,” he said as shook his hand and snuffed the flame away.

  The blue light was coming from a cavern-like structure. As we stepped inside we were greeted with the sight of hundreds of dazzling and shimmering lights. The place was full of crystals.

  Magic Crystals?

  “Woah, we’re going to be rich,” Chris remarked. His awe was replaced with pain as a certain maid planted her heel on his foot. “Chris, you can’t take any crystals from this room, all of the ones you see here are considered to be holy artifacts. Taking a single crystal from this cave could be punishable by death.”

  “I was kidding, please get off my foot Zoe.”

  “Say you understand.” Zoe began twisting her heel.

  The pain must have started turning into pleasure as Chris began smiling blissfully. “I-I understand." Zoe released his foot, crossing her arms as she nodded with approval.

  The whole scene felt oddly familiar. I turned to look at Alice but she turned her head away as I did so. I wonder which of them taught the other that habit.

  Mira began to console Chris while Luke looked at Chris with a look of jealousy and disgust, well, mostly just disgust.

  Father Zander brought our attention to a pool of water in the center of the cavern, beckoning us to approach. We circled around it. As I peered into it I couldn't help but wonder how deep the water went.

  As I stopped to gaze at the water, a distracted Alice bumped into me. “Sorry,” she said, a look of embarrassment clear as day on her face.

  Chris stopped right behind us, glancing at us both before peaking at the water as well. “I would love to skip some rocks in there…,” he said, winking at me.

  Before I could sock him, Chris ran away to catch up to Luke and Mira. I was going to go after him when I felt a warm hand grabbing onto my wrist.

  “Noel… I-”

  “Heroes gather around me if you will.” Once again our moment for connecting had been stripped away from us. Alice slowly let go of me as she quietly began walking towards the others.

  A nasty little voice, a distorted version of my own, began whispering in the back of my mind. "All of that confidence at breakfast was just for show? Guess you really didn’t care about Alice after all."

  I truly was a miserable failure. I couldn’t focus on the Sanctum while also failing myself and Alice when it came to facing both of our thoughts and feelings head on, to the point that she had tried to approach me first in hopes of discussing things out. The only one responsible for making me feel so terribly miserable was myself.

  Seeing Alice walk away, when she had always been the one willing to express her feelings, always the one to make the first move, and letting her go without a word; letting her walk away while doing nothing, that was something I knew I would come to regret.

  It was at that moment that I made a vow to myself. After whatever happens here, I promise to meet you head on Alice. So…

  I reached out to her, grabbing her by the hand. She turned around, a look of surprise on her face as she scanned my face for my intentions. Chris’ words once again echoing in my head.

  “Just keep hanging out with her while having the good time you’ve already been having together. Life’s too short to doubt yourself or start worrying about labels.”

  “Alice, if you happen to be free later, would you mind hanging out with me, I want… I want to have a long talk with you,” I said as I smiled shyly. “I want to have a long and proper talk about… us.”

  A huge smile formed on Alice’s face. She nodded as she gave my hand a little tug. “I’d love to.”

  Father Zander cleared his throat before repeating his earlier call, much louder this time. With his words being directed, well, directly at Alice and I, everyone turned their attention towards us. Their swiveling heads managed to catch Alice and I holding onto the other's hands. Though we both let go of the other, it was too late. Sir Nathan shot me another look of slight suspicion as he let out a small sigh. The only person who hadn’t managed to spot us was Kat who had been too busy watching the shimmering body of water. Father Zandar beckoned us both with his hand.

  I approached slowly, watching as Sir Nathan arched one of his eyebrows at me.

  Looks like he’s gonna want to have a talk with me later, I am not looking forward to that conversation.

  I approached Father Zander where all of my friends were already waiting for me. I gave an apologetic nod as I lined up next to them while Alice took her place between Zoe and Kat.

  Father Zander proceeded to explain how our trials would go. We would individually plunge ourselves into the water where he would wait until the gods illuminated the watery abyss with their light. The moment the light would disappear, Father Zander would then pull us out with the power Flumen through the use of Torius. Afterwards, once we finished all our trials, we would then, hopefully, have a better understanding of our powers and perhaps even learn what the purpose behind our summoning was.

  I wasn’t keen on drowning myself just to have whoever summoned me speak into my ear, but we didn’t have much of a choice if we wanted even a sliver of a chance of learning how to get back home.

  After having explained the process of our trials, us heroes went on to decide the order of who was going first. After a few hands of the age-old classic, rock-paper-scissors, it was decided that Chris would go first followed by Luke and then Mira. I would go last.

  Chris began striping when Father Zander stopped him with a soft chuckle. “No need to strip, the water will dry off the moment you step back out.” A look of doubt crossed Chris’ face, but he chose to accept the priest’s words as fact.

  Chris began to hyped himself up by thumping his fist against his chest and howling, jumping in afterwards and allowing himself to be swallowed whole by the water. It had been less than five seconds before a golden-brown light filled the water below. Father Zander manipulated the distant water below with his hands. As he raised his hands up, the water below shot up and out popped Chris.

  Chris looked dazed, as he tried shaking off his dizziness there was a faint glow from both Alice’s gemstone and Chris’ palm. Both of them lighting up the cave with their light. After the light dissipated, a white lance with golden edges appeared in Chris’ hands. The moment Chris acknowledged the weapon in his hand, he fell onto his knees with the spear splitting itself into thousands of light particles.

  “I heard her, that lady’s voice was ringing in my ears again,” Chris said as he clutched his forehead.

  “Did she say anything about your mission?” Father Zander asked.

  Chris shook his head. “No. Maybe? All I remember is that she just said to hurry up.”

  Despite the hundreds of questions Father Zander likely had, as a man of faith he wasn’t one to question when the gods told him to do something.

  Luke and Mira went through similar ordeals. Red and green lights respectively for each. Luke was given a silver two-handed sword with a red hilt, while Mira got a white bow with a green string.

  Each of them had similar messages.

  “You’re running out of time.”

  “Hurry.”

  Finally it was my turn, just as I was about to step in, thundering footsteps came running down the stairs. In came four Holy Knights.

  “Sir Nathan,” a helmeted female knight called out to him, “you’re needed back at the castle.”

  “Why? What's going on?”

  “There was a terrible explosion, giant fireballs crashed into one of the King’s mansions.”

  “What?”

  “It has to be them,” Caleb said through gritted teeth.

  The ones who had attacked Liam, the ones who had ambushed us on the first day of our trip and had almost killed us all. Most likely, they were also the ones behind the murder of Caleb’s friends. Now, those same assailants were all here attacking the King himself.

  “We’ve been ordered by Sir Maxwell to stay here and protect the heroes."

  “You heard him Captain, let's go get them bastards,” Caleb said.

  “No, I will go after them alone, you will stay here to protect the heroes."

  Caleb shook his head madly. “You want me to stay back while they’re right in front of me?”

  Sir Nathan marched up to Caleb’, placing his hand on his shoulder. “I almost lost you once, I am not going to risk losing you once more. They may have caught us off guard before, but this time, I promise that I will make them pay. Trust me.”

  Caleb bit down on his lip hard, balling his hands into fists, but, in the end he nodded at Sir Nathan’s orders. “Understood Captain, you come back safe and sound, you hear? I don’t want to have to explain to Mabel how I got her admirer killed.”

  Sir Nathan gave a slight exasperated sigh before breaking into a grin. “I understand.”

  Sir Nathan thanked the other knights for their report and ran back towards the stairs.

  “Man, we could have helped him fight,” Chris said.

  “Don’t kid yourself, we barely manage to stay standing on our own two feet last time,” Luke argued.

  “Are we going through with Noel’s trial?” Mira asked Father Zandar.

  “We could, but it would be best for us to confirm the situation and have things above settle down.”

  “I understand,” I said.

  Caleb was pacing back and forth around the deep pool of water before he decided to approach the other knights. “Did anyone get a good look at them?” He asked the female Holy Knight.

  “Eyewitnesses say they spotted three individuals in cloaks casting fireballs from nearby rooftops.”

  “I assume a squadron has already been sent out to deal with them, yes?”

  The female knight nodded. “Yes, it was squadron six.”

  The moment the female knight finished speaking, it was as if the world had suddenly frozen in place. Having been focused on our conversation with Father Zandar, I had my back towards the entrance of the cavern where the knights were positioned. At the mention of squadron six I felt my a huge chill in my bones.

  As I began turning my head when I felt a faint pain stabbing me through my back. In front of me now was the tip of a rapier, the blade was covered in red liquid. The knight that had been conversing with Caleb a mere moment ago had now appeared directly behind me and-

  She stabbed me, I’ve been stabbed.

  She pulled the rapier out of me as quickly as she had plunged it into me. I fell forward, slipping on the crystal floor and falling into the pool of water. The last thing I heard, before the water began to fill my ears, were the yells of those around me.