The members of King’s Dream filed into her mentor’s personal study as he sat at an ornately carved desk. Phoenix wasn’t entirely sure why he had asked them to meet with him, but she didn’t have to wait long as he greeted them by getting right to business, “I’ve asked you here to brief you about your next mission.”

  “We haven’t accepted a new mission yet,” Dazien stated and defiantly crossed his arms, “Phoenix just returned from being captured, tortured, and almost turned into a monster, and you want us to just turn around and go back out into the wilds?”

  “It’s a blood moon, kid,” Paul said as he stared up at them from his plush chair, “I had your party assigned to another delivery contract. You’ll be picking up the supplies directly from the Cultivator’s Citadel and taking them to the outlying fort towns. Phoenix has a portal to them, and we’ve gotten more reports of bandits and raiders in the area. The roads aren’t safe to take, even for some Adventurers, and the attacks have gotten more brazen as the blood moon continues, with some of the towns reporting direct assaults on the walls. Even portaling there, you may run into more bandit trouble.”

  Dazien gnced at her with a pointed look as he replied, “That shouldn’t be a problem.” Meeting Paul’s eyes, he added, “If they’re anything like what we ran into before, we should be able to handle them well enough. This doesn’t sound much different from the other missions we’ve done though, so why bring us here to inform us?”

  Paul looked slightly annoyed as he grumbled, “There are a few other things you need to know about. First, I wanted to let you know that the main reason I requested this is that the AOA, as requested by the duke, will be performing a raid on House Ruwena’s Estate tomorrow.”

  There was the sound of sharp inhation as everyone reacted to the news. The twins both seemed surprised, while Uriel seemed unfazed, and Dazien’s expression darkened in a mix of concern and anger. Phoenix, however, narrowed her eyes at her mentor, her mouth pursed into a thin grimace as she guessed, “And you want us out of the city during it.”

  Paul met her gaze unflinchingly and without any hint of guilt or remorse as he bluntly stated, “Exactly.”

  “My lord, we can help–” Dazien began to protest but was cut off.

  “It’s not because I doubt the capabilities of anyone in this room, kid,” Paul interrupted, “I simply don’t want any of you getting blowback from this. They’ve already tried to take out their anger towards me upon Phoenix, and I don’t want her or anyone else being targeted simply in an attempt to hurt me.

  “So, you all will go deliver these critical supplies while myself and a focused team of Adventurers deal with the Ruwena family,” he said, gncing at their party leader as he added, “I’m sure I don’t have to expin to you just how devastating their betrayal will be for the duchy should they succeed in their pns in addition to the potential societal upheaval once word of their treachery spreads among the people.”

  “The Ruwena family manages every aspect of our Reality Rift. If it wasn’t just Lord Ruwena but the whole family and their allies that got involved, and they’re pnning to help the Soul Reapers…” Dazien trailed off in slight horror at the idea as he looked from Paul to the rest of the party.

  “We won’t let that happen,” Paul firmly decred, “The political upheaval this will cause, though, is why I wanted your party out of the city just for a couple of days. We don’t want the enemy to potentially turn their gaze towards the two people that revealed their plots to the authorities.”

  They all gnced between Phoenix and Dazien, realizing the potential implications that the family might specifically target them. Paul gave another annoyed grumble, “Aside from that imminent conflict, there is one st reason for this particur mission,” he continued as he directed his attention to Phoenix, “My sister, Patricia, has been persistent in voicing her desire to meet you.”

  “You mentioned that before. But why now?” Phoenix asked in confusion before adding, “And what does that have to do with the mission?”

  “She is the liaison between the local government and the clergy of the Cultivator. Our House helps oversee food distribution throughout the duchy. She currently manages that aspect of things, and I informed her of my intentions to bring you into the family,” he expined.

  Phoenix’s eyes went wide, but he cut off her questions or potential panic with a raised hand and said, “I told her you hadn’t decided anything, but nevertheless, I felt it prudent to inform her. We have been discussing my abdication after the blood moon, and this will become part of that discussion should you choose to accept it. Not to mention, you should meet the rest of the family, and Patricia is more adept at navigating that than I am.”

  She hesitated for a moment before admitting, “I haven’t decided about that yet,” she gnced at her teammates, appreciating the support of their encouraging looks, “But once I return from the mission, can we go over more details?”

  Paul nodded in understanding, “Of course. For now, though, she would still like to meet my Protégé, and I thought this might be a way for her to meet everyone involved with us,” he gestured towards the rest of the party, their expressions showing a mixture of honor and pride that he had included them.

  Uriel surprised them all by speaking up and redirecting the topic, “Are you hoping that we encounter the bandits, Lord Waynd?”

  The question caught the party off guard, but Uriel’s ember-lit eyes and forcibly retracted aura gave away no indication of his disposition. Paul stared at him for a long moment before deciding to simply answer, “Yes.”

  Paul turned to meet her own stunned expression with a resolute one, “They are preying on the weak that do not have the advantage of being closer to reinforcements. These aren’t hungry or desperate people simply fighting to survive. If they have the strength to harass a fortress town, then they’re the worst sorts of criminals who prefer to terrorize to get what they want.

  “Fighting against people is a very different experience from fighting with wild animals and monstrous creatures, Phoenix. It’s an experience that you will not be able to avoid forever and that you must become prepared for,” he added solemnly.

  Phoenix was about to argue, but Dazien pced a hand on her shoulder as he silently whispered in her mind, “I promise we won’t go looking for them, Phoenix, but we should be willing to protect ourselves and others, right?”

  She reluctantly nodded, and Dazien turned back to Paul to say with determination, “We will protect the innocent from anyone that seeks to harm them, Lord Waynd.”

  When Dazien looked back at her and gave a single raised eyebrow, she added, “I’ll try my best to keep people safe.”

  Paul waved a hand dismissively, then handed Dazien the paper detailing the official mission for them and commanded, “Good. You shall meet with Patricia at dawn to gather the supplies and depart by midday, which will give everyone aside from Phoenix time to restock any supplies before you leave. I’d rather she not wander around the city at the moment. With that in mind, Emilia is preparing dinner for you all downstairs.” Then he met each of their gazes in turn, “Good luck, Adventurers.”

  As the group headed toward the lift inside Phoenix’s new home, she was content to walk beside Uriel in companionable silence while the other three chatted and led the way down the hall.

  “I can’t believe he’s making us avoid the roads and monsters to do a me delivery mission just when things were getting exciting in the city!” Rayna compined loudly to their party leader, who shook his head in response.

  “This will mean a civil war, Rayna. It’s not ‘exciting.’ It will be a terrible risk to many innocent people. You should read some of the tragic histories of when wars between noble Houses broke out. It’s not just the aristocrats that pay with their lives,” Dazien stated solemnly.

  “It’s exciting because we’d get to fight! It’s not like I want to see Mundanes dying in the streets, but he’s literally sending us away from the battle!” Rayna bemoaned, “How are we supposed to help protect people if we’re not where the fight is?!”

  “We will be helping, sister,” Saiya spoke up, “As Lord Waynd said, there may be fighting near the town we’ll be delivering to.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Killing people is never something to hope for, Rayna,” Uriel surprised them all by saying as they stopped and waited for the gss elevator.

  “That’s odd coming from you,” the bard observed, “You’re the one who ended up doing most of the killing st time.”

  It was Dazien who cut in then by snapping, “Do not confuse following my orders and protecting our party with a desire to kill. I know for a fact that he took no pleasure or excitement from that fight. Apologize to him for–”

  “It’s fine, Daze,” Uriel interjected, but Dazien turned to his partner with one of the most serious expressions Phoenix had ever seen him make.

  “No, it’s not, Senesh,” he firmly said, “She has no right to assign her own feelings to your actions. She has no idea–”

  “King,” Uriel interrupted with a rge hand on the slightly shorter man’s shoulder, “I know she didn’t mean it as an insult. It’s fine. Let’s just drop it and go eat.”

  “I’m sorry,” Rayna spoke up, without the usual brashness, as they all turned to look at her and she stated with a slightly awkward expression, “You’re right, I didn’t mean it as an insult. I thought you were seriously awesome but if it really makes you that upset, I’m sorry I phrased it that way.”

  The two men smiled at her and Dazien spoke first, “Thank you for apologizing and I’m sorry for my own outburst. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed you meant to insult him either. We should follow Uriel’s advice and just have a nice dinner now before we have to meet Paul’s sister and potentially fight a couple of bandits tomorrow.”

  The lift appeared then and opened for them to head down to the dining hall. Just as Phoenix was about to get on, however, she felt a sudden weight nd on her shoulder and a small bck cat rubbed against her face.

  “Bliss!” she cried out, trying to move the cat to her arms instead. “I don’t have any treats for you right now,” she said in surprise, then saw the stick of meat in the tiny mouth that kept trying to move the meat into her own mouth, “No, Bliss. I’m going to eat dinner soon with everyone, but thank you for offering to share.”

  Uriel reached into his own belt pouch, pulled out a small cookie, and held it up toward the sneaky chimera, “Hey Bliss, I’ve been wanting you to try this new recipe to let me know what you thought.”

  The kitten startled her by suddenly swallowing the stick of meat, stick included, then hopping over to Uriel’s shoulder to commence with the treat-tasting.

  “How did she even get in here?” Phoenix asked once the lift doors closed behind her.

  Dazien chuckled as the lift started moving again and said, “She was probably here to report to Lord Waynd earlier. Her party all helped search for you when you were captured.” He lifted a hand to scratch behind the chimera’s ear as he added fondly, “I think she missed you.”

  She grinned at the kitten and gave her some head pats, “Thanks, Bliss. You’re pretty sweet sometimes for a murder-cat.”

  As the group happily watched the ravenous chimera chow down on the cookie, Phoenix finally voiced a question she had been pondering for a while but had resurfaced with the potential conflict in their new mission, “How, um… when was the first time you all killed someone? Like a person. What made you have to do it?”

  Rayna spoke first, “It was simir to what we ran into before for us. Saiya and I were about seventeen, I think? We had decided to leave the cn that had taken us in after ours was wiped out and we had just gotten to a human outpost in our homend. A couple tried to steal from us.”

  “So you just killed them?” she questioned in astonishment.

  “No,” Rayna said with a darker undertone in her voice, “We gave them our jewelry, then they tried to take us as well. Our cws work just as well as a dagger against Mundanes. We both ended up killing for the first time that day to not become sves.”

  “Oh,” she said quietly, gncing over at the two men.

  “I was sixteen,” Dazien said first, “I had been training with Warrior for about a year by that point and had gotten rather good with a bde. I had just moved in with Uriel at our current pce. I still didn’t have my Aspects yet, but I didn’t need them that night.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall of the lift, “I was walking home after training –had a real sword on me, not a wooden practice one. Anyways, there was this big guy in one of the side alleys.”

  “Did he try to jump you and steal too?”

  “Nope. He didn’t care about me at all,” Dazien said with a wry grin, then paused before asking, “Did I ever introduce you to Jennica?”

  “No, but I remember you talking about her getting into trouble when we went to visit,” Phoenix recalled.

  “Ah, right. Well, I’m the reason she’s currently staying at the temple,” he admitted before crifying, “Jennica was lying half-dead on the alley floor while the man was beating the life out of her. Turned out that he was her father, but I made it so he would never hurt her again.”

  Phoenix stared at him for a long moment as she processed the story and asked, “She didn’t hate you for killing her dad?”

  Dazien made her jolt in surprise when he gave a bark of ughter, shaking his head, “Quite the opposite. That rugrat clung to me like a flea on a frolf after that. She started getting angry at me and acting out about a year ago when she found out I pnned to become an Adventurer.”

  “What? Why?” she asked in utter confusion, “It’s because you were meant to be an Adventurer that you saved her isn’t it?”

  He gave a lopsided smile as he expined, “Her mom was an Adventurer. When her mom died and left her alone with an abusive father, she kinda bmed her for it and I think that bme spread to all Adventurers who leave their kids behind and risk their lives.”

  “I see…” she said thoughtfully.

  “Well, we’re here. Let’s stop all this talk of death while we eat, yeah?” Dazien suggested as the lift doors opened and he pushed Uriel –who was still den with a nomming kitten– out in front of him to leave the rest of them to trail after.

  The dinner of chilled noodles that Chef Emilia had made for them was delicious. Phoenix was actually sad when she felt like her stomach would burst and she couldn’t eat anymore. After her friends left to return to their homes, Phoenix made her way back to her new room.

  It was simple yet felt luxurious with the high quality materials used for everything. It didn't feel quite like hers yet, but it was warm and welcoming enough.

  She was about to get ready to climb into the massive bed that could probably fit four whole people in it when a soft knock came from the door.

  Phoenix tensed and hesitantly extended her aura to try and feel who it might be beyond the door. She had been getting better at reading the surface information like Caste and species. This one was near the peak of Sapphire and belonged to a runeforged and felt… fresh, like newly blossomed flowers. She also felt the slight divine touch that she had come to associate with clergy members.

  Cautiously, she opened the door the tiniest bit and asked, “Can I help you?”

  It was a taller woman with long dark brown hair in dozens of braids that stopped halfway down to turn into tight curls. The intricate metallic rune tattoos covering her body, which every one of her species bore, were a brilliant blue that matched the color of her eyes and stood out against her warm brown complexion.

  The stranger smiled warmly and greeted her, “Hello, Phoenix. I’m Patricia, Paul’s sister. I know we were meant to meet tomorrow morning, but do you mind if I come in to speak with you a bit before the rest of your party joins us?”

  “I, um, I guess? Is there something wrong?” she asked.

  Patricia lightly ughed, “No, my dear, I just wanted to get to know you a little better before you see my more… professional side. Outside of the wall of this home, I have to be Noble Waynd, Priestess of the Cultivator, while here… well, I get to be just Pati. Does that make sense?”

  Phoenix smiled at that, “And you want me to meet Pati before Noble Waynd?”

  “Exactly,” the older woman replied.

  She opened the door wider to allow Pati to come in and sit at the unlit hearth that had what looked like a singur wooden log in it instead of the cinderstone her dorm had. “So, was there anything in particur you wanted to talk about? Or was this meant to be more of a generic meet and greet?”

  “Well, I’m not sure how much Paul has told you about our House so I wanted to give a broad overview if he was as bad about communicating with you as he is with me,” Pati replied with a grimace.

  Phoenix ughed, “I’ll admit not much, but he mentioned earlier that you run food distribution; though, I’m not sure what that all entails.”

  “Mostly boring inventory and making sure the supply can meet the demand,” she replied with a dismissive wave, then leaned back against the couch taking a more comfortable position, “I also want to ask if you were truly alright and comfortable with the idea of adoption that my brash brother proposed.”

  With a frown, Phoenix asked, “Did you not want me to accept? I don’t want to cause any problems or—”

  “Oh, no, no, no, my dear,” Patricia quickly interjected, leaning forward to pce a reassuring hand on her knee as she sat beside her. “I absolutely want you to accept. Paul has been through so much hardship and if you can bring some light into his life then I will one hundred percent support that. I just wanted to make sure that you wanted it as well. Despite my brother’s position and power, I don’t think he always comprehends how that might pressure people into complying with whatever he requests.”

  Phoenix smiled warmly and shook her head, “Paul was pretty clear that I shouldn’t feel any pressure about accepting, and that it came with some pros and cons. We never really got into the details though…”

  She hesitated for a moment and carefully watched the woman who she realized would become her aunt and likely a strong influence on how her life here would py out. One thing that already seemed to set her apart from Paul was that she seemed more like Dazien: ready and more than willing to talk about things.

  “Do—Would you mind expining more of those pros and cons to me? I think I’d feel better about accepting if I understood exactly what was expected of me.”

  Patricia returned her smile and said, “Of course, Phoenix. I already consider you part of this family and will do everything in my power to see you safe and happy. What would you like crification on first? Again, I’m not sure what Paul may have gone over already.”

  “Well, not much really except that I would live here and he’d be considered my dad.”

  Pati didn’t respond right away, as if waiting for her to say more, so she added, “That’s basically it?”

  There was a moment of silence before Patricia’s face turned to one of pity as she said, “Oh, my sweet spring flower… Don’t take this the wrong way, but I may end up killing your father-to-be before the ink dries on the adoption papers.”

  Phoenix ughed again, picturing the sister strangling her brother for his abysmal communication skills. “I think he tries his best,” she tried to defend. “He’s just better at fighting than talking it seems.”

  “I hear you take after him in that regard.”

  She grinned and said, “I guess I can say I get that from my dad.”