*Sarah*

[Sera- Royal Palace]

I spun around and attacked the twin knights, Dai and Fai, with as much force as I could. Both of them dodged but in different ways. Dai ducked while Fai jumped.

"Not bad Princess," Fai said, grinning as she looked down at me with a smug grin. "You almost had us there."

I tightened my grip on my rapier and gathered the droplets in the air and turned them into needles. The twin knights gasped as the needles struck their armor.

"Got you now," I said, grinning. I sighed and allowed the droplets to fall to the white tiled floor.

"Wow, impressive," a voice called out. I turned toward the door and saw my brother walk through the silver and navy blue doors. Alongside him was my nephew, Ecelaph.

My brother had on his royal garments rather than his usual casual style. Though for these past three weeks I had grown accustomed to seeing him in his fencing garments. He had actually taken the time to train me.

Much to my surprise he hadn't grown rusty despite having stopped practicing back when he was a third year in high school. That was when he became king...

I suspected he practiced in secret, likely to avoid raising our occupier's concerns. Though why would he have taken it upon himself to grow stronger but denied me that opportunity? Had he truly been looking out for me all this time as he claimed? Perhaps I should've given him more credit.

"Get changed you three. Team Sera heads out in an hour. We will be accompanying the Kyuu Seishinian delegation to Rios."

"Kyuu Seishinian?" I said, eyes wide.

Brother smiled. "Why the surprise? They're our allies. In these times of rising anxiety due to those creatures, we must stick close together.

"But what about H.E.H.?"

Brother snickered as he turned his back to me. "What about them? They aren't the rulers of this nation, I am. Even if they may think themselves as my puppet masters, they are but fools."

I always wanted my brother to speak up for himself and the kingdom but a sense of dread stuck me as he said those words. While I often said them, little was done against me. However, I was but a princess. My brother on the other hand was the ruler. If he started to pull on the strings H.E.H. put on him then there was no telling would could happen. He could very well die as gruesome a death as my parents.

I knew I faced that risk, but I had little to lose. However, my brother had Ecelaph and his wife to think about. They could get hurt or worse if they wished to inflict a pain worse than death upon him.

"Aunty, you alright?" Ecelaph asked, tilting his head me. "You seem worried."

Big brother chuckled. "Relax Sarah, you'll do fine. At the very least I expect bronze from you in the sword competition."

I tried my best to smile.

Brother pulled me closer. "I do not think we need to worry about them for now. They appear to be plotting something. I overheard one of them talking about that friend of yours, Lei."

"Lei?" I asked, stunned. How did they know about him? Why would they even show interest in him... unless if... Oh no. Had they find out about those strange dark powers? But how? That was supposed to be a secret.

"H.E.H. has moles in several places. I wouldn't be surprised if they had one in the council," Brother said as he crossed his arms.

"Brother, we need to meet up with the Wahkanian delegation. They could be in trouble."

"I doubt that they'll try to pull something off at the... but then again, at such a moment one's guard will be lower than at the games." He glanced back at Ecelaph. "I'll send Grand Chief Makya a message."

"You'll be doing no such thing," a voice called out as a kuani was flung toward prince Ecelaph's direction.

Ecelaph held his hands out and casted a water barrier but it was easily punctured. Though it did buy enough time for the Fai to grab him and for Dai to deflect the kunai back.

"Tsk. So their assassination squad is finally out in the open," I said, pointing my rapier outward. However, there was no one to point it at.

Brother casted a spinning wall of water around us and just in time too as a masked figure was sent flying into the wall closest to us.

"Tsk. Not bad for the weakest ruler in all of Tozan Hoshi," the man said, snickering.

Brother chuckled. "How many times must I say it? Simply because I am the weakest ruler on the continent doesn't make me weak."

"No matter, it would be boring without a challenge!" The figure said as he pulled out a one-foot knife from the sheath behind his back before vanishing from sight.

Brother turned toward me. "Sarah, you two, get the prince out of here."

"Daddy," Ecelaph whimpered as Fai held him in her arms.

Brother sighed. "It's to dangerous for you to stay. Plus you need to go find your mommy. She could be in bigger danger.

"Mommy too?" Ecelaph said, eyes filling up with tears.

"Ecelaph! Dear!" a voice echoed from the hall. It was filled with concern as if desperate to find them.

Ecelaph's mother staggered inside the room.

"Mommy!" Ecelaph yelled. His mother was bleeding on the side. She ran through my brother's barrier unharmed, proving she was the real queen and not an impostor. It was a good thing that brother had made such a barrier as she would've died as a sword with an invisible wielder appeared behind her. Luckily the barrier withstood the hit.

"My queen, what happened?" my brother asked, staring at his wife's wounds with horror.

"Figures in black appeared before me," she said as she glanced back at the floating sword before it vanished anew. "T-They slaughtered my guards and even my maids as they tried to protect me," she said, clenching her bloodied dress. "We need to get out of here, for our boy's sake."

"Mommy!" Ecelaph yelled as he tried to free himself from Fai's hold.

I walked over to my sister in law and placed a hand over her wound. I gasped a the sight. I could sense she had been poisoned. And it was a familiar one at that. I summoned a needle and poked her lightly with it.

"Ouch, what's are you doing?" my sister-in-law asked.

"Draining the toxins with this. A f- I mean an acquaintance of mine gave it to me in case I ever ran into a situation like the one you did. Though it has a limited number of uses."

"T-thanks."

"No need to mention it."

"Though where did the enemy go?" she asked, turning to look at her husband.

"They're waiting for us to lower our guard at any moment now."

"We need to hurry and deliver Chief Makya the message about Lei," I said.

"You will do will not leave here alive!" The assassin from before said as a massive wave of energy stuck the barrier. How was it that we couldn't detect such a build up of force?

Big brother winced as the attack bent the spherical barrier. Blood trickled down the side of his mouth. He knew as well as I did that we could not stay on the defensive forever. But how could we possibly take down an enemy who can't even be seen?

"Give up now and die honorably rather than struggle!"

"That is your idea of an honorable death? How laughable!" I shouted. "To die with honor usually means to die in combat. But then again an assassin like you would have little idea of what honor is!"

"You little wretch!" the man said as he appeared before us and struck the barrier with his sword. Drops of water sprinkled throughout the room, showing the outline of half a dozen people surrounding us in a circle. "Today the royal family of Sera will be no more!"

"We'll see about that!" I said as the twins and I attacked the outlines in the rain with all we had. Meanwhile my sister-in-law formed a barrier around her husband, parrying a kunai attack on my brother.

"We won't die here, at least not without taking some of you to the other side with us!" my brother yelled at the top of his lungs as water danced all around us like the waves of the high seas.

**Solar Note: (Originally) Published this chapter to mark 25 months since I first joined Wattpad and published the first part of Novus Magus. In those 25 months alone Novus Magus has ballooned to nearly 100K reads! I hope that this sequel will be able to soon follow :3. So, do you think that Sera and co. will be able to escape with their lives?**