Myth carefully pinched the tip of the red-painted stick, tugging gently. True to her technique, the rest of the jumble did not move. Satisfied, she smiled and fished the stick all the way out, placing it in her organized pile on her side of the table. "Your move."

"That was a lucky try," Kai insisted, inspecting the jumble of colored sticks for one he could move without disturbing any of the others. Red sticks were worth five points. Green ones were worth seven. If he could get a nine-point blue stick, he would win. However, if he failed, he would have to put back one of the ones he already had. "I'm about to crush you."

He reached out and tapped the blue one closest to the top of the heap. None of the other sticks twitched. He took that as a sign it was okay to remove. However, as he began to extract it, the sticks in the surrounding vicinity trembled and began to fall like a mini stick avalanche. "Noooooooooo-"

"Sucker," Myth giggled, grabbing one of his sticks and throwing it back in the pile and smacking his other hand away from the one he was trying to grab. Then, her hand hovered over the pile for a moment more. Her fingers wiggled over one of the green sticks, and she delicately withdrew it with no problems. "I win."

"I don't know how you're so good at this game," Kai complained, leaning back in his chair. "You can't even see."

He'd only met her a few days ago, on a royal summons from the court. The queen had wanted their help with a problem in the irrigation systems, and the two of them had solved it quite easily with their combined magic. However, Kai was still endlessly intrigued by Mythil Ivor - her magic was so very different from his. For one, she'd told him she gained it from one of the oldest methods in the world: an archaic relic, an enchanted lemon tree to be specific. Most magic had to be learned from books now, or you had to be born with it. The relics had all disappeared ages ago, or so the stories went. Perhaps that was part of what made Myth's magic so weird and unexplainable.

"I see with more than just my eyes," Myth sighed. "It's hard to explain. You'll just have to trust me."

"Like I'm trusting you with your aversion to healing magic? Or passing out in intense heat? Which, by the way, is extremely inconvenient considering we live in a rainforest." He shook his head. "You're a weird person, Myth, no offense. I know relic magic is unpredictable and random, and you may not even understand your own powers, but you have to be at least curious. Don't you want to know what makes you... you?"

"Why do you care so much?" Myth asked, sweeping the stick game back into its box. "I've never given it much thought."

"I like mysteries," Kai shrugged. "I'm curious. It's a puzzle I'd like to solve."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," Myth chuckled. "You've got time."

❁

Kai tore through the house, knocking over Myth's papers and books, trying to find any sign of her leaving the house or any reason she wouldn't be at home.

The first thing he'd done was check in with her messenger bird, but the raven didn't seem to have any clue what was going on. He didn't say a word, which meant he hadn't heard anything. There were no signs of a fight or of a break-in. Of course, it wasn't terribly hard to break into the place. Myth's windows were always open to keep the place from overheating. Kai had once told her about the security risks, but they hadn't done anything about it. It wasn't as if there were break-ins in Janbu, right?

"Myth?" Kai was screaming for her now, wondering if she could hear him. If she was still anywhere close to the house. He opened the drawers to her desk, looking for travel plans. He found none. "Are you still here? Myth? Myth? Mythil?!"

He still had her small red pouch in his grip, a few lemon leaves falling out of it ever so often and drifting to the floor. Kai never had figured out why she always kept the pouch with her. Did she like the taste of leaves? Did she think they were pretty? Would he ever find out now?

He had a sudden idea, one small trick that might still work. It never had in the past, but he had never been as desperate in the past either. He held the pouch in both hands and began whispering under his breath, calling on his magic. "Inveniem locum, inveniem locum, inveniem..."

A few green sparkles trickled from his fingertips, and they exploded in a splash of liquid fire as they hit the ground, turning blue. It looked as if he'd cupped molten turquoise in his palms and it was dripping through his grasp, or perhaps his hands were crying shining tears. It was certainly a different reaction from when he'd tried the tracking spell before, but nonetheless, there was no trail to follow and no revelation to be had. Kai was simply exhausting his magic fruitlessly. He'd failed once again. He sank to his knees, breathless. He couldn't find the voice to call out to her anymore, or the energy to keep looking for her. He knelt in numb silence, blinking dumbly.

A stumbling noise by the door was the only thing that shook him out of his dazed stupor. Someone else had entered the house.

He stood quickly, wondering if he should open his arms in case it was Myth (and if he should start thinking of a wicked great apology for wrecking her house) or if he should prepare for an attack in case it was a kidnapper coming for him, too. However, the intruder was merely a stunned-looking Pax. He charged into the room with his hand on the hilt of his sword at his belt, looking confused but ready to fight.

"Hello?" he called, looking around the house as he entered. "Is there- Oh, Kai, it's you- I swear, I-I wasn't following you, I just heard screaming and I-"

"Pax, thank the stars it's you," Kai breathed, grabbing his wrist. "My friend is missing and I don't know what happened to her, all of her clothes are still here, her bags aren't packed, I know she would have told me if she was going somewhere, much less without her pouch-"

"Kai, take a deep breath," Pax urged, grabbing Kai by the shoulders and planting him in place. "You're hysterical. Calm down, and we'll talk."

"Okay." Kai inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, okay, I'm calm. I'm good."

"Okay," Pax said, relaxing but still not removing his hands. "How do you know she's not just out somewhere?"

"She said she was coming right home, and her pouch- she wouldn't go anywhere without it."

"Why?"

"I don't know, that's not the point. What do we do? How do we find her?"

"I think the first step would be to put her name and picture on the bulletin by the sentry hub," Pax suggested. He finally let go of Kai to grab one of Myth's various pictures on the wall. They were all hastily sketched since she didn't like to stay still for someone to capture her likeness since she couldn't look at it anyways, but Kai had convinced her that perhaps someday she would look back on them and appreciate them more. Besides, he and some of the other people she loved were in these pictures. Pax grabbed one of the more detailed ones and folded it so Myth's face was the only one showing, though he was careful not to rip it. "She's definitely not the first person to go missing, we have procedures for this."

"Have you ever found one of the missing?" Kai asked.

"Debatably," Pax said sheepishly, as if he didn't really want to answer the question. "We've found missing people, but one of the missing... it's different. There are consistencies we can't get around. There's never any sign of a struggle, never any reason to believe they left on their own... without any leads, I can't blame the investigative team for not-" He cut himself off when he saw Kai's look of horror. "Uh- But it's only a matter of time, you know? People don't just disappear. We'll find them. We'll find her."

"Okay," Kai breathed. "I believe you."

He believed Pax would try. He believed all the sentries and search parties and magicians would try. But he wasn't quite sure he believed they would ever find the missing again.

❁

Damien clasped his hands together anxiously and tapped his foot. He was standing right outside the new council's assembly room, waiting to be welcomed in, so it likely wasn't wise to be so obviously on edge. He probably looked extremely suspicious to passersby. He wished the council had at least a waiting room or something if they weren't ready to see everyone immediately.

A woman came around the circular building to Damien's left, a few papers in her arms, and gave him a suspicious look.

"Uh, hi," he said quickly, "I swear I'm here on a summons, I'm not just being creepy. I'm Damien Thorne, the architect they sent for."

Her eyes widened in recognition. "Oh, you're Damien," she said. "Nice to meet you, I'm Christabel."

"Do you work here?"

"Ha. They wish. No, I'm just bringing some things over- They're for you, actually, I think."

"For me?" He looked at the neatly-folded sheets of paper in her arms, trying to make out any writing that might be legible from his angle. All he could see were straight and dotted lines, but unsurprisingly, they looked like unfamiliar blueprints. "What are they for? Do they have something to do with why I was summoned?" As the fete had been coming to a close, Damien had been alerted that the councillors wanted to see him before he left. He had not been given a reason as to why.

"I'll let them tell you," Christabel said, gesturing to the double doors into the building. "Come on, let's go in."

She pushed through the doors, using her shoulder since her hands were full, and they swung shut behind her. Damien awkwardly copied her; was he supposed to have gone in this whole time, or was he supposed to wait for that invitation? There hadn't been a council policy active for decades in Janbu, so no one was totally clear on the etiquette that came with.

The inside of the room was pretty similar to the image in his mind based on the exterior and the purpose. It was a round room with no corners, and a high ceiling to allow for an unlit candle chandelier. There were no windows for security reasons, but the room was a combination of leaves and glass to allow sunlight to filter through. It bathed the room in an orange glow under the sunset. There was a curved table that went along the walls, though the center was carved out to leave a space for someone to stand. In the middle of it, with the four councillors and the prince seated in a circle around him, Damien felt rather like he was about to be tried for a crime.

Christabel dropped off her papers in front of the fourth councillor, Zéphine, who was seated to the prince's right. Mendax, who was to the left, snapped his fingers to get Damien's attention.

"Damien," Mendax started, "Can I call you Damien?"

"I don't see why not, sir. Everyone does."

"Well, Damien, I want to start by letting you know we didn't call you here because you're in trouble or anything like that."

"That's a relief," Damien sighed. "I have to be honest, it certainly was a bit intimidating."

"Our goal is far from to intimidate you," Frigus chuckled. "Trust us."

"Damien," Euris started, looking over a paper that was in front of them. Damien felt a little bit silly turning every time someone new spoke, and he wished the councillors wouldn't spread out so much and all just sit in front of him. "Your mentor was Pallius, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"And he's dead now?"

"I... yes," Damien said slowly, surprised by the sudden change in tone. "He died at an old age, surrounded by family. Is this about him?"

"Not exactly," said Zéphine. Damien pivoted a little more to face her. "You were his favorite apprentice, weren't you? That's what some of his notes seem to suggest." She gestured to the papers Christabel had dropped off with her. Christabel had since exited the room, of course.

"I wouldn't know if I was. He could hardly tell me that in front of his other students."

"You've been praised as the best architect and engineer this city has ever seen," Prince Arion said. "My mother spoke highly of you, calling you a man of many talents."

"I hate to say it," Damien said, "But I fail to see what you are leading up to with all this. Is there a bottom line?"

"Listen, Damien," Mendax said, "Your mentor was the one who designed the renovated royal circle's buildings. Now, we don't see anything wrong with that. In fact, he was a good architect and those buildings were safe for years. Sentries, guards, and residents alike could not find the way that an assassin could have snuck into one of his buildings."

Oh, Damien realized. That's what this is about. The queen's mysterious death.

"And yet, an assassin did sneak in, completely undetected and most likely unhindered." Zéphine unfolded the blueprints in front of her and held them out to him. He stepped forward to take a closer look. "We want to task you, as the best apprentice to the man who built the residence, and one of the most capable architects in the city, with the job of finding how she got in."

"I..." Damien flipped through the different sketches and layouts, already matching which rooms corresponded to what he had seen of the buildings in passing. "I understand the assignment, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, I don't know if I'm the best one to take on this project." He looked up from the prints to meet the prince's eyes. "I'm good at designing buildings without obvious flaws, not searching for flaws within already-constructed ones. There are revisionists and correctors who do that for a living."

"Yes, we've asked many of them already," Frigus said grimly. "They've looked at the prints and inside the house, only a day after the queen was declared dead. They couldn't find anything."

"And you think I will?"

"We think you might be the only one left who can," Zéphine admitted. "You're an expert and a trustworthy-"

"We didn't ask you to question our decision," Mendax interrupted. Zéphine gave him a bothered look. "Just assume we know what we're doing when we ask you to look into it. We wouldn't if we didn't think it was the best course of action at the time."

"Well, another thing," Damien said, mentally cursing himself for still doing the thing Mendax just told him not to do, "I live all the way at the edge of the city. If I'm going to be working in the center of it for a long period of time, which is what this is shaping up to be, either that's going to be a crazy amount of commuting every morning and every night, or I'll have nowhere to sleep." He shrugged sheepishly. "I have to admit I don't like either of those prospects."

Zéphine cleared her throat. "Well, since you'd be working in the royal circle, one of us might be able to house-"

"No," Mendax interrupted again. It was becoming increasingly clear that although there was meant to be an even distribution of power between the five people in the room, one of them was exercising it more than the others. "It's not our concern where he sleeps or if he rides an elephant every morning and night. We have important work to do as well, and I'm sure he has friends he can stay with."

The other councillors nodded hesitantly, and Zéphine crossed her arms but didn't say anything.

"My lords- and lady, of course," Damien stuttered, "I accept the assignment, but I'm not sure how efficient I will be without the necessary accommodations."

"Excellent. We expect your work to begin tomorrow," Mendax said finally. "Dismissed."

Damien stood in shocked silence for a moment, unsure if one of the other councillors was going to stand up for him or not. When all they did was either look at each other confusedly or stare hostilely at Mendax, he retreated out of the room, the blueprints and supporting information still clutched in his fist.

The sun had all but set already, and the city was falling asleep. A few fireflies and lanterns lit his way to the elevators to the city floor. He'd have to hope there was a guide up late who could take him home, and he'd think about what he was going to do in the morning once he got home.

However, before he could reach his destination he felt a tap on the shoulder. Felix was standing right behind him.

"Felix?" he asked, turning around to face him. "Why are you up this late?"

"Well, I heard you got summoned by the council so I thought I should probably come check on you and see what they wanted... you're not in trouble or anything, are you?"

"Not with the law," Damien offered.

"That implies there's some other trouble you're in."

Damien held up the blueprints for Felix to see. "The council wants me to find out how the assassin got into the Queen's house unnoticed. Which would be fine, but they expect me to pretty much devote myself to it despite living halfway across the city. I'm not allowed to stay in or around the house I'm actually working in."

"Where do they expect you to stay?" Felix asked.

"I don't know," Damien cried, exasperated. "I was going to figure something out in the morning, but I guess I have to go home for tonight."

"Well," Felix said as if he were going to keep talking, but he didn't continue his sentence.

"Well what?"

"I mean... you could always stay with me if you wanted to. I live pretty close to the center of the city so if you didn't mind sharing a house, I'd be willing to..."

Damien broke into a smile. "Are you serious? If I don't mind it? If you don't mind it, I'd love to stay with you!"

Felix returned his grin, grabbing Damien's upper arm and beginning to lead him away from the elevator. "Oh, this is great! We can go get some of your stuff tomorrow but for tonight you can take the couch, don't worry, we can find a better place for you to sleep soon, and if you want to we can turn a room I'm not using into a guest room, I don't know how long you'll need to stay, oh, and obviously I have bookshelves and tables and stuff that I can clear out if you need to store your work stuff somewhere..."

Damien listened quietly as Felix went on with his plans to change his house to accommodate him. He'd been nervous a few seconds ago, wondering how he was going to meet the demands of an unfair deal, but all of a sudden it didn't seem so bad. His work would help to protect future monarchs, he would earn himself good credit with the prince and councillors, and he would get to do it all from the safety and comfort of a friend's home. He hadn't wanted to ask Felix for such a big favor, but if he was as on board as Damien was, then there wouldn't be a problem.

"Felix?" Damien interrupted suddenly.

Felix paused from his rambling to look at Damien again. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

❁

Zéphine stood on her balcony, taking a slow drag through her pipe as she leaned on the railing overlooking the royal circle. She blew the smoke in a small ring, or at least a very wobbly and misshapen one, and watched as fireflies in the air drifted away to avoid it.

Her first ever council meeting had gone less than well. It was such a simple thing: just give the architect his assignment and ask how she and the rest of the council could help. Of course, Dray Mendax obviously had very different ideas on how the council should function. She thought he'd understood that their goal was to function as a temporary government until Arion was ready to ascend, but clearly he took to the newfound power all too well.

She knew making a bad impression at their first assembly would ruin her chances of gaining his support on future matters, and possibly lose the respect of the other two councillors. Still, it had taken every bit of self control to bite her tongue when he'd talked to Damien like a servant. She was hard to anger, but easy to frustrate, it seemed. There was a reason Janbu didn't employ servants for their court, and this was it. Cruelty wasn't something that was supposed to be allowed.

As soon as Damien had been dismissed and the council had dispersed for the night, Zef had tracked Mendax down and confronted him in front of his house in the most civil way she could manage. She had spoken quietly and clearly, but there could be no mistaking her tone.

"You talked to him like he was beneath you," she had said. "Like he was some problem of yours. You should be ashamed of that, Mendax. He's not a problem, he's a solution, and you treated him like less than yourself."

"He is less than myself, Tenebris," had been Mendax's reply. "He's a piece in a game and he has his part to play. We have bigger fish. I'm ashamed of nothing." He'd proceeded to shut the door frustratingly politely in her face.

She took another lungful of smoke, lost in thought about all the things she could have done better. However, she was distracted by her musings by waving from the walkway below her.

"You're kidding," she whispered to the universe.

"Hello up there!" Leo Zula called happily, his bagpipes strapped to his back and his horribly-designed jacket the brightest thing for miles even in the near-pitch darkness. "Hello!"

"You're not allowed to be in this sector," she reminded him, knowing full well it wouldn't make a difference. Technically, civilians weren't supposed to enter the royal circle under any circumstances, especially at night, but Leo always managed to weasel his way in one way or another, and it wasn't as if anyone was going to call the sentries on him. Not that the sentries would do anything anyways. Leo was somewhere above the rules at that point.

"Are you smoking?" he asked, gesturing to her pipe. "I'm joining you, I'm coming up."

"You most certainly are not," she said, not eager for any kind of company at the moment. "This is my house!"

"I'm coming up," he repeated, pushing open her door (she was so sure she had locked it) and entering the house.

Zef just sighed and waited in silence until he finally joined her on the balcony, pulling out his own longer, darker pipe and striking a match. He leaned against the railing just to her left. Zef only smoked regular tobacco, but from the smell of Leo's lit pipe, she could tell he'd obviously gotten his hands on something much better.

"So," he said, the pipe between his teeth, "What's got you in a knot?"

"The council," Zef grumbled. "We're one meeting in and I'm already being sidelined. It's ridiculous, like I'm not even there to do anything but the actual research. I feel like a secretary. I shouldn't be telling you this," she realized.

"Too late," Leo said smugly. "And Princey didn't stand up for you?"

Zef scoffed. "I love Arion, but honestly, I think of the two of us, I'm going to be the one standing up for him."

"Yeah, stick it to the old people," Leo said seriously. "Being an expert on old people myself, I can confidently say that you are more capable than anyone else in that room."

Despite the hilarity of the statement, Zef found herself fighting back a genuine appreciative smile.

"You want my advice?" Leo asked next.

"No, not really."

"Start with something small," Leo said anyway. "Something they'll definitely agree with, to sway them to your side. Like, you could legalize having a pet turtle!"

Zef frowned. "Pet turtles aren't illegal."

"Well, they're not legal. There's no law saying you can have one."

"There's also no law saying you can't."

"Well, maybe take it a step further: Make pet turtles mandatory by law!"

"Why... why would I do that?"

"Look, you asked for my advice."

"No, I didn't." She ran a hand through her hair, breathing in again. Then she paused. "Wait a second. I think you might be on to something." She tapped the ashes in her pipe over the railing and began to head back to her desk.

"What, with the pet turtles?" Leo asked. "Darn straight I'm on to something. Everyone loves turtles."

"No, no, not that," Zef said absentmindedly. She pulled open the sliding glass door and ran to her drawers, searching for a blank sheet of paper. "You suggested starting small, but I can't ever do that. It's go big or go home. But what I can do is present something that they will definitely agree with." She finally fished one out of her various stacks and grabbed a pen, ready to start drafting a statement of suggestion. She would have to word it extremely convincingly, and she'd probably need Chris' help if she wanted to pass it overnight, but she knew what their next move was.

"May I ask what you're writing?" Leo asked, following her inside. "Or perhaps drawing. Is it a turtle? I think the whole world can agree that turtles."

She ignored his grammatically incorrect statement to whistle Zephyr over from his cage. He dutifully flapped over, ready to do his job. She wasn't sure it was terribly smart to have him deliver an important message, but Orion wasn't around for her to use, so Zef 2 would have to do.

"Zef, tell Chris to come over right now," she said. "I'm going to need her help if I want to get the council to agree to speak with Nefia Obcisor face to face."

Word Count: 4496

Character Appearances:

Kaiden Esterius by TheShortBosmer

Paxton Hæthwar by Avengers14

Damien Thorne by EstelElfstone

Zéphine Tenebris by me

Leomar Zula by eli-z-le

Also Featuring Appearances From:

Mythil Ivor by DragonDancer55

Christabel Odette by sofififlowers

Felix Brook by ghostofwolves

A/N: Hi there, thanks for reading yet another one of my slow-to-come-out chapters. I've decided to not apologize for my lateness once again!!! Muahaha!! I'll be late as much as I want and you all will just have to deal with it

The offer for the cookie still stands, I will remind you all, so the pirate scavenger hunt is still active. I'm bound to slip up at some point and also I am far too lazy to proofread the entire chapter in detail, so I will make you all do it instead and then proceed to not fix the mistakes. I truly am evil aren't I (:<

Also! Thank you to TheShortBosmer for the name suggestion of Khondi for the name of the collective land this series takes place in. That's canon now, I say so, the whole land is called Khondi, and Ailica and Janbu and everywhere else is just part of that. So it is decreed, so it shall be. The runners up were Ivarius, Bonanza Island, and Baby. Thank you to everyone for your suggestions.

My question for this chapter is: who is your fictional role model? (This does not mean your favorite character, I know some of y'all's faves are probably murderers or something, so obviously don't aspire to be like that) Mine is Sybil from Downton Abbey