Fire magic wasn’t a field Nick had ever taken an interest in.

  He knew its potential, even beyond the sheer destruction it could cause, was enormous. It was perhaps the oldest form of elemental magic, dating back even before man’s attempts to communicate with higher powers, and that was worth a lot.

  Some rituals he was familiar with would have definitely benefited from a strong connection with fire.

  But it wasn’t the path he had chosen, and no matter what his father was capable of, he couldn’t seem to dissociate it from the goddess that had tried to take control of him.

  Still, he had to admit that the Fire Drake's heart being displayed right now was more than a little impressive, and his thoughts drifted to what he could do with it.

  Eugene had been able to alter his own class using a dead version of it. Its power alone was enough to effectively smooth out any mistakes he might have made while preparing his ancestor’s ritual. If a novice like him could wield it with such success, Nick knew for a fact he could get much more out of it, especially since this specific heart was still beating beneath the thousand layers of stasis magic that kept it preserved.

  Fire Drakes, as far as he knew, were equivalent to wyverns in power, and the idea of capturing one of these monsters alive and keeping it that way by using extremely complex spells to extract its heart and keep it pumping seemed crazy.

  I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Or rather, I have several ideas, but their mana resistance alone would make them impossible.

  “The price will be set at a thousand golds!” The hostess kicked off the dance, and bids started flooding in.

  Nick sat back with wide eyes. He knew the auction would attract extremely wealthy individuals beyond his imagination, and that their sense of what was affordable was vastly different from his. Watching a dozen high nobles and wealthy merchants bid in hundreds each time without hesitation truly drove the point home.

  And here I was, almost feeling guilty about my little theft. A thousand gold coins is a rounding error to these people.

  House Crowley had always been technically a noble house, but only now, after being raised to the rank of Barons and given control of the western frontier, were they beginning to make some serious money.

  These people had the advantage of hundreds of years of history as rulers of much wealthier lands. Sure, their expenses were proportionally higher, but that still left them with more than a knightly house could make in a decade every year.

  “Six thousand and one!”

  “Six thousand and two!”

  “Six thousand and three! The Drake heart has been sold!” Canaria shouted, pointing to something in the upper theater, where the wards shrouded the VIP rooms.

  Nick struggled to pierce through them, but he had built enough familiarity with the presences within that he could tell it was either Count Boer who had spent the eye-popping sum or someone in his immediate vicinity.

  “That’s insane,” Devon muttered, eyeing the spot where the drake heart had been just moments ago, before it was teleported out to a secure location.

  “It’s the way of the world,” Xander replied, seemingly unruffled. He seemed almost nostalgic, and Nick decided that his father had probably confided in his mentor about how he managed to change class, which meant he was reminiscing again.

  He looks like a block of granite, but he’s actually a softie deep down. Very deep.

  The next item to be revealed was more confusing. A simple oval rock, about the size of a melon, with a few ridges and unusual growths on its surface, was teleported onto the pedestal, and Nick furrowed his brows, trying to figure out what it might be, since he couldn’t sense any active mana from it.

  This last round is supposed to focus entirely on enchanted items, and while I can see how the drake heart might be considered one, given the overwhelming number of stasis spells layered on it, this thing appears inert.

  Though the wards, it was hard to make out anything, but Nick couldn’t even sense a spiritual signature that would have made this a living egg, which had been his assumption.

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  Yet people stirred again, clearly realizing what this was, and the interest in the room increased as a bald old man with a stoop joined Canaria, the designated expert she had promised.

  “Some of you might already recognize what this next lot is, but let me briefly explain for those who aren't as well-versed in history. Back during the first expansion of our fair kingdom, one of the toughest enemies we faced was the merpeople in the eastern seas," the expert explained, and Canaria’s lips quirked up as a few more people made noises of realization.

  “Yes, their deep-water cities were difficult to access even for our mages, and their hit-and-run tactics made engaging any major force and destroying it impossible. That is why the finest minds at the King’s service devised a plan, and a series of strike teams composed of the greatest warriors were sent into these cities with only one goal: to retrieve the merpeople’s kraken eggs and bring them back to the surface. When those men returned, the greatest mages of the time gathered to enchant the eggs and transform the innate magic of a kraken, a creature capable of rivaling the fire drake that gave the heart sold earlier, and made it into a terrible curse.”

  With that background, Nick narrowed his eyes and was able to sense an extremely subtle, insidious kind of magic. It had slipped past his notice before, as it was overshadowed by all the spells keeping it contained, but now that he knew what to look for, he could see it.

  Oh. Oh, that’s not good.

  “These newly enchanted eggs were then released back into the seas, where they were found by adult krakens and brooded over, only to never hatch. No, what they did was corrupt the monster’s minds, turning them into frenzied beasts, incapable of telling friend from foe. And thus, the destruction of the merpeople’s kingdom was brought about.”

  A moment of silence passed, as everyone recognized the significance and the monetary value of something like that.

  Few would want to use it, since the magic was deliberately designed to corrupt only krakens, but owning a piece of the kingdom’s history like that… It was irresistible to many.

  “Again, the base will be set at a thousand,” Canaria said, but her tone made it clear she expected the price to rise even faster than for the previous lot.

  And indeed, she was proven right. Hands shot up as the high nobles fought over a historical artifact like rabid dogs, while the wealthy upper class of Alluria could only watch with bated breath.

  In the end, the winner was a man Nick didn’t recognize, and whom he believed to be a noble from outside the city. He ended up spending eight thousand five hundred gold coins, which was a king’s ransom, but from the glee he showed, he didn’t seem to care much about the expense.

  The egg vanished, and Canaria prepared to announce the next lot when a rumble shook the theater.

  It was nothing overtly threatening, given the numerous layers of defense surrounding them, but the fact that it had been felt inside meant it was significant.

  A murmur spread through the theater as people wondered what that might have been, and Nick sensed several individuals moving toward where the Duke was sitting.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t overhear their conversation, but he had a solid read on the man’s emotions to tell that something was wrong.

  Yet, after that initial shock, Canaria quickly returned to her usual demeanor and took back everyone’s attention by announcing the next item, as another expert stepped onto the stage to join her.

  A staff appeared on the pedestal, floating up under the ward’s magic. It had an elegant, ornate design and a long, slim rod of dark green topped with a fist-sized ruby, held within a swirl of gold.

  Nature magic surged in waves, powerful enough that even the wards struggled to contain it, and Nick knew without a doubt that this was the work of a mage at the height of his craft.

  Prestige tier? No, this might be even higher. The things I could do with that in my hands…

  Nature magic wasn’t really his focus, but with something like that, he was confident he’d learn it quickly enough. It had to have belonged to a legendary druid, considering the impressive signature it was sending through the ether despite being bound by a thousand spells.

  Everyone’s attention was once again on the stage, where the expert quickly began describing the staff as belonging to an elven princess from a distant land, who had battled a terrible demon and lost her life sealing it away, leaving only her staff to remember her.

  Nick wondered how it was possible for such a thing to be sold. Surely, the Duke would have kept it in his vault.

  Or maybe he never planned to sell it. He'll buy it back with ease, since it’s his own money, and it will show he has such a treasure. It feels a bit forced, but it could be a good way to reassure people he still has the power to keep Alluria under control.

  There was only a minor issue with that plan. The Duke’s box was swarming with secret guards and trusted aides giving him updates on something happening in the city, and while he didn’t seem to think it was serious enough to stop the auction, his mood was becoming more grim.

  With the castle’s wards interfering, Nick couldn’t see clearly, but he was growing more anxious by the minute. He wasn’t used to not knowing what was happening, especially during an emergency.

  “Something big is going on,” he whispered, carefully using wind magic so only his brother and Xander could hear.

  Devon pursed his lips, eyeing the entry points to the theater, while Xander let out a sigh and stood up.

  With the shadows hiding everyone and the focus on the stage, where Canaria kept calling more and more ridiculous numbers for what Nick was pretty sure was a rigged lottery, no one noticed him.

  “Come on, we have a job to do,” the old man told his apprentice before turning to Nick. “You may stay if you wish.”

  Rolling his eyes, he quickly caught up with him, and they headed toward the closed side exit that Xander had been eyeing from the start. A couple of soldiers startled when they saw them arrive but quickly recognized who they were.

  “I’ll go handle this business and make sure it doesn't affect the auction,” Xander said.

  Before either of the two soldiers could speak, a man emerged from the darkness and said, “Grandmaster, the situation is under control. The Duke would like you to stay here and provide security.”

  “Is it?” Xander hummed, peering down at the man. “I can feel divine energies washing over the city, kid. Don’t take me for a fool.”

  The hidden guard pursed his lips, clearly struggling with how to handle this, before a second hidden guard joined him. “Let them through. Grandmaster, I will brief you on the situation as we go.”

  He looked at the two brothers next, not expecting them to follow, but Nick and Devon hurried after Xander and weren't stopped.

  Clearly, the situation was worse than anticipated.

  The moment they slipped out of the room and the wards released them from their grip, Nick understood why Xander had decided to come out.

  The sky was filled with gold and crimson hues, as if sunset had arrived early, but the only star visible in the sky was above what he was pretty sure was Sashara’s temple, and it pulsed with enough power to make his teeth hurt.