There was no time to hide. No time to run.

  No time to do anything.

  The wall before us tore open, the stones separating as a door hidden within the very fabric of the palace was exposed. The flickering of yellow lantern light within washed out against the bright white of the magelights that filled the room.

  I didn’t remember that door. Had it really been that long since I’d used this room?

  My eyes met Ophelia's before once more snapping to the silhouette of a cloaked figure standing in the new passageway.

  [Insight].

  I cast the ability as soon as my eyes locked onto the figure. A golden window shimmered before me, the words flashing in and out as they were replaced by strange rune-like symbols that reminded me of the ancient language of dragons. A language that had died not long after our exodus had brought us to this world, lost to the tongue of the humans as my father embraced theirs.

  My eyes widened, my mouth setting into a tight line of worry as the figure stared back at us, face completely hidden by its hood. Finally, as if settled on what it saw, the figure took a single step forward, drew up a hand, and pulled the hood back.

  A young man, his face smooth and free of any blemishes, stared back at us, his eyes a bright blue—almost white in the glow of the magelights. He had slicked-back hair that was as white as the clouds in the sky on a summer afternoon and he was dressed in a layered robe of dark blue and bright green, with back trousers peaking from underneath it.

  His eyes alighted on Ophelia first and then they flashed to me, his mouth shifting from a line into a slight smile. Sharpened teeth poked down against his lip.

  I felt the surge of magicka before I saw it.

  White-blue power echoed along his left arm as he brought it up from behind his back, sending his cloak into swirling through the air. Lightning arced from his hand as it jumped forward, palm outstretched toward Ophelia.

  I watched, unable to move or do anything, as the bolt slammed into her chest, sending her body careening backward and into the wall, where she stuck, suspended off the floor as if skewered by the attack. Her feet dangled in the air..

  I moved to grab the dagger from my belt—if I could just throw it, perhaps I could distract him long enough to move in close with the sword.

  His eyes snapped to mine, narrowing with a hardness that seemed to trap me where I sat, my hand still extended toward my belt, as if it had been grabbed and was now being forced to stay in place.

  The skin around his eyes remained free of wrinkles despite his narrowed gaze.

  "You keep your hands right where I can see them." His voice was almost sing-songy, the pitch slightly higher than I'd ever heard a human speak.

  "Who are you?" I managed to ask as his gaze swept around the room.

  He settled it back on me before speaking.

  "An interested party. Who's the girl? Some wench you picked up for a discount at the local tavern brawl?"

  I twisted my eyes to look at Ophelia.

  "What in the hells are you doing to her?" My voice rose with anger.

  "What does it look like I'm doing?" He continued with that annoying song-like cadence. Was that a lute in the distance? "I'm holding her in place so we can talk. Surely it was obvious, even for someone of your… lower intelligence."

  Turning back to him, I felt the power holding me slowly fade away. Like a mother removing her wing from her fledgling, letting daylight wash over its body after a cold night. Anger bubbled up in me, but I tried to stifle it down.

  "Well she's mine, so let her go." I pressed back from the desk and strode over to Ophelia's hanging form. Her gaze met mine and I nodded slowly before turning back to face the man with the slick-backed hair.

  "Well, what are you waiting for? I said release her. Now." I let the anger bubbling in my gut lace my words.

  He seemed to get annoyed by the show, but he threw his head back, his mouth gaping in disgust, and then the pulsing bolt of lightning vanished from her chest, her feet smacking against the floor as I caught her with an extended arm.

  "You're interrupting us. So, who are you and why are you here?" My voice trembled slightly as I tried to let the anger in my voice overrule the fear that pounded through my body.

  "I have many names, but you may call me… Sil."

  The sound of the far-off lute seemed to die down at that, and I quirked my head to the side slightly, looking at the strange man closely. There was something very off about him.

  "Well, Sil, it was not-nice to meet you. We'll be taking our leave now. Feel free to… redecorate or sing or whatever it is you do."

  I grabbed Ophelia's arm and pulled her toward the door.

  "Eh, not so quickly." Another blast of magicka slammed into the door, the wood cracking with a loud pop.

  "Oh, come on," I said, turning to face him again. I scrunched my face in anger, debating how I could close the distance to him before he could strike me with his lightning bolts.

  "What? You almost forgot your sword." He reached forward, scooped up the weapon—which I'd left resting against the side of the desk—and held the hilt out to me. "Wouldn't want you to run into any trouble you can't get yourself out of."

  "I…" I actually stumbled over my words as I grabbed it from his grip. He let it go with no issue and then crossed his arms and smiled at me.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "What are you even doing here?"

  He shrugged. "Probably the same thing you are." He crossed the distance to us and twirled in a circle, the faint sound of some stringed instrument once more floated through the air from somewhere far away. "Pushing my luck doing something reckless. Does that sound about right?"

  Something about this stranger seemed familiar as he flashed me yet another sharp-toothed grin. I couldn't place it though.

  "Anyway, shall we get to it then?"

  "Wait, get to what?" Ophelia asked, finally managing to pull herself from her shock. "You're not coming with us." She looked to me. "He is not coming with us, right?"

  I glanced between the two of them. "Are you going to cause trouble if we don't bring you along?"

  He smiled. "Oh, absolutely."

  I let out a sigh. I wanted to be angry. The emotion was already there, burning like dying embers in my gut. It was starting to feel like a constant companion at this point.

  But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't quite coax it into the fury that I might have usually called upon. Instead I felt resignation. I turned my head back to Ophelia and shrugged. "I guess he's coming with us. But," I said, glancing back, "if you get us caught…"

  He held up his hands defensively, a shocked look on his face. "Did you see how I got in here? I am a master of sneaking." The music made a long, flighty note and then faded.

  I rolled my eyes and returned to the door, which now had a large scorch mark in it. That was going to raise some questions. So much for getting in and out without them knowing that someone had been here.

  "Where are we going anyway?" Sil asked, stepping up right behind me, peering through the crack in the door. He winced when I glared at him.

  "To get something important from the vault."

  "Ohhhh, the vault, huh? I almost went there. I always wanted to go inside a vault. Never been in one. Have you?" He perked up as he looked to Ophelia.

  "I… I'm not going to answer that," she said after a breath.

  "Let's keep it down and get moving," I told them both and then pushed into the hallway.

  *** *** ***

  We backtracked down the hallway to one of the t-shaped junctions before where we'd run into the dragons. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of somehow running into them again, so I took us another direction—hopefully away from wherever they might have gone.

  The area we were headed to now was one of the most secure in the palace. Though, saying that was a bit misleading, because everything this far into the palace should have been secure.

  But, as seemed to be the case with most things these days, I was actually disappointed by how little "security" we met along the way, especially since Sil had made so much noise with his little… fit.

  Aside from running into my two old friends and having to hide, I hadn't seen any sign of the palace guards since coming out of the lower levels. That either meant they knew we were here and were waiting somewhere to spring a trap—a thought that made my heartbeat increase and sweat bead across my brow—or we had really grown so complacent over the years that we'd ruled out the entire possibility of someone threatening us at all.

  I shook my head as we walked, drawing a questioning look from Ophelia. Thankfully, she didn't dare speak, not after everything we'd been through tonight. The stranger, however, was not so intelligently inclined it seemed.

  "So what's in the vault?" he asked, running a hand quickly across the top of his slick backed hair, as if checking to make sure it was still all in place. His eyes shone with the glow of the magelights as they seemed to transition from green to blue and then brown before moving back to green.

  I had to bite my tongue to keep from yelling at him. "We're here to retrieve something we need to for our cause," I said, choosing my words carefully. We still had no idea who this stranger was or what he wanted, or even why he seemed to persistent about going with us.

  Was he waiting to spring the trap?

  My heartbeat quickened again, but I forced the lump in my throat down. I had to remain focused.

  "Oooohhh, a cause? What kind of cause?" Somewhere, far off, music began to play. It was an almost spooky sounding but mysterious note.

  I glared icy daggers at the man, but he didn't seem to notice.

  "Is it like a rebellion thing? Cause, you know, the dragons aren't really fond of that kind of thing." He leaned close as he said "rebellion," the word barely a whisper.

  "No it isn't a rebellion thing… Don't worry about what our cause is. Just worry about staying quiet. And if that music is something you're doing, cut it out."

  The music instantly cut off and the sound of our footsteps once more became the only sound that accompanied our walk.

  I rolled my eyes as Sil settled into a slightly slower pace, disappearing behind me again.

  "So what's your story?" I heard him whisper to Ophelia a breath later.

  She didn't respond.

  Our movements brought us to another junction in the hallways. This one had two corridors that broke off in either direction and a solid brick wall with a massive gate inlaid in it directly ahead of us.

  I crossed to the door and pressed a hand against it. If my memories were correct, then this door would lead us out to the courtyard we needed to cross to get to the part of the palace where the vault was. And, if my memories were correct, it would likely be watched over by guards—both human and dragon alike. That meant sneaking was going to be especially important here.

  I mulled over the possibilities of everything going wrong. With two of us, the chances of being spotted had already been high. But with three now? And one of us being so colorfully dressed—my eyes found Sil and I looked him up and down, shaking my head at the outfit he had on. I tried casting [Insight] once more, only to dismiss the message almost instantly when it began to paint the air in front of me with flashing ancient symbols.

  Whoever he was, he clearly had access to some kind of spell or ability that could hide his nature from me. Thinking about it, it seemed Aurelion had something similar. Perhaps it was something I, myself, could learn. Before I hadn't expected to meet many System [Users]. But considering the rate at which I had actually been meeting them—and the fact that Ophelia was now one herself—it probably wasn't a bad idea to learn how to protect myself.

  But could I trust Aurelion for that? He seemed friendly enough, but he was also a dangerous creature and I had no doubt he would turn on me instantly if it benefited his own cause more. That just meant I had to make sure it wouldn't.

  "We're going to need to move quickly and quietly," I told them.

  They both nodded.

  "You step where I step and move when I motion for you too. If I tell you to stop—" I held up my hand to emphasize the motion. "Then stop. Understood?"

  More nods.

  "I have no idea what we're walking into here."

  "Oh. I do!" Sil's eyes lit up at the possibility of finally knowing something we didn't. Or, maybe it was just my imagination.

  I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. "You do, huh?"

  He nodded, more vigorously this time, a wide grin stretching over his face, those sharp teeth protruding out again.

  Why did he look so familiar?

  He closed his eyes for a moment and then soft music began to play in the distance, his hands coming up before him, fingers clasping together like he was praying.

  Faint swirls of blue and green magicka flitted through the air, their appearance shifting from something formless to what looked like notes from a musical sheet as they shifted around him, encircling him. The music grew louder as it continued, the tempo slowly increasing, but never becoming frenetic.

  Both Ophelia and I watched, our eyes wide with what could only be described as a sense of both wonder and terror.

  Finally, the swirling musical notes circling his body, Sil opened his eyes—the shifting irises now glowing with a mixture of green and brown—and stared through us both, as if looking at something beyond us that we could not see. He remained like that for several breaths before the music finally began to quiet again.

  His eyes refocused on us, the glow fading, and his lips tugging back into an almost manic smile as he took in our faces.

  "There are four guards in the courtyard, as well as a dragon looking over things from above. I can't tell what kind of dragon—you all do have kinds, right? Like fire-breathing, lightning breathing, and all that? Anyway. The rest of the courtyard seems pretty quiet overall, but I will say I'm a bit worried about that dragon up top. He has a very good vantage point of our little entrance here."

  I blinked at him.