“Keep eating, I’ll get it,” Nikolas volunteered, answering the door to a well-dressed, half-toad mage standing on the other side. “Hmm?”

  Duceus stood petrified for a couple of seconds, not expecting to see Nikolas. He quickly glanced at the apartment number above the door frame to confirm that he had arrived at the same address that Rika had given him to find Clarisse, and indeed it seemed to be the right address.

  “Ahem.” Nikolas feigned a cough with as little effort as he could possibly use, staring down the copper. Seeing as the rookie was still frozen a few seconds later, he made a rotating gesture with his hand, prompting the boy to speak up.

  “Mr.- Mr. Nikolas,” Duce rapidly bowed a few times before finally putting his words together. “Many apologies. I wasn’t expecting to see you here, haha. I thought Clarisse lived here, ribbit? I just wanted to ask if she was doing alright after our quest together…”

  Nikolas didn’t reciprocate the toad’s attempt at humor, but loosened his demeanor when he heard him mention the quest. “Oh, you know her from there. She’s doing okay now. Wait up-” he gestured for Duce to pause before turning back towards Clarisse’s room. “It’s a friend from the last quest you took, do you want to talk to him?” He called out.

  “Which one?” Clarisse’s voice sounded back from her room after a short pause.

  Nikolas glanced back at Duce with furrowed brows under the mask before turning back. “It’s the toad! Looks like a mage.”

  There was an extended pause before her answer came back. “Only if the other one didn’t come with!”

  “There was more than one of you?” Nikolas inquired, holding the door open with his foot as he gestured for Duce to enter.

  “Uhm- yes sir. He was too -ribbit- sick to come, sir. My name is Duceus, sir.” Duce quickly replied, trying not to make eye contact with the kitsune as he took his boots off outside the door and entered, crossing Nikolas as fast as possible as if simply being around him was dangerous.

  “Geez, drop the honorifics.” Nikolas disdainfully muttered under his breath as he followed Duce inside and sat beside Clarisse on the bed.

  “Hello! Glad to see you’re doing alright, Clarisse.” Duce greeted the redhead, who was sitting cross-legged on her bed, chowing down on rice and curry. He awkwardly glanced around the room for a spot to sit before picking the chair.

  “Hey!” Clarisse graced the cryomancer with a short verbal greeting and a hand wave while she was chewing rice, only talking once it had gone down her throat. “How are you holding up since last time?”

  “Uhm, I’m okay… Mr. Joshua helped heal me yesterday.” Duce replied, his gaze uncomfortably darting between Nikolas and Clarisse. “Reggie needed a lot of help though…”

  “That jerk… He deserved it for acting reckless,” Clarisse grumbled, stabbing her spoon into the rice with some added force. “What’s the deal with him, anyway? Acting like he could take on that monster by himself…”

  Nikolas glanced at Clarisse with what seemed to be amusement but remained quiet otherwise, taking his place of leaning by the corner of the room. He hadn’t been aware that she could harbor such hostility for one person.

  “I-I’m sure he meant well, ribbit,” Duce sighed, rubbing the side of his arm nervously. “He was taken back to the estate yesterday. I would have gone back with him, but I wanted to check if you were alright first.”

  “Oh, thanks,” Clarisse replied with a smile, not expecting that sort of kindness from someone she had only met once before. “I appreciate that, but how did you not get sick? You were with us just as long down there.” she asked.

  “It’s because I’m actually part-draconewt, ribbit!” Duce proclaimed happily, “We have an extra-thin layer on our skin which protects us from germs.” To demonstrate, he pinched the back of his wrist and pulled on a subtle, transparent membrane which existed over his actual skin.

  “Whoa, that’s cool!” Clarisse narrowed her eyes to focus on the membrane. She glanced around herself to check if her diary was nearby to take a note. “You really got out of that as the best out of all of us, huh…” Even Nikolas was suddenly paying attention, making a mental note of the boy’s special hereditary traits.

  “It rarely comes up… but I’m grateful to my mother for it,” Duce tried his best to remain modest, before letting out a somber sigh. “Just wish it was that easy to protect Reginald.”

  “Why are you friends with him anyway?” Clarisse prodded the topic further, “He treats you like you’re just some lackie and you still help him out… it doesn’t sit right with me. You can do better.”

  Duce seemed taken aback by the accusation, looking down as he formulated how to answer her. “Well, I’m his… retainer. Baron Hemsworth gave me that responsibility himself.” He spoke with a hint of self-anointed pride, that he was important in that manner.

  “Oh…” Clarisse replied, though it was evident from her expression that she was still bothered. Her focus had simply shifted towards him being under the thumb of nobility instead of Reggie.

  “Adventuring isn’t something endless amounts of money can achieve,” Nikolas suddenly interjected, picking up on the hints of their conversation to come to a conclusion. “If he’s using you as an extra body to clean up his scraps and carry him when he’s down, I’d recommend quitting while you’re both new, and preferably, alive.”

  Duce froze up again as Nikolas began speaking, nodding along slightly until he was done. “It’s more than that, ribbit… we are friends. My uhh… father… works with his. So, when he wanted to go adventuring, I asked to go with him.” he elaborated, though there was an awkward tone to his voice.

  “That’s… a little better.” Nikolas conceded with a shrug, glancing at Clarisse for her opinion.

  “Still doesn’t make him less of a jerk, though.” Clarisse pointed out with a huff before taking another vicious bite of rice and curry.

  “I’ll talk to him about it once he gets better…” Duce sighed, before glancing up at the wall clock to check the time. “Oh– I should get going now, I need to catch tonight’s caravan back to the estate. Thank you for accommodating me, even though I came unannounced.” He got up and graced his leave with a hasty bow.

  “Thanks for dropping by to check on me.” Clarisse replied with a smile, about to get up before she saw Nikolas head towards the door instead.

  “It’s good to see someone who’s actually concerned for party members after one-off quests.” Nikolas remarked, walking ahead of the draconewt-toad hybrid and opening the door for him. Leaving the door ajar, he turned around to address the toad one last time. “Listen up. I like to stay discreet wherever I am… if word spreads around the guild that you found me here, no amount of wealth and nobility intervening will be able to find the body.”

  “Y-yes sir!” Duce immediately bowed in compliance. “I won’t tell a soul!”

  “Good. Take care of yourself.” Nikolas added, before opening the door and letting him out. He didn’t wait long after the toad hurried out to return to the bedroom, where Clarisse had finished her meal.

  “That was unexpectedly pleasant,” Clarisse commented as she dropped the box into the trash before sitting back on the edge of the bed. “Being a descendant from one of the dragon races must be cool, you get to have free abilities like that.”

  “It certainly has its merits,” Nikolas agreed with a knowing chuckle. “Although they usually come with their own demerits as well. I bet that membrane would crumble immediately against fire magic like yours, and takes a long time to heal, during which they remain more vulnerable to diseases than others.”

  “Hmm… interesting trade off.” Clarisse commented, before going oddly silent as another thought came to her mind. “Nik, you’re a kitsune, right?”

  “… Yes.” Nikolas replied, suspecting that he was going to be interrogated on that basis soon.

  “I wanted to ask why you don’t have a tail. The illustrations always show them with one or more tails,” Clarisse reminisced to the books she had frequently flipped through and stories she had heard during her childhood “You’re the first kitsune I’ve met in person, so I’ve been meaning to ask you that since I first saw you.”

  Nikolas glanced away, letting out a sigh. Under the mask, he clenched his teeth awkwardly.

  “Caught in that insipid lie of yours again, are you?”

  “Yeah, yeah. My answer isn’t going to change just yet.”

  “. . .”

  “What? It’s true enough. Technically.”

  “You are a disgrace even to their kind…”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Kitsune grow tails as they get stronger, often storing mana in them after getting their second tail. It’s also a sign of social status,” He began, standing by the parted curtains and looking out the window as he spoke in a somber voice. “Many kitsune would prefer to die on the battlefield rather than return without their tails. Our only options are to kill ourselves or be excommunicated.”

  Clarisse covered her mouth with her hands, letting out a horrified gasp at the implication of the tidbit of kitsune culture she was being told. “Wait, so you…?”

  “I lost my tail in the war,” Nikolas continued speaking listlessly, letting out a dry laugh. “Even though it was my only responsibility, I lost it.”

  “I’m so sorry…” Clarisse mumbled as she stepped forward, reaching for his hand between both of hers. Her fingers trembled from guilt for prompting him to explain himself.

  “It’s alright… I’ve come to accept reality,” Nikolas replied, raising his hand with a hint of amusement. “That's also why I wear the mask. I’m an outcast to Aniera and all other kitsune.”

  “But isn’t it unfair?” Clarisse protested, unable to accept the culture as mere fact, “People who get hurt or lose an important part of themselves should get help, not be outcast!” She moved back to the bed, tugging Nikolas along with her to take a seat.

  “It takes a lot to lose one’s tail… At that point I was too incompetent to be helped. I can’t even shift to a full fox form now,” Nikolas tilted his head, slowly freeing his hand from her grasp as he sat down. “Still, living without it hasn’t been all bad. Especially here in Junnhaven.”

  “Does it hurt?” Clarisse frowned, still upset at the culture surrounding lost tails but placated by Nikolas’s admission. “If you met another kitsune, would they acknowledge you as one of them?”

  “Not much, and I highly doubt they would.” Nikolas scoffed, shaking his head in jest. “I’m likely to be passed off as a lesser being at best…”

  “I still think you’re awesome!” Clarisse adamantly reassured him, which only made him chuckle in response. “I mean, you’re still great at alchemy and adventuring and other things!”

  “I’m glad you do, but don’t get all worked up over all this. It’s… water under the bridge by now.” Nikolas mused, leaning back with support from his hands as he looked up at the ceiling, “Any other fun facts I can interest you in?”

  “Umm… ” Clarisse paused, trying to think of a different topic to broach, before realizing she had already mentioned it. “Where did you learn alchemy from?”

  “Ah, that’s a good one,” Nikolas raised an eyebrow under the mask. “It wasn’t one person in particular, but I grew up close to the border between Aniera and Ignisvell. There were a lot of people there who dabbled in these things - alchemy, herbology, botany, more or less the same field.”

  “Wow… it must have been a pretty big town then?” Clarisse asked, her tone betraying confusion. She remembered him mentioning being from a practically unknown village before, but certainly alchemy seemed to be a pastime for the nobility with how expensive potions were to buy.

  “More like a passing hub for merchants who frequented the border,” Nikolas corrected her assumption. “People never stuck around, always going to new places. Alchemy was just a way to fund their travels, since ingredients are easy to find and substitute within different recipes.”

  “I always thought alchemists would be wise and clandestine people-” Clarisse giggled, “I don’t know why, but that’s how they are usually shown in storybooks.”

  Nikolas laughed with her, “I suppose that’s how alchemy is perceived by outsiders, but it’s nothing strange like that - just using the world around you to create answers to your problems.”

  “Hmm… when are you going to teach me alchemy?” Clarisse wondered aloud, before interrupting herself. “After I’m good at magic, of course. I don’t want to split my focus too much.”

  “There’s still a lot you have to get through first,” Nikolas tilted his head slightly, recounting where they had left off with her training. “Was it useful for your quest? Your magic, I mean.”

  “Yeah!” Clarisse smiled, before wilting slightly. “Well, it was useful on the smaller sprites. I was mostly there as a… glorified lamp.” It felt bad to relegate herself to that role, but it was what she had been good at.

  “That’s still good. Lighting, or lack of it can drastically change the outcome of a quest,” Nikolas assessed, speaking from experience “Lots of quests need us to go down dark, sometimes narrow but almost always dangerous spaces. Think of dungeons, filled to the brim with traps and monsters in hiding.”

  “Right, that’s why so many pyromancers take to work like this…” Clarisse realized, before recalling another tidbit from their past conversations. “Can’t you see in the dark? I wouldn’t be much help for you…” she said, sounding deflated.

  “There’s more to it than just light. Fire is simply versatile in ways many other elements aren’t,” Nikolas reassured her. “-And since you can make your own, you aren’t limited to certain environments.”

  “I wish I could’ve done more down there,” Clarisse reflected on the quest. “I couldn’t even keep my hair aflame for that long before I was running low on mana.”

  “Oh, really?” the fox remarked, thinking back to his conversation with Sera. “I remember you were able to maintain it pretty much the entire time we trained.”

  “That’s the thing!” Clarisse exclaimed, relieved that he saw her perspective. “It was only a couple of hours, and we didn’t even fight much before I ran out. I was still all out of mana until yesterday night… Dunno why…”

  “Maybe Sera has some insight on it since she was there with you,” Nikolas feigned ignorance over his satisfaction at their experiment having some results to discuss. He glanced at the inanimate doll sitting on the bed stand for a few seconds, before concluding it would most probably stay inanimate and stuffing it in his bag. “She’ll probably be back tomorrow.”

  Clarisse joined him in staring at Sera for a few seconds, before looking back at Nikolas. “Speaking of, what do you want to do tomorrow?” She asked, swaying slightly from side to side.

  “I have some business at the guild hall, but it shouldn’t take long,” Nikolas thought aloud, recalling his lost adventurer’s emblem and the matter of getting rid of the oathbreaker hunting quest. “You should take another day off before we begin training again, just to make sure your body doesn’t relapse into an ailment.”

  “Being stuck alone here isn’t fun…” Clarisse complained, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “There was another thing I wanted to ask you!” A visage of nervousness took over her when she remembered asking Sera about the same.

  Nikolas raised an eyebrow under the mask in amusement, picking up on the tension in her voice. “Go on…” he mused.

  “I know you like to work alone on quests, but…” the redhead began, her lips wavering slightly as she gathered the courage to ask him. “I was hoping we could be a party of two for quests from now on?...” She asked, staring at him with bated breath.

  Despite the racing thoughts in her mind, Clarisse was hoping beyond hope. Everything so far had gone wrong in her plan - he had arrived to see her sick, wasted the rest of the day to attend to her, and she had even cost him a couple of potions. She wasn’t anything remarkable either, nothing worth making an exception for as far as she knew. And yet, she looked at him with hopeful eyes.

  Nikolas decided to humor her predicament by staying silent for a few seconds, looking down and feigning a disapproving sigh before meeting her gaze. “Sounds good! Getting experience is the best way to learn as an adventurer. We can make it official tomorrow at the guild.”

  “Really- Thank you!” Clarisse exclaimed, almost leaping across the bed as she lunged forward to hug him. “I promise I won’t disappoint you!”

  Nikolas was caught off-guard by the hug, instinctively raising one of his arms halfway to defend himself before realizing what was happening. He sat petrified for a few moments, only resorting to awkwardly patting her back when she still hadn’t let go in a few seconds. “Easy on the sudden movements – you just got better.” he mumbled blankly, despite being the one in shock between the pair.

  Clarisse let go of him in her own sweet time, sitting back on her knees and twirling a lock of hair bashfully once she realized how forward she had been. “R-right… Thanks again for taking care of me today. I would’ve been in serious trouble if you hadn’t come back.”

  “It’s alright. I’m glad my potions were useful for someone else.” Nikolas replied with a tilt of his head, quickly getting up once he was free of her grasp. He glanced out at the darkening sky through the gap in the curtains, and then back at her. “It’s getting pretty late- You should get some more sleep now, that way you’ll be completely fine tomorrow.”

  “I will!” Clarisse nodded, barely managing to contain her excitement as she watched Nikolas stuff Sera into his backpack and head for the door. She clambered after him moments later, realizing there was no one else around to close the door this time. “See you tomorrow! Have a good night, Nik.”

  “You too, Clarisse.” Nikolas replied with a subtle nod, before heading down the stairwell and off into the streets.

  “Haah…” Clarisse felt a massive weight being taken off her shoulders as she closed the door, and even though she was feeling far too ecstatic to sleep, she grabbed her diary and huddled among her blankets in bed, pouring her heart into it once more.

  Nikolas had yet again found an unsuspecting Junnhaven rooftop to claim as camp for the night. Gazing into the cloudy night sky with his hands folded behind his head, he seemed lost in his thoughts - lost enough to not notice Sera leave his bag and stand next to him.

  “Atraxia to Nikolas – Hello?” Sera asked, quite surprised by the usually perceptive rogue’s lack of a response as she waved her short wooden arms over his line of sight.

  Nikolas’s eyes shifted slightly to acknowledge her. “Hey, Sera.”

  “What’s on your mind? Did something happen after I left?” Sera asked again in a confused tone.

  “No, everything’s fine,” Nikolas replied blankly. “Just thinking about her…”

  “Well, she’s definitely an interesting specimen. Your little hunch was right, you know,” Sera huffed, unamused by his admission. “There’s a small chance I’m wrong here, but I think you two have a mana bond.”

  “A what now?” Nikolas asked, his composure finally breaking as he pulled himself forward to sit upright. “And how do you figure that?”

  “I can count how many pages of literature there are on this topic in Atraxia on my fingers, so give me the benefit of the doubt,” Sera prefaced, before beginning her explanation. “Your assumption of having a shared mana pool was right. Mana bonds are an extremely rare occurrence where two or more individuals are able to share their mana pool when they are close enough. You realize what this means, right?”

  Nikolas blinked a few times before coming to a conclusion. “Both individuals get access to a much larger mana pool than usual, which translates to greater mana use and faster growth.”

  “Much faster growth.” Sera emphasized. “Both in terms of ceiling and floor, you have a great opportunity to grow exponentially stronger because of her.”

  “Ho– that’s it! That’s perfect…”

  “Nobody asked you!”

  “And nobody needed to. Where we can find power, I will be there. Such was father’s purpose for me.”

  “Oh Cerdiwen…”

  “It is comedically tragic that I have been saddled with a burden so unworthy of his dream that I am denied that which benefits even you. In all the three islands and the three realms, I could not have asked for a worse-”

  Nikolas saw it best to let the voice keep rambling, narrowing his eyes in opposition at Sera instead. “I have a responsibility to her before that.”

  Thank you for reading!

  If you liked this chapter, please consider leaving

  a comment, rating or review on my story!