When Kingdom Goes

Act I - Chapter 13

As they enter, Velajul is confused at his presence here. He's smart, sure, but not quite on their level of intelligence. He figured that he would just sit and watch this conversation play out.

"So, who are your new friends? Outside of Rose, I don't think you wrote about the other four."

"They are as follows Elajuel, Velajul, and Vuella, who are siblings and assassins. The newest one however, is Sera, whom you fought earlier. She's an ex-pirate."

"Excuse me, Lord Tyrol, but how did you know there were four others?" Velajul inquires.

"Good question, but it's simple really. I fought most of that fight with my ether sense on. I could see you around the corner, the teleporter hiding in the corner of the ceiling, one on the roof, and of course, the one I fought directly with."

"That makes sense, but how did you do it? For most people, using ether sense in combat puts a strain on the user, especially while using an ability."

"Yet another logical conclusion, however, you missed one crucial detail: I'm not most people. I don't say it to brag, but when you're dealing with kings and other people like us, you have to remember that we are extraordinary people that are capable of doing extraordinary things."

"Yes sir, I'll consider it a lesson learned."

"On the topic of ether sense, have you looked at Rose with it?"

"No, but I assume there's a reason if you're bringing it up." Hiro says with a hint of sass in his voice.

Faust scoffs at him saying, "You could've just asked me why I said it. Anyways, I bring it up because it appears that she doesn't have an ether signature, or at least not one that's visible."

"Interesting... Have either of you encountered something like this before?"

Both of them shake their heads "No".

"To add to this, Sera's signature appears to be the same way."

"Even better." Hiro says sarcastically.

"Excuse me again, but on the topic of Sera, how was your first impression of her? We were all initially suspicious of her, but general opinion of her has gone up quite a bit since then. I just can't shake the feeling that she's up to something." Velajul asks.

"Hmmm... Tell me everything you all know about her, and I'll see if I can come up with a hypothesis. Be warned, Hiro is just as intelligent as I am, so if he didn't figure it out I likely won't either."

They agree and tell him everything from when Rose found her, up to today.

"The only thing that strikes me as odd is that she knew about you and your siblings, but not Rose."

"And why is that odd?"

"Even as a neighboring nation I was able to see the events of Rose's capture from my palace."

"Maybe she was just in another country when it happened."

"But even in that case, she was still a pirate, so she probably would have heard a rumor about the event." Hiro chimes in.

"So the problem is that she knew about us, and not Rose. The next question should be, how did this discrepancy happen?"

After a moment of silence, Hiro speaks up, saying, "With three of the most intelligent men on the planet in one room, we can't figure out the identity of a potential threat. I won't dismiss the possibility of Sera being suspicious, but if we can't give concrete evidence to support it, I won't act on it.".

"Three? I could understand you saying that about yourself and Lord Tyrol, but me? I don't believe I'm on the same level as you two." Velajul says.

"Not yet, but you're fairly close. If anything were to happen to me, I would want you to be the new tactician. While I consider you to be of help in the current situation, I actually brought you with us so you could study how we handle problems, and learn from it."