“This is bad. Bad bad bad.” Triss said again as she paced in circles around the fire pit. The flames had died out a while ago, and now only a thin trickle of smoke rose in lazy streams towards the darkening skies. She wiggled her fingers constantly as she walked, the buzzing sensation making it impossible for her to keep them still. “What if she joined him? I don’t want to fight her. This is bad. Bad!”

  “I know a sleeping spell.” Juergen remarked dryly.

  “It’s daytime. There’s no reason to sleep.” Triss replied without looking. “I couldn’t sleep. It’s not time to sleep.”

  “She’ll wind down eventually.” Reginald said.

  “I’m not sure I can wait that long.” Juergen replied.

  “You’re not casting spells on my apprentice.” Percival said. “I’ll deal with her when if she hasn’t calmed down by the time things begin.”

  “And how do you propose to do that?” Juergen asked.

  “Simple.” Percival looked at Reginald. The draconic sighed and stood up.

  “Come along, Triss.” He said, taking her arm to stop her walking. “Let’s go for a walk around the temple. Maybe that’ll burn off some of this excess energy.”

  Triss let herself be pulled away, but cast off Reginald’s arm as soon as they were out of earshot. “This is bad. You know she’s going to be with him.”

  “I don’t know that. Neither do you.”

  “Yes, I do. It’s the worst possible outcome so of course that’s going to be what happens. Haven’t you ever heard of murphy’s law?”

  “Is it a thing from your home world?” He asked. Triss nodded. “Then no, I obviously haven’t. Who’s Murphy?”

  Triss stopped walking, a confused look on her face. “You know, I don’t actually know. Huh. Anyways.” She strode off again, and Reginald had to hurry to keep up. “Murphy’s law says that whatever can go wrong, will. So this will go wrong.”

  “That makes no sense. If that were true, then we never would have found Percival.”

  Triss held one finger up triumphantly. “Except we didn’t find him, did we. He found us. And I got in trouble. Murphy’s law.”

  Reginald took a slow deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. “Fine. Let’s say Naeila is with Pratorin. That doesn’t mean we’ll need to fight her. And even if we did, any one of us could knock her out without killing her. It would be simple.”

  “She’s a wizard.”

  “She’s an apprentice wizard. She isn’t that powerful. She’d be no match for us.”

  Triss shook her head. “That still doesn’t make sense to me. Porten said something about that, but he wasn’t able to finish. Shes supposed to be third order or tertiary or something. But he sort of said that didn’t matter. Like it was some big mystery.”

  “It’s pretty simple really. The wizard council are all apprentices. None of them are true ordered wizards. They write exams and get told they’re a higher order. But they never go through the true trials.”

  Triss stopped again, turning to face Reginald. “What? I don’t understand.”

  “It’s a little complicated. But the short version is that anyone who truly reaches another order is taken away and either killed, or added to the high council. Sworn to secrecy. The high council are the true power, the ones who’ve actually ascended through the orders.”

  “So all wizards are basically at the same level as me?” Triss shook her hands as she bounced from foot to foot.

  “All but the high council, and most dark wizards. That’s why they don’t attack us. We’re too strong for them. They don’t know why, of course.”

  Triss nodded slowly. Then the energy became too much for her again, and she started striding quickly around the temple once more. She puzzled it over until they had turned the first corner. “Why?” She finally asked.

  “Why the high council hides the truth about orders? Control, I expect. They want to make sure no one can challenge their rule. If everyone was reaching primary order, eventually someone would rise up to challenge them for control of the council. By keeping it secret, they can ensure that their rule is absolute.” He sighed. “And they’re very, very strict about it. I heard of a dark wizard who tried to spread the truth once. Within two days he and everyone he’d ever met was dead.” He grabbed Triss’s arm, forcing her to stop and look at him. “I don’t mean every wizard he told, you understand? I mean almost anyone he ever had contact with. The village he lived in burned completely.”

  “That’s horrible!” Triss’s eyes widened.

  “That was a warning. You need to heed it. Don’t ever tell anyone the truth about the orders. If they find out, it won’t matter how many of us there are or how powerful we are. They will destroy us.” He waited for her to nod in acknowledgment before releasing her. “Good. Come on, lets keep going.” He took off walking, and this time it was Triss’s turn to hurry to catch up.

  They didn’t talk much for the rest of the walk, which took nearly half an hour. Triss couldn’t stop thinking about what Reginald had told her. Her heart ached for Naiela. That poor girl was being kept in the dark about so much. They lied to her about what dark wizards were really like. They lied to her about how progression really worked. She was caught in a web of deceit so deep and dark, Triss couldn’t see any way to help her out of it. Even if she tried to tell her the truth, it would likely get her killed. A sudden question occurred to her, and she voiced it as soon as it landed in her skull. “If they can destroy us, why haven’t they done it already?”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Reginald chuckled darkly. “They could do it with a concentrated effort, sure. But they wouldn’t come away unscathed. They’re in no hurry to die. So long as the balance is kept, they leave us to our own devices.” He glanced over at her. “Feeling any better?”

  Triss suddenly realized that her hands weren’t shaking anymore. She was still wide awake, energetic, but the frantic buzzing feeling had finally settled down. Her anxiety had only worsened though. Well, maybe worsened wasn’t the best word. Changed. Less general, more focused. “Yeah. No. Maybe.” She shrugged her shoulders.

  “It’s going to be fine, you know.” He said quietly. “Percival is an ass, sure. But he’s a good man at heart. Porten is the same.”

  “Yeah? What about Juergen?”

  Reginald snorted a laugh. “That man was born an ancient curmudgeon. But he’s also one of the best ritualists in the world. I know a little about what they have planned, and it shouldn’t hurt Naiela.”

  “Why not? Aren’t they going to try to kill this Pratorin guy?”

  “You’ll see. Trust me. It’ll be fine.”

  Triss wanted to press him for more information, but they were already approaching the fire pit again. “Did you fix her?” Percival asked as they stopped in front of the pit.

  “I wasn’t broken.” Triss snapped.

  “Debatable.” Juergen said.

  “And if I was,” Triss said, turning to the thin wizard. “it was because of your stupid coffee.”

  Juergen just shook his head slightly, then turned back to a book he had spread out in front of him. Triss could see the page was filled with complicated diagrams, with dozens of small annotations filling the small spaces that weren’t taken up by the ritual designs. She leaned closer to get a better look, but Juergen noticed and snapped the book shut with a dull slapping noise. “It’s time to get inside, I think.”

  Percival stared over the grasslands at the dark clouds on the horizon. “Perhaps. The storm is moving a little slower than expected.”

  “Good.” Porten said with a smile. “That means we’ll have lots of time to take advantage of its energy.”

  “So will Pratorin.” Juergen pointed out.

  “Bah. Always the pessimist.” Porten said, slowly getting to his feet.

  “I prefer realist.” Juergen replied, also standing.

  “Prefer all you want. That doesn’t make it true.”

  “It was quiet in the castle.” Percival complained to no one in particular. “No arguing. No miserable old men.” He sighed.

  “What castle were you living in?” Triss asked.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” He replied sharply.

  “I mean, there was definitely arguing and at least on miserable old man at the castle.”

  “Yes, but he was in charge and could tell everyone else to shut up.” He fixed Triss with a hard look. “And when he did, they listened.”

  “What castle were you living in?” Reginald echoed Triss.

  Percival let out a disappointed sigh. “Let me have my delusions, please?”

  Triss snapped a mocking salute. “Yes sir. You may have all the delusions you like.”

  Percival grumbled under his breath as they walked into the dark yawning hole that made the temple’s entrance. Triss expected the place to be cold, damp, and dark. She wasn’t disappointed.

  The inside of the temple turned out to be a maze, made of giant stones stacked four times her height. The only ceiling was the temple’s roof, which stretched a hundred feet above her at the peak. Faint light leaked in from gaps in the stone high above, just enough to keep her from being completely blind. They walked for ten minutes, Turing down one corridor after another until they finally reached a dead end. “Alright now, up we go.” Percival said, pointing to the stones that made up the end of the corridor.

  “That’s a wall.” Triss pointed out.

  Percival held his hand up and a small orb of light appeared floating above it. Triss had to blink at the sudden brightness. “Right here.” He stepped up to the wall and pointed out a hole in the wall, slightly larger than her fist. Triss stepped up and examined the hole. “Here. See?” Percival pointed out another hole, a foot or so beside the first. Triss realized that there were holes all the way up to the top, spaced evenly in two vertical columns.

  “Oh, like a ladder.” She said at last.

  ‘Exactly. Up you go.”

  Triss placed one hand in the hole, then recoiled as her fingers brushed across something cold and slimy. “Nope!” She said, taking a step back.

  Percival turned to her, a serious expression on his face. “You can’t stay down here. It’s my duty to ensure you survive. The only way to do that is to put you on top of the wall. Out of reach. Now. Climb.”

  Triss grimaced, but obeyed. Her stomach turned in loops as she reached back in and laid her hand on the wet, slimy mess. She found the edge of the hole had a small lip around it that she could hold on to. She took a deep breath and began to climb, pulling herself up one hole at a time, jamming her feet into the lower holes to push herself upwards. “Gross….” She whined as each hole covered her fingers with wet, cold slime. She managed to get to the top without losing her grip, pulling herself onto the thick stones with a gasp of relief.

  The top of the walls were at least two paces wide, with shallow water filled depressions dotting their surface. Reginald soon climbed up behind her, and she turned and helped pull him up. She looked down at the trio of wizards below. “Now what?” She asked.

  “Now, you stay up there until this is all over. Don’t draw attention to yourselves.” Percival said, and then he dismissed the light spell. The temple’s interior was suddenly plunged into near total darkness again, and Triss stood frozen until her eyes finally readjusted. She didn’t want to accidentally walk off the wall.

  Reginald pulled her down to lay on the stone beside him. “Stay down. We need to stay out of sight.”

  Triss grumbled but listened, laying down on the stone next to Reginald. She could see the entrance to the temple still, nearly all the way on the other side of the structure. Faint flashes of lighting occasionally illuminated the thick stone frame, and the rumble of approaching thunder became a near constant sound. “How long will this take?” She asked.

  “Probably not long. Shh. He may have come in ahead of the storm. No talking.”

  The storm grew louder and more frantic as flashes of lighting came faster and faster, until the temple’s entrance looked more like the door to a dance club. The thunder grew louder and louder until it finally switched from low rumbles to sharp cracks, vibrating the stones they lay on. Triss watched the entrance, hoping to see when Pratorin came in. The entrance suddenly grew dark, the flashes of lightning blocked by something large. Triss focused, trying to see what was there. Did Pratorin come in his large form again?

  Another flash of lightning illuminated the inside of the temple, the form having moved out of the way. Triss recognized it instantly as the light briefly showed some details. Two red eyes turned slowly back and forth as the demon from the road examined the temple. She swallowed hard as the red orbs turned her way, and then stopped.