Ethan looked at Prince Calevaro, who had just declared that he would be the one fighting the duel against Thavin. He thought of the countless hours of training the man had done, the extremes he pushed himself to, and narrowed his eyes in realization. “Would you have ever let me take your place?”

  “No,” Calevaro said without a trace of doubt. “If you proved not to be a good man, perhaps even the thief my father called you, then I would have stepped back from your affairs. But I accepted this duel for a reason, and I wouldn’t chance it on a newly Bonded duplicate.” He smirked slightly. “Though I would always have let my father believe otherwise, lest he do something…drastic.”

  Ethan went back to looking out the window. After gazing out with the prince so many times, it was a small revelation to understand that the man had actually been looking past his realm. It was a reminder of how narrow Ethan’s view of this world truly was, if even a prince longed for the opportunities that lay beyond this wall of mountains.

  Ethan forced his mind to the present, and found he wasn’t sure what his next move was. He’d thought long and hard on how to convince Calevaro to take his place in the duel. He had considered appealing to pride, duty, and more, but the man had simply made the choice himself. Now what?

  Ethan gritted his teeth. The truth was that he didn’t want the prince to die. The man didn’t deserve that, just because his sister was a living nightmare and an irredeemable sociopath. Nor because his father was…well, truthfully King Rothavaro didn’t anger Ethan anywhere near as much as his miserable daughter.

  He’d read history books. Would Henry VIII have been any better, or more humble than Rothavaro had he lived for hundreds of years? Let alone if a singular ruler was virtually unstoppable, not to mention capable of shooting lightning out of his eyes. Ellevaro cared so much for her schemes and personal power that she’d crossed into sadism, but Ethan suspected that the king would turn out to be a fairly typical example of the ruling class of this world.

  But Calevaro…shit. “Thavin will find a way to cheat,” he said at last.

  “I suspect so,” the prince agreed.

  “The Dunebreaker was already primed to do it for him, but they’ve had ample time to find new ways. I don’t know the Arrinaens as well as you do, but if they haven’t found a way to back out, I can only believe it’s because they’re still confident they can make a win happen.”

  “I agree,” Calevaro said simply.

  Ethan sighed. “How can you be so confident, if you don’t know what they’re planning?” He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “You’re going to cheat right back, aren’t you?”

  “You cannot cheat in a rigged game, merely be taken advantage of, or play by the same rules as your opponent,” the prince replied.

  “So what are you planning?” Ethan demanded.

  “As yet, I have no plans, beyond entering the arena, and fighting as well as I am able.” He turned and looked at Ethan meaningfully. “Why? Do you have a suggestion?”

  Ethan’s eyes narrowed at the man. “Oh, you son of a bitch.” Calevaro surprised him by laughing out loud at that, something Ethan hadn’t heard before. “You were always planning to fight the duel yourself, but you also wanted to know what kind of man I am. For instance, am I the kind of man who will stand by and let you die?”

  The prince shrugged, still smiling. “We both know this is more than that. Under the current circumstances, if I die, and you live, my father and sister will hunt you to the ends of this world. But I won’t fight next to a man who only stands there to avoid the blade at his back.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that I have taken assurances. If I lose the duel, my family will be informed that it was by my own choice. They will also be given my final request, which is your freedom. My father will honor it, as such wishes have significance, especially to our line.”

  Ethan looked at the man in shock. “So whether you live or die, I’m free? Either now, or when you leave in a few months?”

  Calevaro shrugged. “I am no saint, Ethan Bishop…and I am not my brother. But neither am I cruel. If it’s in my power to help good people, then I will do so. You have proven to be a…good person.”

  Ethan continued looking at the prince, his insides in turmoil. He was still filled with so much rage. Still thirsted for justice and revenge–maybe not in that order…but he also didn’t want that to be all he was. He remembered his father’s words, incongruously spoken from the lips of a demon.

  Life is a comedy or a tragedy, and this was one of rare times where he could actually choose. Did he leave the seemingly honorable prince to his fate, then run away into the wider world? Abandon his few friends and try to start over somewhere they didn’t know him? Or…

  Ethan laughed out loud. “Fine, comedy it is,” he said mostly to himself–though he knew Tomo would hear. “Alright prince, I’m no more saint than you are, but I won’t abandon good people either. Unfortunately…I think that’s you. Looks like we’ll fight that arrogant prick together.”

  ***

  Ethan left his meeting with the prince of two minds. He’d made a decision to help the man, and he stood by it, but it didn’t change how Ethan felt about other members of the royal family. He knew of a number of ways that Ellevaro had been using him, and intended to use him, and that only made him more concerned about what he didn’t know.

  But Ethan wasn’t powerless. In fact, the princess herself had given him the idea for the first part of his plan, and now was the perfect time to act on it. Partly that was because his new abilities were unknown, and partly because he knew he needed to take some action to balance out what he’d agreed to do with the prince.

  Petty or not, he wasn’t willing to do something to help these people, without also doing something to take him closer to payback at the same time. He could consider what that said about his character and mental state later.

  Ethan made a show of leaving the way he normally did, but as soon as he was out of sight of the guards, he slipped into an alcove and put on some gear he hadn’t touched in a long time–the old guard’s equipment Valanor had given him. Next, he put Tomo’s new Dusk rank powers to the test, and a moment later a dark skinned man with beady eyes, who looked nothing like Ethan, was strolling through the palace.

  Ethan had lived here for a short time, and visited enough to know that there were many guards, with many duties, and one walking with purpose wouldn’t draw attention. Even better, Tomo had proudly explained that Ethan’s altered appearance was an amalgam of several soldiers the Familiar has seen around the palace. Anyone who saw him should think they’d seen him before, but not be able to place the name.

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  Still, Ethan made sure to draw little attention as he took the back way to the princess’s study. He had a reasonable sense of when she tended to leave, having spotted her on his occasional visits. He routinely had needed to avoid her, lest he give into darker impulses. Still, as he spotted the familiar guard in front of her door, he knew he had a wait in front of him.

  Ethan went to the small library at the end of the hall, chosen because it always seemed to be empty, and provided a clear view of the princess’s office. He could become a Trick of the Light if necessary, but for now he saved the mana, leaning against a bookshelf and thinking.

  “Are you still certain of this path, Ethan Bishop?” Tomo asked.

  “No. I was never certain of it,” Ethan replied honestly. “Things like honor, being a better person, not making my life harder than it needs to be…all those things keep running through my mind.”

  “But?”

  “But to hell with that miserable, manipulative harpy. I’ll have plenty of time for personal growth after I ruin her life.”

  Tomo let out his odd demonic chuckle. Ethan was glad that he’d gotten to know the Familiar, as he’d gradually come to understand Tomo to be truly neutral. He would support Ethan if he went on a murderous rampage, or if he turned the other cheek. The only thing he seemed to care about was that the path chosen was one Ethan wouldn’t regret. It was a remarkable–if dangerous–kind of support.

  The demon looked at him searchingly after his laughter ended. “I think there is part of a lie in there, Ethan Bishop.”

  Ethan sighed. “You’re not wrong. I don’t want this to stain who I am. I want to be able to look myself in the eye when this is all over, and I definitely don’t want to make things worse for myself. And the truth is that this is partly revenge. Wonderful, delicious revenge. But I also genuinely don’t like my chances in this world, so long as Ellevaro is left to her own devices.”

  Tomo nodded. “This truth I can accept. Also, she is very much a miserable, manipulative harpy.”

  Ethan laughed out loud, feeling some of his tension and turmoil fading away. Just then the princess’s door opened, and he backed off a bit, making sure that he was out of sight. It wasn’t necessary, as she strode quickly in the other direction, at this time of day either meeting with her advisors and agents, or some political affair.

  As soon as she disappeared around a corner, Ethan shifted his vision into the Astral. Immediately the world spun around him, the colors and sensations overwhelming, but they dimmed a moment later. “What the hell?”

  “This is your first time looking into the Astral since I–and by extension your Spirit–reached the first Dusk,” Tomo explained. “Your senses are far more powerful, and it will take time to adjust. For now, I shall filter it for you–this is not the moment for training.”

  “Thank you,” Ethan said, hurrying back down the hall. “This is my own fault, you keep reminding me to spend more time using the Astral. I’m going to rectify that.”

  As he approached the door, the reason for his augmented vision became clear. The webs that Ellevaro and her Spirit spider weaved were coming right through it, and he needed to be certain he wouldn’t touch them…that would be challenging.

  “Can you pass through the door?” he asked Tomo.

  “Not the door, too many threads. But I can pass through the wall.”

  “Excellent, guide our little friend,” Ethan said, removing a piece of origami paper for his inventory. Tomo smiled widely in anticipation as he watched Ethan carefully slide the dimensionally charged sheet under the door, then disappeared after it.

  “Now,” Tomo said. Thankfully he could always hear the Familiar, who was truly speaking from inside Ethan, and he hastily used a rift.

  He appeared on top of a bookshelf in the study, wobbling for a moment as he caught his balance. Tomo was next to him, examining the little pterodactyl Ethan had made. He'd put effort into coming up with increasingly obscure and interesting creations after learning how much they delighted the demon.

  Ethan quickly examined the room, immediately understanding why he’d needed to appear on top of a bookshelf. The room was even more covered in webs than it had been on his last visit, though it appeared navigable. He wondered something then that he should have thought of earlier.

  “Can everyone see these webs?” he asked.

  “No, they are exceptionally subtle. If she tried to attach one to someone directly, their Spirit Familiar could sense it, but only those with the right Affinities and experience can reveal these. I would have needed to be Dusk rank to do so, had I not already encountered such phenomena with my previous master. Why do you ask?”

  “Because I’m only just seeing how much of a weakness they can be,” he said, while pointing. Tomo looked, then gurgled another laugh. While it wasn’t immediately apparent due to how many threads there were, two things stood out in the room by virtue of the unusual abundance of webs touching them: a spot on the princess’s desk, and a seemingly innocuous section of the wall.

  Ethan carefully traversed the room to avoid the threads, which actually involved climbing up to, and then dropping from the ceiling. Once he reached the desk, it wasn’t hard to find the drawer he needed, but it did leave an obvious problem.

  “Is there a way to open it without touching the threads?” He asked.

  Tomo considered. “Hmm, there is a technique that should be possible now that I am Dusk rank. It is essentially the opposite of the training you’ve done, and of less immediate value. Where you have been training your Spirit to perform a specific action in the Astral, our Demon’s Soul ability should allow me to prevent an action from reflecting in the Astral.”

  “Right, Demon’s Soul allows you to manipulate my Spirit abilities. There wasn’t much value to it at Dawn rank. Does that mean you can just make my Spirit do what the prince has been teaching me?”

  The demon put on an amused tone. “There is a considerable gulf between ‘drawer’, and ‘Dusk rank Spirit’. Now, we must move quickly.”

  Ethan nodded, then sent a spectral Deevee back into the hall to keep watch; this had already taken longer than he’d have liked. At Tomo’s prompt, he rapidly opened the drawer, and used the small rune stone Selina had made for him to copy all the documents within. He was grateful now that she’d given him extras for the mission to the Dunebreaker.

  As soon as the light stopped glowing, he closed the drawer as quietly–but quickly–as he could. With relief he saw that the threads were still in place.

  “That was more difficult than expected,” Tomo said.

  “Do you have one more in you?” Ethan asked, looking at the odd spot on the wall.

  “It is your power we strain,” Tomo said. “I can do another, but pushed too far your Spirit will be exhausted.”

  Ethan nodded, then made his careful way over to the stone on the wall that had so many threads reaching into it. He didn’t touch it at first, merely looking for some kind of release. Finally Tomo carefully pushed his spectral head through the stone, then back.

  “It is just a stone blocking a small compartment. I suspect the princess is able to use the threads to pull it free.”

  Ethan thought about that for a moment, then grinned. “I can open it. Are you ready?”

  “Be quick,” the demon reminded him, then began concentrating.

  Ethan carefully laid both hands on the stone, and activated his climbing skill. As soon as he felt them stick, he pulled the stone free just a crack, then placed Selina’s stone inside. A moment later he was pulling it out, and replacing the stone as quickly as possible.

  “Did we do it?” he asked. Ethan didn’t hear Tomo’s reply. As he stood up, the whole room began to spin. He felt himself wobble, and had to let himself collapse to the floor to avoid crossing any of the webs. He didn’t trust himself to walk after that, instead dragging himself to the doorway, and pushing another piece of origami through.

  Tomo managed to reappear then, looking as sickly as Ethan felt. Looking up at his Familiar he made himself focus. “Are we okay?” he asked weakly.

  The demon quickly examined the room. “We have left nothing behind,” he said.

  “Nothing but our dignity,” Ethan muttered, then with a small flash he was on the other side of the door. He managed to stumble down the hall, once more hiding in the small library. He found a small corner in the back that seemed untouched, and slouched down behind a reading table.

  “I hope that was worth the risk,” Tomo said. “Do you believe you will find something of great value in the secrets you have stolen?”

  Ethan leaned back, feeling simultaneously like he’d had too much to drink, stayed awake for a week, and went on a roller coaster. Still, he grinned.

  “I’m sure of it.”