Riding North on their horses, Rex, Markus and Charr chatted, updating Markus on all the events that had transpired right up to their rescue from Shaitan’s arena. “You fought against an elder spirit and won??” Markus asked Rex after Charr recounted the battle with Balrog and her minions. “An elder spirit? That thing was from the spirit realm? Fafnir only said they had a prior grievance and asked to deal with her” Rex asked, he did not know much about the spirit realm, only the patches Fafnir had told him during their lessons. “Yes, the spirit realm is a place that only one human has gone and returned, it is a dangerous place for the living, it is where the soul of mystical beings like the dragons go after their deaths. Speaking of dragons, why did you not use Fafnir to help me deal with Ean, or at least against his assassin inside of the arena?” Markus asked raising his eyebrow at Rex. “That is something I don’t fully understand, Ean’s daughter did something to me, it seems to have

Once Rex and Charr were brought in and were laid out onto the free beds, the physician got straight to work, starting with Rex, she went straight into the basic check-up, with deft hands and an expert eye, ran over his body, before having a quick conclusion. “His temperature is through the roof, his pulse is weak and his breathing is very shallow, there is also this strange marking on his chest, any idea what this is and why it’s here?” the doctor asked Markus, pointing to the red symbols on Rex’s chest. “I don’t know what that is or why it is there” Markus said shrugging his shoulders, before an idea suddenly came to him, “that is the reason we need to the prince back to Dracones, to research those symbols with the academy, it was to be completed under secrecy, so I implore you, to keep any of what happened here it to yourself, for your sake and your towns.” He was trying to get the doctor to treat Rex as quickly as possible so they could return to the road, also while ensuring the

“Priest Deacon, that is enough! It is late, they have travelled all day, we can reconvene soon, give them all time to rest and adjust and we will hear the exploits in a few days” Emperor Rector said loudly, standing up, which silenced Priest Deacon instantly, bowing his head, cupping his hands over his head. “Of course my emperor, I was too eager to see if your son possessed the great traits of your bloodline, I apologise to you and to the young prince” Priest Deacon said backing away while still bowing, coming to rest back in his seat. “As I said before, they will have some time to rest and recover their strength, there are matters that myself and General Markus must attend to and by then the final preparations will be complete and I will lead the ceremony for my sons return” Emperor Rector sounded, walking towards Rex and Markus, as he passed all the people present bowed their heads and cupped their hands over their heads in respect. Rex saw him coming and noticed everyone’s sign

As Rex and Lacey watched Markus start to ascend the stairs, both seemed to hesitate for a minute. Rex looked at Lacey, and Lacey looked at Rex, both seemed to be waiting for the other to make the first move to start heading up, almost like they both had the same idea, suspicious stairs, suspicious old man. “Ladies first” Rex said, bringing his arm upright to point up through the staircase, attempting to usher Lacey through. “I am no lady, get up there wimp” Lacey sneered holding her ground, seeing right through Rex’s attempt to get her to go first. “If both of you don’t get your asses up here, you’ll miss out on the surprise I planned” Markus called out through the clouds. Both Rex and Lacey jolted from surprise at Markus’s booming voice, looking up the staircase, it looked to be at least 500 metres of stairs to the clouds, but only a few seconds has passed since Markus had left, this is odd, he was able to climb that many stairs in the space of a few seconds, something was fishy.

“You hit me in the back by surprise!” Rex yelled, jumping to his feet to face his attacker. “In a fight, you never want to be surprised, pay attention, typical male response!” yelled the woman that faced him. Her name was Marcia, she was another of the great generals under the emperor’s command, she was head of the Azure army, this army consisted of all females that rode on the backs of great birds called Skylarks that each woman had to tame herself, with Marcia as their leader, no man had ever been accepted by a Skylark as its master in over 500 years, so no males ever tried to tame one anymore. “First lesson, always expect a fight” Markus called out. Looking towards where his voice came from, Lacey and Rex were astounded, he was not able to be seen! “What magic is this!?” Lacey called out, for Rex he felt this was the same magic Duncan had done to them at the staircase to his house earlier that morning. In the next second, Rex felt a sudden need to duck forward, feeling an odd i