With a swirl of magic, I stepped through the portal into Warsong Keep’s inner bailey in a place where no one was currently looking. I turned to make sure the portal was closed and walked around the corner to the front gate of the keep. The early morning sun felt pretty good. The gate guards saw me at once, of course.

  “Well met, Master Smith,” the sergeant said politely.

  “Good morning, sir. Would Lord Warsong happen to be available? I’m afraid I wasn’t invited for a specific occasion,” I admitted.

  “We have standing orders to let you in any time you happen to show up, sir. Porson here will show you to the great hall,” the sergeant said.

  “Thanks for that,” I said.

  Without fanfare, I followed Porson through the keep and into the great hall. There were two guards in plate armor stationed outside the massive doors. The rightmost of those doors opened as we strode up to it to reveal Grath in his usual armored human guise. We exchanged greetings, then Grath shut the doors behind me. Lord and Lady Warsong were already walking across the enormous room towards me as the doors boomed shut.

  “Welcome, Master Smith,” Lord Warsong said.

  I bowed to both Lord and Lady Warsong. “Good morning.”

  “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company this fine morning?”

  “Well, sir, I’m sure you know of how well the strike against the High Executor’s caravan went thanks to your son,” I said with a pause. “You may not be aware, however, that the High Executor somehow survived the attack and showed up at my family’s house to do me harm a few days later. Fortunately, though I didn’t see it coming, my brother, Bran did. He organized a defense at the house, and we were ready for it when it arrived.” I showed him the High Executor’s personal signet ring.

  “We felt the danger to your well-being briefly. How did that go? I hope no one was injured,” Lord Warsong said, concerned.

  “It attacked a few moments after I arrived by portal from Stonekeep Castle. It came flying through the second story window and fought like a demon. No one was permanently harmed only because Bran could sense it when it entered the city, and everyone was armored except me, and Elle was there. It could fight extremely well in a human martial style, and it could cast simple spells. We were fortunate that it didn’t know what it was up against. Even so, people almost died. We found it in the city after it escaped the house and killed it.”

  “That could not have been easy. The Xerith were created by the Crix with demonic magic, and some have theorized that they did it with the help of a demon overlord of some kind. They’re very tough and utterly relentless. I can only assume that you’re here to ask for help in some sort of reprisal,” Lord Warsong said.

  “Indeed, sir. I intend to crush them at their stronghold in Aerie, and I’m here to ask for help. I will not sit idly by and allow them to attack my family again,” I said.

  “Are you asking or commanding?” Lord Warsong asked, a slight edge in his voice.

  This seemed like an important distinction, and I took a second or two to think. “I’m asking,” I said. “I won’t command anything of you unless it’s in the direst circumstance, Geas or no Geas.”

  “In that case, our answer this time is no,” Lord Warsong replied.

  I was not expecting that, and his answer gave me pause. Was I underestimating the power the Xerith possessed? “Very well, then. May I ask why? The Xerith pose a threat to all peoples.”

  “It’s simple. We’ll not willingly follow just anyone who wants to go jaunting around the world meddling in things, and we hate being commanded,” Lord Warsong replied darkly.

  “All right. I’ll respect your free will,” I said, hands up. “I intend to do something soon, sometime when it’s raining. You’ll feel how it goes, I guess.” I turned to go, but I paused. “Look, I’m not sure I emphasized enough how appreciative I am for your forbearance of my intrusion this morning, and I’m especially grateful for Grath’s help with the temple and the caravan battle. Either I or some members of my family would be dead right now if it wasn’t for his help, and I recognize that you allowed him to help us. Thank you.”

  “This is why I like you, Master Smith. I respect your determination, and your initiative, too. Good luck to you.”

  “There’s no such thing as luck, Lord Warsong. I’ll see you another time,” I said.

  After bowing respectfully one last time, I straightened and teleported back to the roof of Stonekeep Castle. Deep in thought, I strode through the portal and made my way back to the throne room. I was disappointed, but I was also glad in a way that the dragons wouldn’t be joining me. Their fiery breath could easily burn the city to a pile of cinders whether it was raining or not. Dragons are acutely aware of power, too, I reflected. Maybe they were testing me to see if I would show some backbone with them. Either way, this must be dealt with before the Executors launch another devilish attack. It could be that the Xerith that remained in Aerie didn’t know yet about the failure of their expedition. Nothing like that had befallen them before, I’d bet. I had to do something before they did, but I still needed to formulate a plan.

  I mentally activated the bracelet I was wearing as I walked, and with a flash of yellow lightning, I was instantly arrayed in my new adamantine armor, complete with my shield, mace, cape, and Mordon’s helm. I walked into the throne room and sat in the Amber Throne, then focused on Mira. As agreed, Mira, Elle and Bran were chatting on the sofa as they waited in the Smith house living room. Seeing that my nephews weren’t present, I activated a portal in the open space in front of them. They didn’t hesitate but got up and walked through immediately. I closed the portal and got up. They stopped short when they saw me.

  “Jeron?” Bran asked.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” I said. “I forgot you haven’t seen this suit of armor yet.”

  To make them feel better, I activated the bracelet mentally again, and suddenly I was dressed in my casual civilian clothes. If I’m being honest, I was showing off. Just a tiny bit.

  “Is this better?” I asked.

  “That was quite a trick,” Mira said as she came closer.

  “How’d you do that?” Bran asked.

  “It’s one of the things I’ve been working on.” I tapped the bracelet with my finger. “The bracelet I’m wearing stores a set of clothing or armor in an extradimensional space, and it can switch out the two sets almost instantly. I can command it mentally, too. I didn’t like getting caught with my pants down when the High Executor showed up, and this is how I fixed it. It’s not foolproof, of course, but it’s immensely useful.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Yeah, I’d say,” Bran said. “I don’t suppose you have any extras laying around, do you?”

  “You know full well that I commissioned four bracelets to be made, Bran. I have one for each of you, of course,” I said, gesturing to the three bracelets I had sitting on the table next to the throne. I picked them up and handed Mira, Bran and Elle each a bracelet. “After Whizzbang made them and set the stones, I put a slightly different design on each of the faceplates so we can tell them apart if we take them off. Mira, you have a raccoon, Bran, you have a sword, and Elle, you have a dove.”

  They each took the offered bracelet and looked them over. “Whizzbang did a very nice job making these,” I said. “There’s a clasp opposite the face of the bracelet that can be opened and closed to put them on.” They started to clasp them on their wrists. “Don’t wear them yet. You see, it switches two sets of clothing, but if nothing’s stored in it when it’s activated, then it’ll whisk all your clothes off and replace them with nothing.”

  “Whoa! Thanks for telling us! That would’ve been so embarrassing,” Elle said. She was already blushing a little, probably remembering the forest pool incident.

  “I’m surprised you had the restraint,” Mira said with a half-smile.

  “It was difficult, but I managed to control myself,” I said. I really did think of ambushing Mira that way briefly, but I knew she’d never trust me again, so I had to resist that urge. Besides, I had something better in mind. “The command word is ‘shiovelle,’ the Arborean word for ‘change.’ It’ll work both verbally and mentally, as I said before, but if you mentally command it, you have to focus hard on the bracelet. If you just read the word in a book or something, it won’t work.”

  “We should help each other into our armor and then switch back into regular clothes right away to prevent anything unfortunate from happening, then,” Bran said.

  “Good idea,” Mira said. “Our stuff is at the house.”

  “Has there been any sign of a Xerith today?” I asked Bran.

  “Not since the High Executor paid us a visit. We should be fine,” Bran said. “I feel like the clock is ticking for us, though. Both Elle and I have had the viper dreams again, and this time there was a pearl at the bottom of the pile.”

  “Yeah. We feel like there’s something secreted at the Temple of the Overgod somewhere,” Elle said. “We were discussing what we should do when your portal appeared.”

  “Did you decide anything?” I asked.

  “Not yet. We were just talking it over,” Elle said.

  “Yeah, we’ll come up with something,” I said. “First things first, though. Let’s get our bracelets situated.”

  I sat back down in the throne and opened a portal to the hallway outside Elle and Mira’s room. We all filed through and split up to our separate bedrooms, the girls in theirs and boys in ours. I held up a hand to Bran before we actually walked in our room. Making a motion to be quiet, I moved back to the girls’ door. I couldn’t help but grin.

  “Listen,” I whispered.

  Bran saw the mischievous look on my face and instantly wondered what I had cooked up. We waited just to the side of the girls’ door, where their muffled conversation was audible.

  “Did Jeron say if he tested these things?” Mira asked.

  “He didn’t say. Why don’t you go first,” Elle said to Mira.

  “I’m not going first. This thing could take off a layer of skin or something.”

  “Surely, he’d never give these to us if that was possible.”

  “He still doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I’m not so sure I want to try this out,” Mira said.

  I winced at the accuracy of that. Bran gave me a look that said, “you’d better not have done something bad.” I gave him my “of course not” look. We returned our focus to the door.

  “Jeron hasn’t broken our confidence yet, and you know he could have by now,” Elle said.

  “Well, then you try yours first,” Mira said.

  There was a pause. “Fine,” Elle said. There was another pause, probably due to Elle having second thoughts. “Shiovelle.” Followed immediately by an exclamation from both of them. “He wasn’t kidding when he said it would take everything off, was he?”

  “No, he wasn’t,” Mira said. There was a pause. “I wish I looked half as good as you.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Ah, you’re probably right. All right, here goes nothing.”

  A few moments later, I heard Mira’s surprised yell, followed closely by Elle’s laughter.

  “What the hell is this?!” Mira yelled.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. Mira obviously heard me, and burst out into the hallway dressed in the ugliest outfit I could find. It consisted of a red, ruffled shirt that was much too large for her with a pair of dark, gray pants with suspenders and ridiculously bright patches on the knees, and an abused festival hat that had stupid looking rabbit ears on it. Seeing this ensemble on her in the flesh was more than I could handle, and I burst out laughing again. Bran joined in as soon as he saw it. After a moment, Mira’s outrage faded, and she laughed with the rest of us.

  “That’s a really trendy look, Mira,” Bran gasped out between laughing fits.

  “It’s high fashion in Mithram,” Elle said. She must have quickly changed back into her original clothes before Mira threw open the door. Too bad. We all had another good laugh.

  Mira narrowed her eyes and shook her fist at me. “You just wait, you rascal.”

  “Already did. I’ve been waiting for a chance like that for years. Yeeeeeears.”

  The look Mira gave me promised retaliation, but her face softened into a smile as she went back into her room. I was sure her retribution would be swift and terrible, but right then I didn’t care. I was so often the object of her pranks that I was extremely pleased with myself to get back at her with something she never saw coming. Mira was very, very tough to surprise, and this was a very satisfying moment for me. I walked back into my old room still chuckling.

  “You’re really gonna regret that, brother,” Bran said as he got a spare set of clothes out of his footlocker.

  “I’m certain I will,” I said. “It was worth it, though.”

  I turned around to give him some privacy as he activated the bracelet, which took away all his clothes. He then started putting on the clothes he wore under his armor. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to get their armor on and stored into the bracelets. Once it was done, I was a lot more relaxed. It would be a lot harder to catch us unprepared no matter where we were.

  “So. How does everyone feel about assaulting the Temple of the Overgod today in the rain?” I asked casually.

  “Are you serious?” Mira asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Do you want to wait around for them to send another assassin into our living room? Or worse, while we sleep?”

  “Not so much, no,” Mira said.

  “You don’t plan to just stroll right in there, do you?” Elle asked.

  “What’s the plan?” Bran asked.

  “I don’t really have a plan yet,” I said honestly. “I have some awesome new armor, the ability to fly, and I can superheat the air around me and hurl fire everywhere, though. I was thinking I’d go with that and see what happens.”

  “Wait. You can fly?” Bran asked. He wore a big grin. “That’s awesome. I don’t suppose you can make other people fly, can you?”

  “I haven’t tried that yet. Trust me when I tell you that flying isn’t an easy thing to master. We’ll have to wait to experiment with that some other day, or someone’s going to face-plant while trying to land.”

  “Hold on,” Mira said. “If you’re flying and throwing fire around, what about the rest of us? And why don’t we ask your brothers if they want to help? Three people standing around by themselves will get overrun instantly.”

  “I know. I said I didn’t have a plan really. I just know that as soon as I show up, every Xerith in the city’s going to converge on me instantly and attack with everything they have, and I can’t use fire spells to their fullest with people standing right next to me. That’s why I don’t want to ask the others for help. This is the most dangerous thing we’ve ever tried, and I don’t even want to ask you three to help. Besides, I think that flying will be the only way to keep them all from cornering us like they did in Mithram and then attacking all at once. They can fly too, though, so I’m not sure where that leaves me,” I said.

  “We need more information about the temple and what’s in it,” Elle said.

  “Yeah, but I can’t see into the temple in Aerie using the Throne. I have no idea what’s in there,” I said. We all stood and looked at each other for a minute.

  “I could take a peek inside, maybe,” Mira offered in a small voice.

  “How’re you going to do that without getting killed?” Elle asked.

  “You remember my Shadowmeld spell, right?” Mira asked. We nodded. “Well, I’ve gotten better at using it. I can travel through darkened areas very quickly now. They’ll never catch me.”

  Elle looked skeptical.

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked. “The last thing we should do is take foolish risks when we’re still trying to develop a foolproof plan.”

  “I think it’ll work,” Mira said. “We know that the temple has its doors wide open every day. I can easily sneak in, poke around a little, then come right back. Give me a half an hour, and I’ll come back to whatever place you originally opened a portal to, jump through, and I’ll be back here safe and sound. It’ll be easy.”

  “Anyone have any other ideas?” I asked.

  We all looked at each other with blank expressions for a moment.

  “I got nothing,” Bran said. Elle shook her head negative.

  “Well, all right then,” Mira said. “Let’s get back to the throne room and get a portal ready. Put me on the shaded side of the building. Like I said, this should only take a half an hour.”