"What are you doing here?" hissed Kylinissa. "Come back off the ledge before they see you."

Sheepishly, Skippii crawled over the rocks and into the concealment of the treeline.

"Where is your armour?" the arcanus asked. Her eyes were wide and posture stiff. "Are you armed?"

"Yeah, just a knife."

As he approached, Kylinissa took a step backwards and raised her arms. "No closer. Stay there."

Baffled, Skippii was stricken. "I'm not going to hurt you. You're the one following me! Spying on me. Sneaking up on me in the night."

"It's my task to watch you," she said through gritted teeth. "Keep your voice down. The Coven are extremely perceptive. They'll hear anything on the wind."

"So what. I meant to announce myself to them anyway."

"You… meant to what?" Kylinissa laughed mockingly. "Fool. I took you to be wiser than that. Though, I guess from afar, it is difficult to judge a boy's wits."

"Boy?" he scowled, feeling oddly offended. "Why don't you listen to what I've got to say?"

"Yes, what? To explain yourself? To make friends? Or to challenge them? Get revenge for how they spoke to you in front of the Imperator?"

"No, of course not. Not friends. An alliance."

"Oh, Skippii Altay." Kylinissa shook her head. "Please don't do that. Please don't be so foolish. Take a moment. Come here, into the trees. We'll talk together"

Stubbornly, he remained on the hill's edge. If there was one thing he hated, it was being called a fool. Every action he took was arrived at through reason. He was not a thoughtless being driven by his emotions. Yet here was this woman, not much older than him, judging him before she knew clearly his intentions and reasoning. However, as he hovered with indecision, he failed to think of a reason not to parley with the arcanus, first, before he made a move on the Coven.

"Okay," he relented. "I have some questions of my own."

Picking through the undergrowth, he followed her down the hillside, until the glow of the Coven's campfires shrank from their sight.

"That's far enough," he said. "I'm not going all the way back to the legion now."

"We can walk and talk at the same time."

"No." Skippii stopped. "Because if you don't give me the answers I need, I'll get them from the Coven themselves."

Kylinissa sighed deeply, gazing at the sky and muttered something under her breath. When she returned her gaze on him, her eyes were sharpened like steel. "What?"

He flinched like being struck. His voice came to him dry. "What?"

She eyed him cooly, waiting for him to speak.

Skippii pursed his lips and swallowed. "Why are they here? What are they doing? What's the camp for, and why is it oval shaped? Are they training horses?"

"Do you really think they're training horses?"

"Well I don't know. Yeah, why not? Magia horses."

"You don't have a clue, do you?"

Skippii clenched his fists. "Oh, very helpful. There's nothing wrong with not knowing, if you're inquisitive. I'm only trying to find out."

"I mean… you don't really know much about magia, do you?"

"No, I don't," he said exasperatedly. "Not the Gods, or Covens or acolytes or arcanuses."

"Arcani," she corrected.

"Yeah. I was never taught. You can't know something you have never been tutored in, can you? Except that which comes naturally to a man. And magia is not natural, is it? And neither are the Gods."

"And neither are you," she said softly. "Hush. I'm sorry if I caused you offence."

"I'm a part of this now," he said, taking a breath to quell his tone. "Can you deny that?"

"I can't."

"Whatever I have… whatever this power is, I might never truly understand. Why can I draw on it when others cannot even detect it?"

"Draw it?" she said.

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"From the ground. It rises into me."

Kylinissa frowned. "What does it feel like?"

Skippii took up the trail again, walking at a slow pace through the twilight forest. "Like breath, mostly. Sometimes, like pulling up a net. Other times, like a storm. Isn't it the same for you?"

"Well, I don't…" The arcanus faltered. "Of the three Gods whom I commune with, none have bestowed any real magia upon me. I can't summon spells like the Coven. My abilities are strictly academic and practical."

"So you don't feel anything at all?"

"I feel Kylin's presence on the wind," she said, almost defensively. "I feel Hysperia's aura in the moonlight, and Frumentar's fertility in the soil. I can detect the raw essence of magia, and perform basic rituals. Hardly invocations… But as for your powers, they're quite unlike how magus describes theirs."

"Really?"

"To commune with the Gods is to relinquish your soul. A magus first surrenders their being, offers it up in prayer, so that their Gods can act through them. If their ambitions align with their Gods', then their will is done. The more powerful the alignment and devotion, and connection in prayer, the more powerful the spell. When a Coven combines, their power multiplies."

"So it's not the same?"

A wry smile flickered across Kylinissa's lips. "No, not if you're the one acting… you're the one wielding the power. No Gods speak to you, you've admitted that already. When I examined you, I felt no major traces of the Pantheon–none that could explain the potency of your magia. Their touch is so bright that it leaves a mark. But you're unmarked, at least in any way that is significant."

"Just like the enemy," Skippii said spitefully.

Kylinissa nodded slowly. "I've been ordered by the clergy who serve the Imperator, to trust you–to treat you as an ally–and you've given me no reason not to… until tonight."

"Okay," Skippii said, letting her words sink in. "I understand that."

"So… What are you doing here?"

"I need to know what the Coven are up to. I think they're preparing for a fight with the heretic who still resides in Nerithon–the heretic who killed all of the Fifth's warmagus. I want to help. I feel it's my duty to."

The arcanus was silent for a while, but Skippii stood firm and did not interrupt her thoughts.

"You guessed right," she said finally. "They are training, but by what manner is concealed to all that aren't involved, even myself. The enemy cannot know how we have prepared. A lot rests on the triumph of the Twelve."

"I know," Skippii said. "I spoke with the vets in the Fifth. They said they took the walls, but their Coven lost the battle in the sky."

Kylinissa nodded gravely. "That does not change what is perhaps an unfortunate fact. The Coven will never trust you. They are zealots. Purity of the Pantheon. They kill heretics. They've known friends who have died to heretics. They fear them," she emphasised. "It's their task to fight them. While legionnaires can look to the skies during the battle, it's those twelve in the Coven who must defeat them. And with the loss of the Fifth Legion… Yes, I do believe they fear him."

"And me," Skippii admitted softly. "But I can help."

"I believe you can," she said, catching his wrist to stop him. Skippii's heart leapt at her touch, but he tried not to show the surprise on his face. The moonlight shimmered in her dark cloak as a light wind swept over it, and the scent of lavender wisped from within. Her dark eyes watched him like a fox. "But not like this. Do not provoke them, please."

He averted his gaze as a feeling much like anxiety tickled his brain, suddenly unable to think straight.

"Let us return to camp together," Kylinissa said. "We can discuss whatever you would like along the way."

"If you were such an ally of mine, then why keep distant until now?"

"I was tasked with watching you, that was all."

"Do you have any idea how lost I am in all of this?" he said, suddenly unable to conceal the frustration in his voice. "I was afraid for a long time, you know. I was prepared for the worst. But now, with the Imperator's blessing, I'll be his golden spear. I want to train it. I want to control this thing. I want to join forces with any ally I can to destroy our enemy. You believe me, don't you?"

Kylinissa sighed softly, but nodded. "I do. It's strange, but I do."

"Then convince them," he pressured, stepping in close. "Tell the Coven to trust me. You're one of them, aren't you? You worship the same God. Tell them to give me a chance. I'll prove to them I'm indispensable."

"The Coven are far beyond the reaches of my influence."

"You're afraid of them, aren't you?"

"No," she said. "No, because they do Kylin's bidding, and whatever the Tempress wishes, so do I."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Skippii pressed, though he could sense that the argument was almost lost. "What if I went in there now, unarmed, naked if I have to. Would they kill me?"

"They would interrogate you," Kylinissa said flatly. "They would drill your mind, fill your ears with wind and your thoughts with rain, and wash out all knowing. Cleanse you…" Her eyes drifted on the ground, and there was something in her voice, not sadness, but maybe shame.

"Well, I wouldn't let them. I'd make them listen to reason."

"They are not beings of reason." Kylinissa smiled mournfully. "They abandoned that long ago. Reason is a tool of humanity. Theirs is faith. They divine the wishes of Kylin and execute them. They wouldn't hesitate to torture you."

"They wouldn't get a chance," Skippii said defensively.

"That's what I mean," she said, thrusting her hand at him. "That's what I'm trying to prevent. A bloodbath, a killing. You don't understand them, but I do. I've met them, and okay, I fear them a little. But you should too."

The arcanus paused, but Skippii had no rebuttal to make.

"Stay close to your allies," she said. "And consider me one of them, for now. I have my task, and I will continue to watch you. But I will not impede you, not while you act honourably for the Ninth."

"You could help me train," he said.

She smiled again; though he hadn't meant it as a joke, he was glad for her mirth. "How exactly? I know only of the Pantheon."

"Of course," he admitted. But a plan was forming in his mind. Suddenly, it was as though a door had opened on a bright room. Possibilities he had never before considered now seemed so obvious to him.

"Okay, let's get back," he relented.

Not wanting to be interrupted, he picked up the trail and set a fast pace, deep in thought. If the Coven trained as a unit, combining their strength, then why shouldn't he? Not with other magus, but with his companeight. During the walk back to camp, Skippii rehearsed the distinct abilities he possessed, and how they might be used in tandem with traditional legion tactics. He imagined the drills they could practice to better face the enemy hordes, or even cyclops and heretic magi.

To perfect them would mean he would no longer be forced to restrain his powers during battle. Certain superiors may give him push-back, but once they witnessed his destructive potential, and the well-rounded efficiency he believed he could achieve with his companions, they wouldn't be able to deny his place in the centre of any battlefield.

What better way to serve his Imperator?

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