**

Chapter 50: Overheated

**

They say there’s an island far away, where the sun never sets, and on that island half lion, half eagle beasts known as griffins are born. Legend would have one believe that ages ago the leader of the winged beasts, a griffin who could speak many languages, sought a peaceful coexistence between man and his kind by proposing the two work together.

Ever since that day, baby griffins were paired with their human equivalent, living and training together to one day form a close bond and become Griffin Riders. A neutral combination in a chaotic world, the Griffin Riders never rode into battle; the only things they carried were parcels, letters, and other small items from person to person, country to country.

How much of the legend was actually true depended on who you asked.

With his griffin by his side, a young rider stood on one of the highest peaks in Ahrmania, observing as Five Points was gradually engulfed by the dark massive cloud. Its speed had slowed as of late but the number of monsters it dropped was on the rise.

Through the lens of his long scope, Jamil watched warrior skeletons' behavior change all at once. They were on a warpath; the object of their aggression was the city itself. All civilians were long gone and it seemed as if the warrior skeletons wanted to ensure they had nothing to return to.

As Jamil viewed the carnage, his griffin made a nervous sound. He turned to the beast and jumped back, eyes widened with disbelief at the sight of a stranger standing between him and his mount. There was no other griffin around and the man didn’t have wings. How could he have made it to the top of the narrow peak?

“W--who are you?” Jamil asked, careful not to let his voice sound too frightened.

“Call me Alba, for now,” the man said without a hint of emotion in his eyes or voice. “I have a message for you to deliver to her highness.”

*

“She did what?!” Sisten exclaimed, dispatching an enemy with a dose of fire. A rose with its petals open to the sun couldn’t match the redness in his face. “After everything that’s happened?!”

“I know how you feel, Sisten,” Jericha said, her breath twisting in the breeze. She knew he wouldn’t take the news well, so she waited until there was something around for him to take his frustration out on, other than the queen. And across the vast frozen tundra, shadow fiends offered a better alternative. “Just try to focus on what’s important right now.”

“I swear, the queen’s worse than the Lisador ever was!” Sisten said, melting snow with every step. Tossing fireballs at four-legged shadow fiends did little to settle him, especially when he missed. With swords of fire, Sisten confronted one of the fiends head on. Fast with sharp talons for legs, they were the same as the ones he fought in Perigrah, the night he had to save the queen.

How much he regretted guarding her that night.

Jericha checked their position on a map and looked around barren land. A Rebirth was nearby, but she was in no rush to find it. Sisten needed to cool off before he faced the queen again. Katherine’s move for peace with the Midaharian government had him hot under the collar. She still hadn’t told him about seeing his (un)dead brother, Val, in Ras Almal.

Would there ever be a good time to mention that?

Jericha raised an eyebrow at the sight of a shadow fiend frantically digging in the ice. Her curious gaze widened as the fiend scooped up a Rebirth rune and started running with it like an ecstatic dog carrying a prized bone.

She sprinted after the fiend only to find her path blocked by several others, working together to ensure the Rebirth carrier escaped. Were they taking it back to Alba? The last thing he needed was more power!

“Sisten!” she yelled, tearing his attention as she defended herself from the enemies’ deadly claws. “That one has the Rebirth! It’s getting away!”

Without hesitation or much effort, Sisten targeted the fiend with a flaming spiral that chased it down and turned it to ash. Jericha swiftly defeated her foes and rushed to collect the Rebirth. Completely black and lacking the usual runic symbol of identification, she wondered if the small egg-shaped object in her hands was actually a magical rune.

It had to be, right? Why else would that monster run away with it?

Jericha pocketed the rune and made her way back to Sisten, quietly noting how the fiends quickly retreated. “We should head back to Nabiil now.”

“I’m not going back there,” Sisten replied.

“What?” Jericha couldn’t contain her disbelief.

Sisten snatched the Royal Guard insignia from the chest of his long coat. “I’m done with the Empire and that idiotic queen.”

“Don’t be stupid! Everything is on the line right now! We need you!”

He incinerated the insignia in the palm of his hand. “I’ll be around when you’re ready to attack Alba, but not as a Royal Guard.”

“As a civilian? Civilians are not allowed to wield Rebirths, Sisten.”

Sisten starred Jericha in the eyes, generating heat with his Rebirth. “I’d like to see you try to stop me, Jericha.”

Jericha peered angrily into his eyes, withholding her tongue from escalating the situation and her urge to capture his hot lips. Unlike Tasha, Jericha never made time for personal relationships, or romance, and right now wasn’t the time for either. “Test me when this is all over, you hothead!”

Frustrated more than she was willing to let on, Jericha turned and parted ways with Sisten.

Nabiil

He slid the bottle of wine from her grasp while she slept. Another night, another bottle before bed, but at least this time it wasn’t completely empty. The queen’s casual drinking habit wasn’t enough to raise Breuke’s concern, yet.

He considered her leaving the entrance to the balcony wide open for intruders as more of an immediate problem. As he closed the glass doors a large shadow flying overhead caught his attention. A Griffin Rider was in the process of descending when Breuke stepped onto the balcony.

“You must have important news to be landing here,” Breuke said.

“Is the queen here?” Jamil asked, throwing his gaze beyond the Royal Guard and into the hotel room. “That guy controlling the creature cloud told me to tell her something.”

“Alba approached you?”

“Yeah and he told me not to come back, or else. So, I’m not going back there.”

“What message did he have for the queen?”

“I was hoping the queen could tell me.” Jamil buried his hand into his carrier bag, pulled out a note, and passed it to Breuke. “What language is that anyway?”

“Icwl kr, usomlu,” the note read. Breuke looked it over with a frown. “I can’t read this either.”

“Well, I’m going to tell the other Riders to stop monitoring that cloud, for their own safety. It stopped moving once it got over Five Points.”

“It has?”

Jamil nodded and prepared his griffin for take off. “Good luck,” he waved.

“Thanks,” Breuke replied as the Rider took to the sky. But we’re going to need more than luck.

Breuke closed the balcony’s doors and pulled the curtains down on them. Another look at Alba’s note didn’t help him understand it any better. The Damnation rune that possessed him spoke another tongue before; if only he knew what it was.

“Breuke?” the queen called with a drowsy tone. She parted her eyes and looked up at the Royal Guard. “I thought I heard you.”

“Yes, ma’am. I was just securing your room. You shouldn’t leave your doors wide open.”

“Breuke, could you do me a favor?” she asked, extending her arm and reaching for his. Watching over the queen more often than he had liked, Breuke quickly learned what she meant by 'favor', especially after she had too much to drink. “Just this once? Noone would know...”

She’s still intoxicated. “No, your majesty, I can’t. Please, don’t ask me again.”

“Am I to live with a lonely heart?” she sighed with a dramatic flair before drifting back into a slumber.

Breuke hurried to the door and left the queen’s room. She always sought his comfort whenever she had too much to drink and he always refused. He’d been fateful to Tasha for as long as they were together, he wasn’t interested in another woman, royalty or not.

“Heads up,” Jericha announced, unexpectedly.

Before he could respond to what she said, Breuke had to react in time to catch what Jericha tossed his way.

“Don’t make me regret giving you that,” Jericha said.

“This is the one you and Sisten found?” Breuke gazed upon the rune. With his newly found interest in Rebirths, he was able to recognize the shadow rune instantly; he wasn’t happy. All Rebirths came with some sort of side effect that its user had to endure, some were as harmless as complexion loss or being immune to fire, others were a bit more extreme. And everything he had read about the Rebirth of Shadow's known by-product turned him off. "I...don't think I can..."

"Don't think you can what, Breuke?" Jericha interrupted as if she had already finished his sentence in her head and was not happy with it.

Having already been on the ( painful ) receiving end of her discontent once before, Breuke was careful not to put his concerns on display before Jericha. He placed it in his pocket for now. "Uh, nevermind. Where's Sisten?"

"Don't mention that stubborn man! He didn't like the queen's peace agreement with the Midharians so he quit the guard."

"He quit? He could be a serious problem, Jericha."

“You just get good with that Rebirth fast." Jericha poked her head into the queen's room, relieved to see her resting on the couch. "How is she?"

"Fine. She's sleeping off a bottle of wine right now."

"I'm guarding the queen for the rest of the night. You can take off."

"You don't think Sisten would try to attack her so soon, do you?"

'Honestly, Breuke, I don't know what that man is capable of." We just need to be ready for anything.