"Guys...." Hera tried to speak, but she was cut off by Bonnie.

"Are you nuts? Even if she gets that skill, it will only mean that in the future, she can get something. It doesn't help now! The Royal Palace one could actually help us all. That way, her court could be anywhere we need while we are here."

"So? Not everything is about the short-term. We need to think about what comes next!" Blue protested.

Shane swallowed a large chunk of watermelon quickly so she could speak, "Oh, please. We don't even know if we will have a future. Besides, you know her. She will stall as much as she can before giving a gift to one of her blades. And we still don't know what it can be."

"Actually, I was going to..." Hera tried again, but Helena was the one who cut her off this time.

"Who are you to say what Hera will do? She can have other plans."

"Are you serious? I've known her for the shortest amount of time, and even when she was the Flame Princess, she was predictable. Crazy, yes, but predictable," Adriel scoffed.

Hearing that, Hera activated her [Hide] and called Daskka to her side. She asked Nimbus to block the door behind her and not breathe. Being a construct, the Sentinel didn't need air to survive. However, to seem more alive, he would constantly inhale and exhale, even if he was just cycling the oxygen in the area. The Empress quickly told her plan and stepped outside just as Daskka covered the windows with white mist.

"3, 2, 1, now," Hera said, creating a spore cloud inside the cabin using 200 thousand mana. It should be strong enough to overcome any of her friends' resistances but not so dense that it would stop people from breathing.

"What the...?" Alex gasped.

"Hera?!" Blue called just before she sneezed.

That seemed to trigger everything, and the rest of the group started having the worst pollen allergy crisis of their life. For the next minute, they were sneezing non stop. Hera knew this was an effective way of making them tire themselves out without hurting anyone. At most, they would have some pain in the abdomen like they had just left the gym.

When the minute was over, Hera deactivated her spell and opened the door. Mylo and Shane were on top of Nimbus, trying to push him to the side, and Alex was right by the window, testing to see if the mist was dangerous or not. She didn't realize that it came from Daskka, and since this was a new room, anything could happen.

"Are you all done?" Hera asked with her arms crossed and an angry expression.

"You didn't have to do that," Shane replied with a disgruntled voice.

"I was trying to speak, and no one was letting me. Besides, why were you all getting so upset about all this? You looked like you were about to jump on Blue's throat."

"It was just an argument. You didn't have to do that," Adriel tried to defend himself.

"What? Couldn't predict what I was going to do?" Hera rolled her eyes.

"That's… fair…" Adriel looked away.

"Ok then, now all of you shut up. It's my turn to talk," Hera glanced around the room to see if anyone was going to start speaking, "First, we all agree, the Court Graveyard seems amazing, but not right now. So I'm not taking that skill. Bonnie, I agree with what you, Shane, and Adriel were saying. The Royal Capital sounds like a great skill. It could protect us and make sure no one gets seriously hurt when we are on the raft. But! That's where it stops being helpful. We don't know if the raft is the only place we could explore here. Shane saw something in the sky, and I bet there is more in the ocean. Also, Daskka confirmed that the skill cooldown should be bigger than anything I ever had. If we are being logical here, a skill that makes something that big should take months before being available again, if not years. So yeah, it could help a lot here, but only if we stay here for a long time. What if we find a doorway tomorrow? Or in two days? Then I have a super strong skill on cooldown, and I can't do anything with it in the new room. No, I'll take the Empress Gift and the Royal Quest skills."

"It's Bestow Gift, mum," Daskka chimed in.

"Didn't you say it was Empress' gift?" Hera turned to her left shoulder, where Daskka was resting.

"Maybe back in the Seven Islands, I did. But I was going from memory at the time. Here I actually looked at the names," Daskka explained.

"Whatever. Bestow Gift and Royal Quest. That way, Nimbus can try to reach whatever is up there, and my entire court can get stronger," she turned to Shane, "Also. I'm not the one who is going to choose when to give a gift or not. It's up to my blades. When they get enough for a gift, I'll let them know, and they can say if they want one or not. I appreciate everyone's help, but if this is how it's going to be every time I ask for your opinion, I won't do it again."

"Sorry," the group mumbled but stopped arguing. Despite being relatively safe, they all knew that the stress of being stuck without a way to go home was getting to them. Not to mention they were all literally stranded in the ocean, which wasn't a good feeling. Even if this raft was more like a floating city than a boat.

Turning to Daskka, Hera confirmed her choice. The herald smiled and closed her eyes. Suddenly, three notifications appeared in front of the Empress.

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Skill Acquired

Bestow Gift - Legacy

When a member of your court has performed their duties well enough, the Empress can bestow a gift to them, showing her appreciation. These gifts will be tailor-made to the court member in question and can have various effects. The more favor the court member has amassed, the rarer the gift will be.

The rarity of the gift is defined by the rarest item in the Empress' possession. A gift of the highest rarity can only be bestowed a number of times equal to the number of items of said rarity in the Empress' possession.

Each blade can only receive a single gift.

A Titled Blade can receive the gift multiple times. However, that will only increase the rarity of the previous gift, not replace or add a new one. The favor cost for upgrading an item is much higher than to acquire a gift of that rarity, and it cannot go beyond the highest rarity of the skill.

Rarity of gifts available: Common - Uncommon - Rare - Very Rare - Epic - Unique - Unique(Lost)

Number of items of the highest rarity: 1

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Skill acquired

Royal Quest - Legacy

As an Empress, you are able to request the completion of a unique and dangerous task to your most loyal and devoted subjects. Doing so may put them in peril, but as an Empress, you must give them your support to complete their quest.

You can give your mana to one of your Titled Blades to allow them to move beyond the physical constrains of the legacy. Moving away from their range will make them spend the mana you gave to them to sustain their strength. The farther away they are, the more mana they spend. Skills or spells used by the Titled Blade during a Royal Quest will use the Empress' mana first and then their own.

If the Empress' mana runs out while they are outside their regular range, the Titled Blade will be constantly damaged until it is able to return to the Empress' side. If their form is destroyed before they return, the Titled Blade will become unable to be summoned for an amount of time relative to the time spent away from the Empress.

Each Titled Blade who is a part of the quest can take up to 2 court members with them. Doing so will increase the mana cost to move beyond their maximum range. The court members will receive the same restriction and possible penalties that the Titled Blade receives.

Those who participated in the Royal Quest can receive some favor relative to the danger posed by the Royal Quest.

Cooldown: 24 hours or the same time that it took for the last Royal Quest to be over. Whatever is the longest.

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Your court has grown.

Court Capacity: 7/8

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"Even the court grew? That's great," Hera smiled.

"Do you have more information now?" Helena asked.

"Yeah. A lot, actually," Hera told everyone what her skills said. She read the entire notification for [Bestow Gift], but just summarized [Royal Quest] since it was so long.

"So… If Nimbus takes one of your blades, and that blade breaks for some reason, do they become unavailable for a while?" Bonnie asked.

Not knowing the answer, Hera turned to Daskka, "No. Well, yes, but not in the same way. If any blade is destroyed, they take some time before being able to be summoned again. If they are on a Royal Quest, that time remains the same. If Nimbus, or whatever Titled Blade who is doing the quest, is destroyed, then they get an increased penalty. Also, just to clarify. If you send Nimbus on a quest that takes a week to complete, the cooldown becomes a week, and it only starts to count when he comes back, not when you use the skill."

"I see. And are those quests the only way to make them get favor?" Shane asked, and Hera turned to Daskka again.

"No. Everything they do for you, mum, gives them a bit of favor. This would be just a way to give a bigger boost. The more dangerous the task, the more favor they get if they complete it."

"Got it. So give me a few minutes to recover some mana. Nimbus, I'm giving you a quest soon," Hera smiled at the Sentinel. They all took a few moments to rest and calm down. During that time, Hera debated about adding her skinning knife to the court. If the skill it had, where it would never lose its edge when doing 'what it was created to do,' understood that weapons were made to attack, it could work wonders for her court. Sure every time she summoned one of her blades, they would be as sharp as possible, but during a fight, that would change until she sent them away. What made her hesitate was that, eventually, she would have to replace the knife, and that skill would be lost. If she kept it as a knife, she could see if a crafter was able to replicate the effect

'Actually, mum. There was another skill that I found that might fix that,' Daskka said as they were having a private conversation.

'Really?' Hera raised an eyebrow.

'Yeah. It's called Heirloom. You can pick a skill, a spell, or a single attribute of one of your blades and make it an heirloom. Then, every time you replace that particular blade, you can pass that to the next one.'

'What's the catch?' Hera asked. She knew enough to know that skills like that should have a restriction.

'You have to have 100% familiarity with both court members, and both blades have to be a part of your court so you can pass that heirloom. Also, some things won't pass, and attributes will be weird... I don't know what that means.'

'Could I get that now?'

'No. That one is a bit more expensive than the Royal Capital. You couldn't even get it right now,' Daskka explained.

Hera nodded, 'Ok. I'll add the knife to my court then.'

Daskka nodded and got ready to help. Hera placed the knife on her lap and started using her [Courtship] skill. She reached out with her mana and touched the knife, inviting it to become a part of her. A silver mist started to form around the tool as if the blade itself was turning into gas. Soon it had no more form, and it joined Hera's court. Since it didn't have any attribute scaling, it took everything from the Empress' stats. Taking a deep breath, she focused on the new court member and called it.

"Edge, come out."

The skinning knife appeared beside her. It was very small in comparison with almost all her other blades, with the only exception being Scythe. The knife floated awkwardly for a couple of moments before turning to Hera.

'Hi, there! It's a pleasure to meet you. Although, I suppose you have already met me. I'm the only one meeting new people. Thank you so much for making me! And oh... wow, you are so pretty. That's the right word, right? Pretty? It sounds funny,' edge spoke very fast, and it had a very excited tone about everything.

'Ok, slow down. Please. And try not to yell unless you need to. It's kind of hard when you speak directly in my head,' Hera smiled and noticed that her mana was full again, 'Could you wait a moment? I need to do something. Feel free to roam around. Just try not to hurt anyone.'

Hera turned to Nimbus, and after some help from Daskka, she understood how to trigger the skill. It was just something she wasn't excited to do. Still, everyone was curious about her new skills, and she had to show them how they worked. After taking a moment to think about how to phrase everything and to confirm with Daskka if it would have the effect she desired, Hera turned to her Titled Blade.

"Nimbus. My Sentinel. As your Empress, it pains me to ask you to complete a dangerous task. I ask you to fly high in the sky and search for what is hidden in the clouds. I know this task may be beyond your capabilities, and for that, I apologize. If you realize this goes beyond your power, I ask you to return to me, for knowing your limits is already enough information," this was Hera's way of telling him to put his safety first. She had to phrase it like that otherwise, it wouldn't work, and the Sentinel would feel compelled to complete the mission even if his form would be destroyed in the process. Not to say that he would be forced to complete the quest, but running away would give him a feeling similar to losing his honor.

Nimbus kneeled in front of Hera and spoke in a solemn voice, the legacy showing him what to do and how to answer, "I will complete this quest, my Empress. This task shall be my alone."

Hera reached out to him, allowing the Sentinel to kiss the back of her hand. At that moment, she sent 900 thousand mana to him. It was a lot, but she wanted to make sure he had enough to go to the clouds and back. After all, if he vanished after finding something, they would have to wait for him to come back before learning anything new. Nimbus got up, bowed to Hera, and walked outside before taking flight, but he stopped before getting too far.

"Shane. Do you still have the spyglass? May I borrow it for a moment?" the Sentinel asked.

"Sure," Shane passed the spyglass to him. He looked through it for a couple of moments, and when he found the cloud Shane discovered, he returned the item, "I will be right back."

Hera watched as Nimbus continued to rise beyond his usual range, still in his human form. She couldn't help but feel like a mother who was watching her kid go on his first field trip. A few moments passed when Blue turned to the Empress.

"Sooo…. Do you have to speak like that every time?"

Hera let out a long sigh, "Yeah. Whoever made that skill was obsessed with royalty, and unless I give the quest in a 'royal' way, it won't work."

"That sucks," Blue said, but she tried her best not to giggle.

"Don't you even start," Hera rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Hera. Can you come get your knife? They are destroying the watermelon," Bonnie's voice came from inside the cabin.

Blue started chuckling while Hera let out another long sigh, "Why are all my children a problem?"