Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; SKS Duskstar

Add additional stakes to the competition… The words echo in my ears when Prince Kai grins at Lisa and asks what she thinks about his idea.

She doesn't look averse and tilts her head in thought. "What do you have in mind?"

A Communication spell comes knocking, and I accept. Lisa's voice sounds in my mind while the prince narrows his eyes a little. He clearly detected the spell being cast.

"I hope that's okay with you? I think he doesn't really see you as a leader of our group."

"It's fine," I reply. "Let's hear him out at least… I mean, he is not wrong. We don't really benefit from a Noble title."

Lisa cancels the spell and gives me a slight nod. Prince Kai looks at me, then back at Lisa. He mutters something under his breath, and I can only make out the word "fascinating."

He puts his cup back down on the table. "Well, before I tell you about my idea, I should probably tell you who the participants are. There's obviously the Schmidt boy… He's been here for almost a day and was happy to accept the challenge. Another obvious participant is Tamiko Nakamoto from the Kenjin Alliance. I've also asked the Axtendus twins, but they wanted to wait with their decision until you decided. I'm still waiting for Chad Benson to arrive, but if he's not here by now, he's probably not really part of our immediate competition. It's a shame that the only Valterion at our age is with the Schmidt boy… Oh, and you don't happen to know where the Silvani heir is hiding?"

I really have to work to keep my composure when he states his last two sentences, and a short glance at Lisa shows that she wasn't so successful as she tries to hide a snort with an awkward cough. Of course, the Prince immediately notices and focuses back on Lisa with a playful grin on his face. "Oh, do you know something I don't?" He asks innocently.

Oh boy, that man is good at reading cues!

I decide to save her by admitting the less critical fact before she says something wrong. "Timothy Silvani is with us."

That seems to catch the prince off guard, as his head snaps over to me. "Say that again!" He exclaims with wide eyes.

My turn to look smug again, which clearly seems to annoy him. "The Silvani heir is part of our group… But he doesn't know that we know," I reply as nonchalantly as possible.

He clearly struggles with deciding how to react to my statement. In the end, he settles on a simple "I see…"

I use the moment of silence to sample my own tea. It's really good with a bit of an exotic twist. I'm not sure how to describe it… Just unique.

Prince Kai clears his throat after composing himself. "Anyway, that's about it. Everyone else is probably happy with competing without additional stakes. So what I was thinking is the following… We obviously all take part in the normal competition, but additionally, we're adding a little twist: I'm not sure on the final frequency yet, but I'm thinking every other Sunday at the moment. At those dates, our groups share their location with each other, and then we're allowed to attack each other for the rights to explore said location for the next two weeks or however long the time between those special days ends up in the end."

Huh, that does sound interesting. I'd love to steal a good location from the smug prince.

I notice Lisa nodding very slightly, her head barely moves, and she quickly stops herself to look at me. Of course, our host notices and grins. He's just too perceptive! If this were like the ancient fiction I'm currently reading, he would have invested every single stat point in Perception! I wonder if his middle name is Jake…

Anyway, as I like his idea too, I nod at Lisa, and she sighs silently before looking back at the prince. "That sounds interesting… But we probably should include the others to hammer out the final rules."

Prince Kai nods along. "I'm glad to hear that, and yeah, that makes sense. Let me just get them…"

"Wait," I call out, and he looks back at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What's the matter?"

"I think it's better to wait a week or two before starting our extra challenge… Let's just meet down on the planet then. I mean it's not long until we can go down, and who knows how long we need to work out the rules. And there's nothing worse than missing the chance of being the first one down there, right?"

He scratches his chin in thought. "Hmm, you're probably right. Benson Junior is still missing anyway… Yeah, let's do it that way. I'll send you a message when and where exactly. Now, unrelated to our little extra competition, where will you start on Earth tomorrow? Song Medical?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Neither Lisa nor I react to his very obvious attempt at extracting information, but somehow he still catches on.

"Ahh, yeah, that makes sense with your family ties and all. Now that you've so generously shared your starting location, it's only fair to share mine as well. We'll be exploring Arcane Labs in France. They were a mid-sized company back then, but apparently focused heavily on magical research according to historical documents."

He continues to share quite a lot of information about Arcane Labs before suddenly changing the topic completely. "But enough about all that for now… Let's talk about other things. Tell me, who are Lisa Song and Sara Green?"

Damn, that man is good! Now that he shared so much, it would be rude to circumvent his question about us. Lisa's left eye twitches a little, and she grabs her tea to hide her annoyance. Yeah, she's come to the same conclusion. We're hopelessly outclassed by his information-gathering skills. Lisa calling him a magical monster doesn't do the prince justice. He's a literal monster! I don't want to be on his wrong side in… like ever.

Luckily, Lisa goes first, which gives me a bit more time to think about what to tell the prince. "Well, you have obviously heard about me, or you wouldn't be here…"

That gets a short chuckle out of the young man across from us.

"So I won't bother you with the boring stuff you already know. I'm a Master Utility Mage and advanced to Senior in A&D magic a few months ago. Other than that, I'm here mostly in an administrative role… Sara and her crew are going to do most of the heavy lifting."

Way to throw me under the bus! I glare at Lisa, who looks a bit apologetic. When I look back at the prince, I notice his hawkish gaze. "So you're the real force behind everything?"

Sensing my chance to deflect, I jump right into it. "Not really, no," I shrug. "My strength in Space Magic and a lucky coincidence got me right into the middle of this… I met Tim Skadi, that's Timothy Silvani, on my first day at FBC, and we immediately hit it off and became friends. Not that I knew his identity back then."

Prince Kai does a short double-take, which is one of his few times that I managed to catch him off guard. "Really?" He asks. "Tim Skadi?"

I nod. "Yup, Lisa and I had a good laugh when we found out. Anyway, Tim managed to somehow secure us a spot on the Earth Competition, and when I became Lisa's retainer later on, the Duchess decided that Lisa and I should be on one team, and as I basically had everything prepared, it was easier to add Lisa to my group as a coordinator."

"Hmmm," the prince leans back again and scratches his chin. "This sounds so absurd that it has to be true… No one would make up such a silly story on the spot… I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now and say I believe you. But somehow I feel that there is more to it…"

I lean back too and shrug. "Well, I recently advanced my Utility core to Senior, if that's what you mean."

That gets the first unrestrained laugh out of the man, and he slaps his knee. "Good one! But fine, keep your secrets, I'll find out sooner rather than later."

I smirk back at him. "Maybe there's nothing to find out?"

Our meeting wraps up a little bit after, and I teleport us back to the Stargazer. Clara has already undocked the ships a bit earlier because the Duskstar has to return to her designated place before the next morning.

As soon as we're back on familiar ground, Lisa's composure breaks. "Holy shit, that was intense! The man is even scarier than I thought."

I nod in agreement. "Yeah, definitely. I never want to get on his bad side. He's so attentive to details and everything. And that doesn't even account for his apparent magical talent."

"Oh yes, and we didn't even get him to spill anything about his magic… But you were amazing at the end! I think the enigma that you are and how you handled his questioning really threw him off before we left. I think you definitely have his attention now."

That has me grimacing. "That wasn't my intention… I wanted him to stop digging."

Lisa laughs. "I don't think that was a possible outcome of today's meeting. Actually, we managed to keep most of our cards hidden because you confused him that much. Sure, Tim's secret is out of the bag, but that was just a matter of time, and it's not that important anyway. But he doesn't know about our archaeologists, which can be a great advantage. Dave can uncover things in peace while you play the extra challenge with the prince and the others."

I find myself nodding. "Hmm, maybe you're right. I guess we'll see. Nothing we can do right now anyway. But one thing is absolutely certain. With Prince Kai in the game, things definitely won't become boring!"

We walk down the hallway toward the bridge. Lisa takes a while to answer. "Absolutely, but now I'm feeling compelled to work extra hard just to get one up on the prince."

"Oh, definitely, I'd hate to lose against that dude!"

Lisa chuckles. "Good, then let's get started. We can't slack off now. Not with him in the mix."

We enter the bridge to an unexpected activity. My whole crew is assembled and deep in a discussion. They turn around when they hear the door opening. "You're back!" Tim calls out first. He looks excited.

"I am. What's going on here?"

He looks confused. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" I ask in confusion. "We just returned from the prince, and I thought we had the exciting news…"

He raises an eyebrow at that, and Lucy blurts out. "Of course you have, but let us go first. I think you'll like to hear what we say."

"Sure, go ahead. I can wait."

Tim takes the word again. "Our sensors discovered an old shipyard around Venus. We think it might be the Valterion one from back then!"

I gasp in shock. "It's still there?!"

Lydia nods and activates a projection. "Yeah, here, take a look."

The projection shows Venus and floating around the planet is a giant construction. It reminds me of what I've seen in the Lomali System, just at a smaller scale. "Wow… We definitely have to go there as soon as possible." I look at Lisa. "Can we change our plans?"

She shakes her head. "No, the prince knows we wanted to look at Song Medical's ruins… If we change our plans now, this will look pathetic. But think about what I just told you," she winks at the end.

Ohh! Yeah, that's perfect. I smile back at her. "I see, thanks."

The others look at me a bit confused, but I hold up a finger and cast a Communication spell to call Dave and ask him and his team to join us on the bridge.

I start explaining a bit about what we discussed with the prince until they arrive. As soon as they're here, Lisa and I start explaining in detail. Tim looks very intrigued by our new challenge and smiles broadly.

"So, just to be sure I understand correctly. The six of us," he points at our original Exploration team, "will still be going down to Earth to explore the ruins of Song Medical while Dave flies together with Jack to Venus and is accompanied by Lisa and Maja to start excavating the shipyard's secrets?"

I give him a thumbs up. "Exactly, and once we're through the first challenge Sunday with the prince, we can mix things up."

Everyone smiles. "Perfect, then we just have to wait a few more hours to get started!" Lucy calls out, which causes everyone to cheer.