Back in Fillory, Eliot and Margo sat in the throne room in a silence thick enough to choke on. They had gone through every option, every trick, every scrap of Fillorian nonsense… and none of it tilted the balance in their favor.
The gold they'd stolen?
Gone, it was all melted into repairs, rebuilding shattered walls, reforging broken structures, patching up what the Lorians had so aggressively "ruined."
The little that remained had gone into arming their already overstretched forces. And still it wasn't enough.
The talking trees had refused to help. Well given the fact that Kai boldly threatened to burn them all down… which in fact he actually could do given how crazy he was.
If what Kai had said was true and Eliot believed it wholeheartedly then the trees were no longer allies. They were enemies.
Another dead end.
How peachy.
The lights flickered again. A long, exhausted flicker that made the room dim for half a beat.
Margo groaned. "That's gotta be what… the third time this week?"
One of the royal staff cleared his throat. "The third this week alone, High King."
Eliot exhaled a sigh that carried both drama and exhaustion. "Alright. Now what?"
Tick, who had been hovering anxiously like a nervous quail, stepped forward.
"Well… uhh… there is something else we can try, but—"
Margo rolled her eyes so hard they nearly squeaked. "Uhh, out with it, you pussy."
Before Tick could gather his courage, the sloth hanging from the branch beside Rafe muttered something sleepy and slurred into Rafe's ear. Rafe nodded, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
"Uhh… it's a duel, sire."
Margo's soul nearly left her body. "Oh God no."
Eliot immediately sat upright. "Go on."
Tick tugged nervously at his cuffs. "It is… an old tradition. A one-on-one duel with King Idri."
Margo threw her hands up. "Okay, wait, wait, wait. Why didn't anyone suggest this from the beginning?!"
Tick wrung his hands.
"It's… not a common occurrence, High King. It's a last resort. Often not even thought of."
"And why—"
Eliot cut in, eyes sparkling like a man who'd just been handed tickets to front-row chaos.
"This will be something to remember, Margo."
Margo scoffed. "Oh, this is absolutely going to inflate his ego." She motioned at Eliot dramatically.
Tick cleared his throat.
"Yes, well… there is a reason duels between monarchs aren't common. It's not just unsavory. Most times… one of the monarchs ends up dead."
Margo slowly turned to Eliot.
"See? That. That right there. Maybe we should not jump into something that screams instant regicide."
Eliot waved her off. "How hard can this be? Tick, hypothetically, how popular would I be if I pull this off?"
Tick didn't hesitate.
"You would be the greatest king of all time, sire."
Margo's eyes widened in horror as she saw the expression forming on Eliot's face.
"Oh no," she muttered, "this is about to get out of hand."
Eliot stood dramatically.
"I hereby decree that we shall have a duel!"
The court gasped.
Margo dragged a palm down her face.
"Let's just hope this actually ends well."
The court exchanged uneasy glances as she stood to leave. She paused at the doorway, muttering loud enough for all to hear:
"This would have all been easy if we could've just destroyed that damn food supply. But nooo, the talking trees decided to side with the Lorians."
And with that, she stormed out.
——————————————-
Eliot was practicing in the training yard, dramatically swinging a practice sword while trying to look both regal and dangerous. He succeeded at the first. Definitely not the second.
Margo walked in with a look that made even the guards step aside.
"Eliot," she said flatly, "I just got the numbers."
"Please tell me they're good numbers," Eliot said through a strained smile while almost dropping the sword.
"Nope. Worse. Way worse."
She took a breath.
"Idri has been in fourteen duels."
Eliot shoulders stiffened.
"And?"
"He won all fourteen."
Eliot froze mid-swing. "...shit."
Margo folded her arms. "Yeah. Fourteen wins. Zero losses. He's basically the Beyoncé of stabbing people."
Eliot swallowed. "Okay, okay not to worry. I'm a magician. I can figure something out. I'll… improvise."
"There are two spells for this kind of situation," Margo shot back. "Both take MONTHS to master. Months, Eliot. What exactly are you going to do?"
The pressure hit him like a truck.
Eliot sighed. "…shit."
———————————-
A giant political rally raged around Penny, all cheers and signs and "JOHN GAINES!" chanting.
Penny wasn't listening.
He was staring at the senator on stage, eyes narrowing.
Because something was very, very wrong.
"...shit," he muttered.
The amount of magic rolling off the senator was colossal. Not normal-magician-big. Not wellspring-big.
This was bigger than every magician on Earth combined.
Well, with the sole exception for Kai, obviously.
Penny exhaled slowly.
'If this guy was an elephant,' he thought,
'then Kai is a fully grown, properly pissed-off tiger in its prime.'
A freaky analogy for a freaky situation.
The crowd erupted again, and Penny teleported out immediately.
——————————————
Penny had dumped the explanation onto Julia, Kady, and Alice like a man hurling a grenade and stepping back.
Julia stared at him. "He has that amount of magic?"
"It's absurd," Penny said. "The biggest I've ever seen was Martin after he gorged himself on the wellspring."
Kady leaned forward. "Okay, so now that we know where the kid is, what next?"
"Where's Kai?" Penny asked.
Julia rubbed her forehead. "Working on… something. Something he says he'll use against the Father."
"That's comforting," Penny muttered. "Okay, so what do we do?"
"Quentin and Alice," Julia said.
Penny blinked. "What?"
"Quentin and Alice are the best people to talk to John."
Penny rolled his eyes. "Of course they are."
——-&——————————
Back in Fillory, Eliot was failing spectacularly at dueling. Every swing looked like someone attacking a drunk mosquito.
Then Fen entered, carrying something wrapped in cloth.
"Eliot," she said gently. "My family sword."
She unwrapped it. The blade shimmered with enchantment, humming softly.
Eliot touched it and gasped.
"Holy shit. I actually feel magical, Fen."
Fen smiled warmly. "It is my pleasure. I will do anything to keep my kingdom safe."
While Eliot trained with newfound competence, Margo was busy elsewhere.
She sat with Rafe and the sloth in a strategy chamber.
Margo groaned. "Okay, sloth. Be honest with me. How hard are we fucked right now?"
The sloth whispered something slow and slurred.
Rafe translated:
"His Eminence says… very hard, actually."
"Fantastic," Margo muttered. "And the other way?"
Rafe hesitated. "Uhh… the fairies."
Margo's eyes widened. "Ohhh the fairies. Why I love fairies—"
Her face immediately darkened.
"—and WHY THE FUCK didn't anyone tell me about them earlier?!"
Rafe winced. "To make a deal requires a steep price. And you need access through their ambassador, a human."
Margo stood up. "At least that's an option."
——————————————-
Julia, Penny, Kady, Quentin, and Alice materialized inside the senator's office building.
Alice muttered, "This is a very bad idea."
"At least we got in," Quentin said as Penny dusted off his jacket. "Teleporting beats security."
But then, Quentin froze.
A wave of magic slammed into him.
The others felt it too.
"Wow," Quentin muttered.
Alice whispered, "This feels like the Beast… but raw. Unshaped. Like a battery."
Kady nodded. "Divine magic. This is exactly what Raynard felt like when he appeared for the first time."
Penny exhaled. "Okay, let's make this quick."
They entered.
Senator John Gaines looked up from his laptop. Saw them and panicked.
"Who are you?! Security! SECURITY!"
Alice sighed. "That won't work."
Julia tried to calm him. "We're not here to hurt you infact we need your help"
But he wasn't hearing a word. Complete panic.
Quentin stepped forward carefully. "Okay, so who are we? Um. We're magicians."
Julia conjured a fireball.
Alice levitated a pen.
Penny teleported beside John.
John stared.
"What do magicians need my help with?"
"A god," Penny said bluntly.
John laughed.
Then, seeing their faces, his expression fell.
"Oh. You're serious. No. NO. You all need to—GET OUT."
The force of his shout was explosive.
They were blasted off their feet, slammed into the wall.
John's eyes glowed a bright yellow.
And then—
THUNK.
Something smacked the back of his head.
They blinked through the pain and looked up.
John was unconscious on the floor.
Standing over him was Kai, holding a circular, strange-looking box in one hand.
Kai looked down at them with raised eyebrows.
"Well. The Demigod and four future bruises. Nice little party you've got going here."
He tapped the box.
"You guys gonna stay down there or…?"
——————————-
They returned to Brakebills in a blink. Kai walked ahead of them, swinging the strange circular box lightly as if it weighed nothing.
"Alright then," he said cheerfully. "Let's move on to the next part, shall we?"
Kady eyed the box.
"What is that?"
Kai smirked, tapping the lid.
"Oh… this?"
His voice dropped, playful and dark.
"This is the part where everything stops being…
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