CHAPTER 36: FAREWELL TO THE PRINCE**
The training grounds echoed with the sound of steel meeting shadow.
Nolan's sword flashed gold in the dawn light, its edge humming with newly-learned royal magic. Shen's dark armor absorbed each strike like a sponge drinking blood, the void between them pulsing with every clash.
"You're holding back," Shen growled, catching Nolan's blade between his armored fingers.
"Am I?" Nolan's golden eye flared—
—and suddenly there were three of him.
The afterimages moved in perfect sync, a technique stolen from Kael's royal archives. Shen barely twisted away in time as all three blades carved through where his throat had been.
A thin line of red appeared on Shen's neck. He touched it, then licked the blood from his fingers. "Finally learning some tricks, princeling."
Nolan panted, the illusion breaking. "You're not the only one who's been training."
Beyond the arena walls, Ryulga watched through half-lidded eyes, smoke curling from his pipe. "They're getting stronger," he murmured to no one. "Just in time."
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**The Parting**
Nolan stood at the palace gates, his travel pack slung over one shoulder. The black scale Shen had given him—a shard of his Dark Mage armor—burned against his chest beneath his shirt.
"You sure about this?" Shen asked, kicking a pebble across the cobblestones.
Kael's offer had been clear: stay and master the royal magic archives, or keep chasing Ryulga's ghosts.
Nolan looked back at the towering spires of the Astral Palace. "Someone needs to figure out what they're really hiding in those black archives." His golden eye flickered. "And you...you've got bigger monsters to hunt."
A shadow passed between them. Ryulga emerged from the morning mist, his boots clicking against stone. "Time's up, children."
Shen tossed something small and glinting through the air. Nolan caught it—a single silver key.
"Found that in the dragon's hoard," Shen said. "Fits something in the royal vaults."
Nolan clenched the key in his fist. When he looked up, Shen and Ryulga were already walking away, their figures blurring at the edges as dimensional magic took hold.
"Don't die!" Nolan shouted after them.
Shen's laughter echoed back through the drifting fog. "You first!"
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**The First Lesson**
The royal archives stretched endlessly underground, shelves of forbidden knowledge humming with containment spells. Kael waited by a blood-red door, her silver hair tied back in a warrior's braid.
"You'll start with the basics," she said, pressing her palm against the door's runes. "How to survive what's coming."
The door opened with a sound like breaking bones. Inside floated a single book bound in what looked like human skin.
Nolan's golden eye burned just looking at it. "That's—"
"The true history of Mediators," Kael interrupted. "And why your friend Shen is walking into a trap."
As Nolan reached for the book, the black scale against his chest pulsed like a second heartbeat. Somewhere across dimensions, he swore he heard shadows laughing.
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