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It was said that during the first moon—the Mother’s Moon—her healing wind cascaded through the air that all her children breathed. The sun flashed with more vigor. The plants stood slightly taller. Those with sore backs would suddenly jump with joy, and those with terrible illnesses would rise from their beds. Then the world could start the new year as fresh as a newly bloomed flower.

But people were largely superstitious.

The streets of Armonia were busier than they had ever been. People from all thirteen realms had left their homes, their jobs, and, in some cases, their families to join King Armonia and his Archas Knights for the first-ever Festival of Kinship—a celebration of archads from all thirteen realms. 

There were dancers shooting flames from their hands and feet on every street corner as they launched into the air with mesmerizing acrobatics. Wind archads dashed around in the skies above, dropping confetti and balloons over the cobblestone streets of the self-proclaimed capital of the world.

It was nothing like little Reba Kotter had ever seen. She had never been allowed to explore the inner parts of the city where the other archads lived. Because she was a builder and the builders stayed with the builders, while the other people stayed where the other people stayed.

She had never seen people fly. She had no idea a man could hold lightning born of the sky in his hand. She even saw someone freeze a fire, which destroyed every fragile piece of logic in her young mind.

“Hey, Mama… Mooomm.” The girl tugged on her mother’s walking gown. Seconds went by without a response. She tugged a bit harder.

Her mother was being distracted by baby Krisa strapped to her chest and squirming like an animal in a trap. Reba always hated it whenever there were new babies. Each one made her parents too busy running the family circus to notice her calling.

“Reba.” Her mother finally noticed her after the third pull.

She turned to her with Reba’s favorite face, the one everyone said looked just like her own. It was like a porcelain doll made of smooth brown leather, with the thick black hair locks and face piercings of Selplian tradition. Two silver studs were fixed over her right eye, and a ring looped into the left nostril, each of which was created by her own hand, as tradition required.

“What’s the matter, sweetling?” her mother asked.

Reba pouted her cheeks, frustrated at the delay in her mother’s response. She pointed at a man leaping through the air with swirling flames at his bare feet as the crowd around him clapped in amazement.

“I want to do that,” Reba said in a simultaneously shrill and boyish voice.

“Wouldn’t that be nice… But we’re Selplians. Which means we’re builders. That man is Ishai—a child of Ishta. Not like you and me.” Her mother turned to get hold of her other child, Kayleb. He was nearly on his fifth year and had all the excitement of a sailor first touching land after a long, perilous voyage.

“But that’s not fair,” Reba complained.

“I wanna fly like the bird people too,” Kayleb echoed the sentiment.

“Do you now?” Her mother threw Kayleb up around her neck, which, to Reba, made him the size of a tree. She then started making wind-whooshing noises and spinning around as Kayleb laughed on her head.

Reba turned her cheeks, trying to hide the jealousy in their redness. She was too old for shoulder rides and whooshing noises. She had just turned 10 during the Earth’s Moon, and she would be a grown adult in only a few years. Or at least old enough to work, according to her father.

“Reba,” her mother said tenderly as if they weren’t surrounded by hundreds of voices and loud noises. “Would you like a turn?”

“No, thank you.” It was said with more defiance than the little girl intended. Though her mother still smiled.

“Maybe you can shoot fire from your hands or fly if you really want to.”

Reba peeked at her through her defiance with curious grey eyes.

Her mother lowered her gaze to match hers. “Us small people are only limited by our small imaginations. Maybe a small builder with a big imagination can build their own special hands that can do anything they ask them to. Who truly knows.”

“You mean like me?” Reba pointed at herself.

Her mother nodded, and the burst of excitement within her was enough to power a train. She took off into the sea of people, making her own whooshing noises with a blue-grey scarf wrapped around her neck like a cape.

"Don't go far!" Ruby Kotter sighed. Her daughter was already gone. She didn’t have the limbs or the energy to run after her. The other two of her children wouldn't stop squirming. All the excitement of the festival had the kids too stimulated for her to handle on her own. "If only I had some help. If only I had a nice, strong husband to take responsibility and keep an eye on our little wandering builder. If only he wasn't a wanderer himself. Then maybe I could enjoy myself. Just a little." 

Koji Kotter walked upon his wife, suckling on his fingers and making sure there were no extra crumbs in his goatee. He was a sturdy giant of a man with a chin bigger than his head. His dreaded Selplian hair was ponytailed the entire way down his spine.

"Koji," his wife said.

"Oh. Ruby. There you are." He laughed. "I've been looking all over. You wouldn't believe it, but I ran into a Magman woman or magwoman or whatever they call them, and she was selling these cute little earth charms for five sina a piece. These were special charms, she said. Each one was bathed in a mountain spring blessed by the All-Mother herself. Ya hear that. That’s good luck for a whole lifetime. I said, you're kidding. She said, serious as the sunlight."

"Koji. Please don't tell me..."

"Of course, no. You wouldn't believe she tried to sell me ten of those things. They always try to put one over on me, but she didn't get me. I only bought five." He whipped out five little clay figurines from his satchel. "What really sold me is that they kinda look like us, right?"

Ruby stared at her husband with tired eyes. "Do they?"

"Well, yeah. Cuz see if you look closely. Uhh... they're brown and uhh… brown. And maybe if ya squint, there's a little hair on that round thing at the top."

Ruby grabbed the charms from his hand and gave them to the children, who were still straddling her chest and neck. "So twenty-five sina, huh?"

"They’re worth it, right?... Hey, careful.” Koji reached for the charm that Krisa was a second away from stuffing in her ten-toothed mouth. But he stopped, realizing his hands were too big to snatch the charm without taking the baby with it.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Ruby said. “We’ll probably need the luck to find our other girl among all these people.”

“Erm. Reba’s done disappeared again?”

“Yeah. Which wouldn’t happen if she didn’t inherit those wandering habits of yours.”

“It's never a bad thing to be a bit curious, is it? None of us ever seen nothin this grand before.”

“I worry about her, though. If we keep hiding things from her, she might realize the world isn’t as nice as we make it seem. And by then it’ll be too late.”

“It’s alright. Let her be young a while longer. A builder’s greatest tool is their imagination, right?”

“It’s preparation. A builder’s greatest tool is preparation.”

“Same thing.”

“Mhmm. Then I’ll let it be your job to find her.”

“Relax,” Koji said. “Nothing will happen to her on a day like this. It’s a festival under the protection of the great All-Mother above and the Archas Knights down below. Let her have some freedom.”

While eloping from her parents, Reba was following her nose to a new curiosity. A smell wafted over her that floated her off her feet. It was sweet, savory, and very meaty. She just had to find out what it was.

She slipped through, around, and under the many steam-pressed dresses and trousers of the crowd. What she eventually came upon was a big sign with jumbled words and a colored snake thing with fins. Reba wished she could read the words, but she never learned. Luckily, she didn’t need to.

Several strange-looking men with big poofy hair and blue marks on their faces started shouting, “Come one! Come all! Enjoy the sweet, savory tastes of our very rare basilisk whale meat! Usually only a luxury, but it could be yours for only twenty sina!” People charged the line, throwing their money at the men.

The meat was displayed propped in rows on the stall. They were a glistening red-brown and covered in sweet gravy. Long sticks were punctured through them for handles. The look of them sent shockwaves through Reba’s tongue, and she suddenly felt like she hadn’t eaten in days. She’d never even heard of a basilisk whale before, but her only thought was how delicious it would taste in her tummy.

She squiggled off to the side of the stall as the men continued to shout. “Twenty sina! Just one twenty-sina coin! Hold your tail fins! There’s plenty! Just twenty sina!”

Reba dug around her short trousers, pulling out nothing but an old leaf and an ant. She frowned and then suddenly perked up with the loose threads of an idea. She was a builder, meaning she could make things the other archads couldn’t. She forced a soft silver glow to come to her hands.

A few moments later, her little hands reached over the top of the stall, and she placed three flat, iron circles on the desk next to the meat. She then felt around for the whale meat before swiping it like a mad thief.

“Now, hold on there, girly,” one of the men called in a strange accent. Reba panicked, hiding the skewered meat behind her back. “What do you think you’re doin?” The man imposed over her in the shape of a big-bellied bear.

“I gave you what you asked for. Now I’ll be taking my meat, sir.” She turned to quietly leave, but the man snatched her by her collar and pulled her up to eye level. He then grabbed the little iron pieces and held them up.

“Well, you’ll be havin' to do a better job than that, eh, little one. You conjure this yourself? This ain’t no sina.”

“Hey. No time for getting distracted, cousin. We be wayyy swamped o’er here,” another of the stallmen called.

“Just a second, cousin. We got a snatcha’ o’er here.” The man plucked the skewer from Reba’s hand and put it back on its prop. “Now you listen here, young Selpil. You know what the spirits are, yeah?”

Reba nodded, clutching the smithing scarf around her neck.

The man continued. “Well, now let me tell ya about this one I know. A conjurer spirit. They call it the greed spirit.

“There was once a young Selplian girl, a builder, right round your age. She used to roam these streets. Cuz she was a nasty little pickpocket. She’d steal from the pockets and purses of e’ry archad she passed by. Used to think them didn’t need it cuz there was no way them were poorer than she. No mama. No papa. No one to make her living but her own little pickpocketing hands.”

Reba swallowed her tongue, intently listening to the man as he trapped her with his eyesight.

“One day then, she come by an alley, and in that alley was a treasure chest, shinin’ and glistenin’ with an endless bottom of gold and jewels. Wayyy more than her little hands could carry. So she started taking it. Little by little. For days and days. She must’ve did o’er a hundred trips taking all that treasure back to her home.

“And she kept laughing. What dumb fool would just leave his gold in an alley like that? Then, after all her trips, she come back to the alley to take its last piece of gold. But when she looked inside, it ain’t no gold that she found.

“It was the greed spirit…

“It came from the bottomless pit like a shadow come to life, angry that it no more had any gold. So what does a builder do when it runs out of gold… It builds more.

“But the only material it had was a little girl standing in front of it. So the little pickpocket was frozen in solid gold. Stuck, no able to do nothing with the endless riches she stole.

“For days, she was stuck until happening by the alley was another pickpocket. And his eyes dropped to the floor at the solid gold little girl. But when he tried to take her, she was too heavy.

“So, he settled with pieces. Started with the eyes for a little pocket change. Then, he would break off fingers and toes. Then the arms and legs, and when none of that was enough to settle his greed. He ripped off her solid gold head. Laughing. Laughing at the poor sucker who had left his golden girl in the alley.”

The man sat Reba back down on the ground as her knees trembled. “You’re lying,” she nearly cried. “That spirit isn’t real.”

“Oh, the spirit is real. All spirits you hear of are real. But they no prey on the good. They prey on those as wicked as they are. So trust, you don’t want no spirit like greed to think you a friend.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll never steal again. I promise. I don’t wanna turn into a monster.” Reba dropped her head like she was praying to the man.

The man bellied out a plump laugh. “Well, ya never know what be lurkin round, ya hear.”

“Yes, sir.” Reba nodded so fast she vibrated.

“Next time, ya just ask. Ya never know. Us Osa are an easy-goin folk.” He pulled a coin from his pocket and flicked it at Reba. She caught it in both her palms. “That’s what a real sina looks like, young Selpil. Now go on.”

Reba hopped to her feet, thanking the man and then going on like he said. Somehow, she had gotten out of that with only a nightmare and a ten-sina coin. All in all, came out ahead.

She gazed at the little sina coin. It was a strange metal with a distinct blue shine. A hundred tiny grooves marked the outline, while an embedded starburst marked the middle of the coin. It looked far too complex and intimidating for Reba to copy.

It must’ve been made by some master builder somewhere. But according to her mother, a builder was only limited by their imagination. Maybe she could make more. That way, she could afford the whale skewer or maybe a hundred whale skewers. Then she got the haunting image of a demon in a treasure chest, turning her into a big piece of sina, and she shuddered. “Maybe not.”

She now had to decide what to do with her newfound money. The options were food, food, and… food. Her hunger was barking ten times louder at her since the ordeal. Luckily, she saw a less-crowded stall serving roasted fish in a seaweed wrap.

Good enough.

She ordered one for herself. No, she should probably get two, just in case her father was hungry. He was always hungry. And she couldn’t forget about ma. So three.. wait. Ma would probably get mad if she didn’t order anything for her siblings, so by the end, she had ordered five fish, which had taken her whole coin. She piled it all into the big scarf around her neck and held it to her stomach, feeling like her mother looked whenever she was heavy with a new baby.

Just then, a large splash of water pelted her on the back of her head, soaking her hair and causing her to nearly tumble over with all the food. Her neck creaked around, and her eyes turned ominous as a bunch of little water archads laughed behind her.

“YOU STUPID KIDS! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE THROWING! YOU’RE GONNA MAKE ME DROP MY HARD-EARNED FOOOOODD!” Reba screamed with all her might, stopping their water ball game in its tracks.

Having taught them a lesson, she turned her back. Not two seconds later, another water ball nailed her right in the neck. It stung like a swarm of tiny ant bites, and the water soaked the once-crispy fish as they all fell to the ground. Reba mourned them.

“I spent more money than I’ve ever had on that food…” A single tear fell. “AND YOU MADE ME DROP IT!” All of the kids scattered at her rage. All except for the obvious culprit, who was busy crafting another water ball to throw. The water materialized, swirling in the air above his hands. He chucked it at her with a radiant force, but this time Reba ducked it.

“You think you’re the only one that can do that!?”

The energy flowed from her hands as a circular silver light. After a few moments, it half-solidified into a lumpy iron ball full of cracks, making it resemble grey glass. “YOU’LL SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME!” She gripped the ball with murderous intent and prepared to beam it directly at the kid’s forehead. But as soon as it hardened, the weight of it nearly detached her arm from her body, and she crashed to the dirt. She could hear the other kids laughing at her as they left to finish their game elsewhere.

A large hand came from nowhere to lift her onto a pair of stiff Selplian shoulders. “What’d you expect?” Reba’s father said. “It was a ball of pure iron. I thought you was s’posed to be the smart one.”

“Shut your stinky face,” she said defiantly. “They ruined our lunch, and I hope they get eaten by spirits.”

“Well, that ain’t too nice.” Her father frowned.

“You mean that fish on the ground?” her mother asked.

Reba hadn’t noticed before, but the smithing scarf had fallen off her during the skirmish. She reached out for it, but her mother already had it over her shoulder as she walked with Krisa on her chest and Kayleb held at her hand. Sadly, the fish was no longer inside it.

“How’d you manage that?” her mother asked. “You didn’t steal them, did you?”

“No.” Reba puffed her cheeks. “But it’s a secret.” She did pay for them with her own money, technically. But that didn’t mean she wanted to explain how she got the sina.

“Well, if they're yours, I don’t see any reason to waste a meal,” her father said.

“I can think of a few.” Ruby could already see the ants scavenging the fish. “How bout this for now?” She gave Reba a small, cobbed corn that the girl couldn’t resist due to her starving stomach. Her mother patted her softly on the head as they walked towards a new destination.

The king’s palace was directly in the center of the city, yet it was still its own island, with twin rivers forming a moat around it. There was a tremendous golden gate guarding the palace’s bridge. The palace was built all in white, making it ooze a regal, sunlit glow.

Koji Kotter was planted on his knee, conjuring some seats for them to sit in. Ruby perched herself on one of the conjured chairs, rocking the children on her lap as Reba waited impatiently for her own chair to be done.

There were guards and royals between them and the gate, and before the gate was a wooden stage holding a strange-looking group. These people joked and laughed and made grand gestures to one another. Meanwhile, each one had a distinct flavor, from their skin to their dress to the dirt under their fingernails. One looked like the basilisk whale men with blue paint all over his face—another, like the fire dancers on the street with his burning red hair. There were women archads and men archads. Short archads and tall. Long-haired and short. Slim-faced and pudgy. All were donned in the different colors and clothing of their homelands.

There were thirteen of them in total.

The one thing they had in common was a small shield fastened to their forearms. It looked like it would only guard them against a skipping rock to the forehead. Still, it was held firmly at each of their sides, with the clover sigil of Armonia firmly imprinted on the middle.

They surrounded a particular man, bright and huge, with a torso of armor. Reba thought the man was half a giant and was surprised he didn’t fall through the wooden floor of the stage. His hair was wild, long, and black. His voice was even wilder as his cackles activated everyone’s senses like a big, friendly siren.

“Who are those people up there?” Reba pointed. She was ignored. Both her parents were too focused on the things in their hands. “I said, who are those…”

She stopped to see her dad making a fourth stool. One for him. One for Mom. The two kids were on lap duty, so they didn’t get one. Then one for her. So that left one more.

“Is Romy finally back!?” she said excitedly. The name finally sparked their attention. Her parents looked confused, as if she wasn’t speaking of her own brother. They looked at each other and tried to continue what they were doing unperturbed, except that Krisa had suddenly started crying.

Her father was the one to answer her question. “Erm... no. This isn’t for your brother. See, your Uncle Kreo is in town, and you know he’s always late for these kinds of things. So just in case, he shows…”

“Uncle Kreo…” Reba echoed, half deflated.

“Come now, Kreo isn’t that scary, is he?” her father said.

“No. I’m not scared of anything. I’m brave. That doesn’t mean he isn’t weird and spindly.”

“Well, spindly or not, you should appreciate your uncle and what little family you have.”

Reba groaned at the sight of the two little ghouls clamoring for her mother’s attention. “No, thank you. I’ve got plenty already.”

The grand horns of the square began to sing as hundreds, if not thousands, were packing into the square. The Kotters would’ve been swarmed with people falling over them if it weren’t for Koji’s hefty body making a natural barrier.

The men and women with the shields stood as stiff as trees now in two lines across the stage and angled to the gate. The wild giant leading them stood in the center of them with his back to the crowd.

Soon, the gate began to crack and heave as people started to whisper,

“King Armonia.”

“I ain’t never seen the king before.”

“I heard he was Attian.”

“Of course he is, don’t you see all that white?”

“I always thought Strongbow was the King.”

“No, Strongbow’s an Archas Knight, ya dimwit.”

“Look. There he is.”

“You can see the archaea radiating off ‘em.”

Reba couldn’t see. With everyone suddenly standing, it was hard to tell who was who. One of the detriments of being small. But she saw an opportunity. Her father had stood to get a look himself, and so she leaped onto his back and climbed him like a great mountain, which he hardly seemed to notice. But up there, she could see.

It was a figure clad in gold and white who strolled towards the opening of the gate. He walked alone, with all of his entourage having arrived ahead of him. The whispers were right. A blanket of white aura flowed from his person like smoke over a fire. He was Attian, son of the god, Attimus, wielder of controlled archaea.

Archaea was the life essence of every living thing. While others controlled the elements with their archaea, some were blessed to wield the archaea itself, which was said to be white in its purest form. It flowed through the king as easily as he breathed and walked.

The horns blew once more. And a man spoke. “We now stand in the presence of King Laetus Armonia, first of his name, Uniter of Realms, and protector of all archads.”

When the man arrived on the stage, the first thing he did was give a long hug to the giant black-haired man who stood waiting for him. They patted each other’s backs like long-time friends before the bigger man stepped to the side, allowing the king to look at the masses.

“Greetings, people of Armonia. As I look upon this beautiful crowd, I see archads from all thirteen realms gathered here in this square to celebrate something greater than themselves…”

He paused, observing all those who had gathered at his behest, all the different faces, and all the uncertainty hidden within them.

“When I first arrived here, I had naught but a dream, much like the All-Mother when she created the first archads—all too much the same. My dear friends and I dreamed of a world where life is lived as intended, free from the unnecessary struggles of political greed and the sufferings of manmade war… Because we have an enemy that is much bigger than ourselves. A threat that no realm can face alone.

“There are many of you who have lived within the safety of our charmed walls for a long while with children who were born here and have never left. But I assure you… The threat out there remains. The spirits walk, and their wraths wreak havoc upon us all. They are tormentors who have betrayed our gods and seek only our destruction. Only together do we have the chance of rising above them. To prove this, look no further than the archads standing behind me. These are your Archas Knights. Sworn to protect you from any such threat: spirit, wrath, or man. Led by my good friend, First Shield, Osher Ardenti Armonia Strongbow. The Omni-Knight. Wielder of all archaea. Chosen by the Mother as the world’s champion!”

The giant man showed a reluctant smile as he waved toward the crowds, who began chanting the moniker. “Omni knight! Omni Knight! Omni Knight!”

The king continued. “Within him rests the glue that binds this dream together. And this city couldn’t have been built without his strength, for he has combined all archaea into one. Not just within himself but within all of us here.”

The Omni-Knight proceeded to cross the stage of Archas Knights and seemingly prepared himself for combat, squaring his stance as he stood side by side with a knight of fiery red hair. The two men crouched low and swung their arms in a large circle as fire burst into the air.

“Fire!” The king called. Reba could almost feel the heat, as far away as she was.

Strongbow then stiffened his torso and brought his arms inwards as the fire knight was replaced by another. In a combined huff of breath, a cloud of cold sparkling air rushed over the awing audience.

“Ice!” The king said as the sudden chill made Reba shiver.

“Water... Earth... Wind... Lightning...”

With each call of archaea, Strongbow’s partner switched, and they mimicked one another, displaying their archaea as a magnificent show in the clouds above—flying rivers of water, juggling giant stones, friendly tornadoes, and the sharp roar of violent light.

“Nature!”

Strongbow and his companion clawed their hands as a violent vine-like thread emerged from their sleeves, and a hawk’s cry could be heard above them.

“Conjure!”

There was a flash of silver light as the two men, with hardly any effort, forged a small iron block for each of them. But almost as soon as they appeared, they were dissipated, and the light and metal returned to the atmosphere.

“Meta!”

One moment, Osher Strongbow was a man who resembled a bear, and the next moment, he was a real one, roaring and flashing his claws. Though he was still formed as a man with all of his royal attire still fitting, his hands were larger and hairier, his nose had turned to a black button, and his teeth had sharpened into tiny daggers. Then, mere seconds later, he was a man again, as if nothing had ever happened in the first place.

“Wow.” Reba couldn’t control her excitement.

“Control!”

Then she saw the white archaea again as the white energy moved like wind, until it majestically molded into birds to fly amidst glistening rays of angelic light.

“Shadow!”

The Omni Knight held his hand underneath another’s as a radiating black ball formed above them. It appeared erratic, nearly at the point of exploding. Then suddenly, it smushed inward, emitting a powerful wave that couldn’t be seen but had to be felt to be believed.

The king then gestured as Osher Strongbow approached the final remaining knight. “Space.”

There was no demonstration this time. A prudent-looking man in a vested suit and lines drawn all over his face took a step forward and waved his gloved hand. Strongbow simply bowed to him. And the show went forward, leaving Reba apprehensive and annoyed.

“And finally, the healing touch of the Mother.” King Armonia then gestured towards a final woman who was hard to notice despite being up on stage with everyone else. She didn’t hold a shield nor any fancy clothing or armor like all the others. Except the crowd knew her by the teardrop jewel embedded in her forehead. She bowed as a servant would.

Then with a gentle touch, she caressed the Omni-Knight’s hand, which held a dry, dying flower. But once she touched it, life returned to it. The stem went from limp to straight, and the green replaced the rot in a matter of seconds. Strongbow bowed to her as she planted the flower on his sleeve. Then he shoved his fist toward the sky as if he had just won a great battle. The crowd roared with admiration.

The king spoke again once the noise quieted. “Yes. We are protected by the greatest the world has to offer. The balance we maintain here means we have no weaknesses. It is true that we have had our rough patches. We are still a young city, and not all the world has adhered to our cause. The Attian church of Eisenia, my own countryman, has refused us with their blockades and attacks, which some of you were unfortunately forced to defend against. And I want to personally thank all of our citizens for their patience and sacrifices.”

Reba felt her father tense up like he was resisting the urge to turn his head.

“But we must continue to be patient, and we must show the world that though we are short in number, we have the Archas Knights. And though we are young, our people are strong. For those who have not seen, look around and see the progress made in such a short time. Just over ten years ago, a hopeless, desolate land had turned into the capital of the world, where the thirteen archaeas can be one. Because we are strong! Because we are together! Tell the world of us!... Now, enjoy the tastes and passions of the thirteen realms. Courtesy of Armonia, we welcome you to the first-ever Kinship Festival!”

Balloons, fireworks, and confetti shot into the sky all at once as the surrounding brass horns blew a happy melody. Many archads flooded the stage. Some were pounding on their drums, flames bouncing from their hands. Others were blowing strong winds through their flutes. A woman began to dazzle the crowd with melodies invented for this special occasion, all by the hums of her voice.

The hordes of people moved like wildfire, untamed and violent—a happy kind of violence, as the king’s speech and the surrounding sights and music made everyone eager to get back to the party.

“We should probably find a way out of here,” Reba’s father said. He then seemed to notice his eldest daughter’s gaze upon the stage with eyes as wide as a full moon, particularly upon the Archas Knight known as Osher Strongbow. He thought she was far too young to be fawning over a man like she was. As her father, it was his role to dictate his daughter's taste in men. “Eh, Reba... you shouldn’t stare, ya know.”

“Momma, I thought you said I couldn’t use the other archaeas,” Reba continued to stare.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

“If that man can do it, then so can I.”

Her father raised an eyebrow, taking a glance at his wife, who clearly wanted him to be the bad guy. “Listen, Reba,” he grabbed her off his head and sat her down on her stool. “People are born—”

“Archas Knights protect us from bad people and spirits, right?”

“I s’pose they do.”

“Just like Romy,” she pined. “If I become strong like them, I can go find him and bring him back home. I want to be a fighter, just like them.”

“No!” Her father’s voice exploded at her. The shock of it petrified her in her seat. It even caused Krisa and Kayleb to stop squirming in Ruby’s arms. “You are not to think anything so foolish! Selplians are builders. Not warriors. You won’t ever speak of somethin’ like that again. Ya understand?”

Reba sat in stunned silence until her father’s stare forced her to say, “Ok.”