No good deed goes unpunished. Chapter eight of the Paragons episode The Magic Emporium.

♣  Want to start the story from the beginning? Check out the Table of Contents for all the sample chapters.

What’s the story behind the photo above? The real-world location is inside the “Apprentice Village” in my fictional Paragons world. I took the picture during a stroll shortly after we had a very quick (a few minutes long) but very strong storm. The wind knocked over a lot of trees. Some of those trees hit the power lines, and so we (and a lot of other people in a huge area north of Sydney) were left without electricity for about a week.

This was in November 2019. We had a lot of crazy weather in just a few months: drought; Bushfires that turned the sky orange (there was so much smoke in the air that we had to wear those heavy-duty N95 masks when we went outside); this crazy, windy storm that left us without power; later, flooding. And then the pandemic hit.

The constantly-changing weather plays a part in my Paragons series. Look out for that as the series continues.

Though we managed to get our shopping bag back to the Castle before the unicorn hair’s magic sizzled out, we were the last team to finish our Discovery Quest. Bronte and Dutch both gave me the stink eye about that, but Kylie and Asher didn’t seem to care. Or maybe they were just too busy eating. A feast had been laid out in the Castle’s grand banquet hall, and all the Apprentices were invited.

“Whoa, what is this? It’s so good!”

Asher spoke through a full mouth, which meant we all got front row seats to the half-chewed sea of mush in there. I hoped he learned better manners before they made him a Knight.

Bronte glanced at his plate. “That’s apple pie,” she told him. “And you’re meant to save it for dessert.”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been waiting my whole life for dessert!” Asher grabbed the pan and a spoon—and scooped the rest of the pie onto his plate, not caring how messy it looked. “And I’m not waiting a second longer.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Dutch said, decidedly relaxed, holding up his mug of hot chocolate.

The two boys clinked cups, then continued their assault on the feast.

“This certainly is a lot of food. I can’t decide what to try next.” Kylie’s eyes panned up and down the table.

“This.” Bronte passed her a flat plate. “Trust me.”

Kylie cut off a corner of pizza. “Mmm. Yes. This.” She grabbed the whole plate.

“Is this is what it’s like to be a Knight?” I asked Eris.

Our mentor looked up from her sensible green salad. “No, this is a special feast to celebrate the completion of your first two Quests.”

And afterwards, we Apprentices had to go back to Killfield. I guess it was the General’s way of reminding us that we weren’t Knights yet—and that we’d only become them with his blessing.

“The life of a Knight is about moderation.” Eris frowned at Asher and Dutch, who were piling even more desserts onto their already-overflowing plates. “It’s about self-control. And following the rules.”

“And who makes these rules?” I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

“The General.”

Yep. Just as I’d thought.

“Is that why some Knights became Rebels?” I asked. “Because they didn’t want to follow the General’s rules?”

“The Rebels are…complicated.” She skewered a cucumber with her fork.

“You don’t hate the Rebels, do you?”

“No. In fact, some of them were my friends.”

“But not anymore?”

“I’m not allowed to be their friend,” Eris sighed. “Like I said, being a Knight comes with a lot of rules that we must follow. We can’t do everything we want to. And we shouldn’t either.” She poked a lettuce leaf with her fork. “The Rebels don’t subscribe to that philosophy. And that makes them dangerous.”

Eris didn’t say anything more. She stood up, grabbed her salad, and walked over to one of the other mentors. The Knight in blue, the Dreamweaver.

“Miss Winters.”

I looked up at the pair of soldiers who’d parked themselves beside our table. They were dressed in the Watchers’ distinctive black armor. That meant they were the General’s men.

“Come with us. The General wants to speak with you.”

A few eavesdropping Apprentices made dramatic noises. Forcing a smile, I followed the Watchers out of the dining hall. They smelled like soap and metal—and not a bit like magic.

At the top of a twisted staircase inside a twisted tower was the General’s office. To call the room ‘sparsely decorated’ would have been a massive understatement. The place was cold, barren, and unwelcoming. There were no pictures or decorations on the ugly, unpainted concrete walls, and the only window in the room was barricaded behind iron bars. What was the General afraid of? His office was at the top of the tower, deep inside the Castle grounds.

“Sit down, Miss Winters,” he barked as soon as I entered the room, just as unpleasant as ever.

I took a seat opposite his desk, but he remained standing. Probably so he could look down on me. I tried to calm my frayed nerves by counting to ten in my head as I watched the unnatural fluorescent lighting bounce off the General’s broad forehead.

“The 4^th of January. 17:36,” the General rattled off like an old typewriter as one of his soldiers wrote in a notebook. “Inquisition begins.”

Wow, I’d scored an inquisition in my first week as an Apprentice Knight. Mom would be so proud.

“Miss Winters, at approximately 14:18, you were seen skulking around a back alley in the Magic Emporium.”

He really did have eyes everywhere. But, seriously, skulking?

“Why did you abandon your team in the middle of your Discovery Quest?”

“I didn’t abandon them,” I protested. “A bunch of bandits caught me in a teleportation trap, sending me to that alley.”

His lip twitched. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying. The bandits used the teleportation trap to get me away from my teammates, so they could steal the bag of magical ingredients we’d bought from Miss Christie’s.”

“And yet you returned to the Castle with every magical ingredient on your list.”

“Because I got the bandits to back off.”

“They had weapons. You had a cloth shopping bag.” The General lowered himself very stiffly onto his chair. “So how exactly did you get them to ‘back off’?”

I told him the story about the Never-dragon that I’d invented to scare away the bandits. He didn’t look impressed.

“Nonsense!” he hissed. “No one would fall for that ridiculous story.”

I shrugged. “The bandits were pretty stupid.”

“So are you, Miss Winters, if you expect me to believe your lies,” he said tightly. “After the bandits left, you were seen speaking to a Dreamweaver girl.”

“Her name’s Violetta. She asked me to help her find some missing kids.”

“Dreamweaver kids.”

I frowned. “And?”

“They aren’t from Gaia. They aren’t human.”

“Neither am I. None of the Knights or Apprentices are human anymore,” I added quickly, before the General thought I was confessing to being an alien. He’d probably throw me into a prison cell on the spot.

“But your loyalty is still sworn to Gaia. And Gaia alone.” His voice was low, menacing, like a dog growling.

I knew a threat when I heard one.

“I was just trying to do the right thing,” I told him. “They’re kids.”

He obviously didn’t care about kids, whether they were human or supernatural. All he cared about was controlling people. The man wasn’t just unpleasant; he was cruel.

“What happened next?” he prompted me.

“Are you sure you want me to continue my story?” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair. “It sounds like you know everything already.”

The guy with the notebook stopped writing for like half a second. I guess that was as shocked as Watchers got.

“You, Miss Winters,” the General said, his voice scratchy like sandpaper, “are a perfect example of why the Choosing exists. To sort out the bad apples.”

I didn’t point out that most of the Knights hadn’t gone through the Choosing because it hadn’t even existed until a year ago. I knew the General wouldn’t appreciate the comment. The thick vein in his neck was already pulsing dangerously fast, and I didn’t want to be responsible for giving him a heart attack.

“Continue your report, Apprentice.”

‘Report’ sounded so much more serious than ‘story’, so I tried to sound serious too. I told him everything I could remember about helping Violetta and saving the Dreamweaver kids from the invisibility flu.

“What was the cause of this so-called invisibility flu?” the General asked me when I’d finished.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I do.” He rose from his chair like an eagle rising into the sky. “The Rebels.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“You yourself saw them in the Magic Emporium today.”

“Yeah, when they helped save innocent people from a band of bandits. They fought the bad guys. They wouldn’t target a bunch of kids!”

“The Rebels are behind this.” The General slammed his fist into his open palm. “I am sure of it.”

“Maybe it was the bandits in the mall. Maybe they created the invisibility flu,” I suggested.

But the General’s mind was clearly made up. He’d probably made it up long before I’d arrived in his office.

“It was the Rebels.” He locked me in his sights, his eyes narrowing. “The question is why you’re helping them.”

“I’m not. I don’t know any Rebels!”

He leaned over, so close that his heavy cologne singed my nostrils. “I know how to get to the truth, Miss Winters. No matter what it takes.”

“Oh, everyone is well aware of that, General,” Governor Meyer declared as she stepped into his office. “Sorry I’m late. I wasn’t informed an inquisition was in session.”

“This isn’t your concern,” the General told her. But he backed away from me anyway.

“Savannah Winters is not a Knight yet, General. She’s an Apprentice, and she’s living in my city. That makes her safety my responsibility. You know that.” The Governor’s brows peaked. “Which leaves me wondering why you didn’t call me before you decided to interrogate her.”

“There wasn’t time to call you,” the General told her gruffly.

She folded her arms across her chest. “There’s never time to call someone you know will overrule you, is there?”

I hadn’t realized how cool Governor Meyer was. It must have been the suit. I’d come to distrust anyone who wore a suit. Maybe it was time to rethink that.

“I think we’re done here, don’t you?”

The General did not return her smile.

“Send a copy of the proceedings to my office,” she told the note-taking Watcher before holding out her hand to me. “Ready to get out of here, Savannah?”

I nodded, stunned to silence. Seriously, Governor Meyer was so much cooler than any Government employee I’d ever met.

“Oh, just one more thing, General,” the Governor said with a polished smile. “We should award Ms. Winters bonus points for going above and beyond today to improve Gaia’s relations with our supernatural guests from the Many Realms. Don’t you think?”

“Absolutely not. She abandoned her team,” he bit out.

“Because she was abducted by bandits.” Her brows drew together. “What are bandits doing roaming freely in my city anyway, General? I put you in charge of the Fortress’s security. In retrospect, perhaps that was a mistake.”

His jaw clenched up. “I will send Watchers to deal with the bandits at once.”

“See that you do,” she snapped. “And also allocate Savannah her extra Merit points. Fifty points should be about right, wouldn’t you say?”

“Fifty!” he growled.

“You’re right, of course, General,” Governor Meyer said, nodding. “Better make it sixty points, just to be safe. She did save six Dreamweaver children today. Sixty points sends a message to the Many Realms Court that we consider the safety and prosperity of their citizens to be a top priority.”

Before the General could growl or glower some more, she strode out of his office, her fashionable high heels clicking loudly against the hard floor. I rushed out after her.

“How angry do you think he is?” I asked her as we descended the tower’s spiral staircase.

“The General? Pretty angry.” She winked at me. “He doesn’t like to be reminded that he isn’t in charge of the universe.”

“Well, thanks for standing up for me.”

“Of course I stood up for you. You didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, someone has to look out for you. You’re on the General’s naughty list, you know. He thinks you’re the personification of  anarchy.”

“Maybe I am.”

“No, you’re not,” she told me. “The General is just paranoid. He sees enemies everywhere.”

“I guess that’s because it’s his job to see enemies everywhere.”

She cracked a smile. “It certainly isn’t his job to make friends.”

“I also kind of suspect he hates children.”

“He definitely hates children,” she told me. “Especially teenagers. And most especially teenagers with magic.”

“And yet he’s in charge of the Knights, an army of magic-wielding teenagers,” I pointed out.

“The Government believes the Knights need a firm hand guiding them.”

“But you don’t agree.” The look in her eyes told me that.

“The General is still stuck in the past,” she replied. “He’s still living the glory days when our world was the only fish in the pond. Well, the pond has gotten a lot bigger, and there are a lot more fish. The people of Gaia need to build our place in the Many Realms. And to do that, we must all evolve to face the reality of today, not dwell on the dreams of yesterday. Sometimes, the General needs a little reminder of that, and I’m more than happy to oblige.”

We’d reached the bottom of the staircase.

“Well, thanks again for helping me out,” I told her. “And for the points.”

“Thank Kato. This was his idea.”

“Kato?” I gasped.

“He warned me that the General is on a mission to get you thrown out of the Apprentice Program. Kato is away from the Fortress at the moment, so he asked me to help keep you safe until he got back.”

“I…I had no idea Kato cared so much about me,” I said quietly.

Those sixty Merit points were a total lifesaver. They’d help me keep my head above water—well, at least until the next time the General struck.

“Yes, Kato has taken quite a liking to you. Curious. He doesn’t usually bother with Apprentices.” She gave me a long, assessing look. “You must have done something to impress him. After the attack on the Garden, the General cooked up some convoluted scheme to blame you for it. And after what happened in yesterday’s Discovery Quest, he wanted to kick you out of the Program entirely. Kato intervened to protect you from him.”

“How?” I gasped. I was still trying to get my head around the idea that Kato was my guardian angel.

“Kato can be very persuasive.”

Well, that explained why I hadn’t lost more points yesterday. Kato had protected me.

Governor Meyer clasped my hands in hers. “But he won’t always be around to shield you from the wrath of the Iron Wolf. And neither will I. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with the General on your own.”

Deal with the General? Negotiating with a fire tiger sounded easier. But she was right. It was something I’d have to figure out. I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted to make the cut. And even after that, even if I became a Knight, I’d still have to deal with the General. He was in command of the Castle and all the Knights who lived there.

“Good luck,” Governor Meyer told me before she walked off down the hall.

I was so full of thoughts and emotions, and most of them were tangled up around Kato.

I was grateful to him for looking out for me.

Curious about what great Quest had drawn him away from the Castle.

Wishing he were right here in front of me so I could thank him.

I sent out a silent thank-you to him anyway, wherever he was.