The Nine Bishops

Mika tried to resist being pulled away, but the hooded figure who had grabbed her and was now leading the way didn’t falter. The crowds pushing and shoving around them, trying to get a better look at the emblem that had formed in the sky, paid no attention.

There was no point in calling for help amid the noise; magic might have worked, but Mika didn’t want to cause harm and, anyway, didn’t feel she was in any real danger. She just let herself be taken out of the crowd.

At last, the hooded man turned around and pulled down the hood.

Nik.

“Finally. It took forever to get out of there,” he said, panting to catch his breath. “Why did you struggle so hard, by the way?”

Mika was still always caught off-guard by his spontaneous appearances. She hadn’t seen him in months. The last time they spoke, Mika was working on a contract by herself in central Seemos. As always, he stayed for only a little while, making small talk, asking her simple, caring questions—How was she feeling? Did she need something to eat? —and checking on her progress, before just as spontaneously disappearing. She was touched by his concern for her well-being and had gradually grown fond of him.

Of course, she always had so many questions, especially about how he always seemed to know exactly where she was. But she never asked. She felt reluctant to spoil the mystery of this strange man. She still didn’t know what his magic was, but she knew it had to be very powerful.

So, she concentrated on enjoying the little time that they spent together. It always seemed to happen when she was least expecting a visit. He would show up out of nowhere and say something that completely disregarded the strangeness of his arrival. They’d talk about all sorts of things except each other, then he would tell her something important and leave. Each of these parting statements left her with a question to ask him on the next visit. Mika wondered what it would be this time.

“I didn’t get a good look to see who had grabbed me, so of course I struggled. You were persistent, though,” Mika answered.

“Now, who wouldn’t be persistent with you?” Nik said, winking with his yellow left eye. He flirted a lot. Do you do that with all the girls? she wondered. She usually tried to ignore his flattery, though she secretly enjoyed it.

“You never answered my question from last time,” Mika said.

“The one about how your father died?”

Nik had told her that, being a Bishop, he had access to a lot of information and would do his best to answer her questions. Sam wasn’t here to tell her what she longed to know, and she’d hoped Nik could solve part of the mystery. But he’d become a Bishop four years after Mika’s father died, so he had no first-hand knowledge of it.

“I did find out one thing about him, but that’s about it,” Nik said, regretfully.

“Well, what is it?” Mika exclaimed.

“You aren’t going to like it.”

“I don’t care. I have to know.”

Nik sighed.

“Your father was killed by one of the Bishops.”

He was confirming what Mika had always suspected. Her father was a powerful mage, as she knew from fighting him in her dreams. If he was so powerful, how could a Bishop have defeated him? she wondered.

“Who did it?”

Nik shook his head. “That’s the thing, I don’t know. I tried my best to find out for you, but finding out that sort of information was risky. All I can tell you is that it wasn’t Steel, the Flame, or me. That happened before our time, so it could only be one of the other six,” he answered.

Mika knew that Nik was not to be blamed, and he sounded sincere. He had helped her get this far, and she felt she could trust him. She wished she could take out her anger on the Flame for what he’d done to her friends at the circus. He was the one Mika truly hated.

As for the other Bishops, Mika knew next to nothing. One of them, she now knew, was the reason her family was dead.

“I’m sorry, Mika, I really hope that information helps, as much as it may hurt. Come, tell me about your last contract,” he said, trying to lighten the mood. Mika took his proffered arm, and the two strolled through the streets of Monsoon as Mika told him about the contract and her frustrations with Pudge.

Nik laughed and interjected a lot of what he would have done had he been in Mika’s situation.

“I think I would have just poisoned Pudge’s food, in that case,” Nik suggested.

“Trust me, I thought about that. He eats so fast that I doubt the poison would have any effect,” Mika responded. Both laughed, quickly forgetting the seriousness of how the conversation started.

The two walked arm in arm, laughing about all of the things that had happened in the past couple of days. It was easy to talk about the things that were not often on Mika’s mind. She was enjoying her time with Nik so much that she had almost completely forgotten what had transpired just an hour ago. That is, until Nik abruptly brought the conversation back to it.

“Obviously, I hate to ruin our chat, but I have to. It’s why I came here in the first place. I want you to know, Mika, that you are ready. You are ready for the guild members, the Bishop nominees, and even Frost. I’ve seen how you trained with the silent wood man. You can do it, Mika.”

She had suspected all along that he’d been watching her train with Manard. There were times when she’d caught a glimpse of someone in the trees. Every time she let herself be distracted, though, Manard had made her pay for it.

Nik’s words made Mika smile. She knew she was ready, but it made her happy that someone else could acknowledge it—with actual words. Manard had acknowledged her readiness in his own silent way. Mika enjoyed the praise, and was surprised when Nik finished by wrapping his arms around her.

The unexpected hug was the closest she had been to him. She returned the embrace, wanting the moment to last for an eternity.

She heard Nik say one more thing.

“I believe in you.”

And with that, he was gone, and Mika found herself awkwardly hugging … nothing.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Mika heard someone behind her shout.

She turned and saw Zaya, who had just turned the corner. “Oh, Zaya, I was just coming to tell you what had happened!” Mika said, surprised to see her appear out of nowhere.

“I’ve been running around everywhere trying to find you! Are you kidding me? How could you drop the medallion without giving your best friend a warning?” Zaya said, sounding a little exasperated.

“I went searching for you as soon as the lights in the sky changed. I took the most predictable route towards your guild, and I come to find you hugging yourself.”

“Okay, let me explain everything!” Mika said sheepishly. Arm in arm, they walked toward Zaya’s guild house, which wasn’t far away, while Mika explained what had happened the past few days.

“Did you want to come in to talk about it more?” Zaya asked. Mika had been inside Zaya’s guild before, but other guild members seemed to regard this as an affront and, despite Zaya’s admonishments, were rude to her. Mika also wanted to get back to her own guild house, to talk with Tink and Master Beng.

So she begged off, pleading a need for rest, and the two agreed to see each other the next day.

Thanks to Mika’s now well-practiced use of the canal system, it only took about fifteen minutes to get back to her guild house, even though it was extra busy because of tonight’s events. At one point, she heard crowds shouting good luck to another one of the Selected, the nickname people in Monsoon gave to participants in the tournament, and cheering as they passed by on the canal. Mika, still anonymous, drew no attention at all.

Back at the guild house, she found everyone except for Master Beng in the dining hall, celebrating the master’s participation in the Selection of Sixteen. Roxanne and Doc were already drunk by the time Mika arrived. Pudge had returned from turning in their contract and was gorging himself on Tink’s food. The trio seemed delighted that their master had gone against his own word and joined the contest, and were celebrating so hard they didn’t even notice Mika’s arrival.

Tink, on the other hand, shot her a look at she entered the dining hall. She responded with her own eyebrows-up expression and mouthed the word later, to which he nodded. He knew Mika had to be the other nominee who had dropped the medallion. Manard, who usually took his leave once such celebrations started, was in the dining hall, too. When he spotted her, Mika saw him smile. It was only the second smile she’d ever seen on his face. The first was when she’d finally managed to defeat him—which took only a year.

Mika had never discussed with Manard that she had a Bishop’s medallion, though she’d considered it. She now trusted him as her mentor. He was the reason she’d become confident enough to fight in the tournament. And that second smile seemed to confirm that he had known it all along.

In all, she realized five people knew she had dropped the medallion: Nik, Zaya, Tink, Manard, and now Master Beng.

Where is Master Beng? she wondered.

Tink was running about, trying to keep cups full.

“Do you know where Master Beng is?” Mika asked.

“Downstairs,” Tink said in a low tone.

Mika furrowed her brow. She’d assumed he wasn’t around. It was unlike him to skip out on festivities, especially when they were in his honor.

“What is going on?”

“The party started without him. The others didn’t even notice him come in. I saw him slip down to his office quietly. I didn’t want to disturb him.”

“That is very unlike him.”

“I know. I felt that it was best not to tell the others,” Tink explained.

“I’m going to go downstairs and talk to him. He was there when I dropped mine.”

Tink nodded and went back to filling cups. Mika slipped out of the dining room and walked downstairs slowly to avoid making noise.

The door to Master Beng’s study was partially open. Mika crept to it and knocked lightly. Hearing no answer, she opened the door slowly to see if Master Beng was inside.

As she entered, she saw him gazing at a photograph of a beautiful woman with long black hair and dark eyes. As soon as he noticed Mika, he hid the picture. His eyes looked red, as though he’d been weeping, but they were dry now.

“Is everything okay, Master?” Mika asked gently.

“Do you know why I did it?”

“I’m not quite sure what you mean, Master,” she said hesitantly.

“I’m the only one that can stop him,” he said, looking defeated. “I’m the only one that can save him from himself.”

“Lancel?”

He nodded.

“Master, I’m sorry,” Mika said. Knowing so little of their history, she was unsure of where to take the conversation.

“This is my doing. Lancel was right. I was a fool to think he couldn’t come this far on his own. But I can make things right,” he said, composing himself.

“So, what now?”

“Now we wait until tomorrow. If I am lucky, I can fix this problem during the tournament. Get some rest, Mika, you need to be prepared for tomorrow as well.”

It appeared Master Beng was acknowledging her participation in the tournament, despite ignoring her earlier. Not only did he know Mika was in it, he seemed at peace with it. It appeared he was only opposed to Lancel’s participation.

While Mika suspected that Manard had told Master Beng he’d seen her with the medallion, it was possible he hadn’t. So, she mused, he may have been surprised to see her with it, though he showed no sign of shock.

Mika had expected to at least be reprimanded for hiding such a thing for so long. Then again, I did tell him I would join the Selection of Sixteen. Maybe he knew I had the medallion all along? Mika surmised.

After all, that time when she’d asked Master Beng if he would ever give the guild’s token to someone else, she was reprimanded for even asking. Perhaps he refused to give anyone the token, in fear that Lancel would somehow get his hands on one, Mika puzzled in her mind. The entire conversation tonight had gone in a completely different direction than she’d expected.

Regardless, she heeded his words and left his study without another word. I could still just not show up and face disqualification, she told herself. But she was certainly not going to choose that option.

Mika returned upstairs to find Tink waiting. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

“I think everything will be fine. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but he seemed to have a grip on things. Obviously, events didn’t go the way he wanted them to.”

“You mean with you dropping the medallion?” Tink asked.

“No, not at all. Surprisingly, he didn’t he care about that. He was more concerned about Lancel. He was hoping that he wouldn’t join the tournament.”

“Hmmm, that may explain why he has been gone so often. I followed him once to see where he was headed every night. I thought he was just going to local bars, but he always went to watch the stars in the central square. Every time one of them burst, he would go down there. He must’ve been waiting for Lancel.”

“That would explain why he was there when Lancel dropped his.”

“You need to tell me about what happened,” Tink said.

So, for the third time that day, Mika explained everything. As always, Tink listened attentively until she finished. Then he asked: “So what happens tomorrow?”

Mika knew the answer. She’d heard it from Master Beng moments ago.

“The tournament begins.”