(None POV)

 

The girls were talking for a long time. Like a few hours. The second and third rounds of the tournament were being held today and currently Tess was still participating in them.

 

The second round was to start at noon, like the first round did yesterday. And if we didn’t leave soon, she would be late for the time she was supposed to get there. If we didn’t leave now she wouldn’t get any time to warm up.

 

So deciding that the tournament was more important than not to interrupt them, I knocked on the door. “Hey guys, if we don’t leave soon, we’re going to miss the second round of the tournament” I say while I open the door.

 

When I walk in, all of them start to look at me with a buck of mixed emotions. “Umm what's going on?”

 

“Nothing” they all say in unison.

 

♦

 

After leaving the lab, we made our way over to the colosseum. On the way, Abby kept on looking over at me. But whenever I tried to talk to her, she would just look away.

 

When we got to the colosseum, I was met with a strange sight. Like yesterday, there was a person waiting for Chloe to bring her to sit with her parents. But the strange part was that they asked to bring me along as well.

 

“Can my friends come with?” I ask, trying to find a way out of this. My last conversation with the king was only a few days ago, and even though he was incognito, it was very stressful for me.

 

“Um, Ms. Amelia is welcome as well, but the girl that was with you this morning can not.” The man said to me.

 

“What about me?” Abby asked him, looking kind of angry at him.

 

After looking at her for a second, he realized who she was. “Ms sword saint, I was unaware that you were in this group. Of course you are welcome. The sage is with the hero helping him warm up, but she will be in the box with the king as well.”

 

“So it’s just Uriel that can’t come” I ask.

 

“Sadly yes. We have yet to confirm that she can be trusted with an audience with the king, and since he only asked to meet with you, I can not let her come with”

 

“That’s fine,” Uriel said.

 

“Yeah, she can hang out with me at the staging room.” Tess said to reassure me that Uriel wouldn’t be left alone during the tournament.

 

And with that worked out, Chloe, Amelia, Abby and myself were shown the way to the private box for the royal family.

 

(Tess POV)

 

“Hey, I’m sorry that you have to bring me to the staging room.” Uriel said to me after we split off from the rest of the group.

 

“It’s fine. It will give us a chance to talk some more. Your None’s friend, so it would be bad if we didn’t get along. Also, I know that None was worried about you being alone during the tournament.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I don’t think None understands that his problems are his own. I think he thinks that everyone else doesn’t like being alone as much as him.”

 

When I told her this, Uriel got a smile on her face. In all honesty, Uriel was a very cheerful person, but you can tell that she is just putting up a front. But when she smiles like that, I could tell it’s genuine.

 

“Are you happy that he is worried about you?” I decided to ask.

 

“Yeah. In all honesty, the different versions of him that I have met before, and the friends I made through them, were my only real friends I have had.” She starts to tell me about herself. “ In all honesty, angels aren’t really social beings. We are made, and we do our tasks. That’s all. But for some reason I was chosen to relate to the mortal beings, so that I could better defend them. But that just left me out of both worlds. The mortals view me as what I am, an angel, and my fellow angels view me as lesser due to my relation to humans. As time went on, and the humans didn’t need my protection anymore, the distance between me and the rest of the angels grew. And even when your tasks ended and we were free to do whatever, I left. I eventually met the first version of None, and he didn’t look at me like that. And a little more down the line, here we are”

 

Hearing her story made me sad. She had to go through something similar to what happened to me, shunned by her own people.

 

I decided to give her a hug. “Hey Uriel, I would love to be your friend” I say to her.

 

Because of this, she lets out a small laugh, and thanks me.

 

Afterward we made our way to the staging area and continued to talk about Uriel's life. Turns out that even though she relates to humans, most of the emotions we have, she doesn’t share. This is mostly around things like love and sexuality. Turns out that angels don’t feel love like humans do. She isn’t interested in things like sex, but she does think that she can have a romantic interest in someone, unlike the other angels.

 

When we got to the staging room, I could see the hero practicing with a girl in ropes wielding a staff. She was shooting small blast of fire at him, which was absorbed by some kind of barrier.

 

“So that’s him, the person who could be None's brother” I say to Uriel.

 

“Not could be, Riley and None are definitely the same person” she said back to me.

 

(None POV)

 

“Um, None, can I ask, why did you look worried when Uriel said that she was fine being alone?” Abby asked me. This was the first time she had talked to me directly.

 

“What do you mean?” I didn’t understand her question. “I just didn’t want her to have to be alone, why wouldn’t I worry about them having to sit alone?”

 

“I mean, it’s sad that someone has to sit alone, but I don’t think it’s something to worry about,” she says.

 

When she says this Amelia leans over to hear and whispers something. When she is done Abby looks like she is thinking about something. Before our conversation could continue we made it to the box.

 

Inside were a number of people, only some of which I had met before. The king and queen were one group, but there were also three other people, two women and one man.

 

Chloe leaned over to me and told me who they were. The man and older women were her sister and brother in law, and the younger woman, though older than me and Chloe, was her middle sister.

 

I greeted all of them in what I had hoped to be a good enough fashion. This got a laugh out of Chloe’s oldest sister, but the king and queen looked just as nervous as I did.

 

“Hello None, this is our first time meeting, but even so you don’t have to go that far, this isn’t a formal setting.” The king says to me.

 

“Hey None, why don’t you sit with Amelia right now, I need to talk to my parents about something.” Chloe says to me. When I look at her, she seems to be forcing a smile. Her parents try to stop her, but she pushes me towards Amelia.

 

“Yeah None, let Chloe talk to her parents for a second” Amelia said, pulling me towards a chair between her and Abby.

 

When I sat down, I could see a good view of the whole arena the fights would happen in, but it was kind of far away.

 

“Hey, wouldn’t you want to be closer to the field to see more of the action?” I ask.

 

“Oh, yeah you sat in the stands yesterday. Well, they actually use magic to display the duel for the boxes. It’s actually very nice” Amelia tells me.

 

The three of us talk for a little while Chloe talks to her parents. During this time, Abby starts to talk to me more. She started asking about me a lot. Things like what kind of food I like and other things like that.

 

After a few minutes, Chloe came over and sat by us.

 

“What was that about?” Abby asked her.

 

“My parents did something dumb, and I need to make sure that they don’t do anything like that again” She says.

 

“What did your parents do?” I ask. When I do all three of them look at me.

 

“Nothing important None. But hey, they want to talk to you about something during the break between the second round and the semi-finals.” Chloe says. Afterwards she leans over to Abby who whispered something into her ear.

 

I accidentally heard what she said, without trying. She asked if I didn't realize what happened this morning and something about it being obvious. Chloe responded with something about me being trusting, and how she thought it was cute. I think they knew I overheard them because I got really embarrassed after she said that, and hid my face and purposely stopped listening to them. The last thing that I saw from that before the second round started was Abby mouthing something that I didn’t hear.

 

After a little while a person came in to talk with everyone. They told her that Olivia, her sister, would be watching the second round with the hero in the staging room.

 

(Abby POV)

 

I don’t think I really need the answer anymore. None and Riley are the same person. I just know it. The way he talks, his expressions, his tastes. They all are the same. My first real hit was the French toast he seemed to really enjoy this morning.

 

I spent a long time learning what I could about Riley. One of those things I learned was what kind of food he liked, and I knew that every time he was left alone that he would always make that for breakfast. His parents would often leave him alone to do something with Arthur, or Arthur would do the same to go hang out with someone while the parents were gone.

 

If I ever learned this was happening I would go check up on him, under the guise of something like looking for Arthur. When doing this I would get a chance to check up on him, but also learn more about him.

 

In all honesty he was pretty secretive with things closer to the summoning, with him going to college and everything.

 

Seeing him eat the French toast this morning reminded me of those times. It was clearly his recipe that was made, but by Uriel. I don’t know everything about the situation yet, but knowing that my baseless hunch could be right filled me with feelings I hadn’t had in a year.

 

His reactions were just the same. Seeing his response when Chloe called him cute was just so good, that I had to push that button as well.

 

“I think you're cute too.” I whispered to him, but I don't think he heard me.

 

A little later, someone came to tell us that Olivia would be watching the tournament today with Arthur. I was actually pretty happy about this, mainly because it avoided None and her being in the same place. I didn’t know how she would treat him, but knowing what she was like I think there is a chance she will be mean.