Oracle Liliana's Residence

I landed on a paved brick pathway but felt no pain from the impact. Five feet away was the entrance of a large, luxurious house. Kisai pressed the doorbell. A woman in her mid-twenties opened the door. She wore athletic shorts and a zipped up hoodie.

"Jin, what the hell do you want?" she questioned with exasperation.

"Just here to check in since it's been awhile. You already know by now, don't you?" Kisai smiled at her.

"'Course I do. Let's talk inside," she directed.

We followed her into the dining room. She chugged down an energy drink from the fridge before glancing over at the magic user.

"Sorry for interrupting your work out," Kisai apologized.

"I already knew you were coming here. You want me to divine what happens once the seal is broken?" she wiped away the sweat from her forehead.

"Shit's going to go down. I just want an idea of how bad it'll be," Kisai replied.

"Jin, you seem to already know the answer. Chances of another civil war are high. The fortress was meant to prevent another one or so they say," Liliana said.

"I gotcha. So a peaceful resolution is impossible?" Kisai stared out the kitchen window.

"Pretty much," the oracle agreed.

"No good news, huh? Anything else we should know?" Kisai stood up and pushed his chair in.

"Nope. The Traveler's reemergence should take precedence over any internal squabbles but all the leaders are too prideful," Liliana answered.

The oracle then stared at me with her amber eyes. A thoughtful expression appeared on her face.

"Jin, I'll perform a divination. Tomo Yuki's involvement may modify the outcome," Liliana decided and pointed at me.

"Oh yup. You're the star today, Yuki!" Kisai encouraged me.

"I wouldn't jump to conclusions. Wait outside," Liliana said, pointing at a nearby door.

Shit, her place was huge! There was a large swimming pool, an outdoor basketball court, and a turf field. How did she even utilize all of this?

"Yuki, you up for a quick game?" Kisai bounced a basketball my way.

"You'll play any chance you get, don't you? I'm down. What about Kuan?" I took off my jacket.

"2-on-1, think you can beat me?" Kisai boasted.

"I didn't even agree to anything, Jin. Alright Yuki, let's see how close we can get," Kuan decided.

At first, it was pretty even, the score tied 4-4 after the first two minutes. Kisai didn't try for any three-pointers, sticking close to the basket for his shots. Kuan was a terrible shot, missing all of his attempts, leaving scoring responsibilities to me. However, Kuan was a good blocker, cutting his friend off from reaching me. This let me shoot without any pressure and my first two shots went straight into the basket. After that, Kisai went all out and decimated us with his skills.

Whenever I readied for a shot, Kisai slipped past Kuan with a burst of speed and slapped the ball out of my hand. With the ball in his possession, he sprinted across the court and went for a lay-up. Kuan couldn't keep up with his friend so I guarded him instead. Not that it really changed things. Despite my attempts to disrupt his shots, Kisai countered with a one-handed shot with his left hand. He raised the ball up into the air, too high for me to reach, and then tossed it into the basket. Even with our double team, Kisai evaded both of us with quick spins. Eventually Kisai didn't even juke us and just shot from the three-point line. At the end, the magic user decimated us by a score of 36-17.

"Not bad Yuki, you play a lot?" Kisai attempted a shot from half court.

"I was on the basketball team in high school. Mainly just a bench player though," I revealed, out of breath from the game.

"Didn't know that. No wonder you could actually keep up with Jin then," Kuan said, collapsed on the floor.

"You're a pretty good defender, Kuan. Just really bad at shots though," I responded, catching the bottle of water Kisai tossed over at me.

"Nah, Kuan's a scrub. I just let him think he could block me," Kisai disagreed, making five three-pointers in a row.

"Fuck you, Jin. I think you should tell Yuki more about Liliana," Kuan suggested, crawling over to the bench and sprawled out on it.

"Oh yeah. What do you want to know first, Yuki?" Kisai finally stepped off the court, cradling the basketball in his left hand.

"Well, I've only really interacted with Lyra so what's she like compared to her?" I answered, my breathing still not back to normal yet.

"Liliana definitely doesn't talk as much as she does. More of a survivalist too. This entire place was built from scratch," Kisai revealed.

"She did it all by herself? That's amazing!" I had a new appreciation for everything around me.

"Yeah and she's always out traveling around the dimension too. That's why she has a really good understanding of what's going on around here," Kisai answered.

Before he could tell me more, Liliana called out to us from the kitchen window. I wanted to learn more but that would have to wait.

"Good news?" Kisai questioned, catching the sports drink Liliana hurled at him.

"Divination never gives a clear picture, just a general idea of how things might turn out. Tomo Yuki's presence should mitigate any major damage," Liliana informed us.

"I see very clearly. I'll see what Michael and Kei have to say," Kisai decided.

"Don't do anything stupid. Tomo and Kuan, rescue his dumb ass if he does anything," Liliana instructed.

Knight's Guild: Conference Room A

"So what do you think?" Kisai told them what he learned.

"I'll help you out. Might as well have you get involved and speed things up," Michael decided.

"There's already an uneasiness between the factions. Breaking the seal might just be the catalyst we need. I'll help too," Kei responded.

"Nice, you know a way in, right?" Kisai pointed at Michael with confidence.

"You got it. Kei, when's the next time the fortress is scheduled for a cleaning?" Michael inquired.

"In three days. I don't know if that will work," Kei answered, staring at him with skepticism.

"Gotta try. It'll be up to Jin to figure out the rest once he's inside," Michael said.

"I prefer a much more discrete method. I'll investigate and see if there is one," Kei followed up.

"The blueprint and schematics aren't available. Unless someone hacks into it," Michael suggested, glancing over at Kuan.

"Jin, give me a hand. I don't know much about the infrastructure," Kuan agreed.

After some fiddling, Kuan gained access. With Kisai's assistance, Kuan discovered data which included blueprints and a detailed layout. The rest of it was blocked off by an advanced security measure that even Kisai decided wasn't worth the risk.

"That thing will trigger with one wrong attempt. Is this enough?" Kisai stepped away from the console.

"Appreciate it. Kei, let's go over this in a secure place. Don't want the boss to find out!" Michael looked over the data.

"Try to be more discrete about things. Jin, we'll contact you. Michael, be careful with that thing," Kei scolded as they departed.

"Nothing much we can do now," Kuan said.

"Let's go back home. I'm kind of disappointed, was hoping to seeing Yuki fight," Kisai decided.

Facing off against skilled magic users didn't make me feel excited at all. My room for error was much smaller against experienced mages.

"We bringing along a fourth next time? Might be good to have," Kuan suggested as we walked towards a door.

"You don't think the three of us can handle it?" Kisai inserted his key into the door.

"Never know when things might get bad," Kuan reasoned.

"I feel it, I feel it. I'll try to see if we can get Darryl," Kisai agreed.

"Just be glad I'm helping you out, Jin. Yuki doesn't have a choice," Kuan remarked.

"Yuki loves being with us!" Kisa countered.

And these two morons were just talking again. Mages from all different factions joining together in addition to the knights. Those were formidable foes. I hoped Darryl could join us next time since it would make breaking the seal easier.