"Come on, tell us!" Jenna and Sheba had been bugging Piers for days about his age. They had later overheard Piers talking to Kraden about a secret, and they had suspicions about what it was, and wanted to know for themselves.
"Heart of the Eastern Sea, no, already! I'm not going to tell you, and that's it, alright?" Piers was nearing his limit, like he had been that day in Madra when he was in prison. Whenever he approached Felix about the issue, he just had this weird smile on his face, and said nothing. Kraden had told him Jenna would never listen to a word he said, and Piers believed him. Jenna only backed off when Felix asked her too.
"I have an idea. How about you tell us the secret you told Kraden if someone beats you in a duel?" It was Sheba who had spoken, and she had a confident smile on her face. Piers seemed lost in thought for a moment, and Kraden, standing off to the side, chuckled softly. Piers nodded his approval of the plan, aware that he was a better warrior than either Jenna or Sheba.
"But I have a few conditions to the fight." Sheba looked suspicious, but Jenna immediately approved it. "First: no use of Psynergy." Nobody complained about that. "Second: I choose who I fight. And Third: we choose a selection from these weapons." And he opened up a floorboard on the deck of the Lemurian Ship. Underneath were a few weapons, but all of them of inferior quality to the ones they had found on their journey.
"But why those weapons?" Sheba was skeptical about that last condition. Piers sighed.
"Because. While we traversed the Mars Lighthouse, I happen to remember us stumbling upon an ancient, yet somehow unrusted sword. If I recall correctly, it was a weapon called the 'Sol Blade' and it had the power to call a METEOR down from the skies. And it was wieldable only by Venus Adepts, and I'm going to fight Felix about this thing." Without giving further information, and without waiting for them to come up with questions, Piers found his way belowdecks, and found the Venus Adept cleaning some dishes from their lunch.
"Hey Piers," Felix said as the Mercury Adept approached the sink.
"Hey. Let's have a duel. On the deck. Right now. No artifact weapons." Piers spoke quickly, aware that Jenna and Sheba probably were listening in.
"Why," was the curious response Felix came up with, "would you want to duel me? I suppose no Psynergy as well, then? I'll go choose my weapon." Apparently, Felix had overheard the conversation above somehow.
A few minutes later, Piers had selected his weapon, and Felix his. Kraden was confused, and kept muttering about the nonsense of fighting Felix, when Jenna and Sheba weren't skilled at frontal combat. Everyone else ignored him. "Ready Felix?"
"As I'll ever be." And the two launched themselves at each other. Piers's long sword met the blade of Felix's Axe. Breaking off, they circled around for a few seconds, before rushing forth once more.
Steel met steel, but Piers brushed off Felix's weapon with his own, and delivered a kick to the other man's chest. Staggering back, Felix moved into a defensive stance as Piers brought the sword down hard. Neither wanted to kill the other and Felix wasn't really into the fight at all, but it carried on anyway. Clangs sounded as they clashed their weapons time and again.
As the fight dragged on, Jenna and Sheba watched silently. Even Kraden managed to stop musing to himself about one silly thing or another. As Felix brought his weapon down one more time, Piers evaded, and slammed a fist into the Venus Adept's side. Yet, it seemed Felix had been expecting that, because he stood tall through the blow, and brought the heavy blade of his axe down.
He stopped. He was level with the weapon to the Mercury Adept's neck. Any further and blood would have been drawn. Felix sighed, then tossed the weapon back into its compartment and went below the deck again, to finish the dishes. Piers wondered silently why Felix had been able to withstand the hit he'd thrown.
He didn't have much time to do so, however. "So come on, tell us how old you are!" Jenna was the one who had shouted. Kraden burst out laughing, and he, too, went down. Jenna stared at his back, then muttered, "I wonder what's up with him." And Piers was laughing on the inside, but his face was calm.
"Well, you lost the fight, so tell us your age, Piers," Sheba said, as calm as Piers's face. That was when Piers couldn't help laughing. Sheba didn't like being laughed at, but before she had a chance to do anything, she saw a large dragon-shaped burst of Psynergy slam itself into Piers's chest. "Jenna! You didn't need to use a Dragon Fume!"
Piers stood, no longer laughing, his clothes a little singed, but not on fire. "The deal was to tell the secret I told Kraden. Not how old I am. The 'secret' I told Kraden was that Conservato had once told me he had considered taking my mother as his wife. He told me this before I met with King Hydros when I brought you all to Lemuria. He'd said, that although he considered her, she was too weak of heart for his taste. Now, I'm going below. Ta." With a smug look on his face, Piers did just that.
"Hey, Piers." Felix was waiting for the Mercury Adept. "I thought it was strange. But you shouldn't have lied to them. You did make a deal."
"Well, I did tell Kraden what I told them. King Hydros wanted me to see if I could fool Kraden into thinking something happened that never did. He saw right through me." Piers laughed a bit at remembering how he'd failed to fool the old scholar.
"Ah," Felix said, "so how old are you, really?"
"Well, in Lemuria, people age about as fast as normal until a certain age, I'm only about twenty years old." When Piers realized what he'd said, he slapped his palm to his forehead, but Felix had already vanished.