Thanks to a sudden, sharp pain to his naval area, Yuma woke up from one of the best nights of sleep he had gotten in weeks. The spike of pain wasn't like being stabbed with a blade or a deadly point of some sort – an agonizing pain he still remembered all too clearly from a bandit ambush two years ago – but it was definitely familiar. This pain was caused by the magic of his guardian statues and it was waking him up to alert him of an intruder in his room.

His hand snaked up to and under his pillow as he tried to assess just where this intruder's position was. The breathing in the silence of the dark room – it was muffled, yes, but the nerves and excitement coursing through the intruder's veins made it all too easy to hear – told him that the intruder was slowly making his way towards him from the door. His fingers were now wrapped around the handle of his dagger. One, two, three.

Grabbing his dagger he bolted up in his bed with a battle cry. The possible assailant let out a sound of alarm – further giving away their position in the darkness – and Yuma took full advantage of the moment of surprise and hesitation. He leapt out of his bed and tackled the man – he was sure of his assailant's gender now – down before giving him a few punches to his face. The man flailed and managed to land a hit or two on him, but Yuma barely noticed. He laid his dagger against his throat. "Surrender," he hissed, trying to give his opponent what he had not received; an honourable way to deal with things.

This man was either deaf or he didn't care about death. His flailing limbs – which Yuma admitted was harder than it should have been to hold down – hit his hand hard enough to knock the dagger out, a careless and rookie mistake. Before the man could grab it with his scrabbling hands Yuma lashed out at the blade with the back of his hand, flinging it to a far corner of the room. Now neither of them could use it.

Yuma grabbed the man's head with both of his hands and smashed it against the floor, not hard enough to kill but plenty enough to daze.

That proved to be a mistake. In his dazed form the man somehow flailed even more and managed to throw him off.

Perhaps this was his lack of close combat training coming back to haunt him as the cycle of life was said to do. He didn't hit his head, but his pride was slightly bruised – really, a warrior hero of a high rank with many successes to boast of thrown off by childish flailing. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet before the intruder could recover and sent a kick into the man's abdomen, feeling absolutely no shame at kicking a man when he was down in order to defend himself during a cowardly attack in the middle of the night. Then, he lunged towards his sword as the other man scrambled up.

His assailant launched himself at him like a wild animal before he could reach his sword. "Down!" Yuma ordered as he grabbed and threw his opponent in a toss a fighting teacher from Auren's schools had taught him – one of the few lessons that his body had been able to memorize. The man didn't fly very far, but he did act a bit more like a dazed person should now. His movements were finally sluggish, most likely because of the many hits on the head Yuma had given him during their struggle.

Yuma grabbed his sword and a ring set with a light stone from the bedside table, fumbling to get the right one. He whipped the sword out of its scabbard with his right hand and pointed it at the figure he could now somewhat distinguish in the dark, thanks to his eyes having gotten used to the lack of proper, bright light. With his left hand he fumbled with the light stone ring, trying to get it to face the right direction. At the time Mizki had bought those for him he had complained about their outrageous price but now, as he smashed it against the hard surface of the wall, he was thankful for the quick source of light.

The stone flared and filled the room with bluish light. The assailant cringed at the sudden brightness and cowered, trying to shield his eyes with his arms.

Yuma glanced out the window. His guess was that it was around three in the morning, maybe earlier.

He looked down at the man again. While this man had been taken down relatively easily, Yuma knew that surprise had been a key element in his victory. He didn't know just what tricks this man had up his sleeve nor what he could do while an unsuspecting warrior tried to tie him up.

At the same time, just letting him stay like this on the ground, not bound or rendered harmless was a stupid idea, one he wasn't willing to use. Those very tricks he imagined being used against him as he tried to restrain this man may not have even existed, but not doing anything to prevent future attacks would certainly be giving him a chance to strike.

Yuma saw only one thing to do in his situation. He smashed the side of his sword against the cringing man's head and knocked him unconscious.

The guards had reacted badly when they found him leaning against the wall outside his door with his sword unsheathed and a man tied up and kneeling next to him. The two on patrol had dragged away the unconscious man to the dungeons, all the while complaining a bit too loudly about heroes who thought they knew everything after smashing a few demons to pieces.

Their reaction had been nothing in comparison to Mizki's, who had woken up as those too-loud guards stomped past her room and heard their words. She had practically flown out of her room, still in her nightgown and frightening the guards with her demanding tones. "You're sure you're not hurt?" she asked him for the tenth time as they went to get breakfast. She was fully dressed now and Ia was at her side, following the two of them diligently.

Ia giggled at his annoyed expression. "Yes," he sighed. "I'm fine, thanks to your spells." And he was, really. If it weren't for her healing skills or her statues he would have had a sore sword arm or been dead.

"Well then, do you know why he was in your room? Did he try to kill you outright or-"

"Mizki, drop it." He was being rude, yes, she was concerned, yes, but right now he really didn't feel like being grilled for information.

The mage shut her mouth for a few moments. "Ia?" She said finally. "Do you want to get some strawberries? There were a whole bowlful of them on the far table over there with cream and honey."

The young girl skipped off to get some of the promised fruit and Mizki took the chance to lean in towards him. "Yuma, what if this attack wasn't about you at all? What if this was about her?"

He had thought about that, of course, during the ten minutes he had spent waiting for some guards outside of his room with his captured intruder next to him. A quick search on the man had brought forward nothing but a knife. His hands hadn't been set with calluses and he hadn't been drinking too much for his own good, judging from his wine-free breath, which meant he wasn't a servant hoping for luck or a random drunkard. There was no other reason as to why anyone in the palace would try to break into his room otherwise and naturally Yuma's thoughts had gone to the only new thing in his current lifestyle – Ia.

He gave Mizki the same answer he had thought of after handing the intruder to the palace guards. "We protect her, just like we've been doing."

Duchess Sonika had been furious when she heard news of the blitz attack. She hadn't directed it to the guards or even the man responsible, but rather at the fact that he had been attacked. "Security within the palace," she sighed, rubbing her temples. "will get much, much stricter from this point onwards. Of course I fully agree that the safety of His Majesty the King and his family is the top priority . . . but nonetheless, it is not the most convenient event to occur right now."

"Will it make it harder for us to enter the database?" Mizki asked, anxious. Out of the three of them, Yuma thought that Mizki would be the one to want the truth the most. He didn't know exactly what she was thinking or feeling, but he felt that he could guess the gist of things. Fear, confusion, wariness, self-distrust and doubt. Those were the emotions Mizki felt when she didn't trust herself. What a god-touched person slightly lacking in usual confidence felt on top of all that he didn't know nor care to make assumptions about. Previous assumptions unnecessarily clouded possibly clear future judgement.

"Most likely, since many of the guards serving duty at the Database Headquarters will now be moved back to the palace to protect the Royal Family. Less manpower," the duchess sighed. "It seems knowledge isn't valued enough."

The mage let out a mixed sound of agreement and misery, bringing their ward – who had been snacking on the honey cakes she had monopolized – closer to them with a questioning look on her face. Once Ia saw Mizki's slumped back and disappointed face she nodded like she understood everything and popped the last bit of her sweet cake into her mouth.

Yuma patted Mizki's back. Ia, seeing what he did to try and cheer up his partner, reached over and did the same.

Mizki lifted her head. "Ia, did you wipe your hands on my clothes?"

The blond girl gave her best 'who, me?' look to the mage before innocently licking off the leftover honey still stuck on her fingers.

It took them an hour to get through security checkpoints. Duchess Sonika vouching for them had been enough to bypass the interviews and interrogations, but that still left the searches and magical trace spells being run.

Mizki took it all gracefully. "This is to protect the information," she told him when he made a grumbling noise for the third time that hour. "It's a small price to pay."

The overseer of their searches had found her answer so worthy and touching that they had been let through twenty minutes earlier than expected.

"Seems like Ia's charms are rubbing off on you," he said to her when they were out of hearing distance.

"Ironic, since you're the one who needs it more."

That, he couldn't argue with.

They decided to go the building first, since it was closer to their current location. Duchess Sonika had to leave them at this point. "I shall see the two of you later on," she said, giving Mizki and Ia a hug. For him, a handshake was offered. He took it. "Good luck on your search."

"Thank you."

It wasn't until they were in front of the marble building standing tall and gleaming white in the morning sun's light that they realized they had no idea exactly what to look for. "I guess I'll see it when I see it," Mizki said, but her voice was uncertain.

She didn't know what she was doing. Mizki hated things that she didn't know – didn't have control over. She was working on it, but it was something that annoyed her and sometimes even scared her.

"You do that," he told her. Despite her love of prying into his life, she rarely appreciated it when he tried to return the favour. Sometimes it was better just reminding her that he was there for her if she ever needed a friend. "In the meantime, I'll see if I can see the fountain from here."

Updates will get even more erratic, due to life being busy. Apologies for any inconveniences.