The invitation

I was surprised that the prince was talking to me.

Earlier I had been with Zoe and he had to talk me as an associate but now he was standing in front of me without any obligation.

"Hey". I replied.

"How was class?" He asked, pointing to the group of air mages.

"It was alright". I shrugged. "I didn't know you were a mage too".

Damon's eyes glinted as he dragged water from a small pouch tied to his waist.

The water floated in the air between his palm as he controlled it.

"You're water mage". I muttered in amazement. I'd only seen one other water mage and he was a higher level wave.

I always wanted to see how a low level mage would do it.

Now I knew they carried portable water around with them.

I wondered how feasible it was for battle though.

There's a limit to how much water you can carry around as a person. Especially if you're planning to run around and move mobilely on the battlefield.

Perhaps they could multiply the volume of water.

That would mean they could potentially do a lot of damage with an initially small amount of water.

I wanted to ask Damon how it worked when I remembered I was talking to the prince.

I already asked him a question, best not to annoy him so he could be on his way.

Damon smiled. "Level two. You?"

"Air mage… Level One". I replied.

He nodded. "Not bad. My brother is an air mage".

"And the emperor?" I found myself asking before I could control myself.

Damon looked startled for a moment then he smiled. "Fire. Why?"

"Nothing, just curious". I mumbled.

"Listen are you free to hang out this evening?" Damon asked suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow. "You want to hang out with me".

"Yeah". Damon repeated with a smile. "This evening. "You game?"

I shook my head. "I'd love to but I have to resume guard duty now".

I was lying, I wouldn't love to hang out with him. I didn't even know him and he was somehow interested in making friends with me after expressing interest in Zoe this morning.

It was very suspicious and I didn't want to be part of it even if he was genuine.

"Oh that". The prince said with a downcast look. "Where do you work?"

"I'm in the empress's guard". I replied cautiously.

His eyes brightened again. "Oh really?"

"Yeah". I nodded.

"That's no problem then". Damon said and pulled out a badge out of his pocket.

He handed it to me. "Give this to the chief guard and tell him I asked that you be excused".

I looked at the badge with a heavy heart. Now that my excuse was gone I had no choice but to hang out with him. Unless I wanted to be frank with him and reject him.

Damon noticed my reluctance and frowned. "You'll come right?"

I nodded slowly. "Yes".

He smiled then. "Okay then, meet me by the vegetables stalls at sunset".

I nodded and Damon walked off smiling