A lot had changed in a month of Haven.
Cyrus, Zander and Sophie had been invited to sit in on a council meeting, led by his sister Zoey. They were impressed to say the least, especially by the way Zoey carried herself amongst a diverse council. The date of their trial was given, August First, which was unanimously agreed on by the council.
Zander and Sophie had their first major argument, as Sophie felt they shouldn't take the noble trial, and that the King and Queen only asked out of courtesy because of who he was.
She learned from Zoey that the noble ritual was meant for those members of the Hart family or the Queen's family before her marriage, the council and Sophie felt it wouldn't be right to ruin their tradition.
Zander, on the other hand, explained it would be rude to decline and with what was to come with Theo, a potential war and the chance they would have to be ready to fight as soon as Zander turned 18, that it was something they both should do to test themselves.
Ultimately, after focusing on training for two days, Zander couldn't take it anymore and hated not having Sophie in her normal, cheery state.
He eventually told her they would only take the assessment given to the members of Haven, to which Sophie thanked him and apologized for being standoffish.
Zander told her not to worry about it, they had been through a lot since they met in February and it was bound to happen. He was glad they got their first argument out of the way. She agreed and they were back to their normal, lovey dovey selves.
Since being in Haven, they also learned there were factions within the Kingdom, each with a different leader, which was led by a council member.
Each faction provided its own, individual, specialized training. Juno and Bruno Smith were identical twins and magic users who led the Solaris faction, which specialized in magical combat, including support functions. Juno used water based magic, was 23 and absolutely gorgeous. Her twin brother was also 23, incredibly handsome and specialized in ice based magic.
Stormfire, a stealth operation, was led by Eldrick Richmond, who was a vampire born in Phantoms Keep, of the original bloodline of vampires made by Theo. His family managed to break away from Theo after time passed and bonds weren't forced onto children.
They faked the bond on Eldrick, knowing of Haven, sent him with the eldest of the Harts, the original King, Cecil, who was married to Josephine, a werewolf and started Haven.
He left them with the King and Queen of SilverCrest, until he returned to Haven at 16. He possesses unique vampiric abilities as well as fire magic.
Knowing they're souls would shatter, Eldrick's family made a video, much like Zander's parents did, and Eldrick also had an orange and gold glow to his aura.
This seemed to be the case with the council members and of course, the King and Queen. Zander had asked Zoey about it, and she explained most of the souls in Haven held a grudge against Theo for forcing their families into experimentation.
Vincent Skullcrusher, a human based Minotaur, who could transform at will, led the Onslaught faction, which served as the front line of attackers.
Everyone admired Vincent because he was the first of his kind. Born of a Minotaur mother and a human father, he possessed both qualities and was actually blessed by the Father of Solace in Haven when he was born.
When he was born, he was a human, but at a week old he transformed for the first time. He is a master of weapons, and can summon any weapon, at any time, and in his hands, it's promoted to a SS rank weapon. He inherited Earth based magic from his human Father.
Tempest Shroud led the Silverwing faction and was a Chimera, although much like Ethan, was a unique Chimera. Instead of the body of a goat, he had a black lion head with a blue mane, with the body of a white polar bear and his tail was, well, just a tail. He was big and beautiful, and his color scheme was that of yin and yang. He shared several skills with Ethan, but was a water and ice based magic user.
The Silverwing faction trained in chi but also focused on negotiation tactics and were the faction that took in the new faces of Haven, until they were verified as a good soul.
Lastly, Zion Burke, a werewolf led Eclipse. This faction focused on hand to hand combat and were the largest of the factions. If Onslaught was the front line, Eclipse was the heart and main army of Haven, if they were ever to go to war.
Zion possessed a unique set of skills, not shared by other werewolves and had the ability to temporarily disable his regeneration abilities to heal an ally.
These factions were important and each had its benefits to joining. The original test of Haven was usually a good judgement tool for designation, but there were often times when a council member would ask for a vote in order to take a recruit.
Many wondered why Ethan wasn't a council member, as he was one of the most respected beings in Haven, but Ethan preferred protecting the Castle and Kings family.
The trio had been training every day, sometimes individually, sometimes as a group. They each trained with each one of the factions.
Sophie took a liking to the Onslaught faction, as Vincent was much like her, in several ways. He was able to help her control her transformations and about three weeks into their training, Sophie engulfed in flames and went through more pain than she had ever been through, as Zander wasn't around to help heal her through the process.
When she finished, for the first time, she hadn't grown at all, but noticed a lot of similarities between her and Zander. Her pink feathers extended from her talons to her knees, and also from her clawed hands to her elbows. Her hair became silver feathers, and there was a slight adjustment to her facial features, mostly the jaw, that looked like the start of transformation into a beak.
Small red flames also emitted faintly above all her feathers and white wings. Her wings had also grown a bit, and they too, with their majestic white, emitted red flames.
She was so excited to show Zander, who had primarily trained with the Eclipse faction to get better with hand to hand combat. He also spent time with the other factions, as his magic made great improvement with the twins.
"I would say we are probably at the same evolution, which is amazing babe I'm so proud of you," Zander said as he admired her new beautiful Phoenix form.
"Thanks, and now let me try to kiss you with the new mouth like you asked me and let me know if it's different," Sophie said embarrassingly.
"Feels just as amazing as it always does, my love," Zander said and grabbed her hands and asked how her day went.
"Good, I actually ran into Cyrus at training today. I know he had been spending a lot of time with the twins in the Solaris faction and it seems he finally made a breakthrough with infusing his chi into his magic," Sophie said.
"That's amazing, have you had any luck with that?" Zander asked.
"Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't, but Vincent's training style is very rigorous. I often wonder if I can when I'm fresh and can't because I'm tired, but that's why he pushes us so hard, and especially me in our individual sessions. He keeps telling me to focus, no matter how difficult it seems, you should spend some time with him," Sophie mentioned.
"We agreed to do this on our own to become more well rounded as a group, but sure I'll give it a try," Zander said.
Meanwhile Cyrus was just finishing up his training with his sister and Ethan. Of the three, Cyrus had grown the most through the training leading up to the trial. He felt he was in his own element and he was the only one with access to Ethan.
"You weren't lying about Ethan being talented Zoey," Cyrus said, face dripping with sweat, regrouping and looking at Ethan, who smiled and licked his paw.
"You actually got a good, clean hit on me Cyrus, I'm not just grooming over here. My saliva helps heal wounds," Ethan said as continued to lick his paw.
Cyrus charged in his lightning bolt form, but Ethan was prepared and roared, which caused Cyrus to lose control of his target. He was blown off to the side, where he crash landed into the special training wall, which absorbed most of the blow for him as he landed in his human form.
"You're too predictable when you're tired my young Prince, let us rest, eat and review what you did well, and what you can improve on," Ethan suggested.
"That's a good idea, I wanted to catch up with Sophie and Zander as well. It seems I don't get to talk to them much these days, which is strange because I spent my entire childhood and teenage years with Zander," Cyrus told Ethan.
"Why not invite them over for dinner, my prince," Ethan suggested.
"That's a great idea, I'm going to go ask them now," Cyrus said and before either of them could tell him they'd have someone inform them, he was off and running.
"He really does love those two," Zoey said with a laugh.
"And when will the princess find a love interest, perhaps sir Eldrick," Ethan said with a nudge.
"I think he's as old as my parents, that's kind of weird don't you think? Honestly, there's a whole world of people out there, who is to say there isn't someone out there for me." Zoey said with a laugh and a slight blush.
"But the way he looks at you, plus you know his soul and heart are pure and for Solace. Your parents would approve as well and time is different for us, as you know. You look the same age," Ethan began but was cut off by Zoey.
"Let's focus on Cyrus first. He doesn't know but I've set up dinner with Zander, Sophie and Juno, she's about my age and quite beautiful, wouldn't you agree," Zoey said with a big smile.
"Yes princess, Miss Juno is quite the beauty, but I still think you should focus on yourself," Ethan said.
"Why and how does everyone always assume I'll end up with Eldrick?" Zoey thought, as she made preparations for the double date.