Our time in Adernas was heading towards its end. Yuka had finished the blades for Rai and Giro was done with the leather armour for Sigmir and me. I had watched Kallik and Tulak, to make sure that they did not try anything while we were in town, or worse, gave information to the Jonari, but neither of them seemed to be interested in open conflict with Adra, Sigmir and me. Tulak gave me the impression of a coward, the few times I talked with him, but Kallik might become a problem. He had pride and it might lead him down a problematic path.

The feast that marked our last night in Adernas was an interesting affair, I had visions of a huge bonfire with the village gathered around it, but in reality, it was Giro, Yuka and another Elder, their wives and a few chosen hunters, in addition to my group, and all were invited into Giro’s house.

“Good evening, friends. As you have heard, my son, Rai, has redeemed himself and faced his shortcomings. To rid himself of his weakness, he has chosen to follow his new master, the Traveller Morgana, on a long journey, gaining experience and power on the way.” Giro greeted the attending group.

“As it is tradition, I present a gift to the master, in exchange for the teaching she will impart on her disciple.” Giro moved over to me, handing me a set of leather-armour. It was a little duplicitous, the armour had been a reward for the quest to get rid of the dryads but it seemed he had put in quite a bit of extra effort, so I’d let it stand.

Supple Leather Jacket Rarity Uncommon Base Protection 5 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 9 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 5 against Blunt Damage Special Effect High Quality – Base Stats increased. Special Effect Unencumbered - No movement-penalty. A Leather Jacket, custom made by a skilled artisan, provides excellent protection without compromising mobility. Supple Leather Pants Rarity Uncommon Base Protection 5 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 9 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 5 against Blunt Damage Special Effect High Quality – Base Stats increased. Special Effect Unencumbered - No movement-penalty. A pair of Leather Pants, custom made by a skilled artisan, provides excellent protection without compromising mobility. Supple Leather Moccasins Rarity Uncommon Base Protection 5 against Piercing Damage Base Protection 9 against Slashing Damage Base Protection 4 against Blunt Damage Special Effect High Quality – Base Stats increased. Special Effect Unencumbered - No movement-penalty. A pair of Leather Moccasins, custom made by a skilled artisan, provides excellent protection without compromising mobility.

After looking over the gift for a moment, I bowed for a moment and thanked him for his excellent work. While the armour lacked enchantments, something I might remedy myself at some point, it was what I needed, protection, without losing out on my true protection, my mobility.

The next part of the proceedings was Rai, giving his word to obey me as my disciple and I gave my word to teach and nurture him.

You gained a Disciple You entered into a Master-Disciple Relationship. In such a relationship, the Disciple is bound to obey the Master. The Disciple gains increased skill-gains in the skills taught by the Master while the Master gains slightly increased skill-gains when teaching the Disciple.

That sounded useful and it made sense. When teaching a skill, you had to re-acquaint yourself with every facet of that skill, so improving your own skill was a given. And the subordination was made up by the higher gains for the Disciple. All in all, both sides gained, making it a win-win relationship. It was not sealed in blood, only in word, so it was a lesser oath binding us, but it would have to be enough.

The procedure went on and Rai was presented with his blades, a fine pair of Butterfly Swords, well balanced and quite sharp. But they were not mere weapons, they also signified that he was no longer a child. That he had survived his first hunt and would start to move into an adults world. In his case, it did not really matter, his world would consist of the group he was travelling with, at least for the next year and a half.

Once the talking was done, the solemn atmosphere devolved into a more boisterous and happy one, a few of the comparatively younger hunters teasing Rai about the fact that he would be travelling with a bevy of women, at least until I changed my seat to Simgir’s lap and made myself comfortable. My behaviour might have been influenced by the served alcohol, making me slightly tipsy and definitely amorous, but it was enough to make it obvious that, neither Sigmir nor I would be interested in Rai. Adra on the other hand had either drunk a lot more, or it was affecting her more, at any rate, she was swaying and not making sense, talking about her great new pillow. Sigmir and I might have laughed a little about that, but not too much.

The rest of the evening and night were a bit of a blur and the next morning we all were a little hung-over, an effect I seriously did not enjoy. The hangover, due to the strange stuff we had been drinking, was worse than anything I had ever experienced, or maybe it was due to the simulated nature of this world. At any rate, it felt as if some small animal had crawled into my mouth and died in there, before decomposing at an accelerated pace. Adra looked similarly afflicted, wondering if suicide was a viable option or if there was some sort of magic to help us. Sigmir was lucky, or maybe she hadn’t drunk as much and was unafflicted.

Anyway, we managed to get on the way, after a more or less pleasant breakfast mostly filled with groans and soft spoken words.

We all walked, with Lenore scouting the way, as I had still a bad feeling that Kallik would try something. In addition, we would have to come up with a way to use our mounts, despite having Rai with us. We had not used them around Adernas, just in case we needed them as a surprise in a quick get-away, but now that we had left, it no longer mattered.

My headache got a lot worse, when Lenore mentioned that she had seen something suspicious, at least two hunters hiding along the path that Giro had recommended. Sometimes, I hated being correct, but maybe it could turn into a good teaching opportunity on the topic of dealing with enemies. I was a firm believer that enemies should be pulled out by the roots; once they dared to attack, they should never be given a second chance, if possible.

I told the others about the possible ambush, so they were prepared but I decided that we would not strike first, mostly so Rai could see the truth, that some people could not leave well enough alone. It would mean the loss of life for Adernas, but there wasn’t anything I was willing to do about that.

About half an hour later, I was surprised in an unexpected fashion. I had expected to be surprised by a sudden attack, an arrow shot from cover, a spear thrown from behind, something like that, which would make the surprise-attack into a non-surprise. But I certainly had not expected to see Kallik stand in the middle of the path, alone, waiting for us to walk up.

“Greetings, Kallik. How… interesting... to see you.” I said with something resembling a smile on my face.

“Greetings, Morgana. I have no conflict with you, but I need to avenge my brother.” He said to me, before focusing on Rai. “Rai, son of Giro, I challenge you.”

Now, wasn’t that interesting. I openly used observe and saw that Kallik had quite a few levels on Rai, but that he had yet to cross the first divide. He might be a good opponent for Rai, to see that levels were not important and that his training had already strengthened him. And if Rai failed, I could always intervene.

I looked at Rai for a moment, telling him, “You can do that. It’s your first fight as my disciple. Do your Master proud.” and stood aside.

Rai swallowed hard for a second, before drawing his blades and readying his stance. Kallik seemed pleased and got out his spear. Poor fool. In a duel, spear against blades, it came down to skill, skill to overcome the reach-advantage of the spear against the skill to keep the blade-wielder at a distance. I had shown Rai multiple ways to avoid the tip and once that happened, the spear turned next to useless. Sparring with Adra had been a great way to show the differences between the two styles.

The two of them began and I kept an eye on the fight, literally, as my other eye was hidden behind a fringe of hair and using Lenore’s sight to make sure that the duel was no simple misdirection to ambush us. If it was, it was a good plan; an honourable fight right in front of us would undoubtedly keep our attention focused on it.

Rai had learned his lessons well, he kept out of range, using feints and tricks to draw Kallik in an disadvantaged position before moving in, inflicting a wound and retreating again. He had yet to learn enough about anatomy to inflict serious wounds with a single cut, but even a thousand paper-cuts would kill an opponent - it just took longer, and opened up the field for mistakes. I would have to teach him more, so he could directly target either vital areas or sinews, a cut hamstring for example limited the opponents movement greatly. Even something as simple as cutting the bands and closures of the opponents armour could limit his mobility.

Just looking from the outside, Kallik was losing, and losing badly. He had yet to touch Rai while Rai had scored multiple cuts into his extremities. But in reality, Rai was moving a lot more and faster, so Rai was using up stamina at a faster rate. Soon, he would slow down and Kallik would be able to reverse the fight.

But the fools waiting in the wood did not know that. It seemed like they had planned to watch the fight; if Rai lost, good, but if Kallik was losing, they would attack us from ambush. It was a good plan, with good chances of success if executed properly. I watched the hidden guys ready their bows, and just as they drew back their arrows, I struck. I had told Lenore what I was planning and slammed a curse of disorientation home, causing all four of them to sway and stumble. Their arrows were shot, even if only roughly in our direction so I had all the excuse I needed to end the duel.

Which I did, the moment the arrows landed in the vicinity. My Eisblumen surged out, wrapping around Kallik and knocking him down.

“Now, Kallik. Tell me, how do you punish betrayers? Yes, your friends tried to help you. They failed.” He looked resigned to his fate, Rai looked surprised.

“Yes, Rai. There was no honour in this one. I doubt there ever was. The duel was a farce, a misdirection, so his friends could strike from the shadows. Keep it in mind, always suspect that an enemy will use dirty tricks. And always be ready to use dirty tricks. They work.”

I looked at Rai, who nodded.

“Now, finish him. Finish him, like the conniving bastard deserves.”

Part of me wanted to use him as an anatomy-dummy, to teach Rai where to cut to cause massive damage, but that might be too much. Rai looked sick for a moment, but walked up and cut the lying man’s throat in a clean cut.

Nodding, I pointed towards the other four, who were still hidden. “There are four more. Take care of them.”

Rai jogged off, with me watching first directly, then via Lenore. I was curious, would he try to show mercy and send them away, or would he kill them all?