The people of Kreg’uune are all prudes. Just look at their ‘Majesty’s Bond’, they can’t even call a harem a harem!

- Sultan of the Sandlight Desert

Dominating my vision were thirty or so boys and girls about two years my senior, all fighting it out for one reason or another. Training or some such. Some of them had their shirts off in the sweltering heat. Most still had their shirts on. All of them were focused on those who were actually fighting, identifying weaknesses to exploit and strengths to manage when they were inevitably pitted against them.

And that was what my eyes took in as my mind came to terms with the fact that Jevi, the rude, battle hungry, greedy girl I’d been travelling with was the princess of the country my parents were from. It was… strange. There was a disconnect between this and that, and I was currently bridging the gap, just as Jevi was, though she would be wondering just how her identity was exposed.

Well, I was done actually. I’d been expecting a twist of some kind since the first time Jevi expressed interest in me, and there had been several. This felt like the big one though. Jevi would be spending some time getting over it.

“Since when did you know?” Jevi asked, eyes evenly looking into the middle distance.

Or she’s already gotten over it and would start asking questions. That was fine by me.

“I suspected something of the sort pretty much straight away.” I said, continuing when I felt her start to get impatient. “The first words I heard of you were ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ when you were thrown out of the Breaking Inn. Really, that was a terrible first impression.”

“That just means I have a huge ego.” Jevi argued, rounding on me, and making me snort. Her ego was indeed comparable to the size of the sky. “That’s not enough to figure it out. I let on… very few things should’ve led you to that conclusion.”

I hummed, considering which things to say first. “As I told you, I’m a Chosen One and I am on a quest. That quest may be to abandon my other ‘quest’, but it is still a quest, and I set out on it two nights before I met you. Meeting other Chosen Ones on the first days of such quests is normal.”

“That’s no reason to assume the first person you met is the crown princess.” Jevi deadpanned, sinking into a state where none of her inherent joy showed on the surface, and also removing any doubt about her being the crown princess.

I just sighed. “No, it’s quite common actually. And I had reason to expect it, remember?”

“Scajoce.” Jevi recalled. “But he also said that the Vitorian Envoy were supposed to sweep me away, Amber.” She threw her arms out. “I don’t see any agents here! I came here on my own two feet!”

And a ship. I thought but did not say. “I have my theories about that, but they are irrelevant until any agents show up. We’ve gotten off track. Scroll of soul rending, Jevi. What does it do?”

“No!” Jevi stood, her hand snatching her wand from its place at her belt. “You have made me agree to travel through the most dangerous land possible for me, while knowing who I was. You’re playing a game that I can’t fully see, and I’m not answering until I know what you want!”

My hand curled around the handle of my dagger, the weapon of mine that was currently magical. Though I did not stand. “I’ve told you my sole goal. To end any relationship between me and Avien.”

“And who the fuck is Avien!?” Jevi yelled.

“A silver fox cub who would have the world delivered to him.”

“That doesn’t mean anything!”

In a flash I was on my feet, the point of my dagger pressed against the wrist of Jevi’s wand hand, and very aware of the magic gathering there. “Spitting in the face of that boy and his family is all that matters to me.” I growled. “I don’t care about anything else.”

“Well I fucking do!” Jevi shouted back, spittle forcing me to blink. “Who are you, really? You have figured me out as easily as reading a code with the cypher lying next to it! I still have no idea who you are or where you come from!”

“You know my name and what I want.” I stated. “Isn’t that enough?”

“I trust- I trusted you until you started dreaming of my supposed destiny!” Jevi grit her teeth and turned away. I let my dagger drift from where it was stopping her from casting, though when she turned back around I realised that may have been a mistake. Her expression was dead, her voice was flat and clear, and her wand was pointing at me. “Now you are telling me to use a scroll of soul rending.”

“Haa…” I sighed out. The whole thing with Jvina had left me scrabbling for energy, and now this was taxing the last of my reserves.

“What?” Jevi demanded. I felt magic wash over me twice over, the power of All harmonizing with Jevi’s simple enchantment. The combined force overwhelmed what little defences I had maintained though the conversation until now.

“I wasn’t telling you to do anything.” I said, the fact that I was very unimpressed with that assumption colouring my words. “All I asked was why a god wanted you to.”

Jevi gave me a calculating look before answering. “Kinli always wants what is best for his country and the people living there.”

I do not trust that in the slightest. “And what is a scroll of soul rending.”

Jevi looked away. “A method of enhancing the strength of an individual by manipulating the soul.” That was putting it lightly, when compared to the name of the freaking thing. After a moment, she looked back and added, “Most don’t survive.”

“Let me guess, it’s a ritual that tears apart someone’s soul, in the hopes that it grows back stronger. And there’s a lot of support behind the ritual, since that’s the whole theory behind spellcasting anyway.”

Jevi frowned. “I hadn’t realised that connection, but it makes sense.”

Time for another arrow in the dark. “And this is what you were meant to do in North Kreg’uune?”

“Yes. Though safeguards would have been in place.”

“Gods below, and why would you be travelling to a country that is not your own to do that?”

Jevi glared at the ground between us. “It was not the only reason I was to travel there…”

I waited and she didn’t say anything. “Well?”

“Because the real purpose I was going there was to stabilise relations between Central and North Kreg’uune in these unstable times!” Jevi shouted. “You are familiar with what that means, correct? In addition to ingratiating myself to a suitor, I’d be changing myself according to their culture in the hopes that our relations improve! So that we wouldn’t be attacked from the north when the east rebelled. And the only person I would have had to confide in would be the Envoy handling my service as a Left Rank!

“It doesn’t help that the suitor in question is a spineless worm. I just…” Jevi looked back to the shirtless boys, who had multiplied while we weren’t looking. “I miss my dad.”

That’s the king. I realised. When she trailed off for good, I said, “I empathise.”

And then I was left wondering what to do. Should I hug her? She looked lost and vulnerable, and in more ways than would let me stab her. I certainly wasn’t about to kiss her forehead like Jvina asked of me. All that came to mind was how Jevi had led me around by the arm on the way here. After a moment more of consideration, I pulled one of the chairs over so they were side by side.

Then I walked over to Jevi, my own weapon sheathed, and tugged the wand from her hand. She didn’t really resist, and once the wand was out of her hand and magic was no longer in danger of being cast, I led her by the arm to sit next to me. Somehow, that was the right thing to do. Her arm tightened around mine whenever I inadvertently leaned away.

“We will not be using the scroll of soul rending.” I eventually said. And that, I was much more certain was the right thing to say.

\V/

“You didn’t tell me everything about your dream.” Jevi said long after the recruits had finished their training. Most didn’t doff their shirts, I noted, and I only noticed that because it would have disappointed Jevi.

I hummed, shaping the magic in my ears and looked around before answering. “That would be because most of it was pretty boring.” Then I leaned closer. “It’s not safe to talk anymore.”

Tonight, I was going to ask Jevi to let me inspect her anti-divination band to see if I could imitate the effect. Someone new was scrying me, and that was the only reason I could think of why an agent of the Vitorian Envoy found us so quickly. They were hidden in a small stretch of wilderness just to the north of the warcamp, specifically camouflaged inside a bush.

An idle thought wondering how they would transition from that to blending into a crowd made an amused smile play at my lips. The image of such a dirty person attempting to blend in bringing me no small amount of amusement. Even in Veliki they would be called out for it. Likely, they would even be handed an impromptu washing.

I stood. “But if you must know, I was underwater and was falling upwards. The water was like air and the air was like the ground. At least until Jvina pulled me out.”

Jevi hummed as she followed me away from our spot, now back to her normal self. “What was her deal anyway? She creeped over you with no hint of reservation.”

I smiled, just a bit. “She was reminded of her daughter. And she was also dead, so she wasn’t about to see her again anytime soon. No necromancy.” I raised a hand to stop Jevi when I saw the question brewing. “I thought she was one with the ship, which apparently sunk out in the Volten Ocean. Then I put her to rest.”

I frowned in thought. “I’m not actually certain if it was even her.”

“Well if you never met the woman herself, then I should think it doesn’t matter.” Jevi shrugged.

“I think it matters.”

“I thought there was only one thing you care about.”

Serfle’s comment about my self deception flashed through my mind. “I didn’t say it mattered to me.”

“Uh huh.” Jevi responded, ‘convinced’.

I snorted. “Let’s find something to eat. Then we can see what Weldon has managed to accomplish in the few hours since we last saw him. I expect he has either found a cult to exterminate or turned the orphans of the city into devout spies.”

“Are you tempting All?” Jevi laughed.

“Yes.” I answered, giving her a look saying that I was serious. “I want something to test my blade against, and a spy network of children could be nothing but beneficial.”

“I should argue ethics.”

“Yet you agree with me.”

“Well…” Jevi bobbed her head side to side in thought. “More that I’d want to test my magic against any cults. I’ve felt my reserves deepening, and I’ll be able to cast spells in the next tier soon if things continue at this rate.”

I wordlessly picked out the unsaid words, that she would already have that ability and more if she’d gone north as she was supposed to. They were disregarded. We would be picking up no scrolls of any such description in the near future.

As it turned out, Weldon had done neither of those things. Instead, what he had done was visit a church that possessed an altar dedicated to the god he served, and been given a vision and a blessing. It had been very visible, and was apparently quite the spectacle. He didn’t make it back to the Midnight Dragon Inn until well after we did, and was still being followed by one of his fans that were younger than he was when he came in through the door.

“I have no idea what he wanted me to do!” Weldon told us cheerfully from across the table.

I paused eating the passable potatoes I’d been served. “What did you hear?”

“He had a lot of things to say about me. I thought that he was just describing me, but then the priest said that for such visions the Chosen usually has their flaws described to them, so they know what to improve. But I’m strong despite my flaws, so I don’t know what that has to do with anything!”

“You’re getting visions.” Jevi complained. She leaned her cheek on a clenched fist as she absently moved food from her plate to her mouth. “Now I want a vision too.”

No you don’t. I thought in her general direction. Not with what your god wants for you. But I looked at Weldon. “All people are flawed. Some people don’t get visions. Others don’t have the strength to defend themselves. Only the exceptional ones find a way to live in spite of those weaknesses.”

The blond boy beamed at me. “You have such a way with words, Duskchild!”

I froze, staring at him.

“What?” He asked, unaware of my shock.

I shook my head, he must have heard that name when he was still in Veliki. More to the point, “I was talking about myself.”

Jevi burst out laughing. It wasn’t a pretty laugh, and didn’t fit the image in my head of a princess. That was likely a good thing in her situation.

“But I have found a way to defend myself!” Weldon protested. “I’ve dispensed justice for those deserving several times since you showed me that strength!”

“Scratch me in a duel, then claim that again.” I said flippantly, grinning at my own superiority. Now if only I could kill and fulfil the reason I learned that skill in the first place. Weldon looked a little put out, but didn’t let that douse his spark and went on to tell us about the rest of his vision. A bunch of vapid orders I’d heard retired heroes lamenting that they’d ever set out in order to accomplish dozens of times. I didn’t mention how jaded the people on paths like Weldon’s tended to get.

I’d let him make his way there on his own. He was more useful this way anyway.

The day passed without incident. Even though I had wanted to set out immediately, spending the day resting, with actual space to move about in and solid ground underfoot, was as relaxing as it was rewarding. I fell asleep tired, content to close my eyes and wake up in the morning.

\V/

I woke to a shaking building. My eyes opened and beheld a pitch black room, and the tremors faded moments later. Jevi and I were sleeping in a room on the ground floor of the inn, which had been built long instead of tall like the other inns I’d seen. The windows were closed and the curtains drawn. Then a pinprick of red light pulsed through the fabric, its source far away from here.

Then the building shook again.

“Fuck.” I declared as I threw the sheets off me and moved to open the window and curtain. I needed to get dressed and get everything of mine on, but I couldn’t do that without any light. Once the window was open, I saw just what was shaking the earth.

Or rather, what it had left behind. Barely that, though.

I hadn’t done anything more than glance out the window before it was closed the night before, though that was likely better described as a few short hours ago. It definitely felt as though my rest had been interrupted. Regardless, I hadn’t done much to remember the skyline from this position. Even so, when one of the guard towers marked by a half dozen lit torches illuminating the side vanished, one tended to notice.

The red smoke illuminated against the dark sky rising from where it used to be was very telling as well. I’d seen such smoke before, though watching the remains of the Shepard’s buildings burn from afar had a very different feeling to this. We shouldn’t have stayed the night.

“Amber, what’s going on?” Jevi asked from her bed. I glanced over, she was propped up on an elbow and was using her other palm to rub the sleep from her eye.

“Burden Bridge is under attack.” I said. “You’ll want to cast darkvision on yourself.” I hadn’t spent much time looking, but there were many a dark alley from my vantage point. “Get everything together, we move tonight.”

“Are you-” Jevi’s question was cut off as another flash of red briefly lit up our room, this one taking another tower further away from where we were. A few moments later the building shook. She didn’t say anything more, moving to find her wand and prepare herself for what was to come next.

I finished getting everything together first on account of starting the process before Jevi. When I opened the door, it stopped Weldon from knocking on it. Instead it knocked him in the face as he was unfortunately standing in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

“Ow!”

“Weldon!” I quickly accounted for his presence. “Burden Bridge is under attack. Get your things together!”

“I know.” Weldon said gravely, his voice nasally as he held his nose. I hadn’t hit him that hard, had I? “Lavina awoke me the moment their pitiful ambush began, and I spent the time since putting my armour on.”

“And you didn’t wake us!?” Jevi shouted from behind me.

“I could’ve helped don your armour.” I said to both explain what he could’ve done better, and remove any momentum from Jevi’s argument. Now wasn’t the time. “You are ready to move?”

“Yes!” Weldon declared and placed a clenched fist over his heart. “I am ready to punish any evildoers that attack us!”

“That’s not our plan.” I cut in before Jevi could. She still had a bag to shove things in. “First off, we don’t know who is attacking. Second, this isn’t our conflict. Third,” I stressed as I felt Jevi start to protest. “My quest involves us travelling much farther east than this. Burden Bridge was only supposed to be a stopping point, and that is all it will be if I have anything to say about it. We will only fight if we must.”

My hand fell on my sword before shifting to my dagger where my magic was invested. If it was a monster attack, which was unlikely given how coordinated the explosions had been, my sword would’ve been better. But if it was humans or the like attacking, I wasn’t sure which would’ve been better for me to use. Brynn never told me which I was better with, since he insisted on me becoming proficient with both.

The dagger was currently magical because it was a more subtle weapon, suitable for conflict in cramped areas such as a city. The sword was for blatant combat, though with the situation being what it was I wasn’t going to be getting the time to switch anyway.

“I’m ready.” Jevi announced. “Actually-” She drifted into mutterings associated with casting a spell. Darkvision, I recognised. She cast it once on herself, then immediately started casting it again.

“Are you sacrificing your zinger this time?” I demanded before she could push magic into her words, not that it interrupted the girl. The magic was released, was successfully manipulated, and settled around me in a manner I had felt once before. As I had done the last time, I trapped the magic in my eyes through force of will, though I didn’t manage to pry any glyphs or other secrets from it.

Which was a shame, honestly. I looked at Jevi with an impassive expression, ready to reprimand her if she had just tossed away her most useful weapon.

“I… think I can still cast it?” Jevi said with an impish smile.

“If we get in a fight where we need it and you cannot provide, you’ll know who to blame.” I retorted, holding my tongue back from saying anything more rude. “Still…”

“Yes, yes. You are welcome.” Jevi said dismissively. “We should move. If only to find out what’s happening.”

My mouth clamped shut. Every time I start to say anything nice… “Let’s.” I agreed at length.

Weldon cheered, eager to ‘justice!’.

By the time we made it to the street, people were just starting to awaken and leave their rooms. There was a small stream of people in disheveled clothing moving away from the various fires lighting up the night horizon, and the smoke was widespread enough that part of the sky was obscured by something unseen. Kicked up dust refused to just fall back down to the ground with how much people were moving.

Actually…

Nevermind that. We moved in a direction perpendicular to the fires, taking time to talk to anyone calm enough for it in an attempt to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, most people here were travellers who, while used to the perils of the road, were disturbed by such things happening in town. This had an additional effect of making it difficult to tell where guard postings were, and what they were doing right now.

We had passed through at least two such places I remembered guards standing, but both were vacant. Fortunately, or unfortunately, a good explanation presented itself after not too long. Long enough for everyone to wake up, but not so long that people were organised.

“PEOPLE OF KREG’UUNE!” A voice bellowed through the night, amplified by magic. I immediately guarded my ears with Serfle’s glyph, which had the double effect of letting me know which direction it had come from. “I BRING TO YOU SAD TIDINGS THIS NIGHT!” I could hear him more clearly now, and it was a male, going by the deep voice.

The three of us paused in our movements. We were off anything resembling a main road at the time, though we could peer through the darkness and see others slowing down to listen to this proclamation.

“EARLIER TODAY IN A CONFERENCE WITH THE KING HIMSELF, DUCHESS MANTIUM DEMANDED THAT THE RICHES OF HER PEOPLE BE RETURNED TO THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE, AND FOR EXEMPTIONS IN CONSCRIPTIONS FOR WARS WE HAVE NO STAKE IN! THESE DEMANDS WERE TOSSED ASIDE LIKE THE LIVES OF SO MANY CHILDREN!”

“Amber-” Jevi clutched my arm tight, making me hiss in pain. She was breathing fast, even though we weren’t moving enough to become winded. “I don’t- I don’t feel-”

“IN LIGHT OF THIS DISGRACE OF A KING, THE DUCHY OF CAVAAN IS WITHDRAWING FROM THE KINGDOM OF KREG’UUNE. HOWEVER, YOUR KING SEES OUR DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL AS TREASON! AND HAS DEMANDED REPARATIONS WE CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY! THEREFORE, WE DECLARE REVOLUTION!”

I frowned. What was this person trying to say? Obviously they were announcing their revolution, but why in this manner?

“ALTHOUGH WE WISH THAT YOU COULD JOIN US IN OUR NEWFOUND INDEPENDENCE, PEOPLE OF BURDEN BRIDGE, SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE!”

“Amber.” Jevi’s voice was faint. I finally looked at her and saw she was much worse off than she sounded. Somehow her face had become gaunt since last I looked at her, and that couldn’t have been more than five minutes before. She could barely stand. “It’s worse than he says.”

Something was making a sound in the air. A tone with no beginning or end, though it was becoming more intense by the moment.

“THE NAME OF YOUR NEW MASTER IS SATHTEEL; PESTILENCE OF BLADES! OFFER HIM ADEQUATE TRIBUTE AND HE WILL TAKE NO MORE LIVES THAN KREG’UUNE WOULD HAVE DEMANDED ANYWAY!”

That name. I realised, split between worrying about what that voice had just announced and worrying about the princess holding on to me. “Weldon.” I said, “You’ll need to carry her. And you can’t fight what’s coming.”

“No, no, no. You need t-” Jevi lost her consciousness. I barely caught her as she fell. She was lighter than I thought her to be.

Weldon looked about as divided as I was. “I have promised to assist you where I can.” He said. “But I have also sworn to cut down evildoers.”

“Shut up and carry her.” I demanded, lifting her in his direction. “You can’t fight what’s coming. Not for a long time yet.”

“What do you mean by that?” He asked with uncertainty as he took the brunt of Jevi’s weight, exerting what strength he had. Fuck. He physically wasn’t much stronger than me in the first place.

As if to answer his question, the tone in the air reached a peak and transformed into a great roar. At the same time, the night sky lit up silver as a gout of silver was unleashed by the source of the roar. It continued for five seconds, spreading in an arc across the sky before the gargantuan creature closed his jaws, and leaving an abstract shape burnt in the back of my eyes. A few seconds of tense silence later, something massive impacted the ground far away, shaking it for several moments longer than the explosions before and almost sending me to the ground. The dust floating just off the ground had thickened, and I knew it would not fall down of its own accord.

“That is a dragon.” I said. “We may not survive this night.”

\V/