Aluthyl Lonedew was equal parts terrified, elated, and relieved.

She had grown up in the southern district of The City, and she had recognized the noble who had been the only one to write something on her plaque – Lord Ailmar of House Spiritwind, the very house she had been trying to escape from all her life. Aluthyl’s chest hurt as she grew increasingly distraught with each noble that passed her by, unable to see the sympathetic looks a few of them had given her.

Ever since she could remember, Aluthyl had wanted nothing more than to fight for House Flameward out in the wilderness, learning how to breathe fire and shoot lightning from her eyes as she vanquished beasts like a hero from legend! She had jumped at the chance to become a warrior trainee, and taken her grandmothers advice to temporarily follow the Path of Wind (House Spiritwind greatly favored the Path of Wind, giving those who followed it access to expert instructors and one-on-one) just so she could have access to the best trainers; but in her heart, she would always follow the true path of the Warrior – the Path of Fire. She had trained evenings, sparred against older students constantly, and even challenged her instructors to duels… all so that she could do well enough in the Black Tournament to be accepted by House Flameward. And then… they had passed her by…

But now, here she was, following that strange child named Heller towards the Table of Fire; she had won against him every time they sparred, but it had always been a close call. She looked again at the gigantic man leading them, wondering why he had chosen to name himself after such a famous figure. She had grown up listening to her grandmother tell tales of Firebrand and other heroes (mostly from House Flameward).

The tales about Firebrand were some of her favorites, and her grandmother claimed to have even met him when she was a child! The infamous hero had already been fairly old when her grandmother was born, and was known for wreaking havoc among the nobles of House Spiritwind. The tales said that he was a high ranking nobles who had rejected his titles, choosing instead the life of a wandering warrior who often spent time outside The City. And even when he returned, it was never to relax – it was to challenge every single noble brave enough to face him to a duel!

Firebrand had been especially fond of picking on House Spiritwind, always loudly proclaiming them to be cowards who hid inside The City. In Academy he was mentioned as a villain figure in several tales, but most of the commoners of House Spiritwind knew the truth – he had been a true hero of the people.

Of course, all that had been seventy or eighty years ago, so there was no way it could be the same man. Still, Aluthyl approved of his choice of name, and this giant in front of her was certainly doing a good enough job of emulating the stories she had heard of the real Firebrand. She couldn't help but smile, recalling the image of Lord Ailmar and his cronies falling helplessly to the ground – a picture she would hold onto tightly for the rest of her life.

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Captain Buzac paced back and forth within his offices in the Garrison near North Stone Village, listening to his Scout deliver a report concerning the Black Tournament. He had assigned a full squad of eight to relay news back to him from The City; a quad of Scouts working together could deliver a message, either direction, in just under four hours. There was something going on in The City, and whatever it was, Heller was at its heart. Buzac was certain of it, and it wouldn’t be the first time jealous nobles had conspired to send a talented commoner to the Shieldwall.

The Captain had been puzzled at first as to why Heller had been doing so poorly in the tournament, but at last he knew: The boy had simply been concealing his power and biding his time.

Buzac smiled, glad he had run into the Old Bastard and sent him after the lad. The timing couldn’t have been better, what with the beast attack just before the Black Tournament starting. Old Bastard usually stopped by the Garrison after a beast horde attacked to check who had died… or maybe just to gloat about the fact that he was still alive after all this time alone in the mountains.

Old Bastard had been caught by the horde again this time, but he had again escaped to one of his hiding spots after fighting himself free of them. He might be as tough as a lump of steel (and look like one, Buzac thought to himself with a chuckle), but even Old Bastard couldn’t challenge a Nascent level beast in the middle of its own horde.

Buzac let out a sigh; if Old Bastard couldn’t protect the boy from whatever intrigue was going on in the city, then nobody could. The Captain just hoped Old Bastard wouldn’t lose interest in the boy before getting him back to North Stone Village, if that’s what Heller ended up choosing.

Surely the boy wouldn’t choose one of the lesser houses, though, would he? The talents of an apprentice of the Merrik would be squandered by any other Great House, especially those cowards from House Spiritwind, always hiding inside The City and cultivating.

What the beast was the point of being a Cultivator if you didn’t damn well use it to help people!

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I stopped short as Firebrand abruptly spun on his heel to face me. If he had a facial expression, it was hidden by the combination of his tough leathery skin and his plethora of brutal scars. His eyes were unfocused for just a moment before he shook his head, his gaze meeting mine as a thrill of primal terror ran though me. There was no doubt about it; this man was dangerous.

“Young Warriors, House Flameward invites you all into our ranks.” He boomed, not taking his eyes off of me.

I realized that he had just fulfilled his part of the bargain we had struck earlier, leaving the ball back in my court. The feeling Firebrand gave me reminded me of how I had felt meeting my first horse as a child – I had known it didn’t mean me any harm, but still… there I had been, about to ride an animal that could end my life any time it chose too. I had done my best to make sure I didn’t piss it off accidentally, and I felt much the same now.

That didn’t change the fact that there was something strange going on here… but at this point Firebrand was my only way out of this mess. If I hadn’t foolishly spoken out for the three champions I could probably get away with everything else that had happened, but I had really stuck my foot in it now: I was indirectly responsible for all those nobles being electrocuted, and everyone knew it.

I nodded my head, “I accept.”

Firebrand grinned, and I was not comforted.

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In the end five of the six of us accepted the invitation to join House Flameward; Tetra, Wulfric and I, plus two of the tournament champions (one boy and one girl, both of whom I remembered as being incredibly skilled fighters). The girl was so excited by the turn of events that she actually ran over and gave me a fierce hug and a kiss on the cheek before we parted ways, telling me that she would never forget what I had done for her. I just told her it wasn’t an issue and gave them both a salute as they left.

The three of us were given leave as well – in theory we had the next week to ourselves, free to do whatever we wanted before our lifelong commitment to the Great House that we had chosen officially began. Firebrand idly commanded a group of nobles to escort both Wulfric and Tetra to see their families. Just what the beast was his position in House Flameward, anyway, that he could order nobles around like that?

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. “Why do all the nobles listen to you like that?” I asked him after everyone else had left.

Firebrand grunted, looking down at me out of the corner of his eye, “I offered them a guided tour of the Shieldwall.”

What did that mean? Guided tour… Alright, maybe asking questions wasn’t the best idea right now…

I was having to use Qi manipulation to speed myself up in order to keep up with his massive stride (and even then I had to jog), both of us weaving through the evening crowd of the Great Plaza. At first I found it strange that nobody was moving out of his way, but then I realized how fast we were going – was he using Qi manipulation too!? Most of the people we passed noticed his presence too late to react, and Firebrand displayed a startling degree of dexterity for someone his size.

We were aimed straight at the main road that ran through the entirety of House Flameward’s territory, not slowing down at all. Watching Firebrand walk was disorienting, because he looked like he was moving slowly, yet he was somehow moving faster than most people could run.

I was starting to get seriously winded by the time we finally arrived at a huge compound that was pointed out to us when we first arrived in The City: The main garrison of House Flameward.

There was a squad of guards posted outside the huge gate around the complex, all of whom hurriedly assumed a battle formation as soon as they saw us. The formal robe Firebrand was wearing burst apart in a shower of flaming fabric as he reached over his shoulder and drew one of his oversized battleaxes, holding it in front of him with his right hand while gently tapping the flat of the axe blade against his left. One of the soldiers at the back of the formation (which is where the squad leader usually stood) nodded to the crazy giant in front of me, who casually nodded back… and then all hell broke loose.

What happened next was a blur, completely catching me off guard as I applied TR to myself. The squad of guards rushed to attack him, using a wide variety of abilities centered around (as expected) fire and lightning. I hopped a few steps backwards myself, making sure my Ion Shield was still at full power (it was).

I had pretty good resistance against the elements being used in the sudden battle in front of me, but I had to admit that I had somewhat neglected my original abilities - something I would rectify when I had time, but it was still low on my list of priorities.

After Firebrand subdued the Warriors guarding the gate he walked though it… and I mean literally, the aura of fire around him melting the steel of the gate into a bright red liquid that flowed around him as it puddled on the stone tile underfoot. I was flabbergasted, no idea what I should do. I quickly checked on the guards, relieved to note that they were breathing just fine, none of their wounds (mostly burns) seeming fatal.

I needed to figure out what the beast was going on here, and fast! Was Firebrand trying to take over house Flameward, usurping the power from Kodan before he was old enough to defend his title? But no… that didn’t seem right… the reaction of the guards… it was like they knew him, and expected what was going to happen. I thought back to how Firebrand had acted at the banquet, a vague sense of things starting to form in my mind.

The sounds of battle were raging around me as I cleared my mind, beginning to heal one of the Warriors who had been guarding the gate, wishing I had some mind powers like Wolfram. Things like that were even lower priority than upping my lightning/magnetism package however, considering that my primary foe was going to be the beasts – not much point in mindreading one of those.

It wasted precious seconds, but I made sure to healing him as slowly as I could, periodically slapping his cheek after coating my hand in ice. I wanted him just groggy enough to answer some questions without thinking about whether it was a good idea or not.

“Ahhh, whaa?” The gate guard gasped, fighting to open his eyes.

Success! I lowered my voice, trying not to sound so much like a kid. “What happened here?”

“S-sir, it’s Firebrand, d-did we do good? W-was he h-happy with us?” The man mumbled, clearly not yet aware of what was going on.

Happy with them… so… was this some kind of test? Wait… was it a test for me? Am I supposed to be fighting against him, or for him! Bloody beast!

“What about the boy, how did he do?”

“Boy? What d… h-hey, who are you?”

Crap, he was recovering faster than I had expected, so I gave him a light zap to put him back to sleep. I had practiced knocking people out, without causing too much harm, against Wulfric and Tetra back in Academy (it was one of the ‘punishments’ for coming in last during one of our sparring matches).

The battle was still raging inside the compound, but I knew that I had to think quick – small scale battles like this rarely lasted longer than a few minutes. In my experience, one-on-one melee combat was generally decided in under ten seconds, unless the opponents were equally matched (which was rare), in which case they may last twenty or thirty seconds. Firebrand had taken out the four Warriors at the gate in less than seven seconds, and I was pretty certain that he had been holding back and deliberately matching his pace to theirs.

Test or not, there wasn’t much I could do unless I wanted to start using my ice powers in the middle of Flameward territory. But since I had TR active at least I could try to follow behind Firebrand, show him I wasn’t a coward. If anyone attacked me I could try to use magnetism to hurl them away or deflect their weapons, and I was nearly immune to lightning – fire was an issue, but I could heal from even the worst burns.

I covered my feet in ice as I leapt through the molten steel under the half-melted gate, hoping no one would notice the hiss of steam. There were dozens of fallen Warriors inside the compound, and still more engaged in a pitched battle against my new benefactor. I banished the ice as quickly as I could, wishing that these were actual enemies so I could start using magnetism to toss around their armored bodies, adding to the chaos. I felt my adrenaline pumping as… something... a primal instinct maybe, gripped me – at that moment I wanted nothing more than to join in the melee going on in front of me. But I held myself back; the potential to accidentally kill someone would be too high if I started using my powers – in fact, it would be a small miracle if there hadn’t been at least a few casualties already. The kind of control it would take to knock this many Warriors out, all in less than a minute, without slipping up even once… it just didn’t seem possible. Nobody was that good.

And then it was over. Firebrand’s gaze transfixed me as he held his axe loosely, his breathing calm and steady, as a group of white robed healers moved out of a small barracks off to the side. They were all Cultivators from House Silverlight, wearing the same uniforms I had seen on the healers at the Black Tournament. Not many chose that path, but those who had were all highly valued.

“Polish a gem with friction; polish a warrior with combat.”

And with that he turned and made his way into a tall building with steel supports running along the exterior.

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A few minutes later Firebrand and I stood alone within a reinforced training hall. It reminded me of what I had seen underneath Academy… without all the rust and cave-ins.

Firebrand stood facing me, his axe again slapping gently against his palm. He seemed to be waiting for something, and I had a pretty clear idea what it was. TR was still active, so I wasn’t too worried about my own safety…

I reached out and magnetized the support posts behind and above me, anchoring myself, and then I reached out and did the same to Firebrand’s armor. I hadn’t actually tried to move him yet, but I saw a flicker of… surprise? Interest? I wasn’t sure, but he had a slight reaction, obviously able to tell I had done something. Well, that’s not a good sign…

He had let the gate guards attack first, so I figured I should do the same. I took a defensive stance and let loose with a small bolt of lightning, not wanting to overdo it. My lightning was quite a lot different than what I had seen anyone else use here, more of a sustained DC current than an actual lightning strike. Great for arc wielding and incapacitating foes, as well as (hopefully) wearing down tough opponents, especially because – being electricity and all – my lightning should pass right through any type of natural armor.

Firebrand returned the attack in kind, slowly approaching me, my attack seeming to do nothing at all. And to make matters worse I started to feel his attack overcome my resistance, overwhelming my Ion Shield!

Screw subtlety, ice it is! I threw up an ice wall in-between us as I magnetically levitated myself up and off the floor, simultaneously pushing down on Firebrand. I heard a crash, and I felt his form fall to the floor as my attack went right through my wall of ice. Right away I took the opportunity to cover him in a thick dome, hoping to both smother his flames and take away his air supply (I could release the dome before things became dangerous).

I grinned as I felt him struggle against the magnetism holding him down, but by this point I had anchored myself against nearly the entire building – he would have to lift the roof in order to escape my grasp. I added more ice to the wall, using his struggles as a measure of how he was doing; once he had stopped struggling I would immediately punch a hole through the ice surrounding him… oh crap! I suddenly realized that Firebrand had melted so much of the ice around him that he was submerged in boiling water that was turning into steam! Shit shit shit, as the pressure built up it actually lifted my entire column of ice up off the stone floor, boiling water and steam gushing out as the temperature in the entire training hall suddenly skyrocketed.

I covered myself in a globe of ice, using magnetism to attach myself tightly to the celling. I spread out my will, taking heat out of the air as quickly as I could in order to bring the ambient temperature down to something that wouldn’t cook me. Luckily most of the heat was contained in water vapor, and that was what I had the most control over by far, so it didn’t take long for miniature clouds to condense all along the celling as it began to snow. I had screwed up pretty bad, not having even considered steam pressure like that. If I had been paying attention I would have been able to freeze the water around him before it could boil like that.

My head was starting to hurt as I kept on trying to split my focus, keeping him pinned down with magnetism while we also held a temperature war. Bloody beast, I just didn’t have enough water! The beasting air in the hall had already been sucked dry, and when I had to create ice out of nothing it was much harder. Based on my experiments, the air in a hall this size should hold enough water to fill five or six bathtubs, and I was hitting my limit. I could try to punch a hole in the celling, which would give me access to the unlimited water contained in the atmosphere, but that just seemed like a terrible idea.

We had hit a stalemate; he was able to heat air far faster than I could cool it, but I was able to keep my ice frozen no matter what he did. And then I suddenly slammed up against the ice below me as my grip on him started slipping! Crap, I had to release the pressure or risk crushing myself against my own ice wall.

I was just trying to come up with another strategy when a red hot bullet punched right through my protective barrier – Firebrand, covered in a thick aura of flame through which I could barely make out a fierce grin on his face as he swung his axe, striking me with the flat of the blade. And then darkness…

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I woke to a feeling of intense heat, TR having likely having only allowed me to stay unconscious for a about a second. A moment later there was a bright flash and the sound of a loud detonation, and I found myself rolling across the stone courtyard outside the training hall. A fraction of a second later my burns were healed, so I pushed myself upright just in time to see Firebrand push himself up off the ground as well.

He raised his eyebrows when he saw me stand up, “By the spirits, you are a tough one, lad! I’d have sworn that you were half melted but a moment ago.” He let out a loud laugh, slapping his knee.

Firebrand didn’t seem burned at all (which wasn’t surprising), but his clothes were in rough shape; he was covered in powdery rock dust, and his armor was even more dented than it had been when I first met him.

“That was the most fun I’ve had in weeks, and the closest anyone has come to kicking my sorry old behind since before your parents were born!” He walked over to me, extending his hand to clap my shoulder. “Nine years old, and a Nascent cultivator…” He shook his head, chuckling, “I’d have knocked the piss out of anyone who tried to tell me such a tall tale.” He slapped me on the back hard enough to make me stumble forwards a few steps.

I had just turned back to look at the training hall, which now had a huge hole blasted through the side wall closest to us, steam pouring out of the hole like mad. What had… Oh. If I had to guess, I’d say that as soon as I lost consciousness I couldn’t keep all the water in the hall frozen any more, and the entire place had turned into a pressure cooker. That mad dash at the end was probably Firebrand getting me out as quickly as he could before I was boiled alive.

“Tell me, have you ever tried Fire Spirit Ale?” He asked me, probably referring to one of the alchemical concoctions that we had instead of plain old alcohol. I shook my head, mutely following along after him as he led me from the compound. All around us were the still recovering forms of the Warriors of House Flameward, the Silverlight healers moving among them carefully (and more than a few of them giving Firebrand and I wide eyed glances).

Our entire battle had occurred in double-time, with less than a minute having passed for the soldiers out here. I wondered what they would make of the new addition to their training hall…