Tetra and Wulfric were busy packing their bags when I arrived at their rooms (I had separate accommodations, courtesy of Firebrand), and as I examined the worn stonework of the warrior trainee quarters I felt a slight pang of regret that we were leaving so soon.

We hadn’t been here in The City long, and I had by no means gotten used to it, but I had to admit to myself that I was not supremely excited to be heading back out into the wilderness…

Of course, I understood that the decision we had made was the right one, and for the right reasons, but we also didn’t really have much of a choice. The potential for things going wrong was too great, and even if I felt pretty confident that we could get the majority of House Flameward on our side if things got nasty… that wasn’t something I wanted to see happen.

Wulfric paused his packing for a moment, glancing over at me, and then at Tetra.

“Are we really doing this?”

Tetra rolled her eyes and let out a sigh.

“Why do you keep worrying! This is the most exciting thing to happen in our whole lives! Don’t you realize what this means for us?”

I remained silent, having gone over this discussion several times already; first with Jesvae, then with Wolfram via soul-chat, then a final time with my two friends here.

“Yes, I realize… no more visits back home on Freeday, no more trips into the markets.” Wulfric looked around himself, “No more warm, comfortable, and safe lodgings…”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh, causing both of them to look at me, but I shook my head to indicated that I didn’t want to get involved. I definitely felt bad for the two of them… as for me, I would be able to both stay at home and leave simultaneously, though I wouldn’t be able to synch up with my duplicate as often now…

I felt a faint pang of envy, momentarily wishing that I was the duplicate that was going to be staying in North Stone Village… but since we would share both mind and body the next time we met up, I would get both sets of experience anyway, so it felt a little foolish to care one way or another. But nobody was perfect, right?

Wulfric had already gone back to his packing, but I noticed that Tetra was still staring at me, so I gave her a questioning look. She raised her eyebrows, motioning towards Wulfric, but I just shrugged in response. He was smart enough that nothing I could say would make a difference – I figured that he just had to work through his emotions in his own time.

“You can complain all you want Wulfric, but I for one am happy to get out of this beasting pit of nobles and their bloody politics and beast dung schemes.”

As usually, Tetra cut right into the heart of the matter. I was just glad for once that her disdain for the nobility was working in our favor, as she had already been in a few minor spats with fledgling lords we had run into across The City. Nothing major so far, but eventually things might escalate out of control if we kept on pushing our luck – it was hard to bow down to an overbearing jerk when you knew full well you could tear them apart with your eyes closed…

***

We left The City without any fanfare, just like another patrol heading out the gates. We had decided to leave through the Flameward gate (the one in the northernmost wall surrounding The City), even though it was the furthest from our eventual destination. It would have looked very odd for a partial quad of House Flameward trainee warriors to exit through the southern gate into House Spiritwind territory.

We knew we wouldn’t have any trouble with the guards in House Flameward territory, and none of us had ventured very far into any of the lands controlled by the three other Great Houses. We had a long journey ahead of us anyway, and taking another week or so to skirt around The City and meet up with Jesvae’s party (she had seemed very confident they would be able to find us once we reached Spiritwind territory) didn’t seem like a huge deal.

Tetra was in the lead, flitting from place to place with supernatural speed as she scouted the route before us, while Wulfric was walking next to me at a steady pace. In theory we could get there a lot quicker if we used all of our powers and abilities, but the name of the game was stealth at the moment; drawing further attention to ourselves would only make things more difficult. There wasn’t a road circling the city, but there was something of a game path that was used by warriors out on patrol.

We were fully aware (courtesy of Jesvae) that our little group was under observation, and the last thing we wanted to do was make it worse. Having us leave unescorted was already bad enough, as I was forced to show the letter I had (bearing the personal seal of Lord Kodan Flameward) no less than three times on our way out of The City…

“Are we really sure this is a good idea?” Wulfric asked me, again, in a quiet voice (probably afraid that Tetra would hear him).

I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes and settled on simply closing them for moment before replying.

“Wulfric, I think I have lost track of how many times you have asked that today.” I studied him for a moment, wondering if there was more going on in his mind than he was letting on. “What is this really about? I know you agree that we need to leave The City, right?”

He nodded, and we continued walk in silence for a time, both of us keeping an eye on the forest around us. It could almost have been a forest from Earth, except the colors were off, and the trees were both shorter and thinner than I would expect (they were still pretty big, but there were very few I couldn’t encircle completely with my arms).

The animals (even the beasts) weren’t all that large either, now that I was getting closer to my adult height. They had seemed massive when I was younger, but not many were physically bigger than Jaws (or Wulfric, for that matter). Some of the largest where roughly buffalo sized, for example, but I had never even heard of something as enormous as an elephant or a giraffe would be.

“It’s House Spiritwind, Heller… I know that you are… acquaintances with Lord Wolfram Spiritwind, but they have a bad reputation for a reason. Maybe we should just…”

I took a deep breath before replying. “Ok, I think I see what is bothering you… is it because I seem to trust Jesvae?”

“You mean Lady Jesvae Spiritwind, Heller… don’t forget who she is. Don’t forget what Great House she is a part of.”

It was my turn to be silent for a moment… and as I was pondering his words, I realized that Wulfric had a point. I did trust Jesvae more than I should, most likely. Was it because we both had ice-based powers? That made little sense… but who knew what was possible in this world.

Or perhaps it was because she was Wolfram’s sister… even though Wolfram himself didn’t like her at all – in fact, he would be relieved if she met with an accident, before he could meet with one himself, if what he had told me of House Spiritwind was anything to go by…

I could understand why Wulfric was hesitant to trust someone from House Spiritwind, and their reputation for harsh pragmatism bordered on cruelty. They also had the largest standing garrison at the Shieldwall, with nearly half again as many prisoners stationed there as the next largest, House Runetail.

“I understand, Wulfric, and I will be careful. Thank you for reminding me.” I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “But I do think she is telling the truth, and… to be honest… I just can’t think of a safer option for the three of us. Off by ourselves, even if we didn’t have to worry about the beasts, how would be get food, clothes, shelter, and training?”

Wulfric let out a sigh, “I know… its just… even with all the politics, I feel like we are safer in The City than we are outside of it. And House Spiritwind…” He let his words trail off, but I nodded again in understanding.

We had vastly different understandings of what true danger was, but that didn’t mean either of us was really in the right or in the wrong. Back on Earth, the biggest danger was always political – meaning that it was other people you had to worry about.

Here, of course, the constant threat of the beasts kept society relatively unified, so it was understandable that Wulfric would consider the outside to be the greater threat. But the fact that the Merrik might die changed all that, in my opinion – desperation could do terrible things to people.

“Heller, Wulfric! Ambush!” Tetra suddenly appeared before us, a toothy grin on her face. “It looks like a group of nobles and warriors, and I think they may have seen me. I say we fight!”

What the… oh bloody beast, already!? I widened my eyes as I looked at Wulfric, who was looking back at me.

This… was not good…