The warriors of House Runetail silently awaited the orders from the noble who accompanied them; a minor functionary who was only distantly related to one of the larger landowners to the east, and therefore had more status than actual importance – in other words, a perfectly expendable peon who still had enough prestige to navigate the politics of bringing a full squad of Warriors into the territory of House Flameward without an official escort…

The squad themselves was made up of a mixed bag of cultivators who had started their career in other territories, and retired to the relatively safe (and well paid) position of Retainer to House Runetail after their terms of service were up, and when it was clear they were not talented enough to be granted noble title.

Three of them had started their career with House Flameward, and were therefore on the offensive line (being primarily attuned to fire and lighting); two were originally from House Spiritwind, which was far more balanced between attack and defense (with both ice shards and ice barriers); and the remaining three were cultivators who originated with House Runetail itself, and so almost entirely focused on shielding and impact mitigation.

“How dare you allow her to escape! Are you completely incompetent?” Hissed Lord Fasbed through his short beak. He was well dressed in expensive finery, although there were signs of stains and small rips on his clothes from spending time out in the wilderness, and he was covered with luxurious plumes of short feathers from head to toe (now with small leaves stuck between them here or there, giving him a rather dishevelled appearance).

The warrior he was speaking to shook her head, her long green hair seeming to almost blend into the foliage behind her. “She didn’t see me so far as I could tell, Lord Fasbed, but before I could get close enough, she spotted the rest of us and…”

“And then you allowed her to escape.”

The warrior shook her head again, lowering her eyes and gritting her teeth. Nothing good had ever come from arguing with a noble, but she had to make them understand what she had seen! There was something… not normal about what had happened – how quickly the girl had vanished, and the odd flash of purple light…

“No, Lord Fasbed, she… she just vanished, or maybe moved faster than should be possible, and there was a …”

“That is enough, Warrior Trian!”

“… Yes, my lord…”

“I shall decide upon your punishment after our mission is complete. Remember; we are to capture the boy with the green scales – the other two are expendable, though they can be used for leverage.”

The rest of the squad nodded their understanding, although a few exchanged worried looks as the looked at Trian. She was known to be a reliable scout, and it wasn’t like her to make up stories…

“I shall state once again; should we seriously harm the boy, or spirits forbid accidentally kill him, we will all be sent to the Shieldwall, or worse…” Lord Fasbed glowered at the squad under his command. If only he hadn’t been caught meeting with the Duke’s daughter, he wouldn’t be in this mess.

And their mission itself was odd; capture a new warrior recruit – who was apparently the young genius some fools were calling ‘Young Merrik’ – as he and his friends snuck out of The City. Why send a full squad, plus a highly trained (though currently disgraced) noble, when any regular quad of warriors should suffice?

***

I stared at Tetra in stunned silence for another few moments as my mind tried to process the implications of what she had just said. Ambush… so that means that someone knows we were leaving The City… or they have just been waiting for us all along… or…

“Heller!” Tetra waved her hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts and causing me to blink involuntarily.

“Right, ambush… did they see you? How many of them are there? Are you sure they are after us?”

“Ummm… no, I don’t think they saw me… and I saw five, which means there are probably a few more, likely a full squad, right?”

I nodded, waiting for her to finish. Tetra looked at me, then at Wulfric, some of her excitement fading.

“And I’m sure they are after us, why else would they be out here?”

It was my turn to share a look with Wulfric, and I got the feeling that both of us could think of a number of reasons why there would be a squad of warriors outside the city… but at the same time, Tetra had always possessed very good instincts, and if something made her think they were after us, I was inclined to believe it.

Wulfric spoke up finally, “Did you see any nobles with them? A noble out in the forest like this would be pretty suspicious.”

Tetra’s eyebrows raised as she hopped up and down with excitement, “Ah! Yes, there was one guy who looked like a noble, he had nice clothes and looked really out of place!” She smiled at both of us, “That’s why I think it’s an ambush!”

Well, that pretty much cinched it then, as I could see very little reason for a noble to come out on a scouting mission, and Jesvae had already warned me that there were factions in The City that were making a play for the ‘apprentice of the Merrik’ (although what they hoped that would accomplish, I hadn’t the faintest idea).

Wulfric rumbled his assent, “If they brought a noble out here, it’s probably not a scouting mission. Maybe they think we won’t fight back against a noble…”

Wulfric seemed troubled, likely because he actually didn’t think we should fight back against a noble… which just added another layer of complexity on the situation.

“Beast that! I say we got for the noble first, take him out! The rest of them are just following orders anyway, right?” As usually, Tetra had the exact opposite reaction to the nobility that Wulfric did… leaving me in the middle.

I held my hands up, trying to stop them before they could get into another debate, “There is nothing we can gain from engaging them, and we also want to avoid giving away the fact that we have powers that we can’t explain.”

They both looked at me, then at each other then back at me.

“So, you think we should sneak around them?” Tetra asked, a small frown on her face.

I nodded to her, then looked at Wulfric to see if he had anything to add.

“Well… I agree with Heller, I suppose… but I am also worried that we won’t be able to escape them without using our powers. They are trained warriors, and there is a noble with them who is probably even more powerful…”

“Right, so we fight them then?”

I let out a sigh, snaking my head. “If we fight them now, or later, it’s the same – we are kinda screwed. I think the only thing we can do is try to sneak past them, and then deal with it if we can’t.”

The ‘easiest’ solution would be to simply silence them all, permanently, but luckily none of the three of us were psychopaths, so that option didn’t even enter serious consideration. Maybe if the stakes were a lot higher, like if killing this group could directly save an entire village somehow, I could stomach it, but there is no way my friends would be that heartless.

Tetra, for all her talk, would be stricken by guilt if she killed any of them, even by accident, although I think she is tough enough to get past it and move on, should it happen. I know that she was at least mildly traumatised by the deadly fight she witnessed between me and Alder’s quad back years ago, since it came up now and then in conversation. I had tried to be open about the whole thing, because I have a vague memory from back on earth that bottling things up was bad. Anyway, Tetra seemed to be ok so far.

Wulfric, however… well, Wulfric had a strong sense of ‘justice is law’ and ‘law is justice’ going on, and since it would be firmly against the law for us to silence anybody, there is no chance he would be alright with such a plan. He also seemed to be the most affected by the death of Alder’s squad, even though he hadn’t been even remotely involved – the story of it, when we eventually told him, had hit him extremely hard.

Having come to an agreement after a few more minutes of discussion, we started moving along a path that was would leave us having to circle the other way around The City. We had even discussed returning and trying to leave through another gate, but if there were people waiting for us here, in territory that was nominally on our side (all things considered), it could be only worse anywhere else.

“You, girl, made me look like a fool. In front of my entire squad!”

We not been traveling long before we were met with an angry accusation from the forest in front of us, causing Tetra to gasp; Wulfric to throw himself down to the ground behind a bush; and me to start circulating the ambient Qi around myself, slowing things around me down by speeding myself up.

“Stay down, like we planned!” I called out in a low voice as I started turning into my ice form. It was somewhat pointless for me to try and hide my own powers at this point, as enough had gotten out that there wouldn’t be a major stir – the biggest risk right now was Tetra and Wulfric revealing themselves before we were ready.

“Ho ho! Is the boy a bastard child of some exiled icicle?” Called out another voice, not far from my right. Bloody beast, how did I ever think we could escape from trained warriors? Powers or not, they must have years of training and experience out in the wilds, not something that a teenager could compete with unaided.

“That’s no Spiritwind technique, you fool! Don’t let your guard down, something’s off about this kid!”

Another voice to my left, this one slightly further away, but still a lot closer than I was comfortable with.

Alright, well as surprised went, this was a crappy one… We were surrounded.