Lilia walks through the village, returning the morning greetings from the people she passes. Reud left a couple of hours earlier, racing off to investigate his latest mystery. It was lovely to see him animated about something, instead of hovering around her as if she was some sort of fragile glass sculpture. In her mind she knew it had been a very long time for him, centuries left alone in the dark. But for her, no time had passed at all. From when everything went dark in those dungeon tunnels, to opening her eyes in that crypt, it was like a blink. Nothing but a moment. In that blink the man she’d married, so bright and full of wonder, drained away to a shadow of his former self. She was still trying to get her head around that.

Shaking the thoughts from her mind, Lilia heads towards the Mayor’s house. A quick rap on the door and Rachel bursts out, her face bright with excitement. It had only been a couple of weeks of training, but already she was showing signs of improvement. Her arms, exposed by her tight vest-top, were starting to gain muscle definition. Lilia was pushing her through the training that she would have subjected any warrior recruit to, but they always had their magic to aid them. Rachel was doing it all solely via force of will. She’d have been truly formidable if she’d been born with an affinity.

“Good morning, Master Lilia!” Rachel says.

Lilia smiles at the woman's enthusiasm. “Ready to train?”

“Definitely! Let’s-” Suddenly she stops, twirls, and dashes inside. A moment later she emerges clutching a pair of swords. “I almost forgot, we finally received the practise swords.”

Lilia accepts one of the blades from her, testing the edge. Sufficiently blunt. “Good, it’s about time you got used to the weight of a metal blade.”

Together they head north out of the village, to the secluded clearing they’d been training in. Rachel had taken Lilia here on the first day - apparently it was her refuge to escape from the world in. Lilia had to admit, it was perfect. Just far enough from the village to make it unlikely anyone would stumble upon it, but not so far that it required a large time investment to get to.

Arriving in the clearing, Lilia sets Rachel to running laps to warm up before settling down in the centre. Feeling within herself, Lilia focuses in on her magic, awakening it. Throughout her entire life she had felt only a single affinity within herself, one for strengthening magics. This is what led her along her path through life, to the warrior division in the academy, and into adventuring life. Now, however, a new affinity had joined the first, sitting untapped deep within her. It was that new magic she wanted to explore.

The affinity was strange, so unlike her own. Warped and twisted, complex in ways she had no prior experience with. Reud had said the previous inhabitant of this body had been a cryomancer, focused on manipulating ice.

Pulling mana into herself, Lilia shapes it with the strengthening affinity. The spell spreads through her body, sinking into her muscles and filling them with unbelievable power. As long as she held this spell, she knew from experience she could lift boulders, punch through walls, bend metal bars. If only she could hold onto this feeling forever! But, sadly, she didn’t have the raw power to channel the spell for more than minutes at a time. With reluctance, Lilia releases the spell, and the sense of power vanishes.

Pulling in mana again, Lilia pushes it into the other affinity. Carefully watching to see how the spell forms. The mana sinks into the affinity’s twisted pathways, vanishing from her senses. No spell formed, not even the wispy mess that denoted a failed casting. That was unexpected.

She tries again, pulling more in even more mana. Once again, as soon as the mana enters the affinity, instead of forming into a spell it instead gets sucked away.

Lilia frowns. This was not how any of her professors had explained how magic worked. The affinity was supposed to shape mana, acting like a lens focusing it into a specific style of magic. You push mana in, and out the other side comes a spell. It wasn’t supposed to absorb any of it!

Lilia tries a few more times, but the result was always the same. No spell, no magic. The mana just vanishing into nothingness. Lilia lets out a sigh. An odd mystery that Reud would probably get a kick out of solving. For a moment she entertains the idea of not telling him and avoiding the many long hours of being poked and prodded as he figured it out, but then she’d never figure out what’s wrong with it. Besides, he’d be so excited to have something else to unravel, it would be a shame to deprive him of that.

Lilia notices that the clearing is quiet, the sound of pounding feet no longer filling the air. She opens her eyes to find Rachel standing to her side, rocking back and forth on her heels, full of energy. A smile breaks out on Lilia’s face at the young woman's exuberance.

“Looks like you're warmed up.” Lilia says, standing up and brushing away the grass stuck to her legs. Taking one of the practise swords, she takes a basic stance opposite Rachel, her blade held in front of her, its tip right at the centre of her vision. “Remember, focus on your opponent, but don’t-”

Her vision goes white as pain blasts through her mind. The sword drops from her fingers as she clutches her forehead, her mouth open in a soundless scream. It feels like someone is trying to pound a nail through her skull, then filling the hole with molten metal. A pain that leaves no room for thought, for action, for anything at all.

The pain dulls a fragment, and through the agonizing haze Lilia can make out what seem to be words.

“... status… report… Isabella… message… free mage… village...”

The voice speaking seems to be male, but beyond that Lilia can make out nothing more, the pain washing through her in waves making it hard to think.

“... return…”

Then, as if it had never existed, the pain was gone. The cool feeling of the grass pressing into her cheek is the first thing Lilia notices. She must have fallen over. Rachel kneels beside her, worry on her face.

“Master Lilia! Master Lilia! What's wrong?” Rachel cries, shaking her shoulder.

Lilia pushes herself up onto one arm, gently prising herself from Rachel's grip. “It’s alright. I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Rachel doesn’t look convinced, but holds out a hand, helping Lilia to her feet. Lilia smiles, forcing herself to look unconcerned. Inside, however, she is shaken. What exactly happened? The voice, who was that? It felt familiar, somehow. At the tip of her tongue.

Looking back within herself, something catches her attention. The other affinity now feels as smooth as her original one, as if the twists and warps that marred it had never existed at all.

Tentatively, she channels a bit of mana into it. Immediately a wave of nausea threatens to spew her breakfast over the ground. Lilia doubles over, holding a hand over her mouth until her stomach settles again. When she finally raises her head again, Rachel’s expression has gone from concerned to completely terrified.

Lilia forces out a smile. “Actually, I think I may head back and rest. I’m not feeling too great.”

She takes a step but dizziness sends her stumbling. Darting forwards, Rachel grabs her, pulling Lilia’s arm across her shoulders.

“Let me help you for once, Master Lilia.” She says, holding Lilia upright. Lilia smiles thankfully, leaning on the young woman.

Together, they pick their way through the forest back to the village, the walk taking them over twice as long as before. By the time the wooden walls come into sight, the sun has passed overhead, midday having come and gone a while before.

Rachel helps her up to her room in the inn, rushing off then returning with a plate of dried meat and bread. Rachel continues to fuss over her, and it takes all of Lilia’s power of persuasion to convince her that she just needed some rest. What a dutiful student.

Finally alone, Lilia sits on the bed with her back against the wall. Chewing on a bit of salted dried meat, she tries to make sense of what just happened. Affinities aren’t suppose to change, so why did hers? What was that voice?

Thoughts running through her mind, Lilia rests her head against the wall. Slowly, her eyes droop shut, and she fades into blissful sleep.

***

Lilia wakes with a start. The room is dark, lit only by the faint moon shining through the window. Lilia reaches out beside her, fumbling for Reud’s comforting figure. Her hand finds nothing but the cool blanket. Reud hadn’t yet returned? That wasn’t like him.

Lilia lets out a large yawn, looking around the room. At the sight of the half finished plate of food her stomach growls. He’ll wake me when he gets back.

Finishing off the remaining bread, Lilia pulls off her leathers, the sleepiness fogging her thoughts making her movements clumsy. Eventually, she manages to strip down to her underclothes, and crawls back under the blankets. Sleep quickly returns to her.

***

The light streaming through the window draws Lilia from the depths of sleep. Groggily, she pulls the blankets up to cover her head, dropping back into blissful darkness. As she slowly wakes, she notices the village isn’t as quiet as it should be. Shouts disturb the normally peaceful air.

Pulling the blankets away, she sits up. “Reud, what’s going on out there?” She mumbles.

No response.

Lilia turns to look at the spot on the bed that should contain Reud. It’s empty. Reud hadn’t come back.

Instantly she snaps awake. Something about the whole situation feels wrong. Her instincts, honed by years at war, screaming out to beware. Quickly, she struggles into her leathers, pulling the chain shirt over the top. She straps her sword to her hip, and pulls a long, travellers cloak over to cover it all. She’s ready.

A banging sounds from the ground floor of the inn, followed by a muffled shout.

“Everyone is to gather in the square, by order of the Lord Seeker!”

The Seekers. Lightire dogs, stepping on the neck of all people in the conquered territories. Whatever they are doing here, it can’t be good.

Pulling open the door, she heads downstairs to the tavern room. The innkeep and his wife are already shuffling out the door ahead of her. Beside them stands a young man gesturing for them to go outside, clad in silver and blue brigandine with a stylized lantern and eye symbol embossed on the front. Lilia pulls her hood down further over her face, averting her eyes from the man. Though her irises weren’t currently glowing with the purple of magic, she had no idea if the Seekers had other methods for detecting mages. Best to just hurry past and hope they don’t look too closely.

An air of fear fills the village. Soldiers dressed in the same silver and blue armour go from door to door, forcing people out into the street and directing them towards the square.

Lilia follows the crowd, trying to keep as large a group of people between herself and the soldiers as possible.

Snippets of conversation wash over her as she passes group after group of chattering people.

“Maybe they’ve come for Lord Reud?” One man says to another. “I told you Telac’s death would bring it down on us all.”

“Nah, why would the Seekers care about him?” The other man replies. “I bet you it’s because they found another awakening not reported.”

“But Marla and Vorlo just got taken!”

“Don’t matter, I bet there’s more. Why else would the Seekers care?”

The rest of their conversation is lost as the movement of the crowd takes Lilia away from the pair. The general mood of the crowd is of confusion and fear. Not a single person believing that the arrival of the Seekers to be anything but bad news.

A break in the crowd lets Lilia finally see what they were all being ushered towards. At the centre of the square a squat wooden platform has been built. A pole rises from that platform, a slumped figure tied to it. Something about that figure calls to her, and in an instant, she knows exactly who it is.

Lilia’s blood goes cold. Around her the sounds of the crowd fade away, replaced by the pounding of her blood in her ears.

It’s Reud.

They’d captured Reud.