“Are you serious?” Numen deadpanned as I explained the situation to her upstairs. “I mean, it’s definitely good on you, great that you’re sticking out for them, Linden’s an ass. But we need you, and I don’t expect that after that you’re willing to ask him to take them back.”

“I won’t, and I won’t let them be until they can handle themselves.” I replied, then sighed. “Though I suppose I should’ve asked them how they felt on it first…” I leaned back against the wall. “Who knows, maybe he could’ve been a fairly good if abrasive trainer…” I nearly had to choke out the last bit, and Numen snorted. Kind of glad we’re on the same page on that…

She sighed, sipping at her mead. “Well any of us following you would be overkill, and having them tag along would be horrible for our collective conscience…” She set aside the mug. “Ahhh, seriously…” Her smile was sad, brittle, she opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it, leaning back and sighing again. “Well… I guess I can take some jobs with Rince, and I think Frejr is almost done…”

I smiled at her despondent tone. “That’s not too bad is it?” I teased. “Is having Rince really that big a step down from me?” She pouted, crossing her arms exaggeratedly and rolling her eyes, then giving me a small half-smile.

“Oh come off it.” She said, shaking her head bemused. “It’s nothing I guess, just overthinking.”

I arched an eyebrow, but she kept silent, simply sticking her tongue out at me. I shrugged. “In any case having any of you come with me would break my ‘disguise’. I will probably go plain-clothed. Well, for a given meaning of that anyway…” I brush my hand over my gauntlets, idly caressing the now smooth surface.

Being able to reconstitute it as I did after the fight with the demons opened an interesting avenue. If I can manipulate the individual attraction between each atom, I could conceivably change it to any form I wished given time. To my chagrin I’d found no way to repel them from one another, but just by manipulating the structure I’d been able to remake the cloth-like form of the Liaen.

As it was now I’d had the idea of forming it into metal armour, if only at the surface. I’d told the two that we could set out tomorrow, and to get some rest in the meantime. Something simple had been available at least. The population of dire animals in a wood near one of the farms had been going out of control, the mission was to cull some of those numbers, as they had begun attacking travellers on the road.

[It’s probably more than just a simple overcrowding. Rarely will predators multiply unless their food source has increased as well.] Page observed.

I figure it’s just the fallout from some previous boom in population, most of the time prey predator populations have a distinct cyclical nature to them. I replied, thinking back to old lessons. In any case, it should be simple enough for them to get on.

That night I brought out the hilt that I’d been given, deciding then to call it a shaper. The soul copy I’d been given hopped over, guiding me to the different activators on the device. Now that I had a good look, the modifications had really pretty much invalidated it as a candidate for weaponry. The balance was all off, and each activator protruded from… everywhere.

It guided me with deliberate, considered movements, circling the device every once in a while. Curious, I Delved to observe as well. It seemed that all the activators and buttons were changing something about the structure, assembling the elementals step by step from the aether. Some were meant to stabilize the creation, keep it from splitting off, perhaps forming the fragments we saw…

After a while it nodded to me, walking off to sit by the window, staring out across the city. Perhaps it still has some kind of personality. I thought to myself, stretching out my limbs. My head ached, lack of sleep starting to take its toll on my mind and body. At least I’ll get some sleep now… I thought to myself. Sparing another bleary glance at the hilt, which gleamed and shined in the darkness upon my desk, I went to sleep.

The others told me that Teal had not returned after she turned in the request, unknown to them that the dragon was its true form. I caught Teal giving me a glance as I left with the two. It had been accepting, but not supportive of my choice, which I could understand. She probably wanted me to actually take the fight to the Edratchi instead of waste my time on them.

“I haven’t actually caught your names.” I said, pulling down my visor, it wasn’t nearly as obstructive to my vision as a normal one, but even so my sight was still limited. Might rely on Sense to make up the difference… I thought to myself.

[Agreed, but you should be careful, you’ve not gained enough sleep to focus very well…] Page observed.

“Yeah, we’ve never had the time to tell you…” The archer replied hesitantly. “My name is Maria, and his name is Qen.” She gestured to the spearman.

“Be frank, how much experience did you have before and what kinds of missions have you been on since?” I gave them a hard stare. “I don’t judge, but I need to know what else you need to know.” I said. “Oh right… Do you have anything like this?” I held up the booklet.

“No.” Qen said, both of them shaking their heads. “We… didn’t actually have any experience, I… kind of ran away from home to do this.” He said with a wince, eyes sliding away. “My parents are dead though, there’s… no one to mourn me after.”

Not even friends? I thought, eyebrow arched but silent.

“I met up with him when I arrived here, with Riche.” Maria said. “I used to live in Hnivon, down in Arei. The Masked helped us once with an ogre, just before the gnoll siege.” Her head lowered. “My dad died attacking the ogre.” Oh gods. I thought, recalling the man. Why is she here though? “I wanted to learn how to fight those things, kill them. Keep my home safe, but they don’t teach, so I thought I’d try to work with them and pick it up the long way.”

I tapped the booklet against my palm, handing it to them. “Here, study this in your spare time, they did tell me they didn’t have the budget to give one to everyone…” They took it gingerly. “It’s a bestiary, made by the military, they passed it quite a few of us, it’s proved really useful to read.”

“Don’t you need this Mr…?” Maria asked, looking to me with pursed lips.

“Kael, my name is Kael.” I answered. “I won’t really need it, my memory is good enough and I’ve already read it once. You’ll need it more than I do.” I said with a grin. “If you’ve learned what you need Maria, will you go back with Qen to your home to protect it there?”

“I thought I’d go to Soren to work with the guild there once it gets established.” She answered. “Then I’ll always be close to home. I don’t know if Qen will come with me, it’s his choice.”

Qen nodded sharply. “I won’t ever leave.” He said firmly.

“Alright, what missions did you go on with Linden?” I asked, Sense extended to watch the trail around us. I closed my eyes, obscured as they were by the visor, letting me relax somewhat.

“Uh…” Qen paused. I’m not going to like this am I? “He brought us with him for one or two goblin exterminations…” He rubbed the back of his head. “We were told to stay out of the way.” Oh for… Are you serious?! I thought, sighing. Well at least he didn’t use them as meat shields…

[Low bar.] Page noted. [Not that I disagree.] It continued wryly.

“I’ll guide you on these missions, did he split any of the profits with you?” They stared at me blankly. “Did he feed you?” They nodded at that. “Bloody hell…” I muttered.

“Alright, here’s the deal.” I said. “We’ll need to cull some of the dire beast numbers. I’d prefer we didn’t face them head on. If you’ve hunted before then you should understand that we don’t want them ganging on us, that means traps, hit and run tactics, and positioning, positioning, positioning. You can take the reward, I have another job I’ll also take on the way back.” I said.

They nodded, and I urged them into a jog. We made good time, resting by the road once night had fallen. We sat around a fire, as I roasted some rabbits I’d managed to snare. We didn’t have the time to preserve deer meat or otherwise, I figured the dire beasts would likely feed them enough to avoid rabbit starvation at least.

“Thank you.” Qen said, chewing the meat with what approached relish. “This is nice.” Maria apparently agreed, digging in and nodding to Qen.

“Haha, more than likely it’s that what you’re used to is crap…” I replied. “I’ve had to make my own food often enough, so it’s alright, no banquet, but alright.” I explained with an easy smile.

“How long have you been an irregular?” Maria asked between mouthfuls, looking over the campfire at me. Qen looked over as well, and she continued. “You’ve met Linden before right? He doesn’t seem to remember, but when you saw him… Well… you looked like you’d been forced to eat crow.”

“I’ve been in this life for almost three years or so.” I answered, thinking back to when I’d first arrived in the world. Huh, I’ve been doing this for a while haven’t I? I thought, chewing on the rabbit meat. The texture at least was good, but having tasted properly seasoned and prepared rabbit meat before, I wouldn’t call it stellar. “I met Linden during my first year, same kind of ass, but I have to say I wouldn’t have recognized him by voice alone. Wouldn’t expect him to remember me either, nothing particularly memorable about my person anyway.”

“Two years?” Maria exclaimed. “That’s not very long, how did you get used to this?” She gestured at the fire, and the blankets we were using to lie on. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how rough this gets…” She said, taking another bite of her rabbit.

“I was already used to this by the time I joined, had to spend a lot of time on the road…” I trailed off, then sighed. “I was a soldier, don’t ask me when or what I fought for, it’s not important anymore.” I said. “In any case, trust me, you get used to it after a while, so long as you have a good reason for it you might even begin to like life on the road.” I chuckled. “When you’re done, go get some sleep, I’ll take first watch. You alright taking second?” I asked, looking to Qen, who nodded.

I had the rest of the meal in silence, letting them talk amongst themselves. That was a hard admission to make… I thought, staring out at into the darkness. A war in this world seems petty, why would you fight others when the local wildlife is already a ridiculously lethal threat? I sighed. Then again, all the soldiers I’ve met have been in charge of peacekeeping and protection, perhaps not even soldiers at all at that point.

[Hard to shake the notion attached when you dream of the dead.] Page acknowledged.

I woke Qen after an uneventful shift, waiting until he’d rubbed sleep from his eyes and taken up his position. “You should be able to tell when the shift should change when the moon reaches that section of the sky.” I explained to him, he hadn’t done this for long after all, and I wasn’t sure how they’d divvied up the time slots, if they had at all. He nodded, and I lay down to sleep.