The strike that would have taken Laurence’s head swung towards him but never arrived. Moments before it would have landed, Yveth was knocked aside by a human cannonball. The speed of the human moving was slightly beyond what either of them could see, so Yvethe had no chance to respond before being flung aside like a ragdoll. She crashed into a wall as the human landed on their feet and stood up.

In front of them was a young boy, about the same age as Laurence with white fur clothes covering his body. The fur clothing was of the same cut as Laurence’s handmade clothes, but with thick fur mittens instead of sleeves that ended at the elbow. In his hand was a short spear that looked more like a needle than anything else. It exuded a similar sensation to Laurence’s hammer, but rather than the strength that was inherent in Laurence’s spirit, this boy’s spear expressed a radiance of finesse. The young boy’s grey-white hair flickered in the rubble and wind generated by his entry. He looked like a wildling, with bright yellow eyes, standing in the fine mist of dust.

Yveth stood up, pressing off the wall she had slammed into to propel her back into a standing stance. Her form was no less oppressive than it had been before, but facing two boys of equivalent power seemed to neuter her capabilities considerably. She frowned at the odds before finally sprinting towards the unguarded exit of the building. The boy in white dove towards her at breakneck speed, but just as he reached Yveth she swung her hands back towards his unprotected neck. Unable to halt his momentum he ran straight into the wall, cracking it and shattering half of it.

Yveth stepped over the boy and sprinted from the building and off into the distance. She had decided that fighting Laurence and the boy in white was more effort than it was worth, so left them to their own devices. Laurence walked over to the boy and grabbed him by the hand, pulling him out of the wall he was partially trapped under.

“Who are you?” He said, looking at the boy who saved his life.

“Brother, don’t you recognise me?” The white haired boy looked slightly hurt at this.

“Yun?” Said Laurence. “Yun, is it really you?”

“Yes.” Replied Yun simply. He brushed himself off and began to walk back to the main room. “We should help the others find the target.”

As they walked to the back of the building Yun began to shift and blend his current form and the form of the wolf he was before. Soon he had melded the two forms before shifting finally into his canine form. The path before them slowly became littered with less and less debris through their journey, finally clearing away at the large room in front of them.

The room was cluttered, full of objects that displayed various sigils and patterns on them. The rest of Laurence’s team stood around the room, rummaging through the objects surrounding them. Laurence could see that they were quickly becoming more and more angry at the area surrounding them. Sara smashed the pots in front of her in a fit of rage, then began looking at a box full of jewelry.

“This pattern could be on anything” Said Louisa, sighing as she put back a small bowl full of multicoloured stones. She turned around and saw Laurence with torn clothes and bloodied flesh. She gasped, “Laurence, are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” He responded. “I encountered the Kimbramancer, and it did not go as well I thought it would.” He did not sigh, or complain about his loss, he just told them that he was more confident than he had reason to be. “If Yun had not shown up when he did, I would have not been able to hold out for much longer. What happened here?”

“We won.” Said Quentin glibly. “It started off tough because we were evenly matched with the enemy party, but when Yun showed up we quickly overcame them. Aliss, the other golden child, managed to hold us off as they escaped, but that’s because she sealed the exit behind them. Briar clansmen are very gifted at rearranging terrain quickly, so they pulled back the moment they realised they were losing.” He threw some clothing on the ground as he talked, flicking through a variety of styles but only taking a moment to look for the Lupe clan insignia.

“Since then we’ve just been ransacking this room for the object that we need to find, but we’ve not found anything.” Said Sara.

Hearing Quentin’s and Sara’s words, Laurence began to relax. He smiled and rubbed his hands together, immediately delving into the mass of objects in front of him. Every so often he would throw one or two of the objects in his bag, but for the most part he just discarded things that he found.

They spent twenty minutes before Sara, Quentin and Louise sat down in the middle of the room, surrounded by clutter and feeling no closer to actually passing the challenge than they had when Laurence arrived. Laurence still looked but even he was beginning to think the searching was unlikely to bear fruit. He cleared away the big pile in front of him when he heard a bark from Yun.

“Brother!” Sent Yun. “Brother, I found something!” Yun stood in front of a small alcove that had been hidden behind a settee. Inside there were three objects. A statuette, a painting and box. Each one was a lot less intricate than any of the objects in the main room, but clearly had the logo of the Lupe clan emblazoned on them. When Laurence saw this, he grabbed all three and yelled over to his allies. Before he could say anything coherent, however, there was a bright flash of light and everything disappeared.