Ril woke with a start. Shadows danced from the meager light that the moon emitted. He was lying on the couch in Gemma’s living room, although he did not remember getting there. Then, the memories of his desperate flight from the dungeon returned and he fell back into the blankets with a huff.

That journey had been scarring. Ril was sure that he would have nightmares of running through a forest while being attacked by wild animals. He shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if he didn’t manage to get to the clearing before nightfall. Even during the day, the monster attacks had left him exhausted and wounded.

Speaking of wounds, Ril ran a hand over himself and found that his wounds had closed. A product of Gemma’s magic most likely. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that he was all better. Only the wounds that had torn his skin had been fixed. The bruises that he had acquired had only faded slightly. In the moonlight, his bruises looked nearly black on his pale skin.

Ril started to get up, fully intending to take care of his business and return to bed until dawn, when a bone deep weariness stole through him. His eyes widened as his body simply dropped down to the blankets as if someone had strapped weights to it. The exhaustion suffused every part of his body, even his face which was a strange sensation. It was bone deep and faded frustratingly slowly as he lay still.

Ril’s eyes widened in shock. He had never felt so tired. It was strange, like his mind was awake, groggy from just waking up, but alert.

This is unreal. Wonder if it’s because of Gemma’s healing.

The strange feeling of being alert but exhausted certainly led credence to that theory.

Ril forced himself into a sitting position. Regardless of the exhaustion, he couldn’t sleep with his bladder complaining. On the edge table there lay a cup with gleaming runes engraved into its base. It was steaming and releasing a glorious smell into the room. Some kind of stew. Only now did Ril realize just how hungry he was.

With gusto, Ril reached over and grabbed the cup. When he did so the runes faded away. Not that he noticed. He was too busy carefully inhaling the divine mixture. After the first few gulps that scalded the roof of his mouth, Ril glanced back down. On the table, next to where the cup of stew had sat lay a folded piece of paper. Ril picked it up curiously. The note was covered in several lines of runes. These runes didn’t glow or appear magical in any way. Ril flipped the paper around. Blank. With a shrug, Ril put the note back down onto the table and finished his meal.

Then he laboriously stood. His body complained loudly, and his knees trembled, but Ril managed to make his way to the bathroom. Like an old man, Ril made his way back to his couch before collapsing. Briefly, before sleep took over, he noticed that someone had given him an extra blanket.

* * *

The days passed quickly after that. It turned out that other than a massive headache, Evelyn was okay. Neither of them had sustained permanent injuries and had managed to acquire a not insignificant sum of chromium that Evelyn assured Ril would be enough to fund his exploration of Anduin.

When Ril asked Gemma about the exhaustion he felt when he first awoke, she smiled and said that it was one of the hallmarks of magical healing. No one had figured out a way to provide the body the energy to heal, rather magical healing relied on convincing the body to accelerate its own natural processes.

And so, for the next several Ril and Evelyn took it slow. Spending most of their time talking with Gemma on the porch.

In this time, Ril overcame his hesitance and asked Gemma why her scarf didn’t get longer. She just gave him a mysterious look, then gave him his own set of knitting needles and yarn. Evelyn had laughed, and told him that Gemma was an enigma wrapped in a mystery and that trying to understand her was beyond people like them.

Finally, after three days of rest, Ril woke up without aches and pains. Excited he immediately asked Evelyn to spar. With a grin she joined him in front of the house, and soon the clearing rang with the sounds of combat.

By now Ril was incorporating his other abilities into the mock battles. Despite not having any true combat skills Ril managed to defeat Evelyn every once in a while. Telekinesis was deadly when used at the right moment to twist an ankle, and soon Evelyn was using it just as often as him during their duels.

Periodically they would rest. Discussing strategy and different avenues that they could use to gain the upper hand in the duels. It was during one of these breaks that something strange happened in the clearing.

Ril was wiping away the sweat when he heard the sound of voices coming from the forest. He paused and looked in question towards the offending noise. Throughout his entire time living in Gemma’s cottage he had never once heard another person’s voice other than Evelyn and Gemma. It looked like they had visitors.

From the forest, five figures emerged. They were mounted on sleek horses, who each strutted into the clearing proudly. Their manes waving in the wind. The figures themselves were impressive. The first two were clearly male, and wore steel armor with various amounts of golden filigree inlaid into the metal. The armor shown in the evening sun, momentarily blinding Ril as he observed the visitors. They each wore sheathed blades with ornate hilts at their hips, and kite shields on their backs. Behind the two knights came an older man riding on a comparatively unassuming grey pony. Unlike the knights, this man wore finely crafted robes instead of steel, and didn’t have any obvious weapons on his person. The last two members of the procession wore less impressive regalia. The first was a man who wore light cloth armor, with several rivets visible in various areas that indicated the presence of steel plates interwoven underneath the fabric. He had a short bow strapped to his back and gave off a hunter’s aura. The second, was a woman. She wore chainmail over cloth and had a more standard loadout of shortsword and buckler. The tip of a shortbow peaked over her shoulder, and a quiver of arrows could be seen strapped to the side of the horse

Each member of the party had a tabard with a unique insignia embroidered on it. The first two knights each had a unique symbol on the tabard that covered their chest. The first had a silver sword poised gracefully over a field of blooming pink flowers, while the second had a black raven frozen mid-flight. The last three members of the party all had the same symbol on their tabards. That of seven silver spikes erupting from the ground.

“Cato!” Evelyn cried, startling Ril who was paying close attention to the riders. She jumped down from the porch where she had been resting and started walking over to the older looking gentleman.

“A pleasure to see you again my dear. You are looking as beautiful as always.” Cato responded, dismounting from his horse. “How has the training been going?”

Cato had black hair with a liberal sprinkling of grey strands. He held Evelyn’s hand in his own somewhat like a doting uncle would to his favorite niece.

“It has been going great!” She responded, blushing slightly. “Mostly because of Ril, we have been sparing as often as we can and it’s been really helpful.”

Evelyn turned around and gestured to Ril who was still sitting on the porch steps, with a towel in his hands.

“Nice to meet you Ril.” Cato said, with a slight bow.

Ril stumbled to his feet. “Nice to meet you too, Cato right?”

“Yes, Cato Anders. I am an advisor to the royal family.”

Ril stood there awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what he should say, as Evelyn smiled happily at seeing Cato. The young knight with the sword over a field of flowers stepped up next to Cato.

“Hello princess Evelyn. I am glad to see that you are safe. We are here to escort you back to Anduin for the beginning of the Academy semester.” Then the young knight turned to Ril. “I am Julius Von Aureus, a holy knight of Anduin. A pleasure to meet you Ril.”

Ril nodded hesitantly. Julius was intimidating. He was quite tall, with blond hair and ornate steel armor. While he said that he was just a knight of Anduin he looked like he had a higher pedigree than that of a simple knight. Evelyn and Cato stepped to the side and began speaking privately about something important.

Julius turned around and gestured to the other two knights with the symbol of the seven spires on their tabards who were settling the horses. “Those two over there are Eren Von Aquila and Felix Schmidt. They are Evelyn’s retainers. That dour faced gentleman over there is Orden Von Seidel, and he will be attending the Academy with Evelyn once we arrive at Anduin.”

The man with a raven on his tabard who Julius had named as Orden came over to them after handing his horse’s reins to Felix.

“Greetings, my name is Orden Von Seidel. I apologize I did not catch your name sir.” Orden said.

Ril grinned slightly at being called sir by a knight who was clearly a noble of some sort given his name. “Hi there, my name is Ril. I stumbled across Gemma’s cottage a few weeks ago as I was travelling to Anduin from Elkshire. And have been imposing on them ever since.”

“Elkshire huh. What made you decide to travel through the Dread Thicket?” Julius asked, a curious look on his face.

Ril shrugged. “Thought it would be faster.”

Orden frowned, and gave a contemptuous snort at Ril’s response. Julius however burst out laughing.

“Ha! You’re not wrong, as long as you don’t get yourself killed on the way.” Julius said, wiping a tear from his eye. “So you are a fighter, huh? Are you planning on joining the academy when you arrive at Anduin?”

Ril hesitated. “Well I am not really much of a fighter, Evelyn beats me nine times out of ten when we spar, but I was planning on trying to join the academy. There is so much I want to see in Anduin once I get there.” He said excitedly.

“Not a fighter he says!” Julius gave a hearty chuckle. “If you can beat the princess once in a while you must be pretty good. Either way, it takes real bravery to travel alone through this forest.”

Ril shrugged and looked down, uncomfortable at the praise. It was mostly because of his unique abilities that he managed to get this far unscathed. If the panther shadow beast had not protected him he was sure that he wouldn’t have survived his initial foray into the Dread Thicket.

“Anyways, I was planning on joining Evelyn on her journey back to Anduin whenever she left, which I guess is soon, since you guys are here?” Ril asked.

“Yeah, we were planning on leaving tomorrow at first light if the princess is ready by then.” Julius responded, glancing over at Evelyn and Cato for a moment.

“We are all healed up and should be ready!” Ril replied with a grin.

“What do you mean by all healed up?” Orden interjected. Throughout the conversation he had been frowning at Ril in a disapproving manner.

“Uhm.” Ril hesitated, taken aback by Orden’s hostility. “Well we, I mean Evelyn and I tackled a dungeon the other day. And uhm, we got injured, but all our wounds are healed by now thanks to Gemma, so we should be able to travel by tomorrow morning. I mean, we should probably ask Evelyn just in case, but I am, at least.”

“You took the princess on a dungeon run?! I am assuming it was just you and her. How could you risk the life of the next heir to the throne on something so trivial?” Orden said incredulously.

“Hey, I risked my life too. And yeah, it was dangerous, but we learned a lot and it was fun.” Ril retorted, getting angry now. “Besides, we didn’t die so it’s a moot point.”

“And what would you have done if she had been killed? Did you think of that or were you too busy having fun?” Orden scathingly.

“Well, if Evelyn and I want to have fun then we should have fun. Even if it is risky, it’s wo--”

“Ridiculous--” Orden began.

“You made your point, Orden.” Julius said quietly, putting a hand on Orden’s shoulder. Orden, for his part paused for a moment in his tirade before angrily shrugged Julius’s hand off and continued his rebuke.

“No. This peasant has no respect, and risked the life of the princess without a care in the world. The princess is important. Unlike this wretch. She has a duty to this country to lead it and protect it. In order to do that she needs to stay alive.” He then turned to Ril. “So you dragging her off and risking her life on a dungeon run because you felt that it would be fun is the height of folly. You risk much more than you could possibly be aware of. I don’t expect a peasant like you to understand the concept of responsibility, so I will educate you. The princess is too valuable to risk on silly expeditions with you. Know your place, and don’t distract her from her duty!”

“If Evelyn is the princess of the entirety of Elendial then she should be able to do what she wants when she wants to. Ignorant gits like you should not dictate her actions just because you think it's too big of a risk. If Evelyn wants to go on a dungeon run then she will go on a dungeon run AND run your country with both hands tied behind her back. And I’m not the one who should--”

“What is going on here?” Evelyn interrupted, striding in between the two and staring at each one in succession. Julius just gave a helpless shrug, and surreptitiously nodded his head towards Orden.

“I heard from Ril that you and him went dungeon delving together a few days ago and were injured. I was informing him that his actions have consequences.” said Orden, deferentially, regaining his former calm.

“Ril was not the one who suggested that we go dungeon delving.” Eveluyn said, her eyes flashing. “I did. And we successfully killed the dungeon boss and with Gemma’s help neither of us even have any scars. In my view, those are pretty good consequences.”

“And you,” Evelyn turned to Ril. “I am perfectly capable of defending my own actions. I will not have two of my friends fighting over something as trivial as this.”

Ril stared at Evelyn with a betrayed look on his face. Was Evelyn really siding with Orden on this? Before he could defend himself, Felix, the guardsman who had been busy with the horses up until now, walked over to their little huddle.

“How about a barbeque!” Felix shouted loudly, while holding a string of rabbits up with both hands, a forced grin on his face.

“Yes that would be lovely, getting someone else's cooking would be nice after all this time.” Gemma said, giving Evelyn a pointed look.

“Hey, I like my cooking,” Evelyn said with a smile. She put her hands down and with one final look at Ril and Orden she went to start a fire.

The rest of the party turned away from the argument, and began preparing the necessary things for a barbeque. Ril threw Orden a venomous glare, which was ignored, before joining the others.