*Thunk* Astor was forced awake by a resounding pain to his head. "Ouch," muttered Astor. Before opening his eyes, he could hear the occasional squeaking of wheels and the rattling of loose wood. His mind raced pointlessly to figure out what had happened. Settling on a thought, Astor opened his eyes. Staring into the wooden plank rising above him, he let out a sigh. Closing his eyes again to assess his condition. Astor felt his body still intact, albeit really sore. Astor continued lying on the cart, enjoying the rattling and wobbling of his body. He felt no other corpse thrown in with him, so that definitely meant they probably had something planned for him. *Whap*.....*Thunk* Ahh.... They should treat their special undead with more respect. Astor sat up, rubbing his head. He looked to his right and, to his surprise, saw a yellow-uniformed soldier walking alongside the wagon. "Did we win?" Astor called out. "What do you think?" the soldier asked sternly. Astor shrugged, "Would explain why I'm in a corpse wagon." The soldier huffed a breath of laughter. Then he called out to someone. "Hey, he's awake." Astor heard the shuffle of footsteps towards the wagon. "Ah, you've woken up," said a young man with blonde hair. Astor blinked his eyes. The young man looked like the typical rich noble that he would have never met on a battlefield. He bore a lavishly decorated suit of armor and his blue eyes reminded Astor of something important. "Where's Anthony?" "Who?" replied young man. "The Celestial. That captain I fought with." "Ahh, Sir Gael, we apprehended him and his members. The higher-ups will decide their fates. They do hold important political roles, and perhaps we can use them to receive better-surrendering terms from their representatives." Astor breathed out with relief. One less death is always welcomed in his book even though, just before, he was trying so desperately to kill him. Astor gazed about his surroundings. The sight was pretty gruesome. the bodies of soldiers laid strewn about the mud in the odd-colored grass. Yellow and red uniforms were scattered evenly among the corpses and Astor tried not to delve too deeply at the sight. He returned the gaze of the knight. "Are you quite alright? We saw you get thrown a few inches into the air,"asked the worried knight. Astor rubbed his chin, "Yes, strangely enough. A little sore, but that's not much to complain about." "That's good. We can't have our hero half dead before presenting him." Astor looked around in his cart quizzingly, as if to suggest that they had already prepared exactly for that. The knight chuckled lightly and Astor relaxed before noticing that something was missing. He frantically started to look around. "What's the matter?" asked the young man. "Did you happen to pick up my sword as well?" Astor asked hopefully. "Ahh, yes. How could we ever forget such a thing? Seeing you walk up to Sir Gaelic brandishing that sword is a sight I probably would never forget." Astor thought for a moment. So it really was glowing from the pommel. The nameless knight handed over a clothed bundle. Astor tore away the cloth until he laid his eyes on the familiar sight. Sighing, Astor pulled out the sword to inspect it. It has been cleaned from the muck and blood that stained it previously. His sword did not have a flashy design on it, save the gem on the pommel. But it was of very high quality in terms of balance and durability. Astor fumbled with the blade in his hands.

"Tell me, where and how did you obtain such a stone? If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would have definitely thought it was just an ordinary gem," questioned the young man. Astor thought for a moment, unable to come up with a believable lie. The young blonde broke the silence. "Where are my manners, My name's William Rollo, son of Daniel Rollo." The Rollos. He had heard that name plenty of times. Probably among the richest property owners in Mayland, the Rollos had granted plenty of land for settlers and had one of the biggest systems of servant tenants. "I'm James," Astor replied. William eyed Astor curiously. He must have thought that Astor was also from a wealthy family. He wasn't wrong, but he didn't obtain his sword from his family. "Its a pleasure James. Where did you learn such unique swordsmanship mind I ask?" "I learned it from my father. He was a former soldier of Faldrick before his whole family was killed by some roaming knights. He and my mother had fled that country seperately only to have met later. They had scrounged up just enough money to buy me this gem. The sword is a keepsake from my grandfather." Astor eyed the stone. Looking at the stone made him remember the vision he had on the battlefield. Astor began to wonder what had caused it. Surely his mind was sane enough not to have bouts of hallucinations in the middle of a battlefield, right? Astor eyed the red gem more closely, looking for any indications of the previous glow. Maybe... "Well, your father had definitely received the better end of the bargain. Having a sword blessed with a magical rune is unheard of. In addition to speed and power, it also has such unique effects as well." "Unique effects?" questioned Astor. "You don't know?" Astor shook his head. "You have never used enchantments before?" "Not until my fight with Anthony," replied Astor. William stared in excitement. "Amazing! Then you mean to say that you've awakened your talents for runic enchantments in the heat of battle? Remarkable!" "I don't think this counts as a magical rune. I still lost remember. It's clearly inferior to something as complex as a rune." At least that's what Astor reasoned. A rune is gathered by cultivating natural deposits of raw mana gems released by the natural terrain. The density of wildlife and the size of the region proportionally affected the quality of the gems. Not mentioning the scarcity of deposits, some gems can also be gathered by the harvesting of animals that were greatly influenced by the terrain. But these gems are not as pure and cannot be refined into runic sigils. These gem's applications vary with the species that it is harvested from. For example, a wind fox's gems can be used to randomly shuffle the air around you. A desert iguana's gem is warm to the touch. Depending on the region, animals tend to have the same gem effects as the ecosystem they live in, making animal gems relatively inexpensive and identical. There are exceptions to this rule though. While lost in thought, Astor held up the gem in his sword. And which are you? "Still, being able to stand up to the real thing is definitely admirable. Watching your fight was so exhilarating that we had all forgotten about the war being fought," Will said, sighing. Astor agreed. And so, you all just decided to stand there and gawk at us while we fought. Then, to reiterate, Astor asked, "So what other unique effects were you talking about?" "Oh, it's nothing big." "What is it?" Astor insisted impatiently. "It just... turned you hair a tinge white is all.." Astor quickly spun his face to Will. "What?"