*** Nephern ***

Old instincts were kicking in.

I could feel every hair on my body standing on end as I scanned the forest for a threat that never came.

When the scream finally stopped, we were all shaken. I was immediately on guard, watching for the slightest sign of a threat that might have caused it. But sure enough, all was quiet. Kene broke down into tears and Sterthen soothed her as I kept watch. Once she settled down, the excitement of the day quickly bore its full weight on her and she fell asleep on the spot.

We decided to let her sleep in the back of the cart as we walked. I put my full strength into pulling while Sterthen helped but focused mainly on keeping watch. This was a fairly standard set up for us. Pulling was difficult on the body, but easy on the mind. While he watched over us, I could focus on assessing the situation and deciding on our plan of action.

“I’ve never heard the Sun Trees make a sound like that. It must have been something horrible,” he said, trying to process it on his own without too much thought.

“No,” I replied, not taking my eyes off the road. “We heard something like it before. Do you remember when the Karnathem sacked Guiferang?”

The Empire had been at war with the Karna Alliance for pretty much our entire lives, although it had been at a standstill for years. There was a large mountain range acting as a natural border between the two that prevented either side from making much ground. Every so often, one side would launch a large offensive and take control of the land immediately on the other side of the mountains, but they would inevitably be pushed back.

The most successful invasion launched by the Karnathem in recent memory pushed all the way into Guiferang, the largest city in the southern side of the empire. They burned and pillaged a huge amount of the city, including tearing Guiferang’s Sun Tree out by the roots. The empire was able to muster its forces and retake the city after a few months, but the damage had been done.

What made the attack so effective was that it was a complete surprise. The first warning that the capitol got was through the Grand Tree. It was decades ago, so Sterthen must have forgotten, but the Grand tree had made a wailing sound a lot like the Sun Tree had just made in Anghelen.

The only problem was that the sound Grand Tree made was nowhere near as intense.

“Was it another attack from Karna,” Sterthen said more than asked.

I remembered hearing whispers about a year ago that there was a ceasefire between the two nations and that peace talks would be happening soon. If they had broken down and the Karnathem staged an ambush, that might be enough to explain why the scream was so intense. Especially if one of the Family members was caught up in it.

It wasn’t an exact science. Even as a former captain of the Sun Guard, I didn’t actually know a lot about how the Sun Tree’s worked, especially not in such extreme situations.

“Maybe. We can only hope,” I replied apathetically. He looked at me harshly and I could tell he was about to throw out a reprimand. I could even hear it coming before he said it. How could she be hoping for our people to fight and die like that?

But it never came. He must have realized.

Our first priority was Kene. So long as she was safe, nothing else mattered.

If it was just an act of aggression from the south, Anghelen should be fairly safe. It was only a few days ride north from the mountain range dividing the two nations, but the farther west you went the thicker and more difficult to cross the range got and Anghelen was as far west as you could go. The only places you could effectively march a military force through were to the east.

We were no longer welcome in the empire. So as long as we weren’t directly in the line of fire, we had no reason to fight. I know he doesn’t like thinking like that, but we had different priorities now. Even I didn’t want people to die unnecessarily, but their lives were no longer our responsibility.

It was silent for a moment.

“I can’t think that something big enough to make the Sun Tree act out like that would have happened nearby without anybody being aware of it,” I continued, working towards our course of action. “The only thing that makes sense is for something massive to have happened elsewhere…”

“Do you think a member of the Family died,” he asked, obviously having picked up on the same line of reasoning. I had intentionally side stepped that thought in my previous statements and hearing the deep concern in his voice said I was right to. Even after being banished, he couldn’t just let those old feelings die.

“That’s the only thing it could be,” I finally responded. “They almost certainly sent someone to take part in the peace talks directly. Maybe it was a trap from the beginning or maybe something happened that turned the talks hostile, and whoever they sent must have died today.”

The more I thought about it, the more likely that scenario started to seem.

There was another deafening silence with those words. Even I felt it as I grew more and more certain about that fact. Someone we knew had died. Likely a lot of them. The Sun Guard served as personal protection for the Family, and we were trained to lay down our own lives before letting harm befall any of its members. If a Family member died, that meant that every Sun Guard that escorted them had to have died first.

“Who do you think it was,” he asked. I quick string of faces flicked through my mind as I ran through the options before I caught myself and shook them away. Thinking about them would just keep me from deciding on the best course of action for us right now.

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

We didn’t speak again until we reached home.

--- --- ---

Night had fallen by the time we got everything unloaded from the cart. Winter hadn’t fully struck yet, but it was already starting to become frigid once the sun set. This year was going to be a rough winter if the weather this early was any indication.

As we settled in for the night, Sterthen went and stoked a fire in the hearth as I stood in the front door, keeping watch out into the night.

Our cabin was plain. We had mostly built it ourselves, with a little bit of advice from some of the craftsmen in Anghelen. It was made of the thin trunks of the trees that grew in the forest, piled high and sealed with clay to stop any drafts. It was a single domed room that had everything we needed on a daily basis and a plain dirt floor that had been pounded solid by years of tracks. Kene was curled up on the single large bed quietly snoring. It was a pile of furs stuffed with dried plant fiber for padding set against the wall, right next to the fireplace.

I had taken the time to unpack my old armor and spear and put them on, just in case. We took good care of our old gear, but it really didn’t see much use nowadays. We used much simpler weapons and armor on a daily basis since they were better suited to hunting, but we made sure to keep everything ready to use at a moment’s notice.

It was a reassuring feeling, being fully geared up once again. Even if I was right and there wasn’t an active threat toward us at the moment, the looming threat that the scream posed was still hanging over my head. We’d probably be best off if we kept watch for the next few nights, just to make sure.

The cabin was set in a large clearing. We’d done a lot to keep a clear line of sight for as far as possible, but just on the edges of my vision was untamed wilderness. I focused out into it to try and push away my doubts as I continued to mull over our current situation.

I know I said confidently that whatever happened had to be a far-off threat, but what if I was wrong? Would we have to be ready to move at a moment’s notice? Were we even safe for tonight? Should we have come back to the cabin?

No, that was definitely the right choice. Everything we owned – winter clothes, food, equipment – it was all here. We were also exhausted from the events of the day and this was the best place to recover. We could have tried running if there was a more present threat, but that would be a rough choice even if we were well rested with everything we needed.

Coming back, at the very least for the night, was the right choice.

But that thought presented a new thought: would we need to run? We were barely tolerated in Anghelen, the very edge of the empire. If it did come down to that, going back east wasn’t an option.

Would they have to go deeper into the Forest?

No, that was also a last resort. We were both competent soldiers. As former captains of the Sun Guard, you might even say that we were the best soldiers the empire had to offer. But knowing how to protect the Family against assassination attempts was a completely different beast from whatever hid in the Forest. There were plenty of stories about what kinds of monsters lie to the west, but it was nearly impossible to tell truth from exaggeration. Even having lived on its border for nearly 8 years, they didn’t have a good idea of what to expect.

They couldn’t take Kene into an environment with so many unknowns.

Unless… The girl that Girin had introduced them to was a dark trader. If they could find her, would she serve as a guide? Would that be enough to keep Kene safe?

No, that was still a long shot. There were no good options. If we had to, we’d go north, skirting the edges of the Helefiran.

The wooden shaft of the spear groaned as her grip tightened around it.

“One of us will have to sleep soon,” Sterthen whispered from behind me. It was the first thing either of us said since we got back.

I kept my eyes firmly set on the distance but nodded to him. The fire in the hearth lit up the inside of the cabin. If I looked inside, it would take my eyes time to readjust to the darkness outside.

That time would be a moment of weakness.

“I’ll keep first watch,” I said firmly. Another old habit. Keeping watch hadn’t been necessary since we settled down in Anghelen. It felt nostalgic, even with all the anxiety that was driving the choice.

“It’s been a long day for both of us. Let’s make them short shifts, just to make sure we’re both getting some rest,” Sterthen said, a familiar commanding tone slipping into his voice. I immediately wanted to argue for longer shifts and insist that I would be good to stay up as long as I needed to, but immediately bit my tongue.

This really was like the old days, although we had both definitely gone a little soft. I couldn’t help but start to reminisce.

Back when we were a part of the Empire, I technically had no reason to listen to him. Even before I finally took on my role as captain of the Sun Guard, he was my subordinate. Structurally, you could say our relationship was different now that there was no hierarchy to say who had to listen to who, but in reality, we were the same as ever.

In most cases, I handled everything. I was the captain after all and we both knew that I could get us through almost anything. But there was one place where I yielded to his decisions.

People.

I can hardly count the number of soldiers I ruined by working them to exhaustion. That included myself. Before Sterthen was assigned as my lieutenant, I was apparently very well known around the Capitol as a powerhouse. I always got results, regardless of what it might cost, and nobody really had the guts to question me on that.

Until Sterthen.

I hated that about him at first. If I called for a guard to take on an extra shift because they were the closest person at hand, he’d immediately intervene and suggest someone else who was more rested. He even tried telling me to take breaks and stop pushing myself so hard. It was a blatant disregard for the Family and what they stood for. We were assigned our jobs by them, and we were meant to serve them dutifully. My job was to give commands, and my subordinates’ job was to follow them. That was all there was to it, and he couldn’t seem to understand that.

Eventually, I started to see the value in his suggestions. It took a lot of convincing on his part, but I decided to try his suggestions on a trial basis. I had legitimately thought that it would end with our productivity dropping and him finally falling in line. But we were still consistently seeing positive results and we stopped having to cycle in more people.

And so, I started taking his counsel to heart. Initially, it was because I believed it was the best way to serve the Family, but I a more selfish mindset also started to bud. He clearly had a perspective I didn’t understand, and I wanted to understand it, or at the very least, keep him close at hand so that I could always have access to that perspective.

By the time it was time for me to take my place in the Sun Guard, I wasn’t ready to part with him. He had been born to take a position as a commander in the military, so when I left the city guard, we would never see each other again.

I went directly to the Family and requested that he transfer to the Sun Guard with me. It was my first act of direct insubordination. I was so lost in the thought of making sure that we didn’t get separated that I convinced myself that was a reasonable request, but now that I have distance to think about it, they could have killed me on the spot for suggesting that their intended purpose for Sterthen was wrong.

But, surprisingly, they allowed it. I honestly can’t understand why, especially given what came of it. Even he was opposed to me suggesting it. But here we were.

I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard Sterthen rouse behind me. It seemed like I had only just started my shift, but it was over in the blink of an eye.

Normally, it was the active guard’s duty to wake up their relief, but he always seemed to instinctually know when it was time. I don’t think I’d ever actually had to wake him up myself.

I held my position as I heard him quietly putting his armor on, careful not to wake Kene. I finally let myself relax as I felt his hand on my shoulder. I stepped back and let him take my place. It had been so long since I saw him in his armor that I couldn’t help but feel a smile creep across my face. His broad back lit by the fire and set against the darkness outside was a quietly reassuring sight

After a moment to take off my own armor, I put a couple of logs on the dwindling fire and laid down on the bed, pulling Kene in tight.

As soon as I closed my eyes, sleep swept over me.

*** Sterthen ***

Nothing happened for the rest of the night. We switched off a couple of times to make sure we were both getting some kind of rest, but as the sun rose, all was quiet.

The next day was difficult. Kene seemed to have recovered almost completely, running around and constantly trying to trick Nephern out of the candy she had taken from her yesterday, but the two of us were still exhausted. We kept close to the cabin, not going out to hunt and generally being cautious.

We were safe, but something in the back of my mind was screaming that there was still a threat out there. I think Nephern was having the same concern. Before we knew it, the sun was already almost setting, and darkness was once again taking hold. Neph took first watch again, but still nothing happened.

And so, it came back to me.

As I looked out into the darkness, I was anxious. There were all of the obvious reasons, but something particular was weighing on my mind.

The fact that I was so calm.

Donning my armor, standing there in the silent darkness, the sense of hypervigilance. I missed them all.

I’d honestly started to think that they were part of a life I’d never return to, but as soon as the scream came, it was like a switch in my mind flipped and the last 7 years had never happened. It just felt natural. It was just like what had happened with Mili. Something about her triggered something in me and I just became lost in the singular purpose of needing to protect her. Just like all those years ago.

How could I have ever thought to do anything other than protecting her? That was my purpose. It’s what I was made for.

Or at least it used to be. When I looked at Kene, I remembered why we had left it all behind, and immediately felt a pang of guilt for yearning for that past.

I both envied and admired Nephern. For her, as soon as we left the capitol, left the Family’s influence, it was like that past ceased to exist and she was free from it. And yet, after 7 years, I still felt that call and gave into it. I was honestly starting to think I would ever be free from it like she was.

I loved the two of them, and I would rather die than leave them, but what if what happened with Mili happened again? What if that switch flipped back on while they were in danger and I wasn’t able to come back to my senses in time?

Ever since the scream, that was what was tearing through my mind. I stared out into the darkness, trying to put those questions down, but it was getting more difficult.

Then I heard something.

It was distant and faint. The second it reached my ears, instinct kicked in and I was able to wipe my mind clean and focus on the sound.

Footsteps.

Headed straight for the cabin. They were clumsy and loud. The gait and the weight behind each step were awkward. It was bipedal, a person. Whoever it was was dragging their feet and stumbling every few steps. It wasn’t someone sneaking around, and it definitely wasn’t someone used to running like that. It was someone frantically running towards us as fast as they could.

They were coming from the west.

“Neph! Footsteps from the west! Someone is coming!” I shouted, quickly and definitively.

I drew my sword and brought up my shield, looking back into the cabin to make sure she heard me. Before I had finished my sentence, Nephern was already sitting straight up at attention. Kene also woke up with a jolt in response to Nephern’s movement, although her eyes were still sleepy and half open. As soon as I got her nod of confirmation, I dashed out into the darkness, toward the footsteps.

I put myself directly between whoever was coming and the house, halfway to the tree line of the clearing. I wanted plenty of room to react to whoever might emerge from the forest without blocking myself in against the house.

And then I waited.

The footsteps were still at a distance, but they’d likely arrive within a minute. Or… maybe not? They were faltering. They were stumbling more and more. He heard what sounded like the person tripping and rolling, but in an instant they were up again. Why would someone be that desperate?

The answer came to me instinctively before I heard the second pair of footsteps closing in on them.

They were being chased. The second person was also bipedal and their gait was similarly awkward, but something felt off. It didn’t sound like someone exhausted stumbling through the forest the way the first person did. They were crashing through the brush, but their footsteps weren’t faltering or staggering, and they weren’t slowing down as they did it. It sounded like someone moving with no concern for what was in front of them.

They were gaining on the first person.

From the sound of it, unless something changed, they’d overtake them just around the time that the first person entered the clearing.

What should I do?

Move up? I wouldn’t have time to intervene if I stayed this far back.

No.

That was my old mindset talking. The only thing that matters is Kene. I don’t even know who it is in the forest. If I move up and they’re a threat, I’ll be putting myself at a disadvantage with less time to react. I need to hold his position to give myself the best chances of keeping both people from reaching the cabin.

And that was that. He steeled himself to hold there, his grip tightening on his sword as the moment slowed to a crawl. The first person faltered and the second was almost on top of them. They weren’t going to make it. The second person would catch up just as the first cleared the tree line. It felt like an eternity of listening to the footsteps gradually approaching.

And then, in an instant, time came crashing back as a cloaked figure came tumbling out of the brush, sprawling out on the ground. The large bundle they were carrying on their back flew off and rolled to rest in front of them.

I didn’t even see who it was, but I could feel a switch flip in my mind.

I have to help that person.

I started to move before the second person even cleared the trees, but I was too far away. The second person was already emerging from the trees.

He was short, practically nude, and… glowing? He had deathly pale skin, so white that he seemed to gleam with a ghastly silver halo in the moonlight. The only part of him that wasn’t pure white was his long black hair that hung matted down to his shoulder. And, most importantly, he had a sword held high over his head, about to bring it down on the person lying on the ground.

I wouldn’t make it in time. I felt my sword grow warm in my hand and start to let out its own light. A gentle golden glow, like the sun at sunset. I stepped forward and struck, like the man was right in front of me, but as my arm was fully extended, I opened my fingers and let the sword fly forward. It sailed straight forward, slicing through the air so quickly that it became just a single long beam of light.

As the glowing person swung down, his eyes were blank and vicious, like his singular focus was killing the person beneath him. I aimed my sword to strike the man square in the chest, hoping he’d defend himself to buy time to close the gap, but he didn’t respond. It was like he didn’t even see me there.

The sword caught his shoulder just before his own strike landed, knocking him backward and causing his blow to go wide, sticking in the dirt right next to head of the person on the ground. As he tried to regain his balance, he finally recognized my presence.

Our gazes met just as I slammed into him at full speed with my shield, throwing him off his feet and back into the forest. That should buy me enough time to get the person on the ground back on their feet. As soon as I started to look down, I realized I was wrong.

I barely managed to bring my shield back around as a glowing blur flew out of the trees and slammed into me with its full weight. The glowing man had recovered from a blow that would have taken most people out of the fight completely almost instantly. That shouldn’t be possible.

I stumbled backward, trying to recover, as I realized something else was wrong. The glowing man’s weight never left my shield. I looked down and realized the man was clinging to my shield, hanging therewith one hand, bracing both of his feet against it, and arcing back with his sword, getting ready to swing down over the shield.

Again, I struggled to recover in time to defend. I quickly reached up and caught his wrist at the last second, feeling the sword glance off of my pauldron and lightly cut into his neck. It stung, but it wasn’t deep enough to do any serious damage. But if I had been a moment later, it would have been a fatal blow.

And again, before I could process what was happening, he was moving again.

He kicked off of my shield, forcing it to the side and throwing himself in an arc over my head. His open hand struck out at my face as he flew. His fingers were long and thin with massive talons at the end like a beast. I quickly ducked to the side and used the man’s momentum against him, following through with a throw and flinging him away.

What in the world is he?

I didn’t even have enough time think. The man was acting so quickly and randomly that I was having to react completely on instinct. How am I supposed to beat him?

Then, I noticed something I hadn’t before. As soon as the glowing man landed, he was already scrambling to charge at me again, but that quick response wasn’t the result of training or reflexes. He didn’t catch himself as he landed to quickly correct his momentum. He hit the ground and rolled, flailing about randomly until his limbs found purchase. He was moving so fast that it would have seemed like he planned it, but I could just barely catch the multiple failed attempts before his foot finally got traction.

He was moving with a frantic ferocity that I couldn’t match, but he was sloppy. Even in his previous attack, if he had been aiming properly, he could have easily caught me in the neck, rather than aiming for my armored shoulder. The man was single mindedly focused on attacking, giving no concern to his own safety or the validity of his strikes. As he charged again, I started to find the openings I needed.

Another broad, overhead swing. I deftly deflected it with my shield and the sword stuck in the ground again. I saw my chance, pitched my shield, and swung, aiming straight for the man’s temple. The blow connected, but in the same instant, I also felt the wind knocked out of me. The man had brought the sword up more quickly and with far more force than should have been possible.

The crunch of bones, the tearing of flesh, and the clang of metal on metal filled the air, sending us both staggering away from each other. I looked down and winced as I saw that my chest plate was bent inward. From the pain I could tell the blow had at least broken a rib. The man’s glow dimmed slightly as blood ran down his face and onto his chest, blocking parts of his luminescent skin. Just like my armor, he also had a visible dent. In his head. Icould see the jagged edges of his skull bent inward through the torn skin. Once again, a blow like that should have been enough to kill a normal person on the spot, or at least knock them out, but he only seemed temporarily stunned and was already bracing to strike again.

If we kept trading blows like this, I’d probably win, but I might die in the process. I wasn’t in any immediate danger, but wounds like this would start to build up and slow me down. At the same time, the glowing man didn’t even seem phased by something that should have killed him. I had to win without letting him gain another inch of ground.

And so, we kept going. The man charged in, but I knew what to expect now. I cleanly blocked his opening swing and easily deflected the counter that followed. The man’s wild movements caught me off guard at first, but they were crude and untrained. After a few more exchanges, it became clear that he wouldn’t be able to land another attack on me. All I had to do was defend and wait for an opening that gave him no way to respond, even with his speed.

Then I saw it. The man took another blow from my shield, staggering backwards after and drawing his sword upward. I stepped into him, not giving him a chance to fully regain his balance. Just as the sword stopped to swing back downward, I reached up and grabbed his wrist, holding it in place. He tried to claw at my face again, but I intercepted with my shield, pinning his arm against his chest. I turned, using my grip on his arm to lift him overhead on top of my shield.

It began to glow with the same golden light my sword had earlier. I pivoted and threw the man downward into the ground, positioning the edge of my shield against his neck. There was a flash of light and a sickening crunch as a he hit the ground. My shield had torn through the skin on his neck and crushed a huge part of his chest, leaving the edges of the skin scorched from the heat of the light and revealing the crushed vertebrae beneath.

His head and body were only connected by a few strands of muscle, and I knew that that would be it. His body was completely still.

I finally let out a loud sight and started to lift myself up when I noticed that I was wrong. Although the body was still, the head was still moving. His eyes were fixed on me and it was gnashing its teeth, trying desperately to get close enough to bite me.

I brought up my shield once more and slammed it down, flattening the head with a meaty crunch. That seemed to put an end to its movements entirely. I let my senses open back up as I reassessed my environment.

Barely more than a minute had passed since the fight started. The cloaked figure was lying on the ground, curled up and cowering away from us. The bundle they had been carrying was still lying on the ground ahead of them.

I focused my hearing, listening for anything else that might have been chasing the other two, but nothing was in the immediate area as far as I could tell. I walked over to the cloaked figure, knelt down and gently put my hand on their shoulder. They flinched underneath, but after a moment relaxed as they realized they were safe. A familiar face with wide, petrified eyes looked up at me from underneath the hood.

“Mili?”

As soon as I saw her face, I felt that pull in the back of his mind again. The need to protect her. And just as quickly, I felt the anxiety rush back in.

I had slipped.

That realization was enough to break me out of it as I remembered why I was out there in the first place. Looking back at the cabin, nothing had changed. Neph must have still been getting geared up, but she should be done soon. I wanted to move toward the cabin to check on them but held myself back at the last second. There were no obvious threats for now. The best thing to do for now was assess the situation and prepare for anything else that might be coming.

And so, I had to return my attention to Mili. In the moment I looked away, she had scrambled over toward the bundle on the ground. She gingerly unwrapped the bloodstained tarp it was wrapped in to reveal a young boy with ghastly, pale skin and white hair. Just like the glowing man.

I briefly readied myself to make a move if he turned into another threat, but quickly realized he was fully unconscious and although the two did look similar, this boy wasn’t glowing in the same way. At the very least, he wasn’t a threat right now.

She held a hand to his throat, checking his pulse and breathing. A wave of relief swept over her as it seemed both were still fine. She pulled the tarp down further to reveal a wide, bloodstained bandage wrapped around the boy’s torso. She poked at it lightly and pulled back the edges when the look of relief was quickly replaced by one of concern. She had an intense look of focus on her face as she assessed the boy’s condition and was about to start unwrapping the bandage when I decided to interrupt.

“Mili. What happened? What’s going on,” I asked in a stern voice, making her whip her head back in my direction.

“You’re… Sterthen, right? From earlier today?”

“Yes, I am. Now, get to the point quickly. What is happening? Are there more people following you?” I tried to strike a balance between firm and reassuring.

Her eyes darted over to the dead body on the ground, but she wasn’t able to focus on it for long before she dropped her eyes back down to the ground.

Although she had been focused on caring for the boy, it was clear she was still recovering from running earlier. She was still gasping for breath. “I was in a Magora village. I was treating some of the villagers… so they were letting me stay there for the night in their infirmary. I woke up… to people screaming. Some of the villagers came to check on the sick people. We were able to get a handful of them out… but they chased us and started to catch up. They gave me him to carry,” she pointed over toward the boy on the ground, “and told me to keep running.”

Tears started to well up in her eyes and her ragged voice started to crack.

Some of the things she was saying didn’t make sense, but I was starting to build a picture of what happened in my mind. There shouldn’t be any villages west of there, and what did she mean by “Magora?” I’d never heard the term before, but whoever that was had also been attacked. What mattered now was figuring out who the current threats were.

“Do you know who it was that attacked you? Are there more people like him,” I asked pointing to the dead body.

Her eyes followed my hand, and the sight of the body must have been too much as the tears started to flow. She started to bawl, with every breath shaking her body. But even as her body was wracked with each sob, she was trying to respond to my question by frantically gesturing “yes” with her hands.

As soon as she started to break down, I felt that same distinct pull in the back of my mind. Seeing her cry was triggering my protective instincts, but even though I wanted to ignore them, I knew that comforting her was the right move to make. The most important thing right now was information, and I wouldn’t get anything useful out of her like this.

I opened my arms to her and she quickly responded, latching on to my chest and sobbing into my armor. I winced a little bit as she caught my broken rib.

She pulled back and looked down at the massive dent in my chestplate. “I’m *sniff* sorry…” she said between sobs.

“It’s fine, I’ve had way worse.”

“Here *sniff* let me *sob* help.” She was still blubbering, but before I could respond, she held her hands out toward me and put one on either side of the dent.

“No, I’m fine. You should just worry about…” I started to say but trailed off as a warm glow surrounded her hands and flowed into me. My breath was caught up in my throat as I felt a gentle warmth in my chest. I could feel my chest expand outward gently outward as the pain in my side slowly faded away.

I wish I could say that I was relieved, but in that moment I was terrified. That feeling of warmth was familiar. It was just like when my shield and sword glowed. Those were techniques I had been taught as part of the Sun Guard. I knew plenty of people that could use energy like that, but they were all either members of the Family, or in their immediate circle.

And on top of that, I’d never even heard of someone using a technique like that to fix a broken bone.

Who was this girl and what was she doing all the way out here?

“Then? What’s the situation? Do we need to move?”

I was snapped out of my stupor as I hear Neph calling out to me from the cabin. She was standing there fully armored, holding a sleepy looking Kene in one hand and her spear in the other. Mili was still crying slightly, but was mostly looking up at me with concern. How long had I been out?

I quickly shook my head and looked to Neph.

“Apparently a village was attacked out west,” I answered. Her face showed she was just as confused by that as I was. “Mili was chased here by one of the attackers. It seems like he was separated from the rest of the group and chased her here alone, but we probably should go into town to be safe. Someone in there might know more than we do right now.”

Nephern turned directly to Mili. “Where did the attackers come from?”

She commanded Mili to speak more than asked, and Mili flinched away at the voice but still answered.

“I don’t know… I woke up in the middle of the attack. We just started running straight east because it didn’t seem like there were as many this way.”

“So they probably attacked from the west… Do you have any idea what they were after?”

“No… They were just killing people.”

“Something seemed off with the man that followed her. He was in a frenzy, like his mind was all there. Assuming the rest are like him, it could be that their only goal is to kill,” I added in.

“Then we need to move. Now. If they are headed this way to find people to kill, we’re the next stop on their path. Come on.”

Nephern turned to start walking towards town. I quickly stood up to follow but saw Mili frantically struggling to bundle the boy she had been carrying back up and get him secured on his back. I stayed back for a moment to help. By the time we got her ready to go, her tears had completely dried up.

“Thanks…” she said timidly up to me.

“No problem,” I said hesitantly, realizing I had thoughtlessly gone to help her again. I looked forward to see Neph standing at the edge of the clearing, looking back at us with obvious concern in her eyes.

She understood what had just happened. I fetched my sword from where it landed at the edge of the clearing, and we all set off to walk back into Anghelen.

*** *** ***

None of them noticed, but as the family was walking away, they were being watched.

“What… the FUCK… are they doing here?!”

A pair of humanoid figures, a pale skinned man and woman, hovered gently in the night air on the back of two large, winged creatures. The woman was the one who spoke, shouting in a different language than the family down below was speaking. Her face twisted in intense anger as she pulled clumps of hair and feathers out of the back of her mount.

“Why didn’t they tell us there’d be First Gens here,” she kept ranting. “It was going to be hard enough to take out Anghelen without two of the Family’s fucking royal guard here. They could ruin everything.”

The man was staring down blankly at the family below as they started to run back toward town.

A wicked smile started to crawl across his face.

“Or… this might just be a blessing in disguise,” he said. “The two of them are worth ten times the rest of Anghelen combined. If we can wipe them out here, it might be the push we need to take down the Mistake once and for all.”

“Yeah, but that’s a big if. Those two are fucking monsters. With our forces, we could probably take them if we launched an all-out attack while they were all alone and away from their light weed. But it’ll still be hours before everyone else is in position to actually fight them and if they’re fighting a defensive battle in the fort right next to their stupid plant, we’re fucked. On top of all of that, there are those weird things in the forest that showed up out of thin air and started killing our men.”

She slumped down, pressing her face into the back of the creature she was riding.

“This whole thing is a wash,” her muffled voice said, defeated. “We should just take the gift your big friend gave us and bide our time until the whole world isn’t conspiring to fuck us over.”

“No,” the man’s voice rang out coldly. The woman sat bolt upright at full attention with a cold sweat suddenly visible on her brow. It was like she had just heard a wild animal roar in her ear.

“We’ve waited so long already. I’m not going to wait another day for our people to be free of this blight on the land,” he said, the smile completely disappearing from his face.

“Plus, we’ve already played our hand. We’ll never have a better chance than right now. They’ve got a bare bones force defending the fort, they’re weakened from the sacrifice, and our troops have been blessed for today. We have to make it happen now.”

The edge in his voice faded, and the petrified look in the woman’s eye faded with it, being replaced by something else. Something predatory. This time, a wide grin crept across her face.

“Alright, fine. We fight. What’s the plan?”

“We won’t beat them in an outright fight, so we’ll just have to be smart about this. We can’t stop them before they get to the fort, so we’ll just have to find a way to get them out of the fort once we’ve got our full force here.”

“How do we do that?”

“I had thought that First Gens weren’t allowed to breed, but from what the soldier they killed saw, those two had a child. We should be able to leverage that to make something work…” he trailed off, deep in thought.

“Either way, I’ll handle it,” he finally said, breaking the silence. “I need you to go back and make sure our forces make it here as soon as possible. I don’t know what those things in the forest are but deal with them as soon as possible and get back here. Worst case scenario, forget about them entirely and just rally what troops you can. We’ll need every man we can get here.”

He finally looked over to her to get confirmation, just in time to see her leap off of her steed and slam into him. They were hundreds of feet in the air, but she leapt between the two creatures like it was nothing. She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a solid kiss on his lips.

After a moment, she moaned and pulled back to look him in the eyes. “God, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you like this.”

His own smile, gentler than the wicked grin he had worn before, started to grow.

“Hopefully, after tonight, you’ll be seeing me this happy a lot more often.”

She quickly dove back in for one last kiss, then pulled away and jumped back over to her own steed and kicked its sides. It tucked its wings into a dive headed back west.

The man’s smile faded back into his old blank expression as he set his sights east, towards the light of the Sun Tree on the horizon.