“It would certainly solve our issues,” I said. A few days ago, Tomar and I had jokingly said that Riala and I would’ve tried to take over Alarna with our abilities, had I become her Calling instead. Even though neither of us had been serious about it, the thought stuck with me. Granted, kind of cliche, but a solution is a solution.

“Hold on,” Berla said. “What do you mean? Become king of what?”

“Of Alarna. The safest town around, right? And the one that’s hunting us. If we were to take it off the board, we’d be good.”

“Are you mad after all?” Berla said in exasperation. “What, do you want to go to war against the king and the temple?”

“Sure, why not?”

Berla was dumbstruck and needed a moment before she responded. “Alright then! Oh, I know, Riala and I can be your army!” she said with a derisive laugh.

“Right! Wouldn’t it look cool? The three of us in front of the town’s gates, challenging them!” I said energetically, at which point Berla gave me a look as if I had truly lost it.

“In all seriousness,” I said, “this world kind of sucks, doesn’t it? The reliance on stones, the Wildlands, the constant danger, the need to carefully balance the population... What would you give to make all that go away? To walk through nature like we did, without a worry in the world? Or to decide on your own that you want to become... a cook! Instead of getting told by a small white stone that you need to risk your life every single day, protecting your town?”

“I mean... yeah, that sounds great, but you can’t just change how the world works.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s only one reason the world is the way it is, right? It’s the beasts. Take away that one thing and suddenly people would be free to live their lives. Am I wrong?”

“No, I guess not,” Berla responded after a moment, with an uncertain expression on her face.

“Now, suppose we were the solution to that problem. People would respond well to that, wouldn’t they? They might decide to, say, not follow the king anymore. Or the temple.”

Berla was quietly thinking my words over. Maybe I was making it sound a little too simple, but the theory was solid. The existing power structures would be a potential problem. Nobody likes to lose their advantages after all. However, a king without subjects is no king at all. If we could get the people on our side, we would win. And we could promise them something no one else could. All we need to solve our problems is a harmless little revolution.

“For the sake of argument, let’s say that could work,” Berla said. “How would you actually do it? You’re a wanted criminal. Yet you would have to go to Alarna and convince the citizens to follow you somehow. And it’s not like you can take all of them on a tour through the Wildlands either, to prove that you can drive away and kill beasts with ease.”

“Well, I’ll admit, that part of the plan is work-in-progress, though I do have ideas.”

Berla sighed. “Okay, so you will somehow make it into Alarna, you will convince enough people that they should follow you, because you can remove the threat the beasts present, and then you will become king?”

“Maybe we’ll find a better candidate for that last part... I’m not a fan of too much responsibility. But yea, that’s the gist of it.”

“Hmhm. I highly doubt that—” she began, but her head suddenly snapped around to look at something behind me, as she drew her dagger and I heard a window opening. I spun around and immediately raised my arms, ready to use a water blast, when I saw an Alarna agent hop into our room through the window. However, they quickly raised their arms into the air and got to their knees.

“Please, I mean you no harm,” the man said from behind his mask.

I looked between him and Berla in confusion, unsure what was happening. She looked just as confused as me, however. He had come in here in the middle of the day and surrendered immediately. If this was an assassination attempt, it was a terrible one, and capturing us alone would be very difficult. Even if he could incapacitate us, he wouldn’t be able to do so without the guards noticing. Not to mention that he would also have to get us out of here. If that’s not the reason he’s here though, why then?

“Ria,” I said and motioned her to stand behind me, before I addressed the man. “What is this?”

“My name is Reurig. I’m an agent of the temple and I’ve been following you for a few days now. ‘Former’ agent, actually. I deserted,” he said, still on his knees, his arms raised and his head lowered.

I glanced at Berla and saw her eyes widen. If what he said was true, it was obviously not a decision anyone would make lightly. Let me guess, that gets you killed as well.

“Good for you,” I said. “And what do you want here?”

“I apologize for barging in like this, but I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to approach you, and when the guards were distracted by that squad just now, it was my chance to get closer.”

“You better get to the point, what do you want from us?”

“I... You... I’m sorry. I didn’t plan this talk in advance”, he said with a sad chuckle. “Let me try again... I’ve always been unhappy with my life. About my Calling, about my job, about the things I had to do... and especially about getting told to follow some kids through the Wildlands, trying to capture them, just because the High Priest had some kind of plan to use them, to gain just a little bit more power in town.

“I considered leaving Alarna many times before, but I knew that my life would be even more miserable out here... where the threats from the beasts are even worse, and I would be even more likely to die. But then I saw you guys, and how you traveled through the Wildlands without a care in the world, with an injured Fighter and a little kid. You are the reason I decided to finally take this step. I was hoping that you would be willing to help me, or maybe let me accompany you... until I heard what you just talked about.”

“You heard us?” I said with furrowed brows. If he had been able to hear us from outside the window, wherever he had been hiding there, I worried that the guards outside the door might’ve heard as well. However, Reurig assured me that they hadn’t.

“You were too quiet for it to travel through the door in a way that they could make out what you were talking about, but I specialize in scouting and I have very good ears.”

I looked at Berla and she nodded, confirming that what he had said made sense.

“If you believe that you can change this world,” he said, “I want to be a part of it. I’ll do whatever I can to assist you.”

A wide grin spread across my face as I glanced at Berla again, who looked back at me with exasperation. What perfect timing. We’re just talking about convincing people that we can offer them a better life and the first willing follower drops right into our lap. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was that simple?

His story sounded believable, but anybody could come up with a nice story, and it didn’t seem like Berla knew him either.

“You must’ve realized that we can’t just trust a random agent. Did you have some plan to prove your intentions?” I asked him.

“I’d like to show you something,” he said and started to lower his right arm very slowly and moved it behind his back. When his hand reemerged from behind him, he was holding the hilt of his dagger in between his thumb and index finger. As he laid the dagger down in front of him, I could see its bloody blade.

“This is the weapon I killed my partner with two days ago...” he said, and Berla audibly gasped. “Nier believed deeply in the laws and our duties. He made it clear that he would never allow me to desert, and when I told him that I would leave, he attacked me immediately.”

I was surprised, but this explained the dead agent that had been found by the guards, and why the two allied agents they had seen had fought each other in the first place. The mayor had told Berla about the incident because he assumed they had been after us. Apparently he hadn’t been entirely wrong about that. There was just one problem. What if it was Nier who had tried to desert? What if Reurig killed him, but then used his story to come to us? To infiltrate us? What if—

As if reading my mind, Tomar interrupted my thoughts. ‘Miles... he just told us that he killed his partner, maybe they were even friends... And he did it to come to us. His story makes sense and he went through a lot of trouble just to get here. You’re right to be careful, but I believe he’s telling the truth.’

Oh good, another puppy... I thought with a sigh. His story had apparently made a big impression on Berla as well, because she looked at him with sadness and worry on her face.

“To be clear,” I said, “you would swear loyalty to us and put your life into our hands?”

“Yes,” Reurig said without hesitation.

I aimed at him carefully. “Even if I told you that someone just urged me to trust you? A voice in my head, that I talk to all the time?”

He didn’t so much as twitch and kept his head low as he responded. “I heard rumors that some believed you to be a Mad One. Honestly, I don’t care what you are. All that matters to me is my future, and the future of Alarna. You don’t appear insane, that is enough for me.”

Various scenarios for what he might be planning played in my head, but none of them quite fit his actions. If they had followed us for days, he knew that Tomar and I would never truly sleep, so it didn’t make sense to buddy up just to try to kill us. A surprise attack would always be better. He could try to betray us and lead us into an ambush of some sort, but as long as we were mindful of that, it wouldn’t work out either. And if he wanted to tell the mayor about our history in Alarna, he wouldn’t have come to us. Total surrender might make sense if he was trying to spy on us, but we were currently planning to make certain things public in the near future anyway, so a spy wouldn’t really be much of an issue. And if he tried to get away, to warn the authorities of our plans, I needed just one shot to stop him.

Try as I may, I couldn’t come up with an alternate explanation for what he was doing here, leaving me only with the story he had told us. And if that story was true, this would be a jackpot. A scout from the temple, who’s willingly switching sides. And he even has two legs!

“Would you mind turning over your weapons?”

“Not at all,” he said and slowly pulled out another dagger and two knives, putting them on the floor with the bloody dagger, before pushing all of them over to me.

Maybe Tomar was a bad influence on me, but I wanted to trust Reurig. And even though it might’ve been overconfident, in the worst case, I thought we would be able to handle him.

I glanced towards Berla and then to the weapons and she walked over to pick them up. With that, we were as safe as we could be if we didn’t want to turn him away.

“Stand up,” I said, and he got to his feet and pulled back his hood and his mask, to properly look me in the eyes for the first time. I stepped closer and extended my hand towards him, which he took in his.

“Tomar Remor. Welcome to the party.”

“Reurig Zand . Thank you very much.”