The Avari knight scrambled backwards. His face was pale as Donte’s blade reflected in his eyes. “You… you…” he stammered. His gaze darting around at the surrounding soldiers, none of them stepped forward to help him. Most of them were even smiling as they whispered venomous words.

Donte pulled his blade back, resting it on his shoulder as he spoke, “Were you not ready? Should we start over? You did not even use a talent or glyphs.”

The knight's face regained its color, only to change bright red. A murderous glint in his eye as he glared at Donte. He opened his mouth, about to shout, when he was interrupted by a loud boisterous laugh.

General Arthur's laugh was booming, almost as if it was amplified by a glyph. “He does not have anything like that my boy. Not all knights are like Renald or Orias. Most Avari knights are chosen from their nobility, not for their skill or power.”

Donte frowned. “That is stupid. Why would anyone follow a person with no skill into battle?”

The fallen knight's face had turned brighter than a tomato as he shouted at Donte, “I only lost because you used dirty tricks! No real knight should fight like that! I demand a rematch.”

General Arthur shook his head. “A true knight should face his loss with dignity, and be happy his life was spared. There is no such thing as fair in a life and death battle.”

Donte just shrugged. “I do not mind. I was hoping to try something out anyway. I thought the fight would last longer, or I would have started with it.”

The Avari knight picked up his sword from the ground pointing it towards Donte without any of his earlier spectacle. “I am going to cut you into a thousand pieces!”

Donte smiled. His eyes glowed light blue as if a piece of the sky itself was held within. Before the Avari knight could even take a single step forward, Donte casually swung his sword in a slow sweeping motion. My eyes widened as Donte’s innate talent activated. It did not explode out in every direction like normal. No, instead his talent created a single blade of wind that flew through the air, following the trajectory of his casual sword swing. The long gouge it left in the dirt and rock was a testament to the power in this single strike.

The Avari knight barely had time to place his sword in front of his body before the blade of wind struck him. The steel sword snapped as if it was nothing more than a twig. The knight’s armor was little more than wet paper. The blade of wind did not even slow down as it sliced clean through everything that stood in its way.

There was a moment of silence as an arm fell limply to the ground. The hilt of the broken sword still gripped tightly in the severed hand. The silence was broken as the Avari knight screamed. He clawed at the severed stump as blood gushed freely. The knight collapsed to the ground, looking at Donte in horror.

“So, do I win the duel now?” Donte asked.

General Arthur nodded. “Someone get a medic for the fool before he bleeds out. This duel is over. As per the terms of the agreement, Donte is free of all accusations from the Avari. If anyone breaks this agreement, I will lead an army to enforce it myself.”

None of the surrounding Avari soldiers were willing to meet the general’s gaze. The weight of his words felt like a mountain was pressing down upon the crowd. That pressure did not disappear until the Avari picked up their fallen comrade and carried him away.

Donte smiled at me, ignoring the fleeing Avari. “What do you think? Did I do good?”

“That was incredible!” I shouted, running up to him. “You actually managed to get your talent under control so quickly! Why did you not tell me you were able to do something like that?”

“Wanted it… to be a surprise...” Donte said. His words slurred slightly towards the end. He sheathed his sword and managed to take a single step before his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground. “My head feels… heavy.” Donte tried to stand back up, only to fall flat on his back. he closed his eyes as he mumbled, “The ground feels nice. I am going to stay here for a while.” The gentle rise of his chest gave way to immediate snoring as Donte fell asleep. I could not help but laugh as I watched him snooze without a care in the world.

“Is Donte, ok?” my dad asked, quickly striding over.

I nodded. “Donte just used too much energy with that attack… reckless showoff. He will be fine after a bit of sleep.”

My dad let out a sigh of relief as he reached down and picked Donte up. He smiled brightly as he held the boy. “I really picked a good squire. I am not sure I could block that last attack of his, even if I had time to prepare for it. I can’t imagine how powerful he will be by the time he becomes a knight.”

I grinned joyfully, with my hands held behind my back. “You know those were all my teachings he used in that fight, right? If anything, he is more my squire than yours at this point.”

My dad froze. I heard him mutter quietly, “I need to double our training when we get out of here. I will beat my lessons into him if I have to.”

I followed my dad as he carried Donte back to our wagon. My mom was still weak and bedridden after her treatment the day before. She still looked pale and sickly, even if she was not injured anymore. Dad said this was a common side effect of Volnus’s healing, and I was starting to understand why his ability was considered the weaker type of talent.

Back in the Thirteen Divisions, they had medicine capable of counteracting the weakness brought about by healing large injuries with this type of talent. So, even Aurielle rarely saw the side effects of it. I really wished I had some of that medicine now. Seeing my mom looking like this brought back bad memories of when I was sick for so long. It left my stomach feeling nauseous. If only there was something I could do to help her.

My mom opened her eyes as we entered the wagon. Still groggy and half asleep I heard her whisper. “I saw Orias. He was standing right there in the wagon. All his injuries were healed, and his eyes glowed with bright orange light. He looked at me and smiled. I think he said something too, but… I don’t remember…”

My mom trailed off, as my dad placed Donte down in one of the bunks. He then took my mom’s hand, sitting down beside her. He brushed the hair out of her face, smiling sweetly as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

She smiled back at him. “Why are you never this charming when I am healthy?”

“You always hit me when you are healthy.” my dad replied with a grin.

My mom’s smile turned to a scowl. “That is because you only act charming when you want something.”

My dad coughed as a slight flush bloomed across his cheeks. He leaned down and kissed my mom again, on the mouth this time. He then whispered something in her ear that I could not hear, but it made my mom slap his shoulder.

“Two children right here!” I shouted loudly, earning a scowl from both my parents.

“Wren, you should be happy your parents still love each other so much after all these years.” My mom scolded before kissing my dad back for a long, drawn-out, and awkward moment of silence. “One day when you find that special someone, you will understand.” I faked a gag as I rushed out of the wagon, but as soon as the doors shut behind me, I could not help but smile.

with nowhere else to go, I decided to wander around the camp for a while. Many of the soldiers would look at me curiously as I walked by. Most did not understand why a child would have been brought into such a dangerous place, and I was even approached by one soldier offering to help me find my parents.

I was only rescued from the well-meaning soldier when Charly waved at me. He was practically bouncing as he ran over towards me. “Wren, you should have seen it. Volnus and I just reattached an arm, an entire arm! I had heard that talents could do things like that, but it is completely different seeing it for yourself.”

I laughed at Charly’s energetic outburst. “You’re the one that missed it, Donte is the one who cut off that arm. There was a big duel and everything.”

“Oh, what did he do? Should we have not helped him?” Charly said with a frown.

I saw Volnus laugh as he waddled next to Charly. “It is not a doctor’s place to judge, only to heal. We cannot turn away the injured simply because we do not like them.”

“Didn’t you do that just this morning?” Charly replied.

“That was… different,” Volnus said, tilting his head to the side. He did not look Charly in the eye as he spoke, “That patient was not dying. None of his injuries are life-threatening. I will treat him eventually, but only after everyone else. Next time he will learn to be more polite to me.”

I suddenly realized why my dad was so friendly with the doctor the day before, even though it was obvious he would rather be beating the man to a pulp. This was probably a common practice Volnus used whenever there was someone he did not like.

Volnus had a wide smile as he squatted down in front of me. “Hello Wren, how are you today? If you want, now would be a great time for me to give you that checkup. I really want to see if your disease is really gone and that there are no lingering side effects.”

To my surprise, Charly took my hand and dragged me behind him. The smile on his face was gone as he shielded me from the large man. “I think we have more important patients to worry about. Wren is perfectly healthy, but we still have actual injured that need treatment.”

Volnus tilted his head to the side, but still smiled as he patted Charly’s head. “You are right. I let my curiosity get the better of me. I just want to make sure she is actually as healthy as she seems, but we can always do that another time. Why don’t you go have some breakfast with your sister? I will handle the rest of the patients on my own.”

Charly Grimaced as he watched Volnus waddle away. “Petty, vile toad!” I heard Charly mutter under his breath.

“I thought you liked him?” I asked curiously.

“He is a great doctor…” Charly said slowly, “He knows more about the human body than anyone I have ever seen, but that is no man worthy of respect. Even calling him a toad is an insult to toads! He is polite to us because our parents are high-ranking knights that are respected by General Arthur, but everyone else? He treats them like trash. More than once, I saw him extort money from his patients before he would heal them. Sometimes he would even do it mid-treatment. As if healing them was not his job for the army. If anyone ever complains, or simply does not smile in his direction, he will just decide to not treat them. Worst of all is how he uses his talent! Did you know he does not have to do it layer by layer as he did with Mom? Whenever he treats a man, they always turn fully transparent in an instant, but every female soldier? He always uses his talent slowly on them, basically stripping them naked for the entire camp to see!”

I felt a shiver as I crossed my arms across my chest. “Why does General Arthur put up with someone like that?”

“From what I picked up; he is related to someone important in the Novus royal court. Nobody dares do anything to him because of it. I heard General Arthur tried to fire the toad once, but Novus military command promoted him instead! It is like they want to sow discord into the general’s army.”