When Jacob Niech was a young man, one could call him aimless. He wandered from town to town doing nothing in particular except gamble and drinking. He had no skills except for one.

He could fight like no other. He would usually use this talent to make money to use in his hedonistic lifestyle, creating a cycle of drink, gamble, fight, repeat.

This all came to an end on an ordinary day in the capital of Fotos.

It was in some run down bar in the slums.

He stood victorious over a group of men that had accused him of cheating and had ganged up on him. Almost all of the furniture in the establishment had been shattered on the brawl. The men were all now letting out groans in pain as they rolled around on the floor. Jacob on the other hand didn't appear to have a scratch on him.

Jacob could hear the bar owner trembling behind the counter. At the time he couldn't help but sigh; he had really done it that time. There was no getting out of it if he was caught. Though the bar owner didn't seem to be keen on reporting anything.

As he thought about this, the door opened behind him.

"That was quite the raucous I heard from outside. The people running out also looked as if they had seen a monster."

A woman in a silver military coat with an ahlspiess strapped to her back stood before him. Her face was stern and hard, but her eyes were bright green and held an innate amusement in them.

Jacob turned back to face her, "So what are you going to do."

The woman smiled, "I think we both know the answer to that."

She was probably with the military. He had heard that they were using them to police the city. That meant that she was going to arrest him. There was only one thing left to do now.

He rushed at the woman, but all she did was hold her hand out. She didn't look hostile in any way. She appeared almost benevolent.

Jacob let the hand stop him, breathing heavily.

The woman's smile had never dulled, "That's a pretty useless trick."

Jacob grimaced letting his hold on the light around him die away. Suddenly the man that once had not even a speck of dirt on him, now was covered with blood, bruises, and cuts.

"Wow...those guys really did a number on you."

Jacob breathed heavily, "What...do you want."

The woman kept her hand up, as she was now supporting his weight, "You'll be joining my army."

"Really? Are you serious? I just tried to kill you."

"But you didn't."

Jacob shook his head, "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm no soldier."

The woman gestured to the men on the floor, "I beg to differ. Your fighter, and that's pretty much all there is to it."

Jacob drew his gaze away from the woman. Her eyes seemed to look right through him.

"So what do you say? Well, it's not like you have a choice in the matter."

He couldn't deny her even if he wanted to, in a way he knew that from the first time he had seen her. The woman's name was Alicia Eapev. Apparently she was a general in the army, not that Jacob cared. The woman was actually more of a bother to him, taking him from his simple life of self consumption to fight in a war that he could care less about.

***

Jacob stood clutching the collar of a Green Cloak that he had beaten to a pulp. Though he didn't look that good either.

His force had been assigned to drive back Nocturnals that had attacked a village. What had initially been a small skirmish had turned into a full on battle has both sides kept calling on reinforcements. In the end the luxcians were victorious, but the village laid in ruins.

Jacob didn't care. A fight was a fight to him, nothing else. This battle was the same as the rest, just a little bigger. However, this ordinary day to Jacob was one that was essential in the eyes of fate.

"Hey Jacob, looks like you really took care of a green cloak huh? Who would have thought?"

He looked back at her. Her silver cloak and armor were stained red, but other than that she appeared to be completely fine. Jacob had seen her fight many times now, and each time he was left in surprise by her feats on the battlefield. He wouldn't believe anyone if they had tried to explain that she had held twenty Hands of Morta at bay while her troops retreated, or that she had walked right into a Nocturnal camp and walked right back out with a green cloak’s head in one hand.

Though all that didn't change the fact that she was beyond irritating.

Jacob shook the man in his arms, "I did, so let me leave already."

Alicia wiped the blood from her ahlspiess, "You can go back to being a drunk and desert whenever you want."

"Then you would just hunt me down and send me to a dungeon."

"You're still free to do it if you want."

Jacob furrowed his brow and let go of the Green Cloak.

Alicia shrugged, "You know I have a pile of people like him nearby. There really was a surprising amount of them here. I think I even saw some Hands and Hounds."

Jacobs' look remained unchanging.

"Don't be like that. You probably wouldn't even be able to beat him if it wasn't for my help."

Jacob looked at his hand which was covered in blood. He had even somehow lost one of his brass knuckles. She had helped him learn how to make it look like a punch was coming from one place when it was actually coming from another.

He shook his head knowing she was right, but that did not change the fact that he did not want to be there.

He walked to Alicia jabbing a finger at her, "How long are you going to make me follow you? I..."

Alicia's spear flashed, moving at a speed that the untrained eye would have no chance at perceiving. At the exact same time Jacob noticed a flare out of the corner of his eye.

Jacob guessed it was better than dying in a ditch somewhere drunk, like he thought would happen. Though he still didn't want to be sober when he died.

He braced himself for a pain that never came. Instead, he was greeted with Alicia's shocked face, which was something he had never seen before.

Jacob turned following her gaze and came upon a dead Nocturnal with a kukri clutched in his hand. He stared at it in chagrin for not noticing him. Alicia would never let him forget it. Though when he looked closer he saw that the Nocturnal had not been pierced by a blade. There was a scorched hole where his heart used to be.

When he turned back to Alicia, he found that she was no longer looking at him, but at a house in the distance. The house itself only stood out because it was the only one that was currently engulfed in flame. It seemed that the Nocturnals didn't want anyone to have the town if they couldn't.

Jacob didn't know exactly why she was looking that way, but he found her face was as hard as a rock, but yet filled with pity.

As she started over to the house, he was compelled to follow. He really had no idea what had taken a hold of her.

"Don't make a noise or any sudden movement."

Jacob almost jumped out of his skin. He never got used to hearing her voice in his head. He didn't have any talent for that type of thing. The only thing he could do was read a person's thoughts for a couple of seconds, but Alicia could do that and more without breaking a sweat.

He followed her instructions and as they came upon the building Jacob caught sight of what was inside. The house was almost destroyed, with enough of the walls left to hold the roof, but he could hear that creaking loudly. Jacob doubted it would last much longer, in a few moments the structure would collapse.

The two entered the house through a portion of the wall that had been destroyed. In the corner of what looked to have been a hallway sat a little girl crying, tears falling down her face.

As Alicia slowly kneeled down to check on the girl, Jacob looked down the hallway. The sight he was greeted with almost made him let out a sound of disbelief.

The hallway was filled with Nocturnal corpses. Each with a hole in them.

It would explain why none had set fire to the building

"What on Anknown?"

Alicia slowly reached out to the girl, "Shh, It's okay now child we're here."

The little girl looked up from her lap, and Jacob was filled with more shock and the revelation that followed almost brought him to his knees.

Alicia's face looked worn and tired at the sight.

girls star pupils shown golden.

The girl would not say anything. She would just cry and cry. To get her out of the rubble Jacob was forced to carry her on his shoulders. Against his expectations she had not protested.

As they walked out of the crumbling building they were greeted with the sight of smoke rising in the air as fires raged. The cries of women and children could be heard. The child buried her head in the back of Jacob's neck getting snot all over it. He had the idea to just drag her behind him, but when they passed the dead man that had tried to kill Jacob, he spotted a scorched whole in his side. At that he decided that a little snot wasn't the worst thing.

He sighed, "I'm really not looking forward to dealing with all the refugees."

Alicia looked back at him, well more like the girl on his shoulders, "Don't be so cold, they just..."

Something caught her eye and she walked to a Nocturnal corpse away from them.

"What is it, are they still alive?"

Jacob did not know that that moment in time was another that fate had taken a peculiar interest in as Alicia held up a talisman with a small simple tree and predominant intricate roots.

The golden eyed girl traveled with Alicia's army. Alicia apparently was afraid of what someone might do if they got their hands on her due to her eyes. Jacob went along with it. For all he cared they could just dump her off with any farmer they met while marching. Though he never protested because each time he thought about it he remembered that the girl had saved his life.

The girl never said anything much for the first two years she was with them. Although Jacob did catch Alicia looking at her with a smile and the girl looked back as if acknowledging something. He had no doubt in his mind that Alicia had been talking to the girl mentally, and for all he knew the girl would talk back too. Even early on Jacob started to notice that the child looked at Alicia with a glow of admiration in her eyes. He would have bet that she wanted to become just like her.

Jacob thought it a little sweet at first, the natural reaction to something that only a child was capable of. Though he would then remember the bodies with scorched holes in them and reconsider.

When the girl did start to speak up, it was as if a hundred million questions that she had been holding back suddenly flooded out. She had questions for almost everyone, from things like weapon maintenance, to battle strategy. However, she didn't talk to Alicia that often.

Somehow Jacob had been stuck as the girl's caretaker, but she never talked to him, actually he suspected that she might hate him. He didn't know why and he didn't want to bother finding out.

One day when Alicia was teasing him about how mute she was around him, he tried to make a retort about how the girl never talked to her either.

She just gave a little laugh, "What are you talking about? We talk all the time."

That was when he discovered they were talking, just not verbally.

From that day forward, he started to notice that the girl would often scrunch up her face in concentration.

He had asked Alicia about it.

"She keeps asking me to teach her how to talk to people mentally like I do, but I keep rejecting her. Imagine how much trouble a child could get up to. If they knew how to do something like that."

One day when Jacob and the girl were sitting on a bench he decided that he should at least try to make small talk. He was starting to get irritated by the silent treatment.

"Ya know, you still haven't told us what your name is."

The girl jerked her head away from him, "I hate you."

Jacob gave a wry smile. He had heard the voice in his head. It didn't sound serious just something a child would say

"Well I hate you too."

Jacob looked at the girl. He noticed that she jolted in surprise, then coughed as if nothing happened. Though he still noticed the smile she was trying to hide.

On another day Jacob confronted Alicia, "She is just a child she has no place on the battlefield. It's been five years, you can't seriously be thinking of continuing to drag her along."

Alicia nodded as if knowing it was inevitable, "I'll try to find someone at the next village, but I doubt I'll be able to find anyone."

"You're just saying that because you're attached."

"Maybe I am."

A few days later they arrived in Lucel.

Jacob didn't think much of it. It was small, but other than the passing merchants, it was rather unremarkable. Though the people did accept to host the troops without a second thought. Alicia tried to not put too much of a burden on the town by stationing her troops around it in tents.

On another ordinary day Jacob was walking down the main street of the village discussing matters with Alicia. Mostly how he was actually being paid, after a realization that it had never been discussed after all those years. The child tagged along too for some reason.

As they were engrossed in conversation they accidently bumped into a man, a blacksmith by the looks of him, carrying a sword wrapped in a bundle.

The man was a little flustered, "Please forgive me general. I was not looking where I was going."

He spotted the girl, "Oh! What a beautiful daughter you have."

The child clung to the hem of Alicia's jacket. Jacob hadn't taken her as shy the entire time they had known each other, but then again she hadn't really met any new people in years.

Alicia petted the girl's hair, "Thank you."

The girl's eyes lit up as she looked up at Alicia. Jacob on the other hand gave a start. He knew that Alicia had grown close to the girl but not that close.

The blacksmith bowed, "Well I guess I'll see you around general."

Alicia nodded back at him as he went off on whatever task he was doing. The girl still had the same glow in her eyes.

Over the next day Jacob found that the man was actually a blacksmith, and his name was Jarvus. The girl had become very fond of Jarvus and would often hang around near his forge. Jacob was happy to be free of the burden, but he wished that he knew all he had to do was call the child beautiful for her to warm up to him.

Alicia had also started frequenting the forge in her free time. Jacob still had no idea why.

On one occasion when looking for her he went to the forge. The girl was sitting on the steps leading up to it, as Jarvus wouldn't let her go inside.

Jacob called out, "Hey! Blacksmith, do you know where the general is?"

Jacob could hear the banging of a hammer cease, as the door to the forge opened.

Jarvus was covered in charcoal, "Mmm. It's you. No, I haven't seen her today. What about you Alyze."

Jacob looked from the girl to Jarvus, "Alyze?!"

The girl's face turned bright red.

"I was tired of not knowing her name, so I asked her. She wouldn't tell me, so I asked what she wanted me to call her," Jarvus started to chuckle, "When I asked her that she mumbled 'Alicia' under her breath!"

The girl's face took on a deeper shade of red.

Jarvus began to grin, "I said that was nice, but she should have her own name, since I bet her mother is some big shot. In the end I tried to come up with names that sounded a little like 'Alicia' and 'Alyze' just seemed to stick, and she didn't protest."

Jacob crossed his arms, "Why did you never tell me your name?"

Alyze looked up at him defiantly, though her cheeks were still red, "If you had gone through the effort of actually coming up with a good one I would have accepted it, but you've missed that chance."

"I never had the chance to begin with. You would never accept a name I came up with. Also that all sounds like way too much work for just a name."

"Is anyone there?"

Alicia came walking around the corner. At her entrance Alyze seemed to forget everything as that same glow shone in her eyes.

Jarvus waved, "General Eapev, Mr. Neich was just looking for you."

Alicia looked at Jacob wryly, "Were you now?"

"What's that smile for? You just disappeared so it's almost natural, Besides you roped me into all this, so you can't just run off without letting me go back to my life."

Alicia raised an eyebrow, "I thought we've been over this. Don't worry. If I ever leave, I'll tell you, so you can go back to being a drunk."

Jacob waved his hand, "That doesn't matter right now. Did you know that the girl got a name."

A bright smile appeared on Alicia's face. Jarvus was a little surprised he had never seen anything like it.

Alicia walked up to the girl and got down on eye level with her, "Really! What is it?!"

The girl fidgeted with her finger, as if worried that she wouldn't like it, "It's Aly...Alyze."

Alicia's smile died down to one that was more intimate and warm, "Alyze Eapev. What a wonderful name."

The glow in Alyze's eyes returned brighter than ever before.

Jacob sighed and ran his hand through his hair. There was no going back after that. She might as well be the girl's mother now.

As time passed Jacob started to think that they were staying in Lucel for an unreasonable amount of time. From news of the outside the tenebrage weren't making any moves at all, for some mysterious reason. To Jacob's knowledge it had been centuries since they had gone this long without attacking.

Alicia didn't seem too eager to invade the land of the tenebrage, Skotous, and she hadn't been given any orders to do so yet, but Jacob thought it was inevitable.

During this time she had begun to spend more and more time with the blacksmith. Jacob on the other hand was more concerned with the bar in town, and the internal affairs of the army. There were three types of people in the army at the moment. One was eager to get back to their families, and another consisted of the glory seekers, who wished to invade Skotous and become famous.

The one that Jacob found the most interesting however, were the men and women who chose to marry in the village. That fact that this could happen at all showed him just how long they had stayed for relationships to start and develop to that point.

Jacob tried his best to talk to the three camps that were at odds with each other, but in the end he was only stalling for Alicia who would settle the arguments for that night. Though she would need to do the same thing the next night and the one after that.

One day Jacob discussed his concerns with Alicia near the entrance to the forest, no one but Alyze sat by for the sake of secrecy. Though in the middle of this a messenger appeared before them. He was in so much of a rush that Jacob thought he was going to land his Loinir Attoka on top of them.

The messenger looked worn down and haggard. His attoka wasn't in better shape either.

He spoke urgently, "General there's an emergency, Fotos is in danger, and maybe Lysets as a whole."

Alyze stood up, her face instantly becoming more stern, "Well then? What is it?"

"The Prince of the Nocturnals, Yoshin, marches on Fotos with an army."

Jacob couldn't help but speak up, "What do you mean? Yoshin was killed on the battlefield."

The messenger's face darkened, "The tenebrage have dark arts that we couldn't even imagine."

Alyze nodded, "Yoshin...is Mortis or Morta with him?"

The messenger shook his head, "I do not know, but you are needed in Fotos immediately."

Alicia grimaced. While Alyze walked over to them, "Are we leaving mom?"

Alyze gave a smile and got down on one knee, "I've been meaning to talk to you about that sweetheart."

Jacob didn't even flinch at the word, "sweetheart." They might as well be mother and daughter at this point. The two most likely believed that to be the case.

He jumped up and walked back to the camp, "Guess I'll go tell the troops."

Alicia ended up leaving Alyze with Jarvus. It took a lot of work though, at one point Jarvus thought Alicia might actually bring her with them.

Energy was high before they left. The newlyweds made promises to each other, while the glory seekers celebrated their departure. The only thing that looked out of place were the ones that were still sour about not being able to see their family during their time off.

Things moved fast. When they reached Fotos they found tenebrage there. However, they were not their foes. Apparently they would ride into battle with them. Some even began to say that Mortis and Morta would ride with them.

The army didn't have much time to think about this as they were to go into battle the next day. As Yoshin's army moved at unprecedented speeds and would be upon Fotos if they did not act sooner than that.

Right before the battle Alicia gifted him steel bracers.

"Thank you for staying with me all this time."

Jacob looked down at the bracers he could tell that they were of very fine craftsmanship. Though it wasn't enough to make up for dragging him around all the time.

Then again he was still grateful for them…

Blood. It covered him from head to toe. His new steel bracers were now red, and on top of the enemies blood, his knuckled bled and his hands ached whenever he so much so as lifted a finger.

dead bodies surrounded him. for some he couldn't tell if they were friend or foe, especially tenebrage.

The closest person to him was Alicia. Even she, who looked as if a fight never touched her, was now rasping for air.

She had just sliced through a man, but he kept coming. She stuck her ahlspiess into the ground and used it to jump up and kick her opponent. But even then he wasn't affected. He brought a hammer down, but Alicia deflected it and thrust her ahlspiess into her enemies neck, finally bringing him down.

Jacob panted heavily, as one man came behind him swinging down with a mace, he nearly deflected it with his bracer. He then used the last of his remaining strength to beat on the man. Though he stayed alive for much longer than he should have. It was unnatural.

Jacob limped over to where Alicia was. She was kneeling on the ground using her weapon for support. Jacob collapsed the moment he got near her.

She breathed heavily, "I think I'm going to retire. Maybe settle down in Lucel."

Jacob struggled to look up at her, "I guess I have no choice but to follow you."

"Is that so?"

Jacob let his head fall back to the ground, "Shut up."