Jace straightened, “I would like to ask about this Zor clan, it seems important that I know at least something of them before they come to challenge me, as you said.”

The muscular man nodded, “The Zor clan is a battle clan.” Jace waited for the man to continue but that appeared to be all he had to say. He turned to Jisa and raised an eyebrow. She smiled, “The Zor clan is a small group of warrior people, their number is always exactly seven hundred and seventy seven. The do not birth another of their people before one has died, the Zor are an odd people. They are neither male nor female, even if they are feminine in appearance. They do not mate, they eat their opponents. Be they sentient humanoid or monster. They are picky about what they eat, the Zor absorb biological material and the most important trait of the monsters they eat and pass them on to their children.”

Jace’s eyes widened, that was something else. Jisarila wasn’t done yet however, “They hunt for specific traits, each of the Zor is born with no less than three inate traits. Some Zor hunt for specific traits to give upon their children, others simply find the strongest opponents they can and eat them. For example one Zor might track down monsters with traits for defensive purposes. Imagine a child born with, Rapid-regeneration, Tough-hide, Dense musculature. They are extremely powerful even from a younger age, as their culture revolves around battle all of them are at higher levels other than the newly born. Few people dare to mess with the Zor clan, even the average adult is of similar strength to an adamantium adventurer.”

“Case in point, don’t fuck with the Zor, got it.”

Jisarila smiled at him, “It seems you don’t have a choice, they have approved of you. This means they accept your personality and would challenge you. Eventually a Zor will approach you and challenge you to a battle. Should you defeat him your next fight will be against two Zor. And so on, they will keep going to till you lose. Depending on the amount of Zor you manage to defeat, you will be given an honorary ranking in the Zor clan and will be able to ask them to come to your aid in battle. Of course, very few people manage to beat a Zor. Much less gather enough respect from their kind to be seen as allies.”

Jace grinned widely, “So in the future a clan of immensely strong fighters will be coming to challenge me. Sounds like fun!”

Edur burst out laughing, “I can see why they took a liking to you, any friend of the Zor is a battle maniac.”

Jace smiled, “This Lyncan tribe thing bothers me more, it sounds like a pain in the ass. Another thing of concern, the leader of the gang told me they did background checks on the people they captured.” He looked from one to the other, “What kind of bloody background checks did they do to capture all these big cheese’s.”

The mustached man stroked his namesake, “What does cheese have to do with this?”

Jace blinked, “A big cheese is something my people called someone important. It’s a saying.”

The man nodded, “I see, but you speak true. It is odd that they would make themselves enemies of these people. Entire kingdoms avoid angering the Zor, let alone a small gang. I would have to assume that someone is trying to create enemies for our kingdom.”

Jace scratched at his beard, “Might be a good thing I went a little crazy, they might have planned on you coming to find them. I was most likely a variable they did not account for.”

The rest fell into a contemplating silence, the elderly woman spoke up. “It matters not, we will investigate the matter and will beat back any who dare threaten our kingdom.” The others grunted in agreement and even Jace found himself nodding along. Jace straightened, “Now that this matter is put to rest if you don’t mind I would like to go see my wife.”

The panel waved him off and Jisa showed him to her manor, an extremely large mansion in the center of the city. They had put Sarai in a room under careful care. Jace took a deep breath and entered the room, it was lavishly decorated. Not that Jace noticed, his eyes went straight to the bad, sitting there propped up sat Sarai, her hair falling over her shoulders. Aziva was sitting in her arms, Jace looked her in the eyes and froze. For once he didn’t know what to say or do. Jisa gently pushed him forward, Jace swallowed his doubts and walked up to her. Sarai held out a hand and Jace grabbed it, gently. They stood there for a while, before Sarai opened her mouth. “I couldn’t stop them, they came for my daughter. And I couldn’t do anything.”

Jace squeezed her hand, “I saw the house, you fought. You fought hard! I should have been there to stop it.”

Sarai looked at him, eyebrows drawn down. “Then what am I good for, you pay the bills, you took us of the street, you want to be the protector of the household. Then what am I? A decoration?”

Jace froze, he had no good answer for her. “I love you Jace, you are more than a woman like me could have ever hoped for.” Jace stared in her eyes, his heart clenched when her shoulders slumped. “But I am useless, now I cannot even walk. I am a burden, one you should not have to carry.”

Jace stiffened and grabbed her hand in both of his, “You are no burden to me, do you know how much it means to me to have a family to come home to? I’ve always been… alone. Different than the people around me, I met Weira and my life brightened. Then the team, they made me feel at ease in a world not my own. But you and Aziva are what make it a home to me. If you feel useless I can change that, you do not need to walk to be able to use magic. I can turn you into a fighter no one would dare mess with, all you have to do is ask it of me!”

Sarai frowned, “That would be another thing I depend on you for. You should leave while you have the chance, you can be a friend to me and my daughter Jace. But I am not your wife and Aziva is not your daughter.” The woman crumpled in on herself and avoided his gaze as she took her hand out of his. Jace froze then growled, he turned and stomped out of the room in a rush.

Sarai’s lip quivered and she looked over Jisarila who had taken a seat next to her. “It was the right thing to do, he deserves better. I know he does.”

Jisarila stared at her with those cool blue eyes of hers. “It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself of this.”

Tears appeared in her eyes, she quickly wiped them away. “I owe too much to him, he asks for nothing in return. What am I supposed to do!”

Jisarila shrugged, “I know not, but breaking the man’s heart seems like the wrong thing to do. Telling him Aziva is not his daughter, I’m sure that hurt him.”

Sarai looked down at her sleeping daughter and put her face in her hands. “I can’t tie him to me, problems always follow us!”

Jisarila almost jumped in her chair as Jace burst back into room, she stared to him as he stalked over to the bed. Sarai looked up at him trying her best to keep her face straight. Jace threw something in her lap and the women stared at it with wide eyes. It was a ring, a simple golden ring. Sarai looked up at him in confusion, Jace folded his arms. “I claim you as my wife, I won’t take no for an answer. Aziva is my daughter and no one will tell me otherwise.”

Their jaws dropped. “Thats not how it w-works!” Sarai stuttered, Jace huffed. “I don’t care.”

“You love me, I love you, we both love Aziva. I don’t care about the rest. We are now married, get used to it!” He turned back around and stormed out of the room, Sarai stared after him completely shellshocked.

“W-what? Wait! He can’t do that!” She turned over and looked at Jisarila, who stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. She smiled after she took a minute to calm down, “Well I guess that solves your problem, you’re married to him now, stuck together for better or worse.”

Sarai stared for a moment before she started sobbing softly. “Bloody bearded idiot, people aren’t supposed to be like that.”

Jisa nodded, “Agreed, but that’s what makes people love him.” Sarai shot up and stared at her. “You can’t have him!”

Jisa laughed, “Don’t think I could even if I tried.” The two continued arguing for a while. Jace stood leaning against the door, his head against the cold stone. A soft smile on his face.

The road to recovery took a while, Sarai remained weak for another week orso. She stayed in the Vin to Shurka family mansion. Sarai had attempted to complain but gave up when she realised that everyone around Jace seemed to be equally unreasonable. Jisa and Sarai seemed to get along rather well, in the end Jisa decided by herself that Sarai should stay in the mansion while Jace left for the academy in a couple weeks. It was much safer there than in their own house after all, the rest of his team had continued their dungeon diving. This time under Weira’s leadership, with Floris as second in command. They were content with their slow growing dungeon diving experience, Weira did not have the urge or need to become a knight and would rather keep the freedom she had as an adventurer. The two would separate for a while for the first time since they had met.

It wouldn’t be for that long anyways so the two didn’t make a big deal out of it. Jace spent as much time with Sarai and Aziva as he could manage. Aziva had become something of a personal disciple for Jisarila, both had chosen the same weapon and Jisa claimed Aziva had some talent for the rapier. Sarai was being taught by a mage Jisa had found her, she was determined to have her new friend become something other than useless. Jace still had to get used to the fact that he was truly married now, there had not been any ceremony to speak of. But both sides had taken it seriously. He had a ring identical to Sarai’s on his ring finger. It wasn’t the way people in this kingdom got married, but it was enough for the both of them.

Soon enough the day arrived where Jace had to leave for the Academy, it was a centralised institution and was outside of the capital. It would take two days to reach, Jace hugged a teary eyed Aziva goodbye and kissed his wife. He smiled at the pair and got into the carriage that would take him to his destination. He once again realised he should have gathered more information before leaving. A well, he had always been a fan of the saying go ham or go home. Might as well put that saying into action.

The two days of travel were uneventful, eventually he reached the gates to the so called academy. They reminded him of what he expected one of those snobby rich-kid school gates to look like. They opened and a long path sided by large oak-like trees on both sides lead towards what seemed upon first sight to be a gathering of mansions. Jace suddenly had a thought. Knight’s were a calvary based unit right? He had no experience with horses, he hadn’t even seen a single horse so far! What did they ride on! Where they bear riders? Wyverns maybe?! Please don’t let it be pigs.