Nyrill.

That was the name of the village that class and I was going to stay in and continue what training we had. We learned that it was far enough from the capital to grant us some independence but close enough to help to arrive if given enough time for a warning. According to Emelina, it was a ‘nice village, with a vast, populated forest and rolling hills as far as the eye could see.’

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, to be honest. I wanted independence, but this just felt like lazy appeasement. An appearance of granting freedom, while looping you with an invisible chain that’d yank you back in when you least expect it.

It chafed something fierce.

“Joey, are you okay? You’re glaring.” Mitsuki’s gentle voice pulled from my darkening thoughts, surprising me.

From my seat in the moving carriage, I turned to my right to see that Mitsuki was watching me with concern. “I’m fine. Just… I want to go home.” My voice a melancholy whisper at the end of my statement, my shoulders falling as I spoke. I fell back against my seat, head lolling back onto the velvety cushion.

“So do I.” She answered me, her patient voice gaining a forlorn edge to it. Still, her shoulders remained stiff. “But we can’t let it get to us.” Mitsuki’s matter of fact answer brought a smile to my face.

“Yeah…” Our shared whispers did little to wake a sleeping Luke and Kacee, who sat across from us. We were all dressed casually, in clothing that was meant to move in and without restricting us. I rolled my head back to the window, gazing at the clear, blue sky. We sat in companionable silence, listening to the faint breaths of our friends as they slept; feeling the faint rumble of the carriage traveling along the path.

“What was it like?” I looked over to Mitsuki, seeing her curious expression. At my confused expression, she elaborated. “Facing Jeanne. She focused solely on you. What was it like?”

“Terrifying,” I said. Mitsuki blinked at my words. At her confusion, I let out a small laugh. “It was like this stifling weight had settled on my shoulders.” I shook my head, a smile pulling at my lips. “I wanted to lie down and go to sleep, but I was too exhausted to do even that, ironically enough.” I closed my eyes and released a sigh. “Still, the way the day ended…if I could change anything at all, it’d be…” I stopped myself, forcing my thoughts away from what-ifs and possibilities.

“We did everything we could,” Mitsuki affirmed, her expression stern.

“And that’s what tears me up inside,” I answered her, a sad smile on my face.

She frowned, but said nothing, her eyes straying downwards.

The rest of the trip continued uneventfully, a pleasant silence as we allowed time to pass without incident. The caravan of carriages that ferried us to the village came to a slow stop at the local stable. When we stopped, the door to our carriage was pulled open to reveal Valeri looking up to us. “We’re in Nyrill so we’ll be continuing on foot. See the sights as we go to where we’ll be staying.” She stepped aside, and I received room to get out first.

My feet hit the dirt road, kicking up a small bit of dust from the impact. I looked around and took the crisp late morning air, examining the cloudless blue sky and feeling the gentle breeze. The stable we stopped by was a wooden structure with an open front, with separate empty stalls filled with hay. The roof was low hanging cast a full shadow over the immediate area around the stables. Around us, there was a long stretching well-worn path flanked on both sides by a variety of wooden and stone buildings.

Further down the path, that I could see, was a large circular city center, where stalls were set up. Another white chapel was in the distance, with people milling about in front of it. All around us, though, was a rather thick forest, leaves flowing and gently shifting in the breeze. The ambient sound of chirping birds, moving animals and people talking was oddly…comforting.

Glancing behind me, I offered a hand to Mitsuki to help her down. She paused and studied my hand before a hint of color dotted her cheeks. As she took my hand, the glow vanished beneath her stoic expression, and she stepped onto the flat ground. We came apart, though I caught a downturn of her lips before I heard a faint grunt from the carriage.

“Here already?” Luke mumbled as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, getting out with a yawn. “I figured it’d take longer.”

“You slept through the trip.” I deadpanned at him, my eyes half-lidded as I regarded him. He merely snorted as he rose from his seat and climbed out of the carriage. I glanced behind him to see Kacee also getting up, coming to full cognizance in almost no time flat. As she followed after Luke, I turned to see that everyone was also making their way around the front of the stables. Another wagon continued down the path and finally caught sight of a pillar of smoke rising into the sky a little into the village.

“That would be Madam Amber’s forging equipment,” Valeri explained, having no doubt seen my confusion. “She was rather insistent upon it coming with us so that she could properly forge your new sword.”

I hummed as I took that in, looking around as everyone milled about as if waiting in a field trip.

“C’mon, Lina. If we end up waiting any longer, we’ll be late.” Now that I had a closer look, I could tell that she was close to our ages, if maybe a year younger, but held herself less maturely compared to her sister. She was wearing a casual, light blue dress with a white shawl over her shoulders. Kara was at her flank, offering the girl a look between fond and exasperated.

Emelina nodded to her. “I know Abigail. We’ll go as soon as possible.” She then turned to the rest of us. “This village…Nyrill is regarded as a home away from home for the Royal Family.”

“Father gave Nyrill a special dispensation,” Abigail explained as she walked forward, standing in front of us. “It’s protected by the edict of the DeVere monarchy, making so that the forestry surrounding it cannot be cut down for resources, the land beneath it cannot be harvested and that those living within will be protected from banditry.”

“Didn’t you say that we were coming here to gain independence?” Rudy asked her. He had ridden with Colette, Deandria, and Tadashi. Their group was next to us, having approached us when the two princesses had.

“You are,” Abigail said though she shifted nervously, her eyes flickering to Emelina. “However, your well beings are still of high import to us. Nyrill is the best place possible for your safe introduction into Verum as a whole.” She spoke with nervous energy, as Rudy’s intense stare weighed on her.

Rudy was about to speak up, but Luke cut him off with an arm around his shoulder. “C’mon, Jaeger, Princess Abigail is giving her all to tell us everything she can. We all want to see the wider world of Verum, and she’s just trying to help us as much as possible.” He looked over to the Princess and smiled at her. “Right?”

“Of course!” Abigail replied instantly, her tone confident as she returned the smile. “Lina and I only want to ensure that every one of you prepared yourselves for what Verum holds in store.”

Rudy simply turned a dry look towards Luke, who was staring intently at him, before sighing as he closed his eyes. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

“Your welcome,” Abigail said with a proud smile.

After that brief argument, the princesses and knights began to lead us on a short tour of the village.

As this happened, though, I couldn’t help but hang near the back of the group. I allowed my eyes to trail along the various buildings that we passed by and the trees that surrounded the village on all sides. Even as we received this ‘independence,’ it still felt like we were held to Veritas by a leash. I still appreciated what they’ve done for me, for us, but I couldn’t help but notice that we lacked the skills necessary to become productive people here. Aside from Amber, all we knew was how to fight, how to maneuver through a battlefield. Amber could be a blacksmith by trade, but we all only knew combat. I don’t know about the others, but I’d prefer to not live my life here as a mercenary.

As distasteful as that felt, I’m pretty sure I’d prefer that to live under the thumb of the Roya-

A body collided with mine as I nearly fell back if I hadn’t taken a few steps back to keep my balance. A pained grunt and a thud pulled my attention to what happened right in front of me. A young boy, looking to be around ten or a year or two around that, had fallen to his knees, groaning in pain as he rubbed his head. He dressed in rags, a ragged cloth that hung around him and barely covered his dirtied body. Thankfully, his trousers were wholly intact, the worn belt tied tight around his unnaturally thin waist. He rubbed his head and grimaced as he looked up to me. “I’m sorry sir…” His brown eyes widened as he looked up to me, fear entering them as finally noticed what I was wearing. “Ah, um, huh, Sir Squire, I am so very sorry!”

Struck silent, I stared at what rested atop his head. A pair of rounded, brown ears that folded downwards in fear. His dirty cheeks had distinct whiskers and a pronounced pink nose. Now that I had a more precise look, he looked smaller than what I would assume a child his age would be. Aside from his ears, though, the thing that caught my attention was the black collar wrapped around his neck, a silver buckle on the front.

The boy flinched beneath my gaze, trying to push himself away from me. Seeing the fear in his eyes, I closed my own and released a breath to reign in my flaring temper. After a few seconds to collect myself, I dropped to a knee and offered a hand to him. “It was my mistake. I wasn’t paying attention. Are you alright?”

The boy flinched again as I moved my hand towards him, but didn’t pull away at my words. He looked to me with a mix of disbelief and hope. “I…I’m okay, Sir. I was in a hurry and wasn’t watching where I was going.” His words trailed off into a mumble as he continued to stare at my hand. “I’m…I’m sorry…” He murmured as he lowered his head.

A confused look flickered along my face, but I let my shoulders fall ever so lightly. “Give me your hand,” I said to the boy. A surprised expression came to him, but he hesitatingly took my hand, and I stood, pulling him to his feet. With both of us on our feet, I let his hand go and began to brush off his shoulders and his back, getting the dirt off of him. “It’s not your fault. Neither of us was paying any attention.”

“I’m sorry…” He mumbled, facing the ground.

“Stop apologizing,” I said sternly. The boy looked up to me, hunching forward at my frown. “Stand up straight. Chin up.” The boy scrambled to follow my requests, apparently treating them like orders. Amusement and bemusement filled me, but I let neither show. “Now, what’s your-”

“Boy! Where in the world did you go?!” I was interrupted by an angry call from a man in a worn tunic, pants, and sandals storming over to us. He glared at the boy, who cowered, but did not flee. “I take my eyes off you for one second, and you go and do this? Am I going to have to discipline you and your sister for this, boy?!”

The boy turned to the man and fell to his knees, turning already teary eyes up to him. “Please, master, no! Not my sister, not her. Just me! It was an accident. I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“It doesn’t matter if you did it on purpose, boy.” He took a threatening step forward, lifting his hand as if to hit the child.

Interposing myself between them, I spoke in a calm tone that belied the anger bubbling beneath the surface. “You say that, yet you’re the one making a scene.” An undercurrent of malice escaped me, causing him to step back, his face paling as he saw me. I had no idea what expression I had, but if it showed how I felt, then, well… “Do you always lash out at people you hold power over?” I said evenly, feeling my feet carry me forward. He stumbled backward. “You know what that says about you?” A weight settled on my shoulders as I felt a chill race down my spine. My lungs hitched for a second before a surge of cold air opened them. “Power is a privilege, not a right. To abuse it in such a manner is…”

It seemed like the noise of the surrounding area had died down as it became eerily quiet. The chirping of birds, the skittering of small animals, the ruffle of leaves and the whistle of the gentle breeze. The ambient noises that you never really notice. Everything fell to dead silence. The only sounds I could hear were the beating of my heart in my ears and the man’s quick breaths. A chilling wind swept between us as he shivered audibly.

The man stopped moving backward as I approached him and jerked forward as I stopped walking. “Unbecoming of you as a man.” My voice was velvety and cutting, very much not a feeling I normally had. “There is a saying where I’m from: any man can stand adversity.” He staggered forward, his nose centimeters from mine, eyes wide with fear and gasping for breath. “But to truly test his character, give him power.”

He appeared to try and force himself back, but fell forward once more, stopping even closer to me. “Given your treatment of him and threat against his sister, what does that say about you?” My voice devolved into a growl in this statement, causing him to shake and shiver. In the reflection of his full, dark colored eyes, I saw a flicker of red and narrowed my eyes, causing the red to diminish ever so lightly.

“The same could be said of you, young Hero.” A cultured, refined voice cut into the dark silence and all of a sudden everything fell back into the place. The ambient noises returned with a force as I felt a pounding in the back of my skull. The whistling of the wind drilled into my temple; the chirping of the birds rang in my head like a bell. I fought back the grimace as I looked to the one getting in the way of my anger. It was an older man, not elderly but refined in his musculature even through the glistening silver armor and chainmail; adorning the upper left chest portion of his armor was the symbol of a downward facing sheathed sword. His hair was shoulder-length and black, his expression stern and eyes bright. Over his left shoulder was a navy-blue cape that encompassed his entire arm and the hilt of a sword poked out from the right side of his hip. He regarded me as if I stood on the edge of a building, patient but worried, through his firm visage. “Perhaps we could continue this philosophical discussion at a later date, but I feel you should release this man before he falls unconscious.”

I gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?” I asked him even as I turned to face the man again, only to be surprised at his cheeks slowly turning blue. My eyes flickered downwards to see that my right hand had latched onto the collar of his tunic, held and pulled tight in my white-knuckled grip. It almost hurt considering how tightly I was holding him. Releasing him as if he were on fire, I took a hasty step back as my heart to pound even faster than before. My hand ached as I could feel the blood pumping through it, fingers sore from the pressure they previously held.

I stared at my hand in shock, a sliver of fear pulsing deep. Closing my eyes shut, I gathered myself before opening them once more and glaring as darkly as I could at the man. He was on his knees gasping for breath. His face darkened as he turned to me as if he were to berate me before he froze in terror. “Walk away,” I growled out, not fully recognizing my voice. “I won’t stand for your abuse in my sight; you waste of breath.” The weight on my shoulders began to grow heavier, but I did not falter. “I will endeavor to avoid the sight of you because I don’t know how I’ll react if I see you again. So. Walk. Away.” Words that felt both alien and natural left my mouth.

“Who do yo-” He was about to retort, to bluster and demand, but the sound of knuckles cracking silenced him. I had clenched my hands at my side, holding myself back from giving into my rising fury.

“Walk. Away.” My voice came out more guttural than normal speech.

The man’s face turned as white as a sheet before he seemingly whipped around and scrambled away. The sound of feet scratching and shuffling along the ground pulled my attention to the source. My heart fell into my stomach when I saw the unfettered fear in the boy’s eyes as he looked up to me. His jumbled steps sent him past me, never taking his wide eyes off me until he was far out of arm’s reach, and quickly twisted around to run off after the man. I squeezed my eyes shut as I bit my lip, a chaotic mess of feelings swirling around in the pit of my stomach.

What the hell is wrong with me?

“Your sense of justice is laudable, young Hero. But for the Beastkin child, it is a waste of your time.” The man’s voice was bland and seemingly half-committed in its reassurance.

The fury that was dying down flared to life once more as I turned a glare in his direction, my hand twitching for a sword that wasn’t there. I wasn’t sure if I was glad that I didn’t have one on me or not. “I will not stand for pointless cruelty, knight.”

“Inquisitor.” He corrected as if stating the weather. “Perhaps so. A laudable belief, as I alluded to before. However, what if it wasn’t pointless cruelty, then?” From the way his eyes lazily moved to my hands, he did not miss how my hands twitched for a missing weapon. His appraisal of me shifted as his eyes narrowed.

The fury did not abate, only aggravated by his almost flippant answer. Before I could reply, someone cut in. “Inquisitor Vincent.” Emelina had stepped forward. I turned my gaze to the side to see that everyone was watching in silence, Mr. Lethe, Kara and Valeri standing in front of my friends. Were they holding them back? Why? “I see you’ve come to us, rather than allowing us to reach the chapel.” She gave an observation, though her expression was…distasteful, if still polite.

Vincent inclined his head. “Indeed, Your Highness. I felt it important to come out to meet your group rather than wait.” His regard shifted obviously to me. “It was fortuitous that I arrived when I did. Considering no one interfered.”

“You know my stance on certain customs, Vincent.” Her tone was cold.

“So you would allow one of your Heroes to assault an unarmed citizen?” Vincent drawled, his voice remaining perfectly polite, though there was a cutting edge to it. “All because of a disagreement you have with Church Doctrine?”

“Assault?” I demanded of him.

Before I could continue, Vincent cut in. “You were choking a man without realizing it, Hero.” He put in so much mild sarcasm in that word that it stoked the flames of my fury. Though, in the back of my mind, a traitorous voice agreed with him. That shame was quickly overwhelmed by my anger.

“I will not stand by and watch a man strike an innocent child.” I snarled at him, my body sliding forward as I felt my Affinity beginning to inundate my body with power beneath the surface.

“Innocent?” For the first time, Vincent’s expression faltered, eyes widening in surprise. Then his lip curled in disgust. “No Beastkin, child or not, is innocent.”

I saw red as my body was about to move forward, but a vice grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me back violently. I twisted around to lash out at the one who stopped me. It was from Luke. He held my shoulder hard enough to make it uncomfortable, meeting my glare with his own. “Get your shit together, Joey. I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t you.”

I ripped my shoulder out of his grip and set my jaw. “Are you listening to this?! That was a child. A kid. And you want me to accept that it’d be right to sit by and watch that abuse?” I hissed at him, causing him to flinch back and look away from me. “Fuck that…” I looked back to the now impassive Inquisitor. “And fuck you. I’m not listening to your poison anymore.” A flicker of anger tickled the surface of my self-control, but I held it back and looked to Emelina. She met my gaze with sad, heavy regard. “I’m going to catch my breath somewhere else before I do something I regret.” Not waiting for an answer, I found Rudy’s patient and slightly angry gaze, and asked, “Can you find me in an hour?”

He nodded brusquely, understanding in his expression. “Go.”

I turned and began to walk away, towards the thick forest. I pushed back the words of the people calling out to me. Again. The second time in two days, I’ve had to walk away, unable to hold in my anger. What the hell is wrong with me? My temper’s never been this horrid back home.

My thoughts were a never-ending cycle of trying to understand what was causing me to react like this. In this frame of mind, I walked and walked until I was sure my feet came to a stop of their own volition. It was a persistent, unceasing forward progression, only waylaid by occasionally going around a tree that ended up in my path. Driven and powered by my simmering anger, I was able to walk longer, more consistently and faster than I’ve had to in the past two months.

I ended up at the entrance to a large meadow with a lake on the far left. A trio of boulders was next to the edge of the lake, at the base of the thick trunk of an old tree. The surface of the lake was calm, unmoving even in the face of the gentle, caress of a breeze. I sighed as I felt the kiss of the wind upon my face. Walking towards the boulders, I climbed on top of the one closest to the lake and took a seat. I heaved out a sigh, letting my head fall into my hands.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I think I’m losing my mind.” I murmured to myself, mostly to voice my honest thoughts.

“That’s a good thing, I find. Those who don’t happen to acknowledge that either ends up being painfully boring or refuse to concede the simplest truths.” A frighteningly familiar voice tore into my chosen solitude. I fell backward off the boulder and nearly into the lake, but a steady hand grasped me by the elbow, yanking me to the opposite side. I rolled back, flipping across the ground before I planted my hands onto the earth and pushed upwards. Jumping to my feet, I looked to the source of the voice to see the ivory-haired Jeanne smiling in amusement at me, her golden eyes studying me with a frantic curiosity, as if searching for something. She was still wearing the torn cloak from before, which did little to hide her slender form, the feminine curves that seemed to emphasize her inhuman nature. Her horns were nowhere visible.

When her expression turned content, her smile resembling the cat that caught the canary, I couldn’t help but shiver at a single thought: she found something she liked.

“Jeanne…”

Her expression brightened, her smile becoming…happy? “They told you my name? Fantastic. I was worried I’d have to give introductions.” She rolled her eyes and sneered at an unseen person to her right. “Such pointless pleasantries are the mutt’s preference. They take far too much time, and I don’t like to wait.” Jeanne’s smile returned, though it was rapturous as she licked her lips. “I vastly prefer getting to know someone in battle. Tis much more… intimate.”

“What do you want?” I wasn’t sure how I felt hearing those words coming from her. I wasn’t sure how I’d fare against her without a sword. Hell, even with a sword, I wasn’t sure.

Her eyes focused on me with an almost frantic intensity, her lips parting in a gentle, inhumanly beautiful smile. “You.”

“Why?” I asked her again, feeling another chill race down my spine.

As she walked towards me, it was as if she glided gracefully, her hips shifting with every movement of her long, lean legs. Every step she made screamed both ‘savagely beautiful’ and ‘beautifully savage,’ making me feel so very confused as to whether I should stand there and gawk like a preteen in the onset of puberty, or turn around, yell ‘nope’ and sprint out of there like a bat out of hell.

Unfortunately, she reached me before I could make the decision, and gently placed her hand on my cheek. The scales that trailed down her arms decorated the back of her hands, and the slight, sloping claws on her fingernails were cold to the touch, despite the notable heat that her skin gave off from the contact. “My Regent gave me the capability to keep my mind long enough to make the journey here. She wanted me to witness the Heroes that had triggered the latter parts of the prophecy, to see if any were worthy.” Her golden eyes were wide as she looked to me as if I were an oasis in the center of a vast desert. Her lips flickered from a smile to grin, before shrinking to playful smirk, tongue flicking out to wet them. “Of all them, only you stood beneath the weight of my lost control, my escalating rage, a temporary return of my incessant madness. Whether it be by chance, a flicker of strength amidst a crippling weakness, or even a quirk of fate,” She snarled the last word, but calmed herself with a shaky sigh, her breath tickling my face. Then her eyes shot open again, the intensity in them sending shivers down my spine. “You shouldered it and remained strong in the face of overwhelming power. The power that has broken the courage of the most steadfast of knights; the morale of armies; and the belief of the most devout of holy men.” She inhaled through her nose, her eyes flickering almost in ecstasy. “That is a will that is dying in the people of this world, never returning in the face of a corrupting and tainted peace.”

“What did you do to me?” I asked her breathlessly, my body shivering beneath her touch. A part of me wanted to push her away, to lash out with everything I had, despite knowing that death was assured. A piece that wanted to stand firm and resolute even in the face of her overwhelming power.

But that other part… That other part wanted her. It wanted her presence. The ability to make others bow in the face of my anger, my wrath. It wanted her subservience; her head to dip due to my authority. It wanted her loyalty. And that terrified me.

It wasn’t some mysterious presence that invaded my mind, or any sort cliched tripe like that. No… It was still me. It was that part of me that cried for freedom, to rip myself away from beneath the thumb of the Royal Family.

It horrified me because all of that rage, all that desire for freedom and independence, all that need was…me. A part of me that I didn’t want to surface, but came forward regardless.

Jeanne’s smile widened, eyes glowing with excitement. “I set the stage. I laid the seeds for your inevitable evolution.” Her tone was husky, her breath, heady. “I brought to the fore the primal aspects of who you are, deep inside. The parts that people hide from themselves, from the world. I awakened the depths of the power that slept within you.”

Her other hand gently cupped my other cheek as her face moved closer, her body leaning against mine. Her breath tickled my lips as Jeanne continued, “I never got to make my request before I was interrupted. She was rather cross with me upon learning that. Everything I did to gain your attention, your intent, your measure, and I never managed to ask the most important question.”

When she asked it of me, I was shocked silent by my inability to fully commit to an answer. The weight of her words, the meaning of them, tore the breath from me in ways that my asthma had never done before. The sheer need, the desire, with which she spoke, it sent my heart racing, not from arousal, but excitement and trepidation. Her words alluded to the freedom I had begun to yearn for, in spite of the true meaning behind them.

Her words had pushed me so far that I had lost myself to the world. So much so that when she disappeared from my sight, citing a slow decline of rationality, I hadn’t noticed that she was indeed gone. Her scent had lingered, further driving the words deeper into my mind.

I was so lost in her words, that when Rudy came to collect me with Emelina, I had followed them with nary a word.

I hadn’t noticed when we approached the estate and went to my room after a light dinner.

I hadn’t noticed the words of concern from my friends.

I hadn’t noticed Amber telling me she had begun in earnest to forge my sword.

It wasn’t until I was in bed that I realized how much of the day I had lost to my musings.

The last thought I had before falling asleep were the words that had gripped my soul with such fervor.

“Will you be our King?”