I’m one hundred percent blaming them. I’m blaming them for shooting me down with a chunk of rock, for the burning pain and above all of it, I’m blaming them for the itchy bandages.

They did it on purpose I’m sure, rolling it bare against the skin, don’t even need to take it out to know that beneath the rough cloth I’m filled with bruises. Well, I did get shot because I was sneaking in the shadows like a maniac, maybe that was not the brightest of the ideas and being fair, I suppose that I could claim half of the blame, but what in the world is fair? I’m one hundred per cent blaming them.

They said that after I passed out “Eagan”, the guy who shot me, called for help and they did best they could to save my life, it was quite a surprise for them when five days later I opened my eyes. Can’t blame, yesterday they changed my bandages and the wounds were pretty ugly, half of what I drink goes through gaps in my belly. If you asked me, would say that anyone with that kind of injure was bound to die, but what do I know?

My wounds are indeed ugly, and the pain is fucking hell, but its healing faster than any other that I have ever saw. Skin growing by day, wounds larger than my fingers being closed like they are small cuts. They are giving me large amount of food every day, even if only soup, claiming that healing put a huge burden in the body so I need to replenish the energy. That’s one of the problems actually, they are treating me too well.

And why would they use healers to some nobody that was half dead? Remorse? Hard to believe, no one does good deeds without wanting something back, and I have little to offer. No plans of escaping this time though, tried to walk yesterday and my legs were like two green branches, bending beneath my own weight. What was probably a good thing, after observing them for a while it’s easy to understand that even with my legs fixed and a whole night ahead a couple of hours - or less - would be enough to catch me back.

fortunately, I have a lot of things to keep me distracted, like Morning Interrogation fun time with Eann. That’s the fifth time in less than two days that he comes, being harder and harder to send him off every time, things are close to turning ugly and I have yet to even know what he wants.

But still, even if I did, it's not like I can do something about it. And here we go again.

“Hello boy, ready to say something? To start simple, from where did you came would be good” - he says, carrying that amiable smile in his face, one of the most faked smiles that someone can ever put in their faces, but at least he's still trying to not use force.

“Benefactor, I want to say, I really want, but I’ve truly forgotten, my head is foggy and I can’t remember a thing at all” - I say blatantly, lying without even bating an eye just like I did all the previous times. What should I do? Tell him that I've run? No, thanks, I've seen enough executions and it's not the way I want to go.

Most citizens think that practitioners can detect lies, throwing every bit of information at the first stare or word, and eventually most practitioners started to think that they actually can. So, even if a risk, lying is not that hard, and it usually comes down as how arrogant and full of themselves they are, believing them so powerful that no one would dare to.

And in the most cases, centuries of servitude build them enough arrogance that most will not even try to verify what we say. It's not the people's fault of course, we suffer enough in their hands already, better tell or do everything they say than be found dead in the next morning.

After lying I see myself staring at the man, a sturdy and cladded in leather one, with green eyes and brown loose hair and beard. He stands no more than 175cm tall, carrying a par of blades and slowly considering what I said until with a last scratch in the shin he says.

“Well, that is not unheard in some cases, maybe you lost too much blood and that is some of the residual effects; your wounds, how are they?”

“My wounds are better by the day benefactor, I think that in two more I’ll be able to walk, I thank benefactor for the caring” - Again, I lie, how should I know how much time it will take? I never that big of wounds and mostly, I never healed that fast. But even if it will take more it's better to not give them a reason to give up the treatment, I don't think that I'll be fine on my own this time.

“Good to hear that, Eagan was really worried about you, he blames himself for being stupid and I hope you can forgive him, he’s too green in worldly matters. I’ve send him to stay alone and meditate until you recover as punishment, maybe that disaster will turn for the better, who knows?

Actually, I’ve been talking with the chief and… well, our opinions diverge. You see, I'm glad that you are recovering and everything but I don't want to let that game of yours continue so now I'll ask you once more, and I hope, for your well-being, that you'll cooperate. You see, I'm busy and you are making me lose time."

He says, and after he did the first thing that caught my attention was how the world changed, the vivid green colors turning grayish as his tone changed, the carefree man not there anymore, his fake smile gone, leaving only a cold and cruel one in its place. In the back of my head I understood what happened, a sudden release of essence, strong enough to be seen by non-practitioners and strong enough to affect the world around us.

I even vaguely remembered seeing something close when the Capital’s army was collecting the annual tributes, the demonstration of power put a head of one entire family on his knees. “Give me the gold or I shall take it with your head as interest”, the message was clear even for people like us.

In the middle of all of it he slowly pointed at me, forcefully calling my attention back as the air became heavy, pressing against my chest like a rock and taking away my breath, eventually my eyes started to see less and less, it was early in the morning but no more lights could be seen.

I used all strength that I could muster to inquire, confused by the sudden change -

“W-hy?”

And like that cold air from the winter, the answer came.

“I know that you are lying to me, and now, I want the truth” - he said simply, his voice carried by the world itself, pulsing in my ears, powerful and demanding the truth directly from my own being.

I don’t know what was preventing me from breathing, the fear, the guilty or the weight smashing my lungs, probably a bit of everything I shrug mentally as I Open my mouth trying to say something again, soon I realizing that doing so was mistake, the precious air was leaving and I didn’t have much to spare, nor a way to get some back.

“Now, I’ll give you a chance of a new start, talk” - I hear the words but my mind ignore them, going for the so much more precious air as the pressure was sudden eased for a second. I used all my energy to inhale, but it was another mistake. It came back, stronger than before.

“I remember saying you to talk, not to breathe” - the voice said back, pushing out from my lungs all the air that I previous got. I once heard that air users were all fucking sadists, looks like it was truth, I can only think as I fight the lost battle of breathing.

“I’ll give you another chance, who are you?” - The voice finally says, bringing my conscience back from the darkness like a thirsty man goes to fresh water. A not so far from the reality example.

I’ve been overestimating myself, he knew that I was lying from the start and he played me, letting me have hope. Pitiful, like I ever had a chance, all the big plans about escaping, all the dreams, in the end, it’s all about strength, be it money, connections or power, I have none.

How could I ever think that I could change it?

“I’m a runaway salve from a small family not too far from here sir, the Raining Skies family and nothing more” - my words come, cutting against my throat, sadly not because of the lack of air.

After that he eyed me for a long time, I faced his eyes in the beginning, showing that I’ve no fear, at least I would not die by the hands of the people that I hate. I tried to humor myself, remembering the crying face of that idiot on the floor, bleeding by my hands, it help but soon I gave up, he just looked me back, no signal of emotions on his face.

After what could be five to fifteen minutes I gave up staring at him too, no one will ever know about me, if I was brave or not, so why bother? I just waited.

“I’ll talk true with you boy, I have a good eye to this kind of thing and my instincts are saying me that you are not dangerous. That you are indeed, just someone fighting for a better life, I want to believe you, but I have duties. You are not a practitioner, but there is no need to be one if you want to poison someone or to slice a throat in the middle of the night.

Eagan is the next heir of a big family, maybe you were sent to kill him by some revengeful clan or another family that doesn’t want ours to keep flourishing and maybe you were not, it’s a small chance, but it was done before and it’s better be safe than sorry. No risks is still better than small risks you see.

But like I said, I want to believe you, your story would be actually much like mine, someone fighting against their own destiny, refusing to lie down and accept what life threw at them, even if the price to fight is a premature death or a bitter failure.

In fact, I've only sent Eagan to camp a little ahead so you had no way to harm him and to give me some time to probe you, but things are not going like planned, things are going too slowly. The mercenaries are being too selective with the asking methods and that is slowing us down for too much, a week lost already only because of you, and the situation is, we cannot wait.

In a few weeks Eann will participate in the yearly regional tournament and because of you we are late in the schedule already even in the best scenario, we have yet to enter Briddell and fill our quota. Worse, if he get a serious wound, even with the best healers the time is too short, and we have only one, it's too risky.

Not only that, we know nothing about you and who knows how much time proving your story true will take? Bringing a potential assassin so close to our ranks in a place like Briddell would also be risky beyond words so, after some thinking we got to one solution. It’ll be quite hard but if you succeed all of our needs would be covered.

We need you to cultivate to level in less than four days.