Len opened her eyes to quite the spectacle. Craig was presently entangled with the trio of her henchmen in a brawl of bizarre proportions. All of them were unarmed, and throwing blows left and right with no particular rhyme or reason to it. She was tempted to chastise her goblins for failing to put what she’d taught them into practice, but decided to hold off on that to try and figure out what was going on.

“Would someone please explain all this to me,” she said, a bit groggily.

“We caught this bastard trying to strangle you,” said Moe between swings.

“Ah, carry on, then. Hey asshat, you want to surrender before this goes worse for you?”

“To hell with you, woman, I’ll die where I stand rather than be subjected to this further. How are you awake?”

This was an odd conversation to be carrying out while the other participants continued to brawl, but it wasn’t anywhere near as the one she’d just finished having, so she rolled with it.

“Yeah, ‘bout that. Met the guy in charge of that magic of yours. Turns out, he wasn’t too pleased with you trying to pawn things off on him. Said something about making you pay, I think. How’s that stuff working out for you right now?”

“It’s not,” he spat. “I’ll straighten that out as soon as I’m finished with you lot.”

“Oh, buddy. Hate to tell you this, but you’re not gonna be finishing anything. All right, boys. Haven’t tried this yet, so can’t be sure exactly what’s gonna happen but prepare yourselves all the same.”

They didn’t respond, but there wasn’t much for them to say anyway. Gingerly, she got to her feet, noted the throbbing around her throat that confirmed Moe’s claim, and set her jaw. No time like the present to test it out. Setting her left hand out, the first two fingers pointed up diagonally, the last two and her thumb held in a tight circle, she snapped a command in a language she didn’t actually know, the tips of her extended fingers began to glow a pulsating and cruel shade of red. She traced a half circle outward in front of her, brought her hand up once to close the half circle then sharply down again before rotating her palm upward and snapping her arm up to touch her forehead and repeat the command. Energy surged through her and into the symbol she’d carved in the air, which then flared brighter and vanished.

She could just barely see a trio of matching brands appear on her minions before searing pain tore through her body and drove her to her knees. She suspected that passing out right that instant would’ve been a bad thing, so she fought through the pain with pure anger. She hadn’t expected things to go easy with Craig, but she’d thought she’d at least gotten something of a rapport going. That he’d assumed she’d be destroyed by this process was one thing, but moving to strangle her during the trial? The fucker had no decency whatsoever.

As she honed in on that anger, she caught sight of her trio. What had been a reasonably equal battle before had become an absolute rout, with the goblins pummeling the human into submission ruthlessly. She hadn’t seen exactly what they’d done, but they held the clear advantage now and, after another few moments, had beaten the fool unconscious. Sighing in relief, Len banished the rune, returning them to their normal state and somewhat lessoning the screaming inside her head. It didn’t fade completely, but retreated enough that she could think straight again.

“Nice work, guys. Everyone okay?”

“Yeah,” said Larry. “What the hell was that?”

“A new trick,” she said, not caring to elaborate further. “I’ll tell you about it some other time. For now, let’s get back to town. We’ve got a sword to pawn.”

* * * * *

With all chance at reasonable reconciliation banished, Len felt no shame whatsoever in having Kila sell the sword to one of the wealthier Orc warriors who looked quite pleased with the purchase. The fifty silver he offered in exchange for it was more than enough to cover their expenses for the rest of the month. As for Craig, he was handed over to the commander in charge of the outpost who quite looked forward to the opportunity to question the would-be crusader and let the fact that Len and Kila had kept him secret for several days slide.

As for Craig’s armor, with a little bit of effort on Kila’s part, it was retrofitted into a solid piece of gear for Len with just enough scrap leftover to make some nice bracers for the trio. Leather armor wasn’t exactly the sturdiest thing in existence, but it was still a damn sight better than the cloth traveling clothes she’d had on during the first Proving. Kila had even fashioned a dragon emblem on the chestpiece, claiming it to be her mark and a surefire sign of the greatness that its bearer was destined for. Len was pretty sure that she just liked dragons.

The rest of the month passed with disturbing speed. Each day was spent further training, with less time each day spent on gathering duties. Since their finances were covered, it seemed more practical to put their efforts into more direct combat application. They did spend a little time each day mining a nearby mountain, as much for the practice as the rocks that Kila had gotten used to having a daily supply of, but that was mostly a side activity.

The toughest part was practicing with the rune. Len couldn’t remember what the creature had called this ability, but something tickled the back of her mind telling her it was important. The fact that it hurt so much was concerning, but she didn’t have any options besides it at present so would have to rely on it. A matter of concern was that while the searing pain left the instant she released the rune, that dull pain lingered well after the casting, leaving her irritable and touchy for the rest of the day and causing restlessness the entire night. Without fail, it lasted for two days of inconvenience for even a short period of casting it. She made a point of taking at least four days between each use but had mostly mastered the art of enduring the pain of the primary duration a week before their month was up.

And that was pretty much it for the remainder of their month at the outpost. No further earth shattering events disturbed them, no grand revelations did they discover. They simply went about the standard routine that they’d set, incrementally bettering themselves with each day as the Grand Proving drew ever closer. The three Goblins had become surprisingly protective of her after that initial scare she’d awoken to, and even though they didn’t say it with words, she suspected they were starting to like her.

Kila remained her ever-chipper self, rooting for them along the way and even joining in for a few training sessions where Len needed a more equally sized partner to demonstrate a given grapple. Much as she hated to admit it, this period was some of the best fun Len had had in years, and she found herself smiling quite a bit during it. She had really gotten used to enjoying the company of these four strange creatures that all the lore she’d ever read in fantasy books swore were irredeemable monsters. Two days before their month was up, though, that fun came to an end.

“Miss Wraithwhisper,” declared a tall, bespectacled man that literally rose from the ground in front of them, bringing the smell of sulfur and suffering with him. “You are officially summoned.”