“My lord.”

Inside the training building attached to the main house, Zachariah paused in his morning practice, lowering his wooden sword. His preferred weapon was a large warhammer that he used his prodigious strength, aided by the best melders in the north, to swing around with the same ease a child swung a stick, but the sword was the nobleman’s weapon. It had history and tradition behind it. Victory valued tradition.

He bowed to his family’s banner before turning toward the door. Jude, his first bannerman and childhood friend, stood with his mouth pressed into a grim frown. He never was an attractive man. His small eyes didn’t complement his wide nose and his lips were too pale. The multitude of scars he’d accumulated from a lifetime of campaigns and boisterous weekends in the Witness Circle, didn’t help. He had a face made for giving bad news, which is why his bannermen sent Jude to deliver it.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ollivan has concerns.” Ollie was Zach’s second bannerman. When he had grown out of the teenage zeal of wanting to conquer the north, like every other Victory man, he accepted he’d need people with brains as well as brawn if he wanted to guide Victory to a better future. Ollie wasn’t the best fighter but he had a head for tactics and numbers. “The March is tomorrow and things aren’t going as planned.”

“The hunters do a runner?”

“No. As expected, running from two women and their pets is too much for their pride. Not to mention the money. Emberton has doubled the bounty, promising to pay it directly if his guild doesn’t honor it.”

“How did the investigation into their abilities go?”

“We got a message from Quest.” Jude stepped forward. He handed over a rolled piece of paper. “Lourianne Tome is a summoner with two contracted succubi, a thrall and an incompetent imp. She also has one confirmed affinity, fire.”

“So her strength is the result of her wife.”

“If she does have a physical affinity, it is well hidden. Marquis Guiness sponsored her to the Hall and all he mentioned was a fire affinity.”

“Ancestors know he would have investigated thoroughly. If all he found was fire, then that means everyone in that woman’s family is a vault to keep such a thing secret or they don’t know at all and Lourianne Tome was a master schemer from about the age of five.”

Jude scoffed. “We know how few men can keep a secret under real pressure. Besides, southerners are all about showing off. Her family would have held her up for all to see, singing her praises.”

“And the girl doesn’t seem the scheming type,” Zach continued. “In fact, I’d say she’s rather simple. From what the servants say, Alana doesn’t value her bannerwoman for her mind.” His youngest sister had certainly grown bold. Perhaps reckless, a word he’d never thought he would ever apply to the serious girl who walked lightly around their father. “It’s safe to conclude she has a fire affinity and a highly melded body. I see we didn’t get any further into that.”

“The elf appears to have done all the work herself. Didn’t consult a single melder.”

“The question is, did she need to?” The elf was by far the most complicated factor. Zach had no idea about her origins, ideology, or abilities. Scouring the oldest records in his family’s library, a scant few containing accounts from the Great War, revealed what a pure affinity was but not the extent of its capabilities. That seemed to be the point. There was nothing they couldn’t do, within the realm of the affinity.

Jude grunted. “Assume the worst, fight for better.”

“Assuming the worst, how far do think a pure affinity could meld someone in a year?”

“Leaning toward the extreme, I’d wager she’s as strong as you.”

Zach wanted to scoff but held himself back. It was hard to imagine that a woman could match his strength, as he had been guided by the best melder in Victory since he was a boy, sculpting him to the peak of human physicality, but this was a pure affinity. They were the subject of legends and myths for a reason. “If that’s the case, she can take the average hunter with nothing more than her bare hands and has a fair bit of stamina. But she’s only an acolyte.”

“No one had anything to say about her casting. From the rumors, she spent her time at the Hall playing with women.”

Zach frowned. His efforts to discredit and break down Alana was nothing personal. He didn’t see her as real competition. He couldn’t, not when every time he saw her face he remembered the skinny brat when she was first welcomed into the house, dirty and shaking before the rest of the James. But, if she was sullying their house entertaining a silly, hedonistic southern noble…well, it would become personal.

“The true threat is the elementals. She appears to be a competent summoner. The abilities of succubi are noted here.”

“…ancestors. Every one of these things have the mental affinity. Get the Moons to hand out a couple artifacts.”

“Already thought to. The Devil is having none of it. I hear he’s standing in front of their armory, glaring at anyone who enters and searching those who leave.”

Zach swore. “Damn my sister. She pretends she doesn’t care about the title and then she does something like this.”

“Yulia’s always had a soft spot for Alana.”

Zach didn’t stop himself from scoffing at that misguided comment. His sister was a snake. Most reptiles couldn’t survive the cold but she wore the skin of a warm-hearted bunny to survive. It was the perfect disguise. No one was ever prepared for her fangs.

“Yulia acts for Yulia. If she really cared for Alana, she would convince her to leave. Victory has never been the place for her.”

“She’s a James.”

“The James are leaders, the best of the best,” Zach snapped. “My mother is a former knight, from a line of famous knights. Kalise may be an animal but she is powerful. The James are sired from the best, trained by the best, and given the best resources. Alana is my father’s bastard with a common whore.

“While we were training, she was shoveling blackrock and sweeping trash. She doesn’t have any talent. Father threw her with the commoners, but instead of getting the message, she latched onto his momentary lapse of judgment and refused to leave. Eren’s death made Father soft so he brought a lost dog with a shiny affinity into the house but no, she is not a James.”

Jude grunted. “You’re a mountain of kindness, my lord.”

“If she needs warmth, she should stay out of the north.” Zach forced himself to take a deep breath, calming his emotions. His quick temper was one of his biggest flaws. Rational decisions needed a cool head. “The mental affinity is weak against enemies stronger than the caster. Make sure the guilds know not to bother with anyone whose coefficient is under three hundred. Or at the very least, make sure they know they’re fodder. How is the war of the heart going?”

A battle was more than how many soldiers could be fielded, the state of their equipment, or knowledge of the terrain. All those things were important but completely irrelevant without heart. If a man wasn’t ready to fight, if he didn’t believe in victory, he may as well lie down and wait to die. The result would be the same.

“…we are losing ground.”

“What?” Zach looked at his bannerman harshly. “Are you telling me we can’t frighten a couple women who’ve never seen the horrors beyond those mountains? What are you doing man?”

Jude grimaced, looking uncomfortable. “We’ve tried, my lord. We’ve tried poisoning the food but it doesn’t take. People sent to mess up the room are always caught. People sent to investigate their supplies are always caught. The servants we asked to deliver ‘friendly warnings’ are mocked in the halls.”

“…they’re prepared then.”

“It gets worse. They’ve been launching their own heart attacks. The bannerwoman delivered three large casks of liquor to the hunters today, saying their final drink should be something decent. The elf has been spotted around the fort singing about fleshing and hanging skulls. The thrall has been going around, recording names, to ‘make collecting the winnings’ easier.”

Zach couldn’t help his smile. “Hah! A shame. If only they hadn’t sworn themselves to a waste.” Confidence like that couldn’t be faked. Against all the odds, Lourianne Tome and her wife thought they could win. If they managed to put a shadow of death over their opponents, they could.

It was the kind of slightly insane mentality that produced the best knights, the ones who survived campaign after campaign and managed to retire. “I take it the hunters are shitting themselves?”

“They are uneasy at the thought of single combat. Most hunters fight in teams. And the tale of the bannerwoman knocking a man’s head off is making the rounds.”

Zach didn’t understand. They had come to the north to fight in a war that had lasted for generations and claimed thousands. The monsters could do far worse than take a man’s head off. “How bad is it?”

“Only the weak have been scared off. The stronger fighters have too much experience to be affected by tactics. Not a great loss but that means there is less fodder to tire them out. Emberton has managed to rally plenty. This is no longer about money. The guild’s honor is on the line and we know what men will do for honor.”

“Final count?”

“Fifty-six hunters are going to fight and they’ve managed to secure two mercenaries as last-ditch efforts.”

“Strength?”

“Guild ranks their members with metals. Copper is fodder. Bronze is about the same as our basic trainees. Silver is a weaker knight. Gold is a decent knight. Beyond that, they are known individually. They have fifteen bronze, twenty-four silver, seven gold, and ten named hunters.”

“More than I expected.”

“The bronzes and silvers are older hunters that’ve reached their peaks and are willing to die for a tidy sum to their families. The golds are in it for the bounties and think it’ll be easy once it gets to them. The named hunters committed as Emberton made it clear he’d spread the fact if they refused. It wouldn’t do much for their reputations if it was known they ran from a fight with overwhelming odds in their favor.”

“Then everything is in hand. Suppose I should have a talk with Alana.” While this March would silence any whispers of the youngest member of the family being considered as a successor, he would much prefer she simply run away, never to return. It would be one less thing for him to worry about and Alana would still have a chance at happiness, if the servants had the right of her relationship with her bannerwoman. But Alana remained stubborn as always. “Think she’ll see me?”

“Not a chance in the Abyss.”

“Heh. Get the fighters something good to eat. And make sure our guest is comfortable.” The night his father decreed the March, Emberton had sent a message to Quest via an aptly named messenger hawk, a manabeast bred and trained because of its speed.

Amazingly, someone had managed to reach Victory with a reply earlier that day. Someone had wanted to make sure their message was delivered. Zach hadn’t expected it but was glad that he left instructions for all outsiders to be detained. He didn’t know what message the runner carried but he couldn’t have the hunters pulling out because the guilds lost their nerve.

“It’ll be done, my lord.”