“You need not be making any kind of worry. I will be having these two feeling well rested before you know it.” Ferd, the stablehand, sounded positively delighted as Pix and the woman travelling with her handed their horse’s reins to him. The horses - a pair of ‘Hollywoods’ - whinnied before nudging Ferd’s stocky frame with their heads in greeting. Fudge and I waited off to one side, watching as Ferd guided his charges, still laden with the various packs and pouches of travel, into the stables to be cared for; his Skills no doubt uniquely suited to the task.

  “Good to see you again, Pix,” I called out with a wave. Pix was in the process of stretching out her riding aches, but she took the time to give a polite wave of her own.

  “Hello, recruit.” She planted the butt of her spear into the ground and gestured to the still-hooded woman. “This is Slayer Eva.” There was a stiff formality to her words. If memory served, she’d been especially vocal in her dislike of Lionel’s shenanigans, a real stickler for rules and procedure.

  “Hello, Eva.” I watched the young Slayer for a reaction, not bothering to hide my curiosity.

  She didn’t respond, instead finishing up her own stretches and turning to head to the manor proper.

  “Eva,” Pix said, her tone laced with warning. It was enough to halt the woman in her tracks and the two exchanged a look. After a beat, Eva sighed and threw back her hood revealing an irregular bob of dark hair.

  “Hello, recruit,” she drawled, devoid of even feigned enthusiasm. She turned back towards Pix. “Now, I have a report to-”

  “Have I done something to offend you? Or are you just unpleasant to everyone?” After having to deal with Cruz, I was in no mood to dance around some passive aggressive situation. With Cruz, there were reasons I endeavoured to remain at least marginally amicable. Eva did not possess such safeguards.

  “Excuse me?” Eva snapped to face my direction.

  “Was I not clear? You have been glaring since you laid eyes on me and now refuse to dignify me with so much as an earnest welcome.” I shrugged. “Either I have done something to offend you, or you are just ambiently thorny. I want to know which.”

  Pix frowned.

  “Recruit, that is no way to-”

  “You. Little. Shit,” Eva snapped at me. Pix looked like she was going to interject again, but Eva waved her off. “No, Pix, it is fine. He wants to know? I will tell him.” She pointed down at me. “Because you are cozy with a Lieutenant, countless rules were bent to accommodate you. You did not earn your place here. Yes, you are just a kid, except you are not just a kid, right? You are some ‘special’ kid we all need to apparently appease. So yes, we are all irked by your presence. Get used to it.”

  Fudge growled low in his throat. Pix looked conflicted but didn’t otherwise interject or correct Eva’s assessment. Mira’s words from the day I arrived suddenly made a lot more sense.

  “I see,” I said slowly. “So, you are jealous.” Eva’s eyebrow twitched. “I could elaborate, of course, but I find it distasteful to tear down someone’s self esteem with cutting words when they clearly lack the maturity to handle it.”

  I reminded myself of Lionel just now. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about that, but falling into his gently mocking cadence felt right when confronted with such an absurd stance on my presence.

  Eva’s opinion on the subject, however, was far less nebulous.

  “Little shit,” she seethed. Evidently, she was quite fond of that insult. She took a step forward. “Apologise.”

  “Suppose I decide apology is not warranted?”

  “Recruit!” This time it was Pix who snapped at me. “Your words were uncalled for.” The flagrant bias wrinkled my skin.

  “I disagree,” I said flatly. “So, it appears we have reached an impasse.”

  “See, I told you he would be trouble,” Eva said, addressing Pix with a laugh that bordered on self-deprecating. “How about I test the recruit’s progress? Give him a pointer or two? We can see if that helps us with the ‘impasse’.” She dropped her bow to the ground and adopted a low stance, her hands balling into fists.

  Easy boy. In response to the sign of aggression, Fudge growled again, moving to place himself between Eva and I. Hesitation flashed across her face at the sign of solidarity.

  I’d heard of hazing before, but Eva’s actions still rung decidedly too personal. Or was it just an intimidation tactic? Was I supposed to flinch?

  “You would assault a child to balm your wounded ego?” In my experience, people who even considered as much carried especially tragic demons. “You do not-”

  I hesitated as an idea crossed my mind. Why should I try and diffuse the situation? I was confident Eva wouldn't kill me. Pix hadn't interjected yet - a surprise, frankly - but I couldn’t imagine she’d fail to intervene if it came to it.

  It could be a good way to test Perseverance…

  “You know what? No. I am not backing down to a bully if I do not have to.” I commanded Fudge to stand aside and, reluctantly, he did. I could practically sense the tension in his legs, though; he’d be ready to lunge at a moment’s notice.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I’d never learned to fight. One time, a drunk dude at a club mistook me for someone else and I copped a sucker punch to the side of the face. It threw me for a ringer, got me thrown out alongside the perpetrator, and it was a prime lesson in the importance of protecting one’s head. I fell into a stance of my own, one that loosely resembled a boxer’s if I was being generous.

  “So go ahead,” I said. “Test me.”

  I called upon my Skills and readied the mana I was almost certainly going to need. Eva smirked and looked at Pix, who sighed.

  “Go ahead,” she said, leaning on her spear. “He quite literally asked for it.”

  Eva didn’t waste any more time. She sprung forward, closing the distance between us in a single bound. Her foot touched down in front of me and-

  The ground erupted. Eva’s movements came to an abrupt halt. It happened too fast for me to see. One moment, Eva was looming over me, the next she was suspended slightly off the ground, limbs spread and bound by clusters of almost-invisible threads anchored to nearby structures.

  “How about we not fuck about?” Cruz called out, his voice coming from one of the manor windows. One arm was outstretched, his fingers spread and bent at odd angles in a way that reminded me of a puppeteer.

  “Seriously, Cruz!?” Eva yelled back, thrashing against the bonds that refused to yield. Pix had readied her spear in response to the sudden threat but gradually lowered it once the reality of the situation became clear.

  “Release her, Cruz,” Pix snapped. “Eva was just-”

  “I heard,” Cruz cut her off. “She was going to beat on the brat because she is jealous of him and because you are still sour that your feelings for a certain Lieutenant were not reciprocated.” He yawned and idly plucked a few crumbs from his beard with his free hand.

  Pix bristled. “I-”

  “Save it. We have been over this. I. Do not. Care. I-”

  “Seriously! Let me the fuck down!” Eva interrupted. Cruz just sighed and shook his hand. The threads around Eva’s limbs grew slack, lowering Eva to the ground before untangling and settling back into the dirt as if guided by some unseen force.

  “Better? Good. Now what are we all not going to do?” There was a silent pause. “That is right, we are not going to fuck about and force Cruz to break up any more fights. Shit in your own beds.” He didn’t wait for a response, instead closing the window and disappearing back into the manor.

  That was… unexpected. It was also a terrifying flex of power, but stuff could be two things. Fudge was wagging his tail, apparently amused by the whole affair for some reason. A sort of awkward tension settled between Eva and I, neither of us sure how to proceed.

  After a few moments, I coughed.

  “Well. I guess we can call that one a tie.” I received a glare in response. Evidently, humour was not the right call... If I was being honest with myself, though, I definitely knew that.

  “Just watch yourself. You do not belong here.” Eva didn’t hang around any longer, opting to storm off to the manor. It left just Pix and I - and Fudge, technically, but he’d decided the crisis was over and opted to go watch the horses instead.

  “For the record, I realize there is some baggage there,” I said. “Is this going to be a long term problem, or…” I trailed off. Pix watched me, a complicated expression on her face.

  “That is not for me to say and, for the record, I apologize for my conduct. That was unbecoming of me, but Eva is…”

  “I get it,” I said, waving off the apology. “You have to support the people you are close to.” Even though I didn’t back down in the moment, I wasn’t about to hold a grudge against a young woman who, from my perspective, was still basically a kid.

  Pix chuckled at that, a hollow sound devoid of genuine mirth.

  “Has anyone told you that you are unsettling to speak with?”

  “Cruz has mentioned it more than most.”

  “That sounds like Cruz.” Pix looked towards the window again, her brow furrowed in thought. “In any case, I have reports to fill out, so I will take my leave.” With that, she left, leaving me alone and wondering just how widespread the apparent minefield of threads beneath the grounds was.

  I wonder what they’re made of…

  -0-0-0-0-0-

  Having just finished a job circuit, Eva and Pix were going to be stationed at the fort for a time, so that they might rest or otherwise reflect on the growth of their Skills. Unlike Cruz, who had all but mastered the art of avoiding me, Eva was not quite so adept and we crossed paths more than once over the following days.

  It was an odd thing, to be subject to such ambient hostility, the kind that itches the back of the head. Cruz seemed more clued into the situation than I was, and I idly considered using up time on our assigned training day probing him for information.

  Perhaps if I run out of other things to ask, I thought as I headed down the paved road towards Dorbe.

  I had been meaning to visit the town. The writ in my pocket was burning to be used. The fact that it also got me away from misguided drama was merely an added benefit. I wanted to recreate a version of the obstacle course Tulos had me run, with a few tweaks based on my memories of drill camps; not that I ever served, but I’d seen them in movies with such little variation I had to assume the structures were rooted in realism.

  Weights were also on the docket, which meant commissioning them. I had once read that strength training with weights could be detrimental to a child; it stunted their growth, or something. I was betting on Recovery being able to mitigate that risk.

  Fudge walked at my side. I had to rein him in after we started encountering more foot traffic. Unlike the smaller farming villages, there was a hustle and bustle to Dorbe with people running their lives and businesses from within its walls. The main thoroughfare was occupied by the occasional horse and cart or carriage, their repeated passage pulverising the sun-dried horse shit left by those that came before them.

  People haggled and heckled and baked loaves of bread. A man with a hat tried his luck singing instead. Fudge spotted a cat that I could have sworn had blue fur. Startled, it darted, and I lost sight of the blur. Some folks waved in greeting, and I even recognized a few, but one thing became abundantly clear…

  I do not know what to do.

  I shook all sense of whimsy out of me. I’d lost myself in exploration and despite having a list of things I wanted, I did not know where to get them. I thought about asking a random passer-by, but that seemed dubious at best. Returning to the manor would have been embarrassing, but it wasn’t like I knew anyone in Dorbe who I could-

  Actually, that’s not entirely true. I looked around to get my bearings and set off with renewed purpose.

  It wasn’t long until I reached the town centre, where a familiar stone building caught my eye. A sign depicting the silhouette of a boot hung over its entrance. Isa’s Tavern. If there was anyone in town who could help me, it would be her. At the very least, it was a good place to start.

  Anyone have thread-traps on their bingo card for Cruz?

  You can read up to 10 Chapters Ahead over on my . Today's chapter features some exciting (terrifying) lore being dropped. Will gets a big taste of some wider world stuff.

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