Paul sat in his father’s study, which now belonged to him. He was going through a stack of tedious paperwork, trying to sort out all the responsibilities and messes that his new inheritance had dropped on top of him. He was not particurly happy with his father naming him as heir and that Patricia had actually agreed with the choice despite his politically savvy sister being far more suitable for the role.

  The Emerald Caster knew why his father had chosen him. It wasn’t because he was the firstborn or the oldest son or any of that nonsense that some noble Houses adhered to. No, it was simply because of his strength. He was one of the few in the family who took the adventuring path, the pressure for excellence being extreme since any who did usually became well renowned and expected to represent their House. He was also on the cusp of Ruby Caste, which would officially make him the strongest Waynd in over six centuries.

  His House was not a rge one like it had once been, but it was very respected. He had almost destroyed that respect with his connection to the Purifier and Fall from grace, but the fact that he had broken his ties with the Fallen god before the entire clergy had been denounced went a long way in protecting his family’s reputation. Still, the looks and rumors that surrounded him personally were an annoyance.

  A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts, and he automatically replied, “Enter.”

  The head steward, Roger, entered and bowed respectfully. “My lord, I have gotten the information you sought about Wayfarers and came across some particurly interesting news from out of Blomstra.”

  “Oh?” Paul prompted, leaning back in his chair to focus on the man who, like him, was one of the minority of humans in the city.

  “Yes, my lord.” He handed over a folder of papers for Paul to look through as he summarized, “Apparently, there was a Wayfarer nding site discovered in the Blue Ridge Mountains about a month ago.”

  “Two months,” the former padin offhandedly replied as he skimmed through the information, now certain that this was where Phoenix had arrived. The location and timing were just too aligned not to be.

  “I’m sorry, sir?” the steward asked with slight confusion.

  “I’m sure the Order of Magic dragged their feet on reporting in. I’m confident that my little apprentice was the one who caused it,” he expined while continuing to read through the papers.

  “We should send an assassin to clean up that mess,” the monotonous voice suggested in his mind. “We don’t want them trying to take the Little Miss again.”

  He paused, reading over a particur section, and asked Roger, “What unfortunate accident held them up?”

  “Ah, yes, it appears that one of the Crystal Magi, the Noble Miles Milligan, had an unfortunate encounter with a porcutor. He didn’t survive.”

  “Unfortunate,” Paul repeated dryly, not looking up from the folder nor sounding at all sorry for the loss of the man whose name he recalled from Phoenix’s tale.

  He mentally pointed out to his inner companion, “See, no assassin needed. Problem solved,” and he could have sworn he felt her grumble in response.

  Roger paused as he continued reading the papers, then inquired hesitantly, “Should I inform the OOM of the current state of their lone Wayfarer that is missing from the nding site?”

  Paul looked up at the steward, his gold eyes staring daggers as he said in a low warning, “You will not speak of my Protégé’s origins to anyone. She is under my protection now and has chosen to walk a path separate from the Magi. Any information regarding her should be held in the strictest of confidence. Do I make myself clear, Roger?”

  The steward bowed in deference. “Of course, my lord.”

  “You are dismissed,” Paul said with a wave and turned back to the papers.

  After the door shut behind the man, he let out a heavy sigh. He wasn’t certain why he had reacted that way. Over the month and a half he had spent with the young woman, he realized that he had become attached and protective of her.

  Perhaps it was because he felt compelled to heed Hero’s suggestion. Maybe it was just his innate sense of duty returning to him that had pushed him to become an Adventurer and then a Padin in the first pce. Perhaps, since he found her, he felt responsible for her. Or maybe it was just that he enjoyed having a meaningful role in someone else’s life as a mentor and companion.

  It could have been all of these things or none of them, but what he did know was that, after the many weeks of traveling and training together, he felt a connection to her and wanted to see her grow and succeed at the impossible task that had been id out before her.

  Paul ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. He was too old to feel confused by his own emotions like this. He could admit to himself that he had felt completely lost at first after betraying the Purifier when he refused to carry out the god’s demands. The strength and assurance he had gotten from walking the pure path of righteousness had been harshly ripped from him, and he felt like a drowning man grasping at any rope of redemption that was tossed towards him.

  To that end, he had been fighting off the Purifier’s Renseres ever since discovering their twisted designs and getting thrown out of the clergy. He was even forced to leave his House after he and his father argued about his disgrace and defiance against the Delegation of Radiance. When it was his words against a god’s, standing before the delegation consisting of representatives for every clergy that worshiped one of the “good” ones, it wasn’t a surprise that he was branded Fallen.

  When the Purifier’s pns became public, however, and the forbidden rituals were completed all across the world—leading to the current fiasco with the impending blood moon and the arrival of the Soul Reapers in their reality—Paul had been vindicated. His words from years before proved that he had been the truthful herald of a deceitful god.

  Then the DOR suddenly changed their tune, and it was the Purifier branded as Fallen, but his disgrace remained in their devout eyes. Until he found another patron, he wouldn’t regain his title as a Padin.

  Paul hadn’t cared nor had the time to bother with any of that. He had barely come up for air in the st couple of years after the Soul Reapers arrived as he hunted them down. However, the upcoming blood moon, his father’s death, and Phoenix’s sudden appearance had halted all that.

  He had pnned to turn in his mission, hand over control of the family House to his sister, and then leave again to wherever the war took him. Petition the crown to allow him to take missions where he would be of more use. Not stay in this backwater city that wouldn’t see much of the invasion.

  Even if the Soul Reapers’ forces did show up here in one of their spaceships that the AOA had gotten reports of, they would most likely be Crystal or Sapphire Caste due to the low magical rating of the area being unable to support the magical vessels.

  At the peak of Emerald, Paul felt wasted here.

  However, Phoenix was here now, and he had resources he could call upon from his House that he wouldn’t have elsewhere. So, his pns adapted, and he decided to stay. To ride out the blood moon and try to make sure his new Protégé lived through it, no matter the cost.

  “Waynd had grown dedicated again,” the familiar voice observed in his mind. “Will Waynd be as zealous in this task as he was with hunting the undead?”

  “Aren’t I in all of my tasks?” he replied with a bemused smirk. “Zeal is one of my Aspects, after all. It would be a disservice to Phoenix if I didn’t give her my best.”

  “This One just hopes that Waynd doesn’t see the Little Miss more as a mission than a companion. Waynd needs friends again.”

  Paul frowned at that, recalling what happened to the st group of people he thought of as friends. “Perhaps it’s better if I don’t grow too attached.”

  “This One believes Waynd is stronger when he fights for friends rather than for just a mission. Waynd needs to be strong to protect the Little Miss.”

  He gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly nodded. “I know. Even as the strongest on the tundra, I don’t feel like it’s going to be enough for her.”

  “Is that an airship?” Phoenix asked the small group she had gotten pulled into, staring up at the sky to try and make out the distant figure that had caught her attention. It looked like an old wooden pirate ship sailing through the air far, far away in the distance.

  “You’ve never seen a flying vessel before?” one of the group members asked with a ugh. “Have you been living in a cave your whole life?”

  Phoenix flushed in embarrassment and looked at the ground. She hadn’t been thrilled about Dazien insisting she walk with him and Uriel, along with the rest of his entourage, who turned out to be mostly fawning admirers. Apparently, Dazien had a way with others that drew them towards him like moths to a fme, and his apparent retionship with the god, Warrior, was well known. Perhaps he really was some kind of nobility?

  She again felt the urge to ask him about his divine connection but held her tongue just in case it caused the others to ugh at her ignorance again. Nobody was addressing him as lord, sire, or highness, though, so she doubted his cims of kingliness. Still, even without being a noble, he had the grace and confidence she would have expected from one.

  “Come now, Franz,” Dazien said to the boy who had scoffed at her, “You know that those ships can’t come to cities like ours. Without the magic to support it, it’s easy to never see one if you never travel to a pce that can.”

  Franz rolled his eyes. “Still, we can see them way out here on clear days like today. She’d have to be blind, had never left the city, or be one of the unluckiest people to walk the tundra.”

  “Probably that st one,” Phoenix muttered.

  Dazien ughed as he replied, “Unlucky? You helped us best three Frost Wyrmlings.”

  “I did almost get eaten,” she pointed out.

  “Well, then you were lucky to have me there to shield you,” he grinned. Then he called out to the assessor leading the group, “Who’s turn is it next? There’s only a few of us left to solo something.”

  Trayvious gestured to a rge furry boulder ahead of them and yelled back, “Karislian, you’re up!”

  Uriel stepped past them, making his way to the front of the group to challenge the creature in their path. At the sight of the monster, Phoenix flinched and subconsciously moved behind Dazien, who gave her a questioning look over his shoulder and silently asked her over the mental chat, “What are you doing back there?”

  Phoenix felt the fear and panic rising in her at the sight of the Tundra Yeti, “I, uh,” she swallowed as though it might help calm her anxiety, “I’ve fought one of those before… it, um… it did not go well.”

  “Did you win?”

  She shook her head in the negative, staring at the ground in silent terror.

  He gnced back to his friend, who was standing a few meters in front of the group now and was removing the colr from around his neck. Then Dazien stepped to the side and put a hand around her shoulders, saying in a reassuring whisper, “It was probably just a bad matchup for your powers then,” he gently lifted her chin up with his other hand, “Watch how Uriel handles it.”

  “May the seed I sow bloom in beautiful chaos,” the darker man said into his hands before pulling one back and tossing something at the sitting creature that apparently hadn’t noticed them yet.

  She couldn’t tell what the tiny thing was, but as soon as it nded on the monster, it burst apart in a series of cacophonous explosions that alighted upon it. The yeti roared in pain and anger, standing to search for its attacker.

  Uriel was already casting his next spell, though, as he incanted in a tone that caused a shiver to run down her spine, “A touch of frost and your death follows.”

  The monster started to gain patches of ice across its body and suddenly seemed to notice the cinderen. As it slowly stumbled towards their direction, Phoenix was about to call out for him not to let it get too close and break him the way it had her.

  Dazien’s arm around her shoulders pulled her back, though, as he said, “Just watch.”

  When the yeti was still a half dozen meters away from the mage, Uriel finished chanting another Spell, “Be the bearer of the all-consuming pgue.” The monster seemed to halt its stumbling approach as though it was struck by an invisible force.

  There didn’t seem to be an immediate effect aside from the creature stopping, but the monster roared again with a renewed sense of fury as she saw dark patches start to appear on its fur. The apparent disease slowly began growing and rotting away at its flesh as the confused creature tried to pull the patches that were hurting it away rather than attack the source of the malignant Bane.

  Uriel continued his onsught of spells, “Succumb to the might of the tyrannical winds.”

  They could all feel the bst of air that shot down from the sky and forced the monster to be smmed into the dirt.

  “Your days have come to an end.” the mage said with cold finality, and a dark void surrounded the yeti, hiding it from view.

  After about ten seconds that felt like an eternity of agonizing howls, the sounds abruptly ended along with the void, and the Tundra Yeti was gone, utterly annihited.

  Phoenix stared, sck-jawed at the dispy of overwhelming power that just destroyed a monster that almost killed her a few weeks ago. She was amazed that there was someone so talented among her fellow Crystal Casters. Then she felt very small and inadequate as the mage turned back to the group, refastening his gold choker.

  Uriel silently nodded to Trayvious before returning to his usual pce behind Dazien.

  “Good work, Senesh. That monster won’t be hurting anyone now,” the amethyst warrior said to his companion as he patted the broad shoulder in congratutions.

  Phoenix looked from the mage to the spot the yeti had been and then back to Uriel before saying in utter confusion at the difference in their power, “How?”

  Dazien grinned, “Like I said, it’s all about the matchup. He’s good at dealing a lot of damage over time to monsters, and you’re good at running awa–er… at being mobile,” he corrected before adding, “And other things that you have yet to reveal to us, I’m sure.”

  Phoenix rolled her eyes at him and turned to follow the rest of the group that trailed after their assessor.

  After another half hour of walking, they paused again. Phoenix’s heart jumped into her throat as Trayvious called her name, “Fraser, your turn.”

  She walked forward to join the Sapphire Caster at the crest of a small hill and followed his gaze down to a pack of what appeared to be five monstrous variants of white wolves tearing into their test kill that she couldn’t recognize as anything other than a bloody mess.

  The Wayfarer gnced back at the instructor and asked with arm, “All of them?”

  He nodded and said, “If you don’t believe you’re up to the challenge, then you can, of course, decline, and I will ask someone else.”

  The rest of the group had joined them to look into the small valley to see the pack and began murmuring to themselves.

  “Sir, you can’t seriously expect a single Crystal to take on five snolves alone,” Dazien spoke up as he took in the threat.

  “That is her choice to make, Smithson, not yours. Now wait quietly,” he ordered before turning back to Phoenix and asking, “Well, Miss Fraser?”

  Her book suddenly appeared in front of her, causing her, Trayvious, and Dazien to look down at the message.

  New Quest: One Against Many

  You have been tasked with defeating the monsters in the valley.

  Objective: Defeat the five Snolves.

  Reward: Rare Crystal Caste bracelet.

  She waved away the book, ignoring the looks the two men gave her as she gnced down at the pack once more in consideration. Paul had been diligent in putting her through her paces over the st month, having her take on a variety of monsters so she could determine which tactics worked best in different situations. He had made her fight groups before, but they were either much smaller creatures or fewer than this. It would be a challenge, but one that she would face.

  “I’ll try it, sir,” she said with the sound of resolve that she didn’t quite feel fit with the flips her stomach was doing.

  He nodded and said, “If it gets too dicey, just portal back up here, alright?”

  Phoenix returned his nod and, without another word, conjured her [Night Bde] in one hand and the golden dagger Paul had given her in the other. She made her way down the hilltop towards the unaware monsters as she kept her [Sun Shell] and [Starlight Companion] dismissed and tried to go for a stealthier approach.

  Her cloak, combined with her [Embrace of Shadows] Aura, blurred her from the beasts’ notice and let her get fairly close before she lunged forward, triggering her [Ruler of Retivity] to pull herself towards the closest snolf.

  The snolves were about the same size as her, and they moved toward each other at roughly the same speed. As they collided, she plunged both of the daggers into the beast. It yelped at the sudden attack, and she pushed off the creature as she flipped backward to nd on the packed snow. That was a move she had learned from her martial tomes and spent the st few days ingraining into her muscle memory. Then she aimed for the next monster already charging towards her.

  She triggered [Ruler of Retivity] again, pushing her [Night Bde] to fly from her hand and bury itself into the creature’s throat. Before that snolf fell to the ground, Phoenix reactivated her Sun and Star Auras, causing a bubble of light to momentarily surround her and the little fairy blob to reappear right as two more of the monsters lunged at her.

  The [Sun Shell] shattered as the beasts collided with it, and both were thrown off course, howling at the blinding pain. She dashed at the opportunity, reconjuring her [Night Bde] and triggering her gravity ability once more to rend one of the blinded beasts with her daggers and gain back some of her mana from the [Mana Siphon] Bane her dagger delivered.

  Phoenix grunted in pain as the st snolf to engage managed to tackle her from behind and make her fall onto the ground. She felt cws tear into her back, and she used her ability once more to get the monster away from her, causing the snolf to fly straight up into the air while she was crushed against the packed snow.

  She rolled to the side and stood once more, clutching her daggers and gritting her teeth against the pain, before starting to move again.

  The Astromancer slid under the uncut but blinded snolf and pushed her Dark stiletto upward, her gravity-empowered magic having it fly straight up through its neck and bury itself in the monster’s brain, killing it instantly.

  Then she continued to use her ability to pull herself across the snow towards the trees, sliding near the other blinded snolf that was injured but still alive, and tore her daggers across its underside as she passed.

  The monster she had caught in the throat earlier had died from its wound but the first one she had stabbed wasn’t dead; though, it was limping pretty badly. The st snolf made its death apparent when it finally crashed back into the rocky earth with a very wet crunch.

  With only one enemy left and feeling dangerously low on mana, she physically pushed herself up to stand once more and ran towards the limping snolf, not trusting her aim or mana supply at that distance. When the snolf angrily lunged at her, she shoved her dagger straight into its open maw.