I had been running for a long time. I was covered in scratches, but I still clutched my small weapon on my fist. I was tracking them, the ones who killed my family. It had taken me three days, but now I had finally caught up. Now I would get justice. 

     I crept low through the wood towards the murderers’ camp. My every step was chosen to avoid making the slightest sound, to take advantage of every shadow. As I approached, I saw that I was wrong; these weren’t the three men I sought. The camp ahead of me had three men and a woman, all of whom seemed much better equipped than the men who attacked my village, and they all had a quality about them that made me think they would have nothing to do with the scum I was after. Two of the men were all in mail with clean surcoats over them, their curly hair braided back tight against their scalps. The younger of the two was clean-shaven while the older had a bristly bush of a beard held down in a fork with two bronze rings. The other man was wearing a leather vest covered in a triangular pattern of metal rivets, and he sat polishing the largest bow I had ever seen. The woman wore a dark red dress with blue gussets, finer than anything we had in the village, with a long fur stole over it hanging to her waist. On the back of her hand was a strange braided knot of chain weaving in and out of her fingers, like someone had tried to make a necklace into a set of rings by tying it off in loops around her fingers. There was no way that these people could be with the rough men that attacked my settlement. 

    I almost panicked. Had I lost the trail, had I mixed up these peoples tracks with those of the murderers? Just when I was about to back track, I was given my answer as out of the brush, a dirty hand reached and grabbed the woman. She was quickly pulled against the equally dirty man in ill-kept leathers, and a knife was put to her throat.

     “Don’t anybody move,” the bandit said as the other two came out brandishing weapons. “We have six Archers with arrows trained on you in the woods, try anything and you’ll all have more feathers than a goose.”

     The other two criminals moved towards the strangers’ packs as the one with the knife started getting a manic look in his eyes. It was happening again; I was going to have to watch as these bastards killed another group of people. I pulled my hand out of my pocket and brought forth my family treasure, the object left to my grandfather when he saved a dying adventurer years ago. I crept around behind the man to the right where he himself emerged from the woods. I remembered the words in the old language I was taught that would activate the magic. I lunged out of the woods and stabbed the man in the back of the neck shouting. “I Sorrow”

     There was a flash of blue light, and I saw the man’s head encased in a block of ice as I was thrown back into a tree and everything went dark.

===

     Three days ago, these men, these so-called heroes, came into our settlement. They walked in like they owned the village and showed the elders the glowing eyes that marked them as awakened. My father seemed nervous, but he welcomed them and offered to house them in our own home. He sent me and the other two little ones to the loft, treating the men to a feast like it was Harvest Night. At first, it seemed that they would just take the meal and the rest and go, then one of them tried to pull my older sister into his lap.

     My sister was a beautiful woman and was pledged to marry the blacksmith’s son this coming spring. She was also very proud. With a shriek, she pulled away and slapped the man. In a blink, he was out of his seat and swinging a mace at her head only to kill my father, who had thrown himself in the way. The others were on their feet as well, one grabbing my mother and cutting her throat as she started the scream, the other taking my sister by the hair. I watched in horror as they dragged her outside while I held my hands over my younger siblings’ mouths. I heard shouting outside followed by more screaming. Soon it was quiet, but my nose filled with smoke. The thatch was on fire.

     I pulled my younger brother and sister out of the house and into a scene of madness. Half the village seemed to be laying dead on the green. The only remaining sign of the “heroes” was the broken gate and several burning roofs. As I looked around, I felt like all the joy of my childhood had been drained out of my heart and replaced with molten lead. With a strange calm, I handed my brother and sister off the Old Gran Cosh to look after and ran back into my burning house.

    The first thing I did was look above the door, but sure enough, one of them had made off with the old family sword. It was ancient and more rust than iron, but it still galled. Next I ran through the falling embers to the hearth, forced up the heavy cornerstone, and pulled out the box that held the true inheritance of my father’s. It held almost ten gold in various coinage, several books, a dozen scrolls, the town tax ledger, and a rolled cloth containing the broken end of a glowing blue arrow. With my prize in hand, I ran from the burning house, pausing only to grab my boots and coat. Leaving the locked puzzle box in my brother’s care only one item lighter, I left the town in pursuit of the so-called heroes. 

===

     I woke a few moments later, not to a battle but an argument. The other two bandits lay dead, and the woman seemed to be arguing with the older of the armored men. Their words sounded strange but familiar, and it took me a moment to realize they were speaking the old language.

     “But why, Marissa,” the warrior continued, “why would you want to help some random forest kid awaken.”

     “Because, Jacob,” she replied, “he saved my life.”

     “Your life was never in danger!”

     “He didn’t know that,” she said, her tone rising. “He, an unawakened child, managed to use a powerful magic item to save a stranger in need at great risk to his own life.”

     “And he could have killed you.” the warrior retorted.

     “To be fair it shouldn’t have been that powerful,” chimed in the bowman. “It was just a mid grade ice arrow, but the control runes were broken off. It must be old to have built up that much of a charge. Small miracle the thing did anything at all.”

     The woman, Marissa, gave him a smile, “Thank you, Kyle.”

     “It probably should have blown up the moment he touched it,” Kyle continued. “‘I Sorrow’ indeed. I wonder where he got it?”

     “Probably stole it from one of the archers in the woods,” said the last man.

     Jacob let out a long suffering sigh, “There never were any archers in the woods, Philip; they were obviously lying. If men like that had half a dozen archers with them, they would have tried to kill us before we knew they were there.”

     “But you're a [Royal Knight], arrows can’t kill anyone around you until we attack or you run out of Aether?” the younger knight asked.

     “How would they know that?” Jacob said with another sigh, “You know what, Philip? Why don’t you check the perimeter for archers just in case. Now, let’s gather what essence we can and then loot and scoot before these bodies start to smell any more.”

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     “This essence doesn’t belong to us,” Marissa said pointing at the headless frozen corpse at her feet.

     “For the last time, there is no point in helping the boy awaken. We don’t have a path manual with us.”

     Kyle coughed and held up a small book he had pulled from one of the bandit’s pockets. “This one has a partial manual on him. It’s empowered, grade one, tiers one through three. Looks like it goes [Brute], [Goon], [Thug]. I think this one would lead to the [Enforcer] eventually if he doesn’t manage to go up a grade. I’d put good silver that they were all using this manual.”

     “Fine, he has a path manual, but there are still no sources of essence out here. What are we supposed to do, bring him with us?” Jacob fumed.

     “No,” Marissa said, “we help him awaken, tell him the basics over dinner, give him some advice, and then go our separate ways. There has to be some resources nearby if these lackwits managed to advance.  It is the least we can do, and it might get the guild a new blood.”

     “Aren’t you forgetting one thing, MarMar?” Jacob said with a sweet tone. “We don’t have a codex to teach him the language, so he won’t even be able to read his sheets without help.”

     At this point I had had enough of being talked about like I wasn’t present so I said, “I actually can speak the Language; my father taught me from infancy since my family are lords of the settlement near here. If I get a vote, I would like to be awakened, even if little comes of it ”

     “See, you're all out of excuses,” Marissa crowed triumphantly. Jacob just stared at me for a moment suspiciously.

     “How long were you eavesdropping on us?” he asked.

     “I wasn’t eavesdropping, I was standing here in plain view while you debated whether I deserved to be rewarded for saving this woman's life in a language you thought I couldn’t understand.” This was something my father taught me, when people don’t get their way they often try to divert the situation by laying blame. The only way to deal with it was to force a return to the topic at hand and make sure they are in a position they have to act.

     “Enough, Jacob,” Kyle spoke up. “The essence is starting to disperse, and there isn’t enough for you to be fighting over to begin with. You go tend your own kill, and Marissa and I will help the boy if we can. At this point, even though he did kill an awakened, the window may have closed.”

     Kyle motioned me over along with Marissa. “Now, boy, take a look at the body. Do you see a mist or steam coming off it?”

     I looked at the sight I had been avoiding and had to take a moment to hold in my breakfast. After a moment, I saw it, a fog hovering around the body that was both there and not there. I nodded to Kyle.

     “Alright, we don’t have time to teach you a proper cultivation technique, so I’m going to tell you what to do, and Marissa is going to guide you with her Aether,” the stern looking archer said as Marissa placed her hands on my back. I jumped at the touch before returning my attention to Kyle, who said, “I want you to focus on breathing steadily, in and out, then once you are ready I want you to focus your mind on breathing in the mist and drawing it into a ball right beneath your belly button.”

     I did as Kyle said and breathed deeply. After a few moments, I felt some of my muscles relax and tried to pull in the mist. To my surprise, it flowed into me like water from a jug. I tried to pull it down like he said, but it felt like it wanted to just flow into my lungs and then everywhere throughout my body. Just when I was worried something had gone wrong, I felt a force from outside push the mist back into the direction I wanted it to go. I realized this was the ‘Aether’ Marissa was using to help me. Soon, most of the mist sat in a tight swirling ball in my middle, and it seemed to settle.

     “How'd he do?” Kyle asked Marissa.

     “Oh, he did horribly, but I blame his teacher,” Marissa said with a smirk. “But I was able to help him recover and about eleven of fourteen parts went into building his initial dantian. Another part went into his lungs, which is odd but good for his future cultivation. One part spread throughout his muscles, but there wasn’t any place it concentrated so he should be fine. The last part was lost.”

     “That is actually pretty good, only one part in fourteen lost with no real training?”

     “That wasn’t actually the problem; the boy drew it in like water in a desert. It just all seemed to want to rest in his lungs. I think if he had training, he wouldn’t have lost anything, and all he lost was what he breathed out before I was able to help him direct it to the dantian.” Marissa said with a smile. “I think we might have either a prodigy or a royal on our hands.”

     “Don’t even joke about that; a lost bloodline would throw the balance off completely in the capitals.”

     “Oh, come on. Like anyone is going to look for lost royalty out in the barren mountains. There hasn’t been a nation, much less a proper kingdom, out here for over three centuries since all the cities and dungeons got stomped by the coin crusade. Though if he was, it would certainly solve Jacob’s issue.”

     “Why’s that?” I asked curious.

     “My brother is a [Royal Knight], which is a very prestigious high grade class, but in order to advance in level, he needs to be recognized for his deeds by a royal he serves. It isn’t that weird for a path above grade five to have requirements to level, especially the old retainer classes. He was in service Duke Sel’Rasik’s son, but the git went and got killed in a duel while Jacob was on a dive. Now we’re out here on our way to intercept a beast hoard as a quest to prove him worthy of the prince's attention.” She let out a sigh. “It’s a mess and nothing you need to worry about.”

      Kyle reached over, interrupting my next question by handing me a ring and a belt with a few pouches and a long knife on it. It took me a moment to realize it was the possessions of the man I killed. I felt a little sick.

     “Look at him turning green, hun,” Marissa said. “I think he never learned rule one.”

     “Why are you giving me this?” I asked. “What is rule one?”

     Kyle smiled at me kindly and said, “I’m giving it to you because it was your kill, and rule number one is “always be looting.” As an adventurer, you need to understand that quest rewards from the guild pay for expenses and upkeep at best, and that is only if the quest giver doesn’t welch, which happens more than you’d think. So if you want enough to upgrade your gear or have time off, you need to loot. Sometimes it is gear taken from bandits, sometimes it is beast cores and pelts. Sometimes it’s artifacts and art left in some old ruins. Keep the gear. The ring has charm to enhance your speed a little; the knife is a tier 1 fighting knife that can take ki; the small pouch has about three gold worth of coins and jewelry; the large one is a petty holding pouch that has camping gear and an old sword in it.”

“My fathers sword!” I yell and open the pouch. Even knowing it, I am shocked to see the inside of the pouch is the size of a large backpack instead of the large belt pouch it was on the outside. I reached in and pulled out the heirloom sword that had alway hung above my door. It was a short sword with a blade only about as long as the measure from my elbow to fingertips. There was a white stone set in the pommel with traces of gilding on the hilt and battered sheath. 

Jacob had come over at my yell. He looked the sword up and down before grunting to himself. After a moment he said, “I thought you were exaggerating when you said your father was the lord. That sword tells me different. It’s an old style legates sword. Way back they used to give those to military governors as a sign of their office. If that is a family blade it means you're at least descended from noble blood. May I?”

With a touch of reluctance I held out the sword, hilt first as my father taught me. Jacob took it, nodding to himself. “This is a Ki stone in the handle, high grade. The motto of the legion was “Always Ready”. These swords were meant to last forever and many a noble family head has one in their study. The stone ensures that even with use or neglect it can always be used in time of need.” 

With that Jacob’s eyes glowed briefly before a flow of light and power rippled down the sword and scabbard. As it passed the wear of time seemed to fall away like dust. Though the gilt was still worn from all but the deepest crevices the sword was otherwise restored to new. The knight then drew the sword, inspecting the edge and taking a few practice swings before resheathing it and laying the scabbard across his palms with the hilt toward me in a much more elegant imitation of how I passed it to him.

“Young Lord, I return to you your family sword, restored by my power, in partial apology for my earlier rudeness. If there is any other service I can do to make up for my unsightly behavior, please ask.” he said with a bow.

“Can you show me how to do that?” I asked. The adventures all looked at each other before laughing at my eagerness.