I am sitting with Branislava in the kitchen. I think I am intimidating her, yet she is grateful for a full dose of healing and me feeding Julia.

„How can I help you?“ she asks. I notice that she avoids using my name. Is that because she would have to omit a honorific or is it like naming the wolf in the forest makes it come. „That is very hard to explain for me. I don’t even remember my own name, though a lot of other is stuff is coming back, even if I am not aware of it coming back. The thing is that I am not sure that I want to remember my name. I had certain traits that should be forgotten, as I don’t want them back. I was an addict. And I sort of recall what that meant to me. Yet the man I was was a better man in some sense. I wasn’t a very good man, but I would not, I think, have gone to that village to do what I did.“ I explain, only to make her cast her gaze down. So I go on „You can look at me. I am not going to be angry due to an answer I do not want to hear. If I wanted an answer I like to hear, I’d talk with Leuma or Anjali. If I talk to Hildegard, I’ll get an answer out of the teachings for young aristocratic ladies. That leaves you or Zewrepa. Zewrepa won’t understand. So I am asking you. There is no good answer here. I have to either eliminate important parts of my old life or undo a part of the man I have been becoming.“. She quickly looks up before answering „I cannot tell. Were you a drunkard? Maybe you should not be a drinker while doing magic.“. I snort „There is that. That is good advice. Now that I think about it, it is the same as my grandfather gave.“. She looks reliefed.

She is about to get up. I put a hand on her shoulder. There is a slight tension in her. I ask „Is it the … ?“. Her eyes get wider and answers „No, you are scary. Actually …“. Her voice becomes inaudible. There is nothing I can really answer. I don’t want to lie. Somebody who can turn you into charcoal on a whim is scary. „I’ve done nothing to soothe your fears, have I?“ I ask. She looks up „No, you’ve made clear that there’s nothing you’d stop at to protect yours. That is actually flattering.“ She hesitates „And it is at least normal to see a wizard being merciless.“. That leaves me unsure. I try anyway „I am not merciless, as I see it. I think that I am showing as much mercy as I can afford, but I can afford very little. Or, to be honest, I don’t know how much I can afford.“

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Branislava cradles her belly as she replies „I cannot say anything to that. You … you are strange. Of course you are a stranger.“ That leaves me none the wiser and with a need to reassure her in a way she won’t misunderstand.

I tell her „Don’t worry. We’ll soon depart to a big city. We’ll see that we can hire a few servants and a doctor will be ready in tie for the birth“. She looks at me with a question in her eyes and responds „A doctor? I hoped for a good midwife.“

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Zewrepa snaps the young man’s neck if you can call him a man at his age. Her kind is not only good at making sounds. Their hearing is on par. Sneaking up on her is not going to work. Making these people pack their stuff has turned out to be trouble, even though they have been told that they are allowed to keep almost everything. She puts out a pentatonic melody in staccato fluting notes.

Peregrinus is appearing out of a complex ball of magic. He looks at her and his hand flicks to his sword catching a glimpse of the corpse. „Was he alone?“ he asks. She acknowledges that. „I am going to make the corpse disappear.“ he responds. She lets out a questioning hoot. He answers „Yes, they can conclude that he’s dead, but seeing the corpse make it more immediate. At least I think so. And yes, I am regretting this shit. But – before you ask – we cannot just set the village on fire, at least now. We could not give a logical reason for doing so.“. He shrugs and asks „Do you think I am any better than you at scaring them into obedience?“. Again a short tremolo suffices as an answer.

She is considering his words. Is he completely honest? He is certainly right that an Atantean like Marental would not have burned the village. There simply would be no reason. But he did not say that they could just have sacrificed everybody in the village. Would it be dishonorable? No. The village was Marental’s, who has fled from them in terror. Or has he? It does not matter. He has abandoned them. Does he just lack the will to take the simple and brutal solution? That is certainly possible, even likely. But is it unwise?

Anyway, that is not an immediately pressing question. He does not act as if an emergency has forced him to come hither. But he is early. „The situation is stable for now. What brings you here so early?“ she enquires.

„I think we have overlooked something that requires us to make haste.“