As I watched Rai take off towards the cursed hunters, I wondered if he would pass my impromptu test.

“You want him to kill those four, don’t you? Even if they are people he’s known all his life?” Adra asked with a slight frown.

“Yes. Once they attack with intent to harm us, they are no longer friends, neighbors or even people. They are enemies to be killed.” I answered while watching Rai disappear from my sight.

“She’s right. I should have been a lot more careful after my father’s death. But I believed that the tribe had my interests in mind, Thanks to my trust, I was poisoned and had to flee, almost dying. It’s good if Rai can learn his lesson early.” Sigmir said in a grim voice.

“Ah, he found them.” I told the other two, as I watched through Lenore’s eyes. The four hunter had tried to flee but the curse was strong enough to make the attempt a joke. They had managed to move maybe twenty steps, and not all in the right direction. I watched as Rai stalked towards the first, who apparently had not realised what was happening. Rai came up from behind, stabbing him into the kidney before trying to slit his throat, making the mistake to pull his head back, exposing his neck but forcing Rai to saw through the larynx before he was able to sever the important blood-vessels. It was good that he had stabbed him into the kidney before, or his target might have successfully struggled and thrown him off, if it had not been for the disabling pain he had been in.

The noise alerted his other targets, one tried to fight but he chose the wrong Rai of the multiple he must have been seeing, attacking a tree next to him instead. Or maybe the tree had insulted him, who knew in Mundus. At any rate, the attack gave Rai a bit of motivation and he managed to stab him in the chest, judging by the angle of the knife and the bloody bubbles that quickly appeared on his lips, penetrating one or both lungs. Rai needed a crucial moment to get the blade back out, it had not gone cleanly between the ribs. It was one of the reasons I preferred the air-path to the fire-path, superficial wounds seldomly caused the blade to become stuck.

The third target had tried to run, but again, the disorientation-curse meant that his effort was in vain. Oh, he managed to run. Into the next tree, managing to knock himself silly in the process. Rai closed in and stabbed downwards, again into the chest but this time managing to hit the heart.

The last target must have realised what was happening and tried to plead with Rai. Lenore was too far away to hear, but I was able to see tears running down his face, as he cried, kneeling in supplication and hoping for mercy. It disgusted me; the coward had tried to attack from the shadows and now that he was caught, he was lacking the dignity to die on his feet, preferring to cry and snivel, hoping for quarter

I saw Rai hesitating, getting drawn in by the coward and lowering his guard, when the coward suddenly surged forward, knife in hand. Rai tried to dodge, but he had let his guard slip too far and gone too close. My anger joined with my magic, using mind magic to strike through my link to Lenore, not just stunning the coward but causing his mind to collapse fully. Rai was still knocked down and nicked by the knife, due to the momentum of his attacker, but he escaped a worse wound. I had not even thought about intervening, Rai was my disciple and he would not fall to such a coward. If I couldn’t teach him, he would die. But not because of some snivelling coward, if necessary, I would slay him myself.

With a small nudge by me, Lenore flew over, landing on the branch closest to Rai, who was struggling a little to get out from under the corpse.

“Have you learned your lesson, disciple?” Lenore asked for me, mimicking my voice.

Rai looked embarrassed and when he finally managed to get to his feet, he bowed in shame.

“Yes, Master. I’m sorry i disappointed you.” he apologized.

“And what lesson was that?”

“That… That mercy is wrong?” He asked.

“No. Mercy has its place. But that you should never trust, without verification. I’m sure the coward down there tried to negotiate with you promising that he would help you in turn or something along those lines. You fell for it. He had already shown that he was not to be trusted by attacking during a duel, attacking from ambush at that. What you need to learn is that honour, mercy and justice are all wonderful concepts. But at the end of the day, power is what counts. With enough strength or power, you can be lenient to grant mercy. You can act honourably without getting taken advantage of. You can enforce your justice. But without enough power, all those things are stones around your neck, dragging you down.” Lenore said for me.

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Rai seemed to be thinking about my words, when I ordered him to take care of his gear, loot the corpses and return.

Lenore asked if I believed that there would be more ambushes, which I answered in the negative, causing her to return, landing on my shoulder. After the conflict, I wanted to get as far away as possible, just in case something unexpected happened, so I decided that we should use our mounts. The problem that Rai had none, could be solved if either Sigmir or me ran, letting him use our mount. I was curious how fast either of us was able to run, now that we had crossed the first divide. Sigmir was much more focused on the physical side, giving her the edge in sheer attributes, while I had my Blood Runes and Blood Magic to bolster my physical prowess.

Lenore returned to her Hallow, just as Rai came trotting from the forest, clearly still down and embarrassed from his mistake.

“We will talk later, Disciple. For now, we should quickly move.” I said, pulling my Command Crystal out. Sigmir saw my action and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Speed is currently more important than secrecy.” I added, to answer her unspoken question.

Elding appeared and I told Rai to mount and asked Elding to follow Hringur, who joined us moments later. Sigmir mounted and while Adra transformed, I used Blood Runes to create a relatively weak, channelled spell that would allow me to constantly funnel part of my Astral Power into regeneration-runes which I created with the intent to regenerate fatigue and strengthen-runes focused on my leg-muscles. I was unsure how effective that would be, but I hoped that it would allow me to keep a high pace for a long time.

Adra finished her transformation and for a moment I had the insane idea that either Rai or I could ride on Adra. She must have employed some sort of mind-reading technique that moment or maybe my face was just that expressive, but the gesture she made was rather clear displeasure. She simply turned her hind-end towards me and flicked her tail to the side. It was non-verbal communication, but the intent was communicated loud and clear.

Before she had crossed the divide, the form she used for travel was similar to an antelope or maybe a goat. Before, she was about a meter twenty from head to hind and a bit below a meter high, with strangely coloured, white-tan fur and a slender snout or muzzle or whatever it was called in an animal like that. Now, she was easily the size of a horse - only a lot less bulky, more slender, and clearly built for speed. So, my thought of riding her was not too far out there. And again, she must have read my mind, as she flicked her tail again, before taking off.

Laughing a little, I checked if Rai and Sigmir had mounted alright, before going after her, keeping careful track of the amount of power I was funnelling into my magic, balancing speed, stamina-expenditure and Astral Power expenditure. I was clearly slower than the mounts and much slower than Adra, but our speed was a lot higher than before.

That evening, after training Rai for about an hour, I made him sit, to talk.

“Tell me your impressions of your fight today. First, the one with Kallik.” I started the verbal lesson.

“At first, I thought I had him. I was able to wound him and while he managed to keep me from doing more than shallow wounds, he had been unable to do anything to me.” he started.

“But just before his friends attacked, I realised something. I was getting tired, I had only a few more minutes at that intensity in me - and once those were over, I would be a lame bird. I think I would have lost, in the end.”

“Good. You realised that. It is one of the biggest problems of the Air Path. You can reduce it by making the hits you do manage count for more. We will go into anatomy lessons more, most likely with a live subject. I don’t know enough about all living beings on Mundus, so some we will learn together. I know quite a bit about mammals, so I will teach that to you. It will also help with the mistakes you made against the four in the woods.”

Rai nodded and I continued.

“So, what other mistakes did you make? Simple. You fought honourably. That is not inherently bad, but you need to learn to differentiate. Is it a fight I am able to lose? Some fights are. You might walk away beaten, you might walk away with less money, you might be forced to flee. But you walk away. On the other hand, some fights can’t be lost, they need to be won.

In those fights, you cheat. But cheating or using dirty tricks is something that needs to be deliberated. If you always cheat, your opponents will know it and guard against it well. If you have a reputation to never cheat, their vigilance will be lower and you might be able to triumph against all odds. Your reputation might take a hit but that is survivable, especially if you spin it afterwards.

So, you need to ask yourself. Could you have cheated? Were you vigilant about your opponent cheating?

I told you in the woods, didn’t I? Honour, Compassion, Mercy, Justice, those things are for the powerful to display when facing someone weaker. When the cards are down and survival is at stake, those noble values cease to be important.

At the end of the day, the one who survives writes the story.”