“What are you talking about?” the woman replied, snorting. “If you dare mention my father again, I’ll kill you!”

“Jurot, what are you…” Adam narrowed his eyes towards his brother, then he looked to the woman. Dark blue hair, near black. Blue and silver eyes. Adam then looked back to Jurot, his eyes wide, and they darted between the pair a few more times. “Are you…”

“What?” the woman replied, glancing between the pair, who were awkwardly silent.

“Umbra?”

The woman fell silent too, her rage overcome by shock, before her eyes snapped between the pair. “Who are you?”

“I’m Adam Fateson, and this is Jurot, son of Sonarot,” Adam said, motioning between them. “Did you die by crossing a sea?”

“How do you…” the woman fell silent again, furrowing her brows. Her eyes flashed with a myriad of emotions, too quickly for either of them to keep track of.

“You’re really Strom’s daughter,” Adam said. “Lord Storm, uh, Emperor Hadda.”

Umbra swallowed. “How do you know my father? From what I know, the worlds are not connected. The Gods, your Divine, are not connected to this world.”

“In all fairness, they weren’t connected to my world either, but here I am,” Adam replied, chuckling lightly, though he still wasn’t sure what was going on. “We’re from the Iyr. Well, he’s from the Iyr, I’m from another world entirely, but anyway, that’s not important. You’re definitely Strom’s daughter.” Adam smiled, he couldn’t believe that he got to meet her so soon after making his promise. Then his lips dropped, and he caught Jurot’s look.

“Your father is dead,” Jurot said, bluntly.

“What?”

“Your old man, he passed away in the Iyr,” Adam informed. “He died not even a year ago, the end of the previous year. He made me promise to help you if we ever met. I never thought it would happen so quickly.”

“There is no way my father could die,” Umbra said, though she was unable to grow angry, glancing between the pair. “He… he’s too strong to die.”

“He really was strong, but he gave up his Spark.”

“He-,” Umbra grit her teeth, turned, and marched away.

“Umbra-,” Adam called, before feeling Jurot’s hand against his shoulder.

Umbra remained near the trees, and the sky above her filled with clouds, before rain began to fall around them. Umbra hadn’t realised they were Iyrmen. She had smelled the fact they weren’t from this realm, but to think that they were Iyrmen, from the Lower Realms, it was impossible. These realms were distant, disconnected, or far enough away that they were considered disconnected.

Lord Sozain, Mother Soza, and all the other gods, they had no sway here. Even they would need to travel through the cosmos in order to find this place, and if they did, they would find themselves to be little fish in a large pond, rather than a big fish in a small pond.

The whiplash of going from wanting to kill them, to being killed by them, to finding out they knew their father, who was now dead, had washed away. She returned back to the pair. “If you know my name, and you know his name, then you must speak true. Father is the kind who would give up on his Spark and retire in the Iyr.”

“Your father was… he was a great man, a great warrior, and…” Adam cleared his throat. “A great father.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“He was annoying,” Umbra confirmed. “Were you close with my father?”

“I’d say so. He was interested in me because of my story, and we bonded together over our little sister.”

“Your story?” Umbra asked, before blinking. ‘Their sister?’

“I’ll tell you another time.” Adam smiled, though the smile was heavy. “I’m so glad we met so soon. I didn’t expect to ever find you so quickly.”

“You expected to find me?”

Adam exchanged a look with his brother once more. “Stranger things have happened.”

She glanced between the pair, seeing that they knew something she didn’t. “How did you know I was his daughter?”

“Jurot here can spot people’s relations nine times out of ten by seeing their faces,” Adam said.

“I have great success in seeing parent and child relationships,” Jurot confirmed.

“He even knew Asa was Shama’s father, that asshole,” Adam grumbled.

“Shama? The Lord of Flames?”

“That’s the one,” Adam said, nodding his head.

“You know of him too?”

“Know of him? He almost killed us. He killed Lucy, one of the Demons who cut you up with an axe, and then left after beating us all up.”

“That does sound like my uncle.”

“Your uncle?” Adam grimaced.

“Father said to call him my uncle so he doesn’t kill me.”

“That does sound like something Strom would say. He told us all about you, about how he stuck to you when you were a kid, never more than a room away.”

“You really do know my father.”

“Yeah. Super powerful guy with his Spark, apparently one of the strongest in the entire world.”

“Yes. He is. He was.” She frowned. “However, there’s no way for us to leave this blasted place.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Adam reassured. “Leave it to us, or me. Getting into places I shouldn’t be, and getting out of those places, is my speciality.”

“You can help me leave this place?”

“Probably.” Adam shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t intend to stay here long, I’ve got children to spoil.”

“…” Umbra understood why perhaps Adam and her father may have been close.

The trio returned back to the group, who had gathered together, tending to their wounds. Rick and the other farmers eyed up the woman suspiciously.

“Relax,” Adam said, motioning with his hand casually. “She’s not going to be killing any more of us.”

“I am no longer under the effects of Dragon Fall,” Umbra confirmed.

“Don’t know anything about Dragon Fall, or what not, but I was sure you killed us,” Rick said.

“I did,” Umbra stated.

“Well, she’s not going to be killing any more of us,” Adam said, raising his voice. “She’s a friend of ours.”

“A friend?” Rick asked. “She killed us.”

“She did.” Adam glanced between them all. “We killed her too, and I brought everyone back. She’s…” Adam threw a look to Kitool. “She’s a daughter of a friend of ours.”

The others stared at Adam, but many of them, those who knew of Strom, quickly placed the dots together. The teen Iyrmen smiled with pride, realising the story they could tell to the Iyr, for how many could say they faced the daughter of Lord Strom?

“We’ll rest here for the day and return back to the city tomorrow on top of Lord Biggu, who is a great giant turtle, whose been helping us out for a while.”

The farmers weren’t sure if he was joking, but this wasn’t the craziest thing he had ever said before, nor the craziest thing he had done.

Zambria remained to one side as the group set up a fire. He did his best to avoid Umbra, who threw a chilling glance his way.

“Adam,” Rick called.

“Yeah,” Adam replied, awkwardly, first placing his hand at his axe to calm himself, before realising it could be seen as threatening, so he crossed his arms, realising that seemed like he was closing himself off, before he crossing his arms behind his back, and felt as though he was some kind of noble who ruled the world. ‘What are people meant to do with their hands?’

“You brought us back from the dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

“Any time.”

“It…” Rick paused. “Did it cost much to bring us back?”

“Luckily for you, it didn’t cost me anything to bring you back in this world, may the gods bless it,” Adam replied, chuckling. “Though, I guess you must be happy, since I chose to bring you back as one of the two.”

“Yes…”

“I only had two gems, so that would have been awkward.”

“Why did you choose to bring us back to life?”

“Why not? It cost nothing, and I had the Mana, and the spell.”

“You were still willing to use your diamond to bring me back,” Rick said. “I heard that you didn’t know it wouldn’t take it from you.”

“Rick. I’m pretty sure you said you were one of mine, and that means I’m going to need to bring you back, as long as I can afford it. I mean, you’re one of the business’ people, and so the business will bring you back. That’s why I have these gems. It’s why I have the spell. It’s why I pray to Lord Sozain.”

Rick wasn’t sure praying to the God of Death to keep him alive was exactly what he should be doing, but Rick just nodded his head. “Thank you. We, me, John, and Ivy, are grateful.”

“Of course, any time,” Adam replied, nodding his head to the farmer.

Rick was certain that Adam was crazy, spending three hundred gold on bringing back a farmer. ‘Crazy isn’t so bad,’ the farmer thought.