On the day after the training with Wind, Alex immediately knew that something was wrong when he woke up to a dark place. As in, pitch black. He briefly wondered if it was still the middle of the night, but even the nights were brighter than this.

“Alex.”

He jumped as he heard a voice coming from the darkness, the fact that he was in a dark room sinking in, thankfully, he was reassured when a ball of light appeared, showing that he was still in his room.

And showing Wind’s grinning face.

“The hell?”

He blinked a few times, trying to wake up properly.

“We need to discuss something very, very important.”

“Did it have to be right now?”

“Yes, actually. I have a couple of things to do.”

He shot her a glare, but nodded. He was freeloading on her and Sky after all.

Wind left the room and Alex followed her, soon, both of them were sitting around a table, Alex noticing that Sky was already there.

“Nothing can enter or leave this room, all right?” Wind said.

Alex nodded, then stared at one of the windows. There was not a single piece of glass in the entire village, instead, the window were just openings in the houses with wooden shutters. He briefly was reminded of when he went back to sleep, a bit of moonlight going through them.

“Are you blocking light from entering the house?”

“No, I’m blocking everything from entering the house. Just so you know, it’s currently early morning.” Wind said.

“Magic?”

“Magic”

“Can you two please focus?” Sky asked. “I understand that you are curious, but what is the reason for all of this? What happened yesterday?”

“I figured that you would notice.” Wind said.

“Wait, something happened yesterday?”

“Yes, Wind has been acting oddly since you two came back yesterday.”

“You need to stop being so perceptive. Anyway, to simplify things: There were intruders in the forest.”

Wind then proceeded to tell them about what happened in the previous day, the encounter that she had with the warrior, then about when she felt someone approaching Alex, and how she immediately rushed towards him.

“You can run fast enough to create thunder?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Meanwhile, Sky was shooting Wind a glare.

“So, you left Alex alone?” Sky said. “After we all knew that someone was trying to assassinate him?”

“Not really alone, I asked a couple of spirts to watch over him.”

Both Alex and Sky were now openly glaring at her.

“You asked ghosts to watch me?”

“That is the part that you focus on?” Sky said, looking at Alex with disbelief.

“Not ghosts, spirits. Big difference.” Wind said.

“What is-“ Alex was cut mid-sentence by Sky.

“Focus. Now, Wind, can you please explain yourself?”

“First off, to preface any arguments. While it was not impossible, Alex, you were in minimal danger, because the moment a living being was anywhere nearby you, I would be aware of it and would rush over, just like it happened.”

“That is the same argument that Alice uses with her curses, but continue.”

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The elf winced, but continued. “Now, both of us know that it’s my duty to deal with intruders, I had to do that.”

“Yes, but you could have brought Alex back beforehand, warned me, and then went to do your job.” Sky said.

“All of which would, take time, which the intruder could use to do who knows what.”

“Look, I know neither of you want to sidetrack, but could you explain why you need to do that to begin with?” Alex asked.

Sky sighed in obvious annoyance, but didn’t complain.

“To simplify a long story, do you remember my title?” Wind asked.

“The…guardian, or something?”

“Last true guardian; basically, it’s my duty to protect any forest.”

“So, you prioritized your job.”

“Pretty much. If something big was about to happen, I would have gotten you to Sky first and foremost.”

“Well, I’m not…exactly happy to know that there was an assassin nearby me yesterday, and I didn’t even fucking know about it until now.” Alex said, a bit of hysteria slipping into his voice. “But…I understand that you have priorities.”

“I also understand that it’s your duty, but…I think you could have handled it better, Wind.”

The elf nodded. “Fair enough, I will keep it in mind next time something like this happens, now, there was something else.” Wind said, sliding a piece of paper to Sky. “That guy gave me a letter and a wanted poster, I couldn’t really read it, but I know that it’s meant for you.”

Sky nodded, picking it up, quickly reading it…and then tearing apart. Repeatedly.

“Soo…what was in it?” Wind asked.

“Bullshit.”

Wind and Alex both stared at Sky, waiting for them to explain further.

“Anything…we should know?” Alex asked, slowly.

“Anchros, the god of fate is the one behind the assassination attempt.”

“Huh.” Wind said. “And he told you that?”

Sky sighed, took a deep breath, seemingly trying to calm themselves.

“According to him, you are being hunted by crimes that you will commit and that should I continue to help you, a great catastrophe will happen.”

Alex wasn’t sure how to react to that. He…didn’t really want to become a villain, he didn’t consider himself particularly heroic, but that was going too far.

“Is that…guaranteed?” Alex asked slowly.

Sky shook their head. “To begin with, due to a variety of reasons, I’m fateless. The fact that I found you would make it almost impossible to predict what you will do in the future.”

“All right, I’m incredibly confused now. How the hell does seeing the future works? What does it means to be fateless?”

“Seeing the future, as far as I am aware, is seeing what fate is tied to a person. It’s…really complicated, and I admittedly don’t know a whole lot about the subject.” Wind said. “Sky being fateless means that they don’t have a fate tied to them due to…reasons. But that means that they affect the fate of people around them.”

“That sounds confusing.”

“It’s only scratching the surface of the clusterfuck that is fate reading.” Wind said.

“All right, so, he wants to murder me for crimes that I might do, and due to the actions of the people around me, more likely than not, I won’t do.”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah.” Wind said.

“As I said, it’s a load of bullshit. And to begin with, I wouldn’t leave someone to die just because fate said they might do something.” Sky said.

Alex could not help but feel grateful towards Sky when the saint said that.

“This makes me wonder why he would bother to send you a letter to begin with.” Wind said.

Sky frowned. “I don’t care, it won’t change my actions.”

“Well, while that might not change yours…I have something that will change the actions of most other people.” Wind said, putting a poster on the table.

Alex stared at the poster, it kind of looked like the posters that he saw on westerners back on earth, on the top, it had a big bold WANTED, then, what looked like a drawing that looked remarkably like him, below, he saw a bounty of…a…something of imperial coins, he was sure that it was a number, but it was flickering. After a few seconds, it shifted, showing him 1000.

Alex noticed something else; a blue screen appeared in the edge of his vision.

This man is wanted by the gods.

“That…is worrying.”

“I thought the same thing. But…what are imperial coins?” Alex asked.

“I didn’t mention them earlier because of just how rare they are. They aren’t an official currency.” Sky said. “It’s a…magical item of sorts, and their actual worth varies a lot, but…they tend to cost around 50 of golden coins.”

Alex stared at Sky blankly, 50000 golden coins. Each coin, from what he heard, would allow someone to be set for life.

“That much money would make you richer than most kings.” Wind said.

Alex was well versed in what greed to people, when that much money was involved…he would not only be hunted by not only the damn gods of this world, but by the vast majority of the population too.

“And they are aware that he is here.” Sky said, slowly.

“Yep. But…it should be mostly fine here, elves don’t really take kindly to bounties from human gods.” Wind said.

“They still will probably try to send assassins.” Sky said.

“Probably, but I think we can take care of that.”

“Neither of you…really care about money, do you?”

It honestly baffled Alex, that amount of money was mind-boggling, if he was put on Sky’s shoes…he wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t simply decide to take it.

Sky shrugged. “Not really. I won’t say that I don’t want that money, but not when it would be taken from the blood of a innocent.”

“I just like to stick it up to the human gods.” Wind said.

“So, in the end, nothing changes in the short term. We just have to be more careful when guarding Alex.”

“Right. I will set up a few things with the spirits, so you handle Alex’s training for today, all right?” Wind said, getting up.

“I still have a couple of questions.” Alex said.

Wind rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Speak.”

“Why all of this secrecy to begin with?” Alex asked. “You just said that the village wouldn’t care, right?”

“It might not seem like it, but there was a bit of information that we didn’t want to get out.”

“What?”

“Can’t tell you, sorry.”

“Anything else.”

Alex stopped to think for a second, then, Wind snapped her finger, light poured into the room, and she vanished.

“Well, let’s get to training?” Sky asked.

Alex opened his mouth, sighed, and then nodded. “Let me get something to eat first.”