Horatio watched as Primus sprinted over to where his granddaughter lay sprawled on the grass.

‘Olivia! Olivia! Oh, if they’ve hurt you I’ll spend the rest of my life hunting Braxians!’

He skidded on his knees next to his unconscious granddaughter, muddying his robes, and cradled her head in his hands. He pulled her close to him, buried his face in her shoulder, and began to cry quietly, his wide-brimmed sage’s hat shaking with his sobs.

Horatio and the others stood around them regarding this solemn scene in silence. So this was why Primus was so desperate to find the girl, Horatio thought. He loved her a lot, clearly.

‘Priestess!’ Primus, yelled, lifting his all of a sudden ‘I need your healing magic!’

‘Yes, of course, sorry!’ said Ceres, running over and kneeling down to join them. Apparently she had been in a daze from their battle with the Demon Swordsman.

‘Heal,’ said Ceres, placing her palm over the girl’s forehead.

She withdrew her hand, and immediately the girl opened her eyes.

Even in the creeping dark Horatio could see that OLivia’s eyes were a bold blue, the same colour as Primus’s.

The girl blinked a few times, coming to her senses, then looked up at Primus, still holding her.

‘Grandfather…?’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’ Her voice was innocent, delicate. The voice of a child who has only just recently grown into the body of a woman.

‘Rescuing you, you foolish girl,’ Primus said, though not unkindly.

He and Ceres helped Olivia slowly to her feet.

The girl looked quizzically at Ceres, and then around at the other six of them, including Horatio.

‘Oh. Who are you? Who are all of you? Where am I? The last thing I remember is a Braxian general and a pack of monsters finally catching up to me…’

‘You are on the Fardan plains, north of the Abun woods,’ Primus informed her, launching into an explanation. ‘When you ran away, I hired some adventurers to help me find you. We took a bit longer than we might have, especially at the start when they got distracted by some treasure hunting’–Primus’s gaze flitted to Egea, just for a moment–’but as soon as we discovered that the Cult of Brax were looking for you, we began pursuing you at full tilt. I have barely slept or eaten in my hurry to find you. Olivia, how could you have put me through this? How dare you run off like that without telling me where you were going?’

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Ah, ok, thought Horatio, so they’re going to do this now.

‘Grandfather,’ said Olivia, a cadence of regret in the word, ‘I’m so sorry…I never knew I would cause you so much trouble. Thank you. Thank you for coming after me. Thank you, all of you. I am very grateful. But Grandfather, I couldn’t tell you where I was going. It was too dangerous. I didn’t want you to know.’

‘Tell me you were going where?’ asked Primus, staring her down. ‘Why did you leave me, Olivia?’

Olivia took Primus’s hand in her own. ‘Grandfather, on the night before I ran away, I had a vision.’

‘So what? You have visions all the time! You’re a seer!’

‘No, this was different. I had… I saw…’ She paused, glancing round at the assembled party again.

‘What is it?’ said Primus. ‘Speak, child!’

Olivia asked him something in a hushed voice that Horatio couldn’t hear.

‘Well,’ Primus said, ‘they’ve helped me track you down and fought alongside me for the last however many days. Yes, I think they’re probably ‘safe’. Anything you have to tell me about whatever ‘special’ vision you had that demanded that you drop everything and leave my care without telling me where you were going, they can hear as well.’

Olivia took a deep breath. ‘Well…alright then. Grandfather, I had a vision where I saw the location of the Clarent Sword, and saw myself taking hold of it.’

Primus looked at her in silence for a few moments.

Then he said: ‘Oh.’

‘What’s the Clarent Sword?’ Egea asked on behalf of the rest of them observing this utterly peculiar and incomprehensible scene. ‘Is it worth anything?’

Primus actually let go of Olivia’s hand and sat down on the grass, like he had been stunned by the revelation from his granddaughter. He began to recite his answer as if it was a piece of lore he had learned that he could reel off automatically. It probably was. ‘The Clarent Sword is a legendary weapon of awesome power. The ancient prophecies say that when the Demon Lord Brax rises and is summoned to Gard, a hero will awaken and be shown the location of the Clarent Sword, which they will use to defeat the Demon Lord and banish him back to Hell. It is not known how many times this has happened in the history of Gard, but the ancient texts are clear: It will happen. The Clarent Sword is the only weapon that can be used to defeat the Demon Lord and return him to hell.’

A quiet fell on the group once more as they pondered this.

Wow, thought Horatio. I had no idea. A legendary weapon? This could be just what I need to make a name for myself. This could be just what I need to impress Ceres. Maybe I could even be the one to…

He didn’t get to finish his thought because all of a sudden Olivia said ‘Be on guard!’ and pointed off in the opposite direction from the way she had been looking.

‘What is it?’ asked Ceres as they all turned to look.

‘Monsters.’

Sure enough, a group of monsters was running towards them through the dark.

How did she do that?

Battle 1