Later, we were eating around a fire. Dried meat in my wagon served as the meal, and the few last drops of wine that I had stored away.

“We'll be leaving in the morning.” Joss said, “I thank you again for freeing us from the prisons, but...”

“No more breaking into castles.” Mic said, “Too dangerous. We're heading to the forest.” He gave a bright smile. “I heard that there are some elves living in the forest here in secrecy. Maybe I can learn my lost art from them. Maybe they will know my parents.”

“Maybe.” I said, “But I've never seen an elf in the forest. You might have to travel past the islands or over the mountains to find even one.”

“Maybe sometime in the future,” Joss said, “You can find us. When Mic has his amazing powers, and I can sneak into shadows as a most accomplished thief. Then we can break back into the castle and find the Moonshard you want. Then the five of us can take revenge on Kos, for Rosa, for all he's killed-”

“For meddling so deeply in powers that no human should have.” Rico spat, “for seeking to bathe the world in chaos.”

“Indeed,” I said, “Perhaps sometime in the future.”

***

The moon above was blocked out from our view by a great mass of clouds that hovered overhead. Heavy snow fell gently onto the white ground. Christen, Rico and I sat around a fire, kept ablaze by Rico despite the falling snow.

“We should have gone to the forest.” Rico said, “We should have gone with Mic and Joss.”

“Maybe at another time.” I muttered, “It's dangerous now.”

“Well.... There are other places we could go.” Christen said. She was doing her best to fix her cloak, which had been ruined in the dungeons of Teans.

“The only place we could go are the small little towns. One's that barley survive.” I shook my head, “We could go to one of these places, but if we are looked for, then we'll be found easily there. No, it's best to...”

“To what?!” Rico demanded, “To sit here in the snow and freeze each and every night? I thought you didn't even like the cold! I would have thought that you would have demanded that we go somewhere warmer!”

I shrugged. I didn't feel the cold, so he was wrong. Of course, I hadn't told them about the power Kos had unleashed in me. I hadn't even used it, not knowingly at least. There were times when I woke up in the caravan and found that it was colder inside than outside. I didn't know if that was because it was cold outside, or because I might have invoked my powers as I slept.

“We should go back to Teans.” Rico said.

“No. It's dangerous. There's probably people looking for Christen, and who knows what the state is there without Lord Emmerson there.”

“Justin's still there!” Rico said, “We can go and find him!”

I snorted, “I doubt it. he hated you to begin with, he won't want to help us after we've taken his guise as Lord Emmerson, and had him cast out into the streets.”

Rico paled, the firelight glittered against his white skin like paint on canvas. “That's another reason I want to go back. I'm sure he'll understand! He shouldn't have hidden his role as Lord Emmerson from me, and I'm sure he understands that! If he had told me, none of this would have happened, and for the time, we would still be in Teans, keeping low.”

“No, I would still have been killed,” Christen said, “Those people from my village would have killed me with or without the word of Emmerson.

“We should go to Teans, and find Justin.” Rico said. “We should tell him what we've learned, and beg him to forgive us for misunderstanding his intention-”

“We didn't misunderstand. He betrayed you. No, he didn't just betray you, he was actually quite stupid. He hired me, let Christen be sentence to death while thinking that I- That we wouldn't do anything to stop it, and then he decided it best to let us both rot in a dungeon!”

There was a long moment of silence. The last syllables of my words seemed to ring in my ears as time flowed past me.

“Well...I was surprised when you saved me.”

Rico and I both looked over at Christen, who looked back at us as though we should have known what she meant.

“Well. I expected that Rico might try to do something... But Stiri, you're the heartless assassin. That's your claim. You slay women, children, you don't let anything get in the way of your job. You even slew your mentor because she got in the way of your job... Or is that untrue.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Of course it's true.” I snapped. “Justin assumed that I would do nothing. He assumed that I would ignore-”

“I thought that too. And so did Christen.” Rico snapped. “He was doing what he had to as Lord Emmerson. He was holding the power that he had, the power he was using to try to stop Kos! We took that power away from him, and we've helped Kos in that way. I have to go back to Teans and help Justin, I-”

“I stood up slowly and walked over to Rico. Wordlessly, I pulled him off the rock he was sitting on by the front of his tunic.

“Stiri, what are you-”

“Listen to me.” I hissed. “Justin won't help you. He hates you. He's abandoned you. You're power is an affront to his nature, and he only used you as much as he could stomach, as much as he needed to in order to appease his sense of family duty. He will not help you. You have nothing. You've been abandoned. Get used to that idea before you run to Justin, and he greets you with the edge of his sword.”

Silence again overcame us. Christen stood up, and walked over to me. I heard her worn leather boots crunching in the snow.

“Stiri.” She whispered, her voice cutting through the silence, “Stiri, put Rico down.”

I held him a moment longer, then dropped him to his feet. He stood, fixed his tunic, and looked at me.

“What, you're going to tell me about the bonds of your blood again? It's nothing. Blood ties don't mean anything. He's been with you all you're life? That means even less.”

Rico pulled his fist back and before even I could react, planted his balled up fist into my face. I fell to the snow, and felt blood pour from my now broken nose.

Cursing I stood up. “Bastard.” I snapped. I drew my dagger.

“Stiri, don't-”

“No.” Rico said, “Don't bother. I'm going to go to Teans.”

“Go. Leave.” I said, “See if I care.”

“I'm not leaving without the pendant.”

“I'm not giving it to you.”

“You will.” Rico hissed. The campfire went out, and flames encircled Rico. The snow around him hissed and melted. He held his hands before him, and a great fireball formed around his fingers. With a wave, he threw the fireball at me.

I leapt to out of the way, and let the fireball roar past me and hit the ground, melting a hole in the snow.

“I thought you didn't want to kill people with your power!”

“Do you think I would hesitate to kill a filthy assassin?” He formed a larger fireball, and threw it at me. This time, I didn't move. I let the power rush through me, the chill in the air, the ice on the ground, pass through the pendant and to me, and devour the ball in a great, swirling mass of blue, frozen air. The air around me shuddered and snow turned to balls of ice and fell to the ground. I let the chill quickly creep to Rico, and encircle him.

Rico cursed and let the tendrils of flame encircling him devour the wisps of ice.

I worked my power, and tried to create a giant ball of ice around him. A wall of ice reached from his feet, to his knees, and then fell. I myself fell to the ground, exhausted, paining from somewhere I didn't know.

“What.. what..”

Rico sent a great wave of flames towards me. I tried to use my own power to stop it, but I was too weak.

Christen grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the way. Rico, seeing her in his wave of flames moved them to splash over an empty plain of snow, which melted into a deep puddle.

“Christen! What are you doing!” Rico snapped.

“Don't kill him!” Christen said, “Let him keep the damned pendant! Do you want to become just like him?”

'Just like him.' the words rang through my head.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Are you any better than he is, killing anyone who you judge to be unworthy? Anyone who would keep an item from you? aren't you just as bad as someone who kills for gold?”

“I have my own private reasons for wanting to-”

“If you do anything that Justin says, if you kill anyone that Justin may want killed, Aren't you just Justin's personal assassin?”

“All this time, he's had this power, and all this time he never once-”

“I didn't.” I said as I felt strength return to me, “I didn't always have this power.”

Rico looked at me, questioning, curious. Then he understood.

“Kos gave you the power.” He hissed, “He awakened you! Just like he awakened Lord Necanda.”

Christen stood up and walked away from me. “Stiri.” She whispered, “Did he really-”

“Yes.” I snapped, “ A little gift.”

“And in exchange?”

I was silent. He didn't need to know. No one did: it was my business, and mine alone.

Rico stormed over to the Caravan, and took started packing up some food for him to take with him as he went off on his own.

I stood up and stumbled over a patch of snow that hadn't been melted by Rico's flame, and scooped up a handful to press against my broken nose. I couldn't feel the cooling of the burning pain though.

“Are you coming, Christen?” Rico asked.

Christen stood between Rico and I, silent.

“Go.” I snapped. “I've already did what you paid me to do, you know the kingdom better now, you can defend yourself. I don't think you need me anymore.” I turned to look at her. She was standing, looking at me as though I had just slapped her. “Go,” I said. 'You won't follow me anyway-' I thought. 'You shouldn't, it's far too dangerous. Go with Rico.'

After a moment of standing in the snow. Christen nodded and walked over to Rico and helped him pack a little extra food. I let them take it, I didn't need so much anymore, and I didn't want to have to carry extra weight as I was travelling. I had my horses to think of.

Moments passed, and I heard Christen and Rico start to walk away in the darkness. I turned to watch them. Rico had a flame glittering in his hand. I didn't know why his strength was greater than mine, or how he was still able to walk and move after he used all that magic.

“Christen.” I called out. Christen turned to look at me, her eyes hopeful and alight.

“My payment.” I said. “You hadn't paid me for bringing you to Lord Necanda.”

Christen stood in the snow for a few long moments. Rico walked on ahead, visible after a moment only by the light coming from the flame in his hand.

Christen took off the pendant around her neck, and threw it at me. I let it drop into the snow and melt a small hole.

“I'm sure that's worth fifty silver pieces.” She snapped. Then she turned and ran after Rico.

After a long time, long after Rico's torch was gone, and I could no longer hear them, I knelt down in the snow and dug the pendant up from the slush. It's bright and burning light glittered in the night, a star fallen among mortals. I sat for a long time in the snow, feeling no heat from the flame, no chill from the snow. I felt numb.