Walking up to the amassing aelenvari troops, I spot an excited crowd. A few of them seem particularly enthusiastic at what they see, but their superiors seem to ignore it. I approach the crowd, curious as to what it is, I use the weight of the respect they have for me to get through. But, I am disappointed to discover it is just the two formal troops that came with me to this caravan.

Though, I am also a little surprised to see them out here. They've cleaned up their armour, each riveted ring of it and polished them to a sparkling shine. They lack boom-pikes, but, they've made up for it by acquisitioning some simpler polearms. However, I find myself frowning when they mechanically snap to attention upon seeing me.

The rings in their coats jump with every sharp movement they make. They are standing immaculately before me with their wing-tipped spears firmly upright. I understand that this is just how they are drilled, but, I wish they wouldn't act like this. Towards me, anyway.

"Valkinvar! When you are ready, so shall we be!" they declare as a uniform pair. Their spears lean forwards slightly and I pick up on the slight bit of magic these two men do have. However much it really is, some of the lesser aelenvari are quite impressed by it. Not that these two are paying attention right now, with polished, mail-covered tricorns on, their focus is absolute.

I shake my head slightly, "Why are you two coming? You have no reason to."

"To pay those buggers back. We owe them a piece of iron in their bile-pumping hearts!" one of the two answers as he gives me a little tip of his hat. Though, I am curious about one thing...

"You won't be using the weapons you had when we left?" I ask them as their choices to go back to polearms strikes me as a little strange. I understand that we will be going back to the hive with an army, but, would they not feel safer with a firearm? I've never met a formal soldier who groans at becoming an informal one, but have seen plenty of the reverse.

"Those things felt weird." one answers with a shrug that he forces through his refusal to relax his posture.

"I am an Ironcoat. Formal soldier of Waionr and His Chosen Theocracy. I fight with what my heraldry is emblazoned with." the other answers as I hear his grip on the polearm tighten. I nod at their answers and choose to leave it at that.

However, I am not fond of their usage of the term 'Valkinvar,' I made that apparent to them already. It's bad enough that the Ivy-Mother and the aelenvari as a whole refuse to listen to me in that regard. I have lost the right to call myself it and I renounced it openly... I'm no longer a Valkinvar.

At the very least, I would like these two to stop.

"Stay safe, then, you two. And stop calling me 'Valkinvar,' do not make me repeat myself." I tell them as I turn around to leave. Glancing over at some nearby aelenvari, they respectfully bow out of the way as their bulbs light up. I ignore their magical words and carry on walking so I can find the Gilded-Bark. He is not hard to find, if I thought the two soldiers drew a crowd, then his is something more.

I walk up the natural ramp up to the top of the cliff and my mind starts to wander during the quiet rise. In a moment of weakness, I made it true to everyone that I am not deserving of my title. I could've let them carry on in ignorance, given some hope that they could rejoin the war. But...

I nearly cast aside my badge of office back then. I was prepared as well to set aside my blade in the mountain were it not for my need for a cane. Even now, I find an excuse to use something other than it. I struggle to see what my life will be like without the Valkinvar being a part of it, without Waionr...

It's all I've ever known for so long, I don't remember my childhood clearly anymore.

Hopefully, Nin can help me and Vadei when I save him with the help of this army. He was willing to offer his advice before, maybe he can offer it again. Help me find a life for myself beyond the Valkinvar. I -need- his help.

I can't seem to break my habits, I think I am trying to, but I can't see clear results. Everything I have been doing is just what a Valkinvar would do in a barely similar situation. I can't seem to let go of being a soldier. It feels too natural to just spend my day training my body and swordcraft.

Arriving at the Gilded-Bark's location, I step through those surrounding him, arriving at a throne, "Valkinvar."

"Gilded-Bark, is everything ready?" I impatiently question as our eyes meet and narrow. Rising from his throne, the deformed giant of an aelenvari approaches me. The once loud adoration for him quietens down and a tense atmosphere takes over. The aelenvari mostly remain truly quiet.

"You will guide me and my host towards this hive?" he asks as he flexes his bulging, hard-crusted hands in front of me.

"I am ready." I answer as I take one step closer to him, showing off my somewhat recovered magic as I do so. The crowd lights up with their own magic and mine.

"Let's go." he gruffly snorts as he sharply turns around to take up his spear and a horn. Made from magic-rich wood and studded with amber, his blade is of high quality. For a bunch of nomads, anyway. He holds the ivory horn to his lips and he blows his all into it.

With bellowing, magic-boosted bass, the horn disturbs the quiet trees and the soldiers start to move. He drops it carelessly and breaks off into a powerful sprint despite his deformities. Quickly breaking through to the front of the army, many chase after him with grim loyalty. Floating slightly in the air, I catch up to him with the intent to speak about the hive.

I use small blasts of magic to clear annoying foliage out of my way, "The entrance is collapsed, a result of my battle with the Earth Shaman."

"You are sure it was the only entrance?" he asks before he nimbly breaks through the blocking forest in his way. Coming back out into the open with only a trail of leaves behind him, he comes back to my side.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"It was a grand, open chamber. I can see no other reason than to assume it was like that to compensate for no smaller entrances." I explain, more so explaining my familiarity with how Giant's Victory is laid out. Was...?

I shake my head clear of the foreboding thought.

"How many died at your hands!?" he demands to know as he uses a faraway tree to test his frustrated throwing arm on. Cleaving the thick oak in two with his spear, he explosively dashes to it to snatch the weapon back up. Only to use the small blade to slice another tree down with a bullish snort.

"Enough." I answer vaguely as my attention back then was focused on the Earth Shaman. I do not know how many I killed.

"Enough better be there for me to skew. For my Beloved..." he growls quietly as while I fly over a log, he stomps on it to snap it in two.

"Depending on how they go about it, the Ivy-Mother might take that chance away from you." I remark as I remember her words to me.

"Hah, there will always be plenty of parasites to hunt! I just pray to Undwote that he is not whistled to us." he grimly tells me as his body lets out more eager, aggressive twitches.

"Have hope, Gilded-Bark." I say, though, more for my own sake. I said one thing, but my mind focuses only on Nin.

"The world will have much to answer for if my Beloved dies in a pair of arms other than my own!" he goes as he picks up the pace with repeated, strong breaths. Like a forge's fire constantly fed by its air bellow.

Lagging behind, I watch him vanish as his soldiers start to overtake me. Their bladed barbs and chain-like whips stream behind them with deceptive gentleness. Some of the aelenvari glow brightly like a field of wild greens while others look as if they only have steel at their side. In the name of their ruling male, they all charge after him with equal fury.

Rising above, high up into the air, I look down at them all. I glance back and see the two Ironcoats as they laugh in despair at their oncoming effort. I think back to my time with the army when we left Giant's Victory because of them. Compared to what it was, this force the Gilded-Bark is going out with is tiny.

But, we were laid low by a force smaller than even this, a steel monstrosity and some cavalrymen...

I shake my head clear of thoughts like these again and sneer at myself because of it. Tightly clutching my weapon, I break away into the sky proper and soar into the lowest layer of clouds. Breaking through the snow-belt and soaring into the open, bright sky, I refresh myself with the colder air and reminisce about the feeling. I nod to myself as I make it a certainty in my mind.

"This will be the last time I march out with an army." I sigh quietly as my short hair is taken up by the wind. I dive back down under the snow-belt and watch the army from high above. The near complete female population of the force is a curious sight to behold. It seems impressive from a glance, but should they be forced into a close fight, their strength will shatter.

I understand that since the Patricide as they know it as, they lost an inconceivable amount of people. An overwhelming amount of which were males. But, my mind cannot stop itself from noticing the problems even if their solution is one of few that they have to work with. Men may struggle more with casting spells, but their bodies hold strength far better.

Nin in particular holds quite a lot for someone who once never had any. To look to the valley below me for an example, his body is like it. Empty of anything that might be able to hold back the sudden, storming tide that appeared within him. That overwhelming power could not be regulated, he nearly drowned in a fantastic, arcane fireball.

"I will save you, Nin..." I mutter as I try to smile over the fact he survived Sudden Induction. There was nothing to save the valley that is his body, but he did. With that strength, he will last far longer and better than anyone else. Whatever is happening to him in there, it is not dangerous enough to ensure that I arrive too late!

But, he still needs me!

Building up my magic with a determined glare, the sky erupts as I shoot ahead. Flying past the army and several of the scouts who went out ahead a while ago, I lean towards them. I slam myself onto a nearby mountain, just under the snow-belt. Letting debris and snow roll and fall past me, I look around.

"How can I ever forget this mountain." I remark as I stare at the partially collapsed, solid stone giant not too far away. I look away from the sight of my shameful display before Heiya was forced to help me. Leaping back into the air, I head on down to where we once made camp, knowing a tunnel in should still remain. I focus on the mountain and try to pick up on anything that might lead me to him...

But, I only pick up on a source of magic behind me.

Turning around, I walk up to the abandoned staff of the Earth Shaman and my brow rises. I look back at our camp and all the ash-covered, broken plants in this small area. The machine we took shelter in has been picked clean of easily useable materials. Many fresh, osibindah footprints line the area as well.

I pick up the staff then crush the handle out of spite for its owner and walk out to the ledge. I frown, looking down from the platform, I spot the signs of struggle and go down further. All the way to the ground, my eyes start to widen. Some of the dirt distinctly has the marks of boots...

"Nin!" I let out hopefully as I realise he might've been able to escape even as early as the day we lost him. Broken stone is all over the place, trees are toppled and blood even decorated the grass. Staring intently at that which has bits of red blood on it, I follow a growing trail.

"Valkinvar! Valkinvar!" one of the aelenvari scouts call out urgently as they stamp themselves to an angled stop and crouch into it. I focus my sensitive patience towards them and they grow nervous. With their blubs flickering, I start to get annoyed.

"Speak!" I desperately demand as my eyes keep dashing to the signs of conflict.

"There's a strange, convoluted magic source down that path! The Ivy-Mother requested I tell you this." she explains as my eyes narrow at how they describe the magic. Stepping around them, I crouch into the ground and launch myself into the air. An annoying cone builds up in front of me, but, passing by a low-hanging summit, I dive down.

The cone erupts.

I land ahead of this strange magic source and quickly get back up. Thinking of a halberd once again, a blade forms from the silvery, metallic liquid and I further reinforce it with my magic. Not only is there a mixture of magic sources beyond the corner ahead. That strange magic I was told about feels familiar.

I rush around the corner but come to a screeching halt.

I drop my weapon and my mouth becomes agape as my eyes water.

"Nin..." I quietly say as I look at his bruised, battered and bloody body. Staring back at me, he starts to wobble and his right arm comes into view. My eyes lock onto the osibindah-like limb as he realigns himself back upright. I take into account the tatty remains of skin still covering it then look beyond him.

Not only did he get out himself, but he also strapped himself to and managed to cover a whole, sturdy trunk with those he saved. I was too weak to protect him, but, starting at the little hwardgon child closest to him, he has saved so many more. All by himself... He fought off the Earth Shaman and made it out with so many.

A few dozen adult aelenvari women, some humans and other grown-ups. Children from a plethora of races. Those that must've been taken elsewhere before I escaped barely... He saved them all.

I've been worrying for him so much, doubting him in the back of my mind again and again. But, here he is, not only alive and free of his own will, he has the proof of it. The scars of battle cover him in his entirety, nothing lacks blood or filth or dark smatterings of swollen bruises on it. I was judging him with no basis...

I may have kept it to myself, but the gods and goddesses still heard me. They gave him the strength to prove me wrong... So, so wrong... I'm not crying in relief, I am crying because I feel so ashamed.

I am not the one battered by battle, but I am the one to collapse in pain. I hold my chest and choke on my emotions as he slowly sways back and forth, exhausted. I bow my head to him and try to hide my shame against the dirt. For all my strength and power, here he is standing prouder, bloodier and stronger than I ever could be.