Cavalry marched along the tents as the terrified miners desperately avoided their parade, many stumbling and falling as they fled out of the way. Black armour, black pikes, black horses, but most importantly a black crest of a grey brick castle.

“Sound the horn!” long ebony hair flickered as the beauty in the middle of the formation commanded “Are you certain it’s this place, Lucas?”

“Without any doubt, lady Avys. Since he was not near the burnt forest nor was he ever seen in the city of Stillham, young lord must have at the very least passed through this place according to local cartography. The diviner should be able to confirm it.” Lucas stated confidently and looked behind his back. There was another figure riding the same black horse behind them. The person didn't stand out at all in the black cloak that covered them head to toe and hid all facial features.

“Irwyn. near-I. feel, further..” a shaky string wailes escaped from beneath the Cape; it sounded worse than knifes scraping glass. The tone, gender and age of the person seemed to differ from letter to letter, but each of them send shivers down the spine of anyone who heard them.

“Then let's hurry, just in case they dare try to hide him. Knights!” Avys commanded as she controlled the reigns of her own horse. With the increased pace it took them just few moments to arrive at what seemed like a gathering of important people in the village. Wooden houses also finally appeared around this area. A significant improvement from the tents.

“So, who speaks for your bunch?” Avys spoke to the gathering through the buffer of knights that stood between them. Two people stepped out. One was an old looking man: His hair and beard were withered and white, but he clearly still had solid muscles which were visible through his cheap linen clothing covered by patches. The other was a blond haired woman who rivaled Avys in beauty or perhaps even surpassed her.

“I am considered the village elder, my lady, they call me Robert,” the man spoke with tangible terror; only few would not recognise the Blackburg crest in these lands “The woman next to me is known as Daisy. She is a healer who has settled in our little encampment a bit over a year ago. She is greatly respected among us.”

“Lucas, confirm,” Avys beckoned the man who immediately answered.

“Yes, my lady, about 15 months ago the reported number of casualties and long term injuries in the Darkglitter mining encampment dropped by over 90%,” Lucas quoted from the top of his head “Investigation team code named 03-07 was sent and described a traveling healer using the name Daisy. Her past was uncertain, but despite that the investigator granted indefinite temporary citizenship for reasons he couldn’t retrospectively explain. There were no traces of mind magic or interference found in the routine checkup at the end of the month.”

“Interesting. The number is nothing shabby, but that is not why we are here,” Avys turned back towards the crowd “I came here for the boy.”

“What boy, my lady?” Daisy immediately responded in her sweet alluring voice, but it could not hide the change in expression of the mob behind her.

“Playing dumb, are we? I could force the people behind you to tell me where he is, but I actually don’t have to, do I?” Avys smiled sweetly; despite the sweetness a chill ran down the spines of those present. She looked behind her at the robed figure which had at some point raised its hand, revealing fingers which haphazardly transformed between various degrees of shriveled and youthful with each passing breath.

“There.” the hand pointed at a wooden house by the side.

“I wonder, do you still intent to deny it?” Avys didn’t smirk, just kept smiling sweetly.

“My lady. Please let us explain,” Daisy composedly spoke once again in her lavish voice which seemed to melt the heart of any who heard it.

“Don’t try your tricks on me. I might be out of practice, but I used to deal with far more subtle and brutal compulsion than whatever it is you are attempting right now.” Avys looked at her and coldness spread from those eyes as she still maintained that smile.

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“You dare attempt such tricks on people under Blackburg banner?!” one of the frontmost knights yelled in outrage as he heard Avys and drew his sword in one quick motion, swinging towards Daisy. His speed implied he was a rather average knight at the peak of the 2nd tier strength vise. She was however unable to even start a dodge as she was not a combatant.

“Stop,” a mana infused voice sounded from the side of their formation. Just the strength of it gave most the knights pause as it carried enough power to qualify as a 2nd tier spell instead of the cantrip voice amplification was usually considered. It was enough to shock the knight into stopping his swing and withdrawing his hand as he steadied his voice.

From within of the house that was previously pointed at a figure walked out. It was a black haired young boy, not older than 7. He was wearing simple clothes, but still stood out because of one thing. His right hand was brutally blistered and filled with various white and red spots, implying serious injury in the recent past.

“What have you done to him?!” the knight yelled again with a similar outrage as before and raised his blade to strike again.

“Stop I said, are you deaf?” this time it was a yell, powerful enough to sweep the villagers off their feet, and also resulting in most of the horses nearly breaking into a stampede; that was only prevented by their resistant breed, and the training for actual combat which took low tier mages into account.

“Why did you come out, Irwyn?” out of the mob only Daisy remained standing. She shouted at him without as much as thinking, but then something clicked in her head. She whispered the name again under her breath and looked at Avys with sudden tangible dread in her eyes.

“What is your name?” In the meantime Irwyn approached the knight.

“I am knight Edward Grey of no land, my lord.” the man saluted with a tinge of fear in his expression as he realised he stepped out of the line before.

“So a landless orphan with a bit of luck makes me repeat my orders?” Irwyn stared at him coldly before glancing at the knight next to him; the man already had a hand on his blade, but it wasn’t drawn.

“Kill him!” Irwyn coldly commanded. The knight hesitated for a moment before he swung his sword at the stunned Edward.

“Stop!” Irwyn commanded again and the knight was barely able to stop the blow from beheading Edward.

“That is how you are supposed to follow orders. Precisely, quickly, without questions. You are supposed to be a knight, not a zealot.” Irwyn coldly reprimated Edward and then reached forward with his hand.

“Flame.” a blazing spark left Irwyn’s hand and landed on the knight’s forehead.

“Aaargh” his head immediately burst into flame as the man fell off his horse and struggled. Futilely. It was not even 3 seconds later that his body became limp. By that time Irwyn was already sitting on top of the horse and turning it around.

“How ruthless,” Avys said, but she seemed greatly amused. Especially so considering she just witnessed her 6 years old child commit murder “I thought you liked to treat the servants with kindness.”

“It is great to see you too, mother,” Irwyn drilly smiled back, the last bit of wildness still inside his eyes; he pointed at his right hand and continued “look at where kindness brought me. So I had to change. I will make sure that the next person to try will first reconsider. Moreover…”

“Kekek-eke, here.” a horrifying laughter sounded from beneath the cape as it interrupted Irwyn.

“A keystone?” Irwyn instantly frowned.

“Yes, how sharp of you!” Lucas announced from the side grabbing the attention “I expected nothing less from you.”

“What exactly are you even doing here, Lucas?” the boy questioned.

“Finding you of course. There is no need to bother with days or weeks of complex divinations when all you need is a map and a bit of wit.” The man stated matter of factly.

“Let’s head back then. I will explain what happened on the way.” Irwyn trotted the horse through the knight formation; the horse he rode on was mysteriously calm considering what just happened. It didn’t even matter that Irwyn was far too small for the saddle.

“So that I don’t forget. Daisy, perhaps it will become the greatest regret of your entire life, but there is no doubt that you saved the life of Irwyn von Blackburg and I thus owe you a great favour. You would do well to remember it.” Irwyn didn’t turn around as he spoke to the stunned woman who only now managed to regain her composure. A tear ran down her cheek as she looked at the corpse with burned head, but she didn’t let her expression falter in any way. Instead she answered him: “Yes, I will.”

“Good. Let’s go, I have a message to send when we get back,” Irwyn commanded; his face and tone still ice cold.

“I already can’t wait to see it,” Avys chuckled as she rode next to him. She apparently didn’t mind him commanding their entourage.

Soon they disappeared on the horizon.