Ezo had never wanted to run more in his entire life, but Kammon was adamant about their pace. He didn’t take them at a slow speed, but he was tracking the raiders and wouldn’t be rushed. They didn’t stop for a midday meal but ate as they walked. It was only when night fell that Kammon called them to a stop.

“I can’t track them anymore and if your friends left any signs you’ll miss them as well,” Kammon said as he stopped in a small clearing. It was a little off the path, but there were thick bushes around them. It wouldn’t stop someone from seeing the light of a fire. Ezo was going to ask if they should skip the fire, but Kammon was already surrounded by the red swirls of magic. This had been someone’s camp before them, and he relit the wood that had been left in the pit.

“We could be seen,” Ezo reminded him.

“They’ll have a hard time getting through the bushes before either of us noticed them. If the raiders come, then we’ll end the chase quicker than I thought.”

Ezo didn’t say anything as he collected a few fallen branches and brought them back to the fire. He began snapping the smaller twigs and tossing them on their small flames, leaving the larger branches for now.

“What we need is something to cook on,” Kammon mentioned as he looked around the clearing.

“What about something to cook?”

Kammon shook his head. “What kind of soldier is dumb enough to travel without food?”

It felt like a competition and Ezo narrowed his eyes. He took two stones away from the outer circle of the fire and pulled his magic to him. He concentrated on the stones and felt them merge and mold into the image in his head. When he was finished, a stone pot sat before him. He smirked up at Kammon. “So where is that food?”

Kammon grabbed the stone pot. Ezo used some of the other stones around the fire to crisscross over the top of the flames. Kammon nodded his approval and set the pot on top of it. He didn’t say anything as he opened his pack and pulled out food. Ezo saw what he was doing and did the same. In no time, they’d chopped and added root vegetables to the pot as well as thick slices of dried meat that Kammon supplied.

“Water?” Ezo asked. Kammon didn’t know he could use water as well as the earth element, but before he could mention it, Kammon had pulled the elements to him again. This time, it was the blue-tinged light of water.

Ezo gasped as water formed into a ball above the pot before raining into it. “You used water.”

“Very observant,” As Kammon sat, he switched to fire again and the flames grew warmer, licking at the pot that held their dinner.

“I’ve never met anyone else that could use more than one,” he confessed.

“And you can?” Kammon looked at him, but it wasn’t doubt in his eyes. He was reassessing Ezo.

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“I wasn’t taught at the university,” he explained. “My uncle was an elementalist. He believed you should know how to use all of them, not just the one that came easiest to you.”

“It’s dangerous. Few people take the time to learn the flows properly. And of those, even less survive the training.”

“I don’t know anything about that.” Ezo threw a small stick into the fire in frustration. “My uncle taught me how to be an elementalist, but it’s not the way I’m supposed to do it. Not by everyone else’s standards. When I went to Malla City, they wouldn’t even listen to me. I tried to explain, but they refused to believe me.”

Kammon scoffed. “Malla City is full of fools, and the university there even more so.”

“You’ve been there?”

“I grew up there. They realized I was gifted with the elements and sent me to the university when I was 7. The magic I do I learned once I left Malla City. I traveled and experimented on my own. Got into all kinds of trouble too,” he added, a small smile on his face as he said it. The first Ezo had seen.

He was right back in Mason Creek. He was striking when he smiled.

“But… you became War-Sworn.”

Kammon looked at him, all trace of the smile gone. “I thought it was my duty to defend my country.”

“It isn’t now?”

“This country doesn’t need defending. It’s run by men who want power and they sent us to the border to expand their lands by killing the people living on it. When I realized the truth, I left.”

“But they say-”

“Believe what you want, Raven. I’m not going to argue politics.”

“You took a vow though.”

“What?”

“You took a vow.”

“How do you know that?” Kammon’s voice had dropped lower, and he sat forward, watching Ezo intently.

“What?”

“Only the War-Sworn know about the vow. How do you know about it?”

“The soldiers,” he said, trying to placate the other man. He wasn’t afraid, but Kammon the Calamity had a reputation and Ezo had no desire to be on the other end of his temper. “Barley. He said I was touched. I don’t know what that means, and he wouldn’t explain it. He said … he said he felt the vow on me. One of the other soldiers said it too, though he was joking. Barley was unsettled by it though.”

Kammon’s eyes were wide, and he leaned back. “You must have earned their trust for them to speak of it so openly.”

“You know what he meant. Why Barley said it.” There was no question. Whatever was happening, Kammon understood.

“It doesn’t matter.” He got up and stirred the food in the pot as if he could end the conversation so easily. He obviously didn’t know Ezo.

“This has to do with what happened that night, doesn’t it? The flood. When you joined your magic to mine?”

Kammon went still, but a moment later he let out a shuddered breath. “It’s temporary. Sometimes the magic leaves a trace of itself. That’s all. It can be discomforting to some. It’s one of the reasons most won’t attempt a joining.”

“And the other?”

“Both parties have to trust enough to let it happen. Elementalists tend to keep to themselves and our treatment in the world makes most cynics at best. We don’t trust easily, and we trust with our magic less.”

“Yeah, I noticed that part.”

“Just know that it won’t linger much longer, whatever you’re feeling. I didn’t know you were unaware. I’m sorry for assuming you understood when I joined with you.”

“I haven’t noticed anything,” Ezo admitted. “It was just what Barley said that’s had me wondering.”

“Don’t worry, Raven. We’ll find your friends tomorrow and our paths will diverge again. You’ll be done with me.”

Ezo watched the other man hovering over the food, his change of attention as good as any dismissal. It was more than he’d thought to hear out of the man after a day of mostly silence, but he wasn’t satisfied with the answers.

Not that he thought Kammon was lying, but there were so many things that Jacob had left unexplained. Had he known? Or had he willfully kept the truth from Ezo?

And how much more could Kammon teach him, if he could just convince the elementalist to stick around?