The city felt just off from everything he would expect. He wasn’t an expert on history. He knew all the stuff a man knew after spending too much time on the internet, like Roman architecture and German tank models. But he didn’t know when glass windows were invented in Europe. The people here had them, and other technologies he wasn’t sure about. There were lanterns that glowed so bright he swore they were electric powered, but it was clearly a flame swirling around in a bulb.
The giant bison were furrier and darker than any bison he ever saw in a book. On top of that, their horns were massive and had an obsidian black sheen to them. CJ passed a pair of the bison leading a wagon full of barrels. In the wagon was a Hillwoman, and there was a yellow tether going from her hand to collars around the necks of the bison. They were a bond. So it didn’t surprise CJ that she didn’t have any whip or even reins to keep the bison going. They just went through the streets without a word from her.
Eventually they approached a wide two story building with a sign hanging above the double doors of the entrance.
CJ discovered while moving through the city, he could read when his eye was working properly. But it wasn’t like spoken language, he didn’t just understand the text. It was overlaid with English, like in a dubbed anime. This sign said ‘Guild of Arms, Scaleback City Main Branch’.
“This is the place,” Byr said as they went inside.
The inside looked like the entrance to a gym, or a clinic. There was a desk with a woman behind it that had curly brown hair. CJ noted she didn’t have horns. The desk had a high counter in front of her, and there was a thick signature book open there. Off to each side were doors, one with a sign reading members only, and the other had no sign at all. The woman looked up as the three of them entered.
“Welcome to the Guild, are you members?”
Sir Byr walked over and placed a thick patch on the counter. The woman pulled it down, looked at it, then handed it back to him.
“Your badge is out of date, Sir Byr.” She said it with a flat tone, but smiled at him. “How can I assist you today sir?”
Byr put a heavy hand around the back of CJ’s neck and pulled him forward. “My associate here needs to see the lapidarist, are they in?”
She stood, opened a small slot in the wall behind her and peeked inside. “Yes sir, though he is currently with someone. He should be able to tell you how long he will be.”
“Thank you,” Byr said. He collected his badge, which CJ saw briefly as a few lines of stamped writing and some signatures, and then pointed CJ toward the member only door.
“Seems like you’re a big deal around here?” CJ said as they walked to the door. “What does this guild do? Is this like an adventurer’s guild or something? Take on missions for the local townsfolk?”
Byr swatted him on the shoulder. “What? No, that sounds stupid. Is that what soldiers do where you’re from, Eastman?”
CJ opened his mouth to complain, then closed it. He would own up to that one. “Okay, so what then?”
Larl chuckled as CJ pushed open the member’s only door. “The Guild of Arms are experts in the attunement of Iron, I believe we mentioned that much. Iron attunes the soul toward strength, durability, stamina, and the Guild uses that to teach people how to be proper fighters.”
The door opened to wooden stairs. As they rose, CJ could hear the sound of men and women grunting, metal clanging. At the top of the stairs was a catwalk that went over a training pit. The ground was soft sand most places, with a few wooden or stone squares. Weapons were in cabinets all along the walls, with wooden weapons hanging off of racks right by the pit. People were paired off in the pit, training against each other. Some were clearly in the middle of exercises from instructors, with multiple people watching one person swing a sword around.
“Oh, so this is a gym,” he said with realization. “These are all over?”
“Of course,” Byr said. “Most places you couldn’t hope to join a mercenary company or get bodyguard work without first getting membership in the Guild of Arms. If you want Iron Attunement, you come to them.”
There were a few offices up there on the catwalk, and Byr took them to the first one. Inside were a couple desks, and a few different machines that CJ didn’t recognize, including something that looked like a table router. There were other tools for measuring, chipping, and scraping. Behind one desk was a woman probably reaching 30, with one full horn on her left and a sanded down horn on her right. The horns rose up from high on her forehead, similar to Alyss’s.
“Oh,” she said when she saw the three men. “If you’re looking for the lapidary, he is busy downstairs, sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Byr said. “I thought you might know how long he was going to be. If not, we can wait for him here.”
She looked between the three of them. “Is he expecting you?”
“Tell him Sir Byr of Akahi wants to know,” Byr said with the kind of smug grin that came from working a job way too long.
She nodded, got up, and headed out of the office.
“So a lapidary does what again?” CJ asked.
“Cut soulstones,” Larl said. “They are also great at helping people attune their soulstones. They are professionals at everything related to refining your soul.”
CJ must have made a face, because Byr pointed to a chair to the side. “Just take a seat. The lapidary can get you attuned if you want, and then you would be on track to be a proper soldier to fight with us.”
He wasn’t sure about much, but he knew he didn’t just want to be some rank and file soldier. If he wanted that, he had plenty of opportunities to join the army back home. He wasn’t a killer, but he understood that wasn’t how soldiers saw themselves.
“Is Iron the only option?” CJ asked.
Larl raised an eyebrow.
“That was a stupid question, wasn’t it?” CJ added.
“Yeah,” Byr said, “kind of.”
Larl raised a hand. “There are an untold number of attunements. Honestly, new ones are still getting discovered even in the modern age. But Iron is one of the ‘four foundations’. A group of attunements that the largest mastery organizations represent.”
“The others being?” CJ asked.
Larl counted them off on his fingers. “Iron, Wards, Burdens, Knowing. The Guild of Arms is the second largest, behind the Trader’s Guild that represents Burdens.”
CJ leaned back. “This is the same burdens that you said mercenaries get?”
Byr looked at Larl with slight annoyance. “Mercenaries can have all sorts of attunements. Burdens is an attunement focused on stamina and dexterity, you’ll find hunters and woodsmen there. When common men become mercenaries, they usually have the attunement of burdens.”
CJ looked at Byr. “What about you, is purity some super secret attunement?”
Byr shook his head no.
“Purity is associated with Iron, but it is a higher tier of attunement,” Larl said. “It takes a lot of work to reach. Similarly, you were helped by Sister Halta, who is Attunement of Mending. She is a tier above my own attunement.”
CJ was starting to understand. He suspected if he opened his field guide, there would be a pyramid of attunements now, or something similar. He didn’t feel like looking now, reading and talking at the same time was liable to give him a headache.
“I think I get it,” CJ said.
Byr sighed, “Doubt it, but it sounds like Syphar is here.”
The door to the office opened, and a clean shaved man with white eyebrows walked in. He was tall, taller than Byr even, with lanky limbs that ended in fingers that never stopped moving.
“Sir Byr!” He said as he came in. “You should have told me you were coming, I would have kept my chair clear for you old man.”
Byr chuckled, then the two of them clasped hands before letting go.
“This is my apprentice, Zava,” Syphar the lapidary said, “the girl has the eye of a god, and I hope one day her hands will match.”
Everyone looked at her, but she shook her head no. “He is just talking.”
“Honestly, never heard him compliment one of his apprentices,” Byr said. “Either he really wants to impress me, or you’re the real deal.”
Syphar laughed a hearty laugh. “What can I do for you today commander?”
Byr looked to CJ. “We met this young man, and he seems to be having issues with his soulstone. I was hoping you could take a look for us, and maybe set him on the proper path.”
The two lapidarists looked at CJ with odd expressions, mouths slightly open and brows furrowed.
“What kind of issues you having?” Syphar asked CJ.
“Uhm,” CJ looked to Byr, “well you see…”
Larl spoke up. “You won’t believe it until you see it for yourself, trust us. If he turns out to be mundane, I’ll eat the nearest tool in your workshop.”
Syphar snorted at that. “Well, I had another appointment coming up, but I owe the commander a favor. So why don’t you go and sit in that chair over there and I’ll take a look.” He pointed to a chair over by the side of a desk. It was padded dark leather, with extra cushion near the head and arms like a dentist’s chair, or a torture device. In CJ’s experience, those were pretty much one and the same.
CJ went and sat down, noticing the large lenses propped up all around the chair. Next to it was a small table that was on wheels, with that router table like device on it. He also noticed there were straps at the arms.
“You ever had your soul checked by a lapidarist, son?” Syphar asked as he made his way over to CJ.
CJ puckered his lips, “I’m going to go with a no on that one.”
Syphar looked to Zava, “Good, then he won’t know what you’re doing wrong. Pop him out so we can take a look.”
Zava looked to Byr, then to CJ, and then swallowed hard. “Yes Master Syphar.”
He stepped aside to let her approach, and started talking to Byr. “If this is an illness, or some kind of impurity, I don’t know if she’ll be able to handle him up here. Usually that is a little obvious though. I’m sure you wouldn’t bring a necromancer into my workshop.”
Byr shook his head, “never. I’d have ashed him the moment I found out.”
Syphar chuckled.
Zava tied his arms down without looking him in the eyes. Then she swiveled several magnifying glasses on rotating arms until they faced him.
“Go ahead and lean back, head in the pads,” She said.
CJ did as she said, keeping his head all the way back.
“This might feel uncomfortable for a moment, and might even burn at first. If it hurts, just scream and I’ll stop.”
“Got it,” CJ said.
Larl laughed, “it won’t be that bad. Trust us.”
“Unless it is,” Syphar said, “in which case, just think about all you did to deserve this.”
Byr and Syphar laughed as Zava grabbed a small wide metallic cylinder from the desk and put it against his chest. It came in two pieces, a seam connected them. She took a deep breath, then rotated one piece. A blueish glow started to rise off of the far end, and then CJ felt a tugging sensation. It was like someone was tugging on a small ball of him, yanking it until it was tight at the end of a string. It was itchy, and was on the edge of hurting. A light illuminated Zava’s face, like a dancing fire.
She brought one of the magnifying glasses closer to her end of the cylinder, and then leaned in. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.
“Okay,” Zava said. “I’ve got to admit, I have no idea what that is.”
“What do you mean?” Syphar asked. He walked up beside his apprentice and looked down at the glow that CJ couldn’t see. “You’ve cracked enough nuts that I can’t think of anything you’d find in there that…”
Syphar stopped talking, and Zava made a gesturing motion with one hand while the other held the cylinder in place. They both just stopped and looked, while a few steps away CJ could see Byr and Larl looking at each other.
“Okay, maybe you have something then.” Syphar said. “Detach that, get it on the table for me.”
Zava looked him in the eyes. “This part might hurt for just a second, don’t worry, it won’t linger.”
He was going to say something, but when he tried to move his hand he remembered that he was strapped down. In that moment between realizing how trapped he was, and recollecting himself so he could talk, Zava twisted the top half of the cylinder she had pressed to his chest. There was a sharp sensation, like a phantom pain for an organ that didn’t exist. CJ let out a yelp.
Zava took the top half of the cylinder, and the bottom half stayed connected to him without any further pressure from her. She tilted the half she had so it was flat, and CJ could spot what they were looking at. The puck she was holding had a glowing blue surface as if illuminated by a blueish flame, and floating just above that was what looked like an uneven charred black rock a little bigger than the last piece of his thumb. Light blue glowing lines ran along the surface of it, and it rotated in place, an inch or two off the surface of the cylinder.
“Is that,” As soon as CJ tried to talk, he realized it was hard to force air out of his lungs, “my soul?”
Zava took the cylinder and the rock, placing it on the desk behind her. A thick blue line of energy tethered the two halves of the cylinder together.
“Something like that,” Syphar said as he pulled a chair up to his desk. He adjusted several magnifying glasses on arms until they were positioned over the rock. Then he adjusted his seat, then adjusted the lenses again.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Larl gave CJ a clearer answer. “Your Soulstone. Produced from the strength of the divine energy within your soul, remember?”
CJ nodded.
“He having memory issues?” Syphar asked without looking at CJ.
Zava stood next to the desk, looking over Syphar’s shoulder.
“Possibly,” Byr said. “We’re still trying to figure out everything wrong with him. It is a daily process.”
Syphar grabbed a tool off his table, it looked like a tiny chisel. He poked at the floating rock, and CJ swore he could feel it. He didn’t know what he was feeling it in, there was no particular muscle. It just felt like the tool was touching something along his body, something vital.
“Now this is different,” Syphar grumbled.
Zava pointed for him, “this part?”
“Yeah, never seen it in that configuration. This coloration here, the length, never.”
“We doing okay?” CJ squeaked out.
Byr walked up to the opposite side of the desk. “Yeah Syphar, something wrong?”
Syphar moved one of the lenses out of his way and looked up to Byr. “No, nothing wrong at all. Just your young friend here has an attunement I’ve never seen or heard of, matched with some facets I’ve never heard of.”
CJ tried to seem more confused than shocked. He looked at Larl, then back to Syphar. “Is that bad?”
While Syphar was talking to Byr, Zava was leaned in close to the stone. She moved her head to find new angles, and even tapped the stone once.
“We should log it,” Zava said. “Someone has to have seen it before, we can send it to Guild headquarters.”
Byr put a hand up to stop them. “We aren’t going to do that.”
The two lapidarists stopped and looked at Byr with twin expressions of confusion.
“What?” Syphar asked.
Sir Byr grabbed a chair for himself and pulled it closer to the desk. He sat down with a long exhale, and then took a moment to settle before speaking. “I’m not going to take a new discovery from you, don’t worry yourself. But I think the details of his attunement need to be kept secret, at least for a few months.”
“For whose safety?” Syphar asked, sitting up straighter.
“The safety of guild members, including me and you,” Byr said. “I’m not sure just yet, but there is the possibility that sending details about him to headquarters will let cruel people know exactly where we were, which will bring them here to investigate.”
Syphar sat back in his chair. “The kind of people who aren’t too nice when they ask questions, I imagine?”
Byr just nodded.
“This facet,” Zava was ignoring their back and forth, her face mere inches from the glowing soulstone, “do you think it has a revealing property?”
Syphar looked back, and then readjusted the lenses in front of him. “No, no. With a configuration like this, that cut, this is some kind of nullification property. It also looks crystalized, so it must be something he knows about.”
They both looked at CJ, who shrugged as best he could.
“Look here,” Syphar said while prodding the stone. “That line here, this face, it…”
He broke off, and then prodded at the stone a little more. “Actually, I think it is a little of both. This kind of cut is a little too advanced for a tier 1 stone. I’m surprised it stuck at all, this looks like it would sit better on a tier 2 stone.”
“Three even,” Zava said.
Syphar motioned toward a notebook, and Zava grabbed it and started taking down notes.
“Okay then,” Syphar said, “we won’t tell anyone about this until we have your say so, Commander.”
Byr’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you, I’ll owe you this time, how about that?”
“First tell me what you want us to do.” Syphar said.
“The boy promised to serve Akahi. He is at least tier 1, can you attune him to Iron?” Byr asked.
Syphar crossed his arms while Zava frantically scribbled notes.
“You want me to take a unique attunement I’ve never seen before, and overwrite it with Iron?” Syphar asked.
Larl chimed in. “He should be able to switch back whenever he wants, right?”
Syphar nodded, “As long as he meets the requirements. Usually hard to dip back under tier 1 requirements.”
“Then what are we afraid of?” Byr asked. “I need him to be useful to me, and I can’t make use of an attunement we know nothing about. Switch him to Iron, and I promise to bring him back here to attune him back to whatever that is when he wants to.”
The old men stared at each other for a moment. The whole time, Zava was taking notes, and occasionally tapping CJ’s soul with a pencil to get it to rotate.
“Deal,” Syphar said. They shook hands, and then Syphar stood up from the desk and walked over to a cabinet in the corner of the room. Inside were more tools, and he grabbed at a few of them. “Take good notes girl, I want to be able to study that thing even after I’m done.”
“Of course, of course,” Zava said.
CJ didn’t want to attune to Iron, but he also didn’t see how he had much choice. He didn’t know what other options he had, and Byr was trying to get something out of him.
“If you have any bonds up, I suggest you drop them for now,” Syphar said.
“Uh, how do I do that?” CJ asked.
Larl crossed his legs with his ankle on his knee, “Think of it like relaxing a muscle. As long as the oath is intact, you could bring the connection back at will.”
CJ relaxed, as much as he could while tied down to a chair. But that didn’t do much. So he used his menu, and brought up his character sheet again.
|CJ Eastman 10% to next Milestone 2 of 10 Milestones
|*ERROR* Attunement Soulstone Tier 1 Human - *ERROR*
|Allegiance: Duchy of Akahi
|
|Strength 7 | Control 5
|Stamina 5 | Resilience 8
|Command A.Avg | Health A.Avg | Mov. Spd Avg
|
|>Facets
|>Artifacts & Relics
|>Bond - 2
His attributes increased since he last checked. He also got another milestone. It made sense, considering he achieved another objective. But he also had bonds now. So he checked it.
|CJ’s Bond 10% Bond Affinity
|3 Unit Bond Healthy
|Members: CJ Eastman, Lady Madaleene, Larl.
|M. Spd Avg
|>Facets
This was what he needed. Focusing on the members of the bond, it gave him a prompt.
*Relinquish Bond?*
No, that wasn’t what he wanted. He just needed to drop it for now.
*Disconnect from Bondmates?*
That was better. He accepted the prompt, and the lines between him and Larl dropped, as did the distant line that went to Mae. The bond was still there, but they weren’t connected at the moment. Hopefully it was just as simple to turn it back on.
“Okay, I’m ready,” CJ said.
Zava was still sketching, but Syphar grabbed the top half of the cylinder and brought it back over to CJ’s body.
“Okay then, hold still.” Syphar connected the two halves, and CJ felt an intense relief as the top was screwed back to the bottom half. Then Syphar sat on a stool next to the strapped down chair, and pulled up his small chisel. “This part is simple, I’ve done a million Iron attunements. You won’t like how it feels, but it won’t hurt, I can promise that. After that I can get you a facet cut in and you will be on your way.”
CJ nodded, “Yeah, sounds good. Feels good that the guy fiddling with my soul is pretty confident.”
Syphar snorted. “Well, I should also ask, you want this facet you have in here? The revealing one? It will stick with you when you change if you want, or I can get rid of it and you’ll have more room for a new facet.”
That was his mysterious eye. While they couldn’t figure out the ability, he knew that for a fact. “Oh I’ll keep that one, thank you.”
“Suit yourself, sit tight and try not to squirm when it feels uncomfortable.”
They were right, it didn’t hurt. It was still the strangest sensation CJ ever felt in his whole life. It was like someone constantly trying to cut him, but never quite hitting his skin. Then they just kept doing it, over and over for over an hour.
Larl and Byr left at one point, and then Byr returned without him. CJ tried to start a conversation, but Syphar suggested he keep quiet to limit the chance of mistakes. When someone had your soul exposed and was modifying it, it seems smart to heed a warning like that.
Syphar stopped at one point, cracked his knuckles, and then got up from the chair.
“I’m going to let my apprentice finish up here. You’re in good hands.”
CJ wanted to complain, but he didn’t know if it was like being halfway through getting a tattoo. Was he screwed if he didn’t like how it was going? He kept quiet and let Zava finish the work. Thankfully, she was more talkative than Syphar. Unfortunately, most of her talking was to herself.
She mumbled, made notes out loud, and cursed whenever she met a difficulty. It made him more nervous than he ever was while the old man was working on him.
Eventually the door to the office opened, and Alyss walked in with a man in a brown uniform behind her.
“Alyss?” CJ gasped out.
“Hold still a little longer,” Zava said.
Byr stood and looked toward the door. “Oh, so he found you then.”
Alyss stepped aside and the man behind her let out a booming laugh while holding a hand out to shake Byr’s hand.
“That he did,” The big man said. He didn’t have horns, and had reddish brown hair with a tanned complexion. He was older than CJ and Alyss, but still much younger than Byr. “I was afraid your group would leave without me getting to see you, old man.”
Byr grinned, and the two of them locked hands in a handshake so rough that CJ’s hand hurt just watching. They squeezed each other’s hands for a solid minute.
“I couldn’t be that lucky. You always find a way to stand in my shadow.” Byr said.
“Hard not to, you’re always falling into everyone.” The man said.
“Tends to happen when I have kids like you running between my ankles.”
“If I’m still a kid to you, that means retirement is calling, grandpa.”
The two of them stopped talking and just squeezed, then they broke into laughter. Byr and the man hugged, while CJ looked on in confusion.
CJ looked to Alyss, hoping to find some explanation for what he just saw. Instead she was watching him with bloodshot eyes of rage. So he looked back to Byr.
“Can you two be huge and loud somewhere else?” Zava asked.
“Sorry, Zava,” the uniformed man said, “we can go.”
She shook her head no. “No, I’m pretty much done. Let me put him back together.”
Byr turned back toward CJ as if he just remembered he was there. “That’s right. Chuck, this is CJ of the Eastmen.”
“No,” CJ said in a hushed voice he could barely push out, “the name is CJ Eastman. It is short for-”
“Oh I’ve heard of you already,” Chuck said. “Your Lady was in the city hall, pleading the case for Akahi. CJ here was mentioned once or twice.”
CJ couldn’t help but be nervous about that. Why would Mae mention him to outsiders? He was explicit that she not use him as some sort of beacon of hope or similar. If he wasn’t that, he was just some random guy that happened to have a glowing eye under his eye patch.
With a snap like air rushing back into a small container, CJ felt the device return his soulstone where it belonged. His chest heaved, and he felt like he could breath properly for the first time in hours. He took in a big breath, and let it out before coughing a few times.
“All done,” Zava said.
“How did it go?” Byr asked Chuck while turning back to him. “Will the King listen to her plea?”
Alyss sucked at her teeth.
Chuck looked down. “Sorry to say, commander, the king decided to take a careful approach to this situation.”
“Careful?” Byr said, taking a step back from Chuck. “We were invaded, soldier. The Princedom trampled over pilgrims, burned the houses. The Duke is likely captured and waiting for his death.”
“Lady Mae said as much,” Chuck said. “But we can’t just take her word for it and start a war. We have to send messengers to Akahi, we need to see what is happening.”
“Barune swore to protect Akahi!” Byr boomed. “Mae is Mandin’s niece. Is this how he treats family?”
Chuck’s playful expression soured in an instant. He put his hand up to silence Byr. “Careful, commander. There is speaking your mind, and there is insulting his majesty in front of one of his sworn protectors.”
Byr swallowed, and CJ was sure the man thought about it for a moment.
Zava released the straps on CJ’s arms and then helped him sit up properly.
“Your messengers might not come back,” Byr said.
Chuck shook his head no. “We’ve already received a missive from Duke Daen. It is dated after the time you left, after the attack.”
Byr froze.
Alyss crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. CJ realized she wasn’t wearing her helmet. Her horns really were actual horns. Her black hair swept around their origin high on her forehead.
“That’s impossible,” Byr said, “what did he say?”
Chuck took a deep breath before answering. “Stay calm, okay?”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he requests the return of his daughter, and if we do not escort her home he would consider it a betrayal of our alliance.”
“Was it faked?” CJ asked.
Byr opened his mouth to speak, then sputtered and looked to CJ, before looking back to Chuck. “What he said, a forgery?”
“That’s why we want to verify it. We told him we would be sending a messenger to visit Akahi. If the dukedom is safe, then Lady Mae can safely return. Wouldn’t you agree?”
The confusion on Byr’s face made CJ worry. If the old man didn’t know what was happening, then CJ had no chance to understand. There was a plot going on, and they were caught in the middle of it without a clue how to work it out. If Akahi really was fine, if there was some miracle that stopped the enemy, then it made sense to return so Mae could be safe. Then again, CJ last saw Akahi on fire and filled with zombies. It seemed unlikely they just bounced back from that after a little clean up and a pep talk.
“Come with me Chuck,” Byr said, “I need to speak with you in private.” The two men walked out of the office.
CJ looked to Zava. “Do I owe you guys anything?”
Zava shook her head. She was back at the desk, looking at the note she took of his soulstone. “Just keep your part of the bargain and consider it even.”
“Cool, cool. So, what exactly did you do?”
Zava looked at him as if he spoke the wrong language. “You keep saying stuff like that. You do know what the Iron Attunement does right?”
Alyss broke in. “He just likes to make people treat him like an idiot, ignore him stone-cutter.”
Zava watched CJ for a minute, then went back to her notes.
CJ gave Alyss a shrug, and then went to leave after Chuck and Byr.
Alyss’s hand grabbed him by the arm before he could walk out. Then she stepped in front of him and closed the office door. “We need to talk.”
He had a feeling something like this was coming. He wasn’t sure what she was mad about, but she was watching him since she came in.
“Okay,” CJ said. “What are we talking about?”
“Lady Mae,” Alyss said. “During that fight, out there in the field, do you think what you did was okay?”
CJ looked back at Zava, and then to Alyss. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear I have no clue what is and isn’t okay. So yeah sure, I thought it was the best plan in the moment.”
Alyss shoved him back, causing him to trip into a chair. “You do not get to bond Lady Mae!”
CJ paused. He thought this was about his plan, or staying behind when he shouldn’t have, or joining the fight when he said he wouldn’t. He didn’t expect to get yelled at for the bond he made to save Alyss’s life.
“What?” CJ said. “Why not?”
“She is a noblewoman, she doesn’t make military bonds. It just isn’t done. Especially not whatever strange bond that was, did you make a raw oath? Are you an idiot?”
“Yes!” CJ shouted. “Again, we’ve been over this. Larl told me it was possible, and it was literally the only thing I could do to save your life.”
“Then let me die next time!” Alyss shouted, her voice going raspy. “You’re going to release her, and then never do anything so foolish again.”
She turned to leave, but CJ scrunched his face up. “No.”
Alyss turned on him. “What?”
“No,” CJ repeated. “For one, I made an alliance to her, not you. I don’t answer to you. On top of that, she chose to make that bond. I didn’t force her, I didn’t even want her to do it. She pretended to be a soldier to do it. So maybe you should take this up with her instead of shoving me around because, and I feel like I’m getting repetitive, I don’t know shit about any of this!”
Alyss stared at him with every muscle in her face squeezed tight. She looked like she wanted to stare his skin away.
CJ stood up, and Alyss had to look up to keep mean mugging him.
She sniffed, and looked away. “If you cared to keep her safe, you would do it.”
“I don’t plan to take her into danger.” CJ said. “I’m just figuring this stuff out. I don’t plan to die, and I’m not taking her anywhere I won’t also be.”
“That’s idiotic,” Alyss said with a shake of her head. “Also, she is tier 0, do you understand? That bond is taking a lot out of her. Until she reaches the first tier, you’re making her run a marathon to keep up with your jog.”
He didn’t even know there was a tier 0. But it was still Mae’s choice, he wasn’t going to force her out. If she wanted to be in a bond, it seemed like she could make that choice since she was in charge. “I get it. Light duty.”
“You…” Alyss went to push him again, then stopped. “Do you understand how long I’ve trained to keep her safe? Most of my life. I can’t help her if you take her into danger, Eastman.”
CJ looked at Alyss, the frustration in her stance, her tightened fists. She was the bodyguard, and now she couldn’t do her job properly. She blamed CJ because no one else would be stupid enough to bring her little princess into a bond. He really did screw up.
He sighed. “Well, you want to join up too?”
Alyss looked up at him with a shocked and embarrassed expression. “What?”
“Okay, is this also some kind of marriage proposal thing? Because you look like I just asked you on a date.”
Alyss shook her head. “A date for what?”
“I guess that didn’t translate well.”
“Snuff it all, I’ll do it.” Alyss said. Then she shoved him again.
CJ was ready this time, and stayed standing. “Do what?”
She held a hand out for him like they were going to do an arm wrestling competition. “I’ll swear your oath. I’ll join your bond. But if I do, it is to protect Lady Mae, understand?”
CJ saw how Alyss fought on the field. She held her own against multiple fighters, lead people in combat. She was impressive all alone, and she wanted to join him.
“Okay, but I have a condition of my own.” CJ said as he held his hand out.
“Name it,” Alyss said.
CJ looked toward the door, and the training pits beyond it. “Before we end up in another battle, train me how to fight.”
She grabbed his hand and gripped it tight. “Deal.”