Rumors on Fenrir spread far and fast… Just about anyone who has been alive long enough on this continent knows that. A certain rumor about a mercenary in Brexon is how I ended up here, in the Valley of Fellit. As a mercenary myself, it was common to hear about the happenings in Brexon. You see, Brexon is primarily a town for mercenaries and the best place to get work… At least that’s how it used to be. Some guy named Burch started snatching up all the important jobs and terrorizing the other mercenaries there.

It comes as no surprise to me that the town itself turned on him. The other mercenaries banded together to stop his reign of terror, but unfortunately for them they fell short. Burch proved to be too much for them to handle and it might be some time before the population in Brexon goes back on the rise. Who knows, maybe this is a good thing for the non-mercs living in Brexon. It could turn into a normal town now.

The state of that town isn’t the point of this story. The point is that I was the lookout in the Valley of Fellit when another group of mercenaries joined forces to wipe out Burch. It seemed like a plan with no holes in it, but we soon learned the plan was riddled with them… Because while we expected to ambush Burch and Burch alone, the rumors being spread failed to mention that Burch wasn’t flying solo anymore.

I remember laying there, as quiet as possible, on a hillside in the Valley. Our group got there fast as the Valley of Fellit wasn’t too far from Brexon and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch Burch unaware. The threat that Burch had on mercenary work across all of Fenrir was enough to make this job worth a lot of money and our group did not want to squander the opportunity to cash in. Our plan was fool proof, honestly, near perfect in every way. The design of the Valley made it the ideal place to subdue Burch.

We had ropes dug into the ground and a spot marked where the ropes could converge and catch Burch just long enough for multiple nets to shoot out and tie him up. We knew of Burch’s stature, so of course some nets weren’t going to hold him down, but we figured with our men holding the ropes and the nets being a distraction we could run in and fill Burch with enough stab wounds that even he wouldn’t survive.

Sure, it wouldn’t be pretty, but it would get the job done… At least it would have. Burch arrived on the scene of our trap, and everything was set in place. He was alone walking through the Valley and mere inches away from the spot we marked on the ground. I readied myself to give the others the signal, but Burch came to a sudden stop. He started to massage his own neck like he was sore, or it was bothering him, then he started stretching his arms. He was preparing for something and that meant bad news for us.

Then I heard a weird “Swoosh!” noise behind me. I gulped as I slowly turned around and standing there was a tall woman with long black hair. She had a dark blue leather outfit that was tight to her skin and a witch’s hat that looked as if it would barely fit on her head, but somehow looked snug. She had her arms folded and was looking past me completely as if I wasn’t standing there. Her eyes were locked on Burch. I would have remembered someone like this in our group for this mission, so she definitely was not one of ours.

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I went to ask her a question, but she spoke before I could.

“Is that him?” she asked. “Is that the Brexon Butcher? He’s a lot smaller than I thought he would be.”

I went to stupidly explain that it was because he was just really far away, but then Burch walked forward and took the bait. I quickly gave the signal, which was simply raising a torch I was holding, and our men pulled the ropes and activated the nets. Burch simply stood there and let everything hit him. I waited for the mercenaries we gave the responsibility of running up and stabbing Burch, I think I stopped breathing in that moment as I waited… But they never came. I looked down at their designated spot and saw a small, hooded figure standing over their bloodied bodies.

The poor mercenaries tasked with holding Burch with the ropes soon realized how awful of an idea this was as they were now tied to the Brexon Butcher himself. They entered into a tug-of-war with the beast of a man, and he pulled them in until they were close enough to grab. I can still hear the sound of their bones breaking.

The hooded person I saw decimate our mercenaries in hiding walked over to Burch as she cleaned her daggers of blood. Burch had a sadistic smile on his face as he joined her. The two looked over in my direction.

“Not the wisest band of mercenaries,” the witch behind me said. I turned to face her. “You’re lucky,” she continued. “Burch has this thing where he wants to leave one person alive, something about it being helpful when building our legend. If most people in Brexon were dead, who do you think was spreading the rumors about where Burch would be next? That was my idea and despite what Burch or Luxie tell you, it was a good one. So, who am I, you ask?”

She playfully moved her right hand and fire danced around it, then made a similar motion with her left hand, but this time lightning crackled around her fingertips.

“Triton born, Askar raised,

Freeze some, leave the rest blazed,

Here one moment, gone the next,

Master of Magic, Queen of the Hex,

Dangerously violent, fashionably dressed,

Zayla, the Witch that Eden blessed.

… Or so that annoying little poet says.” Despite how annoyed she was by the rhyme; she did seem quite into it. “Don’t ever forget who we are and pray you never see us again.” Zayla stepped toward me and with a slight blow on the torch, its flame went out. I closed my eyes thinking she would do something to harm me, but when I opened them, she was gone. I frantically turned around and Burch and Luxie had also vanished, leaving me alone with the corpses in the valley and only this story to share.