Cassandra woke to the sounds of angry cursing and swearing. She threw off her covers, grabbed her rapier, and ran out into the living room. Looking out the window she saw the peasants gathered around inside one of the pens, inspecting something.

“What’s going on?” Arya asked, stifling a yawn. Cassandra turned around, finding her friend in an oversized hoodie, wearing her gauntlets.

“I’m not sure.” She admitted, “I just woke up.”

Arya grunted and together they exited the small house. The gathered farmers looked at them.

“M’ladies, could you please come take a look at this?” the elderly woman asked. Arya muscled her way through the crowd, took one look at it, and vomited all over the ground. Cassie rushed forwards, the peasants parting without her even saying a word.

“What happ-” She cut off as she looked at the mummified husk of a dead cow. Dehydrated brown and grey skin was pulled taught across brittle-looking bones. All of the meat and innards appeared to be missing. As if sucked out with a massive straw.

“Oh dear.” she said, holding down the bile that built up in her throat, “I believe we are going to require Vivian to take a look at this.”

“Why?” Arya asked, wiping a hand over her lips, “It’s already dead, and Val’s made it pretty clear she isn’t willing to use necromancy. Just throw it in a ditch and cover it up. No point in trying to scavenge any more meat off of it.”

“Come and take a look at this,” she said pointing at its head. Right between the eyes, a glowing symbol bulged with soft, sickly green light.

“Huh, what’s that?” Arya asked, raising a hand to touch it. Cassandra batted it away.

“Don’t touch it you dunce!” she hissed, “it could be a trap.”

“What, you think it’s magic?”

“I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s not a good idea to touch it.”

“Hey guys, what’s going on?” a groggy Val called from the house.

“Something killed one of the cows last night,” Cassandra responds, pointing at the mummy.

“Yeah, Cassie thinks it was killed with magic.” Arya added, “she wants you to come take a look at it.”

“Fine, whatever.” A flash of light emanated from the house and Val walked over, staff in hand. An annoyed expression on her face. She knelt in front of the beast and placed a hand over the symbol. Taking a deep breath she began to chant under her breath. The ill green light began to flow out of the symbol and form a ball in front of Val, casting her face in a harsh shadow. The farmers gave each other nervous looks and whispers of “witch” and “sorcerer” went around.

Then with a flash, the ball of green magic disappeared and she stood quickly. The others looked at her with expectation.

“Well?” Arya asked impatiently.

“Well.” Val responded, glaring at the villagers, “One, I am a witch and if you have a problem with that, I’ll turn you into a goat. And two, something killed the cow with magic.”

“Yeah, we kind of figured that was the case.” Arya said, not looking impressed in the slightest, “what else?”

She shrugged, “there’s not much else to say. Something last night sucked the life force out of the cow. All the nutrients and potential energy from the fat, muscle, blood, marrow, hell even the organs were sucked dry.” she kicked the carcass, “this thing couldn’t be any more dead.”

“Do you know who might have done it?” Cassie asked.

“Anyone or anything that can use magic to any level of proficiency. Life Leech is not a very complicated spell. But with how thoroughly drained this beast is, I’m leaning on the bigger, meaner side.”

“Ahoah!” Patch boomed, causing the girls to jump, “what is the meaning of this? Are my girls conspiring with the locals to overthrow the county lord?”

“What? No, why would we ever do that?” Arya asked. She looked around at the farmers for help but none met her gaze.

“Why, on my first mission we were sent to the northern fief of Macindaw. There were reports of beastmen in the forest you see.” The girls sighed as Patch went off on another long exaggerated story about how he had foiled an evil wizard’s plan to cut off all the toes of the Highlord's family.

“Mr. Brown, were the other cattle found in similar condition?” Cassandra asked, ignoring the old man.

Jim nodded emphatically, “Yes m’lady, Wes finds cows like this often. Like tha bottom of a nutsack on hot summa’ day they is.

Arya blinked, “wow that was a mental image I did not need.”

“How often does this happen?” Val asked, shoving aside the thought.

This time one of the farmhands spoke, “‘bout once every Heaven cycle, m’lady. Us tried to post guards but wes never see nothing.”

“Aye, it be quick like greased lightning.” another agreed.

“So around once every two weeks. Meaning that whatever it is, it’s hunting for sustenance, not pleasure.”

“We should go to Lord Winchester about this,” Cassandra said, but Val shook her head.

“No, a couple of guards won’t be able to stop whatever caused this. I’d bet you the man Winchester sent; if he sent any, is already dead. It’d be better if we stayed here ourselves and dealt with this alone.”

“We could still send someone to get the lord,” Arya said.

“Who?” Cassandra scoffed, “Do you seriously think that these villagers have a chance at making it to the castle?”

“One of us could.” Val offered.

The other two girls shook their heads. “No way, that’s how people die in horror stories.”

“And it will leave us shorthanded for at least a day or two depending on how far away this castle is.”

“Unless you use magic and teleport to the lord’s castle. That way, you won’t be gone for very long.” Arya said.

Then it was Val’s turn to shake her head, “I’ve told you already, it’s not teleporting and I can’t do it to places I’ve never been to.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“That’s just how it works, it’s magic, not science,” Val answered.

Arya gave up, “Fine, then I guess we all stay.”

“But what about the mission?”

“We can complete the mission when we’re done here.” Cassandra said, “think of this as a little bit of extra credit we can rub in the boys’ faces’ later.”

The other two girls smiled at the thought and they turned to the waiting farmers.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“We shall stay another night at your village and see what we can do. Vivian is one of the premier magicians in the empire. With her on guard, you should have nothing to fear.” Val gave her an alarmed glance that she ignored, “In the meantime, you may return to work. Rest assured that we will stop at nothing to defeat this beast.”

Several hours later, Illia emerged from their sleeping quarters. Her hair was a puffed-up mess, eyes still hazy.

“The sleeping beauty rises!” Cassandra said with mock cheer, “why, what a wonderful day! Did you sleep well?”

She gave her a bleary-eyed glare, “no.”

“How? You’ve been in there for more than fourteen hours.” Arya asked, a hint of awe in her voice.

“Nope.” Val said, eyeing the elf, “she was somewhere else last night.”

“Really now? Do you care to share with the rest of us?” Cassandra asked

“Not really.” she said, giving Val a distinctly hostile look, “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”

“I think that we should be the judge of that, don’t you?” Arya said.

“Nope.” Illia replied happily, “all you need to know is that Winchester’ll be coming tomorrow morning.”

Cassandra, Val, and Arya stared at her.

“You’re welcome.”

/-/

I slammed a brilliantly blood-red sword back into its sheath and walked out of the alleyway. A few passerbys gave me strange looks before continuing on their way. Most likely assuming that I had just gotten in a brawl. Whistling a tune, I stopped at the front of the Guildhouse and sat on one of the benches.

“Ryze?” Natalia called almost an hour later. I waved a hand and she made her way towards me, “My goodness, what happened?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking down.

She gestured at my face, “your face, it’s covered in blood.”

I put a hand on my face and it came back wet, laughing I waved her off, “Nah, don’t worry about it. It’s just strawberry jam.”

“Ryze, it’s all everywhere. It’s like you wrestled with a stuck pig.”

“Well you see, I really like strawberry jam.” I said, “and I got a little excited when I saw the baker pulling them out of the oven...”

“So you killed him!” Natalia gasped in horror.

“What no!”

“Then why is there so much blood on your face!” she roared. The people around us stopped dead in their tracks and turned to watch us.

“Ok, first of all.” I said nervously, “lower your damn voice, and second, why does it matter?”

She grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and pulled me along, back to her estate. “It matters because I can not be harboring a murderer. You stupid, stupid boy! Just like your uncle you are.”

I stared at her and she glared into my eyes. We stayed like that for several moments before I shrugged, “fine maybe I did, but it wasn’t my fault.”

“Good lord.” she groaned, “what happened?”

I told her the story on the way back. She shook her head and berated me all the while. By the time we got back, I was wincing at every word that came out of her mouth. It was like she was giving me verbal lashing, but each word actually caused real physical pain.

“-you half-witted, dullard of a child!” She finished, her chest heaving, face red, and eyes almost glinting in the sunlight.

“I-I’m sorry,” I said meekly, hoping to calm her down even the slightest amount.

“You should be sorry!” she roared, starting on another tirade. The guards let us in with stifled smirks that burst into outright laughter once they thought we were out of earshot.

“I let you into my house! Let you eat with my family! Introduce you to my daughter! And this is how you repay me?”

“Natalia, what is going on?” a voice asked and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was Lord Hightower. The man stood with arms crossed, watching his son spar with his tutor. Kevin swung his sword in massive overhead swings that battered the older man to his knees. Then with a triumphant cry, he kicked him over and knocked the sword out of his hands.

“Yes!” he shouted, “I finally did it!”

“More like he let you win,” I muttered under my breath, shaking my head. Hightower heard me and gave me a polite smile.

“Perhaps you would like to have a go at him?”

I shook my head, “Nah not in the mood.”

“What, you scared?” Kevin taunted.

“After last night?” I smirked, “not at all. But maybe it would do us all some good if someone put you in your place.” I nodded to the swordmaster and he tossed me his dulled steel sword.

I caught it with a practiced hand, feeling it's lightweight and relatively poor balance. Grimacing, I gave it some experimental swings before nodding to Kevin.

“First to three hits?” I asked, he shrugged.

“Whatever suits you,” he said with confidence.

“Would you like a shield? It is an advantage that you will need.” I said. He thought about it for several seconds before glancing at his father.

“No,” he said, “enough talk.”

“Sure, I’m ready when you are,” I said and leaned on the sword.

Without a second to spare, Kevin lunged forwards sword grasped in both hands, hoping to catch me off guard. As he neared, I batted his sword to one side with almost contemplates ease. Eyes widening he stamped his feet into the ground, attempting to slow down.

I took a step forwards and threw a left hook that sent him straight to the ground. He hit with an explosive whoof, To his credit, he was still holding onto his weapon. I gave him two light taps on either side of his neck in rapid succession before tossing the sword back to the swordmaster.

“He needs to work on patience.” I said and bowed to the lord, “now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a team that I need to talk to and a feast to attend.”

“He lives!” Alex shouted, hands in the air as I entered the courtyard. The guards along the walls glared at me and matrons held their children closer. I grinned at him and looked around. Sam and Silver sparred in the sandpit in the center of the courtyard as dozens of off-duty guards and bored nobles watched. “So how was it?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He winked at me, “you know.”

I had a suspicion but didn’t want to voice it, “no I don’t.”

“Did you do the deed?” he asked.

“What? No!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, Noah’s not going to like that.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Whatever,” I waved him off, “why would you ask that?”

“Oh c’mon, didn’t you see the way she looked at you?”

“Like she wanted to pull my appendix out with a shoehorn?”

Alex shook his head in disappointment when Sam hit the ground with a thump and the audience began cheering. We pushed our way to the front, watching him get pummeled by the professional Guardian.

Silver slammed one fist after another on Sam’s face, each blow so hard that the ground shook with the impact. Noah noticed me and leaned over, “did you do it?”

“You too?” I sighed.

“C’mon, please say yes,” he said, almost begging me.

“Why do you care so much?”

“Answer the question.”

“No.”

He paused, “no like you didn’t or no like you’re not telling me.”

“Yes.”

“Hey, Ryze.”

“Yeah?”

“Fuck you.” He glared at me for a moment before we both started laughing. He patted me on the shoulder, “it’s good to see you’re still in one piece.”

“I’ve been gone for literally a day,” I said,

“Yeah, but it’s who you spent that day with,” he said, “and what you did with them,” he added no so subtly.

“I didn’t do anything with her.” I sighed, “don’t know why you care so much though.

Noah’s smile fell and he buried his face in his hands, “welp. Looks like I’m getting rejected.”

“Huh?” I blinked in confusion.

“Noah made a bet with Sam, whoever lost the bet would have to ask a girl out to the mid-term dance.”

“Why?” I asked, more than a little confused. Personally, that just sounded like an easy way to get embarrassed.

“They were drunk and bored,” he said as if it explained everything. Which it kind of did.

“So who’s he asking?” I asked, expecting to hear the name of some troll.

“Val.” he said, then seeing my confused expression he shrugged, “yeah I know right.”

“But wasn’t he going to ask her out in the first place? Where is the logic in that?”

“Like I said, drunk as shit.”

The entire time we’d been talking, Silver and Sam had rolled around on the ground, pummeling each other like there was no tomorrow. Finally, Silver managed to pull a knife out of his boot and placed its razor-sharp edge right next to the prince’s crown jewels.

Sam stilled instantly and Silver waggled his eyes, “that took the fight right out of you. You know we’ve got healers on hand right?”

“Sure, but I’d rather not get my nuts lopped off.” he said, “now if you’d let go of me and let me stand, I’ve got some rather pressing questions to ask my team leader.”