Ho looked up at the bandits as they stood blocking the path to the village. He knew the villagers wouldn’t be too far behind, but the bandits could do whatever it was they were doing well before the villagers made it here. He watched in horror as the leader of the bandits smiled.

"That was a pretty little speech boy," the bandit leader stepped down from the crates and took a few steps forward, "but, you see, this crash seems worthless when you look at it from one way. There’s not a single piece of salvage to be worth carrying off. Even the Gemz all exploded. So that makes us being here worthless. That is, except for that pretty little girl you've found there."

Megimi edged behind Gosha until he was between her and the bandits.

"I mean, you do know who she is right?"

Gosha's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to figure it out, he looked over his shoulder at Megimi but nothing came to him. He shook his head at the bandit.

"Then I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun. Not only will she be worth a pretty penny as a ransom, but that gem around her neck looks like it will be worth a pretty penny too. I wonder how much power it has that she carries it around with her?"

The bandit turned to one of his fellows and he hurried forward with a small contraption. He handed it over and the bandit leader took a long look at the dial on its face. He then tapped it a few tips with his index finger.

"Dreygo, it’s not broken is it?"

The one who had brought the item out lowered his eyebrows as he looked at his leader.

"Not at all sir. Was working fine a few minutes ago."

The bandit leader turned around and threw the contraption into the ground at the man’s feet, breaking it.

"Well, that makes the gem useless then! It didn’t even register a single ray on the Reader. Pick it up and go fix it, or the next one we buy is going out of your share," the bandit leader stopped shouting, brushed himself down, and turned back to Gosha and Megimi, "well, so I was wrong. That gem is nothing more than a precious stone and isn’t worth the trouble. She is though. So if you would be so kind as to hand her over before we shoot you, we'll make it as painless as possible."

"WHAT??!!??" Gosha screamed as he heard the terms given to him, "Not much of a choice is it?"

"No, it’s not, you’re right. But it’s the only one you have right now. If you hand her over at least we'll have no chance of hitting her before we shoot you. No loss to us if we kill her though, we'll just be back where we started. The choice you’re making is whether she lives or dies. Simple, no?"

Gosha shook his head to clear his thoughts. The bandits had said he was going to die, one way or another. A choice between saving Megimi or letting her be killed wasn’t much of a choice though. There was a third choice the bandit hadn’t given him. With the way Megimi was burrowing her face into his shoulder he knew that the third option would be the best one to take. Who knew what these bandits would do to her once they got her. They might even be bluffing about not caring if she dies. The way back to the village was a problem though, they were directly in his path. He turned his head left and right to get a quick look around him. There was a small path leading off one way, a deer trail, no more, but just enough for them to get down.

"Don’t even think about it," the bandit leader yelled at Gosha, but he was too late.

Gosha twisted and ran, grabbing Megimi's wrist as he went and dragging her along behind him. The twang of crossbow strings firing sounded as the two of them fled across the clearing, but the bolts missed, striking the soft earth behind them. Soon enough they were into the trees and heading away from the clearing. Running along the deer track though meant Gosha couldn’t figure out where they were and direct himself towards the village. The bushes on either side were getting too thick and he couldn’t do anything to get off the track.

The sounds of pursuit were not too far behind. He hoped they would be slower encumbered by their equipment. The sounds didn’t diminish as they ran though, and with Megimi's injuries she was starting to lag behind slightly.

A snap sounded and the two of them ducked. But there was no thud from a crossbow bolt striking. Megimi gasped and halted in her tracks, causing Gosha to jerk slightly because he was holding her wrist. He turned and looked at her to see the colour completely drain from her face as her free groped at her neck. The necklace was gone. Megimi turned to run back to get it but Gosha held firmly to her hand and pulled her back.

"You can’t go back, they are right behind us."

"I have to. I need that necklace."

The footsteps of the pursuing bandits kept getting closer as they argued in hushed tones.

"What’s so special about this necklace that you would risk your life for it?"

"It is the last thing I have from my grandmother. She handed it to me as she lay dying."

"Too cliché, try again," Gosha was getting frustrated now as the bandits were catching up. He could see the necklace hanging on the end of a branch twenty yards back down the path.

"She told me that it was a ward against the shadow, and that if I were to lose it bad things would start happening."

"They are already happening."

"If you'd gone back to get it for me rather than arguing, you'd have it already!"

"FINE!" Gosha almost growled out. He thrust Megimi in the direction they had been running. "You keep running, I'll go get it for you."

Gosha took off back down the path as Megimi started following it again. As he drew close to the necklace he could see the bandits rounding a corner. Crossbow bolts flashed out at him, but he dodged sideways just in time. He reached his arm out as he moved and grasped onto the blue gem that made up the pendant of the necklace. As his hand closed around it he could hear a slight rushing sound in his ears.

He looked up at where the bandits were reloading their crossbows to take another shot to see that most of them had stopped in their tracks and were looking quizzically at their crossbows. They weren’t being reloaded. The leader had stopped too and was looking around at his men. Gosha was just close enough to hear what was being said, and he stood frozen as he waited on his fate to be decided.

"What do you mean it’s stopped?" The bandit leader snapped back at the men holding their crossbows.

"The Gemz out of power sir. I coulda swore it was full when I put it in earlier."

"You must be daft, how could it have been if your crossbows stopped reloading?"

"I told you Captain, we should have gotten manual loading crossbows. I don’t trust the Gemz one bit."

"I don’t care what you trust..."

A popping sound coming from the back of the pack stopped the leader mid-sentence. More followed in quick succession until eventually the gem in the crossbow of the man arguing with the leader exploded in a puff of glass dust. The Captain's brow furrowed as he looked at the cloud of glass crystals.

"What on Le'Tayah was that? Anyone's Gemz still intact?"

A chorus of No's sounded from the pack of bandits and the captain threw his arms into the air in frustration.

"Fine, fine. Well, we've wasted enough time here now haven’t we?"

Gosha sighed as he thought the bandits had forgotten about him and were about to leave. But the Captain reached down to his waist and drew a long sword from its scabbard. He then turned and pointed the sword directly at Gosha.

"KILL THE BRAT!" he screamed and as one the bandits started running for him.

Gosha turned and fled for the second time this day. But before he had gone a few paces his foot snagged on a root and he fell sprawling onto the hard track. He heard the bandits bear down on him, the Captain laughing.

"He's mine now. Get out of the way."

Gosha turned his head to look up and saw the bandit Captain swinging his sword above his head, preparing to attack him with it. He twisted his body and pulled his arms in front of his face to try and block the sword.

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The rushing sound came again.

As Gosha's arms came around in front of him he saw the gold that made up the necklace he was holding explode and turn into a shower of tiny fragments. Then from his hand started to stretch a blue light, and within this light the crystal started to grow out. It moved fast and started to form something that was looking like a sword. Glowing piece of light played around the blade, giving it an ethereal feel. When the blade had reached its full length the glow suddenly stopped and what appeared to be a wave rushed out from his hand, down the inside of the sword and to the tip.

The bandit Captain's sword struck the katana that Gosha was now holding and he bounced back into the bandits behind him.

Gosha stared in awe and slowly he got to his feet.

The bandits stepped back away from him. The bandit leader grabbed one guy by the front of the shirt and pulled them face to face.

"I thought you said that Gem had no power?"

"Actually, Captain, you said that yourself. I just handed you the Reader."

"But you said it was working fine! I don’t think that’s a Gem with no power. In my books it looks like a Gem Sword."

"I... I..." the man was stuttering with fear, "I don’t think so Captain. I've seen a few, and they don’t usually look like that."

"Maybe they've designed a new one then!" The captain’s words sent spittle into the man’s face as he yelled with rage.

Gosha took a few steps backward, the point of the katana lowering until it touched the ground. It wasn’t because it was heavy, in fact he couldn’t even tell if it had any weight. It was just because he wasn’t used to holding a weapon. The bandit Captain, though, looked like he was very familiar with his weapon as he twirled it around in his hand, stepping closer to Gosha. The Captain gave a worried look at the katana before giving a menacing look at Gosha. Gosha flinched as their eyes locked.

"Not used it, eh boy? I don’t know what it is you have there, but if you don’t know how to use it then it’s not going to do you any good."

Suddenly the bandit rushed him, swinging his sword in arcs. Gosha only barely managed to deflect the swings with the blue crystal katana he had. The bandit’s blade kept getting closer though. Gosha knocked the bandit’s blade aside and made a swipe across his face. The bandit dodged the clumsy swing easily, but Gosha was already hot-footing it away.

The katana was still in Gosha's hand while he was running, but he paid it little thought. He just kept running. It didn’t take him long to catch up to Megimi. That wasn’t because she was slow, or that he was fast. It was because the path came to an abrupt halt at a small clearing. In the centre of which was the tower which had held the Crystal that controlled the Clock Line. Gosha slowed as he entered the clearing and saw Hi sitting on a small boulder beside the tower door.

"What took you so long?" She called to him as he started to make his way over to the tower.

She looked at the sword in his hand when he reached her.

"What’s that? I didn’t know you had a sword! Why didn’t you pull it out earlier and show those bandits a thing or two?" Megimi stood up and moved over to examine the sword as Gosha stood puffing, "Wow, that’s a strange blade. Looks like there’s water inside it. It’s not a usual Gem Sword. Must be worth a fortune."

"You've seen Gem Swords before?"

"Yes, quite a few."

"And you've never seen one like this before?"

"No, never. Most of then a just clear crystal. Usually a Gem is placed inside a hilt and the sword grows out from that. But even the hilt appears to be made from the blue crystal."

"Um," she looked him over with her eyebrows lowered, "you didn’t get my necklace? What took you so long then? Were you having a great chat with the bandits?"

"Of course I..." Gosha trailed off as he noticed Megimi looking over his shoulder. He looked back to see the Bandit Captain come charging out of the trees and straight for him.

Gosha dodged and parried the first few blows, but then nicks and scratches started appearing on his body as the bandit’s blade got closer and closer to a proper cut. Gosha was suddenly forced to his knees. The bandit raised the sword and started a straight thrust at Gosha's heart. His arms felt heavy, and he couldn’t raise the sword in time.

Gosha's vision clouded as liquid darkness seemed to encase his eyes. He heard a chink as the blade going for his heart suddenly ran into trouble.

Gosha's strength came back and he stood. His vision was suddenly clear as whatever it was that had been moving before his face suddenly became still and seemed to snap into place. The bandit’s eyes were opening wide in shock and horror. The other bandits had caught up too, and they stopped at the edge of the clearing.

Gosha looked at himself. He raised his hands to his face and saw that his left hand was covered in some sort of black armour, studded with spikes, while his right arm, still holding the blue crystal sword, was covered in armour of pure silver. He grabbed at his face and found a helmet, one side of which held a giant curving horn, the other a feathered wing. His whole body seemed to be encased in some sort of armour which he had not been wearing before.

The bandits took another look at him and ran away.

When the last of the bandits was out of sight the armour suddenly became like liquid, one side black, the other silver, and seemed to melt away from his front and around to his back. He turned to see where it was going, but there was nothing there.

"Everyone knows magic is outlawed!" he yelled as he turned to face Megimi, but her face was also showing shock and horror.

"I know Gosha," her whole body was trembling, "and if you know, then why did you use it?"

"I don’t have any magic. The Gemteks tested me. It must have been you."

"I have done nothing of the sort. But..." she walked over to him and around to his back, "there’s something weird here."

She lifted her hand and started tracing it along his back. Her hand felt cold on his back. The pattern she traced was unfamiliar to him, but symmetrical. She spoke softly as she moved her fingers.

"There are these strange markings on your back now. Almost like a tattoo, but also similar to a scar. It’s as if it’s part of your body. But I don’t remember seeing it before. I had a good view of your back as we were running, and this definitely wasn’t there. Whatever it is, it seems to be part of you. And it was both beautiful and horrifying at the same time. But that was quiet obvious as one side was beautiful, and the other scary." She walked back around to face him.

"The bandits ran in fear, was it really that scary?"

"They probably ran because they thought you were a mage. But yes, half of it was scary. It was black, and dotted with spikes, and the helmet looked like a face torn with agony and screaming. The other side though was like an angel, silver, with this beautiful white wing coming from the helmet."

Gosha fell to his knees, he eyes filling with tears.

"I'm a monster. I was checked for magic! I can’t have magic! They told me I didn’t have any magic. They even told me I couldn’t be a Gemtek, that I didn’t have a strong enough aura for it. Yet here I am freely using a gem too, with no amplifier attached to it."

"Using a gem too? Oh, the sword?"

He looked her directly in the eyes and slowly the sword vanished back into his hand. He held his closed fist in front of her face.

"You say you've never seen the sword I was holding? Then why were you carrying it around your neck?"

He opened his hand and Megimi gasped as she saw the blue gem that was part of her necklace resting in his palm.