My lips twitched up into a relieved smile at the sound of Drayek’s voice. It came from somewhere behind me. I felt Owin’s grip slacken, and I took the opportunity to wriggle out from his arms. I rolled on the ground past Owin, Gregor, and Milar, then leaped to my feet and stood next to Drayek.

Drayek instinctively took a step in front of me, arms folded and serious face almost hidden by the shadows of night.

Dorian and Gregor ceased casting their spells, and all four bullies dropped their arms to their sides and stared at their feet.

“Elder Grim!” With eyes still glued to his feet, Dorian raised his hands in surrender. “It’s an honor to see you, sir. We did not expect–”

“No, you didn’t expect me to check on Rayden, who hadn’t come home, even hours after I expected him to.” Drayek snorted. “Intelligence was never your strong suit, was it, Dorian?”

A flush of red swirled onto Dorian’s cheeks. Embarrassed? Maybe. Angry? Definitely. I didn’t even try to hide the smirk on my face. It was always a pleasure to see Dorian uncomfortable in any way.

But Dorian still nodded at Drayek’s rude remark. “Yes, sir.”

Drayek eyed each of the boys in turn, then growled, “Go home. All of you. Next time, I won’t be so merciful.”

With sharp intakes of breath, the boys offered Drayek hurried bows of their heads, then scurried past us and back toward the city. But Dorian slowed as he drew close to my ear.

“Your bodyguard can’t save you every time, UnMarked,” he hissed.

I set my jaw and shot a hot glare at Dorian, but before Drayek could notice the whispering, Dorian sped his pace and caught up with the other three.

“Let’s get you home, too,” Drayek directed to me after the image of the boys grew distant. “I’m sure we have some things to talk about.”

***

Drayek’s face revealed no emotion as I relayed what happened during my ceremony. He sat back in his cheap wooden chair, shadows flickering over his tight jaw as the fire in our modest fireplace blazed with oranges and yellows.

When we’d gotten home, Drayek had immediately walked the length of the tiny room we treated as our dining area, then had sat in front of a mug of untouched ale. He must have poured it for himself before deciding to retrieve me.

After I told him about my Marking Ceremony, the mug still stood untouched before Drayek on the chipped table, and he rested his chin on his strong hands.

“UnMarked, huh?” he whispered. His volume was so low I had to lean over the table to hear.

“Yes. But I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m not normal.”

Drayek said nothing to that and scratched the stubble on his cheek instead.

“But something… odd happened, Drayek. I…” I trailed off.

I shifted uncomfortably in my wooden seat. The aching from the onslaught of punches and the impact of Dorian’s telekinetic rocks made my thoughts go hazy.

“Your eye isn’t looking too good,” Drayek said.

I brought two fingers to the corner of my eye, where one of Dorian’s rocks had struck. I flinched as the tips of my fingers brushed the area. I could feel the blood around my eye pounding and swelling up the skin along almost the entire left side of my face.

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Drayek pushed his chair away from the table and rose to his feet. He made his way to our shoddily made cupboard, which doubled as a food pantry and medicine cabinet.

“Ideally, we’d take you to a healer, like Korin,” Drayek said as he rummaged through the loaves of bread and strips of dried monster meat. Korin was the healer in his Hunters group.

“But it’s late, and I actually have something that could do just the trick.”

Drayek pulled out a slim green vial with a triumphant grunt. He brought it over to the table and sat back down across from me.

“One of the Tradesman at the Markets yesterday got a significant supply of potions from Apothecary Yarrow. All healing potions, of course.”

Drayek held up the vial in the firelight. The green color looked more emerald up close, and the glass was only the size of half of Drayek’s pinky.

Apothecary Bethilda Yarrow, one of about half a dozen Apothecaries in the city, specialized in healing potions. Her Skills allowed her to easily brew concoctions into which she could place healing properties. Using a potion wasn’t as good as getting healed by a healer firsthand, but it still helped in a pinch.

“I also bought some Rockcrawler venom antidotes and two more of these vials.” Drayek held the potion out to me. “Drink up.”

I drew in my brows. “But those are expensive! I’m just bruised–nothing’s broken. You should save that for your next hunts.”

Drayek shook his head. “Drink it, Rayden. You’ll wake up extremely sore if you don’t.”

Sighing, I plucked the vial from his fingers and uncorked the stopper. I grimaced at the black sludge within the vial’s contents but forced myself to not think too hard about it as I poured the liquid into my mouth. I closed my eyes and tilted my head, pleased by the surprisingly sweet taste as the potion trickled down my throat.

Soon, a tingling started from the top of my head and grew past my neck, shoulders, and arms and then all the way down to my feet. The pain from my scrapes and bruises subsided to a dull ache, and I straightened in my chair with a relieved sigh.

Drayek’s gaze didn’t leave my face as I set the vial down in front of me.

“You said something strange happened.”

“I did?”

“During your Marking Ceremony.”

I swallowed. How could I even begin to tell him what the device had said about my Soul Strength? It was laughable–ridiculous! But this was Drayek. And maybe he’d have some insight into the strange occurrence.

“I was told that my Soul Strength number is too high to compute,” I finally said.

Drayek’s almond-shaped eyes widened larger than I’d ever seen them. His jaw went slack, and he dropped his arms into his lap with a heavy exhale.

“What?” he breathed.

I fumbled for more words. I’d never seen Drayek so shocked or even with so much emotion. Drayek rose from his chair and aggressively planted his hands on the surface of the table. I flinched as his mug of ale threatened to teeter over.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I double-checked and triple-checked. It said, ‘Unable to determine Soul Strength. The number is too high to compute.’”

Drayek fell back into his chair. “That’s so strange. Did you tell the Priests?”

“No. I mean, they know I’m UnMarked, but I wanted to talk to you first before I told anyone else about my Soul Strength.”

“Good, good.” Drayek stroked his chin, eyes darkening in thought. “We should keep it between ourselves.”

I nodded. I wasn’t sure why, but revealing to the rest of the city that not only did I have Soul Strength as an UnMarked, but that I also had an amount so high the ceremony device couldn’t even determine the number seemed like a bad idea.

“Now, get some sleep. Tomorrow morning, we’ll continue with your training.” Drayek stood after his nonchalant declaration and began moving toward his cot in the far right corner of the hovel.

“Training?” I whirled my head around to follow him with my eyes as he walked. “Shouldn’t I start looking for a job as an UnMarked?”

“No.” Drayek threw his large body onto his cot and closed his eyes. “I will keep training you for as long as I live. You can always get stronger and smarter–even without cultivating. Besides,” Drayek sighed happily as he pulled a cover of monster hide over himself, “we need to find out why you even have Soul Strength without a Mark. And if you indeed have Soul Strength, there should be no reason that you can’t advance into the Tiers.”

He was right. Drayek was always right. But I still felt a nervous pain in my gut at the thought of not taking a job sooner rather than later. Marked or UnMarked, you were expected to serve your purpose for the goddess and for Edrona. I could get into trouble. Not sent-to-the-Soul-Ripper-type of trouble, but trouble all the same. I could have my right to attend the Markets to purchase food and trade other goods revoked, or the Priests could make me scrub the temple floors for a month. But the worst could be that the Priests might choose a job for me instead of allowing me a chance to find one myself.

I opened my mouth to convey all of these worrisome possibilities but was stopped by the sound of Drayek’s rumbling snore. I rolled my eyes but took his quickness to fall asleep as my cue to also go to bed.

I waddled over to my cot in the opposite corner of Drayek’s, fatigue beginning to tunnel into my limbs. It had been a long day, and my body was finally realizing it.