[https://i.imgur.com/VGCFMQy.png]

Refenial and Nia walked through the town keeping close to one another as they did. Snowfall was quickly turning into a blizzard that caused both to shiver as the icy wind cut through them. They saw people entering houses and inns, taking shelter from the cold of the storm and leaving the streets rapidly emptying.

Nia put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't look around. We're being followed."

Instinctively Refenial tried to look, but Nia's hand forcefully stopped him. "I knew you'd do that." She chuckled before looking serious again.

"Who are they?" Refenial asked, his mind racing, wondering if it was going to be another monster like the wolf.

"I don't know, but you did get a lot of money out around the people down at the docks."

Refenial inwardly cursed, realizing she was right. He looked around the streets for possible help, but they were deserted. The pair were on their own.

"You know this place better than me. What do we do?" Nia whispered urgently.

"This is my first day in town. I haven't even found out what it's called yet."

"How do you go to a town without even finding out what it's called?" She asked, a condescending tone in her voice.

"Do you know the name?" He snapped back.

"We need to focus." She said after a brief pause.

Refenial could see a narrow alleyway up ahead, thin enough that two people would struggle to walk side by side. It wound around the corner and between two large buildings, one of wood, the other of stone. "Let's go down the alley there. Try to lose them." Refenial suggested.

Nia nodded.

"Now!" Refenial said as they bolted forwards for the alley.

Behind them, they heard shouts as people began to give chase.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

Refenial realized their mistake as soon as they rounded the corner. The alley was a dead end blocked off by the wall of a third building. He still ran forward, dragging a hesitating nia behind him. They stopped near the end of the narrow passage and turned.

Refenial had to crane his neck to see around Nia. Three rough-looking men were standing there, each armed with a wooden cudgel. He recognized one of them from among the crowd of dockhands he'd seen earlier. He didn't recognize the other two.

The dock hand grinned and glanced towards the man to his left, a lanky man with dirty blonde short hair and a thick moustache.

"I swear, every year, kids get dumber." he quipped with the lanky man.

"What did he say?" Nia asked

"He's gloating."

The man to the right of the dockhand, a stocky man with dark greasy hair and a large burn scar on his face, spoke next, "He's still with that darkling. She's pretty for one of 'em."

The lanky man laughed and nodded.

"Just hand over the money, lad, and we can all go our separate ways, nice and simple." The dockhand said to Refenial.

"You ever had a bit of the ol' rumpy pumpy with a darkling before?" the lanky man asked the dockhand.

"Nope, don't plan to either. It's colder than a witch's tit out here."

The stocky man had a considering look. "I'd give it a go. We're near mine. Once we've got the money, we can take her back and give her a true Frullian welcome."

"Can you take them out with your stick?" Refenial said quietly to Nia while the men talked.

"Don't call it a 'stick' and no. I can hit one of them if they all rush down here, and it might kill them, but there's still two more."

Refenial's mind raced as he thought over every resource at his disposal, his status, his whistle, the bell, Nia, her knife, and her weapon. There were too many unknowns, he had options, sure, but all of them were untested.

"Come here and hand over the money, and you can go. I think the lads, uh, want a word with the girl before she goes." The dockhand said. The lanky man made an exaggerated kissing face towards Nia as the dockhand spoke.

"Is he saying what I think he's saying?" Nia asked in a mix of disgust and fear.

He was out of certainties and out of time. It was time to gamble on the unknown. "Nia, give me your dagger, get behind me and get ready to shoot them," Refenial commanded.

"That's sweet, but I'm not hiding behind a little boy," she replied as she redied her stick to defend them both.

"There's no time, trust me," Refenial said, though she seemed to ignore his request. His mind filled with the blood he'd seen, the death of Maxit, the last stand of the village. If he didn't act, if he didn't stop these men, then it would be his fault.

He thought about Obit being taken away by Griselda. He thought about Old Mother Hecate, the image of her as she murdered Maxit. He thought about his decision that he needed power.

The thing in his soul stirred, then went silent. He wasn't in turmoil, not yet, maybe when the deed was done, but not yet.

No, what he felt was fury and pain, condensed by desperation and determination down into something methodical and colder than the snowstorm around them.

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He heard the dockhand say something, and the pair of cretins with him laugh, but he paid it no heed.

Refenial opened his status and put his first point into agility. He put The second point he had earned just an hour ago into power.

He shot past Nia, who hadn't expected him to move, grabbing the maybe dagger from her waist suddenly. At that moment, nothing mattered, life, death, pain, joy. There was only one goal in his mind, and damn anything that might come from it.

He walked forwards slowly, staring hatefully at the three men.

The dockhand spoke again. This time there was no laughter.

Refenial leapt forwards at the men, nearly losing balance as he misjudged the speed and power of his movements. He wasn't superhuman with a point in each stat, but his abilities were far beyond what an adult would reasonably expect from a ten-year-old child.

He wasn't the only one thrown off guard. The dockhand moved to defend himself a second too late as Refenial lunged with the dagger.

Some small part of him had expected that he would pause, falter and fail to harm another person with deadly intent, but any hesitation was irrelevant compared to the momentum of responsibilities and memories that pushed Refenial forwards. The knife slammed home into the dockhand's groin, stopping only when it met bone.There was noise and chaos around him, but it all felt distant, like a dream.

He pulled the knife free, stabbing the dockhand twice more, once in the groin and once in the stomach, as the man began to tumble backwards.

He sensed movement to his side as he lashed out with his weapon slashing at the leg of the lanky man, though this only sliced lightly into the man's thigh.

The stout man swung down towards Refenial's head with his cudgel. Refenial raised his left arm in time to block, but the cudgel hit with bone-breaking force and sent him tumbling prone back across the snow.

Refenial looked up in time to see the lanky man's wooden clog incoming as the man aimed a wild kick towards his head. He struggled to stand and dodge simultaneously and managed to be hit in his ribs instead of his face.

The force of the blow sent him rolling once more.

He looked up and saw the scene in front of him. The dockhand was kneeling. His hands clasped to his stomach and groin in a futile attempt to slow the blood that had drenched the snow around him red.

Nia stood defiantly, weapon raised to her shoulder as she pointed it at the men, a cruel snarl on her face.

The stout man spun on the spot as a projectile from Nia's weapon collided with his shoulder, sending him careening to the ground.

The lanky man ran towards her, arms outstretched to grab her.

It was time for his trump card. He dropped the knife as he pulled his whistle from his pouch. He closed his eyes and opened his soul eyes, an action that Hecate had made him practice again and again until it became a near-instantaneous second nature.

He'd avoided using the whistle, afraid it would also affect Nia, but he saw no other choice.

He grabbed the mana motes floating in the air, ramming them with graceless haste into the whistle as he blew a harsh high-pitch note.

The sound exploded out. The spell form was clearly designed to protect the user, so Refenial was protected against the damage it dealt. The snow in the air shimmered as the sound raced forwards. The men and Nia clutched at their ears in stunned pain as the wave of sound moved outwards.

Nia and the two men who'd been standing fell to the ground, and Refenial could hear the tinkle of shattering glass in the distance.

He used the moment to drop the whistle and grab the knife. He launched himself off the floor with every ounce of strength his battered body still possessed and charged.

He collided with the lanky man who'd just started to stand. The man stumbled as Refenial met with him, blade first. The weapon sunk deep as he pulled it out and stabbed once more. Blood spilt onto his hands.

The lanky man fell forwards, no longer able to stand.

Refenial had lost track of the stout man, suddenly realizing he was next to Refenial, cudgel raised and ready to strike.

Refenial moved but too slowly. As the cudgel came down, Nia fired a shot from her staff into the man's body, sending him splayed across the snow.

Refenial looked down at the three dying men and collapsed to the ground as he realized how pained and oxygen-starved his body felt.

Nia approached each man one by one, firing a shot into their head, ending them mercilessly. Though Refenial noticed the shake of her hands as she did so.

Refenial felt the painful cold of the snow beneath him as the wind howled between the buildings.

"Refenial?" He heard Nia nervously ask.

He turned his head suddenly, and Nia jumped back.

"What are you? You were able to fight three men, and that noise was magic like I use."

"It's complicated," he said in a dead voice as he saw the three corpses laid out in the street.

Slowly as his breath returned and the snow ate away at the warmth of his body, he reached the point where he decided to stand. As he moved, it was painful, his left arm looked bruised, but it was hard to move his fingers, and he suspected it was broken. Two of his ribs screamed in pain every time he breathed.

He tried to play it off, not wanting to worry Nia and knowing with the system, the wounds would heal quickly. He carefully wiped Nia's dagger-sword in the snow to remove the blood before returning it to her hilt first. He then took his whistle and packed it away.

Nia said nothing as he moved.

"I think we should leave quickly." He said, looking at the bodies.

She nodded but didn't say anything.

[https://i.imgur.com/oMrGBK6.png]

They soon reached the white rose gardens, where he'd been staying. Refenial was relieved to see the foyer empty. As much as he found the man who ran the place friendly, he didn't want to explain his blood-soaked clothes.

Once he got into his bedroom, he sat cautiously on the floor. Nia came over and knelt in front of him. "You're hurt. We need to get you to a healer."

Refenial waved her back with his good arm and held up his pale three fingers.

"I'll be fine. I lost these three to a-." The words stuck in his throat. He realized he didn't want to talk about how he'd lost them.

"I lost them, and they grew back." He corrected himself.

Nia looked at him suspiciously for a moment.

"bullshit." She said uncertainly.

"I'm titled." he sighed, feeling exhausted. "Any wound that doesn't outright kill me will eventually heal."

"I know what titled means. I've met some before. Did your family make a deal with an immortal?"

Refenial leaned his head back against the wall, his eyes stinging with exhaustion. "no, I've never met an immortal. Honestly, other than hearing people mention them from time to time, I'm not even sure what immortals are like."

"So you got your title from an artefact, then?"

Refenial gave an exhausted shake of his head.

"You got titled, and it wasn't from an immortal or an artefact."

"Yes, I take it that isn't normal?"

She shrugged. "Not that I know of. Perhaps that is how things are done here. How did you get your title?"

Refenial stared vacantly at the opposite wall as he considered how to answer that question. After several moments of silence, Nia seemed to decide he wouldn't answer and moved the conversation on. "The horrible noise you made, it felt like my head was going to explode. Was that something from your title?"

Refenial shook his head. "No, that's the whistle. It has a spell form carved into it."

He looked at her consideringly for a few moments. "What about your sti-, er, I mean weapon?"

"Oh, that. My people have a type of magic. It allows us to make magical items. I've heard of artefacts with spell forms carved into them. This is different. It's easier to make them, so mortals can do it."

"So you can open your soul's eyes?"

"Yes, as far as I know, all magic except systemic magic requires being able to open the eyes."

Refenial took out his whistle and looked at it thoughtfully, turning it over in his hand.

"Your family must be fabulously wealthy to give such a rare artefact to a child."

Refenial shrugged, feeling like Nia was trying to bait him into explaining more.

He failed to fight off a yawn.

Nia stood up, "You're tired. Sleep so you can heal."

"You can have the bed. Give me some blankets, and I'll sleep here." He said, leaning his head to the side in demonstration.

"Again, that is sweet, but I'm not going to steal the bed of an injured child. You are injured, this is your room, and I already owe you enough. I will take the blankets and sleep on the floor." Nia said, already carrying through on the plan as she said it.

With great effort, Refenial stood before flopping down onto the bed, gently kicking off his clogs as he lay there too tired to get into bed properly.

Sleep quickly found him, and in his dreams, he was, as always, back at the ruins on the stone altar.

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