After hearing Maelwys tell my wife—wives, beloved, I really didn ’t know—about my past, a secret I had been doing my best to hide and ignore, I must have drifted back off to sleep because I was now alone. After waiting for a moment to see if anyone was coming, only for no one to come, I relaxed. Not a small amount of tension within my body disappeared. There had been too many people around me for too long, right when I needed the space and quiet to just be.

I explored the darkened room without leaving the uncomfortably small and narrow cot I was laying in. My body overhung the sides and end of the cot. As I shifted, I heard the wood frame creak. The strange contradiction in the room between frugality and richness held my attention.

Even I, who slept in a semi-abandoned and overlooked dorm, had a better bed than the cramped and cheap cot I was currently laying in. Other than this cheap cot, the only other furniture was a simple iron-bound chest pushed to the side of the room and a simple old and battered wooden pedestal which held some fragrant herbs growing in a repurposed iron cooking pot.

Those herbs gave this entire room a calming fragrance.

On two walls, there were ornate and thick tapestries, deep and rich in their colour, each needlework stitch enhancing the artistry of the whole. They which were of a far better quality than that which I had seen Gomes buy for his room after moaning about the cold winter nights. The two of them softened the stark room, radiating a softness beyond the most gentle of flowers.

Covering me, the blankets were soft, and the furs thick, rich, and luxurious.

And of course, having dual-brightness light globes, which I guessed he must have because of the dull light shining from them, spoke of money as few could afford anything as pricey as them. Gomes could, mainly because he made them himself and paid the tariff to the Watchers for their use.

The door opened, and a shaft of bright light shone through it.

‘My apologies for sharing your identity with your companions.’ A deep, rich, melodic voice spoke.

I doubted he was really sorry about sharing one of the major secrets which I kept hidden, wanting to be just a simple student at M ægen Scōl. But he openly and unapologetically told the ones whom I wanted to hear my secrets the least.

So I just lay there quietly observing Maelwys ’ slightly slender distinguished figure as he stood regally in the door. Unusually for him, he was wearing a simple and cheap cloth satchel. He was clutching onto it tightly. Seeing him stand like that, even with him clutching the satchel, I could tell he was one of the druids.

‘You have been keeping many secrets, Berwyn. Too many for relationships to thrive. Yet despite your lack of awareness and your reluctance to tell truths about yourself, those two young women love you from the depths of their hearts.’

I let my head collapse back onto the cot; the cot creaking in sympathy with me. The narrow frame digging into my sides, shoulder, and hips was far preferable to having another lecture.

‘Gannis will tell you more, but he came across the remains of a woman. In the process of burying her, he discovered the stones. He took them to remind him of the devastation on his final trip to the isle.

‘As a warning: Tan-bei’s friend, An-chau, is livid. She thought you were going to kill him. I saw you back then in action as Broken Branch, and I willingly helped spread your legend. From what I have seen in watching you spar against Osbert and Demetrios is that you are far more deadly now than on the isle. Back then, you were merely an unstoppable force of nature. Now, you are an unstoppable force of nature, strengthened by knowing how to fight.’

He laughed slightly. I didn ’t know why he laughed. There didn’t seem to be anything to laugh about. Not saying anything, I just pulled a slightly excessive, quizzical look on my face.

‘Demetrios sees you as a rival to defeat on his way to greatness. The problem is, he has never seen you truly fight. He thinks you are just a lucky upstart barbarian who weaseled their way into the hallowed halls of Mægen Scōl. Maybe that is true, to some extent. But I saw you fight without restraint in your final months on the isle. I doubt you remember much from back then. You saved not only my life, you saved the lives of your fellow folk.

‘In one of the final successful raids, a group of guardians saved a batch of slaves and children. The group of protectors who had freed them took them from their slave shanty town and headed towards one of the druid’s ships almost half the isle away hidden in a small and isolated bay. The protectors led them over the hills and through the valleys. Doing their best to avoid the patrols. For almost two weeks they were successful.

‘Then on the final day, with only a few miles between them and safety, they were discovered. Two guardians led the disparate and weary group of malnourished and overworked slaves, having to work harder because they were carrying and leading the children.

‘Ten guardians stayed behind to buy time for them to reach the isolated bay our ship was hiding in. Though they did their best, the ten exhausted and hungry guardians were unequal to the task of holding off a dozen well rested, well fed, and mounted mercenaries.

‘When I first saw the slaves running over the ridge of the hill, like panicked beasts fleeing from wolves, I knew there was trouble. Knowing it might be my last duty as a druid, I took up my sword and rushed past the panicking slaves. The children were screaming. Women and men sobbing alike. They stumbled on past me, ignoring me, fleeing in terror. Unseeing of their world.

‘The two guardians, weapons heavy in their hands, shoulders slumped, stood on top of the rise. They saw their death. They knew it was coming. I stood alongside them, doing my best to steady my trembling hand.

‘The dozen mounted men slowly trotted their horses up the hill, rightly confident in their superiority. Wicked smiles on their faces, their weapons dripping with the blood of those who had stayed behind to hold them off. They knew they had all the time in the world. One even started playing with a marble of fire, threading it between their fingers.

‘Then a beast in the skin of a human appeared in the midst of them. Until then, their attention had been on us. Then the slaughter— No.’ Maelwys shook his head, then looked up at the celling. ’Though I saw it, I swore to myself I would never speak of the horror of what I saw that day. Even if that horror saved my life.

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‘After tearing through the dozen mounted mercenaries, as if they simple grass sparing targets, that human beast stalked away. He was bleeding from countless wounds, leaving the guardians and myself behind. The three of us, leaning heavily on each other, made our way to the boat. Not one of us, even in our deepest cups, ever said what we saw back then.’

With even steady footsteps, he walked over to me, then crouched down.

He put one of his hands on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. ‘Once in my travels through the Bernician Isles and beyond, I saw a boy named Berwyn. He was the son of the Chief, Urien, and my sister, the shaman-druidess Fedelm. My nephew was so full of life and lived with joyous abundance. Once he swore he would come to visit my home in the islands far to the north.

‘I never saw that boy who was full of life and joy again. But I saw a Berwyn, one weighed down by grief and rage. He no longer recognised me, even though he looked at me with wild eyes. The only one he seemed to recognise was a disgraced noble who was more interested in learning about the native inhabitants of the lands they controlled than in finding ways to exploit them. She went as far as to wear their clothing and follow their religion.

‘Standing on that ridge, watching that beast in a man’s skin. This time with eyes as dead as his victims who lie around him, I knew it was time for Broken Branch to fade into the mist. It hurt seeing my nephew, the last of my blood, wounded like that.

‘I searched all over for her, then begged her to save you. And save you she did, before she sending you here. As she spent her time in saving you, the spirits led me to the isle,‘ he tapped his satchel, ‘and eventually led me here. It took much persuasion for Doctor Lee to accept me as a tutor here, and a visit from Orla too—’

I reached up and grabbed his shoulders hard, toppling the cheap, narrow and cramped cot. ‘Is she here? Is she well? Does she hate me?’

A flash of pain flashed over his warm white face. ‘She was, but departed, preaching the word of Broken Branch to all who would listen. She is well and happy. And I know for sure that she neither hates you, nor blames you for what you turned into, but—’

For a moment, I expected him to say something else, but he held his tounge telling no more tales.

‘So you have a heart. And you didn’t mean to kill him.’ An-chau said. She was clutching the doorway. The bright eyes and smile she normally had were nowhere to be seen on her beige face. ‘Those stones Gannis was using, they were hers?’

I nodded.

‘He mentioned about your child, is that right?’

‘She told me the day before.’

‘Could you have killed him with a single blow?’

All too easily, I had done so earlier this morning. If it was the same day, so I nodded again.

‘You’re a monster.’ She said.

I had to agree with her. I nodded.

An-chau started to speak, but Maelwys cut her off. ‘You heard what I was telling young Berwyn here, about that trip to the isle? ’

‘Yes.’

‘He was a true monster, then. Now, he’s merely human.’

‘But one who is unrepentant in killing, vicious—’

‘Look at those so-called heroes,’ Maelwys stood up, shouting, and gesturing wildly with his arms. ‘They claim they are heroes, looking after those who cannot help themselves against threats too big for them. But they hide within the walls and only step out when they go hunting. They bully those who are much weaker than them.

‘You ever see those heroes parade around Three Bridge looking for people to save? They only parade around when looking to right wrongs for what happened within the walls. Do they ever right wrongs, like what happened to Sara when that gang tried to steal the tavern from her?

‘No. Even if one of them was told they wouldn’t care. Him?’ He forcibly pointed at me. ‘He is a true hero. Even in the depths of his monstrous rage, he protected the two guardians and myself at the cost of many a nasty wound. Have you seen beneath his tunic?

An-chau remained quiet, overwhelmed by Maelwys ’ raging rant.

‘No? Let me tell you. It’s layers and layers of scars. And when he saw evidence that your beloved Gannis was there at the death of his beloved. Oh, and you better ask your beloved of the state of Berwyn’s beloved when he found her. What did he do? He went easy on Gannis. ’

An-chau looked away from me and shifted her body, hiding it behind the doorframe.

‘Yes Berwyn is broken. Some might call him a monster. But look around you at those who live in Three Bridge. It is not a city for the sane. Why do you think Saint Evaine, who almost universally ignored and overlooked elsewhere, is prevalent here despite the historic persecution of those who would pray to her?

‘And those heroes… They are unrepentant in the way they treat the citizens beyond the walls. The one who instigated Berwyn’s stabbing was more worried about the loss of a knife than the death of a citizen.’

An-chau turned away, fleeing from Maelwys ’ anger.

‘It is later than planned, young Berwyn. But we still have our mission from the spirits to fulfill.’ He tapped the crude cloth satchel. ‘Are you up for leaving the city now?’

I nodded.

He smiled at me and I smiled back.

‘Good.’ A nasty edge sharpened his smile as he lifted the satchel towards me. ‘Let’s plant ourselves a sacred grove.’