When we set out, I guided Edward from the carriage. I told him where he should be information and what to look for. The others listened and occasionally we’d get input from Thu’ane, but he left most of the teaching to me. After setting Edward up as a replacement for me, I got a lot of questions from the others.

“Why set the guards toward the back? What if there’s a frontal assault?” Ryan asks.

“It’s faster to run forward than to turn a horse around. Also you’re technically our third guard, but your only job is forward so it’s easier.” I say.

“Why not have guards on top too?” Claire asks.

“Usually there’s only two to three on a team so we don’t have that many people to use.” I say.” If needed I could set up on top, but for right now this works fine.”

“What about if there was a third on horseback?” Edward asks.

“Then he’d be very far back. We do that to make sure we aren’t being followed and to get a larger view of our party. I’m usually back there since my eyes allow me to see much better.” I say.

“Yeah, he also uses long range bows when on horseback.” Thu’ane says.” Even I can’t draw that bow very well.”

“That’s because I chose to focus entirely on physical combat. You could have too, but you wanted to use magic.” I say.” Besides I would trade my strength for your magic.”

He nods and says.”My magic is very useful and all, but sometimes strength is just better.”

“You say that, but I’m always the one who gets hurt. At Least you can use barriers or something to evade the attack.” I say.” And I’m always the one who has to carry shit.”

“Oh yeah, maybe I’ll just stick with my magic.” He says laughing.

“I never asked this before, but what magic do you use when you fight?” Edward asks.

“I use illusion magic.” He says.” But I focus on perception magic to throw off my opponent.”

“He’s was set up to be the best one on one fighter in our group,” I say.” But then…”

“The only one who could beat me was this bastard.” Thu’ane says after a moment.” I would blind his eyes, but he could still hear me. I would produce a loud noise and I swear he could even smell where my sword was coming from.”

“No, I just guessed what you would do. I studied how you fought for a very long time, and I notice you prefered overhead swings after stunning someone.” I say defending myself.

“What was it like?” Edward asks.

“It was like a family to us.” I say

“Which was funny because most of us never knew our parents or were kicked out.” Thu’ane says.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Yeah, but I mean all of us were close and we all relied on each other.” I say. I start to remember how fast the accepted me and how many times I got out of trouble because of their help.” It wasn’t entirely mercenary work either.”

“There were times where we were sent to help rebuild things or to move things. We did those type of work for free, since the city we lived in needed it.” Thu’ane says and I remember how Arcity was a lot like Detroit. Filled with innocent people forced into crime, we did all we could to help combat it nonviolently.” We used a lot of noncombat users for civil disputes and rebuilding.”

“Yeah, but that kind of thing wasn’t what we were always like.” I say” Before the last Father came to control, it was a mercenary group filled with ruthless killers. They only took up jobs of assassination or occupation so we had to recover from a very bad reputation.”

“But you guys still did that right?” Edward asks.

“Yeah we did, but only for tyrants or bad people. You could hire them to kill the King and they would have for the right price.” I say.” We tried to be more for good, but I guess we had a lot of old enemies.”

“I remember Ralph, the last Father, told me the original purpose of the group was to do what the King’s forces couldn’t. I never understood what he meant when he said that, but now I’m starting to.” Thu’ane says.

“I just assumed we were the King’s special forces. We were people who were more stronger than a regular knight and could be sent on suicide missions for the King.” I say.” And most of our actual missions came from the King himself so that was my theory.”

“Wait, What? They did? How come I never knew that?” Thu’ane asks.

“I was told to keep that a secret, but now that they are gone I doubt it’s that big of a secret now.” I say.

Thu’ane’s mind looks like it was just blown, so I let him contemplate his existence in silence. The whole party was silent until Beth spoke up,” I remember my first encounter with the King’s Shadow. It was when I was really young, but I remember seeing a group with the same cloaks as you two. They were covered in blood and had a girl tied up on one of their horses. We got to the closest town and there were bodies everywhere….”

“That sounds familiar. It sounds like the massacre that Father had to be apart of. The town was it Cromer?” I ask.

“I believe so.” Beth replies.

“He told me about that massacre, it was what made him determined to overthrow the old Father. He eventually did, but the damage was already done.” I say.

“I was scared when I first saw you with that cloak of yours. But when I met you, you didn’t seem like a cold blooded killer.” Beth says.

I nod and thank her, but I’ve done my fair share of bad things in the past. Like killing an innocent man or taking a target by force. My face must have gone grim since Claire’s hand grabs mine.” Are you alright?” She whispers.

“Yeah, I’m just remembering some of the worse things.” I say.” Just know Beth, that the old Shadow was gone, but their influence never left. We still had some bad mishaps.”

Beth grabs both our hands and say,” I don’t blame a man with good intentions finding himself in a bad situation. As long as the man seeks forgiveness or knows what he did was wrong and tries to prevent it again, then that is sign of a good person.”

“Spoken like a true priest.” Mariana finally chimes in.” You travelled with a religious group didn’t you? I surprised you kept all the preaching in during school.”

“I believe school is about learning magic, not the word of gods. We discussed this when I first visited the school. You told me it was wise not to preach any word at school.” Beth says.

“That paints a target on you. Not many of the higher classed nobles like religious figures.” Edward says.” I remember my father cursing priests for interfering in his business and spouting nonsense.”

This was something I never heard of. I thought that all people of Acleirea were apart of the Congregation of the Stars. I haven’t met anyone who would have cursed the priests either. Their symbols were worn by many people openly, I just assumed that everyone believed them.” But there’s actual interaction between the gods and followers, how could they have people not believe them?”