I watched the group as they moved away, imagining how that conversation would have gone if they had knocked on Trissa’s door instead of talking to Captain Riker.

“So you’ll stand your ground to defend some girl, but not say a word against all the rubbish he said about us?” Barick asked.

I felt Annalise’s deep sigh on the back of my head. “You think I want to deal with your insubordination after that? I’ve offered leniency since I asked this of you during the end of your summer holidays, but don’t confuse that with softness. And last I checked I was the only knight here, so if I can brush off transparent antagonism, so can you.”

“So…are we actually going to Kiteer?” Daral asked into the silence.

“I’m thinking about it.”

Annalise silently placed the grey object Tometh threw into my hands. I wanted to ask what it was, though didn’t want to annoy her more than she already was. It was a piece of grey speckled stone with a string looped through it like a necklace.

“It’s a piece of one of the capital walls,” Ian said. “Probably the outer; might be the second. You’d have to read on which quarry it looks like it came from, and then what wall they would have supplied the stone for.”

“Okay,” Annalise said. “We’re going to Kiteer. It’s only around an extra day to travel there. We'll take the train rather than ride back and risk running into them again. Tometh seemed like one of the more reasonable ones, but we don’t want to chance that in the wilderness.”

“Reasonable?” Alisa said. “That guy talked like he’d not spoken to someone from this century before.”

“He probably grew up in one of their camps near the capital, would also explain how someone as young as him is already a captain,” Ian said.

I put the necklace on and tucked the stone into my tunic. If I wasn’t the target of the man, I didn’t know if I would have found him all that strange. I despised the slow way he talked and how my guesses for how he would finish his sentences were always wrong, but that was my problem, not his.

“Why did they have different armour than you if you’re both knights?” I asked.

“Our armour is made to protect vitals from the effects of spells, knights like us are usually considered duelists. While they need protection from bites and scratches, hence the chainmail and full head helmets,” Annalise said and raised her voice for everyone to hear. “Let’s try to get some miles in before the noon sun. I think there's a river to water the horses we should be able to get to before days end.”

Her hands tugged at the reins and squeezed me in the process. Missy turned and started to walk north.

I pulled up my hood and tried to get comfortable against the pointy metal.

…

My throat still felt dry as I coughed and sputtered for another minute to a chorus of cackles from people I had just been starting to respect—at least some of them. I’d spend all afternoon reading out one of the more alchemy aligned books to Ian, who scribbled it down while atop a moving Potato.

That was why this betrayal was even more sinister.

Annalise at least looked like she didn't find it funny. Alisa was crying and trying to fan her reddening face. Barick and Daral were fighting since Daral had spat his dinner all over the other when he saw my reaction.

Ian was breathing deeply and snorting to himself every few seconds as if just remembering what transpired.

I emptied another water skin into my mouth, swished it around and spat. It still felt like I had eaten sand.

Ian had given me one of their shrunken down ration bars and left out the fact you were supposed to mix a small portion with water, and not take a giant bite out of it. I hadn’t wanted to be rude and I’d honestly tasted worse, so I carried on chewing until their laughter clued me into my mistake.

By then it was too late and my mouth and throat felt like the middle of drought season.

“We’re sorry,” Annalise offered, but I glared at her. “Students usually find out about the bars before anyone ever gets to try that.”

I’d been amused by jokes from the outside before, mud down someone's shirt or Trissa putting spicy peppers in Cragar’s food. I was trying to decide if it felt okay being the one involved. I could see how it was funny, but I’d wait until I could wet my tongue again before deciding.

The river we made camp near, for some reason, wasn’t fine to drink from. So, once I had stomped over and filled up the skins I thrust them at Annalise for purification.

Daral handed me a bowl of porridge and…stuff. The ration bars looked a lot better rehydrated. I’d forgotten to say no meat, so there were pieces mixed in.

I wasn’t going to make a fuss since I hadn’t expected to be fed in the first place.

The ride had been quiet since I didn’t count the sound of my own voice. The three of them had been gossiping about their classmates and different friend groups too loudly for Ian to concentrate on his writing, and for my reading since I thought Anderson getting challenged to a duel for accidentally burning off someone’s eyebrows was more interesting.

I sat on the tarp that had been set out again and blew on each spoonful. I wasn’t going to check, but I was confident I had a saddle-shaped bruise that was making me lean more on my leg.

We’d made good time due to the cloud cover protecting us from the worst of the heat on the road without any trees for shade. Other travellers in carriages, or hauling goods, were staying in a small inn nearby since our road connected with a route to a different city in the east. Annalise didn’t care for the hassle despite Ian’s protest.

“Whoever cleans camp can take first watch,” Annalisa said.

Silence.

I put up my hand. “I don’t mind cleaning.”

“I was hoping some of my aspiring knights would volunteer.”

“C’mon, captain. The most dangerous thing in the night would be painted dogs, she can take the first watch,” Alisa said.

“Actually flying foxes would be the most dangerous nocturnal predator here,” Barick said.

“Neither of those actually go near humans, especially with the inn nearby,” Daral said.

“I do not care. People are what I’m worried about. Alisa, Daral, then Brick in order of how stupid your answers were,” Annalise said while pointing to each. “Valeria, we appreciated you cleaning and I hope you understand the bar was a harmless joke and wasn’t meant to be cruel.”

“Yes, exactly. I didn’t think you were capable of taking a bite that size,” Ian said.

I nodded, only half listening. My mind was imagining purple and blue coloured dogs and fluffy foxes with wings. I couldn’t figure out where the wings would go on those cheeky creatures.

The wooden bowls, utensils, and pots were floated over the river and washed out before drying them off. Annalise had tried to show me the spells they used for levitation rather than the ‘air hold thing’ I was doing, but like the rest of their spells, it didn’t make sense to me.

The horses were unburdened and loitering by one of the gentle curves of the flowing river. Our side was less wild than the dense forest I saw on the opposite bank. After seeing nothing but grassy horizons for the entire ride it was nice being back in familiar land.

Tents had been pitched by the time I came back with the cleaned items. Annalise tried to persuade me to take her tent, but I declined immediately. I was used to sleeping outside and the tarp was better than I usually had. She ended up thrusting a blanket into my hands despite my protest.

I snuggled up under it and conceded that it was comfortable. I still felt bad for taking it from her. The flowing water, chirping crickets, and rustle of leaves were familiar and relaxing.

…

My dream self seemed to be higher off the ground than usual as I walked through a familiar town. People's faces and the houses on either side of the path were blurry even when I tried to concentrate on them.

That was until I walked towards a door I recognised. Trissa’s house.

I knocked and waited. A woman opened the door that wasn’t Pilim. An older and more beautiful Trissa hugged me and welcomed me into the kitchen.

Next I knew I was drinking tea and talking about…something. I tried to encourage my dream to let me hear her voice, but I couldn’t.

My chest started to tighten and I rubbed it to try to figure out what was wrong. Breathing got harder. My limbs wouldn’t move.

Trissa started to walk around me and explain how I’d ruined her life while inspecting an empty vial. How everyone shunned them after the news.

She told me how her mother lost all her clients, and I knew then she wasn’t my Trissa.

She called Pilim mum, not Mother.

I woke up with the same pain in my chest. I rolled over onto my hands and knees and tried to breathe in. Something felt like it was tightening further around my body. I threw the blanket off on the third try after I got my knees off it.

It was getting worse and I knew why. I’d felt this same way before. The doll was getting too far away.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Soft moonlight illuminated our camp and I stumbled to a person sitting up on a log with their arms crossed and eyes closed. I grabbed Daral’s arm and started dragging him in the direction that made it hurt less.

“Huh?” He stopped and I jerked forward as I couldn’t drag him along anymore.

“Valeria? What?”

It was still getting worse, so I let go and started to run beside the river, weaving between the trees the best I could with the faint light.

“Wait,” Daral whispered and started running behind me.

I couldn’t wait. The pain and crushing lessened enough for me to gasp. I ran faster and had to rely on sensing the trees to avoid them.

My foot smacked into a rock and I went tumbling into the ground.

The pain was gone, but I was still gasping from the run and rush of fear. Someone grabbed my elbow and I was about to launch the rock I tripped over into their head before I noticed it was Daral.

“What are you doing? I understand running away, but why wake me?”

“Someone has the doll.”

“What? No…ah. Shit.”

Daral cast a spell and bright light chased away the faint moonlight. I blinked until my eyes adjusted enough to see him also scrunching up his face.

“I forgot about the dark vision,” he muttered and finally looked me in the eye.

“Can you do that ripple thing and get Annalise and the others?” I said, still out of breath.

“Well…yes. I don’t think we’ll need them to handle some stray animals or petty thieves.”

“What if it’s the remnants?” I said, confused and frightened. “Annalise! Anna—”

“Okay, okay, okay. Wait. Please,” Daral said with his hand over my mouth, pushing against the other on the back of my head. “It can’t be them, otherwise I would have woken up when I sensed them. You’re with the best duelist in Equitier, well in year three, and some of year four. I can do this without the captain.”

He slowly removed his hand from my mouth and I considered screaming again, but the pain was starting to come back. The doll was moving in a different direction.

My poor sleep and pain-addled mind was catching up to the situation and I glared at Daral.

“You’ll get in trouble for falling asleep?”

“Maybe, but you’re in trouble from this doll getting too far away. And, I’ll owe you a favour. Or we can take our time, and I call the others for help, and hope they wake up and get here in time.”

“Call them,” I said, wanting Annalise here more than anyone else.

“Two favours.” He raised two fingers in my face.

I pulled my foot back to kick him in the shin.

“Two favours and I don’t tell the captain you ran away with the doll and that’s why it got lost.”

I froze and couldn’t tell if it was the doll or his words making my chest hurt. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why are you doing this to me? I tried to advocate for you that night in the forest, where’s my thanks? Where’s the trust? I’m trying to help you get the doll back as quickly as possible.”

My foot dropped to the ground and I moved out of his grip on my head. I started walking towards where the pain lessened. I didn’t want to care if he was going to follow me or not, yet I needed his help and couldn’t get back to the camp myself.

His mana and light caught up to me as I crossed a shallow part of the river with slippery stepping stones. My bare feet made it easy, but Daral almost slipped in with his boots.

The far side of the river had denser vegetation and canopies that blocked out the moonlight. Daral’s glowing orb cast darker shadows wherever I looked which made moving difficult.

It was hard knowing where it went without the pain to direct me anymore, so I carried on in the same direction.

“There’s two mana vacuums up ahead.”

I turned to him for an explanation.

“It means areas with no mana, which can only mean non-mages or manaless animals.”

“Where?”

“Underground somewhere, it’s harder to sense no mana than lots of it.” I couldn’t sense anything or the lack of it, so I let him lead and walked next to him.

We carried on walking more carefully as Daral slowly looked over the ground. I ducked under a branch and stepped onto and over a root into a shadow. My foot passed through it.

My heart lurched as I tipped forward. My tunic dug into my neck as Daral grabbed the back of it. I teetered over the edge of a hole.

He pulled me back to solid ground and had the orb float directly over the whole. I felt a little better seeing that it wouldn’t have been a long fall. Now that I could see the lack of ground I noticed it with my senses.

“Thanks…”

“This’ll probably be a decent entrance though I doubt they used it.”

Mana tied into a spell in his hand and encapsulated the area around us. He jumped and fell slowly to the ground again. I jumped and landed back normally.

“That’s a pain,” he said and knelt on the ground with his arms out. I could guess what he wanted and didn’t like it as I sat into his arms.

He hopped off the edge and I instinctually clutched at his neck while we fell gently. I held on for a bit longer than needed once we were on the ground while he was trying to get me off. The light still above the entrance was slowly dimming until he used another spell to bring it down and brighten it again.

“Stay behind me and stay out the way, I can’t sense you and these people have no mana, so I can’t use spells against them.”

I nodded. Water dripped off spikes in the roof and flowed into a pool on one side. We were moving through spikes coming from the ground towards a hole in the wall. Stone surrounded us as we walked through a sloped passage and into another cavern.

I felt other creatures and faint mana sources from around us. Daral also stopped and glanced up quickly before moving on. I followed his gaze.

Creatures with large eyes, ears, and long snouts stretched out huge black leathery wings. Scores hung from the ceiling wrapped in their wings while others flew around the cavern, or through another hole in the ceiling. The creatures didn’t seem bothered by the light below them.

From the faces, I could see why these would be called flying foxes, and was now worried about what the painted dogs looked like.

I felt the faintest nudges of mana passing through me. If it happened once randomly I wouldn’t have noticed, but it was seemingly coming from every flying fox. The nudges bounced off everything, but me, and returned to the flying foxes above.

As soon as they did I could feel them notice Daral. They were wary of his mana, but didn’t care to bother him. They didn't think he wasn’t an insect or predator, so they didn’t care.

Daral understood they had no interest in him and had carried on walking quietly through. I started walking again to catch up but kept noticing the little nudges. He stopped to check I was still behind him and waited for me to catch up at another passageway entrance.

A blinding pain hit the right side of my face. I tensed up, holding my breath, and the scream that wanted to come out with it. Daral caught me as my body locked up and toppled over.

I had a second of reprieve before a stronger pain hit the left side. A tugging sensation on my eye had me ready to throw up.

“Hey!” Daral shouted with mana radiating from his voice. The pain immediately stopped and I noticed he wasn’t looking at me, but through the passage.

He glanced at me before putting me down and running off with the light staying behind with me. I scrambled to my feet and chased after him.

I had to slow down since the light disappeared behind me as I turned a corner. My senses could get a basic understanding of the stone around me, the problem was the jagged pieces that stuck out.

The cavern I found myself stumbling into was bathed in warm lantern light instead of Daral’s harsh white. He was standing off against two boys leaning over the doll that had been dropped to the ground. A few crates sat near the wall amongst the spikes with other items piled on top of them, including some of our satchels.

One of the boys was holding a pair of tongs while the other had brought out a large knife meant to clear brush.

“The fuck you doin’ ‘ere?” Knife boy asked.

“Ay Mikkey, that's the dude I was talking about.”

Mikkey started laughing. “Eh, don’t feel too bad about it bud, most people sleep durin’ watch. Most don’t manage to find us though, how’d you manage dat?”

“Yeah, you should feel grateful it was us that found your stuff, our ransoms are cheap as. You can definitely afford it, I mean what asshat uses jewels on some doll.”

“Maybe should feel bad for draggin’ some kid here though.”

“You dipshits really don’t want to push your luck right now,” Daral said.

“Man, don't try act tough for the girl. Why don’t we teach you the meaning of this little word, leverage. You see, bringing her here lets us say things like, we’ll mess up that pretty little face if you don’t pay us.”—he pointed the knife towards Daral and turned to the other boy—“Look! Look at that face he made when I said that, leverage.”

The boys were dressed in nice clothes, especially compared to the sweaty loose tunic and pants Daral and I were wearing. I had thought thieves were supposed to be the ones with threadbare and dirty outfits.

I was waiting for Daral to announce he was a knight and end this conversation. They sounded important enough to scare two boys.

Instead, he pushed up his sleeves and balled his fits near his face.

Mikkey tilted his head and let his mouth drop open in a weird lazy smile. The large knife hung limply at his side. He stared at Daral for a while before I heard him breathe in and shrug. “Works for me, dude.”

Mikkey and Tongs moved around where Daral was walking up to. The two boys were as tall as Daral, and with just as much muscle. If I’d seen the scenario on the street I would have been worried for him, but like he said, neither had mana.

The lack of it was indeed harder to pick up than the concentration in Daral.

Tongs threw his namesake at Daral, who stood still as the tools clattered to the floor beside him. The three stared at each other for a moment.

Mikkey leant forward and swiped the blade. It cut through the air as Daral leant to the side.

Mikkey rocked on his feet while Tongs circled around to get his weapon. I shuffled around the far reaches of the fight to get nearer to the doll.

I hadn’t seen anyone fight with a knife before, I thought there would have been more stabbing and less waving it around.

Daral spun as Mikkey retreated after another slash. His foot lashed out and connected with his wrist. The knife clattered to the ground. Daral stepped in and jabbed his fingers into his throat.

Tongs stepped in from behind and brought down his weapon towards the back of Daral’s head. I was trying to decide about throwing out a blast of air, or moving the rock underneath him when Daral caught the weapon. Yanked it out of Tong’s hand and poked his stomach with the handles.

Both boys were on the ground holding their neck and stomach.

“Get the satchels, I’ve got the doll,” Daral said as he stepped over Mikkey.

I got the three satchels I could see and checked around to make sure there wasn’t another. A plain silver ring sat in a bowl on top of the crate. It was in my pocket before I thought about it for more than a moment.

“Over here.”

I followed his voice to a crack in the wall and squeezed out behind him. The river was rushing past nearby and Daral conjured his light again, illuminating the forest with more than moonlight.

“You aren’t arresting them?”

“And do what? Drag them with us for days to the nearest watch officers to hand off? No thanks.”

“And not telling them you’re a mage and to just give the stuff back?”

“Less chance it comes back to bite me in the ass if it was just some random stranger that beat them up.”

Daral was walking as if he knew the direction and without anything else to say I followed behind him.

“So, two favours and you don’t tell Annalise?”

I didn’t feel like I had a choice despite its appearance. Who was I supposed to blame for the pain of someone ripping out my eyeballs from their socket with tongs? A pair of boys who wanted a shiny gem, or someone that fell asleep.

The real person to blame was dead and it felt so unfair to put this on myself.

“Sure.”