The first thing to come to Teren was the pain. That meant he was alive but Teren wasn’t sure that knowing that was worth it. His head hurt worst of all right where the shield had struck him, the pain made him think his skull had shattered. By comparison, his body wasn’t bad but he still ached and he could feel that his legs had gone numb. Teren tried to move but found that his arms and legs were bound and he was stuck. Teren opened his eyes and found Joff looking straight back at him from not two inches away.

“Aaaah!” Teren cried out in surprise reeling backwards slamming his head against a tree trunk, the pain made him kneel forward unable to massage the already growing bruise with his bound hands. “Curses Jo…” Teren looked back up and what he saw made him forget whatever he had been about to say. It was not Joff in front of him, or rather, not all of him. Joff's severed head stared blankly at him from the top of a short stick deliberately positioned so the face was directly in front of his own. Teren stared at the head for a second before falling to the side and emptying his guts onto the ground.

A deep chuckle sounded outside of Teren's view and an unfamiliar man’s voice spoke. “Ha, Oi Krunk! looks like our dangerous little Steward is finally awake.” Teren heard the sounds of multiple men rising to their feet and several pairs of footsteps heading towards him. Rough hands grabbed his shoulders hauling him back to his knees and spinning him around. Teren could now see the men and glared at them hatred in his eyes.

The man who had spun him was one of the men who had fought The Captain. Tall with his head bald and eyes small, he looked like a pig and he didn’t half smell like one either. The Pig grinned as he stepped back displaying the many gaps in his teeth.

The one this Pig had called Krunk was clearly the leader and had an air not dissimilar to The Captain. He moved with the strict efficiency of a lifetime soldier and the respect he drew from the other four men was obvious.

“You cost me two of my men boy.” He spoke more at Teren than to him not bothered that the captured stewards eyes were looking down at the ground. Men about to die usually looked down as if not looking at their soon to be killer would help them to avoid their fate. Teren tried to respond to the statement going for something witty that would make him look heroic, however, as he was thinking what to say Krunk’s fist hit him square in the stomach. The blow made Teren fall onto his side again and he would have empty the contents of his stomach onto the ground again if there was anything left to empty. “I will kill you for that boy, but first I want to know something. Where were you going and who were you going to see?”

Teren couldn’t sit back up due to his bindings but the Pig walked back over and lifted him back to sitting position “I will... not betray... my lord” Teren barely managed to answer between gasping breaths.

Krunk through back his head and laughed comically and turned away walking back to the campfire calling back over his shoulder “Even if there is no lord to betray?”

The sentence hit Teren harder than any punch could have. All other thing seemed to fall away he no longer felt his various aches and pains and the crackling fire and swaying trees went silent. “What?” Teren finally managed to respond.

“Oh yes, your lord is dead boy, now he's just the Lord who died in a fire” The Pig answered him picking him up by his bound wrists and carrying him away from the fire.

“How?” As the Pig carried him Teren pressed for more details.

The Pig smiled “Terrible really, accident, a servant forgot to put out the kitchen fire and the whole place went up in flames.” That smile grew with every word showing just how much he was enjoying Teren’s pain. The Pig dropped him to the ground facing away from the camp again before walking back to his comrades.

Teren just lay there with the soft mud caking the side of his face and an utter feeling of despair in his heart. Everyone was dead, burned in their sleep, and Teren wasn’t fool enough to not see the obvious hint behind the Pig's words. The fire had been no accident, it had been cold-blooded murder! The flames of rage ignited in his chest and Teren let out a yell tossing and turning on the ground not caring for the laughs he heard from the men sitting by the fire.

Eventually, his thrashing and yelling stopped and Teren’s reason returned. “Stupid” he cursed himself for his actions “what can you do he already said they're all dead.

No wait, he said your lord was dead. The realisation came to Teren in a moment of cold clarity, they didn’t know, they didn’t know! In that moment Teren dared to hope, hope that he might yet live.

A groan sounded next to him, looking round he saw that there was another body bound in the dirt. It was The Captain, Teren looked quickly towards the men and was glad to see that they hadn’t heard the captain wake.

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“Captain whatever you do, do not move.” Teren gave the command as quietly as he could but in his voice was a hard edge that hadn’t been there before. The captain gave no sign that he had heard Teren but he didn’t move again so Teren assumed he had heard him. After looking back at the fire Teren gave another instruction. “When I say, roll to face me as quietly as you can, ready… now.” The Captain rolled and Teren was relieved that none of the men had chosen that moment to look back at their captives.

“Teren what about Joff?” the captain whispered a question to him. Teren shook his head nodding towards Joff’s head still where it had been stuck on a stick next to him. The captain's expression turned dark upon seeing the severed head. “Bastards” he looked like he was about to start yelling and thrashing much like Teren just had but he managed to control himself better than Teren had.

Teren took a deep breath then asked the only question that mattered right now “Captain I need to know, what was the highest rank body cultivator among them?” The captain, clearly puzzled by the question, open his mouth but seeing he was not about to give him an answer and instead ask a question of his own Teren cut him off. “That information is the deciding factor as to whether we will live, captain, or if we will die.”

That made the captain shut his mouth and when he opened it again he answered: “The leader is second rank, I’m only first rank so I can’t beat him but why…” The Captain never finished the question his eyes going wide as he stared at Teren. Teren had closed his eyes and had started breathing in a slow rhythm. Only body cultivators would be able to see the slight heat haze that had started to emanate from Teren. The Captain’s mouth opened and closed like a feeding fish but eventually, he decided not to speak. Instead, he started a similar process of breaths but the heat haze he produced was far fainter than Teren's.

Teren finally felt the pain subside as he breathed, the cold night air seemed to spread from his lungs around his body until it reached a spot right below his navel where it collided and pushed out wave after wave of energy from his Dantain. The wave spread through his body easing all the aches and pains from being tied up and beaten. Next, his senses grew sharp, he felt each individual bit of mud on his skin and could see between the trees out into the forest. Spreading his newly improved hearing out towards the campfire the sounds of conversation came to his ears he heard the pig complain about his still being alive to Krunk.

“... Know we need the info and all but wish I could just stick my axe in that little runt.”

“Soon enough but I won’t have you killing him until the 3rd Princes orders are carried out”

“Just annoys me that I won’t be able to get my money off Marm”

“Marm’s dead, you could show some respect”

“Respect! Funny, why would I show respect to some fool who got himself killed by an odd-eyed steward.”

Teren’s heart went cold, the shock nearly made him disrupt the breathing pattern. Please don’t realise he prayed but the damage had been done and he could have sworn that he heard Krunk’s neck crack as he turned it.

Krunk shoot a quick question at the pig “What do you mean odd-eyed?”

The pig had a note of question as he answered “yeah… you know one green one blue like…”

Teren didn’t hear the rest as his heighten ears heard a far more terrible sound. The ‘shick’ of a dagger being drawn and the pounding of feet as Krunk run at him. Teren cursed as he realised that Krunk would be able to see the haze and that that would confirm what he suspected. Teren focused of the waves of power in his body and cursed out loud “Nearly…” the sound of Krunk's footfalls were now so close Teren’s heightened senses could feel the vibrations through the ground. Just as his ears started to pick up the swish as the dagger cut the air Teren forced the waves of energy down his limbs and used the additional strength the energy gave him to rip open the ropes and dive away rolling in the dirt. He came up and looked back, he saw Krunk with his knife buried in the ground just where he had been kneeling.

Krunk looked up hatred in his eyes and snorted when he saw Teren's odd eyes, one green, one blue. “Damm! it was just a trick!”

With the energy in his body allowing him to suppress the pain that was previously muddling his thoughts Teren managed the witty response he had been going for earlier. “Pretty good trick, no?” and with that, he launched himself at Krunk.

Krunk struggled to pull his knife out the ground but as he tried The captain, who had been gathering breath all this time while his haze was covered by Teren’s own, kicked out knocking the knife away into the trees. Teren collided with Krunk and the two men went tumbling to the ground Teren couldn't feel his cuts and bruises anymore but he was still tired and knew he had to finish of Krunk quickly before he ran out of energy. Teren managed to get on top of Krunk and fired a quick punch into the other man’s chest Krunk let out a heavy breath as the air left his lungs stopping him from completing his cycle of breath. Teren knew that if he let Krunk complete his cycle he wouldn’t be able to win in his weakened state after having disrupted his breath Teren used his energy-infused arms to grasp Krunk's neck. Krunk had known what Teren was trying to do and managed to get a hand in between Teren’s chokehold and his neck and smiled up at Krunk but that smile faltered when he saw the Teren was smiling right back at him.

“Nice try,” Teren commented and as he did so pushed all of the energy in his body into his hands, sure Krunk's hand would stop and ordinary man’s stranglehold but Teren was a body cultivator. Without his breath, Krunk was only an ordinary man and his smiling face quickly became terrified as he felt the crushing power of the steward's fingers. He opened his mouth to scream but he had no breath to scream with and shortly after his hand cracked as Teren broke his bones and without stopping continued to strangle the man. Krunk thrashed but soon stopped moving Teren saw the light leave his eyes and rolled off the man letting out a sigh before continuing his breath cycle was disrupted.

Teren sat up and looked back towards the campfire. The captain was up but he was losing to the other 4 men. He had broken the ropes around his legs but as the men had known he was a cultivator his wrists were bound in iron. Still, the injured and bound Captain had managed to stop one of the assassins stabbing him in the back while he killed Krunk and Teren felt a flame of respect for the man ignite in his chest. Teren quickly got up and ran at the closet man the man saw him coming but could barely react before Teren was before him Teren drove his fist into the man's face breaking his nose and causing him to drop the axe in his hand. Catching it as it fell he threw it at the nearest assassin. Striking him full in the chest the axe killed him instantly, The Captain used the distraction to kick one of the last two assassins in the back of the knees causing him to fall to his knees where The Captain used his heavy Iron handcuffs like a mace as he hit the man across the jaw. Teren walked towards the last man pulling the axe from the chest of the dead assassin and was happy to see that the last man was The pig and that he was shaking in fear as Teren approached.

“Y… you’re t… the Lo… lord, You’re de...dead.” He stammered as he fell to his knees.

With a wicked grin like that of a jester who just made a dark joke Teren spun the axe to the pointed spike and responded “Correct, I am the lord who died in the fire” and buried the spike in The Pig's Head.