"Aviana! Aviana!" He was running down the hill. He must have took more time up there than he realized, because he still saw no signs of Aviana.

His breath was coming quick and he felt his head buzz, but he had to catch up to her.

"…mac! Cormac!" he heard behind him.

He turned quickly, his head and quicker than the rest of his body, causing him to lose footing and tumble a few meters down the hill.

Aviana was running to him, yelling his name all the while. He opted to just keep lying on the ground, calming his heart rate and resting.

"Where are you…running…you…psycho." She was out of breath too. Aviana continued when she regained her composure. "You just ran past me, shouting my name through the woods. You know we are trying to stay low right?"

"Yeah. I just had to catch up to you."

"By running to god knows where?"

"Had to take my chance." he summarized.

"Alright, but if we are going to do this. We need to have a set of rules, okay?" Aviana told Cormac. "No giving up and no hiding from responsibility. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Okay then." she said while turning around back to the village in the distance. "We need a plan. Got any other ideas?"

"Not really, no."

"Alright, let's take it from the top. Someone is after your life…" she started pacing around, moving in circles helped her think. "…and we have no idea who it is, or why they are after you."

"I…I may know why. But I don’t know if I can trust it." he said, catching her full attention. "That guy I told you about, the one that warned me about Norman. He told me that it is because I am a ruler. Norman called me that too. Which I can assure you, I am not. I can't do what my father does."

"Your father? He is a ruler?"

"Leon La Bor. Yeah he is."

Aviana's eyes widened in surprise, she instinctively looked Cormac up and down. He looked more like a common boy, than any member of a sacred family. Questions rose up in her mind, but she silenced them for now. Hopefully there would be a time and place to ask, but they had too much to worry about right now.

"So, we know that you have the potential, at least theoretically. They probably know your identity then. Maybe they want to get rid of the heir? A revenge for something your father might have done?"

"I am not an heir, the title has been…revoked." Cormac looked at the ground, picking it with a stick.

"They have no reason to go after you then?" Aviana sighted. "Well, question for another day. We still don’t know why, they are after you, nor how they got the teacher and the boy to attack you. Do we have anything at all?"

Cormac thought about that for a second and realized that he indeed may have had something.

"Have you heard about the execution? The lord from the Ironbrands family?"

"That guy who torched a full village?"

"Yeah, I was at the execution myself. The thing is, the lord looked…crazed. Like he himself was surprised at what he saw. Norman looked the same…at the end."

"You think the two could be related somehow?"

"I don’t know. But the resemblance is uncanny. It definitely feels like it." a chill ran down his spine at the memory of the pained expression.

"That…that would be scary…" Aviana let her words trail off. "If they are connected, if the same people are behind it. That would mean that someone strong and brazen enough to lead a lord to his execution is thirsty for your hide."

That did sound scary, definitely enough for Cormac's doubts to once again rise to the surface.

"Still…" he said, although he had to gulp midway through. "We have our rules, don’t we? We need to see it through. And right now, we don’t have anything else to go on except the mass-killing. I vote we go see what that was about."

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"Alright. I don’t like it, but it's not like I have a better idea myself. But first things first." She said as she turned to the village before them.

Frankly, Hank felt doubtful about the young wizard's confidence. He was intriguing, definitely, but he also felt way too inexperienced and calm, especially for someone who just discovered his only friend just may be a murderer. What was leagues more surprising, was his unusual request for a reward. Hank had a pouch with gold ready. Gold he was given precisely to reward all relevant information given. So his surprise when all he wanted was to join the watchmen and be immediately assigned to the case under Hank.

But there was no good reason to deny the services of a wizard, even if he was just an apprentice by that point. So Hank stopped himself from asking any unwarranted additional questions and accepted.

After giving Gavin the appropriate clothes for the job and hashing the details of his academic pause with the principal, Gavin came to Hank and urged him to follow.

Gavin lead the front, marching - or at least walking in a very stiff manner - towards the dead end where the incident took place.

The hair on Hank's back stood up when they arrived at the place. The scenes of murder always scraped him the wrong way. It was as if he felt the crime down to his bones. Most, even his colleagues, would say that a Captain should not fear death. Should not feel its dirty reach grasping at whatever was close to it. A captain should be indifferent. Something Hank wasn’t close to by a mile.

He hated the smells of a body, even before it began decaying. He hated the sight of mangled person, brutally disfigured and dishonorably stretched. He hated hearing the weeps of mothers, daughters, sons and fathers. He hated it all. Maybe he even hated his job. But he was good at it.

He used his instinct for the bettering of the world.

Right now, he could feel the emotion that was strongest in the incident, the smell and feeling still resided in the stones.

Confusion. Whatever happened here, it did not feel planned. Nor did it feel good.

But that was still a gut feeling, there was a time and place for them, but it wouldn’t be wise to take it at face value.

Gavin walked over to the end wall. Brushing his fingers against various stones, looking for something.

Hank still doubted his own decision to accept the boy. He seemed determined and had a bright spark in his eyes. But it felt…wrong. Something was amiss, but Hank had no idea what exactly. There was a dark cloud over the boy, he could feel it, but he supposed that it would be better to offer the little guidance he may provide, than to let him fend for himself.

A distinctive loud *click* sounded as Gavin pressed a stone, that still had a few drops of blood on it. Suddenly the whole wall crumbled to dust, revealing a dark passage.

Gavin turned to Hank, standing at attention.

"Should I begin pursuit, sir?"

"First, inform lieutenant Ludwig of the discovery. Ask him for a registered guidestone, along with its track number. Then get two additional men and come back. We will travel through the passage then."

"Sir, yes sir." answered the boy as he ran back to the office.

The settlement was prettier up close. The stone buildings were old, many having years of their construction on their fronts. The roofs were a bit shabby, but still held strong. And that seemed to be a case for the inhabitants themselves. The villagers were strong and hard, their hands riddled with calluses and skin tanned, from the work outside.

Aviana and Cormac both felt as if they were visiting another nation altogether, but that was improbable. The tunnel might have been a long track, but definitely not long enough to send them so far.

The people here had a much darker skin, though it may have been just a tan. Aviana was pale and Cormac wasn’t much better off, so they stuck out like a sore thumb. That's without mentioning they still wore the academy clothes.

Still, they did not feel unwelcome. The villagers did not spare them their time, but they did not glare at them either.

Aviana and Cormac walked over to the village square, where a surprisingly huge statue of a man clad in armor stood over the corpses of disfigured men. The statue was well taken care of. Not a crack could be seen.

The man had a hard expression. Gritting his teeth as he pierced someone with his spear.

"That is King Hurrig." said a gentle voice behind them. It was a girl, barely older than ten from the way she looked.

"Hello." said Cormac with a wave. Aviana looked uncomfortable at the moment, so Cormac took the wheel of the conversation.

"Who was this king Hurrig?" he pointed at the statue.

"The first ruler. The savior of all." she said, looking from the statue to Cormac. "At least that's what mom says." she added with a smile.

"Interesting. I thought his name was lost to time."

"Many remote settlements have their own versions of what might have happened, most thinking that they are the right descendants." Aviana jumped into the discussion. The girl flashed her an annoyed expression. Aviana's cheeks turned red.

"Sure, but maybe they are right. Right?" Cormac asked the little girl.

"Yes! I am sure, my mom has a book about it too!"

Cormac turned to Aviana, a sly smile on his face. "See Aviana, they have a book. Do you have a book?"

"N-no…" she said shyly. Cormac was surprised by her lack of composure and immediately started to capitalize on it.

"I am Cormac, this sceptic here is Aviana. What's your name?"

"Aisha." said the girl.

"Think we could talk to your mother Aisha?"

"Sure thing! Come with me!" screamed at them the girl as she ran downhill.

"Are you just going to undermine their history, or are you coming with?"

"Shut up." she said angrily.