“Lili, the nice party is here to see you!”

“Gods damn him, how many times have I told him not to call me Lili!”

Lilijah raced down the ladder, ready to get into another shouting match with him, when what he’d said caught up with her. She froze on the landing, in her skin-tight under shirt and long underpants.

The ugly, burned man with a staff was standing inside the doorway, looking her up and down in a way that disgusted her. Like she was a thing to be taken. She met his eyes in challenge, because she’d been upfront, she’d told him, but he was just like the others and-

They were cold, those eyes. Dispassionate. The curse on her lips died there. He looked at her, and didn’t see a girl, a woman. He saw a weapon, one he was weighing for his party.

“Well girl,” he spoke, and the girl was mocking in an entirely new way, like she was the one being childish about it.

“You coming, or not?”

“Hunter, or child, Lilijah, which are you?” It seemed to ask.

Lilijah raced up the ladder so fast she nearly tripped on the top rung.

***

“Now, I’m sure the girl is well put together. Only a child would lose their temper at some friendly ribbing. Why, if she could not stand such, she’d be a little girl, indeed! How would one trust a Hunter that couldn’t even manage their own temper? Axe Breakers are supposed to be the angry ones!” Brar said, jovially.

The short, but wide man turned to look up at her: “Wouldn’t you agree?” Brar the Stout asked.

She hated them. Hated all of them.

Lilijah also loved it.

Because apart from every single one of these assholes calling her girl, even the woman barely her senior, they were treating her like an actual Hunter. The party was still in town, but she was in third, behind the guard and breaker, with the mageling staff bringing up the rear. The Ranged Skirmisher party position. Her position.

She could feel the warm air around her. Not in the real, but in the banter and the Leadership wrapping around them all.

It smelled of a fire pit, smouldering. Its embers probing, testing her.

She’d had to take Oaths to obey for the day, outside the walls, to come along. But she’d finally be free of the damned walls. Months, fruitlessly spent, stuck here. Trapped in wood and stone, among Demons. They chafed like shackles around her wrists and ankles. It was the only reason she’d agreed to the Oaths.

The whole blasted lot of these Reclaimers had brought all the supplies they needed, and other caravans avoided this valley because of the damn things infesting it.

Lilijah was good. A good woodswoman, a good scout, Hunter. She wasn’t good enough to get out on her own.

The caravan arriving was a stroke of luck. She needed only to impress one of the guards, and she’d have a way out. By the hells, she’d sign on as a servant, if that’s what it took, to leave in the spring. Lilijah didn’t think it would come to dropping so low as to be a firekeeper. She had Skills. But all of the parties were either full, or hateful Shadefuckers.

This party was an odd one. Fresh, new and fragile. The Shield Guard Brar was ordinary enough, if a bit short. He at least had the proper girth for the job. The Name too. The Axestaff woman Deli was her age, and carried nothing but her armour and weapon. A sign of poor Stamina, which wasn’t good. Not if they were going outside the walls.

The Mageling was the worst of them. Weakest, yet in charge. How or why they obeyed, she had no clue. But she’d put up with it, if it got her outside these walls.

None of them had big shadows in her Threat Sense. She could fight any of them, and maybe win.

***

“Serious faces everyone.” Frank ordered. The endless pushing on her finally dropped. At least none of them had gone after her tastes.

She could deal with the endless name calling. Even if the belittling irritated her. It helped that they were clearly doing it to get a rise of her. That she’d been warned that if she blew up before the gate and her Oath bound her, they’d go right on back.

It was a challenge to Lilijah’s self-control, a test, and she could face those. Not another bunch of hateful women thinking she’d lust after them, or abuse a firekeeper.

She knew she had problems when people mucked about her tastes. Her Lifecord told her as much. Lilijah knew it whole, as any self-respecting warrior did. But the Will section was burned into her brain, always there, judging her, mocking her.

Will = 3

+Eversnow Traditions 3

+Resistance 2 (13/30)

+Sensitive 2 (Tastes) (4/30)

Reminding her of her Failing. Lilijah knew she could lose her head, when it came to it. But it always made her so angry. The hypocrisy of it. No one started bothering other women about children until they were thirty, but her own mother started fretting over her at sixteen!

She’d adopt! It wasn’t that hard! “There, problem solved. Oh God of my people, give me patience to endure these trials. Lend me peace, for I do not wish to hurt anyone over this.”

She paused. Took the time to reflect on past mistakes.

“Anyone else.”

The guards checked them. Their Health, that the Party had at least one Hunter and Shield Guard. No one wanted to let out a party unprepared for the outside. Their flesh would give the dead more power, attract worse monsters, and make more Skeletons. If the Demons didn’t get them first, and Bound them.

Part of Lilijah was scared. Had been, since she’d left the house. This was her final moment to back down.

She’d been on many hunts with her Father and his party, but this was different. Apart from reputations, she barely knew any of them. She’d be trusting her life to each one.

The guards got to her. “Finally found someone to take you in, huh little kit?”

It pissed her off. She was the tallest one here. “I’ll be a Longstrider yet, Vigar, you old fool.”

“Mayhap, mayhap. Or you’ll be another pretty Skeleton dancing in the snows.” His voice lost all joviality.

“You step out those gates, ain’t nothing but your party standing between you and a quick death. You understand that, Hunter?”

“I do.”

“You trust them with your life?”

She swallowed. “It’s them, or no one. Frank is the kind who went back alone for Deli Surefoot, on his own. He won’t abandon me, not after taking me into the party. He wouldn’t. ”

“I do.” She lied.

“You’ve your arms?” He questioned further.

Lilijah lifted her cloak, showing of her Light Armour, and her weapons. He frowned at her bow.

“You’re not going to do much but piss off a monster, with that string.”

“All I need is a good hit.” She told him, opening a pouch on her side. She had three small jars in there, with arrow dip caps. “Deepdrowner extract, Morning Fog juice, and Bonedust venom.” she pointed each out.

“I’ve also other tricks, but none I’d name.”

There was a loud whistle from above, from the Hunter on watch. The all clear one, that every Scout knew.

The guard waved her out the gates and she stepped outside, feeling the weight of her Oath wrap around her. She didn’t like it, but seeing the wilds again was well worth the price. And it was only for the first outing.

Frank wasn’t long in joining them. They set out downhill.

“Alight! Lilijah, you’re lead. Brar, you’re cover. Deli, punish. I’ll take the rear. Clear?”

“Aye!” / “Yes!” / “Got it!

The standard square of a four strong party on the march formed, shield to her left and ready to cover, axe on her right, ready to swing. Her bow was out. They cleared the Snow Shades up close as they went, while she swept the snows and trees, seeking prey and Threats.

“Our goal are critters of the woods. We want fresh meat, to skin and sell.”

Lilijah felt disappointment settle into her guts. “Just that? That is nothing.”

“I won’t say no to a bigger catch, but this is not a monster hunt, people.”

Brar took a step forward and bashed a Snow Shade to bits with his axe.

“First time out with a new party is always a trial. For everyone.” Frank said, stressing it. “We’re hunting and patrolling, keeping to the first circle.”

“At least he didn’t chain me to these ugly walls.” First circle wasn’t bad.

“Want to see the Snow Lake?”

“You mean the Dead Court.” her leader asked, knowingly.

She flinched, caught out.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Don’t manage me lead. I manage you, got it?”

“Got it.” She ground out, flushing with shame and anger. Mostly at herself. Mostly.

He looked around. “Well, as I was saying” Lilijah heard the unsaid and pointed “before I was rudely interrupted”, but swallowed it. She was out, she was hunting. She could deal with an arrogant leader for a day.

“if we run into monster tracks, we’ll follow.” That made her take her eyes off the treeline in surprise.

“This isn’t a monster hunt, but we can’t let one roam if they’re past the second circle and the outer guards.”

He shook his head. “Not unless they’re too much trouble, in which case, we blow the horn. Lead, you’re local, you’ll be assessing.”

That was just an excuse to test her.

“I don’t want to hit anything above-“

“Here it comes. Baby talk. Ones? Twos?”

“-threat four.”

The order rang in her head. Went in one ear, and wouldn’t come out.

“We’ll be patrolling to the shore of the Snow Lake, and right back. I leave the path out to our pathfinder. Keep in mind the main goal. Critters, not monsters.”

It would be a fairly short outing. She could already see several good paths in her head, made in advance from listening to countless other Hunters speak of quarries. From hours spent dreaming of this moment.

“Four. four. Four, four” still rang in her head.

She turned back to her party, to check, because she wasn’t a reckless fool. “Threat check.” Lilijah asked. Maybe her Threat Sense was being tricked, deceived somehow.

“Almost three.” Brar the Shield Guard said.

“Two and a half.” Deli the Surefoot Axe Breaker told her.

“And I’m almost three, myself.” She admitted.

Entirely too calmly, her leader told her: “Threat two.”

And he was willing to go after a monster with up to nineteen physical Ability? He was mad.

“Physical.” he added, in the same infuriatingly calm voice. “Mageling, three point five.”

“Who the hell says point five, instead of a half?”

She couldn’t stop herself, Lilijah had to ask: “How do you have a Mageling three and a half?” That was the domain of mages.

“Limited mana. Comes with the burns.”

He’d lost some. Or the injury lessened him. But if he was three and a half with it… “Dear Gods. The battles he must have seen. Survived.”

He’d hit like a mad bull, but only for a little while. Between him and Deli, they both lacked staying power.

“Now I know why the patrol is so short.” And why he felt confident fighting a Threat four. He’d probably fought many already. “At least we’re going to the Snow Lake.”

Lilijah had been before, with her Father. Once. She wanted to glimpse the Dead Court again. Where the Snow King of the valley raised his throne, and the dead gathered.

***

Once she’d picked a path, they marched. Keeping her eyes sweeping was habit by now, so it took little of her attention. Lilijah used the time to go down the Threat ladder. Going over what was a threat three or four, that might make it past the second circle.

The Snow Lake stuck out to her. There weren’t many monsters that would be out and about in Winter, among the dead. Not at Threat four. Those that fed on bones were high on her list. Among them the Strong-arm Burrower was most likely to get past the second circle, diving through the snows. To them, it was as water. They came down off the high peaks with the Winter snow storms.

She asked as much.

“You’re looking for a Strong-arm Burrower to fight.”

“No.” He denied flatly, and she felt the reprimand in it.

He went on when she refrained from cursing. “Scout and Pathfinder Lilijah. Expectations –“

“guide Paths, I know, I know.” It was a common Scout saying in Trade. So what? What path would she have chosen if she was looking for one, instead of looking for critters?

She would have picked a more curved path, and one that stuck to deeper snows, the avalanche channels. Instead of walking them on top of the treetop snows, only close enough to glance at the channels in passing.

“They lack the snow shoes for the channels, anyway.”

What was the difference, in practice? They’d be more likely to find one, and that was a good thing. They might even run into a mated pair. The price on both, even if they sounded the horn, would be better than missing out on one.

“So why not go after them?” She challenged. Lilijah could use the extra coin. Use it to buy her way out of this place, if all else failed.

He shook his head in disappointment. “How long till horn call to aid?”

“Less than a breath.” She snapped off. That was the point of the first circle. That aid would come, and it would not be late in the coming, if something truly monstrous showed up.

“And is it?” He asked pointedly.

She did not see his point. “Of course.”

“Brar?” He asked. “You worked among them.”

The man shook his head. “Many of the Elites are down, holding the lines against the dead. They’ll respond, but you’ll get no more than a Master Hunter in the first breath. He’s the only one topside that can afford to leave the walls.”

Lilijah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. No one had said anything like it.

“You’re having me on.”

“I’m not.” The short man denied. “We’re not to tell, servants, firekeepers and all. Doesn’t concern them, so long as the walls and barricades hold. Old Deathless adjusted the rules. This ain’t a full town girl, tis a Reclamation. Adjust your thinking. First inner circle is the town itself. Second are the walls and the holes in them, away from the living. You’re standing in the first outer circle, Lili.”

Lilijah took that in. What it meant. An arrow would arrive at the horn blow, and more to follow, but that was it. It changed… a lot. Health could last for a breath, even against a true beast of a monster.

That changed, if it had more time to ravage a party.

If one such monster was already at their limit? Two would sing disaster, even with limited aid.

***

They were doing well, and she understood why now. Outer circle Hunters weren’t quite second circle, trusted to deal with whatever was beyond in the snows with nothing but their party, but they were far above her. They would not waste their time, digging at the snow. Her party didn’t mind it. They’d gone out for critters, and Lilijah found them some.

She’d scented out and tracked down three Whooter nests, each bird nearly as long as her forearm. The small tunnels they left for air gave them away, their nests buried under the branches of the trees they were walking on. She’d even caught a hare. Shot him right out of his run, as it bolted away from them. It wasn’t the challenge worthy of being spoken about in hushed rumour she’d wished for, but it was actual Hunting again.

As they were descending and nearing the lake, and the catches built, a talk had started on what everyone would do with their cut. She’d done near all of the work, but would keep less than a quarter. That too, had been agreed beforehand.

It chafed badly now.

Her mood was not terrible, not when Lilijah was out and about, but it still troubled her. Weighed on her and made her angry, with how the small share would grow smaller in the selling.

Brar could not read a mood to save his life. “You’ve been awful quiet, girl.”

“I’ve not much to share. None worth sharing, on this.” She told him, keeping her tone short. He damn well should notice to drop it now.

“Come now.” The Shield Guard said with a smile. “We’ve all a tale or two, when a merchant got the better of us. And when we got the better of them!” He guffawed, loudly. At the edge of her hearing she heard a squeak, and raised a fist in the air, listening.

...

It did not repeat.

...

It was gone by now. The fist came down.

“None fit for company.” She brushed him off.

“Come now. We’re all sharing, you should too.”

Her eyes went back to the ugly leader. He said neither yes, nor no. Instead he signalled silently, as commanders did: “Discovery chance. Own risk.”

That the Oath might bind her in this did not appeal, but at least he was not abusing such. It always hurt, but curse her for a fool, she still hoped someone would understand.

“You might. All of mine are of loss.”

Brar had the gall to laugh. “Truly? Do you take the first offer? You know you should Bargain, do you not?”

Lilijah grit her teeth.

“No hitting party members, even if they’re being an ass.” Frank said. His tone was joking, but feeling her Oath pull on her hands told her he wasn’t.

“I know.” She bit off. “But I don’t get the same chance to Bargain as you do.” She bit off to Brar.

“What? Those Cult mad fools giving you trouble, Lili?”

She’d warned him not to call her that.

“Why, just go to another, there’s plenty of Merchants in the market, and everyone needs food and fur.”

He said it so reasonably, as if it was an obvious solution she just hadn’t tried yet.

She wanted to punch him so bad. As if she hadn’t gone, a hundred times. Scoured the markets of her home town. As if it wasn’t all the same. Either some Shadefucker that wanted to rob her blind, make her pay for her tastes, “Since it’s not like you need it for a family.”

Or the other ones, which were somehow worse. Either pitying her, thinking themselves so much better than her, or the ones offering her a better price.

“A better price then the Shadefucker, but not the same they’d offer a Hunter that could go Bargain with all their rivals, not just some.”

All the while patting themselves on the back for being “understanding” while they made coin on the same fucking hate that followed her since she kissed a boy. It wasn’t her fault they were disgusting to her. Lilijah had tried, they just were. She didn’t hate men, she hated the idea of one touching her as a woman. Lusting after her, as so many did. “I’m not trying to catch their eyes!”

She got more understanding from men, talking about how they made her feel, then she ever did from women. And no one blamed them for feeling the same.

It wasn’t fair.

She didn’t pick it. Didn’t wake up one morning and decide her guts should heave at the idea of taking a man to bed. It just was. Hells, the damn Lifefcord didn’t show it as an affliction, or a Failing.

That came later. “Thanks for that, Mom. Thanks a lot.”

It didn’t matter, it was just the same bullshit. Deli was going to jump right in, she could tell, pile on and drive her mad but she felt something change. The Embers spark in the air. The winds shift.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I know what Brar should buy with his savings: he can buy some heels!” Frank joked.

“What?” Brar sputtered. “You calling me short!” He shouted, but his anger was hollow, good-natured. Arguing for the sake of it, to pass the time. Something she could never do, not on this. Not when it had ruined so much of her life and cost her… cost her her other parent.

Brar had no Gods be damned clue.

At least it got them of off merchants and their greedy, self-righteous ways. And if the ugly man thought she should be grateful to him for it, that she owed him something for it?

Lilijah would spit in his face, Oath or no Oath.

***

Lilijah’s Lifecord

Aspects (Limit)

Physical (12)

Mental (12)

Agility: 3 (17/41)

Body: 2+1

Reaction: 3

Strength: 2

Instinct: 4

Logic: 2 (14/30)

Presence: 2 (2/30)

Will: 3

Gift of Life

Health = 55

Recovery – 4/day

Gift of Heart

Skills (+Applied,-Inactive)

Agility = 3

+Scout (Eversnow) 2 (4/30)

+Dodge 2 (7/30)

+ Light Armour 2

Instinct = 4

+Survival 3

+Singing 3 (31/40)

+Threat Sense 2 (11/30)

+Poison Taste 1 (9/20)

Body = 3

+Resilience 2 (17/30)

+Stamina Recovery 2 (19/30)

+Warrior 1 (6/20)

Logic = 2

+Poisons 2

+Ilvir Mountains (Region) 2

Reaction = 3

+Awareness 2 (1/20)

+Tracking 1 (18/20)

+Reflex 1 (4/20)

Presence = 2

+Temptress 1 (5/20)

+Humor 1 (1/20)

Strength = 2

+Hunter (Eversnow) 2

Will = 3

+Eversnow Traditions 3

+Resistance 2 (13/30)

+Sensitive 2 (Tastes) (4/30)