-- Lily's perspective --

Before the ceremony.

Oswald standing alone in an alley was not what I was expecting to see. I could hardly believe my ears when he started talking about fleeing Silvergrove. Though at the same time, it made sense. I never told him, but I knew the twins were my kids. After my head cleared up the morning after their birth, I recalled bits and pieces, but still could not believe it. It was only when Oswald named them Alena and Alaster that I realized it had to be true.

He had decided to keep it a secret, yet did not try to keep me away either. I knew there must be a reason for it, but his love for them told me he had a reason for his silence. The letter he gave me must hold the reason.

I wanted to read it now, but the ceremony was soon. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen then. I had to prepare myself. He specifically told me to go south, which would take me to the border. I had no idea what was outside of Aston, all the stories I heard were of a corrupted wasteland, with only small patches of civilization remaining. Hardly the place one would want to go to by choice.

Taking a deep breath, I put the letter in my pocket and headed to the square. If nothing happened tonight, I was going to beat Oswald within an inch of his life. I had an unsettling feeling that he was right though.

The square was gathering with people, and I went over to the grocer with the other villagers. Being with Alaster would be nice, but I couldn’t risk being so close to the order if something was going to happen.

Soon Oswald took the stage. Starting the ceremony with the standard prayer. He showed no signs that something was wrong, years of keeping secrets had given him a great poker face.

The prayer itself was uneventful, but as Alena finally took the stage, I felt a knot in my stomach. I put on a brave face for Alena, I didn’t want her to think anything was wrong. Her eyes carried some concern, Oswald must have given her a talk as well. Was Alaster the only one not aware? He was with the order though, and his magic would keep him safe at least.

Alena approached the mana crystal and took it into her hand. I took a deep breath, hoping that everything turned out like every other ceremony, but nothing seemed to happen. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but before I had a chance, a bright flash filled my eyes.

Alena erupted into flames, with a giant pillar whirling around her. This was not normal. I had never seen magic react this strongly before. My ceremony only caused some fire to build up on my arm.

I worried about her, but this was likely part of what Oswald feared. Did he want her to escape the order? She had the aptitude they would want, but this seemed hardly enough for him to be so secretive about it.

My questions were soon answered as the flames were replaced by thick black smoke. Dark mana. The pieces fell together in my mind.

She was going to be killed. The order was going to kill her. I looked over to Oswald and his only response was a light nod to me. I had to go. I had to trust Oswald had a plan to help Alena.

People around me were panicking, so I used that to get over to the bar quickly, everyone seemed to want to run home, or hide behind buildings while cautiously keeping an eye on the situation.

Thankfully no one seemed to be behind the bar when I got there. Not that I could worry about that. I rushed to untether the horse, patting it to calm it. It was a war horse, so even with all the screaming it only seemed slightly agitated, a good thing for me.

“Lily” I heard called from above. I spun my neck up to look, it could only be one person.

“Jack” I called, he had seen me. What should I do? I didn’t have time to explain to him.

“Here,” he called, dropping a large pouch to me. I barely caught it, it was quite heavy. Confused I looked inside. Gold, more than I had ever seen. It must have been his life savings.

“Wha… Jack?” I asked, stunned. He just looked down at me and smiled.

“You took good care of me all these years. I overheard you and Oswald earlier. I don’t have long in this world, what’s wrong with helping my daughter and granddaughter? Now go!” He replied. Smiling as he waved me off.

Teary-eyed I jumped on the horse and waved. I could not form words of thanks, I wish I could have hugged him, he treated me so well over these years. Giving me a place to stay and work. Though he never liked my line of work. I was too old for it now, it was a good time to retire from it I guess.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I pushed the horse into a gallop, leaving the village, following the tree line to make myself a little less visible. The chaos back in the village was still fresh, so it would be a while before they would discover the missing horse.

The horse had high stamina, but I didn’t want to run the poor thing ragged. I slowed to a light trot after I was fully out of sight of the village. The trail continued north, but I could see a junction ahead, a path to the west and continuing north.

I turned west, the path here was far less maintained it seemed. Only foreign merchants and patrols used it. I hoped I didn’t run into a patrol.

It was getting dark though, so I slowed the horse to a walk and pulled out the letter.

Lily, this letter is a fake, sorry, the bag contains another.

That fucker, I thought. It made sense though, whatever happened tonight was dangerous. If I got caught and the letter contained anything that could assist the order in finding Alena, I would have cursed him even more. At least having it in the bag was an extra step.

I could not get into the bag on the horse. I had to get off. We were pretty far from the village now, it might be a good place to camp for the night. Directing the horse into the tree line, I went in far enough to not be easily seen from the path.

Being out here was dangerous. I was far from the ward so there could be demons. I had to be careful and avoid making too much noise.

Getting off the horse, I tethered it to a nearby tree. I opened up the bag and put the gold pouch inside, it was heavy and I didn’t bother trying to put it in while I was fleeing.

Inside the pouch, there was dried meat, some grains, and other supplies. The letter was placed on top, with a map under it, and on one side was a familiar necklace. A portable ward.

He truly did think ahead. I grabbed it to put it around my neck, but there was something else tied to it. A mana crystal.

Portable wards were connected to the main church ward. They could be used for fairly long distances and were used to allow hunting parties to avoid demons when they were far out of range of the main ward.

Wards are directly connected to the priest’s mana, so if something happened to the priest then the ward, and even the portable wards would cease to function.

The mana crystal here was one stored in the church for such a situation, A temporary battery for the ward until a new priest could be sent.

I paled. If he put this in the bag to keep the portable ward going he did not expect to live past tonight. Stealing a backup mana crystal for a ward was high treason. He wanted to make sure this portable ward would remain effective even should he pass away.

Right now the crystal was inert. So the portable ward was still drawing mana from the main ward. I had to hope he had a plan for himself as well. I still needed to beat him.

I put the portable ward back, it was a bad idea to separate them and the mana crystal was too big to go around my neck with the ward. I grabbed the letter instead and began to read.

Lily, first I want to apologize. For years I kept it a secret, but Alena and Alaster are your children. I am sure you suspected it to some degree, but even I am not sure exactly how it happened. Just that you were not pregnant earlier in the day, but came to me at night ready to give birth.

I knew that, though it seemed Oswald had about as much of an idea of the how of it as I did. I continued reading.

Alaster manifested powerful light magic, and Alena showed some signs she might have the opposite affinity, for dark magic. Something no human has ever had as far as I am aware. I prepared for the worst to make sure that if my fears were realized, you could both escape.

To the south is a nation called Crosta. Head to Altea, it’s capital. I have told Bradley to keep an eye out for your name, in case anything happens. Alena has the same instructions. I hope you can both meet up there.

Alaster should be safe with the order, I just hope their ideals don’t corrupt him like the rest of them. I wish I could do more, but this is the limit of my ability.

I love you, Lily, I am sorry I was never able to say it. You do not need to forgive me, I have no right to it. But please live, and protect our daughter.

This letter is written with ink that will come off with water, wash it to destroy it.

Head to Altea, that was my destination. But my eyes still hovered over his confession to me. We had always been like a family, I always kept distant from him because of his love for secrets but I did care about him.

I folded the letter, there was no water nearby and I didn’t want to waste what I had in my bag to destroy it if I was even going to. The letter felt special, something I didn’t want to lose.

The sun was almost set now. I could continue on the path, or rest here. Lingering here was likely dangerous, but so was trying to navigate down a barely maintained path in the middle of the night.

Then again, I could use my arm like a torch, As long as I didn’t meet a patrol I should make some good time.

As I was thinking, I saw some light coming out of the bag.

I slowly went over to the bag and opened it. The mana crystal was activated. The main ward was down. Oswald was dead.

I choked, just like that he was gone. That made my decision for me. I had to risk it.

I got back on the horse and teary-eyed took off down the trail, keeping a good pace. The poor horse was going to need to work hard tonight.

As darkness fell, I lit up my arm to keep some visibility. My mana reserves were not great, I could only keep this up for a couple of hours at most. The horse would need some time as well, but a couple of hours could be the difference between being found in the morning or not.

Oswald thinking ahead and preparing dried meat that didn’t need to be cooked was nice, I would not have to waste mana to cook for myself. He was always so thoughtful.

I had to stop though, I would have time to grieve later. Alena was likely alone, she was tough but there was a limit to that. The sooner we could meet up the better. I had to get to Altea and make sure she had a place to call home there.

Jack had given me a lot of gold. Maybe I could open my own bar?