Telin could see a tempest seeker advance party getting nearer and nearer. They checked each cave on their way, which had some sad implications.

"Oh Flyte," Telin said. "You silly boy. Why send me ants?"

"Do you want me to do anything about them?" Tarr asked.

Telin didn't look at the kid. "No, I've got this one."

He leapt from the cliff's ledge gracefully, landing only a dozen feet in front of his hunters.

'Wait.'

"I've met you before, haven't I?" Telin asked one member of the party, a man missing his arm. "Weren't you one of Aliran's scourge hunters? Myllin? Sure, you weren't in Aliran's Second Sword, but still, talk about biting the hand that feeds you."

"Telin," Myllin began, unwavering. "You have been tried for crimes against Riftgard, and have been found to be guilty. Your sentence? Death. Is there anything you wish to say?"

"Which crimes, specifically?" Telin's smile was wolfish.

"I'd have you killed for assassination and harboring scourge monsters, as well as the sure kidnapping of a certain boy, Flyte."

"I asked which crimes your boss wanted me dead for," Telin laughed. "Not which ones you did."

Myllin sighed. "Treason. He sentenced you for taking away so many of Chraith's mages. He believes that the late king Ralthus could have been resisted by using them."

"Sir!" One of Myllin's soldiers protested.

"Treason? I've never even been a citizen of Chraith. It seems that Renarl is getting greedy."

"Now," Myllin scoffed. "Don't be so hypocritical. Without your intervention, a lot of suffering could have been avoided."

'What a fool.'

"People suffer every day," Telin laughed. "I can see it in your eyes. You don't care much for Renarl, so you might as well leave here now, I've got work to do."

"Do not patronize me!" Myllin shouted, his face composed, but his voice furious. "You are not as high and mighty as you pretend to be. I already know why you resort to these murders and sneaking. You believe that you know what to do to find the greater good between suffering and annihilation."

"But you don't," Myllin fumed. "You listen to the demon in your sword more than Aliran's guidance!"

"Harsh," Telin said. "Still, you give me no reason not to belittle you. You're just a runt compared to your peers, so what would you know of Aliran's guidance?"

"And what do you expect to accomplish here anyways? There's no way you could even dream of fighting me with just one of your arms left. Or do you think you can show me what little worth Aliran saw in you?"

Myllin sighed. "Before this gets messy, I promised Flyte I'd give you this letter." he pulled a letter out of one of his cloak pockets. "So here you go."

Telin took the letter and stuck it in his own cloak pocket to read later. "I'll let you make the first move. It would be bad form for someone as strong as me to fight those as weak as you five without it being clear self-defense."

Even as he spoke, Telin eyed their weapons warily. He didn't know anything about Myllin's, but the lower ranked tempest seekers' weapons were made specifically to kill him. One cut would power them through his blood, and the second would cut off his soul from Aliran's, instantly obliterating him.

Despite there being five soldiers, Telin was fairly confident that he could kill all of them before they could get their first hit in.

One of the soldiers struck out nervously, desperate to strike Telin before he could be killed. Telin dove in, closing the distance too much for the tempest seeker to do much of anything to him.

The other tempest seekers were slow to act as Telin ruthlessly pummeled the man with his fists. by the time they did interfere, the man was already out cold and in need of medical attention.

A crossbow bolt flew through the air, straight for Telin, as a sword's swing approached from the other side. He jumped through the gap between the two, kicking the swordsman in the head on his way down.

Telin drew Fragment out of its sheath. The demon-possessed blade was in three pieces, but shadows held it in place quite easily. It floated on its own, controlled by Balrot the Black Flame, the demon trapped inside.

As Fragment kept Myllin occupied, Telin approached the woman who had shot at him.

'Foulos, wishlor.'

Telin held onto his newly frozen thunderbolt as the tempest seeker drew her own sword and activated a barrier.

'Based on those runes, that barrier sacrifices general protection for lightning resistance. Looks like they have a great dwarven runesmith, but that was just not a good idea.'

Telin simply flung the soldier into the air with some wind magic and turned toward his next victim.

'Foulos.'

The tempest seeker blocked a bolt of lightning aimed from the sky with his barrier and fired his crossbow at Telin.

Telin caught the bolt and inspected it. The tip seemed to have been fashioned out of kuoros, which was extremely annoying.

To counter this ranged attack, Telin threw his own projectile, a knife, at the man. The tempest seeker wasn't able to avoid the blade.

Telin struck his unconscious foes with his frozen thunderbolt, killing them instantly, before he finally turned toward Myllin.

Myllin was doing a remarkable job against Fragment, but there was no quick way for him to end that fight, It was incredibly hard to break shadow metal, even for honorsouls, so the old fighter had no chance.

Still, watching made Telin want to fight. He called back his sword to wield and let the thunderbolt thaw.

Telin chose not to use magic to end this fight quickly. He was well aware that he was the better mage of the two, but he was only fairly sure that he was better with weapons.

And he'd much rather be certain.

The two exchanged blows at an incredible rate. Neither wasted the smallest modicum of energy, though Myllin was forced to move back to preserve his distance.

'I suppose I am the better fighter. Oh well, I might as well end this here.'

"Foulos," Telin said powerfully. The resulting burst of lightning had no branching paths to carve through the air between the two fighters, but it was a truly enormous bolt. Smoke and dust billowed out from the point of impact, the exact place Myllin had stood.

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

"Well, that's interesting," Balrot remarked.

"What is?" Telin asked.

Myllin leapt out from the smokescreen, his armor still covered in steam. Myllin's sword spear cleaved into Telin's neck, pushed forward by the magically strengthened tempest seeker.

"That."

The blade went through halfway before Telin could block it with his own sword.

Telin took a moment to figure out how his opponent was still standing, none the worse for wear, but now that Myllin's cloak had been burned away to ashes, that moment was all it took for Telin to spot it.

"Oh, I see," he said. "Your armor and spear were forged by Aliran."

Normally, that would potentially have still been little enough defense for Telin to cut through, but the armor had been enchanted to absorb mannah and empower the user with it. It had cost the veran nothing more than time, but it would be painstaking for Telin to break through it.

Telin noted the wound on his neck healing more slowly than normal.

'Oh great, his weapon's coated with Kuoros dust, too.'

Worse, while Telin was preparing to fight longer, Myllin had the gall to start hopping away furiously.

Telin sighed, a little upset at the fight's outcome, but not in the mood to spend however long of an amount of time it would take to catch up to Myllin and beat through his defenses.

Walking back to the guild-cave, Telin read the note his once-student had sent him.

'Shades, that's not good.'

Telin ran off to find Tarr. Today, He'd need the boy's help.

----------------------------------------

Caedric races through the desert. He had shot past the spindler-snappers and the sand shark, not paying them too much mind. Still, it was strange that he was no longer being chased by any sort of fiend.

As Caedric saw it, the absence of Rift monsters was a much worse sign then there being hordes of them. It meant that they were congregated.

It also meant that he had a reason to be moving even faster.

Caedric kicked it up a notch, in terms of raw speed. Windblown sand sliced into him, cutting up his partially unprotected face and inflicting a burning sensation all over as his legs and lungs started to weary.

The part azial collapsed in pain and exhaustion. He simply couldn't move fast enough.

With his throat dry and sore, he unlatched the canteen Frina had prepared for him.

It was a bit strange, drinking water from a spring that many considered sacred. They believed that it was sanctified b Frina, who safeguarded a piece of Aliran's divinity, but even she treated the spring as a simple source of water.

With his thirst parched, Caedric looked around, trying to find any changes in Ander's movements.

As he looked around, Caedric noticed a city's walls to his left, very far away.

'There's no way they chose not to go there.'

Caedric's feet flew as he sprinted toward the city. He held his wrapped up arm in front of his face to protect it from sand, having learned from his extremely painful mistake.

Caedric walked into the city's gates. it was readily obvious that he had walked into Ahken, as no other city was so far in the Rift, but it was oddly damaged. The walls were more devastated than normal, housing had collapsed, and the mood was generally dismal all throughout town.

Meandering about and asking for clues with no solid answers, Caedric eventually ran into a large cluster of white cloaked individuals. Most were children or the elderly, but there were a few younger adults in the crowd. Some cared for the children while others looked for shelter.

'They look like they could use some help. Help that I just might be able to provide'

"Hey," Caedric greeted with a warm smile. "How are you lot doing?"

An elderly man turned to speak with him. "A little tired for the most part." He looked to the group to see their quick nodding. "Because we're only here for a few days, we've no place to stay. Still, seeing a smiling face is certainly a welcome sight."

"Not a lot of smiling face around, then?" Caedric asked. He'd noticed similar as he walked around Ahken, but the confirmation of the news certainly didn't invoke any happy feelings.

"No sir," a kid popped in. "Lots of big, scary monsters showed up, and the townsfolk weren't quite ready."

"They weren't that scary," a little girl chimed in.

"You must be very brave then," Caedric smiled. 'So that's why the townsfolk were so fixated on their current situations.'

"How's about we have some fun with this?" Caedric asked the children. "You gather as much firewood and water as you can manage, and I'll show you a very cool magic trick."

"Okay!" they shouted, before scurrying off in every direction.

An adult sighed. "It's not so easy, watching over all these kids, you know."

"You needn't worry," Caedric said, his smile feeling less comfortable on his face than before. "So long as we find some unoccupied space, my work here will be much more helpful than this distraction is harmful."

"If you say so."

The kids returned, bringing in much more water than wood. The wood they did bring seemed suspect, like it had been snatched from one of the fallen buildings Caedric had passed by on his way into the city. It was no matter, of course. What Caedric planned to do would likely fix the underlying issues there, too.

"Okay," Caedric beamed. "Can you guys find me a large are that you're certain no one would mind having cleared out or built on?"

"Sure," one of the kids said. They lead the way much more slowly and tiredly than they had run off before. It was a lot of water.

They eventually took him to a section of Ahken where several houses in a large clump had been toppled.

Caedric cracked his knuckles, then used his powers, as someone with azial blood, to push away the debris. During his training with Frina, she had changed his body somehow, making his powers feel odd to use. Now, it was almost like he was more than half-azial, but he had no clue whether he was as innately strong as full-blooded azial or not.

"Are you ready?" Caedric asked the kids.

Many nodded enthusiastically, and only one was beginning to doze off, so Caedric counted it as a win.

"Here was go!" Caedric said, as he pulled a little seed out of a pouch on his side and threw it to the center of the clearing.

An ironwood tree seed.

Combining nature and his inherent azial powers, Caedric twisted an utterly huge tree into existence. It was wider than any of the fallen over houses were, and its center was as stiff and sturdy as metal, thanks to the ironwood tree Caedric had gown inside.

Wooden stairs formed along the trunk, leading up to expansive branches lined with metal from the inner tree's own branches. These large branches each held rooms, and there were very many leaves and fruits jutting out in beautiful medleys, and the roofs were supported quite firmly by iron cages. And the railings! Handrails, and linked fences were everywhere, their design such that no one, no matter the size, could fall through even if they were to try.

The tree reached high in the sky, and Caedric made sure that the leaves of both trees reached high in the sky, and Caedric made sure that the roots reached very deep in the ground to. Leaves for the ironwood and exterior trees were certainly plentiful enough, so plentiful that even the Rift's reduced sunlight would be enough to keep the trees healthy and strong.

"Well," Caedric started, quite tired. "How do you like your new home?"

The children shouted in excitement before running off, belying their previous exhaustion, and several of the adults looked like they wanted to do the same.

The elders looked a little more overwhelmed.

"Don't worry," Caedric chuckled. "I made sure to include a really nice pulley on the other side, so you don't have to climb all of those stairs."

"Oh," the older man, whom Caedric had spoken to earlier, said. "I'm just wondering what we're supposed to do with so many rooms, and, more importantly, what you want in return."

"The rooms can be shared," Caedric answered the first problem. "Quite a few people have lost their homes by the looks of this town. About recompense, I already have mine. With this wood and water, I'll be able to use magic to fuel myself for the last leg of my journey. I guess it would be better if I had some more light, but I'll take what I can get."

"Light," an aloof teen blurted, creating a sphere of light in his very palms. "We have that in spades."

"That's true," the old man said. "We are light mages."

"Oh," Caedric said. "In that case, could you please make some light for me once I get a fire to roar?"

"Of course," the man said brightly.

It took only a few minutes to make the extremely dry, desert logs become a blaze of flames.

"Okay," Caedric exhaled, bone tired. "Light, please."

"Nelar," many of the nomads said at once.

The gloomy desert disappeared in the light, as it exploded in purity.

"Helis," Caedric said, emphasizing his hunger and fatigue, an easy tone for him at the moment.

Water from the buckets, smoke from the pyre, and light from the mages magic flowed into Caedric's body, granting him immense energy as his magic broke it all down.

Caedric had never felt so awake before, in all his years living. It was as though lightning coursed through his veins, quickly spreading through the whole of his body. His leafshard armor was revitalized, and his weariness dissipated.

"Thank you," Caedric said. "But I've got to get going."

Then, he ran, undeterred by the darkness that again enveloped the desert.

----------------------------------------

Ontin knew what the letter said before he even saw the messenger bird.

He'd seen it many times before, after all.

"Oh, what a cruel fate," Ontin exclaimed tiredly. "And there's so little I can do to alleviate it."

"But you will do what you can, yes?" his ever-supportive honorbound asked.

"Of course," Ontin said. "I can't bear seeing Flyte die again."

"It is strange though," Kayr remarked. "That Rush focuses more on the random soldier than the vulnerable honorsoul."

"That act is anything but random," Ontin grimaced. "That soldier brings more opportunities to bear for Rush than Flyte scares him. I just wish I could save them both. What even is the point of travelling through time if Rush still remembers what happened?"

"Hey," Kayr said. "It's not like it always fails, your time gates. You got me out alright, and that's got to have been a big mistake on Rush's part."

"That's true," Ontin smiled. "Perhaps his biggest."

And, yet again, it was time to go to the Rift.

Again.