After Black joined us (though apparently she had been following the entire time unbeknownst to me) the remainder of the journey back to camp was relatively peaceful.

As we run into the camp area I see several figures franticly running back and forth, picking up everything they can and throwing them onto the wagons. At a glance I see Holeria, Bodelee, Bodelin, Morvin, and Nika bustling about.

Holeria is the first to notice us. She points us out and yells, "They're back!"

Zeph grumpily says, "Yeah, point us out to the rest of the camp while you're at it. Are we done yet?"

"No. You didn't exactly give us much of a heads up," Nika says, her usually calm demeanor replaced with one of panic and uncertainty as she frantically ran around loading things onto wagons.

"Yeah well, neither did we. Is our dwarf up and moving yet?"

"You called?" Morvin poked his head out from around a wagon he was loading. The dwarf had been losing consciousness at random times recently, so Zeph had insisted he sit out the battle.

"Is he okay?" Holeria asks nervously, looking at Vurt draped over Zeph's shoulder.

"He's fine. Here can you take him?" When Holeria takes the unconscious elf he says, "Thanks. Albatos shown up yet?"

"Behind you," Albatos says, walking in from the trees behind us.

"The hell took you so long?"

"Ran into some trouble, we can talk about it later."

"We need to take the kid and disappear before anyone unwelcome makes it here," Zeph says.

"You're just gonna ditch the rest of us?" Holeria asks with a look of shock.

"Of course not," Albatos shoots back, "We need to set a rendezvous point of course, but having Stein here is going to put a massive target on our backs. Zeph, I'll see if I can contact Annora and have her draw everyone back while you get the necessary things out of your tent."

Zeph nods and jogs over to his tent, still not packed up.

A minute later he comes out with a large bag over his shoulder and a map in his hands, "Alright, Black come here. Look, we're about here I think. The three of us are going to head northeast to about here. When everybody else gets here make sure you head to this area, and make sure you aren't followed."

"Got it."

"You done yet Albatos?"

"Yeah. She's coming back."

"Great. Then come on, the three of us are heading out."

I follow along with the two of them as we depart the camp, heading in the direction Zeph had indicated on the map. Nothing is said as we travel uninterrupted for over an hour. Eventually, we reach a secluded clearing and stop.

Zeph sits down on a fallen log and puts a hand to his temple while he pulls out his map. He spends about a minute like that before he takes a deep breath and asks, "What held you up, Albatos?"

"Gen. The guy seriously thought having a blessing would offset the political repercussions of killing someone with Bymos' blessing."

"He dead then?"

"No, he put up a barrier so I shattered it."

Zeph frowns, "Seems a bit cruel for you."

"It's purely strategic. He had to go one way or another, and I thought this way we'd have less heat on our backs."

"You shattered the soul of a regional lord. How is that going to get heat off our backs?"

"Did I? You think that's what he'll report? It would also bring to light the fact that he fought me, indicating his intention to go after Stein. If he had managed to actually gain a blessing then maybe his crimes would have been pardoned, but since he didn't it would be idiotic to admit that he tried to kill a blessed."

"You think he'd care? Don't people with shattered souls usually only have a few days to live before they die?" It's the first thing I've said in a while, and both Zeph and Albatos look at me with expressions I can't read.

Zeph responds, "...Gen has a son, or an heir at least. I can't remember the rules of succession in this damn kingdom. Either way, I highly doubt he'd be willing to fuck up the reputation of his family because of his dumb mistake."

Albatos sighs, "I guess it's time to address the biggest issue."

Zeph sighs as well, "Yeah. Kid, what the fuck were you thinking?"

"Hm?"

"You didn't think it important to mention you had a blessing?"

"No? Not like it's ever done anything for me."

"Well, how long have you had it?" Albatos asks, frustrated.

"Before we left Hornhaven. Right after we made the contract. Why does it matter?"

"Why does it matter? Yeah Zeph, why would something like a blessing matter? I can't think of any possible reason it might matter in the slightest."

"Relax. The kid lost his memory, remember? We can't blame him for not knowing."

Zeph turns to face me, "Kid, that blessing of yours is an incredibly rare and important gift. I've heard Bymos very rarely blesses somebody, and that blessing always bestows some kind of ability. Not only that, the blessed are people of extreme importance to the church. Unless I'm mistaken, the last person to have been blessed is the hero of Djudiria, the boy who saved the kingdom."

"I've never noticed any special ability or something like that though."

Zeph looked towards Albatos, "You wanna tell him?"

"Stein, I was the one who found you when you fell from the cliff after your fight with the beastboy. I witnessed your wounds heal before my eyes."

I frown, "That doesn't make sense."

"What do you mean?"

"When I woke up in the infirmary my legs were still broken. Same with my wounds right now, I can still feel the pain of the slash across my forehead. Even if it was something that activated unconsciously, shouldn't it have healed all my wounds at that time?"

Albatos frowns and Zeph puts a hand to his chin before saying, "So we know it has something to do with self-healing, we likely just don't know the activation conditions." He sighs, "Though honestly, the bigger problem is the fact that you have a blessing in the first place."

"Why? If I have some special ability shouldn't that be a good thing?"

"The ability, yes. The baggage that ability comes with is going to be a major pain in the ass. How many people do you think were on that field that can attest to the fact that there's a white haired boy with a blessing? The church is going to lock onto us like vultures. And it's not an exaggeration to say that if they find the specifics of our contract they'll go to any means necessary to kill me."

"So we leave. We high tail it out of this area and find some other place to make money."

"Hah! I like your spirit, but when it comes to a blessed you can count on the church as an entirety coming together. That means international communication and collaboration. We could travel to the other side of the world and they'd still pursue us." He paused then added, "Though I find it very interesting that your first thought is how to avoid them. You'd be lauded as a saint if you were to go with them, yet you seem like you'd rather stay here. Why?"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"I never asked for a blessing from that asshole and the life of a celebrity holds no appeal whatsoever. You upheld your end of the bargain. I still intend to hold mine up too."

Zeph stares at me, trying to read me. I stare right back, unwavering. It would be a lie to say I hold a great amount of loyalty towards him. I still find his motives and machinations suspicious as well. But besides all that, there's the fact that I've started to genuinely enjoy the company of some of the people here.

"Fine then," Zeph says, looking away.

"Speaking of money," Albatos starts, "What are our plans regarding funding, Zeph? It's not like we have a bottomless well of gold sitting around."

"No, but we did recent come into some unexpected wealth," He responds, shooting a glance my way.

"We did?"

I ignore Albatos' question and try to use the point as leverage to get some info, "Do I get to be let in on the long term plans? I know you've got some grand scheme going. I'd be easier if I knew what it was."

"No. There's still some things I need to confirm first, and you're still too inexperienced. The time isn't yet right." He sighs, "For now, we need to split up. If we travel together the church will zero in on us and destroy everything. So we need to allocate people to accompany you while you go somewhere safe. Now it's just a matter of figuring out who."

"I have an idea regarding that," Albatos says.

***

The rest of the company arrived six hours later as the sky was getting dark.

When the day had begun there were more than 40 members of Zeph's company. Now we were down to around 30. Not terrible losses considering what had happened, but a significant loss nonetheless.

I'm happy to see that Orelio made it back fine, though it weirds me out how Sam seems to be chilling with Arim. I thought she was a follower of Reverie, which means she should want to kill me still. I'm guessing there's a story there, but I'm not brave enough to ask for it.

Zeph gathers everyone in a meeting almost as soon as we meet up, "Alright everyone, though our time back was brief, this area has already run dry of opportunity. As I'm sure we all know by this point, we have a member among us with a little 'gift'."

He walks over to me and puts his hands on my shoulders, "Unfortunately, that 'gift' is going to bring a huge amount of trouble down on our heads if we don't do anything about it. So for now we will be saying farewell to our friend. He's made it clear he still intends to remain in my employ, but we agree that a tactical separation is in order."

"How's he supposed to remain under your employ while he's not with us?" Redina asks.

"We've talked it out ourselves. You're welcome to ask him yourself, as he is still your comrade. Now unfortunately, seeing as how it would be the height of stupidity to send him off alone, Albatos will be going with him. Which means I'll be directly overseeing general management from here on."

There are groans from throughout the crowd. It's very clear nobody is enthusiastic about that.

"Several others will be accompanying him as well, but those members have not fully been decided yet. We will only be resting here for an hour. After that be prepared to move on."

After that, the members started milling about attending to wounds or gear, whatever they hadn't been able to do during the immediate exodus. I saw Annora get pulled to the side by Albatos and followed Zeph to the secluded meeting spot we had arranged.

When Annora sees me and Zeph standing together waiting for them, she immediately grimaces. "Let me guess, you want me to be the bodyguard," She says.

"Yes, but there's more to it than that," Albatos says from next to her, "Gen said something I found interesting when I met him in the woods."

She leveled a measuring gaze at Albatos before she simply said, "Shit."

"I'm guessing my assumption that you have at least some connection to the Waldian nobility isn't unfounded."

"I suppose that's one way you could put it. But I don't really get along well with most of my family, else I wouldn't be out here."

"We won't ask your reasons or motives, you've served us well enough that they aren't important at this point. But surely you know the country better than us. You'd be able to find safe places nobody else would think of."

She sighs, "Yeah, I suppose. Let me talk to my husbands first."

Zeph nods, "Of course. This isn't a mandatory order, it's just that you're the best person for the job."

"And it's a job I usually wouldn't accept. But… Lee is quite attached to our little troublemaker here, so I know he'd be mad if I turned you down over stubborn pride."

As Annora left the clearing Albatos turns to Zeph, "Okay, who else? We can't afford to send any more core members, so Arim and Black need to stay."

The brush rustles as Orelio steps through it. His clothes are stained with blood all over the place, but he seems fine. Most likely Nika had seen to him. "What about me?" He asks.

Albatos laughs, "Why would we send someone whose primary hobby was headhunting before they joined us."

"No, wait," I interject, "He's trustworthy. As weird as it is for me to be the one to say it, we can count on him."

Zeph gives me a look, "You sure kid?"

"He had every opportunity to stab me in the back out there but he didn't. It'll be fine."

Zeph looks Orelio over and seems to like something he sees in the beastman's posture, "Alright spearman, you're in. We'll send Morvin as well, just to round out the group. Hell, if you wander the land of the dwarves maybe you'll find out what's wrong with him. He's clearly got some sickness but Nika's clueless about it."

"Alright. Come on beastboy, let's gather the supplies we'll need." Albatos takes Orelio and they head back into camp together.

I'm about to follow them when Zeph calls out, "Where you going?"

"Gonna go say bye to my friends."

"It'd probably be better if you stayed away for now. Might be some mixed feelings about the whole blessing thing."

"Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'll do what I want."

"Stein," The change in the tone of his voice made me freeze. I turned to him and saw his serious expression.

"What? Didn't we already talk everything out?"

"Yeah. The town we're supposed to meet up at in three months… It's in my interests that you're there on time. In the event that you can't be there or the meetup fails for some reason it's also in my interests that you, to the best of your ability, try to find me."

Something in his words triggered a hint of a memory. It didn't take long for me to realize what his wording was alluding to.

The participant Stein will agree to serve the interests of the participant Zeph Morgan.

That had been the exact phrasing of the contract we had agreed to.

So he's worried enough about me being off the leash he'll invoke the contract to keep me in line.

"Sure," is all I say before walking off. It seemed a pointless gesture, that was already what I intended to do. Still, it did show how nervous me being off the leash made him.

Walking into camp I see Annora talking privately to her husbands and Albatos and Orelio gathering supplies while roping Morvin into the operation as well. I walk over to Redina, the first friend I felt I had made.

"Sup hero?" She called out as I approached.

"Please don't call me that."

"Why not? Don't you know that those who get blessings are usually people destined to save the world?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure the last blessed hero before the one in Djudiria was in the summoning war," Arim interjected from the side.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Still planning on telling people I drank with a future hero."

I groan, putting a hand to my forehead.

"Stay safe, kid." Arim pats my back as he says it.

"You too. Thanks for teaching me everything, I doubt I would have survived today without the experiences you gave me."

He waves off my thanks, "I'm just glad I had such a studious student."

"Oh, are we seeing Stein off?" I hear Holeria call out from behind me.

"Yup, come get your goodbyes in while you can," Arim jokingly says.

I turn and see Holeria slightly blushing, seeming like she can't decide what to say. Without a word she sticks her hand out, looking for a handshake.

Smiling, I take her hand and shake it. She seems to finally muster her courage as she says, "Thanks, Stein. I'm glad it was you who found me in those woods. Thanks, for telling me what I needed to hear. Then and before I suppose."

"No problem. How's Vurt by the way?"

His expression dims as she replies, "He's still out, but Nika says he should be fine."

I see Albatos waving at me from across the clearing, "Alright, gotta go. See you guys later!" They wave me off as I jog over to Albatos. "We all ready?" I ask.

"Yep. You ready too?"

"Hmm," I had wanted to say goodbye to Black as well, but I didn't see her around, "Yeah, I guess so."

Albatos led me on to where Annora, Bodelee, Bodelin, Morvin, and Orelio were waiting.

I decide to voice the question, "Alright Annora, so where are we going?"

"One of the sister cities to the capital, Voset. I have a sister there that I think will take us in."

"Alright then, lead on," Albatos says.

We start moving out as I see movement in the underbrush. "Go on a bit without me, I'll catch up," I call out, lagging behind a bit.

"You can come out now," I say to the moving bush.

Black walks out from behind it, "Just thought I'd say goodbye."

I feel a smile warm my face, but a dark thought dampens it. When I had left Hornhaven I said goodbye, intending for it to be the last time I ever saw Alice. I hated the idea of repeating that here, as I had every intention of returning.

"Goodbye is a little sad, isn't it? How about see ya later instead?"

"Hmph. Isn't it all the same? That's nothing more than meaningless semantics."

"It's not meaningless if the meaning isn't the same."

She's about to make a retort when she looks up and sees my face. I hadn't intended on making one, but she clearly saw something in my expression to give her pause.

"Fine then, see ya later."

I put my fist out in a fist bump and she returns the gesture. As I turn to leave I hear her call out, "Remember, no matter how far apart we are, we'll always be looking at the same starry sky."

I turn back, surprised at her sudden display of poetic sentimentality, only to find she's already disappeared.