‘What Inq-’ Anika began, but I shushed her.

‘Run now, questions later,’ I spat.

‘But where?’ Ren asked.

I pointed to the stone fence opposite the entrance.

As the fence was taller than any of us, Anika asked:

‘You sure you can climb that?’

We didn't answer with Ren, as we were already at a dead run.

I heard her cursing a streak that would make both Lilyth and Savri proud, but to her credit, Anika quickly caught up to us. It also became clear she was in much better shape than either of us as she made a running leap and quickly scaled to the top of the wall. She then extended her hand down and helped Ren climb after I boosted the half-harpy. Once my girlfriend was over the wall, Anika tried to help me too, but I simply shook my head, unfurled my wings and flew over. It was just in time too, as at the apex of my flight I heard the shout of:

‘There! A Bloodspawn! We must not let her get away.’

As I disappeared behind the wall, I saw that the man who was shouting was wearing white-and-gold robes.

I hid my wings the moment my feet touched the ground. Anika then pointed deep into the forest.

‘There. I have a hideout in that direction.’

We started running, listening for the sounds of the pursuit, but those never came.

What?

Still, I didn’t want to slow us down, so this question ended up on the “for later” pile.

Anika led us through the uneven ground of the area, I am fairly certain we passed through some spots multiple times and eventually, we stopped at a small cave.

‘Here,’ she said slightly panting.

‘Didn’t… know… the… undead… could… get… tired,’ I wheezed, gasping for breath.

Ren just collapsed onto her knees and vomited from exertion.

‘I don’t think I am fully undead,’ Anika shrugged. ‘Or at least a normal one if there is such a thing.’

We waited for Ren to recover and then went inside the cave.

‘Why weren’t they chasing us?’ I asked.

‘Because the Inquisitor lacks the authority to order it,’ I heard a familiar voice coming from the cave entrance.

I looked over there. It was Arcarius.

Fuck.

I summoned my glaive, but he made no move to attack us. I then noticed he didn’t have his armour, weapons or tabard.

What’s going on?

By then Ren recovered enough to draw her sword and join me. Even Anika took out a dagger from somewhere.

‘Listen… I mean you no harm,’ he said. ‘Allow me to explain myself.’

‘Talk quickly,’ I spat. ‘We need to get going and I can’t risk our lives on you stalling us here.’

‘Fair…’

The short version was: Arcarius screwed himself by warning us. Malth, unaware of the situation, mentioned us to the Inquisitor when he overheard them talking about the undead issue. He then pointed out that the former Temple Dragoon talked with us and that I left immediately afterwards. They entered our room, found nothing there and Arcarius was arrested by his buddies for treason. They left him guarded by one of the Viscount’s men, who promptly let him go the moment the Inquisitor was out of sight because the Dragoon broke no law the man was charged to uphold, and letting him die because he had the audacity to warn a woman about that whackjob wouldn’t sit right by him. Arcarius then fled into the forest and followed us after hearing us run.

‘Ah, so Lilyth was right about you guys,’ I said.

‘Lilyth?’ the dragoon responded quizzically. ‘Who’s that?’

What was that stupid pseudonym Lilyth uses?’

‘You may know her as Sindara.’

‘Ah…’ the knight sagged. ‘Her. I owe her thanks. She opened my eyes to certain thi… you know her?’

‘She’s my… friend.’

‘Can you take me to her?’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Caei,’ Ren said.

‘I have no idea what’s going on, but I agree,’ Anika added. ‘ I don’t… trust him.’

I hid my face in my hands.

What should I do?

‘Let’s take him with us,’ I said. ‘You should go with us too Anika. We can provide you with some shelter for now. I don’t think I have the authority to make long-term decisions on this, especially on this guy.’

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I pointed to Arcarius.

‘But Aki…’ Ren started to protest but stopped the moment she realised she said something she shouldn’t have.

‘And now you have limited our choices to killing him or taking him with us,’ I pointed out.

‘Can someone explain to me what’s happening?’ Anika demanded.

‘Short story?’ I replied. ‘He and his whackjob zealot buddies came here to hunt down a friend of mine for the crime of having a demon as a grandfather. She managed to get away, so the Inquisitor hanged her adoptive father as punishment for taking her in. Then I believe there was a minor massacre?’

Anika covered her mouth with her hand.

‘The only reason I am inclined to leave him alive is because he saved me and Ren from the same fate,’ I finished.

All strength left Arcarius.

‘So you know…’ he said. ‘If you want to kill me for that… I won’t fight back. I deserve much worse for what happened in Dan-Hem.’

‘I don’t think we should be the ones to decide your fate,’ Ren finally said. ‘If anything that right should belong to Aki, or rather… to the Viscount.’

‘Well… me and my friends were exiled for that,’ Arcarius said with pain in his voice. ‘So I don’t think I will have much luck on that front.’

‘Very well, then,’ Ren sighed. ‘Come with us, we'll decide whether to turn you in at home.’

‘Very well,’ he nodded. ‘Let it be that way.’

It was almost midnight by the time we were back home. We decided not to risk it and basically force-marched all the way back to Mer-Cas. Anika agreed to come with us, she had no better place to go, though we agreed to wait to swap our life stories until the whole gang was back together, so we grabbed her meagre possessions, basically just some basic supplies and spare clothes. Arcarius was surprisingly well-behaved and has shown no willingness to escape or act against us. He even helped us carry things, and he didn’t seem to mind Anika’s diet which consisted of raw flesh. As the girl explained, ever since she became what she was - it was the only thing she could eat that would actually nourish her.

‘Is it human?’ Arcarius asked with furrowed brows.

‘Eugh, no,’ Anika replied in mild disgust. ‘It’s some forest animal. Eating that stuff is disgusting as it is and I would never kill a person to eat them.’

That answer satisfied him, so as hard as it was for me to admit it then - I was slowly warming up to the man. He seemed like a good guy, who ended up in a fucked-up situation. So during one of our short rests, I proposed something to Ren and she agreed that we could try. It would solve one of our problems then and not bring any more risk than we were already under.

‘So… Ser Arcarius,’ I began, ‘The place we are headed to happens to be in need of a master-at-arms. Would you be capable of filling that role?’

‘Aren’t you thinking about imprisoning me?’ he asked.

‘We are, but depending on how Aki reacts to you we may try to put in a good word with the Viscount, or rather first don’t put any word in with him if you know what I mean.’

‘Why would you do such a thing?’

‘Funny story there…’

Arcarius and Anika took that bit in relative good graces. Or rather the former did, because the latter couldn't give less of a damn due to her… difficult living situation.

But needless to say, I was happy Ireela was the first one to come down, because it let me run upstairs and warn Lilyth and Aki about the more problematic of our guests.

‘Oh, him,’ Lilyth simply said, after I gave them the short version of my interactions with the former Dragoon.

They were sitting with Aki in our bedroom. Lilyth was sitting in an armchair and reading one of those monk novels, while my blue-haired cutie was playing with Veenaya.

Aki was silent for a moment after I finished and then nodded.

‘I need to speak with him,’ she finally said.

‘Don’t do anything rash, hon,’ Lilyth warned her.

‘I won’t,’ she responded in a dead tone that didn't give me much confidence in her assertion. ‘At least, I don’t think so.’

Aki handed Lilyth a cane and helped her get up. From what I learned, Lilyth had only managed to get out of bed that day and was still very weak.

We met Savri in the corridor, waiting for us.

‘Sorry for eavesdropping,’ the medic said. ‘I wanted to know what to expect.’

Though, apparently whatever she managed to listen in on, didn’t quite prepare her for what was about to happen. Because, as we descended down the stairs I heard Anika shout in disbelief:

‘Savri? Is that really you?’

The medic turned towards her and looked as if she had just seen a ghost.

‘Anika?’

‘You know each other?’ I asked.

Before either of the women could answer, Aki rushed down the stairs, ran towards Arcarius, who just stood up to greet us, and punched him in the face with enough strength to send him sprawling on the floor.

‘This is for Matis,’ she shouted, and then fell to her knees and began to cry.

Savri ran up to the side of the Dragoon and began examining him. She cast a short healing spell and then got up.

‘I think she broke your jaw,’ she said to him with a degree of malice in her voice.’ ‘I fixed that enough so you will recover, but not enough that you won’t be sore for a while.’

As she did that, I helped Lilyth to Aki’s side and we tried to comfort her, but she waved us away.

‘I-I’m fine,’ she whimpered. ‘And thank you, Sav. If you want, you can fully heal him. I don’t hate him. Not him.’

Savri complied and helped the man up, though Arcarius immediately knelt on one knee before Aki and said.

‘Aki of Dan-Hem, I apologise for what happened to your adoptive father. I know my words won’t bring him up and I will offer no excuse for my actions then. What we did was vile and unjust, and I don’t think there is much I can do to atone for it.’

Aki nodded.

‘Thank you, for what it is worth,’ she said. ‘I can’t say I forgive you, but… my grudge is with the Inquisitor. Not you.’

Arcarius rose and went back to his seat on one of the couches.

‘With that solved, tomorrow I’ll take you to Baial and figure out if he’ll take you as the master-at-arms. I think I’ll rather avoid Lin-Vyme for now.’

‘Thank you, Lady Ren,’ the dragoon replied. ‘I think Vanek is already gone from there, but it’s probably best to avoid the town for a while.

‘If not, I can probably take you in as a guard,’ Ireela said. ‘I’m looking for a few new ones.’’

‘I think you and Anika were supposed to explain how you two know each other?’ I brought up.

‘Not much to say, really,’ Sav said. ‘We were part of the same squad. What happened to you, Ani?’

‘The same thing that did to you,’ the undead said. ‘One moment, I am on the Myrmidon, we get attacked, the hull gets breached, Z’an makes that rift for you, and well… before it closed I maaay have tried to catch you. Next thing I know, I am on some altar with that Nazi fuck standing next to me.’

That got the attention of our trio.

‘Did you say “Nazi fuck”?’ Lilyth asked to confirm. “Was his name Maximilian Löwe by any chance?’

That took Anika aback.

‘How do you know that?’ she asked.

‘Funny story there…’ Lilyth laughed nervously.