-21 Years Ago-

Hess looked at the bow on the wall. Her father had made her promise that she would never use it. The weapon was reserved for someone special, who was supposed to come back and buy it soon. She took it off the stand and held it, feeling the craftsmanship. She had already taken the best daggers in the shop too, so she was more than ready for now.

The shop’s door crashed open, and her father shuffled in, dropping to the ground as soon as he did. He was carrying a little girl, and both of them were covered in blood. He had been cut across his torso. Looking at Hess, he pushed the little girl off him, and towards her.

“Take her and get out.” He took heavy breaths as he touched the wound, whimpering with pain.

Hess nodded and held the girl’s hand as tightly as she could. It did not matter if it hurt. She needed to keep her safe. If she remembered well, then the girl was one of their neighbors’ daughters. That family must have been killed already. She took a few steps back while keeping her eyes on her father. This did not feel right, but it was what they had decided yesterday. There was no point in treading the same argument once more.

“Good luck.” Her father’s face was writhing in agony, but he managed to give her a small smile.

“See you, dad.” Hess turned away, vowing not to look back, and ran out of the back door.

Outside, a blizzard raged. The rogue soldiers had a mage among them, and he was skilled in using water and atmosphere magic at the same time. It had been around seven hours ago that he had engulfed the entire village with the ice. Now, he was making it even more inhospitable with the storm. Both of them, fortunately, were wearing clothes which would keep them warm for the time being.

Hess pulled the girl along with her, running from cover to cover and avoiding all the soldiers. Ideally, they wouldn’t attack her because she was running away anyways, but there was no telling with some of them. For example, there was the one who had killed the old medicine lady for refusing to give them any. So, they needed to be quick and careful. Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of soldiers around the place.

Together, the two of them kept running.

-19 Years Ago-

“How old are you?” He asked.

“Seventeen.” Hess replied.

“You travel alone?”

“Yes.”

“How much do you want?”

She looked at the face of the target once more. He seemed a bit aloof, stupid. She tried to sound as assertive as possible, “Ten thousand.”

The man laughed and pulled a small bag out of his pocket, “Here I thought you’d end up saying something outrageous. There’s a bit more than ten in there, but you can keep it.”

Hess bit her tongue before asking, “You’re sure you want to give me all of this before the job is over?”

The man’s laughter got even more irritating, “Even if you run, it’s just ten thousand. I know you’ll do it. Seventeen-year-old girls don’t just run around acting like assassins if they want to steal money. There’s a hundred better ways to do that.”

Hess tsked before grabbing the bag and the photo and getting off the chair. The man kept looking as she left the bar and stepped out into the town. It was evening already, so it would be better if she just left tomorrow morning. The target didn’t seem to be very athletic, so she would probably be able to catch him even if her timing was a bit off the original plan.

She headed back to the inn for a rest.

The target was sleeping. The sun was bright, but dimmed due to the tree's shade. The breeze had that perfect balance of warmth and cold. She couldn’t blame him. If she had the choice, then she would sleep too.

Alas, he was to die.

She nocked the arrow on her bow and took aim. Then, suddenly, he stirred. Her aim was slightly shaken, so she adjusted it once more. The same thing happened two more times. Hess was getting annoyed, but she kept quiet. Then, he suddenly jolted up. He looked at himself, all over, and then at the canopy above him.

The target sighed and pulled himself together, resting his head on his knees as he started to shake a bit. Was he crying? The tensity of the bow decreased a little. She cursed herself for it, but she couldn’t just shoot someone crying like that. It reminded her of her. She wasn’t as heartless as those demons. She removed the arrow, but kept it in her hand. Then, she rested against the rock she was using for support, and kept looking at him.

For dozens of minutes, he did not move. She lost track of the time after that. In between, she even suspected that he might have fallen asleep. But he occasionally moved to rub his nose, so she wasn’t forced to get up and check. Now that she had the chance to look at him without thinking of anything else, she could swear that he wasn’t that old. Probably around her age. Maybe a year or two more. Why was he even a target in the first place?

Well, rich people could do whatever they wanted, and she did not care.

The target pulled out some kind of map from his pocket and began looking at it. He traced a path with his hands and nodded as he kept looking at it. She set the arrow once more and took aim. The target put the map back and stood up. He took the bag that was lying close to where he was sleeping and wore it. She aimed for her target, and shot.

The arrow whizzed past the boy, and hit the beast that was crouching beside him. Startled, the boy jumped and tried to take cover, but once he saw what it had been aimed towards, he sighed and looked towards her direction. She came out of her hiding spot, and went straight for the beast. She pulled the arrow out and checked it. The tip was slightly bent. She threw the arrow away and looked at the boy.

“Thanks.” He smiled.

“Yeah.” She started to walk away from him.

“Hey, hey. Wait!” He came towards her, “Can you teach me that?”

She groaned on the inside. The man had said that he wouldn’t mind if she ran away, so she had made this stupid decision already. She should have guessed that he would cling on to her like that. She kept walking away from him.

“Please, come on! I have some money.” The boy persisted, “I need to learn, otherwise I’ll just end up in the same situation again, right? And you can’t keep saving me all the time.”

Hess decided that if she ignored him long enough, he would give up and leave.

“Oh, I know. It’s better to get acquainted first, right?” The boy was keeping up with her, “My name Jillesha. What’s yours?”

-15 Years Ago-

“He claims he’s your younger brother?” Jillesha asked.

She nodded, “I mean, I know he is. I recognize his face. But…what if he got directions to do this?”

Jillesha got closer to her and put his hand on the side of her face, “Hey, what’s more important? Some stupid stage directions, or your family?”

She frowned, “Family, but…”

“Then I’m pretty sure he thinks the same thing.” Jillesha smiled, “You still have five minutes left, so instead of coming in here and telling me about it, go and talk it out with him. If he has directions, then we’ll figure out some way of dealing with it, yes?”

“I just, I don’t want everyone to get hurt because of me.”

“Everyone of us is here because of you. Nobody would mind dying to give you what you deserve, got it?”

“They’re here because of you too.” She sighed, “Don’t discount your strength for my sake.”

Jillesha chuckled and moved his hand to the top of her head, “Go and talk to him, before God starts looking again. We can save that discussion for later.”

Hess nodded and he let go off her head. She leaned in to give him a kiss before stepping back and leaving the tent.

Her brother was sitting on one of the logs in front of the campfire. He seemed to be warming his hands. His face looked sad. She remembered seeing it before, so many times. For almost seven years, she had thought that she accidently killed him because of her directions. Now, he sat right there with a longing to be with her.

Their father probably wouldn’t think very highly of what she had just done. He could have accepted him almost immediately, without any questions. But now that she had everything that she could have asked for in this living hell of a world, she needed to question things no matter how good they were. The man she loved, the group of eleven that they called family, the home that they had created in the middle of these mountains. Their happiness was worth more than hers, even to her.

“You haven’t been given any ulterior motives, right?” She asked.

He jumped and turned to her, “I…no. If I had gotten them, I would never come here. I’ve looked for you for so long. It’s really difficult to navigate and get to where you want when he is constantly trying to make sure we don’t. Please, just believe me.”

There was no reason for him to lie. They were free right now, to speak whatever they wished. And the two of them had always liked each other a lot. There was no reason for him to not tell her the truth right now. His eyes were crying for help. She identified that look. She had seen it on so many people before, including Jillesha. Including that little girl. Including herself. She never felt like that anymore, so maybe that’s why she hadn’t been able to see it as quickly as she should have been able to.

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He stood up, and looked at the ground, “I don’t want to make you feel sad, so I’ll go. I get it. I could always be asked to kill you all someday, and I’m not strong enough to fight back. There are more important things you have right now.”

He gave her a forced smile and started to slowly turn.

She felt her entire body shaking, shivering. Hess ran up and hugged him. She couldn’t stop her tears after that. She buried her face in his shoulders and stayed like that. Who cared if he was going to kill them all someday? She wanted him here, right now. For seven years, she had believed he was dead. How could she possibly turn him away right now? It was her right to keep him here, to help and protect him. Otherwise, their father would never forget her.

How old was he, again? As long as she remembered he was born when she was four or five. The simple fact was that he was very, very young. Despite all of that, he had found her all the way over here, while she had pretty much forgotten him over time.

“Hike.” She whispered into his ear.

“Yes?” He managed to mumble between his moaning and crying.

She sighed and pulled him even closer, “I didn’t forget your name, huh?”

“Hmm.”

“I’m glad.”

She was never going to let go off him.

-12 Years Ago-

“This is their war, not ours.” Jillesha groaned.

“Jill, you can’t say that!” Hike cried, “It isn’t about if we are involved or not, it’s about what is right. And to fight for them is the right thing to do!”

Hess smiled.

Jillesha looked at the two of them and rolled his eyes, “What do the others say?”

“They’re in.” Hess answered.

“Ahh, alright! We’ll go and help them out. Tell everyone to prepare to leave, Hike. Let’s end this real quick and come back in time for your birthday.”

“Are you sure we’re going to get done with it in three and a half weeks?” Hike said as he stood up and made his way to the exit.

“Less than that, mate. We’ll be done with those weaklings in one.” Jillesha grinned.

Hike left the tent with a hop.

“He’ll be very displeased if you don’t keep that promise, you know?” Hess went behind his chair and rested her head and hands on his shoulder, turning it just a bit to look at him.

He slightly bent his towards her too, “Of course we’re going to make it in time. You know Hike is the one I love most in this camp.”

“Really? Hike?”

“Yeah, of course. He’s the best, after all.” Jillesha looked forward and picked up the letter that they had been sent by the nearby kingdom, “Nobody else in this entire place provides me with the same value as him, you see.”

“You look for value before deciding who to like, do you?”

“No other way to do it, Hess. If I had the choice of either saving four good men, or just Hike, then I’d pick him any day.”

Hess was a bit annoyed, “I know he’s my brother, but you shouldn’t really make comparisons like that. Don’t just throw four people away like that. We took all of them in.”

Jillesha smiled, “But they can’t give me the same things Hike can.”

“Like what?”

“Well, he has this really beautiful sister, for one. I’m sure she’d be really sad if he died.” He looked at her once.

“You-” She tightened his grip around him and pulled him back.

“Hey, hey. Carefu-”

Hess stumbled on her own foot by mistake and it bent, she yelped and fell down, pulling Jillesha and the chair down with her.

The kingdom hadn’t believed that Jillesha and Hess’ group would actually respond to their calls. Due to that, they had also decided to enlist the help of another group. One led by someone called Ginzari.

He was sitting right in front of them, along with a man wearing gloves. Between both of these parties was the kingdom’s caretaker. The king was ill, so he was the one who handled all such matters. For now, the matter had been settled. Ginzari wanted reputation, not money, so he would help them out for free. All the promised payment would go to Jillesha and Hess’ group. They were fine with that. And so, the caretaker soon left.

“Are you like me?” Ginzari suddenly asked Jillesha.

“Huh?” He asked back.

“I mean, uh, from another world. You don’t belong to this place, do you?”

Jillesha had told her once before, so she confirmed it for him. The fact had never mattered to her, so she wasn’t sure why it would matter to someone like Ginzari. She also knew that Jillesha himself did not care about not being from this world. This was home to him now, and he had made that very clear.

“Ah, I see.” Ginzari smiled, “Well, we’ll be on our way, then. I’m sure my band will have some things to shout at me about once I tell them of the deal.”

He stood up and started to head towards the exit.

“Why did you ask that?” Hess asked him.

He still carried the same smile, “It’s just nice to know that you’re not alone in a fight, isn’t it? Although I guess we can all relate to that, in a place like this.”

She winced. He shouldn’t have said that.

“I mean, waiting for a war is the worst fight there could be.” Ginzari’s smile turned a bit mischievous before he left the room with the other man.

Jillesha chuckled once the man left, “Well, he speaks gibberish, but he’s good, huh?”

“Uh, yeah.” Hess was already smiling.

“We should go and tell Hike and the others too.” Jillesha stood up, “I’m sure that they won’t have anything to shout at us about. Hopefully. Maybe Hike will cry about how we should have given them some of the reward anyways.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t know how much it costs to keep them all alive, does he?” Hess sighed as they both walked out of the room.

The next week or so, they fought.

And they won.

There was never a doubt about it anyways, even if only their group had been fighting. But Ginzari and his men were not weak at all. In fact, Ginzari was much stronger than Jillesha. Hess knew for a fact that Jillesha would eventually get stronger, given how quickly he grew, but the difference in their skill had definitely left an impact on everyone in the battlefield. So much so, that it had affected Jillesha quite a bit.

“I’m going to challenge him to a duel.” He eventually declared.

“Oh, come on. There’s no need to go that far, right? And isn’t he actually stronger than you, Jill?” Hike tried to counter, “You can still get much better, though!”

“Well, if we have a duel, then you’ll see that I’m already enough to beat him!” Jillesha was angry.

“You should go to sleep, Hike.” Hess calmly tried to push her brother towards the room’s exit.

“Yeah, uh, I’m just trying to sa-”

“I don’t need you to tell me how strong I am.” Jillesha roared.

Hess sighed and whispered to her brother, “He’ll be alright in the morning. Just rest, ok?”

“I-I’m sorry.” Hike seemed annoyed as he left the room.

Hess went and sat down beside Jillesha, who seemed to share the same emotion.

“He just doesn’t want you to get hurt.” She tried to explain.

“I know.” His voice seemed much more under control, “But I’m not going to get hurt. There’s a reason I’m trying to arrange a duel. It’s because I know I can win. I can feel it. Right now, I would win.”

She put her hand over his, “Yes, but…answer me this. What will you get out of it?”

“He lowered the respect our people have for me. I just want to show them that their leader is still the best there could be.”

“They know that!” She smiled, “They don’t want you to be the strongest there is. They need you to be you, just like always. How many times have we saved someone from Ginzari’s group, and how many times have they saved one of our men? I would have died that day if Kaisel did not come to the rescue. Our people will be angry, indeed, if you tried to pick a fight with someone who risked their lives for us, and the other way around.”

“Hmm.” He replied.

They decided to remain silent after that. Hess knew that he had been trying to be strong his entire life, but that was not what people loved about him. He needed to know that. Nobody was going to run away from him if he wasn’t strong. The way he cared about them, the nice things he said, the fact that he would always be there if something went wrong. That was what truly mattered.

One day, she wished she could tell him that properly, without getting embarrassed about it. For now, though, letting him know the gist of it was more than enough.

The duel never happened. Jillesha never even approached Ginzari about it.

Kaisel laughed as he poured her some tea.

“Ginzari isn’t very different, honestly. Even he gets riled up about such contests.” He remarked.

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get so angry about things like these.” Hess sighed, taking a sip, “All I wanted was for all of us to sit down and eat together once before leaving the city.”

“I guess these smaller meetings will have to suffice.” Kaisel said, “After all, even our leader isn’t free right now. He has a lot of work to attend to.”

“I see.”

“As for Jillesha, I hope he will be back to himself by the end of the day. Even I would feel bad if I didn’t say goodbye to him once.”

Hess smiled, even though she didn’t feel like it, “Well, he hasn’t even talked to my brother since that day, so I won’t hang on to that hope. Even now, I think it’s better if I l-”

“What are you doing here?”

Hess dropped some of her tea due to the sudden shout. Her and Kaisel looked back at Jillesha, who was standing close to the corridor which led to the garden they were sitting in.

“Jill, come here.” Hess said, “I was just thanking Kaisel for saving my life that day.”

“I see.” He said, slowly walking towards them, “Let me thank you too, Kaisel, for saving her life.”

“Oh no, sir.” Kaisel stood up and gave him a bow, “As I told her too, it was my duty to save someone who fought alongside me. It’s nothing at all.”

“Saving her life means nothing at all?” Jillesha asked.

“Ah, that’s not what I mean, sir.” Kaisel gave a small laugh.

Jillesha narrowed his eyes, and grabbed Hess by her hand. She tried to free herself, but his grip was strong. He started to pull her away with him, back towards the corridor, “You’ve said your thanks, obviously. We need to prepare to leave.”

“Yeah, but just wait for a minute.” She growled.

His hand tightened around hers even more. She yelped with pain for a second, but he kept going. Hess looked back at Kaisel, who was looking at them without expression, wearing his gloves. Then, he raised his hands and they slowly began to glow purple.

“No, Kaisel!” She shouted.

By then, Jillesha’s grip had already gotten soft. She got herself free, but stayed right beside him. He was holding his throat with one of his hands, and taking long breaths with his tongue out. His eyes seemed to be slightly bulging out of his sockets. She looked at Kaisel and shouted at him to stop once more, after which he put his hands down. Jillesha took another breath and fell to the ground, coughing.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked Kaisel.

“I wasn’t going to kill him, Hess. I don’t do that. But you clearly did not want to go with him at that time, and he needs to understand that.” Kaisel explained.

She did not want to fight with any of them, so she ignored his answer and looked at Jillesha once more, who was already back to himself, and beginning to stand up. She kept her hand on his shoulder, but he pushed it away, and then her too. She was a bit startled, but stayed there. Hess could understand what was happening to him. For some reason, he still thought he lacked enough strength to do what he wanted. On the ground, she kept looking as he stood up and started to walk away.

“Jill!”

“Stay with him!” He shouted as he kept walking away.

Before she knew it, Kaisel was at her side, pulling her up. She couldn’t blame him for what he had done, so she took his help for the time being, and the two of them began to run after him.

Jillesha loosened his grip on the neck, and Hike’s body fell to the ground, unmoving.

“Huh?” Hess couldn’t think properly. Why had he died?

Jillesha looked down at him and kicked him in the stomach before bending down and holding his head up. He grabbed it by the hair, and smashed it on the ground once, then twice. He kept going until her already dead brother had his head completely smashed in, covered in blood and bones.

She couldn’t move. Kaisel had already went away to get Ginzari’s help.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Jillesha shouted before throwing the head to the ground standing up.

He looked at her, his body heaving.

Maybe it would have been fine to kill him that day, all those years ago.

She wondered why no one else had come to assassinate him after her. Why had there been a hit on him in the first place? For some reason, she had never thought about it, ever.

Hess’ hands wandered around her waist until they landed on her daggers. She grabbed both of them and held them in her hands, ready to attack.

Jillesha sighed and groaned, “Ahh, damn it! It was going so well too.”

He had no weapon, so he just rushed her blindly. Hess went forward too, intending to kill.

The one in front of her wasn’t the weak, frail kid that she had saved out of pity once. She didn’t even know who he was. None of it made any sense. She tried not to look at Hike’s body, as they fought. Ginzari and Kaisel did eventually arrive, but she did not let them get involved. She knew the outcome in her heart, but she fought. Where had this all gone so horribly wrong?

The day she saved him? The day she met Hike? The day they decided to come to this kingdom? Or was it all the way back when she let that little girl die? She didn’t even remember her name anymore. But that was fine. Because those questions did not matter anymore, did they? It had all gone wrong, and she couldn’t correct it. Maybe it was her fault, or maybe it wasn’t.

Hess lost.

She knew she was going to. There was no other way to go about it. Jillesha was much stronger than her. She had helped him get there, so she knew.

He ran away after that, cursing everything.

Ginzari later suggested that he might have gotten stage directions to do what he did. Maybe not doing it would have let to a worse outcome. He still wanted Hess to believe that the man she loved couldn’t have been so wrong. She wanted to believe that too, but who cared about things like that?

Hess was taken in by Ginzari soon after that.

She had been the one to let him live. She had unleashed him into the world. But she promised. The next time she met him, she was going to finish the job.