The mornings away from home always started the same for Rhian.

The first thing that penetrated the barrier of consciousness was the smell. Be it backstrap, bacon, eggs, or veggies, every morning something was being cooked and something was being brewed. Today it smelled like coffee that had been seasoned with some of the desert rose. Rhian smiled at that.

They opened their eyes and watched as dust motes spiraled around in the air, seeming to play together in a beam of sunlight lancing through the curtains they had drawn last night. Their mind was clear, free of everything except sensations; the warmth of the blankets, the soft friction of the sheets against their skin, the relative cool of the room, and the smells wafting up from the kitchen. They allowed themselves to drift, blissfully unconcerned.

The spell was broken by a growl. A growl that came from Rhian's own body - their stomach betraying the serenity that they felt in that moment.

"Okay. I get it. Food." They said to themselves.

They threw back the covers and began the not-so-lengthy process of getting ready. Pants, socks, boots, shirt, and belt were all strapped on quickly and semi-haphazardly, and Knife was retrieved from under their pillow. They looked down at themselves, shirt half tucked in pants and pants fully tucked into boots. This suite not nearly fancy enough for a mirror, so they decided to brave potential chiding from Ceridwen and judged the results 'good enough' before opening the door and walking out.

The inn's common room was a cozy affair with a river stone fireplace and lacquered wood bar, heavy booths and tables filling the space between them. The room had a sense of serene stillness, the kind that was heavily enforced by Jonas every morning. He became very grumpy if his morning serenity was broken. He called it "meditative time" and stared daggers at anyone making any undue noise. Those that observed this time of serenity were given extra portions of food and coffee, so serene stillness wasn't without its rewards.

Ceridwen sat at the table closest to the kitchen, back straight against the chair and eyes closed. She already had a cup of coffee in her hands, porcelain tea cup finer than what any inn for hundreds of miles could have afforded, so it must have been from her private collection. Rhian had learned that fine porcelain meant a good mood.

"Darling?" Ceridwen said as Rhian sat down, holding her cup in the air. Jonas walked out of the kitchen with a small teapot in one hand and a small plate in the other, setting the plate down and refilling the cup at the same time. His eyes slid over to Rhian as he finished the pour, very slightly lifting the teapot.

"No thanks, Jonas. Coffee today, I can smell the desert rose in it." Rhian said quietly.

Jonas nodded and walked back into the kitchen, rummaging around as Ceridwen took a small biscuit off the plate he had brought.

"How was your night Rhian? You were asleep when we got here . . . And in your clothes, so it seems." Ceridwen smiled over her teacup, softening the slight jab at Rhian.

Rhian looked slightly abashedly down at their clothing. "I only did it to make your own outfit look ever the better," Rhian replied while also smiling. "You do take such pride in your appearance."

Ceridwen let out a playful "Hm! Well struck!" before putting down her teacup and pushing back her hair while letting out a small chuckle. Rhian had learned that this was a game that Ceri and Laia played, sniping back and forth, and had recently decided to include Rhian in the game with them.

Rhian didn't understand the game at first. The girls back at home had spoken in the same way and with the same tone, but it had never caused genuine laughter between them. They only got mad at one another and continued to put each other down. But with Laia and Ceridwen it was different, they traded jibes back and forth and congratulated one another on a good twist of wit, laughing heartily when one of them scored a hit. Rhian had been mad at first to be included in this game, but had learned the ins and outs of it after asking Laia about it.

"Oh, it's a game hon. We don't mean anything mean by it!" Laia said with laughter in her eyes. "But tell you what. If I say something mean to you and it seems out of character, why don't you just ask if we're playing or not? We'll always tell you right and I'll make sure Ceri knows too."

Rhian had much more fun with the game after they had adopted this habit. It was fun in a way that they hadn't had before, mean and indulgent but still good-natured.

Gaith and Laia came down the stairs just as Jonas was setting down plates and coffee for everyone. The meal was leftovers from last night, venison that hadn't made its way into dinner that was stewed with carrots and potatoes.

"Ah, long day ahead of us?" Gaith asked, voice starting over the Jonas Volume Threshold before a sharp look lowered it back down. "Always a big meal before a long day of travel."

"It's just under a full days ride from here to Sunflower Fields," Ceridwen said. "We're getting a late start so we'd be there well after everyone's gone home from their local, and I want to get whatever news we can now before word of the job there spreads. We'll pick up some bread and cheese on the way out so we have something to eat in the saddle."

The meal continued on uneventfully and before long they were packed and out the door, quickly stopping by a baker on their way out of town.

They were about an hour out of town when Rhian was pulled into a game of Noble-Knight-Dragon between themselves, Giath, Laia, and Ceridwen.

Rhain found themselves facing off against Laia first, with Ceridwen up against Gaith.

"1-2-3-throw!" they all chanted together.

Laia threw her hands up over her head, imitating a crown and Rhian held theirs out like wings.

"Dragon eats noble!" Rhian cried, pumping their fists just as Gaith yelled out "Knight kills Dragon!" at Ceridwen.

Rhian quickly turned to Gaith, starting the chant. "1-2-3-throw!"

Rhian adopted a stance like a knight wielding their sword in two hands, and Gaith threw the Noble. "Noble commands Knight, sorry kid," Gaith said, clearly enjoying holding an imaginary crown over his head. He kept it there as he seemed to ponder something. "Well, it's my turn to choose the road story, it seems." He looked around at each of them with a shrewd eye, prompting Laia and Ceridwen to roll their eyes. They seemed to already know how this was going to turn out.

"There's only one tale I care to hear today," Gaith said. "The tale of how I met my very own lady love, Arklaia'theratuan."

Laia sighed at the use of her full name. It was known in the group that she didn't like it very much, so of course Gaith used it to annoy her as often as he could.

He leaned back on The Contraption and began his road story.

I couldn't have been said to be the most gifted man in all of Valtoria, not yet at least. I am humble enough to admit that my intellect had not yet grown sharp enough to rival that of our glorious founders or even the heads of my esteemed university, but it was clear to all who spoke to me that I was well on my way to surpassing them even in my relative youth. For you see, our story takes place near the end of my time with the Collage Liberte Valtoria, the preeminent learning establishment of my homeland. But first, a small preamble:

My parents, taken too young by The Malignancy, had wished that I turn my incredible talents to the pursuit of the healing arts, hoping that I would become a physick of no small renown. In pursuit of that goal I had applied and been accepted to the House of Medicine in the Collage, and as you know flew through my studies with the voracious appetite for knowledge that I display in every endeavor. I was nearing the point of my final dissertation when a trap of learning was sprung upon me, a class that I may not have survived if it weren't for a warrior-princess that wore the humble clothes of a nurse.

Laia chimed in at this point, with a dramatic "DUN DUN DUUUUN." to punctuate the statement.

You see, my final lesson before I was considered a full physick was to spend time on the front lines of the Valtorian Border Wars. The reason for this was twofold: a physick tested on the battlefield does not rattle when presented with issues in the safety of the homeland, and we also get to work alongside the Miracle Workers of our sister country and friendly rival, Arcadia. For despite our greater numbers, the Miracle Workers were capable of feats of healing that we as physick could only hope to emulate with our current understanding of the healing arts, for we were trying to repair by hand what they could fix through Word. Despite their talents, we unerringly saw them as lesser due to their overreliance on their powers and not their minds.

"What he means to say" Laia interjected, "is that we can do greater things through faith than they can through learning, and they're not happy about that."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Arklaia'theratuan, if you had wanted to tell this story then you would have been better at Noble-Knight-Dragon," Gaith responded.

I was ambushed at first light on the second day of my last semester, my blissful sleep shattered by the screamed commands of an incredibly irate soldier. I hated him then, but realize now that must have been one of the highlights of his career. As a lowly soldier, when else do you get the chance to unabashedly and vehemently harangue a learned Physick without fear of reprisal? To answer the question, I do not carry any ill will to him as I would have done the same in his place.

My professor stood with him, handing out the assignment personally and letting me know that I could back out if I didn't feel comfortable with battlefield duty, but that it would mean failing out of the Collage as a whole. As this was unacceptable to me, I proffered my hand to what I had just learned was to be my commanding officer and introduced myself.

His name was PhyCorp Dylan Kent, and it was from him that I received this gun and for him that it is named.

We travelled from the Collage to a training camp that was located near enough to the Border Wars to deploy easily, but far enough away that we were relatively safe while we learned the ins and outs of military life without terrible amounts of risk. As you could probably guess, a man of my particular bent was chafed under the boot of military doctrine but accepted it because it gave me the ability to learn this.

Gaith quickly unslung the rifle from his back taking aim at a distant tree and after a brief moment filled with the sound of him breathing out, shot a falling leaf out of the air as it was loosed from a branch.

I took to marksmanship almost as quickly as I took to Physick, to my own surprise. In no time I was judged competent enough to join the Physick out on the front lines, and eager to complete my rotation I left the training camp under the watchful eye of PhyCorp Kent. On my way out, he told me he had a gift for me.

"It isn't what it used to be, and it's going to need some work," He said to me with a long, cloth-wrapped bundle in his hand. "We used to give these out to particularly talented marksmen before the Princes started adopting the same long-range shields we use. It hasn't seen much upkeep in that time, so it's going to require some elbow grease from you to put it back in working order."

The bundle he gave me was unwrapped to reveal the first great love of my life. The craftsmanship of the wood, the intricacy of the mechanics, the precision with which it was all machined and fit together was unlike anything I'd ever seen before or seen since. Little did I know that it was only a scant few months later that it's place in my heart would need to become a shared space.

I'll spare you the details of my first months on the front lines. Needless to say, they were bloody and long days, punctuated with the crump of mortar fire and the occasional night-time excursion under guard to reacquire the wounded. My time was spent applying everything I had learned and learning ever more from the Physick that had decided to stay on the front lines. New sutures and blood clotting techniques, how to quick-set bones, and most importantly when to call for help from hands more experienced than mine, though their number quickly dwindled as I devoured more and more of their experience and made it my own. What time wasn't spent in Physick was instead used to bring this rifle back into working order, learning its ins-and-outs and how to make it perform like it was meant to.

The days had begun to blur together when I was first introduced to a bearer of Words, a Miracle Worker. They weren't as we had been told, ethereal beings with their heads in the clouds constantly speaking to whatever god they'd taken their powers from. Her name was Ursula Mueller, a small, angry, thickset woman who commanded any space that she walked into. She was clothed in a white shirt gone beige with mud, sweat, and blood, with thick trousers and a blood-red kerchief tied to keep her hair out of her face. The only unstained part of her was the single red droplet emblazoned on her chest, the mark of a disciple of The Blood.

She came into our field hospital and immediately began seeing to the most wounded, shouting orders at our PhyCorp and PhySar that were obeyed immediately and without hesitation, getting the Physicks to prioritize patients and clear operating bays so that she could begin her work. Much to my chagrin, I was stunned into inactivity but not by her blitzkrieg of care. Instead, it was one of her retinue that caught my eye.

Ursula had come with a large retinue, a cadre of nurses that were to ease the pain of those waiting or accompany the passing of those beyond saving. Ten strong, men and women both, these nurses began to disperse around the tent to help with the organization of patients. A young woman, blonde hair bound in the same red kerchief, came to my bay to help me with my current patient.

"Well?!" She said to me as I sat staring. "Elementals ain't gonna help those that don't help themselves!"

Rhian looked briefly at Laia, who was sitting with her elbows on Perfections saddle. She cradled her face in her hands and watched Gaith telling the story occasionally mouthing along with the words. When she caught Rhian looking, she rolled her eyes and winked but Rhian could tell that she was enjoying this reprisal.

I was shocked out of inaction by her words, and began to work on the patient. I was lucky that this was a particularly easy case, a simple stitching, or my hands would not have been able to do it without the involvement of my mind which was currently occupied.

We worked into the night, the injured coming in waves and the Miracle Worker and her nurses doing the greater volume of the work, allowing the Physick to turn to the treatment of those that would have had to heal on their own. I was impressed by the work and let her know as much.

"Well, your fancy learnin' ain't everything to everyone but your type don't always know that so thank you for acknowledging it. " she said to me.

"I do not sound like that," Laia said. "You're making me out to be some sort of backwater timberfellers daughter." Laia slapped Gaiths arm lightly as he completely ignored her statement.

I told her that I didn't know much of her beliefs and would like to know more. She told me that if we could get through the rest of the patients she would, so I shut up and put my head down, endeavoring to finish each patient as quickly as possible.

The Miracle Worker and her retinue stayed around for weeks. The fighting had shifted its front to our side of the border and the injured came in waves of bloody flesh. During the days we worked furiously, but at night I sat with her in the moments before fatigue took us both and she taught me more about the beliefs that give Arcadia power.

The Syzygy of Elements: The Grey, The Deep, The Green, The Blood, and The Blue, all bound in The Void. Each a facet of our world, and each with their children, too numerous to name.

Gaith said this with the ease of practice, in the steady tempo of a thing learned as a child. Laia mouthed the saying along with him, a smile on her face.

She taught me about the Words and the Deeds, how they were granted and how they were different.

One night, after an interminably long day and a painfully short talk, we fell asleep holding hands for the first time. I was just starting to close my eyes when I noticed something. The shield that kept the Princes' artillery from striking us had gone down. I sat up to scream but it was lost in the first mortar strike.

Half the Field hospital was eliminated in the first strike, an attack by Word on a magnitude that none of us had ever seen before.

I could only stare, but luckily Laia had her head on straight. She started yelling for mobilization, calling out for the other nurses. Assessing who could walk, who could run, who could assist those incapable of either. She was up and moving, jump-starting my training as though she were my own PhyCorp.

Three more attacks hit the ground before we could get the barrier back up. We were moving when the first wave of ground soldiers came over our earthworks and began firing into our barely organized chaos.

I was helping a crippled soldier out of the remains of the tent why PhyCorp Kent sent us both sprawling. Bullets hummed over our heads, and his pistol was out in a flash and returning fire before I could process what had happened. He was as a human whirlwind, shouting orders and returning fire. I owe him my life ten times over for that day, but he fell to an enemies bullet before I could repay him in kind.

We were overrun. We were out of time and soldiers. Only the nurses and some of the Physick remained, mostly the other students that the professionals had sacrificed themselves for. As a unit we stared at the oncoming wall of soldiers that may as well have been the inexorable march of time for all that we could fight against it. I came to terms with my own mortality in that moment and offered my first prayer to the Elements that we would make it out of that situation.

"March no farther!" Came a cry from across the smoking crater that used to be the field hospital. The conviction in her voice and the firmness of her stance actually stopped them for a moment.

The soldiers, pawns of the Princes and combatants without conscience or morality, looked at each other and then to this woman radiant standing in their way. Her hair had come loose her kerchief and blew in the wind, golden strands streaming out behind her. "We are injured and Physick. We are not combatants. We are no danger but I will not allow you to harm them anyone any further."

They looked to each other, none of the rank-and-file briefly rebuffed by the vehemence of her command. A leader of some kind, I'm not sure what as I've never found myself interested in their command structure, came forward to speak to her.

"You are not one to command. Kill those around her, and…" his words were cut off by an inexpertly balled fist connecting with his face.

Not many people get to see a deed granted. It's rare enough that for many people it's just stories.

Jonas' head turned slightly at this, nodding in acknowledgment

But it's such a thing to see that the stories don't do it justice. We still don't know why The Blood saw fit to grant a Deed to her in that moment. It may be in defense of life. It may have been the desire to live. It may have been whim. Either way, in that moment The Blood blessed her and delivered Laia a boon of strength.

A veil of red hung in the air where the leader used to be, and our girl stepped through it. Coating her in a fine red mist, trailing behind her like a cloak of crimson, she went to bloody work on the remaining soldiers. Tossing men like they were mere skipping stones and snapping rifles as if they were twigs. Those of us that remembered our training managed to mount enough of a defense that the soldiers farther from her had to take cover and couldn't get a clear shot. It was morning by the time our work was over, and not a single agent of the Princes were left.

I came upon her as she dealt with the last of them.

"They gone?" she asked me.

"Yes. We're safe." I told her. She had the decency to collapse toward me, and I caught her knowing that she was completely out before she hit my arms.

I carried her out of there and found transportation for all of us back to the heartland, dictating a report about the issue to another student who wrote it all in a state of shell shock. We dropped it off at the training camp before I made the decision to leave and never come back.

I had enough of war. I found this.

Gaith gestured to The Contraption

And decided that I had enough of my time there. Laia was awake and I asked her if she'd come with me.

"Not to spoil it for y'all but I said yes." Laia chimed in.

You did! They haven't come after us for it yet, and I don't know if I technically graduated. But here we are now.

Gaith and Laia looked at each other, some pain reflected in each of their eyes at the painful memories.

Ceridwen allowed them a moment before making an announcement. "Looks like we've made good time. Sun's just setting and I can see Sunflower Fields just over this next hill. We should be there in time for dinner."

"Excellent!" Gaith exclaimed. "Telling stories makes me hungry."