A chill went down my spine when I realized Lanius had whispered to me when I no longer held the sword. His mention of the word disciple also struck deep, and I knew even though I shouldn’t that my deal with him had written that fact into my very soul. Though I wasn’t certain on the extent of what it meant that I was his disciple, I knew that in the future we would interact again.

I wrapped my left hand around my own right, the shaking that had started in desperate need of hiding. A sign of weakness at this moment could prove dangerous, as those pirates stared at me with such fear I knew why they had given up. Even I would’ve surrendered if faced with a monster like what they’d just seen.

My gaze moved to Taryn, and as I watched it became obvious that he struggled with his new situation. A man with one arm would find tying anyone up with a rope difficult. The arm he had lost would never be returned, the fact already in my mind before I even thought on it.

That knowledge was there and I already knew the origin of it. Lanius may have stopped talking to me but we had spent time together, and that time had altered me. Information had spilled over during that merge, and whether I would call it a scarring or a gift might depend on what I learned.

I’d also learned why he’d stopped me from using my Presence, though I’d confront that later.

“Thank you!” someone from behind called out, interrupting my line of thought.

With a slight jump of surprise I turned to look at who had spoken. It was a portly older man, his beard and hair tainted with grey and silver. While he smiled openly at me the fear in his eyes was obvious, and his body was half-turned away as though at any moment he might run.

“Your thanks is appreciated,” I responded, “I suppose you’re the leader of Vexxon’s Landing?”

“Uh, yes, my name is Phillins.” The old man waved in the direction of the other townsfolk. Kaina had already freed them, but they’d huddled up near the cave wall furthest from me.

“What happened to you all?” I asked, curious if what I suspected was exactly how it had played out.

Phillins rubbed his hands together, his gaze turned toward the ground as though he was ashamed of something. “That pirate leader and his men showed up at our gate days ago. He just waved his hand and the whole gate was ripped apart, it was crazy. Liam and Donal started killing the other legionnaires. I begged with the pirate, but he ignored everything and butchered every young man.”

“He couldn’t hear you, he was deaf,” I idly commented, as though it was common knowledge.

“What? How do you know that?”

The knowledge I’d gleaned from Lanius had included the cost Clay had paid. “It was obvious if you knew what you were looking for.”

“Not to sound ungrateful,” Phillins murmured, as he rubbed his hands together nervously, “but who are you and how’d you get here?”

“Of course.” I straightened my back and turned to fully look at Phillins. “I am Liliana Rose, daughter of Vandross Rose. My friend and I were helping merchants, but pirates sank our boat, and we washed up.”

The reaction from Phillins was instantaneous, as all the fear in his eyes vanished. With a large honest smile on his face he turned to the other townsfolk and waved them toward us. “Don’t worry, she’s the daughter of the Hero!”

As though a weight was lifted from the hunched backs of the scared townsfolk, they all stood up straight and started to almost run over. Questions started to fly at me, about my father and if he was anything like the stories they’d heard.

“Is it true the hero took down a ci-”

“Who’s stronger the Ice Queen or-”

“I’ve heard he’s seven feet tall!”

While the crowd talked over each other, eager to hear anything about my parents, one of the children tugged at my clothing with one hand. “Miss, miss, help him, he’s hurt!” She pointed at the boat.

She had pointed to Taryn and the bloody stump where his arm used to be. Most of the bleeding had stopped, but every so often a little bit more would spurt out.

“You don’t need to worry about that, Taryn’s a tough guy,” I told the girl in a soft tone.

Though she smiled back at me there was that doubt in her eyes, and she couldn’t stop herself from looking at Taryn. She hid behind an older lady, perhaps her grandmother, while the others continued to pester me with questions I had no interest in answering.

“Lady Rose,” Phillins said from the side, “I am happy that you helped us, but...what do you expect us to do with your prisoners?”

It was a question that I hadn’t expected, and also presented a problem with no easy solution. The Legion would have either thrown them in chains or executed them. Since they’d attacked and killed legionnaires, not to mention conspired with traitors, the latter was the more probable.

Yet if we made that clear they would fight, and with Taryn and I in our current states the fight wouldn’t be easy. Some of the townsfolk could get caught up in it, or Kaina might end up hurt. Enslavement might end up causing a problem for us as well, depending on how the pirates responded.

“I’d rather not disrupt your customs,” I responded, not admitting to the fact that I was uncertain, “what do you do with your criminals?”

“For the minor crimes we prefer a house arrest, but for the severe crimes we tend to trade them to the Lossons.”

“Trade? And who?” I lifted an eyebrow at that word.

“Our neighbors, the natives,” Phillins explained, “they’ve been called that all my life. They have mines all over near where their village is, so they have the criminals do labor for them.”

My attention shifted away from the townsfolk and back to the boats, as I started to think again on the problem of the pirates. The two boats that were in the cove had dozens of men on them, far more than what we could hope to easily escort back to the town.

Taryn and Kaina walked over while I was still surrounded by curious townsfolk. Their arrival prompted a slight retreat of the more cautious of the folk, though some recognized Kaina and called out to her. Most of the younger women stepped over and hugged her, overjoyed to see their friend again. I barely made out the words sorry and Ernie constantly said to Kaina.

“It’s not here,” Taryn commented to me, his eyes locked onto the boats. He stood half-turned, partially facing me, while his remaining hand fingered at the bloody stump.

“What isn’t here?”

“The ship that attacked us. They’re a similar design but those two are built for speed.”

I blinked in surprise, and then I studied the two boats. “Did the pirates tell you anything?”

“Most of them won’t say a thing, but a couple admitted there are two more ships out there. They run on a rotation to try and control the trade routes.”

“This could turn bad, we need to get in contact with the Legion,” I said, turning to face Kaina, “Kaina, could your tribe help us escort these guys?”

There were some tears in Kaina’s eyes as she pulled herself away from the group of women. “Help?” she half-asked, and then she gave a quick nod, “I go get men. Men help men.”

“Thank you, we’ll wait here,” I told her, “I’d rather not drag the townsfolk through the jungle right now.”

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

Hours later Kaina returned with a group of men, each of them armed with a bow and a short sword. Since it was already too late in the day we chose to camp out in the cove, and the pirates were kept below deck on the ships. It was only after they were locked up with Losson guards on standby that I finally rested.

I ended up stealing the captains room, the bed in it excessively plush for a pirate. Though Taryn joined me I had no interest in doing anything aside from sleeping, and before I knew it I fell into a sound sleep. It was in that sleep that the dream began.

The field of dark grass rippled in the light breeze that coursed over the plain. Above clouds of purple blotted out a black sky, a single white full moon barely visible through the coverage. Three other people were present.

The first was a man who wore a white suit of armor, a shield attached to his forearm. A massive sword was sheathed on his back, one so large that no normal person could ever hope to use it. His face was simple, so common place that you would walk past him on the street without a second thought. His dark green eyes were half-covered by black long bangs, while his hair extended out down his back and flowed past his sword.

Mathias. The god of war, the forge, and .

The second was a beautiful woman with green hair and purple eyes. Her figure was slender, save for her chest which was exaggerated. A tight emerald dress with a short hem showed off every curve of her body, and knee high boots completed her ensemble.

Siandra. The goddess of emotions, will, and form.

The final figure wore a blue shirt, dark blue pants and a simple black pair of shoes. His hair mirrored his pants in color, a short cut that kept his silver eyes always visible. He stood there with one hand on his hip, the other limp at his side.

Axel. The god of water, the sky and the heavens beyond.

“Why should I care about this silliness of yours?” Axel asked.

“You and I both know what’s happening impacts all of us,” Mathias rumbled in that idiotic deep tone of his. I often thought he used that voice simply because he thought it was impressive. “If we don’t act she’ll take them all from us.”

“You mean all the people who abandoned us? Oh! That’s right.” Siandra pointed one finger toward Mathias. “You’re still worshipped aren’t you?”

Mathias clenched his one fist, a look of anger flashing over his face. “That doesn’t matter!” he growled, “even without worship we can still sustain ourselves. We can’t, though, if she takes everyone from us!”

I stepped forward and lifted up my violin bow, putting it into the middle of the small group of Gods. “Come now, do we really need to waste our efforts with this squabbling?” I calmly interjected, “I believe we all understand the stakes. Nixi has gone mad, and our food will never survive her wrath alone.”

Siandra visibly cringed at the word food, a failing of hers due to how closely she’d worked on the humans. “I obviously know that.” She flicked her hand at us. “What do you think we can do?”

“I’m definitely not shattering myself like Nixi, that’d be idiocy,” Axel said as he crossed his arms.

“No,” Mathias said, “we alone can not finish this task.”

It was a comment that caused all of us to stare at him, and for a moment I thought my brother had gone mad. “How do you expect us to stop her then?”

“We use the food,” Mathias said, and then he gave a shake of his head, “no, we use the humans.”

“That’s more insane than the idea of shattering ourselves to counter her,” I declared, “they’re nothing more than inconsequential bugs. They wouldn’t even exist without us.”

“I have to agree with Lanius,” Axel spoke up, “we spun them from nothing to serve as food. We can do so again if we need to.”

“That would mean leaving this rock behind,” Mathias pointed out, “and how many of us did we lose during the last migration?”

“Not to mention we’d barely have the power left to create a flea, let alone humans again,” Siandra chimed in.

“While I loathe to admit to this, you’re right,” I conceded, “but what sort of plan could you have that can fix the current scenario?”

“First I will make a weapon,” Mathias began to explain, “and it will house one of us. With the soul of a God we can easily deal with the shattered pieces, and all we need to do is find where Nixi’s core is hiding.”

Axel gave a laugh at that. “That counts me out, if I’m stuck in the sword I won’t be able to stop any asteroids from ruining our world.”

“That also counts you out, Mathias,” Siandra said, before she pointed one finger at me, “and I’m inept at anything to do with souls. That’s why you were given that burden, brother.”

“I must agree, but there’s no way the food could ever hope to handle the power of a God.”

“That is where I must yield to the help of Siandra,” Mathias told us, “because though I may hold one key to our salvation, you know their bodies better than any of us.”

Siandra put one of her long fingernails to her cheek and slowly traced the jawline, a thoughtful look in her eyes. For a while we stood there, knowing fully well that she would eventually figure out the solution we needed. Out of us all she had always been the smartest, though perhaps also the least eager to flex her abilities.

“We do what Nixi is doing, but to a lesser degree,” she finally said, “between us we will help the humans discover the power that they can wield if given the chance.”

“Even if we show them the path, even if they grow, they’ll never be strong enough to deal with her,” I said.

Siandra gave a small smile at that, before she spoke her thoughts again. The words brought a gasp from all of our mouths, and I knew that the horror of what she’d suggested was visible on my face.

I woke with a start from the dream, a vicious wrenching back to reality that disoriented me. Rage filled me, rage at what I’d heard and what I could understand, but when I rubbed at my face with my hand I found something I didn’t expect.

I almost laughed, as I pulled my wet hand away. Quietly I climbed out of the bed, leaving behind the sleeping Taryn, and I walked over to where the sword had been left. I picked that weapon up and stared at it, the rage once again building inside.

“I should snap you in half for what you’ve done,” I whispered, before I threw the sword as hard as I could into the wall, “but that’d stain what she’s done.”

I walked over to the bed and stared at Taryn, a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. The idiot continued to sleep even with all of the ruckus I made. I sat down on the bed next to him and stared out the window of the ship, staring at the full moon that had risen outside the cove.

I interlaced my fingers together over my stomach and leaned back against Taryn. He continued to snore while I thought on the dream that Lanius had shared with me, one that had explained a bit more than I’d expected.

“I promise Siandra, we won’t fail you.”