Edited by: tommyjl7, Solyom, Deimos

Giselle kept riding across the field Road behind the town at pace of riding over a pebble every 30-40 seconds. Yet no verbal abuse could be heard. No one pointed out how horrible she was at driving. No teasing. No joking.

- “Gis, I am worrying about Zariel…” the priestess said. “He didn’t say a word since that incident with the burglary.”

- “I doubt that is the case. I can’t imagine him caring about some stranger.”

Zariel was sitting in the cart with his chin resting on the palm of his hand. His gaze was hazy as if he was looking into the oblivion itself. Lanele waved her hand in front of his face a few times, yet there was no reaction.

- “I didn’t get it…” he would eventually speak, drawing attention of girls.

- “Ha?” they asked in unison. Just to notice that those words were not addressed to them. He was speaking to himself.

- “Just what, in heaven and hell, was that? Musical? No. The crowd would join and start singing and dancing. Improvisation? No. That was fully scripted. Shakespeare monologue? No, no monologue, too many people were involved… Tolkien’s storytelling? No, different style…”

- “Ok. I give up. Something broke him.” Giselle exhaled loudly stopping the cart.

She got up, walked toward her mate, laid both her hands on his shoulders…

- “Zari…” she said with the cutest, most loving tone that ever escaped her mouth. “…WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE-WAKE-UP!”

And then she started shaking his whole body. The magician’s head started jerking in all directions.

- “What are you doing?! Crazy woman?!”

- “What am I doing?!” she put an accent on . “… you were acting like a lunatic for the past four hours!”

A surprised glimpse sparkled in his eyes as he looked over surroundings. Then his gaze traveled to the sky, checking the position of the sun. Yes, Zari, the sun is in completely different place than before.

- “Sorry. Got lost in thoughts.”

- “FOR FIVE HOURS?!”

- “Yes, Giselle, when people are smart they use it to THINK about stuff. You could try it too.” He didn’t say that with malice of any kind.

- “YOU LITTLE!”

- “Oh? No one is driving? Fine, I will take the carter spot. Take a rest, my love” He said, standing up from his sitting spot and moving past the still angry Giselle.

- “Wait, what?!”

- “You stopped driving, you stopped doing something that you love! If it is not because you need to rest, then I have no idea what was that!”

- “I just wanted…”

- “Shush babe. Rest.”

- “I mean…”

- “Shush.”

- “But…”

- “Shhh.”

- “Thank you!” Lanele whispered to her savior that saved her butt from damages caused by the rocks which dragoness would hit.

Giselle was still “But-ing” and “I-ing”, but the white-haired man wasn’t going to move away.

- “So, where are we going? Our next destination, miss Lanele? Unfortunately, my studies of geography were rather shallow. I merely learned the locations of bigger mountains and forests…”

The magician said while giving the horses a command to move.

- “Oh, indeed, Bald mountains isn’t that tall, the only reason why is it so remarkable is that it’s the place of druids gathering.”

- “Which circle?”

- “All of them.”

Zariel turned around his upper body to look at the elf priestess. His raised brow asked a question that his lips have never spoken.

- “It’s a place of hierophants gathering. You know, it’s like your Senate… But they are concerned more about the needs of the world than politics… that’s common knowledge.”

- “Please. Treat me as someone that was born yesterday… or not, better as someone who was born a year and half ago.”

- “Will do!” elf chuckled, for she didn’t realize that her conversation partner was serious. “Anyway, we have much more time than we need. We can take our time. In two days we should reach another village. For now just keep riding along the road. On the next crossroad, turn south. Stay alert. I heard that this path is being often attacked by renegades.”

The expression of both the magician and the warrioress turned ugly. Renegades. You think a bandit was a serious problem, plaguing the world? No, bandits themselves were the lowest level of the crime word. The bottom in cases: power, methods and targets.

Renegades were something we could name “bandit +”. Someone that knew the methods of attack of mere road-thugs and eventually exceeded them. Someone that used to hunt bandits. Ex-soldiers, marauders, ex-city guards… and adventurers that eventually decided that money from monster-killing business is unfair.

They weren’t just dirty villagers with pitchforks that they could scare by simply demonstrating their strength.

Even more, as they suffered a “little” complex. You know, by being kicked from law supported forces and becoming outlaws… let’s just say that they didn’t really love regular adventurers. Some renegades even specialized in hunting adventurers.

- “Chances of meeting them?” Zariel asked after a moment.

- “Can’t tell. We are traveling with Giselle, who is a celebrity among guilds. Few would get scared of her and let go, few would want to hunt us twice as much.”

- “I won’t mind treating them with my sword….” Gis laid her hand on the huge blade. “… these bastards think that they are some kind of hunters. While they are nothing but scum.”

- “Easy there, girl…” her man responded. “… You know, don’t call the devil, he may respond.”

- “Chickening out?” the redhead teased.

- “No. I simply don’t like killing without profit. Being attacked means fighting back. Fighting means getting tired. And I hate getting tired without being paid.”

- “And what about all the poor damsels in distress? Children that are being oppressed? Poor farmers that can’t afford to protect themselves?”

- “Well, sucks to be them.”

- “Oh? And you are then one saying that? Really? A guy who sells life saving potions for the 10th of the price?”

- “I did that to justify the existence of my company. Otherwise I couldn’t get on the market and would have less customers.”

- “The orphanage too?”

- “What is an orphanage?” Lana joined the conversation.

- “Zari’s project. A house for orphans. He is about to build a huge building that would be both a school and a dormitory, and take in kids from the streets so they won’t have to live on the streets.”

The man pouted.

- “Really? Why? I mean, don’t get me wrong! That’s very noble! And…”

- “Exactly! Zari doesn’t want to be seen as a noble person. Don’t know why, but he wants to appear as some kind of villain.”

- “Again, why?”

- “So people would leave me alone. Help someone once, and he will remember about you next time he has a problem. When you are a jerk no one wants anything from you.”

- “He says that and makes the world better for everyone around. That’s why I love him!” Gis got to him and kissed him on the cheek.

- “I thought that’s because I can cook edible food.”

- “That’s also true.”

- “And because I am such a beast in bed?”

- “Buaha-Hahaha!” she burst into a not so lady-like laugh. “… Kitty, I am afraid that in bed you are docile and cute. I am doing most of the job!”

- “W-w-w-w-what are you talking about?!” the hundred years old virgin couldn’t really talk about sex

- “If I am that bad, maybe go look for somebody else?!”

The man suddenly got angry

- “Baby are you angry?”

Giselle, for fuck sake, listen to the narrator! I said he was angry a moment ago!

- “Not at all.” the magician wouldn’t even look at her.

- “You sure?”

Giselle, you dense, dumb f…

- “Guess it.”

- “You start to act like woman!”

- “I DON’T!”

He did.

- “You got angry for nothing!”

- “It’s not about what you said, but the way you said it!” the man would stick to his own version of reality. Then he froze, as if he just heard what he said. “… oh. My. God.”

- “See? SEE?! My point.”

The argument lasted for quite some time. All this time they were being watched.

Definitely-not-renegade’s POV

The camp was hidden pretty well, not only by bushes and trees, but also by multiple layers of illusion. It was quite far from the main road so no patrol would ever come scouting for this place.

A single gnoll was sleeping on the plain bed, even now he was wearing a mixed armor. His weapon, a morningstar on long chain was lying next to him.Yet his rest was quickly interrupted by an approaching troll.

- “Get up, Lokiv, Mak’harg said that someone is approaching the ambush spot.”

- “If these are some traveling farmers, like last time, I will get seriously fucking angry. Poor bastards wanted to sell food at the local market. They barely put up any fight.”

- “We were low on food. Killing them was necessary.”

- “Killing? We could just take their goods and let them go.”

- “Not if you wanted to stay here longer than a week. We need to lay low for now, until we would learn the topography better.”

- “Tsk. Better for that witch not to be mistaken this time, or else…”

- “Or else what?…” the troll taunted. “… I am really curious what you will do to her.”

The hyena-man wanted just to boast around, yet he quickly became silent. They moved past a few traps to the small tent. Inside two more people were waiting. A human and a dark elf.

A magician was sitting in the middle of circle made out of candles, meditating. Her head was risen, her eyes, completely rolled back to her skull, were open.

- “What is it?” the gnoll asked.

The elf on the ground snapped back to reality.

- “Don’t you know that interrupting a magic trance is dangerous?”

- “You are a big girl, you will be fine…”

- “To you. The circle around me is also a barrier, when the mana flow is disturbed…”

- “… Use common language, please?”

- “Boom. There would be a big boom.”

- “You said you saw someone?”

- “Yeah. Three adventurers are coming. Giselle Redwing…”

- “That bitch is fucking mine.” The gnoll snarled.

- “Yeah, she would cut you in two.” The human male stated his mind.

- “Shut up. Both of you.” The elf tried calming down her companions. “… the other one is an elf priestess. Here it gets problematic. She is the next head priestess.”

The human whistled.

- “So? What does it mean to us?” the troll asked.

- “You are just proving that you are nothing more than a goblin that grew too tall. One, she will be strong. Two, many people will be after us. She is like a princess.”

- “Good. Her death will bring us glory.” the gnoll nodded.

- “It’s far more personal. Her mother is responsible for my current life. Because of her, my tribe no longer exists.” the witch in the middle whispered. “… I don’t care about that scaly brute and that male, I simply want to send her pretty face to her mother.”

- “The last one? We have priestess and warrioress, the last one must be a rogue…”

- “No, most likely another mage, probably no one important. The wind whispered his name. Zariel.”

The human, that was right now drinking water from the cup spitted it out, choking.

- “No one fucking important? Girl, I know that you three can’t go into the cities, but daaaaamn!”

- “He is important?”

- “Do you know why out of the blue I could afford more potions for the same price? Because of him. He is a genius among human. He joined the adventurers so the other parties would leave him alone.”

- “He was being hunted?”

- “Yeah, but not like us. Guilds are killing each other to make him join them. Alchemists, Senate… Sentinels.”

- “Fuck.”

- “Damn.”

- “Crap.”

- “Is he that good?”

- “His battle abilities are unknown. At least officially. He is traveling with Giselle, the question is: if he is leaching from her, or fighting on equal ground.”

- “I can’t imagine THAT Giselle letting anyone leach on her glory.”

The mood in tent became dense.

- “So team made of an S rank, an A rank and some god-only-knows rank prodigy?”

- “Are we letting go?” the gnoll asked. “… don’t get me wrong. I would love to fight, but…”

- “We have the advantage of numbers and the element of surprise.” the troll said.

He took a used map from his bag and put it on a small table in the corner.

- “The ambush spot is quite great, we could rain down arrows, then…”

- “Arrows?! Only you and Derek can actually shoot. I prefer close combat…”

- “No. We will say hi.” The witch said after a moment. “… that man can’t be this good. He didn’t sense me, and I didn’t really use any powerful presence-hiding spells. It means that the range of his detection-spells is small.”

- “I don’t like that idea. That man is running a big company and many parties benefits from his actions. And he is an idol-adventurer. And the princess elf. We will make quite a few enemies. Everyone would thirst for our blood.” The man called Derek cursed under his nose.

- “That’s the point. Adventurers are looking down on us. This is why we are killing them. Our methods are too extreme? Only weak fools can’t comprehend that true powers can’t be restricted by form!” the gnoll moved towards the exit “… We will kill them, make more of them come after us, and then kill them too. That’s the whole fucking point.”

- “Maybe for you. I am selling the stuff you stole for a percentage.” the human rogue whined.

- “Derek, are you with us?”

- “Ha! That man will probably have some valuable stuff! Bank bills of changes, documents, maybe potion recipes. I will have my fucking share.”

- “Good. Go, prepare yourself. Meeting next to the ambush place in 30 minutes.”