I stood as still as a deer in headlights, my mouth hanging slightly open, as I took in the sight before me. Bloody beast, what had this crazy woman done?

***

I had been met with a scout after I had gotten closer to the ruins outside of town, who had given me a simple greeting and then motioned for me to follow her.

I still hadn’t been able to get a clear answer of what kind of structure these ruins had been before they fell, which must have been close to a thousand years in the past, judging from the amount of growth over the huge chunks of stone that were scattered around. There were a few low walls that hadn’t completely collapsed, but much of the stone that was used in North Stone Village had come from this ruin way back hundreds of years ago, and villagers even now would come out here with carts to haul off stone if they had something they wanted it for.

From the rumors I had heard, the building was an early design of the massive fortress in the center of our village, but it was much larger… when I had asked around in the past a theory that the builders had tried to make a permanent indoor city, so that it would already be secure when the beasts struck… but of course, that wasn’t realistic, because any structure that size would be impossible to properly defend if a proper beast horde struck… which is probably exactly what happened…

The scout was very quiet as we moved through the maze of abandoned stonework, giving me a sense that she could disappear at any moment, but she was always just in sight. We were both on the lookout for beasts, but the chance of anything dangerous being this close to the Garrison and its constant patrols was very low.

And then I turned a corner, the scout was nowhere in view, and my jaw dropped open slightly in surprise. Was this not supposed to be a secret meeting?

In front of me was Jesvae Spiritwind, Wolfram’s older sister (and the current First Heir to all of House Spiritwind). Next to her were three bodies… scratch that, one body, and two figures who were so tightly tied up they could barely move.

Scattered around the clearing were figures with various weapons in hand, but their attention was largely focused outward, and few of them spared me more than a glance.

And then… laid out all around Jesvae’s feet, were injured warriors, some of whom I knew! Two of them were members of the quad that had been trapped in the shelter with Tetra, Wulfric, and me, back when we were caught out in the beast horde several years ago. They had seen me turn Wulfric into a metallic statue, and had been part of the group who swore to keep my secret.

Both of them were bandaged and looked to be in rough shape… in fact, all of the warriors scattered on the floor looked like they had been injured. I recognized the markings of House Runetail on a few of the other bodies… though some were too badly burnt for me to make out their insignia, and I wasn’t sure that all of the figures on the ground were even alive…

There was no doubt about the noblewoman who was next to Jesvae, however. Her grey skinned head was being used as a footrest by the scion of House Spiritwind… quite a lot further away from her body than could possibly be healthy…

The worst part was that I knew her. We weren’t close at all, but I had seen her a few times at the House Flameward Warrior training facility in The City, where my duplicate was busy learning how to Cultivate with Wulfric and Tetra. She had approached me numerous times about seemingly banal topics, and Tetra had mentioned that she had been asking both her and Wulfric questions about me. Not that she was the only one to be curious about the youngest Cultivator in history…

I felt my stomach turn, and I found myself glad that I hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

What they heck was I getting into…

***

Jesvae smiled at Heller as he arrived, proudly displaying her handiwork for the young apprentice of the Merrik. She and her group had singlehandedly saved the boy from a kidnapping plot that had been months in the making, and she found herself oddly eager to receive his praise. Or had he already known about it? She had no idea what the Merrik was capable of, and surely his apprentice would be just as mysteriously capable.

It hadn’t been easy to gather the intelligence required to setup this ambush, and it was somewhat of a risk for her to play her hand so openly. When her and her opponents maneuvered against each other they generally tried to keep the casualties to the lower class; it wasn’t good for anyone, they both knew, if nobles started going missing.

But now that had all changed, because of young Heller. The cowards in the city had made a move, and they had a fairly developed plot where they were going to trick the boy into thinking that he needed to come with them for training, and to protect his family from rogue elements (such as Jesvae Spiritwind…), and they had planned to indoctrinate the boy into their way of thinking.

What they didn’t know, however, was that the boy was oddly intelligent: Even at the age of eight, when Jesvae first met him, she had been shocked by his wit – now it must be even greater. Their plan to trick the boy would have likely failed, and they would have then used their backup plan, which was to indirectly threaten his family.

And even someone as bold as Jesvae wanted NOTHING to do with a plan that relied on threatening the family of the beasting apprentice of the Merrik…

***

I blinked at the woman standing opposite me, who was smiling like a cat… or at least, there was something distinctly predatory about her, although with any luck it wasn’t directed at me.

“Greetings Heller, apprentice to the Merrik.”

Woah… Jesvae did not beat around the bush… there were several gasps around the clearing, and startled looks from a number of the wounded guards laying on the floor. The ones who knew me simply did their best to give greetings, though there was something odd about their posture.

“Uhhhh… Hey there Jesvae, good to see you again!”

I said, raising an eyebrow at her. If she was a spy or member of some secret society – and I was pretty sure she was one of those, if not both – she would know that I wasn’t a huge fan of formality, or pandering to the artificial divide between nobles and commoners.

“It is good to see you as well, Heller.”

“Soooo… what is the deal with the… prisoners? Those two are friends of mine, is it cool if I heal them?”

While they weren’t actually my friends, I had seen them around, and I definitely considered Captain Buzac to be something between a friend and a mentor. I pointed at the two wounded guards, assuming they had just gotten caught in the crossfire of whatever was happening. By law, nobles had to be escorted by warriors of the House that controlled the territory they were passing through, so warriors of House Flameward made the trip from The City and back quite often.

One of the nobles widened his eyes and started struggling frantically, yelling something at me through his… muzzle? I thought it was a gag at first, but the contraption that he had wrapped around the lower half of his face was a lot more extreme than anything I would usually identify as a gag…

At the same time, the two warriors I knew looked back at Jesvae with a mixture of hope and fear, and the other warriors who I didn’t know just looked confused and scared.

Jesvae paused for a moment, and I felt a flash of worry that I had said something to give myself away… but then again, was there anything to even give away? I mean, I might as well be the Merrik’s apprentice for all it mattered to anyone, and for all I knew the crazy old bugger might view me as a successor… I still didn’t know what ‘Soulbinder’ meant, although I had a few theories… maybe that’s what they called cultivators in his sect?

Then, without warning, Jesvae’s smile widened even further and she chuckled.

“As expected from the Apprentice of the Merrik. You care for even the lives of commoners.”

She gave the nobles at her feet a contemptuous look before lashing out with a lightning fast kick, cracking the struggling man across the jaw. He stopped moving, and he might even be alive, but holy heck was that a loud sound… it looked like Jesvae was plenty strong, both physically and as a cultivator.

I thought about her words as I made my way towards the wounded warriors, not worrying about the fact that she hadn’t actually answered my question. There was plenty of time for questions later, for now I wanted to get these two stable… and on my side.

I will admit that a very small part of me considered the fact that if I had to fight my away out of this situation, having a couple warriors who I knew watch my back could be a big help. I didn’t have access to my ice powers at the moment, after all, as they were with my duplicate over in The City. It could be a heck of a fight if things went weird…