Sera and Ethan crested a hill and looked down at the campfire. Unlike when they spied out the crawners, they knew they shouldn’t be as cautious this time. The man in front of the fire was waiting for them and probably wouldn’t react too well to an ambush. And, even though they had taken down over a dozen crawners with little difficulty a day ago, they could see that this one man would prove more difficult.

They did have the advantage, though, as they had seen the thin trail of smoke rising into the sky for several miles. This stranger’s first indication that he had visitors was when they purposefully kicked rocks down the slope to announce their arrival and not spook him. The big man rose from the fire quickly, his hand on the pommel of his sword, his other ready to pick up his tall shield from the ground.

They were still over 100 yards apart, and neither party said anything as Ethan and Sera walked closer. This man was not like the assassin at all. Though not quite as big, he was as tall as Ethan, and his reflexes and posture indicated years of experience that the apprentice blacksmith did not have. He wore a dark leather vest over a three-quarter length gray shirt and brown trousers. Also, his skin was dark, like Sera’s, and his hair blonde, though not quite as light as the young woman’s. Ethan had guessed that the assassin was a northerner like he was. He had never met anyone who looked like Sera, so it didn’t dawn on him that her ancestry might be from somewhere else.

“Greetings,” he finally said once they were 50 feet apart. Ethan had the appropriate armband on, and his cloak was pulled back, so the gold stitching was easily visible in the late afternoon sun. It wasn’t as late as the previous day when they had run into the crawners, and the sun still had two hours before it would slip behind the western horizon. Although, right now, storm clouds hung in the air to the southwest, and it might get dark much sooner.

This stranger had no armband, and his size and choice of weapons didn’t paint him as an assassin who slipped through the shadows. “I was beginning to think I was the only one who made it,” he said, a slight edge to his voice.

Ethan tried to choose his words carefully, unsure how an assassin should feel about being underestimated. “The old man didn’t know what hit him,” Ethan said, using his left hand to grip the enchanted sword and lift it slightly from its sheath. “I have the heart Elemental.”

“Aye,” the other man said. “I thought paladins were supposed to be excellent fighters, but mine went quietly.” He stopped reaching for his shield with his left hand and dropped it on the top of an axe. “I have the body Elemental.” The weapon had a crescent blade on one side and was sharpened to a spike on the other, both safely cradled in a leather sheath, allowing the weapon’s handle to hang straight down along his thigh.

“Name’s Larken,” he said.

“Ethan.” The young man stayed on the opposite side of the fire, twenty feet from the dangerous killer.

“And you,” Larken turned to Sera. “I didn’t think they would send a sister on this mission. You have the spear then?”

“No, I’m with him.” Sera sidled up to Ethan as if they were a couple. On later reflection, it was an odd thing to do, but they hadn’t figured out a cover story for why there were two of them, so she figured the assassin just liked to travel with a woman. She could have lied about having the weapon, but then he would have wanted to see it, and the two of them had nothing that looked like a spear.

Larken never flinched, giving no indication that their game was already up. “Must be nice to have some company,” he said and moved casually to his pack, lying behind the rock he had been sitting on. “Especially nice-looking company.” He never quite turned his back on the pair and rummaged through his belongings briefly before producing a small black vial, which he promptly drank. Ethan saw then that the liquid had been black as the man threw the transparent glass into the fire.

As Larken took a step back to where he had been, he stooped slightly to pick up his shield, its teardrop shape protecting him from chest to knee. “I don’t suppose you two want to tell me what is really going on here?”

Ethan still didn’t know they had blown it. “Just following instructions. Meeting up after the job is done.”

“Instructions were to come alone,” Larken said evenly, pulling his longsword. It was almost as long as Ethan’s, but he held it comfortably in one hand. “I haven’t dealt with your guild before. Heard some good things. But I heard you always work alone. If there are two of you, something is wrong. So,” he moved to the side so the fire was no longer between them, “want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“I’m a healer,” Sera said quickly. “Ethan was hurt and needed assistance, or he wouldn’t have made it back in time. He couldn’t wait, so I came along.”

Larken weighed this possibility against the option he had to kill them and bring two weapons back to the Supplanter, earning twice the payment. “Nah,” he finally said. “Besides, you’re too young.”

The big man moved like a panther, faster than anything Ethan had seen before. The apprentice still hadn’t pulled his weapon and didn’t have time now as he dove desperately out of the way. Luckily, he and Sera decided to dodge in opposite directions. Larken filled the space between them and took a second to decide who he should put at his back. It was an easy decision, and he turned to face Ethan. The young man was now holding his sword in two hands, a fire in his eyes. He looked back into his opponent’s face to see his eyes were black. Fear started to creep into his mind about what might have been in the elixir the man had just drank, but a hot fury rose to the surface, and he attacked.

The foreigner offered his shield to the strike, but Ethan wasn’t content to have his attack deflected and pulled hard across, his two arms stronger than his opponent’s one, and Larken had to parry with his sword as well, preventing him from striking back. The next few seconds saw them standing toe to toe, weaving their weapons between them, sparks flying before the older man suddenly cried out in pain.

Sera had snuck up behind and jabbed him in the leg, she didn’t dare get too close to the dangerous man, and her slender blade only sunk in an inch, but Larken cried out in a fury just the same. He took a step away from Ethan and held his large shield up between them as his sword swept down and back. Sera was already crouched behind him, with her buckler up, and the powerful strike glanced off her shield. She stumbled under the blow and remembered well when Ethan had thrown her back during one of their sparring sessions. This man was just as strong.

As Sera hopped back, Ethan tried to take advantage of their flanked opponent, but Larken leaned into his shield, offering a powerful block, and Ethan’s sword stopped dead. The older fighter kicked out under the guard, and Ethan winced as the sharp boot tip took him under his knee. With both his opponent’s taking a step back momentarily, Larken turned and retreated until he once again had both youths on the same side.

Sera and Ethan hadn’t spent a lot of time fighting against Gerhold as a pair, for the retired knight couldn’t have guessed the need would arise, but there was some value in learning to fight side-by-side with someone, especially when their fighting style was so different to your own. They tried now, swinging their mismatched weapons at their foe, working him high and low, left and right. But Larken was a seasoned warrior from the isles south of Talla. He had fought against multiple opponents many times, and these two youths wouldn’t defeat him.

Ethan was beginning to think there must be something extraordinary about the elixir this man had drunk. He and Sera worked this man over hard, keeping him jumping and stepping all over the uneven terrain. Ethan quickly understood that he was better than they were, likely better than Sir Gerhold, but he wasn’t even breathing hard.

Sera tried a desperate move, jumping at the man’s left side off a rock, her sword raised high. Predictably he lifted his shield while his sword arm struck out at Ethan. Larken even tried to punch with his shield, hoping to catch the young woman too close and possibly bash her in the face. But Sera was ready and offered her buckler to block at the last moment. The two guards collided hard, throwing Larken off balance a little and stopping Sera’s momentum completely. She dropped straight to the ground and tried to maintain pressure with her buckler on his bigger shield to keep it up in the air as her small sword sliced at his legs.

It was a good move and probably would have defeated Gerhold, especially if he had to worry about Ethan attacking, but Larken was ready for it, and his left leg kicked out hard before Sera’s blade could bite into flesh. The young woman flew back from the kick and landed hard on the rock she had leaped from, groaning in pain. This allowed Larken to turn entirely toward Ethan.

The younger man was breathing heavily, this short fight taking a toll on his injured body after a full day’s journey. He worked his blade hard but quickly found himself on the defensive. The large shield of his opponent offered him no chance for an attack and kept blasting his weapon out wide, opening his body for thrusts from the longsword. This kept Ethan backpedaling continuously, bringing them further from Sera.

On his hip, Ethan felt the enchanted blade calling to him. The young man was fighting for his life, his size and strength the only thing keeping him on his feet before this experienced foe, and he couldn’t bother to fight against any temptation the blade might be offering. And was it even the blade? Wasn’t the elemental inside him now? Ethan couldn’t reason this out in his head, but some thought – some plan – was growing inside him that felt wholly foreign to his way of thinking. But after a bull rush from his foe sent Ethan jumping backward, he gave into it.

“What did you drink!” the young man shouted as he scrambled away.

Predictably the odd question at this point in the battle gave Larken pause, allowing Ethan to put even more distance between them. The older man laughed and lowered his shield for a moment. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Yes,” Ethan replied, “I would.” With that, he quickly lifted his sword over his head with both hands and hurled it at Larken. The odd projectile flipped over in the air awkwardly, and the surprised fighter had to raise his shield and hide completely behind it. The large blade ricocheted down and sliced across his leg. Larken howled in pain, but the wound was superficial, and he lowered his shield to charge toward his now defenseless opponent. But Ethan wasn’t there.

The older man looked about quickly and saw the youth racing toward his bag, where he apparently hoped to find a vial for himself. Larken laughed at the desperate attempt and raced after him. He kept his shield wide and his sword arm raised, closing the distance in only a few running steps. He swept his weapon down hard, but Ethan was only pretending to root through his pack and rolled to the big man’s left, away from his shield, stabbing up at the same time with his enchanted blade that he had secretly drawn.

Larken’s sword cut through his own belongings as Ethan’s forgotten weapon sliced him open across the gut, easily cutting through his stiff, leather armor. The big man stumbled forward, tripping over the stone that had been his seat before the fire. Surprisingly, he rolled over to the ground and tried to attack again, but Ethan was ready, the hateful passion flowing through him, and he stabbed down at his enemy again and again.

As Larken’s eyes closed, he realized he had forgotten he was fighting an assassin. He should have expected this kind of trickery.

Sera came limping up to her traveling partner, having been forced to be a spectator for the last half of the fight. She called out his name several times, but he barely heard her with the blood lust pounding in his ears. She touched his back shoulder, and he spun, nearly taking her head.

“No,” he cried, but her short stature saved her as the blade sliced cleanly above her scalp, trailing droplets of blood through the air. Ethan quickly dropped the sword to the ground and fell to a knee to hug the trembling woman. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to . . .”

“It’s okay,” Sera replied, her voice shaking. “It’s okay. I’m fine. We survived. We’re stupid idiots, but we survived.”

The pair rose slowly, their heart rates finally decelerating after a few intense minutes. Ethan looked down at the sword, realizing how close he had just come to killing Sera with it and never wanting to pick it up again. That thought didn’t last long. The Elemental quickly retook his heart, and he stooped to retrieve the blade. He wiped it clean on the grass and put it back in its sheath. After all, it had saved his life.

“The axe,” Sera said after she regained control of her body. “We need to take it.”

Ethan nodded and turned to the dead man to remove it from his belt. As he got close, he felt a strange pressure around it, pushing him away. He thought he could go through it but suddenly didn’t want to try. He stood and stepped back. “I don’t think it likes me,” he said cautiously.

Sera nodded. She wasn’t an expert on the Elementals, as her temple thought they were merely icons, but she had read the competing theories from other theologians and knew how they were supposed to interact. The heart was tamed by the mind and had its own influence over the spirit of life, but the body and passion were on opposite sides of the conjunction. They repelled each other like the north and south poles of a magnet.

Sera had been taught that every human had the elements in them, just not the Elementals. And one needed to live in balance and harmony with those elements. If you tried to control the body with passion, or vice versa, it led to sexual immorality, which the ancient texts had much to say about. It was interesting to see this imbalance play out in the Elementals too. Sera believed that, if he really wanted to, Ethan could lift the axe with the body Elemental. It was still safely stored in the axe, but Ethan’s awareness was heightened, and there would always be tension between him and the weapon.

However, they still needed to get the axe, so Sera stepped in front of her friend and knelt to remove it and the sheath from the dead fighter. She cringed at the sight of the wounds on his stomach, remembering treating a similar injury on Sir Gerhold. In some way she didn’t fully understand, the assassin who had done that lived on in Ethan now, and she worried that it would eventually destroy him. She shook her head of those thoughts and concentrated again on freeing the weapon, hoping it wasn’t covered in blood. Remarkably, there was very little blood anywhere. Sera had expected a pool to form beneath the dead man, but there was none so far.

Sera could only worry about one thing at a time and stood with the axe when it was finally free. It was surprisingly light, for which she was happy, for she didn’t look forward to carrying a heavy weapon for the rest of their journey, especially one she shouldn’t even use. She affixed it to her belt, under her cloak, and was happy it didn’t over-balance her too much.

“Do we stay here?” she asked, walking up to Ethan. He sat on a rock, just staring into the fire. This was where they were supposed to meet the other party members. There were four Elementals. They now had two, meaning two other fighters or assassins should be coming soon. However, they might have failed and would never come.

“Did the scroll we took off the assassin say how long we should wait?” Sera asked another question, but Ethan was still lost in thought, the Elemental playing with his mind and preventing him from focusing. “Ethan,” Sera called again, stepping up to grab his shoulder. “What do we do now?”

“I expected to feel some kind of . . .” but his voice trailed off, not really knowing what to say. He shook his head and tried to snap out of his funk. “I guess we need to hide the body,” he said, still looking into the fire. “We blow our cover even faster if we have to explain why there is a dead . . .” he did look up now and turned his gaze toward Larken’s body. “Sera! Look out!”

Sera spun and saw the veteran fighter standing before her, looking very much alive. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said with an evil grin, repeating the last thing he had said before “dying” about what he had drunk. He had his sword in his hand but not his shield.

Ethan got up from the rock and backpedaled while Sera stood frozen. The big man didn’t waste his time on the young woman as he tossed her to the side with his free arm and stepped past the large rock Ethan had been sitting on. “No trickery this time,” he said as he brought his blade to bear.

The young man only had the elemental blade at his disposal now, and he drew it quickly, but his heart wasn’t in it this time. He tried to stand his ground, but the man before him was possessed, beating Ethan into submission. One strike hit low on the hilt, and the apprentice lost hold of his weapon, and it went flying to the side. He tried to back up, but his foot slipped on a piece of firewood, and he fell to his back.

“It’s over now,” Larken said as he swept his weapon back for one last strike.

Ethan looked up into the cruel face, knowing this was the end. Then, suddenly it was gone. In a flash of light, Larken’s face and head disappeared. Ethan glanced at motion to his right and saw the still grinning head bounce twice and then roll into the fire. He looked back in shock at the now headless body before him. This time there was blood – lots of it – and it flowed down his chest as the body fell to the right, the sword’s weight toppling it over.

Standing behind the body, up on the rock, was Sera. She held the axe in her hands, blood staining its wicked edge and a look of horror on her face. Ethan watched her statuesque pose for a moment before falling too, unconscious before hitting the ground.