A

Alice Cadmus Von Sigurd stood eyes wide, mouth agape as a War Balloon glided over what was supposed to be a safe backwater village in the middle of nowhere. Masbai was supposed to be a perfectly safe place for her to turn the plans of her siblings on their heads and she would rise to the top of the social hierarchy of the family. And yet here she was staring at the world itself bent over backward to disrupt perfectly good familial double reverse espionage planning. The nerve…

Alice turned her head back to the thief, as soon as she caught her mind starting to wander, but the thief was gone. It appeared to her as though she had turned her head at the same time that peasant boy had, giving that filthy thief time to escape. He turned to see that she was gone a hair's breadth after her, letting an expletive slip out under his breath. Alice was slightly surprised to see his face so swiftly change into one of decisive action as he turned back toward the war balloon and began to stalk off.

“Where are you going?” she asked before she knew it. At the end of the day, this boy was a local and would know how to return to her home faster and safer than she would. He had suddenly been elevated in her eyes to a precious resource and an embarrassing tendril of fear wrapped itself around her heart at the thought of that resource slipping through her fingers.

Resh felt as though he had no reason to answer this rude noble girl, so he was quite surprised to find himself replying while looking around the corner of the nearest building to check for enemy soldiers.

“I’m going home to find my family.”

Alice’s heart dropped, but she couldn’t let him know that. She had now entered into the beginnings of a business negotiation. Gone was the face and temperament of a 16-year-old girl. Resh Ay Abbinsuuri was now faced with a shrewd merchant who would take him for all he was worth if given the chance. Today was not his day.

Alice began the negotiation with her strongest angle, just as she had been taught by her tutors.

“Has your family failed so miserably that they would raise a young man to abandon a helpless young woman of higher birth in the middle of a crisis?”

Despite her earlier faux pas, she was actually quite well versed in dozens of other cultures worldwide and knew that such a statement would challenge his family's honor. This would then demand that he...

Resh had already started slinking his way out of the alley and back onto the main road. “WAIT!” she bellowed.

“No.”

He kept walking. She ran after him.

“Why not?!?”

“1) You just tried to manipulate me into risking my life to help a stranger instead of going to help my family. 2) You are not helpless. You outran me on the way here meaning your cultivation is more advanced than mine. 3) We’re in the middle of a burgeoning warzone and standing still is how you get caught and killed by enemy soldiers. That thing in the sky doesn’t move like an animal so it’s some kind of war machine. 4) I don’t like you.”

Alice Cadmus Von Sigurd stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes opened wide as she pursed her lips into a line. It would appear as though she had misjudged the peasant boy. Honestly, she should stop thinking of him as a simple peasant, given the quality of his clothing and the expert use of formal speech during his earlier insults it was clear he was from some sort of artisan family. She would have to adjust tactics.

“And what will you do when you find your family? My family just moved into the old City Lord’s house. There’s a fully stocked bunker within that could weather a divine storm. Help me get home alive and my family will take yours in until the end of this invasion.”

Resh scanned the area around him as he began to slow his pace. His family’s arts had no ability to help them escape or fight their way to safety. This was probably the best hope they’d have for survival. But one lesson every child of the Wandering lands learned by habit or by happenstance stopped him from accepting immediately. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it is.

He turned to face her and pushed the negotiation forward.

“Why do you need my help? You could outrun me any day of the week with the cultivation you have?”

Alice met his eyes unflinching. They were a solid, unwavering blue deeper, and darker than any ocean. It was now obvious to her that they held an intellect just as vast.

“My arts are not suited for combat and my cultivation is not more advanced than yours, just purer. You also clearly know this city better than I which means a faster and safer way home for me.”

Resh held her gaze as he readjusted his posture to stand at his full height. He looked away for a second and ran his finger through long black curls.

“By more pure, you mean that you know the other four Mudrahs?”

Alice internally smiled a toothy merchant’s smile that would put a Cheshire cat to shame. Now she was getting somewhere.

“I do.”

Resh heaved a heavy sigh. His mother would likely scold him for speaking so impolitely to a noble while making a business deal like this but he had neither the time nor the interest to slip into a mask of formality.

“We go to get my family first. Then I lead you as best I can to your home and you allow us to stay in your bunker till this is all over. While we stay there you teach me the other Mudras. When this is all over your family furnishes your new home with my family's wares.”

Alice couldn’t stop an outward grimace at that last request, but it was a small price to pay for ensuring her safety.

“Done. I don’t have any parchment so a normal blood seal will have to suffice.”

Alice used her left hand to neatly remove the glove from her left and reached into her dress pocket to retrieve a fountain pen. She pricked her finger with it and handed the pen to Resh.

Resh tentatively took the pen from her outstretched hand and pricked his finger with it to draw blood. Blood oaths were something that everyone in the city knew of but had little use for. Any contracts not fulfilled would simply be forcefully upheld by the city guards. No reason to get the Deva involved. Resh was more or less aware of the mechanics involved but this would be his first oath taken personally. Alice upheld her bleeding finger as Resh reached out to make contact with his and they spoke simultaneously. “ I swear by the Blood of my body that I shall do as I have agreed.” Both Alice and Resh felt a tightening around their chest as Prana in the air and in their bodies took notice of their contract and held them to it.

Resh clutched at his heart, the tightening feeling catching him off guard. Just as Alice opened her mouth to ask him a question, the earth quaked again as another huge ball of fire came raining down from the war balloon. This time, ropes were released from the sides of the balloon and soldiers descended them. Alice quickly righted herself before making the proper introduction to one in her service.

“I am Alice Cadmus von Sigurd. I look forward to your earnest service.”

Resh bowed slightly in response, more out of habit than actual respect for the pleasantry.

“Reshaan Ay Abinsuuri, I pray my service is honorable. Come on. The faster we gather up my family the faster we can get to safety.”

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Resh and Alice made their way through the Masbai streets as quickly and quietly as supernaturally possible. The closer they got to their destination the more infested with enemy soldiers the city became. Resh could feel a sea of roiling emotions slowly increasing in pressure in his stomach as every moment went by. The time between the sounds of wayward screams and the general mayhem of a warzone slowly decreased. Resh couldn’t see it quite yet but he could feel all of Masbai weeping as it was savaged by an unknown assailant. The air was slowly becoming thick with the scent of blood, and there was a mounting terror that sat tensely on his shoulders as his mind wrestled with the fact that another earth-shaking fireball could be on the way. But now wasn’t the time for terror. It wasn’t the time to crack under the weight of the situation.

Resh’s steps waived as they had just about made it to his family’s workshop. There was a body of a young girl, around 12-13 years old. He stared at her for a long while and Alice walked over to get a closer look. The girl had been speared through the back. She was running away. Alice was not known for her compassion but even she could see that this shook her guide somewhat. She spoke before thinking about what to say.

“Did you know her?”

Huh.. Know her? That was Aasia. They had lived and worked in the same district for as long as Resh could remember. They weren’t especially close or anything like that but… she didn’t deserve that. No one did. Resh immediately clamped down on that line of thought. If he started to process this, any part of this madness, he wouldn’t be able to stop it. He’d have to deal with an ocean of emotions that could do nothing but hinder him in this situation. His first priority was to get his family to safety. He could mentally break down some other time. He took a deep breath and pulled back the tide of emotions.

“No. It’s just unfortunate for her. Let’s go.” He felt bad about lying but the truth to a question like Alice’s always led to a conversation and there just wasn’t time. He rubbed the beads under his robe gently, while bowing his head and closing his eyes in a quick quiet prayer.

“Fortune find you in your next life.” One of the common last rites said by family and friends between the artisan caste. She was a nice girl with a kind heart, Resh was sure that Mantra would chant her soul into a greater form in the next life. Resh steadied himself and began to skulk the streets again.

The remainder of the trip was without incident. They had only had to run for 40 or so minutes total. Alice had thought that it was going to be a much longer trip. She would have been pleasantly surprised if not for what they found there. Nothing so gruesome as a grouping of bodies in the street, just an uneasy sense of violent quiet. Sure there were still the screams and bangs of fights from other parts of Masbai, but even they seemed not to dare cross the sullen silence this place demanded.

Children’s toys were strewn about, fires were still lit. Doors were broken down, and fingernail marks could be seen dug into the ground. Nothing other word fit the scene better than ravaged. And through it all Alice did not see the face of her tour guide so much as twitch. The only thing that she saw change about him was his gait as they stopped in front of one building. She could only assume it was his home by the way he walked in. She followed after him and gasped at the sight.

Resh’s baba laid on the floor, a hole in his chest and his eyes empty of life. The first breath Resh took in almost made his heart explode as his emotions burned and bubbled up inside him. Anger, Grief, Sadness, Worry, anxiety, he wouldn’t be able to name them all if he’d had a million years. But he didn’t have a million years. He didn’t see his mother or his siblings. They may still be alive, and if they were he needed to find them. He risked calling out to his mother.

“Maan… Maan. It’s Resh, if you can hear me, it’s safe to come out. I’ve found somewhere for all of us to be safe but we have to go now.”

Alice couldn’t take her eyes off the man splayed out on the floor like garbage. He was older and seemed to be sickly but there was no mistaking that this was Resh’s kin. Maybe even…

“Reshaan… is that,”

“Not now.”

He didn’t even turn to respond to her question. Who was this man? How could he be going through all of this, seeing his loved ones die right in front of him and not so much as flinching? For the first time, she wondered if she had picked the wrong guide to take her through the city safely. She was being led by an unfeeling monster.

After a long, pregnant pause with no response seeming to be incoming. Resh spoke again. His voice trembled a little with his first word and he had to swallow halfway through to force his thought out.

“I’m going to take you to your home and then I will consider our bargain complete.”

“Reshaan. I know what you’re thinking about doing but,”

“I HAVE TO FIND THEM!”

Resh cursed himself internally for letting that little bit of his anger slip out. There was no time for any of that. Just the next objective until he had done everything he could.

“I’m sorry. But this is something I must do.”

“Look, there are no marks here showing any other struggle. That warship is from the nameless land. They’re basically a mercenary army, and they always work the same way. Either a bloody death or slavery is what awaits their victims. Your family isn’t here, which means they’re going to be sold. The only city large enough to sell slaves nearby is Khaalkom. If you want to save them, you have to live to see them another day. Take me back to my home and stay there and we can work out a plan to get them back.”

Resh was quiet for a long time. So long she was sure he was going to say no, but he heaved a sigh after what had no doubt been an intense internal debate.

“Why did you say ‘we’?”

Alice, slightly offended by the question, retorted.

“I would not stain my family's honor by allowing a blood oath to be so poorly fulfilled.”

Resh walked to the door of the house and placed his hand on the broken hinges. He took a deep breath. It wasn’t quite time to lose his cool yet. This girl made a lot of sense, and the ultimate goal was to keep his family safe. That included himself. If he could be patient he could still find and save them. He looked both ways and accepted her offer.

“Ok. Let’s go before the soldiers double back looking for stragglers.”