Nevan walked out of the gate of Nirvana. He looked back as he left; once past the gates, the sight of his friends disappeared. Nirvana had closed its doors. He was back in the forest, where he first entered. The capital, Sutra, was half a day journey on foot away. He would arrive there by nightfall. The air was colder now, indicating the incoming winter. He had shaved his long black hair before he left and now felt the cold breeze tingling on his head. He checked his pack, pulling out the sack of gold, and placed it in his robes with his knives. Confident that everything was prepared, he made his way into the forest.

After leaving her late squire’s parents, Elnor made her way home to be with her family. She found her little sister and Safia playing in the garden. Mrs. Sari was not far, gathering the fallen leaves into a pile. Elnor and Hua’s parents had passed the previous year, being one of the rare cases of adults succumbing to the disease. All Elnor had left was Hua.

Hua saw Elnor and beamed. The little girl ran to her sister, and Elnor bent down to receive Hua in her arms.

“You're back!” Hua said.

“I am,” Elnor replied, holding the little girl close.

Safia watched the two sisters hug, smiling fondly.

“Safia,” Elnor called out, opening one of her arms. “Come here.” Safia ran towards the Commander, not needing any further invitation, embracing the woman. “We’re all family here,” said the Commander. Elnor embraced the two children, taking in their existence.

“Will you read us a book tonight?” Hua asked. “I told Safia you read the best stories.” The other girl nodded in agreement.

Elnor chuckled, “Alright. But it's getting late. Go prepare for dinner first.” The children cheered as they went into the house to get clean.

“Welcome back, madam Elnor.” Mrs. Sari said.

“It’s good to be home. I hope the girls didn’t cause too much trouble.”

“You’ve been gone more often these days. Hua certainly missed you.” The old housekeeper frowned sadly. “I am sorry about Leo, madam.”

“Me too,” Elnor replied sadly.

“He was a kind boy,” said Mrs. Sari. They stood there, giving a moment of silence for Leo.

“How long are you planning to stay?” asked the old woman.

“Longer this time,” answered Elnor. “The winter has halted the war for now.”

“That’s good to hear.” The housekeeper paused. She hesitated before finally continuing, “I am not sure if this is the right time to say this, but I want you to know that I would be more than happy to take care of the girls in case anything happens.”

Elnor smiled wistfully at the widow. Mrs. Sari’s husband had passed due to old age, and she was not far away from joining him. The older woman had no children, but Elnor could tell she always wanted to be a mother. “Thank you, Mrs. Sari.”

That night, Elnor sat on a chair beside the bed that Hua and Safia shared. “Could you read this book?” asked Hua. Elnor took the book and looked at its title.

“Not this one.” She placed the book back on the top shelf, where the children could not reach. “Pick another one.”

Kata sat on a small stool in front of the gates to Sutra. The night guards had a much easier time when compared to the day guards, seldomly having to deal with people moving in and out of the city. The night was peaceful. It would be as calm as usual.

A few moments later, he saw a man walking towards the gates. It was too dark to make out the man’s features; only the movement of his shadows indicated him. Rio, another guard who was posted this night, stood up first.

“Walk slowly towards us,” Rio nonchalantly said. “And state your name and purpose.” Rio followed the regular protocols. The unknown man obliged his orders and moved slowly towards the gate. Only when the man came near did Kata noticed that the man was slightly taller than him. And Kata was nowhere close to being average.

“My name is Ishan Ditadari, and I have come to enlist in the army.” The powerfully built man said.

Kata wrote the name of the man on the entry list. “The recruitment office opens tomorrow morning at eight. Do you know where you’ll be staying until then?” They had received orders not to turn back any potential recruits. If the man had no place to stay, they were obliged to allow him to reside in the guard post for the night.

“I have enough coins to rent a room in an inn.”

Rio nodded. “Very well, you may enter.” He allowed the man to continue through the gate into Sutra.

The following day, Elnor had left her estate for the Knights of Ronan’s headquarters in the southern end of Sutra. It was a two-hour ride on horseback, her home locating at the other end of the city. She knocked on the door of General Ahri’s office before entering. “General,” Elnor saluted.

“At ease, Commander.” Said the General.

“You wanted to see me?”

General Ahri nodded. “Yes, I have something to tell you. But first, tell me how you are doing.”

“Very well, General.”

“Straight to the point then,” Ahri shooked her head. “I'm going to need you to be assigned with another squire.”

“This soon?” Elnor retorted.

“Yes, Commander, this soon. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but we need to use the winter as efficiently as possible and rebuild our numbers. Our winters don't last long and we’re conscripting as many sorcerers as we can at this moment.”

“How bad is our situation that we resorted to drafting civilians?”

“If it was dire before, we are desperate now.” Ahri rubbed her nose bridge. “That’s not all I have to inform you, though. You won’t have a choice on who would be your squire. It would be whoever is at the bottom among the recruits today.”

“What! Why?” Elnor asked angrily.

The bottom of the recruits would undoubtedly be a non-sorcerer, and her last squire was not among the bottom. Elnor had no desire to repeat the same mistake or make a worse one.

“I have just lost a squire this week, and you want me to replace him with the worst one? What am I suppose to do with someone that we shouldn’t even be recruiting?” Elnor bitterly asked.

“You disobeyed a direct order from me, Commander!” General Ahri raised her voice. “In front of everyone! I have to reprimand you somehow.” The General took a deep breath, blowing out her frustrations. “You train them, Elnor. Train them so that they would not meet the same fate.” She took another breath, and this time she spoke more calmly. “You have your orders, Commander.”

“Yes, General,” Elnor saluted coldly before turning to leave.

“Commander,” The General called Elnor, who turned her head to look back. “You’re not the only one who lost a squire that day.”

“Next,” Nevan heard the bearded recruitment officer said. He was next in line and stepped forward,

“Name?” the officer asked.

“Ishan Ditadari.”

“Are you a sorcerer?”

“No, sir.”

“Have you ever been tested for a core?”

“Yes, sir, when I was younger.”

The officer marked a check on a square in the paper he held with a quill.

“Which city did you came from?”

“Siang.” Nevan gave the man the city where his summer estate was located.

The bearded man wrote the name of the city.

“Any family there?”

“Dead.”

The officer looked up at Nevan before turning back to his paper. He blacked out the name of the city.

“How old are you, son?”

Nevan gave the recruiter his age, who huffed when he heard it. “Old enough.” The man said and wrote ‘graduated orphan,’ under the city name. “All right,” he handed Nevan the paper. “Head to the courtyard,” the man pointed to his right. “Evaluation will begin at midday.”

“Next!” the officer yelled as Nevan walked to the courtyard.

He saw many recruits there. Some were sparring with each other, while a few sorcerers were practicing their abilities. There was a mix of highborn and lowborn, easily differentiated from the quality of their blades and ornate clothes. He looked at the sword at his side. It was plain, one of the spare blades available in Nirvana. He had left the sword he took from his home in Nirvana, handing the extravagant blade to Ayu as a gift.

He waited with the other recruits who were sitting on the side of the courtyard. It was not until three hours past midday that they hit their quota. Only once all five hundred recruits were enlisted, was a knight sent to fetch them.

“Recruits, follow me!”

All of them followed the knight. They moved through large stone structures until they appeared in a similar but smaller courtyard. There they found a rack of swords and a few armed knights.

“Your first evaluation will be one on one sword combat. You are to use the swords we provide. None shall use their own.”

Nevan frowned, knowing his sword skills were lackluster.

“Hey,” said another recruit who stood beside him. He was around his early twenties and bore expensive armor. “Just give it your best. I heard from my father that they are currently accepting everyone who enlists.”

“Thanks,” Nevan replied, a little more calm from hearing the news.

“Recruit one to two hundred, stay here.” Said the knight who had been guiding them. “The rest follow me.”

Nevan checked his paper seeing the number written on the top left. Recruit 176. His group waited for the others to leave before a Knight in the courtyard finally stepped forward.

“My name is Coden, and you will address all of us as Sir. When I call your number, you will hand me your paper. You will then pick a sword and face one of us. If you are a sorcerer, feel free to transmute tenaga. Once your evaluation is finished, return the sword, and wait with the others until everyone is done. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Sir!” they all replied.

Sir Coden nodded, “Recruit one, step forward.”

The first recruit was an augmenter. She was highly skilled with the blade, weaving quickly between the swinging sword of the knight. The knight was toying with her, Nevan realized, not trying to hit the recruit. Instead, purposely creating openings for the recruit to take advantage. She managed a few hits on the knight, who received the blows without flinching.

After a while, Sir Coden called for the bout to stop. He had written down a letter on the first recruit’s paper before he handed it back. “Recruit two, step forward.”

A little after an hour later, Nevan was called. Sir Coden got tired of saying the recruit’s numbers, resorting to a simple “Next.” Nevan handed his paper and picked one of the swords from the rack. It felt unusual, the weight perfectly balanced on the whole blade. Not the familiar heavy tip of the war hammers he preferred. He gave a few practice swings, attempting but failing to get comfortable with the weapon.

The knight he was supposed to face stepped forward, raising their sword arm high, aiming for a downwards swing. Nevan struck the knight on the chest plate. Where a war hammer would have caused a dent, the sword bounced away. The knight had tried to pull back, but they had expected that anyone would know to strike an armor’s weakness on the armpit. The knight’s dull blade hit the top of Nevan’s head and caused Nevan to fall. He stayed on the ground for a moment, blinking away the stars. The knight shook their head to Sir Coden.

“That’s enough,” said Sir Coden.

Nevan cursed in his head as he returned the sword and received his paper. There was a number ‘one’ written under his combat evaluation.

After everyone was finished, the group was told to make their way to another courtyard, where their ranged combat ability would be evaluated. Almost all who did poorly with the first evaluation did much better with a bow and crossbow. Not Nevan though, he utterly failed with both weapons. He had never wielded either ranged weapons and had missed his target dreadfully. He received another ‘one’ on his paper.

Once the second evaluation had concluded, they were brought to the large courtyard where they had first gathered. A knight had called for all the sorcerers to follow for further assessments, ordering the non-sorcerers to wait. Nevan had spoken to some of the others there, asking about their score. Their score ranged from fifteen to twenty-five for the first evaluation and twenty to forty for the second. Once all assessments were finished, all the sorcerers and recruits from the other groups had joined in the courtyard with them. The sky had turned dark, and mist formed in the air as they breathed. A few fire elementalists lit small fires on their hands to keep themselves warm.

A knight walked into the courtyard, standing in front of the sitting recruits. “Recruit number three six nine, follow me.” One of the fire elementalists stood up, following the already leaving knight. Not long after, another knight appeared, calling for recruit number fourteen to follow this time. This sequence continued until, eventually, only Nevan remained. He was shivering in the cold, not having prepared any winter attire.

He sat patiently until he finally heard footsteps—a woman with long auburn hair approached him. Unlike the others, she did not wear any armor, only dressed in a simple tunic and leather trousers. He immediately knew she was a knight from her well-built body and height. He stood and saluted, meeting her grey eyes, that lit orange under the torch lights, straight across.

“Papers,” she lifted a hand.

Nevan handed her his paper. She read it, frowned a little before crumpling it into a small ball and placing it inside her pocket. Her fierce eyes met Nevan’s as she spoke. “My name is Commander Elnor. From this day onwards, you, Ishan Ditadari, will be my squire until I decide you are ready to be a full-fledged knight.”