Peng had discarded his armor long ago. In addition to being too heavy for his comparatively frail form, it was simply going to cause him nothing but trouble, as it identified him as a soldier of the Nikan army. The lack of it signified his own acceptance of his desertion. But despite having left his life as a soldier behind, he still felt as though he was on the outs of the group.

He trailed behind the other four as they talked amongst themselves, their voices distinct from the noises of fauna of the surrounding Sklaveni forest. Even with the forest canopy shielding them, Peng still felt the wrath of the late spring sun.

Don’t kid yourself. He thought, You’re just going to go back home. And you’re the only one without a spirit living inside you to give you magic powers. Stop trying to fit in. You never have.

That didn’t make it feel better.

To be fair, he was due for this sort of semi-ostracization. He was a member of the very army that had tried to kill them, which also happened to serve the empire they wanted to fight against. An empire that Peng wasn’t exactly intent on leaving behind.

He wasn’t fit for this life. Nor the life of a soldier. But both had happened without his personal opinion being involved.

“Oi.” Ruhak muttered, hanging back to walk alongside Peng. “I roasted some crickets this morning. You want some? They’re packed with energy.”

Ruhak held out a single cooked bug from a metal tin full of them. Peng frowned, but plucked the bug from his fingers and threw it in his mouth. It tasted a lot like...chicken.

“I hope you didn’t use more energy catching these things than their worth.” Peng chuckled.

“No idea. But I’ve felt full all day.” Ruhak said. “So I’d say it was a worthwhile experiment.”

Of all the others around him, Ruhak was the one he could relate to the most. The way he thought and felt was very much so in line with his own mind.

Ruhak pulled ahead to try and disgust Cecile with the insects.

Peng’s mind switched to his new favorite line of thoughts: Longing for home. He was certain he wasn’t the only one from among them, but Peng didn’t miss home for the sake of family or other loved ones.

In fact, his family was probably happy he was gone.

No, Peng wanted his old job back. He wasn’t a rebel and he wasn’t a soldier. He was a Shentong. An Adept. Specifically in science and engineering.

In Nikan, Adepts were people considered highly skilled in a variety of fields and were often allowed to swap jobs as much as they wanted, so long as their abilities remained top tier. But since their work was never guaranteed, Adepts were considered...disposable.

It probably would’ve been wise to have gone to university and gotten a legitimate degree instead of an Adept’s license. That way he could’ve just been assigned to the engineering corps if he had to participate in the war. And, well...he would have gone and done that. But there were all the reasons in the world not to.

Peng just didn’t work that way. He could never devote his entire life to just one study. He liked smithing, chemistry, astronomy, arithmetic and arcanology as much as he enjoyed engineering.

Some part of him wished he’d just gone off on his own and decided to follow these people all the way to Koinelia. But there was nothing to do but walk and talk everyday with this group. Both things he wasn’t too great at. Walking? Sure. He marched in the army. But he couldn’t be bothered to fruitlessly start up conversation. He was going to split up with them once they got into Koinelia anyways.

And it wasn’t as though the roads were particularly dangerous. The armies and Banebenders were after the Shedim Masters. And their group actively sought out looters and bandits for funds. None had ever come to them.

Peng glanced towards his spear as they started up a rather steep hill. He used his spear as a walking stick, its once bright red tassels now caked in mud and blackened by dirt.

“Hey, you.”

Peng snapped his gaze upwards. Taya had begun strolling next to him.

He inwardly sighed. The Sklaveni was one of those people. One of the people who was always trying to get into his business. Who couldn’t handle someone in the group being upset. Too selfless. Too sensitive. Too idealistic. Mostly because acting that way made her feel like she was better than everyone else. She was always yelling about something or other about believing in yourself.

It annoyed him.

But he decided he would play along. He could say what he thought, but it honestly wasn’t worth his time.

“You seem...dejected. More so than usual.” Taya said, “You alright?”

“I’m fine.” Peng muttered.

“That was the most disingenuous ‘I’m fine’ I’ve ever heard.” Taya scoffed, “You’re part of this group until we get to Koinelia. So until then, it’s my business if you’re upset. We need cohesion.”

Peng decided to give her a truth. Well...a truth. Just to get her off his back and get her talking to herself.

“I feel kind of...on the outs?” Peng said, “You guys all have your superpowered ghosts and all I’ve got is a spear. Plus I’m Nikan. So that doesn’t help.”

“I guarantee you, none of us give a damn about your nationality. And you’re helpful to us in ways beyond combat.” Taya said, “You know more than anyone about the enemy and you can read, which is a rare trait among us uneducated folk.”

Peng scoffed, “No offense, but getting compliments from you is kind of like getting air in my lungs when I breathe.”

His face reddened slightly. He didn’t mean to let that slip. Peng stared at the ground, refusing to look her in the eye.

“That so?” Taya asked. She seemed completely unaffected. Perhaps he was wrong about the sensitive part, “Tell me more.”

“I’ll...I’ll pass.”

“How are you meant to stop being on the outs if you won’t even speak up about things you have a problem with?” Taya asked, “Pushovers don’t get friends. They get masters and the threat of a whip called humiliation at their back.”

Peng grimaced, “Pushover? Fine. I’ll tell you what I think, if you’re so insistent.”

“I am.” Taya said.

Peng gritted his teeth. “When you compliment everyone, then those compliments become worthless. Just like religions that tell you to love everyone. That love means nothing if everyone gets it. Your words mean nothing and their pointlessness irritates me.”

“I don’t disagree with your logic.” Taya said, as though she was almost...no, not apathetic. She was engaged, but why wasn’t she upset? “True, I am liberal with my praise, but the praise only loses worth if I compliment everyone without a basis in merit. Then it becomes disingenuous. But my praise is never unearned. You have specific strengths that make you different from everyone else. The same with the others.”

“The same logic still applies.” Peng muttered, “If everyone’s special, no one is.”

“You keep thinking of value as an up and down straight line.” Taya said. “Let’s say everyone was an absolute expert in something. Whatever it is, they’re the top of their field and no one can even hold a candle to them. There’d be no one better or slightly worse to compare them to. But each skill has its own subjective value to each individual.”

Peng didn’t respond. He wasn’t exactly expecting her to be able to consider such abstract things like theories of value.

“But I think your philosophical view of value isn’t what’s got you dragging yourself through the dirt.” Taya guessed, “You’re bored, aren’t you?”

Peng blinked, stopping in his tracks.

He looked at her, alarmed, “Bored? Where’d that come from?”

“Your attention darts all over the place.” Taya shrugged, “Hell even right now, you’ve been occupied in your own head half the time. You’re looking for something to do, right?”

Peng didn’t respond, but he didn’t refute her observation either.

“You’ll find something you’ll wanna work on. That way you can put all your attention on that and not stupid things like thinking I’d go out of my way to live confidently just to make my self look better than you specifically.” she said before running to catch up with the other three.

Peng took a second before he started to walk again too.

Well, now he knew she was scarily perceptive. And smarter than he gave her credit for. He felt like a fool.

But then again...he also felt foolish the first time he tried to explain the mechanics of the Eagle Talon machine to his professors.

Peng frowned. Why was his pulse so fast? He could hear it in his ears. Could he have...no. There’s no way she could’ve had that effect on-

The beats were distinctly coming from behind. Peng twisted his head around to see eight horses charging at them from behind, ridden by figures in dark armor.

Bane Knights.

Peng leapt out of the way as the horses stampede over the dirt towards the Shedim Masters, like a storm of black steel and metal-clad bodies.

Taya, ever the powerful barbarian, noticed the approaching enemies’ malicious intent and cleaved off the head on the foremost horse as they caught up to them.

Why were there Bane Knights here? They were only ever used to keep order in conquered territories so the army could mobilize against the next area. On rare occasions were they used in battle, but only there was a serious risk of losing the battle.

Other nations had Bane Knights, but none were as skilled or as feared as Nikan’s.

The Bane Knight leapt off their horses, surrounding the others. They each wielded weapons of wicked black steel, meant for trapping common Shedim. Among them, he spotted two figures, dressed in traditional armor. The Prince and Princess.

Peng started to back away into the foliage. Guilt struck his core, but what could he do? If he was seen and identified, he couldn’t return home. And even if he did intervene, he stood no chance against Banebenders of any variety.

He could see Bjorn, Taya, Ruhak and Cecile all glowing with the colors of their individual Shedim as they engaged in combat with the Bane Knights. Taya handled the royals herself. Even Cecile, who was frail and could barely wield a spear, stood with her allies.

I’m not like them.

He was a travel companion at best. An extra body to take the burden of second watch at night at worst. He wouldn’t die for these people.

So Peng, seeing the peril his outnumbered companions were in, fled in the opposite direction.

_____________________________________________________________________

Bjorn grunted as the armor-clad man swung a sword too big to even hold an edge into his shield. Flames billowed off the wood. Bjorn thanked his past self for coating his shield in a fire-retardant mixture, as it was normally seen as unnecessary. But one had to anticipate when magic was suddenly commonplace.

The flames were accompanied by screams that it seemed no one else heard. They were agonizing and despairing, as though the source’s greatest wish in life was to die.

They were the screams of the fire Shedim trapped in that weapon, wrangled and stuffed into a metal prison to be slowly tortured to death by siphoning off its lifeforce. Bjorn didn’t know if that was the case. He just felt it.

Bjorn called upon the Weathering Storm and slammed his lightning-coated axe into his opponent. A small crack of thunder accompanied the impact, sending a burst of electricity through the man. But the axe itself did nothing, as though his plate armor was made up of a divine metal. Still, the blow put a good distance between them.

Good enough so that Bjorn could duck under a halberd swing from another armored man. A powerful, arcane gust of wind trailed behind, accompanied by the suffering screams of another Shedim.

Why could he hear them so clearly?

Well, he knew why. He was the master of an Elder Shedim. But he wanted to know why. Why did he have to listen to their agony as he fought? Why did fighting as a Shedim Master punish one for being empathetic to their cries?

Bjorn had always been a sensitive man, but not a weak one. But it seemed that he was even more vulnerable to these cries than he would be to a child’s. Still, it wouldn’t break him. He had to push through. He had to overcome this and the Bane Knights before him to survive.

Twisting himself around, Bjorn struck the other warrior in the head. The axe clanged off his helmet, with no lightning, even though he intended there to be.

The energy for lightning does not come from nowhere. You must either take it or create it. A voice echoed in his head. The Storm? Did Shedim speak?

Bjorn recalled the incident in the medical tent. He’d absorbed and redirected the energy that would’ve killed Katla. It seemed he’d have to do the same here.

It didn’t have to be lightning that he took. That much was clear. Anything having to do with Shedim was worth a try.

The halberd-wielder attempted to skewer his skull with the hooked blade on his weapon. Bjorn caught the shaft in an angled grapple with his bearded axe and grabbed onto it with his hand.

Coldness washed over his body as the Shedim within the weapon willingly pushed all its energy into him. Bjorn swung his axe at the man, who was slightly out of range, but a crack of thunder with a bolt of lightning threw him backwards.

A burning sensation, in contrast to the chill of Shedimic power, streaked across his back, pain exploding in his spine. He staggered forward, turning to face the perpetrator. A woman, clad in the same black armor wielded a thin, straight blade that glowed with light and echoed with the screams of Shedim that was now coated in his blood.

His back bumped into a barrier behind him. Bjorn turned again to find the man with the flaming sword towering over him. He leapt back as the man tried to cleave him in two.

Even the man he’d struck with an actual lightning bolt was recovering. That armor was way too strong for any metal he’d ever seen.

They wouldn’t all attack him at the same time and allow him to catch them in one area of attack outburst of electricity. They weren’t fools.

During the lull as the three enemies prowled around him, Bjorn stowed his axe and instead drew his spear. He wasn’t quite as good with it as he was the axe, but it might be the only thing to save his life.

He commanded his legs to push him into the fray once again, but his feet were stuck in place. Bjorn glanced down. Stone had risen up from the ground and encrusted his boots. He glanced around at the surrounding battle.

Bjorn swung his spear in an arc, going low as to sweep his enemies off their feet. It wasn’t long before Ruhak’s metal cords broke him free of his earthen bindings.

“Stormtamer!” Bjorn’s attention was drawn to the Princess. He hadn’t had the time to nice her and her brother’s presence. “Let’s continue from where we left off!”

Yahui crashed into Bjorn’s shield, knocking him off balance and landing within a short distance of him.

Bjorn recovered his footing and lowered his stance.

“The presence of your Shedim is far greater than I would’ve thought.” Yahui grinned. “I’m impressed.”

“Should you really be complimenting your enemy so much?” Bjorn asked.

“You don’t have to worry, little warrior. I’ll be just as ruthless.” Yahui launched herself off the ground.

Bjorn attempted to impede her with a cracking thunderbolt, but she seemed to almost warp around the lightning, evading the attack.

The Ascomanni put all his focus into keeping up with her wind-like swiftness as she launched an assault of unarmed strikes coated in flames.

Bjorn grabbed her arm in a move that lacked foresight on her part and pulled her into a blow from the rim of his shield. She staggered back, giving Bjorn a chance to gain the upperhand.

Strictly speaking, Bjorn and Yahui were about evenly matched when it came to martial prowess. She was faster than he was, he was tougher than she. Both of them were tactical fighters.

The difference in ability and the one gap Bjorn had to close to overcome this enemy laid in their Shedemic power.

Yahui had not only seemed comfortable using her abilities, but she’d seamlessly woven them into her fighting style.

Perhaps it was a technique Bjorn could mimic.

Only problem was the limits. Yahui didn’t seem to have a limit tank of energy she could draw on.

After being put on the backfoot again, Bjorn allowed Yahui to land a few blows on him, absorbing the shedemic energies in her flames.

Once he’d built up enough energy, he attempted to channel his lightning into his shield as he bashed her. A field of azure energy radiated out following the attack. Yahui had dodged the physical blow, but hadn’t been expecting the follow up of electrical energy.

Yahui put some distance between them, shaking her arms out. “Congratulations. You’re learning.”

Bjorn responded by throwing his spear at her. He didn’t put any energy into it, as he drew his axe and filled its blade with power.

He swung at her, but her wrist slammed into his arm. In one simple motion, his weapon flew out of his hand. He’d gotten cocky.

In a blur of motion, five blows landed in weak spots on his armor and one last strike landed on his neck, causing his entire body to go loose.

Bjorn tried to move, but his muscles wouldn’t respond as Yahui knelt next to him.

“Hm. But it seems you’re still quite the child when it comes to your abilities.”

Yahui’s smug grin was the last thing Bjorn saw before darkness stole away his consciousness.