“… 3 dead droogs, 12 serious injuries split between man and beast and 7 deaths… would be more without a life shaper…Ammeris needs more reagents, Skard lost his dagger and his brother lost his spear, Bjorn lost his hand and our vitki is nearly Drowned.”

Drowning was the technical term for what happened when a vitki tried to cast a spell above their circle, it wasn't usually fatal but it could be days before they could cast again, Drowning could manifest as nearly anything and Erika felt genuinely lucky that it had only made her mute and caused her skin to crack and bleed.

Looking up from her personal cloud of misery Erika saw the concerned faces turned to her, she managed to huff, barely, and looked down again. She tried not to look at the corpses lying on the road, if she’d been stronger, if she’d been a better healer, she could have helped them… if someone had just said… if she’d just seen…

“That’s problematic.” Said Alvis simply as he fiddled with an abacus. “We will be forced to adapt our battle plans for less people, luckily the dead droogs are offset by the casualties as unfortunate as they are… and we don’t need to worry about prisoners…”

“We can still do it.” Said Sigrun who was busy digging through her pack for something, a moment later she found it and gently tossed a vial of green liquid to Erika who stared at it wide eyed. Liquid Odium, very rare, very expensive. Erika stared wide eyed at Sigurn until the senior delver gestured for her to use it at which point the pain overcame politeness and she cracked the wax seal and downed the lot. The burning hole in her chest instantly relaxed, her muscles went limp and Erika slumped over backwards as the euphoria of painlessness overcame her.

Sigrun nodded at Erika then, her usually sunny smile grim, she turned to the rest of the expedition, dozens of hungry, blood spattered and angry delvers who were huddled around the red roofed caravan (which Erika had now found out was the lead caravan as well as the infirmary) and grinned. “I know you’re all scared, that was a nasty nasty ambush and yes this probably wasn't random, we knew we’d be chased by Clan agents and foreign spies but saboteurs and assassins is more than you expected right? Well I'm sorry to say but this is what this life is like, this is being a delver, we do the dirty and dangerous jobs so rich pricks back home don’t have to. When Alvis and I worked together our first quest went to Hel in a heartbeat, I nearly lost an eye and Alvis did lose a finger...”

Alvis waved his right-hand which Erika now noticed did only have 3 fingers and his thumb. “A bandit far-eye with a recurve bow, aimed for my head but I happened to shade my eyes at just the right moment, hit me in the knuckle not the eye.”

The group shifted and stirred, distress plain in the air, Sigurn paused then spoke more softly making sure to make eye contact as she did so.

“I know you’re all new to this, you’ve guarded caravans or hunted a few bandits, maybe cleared a lokispawn out of some farmland once or twice, you’ve never had to face Hel before… but I promise you we will get through this.”

There was a long moment of silence then Skarda spat on the ground, Skard’s brother was covered in deep black bruises across his torso and arms, he was one of the survivors of the trolls’ sweeping arms when it smashed through the shieldwall, the glancing blow had broken half his ribs and hurled him away into the Wold.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“So, we’re sitting ducks for some mysterious enemy that’s stalking us, we’ve got a dozen dead in the first fight and our vitki’s a liar that’s about it right?”

Just a few weeks ago people finding out she’d lied had filled Erika with terror, now with the pain of near death and the fear of the troll in her mind? She barely cared enough to scowl at Skarda. Since she Drowned casting a third-circle spell it wasn't a leap of genius to realise she was a second circle vitki.

Alvis straightened up and tapped his teeth “… No,” he concluded at length. “All our injured should recover with time, this was an orchestrated ambush but it was far too small to deal with a pair of silver ranks which means these bandits were probably already in contact with whoever sent them at us and they were used as a disposable means to slow us down, as for your other point…”

“She exaggerated,” said Sigrun kindly shrugging. “Nothing more, she IS a vitki which is more than we expected anyway, we thought we’d have to do all this with runes.”

“She lied!” Snapped Skarda.

“What are you 5 years old?!” Snapped Helga. “Oh, she lied she lied, go tell a teacher if you care that much child!”

“How dare…”

Harwa didn’t even get the finish before Sigurn cut him off. “She’s a vitki, even if she is a bit weaker she is still a vitki, a one woman war machine… by the gods she’s a kid and she got more kills than me with that… thing she summoned.”

“I couldn’t have gotten my thunderer in time with her Gorebeast picking off the archers,” added Alvis. “That was a powerful spell which helped turn the tide of the battle, to say nothing of her healing saving three critically injured delvers.”

Harwa glared around. “You can’t be serious about letting her stay?”

“She saved my life.”

The slightly husky voice managed to override the chattering as Kara Hammerfallen walked out of the crowd. She looked much better without an arrow in her gut Erika noted idly, a beautiful woman probably double Erika’s age with silver flecked brown hair, the faint blue tint to her skin that spoke of jotun blood was barely noticeable now she had all her blood inside her. “If she hadn't used her magic to heal me, if she hadn't given me blood and pulled that arrow out… I’d be dead… I have a family I get to see again because of her, if she gets left, I'm leaving with her.”

“What she said,” Gunhilda added, she had been the mud and blood covered person in the wagon so battered Erika didn’t even know if she was a man or a woman or a corpse already. She had a surprisingly high-pitched voice and wore the shining badge of a Silvermane porter. “No offense boss.”

Alvis smiled and waved a hand. “None taken Gunhilda, Sigurn and I already agreed on this, we need the magickal support, Erika has proved herself trustworthy through her actions and her aid during the battle saved many lives… besides leaving someone in the Wold is a death sentence. “Erika tried not to blubber as Alvis continued one. “We would have reduced her pay or even burned her contract if she wasn't a vitki but she is, even if she has no other skill that alone is worth her share, we don’t mind having a …

Alvis turned to look at Erika. “2nd circle?”

Erika nodded glumly and held up two fingers for emphasis.

“… a 2nd circle vitki is better than a 1st and even that is better than none at all. A little annoying sure but we can adjust our plans for our target.”

“Our first delve me and Alvis didn’t even have a vitki,” added Sigrun cheerfully in a transparent attempt to change the subject. “Didn’t go to badly... if you ignore the finger thing.”

Skarda and Skard huffed and, in unison, stood up and scurried away sitting down on a nearby log with their backs pointedly towards the group. Nobody seemed to mind their departure.

Erika looked around at the people, her friends, sat around her. She felt so stupid for distrusting, for being anxious. She wanted to say something to thank them for accepting her but the blood filling her mouth wasn't helping in the end she settled for waving at everyone with a (lips closed) smile. Kara reached out and took Erika by the shoulder brining her in and hugging her, Helga passed her a mug and someone started playing some sort of stringed instrument.

Erika didn’t regret her choice anymore.