 
The Count's Son

# By Tobias Gavran

Copyright © 2017 Tobias Gavran

All rights reserved.

## Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

## Chapter 1

I opened my eyes only to see a blur of light as someone knocked on the door. I was about to turn around and grumble when I noticed something odd. The light came from my left when the window was supposed to be on my right. I wasn't home. It was a strange feeling. The knocking came back. Mom was always a pain at dawn. She alone was a good enough case to hate all morning people.

My heart fell in my chest as I remembered the accident. This couldn't be Mom. Mom and Dad were gone. I clenched my teeth as I felt like crying. I had spent the past few years telling them that I wasn't a kid anymore, but nothing made me feel more like a child than being an orphan. It had only been a few days, and my brain couldn't quite wrap around the idea that they were gone. The rest of me missed them too much to even try.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"What?" I yelled. My own anger took me by surprise, but I knew where it came from. I just needed to be alone, to figure things out, to take things slowly. Why keep knocking when I didn't answer? Maybe I didn't want to be bothered.

A word came out from beyond the door. A strange one. I didn't know it. I spoke English, Mandarin too – although not enough for my grand-parents to be satisfied – and high school tried to teach me Spanish, but that was a huge failure. Still, it seemed totally foreign to me. The same word came back and I immediately sat up in my bed. A woman. No, a girl! My uncle was supposed to look after me, he came all the way from Chicago. Who the hell was she?

I blinked a couple of times to clear my vision, and felt my back hitting the wooden head of the bed. Where was I? This wasn't my room. It wasn't anything like my house. A crystal chandelier hung from a ceiling three times too high, painted with scenes of boar hunting. The light came from a window that was indeed on my left, and the morning light came through thin, red curtains. The first thing it hit was a massive desk surrounded by two huge bookcases with golden birds encrusted in the glass panels. A closet, on the opposite wall, dwarfed everything in the room, including the bed which made me wonder what was above king size. The covers looked like fur and the sheets felt like silk, and... And... I was naked.

All the muscles in my body tensed at once. Someone had kidnapped me and undressed me.

"Sir?" the girl asked again. Why did I understand that? The door knob moved.

"Don't come in!" I said.

The door opened slightly despite my objection. "Sir, I apologize but I do not understand." Still the same language, but I made sense of it. Did I lose my mind? Was this some kind of hallucination?

I knew that some people could lose it when they were in distress. People who wandered in the desert, were tortured, that kind of thing. I had lost my parents, and it hit me hard, but did I really go insane? Could that happen overnight? I mean... Even if I did lose contact with reality, shouldn't it take some time at least?

"May I come in?" she asked.

"No!" That word, at least, I knew almost anybody on Earth could understand.

The door swung open and she stepped in. I didn't know why she would ask me permission and then come in anyway, but that wasn't the first thought that came to my mind. She was pretty and I was naked. I pulled the sheets to me as though I had breasts to hide and felt my cheeks boil with shame. My eyes fixed on the dark fur covering my bed.

"Is there something wrong? Are you ill?" The concern in her voice sounded genuine, but for all I knew, she was the psychopath who took me away from home. Although I doubted she had the upper body strength to drag me out while unconscious.

I slowly raised my head to look at her. She was wearing black pants and a white shirt with dark bands on her wrists, elbows and shoulders. She was redheaded with green eyes slightly outlined with black and red make-up. I didn't look at her eyes, though. I was pretty sure the thing hanging from her belt was a sword. A short one. Maybe a dagger? How long was a dagger supposed to be?

"Sir?" She leaned forward a little to bring my eyes back to her features. She couldn't be more than twenty, in fact, she looked my age.

"Who are you?" I frowned as I heard the same, foreign language come out of my mouth.

The girl straightened her back and looked at me as though she was offended. But her eyes widened when she realized I wasn't trying to be mean or funny. "Aliska," she said and it sounded like she was asking me if I remembered. My look probably said it all because she immediately stepped out of the room. "I'll fetch the physician."

I wrinkled my nose at the door that was still wide open. Beyond, I could see a corridor with light purple wallpaper. I brought the sheets around me and looked on the floor. I usually threw my clothes around before I went to bed, but of course, my kidnapper wouldn't have done the same thing. I walked to the closet. If I was to be on display, I needed at least some clothes. The doors came open without an itch and I easily found shirts and pants galore. But no underwear, no socks, and no shoes. I scanned the room one more time to try and see if there was furniture I had missed, but no luck. I shifted toward the door, slammed it shut, and put on a grey shirt with slightly darker pants.

I barely had time to sit on the bed before someone knocked on the door again.

"Come in," I said.

Aliska opened the door for a woman in a yellow sundress. I couldn't quite place her age as she had wrinkles but her hair and body looked barely thirty. Her gentle smile and piercing look made me think of some of my grandmother's friends. They saw me as a young idiot, but found it endearing, and there was nothing I could do or say that would surprise them. She had dark hair and black eyes, with high cheekbones and a thin mouth. We had about the same skin tone as mine, but she wasn't Asian. Native American, perhaps?

"Hello." I nodded to try and make it seem like I wasn't freaking out completely.

She turned towards Aliska and smiled. "He doesn't sound foreign to me," she said and looked back at me. "The same old Toikem I've always known."

I froze. "My name is Thomas."

The doctor took a second to study my face then crossed her arms. "Sure it is." She sounded almost defiant. Apparently, she thought this was some kind of practical joke Aliska and I were pulling on her.

"I swear he was speaking some strange words," Aliska told her. "I thought he might be possessed."

Possessed? Oh, hell no! I didn't just travel back in time to be burned at the stake. No, thank you very much. "I'm not!" I immediately said. "No demons here."

The doctor sighed so deeply, I probably would have had to scream to be heard over it. "Of course he isn't possessed. You would feel it, Ali!" She extended a hand towards me like I was evidence. "Same energy, same boy."

I opened my mouth to say that I wasn't a boy but closed it before I could say a word. That's the kind of argument I would have had with my parents. Sadness gripped me, and suddenly I wanted to go back under the covers and curl into a ball. Whatever this was, I didn't want to deal with it.

"Look at him!" Aliska exclaimed. "Does he look fine?"

I was looking down again, staring at the carpet that mirrored the scene on the ceiling, but I heard the change in the doctor's expression when she spoke. She was concerned, too. "What happened?" she asked me.

"I don't want to talk about it." I felt like I had repeated that sentence a thousand times in the past few days. When I spoke to my friends, to my uncle, to my grand-parents. This was the only thing I could say about what happened, I just didn't want to think about it. How could I not think about it when everyone was asking about how I felt, what had happened, and what I wanted to do.

"Stand up," the doctor said.

I shook my head. I wanted them to go away. I wanted everything to disappear, this room, these people. Why couldn't I be home, in my room, in peace?

"If you don't stand up, I'll have the guards stand you up," she warned.

"His Lordship won't like that," Aliska said.

"I can handle his father." The doctor sounded pretty sure about that.

I looked up. "My father?"

## Chapter 2

It was him. He was wearing metal armor and had long hair, but that was my father. I never knew that his hair could curl like that. He made me think of a pirate with his tanned skin and blue eyes, despite the whole medieval knight setting. He was standing by a long table in the middle of a room that seemed to belong in a cathedral, speaking to people rather than with them. There was no doubt about it, this man was important. He was standing with his back to the far wall while they all faced him rather than forming a circle. They listened without saying a word or even nodding. They watched him without staring either.

I dashed across the room and brought attention to myself. I didn't care if I was interrupting, the moment my father looked at me, my heart jumped. I never knew I could be so happy to see one of my parents. It had only been a few days, and I usually would have made sure to let them know I didn't care, but this time I did. I wasn't supposed to see them again. I hugged Dad, no matter how childish it made me look. The armor felt cold against my cheek and the stone rough under my feet, but only happiness mattered. He was alive.

Nobody said a word and when I finally opened my eyes, I noticed that people were staring at me like I'd gone mad. This time, the doctor seemed a lot more worried than Aliska. Dad put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me away from him so he could stare into my eyes. I'd pissed off my parents before, but my father had never looked so scary. His nose looked like it had been broken a few too many times, a scar ran across his forehead, and his face looked rounder in my memories. He looked like my father, if he had been a street fighter. His expression wasn't cold, but it didn't have the same kindness he always displayed – even when he was yelling at me.

"What is this fluke?" His tone reminded me of the doctor's when she came in my room. My father should have asked me what was wrong, but he seemed to think I was mocking him. I didn't care.

"Is Mom here too?" I looked around as though she would suddenly appear.

"Mom?" he said, incredulous.

I clenched my teeth as I felt my eyes burn. Maybe she was dead here as well. I couldn't take it. Why would I find one of my parents and not the other? "Is she..."

My father turned towards the doctor who immediately lowered her head, apparently ashamed she couldn't give him a direct answer. He turned towards Aliska. I heard her gulp from where I was standing, but she straightened up and said, "Your Lordship, I believe this is a private matter."

His hand left my shoulder and he turned towards the four people he was talking to. He didn't need to say a word for them to start scrambling. Once they closed the door, Aliska spoke again.

"It seems Toikem has lost his memories." She hesitated a second, then turned towards me. "Your mother is alive, Sir, but she never lived here."

"And you'd better not call her 'Mom' to her face," Dad added. "If this is one of your tricks–"

"Can I see her? Where is she?" I interrupted him.

My father's face hardened. Apparently, I wasn't supposed to talk out of turn. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "If you want to travel East, we will have to make arrangements. On your dime." He pointed a finger at me. "If you're trying to snake your way into the treasury with this fable, I'll have you sequestered."

I didn't think I ever heard my father use that word before. "Can I call her?"

He looked at the doctor again. "Have you examined him? Is this real?"

The doctor looked up. "Your Lordship, Toikem asked to see you as soon as you were mentioned. His distress seemed genuine, so we thought it important that he saw you."

"Well, he has seen me, now, Ituha. Make sure he is okay. I will expect your report by noon. Tell them to come back in on your way out."

This man didn't sound like my father and he didn't exactly look like him, but I could hear in his voice that he cared about me. I took a step forward and hugged him again, just for a moment. I wanted him to know how much I cared, and how much I missed him. "I'm sorry I disturbed your meeting."

He tapped my back, like he always did. "It's fine, son. I will make you pay for it if the good doctor doesn't find anything wrong with you." His voice made it obvious this was a joke, but that wasn't the kind of humor my dad was known for.

"Will we have lunch together?" I asked as I was walking back towards the door. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him, too afraid he might vanish if I turned my back.

"Sure." His eyes looked a bit worried, but I could tell he was expecting me to suddenly start laughing at them for believing me. Whatever. He was alive, so was Mom, and so was I. They could yell at me or hate me, I'd still be grateful that they were there.

We exited the room and found the four people standing in eerie silence. They were probably babbling about what had just happened, even though they weren't supposed to. Doctor Ituha smiled at them and told them that they could go back in. They bowed a little while looking at me before entering the room.

"So, my father is a lord?"

"Count Adamar of Colvert," Aliska said.

"So, what does that make me?"

"Sir Toikem of Colvert."

We walked down a few flights of stairs until we reached a floor where there was no wallpaper. There, the walls were smooth, white stones held by grey mortar. It was also colder and my toes quickly went numb. I finally thought of looking at Aliska and the doctor's feet. The former was wearing black, flat boots, the latter white slippers.

"Don't I wear shoes?" I whispered to Aliska as I curled my toes to try and keep them warm.

She looked extremely uncomfortable, despite the ridiculous question. She nodded. "They are in a case under your bed."

Well, I could have kept looking into that closet for a long time. "Thanks." I followed the doctor into a room that looked like a laboratory in a movie about a mad scientist. It was a mishmash of equipment. The glassware made me think of what we used for chemistry at school, with scales of various proportions, three hospital bed in the middle of the room, and a couple of sinks. I didn't see any electronics or any plastic for that matter. The IV drops seemed to be made of glass, and I couldn't quite see what the tubes were made of. I tried to focus on that rather than remember my arrival at the hospital, after the accident.

I sat on one of the beds once the doctor led me to it.

"Undress, please," she said.

I froze. She looked at me like there was no reason why I should. "I didn't find any underwear," I said with my eyes low.

Doctor Ituha turned towards Aliska. "Underwear?" she asked. Aliska shrugged. The doctor sighed. "You heard your father, I have to examine you. Remove your clothes, please."

I put my hands on the buttons of my shirt, but I couldn't bring myself to strip. After a few seconds of intense indecision, I extended my arm towards Aliska. "Is she a nurse?"

Aliska cringed a little. "I'm not."

"Then could you please give me some privacy?" I said. She looked at me like I was being cruel. I didn't get why. She wasn't my girlfriend. My girlfriend wouldn't call me Sir when knocking at my door.

"Are you uncomfortable being nude in front of her?" The doctor asked.

"Obviously."

"Interesting. Does it make you uncomfortable with me?"

"Well, kind of, but you're a doctor, right?" I said.

She nodded. "Indeed, I am. Aliska, could you please leave us. I will call you once we are done, I promise."

Aliska didn't look at Ituha. She was staring at me as though I was mortally wounded. She bowed a little, then she left the room without saying a word.

"Does she like me?" That was about the simplest explanation I could come up with.

"Ah!" The doctor served me a humorless laugh. "You've never had trouble knowing when people like you, Toikem. One of your many qualities."

"Do I manipulate people?"

Ituha sighed. "Just undress, will you? If there is cause for concern, I'd better know about it before noon."

I had never been naked in front of a doctor except when I woke up in a hospital gown, a few days ago. I had a concussion, but nothing important according to what I was told. A nurse had called it a miracle, when I was too tired to look like I wasn't sleeping. She said the car was a mess and she hoped I would never know what happened. The picture was in the local news, though. I had seen it. I couldn't understand how I survived, even if I was in the back seat. I could only imagine what my parents looked like after... I took in a deep breath. They were alive.

Maybe the concussion was more important than we thought and I had gone crazy, but I didn't care. They were alive, here, and I was here.

Some of the exams, I totally understood. The doctor took my tension, checked my pulse, my respiration. All the things that normally happen during a check-up. She took my blood, which didn't make me squeamish in the least. Things turned a little weird when she asked for a saliva sample and pulled hair from my arm. The whole scene turned into an alternative medicine festival when she placed her hands over my chest and closed her eyes. I was just about to tell her how much of a skeptic I was, when I suddenly felt something pull. It was a strange feeling.

You can feel something pulling on your skin, obviously. You can feel something pulling inside you, like when you're in a free fall and it seems like your innards are going up. This was definitely a pull, but it was neither on me nor inside me, it was elsewhere.

"Don't resist, please," the doctor said as though I was being difficult.

I didn't need to play dumb, I was dumb. "How?"

"Let go of your energy."

She had mentioned that before, I believed. When I was in my room and Aliska brought her in. Same energy, same boy, she had said. I didn't quite know what she was talking about, but it sounded like some New Age bull to me. The pulling intensified.

"Let go," she repeated.

I took in a deep breath and try to relax my muscles. I turned my head a little to make my neck more supple. It didn't seem to help at all. Something kept tugging.

The doctor turned her palms towards the ceiling, closed her fists, and pulled her hands to her chest. I let out a small cry as it sparked a sensation I had never felt before. It was like a sixth sense, like I was blind and I could suddenly see. The world was immerged in an ethereal solution, an energy that was within everything, including the air in the room. There was no point in trying to describe it, it would have been like talking about the colors of music – a poetic image that didn't carry much information. The doctor's energy was exploring mine, and it felt like a tickle. It wasn't very strong, but it captured my attention. It was annoying.

She shook her head and opened her eyes again. She did a double take while looking at my face and suddenly her thumb was holding my right eye open.

"Bedside manners," I said.

The doctor ignored my call for decency. "Do you have a headache?" She brought her hand up and it blinded me, but I was pretty sure she wasn't holding a flashlight.

"No." But it probably wouldn't take long if she kept burning my retina with that light.

She moved her hands away. I blinked a few times and I checked. Somehow, she could just turn her palm into a projector. My mind went to android at first, but with all those talks of energy, she probably was a witch. I had definitely gone crazy.

"You had a stroke," she said.

That was probably the real nurse talking over my unconscious body while I was in this dreamland, but who cared?

"What's next?" I asked. "The MRI?"

"I don't know what an Emmarye is, but apparently you're regenerating well. The brain is a complex organ. You're healthy enough that there shouldn't be any aftermath, but it's possible your memories won't return. I still don't know why they would have been replaced, though. What did you call yourself again?"

"Thomas."

She grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled my name on it. She didn't use letters to do so, but I still could make sense of it. The symbols stood for the sounds I made, but it didn't have a meaning, it wasn't really a word. To-ma-ss. That's what she wrote. I could even tell she had bad handwriting – the curse of the physicians followed them even into my comatose fantasies.

"Can I put my clothes on?" I asked. It was a bit chilly and I really missed having any kind of underwear.

The doctor nodded. I stood up and caught my reflection in a mirror on the opposite wall. I recognized myself, but it wasn't exactly me. Unlike my father's, my face didn't show any sign of abuse, but I was toned in a way I had never been. I wasn't scrawny either, but I used to be of average height and weight. I probably wasn't taller, but I felt like it. My shoulders were broader, straight, my chest defined. I turned a little and noticed a large scar crawling up my shoulder blade and down my right arm to my elbow. I checked for other signs of damage, but there was none.

"Admiring yourself?" The doctor said in a derisive tone that seemed to indicate she wouldn't be surprised if I were.

"Sorry." I quickly put my clothes on.

The doctor waited for me to button my pants then walked to the mirror and place her fingers on it. An instant later, Aliska's voice filled the room, "Ahoy."

"You can pick him up," the doctor said. "I found traces of some minor cerebral bleeding, but he's healing through it pretty well. I expect you to bring him back to me if there's any complication, but he should be fine for now."

I doubted that blood pouring down my brain could ever be minor, and I wanted to ask her if she knew anything about patient confidentiality, but I didn't find the courage to get outraged. My head was still swimming with this new sensation she'd brought when she told me to let go of my energy.

## Chapter 3

Aliska's energy wasn't at all like the doctor's, or mine for that matter. It was coiled, flowing tightly around her, when the doctor's tried to fill as much space as it could. It was soft and hard, like threads knotted tightly inside her but left loose above her skin.

"Sir?" she said softly.

I raised my eyes to look into hers. "Hmm?"

"Is there something wrong with my outfit?"

I must have been staring. "Sorry, no." I turned to look at the courtyard where we were sitting. It was a sunny morning and the air was warmer than inside. I had woken up in a place that was more chateau than fort, in that it was much more comfortable, but the surrounding wall really screamed, 'keep out and away.' A lot of people crossed through the gate, though. Some on horseback, some on foot, some on carts dragged by mules or oxen. People looked a lot better for wear than I would have expected in the Dark Ages. But this wasn't the past my ancestors had known. In fact, I wasn't sure it was the past at all. The shirt on my back or the sundress from the doctor, those looked like things from my time. There was no car and no phones, but people looked healthy and... Well, clean.

Suddenly the bench we were sitting on tipped and I hurried to my feet, thinking it was collapsing. "I found you!" someone said behind me. I turned and discovered a six and half feet tall man holding the bench as though it weighed nothing. He tossed it aside. He looked about twenty, with long, light brown hair and green eyes. His face was scarred all over the place, but the lines were thin and faded, like the cuts had been made on an operating table. He didn't seem to have undergone any plastic surgery, though. He wasn't ugly, but he didn't have that fake smooth skin. There was a shadow of a beard on his square jaw, and his bushy eyebrows were drawn together in an angry mug. I wondered what I had done to this guy.

He wore brown leather pants and a white, low-cut shirt showing off a wide scar barring his torso. He was muscular, but not in a Mister Universe kind-of-way. His posture made him look military – not that I had much experience in the matter. He drew a sword from the leather scabbard on his left side. "I found you," he repeated and his eyes looked a bit demented.

I turned towards Aliska. I expected her to be as freaked out as I was, so I would just have to follow her to safety. Instead, she looked impassible, her face neutral, her arms crossed over her chest. I blinked. The giant guy stepped forward and hacked at me, I jumped back and almost fell on my ass.

I tried to turn and run towards the building, but he took two huge side steps and swung his sword so that I would lose my left arm if I kept going that way. I couldn't keep my back to him, or I wouldn't see the next blow coming and I'd get cut in half. He kept swinging, chasing me away. I wasn't dodging as much as trying to run backwards. My eyes looked for help, but the few people who didn't ignore us just watched as though this was a curiosity. How many homicidal maniacs did they have on the loose for people to be that jaded?

"You're pretty when you dance," the giant said.

"Why are you trying to kill me?" I didn't hide the panic in my voice as I kept waltzing back, so I wouldn't end up sliced and diced.

"Do I really need a reason to try?" He had a devious smile. If cats could smile, they would look like that when they had a mouse trapped. "Where is your weapon?"

"I don't have one. I don't want to fight. I'm just..." I didn't even know what to tell him. "I needed fresh air!" That surely would stop him from trying to murder me. I was such a good orator.

"Where is his weapon?" he shouted without taking his eyes off of me.

"Catch!" Aliska appeared behind me and held something to my back, preventing me from running away from my attacker. I thought I would have reached the wall by now, but he probably had me fleeing in a circle. I turned. Aliska did not look amused. What she was holding turned out to be an axe. A long axe. It was probably as tall as I was. I grabbed it when she thrusted the shaft against my chest, and thankfully, it turned out to be lighter than I expected – or more likely, my arms were stronger than I would have thought.

I turned and held the axe horizontally, above my head, to block the incoming strike. Idiot! I heard myself think. My opponent was larger and stronger than me, his weapon was made of sharp steel. If he hacked at the shaft, it would dent and eventually break. My hips rotated smoothly and I brought down the axe. The sword slid against the shaft as I pushed it away from me, all the while stepping out of the trajectory. Almost as a reflex, my hands shifted and I pulled, the hook of my blade tugged on his sword. He wanted to show how strong he was, so he held tight, his weight shifted forward, toward the tip of his toes. I thrust the axe down and the blunt top of the blade connected with his left ankle. I got him. I brought the axe back towards me with one hand and punched him in the face with the other. The crunch of his nose under my knuckles felt familiar.

The moment of control abruptly ended and I stepped back. "Sorry," I exclaimed. I had never been a fighter. The last time I had been physically violent was probably when I was in kindergarten. I didn't remember it, but I was always told that I had a habit of pulling hair, back then. This was totally beyond anything I had ever done.

The giant wiped his nose with his hand, looked at the bloody result, and chuckled. He was definitely crazy. He wrinkled his nose and I heard it crunch again. He gently put his sword back in its sheath, fished a handkerchief in his pocket and blew his nose. When he put back the piece of cloth where it came from, the bleeding had stopped. "I'm pretty sure that's the first time you apologize to me," he said. "Especially for beating me."

I stared at him with wide eyes. "So, you don't want to kill me?"

"I'm pretty sure I couldn't live in your father's castle if I did." He turned towards Aliska. "It's Tom, all right. A bit more polite, but that's him."

"This was your idea?" I stared at her. She had her arms crossed again, and she looked more pissed off than sorry. At first I thought she was supposed to like me, and now she tried to get me killed, or whatever that had been.

"You said your name was Thomas," she said. "You didn't recognize me, and you were acting weird. I didn't know what to think. The doctor says you're fine, but..."

"She said I had a stroke, that hardly qualifies as being fine," I retorted.

"You had a stroke?" the giant exclaimed. "What happened?"

"I don't know." That was about as genuine an answer as I could give. "Who are you, anyway?"

He looked at me like I was kidding, then he became concerned. "Tal. Tallovan." He looked into my eyes for any sign of recognition. "Tal, come on, I've been here for three months. You brought us here, for crying out loud." He gestured towards Aliska.

I turned towards her. She tried to ignore me at first, frowning and all, but she eventually nodded.

"Does that mean I can make you leave?" I said.

Her arms fell to her sides. Apparently, she didn't expect that.

"What?" The giant pushed me so I would look at him. "No! I mean, yes. You could if you wanted to, but you don't want to do that."

He seemed pretty sure about it, but I wasn't. "What if the reflexes didn't kick in? You could have killed me." I tried to remain calm, but anybody could hear the panic in my voice.

The giant shook his head. "No. I might have hurt you a little, but nothing you couldn't regen."

"You tried to chop my head off!"

"Nah. I wouldn't have attacked you from the front if I did. All you risked was a dented skull." He was smiling at me. Apparently, that was his version of having fun. I didn't really see us being friends. The only version of violence my friends enjoyed was the fictional kind, TV shows and video games.

Still, if they saw themselves as my friends, there was a good chance they could tell me more about this place. "Can you put the bench back where it was, please?"

"Again with the politeness." The giant grabbed the bench and put it back in the sun, away from the shadow of the castle. The few people that were looking our way during the brief fight had disappeared, they probably had better things to do than stare at the lord's son. We all sat, Aliska on my left, Tallovan on my right.

"If we are friends, why do you call me Sir?" I asked Aliska.

"You told me to, when I moved in. Officially, I'm your assistant, and since I'm a commoner you thought it would be best if I didn't call you Tom."

"So, rather than invite you to the castle as my friend, I made you my assistant?" I stared at her. That was pretty bad.

"I'm grateful," Aliska said. "I wouldn't live in a castle if I wasn't."

"Could you live in the castle as my friend?" I said.

"Well, I guess."

"You might be grateful, but I'm pretty sure that makes me a dick."

Her eyes widened and for a fraction of a second, they lowered towards my lap, then immediately went back to my face. Apparently, she didn't understand.

"An asshole," I specified.

Tal tilted his head to look at Aliska. "I think he needs to get laid."

"No! What I'm trying to say is that I'm not being a friend to you by having you call me Sir and be my assistant." I pointed at Tallovan. "He didn't call me Sir."

"Well, about that," he said, "I'm supposed to, but I don't really bother."

"Are you my assistant too?"

He grinned. "I'm your trainer. I'm actually paid to try and chop your head off on a regular basis."

Okay, that was one way to describe his job, I guessed. "Did we meet at school?" We all looked the same age, after all.

Tallovan's eyes lit up. "Yes! We all were in the same Lyceum."

I held up my hands. "Wait, what's a Lyceum?"

"It's high school for bad-asses!" He gave me that same deranged smile.

"Military education," Aliska said.

"I'm going to military school?" Now, that was an experience I wouldn't enjoy. My parents didn't even joke about it in the real world, because they knew I'd rather live in the woods.

"Yeah, you said your father was too cheap for private school, and nobles don't really go to high school." Tallovan suddenly tried to impersonate someone haughty. "It's just not done!" The clash between the little I knew about his personality and his terrible accent was hilarious, but I couldn't manage more than a smile.

Aliska shook her head and gave a reprimanding look to Tal. "No, we _went_ to military school. We graduated early because of the draft."

"The draft?" I repeated. That didn't sound too fun.

"Wait, you don't remember the war?" Tal said. His voice was strange. It almost seemed like he was disappointed for me. He probably would have had the same expression if I told him I couldn't remember my childhood.

"It might be a good thing," Aliska said. "I mean, if he has lost the rest of his memories, it's better he doesn't remember the war."

I wasn't not sure I wanted to remember any war at all. By all accounts, war was the most horrible thing people could experience. Then again, Aliska and Tallovan didn't look like they'd spent their lives in a society that promoted peace and democracy.

"Are you kidding me? Man, you got a medal on your first week. I just said that you needed to get laid. You didn't need it back then. If it weren't for contraceptives, you'd probably have more kids than a bunny rabbit."

I cringed, war and sex didn't really sound like a healthy combination to me. A terrible thought came to my mind, and I had to ask the question before I could repress it. "I didn't rape anyone, did I?"

They both looked at me like I had gone mad. There was a long silence, then Tal finally opened his mouth. "Do I look like I'd be friend with a rapist?"

Huge, armed, every inch of his skin scarred, talking about war as though it were a theme park... I didn't think my answer would have been the one he was looking for. Upsetting giant people wielding swords wasn't in my habits, though, so I kept my mouth shut.

"No," Aliska said. "But you know, people look hot when they fight. And when you risk your life, you might as well enjoy it."

Obviously, I didn't know, but I wasn't just about to say that. Instead, I said something stupid. "Did we..." I looked down, not sure I was brave enough to express the thought.

"Have sex?" Aliska asked to clarify. "Yes. Well, not here. But back then, yes."

"So, were we..." My throat clumped shut again.

"What? A couple? No. The fighting was tidy, but the rest was a free-for-all." There was no sign of shame or doubt in her voice. She could have been talking about a TV show or something she ate. This was ordinary to her. I, on the other hand, could feel my cheeks burning. I was a virgin, and believe it or not, I wasn't smooth with the ladies – even in a platonic way.

Tal slapped a huge hand against my back and I wondered if something wouldn't break loose inside my chest from the blow. "Come on, Tom! You sound like a civ."

I was a civilian and a teenager, the last few days had made that fact very clear to me. I was also kind of a nerd – which was a good thing in my book – but from the little they told me, Toikem was a selfish jock. He was born in the nobility, lived in a castle that must have employed much of the people that lived around it. When he went to war, he bonded with people he saw as commoners. Rather than make their lives easier by sharing his privileges with them, he'd told them they could work for him. Popular and elitist, he sounded like someone I would have totally ignored at school.

Except, now, I had to be him.

## Chapter 4

I heard the distant clunks of armored greaves hitting the ground. All the guards were armed in the castle, but most of them didn't wear metal armor. Instead, they had thick, black leather clothes with blue and white liveries – the colors of our family. It was a good thing, because otherwise, they would have looked like your run-of-the-mill villains. Some of them had a constant frown that seem to belong to security personnel regardless of context, since I had already seen that expression in the real world. Others were a lot more friendly, and I sometimes wondered if they had served with me like Aliska and Tallovan.

Metal armor, however, meant someone more important. The door swung open and revealed my father, proving me right. I immediately smiled and raised a hand to greet him. He stared at me and shrugged. Apparently, he still had trouble with the fact I enjoyed his company.

The windows were shut and light descended from glass cubes on the ceiling. I had asked if they were powered by electricity, which apparently sounded like a preposterous supposition to people around here. Why produce electricity when you wanted light? I asked how they worked, and Aliska told me that it was obviously an enchantment. She wouldn't call it magic, however. It was science.

Under the bright, artificial light, his hair casted even deeper shadows on his face, and he looked exceptionally grim. "Should I be worried?" Dad grabbed a chair and sat. His armor was almost as loud as his voice.

I put my hands together in front of me. "Why?"

He ostensibly looked around then back at me. "You're in the library and I don't see anyone cute you might be trying to seduce," he said.

The castle's library wasn't as grand as I would have expected after seeing the grand hall or my bedroom. The bookcases covered the walls and were filled with tomes of different size and shape, but there weren't rows of shelves. Still, the ceiling was especially high and you needed a ladder to grab some of the books. There might have been a thousand of them, but I thought of it on the scale of a public library, this was meant for everyone in the castle. That wasn't what bothered me the most though. None of them were printed, they were all hand-written from what I could tell.

"I just..." Enjoy reading, I would have told him. But Toikem didn't. He preferred training to studying. During the past week, I had practiced with Tallovan. He told me that he was going easy on me, but he enjoyed fighting to the point where he didn't always care if I was ready. Even if he scared me most of the time, I had to admit that I enjoyed seeing all the things I could do, and most importantly, the things I couldn't. I wanted to learn some of his moves, and he was ecstatic about it. Telling Dad that I enjoyed reading would have worried him. "I lost a lot of memories," I said. "I'm trying to put everything back in place."

He looked down at the book which was half text and half diagrams. "This doesn't look like a history book or a newspaper, son."

I smiled when he called me son and lowered my head. They might have not called it that, but the energy I found everyone had in this world was magic to me. I knew I was a good student, and if I could make sense of algebra for the sake of going to college, I wanted to see what I could do with the prospect of casting spells. Toikem apparently had a lot less experience with his energy than with his body, but I gained better control of it every day, and these people approached it with a scientific method. It wasn't about boiling toads when the moons aligned, you had to use your energy in a certain way. There were rituals, but they followed their own logic.

"Tal told me that I wasn't too attentive at school, so I'm trying to prove him wrong while I'm here." It was half a lie, but if it could put his mind at ease, why not use it? "Were you looking for me?"

Dad let out a deep sigh and intertwined his fingers on the table. The gauntlets on his hands didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. "Indeed, I was. I have affairs to attend down south. If I were to go missing, I left instructions with the Seneschal. He will contact your sister, but I will need you to keep the castle in order until she arrives to take my succession."

I closed my eyes because I felt like they were bulging from the surprise. The first shock came when he said that he might go missing, the second was much bigger. I didn't have a sister, never had one. It didn't even occur to me that I might have siblings in this universe. A dozen questions came to mind about the extent of my family tree, but a much more pressing concern had to be explored first. "Do you have to go?"

He frowned and I could tell he didn't expect me to be worried. But I had lost him before, I knew the pain, the uncertainty that came with that loss. I didn't want him to go missing, I didn't want to experience his death again. It was an almost egoistical feeling, because I sought his well-being for my own peace of mind. "It's an urgent issue, yes."

"But can't the seneschal go in your place, or another one of your subjects?" I couldn't let him go.

"Do you remember what's south of our domain, son?"

I didn't remember anything, but a crude map came back to my mind, one I had come across in this very library. I had tried to study about the land, even though I had never been into geography. I felt like being the count's son meant I needed to be aware of it. "Forests, and a quarry, as well as a place of worship."

Dad shook his head. "Wildlanders. There are Wildlanders in there, and a deal was struck by your grandfather when he was given this land. He went there by himself and he negotiated a peace of some sort. Now, the Wildlanders don't understand much of our society, but they understand lineage."

"So they need to talk with someone from our family?" I asked.

"Yes. They don't recognize any chain of command."

"Can I go, then?" I absolutely didn't want to go anywhere outside the castle. I barely had time to find my way around the corridors, and I never had been one for camping trips.

"No, you must stay here. The castle can't be left unattended."

"I mean, can I go instead of you?" If my father with his scars and his armor thought he might die, then I probably would. But I didn't care. I just didn't want to lose him. I remember saying that I wish it had been me, instead of them, in the hospital, and that's exactly what it was. This unknown universe gave me a chance to set things right.

He leaned back. The chair groaned under his weight as he studied my face. "Why do you want to go?"

"If you go and don't come back, it's the Count who will disappear. If my sister were to go, then we'd lose the heiress. If I go, then it'll be a tragedy, your son will be lost, but you won't..." I looked for something my alter ego might have said. "You won't lose any political power. You could appeal to the Duke to help rescue me, while I wouldn't have that kind of pull."

My father seemed to be pondering the idea, at least. I knew I had to know about the different levels of vassalage, that it would come handy at some point.

"I've always been good at getting what I want." That was certainly true for my alter ego. "Let me get what you want, for the county. You know my sister won't be as lenient with me as you are, anyway." The more selfish I looked, the easier it would be for him to believe me. Plus, I apparently was the only child who still lived with him, I had to assume I was pampered to a degree.

"Isn't the injury going to be a problem?" He tapped his finger against his temple. "You don't remember much."

I nodded. "You're right. Someone needs to explain the situation in great details before I go, but I will go, Dad. I will resolve this. Let me show you what I can do!"

He stayed quiet for a long while, then he finally exhaled and shrugged, causing his armor to make a racket. I had won.

## Chapter 5

Standing on a horse didn't feel as natural as holding a sword, even in this universe. I held the reins tightly in my hands, as though they were designed to help me in case of falling – which I knew they weren't. I didn't have any experience with equitation, but I could tell my horse didn't like it in the slightest. If anything, I could feel the tension in his steps as well as in the corded muscles of my back.

Luckily, my father didn't send me off with just a shrug. He had spent the evening explaining the situation to me, and we had made the preparations in the morning, after a good night's sleep. Well, that's what he had called it. I hadn't done much sleeping, the stress eating at me as much as the need for more information. My saddle bags were packed with food, tools, and a first aid kit. I had everything I needed to live in the woods for weeks, or so I'd been told. The truth was, I probably needed an RV to live anywhere in the wild. As for weapons, I had a short sword on my side and a large axe on my back. The feeling of the lopsided weapon was comforting, nothing odd considering it had probably been something my body experienced already, at war.

"Incoming!" someone cried out behind me. A dark mass passed me on the right and came in front of my horse. While I panicked, my mount didn't even bother coming to a stop, unafraid. People said horses spooked easily, I obviously wasn't their point of reference. "Did I scare you?"

I turned to my left then my right again as Tallovan kept circling around me. He was on top of a huge bay horse. The saddle alone looked like it weighed more than me. The horse's head was broad, almost bovine, but he didn't have horns obviously. I didn't think a horse this large existed where I came from, I'd never seen such a breed. Still, I felt bad for it since its rider was a tall bodybuilder clad in armor. Tal finally stopped turning and my mount started following his, the tension dissipating a little now that it wasn't relying on me for guidance.

"I told you that I need to go alone," I said.

"We didn't hear you," Aliska came up to me, riding a horse similar to mine. "So we asked His Lordship." She was wearing some kind of armor, but it looked as though it was just made of thick threads of fabric. White and blue, a sign of her allegiance. Her short sword was still on her hip, and three javelins stuck out from her right shoulder.

"Your daddy told us you didn't need to travel alone, you just need to meet the savages on your own." Tal spun his hand. "So here we are."

"It didn't occur to you that I'd attract less attention if I travelled alone?"

"With a butt like yours, you're bound to be the center of attention... Sir." Aliska's grin made me feel uncomfortable.

I wanted very much to keep arguing, but I couldn't. They both came up to me and I was too busy thinking about the way I felt about my axe to hear them come up. Maybe I had my alter ego's reflexes during a duel, but I certainly didn't have a chance to survive the journey alone if it was any kind of dangerous.

"You must be losing your touch, Ali," Tallovan said. "I never made anyone that mad by hitting on them."

"That's because you don't hit on people, buddy. They hit on you."

The banter kept on going, but I did my best not to focus on what they were saying. I had managed to know them a little better during the last week, while I learned about this world. Still, when the three of us were together, I felt at odds with them. They were used to a different me. Someone charismatic, who acted like he was doing them a favor by giving them a job in his father's castle. The truth was that my alter ego didn't have many friends in there. People were tired of his constant mockeries and manipulations. They probably didn't see that side of him too much during the war, since there was little room for it.

Anyway, they weren't my friends. They thought reading was boring, magic was tedious, and civilians were cowards. As much as I could find myself enjoying their company when having a one-on-one conversation, when they were together, they sounded like the bullies I had spent my life avoiding. Except they were used to me being the louder, stronger, richer bully.

"How far south do we need to go?" Tal asked after a while.

"They are on the county's border," I said. "The Wildlands are kind of a grey area."

Aliska nodded. "Makes sense, no one would bother fighting over unusable land."

"Well, it wouldn't be useless if you evicted them. Raze the forest, make a nice green pasture for some lamb. Promise me some juicy ribs and I'll do it!" Tal let out a little laugh and tapped his knuckles against his armor, over his stomach. Ali smiled. I didn't. He was talking about killing the people I was riding to negotiate with.

"You can't just raze the woods, and you sure don't want to set fire to it. The things that live there are scary, and they don't bother coming at the edge because we don't annoy them." She shrugged when he gave her a surprised look. "I grew up by a stretch of Wildlands in Clairbois."

"You didn't get raided?" I wondered since everything I had read led me to believe that Wildlanders were extremely hostile. I didn't find any text coming straight from them, so I had some reservation, but the records were unanimous. They preyed on people.

"Not really," she shook her head. "People would whine because a goat went missing, that kind of thing, but we never had any real problem. I knew a couple of Wildlander girls, sisters. They liked chocolate."

"What did you get in return?" Tal was leaning on his horse to look at her.

Aliska grinned. "Venison. Not deer, though. Chthonic boar meat. It's extremely tasty, and you put on weight so fast."

"You needed to put on weight?" Tallovan said, shocked, before I could even asked what an underground wild pig looked like.

"Man, when I was thirteen, my waist was the width of your thigh, right now." She grimaced. "I was the skinniest girl to ever want to get into a Lyceum."

"Did you fight them?" Tal's eyes sparkled at the idea. "Everyone says they're awesome at it. I never fought a Wildlander."

"Hopefully, you won't start today," I said.

"Killjoy!" he groaned.

I made a show of sighing as loudly as I could. "Listen – sorry to interrupt, Aliska – we're about a third of the way. We'll be able to get there and get out before night fall if everything goes well. If it doesn't, if we fight, if we provoke them, the deal will fall through and we probably won't make it out of the woods."

"What's the deal, anyway?" Aliska frowned.

That was something I was doing for my Dad, none of her business. I took a deep breath. Wrong. They were coming with me, and even if I didn't invite them, I definitely needed them. I didn't even take time to give them my thanks, so the least I could give was an explanation.

"When my grandfather was gifted the land after his service in battle, he learned that the reason no big merchant caravan passed through was because of the Wildlands. The river that runs on the east is in the county of Lerrond and the bridges were heavily taxed."

"Why?" Aliska asked.

"That way, the count would make money from the caravan passing through. He didn't really care about us, whether we got the goods or not. All he wanted was silver for the merchant's gold. Anyway, the caravan could either do a huge detour to get to us – which was leading them away from the Duke's domain – or simply bypass our county. If my grandfather wanted to let them in, he either had to challenge a family whose nobility was older than his, or he had to find a way through the forest."

I realized they were both looking at me with huge smiles on their faces.

"It's good to hear you talk, Tom," Tallovan said.

I lowered my head. I had spent my time sulking on my horse, but as soon as I had a chance to explain something... It felt like being back home. That's what I enjoyed, learning and sharing my knowledge. Of course, it usually was about video games or TV shows when I was talking to my friends, but still.

"Don't stop," Ali tapped me on the shoulder. "How did your grandfather strike the deal?"

"Well, you talked about chocolate. There are a lot of things that the Wildlanders don't get. They usually steal it or kill for it, when people are dumb enough to travel through the forest. They don't understand money, or they don't like it, either way, they won't use it. When a caravan goes through the Wildlands, they don't see why they wouldn't just kill everyone and take everything."

"All you're doing is telling us it was impossible," Tallovan said. "Are you trying to build his legend or something?"

I closed my mouth. I usually liked rambling on because I thought people would stop me if I said something wrong. That was about the best way to tell whether or not you really knew something, so far as I could tell. "Do you know that expression? Close..."

"Close as Wildlanders," they replied at the same time.

"Yes. Wildlanders apparently don't know crime, because anything they do to outsiders is just hunting in their eyes. But they never hurt each other on purpose. They don't even acknowledge property between them."

Aliska nodded. "It's true. The sisters wanted me to trade the neighbor's pie which was cooling on a window. There was no explaining to them that it wasn't mine, since we were part of the same people."

"What I'm having trouble with is the fact they didn't just steal it," I said.

"Not their territory," Aliska explained. "They knew that they weren't supposed to cause trouble outside the forest. Inside, they could kill the neighbors and take their pie, but not in the village.

"That's messed up," Tallovan said. Strange, coming from the poster child for wars everywhere. "Does that mean that your grandfather put Wildlanders in the caravan?"

I shook my head, "No, because that would mean they could take anything. Wildlanders aren't supposed to keep things for themselves, or they are seen as outsiders." I waited a little, since Tal was trying to understand how he did it.

"I don't get it."

"Neither do I," Aliska said.

"My grandfather became a Wildlander in their eye. He stayed in the forest for months and lived like them. Technically, the county was his and he should have shared it with them, but they aren't interested in things outside the forest. They didn't want the taxes either, it's money."

"But how does that help the merchants?" Tallovan scratched his head.

"If he gave them safe passage, they couldn't take it away."

"I don't know if that's dumb or brilliant," Aliska said.

"It's hard to understand because they don't really have a structure of power. Anyone of them has the opportunity to do that. In our society, the Duke could offer safe passage in our domain, but my father couldn't do it in his."

"So you're going in there to make them think that you're one of them?" According to Tallovan's tone, he clearly thought I was out of my mind for even trying.

"There was a problem, apparently. They want my father to reconsider his stance on the issue. The thing is, if they don't see me as one of their own, there won't be any negotiating. They will kill me as well as the merchants."

"That's why you need to see them alone," he said.

I nodded. "Exactly. If it looks like I brought people to protect me, it's over."

"Well, if anyone can do it, it's you!" Aliska gave me a confident smile, but her eyes said she was worried.

I wasn't worried, I was downright afraid. Part of me just wanted to run away, just get the hell out of this mess. But then my father would have to go, and maybe he wouldn't come back. I knew how it felt when my father would never come back, and I didn't want to feel it again.

Hopefully, he wouldn't feel that same pain, tomorrow.

## Chapter 6

I knew that people went into the forest all the time, in our world. Some people even thought it was fun and they went hiking or camping, if not both. But there was something deeply frightening about going into those woods, now that I was at the edge. They didn't seem normal. I was used to well-spaced trees, with a clear dirt path going through, and I still never went into a forest. Now, I was faced with dense vegetation, obscurity, a powerful smell of moss and dirt. I didn't feel like a hiker, more like a child in a fairy tale. The kind where you get eaten if you don't trick or kill your way out of the shadows.

I stepped forward, leaving my companions behind, neither of which made a hurtful comment about my hesitation. They didn't seem as frightful as I was, but they looked at the trees like they could bite. The word Wildlands sounded casual to me as soon as I heard it, it was part of the language, of the reality of this world. It was a place where society was shun and only a people managed to thrive, the Wildlanders who were drawn to it. Every forest, mountain, or desert wasn't seen as such. Only the areas were nature was stronger than anything else.

My eyes adapted to the dark before it swallowed me whole. I soon had trouble believing the sun was still up. Under the heavy canopy, the air was cool and humid, it felt like a clear night, except you couldn't see the stars. I jumped a few times as I heard creatures thrashing in every other bush, but after a few minutes, it stopped. It didn't stop because I calmed down, but because my body decided I should stay tensed at all times. My neck started to hurt before my legs did, and I knew I was exhausting myself for nothing. That was stupid, because I might very well need to fight soon.

The thought of fighting tugged on me like the axe on my back, and I felt the familiarity of it once again. I took a deep breath and grabbed the weapon, carrying it with both hands. I knew it would tire my arms, but I welcomed the small comfort anyway. The forest was filled with a wealth of different trees – not that I could tell oak from beech anyway. The vegetation seemed to be competing ruthlessly, and I was but collateral damage in this battle. Where the trunks were large and spaced, I could barely see in front of me because of the darkness the giant trees shed, only allowing mushrooms to grow underneath. On the rare occasion light would pass through, giving me a glimpse of the sun, the ground would be littered with fern, saplings, bushes, and brambles.

At some point, I saw a squirrel and paused a second, to find some peace in its appearance. Surely, if something that cute and tiny could live here, then I'd survive. I noticed a snake, and gave it a wide berth, so much so that even I found it ridiculous afterwards. Thankfully, I had a compass with me, so I could keep heading south. I had no trouble imagining myself turning in circles without it. I was, after all, getting lost in the woods on purpose. Because that's what my father told me to do. Except he said that I needed to act like I belonged there. That, I could not see myself accomplish.

A loud thud brought my attention to my left. Surprisingly, the sound was too noticeable for me to be truly scared. The discreet shuffling of things in bushes was much more frightening. I assumed that if something was going to eat me, I wouldn't hear it coming. A man stood there, in the wild, draped in animal fur. His brown hair was clean, and although he probably hadn't shaved in weeks, so was his beard. There was definitely a rough edge to his appearance, but he didn't seem uncivilized. From the books I read, I assumed Wildlanders were little more than Neanderthals. Maybe I just expected them to look dirty and stupid.

The man didn't seem to be carrying any weapons. No bow or spear, like they were represented in the few illustrations I had found in books. His tunic had no belt, and he had no bag. I felt a bit ridiculous with my whole cantina. He wore thick leather pants and boots, probably more worried about a snake bite than a sword fight. While the whole of him was a mess of brown, his skin was white and his eyes green. That part only depended on geography. Wildlanders were found throughout the world.

He waved at me, I waved back.

"That's not him," someone said behind me. I froze from the surprise and felt a chill run up my spine. He was close enough to stab me, if he wanted to. Perhaps that was the reason the other Wildlander made such a loud appearance, so I would focus on him while his friend sneaked up on me. I turned slowly and realized he was younger than me, and didn't bear any weapons as well. Brown hair, green eyes, they could have been related.

"I know," the man said, "but he smells right."

"If you say so," the teen groaned as though he was disappointed he couldn't murder me.

The man turned and walked away. The teen stared at me until I started in the same direction.

"So, what are you?" the man asked as he put some distance between us without even realizing it. He didn't sprint or even jog, but his even, unbroken stride was hard to match. I always needed to keep my eyes on the ground not to stumble on some root or fallen branch. "The grandson?" he offered when I couldn't find a proper answer.

"Yes!" I tried to hurry so I wouldn't be left alone with the teenager who still shadowed me without a sound. Which made me think... "Shouldn't we keep quiet?" I thought the forest was dangerous and being stealthy was a requirement to stay alive with the wolves and such. I immediately regretted it. I was supposed to act like I belonged and asking newbie questions wasn't the smartest way to do it. Having a taste for learning wasn't always a good thing.

The teen snorted behind me. Apparently, Wildlander middle schoolers could be as petty as any.

The man looked back for a second to shoot me a kind smile. "On the contrary. Things that track you don't need the sound of your voice to hear your steps or smell your sweat. What you don't want is to sneak up on something that's resting, feeding, or sleeping. Most beasts will steer away or growl to keep you at bay, but if they only notice you when you're too close, they'll assume it's an attack."

Something jabbed me in the ribs and I jumped, only to realize it was the teenager punching me. I hung tightly to my last shred of self-esteem – at least I didn't let out a high-pitched scream.

"Then, you better kill it before it kills you," the teen said. His eyes told me that he had killed before, hunted and stalked, and that he loved it. I knew some modern part of me should have felt sorry for someone younger than me having to deal with death and violence, but I couldn't bring myself to pity him. The best I could do was try not to be afraid or judgmental. The latter was far easier than the former.

Since conversation was a good thing while travelling in the forest, I decided to start with the issue at end. "So, what happened with the merchants?"

"There is a problem with the things they travel with," the man said.

"Did you try to take something?" I wondered if that was the problem from the beginning. Apparently, Wildlanders had no concept of personal property, so that end of the bargain must have been tough to hold up for them.

"No. They have the right to be here, to come through unharmed."

"Safe passage," I supplied.

"Yes. Safe passage. We won't take anything from them. But they don't have the right to hunt here."

I nodded even though he couldn't see it, as he was still leading the way. There was no contract between my grandfather and the Wildlanders, just a tacit agreement. It did hold a lot of clauses which would have been much simpler to follow if written on paper, my father had told me. The merchants usually followed everything on instinct, since they feared the Wildlanders more than any law enforcement. From what I'd been told, the merchants would never risk it. But maybe someone a little too confident had tried their luck and put the whole convoy in jeopardy.

"Were there any casualties?" I asked.

"Nonsense!" the teen exclaimed. "These ducklings can't do anything against us, especially on our territory." He lifted his chin in pride and gave me a fearsome look, as if to challenge me. I realized my peaceful nature was a good match, for once, as it fitted what I needed to do. The Wildlanders didn't see each other as competitors, and me rising to the bait would have set me as an outsider.

"I meant, did you kill any of them?" It was a strange question to ask someone who couldn't have been more than fifteen.

"Wounded," the man said. "We let them heal, didn't mean to go against your will."

This had to be an impossible proposition, to satisfy what everyone wanted at any given time. My grandfather had somehow managed to fit in the Wildlands and now his progeny had the same rights as any other members. How could a people renowned for savagery display such an idealistic community? As though all the aggression, the need for violence and domination was directed outwards.

"If they aren't respecting us," I said, "then we kill them and take everything."

"Yes!" The teen gave me a nasty grin.

I shook my head. "But if they know where their place is, then we have to keep things as they were. This has been our way since before I was born. I will not disrespect my family to satisfy bloodlust."

"Well spoken," the man said. "Here we are."

## Chapter 7

I thought they would bring me to some kind of village, but if they had such a place, that wasn't our destination. Instead, I discovered a wide dirt path under the sun with the caravan stuck in the middle. These weren't horse-drawn carriage like I had assumed they would be. There were steel reinforcement and bronze ornaments on big, wooden wagons with spikes protruding from the back and sides. No animal was in sight, but I could tell there weren't meant to be any since there was nothing to bind them to the cars. The caravan looked like a trail of medieval tanks, and I could only imagine they were put in motion by magic.

The merchants were easily distinguishable from the Wildlanders, but they weren't wearing any expensive fabric or elegant hats like the few illustrations that I'd seen. They looked like just about everyone else, and that was surely the point. They knew that their cargo made them a target, they didn't need to flaunt their wealth and have people hate them for it too. If anything, most were happy to have merchants come by, there was no such thing as a supermarket in this world.

The Wildlanders were of every age and gender, and they seemed mostly curious about the convoy. I saw a couple of eight-years-old peeking through the roof of a carriage, their naked feet resting on the serrated edge without showing any sign of discomfort. A few adults were giving angry glances to the merchants, and I could only imagine what they would have done to them if there had been no treaty.

On the other hand, the merchants seemed terrified for the most part. They were huddled near the head car, whispering to each other. Some held hands, some fidgeted, one of them sat against a wheel – apparently meditating. Only one of them seemed more pissed off than afraid. A man maybe as huge as Tallovan, biceps bulging on crossed arms, a constant frown on his brow. He fixated on me as soon as he noticed I was present, and walked to me without anyone daring to come for support.

"This is unacceptable!" His tone was vehement, but he kept his voice low. Brave, but not suicidal. "I demand that we be released this instant, and don't think for a second we will come back to your cursed land."

My first reaction was to feel guilty and ashamed, knowing that I had failed an authority figure, but I didn't look down. I remained as inexpressive as I could, keeping my feelings inside, and took a deep breath. If I messed it up, they would all die, and so would I. "What happened?" I finally managed in an even tone, when my throat loosened.

"These... people have attacked us. They nearly killed my treasurer!" He pointed at the man meditating.

"Nearly," I repeated to give me time to formulate my response. "Do you think they wouldn't have finished the job if it weren't for our agreement?"

I saw in the man expression that he knew I was just a kid, that my challenging tone was mostly bluffing. Commerce was his trade, after all, he must have been a decent negotiator at least. And it was probably that experience that stopped him from calling me out. This illusion of strength was all that permitted me to be seen as a Wildlander.

"Aye, but it is still a breach–"

"I heard the breach was yours in the first place," I interrupted. "Did you hunt on these grounds?"

The merchant blinked a few too many times and looked to my guide, then the teenager, before coming back to me. As confused as he seemed, it was also obvious he hoped this wouldn't come up again. Still, he straightened and said, "We did no such thing."

"Are you transporting animals that might have come from these parts?" I asked.

He squinted a bit and exhaled a little, as though he felt the pressure coming off of his shoulders. "No, we aren't."

There was no point trying to guess. I looked to my guide. "What was the cause of the issue, then?"

The Wildlander didn't say a word. He simply walked to the car where the children had climbed and unlocked the back panel. It fell to form a ramp into the carriage and I heard a whimper coming from within. "We keep it closed because of the light."

I nodded and got in. A nasty stench took my breath away for a second, and I felt bile coming up my throat. My eyes adapted to the dark pretty fast, most of the forest was in the shadows. What I saw inside, I had already seen, but only in archives. A frail form, crooked and gaunt, famished to the point of near death. Like in the pictures of people rescued from the Nazi death camps. Eyes hollow, haggard, distress painted on a face that tried to remain expressionless.

There was no cage, but the bonds were worse than I'd have imagined. Shackles on the wrists and ankles had a screw within them that traversed the limb. Metal clasps were affixed to the spine, through a linen tunic that reach to the prisoner's mid thighs. For the first time since my guide had appeared, I realized that I was still holding my axe in my hands. The shaft groaned under my grip. I felt a rage like I had never known before, an anger so deep that it drowned the horror.

I jumped out of the car and walked straight to the head merchant. I swung my weapon and only managed to deviate the blow before it connected with his skull. My axe dug deep into the carriage wall and the fact that it was stuck only added to my anger. I gritted my teeth and twisted the weapon until it broke free, then hit the car again, and again. Once I finally let out a disgruntled breath, I could see the prisoner inside. The children were still on the roof, and they were looking at me with a solemn expression. They, too, were ready to slaughter the merchants if it came to it. I couldn't let that happen.

The merchant was pale, his confidence had vanished entirely.

"Who is he?" I said, my voice hoarse.

"She is a prisoner of the crown," the merchant said.

"Bullshit." A whole part of the country was educated in military schools and there was no police. Law enforcement was exclusively military. If the King wanted to delegate the charge of a prisoner transfer, he could have asked the Duke.

"This is a matter that requires discretion and–"

"Free her," I ordered. The merchant opened his mouth, but I didn't let him say a word. "Free her or I will kill you myself." I had never done anything like that, but I had never been surer that I could. I didn't even know if I could feel guilt for expunging someone capable of such an atrocity from the planet. My hands itched to swing my axe, and I realized that my body was perfectly okay with the concept of killing. My alter ego had done it before. Maybe that would help.

The merchant stood very still for a moment, and I could tell he was looking for a way out of the situation. When he couldn't find any, however, he went to the head car and came back with a keyring. While he was inside the car, I turned to my guide.

"You said it was hunting?" I asked.

"They didn't treat it like a person."

My skin crawled at the 'it' in his sentence. "Is she from here?"

He shrugged. "She isn't one of us, but she smells right."

I couldn't agree, with the stench that came from the car, but I knew he must have meant something else. That's what he had said about me when the teenager had pointed out that I wasn't the man they were waiting for, my father. I wanted to ask him what that meant, but something told me I was supposed to know.

"If they ever do this again," I said loud enough for the merchants to hear, "don't wait for us. Just kill them."

## Chapter 8

The sun was halfway hidden by the horizon when I made it out of the forest. Having a guide should have made the way back a lot quicker, but we had to carry the prisoner. There was no way I would have left her with the merchants, and the Wildlanders seemed to be peculiarly in tune with my choice. No matter how ruthless they were, they didn't see cruelty as a norm.

I felt my heart racing when I heard heavy steps coming my way. The guide had stopped a few hundred yards from the border, and now I was alone, both of my hands busy holding the prisoner. There was no way I could defend myself.

"We didn't know what to do!" Aliska said. "We didn't know whether to head back and look for reinforcement or go in the forest. Are you okay? What is this?" Her face froze in terror as she realized I was holding a person instead of an object.

A tortured breath came out of the pale form in my arms. She still smelled as horrible and I felt bad for even thinking about it, after all she must have been through. The merchants had removed the restraints on her limbs and spine, and she was still bleeding. I didn't know if she would survive, but I had caught her purple eyes looking at my cantina, so I had given her water. But since I was holding her, I couldn't comply.

"Grab my flask," I told Aliska as I turned.

She immediately understood and let the prisoner drink while Tal approached with our mounts. The prisoner gave her a nod, as a thank you, and her eyes met Aliska's. Ali immediately turned towards Tallovan, who stopped in his tracks.

"It's a Slave," he said.

My anger flared at the pronoun, and I was about to yell when something ticked in my mind. Slave was a word that meant just that, but it also had another meaning in their language. He wasn't saying that she was bond by slavery. He called her a slave as though it was her ethnicity. I shivered at the thought.

"They aren't supposed to come here, I don't think," Aliska explained when she saw my confusion.

"I don't think the ban was ever lifted, but it doesn't really matter now. Still, why do you have a Slave in your arms?" Tal asked.

"First of all, don't call her that. Second, the merchants held her as a prisoner in one of their wagons. That's the reason why the Wildlanders stopped the caravan."

It looked like they had more questions, but my face must have been a good enough reflection of my state of mind for them to shut up. I just wanted to go back to the castle and tell my father what happened. Tell him I had succeeded, but the merchants might not come back. I also wanted to find out if slavery was still in effect in the kingdom.

We set out in the growing darkness, and I tried to distance myself from the discomfort the prisoner must have felt, riding in her condition. I asked Tal to take her, since his mount was the most robust and he was the best rider. I was grateful for the sound of hooves and the whistling wind, they hid the prisoner's labored breath. I didn't know if she would survive for long, but I doubted it. At least, she would die free, surely that meant something.

Silence reigned for the greater part of our trail, but after a while, my curiosity got the better of me.

"What can you tell me about... her people? Why isn't she supposed to be here?" I felt a bitter taste in my mouth as I had almost used the same word they did. Slaves. How could you call people that? As though it were in their nature to be property. I knew it had existed in my world, in my very country, but it sounded so foreign... So wrong.

"Nothing," Aliska said. "It's not that we don't want to, but we can't, Tom." She gave me an apologetic look. "Back when the Empire came, they sent Slaves to Gar, and they destroyed every record of their existence. That's why they're called that. The name of their people, their culture, everything was burned to the ground."

"Nobody even knows why," Tal said. "They were from here, we know that much, because they were forbidden to go back to their homeland."

"Then, how do you know she's one of them?" I asked, although I thought I knew.

"Her eyes," Aliska confirmed my hypothesis. "That amethyst, that's something they all have in common."

It took a moment for me to remember what Gar was. I had seen maps of this world in the library, and they were incredibly similar to pictures of Earth, except for a few details. There was a lot more land than on Earth, and that was nowhere more evident than in the Indian ocean. There was a whole continent stuck between Africa and Australia. Gar, about the furthest place from home they could have thought of.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"Centuries," Tal said. "I think it was back in the 1400's."

With the Empire dividing at the end of the eighteenth century, it was most probable the ban wasn't enforced anymore. Still, there was a common phrase I'd read more than once. The Empire never fell. From Africa, to Asia, through Europe, the Empire had existed and most countries still shared a common history that made them regard each other as similar. I doubted even Alexander the Great ever ruled that much territory.

I wondered if she was really a prisoner from the crown. It hadn't seemed plausible, but after all, what did I know about how the King ruled? I didn't want to cause my father any trouble, and I had never committed a crime in my life, but I didn't see myself handing her over. Not after I'd seen the way she was treated. I was still thinking about what would become of the situation when Tal slowed his mount.

We almost stopped as one of the many guard posts on the side of the road came into view. Unlike all the others, however, no light came from the windows, and the door was closed. I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it if my companions didn't seem so tensed all of a sudden. I straightened and pulled back my shoulders, contracting my muscles and relaxing them. The warm-up came naturally. I managed to lead my horse next to Tal's.

"You need to bring her to the castle." I shook my head a little when I saw the disapproval in his eyes. "I can defend myself and so can Aliska, but not her. We will be fine." I had no idea whether or not that was true, but I knew we couldn't fend off an attack while taking care of the prisoner. Fighting without ensuring her safety was out of the question as well.

I was about to tell him that my order only stood if there was an assault when an arrow flew by and stuck itself in Aliska's chest. She didn't even let out a gasp. She just frowned and broke the shaft before dragging a javelin off of her back. Hopefully, her cloth armor had stopped the projectile before it broke her skin. Tal looked at me one last time before he sent his mount into a loud gallop.

I drew my sword and felt Aliska's energy expend around us. When another arrow came by, it just slid off the air and dug into the ground beside us. She must have casted some kind of shield. I studied the shadows around us, but I couldn't make out our assailant in the dark. Aliska, on the other hand, fixated her gaze near the guard post. The javelin tore through the air and into the cloaked archer crouching by the wall. I didn't hear him cry either, but he stopped moving after his legs kicked a few times.

"Let's go!" Aliska led her mount forward, but it reared when the ground suddenly burst into flames. I didn't know what was burning, but it smelled worse than gasoline. It must have also been more potent because the flaming fumes grew ten feet high.

It was my turn to reach with my energy. I still had little control over it, and my knowledge was burgeoning at best, but my task was simple. If I tilled the soil deep enough, the fire would be smothered. My energy infiltrated the ground and started breaking up the surface, but the process was slow.

"Turn back!" Aliska said as she pulled on her reins.

"Just wait," I groaned as I tried to keep my concentration. If they had barred our way forward, it must have meant that they had something set up in our backs. I didn't see Aliska's expression, but I heard her horse getting impatient, probably mimicking its rider.

She suddenly pulled her sword out and cried, "Tom!"

The spear dug into my side before I could do anything. I had never been stabbed before, but I didn't expect this. Instead of a burst of pain, I felt a crushing force trying to bend me sideways. I closed my eyes and tried my best not to bite my tongue. My assailant withdrew his weapon and then, the pain exploded. I let out a powerful cry and drew my weapon as well.

Two spearmen wearing the same cloaks as the archer had rushed behind us. I was too concentrated to see them coming, but I wondered how Aliska could have missed them. She batted a spear away, and her mount reared, but in a rehearsed manner, this time. With a terrible crush, a powerful hoof collided with the spearman's face. Before he could recover from the blow, her sword cleaved his throat and he fell back. She took out a javelin and plunged it in his chest for good measure.

My battle was going a lot worse. When my opponent tried to stab me again, I went for the same batting move, but he dodged easily. Instead of going straight for me, he stabbed my mount. The horse protested, but somehow managed to remain calm. With the flames and spear, I didn't think it was possible, but those were battle animals. The horse might have been more ready than I was. I tried to charge forth, but barely managed to dodge a blow that would have impaled me. The spear was limiting the advantage my horse gave me.

After a few more strikes, I suddenly lost track of my opponent. Panic rushed inside me. I looked everywhere, trying to find him. It was as though I had blinked and he had popped out of existence. Was the wound severe? Besides the initial pain, my side hadn't bothered me. Was I bleeding enough to have moments of absence? Since I couldn't find my opponent, I dared put my hand to the wound. I only found lacerated leather and soft skin. Did people regenerate wounds that fast? I looked at the archer and spearman Aliska had put out of commission. They still weren't moving. She had probably killed them before they could heal.

I started when a javelin flew past my ear, and I heard a thump behind me. My opponent lay on the ground, crawling away, the projectile stuck in his thigh. I lead my horse forward. "Who are you?" I shouted.

"You won't get away with it," the man said. I couldn't see his face beneath the hood. "It's not over!"

"What are you talking about?"

Before I could get anything else from him, Aliska's mount came charging and crushed the man's head with its hind leg. Blood and cerebral sludge poured out of the cloak. I didn't feel sick at the sight, it almost felt natural. What kind of life had my alter ego led up to this point?

"There might be more!" Aliska said. She was out of javelins, and I hadn't really proved to be an asset in this battle. I nodded and turned to the fire. A few moments later, it faded into crusted dust. The ground seethed with heat, but the horses jumped the obstacle with ease. Apparently, even my mount had regenerated its wound.

## Chapter 9

I didn't realize the toll the battle had taken on my nerves until we reached the castle doors. Cold sweat drenched my back and fresh air bit my skin. Doctor Ituha stood and caught the bridle of my mount to bring it to a stop. She had been sitting on a cover, with a young man beside her, tending to a coffer.

"No apparent wound," she told him while observing me.

"He was injured," Aliska said while jumping off of her horse. The latter calmly clopped to the stables, letting me wonder how sentient these beasts really were.

I shook my head. "A spearman stabbed my side, but I can't find the wound." It took me a moment to come down from my horse. I felt stiff and awkward.

The doctor brought her hand to my face, shining a light that immediately made me grunt. "Keep your eyes open, please."

I did my best to oblige, even though I wasn't in the mood to be examined. I just wanted to make sure Tal and the prisoner were fine, then go rest. Hopefully, my father could wait until tomorrow to find out what happened.

"Only the one stab wound?" the doctor asked.

Wasn't one enough? I nodded.

"Vafaro beans," she held out her hand to the young man. He withdrew a vial from the coffer. The doctor took out a couple of kidney shaped beans. "Chew on this."

By the sound of her voice, arguing wasn't an option. I took the medication and started chewing, careful not to swallow. The taste was incredibly bitter, but I made an effort.

"Catch him," the doctor said calmly.

I didn't understand what she meant until my legs suddenly gave up on me. My consciousness faded before I knew whose hands were on my shoulders.

I woke up in the same bed where the doctor had tested me, after I found myself in this world. The infirmary was still chilly, and I was definitely naked, although this time, there was a sheet over me. I looked around, and found someone sitting on the bed next to mine, a large plate on her knees. She had long, wavy auburn hair, with lightly tanned skin. She was slim, but not frail, and apparently looking to gain some weight as she ate vigorously. Her meal smelled delicious and looked like minced meat wrapped in puff pastry. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of brown that almost looked orange under the infirmary's intense lights. They locked on mine and she tilted her head so it would be at the same angle as mine, on the pillow. She calmly swallowed before she spoke.

"Did you sleep well?" Her voice had an accent I couldn't quite place. But this wasn't English, or Earth, so how could I tell anyway? It sounded foreign, attractive. I didn't know if I should tell her I was unconscious, and before I could formulate an answer, she said, "You slept for a while, so I hoped it was good."

She was wearing a grey gown that could have been a very large sweater, and I finally noticed the bandages on her wrists and ankles. I blinked a few times and looked at her eyes again. Still that same, lovely brown. "Are you..."

She nodded. "My name is Elliana. Most people call me Ellia." The prisoner offered me a gentle smile.

"Your eyes were different." I didn't want to say that they were purple, now that I knew what it meant. I didn't want her to feel like I was judging her upon her origins. Still, I needed to understand.

"Yes, I changed them. I'm still healing, so I don't want to change much, but they make people uncomfortable." She ate another meat pastry. "Thank you for taking me away. I heard you were attacked."

"Do you think they were with the merchants?" I asked.

"No, they wouldn't attack nobility outright. I don't think. I hope it wasn't because of me, in any case."

"Are you a prisoner in the eyes of the crown?" Perhaps I was naïve for asking her outright, but I couldn't help myself. I didn't want to bring my father any trouble.

She smiled as if to acknowledge it was sweet for me to think she was going to be truthful about it. "I am not. Their interest was elsewhere. I am not an outlaw. Just a traveler." She was older than me, but not much. Twenty years old, twenty-one maybe.

The door opened and the doctor walked in. I averted my eyes, suddenly realizing that I had been staring at Ellia since I woke up. "I told you not to eat so much. Your body needs time to adjust after such a long period of starvation." Ituha extended a hand towards the prisoner.

Ellia turned a little, keeping the plate on her knees. "I can assure you, doctor. I know what I'm doing."

"Metamorphosis might be a way to improve your natural regeneration, but it's dangerous," the doctor reprimanded her. "You are lucky I am not a proponent of the Imperial stance on this issue, but I still won't abide any recklessness when it comes to the health of my patients."

"Doctor," Ellia said, "I need to recuperate my strength if I want to be able to leave by tomorrow's dawn."

"That won't be necessary," a voice came from the door.

I almost jumped when I noticed my father in the frame. For once, he wasn't wearing his heavy armor, but instead black trousers and a blue shirt which made his eyes stand out. His scars were even more obvious in such simple clothes.

"I have yet to receive confirmation that you are not a wanted woman, and for your safety as well as ours, I have decided that you shall stay within my domain for the next few days."

This time, Ellia put the plate away, probably as a sign of politeness. She didn't stand, however, and her tone wasn't servile. "Lord, with all due respect, I am not one of your subjects. You cannot order me to stay."

"Indeed, but I have the means to enforce such an order nonetheless. I hope that you'll do my son the courtesy of not making this difficult for us, as he has placed your interest before his own, yesterday." He gave her a confident smile, then focused his attention on me and came by my bed.

I sat up a little too quickly, and I felt dizzy, but it passed once I rested my back against the wall. My father put a hand on my shoulder. "I have received a second-hand report from Tallovan and Aliska. You have angered the merchants, but they knew better than to bring up the issue to me. Slavers are outlaws before the crown and since they refused to explain where they were bringing our guest, any officer could only assume that their intention was to sell." He grinned. "It's remarkable that the Wildlanders held that stance long before Imperials did."

I smiled back at him. "They don't seem that bad. They are like very violent hippies."

My father quirked an eyebrow. "Hippies?"

I waved the word away. "It's the stroke, don't worry." Obviously, this world didn't have hippies. I caught the doctor grabbing her notebook. Was she keeping track of it all? Like when she had written my real name? I didn't feel comfortable asking her, but I still had other questions. "What am I doing here?"

"You were poisoned," the doctor explained. "The weapon must have been coated with a neurotoxin. Your system kept regenerating on your way back, but if it weren't for the antidote, you'd probably be dead by now."

I frowned. These hadn't been bandits, I had gathered that when they told me they wouldn't let me get away with whatever I did wrong. If Aliska hadn't been there, they'd have killed me with ease. But who would send assassins after me, and why?

"What about Ali? They shot an arrow at her."

The doctor shook her head. "Her armor stopped it completely. She is fine, although she kept asking about you all day long. She only left a couple of hours ago." She sighed. "I told her I'd call when you'd be awake, but she needs her rest."

That was probably for the better. Ali's attention made me feel uncomfortable. She didn't care about me, only about my alter ego. She had been the only one with real doubts as to whether or not I was him, even when the doctor told her I had to be. In a way, I felt bad for her. I felt guilty that I didn't want things to be different, especially now, with my father so closed to me.

"You did a good job, son."

"Why aren't you wearing your armor?" I asked out of curiosity.

He smiled at me. "It's the middle of the night. I wasn't going to put on armor just to see you." He looked at me from the corner of his eye. "You're not that important."

I shrugged. "You're right. I'm only the son of a low ranking count, nothing to write about."

The prisoner and the doctor looked at each other with tensed shoulders. My father and I laughed at the awkwardness in their pause. They weren't sure we were joking up until that point. I even heard the doctor sigh of relief.

I felt home.

## Chapter 10

Seeing a man sitting on a woman's lap seemed odd to me, and yet the sight didn't seem to surprise anyone in the tavern. Then again, it didn't seem to strain Aliska's muscular frame as her companion probably was a good twenty pounds lighter. He had a constant grin on his face as she whispered secret things in his ear, her hand dancing on his thigh.

"Jealous?" Ellia asked as she put a wooden cup in front of me.

I immediately glanced away and grabbed my drink. I felt blood rushing to my cheeks. I couldn't tell her what I was really thinking, but I didn't like what she implied either.

"I can't believe you've never had spice wine," she gracefully changed the subject of conversation.

Tal turned towards us with a frown, his hand still resting on the back of a young woman. "What do you mean, he's never had spice wine?"

"That's what he told me." Ellia held up her hands.

"It's the stroke," I said. I wondered how long I could go with that excuse before I was discovered. Still, it was the only one available.

"The doctor really needs to examine you again. There is no force in this world that should be able to make you forget _my_ spice wine." He made a show of looking grim and sighed heavily. "Fine, I guess I'll have to make you some more."

"Thanks." I smiled timidly and looked at my cup. The liquid within was dark red, the surface pulsing from the sounds of the tavern. I couldn't tell them how strange it felt to be able to drink alcohol in a public place at my age, or how I'd never even had a beer. Alcohol had never had a huge draw for me.

Ellia's hand brushed my arm. "It's fine if you don't like it, I'll get you something else."

I shook my head. I was grateful for the kindness, especially since I was technically the most wealthy at the table. The son of the Count probably didn't need anyone to pay for his drinks. Curiosity nabbed at me. "How did you pay for it?"

She gave me a bright smile. "I have multiple lucrative talents. I used one of them in town in anticipation for this evening."

Aliska finally deigned acknowledge our presence by squinting at Ellia. "That talent wouldn't be theft, I hope."

Ellia didn't look insulted, simply amused. "I can't say I'm a good thief, so no."

"But you don't have any moral objection to taking things that aren't yours?" Aliska asked with a rather accusing tone.

"Well, I guess it would depend on the occasion. I wouldn't steal for a cup of spice wine, though."

Aliska shrugged and went back to her flirt, her lips finding the neck of the villager who was entertaining her.

I inched towards Ellia, "Did you take something from her?"

Her eyes crinkled as she whispered back, "I believe she thinks so. I didn't, however. It wasn't hers in the first place." She nudged me again before I could figure out what she meant. "Are you going to try that wine or do I need to get something else?"

I took in a deep breath and took a swig of wine. I expected the gentle burn of light alcohol, but not the taste. I couldn't quite place it. It was an odd melt of grape and saffron, and yet it didn't taste sweet. No matter how strange the sensation, I couldn't help but enjoy the beverage. I took another sip. Ellia laughed.

"You like it, all right."

I nodded. "Thank you. Is it your favorite drink?"

She leaned against my shoulder. "No, I much prefer rum," she said like a confidence. "But tonight isn't one for such heavy drinking," she continued louder.

"Speak for yourself!" Aliska held up her cup and emptied it. Her companion imitated her soon after, and they continued their quiet discussion. I decided that locating Aliska's hands wasn't in my best interest anymore.

I took another sip of wine and took my time to smell the aroma emanating from my cup. I could definitely see myself ordering a glass of this every now and then. I sat there quietly for a little while, but as it became clear that Aliska and Tallovan were too busy with their date to engage in conversation, Ellia stood up and gave me a nod.

"How about we get some fresh air?"

"Yes, please." I followed her outside, cup in hand. I welcomed the cooling breeze as it brushed my hot cheeks and took in a deep breath. The village smelled of rain and grass. The street was peaceful, despite all the activity inside the tavern. A few tables were set there, but the discussions were quiet, with people probably resting from all the excitement inside. Ellia leaned against the wall, a few yards away, as to give us a semblance of privacy.

"How did you get the money, really?" I asked with a smile. I wasn't suspicious of her, simply curious.

"I went to the market place and I asked if people needed something enchanted," she told me. "You can ask the guard your father sent with me, if you think I'm a thief."

I crossed my arms. "For all her faults, Aliska's trying to make sure Tal and I are safe."

Ellia nodded. "And I'm a stranger with troubling origins, I understand. But what about you? Why did you invite me tonight, when I could be some nefarious outlaw?" Her eyes met mine. They were still that soft shade of amber I'd seen when I woke up in the infirmary, three days ago. It was hard holding her gaze for too long.

"I noticed you were trying to talk to your guard, in the kitchen, this morning. I don't think you've done anything to warrant such animosity."

"So, this is pity?" She didn't sound outraged, but her voice held some force, as though she was testing me.

I took a second to think about it, then shook my head. "No, if I have to be honest, I'm glad to find someone who seems as foreign as I am to this place." I shrugged almost naturally, I was getting used to my cover by that point. "You must have heard about my amnesia. If anything, it's easier to trust you than anybody else. Everyone tells me they know who I am, and I have to take their word for it."

She smiled at me, and I lost track of what I was saying. She was no longer the lithe form Tal had accompanied to the castle. She had fully healed, and she was beautiful. Her skin had darkened beyond a tan, her hair was a healthy black instead of the auburn from the infirmary, her lips were full and so was her figure. She was beautiful.

"Is this what you naturally look like?" I asked.

Her smile diminished a little, but she kept it. "No," she said softly. "I take it you like my appearance."

I only managed to nod at that.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she said teasingly.

I felt like blushing, but I kept my cool for once. "Well, thanks for the compliment, but it's hardly as deserved. After all, I'm not responsible for what I look like."

"Besides exercise and fashion, of course."

"Well, you can thank Tal for the exercise. As for fashion... Nobody is to blame for my horrible taste."

She laughed a little and sighed before stepping away from the wall. I took in a sharp breath as she came closer. "Such a shame," she said. She put a hand on my wrist, just an inch above my skin. "I wish I could enjoy this conversation without fear of someone thinking a Slave is trying to seduce the Count's son."

I immediately took a step back. "Don't use that word!"

She frowned, apparently unsure what I meant.

"You're a person. A guest, as far as I am concerned." I shook my head. "I know that's what your people are called, but it's not right." I breathed slowly to try and calm down a little. After all, she wasn't at fault.

"Okay." She took a step back and leaned against the wall. Her hands went under her tunic and bundled the fabric. I wasn't sure if she was cold or if she felt threatened. Anyway, I immediately felt bad.

"If it's any consolation, most people would think I'm trying to seduce you, not the other way around. I have a bit of a reputation."

Her eyes met mine again. "I don't mind."

I immediately froze. In the seventeen years I had been on Earth and the few days I had spent in this world, I had never heard a tone that seductive. Not directed at me, at least. The look in her eyes wasn't an invitation to dating, or being friends. My face was burning red hot.

I heard a loud gasp behind me before I could go in full meltdown mode. I was infinitely grateful for the distraction and did a full one-eighty. I didn't need to ridicule myself in front of Ellia.

I found an old man pushing a cart filled with bottles and boxes, in the middle of the street. He looked at me with wide eyes, as though seeing me here was the biggest surprise. From what Tal and Ali had told me, my alter ego was used to going out in town. I wasn't royalty, I could be seen amongst commoner without anyone making a big deal out of it.

"Is there a problem?" I wanted to give the man a chair. He was of average height, but old age had bent him forward, and the little hair he still had was pale gray. Seeing me seemed to have knocked the air out of his lungs, and he was having issues finding his breath.

"It... It didn't work!" he finally managed. "I am so sorry, Sir." He immediately started looking around, fear showing in his darting eyes. "But why are you still here, Sir?"

"What do you mean?" That was exactly the problem I was telling Ellia about. The man seemed to know me personally, but I had no way of finding out if it were true.

The man opened his mouth, but he stopped himself when he noticed Ellia's proximity. I let out a sigh and came closer, since he apparently didn't want her to hear. My eyes locked on his hands almost despite me. This was someone I didn't know, in the middle of the street, and I had already been attacked this week. What if he turned out to be armed? I felt the cold steel of my dagger pressing against my palm at that thought.

"You asked me to find passage into another world, Sir. I really don't think we should talk about this here, Sir."

Another world? Earth? My suspicions didn't vanish, but they suddenly became irrelevant. I had found the one person who could tell me what had happened. Which meant it was also the only person who could tell I wasn't from here. I had to hear him out. I looked at his cart. "Where is your shop?"

He was obviously surprised I didn't remember, but he didn't make any comment. "Down the street, on the left," he said.

I nodded and gestured for him to stay put. I came back towards Ellia.

"Go inside, and tell the others to get back to the castle," I said. I was almost impressed at the authority in my tone.

"Is everything all right?"

"I have no idea, but if I'm not back in two hours, they need to start looking for me. Don't tell them until then."

"Can't you tell them yourself?" she asked me with a bit of panic in her voice.

I didn't care, I was already walking down the street with the old man, helping him push the cart to go faster. I heard the door of the tavern slamming behind Ellia by the time we made the turn.

## Chapter 11

The apothecary shop smelled like lavender. The plant was found on every other shelf, dried, but still fragrant. Boxes and bottles populated the walls on three sides, with the fourth being the one with the main door, where diplomas and diagrams were displayed. The old man lingered beside me after we had made our way inside.

"May I lock the door, Sir?" He was obviously craving the privacy but couldn't bring himself to lock a noble in without his permission. I nodded. He used his key, then barred the door, apparently never too cautious. He then pushed his cart into the backroom and locked it too. Finally, he took a sit behind the counter and let out a sigh of relief.

"You haven't heard," I said. It was more a statement than a question, but his expression proved me right. "I lost my memory. What was it about finding another world?"

"No, Sir. The issue is not to find other worlds. We know very well they are there. The issue is to find a gateway into them. But there is none."

I frowned. "Then why are you surprised I didn't succeed?"

The old man paused. I could tell he was wondering if talking was in his best interest, since I had no memory of what happened. Anger immediately filled me. I couldn't let him deny me the answers I so desperately needed. I felt the pommel of my dagger against my palm once more, but I immediately moved my hand away. I wasn't about to threaten an old pharmacist with violence, no matter how badly I needed information. I still came to the counter and pressed my hand hard on it, fixating my eyes on the old man's.

"A gateway would imply that you could walk into another world, but you can't. There can only be an equal transfer, from a place to another. I found a way to do this, one that could be harmful on the return, but on the way in." He only had to look at my face for a second to understand that he had to keep talking. "There is only so much you can do if you don't have someone helping you on the other side. Most known world were off limit because they are protected by guilds which have exclusivity on them. We decided to opt for one that hadn't been claimed yet."

"What's the process?" I asked.

"As I said, it's an equal transfer. You need to bring three things to the other world: your energy, your body, and your mind. The first part of the ritual is aimed at preparing all three parts for the transfer. Then, you send your mind into the other world. Usually, that transfer occurs with a spirit in the destination, sometimes a person. Whichever the result, the ritual then proceed to swapping yours and the spirit's energy, and then your body with whatever matter is present – usually dirt."

I stared at him for a long time before I could formulate my next question. "What if there are no spirits in the other world?"

The old man smiled. "There are spirits in every world, Sir. They are made of energy, so everybody might not be able to sense them, but they exist nonetheless. Anyway, even if such an exception existed, a person would be called. This only occurs with doppelgangers though. There is near an infinity of worlds, Sir, in some of them, people share our exact same lineage. It's quite a small fraction, but the number is still vast. It is as though someone were to tell you that it only occurs in one percent of all specks of dust. Small fraction," he put his hands together, "big number," he held them apart.

I swallowed hard. "What about a world without magic?"

He frowned. "Magic doesn't exist, Sir. It is fantasy by definition."

"Energy!" I corrected myself, frustrated. "What if there was a world without what you call energy?"

"What 'we call', Sir?" The man paused, then terror suddenly showed on his face. He jumped back, knocking off a few boxes from the shelf behind him. "You're not Toikem!"

I cringed, but my mind reassured me that no one was listening. We were locked inside his shop, without any witness to this rather damning revelation. I held my hands up and took a step back. The man's breath was labored, and if anything, I feared for his safety more than mine.

"I'm not going to harm you, or anyone for that matter. Take a deep breath, sit down, please. All I want is to understand what happened."

It took a full fifteen minutes before the tension finally came down to a reasonable level. The man didn't trust me, but he sat after a minute or two. When he finally calmed down and analyzed the situation with a more rational mind, he understood that I wasn't here by choice. That's how I interpreted the sudden sympathy in his eyes. Until I realized it was hope. "So he made it out?" he finally said.

I clenched my teeth. I had asked myself what could have happened to my alter ego before, thinking that if I took his place, he might have taken mine. "It's possible he is in my body, right now, but I can't be sure he is alive."

The old man's lips trembled for a second, but he pressed them shut. He closed his eyes, and spoke again, "Why is that?"

"Well... The doctor said that I had a stroke, but regenerated through it. In my world, having a stroke is extremely dangerous and requires urgent medical assistance. It apparently happened in the middle of the night, while I was sleeping, and we don't have energy. We don't regenerate."

"Curse me! I never thought of that." The man's voice broke. "To think that he trusted me after all these years, and I failed him. I couldn't imagine a world without energy." He clenched his fists and sat silently for a long time. I didn't dare disturb him. I knew what grieving felt like. I respected it. I thought about the parents I had on Earth, how it felt to lose them, and for a moment, I forgot about my questions. I thought about the old man sitting in front of me.

When he finally opened his eyes, I opened my mouth. "How did you know him?"

He took a tissue out of his pocket to wipe the tears off his face. "I was his preceptor. I taught him how to read. I was also the castle's physician for a long time. When I retired from the Count's service, I was gifted this shop, because I refused my pension."

I nodded. He took care of them and they took care of him. My father was a decent man in both universes, that was a good thing to know.

"Toikem is – or was – a foolish boy. Smart when it came to people, but blind to his own faults. And angry, terribly angry. When he told me what he did, I almost lost faith in the boy, but the regret in his eyes... He wanted to escape what he had done, no matter how dangerous the way out." He made a sour face, as though he was disgusted at his own thoughts. "I probably never would have helped him with such a foolish plan if I didn't think he deserved to be punished too. But not that. Not like that."

"What did he do?"

The old man struggled to find the words, but he finally met my eyes with a look of resignation. "He ordered his father killed."

As the apothecary let the sentence sink in, I realized I gave it a different meaning. Toikem, the spoiled brat who asked his friends to call him "Sir" had ordered _my_ father dead. He wanted to assassinate the man who I had already lost once, in another world. I clenched my teeth, all feeling of guilty erased from my mind. Maybe I didn't wish him to have died from the stroke, but I didn't care about the consequences of his own actions anymore. My pity was better spent elsewhere.

"From what I understand, he contacted a renowned group, the Sanglante. They didn't take him seriously since he wasn't the heir. The assassination didn't seem to be worth the risks for him, so it wasn't worth it for them. But an apprentice was easily convinced when he told her she could make an impression. Such a dreadful thought, an apprenticeship for murderers." The old man realized his thoughts were drifting away. "In any case, the apprentice accepted, but Toikem's anger left him. When he tried to contact the Sanglante again, they didn't respond, and so he was left with no other way to stop the assassination than to thwart it himself. He recognized the apprentice when she got hired as a handmaiden, and he killed her."

"He just killed someone everybody thought was a servant and nobody said anything?" I realized I had never asked just how much nobles could get away with in this world. I didn't even know what they were allowed to do on Earth, in the Middle Ages.

"Toikem was shrewd. He found a poor soul willing to take responsibility in exchange for a sure escape and a pouch of gold. The man knew enough about the crime that everybody believed his confession. However, he never saw the gallows, or freedom. They found him tortured in a cell. The guard assumed someone close to the girl had somehow gotten their revenge on the killer. Toikem, however, knew the truth. The man had been interrogated."

"Why wouldn't he just leave town? Take a horse and run, rather than look for another world?"

"If he ran without saying anything, or lied about his destination and was caught, his father would have sent for him. He would have had people looking for him all over the county, and probably beyond, and then he would have had to explain himself. I think he was more afraid of that than being killed. He couldn't face what he had done. Especially not what he almost had his victim do for him." The old man leaned forward an took something under the counter. He strained and put a box in front of me with both hands. "Since he hoped to leave this world, he gave me this, no matter how much I argued. I couldn't return it to the castle without betraying his confidence, or looking like a thief, so I kept it. You can have it now, I don't need this money."

So this was why I hadn't found my alter ego's stash since I arrived? Why Ellia had to pay for my drink, even though she probably needed every bit of copper she could muster. I opened the box and found it was stuffed with gold, silver, bronze, copper, and tin coins. I knew for a fact this was enough to buy a house – as in have one built from scratch. Even if his story had not made sense, this was too much wealth to sustain a lie. I put my hand on the box and slid it towards me, accepting it. I would need that money to keep my cover, if anything else.

"I was attacked on the road," I said. "They said I wouldn't get away with it."

"You escaped the Sanglante?" the old man sounded surprised. "It must be a dangerous world, you come from."

I shook my head, "I've known nothing but peace. There is war in my world, but not where I live." I sighed. There was no point in talking about Earth. Returning there didn't warrant that my alter ego would get back in this world safely, and I would have to survive two strokes. Even if I could, I doubted it would be without any aftermath, and I had lost my parents, there. My eyes itched at the thought. "A friend of mine fought them back with barely any assistance. I think they might have been apprentices, like the one Toikem hired."

The old man stayed silent, then gave me a pitiful smile. "I don't want to cause any false hopes, but perhaps those troubles will end here. Maybe their masters didn't think avenging a rogue apprentice was worth it." He put a hand on mine. "What is your name?"

"You can call me Tom," I said, uncomfortable disclosing my real name anymore. "That's what they call me here as well."

"Well, Tom, I cannot claim to be your friend, but I understand the injustice you're facing. You will find help here, if you need it. I am Doctor Riveau." He nodded then gave me an odd look as I shook his hand.

"A custom from my world," I explained, then suddenly withdrew my hand. "I have to get back to the castle. If I'm late, they'll send the guard."

Riveau acquiesced and stood up. "Good night, Tom."

"Good night, Doctor."

I took the small coffer and left.

## Chapter 12

Tal, Ali, and Ellia were waiting by the castle's main entrance, outside the gates. Two guards usually sat by, killing time, since there wasn't much traffic at night. Tonight, however, they were standing at the ready, spears in hand. In fact, the only one sitting was Ellia. She made a move to stand up when she saw me, but Tal placed a hand on her shoulder. Aliska was the only one that came forward.

"You don't do this!" She pushed me and I held onto the coffer, afraid I'd let it fall. "If you need to wander off, you take an escort. Me, Tal, anyone we can trust. You don't tell a stranger and take off like this." She shoved me again, this time I stumbled a few steps. "I almost lost you, curse you!"

I opened my mouth. I was about to reassure her, that this was the city, not a unguarded road. That I trusted her and Tal to find me if need be. But suddenly, a thought came to me, and I pressed my lips shut. I studied her. This concern, this anger, where did it really come from? Was she really talking about the attack on the road, when she said she almost lost me?

"Do spirits possess people?"

"What?" She stared at me, surprise melting with anger at the odd question.

"Do people get possessed by spirits?" I asked again and looked at the five people in front of me for an answer. Aliska's face froze, the guard acted like they didn't hear me, and Tal slowly shook his head to tell me he didn't know.

Finally, Ellia spoke, "It's a common misconception. Spirits are made of energy and because they have a mind, people assume they could take over a body."

I nodded as a thank you, then turned towards Aliska, "Is that something you assumed?"

Aliska didn't say a word, she kept perfectly still. I couldn't read her eyes anymore.

"You knew, didn't you?" I felt anger rising inside me. "Did you know why he tried to do it?" Her eyes darted for one moment, and I saw the answer plain and simple. She had known that Toikem had tried to kill his father – _my_ father. "Get out of my way," I ordered.

"What's going on, Tom?" Tallovan asked, but I didn't even acknowledge him. My eyes were fixated on the redhead standing in front of me, her green eyes struggling to meet mine.

"I just–" I thought I heard her voice breaking, but I didn't care.

"Move!" My hands trembled, clenched against the coffer. Everything I had been taught prohibited me from resorting to violence, but my body just wanted to throw her out of my way. I could have simply walked past her, but somehow this wasn't an option. I had to let her know this wasn't right. That she couldn't do that. It didn't matter that my alter ego was at fault.

Aliska lowered her head and slowly stepped back. I walked towards the gates and stopped once I was at the guards' level.

"Let her go." I nodded towards Ellia. "If you want to keep an eye on someone, Aliska is a better choice." She had known all along what had happened to me. She could have explained everything that morning, when she came to my room. She could have told me about the threat, that we could have been attacked on the road. No wonder she didn't let me go alone.

"Yes, Sir," they replied in unison.

I went straight to my room. Thankfully, I hadn't been late, so the castle wasn't in full alert. I just crossed path with a few servants and guards who made a show of looking straight ahead. If my face was any indication of my mood, I couldn't blame them.

I shoved the coffer under my bed, next to my boots. I'd have to find a safer place for my money, later on. It probably wasn't wise to keep it all in one place. I clenched my teeth and pressed my hands on my eyes. I didn't want to think about that, right now. I sat on my bed and let out a frustrated growl. What was I going to do? Riveau knew I wasn't Toikem, and Aliska would realize I said "he" instead of "I", sooner or later. What would happen to me, then? Would they force me to go through the same ritual, hoping for my alter ego to come back? Even I couldn't say for sure that it wouldn't work. I probably assumed it wouldn't because I didn't want it to.

Here, I had my parents, a place. I didn't have to worry about school, college, finding a job. Even if this was all a fantasy, a dream, I wanted to stay here. More importantly, I didn't want to go back to that feeling of helplessness I had left on Earth. Someone knocked on the door.

"What?" I barked.

Without a word, Tallovan entered my room and closed the door behind him. He was wearing the same trousers and tunic from the tavern, but his weapon was nowhere to be found. He calmly walked to my bed and sat beside me. I was waiting for him to tell me what he wanted, but he didn't speak. He just sat there and sighed, looking at the wall in front of us. I was irritated at first, but I didn't know what to say, so I kept quiet as well. It took me a few minutes to feel like a child, brooding silently in the dark, like I was. Somehow, Tal's calm presence brought my anger down. It was almost comforting. But the silence soon became unbearable.

"I wish my mom were here." I had said the first thing that came to my mind. "She always knew when something was wrong. Of course, I wouldn't tell her about it, so she'd start making these random statements. It's better to have a few good friends than a lot of bad ones, things like that. Most of the time, it had no connection with my issue, but I felt better anyway. Because that's what she wanted to do, make me feel better." I stopped talking and wondered what someone like Tal would think about that. He was probably thinking I was a mama's boy, talking about my mother right now.

"You don't talk about her often." He peeked at me from the corner of his eye. "And now you make it sound like she's gone."

I opened my mouth to blame the stroke, but I stopped. There was no point in lying to him. Soon enough, everybody would know, and something bad would happen to me.

"You shouldn't be angry at her. Aliska, not your mom," he specified when his eyes met mine. "She isn't like us, you know?"

I frowned. "How so?"

"You and I, we didn't choose the army. I was class-A, predisposition for combat, Lyceum was the only option. You're a noble from a small house, you had little options as well. But Aliska, she always wanted to fight. It wasn't about the service, or killing. She just always wanted to be a soldier, never knew why. It's her calling." He shook his head and looked at the wall again. "People like that see the world differently. Everything's a struggle that has to be overcome."

I stared at him, wide-eyed. I had no trouble believing him about Aliska, she had pretty much told us how much she wanted to be in military school when we went to the forest. I had seen her fight on our way back. She didn't hesitate, and she surely was good at it. But Tal? I would have never guessed he didn't choose to be a soldier. By the way he fought, the way he smiled when he did. He truly seemed to enjoy it.

"Why is she my assistant, then?" That much didn't make sense.

"Because you asked her." He took in a deep breath. "When students are drafted for a war, they either become regulars or enter the reserve. To make up for the losses, you see? I didn't know where I was going with Lyceum, but to become a trainer here, that was probably the best outcome. Aliska wanted to go to the Academy. She wanted to study, prove herself, and be part of the Regal Forces. The best there is. The draft stole her chance, and since she's a commoner, there's no way around it." He shrugged. "So she went after the guy she admired."

I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. I knew I shouldn't, but it didn't feel right to keep him in the dark any longer. Not when he was trying to comfort his friend. "I'm not him. I'm not–"

"Does it matter?"

The question took me by surprise, and when I opened my eyes, he was staring at me. It was hard to believe he had drank anything tonight. Tallovan looked perfectly clear-minded, and yet his last sentence made no sense to me.

"Of course it does!" I kept my voice low, despite the shock, as though I was afraid the whole castle would rush to kill me if they knew.

"I don't know," Tal said. "You haven't made much effort to hide it, I can tell you that. Nobody can really buy that level of amnesia without any other syndrome, I think. You fight like him, you've got the same voice, you care about people. You might be shy, but you went into that forest alone, so I've got to assume that you're brave." He sighed heavily. "Maybe I just don't want to mourn another friend, but at times, I completely forget that you might not be him."

"I think..." I stopped. This conversation couldn't really be happening. Obviously, if he really understood I wasn't my alter ego, he would want me dead, or at least imprisoned. Still, no matter how much I worried, I felt the urge to clarify things. "I'm a different version of him. I was born in a world without energy, not the same kind at least. He took my place and brought me here, I didn't... I wasn't..."

"Yeah. I didn't think you were responsible for that either. You don't look like you're enjoying yourself much. Is he safe?"

I paused for a second. I knew how bad the stroke could have been in my world, but I couldn't be sure it happened. If I told Tal about it, he would have every reason to worry without any way to find out. "If he made it out okay, my world is a lot safer than yours. At least, my life was. I never had to fight, never even touched a weapon."

"You don't make it look that way," he said.

"I fight like him, you said so yourself. I think it's the same reason why I can speak your language. He's probably pretty good at typing, right now."

"Typing?" Tallovan repeated, sounding out the word as it didn't translate.

"It's a different way of writing. We press buttons and letters appear on a screen."

The giant absent-mindedly brushed his fingers against his collar, where buttons would have been if he hadn't been wearing a tunic. Evidently, he wasn't picturing a keyboard – another word that didn't translate. There was a moment of silence, but I wasn't the one to break it, this time.

"If everybody knew, it would be a problem," Tallovan explained. "People who can't see you as often as we do would think that you've got some terrible agenda. But if someone as cautious as Ali let you get away with it, I don't have to question my own judgement much further." He put a hand on my shoulder. "Still, I think we should keep this from the Count. The way I hear it, you see him as a father. If anything, you treat him better than Toikem did." A shadow passed over Tallovan's face. "It's best he doesn't experience the loss of a child."

That last sentence made me uncomfortable. I had always heard how terrible of a feeling it was, but I had only my own grief over my parents' death to imagine. Still, part of me thought that it was better than having them secretly replaced. Tallovan clearly saw the disgust on my face.

"Can Toikem come back?"

I slowly shook my head.

"Then see yourself as an adopted son, or an illegitimate one if you prefer. He might not be your real father, but you can love him as one, and he will love you the same. The only difference, really, is that the child is usually the one who's unaware."

I blinked a couple of hundred times after I heard that one. I would have never thought about it that way, and as much as it troubled me, it did make some kind of sense. It was hard to believe that the sword-wielding giant was the one to bring me such wisdom.

"Thank you," that was about all I could reply.

Tallovan grinned, took his hand off my shoulder, and slapped my back. "We might not be friends, yet, but I hope we can be. Do you know why he did it?" He looked towards the door, as though his mind went elsewhere. "That's what you asked Ali, right? If she knew why he did it."

I nodded. "I don't think that's for me to tell. Your friend," the words scraped my mouth, "made a mistake." As much as I thought Toikem deserved whatever fate the ritual had brought him, I didn't think Tallovan needed to know about his betrayal. He had lost a friend, and as much as he tried to remain calm, the concern wasn't hard to see when he asked if he was safe. Whether Toikem merited such a friend was debatable, but I didn't believe I had the right to ruin Tallovan's friendship.

"Are you in danger because of it?"

"Yes. Assassins attacked us on the road. Apprentices, really. There is no way to know if more are coming, or if their masters are going to join forces. Do you know anything about the Sanglante?"

Tallovan shook his head. "It doesn't ring any bells."

"Well, apparently they are well-known, and they don't kill people if it's not profitable enough. That's about our best hope, I'm not that important."

Tallovan stood up. "In any case, we'll drill in the early morning from now on. You can have the bulk of your sleep in the afternoon, when the castle is best guarded. You'll spend your nights in public, well-rested and clear-minded."

"You sound almost like you prepared for this," I said.

"I had time to think when we were waiting for you at the gates, not knowing whether you were seducing someone or choking on your own blood." The bitterness in his voice was unmistakable.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you." I meant every word of it. I didn't realize the situation I was putting them in by following the apothecary. I expected them to be pissed, but I often forgot how omnipresent danger was in this world. It wasn't about a kidnapping that happened on the other side of the country, and they heard about on the radio. They had lost school friends during a war, they had seen them die.

"Just... Don't do it again." Tallovan grabbed the door and left.

He woke me three hours later, bearing weapons.

## Chapter 13

News came back from the King the next day, informing us that the merchants hadn't been contracted by the Crown. No doubt they'd get away with it with a costly fine, according to my father. In any case, Ellia was free to go, but she didn't. As she explained to me, setting off on foot, by her lonesome, wouldn't be the safest enterprise. She'd wait for another caravan to come by. Apparently that's what common people did when they needed to travel.

She rented a room in the very tavern where she had payed me my first cup of spice wine. I made sure to pay for the first week, as to repay the drink, and also to apologize for putting her in such a tough spot that night. Her advances didn't come back up, as we spent more and more time discussing, since we found another field of interest. Spellwork. Even though their word for magic related to fantasy, energy made spells a very real thing in their world. I already knew most of the vocabulary – energy applied to inanimate objects was enchantment, to living tissue it was metamorphosis, to create something from energy was invocation, to change the innate properties of a material was transmutation, and so on and so forth.

What Ellia helped me with the most was theory and methodology. "People don't really learn to cast spells from books, you know?" she told me one evening, as I was trying to create fire from energy, squinting at a fresh copy of _An Elemental Approach To Elements_.

"They don't?" I smiled as I read about combustion, in the preface. The idea that elements were a primordial force also existed in this world, and just like on Earth, it had been proven to be a superstition. As such, creating fire was mostly transmutation.

"No," she said and put her hand in front of the page I was reading. I looked up to complain, but had to close my eyes when I realized a ball of fire was levitating in front of me. I recognize the familiar smell of gas.

"Methane?" I was just considering it myself. It was remarkable that she did too, since she probably never saw a gas burner in her life.

She nodded with a grin. "Of course you'd know it even when you shouldn't." She shook her head. "You're a curious guy, Tom. How come you know so much about science if you can't remember anything?"

I hadn't told her, and as much as I enjoyed her company, I knew far too little about her to be open about it. Still, I didn't shy away. "I guess you're giving me plenty of reasons to get interested." Ellia put her hand on her chin and nodded, as though she could imagine it. "So, how do most people learn how to cast?"

"Well, they copy." The ball of fire disappeared and she immediately made another one. "Can you sense what I'm doing?"

I nodded. She had been too fast for me to really get a step-by-step of what she had done, but if she repeated it enough times, I'd get it. Then, I'd have to try a few dozen times before I did something similar with my own power. "That's not what I want, though," I told her.

"Oh?" She removed her hand from the book and peeked at it. "I was pretty sure that was what this chapter was about."

"It is, but I don't want to copy. I don't want to just know a few spells. I want to know how to learn them, and more importantly, how to make them."

She grinned. "The nobleman engineer. That's a good one!" She took in a deep breath. "Well, I won't say that it's impossible, but you realize this requires years of study, right? In an university, and all that."

I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms. "How old are you, exactly?"

She blinked a few times, surprised by the question. "Twenty-one, why?"

"Which university did you go to?" I asked. "You're doing some pretty advanced work in the village, from what I hear."

Ellia's expression changed drastically. She straightened her back and any sign of a smile vanished from her face. "It wasn't an university," she said uncomfortably and brought the book to her. Ellia took in a deep breath and sighed. "I can walk you through this book in about a week, considering your current level, what do you say?"

I felt bad for bringing back bad memories, but I was too interested in learning to do anything but accept her proposal. Four days later, I understood most of the concepts behind the tome. It took me more than a week to be able to cast every spell however.

The first caravan came and went, but Ellia stayed. She said that she was earning good coin in town, and that a few silvers would make her travels that much easier. She didn't tell me where she was going, only that staying on the move was a good idea for people like her. The Crown wasn't after her, but surely someone was.

Ellia really became the only part of my day that varied during the next few weeks. Tallovan and I would always train moments before the sun rose, which lead me to get closer with the castle's staff, exchanging pleasantries with pages and cooks who woke around this time. We pushed ourselves until midday, where we would eat something and go to sleep. Then, I'd wake up in the evening, and spend some time with Ellia. At first, we spent all of it studying, but night after night, it changed. We flirted, we talked, we laughed.

It wasn't the first time I was attracted to someone, but it was the only time I felt someone that attracted to me. It made me wary. I wasn't sure it was just because people were more open about it, in this world, or if she was trying to manipulate me. Worse still, I was worried she only liked me because I tricked into thinking I was of the same world. That was probably the reason why I never even tried to kiss her, but from time to time, our hands met.

Aliska became a shadow. I would see her in passing in the library, but wouldn't acknowledge her presence. I only assumed she came there to see me, knowing how little she enjoyed reading, but I didn't intend to indulge her. Tallovan mentioned her more than once. He assured me that she was fine, even though she missed me, as though I cared. I wasn't even sure my alter ego would have cared, self-centered as he was. Personally, I just didn't have the strength to forgive her, and I wasn't sorry about it.

I didn't see my father as much as I'd have liked, but we always made time to eat together in the evening. My new schedule was just an eccentricity from his spoiled son in his eyes. He even told me that he thought I was doing it in order to spend more time chasing tail at night. Eating venison just after waking up proved difficult more than once, but the food was too good to complain.

## Chapter 14

"Are you sure you don't want any?" Ellia gave me a teasing smile as she poured herself a glass of spice wine on her nightstand. She was wearing a yellow sundress which complimented her silhouette as well as her skin tone. The days were getting warmer, and so were the nights. Her dark hair had thinned and were now straight, pulled into a ponytail, revealing a delicate neck. Her eyes hadn't changed, but her face too was leaner. Her eyes crinkled as she noticed the way I detailed her appearance.

"I told you, the whole point is for me to keep a clear mind at night." And as much as I enjoyed the taste of the wine she bought, I still wasn't comfortable with alcohol as a whole. An unpopular opinion in a tavern.

She drank a sip while nodding, then sat on her bed, next to me. Ellia hummed in appreciation and for a moment, I saw nothing but her full lips. "I'm not sure clear is the word I'd use to describe it, right now." She tilted her head on the side and put a hand on my thigh. I didn't know if the warmth was coming from her or not, but it engulfed me. "It's been more than a month, you're safe," she said.

I smiled and shook my head. "So you keep telling me. Yet, this room is more warded than the castle's doors. Isn't that surprising?"

She took another swig, put the cup on her nightstand, and shifted her legs on the bed, leaning against the head. "Well, for one thing, I don't have guards." She shrugged. "The wards should actually be on my side of the argument. Yet another reason you're safe to drink here."

"Maybe I don't trust the spice you might put in my wine," I grinned to make it sure she knew I was joking.

Ellia opened her mouth to reply, but a loud sigh stole her repartee. She frowned and my head immediately started swiveling to find the origin of the sound. When I couldn't find anything, I leaned forward and grabbed the dagger I had placed besides the bed. There was a loud thud and I jumped, but before I could do anything, Ellia's energy shot out.

Something dark rushed by the corner of the room, and a low growl came out. I extended my hand, conjuring a beam of light to see what it was. Where I thought I'd find some animal or monster, I recognized a teenager I'd seen in the forest. The Wildlanders features were distorted. His irises and pupils were unnaturally wide, his jaw was wider with carnivorous teeth showing, his neck was thick with tensed muscles. I immediately wondered if werewolves existed in this world, although he didn't have any fur.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

He crouched and rolled as Ellia's energy went after him again. "Tell her to stop trying to get me."

"It's a Wildlander!" I could hear the panic in Ellia's voice. Evidently, she wasn't immune to prejudice, even though she was often victim of it. I couldn't really blame her. The teenager's appearance was frightening at best.

"I have no idea why he's here, but I don't think he wants to harm us." I knew I should have tried to look her in the eye, if I wanted to calm her down, but every instinct told me to keep my eyes on the boy. _Don't try to challenge him,_ some primitive part of my brain implored, _but don't let him out of your sight._

A sound somewhere between a monster chocking on a piece of meat and a yelp came out of the teenager. I wouldn't have known it was laughter if I didn't see the corner of his eyes keep a human resemblance. "If I wanted to eat you, I'd have jumped on the bed!"

I thought Ellia would get scared at the premise, but she suddenly took a bored expression, and crossed her arms. "Wildlanders aren't cannibals," she declared as though this simple fact made him harmless.

"Maybe not the ones you've met!" He put an extra growl in his voice, but it didn't take.

Ellia shook her head. "You've had your fun. Why are you in my room?" Her eyes finally stopped watching him as she looked around. I easily read the other question that was bothering her. How exactly did he get past the wards?

"I was sent for him," he pointed a finger at me, revealing deadly talons on his hand. My hand tightened around the hilt of my dagger. "Someone came through the woods. One of the others, but we couldn't trace him." By the way he said it, Wildlanders usually had no trouble following outsiders. "He took some of the debris from the wagon you destroyed, then he left. We think he was after you."

My eyes widened, but Ellia spoke before I had a chance to react. "How do you know he wasn't after me?" she asked.

"Came the same way he did, left through the path we showed him," the teenager said as though it was obvious.

"That was two months ago!" I finally exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter," the teenager said, "the trail is there if you can sense it. That's the only way we could track him in the forest, through you. We decided to warn you, so I passed him on the road."

"What does he look like?" I said.

He shook his head. "Don't know. Hooded cloak, enchanted."

I froze. A face I couldn't see, even as it was crushed, nothing but a shadow and blood pouring out of it. I remembered the attack on the road. The apprentices who had tried to assassinate me, who would have succeeded if it weren't for Aliska and the doctor. The Sanglante had sent someone else. Someone even the Wildland hunters couldn't track, when they could follow my trail after two months.

"This is how you found me here?"

Again, the same headshake. "I could smell you in town. Both of you."

"How often do you transform?" Ellia asked with a strange tone. It took me a second to recognize a mixture of curiosity and concern.

"What does it matter?" he frowned, then looked around the room before meeting my eyes. "Is this ours or theirs?"

There was no point trying to explain to him that most of it was the innkeeper's and some was Ellia's. "Theirs. Is there something you want to grab?" Whatever it was, I probably could pay for it without him ever knowing. The important thing was to maintain the illusion that I was indeed part of "us".

"No, I was just wondering." He approached and put his hands on the bed, his nails catching the linen. He immediately jumped on the mattress and grinned as his weight bobbed up and down.

"How long were you in the room?" I said.

"About an hour. I knew you were downstairs, but I thought I'd hear if you left anyway. I was waiting for her to leave, but it became obvious she wouldn't." His eyes shot to the side. "And I don't have the appetite to see you do it with one of them. That's just too weird."

Ellia's nostrils flared as she gave him the meanest look I had ever seen on her face. Maybe she didn't want to murder him, but she surely could have knocked his teeth out if the situation had been less complicated.

"An hour," I repeated, ignoring the rest of his statement. "Does that mean that the man would be in town, now? How much faster were you going?"

"He was on horse, but he was is no rush. It'll probably be another hour before he gets here."

I squinted and detailed his limbs, but the brown leather covering him prevented me from seeing any kind of transformation there. Still, how fast and long could he have been running? The ride had taken nearly half a day to the county's border. Maybe he was just boasting. I turned towards Ellia.

"Could you help me set up a trap?" I asked.

She frowned. "You think he's going to attack you in the tavern?"

"I don't know, but that's our best–"

"He won't come here," the teenager said. "I told you, I smelled you. He is tracking you through the traces you left on the way. They don't end up here."

Ellia and I shared a panicked expression as we thought about that dreadful night we brought her back from the forest. Before we could make it past the shock, a cry came from below. The cacophony of songs, disputes, laughter, and cheers faded away. A voice shouted again, in the near total silence, "The castle's on fire!"

We rushed outside.

The vision was horrific even for me. In the little time I had spent in the castle, I had learnt to respect its importance. The whole town revolved around the stone building, and as I saw the flames reaching out to the sky, on top of the nearby hill, I wondered how much of it had really been wood. A thick smoke arose from the towers where the fire crawled down the grey stones, it blocked out the stars in a vertical line above the flaming roofs. It looked like even the walls were burning, it didn't make sense.

The Wildlander had been wrong, we didn't have an hour to spare. Whatever shadow had come for me was already there, and it didn't bother with subtleties. Panic gripped my heart, making my blood rush. Dad was there, probably sleeping when the fire started. Tallovan was also in the castle, but he would be awake at least. I hoped they were both fine. Aliska's name came to mind as well, but I convinced myself I didn't care what happened to her.

I started towards the blazing hill, but stopped as soon as I noticed movement to my left and right. "You aren't coming," I commanded.

"Why?" the teenager whined. Ellia didn't say a word, she just looked at me like I was being unreasonable.

"Because this doesn't concern you. You don't need to put yourself in danger for me." I felt like I was talking to her more than him. It may have been selfish of me, but I cared about Ellia more than... I didn't even know his name. "Thanks for warning me."

"How can it not be my concern if it's yours?" The Wildlander retorted, actually incredulous. His mind didn't work like that. It was always us versus them, and he still thought I was part of that "us".

"Yes, Tom. How?" Ellia crossed her arms and stared at me.

I clenched my teeth. I didn't want to worry about her too, and I didn't have time to argue. I needed to go up there and help as well as I could. "Don't you have enough trouble as it is?" I tried to make myself sound harsh, but it was hard, looking into her eyes. "You said you needed to move on. Why don't you do that?"

She cracked a smile. "You're terrible at this. What's next? You're going to throw stones at me to make me go away?" Ellia approached and put her hand on my arm. Her skin was soft and warm. Before I could relish the moment, she pushed me forward and started walking. "This castle made me safe, so did you. I won't let it burn."

## Chapter 15

We walked to the castle. We didn't run. No matter how much I wanted to, something had been anchored in my brain that I shouldn't waste my breath and my energy before a fight.

I thought I'd been rushing against a torrent of fleeing villagers, like in any disaster movie, but I was wrong. People didn't run away from the castle. They were running to it. They wanted to help, to save the domain that protected them. I didn't know how popular my father was, but one thing was certain, the castle had to be saved. A human chain linked a well to the outer wall, buckets of water were thrown at the burning stones by people of all ages. I even spotted Riveau beside the gates, channeling his energy into the air, blowing away the smoke and starving the flames. Alone, he did more than thirty people working together.

Apparently all horses but one had been saved, which was remarkable since they were standing in front of the half-collapsed, charred stables. The entrance to the main hall, however, was still draped in flames. "Why aren't you clearing a path?" I screamed at Riveau in the cacophony of shouting people and crackling fire.

He broke concentration and looked around, haggard, until he spotted me. His eyes were sad as he shook his head. "The fuel is enchanted. We can deal with the fire where it's spreading, but not where it originated."

Enchantment. I immediately turned towards Elliana. Her expression steeled and she nodded briefly before walking in front of the building. She peered at the fire through squinted eyes until she closed them, probably because it was too painful. I had felt her energy before. It was easy to spot, as though it had a color not quite like any other, and she usually used it with a wealth of sophistication. She liked to play with my perception, doing things I couldn't quite grasp, as though I needed to be humbled in my pursuit of spellwork. It wasn't the case, this time. Energy shot out of her and ripped the enchantment to shreds through pure force. She took in a deep breath and the air swirled, smoke pouring down from the sky and onto the flames until they were deprived of oxygen.

I took out my dagger and rushed forward. The Wildlander passed me with ease and jumped on the wall, his talons easily fitting between the stones. He climbed and vanished through a window as I used my energy to open the door. The air inside felt uncomfortably cold, as though all the heat had been redirected outside instead of spreading naturally. What made me shiver, however, was the heavy sent of blood. I heard Ellia cry out as the wall of fire reappeared before she could reach me. Surely she would take it down again, but I couldn't wait for her.

Once inside, it was obvious the flames were only meant as a way to trap people in. Even the wallpaper was intact. Well, unburnt was a more appropriate term, I realized as I detailed the blood pattern on a nearby stretch. Bodies littered the ground, guards and servants alike, most of them cut down before they could even draw. This couldn't be the act of a single man. More assassins must have infiltrated the castle before the Wildlanders noticed the tracker on their territory.

Every time I saw someone wearing armor, I feared I'd find my father's face stilled by death. When I found a particularly tall man face down, I had to flip the corpse to make sure it wasn't Tallovan, only to recognize one of the cook's aids. Even if I didn't find my friend and Dad dead, my heart broke a little more every step. I saw all those faces on a daily basis. I had at least said hello to all those people for the past two months. My fingers clenched around my dagger once I walked past the stairs leading to the staff chambers. The pages... Some as young as eight years old. Acid rushed up my throat and I closed my eyes. No.

This was all my fault. I should have told my father to prepare for an attack. I shouldn't have told him I wasn't his son, that everyone was in danger because of what Toikem had done. This was on me. These people had died because of me!

My legs trembled, menacing to give up on me, and my eyes burned with tears. But something inside me held. I had heard of people breaking, reaching their limit, being devastated by this kind of horror that only violence afflicts. I had always thought that if I ever was in a war, I'd be too scared to do anything. That I wouldn't lose the will to fight simply because it would have never been there in the first place.

But I didn't break, I held. I spat my bile on the floor but kept the contents of my stomach. I felt tension rolling off my shoulders as I lifted my chin up. I didn't know if this was Toikem's body responding to the danger, or a part of me I hadn't found yet, but any doubt was erased from my mind. I would find whoever did this, and I would make them pay. They would die, and nobody would ever suffer because of them. It wouldn't stop all the bad that was done in the world, but I would cull some of it tonight.

I had been prudent before, slow in my exploration of the halls of the castle. I had been scared, that I would stumble upon the killers and not be ready. I wasn't anymore. I didn't need to know if my father was among the dead, I would find out once this was all over, when justice was done. I walked forward, alert of every distant sound, every dark corner I passed. Something would come after me, and I would strike.

Finally, I heard a voice. I followed the sound to the dining hall, until I could finally understand what was said. "He won't make it if we stay here," Aliska's voice was hoarse, as though she had cried. Perhaps it was the smoke.

"I'm not going back into those cursed corridors. We need a clear space and this is the best we have." Tallovan's voice had an high-pitched edge to it, as though he was biting down a good laugh. He sounded like someone on the brink of a nervous breakdown, if anything else.

"I can keep the Count alive, but you two need to–"

I burst inside the room before the doctor could finish her sentence. A knife travelled the whole length of the dining hall and still had enough force to embed itself halfway through the wooden door. Thankfully, Aliska had enough time to recognize me before she completed the throw, or I'd only have had one eye to see them kneeling next to my father.

"Tom!" Tallovan said with a smile, rushing towards me. He shook his head, the laugh still in his voice as he told me, "You really shouldn't have come."

I frowned. "What's wrong with you? Why do you sound so..." Happy. I couldn't say the word. I knew him too well to think he'd ever enjoy seeing all those people die. No matter how much he enjoyed fighting.

"It's the pain," he said.

I looked towards Aliska but immediately turned to the doctor for an explanation. Perhaps she'd given him a painkiller or something. I tried to ignore the hurt painted on Ali's face.

"It's due to his ancestry," the doctor said. "Tallovan feels pain as pleasure."

"He is a masochist?"

"No, masochism is the enjoyment of pain," she said.

Tallovan's smile widened, and it could only seemed deranged to me, due to the situation. "Can't enjoy pain if you don't feel it," he tapped his finger on his temple. That's when I noticed the blood on his hands. I couldn't see any cuts on him, but he had probably regenerated through them. He wore a leather vest and pants, and there was no telling if there was blood beneath.

The doctor's sundress was marred in blood, but none of it seemed to be her own, or she'd already healed. She was on the ground, my father's head resting on her knees, her energy coursing through his body. I clenched my teeth when I saw his torso, but my stomach still refused to turn. A large patch of skin – and possibly muscle – was missing from his side and I could see his organs. The metal armor was shredded all around the area.

"Why isn't he regenerating?" I only realized I yelled once I heard my voice echoing against the stones.

"He fought him off," Tal said. "Your father, he fights well. But you can't regenerate forever. At some point, something has to give."

"Are you all right?" I studied him again, trying to find any indication he might still be wounded.

"I passed out when he attacked me. He came out of nowhere. If the doctor hadn't given me an antidote, I'd probably have stopped breathing by now."

I took in a sharp breath. She didn't matter. This was as much her fault as it was mine, no matter how much more Toikem was to blame. She was responsible too. Yet, I couldn't help but look at Aliska again. "How are you?" I asked when she finally met my eyes.

"Fine," Aliska croaked and looked away. "Your father came before he got to me." Her eyes widened. She gasped and drew her sword, jumping to her feet.

Tallovan also brought up a blade, but it wasn't his, it was my father. He moved back as well, and for a second I thought they were turning against me, until I heard and felt someone coughing against the back of my head. I leaped forward, almost colliding against my friend before I turned around, dagger up.

A man had appeared out of nowhere, or if he had walked out of the corridor, he had done so without me hearing a step, or sensing his energy. His hood wasn't up, and somehow, I wished it was. Instead of the inscrutable shadow over the apprentices' head, I could clearly see his face. His eyes were bloodshot, his skin a light grey with white spots, his lips black as tar against perfect, white teeth. Despite his horrible appearance and his loud cough, the man held his composure, studying me with intelligent eyes, his dark hair thick and healthy.

"Here comes the prodigal son," he rasped. "The source of all this mess."

"Curse you!" Tallovan's blade trembled with his demented laugh. "You're the killer, not him."

The assassin rubbed his hands together, his skin the same spotted grey but his nails trimmed and smooth. "That, I am, but I'm not usually my own client." He kept his eyes on me as her reached below his shoulder and plucked the knife from the door without effort. "Your friend wanted to hire us, and he didn't take no for an answer." The man seemed to savor my expression as he betrayed my secrets. This was obviously personal to him. "It turns out I did kill the old man after all, not like he gave me a choice." He nodded. "He does fight well." He coughed again and a drip of black fell on his chin. Was he coughing blood?

This time, Tallovan looked at me, despite his training. "What is he talking about, Tom?"

I clenched my teeth. I couldn't let this distract me as well. Now that Tallovan was loosening his guard, the assassin was much more likely to strike.

"He ordered his father dead. When we refused the contract, he turned to a peculiarly dull apprentice. Then, of course, he betrayed her." Anger flared in the assassin's eyes. "Now, I don't care about a single air-headed apprentice. Even a handful of them. But when some boy boasts about a little Count's offspring killing some of the Sanglante, it draws some attention." He grinned a vicious smile. "People shouldn't make light of the Sanglante."

Tallovan took a step back, staring at me, and I did my best not to turn towards him. I had to assume the pain was clouding his judgement, because the Tal I trained with would have never let his guard down like that. He had to be exhausted from the regeneration. I did that to him too. I had seen him smile during our sessions, and never once had I thought it was a response to his wounds. How badly had he been hurt tonight, because of me, that he was laughing out loud?

"Bullshit!" The exclamation came from behind me. Aliska walked between me and Tallovan, facing the assassin, sword in hand. "You burn down a castle and kill everyone inside? That's the way of the bloody assembly?" She snorted. "You're drawing more attention than any boy's tale, which means you don't want people to know it was you. Let me guess, those were _your_ apprentices."

The smile the assassin had kept so far diminished noticeably.

"You're so fond of yourself, you didn't keep track of your protégés. One of them leaped off the cliff, and the rest of the herd followed. Let me guess, your organization is well-compartmented enough for people to ignore it, unless it's brought to their attention." She took another step forward, breaking the rank, placing herself slightly between me and the intruder. "I did a little research when Tal mentioned that name, the Sanglante. L'Assemblée Sanglante, it turns out, kills dukes and kings, even an emperor. But they never slaughtered servants."

The message was clear. _I know your little secret, and I'm going to tell everyone._ The assassin wasn't scared of people making fun of his murderous guild. He was afraid that his very allies would turn against him for dishonoring their name when he let his apprentices die for a contract they refused. He wanted to erase every trace of it, and since he didn't know where the rumor came from, he decided to kill everyone in the castle.

"I did it." Aliska's words brought me out of my reflections. "If it's revenge you want, don't look to the Count, or the guards. I killed your little fake handmaid. I'm the one who ran down her little comrades." She stepped forward again, the sword circling in her hand. "I did it."

I blinked a few times. Aliska was clearly taunting him, but there was no hesitation in her voice. The bastard... Was there anyone Toikem didn't lie to? Riveau was wrong. My alter ego didn't kill the assassin's apprentice because he had a change of heart. Aliska had found her out. He had covered for her because he didn't want Dad to know the handmaid had been an assassin. After the patsy got tortured, he must have convinced her that _she_ had put him in danger. That he had to go through that ritual because of her.

"No!" I cried for her to get back, she already leaped forward.

Aliska brought down her sword with incredible speed, and for a second I believed she was about to split the assassin's head, but my hope was short-lived. The assassin vanished just as steel was about to meet his scalp, the blade piercing nothing but air. Tallovan gasped to my left and by the time I turned towards him, the knife was embedded in his palm and his sword had disappeared.

I couldn't let surprise deprive me of everything. I cast out my energy into a dome around me. I forced the air into a condensed state, like a pressure chamber, with only isolated pathway leading to my body, so I wouldn't suffer from it. For an instant, everything was still, then I spun around as I heard the assassin retching.

You exhale when you strike, one of the basic elements of swordplay. Exhaling seems simple when you've done it since you were born. It's a lot harder to do when your lungs are damaged and the air is lighter inside them than around you. I thrust my dagger towards his head, but he vanished before I could impale him. Still, I noticed a drop of thick, black liquid running down the blade. I nicked him, but that couldn't be his blood, too dark. Or maybe it was. I frowned. Just how much abuse a body could endure and still live in this reality?

I felt my energy draining fast, so I cut it from my enchantment. There was a little gust of wind as the pressure released. I could cast the spell again in no time, but he'd be ready for it, and if I held it too long, I'd waste all my power.

## Chapter 16

Blood pounded my ears as I waited for the assassin to reappear. The doctor was still tending to my father, hands trembling, eyes closed. Tallovan had dug the dagger out from his hand and bandaged it with a piece of fabric, probably waiting for it to heal. It took me a second to notice how still his arm was, unnaturally tensed, his elbow locked a few inches from his waist. I frowned, it had been Aliska's knife that the assassin had taken, but could he have poisoned it while he vanished?

Aliska was shifting her weight from one leg to the other, as though she wanted to keep her momentum going. She kept her sword up, apparently ready to parry any engagement. Her face was a mask of concentration. If anyone was in control, in the dining hall, it was her. Regret filled my heart as I thought about all the grief I had given her.

I couldn't think about that. I had to be ready too. I let my energy fill the room, looking for the assassin with every sense I had, even the one I wasn't born with. I felt a tingle of power just before he reappeared. Aliska reacted an instant later, but she was still fast enough to turn and parry the blow in one swift movement. He faced her, blocking her counter-attack, and I tried to rush him from behind.

The assassin threw an ochre dust at me with his off-hand, and I immediately started coughing. I couldn't see anything, and I could only smell and taste blood. I fell back and pushed away with my feet, trying to put some distance between me and the assassin before he could strike me. From the sound of it, he didn't have the opportunity anyway. His fight with Aliska was loud with the sound of sword clash and grunting.

Panic gripped at me as I vomited on the floor. I didn't want to die. I needed to help Aliska, to defend my father, and I didn't want to die. The latter was more important than anything else. _Don't die._ A hand gripped my shoulder and I thrust with my dagger, but didn't hit anything.

"It's me!" Tal warned. Water splashed my face and fabric rubbed against my eyes painfully. When I opened them again, I could see light, but everything was a haze. "Breathe," he said. "You're healing, and–" He couldn't finish, there was some struggle, then...

"Tal!" Aliska's cry was nothing but a whisper, her voice had broken completely. Thick tears ran down my cheeks at the thought of my friend dying, I didn't realize they were more blood than water.

I stood up and closed my eyes as I heard Aliska fight with a vengeance. When I opened them, I had regenerated enough to see Tallovan's massive body crumbled against a chair, blood running from a grim wound on the side of his head. The sword had cut through the bone. Everything in me told me he was dead, but for a small voice. _The blood is red and running, he's not a dead man yet._

I turned towards Aliska and the assassin. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. I loosened my grip on the dagger, took in a deep breath, relaxed my shoulders, and threw the weapon. The blade embedded itself in the man's cloak and he groaned. Aliska saw it as an opportunity to strike, but just as her sword was about to chop his head off, he vanished again. We didn't have time to recover from the shock, this time. He reappeared immediately, exactly where he had stood, and swung with both hands.

Parrying, as my body had remembered the first time I had wielded an axe, wasn't about taking the blow head on. It was about trying to dodge it, and deflect it with your weapon in case you weren't fast enough. That's exactly what Aliska did, she side-stepped and presented her sword at a downward angle, a classic soldier's manoeuver. But it didn't matter.

I watched in horror as my father's blade cleaved right through hers, then caught her forearm and half of her biceps. The cut was clean, and her severed hand kept hanging on to her sword when the main forced her off-hand to let go of it. I saw fear in her eyes when the assassin raised his weapon a second time, but I reached him before he could bring it down.

I tackled him, but he didn't go down, so I kept pushing until we reached a wall. My hand found his hair. I pulled back and shoved it against the hard stone. A nasty crack came in response to my satisfaction. Pain shot at my side as he deftly handled the sword, but I had naturally pressed my body against his, limiting the damage. I kept bashing his face against the wall. There was no doubt he was out of stamina. The fight with my father had injured him, and Aliska had given him a challenge he only managed through trickery. I didn't know if he could vanish, while I was holding on to him, but I didn't intent to...

Just as the thought cross my mind, he managed to press the sword against my thigh and suddenly draw it. When he kicked, the pain amplified, but even I could fight it, my balance was immediately lost. I clenched my teeth. If that bastard thought I was going to let go, he would be sorry. I held on and he fell as I did, crashing against me. His weight was nothing to me. I was strong, surely stronger than him. I wrapped my arm around his neck and locked my hand in the cradle of my elbow, placing the other behind his head. Tallovan had showed me the move, but I had seen it in movies long before that. I had never felt comfortable practicing strangulation on a friend, but there was no guilt in my mind, right now. I tried to wrap my legs around his, to limit his movements, but I couldn't. Something was blocking them.

I heard him chuckle with the little air he had left as he put the sword against my forearm, revealing the flaw in my plan. He still had the sword, he would cut through my wrist just like he had with my leg. I clenched my teeth, waiting for the painful cut, when I heard a deep growl.

I struggled to keep my breath as something jumped on top of us. The sword left my skin before it could cut and I caught a glimpse of a nightmarish face. The Wildlander had finally decided to make an appearance. There were only two lives he cared about in this town, and I was lucky enough to be the second. His nails dug into the assassin's arm, but he would let go of his weapon, so the teenager bent down and bit hard. The sword was finally released. The Wildlander threw it across the room, but instead of helping me further, he let out a distressed cry and toppled to the side. He was spitting and retching, his hands desperately trying to wipe his mouth.

I didn't understand what was happening until the assassin pressed his injured limb against my forearm. A convulsion shook me as I felt a searing pain travel down to my very bones. Tears came back to my eyes, washing the blood still thickening my lashes. I bit my lip until I tasted blood again, but I let go before the assassin could pass out. I dared glance at my arm, only to find melted skin and exposed muscles and tendons. My fingers clenched in a fist, and I felt the paralysis I had witnessed Tallovan suffer from moments ago.

"Curse you, you brainless monkey." The assassin gripped my shirt and pulled me up with both hands, then propped me up against the window seal. My legs weren't blocked, they were paralyzed, and so were my arms. "Don't worry, I'll kill you. But I want you to see all of them die first. They were ready to die for you, why should you miss it?"

My eyes widened in panic, and I looked for something, anything that could help me. The Wildlander would soon be on his feet if he regenerated as fast as me, but he was younger, so maybe he couldn't. The doctor could intervene if she broke her concentration, but would my father survive? I had to find something quickly. Tallovan was still unconscious, if not dead. Aliska was curled up in a ball, and probably in the same state, blood marring the floor all around her.

When my eyes had detailed the whole room, the came back to the assassin, and fell on his hands. If I couldn't use my arms, maybe I could use his. I closed my eyes and pulled at my energy. I poured it into the fabric of my shirt, strengthening it. Transmutation could turn lead into gold, it could also make soft fabric hard. My tunic settled like cement, trapping the assassin's finger. His eyes widened, and before he could break the spell, or shatter the hardened fabric against the wall, I used the little muscle control I had left to throw myself off the ledge.

My shirt exploded, shards of solid linen flying all around. I hadn't even felt the fall, perhaps too scared to let myself experience it. We were in the court, surrounded by villagers. Somehow, we had managed to avoid the flames still raging in front of the doors. I smiled, once the surprise gone, there would be more than a hundred men and women to defeat, some of them trained for combat. I saw the assassin look right and left, panicked, as they started rushing towards us. I counted a good dozen swords being drawn. Then the crowd stopped, shocked.

"You won't get away with this," the assassin growled. His legs were twisted behind him, probably broken by the fall, and his chin rested against my stomach. I felt the blood dripping from his lips burning a groove in my skin as he started dragging himself up.

I stared at the crowd, people looking in every direction as though... We had disappeared. He didn't teleport, he masked himself to the world somehow. And he had hidden me as well. There was no doubt he couldn't keep this up for long, by the anger in his eyes, but he would make me pay. I tried to fight, but I couldn't, my muscles were tensed, petrified. And he kept crawling on top of me. I could only imagine what would happen if that same blood reached my face. People couldn't regenerate forever or from everything. My body was probably fighting the toxin that paralyzed it, forbidding it from stopping my heart and lungs. Not only that, but also the injuries from the fall. I tried to use my energy, but I had wasted almost all of it when I rushed a spell to bring the assassin down with me. There was nothing left.

We were surrounded now. A few feet away, I saw light brown eyes scouring the ground with a concern frown. I felt a familiar energy just inches away, slowly recognizing mine. With all her expertise, surely Ellia could find me, but I saw a very distinct crease on her brow. She was trying to figure it out. She didn't know how to.

Metamorphosis. I took in a deep breath. She hadn't taught me, it was too complicated, dangerous, possibly forbidden. Modifying my body now would be useless, since it didn't respond anyway. So why did I think of that? Why did I feel there was something there?

She used energy to heal herself. People healed on Earth, but they didn't regenerate. It was energy as well. I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the drops of blood burrowing into my chest, to calm down, to concentrate. I felt a low courant, a distant buzz, something deep coursing through my body, repairing it. It was made of habits, it remembered my injuries, my diseases, the poisons in my body. It was like a second immune system, made of energy, struggling to keep me alive. No, not struggling. This wasn't like the energy I used from spells, barely developed and feeble, this one had been trained. The military education, the war, the early morning sessions, all that had built up stamina, muscle memory, and that energy that pertained to my body rather than my mind. My alter ego had fought for years, his body could recover from this, it just needed time, it just needed to survive. There was a wealth of power in my bones, in my muscles, in my organs, all the way up to the layers of my skin, and I tugged on it. I pulled. I heaved. I tore it from my flesh. All the way to a dagger, embedded in the assassin's back.

The steel didn't need to be sharper, it didn't need to be harder, more resistant, or polished. I increased nothing but its mass, and gravity did the rest. The same force which had broken the man's legs now attracted the weapon down. The blade did little more damage to his innards, but the guard caught on to his spine. And it kept pressing down, until, finally, it crushed it. Blood burned my shoulders when the crowd suddenly grabbed the assassin and shoved him off of me before suddenly spreading around. Surely the bloody clothes had injured their hands.

A very familiar energy surged, and Ellia's eyes were still on me when her spell fed the flames guarding the doors. The assassin cried a blood-curling sound that didn't make me pity him for a second as the enchanted fire consumed his corrupted corpse.

## Chapter 17

Despite the enhanced nature of the fire, it never made it inside, and with the help of the villagers, the castle was back to its former glory before any of us had time to fully heal. There were fewer death than I had originally thought while stalking the halls. Most people were paralyzed rather than dead, but the losses were still immense. None of the children survived.

The Wildlander had vanished by the time the fire was under control. I assumed he went back to the woods, even though no one ever saw him leave. I didn't know his name, only that I had a debt to repay.

Riveau brought half of his shop into the castle, to help Ituha and her assistants with the wounded. After a couple of nights, the poor doctor seemed more tired than any of the bedridden. My father and I were the first to leave our beds, solely because we could override Doctor Ituha's decision. We attended every funeral – some were burials, others cremations – only to return to her care, worst for ware.

Despite her injuries, Aliska was the first of us to be back on her feet. She had a large scar on her right biceps, and her arm ended in a stomp beneath her elbow. I asked the doctor in a whisper if it would ever grow back, and after a furious glance, she understood I wasn't making light of the situation and shook her head silently. I felt sick knowing that Aliska had always wanted to be a fighter, only to be injured because I didn't trust her. She didn't lose her spirits, however. She seemed to mourn my alter ego's loss more than her arm. When Ituha released her, my father once again exited the infirmary to make a public statement. He issued her a medal, and instead of the promise of a pension I had been expecting, he said he would petition the Duke to offer her a post in his personal guard. The word disabled didn't seem to apply to people, in this world.

I was the next one to come out, and the doctor assured me I would have been the first if I hadn't disobeyed her with my father. The injuries from the fall didn't stick, but the injuries left a scar this time. Burn marks marred my chest, but there wasn't a scratch on my leg. Ituha told me she wasn't expecting the marks either, since I always had remarkable regeneration. She assumed it was the poison, and I did nothing to correct her.

Ellia wasn't so easily duped. "It's impossible," she declared, when I explained how I took the energy from my body. She had felt it when she was searching for me and the assassin while we were hidden by his spell. She had asked me about it, only to revolt at the idea.

"Well, I didn't know it was impossible." I smiled at her teasingly, placing my hand on top of hers, in the corridor leading to her room.

She took my fingers and squeezed them, but there was no hint of a smile on her beautiful lips. "No, Tom, you don't understand. Nobody has done anything like this. Corporal and ethereal energy are not the same in nature. It's–"

"I want to kiss you," I said before she could go further into her explanation. I didn't find her boring – never that. I actually enjoyed her passion for spellwork. I found it fascinating, and incredibly informative. But that thought, that desire, was stronger than any will to learn that day. The first day I saw her after the fight. "But there's something I have to tell you, before I can even try to kiss you." I paused, unsure I had the strength to say it. Afraid she might reject me if I did, even hate me for lying to her.

Elliana tugged on my hand. "Tell me." Her voice ended in a whisper, pleading.

"I'm not from this world. I... I was brought by a ritual." My eyes shifted to the side. I couldn't look at her. Stress gripped my stomach as I struggled to tell her everything in a concise manner, just like she could. There was so much to say, about Earth, about me, about the situation.

"That would explain a lot," she mused.

Her hand slid against my nape, fingers gripping my hair. Her skin felt so warm. Her lips were pressed against mine before I had time to react, and if anything, I was surprised by the strength of her kiss. She tasted like raspberries, but the feeling of her shared breath was more intoxicating than any spice wine. I leaned forward, pressing my body against hers, a hand against the wall. I kissed her as well, and I only came up for air when her hand started unbuttoning my shirt.

Her amber eyes searched mine, then she smiled. "Not yet." She nodded, understanding. Then, Elliana kissed me again.

My father was the next one to make a full recovery. He complained about the reparations to his favorite armor more than his injuries. I didn't know if he had any scars from the fight as most of his injuries were on his torso, but he seemed to be fine. I didn't know what to tell him about the attack, or my real nature, but he knew it all had something to do with me. Apparently, no version of him was blind or stupid. Ellia didn't know what to do either, for all her intelligence, she wasn't the least bit cunning. Talking to Aliska about it was out of the question, my alter ego had already involved her more than she needed to be. It was clear she wouldn't betray me, no matter how horrendous I had been with her, and that was more than I could ask of her.

The answer came unexpectedly from a complaint Riveau placed with my father. He explained in a signed letter that I had borrowed coin from him. When he asked for the credit to be repaid, an attempt was made on his life by a young woman, who I killed according to his version of the events. The rest followed our recollection of the event, but the real target of the apprentice assassin – my father – was omitted. I confessed when he confronted me with the accusation and I saw all the good-will I had earned since my arrival drain from my father's eyes. He ordered me to give every coin I had to the alchemist, made a private apology and thanked him for not spreading what he thought to be the truth. The letter was burned and from then on, suspicion never left my father's face when he was looking at me.

After two long weeks, Tallovan finally opened his eyes. It took him another couple of days to be able to speak, and Ituha promised he would regenerate completely in the next three months at most. Still, he was unable to walk, and his eyes somehow became unfocused, he would lose track of the conversation. It was heart-breaking to see my friend in such a state, but I trusted the doctor, and more than that, I had confidence in Tal's strength. The crack in his skull had healed, but the scar beneath his scalp caused a lock of his hair to grow white instead of brown. Just another scar in the middle of a thousand of them, it didn't bother him. His hand was perfectly fine, however, not even a line on the back of it.

The dinners with my father grew silent. As silent as they could be with a table of nearly a hundred seat. Some evenings, he would glower at me, forcing me to stare at my plate with the weight of my guilt on my shoulder – even though only part of it was truly mine. I doubted I could forgive myself, but he made sure it was impossible. Then, one night, out of nowhere, words finally came out of his mouth. "You're going to get what you want, after all."

I looked up at him, confused. I braced myself for whatever twisted thing he would accuse me of, his eyes still flaring with anger after weeks of ignoring me. What did he think his vile son wanted?

"Your mother heard what happened. She is on her way."

The news hit me like a cannon ball and I closed my eyes. The sound of my mother's voice came back to my ear, soothing and constant in her usual rambling manner. I saw her smile again, benevolent and gentle. Then an image of my father appeared. Not one clad in armor and scarred to the bone. No, the one with a bright smile, which looked almost innocent now, wearing a silly T-shirt and mowing the lawn. My parents, my real parents. The ones I would never see again. I shook in my seat, sobbing.

I felt a familiar tap on my back. "Son?" I opened my eyes to see the Count, this other version of my father, looking at me, concern showing, overshadowing any anger. And I knew. I knew I had to mourn my family, but I also needed to cherish this new one.
