PreCursive

  It hadn’t taken long for Silvia and I to lead the Stag through the forest at a leisurely pace, once she’d trapped it in illusions. That had turned out to be her pn, which was obvious in hindsight. Of course an illusion ninja would solve a problem through the use of illusions. Whatever she was showing it, the beast was dht docile orip bad followed us like a faithful hound.

  As we had been making our way back to the clearing, I’d expined our current escape pns. Silvia hadn’t seemed to care much about the potential fate of the townspeople, which I also shouldn’t have been surprised about. Maybe it was uncharitable of me, but the people of this world just seemed more ined to brutality. The monsters stantly roaming the nd and the o cull them might py a factor in that.

  Either way, once we’d reached a poihe clearing, Silvia had told me to run ahead and she would send the Stag after me. Following her dires, I burst out of the forest into the clearing behind the manor at a full sprint, with plenty of time to spare. Judging by the sun’s position, I’d definitely gotten back here much quicker than I had st time.

  As I ran across the clearing, I tried to i some panito the arm-waving I was doing at the guards.

  “Hey!” I yelled across the field and pointed over my shoulder. “It’s ing!”

  However, by the time I reached the guards, the Stag hadn’t shown its face just yet. The guards looked unimpressed, and Magnus was starting to get a gleeful little smile on his face.

  , Silvia. Any time now, I thought in rising ay.

  Magnus started to rise up from his chair in this pavilion, before stopping with a frown. The guards oher side of me tensed, causio turn in relief. Across the clearing, the Stag was just ing the tree line. Even from here, I could see that it looked fused. Seds ter though, it seemed to catch sight of the rge group of dwarves and one humaing out a vicious warbling roar, the beast lowered its antlers and began charging across the field at us at a surprising pace. I tensed up in surprise. At the rate it was going, it would reach us in seds.

  With a thud, Magnus nded in front of the guard squad, startli looked like he had jumped straight from the pavilion. “Out of my way, fools.” He grumbled. By that time, the Stag was nearing us. With a sneer, Magnus effortlessly grabbed the charging Stag by its sharpened antlers and stopped it in pstantly, ung of the bdes on them. In a quick, violent motiohrew the monster onto the grass below us. Lifting a foot, Magnus drove it down on the neck of the beast, snapping it with a resounding crack.

  Even from my position, I could see that he wasn’t as satisfied with this kill as he had been with the rabbit-bear. Letting out a huge, put-upon sigh Magnus waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder. “The cattle may leave.” He said irritably.

  Stepping away from the guards hesitantly, I tried to gauge if they would stop me. They didn’t though, so I turned around and started to make my way to the still-open gate. Walking through, I turned around o time to look at the clearing.

  Magnus was watg me.

  A chill ran down my spine from the look on his face. pletely bnk, it was as if he’d been hollowed out, leaving only animal instinct behind. As the gates began to close in front of me, I saw, for a split sed, his eyes narrow.

  ………………………………………

  It didn’t take me long to get back to Azarus’s house. The strange enter with Magnus had only driven my desire to get back even higher. Opening the front door, I didn’t eve a ce to call out a greeting before I heard the ctter of a chair and the rapid stomping of boots. Azarus shortly appeared in the doorway to the kit across the hall. Catg sight of me, a relieved look stole across his broad, hairy features. Raising a hand of greeting to him, I didn’t get a ce to say anything before he crushed it against me in a one-armed hug. More of an arm across the shoulder thing anyway.

  “Ya all right?” He asked ingly, letting go with a y shoulder.

  “Yeah, actually,” I said to him. “For more than one reason. I’ll tell you about it in a bit. First, though, where’s Grey?”

  “Right here.” The man himself said, wheeling into view in front of me. “Is something the matter, Nathan? You…appear to be in much better health than you were st time.”

  “Ah, no.” I shook my head. “Nothing is the matter. I, uh, have something for you though. See, I met someone in the forest. Someohat wasn’t supposed to be there. They were looking for you, Grey.”

  Grey was visibly startled, before leaning forward in his chair almost hungrily. “Was it a rescue party? Have my patriots finally found me?” He asked eagerly.

  “No to the first, sort of to the sed,” I said with a smile. “See, you actually told me about the person I met, briefly. It was your daughter, Grey. I met Sylvia, and she gave me a letter for you.”

  “Sylvia?” Grey breathed.

  I stepped forward, past a gob-smacked Azarus, and pulled out the tightly folded piece of paper Silvia had given me. Grey held out a trembling hand and accepted it from me, before fumblingly unfolding it. With wide eyes, he veritably devoured every word on the page. When he finished, he crushed the paper against his chest over his heart and began to weep softly.

  “Oh…” Grey whispered. “Oh, my Sylvia. You’ve found me…”

  ………………………………………

  Grey had apologized to us, before asking for some time tain his posure with a watery smile. While he retreated to his room, Azarus and I sat down at the kit table.

  “Ya really ran into his daughter in the forest? Just like that?” He asked in disbelief.

  “Hey, I was surprised as you were,” I said wryly. “I didn’t even tell you how I met her, yet. She got me with a rope trap not far in, and started to interrogate me while I was just hanging around.”

  At that, Azarus burst into ughter, while I heard a voice from the doorway.

  “Yes, that sounds like my Sylvia,” Grey said with a chuckle of his own, wheeling into the kit. “She’s always been fond of her traps.”

  “You all right now, Grey?” I asked, over the ughs of Azarus.

  Grey smiled at me. “Yes, thank you. It was simply…a shock. A wele one, but a shooheless.”

  “I’ll say,” Azarus said, his ughter dying down. “Not every day ya expect your daughter to e riding to the rescue and leave a letter with your nerentice.”

  I flicked my eyes in Azarus’s dire, slightly fused at his words. Apprentice? Since when? Looking back over at Grey, I found him staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged in an acquiesg manner. With a silent chuckle, Grey me in firmation.

  All right, I guess I was Grey’s apprentiow.

  Azarus missed Grey and I’s silent versation and tinued speaking. “What did she even say iter, anyway? Is she ing to get ya?”

  “As, no. At least not yet.” Grey shook his head. “The letter was written in a code known only to the two of us, devised when she was still young and freshly sapient. It included further code words firming her presenear Addersfield. She’s been the town for some time now before she ran into Nathan here. The town is apparently more than it appears.”

  I leaned forward in i. “In what way?”

  “Acc to Sylvia, none of the products that Addersfield produces are shipped out,” Grey answered me. “Everything is carted off to a small shed oskirts of the walls, and disappears inside. Silvia theorizes that, based on the amount of produce delivered to such a small building, Addersfield must have an underground ste facility.”

  Grey and I turo Azarus at the same time. Unfortunately, he just looked fused.

  “Ain’t never heard anything about that.” He said with a frown, brow furrowed. “I thought it was just a regur pntation but now that you mention it…I’ve never seen a shipment leave town other than one of Grens. And all he does is trade with the locals.”

  “Iing,” Grey said thoughtfully, drumming his fingers oable. “And you have no idea what the purpose of this supposed stockpile is?”

  Azarus shook his head slowly before sn. “No, but it sounds like something the Prince would do. Anguis is a y, cagey bastard at the best of times.”

  “Well, that wasn’t the only thing Silvia included in her letter. She writes that now that she had firmation of my presence, she was going to stay for a few more days. She feels she o finish her reaissan Addersfield before leaving for the Kingdom. There, she hopes to gather some of my allies aurn to possibly rescue me.”

  “Yeah, she told me she was leaving soon,” I said to Grey. “Which means we don’t have to go forward with our pns, right?”

  Grey looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “I’m not so sure of that, Nathan. There are plications to sider, and I’d feel more fortable tinuing with our pns. Once Sylvia returns with help, we make tact with her in the forest and solidate our pns with theirs.” He paused, before tinuing slowly. “You…did tell her that I had been branded and colred, yes?”

  “Of course I did,” I said, almost offehat he would think I was that absentminded. “I told her about our pns, so she knows about the Ward Breaker.” I paused as well. “You know, she never asked me how I could still use my Status in order to make one even though I was a sve.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Grey shook his head. “She has exteraining as an infiltration and scouting specialist. She likely khat the how wasn’t as perti as the fact that you could, in the moment. In any case, she wrote that she should return in several weeks. In that time, I expect you’ll be able to struct a Ward Breaker, Nathan. Yetting close to fully uanding the cepts involved.”

  Yay.

  ………………………………………

  Later that night, Grey and I were drinking again, this time with Azarus included. We’d just finished dinner not long ago, and Azarus had broken out the same Gnollish alcohol in celebration. We were still i, nursing gsses of awful liquor.

  Eh, whatever. Booze was booze. I took a sip.

  Azarus had his feet up on the cleared table, while Grey was rexing in his wheelchair, nearly slumped over. Sluggishly, Grey reached fumblingly for his gss and took a gulp from it. He’d had the most out of all of us.

  Grey didn’t set his gss down, instead sitting up in his chair. “My friends… a toast! To my daughter, for never giving up on her old man! To family!” He said, slurring slightly and raising his gss.

  I saw Azarus roll his eyes before taking his feet off the table. Yeah, I guess he wasn’t too keen on his family. Still, he raised his gss as well. “To family.” He said, uhusiastically. I don’t think Grey noticed.

  I pushed down my own feelings and raised my gss as well. “To family,” I said quietly, king my gss with the others.

  We all took a drink, only some of us fighting down a grimace at the taste.

  The group fell silent for some time befrey broke it again. “You know, Nathan, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you speak on your family before.”

  I stiffened.

  Grey tinued, not notig. “I know Azarus’s situation, but I know nothing of yetting word from Sylvia made me realize that.”

  I took a deep breath, before letting it out. “Not much to say,” I said shortly.

  Azarus g me, befrey spoke again. He must have heard something in my tone. “Oh, I’m sure that isn’t true. Please, share with us.” He said with a wobbly smile.

  I stared down into my gss before sighing. “Well, I only really have my father anymore and…” I pushed down a surge of emotion. “I’m not sure he’s still around.”

  “How so?” Azarus asked me quietly, while Grey stared at me in drunken fusion.

  I didn’t look up from my drink. “Well, I was his caretaker,” I said quietly. “We don’t have magic bae, so you ’t just wave your hand and cure serious injuries. The same act that took my mother crippled my father. After that, it was always just the two of us. I was an only sibling, and we didn’t really have any other retives. They were all either dead or estranged.”

  The table was silent for a moment, my words puncturing even Grey’s druate.

  “Mom’s death was hard on him, even beyond his suddenly being disabled.” I tinued, in a low voice. “He…struggled with serious depression for years. Sometimes…most of the time, I think the only reasouck around was because I was there. If I’m gone…” I fell quiet again, fighting with myself. “Since I’ve been gone, I’m not sure if he…survived. Either from nobody to care for him or…”

  I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  Grey broke the silence, seeming to have sobered up slightly from my words. “Nathan, I’m sorry. I truly didn’t mean to-”

  I shook my head, cutting him off. “No, it’s fine,” I said, standing up from the table. “I…try not to think about it. Sorry for ruining the mood.” Keeping my breath even, I walked out of the kit.

  As I reached the bottom of the staircase to go to my room, I heard Grey i.

  “Damnit.”