“So, what happens to affinity users who are not nobles?”

  “Ever heard of the game marry, screw, kill?”

  -Traveler M5427 debriefing on Hortus

  Olivia POV

  Olivia sits in bed, exhausted and aching all over. She slowly opens her eyes to look at her companions huddling around her bed. She regrets opening her eyes, even though deep down she knows she should be grateful she’s even alive. The elves managed to slip a few archers behind their right flank. If even one had slipped through the left flank to pincer them, they’d all be dead.

  During the battle, she’d been able to focus all her magical might on the elves creeping through the town on the right flank without an issue. She was fortunate that she wasn’t pressured on the left more, or she would’ve been too focused on the town to have spotted the assassins climbing up the ladder, until after it was too late.

  The tower worked to give her considerable range and vision, but she couldn’t risk looking straight down to see the elves below her without risking receiving an arrow for her trouble. When the assassin breached the tower, she was incredibly lucky that none of the arrows had taken her somewhere vital. Despite all her luck, all she can think about is how much pain she’s in.

  “It’s obvious that we should kill him. He’s too dangerous; did you hear how many elves he took out single-handedly? Four! Knowing the guard captain’s distaste for the wanderer, he must have killed at least two more. We only took out twelve, and there were three of us working together. I would be lucky to take on three at one time.” Benjamin says in a huff, arms crossed.

  Olivia smiles at him fondly, seeing even now how envy burns at his core when he meets another mage who manifested the magical affinity he was denied. Despite her fondness for her half-brother, she would need to make sure this attitude didn’t continue. One day, it might get him killed.

  Julian stands up, “Cease your arguing, Lady Olivia is awake.”

  All three sets of eyes turn to her. Benjamin gives her a recap of what happened after she lost consciousness. After the battle, Olivia was taken back to the back room of the chapel to heal. Most of the peasants had been asked to stay inside the cathedral after the battle, in case there were still some elves hiding in wait. Tomorrow, Julian and Benjamin planned to do a sweep before releasing everyone; however, they needed to consider what to do with the dangerous, unknown dual mage in their midst.

  It sends a shiver up her spine when she realizes what he is. No dual mage should be out and about alone, and the fact that he had no keeper or guards sends off red flags. As a dual mage herself, she’d been the prize of her house and under scrutiny for decades.

  The past month was the first time she had less than a dozen guards with her, and she’d be in considerable trouble with her parents when she returned to the estate. She snuck out from her parents’ domain, where whole contingents of soldiers were ready to march should she need aid. Even as far from home as she is, she’d never consider going without her knights watching her back.

  “You make it sound like fighting the elves was a bad thing. The more I hear about this mage, the more I like him. I wish I had been there to see him.” Lucian adds with a cocksure grin.

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  Kurt ignores Lucian, turning to Benjamin, “First of all, he’s a healer, we both know how rare those are. Any house would pay a fortune to have a healer in a noble lord’s party. Second, he saved us.” Kurt says, holding up fingers for each point.

  “-If he were just a healer, this discussion would be different. Did you see the elves on the left flank or that undead that watches over him? That undead is sentient. If he can create a lich, then how long until he thinks Olivia would be more compliant as a lich? If you’re feeling a need to repay him, we should do him a favor and truss him up. We could take him back to the estate to let Lord Heartbran deal with him.” Benjamin butts in.

  Olivia closes her eyes to keep from rolling them. Whatever he’d seen, there was no lich in the town. If a lich were fighting the elves, between three magi on the human side, they would’ve trounced the elven forces, and she wouldn’t be lying around recovering from so many wounds.

  “-and he saved us. It wouldn’t be very kind to return his kindness by capturing him against his will.” Kurt continues.

  “Yes, but did he save us out of kindness? Are we now obligated to shield him from the houses? No one misplaces a dual mage. Someone will come looking for him eventually. I’m betting one of the elves messed up their mental compulsions, but it could be a runaway scion they kidnapped. There were rumors that one of the Frostfern family’s scions died mysteriously years ago, and everyone knew that stunk to the celestial realm. We should think about how this will play out for House Heartbran.” Benjamin rants.

  Olivia struggles as she pulls herself up to a sitting position with considerable effort and addresses her team, “He’s very suspicious, but we shouldn’t make any moves until we talk with him first. Once we know more, we can decide on our course of action. Wilders aren’t unheard of, but even if we wanted to take him to my family’s estate for his safety, we are far from my parents’ land.

  “It would be a poor decision to anger a wilder, scion, or escaped elf prisoner when we’re so far from home and we know nothing about him. Being wary is prudent, but we shouldn’t give ourselves over to paranoia or blind faith. This is an opportunity; healers are worth their weight in gold, dual mages in platinum. We should try to get him to join us, but if he doesn’t want to join, then we can send a letter to let mother and father deal with him.”

  All three frown at her decision; her companions know there’s too much unknown about the mysterious man, but it doesn’t sit well with them for different reasons. Her companions remain silent; she knows each of them is stubborn in their beliefs of how the situation should be handled, but they will follow her lead. Having spoken her mind, her regal demeanor quickly deteriorates as she grabs the pot next to her to empty her stomach into.

  Potion poisoning is lessening, but there’s little she can do in the small town but wait for it to pass. She hurls into the can, emptying her stomach of the little water and bread she had been able to hold down earlier. Benjamin hands her a cup of water. Her stomach curls at the thought of ingesting more liquid, but she takes sips to wash the stomach acid down.

  She leans back and turns to Benjamin, “Who’s in charge now that the mayor is dead?”

  She knew leadership of the town would be an issue she would need to deal with before they left the town. She hoped to take care of the issue of leadership once she was back on her feet, but if she had learned anything as a noble, it was that problems don’t wait until you are ready for them. In her weakened state, now would be the perfect time to strike; fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, a much more tempting target had made himself known.

  “The local guard captain is throwing his weight around. He may be a problem, but I doubt he will mess with us.” Benjamin reports.

  Olivia frowns. She could read between the lines to see what he was implying. The guard captain would be a problem for Jason. What he also didn’t intentionally say is that this created an opportunity for them. It is a conflict that they could use to their advantage.

  “We need to make sure it doesn’t escalate. If Jason dies, then it will look like we did it. If someone is looking for him, they will come looking for us. If he wins, we might have a town full of the undead to deal with. It would be better if we got Jason out of here.” She knew what Benjamin really wanted to say: that they could just nudge the guard captain to deal with Jason. She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.