I didn’t stay in my room.

  I went to the small training room and started throwing knives at the targets. They didn’t always land point first, but they hit with most of the force I could put into them. Can’t wait till I get more strength.

  Calmar was the first to try and approach. He flinched when I threw a knife that stuck into the wooden target with a quiver. No where near center, but I felt I should get points for enthusiasm.

  “Dani…” He started, hesitantly. I turned and looked at him, gaze sharp. He flinched, gulping. “Are you…okay?”

  I turned and whipped the next knife. It hit far right of center and bounced off. “Do I look okay?” I took a short walk to go collect the knives and tried to take the snarl off my face.

  “Better than Chatterdeem.” He jumped as I stabbed the target in the center. Hard.

  “If that filth’s name comes out of your mouth while you’re in here, I will throw the next one AT you.” I ripped the knife out of the target as I talked. My voice had been laced with venom, but I was not in a mood to be gentle. I wasn’t in the mood to pretend.

  He hesitated, and slowly backed away, leaving the room.

  Porter was next. He tried for something more lighthearted.

  I did throw a knife at him. It missed, but I wasn’t aiming at him. I wasn’t that pissed.

  I was left alone, and started going through whatever I could remember from Grimoire. Staff forms, tonfa stances, just whatever burnt off energy. What kind of horrible person was Danielle? Everything I learn about her makes me hate her.

  Grimoire finally approached, after I’d lost track of time. He didn’t say anything, simply took one of the practice swords and held it out to me. I glared up at him, but the professional butler wasn’t phased. I took it and the tip fell as I tried to adjust to the weight.

  “Follow my movements.” He took his own and started to go through basic stances with me. Once I’d been through once, he started to correct my posture. He’d adjust my footing and raise or lower my arm as needed. I started to go through them faster, trying to push myself.

  “Stop.” He finally commanded, and I let it drop, sweating and tired. Too tired to be disgusted at myself.

  He motioned to a chair and a table, and I sat down. I began drinking from the waterskin that had been sitting there as he took a seat opposite. His hands folded into a small triangle in front of him on the table and he stared at me.

  I waited for him to speak. He waited for me to speak.

  I didn’t.

  When I was finished, I got up and left the training room. Before I opened the door, he spoke up. “Danielle.”

  I turned my head to look at him.

  “The past doesn’t define you.” He stated, not leaving his seat.

  I considered his words. “No, but it makes the present harder.”

  Grimoire blinked and I left.

  I went to one of the studies and grabbed a book at random. It was some heroic tale of heroes stopping evil. I didn’t hate it immediately, so I read through it. I needed something to get out of my head. Something that didn’t remind me of her.

  I must have fallen asleep, because I was covered in a blanket. It was still dark out, but that wasn’t unusual, with the light only coming from one direction.

  It honestly made me feel better. Safer, somehow.

  I also, apparently, hadn’t had the energy to dream. Or if I did, no one mentioned crying or screaming when they thought I couldn’t hear them. I was still… not in a great mood, so that helped.

  I’d actually woken up before breakfast, so I went and found the weights before taking off outside to run the perimeter of the manor. I didn’t want to think at the moment.

  I didn’t want to be Danielle.

  I wanted to be Alexei. Even if only in my head.

  Breakfast was… awkward. Calmar didn’t speak, though he started several times. He likely had questions. Questions I didn’t want to answer, some I probably didn’t even know the answers to. Instead, we just ate in relative silence.

  The rest of the day was more the same as yesterday, though I did take a book to read in Calmar’s study like usual. The mood wasn’t great, but I was trying. Just cause I was mad at Danielle didn’t mean I needed to take it out on him.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Eventually, I got a surprise. I hadn’t remembered when we were supposed to meet next, but Grandpa Toren showed up after the sky grew dark. He looked solemn, but waited for us to be alone before talking.

  “I suppose you had something to do with Lord Chatterdeem.” The glass I held shook as I tried to control my anger at the man’s name. He noticed, “What happened?”

  I told him about the conversation, barely able to contain myself. I got up and started pacing, and by the end I was barely able to stop myself from shouting. I sat back down and put my elbows on the table, holding my head up with my hands and covering my eyes as I tried to control myself.

  Toren, for his part, had been rather disgusted. “I… hadn’t known much about Danielle. I don’t pay much attention to noble goings on because too much of it is like… him.” He avoided the name, recognizing how I felt about it, I suspected. “What you did is having a larger effect than you think though?”

  I looked up, “How so?”

  “He can’t even hold a crystal now without it crumbling to dust. No matter the value, no matter how he got it. Priests have examined him.” He sounded exasperated, “He has been going to every temple, church, and place of worship looking for answers.”

  I… did not realize how in depth that punishment would work. “He’s paying off his penalty.”

  His voice caught, “His… what?”

  I hadn’t told him exactly what I’d done, just that I’d knocked him through the table. I lifted my head, a little more control in my voice, though it was shaky. “He’s got a penalty to his experience that he has to pay off. It was for damages. Somewhere around 500 millions.”

  Toren’s eyes went wide. “Did you set it that high?”

  I shook my head. “System did it. I just… targeted him.”

  He collapsed back in his chair and pulled a flask from his inner robe. Looking at it, he put it back and grabbed one from a different pocket and took a long drink from it. He looked… shaken. “He’ll… he’ll never pay that off. They’ll kill him to stop him from destroying too many crystals…”

  I blinked, “It’s not like the supply is limited. They wouldn’t go that far, would they?”

  “If the Gilded even suspect he’s taking them out of the economy without being able to replace it? They’ll make an example of him.” He shook his head, “That’s if his family doesn’t first.”

  I let out a nervous laugh, “You’re kidding, right?”

  I took another look at Toren’s face. He was not kidding.

  “Fuck.” I said in a succinct manner. I held my hand out and he handed me the first flask. I looked between it and the teapot. I took a drink straight from it.

  As the burning liquor went down, I coughed and set it back on the table. “So, what should I do?”

  “Nothing.” Toren said quickly. “And hope no one connects this to you.”

  “Think they will?” I leaned forward in anticipation, mind flashing through things that could happen and ways I could get away from it.

  Toren paused, and considered. “Probably not. I think, and don’t take this the wrong way, Danielle is going to help with that.”

  I sneered, but he held his hand up to hold me off, “Hold on, that’s a good thing. From what you’ve figured out she wasn’t the kind to make plots and do more than superficial things, right?”

  Nodding slowly, the pieces started to click, “They’ll think he pissed off a god or something equally unlikely, won’t they?”

  “Exactly. Especially if it’s a system punishment.” He let out a bitter laugh, “Honestly, you’re lucky. A more reputable person would draw more questions. The only reason I even know of his family is this incident.”

  I started nodding, thinking it through. “So, it should take care of itself.”

  Toren shrugged, “Keep an ear out, but I think so. It actually reminds me of a story about a thief who got ahold of a spatial storage. He managed to make crystals disappear in thin air and would rob people without them even realizing.”

  “What happened to him?” I asked.

  He frowned and looked away, “The Gilded sent their collectors after him. His ability was a class skill, and when they’d finished quartering him what he hadn’t spent just sort of… spilled out around him.”

  I blinked, “Quartered?”

  Toren cleared his throat and looked a little embarrassed, “Right… not a great story for the situation. We should move on.”

  I’d look it up later. I’m sure there was a book or something in this place that would explain. It didn’t sound pleasant if it was enough to… probably kill him if the crystals spilled out.

  “So, anymore nightmares? Strange dreams?” He asked.

  I rolled my eyes at the subject change. “Probably. They haven’t been as vivid, but… I apparently have been crying in my sleep.”

  The priest frowned, “That’s not good, but nothing to be done. Did you get a sleep aid like I suggested?”

  “Yea, but I’m sticking with whatever tea they’ve got here from now on. I think the herbalist gave me something bad.” I took another drag from the flask before handing it back to him. “Though I suppose I could always take up drinking. Calmar certainly consumes enough of it.”

  Toren rolled his eyes, “So Porter brought up when he came to see me. That’s probably not a road you want to wander down, though.”

  I looked at the flask in his hand and then at him, raising an eyebrow. He chuckled, “I’m allowed. I’m old.”

  I barked out a laugh that turned into a genuine chuckle. After letting myself go for a few moments, I sighed. “Thanks… I needed that.”

  “Hey, it’s the truth.” He grinned, looking me over. “Besides, life is too dark to ignore the light of laughter.”

  “Is that a saying of the clergy of Quiintius?” I said as the smile I had slowly faded. I wasn’t as angry, but happiness was probably still another block down the road.

  He shook his head, “Carrion.” Toren smiled sadly, “When you bury as many friends as me, sometimes you can’t help but pick up a few sayings from them.”

  The mood lingered, and neither one of us really felt like talking anymore. He excused himself, and I stayed in the room we’d commandeered. It was the same as last, full of damaged weapons and armor, all displaying scorch marks. I studied a sword that had been split in two, the part where they joined melted seemingly beyond repair.

  Out of curiosity, I cast Scan.

  Blade of the Mountain King

  The trophy of Herald Rosecrest. Was once the blade of a dwarven king who sought to duel for control of the Flame Flower Fields. Made from a special mixture of metals, it was deemed unbreakable by physical means. Unfortunately, fire is not physical.

  I snorted out a laugh and sighed. It was another thing I didn’t know about the family I was supposed to belong to. I couldn’t even tell if that was Danielle’s father, his father’s father, or even further back. I didn’t even know where the Flame Flower Fields were.

  I regretted giving the flask back to Grandpa Toren. I wanted another drink.