Shortly after my new powers came to me, I woke up in a Cinderheart forge. By then the empire was looking for me and Jerek. For me my appearance has already changed. It’d be a few days before the word got out that my hair changed.

  That wasn’t much time, so we had to leave fast.

  Jerek on the other hand was not easy to hide. Fenrick had conjured some clothing and armor that was distinct from the rest of what he had prior.

  He wanted to make Jerek a relic, but he didn’t have any dark mithralite with him at this shop, and it was nearly impossible to transport it.

  Not only was any involvement of dark mithralite super hard to work with at all, but my relic was a one and only opportunity, he had the metal on hand, and no soldiers were on the lookout for Jerek and I.

  This is completely different.

  Krail’s military was looking for us, Fenrick was already harboring fugitives, and it was just days after a slaughter at a school.

  We didn’t want to drag Fenrick down with us so we prepared to leave Krail.

  There were plenty of nearby towns of the people we had saved over the years, with any luck they’ll be open to letting Jerek and myself stay briefly before transitioning to a more stable living situation.

  Hopefully.

  Leaving town wasn’t actually that hard. The forge Fenrick had us at was on the outskirts of town, we easily ventured through the short distance to the badlands, but unfortunately it wasn’t easy from there.

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  The badlands were unique. The monsters came from the caves and other dungeons or similar places nearby.

  So naturally we had to fight off monsters.

  Gravewake reacted differently to the blood of monsters compared to that of the soldiers it had killed.

  It was much less power it could obtain from the blood of a monster.

  So I could kill a lot more and not have to feel the intense nerve pain that comes with the blade’s ability.

  My sight loss was a bit to get used to but even in the short time since getting blinded, and replacing vision with feeling my surroundings I felt I was already getting in tune with the world around me.

  Me and Jerek acted as sword and shield, with minimal healing magic between the two of us it was going to be difficult to press on with injury, so we were tight, and efficient with our work.

  The minimal resistance we faced felt like there was something looming over our heads.

  Through slashes and strikes I felt a hole in my heart yearn for closure, to which seeing Mariel would be the only thing to heal that gap.

  But she was gone.

  Every time my thoughts drifted in and out then back to killing my focus would falter then sharpen.

  Jerek knew that so we never pushed ourselves when we didn’t have full clarity of the fight.

  We needed that.

  Our arrival at the first town was nice, distant enough from Krail that they wouldn’t find us immediately, but not so far that it was too long of a journey.

  When we walked through town we both had on cloaks and disguises, but it was immediately in vain.

  At the center of the town called Gunder stood a woman cloaked in a dark-feeling energy.

  Sitting at a table with a chess board in front of her.

  My approach was slow but steady.

  I didn’t have to say a word, I just sat across from her.

  My e2 pawn pushed to e4.

  I felt her eyes drift to the board then back to me then back to the board.

  “E5.” she said.

  More than twenty possible openings played by the greatest players of all time could be played after e4 e5.

  I was interested in only one style of game right now.

  “F4.” I said as my f pawn pushed twice, entering into a game commonly known as the King’s Gambit.

  An audience formed, all of them watching intensely.

  They knew something was about to happen.

  But what?