It was a time before the nd khe Chaos that was Adam. The winds were cold, especially those which bounced against the hills outside of Jaghi, though that was to be expected, sidering the dragon which slumbered in the nearby mountain.

  “The Aldish are shivering too much,” Zarmak joked, biting into her jerky, chewing it slowly.

  “How much are you eating?” Jonf replied, raising his brow towards the woman. “Are you with child?”

  “Whose child, yours?”

  “You are too weak to have my child.”

  “Weak?” Zarmak, reached down for her dagger, only to find Jonf’s axe ready to swing towards her, his brows raised expetly.

  “Stop,” Lozys s the pair, causing the pair to withdraw their bdes, meanwhile his eyes fell towards the Aldish, who had prepared their tents for the night, while one of their own apahem at their fire.

  “Why did she have to choose him?” Malfev pined, sipping away at the alcohol. “He will get himself killed in Aldnd, how will I sole her?”

  “Is he so terrible?” Anne asked, the woman sipping the st of her stew, warming her cold body in the night.

  “There are few as wild as him,” Malfev admitted, already recalling the wild look in the Iyrman’s eyes. “She is strong enough to cast her own shadow!”

  ‘Is his younger sister also as strong?’ Ahought, hearing nothing but praise from the Iyrman.

  ‘Our cousin, Shayfev, she cried so much. I worry she will not follow our path unless we have cleared it. We bullied her so much, so we should at least clear the path!’

  Anne wasn’t sure what madhis Iyrman was talking about, but the Iyrmen had to be this mad if they were this strong. Her eyes darted to the side, towards Zarmak and Jonf, then the heavily armoured Iyrman to the side was equally as powerful, if not greater, yet each were barely twenty.

  “Does she not know what you Aldish call him? Mad Dog? Mad Dog! This is the problem with you Aldish, you do not see the threat before you until the bde is already at your neck! You should beat him properly so my sister live freely!”

  “If you feel sly, you should stop her,” Anne said, unsure of why this was su issue for him. “You could marry her off to someone else.”

  Malfev huffed, sipping his wine, feeling the warmth that flowed through his body. “Even drunk, I ot have such Aldish thoughts.”

  Anne narrowed her eyes slightly, uanding that he used the word in a way that made his tongue feel dirty for eveioning their name. However, sidering his strength, and the plethora of stories, some of which seemed outndish, a held hints of truth, she couldn’t help but be fasated with the Iyr.

  “Do you know what they call my sister? The Rising Swallow! If she is rising, she should tinue rising!”

  “Rising Swallow and Falling Swallow, at least your epithets are simir.”

  “That is right, I should be the oo fall,” Malfev agreed, having taken the meaning to his heart.

  “What of your cousin, Marmak? You said he could beat Jarot? Why does your sister not wish to marry her?”

  “He could match Jarot,” Malfev agreed. “They are both filled with madness, but my sister, she says that Jarot is…”

  “…” Anne waited as Malfev riled himself up, then after an angry sigh, Malfev’s shoulders slumped.

  “She is right.”

  “What?”

  “She does not o hold back when she beats him.”

  ‘If half the rumours of the Mad Dog are true, then there is no doubt about that…’

  ‘You should bee the Family Elder,’ Malfev thought. ‘Will the Mad Dog give up the name of Rot?’

  Aared up at the sky, seeing the stars twinkling above, the moon sht, and the myriad of colours which mesmerised her as a girl.

  “You have to do it,” Malfev said.

  “What?”

  “You have to bee the Bear Mother. If you do that, I will have no excuse. I will grow more powerful than the Mad Dog, and I will beat him well! Wheurns to the Iyr, he will have to tell my sister that I beat him well, and she will no longer wish to marry him!”

  “It’s impossible for me to bee Bear Mother.”

  “You will do it for your sister, and I will do it for mine.”

  Anne smiled. She wasn’t sure if it was the warmth of the soup that tasted so bnd, or the atmosphere in the air, but she raised her cup of wine, and the pair drank to their goals.

  “Mad Dog? My sister, she will grow more powerful than me. You will hear it one day, Bear Mother. My sister, she will take the role of one of the Ten Paragons.”

  “Not one of the Hundred Paragons?”

  “No. She will take the role of one of the best, alongside Marmak. The Mad Dog? He will not do it, he is too wild.”

  Malfev was no idea h he would be, for the future was so different than he could ever imagine.

  ‘Was it on this day?’ Bear Mother thought, staring at the stars, the same stars which twinkled above, and the myriad of colours which mesmerised her as a girl. ‘No. It was earlier, sihe moon is so dull tonight.’

  Uhe same night sky, there were many who held subre thoughts, some sober.

  ‘Any issues?’

  Those were the words.

  Adam had gnced aside, taking in the faces of everyone, before speaking the words. The bewilderment rippled through the business. At first they had thought Adam hadn’t gohrough with the task, for obvious reasons, but seeing all the Iyrmen who had returned with him, they hadn’t been too sure.

  Any issues.

  The words repyed within Fred’s mind, again and again. What was it about those two words that pgued his mind?

  Any issues?

  It had been said with such that kind of to held a certain audacity. A certain humour. It had been said in that kind of tone.

  The tone of the strong.

  After causing trouble by killing two figures he shouldn’t have killed, he had e back to check upon the business, as though he hadn’t just brought the attention of the Orders upon them.

  One day, soon, they would e.

  Fred stared at the stars, the same stars as he had seen as a boy. When he was home, the expansive sky seemed full of dreams and wonder, but now, in this fort, where he found himself after losing his home, the stars were a memory of a time wheill had his innoce. It had been about half his lifetime ago when it happened, when his home was taken from him. Tomorrow, when they would e, would his home be taken away from him again?

  He felt the cool steel against his thumb, and the deep power held within his bde.

  Jonn remembered it too, the first time he had felt such a deep power within a bde. It was a bde that seemed to be made of typical steel, but when he held it within his small hands, he had almost dropped it.

  ‘Haha! What did I tell you?’ Sir Kaleb had said, csped the bde in hand as Jonn’s small hands almost dropped the bde. ‘How could you drop the bde of Aum Li?’

  Jonn had filled with such guilt as a boy, and horror, for what kind of idiot drops the bde of such a wonderful hero? He who had sin all manner of monsters, frons to even the most pathetic vermin. Vermin like…

  ‘Goblins are like rats. It is best to exterminate as many as you . If you leave one or two alive, within a handful of years, you will find a pgue of them at your door.’

  ‘Vermin?’ Jonn thought.

  ‘You have such handsome ears!’ Jirot had decred, throwing up a thumbs up. Little Jarot had reached for his own, while staring at Jonn’s. The boy flushed slightly, but smiled so adorably.

  ‘You have such lovely ears, so you must cause trouble!’ Jirot snickered, causing her brother to soo.

  “Manager Jonn,” Dunes called.

  Jonn tensed up, his eyes darting to the side, meeting the Manager’s questioning gaze. He then gnced down towards his hands, firmly glued to his bde, that he had drawn so mindlessly. He sheathed it, tensing up, before rexing.

  Dunes slowly bowed his head towards the Manager, noting the relief, and the guilt, that tio haunt him. “There is a waterfall within Bck Mountain. Ice Fall, we call it. My mentor, Kal Samra, when I was often deep in though about my aies, she would threaten me. Dunes, ahmuk, if you keep thinking of useless thoughts, I will send you to Ice Fall. If it was not the cold of the waterfall, it was the threat, that stopped my thoughts. When I left Aswadasad to find Amira, she forced me into Ice Fall, the water falling on my skin like daggers. It was not to stop my thoughts, but te me forward. Even then, I thought, this is very cold, please stop.”

  “What does ahmuk mean?” Jonn asked.

  “Fool.”

  Jonn smiled. “Kal Samra sounds like a wise woman.”

  “I fear anything else would get back to her, so I must say I agree.”

  Mork sipped away at his wineskin, for it was a rare occasion he could. Bael had informed him it would not rain that day, so his mood soured, almost as sour as the wine. As he tio drink, it soothed the clouded thoughts, the darkness within his heart.

  ‘He killed them too quickly? What does that mean?’

  ‘I ’t believe he did not take me with him,’ Tork thought, sipping away at his sour wine. ‘He met the Lord Marshal?’

  Bael let out a long, annoyed sigh, the warmth of the alcohol reag the tips of his fingers. He stared at a particur spot within the vilge. He reached up to his nose, and the heat of the lightning flowed through him, steam esg out of him, before floating in the wind as he sobered up. ‘I thought it would be a fun fight. How disappointing.’

  In the vilge, Nobby ate his bread. His son slowly chewed from his own bun, the boy looking up at his father, before it to him. Merry was still so small, and barely babbled, but he ate well, just like his father. Nobby looked down at the boy’s face, who stared up at him, before his eyes fell to the bread in his father’s hand. He stared at it longingly, even though he held bread in his own hand. Ohe boy was chewing on his father’s bread, Nobby returned back to his thoughts.

  “Nobby?” Merl called.

  Nobby turned his gaze to meet hers. “…”

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yes,” Nobby replied, before looking to Anne, who ate her stew slowly, but her cheeks were no longer quite as thin. He furrowed his brows, a the world, and himself. ‘No.’

  Uhe same sky, within the rge, expansive walls of the Iyr, the two sat together. Rajin poured in the sour wine, which was not like the weak sourness of the Aldish wines, but proper, Iyrish sourness.

  Jarot stared at the wihough he promised to drink with Rajin, he was uain if he could.

  “I bring the milk,” Rajin offered.

  Jarot reached for the cup and held it up. “My greatson nibbled upoip of the pizza. He eats so well.”

  “He eats so well,” Rajin firmed, the pair drinking their sadness long into the night.

  Our Jarot, he eats so well... :')