“Did you know?” Adam asked, biting into the magical chi which he had fvoured with his magibsp;

  “Yes,” Jurot replied, simply.

  “How?”

  “They are Watchers.”

  “Thanks, Jurot.”

  Jurot nodded. He khe Watchers were going to find out about Lud Mara, and he knew how they would react. There was a delicate bance Jurot had to maintain as an Iyrman, and as Adam’s brother. He knew Sir Dunnock’s pent fhting, and had to sider she was only slightly weaker than the greatest Watcher. However, Sir Dunnock was a member of the Order of Wings, and with Jurot bag up Adam, he uood the ce of them fighting was low.

  The Watchers had settled themselves in one er, while the Demoreated to the opposite er, where they could sleep in peace withiower Adam had summoned.

  “The Order of Wings is well known in Aswadasad,” Rose said, eyeing them from afar. “Was it wise to start a fight with them?”

  “Jurot, let’s kill Zishan,” Adam said, standing up, reag for his axe.

  “Okay,” Jurot replied, standing up and reag for Phantom.

  Rose stepped back, turning her body slightly. “What are you doing?”

  “Zishan is wicked, a threat to this world, so I must kill him,” Adam said, donning his shield. “My Oaths pel me.”

  Rose raised her fists, which began to heat up, her eyes dartiween the Iyrman and the Half Elf.

  “Do you see this, Jurot?” Adam asked, gasping. He pced Wraith away, and Jurot did the same. “I ’t believe it. We saved your lives, invited you into our party, we paid for your fees and your stay withiowns. Do you think it’s wise to start a fight with us?”

  “Why do you have go so far to prove your point?” Rose asked, cautiously pg her fists down, though her body remaiense.

  “I think I already warned you once for saying something stupid in front of me, so you ’t bme me when you didn’t learn the first time,” Adam replied, simply.

  “You should be careful of your words, for they are filled with venom, and misuandings arise.”

  “Then tell me, what kind of tone of void words should I use when someohreatens to kill my friend for existing?” Adam asked.

  “I meant when you speak with me.”

  “Oh, excuse me.” Adam cleared his throat, doing his best to keep his voice clear aral. “Tell me, what kind of tone of voice should I use for someone who thinks it’s wrong of me to defend my friend whehreateo be killed for existing?”

  “Never mind.”

  “I thought so. Don’t say stupid shit, and I won’t treat you like a fug idiot.” Adam gred at the woman, before turning and leaving, marg away.

  “You should be careful with what you say,” Jurot said to Rose.

  “Would you allow him to speak with you in that way?”

  “Yes. If I said something so foolish, I expect Adam to reprimand me.”

  “Would you have really killed the heir?” Rose asked.

  “Yes. We Iyrmen may say foolish things, but we do not lie.”

  Rose slowly bowed her head, swallowing her nerves. She wondered what kind of group she had joined. She inally thought the group would allow her to travel peacefully through Aldnd, but sidering how they were willing to kill members of an order, she thought she may have made a grave mistake.

  Fred approached Adam, who was fuming silently in the er. “I’m sorry, Adam.”

  “What are you sorry about?” Adam asked, his brow pulsing as he rubbed it.

  “I could not fight them.”

  Adam turo face Fred, his eyes still full of anger, but seeing how nervous Fred was, they softened. “I know.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m pretty sure we would have won, so don’t worry about it.” Adam waved his hand casually, but his body was still teh rage. “It’s just annoying. Them, I mean, not you.”

  Fred nodded. “The stories we were told about the Demons, they were terrible. They came from nowhere aroyed so many cities, vilges too. They say that half of all Aldnd was destroyed, and half of all the people were killed, or worse.”

  “What’s worse than dying?” Adam asked.

  “Their souls were cimed before they could reach Lord Sozain,” Fred said. “They wouldn’t be able to enjoy themselves in the Divine Lands. They say that a part of the soul also es back to the world, so you live again. For those who are evil, they get another ce. For those whood, they get to experience life again. They took that away. A ake things right, and a ce to keep experieng life and doing good. Awful business, that.”

  “Yeah,” Adam replied, nodding his head slowly. “I’m sure it’s terrible.”

  “I don’t want that ever happening to me,” Fred said, looking up at the sky.

  “I’m sure Lord Sozain will let Aubrey enjoy her life,” Adam said.

  Fred threw Adam a look, almost stunned by the words. He nodded his head slowly, before looking back up at the sky. Adam looked at the sky too, searg through the stars, as Lud Mara teo do. He wondered if they had any luck finding a familiar sight.

  “Did Adam bathe?” Nirot asked Naqokan, the group of young Iyrmen sitting together.

  “No,” Naqokan replied, before w why Nirot had asked her specifically.

  “We should leave him be.”

  Omen: 7, 9

  “We thank you again for your hospitality, Adam Fateson,” Sir Dunnock said, bowing her head to him, before donning her helmet.

  “It was our pleasure,” Adam replied, as politely as he could muster.

  “May I offer some advice?”

  “I won’t stop you.”

  “You should be careful speaking so impolitely to nobles,” Sir Dunnock said. “We are Watchers, but there are some who would have taken this much further. The Vice Master may have saved you once, but he ot save you always, nor the Iyrmen.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” Adam said.

  “You are a father now,” she said. “You should be careful.”

  “If something happens to me I have no doubt they will be raised well within the Iyr,” Adam replied.

  “Do you have an answer for everything?”

  “No,” Adam replied. “I have an answer for things I’ve already thought about.”

  “Many blessings to you, Adam,” she said, before climbing onto her warhorse.

  “May Lord Sozain watch over you,” Adam said, bowing his head.

  Sir Dunnock bowed her head in response, before she rode out. She had expected Adam to do much more than to threaten her with the God of Death’s hey rode away for a short while, being tiny ants on the horizon.

  “Do not suffer the wiess of Fiends, or those who barter with their wiess,” her oldest panion quoted.

  Sir Dunnock remained silent for a long while as they rode, before she slowed her warhorse with her thoughts, until they were moving at a snail’s pace. “Do you know how mas the Iyr and the Iyrmen hold?”

  “No.”

  “No one does,” Sir Dunnock stated. “We know things the Iyr does not, and the Iyr knows things we do not. When we swear our oaths, they are based on our knowledge, and the knowledge of our predecessors. Even you, who have sworn your oaths from the Right Hands a Hands of previous Dunnocks, know things I do not. And I, who have sworn the same Oaths the previous Dunnocks have sworn, iing their memories and duties, know things you do not.”

  Her Right Hand thought about her words. His eyes fell down to the magical steed, which would have disappeared with the rest of her powers if she had truly broken her oath.

  Sir Dunnock motioned with a hand, allowing her Right Hand to ride up towards her right, and she reached out to her heir, rubbing his back. “Do you know how many orders have e and gone? Ohe entire north knew of an order. The White Dragon Knights.”

  “One of the first orders,” the Right Hand replied. “It had stood for over a thousand years.”

  “A member of it’s order could have started their journey with no , no armour or ons, and even no clothing. From the very north of North Aldnd, all the way down to tral Aldnd. By the time they would have reached tral Aldnd, they would have been adorned in full pte mail, wielding their pick of all manner of ons, some magical, with mold than they could carry in all their clothes and pouches.”

  “They were destroyed by Queen Silvari’s mother a few hundred years ago,” the Right Hand said.

  “It still lives in some ways,” Sir Dunnock said. “The desdants of su order still work hard in the orders of North Aldnd, and some within the orders of ions. Yet, none of the orders today, not even the Order of the King could match up to the heights the White Dragon Knights had mao reach. Three hundred years, and barely anyone recalls them, save for some within the north. They speak of the orders which exist today, some of which existed at the same time, a even they may have fotten.”

  “The Order of the Thousand Hunts hasn’t fotten,” the Right Hand said.

  “Perhaps not.” Sir Dunnock smiled, spurrieed to move a little quicker. “The order did not fall because it failed to heed the Iyr’s warnings, nor it was because it lost the Iyr’s favour. It was formed to deal with Wiseraith, perhaps the greatest of the north’s enemies. He harassed the nd for a thousand years, and the White Dragon Knights pushed him back, again and again, until the Demonic Devastation.”

  “Then he disappeared, o be seen again,” Harry said, finally speaking up. He had to study the history of the nd in order to bee the Sir Dunnock, and he recalled the tale of the nearly fotten order.

  Sir Dunnock smiled. “It would be difficult to train a new heir when you’re already so smart.”

  Harry bliaken aback by his mentor’s words.

  “Some say he died, but we know better than to assume such things,” Sir Dunnock said. “In the same way that we know better to assume that the Demons are no longer a threat to our world. The White Dragon Knights had spent hundreds of years fighting against different threats, and their powers extended further. They became so iial, they held defacto rule over certain regions of the north. Some say they were responsible for the death of the Bckheart family, but even we do not know the truth.”

  “It was all but firmed,” the Left Hand said.

  “All but firmed,” Sir Dunnock agreed, “but not firmed. The White Dragon Knights believed themselves too big to fail. They began to push for more and more, moving outside of their initial goal to protect the north. The Grandmasters ruled their nd like they were Kings and Queens, and every time the White Dragon Knights began to lose their influehey would bare their bdes towards a hreat. The Tribesfolk. Drakken. Giants.”

  “Then they poiheir bde towards Antalia the Silver.”

  “Antalia the Silver.” Sir Dunnock smiled. “She was less active during the time Wiseraith was. She was a small bother to the Iyr when it was so much smaller and weaker than it was now. She was a greater bother to Aldnd, when it had barely began to stretch its wings. The White Dragon Knights fought Wiseraith often, but then he disappeared. Hundreds of years ter, they decided to fatalia. Antalia, who had grown quiet for over a thousand years. Do you know what happens tons when they grow to over a thousand years old?”

  “They bee A,” Harry replied, though it wasn’t special knowledge. Even a farmer’s boy khat Dragons grew in various stages, and a thousand years old was a great milestone.

  “Yes,” Sir Dunnock said, nodding her head. “The Dragon was a match for the great Golden Dragon, she who has guarded the capital for over two thousand years. So the White Dragon Knights poiheir bde against a foe who could match even Lady Jaeryael. Who knows truly why. Was it practise to see how they would fair against Lady Jaeryael? Was it because they wao uhe entire north against a oo push their own ideals? All I know is that the war which cimed Antalia’s life, pletely destroyed the White Dragon Knights, and had ged the ndscape and history of North Aldnd feions to e.”

  “Some say that the Iyr was involved,” Harry said, thinking of how many times the Aldishmen tried to bme the Iyr for things which happeo them.

  “Who knows?” Sir Dunnock replied, smirking under her helmet. “The order did not fall because it failed to heed the Iyr’s warnings. Nor did it fall because it lost the Iyr’s favour. It fell because it decided to point its swainst something they shouldn’t have. Yes, they did eventually kill her, but at what cost?”

  “A Whitely victory,” Harry said. The White Dragon Knights had indeed eventually sin Antalia, and had forced away many of her allies, but the White Dragon Knights did not st much lohe term was now used to describe a victory whiflicted such a great toll to the victor that it was essentially a loss.

  “We ot die,” Sir Dunnock stressed. “We are the Watchers, the Order of Wings. Though the Iyr may not, this nd will fet us, and great enemies which threaten to invade our world, our home. The Iyr protects this nd due to its duty for its people. We protect this nd because it is our duty for all people. If two Demons who have not sinned may traverse this nd freely for us to plete our duty, then it must be so, no matter how much I wish to face a brat who has such a wonderful story and brother.”

  The fight would have been so cool, though.