Olivia desperately parried stroke after stroke, but without her wind abilities, she was unable to make the space she needed, and her opponent was unforgiving and unrelenting. One slash turned smoothly into a thrust that flowed perfectly into a pair of quick cuts, a variety of attacks and techniques that, even with her shield, Olivia simply couldn’t keep up with.

  It wasn’t long before she misplaced her back foot, leaving her balance to far to the left, an opening her opponent pressed mercilessly, until Olivia was, once again, on the ground, with Aton’s sword at her chin.

  The former bandit’s mouth twitched with a grim smile. “Really, pup? All that talk about you going off and fighting Egin and my clan and a bunch of undead, and you still went down that easily?”

  “Some of us prefer practicing with our powers,” Olivia grumbled, accepting the eclipsed man’s hand as he pulled her to her feet.

  “And that’s all fine and well, right up until you’re out of juice and fighting a swordsman who is better than you in every way.”

  Olivia rolled her eyes, sheathing her sword and taking a moment to knock the dust off of her pants. “And here I was thinking Rose had somehow pulled the secret good guy out of you.”

  Aton replied with a more genuine, and borderline lecherous, smile. “Oh trust me, Rose doesn’t like me because I’m a good guy.”

  Olivia huffed a brief laugh. “As long as you treat her right, that’s all I care about.”

  Now it was Aton’s turn to roll his eyes. “First Beryl, then Farris, and now you. Outlaw’s name, have I ever been less than a perfect gentleman to her?”

  “Aton, we met you in the middle of an attack on a caravan. And not the first one you’d attacked, either.”

  “Yeah, and then I saved the little doll, and her friend, and a score of schoolchildren, for Noble’s sake!”

  Oli's smile fell away, and she met Aton’s eyes carefully. “Yes you did, and we’re all grateful. Which is the only reason most of us are going along with this whole little ‘mercenary met on the road’ fiction you two came up with. But don’t think any of us have forgotten the things you did, Aton. It’s going to take more than a few good deeds to wash the blood off your hands.”

  Aton met Olivia’s gaze stoically, but the squire still thought she saw just a little flicker of shame behind his eyes. “I know better than any of you that my hands will never be clean, pup. And I know how lucky I am to have the chance I’m getting. I don’t plan to waste it.”

  “And Rose?”

  Aton frowned. “Rose… is a big part of it. Sure, doing the right thing or whatever feels good–but managing to wring a smile out of her is just as big of a motivator as anything else.”

  Olivia nodded. “She’s a special girl, that’s for sure.”

  “Don’t have to tell me twice.” Aton turned his eyes to the road that ran north, the road where they had all met, where Aton had begun to find a path worth following. “You’re leaving soon, right?”

  “Tomorrow morning, yeah. We’re heading up to Correntry.”

  Aton slowly nodded. “And… you’re going to try to find a way to transition? To really embrace being eclipsed?”

  “That’s the plan,” Olivia confirmed. “Farris said she had some advice for me. I bet she’d do the same for you.”

  Aton stared out at the dark road for a long moment, then he rolled his shoulders. “Probably. I don’t know if that’s for me, though.”

  “Yeah?”

  The eclipsed swordsman shrugged. “I’m a man in every way that matters, if you ask me. I dress like a man, talk like a man, fight like a man. Why would I pay an alchemist to help me be what I already am?”

  Now Olivia frowned, turning to ponder the northward road herself. “I don’t know that I’ll ever feel the same way,” Olivia admitted, “but part of me is jealous that you do.”

  Aton turned to look at the squire, studying her. Little about her had changed since the day they had met, a month before, but at the same time… there was something different in the way she carried herself. The difference between Oliver and Olivia, he supposed.

  “We’re alike in some ways, you know,” Olivia observed. “My family wasn’t a big fan of my identity either, and I left home too. We had different opportunities along the way, but… Well. I hope you like the path you’ve found yourself on.”

  “I do,” Aton said. “And I hope your road leads you somewhere you want to be, too. Pup.”

  #

  Elway eyed the two youths in front of him with more-or-less equal skepticism. He snorted and shook his head, unable to believe everything they had told him. “To think, two runts like you…”

  Cadence grinned. “You’d be amazed at what two runts can do when we put our minds to it.”

  “Besides almost get killed?” the gruff man asked.

  “We did kill multiple outlaws leaders and a handful of undead before the whole mess at the end!” Olivia reminded him.

  Elway snorted. “Sure. Now, what was it you two wanted to meet about? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve got half a town I need to set about rebuilding and a hag that still needs to get hunted down.”

  “That’s actually what we wanted to talk to you about,” Olivia explained. “We found a couple things we thought you’d find interesting.”

  Elway arched a heavy eyebrow while Cadence placed her bag on his desk, opening it to pull out a few pouches. “Totems,” Cadence explained. “Three of them, one even moderate.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Elway blinked his eyes at the bags. Slowly, he opened one, pulling out a loop of coiled snake skin from within. “So? You looking to sell them? Don’t know that I have the reserves to take ‘em off your hands, what with the rebuild.”

  “Not at all,” Olivia said. “We’d like to donate them to the town, actually.”

  Elway slowly turned his heavy-lidded eyes back to the pair of youths. “That so?”

  “We figured you could sell them to help with the rebuilding,” Olivia said, “or use them to help replace the guards you lost.”

  “These were what the bandits were really after,” Cadence explained. “They were using their undead to find caravans that had only low-level gifted and were transporting totems like these.”

  “So why are you giving them to me?” Elway asked. “Couple young adventurers like yourself, I’m sure you could put the gold from selling them to use once you get to Correntry.”

  “We’ve got plenty coming our way already,” Olivia said. “We’ve earned rewards from the Correntry Warden’s Office for reopening the road, as well as some private rewards posted by a few merchant companies, and another payout on top of all that from Emeston’s Office, after they lost some wardens to the hag too.”

  “And even if we were broke,” Cadence added, “I don’t think either of us would really be comfortable selling off loot that was itself stolen.”

  “And that brings us to the best part.”

  Cadence reached back into her bag, and pulled out a folded map of the region surrounding Jellis. “I’ve been working on retracing our path the past few days. Somewhere around here,” she pointed to a small circle on the map, “was where we found the bandit’s cave hideout.”

  “The bulk of their stolen loot was there. Coins, trade goods, food, water,” Olivia told the sheriff.

  “We collapsed the cave entrance,” Cadence continued, “but a few gifted with strength boons and earth gifts would make short work of the obstruction.”

  Elways eyes went wide as he studied the map. The indicated site was only a couple days travel form the town, and if the two young adventurers were accurate with their claims… “This could speed up the rebuilding effort by months,” Elway said. For once, his voice lacked its usual gruff disregard. “Are you really just offering to give the town all of this?”

  Olivia shrugged. “Seems like you could use it more than us,” she said simply.

  “Remember who I came here with,” Cadence added. “I know that Jellis remembers those who stand by it. If it helps, just think of it as an investment in the future. I’m sure we’ll come through here again at some point.”

  Elway nodded slowly with the celestial’s words. “And you’ll be remembered, indeed. Storyteller would be proud.” The massive man’s attention shifted to Olivia, and he inclined his head slightly. “I was rude to you when you arrived. I thought you just a token effort by the trade city to make it seem like they cared. I was wrong.”

  Olivia bowed her head in return. It wasn’t an apology, but she knew what it meant for the prideful man to admit his error. “It was good meeting you, Sheriff Elway. I look forward to seeing Jellis made even more beautiful.”

  “With your help, it just might be.”

  #

  “I can’t believe this is really it,” Rose said, her voice tight.

  Oli, trying to act as if her own eyes weren’t burning with tears, joked, “I’m just going to another part of the heartlands Rose, I’m not dying.”

  “No one ever plans to die,” Beryl observed solemnly. The larger girl, formerly so brash and confident, had been changed by her near-death experience in the aftermath of the caravan raid. She knew that luck, and Aton’s surprising turn for redemption, had more to do with her survival than any amount of skill or resolve on the part of her and Rose, and that brush with death had left her more quiet and reserved than any of her friends were used to. “So let us say a proper goodbye, ass.”

  Of course, she was still Beryl.

  Olivia smiled tightly at the older girl. “You’re not wrong,” she admitted. “It’s hard to believe how much has changed since we set out from Correntry.”

  “With Hugo,” Rose added, her voice a weak whisper.

  Beryl and Olivia both acknowledged that solemn reminder of what they had lost. In the eyes of the Warden’s Office, the Argent Order, and the merchants of Jellis and Correntry, their mission had been a success. But with that victory coming at the cost of Hugo and the majority of his company, it was hard for the trio to take any real pride in it.

  Olivia lifted her mug. For once, all three girls were drinking the same dark, powerful spirits, a burning liquor not so different from the bottle they had shared on a hillside one night, months before. “To Hugo. And Paul, and Ben, and everyone else we failed to protect.”

  “That’s a terrible toast,” Beryl pointed out.

  Rose still lifted her glass alongside Oli’s. “To their memories, then, and to all of us holding on to them, so that we can be better.”

  Berly considered that addition, then shrugged and added her glass. “To our next road–and our new friends.”

  Olivia and Rose both smiled through their tears and, after a satisfying clink of their glasses, threw back the burning liquor.

  #

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t join them?” Tenebres asked, watching the three friends toast.

  “Outlaw’s name, no,” Aton groaned. “The three of them have been alternating between weepy and maudlin all day. I need a break.”

  Cadence giggled, taking a moment to sip at her own liquor. It was stronger and nastier than the cider she liked, but it seemed like a night for hard drinks. Farewells were that way.

  Oli, Rose, and Beryl, after months of traveling together, needed the chance to say their fond farewells, as none of them knew when they’d meet again. Similarly, the youths had all refrained from commenting when Adeline and Farris had snuck off together–at least, until they were sure they wouldn’t be overheard.

  Cadence, Tenebres, Allana and Aton were all in a similar boat of not having many farewells to say. While he had quickly gotten along with the similarly criminally-inclined Allana, Aton wasn’t particularly close to the four adventurers, and was fine spending the night drinking with them without any tears. Tenebres and Allana had each other, and each seemed to need little more than the other, even if they still claimed to simply be close friends.

  Cadence would also be leaving with the only people she didn’t want to say goodbye to. The celestial was pleased to have met Rose, Beryl, and Aton, but they were different from her new companions. Even after knowing them just a short time, Cadence felt a connection to Olivia, Tenebres, and Allana that had been missing with anyone else since she had left home.

  None of the four young adventurers knew what awaited them in the coming months, and even years, but whatever trials lay down the road, they’d face them together.

  It had been a long, hard road for all four of them, but that road had led them to each other, and now, Cadence was sure, she wouldn’t be saying goodbye to any of her new companions anytime soon.

  END OF PART ONE

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