It was nearly two weeks into esc Krion to the portal that would take him on to the Imperial Academy and Alesin was exhausted. The young lord had just finished drinking the minor healing potion that Rolfun had given him after their sparring session, and he would soon be asleep in his tent.

  Her husband made sure their charge was settled for the night and, once he was sure the young lord was asleep, came over to where Alesin sat on the ground by the fire. Alesin made the smile that she saved only for him as her husband partially slumped to the ground behind her and pulled her into his arms. Rolfun nuzzled into her fair, breathing deep of her st before letting out a tented sigh.

  “It is a good thing we only have a few more days left,” Rolfun said, exhaustion clear in his voice. “That young lord is running me ragged and I could use a break.”

  While it had endeared the young lord to them when he had so easily goh the o set aside his title until they got him safely to the portal in the settlement, they had taken to referring to him as su the privacy of their warded campsites once Lord Krion was asleep. To say she and her husband were impressed by him would be an uatement. Though they themselves were elites well within the middle ranks of House Bcksword, the young lord had tio keep up with the grueling pace they had set for him. As such, it seemed only fitting that they refer to him properly, as long as it didn’t get in the way of their mission.

  “I hear you, my love,” Alesin said, leaning back against her husband’s broad chest. “If you had told me weeks ago how exhausting it would be to train Lord Krion, who does not have a css or even a level under his belt yet, I would have insisted that you go to a healer to make sure you didn’t have a head injury.”

  Rolfun snorted in amusement. “And I would have gooo, thinking that I had perhaps had my bell wrung ooo many times by the ao tell you that.” Her husband reached up and begaly kneading her shoulders. She let out a sigh of te as her husband began w her sore muscles.

  “What I don’t uand,” Alesin said after enjoying the massage for a few minutes, “is why Krion was even on a p outside the System in the first pce.”

  “Well, the powers of the Archduke are great, it would ha—”

  Alesin snorted in amusement, interrupting her husband expining the obvious to her. “Yes. I am aware of the powers that the Archduke has, as well as some he is only rumored to have. I also know a bit more from my mentor about some few others sworn to House Bcksword, and there are at least a half dozen individuals capable of sending a boy through a portal into a world outside the System, like the one Krion es from.” She sighed, though this time it was one of frustration rather than out of enjoyment of the feel of her husband’s fingers on her shoulders. “No, what I mean is, why was Lord Krioo such a world in the first pce? It’s clear from the st few weeks we have spent with him that Lord Krion will bee a powerful and important asset to House Bcksword soon after graduation from the Imperial Academy, if not before.”

  “I know what you mean, love,” Rolfun agreed, his fingers shifting to work on a particurly stubborn knot. Her breathing eased as his pressing gradually loose. “The young lord is a good student, pletely free from the arrogahat so many of the nobility his age seem to suffer from. I ’t eveion how well he is doing, as I don’t want him to develop an ego about it. Better that he goes into his first year at the Imperial Academy humble and cautious. bined with how he is doing under your testing and my bat training, I would think whoever made the decision to send him away will be removed from House Bcksword entirely once he arrives at the Imperial Academy and those at the school begin to get to know him.”

  “I ’t believe his progress myself. Did you hear how I told him that all this training and the exercises I am running him through are the absolute basics that nobles his age are already expected to know?” She ran a shaking hand through her hair. “Blood and Ash! I made up my mind earlier today to ask him about what he would do in a sario where he was anding a smaller for battle against a stronger enemy. I barely finished expining the specifics of each force, which put his own at a disadvantage, and he pulled a pletely unventional strategy out of thin air. And you know the craziest part?”

  “Let me guess. His strategy would have given him at least an even ce at winning?”

  Alesin snorted in amusement. “Better than that. The way he outli and presehe logic that undery his decisions, I’d expect him to win more often than not. Unlike most of the nobles we have served with, I expect Lord Krion might have some potential as a leader in war.”

  “So,” Rolfun leaned back away from her, rolling his shoulders as he worked to loosen his own muscles, “am I right in guessing that you have moved into more advaopics across the board?”

  “The young lord is like a sponge. I had pnned just to share a few more advahings, but the rate he has been going, I’ll have to cut myself off from exposing him to more plicated knowledge for fear of what he learns now getting in the way of what he will learn at the Imperial Academy. Blood and Ash!” She swain. “Some of this advanced material not even the majority of nobles would be expected to know until they are in the Imperial Academy itself! And the terrifying thing is he doesn’t just absorb it either! He uands it and builds off his knowledge!”

  “Quiet, quiet my love,” Rolfun shushed her. “We don’t want to wake the young lord.”

  She shifted on the ground to face her husband. Gesturing for him to face the other way, she then reached out and began kneading his shoulders to work on the knots he had developed during the day.

  “I tell he is going to be an impressive student regarding tactid strategy, but what do you think of him in terms of bat itself?”

  “Impressive seems to fall short,” Rolfun groaned out the words as Alesin began w his shoulders. “It had been my iion to only show him a few basic moves a him used to carrying a greatsword. Ideally, he would get to the point that he wouldn’t embarrass himself too muce he began w with the bat instructors of the Imperial Academy.” He let out his own snort of amusement. “I, too, had to throw away my pns. These st few nights, he has tio surprise me nearly every time we spar.” Rolfun tapped his left hand against his armored side. “Lord Krion got anng blow against me tonight. I eve it through my armor! He moved a half-step quicker than I figured his stats would be able to support, and I shed out instinctively in response.”

  She paused in w his muscles. A young lord of House Bcksword, even as amenable as Lord Krion so far appeared to be, would be a frightening enemy if he took offense from training with her husband. She was already running through her mind a few options fifts to present in an apology to him. “How did he take the blow?”

  “Alesin,” Rolfun reached up to gently take her slight hands in his own massive fists. “Lord Krion dodged the blow.”

  “What?!”

  “He dodged it,” Rolfued. “Thank the Emperor and the Seven Prihat he is agreeable as he is too. While the strike I shed out with was only slightly strohan what I had been practig with him to that point, any other Lord would have berated me for it. Instead, Lord Krion took it as a reward for having his having pushed me!”

  Alesin barely heard the rest of the story of the most ret sparring match with the young lord. All she could focus on was that Lord Krion, fresh to the system, without a single level, let alone a css, had caused her husband, an experierainer of soldiers and young nobles a part of House Bcksword, to go beyond the force he had intended with a strike.

  “All while being without his first level or a css,” she mumbled.

  “All while being without his first level or a css,” Rolfun agreed.

  They both turheir gazes to the tent in which Lord Krion was sleeping. Their faces were stoic to the casual observer, but to those who khem well, they would have seen what looked suspiciously like a hint of shod awe on their faces. Though they both still had to rein in their signifit strength and powers, the fact that they had to even adjust them the slightest bit on this short esission spoke to the speed at which the young lord was improving.

  What kind of monster were they esc?