Bernt carefully visualized the spellform for banefire in his mind’s eye. It was a lot more difficult than trag the spell out in the air in front of him, but he’d been practig. Still, it took more than ten seds to be sure he wasn’t leaving anything out of the intricate pattern. The spell was modeled after a simple fireball—most of it was just a fireball—except that the portion of the spell that defily what was to be burned was heinously plex.

  Behind him, porters sweated despite the chill air as they hauled goods out along the pier toward the riverboat that y docked at the end. It was distrag, but there was no point in practig bat magi a quiet enviro.

  The spell was still too slow to cast like this, but he would improve. Unlike a fireball, banefire burned on the essence of demons. sidering what he’d been up against i few months, this was the spell he o master above all others. With an effort of will, Bernt eled mana through his right hand, aiming down and flexing the brang pathways of the iure that ran through the limb as he did to guide its flow. A missile of boiling gray fme shot out of his hand and spttered out onto the water in front of him, sending curls of steam up to join the low fog hanging over the river.

  The slow-moving current began to carry it away, a watched it ily. Five seds. Ten. Still, the fire didn’t go out. Finally.

  With an effort of will, Bernt dispersed the mana that made up the spell, extinguishing it. It worked! The banefire was sustaining itself with ambient mana. From now on, given time, he could turn aire battlefield into a deathtrap for demons—ohat wouldn’t burn his allies. At least until Jot back. They would o work out some kind of prote for her. Would regur clothes work? Banefire didn’t scorch muerials, so maybe it was that simple…

  trating, Bernt produced manaburn with his right hand and simultaneously cast a trol trip with his left. He seized trol of the white psma as it maed and drew it up into the air in front of him. Then he practiced reshaping it into a tiny wall, a thin line and a ball. The exercise was easy, but it might still help him develop his trol a little.

  It was nothing like trying to manipute a giant wall of fmes had been. But still, every little bit helped.

  Bernt had learned first-hand what this simple trip could do in the right circumstances—and with his perpetual fme iure, he was in a better position to create those circumstahan most pyromancers ever would be. More importantly, he’d seen what could happen if his trol slipped, even for a moment. But this wasn’t the pce to test himself. He’d o find time to go outside the walls and do it at scale.

  Jori had been gone for over a week, but Bernt still felt lost. He wao act—to get her back, or to help her do whatever she was doing over there, it didn’t really matter. Just something. But there was nothing he could do that would make a differe was infuriating, but he’d found it to be a powerful motivator as well.

  At the end of the day, Radast had pushed him around and banished Jori as he had because he could. Worse than that, it robably the easiest choice avaible for him. Bernt wasn’t a threat to him, either directly or politically, so he hadn’t tried to find a way to make it work.

  Bernt couldn’t ge that now, but as long as he didn’t have a better solution, he was going to make sure that the ime someone came for him or one of his friends, pushing him around wouldn’t be the easy way out. He couldn’t very well start setting Beseri citizens on fire, but growing more powerful with magic was the first step to building every kind of influence as a mage—or a wizard.

  And right now, that meant practig his spells and w out a way to finish his first augmentation. The thought sent a spike of worry w its way through his belly. Would it even work, with his strange sed iure?

  Someone plopped down beside him, letting his legs dangle off the side of the pier.

  “M,” Torvald said cheerfully. “ing to see Josie off, too?”

  Bernt grunted in the affirmative. He cast another banefire spell from his right hand, letting it spsh onto the surface of the waters.

  “She’s going down to try to get Jori clearao e back without a pact,” he expined. “I ’t e with her, but it seems ungrateful to not at least see her off.”

  “Yeah…” Torvald said. “I wish I could go see it. A few of my retives in Teres invited me, actually, when they heard about the battle. They suggested I could meet the king, even. My parents wao do it, but my resignatio go into force for awo weeks, and I ’t just go visiting family regardless. When I’m free of my obligations here, I’m going where the goddess leads.”

  Bernt stared. “You don’t know where, at all? And you already quit your job?”

  The padin nodded. “es with the territory—it’s about faith. Ruzinian pilgrims show up where they’re needed. People don’t have to e to us.”

  “You know, I overheard your dad talking to Ed the day you signed up for the Underkeepers. I don’t think he’s going to take this very well. If I had to guess, I’d say he was hoping to set you up with a nice, fortable gig as his successor. You’d probably do a better job, if you don’t mind me saying.”

  Torvald’s expression grew plicated. “He didn’t pick the job, you know. Wasn’t trained for it, either. My grandfather on my mother’s side put him here so he wouldn’t embarrass him. He wao make sure that didn’t happen to me.” He scratched at the back of his neck sheepishly. “Anyway, he and I already had that talk when I joihe Temples to bee an acolyte. He robably hoping I’d bee a padin to Noruk. There are lots of those in the military and Teres’ guard ander is one as well. They’re well-suited to it because—you know, war god.”

  “And instead you’re joining the legendary order of heroes. You know why they call them heroes, right?”

  “Because they tend to die,” Torvald said simply. “I know. I still like them. It makes seo me. It’s what being a padin is all about. As long as I align myself with Her will perfectly, I’ll be unstoppable. The other side of that blessing is that I have to remain true to Her purpose, or I’ll fail. I felt it, itle. We all make mistakes, but Ruzinian padio get into more difficult situations than most. We have a lot less room for error.”

  “Just as long as you know what you’re signing up for,” Bernt said a little doubtfully. He liked Torvald and he was going to be sad to see him go. Wanting to ge the subject, Bernt looked up and around. “Shouldn’t she be here by now? The boat looks loaded up.”

  The porters had stopped hauling goods down the pier and most of the crates that had been piling up on the deck were goowed down below. Sure enough, when he looked back the other way, he spotted the warlock walking out toward them.

  She was alone. Bernt knew she had family iy, but the oime Torvald had asked her about them when they were all w together she’d been very cagey. He guessed they didn’t approve of her choice of profession, or maybe she just wao protect them.

  After a moment she caught sight of them and waved. Torvald returhe gesture with a grin a o her iing.

  “Hey guys. What’s up, are you pnning to e and help me plead my case?”

  Bernt snorted. “I doubt I’d improve your ces. Torvald’s word might carry some weight now, though. They’re really going to send you down to try to hahe case on your own?”

  The Solicitor raised an eyebrow to him in challenge. “What’s the matter, think I ’t ha?” Then she shrugged in resignation. “No, it’s because Radast doesn’t care if we win this o’s generally in our is to improve the legal position for demons in Besermark, but having Jori back here might not be. The deal we made with Jori is that I go and present her case, so that’s what I’m doing. Besides, I’m representing the Underkeepers with this and suing the Solicitors anization for interfering with a gover employee in pursuit of her duties. I’ve got a statement and an official pint from Fiora to kick it off.”

  “You got Fiora to help?” Bernt asked in surprise. Jori had developed a cordial retionship with many of the Underkeepers, but wouldn’t have expected Fiora to go so far as to start a legal battle over Jori’s rights.

  “Sure I did,” Josie said. “I want to win! Besides, Fiora was happy to help—she said that the Underkeepers didn’t leave people behind. It’s one of Ed’s rules, or something. She was under his and in the army. Did you know that?.”

  Bernt nodded. “Yeah, though I’m kind of surprised. Ed always made it sound like he’d kill Jori himself if she made a wrong move.”

  “Maybe, but she didn’t, did she?” Josie replied with a shrug. “She practically saved the city. The rumors that the Solicitors are spreading are exaggerated, but they’re not really wrong.”

  Bernt grimaced at the refereo the heavily embellished rumors that the Solicitors had started spreading about Jori the day after the battle. He still didn’t like it.

  “They’re wildly inaccurate,” he scoffed. “Not to mentioake credit for Torvald’s role in it.”

  Torvald shrugged magnanimously. “It doesn’t matter. Everybody iemple Distriows better, and the public rarely gets the facts, anyway. It wouldn’t have worked out without Jardless.”

  Just then, a rge, weathered-looking man stepped up to them and cleared his throat awkwardly.

  “Miss Solia’am? We’re going to be casting off soon. Are you ready to board?”

  “Yes, of course. Sorry,” Josie said, flushing.

  “Hold on!” Torvald interjected, fumbling at his pocket and produg a stick of inse. He held it out to Josie. “Here, I wao give you this. You should light it at the shrio Ruzinia in Teres. I prayed over it, and I think you’re aligned well enough with her purpose that you might get her blessing. You took the case to help Ed, and he might be in the most hopeless situation I’ve ever heard of. Jori’s odds aren’t really that great either, but I’m not sure if that’ll help.”

  Josie raised a very skeptical eyebrow, and for a mome thought she was going tue with him again, but then she simply accepted the gift and stowed it in her robes.

  “Thanks, Torvald.”

  Cheg over her shoulder, Josie leaoward Bernt and said, in a low voice. “Keep in mind that Radast is going to be watg you, Bernt. He doesn’t like you very much. Don’t do anything stupid. Those rumoing around aren’t going to hurt Jori. If the w fails, sometimes popurity is all you have left to lean on.”

  Without waiting for a response, she turned and hurried down toward the boat, leavi to sider what she’d said in bewilderment. As she boarded, Torvald put a hand o’s shoulder.

  “She’s right,” he said seriously, much to Bernt’s surprise. “You o be careful. The Underkeepers are pht now, but people like to turn on their heroes.”

  Bernt squi Torvald. “Why would they do that? We saved the city. Twiow, actually. At this point, we deserve some respect for that, don’t we?”

  “Sure,” the padin agreed. “But, you should hear the whispers that are going around iemple District. There’s a new power in town—an anization of misfit mages that hired a bunch of heathens—goblins, a demon and at least one warlock to bee a signifit armed forside the city. Within a couple of months, enemies ihe city and kill a bunch of people. Twice. And they came in right through the Underkeepers both times. Suspicious, right? If they weren’t plicit, then surely they’re dangerously inpetent.”

  “But that’s ridiculous!” Bernt spluttered. “We fought the kobolds and the Duergar. People died! And the Duergar are threatening multiple cities, they didn’t just attack us here.”

  “It won’t stop the street preachers from saying it. The Underkeepers are a challeo the Temple District’s influen Halfbridge.” Torvald shook his head and frustratio into his voice as he spoke. “The temples were mostly too absorbed in their stupid political infighting before the battle, that’s one of the reasons I went to join up in the first pce. But that’s over now—they ended up pying a supp role in a fight against a demon lord! The Solicitors, the Underkeepers, you and Jori humiliated them by fag the demons head-on like that while they were pying back-up for the adventurers, the mages and the berserkers. Even the rangers arguably did more for the battle than the padins. They didn’t work together.”

  Bernt shook his head in disbelief. “That’s ihey’re jealous because they weren’t the oo defeat Nuros?”

  “They’re still just people,” Torvald said. ”Now that it’s over, some of the temples are trying to save face by giving me all the credit. It’s not that different from what the Solicitors are doing with Jori, to be ho. Holy, I’ll be gd when Ruzinia calls me to go and leave all this behind me. But you should be careful. Take popur support where you get it. If you tradict the stories about Jori too much, they’ll use it against you and the Underkeepers as a whole.”