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    Emeryn and Heylien passed over the border to the Kinship of Jordfaste without encountering a single rhinn soldier.


    Emeryn couldn’t help but feel like she was about to topple from the horse at any moment. She brushed her fingers over her bare shoulder down to the smooth nub where her arm once was. Broken was not how she would describe herself, but she feared her family would see her that way.


    Emeryn shook off her dark thoughts and breathed in the crisp air and the faint earthly undertones of life growing in the surrounding fields. With summer nearly over, the land would soon be covered in snow. Time to stock up for the winter and settle in for the long dark.


    Only this time they couldn''t. Not with Maydian under attack. Rumors were that Eldsprak had fallen, and Goslin had rushed back home to mount a counterattack. She wanted him to take Heylien with him. The archer was steady and trustworthy, and he would need all the help he could. Instead, her new husband argued that she was the one that needed an escort back to Jordfaste. He could be such a thick brick. Emeryn smiled. But it was out of love and concern for her, so she accepted Heylien''s escort whether she needed it or not.


    "A rare smile."


    "I''m not so dour, am I?" Emeryn asked, brushing fiery red hair out of her face.


    "I didn''t mean it like that," Heylien said. "You''ve been very quiet since we set out." He rode on her left side, as if to position himself to catch her if she fell from her horse. Ever since she lost her arm, she was often struck with moments of unsteadiness.


    In his hand, Heylien held his bow at the ready. His gaze constantly searched their surroundings even though the land was flat for miles around them. He took the job as her protector seriously.


    "What made you decide to come with me to the Kinship?"


    The corner of his right eye twitched. "Goslin asked me to. It was the right thing to do."


    "I''m not so sure the doing the right thing is a great motivator for you, Heylien."


    He turned to look at her. "No?"


    "Your kingdom has fallen. Yet, you ran off to a different part of the world with the wife of your friend. Tell me why."


    "I have no family ties in Eldsprak anymore. Besides, you are also my friend." A silence fell between them before the archer continued, "All I have are my bow and some questions."


    Emeryn raised an eyebrow. "Questions? Oh, you mean Taera, our god. You asked me about her before." She remembered how he pestered her over Taera''s existence back at the academy.


    He didn’t try to hide his interest. "You wouldn’t answer me then, will you now? Is she still with us?"


    She turned to face him. They’d traveled and fought together for quite some time now, but she didn''t understand him like the others. It wasn''t that he was unfriendly or distant. He simply felt unknowable. There was nothing she could read from his steady gaze.


    When she did not answer him, Heylien continued, "I am also curious about the societal structure of the Kinship. You claim to have no nobles."


    "No, we don’t." Emery thought back to what she knew about Heylien. He was a noble once. "What of your family''s name? Your reason for your quest was to restore it, wasn''t it?"


    He sighed, finally looking away. "With this upheaval, many noble houses will crumble. Who knows what’ll happen?"


    A real ray of sunshine, Emeryn thought, and he had the gall to tease her for smiling.


    Emeryn ran her fingers over her stump. It had fully healed, so why did it still pain her? Not her cleaved shoulder, but her arm. She felt occasional phantom shivers of pain from the luison''s bite.


    Amputating her arm had been the only way to save her and, more so, she was imbued with a newfound power. After Sarien''s hasty intervention, the earth sang to her. Exactly what his white flame had changed in her, she didn''t know, but it had done something to strengthen her link to the earth.


    "So when will we see Jorden?" Heylien asked.


    “Eventually.”


    “Do you think your Kin will fight?"


    She’d given the question some serious thought herself but hadn''t found an answer.


    "I don''t know," she said truthfully. "It''s not in us to fight, much less kill. We''re builders and creators, we don''t destroy. But then again, we haven''t faced a threat like this before." All of Maydian depended on Jordfaste and its geomancers to provide sustenance to the rest of the kingdoms, keeping the Kinship free from any potential conflict.


    A few hours later, they came upon five men carrying cudgels. Emeryn reined in her horse. "Greetings. Since when does the Kinship have soldiers?"


    One of the men stepped forward. He was about her age and had the characteristic auburn hair of the Kin. Intense eyes stared up at her and he held up a piece of wood hanging around his neck. It was shaped like a disc, oiled, and polished to a shine. An image was burned into it. A mound of earth. The symbol of the First Circle.


    "Well met. We have been authorized to patrol this area and deliver a message to any Kin we come across. May I ask, what is your name?"


    "Emeryn of the Fourth Circle."


    The young man startled and immediately dropped down on one knee. "Forgiveness. We didn''t know."


    His four friends followed suit and waited in silence for her next command.


    Heylien rode up. "No nobles, huh?"


    She waved her hand in irritation.


    "Please stand and look at me," she said. They did as commanded, and their leader glanced up at her, openly eyeing her missing arm.


    "Are you out patrolling for invading rhinn?" she asked.


    He nodded. "We had word from Tyriu but have not seen any of these so-called invaders for ourselves."


    "What is the message you are supposed to give our fellow countrymen?"


    "Go east," he said.


    Emeryn frowned. "East? Why are the Kin heading east?"


    "All the Kin are to gather. We are leaving."


    "Leaving?" she asked. "To aid the other kingdoms?"


    The young soldier shrugged. "They wouldn''t tell me. I am only First Circle."


    "Where exactly is everyone gathering?" Heylien asked.


    "They didn''t tell me that either," he said. "All they said was to go east."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Emeryn sighed. "Thank you for the information."


    They all bowed to her, then turned and hurried away, throwing glances over their shoulders as they went.


    "What was that about?" Heylien asked. "Why did they bow and scrape to you?"


    "Fine!" Emeryn said. "Yes, we have nobles. Not like Eldsprak, with all the money and opulence, but with influence and power? Absolutely."


    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself. "We might not act like it, but the differences between our stations are vast." She looked straight into Heylien’s face. "I hate it. It was one of the main reasons I left my home. At least where you’re from, people are treated with respect, or with something resembling honor. Here, it''s kept quiet and hidden away, but everyone knows. It''s so much worse when everyone pretends that we''re all equal, when in reality a grower will always tower over a geomancer, and a geomancer is worth a thousand men and women without a blossoming inner nurture."


    He shook his head, a bewildered look on his face. "Eldsprak''s nobles are a scourge. You want to know why my family lost their standing? The real reason?"


    "Why?" she asked.


    "Rebellion," he said, simply.


    That took her aback. "What?"


    "My father was disgusted by how the commoners were being treated. He, my uncles, and a few of their friends gathered men, provided weapons and rose up against the king. They wanted the commoners to take control of the kingdom, to overthrow the monarchy so we could have true equality, where every man has equal worth."


    "What happened?"


    "What always happens. They killed him for it," he said. "My father and his allies didn''t get very far in their insurrection. They were crushed and my family lost everything. I was four years old when my father was executed. My mother died shortly after. After that, it was just me and my brother. He was caught and incarcerated a few years later for stealing food and didn’t survive the dungeons."


    "How did you survive?"


    "By then, I was seven. Old enough to work. Found employment cleaning in the keep. One of the washerwomen took me in. Her name was Ebba. Her husband was an archery instructor."


    "And he taught you to use the bow?"


    Heylien nodded. "Torsten’s hand with the bow was steadier than even my own."


    "Why are you telling me all this? Does Goslin know?"


    Heylien shook his head. "I told you because you shared with me, and I’ve been carrying this, and more, weight on my shoulders since long before I met your husband."


    "More?" Emeryn asked.


    "I joined the resistance as a lad and have been part of it ever since. I''m not actually trying to rebuild my family''s name."


    "Why would you join Goslin and the rest of us if you hate nobles?"


    "Recruitment," Heylien admitted.


    She furrowed her brow. "Recruitment?"


    "It was my reason for being at the academy in the first place. Meeting Goslin forced me to reconsider the notion that all nobles are scum. With him on our side, we might actually have had a chance to change things. Goslin would never stand for it if he knew how commoners are actually treated in Eldsprak."


    "You should have told him. He would have understood."


    Heylien winced. "Would he? Your husband can be quite fervent when it comes to what is right and what is wrong. And he can be a bit naive about how the world works. But I will tell him. The resistance has probably crumbled by now. With the rhinn invading, I''m not sure what is happening anymore."


    She smiled. "My husband will help your cause."


    Emeryn prodded her horse forward, before turning and shouting at a stunned Heylien. "You''re going to learn a lot about me before we are done in Jordfaste. Now come along and you might just meet a god."


    "Really?"


    She winked at him.


    They reached the First Circle in a few hours. It was a misnomer. It was no longer shaped as a circle, but it once was long ago. As the population grew, people moved or relocated. The First Circle’s location was more about the physical distance from the capital than a specific designated part of the land.


    The First Circle consisted of the men and women without nature’s nurture inside them. In the Kinship, they weren’t called commoners, but that is what they were. Most geomancers belonged to the second, sometimes Third Circle, and lived closer to the capital. Growers often traveled to the First Circle to use their magic to encourage land to grow. Afterwards, they would return to their lives of comfort while those in the First Circle lived out their lives doing all the manual labor of tending to the crops.


    To Emeryn''s surprise, the fields were all empty. What little crops remained were dried husks under the sun.


    "I don’t understand this," Emeryn said. "Why would they leave before tending to the crops?" Above all else, the crops grown and traded were the economic and political backbone of the Kinship. Without it, Jordfaste could fall prey to the other kingdoms.


    "Orders," Heylien said.


    Emeryn didn’t reply, and they rode on in silence past field after empty field. It broke her heart to see the land in such a sorry state. She would have some choice words for her mother when she found her.


    The brickyard came and went, a place where geomancers and pyromancers cooperated to create the reddish bricks used throughout both the Kinship and Eldsprak and even Tyriu. She worked in one herself as a younger woman, honing her craft. Peeking inside, Emeryn saw that all the kilns were cold, the place devoid of any human life.


    Emeryn treasured her time at the brickyard. She loved working with clay and earth. Her talent for the work at such a young age was the one thing her mother praised her for.


    Her mother and her sisters were all growers, as was her father. No one knew why Emeryn was born a geomancer. She had learned to live with being different from the rest of her family, but she would always be less than her sisters. Her parents treated her differently. Shame and embarrassment were what finally made her leave Jordfaste and enroll at the academy in Eldsprak, a decision that she was forever grateful for as she thought back to Goslin and the others.


    Emeryn smiled when she remembered their group struggling in the tournament. It hadn’t been that long ago, but after all that has happened, they all seemed so young and innocent.


    "What are you smiling about?" Heylien asked.


    "Focusing on the good," she answered. "I can’t fathom the reason for abandoning the First Circle like this. Are they truly this frightened of the rhinn?"


    Heylien glanced back at the empty brickyard. "You know them better than me."


    "I’m not so sure anymore."


    "You might have some answers soon," he said, pointing to a small house near the edge of a field where people should be busy harvesting potatoes this late into the summer. A light flickered in one of the house’s windows.


    "Someone is home," he said.


    "Let’s go," Emeryn agreed.


    "I’ll go, you stay here. Might not be safe."


    "Please," Emeryn scoffed. "With how scruffy you’re getting, they’ll think you’re a bandit. I’m going."


    "Fine," Heylien muttered, scratching at the stubble on his chin. "Just be careful."


    "I won’t tell my husband you endangered me," she said, giving him a teasing smile.


    "Good. If you did, he might not want to overthrow the nobility with me," Heylien replied.


    She heard voices coming from inside the house, but they fell silent as soon as she knocked on the door. The small building looked well kept, likely built with bricks from the nearby brickyard. The clay was still in a fine condition despite its obvious age. From the manner in which the bricks resonated with power, the house could easily be a hundred years old.


    "I’m not here to hurt you," she said. "My name is Emeryn of the Fourth Circle. I just want to ask you some questions about what is happening here."


    She wasn’t sure if she actually belonged to the Fourth Circle. As a geomancer, Emeryn should be placed in the Third Circle, but a family could not be divided, making her an uncomfortable compromise. A geomancer born to two growers was unheard of. If not for her parents’ impeccable reputation, her mother''s fidelity would have been openly questioned. The long glances and muttered words of those around her, along with the way her own family made her think she was worth less, finally made it unbearable to stay in Jordfaste.


    She might have been redesignated as a Second Circle since her absence. There was no way for her to know before meeting up with her family. Emeryn did not relish the thought of seeing them again, but she would have to put that aside now. First and foremost, she needed to know what was happening in the Kinship. "I’m just wondering where everyone went."


    A voice came from within the house. "Who’s that with you? He looks like a ruffian."


    Emeryn chuckled at Heylien''s wry expression. "He''s with me. My bodyguard. You don''t have to worry about him."


    The door swung open, revealing an old couple clutching each other''s hands. "Oh, I’m sorry, miss. We should have realized with how you are dressed. Of course, you can’t be out on your own in these times."


    Both of them glanced with interest at and her missing arm.


    "Where is everyone?" Emeryn repeated.


    "East," the old man grumbled. "They all went east."


    "Why?" Emeryn asked.


    "The growers out here said they felt a calling from the Fifth Circle telling them to return and to spread the word that all Kin should head east," the old lady said.


    Fifth Circle? There was no Fifth Circle. "Did these growers give a reason as to why everyone needed to leave? Was it the invaders?"


    "What invaders? We haven’t seen any invaders," the old man muttered.


    The woman patted his hand. "There, there."


    She looked to Emeryn and answered, "You are correct. They said we would be overrun if we stayed here. Haven’t seen anyone, though."


    "We’re not going anywhere," the old man said. "This is our home."


    "I’m not going to make you do anything," Emeryn reassured them. "What was that about a Fifth Circle?"


    "We don’t know," the old man answered.


    The woman nodded vigorously. "We’re First Circle. We didn’t even know there was a fifth. We didn''t want to leave. We’ve lived here since we were old enough to drag a plow."


    Emeryn smiled at them. "I think you made the right choice."