《Journey from Linchen》


 The professors letter

    # The Professor''s Letter


    The town of Linchen in the northern Sintrel is said to be blessed and cursed at the same time.  It is said that people dissapear without anyone noticing, that babies born there never cry, that people who live there become strangers to the world and dissapear in the sea, sometimes comming back, often not. It is said that no one in Linchen have ever become sick more than once and that no monsters know of the town. It is said that the people can cure you of any disease, and it is said that no one that has been cured of their diseases have ever left Linchen. I believe this to be true.


    The people of Linchen don''t fear bandits at their doorstep, they are a tranquil people, one of peace, and unsetteling so and are usually left alone. People move there to flee the war, the plague, their old lives or to make a new one, it''s a sanctuary, really. Over time the people who move there become like the rest of the town, tranquil and strange. In Linchel everybody dreams, as nightmares plague the town - a strange contrast to the waking tranquil that they live, but nobody talks about it. If you''d asked them they''d just shake their heads and tell you, that you wouldn''t want to understand, that you were better off not knowing, that if you really had to you could go to the mayors house and he''d tell you of the dreams.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.When people come down from the mayors house they are scared out of their minds, rambling and halucinating or cataconic and drolling. I''ve yet to find out what causes this, but I will, I''m going there myself tomorrow to face the mayor and uncover the truth. I swear upon my honor that I will not return to the castle before I do.


    Professor D. Scapidius.

 Chapter 1

    Alexandria


    Chapter 1: Wake up!


    When each of us came to Lichen, we came knowing different things, being able to do different things and with different goals. You could say it''s brought us together living here. The garden in front of the house is nice at first, then sinister once you get a closer look, then nice again when you''ve been to Lichen for the first time. From the outside Lichen is a nice town, it''s peaceful though a bit strange, there''s something off and you can''t put a finger on it, but everyone is relaxed, the flowers are pretty and nobody is at each others throats, so you try to let go of the feeling and enjoy the town for a bit. You can''t do that for long, so I''d tell anyone to leave before they find out - If you leave you''d have a nice story to tell, one without violence and war, but of good things, those seem to be rarer nowadays. If you choose to stay, you''ll soon enough meet the mayor and you''ll find out. I met him once, you know, in his house in the northern part of the town, close to the tower. I was sick and that was my reason for traveling all the way here from the capitol with my farther. I don''t know if it''s for the better or the worse that I''ve come here, but had I stayed home I probably wouldn''t have been alive, I would have died slowly, but with a maid to watch over me, warm baths, refreshments, lots of books and a promise of entering the light when I passed on. Now I''m not so sure. But it seems I''ve wandered from the subject a bit, my visit at the mayor...


    So, we arrived by carriage to Lichen late in the evening and we were, of course, let in by the guards once my dad showed off his sigil as royal astrological counsellor. The guards we had hired were positioned around the carriage, with their bayonets glinting in the air and opening a way before us by showing the rabble more or less gently aside. We asked around town, but nobody seemed to know of the miracolus cure that had been written of in the professor''s letter. Instead they urged us to the mayor''s house, if we really wanted to know, as he was one of the oldest in the town so he''d be the one to know, if anyone did. The mayor''s house had a lovely garden filled with old statues, flowers and bushes, it could use a kind hand from a gardener, but that was not why we were here. Looking at the house itself gave me chills, even in the hurry; the wooden planks were dark and faded; a window had broken from a stone and there were holes in the roof, hastily filled; the stairs leading to the door were chipped and in bad shape, and over the door an old crest were inlaid portraying a chrushed skull with snakes slithering out of every orifice. I didn''t say anything and nobody else seemed to notice, but the place reminded me more of a shack than a housing fit for a mayor. Suffice to say, I was a tiny bit panicky.


    After a minute of urgent knocking a young, and very pretty, lady opened the door and let us in, while the guards waited outside. I guessed at the time that she had to be the mayors daughter. She led us to a study where the mayor waited, an old fella as bound to his chair as I were to my bed. He wore old fine clothing and held on to an ornamented staff or scepter, while he judged us with his eyes.


    "We''ve heard that in this city any illment can be..." My farther started, but was cut off.


    "All but a few, yes" the mayor rasped, holding a pause for dramatic effect, "though a lot more people would come here if it was so easy. Nothing in this world comes without a price." My farther sighed of relief, sure he could match any price the old man could demand, but before he could say anything the old man coninued. "I''m not talking about money." He said with a smile creeping to his face, "There are other ways to pay, older ways. Are you sure you''re willing to pay the price?"


    "Of course, I wouldn''t have come this far off land for nothing"


    "Hmm, of course not, how silly of me to question," he answered with an apologetic look on his face, before continuing with a grimmer look, "but are you sure the young missus can handle the medicine? It''ll cure her body, but her m.."


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere."Yes, yes, I''m sure my Alexandria can handle whatever drawbacks there is, it can hardly be worse than the condition she''s in now."My farther impatiently cut him off before the old man could finish. Looked at me sternly, not taking no for an answer. I was the only one of his children with magical aptitude and therefore his only shot at a sucessor at the court. I got better or died trying. The mayor looked at me, almost greedily, something I utterly despised men doing and then he nodded.


    "I see, in that case please take her to the guest room, Claire, I''ll be down after I''ve bagained for a price." he said, but hastily added "if that''s fine by you sir?" whereto my dad nooded. Claire lifted me as if I were made of feathers, her strong arms holding me easily to her chest and gently taking me to the next room and putting me in a bed. Some good had come of this trip after all and I wasn''t as on edge as I''d been when we first arived. Pretty women have that effect on me at times. I fell asleep shortly after, as my sickness burned through my energy faster than climbing up and down the cathedral walls would have.


    When I woke up later the pale moon was rising on the horizon that I could see through the little window (one with another big hole in it)  on the northern wall. On the other side of the room the old man sat in his rocking chair, fiddeling with something I couldn''t make out, probably a needle. Ugh, I absolutely hated needles, but I hated being immobile more, so I waited patiently without a complaint. When he was finally done rummaging around he had Claire pull him over besides my bed and to my relief he wasn''t holding a needle, but a round stone with a wierd looking eye rune engraved in it. He looked at me, and I couldn''t make out his expression for all the wrinkels.


    "Wake up Alexandria, I have something for you, a gift." he said and opened his hand a bit more so I could take the stone from him. I stared at him for a bit, then managed to roll my eyes.


    "I can move just as well as you can old man..." His expression shifted to confusion for a bit before becomming blank again.


    "Oh. Right - Claire would you give her the rune?" As instructed she handed the rune from him to me, without an expression. She was pretty, but very cold. Sigh. The stone that had looked round and flat was a lot sharper on edges than I''d have imagined, and the inside of my left hand was cut, as Claire closed my hand around the rune. I croaked in pain and surprise (the best I could manage) and wheezed angrily at her:


    "What was that for? That hurt!" she looked expressionlessly at me for a bit and then spoke with a surprisingly clear voice:


    "No, it didn''t really hurt, but it did serve a purpose. you''ll understand later." She grabbed my hand harder, forcing the rune to cut my skin deeper and I started to bleed. It took me a couple of seconds before I realized what they were doing, making me bleed on the rune. I could feel some of my magical energy leaving with the blood and dissapearing into the stone, powering it. Blood magic. My eyes widened and I could feel the color rushing from my face. They were using bloodmagic on me. With my own blood nonetheless. I remembered that bloodmagic was outlawed by the church, it was powerful old magic, that attracted demons, drained your lifeforce, ripped your essence to pieces and banished you from the light, according to my arcanus tutor Professor Scapidius. Claire didn''t seem so attractive anymore, her iron grip locking my hand together and her expressionless face looking at me like I was laundry. I felt a pulse running up from the palm of my hand and up into my skull as my vision turned pleadingly to the old man. He stared intensely at me, his expression urgent, and said the last thing I remember before I blacked out:


    "Wake up."

 Chapter 2

    Chapter 2: Bitter Pill


    When I woke up I was still in bed, and the moon was rising again. The mayor and Claire had left the room. The house was silent, except for the faint hollow sound of a wind chime coming in from the garden. It didn''t sound exactly nice, but it gave me a feeling of homesickness anyway, we used to have one by the armory and it could be heard at night when the smiths weren''t working. I started to notice other things; the house itself seemed darker than when I fell asleep, like the shadows were deeper, staring back at me in the moonlight; spiderwebs covered every corner and a layer of dust covered the bulk of the room, with exception of the bed and the worktable where the mayor had made the rune. I could feel a faint tingling from my hand where the rune had cut me, but I couldn''t feel the rune in my hand anymore. I lifted my head from the pillow and looked down at my hand; I''d been bandaged while I was sleeping. I let my head fall back into the pillow with a little *whump* and closed my eyes to go back to sleep, not much else to do when lifting your head is the hardest thing you do all day.


    "Good evening miss Alexandria." my eyes bolted open at the sound of Claire''s voice and I made a little croaking sound. How elegant of me. She was standing behind me in the doorway so I could only barely see her, much less read her expression.


    "You have a choice to make Alexandra, I can heal your body but you''ll risk your mind in the process. You''ll become part of Linchen and loose your connection to your "light" for as long as you''re here. If you choose not to accept I wouldn''t be able to offer you my hospitality anymore, but the mayor would take you in. He''ll care for you and then send you on the great journey when you''re ready." The great journey, huh? That sounded more like a ritual sacrifice than a hike and honestly the old man was creepy enough already with his blood magic that I didn''t want to try either. It didn''t sound too promising, but neither did loosing my connection to the light...


    "Why haven''t he already just taken me then?" I asked.


    "He isn''t here, he can''t be. What you and your farther met was merely an illusion, one with might, but still." She said, "When you fell asleep I transported you here, to my house and he doesn''t have any power that can reach in here."


    "Okay... I eeeh, yeah." The house did look a bit different and if they both were mages I guess that explained it, I had more questions though. "So- if I left Linchen would I then be able to come back into the light?"


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon."As much as any from the outside world I''d imagine. But no one has escaped Linchen yet though."


    "Why not? There weren''t many guards or anything and the walls aren''t that high." There was silence for a bit.


    "I''m sorry to tell you this, but you are no longer in the Linchen you knew or even on the same plane anymore." she said with actual empathy. My brain stopped for a second.


    "What." I didn''t really believe anything of what I just heard, so I repeated with more feeling, "What?"


    "The rune the mayor made transported you here, to Linchen, but it is not binding you here, this is not your home yet and if you died you''d probably return to your own afterlife. Maybe at least, I don''t know." She paused a bit and continued. "You''re like a demon being summoned to a plane that is not yours, you could be banished if you could find someone who knew how, but if I heal you you''ll be home on both planes and you''d have to find another way."


    "I''m no demon!" I spat at her with as much resentment I could muster. Surprisingly it wasn''t a lot and I probably sounded more like a flustered kid than anything.


    "Maybe not, but you are in an equal situation." she said and then after a moment of thought added, "you also need to make a deal to be able to stay."


    "What... kind of deal?" I asked. "I haven''t much to offer besides what my farther have already agreed to."


    "Oh, but you do. If I heal you, you''ll have to promise me to help me kill the mayor." She answered.


    "Uhhh..." I said squinting my eyes suspiciously at nowhere in particular. "Why would you want to kill the mayor?" She was silent for a bit, maybe thinking of a good answer.


    "I think that''s what my creator would have wanted."


    "Creator?" I asked, but she just continued.


    "He was keen on protecting others and at hunting the great ones. They called him ''The Great Hunter''. The mayor is helping the great ones by sacrificing the minds of people who come here to them. It only seems... logical for me to continue his work. Will you choose to stay and get healed?" I thought about it all for a while until I reached a decision. Maybe a bit more than a while.


    "I''ll take the healing, thank you."


    "I''m happy to hear it Alexandria." She said. I noticed that I liked hearing her say my name. "I''ll bring the blood then." She finished and disappeared back out the door, leaving me wondering what I had gotten myself into.

 Chapter 3

    Chapter 3: The ritual begins


    I really did not like this, at all. I didn''t like blood magic, I didn''t like needles and I didn''t like partaking in anything with either of those parts, especially not when it was including both. Besides I had no idea how this "old blood" worked as an alchemical ingredient or whatever it was. It would be reassuring to know, ...but on the other hand, it did already sound plenty of unholy and I had no choice, so I choose to stay blissfully ignorant and not ask questions. It took Claire a couple of minutes to prepare the blood but I would have needed a couple of days to get ready for it. She came in with a crude bowl made of black stone, runes etched around the edge, giving off a malevolent red glow. I had never seen any runes like that before, but they made the small hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Claire walked slowly to the side of my bed and put down the bowl on the night table before turning to me.


    "Close your eyes Alexandria." She said, "It''s easier that way." Oh gods the needle, oh gods it had to be big for her to actually worry that I might see it, Minja grant me strength, I thought to myself as I closed my eyes. I could feel tears gathering, but damn it to oblivion if I was going to scream or cry. I didn''t want to appear weak so I forced the tears back and tried to prepare myself.


    "Are you ready Alexandria?" she asked I croaked something back, along the lines of "just fuck me up". She laid a piece of cloth over my eyes and opened my shirt, which I didn''t have time to get excited over. The first thing I noticed was a forceful tug in my gut, and then a sharp lingering, throbbing pain rushing through me from my chest, starting right over my heart. I gasped in panic and bit together so hard that I could almost hear my teeth creak under the pressure. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I wasn''t being impaled by a giant needle, I was being cut with an uneven knife. I couldn''t see which somehow made it all worse, and the world began to spin as wave after wave of continuing pain washed over me and Claire carved on. I think realistically it only too a couple of minutes, but I wouldn''t know. For all I knew, it could have been an hour before she lifted the blade from my skin. There was a few minutes where I blacked out I think, at least a few where I didn''t notice anything but the pain. Then I went numb. The world became still for a second, I tugged in a quick breath and I noticed my heart again, hammering away like a raging wyrm. I felt a heavy liquid being poured into the wounds, it felt as if it was freezing the wounds together and then flowing further down through my open skin, my flesh and into my heart before a new wave was coming crashing down. After a while it stopped and I didn''t recognize it at first, it felt unreal. After a minute of me realizing I was not dead, Claire removed the piece of cloth. She was standing over me, observing my face and I observed hers. She looked different now. Her skin was like porcelain, with no wrinkles or folds and her eyes glossy and dark. Her rosy cheeks were smooth and looked like they were painted, beautifully, but not real. She looked like a doll, but her lips moved when she spoke and her eyes had a spark of life.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident."You did well Alexandria." She said to me and I could see in her eyes that she meant it. "How are you feeling?" I hadn''t thought about that. I felt fine actually. The pain was subsiding quickly and I could feel the magic in me rushing around, sending soft pulses through me as it mixed with the blood that was now coursing through my veins. There was also something else, but I couldn''t put my finger on it, my mind was so blurry and I saw so much more than I was used to, I couldn''t keep up; there was the faint blood splatters on the ceiling, the hole in the window that was from a gunshot, there was Claire that was clearly not as human as I had thought and then, there was the moon. It wasn''t a pale moon as I had thought, it was a red, bloody, crimson moon, closer and more threatening than it should be. I think I tried to answer her, but I don''t remember, I blacked out again, but this time I didn''t wake up in my room.

 Chapter 4

    Chapter 4: Whispers of the sleeping world


    When I woke up I was standing on a rocky surface stretching as far as I could see, dotted with a hundred pillars of stone, reaching for an ink black sky with nothing in it. The pillars were tall, some only a mere 5 metres while a few must have been almost 20 metres tall. They had the same kind of runes engraved in them that the bowl had had, only bigger and they didn''t glow. There was a single lightsource in the rocky field, a lantern hanging from a small iron pole a half metre of the ground. It had a ghostly green light and I could feel the magic being emitted from it. The place was surreal, but I had just had a rune carved into me and filled with some kind of blood, so I didn''t try to convince myself that I knew what was going on. I looked down at the rune, it glowed with a soft orange glow, like that from a warm forge but more alive, pulsing in tact with my heartbeats. It consisted of three vertical lines, with dots over them, where the middle line was lowered a bit, and then a smooth curve were carved from one side of the rune to the other, crossing the three lines in the upper part. I didn''t know the rune, but for some reason it felt familiar. I heard a faint sound from somewhere around me, a whisper breathing out words in a foreign language I''d never heard before. It seemed to come from the pillars and the earth and though I didn''t exactly understand it I knew that it was trying to communicate with me. That was unnerving, but I didn''t know what else to do than listen, so I did.


    I stood on the field for a long time, trying to understand the whispers, before I finally realized that I actually were standing and not laying down. I could stand on my own again. Or maybe this was just a dream. I tried walking around a bit, which went fine, though I felt weak from having been sick for so long. Any other day I would have been ecstatic to find out, but now I was just calmly analyzing myself, trying different angels, running, climbing and throwing some loose rocks. My dexterity wasn''t bad, it might actually be better than ever, which I didn''t mind. After a while I realized that there were something out there in the darkness between the pillars, watching me. It hid itself well and didn''t make any noise always staying in the corner of my eye, not getting closer, which I then thanked it for.


    "Da''es shain tia asa, shan." The whispers stopped for approximately the same time it took my brain to restart itself. I froze, not knowing what to do. I had just talked in an unknown language, saying unknown things to an unknown being that I couldn''t even see.


    "Ye aven mia sedai tia mia souvra." The voice answered from the pillars in front of me, disappearing and reappearing gradually like it was blowing around amongst the pillars in a nonexistent wind. I understood that it was an invitation, but what kind.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere."Ye lyet tia a shan". I tried to answer it, and more of the whispers left my lips, leaving me terrified of myself. I didn''t know where I was, what had happened to me, what the blood had done to me or anything else right now. I felt my knees giving in under me and I collapsed on the ground shaking. I sat there for a long time before I got my legs under control again and lifted myself up. I walked over and picked up the lantern. It was robust with a frame made of spiked metal and formed like a cage around something like a fairy light it was also kind of heavy, so I figured it could be used as a weapon. Lantern in hand I started following the whispers. As I got closer to them they''d disappear a bit further in, sometimes turning me sometimes making me go back, but I had nowhere else to go so I continued.


    I walked for hours, many hours, maybe days. I felt no hunger, no thirst and I didn''t sleep. I walked through canyons and over ridges, I left the pillar lands after maybe a days walking, maybe two, and reached a trail. It was fresh, the grey earth had just been dug up moments before I got there as the dust was still settling. The voice traveled along it so I had no choice but to follow. I didn''t consciously understand what it was telling me, but somehow I knew. It was teaching me something, not just my subconscious, it might even be my body that understood on it''s own, but It was there, the knowledge of whatever. I followed the trail for twice or trice as long as I had been walking between the pillars and slowly I began to understand words of what the voice whispered and I felt weirdly proud. I reached dunes of black sand and walked over them following the whisper, and only seeing the 2 metres in front of me that the light from my lantern could illuminate. I started understanding what the whispering meant, not in a crude ''words'' way but in a truer way a more perfect understanding. Over the next few weeks through the dunes and the crater that followed that It taught me to summon the force of the sleeping world around me to burn and scorch and move things for me. It taught me to see and hear and smell and feel the sleeping world that no one saw and it taught me how to bend its horrors to my will. I came to call it ''Miere'' and I was it''s servant.


    When we reached the ocean it was frozen and she was waiting for me, beautiful in her own terrifying form; she was an abomination; with a head crowned in freely flowing tentacles, a face that was only a mouth; her body was that of a snake without the flesh and skin, from it protruding spines that flowed like grass in a breeze; her limbs were frail to look at but agile and strong, joined together by tentacles as black as the night. Her tails swirled lazily around behind her, ready to strike and rake. In a split second she was around me, swirling and muddling the world around us with colors. My forehead burned as she carved it and I woke up.

 Chapter 5

    Chapter 5: Victoria


    I woke to the sound of gunfire ripping through the air and I jumped in surprise. I was disoriented and didn''t know where I was, it felt like I had been dreaming for a year, but I remembered it all; the whisper, the runes, the wind, the endless walking and Miere. It didn''t feel unreal at all and the memory didn''t fade, but it was hard to remember specific details, even words that I had been talking like it was my own native tongue. I felt as if I had lost something, but I didn''t have time to worry about that now I realized and shook myself out of it. I was standing on a town plaza and opposite of me was a woman in battle gear decapitating a man the size of an ox with a huge cleaver. That was scary. Around me on the plaza, were dead bodies, some scorched and mauled others just decapitated. They were all misshapen in different ways; a few were bestial with claws and fur and faces that looked like dogs, some had more than one pair of arms or legs, a lot were just very big as if they had been turned halfways into golems and two even looked like they were made of stone. It didn''t scare me or even unsettle me at this point, but it did startle me. Apparently neither did the woman, she came straight at me her pistol leveled at my head, but she didn''t fire. She stopped right outside the circle and I could see her face clearer as she came into the light of my lantern that laid on the ground. Oh, I still had that, it definitely had not been a dream then. She had cuts and bruises that covered most of her face, but nothing serious it seemed. She wasn''t ugly, but not a beauty either, her hair looked like it was done with a pair of broken scissors, she was well trained and tall which made her look kinda tomboyish with the uniform and all. She had piercing green eyes and a strict face.


    "Who is the current ruler of Sintrel?" she yelped at me, to which I stuttered incoherently in surprise.


    "I-I-I don''t eeh... emperor eeeh." I started and she started slowly pulling back the cock of the gun, one click at a time.


    "I don''t remember, please don''t shoot me!" I almost screamed, holding my hands out in front of me in a warding panicky gesture. She looked a bit surprised.


    "Okay, on to question number 2 then: what''s the name of the recently disappeared arcanus professor of the royal court?"


    "Professor D.?" I asked halfway in disbelief, why the hell were she asking those kind of questions? I straightened my back like I had to at court and added in my best formal tone "Professor Daniel Scapidius Mender, or to his students... Professor Dung." I couldn''t help myself. I might also have smirked a bit. She smiled and laughed a bit under her breath, but didn''t put her gun away just yet.


    "Heh, good gracious... kids these days." She continued in a softer tone, more at ease it seemed "Are you Alexandria Skywell Abbot?"


    "Yeah." I said and she lowered the gun. "What''s with the weird questions?"


    "I had to know you weren''t another of those witches." She said and then looked at the monsters laying around me on the plaza. "Concerning that... How the hell did you manage to kill that many? It doesn''t look like something a 17 year old could do and Sir Abbot didn''t mention you being trained in any actual magic. Did he forget that?" She looked at me with her piercing gaze, reading me.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings."Umm that wasn''t me." I said honestly. "I wouldn''t be able to do that I think."


    "You think," she said lifting an eyebrow, and continuing with a smirk "really?"


    "Yep, I just got here, ummm woke up actually." I said, poker-faced. I was a pretty good liar, usually, when normal things happened, but this was not really normal so I didn''t want to try my luck at the moment. She sighed, rolled her eyes in a ''gods dammit all'' fashion and reached behind her back with her free hand and took out a rune stone, I couldn''t see which. She muttered some curses to herself, and activated it with some drops of blood. It started to glow a faint blue. She looked at me again and saw the same faint blue glow in her eyes and I couldn''t let go.


    "Let''s repeat. Are you Alexandria Skywell Abbot?." She asked and her voice sounded like silk.


    "Yes." I answered happily.


    "Did you do this?" She continued while looking me in the eye.


    "No," I said.


    "Do you know how this happened?" I didn''t want to lie to her.


    "No, I just got here, but it looks like magic." I said slowly.


    "Where did you come from then?"


    "The dark lands." I said. She blinked in surprise and the blue glow disappeared, her voice went back to normal.


    "What are the dark lands?" she sounded confused, but wasn''t questioning what I had told her.


    "Did you just hex me?" I asked back, on guard now.


    "Yeah, it''s a charm so you couldn''t lie to me." She said flatly, with no remorse. " I believed you before the whole ''I just got here'' thing, but it seemed unreal so I had to check. I guess I''ll have to accept that for now."


    "And you''re accusing me of being a witch." I mumbled. "So, who are you again?"


    "Victoria ____, one of the guards your farther hired for the journey to Linchen." she said smiling and continued "and after that the guard he hired to find you after you went missing and the town changed. He fled the town shortly after that, leaving me with one of the other guards, Noel, who''s dead now." She looked tired all of a sudden.


    "Oh." I said a bit surprised that my dad had left me here with only two guards. "Pleasure to meet you I guess."


    "Likewise Alexandria, do you know how to defend yourself?" She asked looking at me, judging. "I can see you''ve got a mace, but do you know how to use it?" She pointed at my lantern. I looked at my lantern. it had grown a long iron grip since I had woken up, it was probably a gift from Miere.


    "Swing it at the bad guys till they die?" I asked hopefully and picked it up. She rolled her eyes again.


    "No." she said and looked annoyed at me, "It''s not that simple, but it''ll have to do for now. Try to aim before you swing at least. I''ll teach you if we get back." She turned around on the spot and started marching out of the plaza, fast. I followed her, half running.