Alaster thought on it for a moment; questioning how much Kaylen should know. He could tell Kaylen would see though almost any lie. He decided to let it all out: The battle, the cave and the journey back around the mountain. To his surprise Kaylen took the deaths of his people better than Alaster expected. “You’re not mad about it?”

     Kaylen let out a sigh, “I’m not happy about it, but I learned years ago not to focus on race; just a person’s integrity. You’re a soldier yes, but not a puppet, you mourned the death of a child and despite being an enemy, you helped that girl anyway… twice in fact, even when she wanted to kill you.”

      “Twice?” Alaster said doing a terrible job at faking surprise.

     “You can’t fool me kid. I’ve seen wounds like yours before and the black blood that was on your armor. You were attacked by ghouls weren’t you?”

     Alaster couldn’t find a way out of the accusation and admitted to it with a silent nod; avoiding eye contact.

     “You’re lucky that sword of yours has magic in it. Normal weapons don’t work as easily on those beasts.”

     “You know my sword is magic?”

     “Yes, it’s a runic weapon. They were made a long time ago from some forgotten empire that crumbled from its own weight. Very rare, I’ve only seen one other in my lifetime. You’ll never have to maintain it and it has abilities that will become apparent as you use it.”

      “What did the one you saw do?”

     The question made Kaylen stall his swing, which he readjusted and came down on the wood. “I’d rather not say…something…monstrous,” there was a disturbed look that broke Kaylen’s unfazed demeanor. He soon returned to the present, anyway, let’s get this wood dropped off and we’ll check in on Teva and Ciara and see where she’s at.” Kaylen grabbed an armload of wood and Alaster followed suit.

     As the two of them preceded to the last house, Teva made her way around the corner of a cottage carrying Ciara’s weapons in her medicine basket. Ciara opened the door quickly and let her in. Teva offered her the basket which she took by the handle with one hand. “Thank you.” She said with genuine appreciation. She moved it over to a nearby table and started attaching the pouches to her belt.

      “Where are you going to go?”

      “North and then west across the great divide back into Inamian territory.” She was lying; more interested in covering her tracks. She wasn’t inclined to give even Teva a straight answer.

      “Well I hope you get there safely---” Teva stopped talking and her ears adjusted, “Oh, no, not again.”

     “What?” Ciara soon heard it as well; the sound of horse hooves thundering towards the town. She has better hearing than me! “Who are they?”

      “A local gang of bandits. They have been extorting the village for several months. Because we are on the fringe of the kingdom we don’t receive protection.” She headed to the door, “I have to ring the bell to warn the villagers. Stay here until they are gone, they don’t take kindly to people being out when they’re here especially strangers.”