Berit is not what I had expected.

I’d heard tales of what Berit had done when he fought for Daegol. The devastation he'd caused on the battlefield was beyond compare to any other mage. The spell he'd created under Daegol's guidance, The Cloud, had wiped out the entire population of a city on the coast in one attack.

But Berit claims to have never cast the spell himself, claims it was Daegol who had enacted the destructive magic. There are those who doubt the truth of this.

Until now, I was one of those who always had.

It is hard, however, to see the Monster of Merryhead Bay in the man before me.

Berit jokes with his troops, entertains them with stories, even sings a song or two. If his face is turned away, it is easy to forget that this is a man who had once served the Dark so wholly he had created a spell that killed you just by breathing the air.

"Lost in thought, Master Unlucky?" Berit asks.

I am staring absently into the distance and quickly try to mask what I am thinking. I'm walking to Berit's right, and I can't see the scar on the General's face. He looks kind.

"I told you my name, sir. It's Kit," I remind him.

Berit's eyes crinkle when he smiles.

"That you did, lad, but who's to say if that was the pearl of truth amidst the murky seas of your lies and omissions," he replies. His smile doesn't drop, but his eyes show a challenge in them. I like Berit despite myself.

"It's the truth, sir. But if you'd prefer to call me 'Master Unlucky' then I will answer to it."

Berit laughs, slapping his thigh hard. His horse's ears swivel towards the noise, but it doesn't balk. It is well-trained.

"You have a bite to you; I'll give you that. For all your polished manners, you still have some jagged edges." Berit looks up towards the sky. "Sundown will be here soon. We had better halt and set up camp. Make yourself useful, lad."

He reins his horse off to one side to give out orders and I am dismissed.

I help some men gather firewood. Some wear curious brands and tattoos on their arms or the back of their necks, though they won't answer me about how they got them.

Some are scarred horrifically, as though they have already seen the worst of battle. They seem in high spirits, however, and none have a bad word to say about Berit.

"How long have you served under him?" I question the soldier that Berit had called Bill. The man thinks about it for a while.

"Maybe three or four years? Long enough to know he's the only General worth his weight in salt. Best there is. The lowest fatalities on the front lines and the highest recruiting power," Bill says, dumping an armful of kindling into my outstretched arms.

"It's what we're doing out, actually. We're meeting up with a batch of new recruits twenty miles south of here to escort them to the Brown-hair Barracks," he explains.

It gave me plenty to think about.

Kasper had always thought of the battle against Daegol as a climactic one-on-one duel that would settle things for the last time.

I... have my doubts.

This is a war that has been raging for over twenty years.

It is a war older than I am.

I want to be of use to Kasper, but if I show my face anywhere near my parents or the University anytime soon, I will end up being questioned about the barn fire. What happened at the barn is bound to become common knowledge eventually, and they'd know I attacked a mage because I lacked control of myself.

But if I became a soldier, I could still gain Kasper allies in the military, hone my own skills, then when the time is right, I could reveal myself and get assigned to my brother's personal guard.

I can be more useful here than I ever could have been as an attendant at the University.

I must trust that Lord Ifan has guarded Kasper well enough for me to be elsewhere just a little while longer.

I spend the night quietly listening to the soldiers tell their stories and Berit watches me from across the fire.

I try not to let it bother me.