33rd of Dawn, 1849

Kjallo’s eyes shot open, his face layered with sweat. “You’re awake,” Stalhir said, standing by the door.

“How do you feel?” Cara asked.

Kjallo took a moment, looking around the hospital room before processing what had happened. “He knew,” he said. “He knew him.”

“Yes.” Cara stood by his bed.

“We have to go back.” Kjallo tried getting out of his bed, but Cara held him back.

“No. No you’re not,” she said.

Kjallo looked at Stalhir, who just looked away. “What are you talking about?”

“That freak,” Stalhir said. “Ripped my partners jaw out.”

Cara turned to Stalhir. “We didn’t know what to expect."

Kjallo looked at the pained expression on Stalhir’s face. “I’m sorry, but we have to go back,” he persisted.

“He’s gone, you were out for twelve hours.”

Kjallo's eye twitched. “Then we follow him!”

“We’re going to find him, but not you, not yet.”

“Huh?”

“That man was a Berserker,” Stalhir cut in. “Those are not to be taken lightly, Kjallo.”

“How…how did he have Tath? That’s impossible!”

“I don’t know!” Stalhir’s voice raised. “But one thing I do know is that you’re too inexperienced to be chasing after someone like him with us. You had one job, do what we say, and you screwed it up. Now Alya’s dead, because you couldn’t handle waiting one second to get your precious memories back.”

Kjallo looked up.

“Cara told me all about it, about Aluger.”

“So then why don’t you—”

“Because getting your memory back is useless if you’re just going to die,” Cara said.

Kjallo’s hand gripped the sheets of his bed. “You can’t do this to me.”

“Alya was killed. For what?”

“I don’t care about Alya!” Kjallo spat. Stalhir grimaced. “I… I’m sorry," he said.

Stalhir didn’t respond.

“We’re taking high ranking Enforcer’s from all over Valdora to deal with this issue. I know this is hard for you,” Cara said, grabbing his hand. “But you need to sit this one out for now.”

A foreign anger began to seep into Kjallo's bones. His eyes watered. “What am I going to do?”

“I’m moving you to Commander Kant’s legion. He’s taking in a lot of Enforcer’s who’s commanders are leaving to aid in this Eskir manhunt. They’ll also be helping in the Hjofgard conflict. You’ll be helping in the Laveska conquest.” She got up and headed towards the door, stopping for a second. “Get stronger, we’ll need you later. Eskir paired with this Hjofgard war that’s about to boil over is gonna be tough, but we’ll get through it. I’ll see you there.”

She walked out the door, Stalhir following. The door closed behind them.

Kjallo sat there for a second, before trying to get up. I can just escape right now, he thought, then he remembered the day previous. Alya being chocked as her jaw was ripped out of her head. Him being beaten and thrown around. He clutched his head, laying back down in his bed. How’d he evade my lightning? Were they right? Was he too inexperienced?

A Tath user that isn’t an Enforcer? Could he be like Kjallo? Both people correlated to Aluger that had Tath without drinking from the fountain couldn’t be a coincidence. 

His eyes narrowed. What’s going on here?