Lord Valmai –“I know I’m asking a lot, but–”

Lord Krain –“A LOT? YOU’RE NOT ASKING A LOT! YOU’RE DEMANDING EVERYTHING!”

In a long creak, the door opened, dragging the attention of the council. The giant frame of Morgan was standing in the way with Vatra at his side.

Aside from Lord Krain of the Frey and Lord Valmai of the Vale, among the crowd were two war generals, a priest, and a scribe of House Valmai. Next to Lord Valmai stood the Eagle of Vale.

Lord Valmai –“What is the matter, Morgan?”

Morgan –“That girl wants to join the army.”

Lord Valmai –“Right, and why are you disrupting our council for that?”

House Krain’s general –“Lord Valmai, your soldiers are way too undisciplined . . .”

The Eagle –“General Thorkel, with all the respect you deserve, those soldiers are the main line of defence standing up to the Kalator’s rebellion, so show them a little more respect. As for Morgan, his behaviours aren’t constraint by the same authority. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Bear of Vale.”

General Thorkel –“I have.”

Lord Krain –“More like the drunken hole of Avem. We don’t see him patrol the Vale much, do we?”

The Eagle –“Lord Krain, should I remind you that you are a guest in our town?”

Scribe of House Valmai –“Should I note?”

Lord Valmai –“Don’t for now. Well, Morgan . . . This really isn’t the time to bring this up.”

Lord Krain –“You know what? I think it’s the best moment for it since you’re about to use my people as a meat shield!”

Lord Valmai –“I never said that!”

Lord Krain –“Oh, please. You and I both know what the militia is for in the time of war. I wasn’t born of the last rain. I’ve got 200 footmen ready to fight, yet you want to conscript my subjects. Would you do the same with your own? You could start with her!”

Lord Valmai stayed in a gloomy silence. Vatra walked in front of the giant.

Vatra –“My village, the Tree-Fall Village, has been raided by the Kalator. For all I know, I’m the only survivor. We paid taxes every year, but no soldiers of Avem came to defend us. I’ve trained my whole life to fight, and I’m a blacksmith. I don’t want to waste my potential in the militia. I’ve already killed four of them back in Tree-Fall. I want to be a soldier, so I can kill as many of these bastards as I can!”

The Eagle –“I’ll stop you right there! We already have blacksmiths. Adding another might be more useful, I’ll give you that, but I don’t want someone who’s not disciplined in my army. Morgan’s the only exception. If you want to join the militia, you can, and we won’t use you as a meat shield, like some lord seems to believe.”

High priest of Avem –“I couldn’t agree more on that! Now please, if you would let us continue our conversation, it would be much appreciated. We need to settle a few things.”

Vatra –“What did Morgan do to earn that right?”

Lord Valmai –“Morgan earned himself the title of the Bear of Vale because of his prowess in battle. But I think you knew all that just by looking at him, didn’t you?”

Lord Krain –“So, if she can beat him, she can join?”

Lord Valmai –“I don’t intend to have Morgan brutalise a girl for your enjoyment, Bilfrith Krain!”

Vatra –“I’ll do it!”

Lord Krain –“See? She wants to! Isn’t that great? We’ll get to see a vision of what will happen to my people once you conscript them!”

Lord Valmai –“Ethen, can you fight her instead? I don’t think Morgan can hold back against her.”

Morgan –“I don’t think so either, but I like her spirit!”

The Eagle –“Fine, I’ll do it.”

Ethen went into another room and returned with a rack of wooden training swords. He tossed them on the ground and looked at the girl.

Vatra –“I’m Vatra.”

Ethen –“I don’t care; let’s do it quickly. We have way more important things to do.”

Morgan –“Ah, c’mon! Don’t be such a cunt! No matter how long you talk it out, in the end, you can’t make any decisions until our scout sees from where they are coming from.”

General Thorkel –“I’ve seen them and I’ve fought them, and taking it lightly will result in many deaths. We have limited time and resources. Waiting for them to come before making a decision is like waiting for the wolves to chase your sheep before helping them.”

Ethen –“I don’t want to take too much time either, so we’ll add a rule. You see that hourglass on the wall? Morgan will turn it upside down, and if you manage to hit me once before it runs out of sand, I’ll let you join. If you don’t, you’ll join the militia! Pick your weapon!”

I’ll make you eat your words!

Vatra took a sword in each hand while her opponent only grabbed one. Morgan turned the hourglass upside down. As the first grain of sand fell, Vatra ran toward Ethen and thrust her blade. Ethen deflected the hit and struck her exposed shoulder, pushing her to the ground.

Ethen –“Is that how you killed four Kalator? Or were you lying?”

Vatra got up and leapt forward, aiming both her swords at his legs and shoulder. Holding his sword with both hands, Ethen swung it in a half-circle, cleaving both her blades away. Exposed and dragged in a motion, Vatra tried to use her newly gained velocity. She rotated on herself to strike again, but in doing so, she exposed her back and Ethen kicked her on the waist. Impaired in her motion, Vatra stumbled to the ground.

How can he read my movements so quickly! Shit! I’ll have to make him lower his guard . . .

Vatra rose back up with an idea in mind. She stepped forward and feinted a thrust with her left sword, adding no weight to her strike. As Ethen deflected it, she crouched and stepped in, keeping the edge of her blade against his. She slashed her second sword toward Ethen’s leg. As he took a step back to dodge, Vatra advanced again, but as her blade slashed the air, Ethen grabbed her wrist. Without giving her the time to strike, he pulled Vatra toward him and struck her guts with his knee before throwing her to the ground. Gasping in and out of focus, Vatra slowly rose again.

Damn it, he’s really strong . . .

Ethen –“Good! Good! Not enough, but good!”

Vatra breathed heavily. She rushed toward him and leapt in the last few feet to strike him with her whole body weight, but Ethen sidestepped her blow and struck her legs as she was landing, making her stumble to the ground. He took a few steps back while looking at the hourglass.

Ethen –“You’re running out of time . . .”

Vatra raised her head and saw he was right. She didn’t have the time to reach him anymore. She got back up and took her right sword like a spear, holding the handle between her right fingers and the guard over her palm. Taking a deep breath as her blood boiled, she shifted her left foot forward and threw her sword like a javelin. Taken by surprise, Ethen tried to push the incoming projectile on his side, but the edge of the sword scratched his left shoulder before the hourglass ran out of sand.

Morgan –“Ahahah, your face is priceless, Ethen!”

General Thorkel –“That wasn’t a hit; the practice sword only grazed his left shoulder. In a real fight, the armours alone would have been enough to stop that.”

The Eagle of Vale seemed upset and confused as he looked back to his lord, hoping to find an issue with the worsening situation. Lord Valmai took the attention of the fighters by applauding them.

Lord Valmai –“We rarely see such a good fight, especially at this time of the year. I will admit that I am always in need of good fighters, but I do not intend to let someone who’s not used to fighting in formation join the rank of my army. That being said, a hit is still a hit. I’ll place you under Ethen’s watch until the Kalator arrives. Once they do, he will decide if you join our rank or stay in the militia.”

A small grin crept onto Vatra’s face as she caught her breath.

Ethen – “In that case, I want to see you tomorrow at sunrise on the training ground. If you’re not there when I arrive, I’ll consider you retracted from your request.”

Vatra –“Understood . . . Umm . . . If I may ask, will I get to eat meat during the training?”

Ethen –“I’ll think about it. Now, could both of you leave us? We’ve lost enough time already.”

Both Vatra and Morgan exited the town hall, closing the door behind them.

Lord Valmai –“Do you believe her? The only survivor of Tree-Fall? Tree-Fall is surrounded by woods. The only clear path is the road leading here. She could be a spy for all I know, and she looks like she’s from the East. A slave would never be allowed to learn sword fighting.”

Ethen –“Marco said she mentioned the wheels we commissioned from Tree-Fall last year. She didn’t lie about that part. Besides, Rust-Fell retreated because House Krain alerted them. Tree-Fall might be surrounded by woods, but that also makes it easier to surround without being seen. Maybe we should have expected them to take it. Maybe we should send an emissary to Oluja Borough before they attack it as well.”

Lord Krain –“Have you seen many blacksmiths confident with a blade? Her story doesn’t make sense. Five days without food ration is a lot.”

Lord Valmai –“She could have found some apples on the way, but it is indeed suspicious. As for Oluja Borough, they have access to plenty of fish. We don’t. If they come here, we’ll starve even faster. They are about a twelve days’ walk from here. It is unlikely they will become a target. We can always reach them by ship if the Kalator moves east.”

High priest of Avem –“I don’t want to insult any of you, but from what I’ve understood, we need more soldiers, and that’s precisely the reason why Lord Krain was upset earlier.”

Lord Krain –“Lord Strahlend could bring his own. He has 800 men stationed in Rock Eden.”

High priest of Avem –“That’s not my point. We already sent a bird to Lord Strahlend. I’m talking about this girl. She looks like a slave, but she speaks our tongue as if it were her own. She might be a spy, but she could be a good person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Since Ethen will train her, he might as well try to tail her and see what she seeks. Didn’t Ethen used to be a spy himself?”

Ethen –“I wasn’t a spy; I tailed thieves to arrest them, not for information.”

High priest of Avem –“Close enough. As for Oluja Borough, they could join the militia, too. The Kalator has the largest army in the Union. We’re not talking hundreds here, but thousands.”

Lord Valmai –“I need Ethen to be present on our next council as well. I can’t have him tail her.”

Lord Krain –“There’s no point in the next council until we receive the answers from Rock Eden.”

Lord Valmai –“We need a stronger militia.”

Lord Krain –“I won’t conscript my people. You already made it so that only the fighters get to eat properly. I won’t force a mother and father to lose their child on the battlefield. They already went through too much for this. Humans aren’t sheep, Rulfus Valmai. I’ll make my people do any work that will help, but they won’t be fighting on the front line.”

Lord Valmai –“Then let’s hope the gods will support us! I just can’t see us winning without being ready to lose it all. They are over 3,000, and if we count our people who don’t take arms, we have barely 2,500.”

Lord Krain –“You have close to 300 soldiers stationed in the city. And you also have a militia of close to 200 more. I have around 200 remaining soldiers, and my militia has close to 50 men. If the reinforcement of Rock Eden comes in time, we will be close to a thousand soldiers inside a fortified city. They can’t take it so easily. Wasn’t it you who told me in the past that a single man in a fort could hold against five? The real threat isn’t their army, but their witch, and we’ll need arrows to take her out, not a line of meat shields.”

Scribe of House Valmai –“We still have yet to receive their answers. Rock Eden isn’t known for its generosity. Nothing tells us their reinforcements will be numerous.”

Lord Valmai –“In that case, I want every man and woman who aren’t fighting to dig a ditch around the northern wall. Build a shorter wall around the northern fort with a second ditch to protect it. Every layer of defence we can build will give us more time to hold until winter.”

Lord Krain –“Once all the homestead north of your wall is demolished, my people will begin working on it. As of now, I’ll be taking my leave.”

On their way back to the inn, Vatra and the giant were talking.

Vatra –“Why did you break the rules for me?”

Morgan –“Boredom! There isn’t much to do in this town aside from eating and drinking.”

Vatra –“I thought the town was full of merchants and travellers.”

Morgan –“It is during the early summer, but once they sell their goods, they leave for their homeland. The rest of the year, the town is like a pig den, wading in its own dirt.”

Vatra –“You wouldn’t be bored if you’d entertain yourself.”

Morgan –“With what?”

Vatra –“I used to train every day, and when my swords were too damaged, I’d forge them anew.”

As the words came out of her mouth, the images of her happy days with Harald came back. She froze and forgot to breathe for a few seconds.

Morgan –“Are you alright?”

Suddenly, she inhaled and rubbed her eyes.

Vatra –“I’m sorry, I’ll . . . I need to be alone for now. I’ll see you later.”

Morgan –“Alright! See you.”

Vatra branched off from their path and kept walking.