By The Sword - Homepage

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“How big is this damn forest?”

The question forced itself out of my mouth after about the twentieth minute of walking. Beside me, I could hear Kye laughing, but I didn’t even stop to glare at her. She wouldn’t have looked up anyway. She was still counting all the trophies she’d collected in her bag.

“I think you’re just impatient,” she said. I didn’t need to turn around to see her smirk. Truthfully, she was right. But that didn’t help me much. My chest still burned. My feet still hurt. And I was still going over the encounter we’d had back in the middle of the forest. I kept berating myself for succumbing to the fear. For not being able to keep up.

However, I could see Kye’s point; groaning further wasn’t doing me any good. So instead, I just twirled the short sword the rangers had given me through my fingers. I focused on the strain in each individual muscle. It was a simple technique to improve dexterity and build muscle memory, but it was also the technique I’d used when I was first studying the blade. Back when I was a teenager, I reminded myself. A gravelly sigh fell from my lips.

“We’re almost there anyway,” Kye said. When I looked over, her eyes were narrowed on the trophy in her hand. This murky black spike.

I shook a shiver from my spine and focused on her words. Furrowing my brows, I flicked my eyes across the scene, seeing only the same twisting trees and unkempt brush that we’d been hunting in the whole time. There was no way we were almost there.

I’d never been much of a hunter in my day, but I’d been in forests enough to know we were still deep in its heart. From the looks of the trees intermittently spliced by rays of sunlight around us, we were hundreds of paces from the nearest tree line. At the least. There was no way we were almost there.

But, as it turned out, Kye was right.

After walking for only another minute, we were met with the clearing. Looking ahead, I could even see the Rangers’ lodge. All at once, my vision was flooded with at least a dozen rangers, a few tables, and the sight of Sarin in the distance.

While gawking, I’d apparently slowed down because Kye ended walking out in front of me. She whipped her head around with doubt flickering in her eyes again. But as soon as she caught the surprised expression on my face, she only let out a laugh.

“You should get to know these woods better,” she said, tilting her head. “But don’t ever doubt me on it. I know this place like the back of my hand.”

Finding no aggravation to respite her accusatory glare, I nodded. After all, it was pretty clear that she did. I had no idea how she’d known where we were going, but it would’ve been a lie to say I wasn’t impressed. And as we walked into the autumn sun, it would’ve been a lie to say I wasn’t thankful as well.

As soon as we entered the clearing though, I didn’t have much time to enjoy it. Kye sped up and I had to match her pace. Barely even looking around, we weaved through the crowd of people who’d gone on the hunt.

All around us, a myriad of rangers sprawled out in the most casual formation I’d seen them in yet. They weren’t organized and confirming orders with each other; they were standing around and talking as if on their way to a tavern. Out of the lot, I recognized almost every face, but it frustrated me to realize I couldn’t place all of their names.

I recognized Myris, the older, grey-haired ranger who was more suspicious of me than even Kye was. He was standing near the middle of the clearing with his arm around Tan, who was laughing at whatever the ranger in front of them had said. But what bothered me was that I didn’t know who the ranger in front of them was. As a knight, I’d made it my mission to bond with every other knight in my king’s court. I knew their names by heart. And now, not only could I barely recall those names, I couldn’t place half of the rangers I’d been living with for weeks. It was like what I once held close was being blown from my fingers by the wind.

Unconsciously, I scowled and slowed my pace. For a moment, I didn’t even realize I had done it, but Kye’s talking brought attention back to her.

“How’s inspecting, Elena?” she asked, her eyes on a woman behind the desk we’d stopped at.

The woman—Elena, I remembered and burned it into my mind—smiled. “It has been worse. How’s hunting?”

I squinted, watching the woman pick up her pen. But I wasn’t looking at the basic ink-tipped metal utensil. I was looking at the woman herself. Because unlike the rest of the rangers, the uniform she was wearing wasn’t dark blue. She wore cloth of a bluish purple color that culminated in a hood over her hair.

Just in front of me, Kye smiled. A real smile instead of a smirk, this time. “It has definitely been better,”—she spared a glance my way—“but I think I might have a shot this time around.”

Elena, playfully jerked her head back. “What makes you so confident?” She raised an eyebrow which got Kye to chuckle.

“What can I say? Killed some quality game this time around,” Kye said. Then her face scrunched a bit as she looked down at the black spike in her hand. “At least, I think so.”

I shuddered, rolling my neck just looking at the monstrous thing again. “Quality or not, it certainly put up a fight.”

Elena tore her eyes off Kye and looked to me. Her smile wavered. “And you are?”

“Agil,” I said, my name rolling off the tongue. “I was Kye’s partner this hunt.”

This time, it was Elena’s turn to chuckle. She ghosted a smirk and glanced back over at Kye. “Really? She neverpartners up. Too much of a lone wolf for that.”

My former cellmate rolled her eyes. “He got me out of a difficult situation once. And he wanted to come on the hunt.” Kye flicked her eyes to me again. “But there’s no way he was going out without a partner. So… here we are.”

I scrunched my nose, tightening my grip around the hilt of my blade. “Might’ve been better if I’d been given any information on what I was hunting in there.”

Kye raised her head at me. A gesture that barely did anything as she was half a head taller anyway. “I don’t see how that would’ve changed much. Hunting with you was like guiding a lost puppy.”

I rolled my eyes again, pushing the antagonism away. I was a knight; I deserved better. “Right. As if you didn’t go wandering out into the trees at random.”

Elena snickered, not even trying to hide the amusement on her face. “Do you have your trophies?”

Kye nodded and placed the terrifying spike down on the table before going to untie the bag on her waist.

Elena almost took a step backward. Her expression darkened and her lips twitched before any actual words came out. “What is this?”

“My exact reaction,” I muttered. Kye didn’t seem to notice.

“A trophy,” the huntress said. “A bit unusual, but I figured it would still count.”

Elena glared at the thing for another second. Then she shook her head. “Well, I’ll be the judge of that… Where are the rest?”

“Right here,” Kye said as soon as she’d unfastened the bag’s drawstring. Within the next few seconds, the various body parts she’d removed from all of her prey were spread out over the table.

My lips curled into a sneer as I watched the woman in robes pick up each ‘trophy’ like it was an ornament to be stocked on a shelf. But instead of stocking them anywhere, she only squinted at each of them for a few seconds before scribbling something down on the paper in front of her. Oddly, she was inspecting each trophy with care and finesse like it was second nature, but she hadn’t even touched the black spike yet. Something about it, even in her eyes, was deeply unnatural.

After a few seconds of standing around though, I squinted myself and realized I had no idea what she was doing. The feeling of ignorance grated on me. I was on a new continent and living a completely new life, yet I barely knew anything. Not even the basics of the magic that was so prevalent. If I wanted to improve—if I wanted experience, I needed information as well.

“What are you inspecting the trophies for?” I finally asked.

The inspector stopped, blinking for a moment before looking up. Beside me, Kye nodded in recognition as though she’d been expecting my question the entire time. “For traces of magical energy,” Elena said. “It’s how I score them.”

The idea registered somewhere in my mind, reminding me of magical lessons I’d long forgotten. “How do you do that?”

Elena narrowed her eyes. “The same way any other soul manipulates energy.” I nodded as if I understood perfectly. “I’ve gotten used to not so much manipulating energy, but detecting it. I have a high sensitivity to the presence of magic.” She narrowed her eyes, rolling her own explanation through her head before letting it out. “In the same way you can feel the air… lighten whenever it’s being casted through. My soul works in a similar way, except more detailed.”

I nodded slowly, silently wishing I’d paid more attention to my royal courses on magic. “Interesting. I’ve never met anyone like that.”

Elena returned my nod without meeting my gaze another time. Instead, she focused on the second-to-last trophy in her hand, squinting at it and writing something down before putting it aside.

“For example,” Elena continued as she eyed the revolting black protrusion. “That feels… off. It reminds me of a terror, even though it’s not winter yet.”

I furrowed my brows. Kye had mentioned the same term back in the woods. “A terror?”

“Ghastly things,” Kye said. “Mindless creatures that are practically the magical manifestation of fear.” My eyes widened and I opened my mouth, but Kye cut me off with a turn. She raised a finger at Elena. “Does it still count as a trophy?”

The inspector squinted, not bothering to lift her head. “The cycle doesn’t start until after winter…” she nearly whispered. “What did you find this on?”

One of Kye’s eyebrows shot up. “On a pyre wolf.”

Elena straightened, the doubt receding from her eyes. A confused sort of curiosity rushed in to replace it. “Strange.” She carefully watched Kye’s smile. “It should count, then.”

Without another thought, Elena picked up the murky black thing covered in silvery scar-like lines. She shivered as soon as she started watching it. But after a few seconds, she tore her gaze away and set it aside with the rest of Kye’s trophies. Hesitantly, she wrote one last thing on the paper in front of her.

“It almost feels like terror flesh,” Elena said after setting her pen down. “Almost, but not quite. I’m not sure exactly what it is… but I will count it as a trophy.”

Kye grinned. The corners of her lips nearly touched her ears. “What does that put my total at?” The excitement in her voice was nearly palpable.

Elena grinned as well. “Thirty-seven. A tie for the lead, at the moment.”

Kye pumped her fist, her smile somehow widening even more. She shot me a sidelong glance and, despite myself, I smiled as well. I’d assumed the hunting competition was not very important, but judging off Kye’s reaction, it obviously held some weight. She was more excited now than she’d been at any point since I’d first met her.

“Who else has thirty-seven?” she asked.

Elena turned back to us with a none-too-subtle grin. “Tan and Myris. Who else would it be?”

Kye’s smirk dampened a hair. “I thought it was them, but I had to make sure. I had to be absolutely certain that I beat Jason this time.”

I let out a sharp breath of amusement. Kye shot a glance back to me that showed exactly how much she wanted to shove the win in his face. And remembering the boastful swordsman, I was on board with the reaction.

Elena looked down at the paper in front of her. “Jason only scored twenty-nine this hunt.”

“Only.” Kye scoffed. “Dammit, Elena. I’ve broken thirty once before this.”

“Well, he normally breaks thirty,” Elena said with a playful grin. Kye rolled her eyes again in a lighthearted way, the gesture doing nothing to hide how happy she truly was. “But you did beat him this time. I’ll be looking forward to his reaction at…”

Elena trailed off, jerking her head backward. All at once, the background noise in the clearing faded out. Something stirred at the back of my mind. I blinked, and Elena did too. Her eyelids flitted rapidly as if she was trying to adjust to some new source of light.

An uneasy feeling rose up in my gut.

And it seemed that Elena was feeling the same as she turned to look at me. No. She turned to look past me. Her eyes were angled upward, scanning the sky right above my head. Beside me, Kye raised an eyebrow in curiosity. I opened my mouth, a string of questions ready to pick apart the situation.

Then I heard it.

My lips snapped shut.

A powerful, earth-shattering screech ripped through the air. It silenced any sound still alive in the clearing. And as my eardrums rang, I figured it had silenced whatever sound was left on the continent. Flipping through memories, I realized I remembered that sound. It stuck out as a point of wonder—something I’d kept in mind for some reason.

That reason became clear as I turned my head around.

There, perched on the branch of the tallest tree around for hundreds of paces, was a bird. A bird that I’d seen before. Flowing, elegant green feathers. Golden talons that gleamed in the afternoon sun. A regal posture that reminded me far too much of my own king—it was all there.

As soon as my eyes caught on the magnificent creature, I couldn’t take them off. My gaze was frozen in place, captured by the sheer power of its form. The bird captivated my attention, holding my soul hostage in its beautiful sea of natural greens. All of my mind became enraptured by its image; even the dormant feeling from the back of my mind lifted.

From what I could tell, the bird was holding the entire clearing in a state of pure awe. In my peripheral vision, everyone else was staring at it. It stared down at us, tilting its head and scanning the crowd for something.

But once its golden eyes got to me, they froze. They didn’t bother scanning any longer; they had found what they wanted. Using my eyes as windows to the soul, the bird searched me. It searched me for something specific, something it only found when the presence deep in my mind shifted again.

“It’s here,” a voice called out. As if floating on the wind, it drifted to me and ripped me from my state of enchantment. At once, everyone removed their eyes from the bird and looked to the source of the sound. Even the regal creature stopped searching me for a glance at the voice.

As I turned around, I was met with another fantastical sight.

A tall woman with platinum blonde hair stared at me. Her body was decorated in robes of the same deep blue color of the rest of the rangers but lined in silver as well. A hood half-covered her head, casting her face into her shadow. Except, that was, for her piercing [blue] eyes, which were pointed directly at me.

I shifted in place, instantly aware of the weight of her glare. But there was also something else. Unlike any of the other rangers, she had a special symbol that adorned her chest. Right above her heart, the same sigil decorated on the lodge’s front door was woven into the fabric. A crescent-shaped arrow gleaming silver instead of gold.

A screech. I shuddered, already twisting. The high-pitched sound tore through the air as only a final sign of the bird’s disappearance. As my eyes scanned the trees, it was nowhere to be found. But when I turned back, I realized the woman in silver-lined robes hadn’t looked. She had kept her stare directly on me.

“Why was it here?” the woman asked. Her gaze didn’t budge.

Nobody responded. Everyone only looked around dumbfounded, waiting to see if somebody else had an answer to her question. Even Kye, who normally always had some quip at the ready, was speechless.

The woman gritted her teeth and closed her eyes.

“You,” she said as she gestured my way. “Come with me.”