I awoke extremely comfortable.

Which, given how extremely uncomfortable the next few weeks would be, was quite well deserved. The lush linen sheets and the soft cushions were exactly what I needed.

Lady Amelia had said that the inn would provide excellent accommodations. And looking around the room of polished wood peppered with cloth drapings and intricate trinkets, I knew she hadn’t lied. After all of the preparations we’d done in the past two days, we needed it. The relaxation I’d gotten in such a quality bed had almost made up for the inexorable frustration of forcing myself in line. Of organizing with fighters that, even now, were leagues ahead of my current body in skill.

I shook my head and sat up, letting a sigh fall from my lips. This was it, I reminded myself. We were supposed to march today. Supposed to leave the safety of Norn’s high stone walls and venture into danger.

Though, if our legion wasn’t successful, I doubted Norn’s walls would provide much safety anyway.

My eyes narrowed as I rose to my feet, trying to build up resolve. I reminded myself of what we were doing and why. I reminded myself of the people—the real lives that were at stake. And I reminded myself of the beast—stoking my own hatred to fuel me on.

Each day, I’d done that during my morning routine. And I did it now as I dressed into my ranger’s uniform and prepared a bag with all of the supplies I would need. It was important to remind myself of these things, I thought. It was important.

We didn’t have the luxury of being unsure.

At this stage, we couldn’t afford to.

As I packed my bag, though, placing in personal rations along with my extra uniform and the sheathed knives I carried just in case, I had trouble focusing. I had trouble focusing on the future with the white flame distracting me in the present. Since I’d woken up, it had been restless. It had been swirling. Doing the same things it had been doing for the past few days.

As though the prospect of facing our situation head-on was too much for it, the flame had delegated itself to memories. It had walled itself in.

Since Lady Amelia had dismissed us from the original briefing, it hadn’t stolen the reigns again. That was good, at least. But that didn’t mean it had been cooperative. Anytime I’d tried to access it or train with its magic, it was somewhere else.

Which, with all of the work we’d been doing, hadn’t been the best for me.

I scowled, muttering a swear under my breath as I finished packing. The bag swung over my back in quick time. I retrieved my sword a moment later, sheathing it in my scabbard before pushing out of my room.

A symphony of noise attacked my ears. It all drifted up from the tavern below, showing off the still-bustling activity Norn was capable of even after all of the attacks. I tuned it out though and focused inward.

After Lady Amelia’s briefing had reminded all of us of the enemy we were facing and why, our procession had been kicked into gear. At the following meeting, there had been significantly less doubt.

There had still been unrest, of course. But we’d pushed past it. We’d still respected the responsibility pressing down on our shoulders. Especially now that it had become more certain.

Not certain for what would happen if we went—there were still far too many gaps in reliable information for that. The certainty now lied in what would happen if we didn’t go.

We all tried not to think about it.

So instead of wasting time on worries, we’d prepared even harder. Our procession had met with all of the other knights and trained with them too. We’d learned about their fighting styles. About their strategies. About their magic. Every scrap of time we’d been able to scrape out had been allotted to understanding how to make our legion a well-oiled machine.

By now, I didn’t know if it would work as well as we wanted it to. But also, I didn’t have time to believe that it wouldn’t. This was it, I reminded myself again.

It would work because it had to.

I smiled, ignoring the white flame and its restlessness for the moment as I pushed down the creaky wooden steps and past a group drinking at the bar. Instead, I focused on the familiar face of my fellow ranger near the entrance.

Kye glanced up as I approached, offering a wave before returning to the person in front of her. Straining my ears, I picked out enough of the conversation to know it was about her letter again. The slim man’s armor did distinguish him as a messenger, after all.

After learning about the change of plans, some of the knights in our procession had proposed sending a notice back to Marc. Of informing him of the changes that had been made, as well as the promises the cult had issued. They wanted to make sure that Sarin was aware of our true mission.

To make sure everyone knew the possible consequences.

“Thanks,” Kye muttered off-handedly as the messenger handed her the letter. She tore her gaze down at it and waved a dismissive hand at the man in light armor. His eyebrows dropped before he trudged out into Norn’s much quieter streets.

“You’re up early,” I said, my grin widening.

Kye cocked an eyebrow without looking up, still scanning over the paper in her hand. “Yeah.” She adjusted a strand of her chestnut hair before flashing a smirk. “What about it?”

I exhaled sharply through my nose. “Nothing. It’s just a little odd to see, you know. I’ve been up earlier than you every day since… since we first met I think.”

Kye scrunched her face. “Right, sure.”

I chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “What are you reading?”

Finally, my companion looked up. She blinked and then shook her head. “You remember how I sent a status letter back to Sarin when the knights sent their notice to Marc?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Well, I just got a response. I was expecting it to come today—but I didn't know if I’d even get one. Two days is not a lot of time.”

I tilted my head. “True, but Norn’s messengers are quick. Traveling alone, they can go from Sarin and back in almost a day.”

Kye nodded, obviously uninterested. “Right. So I actually have a response now. And I was up because I wanted to make sure I could read it before we marched off to death.” My fingers tightened on the leather hilt at that. Kye straightened herself and half-cringed before turning her attention back to the note.

“Who wrote back?” I asked.

The huntress chuckled. “Jason did, actually. I mean, even if I didn’t recognize his handwriting, I would’ve been able to figure out who had written this without much difficulty.” I snickered, but she barreled ahead. “He wrote about how things in Sarin are at least they’re safe.”

My companion rolled her eyes. I grinned, already picturing the arrogant swordsman smirking to himself as he wrote. “Well, you asked for an update of what was going on in Sarin. Did he offer anything useful?”

Kye exhaled sharply, but the corners of her lips still tugged upward. “Yeah. He provided some useful stuff. But it’s not much. The Rangers have still been doing what they’ve been doing the entire time—though, Marc has apparently stiffened Sarin’s security.”

My fingers froze on my sword. I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean by that?”

She threw up her hands. “I’m not entirely sure. All Jason wrote was that after Marc got the message Bane sent back, he got paranoid. He’s been keeping stricter watch of the town, and he hasn’t done any public announcements since we left.”

I sneered, tilting my head at it. It made sense that he would tighten security. With the threat of Rath and her cult looming as dangerously as they were in Norn, it was only natural. Yet… Marc loved public announcements. After the first one he’d made all those weeks ago, he’d kept them up.

It had mostly been so that Marc could bolster himself with his peoples’ praise, but it had raised morale either way. Under Marc’s direction, Sarin had prospered far more than it had under his cousin.

“I don’t know,” Kye said, ripping me out of my thoughts and shrugging. “It isn’t the status update that I hoped for, but I don’t know what else I expected. They’re doing well, I guess.”

I nodded, dragging my gaze to the floor. It was good that they were still doing well, I told myself. It was important. Even though the cult’s threat was mostly concentrated on the mountain states, if Rath rose, it wouldn’t matter. I had trouble believing any place on the entire continent would be safe.

We were doing this for them, too.

I shook my head and straightened up. “Where are the others?”

Kye shot a curious glance at me, leaning back against the wooden wall next to the inn’s entrance. “The knights are probably still in their quarters.”

“What about Lionel and his group?”

Kye flashed a thin smile before cocking her head to the side. “They were up when I was.” She darted her gaze over to a cushioned seating area across the room. I followed her gaze. “They’re over there, still as casual as ever. As though nothing is going on in the world around them.” She slumped back. “I wouldn’t worry about them. I’m sure they’ll be ready when we march.”

A breath fell from my lips. I nodded, watching the black-haired ranger flash a suave smile while twirling a piece of food in his hand. Beside him, Laney giggled, and the other two rangers across from them started bickering about this or that.

Right. I didn’t need to worry about them.

“Are you ready?” Kye asked, dragging my attention back to her. She fixed me with a curious gaze that was wholly ineffective at masking her smirk.

I grinned, feeling the weight of my sword at my side. The comfortable energy and lack of soreness in my muscles despite the past days of vigorous training. “Yeah. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” I leaned back on my heels. “What about you?”

“Am I ready?” she asked, taken aback.

“Are you ready?” I repeated.

She chuckled. “Well. I’d certainly better be.”

---

The world around us was a sea of metal armor.

I rolled my neck and stepped backward, trying to form whatever kind of distance I could from the main crowd. From the oppressive cacophony of metallic sounds I’d been hearing all morning. With the legion assembled and the sun now beating down on us, I wished we could’ve gotten moving already.

Twisting, I took a deep breath to calm myself. Shaking my head lightly, I tuned out the chaos that probably would’ve fit in my past life. I focused inward for a moment instead. On taking one breath after another and keeping the white flame in check.

Since the morning, it had calmed considerably. It was still a little erratic, and it still didn’t receive my calls to it that well, but it was progress. No longer was it pulling up memories in the back of my head. I could ignore it, in other words.

And as the brisk, winter-autumn wind rolled over me, the peace was rather nice. It was a moment of respite after all of the dry conversations and frustrating formalities. With discipline still clutched tight at the core of my soul, I respected the knights and their process. But at this point, I wanted to move. I was tired of sitting around.

“For the world’s—”

A familiar and highly-irate voice cut through the clamor around us. Kye glared at a knight and pushed him out of her way as she stumbled through the street toward where I was standing.

As soon as she saw me, she fixed me with a glance that detailed exactly how unamused she was. “This shit couldn’t get more frustrating, I swear.”

I chuckled but couldn’t stop from nodding. “It’s necessary, at least,” I said. “Or, I assume it is because if it isn’t, then I might have to talk with Lady Amelia myself.”

Kye rolled her eyes. “Right. Because you’d get an opportunity to talk privately with somebody through all of this.”

I snorted. “You’re stationed back here too, then?”

Kye stopped, her shoulders dropping. “Yeah.” Almost all of the tension washed from her tone. “If I’m going to have to deal with all of this, I’d rather have someone to complain to.”

A smile tugged at my lips. I sighed, watching her smirk as she walked up next to me. As the crowd of dozens of knights in front of us continued annoying the world itself with their noise, I scanned the scene.

Despite the organization and formality of it all, our legion was simply standing in the middle of the street. The houses and boarded-up shops at the city’s edge stared at us. In this section of Norn—where its main street met up with a gate leading off through the rest of the mountains—there wasn’t much activity. Not from the common folk, at least.

We sure made up the difference ourselves.

Looking back over the legion in front of me, I was almost astonished by how spread out it was. After all of the training we’d done, it only made sense for all of us to be focused and in line. The reality, however, was quite different.

The basic layout was intact. Lady Amelia still stood at the front next to her most skilled fighters—the knights she trusted the most. Behind them was the main force, which was section off by ten spaces of clearance. And behind that was our backing party.

Along the sides of our procession, small scouting parties and individuals functioned as lookouts for danger. Lionel and his group had offered to fill those positions. But while they didn’t have much individual interaction with many other parts of the legions, at least they were doing something. They were constantly on the move and had orders to venture out if they thought something was worth investigating. Whereas at the back, all we had to do was stay ready.

Though, at least our section wasn’t completely void of entertainment.

“Agil!” Fyn exclaimed as he pushed away from a few knights. His infectious cheer forced a smile on my face. And it even did the same for Kye, who only nodded at the knight while he walked up. “And Kye, of course.”

“Hey Fyn,” I said. “You’re in the backing party as well?”

He nodded. “I definitely am. Less work for me, and we’re in the safest position if the legion gets attacked head-on.”

“What if we get attacked from behind?” Kye asked.

Fyn faked a scowl and shook his head. “That question doesn’t even make any sense.” Kye chuckled, and the dark-skinned knight couldn’t keep a straight face for long. “In all seriousness, though, if we get attacked from behind… then we’ll make sure they wish they had attacked the front.”

I laughed, my mood lightening with every second. “That is certainly hopeful.”

Fyn stopped, angled his head, and spread his arms wide. “Of course it is! If you ask me, this legion could use a little bit more hope. The dreary mood is bringing me down.” He spared a single chuckle to himself. “Are you two ready?”

I was already rolling my eyes. “Yes. But really, I’m tired of that question.” I threw my hand up a tad theatrically. “What does it matter if I’m ready? We’re about on our way already!”

Fyn laughed, holding a hand up as if to try and make me stop the hilarity. It didn’t work very well on his end. And after a moment, even Kye let out genuine laughter. Her smirk faded, replacing itself with a smile full of mirth.

As the cheerful knight calmed himself, words lilted to my ears. They drifted over the slowly-lulling commotion in front of us. It only took a few moments of listening to realize it was Lady Amelia.

She was at the head of the legion giving another run-down of the orders. The knights in front of her, undoubtedly, were listening. But the further away her words traveled, the less attention they held. I tuned them out entirely.

Because truly, I already knew what she had to say. We all did. It was the same tactical and formational information we’d been preparing since we’d arrived. So instead, I just leaned back on my heels and took in the last few moments of peace that I could before my life wound down into hell.

Or, it would wind down into travel first. But I reckoned that was simply a different kind of hell. As I waited, with Kye’s voice going back and forth with Fyn’s in front of me, I sighed. I let tension slip away before it had to come back.

It did have to return, though. Lady Amelia had to stop her spiel at some point.

Eventually, our legion lurched forward.

So I collected myself once more and started walking. The commotion that had been deafening only moments before died down to barely a whisper as we advanced.

Once again, even though I didn’t consider Norn my home, I was sad to see the semblances of civilization slip away. I was sad to see the shops and houses and beautiful stone architecture fade behind us. But it was necessary, I reminded myself. We had a responsibility to fulfill.

The knights around me fell fully silent. The elegant stone wall gave way to a rough mountain path.

And we marched.