We were going to make it. Barely. We had met up with Johnny at the gate, where he had been practically bouncing with excitement. With him had been the horses Stefan had promised; we’d divvied up the supplies so there was four for us to ride and two to serve as pack animals. Johnny had been surprised by Aela’s presence, but Brunner had taken him aside and explained the situation. When they had returned, both of them still didn’t seem too keen on her accompanying us, but they didn’t say anything. Aela, for her part, was once again shy and skittish, moving everywhere reluctantly and trying to stick with Brunner whenever possible. We had just finished loading and had been about to depart when she quietly told us that she didn’t know how to ride. We had all frozen for a moment, then Johnny’d burst out laughing. None of us had even thought of that possibility. We decided it would be better not to waste more time reallocating the supplies, and just had her ride with Brunner while Johnny and I led the other horses.
After that hassle, we had made pretty good time, actually. We had left the city just as the sun was touching the horizon, and had almost cleared the last farm by the time we had to pull out the torches. Those were a surprise; I had been preparing myself to draw on the crystal to give us all light, but Brunner had said that it would be better not to draw unwanted attention to ourselves by using magic unnecessarily. I was glad for the excuse; while making light wouldn’t have used up all that much power, at this point every drop of energy was precious. And besides, I didn’t know if I would be able to control any of the energy I got from the crystal anyway. The next few hours had been spent telling stories about ourselves; we were going to be spending a lot of time together after all, and if each of us knew where the others were coming from, we would be better able to guess what the others would do. Brunner and I had talked about our previous escapades, how we had barely escaped the jaws of death numerous times, and how we had spent our time leading our territories since. Johnny had briefly gone back over what Brunner had told me about his early life and training, passing over serious events as if they were nothing. When he had finished I realized he hadn’t said anything about how he had become a contractor, but I decided not to push. Those stories were rarely pleasant. After that, Brunner had even convinced Aela to talk about where she had come from. She told us how she had grown up on the far side of the Great Sea in a small town. Her father, Leo, had trained her from a young age to hunt and track in the woods behind their house. Brunner’s eyebrows had shot up at that, and he had nonchalantly asked her a few questions about basic tracking. She’d answered correctly, and he’d began to quiz her with greater and greater vigor. It quickly became apparent she actually knew what she was talking about. By the time Brunner seemed satisfied, I didn’t know what either of them were talking about, but Brunner ruffled her hair approvingly and Aela was beaming.
Soon after, she was fast asleep. Brunner chuckled and adjusted her to be more comfortable. She looked so tiny next to his massive frame. He was a gentle giant, at least when it came to children. Which abruptly made me wonder why he never had any of his own.
“Why did you never get married Brunner?”
He looked at me in surprise, then looked back at Aela. “Never found the one, I guess. Not after Liz.” I winced. How had I forgotten about Liz? Brunner had rescued her from a Deligal slaver. She had been in bad shape; broken bones, a punctured lung, starving and severely dehydrated. I had wanted to bring her to the nearest village for medical treatment, but Brunner had insisted she wouldn’t make it and had started caring for her himself. She hadn’t regained consciousness until weeks later, and she was unable to talk until days after that. She hadn’t trusted us at first; who could blame her; a couple rough, dirty men alone in the wilderness who just happened to ‘save’ her. But Brunner had managed to gain her trust, and soon enough she was laughing and talking with him non stop. It had become obvious early on that Brunner had feelings for her, and she’s developed some for him as well, in the end. I had never seen Brunner as happy as he had been then, nor since her death. Stupid. Stupid! How could I forget about her? These days, it felt like I had forgotten more of my life than I remembered.
“Who’s Liz?” I winced and turned to glare at Johnny. Not that I’m in any position to judge; I forgot about her. Johnny didn’t even know her. Of the two of us, I’m definitely more at fault. But Brunner just shrugged, face blank.
“Someone who died.” His tone didn’t match his expression. Luckily, Johnny heard the ragged edge and dropped the subject.
The next few hours was spent riding in silence. It felt tense, but I didn’t mind; I had a lot to try to figure out. Like what to do about my energy problem. The crystal was powerful, but it’s power was unstructured and wild. With Fell, Selana, and Baylen, they managed most of the casting, while I served mostly as a conduit. On top of that, they each were tied to and therefore processed very specific forms of energy; Fell’s power was aggressive, Selana’s was manipulative, and Baylen protective. The crystal though… Its power was raw and untempered, which, while it meant it could be used to whatever ends its user saw fit, made it incredibly difficult to control or shape. I tentatively drew from the stone as we rode, trying to get a feel for it. The power I got felt hot and wild, and my attempt at molding it was like trying to ride a wild animal. I frowned. I might as well try to make a light. That’s a relatively simple working. By the time we reached the base of the mountains, I had made no headway, and I was sweaty, tired, and grumpy from the exertion and lack of progress.
Brunner finally broke the silence. “We have about four hours before daybreak. We should all try to get as much rest as we can before then.” We dismounted and tied up the horses. Brunner was silent as he gently lifted Aela from the saddle and tucked her into a bedroll. She murmured unintelligibly and curled up, not even fully waking. The three of us laid down in silence. My body ached from the unaccustomed motion, but Brunner and Johnny were soon snoring away.
After what felt like an hour, I realized I wasn’t going to get to sleep. I sighed and slipped out of my bed, shivering slightly in the night air before I wrapped myself in my blanket. The horses huffed at me as I walked by, and I absentmindedly patted their noses before continuing on to a rock that sat a little ways away. I sat down and pulled out the energy stone, smiling as it seemed to pulse to life. To my surprise, with the light came warmth, almost as though it were reacting to the cold. Was that a hint to tapping into its power? If so, I didn’t know how I was supposed to use that knowledge. It might be that its power only works in reaction to stimuli. I could try jumping off of a cliff and see if it catches me, but if it didn’t, that wouldn’t end well. I chuckled at my own lame joke. Maybe if I could get used to the raw force of it, I could find a clue to unlocking its powers. I took a deep breath and started pulling from the gem again. My tired muscles winced in protest, but I ignored them. I kept pulling until my body was burning in protest, then stopped, simply holding the energy. It still felt wild, completely unusable, roaring from one end of my spirit to the other. With this much of it inside me, I could barely hold on to it. No clues there. Maybe if I just…
“Wow, that’s beautiful. What is it?”
I whirled around, flinching horribly. The energy suddenly stilled within me, and I felt almost like it was about to take shape… then the feeling was gone. Sighing, I released the feral energy back into the crystal, almost falling off my rock as my muscles all relaxed in relief. My mind finally caught up to what I had heard. Aela. I looked down at her wide eyes and smiled slightly.
“This? It’s, uh, it’s an energy stone. It’s, um, kind of like a fake spirit, I guess.”
“A spirit? What’s that?”
“What’s a spirit? Oh, uh, they’re these powerful beings that can give people, like me, abilities to protect the people they care about.”
“Oh, like a superhero?” She gasped. “You’re a superhero?”
I grinned, shaking my head helplessly. “That’s not quite… yeah, like a superhero.”
“Wow! So you go around saving people? Can you fly? How many villains have you stopped? What’s your superhero name? Where are the spirits? Do they like the energy stone too? Can you show them to me?”
“Oh, well, uh, that’s, uh, I could do that, but, um, my spirits, uh, I don’t want to wake up the others. Maybe some other time.”
“Oh.” She seemed to deflate. “I’m bothering you, aren’t I. I’ll be quiet, so let me stay? Please?”
“Wait, no, you’re not really bothering me. You can stay. Um, but no more questions though, alright? I have something to, uh, I have to figure this out.” She nodded vigorously, then scrambled up the rock and plopped down next to me. I cleared my throat self consciously and began pulling from the stone again. Aela’s eyes widened in wonder as it pulsed back to life. I noticed she was shivering slightly and opened my blanket in invitation. She snuggled up close to me and I had to stop myself from flinching. I’m this unused to physical contact? Really?
I awkwardly toyed with it for a bit, trying a few more things to elicit a reaction, but nothing seemed to work. Something suddenly fell against my shoulder and I almost lashed out before realizing it was Aela. She was dozing quietly against my arm. I smiled at her, relaxing somewhat. Wow, once again, scared of a kid. I shook my head. Then my brow furrowed. Something Aela had said was nagging at me. The energy stone really did feel almost exactly like a spirit did. Maybe, if I were to pull energy and then access the plain where I had been with the manifestations of my spirits, I would be able to figure something out. I wasn’t sure what that would be, but I figured it was worth a shot.
I should probably only use a small amount for this; if Aela’s idea is right and something does happen, who knows how dangerous this will be. After letting myself relax for a moment, I once again pulled from the gem, but this time I only grabbed enough to light a candle. Holding it gently inside me, I turned inward, falling into myself as I had done with my spirits. After floating through the strange gray twilight between the real world and this one, I alighted gently in the field of the Spirit Realm. Or at least, my echo of the Spirit Realm. That was something I had never been able to explain to Brunner, despite his asking. I understood this space on an almost intuitive level, but when I tried to put it into words it just didn’t come out right. The best explanation I had heard was that this was a facsimile of the true Spirit Realm that was created by the contract between a spirit and human. It was shaped by the Contractor’s soul, and was more of a conceptual manifestation of space than a real place, meaning only the spirits and their Contractor had access to it. For that reason alone, I had heard of many spirits who had entered into contracts just to have someplace safe to dwell, since the true Spirit Realm was a very dangerous place even for them.
I looked around. I hadn’t tried this before just because I knew there would be no one waiting for me, but since this was where I had processed all my energy before, maybe if I looked while pulling the crystal… I caught sight of something moving at the edge of my vision. I turned towards it, moving forwards and squinting to make it out. It looked like a bundle of golden hairs floating a few feet away. It was writhing and twisting, but not in a pained way; more like it was… dancing.
“What am I supposed to do with you, little fella?” The hair stopped abruptly and seemed to turn towards me. I fell back a step. “That’s a bit disconcerting. Can you understand me?” The hair stayed still for a second longer, then started dancing again. I let out the breath I had been holding. “Must have been a coincidence. Damn, you had me scared there. Now, what am I to do with you?”
I sat watching the strange strand of energy for a long while. The entirety of that time it seemed to be in motion, dashing this way and that, spinning and surging and shining. I found myself smiling slightly as I watched its dance, and took note of a warm glow starting in my chest. I suddenly realized my physical body was being shaken, and quickly stood. I took once last look at the tumbling strand, then let myself float back up into consciousness.
“White! Snap out of it? White! Say something!”
“Agh, I’m up, I’m up. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on? He asks what’s going on.” Brunner looked back at the wide-eyed Aela and Johnny in askance. He sighed heavily and thumped me on the chest. “It seemed like you were as good as dead, that’s what! Nearly gave poor Aela a panic attack. What in the name of the Lords were you doing?”
“Oh, uh, sorry, you’ve probably never, uh, seen me like that, huh. You know how sometimes I let my spirits, um, take over?” Brunner nodded. “Well, if I do that, but don’t have one of them actually take over, I guess it looks like I died?” Brunner stared at me hard for another moment, then burst out laughing. I looked at him in alarm, sharing a surprised glance with Johnny. He dropped a massive hand on my shoulder, almost knocking me over.
“I should have known not to worry by now. Dammit White, I thought you had gone and offed yourself out of spite so that I’d never get to apologize for giving you the cold shoulder yesterday.”
“What? No, wait, no, I should be the one apologizing! I spoke without thinking and made you remember something you didn’t want to! I–”
He was shaking his head. “I thought long and hard about that last night. Liz wouldn’t have wanted her memory to cause me pain, nor would she have wanted us to be at odds with each other. You know, she told me once that she had actually been secretly in love with you when we had first met, before falling for me that is. Said that us getting along so well had been the only thing to keep her sane those first weeks.” I opened and closed my mouth dumbly. Liz? Liking me? I couldn’t picture it.
Brunner saw my expression and broke into another fit, which Johnny and even Aela quickly joined. I felt myself blush deeply, but I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.
Once the others were done poking fun at me, we ate a frugal meal, packed quickly, and were back on the road by the time the sun was fully above the horizon. If there were no more issues, I hoped that we would be able to reach the next village before stopping again. Aela had opted to ride with me, surprising everyone, and had Brunner help her up so she sat in front of me, bleary eyed and yawning. Immediately I thought back to the previous night and wondered if she’d try to continue where we’d left off. Dread filled me at the thought. I scrambled for another excuse not to use my spirits, but to my vast relief she didn’t ask. Only after my worry had faded had I had time to feel awkward about her proximity. I could tell that her blissful unawareness of personal space was going to be something I had to get used to. On some level, I was happy that she felt comfortable around me, but on another, I was completely unused to being touched by other people. Another downside of being one of the most powerful people in the world I supposed. She had struggled for a little while to stay awake, but she ultimately succumbed and slept against me. I shifted my weight in an attempt to make her more comfortable, making sure that she would get pushed off by the horses steady trot. I nodded to myself, satisfied, then looked back up to see Brunner and Johnny grinning at me.
“What?”
“Oh nothing, nothing at all.” The two kept grinning my way and I felt my face heat up. I decided to ignore them and kicked my horse forward so I could lead and avoid looking at them. They snickered as I rode past and I blushed even harder.
The rest of the morning was spent riding mostly in silence. Brunner and Johnny occasionally would say something to each other, but for the most part we all seemed content to relax and enjoy the morning. I was just glad the tense atmosphere from the previous day had dissolved. Sometime around mid morning, I felt Aela begin to stir and I adjusted so she could sit upright comfortably. She had muttered a good morning and had set about waking herself up. I gave her a waterskin and she gulped it down greedily. Once done with that, she turned to me and I braced for a question.
“So what is your name really? When I first met you you said it was Ian, but everyone else seems to call you White Hand. Why is that?”
“Well, Ian is my real name, and White Hand is kind of like, uh, like my superhero name! Remember how you’d said–?” I forced myself to stop talking, cursing myself for bringing up the previous night, but Aela was nodding understandingly. I felt eyes boring into my back and turned to see Brunner staring at me. He mouthed superhero? and I shrugged. He snorted and turned to whisper something to Johnny. They both broke out laughing and I felt my ears heat up. Oblivious, Aela continued chattering away, talking about the weather, the trees, some animals she saw; everything. I didn’t have to do much beside nod and occasionally mutter something that sounded like agreement. Eventually she ended up on the subject of her dad, and she insisted I tell her stories of him when we were growing up. Reluctantly at first, then with growing enthusiasm I told her stories of our antics and ‘adventures’ growing up in a small backwoods village. She was the perfect listener; politely listening for the most part, laughing or commenting at the appropriate moments, and asking for clarifying details on the best parts.
After a few hours I realized I wasn’t feeling at all awkward anymore, and I felt a happy warmth blossom in my chest. I turned to share my discovery with Brunner and saw him and Johnny eyeing the path behind us tensely. Immediately I felt my guard shoot back up, and I pulled my horse up short.
“What is it Brunner? An enemy?”
“I’m not sure yet. You guys keep going; I’m going to check it out.” He nimbly jumped off his horse, handed the reins to Johnny, then disappeared into the woods. Johnny and I continued onward, much slower this time. Aela picked up on our mood and sat in silence, eyes roving the forest around us. After what felt like ages, Brunner popped back out of the trees, quickly mounting.
“Well?”
“There’s someone almost exactly one mile behind us. They’re on foot but still able to keep up. With that kind of agility I’m thinking they must be non-human.” I put a hand on my sword and pulled Aela closer. Brunner noticed and shook his head. “I didn’t feel any hostility from them though. Rather than a confrontation, I think it’d be best if we pretend we didn’t notice then try to catch them unawares. It’d be better to diffuse this through talking rather than violence.” I nodded, and all three of us kicked our horses forward. I swore inwardly. It felt like the world was conspiring against us, as though it didn’t want us to ever reach our destination. We rode in a tense silence for a few miles, then Brunner stopped us.
“There should be a clearing a little bit off the path here. I say we break for lunch and hope our stalker gets close enough to capture.”
I hesitated. I didn’t like the idea of encouraging an unknown enemy to sneak up on our group, especially without access to my powers, but I couldn’t tell them that. Besides, we didn’t have much of a choice if we wanted to catch our pursuer. I nodded reluctantly. Brunner took point and led us single file down an almost invisible pathway. As naturally as we could, Aela and I unloaded the food while Johnny started a fire, leaving Brunner to watch the woods. We were just starting to eat when Brunner suddenly sprinted into the bush. A sudden cry made us all tense up, then he came back into the clearing, dragging a rope-wrapped figure behind him. He unceremoniously dumped them on the floor, and they grunted. We looked at each other in surprise. That grunt had sounded like a human woman. Aela watched with wide eyes as Johnny cautiously approached the figure. Using his sword, he lifted the hood.
“Miriam? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Hey bro! Long time…” she took a moment to draw a labored breath against her restraints “…no see. Mind untying me?” Brunner’s face looked like a stormcloud, and Johnny’s wasn’t much better. For my part, I was in a stunned silence. Miriam? Johnny’s sister? Why is she here? More importantly, how did she keep up? Johnny set about removing her bindings, but stopped before untying her hands and feet. She waited patiently, then looked up when it was clear he wasn’t going to continue.
“Uh, bro? I think you missed some.” She pulled her wrists against the restraints pointedly.
“What are you doing here, Miriam?” Johnny’s voice had the same dangerous edge as Brunner’s sometimes did. Like foster-father like son I supposed. Miriam seemed to be studying her brother’s expression, and she didn’t like what she saw. Her eyes narrowed.
“I’m coming with you, of course. I’m just as capable a fighter as you. I was going to join you guys for real, but I was going to wait until you were at least a day out so you couldn’t send me home.”
“Too bad. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.” He made no attempt to finish untying her though.
The silence stretched uncomfortably, and she suddenly turned to me. Her tone was completely different, simpering and tentative. “Please White Hand, please don’t send me back. You’ll be glad for my help, I promise.” She shifted carefully, and I was suddenly aware of how tight her clothing was. I felt the heat rise in my face and I cleared my throat.
“Um, well, I don’t think I would feel good about having, uh, having another person along for a trip this dangerous.”
She frowned prettily. “You were about to say you don’t want a girl coming, weren’t you. That’s not fair! You already have her,” she gestured at Aela, who hid behind me again, “and she’s not even old enough to carry her own weight, much less help if there’s trouble!”
Aela peeked around me enough to glare at Miriam.
“Enough,” Johnny growled. “I won’t let my little sister be in harm’s way.”
She snorted. “Harms way? Do you think I’m any safer at the Coterie? Besides, who was it that protected and provided for both of us for almost 2 years, hm? Who was it that saved you from slavers not once, but twice?” Johnny opened his mouth to respond but she kept talking over him. “And who’s been a Contractor longer, between the two of us? That’s right, the answer to all of the above is me. Don’t you pretend like I can’t hold my own, Johnny.”
Miriam is a Contractor? What in the Nine?
Her expression softened. “I know you’re just trying to look out for me, but I need to come with you guys. I have to do this.”
Johnny was looking around as if a reason to stop her would be written on the trees. “But what about Miss Perigal? She must be worried sick with you–”
“She was the one who told me to come. Look, I’ll be fine! And if I’m with you, you’ll be able to look after me. I know that’s why you stayed as a guard for a whore house so long. No offense to Miss Perigal.” She looked over at me. “Of course, that is, if White Hand will let me come with you.” Everyone turned to look at me. Even with only four people, I still felt my heartbeat quicken at being the center of attention.
“Uh, that is, um, I, I don’t see why not.”
Miriam smiled beautifully. “Oh, thank you White Hand, thank you! You won’t regret it. Well, you heard him big brother! Finish freeing me and let’s eat! I’m starving!” Johnny sighed and bent to work. Brunner and I shared a look that was equal parts amusement, frustration, and resignation.
I felt Aela pull on my shirt and looked down at her. “Who is she? Why is she here?”
“Oh, this is Miriam. She’s, uh, she’s Johnny’s sister. And, well, it sounds like she’s going to be helping us.”
She frowned and looked over at Miriam. “I don’t like her. My daddy said that people like her make good men do bad things.” I chuckled. That did sound like something Leo would say. I crouched down so my eyes were level with hers.
“Miriam isn’t like those people, I promise. I think that, when you get to know her, you two are going to be good friends.” Aela looked so dubious that I had to stop myself from laughing. I ruffled her hair and turned to help the others prepare our meal. The atmosphere of the camp changed dramatically over the course of cooking and eating. By the time we were repacking the horses, all of the tension was gone, and Johnny and Miriam were teasing each other as much as I would expect siblings to. I realized that we actually already had a horse ready for Miriam to ride, since we had never loaded the one we had prepared for Aela. It was convenient to the point of being disturbing. During the course of the entire meal, clean-up, and loading, Aela had stared at Miriam like a sheep watching a wolf. Miriam had tried to pull her into the conversation a couple times, but Aela had pressed her lips together and hid behind Brunner or me each time. I could tell Miriam was bothered quite a bit by Aela’s distance, and she actually went as far as pulling Brunner aside to ask him what she should do to win her over. He and I had both tried convincing her that Miriam was a friend, but nothing we said or did had convinced her in the end.
We were still barely on schedule, and I urged us to go a little faster. Trouble came in threes as they said, and I didn’t want to fall any further behind. As we got closer and closer to our destination, I felt myself relax. We’re going to make it! It’s just a saying, after all. Brunner and I started reminiscing together about the start of our last journey; a similar thing had happened back then with Miss Perigal. We were laughing about how that small and shy woman had strong armed the both of us into letting her join when Miriam and Johnny suddenly stopped. Brunner and I looked back in confusion, but then Aela tugged on my arm and pointed. I followed her gaze and saw smoke. That’s where the village is! Brunner and I shared a look, then we all kicked our horses forward. We broke out of the woods to a scene out of a nightmare.
The village was in flames. Every few feet was another body, and blood ran so thick through the streets that the gutters were overflowing. I quickly covered Aela’s eyes, but I could hear her whimpering over the roar of the flames. If this village that was only a day’s ride away from Alvaren was destroyed… our adventure might be over before we even started.
Contractor 