Book One – Chapter 15

Yu froze. He stared, from Estingar to Tirran, into the storm, and back again. This was wrong. So, so wrong. Harrow should be here. Fallem should. Anyone should be here. Anyone but him. Yes, why the fuck was he standing here when Harrow was inside? What the grand fuck was wrong with Tirran? —

They had the wrong idea. Him and Estingar. Completely, horribly, desasterously wrong. They thought he was useful. Why? How? They did not even know what he could do — No, worse, they did not know what he could not do. They did not know that his hearing was all he had.

“Tirran, listen —”

“Let me stay.”

Yu was not the one who said that.

Imbiad had stepped forward. He stood firm, feet planted, shoulders squared. Unlike Harrow and Fallem, he had not turned back.

“I am a water elementer,” Imbiad said. “I can wield both water and ice. I will fight if needed.”

Yu looked from the wizard to Tirran.

As always, his eyes darted everywhere, even as he replied: “If you wield ice from the mountain, you may disrupt the foundational structures of the guild.”

“I may also oppose any attempts by the witch to do so,” Imbiad countered. “Know that I will be careful. If necessary, I will only draw from a distance.”

For the briefest second, Tirran’s eyes locked onto Imbiad. So brief, so quick, Yu barely registered it before it was over.

“It is my duty as a wizard to protect against witches, regardless of where I am,” Imbiad added.

Tirran gave a curt nod. “All right. But do not start a fight.”

“… before we do, that is,” Estingar added with a grin. “Same goes for you, Yu. Man, that sounds weird — For you, Yu. For you, Yu. For you too, Yu.”

“Yes. Fine.” The words left Yu’s beak before he even thought about them. They just came out. Maybe because the idea of him fighting – yes, actually starting a battle against a witch – was so absurd that it could only be treated as a joke. Or maybe because his panic had reached such an advanced stage that it had looped back around and gone full circle into utter resignation.

Yet, some part of him still believed he would survive this, apparently. Because that part kept him from dead-staring into the void and made him ask about the guild’s protections instead.