Book One – Chapter 7

“I am sorry. I am so sorry for fleeing, Sir, but your sudden appearance frightened me before I realised you were in pain.”

She looked young and weather-worn, clothed in the furs of beasts. Her barthar, a muscular beast with thick fur, was fitted with saddle and travelling sacks attached to it. She fought with the pain of the impaling shards and still asked him: “Are you all right?”

Yves fought with his own pain, still feeling the Jabarrah settling within him, supporting his stance. In his right hand, he clutched his last remaining energy crystal. He did not speak.

“Please, Sir. My name is Halia, Halia from Valdin Mountain,” she said, “I meant you no harm. I am a beast shaman.

I travel here, or sometimes in the Albweiss Mountains. I travel, and sometimes I collect rare plants for medicine.

I … I understand why you are wary … and why you don’t speak, Sir. Please know, I am no witch, I don’t belong to any coven or mother or kingdom, I only live with my beasts. I do not have my horns yet, but please look here, at my arms, my arms, Sir, I carry the marks of the Shamans, I started my transition. I have renounced any witchcraft and anything I did was an accident, I am so sorry!

I saw this unfamiliar black creature. It was so feeble, so weak, I thought it was dying. I am so sorry, Sir, was this your familiar or companion or something you fought? I mean it did not look … conventional, but I am not one to judge. I did not know– I did not expect to find another person — I mean, I just wanted to connect to it, so I reached out in spirit like I do with the beasts, and I could feel that it responded and regained its strength. I thought I was helping. It started to move again, away. But it was not running from me. Its path was so determined that it almost seemed that it wanted to lead me somewhere, and so I followed until it ate the Underferl, and still I followed until what must be your light magic appeared and then, along with the creature, suddenly disappeared. And then we found all these artefacts in its path, and when I reached the crater there was no-one, and when I climbed down I suddenly felt the spirit of a dangerous beast appear, and I fled before I saw that it was not a beast but you —”

Her hasty, trembling words broke off. Yves trembled, too, but his stare did not weaver. He was well aware that she did not cry.

“Sir, I promise, I will leave. I will go the other way from you. I wander from ruin to ruin, I will just go back, Sir, and never bother you again. Or if you like, I can show you safe passage, I know these lands, but then I’m sure that you don’t need me for that. I can just go back, and if you are here because you needed to be alone or unseen, I swear, Sir, I will never mention it, not to my beasts or anyone, Sir, I already forgot that I ever met you, Sir.”