I awoke to sunlight peeking through the cracks in my shack. I got up and put on my moccasins, as per my usual custom. I made my way outside and just looked out onto the fields. Took a deep breath and stood there for a while, trying to be present in the moment. I thought back on everything that had happened so far and felt a bit of fear—not fear of death or imprisonment, but fear of failure. I felt a sense of responsibility to this world, and I knew a lot of people held onto hope for another chosen. Everyone deserves happiness and the right to live their own lives. No one deserves to live in fear. I decided then that no matter the cost to myself, I would bring the Warden to justice and treat him with the same respect he had shown his subjects.

  "Ryker," Harald said, snapping me out of my trance. "Come get some breakfast, we have a lot to do today." I nodded and made my way to the house, entering just behind Harald.

  "Good morning, everyone," I said as I entered.

  "Good morning," they replied, giving me a smile or a nod. Everyone except Jorik. I felt a bit bad for the kid and decided to try and speak with him at breakfast. I sat down, and Alyndra brought a plate of assorted fruits, two giant eggs, and something that looked like bacon. I held a piece up and asked, "What is this?"

  Alyndra smiled. "It's called bacon. It's from an animal we have here called a pig."

  I nodded, feeling a bit disappointed it wasn’t from a new animal but still excited that this world had bacon. As everyone sat down to eat, I looked up at Jorik. He was focused on eating his food and gave me a glance, squinting his eyes a bit as if I was annoying him.

  "So, are you going to come train with us, Jorik? It could be fun; maybe you could teach me some things."

  Jorik didn't respond; he just kept eating as if I hadn’t spoken. Harald looked up at Jorik and said, "Ryker was talking to you, son. You're being rude."

  Jorik still kept eating. I noticed Harald was about to say something else, but I put my hand up, stopping him. This was starting to feel awkward, and I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary conflict. Plus, I could recognize that feeling of powerlessness. I felt bad for the kid, but if I could stop the Warden, I could bring about change that would benefit everyone.

  "So, what’s the plan for today?" I asked Harald as I took a bite of my crispy bacon.

  "Well," Harald said, swallowing some of his breakfast, "You need to get as strong as you can, as fast as you can. I know a spot near the forest where we shouldn’t have to worry about guards showing up or prying eyes."

  "What about the elves?" I asked, a bit worried.

  Harald took another bite. "I told ye, they won't bother us as long as we don't enter the forest."

  I nodded, still remembering the battle I saw between the elves and the guards. "I hope so," I said, and Harald gave me a wink to reassure me that I could trust him.

  We finished our meals, and I thanked Alyndra and Lirael for their wonderful cooking before making my way outside. Harald soon joined me, and we started walking in the direction of the forest. I eyed the plants in the fields as we walked by, and somehow I knew they would be ready to harvest, probably tomorrow. I felt a bit of pride at the different stalks coming out of the earth. We walked for what seemed like about an hour before arriving just next to the woodline.

  Harald said, "Give me a moment," and got on his hands and knees, starting to claw away at the earth, looking for something. I kept my eyes on the woods, still uneasy about being this close. I noticed something halfway up a tree that looked like a pair of eyes watching. I tried to make out what it was, but Harald spoke, breaking my concentration.

  "Here," he said, tossing a dirty sword in my direction.

  "Whoa," I said, barely grabbing it by the handle and swinging it around a bit to stop the momentum. Harald stood up, holding a sword of his own.

  "Alright, anyone who could be a threat to you is going to know how to use a sword," he said. "I'm not sure how this works with you Chosen, so just let me know when you’ve had enough."

  He then charged at me with his sword raised high in the air. He came down with an overhead swing, and I held up my sword in defense. Our swords clashed, and the force of his swing knocked my blade into the ground. As I frantically tried to pull my sword out of the dirt, he quickly raised his sword and, what seemed like in a moment, had it at my throat. We both paused for a moment.

  "Well, the good thing is you can't get any worse," he said, smiling as I freed my sword from the ground. Harald lowered his sword and helped me position myself in a stance. My left leg was forward and my right leg back. He made me bend over just slightly and hold my sword with only my right hand instead of both.

  "There," he said. "You stay a bit low like that, so no one can just charge and knock you over. And when you're blocking attacks, you don’t want to just stop their sword with yours. You need to redirect their blow away from you and in another direction. Does that make sense?"

  I thought for a moment. "Yes, it actually does," I said.

  Just then, a notification popped up: Swordplay increased to level 2.

  "Alright then, show me," Harald said.

  I smiled and nodded. Harald charged at me again with the same move. This time, as he came down, I quickly knocked his sword to the side, moving myself in the opposite direction and kicking his back. Harald stumbled a bit but quickly recovered and spun around, a look of shock on his face.

  "Yeah, I think you got it. You know, the rest of us actually have to practice more than once to get good at that."

  I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Hey, what can I say? I was chosen by a god."

  Harald smiled and responded, "Okay, let’s see just how chosen you are."

  He charged again, except this time, he swung from the side. My sword was down, so as he came in, I slapped his sword upwards and ducked, moving behind him again. He spun his sword around, feet level, and I jumped over it, bringing my sword down toward his head. He stepped to the side, dodging it, and swung his sword in an upwards slash. I stepped back, and we both swung at each other from opposite directions. Our swords clashed together in the middle and came to an abrupt stop. As we stared each other down, another notification popped up:

  Swordplay increased to Level 3. To reach Level 4, fight and slay 2 opponents in a single fight.

  I stood up straight and relaxed my stance. "That’s all we can do for now."

  Harald seemed a bit disappointed. "What do you mean, we just started?"

  I shook my head. "In order for me to level up again, I need to kill two people in a swordfight."

  Harald looked a bit confused and just said, "Okay, well, now that you have swordplay down, let’s work on blocking."

  He put his hand out, and I gave him the sword back. He made his way over to the hole he dug and pulled out a shield. I followed him this time, and he handed it to me.

  "I can’t have the sword?" I asked.

  Harald stood up with his sword in hand. "No, this is about blocking, not attacking, so get ready to defend yourself."

  I took a step back, and Harald just stood there for a moment. Again, without any warning, he charged and swung his sword in a sideways motion toward me. I lowered my shield a bit, and the impact of the sword knocked me to the ground. Harald walked over and offered me his hand, pulling me to my feet.

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  "Again, the stance I showed you with the sword will be the same for the shield. If you’re in that stance, it’ll be a lot harder for someone to knock you off your feet. I know you don’t have a sword, but you need to behave like you do."

  I nodded, feeling like I should have known that, and got into the defensive posture. Harald squared up again, and this time, swung at me from the opposite direction. I quickly turned my body, shifted my shield to the opposite side, and slid a bit as the sword impacted the wooden shield.

  Another notification popped up:

  Blocking increased to level 2.

  I nodded to Harald. "I’m ready to take it up a notch."

  He looked at me with a weird expression. "It means I’ve learned the basics already, and you can come at me harder."

  Harald nodded and lifted his sword up high, coming down with a powerful slash. I raised my shield up high and stopped the blow. I did a thrusting motion with my other hand, simulating a sword thrust. Harald jumped back as if I was armed and swung with another blow from the side. I lowered my shield and stopped that, then swung my imaginary sword at his head. He leaned back and swung upwards. Instead of blocking it, I stepped back and allowed his sword to swing by, hitting him with my shield on the shoulder. He stumbled back a bit but quickly regained his composure.

  Blocking increased to level 3. To reach level 4, disarm an opponent with your shield.

  I smiled when I read this and decided not to say anything to Harald. "Come on, show me what you can do," I said, smiling.

  Harald rubbed his shoulder a bit and charged at me again. He swung several times from all different directions, and the speed at which he moved made me realize he had been going easy on me up to this point. I was able to block and dodge all of his strikes, and after I dodged a strike from below without losing momentum, Harald's sword came up in the air, and he swung it down at me at an alarming speed. I raised my shield, and, timing it perfectly, I pushed up as hard as I could as soon as his sword made impact. It sent his sword swinging back at him, and Harald let go, watching as it spun through the air before landing in the dirt behind him.

  Blocking increased to level 4. To reach level 5, kill 2 opponents with your shield.

  Harald just stared at his sword for a bit before turning his gaze back to me. "You done embarrassing me?" he asked, making his way to retrieve his sword. "Depends on what else you want to teach me." I said as he picked his sword up and made his way back to the hole.

  He pulled my sword back out and handed it to me before retrieving a shield for himself. "Alright, let's combine swordplay and blocking and see how you do." I didn't say anything; I just took my stance. I waited for Harald to make the first move, but instead, he just stood there as well, waiting. I started to circle him, and he did the same in the opposite direction.

  I lunged at him, swinging my sword hard. He blocked it with his shield and then returned with an overhead swing. I ducked just in time as it missed my head. I swung my shield to try to stun him, but he spun around, letting the momentum of my shield blow right past him. I spun all the way around, using the momentum to come at him with another swing. But as he came into my line of sight, I noticed his shield was on the ground.

  He threw something, and I immediately felt pain in my eyes. I started backing up as fast as I could, trying to wipe my eyes but couldn't because of the shield. I peeked my eyes open a little and saw Harald rushing toward me. I lifted my shield and charged into him with it as hard as I could. I felt the impact, and afterward, I immediately dropped my shield and began wiping my eyes.

  Once I cleared them, I opened my eyes to find Harald's sword at my throat.

  "You cheated," I said, using the opportunity to wipe my eyes with my shirt.

  "Did I?" he asked, still holding his sword at me.

  Once my eyes were clear, I just stood there as Harald held his sword, then slowly lowered it.

  "You have skills, but that doesn't mean you can win every fight. If I had been a real enemy, you would have been dead. Your skills did not save you."

  I just stared for a moment. "So, what's your point?" I asked, my eyes still watering a bit.

  "My point is, don't let your skills make you do something stupid. Even with your skills, you still lack experience, and that comes with time and practice. You couldn't see me, but you still charged. You should have done everything you could to get away, so you could live to fight another day. You're no use to anyone dead."

  Even though I didn't like the idea of running away, Harald did make a good point. "Okay, then what now?" I asked.

  He motioned for me to follow and began burying our weapons back in the hole. I helped him cover them up. "The warden doesn't allow anyone to have weapons except for the guards," he said as we patted down the dirt, trying to make it look like it wasn't freshly dug.

  He turned and looked at me. "The last thing is, I can teach you what I know about fire magic."

  I felt excitement rush through me but tried not to show it. Harald continued, "Ye already know how to make a flame with your finger, and yesterday, ye shot flames from your hand."

  I nodded, trying to take this as seriously as possible. "If you focus and gather the fire energy in the palm of your hand, ye can swing your arm ye can shoot a wall of fire at a group of enemies."

  I watched as Harald balled up his fist and then opened his hand. There was a small flame in the palm of his hand. He turned, with his back to the forest, swung his arm behind him, and then forward very fast. A wave of fire shot out, singeing the grass in front of him for about 20 feet.

  Another notification popped up:

  Fire Magic increased to level 3. To reach level 4, kill 2 enemies with fire magic.

  Harald turned to me, and I nodded. I made sure to turn my back to the forest as well. I balled my fist tightly and started to feel heat inside. I opened my hand and looked down to see a flame sitting there. I hunched over a bit, reached my arm back behind me, and swung it forward quickly. A wall of fire shot through the field, just shy of reaching where Harald's had.

  I stood up straight and couldn't help but smile. I looked at Harald.

  "Magic is pretty fun, isn't it?" he said.

  I grinned and responded, "It's fucking awesome."

  He laughed and started walking back toward the house. "Come on," he said. "Let's head home. That's enough for one day, and we don’t want to push our luck." I followed behind, still examining my hand in awe of what I had just done. We walked for about half an hour, and I noticed that Harald seemed deep in thought.

  "Everything okay?" I asked. He just shook his head slightly.

  "Everything is fine, just thinking," he replied.

  I nodded. I didn’t want to push him, but I did want to help if I could. After all, he and his family had done nothing but help me since I arrived.

  "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked.

  Harald was silent for a moment, but then he continued. "When I was part of the Emberguard, my family and I lived inside the walls. We had a good life." I nodded as he spoke. "We just bought what we needed, and we lived in a nice house. Eldrick was studying everything he could about the history of the land. He wanted to live with the elves for a time and learn their culture. After that, he wanted to live among the Stormkin and learn their ways. Then, he planned to travel far and wide, see everything there was to see, and come back to write books about his adventures." Harald smiled as he remembered.

  "Jorik had plans to be part of the Emberguard like me. He would practice outside with a wooden sword and beg me to teach him what I knew." Harald looked at me. "I told him I would teach him when he got older, and I would place him under my command." He chuckled a bit. "And Lirael, she wanted to make clothes, design dresses for women, and shoes and clothes for men—anything and everything related to fashion, she wanted to create."

  Harald’s head fell for a moment, and I noticed what looked like a tear forming in his eye.

  "Then..." He swallowed before continuing. "One day, I saw the Warden for who he truly was—a power-hungry tyrant." He paused for a moment, as if reliving something, then went on. "The Warden had a meeting with the elves. I, along with a handful of Emberguard, accompanied him to the edge of the forest. The leader of the elves arrived with some of his people."

  Harald wiped a tear from his cheek. "The Warden asked for the knowledge of the essence of the ancients. When the leader of the elves refused, the Warden didn’t ask again—he told them. Then the Warden drew his sword on the leader. When he did that, the elves drew their swords in defense. I hoped that would be the end of it. But then... the Warden killed the leader of the elves. When he did that, we felt we had no choice but to protect the Warden, and we slaughtered them all."

  He stopped as we walked, trying to regain control of his emotions. It took him a moment, but he was able to speak again.

  "One of the elf children had a knife and rushed at the Warden from behind. The child was going to kill the man who had just slain his parents. I saw this, and I made the decision to kill the child and save the Warden, because it was my duty."

  He turned and looked at me. "With that decision, I left the Emberguard, and in doing so, I condemned my family and me to become lessers. I took my children’s hope for the future away from them. I saved the life of a tyrant and took the life of an innocent. But most of all, in that moment, I betrayed everything that I stood for."

  Harald was silent for a while, and I just tried to think of something to say as we walked, but I came up with nothing. We stayed silent the rest of the way until we started to approach the house. Harald stopped and raised his hand, signaling for me to do the same. There was a patrol of Emberguard outside his home. He motioned for me to get low.

  There were six guardsmen standing outside the house, their horses tethered near the shack where I slept. We watched as one, clearly the leader, went inside Harald’s house. I looked at Harald, but his eyes remained fixed on the situation unfolding before us.

  We continued to watch as Harald's family came out, one by one. They stood in front of the soldiers with their hands behind their backs and their heads down. I felt adrenaline start to flow through me and looked to Harald again for some kind of guidance. He just kept watching, steady and calm.

  The leader came out of the house and seemed to be questioning Alyndra. We couldn't make out what they were saying, but it didn’t look friendly. He made his way to Eldrick and appeared to question him as well. This continued with each member of his family until the guard returned to his group of soldiers.

  They talked for a brief few seconds and then turned back towards the family and drew their swords.