Chapter 8

  Where Do I Belong?

  They were only about a mile away from Oberton, deep in one of the forested mountains surrounding the village. Earlier that morning, while they were preparing to leave for Firmhaven, they had been approached by Nolan at Maiya’s request about an encroaching group of goblins. The outer fields had been raided the night before, and the group had been tasked with eliminating them before departing.

  Eldric took a single step back as a crude axe smashed into the ground in front of him. The goblin sputtered and screeched in rage before pulling its weapon from the ground and charging him.

  Eldric frowned a bit as the green monster’s small mouth pulled into an unnatural frown, revealing a row of pointy teeth. What it lacked in size, it made up for in pure ferocity. It went through a series of wild swings that Eldric batted away, causing it to take a stumbling step back. He stepped in, planting his foot and cutting diagonally, slashing deep across the goblin’s torso. The goblin keened and dropped to its knees, the axe falling from its grip.

  Eldric took a deep breath, feeling the heat rise in his chest with every moment the fight continued. Wisps of steam rose from his body in the cold mountain air as he turned and saw Nia. She was effortlessly dodging a pair of goblins who wildly swung their makeshift weapons at her. He reached down and picked up the goblin’s axe. The smaller monster had needed to wield it with two hands, but Eldric didn’t.

  The closest goblin yelped in surprise and tried to throw up some form of defense as Eldric crashed into it, sending it sprawling to the ground. He used the axe to chop down once, ending the second goblin’s life.

  “Nia,” he called as she hopped away from the goblin she was fighting. He tossed her own short, curved blade that she’d been letting him use into the air. She spun, her tail flashing out and obscuring the goblin’s view as she caught the weapon. As her spin finished, she went into a flurry of dual-wielding strikes, driving the goblin back as her swords riddled it with small cuts.

  Within moments her opponent was dispatched. She blinked down at its body before she took a deep breath and swiped her forearm across her cheek to wipe away the goblin’s blood. “Think Old Man Har and Ves found some more?” she asked, as an explosive crackle of fire magic in the distance caused Nia’s ears to twitch in that direction. “It’s like Ves could hear me…”

  Eldric’s brow furrowed at how distant her voice sounded. She wasn’t letting it get to her during a fight, but every time they stopped Nia’s tail fell still and her ears drooped. “Maybe she can,” Eldric agreed, coming to stand beside the foxkin. “Should we go help them?”

  Nia made a humming sound but shook her head after a moment. “No, let’s keep going the way Har told us to. They can take care of whatever that is, I can tell Ves isn’t really trying up there.” She turned and headed west across the mountainside, showing off a sense of direction that Eldric hadn’t quite developed yet.

  “How do you know she’s not trying?” Eldric asked as he quickly caught up. She turned her head to look up at him but only lowered her head again with a detached smile.

  “Well, the forest isn’t on fire for one…” Her voice quieted a bit as her ears actively flicked, reactive to every sound. “I’ve only ever seen her go all out once.”

  “Seems odd to me to not give everything in every fight,” Eldric replied.

  Nia shrugged and stepped around a thick patch of bushes. “Ves is a Warlock, E. There are prices to her power, that’s why she sometimes uses a sword. Other times, if you get lucky, she will grab a longbow.”

  That was genuinely impressive. Vestara seemed so multifaceted. “So, the magic has a price…” Nia nodded at his words but did not elaborate on what the price was. “What about you? Where did you learn to fight?”

  She frowned and turned her head away from him to look further up the mountainside. “Mostly my older sister, Elara, but later…after she died, a foxkin from another clan helped me refine it so I could be of use to Har and Ves.”

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  “Is it still-” She cut him off by grabbing his wrist and jerking him back. An arrow streaked past and sank into a tree a few feet to his right. He gripped the crude axe tightly as Nia’s eyes followed the direction the arrow had come from. She ducked as another arrow surged past.

  “Get to cover, E.” She growled and rolled behind a downed log. He intended to do the same when an arrow struck his shoulder. Nia gave a cry of surprise as Eldric landed next to her, staying low. She reached out a shaky hand and bared her small fangs as she cursed. “You’re gonna be okay, E…” she tried to reassure.

  He set the axe down and grabbed the arrow. His eyes lit up like stoked embers in a fire as the heat began to become painful in his chest. Whispers rose in his mind, haunting and commanding. “Burden unending,” Eldric growled, his grip tightening around the shaft of the arrow as he began to pray. Two more arrows whistled by as leaves rustled across the forest floor. “I who bear, I who rise.”

  “E, more are coming.” Nia grabbed his shoulder and pushed him to move.

  Blood sprang free from his body as he tore the arrow out. A goblin climbed the log, and he gave it back the arrow, sinking it deep into the monster’s chest. As it fell forward, Eldric grabbed the goblin by its neck and hauled it against his body as he rose. An arrow punched through the goblin’s back, jerking it in his grip. Another goblin charged, his club raised high. Heat roiled from Eldric, axe heavy in one hand, the dying goblin still clutched in the other.

  “Let there be only sacrifice,” he roared and kicked the charging goblin square in the chest, knocking its feet out from under it as it gasped for a breath. Eldric heaved his axe, cleaving the downed one’s skull as another arrow pierced the goblin in his left hand. “Let there be fire, let there be wrath. All will know your name, Ashen Lord.”

  Nia launched out from behind the log as another arrow pierced the goblin he was holding. She went wide and to Eldric’s left, her blinding speed on full display as she wove between trees and used every ounce of cover between them and the archer. The goblins were all focused on Eldric, blood still pouring from the wound on his shoulder.

  Another goblin scrambled forward, its yellow eyes wild as it swung a crude blade toward his leg. He threw the goblin he was holding at the attacker, burying it under its dead comrade. It scrambled to get out from beneath it, but Eldric’s foot found it and stomped down on the goblin’s chest just before cleaving into it with his axe.

  Eldric moved to get behind a tree, but the arrows were no longer coming. Had the archer moved?

  “E?” Nia called from ahead. “I got him… E? Are you alright?”

  He could hear her approach, but he didn’t step out yet. The fire was overwhelming in his chest, the skin around his eyes itched and burned from the heat.

  “E?” Nia whispered, standing at his side now. “A-are you…” She stepped forward and sheathed her swords before her small hands reached toward the bloody spot on his shoulder. “How?” she whispered, both awe and what sounded close to fear crept into her voice. “The wound is already closing.”

  Eldric shuddered and Nia took a step away from him, her eyes raking over every part of his body. “W-we should keep going.”

  A voice was back in his head, whispering mantras he did not recognize from his studies with Tolsten, nor from the excerpts of the Testament.

  “No, wait,” Nia said, stepping in front of him as he went to push away from the tree. “You…you can’t be okay, Eldric. You just took an arrow to the chest and it’s not bleeding but…” Her brow furrowed as her eyes searched for an answer her mind could not come to. “Let’s go find Harlan, no…Vestara would know what’s happening.” She pushed a hand through her hair, flattening an ear. Eldric did not miss the distress mixed with the lack of nicknames for her companions. “She always has the answer.”

  “Nia,” Eldric said, pulling her gaze back to his eyes. He was breathing heavily, but the heat had died down as he watched the already emotional foxkin unravel even more. “I’m fine-”

  “And I am saying that’s not okay!” She screamed suddenly, and Eldric’s mind screeched to a halt. The voice died in his head as a single tear fell down Nia’s cheek. “None of this is okay. Why does this place smell like home…how can you heal? E…what did you just do?” She gestured to the goblins on the ground. The multiple arrows protruding from the body he had used as a shield, and the gruesome spectacle of how he had killed the others. None of them were ‘clean’ kills, he had overpowered them all with brute strength.

  “I fought back,” he said, quietly looking down at the goblin corpses. “I did what I was supposed to do.”

  “It’s how you did it, E.” Nia responded and stepped closer. She wiped away the tears and cursed under her breath. “This is stupid, I don’t cry…but ever since we got to that damn village it’s all that I can do to stop.”

  “It’s okay now,” Eldric reassured before he could even stop the words. He was about to correct himself, but a big grin came over Nia’s face as she wiped away another tear.

  “Is it? Will the big tree of a paladin keep me safe?” She shook her head and walked past him, her tail slapping him with a bit of force on the chest as he passed. “I could cut you down like the tree you are E…” She stared at the goblins as her words took on a distant edge. “But you can keep trying.”

  He hurried to keep up and didn’t miss the glance she sent toward him. There was a worry he could not address in her gaze. This wasn’t the right place for this conversation, but as they walked through the woods together, he noted how often her eyes strayed towards him. As if her scouting the area included him now.

  Nia had been the first one to welcome him after he had woken up at Cinderholt. Was she now afraid of him? Had what he done to the goblins categorized him as a monster in her eyes?

  Was Eldric Ashborn already dead? Had he ever been alive?

  “Where do I belong?” Eldric whispered, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop himself. He lifted his hand and looked at the worn and calloused skin there. They still held the residual scars from Cinderholt.

  “Hmm?” Nia asked, her head snapped toward him, her brows furrowed in concern. “You mumbled so bad I didn’t catch that.”

  “Nothing.” Eldric mumbled as he stepped over a thin fallen tree. He turned in place for a moment to see if he could get any sign of other goblins.

  “Are you afraid?” Nia suddenly asked from a few trees ahead.

  Afraid?

  Of goblins?

  Vestara had asked if he had been afraid of the scribe, Nia asked him if he was afraid of goblins. “No... are you?” he responded at last.

  “Yes.” Her short, simple response caught him off guard. He blinked and watched her a moment, taking in the full weight of her sad smile. “It’s okay to be afraid E~, a good foxkin…er- I mean human… knows when to say they’re scared and to lean on others.”

  “I am a Paladin,” Eldric said, bristling at her words. “That goes against everything I have ever been taught.”

  “Then be my paladin…” she said quietly. “Be Har’s, and Ves’…be a paladin… and a human.”