Victoria woke to birds. She lay still for a moment, blinking at the light filtering through the trees.
Then she felt it.
She moved her leg.
There was no pain anymore.
She frowned and moved it again, slower this time. No sharp protest, not even a dull ache. Nothing at all.
Victoria pushed herself upright, heart thudding. She swung both legs over the bed of leaves and stood.
"…That's odd," she muttered.
"Yeah," a voice said from behind her. "That'd be thanks to him."
She startled and spun around.
Adam stood a few paces away, arms crossed, eyes half-lidded with that ever-present edge of suspicion. Tani was nowhere in sight.
"Him?" Victoria echoed.
Adam jerked his chin toward the trees.
"Mr. Hero."
She hesitated, then nodded. "Oh."
She glanced down at her leg again, flexed her ankle once more.
"…I should thank him," she said.
Adam didn't respond, which she took as permission.
She followed the sound of water.
The forest thinned as she walked, branches giving way to open air and sunlight. The lake came into view. It was clear, sparkling, even. It reflected the sunlight, creating a beautiful scenery as it merged with the trees around it.
He stood near the shore.
Sleeves rolled up, shirt loose against his frame, boots set neatly aside. His spear rested against a stone nearby, its surface obsidian rather than shining. It should have stood out against the brightness of the lake.
Instead, it looked like it belonged there.
Victoria slowed without realizing it.
He wasn't guarded, nor was he unguarded. His eyes effortlessly tracked the water ripples. He was serene, curious.
Something about him felt… steady. Anchoring. Paternal, almost, despite him not looking a day older than 25.
She cleared her throat. "Sir Knight?"
He glanced over, surprised, then smiled faintly. "I am not exactly a Knight, but, sure..."
She stepped closer. "I wanted to thank you. My leg—"
"It's healed," he finished, nodding. "Good."
She blinked. "You did that?"
He shrugged. "Not exactly."
It was actually the work of the small amount of cavern water from Sassafras's dungeon, infused into her bandage.
She looked at him expectantly.
He gestured to the water. "Fishing."
She followed his motion.
"...I don't see a rod."
"No need."
He reached into a small pouch at his belt and pulled out a handful of something—crumbled meat, grain, maybe dried insects. He tossed it into the lake.
The surface broke almost immediately.
Fish gathered in a tight cluster, silver bodies flashing beneath the water.
Victoria leaned forward. "Oh."
He raised his hand.
For just a moment, the air prickled.
Then lightning crackled from his fingertips. It was brief and contained, sharp as a breath. The water crackled. The fish went still.
They drifted toward shore.
He stepped forward and collected them with practiced ease.
Victoria stared.
Then....
"THAT WAS AMAZING!!!"
Alaric flinched.
"Do that again," she said, eyes sparkling. "Please. I mean, was that magic? Or is it lightning manipulation? It has to be, right? Or some kind of artifact? Are you a noble? Oh! Are you secretly a knight-magus? A foreign Hero?!"
He was overwhelmed by her questions.
He picked up his spear and began walking away from the lake. He sighed, but it was patient. "You're very loud."
It wasn't an insult, not at all. Alaric was more amazed than anything.
They walked back toward camp, Victoria still talking—about the spear, about technique, about whether lightning tasted different in water. He answered when he could, deflected when he couldn't.
After a moment, he glanced at her. "You're not speaking High Drogan."
She paused mid-step. "What?"
"I thought nobles used it."
She laughed once, short and surprised. "Oh. No, that fell out of use… fifty years ago, give or take. Only scholars and priests bother with it now."
"Hm," he said, genuinely thoughtful.
They ate quickly.
Then they set out.
Victoria walked in front, light on her feet now that her leg no longer protested. Alaric followed behind her. Adam brought up the rear, eyes constantly flicking from Victoria to the tree line, Tani wrapped around his neck like a living scarf.
The forest slowly thinned, the canopy breaking apart until sunlight poured down unhindered.
As they walked, Alaric asked questions.
Not the polite kind.
The curious kind.
"How big is the Empire?" "How long has it existed?" "Does the Emperor rule alone?" "Why are the borders shaped like that?"
Some questions made sense.
Others felt… oddly basic.
As if he were filling in gaps most people took for granted.
Adam bristled at every mention of the Empire. Victoria noticed, but she didn't defend it. She couldn't, and didn't want to.
When religion came up, she didn't hesitate.
"The guardian deity is the Living God," she said. "The Emperor's ancestor."
Adam scoffed. "He doesn't exist. Nobody's ever seen him."
Victoria nodded. "I know. It's probably propaganda. Or… a corpse they keep dressing up. Hard to say."
Alaric said nothing for a long moment.
Then, "People worship that?"
"Yes."
"…Huh."
The canyon opened ahead.
Beyond it, a road.
"There's a town at the end of this," Victoria said. "Not far."
Alaric looked at her. "How do you know?"
"I know most places in the Empire," she replied easily. "I can guide you, you know?" She said with a smile.
Adam's expression tightened, like a cat watching someone else sit in its favorite spot.
They kept walking.
They crested the last rise just as the land leveled out.
The canyon fell away behind them, stone walls receding into sun-bleached distance, and ahead, a town could be seen.
It was larger than Adam or Alaric expected.
A dense menagerie of sloped roofs and stone foundations, watchtowers punctuating the outer ring, banners hanging slack in the still air. Smoke rose in thin, steady columns. Roads branched outward like veins, worn pale by years of traffic.
Almost as large as Redgate. Redgate was always considered a decent-sized city in The Wildlands, but this town was certainly much more bright than that city. Maybe not as large, certainly more lively. But, being more lively than a destroyed city filled with the undead, wasn't that hard.
Victoria slowed.
Then she stopped.
She stepped forward and turned to face them, standing squarely in their path.
Alaric halted at once. Adam did not relax.
Victoria drew in a breath. Then another.
"I need to say something," she said.
Her voice didn't carry pride now. Just resolve, thin and trembling but held firmly in place.
"I'm sorry."
Adam's eyes narrowed. Alaric didn't interrupt.
"I'm sorry for the Empire," she continued. "For the way we expand and take and call it order. For the way we label people 'necessary losses' and 'acceptable margins.' For the way we look at lands like yours and see only what we can extract."
She bowed her head.
"I know an apology doesn't fix anything. I know it doesn't undo blood or famine or the way children learn fear before they learn letters."
Her hands curled into fists at her sides. "But I still need to say it. Because it was done in my name too."
Adam looked away. Victoria lifted her head again, eyes shining but steady.
"When I was a little girl," she said quietly, "I wanted to be a knight."
"A real one. Someone who protected people who couldn't protect themselves. Someone who stood between harm and those who had no say in it." She let out a small, humorless breath. "That hasn't changed. Even now."
She hesitated, then met their eyes fully.
Silence stretched. "I want to travel the world, one day. Become a Knight. A Hero..."
The town's bells rang faintly in the distance.
At last, she spoke again, softer. "And my path, hopefully, will cross with yours. So....I think I should know your names."
Adam looked at Alaric, then back at Victoria.
"…Adam," he said. Then, after a moment's hesitation, "Adam ibn Kael, from Gerri Village, of the Kha'ren."
Alaric looked at him. That was Adam's full name, one given by him by his dead mother, he had only over told it to him once.
Victoria inclined her head, respectful.
Alaric followed after a beat. "Alaric," he said simply.
Victoria smiled, and placed a hand over her chest.
"Victoria La Quixota," she said.
The road into town stretched ahead of them.
"Gek!" Tani gasped from Adam's shoulder.
Victoria laughed.
This felt nice. It felt good. Victoria could get used to this feeling.