Did they survive? I can't let him see I'm worried for the kids, right now their attention is on me, that's good, as long as that attention remains on me, those children will be safe. She grit her teeth, but smiled in what she thought was a vicious, smug look. Given Callan's reaction of shock and anger, she so far had his attention.

Gamma on the other hand was extremely exhausted, with the forest charred from Callan's attack, all the magic she had imbued into the plants was lost. "Dammit! Why would you use that magic!?" She spat at Callan. "I use the forest!"

Callan spat, "Idiot, don't you know we already sent out the scapegoats, any more damage will be blamed on the loyalists, and besides, you're a tough girl, it'll take you maybe 3 days to fully recover, we just need to take care of this one shade." Callan charged forward to stop Marigold from recovering.

Marigold's injuries, while still severe, would only be life threatening if she was a human. Because of that, she was able to block Callan's staff swing with her own staff. The attack was blocked but her staff cracked. Callan charged forward again, and Marigold blocked another swing, shattering her weapon.

"Gamma!" Callan roared, "Be useful!"

Sighing, the Green Haired girl raised her hands, and cast a spell of binding, holding Marigold by the legs and arms. Callan charged towards her, ready to stab her, the ground erupted underneath him and Gamma as a towering figure burst into the clearing. Hair as scarlet as sunset, eyes like the fires that had once engulfed the forest. Callan backpedalled immediately, using his green staff to block any magical attacks.

"Well, this has been fun." He launched a blast of lightning, which disappeared before it hit Atlas. He scowled, grabbing Gamma.

"Oh no you don't!" Atlas charged forward, but was stopped by nearly a dozen arrows. Turning, he readied a spell, then cut the magic as he saw who aimed at him. Without uttering another word, he and Marigold prepared their wards.

Faris said if we encounter any of them, we avoid getting seen as Shades. Atlas began.

That's… unfortunately not possible at the moment. Marigold messaged, gritting her teeth as a dozen minds struck at hers, attempting to cut through her defenses like rough daggers through a hard wooden door.

Otherwise he said to run… Atlas uttered some words in the ancient language, which caused the elve's to cry out in panic and anger, the area around the two shades erupted in flames, ice, poison, and stone, but the two shades were nowhere to be seen…

The funeral proper was rather short, after being placed in a casket, a few words were spoken of John's passing, a few religious rights were bandied out by the priest, and his casket was moved to a special storage room. Afterwards, the priest called in the next casket, which contained the body of a knight who was missing a head after a rebel burned it off with an errant spell. More caskets lined up behind, some filled with multiple bodies, with many others not having even been embalmed. Even more others were outside, buried in unmarked graves.

The numerous third and fourth sons of minor nobles sat in tables, drinking and speaking loudly, amongst the formally buried dead, those of their rank took the center stage. This may have been the reason why one of the drunker nobles approached the teen's table.

"Greetings, peasants." One of the young soldiers said in a slurred voice, he took an empty chair and sat right next to Cynthia. "So…" he says after a deep breath, "You twerps are the group of upstarts who got Ceunon's best general imprisoned. Who here's actually important enough that one of your squires gets to be given a noble's burial?" He smirks.

"If Castis was Ceunon's greatest general, it's a miracle the war hadn't been lost." Vern said quietly. This caused smiles to crack on their faces, which caused the drunk man to scowl.

"How dare you! Castis is a noble! And my brother in law! To insult him is to insult me!" He stood up, "Kneel before me and surrender your sword and regalia, lest you be taken to the stockades!" His outburst caught the attention of the other minor nobles in the room who looked on to Faris's friends with a mix of curiosity and derision.

"Who'd kneel to you?" Venka stood up, face red, "It's not like you guys even left the safety of the walls, if not for me and my friends, we'd have lost the eastern wall to that explosion and you'd all be dead."

"It is the duty of the lessers to serve their nobles!" He replied smugly before looking Venka up and down, "but if you're so unsure of the capabilities of us nobles, you and the other women in your group can serve us tonight." This was followed by the men's gaudy laughter.

"You couldn't lift a single sword in battle, I doubt your special arrowhead could even rouse itself." Venka replied with a smirk.

The man's face turned to a frown in confusion, then in anger as he approached Venka.

"Did you just insult my manhood! I'll have you know it's overwhelming!" He was stopped by Faris, who stood in his path.

"Overwhelmingly small." Faris muttered out loud, the teens broke into light chuckles.

The drunkard swung his first, Faris walked forward, the man's fist missing him by inches. Now inside the man's space Faris grabbed him by the collar and with his left hand. With his right hand he sharply smacked the space between the man's cheekbone and ear. The man dropped like a sack of potatoes, holding the side of his face as he howled in pain. The man's table mates got up.

"How dare you! What's your rank!? I'll have you demoted, drawn, and quartered for raising your hand to a superior officer!"

"WHAT IN BLAZES ARE YOU ALL DOING?!" They were interrupted by the fort commander. "WE ARE MOURNING THE DEATHS OF THE FALLEN, I WILL NOT HAVE YOU AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS!" At his words the men grumbled and sat back down. Faris returned to his seat, but his eyes never left the young nobles, and their eyes never left his group.

With the short argument and the fort commander's interference, the mood had considerably lifted, as the unrelated parties returned to drinking away their sorrows, Faris's friends began speaking with the young soldiers and with each other. Afterwords, the topic moved on to Faris.

"So… quick question…" Morgan began, "You were the knight who helped rescue that little deaf girl right?"

Faris smiled lightly, "Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

"I was never formally given the title of knight apprentice, so I'm not a knight."

"You little jerk!" Katya jokingly snapped, "Why didn't you tell us it was you?"

"I mean that'd be a bit weird, also, the place had an odd, if not uncomfortable tension, the villagers would have likely distrusted if I was also a part of your group, a non-magical, but mysterious knight is still more familiar that young mages, especially young mages who don't care about disabilities normally attributed to curses and dark sorcery." Faris shook his head, "And, I guess I was a bit scared of meeting up with you guys that quickly."

"You should have at least said hi to me!" Venka shoved him slightly, Faris jostled with the push and nudged her back.

"Yeah yeah, and you'd have blabbed it, you're an open book you know?" They all laughed briefly before entering a brief silence.

"I wonder how he'd have reacted to seeing you again…" Cynthia began.

"Would have probably challenged me to a sword duel, lost, then he would have challenged me again until the sun came up." Faris raised his cup, a movement which was matched by the others on the table. "To John!" They chorused, drinking the extremely watered down mead.

Eventually, Faris got up. "I would want to keep talking, but… I want to train a bit. I know that sounds a little."

"No… that, that actually mirrored my sentiments." Morgan spoke up. "We weren't as effective as we could have been…"

"That's an understatement…" Seya smirked, then frowned, "I'm weak, at least you have the excuse of humanity." She got up quickly, "Anyways, this… get together celebrating the fallen was great and all." She left. This time no one got up to argue with her words, but the mood noticeably dampened once again.

The second to leave was Morgan, who was followed by Katya as they wanted to practice magic. Then Cynthia and Nya left together, volunteering to do the night watch. Venka went to rest. Manny and Vern left to help the soldiers they had been in charge of. Faris finally left, and lightly smiled as he noticed movements from the table with the minor nobles.

"Karl, this is a stupid idea, if the Fort Commander finds out…" One of them began.

"If he finds out, he can't do much about it, I'll just say the brat was a spy, he's not even a full blooded Alagaesian citizen, he's got the blood of those Surdan Desert Tribes, like that fake 'Queen' we have…"

"Hey!" The man holds his hands up, "Don't badmouth the queen, you want to get hung?"

"You remember what Ford spoke of, the destruction done to the city after the Elvish attack. The fact we are so prosperous now is a testament to our people's hardiness, not any 'aid' interlopers think to claim." Karl smirked, "besides, I'm simply going to make him beg forgiveness and rough him up a bit, unless he struggles."

"Fun…" a voice interrupted them. "A blast of energy with enough energy to destroy a wall, if not more, was released, and most of your part of the forest was destroyed, and you think to attack an ally because you disagree with the fact that they are allowed to bury their fallen friend with any level of honors." Faris seemed to materialize out of nowhere, spooking the nobles.

"Shit, he's another magician!" One of the nobles curse, backing away.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to attack the 12-year-old? Or can you only confidently attack those you know you can beat with no effort." Faris smirked, then frowned, "There are things in the world that are so powerful that this fort is little better than a sandcastle before them." The room began to shake and the men began to cry out. "The world won't make sense any more." The room explodes out, leaving a burning field, the men in a panic attempted to run but found themselves bound in heavy iron chains. Faris flicked a finger and the men began to rise rapidly in the air, soon the burning field was no more than a tiny orange patch in the sea of dark earth, they rose higher and higher in the night sky, the chill night air seeping into their bones. "Let me tell you a secret." Faris's voice seemed to whisper in their ears as they hung in the air like sacks of potatoes. "It's normally not the fall that kills you, not so much as the shock of the fall."

"Unhand us! Now!" Karl screamed, terror in his voice.

"Why are you screaming?" Faris asked, the men collapsed.

"Huh? What?!" One of them looked around, they were in the same candlelit hall, Faris smiled at them with a bit of confusion.

"What? Got cold feet?" Faris approached them, hiding his smile as they stumbled backwards. "What, did you go on a bad trip?"

Without answering the men turned and sprinted off in terror.

"That was in bad taste." Faris heard Damien's voice within his head.

"True, but it was satisfying. And… well, it also means I'm not completely green. Anyways…" He stepped towards the garrison's training room, a secluded area, and empty this late in the night. "Training time…"

"Why are they so quiet…" Cynthia murmured restlessly. She stood watch alongside a few guards, they were posted alongside the western wall of their fortification, just under the shadow of the tallest guard tower, where hopefully it's size would keep any enemy scouts from noticing them. Though that wasn't a worry, there were no scouts to be seen, even the mages, for all their searching, couldn't find a single living rebel within a league of their fortification.

"They likely regrouped into whatever camp ground they had set up, they lost quite a bit of their fighting force from that explosion." A soldier pipes up. Many who were on watch shivered as they remembered the explosion a day and a half ago. It was so loud, and so strong, that it had destroyed part of the western wall. The rebels closest to the origin of the explosion all died, and it had surprised everyone when Bartholomew and Nya came running towards them in the confusion. Cynthia, after the funeral arrangements, volunteered to keep watch, Nya asked if she could attend as well, and under bated breaths their friends relaxed somewhat as Cynthia hugged Nya and led her along. They didn't talk much during the watch, in fact Cynthia's remark just then had been the first time either of them had spoken since volunteering for the watch. It was through this discipline that just before they were to be relieved, Nya was able to notice someone or something rushing towards the wall. They got themselves into the ready position.

"We've got something coming from the ruins of the forest!" Nya extended her index finger, pointing straight at the figure. "Finna svit garjzla!" (find with light!). A soft glow began to suffuse the clothing of the being, who began to move even faster than before. They were barely able to track it as it scaled the entire wall. Without a word Cynthia grabbed unto Nya's shoulder and the two of them leapt off the wall onto a guard house. They began sprinting across the roof, sounding the alarm. Nya leapt off the guard house and charged the assailant. She was surprised when her short sword cut through nothing, the intruder dodging the attack at the last second. Whoever it was zig-zagged between the walls of buildings, picking up speed before landing and sprinting away again. Instead of giving chase Nya simply lifted her hand. "Stenr risa!" A few pebbles were displaced in the intruder's foot path and they fell at a rapid pace under their own imbalanced speed. Cynthia leaps down, drawing her bow just as Nya held the sword to the assailant's head, who raised their hands in alarm and surrender.

"Aight! Alright! I give! I wasn't here to fight anyways!" The voice under the hood sounded young, surprising both of the youths, they turned to each other before removing the person's hood to reveal a young boy with silver-white hair and unnaturally turquoise eyes. He smiles nervously, "I need Epsilon's help!"

...

"So… how is it…." Tartarus's voice echoed through his mind.

Faris was sweating profusely, his clothes so damp it looked like he took a swim, after taking a chug of water he quietly muttered, "It's serviceable…"

"Serviceable?!" Within his mind Anya seemed to be rearranging what looked like broken pieces of a statue. "You have a low opinion of yourself, you could likely defeat any one of those enhanced children with ease."

"Yeah, he could." Damien said, "But his issue wasn't defeating any one of them, it was being able to handle a group of them. That's why it's serviceable. But even then, good job, I wouldn't have thought to combine-" Their train of thought was interrupted by the door to the training room bursting open, revealing Venka.

"That's where you were… you didn't attend dinner, the fort commander wanted to honor you for helping in the battle."

"Except he didn't really." Faris chuckles. Venka scowled at his chuckle. The fort commander had on more than one occasion entretied Faris to join his political faction, stating that an upstanding yet errant knight like himself would stand better odds in the wide landscape under someone with power and vision like himself. Faris politely declined each time, to the man's growing irritation. "Ah… I honestly don't care about things like fame, as long as I can live comfortably and have enough power to protect myself, my freedoms, and my loved ones, I'd be happy." He began wiping his face with a towel, turning to hide his blush as Venka smiled at him. He felt her hug him from behind.

"Am I a loved one?" She asked simply.

Faris didn't respond at first, merely touching her forearm, then nodding. "Yeah." He said with a slightly nervous voice.

She giggled, but he felt tears on the exposed base of his neck. "When I heard John died, I… I felt horrible, I looked at Cynthia crying over his body, and… I imagined what would happen if that was you… when I saw you again, I was so happy, but I was so scared, you're alive, and taller! But you looked so… off, so angry, I was scared that…"

"That Tartarus came back?"

"Don't give it a name." Venka whispered, "Please."

Faris suppressed the angry retorts coming from Tartarus within his mind, but left the majority of its reprimandation to Damien. He turned suddenly to Venka, and averted his eyes after a few seconds. Jesus… why's it so hard to look at her now?

"It's cause she's what, 14? Almost 15, she's almost as old as I was when I died, and you like her, and, well, you're a growing boy." Faris could feel Damien smiling cheekily.

Shut up. Faris thought, hugging Venka, who squeaked in surprise at his forward display of affection. "Venka, I care about all of you, and I don't want to lie to you guys anymore."

"What are you t-"

They are interrupted by Nya, who rushes into the training room. "Faris! Venka! Bart told me you'd be here we've got…" She stared at them hugging.

Venka pushed Faris off, "ahem! Yeah! Thanks for the wrestling move Faris! It w-" She stops herself, "Actually that's a stupid excuse, what's wrong?"

Nya mutters a bit, "It's one of the enhanced children! They're looking for Faris!"

Faris's eyes flickered a slight red, "Which one…" He clenched his fist. Not that it matters much.

"He says his name is Theta…"

...

...

Afterwords:

Been a bit, it was a little hard to write this part. But I'm relatively excited for what I have planned next. I think it'll be fun.