By the time we finally made it back to our place in Dawnwatch, exhaustion had settled deep into my bones. The events of the past day—the monster attack, the battle with the Juggernaut, my injury and the consequent healing—all of it had taken a toll. All I wanted was to collapse into bed and sleep for a week. Or two…but that wasn’t going to happen, not with the newcomers to Dawnwatch.

  I was surprised to see light spilling from the windows as we stopped in front of our home.

  "Domitius thugs?" Knut asked, tensing beside me, materializing his weapon.

  I put a hand on his arm and smiled to myself, recognizing the silhouettes moving inside.

  "It's Ma and Pa," I said. "Eryn gave them a set of keys in case of an emergency."

  Knut visibly relaxed.

  "Good. Pretty doctor get angry if I fight tonight."

  Ma and Pa bounced up from around our dining room table as I pushed open the door, their expressions shifting from deeply worried to relieved.

  Ma rushed over, enveloping me in a tight hug.

  "Ma! I'm filthy!" I said.

  "I don't care if you are covered in monster guts, as long as you're all right," she breathed, her voice thick with emotion. "And that's what you are. First you sent a message about being ambushed, and then we heard the alarm bells, and—" She pulled back, letting me step in and give space to the others only to notice my bandaged leg and the crutch I held by my side. "What happened?"

  "A minor fracture is all," I assured her. "Already healing, see?" I did a little dance, not bothering to keep up the ruse as I was inside and away from prying eyes. "Doctor Ridley already took care of me. Of all of us."

  Pa joined us and clasped my shoulder just as Knut walked in, nodding at Ma and Pa.

  "Rowan came by the smithy earlier," Pa said. "Told us you took down some new type of monster…what was it…a siege monster? All single-handed?"

  "Not exactly single-handed," I said. "It was more of a team effort, but yeah, I blew the thing up and finished it."

  "Don't let him downplay it," Nabeeh interjected as she walked in, yawning. "They say he stuffed a Glowcap into the thing's chest and blew it to pieces. Supposedly quite a spectacle at that."

  Pa's eyes widened, then narrowed.

  "You did what?"

  I found myself relaxing for the first time since the ambush by that rat being called Gnash.

  "It made sense in the moment," I said and walked over to drop into a chair. Having made it safely home, the tension I'd been carrying finally began to ease. "It needed killing. No way I'd risk those things getting through to the portal."

  “Nabeeh's right, you know. You’re far too humble. I mean, yes, you had help, but who crushed the monster’s ribcage open, hmm? Who screamed in your head the whole time? Hmm? Who told you how to finish it? Hmm?”

  “You want credit?”

  “I want a plaque. And a pie. Possibly a statue where you can place me for all world to see.”

  "I'll see what we can do about the pie."

  Pa's face meanwhile had darkened with fury.

  "That damn Hive Mind’s tried to kill my boy for the last time," he growled, his hands clenching into fists. "I swear, with my new hammer I'm going to gear you all up so well that all you'll need to do is bump into the damn Hive Mind and it'll fall over dead!"

  His vehemence made me smile despite everything. Pa's solution to most problems involved better equipment, and in this case, he might very well be right.

  "You won't hear any complaints from me on that, Pa," I said. "And I think you'll find we've got a few goodies to share with you from this trip as well."

  "Oh?" Pa asked, his mood brightening. "Like what?"

  "You'll have to wait til the forge, Pa," Eryn said.

  "What?" He looked taken aback." Why?"

  "'All in good time' and 'patience is a blacksmith's best friend' and 'we don't check for mind gems first because we want to annoy the young ones'. Does any of that ring any bells?" she asked, shooting him a playful wink.

  "Oh, you listen here, young miss! Do not use my own words against me!" Pa said, but it was pretty clear he knew he was sitting on a four legged stool missing three legs.

  "Why ever not?" Eryn asked innocently. "Must we not learn from our elders?" She winked at Ma next.

  "She got you there, my bear," Ma said, before insisting on making tea while Pa built up the fire, grumbling good naturedly to himself as we all relaxed around the dining room table.

  I sat next to Eryn, holding her hand in mine while leaning in to trace the wooden carvings of the rift and the three circles of protection around it.

  Once Ma brought us all tea, we recounted the events since we had left. How we had cleared out the Glowroot Caverns, the ambush outside, though I downplayed our injuries, not wanting to give Ma a heart attack, before I started telling of the assault on Sentinel Station.

  "Skip the boring bits. Just tell them you rode the siege monster like a drunken god and blew its heart out with a glowing mushroom!" Roq said excitedly. "And don't forget the not so insignificant little detail of me managing to stick it to the Hive Mind and use Forge Anchor to claim the kill for us." Roq made a sound like a bellows clogging mid-pump. “Ugh. Bleeding monster was so big I can still feel it sloshing around inside me.”

  “You don’t have a stomach."

  I squeezed Eryn's hand twice, giving her a signal to cover for me, and she in turn took over the retelling, talking about what had been happening in the healer's tent, giving me mind-space to talk with Roq.

  “And yet I’m bloated! Stuffed! Gorged on monster essence! I need… a nap. Or an exorcism. A larger body? Spikes? This feeling is killing me!”

  “We just destroyed a monster the size of a small house. What exactly did you expect would happen when you insisted we get the last hit?”

  “I expected a glorious flood of power large enough to break me through to level ten! Instead? This… indigestion. That core... That pulsing bastard? Went down my...for lack of better word, throat, and then just right back up again!"

  “Oh no. And all the power went to me instead. Oh woe.”

  “I guided the strike, I called the weak spot, I carried us through that. And the reward? I regurgitated power to you like an animal feeds its young. You leveled up and I got to feel like I swallowed a forge brick sideways!”

  “Be honest."

  "What?"

  "Don't you wonder just a little bit what skill I'll get at level fifteen?"

  “You’re lucky I can’t vomit, Ash. Because if I could, you’d be wearing siege monster essence right now.”

  I chuckled and Eryn paused in the middle of her retelling and everyone looked at me.

  "I..." I looked around. "That was funny?" I said, hoping it fit with what she’d been talking about.

  “How exactly is Shay throwing up from watching Doctor Ridley heal Lydia's lung...funny?" Nabeeh asked.

  "Hah!" Roq said. "You stepped in it now. That'll teach you."

  I swiped my unruly hammer into my spatial storage.

  "Maybe not 'haha' funny, but..." I trailed off.

  "Anyway..." Eryn said, frowning at me before turning back to Ma and continuing excitedly. "Katherine told me about how our lungs function. They are like spongy, pinkish-gray, cone-shaped organs, and the right one has three sections and the left one two!”

  "That is... fascinating, dear," Ma said, looking slightly uncomfortable. "It is kind of her to include you into the process."

  "Not only that," Eryn said. "We've got exciting news to share."

  She smiled up at me.

  "No!" Pa said, his eyes going wide.

  "No, no, no!" I said, waving my other hand. "Not that. Just listen."

  "Katherine offered to sponsor my healer class gem! She wants to train me as a healer!"

  Ma clasped her hands together in delight.

  "That's wonderful news, dear! Though I wouldn’t mind getting…another type of news. We’re not getting any younger, you know?"

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  "Congratulations!" Pa said, fixing Ma with a stare. "This is cause for celebration! Knut? Got anything worthy of such a moment?"

  "In room," Knut said and rose.

  "I’ll have less time to spend with the party, but at least I’ll get to work alongside her," Eryn continued, "It will definitely be worth it as I’ll learn how to better take care of these three."

  "Of course it is," I agreed. "We'll make it work. There is enough for us to do around town as well, especially with Knut's family coming."

  "How long would you be working there?" Ma asked.

  "Until I pay her back the gem’s value. About sixty mind gems, depending on the rate whenever we have spare gems. Since I’ll get my class, too, we should be able to hunt even faster, and she'll give me a decent hourly wage while I’m helping out."

  "Sounds almost too good to be true," Pa said, frowning.

  "It's worth it for her as well,” Eryn said quickly. "Even after paying back the gem I'll owe her five hundred hours of work."

  "Oh," Pa said, looking at me. “You’d be down one person for quite a while.”

  Nabeeh yawned loudly and nodded.

  "It's not a bad deal," I said. We’d already discussed this on the way back and figured a month’s time for a lifetime of healing was worth the trade. "Eryn won't just be working, she'll be learning from the best healer in Dawnwatch. And it’s up to Eryn when she works, after paying back the gem, not Ridley. So in a way its Ridley teaching Eryn how to do her job better. There’s no real downside."

  Pa nodded.

  "Guess that makes sense. Being an apprentice is a bit different when it ain't about hammering steel, right? I'd love to have someone owe me five hundred hours of work." He mock-glared at me. “Someone who doesn’t take off to Riftside at the first smell of monster blood."

  "Want me to stop bringing back carcasses?" I asked, jokingly. "Because that type of talk is exactly what gets me to take my business to the guild or the royal bank!"

  "You wouldn't dare," Pa growled, and I laughed, waving my hands.

  "No. I definitely wouldn't. I owe you everything, Pa, you know that."

  "Good. And don't you forget it," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

  "Beer," Knut said, stomping back down the stairs with a keg underneath his arm. "Strong one. Forget bad things. Feel good things."

  "Excellent!" Pa said, and hurried to the kitchen, bringing back glasses.

  As Knut tapped the keg, Nabeeh stood, stretched, and yawned.

  "I will leave you to drink and claim the bath first, if you don't mind, Eryn?"

  "Go ahead," Eryn said. "As long as you warm upsome water for me after!"

  “What? Am I your personal heater?"

  Eryn fluttered her eyes at the fire mage, who rolled hers.

  "Fine," Nabeeh said. "I'll top it up for you. See you all later."

  "Thanks, babe!" Eryn called after her as she headed upstairs.

  Knut poured us all a glass of the amber liquid, and a rich aroma of hops and barley filled the air. I sighed, goosebumps running down my back at the sense of normalcy.

  "To survival," Pa said, raising his glass once we were all served.

  "And Eryn's future as a healer," I added, clinking my glass against hers.

  “To us all,” Eryn said, before taking a big gulp. I noticed her fingers trembled slightly as she raised her glass. "I'm thinking I should wait a couple of days before attempting the breakthrough," she added. "Give myself time to fully recover. I’m not sure I want to go through it all in this state."

  Though Doctor Ridley had reattached her fingers and healed the worst of the damage, her scavenger body needed more time to let the body knit itself back together completely.

  "That's wise," Ma said, patting Eryn's arm. "No need to rush into more pain when you're still healing from the last bout."

  Eryn wiggled her fingers again.

  "I'm grateful for Katherine's healing, truly. But it's going to take a bit of time before everything feels... right again." She looked at her hand. “Even though it was only a short time, being without my fingers was horrible. Traumatising, to be honest.”

  "There's no point rushing the breakthrough," I agreed, remembering my claustrophobic experience and how it had torn me apart and rebuilt me under Roq’s guidance. "With all our injuries, we should spend some time in town before our next hunt anyway."

  Knut nodded solemnly.

  "Good plan. Rest. Heal. Then go back stronger."

  A sharp knock at the door interrupted our conversation and I swiped Roq back out.

  “Hey! At least put me on my pillow!”

  “Someone’s at the door.”

  “Fine. We’ll kill them. But then it’s STRAIGHT back to storage. I need my genius sleep.”

  Pa set down his beer.

  "Who could it be at this hour?"

  I rose to answer the door, and found Victor the alchemist standing there. His white hair was combed forward in the ever valiant but ultimately losing battle against baldness, and his spectacles were perched precariously on his nose. His right eyebrow was as smooth and hairless as a baby's cheek, contrasting strangely with the stubbornly green bush of hair above his left eye. But he was missing his customary stained apron, wearing only simple clothes.

  "Ash!" he gasped, relief evident in his voice. "Thank the walls you're all right. I heard about the attack on Sentinel Station and wanted to make sure you and your friends were unharmed."

  "We're a bit battered, but alive," I said, stepping aside to let him in. "Would you like to join us for a beer?"

  "I wouldn't say no to that," Victor said, waving at everyone as he stepped inside, discreetly pressing a small package into my hand with his other. I quickly swiped it into my spatial storage before anyone could notice.

  "Victor!" Pa called out. "Come, have a seat. Knut got us all some northern brew that'll bring your eyebrow back!"

  "Or take off the other," Eryn muttered, eyeing her glass suspiciously.

  Victor chuckled and settled at the table as Knut poured him a glass.

  "They say it was a nasty attack," he said after taking a long sip. "You all did well in the defense, yes?"

  "We managed," I muttered. "Though no thanks to the guild officials. They delayed the reinforcements I heard."

  Victor's face darkened.

  "Oh, those bloody bastards. Came in with the caravan, didn't they? Along with the Domitius party."

  Pa choked on his beer, spraying a fine mist across the table.

  "What!?" he sputtered, eyes wide with alarm.

  I grimaced.

  "Yeah, that's the other bit of news. Benedict is back, and he's brought friends. Four people from House Domitius."

  "Rusted hammers and cracked anvils!" Pa cursed, slamming his fist on the table. "Those vultures have come to circle already?"

  "Steaming pots of monster guts!" Ma added, her face flushing with anger. "I knew they'd be back. But this fast?"

  Victor looked between us, confusion evident on his face.

  "What's wrong?"

  Pa's face turned a dangerous shade of red as he spoke.

  "They're a noble family that specializes in preying on blacksmiths. They offer loans with terms that seem fair, then manipulate circumstances to force early collection. When you can't pay—and they make damn sure you can't—they take your forge."

  "They can't do that," Victor protested. "It's not legal to change loan terms after they're agreed upon."

  Pa laughed bitterly.

  "When do nobles care about legality? They've got the coin and power both."

  Knut leaned forward, his massive frame casting a shadow across the table.

  "Woman named Serona is here. With two warriors and one archer. All are different than…previous group. Much stronger."

  "Describe them," Pa said, leaning in closer.

  "Warriors wear plate. Good plate," Knut said. "Stand right, move right. Not thugs. Professionals." He tapped his chest where his armor would normally sit. "Archer quiet. Watches everything. Seems dangerous. Should be fun."

  "And this Serona?" Ma asked.

  "Wind mage," I said. "Powerful one. Edwin told us she is probably close to level thirty. She's the fiancé of Earl Domitius. A real piece of work."

  Ma and Pa shared a look.

  "Typical of the guild officials to travel with nobles. Damned bastards think they know better than everyone. Never listen to us regular folk. I came to the frontier to get away from the like of them."

  Eryn tilted her head, studying the alchemist's sudden vehemence.

  "Why are you so upset about them, Victor? You're not an adventurer, so they have no power over you, right?"

  Victor sighed heavily, staring into his drink.

  "My little sister, Gerda, was a guild adventurer. She took a fatal wound from a rare monster near Whiteraft Rift. When the guild healers couldn't fix it, I brewed a special potion. But in their infinite wisdom they commanded me to wait, said the potion had to be tested first. Portal piss and riftrot. I ignored them. Gave it to her anyway." He took a deep breath. "It worked. Or, rather, it was working. But the guild bastards, they confiscated my stock mid-treatment, declaring it 'unsafe'. As if their stagnant muck water is safe! Before I could make more, she died. My little sister choked on her own blood while they patted themselves on the back for following protocol. And me? I was blamed for her death. Marked as reckless. A danger to the very adventurers I was trying to help. Friends vanished like smoke, suppliers slammed their doors in my face, and I lost my shop. Ten years. Ten years of that stink clinging to me." He looked up, jaw set hard. "That's why I spat on the cities and came out here to the frontier."

  A heavy silence fell over the room. The cheerful mood from before had completely evaporated.

  "Joyful as a graveyard in here. You'd think we'd be the party who died today. And by we, I mean you. I'm immortal. Probably."

  I looked around. Ma and Pa exchanged concerned glances, while Eryn's excitement had dimmed. Even Knut looked troubled.

  This wasn't right. We'd survived. We'd won. This should be a celebration, not a wake. I wanted to do something to change the mood.

  "Pa," I said suddenly, "Have you managed to dissect that Arclight carcass yet?"

  Pa's expression shifted from concern to frustration in an instant.

  "Not yet," he grumbled. "Damned thing's still sparking. Singed my beard yesterday."

  "Really?" I pushed, trying to rile him up a bit. "The great Thomas Tharen, master blacksmith, defeated by a dead cat? I thought you could handle anything."

  Pa's eyes narrowed.

  "Watch yourself, boy. Just because you're some fancy adventurer now doesn't mean you know the first thing about proper dissection. It's delicate work."

  "Delicate?" I scoffed, warming to my task. "You used to tell me dissection was all about having the right tools and a steady hand. What happened to that?"

  "What happened," Pa growled, his temper rising predictably, "is that someone destroyed my best dissecting knife, didn't they? My old blade might have handled it. Probably. But no, someone had to go and pretend to be a blacksmith, didn't they? Destroying my finest blade?" His voice rose with each word. "And now that same someone has the nerve to sit at my table and talk trash?"

  "Pa—" Ma began, trying to calm him down.

  "No, Helena," Pa cut her off. "The boy wants to question my skills? After everything I've taught him? After I've spent days trying to figure out how to cut through that lightning-spitting carcass without electrocuting myself?"

  I fought to keep the smile from my face as I reached into my spatial storage and retrieved the package Victor had slipped me earlier. Without a word, I placed it on the table and slid it toward Pa.

  "What's this?" Pa asked, suspicion in his voice.

  "Just open it," I said simply.

  Pa clamped his jaw shut and eyed me suspiciously before untying the twine and unwrapping the package.

  As the cloth fell away, his anger evaporated, only to be replaced by a stunned silence.

  Inside lay a dissecting blade unlike any I'd seen before. The handle was wrapped in dark leather with copper wire inlaid in intricate patterns. The blade itself had an unusual blue-silver sheen, its edge impossibly thin and sharp. What made it truly remarkable, however, were the thin veins of some translucent material running through the metal, glowing faintly with a pale blue light.

  "This is..." Pa's voice trailed off as he carefully lifted the knife.

  "It's called the Stormcutter," Victor said, unable to contain his pride. "The metal is infused with powdered quartz crystal that absorbs and channels electrical energy away from the wielder. The handle is insulated with special treated leather and copper wire to ground any stray charge. You should find it more than capable of cutting through electrified hides without transmitting the shock to your hand."

  "This is magnificent," Pa whispered, testing the edge on the back of his thumb nail. "Who forged it?"

  "I had Victor get it made," I said. "To replace the one I broke. I'm sorry about that, Pa. I hope this makes up for it."

  Pa looked up at me, his eyes suspiciously bright. Without warning, he stood and pulled me into a fierce one-armed hug, the knife carefully held away from both of us.

  "You foolish, wonderful boy," he muttered gruffly. "Of course it does."

  When he released me, the mood in the room had transformed completely. The tension had dissolved, and was replaced by a genuine warmth and excitement as Pa showed off the blade to everyone, explaining how it would revolutionize his work with monster dissection.

  "This is amazing," Pa said, still admiring the knife. "I wanted to surprise you all later, but now I just have to share—the master bowyer is here!"

  Eryn gasped.

  "What? In Dawnwatch?"

  "He came with the caravan," Pa confirmed with a grin. "We'll start working on your new bow tomorrow, Eryn. And with this knife," he held up the blade reverently, "We'll be able to use part of Arclight for it!"

  "Really?" Eryn said.

  "We'll have him make you the finest damned bow in Dawnwatch," Pa promised. "Maybe in all of Noros."

  Victor cleared his throat.

  "Speaking of Arclight, don't forget our deal, Ash. I need a piece of its skin for testing, plus any gall bladder the monster might have." He paused, a mischievous glint sparkling in his eye. "And its balls, if it has any."

  "You want monster balls?" Eryn sputtered. "Why on earth would you want those?"

  Victor shrugged, completely unabashed.

  "Lightning-infused reproductive organs from a variant monster? If the potions I make with them are half as potent as the monster they came from, they'll sell for a small fortune!"