PreCursive

  I couldn’t bring myself to rest much over the few days. I khat I’d lost most of the blood in my body several times over and o recover, but I couldn’t stop. I had to keep w, I had to keep studying and practig. I o finish the Ward Breaker in a way that I couldn’t properly describe. Ever since I’d gotten back from the manor, I was increasingly anxious about even being in Addersfield anymore. Knowing that I was ihe same walls as Magnus and I couldn’t stop him just yet was driving me mad.

  I could tell that Grey and Azarus were being increasingly ed for me, too. I know that what I was doing wasn’t healthy for me, but I couldn’t help myself. The work was being an obsession, and it o be finished. I tried to keep in mind that I wasn’t doing this only for myself but trey from his bondage and Azarus from his family as well. But it was hard, knowing that as soon as I fihe Breaker, I could pn my re-infiltration of the manor. And ultimately?

  My assassination of Magnus.

  I’d had the right idea in those seds before I’d left his chambers, I’d decided. I was going to use The Stilnt Bde. I’d hide in a position that would bring him near me, maybe even in his own room, and then I’d tear out his throat with a brilliantly burning dagger.

  To that end, I’d decided I needed more practice with one. I’d been having trouble sleeping tely and had gotten up early again. I’d wao get more work done when I’d gotten the idea to try and make a practice dummy out behind the house. I wao be more fortable with a knife before it came time to end Magnus. I’d grabbed ara pillow and b and headed outside into the green period of dawn and sged some dead wood from the nearby copse of trees. After that, I’d fired up Aetherial Melding and got to work. I’d had an idea.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d tried to use the Wildshaping part of Aetherial Melding, but it was likely the rgest item I’d made so far. Before this, I’d only really made small carved figurines. In a way, it reminded me of a Fleshcraft meld. Pnt matter like wood, I’d found, was easy to work with. Stone was a whole other, pain in the ass matter, but I digress. You typically wao work with dead wood anyway, so it responded well to my nudges and shaping. The fibers of the pillow and b weren’t hard to ge shape, either. In no time, I’d woven together the various branches into a kind of curling cross shape that seemed sturdy enough. It had some hooks on it, and on those hooks, I fused the fabric of the pillow and the bogether to form the rough shape of a dwarf. Into it, I stuffed plenty of fallen leaves and grass from the clearing around me.

  When I was finished, I had…a sort of lumpy dwarven-looking scarecrow. I was breathing hard from the exertion of all the melding I’d done. I’d gotten much more used to the strain of using my Professiohe st few weeks though, so I recovered soon. I’d e a long way from passing out at making a simple otion.

  I was startled out of my iion of the dummy by a voice behind me.

  “Nate?” I heard a tired-sounding voice call out groggily from the house. Turning around, I saw that the voice beloo a bare-chested Azarus, leaning out of the window of his bedroom. I felt a small surge of guilt. All of my gathering and crafting must have woken him up. “What the hells are ya doing out here?”

  I might have felt a little guilty, but I also saw this as an opportunity. I’d been wanting to ask Azarus for something.

  I walked over to where Azarus was leaning out of the house and looked up. “Couldn’t sleep, so I started making something to practi,” I called up to him. “Hey, I ask you a favor?”

  Azarus furrowed his tired brow down at me. “Yeah? What do ya need?”

  “I want to pick up Dagger Proficy,” I told him. “You said you knew how to all kinds of ons, before, so I w if you’d be willing to help me get it.”

  “Ain’t no ‘Dagger Proficy’.” Azarus shook his head. “It’s Knife Proficy. And why the hell would ya want to-” He stopped himself mid-sentence, face falling. “Oh. Yeah. I…guess I could do that. Give me a minute, and I’ll be down.” He disappeared bato his room and shut his window behind him. I remaiaring at the window for a moment in ption, though.

  Was it fucked up of me to ask someoo traio kill his own cousin? Yes. Was I still doing it anyway? Also yes.

  I’d make it up to him ter.

  ………………………………………

  Azarus kept to his word and came out to meet me dressed for practice a few mier. He gave my hastily put-together, spdash training dummy a bit of a side eye, but incorporated it into his training anyway. For the several hours, Azarus rahrough the knife-fighting drills that he knew. He taught me how to strike and how to ssh properly. How to parry with a fighting dagger, and how to disarm an oppo. He even had me demonstrate my strikes and stabs on the dummy. With visible reluce, he pointed out the best areas on the pseudo-dwarf to aim for. Either to debilitate my oppo, or to strike a fatal blow.

  I paid more attention to the sed one.

  We only really stopped for the day once Grey woke up and poked his baffled head outside the back door to ask what we were doing. That was fihough, as by that time I’d mao pick up Knife Proficy. Only at level one, but that was enough for now. I wasn’t looking to get into a knockdown drag-out fight with Magnus. He was still over fifty levels above me, and I’d get demolished in a straight brawl.

  But for an assassination? Ohat involved my skill that seemed to pee all defenses and level differences?

  It would do.

  ………………………………………

  Despite how determined I was to finish making the Ward Breaker, I couldn’t work on it all the time. I just didn’t have the stamina or strength. I needed some kind of break, and I knew what I was going to do. Ever since my enter with the guard after I left the manor, I’d been w if he’d checked my alibi with Van. I’d told him that I was ing home from a long day w at the butcher's, and it seemed like he had bought it. But I wao be sure.

  Grey was w on some more items and potions for Pringuis when I left, and Azarus was in the fe, as he usually was. Despite how close we were to escape in general, Grey thought it was a good idea to not arouse any suspi by stopping his work and regur deliveries. I let Grey know where I was going a him to it, and headed out. After a short walk along the side path, I emerged out on the far side of town. I was…a little surprised at what I saw.

  The town was busier than I had ever seen it. I slowed before I ehe main thhfare, hiding behind a building to check it out. It looked like the townspeople had been whipped up into a frenzy. There were people running bad forth carrying supplies and barking orders at their sves doing the grunt work. I saw multiple teams of sves carrying around rge pieces of furniture and carting them off dowher side path. The ohat ran down the opposite, right side of the manor that I’d found the servant's entran. In fact, here one came.

  I fttened myself against the side of the building I was hiding against and prayed I wasn’t noticed by the Overseer that was direg the team of sves. I have bothered though; they didn’t once even look in my dire. They just tinued carrying what looked like a rge bench dowher side of the manor.

  All right, this was giving me a bad feeling. I o get back to Azarus’s pd let the guys know something . I could try going back to Van’s pother time. Before I left, I risked annce down the main thhfare. I nearly felt my heart stop in shock at what I saw.

  A group of guards were dragging Bleddyn out of Van’s shop.

  I was just barely able to see it from where I was, but the otion was drawing attention from the rest of the street. A pair of guards were holding a struggling Bleddyn by his arms and force marg him out of the building. No matter how hard Bleddyn struggled though, he wasn’t able to budge the grip of the two armored dwarves. They still had their Status after all, while Bleddyn’s had been stolen from him.

  Staggering out of the building behind him was an injured Vandimar. He had blood running down the left side of his face, and a rapidly swelling purple knot on his cheek. Despite this, he was dogging the steps of the guards, visibly pleading with them. I was too far away to hear what he was saying. They didn’t seem to be paying him any mind, however. Iill-open doorway of the shop, I could see the frightened face of Rachel peaking around the frame.

  Somehow, even across this distance, Bleddyn and I mao lock eyes. He stopped struggling long enough for his own to widen in horror. Slowly, carefully he tried to mouth something to me. Despite the nguage barrier that separated us, crossed only by a skill, I was still able to uand him.

  ‘Look out.’

  His warning came too te.

  “Well, well, what do we have here,” I heard behind me. I stiffened in surprise. I hadn’t heard anyone sneaking up on me, sidering the attention I’d been paying to Bleddyn. “Could it be a sve trying to dodge the ‘festivities’?” The voice asked mogly, followed shortly by a few separate snickers.

  Slowly, dreading what I would find, I turned around.

  There was a group of Addersfield guards behihree in total, I even reized a few of them. The speaker was the guard that had baded me all those weeks ago when I had learned Wildshaping. I didn’t reize the sed, but the third was the guard I had lied to the ht.

  He reized me, as well.

  “Hey, wait a sed,” He said, pushing to the front of the group. “I know this o’s Lord Azarus’s.” He gnced over at the leader of the group. “Aren’t we supposed to…?” He trailed off.

  The leader peered at me closer. He smirked. “I do believe you’re right, Corporal Rossi. I reize him now. That is Lord Azarus’s sve. Bad luck, meat.” He said, advang on me.

  I didn’t give him the ce. Dug under his open fist as it swiped at me, I turo run back to Azarus’s. I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t know what these guards wanted. But I wasn’t ined to find out. Azarus had told me what to do if anything like this ever happened, and it retty much ‘let me ha’. I had to get back to his house.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far. Halfway back to the entrao the side path, I was hit by a side tackle from the guard I didn’t reize. We flew several feet horizontally before crashing into the dirt. The breath was knocked out of me from the impact, and the world spun as the guard held me down.

  As I stared upwards, dazed, the leader of these guards appeared above me. He was smirking and shaking his head as if my attempt to escape them was one big joke. “ry. But now it’s time fhts out.” He said mogly, rearing back his armor-cd right foot.

  I didn’t evehe ce to scream before the boot struck the side of my head, robbing me of sciousness.

  The world went dark.