Isidore spent anht without dreams, but still having the strange feeling of being watched. At this point he was more curious than frustrated, still it was weird. As he was waking up, he heard a pounding on the door ao open it. Outside his door in her armor, he saw Euthalia, the half-beast knight. She raised an eyebrow, seeing that he was just waking up saying. “You realize we are about to head out, right?”

  “No ‘good m Isidore, how are you?’” Isidore asked sarcastically, somewhat annoyed by her tone.

  Her eyes narrowed slightly. “I will take that as a no.”

  “Gd to see the knights taught you well.”

  “We’re leaving in five minutes, so I would hurry to get ready.”

  “Of course, dy knight.” Isidore did a mock bow.

  Euthalia cracked a small smile before returning to her ral face. “Just hurry. It’d be a shame if we had to leave you behind so soon.” Theepped away and headed outside.

  Despite still being sleepy, Isidore quickly gathered his gear and pushed back his hair so that it was out of his fad instead c his ears. He already had a sleeveless shirt and pants on, so he just put on his leather cuirass and put his curved sword on his hip. Grabbing his bag, he then headed out of the inn to join the rest of the party.

  The rest of them were waiting just outside and when they saw Isidore, they started moving and he joihem. After they left the walls of Sidith, Aurea told them the path they would be taking. “We’ll be heading into the old forest he city and assuming you all keep up, we should make it by nightfall.”

  The rest of the party accepted this without protest, sihey all khey o prepare for their quest and this was as good of a starting pce as any other. As they were walking, the party was silent with all of them thinking of different things. No doubt rgely what they actually wanted with their new positions as heroes now that it had finally set in that this was real and actually happening.

  Strangely, Isidore didn’t focus oential riches or titles he could gain from his quest and ihought about the stras which have happened sihe Auspice of Nothing branded him. The first strange dream he had was of him floating in a void and seeing giant ughing beings. Then he entered that Old God in the woods, which thankfully were in a different area than the ones he was in now. With a sense of unease, he noticed he still felt like he was being watched, and it didn’t feel like a human or animal was watg him. He had been through enough back allies and wildero know. Then he sighed. He doubted he would find the answers for a long time and so kept moving forward with the rest of the party.

  Finally, after a few more hours of travel, the party made it to the encampment of Aurea’s bandits. As soon as they were in sight, the bandits cheered and the party mostly heard variations of.

  “The Princess has returned.”

  Isidore noticed Aurea’s cheeks reddened slightly from embarrassment but quickly masked it and announced her return to her followers. Most of the bandits were wearing armor, with most having some variant of gambeson or mail and armed with swords and spears. Again the bandits cheered and one of them, who seemed to be the sed in and behind Aurea, came up to her. “Wele back. It’s an honor that you would return so quickly.”

  “Of course I had to say goodbye to all of you before I left for my quest.” She said with a smile.

  “Well, let’s have a feast for you and your party, theill have plenty of good food left over from the st raid.”

  “That would be excellent. I’ll leave the preparations for you to handle while me and my party get situated.” Aurea said, and then he bowed to her before heading off to prepare.

  Just then, the sound of a horn boomed through the forest as arrows rained down on the encampment. Surprised, a few bandits fell from the hail of arrows before they could raise their shields. Thankfully, most of the arrows missed the party, with a few being blocked by Euthalia’s shield or ied by the fire magic of Ildefonso and Heraculitus. Then a sed horn boomed and infantry swarmed the site with swords, spears, and axes in hand. These soldiers struck at the heroes who quickly drew their ons in self defense.

  “Stop! We’re the heroes chosen by the Auspices!” Aurea shouted and showed her sigil to the warriors. For a sed, a few of them stopped, fused only for their ao order them forward. With the attempt at diplomacy failed the heroes and the remaining bandits charged at the warriors.

  Isidore, along with Aurea, was the first to reach the warriors’ lines, and the two of them easily broke through. He wasn’t o fighting by any means, having gotten iy before, but ?he felt as if his movements were sharper and more deadly, as if a powerful force was guiding his movements. His scimitar sliced through the joints and less armored parts of the warriors’ armor, causing several to fall from his bde. Yet this guiding force didn’t seem to be omnist, as when Isidore turned around after striking down another warrior, he came face to face with a soldier ready to stab him with a spear. Aurea rushed forward and pnted her daggers deep into the soldier’s back, killing him. She him before returning to the battle.

  Eutalia, who, with her sword and shield, easily dispatched several enemy soldiers, quickly joihe battle. Despite the armor, she moved gracefully across the battlefield. Simirly, Isidore also moved across the battlefield, aying in one pce too long so that he didn’t get overwhelmed. As he moved, though, he heard a faint noise. As if music ying at the tempo of the battle ebbing and flowing with the battle. Despite it not being refined, Isidore could just barely make it out and as he tried to focus on it, he noticed his movements speeding up and being mraceful.

  Then he heard somebody shout for him to step back, interrupting his tration and he quickly jumped back. A fire ball then engulfed the spot he was just at ing a couple enemy soldiers. Looking behind him, he saw Ildefonso, already focused on using his magic to ie anroup of soldiers. Then, off to the side, he saw Heraculitus tending to some of the wounded from both sides. His fmes cauterized wounds and energized the bodies of the wouo restore themselves. An enemy warrior charged him from behind, only for a small wall of fire to appear between them and the warrior to back off. Isidore sidestepped, then sshed at a different soldier while he tried to look for Tempano. Finally, he found him somehow sneaking across the battlefield, staying out of sight of the enemy warriors until he made it to their ander.

  Before the ander could react, Tempano’s bde decapitated him. The bandits cheered at this, causing some warriors to turn around ahe headless body of their leader fall to the ground. This caused a rout among the warriors, who saw that the heroes outmatched them. With that, the remaining warriors disappeared bato the trees, leaving the wounded behind. Then the symphony of battle disappeared from Isidore’s mind.

  Isidore took this ce to scour the battlefield taking bits of jewelry and other valuables like he usually did after being involved in a fight like this. Then he found a bow ying on the ground still in good dition. He picked it up ahe weight and drew it bad saw that it still worked perfectly fine and it wasn’t an issue for him to use it. So he put it on his bad grabbed some arrows off the nearby body before heading back to the party.

  The party was surrounding one of the wounded warriors who Heraculitus had healed. Aurea was standing over him with a dagger to his neck, demanding to know who had sent them. Very much wanting to keep his head, the warrior respohat the t of Yeston had sent them hoping to gain favor with the city of Sidith and nearby Kingdom of Reyanes. Aurea threw the warrior back to the ground before st off.

  ed, the rest of the party followed her. Notig this, she turned around and shouted. “Stop, I have to do this myself!”

  Euthalia quickly responded. “The Auspices chose you as our leader. We’re not letting you go alone.”

  Everybody else nodded and affirmed what Euthalia said, telling Aurea that they would join her no matter where or what she was about to do. She looked bad said, “Why? So many of my people died because of me and you’d still follow me?”

  “We all know that this quest won’t be without losses. The Auspices chose you for a reason, and so we will follow their choid follow you.” Heraculitus said.

  Aurea looked at the party with a more vulnerable look and then nodded. “You’re right, Eternity e for a reason. Alright fine, I’m going to find the t of Yeston and make him answer for the deaths he caused here today.”

  Isidore responded. “Looks like our first mission is to deal with him. Let’s do this Aurea.”

  “Well, we’ll have to wait since we ’t leave until my people have gotten back to their full strength.” Aurea said, getting bato her anding role. “For now, I want all of you focused on helping to get things in order around here.”

  Everybody nodded and split up to do what they had to do. Isidore stayed out on the field, saying that he was looking for herbs to make medie for the wounded. While doing that, he was also going to get first pi loot from the battlefield. He moved through the trees, cheg the various pnts growing on the ground, separating those with healing properties from the ones which didn’t. Eventually, he gathered a det amount of herbs. He the back to the battlefield to take another look at the bodies to get some of their valuables.

  Most of the bodies had nothing, or the most valuable things they had were ons and armor, which he couldn’t carry with him. Finally, he came to the ander’s body and saw that he had some good things on him. He pulled out his knife and used it to get some jewelry the ander was wearing. Then he felt an icy presence behind him and Tempano’s slow voice, saying. “I doubt the Auspices would look upon thievery favorably.”

  Isidore jumped slightly and defended himself. “It’s not like they’ll have any more use for it.”

  Tempaned. “None of my business just saying you probably shouldn’t steal from the dead.”

  “Eh, I’ll deal with it when a neanes and resurrects them. Anyways, what are you doing out here?”

  “Aurea esterio go do something, so I’ve been wandering around to see what everybody else is up to.”

  “Well, I’m heading back to drop off these herbs. Want to join me?” Isidore asked.

  “Why not? Although you’re carrying the herbs.”

  “Why?”

  In respoempano put his hand to a tree, and the surrounding area froze. Isidore just nodded, saying, “Ahh, right.” With that, the pair headed back to the bandit camp and dropped off the herbs at the makeshift medical area that Heraculitus had set up. He thahe two of them and Isidore showed his helpers how to crush up and apply the herbs so that they work the best. After they did what he said and it worked, Heraculitus remarked. “How did you learn about these herbs?”

  To which Isidore responded. “After being on the road for a long time, you pick up a lot of skills.”

  “Ah makes sense, so you must be good at navigation, then.”

  “Usually I am, unless something magical interferes with it.” Isidore said, thinking back to how he got lost hours into his jouro join the heroes.

  “That will be good to know. Anyways, I’m sure there are other people who you go help since I’ve got things covered here.”

  “Alright, see you ter.” Isidore left and noticed Tempano had vanished again. He sighed and headed out of the medical area and then came across Euthalia, who was taking a break. When she saw him, she said, “Ah, the vagrant, how are you?”

  “I’m not a vagrant, I'm a wanderer.” Isidore corrected her.

  “Sure, anyways, how did you learn how to fight with your sword? I’ve never seen one like it.” She looked curiously at the scimitar hanging from Isidore’s hip.

  “I got it when I started wandering years ago. There was an old man I met one day who trained me in basianship, but most of it I learned out on the road.”

  “Why leave your home to go wander?”

  “There wasn’t anythi for me there.” Isidore said.

  Euthalia gave him a knowing look and said. “I know the feeling. That’s why I became a knight. It was that or…” She trailed off at the end, slightly unfortable.

  Seeing this, Isidore chose not to press her and instead asked. “Why are you tellihis?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Something about being part of this party has made me feel like I am finally around equals. Well, anyways, I better get back out there.” The two bid each oodbye aheir separate ways. Then he ran into Ildefonso, who was carrying some logs. Isidore offered to help, and he readily accepted, giving some logs to him. The pair of them then walked towards the main hall and Isidore sparked a versation.

  “So you’re a fire mage?”

  “When I was younger and stupid, I thought I could get my father to love me if I showed how useful I could be to his pany.” Ildefonso said bitterly.

  “So you were a soldier for his pany?” Isidore asked as gently as possible.

  “Unfortunately. But I’ve left all of that behind and someday he’ll pay for his crimes.” As he said this, they finally arrived at the main hall. They pced the logs into the fire pit and Ildefonso lit them. He the, and Isidore leaned against the wall. After a few minutes of waiting for nothing in particur, he left and came face to face with Aurea, who seemed a lot more fatigued, having coordinated all the as of the camp.

  She smiled when she saw Isidore and said. “Oh hey Isidore, thank you for not letting me go off on my own back there.”

  “It wasn’t just me, it was a team effort.” Isidore said to deflect the pliment.

  “Still I needed a little remihat I’m in such a new position as a leader.”

  “Haven’t you always been a leader even before you created this group of bandits?” Isidore asked.

  She looked down and stuttered in a soft voice. “I-I haven’t… just, let’s not mention my time before I left the royal family, ok.”

  Isidore quickly agreed and apologized. “Of course, sorry about that.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Anyways, since we’re staying the night here, we’re having a feast thrown in our honor since we drove those warriors back.”

  “That’s good, and I’m pretty sure we’ve dealt with most of the effects of the battle.” Isidore said.

  “I’m sure I’m just going to che everybody now. Want to join me?” Aurea asked.

  Isidore had nothing else to do, so he agreed. “Sure.” So the two of them went around the camp, cheg in on everybody. Naturally, everything was going smoothly and everybody was busy with their tasks except Tempano, who was sleeping near a fire. Finally, it was time for the feast and it passed by quickly, with little fanfare. Finally, the group went to sleep and early the m they woke up ready to head out and find the t of Yeston.