He ran until his feet started screaming again, skidding to a stop when he couldn’t take it anymore. Ellis saw a sloth hole, overgrown with roots and dead leaves scattered around it as he hid behind a tree. Throwing caution to the wind, he ducked inside and hoped that if Michael was chasing him, he wouldn’t think to look here.

  He hunkered down into the hole, drawing his knees to his chest and unslinging his bow, keeping an arrow notched and pointed out the entrance while he listened for that monster's footsteps. The sound that greeted him was his own heartbeat echoing off the enclosed walls surrounding him. The pounding filled his ears, and he thought the thumps alone would give away his little ruse. With time, his heart calmed down, growing softer and softer with every minute of silence that ticked by.

  Ellis slumped back against the dirt, taking stock of his life. His feet… His legs, if he were honest, felt like they were made of lead. His forearms no longer bled, but the sting continued to ache, his escapades of not sleeping for three days catching up with him. The hard ground beneath his butt was the most comfortable thing on the planet, and the course mud wall he leaned against almost cradled his neck as he leaned his head against it, closing his eyes.

  He took his notched arrow and ran it into the wound on his forearm. He had pressed hard enough to draw blood, but not hard enough to cause any real damage. What he was after was the sting crawling up his arms, causing him to whimper. He wanted to cry, to grieve, but the moment he choked out a sob he remembered Ada in his arms, the life in her eyes fading as she told him what he had always wanted to hear.

  How could he have been so stupid!? They had killed his entire town, of course they weren’t normal! And from the way Michael had just shrugged off the Rass meant his constitution must have been mind boggling, not something his bow or his mothers knife could get through at the moment. He shuddered, realizing they might even be using mana, the sick bastards! He hit the hard wall he was leaning against, growling in frustration at his own weaknesses.

  Okay, they are monsters, yes. But Ellis had thought a Rass was unkillable from the way the village had warned him about them, and he had killed one with a single arrow. So while those two might be worse, they were not immortal.

  They had to have a weakness, they had too. If he followed them long enough he would find one… and they would find him before he could exploit it. Tracking someone for a few days was one thing, but staying this close to them for the weeks or months it would take to find their weaknesses wasn’t realistic.

  He couldn’t just let them go. He had to kill them. The bow creaked under his grip as he brought it closer to his chest, holding it like it would whisper the solution to his problem. If they thought for even a moment they would get away with this, he was going to make them very, very sorry.

  So he went through his options, smacking the side of his head to kickstart the process. He could try and level, but then he would have to leave them to their horrors, and he did not trust that he would be able to track them down again. Like Mathias had said, he didn’t know if he would level now or in five years. Besides, a single level wouldn’t be the difference maker in their eventual confrontation.

  So what was left? He couldn’t track them for weeks, and he would probab… definitely die if he tried to kill them, even from an ambush. He couldn’t run off to go level. He couldn't just leave.

  He banged his head against the dirt wall, trying to figure out what he could do. They talked about the city, so he could just tell the guards at the front gate about those monsters when they least expect it. Or perhaps he could follow them into the city, have them nice and trapped before he alerted the guards….

  Ellis growled out loud, like he could scare off his own cowardice. They were his. He would not just give their deaths away, like a child who didn’t want to do a chore. He was a man. They had aggrieved him. And he would take his vengeance. No one else will touch them while he’s alive.

  But that still left the problem of how to kill them. He could just take the risk, attack them while they slept tonight. Ameena didn’t seem as powerful, but Ellis had an inkling that if he killed her, Michael would hunt him down like a dog.

  He banged his head against the wall again, and a spark went off behind his eyes as his teeth rattled. He knew they were going to The Albus Citadel. Okay. He wasn’t going to tell the guards, but he still knew where they were going… but how could he use it?

  He rubbed his chest where that man on the horse had kicked him right in the scratches from that RAss, and remembered Ameena had spoken of them passing them on the road. So… they had seen them. The retinue of soldiers had also ridden past him, and thus the village.

  The dots started connecting, the idea crystalizing in his mind like a gift wrapped message from Anwir himself. The lie formed itself within moments, and whenever he tried to tweak or question the thought, it remained undisturbed.

  The idea felt like it would get him killed, and he doubted it would work. But it also felt right. Like asking yourself what two plus two equaled. You didn’t have to analyze the four that popped into your head.

  You just knew it was the only answer.

  He smiled for the first time since he found Solrise in ash. Grabbing the necklace around his neck, he whispered a prayer under his breath.

  “I know what to do, Ada… but I have to be a backstabber to do it. I have to break our final promise. Forgive me. I love you.”

  The prayer breathed strength into his resolve as he whispered status under his breath. With his heart in his throat, Ellis pressed Alehemet’s name, and scrolled down to the god he had always been warned not to choose…

  And hesitated. Ellis didn’t even know if he would be accepted. But… but he didn’t have a choice now. He pressed his shaky finger forward into the block of text. The Status screen wobbled for a moment, and he flinched as the wind rustling against the leaves turned into laughter he hoped was in his head.

  The same lines that had appeared before Simon appeared before Ellis now. Except they were black, and seemed to cut through the air rather than flow through it. They converged into a symbol of a closed eye, like the god was giving him a wink.

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  With a simple press, he had made the one status change he was allowed in life. With a simple press, he had made his godly parent the one he had promised never to be the son of.

  A child of Anwir:

  Ellis Marsh:

  Strength: 4

  Mana: 1

  Dexterity: 6 (Trusty Bow +1)

  Perception: 7

  Endurance: 6

  Constitution: 4

  Total: 28

  Level: 1

  ~break~

  The two companions were walking down the road early in the morning, Michael now without a scratch on him. They seemed to be strolling in a comfortable silence, Michael scanning the distant horizon with his eyes locked forward with Ameena glancing over her shoulder every few minutes. She spotted the sprinting boy first.

  Ellis ran towards them like a dying man, yelling at the top of his lungs. “My lord! My lady! Please stop!”

  Both of them turned towards the sprinting boy. Ameena rested both hands on her belt, one on the black metal rod and… something else. Empty air? Ellis wasn’t sure. Michael grabbed his scabbard instead of his hilt, making the sword bounce two inches out of it with a casual flick of his thumb.

  “My lord! My lady!” Ellis came to a stop a few meters away from, putting his hands on his knees as he panted, pretending to have ran all night rather than from down the road.

  Ellis looked up, an amused smile now replacing Michael’s earlier bafflement.

  “I must say it is a pleasant surprise to see you alive, Ellis. I felt quite bad when my lady told me about the… ‘Rass territory’ I sent you into.”

  Michael took a step towards him, never dropping the welcoming smile on his face. All the ideas of how the conversation disappeared from Ellis’s head as he gripped the knife at his belt, and had to grit his teeth to keep himself from doing something stupid.

  He came to a stop right before Ellis. “What can we do for you, my boy?”

  “My lord… Someone burned my home down! My entire family was slaughtered! I saw hoofprints, like an army went through there! They must have killed them!”

  Ellis pretended to cry. It didn’t take much for it to become real.

  “I have to kill those fucking bastards! Did you see them ride past you!? They used horses— they must have come past you in the last few days! Please tell me you saw them! I have to kill them!”

  Michael’s eyes crackled with pride at the mention of the army, but otherwise looked more… annoyed at Ellis’s pain, like it inconvenienced him more than anything. Ellis’s palms were sweating, and he had to pinch the cuts on his arms to keep his leg from shaking. If they decided to kill him then and there, he doubted he could run. But getting closer to them was the only way forward in his mind, so he waited for their response, rubbing his hands on his pants to keep the sweat off them.

  Ameena never stopped studying Ellis, her eyes narrowing a fraction at his fidgeting as she spoke. “We did see a few soldiers ride past us, as a matter of fact. I do not understand how a village boy from the goonies would have a chance at killing them, though.”

  Ellis tried his best not to give away that he knew they were responsible as he screamed at her. But even to his ears it sounded like an accusation.

  “So what!? I can ambush them! Their families won't share their strength! Let’s see how they like it when someone burns the ones they love!”

  Ameena’s eyes narrowed, her hand tightening around the metal stick before she continued. “You would die. But I admire your ruthlessness. They are headed to the city. Which is coincidentally where we are going. You may join us until we get there, if you would like.”

  Ellis considered what to say for a moment, Ameena holding his stare the entire while. He needed to sound desperate. But not for them. For the soldiers. He hoped this wouldn’t bite him in the arse.

  “My lady, that is incredibly kind but I need to get to them as soon as possible! I cannot afford to walk there! I have to get there before they disperse! How else would I hunt them down?”

  “Little bit of luck, suicidal bravery and a miracle? Escorting you doesn’t really suit our mission, so… the city's that way, Ellis.” Michael interjected, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. ”We’ll be nice since you're grieving, and not report you to the guards about your plot to kill them. Good day. Run along now.”

  Ellis felt panic crawl into the back of his eyes, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly as Michael stared him down.

  “But, my lord… uhm, why are you going to the city? If I can help you on the way there, maybe I can ask for your assistance in my mission!? You are clearly capable warriors! Don’t you see the injustice of what they’ve done!?”

  Michael rolled his eyes. “There’s a million injustices happening everywhere, all the time. Should I fix them after I’m done helping you?”

  You are the fucking injustice that needs fixing, you sisterfucker, Ellis snarled at the man in his head.

  “No my lord! Our goals align… or could align, I don’t know what your mission is, but… but I can be useful! My perception is high! I can coo… I can’t cook, but I can hunt! I can assist you with food, carry your bags, whatever you need!”

  Michael’s eyes narrowed to slits. “I said no. Go. Away.”

  Ameena put a hand on Michael’s shoulder, and he stiffened like he was struck by lightning. She pulled him away a few steps before motioning him to bend down so that they could whisper out of earshot.

  She did not whisper quiet enough for Ellis’s ears.

  “Let us bring him with us to the city gates. It would be a smart play, Michael, I promise.”

  “He looks useless at best and annoying at worst.”

  Ameena shook her head. “His face is tailor made to be disarming. He would more than help us get through the city’s gate, and he would provide a very suitable distraction once we slip into the city.”

  Michael hummed and hawed, straightening his back as he pondered her points, Ellis hoping to catch his eye with his ‘disarming’ face, maybe he could sway the man with a smile?

  Michael looked back at Ameena. “Very good points. But I just don’t want him with us. So… no.”

  He turned around to Ellis with an imitation of a sad smile, before Ameena clamped her hand around his shoulder and made him bend down so she could whisper in his ear, her voice almost sultry as she spoke, “As the boy said, he can hunt. So in the evenings you two can go look for Rass, and during the day… he can walk far ahead of us, out of earshot. It benefits us if he does that, since he would set off any traps or draw the ire of anything dangerous long before we would. And I would be very grateful for the peace of mind it would bring.”

  Michael let out a sharp breath through his nose. “Like a canary?”

  Ameena seemed almost surprised at his assessment as she nodded. “Like a canary.”

  Michael straightened with a sigh and pretended he wasn’t swayed. Ellis went along with the motion, making his eyes wide and desperate while clutching his bow, trying to appear as pitiable as possible whenever Michael glanced his way.

  He bent down and whispered in Ameena’s ear. “I’ll escort him to the city, but if he irritates me I’ll feed him to the city’s dogs. No complaints?”

  “No complaints,” she whispered back.

  Michael straightened with a sigh, before walking over to Ellis and clapping him on the shoulder. “We’ll take you to the city. Now, what was that about hunting?”