“Before the First Light, I swear my vow:

  to shield the innocent,

  to break the chains of cruelty,

  and to march without fear.

  Should darkness claim me,

  let the Dawn find me,

  for Urnik restores what shadow cannot keep.”

  Riona’s POV

  The light of the noonday sun beat down harshly on the road. It made it exceptionally easy for Riona to see the wagons full of slaves. The massive orcs pulled the carts with their horse teams. The orcs were well over 7 feet tall and built like mountains. Their green skin and large tusks were slightly intimidating.

  Riona, hid among the trees on the sides of the road, on the other hand, was only 6 feet tall, tall for a human woman, but short for an orc. Her walnut-colored skin and dark black hair stood out among her other human companions who had light pinkish skin and hair ranging from red to golden white and various shades within.

  In her homeland, Riona was average looking. Here in the west of the continent she was an exotic looking beauty. It made her slightly uncomfortable. Urnik, God of the Sun, warned against the excesses of the flesh and vanity. Sometimes it was easy to get carried away so far from home that everyone thought she was pretty.

  Shaking her head, Riona refocused on the slavers. There were about 30 of them and her group had a similar number. She felt they had the advantage though, orcs weren’t known for their use of magic, and Riona’s group had her radiant tether and Mukkin’s fire tether with them.

  The other mage was a small and skinny man. He looked like he could be 10, with his mop of red hair and green eyes, but he looked almost half her height and as thin as a twig. He must have had halfling ancestors.

  Nonetheless, they had the magical edge. Orcs were ferocious though. Their physical prowess just may give them an edge that could turn the tide of the battle. As the orcs moved along the road, they got closer to the archer ambush. 12 archers on each side of the road ready to kill the slavers the moment the mid-cart pulled past the mark.

  Riona could only hope none of the captured slaves got caught in the battle and killed. It hurt her heart when she could hear crying from the carts and people pleading for their lives. Orcs laughed and whipped at the cages to silence people.

  The orc in the lead cart was the only one with armor. It was old and rusted and fit awkwardly. He must have taken it from a fallen foe who was roughly his size… maybe a little smaller.

  But he was the cruelest of them. She had heard his name was Scourger. The things he like to do to the women of his train, of any race, made her sick to her stomach. He wouldn’t only rape women, he would skin them and force them to eat themselves as he enjoyed them.

  Riona prayed to Urnik for strength. “Great Urnik, Lord of the Heavens, I ask you humbly to give your servant the strength to overcome this evil.” She kissed her sun medallion before tucking it in her breastplate.

  As the mid-cart moved forward, arrows began to fly.

  Orcs yelled out.

  The Scourger leapt from his seat and called for his men to form up. “Follow me scum!” He bellowed.

  The orcs gathered and with the carts guarding their backs, brough their shields up to stop the arrows. The initial volley killed almost half of the orcs.

  “Keep them pinned!” Riona yelled. “Don’t waste arrows where you don’t have to. Wait for most to come to you before you put your bows away.”

  She came out from behind her tree and started walking down the embankment. “Scourger!” She yelled. “Your death is now! Surrender and you may stand trial.”

  “Ha!” The giant orc grunted savagely as he looked beyond his shield wall. “Let them waste their arrows, then charge.” He commanded.

  Then Scourger sprinted at Riona. He towered over her, but she could feel the might of Urnik flow through her. He brought up his bastard sword and tried to cleave Riona in half. She didn’t try to block the cleave head on but parried it to the side and used the opening to drive her sword through his exposed thigh, ignoring his armored chest.

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  Scourger grunted as he was sliced through the leg. “Bitch.”

  “Foul language is the sign of a weak mind.” Riona smirked as Scourger took an unsteady step back.

  The arrow barrage managed to bring down more of the orcs. “Fall back!” Scourger bellowed.

  He pulled a rare red vial from his belt and with a shaky hand uncorked it and downed the red liquid. The wound on his leg hissed and stitched itself back together. As soon as he was healed, he ran for the tree line, dodging arrows as he made his escape.

  Not wanting the Scourger to escape, Riona made to chase him, but stopped when she heard screaming behind her. Most of the orcs had scattered, but two remained and looked like they were going to start executing slaves out of spite of their loss.

  Riona cursed quietly as Scourger vanished in the tree line, but the screams of the innocent pulled her away.

  Riona turned back to the slaves and ran behind the orcs. “Surrender to the might of Urnik and you’ll live to face trial.”

  “Fuck off!” An orc said.

  Without hesitation Riona stabbed that one in the back and stomped on the knee of the other. Before she could pull her sword from the back of the first orc, Captain Kikkun put a spear in the neck of the second.

  “You were amazing, Paladin Riona.” The captain said out of breath.

  Captain Kikkun was just as tall as she was but had short blonde hair and green eyes. He was not beautiful, like a bard, but he had a man’s handsomeness to him. Riona couldn’t help but smile at him.

  “Daddy!” A little girl screamed as she reached through the bars of the nearest wagon.

  “Jillian.” Kikkun said as he rushed to her. “Find the keys.” He told his men as the gathered around the wagons.

  Riona gathered her radiant mana and gripped a lock as she poured the light into it causing it to heat enough for her to just rip the lock from the cage. “I’ll go release the others.” She informed Kikkun.

  As Riona released the rest of the prisoners, she couldn’t help but reminisce about how she had met Kikkun and his daughter months ago while traveling west on her mission to end slavery from the world. In Urnik, the God Urink’s, theocratic templar kingdom, slavery was already illegal. As it was in the empire, but as you went west it became more prevalent.

  As a little girl Riona had never even heard of slavery, but after taking her vows to Urnik, she encountered slavers and had dedicated her life to its utter destruction since. She had risen quickly in the ranks of the Order of Light to become a paladin after she had killed the demon Maeliform and freed the island people of the Ruby Isles.

  People constantly praised her as Urnik’s chosen. A champion of the light. She tried not to let herself become vain or full of herself, but sometimes it felt good that her peers valued her. She looked back at Kikkun, hugging and kissing his daughter, and wondered if she would ever haver that… or if duty would call her until the end.

  Urnik promised the reward of life for service and the people of Urnik were very fertile, but she had never even been with a man, let alone have a child. She put a hand on her belly, wondering about children to be.

  “Why would you save us human?” A small voice asked.

  Riona looked up into the last cart to see a goblin. Small, with greenish skin, but covered in brownish orange fur and bright yellow eyes. Its ears were long and pointed and its clothes were nothing more than rags.

  “Urnik commands us to all live free, so long as we don’t harm others.” Riona responded with a smile.

  “But you did harm them.” The goblin looked at the dead orcs.

  “Yes, little one, evil must be punished and sometimes death is the only answer.” Riona replied.

  “Why?” The goblin looked up at her.

  “I don’t know. Some people, just choose… evil.” She cupped the goblin’s cheek. “But don’t worry we will get home.”

  “The old master didn’t let me be free. I served the humans.” He looked around. “Now who I serve?”

  “What is your name, little one?” Riona asked.

  “Ipka.”

  “You serve no one. You are free.” Riona said.

  “I will die free.” Ipka said.

  “Is that bad?” Riona smiled.

  “I want to live.” He looked down.

  For a moment Riona didn’t understand. Then it hit her, Ipka was afraid that freedom was a death sentence, because he couldn’t take care of himself.

  “Freedom can be hard, Ipka.” Riona bent down to be in his line of sight. “But if you come with me I can take you to wherever the humans took you from, before the orcs took you. Your real home.”

  “Only the strong are free in my home, the weak serve or die.”

  “Where is that?”

  “The great forest several months west of here.”

  Riona chuckled. When she left Urnik, she had spent almost a year traveling west, and now Ipka’s home was several months more west. How large was the continent?

  “Then maybe you can help lead others to freedom.” Riona helped Ipka from the wagon.

  “Thank you.” Kikkun said again walking up with his daughter. “If there is anything I can do for you… just… just say the word and I will be there.”

  “The sun guides us.” Riona said. She put a hand on Ipka’s shoulder. “It seems I will be going west again.”

  “I will go with you.” Mukkin said as he walked up to the group. “I may not worship Urnik over Dairriinur, but your goals are good and are good for the world.”

  Riona laughed. “Two followers of two different sun gods setting off to give light to the darkness… What could be finer?”

  Rion looked into the sky. The bright blue sky didn’t betray the death of battle, but her mission was on again. West.

  “Ipka.” Riona looked at the goblin, “Do you know where to go from here?”

  Ipka smiled at Riona and nodded. “Yes.”