Everyone was brought onto the palace grounds a few minutes later once the guards finished validating their identity. They were escorted to a private dining hall where food was being made available as rooms were being prepared. As soon as Ollie and Michael had greeted them they were honored as royal guests by King Marlo. They were surprised, but grateful.

  Before he could get updates on what everyone had been doing he decided to tackle the most awkward reunion first and approached Finn and Kai. To their credit, they didn’t shuffle their feet or avert their eyes from his as he approached.

  “I wasn’t expecting to see you both here.”

  Kai sighed. “Well, when more than half of your company has been converted to fight some damned holy war you can either deal with scraps or join them. Cantalia is a lost cause anyway. Their army is scattered through the swamps focused on hit and runs, but their capital’s been taken and their king captured.” He shook his head. “Even if we’d stayed we wouldn’t have been paid, and the land we wanted was no longer theirs to give.”

  “Why did you want the land anyway?”

  Finn raised his head. “For Gemini. For the takers. Cantalia allows landholders a lot of freedom, even when it comes to takers. A place for them to retire, to not have to worry. Cantalia wasn’t the ideal location, but it’s a chance we wanted to take.”

  That gave Michael some context for why they were upset with him, but at the same time he wasn’t so sure his being in Cantalia would’ve made a difference. He couldn’t be in every battle on every front after all, and if they’d already lost their capital he couldn’t imagine Burndan being slowed too badly by just his and Ollie’s presence.

  There were a number of questions he could ask them, but he decided to keep things simple.

  “Are we going to have a problem?”

  Finn and Kai exchanged a look and shook their heads in unison. “No.”

  “Good. In that case I’m glad to have you here. We need the help.”

  He broke off from them and walked over to Lys and Trina.

  He noticed the necklace he’d given Trina was glowing a bit brighter, with words of golds flickering on it. He looked more closely at it.

  Titles

  Mark of the Divines

  Grants:

  Middling protection

  “I grew it,” said Trina with a smile.

  “Good work,” replied Michael with a smile. “How have you both been?”

  “We’ve been good. I’ve spread word of the divine to many.”

  “I can see that,” said Michael, noticing again how many pieces of armor bore the six-pointed mark of the divine. “But I’m not just concerned about that, I’m concerned about you.”

  Trina’s smile faded a bit. “It’s been… hard. We lost a lot of people, but I feel better since we started coming here. Like I was heading in the right direction.”

  Michael nodded. “That’s how I felt too. The rifts are the priority. Wars aren’t as important as an army invading from another dimension.”

  He looked at Lys. Her hair had a bit more gray to it, but her eyes were still alive and her body seemed strong. She had a new rapier at her belt and a fresh buckler. Her old ones must’ve been lost during the fighting. She smiled at him.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “You haven’t seen me in near a year and the first thing you do is check me out?”

  Michael chuckled. “I just wanted to make sure that you were alright.”

  “Of course I am,” she wrapped an arm around Trina. “I had this one with me to help.”

  “Good point,” replied Michael.

  “We’ve been hearing about all you’ve done too,” said Trina. “Every village and town had a story about you healing them, sealing rifts, and fighting. I saw hundreds of people wearing the symbol of the divine.” Her words were filled with pride in him as she spoke.

  “I’m just doing what I can,” he replied with a smile.

  Lys’s eyes focused on him for a moment and she turned to Trina. “Give me a moment with Michael, would you?”

  “Can’t you just wait until we have rooms?” asked Trina dryly.

  “Only barely,” replied Lys in a sultry tone.

  Trina walked away, going to check on some of the newer Cantalian recruits that were looking particularly out of place with what was going on.

  Lys reached out a hand and cupped Michael’s face for a moment. He didn’t flinch from the gesture, but he was surprised by it. They ended things as amicably as they could given the circumstances, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue them, there were too many other things to focus on.

  She pushed her hand off his face and ran it through his hair, holding a long white strand between two fingers.

  Michael took her hand and gently removed it from his face and hair.

  “You’re aging,” she said with concern in her voice. “It’s uneven. There’s white in your hair and beard, but not many wrinkles on your face.”

  “You’re the first to notice,” he replied quietly.

  “What’s happening to you?” she asked, concern heavy in her voice.

  “I’m not sure. Something to do with the cursed water that aged me and the others. Maybe pushing myself with recovery. I even considered maybe my smite is affecting me somehow.”

  “You haven’t asked anyone? An alchemist? A healer?”

  “I tried to heal myself, but wasn’t able to discern anything wrong. I'm as healthy as I’ve ever been. It’s possible it’s only superficial.”

  “What about the divine? Have you asked them?”

  “Their energy is focused on stemming the tide of rifts. They haven’t been able to answer in detail. Or perhaps they can't tell a difference.”

  Lys looked at him, a bit of harshness in her expression. He wasn’t used to that.

  “You’re avoiding it. You need to seek help.”

  Michael clenched his jaw for a moment, but relaxed it along with letting out a breath.

  “I will. Let me get through the parade and I’ll talk to the King. He certainly had some capable healers keeping him going before I healed him and his family.” He might also reach out to Carmen, the doctor for the knights in Greathollow.

  “Good,” said Lys, her expression softening and her smile returning. “The white doesn’t look bad on you though.”

  He smiled back. “Thank you.”

  He walked back over to where Ollie, Marcus, and Pyotr were talking or insulting one another.

  “Here’s mister Hero of Lataxia now. You been taking proper advantage of that by sleeping your way through the country's widow population or have you been too busy healing everyone, training, and being saintly?” asked Marcus.

  “The latter,” said Michael with an easy smile. “Did you spend the entire war with Burndan hiding in a tree and learning how to make drugs from Cantalians?”

  “Good guess,” he replied with a smile that matched Michael's.

  “How about you Pyotr? Learn some new dance moves?”

  “Quite a few, brother,” he responded. “Learned a few things from Burndan too.”

  “Burndan?” asked Michael.

  “He was captured for a short while, but he got better.”

  Pyotr leaned forward. “I fought their king. He was strong.”

  “And he chose to take you alive?”

  “He knew what I was. By my old armor and weapons.” He leaned in toward Michael. “He is a taker. He realized that since I was a taker as well and from Stent that I must’ve had my brand healed at some point. He is bound by one as well. He asked for your help to remove it. He says dark forces drive him forward and he promised gold and land if you could heal him. I told him you’d probably just help to help, but he didn’t believe me.”

  “Shit. We wound up cannon fodder and he wound up a king,” said Ollie shaking his head. “Lucky bastard.”

  “He didn’t seem lucky to me,” replied Pyotr. “He seemed strained. In spite of that he treated me well.”

  Michael frowned. “I’m willing to help him, but I have other priorities right now. Between what Bayle and Crick have gotten us into and the rifts here I can’t imagine I’ll be able to help him any time soon.”

  “I understand,” replied Pyotr. “I was only asked to bring you the message. In any case when you do help him, I will join you.”

  Michael nodded at him, smiling. It felt good to have his friends back with him. He ate with them that evening, hearing more details about the Burndan campaign. They raised their tankards for those that had been lost, and laughed as they verbally jabbed at one another. Michael had been feeling a bit unmoored when it came to going back to Stent, but knowing that he’d be heading that way with his friends steeled him. Knowing that the rest of Gemini would be able to stay behind and help close rifts made him feel even better. He could feel how much stronger the survivors had become, especially Trina, and felt that he was leaving things in good hands in the short term.