Dalis's Wall—enchanted to look like a waterfall—was covered by moss at the Forest Gate. Alexia felt like she was in the jungles of her grandfather's native Kavova as a more tropical woodland surrounded her on the final stretch to Sapphirica. She'd often imagined of visiting the southern continent, but her father insisted they put their Kavovan heritage behind them. Despite that, he regularly met with Kavovan refugees and helped them get their bearings in Leveria.

She felt at peace, eager to see her mother, father, and her best friend, dwelling on that rather than the prospect of persuading King Gideon to end the war and absolve her guardsmen of their crimes. Those fears would return, but not now. Not when in such a beautiful place with benign company. Since their night at the tavern, she'd been sleeping well around the Redeemed Men. Even Jonah the Elder intermingled with the former bandits, playing cards every night and suggesting they present as lumberjacks until Alexia obtained their pardons.

She couldn't complain about the weather either, despite Seraxa's hold on her the past moon. Norali smiled, shining bright light overhead. Balbaraq was restive, stirring no storms. Zafrir was the reigning power in the land, marrying with Qoryxa such that Alexia's sapphire-blue robes ruffled in the cool breeze as Moonstrider moved at a brisk walk beneath her. Her hair was an amalgam of chestnut brown and dark gold as she moved in-and-out of the shadows set by the canopy along the road as they approached the capital.

This was a day of peace where even the daunting task of speaking to the king or facing the betrothal offer to his son seemed manageable. Or perhaps that was just the enchantments of Dalis's Wall muting her anxiety?

Naturally, Alexia had her guard down when the trio of nacobon charged. They rushed out of the brush, three giant bovines nearly as tall as a horse and thrice as wide. The creatures looked demonic, with two curved tusks at the edges of their mouths and two horns above their ears. Their faces were almost human, except for their long snouts and the two rows of pointed teeth in their mouths. They rushed, seamless coordination that Alexia instantly knew was wrong, targeting the oxen at the front of Jonah the Elder's lead wagon, the space between the first and second wagons where Alexia rode Moonstrider, and the gap between the second and third wagons.

Her reaction was slow, lulled by the wall's enchantments, her daydreams of Kavovan jungles, and momentary complacency. She reached for Aurora, but didn't have a focus primed as she stared down the foot-long horn of the charging behemoth.

Nico leapt from the back of the front wagon intercepting the beast. The handsome guardian thrusted at the nacobon with his spear, the tip stuck into the mighty bovine, but didn't stop its advance.

The creature gored Nico in the chest, launching him off his feet. Alexia reached for whatever divine attunement she could find, losing access to Dalis as the calm she had felt moments ago evaporated. Instead, vengeance and a desire to protect came to her. She recognized Divine Balbaraq, pulsing in the sky, reaching for him.

The creature halted, red eyes boring into her, snorted, reared on its hind legs, then lowered for another charge.

Willem rode up the side of the caravan, longsword drawn. "I'll send you back to the Hells, demon!"

The bovine shot, as if from a sling, toward Willem instead.

Alexia seized whatever storm power she could from the clear sky, fusing it with Zafrir's abundant energy. Lightning forked from Aurora, striking the two-ton beast with a pushing burst. It crashed through the brush, flung like an arrow, bringing down several trees in its flight before crashing dead fifty feet away.

Holding the vengeful spirit close, Alexia spurred Moonstrider toward the front of the caravan where Erlos and the Jonahs would be. Blood covered Erlos's face, and Alexia was gripped by terror. She couldn't lose him.

Jonah the Elder emerged around the front of the caravan, waving at her, his axe bloodied. "Ours is down! Head for the back!"

Pulling hard on Moonstrider's reins, she turned him. Already, the thought nipped at her that she'd been too unprepared, made the wrong choice, and someone would pay the price of traveling with her, of believing in her. She leaned into the feeling, drawing as much of Balbaraq's sky power as Aurora could hold, letting the turbulence power her attunement to Zafrir, her mind focusing on another pushing lightning blast.

When she arrived, the beast was already down, a dozen spears thrust into its massive body. Esrak screamed as he pulled out a bloodied spear and tried to shove the limp creature. Temos kept hacking at its side, yelling, "Bamma!" Six Redeemed Men were trying to pull the creature back, straining as they held to its hind legs, unable to lift it with their combined strengths.

Getting closer, the scene not adding up in her mind, dread welling in her pounding heart, she heard a groan. The beast fell upon Bam, crushing his legs and torso.

"Move!"

The everchanging wind responded to her call, flocking to her myriad emotions and the chaos. She strained with her mind, wind roaring as it lifted the massive beast. The burst pushed several of her companions aside, as if an invisible hand shoved them all. Wind roaring in the space between him and the fallen nacobon, Bam pressed up with his arms, extending them as if he were bench pressing a mere four thousand pounds. He shouted, his voice cracking over the howling wind, "BAM!"

The nacobon launched into the air, sailed into the trees, Bam's sword still lodged in its rib area—which was, to Alexia's amazement, the deathblow.

In her haste to heal Bam, Alexia tumbled out of Moonstrider's saddle.

"Did you see me?" Bam rasped, voice hoarse. "I killed the big pig. Bam." He coughed, pain contorting his smile.

"You are a warrior of legend," she said, not wanting this innocent boy to pay the price, to be a victim of the Celegans because he was with her.

She pulled for Leverith's divinity, drawing on her love for this kid. A decade of studying the body's structure, of memorizing it until she could visualize every part, knowing what each did and how they fit together, were conjured with the practiced ease of remembering the cover of a book read a thousand times. Using her inner eye, she reassembled Bam's body, vividly imagining the deep wounds that no outer eye could see.

Bam shot to his feet. "Did you see me?" He gripped his hands together and thrusted them toward Alexia, blue light glowing around him as he healed. "I slammed my sword into his monstrous gut! Then I tossed the fat bastard off me like he was no bigger than a piglet!"

Alexia didn't linger to hear the rest of his escapades. She rushed up the caravan, seeking Nico. He'd taken a hit for her, rushing to her defense without hesitation. She felt nauseated, knowing that he'd never get a chance to fall in love because he'd died to keep her safe.

"Come on, Nico! Keep fighting!"

Alexia ran toward Erlos's voice. On the edge of the road, into the wood, Nico lay face down, eyes closed, in a pool of his blood. Her analytical mind knew that he was dead. Her heart couldn't allow it.

Alexia released a torrent of Leverith's spirit, shooting a ray of ethereal blue. Divine energy flowed from her staff into Nico as she closed the distance between them, shocking him into consciousness, possibly even back to life.

"Alexia is here," Erlos said. "Keep fighting!"

Nico cried out in pain, his utter agony piercing ear and soul.

This is my fault, she thought, a wave of nausea hammering into her stomach.

"Turn him over," she called to Erlos, as she held onto the stream of spirit that kept Nico clinging to life.

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

She gasped. His heart had been pulverized by a tusk, a gaping hole surrounding it where vitals had been punctured, ribs shattered. Alexia fought against the nausea welling in her gut, against the voice in her mind that said he was already dead, claimed by Zamael, that she was to blame. Images of Timmeck and Calden flashed unbidden.

Alexia refused them. She seized as much of Leverith's spirit as she could, thinking of how each of those men had protected her, believed in her, loved her. If there was a way to keep this from happening again, she would find it.

She maintained the flow of divine energy, refusing to let him die by pumping torrents of Leverith's spirit into him. Alexia harnessed her inner eye, commanding the spirit to restore the heart and mend the trauma throughout the chest cavity. She knew the workings of the heart, chambers and valves, knew how the blood ought to flow through, and visualized it as so. The healing was slow. Zamael tugged on Nico's soul, trying to sunder it from his body.

Her stomach roiled as she pushed energy, visualized restoration. Dark thoughts in her own mind fought to break her focus. HE IS GONE. LET GO.

No.

Leverith pushed against Death. And Alexia held onto her divine love, riding it through the doubts, through the nausea, through what felt like impossible healing. Nico's heart beat again, fractured bones restored, muscle and skin covering them anew. Alexia kept funneling Leverith's spirit into him until she felt the dark presence of Death disappear, until Nico sat up, opened his eyes, and smiled at her.

When she released Leverith, her head ached and her body was drained of spirit, leaving her feeling like an empty shell.

Nico, on the other hand, was swimming in a deep pool of spirit. His eyes went wide, his gaze soft, his mouth ajar as if in a daze. Alexia recognized the look; it wasn't uncommon for one healed to be smitten or even infatuated, and she didn't think she'd ever bombarded someone with as much spirit before.

"I love you," he said. "Marry me."

Several of the Redeemed Men laughed. Erlos dumped his waterskin over Nico's head. "Cool off, Neek. That's the magic talking."

Nico's voice took on a sing-song quality. "I am in love, Erlos! You cannot cool these embers that set my heart ablaze!"

"She hit you with enough of Leverith's spirit to heal an army. You're not in love. You're stupid drunk on Leverith."

The handsome guardsman smiled wider. "If that's what this feeling is, I want to be drunk forever."

He leapt up into a wagon, amidst the applause and jeers of his companions. Alexia wished she could just fade away, feeling too overwhelmed to handle this in any way other than letting it unravel.

"I am ready, you foul beasts," Nico sang. "Come! Pierce my heart so my love may mend it anew!"

"Listen, bud," Willem said. "There's plenty of pleasure houses in Sapphirica. I'm sure we can find one with your kink."

"But I only want her," he said, pointing his arm at Alexia, smiling.

She looked away, feeling herself shrink. Alexia was no stranger to the male gaze, but no matter how many times she was its subject, she could never get used to it. In fact, it only seemed to get harder. A thousand instances echoed in her mind, from Halius pinching her and declaring she would be his wife moments before he demanded her execution to Aldius running his hands through her hair, along her cheeks, calling her a metamorph, and soliciting her. Why couldn't they just leave her alone? She wished Zander could be with her always, to drive away their attentions. Even better, she yearned to be someone who wasn't noticed. Someone forgettable. Or perhaps she just wanted a world where men didn't think they had the right to solicit her.

"Come on, Neek," Jem said. "You're weirding her out."

Alexia didn't meet Nico's gaze, but she saw in her periphery that the comment struck him. "My apologies, Master Alexia," he said, his voice lacking the musical quality of moments before. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"It's okay," she muttered. "Leverith's spirit can do that."

Nico shook his head. "No, Master. It's not okay. You brought me back from the reaper's scythe, and I," his voice choked, "I repaid you by being a jackarse. I'm sorry."

Alexia caught herself before she said that he had nothing to apologize for. "Thanks for understanding," she said, eyes down. "I…" she hesitated, not wanting to lower the mask even though she knew it was right. "I don't like the attention. I never have."

Bam scratched his head, as if what she said was incomprehensible. But beside him, Jonah nodded, nacobon and oxen blood splattered over tunic and face. "We know, Alexia." Several more Redeemed Men nodded too, dispelling her notion that she hid her taciturn nature well.

She felt exposed, more naked than she had moments ago. "Is it that obvious?"

Nearly all of them made some gesture of assent.

Her ducts lubricating, she stifled the urge to cry. They knew she was a fraud. "And you still choose to follow me?"

"It only makes me want to follow you more," Erlos said. To her surprise, most of the Redeemed Men bobbed their heads in agreement.

It didn't make sense to her. "How?"

"Because I know you're real," he said. "You're no high lass swindling us with honeyed words. We feel your heart, just as we feel Leverith's spirit surround us when we're with you."

"If you're willing to put up with us, men who anyone would've rather just been rid of" Sein said, "Even though it's hard to be 'round others, it makes me think I can be a better man."

"Makes me want to march right through the Hells with you," Jem said.

"Praise Leverith!" Simon said, tapping Jem's back.

"I don't like the attention either," Fred said, shyly, the first time she'd heard him speak today. "The fact that you push through it everyday and give us as much as you do," his throat caught, "you're a bloody inspiration."

"What we're all saying," Erlos said, "is that we love you for who you are, Alexia."

"And we're sorry when we make you uncomfortable," Nico added.

Alexia couldn't hold the tears in. She didn't try to hide them, overriding the impulse to don the stoic mask. She didn't feel exposed. She felt seen. She felt loved. She didn't have to be the perfect orator, didn't have to be her father to have people believe in her. She didn't have to use so much energy to keep up the image of the Second Great Wizard in their eyes. She just had to be herself. At least with these men. For now, that would be enough. That would be everything.

"Thank you," she said. Looking at the blood on both Jonahs and Erlos, she added, "Is anybody else hurt?"

"Four oxen dead," Jonah the Elder said. "The big porker rushed right for them, leaving himself exposed to us while we hacked down at it."

Because they wanted to stall the caravan, Alexia thought.

Erlos listed the oddities: "Three nacobon males working together this close to the city, far from their proper habitat, against such a large group of people."

The one that turned toward Willem could've killed me. Just like the silver-eyed ogre. They don't want me dead. Why?

"I just didn't expect anything like this," Erlos said, "But I won't let us be caught off-guard again."

"It isn't your fault, Erlos," Alexia said. "They were tamed."

"Tamed?" Jonah asked. "Like someone taught them to attack caravans?"

Alexia shook her head. If only. "Taming is a magic native to the Celegan Hollows. It allows a man to enter the mind of a beast and seize control of it."

"Wouldn't we see these men then?" Erlos asked.

"They're probably in Celegana's Spire, across the sea in northeast Vesarra."

"Like in the Vara story?" Sein asked.

"Yes."

"How can you be sure?" Jonah asked.

Alexia leaned against the wagon, sighing, eyes downcast. She'd been sitting on this since the ogre cave outside Fritjof, knowing that people would be skeptical. But if the tamers were attacking her group but not trying to kill her, this wouldn't be the last time they tried to hurt those close to her. She had to lower the mask for them.

"This is the second time they've attacked my group. As long as I keep trying to end the Gemstone War, it won't be the last."

They didn't laugh, didn't shut her down. Eyes on her, taking in each word, they believed. Not even Bam treated it like a joke. She saw fear, but none of them ran. She wouldn't run from them any longer. It was time they had the whole truth.

"Ending the Gemstone War is only the beginning of our trials," she said. "The Celegans are the shadow that looms over us, laughing and growing stronger as we kill each other. Soon, the Chimaera will come in force, sending waves of beasts at us until all Leverians are dead or enslaved.

"I will go wherever Leveria needs me and I won't stop until the Tamers are defeated. As long as you're with me, you will be in constant danger. They will throw everything they have at me, and I won't always be strong enough to keep everyone safe. I won't judge you now if you choose to flee this fate."

Erlos stepped forward. "I didn't sign up for an easy death, but a hard life. If this is your path, then it is mine, and I will walk with you until the end."

Jonah the Elder put his hand on Erlos's back. "Until the end."

The rest of the Redeemed Men and Calden's Caravan soon followed, echoing, "Until the end."

Alexia didn't hide, tears renewed by their devotion. She looked at them each in turn. None of them questioned the truth of her claims nor took their opening to flee from this nightmare path she treaded where every animal and every person could be spy or assassin. They would stand beside her. Until the end.

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