Toraline, twenty-fourth of her line, once top aide to Gaius Secundus, Caesar of New Rome and the Seven Isles, once a tutorial fairy of highest standing now trapped within the steel of the very blade that slew her…

Watched.

It was not the first time she had found herself in strange predicaments. Not by a wide margin. This, in terms of strangeness, did not even compare to that one time she had spent a full week trapped within a Silk Weaver's parlor, playing chess with the great spider and sipping truly vile tea and waiting for her friend and master Gaius to find her.

But it definitely ranked in the top three.

The family to whom she had now been bound was… Odd. Like her master in so many ways, and yet in others wholly unlike. Where Gaius had taken up the mantle of command instantly, determined to unite the world under his banner as sojourners were meant to do, these balked from the responsibility. Where Gaius was stern and commanding, these were almost… childlike. Which she could understand when it came to the children, but the adults were almost hopelessly naive as well.

And yet, like Gaius, they seemed to have a knack for overcoming adversity.

She had awoken fully when Matthew Albright had taken her into his hand. And she had watched, though she had no eyes, as he slew great monsters that threatened his family with barely a flinch. The callouses on his palm were wrong for a warrior, but they were callouses nonetheless and fit her hilt well enough after only a few swings. And his lady wife, Alejandra, was obviously a warrior born. And yet they had such strange thoughts in their heads.

"Alright guys," Matthew Albright called as he moved away from the yacht and towards the trio of crabbin scuttling towards them. "I've got you covered with my shield right now, but don't let your guard down."

"Relax Dad," said Isabel Albright, a bright grin on her youthful face as she went through a series of bizarre stretches, presumably designed to limber her up for the coming battle. "We've got this. Right guys?"

"Right!" Said the other three children in chorus. Olivia Albright, the one who Toraline saw was closest to what a true Sojourner should be like, stood well behind her elder sister and was grinning like a fool. Beside her stood Dinah Costigan, who was not of their blood but was obviously a sworn sister of Olivia and an adopted child of her parents. She held her smokethrower–rifle, to use the Sojourner's own word for it–loose in her grip with the practised ease of another true warrior. Strange, that a world such as the one these came from could produce in equal measure those born to the sword and those born to the hammer.

"Tell me right away if you get hurt!" called Lucas Albright from atop… Harry. What in the name of the twelve gods of the east had possessed the boy to name a Great Thundercaller such a ludicrous name? "That goes for you too Harry," the boy added, scratching behind the Thundercaller's ear. "You're part of the team now!"

"Remember," called Alejandra from her perch atop the yacht. "This is just so we learn about your new powers. Don't try anything fancy, don't get in over your heads, and if you get in trouble yell and tu papa or I will take care of it. Clear?"

"Yes Mom," said the children, echoed by a "Yes Mrs. Albright" from Dinah.

Toraline had no eyes to see through, but the magics of Seroco were many and varied, and she had a sort of 360-degree vision that also allowed her to view things in very close detail if she concentrated on them. She 'zoomed in' on the children one by one, noting their nervousness or excitement, and in Olivia's case almost sheer devilish anticipation.

"The crabbins' shells will pose little obstacle to the edge of my blade," she said to Matthew Albright. "Should you need to intervene, I predict the battle will be swift and decisive."

"It's not about me today, Toraline," he said in that strange gentle voice he got when he spoke about his children. "I've already used my powers–some of them, anyway–in a combat situation. This is for them, to get a handle on what they can do together and individually. And given that Allie and I were able to take down one of these without any powers at all, I'm hoping that it'll be a pretty easy fight for the kids now, too."

The crabbins approached at speed, scuttling over the sandy soil in their deceptively fast gait. They were among the dumber of the island's residents, and proved it now by, instead of turning and fleeing upon seeing a well prepared enemy awaiting them, charging forward with their pincers raised.

"Bel! Go get 'em!" Olivia called, and at the same time called on the power of her Motes and summoned forth her Art.

[Stage Arts: Find Your Face!]

"A powerful Art that has multiple different effects depending on the terrain and the enemies. Here, because she is facing multiple foes, it will increase her speed and resilience. And because of the sandy soil, it will make her more able to dodge enemy blows."

She saw Matthew Albright blink as she imparted the information.

"You know about that?" he asked in surprise.

"Have not my clan guided Sojourners for thousands of years? Even dead and rotting, the System still possesses information to be read. And I have the knowings of how to read it."

"Oh." The man thought about it for a second, then said "could you keep doing it?"

"Of course, Consul."

"Oh, YEAH!" Isabel Albright laughed at the power flowing into her, then brought up her two gristly weapons and gave them a surprisingly competent twirl. "Okay, this? This is gonna be fun."

The crabbins came forward, and she let out a yell and dashed to meet them, summoning her own Motes and their power as she went.

[Berserker Arts: BREAK]

"An art that will dramatically increase her strength and the damage of her strikes," Toraline said.

[Berserler Arts: ENDURE]

"-And one that will increase the density of her flesh, making her more resistant to damage," she added as the second power fired off.

[Berserker Arts: GRAAAAAAAGH!]

"Uh… And one that will let her move faster and fight longer. Gods of earth and air, who let the system name these wretched powers?"

The fight joined swiftly. Isabel Albright danced around the crabbin's strikes, as well she should. The woman had come to her power in the midst of a Hive attack, and obviously corrupted versions at that. Compared to them, the Crabbin were slow, oafish creatures. One took a swipe at her with a pincer, and she flowed around the strike like a dancer in a ballet.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Her return strike, powered as it was by her Arts, cut through chitin and muscle and severed an entire pincer from the Crabbin's body.

"Hah! These guys are easy! Come on, stop trying to hit me and–OOF!"

A second crabbin scuttled up next to the first one and swung both of its pincers in a flashing arc, and this time it connected with the berserker. She caught the spines on the crabbin's claws full in the chest and was lifted off her feet by the force of the blow, hit the ground, rolled, and came back to her feet grinning.

"I didn't even feel that one!"

"That's because it hit my shield," Matthew Albright called, shaking his hand from the force of the blow it had received. "Don't get cocky!"

"Sorry Dad!"

[Dead-eye Art: Arrow To The Knee]

CRACK! The snapping explosive noise of Dinah Costigan's smokethrower entered the fray, the powerful shot slapped into the joint of the second crabbin's leg. Had it been a regular shot, the monster would have been barely inconvenienced. But with the Art behind it…

"A debilitating debuff attack," Toraline intoned. "Causes damage and also inflicts a slowing and crippling debuff for a time. The Crabbin will be much slower, and its blows will be clumsier until the debuff has run its course or it is healed. And given that the crabbins have no healers with them… The debuff will last the length of this combat for certain."

"Hey! I didn't need any help!" Isabel Albright yelled at Dinah Costigan as she engaged the second crabbin again.

"I thought we was tryin' out our new powers!" Dinah Costigan said grinning. "I gotta try out mine too, or are ya selfish!"

"Oh, fine," Isabel Albright said in a growl as she stabbed out the eye of the Crabbin. "Just don't ruin my fun please!"

"Hey! My turn!" Lucas Albright called as the third crabbin approached. "C'mon Harry! Let's show 'em what we can do!"

The Great Thundercaller let out a resounding trumpet, the first full-throated sound it had made since the powers of the System had tied it to Lucas Albright, and it started its charge.

And all eyes in the clearing, including those of the crabbin, were drawn to the massive beast as its feet rumbled along the ground and gave proof to its name. It sounded like the thunder of the heavens rode in the great beast's wake, and the trees around them shook with the impact of its feet on the jungle floor.

"Holy cow," Matthew Albright said as he stared at his son. "That thing is…"

"Impressive. Yes." Toraline watched as the Great Thundercaller's charge slammed into the third crabbin… And demolished the creature. Harry's tusks gouged massive holes into the crabbin's shell. The force of the charge didn't just rock the crabbin back, it launched it, sending it hurtling backwards through the air for ten feet, whereupon its flight was terminated with violence against the trunk of a Hideyer Tree. The stout purple trunk shuddered under the impact but held firm.

The crabbin did not. The impact shattered its shell and popped three of its legs right off its body. It fell limp to the earth, not quite dead but certainly knocking on the door to the Great Beyond.

A stunned stillness held sway over the clearing for a handful of heartbeats. Then the boy atop the Great Thundercaller let out a whoop of joy.

"Oh yeah! I just won all the internets right there!"

Toraline did not understand the reference, but she was used to that from Sojourners.

"Way to go Lucas!" Dinah Costigan cheered.

"That's the way little brother!" Olivia Albright laughed.

"Hey, little help here!" said Isabel Albright with a growl as she danced away from the remaining crabbin, who had decided that the smaller prey was the better prey.

"I gotcha sis!" called Olivia Albright. "Let's try this one on for size!"

[Manager Arts: Set The Stage]

"A territory control art," Toraline said as the ground cracked and flowed beneath the crabbins. "One that can be used to turn the very terrain around you into a weapon"

And sure enough, the ground underneath the crabbin turned to sludge, sucking down their legs and miring their movements. Which, a moment later, turned out to be the least of their worries as a section of sludge suddenly solidified and shot upwards, impaling one of the crabbin on a spike of molten earth.

By the gods of earth and air. These powers the children were tossing around were orders of magnitude beyond what they should be capable of. Toraline watched, slightly nonplussed, as a fifteen year-old girl wielded powers that would have been the equal of any of Caesar's centurions.

It was the Motes, of course. Without the limitations placed on them by a controlling system as it had been in Gaius Secundus' day, the power was free to flow out in the Arts until it dried up. Had there still been a controlling system Olivia could have wielded only a fraction of that power.

[Physician Arts: Across The Alps]

"A healing Art, used to heal injuries at range," Toraline said automatically. "While not as powerful as other Arts, its main function is to allow a healer to treat multiple wounds across an entire front instead of having to rush hither and yon to where the wounded lay."

"Wounded?" An edge of concern crept into Matthew Albright's tone as he suddenly straightened and started looking around. "Who's hurt? I didn't see–"

"LUCAS!" Isabel Albright's shriek of outrage was mirrored an instant later by Olivia Albright's equally outraged cry of "DID YOU JUST HEAL THE CRAB!?"

"What?" Lucas Albright said in stark confusion as he looked back at his sisters. "We're supposed to be learning our powers, right? Well none of you are hurt, so–"

"DON'T HEAL THE ENEMY!" yelled Dinah Costigan, Olivia Albright, Isabel Albright, and Alejandra Albright in such perfect synchronicity that even Toraline could not hold back a snort of amusement.

"Okay, okay! Sheesh!" Lucas Albright grumbled and directed his Great Thundercaller forward to trample the newly-gained health out of the crabbin before them.

The fight was not truly a fight. Nor could it be called a slaughter. It simply was… An exercise. And it ended as soon as the students were satisfied with their progress. Isabel Albright slew one crabbin, the one she had nearly decapitated to begin with, with a double-thrust of her chitin-blades through the back of its head. The second one died as Olivia Albright directed the land beneath it to crush it between slabs of solid earth. And the third was already dead, trampled beneath the mighty Thundercaller's feet.

No intervention was required from the parents, beyond that first blow that Matthew Albright had caught with his Shield Thy Ally art.

"We rock," Olivia Albright crowed, exchanging strange raised-arm palm-slaps with Dinah Costigan and her other siblings as they came up.

"Yeah! We ain't afraid of no crabs!" Dinah Costigan laughed.

"Just gotta remember not to cross the streams," Isabel Albright said in a strange non-sequitur that was probably more Sojourner references.

"That was fun!" Lucas Albright said as he and Harry trundled up. The Great Thundercaller looked quite pleased with itself.

"Okay guys, you've blown off some steam," Alejandra Albright called from her perch atop the yacht. "But we've got to finish packing up for the trip back to Billy. Sun's getting low and we've got to get going."

"Oh! Wait!" Isabel Albright said, dashing into the hull of the yacht and rummaging around there. It took her several minutes to return, during which Matthew Albright returned to his project of fashioning a pull-harness for the Thundercaller. And when she finally did return, it was with an armful of deep pots and pans like one might use for boiling water or making stews and soups.

"Isabel Tabitha Albright," said Alejandra Albright in confusion. "What in the world are you doing with all that?"

"Mom," Isabel Albright said in smiling retort, "We just killed three big-ass crabs. We're gonna haul some crab legs back, cook 'em, and eat 'em because dang it I want fantasy crab for dinner."

The laughter that echoed around the small clearing was heartfelt and true, and it put Toraline's own heart at ease. Yes, these Sojourners were strange. The strangest any of her clan had ever had to guide. But… For all their strangeness, there was a purity to them that Toraline appreciated. She found herself approving of them, in a way.

Well, and whether she approved of them or not was beside the point. They were her Sojourners, and she was their guide. She would stick by them, guide them, aid them, accompany them, for as long as they drew breath. Until the next Sojourner came to take their place.

Or until her Mighty Caesar returned to once more lead his Empire.

Whichever came first.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.