After his heart to heart with Samantha, Asher finally let himself get some rest. Following the excitement-packed night he'd just gone through, that old bedroll lying on a cold forest floor felt like sleeping on a cloud, and he passed out almost instantly.

He woke up early that afternoon feeling a hell of a lot more rested and ready to take on the world.

Which was good, seeing as he'd most likely be taking on at least a decent sized portion of it soon enough.

How to tackle infiltrating the estate of the most powerful noble family in the entire city, he mused, scratching his chin as he tried to think of some sort of plan. By now, Asher was rather conscious of his strengths and weaknesses when it came to battle. He was confident in his ability to fight toe-to-toe with just about anyone, and he had a massive amount of faith in his own survival capabilities. But he knew better than anyone that when it came to coming up with grand, detail-oriented plans, he struggled just a little bit.

His plan to grab Loratta's attention by killing the criminals within her gang before demanding her concealing artifact to make him stop had nearly gotten Rosh and himself killed, and his entire plan to then save Rosh from within Loratta's compound had boiled down to 'find him and get out.' If Draken hadn't given him the location of Knick's workshop, Asher probably never would have pulled it off.

He was less of a 'planning' guy and more of a 'stabbing' guy.

Resigning himself to the fact that he was going to have to ask for help and thus risk bringing the ire of a powerful noble family down on others, Asher finally pushed himself out of bed and got dressed. At this point, he was storing a couple of sets of Samantha's father's old clothes within his Personal Rift, but he really needed to hit up a tailor and get his own sooner than later, if the ink and bloodstains on last night's outfit were any indication.

Stepping out of the tent, he was surprised to find Brian sitting on a fallen log nearby, carefully carving away at a few long sticks. Asher didn't know the first thing about fletching arrows, but he'd seen both Brian and Samantha do so a couple of times now, and it never failed to amaze him that they could turn some sticks, a handful of feathers, and some shards of metal or rock into such dangerous weapons.

"Morning," he yawned, walking over and taking a look around. A quick touch of his Eternal Mark told him Samantha was only about a mile away, but it felt strange to not try physically looking for her regardless. "Just us today?"

"It's afternoon," Brian muttered, sounding a lot more subdued than he normally did as he kept fletching, not even looking up from his current arrow to return his greeting. "…and Sam is checking on some of the traps."

"Ah, that makes sense," Asher said, taking a seat on the log next to him. "Despite Samantha's best efforts, there are still plenty of things I don't fully understand when it comes to hunting in the forest, such as figuring out the best place to set up traps and stuff like that."

"Me neither," Brian sighed, finally pausing in his fletching as he leaned back and stared up toward the canopy. "She always talks about 'feeling out the forest,' during our lessons, as though that's something anyone should be capable of. Not everyone has a Forest element they can cheat with!"

"I imagine that would get frustrating," Asher nodded, remembering Samantha's concerns from last night. "How are you holding up with the training camp?"

"Fine," Brian muttered, not quite looking at Asher as he went back to his arrow. "I'm having a blast."

Asher didn't need the brief roaring in his ears to tell Brian's statement was a lie, and he frowned as he finally realized this latest skill he was borrowing might be more annoying than it was worth if it didn't come with some sort of off switch. Resigning himself to running some experiments later, he focused on the matter at hand, nodding along with Brian's lie.

"Samantha told me how impressed she's been with you, you know," he said, gently nudging Brian with his shoulder. "I'm impressed too. Not a lot of kids could handle roughing it out in the forest so many days in a row."

"This isn't the first time Sam's dragged me out here," he said, frowning as his knife accidentally bit too far into the shaft he was carving, ruining the whole thing. "She hasn't said, but I think she wants me to earn the Forest element like mom and dad. She probably thinks it will help give me something I lost when they died."

"You think so?" Asher asked, surprised to hear Brian open up like this so suddenly. The happy, carefree twelve-year-old he'd come to know and love had never shown this side of himself to Asher before, and he was honestly unsure of what to say. He didn't have a lot of experience dealing with kids, and he didn't want to say anything that might damage Brian and Samantha's relationship. "I'm pretty sure Samantha doesn't care what origin element you get, so long as it makes you happy."

"How would you know, you've only known her for like a month…" Brian muttered, seeming to surprise himself just as much as he did Asher. Embarrassed and angry, Brian looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to run off into the forest and hide or curl up into a ball and wait for Asher to go away. After a moment of indecision, he did neither, simply sitting there and snapping the shaft he was working on in two, tossing the pieces away.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Sorry…" he continued after a few more seconds of awkward silence, still not actually looking at him. "That was a mean thing to say. And I know you make Sam happy. And I like you too! I just… I know there's something you guys aren't telling me, and it makes me mad. That you two don't trust me," he finished, finally looking at Asher with an annoyed expression. "I know I'm just a kid, but I'm not dumb. Are we hiding out here because of what you did to Trellis?"

"Why do you think I did anything to Trellis?" Asher asked cautiously, realizing he was treading dangerous waters.

"Come on," Brian scoffed, sounding even more angry that Asher still wasn't coming clean with what had happened. "Sam had to give him so many pelts over the years, and she was always upset when she came back from his stall. Then you show up out of nowhere, and Trellis' caravan catches fire the next time he shows up, and Sam starts acting all happy? The other villagers might not know what happened, but I'm not stupid!"

"Neither of us think you are, Brian," Asher said gently, trying to reassure him. "We just… there are certain things we don't want to weigh on your conscience. Things no kid should have to deal with."

"I don't think kids should have to deal with being kidnapped and locked up by demons either, or watching their sister slowly die right in front of them because she gave them her food instead of eating it herself, but that didn't seem to matter!" Brian snapped, sniffling as his eyes started welling up with tears.

"You and me both," Asher said, hesitating for only a moment before gently putting an arm around him. He half expected Brian to throw it off and finally take off into the forest, but instead, the twelve-year-old carefully put down his fletching tools before leaning into the hug, hiccupping as whatever walls he'd built up to deal with recent events finally shattered and tears began streaming down his face.

"I was so scared!" he cried, his small frame shaking as he finally let out what must have been weighing on him for the last few weeks. "When the demons grabbed us… when Sam fell asleep and wouldn't wake up… I thought we were going to die!"

"I know, I would have been scared to," Asher said, squeezing Brian uncertainly and checking Samantha's mark again. She was still a mile away, which meant it was up to him to try and make sure Brian was okay. "It's alright. The demons are gone, and you never have to go back there."

"But we're back in the forest again!" Brian hiccupped, burying his face into Asher's chest as if that would help him hide from the demons still hunting him. "I was okay with quick trips here and there because I didn't want Sam to worry, but I'm scared the longer we stay here, the more likely they'll come back for us!"

Ah… That's actually a pretty understandable fear.

"Don't worry. I asked Samantha that same thing, but she said Horntho village was close to a hundred miles away from the wizard's tower, and the Lavash Forest is huge. Horntho village is just one of many lining its border. Why didn't you tell Samantha any of this?" he asked as he rubbed Brian's back, trying to encourage him to get it all out. "I thought you were excited for this trip?"

"Sam kept talking about how it would help me get my origin element," Brian sniffed, taking a few shuddering breaths and reining himself in. "I was excited at first, but the longer we stay here, the more I can't stop imagining the demons coming back for us. I didn't want to say anything because I know you guys aren't telling me everything. We're hiding from something, aren't we?"

"Yes," Asher admitted, deciding right then and there to be at least partially honest with him. Brian didn't need to know that potentially the entire Assassin's Guild of Whikoga was after Asher and that he and his sister might get caught in the crossfire, but he could tell him a little bit. "Some dangerous people used their skills to find out where I was staying, which is why we needed to run and hide out here in the forest while I deal with them. I was afraid you and Samantha might get caught in the crossfire."

"Are you going to be okay?" Brian sniffed, suddenly looking a lot more worried for him than he was for himself. "If these people are so dangerous, why are you going after them on your own?"

"I'm going after them on my own because they're so dangerous," Asher sighed, wondering just how honest he should be with Brian. On the one hand, he'd proven himself to be rather cunning for someone who was only twelve. But on the other hand, no matter what, he was still just a kid. "I… have a handful of skills that make me extremely hard to kill, so I can take risks that other people shouldn't. And I'm good at fighting, which means I can take care of the bad people who know where you guys live. I promise, I'll make it so the bad guys aren't a problem anymore, and I'll come back healthy as ever, okay?"

Brian nodded, before a distant snap of some animal stepping on a twig caused him to jerk upright, his wide eyes darting over to the source of the noise. Asher's heart reached out to the poor, clearly traumatized boy, as he pulled him in for another hug.

"And don't you worry about the demons, okay?" he said, squeezing him in his arms. "Don't forget, I put a mark on both you and your sister, and I can appear next to you no matter where I am in the whole world. Even if something were to take you guys again, no matter where they went or how far they ran, I'd be able to find you. What happened with the demons won't happen again. I promise."

"Okay," Brian sniffed, wiping away the last of his tears on Asher's shirt as he returned the hug. "Thank you," he muttered, squeezing him with what felt like all the strength in his young body before pushing back and getting to his feet. "I'm going to go do some more fletching. Thanks for… everything."

"Of course. Just let me know if you ever want to talk about that stuff again," Asher said, giving him an encouraging smile. Watching Brian walk off in search of more sticks to use for his arrows, he let out a long, heavy sigh as he ran through the entire conversation in his head, wondering what he could have done better.

One thing's for sure… I need to let Samantha know Brian's doing even worse than she thought.

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