“Thanks for coming here, Phoenix,” Paul said as he shut the door to his study behind her. He gave an apologetic smile, “I know it makes you feel uncomfortable. I can only assume it’s because you view it as the house of a noble family instead of my home. But this room offers more privacy than your dorm.”

  “We need extra security for this talk?” Phoenix asked with a raised eyebrow, “Why are we here, Paul?”

  “A couple of things, actually,” he began, gesturing for her to sit in one of the chairs between his desk and the door as he walked over to a small cupboard behind the desk. “First, I requested that the AOA have your party go on some Road Patrol missions again. Not just to clear monsters along the main travel routes for the few that still take them but also to deliver supplies to the outlying fortress towns,” he expined, grabbing a pair of gsses from the cupboard and filling one with firegut ale for himself and the other with aplet juice for her.

  “We’ve been able to keep up pretty well so far, so the supplies shouldn’t be needed in a huge rush, allowing for the time to hunt along the way. You won’t want to take the scenic routes, but you have a comfortable window of time.

  “I already expined these reasons to that little party leader of yours, and he’s on board, though I get the feeling that he’s still trying to get on my good side for some reason,” he added with a smirk as he handed her the gss of the sweet drink he normally used as a mixer.

  “Fear of being annihited by an Emerald Caster?” she suggested, returning his smirk and taking the proffered gss.

  He gave a bark of ughter and shook his head, “With the way he didn’t back down during that first training session? I doubt he fears death from a stronger opponent.”

  Phoenix nodded slowly, seeming lost in thought for a moment before her eyes narrowed at him, “You’re trying to get me out of the city?” she guessed.

  He simply tilted his head in confirmation, and she inquired, “Murinah? You think she’ll come after me again?”

  Paul shook his head this time and expined, “There’s a decent chance she still believes you to be dead, actually. You vanished after her st attempt, and the whole city knows I was looking for someone.”

  Phoenix raised an eyebrow at him, but he ignored it and continued, “You have also only gone from your home to the coast, then here. Unless she just happened to see you in the crowd during those short trips, her whole family should think you’re dead right now. That gives us an advantage and gives you some safety from a follow-up attempt.”

  She seemed to understand and asked, “So we go on this road mission while you look into her dirty secrets with that friend you mentioned to find something to charge her and the family with?”

  He paused for a moment, unsure of how much to divulge exactly as he kept his aura tightly restrained, “That’s the general idea. I did want to ask if you had those chains you mentioned being forced into.”

  “Yes,” Phoenix asked while conjuring the silencing chains from her collection, “She and her brother used these on me the first time. Do you need them as evidence for your investigation or something?”

  “Something like that. I have a very specific need that would be better accomplished if I had those avaible,” he stated carefully.

  “I… I’ve been pnning to study ways to break free from them. If it helps stop Murinah, though, I can try to figure out another way,” she expined while holding them out toward him.

  Paul picked up the chains, looking over them carefully before agreeing, “It’s a good idea for you to protect yourself from them if you think you’re being targeted for capture and not just killing.

  “These key-locking kinds are controlled items, though. So how a young scion like her got one is subject to investigation on its own. However, I can probably get you an alternate variant that’s used for training. It’s not that uncommon for some people to train or spar while wearing them in order to become familiar with battling against silencing effects or focus on techniques.”

  “I’d still like the key-locking kind to figure out a way to remove them and free myself if someone tries to use them against me again,” Phoenix crified.

  He thought about that for a moment, recalling that he could likely get another by just filling out the form at the AOA that he used to do when hunting necromancers for the Purifier long ago, “Hmm, I might be able to get a special dispensation for it. I’ll let you know what I can do.”

  “Sounds good. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?” she inquired curiously.

  Paul hesitated, watching her carefully as he said, “There’s a man I’d like you to meet with. He’s a priest of the Mender who works with Casters who have experienced traumatic events.”

  Phoenix’s eyes widened, obviously not expecting that, “You want me to see a therapist?”

  He nodded, “Priest Jacob is very skilled and well respected. He has even worked with other people who have the Soul Mark of a god. He will keep your secrets as he does theirs, so you should be able to talk freely with him about everything. And I mean everything. I believe he can help you work through some of your grief and anger.”

  “You think I have anger management problems?” she asked a bit incredulously.

  Paul gave her a ft look, “You rampaged across the wilds for seven days and died in a duel with a Sapphire Caste monster.”

  “Yeah, alright… you might have a point there,” she admitted with a huff, then gave a frustrated groan and asked, “How do you handle it? I felt the rage in your aura.”

  “Wrath, not rage. They are simir but not the same,” he corrected, “Rage is anger given an uncontrolled and votile form. You dispyed that quite well. I take my anger and focus it; give it purpose and direction.”

  He leaned back slightly in his chair, “I turn wrath into a weapon to wield when the need is greatest rather than let rage take control and make me weaker for it.”

  “I still don’t understand how you can do something like that,” her face scrunched up at the memories of it, “I was so angry… I still am, if I’m being honest. How do you learn to control something like that?”

  “Practice. Self-reflection. Therapy,” he gave a small smirk, and she rolled her eyes, “There are some magic items that can help, like these,” he said, rolling up one of his sleeves to dispy a thin golden bracelet around his wrist. “Your party’s Mage uses something simir.”

  Phoenix seemed surprised by the revetion as she crified, “Uriel does? I thought that the chains were just for locking down his abilities.”

  Paul nodded slowly, suddenly uncertain, “It is. I’m talking about the jewelry on his ears. Those are magic items that work together to suppress strong emotions and make a person calmer and more focused. I thought you would know this already,” he said with a slight frown.

  She shook her head, “No, I just thought they were regur earrings. I never thought to ask,” she said with a frown, then gnced at the bracelet and asked, “Have you always been wearing that?”

  “I haven’t needed to for a long while, but after our first… talk about your encounter with Murinah, I figured I should keep it on until I’ve resolved this situation,” he responded, then inquired, returning to the main topic, “So will you meet with the priest?”

  Seeing her skeptical face, he implored softly, “Please, Phoenix, I would like you to do this… for me if not for yourself.”

  She watched him for a long moment, seeming to contempte the idea, then slowly nodded, “I’ve had quite my fill of doctors and therapists, a lifetime in fact, but I can do this… for you.”

  He gave her a genuine smile and said, “Thank you. Your first appointment is this evening. I’d like you to talk to him before you leave in the morning.”

  Her eyes narrowed at his already pced pns and his predictions of her agreement, but she simply asked, “Where do I go?”

  “The Temple of the Mender. He has a room there that he normally works out of and requested you meet there first. Just go ahead and portal there, though. I’ll handle any potential compints on this one since I don’t want a Ruwena or their ckeys seeing you walking through the inner city,” he informed, then added, “Until then, why don’t you and your party train downstairs?”

  “Fine, I’ll go find them and let them know,” she said, starting to stand from her seat.

  Paul smirked at her, “They’re already downstairs waiting for you.”

  Phoenix’s eyes narrowed at him once more, “Your overprotective parent behavior is showing again…”

  “I told you,” Orebe’s voice stated ftly in his mind, “Waynd should just make it official.”

  He chuckled at both women and mentally told his Familiar, “Maybe I’ll propose the idea once this threat isn’t looming over her.”

  “And is Waynd going to mention that he’s a Padin once more?”

  Paul watched Phoenix finish the juice before setting it on his desk with a smile and turning to leave, “I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually.”

  Murinah Ruwena had been ecstatic when her cousin Arktis Neired had returned to her father and confirmed the death of the infuriating woman who had tried to steal the man of her dreams just as he had gotten within her reach.

  She had been pnning and working hard for years to try and get closer to the charismatic gemite who held the attention of a god and procimed his kingship as an inevitability.

  Her very first friend: Dazien.

  Murinah went so far as to join the AOA at the same time as him just to make the likelihood of partying up together all the more assured. She had even managed to convince her mother that Dazien would surely join their family’s cause and promised she would spy within the AOA in exchange for bringing the gemite she desired with them to the other realities that the Soul Reapers offered to bring them to.

  Her current mood was the best it had been since pushing that Phoenix woman over the edge of that cliff to the nest of miserlings. Even the retively boring mission she got assigned to wasn’t enough to dim her mood. She pnned to quickly get the assignment done and return to the city to convince Dazien that they were destined to be together.

  She would be a ruling queen of their own reality, and he would be her treasured king.

  It would be perfect, just as it was meant to be.

  As she arrived in the area the mission had reported, she activated her camoufge Passive and another that muffled the sound she produced as she slowly made her way across the snow-covered stones. It took a bit longer than she would have liked, but as she crested a small hill, she finally saw them, almost two dozen miserlings that were tearing into the carcass of some unrecognizable animal.

  After accepting that first mission for the miserlings, she had been assigned every one of them since then. Nobody else had wanted them, but she didn’t mind them aside from the tedious travel time it took to find them. This was her fifth time scouting out the reports for them, and she still found herself fascinated by the disgusting creatures. It was a shame that the AOA would try to destroy them.

  Murinah couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips when she imagined the bloody feast currently in front of her as the woman who should have been taken care of by the miserlings the first time. She wished she could have stayed to watch that redhead’s demise, but she knew from past experience that it would have been too dangerous with the monsters not confined in a cage when in their feeding frenzy.

  Just as she was about to retreat, having confirmed their numbers and location, she suddenly felt something cold around her wrists. As she flinched to pull her hands to her chest, she heard a soft click right next to her ear that shouldn’t have been possible with her ability active. Then she realized in a fsh of panic that it wasn’t active.

  Her hand shot up to the cold metal that surrounded her neck as she spun around to stare into fierce golden eyes.

  Murinah didn’t yell, knowing the miserlings were only a few dozen meters away. Before she could berate the man in front of her, however, she suddenly realized it was Lord Waynd.

  He looked vastly different than she remembered. Normally, he was seen around the city in pristine whites and soft creams that made the pure gold of his armor stand out prominently, but now it had all changed.

  Instead of mostly gold with white embellishments, his full pte armor was jet bck with only a modest trimming of gold around the edges. It also had small studded spikes spread all over that threatened instant retribution if struck and glossy bck feathers adorning his shoulders.

  He now bore the distinct full cape of a Padin, which he had once been, but instead of the pure white she had remembered as a young child, it was a dark crimson and csped together over the center of his chest with the emblem of a deity she didn’t recognize that depicted a bird of some kind.

  Murinah thought she knew most of the divine sigils, even the ones that were definitely not members of the Delegation of Radiance, but this must have belonged to a retively minor god, which seemed odd for such a prominent man. He reminded her of the Dark Knights she had read about as a child, whom she had admired for their determination and bravery, not caring about who might scorn them.

  She felt the effects of a tracking Bane settle upon her, sensing the heightened danger of divine attacks and the slowing of her natural regeneration. At the realization that the effect was from the Emerald Caster, she began to spit out, “How dare you cast a Bane upon me. I don’t care which divine prick you serve; you can’t just–”

  The Padin cut her off coldly, “Do you know where I got that Silencer?”

  The question threw her mind off course, as she blinked for a moment, then quietly hissed at him, “How would I know that? It doesn’t matter anyway. Remove it this instant! You have no right to–”

  “It belonged to you,” the lord stated bluntly, cutting off her furious whispers.

  That made her even more confused until she remembered the woman she had used a Silencer on st and the new rumor sweeping the city of the retionship this man had with said woman. Her red ember eyes narrowed, “Lies. What proof do you have?”

  “The words of someone I trust far more than you, Noble Ruwena,” the Padin’s voice was low but not quiet, and Murinah began to worry that the miserlings would hear them. However, she hoped the Emerald Caster’s presence would be enough to keep them at bay. While she might enjoy watching the miserlings eat, she didn’t want to become the next meal.

  “Words are not proof of anything,” she retorted, “You dare to use Chains of Silence on the heir to one of the greatest noble Houses in the world based on unfounded rumors?”

  “Who said they were unfounded? I have more than words, but revealing them before a magistrate would only endanger the person I’m trying to protect,” he expined briefly before grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around faster than she could react as he slowly began to walk her back towards the horde of dark, hungry monsters.

  “What do you think you are doing?” she asked hastily, unable to keep the volume of her words as low as she had meant, but she continued to protest, “I haven’t done anything to warrant such treatment!”

  The voice that Lord Waynd used in that moment had shifted to the tone of a self-procimed judge, “You know you are guilty of your crimes. Alexis Sarkov, Violet Barrelli, Martin Kethis…”

  Murinah gave an involuntary shudder as he listed off the names of the disobedient and belligerent people she had offered to the miserlings before. How could he know? Had he been investigating her? That was impossible, though. Nobody aside from her father could have known her connection to all of them.

  “And now you attempted to kill a fellow Adventurer. Then, when that didn’t work, you had your family hire a mercenary to attack them during an enemy raid, endangering the very people you were meant to protect. You are not only an unrepentant murderer but a traitor to both the Alliance of Adventurers and the entire city of Tulimeir. Any st words, Noble Murinah Ruwena?”

  Her mind began to race. How could this man possibly know what she’d done? Arktis would never have betrayed her family; that woman was always the ever-loyal p dog. Her cousin also didn’t know about the first attempt, and her brother didn’t have the spine to betray the family either, but maybe her intended victim had confided in this arrogant man before Arktis had assured her death.

  Even if Arktis or Camrin had betrayed her, though, there was still no proof to tie her to the accusations. Only words and assumptions. The miserlings had devoured any proof there might have been.

  It wasn’t like she had been the one to sink her bde into the redhead’s heart, no matter how much she had wanted to. She growled at the judgmental man, “You cannot prove any of that! If you think I’m guilty of any crime, then take me before the magistrate!”

  “No.”

  The word was harsh, cutting through her as the miserlings came back into sight. The creatures were all staring at the pair of them but didn’t move closer to the Emerald Caste aura she could barely sense surrounding all of them, herself included, and it felt like… wrath.

  His voice didn’t show a hint of the anger his aura made abundantly clear as it suffocated them all, and he said calmly, “You will experience the same pain that you made them— that you made her suffer. You will die the same way you killed. It is only unfortunate that you won’t come back to experience the rest of what you did… the unseen damage you caused.”

  Her eyes widened as she realized what the wrathful man had pnned for her. She forwent any more notions of keeping silent and screamed furiously at him, “You think you are above the w? Is this some twisted act of justice you think you have the authority to enact?!”

  “Justice is going to be served to the rest of your family. As we speak, the AOA and city government are investigating the actions and intentions of your family. Their crimes will be discovered, and they will be punished,” he said resolutely, and despite her cims of innocence, she sensed the truth of his words.

  His voice dropped as he continued, “However, for your crimes, there cannot be true justice without risking further danger and harm to your victim. So no, this is not justice…”

  The Wrath Bde’s voice came from right beside her ear as he spoke with such cold fury that it sent a shiver throughout her body and soul, “This is vengeance.”

  Then she felt herself get pushed forward into the snow as the Emerald aura vanished from around her. It was at that moment she realized the rededicated Padin had not seen himself as a judge but as an executioner.

  Murinah Ruwena screamed as serrated cws and teeth descended upon her, and all she ever felt again was the same pain she had caused others.