Book 5 Prologue

The Hero, Owain, stared at the dwarf before him. He couldn’t believe it. This man was a Chosen? Hardwin seemed to be just as much in shock as him, nearly forgetting to take back his sword when it was offered.

“Something wrong, Hero?” the dwarf asked.

“You grabbed his sword,” Owain said.

“Aye. It dropped and I needed something with that giant worm coming at me. Don’t worry, I didn’t damage it none,” the dwarf said with a light chuckle.

“Sir, you must come with us,” Hardwin said firmly. “It seems you are one of the Chosen. What’s your name?”

“Thalgren,” the dwarf said before reaching up to gently rub his beard. “And come with you? I’m afraid I can’t just do that. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, as they say.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Owain said. “The fate of the world is at stake, you must come with us.”

Thalgren gave a sigh and shook his head. “The world, you say? Well then… I suppose I could make an exception. If you make it worth my time.”

Owain blinked a few times, his mouth falling open. The dwarf couldn’t be serious. He was demanding payment? For saving the world? Ugh. This was why he hated dwarfs. It was always contracts and negotiations with them.

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Owain wondered if it would be permissible to strangle a Chosen. There were lives on the line, people who needed them, and Thalgren was busy working out an agreement on being paid back! People were dying and he was demanding reimbursement. It took all of his willpower to not just slap the man.

Letting out a sound of disgust, he finally turned away and stormed off. Chosen of the Hammer indeed. He certainly held the greed of the Toad.

------

Owain fingered the hilt of his sword. He swore this was it. The woman was in tears. She had nothing left. How could Thalgren be talking about ‘debts’ and ‘repayments’. She’d lost everything and…

Owain was shaken from his furious thoughts when the woman stopped sobbing. “Really?” the woman asked.

“Aye,” Thalgren said. “I’ll add it to what you owe, but you should be able to come back with that.”

Owain watched the Chosen for a moment, his head cocked slightly to the side. Once she left, he shook his head and asked. “Why?”

“Why what, lad?” Thalgren asked.

“You demanded repayment, did you not?” Owain asked.

“She had a bit of bad luck,” Thalgren said. “Hardly worth taking the little she has left.”

“And if she has more bad luck?” Owain asked.

“I’m a patient man,” Thalgren said. “It does me no good to take everything from her now when I can get twice as much in a few years, even if it does cost me a bit more in the short term.”

Owain stared at the dwarf and narrowed his eyes, endeavoring to, in the future, pay a bit more attention to the deals the Chosen made.

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“I don’t get it,” Owain finally told Thalgren.

“Hm?” Thalgren asked.

“Why do you do it?” Owain asked.

“Do what, Hero? You’ll need to be a bit more specific,” Thalgren said.

“Your loans,” Owain said. “Sometimes you demand payment immediately, sometimes you’ll delay, sometimes you’ll add to them. Other times you’ll take compensation. Why?”

Thalgren gave a laugh and shook his head. “They aren’t loans, Hero. They’re investments.”

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“What’s the difference?” Owain asked.

“A good investment will pay off in the long run,” Thalgren said. “Everything is an investment, lad. You’ll realize that one day. And it’s not always gold I get paid back in.”

Owain gave another sigh and shook his head. “I still don’t get it.”

“Hopefully one day you will,” Thalgren said. “A little greed isn’t bad, Hero. Maybe you should try and have a bit more.”

Owain didn’t get it. He doubted he ever would.

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Owain finally felt he was beginning to understand. A shame it honestly felt like it was too late. Since they’d been separated from the gods, every day had begun to feel like the world was spiraling closer and closer to its end. The weather felt wrong, the days felt shorter, even the air tasted slightly sour.

Yet, despite all that had been lost, there were places that were doing better than they had been. Towns that had been destroyed in those battles, that now stood strong. Developments. Advancements. Lives recovering. Despite his best judgments, he knew the reason for some of them.

Thalgren.

It seemed his investments were paying off, in some ways. Giving people the chance to repair their lives had, in many ways, given those who had survived those wars the drive to go on. Hope and a belief that things could get better.

Owain still wasn’t sure he’d ever entirely understand why, though. The people who made those deals with Thalgren still achieved so little, but the passion they did it with was something even he, as the Hero, wished he could emulate sometimes. He doubted he’d ever fully understand how giving someone something with the intention that they would pay it back ‘sometime’ in the future seemed to motivate them more than just giving it to them.

Perhaps it was that hope, though. That belief that they could finally have some control over their destiny. Over their future.

By the gods, how he envied them that.

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“You certainly took your time,” Thalgren said from his throne, his legs crossed and a mug of ale in his hand, his bloody hammer resting against the throne. “Cheers, to another ‘victory’ of the Hero.”

“You killed them,” Owain said, the fury radiating off his voice, his own blood-soaked axe clasped tightly in his left hand, his right laying limp at his side.

“Ayes,” Thalgren said before downing the rest of his ale and tossing the empty mug onto the ground. He then got to his feet and stretched out a little, his demonic horns poking out through his thick, brown hair. But oddly, it wasn’t the demonic side of him that made him seem so odd. It was how energetic he seemed. Even when he had been sitting, the man had seemed almost twitchy, while Thalgren had always been so still and quiet that he more closely resembled a statue.

“Why?” Owain asked. “They were our friends. They were--”

“Promises were broken, Hero,” Thalgren said before picking up his hammer and closing one eye to examine it.

“Promises? PROMISES?!” Owain yelled, unable to keep the fury out of his voice. “Is that all you care about? Your promises, your investments, your contracts? You vile, despicable creature! I kept my promises to you, you--”

“My promises, Hero,” Thalgren said before hefting the hammer up and over his shoulder with a grunt. “And as far as I can tell, this is my only way to fix them.”

“I thought I knew you,” Owain said.

“You thought you knew a lot of things, Hero,” Thalgren said. “You know little. Least of all me.”

“So this is it. You think you’ll keep your promises by damning this world?” Owain asked, before he couldn’t take it anymore. He charged at the dwarf, lifting his axe high.

“By damning us all,” Thalgren said before he swung his hammer.

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“I still can’t believe you’re married,” Joan said, her eyes locked on Thalgren.

“It can’t be that much of a surprise, lil missy,” Thalgren said before glancing back at her.

“How?” Joan asked.

“Well, you see--” Thalgren started before he was cut off.

“My sister thought he was me,” Zorn said with a light laugh. “When there was all that panic going on, she just grabbed and hauled him off before he could stop her.”

Joan couldn’t believe it. Thalgren was actually blushing. “I was a bit disoriented myself, to be honest,” he said sheepishly.

“Considering the number of drinks you made me pay for before you even listened to me, I think you were more than a bit disoriented,” Hardwin said, his voice dripping with annoyance.

“Came as quite a shock to the rest of the family,” Zorn said with a light laugh. “Only my sister would have the nerve to kidnap a Chosen.”

“I imagine it was embarrassing,” Joan said with a light snicker.

“Oh, it was something,” Thalgren said.

“She was apologetic of course,” Zorn said.

“You call that apologetic?” Thalgren asked with a huff.

“For her, ayes,” Zorn said. “But then you went and told her there should be restitution paid. Oh, I think even some of the worms were cowering once she started screaming. I don’t think I’ve seen her that angry since I almost burned down our shop.”

“Ayes, she’s got quite the pair of lungs on her, my Mothr,” Thalgren said with another hearty laugh.

“So why is Zorn here with you, then? Not her?” Joan asked.

“She almost was the one who came,” Zorn said. “She’s always had a firmer head for the family business than I, though.”

“Ah, and it all makes sense,” Joan said with a nod before glancing back to Thalgren. “So she’s another ‘investment’, I take it?”

“Ayes,” Thalgren said. “Bit of a gamble. But in love, is there any better kind?”

Joan rolled her eyes, but smiled none the less.