CHAPTER SEVEN

Jin threw off her blankets and shot to her feet. Her eyes darted about Tenya's living room for immediate danger. The screams were distant, coming from the south, the direction she'd entered the settlement.

Bandits most likely, she thought. Must ascertain numbers. Failed to evaluate local defenses. Grew complacent. Distracted. Fatigue was no excuse. Rectify this mistake.

Jin looked around her and frowned. She left her saddlebags containing her armor in the stables with Scorpion. Even if she hadn't, there was no time to get outfitted for combat. The shouting was getting closer, and she could feel the rising temperature of approaching flames. The scent of smoke was in the air. It could be moments before it reached Goodwoman Thatcher's home.

Footsteps beat against the floorboards behind her. "Winds and storms," Tenya gasped fearfully. She wore a simple cotton shift as a nightdress, her hair was down, and she walked barefoot. "Is there a fire?"

"It is an attack," Jin said, her eyes on the door. She clenched her fists until her knuckles popped, then shook them to limber her fingers. "Collect your sisters, and then take them into your room." She turned her head towards Tenya. "Lock your door tonight."

Tenya held a hand to her breast and stared with wide eyes at Jin, speechless. It might have been Jin's even tone, the change in her accent, or the deadly look in her eyes. For whatever reason it might've been, Tenya suddenly appeared more frightened of her guest than of the danger outside. She looked to the knife leaning against the doorframe.

Jin went to the door and knelt down. She placed one hand against the door, feeling for if it was hotter than it should've been. The other retrieved the short blade, pulling the knife free and letting the sheathe fall empty to the floor.

She pushed the door open by a crack and peered out into the night.

"The fire is at the forge," Jin said. "The gatehouse is open. I see armed men entering homes."

"Who are they?" Tenya asked in a whisper.

"I do not know. They are not bandits." Jin's eyes widened. "Winds save us."

The men attacking the village wore brown uniforms with billed caps. They moved through the main paths of the settlement in formations of three to six. Each step made in unison, giving no shouts, and acting as one entity. Highly trained. Professional.

Jin watched as two burly men came out of a house with heavy mauls in hand. They ran at three of the attackers. Loud, angry cries came from their mouths as they charged, hammers raised. The attackers readied their weapons, bracing them against their shoulders.

Gouts of white smoke erupted from the long weapons the attackers carried. It was accompanied by deafening cracks that split the night. The two village men dropped to the ground, shot dead by flintlock rifles.

"The Jade Empire," Jin said, her words tense and abrupt. "Goodwoman, get your sisters and barricade yourselves behind doors."

Tenya let out a shaking exhale. "Essence of all spirits. What about you?"

Jin stood and manifested her holding spell. Her sword materialized in her grasp. "I will fight them."

Tenya's eyes went wide and traced up the length of Jin, her gaze lingering on the developed muscles of her arms and half-naked torso. "Winds, who are you? An Arcane Knight?"

"I am no knight. I am no one." Jin pushed the door completely open to survey the chaos ahead of her. She looked at Tenya and made her voice hard. "Go, Goodwoman. I have accepted guest-rights and will defend your threshold."

Tenya nodded and took a step back, towards the stairs to the upper floor. "Y-yes. Winds guide you, my lady."

Her feet beat a frantic rhythm up the stairs. Jin waited in the doorway until she heard Tenya return with three other girls in tow. The Thatcher sisters asked frantic questions, which Tenya hushed and responded to by ordering them into her bedroom. It wasn't until Jin heard the click of a lock and the scraping of furniture barricading the door that she stepped out through the doorway into the night air.

The first thing Jin became aware of was the three men in Tenya's stable. They'd already unhitched four of the goodwoman's cart horses. The Jade soldiers tried to make their way past Scorpion— his hooves stomping and teeth snapping— to make off with him as well. Jin was weary of fools trying to steal her horse.

Her bare feet made no sound on the grass and straw as she came up behind them. She flung her knife, striking the furthest man between the shoulder blades. Jin seized the closest from behind, clamping her forearm around his throat, while her sword arm lashed out and struck the other across the face. The blade sliced through the thickest part of his skull, lodging in the cranium. Jin held the other man in place while Scorpion reared up and struck a sharp blow to his head with a hoof.

Jin released her hold and wrenched her sword free. All three men dropped to the straw without ever making a sound.

Unhitching Scorpion took only a moment. "Hold here," she said. "We accepted guest-rights, my friend. We are obliged to defend this home."

Scorpion nickered and stamped a hoof as if to say it was the only sensible conclusion.

Jin found her packs and saddlebags. There was no time to get into armor, but she took out a small potion vial. It was a healing potion, specifically tailored to piercing injuries. Flintlock weapons were unlike anything in the Five Kingdoms and caused devastating trauma to a mortal body. Jin was unsure of how effective a healing potion could be if she were hit.

Sliding the potion into a pocket in her leggings, Jin walked out of the stable and onto the main village paths. Her eyes quickly found a group of Jade soldiers. The small detachment of six aimed their weapons at the door of a house while a second group of three broke their way inside.

Jin ran towards the six, shouting to call their attention towards her. "Your emperor is a whining fop!"

Their heads snapped to look in her direction. Unknown whether they understood the Althandi language or not, but Jin just needed their attention on her. If insulting the Glorious Emperor enraged them, all the better. Jin preferred her opponents unable to think clearly.

Six rifles swung to aim at Jin. The flint hammers were already cocked back and ready to fire. Six wasn't insurmountable. Jin was confident she could hold that much at bay.

Barrier wards were intended to act against physical objects, though they were also able to repel various forms of energy to some degree. Jin erected one before her as she ran, no larger than a held shield.

The Jade soldiers pulled the triggers on their rifles. Flashing sparks, gouts of smoke, and a loud report accompanied the discharge. Jin felt the lead projectiles impact her ward, throwing out sparks as they shattered against the barrier or were deflected. Even holding back six shots was draining. The projectiles carried enough kinetic force that it required a sizable measure of ether to maintain the ward. Had there been more, it would've shattered. Jin dropped the barrier as soon as it wasn't needed.

Jade weaponry was formidable, but it had a flaw. A soldier required fifteen to thirty seconds to ready their weapon for another shot, and Jin only needed a fraction of that to get within reach.

Do no approach beyond two paces, Jin thought. Take second stance, swift slashes at extent of arm's reach. Sword velocity will reach its maximum at the tip. Do not become entangled. Disable and move on rather than ensure fatal blow. Momentum and mobility are vital.

Jin fell upon them. She got close, but not so close that she risked their falling bodies dropping against her, hindering her movement. Her strikes aimed for the sides of their necks, the inside of their thighs, and the underside of their arms. She used swift slashes with the very tip of her blade, making shallow cuts that wouldn't get lodged in the body. Jin couldn't risk stabbing, because as arterial sprays of blood began to shower her with crimson, her grip on her sword grew slick and could easily come free if she needed to pull it out of a corpse.

The Jade soldiers didn't break or run, even as Jin slaughtered them. Unexpected. In the past, reports consistently held that Jade discipline became fragile in the face of violent resistance. Jin reevaluated her tactics. Shock and awe assaults were insufficient. Intimidation unreliable. Very well, then. In that case, victory would come through attrition.

Kill them until they lacked the numbers to continue.

Jin stood amidst her fallen opponents. She'd only killed one outright. The rest writhed in pain on the ground, clutching at bleeding wounds.

Three more came out of the house, pulling a struggling man and woman between them. All eyes fell on Jin, covered in blood and holding a sword who's blade was now completely red. Jin looked at them with cold, calculating eyes and manifested elder magic.

With the blood covering her acting as a link between her imprint and those of her victims, Jin seized upon the bones of the fallen soldiers with her power. The newly arrived soldiers widened their eyes in shock as five bodies at Jin's feet contorted and crumpled, crushed by the violent grip of osteomancy. Five instantaneous deaths.

Jin's eyesight deepened. A sorcerer possessed a singular ability among arcanists, to perceive the Weave of magic. Jin's ethersight searched the three soldiers and found them lacking of ether. Daanmen, who possessed no ether of their own and were incapable of magic. Killing them was simple and required only a thought.

Her sorcery lashed out and seized upon their imprints, bereft of the inherent protections granted by ether. Jin could grip any part of them with sorcery and squeeze. All three staggered and dropped to their knees. Their eyes rolled back into their heads. Jin used subtle manipulations of force and water essence to rupture blood vessels within their brains, causing immediate aneurysms.

Forbidden magic, but such efficient methods of killing were not forbidden to the royal assassins of Althandor. Jin learned to manifest that spell when she was thirteen. It was among the first things she was trained to do.

Kill quickly. Kill efficiently. Kill ruthlessly. Kill brutally.

The two villagers pulled away from the corpses on their threshold. They gaped at Jin, unable to decide whether to look on her in gratitude or terror. There were few things as confusing as having a monster as a savior.

Jin turned her back and moved on to the next group of soldiers. She could proceed with impunity until the commander of this attack realized the presence of a killer. Then, he would have a choice to make, and the decision weighed upon how many Jin killed before that happened. Too few, and this settlement would pay a steep price. Enough, and perhaps the village and its people could be saved.

The only thing in question was if Jin could kill so many in so short a time. The Jade Empire was operating differently than in the past. Beyond the unknown motives behind attacking defenseless settlers, beyond even the apparent increase in discipline, Jin perceived something more dangerous in the Jade Empire.

After three months of silence, their war had finally begun.

I was trained to kill, Jin thought.

She knew six hundred and twenty-five ways to kill a mortal. She could perform each without hesitation. The black hounds walked in the footsteps of Death. They were the instruments of mortality. They willed a life to end, and they were obeyed. Now Jin realized, after being a royal assassin for seven years, how abhorrent she was.

Astonishing, how being exposed to kindness could reveal the horror of her existence.

And then...

Jin felt this thought creep forward. She knew what it would say. It came often. A hateful thought, and it never failed to cause her pain.

And then she asked me to remain... as me. She asked me to remain as this. To destroy what I wanted to be. Like her, and not like me. She asked me to promise, to give my oath, that I would watch all she did and seek a reason to destroy the woman I love.

For no one else would she have taken such an oath, and Jin didn't believe she could ever forgive Enfri for accepting it.

She felt her heart dying ever since she released Garret from his cage. She knew her soul's death was near throughout the Battle of Sandharbor, felt it smother the instant Omolade's banishing wind fell upon her. Jin fully accepted that her heart and soul were dead after the fire in Chaya Domun. But, the fatal wound was inflicted that night in Ecclesia when Enfri asked for Jin to make this promise. It just took too long to realize.

Jin was grateful for the blood on her face. It hid her tears as she murdered.

She hated Jin Algara for being so weak. For failing. For failing to deny Enfri that hateful oath. Love and devotion were Jin Algara's weaknesses, and they were what killed her in the end. Now, only the killer's training she'd undergone since she was a child was left, and Jin could only be what she was forged to be.

Another Jade soldier died, blood pouring from his mouth after being stabbed through the lung. He may still be a threat even as he drowned on his own blood, so Jin crushed his skull with osteomancy. She pushed him off her blade and looked around her. There were perhaps thirty soldiers left in the village, but Jin had yet to see an officer. They were supposed to be distinctive, their uniforms gray and faces covered by black shrouds. That may have been another change in the Jade Empire's military since Reyn discovered their plans to invade the east.

I will ask, if the opportunity comes again.

Jin frowned, displeased with herself for hoping another chance would come.

There was a wound on her left shoulder. A ragged tear surrounded by the blisters of a serious burn. A graze. It came from when Jin risked approaching a soldier without a barrier ward— to preserve her diminishing ether stores— but it proved to be a mistake. The soldier's weapon was armed and loaded when Jin believed it to be spent. She was nearly killed for that error in judgement.

No more enemies were in sight. Jin was back at the gatehouse she first entered through. The younger watchman, Alton, was nowhere to be seen. Conrad, however, was on the ground beside the Jade soldier she just killed.

Jin knelt down beside Conrad's still form, remembering his kindliness. He was on his side, facing away from her. Jin grabbed his shoulder and rolled him onto his back.

Conrad groaned.

His hands were clutched over his abdomen. He'd been shot at point blank range. Blood poured out of his gut. He wouldn't be alive much longer, barely alive at the moment. Conrad was suffering.

Jin pulled the healing potion out of her pocket and administered it as best she could. She massaged Conrad's throat as she poured the vial into his mouth, coaxing him to swallow. He coughed weakly, but most of the potion went down his throat. Jin tossed the vial aside and stood, knowing that there was nothing more she could do for him.

Before she turned away, she saw Conrad's eyes flutter open for a moment. He tried to speak, but Jin was already gone.

As far as she could tell, there were no airships nearby. Either these soldiers came by foot from World's End Gate, or the Jade Empire's airships were even quieter than she'd heard. It would be preferable if the soldiers marched here, or Jin still had cannons to face before this was over.

A sharp whistle sounded overhead, followed by a tremendous, bestial roar.

Jin stopped in her tracks. Everything she planned changed in an instant. That often happened with the arrival of a dragon.

Lightning fell from the sky, crashing in the distance. Over the village walls, Jin saw a far-off silhouette of an airship in the brief flash. Where the conjured lightning struck against the airship's hull, fires erupted.

A shadow swooped overhead and briefly blotted out the stars, and Jin heard a dozen voices call out.

"For Shan Alee and the Dragon Empress. Again and forever!"

Jin crouched beside a nearby wagon and looked upwards. She saw moonlight glinting off of steel as armored men and women plummeted out of the sky. The aviators leapt from the back of their dragon. They struck the ground, barely even bending their knees upon impact even though the fall had been over a hundred paces. A manipulation of gravity essence, likely cast by their officers of even by the dragon.

Jin saw the blue crest emblazoned on their armor.

"The Sapphire Knights," she murmured. They were elite even amongst the Arcane Knights, given responsibility over the garrisons. This dragon was likely en route between New Sandharbor and the Imperial City when it saw the attack going on. Fortunate for the goodfolk, and most unfortunate for the Jade Empire.

Jin kept behind cover while the Sapphire crewmen formed up. Their officer called out orders, shields up front and arcanists in back. They moved quickly towards the center of the village, erecting wards to receive the flintlock fire that greeted them.

Distraction, Jin thought. The Jade commander is likely on the airship. Unable to issue orders while under assault by a blue dragon and their knight. Ground forces engaged. I can move unhindered so long as I am cautious.

Jin didn't waste any more time. She sprinted wide of the Sapphires' position, coming in from the rear of ten Jade soldiers forming up into a firing line. Jin slashed at them as they readied their weapons, causing confusion and disrupting their regimented routine. Only one or two were killed, but their cries caught the attention of the Aleesh. Well after Jin was moving on, spellfire crashed into the Jade soldiers.

Any further opposition she came across, Jin struck swift before vanishing into the shadows. Her blade aimed for debilitating injuries at any man who came close, and she used magic to cause an aneurysm in any soldiers who aimed a rifle at her from a distance.

As she moved between the village homes and the river, Jin manifested sorcery to toss water onto the roofs she passed. The ones that had caught alight were extinguished, and the rest would be less likely to burn. As she went on, Jin was careful to keep at least one structure between her and where she heard the Sapphires clashing with the Jade Empire.

Before long, she made her way back to the home of Tenya Thatcher. Scorpion was still beside the threshold. The horse's ears twitched as Jin came closer, and he tossed his head.

Jin slowed down as she approached and took note of the dead man close by. His body was driven an inch into the dirt, and his back had hoof-shaped depressions stamped into it.

"You did well," Jin said in praise.

Scorpion whinnied haughtily. His nostrils then flared in her direction, and he gave a dissatisfied shake of his head.

Jin looked down at herself. Her chest wrap no longer had a thread of white visible. It was soaked with blood, as were her leggings, and most of her exposed skin was stained red. Jin sighed.

Another of Jin's specialties in spellcraft was a subset of magic she'd been scolded for. Developing such frivolities was a waste of time she could've spent learning to better control pyromancy or astramancy. Even oneiromancy would be a worthier pursuit. Nonetheless, Jin never regretted her proficiency in personal care spellcraft. These spells required next to no ether at all and saved her more time each day than she could estimate.

Jin used a spell she developed for when she left the bath. The blood covering her and her undergarments sloughed off of her in a single wave of crimson, leaving her completely dry. Jin had always been unhappy with her hair, it being thinner than she would like, so she enjoyed having a spell that could dry it quickly without having to rough it up with a towel.

From nearby, there came successive cracks of thunder. Jin tensed, recognizing the sound as not coming from astramancy. Lightning didn't make a sound like that. It was teleportation. Either the Sapphire Knight or their dragon was a witch or sorcerer. They must have given a sending to Shan Alee that a settlement was under attack, and the legion sent reinforcements. Between the mighty and arcanists wielding lost magics, Shan Alee was swiftly proving itself to be among the greatest military powers on the Continent.

The thunder continued, each crash heralding the arrival of an entire squad of battle-ready armsmen. Perhaps even dragons and their knights. No matter how many soldiers the Jade Empire had in reserve, they would have no choice but to immediately withdraw. When the defenders could appear from thin air and in as great of number as was required, the risk was too dire. Jin went back inside Tenya's home, confident that the village would survive to see the dawn.

Jin set down her packs and began pulling out her armor. Outside, the sounds of fighting grew more and more sporadic. Shouts came, different from the frightened cries form before. The villagers cheered the Aleesh armsmen who rescued them. Angry calls towards the Jade soldiers taken captive were just as frequent.

While Jin strapped thigh and shin guards onto her leggings, she heard the scrape of wood against wood, and soon Tenya poked her head into the living room.

"Winds, is it over?"

"As you say," Jin said. "It seems there was a blue dragon nearby. The Sapphire Knights are driving off the attackers as we speak."

"Thank the winds," Tenya sighed, relieved. "But... are you leaving?"

"Again, as you say." Jin pulled a gambeson on over her head. She left the studded leather breastplate in her packs. It was too distinctive as belonging to a royal assassin, and Jin doubted she could leave without being spotted by anyone. Better they thought her a wandering vagabond if they thought of her at all.

She startled as Tenya ran up to her with a gasp. Before she could react, Tenya's hand was on Jin's wounded shoulder.

"You're hurt!"

"It is minor," Jin assured her.

"This needs sutures," Tenya insisted. Her eyes went to Jin's face. "Winds take me. I didn't see it before, but you've plenty of old scars."

"Not so old." Jin averted her gaze, touching absently to the worst of the ones Tenya referred to. There was a slash of skin across her right cheek that was noticeably more pale than the rest of her. It came from where she'd been struck with a spiked gauntlet across the face, nearly tearing through her cheek entirely.

"Please stay," Tenya said, taking Jin's hand and holding it over her heart. "Let me take you to the sky woman. We've a good one. Oldwife Leiwyn can see to you."

"There are many more in greater need than I," Jin said, but she didn't pull her hand away. The tremors returned, but she didn't believe it was oren withdrawal so soon after the last episode. The after-effects of adrenaline, or perhaps, the desire to accept Tenya's offer.

Tenya rose up on her toes and kissed her. It was brief and light, placed at the corner of Jin's mouth. "Please stay," Tenya whispered after pulling away. "Don't go."

Jin would have accepted, except she realized why her hands shook.

"I must go," Jin said, stepping back and pulling free. "Please forgive me, but the Arcane Knights will see to your safety."

Tenya blinked back tears, but she let Jin withdraw from her. "Winds guide you, my lady."

Jin left and put her saddle on Scorpion in short order. Tenya didn't follow, and Jin was grateful for that. Her hands continued to shake as she cinched the straps and mounted up.

Her hands shook because they refused to be held. There was only one person in the world whose hands they could ever accept, and they didn't understand why they never would again.

Jin tapped Scorpion's flanks with her heels. She would keep to the outskirts of town and hopefully slip out before the armsmen secured the gatehouses. In the dark, she might be able to get away from the village without the dragon spotting her. However, Jin didn't go further than ten paces before she sensed someone behind her.

"Oh, bother," a new woman's voice said. "And I was hoping you'd take that charming girl up on her offer. That or declare how you're technically still betrothed. Riding off into the night without explanation is just so cliché, but you always did have a flair for the dramatic."

Jin pulled on Scorpion's reins, holding him in place. She closed her eyes and sighed. "You should not have come, Starra." She turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Did you arrive with the Sapphires?"

Starra strode out of the shadows between two houses. Her red eyes were fixed unblinking on Jin. "Ostensibly. I happened to be with the Lady of Sapphires when the warning came. As soon as Knight-Captain Uwe reported the attack here, I offered to come along with the reinforcements. I knew you were in the area and worried you'd get caught up in all this. Seems my instincts were on the mark yet again."

She wore one of her usual black dresses. Not silk, but linen. It was a rare concession to practicality over style. That didn't stop Starra from wearing a short skirt that failed to cover her ankles, or wear anything but heeled shoes, or have a plunging neckline to show off her assets. Starra was many things, but modest would never be one of them.

It bothered Jin how she even now admired Starra's bold fashion. That might've been among the reasons she befriended her, though that felt as if it'd been decades ago, rather than just a few years.

Jin raised an eyebrow. "Uwe is a Sapphire Knight now? I would think her better suited for the Quartzes."

"And put her under command of Lord Grellin?" Starra gasped. "Bloody hell, but could you imagine? Either they'd come to blows or that sexual tension between them would erupt and consume the whole of the empire."

Jin shrugged with one shoulder.

"My dear," Starra sighed quietly, "it won't be long before someone besides me recognizes your handiwork around here. There's already one man talking about how he was saved from death's door by a goddess with washboard abdominals, and very few won't be able to put two and two together."

"Then allow me to withdraw," Jin said.

"You know I can't do that." Starra walked up to Scorpion's side and held up her hand with an expectant look in her eyes. "Not alone, at least."

Jin sighed once more, then took Starra by the wrist. It was rougher than Starra likely envisioned, but Jin hauled her up to sit behind her in the saddle. Starra wrapped her arms around Jin's waist and huddled in, causing a small flush in Jin's cheeks. Winds, but Starra should've known better than to go pressing flesh like that.

Starra's satisfied chuckle revealed she knew exactly what she was doing and that she enjoyed Jin's discomfort immensely. "Alright, let us be off. And if you don't mind, do away with that ridiculous coloring spell. Red is not your color."

Jin rolled her eyes and unlocked the spells. Her hair returned to black, and her eyes to blue.

"On we go," Starra coaxed. Her grip tightened as Scorpion went at a trot. "And just so we're clear, you can put all the wards you want over yourself, but it won't stop me from keeping tabs on you."

Jin grunted. She still had no idea how Starra was managing this, popping in when least expected no matter Jin's precautions, and the woman wasn't giving answers.

Starra's grousing continued well after the village of Millforge— or Waterbend, whatever the case may have been— was disappearing into the distance. The fires had long since been brought under control. Aleesh armsmen and crewmen from the Sapphire Knights milled about, dealing with the last pockets of resistance from the attackers. As they rode off, Starra wove somatics of the restoration school to tend to Jin's wounded shoulder.

"I'll have you know I've been beside myself worrying over you," Starra complained. "Both Reyn and Pacifica are hounding me over who my 'secret paramour' is, and I'm not looking forward to admitting it's you."

"You've only yourself to blame," Jin growled. "If that is the excuse you chose, it is only right you bear the consequences. You could have always just let me be."

"And abandon my most treasured friend in all the world," Starra gasped, scandalized. "Never, Your Highness. Not in three hundred years, and I might even live that long, you know. Besides, I have something you need."

"What might that be?"

Starra's arm retreated. When it came back, it held a parcel retrieved from a holding spell. It was padded linens and strips of willow bark wrapped up in blue ribbons.

Jin snatched the parcel. "Very well. You've earned my forbearance. For now."

"Good," Starra purred. Her voice abandoned its playfulness and went grave. "There's another reason I needed to talk to you again, Jin. I've hid this from you for too long, but I think it's time you knew some important things about your family. About osteomancers."

Jin kept quiet, riding with her eyes on the ground ahead of them.

"Have you ever met an elf, Your Highness?" Starra asked.

Jin wrinkled her nose. "Seely fey. They are extinct, to my knowledge. Elves were among the first races of fey called by the original Akazewi, but they were all killed in the war against Shoen."

"Close," Starra said, "but not entirely accurate. Several survived the death curse, and I know of three who still live to the modern day. There's one in particular I'd like you to meet, and it so happens I've sent him on ahead to wait for you in Marwin."

Jin was growing impatient. "What is the meaning of this, Starra? Who is this elf?"

Starra let go of Jin and leaned back. "Well, if we're going to cut to the heart of the matter, I suppose you would call him Grandfather. That is to say, you're a feyling, Highness. An elven feyling, specifically, and your ancestor would like to meet you in person."

Jin fell out of the saddle.