It isn’t even dawn yet. Max groans and stretches. Falling asleep wasn’t easy after everything we talked about last night. Well, I am already up, might as well get ready.

  Max folds up his blanket and puts it in his pack before donning his jacket. The daggers and tomahawks are quickly added back to their usual places. He shoulders his spear after donning his quiver. Stretching once more, he picks up his bow, stifling a yawn.

  Would you look at that, I’m ready. If only these other people could get ready so quickly. Max shakes his head, smiling at his own joke, and looks around camp.

  Looks like I’m not the only one up so early. Seeing other people already awake and making breakfast or coffee, he starts to walk around the camp.

  There aren't as many people who use bows as I would expect. It seems most are just using swords or axes. I wonder why almost no one I have seen so far uses plate mail or any other weapons. After circling the camp, Max decides on one of the soldiers and approaches him.

  “Hello, I don’t know if you know me, but I’m Max McIver.” Holding his hand out, the soldier grunts and shakes it. “I am a friend of the Braye family, and I don’t have much experience with swords. I noticed you use a sword similar to mine, and I was wondering if you could teach me how to use it.”

  The man sighs and looks Max over. “Look, kid, no offense, but I’m not looking to teach some unblooded, inexperienced, mountain man how to fight.”

  Max’s eye twitches, but he simply smiles. “Oh, I am not unblooded, and am only inexperienced in the sword. I prefer hand axes, one to parry, the other to strike with.”

  “I’ll use knives or daggers next if I have a choice. The one battle I fought with a sword, I damn near got myself killed. Since I received a sword as a gift from the Braye family, I feel obligated to learn to use it.”

  Looking at Max again, the soldier notices him not being discouraged at all, and having found little to no insult in his words. “Do you even have this gifted sword, or am I supposed to let you use mine?”

  Max holds his hand out and summons the sword with a lime-green flash. He brings the sword across his chest and holds it with his other hand near the point. “See, it is a hand-and-a-half sword like yours. It even has a similar blade shape.”

  “Uhhhh...” Flustered, the man is at a loss for words. That is an enchanted blade! The little brat isn’t lying. I didn’t even notice before, but he even bears the Braye crest on his necklace. “I-I don’t know if I-I’m the right one to teach you. You might t-try Sir Darvill.”

  “I looked around the camp already, and you seem to be the only person with a blade similar to mine. A few aren’t too far off, but I think the closer the better. Sir Darvill might be trained in all types of arms but seems to favor the axe, unlike you.” Max had already thought about asking Sir Darvill, Joshua, or even Lady Rosalee, but thought their fighting styles might not be the best for this type of sword.

  The man looks around a couple of times before sighing. “You do have a point. We don’t have practice sheaths, and you don’t have any defensive gear.” He holds his arms out wide helplessly.

  “I don’t really need to spar just yet. More the basics, like stance, general movements, footwork, strikes, guards, that sort of stuff. If you need to walk me through more advanced blocks, strikes, or parries, we can just go through it slowly, not at combat speed. Like I said, I have been in fights before and have combat experience, I just have no idea how to, well, use this.” Max raises the sword to emphasize his point.

  "Fine, I can show you some things with the sword. You will probably need more appropriate training if you want to be in service to the Brayes." Whatever the man was cooking appears to be done, and he starts to eat while giving Max pointers on his stance.

  Max listens carefully and tries to follow the instructions to the best of his ability. Right now, it is far from anything that could make him a master swordsman, but at least he won't feel like as much of a fool as he did when he tried to use the short sword against that bandit.

  They quickly lose track of time. Once the man finishes eating, he is far more of a help, moving behind Max and kicking his feet to the proper position. He doesn't just tell Max but also walks him through a couple of very basic stances.

  Soon, everyone is awake, and the training session comes to an end as they both have to ready their horses. When Max returns to where he slept and begins to set his horse up, he notices that Lady Rosalee is already up and eating something. She motions for him to come join her, but he only shakes his head.

  I guess Joshua probably cooked her breakfast. Seems he has to take care of three people instead of the normal two on this trip. Seeing as she is eating, I bet he will be by to set her horse for her.

  While it truly must be nice to have someone do all these annoying, time-consuming tasks, I don't think it's good in the long run. As it is, she doesn't even try to set up or break down her camp or horse.

  If something were to happen, would she be able to manage it on her own? I think the regular soldiers have an advantage, not having squires to cater to their every need. If it needs to be done, you have to do it yourself.

  Being forced to do it yourself would also stem this issue of bringing everything, including the kitchen sink, with them everywhere they go. Just ordering the squires or stewards to set it up, take it down, pack it, and unpack it encourages this… hoarding.

  Max shakes his head and sighs. Being poor might actually make you stronger in this world. You have to learn how to get by without many of the comforts and how to make do with the bare minimum, if that. Looking around the camp, I did notice the soldiers carried probably half that of the squires and knights I've seen.

  Relaxing while everyone else was still trying to get everything packed up and onto the horses, Max eats some dried meat and cheese with bread he had brought with him from Winsbrook. It seems, to keep up appearances, even Lady Rosalee has been assigned some simple tasks.

  If anyone were to look, it would just look like Joshua, the older squire, is teaching a new younger one. If they wanted to make her disguise a bit more believable, they wouldn’t have made her armor so much nicer than the two squires’ armors that I have seen.

  Once his simple meal is over, he takes a look at his new mount and pets it. Trying to familiarize himself with his horse, he spends the remainder of the packing time talking to it and petting it. When everyone is finally ready, he mounts the horse and moves toward the soldier who taught him this morning.

  "I take it that I won't be rid of you that easily?"

  "Nope," Max laughs, smiling. "You are basically the first friendly fighter, who isn't a knight, that I've met. I'm not really counting hunters or guards since hunters deal more with animals, and the few guards I met seem less trained and more stuck with a post."

  The man turns, raising an eyebrow at this comment. "What about Sir Elijah or his squire?"

  Max waves his hands dismissively. "I have only met two knights and their squires, and have quickly realized that they will try to overcomplicate the simplest of things.”

  “You already showed me I was holding the sword wrong and my footing was unstable. They would have talked for three to five days before letting me pick the sword up and stand.”

  Almost falling off his horse from laughing, the man nods. “I don't like to speak negatively of the knights, but many of us agree with the sentiment. They do have better gear and training than many of us soldiers, but they have ceremonious ways of doing everything from cooking to setting camp to even fighting.”

  “That is one of the reasons I wanted a soldier to teach me, but I think the bigger reason is the difference in why you learned. Most soldiers, I think, take up weapons because they have something they believe is worth fighting for.”

  “It doesn't matter if that is yourself, your family, your belongings; it was something you had that connection with. Then, of course, a few just like the violence, and this is the only way for them to enjoy its embodiment without being wanted.”

  “I can understand these reasons. Squires and knights, on the other hand, seem to be motivated by the title and the power that the title brings. They want to be raised above others, to have a position, and to have control. I don't really get that motivation as much.”

  “As I learn to fight and the more combat I experience, the more I cherish those quiet moments. Just working at a forge or hunting for food and pelts. The moments when you can relax and talk with friends and really live. I want to only have to raise my weapons in defense of those I care for.”

  The soldier grows solemn and nods. “That was the way of the original knights long ago. Now it lives on only in us soldiers and the Margraves.”

  Tilting his head, Max tries to remember everything he can about the medieval books he read. “The Margraves? What is that?”

  "They are the strongest warriors throughout the land. They started off as a group of swordsmen that had great skill and powers, but they were not bound to any king or kingdom.”

  “As time has moved on, a few non-swordsmen have joined the group, using whatever weapon they prefer. They still have insurmountable skill and power.”

  “There are only three who serve a kingdom still to this day; the rest wander about doing as they see fit." The soldier's eyes gloss over as he talks about the Margraves, fantasizing about all their wonderful tales.

  ? ? ?

  Trying to fall asleep is hard for Lady Rosalee. She couldn't stop thinking about everything she and Max had discussed. She tries to find more pieces of the puzzle or find alternatives to the ones they already had. By the time she actually drifts off to sleep, it is far later than she had intended.

  Morning comes fast, and Joshua wakes her as he has each morning since the trip started. In the mornings, she is very unladylike, even more so this morning. After grumbling and slapping at him, she finally gives in and gets up.

  Why does it have to be morning already? I just want a few more hours of sleep. Yawning, she glances around her tent before the memories of last night come rushing back.

  Even with how interesting and exciting it had all been, the memory that sticks out most was Max hugging her. She smiles, remembering it. He hugged me!

  I wonder if he likes me? I mean, really likes me. He seemed happy about the sword, even if it acted weird. Hopefully, we will be able to spend some more time together on this trip.

  Dressing as a squire seems to go faster today, and she quickly leaves her tent and looks to where Max retired to. What? Where did he go? His things are already packed; it is barely light out. When did he get up? Maybe like me, he had trouble sleeping.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Her mood instantly takes a turn as Max is nowhere to be found. She grumbles to herself and sits near the fire Joshua had started while she was getting dressed.

  Whatever is in that pot smells good. Perking up as the smell of breakfast begins to waft over her, she peers into the pot. The camp food isn't as bad as I always heard it was. To be honest, Max's rabbit tasted worse than the food Joshua prepares.

  Joshua appears shortly and prepares a bowl of food for her silently, before handing it to her and nodding. She accepts the meal and starts to dig in when she notices a familiar figure.

  Her eyes follow Max as he crosses camp from wherever he has been to his packs, where he rummages around before starting to saddle his horse. Clearing her throat, she attracts his attention and holds out the bowl of food she is eating from. There’s plenty, come over and join me.

  Smiling at that thought, the anticipation builds only to quickly be squashed as Max shakes his head. It is as if dark clouds form above her. Suddenly, the meal doesn't taste quite as good. She shoves it down just to say she has eaten and watches as Joshua breaks down and packs her things away.

  Glancing at Max every so often, she notices he is one of the first people done setting up his horse. With nothing else to do, he pulls out dried food and old bread and starts to eat it. Really? I offered him some of this delicious meal that Joshua prepared, and he chose to eat that instead? I don't think he will ever make sense to me.

  By the time they are ready to break camp, her mood is already sour, more so than it has been the entire trip. Joshua rides alongside her as normal. Instead of joining them safely in the middle of the group, Max rides off toward the side and starts talking with a random soldier.

  What is with him? Yesterday, we spent most of the day riding alongside one another and then spent the evening talking together like good friends. Now he ignores me like I'm nothing. What is the meaning behind this?

  When the two of them start to laugh, she can take it no more. Not having heard a word of what Joshua has been saying, she rides off to Max and the soldier. The soldier and Max do not seem to notice her approach, and soon she is riding along with them. Joshua sighs and guides his horse to follow along. It is his job to look after her.

  Lady Rosalee clears her throat before interrupting them. “You two seem to be having a good time. What is so funny?”

  The soldier’s face freezes before tightening while Max simply glances at her and smiles. “Hey. We were just talking about the finer points of being a knight and all that entails. Why are you so far this way? Don’t you usually stay in about the middle?”

  “Usually I do, but I was feeling rather bored, and your conversation looked interesting.” She crosses her arms defensively. “Who is your new friend here?”

  “Umm... that would be…” Trailing off, Max looks at the soldier and shrugs. “What is your name, by the way? I don’t think I ever got it.”

  “Gregory Everitt.” Looking extremely tense and sweating a little, the man states his name and bites his tongue before he says anything inappropriate.

  Turning back to Lady Rosalee and smiling widely, he gestures at the man next to him. “Gregory Everitt, a soldier of the Braye family. I wandered the camp this morning looking for someone with a sword, similar to my new one, that could teach me to use it properly.”

  “I made quite the fool out of myself when I tried to use a short sword previously. After some badgering, Gregory here finally accepted the role.”

  Huffing slightly, Lady Rosalee gets a peeved look on her face. “You should have just asked me. I could have shown you the basics. If you wanted or needed more, I’m sure Joshua or Sir Darvill would have been happy to help you.” She looks the soldier up and down.

  “Oh, I couldn’t have. I didn’t want to be a bother. I never doubted your skill or desire to help me. You see, you use a single-handed sword with a slightly different shape, with a shield. Joshua, much like Ganis, uses a single-handed sword without another weapon or shield, but it is smaller and lighter than mine.”

  “Sir Darvill, while trained in many weapons, I am sure, focuses on using a two-handed axe. Mr. Everitt here fights primarily with the weapon I wish to learn how to use. He also has less duties around the camp than Joshua or Sir Darvill, and if we spar, it is more appropriate than me sparing with you.” While Max explains a slightly edited version of why he sought out Gregory, it is no less the truth.

  Gregory turns and looks at Max in disbelief at how he speaks to Lady Rosalee. How he twisted the mocking words they had been speaking about knights and squires into something nonchalant and dismissive.

  After the shock wears off, he turns to Lady Rosalee. “I did inform the boy that it was inappropriate for one such as me to teach him and encouraged him to seek out those you mentioned. He was incorrigible and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “I figured your—I mean, the Braye family wouldn't have given him an enchanted sword without the expectation that he might have to use it. So he might as well learn to use it so he doesn’t end up hurting himself or being unable to defend himself.”

  Unable to refute the point, Lady Rosalee, Joshua, Max, and Gregory ride along in silence. The mood is thick and awkward. After riding together for a while, Joshua clears his throat, but the gaze Lady Rosalee gives him silences his unspoken request to return to the safety of the center of the group.

  Finally unable to take the silence any longer, Lady Rosalee speaks. “So, shall you be training further with Mr. Everitt?”

  “I do hope so, we only covered some basic footwork and how to hold the blade. I am a true novice when it comes to the sword.” Not seeming to mind the mood or atmosphere at all, Max replies almost jovially.

  “Then perhaps I can watch your lessons and how you grow. I might be able to give some pointers that Mr. Everitt doesn’t think of since I just went through this sort of training the past couple years.” Her gaze is like that of a viper on Gregory’s back.

  Looking pleadingly at Max, he cannot help but hang his head in resignation when he hears his reply.

  “Of course you can. All the help I can get is better. I don’t know if there is really enough time to practice much at noon breaks, but in the mornings and evenings, I do plan to pester him into showing me as much as he can. Well, Greg, it looks like I will leave you until the noon break.” Max smiles at the downcast soldier and gives him a thumbs-up.

  Knowing better than to let Lady Rosalee continue to linger near the edge of the formation and seeing that she had no plans to move away from him, Max guides his horse back toward the middle with Lady Rosalee and Joshua following. The rest of the morning is far less tense as the three of them ride along.

  Joshua seems to appreciate the change in atmosphere and begins chatting away with Lady Rosalee again, as if she hadn’t ridden away from him while he was in mid-sentence earlier. Lady Rosalee only half pays attention as she alternates between glaring at Max and the soldier, not knowing which one she should be more angry at.

  Tuning Joshua’s endless speaking out, Max tries to focus on his morning lesson. He replays the fight he had with the short sword and instead pictures how it might have been different if he had used the stances from the morning. While still not knowing much about its use, he begins to follow this type of mental fighting. Playing out past fights in his mind, using the sword as well.

  Noon rolls around, and they stop for a break to stretch their legs and give the horses a rest. Gregory, resigned to his fate, approaches Max and Lady Rosalee. They pick up the lessons from the morning, checking to see if Max retained any of the knowledge, and then move on to simple attacks and blocks.

  Lady Rosalee simply watches and doesn’t offer any opinions or advice. Noting only to herself that Max wasn’t lying, he is terrible at the sword and seems to know nothing. The lessons are extremely rudimentary, and even if she wants to help, there isn’t much to offer.

  When the break is finally over, Gregory appears much more relaxed and less apprehensive. Max is picking up the sword faster than he thought he would, and the young Lady Braye didn’t interfere. She even seems to become less hostile toward him.

  They ride through the day but stop far short of the sun setting, as they had the previous day. With their group as large as it is, it took a lot of effort to find suitable spots to stop for the night, as well as taking longer to set camp.

  Lady Rosalee notices that Max doesn’t help her with her horse or tent today. Instead, he breaks down his horse and seems to vanish. This sours her mood and makes her angry toward Gregory again.

  She tries to struggle through the process alone, but Joshua makes an appearance and helps. Once everything is set up, she notices Gregory approaches.

  “Well, where is the boy? I’m surprised he didn’t immediately try to help me set up camp so I could teach him sooner.” The masquerade made him uncomfortable.

  He didn’t like interacting with nobility, but when he did, he tried to be on his best behavior. With Lady Rosalee hiding her appearance and trying to blend in as a squire, he felt too awkward dealing with her.

  Should I be less gruff and more agreeable? Wouldn’t that just seem odd to anyone who thought she was just a squire or knows me? I wished I could just be polite, address her as Lady, and avoid any and all interaction with her. Max has dragged him into a situation where he knows he will be speaking to her often, though.

  “He vanished once he was finished with his horse. Unlike the rest of us, he doesn’t have any sort of camp gear to set. I thought he had gone off to train with you.” Lady Rosalee perks up, seeing that she was wrong and Max hadn’t dismissed her to just train again. Curiosity is getting the better of her, and she is just about to suggest they go looking for him when he appears.

  “Oh, you are here already. I figured I was going to have to hunt you down.” Surprised, Max smiles and greets his teacher.

  “Where were you? I thought you had gone off in search of Gregory earlier.” With an eyebrow raised, Lady Rosalee inquires, not aware of just how overbearing she is being.

  “I didn’t have much money for trail food, so I was thinking of supplementing it with catching something. Didn’t find anything I wanted to eat, so here I am empty-handed. I will try again tomorrow.” Max shrugs and thinks nothing of it.

  “If you’d like, I can share some of the meal Joshua is cooking for me.” Before she can even get her hopes up, Max shakes his head, shooting the idea down.

  Shortly, he and Gregory begin to practice again. She glares at Max between glances at the food. It isn’t until it starts to get too dark to practice that Gregory says his goodnights and heads back to his section of camp. “So, you seem to be learning quickly.”

  “Yea, I seem to pick things up very quickly. It really shocked the hunter who taught me how to use a spear and bow.” Rubbing the back of his head, Max sits before the fire.

  “Have you given any more thought to what we talked about last night?” Breaching the subject with about as much grace as a bull in a china shop, she gets to one of the things that has been bothering her all day.

  “A little. I don’t really think this is something we can handle at the moment. From what I gather, this has been going on for a long time; it isn’t something new. I think it is best we don’t forget what we figured out, but we should wait on acting upon it.”

  “No one will believe us; we have not the supplies nor people to help us at the moment. We need to find more people we can trust and gather our strength. They don’t know how much we figured out and will be acting as they always have.”

  “Train, gain friends and allies, learn what we can, that is what we must do. We need to get some more information on how the corruption works as well. Even if we do everything else, we can’t really go after the source of all this without finding a way to survive in the Dread Wastes.”

  “If everything is corrupted out there, how do we eat or drink? Is it safe to sleep? What sort of precautions do we need to take? Until we can answer at least those three questions, this problem is far beyond us. I could end up back in my own world at any moment. We have to prepare for that too.”

  Lady Rosalee doesn’t know what to say to that, so she just nods. The Dread Wastes? Does he truly think the answers lie there?

  I didn’t even consider having to head there; I was more focused on trying to convince my father and trying to fight Eschaton. He may be right, though; if there truly is a connection between them and an actual god, it would be in the Dread Wastes or beyond.

  If there is a connection to the Ancient civilization I mentioned yesterday, then we will probably need to look for clues there too. Damn. That is why he is training.

  I got so caught up in him distancing himself that I never considered it could be related to all this. It does make sense given everything that I know about Max. He sees a problem, works out the steps to get to the goal, and begins checking them off.

  He did it when he found us in the cave, and then when he took up learning how to be a smith and hunter. Now he is learning how to fight, so we can go against Eschaton, along with plotting the other things we need to learn and have. I feel like such a fool.

  She continues to chastise herself and her way of thinking. I got so caught up on whether or not he liked me. Between that and thinking that once we got to Lady Elizabeth, we could focus on convincing our parents to handle this.

  I never really thought about handling it ourselves, yet that is exactly where Max’s thoughts went. Thinking that it was a short-term issue was also a problem that I fell into, that he avoided. He is right, they might target us because we escaped and Max thwarted their plans, but outside of that, they should continue business as usual.

  They have plotted, schemed, and maneuvered behind the scenes for so many hundreds of years, it won’t suddenly change just because we figured out their possible origin. Even if they knew that we figured it out, I highly doubt that they would even care.

  Turning to our parents seems even less of an option now that I think of it. If they could have stopped Eschaton, they would have long ago. It hasn’t really been for lack of trying that Eschaton has managed to survive all this time.

  When Max’s hand touches her shoulder, it causes her to jump. She is so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice him move, let alone approach her. Looking up, she notices the stupid grin on his face.

  She blushes and quickly looks away to hide it. Seeing how she reacted, Max shakes his head and rolls his eyes before patting her shoulder lightly.

  “You zoned out there. I don’t think you heard a word of what I said.”

  “What did you say?” Not looking at him, her voice sounds soft.

  “It isn’t important. We should get some sleep. I think we both could use some. Goodnight, Rosalee.”

  Squeezing her shoulder lightly, he turns and heads off to where his gear is. He takes his blanket out of his pack and lays it on the ground before lying on it and trying to get to sleep.

  Red-faced, Lady Rosalee watches him for longer than she should. Eventually, she realizes she is staring and clears her throat before heading into her tent.