Jensen’s thoughts chased each other round in circles. Torwin couldn’t be dead. It had to be a joke, but he was pretty sure Velik had never deliberately told a joke in his life. He certainly never caught when someone else was joking with him. The man had the social skills of a sack of potatoes. But if it wasn’t a joke, then Torwin really was dead, and that was impossible.

He took a few breaths to try to rein in his emotions. Getting worked up at Velik wasn’t going to accomplish anything productive. It was far more likely to blow up in his face if Velik felt like he was being unfairly blamed for something that wasn’t his fault.

“Sorry,” Jensen said. Another breath. Then another. “Tell me what happened?”

“We were attacked by a divine beast. I think he killed Torwin by accident while he was holding me off. I was under the effect of a haste potion at the time and pushing him pretty hard.”

Jensen barely even saw the guilt on Velik’s face other than to recognize that the man was apparently capable of feeling it. Any other time, that would have been a surprise, but right now, he just felt like he was going numb. The whole statement was too ridiculous to process.

Torwin killed by accident?! By a divine beast?! Those aren’t even real!

“Have you told anyone else yet?” Jensen asked. People were going to need to know. The guild would have to be notified. Taking care of some busy work would help keep him occupied while he took some time to process.

“Not yet. I just got back to the city half an hour ago. I came straight here.”

“And you have his body?”

“It’s in a few pieces,” Velik said. “But yes, I collected everything I could.”

Something in Jensen broke at that statement. If he hadn’t already collapsed into his seat, he would have then and there. He’s dead. How the hell is he dead? He’s not supposed to die. He should be here, waking me up too damn early and drinking too damn much.

Velik was shit at communication, and explaining how Torwin had been killed was no different. Eventually, after a lot of questioning, he got the full story. He sent a runner out to get a casket—he wasn’t even sure where to buy that—and a wagon arrived two hours later to deliver it. An hour after that, Aria arrived, having finally responded to the paired communication stones she had one side of.

“Show me the body,” she demanded the instant she swept into the courtyard.

Velik obliged, pulling it out of spatial storage one piece at a time and arranging it in the casket. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and seeing Torwin in that state nearly broke Jensen again. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said, his voice cracking slightly. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to… to go see to some things. Aria, can you please let the guild know so they can do whatever it is they do.”

He left them there, with Aria whirling on Velik and demanding the full story. Jensen probably could have done a better job of relaying it to her, but he didn’t have it in him to even listen to it again, let alone tell it himself.

* * *

Aria reminded herself that Jensen had never really lost anyone important to him, that he wasn’t a real hunter and, even if he had been, he’d have been so early in his career that it was still likely he’d have never experienced this particular heartache.

He wasn’t handling it particularly well, but that was understandable. She watched him scurry away, stumbling and muttering excuses. Poor guy. After the way his father treated him, I think he kind of looked up to Torwin as a replacement. This has got to be tearing him up.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Arguably, Velik was handling it even worse. That boy was fit to explode, and if not for the fact that he was one of the strongest hunters she’d ever met, she’d be worried that he’d get himself killed out in some monster den a thousand miles from civilization. She hadn’t realized he was close to Torwin at all, but the reaction made more sense once she got the story out of him.

A divine beast hadn’t appeared just to kill Torwin. Such a creature was more myth than reality, something that hadn’t been seen in five hundred years. When they’d seen Velik’s golden blood, they’d gone digging for information about the monsters. The records did not paint a pretty picture, and the most unbelievable part wasn’t even that one had shown up, but that it had left him alive.

Aria had read the records personally. She knew the body counts attributed to the divine beasts. Based solely on Velik’s description, she was reasonably certain which beast it was, too. He had a record for ferocious bloodlust. Every time the white tiger had taken to the field, it had been a disaster of unmitigated proportions. They didn’t even have records of every battle that particular monster had single-handedly won.

That wasn’t to say the others weren’t just as bad in their own ways. All six divine beasts were undefeated. They just tended to win their battles in ways beyond absolute carnage. Or at least that was what the records stated. It was too bad she’d never found a reason for why they’d disappeared or where they’d gone.

Come to think of it, he just might get himself killed chasing after a monstrous demi-god. I probably won’t be able to talk him out of it, either. Gods, this kid.

As far as Torwin himself went, Aria wouldn’t deny the sting of seeing his body mutilated like that, but she’d attended far too many memorials for fallen comrades in the last decade to fall apart at one more. Technically, Torwin’s home city was Cravel, so the body would need to be returned there. She’d see to that personally, and then perhaps host a small memorial in Ashala for those of him there who’d known him.

“Do you know anything specific you can tell me about Tesir?” Velik asked, drawing her out of her contemplations.

“The white tiger? Nothing you haven’t already figured out from meeting him first hand,” she said. “I’ll see if I can find out anything specific about him. In the meantime, Torwin’s body needs to be returned to the guild, and they’re going to want an explanation for what happened to him. We might as well come up with a lie now because no one would believe the truth.”

If she hadn’t seen Velik’s own blood when he was in wolf form, she wouldn’t have believed it either. Golden blood. Ridiculous. And we never did figure out how. Now he’s got another of those dungeon seeds. Theoretically, they could be the key to making a new divine beast, but one that fights on the side of the humans. That would be an incredible monster deterrent, but I shudder to think of someone that powerful falling into the hands of the crown.

“What are you going to do with the dungeon seed?” she asked, changing the subject when he didn’t answer.

“I don’t know,” Velik said. “Torwin had an idea that we’d hire some woman he knew to use it to modify a mana compass to point at other seeds. Now… I don’t know. I guess I’ll give it to Sildra. The druids can do something with it.”

“I’ll… let her know,” Aria said. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Sildra’s got a lot of responsibility already, and she’s pretty young to handle it. Adding more might not be the best idea.”

“I’ll talk to her, I guess. See what she wants to do.”

“And then?” Aria pressed.

A lock of white hair appeared in his hand. “I can follow the scent. I’ll get back on it soon before it fades.”

“Before it fades? It’s been days already.”

Velik shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

His wolf form must have an even keener nose than I thought. Or maybe divine beasts are just particularly smelly. Either way, he’s talking about committing suicide.

“And what will you do when you catch up to a divine beast? He already beat you once. He beat you and Torwin together. How are you even going to survive a second meeting?”

“I don’t know,” Velik said. “But it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a fight I can avoid. Tesir found me once. If I don’t go to him, he’ll come back. I won’t let anyone else die because this monster wants something from me.”

“But—”

“Thank you for your help, Aria. Any information you can dig up in the next few days would be helpful.”

No point in arguing now. He’s made up his mind. You stupid kid. You’re going to get yourself killed, and there won’t be anyone to bring your body back this time.

She didn’t say anything like that, though. She just let out a small sigh, then told him, “Of course. Give me a bit of time. I’ll let Sildra know you want to talk to her, and I’ll come up with an excuse for the guild. A few of the people at the top will know the truth, but I doubt they’ll want it known that a divine beast was spotted again after centuries without an attack.”

She willed the casket into her own spatial storage and began putting the first portal together. It was going to be a long day, but she’d had plenty of those lately. One more wouldn’t kill her, which was more than she could say for Torwin.