The triplets sat alongside their distant baby uncles and aunts. They were sh their nana, as they were her nieces and nephews. Tonagek spoke a tale to the children, Danagek sitting on his p, the rge boy about as rge as Gurot and Kavgak. The children listened ily to one of the maales. During the tale, a few guests had arrived, those which the children had long bee aced to.

  “Papo,” Lanarot called, embrag Tonagek.

  “Little Lanarot,” Tonagek greeted, hugging her with one arm, before allowio greet her cousin.

  “Dana,” Lanarot said, hugging the boy tight. “You ah okay?”

  “Okay,” the boy replied, hugging the girl babsp;

  “Did we interrupt the tale?” Sonarot asked.

  “It was the end of the chapter,” Tonagek replied, before the children were dismissed, allowing them to py.

  The pair shared tea, though si was the Gek family estate, Tonagek poured the tea for his sister. Sonarot he neckce her brother wore, a simple neckce made of string and three scales of the blue dragon his nephews had sin a few years ago.

  “I will bring Jirot and Jarot tomorrow to py,” Sonarot promised.

  “ you take them from their greatfather?” Tonagek asked.

  Sonarot smiled in response, sipping the tea her brother had made, which tasted lightly of berries. “Father is like that.”

  “So he is,” Tonagek replied. “He is not like greatfather at all.”

  Sonarot thought of their greatfather, who had goo die when Jurot and Tanagek, who had been named after the old man, had been born. “Yes.” The old man had been rather cold, very much like what the Aldishmen thought Iyrmen were.

  Tahe Dutiful.

  He had been a man of duty, taking the duties of Family Head and Family Elder. He was a man of the Gek family before he was a husband or father.

  “Since I am an Iyrman,” Tonagek said.

  “I should do as an Iyrman does,” Sonarot tinued.

  The line had been passed down to them to expin the ridiculoushat was Tahe Dutiful.

  “Have you spoken of his tale to the childre?”

  “Not yet,” Tonagek admitted. “The tale of Bloodbde is .”

  If it was the tale of Bloodbde, Sonarot assumed it must have been one of the first Bloodbdes, for it made no seo speak of their uale before their greatfather’s. After all, it was Tahe Dutiful who had returhe Bloodbde back to the family. She go the side to find Karot standing beside her, Danagek beside him, though the rotund boy stared at his father expetly.

  Tonagek lifted his son up onto his p, pushing away his cup of tea so it was out of the boy’s reach. Sonarot lifted Karot up, who ed an arm around her ned rested his head against her shoulder. She turo see the rest of the triplets waiting expetly.

  Sonarot smiled.

  While the triplets cuddled their grandmother, Adam watched the fight between the rge summoh elemental and the tyrantboar. The rge summoh elemental caught the tyrantboar within its rock hard arms, lifting it up as though it were a pillow, before smming it into the earth behind it. The tyrantboar’s fmes flickered for a moment while the tribesfolk darted around it, though only three stepped forward to face it. They wielded long spears, jabbing away at the creature, while it violently thrashed.

  ‘That’s one way of handling it, I suppose,’ Adam thought, his eyes gng aside to see the Iyrmen dispatg the smaller boars. They worked with glorious efficy, which was different to Iyrman efficy, for the way they fought certainly wasn’t to kill them as quickly as possible, but rather, t back a story to the Iyr. Iyrman efficy would have seen the fireboars already dead, with the tyrantboar on the way.

  As Adam’s eyes fell back to the tribesfolk, he gasped.

  Mana: 18 -> 15Spell: Fly

  Adam raised Wraith into the air, ting out the words to his spell, the magic filling his entire body. As the tingliion swam through him, his feet lifted off the ground, and the half elf darted through the air, flying towards the fallen group. He reached into his inner robe pocket, and a smaller pocket within, reag for a diamond.

  “Adam,” Jurot said as the half elf nded on the ground. He stepped in front of the half elf, stopping the young man from stepping further ahead.

  “Jurot, the-,”

  Jurot pced a hand onto Adam’s shoulder. “We ot interfere.”

  “What are you…” Adam replied before falling silent to Jurot’s gaze, the young Iyrman shaking his head lightly.

  “It is not ht to interfere.”

  As the dying woes of the tyrantbear grew silent, Adam stared at the two tribesfolk who y deathly still. One had been run through by a tusk, and another had been hit by a hoof so viciously, their mangled body was twisted in unnatural ways.

  Just like that, the fighting was over.

  “…” Adam’s heart pounding in his chest wildly. “You should tell them I save them.”

  The tribesfolk with the shawl mask and the staff smmed their staff into the earth and raised a fiowards the half elf, shaking their head at him.

  “We ot deny them their rights, Adam,” Jurot said.

  Adam ched his jaw. He wao pin, but si was Jurot saying so, what else could he do? He could feel the hand at his shoulder squeeze it gently, before letting it go.

  ‘I have the power to save them, though…’

  “Adam,” Jaygak called, patting his back gently. “Faool was wounded during the bout.”

  “Right,” Adam replied.

  Lay on Hands: 35 -> 25

  Adam’s warm magic filled the young Iyrman, whose skin began to stitch itself shut. Faool let out a low sigh, bowing his head lightly.

  “Thank you, cousin Adam.”

  “Yeah,” Adam replied. “Any time.”

  The Iyrmen began to take the bodies of the dead fireboars they had killed, dragging them to the outpost, leaving the tribesfolk to deal with the tyrantboar and their dead.

  “I killed three boars,” Lucy said upon their return, grinning wide. She eyed up Adam for a moment, noting he had bee slightly smaller.

  “Sure,” Adam replied.

  “…” Lucy had been waiting for Adam’s rebuttal, sieically he had also killed three, oh his magic while the boars had charged their outpost. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Adam replied.

  ‘…’ Lucy exged a look with Mara.

  The group began to butcher the boars, while some began to shift the earth to create a grave. Adam assisted with his new magic, shifting the earth with ease ohey had softe up with their shovels. He gnced aside to see the tribesfolk digging two graves where they had siyrantboar.

  “I wouldn’t have asked for a debt or anything,” Adam said.

  “It does not matter,” Jurot replied. “They earned a good death.”

  “What’s so important about dying a good death?” Adam asked, his voice quivering for a moment before he calmed himself. “Jurot. If I end up dying a good death and Vonda bring me back, will you deny her?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I would bring you back, because that is what you wished for.”

  “I’m just letting you know, if you die a good death, I’m bringing you back.” Adam gred into Jurot’s eyes through his visor.

  “Okay.”

  “Would you prefer it if I left you to die?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “So Lanarot, Turot, Asorot, Gurot, Murot, will hear the tale and will go on to do more,” Jurot replied.

  “If you want them to do more, you should stay alive and make sure they do more themselves,” Adam replied.

  “My death will inspire them.”

  “What would I tell your mother.”

  “You-,” Jurot began, though found his throat g tight. “…”

  “While you’re happy dying a good death, I’m the one whose gotta pick up the pieces, Jurot. I’m the ohat has to tell your mother. To tell Lanarot, our sister. To tell our cousins, some of whom won’t even remember you. To tell my children. I’m the one who has to watch them cry.”

  Jurot remained silent for a long while as Adam went back to using his magiove the earth. Jurot stared at the grave, a grave which may have bee for him.

  “Adam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If I do die, and you me to life, you must bring my body back to the Iyr.”

  “I won’t have to worry about that since you won’t die.”

  Jurot pced a hand on Adam’s shoulder, causing him to stop moving the earth. “You must promise me, brother.”

  Adam saw the serious look in Jurot’s eyes, and upon hearing the st word, his heart almost skipped a beat. He had heard so many of the Iyr’s tales, and rarely, he would hear how the Iyr could not recim the body. Every time such words were spoken, there was a sadness within those words.

  “Yeah,” Adam promised.

  Jurot bowed his head, standing silently beside Adam as he tio dig the grave. “Adam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I am not so easy to kill.”

  Adam paused for a moment, turning back to face his brother. “Yeah.”

  The death fgs have been raised.