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I had attracted dragons that set the forest on fire and destroyed the river and there were hundreds of bodies on the ground. Crazed creatures still flailed in the distance, killing everything in sight.

That wasn’t my fault—but it was my doing.

Sometimes, life was just unfair like that. You can’t get a job because your mother embezzled money, or you get kidnapped because your father is a politician. Sometimes, your father is too poor to afford to take you to nationals to prove your talent, or you’re born so rich that poor people in certain neighborhoods won’t accept you.

Life wasn’t fair to anyone. And for me, I was in a forest that all the denizens were obsessed with protecting, and I was attracting humans.

It wasn’t personal.

To their credit, the dragons stopped attacking us—but they didn’t let us escape. They kept us pinned as they waited.

I turned into the distance. It wasn’t long before we saw the River Guardian—and then felt her.

The guardian’s body grew to the size of a colossus, sixty feet in height and forty across. She looked like a warehouse, eighty feet tall and a length that I couldn’t imagine. Her feet shook the ground on either side of the river, and when I looked closely, I could see that the larger body wasn’t real—it was made out of soul force.

The River Guardian could now maul the largest wyvern like a buffalo—and its magic was still unknown.

But not for long. It jumped to the side of the river that was on fire, lifted its snout, and used a water spell that created a vertical tsunami that turned the world into a rainbow before the water crashed into the fire, turning the forest into black steam that blasted me in the face.

The River Guardian roared and released another and another and another as I created barriers. I even created a domain, but it only captured hot heat and kept it around my body, so I released it and released a water sphere over my and Kline’s bodies to cool off.

The dragons watched on.

Five minutes of silence passed as the forest lost its fire, and the crackling stopped. Then the River Guardian approached, and the dragon spoke.

River Guardian—

Silence!

The area fell silent.

Why are you here? Why have you decided to burn my forest to the ground!

The dragon lowered his head. Forgive me for intruding upon your domain, River Guardian. I did my duty by fighting Halten. He brought a human in here against our oath. During the pursuit, a great commotion broke out in the river, so I investigated and found that this… He looked at me. Human had corrupted hundreds of—

I didn’t corrupt the—!

Hold your tongue!

No, you hold yours! the River Guardian roared.

An intense wave of soul force hit me, and I felt like my soul was slammed out of my body, leaving me lifeless as I crashed onto the ground. It abated, but I still couldn’t move. Kline was the same.

This woman corrupted a few hundred souls, and you responded by burning down the forest. I fail to see the greater threat.

The dragon put his head down. Even weakened, Halten’s barriers are strong. I had to act, and did, but… He looked at Kline with fury in his eyes.

The River Guardian looked at Kline, and then at me, and then at the dragon. Halten protected this one?

Yes.

She walked up to the river and studied the fog within it. Human. What did you do to these souls?

I cleansed them.

How?

Yakana taught me.

Her eyes narrowed. Why?

I hold Brindle’s legacy.

The dragons jeered and flapped and circled.

And that power! I yelled over the sound. That can affect the Bramble! I was honest because lies would break trust and trust was the only thing that was keeping Yakana from turning the forest against me. I wasn’t sure that he could do that, but it operated under that assumption.

This was my chance to build trust and prevent the need to fight the guardians—and I had a feeling I had to. When I traded goods. During the Black Harvest. Simply living. This was now or never.

The dragon’s eyes widened when he heard about my power, and he turned to the River Guardian accusatory, judging her for not acting.

The River Guardian looked at me and then the river and the fire and then into the distance where the dying dragon lay. Then she looked at my attacker.

This is my domain. You have no right to be here or to judge my decisions.

But this woman affects mine!

This woman has proven herself!

He fell silent.

This woman took a water sac plant from this river. She repaid that debt by wiping out the lignan bugs plaguing this forest. She has proven herself. Yet you dare to come here and question my willingness to spare her?

He opened his mouth but turned away.

Leave this place. You’ve done enough. She turned to the forest fire.

He nodded a few times silently. Then he looked at me. If I ever see you in the Bramble—Black Harvest or not… I will kill you.

I felt an icy static wave through my body, and I wanted to protest, but I kept silent.

He turned to the dragons. Let’s go.

They did and left, leaving the River Guardian standing before me, looking down from seventy feet in the air and then looking into the distance.

She walked past me slowly until I could see her body blocking out the sun as she passed over me like I was moving through a tunnel.

Kline turned and looked toward the dragon that saved us.

I didn’t want to impede, but I had a debt.

"We’ll try to pay our respects. If she tells us to leave, we will."

Kline nodded.

At that moment, I had forgotten about the fact that a courier was on its way. And if the dragon were a courier, I didn’t care. Halten saved my life.

So I unclipped my backpack, searched through my elixirs, and found the Illyndra elixirs safe and sound. I knew what I needed to do.

Kline followed behind the River Guardian and gave her a few minutes of silence with the dragon. During that period, we just watched, and that’s when I noticed it.

The strong and powerful soul on the River Guardian turned warped again, just like the night I saw her, and she became smaller and smaller again until she was normal size. Her soul was weakening. It was a front.

I swallowed and rode Kline’s back as he moved to her.

A few minutes later, I was standing before the dragon, staring at his stomach. He was alive but breathing harshly.

I looked at the River Guardian.

"I have healing elixirs. They may help."

She turned to me and then back. "He’s an oathbreaker. I cannot help him."

I tried to parse out the meaning behind her statement. But it seemed that she wasn’t telling me otherwise. So I pulled out one of the Illyndra elixirs and created an oxygenless domain around my body, leaving my head, and went to open and drink it to prove it wasn’t poisonous.

I will never trust you, human. She turned away. Halten is none of my concern. Just make sure that boy leaves this forest by Harvest—or I will kill him.

I turned and remembered that a courier was coming and then realized, now that I was staring at a large dragon that was different from the rest and it made me realize that it was Aiden’s dragon. I ran around its body and found Aiden unconscious on a rein, moments away from being crushed and killed if Halten were to roll.

I turned frantically to the River Guardian and found her walking through the river, which had since regained more than half of its water as the river naturally filled in the craters and gashes that my attacker left behind.

"Wait!"

Do not test my patience, human.

"No… Your soul."

Be silent!

"No! I think that I can fix it!"

She paused.

"I have Brindle’s legacy," I reasoned slowly. "And he works with souls. Surely there’s a spell or an elixir or a… wait…"

The River Guardian walked on.

"Who’s going to protect this river? Me? Would you really trust me?"

Of course not.

"Then you have to survive."

She paused and looked back and examined Halten. Cure his corruption—prove you have Brindle’s legacy… then we’ll speak. Before then, I do not want to hear hollow words from a woman whose voice lacks conviction.

She walked on, leaving me alone.

Suddenly, there was a splash and I turned and found Kline on a bridge of mana above the river. He had riskily cut Aiden loose, making the man splash in the water. It probably hurt, but the water was healing. A moment later, Aiden gasped for air, and Kline ran back to shore.

I ignored Aiden and went around to Halten and pulled out the Illyndra elixir. I created an oxygenless domain around it and opened it and yelled to him.

"Halten!" I yelled. "Drink this! It will help heal your wounds."

Halten wheezed and opened his eyes, but he wasn’t looking at anything. He wasn’t seeing anything. He was dying and delirious, too weak to move.

A splash startled me from my reverie. I turned and found Aiden staring at me as if he had seen a ghost.

I looked down and realized that I probably looked like a contactless native from some far-off Amazon rainforest, covered in mud like a serial killer soaked in blood.

I used Purify, and all the dirt on my body splashed into the water, revealing a very normal-looking woman. I thought I’d be feral after three months, but speaking to Lithco and Elana regularly had kept my language and civil behavior in check—especially the latter.

Yet, to my great unease, washing off the dirt only made his eyes widen further, intensifying his look—bringing it closer to horror. Whatever it was, it wasn’t simple awkwardness.

"Uh…" I coughed. "I’m… Mira. Are you… bringing me my stuff?"

Aiden opened and closed his mouth and looked away. "Uh… yeah. I’m sorry. I’m not good with people in general and you’re just not what I was expecting and…"

"What were you expecting?"

"I… uh." A surreal look of realization washed over him, and he turned to Halten. Things escalated quickly after that. "Halten!"

My mind snapped back into the present as well.

"Halten!" I echoed. "Wake up! I have healing elixirs but they only work inside the body!"

"Seriously?" Aiden asked, using a tone that was bold and decisive. It was a serious change.

"Yeah. But he needs to open his mouth!"

"Oh, right." He turned to the dragon. "Halten! Mira can help you! I need you to open your mouth!" Halten didn’t answer. Then Aiden closed his eyes and put his hand on the dragon’s snout and did something because the dragon stirred and groaned.

"Just don’t fight it!" Aiden finally said aloud. "We’ll save you!"

In a dumbfounding display of trust, the awkward man—who was staring at me like a terrifying grizzly bear just a moment before—jumped onto the flap between the dragon’s cheeks and his teeth. He crouched and grabbed and put his hands between the dragon’s teeth and lifted like he was doing a power clean. It only moved an inch, but he didn’t give up. He dug his feet in and grabbed a tooth with both hands and put his back and shoulder into it.

I suddenly snapped into focus. "I’m coming!"

As if we were a mob pushing a car to jump-start it on a country road, I climbed on top of the dragon’s mouth and helped him push.

The dragon’s mouth began to give way. Still, it was remarkably heavy, but the teeth cracked, allowing me space to throw in the elixir—but I didn’t have room.

Kline abruptly risked everything, jumping onto a bridge of mana and running to Halten’s mouth. He used mana manifestation to prop open his jaw like a tire jack as I pulled out seven of the Illyndra elixirs.

How am I going to do this…? I looked into the dragon’s mouth. No oxygen…

"Hold on!" I yelled, putting away the elixirs. "Kline, prepare to jump."

Kline meowed.

I closed my eyes and extended my oxygenless domain into Halten’s mouth. The dragon coughed and wheezed and bucked, but Kline dug his claws into Halten’s lips, and Aiden wasn’t even necessary anymore. Yet he also kept on.

"Just a second!" I yelled. "Calm down…"

It took a few minutes, but his mouth stopped vibrating, and his body stilled.

I gulped as I pulled out the elixirs again and opened them. Please let this work…

I threw in the elixirs—and prayed it would save Halten. I owed him a debt, and I didn’t know if I could protect Aiden until the Black Harvest.