Kel woke up sore all over.
His hand hurt from catching Harven's staff. His ribs were tender from the hits he had failed to block, and both legs felt heavy from forcing Internal Qi through them over and over during training.
He stayed on his back for a minute, staring at the ceiling of the orphanage.
The part bothering him most wasn't the pain.
It was what happened at the end.
He remembered Harven going after the youngest girl. He remembered knowing he was too far away to stop him, then feeling that heat spread through his chest. After that, his body had moved before he could think.
Kel lifted his right hand and looked at it.
Nothing.
No heat. No strange feeling. Just sore knuckles.
"You planning on staring at your hand all morning?"
Kel turned his head.
Luno sat nearby with his insect jar open between his legs. A few beetles crawled over his arm while another rested on the edge of the jar.
"I did something last night," Kel said.
"You got beat with a stick."
"Besides that."
Luno smiled. "You caught the stick."
"I shouldn't have been fast enough."
"Harven was teaching you Internal Qi."
"I know what he was teaching me."
Kel sat up.
"That felt different."
Luno looked at him for a second, then back at the beetle crawling across his wrist.
"Maybe ask him."
Kel laughed once.
"Yeah. I'm sure Harven will explain everything."
"Good point."
One of the beetles crawled onto Kel's blanket.
Kel flicked it back toward Luno.
"Keep your family on your side."
Luno caught the beetle against his chest.
"Don't do that."
"I barely touched him."
A small thought brushed through Luno's head.
Rude.
Luno froze.
That wasn't Spark.
He looked at the beetle in his hand.
The feeling came again.
Rude.
A grin started forming across his face.
Kel noticed.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Kel immediately pointed at him.
"Every time you say that, something weird happens."
Before Luno could answer, someone called from downstairs.
"Captain wants you two at the command building!"
Kel dropped back onto the bed.
"Of course he does."
---
The command building was more crowded than usual.
Two riders stood near the front table covered in dust, and several guards moved back and forth carrying reports. Maps had been spread across Harven's desk and another table beside it.
Kel noticed right away that nobody was joking.
Mira, Doss, Toma and Puck were already waiting near the wall.
Doss looked Kel up and down.
"You walk like an old man."
Kel pointed toward Harven's office.
"His fault."
Doss nodded.
"Fair."
Harven finished reading a report, then looked at the whole squad.
"You have another assignment."
Luno frowned.
"We just had one yesterday."
"You joined the Guard."
"I don't remember volunteering."
"You didn't."
"Right."
Harven looked at Mira, Doss, Toma and Puck.
"Go outside and check your supplies. Kel and Luno stay."
Doss immediately frowned.
"Why do they always get the secret part?"
Harven looked at him.
Doss headed for the door.
"Never mind."
Once the others were gone, Harven closed the door.
Kel's expression changed.
"What happened?"
Harven looked down at the map.
"The Badlands have been having more problems lately."
Luno leaned closer.
"What kind of problems?"
"Attacks. Missing people. Livestock being taken. Strange activity around nearby roads and settlements."
Harven tapped several marks spread across the map.
"Some reports look like normal raiders. Some sound like Qi beasts. A few don't match either."
Kel thought about the caravan mission and the attacks they had already seen.
"How long has this been happening?"
"A while. It's getting worse."
Luno looked over the map.
"So that's why you've been sending more patrols out."
Harven nodded.
"I've been checking the reports from every nearby town and village. Most of them are being handled by experienced squads."
His finger stopped on a small settlement northeast of Durnfield.
"Rookwell."
Kel leaned over the table.
"What happened there?"
"Three incidents in six days. Livestock attacked outside the walls. Two travelers disappeared on the northern road. Last night, one of their patrols reported seeing someone moving around an abandoned mill."
Doss would probably hear "someone at an abandoned mill" and immediately start planning a fight.
Kel looked at Harven.
"And you're sending us?"
"I picked the town with the lowest estimated threat."
"Estimated?"
"Reports aren't always right."
Harven looked at both of them.
"That's why you're not being sent there to hunt anything."
Kel nodded slowly.
"You want information."
"Exactly. Go in, talk to their guards, talk to witnesses, and find out what's happening. If you find something your squad can handle safely, deal with it."
Harven's voice hardened.
"If it's above your level, you leave."
Kel folded his arms.
"What if people are in danger?"
"You leave and come back here."
Kel's face tightened.
Harven could see the answer bothered him.
"Then I go, or I send a stronger team."
"If somebody needs help right then—"
"Last night I taught you how to protect people. I didn't teach you to die with them because you were too stubborn to retreat."
Kel went quiet.
Harven stepped around the table.
"There are things in the Badlands you are not ready to fight. Being brave doesn't change that."
He pointed at Kel.
"And now you have a squad. You don't get to decide only for yourself anymore."
That got Kel's attention.
Harven continued.
"If you stay and fight something too strong for you, Mira stays because you stayed. Doss will definitely stay because he thinks every problem can be hit with a club. Toma may be terrified, but he'll still try to follow your order. Puck will be standing there wondering why everybody else is dying."
Kel almost smiled at that last part.
Almost.
Harven looked between him and Luno.
"You two are leading them. That means your first job is making sure they come back."
He stepped away from the table.
"Close your eyes."
Luno sighed.
"Right now?"
"Yes."
Kel shut his eyes.
"Sense me."
Kel focused.
He found Harven's presence first. Normal. Controlled. Nothing like the pressure he had felt during their training.
Then Harven released more Qi.
Kel's whole body tensed.
The room hadn't changed.
The air wasn't moving differently.
This was Internal Qi.
Harven himself felt heavier in Kel's awareness.
Stronger.
Dense.
Like the river Harven described last night had suddenly become much deeper.
Luno felt it too.
His insects reacted almost immediately. Several crawled beneath his clothes while the ones around his jar became still.
Even Spark stopped talking.
Harven raised the pressure another step.
Kel didn't open his eyes, but every instinct he had told him fighting Harven at this level would be a terrible idea.
Then the pressure disappeared.
Kel opened his eyes.
Luno let out a slow breath.
"Okay."
Harven pointed at them.
"Remember that feeling."
Kel nodded.
"If you sense someone with Qi around that level, you run."
Harven shook his head.
"That level or higher."
Kel looked at him.
"No questions?"
"No questions."
"What if we aren't sure?"
"Then don't test it by getting closer."
Luno nodded.
"That sounds reasonable."
Kel gave him a look.
Luno shrugged.
"I like living."
Harven looked directly at Kel.
"You should try it."
Kel ignored that.
Harven continued.
"Qi sensing isn't only about figuring out how to fight somebody. Sometimes it's there to tell you not to fight at all."
Kel thought about last night.
Harven had taught him how to move Qi through his body so he could stand in front of someone weaker.
Now Harven was teaching him that protecting people could also mean knowing when to leave.
Kel didn't like that lesson nearly as much.
Harven could tell.
"If it helps, think about it this way. Running back here isn't abandoning them if you're bringing someone strong enough to actually solve the problem."
Kel looked at the map again.
That made more sense.
Harven tapped the mark over Rookwell.
"You go there, figure out what's happening, and come back."
His eyes moved between both boys.
"Everyone comes home."
Kel looked toward the door where their squad waited outside.
Mira. Doss. Toma. Puck.
"Everyone comes home," Kel repeated.
Luno nodded.
"Everyone comes home."
Harven finally looked satisfied.
"Good. Now go."
---
Rookwell was about half a day away if they kept moving.
Doss started complaining before they were fully outside Durnfield.
"So we're investigators now?"
Mira adjusted the straps on her pack.
"We're Guards."
"I joined the Guard to fight."
Kel looked back at him.
"You've barely been in the Guard long enough to complain this much."
"I'm talented."
"You're definitely something."
Puck walked behind them carrying an overstuffed pack.
Luno stared at it.
"What did you bring?"
"Food."
"For how many people?"
"Me."
Luno stopped walking.
"How long do you think we're staying?"
Puck looked confused.
"You never know."
"You brought three loaves of bread."
"One is emergency bread."
Kel kept walking.
He wasn't getting involved.
The road northeast became quieter the farther they got from Durnfield. Farms disappeared and were replaced by open stretches of grass and hard dirt.
Luno's insects traveled differently now.
A few remained on him, but more of them moved ahead.
At first, he kept getting nervous whenever one disappeared too far into the grass.
Then he realized he could still feel some of them.
Not clearly.
Just tiny points of awareness.
One ahead.
Two near the road.
Another somewhere behind them.
Sometimes a simple feeling reached him.
Clear.
Food.
Grass.
One beetle sent him nothing except something that felt like happiness.
Luno smiled.
Kel looked over.
"What?"
"They're spreading out."
"That good?"
"I think so."
Kel watched one of the insects fly farther ahead.
"So they're scouting."
Luno hadn't really thought of it that way.
"Maybe."
Spark spoke from beneath his hat.
"Obviously."
Luno frowned.
"You could've told me that."
"You didn't ask."
Kel laughed.
Luno was about to answer when one of the distant presences disappeared.
He stopped.
Kel took two more steps before noticing.
"What?"
Luno closed his eyes.
He tried finding the missing insect again.
Nothing.
Then another nearby presence touched his mind.
Fear.
Luno opened his eyes.
"Something's ahead."
The joking stopped.
Kel raised his hand.
The squad halted.
"Where?"
Luno pointed toward a bend in the road.
"Close."
Doss reached for his club.
Kel looked at him.
Doss slowly moved his hand away.
"I was just checking it."
"Sure."
Kel closed his eyes.
He remembered Harven's training.
External first.
Feel the environment.
The wind moved normally across his face. Dust shifted along the road. Nothing obvious.
Then Internal.
No strong concentration nearby.
Soul was harder.
Kel still didn't fully understand how to reach for it on purpose. Last night it had happened because Harven went after someone he wanted to protect.
Kel tried anyway.
Nothing.
He opened his eyes.
"I don't sense anybody."
Luno looked toward the bend.
"My insects do."
Kel nodded.
"Then we trust them."
Luno looked at him for a second.
That meant more than Kel probably knew.
They moved forward carefully.
Around the bend, they found a wagon.
One wheel was broken.
Supplies had been thrown across the road.
Nobody was there.
Mira crouched beside the dirt.
"Tracks."
Kel joined her.
Footprints led away from the wagon and toward the grass.
Then they stopped.
Doss looked around.
"Again?"
Luno's insects became restless.
Kel remembered Harven telling them about the two missing travelers.
He looked at the wagon.
"This might be them."
Toma swallowed.
"Where are they?"
Nobody had an answer.
A breeze moved across Kel's face.
Then changed direction.
Only for a second.
Kel froze.
He closed his eyes again.
There.
Something had disturbed the air.
External Qi.
Not strong.
Not anywhere near what Harven had shown them.
But something nearby had touched the environment.
Kel opened his eyes and looked toward the low hills.
"Something's here."
Doss's hand moved toward his club again.
"Can we fight it?"
"I didn't say that."
Kel looked at Luno.
"Anything?"
Luno's insects pressed closer to him.
"They don't like it."
Kel thought about Harven's warning.
He couldn't sense anything close to the level Harven told them to run from, but that didn't mean the area was safe.
"Stay together."
Nobody argued.
Kel looked at the tracks leading away from the wagon.
The old version of him probably would've followed them.
Now he looked at his squad.
Rookwell was still the mission.
Find out what was happening first.
If they found something too strong, they went home and brought Harven.
Kel stepped away from the tracks.
"We keep moving."
Doss frowned.
"What about them?"
"We don't know what's out there yet."
"So we just leave?"
"We go to Rookwell and get information. Then we decide."
Doss didn't like it.
Kel didn't either.
But he remembered Harven's words.
You don't get to decide only for yourself anymore.
"Move."
The squad continued down the road.
---
Rookwell appeared on the horizon about an hour later.
A wooden wall surrounded most of the settlement, and smoke rose from several chimneys. From a distance it looked normal.
The closer they got, the more that changed.
One section of the wall had been repaired recently.
Deep claw marks covered another.
The guards above the gate weren't talking to each other. They were watching the fields.
Luno's insects started reacting before they reached the entrance.
Tiny feelings pressed into his mind from different directions.
Fear.
Hide.
Wrong.
Luno slowed down.
Kel noticed.
"What?"
"My hive doesn't like this place."
Kel looked toward the gate.
He reached inward and checked his Internal Core first.
Then he tried sensing outward.
Wind.
Movement.
People.
Emotion.
There was a lot of fear here.
More than there should've been.
Kel still couldn't tell exactly what was causing it, but something about Rookwell felt wrong.
He looked back at the squad.
Six of them had left Durnfield.
Kel planned on bringing six back.
"Remember what Harven said."
Doss looked at him.
"Which part?"
Luno answered before Kel could.
"Everyone comes home."
Kel nodded.
"Exactly."
The gates opened.
The squad walked inside together.