Didn't really proof read through this just wanted to get it out. YEET. I was dumb and forgot you have to put your line breaks back in, sorry.

Alicia Delacroix's lengthy, petite frame was jostled around savagely as her cart's wheels bounced and bucked off stray rocks and plots in the road. The loud thundering cracks of the wood violated the night air with each hit.

"Dear Founder, please." She whispered shakily under her ragged breathing.

She was never a particularly religious person, but it was only a matter of time before one of her horses or the cart broke on a piece of debris. The thought was paralyzing and the reality of what would happen was as solid as the goods she carried, that kept her from freezing up completely.

"Get back here ya bitch!" A jeering, hoarse voice yelled at her from a short distance behind.

Her heart started to pound even faster as the tingle of a predator snapping just out of reach shot up her spine. She responded by sharply snapping her reigns again and again in a desperate attempt to push the poor animals to run faster. It was all brunette could do, she was barely even steering at this point and was more like a cripple trapped on a sinking boat.

The blood in her veins pumped so viciously that it felt as if her heart would tear its' way out from her chest.

It started to blur her hearing into a throbbing, pulsing fuzz that robbed her of the ability to gauge the distance between her and the approaching bandits.

A shot of bile surged up in the back of her throat, Alicia wanted to look back, she wanted to see how much the gap between her and the predators had closed. The thought immediately died with the wind-whipping sound of an arrow rushing pasted her face so close it broke through the cotton jamming her ears and grazed the flesh of her cheek. The sensation of warm blood began to trickle down to her chin as tears welled in her eyes. She began pleading, no, groveling, fruitlessly to whatever force could hear the shaken voice leaving her mouth. And that's when a pinprick of flame caught her eye a short way down the road off in the woods. Too big to be a torch, her mind desperately fixated on the light. If she could just make it there, she thought. Alicia's endorphin riddled mind didn't even stop to consider she may be condemning fellow travelers to death.

A heavy, unfamiliar thunk shook the cart from behind and her head whipped back with such force she might have been able to break her own neck if she hadn't frozen at the site of a new passenger.

"Finally caught'ya! Now be a girl an' stop the cart, we anit gonna hurt'ya." A creeping snicker trailed behind the taunting promise.

A disgustingly proud smile appeared on the man's face, it was enough to cause Alicia's stomach to curl over with something other than anxiety. He loomed at the back of the cart awkwardly trying to find his legs in the midst of the trashing goods.

She knew the moment that happened the hunt would truly be over and so she began tossing the reigns frantically from side to side, all the while calling out the corresponding verbal commands for left and right.. It was a deadly last ditch effort to keep the hitchhiker off balance and buy even a little more distance toward the fire she spotted in the woods.

The effort turned into a bad joke not even five yards into the maneuver the careening vehicle's wheel slammed into a log on the roadside causing it's left side to go airborne. The dull splintering sound of a wooden wheel's spokes shattering under stress followed shortly after it slammed back down to earth.

Dipping sharply to one side, the cart dug into the road, dragging the horses to the ground as they collided with each other unable to escape from their bonds. Alicia cried out as she was tossed violently from her seat.

Her skull bounced off the ground with a wet thud and her body rag dolled as she rolled to a stop a short distance away from the thrashing animals.

Her vision was blurry, her head wet and sticky, and even though her body was twisted she didn't feel any pain. Disoriented and confused she still instinctively crawled forward. Forward being whatever direction was opposite of the hoots and hollers filling the night air. It was the victory cry signaling that the wolves snapping at her heels struck a fatal blow. Even in her pathetic, reality-denying struggle to crawl away, it was clear to the bandits and Alicia Delacroix, that her story would end here on a terror-filled night with only the full moon and stars to watch the birth of a broken and used slave.

A boot surged into Alicia's gut causing her body to coil into a ball, the air in her lungs evacuating so swiftly that she couldn't recapture the breath.

"That really fucking hurt! Ya bitch!" It was the same man from before.

A hand brutally garbed her hair and yanked her up to her knees. His face was covered in muddy blood, it warped his broken nose and sunken eyes to an even more hellish degree. The same smile was still plastered on his face as he looked down on her.

She wanted to scream but all her concussed brain allowed her to do was languidly mouth breathless words as she weakly wriggled to get free, a useless gesture.

"Hurry up! Make sure this wench is-" The man's voice was abruptly cut short as his torso exploded into a spray of viscera and blood that misted Alicia and the ground.

His head dropped to the road, eyes blinking as his facial muscle and brain only had enough time to register shock and confusion before functions ceased. Alicia fell to the ground now that the bandit no longer balanced her upright. His hand was still firmly locked in her hair only helping her descent.

"What the fuck was that!"

"Didn't you kill the noble!"

The panicked shouts of men littered the air as their dominance was broken. Their heads spun in every direction as they moved their hooded lanterns to illuminate the dark parts of the tree line where the moonlight didn't reach. Alicia's addled brain only allowed her to stare invalidly at the scene.

Panic, fear, and confusion. There was a myriad of ways to explain the emotions going on inside Mikhael's head at the present moment but the chief among those was dread. He wiped sweat away from his brow as he peered into the darkness of the forest.

"You see anything yet?" He called out to his companions trying not to let terror creep into his voice.

This was supposed to be an easy target. Only one noble as a guard and no traveling companions to speak of, it was almost insultingly easy. That was until just a moment ago when Danny exploded right in front of his eyes. Small flecks of the man's body still clung to his coat, tainting the air around him with an ever-renewing scent of blood.

"Nothin'." two different voices almost in sync called back.

He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but he knew as well as his comrades that not finding their attacker was simply because the forest was too thick in this area for lights to shine deeply. It was exactly why they chose areas like this to hunt but now that choice had turned against them. The thrashing horses filled his ears and he could barely focus on any sound he might be able to discern. Fear started to turn to frustration and he finally made a decision.

"Forget it! Just grab the girl and whatever looks valuable."

He made his way over to the spot where Danny was brutalized and looked down at the girl. She didn't look too banged up but he wasn't a doctor. If they were lucky they could patch her up at camp and she'd still be usable.

"Just behave now." He chuckled.

It surprised him how he could still manage to crack himself up in such a situation but he supposed it was just his nerves. He sighed at the thought and reach down for the girl only to notice a flash of red light streak past the corner of his eye. He snapped his head in response and stood up straight, gripping the hilt of his sword so tightly his knuckles turned a pale white. He looked around hoping it was just the trick of the eyes.

"Hurry up, I don't wanna be here an-" The sound of thunder racked the night air. "Frank, you grab the wench. I'm heading back."

Mikhael gave up on carrying any sort of load and started back toward his horse. He'd make sure his companions were easy targets if worst came to worst. There was a shout of protest but it died along with the arrival of a new voice.

"Just a moment, lass." A man in deep blue leather with a crimson spear resting on his shoulder was kneeling down next to the girl.

"W-who the fuck are you!" Frank shouted as he drew his sword from its sheath.

The only reply was a blur of blue that ended with a red spear punching a hole through Frank's chest. His heart skewered on its serrated head, glistening in the moonlight, was a sight of horror. In an instant, the spear was pulled clean out leaving Frank and his heart to drop to the ground. The assailant spun the blood from his tool and rested it back on his shoulder, he regarded the last two men with a cold bestial scowl.

Without stopping to even question if dying was the only true option, the kid that recently joined the crew, Norm, let out a panicked shout. It was plain to see his nerves broke and resorted to fighting for a chance at survival.

"You killed them!" Norm raised his sword high and rushed the blue-clad figure.

In an instant, Norm's sword hand disappear and landed next to Mikhael with a clang.

Mikhael's sword dropped from his grip and he broke into a full sprint back to his horse. He didn't need to watch Norm's fate, and with any luck it would buy him some time. He cursed himself for not running earlier. He would be damned if he died tonight to this unknown monster. He got five steps before running into the crushing blow of a kick. It smashed directly into this gut and sent him flying with a wet, meaty crunch. Bloody vomit vacated his mouth in a gory arc as his pulped internal organs felt like they were being squeezed out of him. Mikhael finally rolled to a stop. He was nothing but a lump of meat now. He died without a word.

One foot in front of the other, making sure to keep the rhythm of her breathing steady, Louise jogged through the cool morning woods. It was the first time Louise set out alone since her new morning routine started four days ago. She thought back to her reluctance to "work out" after the first day when she could barely walk outside of a bowlegged, stifled shuffle. Now, the tightness she felt along her muscles was a curious sensation for her. It was like she desperately needed to stretch but at the same time, stretching made it feel like she was being torn apart. Of course, even if she would describe the sensation as such, it was more pleasing than painful.

Cu hadn't lied to her about her body getting used to the feeling, not that she would let him know that.

Even if he was her teacher now, as his Master, Louise really felt like she should hold some level of competency over him, as futile a notion as that was.

It did, however, resurface a question she wrestled with before; should she just simply refer to and treat him as her teacher and neglect his being a familiar unless the situation called for it?

"Just call me by name, no need to be formal." Is what he told her but it didn't feel right.

The small girl reasoned that the lessons she learned as a child about the importance of titles, station, and social rank were the source of the conflict. That was wrong though, Cu's strange mode of being was the real stick in the spokes and it felt like being sucked into that pace was the only option now that they were partners.

Louise left her own mind and slowed to a cool down walk. She made sure to check the surrounding trees to confirm the markings that were meant to keep her from getting lost.

Sure, there were markings left on trees to keep her from getting lost, but it was nothing to be embarrassed about since she didn't know how to navigate a forest. It was certain to be a lesson in the future.

In fact, she was certain there would be a lot of lessons unrelated to magic in the future, if the spear he was carving from one of the branches was any indication. Still, she couldn't complain too much about the only person to take her seriously.

Nodding to herself and confirming that the camp was close, she continued walking.

Two tents, the remnants of a fire, and their horses tied up to post at a tree using long lead ropes. It was a homely looking camp if she was to compare it to the standard of living she was fond of. She wasn't sure if she should be worried she was actually getting used to this style of life after four days of travel.

Letting out a sigh, she began to stretch to avoid further soreness. Cu would get back from his morning hunt for breakfast soon and she would rather not try to enter a meditative state while the smell of cooking food assaulted her.

"Freshly caught game is good, but I do mis-"

A shriek of panic tore through the tranquil morning that threw Louise's thoughts to a halt. It came directly from Cu's tent.

Slowly and carefully, she picked up one of the sticks used to stoke the fire and made her way over to the cloth shelter. She could hear ruffling noises just inside. Heart pumping wildly, Louise threw open the flaps and was greeted by the sight of a dirty, common-looking woman, caked in dried blood and make-shift bandages. Her head frantically looked from side to side before fixing on Louise. The moment stretched until the woman lunged at her. Only, she collapse in pain in lieu of lifting off of the ground. Muffled cries could be heard as she buried her face in the bedroll.

"Are you... Okay?" Louise asked gingerly.

"W-where am I? W-who are you?" The woman in front of her shifted her face from the blankets to look at Louise once more. There was a weariness and panic painted on the surface ready to break free.

"I'm Louise Vallière, and this is the camping site of my teacher and I."

It was the only answers she really had for the woman. Louise wasn't sure how she ended up here. But could guess without a doubt it had something to do with Cu. Beyond that, the most she could tell was that this commoner had gone through some terrible ordeal. She felt the grip on her makeshift weapon loosen at that thought.

" Vallière? Are you a noble?!" The woman's hands immediately clutched hard at her blankets as she sat up. "What about the bandits and that blue demon?!"

Louise couldn't help but furrow her brow over the questions. She was flush from running and her hair was tied back into a sweat matted ponytail, but her clothes were less than plebeian.

"Just what is this situation? All I wanted was to relax and practice before breakfast." Louise thought with an exasperated sigh.

"I am a noble, yes. But I don't know of any demons or bandits." She said.

A silence took over the scene as if the battered woman in front of her couldn't believe the words she just heard. Louise took a step back fearing the woman might try to jump again. Then with perfect timing a hand landed on her shoulder from behind and she jumped forward with a shout.

"I've never been called a demon before."

The voice only registered with her after a panicked retaliation of a stick was stopped mid swing.

"Don't do that again! You almost scared me to death!" Louise dropped the stick and feebly jabbed her finger at Cu's chest. "And who is this!"

"Oh, you're awake. Glad to see ya pulled through, missy." Cu walked past Louise, and knelt next to the woman. As Cu checked her bandages the expression on her face couldn't seem to decide on whether to be relived or contort with an anticipation of death. Finally, Cu gave a nod of satisfaction.

"I'll have food ready soon. If you're feel'in up to it, come and join us. Just make sure to take it slow."

Louise took a deep breath and tried to avoid blowing up at the dismissal.

"Cu. An answer to my question would be in order." She kept an even tone and tried to project the same kind of regal force as her mother.

"I-I'm Alicia. Alicia Delacroix." The woman spoke up. "I'm a merchant."

"I happened to pick her up after saving her from some bandits last night." Cu stood up. "Be sure to hire better escorts next time, lass."

"R-right. . ." Alicia said.

"I suppose that's a good enough answer, for now." Louise said

The merchant girl looked like she wanted to say more but Louise left the tent before she could speak.

She really didn't have time to spend thinking about the woes of a commoner who was alive and safe. She felt close to a breakthrough and having too many distracting thoughts would make it hard to enter a trance. Still, she couldn't help but picture the tale.

A low level merchant traveling between cities without the funds to afford proper protection. It was not uncommon and neither was said merchant getting picked off in poorly managed areas. It made one question what the lord in this area was doing, not that it was Louise's right to criticize since this wasn't her family's territory. Yet on some level, as a noble, it bothered her to think bandits were able to freely skulk around like rats acting as they pleased. Thankfully, Cu ended them before they could continue.

"Is that enough though? I should inform the lord of the territory." She thought.

Louise could feel her brow furrow and lip twitch.

"Aaaah!" She hollered at the sky.

She just wanted to practice and get to the capital.

"Something on your mind, lass?" Cu's hand once again landed on her shoulder once again.

"No!" She stiffened with embarrassment. "I-I mean. . ." Louise coughed into her hand pretending to clear her throat. "I would like to be informed next time before you pick up a stray. I don't like running into surprises." She whipped around. "And stop sneaking up on me!"

"You'll have to learn to be more aware." Cu laughed. " Anyway, your rest was more important. Couldn't have a bunch of ruffians waking you up, you know?"

"I apperi-" Louise started.

"Besides, rescuing the common folk and disposing of trash is another way to gain fame." Cu said as he walked past her and reignited the camp fire.

"That may be, but the hearsay being about a 'blue demon' is not appealing. What if it draws the eyes of the crown or church?"

Louise knew none of what she said was an issue. The look on Cu's face told her that he wouldn't care even if it was. The words left her mouth anyway.

With a sigh, she sat down near the fire pit. Just close enough that her proximity to the flames would allow the heat to lick her skin without cooking it.

"Just be careful to promote a more noble look in the future. You represent me, you know?"

"Right, right. I understand, little mistress."

She sensed a playful goading in the reply but ignored it and stared into the flames. Again, another layer of complications since summoning this man.

Breath in. Breath out. Breath in. Breath out.

One last deep breath and the sight of dancing light was swallowed by the void.

Cu took care to engrave tiny runes of enchantment onto what would become the shaft of the spear as he whittled at the branch. He reasoned that by the time he put the finishing touches on it that Louise would finally be able to move onto more intense training other than building endurance. He looked to her sitting form, she was ram rod straight and deep in a trance. Louise listened well and completed tasks without slacking. Sure, she had her quirks, but she was a good student. He could easily see her gaining a competence in magic and combat that surpassed the average human.

Still, she had a long way to go in on the interpersonal side of things. Being an uptight noble would only benefit small backwater lords. The kind that never do anything more than tyrannize their own small territory while licking the boots of true royalty for scraps.

Louise on the other hand had a name to make for herself. And a name she would have, Cu would make sure of it.

A ruffling noise coming from the tent drew his eyes, the merchant girl had decided to come for food after all. She moved with weariness.

" Blue demon," he chuckled to himself, "maybe I should've worn my casual clothes then."

She silently took a seat by the fire, the way she sat gave a clear sign of injuries that would take some months to heal completely.

"T-thank you..." she said, "for saving me. I'll definitely make sure to repay you."

"Thank your luck and fortitude, lass. If you didn't make it as far as you did I wouldn't have noticed you."

A harsh truth, but the precautionary bounded field he set up for camp only stretched far enough for Louise to safely complete her morning jogs. Of course, Cu knew that if the current circumstances were different, he would most certainly be flirting under the guise of rescuing a fair maiden in her hour of need.

A long pause stretched between the two as the girl once again came to terms with the fact she'd been close to a painful existence. Cu waited for her to speak up and continued to whittle.

"W-would... no... could. Could I hire you and your apprentice as escorts? I swear I can pay! I just need to collected my cart and make it to Tarbes." She bowed her head deeply. "It's very close to here!"

Having a cart for Louise to ride in for a few days would be good. She was starting to get awfully irritated with the soreness from riding and the last thing he needed was to overwork her at the starting line. That and having a place to sit while traveling would give him extra time to work on the spear and his side project.

Overall it sounded like a harmless deal.

"I couldn't possibly reject such an earnest plea. Besides, we happened to be heading in that direction."

The cart jostled it's cargo ever so slightly with the small dips and rocks that existed on the back road. The afternoon sun beamed down from patches in the tree line and the breeze was just light enough to give one a warm sense of comfort.

"It's not a stagecoach, but it's not terrible," Louise thought and let out a sigh.

Louise and Cu's horses were being used to pull the merchant girl's cart, so even if Louise wanted to ride she couldn't. She thanked the Founder that Cu was able to fix the cart wheel.

She sighed again and stared out into the passing woods, the wooden creaks of the cart and the shucks of Cu's knife carving wood slowly drowned the world around her. It dared her to sleep. Yet, she couldn't. Cu's second exhibition of runic magic left her with a sense of restlessness. He'd only fixed something small, but the sight of the wood stretching and growing out to reconnect was like watching a tree grow right before her eyes.

It felt so distant to her. She knew she as making progress, she could feel it in her very core with every passing day. More than she'd ever made in her whole life. Was this how the others felt as watched and imitated their parents' magic as they grew up?

Louise shook her head. She wasn't even at that stage yet but she could feel that it would happen. Perhaps she would try to activate one of those training stones again.

"Something wrong?"

She had been thinking about the meaning of Ansuz as a rune outside of meditations. But it was difficult to recall what the it stood for, these days most runes were just considered to be letters used to spell the words of the continent's inhabitants. She'd been at a loss for the past few days, feeling as if she had to discover it on her own.

It was frustrating that she lacked the resources of a library.

She let out another sigh.

Suddenly, the sharp crack of fingers snapping startled her out of her thoughts and nearly caused her to fall over the side of the vehicle.

"What was that f-!" Her words caught at Cu's smile.

She wouldn't admit it, but he was quite handsome.

"What's the matter, lass? You keep sighin' like that and your life'll start to whittle away."

At a loss for how to word her trouble, Louise felt a pit drop in her stomach.

"I...Cou..." Squeaks and inaudible words left her mouth. She was the student but it still felt unbecoming to ask for help. She wished she could get over this hang-up.

It wouldn't hurt, Cu wouldn't care. What did she have to lose?

"But..." she thought.

What if her inability to discover the roots of the magic alone made him discard the thought of teaching her?

He praised her before and the idea should have been unthinkable. But what if he was mistaken and she didn't actually have the talent he thought. After all, she was a zero. Louise the Zero... Useless Louise.

She couldn't help but doubt herself as the past came back.

"I... I need help understanding the root of the rune you gave me. In this land, they are just letters in an alphabet with no inherent meaning... as far as I know..." Her voice trailed off and she cast her eyes to the floor of the cart, a tinge of embarrassment gracing her face.

"Well, why didn't ya say so sooner? You never asked anything so I thought you had it covered. To think we might've lost some days of effort do to my oversight." Cu sighed with a shrug.

"Ansuz is communication. The breath that leaves our bodies when we talk. The glue of spell casting that allows you to weave runes together for great feats."

Louise sat nodding, absorbing the information greedily. Every nugget of it was used to bash down the self-doubt that appeared in her.

"It materializes its mysteries to the world in the form of fire, I'm sure you can piece together why with the information you have."

The last piece of information was the most valuable to Louise. Her first rune, the first rune, the most important, was fire.

She thought about how all things linked back to man's first discovery of fire, before even the Great Founder Brimir was born to bring the light of magic to the world, fire had been there as the driving force in creating man. It was rarely spoken about in the greater context of world history, an uncomfortable truth that there was society before the time of Brimir and magic.

She paused in her thoughts and realized she was going down a dangerous path of thinking, the importance was the now in human history and not the chaotic times of the elves before humanities holy icon had been born.

"Thank you, Cu. I have a lot to think about now but that helped."

"Just remember, there is strength in asking for help." Her teacher gave her a pat on the shoulder and went back to whittling.

Louise smiled and went back to watching the woods pass by as she toyed with the idea of fire and life.

Imagine releasing a chapter at the end of the year after releasing one at the top of the year. Next chapter should finally start showing some advancement, but the real mystery is when will it come! Probably next year, that's for sure. Also I kind of feel like I should start double spacing, everything looks cluttered.