Chapter One
Chapter One “So, what’s your opinion of our new home, Roland?” I asked, my elbow resting on the arm of the carriage and my hand on my chin. “This place looks incredible,” Roland replied, his back hunched and still almost touching the carriage ceiling. His eyes stayed fixed on the window as the carriage slowly came to a halt. “Though I suppose Iris would have a different opinion?” “This place looks like a great pile of shit,” Iris muttered, loud enough for us to hear, but she wasn’t even gazing out the window. Her face was hidden beneath her traveling cloak. This place will make the capital look like a village in a few years. I kept the thought to myself but grinned anyway. These two had kept up this back-and-forth the whole trip as we stared at the nothingness of the empire’s south. Little did they know, it actually entertained me to see two opposites stuck in such a confined space. Roland caught the gesture and kicked Iris’s leg ever so gently—for a man as big as him. “See? Lord Cavendish agrees with me. Your sourness will be our downfall,” he laughed, his voice echoing through the small carriage. His eyes always became two thin lines when he smiled, hiding behind his wrinkled face. The man was built like a bull and tall as a giant. I wondered if there were giants in this world. Nothing in Lord Cavendish’s memory told me otherwise. If there were giants here, Roland was most certainly their offspring with a human. A different type of giant than the ones I used to see on TV, one much gentler. “As I said before, you two can call me Nathan when we’re alone. There’s no need for formalities,” I assured them as I read the messages inside my brain again, which I had been doing daily for the last month. Magemark System Initialization… User detected. System activation incomplete. Requirement: Bond a Mage or Sorceress to unlock the Magemark System. Effects of Bonding: Bonded individuals establish a magical link, allowing for shared power and progression. It’s impossible for a bonded mage to hurt its marker and the opposite is also true. The strength and affinity of the bonded individual will determine available abilities. A stronger bond unlocks greater possibilities. Potential Abilities Upon Activation: Gravity Manipulation: Influence weight, force, and movement. Elemental Control: Command the fundamental forces of nature. ???: Locked. ???: Locked. ???: Locked. Awaiting Bond... As I reached the message’s end, the carriage finally stopped. The coachman’s boots sent small rocks flying against the carriage as he rushed to open the door as if his life depended on it. He opened it, and I took my first proper look at Ravenswatch. The place indeed looked like a piece of shit. It was surrounded by tall fences covered in barbed wire, as were the houses inside. There wasn’t much to see as I stood and inspected the town with both hands on my hips. A dozen or so houses scattered here and there, a barn, a church at the center, and two giant mountains that left the place nearly in shadow all day. “You’re far too happy for someone who just acquired an unstable, dangerous, unprofitable dump—oh, and don’t let me forget: one with a wild sorceress locked inside.” Iris stood beside me, eager to catch my eyes. The woman was quite short, but she made up for it by being ruthless in business and life, with a sharp eye for numbers. She also had full red lips, ocean-blue eyes, white skin, curves that could make any model envious, and silky black hair. Call me old-fashioned, but I let her vent a little just so I could keep looking at her a bit longer. To be fair, she was moving to the fringes of the empire with a nineteen-year-old noble who, on a whim, decided to take lordship of a place not even the emperor wanted to send soldiers to deal with. Still, she was utterly mistaken because I wasn’t completely Lord Cavendish, and I was far from being nineteen—or at least I was before this whole reincarnation thing happened. “I’ll change your opinion in less than a month. You’ll start to see the potential, maybe before that.” I patted her on the shoulder as I stared into her deep blue eyes. She removed her cloak, revealing her wolf ears, her black curled hair, and her full red lips. I noticed her tail flicker ever so slightly. She had good control over that, but during the last month I learned what pushed her buttons, and a challenge—even an indirect one—always did the trick. She smiled with her wolfish grin. “That’s if you’re not dead by the end of the day.” “Why should my lord be worried if he has me?” Roland called from the side, towering over me. “And more than a dozen armed men?” He pointed to the carriage coming up behind us, hauling two wagons with my personal retinue of twenty soldiers. Right behind it came the carriage carrying our belongings and everything we’d need to begin transforming Ravenswatch into a thriving city. From the halting wagon, a soldier came running, sword in hand, its tip pointed to the ground. His black-and-red uniform was spotless, his face hidden beneath his cap. The sun was unforgiving when you weren’t beneath the shadows of the twin mountains. As he got closer, I caught sight of the golden stripes on his shoulders and identified the man. “I’m here, sir! At your service!” The captain shouted, punching his chest with one hand, as military men always did in this world. “Why in the god’s name do you have your sword drawn, Captain Louis?” I called through gritted teeth, trying to be as harsh as possible without drawing attention. “I was expecting some… resistance to your arrival, sir. My men are eager to prove their valor.” Louis straightened himself and sheathed his weapon. This time, I made sure to be heard, speaking a little louder than necessary as I patted the man on the chest. “You’ll do this for me, Captain Louis. You’ll go back to the wagon and tell my men I need them eager to prove their valor by not drawing blood today.” I raised an eyebrow as the man seemed shocked by my sudden aggressiveness. Then, I lifted my eyebrows and gestured toward the city with my eyes. He caught the cue right away. Louis wasn’t the sharpest tool, but he was passionate and dedicated enough that I wouldn’t let him feel like shit. “I see, sir!” he said, also louder than necessary. “Consider it done, sir! The soldiers will be ready to not draw blood!” I sighed as he parted, the wagon unloading sweaty soldiers who rushed to be on the nearest shadow. I returned my eyes to the village and was reminded that every village denizen had watched us from their homes from the moment we were visible on the road. I’d felt their eyes on me the minute I stepped away from the carriage, and I hoped my little show with Louis was enough to ease some of them. “That’s clever, I must admit,” the wolf-woman said, looking at the same houses as me. She was probably considering whether they had core grenades to throw at us. “We’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “With you by my side, nothing can go wrong.” Her tail moved again. A little flattery always made it twitch, even if her face remained stoic. I took a step forward and suddenly felt like I was in an old western movie, but there was no other duelist in front of me. Just a seemingly empty village. “Sir, are you sure this is the right move?” Roland stepped forward to follow me, but I halted and placed a hand on his chest. “Go back, my friend. Wait there with Iris as we planned.” I smiled at him—a smile that made it clear I was giving an order without needing the words. He puffed his chest and nodded respectfully. “I only hope you’re right, my lord. I don’t want to lose you again.” “I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m well,” I reassured him, patting his strong chest, hidden beneath a leather coat bearing my family’s insignia over the heart—a black rose pierced by a dagger. Damn, that was a good symbol. “Make sure the soldiers stay out of sight, okay?” He noticed I was patting the insignia, glanced at it with pride, and stepped back. I resumed my walk, clasping my hands in front of me to show I wasn’t carrying weapons, and stopped before the fenced door. I waited a good thirty seconds, kicking rocks and whistling Blackbird as I stood there. Just as I expected, a figure emerged from one of the houses. An old man trudged toward me, clearly stiffening his back. The wrinkles on his face, scruffy white beard, and bald head told me he was over fifty—which was old for this world. Still, he wore a chest plate and had two daggers sheathed at his belt. He was ready to fight. I just wanted to talk. “Good morning, my good sir. My name is Lord Nathan Cavendish, and I’m here to claim the lordship of this lovely village,” I proclaimed, louder than necessary, making sure everyone inside their wooden homes could hear. The old man approached the fence, pressed a shoulder against a gap in the barbed wire, and raised an eyebrow, looking at me defiantly. “Is that so?” His voice dripped with venom. “Most certainly,” I replied quickly, ignoring his tone and taking a good look at the town behind him. Bloodstains dotted the ground, along with signs that someone had been dragged. Near the barn, a horse lay dead—freshly killed, the gash on its side unmistakable. “I can see your village is going through some rough times. I’m here to help,” I continued. “Is that so?” he repeated. “Most certainly.” I moved closer, and the man stepped back, suddenly aware. “Easy now. You’re Marvin, aren’t you? The second in command here—or should I say the first?” “I remain the second in command, as we all agreed, and intend to keep it that way. But since you’ve been so polite—yes, I’m Marvin. At your orders, Lord Cavendish.” He mockingly bowed. The man tried hard to get under my skin, but all he earned was a grin. “Is that so?” I stepped closer, closing the distance to where he’d stood at the start of our conversation. Now he was the one two steps behind. “So, here are my orders for you, good sir. I demand that you open the gates, search me thoroughly—even if I guarantee you I’m unarmed—and take me to your leader, your wild sorceress. My men will remain outside these fences and have direct orders not to enter unless I don’t return in three hours.” “Why would you do that? That’s stupid. The fences, the armor, and the weapons aren’t signal enough that we’re not bowing to the empire? She’s our leader, and it doesn’t matter if she’s a wild sorceress or whatever! We’ll keep her alive inside the core walls of her home and deal with any horde of monsters until the day we die.” The words came fast. Too fast. He’d clearly rehearsed that speech, and it seemed he was going to say most of it no matter if the lord coming was aggressive or not. I respected his loyalty, but I still had a job to be done. I locked eyes with him, my expression growing more serious by the second. By the time I spoke, the air had turned cold. “I’m not here to kill you. And don’t mistake me; I could. I’m not here to slay your leader. I’m not your enemy. The things that killed your horses and men, they’re your enemy. You may not believe me now, but you will soon. I’m in Ravenswatch for your best interest, and I don’t plan to have the pillar of your community slain—or worse, all of you cut down by my swords or caught in the aftermath of a wild sorceress outburst.” Only then did I smile again, the old man clearly taken aback. “Now, open the gates, and let me see the wild sorceress.” Marvin didn’t answer right away. I held his gaze. I was asking him to let me walk into the heart of a power so unstable, the empire would rather see it buried. Ravenswatch was different, though. The place stood in the middle of nowhere, so when the townsfolk refused to execute the wild sorceress, they were condemned—to die either by one of her outbursts or by the horde of monsters drawn to her power. No one understood why a nineteen-year-old noble would want to claim the place, even less so after surviving an attempted murder by poison. To most, it probably looked like I had a death wish. But I knew better. Marvin opened the doors for me. The entrance to the lion’s den. And everything was going exactly according to plan.
