Chapter 60: The Sareth Twins
The cart approached Sareth at the end of the afternoon.
Nathan drove slowly during the last hour. The landscape had gradually changed. The dense forests opened into an area of rolling hills. The path widened. And in the distance, on a small rise surrounded by cultivated fields, the settlement appeared.
Sareth was larger than Marren.
Approximately eighty people, according to what Selene had marked on the map. Houses distributed across three levels, with the communal house at the highest point of the rise. The thatched roofs had the specific orange tone of late afternoon under the autumn sun. Smoke rose from several chimneys. Children running between houses. Dogs.
Nathan observed it all with the specific satisfaction of someone who’d learned to appreciate Veil settlements over the past few days.
*Good.*
*Quiet. Small. Orderly.*
*Hot dinner. A bed. Rest.*
*And tomorrow, the river.*
"Sprout."
"Yes?"
"This looks promising."
"Yes."
"Honestly, after everything that’s happened, a quiet settlement with a hot meal and a bed with no creatures underneath sounds specifically perfect."
"Don’t speak too loudly."
"I’m not speaking loudly. I’m speaking at normal volume."
"Nathan."
"Yes?"
"Every time someone says something ’looks promising,’ something happens."
"Statistically, that’s not true."
"Statistically, it is."
"Acceptable."
The cart continued up the rise.
And approximately two hundred meters from the settlement’s first house, specifically in the exact second Nathan was thinking about how good it was going to be to sleep in a bed that night, Soul Sense reacted.
It wasn’t a low-range alarm.
It was a specific alarm.
A presence moving at high speed. Aerial. From above. Approaching from an angle no terrestrial creature could have taken.
And he no longer had time to reason.
Nathan raised his right arm above his head.
Just on reflex.
A quarter of a second before impact.
---
Something hit him hard.
Nathan felt his feet leave the driver’s seat. His body flew through the air approximately three meters. He landed on his back on the path.
Rolled once.
Stopped on his back.
Looked at the sky.
And in the sky, above him three meters in the air, a girl was floating.
*Floating.*
*Literally floating.*
About Liaraen’s size. Adolescent. With short silver hair that moved as if unaffected by gravity. In light clothing covered in white details that emitted a faint glow. With two lines of silver light coming from her back at the shoulder blades—not physical wings, but energy currents that kept her suspended. And with a broad, specifically mischievous smile that suggested she’d been waiting for exactly this moment for several days.
Her eyes were the same silver as her hair.
And they were glowing.
With the specific signature of an active Seal.
*A natural Seal.*
*She has a genuine birth Seal.*
Nathan processed that in a quarter of a second before having to react again.
Because the girl descended.
Fast.
At an unnatural speed. With her right arm extended forward in an open-palm attack directly toward Nathan’s chest.
Nathan rolled left.
The palm struck the ground where his head had been. The earth sank into a small crater the size of a plate.
*Physical force considerably amplified by the Seal.*
*Good.*
Nathan stood up with the speed his body—still recovering from the dungeon—could manage. Approximately eighty percent of his normal capacity.
And the girl was already in the air again, circling him at waist height, looking for another attack angle.
Nathan raised both arms.
Blocked the first kick.
Blocked the second punch.
Dodged the third attack by jumping backward.
*She’s attacking in sequence. Without pause. Without allowing a counterstrike. She has formal training.*
*Or the equivalent of formal training that an active Seal with this kind of ability produces.*
"Nathan!" Liaraen shouted from the cart.
"I’m fine," Nathan replied.
*Apparently.*
*No damage.*
*Just confused.*
The floating girl attacked again. And again. And again. Nathan blocked all attacks with increasing difficulty. The girl was fast. Specifically fast. And the fact that she could change angle vertically every second meant standard combat techniques against terrestrial attackers didn’t directly apply.
Nathan had to improvise.
After the seventh blocked attack, the girl floated back two meters. Stopped. Looked at him.
The smile was still broad.
Her silver eyes glowed brighter.
"Interesting," she said, in the sharp voice of a girl around eighteen years old. "You block well."
Nathan looked at her.
His right shoulder specifically hurt from the initial impact. His left elbow hurt from one of the later blocks. His heart was beating much faster than it had at any point in the journey prior to this.
And yet.
And yet, he replied with his usual specifically cynical calm.
"I appreciate the comment." He brushed the dust off his pants. "I also appreciate that you attacked a stranger on the entrance road to your settlement without apparent cause and without identifying yourself. It’s a creative approach to social protocol."
The girl laughed.
A broad, crystalline laugh, specifically without guilt.
"I’m not attacking for the sake of attacking," she said. "I’m testing."
"Testing what?"
"If my brother was right."
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
"Your brother?"
"Yes. My twin. A seer. Well, almost a seer. He sees possible paths, not the future directly. He told me this morning that a man in a cart with a green-haired elf would arrive. And that this man was, in his specific words, ’very strong.’ And I thought that was a vague description. So I decided to test."
"Testing."
"Yes."
"With a direct physical attack from the air."
"Yes."
"On a stranger on the entrance road."
"Yes."
Nathan looked at her for a full moment.
Then sighed.
*The universe, apparently, has specifically set out to ensure I don’t have a single quiet day until we reach Aelthoren.*
*Good.*
*Noted.*
"And?" Nathan asked. "Was your brother right?"
The girl floated slightly closer. Her smile grew a little smaller. Her silver eyes assessed him with the specific attention of someone processing considerable information in real time.
"Yes," she said. "He was right."
"Acceptable."
"Very right, even. None of the adventurers who pass through Sareth normally block all my attacks. And even less so someone who’s apparently injured."
"I’m not injured."
"You’re injured."
"Just a little."
"That’s what I said."
The girl descended to the ground. The two silver light threads on her back dissolved as her feet touched the earth. She straightened. And with the specific naturalness of a teenager who’d just finished a game and wanted to move on to the next activity:
"My name is Sella."
"Nathan Voss."
"Nice to meet you, Nathan."
"Nice to meet you, Sella. Next time, introduce yourself before the attack."
"That wouldn’t be as interesting."
"Acceptable."
Sella turned to the cart.
Liaraen was standing beside the cart with her short dagger in hand. Her posture was defensive. Her eyes, however, showed more confusion than hostility. Sella looked at her with the same broad smile she’d used with Nathan.
"Green-haired elf. Yes. Matches."
Liaraen didn’t respond.
"Don’t worry. I’m done testing. It was a one-time test."
Liaraen looked at her for a moment.
Then lowered the dagger.
Very slowly.
"Nathan," Liaraen said. "Are you okay?"
"I’m fine."
"Sure?"
"Sure."
"Alright."
Sella turned toward the settlement. Shouted:
"Kalen! They’ve arrived! And you were right!"
---
From the settlement, specifically from the nearest house, another figure emerged.
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