"What is wrong with you, Gor? Usually you are calm whilst sparring. Do not ever try to use that spell in a practice match again! It is extremely dangerous. Has Iquaral not taught you that?”

  “I apologize. I do not know what took over me.”

  Harwin bowed his head to Graftel, and then to Grantal who was dumbfounded by this sudden development.

  “Forgive me for speaking out of turn, sword-saint, but I could have handled him just fine without your intervention.”

  “You might have been but then it would have been directed at one of the trees. I am sure that you are aware what could have happened then?” Graftel looked with a stern expression.

  “Yes, sorry for questioning your decision.”

  “Gor, do one hundred rounds of the entire village! I need you to remember this warning. This is the first time you have done something wrong so I will ignore it with a simple punishment but next time consequences will be dire.”

  Graftel had changed his whole demeanour. He spoke as if addressing an enemy, but it was called for, as one wrong spell could have have led to a great catastrophe.

  Harwin was obviously shaken by such a cold reaction from his master, but none the less, he quickly understood the situation and followed through with his punishment.

  Once he was out of sight, Graftel turned towards Uytral. The latter was astonsihed by the defeat of his self-proclaimed genius son, who he had raised with the hopes of taking place as Graftel's successor one day. Adding salt to the injury, his son was almost defeated by a human. Even if Harwin was using magika, this was a defeat none the less since there are no rules in war.

  “Do not worry old friend, Landel is a natural talent. The lad might even be stronger than the mighty Farelen, but it will be better if the giant does not hear of this as he is quite competitive. Well as for Gor, do not underestimate him for being a human, as he has more potential than most younglings in this village. I have never seen such focus and precision with which someone channels out magika. You already know that casting spells is not a child’s play, but that human was able to master all of this craft in a few months without any prior experience. On top of that, he is always calculating and planning the next moves. Your boy only lost because he underestimated his opponent, so let him take this as a lesson. It takes only one wrong move to be killed on the battlefield.”

  “I shall make sure that he remembers this as a lesson.” Uytral said while gritting his teeth to hold back his annoyance.

  Grantel was still standing there — staggered by all of the recent events.

  Landel had already begun to practice his swings once again. He was not interested in the whole situation, but there certainly was a tint of contentment on his face. Well, it was not because of his easy win against his opponent but due to the battle prowess displayed by Harwin — his student.

  “Uytral, I shall ponder over your request for the rest of the day. You should rest for today, as it certainly has been a long journey for you two.” Graftel left after saying this.

  “GET MOVING BOY! YOU HAVE EMBARRASSED ME ENOUGH ALREADY!” Uytral shouted.

  “Yes father.” Grantel said with a sorrowful voice.

  In the evening, after Harwin was finished with his punishment and went over to his house, he found Alisa standing there. To his surprise, Landel was also there which was a rare thing as he almost never visited.

  Alisa was talking, and Landel appeared to be only listening while keeping his eyes shut.

  “Finally you arrived, I thought Lisa will never stop talking.” Landel said without opening his eyes.

  “That is a rude thing to say Del, I will not speak to you again if it bothers you so much.” Alisa pouted.

  “No need to argue you two. It is quite rare for Landel to visit, so let me cook for both of you today.” Harwin tried to calm them down.

  He had also been learning to cook for the past few months. It was necessary skill along with the physical training, as one can not fight on an empty stomach. This was actually a common practice amongst merchants to do all their chores, as they had to be on the road for most of their lives, so to keep up his disguise as one, he learned to live their way as well.

  “Very well, I shall help you.” Alisa proclaimed cheerfully.

  They made their way in the house. Harwin had been graciously rewarded with quite a handsome amount of silver from time to time by the chief. It was to show gratitude beacuse it was due to his intelligence that they were earning so much.

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  He had saved enough to buy all sorts of furniture for his house, but he did not overspend — only purchasing things that were necessary. He had also paid the craftsman for the prosthetic arm, even though they tried to refuse at first.

  Harwin bought all sorts of ingrediants to experiment with new cuisines, so he had plenty at home to prepare a feast. The pair prepared the food in basically no time, as they also used magika to shorten the time it took to complete some processes.

  Landel waited in one corner of the house, he did not utter a single word. By having control of his presence, it felt as if he was invisible in the small house, so Harwin and Alsia checked on him from time to time to make sure that he was still there.

  Harwin prepared a dish from his old world this time, with a few native sides prepared by Alisa. To be precise, he had cooked steak with mushroom sauce. It was an exotic smell for the elves who tried it with a little hesitance, but one they tasted it, their hands did not stop until there was nothing left on the plate which made the chef proud.

  “Quite delicious, Gor. I did not expect you to be such a great chef.” Landel complimented Harwin which was again rare.

  “Indeed, this is out of this world, the ingrediants and process is so simple yet extra-ordinary. You have to teach me the recipe of this mushroom soup as well.” Alisa said.

  “I am glad that you two liked it, but it was not something special on my part. I used the mushroom that a few of the merchants had brought with them earlier, it was quite rare thing in this part of the continent, but they gave me a good deal.”

  “I see, well aside from all of this, I have something important to discuss. It is the very reason that I came here.” Landel wore a serious expression.

  “What is it?” Harwin noticed the sudden change of tone and directed his entire attention towards Landel.

  “It seems like there might be a civil war soon. That man, Uytral, brought some along some request, which I am sure you are aware of, but that is not the end of the trouble.”

  “What is it beside civil war that is more troublesome?” Gor questioned.

  “The timing, the specific order in which things are being played out. Now that we know that the plague was being spread by some external force and also the ambush on us earlier, I doubt that any of the calamities were a coincidence. It looks like the humans are finally making a move again.... this time they are more indirect in their way of war. All of this while tensions are rising from the northern continent, we might find ourselves in the middle of a war that can engulf the entire world.” Landel almost sounded fanatic, he was certainly making lot of assumptions.

  “That is indeed troublesome especially for the elfin villages that have still not recovered from the last war, but there is hardly anything we can do. It is up to the chief or better yet master Graftel to come up with a plan, so all we can do is advise and prepare for the worst.” Harwin replied.

  “That is true, but that is also what I fear the most as well. I am not ashamed to say this: the older generation, even my father, are not upto the task. This time sacrifices are necessary more than ever. We will need to take risks, and might even have to take down our own kin; the elders and even the chief are too soft.”

  “What about the commander, though? From what I heard and saw, he is more than capable to navigate us through any war.”

  “I can never understand what is going through that man’s mind, but he also favors peace more than anything. You might not believe this, but the elves were victorious in the Great Human-Elf war, yet at the end of it all, Graftel chose to forgive the humans and only took the Great forests as the elfin territory instead of more harsher terms. I am young, and I know that I can be cocky sometimes, but the older generation's very way of thinking has brought us to this stage again. Graftel does not like war, and he will try his best to avoid it. Even if it erupts, he will try to find a path that will lead to the least causilities which might even compromise us in the long term."

  Landel vented out his frustration, but his statements made it clear that he did not understand the sacrifices of war.

  “I understand your frustration, but I think you should trust his judgment. If the sword-saint's plans lack something — something that you feel is a miss — point it out. We need to be more understanding of eachother especially at a time like this.”

  “You are right. I also am a bit unsure about this Uytral fellow. He is an old friend of Graftel, but they have stayed separate from each-other for a long time now. I smell something treacherous from him, as he came here just after the Great forests and other settlements are at the brink of rebellion. Now all of a sudden, he asks Graftel to help clean up all of the mess out. He should have informed us the first time he felt something was wrong, so his motives seem ulterior and his words shady, to say the least.”

  “Those are some very serious claims. I also do not have much information regarding the man, having met him the first time. He is proud and certainly wants to install his son as the sucessor of Graftel, but it is not something out of place for a father to want the best for his child. What we can do for now is keep a close eye on all his actions. If your hypothesis is indeed correct, I assume that he wants to lure the sword-saint into isolation from his loyal forces.”

  “You might be right.” Landel replied.

  Alisa heard all of their conversation with a serious and worried look without interrupting the two, but one could clearly see that she was horrified and anxious by it all. After observing this, Harwin shifted the topic towards magika. He advised Landel to learn a few spells as well as they could help him in the long run. This shifted the mood of the room, and Alisa was happy to jump back in the conversation.

  They spent the late hours of night talking about all sorts of stuff. Landel had already said his piece and mostly remained quiet for the entire duration, but he still listened attentively.

  Their friendship had certainly evolved into a special bond, as no-one else in the village understood the three. Especially for Harwin, this small talk was something he looked forward to, at the end of the day.

  In the evening of the next-day, another grand summit was called in the village. All of previous participants but also Landel, Alisa were part of it. They sat in-front of Graftel. Everyone was anxious about the agenda of this summit.