Chapter 16

Ozymandias was snapped out of his flashback by a pair of hands coming from behind him and covering his eyes. "Guess who?" a familiar voice whispered in his ear, a blush rising to his cheeks.

"I wonder who it could be" he mused aloud, knowing filly well who it was. "Eir? No, she's busy helping her family with clearing the farm, Atli went hunting and won't be back for a fortnight and Elva just had a brother" he counted off, not noticing Safi's expression morphing into one of anger as she heard him list the name of several girls.

"Who are those?" Safi asked, her grip on Ozymandias growing tighter. Who exactly had he been seeing when she wasn't around, and how dare they take his attention off her?

"Nobody" she heard Ozymandias chuckle as he pulled her hands off his face. "There's no other girl I know apart from you and mom" he told her, turning round to see her scarred and gaunt face.

"Safi what happened to you?" he asked, pulling her close, examining the fresh scars and bruises that decorated her face and arms, unaware of the blush that was growing on her face due to their close proximity. "We need to fix you up" he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards Ordria who was currently helping Aldos and Synd carry several boxes out of the house and place them on the floor.

"Mom! Safi is here!" he called out, getting Ordria's attention.

"How have you been little one?" Ordria asked as she grabbed Safi by the head and lifted her up so she could examine her closely. "What happened to you?" Ordria growled as she saw the bruises and scars on Safi's body.

"N.n.nothing" came the response as Safi turned her face to the ground, not wanting to meet Ordria's gaze.

Seeing that Safi wasn't willing to talk, Ordria let out a tired sigh as she began pouring her kjarna into the small girl, causing her bruises and scars to vanish, along with the cracks in her bones to heal. Letting go of the girl, Ordria patted her head softly and resumed the packing.

"What's going on?" she asked as she examined the boxes, taking note of the foodstuffs, clothing, slabs of metal and rock chunks in the boxes.

"We're going on a trip" she heard a girl speak up from behind her. Turning round to see who was speaking, she saw a girl with the same purplish red eyes as Ozymandias that stared at her with curiosity and glee, but the thing that stuck out the most were the two pairs of wings sticking out of her back.

"You must be Safi" the girl said as she circled around her, her eyes examining every inch of Safi's body. "I've heard so much about you. Especially from him" she pointed to Ozymandias who was currently helping Aldos move several anvils.

"And you are?" Safi asked, a trace of venom in her voice as she put herself between the new girl Ozymandias who had just dropped an anvil in a pile and was walking towards them.

"I'm Synd, his sister"

"Liar. I've known him for four years and not once did he ever mention you"

"Of course he didn't, I was just born recently" came the reply as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"If that's true, then shouldn't you still be a baby?" Safi questioned, pointing out a very obvious flaw in the girl's response. At this point, the rest of the family had finished packing up and were currently watching the two girls argue.

"What would you know?" Synd retorted. "Unlike your feeble kind, I was perfect from day one"

"The only perfect thing about you is your obvious lack of intelligence" Safi quipped, extending her open palm to the side which Ozymandias immediately slapped with his own palm, a grin on his face as he watched Synd stutter as she desperately tried to come up with a response.

"So where are you going?" Safi turned to Ozymandias, the stuttering winged idiot completely forgotten. "And for how long?"

"We'll be going to the Shir Fisk, and from there, several other stops" a male voice replied, causing her to look behind Ozymandias and at the man with deep purple eyes and a gaze that made her feel like she was lower than the dirt beneath his boots. "You must be Safi. My son has told me so much about you."

The next few hours passed in a blur as Safi familiarized herself with everyone, with the exception of Aldos who was busy taking care of some last minute details.

"Alright everyone, it's time to go!" Aldos's voice called out, "Ordria, you take the boxes containing the ores and anvils, Ozymandias you take the weapons, Synd the books and clothes and I'll carry everything food related," he ordered. "And before any of you ask why I'm the one carrying the foodstuffs, the reason is very simple; I'm the only one here that Ordria can't get the food from"

Hearing his explanation, all arguments instantly died down. "So how exactly are we going to carry all of these?" Synd asked. "I know we're all strong, but carrying all this and moving at the same time doesn't seem very smart"

"As much as I hate to agree with the flying rat, she's right. Moving all these will slow us down" Ozymandias added, ignoring whatever insult Synd was going to use against him.

"Ordria if you will"

Getting up from the stack of boxes she was using as a chair, Ordria channeled her kjarna into her palm, causing the space above it to get visibly pulse, its expansions and contractions visible for all to see. With a simple thought, the distortion expanded outwards and enveloped the boxes, the disappearance of each crate resulting in the appearance of a flat two dimensional square which floated next to Ordria.

"By changing the level of space an object resides in, we can turn almost anything into a simple shape identical to what you'd find in a drawing" he explained in as simple a term as possible. If they couldn't understand his explanation now, they'd learn in future. Or simply do what Ordria did and copy it off him with their eyes.

"Next is the storage process," they all watched as Ordria wove the two dimensional constructs into the space between her skin, the squares stacking up on each other. Finishing with her stuff, Ordria performed the same action on the other boxes, weaving them into the skin of her children.

With the boxes gone, Aldos started walking in the direction of the Shir Fisk, only to stop as he noticed the others weren't following. "What's the matter?" he asked, letting out a tired sigh. Of the thirty hours in the day, they had already wasted a full ten hours waiting for Safi to show up among other things

"I want Safi to come with us" Ordria told him as she picked Safi by the collar and held her up to look at her husband.

"Ástin mín, do you know how much trouble that will cause? Especially if her parents come looking for her" he asked her, his face in his palms as he wondered why his wife never thought things through.

"Can't be worse than that time we kidnapped that Stórprestur" she commented, causing him to look away as he suddenly found the snow and trees more interesting. "That's what I thought" she grinned, her eyes glowing at her victory over her husband.

Putting Safi down, Ordria patted her on the back and began following Aldos, only to stop in her tracks. "What is it this time?" she heard her husband call.

"I just remembered something" she ran back to the house, leaving everyone waiting in the clearing. Returning several minutes later with a large package over her shoulder, jingling sounds filling the air as the chains that covered the package clinking against one another with each step she took.

"Alright, let's go" she called out, prompting everyone to look at Aldos who had been waiting for them.

"We've lost a lot of time, so we're going to move fast" he told them as he performed a few light stretches. "Ordria will carry Safi, the rest of you will just have to keep up" he finished his stretches as Ordria took off her shirt, revealing her bandaged and scarred torso. Lifting up Safi, she placed her on her back and wore her shirt again, securing the girl to her back and providing her with the warmth needed to withstand the cold. Securing the package to her waist by the chains surrounding it, she jogged after Aldos who had broken into a sprint, the children in tow.

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"Executioner Guðrun, the targets are on the move" a voice called out to Guðrun, snapping her out of her meditation. Acknowledging the initiate with a pulse of her kjarna, she stood up and let out a tired sigh, her bones cracking a bit as she moved for the first time in over two weeks. Closing the book that Yfirprestur Torvald had given her, she examined the runes that covered her entire right arm, the culmination of her training.

Covering her arm with her sleeves, she walked out of her room, wincing as the sunlight hit her eyes for the first time in weeks. "Where are they going?" she asked the initiate who had been waiting for her as she stretched out her hand, signaling for her coat to be put on for her.

"To the Shir Fisk" the initiate replied as she dressed Guðrun. "According to my informant, they're also planning to go to several other locations afterwards" she finished, her head facing the ground as she waited for Guðrun to praise her.

"I see" Guðrun patted the head of the initiate as a form of praise. "Send out word" she ordered the initiate as she made her way towards Yfirprestur Torvald's residence. "A hundred thousand gold pieces each for the woman and her husband, two gold pieces for the children"

"Who will I be sending it to Executioner Guðrun?

"Everyone" she told her, "From the great houses of the Upí Empire, to the warbands of the Kūzul hordes, to every last Zirkrič pack and every filthy criminal and lowborn scum you can find. I want them to be hunted down every day and every step of the way"