Griffin Yardley's Arc

Chapter 3 of 5

The western unit rode at a hard pace, covering miles before the sun cleared the horizon. Griffin kept his eyes on Daveth's back, matching the rhythm of his knight-master's horse, but his thoughts kept drifting east where Florian was riding toward a different battlefield. By midday they reached the first burned village, just blackened timber and ash where homes had stood. Daveth didn't slow. They pressed on until the road curved past a small timber shed with a lantern still burning above its door, and that's where Griffin saw her — a woman in mint green robes with long red hair, standing over a massive pool of blood that spread across the ground like a lake. The Citya lay dead at her feet, its scaled body torn open by the longsword she held loosely in one hand. She turned as they approached, and Griffin saw no fear in her face, only the calm satisfaction of someone who'd just finished difficult work. Daveth reined in his horse and studied her for a long moment. "You're a cleric," he said, noting the robes and the holy symbol at her belt. "Fighting alone." The woman wiped her blade clean on the grass and sheathed it. "I was headed to the villages when I found this one hunting stragglers," she said. "Couldn't let it keep going." Daveth glanced at Griffin, then back at her. "We're riding to cut off their retreat. You fight like that, we could use you." Griffin watched her face, waiting. This was the first real decision of the campaign — whether she'd trust them enough to join, whether Daveth would risk bringing someone unknown into the unit. She looked at the dead Citya, then at the road ahead, then at Griffin and Daveth. "I'm Niniva," she said. "And yes, I'll ride with you." She moved to collect her pack from beside the shed, and Griffin felt something shift inside him — not just the addition of another sword to their company, but the proof that this war would reshape everything, pulling strangers together and tearing others apart. He thought of Florian on the eastern front, fighting with BelloSaros's unit, and wondered if he was finding his own allies or facing his battles alone. Niniva swung onto her horse and fell into formation beside them. Daveth gave the signal to move out, and they rode west together into whatever came next.