The journey was far from what Soral expected. After taking the odd carriage for a while, Ruena led him off the path into a forest almost immediately. “Are you living in the forest?” Soral asked.

  “Not exactly,” she replied, “At least not this forest.”

  Soral was confused but continued to follow until the road was long out of sight.

  “This should do,” she decided, “Keep what you are about to see a secret.”

  “A secret?” Soral asked. What was she about to show him? It felt too soon for her to be showing him secrets, him being a thief and all.

  Rather than answering, she took out a black wolf charm with a wolf holding a life sized wolf tooth in its mouth. That didn’t seem particularly secret worthy. Then Ruena carefully turned the tooth sideways and a silver vertical line appeared before them.

  That line slowly broadened and opened to reveal the scenery of an entirely different forest and a small cottage tucked in between the trees.

  Soral stared in amazement. What was that charm? Why could it make the silver line, door, thing? Was that little cottage her home base?

  “This is a portal,” Ruena explained, answering one of his unasked questions, “They are a rare form of magic, but my benefactor was able to seal this magic into a charm for me.”

  “This is magic your benefactor can use?” Soral asked. He had never seen magic quite like this before.

  “It is,” Ruena confirmed, “He is a powerful sorcerer capable of magic lost to time.”

  “Portals were lost to time?” Soral asked, stepping closer to it, enchanted. He could feel the magic flowing in the silvery lines that marked the edges.

  “Careful,” Ruena warned, “I don’t know what happens if someone touches those. But yes. Portals were banned by one of the previous Queens of Altea because she found them dangerous.”

  Soral took a step back, disappointed. “Right. Does it lead to your base?” he asked instead.

  “It does. I am not quite sure how it works, but this charm will always take me home, and then back to the last location I used it.”

  She stepped through the portal as she explained and beckoned for him to follow. Soral felt as if he had been underestimating magic all this time. He had been using it for shallow tricks and sending messages, but this was something far more… He couldn’t think of the right word, but he wanted it.

  The inside of the cottage was as small and cozy as it had appeared on the outside. It certainly didn’t look like the base of the future Weaponsmaster. There were little to no decorations, barely any furniture, and it had only the one bedroom. Overall, it didn’t really feel lived in.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Ruena sat down at the dining room table and pushed out the only other chair for him. “Before we go any further there is something we must discuss.”

  Soral had a bad feeling but sat down as directed.

  “To be honest, my benefactor supports me a great deal, but if I want anything beyond this basic support, I have to earn the money myself. That’s why I have been hunting bandits.”

  “I’m not stealing money,” Soral interrupted.

  Ruena gave him a cross look. “I would never ask you to do that. In fact I would prefer it if you didn’t steal at all,” she told him, “Soral, have you ever tried taking jobs? Legal jobs?”

  “You want me to get a job?” Soral asked, unable to hide his distaste for the idea.

  “Not exactly. There is a guild created by the Belleas Company that gives out quests and jobs for explorers and mercenaries that don’t want to join the company as official employees.”

  “I can take a look,” Soral promised somewhat begrudgingly, “But if there is nothing I can do, I guess I could help hunt bandits.”

  Ruena seemed relieved that he agreed. “There is actually one more problem. My base only has the one room-”

  “I’ll sleep outside,” Soral interrupted, “I am more comfortable in the forest than in a bedroom.”

  She looked like she wanted to argue for a second, but decided Soral was a thief and likely wasn’t just saying that to be polite. “That works. Did you want anything to eat? I only have some biscuits and jerky right now since it’s convenient.”

  Soral wrinkled his nose on reflex after catching sight of the hard biscuits she offered. The jerky didn’t look much better. Had she been surviving eating this kind of thing? All of the sudden he pitied her.

  “Don’t look at me like that. It is a choice. It’s not like these are army rations or anything,” Ruena defended.

  “I will look for those jobs you mentioned first thing tomorrow,” he said. It was a pain that she relied on money, but he could make things work.

  “Good night then,” she said got up from the table.

  Soral stepped outside and found a nice looking tree to sleep in. After checking to make sure that Ruena had not followed, he climbed up and settled on the thickest branch. Now that he was alone he remembered the portal from earlier. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, but where should it lead to? You couldn’t open a door that led to nowhere.

  Since it was just for a test, he settled for his most recent home base, the roof of the building those bandits had set up in. As he focused, a tiny hole began to open in front of him and a gust of wind flowed through it. He could see the clear night sky and the stars, as well as a very familiar wall and railing.

  It worked! He couldn’t help himself and lightly touched the edge. It felt a little tingly, like if static had become a string. He carefully tugged on it and the hole became a little wider.

  “Amazing,” he whispered, “I will have to experiment more with this later… On the ground.”

  It took a lot more concentration to close than it did to open, but he managed on his first try. If he could do this, he wondered what other kinds of forgotten magic were out there to discover.

  ==========

  Ruena closed the door to her room and finally let out a sigh of relief. She had kept a confident appearance in front of Wild, or Soral, but now she was alone that facade broke to pieces. Densooth had promised her that as long as she could get Wild on her side, her dream was certain to become reality.

  What she hadn’t expected was how intimidating he would be. He didn’t seem to realize it himself, but he was surrounded by a powerful magical aura that fluctuated with his emotions. When he had been cornered by those bandits she rushed forwards because she could feel the rush of magic surging around him. She shivered at the thought of what might have happened if she hadn’t intervened.

  That being said, he was surprisingly trusting and na?ve for a thief. She took out the black wolf charm and twisted the tooth the other way.

  “Have you succeeded?” her benefactor questioned from it.

  “I found him,” Ruena answered, “He is exactly as his name suggests, Wild.”

  “I recruited you because the prophecies state you are the only one who can tame him,” Densooth told her, “I will leave the methods entirely in your hands. When you think he is ready, bring him to meet me.”

  “How will I know he is ready?” Ruena asked.

  There was a pause as Densooth thought. “As long as he trusts you he is ready enough,” he decided.

  Trust. That was going to be difficult to judge. “That might take a while,” she warned, remembering his earlier behavior, “He acts naive, but that isn’t trust. He would turn on me in a moment if he is pressured.”

  “Speed is not important,” Densooth assured, “Take your time and be careful.”

  Ruena turned the tooth back to its original position and put it away. She hated having to constantly rely on her benefactor like this. One day she would become strong enough she wouldn’t have to rely on anyone.