(B) "Ayden"
"Ah...Ayden. Do you understand what's happened here?"
"Yes, milady."
Xerarch's face softened. "I am sorry, Ayden. Do you have any place to go?"
Ayden shook her head no. Behind her, the house she'd been born in took flame.
"I see. Then you must come with us." Xerarch reached to her belt and her hand came up with Ayden's knife. "I saw what you did with this just before I arrived. You displayed courage in there and made it out alive. Captain Xander!" Xerarch shouted and another mounted soldier cantered up and saluted.
"You called, Your Grace?"
"Yes..." Xerarch smiled sadly. "I've a new recruit for you....Ayden, this is Captain Xander of the Fearless. Captain, see that this one gets patched up and finds lodging in your barracks. She'll the other berieved of Itor Bass. We're taking her back to Xavax" The Xerarch turned her horse to leave.
"Wait!" Ayden cried. "What is your name, milady?"
Xerarch look over her shoulder. "My name is Selenia. And you, Ayden, are safe." And with that, she cantered off, her mounted warriors falling in behind her while those on foot monitored the blazing cottage. Captain Xander trotted up to Ayden and reached down. She took his hand and he lifted her up into the saddle. Her leg hurt, but she bit it down. Xander nodded with approval and cantered after the Xerarch.
That terrible day changed Ayden's life forever. The armies of Xavax arrived to push the bandits out of Itor Bass and put down the undead infestation that had arose there. The Xerarch rescued scores of children and families broken by the bandits hateful war crimes, returning them to Xavax so that they might begin new lives. Those with fire, like Ayden, were trained to become Fearless fighters, soldiers in Selenia's personal battalion...a unit that assaulted the walls of Itorunt, Ibladesh, and Semall, that was part of the army that delivered the first defeeat Perdan had felt in years, and fought side by side with Uthred the Unstoppable's shieldwall on the day he died in Leibo. When the bandits blitzed the broken defenses of Xavax City, Ayden was there, having grown into a lethal fighter. She watched Selenia, Ruler of Xavax, get killed in that battle.
But what she thought then was the end, would actually become the beginning of everything for her,
