The guard looked at Arran and Darkfire suspiciously. "You were invited by the Governor?" he asked, some doubt in his voice.
"We were," Darkfire said. "So are you going to let us in?"
The guard didn't answer, instead whispering something to one of the other guards, who quickly entered the gate.
Some moments passed in silence as Arran and Darkfire waited. Finally, a man emerged from the gate. Dressed in a blue silk robe and with his black hair elegantly coiffed, he looked like a high-ranking official or noble.
"Darkfire and Ghostblade?" he asked, a practiced smile on his face.
"That's us," Arran said curtly, slightly annoyed at the wait.
"Excellent," the man replied with a nod. "I'm the Governor's steward. Please follow me inside."
He stepped inside the gate, Arran and Darkfire following close behind him.
Within the wal
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"Is something funny?" the young woman next to Arran asked, giving him a questioning look.Arran coughed several times, only partly succeeding in stifling his laughter. "My friend may have done something stupid," he said, his attention focused on the Governor's daughter as she entered the dining hall.Now that he got a better look at her, he saw that she was really quite beautiful — her flowing brown hair framed a well-proportioned face, and her dark eyes were large and alert.When she noticed Darkfire, her eyes lit up, and she immediately approached him, seemingly unconcerned with what the others in the hall would think.As she reached Darkfire, she cast a glance at the man who was sitting next to him — a wealthy merchant, judging from his elegant robe and slightly pudgy physique."Move!" she said in an unexpectedly firm tone that caused some looks of surprise among t
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"Wait in line until it's your turn," the mercenary said. "They'll give you a badge once you're sorted." Without waiting for an answer he left, seeming glad to be rid of Arran.Arran looked at the man as he walked off, then shifted his attention to the line in front of him. From what he could tell, there were at least a hundred people ahead of him, waiting before a tent the size of a small house.Briefly, he considered leaving right then. Yet although he now knew that Stoneheart's army was real, he had only gotten a short look at the camp, and he hadn't learned even a single thing about Stoneheart himself.He sighed in annoyance, then got in line. Perhaps the recruiters would be willing to tell him more about the army and its leader.As he waited, he studied the people who were waiting with him. Most seemed to be farmers and villagers, much like the people he had grown up with in Riverbend. Just from
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Arran read the letter in his hands, then tossed it aside. It held an invitation from a novice named Zehava, but it contained no time or other details, just mentioning the name and an address.Although Arran thought he could probably afford to ignore it, there was little point in offending a novice he didn't yet know. He would pay the novice a visit the next morning, he decided.After he got into bed, it took him some time to fall asleep, and as he lay awake, he thought about his forbidden Realm. Well over two years had passed since Master Zhao had sealed it, and still, the seal remained in place.Partly, this was a testament to Master Zhao's extraordinary skill. Although the lesser seals on Arran's Wind and Fire Realms had been torn away when Arran took ten Realm Opening Pills at once, the seal on Arran's forbidden Realm remained as strong as the day it was created.Yet the greater part of the story
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