"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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Just getting out of the city took Arran frustratingly long, with the crowded and narrow streets making it slow and difficult to find his way.Yet after a time, the streets got less busy and the houses grew sparser, and finally, he found himself outside the city.Here, the roads were much quieter than the streets had been, though there was still a good bit of traffic, with farmers and merchants bringing goods to and from the city.As Arran made his way north, he relaxed a bit, enjoying the sunny countryside while thinking about the weeks that lay ahead.From what he had heard these past few days, he now understood that the situation in the Sixth Valley was far more complicated than he had expected. With several factions fighting for power, choosing the wrong novice to join could be disastrous — deadly even.Yet so far, Arran had only seen a handful of Shadowflame novices in
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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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"The three most influential novices in the city?"Arran understood that Darkfire was talking about Amaya, Stoneheart, and Zehava, although he was surprised to hear that Zehava was included in the list — from what he had seen, she lacked both Stoneheart's power and Amaya's cunning."You know about the conflict in the Sixth Valley, right?" Darkfire asked."I have," Arran said. "It's about the successor to the Patriarch, isn't it?"Darkfire shook his head. "It isn't. Or… it is, but it isn't.""You've lost me," Arran said. "Is it or isn't it?"Darkfire let out a frustrated sigh. "It's complicated," he began. "As Liane tells it—""Who's Liane?" Arran interrupted him.Darkfire raised an eyebrow. "Liane Tirrand. The Governor's daughter. The girl I've been… I didn't tell you her name?"<
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The moment the announcer called a start to the fight, Arran's opponent launched a series of furious attacks at him, striking over a dozen times in an instant.Arran only barely managed to fend off all the attacks, with several almost slipping past his defense.Even as he desperately defended himself, he was shocked at the difference between their previous fights and the current one.His opponent was incomparably stronger than the last time they had faced each other — not only did he show far more skill, he was also very clearly an unusually strong Body Refiner.Arran stumbled back several paces, parrying the man's attacks as well as he could. Yet even as he defended, he was losing ground, his opponent attacking relentlessly and not leaving him even the slightest chance to counter.Panicked by the unexpected onslaught, he knew that the way things were going, he would soon lo