Hidden beneath the folds of the cloak and the thin gown I wore underneath, the cool hilt of a dagger that never quite warmed to my skin was sheathed against my thigh. Still, I knew, even off duty, they were watchful for signs of the dreaded mist and the horror that came with it, and for those who worked against the future of the kingdom. Instead, they donned loose shirts and buckskin breeches. Tonight, they weren’t just absent of anguish, but also their armor and uniforms. What the guards saw on a regular basis, what they had to do, often left them in anguish, rather it be from injuries or from what went deeper than torn skin and bruised bones. Smaller versions surrounded villages and training posts, the farming communities, and other sparsely populated towns. Ever since the War of Two Kings ended four centuries ago, the Rise had enclosed all of Masadonia, and every city in the Kingdom of Solis was protected by a Rise. They were guards from the Rise-the mountainous wall constructed from the limestone and iron mined from the Elysium Peaks. Not that I always did what I was supposed to do.īut these men were fine when I reached out with my senses to avoid those in great pain, which was surprising, given what they did for a living. To never speak of the gift bestowed upon me by the gods and to never, ever go beyond sensing to actually doing something about it. I was forbidden to do anything but ignore. They projected their agony onto the world around them. There was always someone whose pain cut so deeply, was so raw, that their anguish became a palpable entity I didn’t even have to open my senses to feel-that I couldn’t ignore and walk away from. Doing so without reason felt incredibly invasive, but in crowds, it was difficult to control just how much I allowed myself to feel. Normally, I didn’t prod to see if someone was in pain. I’d…felt nothing from them as I drifted between the crowded tables earlier. I looked up from my cards and across the crimson-painted surface to the three men sitting at the table.

“They found Finley this eve, just outside the Blood Forest, dead.”

From blood and ash jennifer armentrout