War of the Fathers by Dan Decker

of town and
had a good view of Vigorock as it shined in the late morning sun. Oh how he
wished that he had more time to puzzle out its secrets. The key to the ancient
weapons could be right in front of them and because they didn’t know what they
were looking for they would probably just pass it by. How much more efficient
would it be to get Vigorock to work now rather than spending an unknowable
amount of time trying to get into the Portal only to be faced with similar
questions if he was successful?
    Several small children with huge grins ran by and he
watched them as they passed. The smallest lagged behind and was calling to the
others to wait. As Jorad stared at the children, he wondered if there was anything
he could do to help them. Adar and he had agreed to warn everybody they could
before they had to leave, but he knew that their efforts would be futile. Even
if he somehow found the parents of these children, it would not be an easy task
to convince them that they were in danger.
    Adar had mentioned something about going to see Mayor
Keeret and Jorad wished him luck. The mayor was a prickly woman and didn't
particularly like Adar. Melyah, even if she liked Adar, a story about the
Hunwei wouldn't go over well.
    Jorad yawned. He and Adar had arrived at the boarding
house in the early hours of the morning and gone to bed. He had done his best
to sleep but the stress of returning to Rarbon kept him tossing and turning.
He'd finally managed to doze only to be awoken by Adar a few minutes later.
They decided to leave Zecarani in the early afternoon after Adar tied up a few
loose ends.
    Jorad's first thought when he awoke had been for
Soret. He'd grabbed a slab of bread from the kitchen and scarfed it down on the
way to the Tedenhel Store. The return of the Hunwei had at least solidified his
decision about her, his concerns about her parents seemed trivial in comparison
to the days ahead. Luckily, when he had arrived at the store, Barc and Hira
weren't around. It took some doing, but he'd managed to convince Soret to come
with him on a walk.
    “Ruder was right,” Jorad said, not knowing how to
start. He couldn't afford to have this conversation go badly but there also
wasn't much time before he would be leaving. He needed to convince her to leave
Neberan by either coming with him or by going somewhere safe and hiding.
    “Ruder is crazy,” Soret said, her eyes bored into him
but he held her gaze. She was wearing brown trousers, a green blouse, and had
her hair back in a ponytail. She might have thought she looked prettier when
she had dressed up for the wedding, but she was just as beautiful now. He could
smell the hint of the shampoo she used this morning.
    Jorad shrugged and recounted to her the events of the
last day, his certainty that the Hunwei had returned and that he was going to
Zecarani to help Adar find a way to fight them. He left Rarbon out of the
explanation for now.
    “I can't believe you're trying to convince me the
Hunwei are real.” Soret shook her head while standing up. “I need to return to
the store. I promised dad I’d make some deliveries. I don’t have time for
this.” Soret stalked away with her back straight. He’d seen that walk before,
and knew that she was furious. He would have liked to give her time to calm
down but didn't have the luxury. He chased after her.
    Somebody called his name from behind as he ran, but he
ignored it because Soret turned. “Is this your plan to trick me into marrying
you? You’re not the first man to try something like this on me. My dad won’t
give me a dowry if I pull a stunt like that. So if that’s your plan get it out
of your head now.” She stood in the middle of the road. Several people were
passing by on either side, but she didn't seem to notice the strange looks she
was getting.
    “Soret,” Jorad began but before he could continue,
Erro Paler pushed between them and Jorad almost lost his balance. Erro was the
same height as Jorad and reeked