(Slight Edit)- Earlier chapters have a character named Zoe. Her name is changed to Rae.

  Chapter 15:

  Standing atop the Wall, Orrin watched a group of twenty or so demons jogging in their direction. The foremost demon held a spear in the air with a dark green flag with black markings he couldn’t make out rippling in the air above them. A smaller white ribbon was tied below it.

  “A treaty delegation,” Madi commented as they stopped about three-quarters of the way to the Wall. “The white fabric underneath their standard means they feel they are in the superior position to negotiate our surrender.”

  Daniel clenched his fists. “Maybe if I went down there and killed a few—”

  Orrin slapped Daniel on the back of his head. “Control your emotions, padawan. Anger leads to suffering.”

  Daniel blinked and rubbed the spot Orrin hit. “That isn’t the saying at all.”

  “This is why they made you stay back, D. You have to learn to control that rage against the demons.” Orrin tried to use [Identify] on the demon in the middle of the group but they were too far away. “The longer we can stall them, the more Walls we can get functional. You’ll get your chance to knock some demons around.”

  Silas had point blank ignored Daniel’s request to go past the Wall and meet with the coming envoy. Orrin watched as hidden doors below them opened in the Wall and Madi’s dad rolled his wheelchair forward. A smaller banner of white stuck up from a staff strapped to his chair. Lady Timpe, one of the other rulers of Dey, walked beside him. She wore her half plate armor and kept one hand on the magical longsword at her hip. Leanthun, the commander of the elves sent to help the humans, followed behind them. He kept his arms crossed but his curved sword called a khopesh and magical mace were visible as well.

  “I think the three of them going out there alone is stupid,” Daniel grumbled. “The demons sent that many as a show of force. We should respond in kind.”

  Madi put her hand on the brooding [Hero]’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about my father and Lady Timpe. They can handle this.”

  Orrin watched the two groups cautiously approach each other and begin to talk.

  “I can’t make out what they’re saying, even with [Telescope],” Daniel complained again.

  “Can you read lips?” Madi asked in surprise.

  “… no, but I can’t even see them talking.”

  Brandt shook his head. “Lady Timpe has a bracelet that creates a stasis bubble around her for when she needs privacy. I imagine she’s using it now to keep all the people on the Wall without patience from learning piecemeal what will be shared in time. It wouldn’t do for misinformation to be spread. Trust in the lords of Dey. They’ve kept the city alive for centuries.”

  Orrin chuckled. “Was that ‘without patience’ comment directed at anyone in particular or just in general?”

  Brandt smiled and brushed his hair back. Standing on top of the Wall in his armor, he looked every bit the [Knight] that his class described him as. “Who is it that keeps running off with half-cooked plans, Orrin?”

  Three minutes passed. Daniel growled and then huffed. “When they attack, I’ll cast a spell on us called [Weightless]. We can jump right off the top of the Wall but be quick. It only lasts ten seconds until I level it up a bit more.”

  “When did you buy feather fall?” Orrin asked. He didn’t look away from the group below them.

  “That… isn’t what it is,” Daniel answered shiftily. “[Weightless] makes things weight ten percent of their normal weight at level one. I talked with Leanthun about it and he assured me that I would be able to survive a fall at that weight.”

  Orrin turned his full attention to his friend. “Survive or land safely?”

  “You can heal us if we break a leg.”

  Orrin covered his face with his hand and rubbed his fingers against his eyes in frustration. “Daniel. Please don’t take this the wrong way. Are you an idiot or are the demons affecting you more now that they’re closer?”

  “That’s not fair, Orrin,” Madi spoke up before Daniel could answer. The upturned corner of her mouth gave her away before she finished talking. “Why can’t it be both?”

  Brandt sighed. “Daniel, let’s regroup downstairs near an action point. If someone does attack, we can safely move into the fray.”

  Daniel didn’t object and Brandt frowned at both Madi and Orrin as he guided Daniel away. “If you come with us, I want your word that you will both be better.”

  “He wanted us to jump and break our legs, Brandt. Maybe he should be better,” Orrin said but followed behind the man.

  Brandt held out his hand and stopped Orrin, letting Madi take the stairs down with Daniel. He waited until the two were out of earshot and turned on Orrin.

  “When we arrived back in Dey after you were kidnapped, Daniel ignored his own pain and rushed back to save you. He felt guilty that he hadn’t moved quickly enough to get everyone out. When we raided Lady Sanerris’s home, we missed you again by a few minutes. Every time that young man has tried to do something lately, he has been late. Too late to save his friend. Too late to stop the deaths of innocents.” Brandt worked himself up but took a deep breath and stopped himself. “You know just as well as I do that he has a drive to attack demons. If I had known that when we first met, I would have kept him away from the city while the Fogbinder was attacking. I can’t keep him away from this attack. We’ll need him before this is over but we need him with a steady mind. You are his friend. Instead of mocking him, you should help him keep his priorities straight. He respects you and listens to you more than you know. It’s your greatest strength. Use it.”

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  Ever since returning from his own capture and torture, Brandt was quieter. He spoke less and watched more, satisfied to wait in the background and go where the party led. The experience had given him a depth of patience and perspective that Orrin was only starting to see but his speech now was the most he’d said since Orrin’s return from Odrana. That it was a chastisement made it more remarkable. Brandt was a member of their party by default. He was a [Knight] assigned to keep Madi safe. He didn’t add anything unique to their fighting abilities and had been absent for weeks after his friend Jude betrayed them. Brandt rarely tried to steer the team anymore and for him to call Orrin out meant that Orrin had fucked up.

  “I’m sorry, Brandt.” Orrin focused on the tips of his boots. It had been a while since someone made him feel like an asshole.

  “It’s not me you should apologize too. Go talk with Daniel. I need to have a word with Lady Catanzano as well.”

  While Brandt reprimanded Madi outside, Orrin and Daniel waited in a dark room beneath the Wall. There were no windows but a small button would open a hidden door to the western plains where the demons were. It would also lock the entrance behind them that let in the little light they had. Multiple staging rooms like this were built into most of the Walls in the Pass and every single one on the outermost Wall was currently filled in the fear an attack was about to take place.

  “Daniel, I shouldn’t have—”

  “It’s fine, Orrin.”

  “It’s really not. I’m sorr—”

  “Seriously, forget it man.”

  “I’m going to apologize and you’re going to listen, damn it,” Orrin yelled.

  Daniel and Orrin looked at each other. Daniel chuckled.

  “It isn’t funny.”

  Daniel laughed harder. Orrin tried to keep a straight face but a smile crept out.

  “Never mind. You’re an ass.”

  Daniel’s laughter slowed and he threw an arm around Orrin’s shoulder. “It’s just good to have you back.”

  Orrin looked at Daniel in the dark shadows of the room. “I am back and I’m not going anywhere. We haven’t really talked about… everything since Odrana. Between fighting with Sanerris and getting the Pass ready for the horde, I forgot to ask how you are doing.”

  Daniel’s arm clenched momentarily around Orrin.

  “Right now probably isn’t the best time to talk but there will never be a perfect time. When have we had a moment to relax since we got here?” Orrin continued talking into the silent room.

  “You’re right,” Daniel scowled, taking his arm off his friend and moving away. “This isn’t the best time.”

  “Daniel, if you tell me you have the demon hate thing under control, I’ll drop it. If you tell me you want to talk later, I’ll wait. I know how much it sucked for you while I was in Odrana because it sucked just as bad for me. I didn’t know if you were safe. I knew you’d show up to save me at some point, because you always do. When—”

  “But I didn’t save you,” Daniel snarled, his anger flaring as he talked. “I failed over and over. I was just a few minutes late every time until you strolled into camp with Finley, safe and sound. This,” Daniel gestured to the blank wall blocking them from the demon army, “isn’t going to be like fighting a few monsters in a dungeon. This is a war. People are going to die.”

  He stopped and put his head against the stone. “We might die, Orrin. When we left you behind, I had to think about what I would tell your mom if I ever got home without you. I can’t…”

  Madi and Brandt entered the dark room before Orrin could respond.

  “Daniel, Brandt says that I’m too harsh and need to be nicer,” Madi playfully bantered as she came in, not able to see their faces clearly enough to read the room. “You’re fine and will tell me if I go too far, right?”

  “Yeah, Madi. I’m fine.” Daniel’s voice was flat.

  “Daniel, I promise you—” Orrin started to talk but was interrupted by two horn blasts from above. “What does that mean?”

  “Two is the signal for all clear. The negotiations are over and our people are returning to the wall,” Brandt said, letting out a sigh of relief. “We can head back up.”

  “Daniel, did I really hurt your feelings?” Madi asked, finally catching on to his mood.

  “Madi, can you give us a minute?” Orrin asked, nodding toward Brandt. “We’ll come up right behind you.”

  Madi’s hair swung as she glanced between Orrin and Daniel, her face filled with anxiety. “I didn’t mean… I’m… I’m sorry.”

  Brandt took her by the hand and pulled her gently from the room.

  “She’s going to think I’m mad at her,” Daniel muttered. “Another problem for me to fix.”

  “I’ll tell her you’re mad at me,” Orrin offered. “It’s basically the truth anyway.”

  Daniel pushed off the wall and was in Orrin’s face before he finished his sentence. “I’m mad at myself, Orrin. The Demon Lord is here. I’m not level fifty and don’t have the ability points to get [Demon Seal]. I spent too much time trying to save you. Not that I regret that. I would make the same choice over and over again. But I’m a failure of a [Hero]. I can’t control myself when I see the demons. I want to run out there and kill them and I don’t even have a good reason for it. It feels like somebody is pushing my ribs out from the inside and I can’t catch my breath.”

  Orrin hugged Daniel. “Shut up for a minute and take a few deep breaths.”

  He’d seen that frantic look in the mirror before. His panic attacks began in middle school. His mom tried talking with him for weeks before she brought him to a doctor. His half-answers and shrugs throughout the appointment didn’t deter the doctor. He gave Orrin a few breathing exercises to try and told him he’d see him in a few weeks.

  A few days later, Orrin woke up sweating and shaking, gasping for air at whatever nightmare triggered his latest panic attack. Taking deep breaths and counting out with each exhale, he didn’t get rid of his fear but brought it down enough to calm his body. He worked with Dr. Howick for a year to control his anxiety. He used what he could remember now for Daniel.

  “Breath in and out, counting to five. Don’t think about anything else right now. We are safe and can figure out everything later,” Orrin spoke softly and demonstrated with deep inhalations of his own.

  “Orrin, you’re squeezing me a little too tight, dude.”

  Orrin let go and stepped back. “Sorry.”

  Daniel kept his eyes closed and sucked in the air, blowing it out again. They stood in the room alone. Orrin could feel the tension leaving his friend’s body. Daniel opened his eyes and grinned sheepishly.

  “Thanks.”

  Orrin stuck out his fist. Daniel rapped his knuckles quickly.

  “Let’s go. Madi is going to be pouting until I tell her she didn’t really hurt my feelings.”

  Orrin stopped Daniel with a hand on his chest. “No. It’s time we talked.”

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