“Walk with me,” Lena touched Scorpio’s arm, beckoning him to follow. She walked towards the lake by the camp, then continued on along the shore until they were not only out of earshot of the others, but also out of sight, with rocks and vegetation hiding them from view. There she picked a spot by the water and sat down. Scorpio sat next to her. “I am worried about the task before us,” she said to the lake.

It had been a few weeks since Lena appeared in Gransys and found herself made into an “Arisen”. She longed to return to her own world, but first she had to get her heart back from the dragon that took it, and also she had to figure out how to return. The portal that brought her there, was gone. Scorpio was to be her companion, she picked his picture from a stack she was shown. He was hers to shape, they told her, determine what skills he should learn and how he should behave… She felt uneasy about that. But such were the rules.

Scorpio was glad to finally be picked, but also apprehensive as to who his master would turn out to be. Such was the fate of the “pawns” that weren’t in service of the Pawn Legion – that is, the vast majority of the pawns. They would drift through the Rift without sense or purpose until an Arisen somewhere would pick them. They would then walk with that Arisen and serve him or her until the Arisen faced the dragon. Should the Arisen die, the pawn would be “written off” – left to drift in the Rift for the rest of Eternity, as no one could be picked twice. What happened during the encounter with the dragon, remained a mystery as each pawn was sworn to keep his Arisen’s secret.

It was only the encounter with the dragon that was to be kept a secret however, other experiences could be freely shared. Scorpio knew from the other pawns that humans did not see pawns as equal, pawns were often seen as servants or slaves of an inferior race. It were humans who gave them that name – pawns. After all, didn’t the Arisen have the power to shape his pawn in any way he wanted? Pawns had no feelings, no will of their own… such was the notion. Was that true or were they simply meant to act as if it were true?

Scorpio was very careful to maintain the expected image, certainly at first. But Lena was different, she was like no other Arisen he’d heard of, and the other pawns that joined them along the way, only confirmed it. She didn’t treat pawns as pawns. If anything, she treated some townspeople as pawns… in particular, knights and nobility. That was most perplexing. And now she wanted a private talk… Why wouldn’t she rather ask one of her own kind?

“You have nothing to worry about,” Scorpio couldn’t quite think of what to say. “It’s just a bunch of goblins, from what I hear.”

“With a cyclops or two thrown in, yeah,” Lena smirked. “It isn’t the monsters I’m worried about. It’s that one of you pawns falls in battle and I won’t be able to get to you in time.”

“But… but we cannot die,” Scorpio was confused. “You know that, right?” He looked at her sideways. “We simply return to the Rift. We are expendable.”

“No, you are not!” Lena exclaimed hotly. “What rubbish!” She was angry but could not think of anything to say that would make sense in that world. She was thinking of Dylan – he was a daedra, and so he too would not die “forever”, he would be reborn eventually… But Lena never let him die. “I…” she shook her head, there was so much she wanted to say, but where to start? “Why do you think I stick close to you in battle?” She decided to start with something simple.

“So that I could protect you, of course,” Scorpio raised an eyebrow. “A pawn must guard his master with his life.”

“No,” Lena turned to look him in the eye. “I stick close to you so that I could protect you.” She paused to let that sink in, then just as Scorpio was about to object, she continued. “You are the mage in our party now, so you need protection.” She smiled, noting a new wave of confusion in his face. “And before that, you were the fighter in our party, and I protected you then as well…”

“You are not making any sense,” Scorpio shook his head.

“No, I guess not,” Lena agreed. “What I’m trying to say…” This was harder than she expected, she suddenly ran out of words. “You are the most important person in this world for me.”

“What..? Why?” This was the last thing Scorpio expected to hear. He was completely at a loss. What did she mean by that and what did she want of him? Some of the things he’d heard of and some of the things he’d seen with the other Arisen, did not bode well.

“Because I am not of this world either,” Lena said simply. “I am stuck here, I cannot get back, my heart was stolen, and I don’t care for any of the people living here. I picked your picture out of a stack, and for better or for worse, you are stuck with me now. And as for your immortality… It is never that simple, is it? I know, I’ve been there myself… I was a vampire once…” She smirked, recalling the painful experience of death and resurrection – she could never quite get used to that. “You are never reborn the same as you were before death,” she looked at Scorpio sideways and noticed him growing pale. “I shall always do everything in my power to protect those who walk with me.”

They sat quietly for a while, then Scorpio said as if to himself: “So I was right – this Arisen is indeed not like the others.”

When he turned to look at Lena a few minutes later, she was silently crying, tears running down her cheeks, her face set in stone. What was he to do? What was a pawn to do to console his master? No, what was a friend to do?

Scorpio moved closer to Lena and put an arm around her shoulders.

“So,” he said, casting aside the prescribed neutral tone. “We’ll go through it together. Goblins today, chimeras tomorrow, harpies, golems, whatever else this world chooses to throw at us. It is all a part of a grand test for the Arisen. Oh yes, you are in the thick of it. I don’t know the ultimate meaning, they keep that a secret. We’ll figure it out together, that’s what friends are for.”