"Charity, creativity, fear, love, pride, strength, temperament, and wisdom."

"Again."

"Charity, creativity, fear, love, pride, strength, temperament, and wisdom."

As much as I wanted to talk to Nadine about pretty much everything, she instead focused on battering the eight aspects into my head so that they became so ingrained that I wasn't sure I could form sentences with any other words.

"Again."

"Nadine." We had been walking for several hours. I had awoken a little past breakfast, with the noon sun already making its way to its apex. We'd enjoyed a quiet meal on the road, which was more due to the exertion needed to chew through the dried meat than from a need for silence. Once my jaw had time to rest and could manage a conversation, Nadine cut me off before I could begin my line of questioning and instead turned to memorization. However, after an hour or so of this, I was ready to put my foot down.

"Nadine, I've got the aspects down pat. Can we maybe talk about what these are supposed to mean?" I stopped in order to punctuate the necessity of the discussion, but Nadine blazed right past me.

"Keep walking. Day does not scare those who work best at night." That's all I got.

"You do realize I am your..." And before I could finish my snarky comeback reminding her that I was her ever so holy Breydar, Nadine whipped around and raced forward, extending her hand and slamming it against my mouth.

"You are my apprentice sister. You are training."

That was the story I was instructed to follow before leaving the temple, but I did not think it mattered when all that surrounded us was a field of heather and the distant vision of farms on the horizon.

"Right," I said with a slow drawl, my eyes looking around to see if perhaps she saw someone lurking in the tall grasses that I had not. "And maybe you should be nicer to your apprentice or else I may just go and join another temple. You might also want to consider teaching me as well since it would be useful for, you know, my training."

"Again."

"Charity, creativity, fear, love, pride, strength, temperament, and wisdom," I said with a sigh. She nodded then started forward once again without looking back to see if I was following. That's probably because she knew well enough that I wouldn't remain there for long, not when I would be lost in this world on my own.

With a groan I ran up to join the side of my much younger mentor. She greeted me with, "again."

Eventually, I found that if I didn't try to ask anything she didn't attempt to make me repeat the aspects like some unholy mantra. We proceeded in silence, eventually enjoying another cut of meat with the addition of a biscuit of hardtack and a strip of fruit bark.

As we reached the first signs of life outside of the temple, I had the aspects rolling around in my head. My eyes may have skimmed over the vast fields and rolling pastures, but my mind only studied those eight words. What did each of those aspects mean? Strength seemed like the easiest to digest, yet I still found myself struggling. Strength of body, strength of mind, strength of will, strength of character? Strength seemed like a simple enough notion, but its simplicity made it ambiguous. Was I looking for someone able to lift a cow with one arm or was I looking for someone who had the strength of conviction to stand before an army of a thousand even if they had no chance of winning?

Eventually, the little farmhouses and their barns gave way to a street lined with market stalls for the farmers as well as a few merchants with trade goods. Farther down the street, more roads emerged and a small town rose up. People bustled and some waved to Nadine, though their eyes looked to me. Beyond them taller buildings reached towards the setting sun and signs indicated them to be the typical town accessories: an inn, a tavern, a town hall, etc. Nowhere did I see any sign of this decay that Marden spoke of. I saw artisans working their craft out of open air shops, stalls brimming with vegetables and haunches of meat, and people smiling and laughing without a care or concern.

"Not all is well," said Nadine, her voice smoother and older than I expected.

I turned to look at her, my eyes asking the question since I feared any words from my mouth may only provoke another "again."

"The town is small yet they prosper. Why not grow?" she posed, though it was clear she didn't expect an answer. "They fear the gate," she said with a firm nod of her head and the crossing of her arms. "They fear the wrath if Breydar returns. Only those pure in faith remain." She sighed and looked out to the fields where we had just come from. "A shame the land not used when so many need the bounty. Fear is powerful."

"Fear," I muttered. One of the aspects. Was Nadine giving me a hint? I looked around and wondered if it would be as apparent as a woman screaming at nothing or a man cowering on the ground when no one threatened him.

"Come, the stalls close soon. We need supplies and then a room. Night is not a friend when we only are two." With that, I put my investigation on hold and followed her over to a woman selling dried food.

"Oh Nadine," she said with a rosy cheeked smile. "You don't usually stop by my stall. What brings you this way?" Though a jovial woman, she watched Nadine from the side of her eye and licked her lips with a sort of anxious interest. I didn't like her tone, but Gwen had told me that fateful night that it was my judgmental nature that kept me in my cubicle. However true that may or may not be, I never was one to turn from my intuition. Especially since I tended to be right.

"I take an apprentice," she said with a nod and a bounce of girlish excitement. "We must pilgrimage." She beamed with her declaration just as she had this morning. However, our long walk here started to give me doubts about her appearance. She hid something behind that smile.

"Ah," said the woman, who grabbed a shank of dried ham that Nadine had indicated with a point of her finger. "So it has nothing to do with the king's soldiers who rode through here last night as quick as lightning?"

"No, they collect our tribute to the king and off they go." She then pointed to a bag of nuts, which the stall's mistress added to Nadine's growing pile.

"They don't usually pass through so quickly."

"They learn of my apprentice. We needed rest and they showed kindness and did not stay with brother superior to chat as long." A bag of dried fruit and a few strips of jerky next.

"I see." She didn't see. She didn't believe Nadine for a moment. It was all apparent in her inflection and the roll of her eyes, but Nadine seemed as ignorant as one could expect from suck a quirky young woman. "Here we were worried that..."

Then the street burst with activity, a group of two men and a woman pushed bystanders to the ground as they sprinted through the street with bags of food clutched in their hands. A scream then turned our heads and a woman knelt over a man behind a stall whose blood already seeped out into the dirt road.

"Day does not scare those who work best at night."

I turned to Nadine. She looked on at the spectacle with a blank expression, then looked back to the woman in the stall, who, with a sigh, completed our transaction and sent us on our way.