The beginning adventure of Felix Kov

A hush settles over the pines. The masked outlaws find identical silver coins pressed into the needles around their boots, each stamped with a crowned woman whose eyes have been scratched away.

The bounty hunter turns one coin beneath his thumb, then drops it as though its chill has reached his bones. Around him, the masked outlaws stare into the dark between the trunks.

The sellsword rubs her freed wrists and studies the nearest coin without touching it. Her gaze shifts from the scratched crown to Felix, measuring whether his bargain has carried them into a deeper danger.

No outlaw moves to stop them. The coin-counting bounty hunter remains with his masked company beneath the scaffold, while the freed sellsword stands beside Felix, the coins glinting like small, blind stars.

Felix motions the sellsword after him, leaving the scaffold and its uneasy company behind. Lightning flickers faintly through his staff while earth magic firms the loose trail beneath their retreating steps.

Far enough from the others, Felix looks back at her. She stops beneath the pines, rubbing one wrist, and the moon catches the scar above her brow.

Her answer gives the silver a purpose, but her guarded stare makes the cost plain: Mara now suspects Felix chose her rescue for reasons of his own.

Felix lets the magic fade from his staff and skin. The last blue spark dies quietly, and the earth beneath their boots loosens back into ordinary pine needles. Mara watches the change, her shoulders easing by a narrow degree.

Mara steps nearer, though she keeps one hand close to the sword at her hip. The surrender of Felix's magic has bought him an opening, but her guarded posture makes the cost clear: her trust remains conditional.

The scratched silver coins glimmer faintly between the trees behind them. Mara waits in the moonlit road, willing to speak now, but only once on terms she controls.

A silver coin behind Felix turns over by itself. Its scratched crown faces the sky, and a second coin answers from deeper in the pines with a thin, clear chime.

Three coins slide across the road without tracks, arranging themselves in a line that leads away from the scaffold and toward the blackest stand of pines. The air there grows unnaturally still.

Beyond the trees, something heavy exhales. No figure emerges, yet every coin points toward the sound, and the moonlight along the road dims as though a cloud has passed beneath it.

Felix turns his innate magic back on. Blue lightning coils from his blood into the staff, his draconic power sharpening each spark, while earth magic compacts the road beneath their feet.

Mara points between the pines. The heavy breathing fades behind them, and the three silver coins pivot together, their line now aimed toward the eastern darkness.

Felix's staff casts blue light across the roots as the hardened earth forms a firm track ahead. Mara moves onto it at once, sword hand free, and the two leave the road behind.

The three silver coins slide ahead along the hardened earth, stopping only when they reach the eastern path. Each turns toward the darkness, then rings once.

Behind them, the forest answers with a long breath. No branches break, yet the darkness advances between the trunks, keeping pace with the coins.

One coin veers toward a fork where the charcoal path divides around a fallen pine. The other two follow, arranging themselves along the narrower branch beside the riverward slope.

The coins ring together again, brighter than before. Far behind, something answers with a hollow note, and the unseen pursuer quickens through the pines.