Origins: A Deepwoods Book - a Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories (Deepwoods Series 0) by Honor Raconteur

telling her what happened.
    “In truth, it was right after a battle.” He found it
impossible to meet her eyes and instead stared steadfastly at the ceiling.
“We’d been fighting a rival guild, why, I don’t remember, and it hadn’t been
easy. Normally, fights like that are over quick, no more than an hour’s work.
But that day, they were tenacious and constantly running from one point to
another with ambushes and traps set up along the way. I was running most of the
time, only fighting when I could get close enough to engage. From dawn to
sunset, I was running and fighting, having no time to rest. By the time that
the evening bells tolled, and we’d won, I was exhausted. Beyond exhausted.”
    He dared a glance at her face and found her riveted to him.
Her fixed attention made it easier, somehow, to keep going. “I went back to the
main hall, intending to just find an empty cot somewhere and sleep. I was too
tired to think about food. But I never made it there. I was within sight of the
doors when my own guildsmen jumped me.” Erik lifted his iron hand and looked at
it, but not truly seeing it. “With them combined like that, in my state, I was
no match for them. They cut off my hand.”
    Siobhan let out a sound like an enraged cat. “Your own
guildsmen.”
    “There is no honor in a dark guild.” He looked at her from
the corner of his eyes. “Imagine my surprise when I went into a good guild
next, and saw how well you take care of each other. You three are more like
family than a guild.”
    “That’s what a good guild is supposed to be like,” Siobhan
said patiently. Rubbing both palms over her face, she blew out an angry hiss.
“Still, the fact that they would hurt you like that…it’s mind blowing. I can’t
wrap my head around it.”
    “Don’t try to,” he advised. “The moment you understand it,
you become like them.”
    “Sage advice.” Her head jerked up as an alarmed expression
came over her face. “Wolf. That old guild of yours. They won’t possibly try to
come back after you, will they?”
    He waved this concern away. “It’s ironic, but because they
did that to me, they were beaten by a rival guild about a month later. If I’d
been at full strength, they likely would still be around. It was the rival
guild that sold me as a slave.”
    “So it’s entirely because you lost the hand that I was able
to get you?” Her eyes went to his iron hand. “I now have mixed feelings about
what happened.”
    “As do I.” 
    From the other side of the room, there was a call of,
“Siobhan!”
    Groaning, she pushed the chair back. “A guildmaster’s work
is never done, I swear.” She put a hand on his shoulder, her touch gentle and
sweet. “Thank you, Wolf, for the story.”
    “You’re welcome,” he whispered. Watching her go, he was
overcome by the unfairness all over again. In a different world, where he hadn’t
been taken from his home and forced onto such a dark path, he would have been
able to stay. Stay, and be friends and an ally with that incredible woman. It
was the loss of that future, more than the hand, that enraged him.
    People drifted upstairs in twos and threes, and finally, the
last of them retired for the night. Having no need to keep sitting there,
keeping watch over people, he trudged up the stairs as well.
    The bed was a fine one, the mattress just soft enough to
give a man’s back some comfort, and long enough that his feet weren’t hanging
off the edge. So there was no reason for him to be tossing and turning like he
was. Erik finally dropped off to sleep after some effort, only to wake up a
short time later in a cold sweat, his hand automatically reaching for the sword
leaning against the headboard. Breathing hard, he leaned over the side of the
bed, nauseated from the nightmare.
    Bad memories made the worst nightmares.
    Breathing slowly and deeply, he got his stomach back under
control. Judging from the light coming in through the window, he couldn’t