By the time that Will and Alice arrived back in the town square, with Oscar having been called back to his house by his parents as they passed by his house at the far edge of Harthpoint. They were not alone, the whole town was still out, forming a crowd around whoever the newcomer was.

These crowds outside Mayor Harth’s residence were the largest that Will had ever seen in his life. Even when the event of the Dwarves coming round once a year did not draw nearly as big as this arrival had.

“As the good man told you!” Mayor Harth shouted to the crowd, irate at the news that none of them would be allowed to leave. The Mayor’s face was flustered, probably at the sight of the sheer amount of attention he was getting. He was more used to nobody caring about his decrees. “His presence will be minimal. You may continue your lives in peace. Now if you’ll-”

But the crowd continued to shout him down, clamouring for more information. Will stood back and watched, wondering what the Mayor was going to say next in his continued efforts f annoying every single resident.

That was when the black robed rider returned to the scene he had created. Moving silently to stand next to Mayor Harth, he looked more like a shadow in his full black robes.

Will didn’t know why, but at the sight of the stranger, his veins felt like they were filled with ice, his knees began to shake. More importantly he felt the strong urge to run, run now, run back to his field where he was safest and away from this man.

“I assure you, that your Mayor is right. My apologies if I scared you good honest citizens. My work here will be completely nonintrusive.” The Rider spoke, his voice quiet, but still carrying regardless. “Though I would like to meet each and every one of you. This will help me narrow down the search, and may even quicken it if you speak truths.”

With that, his dark eyes scanned the crowd, fixing on each one in turn. Then his eyes fell on Will.

The Rider’s lip curl upwards, and Will was now regretting more than ever coming back to the town. His heart was racing, and it was taking all of his effort not to bolt. But then, the Rider gaze moved on, and Will felt his heart return to normal.

“Come on.” Alice said, tugging at Will’s clothes.

“What?” Will replied, looking over at Alice, his mind was still on the way that the Rider had been staring at him. Plus, he wanted to see Mayor Harth continue to make more of a fool of himself.

“I’m bored of this.” Alice said as she continued to tug, though she was giving her father furtive glances as she spoke. “There’s no Sorcerer here. The man is probably going to leave within a few days. He’s just trying to justify his group’s continued existence.”

And with that, Alice headed off into the crowd in the direction of her home.

But just as Will was about to follow, purely to see the way that Mayor Harth’s face would go red at the sight of him on his doorstep again like it usually did.

That was until Will felt something that had all the warmth of a block of ice clasping his right shoulder. Followed by an equally icy voice that Will knew all too well.

“Having fun are we?” Isla Shephard asked.

Will turned and was face to face with his stepmother, and he gulped despite himself.

“No mam.” Will said quickly and even now he could feel the colour drain from his face as he stared into those cold grey eyes.

Isla Fisher was a tall, thin woman. With almost white hair and a bony horse like face. And right now, she was glowering down at Will in a way that told him that he was in a lot of trouble.

“Come with me boy.” Isla said, and with that, she grabbed Will by the ear, and proceeded to drag him away from the crowded town square, and back towards their small home.

The Inn that was nominally Will’s home, was mostly just the same as it had been when The Magi and Hunter had left him there as a baby. Though it had undergone renovations over the years, unknown to Will that they were being funded by The Magi’s annual payments for his wellbeing. A bedroom for Isla, and her husband Edward, and a living area that doubled as a common area for the Inn’s patrons. As for Will’s ‘room’, it was nothing more than the small rug by the window; that was if he was lucky. If he had for some reason angered either of his stepparents, then he slept, no, wait, scratch that, he was locked in an old closet, and wasn’t allowed out until the following morning, no matter what time he had been thrown inside.

As Isla dragged him into the house, Will thought that he was almost certain that he was once more going to spending some time inside the tiny room.

Instead, though, he was dropped almost at the feet of his stepfather.

Edward Shepard was very like his wife in both looks and personality, the only difference, being the large moustache that clung to his top lip. Though in the last few years, the thick hair he’d possessed had begun to fall out and turn the colour of snow, leaving only thin white wisps.

“Well, boy?” Edward said as he stared downwards at him. Boy was all they referred to him as. But Will didn’t care about that, as the stare that had in the past sent him running from the home was once again fixed to his stepfather’s face. Though strangely, now it had a lot less weight. He suddenly realised in that moment, what a weak man he really was. How the only person he dared to be angry with was him.

Will would have loved to reply to that comment with a well-timed: ‘Well what?’ But he didn’t think that his Stepfather’s temper should be tested this early in the morning. Especially given the way that the skin on Edward’s face was going steadily redder by the moment, a danger sign if ever there was one. So, he settled on a slightly bemused, and neutral look. It wasn’t a hard look to have, as he hadn’t done anything to warrant his stepparents fury this time, he’d only gone to see who had come to their town.

“He was right where you said he’d be.” Isla said staring down her hooked nose at Will. There was a look of triumph on her face that Will had never seen before. He felt like a literal deer being hunted down by a back of slivens. “Trying to sign up with another traveller.”

“So, trying to leave so soon are we?” Edward asked his gigantic form towering over Will. “I thought after last time, that we had an understanding.” Edward’s eyes were popping out of his sockets now as Will tried to back up, but collided with one of the wooden tables.

“I just wanted to see who had come here, sir.” Will replied quickly, he hadn’t done anything that wrong, and he didn’t know why his stepparents were always coming down so hard on him. They were always making comments about how expensive he was to continue having, and so he’d thought that the knowledge of him running away would have made them happy. But the look on both their faces was murderous.

“I see.” Edward said calmly. Too calmly for Will’s liking. But as Edward paced up and down the room, Will remained where he was, afraid to move, fearing what his stepfather would do to him if he tried to run.

That, however, would have been the better choice as when Edward passed him for the third time, he suddenly stopped, and backhanded Will across the face, the rings on his fingers making the blow doubly painful.

Crashing into the wall, Will looked up into Edward’s unforgiving face. Despite having been brought up with this level of abuse, it still hurt that they would both deliberately strike him like that. And why now, most of the time they were content to just ignore him, but his treatment had now taken a sudden downturn. Will tried to think back, for anything that he might have done, no matter how minor, to warrant the change.

But he couldn’t, he just lay there on the ground like an idiot.

“YOU KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOT TO TALK TO STRANGERS!” Edward shouted, his eyes popping, and grabbing Will by his hair he dragged him towards the cupboard. “YOU KNOW NOT TO TRY AND LEAVE THIS PLACE!”

“Please don’t put me in there, sir.” Will sobbed, he didn’t care that he was begging. Anything was better than being forced to spend any time in that place. “I promise I won’t leave! I PROMISE!” The last word coming out as a half shriek.

But Edward wasn’t listening anymore, and after shoving Will into the small box, he quickly locked the door before Will could force his way out. The only source of light left was the small flap, which Edward left open for a brief moment to have his final say.

“You’re here till you die, boy. Remember that!” Edward snarled, through the small flap. Then he slammed it shut, leaving Will in complete darkness.

Will was curled up in the cupboard for a long time. He didn’t know how long. It was at times like this that he wished that Edward had not closed the flap on the door; he had no way to now tell the time. And he couldn’t risk trying to break out into the main room to steal some food whilst it was still daylight. If he did that, the Shepards would probably lock him away in here until he starved to death.

He had lived with the Shepards for almost all his life. Twelve miserable years, ever since he had been a baby and his parents had abandoned him here. Will couldn’t remember them at all, his stepparent sure as shit didn’t talk about them, and anytime that he had tried to ask them about it, he had been told that he was forbidden from even mentioning them, and then was thrown in here for good measure afterwards.

There was no point screaming, or anything like that. He had learnt that lesson the first time that he had been thrown in here. In the past, when he had been younger and had spent many nights, whilst crying himself to sleep inside the cupboard, Will had dreamed about some long-lost relative coming to this place, and taking him away.

But that had never happened; Edward and Isla Shephard were the only people who would ever allow him to live under their roof. Yet on the very rare instances that strangers had come to Harthpoint, he had seen, (or maybe hoped) that they had recognition in their eyes. Dwarves would grumble seemingly a little more excitedly whenever he had passed nearer to them, mumbling in their own secret language that only they and a few others understood.

And then there was the time that the stranger had come, a different one to the person who he had tried to enlist with at the age of seven. The weirdest part though, was that Will could have sworn that the man knew him, he had referred to him by his name without Will telling it to him.

Outside these random strangers, and Oscar and Alice, Will had no-one else. Everyone knew that Harthpoint’s Mayor, along with his own stepparents hated everything about him from his baggy clothes to his crooked nose, a remnant of getting hit in the face by Isla when he was eight. And nobody wanted to go against Mayor Harth, not if they valued being alive in this town.