Thalia closed the door behind her. Her mistress had finally fallen asleep. She took a second to recover, her body tired by the chores of the day and her playtime with the princess.

She turned around, when she saw a large figure stumbling down the hall. It was the king, with a guard helping him walk.

He stopped in front of her.

“Good evening, my lord.”

“You…” His breath stinking of wine. “I don’t like you.”

Thalia felt a shiver going down her spine.

“I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where you are from, I don’t know who are your gods. I don’t know where your loyalties lie.” He stopped letting the silence weight on her shoulders.

“But you make my Eliza happy.” He sighed “And for that I am grateful.”

Thalia stared at him, wide eyed.

“Don’t make me regret it.”

Thalia woke up. The storm raging around her. Yet she barely felt discomfort, aside for the powerful thunders waking her up every half hour.

She remained still, staring the emptiness of the night: it was soothing, it helped her empty her mind and forget. It was something she did often when she was a homeless thief, and now the repressed habits acquired during those long years were coming back to her like they never left. She was alone again. And this time it was her fault.

It has been a week, maybe two, since the accident happened. Time spent aimlessly wandering around the kingdom, trying to keep her mind occupied and her stomach not too empty. The dread of her situation never really left her, though it did feel lighter the further she got from the castle. Or better, it was becoming easier to pretend it was just a bad dream.

The storm got worse. She really wanted to move, but with just the dim moonlight to guide her, the risk of stepping on something, or someone, was too great. Another lightning. She really wanted to catch some sleep that night. It has been days since she managed to sleep more than an hour.

In the light of the flesh, she spotted something moving. A man?

It was a man indeed. He seemed to have seen her as well. He took out a lamp and lighted it.

“There you are! I was sure you were around here, but I kept getting lost” the man said.

“Who? Who are you? Why were you looking for me?”

“Who am I? Oh, none important, not anymore. Let’s just say you father was one of my close friends, one of the few I had left.” He came closer to the elf. His figure became clearer: an old man, with a jovial smile and an impressive beard. “I could not help him when he needed me, but maybe I can help you.” He stopped at around 30 feet from her face, then sat down on the ground.

“I-You shouldn’t come close to me. I am dangerous” Thalia said, trying her hardest not to sound threatening.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me. I have faced far scarier beings than a very large elf.”

Thalia was ever more confused. Who was this man? “Really? How did you survive?”

“Who said I did?” replied, with a hearty laugh. “But let’s not talk about me. I am here for you after all. I take it you are fleeing from something, right? Who got you so scared? You seem like someone that can take care of herself.”

Thalia took several seconds to answer. “I…” She swallowed “I hurt a very dear friend. I killed her.”

“Oh I see. You are afraid of her ghost. Well, they can definitely be quite annoying. Believe me, I know.”

“N-No I don’t think she became a ghost” Thalia said, uncertain. Why was she talking to this strange man? Why was she answering so openly?

“Well, then we are dealing with guilt. I see.” He caressed his beard then smiled. “Please forgive my bluntness. It has been a while since I have dealt with such matters. Tell me, young elf, why did you kill her?”

“I didn’t want to! It was an accident! I would never hurt her!” Thalia shouted, enraged by his accusation. The man, however, seemed unfazed. In fact he did not even move.

“You didn’t answer me. Why did you kill her?”

“Are… are you not listening? I said it was an accident! I stomped on a wall and a piece of it hit her.”

“Oh, I see.” He stretched his arms. “Now tell me, young elf, do you want to be a giant?”

Thalia could feel her rage rising again. “Of course I don’t! I never asked to become a damn giant! I don’t want to be a giant!”

The man smiled again. “Forgive me, it was a silly question. Tell me then, what did you do with this new condition of yours?”

“What? Was I supposed to do something? What kind of question is that?”

“Did you try to hunt? Or farm? Did you try to build something? Did you try to see how fast could you run? Did you try to see how much you could eat? Or how little? This new power that is part of you. Did you make it yours?”

“N-No.”

“Why?”

“I...” She took a deep breath. The truth came out of her mouth almost without conscious effort. “I didn’t want to.”

“Well, we have found our culprit, then. You refused to embrace your new self, you refused to learn to use your new power, so you lost control of your actions; and their consequences.” He chuckled “Isn’t that a familiar tale.” He caressed his beard once more. “Besides, things are not nearly as bad as you think they are. Though in her place, I would be pretty mad about the castle.”

Thalia froze, unable to move muscle or thought.

He stood up. “Well, I think that is about what I can do, I hope that helped you. Do say the prayers your father taught you every once in a while; it is nice to feel appreciated, you know?” With that, he killed the flame of his lamp and left.

“Wait!” Thalia shouted, but there was no trace of the man.

Eliza woke up. The pain was still pretty intense, but her injuries were already almost completely healed. The bandages around her head felt heavy, but she was almost done with them.

She exited the town hall, where the injured were being kept. Outside, the capital city was buzzing with life: a constant stream of refugees from the borders coming in and scared citizens leaving, terrified the titanic elf would come back to finish them off. And then there were the survivors of the assault. Fortunately her men were safe, they were still in the part of the tunnel laying outside the walls when the bastion collapsed. Lemi was fine too, if a little drained by all the healing spells she had to cast daily. Her mentor, the magister, was still comatose, but there was hope for the old man.

The same could not be said about the traitors and the imperial soldiers manning the walls. They did not find a single one alive, except for a bloodied young boy in the dungeon, left there to guard the prisoners. Hells, she herself was found barely alive, taken to the city by one of her loyal veterans.

She made her way to the ruins of the castle. The walk giving her a welcome chance to get some fresh air. There, the diggers were already at work, trying to clear the bastion and reach the cells still laying buried. They managed to save a fair few from the prisons, but they had little hope left for those still under the rubble, it had been two weeks since the collapse.

A rider approached her. “My lady, Lord Richard Norbrand has reached the city.”

“Really? Uncle Richard is back?” Eliza said. The messenger simply nodded

“Uncle!” shouted, as she entered the town hall. There he stood, with his fair share of bandages, and what looked like a new scar on his face, yet his smile was as reassuring as ever. They hugged.

“If it isn’t my favorite niece. I’m glad you’re still alive.”

“Me too.”

His expression soon changed. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah. We do.”

They got into a side room, away from the chaos of the main hall turned hospital.

“Now, I imagine you can figure out what happened to me. Near Bacre castle, we were ambushed and nearly wiped out. We held the fort, hoping you would come to our rescue, but we soon got overwhelmed. I managed to escape with a few of my men, and came back here.” He paused, and stared at her. “I was almost convinced your father finally decided I was too much of a hassle and tried to get rid of me, but I was told you had your fair share of trouble here.”

“You can say that, yes. The night of the day you left the castle was attacked by a group of assassins. Father got injured, I was sent to the summer villa. I…” she sighed “I remained there longer than intended, to deal with some unexpected business.” She then proceeded to tell the rest of the tale to his uncle: the death of the king, the coup, and the disastrous attempt at retaking the castle.

“What great news. Tell me, I have never seen a fortress ruined to such a degree, it looks like a high dragon tried to make a nest in it. And all the city talks about is the goddess that apparently came down from the sky and crushed everything because of our sins or some crap like that.”

“No, it wasn’t a goddess.”

“That maid of yours, right? Turned into a giant by the Tear?”

She nodded.

“And where is she now?”

“I don’t know, but now that you’re here I can go and look for her. It won’t be hard, her footprints are hard to miss. Can I leave the capital to you, uncle?”

He massaged his forehead. “We have maybe a few hundred soldiers able to fight, no castle, no king, and the imperials are just a week and a half from here. Our vassals are busy betraying us or dealing with the imperial horde knocking down their door, and there is a giant elf taking a casual stroll through our countryside. Did I miss anything?”

“No.”

“If I didn’t know you as well as I do, I’d say you are just looking for an excuse to escape.”

His accusatory tone choked her heart. “I intend to find my friend and convince her to help us. She is the only hope we have left of coming out of this alive.”

“I am afraid you are right. Gods, if anyone would have told me a giant knife-ears would destroy our castle with a single step, I’d have taken you for mad. Fine, I’ll do my best to keep the city safe, but don’t expect me to hold the imperials back if they reach us before you do.” He smiled “I guess, if everything goes wrong, at the very least there will still be a Norbrand alive left in the world.”

“I-I won’t just abandon you!”

“You will, if the situation requires it. And that is an order, my lady. Now go and get ready, we don’t have much time.”

She nodded, then hugged him again, and left the room.

Thalia woke up at dawn. She stood up and looked around, the immense fields and forests all around her looked like a toy replica of a real world. Would she ever get used to that view?

Glancing around, she spotted a herd of cows. Her stomach rumbled. She sighed, she hated doing that, but it was better than trying to eat a field of wheat. She stepped closer, noticing once more that she indeed grew that day. She judged herself to be around 400 feet tall: most trees now barely reached halfway up her shins, with a few getting just past her knees; her feet were larger than the roads and even most houses; the cows in front of her were not quite as big as her small toe. She was immensely lucky that she did not feel the need to eat nearly as much as she did before becoming a giant, otherwise there would not be much left around her after just a couple of meals.

As the cows spotted her, they tried to flee, terrified by the elf colossus, but it was hardly difficult to keep up, in fact she barely had to adjust her steps.

Suddenly, a sensation of intense heat invaded her lower back. She reached with her hand to check for injuries, but she could not feel anything. She turned around to see what caused that, when she spotted two men running towards her, at breakneck speed. She glanced up and noticed two more men, or women, it was hard to tell from that distance, about three steps away, slowly building up what looked like a fireball spell.

She took a step back in surprise. What were they trying to do? Kill her?

The men reached her feet. They were just taller than her big toe, yet they jumped onto her feet without hesitation, and started climbing her legs. Their minuscule weight barely sensible on her skin.

She took another step back, taken by surprise, then another ball of heat hit her, this time directly on her face. She went blind for a second. In the panic of the moment, she slipped and fell on her bottom.

She was sure the impact could be felt for miles, the earth around her cracked, and the closest trees fell to the ground, eradicated by the shock wave. She could feel wet spots under her butt. She fell on the herd.

She gasped, surprised and ashamed.

She killed again, other lives taken by her carelessness.

“We are here to kill you, foul monster” said one of the climbers, who somehow managed to hang on and reach her chest.

Adventurers, she realized, they were adventurers trying to take her down.

The words of that odd man came back to her.

Embrace it. She repeated herself over and over. You are not a little girl anymore, refusing to act will only cause more damage.

She took a deep breath, her face grim with determination. She made the two men fall on her hand then closed her fist around them; she could barely feel their attempt to escape their cage. She stood up and reached the two mages. Another fireball flew towards her, but she easily swatted it away with the back of her free hand. She took those two in her hand as well, then brought the group to her face.

“What were you thinking? Look at what you’ve made me do!” shouted, showing them the crater left by her fall.

“You-You would have eaten them all anyway, monster.” one of the climber said. His bravado quickly evaporating away after witnessing the ease with which she neutralized them.

Their terrorized forms made her heart hurt. That look of pure horror was something she deeply dreaded, yet it was present in everyone’s eyes since she grew. Only her mistress did not look at her like that, she was so comfortable with her that made everyone else relax too. But now, it was just another thing she would have to accept and embrace.

“So you attack me just like that! I could have killed you by accident, you know? What have I ever done to you?” said, trying to sound angry.

“The guild sent us!” one of the mages shouted, a woman. “They said a dangerous monster was rampaging through the lands and we had to stop it.”

“Stop calling me a monster, I am just an elf.”

The other mage broke down in tears and fell to his knees “Please don’t kill us!”

“Of course I won’t kill you, why would I do that? Calm down, I am not going to hurt you. Now, I will let you down and we will depart peacefully, all right?”

The group was still frozen with fear, but one of them managed to nod.

She let the group step down from her hand.

“There. Now, please don’t attack me again, I don’t want to risk injuring you or worse, all right? Today was close enough.” She observed them running away, disappointed by their eagerness to get away from her, but proud of herself for how she behaved.

She acted. The right way. Just like with the ogres, but this time she did not need her mistress to put herself in danger first, she did it all by herself. Again, the words of the old man rushed back into her mind. Not as bad as she thought, he said. Could it be that her mistress was still alive?

Then she realized: She left her mistress there on the ground, in a pool of her own blood. She did not even try to help her, to see if she was still alive! How could she have done that?

She gritted her teeth. She knew why she acted like that. And it hurt. But no more.

She glanced at the group in front of her. “One last thing” said. The adventurers instantly turned around. “Can you tell me in which direction Roserun is?”