The Diplomat of the Hero’s Badge

Haneul woke up in the body of the hero, then spent the next morning arguing with a gate guard about why talking was safer than stabbing. He had the wrong kind of bravery for a hero’s body. His first power let him speak with gate beings in a calm, human way, and his second power, which should not have existed, made his words stick. That strange mix turned him into the kind of hunter that everyone laughed at until the gates started answering him. He still flinched when people praised the hero he was supposed to be, and he still kept a private hand over the old badge in his coat. But every time he stepped through a gate, he came back with a little more reach, a little more control, and one more...