The caravan creaked to a halt, the rhythmic clatter of the wheels fading into silence, but Kaiser paid it little mind. He was leaning against small glass window, his cheek resting against his fist as his eyes drifted across the landscape. Even though the small forest had evolved from regular woodlands into something remarkable, it hardly registered in his mind. His mind was still reeling from what had happened that day: the map, the enormity of this world, and the gradual dawning of the realization of how little his previous one had been in comparison.

  As the moon rose above the horizon, it painted the sky with a mesmerizing array of vivid blue and white streaks. The strange glass trees shimmered in the fading light, their surfaces refracting the cold hues into a dazzling display that looked almost like a starry night sky. The air was cool now, carrying with it the faint crackle of the forest as the breeze stirred the delicate leaves, making them tinkle like faintly ringing chimes.

  From the head of the caravan, a rough yet leisurely voice said, "We will camp here for the night." It was Glunko.

  Still, Kaiser made no gesture. Even though he was staring at the glass forest, his thoughts were elsewhere. He believed he heard Glunko speak again, but his thoughts were so heavy that he couldn't make out the words.

  Just a split second after that, he was startled by a loud bang on the caravan's wooden framework. He blinked and turned, finding Glunko leaning casually against the side of the caravan, his expression flat but expectant.

  Glunko repeated, "We're stopping," as he pointed to the fire he had started to light a short distance away. “Are you gonna spend the night brooding in there, or are you planning to come out?”

  "Right," Kaiser mumbled as he drew himself clear of his thoughts. He nodded briefly before heading toward the caravan's rear.

  Aria was still asleep, curled up in the corner as if nothing had changed. Kaiser lingered for a moment, watching her peaceful expression, before he stepped out into the cool evening air. His boots crunched softly against the forest floor, which was coated with a thin layer of glittering fragments that looked like shattered glass.

  The forest's appearance now rendered him utterly immobile. The trees stretched high into the sky, their trunks and branches impossibly thin yet sturdy, reflecting the campfire’s glow in a thousand directions. The leaves shimmered as though dusted with stardust, their faint tinkling adding an almost musical quality to the otherwise quiet night.

  Kaiser exhaled slowly, his breath visible in the cooling air. He strode over to the campfire, where Glunko knelt, stirring a pot with a slight aroma of spices and herbs.

  As Kaiser drew near, Glunko cast an upward gaze. He broke the silence with the words, "Beautiful, isn't it?" as he looked around him, referring to the crystalline forest.

  Kaiser nodded but said nothing. He sat down on a flat rock across from Glunko, the warmth of the fire finally beginning to seep into his skin.

  For a while, neither of them spoke. The crackling fire filled the silence, along with the faint rustling of the horses as they settled down for the night. Kaiser stared into the flames, his thoughts a tangled mess.

  Glunko was the one who initially spoke up. “That's strange; you've been really silent. I mean, less noisy than normal.”

  After a quick glance above, Kaiser's eyes went back to the fire. “I am merely thinking.”

  The snort from Glunko indicated that he thought it was obvious.

  "It's... this world," he finally uttered, his voice rather low. “It's big. Far too big to even make sense.”

  With his hands resting on his knees, Glunko reclined back. “Big, sure. Too much? That’s debatable. But I can’t say I blame you for feeling that way. Most people who are born into this world feel like ants at first.”

  Kaiser’s lips twitched into something that might have been a smile, but it faded quickly. He looked out at the glass forest again, his expression pensive.

  “Every inch of my environment was familiar to me when I was back home. All the cities, rivers, and mountains. On a map, everything made perfect sense. Yet this location..." His voice grew weak as he shook his head in disapproval.

  Glunko shrugged. " “Different scales, different rules. You’ll get used to it.”

  Kaiser looked across at him, one eyebrow raised. “You sound awfully confident about that.”

  “I’ve been around long enough to see it happen,” Glunko said, grinning faintly. “You’re not the first man to feel out of place, you know. And you won’t be the last. People adapt. Even the stubborn ones.”

  There was no amusement in Kaiser's faint chuckle. “Stubborn, huh? Do you really feel that way about me?

  Then Glunko grinned. “If I’m being really forthright, I’ve met rocks with more flexibility.”

  Kaiser couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He used a stick to poke at the flames, and he watched as the embers shot up into the sky like tiny stars.

  “I wonder what gave you that idea about me” Kaiser said in a soft tone.

  Kaiser spent a considerable amount of time staring into the fire, as the shadows danced across his face due to the crackling flames.

  “The Shabab Empire,” he began, his voice low, almost distant. “That’s the name of the empire I fought my entire life. The empire that conquered half the world.”

  With a raised eyebrow and a low-volume chuckle, Glunko reclined. “Half the world, you say? Impressive. But you’d be surprised. Kingdoms the size of half the capital were once real. Maybe not now, but still. I can imagine it. You sound like you’re making a big fuss over this.”

  Kaiser's gaze became stern as he quickly turned to look at Glunko. “It wasn't only large, Glunko. For the first time in history, one person had control over half of the world.”

  As those remarks lingered in the air, Glunko's expression became increasingly serious. He silently retrieved a weathered leather-bound notebook from the folds of his coat. With a charcoal stick he had retrieved from his pocket, he turned to a blank page and started writing in crisp, rapid strokes.

  Kaiser didn’t seem to notice. Every word he spoke brought back a flood of memories, and his thoughts were elsewhere.

  Kaiser continued in a more subdued voice, "But it wasn't always that way. From its inception, the Shabab Empire was far from a magnificent force. At the beginning, it was little. Unassuming. Only one of countless kingdoms, until..." His fingers clenched around the stick he had been carelessly poking the flames with, as he halted. "Sabel Stoorm."

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  While Glunko's hand continued to glide across the page, his eyes momentarily shifted upwards. “Sabel Stoorm,” he repeated, testing the name. “From the sound of it, he sounded like trouble.”

  Kaiser let out a humorless laugh. “You don’t know the half of it. He was the crown prince until he became king at eighteen years, still a kid by most standards. Only after a day after his father’s passing Sabel was crowned king. People thought he was a joke at first. An inexperienced boy sitting on the throne? Most thought the kingdom would collapse under his rule, since he refused any consult that was ever given to him.”

  "And yet it didn’t" Glunko remarked, his tone betraying his curiosity.

  Kaiser shook his head, staring deeper into the flames as if he could see the past flickering there. “No. It didn’t. Within a week of his coronation, Sabel declared war on four nearby provinces. Four. All at once.”

  Glunko let out a low whistle. “Bold, but truly reckless.”

  “Reckless is what everyone thought,” Kaiser said bitterly. “They laughed. Mocked him. No one took it seriously. Not until…” He paused again, his eyes narrowing. “Not until he took one of those kingdoms by himself, in a single night.”

  As Glunko lifted his gaze to meet Kaiser's, the journal in his hand remained motionless for an instant. "On his own?" he repeated, his voice becoming quieter. "Are you claiming that he did it all by himself? By which means?"

  “I don’t know,” Kaiser admitted, his voice tight. “No one does. The stories were wild—some said he had the strength of ten thousand men, others claimed he summoned storms and shadows to do his bidding. All I know is that by dawn, the kingdom was his. Every leader dead, their armies routed. It was the first move in a game no one even realized he was playing.”

  Glunko leaned forward, the firelight reflecting in his eyes. “And after that?”

  Kaiser exhaled heavily, his shoulders slumping. “After that, the world realized he wasn’t just some reckless kid. In two months, he conquered half the world. Kingdom after kingdom fell, as if he had already planned it all. Every move calculated, every battle decisive. The other half of the world panicked, and for the first time in history, they united under a single banner. That’s the kingdom I served—the only thing standing between Sabel and total domination.”

  Kaiser added, his expression grim. “He didn’t stop. He didn’t slow down. Every battle, every campaign—it was like he was unstoppable. And the worst part? We still don’t know why. Why he did it. Why he chose to wage war against the world. I’ve fought his armies, seen his strategies, but I still don’t understand him.”

  The sound of the fire crackling dominated the air for a brief period. Glunko reclined, staring up at the night sky. He mumbled, "Sabel Stoorm," the name slipping off his lips like a weight. "For some reason it sounds familiar… Were you ever confront him?”

  “I did fight him twice.” he said, staring into the flames.

  Curious, Glunko tilted his head slightly but remained silent.

  Inhaling deeply, Kaiser's eyes grew heavy with memories. “It was terrifying how powerful he was. You wouldn't believe the armies and monsters I've encountered before, but Sabel Stoorm? He’s something else entirely. When he fights, it’s like... death itself walks beside him.”

  Leaning forward, Glunko scowled. “I don't understand.”

  Kaiser’s voice dropped lower, the weight of his words evident. “He can turn men to rust. One touch, one flick of his blade, and they’re gone. They don’t die like normal people. No. Their bodies harden, their skin splits, and they turn into these... screaming statues of rusted iron. Their faces, their agony—it’s frozen in time.”

  Glunko’s eyes widened, his usual sharp tongue nowhere to be found. The crackling fire between them suddenly felt colder.

  Kaiser went on, his voice remote and unemotional, as if he had been in the battlefield instead of sitting by the fire. "Men would charge at him with all the bravery in the world, convinced they could take him down. But in the blink of an eye, they'd freeze mid-swing—their weapons crumbling to dust in their hands, their bodies twisting as rust devoured them. I can still hear the screams, Glunko. It doesn’t stop, even after all these years."

  For a long moment, neither man spoke. Even the forest around them seemed to hold its breath.

  Glunko finally broke the silence, his voice quieter than usual. “And you fought that?”

  Kaiser nodded slowly. “I had no choice. He was leading his main army himself, carving through our lines like they were nothing. I thought I could stop him. I thought... maybe I could end it all right there.” He let out a bitter laugh. “I was wrong.”

  Glunko observed Kaiser's expression, which was unusually solemn for him. “So, what happened?”

  Kaiser’s grip tightened on the stick in his hand, his knuckles turning white. “I lost. Completely. He’s the only man I’ve ever lost to. The only one who made me feel... helpless. I fought with everything I had, but he was untouchable. Every move I made, he was already three steps ahead. It was like fighting a storm.”

  Glunko raised an eyebrow. “And yet, you’re here. Alive.”

  Kaiser’s lips pressed into a thin line. “Barely. The last time I fought him, I... I lost more than just the battle.” He paused, his eyes flicking toward Glunko briefly before returning to the fire. “He turned me to rust.”

  Skeptical, Glunko arched an eyebrow and straightened his back. "What?"

  Kaiser nodded, his voice grim. “I remember it vividly. I was fighting him, trying to land a blow, but I couldn’t even get close. And then... he got me. I felt it—this cold, crawling sensation spreading through my body. I looked down and saw my skin cracking, splitting, turning to metal. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. My sword fell from my hand, and I remember thinking, ‘This is it. This is how I die.’”

  Glunko leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “But you didn’t.”

  “No,” Kaiser admitted, his voice tight. “My last memory before everything went black was Sabel standing over me, his blade in my chest, and that look in his eyes—like he was more disappointed than anything. Like I wasn’t even worth the effort.”

  The fire snapped and popped, filling the heavy silence that followed. Glunko ran a hand through his hair, letting out a low whistle. “That’s... something, alright. And you don’t remember what happened after that?”

  Kaiser shook his head. “No. When I woke up, I wasn’t on the where I fell. I was... somewhere else entirely. But that’s another story.”

  Glunko stared at him for a long moment, then sighed, rubbing his temples. “You’re telling me you fought a man who can turn people in to screaming statues of rust, got turned into one yourself, and somehow walked away? And you’re just sitting here by the fire like it’s no big deal?”

  Kaiser let out a dry laugh. “It’s not exactly something I enjoy talking about.”

  Kaiser leaned back slightly, letting the tension bleed from his shoulders, but his thoughts swirled relentlessly. He had barely begun to piece together his own confusion when a glint of light caught his eye.

  A fragile butterfly descended from the crystal trees, its wings glistening like fragmented rainbows. The delicate beauty of it was a sharp contrast to the heavy subject matter of the discussion. As it lingered for a second before settling softly on his lap, Kaiser watched fully mesmerized.

  For the first time that night, a faint, genuine smile touched his lips. He didn’t move, afraid to disturb the small creature. “A butterfly made of crystal...” he murmured, almost to himself

  Kaiser glanced over, his brow furrowing slightly when he noticed Glunko’s stack of pages had grown significantly. “Wait... what are you doing?”

  Glunko didn’t look up, his hand moving with practiced speed. “Writing. Obviously.”

  “Writing what?”

  “Everything you’ve been spilling tonight, of course. Every single detail.” He flipped the journal around briefly to show Kaiser, revealing page after page crammed with notes, sketches, and diagrams. “This? This is gold. You think I’m just going to let a story about rust statues and empire-conquering maniacs slip through my fingers? I might be a lot of things, but wasteful isn’t one of them.”

  Kaiser blinked at the sheer amount of information Glunko had recorded. It looked like he’d written more than half a book already. “You didn’t ask if you could—”

  “And you didn’t ask if you could destroy a priceless map earlier, did you?” Glunko cut in, giving him a pointed look. “So we’re even now.”

  Kaiser sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t exactly bedtime reading, Glunko. You don’t have to write down everything.”

  "Oh, but I do," Glunko shot back with a mischievous grin. “You have to have an abundance of stories—enough to fill a library—and I will not allow any of them to be overlooked. Believe me when I say that this information is going to be in high demand.”

  The butterfly fluttered its wings, catching the firelight again. Kaiser watched it for a moment before exhaling slowly. “You’re unbelievable.”

  “I’ve been told that before.” Glunko scribbled one last note before finally closing the journal.