It was another valley, not much different than the Valley of Damned. Same black rock but more rounded, and perhaps gentler gusts of wind. Called ‘Five Beast Valley’, it was lit with bright coloured lamps of yellow light throughout the valley. With the chill as strong as it could get. Five gigantic, eight stories tall statues of the Thar's main beasts overlooking the spacious centre of the valley ground, enough for a small town to be settled. Carved out of the mountains, they had furious postures, with their fangs, pincers or whatever threatening part of the body they could expose outwards in full glory. Their gem-laden eyes glowed with the reflection of whatever light struck them. With a closer look at their heads, and along their bodies, many of the smaller bodies of humans could be seen moving across the length using elaborate paths of stairs, converging at the top of their heads and sometimes, their backs where huge magical circles were drawn. Along with the sounds of flowing winds and flapping clothes of humans, there was another sound that tried to pierce all others, screams and curses.

  “Let me go, you bastards!” In huge metal cages, a bunch of people were curdled together, with glowing red chains around their necks and ankles. About fifty people per cage for a total of ten cases per beast. Each wore worn-out black and white uniforms with clothes that didn't look like it was washed in ages. Long unkempt hairs and haggard faces, they shouted at the masked guards outside the cages, to the long-robed mages talking in cryptic words and armoured knights carrying things around while also maintaining overall coordination but none of them responded to their cries. Despite no spell suppressing their sounds, the lack of response tightened their hearts. “What are you gonna do with us?” Again, people refused to look at them and the commotion refused to die down, as they felt the chill outside increasing. Looking at their cages in the middle of a magical circle on the ground, they know within their hearts that their time might run out soon. Anything is better than being sacrificed here, with the singular thought some people started to beat other prison mates to draw the attention of guards. But as the drenched bodies of fallen inmates caused a spill of blood to leak from the cages and onto the magic circle, it started to glow with a dim light. “You cannot sacrifice us like this, we both are citizens of the alliance. Let us out, Alliance would never let you guys go if you crossed their bottom line!” And the cries of many continued from the cages with no response from others as if they were already dead to them.

  Different from the small commotion on the back of statues, the centre of the valley was almost silent. The many knights and mages didn’t dare to enter the intricate mess of lines overlapping each other across different layers upon layers. Up in midair, the magic light orb shone the warm yellow light on the lines forming a huge tree-like structure on the ground coupled with multiple shapes of triangles, circles, rhombus and at the centremost, an enlarged hexagon with a golden hue to it. The tree's root circled at the periphery of the valley and branched out towards the five statues. But the most noteworthy thing was the golden labrador’s body lying atop it, just at the centre of the tree. The hue was not too strong but was strong enough to cast a shadow behind the four people standing beside the labrador.

  “Are you sure about it? I don't think it's appropriate to do it like this.” Bardar asked the man beside him as he rubbed his chin with his hand. His head was down and occasionally he would look up. Different from his normal attire, he dressed in a black and red shirt with matching pants that fit right with the black long leather boots. The shirt had a hard red striped collar with a small skull engraved to its right and on his chest, the five red stars in black background. The most catchy part of all was the red devil mask with dark hollow spheres for the eyes where the blank ink dipped down like some tears. Cellia was not different either, she too had similar clothes on her, just with three stars rather than five.

  “What’s the problem? Didn’t you know if ain’t broke, don’t fix it?” Karvi said as a matter of fact. He’s the only person besides Rayen who was not a wizard and dressed in his loose robes. He threw a bunch of fried peas into his mouth. He offered them to the others too but they declined with a polite gesture of their hands, except Rayen who didn’t get the offer and just stared at Bardar. He was seeing lots of greyish fog emitting from the brown orb, which he now referred to as the souls of others, or as told by others. Another change was the overall turbulence of his soul. It used to be calm but now, Rayen could see some slow waves appearing and disappearing on his soul.

  “ I am not saying it won’t work but I have strong feelings that Cherry might not like the way we did it?” Cellia said as she held back a twitch on her face.

  “Nonsense, she should be jumping with joy that we are trying to save her in the first place. Why would she not like it?”

  Hearing his words, Cellia looked at the Cherry again. The whole of her fur which she never tired to boast about, was now covered in black and blue ink. Everywhere one looked were jiffies and doodles of lemons, stick men and sometimes, funny faces of humans in between the thick and thin lines that spread all across her.

  “I think she might want to kill us instead after waking up.” Cellia ended up saying at last. She felt her feelings were quite accurate, which she didn’t like. “Couldn’t you have drawn the magic circles as in magic circles? Instead of drawing them into this…”

  “Art.”

  “...Art. Sir Karvi, shouldn’t we do things that are more in line with standards? It is an important ceremony.” She knew they needed Cherry's body to be covered with magic formations for today and then found this. Where were the magic formations she knew of? She had no idea, only that this so-called art drawn atop Cherry was too magical, just not in the traditional sense. Needless to say, it was just not cutting it as a reason to her and despite her strong urging to Bardar to convince Karvi, nothing changed, and they ended up discussing for hours and still ended up going nowhere. She couldn’t understand how these people’s brains work, and she was the wizard here.

  Karvi was about to open his mouth but his eye caught Rayen looking at him. Remembering the little guy in front of him being sensitive to lies, he swallowed the words back and said them in a straight way. “ Think, do you expect me to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance? Today it's either a case of Cherry sinking into the afterlife or getting back with power-ups. In both cases, it's a perfect time to collect some interest from her. How many people were there in the history of Thar that claimed to have done it? I am making history here.”

  “ Sir, I feel you should not be extracting some past grievances here.” She shook her head at his honesty, but Karvi was not done with his words.

  “ Think about it, if she passed on, she would be mocked by other souls for looking like a fool in her soul form, but if she survived, I could sell her images like this and make a fool of her in real time. It is lying gold begging to be picked up.” Karvi just finished his words and Cherry’s body twitched visibly but she couldn’t wake up. A small roar came out from her mouth which was heard by everyone, including Rayen who was about to look for a place to translate, but Cellia gently held his arms and stopped him.

  “Won’t she eat you guys as the first thing after waking?” Cellia added when she found Bardar slightly nodding to Karvi's words as in agreement.

  “Don’t worry, I have things planned. Outside the magic circle, I used my connections to get a temporary teleportation artefact to Terralea. Once there, I will be free from her measly jaws.” Karvi patted his chest with full confidence.

  “Well, you guys do your best then,” Cellia said as she found the duo not going to change anything at this point. She looked at Rayen and patted his head and said. “ Rayen, you wait here for grandma to come back and I will be going near the peripherals.” With such words, she waited for a slight nod from Rayen but before going her eyes stopped at Bardar for a moment. He was still looking at the ground near Cherry in silence and a frown forward across her face. She paused a little and her lips moved but no sound came from them. At last, she didn’t say anything before floating away.

  “ I think my plan is pretty good, don’t you think? Bardar?” Karvi asked after watching Cellia fly away. But there was no response from the guy beside him so he had to shout to bring him back.

  “ As Cellia says, we should try to do it like that.”

  “ Cellia already left.”

  Hearing his words, Bardar finally looked up and found it to be true. He looked at Karvi who stared back with raised eyebrows and Rayen was always there in silence. Some winds blew by and Karvi shook his hands and pulled out a red alcohol bottle from his space artefact along with three glasses.

  “Alright, what’s on your mind?” Karvi asked as he opened the bottle and filled the floating glasses that slowly moved towards Bardar and Rayen. Former caught it but the latter just stared without touching it, though he tilted his head.

  “It's nothing special.” Bardar, despite saying that, still held the glass and drank the whole of it in one gulp.

  “ Right, so how come you didn’t notice your fiance leaving?” Karvi also drank the glass and then did the same with the glass suspended in front of Rayen whose hands were almost reaching the glass to follow Bardar’s actions. Ignoring the stares of teenage boys, Karvi looked at Bardar and refilled their glasses again. “Come on, though I don’t say that I understand women, I don’t consider myself as dense either. Ain't no way she got any interest in stopping me drawing over Cherry as this idiot got no such charms for that. Instead, she seems to be more interested in distracting you from whatever is going on in your mind. Since we are already here, we might as well talk.”

  “ I was thinking about improving the ceremony.” It was after some thoughts or perhaps the alcohol did it thing that he started to talk. “ I wanted to do something to ignore their use.”

  “ Humans...right.” Karvi finished his glass and grabbed himself a cigarette to light it up. He took a deep breath in silence and released a huge puff of smoke. Then he seemed to remember something and pulled another one and made it float towards Rayen but without lighting it up. Bardar never smokes so he didn’t offer him one.“ You understand we don’t get to choose here.”

  “We can, but we refuse to.”

  “It's inefficient and risky.”

  “ Both of which have never stopped us before.” Bardar looked at the empty glass in his hand. There were still some drops of alcohol left in there which he lifted with the force of his mana and brought them into his lips. “ But then again, I am the chief formation expert of this project. I did nothing to oppose their use and sign its approval as it is.”

  “Wear your mask then.” Karvi stood there in silence after saying that. He knew more than ten thousand people were waiting just outside the formations in their small cages, to be brought in just as those on the formation got used up. He found no wrong in it, for the greater cause of theirs. But his nephew was not like him, he’s like no one among his brothers either.

  “ I will. I brought it out just for that.”

  “ Listen…” Karvi wanted to say more but Bardar cut him off.

  “ It's time.”

  Rayen’s eyes then caught the soul of Bardar sucking all the grey fog into itself and all waves disappeared. And just as it happened, it didn’t calm down but started to churn in from the centre and a small, blackish-red colour peeked in the otherwise brown soul. He would have looked more but then a sound came out from the distance. The clear sound of heels hitting the now hardened ground and hands thumping on people’s chests. From the right of them, a figure soon appeared in the distance. Dressed in all white with a red frozen ball in her hands, Bella. Unlike Cellia, she walked in leisurely, without worrying about damaging the formation down below. Bella smiled as she handed over the ball of frozen meat to Bardar. “ Here, I got you a gift on my way. You looked like you could use it well.” Bardar’s hands shook a little as he took it but Bella didn't care. She looked at Karvi and asked. “Are preparations done?”

  “Yes. We can start with your order.” Karvi said with a stern face. They have finished all the checks that were needed long ago and that’s why they had the leisure to drink at the work site. It was then that he noticed the glass in their hands and a cigarette in Rayen and screamed ‘fuck’ in his heart. Just in time to see Bella looking at Rayen and his hand.

  “ I heard you have plans to go to Terralea after this?” In his panic, he heard Bella asking this. Karvi nodded with difficulty as the panic spread through his body and sweat started to flow from his head.

  “Stay here for three months more.”

  “Yes.” Karvi had a strained smile on his face. ‘Cherry would kill me now. Should I practise my begging skills, no, I should be writing my will. Perhaps, a small tank of honey would do the trick?’ His mind already started to run at full speed to escape from his impending death. Cherry on the front also shook a little with a low howl and mouth that was a little more stretched than before as if a smirk had formed on her face.

  “ Let’s start then. We got things to do.” Bella clapped her hands and took the cigarette from Rayen then crushed it into nothingness. Karvi and Bardar were not standing there either, with the former flying in the back towards the giant centipede statue while the latter just flew straight up. He didn’t stop until he could overlook the whole valley down below. It was especially cold up there, with the chilly frost forming atop his clothes just after a minute of staying up there. With a deep breath that created white vapours in the air, he moved his right hand and pulled up the mask hanging to his side. The moment he wore it, his breathing became exceptionally calm and without wasting a single minute he got to work. His eyes behind the mask glowed with a green light that allowed him to observe everything happening down below, to the individual grains of sand. Followed by the spell that made him hear the sounds from below, from the screaming sounds of prisoners crying to the whispers of individual guards, nothing could escape his attention. With practised movements that negated the impact of such enhanced vision and hearing, he clapped his hands once and a shock wave hit everyone’s head along with the sound. The frozen meatball too was suspended beside him.

  “ Focus. We will begin soon. Do not delay the timings of prisoner swapping during the ceremony. I know all of you have the conviction to die, but I remind you not to test it today.” His words had a distinctive deepness to them as well as indifference that was hard to ignore. The younger mages who worked with him for several days looked at each other with confusion at his words, for they had never heard such words from him while the older ones got an ugly expression, for they thought of a possibility from that sound, the sound of a wizard. They straightened their backs and moved to their positions on the circle, in haste but with discipline. “ Release mana to activate the circles on my words, one, two, now.” The whole valley’s ground lit up in full with a multitude of lights the moment he finished. With a strong invisible thread rising from the ground like a strained string up in the air, only Bardar could feel it and only Rayen could see it. It was not just a string with a U-type bend facing upward but more of a connection that joined not only the people with formations but also acted as a bridge for connection between the souls. Bardar raised his left hand forward and a suction force pulled the string towards him. Just as it touched him, his eyes became completely white, but that didn’t take away his consciousness as it mixed with the formation itself. “ Great Mother, you can start now!” This time, his words came from the magic formation and echoed throughout the valley.

  “ Rayen, can you do it like during the practice?” Bella doesn’t have to urge him much this time as Rayen already knows what to do. Under his eyes, a smaller string of mana rose in front of him. It didn’t wait for him to raise his hands and come to him by itself. Rayen’s black-and-white vision distorted for a moment as his mana merged into it. It took several minutes for it to stop distorting his vision and in the next moment, every soul in the valley appeared in front of Rayen. Their sounds came to him as he was beside them. It was like he was everywhere and also nowhere. As he was drowned in the noise-filled world, a particular voice drew his attention. “Rayen, search for Cherry.” It was Bella’s voice, and Rayen unconsciously followed her words to search for Cherry. It was not so difficult of a task, and Cherry’s soul appeared in front of him. Suspended above one of the shiniest magic circles with deep cracks filled with blue burning fire all over it. It was the enhanced vision he got from the formation. “ Alright, go forth and connect with it.” Another familiar voice came from his left. He looked towards and tilted his head. It was supposed to be the voice of Bardar, but what appeared in front of him was not the brown soul of Bardar, but the darkish red hue with murky black beneath. “ Don’t hesitate, get it done asap.” the voice urged him. Less than comprehension of the change, Rayen’s body moved out of trained habit. His mana moved with blind trust toward the voice and just as it left Rayen’s body, Bardar’s mana with a dark red colour to it, attached itself on its tail and followed straight into Cherry’s soul.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The moment mana touched her soul, it was as if a spark met a rope doped with oil, it combusted with visible blue fire. Outside, beside Bardar, the frozen ball of meat too lit up in flames and released a nauseating smell of burnt meat that got blown away by the wind. During the Divine War, the army of the church used their holy artefact to release the power of the sun onto the soul of Cherry. That power never really left and had to be sealed in cracks in her soul. To heal her in full, that power first needed to be removed and for that, it needed to be shifted to another container and consumed there. But it had to be humans as the power of the sun became mild when their blood was used instead of a beast which would just burn it on the Cherry’s soul itself. When the first connection was made, it was like a dam gate was opened. Bardar made small symbols on his hands that hit the ground and soon, the formation started to suck the blood of humans from the many cages. The excruciating screams of the victims filled the valley as soon after but it stopped as quickly as it appeared for only the dried mummy left. The connection using the meatball beside Bardar was only enough for one connection but they needed many more. Soon, hundreds of threads much thinner than the first rose from the ground and followed the same path and attached it to Cherry's soul. The other end was the same, with the meatball but it was not the direct one and formation acted as an intermediate path for auxiliary help. Small white smoke started to appear from multiple places.

  But it was more manageable to take care of, for it was not picky about the blood it needed for cooldown. Knight and mages started to drop barrels after barrels of green beast blood on the runes which made sizzle noises along with a disgusting smell of burnt sulphur. But the consumption just kept on increasing and so did the temperature of the whole valley, which felt like an open oven.

  “ We need barrels here.” It was not the only shout to ask for more blood. And thus it was mixed in all other voices asking for the same. Despite it being noted, the momentary delay of just thirty seconds caused a cracking sound to come from the rune which had completely dried off blood. The man overlooking it had panic flashed across his face and planned to shout more but before he could, his whole body burst like a balloon and his blood flew towards the formation. It was the same with dozens of people near him, all popped like balloons. Their blood gave enough time for more beast blood to be added to formation. When it was stabilised, the surviving people gulped and wiped the sweat from their heads as they looked up at the floating wizard who intervened just a moment before. Their backs soaked with sweat as they remembered what just happened, in truth the tolerance band before formation could break was still far away by one minute but Bardar still used their colleague's blood as compensation even before that point was reached. Seeing the blood getting drained again, they moved even faster because they didn’t want their blood to be part of it next.

  After half an hour of what felt like an eternity, Cellia on the top of the wasp statue found the situation finally started to calm down and took some deep breaths. The next part was taken from knights, the pillar which had propped Alliance for ages. Knights have their path evolved over the many years. From just breathing technique to the now a blend of spirituality, mana and aura. From just being fast and somewhat stronger than normal humans to leaving behind sound and death in every strike. From being servants of mages to now more than just allies. Their history spanned countless efforts of the Alliance to make them what they were.

  “Spirit. Rise.” Cellia shouted while raising both her hands. Behind her, dozens of mages started to chant in synchronised words. The big eyes of the wasp started to glow green. Soon, followed by other beasts one after another. And at unison, the light burst out from their eyes and fell onto the body of Cherry whose fur now turned black with black tar leaking from her pores. Above her, a large projection of an intricate tree appeared. A spiritual projection, it was used to convert singular mana into the sharpest form, Aura, that could cut through all spells like a sword through the air. It was also responsible for the explosive speed of theirs. The tree’s projection induced a strong sucking force as if a thirsty man in front of the water. Rayen felt his mana moving towards it despite his strong control that almost sucked his main body inwards and only stopped when Bella put her hand on his shoulder. Other people were prepared for it, and thousands of dense cubes of white mana got released into the air which got sucked into the tree after a rapid disintegration in mid-air. As it happened, the projection’s green body became more real from illusion and stopped only when it was almost a substance. The long aerial roots dangle from its top and as if with a mind of their own, they grew closer towards Cherry. With a piercing sound, their tips pierced into her body and kept on expanding. Under Bardar’s control, the life force mixed with mana, called Blood Qi, entered Cherry and followed a circular path throughout her body.

  It was the second step which acted as a counterbalance against the sharp aura that cuts everything it touches, following the path of spiritual projection that acts as its regulator. Along with the injection of Blood qi, Cherry’s body started to heal, including from her hidden injuries. It was at this moment, that Bardar threw in a series of runes onto the tree’s trunks and the holed-up mana inside it started to flow violently, and with the ever-so-increasing speed, the mana was compressed with high temperature of plus two thousand degrees despite being in vapour form. But when it passed through the roots, it expanded along with temperatures that dipped to the extreme cold of minus fifteen degrees Celsius. It was in that state that it entered Cherry who shook violently due to the cold that ran through her body. The cold acted as the test of willpower for knights, and beasts tend to lose control over mana due to it. But Bardar was the one controlling mana here, he ignored Cherry’s violent movements. He used Blood Qi to maintain a balance between the damage due to cold and healing.

  He never stopped despite the occasional burst of blood veins due to miscalculated expansion of mana. One can see the bulging veins all over Cherry’s hairless body, and the green blood leaked from her eyes. The speed kept on increasing with waves of mana turning into aura and some leftover leaving her body outwards with violent bursts. One of them happened to hit Rayen’s mana thread and severed it directly. But he was not the only one, the deep cuts started to appear on the ground and so did the formation where sparks flew constantly. Bella close to the scene didn’t seem to do much but a force field kept both her and Rayen unaffected. Rayen meanwhile tried to reconnect with Cherry’s soul as he was taught but the mana kept getting cut, so he kept trying.

  Bella didn’t stop his behaviour either. The sharp Aura had started to consume the remaining mana inside Cherry and was now mixing in with Blood Qi that tried to maintain the balance. The tree also started to become illusionary, and if one looked really close to Cherry and inside her veins, they would notice small runes being formed all over her cells. Most strange of all, they looked organic and a part of the whole, instead of something that got slapped on the cells. The more clear ones have similar structures like the tree outside with the aerial trees connecting with other trees of neighbouring cells. As more and more such runes appeared, Cherry’s whole body started to get bloated with a dark purple membrane covering her body like a cocoon, and Bardar slammed his hand downwards and pushed the remaining meatball into the centre of the disappearing tree.

  The chants of mages became even louder, and the tree slammed into the cocoon where a miniature version of the tree appeared on the foremost layer, still flashing with green light. The tree absorbed final breaths of mana in the air as the cocoon expanded like an over-inflated and over-stretched balloon. It kept growing bigger and didn’t stop despite going to a two-story tall building. Bella narrowed her eyes and pulled Rayen closer to her just in time for the cocoon to explode with a loud boom. Outside the small force field surrounding Bella and Rayen, sticky liquid kept sliding and a strong gust of sand obstructed the view. But that didn’t stop a smile from creeping on the face of Bella. A big roar followed behind the still suspended sands, that now seemed to move with a will on its own, and then a big cheer from humans.

  “ Hear that Rayen? The sound of victors that now drown the screams of their comrades killed beside just some moment ago.” Bella said to Rayen who was looking at her blankly. “ Remember this day, for it is a symbol of a victory justifying the cost. Everything is fair as long as you and you alone win in the end. Everything else is just noise that will be drowned beneath you.” At the end of the words, one could see a huge shadow just in front of them and the cheers of people soon turned into a roar, just like the beast in front of them.

  ***

  Three days later, Oasis, it was another evening with the sun setting on its course. Azir lazily walked towards his home from Sam’s shop while whistling to himself. But it was more crowded near his home than usual. In fact, Azir could avoid bumping into others in the main market but couldn’t do so near his home. And before he knew it, the wave of people kept moving him along with it. “ Excuse me, where are you guys going? My stop is here, hey!?” His voice got mixed with loud chitters of people and Azir found himself unable to go against the crowd of people. With reluctance, he had to follow them too and soon found himself even more trapped and baffled. The crowd seemed to go nowhere but circling the lower edge of the mountain and many kept joining despite the already low space. And it was then he found why the roads at the bottom circle of Oasis were made especially wide. They seemed to be for this exact ceremony of people circling the mountain, but Azir found them still lacking in width. His face was much more tired-looking due to extra walking with a crowd that kept on repeating “Victory for the Goddess!”

  It was too late that he found something was very wrong with tonight and it seemed to come out of nowhere for him. At least, no one told him what the occasion was for cheering for their Great Mother, otherwise he too would have done it. When the sky was dark, he found himself on the top of the wall with reluctance. He tried many times but no one gave him space to even breathe. It was only when the clear wind hit him that some fresh air could be taken by him and he found the wall to be packed full. Some invisible wall seemed to have kept people from falling on either side while he could hear even more noises from what he assumed were people below the wall. “ Where are the guards when you need them? Haa….” He released a big sigh of defeat. He would have taken Rayen along with him for this if he was here but doing it alone and he can’t seem to enjoy himself. At this moment, he decided to look for what was happening since people stopped moving. From the tiny gaps, he could see some tornado appearing in the distance but it was too little space for clear visibility.

  “ Go forth, Victory for the Goddess!” People who were at the front screamed with their lungs and the blind crowd followed. In the distance, a huge shadow appeared under the moonlight, its height was as big as the wall and a storm of sand surrounded it. But from the sands, those with strong eyesight can see the nine eyes with amber-red colour and long fur in complete ashen black. A big wolf-like jaw that dipped with acidic saliva that created drizzled sounds when it hit the sands. Not to say about four thick legs filled with razor-sharp claws just beneath the fur. The moment those nice eyes looked towards the walls, everyone including felt a weight being pressed down on their chest. Azir panicked as he felt his blood churning but others cheered even more. Azir felt his nose wet so he touched it with his hand and found it leaking blood. He tried to move backwards, but the wall of humans stopped him. He didn’t know what happened as he prepared to scream to give way, he felt the pressure disappearing. “Huh?” He released a confused voice.

  Outside, Cherry’s eyes moved away from Azir and scratched her ear using her legs. It was good that the sandstorm covered her body, otherwise, they would have found their guardian sitting on her butt with the usual big mouth making a stupid face when looking towards them. How couldn’t she? For she almost sent Azir to the hospital tonight. But it was ok, or so she thought as she stopped her ear scratching and got back on her feet. She drew in a large breath and then, a big roar sounded across the whole of Oasis. It was mixed with some aura and the sparks flew all over the city as it collided with the invisible shield. This time, everyone other than Azir felt as if a hammer hit their chest and the closest to the wall spouted blood. When they looked up, Cherry was long gone, only the storm that was moving towards the east.

  ***

  Easparton.

  A light cough was heard on the streets as Adrian felt his throat burning. Despite his neat clothes, his face looked strained, with dark circles and red eyes. He couldn’t say why, but for the past few days, he felt something bad was going to happen. But it was not like mages were more sensitive to things and so he couldn’t tell what was going on. He already heard from the wind spirit that elves have moved away from the border and according to news of Easparton, their armies should have a preliminary contact with that of Oasis tonight. Everything seemed to be going as planned, small-scale skirmish then turned into a blood river, all was calculated multiple times. He shook his head and felt he was overthinking. Perhaps lack of sleep over some days was getting him now, making him more paranoid. He felt the chill of the winds and upped his collar a little, but it didn’t make it go away. He shook off such thoughts and kept moving on the road.

  The path had more knights and mages than citizens, rightfully so as the city was in lockdown. He stopped on the empty city square. He looked at the guards, who bowed but didn’t follow in with him. There, a man was standing with his hands behind his back, facing towards the empty space.

  “ Lord Arcturus.” Adrian bowed towards his city lord and asked tentatively. “ I heard you called me for something?”

  “ You look haggard?” Arcturus turned towards him with a well-fitted military uniform. The five stars across his chest looked especially shiny tonight. Even the top collar of his which was usually open was closed tonight which didn’t escape his vice city lord’s eyes. But Arcturus had the most noticeable difference, a big smile that was not there for a long time. “ You should rest sometimes.”

  “ It's all right, my lord. I can sleep when it ends.”

  “ Your attitude is what I appreciate, even more so for this place where no one seems to give a second thought.” Arcturus smiled even more as he heard his reply. He looked at the city surrounding him, countless times they had been rebuilt to cover for the beast tide washing over it, but no one among the people cared about the destroyed houses than the man standing in front of him. On his shoulder, the small scorpion pinched his pincers as if to remind him of something. “ Do you remember your past, Adrian? The most significant day of your life that changed your life?”

  “ I do,” Adrian said after a pause, he felt the man in front of him kinda moody, unlike his normal days. ‘ Perhaps the war made him worry too and he wants to release some tension?’ He thought and decided to help. He was not that far off in his guess.

  “I too remember them. Years ago I was the same as you, an orphan, not from Thar.” Arcturus’ words made Adrian’s eyes twitch, for he always thought his origin was covered up as an orphan of Thar, instead of being born in elvish territory from the local slaves. At this moment, the scorpion jumped from Arcturus’ shoulder to his and he had to calm his beating heart while Arcturus kept talking. “It was a rainy day in a small town of Terralia, I was beaten by a group of children over the last bread. I won in the end, but I can't bring myself to eat it. So I just lay in the dumpster in the cold rain. Do you know what I thought?”

  “...”

  “ Cold. That's the only thing I could think of. Very cold. I wanted to sleep and never wake up. So I did. But then something woke me up. A freaking bastard of a dog.”

  “A dog?” Adrian asked and Arcturus nodded.

  “ A bastard dog. It was licking me like some food and needless to say, I hit her with a piece of bread in my hand as a reflex.” He chuckled to himself and didn’t mind the confused look from Adrian. “And then there’s a light laugh from her. I still remember her, you know. Dressed in snow white without a single drop of rain or filth. She didn’t even look at me that time and was only interested in the dog.” There’s a reminiscent look on his face. “I don’t know what she said and wanted to sleep more, but found my body getting lifted. With some effort, I found myself in her arms and didn't know why, I stupidly said, ‘ Don’t touch me, you will get filthy.’ Needless to say, she stared at me for some time and then followed with ‘ I don’t like your name’ but I didn’t tell her that or perhaps I did but I can’t remember.”

  “What happened then?” Adrian felt he knew who that woman might be, but he dared not to speak out loud. He also found it curious what made an orphan so special and made him reach up to this point. But he was bound to be disappointed in search of those questions.

  “ She said ‘ From now on, I will call you, Arcturus.’ Pretty good name, don’t you think?” He stopped and looked at the person in front of him who nodded his head. “ No, you don’t.” Arcturus shook his head and continued. “ It was the problem with you, you never understood the minute details despite living in Thar. And that’s why people say you were not born here but no one can say the same to me.”

  “ I…”

  “ It’s not your fault. But let today be a special day, so I will tell you my secret.” Arcturus’ words made Adrian’s hair stand up. He felt a palpitation in his heart and before he knew it, the words followed which sounded more like devil’s whispers to his ears. “ I know the elves sent you here from the day you entered Thar.”

  “What-” Adrian’s words cut short as he felt the pain from his neck. The scorpion’s tail injected the poison into his blood which made his mana sluggish almost immediately. Followed by the paralysis and a deep pain from the very soul. “Hekk…”

  Arcturus looked at Adrain’s distorting face and nodded to himself with pride. “ See, I liked how you can still not scream from the pain. I asked my friend here to not paralyse your throat.” He clapped his hands and a mage walked in with a small cage in his hands. Inside was the wind spirit that Adrian used to communicate with the elf queen. It also made Adrian understand many things, for why Arcturus insisted on elves removing the army in front of him, and why they never said anything about the Great Mother. It made all sense if their target was not Oasis but the elves and the Verdant Divides itself. He tried to move his mana to activate the artefacts on him, but nothing happened.

  At last, he just settled in.“So...it ends tonight?” Adrian said with difficulty but one could see some relief on his face too. The things bugging him for long seemed to not be happening. He didn’t care about the elves from his heart and the city where he worked for so long would not be touched.

  “ It's just beginning.” From the distance, three long battleships made of bones and a distinct ‘Y’ written on their sides, rose from the depth of sand and flew towards the mountains with increasing speed. Arcturus looked above and the moons got hidden under their shadow. He looked at the mage that appeared with the captured spirit and said to him, “ Tell the Professors in the academy, to rework his values with care. Esparton still needs their vice-city lord.”

  “ As your wish, my lord. I would personally oversee his re-education myself.” The mage bowed with respect and took away the now unconscious Adrian.