Shame was all Ellyrie could feel as she gazed across the land beneath them. For a decade had she sailed the skies of Atal, a soaring protector of the weak.

Now they could not even save the people from their own. The "Herald" had been sailing in a dizzying zig-zag across the Atali north-east these last days in an effort to stay clear of any guardian vessels.

The captain heard the heavy steps of Mellador behind her as she stood at the forward of the "Herald". "This must be how the pirates were feeling, don't you think?" She leaned up against the railing, head held low.

The half-ogre stopped at her side, his war maul shouldered. None of them had been outside of their armours for days now. "A very grim comparison, yes. Captain, Aeneya asks for our next destination, we managed to avoid the latest vessel."

Ellyrie put her hands on her head, pulling at her hair. "I don't know. How do we catch a group of people who could look like anyone? And even when we do, they killed the entire circle! How can we fight against that?"

Mellador crossed his arms. "I do not know how, but his highness is counting on us. Though if I may be this blunt, captain? I think you are worried more about other things."

"What are we, Mellador?" Ellyrie´s voice was almost lost in the wind. "We're chasing thieves, while running from the guardians, while they are destroying home, my home." She gripped tightly onto the railing. "And I'm supposed to just let them?"

She pointed down to a farmstead below. It was the same sight they had been coming across these days. A broken door, wagon tracks and no sign of life "That's the Leuelle home. Or, it was. We stayed there two summers ago after the little war, remember? The stew, fishing in the river, how Cairon confessed to me after getting drunk."

Tears ran down her face, the silence bearing down on her heart. "Please tell me you remember it too."

"I remember, captain."

Ellyrie took a step back and wiped her face with her hand. "The Sky Knights are meant to be protecting people, and now all we can do is watch. What is the point, why are we doing this anymore?"

"The dead pass their regret to us, my captain." Fiona came towards them. The dark rings under her eyes were even worse than usual. "It is for their sacrifice that we must safeguards those who yet live."

She held a small piece of paper in her hand, and handed it to Ellyrie.

It was a very, very crudely drawn map of Atal, with lines and initials so haphazardly penned that Ellyrie could only shake her head. "I'm sorry but, can you explain? In, a more normal way?"

Fiona sighed and drew her scythe. With it she edged an X into the boards of the deck. "This is the academies, where our darkened enemies committed their deed. Their burden must be heavy, but yet they did not flee with a sky ship. Yet without a doubt they must know to need a vessel if they wish to escape 'ere the guardians find them."

She spun her scythe through the air. Ellyrie batted her eyes and prayed as splinters of wood filled the air. Finally the young sky knight shouldered her weapon, now standing in the middle of a web of X's connected by carved lines. "Three settlements are near the academies. Hennah is too far by foot, the terrain too open. Fools would take this path and be found. Jun is too well defended, it'd take a small army to force their way in, draw too much attention, no."

She pressed her heel down on the X between her and Ellyrie. "Rean, it must be their target, captain. This daughter of the Reaper invokes you to heed her warning and make for it post-haste."

Ellyrie looked from Fiona to Mellador, who shrugged. "It is a rather sensible plan, I would say. And it is better than none."

The captain nodded and looked back at Fiona. "Alright, though we cannot stay long in case the Guardians already took over there. Like Elias said, they will probably force a fight on us that we will lose in the end."

Fiona bowed deeply and let out a loud yawn. "We are pleased that our sacrifice of sleep was fruitful. We shall now depart into slumber, deservedly."

She had already turned to leave when Ellyrie called after her. "You will have to cover for the mess you left the deck in though still!"

Fiona looked back, a moment of silence passed. "No."

Then she ran, and disappeared below deck.

Ellyrie struggled to contain a chuckle. "Mellador, please tell Aeneya to set course for Rean, if we burn a little more we should arrive there by nightfall, be safer that way. I need to check up on Mel."

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The captain replied to his salute and made her way to her quarters. The "Herald" was rather tight on space, so Ellyrie´s room had also become Melnia´s. The young woman was sitting on Ellyrie´s bed, reading. She looked upon hearing the door open and smiled.

"El! I mean, captain." She mirrored the salute of the Sky Knights, albeit with a shaky hand. Ellyrie sat down next to her and looked into the book.

"Oh, the histories? How far in are you?"

Melnia leaned back. "The year one hundred, just after Aeterna entered the concord with the eight gods and founded the empire." She closed the book with a puzzled look on her face. "It sounds, wrong."

Ellyrie rose an eyebrow. "Wrong, how? It's what happened."

"I don't know how to say it." Melnia ran her hand across the golden letters on the front of the book, right below the image of Aeterna in her most common depiction: tall, blonde, clad in a dress of white and red with the shine of the rising sun behind her. "But, it begins with the Imperator standing atop the ruins of her burned village, and deciding to build a better world. But who burned it?"

The captain stood still. The thought had never crossed her mind. "Likely inhumans, though no, we did not encounter any for a hundred years, it´s where Goliath now stands. Another tribe perhaps? We were not a united people back then."

"It simply feels wrong, captain." Melnia ran a hand through her hair and looked across the cover. "What is the book about the before called?"

Ellyrie blinked. "Before Aeterna? There, there isn't one."

Melnia stood up and wandered over to the window. "None? Just, nothing?"

"Yes, nothing. The histories are the founding document that we have of the golden days before Aeterna ascended, along with the ledger and the Truth. Nothing else survived, even my Father uses the Great Ledger for his work because it is all we have."

"Your father is the steward, right?" Melnia turned around and looked at Ellyrie with a look of concern. "Did you ever get to meet the Imperator? See what she looks like?"

Ellyrie´s eyes wandered to the book that now laid at her side. She felt her stomach churn. "No, her palace is locked to everyone unless they are invited. Even my father is not allowed to enter without being summoned. Though he always looked drained when coming home."

Melnia wrung her hands. "Captain, El. I think we should leave."

"And leave where?" The captain shook her head. "The other provinces wont take us in, and we can't live among inhumans, you've seen what they're like, at least mostly. And I have a duty here, people to protect."

"I just have a bad feeling, captain." Melnia stared down at the ground. "They want me, we can't separate, and the more I read about our Imperator, the more worried I got."

"You don't have to worry, Aeterna is good!" Ellyrie jumped to her feet." The Guardians are bad, yes, but that isn't, she would not stand for this, Mel, I know she wouldn't!"

The captain took a step forward, but hesitated at the doubt written in Melnia´s face. "She, she wants a better world for us, she fought for it for hundreds of years, against maddened warlords, beasts, inhuman hordes and literal gods! All on her own, even when everyone hated her, even while they hated her, she loved us."

Ellyrie could not keep eye contact, her head lowered and dropped. "She's why I sought to sail out and be a knight. So I could be, just like her."

Neither said another word. Neither could say another word. Ellyrie turned to leave. "We'll be stopping by a town tonight, so it would be best if you, tried to sleep now."

"I will do my best, captain."

She left her quarters again, to return to the main deck. She found a spot at the aft and sat down, hugging her knees. She waited.

Afternoon turned to evening, and Cairon joined her. They watched the sun set in silence. He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, opened his mouth to speak, but shut it and looked down instead. He tried again, and again, but failed. Finally he got back up and left her to her own devices.

"We're approachin Rean, captain!" Aeneya called from behind the ship´s wheel. "And you may want to look for yourself!"

The panic in her voice forced Ellyrie back into her mind. She got up and ran to the to the forward of the "Herald". Her face turned pale.

Rean had always been a little town, only appearing on maps due to having a tower close to the centre of the Atali province. So far removed from any threat, there were hardly any defences, for there was simply no need. This had now turned against them.

The city was in a state of ruin. Doors had been shattered, wooden houses were burning, and a ghostly quiet laid over the corpses littering the ground.

The captain did not think twice. She jumped over the railing, blade drawn. Her boots stopped her fall as she landed amidst the ruined town square.

"Is anyone there? I am Ellyrie, captain of the Sky Knights! You can come out, we are here to help, please, anyone!"

Her comrades of the Hope´s guard landed beside her except Aeneya, who steered the "Herald" towards the tower.

They spread out to look for survivors, with Ellyrie marching straight towards the great marble manor near the tower, the house of the city´s governour.

She found him in his dining room, dressed in a simple evening attire with a sword stuck in his chest. Ellyrie´s blood was boiling as she leaned down to close his eyes. "I'll find who did this Erne, I promise."

With a sinking heart she ran up the stairs, every door was smashed open, not a single shine of gold remained anywhere, but also no blood or signs of a struggle. The only door still intact was that to the bedroom. It took her a moment to gather her courage, then she opened it.