Master Kissit knew two things about the world. The first was that there was no black and white, everything was a clear, even grey. Every good deed was mirrored by a bad one, and each of them had cause, a reason behind their blooming. This being said, he understood that there was no good or bad man, that the choice to be either didn't define who a man was because said choice could be changed. The second thing he knew was that everything had a valid explanation behind its occurrence.

That morning, when he woke to a soaked, sleeping roll, when he turned and saw the fireplace drenched in sea water, not an ember of light alive. When he got up and looked for Edda and found her floating in a pool of sea water several paces away, her wet hair plastered to her face, her skin pale and riddled with salt. When he went to her side and pumped her chest until she vomited sea water, he still believed there was a valid explanation behind this peculiar occurrence. Somehow, miles from the sea, the sea had found them. There must be an explanation. There had been no rain during the night and the horses tied some distance away yet still visible from camp gave no sign of distress.

He waited until Edda collected herself. "Water." She said in a raspy voice, her dripping vambarace shook as she supported herself on shaky limbs. Master Kissit handed her a canteen of water, she reached for it and hesitated before grabbing it. When she did she closed her eyes tight, as if expecting him to hit her, and after she realized he would do nothing of the sort but stand and gawk at her, it was then she allowed herself to pull the canteen free of his grasp and drunk from it.

He lowered himself to squat beside Edda, he touched at the water around her. "This is sea water." He said to Edda. "But how?"

"There was a girl." Edda said, lowering the canteen, her lower lip trembling.

"A girl?" Kissit asked and met her brown eyes.

Edda took a moment to answer, Kissit noted the trembling canteen in her hands. "A young girl, after you slept she came to the fire, with a canteen, a transparent one. She drunk from it as she talked to me. I thought she was a girl who'd wandered far from one of the villages."

"That is odd." Kissit said.

"She handed me her canteen in exchange for her name, I took it and was suddenly under water. So much water. It stung everywhere, my eyes, my nose, my chest. All of it burned and it was dark, I couldn't see where up was, I tried swimming but the armor pulled me down and I—" She closed her eyes tight as if wishing the image away. "Was it a dream?"

Master Kissit took a moment to ponder. "Maybe, maybe some sea water erupted from underground and you drunk some of it in your sleep. Sea water can do that to a person, make them see things. It is your first time drinking it, right?" Edda nodded. "Well, get up and saddle your horse, we must reach the sea by nightfall."

A moment later after gobbling dry bread and water. They climbed onto their saddles and started the ride West. Master Kissit was careful not to push Edda hard, she seemed disoriented and he didn't want her to fall off her saddle. Can she bare the title she proudly calls herself now? As the Knights proclaim, Edda surviving a war doesn't make her necessary of the title. She'd not been through the trials a Knight must meet so as to earn the title. A war was not enough.

Yet, she was the best acolyte at the Court. She'd excelled at everything at a rate and magnitude that shocked the Masters. She could have been more than a spy if she wanted to. He turned to glance at her, his horse kicked up dirt in his wake, and there she was several paces behind, eating it. I'm not pushing her that hard. He thought to himself.

At noon they stopped to eat in silence. He noticed she sat further away from him, one hand wrapped around herself as she used to do as a child as she ate. As if offering herself comfort was the only comfort that mattered. Master Kissit broke the silence anyway. "That girl who came last night. What did she say her name was after you took her canteen?"

Edda turned to face him. "Alietsi, the Goddess of Depth."

Master Kissit tried to suppress it. He'd gone seven days without laughing, he was sure he could make it to ten. He smiled, trying to limit the laughter to that simple gesture, but he couldn't hold it. He burst out laughing, he laughed so hard his bread fell from his hands. "Gods, you know they actually sell sea water in taverns up north where the Talisi live? That's some potent stuff right there. Makes people see things."

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Edda frowned. "It seemed so real."

"Yes, now when you feel like you can ride Rankf Sea Leviathans as the stories of Alietsi used to say she could, that's when you avoid drinking sea water completely."

Edda abruptly turned a fraction slower than his gaze lifted to the smoke being carried by a strong low wind current around where they sat. Something was burning, something big.

He stood up, hiding his dagger beneath his blue robe. His feet could tell there was a large procession heading towards them by the vibration upon the ground, maybe twelve horses.

Edda got up and closer to him, she had her sword strapped to her hip. "What's going on?"

"Someone's coming from the direction of that smoke." Master Kissit said.

He squinted until he saw the sand rising, and then the dark figures gained form, men on horses, thirteen horses. Damn it, he'd got it wrong. He was immediately able to tell who the riders were judging from their uniforms. "Edda, Binorians are heading in this direction, in a hurry, we can't hide now they've already seen us. That smoke spells mischief, ready your blade. We might die here." He didn't have to startle her so with the last statement, but she was a Knight as she claimed, she must have learnt that Knights face death without fear, her face spoke otherwise.

He could feel it rising, excitement, a need to kill someone. He always got this urge at the oddest of times like when taking tea with the other Masters, while giving a parade speech with the other Masters, while meeting other Masters in the hallways and when in the presence of Binorians. But he hadn't killed anyone in five years, he was sure he could make it to ten if he just suppressed the urge.

As the Binorians approached, Master Kissit stood still, watching his breathing. He had to avoid conflict somehow, she was hot headed but he did not need to see her dead, he couldn't fight thirteen and protect her at the same time, if they were eleven, maybe, but thirteen is just too high. He wasn't as young as he used to be.

The horsemen came close, close enough for him to see the look of hatred in the blue eyes of their captain. They were dressed in red leather armor, the crest of the Telinete Rhino in gold upon their breasts. They came to a halt five paces away from them, six of them descended their horses and filled the gaps between horses. All of them unsheathed their swords from their scabbards.

"I assure you, killing a Master and Knight of the Remu Court does not bode well for you, not at this time when Binoria can't afford another war." Kissit said.

Their Captain judging from his uniform, still astride his horse, turned and spat. "That's funny, yesterday I had a wife and child who'd find your joke funny. Your Council of rulers has ordered every Binorian in Remu to depart the Kingdom immediately. So yesterday I had a wife and child, and this morning I watched as the Remu burned down my house with my wife and child inside it. What about you Riggy, who'd find the Master's joke funny?"

"Aye, for me Captn," Riggy, a young lad on foot with his blade held to the side in an expert pose said. "It must be my twelve girlfriends. They were all killed today for having slept with a Binorian. I only like number nine and seven, but number five really hurt, I really loved that one."

"We burnt a few things too. For revenge of course, but it wasn't that valuable to the Remu, we really didn't hurt them." The Captain said. "But now we've found something even more valuable to gut and burn."

Master Kissit unsheathed his dagger, held it in a reverse grip and told Edda. "Knight, you can handle yourself?" The men chuckled but Edda nodded as she unsheathed her sword.

The first one came for him with confidence, so sure of his blade's longer reach. Master Kissit side stepped and pushed forward in the time it took the Binorian to thrust, his dagger sunk into the man's neck with a backward thrust and the Binorian collapsed, dead. Two more came to him, seeing their friend's mistake they baited him, two paces away, thrusting but not committing to their attack. Waiting for him to slip, taking away his option of attack for wherever he'd commit the other would pounce. But he was a Master for a reason, he taught combat for Gods' sake. He turned and was hit by an eruption of blood and gore—

One of the men who'd flanked him was hit by a horse and the impact had the man explode, the horse wasn't running. It had been thrown, one of its legs twisted badly from where a hand's grip had crushed it. Horse and what's left of man flew without hitting the ground for a moment, tumbled and came to a standstill as a dark spot in the far distance. Everyone turned to the direction the horse had come from.

Edda, one knee on the ground, hand frozen in a complete pitch, head bent and sword discarded to the side. There was a deep farrow in the ground where a man lay crushed, and the farrow dragged in the direction the horse had flew from. Sweat... No... Water, it must be water, that much sweat can't come from someone. Water came down Edda's body from the crown of her head, it flowed down her, dripping endlessly onto the ground around her. They all paused, staring at her.

"Riggy." The Binorian Captain said. Breaking the silence. "Can you just explain what happened."

The same young lad who'd spoken before cleared his throat. "Captn it appears the lady put her sword down, reached for Gary's horse, grabbed its leg, lifted it off the ground like a lute and smashed Gary with it before flinging it at Jared there whose legs are the only part that's left of him still standing." And indeed they were. Legs still in leather boots, cut at the calf.

The Captain nodded. "Well I'll be damned, let's do a vote, do we consider our quest for vengeance sated at this point?"

"To be honest Captn," Riggy said. "I didn't even love my fifth girlfriend that much"

The rest of the Binorian men nodded. The Captain saluted Master Kissit and Edda before staring at Edda for a moment longer, turned his horse sharply to the left and made a wide trail of the Master and Knight. The other Binorians saluted as well and followed in their Captain's wake.

Edda collapsed, water was spilling out of her, Kissit rushed to her side and tried to lift her upper body to rest on his lap but she was too heavy. Her face was sheathed in water, she was opening her mouth to scream but it kept getting in and all she could do was gurgle. She was drowning out of sea and there was nothing he could do.

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