The sun was standing high on the sky.

Arkin stared at one of his men who was riding towards him.

It was Charles, a blonde general with curly hair.

A couple of days ago, they had set up a camp in a small village called Poz with a task to capture a traitor. However, this traitor was not a simple spy from a different country. This traitor was chosen by Chance and had kept this a secret while slowly climbing the ranks of the army.

A few months ago, she had been the same rank as Charles, and the brute Sinon. Arkin was the commanding general and seeing one of his most trustworthy comrades turn against him had made him furious.

'A slap to the face!' he thought.

Charles arrived at the camp and smoothly slid off the horse into a walk. Truly a skilled swordfighter, but his real forte was his ability to tame even the wildest of stallions.

"Report." Arkin said and rubbed his temples.

It had been a long night. He, Charles and Sinon had given the lower ranks a real treatment; a full night of drinking mead at this small inn called the Crooked Harp.

At first, he had his doubts, but this village out in nowhere was full of greenery and small buildings. Best of all was that it was far from the capital, far from politics and power struggles. If he retired one day, Poz was a location he considered moving to for sure.

Charles met Arkin's tired eyes. They had both been making sure that last night would be a day of rest for the soldiers. As the morning sun rose, he had sent Charles to investigate the green light.

"The situation has changed. Rosalee is dead." Charles said with a tone filled with both sadness and disappointment.

Arkin was shocked. 'dead? Who could kill her?' he thought.

Trying hard to not show emotions he asked with a tired voice

"Cause of death?"

Charles stumbled on words, hesitated but finally said it straight out.

"Uh, she… uh, she has been turned to stone."

"Turned to stone? Charles if this is another one of your tasteless jokes..." Arkin began

But Charles interrupted him by saying with a determined face.

"She is dead. At the centre of where the green light struck this morning, only a stone statue remains. I even took my time to draw the statue"

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Then he pulled out a small leather book, proceeded to open a certain page and handed it over to Arkin.

Arkin stared at the drawing in his hands.

'This man has talent' he thought at first.

Then he looked at the face of the statue, and there was no denying it. The statue had the face of Rosalee.

"You are certain that this is what you saw?" He asked.

To which Charles replied " Never been this sure in my life. You think I enjoyed drawing this?"

Then he continued by saying with a sad voice, "I did this so that you wouldn't have to go there. Surely, you would bring Sinon with you to confirm my words. We both know that brute would lash out and I'm not sure if I can handle a raging Sinon attacking everything in his path."

Charles pushed his fingers through his curly hair and let out a long, depressed sigh.

Arkin waved with his hands in hopelessness and said, "I believe you, you did the right thing".

"Of course I did" Charles responded.

"I'm going to sleep, send someone to wake me up when you've decided what to do next." He added.

Arkin sighed and looked around. The soldiers were roaming around the camp, all of them busy doing nothing.

Then he spotted Sinon brawling with a few new bloods, training them in hand-to-hand combat.

He was showing off his muscular body by not wearing a shirt. His scars were proof that he had survived many injuries that should have been fatal. Stab wounds, long cuts, even claw marks.

Sinon received a slap straight to his cheek, scraping at his moustache, from one of the younger soldiers during their brawl.

"A slap, are you mocking me!?" He yelled and pushed away two men with ease.

Then he picked up the man who slapped him and sent him flying.

The poor soldier landed almost 5 metres away and passed out on the spot.

Sinon saw the ground getting wet around the new-blood and laughed, "Hahaha, you actually pissed yourself. Okay kid, I forgive you!"

Then Sinon turned his head to Arkin’s direction and yelled, "you saw that old man, the kid pissed himself! I have not seen that for years. Years I tell you!"

Arkin placed his face in his palm and sighed once more.

Then he cleared his throat and said with a loud and serious voice, "Sinon, the training is over. I need a word with you."

Sinon's large smile died down, and then he left the training circle. He walked with heavy steps towards Arkin and kneeled.

"I am calm now" he said.

Arkin took a deep breath, and then he told Sinon "Rosalee is dead. It has been confirmed. You don't need to know the details, but it is safe to assume that it was her screaming you heard this morning."

Sinon huffed through his nose. He clenched his fist, but then he calmed himself.

“How did she die?” He asked with a quiet but angry tone.

“She was killed in that green light that you saw this morning.” Arkin answered.

Sinon punched the ground with brute force, then he calmed down again.

Then he said, “There is no helping it, she was up against gods.”

Arkin nodded and replied, “That is likely, yes.”

Sinon stood up, looked at the sky and clenched both of his fists. It was obvious that he was restraining himself from lashing out.

After a couple of seconds, he calmed down again. Then he asked, “What’s the plan now?”

Arkin turned his back to Sinon, but replied as he walked away, “We know nothing, we say nothing. We are in Poz to recruit old adventurers to the army, the Ursus kingdom have proven that their threats are not empty words.”

Sinon smiled, his mood was getting better.

“I can’t wait to punch those proud Ursus bastards in their faces” He said.

Arkin nodded and commented, “You will get your chance to do that, but right now we need a reason to travel to Poz. Lucky for us, there are at least a dozen old adventurers in this small village. They all did their military training as children, and that is reason enough for us to come here personally.”

“And if they refuse?” Sinon asked with his smiling getting even bigger.

“During times of war, anyone fit for fighting who is not enlisting will be deemed a deserter” Arkin answered.

“That is good, might even get my heart pumping.” Sinon said, as he walked the other direction.