Meera's eyes were fixated on Neel's image on the bounty poster. It was a sketch, you could call it at best, but the artist might as well have taken a picture with his hands. The only difference in this picture from the Neel she remembered was the wispy facial hair. It made him look older than he was.

She teared up at seeing her brother's face after so long. Even though it had only been a few weeks, maybe a month, since she had last seen him, but this month had felt longer than a year. The ache in her heart was renewed at seeing his face again. Memories from years past came rushing back. The first time she held him to the time she would look after him as their mom fell sick. She effectively had to step in for their mom once she was bedridden. Her dad used to say Neel had two mothers, one that brought him into this world and one that raised him.

"Meera?" Onyx called.

That shook her out of her daze. Meera quickly wiped at her eyes. "Yes, sorry. I thought I saw something. Well, I did see something. There are two guards posted up ahead, along a wall. I'm thinking that is the town of Rosmis."

"You can see that far ahead?" Tamas was surprised again.

Onyx chuckled but said nothing.

Meera continued. "We will go on foot from here, and before you say something, I'll help you, Tamas. Onyx, I'll let you rest for obvious reasons."

"Hey, I wanted to see a real city after so long," he protested. "But fine."

Meera jumped off the horse and helped Tamas down before patting Onyx's side. "Thanks for getting us out of that mess. We wouldn't have made it without you."

"No problem."

She recalled him and his tattoo returned on her hand as he disappeared in a big puff of smoke. She turned to Tamas. "Let's go find you a healer."

"Wait. You're going into town looking like that?"

She looked down at herself, and her armor was fine. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"Do you not have thieves where you come from?" He asked. "If you go in wearing all that gold, you might as well paint a big sign that says—rob me. Though, your Varshan looks might be a deterrent."

Meera let out an annoyed sigh. "Firstly, it's not gold, and like I said, I'm not a Varshan. But I see your point."

The armor's description said it could change according to its master's desires. So, she decided to give it a go. She tried something simple at first, like changing all the gold to black to match the rest of the armor.

It didn't even take long. She just had to think about it, and all the gold turned black, making Tamas gasp. Then she decided to take one step further and made holes in her arms and some on her knees and lower legs, followed by a small one on her sides. Wherever she thought about it, her armor receded to give her a look that she had been in one hell of a fight, which she had.

Tamas' eyes widened. "How are you doing that?"

"My armor's special." She smiled. "Now, let's go and let me do the talking."

"Shouldn't I, seeing as I'm from this country?"

"No, you're too injured and a fugitive on the run." Meera tapped her lips with a finger. "On second thought, sure, you can fill in the bits."

With that, they moved to the town. It was slow going without Onyx, and Tamas winced with each step, but his cane surely helped. But it broke halfway, so Meera put one arm over her shoulder and helped him. In a way, this was better. They looked more destitute. It was almost evening when they reached the wall. The sun gave way for Mirithia to shine.

Off to the side was the big oval Gateway Mirror, guarded by two big guards in some heavy-looking armor, holding nasty-looking halberds. The two guards at the gate looked more normal. They had average builds and wore leather armor over their brown and blue uniforms. It was rather unimposing. The only difference was that one had a twirly mustache, and the other didn't.

"Halt!" One of the guards barked. "And state your business."

"This here is Tamas, and I am Meera. We ran into each other in the forest where the Mistblades attacked us," Meera said.

"And the escaped prisoners from His Majesty's dungeons," Tamas took over. "They took everything we had. And as you know, the border wall moved again a couple of days ago, but it left behind some Mistblades, which weren't too kind. I only survived as Meera here is an accomplished fighter. But in our hurry to escape, we had to leave everything behind. Please, sirs, we're desperate. You can see the condition we're in. I need help…we need help."

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Meera was impressed. It was a much better lie than she could have ever come up with herself.

The guards looked them over and then at each other. The twirly mustache guard twirled his mustache even more as he went to his partner and whispered. "So, looks like they hit someone else."

"It's been a week, and they've been out of control," replied his partner. "Someone has to do something about this. We can only take in so many injured folks."

"But we must help them. Look at him. He's near half dead."

"But his partner isn't, and she's…"

"Right…"

Of course, Meera wasn't supposed to hear any of this, but she didn't have normal ears. The mustache guard stepped forward toward Meera, and she knew what was coming even before he opened his mouth.

"What is a Varshan doing in Azeria?" he asked. Upon hearing Varshan, the heavily armored guards immediately turned towards her, grips tightening on their halberds.

Meera smiled and did her best not to sound contentious. "I'm not a Varshan, sir. I probably got too tanned from being out in the sun for too long. I'm a hunter, you see."

He squinted his eyes, and she knew he was using Identify on her. So, she did the same on them.

[Patrolman – Level 83]

[Patrolman – Level 84]

[Gateway Guardian – Level 136]

[Gateway Guardian – Level 138]

Meera relaxed as she knew she could take them. They were probably more afraid of her. So she did her best to appear meek and tired.

"Fine," the mustached guard finally said. "But no trouble from either of you or it will not end well."

“Yes, sir,” Tamas chimed. "We'll get some supplies and be gone."

Meera smiled at them again, eyed Neel's poster, and had a strong urge to rip it off but could not risk starting a fight.

"Head to the healer on the third street on your right. Her name is Dalia. She might be a little gone in her old age, but she'll fix you right."

The other guard snorted. "Probably the only healer who isn't swamped right now, and make sure you find some rooms for the night. It's curfew after dark. The mayor wants no one outside on account of…well, you know."

"The Mistblades have been attacking your town?" Meera asked.

"Every night for a week now."

Meera glanced at the wide-eyed cook. "Um, if you don't mind, can I touch the Gateway Mirror?"

The guards looked at each other, and the mustache one started twirling it again. "Usually, we make it a point not to let a Varshan touch our mirror, but who are we to withhold someone from Midiea's gift." He motioned with his head.

"Thank you." Meera rushed off and touched the mirror. A day ago, she would have been intimidated by the halberd-wielding Gateway Guardians. Now, she smiled at them as she placed her palm on the mirror and returned to Tamas.

They said their thanks to the guards and moved in through the gates. The town was nothing much. She could see the opposite wall, which could not have been more than a kilometer away if even that. There were standard slanted-roof wooden houses with stone chimneys. Most of which had smoke coming from them.

Meera caught quite a few people staring, and she knew why. Just stay calm, Meera. Take deep breaths and walk away.

They followed the directions to Dalia and didn't need to ask which was her house. It had a short line of about five people waiting to get healed. Meera quickly fixed the holes in her armor before anyone began staring, which they did, and then the whispers started, which were all rude.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait long. Meera let Tamas go in alone, as she didn't want to waste time explaining to the old healer that she was not a Varshan. As she waited, she thought of getting some gold back in her armor, which would read—Not a Varshan.

Tamas returned a man rejuvenated. "All healed, finally."

Meera snorted. "Let's go find something to eat. I'm starving."

"You stole the words from my mouth," Tamas said. "You better let me take the lead because—"

"Because everyone thinks I'm a Varshan."

"Yes."

Meera sighed and motioned for him to lead the way. Tamas asked for directions from one of the people standing in line, and off they went. It was easy to find the row of houses which were actually inns. They all had smoke rising from their chimneys. They tried three before finding a table empty for two in the fourth one.

This one was also packed with people. When the serving lady came for their orders, Meera stopped her before she went away.

"Wait, why is it so packed?" Meera asked.

"Well, something awful's happening in the kingdom," said the plump woman. "Something awful, indeed. Only until a few days ago, we but needed to look east and see the border mists looming and now, the border's so far gone, I would need a horse to go find it."

Tamas nodded. "Yes, we saw it move."

She gasped. "Then you have seen them. The Mistblades…"

"Oh, we saw them, indeed," Meera said. "They nearly made a meal of us."

"It's an awful business. Some say the Queen's lost control of the border and her pets. There's been no fighting this way. No talk of tensions with our neighbors, yet we're taking over their lands. I tell you, this could lead to war, and we'll be the first casualty if those infernal Mist spawns don't get to us first."

"Is that the reason for all these people?" Meera asked.

She nodded. "All the folk out there in the forests who were going about anywhere should have moved on long ago, but now we keep getting more people. At this rate, we'll starve. The mayor needs to do something about all this and soon."

"Say, do you have any rooms available for the night?" Tamas asked.

She shook her head. "Sorry folks, we've been all booked up since the day before yesterday. But you two seem like nice folk. I'll talk to my husband, and maybe we can find you a spot on this floor that he hasn't rented out. That greedy man would even place people in the attic. Oh, I shouldn't say that out loud. The man has the ear of a wolf, especially when money's concerned."

As soon as she was gone, Meera heard something interesting.

"Did you hear a thief broke into Tearsfell Prison?"

The other man gasped. "No, who would be mad enough to steal from the Shadowsteel Warlord."

"Apparently, the Champion."