I need to leave.

Sanasira’s walls cannot protect us any longer. Armies from the southern Kingdoms and western Empires encroach upon our borders day by day. And above it all, Legosia does not return. I fear he has abandoned me, abandoned our nation, but for what reason I cannot possibly hope to understand.

-From The Last King of Elneshe’s 10th Note.

Galeon entered the city just as the sun was about to set. His arms were getting tired of holding Isildan the whole time, and Isildan was getting tired of being ferried around like a child.

“Can we drop down now? We’re basically in the city already,” Isil reasoned.

“Just a bit further, Isil. We don’t want Emile to have to walk all the way down.”

He took a look over at Emile. For some reason, Raya had decided to hold him up in both hands, which confused him. Seraphas damn you, Emile. What did you make her do? Raya was trying to hide a snicker as she carried the man, but Galeon could tell he’d sweet talked her into it.

Let’s see how Janel takes it when she finds out, Galeon smiled as he thought. Maybe she’d float his bed into the air in the middle of the night, or perhaps blow his morning breakfast right in his face.

Just the possibilities got him snickering, but Galeon stopped when Ninel gave him a horrified stare.

“I’m not going mad, I swear,” Galeon told the man, but Ninel still chose to fly a bit apart from him from then on.

The mountain range that surrounded Sanasira finally ended and the five of them could see the city in all its might. It was laid out so perfectly that each street had a reflection on the other side of the city. It was a lot of effort for a sight that few Afteburners would pay attention to, but he supposed such a grand location would be built like that.

Some of the nobles back at home would appreciate it more than him, Galeon conceded, as he flew down and towards the edge of the city. There, he set Isil down, much to his relief.

“Next time you’re going to carry me, bring a seat,” Isil remarked. Galeon raised a hand to his chin.

“You think I could make a living like that?” Galeon asked.

“Earning, sure. Living requires some pride,” Ninel said as he landed as well.

Raya was the last of them to come down, and she set Emile down more softly than Galeon had.

“Thank you for the ride, Raya!”

“O-oh… no problem,” she replied, looking away from him stiffly as he stretched. She looked towards the city instead, forgetting him and whistling.

“We’ve got a lot of buildings to search out, don’t we?” Raya asked. As she was staring out, a shadow extended past her.

“And not much time for it either,” she added.

“You don’t need to worry about that. We just have to find signs of someone having passed recently. We get those and I can track down those bastard Ravenishtanis,” Emile told her.

“You should go with Isil, then,” Ninel said. The lot of them waited for an explanation, which he realized a little late.

“Isildan’s the only Planar we have here. If any of us had to carry him everywhere, it would take much longer,” he reasoned. Galeon nodded.

“I agree with Ninel. The rest of us will scout overhead, sticking close by,” he told them before taking to the sky.

Emile began his search at the outermost parts of the city. He searched the ground for tracks, but being that it was either covered in overgrown grass or rubble, that made the search a bit harder. It wasn’t helped by the comments that Isildan would add, annoying him further.

He created a portal to the roof of one of the buildings, what looked to be a shop in disrepair. When the both of them popped out, Emile shouted.

“Look out!” he told Isil, but the Planar tripped over the net placed over the roof. The portal winked out behind them and the both of them fell into the shop itself, stuck in the thickly woven net. Leaves and vines rustled as the both of them tried to get out of the trap, grunting as they struggled against the bonds.

“How could you, uhf, miss that? Aren’t you supposed to have good eyes?” Emile asked, adjusting himself upright again.

“Agh, stop moving, Emile! I’m trying to get a look around!” Isil shot back, pushing the scout. Emile grunted and shoved Isil back in the tent. The both of them got into a scuffle, shoving and punching each other until the net snapped.

Both of them fell onto the floor of the building, Galeon and the Afterburners looking at them, exasperated.

“The search just started. What’s up with the both of you?” Galeon asked, kneeling down to their level.

“Isil can’t see anything worth a damn further than two paces,” Emile glared.

“He’s got some vendetta against me. I don’t understand what it is, but it’s getting in both of our ways,” Isil replied, blank faced. Somehow, that only made Emile angrier, but he kept it to himself.

What could a scout do against an entire hallowmancer, after all?

“He could’ve waited a damn moment before rushing outside.”

“Maybe because I thought I could handle myself. You’re the one that complicated things by coming after me.”

“I’m the scout. I find traps. You want me to ignore them when they pop up in front of you?”

“If they’re not going to kill me? Sure, let me take it.”

“Both of you, stop,” Galeon intoned angrily. He took a deep breath before continuing.

“It’s a tense situation, I understand. But you need to work together, understand? Emile, you’re the best at finding hidden details. And Isil, you’re the fastest transport we’ve got inside the city. If you can’t reconcile, then finding the Ravenishtani contingents is going to be much harder,” Galeon explained to the both of them.

“They’re probably dead by whatever traps are in the city anyways,” Emile quipped.

“And if they’re not, and we find them ambushing Latren later, that’s going to be our fault,” Ninel shot back. Emile didn’t match the Afterurner’s gaze, just hanging his head down for a moment.

“Come on, Emile. We need you for this,” Galeon pleaded, nudging his friend.

“Fine…” he muttered.

“What?” Isil asked.

“I said, fine! I’ll do it. But only for the mission,” Emile said, popping back up and dusting himself off. Isildan peeled himself off of the floor as well, though stayed quiet while the scout spoke.

They both left in quiet from the abandoned shop, walking through a portal to another part of the city.

“That was easy,” Galeon noted.

“Your friends are…. Eclectic,” Ninel said, passing him by. Galeon accepted the comment, glad that Ninel had been so kind to spare his feelings.

The three of them then flew out of the wreckage of the shop, into the air and began to search around. Scouting from high above was much more difficult with the sun going down, but that didn’t deter them.

They flew all the way to the edge of the city, finding a water channel running through it and into the mountains.

“It still works?” Raya wondered as she looked into the hole carved through the mountains. She cupped a handful of water out of the stream and drank it. Ninel gave her a sideways glance for it, but she wiped her mouth and smiled.

“It’s fresh!” she said before plunging her mouth down into the river and taking a big gulp. Ninel pondered for a moment, weighing Raya’s words against the possibility of it being another trap. But just before he could concede and take a sip himself, Galeon came out of the sky and jumped into the river.

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The water splashed onto Ninel’s entire body, drenching him from head to toe. Raya took it worse than him, and the both of them glared at Galeon as he cocked his head out of the stream.

“What? You said it was fresh.”

“We could, ough ough, drown him, Ninel. Just have to keep quiet about it,” Raya offered. Ninel legitimately considered the offer before shaking his head.

“Stop messing around. We’ve got work to do,” he simply admonished. Galeon strode out of the river and chuckled. He wrung his jacket in his hands as the other two did the same.

He stopped only once he noticed something even more peculiar than the river. Galeon put his jets on again, flew over to the nearby grove, and stopped among them. There, laid about perfectly, were trees that had all sorts of fruits in them.

How long have these been here? Galeon wondered. He floated up to one of the apple trees, plucking a ripe one and bit into it. He told himself it was to test the fruits, but the fruits looked so perfect he couldn’t resist.

Not poison. Though that wouldn’t have been an issue, either. He resolved to bring the others here when they regrouped. It would be a nice break from their mission, and they needed that after the long trek to get to Sanasira.

Galeon finished the apple and threw it away, flying back to the stream to grab Raya and Ninel. When he returned, however, they were already gone. The two red stars in the sky showed him where they were, and he took flight towards them.

Before he could reach them, however, he heard the sound of shattering glass. Galeon turned his gaze towards the sound, but he could only see blackness from so far up. He squinted his eyes, distinguishing a building set into the mountains themselves. And not just any building, judging by the size of it.

A fortress? Galeon wondered, but it looked too extravagant for such a task.

When he tried to move closer, something flew up into the air in front of him. Galeon blasted himself backwards, but not fast enough.

Something smashed into him, cracking and spilling a thick sticky tar. The tar stuck to Galeon’s clothes, weighing him down in the air. He struggled to get it off, before another volley of the jars hit him and coated his jets.

“Galeon!” Raya shouted after him, but their screams were cut off by more volleys. Galeon’s vision blurred; his eyes covered by the liquid. He could still feel the tar on his jets, and he freed more bewl to power them.

That proved fruitless too, as his descent never slowed. Galeon wiped his face on his sleeve, finding the ground fast approaching. He put both hands in front of him, freeing all the bewl he could towards the jets. The tar bubbles burst open, revealing a blue flame that slowed his descent.

Galeon didn’t account for balance, as he fell forward onto the ground soon after. He lay there gasping, looking up to find Raya and Ninel missing. Galeon’s eyes widened, and he pushed himself off the ground and into the street.

He looked around him, but found the environment eerily silent, even for a dead city. His bewl supply was low, and risking flying back into the air wasn’t a choice.

Emile’s way it is, then. If he can do it, it should be easy for me too! He tried to wipe away more of the thick tar that was covering him, but it refused to leave. Seraphas damn whoever came up with this.

He ran towards the edge of the current street, seeing it open up in four directions. Before deciding, he heard more knots loosening and volleys of jars flying into the air. Galeon followed the sound of them, rushing past the broken shops, houses and parks that littered Sanasira.

As soon as he passed by another alley, spears shot out of it and almost skewered him. Galeon barely avoided them, blasting himself forward with his jets. He looked back into the opening between the buildings to find whoever had triggered them, but they were long gone.

“Galeon! Raya! Isildan!” Ninel shouted from afar. Galeon grunted and left the alley, continuing his mad dash.

After turning the corner, he found Ninel laying on the rough street, speared through one leg and struggling to stand up.

Galeon didn’t say a word. He started to fly towards Ninel, but the man raised a hand.

“Wait! Someon-” He didn’t get to finish. A net came flying down from one of the roofs, trying to catch Galeon.

He pushed his hand left and blasted outward, throwing himself right and avoiding the net entirely. What followed was another net, and another until Galeon grew tired of them.

“Can you get up, Ninel?!” Galeon shouted.

“Give me some time!” Ninel shouted back.

Time. It was something he could do. He just had to think of it the same way as any other fight. He just needed to drag it out until the other party ran out of bewl or patience for him, and repeat the process again. Galeon voted to ignore that his own supply of bewl wasn’t really that full at the moment.

When a spear came flying out of one of the windows in a house, Galeon pushed himself down with his jets and paused his breath. He ducked near a wall and dug into his pocket with one hand, trying to get past the tar and reach the pouch within.

He pulled out a single crystal, only for the wall itself to explode outwards and blow it away. Galeon was thrown to the other side of the street, freeing up more of his dwindling bewl to heal himself.

He glanced over at Ninel in the middle of the street, free of the spear but struggling against a net of his own. He then turned his attention towards the broken wall, flying in ready to punch.

He took a swing at nothing in the room, smoke covering most of it. Galeon covered his nose, but it still stung his eyes as he looked around.

Nothing. No one at all. Who was orchestrating all of this? He heard heavy footfalls getting fainter, and pushed himself out of the door. Even then, Galeon caught sight of no one. And when he expected the assault to continue, it didn’t.

Again, he was stuck in the middle of the city and again, it was dead silent. Galeon wondered if something greater was coming, but it was only Ninel. The Afterburner dropped out of the sky a moment later, spitting to the side.

“We need to find Raya and Isildan,” Ninel told him.

Galeon nodded and they took off into the skies again. Thankfully, Raya wasn’t too far. Despite being a bit more annoyed than either of them, she seemed to be in good shape.

“What about Isil, or Emile?” Galeon asked her worriedly.

“Haven’t seen either of them. They’ve been quiet…” Raya replied, and Galeon grew scared.

“We’re going to have to split up to find Isil and Emile, then come back to the stream, okay?” Galeon asked, more ordered, them. They snapped into focus and nodded, separating from each other and flying away.

Galeon himself took the closest area. He flew as fast as he would in the skies, sticking close by the ground to hear his friends’ cries. He heard a haunting scream and thought it was Raya, but she was still in the sky from what he could see.

Galeon followed the sound regardless. It was then that he heard a boom and a cannonball whizzing past his head. He paled at the sight of it, but pulled himself together a moment later.

The closer the sounds of the screams got, the more numerous the attacks became. More tar grenades, spears and nets tried to catch him, but Galeon twisted out of their path. He blasted himself upward to avoid a vertical net raised to catch him.

Pits opened up to reveal more flings, but he flew over those as well. All the while, the screams never came back. When he thought he was close enough he dropped to the ground and changed his jets. They formed the sliding configuration, that Galeon used to skid across the stones of the city.

He stopped once he heard sounds. It was a large building, flat at the top and wide, that had a single entrance. Galeon dashed over to the entrance, pulling it wide open to find who he’d been looking for.

Isil sat with a worried looking Emile, along with a third person Galeon didn’t recognize. He ran over to Isil, who was nursing a wound at his side.

“You showed up,” Isil said plainly.

“Yalesha’s eyes, you’re finally here!” Emile said. He looked behind Galeon and the Afterburner turned around, but there was no one there.

“The sounds… they’re gone?” Emile said as he handed Isil a pouch of crystals. His hands looked scratched, so he quickly hid them in his pockets.

“Never mind that, Emile. Who in Seraphas’ name is that?” Galeon asked him in return.

The woman on the floor didn’t look Phasgorian to him. Sure, she had the same skin colour, same proportions, and height of a Phasgorian. If you looked at her from any angle except the front, you might even think she was one, but she lacked a key feature.

Her eyes were too large. Too round. Ravenishtanis said Phasgorians had thin eyes, but Galeon found theirs even stranger. The woman lying in front of him had eyes like those, and it confused him.

“Is she…” Galeon asked, but Emile shook his head.

“We found her like this when we came in. No uniform, nothing. It’s like she’s just a villager,” Emile replied.

“Maybe she was unlucky enough to get caught,” Isil said. The cuts on his side began to stitch themselves together, disappearing as they did.

“Can’t be. She doesn’t have the look of a Ravenishtani,” Emile said as he helped Isil up.

“But then, sitting here won’t do us any good. Can you carry the woman, Leon? I’ll take Isil with me,” Emile told him.

“You mean I’ll take you with me,” Isil said, raising an eyebrow.

“I can’t believe she even likes you…” Emile muttered, but he never dropped Isil once. The pairs popped out of the warehouse and saw Raya and Ninel dropping down.

The Afterburners looked concerned, then confused once they realized they had an additional member.

“Later, when we get back,” Isil cut their questions off thankfully and they hid among the buildings once more. The group waited there for a moment, only Emile being the one to come out and scout the rest of the city. But when he came back, he shook his head once again.

“Nothing. It’s almost like the city’s… gone quiet,” Emile said. He didn’t mention her, but eyed the girl they were bringing along with them. They all knew whatever she was, she was immensely important.

The timing of the cutoff had been too perfect otherwise. Perhaps, if they could get her to talk, they could even figure out what the secret behind Sanasira and its weapon was.

“Emile, can you guide us out?” Galeon asked. Between the four hallowmancers there, their bewl was running low. Emile paused for a moment, but nodded shakily after.

“Y-yeah. I can do that,” he offered.

Emile paced ahead the rest of the group. He’d raise his hand to signal when to stop, scouting ahead by himself and coming back moments later. They followed the same pattern until the edge of the city, where their feet grew sore and they took a break.

Galeon took a moment to rest the girl on the grass ahead of him, careful not to nudge her too much. If she woke up now or anytime in the middle of the flight, it would be a disaster. Galeon sat himself down on the soft grass as well, looking up and closing his eyes to get some rest.

“Are we going to climb the mountains from here on?” Emile asked.

Galeon shook his head.

“We’ll take the skies from here. We should have enough to get between here and the Latren Stronghold,” he told them.

Silence followed as none of them wanted to make more conversation. At least they’d done it. Went into Sanasira and gotten out of it just as quickly. But there was one thing still missing.

Galeon opened his eyes and looked at Raya and Ninel.

“The Ravenishtanis!” He asked the both of them.

“We didn’t spot any. Maybe there were none to begin with,” Ninel told him.

“Not even one?” Galeon asked in awe.

“Not any more at least. Me and Isil found tracks, but no bodies,” Emile told them.

“He’s right,” Isil confirmed, before chewing on some rations.

That seemed to sate the curiousity of the rest of the group, But Galeon knew better. The sound from the fortress structure still nudged him. He looked back over the tops of the buildings, almost wanting to go back in, but stopped himself. It would do no one good to see himself lost in the city, or worse, killed.

He may have not completed his mission of killing those Ravenishtanis, but a part of Galeon was glad that he hadn’t had to. He could report it as a success, if he brought the girl back to the camp. Surely, her life was worth more than that of enemy hallowmancers?

With another sigh, he looked at the girl again. He hoped so.