Warmth.

I clung tightly to the it as my mind surfaced into consciousness.

It was like the blanket which gently wrapped around me. Comforting and soft.

I opened my eyes and popped my head out of the darkness of the blanket which Yna and I were covered in.

Yna awoke immediately after before locking her gaze with mine.

We stared at each other for a moment.

Neither of us spoke and all I could think about was her face as the morning sun gently illuminated it.

Each pore, each scar had been engraved into the farthest reaches of my mind.

I wonder if she looked at me as I did her.

To me, she was my guiding sunlight, my sword and my partner on the dark path I tread.

I wondered how much value she placed on me.

Yna uncovered us, revealing my small, Goat legged self.

I hadn’t managed to fully turn back into a goat and since Kenos was nowhere to be seen, I assumed that it would be a while since I changed forms again.

Yna gathered my knee long black hair before tying it into a ponytail and as for Yna, her hair hadn’t grown one bit.

Eleven months had passed and almost nothing had changed about her.

Not that I minded.

I rested my head on her chest, which was covered in a certain silky red robe and Yna had developed a habit of allowing her heart to beat whenever I was close and this would lull the tempests in my mind.

How did she have such a high degree over her bodily functions?

It all came down to the fact that her body was far removed from that of a normal human.

She was a meticulously designed and precisely forged being. Although she had shed her body’s previous purpose for another.

Yna placed her large hand on my head and gently rubbed it as I yawned.

We had a lot to do and so I cherished every moment I had with her.

Unfortunately, like all things, our embrace came to an end.

I slid off her legs and lightly stretched as she stood up.

I then slipped into a dark skin-tight bodysuit which Yna zipped shut from behind me. I helped her slip into hers although I needed to stand on the bed to zip it all the way up.

I wore grey robe above the dark suit while Yna changed into her dark uniform. The crest of Coh proudly sitting on its right left side.

The uniform itself was simple.

Dark woollen pants and an equally dark jacket.

Yna strapped onto herself a dark vest that served as extra protection for the chest.

It was basically a Kevlar vest made from darkness.

I had one as well and I promptly wore it before following Yna outside.

Countless Rendaro walked along the streets of Coh and we passed them all by while making our way to Shiru’s house.

We entered it to find Shiru and Erna preparing breakfast.

Erna had grown up quite a bit and she had started helping out whenever she could.

They both wore dark bodysuits beneath their casual clothes, although the clothes Erna wore were a little more robust.

I sat by the table and in the living room as Farin entered the house.

He sleepily greeted everyone and we greeted back as he sat to my left.

Like everyone else in the Expanse, he wore a dark bodysuit beneath his clothes.

“Good morning.” I greeted, but Farin didn’t respond.

He simply stared at the table as the light of the morning sun gently bathed the dining room.

“Yo!” I snapped, startling Farin a little.

“Oh, sorry. I was lost my thoughts.” He said softly without looking at me.

“Is everything alright?” I asked.

“Everything is quite alright. I’m just at a loss. The structure beneath Kenos’s throne room was a temple, yes, but who built it? Who or what were they worshipping?” Farin asked while narrowing his rather reddened eyes.

“OK, two things: firstly, make sure you’re getting enough sleep and secondly, Yna told me a story about the Moon King once. Although it’s more of a myth or legend. Anyway, it is said that shortly after the first collision, the Moon King consulted beings known as the Stone Lords and it is they who taught him how to create the knights.” I said while rocking myself back and fourth.

“Stone Lords… go on.”

“Heh? That’s all she and I know. Like I said, it’s a myth told by knights although I think it holds some truth. Actually, this links into my other theories.”

“That there were other collisions?” Farin asked.

“Yes. I think that these Stone Lords may have inhabited the world before any of us got here.”

“Oh? And where do you think they went? They’re definitely not still on Edenton otherwise someone would have said something or written something down.” Farin said while stroking his goatee.

“Ah-ha, my studious friend, you’re thinking far too… surface level. What if the last remnants of these Stone Lords were buried by the sands of time. What if they taught Luno all they knew because their civilization was on the brink of destruction brought about by tragic and unavoidable circumstances!” I yelled.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Mmm… that would make sense. But where do you think we should look?” Farin asked.

“Ah… that’s for you to figure out.” I said with a grin as Yna sat next to me with two bowls in hand.

She placed on of them in front of me and I greedily eyed its contents.

Shiru had cooked up some Nyxa, an Ia staple which was basically potato soup with Nyxten in it.

Really heavy stuff, considering that it was breakfast, but with days as long and hot as they were, it was just what people needed.

I greedily ate the soup while everyone took their seats at the table.

A tired looking Han slowly ate his food along with his fellow Black Blade Captains.

“No books at the table, Serylea.” Shiru said, prompting the young Rendaro to put down the large book in her hands.

She then glanced at me before putting her book down.

“I hope you’re not overworking her. She already has her hands pretty full.” Shiru said while glaring at Farin.

“I beg your pardon, Serylea studies the same amount as everyone else. Also, that book is about the darkness based structures, so if you want to scold anyone, it should be Katsíki.”

Dammit, old man!

Shiru looked at me while frowning as best as she could.

“Well?” She asked.

“Hey, It’s a good read. I thought she’d enjoy it, is all.” I said with an awkward chuckle.

“So… it’s not work related?”

“Of course not! It has nothing to do with any work in Coh.” I said while shrinking into myself.

“OK. But if I find out you’re lying, you’ll go back to eating boiled vegetables for breakfast and supper.” Shiru said before eat a spoonful of soup.

I bit my teeth before realizing that Yna had been looking at me strangely.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She said before continuing to eat.

.

..

Everyone eventually finished eating and we all left Shiru’s house before making our way to out respective posts.

Han and his fellow Black Blades went to the various offices in Coh and the Cohval base.

Farin returned to his house.

Serylea made her way to the orchard.

Erna made her way to the dojo.

Yna made her way to the Cohval base and I made my way to a tent just north of Coh in the clearing just beyond the wall.

This was the war room in which I operated. It was surrounded by a few smaller tents and was guarded by Black Blades.

Actually, I always had one tailing me.

It was weird at first, but I grew used to it over time.

I sat on one of the five chairs and looked at the map of the plateau: The border between Lanceberg and the Expanse.

Over the course of a year, our main force in Coh was still sitting at around five hundred soldiers. Six hundred if we count the Black Blades, but they weren’t designed with the open warfare in mind. They were like the police of the Expanse.

We had five hundred soldiers sitting in waiting in both the Oasis and the Eimvals. That brought our total to a thousand soldiers.

This would’ve been impressive if our opponents weren’t marching towards us in the tens of thousands.

We had sent out a squad northward and they said that they spotted the vanguard approaching. According to them, it was a force of about twenty five thousand soldiers and about a thousand workers of various kinds. They weren’t too sure about the numbers of knights present since I made it clear that they keep a safe distance.

Twenty five thousand…

Fortunately, the scouts also said that it looked like a large chunk of the vanguard was made up of poorly equipped and armed soldiers.

It was understandable.

Lanceberg probably spent a ton of its money on creating and training knights, not to mention other economical costs.

It was gonna be hard for them to equip every soldier in a suit of metal armour.

That being said, we couldn’t afford any kind of complacency.

My plan, like when I dealt with Petrus and his men, was to always act defensively.

Speaking of which, the poor bastard was in the Oasis, hanging from circular crucifix where he was occasionally taunted and tortured.

I shook thoughts of him away before returning my focus on the map.

It was designed around a grid of blocks or zones that represented a real world area of one square kilometre. C0 was the coordinate of Coh and E1-N0 was one kilometre to the east with W1-N0 being one kilometre to the west of Coh.

I had familiarized myself with all the land around Coh and thanks to Yna we knew a bit about Lanceberg although she warned that her knowledge may be outdated.

This wasn’t much of a problem since we could just ask Timí if we were unsure of anything.

Oh yeah… Timí.

Poor guy.

Anyway, to the north of Coh was Aurenia which was divided into three by the Ukiwa mountains, the place where all out water came from. Northern Aurenia was called Dolg. Naej was to the south and it stopped right by the plateau. Dahlia was to the far east, but it was a dense forest which didn’t have much going for it.

I looked to the far west of Coh and saw that the map was blank.

Yna said that there was a sea out there somewhere, but she couldn’t say for sure since she’d never been there and by the time she was still in Lanceberg’s good graces, that part of the world had yet to be explored.

Timí didn’t help much either. He was a rather low ranking soldier and he didn’t know much about… anything.

To the east was the Oasis and further than that was indeed an ocean called the Lafria. None of the Foph said anything about their tribe ever sending people out to explore so as it stood, I wasn’t even sure if Edenton other continents.

To the south were the Ash Wastes, but even though our situation was dire, the Wraiths showed no interest in wanting to cooperate with us.

I honestly didn’t mind.

They were open to talks and I sat down with Nira, but it seems as though she was only ever interesting in knowing if we’d lost yet.

.

..

This job, being leader of Coh, was definitely going to age me by several years.

I crossed my small arms in the dimly lit tent as I memorized various things.

Squad and troop placements, we had divided the plateau into zones, so I needed to know which zones people were talking about when something happened.

I took a deep breath before finally moving my eyes away from the map.

I exited the tent and saw that it had gotten rather late and the sun had sunken quite deeply into the horizon, casting Coh in a deep darkness.

I walked past the many soldiers who guarded Coh’s northern wall before making my way towards the Orchard where Serylea could be seeing sitting on the bench at the centre of the mini forest of flowering trees.

Her clothes were fairly dirty from the day’s work, but her eyes were wide and alert meaning she quickly noticed my approach.

I sat next to her and we sat in silence for a moment as the evening cast the Orchard in what would normally have been an eerie darkness, but I felt more than safe next to Serylea.

“Are you ready?” I asked as I offered her my hand.

Serylea gently smiled before taking my and in and instant, we were in a dark world that looked strikingly similar to the real one.

This was the world of darkness. Well, it was the result of me tapping into the darkness of the cosmos. In this place, my powers were at their highest since there was nothing but darkness.

There were two drawbacks to accessing this place. Our location in the dark realm was the same in the real. Meaning if we accidentally materialized while standing in between a wall… we’d probably be crushed or split in two. Another was that light and dark magicians could see my location even if I fully dematerialized. Meaning if someone really wanted to get me, all they have to do is wait. The same couldn’t be said for Serylea. I had brought her fully into my world and no trace of her was left behind and she wasn’t a darkness magician, so she was practically undetectable.

The way detecting other magicians worked was by sensing their cores. A magicians core would always passively absorb its respective aspect. Not only that, two magicians who use the same or opposite aspects could also sense the cores of others.

“Shall we?” I asked.

“Of course.” She said with am excited grin.

I nodded before willing our bodies up and out of Coh.

Serylea tried her best remaining composed, but she couldn’t help but gasp as we floated way above Edenton.

We stopped a few hundred meters above my sanctuary right next to a gigantic black egg.

“OK, now we need to figure out air. She doesn’t really need to breathe, so you’ll be the one who needs it. I was thinking I’d ask the boys in the research facility to design a canister that slowly let’s out air.” I said while floating around the perfect black egg which was about the size of a two storey house.

“Won’t they find the request suspicious?” Serylea asked as she inspected the egg alongside me.

“Eh… I don’t think so. I’ll say it’s for a top secret device or something.” I said unthinkingly.

“Oh? Well, let me know if it works because we may ultimately need a life magician.” Serylea sighed, but my face stiffened.

“I trust no one but you with this. So no. We will not be getting a life magician and besides. You know how I feel about healing magic.” I said before floating away and extending my hand towards the egg.

An extreme amount of darkness then poured into it while Serylea floated to my side.

“I know, but there are some things that I won’t be able to handle.” Serylea said with a pained expression.

I sighed before placing my small hand on her cheek.

“I know. That’s why this is less of a cradle and more of a tomb.”