The port city Lyuku sat 20 ker north of the destroyed village where Sarman had burned a pile of bodies just a few hours ago. As he walked through the city’s gate, one of his hands was unconsciously scratching his other arm. Flashes of burning bodies stopped him in his tracks.

The smell of burning bodies crinkled Sarman’s nose. He swiveled his head, looking for the source, yet finding nothing. There was no smoke in the night sky. No glow of a burning fire. Just like there hadn’t been on the walk from the village to the city.

The two archers leading Sarman and the rest of the delegates led them to a large house near the city’s port. Inside, an older man greeted everyone.

How is no one freaking out? Sarman looked at his comrades, studying their faces. Some looked at him quizzically, while others simply ignored him. Sarman looked back at the older gentleman. Gaunt eyes stared back. Skin was nearly falling off the man. No, it looked like it was slowly being burned off.

“Hey, shake his hand! You’re being rude.” A very annoyed older male voice echoed in Sarman’s mind. The sudden intrusion caused Sarman to blink and when he did, the dying man in front of him turned into a well off older gentleman. A gentleman that was holding a hand out for Sarman and giving him a curious look.

Sarman shook the man’s hand. “Thank you for meeting with us.” Sarman said before he took a sharp breath. He was starting to see things and had to get his mind back on track.

“Thank you for snapping me out of that, Salamander.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“I’ll explain later.” Sarman shut down the conversation he was having with his contracted spirit within his head as the old man finally responded.

“Of course. I know you must be searching for passage to our capital, correct?” His voice was old, yet very smooth. His words left little in the way of hidden meanings.

“Yes, we were hoping that you would be able to get us across the water on one of your boats.” Sarman politely leaned his head forward in a small bow as he told the old man of their request.

“That shouldn’t be hard. However, you will have to wait till tomorrow night. We had another guest come into town this morning looking for the same request to be fulfilled. The captain that took her request is the only one of our people that knows the route. He won't be heading back here ‘til tomorrow, after all of our wares have been sold in the capital.”

Another person also looking to get to the Kyokan capital? At the same time as them?

Sarman found the coincidence to be too much for a mere coincidence.

“A similar request? What did this guest look like?” Yuuki grabbed the hem of Sarman’s sleeve as he asked for more details.

“Hmm,” The old man closed his eyes as if trying to picture the guest in his mind. “She was a beauty, that’s for sure. Even for an Elf. The moment she stepped in town, a lot of the young guys were trying to win her favor. She had long white hair. It was as pure as the snow on the mountaintops. Her eyes though. Her red eyes felt like they could see through anything.”

“An elf with white hair and red eyes!?” Yuuki exclaimed in shock as she heard the description. Sarman understood her shock. Of course, they couldn’t prove it without more details, but white hair and red eyes for an elf was extremely uncommon. In fact, Sarman only knew of one person with that exact combination. Crystal.

“That’s right. She also had a few bodyguards with her. They left this morning.”

Before Yuuki could say anything again, Sarman put a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll discuss this in private, don’t make it a big deal here.” Sarman whispered into her ear before turning back to the old man.

“Thank you for telling us that. Since we have to stay here for the night, do you have any place that we can stay?”

“Yes.” The man turned to the two archers. “Can you take our guests to the old Aki household?”

“Old Aki household?” Nic was the one who spoke up with a question about their accommodations. Nic didn't get the answer to his question till they had left the old man’s house and were already walking to their abode for the night.

“It’s the house we use for guests whenever they come into Lyuku. The couple that originally owned it passed away a while back, so we decided to convert it into a guest house after a while.” The older of the two archers explained everything as they were coming up on the house.

It was a two-story house near the water. There were no other houses nearby, but there was a fairly large building that went out onto the water. It was connected to the small docks that could be seen.

“What’s that building?” Sarman asked while pointing towards it.

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“We store our boats in there during stormy weather. Helps to keep them in operation for longer.” Sarman nodded as he listened to the explanation.

As the group reached the house, the archer opened the front door and led them into a spacious room that took up nearly the entire first floor. There were a few couches and chairs taking up the entire left side of the room, all centered around some rather large tables. To the right was another table as well as a kitchen area connected to a small fire pit built into the back wall. The area where the kitchen was indented more to the right than the area with the table. That was thanks to a small door in the side that led to stairs to the second floor.

“I will leave you all here to sort out your arrangements on your own. There are 4 rooms upstairs, all with beds in them. And there is an outhouse directly behind the building.” Their guide bowed her head before leaving.

“I don’t care what you all want to do for sleeping arrangements. I’m not feeling well, so I’m just going to go choose the first room I find and fall asleep.” Sarman shook his head as he practically ran up the stairs and burst into the first room he saw.

“So, going to tell me what’s up with your attitude tonight?” Salamander’s voice echoed in Sarman’s mind as he threw his bag to the ground and crawled into the bed.

“I can still smell it. And see those bodies. I can’t unsee it.”

Sarman was constantly smelling that putrid smell. It took everything he had in him to keep himself from throwing up. When he closed his eyes, all he could see were the faces in the flames. Their gaunt eyes staring out at him with mouths agape. He heard the non-existent screams as they were burned alive at his hand.

“I see.”

Salamander didn’t say anything after that. He stayed quiet and simply stayed as a familiar warmth that overtook Sarman’s body. Sarman closed his eyes and worked towards forcing himself to sleep.

It wasn’t until the door to the room opened again after a while and a cold body wrapped their arms around Sarman that he finally felt peaceful enough to sleep. Salamander’s warmth was familiar, but Yuuki’s coldness was what he needed to sleep.

The next morning, Sarman woke up as dawn was beginning to break. Yuuki was still sleeping behind him, her arms tightly wound around his stomach.

Gently, Sarman moved Yuuki’s arm off of his chest and got out of bed without waking her. Creating as little sound as possible, he made his way downstairs and out of the house. He didn’t take a breath until he had reached the bottom of the stairs in front of the house.

Sarman took a deep breath in. He could feel the salt from the ocean in the air. Instead of smelling burning bodies, he finally was able to smell the water from the house. Thanks to the salt that he could taste, he also smelled it with his nose. Seabirds cawed overhead as they flew around the ocean’s edge. Sarman saw a couple dive into the water and come back out with fish in their beaks.

Sarman knew it was a peaceful morning. The entire small city was peaceful. It was a far cry from Sanum’s mornings. The few times that Sarman had gone out into the city proper at this time of morning, it would already be full of people selling wares or promoting shopes elsewhere in the city.

“-ain!” A shout from the other side of the house caught Sarman’s attention. As he walked over to see what it was, a group of people on the beach caught his attention.

Standing above the rest was a lone tigerkin, Oz. Below him was a cohort of Archers, Spear wielders, and those using a sword and shield. Oz was watching over twenty-four soldiers in total. Twelve were archers, including the two archers that Sarman had met the day prior. The other twelve were split evenly between the spearmen and the swordsmen.

“Oz?” Sarman called out the Tigerkin’s name as he got closer.

“Hm?” Oz looked over at Sarman with surprise on his face. “Everyone, keep working on those drills!” He turned back to his subordinates and gave them some quick instructions before walking towards Sarman.

“Shouldn’t you be grieving? You just found out your wife and daughter are dead.” Sarman worriedly asked about the man’s mental state, only to be met with a long sigh.

“I’m fine. I grieved last night. And besides, they need me to train and to lead them,” Oz motioned with his arm to the people on the sand. “I can’t sit around grieving forever, not when they are counting on me. Besides, I’ll feel better about grieving once I find the bastards that killed them.”

Sarman knew the look in the man’s eyes. He was out for revenge, and he wasn’t going to stop until he got it. Nothing Sarman would ever say or do could change that.

“I see. Well, if I happen across any information on them myself, I’ll make sure to let you know.”

“Thank you. Now, I have to get back to my trainees.” Oz turned around and immediately started barking orders once again.

Sarman had made him a promise. One he would never be able to keep. He only had another few days left to live. There was no chance he would find out that information before leaving this world.

But maybe he should have Yuuki talk with Oz. She’ll need his kind of resolve to survive and continue on once Sarman died. He would have to teach her everything he knew about what it means to lead her people. Though, he was sure it wouldn’t be good advice. All he knew was how to lead people in combat.

“Sarman?” An older gentleman was standing in front of Sarman, blocking his path.

“Hmmm?” He didn’t recognize the man immediately, it took him a bit to remember that he had met the old man the night before. “Oh! You’re the man we met last night.”

The man let out a small chuckle. “Yes, you can call me Zi. I’m the one in charge of this city.”

“Thank you again for letting us stay here, Zi.” Sarman bowed his head to the old man.

“Of course. Now tell me, what’s on your mind? You were standing there like you couldn’t even see your surroundings.”

“Um,” Sarman thought for a moment. How was he supposed to talk about this without revealing that he knew he wasn’t long for this world? “I… Well, you see, my father is the Minister for the city of Sanum. Like you, he’s in charge of everything in the city. And he wants me to be his successor once he passes away. But I don’t know how to lead a city. All I’ve ever done is lead small groups into combat.”

Zi nodded his head as he listened to Sarman. “Ahhhhhhh. I see. When I was young, I was like you; a warrior. All I knew was how to fight. But then I became the leader of Lyuku, and I learned a secret about leading others. Want to hear it?”

“Sure.”

“Leading a city is like leading your fellow warriors. But the people you are leading them to fight, is themselves. Your opponents are your allies, and your allies are your opponents. They won’t all think the same way as you, so you have to come up with strategies to appease everyone.”

Sarman stood there, almost dumbfounded by how simple Zi made it seem. With a chuckle at his expense, the old man continued on his morning walk, sidestepping the still Sarman.

Sarman stayed in that spot, thinking about what he had been told till the Sun had fully come up from behind the ocean.