Not looking to stir up more trouble with the city guards, Meneurmut stepped aside, pressing his back against the wall of the first building you would see when coming into Castiana from Esulmor. Or, depending on the direction you were traveling, the last one you would pass. Probably why there was a general store on the ground floor.

Not that it mattered. The shop was closed, the lights out, nobody there. A stark contrast to the rest of the building. Upstairs, lights blazed on all three residential floors, shadows of people moving around. Same with every building along 3rd Main Street he could see. Like him, the residents were watching, trying to get a clue about what was going on - whether out of curiosity or just plain fear.

He kept his eyes on the city guards as they sorted things out quickly - tending to the wounded, locking up prisoners, and hauling off the dead. For all the mess and chaos the battle had brought, there weren’t as many bodies as he had expected - both the dead and those taken prisoner. The fingers of his hands would be enough to count them. But as for the dead guards? Not even a single finger needed. Sure, some looked pretty beat up, faces swollen, bruises fresh, bleeding wounds, but that only lit a fire in him, a craving to be among them. They had earned their scars, proved themselves in the thick of it. Better yet, they were still breathing to tell the tale around the campfires.

'What could be better?'

Meneurmut didn't have to think long for an answer.

'To actually join them. But how can I...'

Just as he was about to rack his brains for the umpteenth time on how to make them accept him into the city guards, the whole atmosphere around the Esulmor Gate shifted. Guards, whether Master Guards or regular guardsmen, snapped to attention.

"Ma'am."

"Captain."

"Ma'am. Ma'am."

The moment he laid eyes on the woman whose mere presence radiated authority, he stood up a bit straighter on instinct. Captain Rayden had arrived, and she didn't look happy at all. Much to his - and everyone else’s - frustration, he couldn't make out a word of her conversation with Lieutenant Rhys and the other officers. Whether they were using some tool or magic spell to keep their conversation private, he had no clue - but whatever the case, not a single word reached his ears.

'This could be my chance. Hoof! No, that's just dumb. I'd just end up being a nuisance. What could I possibly do?' His desire to prove himself clashed with his learnt habit of keeping his head down, of not getting in anyone’s way. That was how he had survived in the clan.

But right now, he was alone here, with his clan on the other side of the city.

'What if, though...?' Racing his brain for how to approach them, what to say, a flicker of light caught Meneurmut’s attention. It wasn't a magic lamp crystal burning out - which, considering what went down here, wouldn’t be too surprising - but something on the ground catching their light.

'Anyone seen that?'

All eyes, both guards and seekers alike, were locked on Captain Rayden. As such, he edged away, slipped down into a knee-deep pit left from the clash between the guards and the Shadowbreakers, and bent down to retrieve something metallic almost entirely covered by dirt.

'Citizen Card?'

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He had zero doubts about what he'd stumbled across. Every citizen of the Sahal Empire had one. What struck him odd was its presence here - and the blood on it. People usually kept theirs tucked away in spatial storage.

'Did it belong to one of the Shadowbreakers?'

Unlikely. Spatial tools don't just spill their contents when their owners die. Not unless they were busted, and even then, the enchantments would more likely wreck the stuff inside.

'Maybe someone just lost it? That must be it.'

Feeling a bit let down by what he found, Meneurmut wiped the dirt off the card, along with most of the blood, to see who had been so careless. Turned out, it belonged to a woman, someone with a fate even worse than his.

│Name: Korra Grey

│Race: human/half-Terr'den

│Gender: Female

│Array: Slave

'Slave.' That was an array that he would not wish on anyone. Yet, his own array often seemed no different, making him essentially a slave to the Ironhoof clan. What really puzzled him, though, was the race listed on the card. Usually, for half-Terr'dens, it was listed as 'half-Terr'den' first, followed by their other lineage: half-Terr'den - human/Taurus.

'Is this a forgery? If so, it's a very bad one.' Even a guy like him - who wasn’t a city guard yet - thought it seemed off. Anyone who would use this would have to be dumb.

'Maybe the reason they threw it away? The name, though... it sounds so familiar.' Meneurmut couldn’t shake it off. Korra Grey. He was pretty sure no one in the Ironhoof clan or any Taurus clan had that name.

‘Did I run into her in the city? Couldn’t have been one of the guards... oh! The guards - the barracks! That naked young woman with the antlers!’

As he recalled sitting next to her in the hallway outside the [Identity Verification Room], his cheeks flushed all over again. Not the most professional reaction, but he couldn't help it. Besides, more important than the growing tightness in his pants was the fact that he was sure this Citizen Card belonged to her. The young woman was, though cute, an odd half-Terr'den, Slave, and most importantly she introduced herself to him as Korra Grey.

'Did she lose her card? Or did something happen to her?' Meneurmut's eyes fell to the ditch below, a chill running down his spine. 'The blood on the card. What if she's...'

But seeing no blood, let alone body parts, he banished the thought. Instead, he steeled his heart. As a Terr'den, he knew how difficult life could be for newcomers to the Sahal Empire. Every possible crook was trying to take advantage of your ignorance and a miserable situation.

'Did she fall in with the Shadowbreakers?'

Whatever it was, reporting it seemed like the right move. So, Meneurmut, ignoring the city guards' orders to stay put, made his way toward them.

"Traiana’s tits, look. Another one," sighed a guardsman complaining to his colleague, tired. "Look, I don't care who sent you, or which Seeker Company you're affiliated with. We have nothing to say to you right now. Just go back and wait like everyone else."

"N-no, sir. I..." Meneur stammered, at a loss for where to start.

"What? Spit it out."

"I-I found a Citizen Card in - in the ditch over there. I'm afraid that the woman..."

"Isn't that more of a case for Lost and Found?" his colleague, a woman, pointed out. "We're kinda busy right now, unless you actually know this woman..."

"Th-There's blood on the card," Meneurmut interrupted, his heart racing with the risk he was taking.

The two city guards finally met his gaze, forced to look up because of his height. Then their eyes fell on the card in his hand. "May I see it?" The man asked, taking the card carefully from him. "Where did you find it, again?"

"O-Over there, in that ditch leading to the house."

"All right, and do you know this... this Korra Grey?"

"Well..."

He had barely finished the first word when all the hairs on his body stood on end, words dying in his throat. Captain Rayden’s sudden appearance beside them hit like a punch.

"Did you say Korra Grey?"