On the horizon, a great defensive wall stretched from side to side.

They had already been expecting to arrive somewhere around today or tomorrow, depending on eventualities. Rosen had even sent a letter ahead of time, which, through the very tense week where their Oke was forced to run at the highest speeds it could muster nearly every hour of the day, no response arrived. Only yesterday did a courier from Fortress Aaltor meet them head-on, drawing a loud sigh of relief from his lips.

Ever since Holly had told them what happened that day at the hillside, rest no longer came easy to the group. They took to the countryside, the notion of a slow trip through Galehold forgotten as they avoided settlements and insulted all of existence under their breath when somebody spotted them on the road, forcing them to halt. Small talk had mostly died down, weapons were pulled from hidden corners and always kept within hand's reach, and when the time to sleep came they no longer wagered for comfortable bedding; the consensus wordlessly reached was that Aleh and Almalilly took the seats.

Each member suffered their own way, unused to living in cramped spaces with many others for any extended amounts of time. Agare had been getting curter with his orders, Furfu had been taken by a strange fit of composure, Aleh spent entire days with his head covered in red wrappings and meditating, while the other three had lost most of that early cheer.

And Holly... couldn't say she didn't share their fears. Really, she had been very anxious!

But Marquise was going to send her a letter! And she was going to see her first fortress today! How could she not be at least a little peachy? What a week!

And besides that, something else.

"H-Holly!"

"T-ten more! Y-you're nearly t-there!"

She had to admit, she was struggling to pay attention.

It had been Blades idea, technically. The four more normal members of their crew were used to training outside while Holly was out exploring with Agare, but current issues didn't allow them enough time or security to keep with it. And so, driven to boredom and madness, they had decided to keep their bodies trained inside, taking turns.

Except, none of them particularly fancied drenching their clothes in sweat in the now boiling hot transport, which not only would be hard to clean but stank up the machine even worse.

It's how Holly ended up watching a nude Almalilly doing pushups in the tight space between velvet seats.

When she had first thought of her as stout, she had never imagined how much of it would be muscle. There was no other way to put it, Almalilly looked strong, evident by the ease of her "sets", by the fine tapestry of scars her skin bore, clear lines of cuts and old bruises crossing her well defined back, down her thickset thighs, and in front of her soft belly, her heavy set breasts-

She shook her head and briefly looked away, finding Rosen.

He had finished the quickest, but the effects of his session were still evident in his body, beads of sweat slowly trailing down his muscular chest, dried away by the gentle strokes of his towel, its through movements covering all of his only now underwear clad body, from the nook of his broad shoulders to his large yet elegant arms, his shapely stomach, the tuft of hair peeking from his crotch-

Their eyes met. A confident, amused smile tugged his lips gently, a short chuckle followed by a slow shake of head. She looked away again, to the only safe person in sight, the thankfully robed Aleh in his garish yellows and reds.

Warmth pooled from every corner of her body. Any more, and she would believe she had become an Oke herself.

"D-done!" Almalilly lowered herself to the floor then sat down, giving Aleh a light slap on the knee. "Couldn't you have picked something a little bigger? Doing anything in this cramped little box is a nightmare!"

Head slumped, back straight, fingers loosely open over his lap like dying insects, Aleh didn't twitch so much as muscle.

"Witches are so creepy..." Almalilly said.

"In defense of the young sir," Rosen said, idly fiddling with a few latched belts she now knew he wore under his tunics, "I can't imagine he picked this one for no reason."

"I know, I'm just being a grump," Almalilly said, chest heaving with panting breaths. "He told me this was the closest thing he could find to what he needed, don't ask me why. Oh, and can't forget the, 'as if better craft would be so readily available in these forsaken boonies!' Bah! Oh, could you be a sweet and pass me the towel when you're done?"

"Of course. Good job, by the way." Rosen threw the towel.

"Thanks!"

It wasn't like it bothered her, not in the conventional way at least. Two thirds of them had asked for her permission before stripping down and giving fifty in nothing but their sword belts. If anything, the nudity gave her a strange sense of kinship with this suddenly open minded group of friends, and made her dearly wish she could join them, even if for just a few minutes.

It did gave her an odd feeling of shamelessness however, one not entirely unpleasant, one not close to unknown, but something she had been told explicitly told not to think about too deeply. In fact, she had been told not to think about it at all, forget her brain was even capable of such interests in the first place.

And so she tried.

She carefully moved her hand, mindful of not attraction too much attention, but there was no avoiding the instinctual cringe she did at the loud squelch the slightest squeeze could draw from her sleeves. At least it didn't smell too bad. She swallowed down her jealousy, and watched them dress in silence.

"Help me out with my back, Holly?"

"W-whu?"

"My back. Before I get a lake in the crack of my butt. Please?"

If she asked so politely, why not?

For Elder Seneschal's sake, she would have to keep trying after all.

What a week.

----------------------------------------

Even clothed, Almalilly still proved distracting to talk to. Thankfully, she had known just the right thing to take Holly's mind from the morning's events.

"That, below, burning." She pointed to a distant gathering of men around a pile of cut down, stripped shrubbery. Smoke had started pouring from its middle, creating a small trail that nonetheless attract a swarm of four winged creatures that glided after one another in rings.

"Below, burning, t-that's miuna right? Campfire! And above it are the skinbirds."

"What a name for the poor things! But you got it right, congratulations!" Almalilly smiled. She moved the cylindrical device in her hands, a tube of brass sealed on both ends, the transparent window on the Oke's wall following close behind, "Now... That, on all those roofs, red, can you see?"

The crenelated wall reached as far as the eye could see and then beyond, interspersed with tall towers bearing little in way of flourish, their only colors coming from their sun bleached flags and red clay roof tiles. She payed the glinting soldiers and bizarre accompanying shapes a moment of interest, before focusing on her task.

"Dovi, roof."

"Yes! And the big guys creeping under those Dovi?"

She looked slightly down again. The walls were abuzz with life, human and otherwise, adorned in metal and leather, their long polearms and enormous bows becoming clearer every second as they approached Fortress Aaltor, Almalilly might have asked for something a little more complicated, but her gut went with the simplest answer she had. "Gulshe, warrior?"

"Soldier too. And no, I meant ulan, or uwlan, beast."

"Ah! I-I knew that one too!"

Almalilly frowned. "I bet you did! Honestly, you don't sound like someone who just picked up a language Holly."

"Hehe, w-what can I say? It comes easy to me."

"Glad for you!" She sat down with a sigh, the window outside quickly disappearing as the small device Aleh had given her fell to the side. "Took me a whole year before I could construct sentences, outside the really basic stuff! Don't know what Marquise was thinki- I-I mean, I'm very sure Marquise had her reasons for choosing me to teach you Awinian!"

Furfu, standing like a lad guarding the house of an Elder, still watched her for a few more moments, before turning back to watch out the Oke's cabin.

"...I just think I'm far from the best tutor you could have gotten," she whispered.

"I-I'm glad to have you as my teacher, Almalilly! Y-you're really cool!"

"Oh please, flattery will get you nowhere!" She giggled. "And really, just Lilly is perfectly fine. If I can trust you to watch over my back- quite literally at that! I can trust you enough to call you a comrade."

"I-if you say so, L-Lilly." Holly said, blushing. "I think I trust you a lot too."

"Happy to hear! Just don't trust me in a fight, I stay fit but that's really not what I'm built for."

"Yup," Blades, legs crossed and sitting opposite them, said. "That's what I'm here for."

Holly unconsciously pushed herself back against the wall, then fidgeted uncomfortably as she realized what she was very obviously doing. Ever since that night with Aleh, she couldn't help but think Blades was a little frightening.

"Hey, speaking of, don't think I haven't noticed you aren't keeping up with your training!"

"Somebody told me not to." Blades said, lightly punching Aleh in the shoulder. "Might nick his baby."

Aleh, his breathing so faint he was practically asleep, didn't move a finger.

"Y-you both are really close, aren't you?" Holly ventured, a little anxious about their reaction.

"C-close, you think?" Almalilly, or Lilly she had to remind herself, said. She crossed her arms, her brow creasing as she exchanged a look with Blades. "I mean, closer than with any of the others I suppose, but not that much closer than coworkers, maybe?"

Blades gasped, eyes going wide, "Lilly! You wound me."

"I mean, look at this slouch, how do you get close to that?! She looks well behaved now, but if you knew the kinds of horrors she put me through when I was younger, you would never look her in the eyes again! I swear, there wasn't one person of authority she didn't like picking fights with, and this dumbass right here always got dragged down with her!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"You're the one who insisted in standing up for me."

"Of course I did! Do you think I wanted to see a comrade get- get, hmm, punished harshly for her transgressions?! And you never even thanked me, did you?" Lilly shrugged with a sigh, before turning to Holly again. "I'm not sure I believe in fate, but the Remnants sure insisted in putting us together as often as they could! And when you work so frequently with someone else, it's hard not to get to know them at least a bit."

"That sounds cool!" Holly said. "Did you know the others too?"

"We knew Rosen," Blades said.

"Knew is relative." Lilly threw a furtive glance towards the cabin, where Rosen and Agare were leading the party, "I'm not sure how well you know about the Remnants, but we are quite numerous and spread apart, so you don't often get to know many people from outside your clade well."

"We knew of the Boss. And the little boss here too, I think."

"Who didn't?"

"I didn't know Aleh, or this Furfu."

"I had heard of their-" Furfu whipped her head so fast Lilly was sent into a fit of coughs, She continued after recovering. "I-I had heard of their fame from rumors before, but didn't get to meet them until Marquise, no. You were one nasty boy, you hear me Aleh?"

Aleh didn't so much as huff in acknowledgment.

"I didn't know what an Oke was."

"I didn't either! I had imagined something completely different, more exotic I guess. Less cumbersome, too, but considering the benefits I'm willing to let that slide."

Blades chuckled, with such an ease Holly would think she was half asleep if she couldn't see the honed sharpness beneath her lids. Lilly sniffed, glaring her down with flushed indignity, only to be met with a smug smile and a lazy shrug. Finally, she relented, sighing.

So they knew Marquise before. Did they know more about what happened at the Skawlan Forward Base? Did they know more about her before that? Holly was dying of curiosity, but she had always hesitated to ask, always saw it as a form of breaching taboo.

"S-so, do-"

"Well, enough about us, I want to talk about you Holly! How have you been? How are you enjoying the trip so far?"

"What?"

"I mean, last week you were, how can I say this... Down in the dumps?"

"Homicidally furious," Blades said.

"M-me?!"

"B-Blades! Don't listen to her Holly, I know you were just a little peeved at Aleh, that's just what the guy does to others, nothing out of the ordinary! Thought I do have to admit that you scared me a little bit, I hadn't imagine you could be so..."

"Violent?" Holly nodded. "I-I don't really have an excuse, s-sorry, I'm not sure what happened either."

"No?" Blades said, the almost imperceptible raise of her eyebrow all it took for the tips of her hair to swipe against one another.

"A-anyway! I just wanted to check out on you after that, but considering the situation, I guess I just kept postponing it. My bad! Well, better late then never in my opinion. So, have you been enjoying your time so far?"

"Y-yes! Of course I have! T-there were a few uncomfortable moments, but I'm so happy to be away from Lesser Hollow, I had never imagined the world could be so big, so different! And you all are so kind to me, and the Marquise is going to send us a letter soon, and, and-!" She took a deep breath to recompose herself, "I-I guess if there was something I wanted to do different, I wish Agare would let me take this gross thing off, like all of you can."

"N-no Holly, don't do things just because we do it! W-we're, hmm, abnormal! We're a really bad example! This isn't the kind of thing you should be doing, and I swear on my names we'll stop as soon as we think it's safe!"

Holly rolled her eyes. "Y-you don't need to stop, I don't mind! I just-"

"W-wait, did I hear that right, you lived in Lesser Hollow?!"

"... Did Marquise not tell you?"

"She did, and it still completely slipped my mind! Goodness Holly, how must that have been! You have to tell me all about it!"

"U-uhm, where should I even start? Shouldn't we-"

"You know, I have friends who would go completely nuts if they met you! The lost town of Lesser Hollow, as told by one of its very own inhabitants! There are some aficionados who to this day are still searching for clues that it even existed at all! And when most finally reach the boiling point were they have to go rooting for themselves and never come back, it becomes a joke! 'what were they thinking, strolling up the hollows like it was a flower field?' They say."

"T-that's so cruel! Though they probably wouldn't be too well received, since the Lesser was never fond of outsiders."

"Small towns never are, are they?"

"It wasn't even a town anymore! Elder Seneschal told me that when he was a child-"

She decided to let go, surprised to find herself so enthused about telling her story with Lesser Hollow and the many miseries it inflicted on her. Lilly eyes didn't leave her for a second, her focus so intense it scared her some, scooting over so close they were nearly arm to arm. Was that unconscious? No, she should have noticed by now, shouldn't she?

Part of her was overjoyed. Part of her was embittered, but that was routine, ignoring it was as easy as walking.

And a third part was afraid. She hadn't missed the glint in Blades eyes as she watched them both talk. Face still locked in a carefree expression, but Holly could feel something less than friendly lurking beneath the surface.

She wouldn't let it spoil the moment however. She would simply be very, very careful.

----------------------------------------

The signal came from the front, a quick and sharp "Aleh!" that echoed all the way to the back.

This time Aleh's head snapped up as if broken from a stupor, his hand crashing against the wall behind him with enough force to make her flinch, and he began to chant. Though muffled by his wrappings, the low and raspy sound of his voice haunted the Oke, sending phantom goosebumps up her spine. Soon, the air around them began to darken, turning the entrance to the cabin into a scrambled curtain of indiscernible blurred colors.

She heard a disgusting wet slurp coming from the front, and then voices, slow and nearly incomprehensible, shouts bubbling from deep underwater.

"Aaaaaah, buddy! How long... came by? Your... looks like a...!" It was difficult to pick meaning from the slurry the barrier allowed past, but she tried anyway. "How... the good misses... that mill?"

"Good man Bel-" Belzare? Belzake? Belzale? "Oh, you know... she wants... the boy will...!"

As if to make up for the assault on their senses, everything behind Aleh's seat disappeared, affording the women a clear glance out into the castle's entrance, a dim tunnel of stone bricks illuminated by a couple evenly placed torches and meager sunlight.

They weren't the only people here, and she felt almost conscious of the fact. Gorgeous wagons of varnished wood and embossed reliefs decorating all sides, beautiful horses with pristine groomed furs, driven by men donning exquisitely embroidered capes and shirts; other transports without animal labour, metallic and large, though luxurious and glossy with polish rather than the Oke's rather dry affair; and needless to say the soldiers with their gruesome weaponry, spiked maces and heavy polearms and long swords, their officers mounted on armored warmares with necks as thick as tree trunks, one swerving its eye from side to side until it fixated on-

"Shit!" Lilly spat, turning away and closing her eyes. "Sorry Holly, I know you don't like that."

"B-but I said I didn't mind..."

"I heard from acquaintance of mine that on the other side of the Hollows there is a popular saying that goes like 'a coin is to a merchant what a caterpillar is to a fish.'"

"Not funny," Blades said, giving the officer a dismissive glance.

"It's kind of morbid if you think about it too hard, yeah, but look at that!" Lilly said, gesturing to all the transports clogging up the tunnel. "Well, if the borders are in this state, then at least that means things on Bellfort's side aren't too bad."

"I-I still don't understand that place. Nobody even wants to talk about it." Holly said.

"Oh, it's a long and sordid affair, the history of how Bellfort came to be, and why most Yinians, or the Faceless, don't really like them."

"They bed Tales. They claim to be the true Yinians, and that Galehold was built by usurpers. They will come down barking if Awin tells them to," Blades said, then scowled."They kicked us out and kept all the good swords."

"I guess that's as good a summary of the situation as any. They used to be part of the empire, you know? And seceded at a pretty sensitive point in time."

"Cowards waiting to give low blows. Good doggies for the wrong people."

"I-I gathered as much." Holly watched as one of the classy fellows gestures grew agitated, panicked perhaps, while the closest guards grew stiff and tense, "Marquise used to talk about it like a tragedy. She told me she wished Galehold still had the lake."

"Oh, Bell Lake! I hear its so beautiful this time of the year!" Lilly sighed, "I had always wanted to see it at least once, such a shame Marquise didn't accept my proposal! Alas, she was right to in the end. Perhaps in another life?"

"Can't you do it after the mission? I'll come with you!"

Lilly smiled. "That's kind of you to offer, but remember what I said? They don't like the Faceless around these parts, and Faces aren't too different on their eyes. Nevermind that though, we're moving."

"Already?"

Indeed, while those who had come before them still endured the scrutiny of the guards, they rolled forward into the bright, wide patio of the fortress.

Armored men marched in several lines, shoulder to shoulder. Armored men ran in heavy plates and bloated bags, in and out of the bastion's many tunnels and doors. Armored men sparred with one another under the scorching sun, the glint of their arms blinding. One in particular stood out to Holly: overlooking the procedures with a kingly posture, the sheer bulk of his absurd, shining plated suit, the visage of a lion's mane imprinted onto his heavy helmet, gave her the impression of living metal, not to speak of the fat armored beast, easily larger than a warmare even sat down, beneath him, its clawed paws easily large enough to engulf another man's head, its yawning mouth possibly capable of swallowing Holly's own without chewing.

Fortress Aaltor rose around them as high as trees at the densest profundities of a forest. Weather worn stone surrounded them at all sides, protecting those on the other of its many slit-like windows from those below, the unfortunate creatures pushing themselves and others into the moss encrusted, dirt and hay littered, feces ridden floor of the patio. Plants had started to grow at some of its corners, verdant and tall and serving as horse feed for one awfully mangy creature on at least one occasion.

On one hand, she was impressed. She had no idea things this big could be build. On the other: "W-what a mess!"

"Sure is!" Lilly frowned with a reproving frown, "How can these people be ready for an invasion if they can't even clean their own floors?! This is shameful!"

"Heh. Nostalgic."

"... I can't believe you." Lilly said.

"S-say, how come we are moving so much faster then the other people? Didn't they come first."

"We have special orders! If the Faceless are moving out, who are these slobs to get in the way?"

"Easy like that?"

"If they don't want our business to become theirs, it sure has to be. Though..." Lilly pushed her spectacles back into place, "My work was flawless. And Rosen's contacts do make the effort a little smother too I guess."

The metallic man above the huge beast gestured in their direction, short and curt, before resuming his one sided conversation with his companion, a plated and plumed captain gently steering an agitated warmare who desperately wanted to be somewhere else.

"Your work?"

"Somebody had to handle the boring bureaucracy, right?"

As the Oke curved down a designated road, nothing but a shallow concavity cutting through the corners of the fortress where the filth and grime had been allowed to build until it felt as if they were drifting over wet mud, another sight caught her eyes, taking her breath away.

In the dead center of the patio, a great statue stood dominant, clean and cared for in a way nothing else here was, so masterfully sculped she could tell the bleeding wounds and scars of its main figures' skins even from a distance.

Below, a pile of cowering and dying warriors crawled, tried to flee, pleaded with empty hands raised, their crude weapons and shields cast down over their fellows, chest pieces of what she had to assume was bark and leather dented and cut. Soft serpentine folds emerged and submerged in between their limbs, with enough frequency they almost looked like chains keeping those unfortunate to be at the bottom of the human pile in place.

The three grandiose heroes above, each at the very least over thrice as large as those crushed under their feet, however seemed to have no mercy to spare. One, highest among all, stood above the battle atop a monster not too dissimilar to the metallic man's own, chestplate embossed with interweaving shapes, left arm carrying a longsword impaling five dead men at once, the right lifting an immense cloth flag, bearing the image of a bear over a lion, Galehold's coat of arms blowing for the entire world to see. He was stern, face heavy with beard and mustache, no helmet but an ugly crown over his head, thin and asymmetric, full of spikes piercing deep enough into his scalp to draw rivulets down to his chin.

He wasn't the one to catch her eyes.

Besides the bear, stood two other figures. The first, held in the arms of the second, was a woman, large breasts revealed to all, some kind of dress or sheet or something, cascading down her body from her shoulders to the floor, one hand firmly gripping her covers while the other stood over her forehead, her expression shocked and vacant, surprisingly untouched.

It was that second one who immediately tickled her memories, but why? He was youthful yet bearing the beginnings of a beard, hair falling over his ears in gorgeously maintained curls, his countenance both adamant and wrathful. Naked as the day he was born, his parts dangling in between his spread legs, he held the lady back with protective zeal with one arm, while the other struck down to the ground with a weapon she didn't recognize.

Or she did actually, she recognized it from the first days of the journey, though she could see it in much better detail now. Like a sun or a flower, an orb as large as his fist at the end of a long handle holding a perfect circle of broad blades, or so she had to guess considering half of it was hidden under a trail of lovingly recreated carnage, viscera molded with such accuracy she could tell intestines from stomachs, broken ribs from freed humerus.

"W-what is-" She swallowed some bile, looking away, "What is that?!"

She venture a careful look around, covering the image of bloodshed with a hand. She expected some horror from her companions, and while neither looked pleased they seemed closer to unamused than shocked.

"Shal to the Conquerors. You know what that word means?"

"N-no?"

"Suppose not. It's Lesan, and means something like spoils, or treasures, or something of the kind." Lilly crossed her arms. "By Titan Marches, also know as the most tasteless man ever born. Heard about this statue before, and I should have believed it's reputation. How did the guy who created Glories of the Princess actually get more work?!"

"G-Glories of the Princess?"

"Oh it's even worse, it was-"

"Lilly," Blades said, "she meant the Five Figures."

"But I'm counting just three?" Holly said.

"I assumed she already knew them?" Lilly said, turning to Holly with an inquisitive quirk of brow. "Didn't Marquise make you read the Codex of the Lion?"

"She didn't make me read anything. M-mostly. I did bring that one with me though, why the question?"

"I guess you wouldn't know then. Well, the Codex of the Lion, is, how should I put it..."

"It's trash."

Furfu's head turned in the blink of an eye, but Blades met the shadow of her cowl with a languid disinterest worthy of a jungle feline. Furfu was eventually forced to give up, returning to her still awkwardly rigid posture.

"U-uncultured bitch, no n-nuance..." Furfu rambled beyond even Holly's ability to keep up.

"A-an important cultural artifact regardless of the quality or controversies it has caused since the Lion Dynasty times, is how I was going to put it. It's quite a strange book, a mixture between a philosophical treaty and an anthology written by a monk turned knight, and it would go on to inspire the first Yinian Emperor in pretty much all aspects of his reign."

"It's a book about how you should be, depending how you were born."

"Pretty much! It depicts how people should be for the healthy functioning of an empire, at least the way the author sees it, represented by five symbols called the Five Esteemed Figures."

Blades face twisted with a distaste that bordered on revulsion. "The girl is the Household Princess. The big guy is the Lion."

"And the boy waging war is the Intrepid Youth, who represents what every young man ought to become."

"Killers."

"As well."

"T-thanks, that's interesting to hear, but..." But that wasn't it, not at all. When her eyes were driven back to that scene of slaughter, it was not the youth they seeked but the gore soaked sun, casting death down on the broken army. "What is that? In the Youth's hand?"

Both Blades and Lilly leaned closer, maybe trying to discern what anything from that pile of remains. However, when they leaned back, both were quiet, contemplative, frowning. They exchanged a long glance, and Holly shivered.

"I-if you don't know, it's okay! I was just cu-"

"That," Blades said, "is the Peaceful Night."

Lilly didn't expound. Holly didn't ask her to.

It wouldn't be long before the window to the outside closed, though Aleh's hand remained in place. With nothing better to do, she threw small talk away with Blades and Almalilly, occasionally straining her hearing to catch bits and pieces of the conversation happening by the front. They took longer leaving the Fortress then entering, but suddenly a second call came, and Aleh slumped back into his quiet meditation.

And soon, they had crossed the brick and mortar barrier into murky waters, as Lilly had put it.

Bellfort welcomed them.