It was hot when we woke up. Or more like, we woke up because it was so hot. I could tell through the blackening glass window what might have been going on. There was a fire right outside our room. Sight and I hurriedly made our way outside. We ran into Tristan and Percival at the hall door, looking exhausted.

It was surprising that we slept through it. Then again, Sight and I hadn't gotten rest for days, we didn't just need sleep to shake off that exhaustion, we needed to die and then come back the next morning. That seemed to be exactly what had happened.

"What's going on?", I asked Tristan.

He turned towards me, looking haggard.

"Are you alright?", I had to ask.

"You're late again, men", he answered, "Just take a look for yourself."

I opened the door and stepped outside. The black residue that had been covering the town was gone. The city was in ruins, even more than when we came here, but the layer of that very dark ash was nowhere to be found.

Galahad and Gawain were putting out the fire and the others were tending to the wounded.

Noticing Lancelot, I hurried towards him. He was tending to Bedivere, who seemed to be heavily injured.

"Lancelot", I approached him, "What happened here?"

"Why don't you go ahead and wait a little more?", he didn't even look at me.

That wasn't uncalled for, but I was at a loss now. I wondered if I ought to leave or stay. Before I could make that decision, a man made his way towards us on crutches. He was bandaged from head to toe and if his entire demeanor and constitution weren't daunting enough, the amount of injuries on him were. I hadn't seen him before.

"Why didn't you burn the city?!", he grabbed Lancelot's collar and lifted him up in the air.

Lancelot didn't resist at all.

"What are you doing here, merc?"

"Answer my damn question!", the man howled, in a rather deep voice.

"You're asking the impossible", Lancelot replied coldly.

"Your king is dead! Can't you get that in your head? That thing isn't your king! How many more have to die because of your stupid obsession?!"

"Watch your mouth, you damned peasant!", Lancelot got himself free of his clutches, not so easily though, "Not another word from you about my Lord."

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

"Aren't you the one that betrayed him first?", the man said in a low voice.

"Stop it, Grey!", Bedivere interrupted just as Lancelot was about to lose his mind and launch at the man.

But that was all Bedivere could say before coughing a bout of blood. He began breathing heavily and rested his head back. Lancelot quickly got down to help him, cleaning the blood, with a sour expression on his face mixed with worry.

The man named Grey stood beside Bedivere with a solemn look.

"Seraph...", Bedivere called for me in a low voice.

I sat down beside him and brought my face closer to his.

"Help Grey", he whispered.

He was deathly pale. It was apparent that Lancelot's efforts wouldn't save him for long. I nodded to his request and patted his shoulder, reassuring him. He soon closed his eyes and Grey and I left him to rest.

"I'd like to help you in any way I can", I said to him.

He scrutinized me with a doubting eye.

"Who are you?"

"A friend", I replied shortly, "Do you know what happened here?"

He glared at me distrustfully but then perhaps concluded that this wasn't going to do anyone any good right now.

"The sword is alive. It needs to be destroyed before it wreaks any more havoc."

"The sword? Where is it?"

"No clue. It can't be that far. I have to find it", he said anxiously.

"How'd it get here in the first place?", I asked.

"I brought it here. I didn't know what it was capable of. And then we ran into 'them'. Bringing her here was the worst idea", he said.

"Her? Do you mean Silver?", I asked.

He glared at me again.

"If you're going to look for the sword, well...I'll come with you", I had to be the one to break the tension in the air.

"I don't need your help", he said plainly before taking a pause, "Or so I'd like to say, but seeing as I'm like this, it might take me too long. And you seem to know something. So simply put, I'll be grateful if you'd help me."

It sounded odd coming from him and I was in a shock for a minute.

"Err...well, that's settled then. I have a friend that'll be good for searching. I'll bring him along."

"A dog?"

"Eh? No, not really."

"I see. We'll meet at the city gate. When you're ready, come find me. I'll be waiting."

By the time I found Sight, he had already turned into a full-fledged doctor. He was operating on someone right in the open when I discovered him. There was a man beside him that I assumed to be the nurse, who was trying to stop him but Sight seemed to be ignoring any protests.

"Uh...Sight", I hesitated at first but this was urgent, "We've got work to do. We're gonna go look for the sword. You're coming...right?"

"The sword, boy? So it is as I thought. The sword caused all this, didn't it boy? Well then, we better be off quickly", he stood up, wiping his hands, his patient still open.

"Uh...hey, aren't you going to close him up?", the nurse man asked, nervously.

"You do that. I've got work to do, didn't you hear? Just sew him up, nurse", Sight replied casually.

"No, hold on! I don't know how to do that!", the nurse man protested.

"Nurse", Sight looked at him with a grim expression on his face, "You must take the reins one day or the other. In this case, it's like sewing a button that fell off. Just...put a stitch wherever needed."

"Oi, oi, Sight, isn't that too careless of you as a doctor? Why did you operate on him in the first place?", I stopped Sight.

Sight sighed, "Well boy, I suppose as a doctor...I must do this deed myself."

Saying so, he quickly deployed a barrier and then cast a magic circle around it.

"Leave him be for an hour, nurse. Don't touch him. He'll be up and about soon."

It didn't sound believable seeing as the patient was still cut open. The nurse man just gaped at Sight as we made our way towards the city gate.