“What are we doing?” I ask.

“We’re going to the festival,” Olive says, turning back to me before continuing. “There’s a street along this way where the big parade will be passing through. It’s safe enough over this way, the local gangs keep the streets clear and safe, so we don’t have to worry. There are also some stalls, and this one shop… anyway, there shouldn’t be any knights or anything so terrible.”

“Knights are terrible?” I ask. “I’ve heard that they’re strong.”

“They are, both terrible and strong,” Olive says, rushing us on down the street. “If you see any, don’t look at them. Keep your head down and keep walking. If they turn their attention to us… it probably won’t happen. They’re not looking for us or anything, so it should be fine.”

The buildings here are a little less crowded as shops take the place of homes, but the people walking between are growing in number. Most of the homes around this way are all clean and well built, in fact now that I think of it Olive’s home is in one of the parts of town that are rather nice. There are no holes in the roof from what I could see of it.

“It’s just a little further this way, try to remember where we came from so that you don’t get lost if we get separated,” Olive says, looking about at the crowds forming around us. Others excited about the events are smiling brightly, and talking in friendly groups. How so many people can bear living this close together is just confusing to me.

With the sun falling to the horizon, an unnatural light takes the streets. Countless small candles light the streets, I’ve seen them before, made from long and common grasses, but never so common as here. There are thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even more, they hang from the sides of buildings and from the many ropes that are stretched from the roof of one building to the next.

It’s comfortably warm here, the sort of warmth that you can’t find by a fireplace or under a thick fur. It’s in the air, and strangely enough, it’s in the stench of people grouped together. So many scents clinging together, in the light of countless candles. Their voices intermingling, countless happy cheers, laughter, and conversations that I can’t quite make out.

Olive turns her head, her bright features glowing with the lights of a thousand candles. It’s like I’ve fallen into a fairy-tale.

“This!” She cries out, her smile spreading wider still. “Can you hear it in the distance? The songs and the music? It’ll be here soon. We have to keep the road clear while the musical march passes through, but after that, we can dance.”

“Dance?” I ask.

“Oh, before they get here, let’s go get some pies,” Olive jumps to her own music, staring over at a store built on the corner of these two intersecting roads. There are many people crowded around it, but there are many people crowding each and every store and stall. A few little kids are rushing around between legs, some snatching at what they can reach.

Crow, sitting on a nearby rooftop can see most of them coming and gives me a warning. He’s a good sentry, but quiet and he doesn’t like showing his affections. He’s a good friend.

“Pies?” I ask.

“They only sell my favourite pies on festival days,” she says, without giving me a clear answer.

She just pulls us closer to the store, her hood up over her head. She leads us through gaps that I don’t recognise. The people don’t seem to mind us squeezing by, only checking that their purses and knives are still in place.

The nearest stall is handing out skewers packed with meat still sizzling with oil, the one next to him is selling spiced sausages wrapped in cheesy bread, and the next is handing out small orbs of hardened honey orbs with various fruits and berries trapped within.

The sweet and the savoury, and all others that I know, and not a single bug in sight. If I were left to choose, I wouldn’t know Olive’s shop to be better or worse than any of the others, but tempted by the smile on her lips and promise of something sweeter, I follow her a little more closely.

Inside a man is handing out pastries in exchange for coin. He’s smiling wide but watching us all very closely, keeping stray hands away from the steaming pies that he’s selling.

Here, the terrible smells of the city are overpowered by the sweet flavours spreading out from the kitchen door. I don’t know what to think or what to do, but Olive is with us, and she takes the lead.

“Three sweet berry pies, please!” She cries out to the owner of the shop with a hand full of coins.

“Three sweet berry pies!” The man replies before exchanging her coins for warm pastries spreading steam from small cuts in their lids.

“Here.” She hands us one each, “These are the best things that you’ll ever taste!”

“Sweet berry pies?” I ask sniffing at the strange little pastry. It’s a bit like the berries that I had in the wild, but also different, and warm.

“Try it,” she says before biting into her own with a smile sweeter than any pastry. I nibble on the edges of mine, savouring the texture and slight sweetness of the pasty before nibbling on the chunky bluish insides.

The berries explode inside my mouth, spreading sweetness over my tongue. It’s so sweet that it hurts. I have to press my tongue to the roof of my mouth and slowly swallow the overwhelming paste. It’s nice.

“It’s great right?!” Olive says, her lips stained blue.

I nod quickly, blinking away the tears in my eyes. It does hurt a little, but it’s not like the bugs. This isn’t torture, it’s just a little too much all at once.

“Why do they only sell it now?” Anna asks her.

“They do sell it other times but it’s near four times as much. And well, the shop is all fancy. Mom taught me to stay away from such places.”

“Why is that?” I ask her. If she wants a pie, then this lovely girl should be able to get a pie.

“Well… I guess you guys aren’t from around here. Most people still treat me well and all, but if any knights or friends of knights were to see my ears… I just shouldn’t let it happen is all.” She keeps her hood lowered, even though her inhuman ears are already hidden away by her hairstyle.

Adeleya said that I should avoid killing people, but if a knight causes her problems, then I won’t hesitate to protect her.

“What next?” Anna nervously looks about the crowd. She’s always had trouble with touching people so we should be careful with where we drag her. This crowd can’t be comfortable for her.

“Can’t you hear the music getting closer?” Olive says, leading us to the side of the street. “They’re coming. We have to come and watch.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I’m torn.

Anna is huddled up in her cloak so that no one can touch her. I want to join in with all the fun, but I can’t leave Anna behind or make her too uncomfortable. She still struggles to handle a hug that lasts longer than five seconds.

“Wait.” I pull at Olives sleave. “Anna isn’t good with people being so close. Is there somewhere we can watch that’s not as crowded?”

“Anna?” Olive looks her up and down, noticing just how uncomfortable she’s getting. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” she says.

“That means that she’s not fine,” I say, pulling Olive by the hand. “Is there somewhere a little less busy?”

“I… sure. I’ll take you there,” Olive nods slowly, figuring something out. “It’s just down here. People come down here to get some quiet away from the crowds, but they can still hear the music.”

She leads us down the road and back around again, after weaving through a few corners we find ourselves on a dead-end road just across from where the musicians are marching. A few others are here with us, beating out the same rhythm, the same song, but a little more closely.

Crow watches the main street for me, the dancers are gathered on the street, almost pursuing the musicians. They aren’t perfect, they stumble and fall, and find themselves pulled back up again by others in the crowd. Here, in this quiet corner the dancing is a little slower, and a little less chaotic.

Trumpets, drums, strings, and pipes are all playing the same song, no one is leading. It’s a chaos that all join into, finding a certain rhythm that we can all match. Here in this quiet place, Anna breathes a sigh of relief.

“It’s nice, isn’t it,” Olive watches the dancers with wide shining eyes, as the hazy light surrounds us.

“Why don’t we join them?” There is room here for Anna to stand away from the crowds without getting lost or separated, and if something bad were to come for us, then Crow would give plenty of warning.

“Who would we dance with?” Olive asks looking at all the dancers gathered together on this quiet street corner, they are all couples dancing close together. They barely even see us, but there is room between them. Room enough for us.

“That’s obvious!” I take her hand and lead her in.

The roads here are hard and uneven, the dance is messy and unrefined. When she trips on the cobblestone, I catch her, and when I trip, she catches me. Her laugh rings out through the music. She’s not afraid to hold me close as we swing around and around in circles.

“Syr?” She asks, and I pull her in, imitating the other dancers.

“Is this how you dance?” I ask, our cloaks fluttering back and forth while we bob and step. Another leaf floating upon a river, entwined, in motion and intent.

“This is right.” She smiles, happily looking about us and then back at me. I can feel my chest flooding with warmth, from her hands, from where her chest touches, from where her eyes burn into mine.

It’s a simple passion, not the sort of lingering and painful feelings that had buried themselves tight in my chest in the same way as I felt for Adeleya. Yet, it is nice to feel warm, and happy.

The city isn’t so bad sometimes.

The march is through with this corner of the city, but the music lingers on in the drumming of the occasional rogue performer, or the humming of strangers we pass by in the street.

It’s like all the gloom that hung over this place just yesterday has been left behind, but maybe not forgotten. The darkness still clings to the insides of window frames and the shadows hide beneath dishonest smiles. Everyone is together here, and even the disguised suffering is something that is shared.

“If you come to the city, you have to at least glance at the places where the nobles live,” Olive says, pulling us away from the quiet corner that we’ve hidden away. “But we have to be careful. Don’t stand and watch for too long and follow me closely. If we get too close to the gates they’ll notice us.”

Armed men march along the streets, moving along those who fall and keeping an eye out for threats. They hardly offer us even a glance, but there is an energy about them, as if they’re ready for a bear to charge them down at any moment.

“Are you sure we should do this?” I ask. “You said that it’s dangerous?”

“There is risk in everything we do,” Olive says, “If it’s only the once then it’s not that great of a risk. If you were to visit so often that the guards come to recognise you, then perhaps they would find an issue with it, but even then, you’re elves. The humans don’t much mind elves.”

I should avoid this, and rush us back home, but my face is flushed from all the dancing, and Olive’s is just as red. I don’t want the night to end just yet. Anna follows along happily enough, watching everything around us with wide-eyed curiosity.

Olive’s hair is in something of a mess, and sweat stains her brow, but she is still more beautiful now than before. Her smile isn’t as wide, but it’s set deeper on her face. I want to kiss her, hold her, and other things too.

I know that I can’t.

I don’t want this friendship to end the same as before.

“What is it?” She asks smiling under her hood.

“It’s nothing.”

It’s not nothing.

It has to be nothing.

The flickering candle lights have started to die down, the same as the euphoria that had taken me while dancing. We are left to walk in the light of the lanterns, much dimmer in their glow. The shadows dance all around us as we make way for the palace of the nobility.

Olive leads us up and around, rather than through the streets. We climb up a building. One which is left partly in ruin. What reason is there that these homes here lie in such a state, but others just a street away are tall, proud, and clean?

What secrets are there in this city?

“This is the Pearl estate,” Olive says, waving a hand out over the wide yard. “In the day you can see all the colours of the flowers, but I still like it better of a night. The cool lights that they use over the gardens, they make it seem like it’s from a fairy tale.”

The cold lights that spread out over the gardens brighten the world inside the tall fence, showing a place of beauty. It is not like the wilds where everything grows simply where it’s seeded, and it’s not like the town where people use what room they have the best as they can.

It’s deliberate. Like a sword or a work of art but carved into the land itself. Even the building in the centre is a part of it in the same way that the stem and petals all belong to the same flower.

Anna pushes in to get a look at it for herself, not seeming to mind the closeness between us.

There are grand buildings, all around the estate, with wide gardens all around. It’s a beautiful sight and seems to be entirely another world from the city that I’ve walked through today. What sort of people must live in a place like this? What sort of power must they have that they can keep the gates closed to all the people outside?

Crow glides in for a close look. Through the windows of the house, glowing with light, I can see people gathered around a dinner table, there is a small feast inside, and I swallow back my hunger at the sight of it.

A young woman, whose plate remains untouched, stares out the windows and meets Crow’s eyes. She blinks and soon turns away.

“There are more people today, maybe they have visitors.”

“I thought you said it was dangerous to come here,” I say. “It sounds like you come here often.”

A smirk lifts her lips higher.

“Don’t tell my mom,” she says.

The shadows darken without any warning, the large house in the centre of the gardens is surrounded by stretching shadows. It takes just a moment for the entire house to be consumed by darkness. As if it’s made them turn insane, the guards turn on one another. They use swords and daggers to stab each other to death.

Mages working with soil, lift tall bulwarks around the building even though there are many trapped within, but I stay focused on the shadows that first closed the walls. It’s a familiar magic…

I duck down and pull the other two with me.

“What-?” I clap my hand over Anna’s mouth and press a finger against Olive’s lips.

Crow flies high overhead, watching everything.

A man races up behind one of the surviving guards on the estate, thrusting a dagger into his neck and pulling him away into the shadows that wrap around the pair to hide them. He moved like the shades that we faced before, but not like the monster.

A guard shouts a warning as he sees another of the assassins crawling up on him, and a battle breaks out.

It’s not just in the estate. Throughout the streets, armed men war against the shadows and the monsters that hide within, but it is the performers that are first targeted. The undead monsters walk the streets, they move too fast, too confidently. In just a few seconds, the music dies.

The screams that follow can be heard that much more clearly for it.

“We have to run,” I whisper, standing and drawing my swords.

The streets are already littered with corpses, but the monsters shaped like men aren’t satisfied with that. They do things to the corpses. In only a few moments, they twist the dead into something terrible and cruel.

Everywhere I look, there is death.

I see no safe path through it.

The shadows curl around our ankles, but I burn them away with the flames that I flush through my new swords. Why are they coming now?

What are they after, and how can I survive?

Should I have stayed with Adeleya and the others instead of recklessly coming out here? Am I going to die here because I decided to run off on my own for this selfishness?

I glance at Olive, tears run down her cheeks but she doesn’t break down. She’s looking around in the darkness as the dim lanterns die and the clouds above hide the moon from us.

No.

We’re not going to die. When the monsters come, I’ll slay them. I’ll bring these two to safety.

“Don’t worry,” I say to Anna and olive. “I’ll save you. I won’t let you die.”

I’ve had enough taken from me. I will not say another goodbye today.