What was supposed to be a long and awaited night ended up as an insane rollercoaster of emotions, far too many things had happened for his young mind to process, yet he still had to move, his sister was probably in danger and he had to do something, even if he could only move by instinct.

Run, run! Was what his mind told him incessantly, and so he did with despair as he couldn't bear the thought that something might happen to the person most precious to him and the only family that he knew.

He ran for a long time by will alone, since by the extraordinary events that just happened before, he didn't truly processed everything nor did his mind was truly here, yet, the moment that he had reach the outskirts of the city, and the heat of the flames rising from the burning buildings of the small coastal city meet with him, he truly wake up for the present, his unconscious warning him.

If there's invaders here and his sister was in danger, he couldn't save her by will and instinct alone, what if by mindlessly running to his home in search of her, he just ended up getting himself captured instead? It would be useless.

The pain from the harsh flames and the adrenaline forced him to be rational, and as such he begun to think, first, his sister was in no way a weakling, she didn't take care of a whole farm alone for no reason, so he could be a little calm about her safety, but only a little.

Second, who is doing this? He can clearly see everything burning, but he see no one, neither the people or the perpetrators, they must be somewhere, but where? But most importantly, where's the Old Dog? Since I had grown up here, everyone has told so many times about his good deed's, so where he could be? Had he been defeated? Did he run? What that must had happen?

It was then that he understood, he shouldn't act by will and instinct alone, but only staying here thinking about countless possibilities would help no one, much less his sister. And as such he begins to make his way to his objective, his head spinning about what he can do, and what he shouldn't.

Since they aren't there, he begins to think about where they might be, a place where a great amount of people can be gathered, since he couldn't see no bodies they should be wanting the people alive. He came down to two general directions, the harbour at the sea or the outskirts of the city.

If he wish to reach the farm safely, he would have to go through one of the options, since going between into the burning city while the invaders possibly still pillage everything, was far the most dangerous option.

So everything came down to a gamble, the safe route would depend of what the invaders were, pirates or bandits, while he had never met with neither, he was sure of it, that it was one of the two, sea or land. He didn't have much time, so he couldn't dwell in the choice for much time, so as fast as he can, he begun to think on what will raise his success chances.

He could indeed go and see one of the location's, if he is luck and no one was there he could pass by directly, unlucky and he could just go back to the other option, the thing is, he will lose to much time walking from one place to another, and even ending up exhausted from all of that, after all he is still a child.

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And as such he came down to his choice and the reason, he didn't know why the Old Dog abandoned them, but all that the people had told him over the years should be truth, or at very least have a little bit of truth, so he decides, that if he did what they said he did, then there should be no bandit band in the region.

Of course as said, this is a gamble, and of course there are way many others things to be considered, but as said before, he don't have the time to think about them, nor do would he be able to know and think about then, after all, he is still way to young and inexperienced.

So it came down to this, and Dunkan decides to go through the outskirts praying to had made the right choice.

. . .

While at the harbour of the city, the captain looked at every single person held captive and beneath his mask, he is anxious, they all look extremely common, many of them don't even have especial characteristics by how impure their bloodlines are, nor did they show any power that would come from such.

They had systematic burnt, plundered, and captured everyone and everything in this goddamned city, but even if they may had destroyed everything, since they wasn't able to find many precious things, the crew was stressed, and the fact that their captain still prohibited them from having fun with the prisoners didn't help.

As the captain, he of course knew that, if he ended up suffering from a riot because of a false information, he would go fucking insane.

What he wasn't seeing he asked himself, rather, what he didn't knew, of course he thought that maybe the information was wrong, but since the commission came from a reliable source, he chose to find comfort on this.

He sighed, got to a high place and as he looked above the captured people, he asks then on a unexpected kind tone:

"Alright everyone, I am very sorry for what we did, but it was necessary as it was orders from a noble family of the Farengjian Empire." He says and wait for their reaction, and as expected, it wasn't in any way close to be good.

"Are you fucking with us! You just take everything away from all of us! All the we worked!" It was middle aged man that had said, but it was clearly that he spoke for everyone there.

"Do you know why we had brought everyone here? It was because my original orders were to kill every conspirators against the noble rule of Farengjia." He was unfazed by their hostility, it's been far too long since he became used to this type of thing.

He could hear their loud silence and it was good, it was what he wanted, on the other way around, the crew didn't like it one bit about what he just said. The captain knew it and just looked at his reliable quartermaster.

The Quartermaster didn't knew when it happened, but along the years he somehow learned to read the expressions on a masked man, and he knew exactly what he was planning. The Quartermaster turned to the crew and assured them that everything was going accord to plan, for them the situation sounded like bullshit, they're pirates, not privateers.

"But I don't think things need to be like this, you all are suffering because of the actions of only one individual." He make a pause, taking close attention to their reaction. "We came here to capture a runaway and traitorous noble, you should know of who we are talking about." He can see it, by their expression it was true, there's someone with a especial blood on this shit hole.

"Now, if you just tell where this person is none of you need to die." He says that and he waits, they swallow and hesitate with a anxious look, but in the end, they say nothing.

The captain sight, he had hoped that he would ended this situation without losing money, he spoke about serving the nobles of the nation that they should had know better, yet, it wasn't enough to gave them the quantity of fear to make then speak, they should really like this person, even trough I just put the blame of my actions on him.

He put down any facade of false kindness and shoots the same middle age man that spoke first, sad for having to do that, he should had been worth something as a slave, then the captain proceeds and say:

"Now, I will begin the execution of the accomplices against the Farengjia, by killing one of you at every minute that passes." He let it sink, and waite for the despair to do it's job. "So tell me, will you guys begin to speak or I will have to kill everyone here?"

As he watches the result of his actions, not like everything that he had said was a lie, yet, he can't help but praise himself and his capabilities to bullshit.