Verlar promised Magalla he would be a silent companion. He didn't keep his promise. They talked about the weather, their fascination with the obscure history of dragons, and compared city life to fishing village life. When they reached the delta and changed the boat to a sea vessel taking them along the shore to the northern port of Deyocma, he complained to her about the errors the Landhapis captain was making. She laughed at it and he finally started smiling. Once or twice they talked about Kyeta. She told him what impression the woman made on her and he told her the story of their friendship from the day they destroyed heavy gates in the academy, to the day they last saw each other. He skipped fifteen minutes on the ship. This memory will be his and only his forever.

'I was not the only one. She was this kind of a woman that men find irrationally fascinating. Those, blue eyes that stare at you boldly, her constant smile and attention she gives... she was giving you. And what she did for the patriotic spirit, that goes beyond my comprehension.'

By the time they stepped on the dry land they knew each other's childhood friends' names and found the mutual company very satisfactory. In Deyocma Verlar reported to the local Solummger representative and found out that one of the battalions travel the same direction as his route goes. He and Magalla stayed overnight in a tavern and the next morning they hired horses for the journey to Gaal and they rode on.

Here, in the north, the climate was warmer and the sun was higher in the sky. Apart from that the flora and fauna were not different.

'I don't know what I expected. Completely different planet or what?' Magalla said after she commented on another rabbit nibbling on dandelion leaves.

'Wait ‘till we ride into the interior, towards the Skey-Er border. It will be dryer, with more grass and fewer trees. The settlements will be very few which makes it more challenging for the armies.'

'No bread and diary?'

'Exactly. There are villages, of course, scattered nearby fishing pods.'

'The pods that were built five hundred years ago, during Queen Lavyassa's reign?'

'Yes, the same ones. She was an... interesting figure.'

'I wonder what the world would look like if all the rulers were this good. And how is the Landhapis’ king? Pulgek? You were not very impressed with him as far as I recall.'

'An idiot. That's what you've got when you stick to hereditary monarchy.'

'Hmmm, some of the rulers are not bad. When you are properly trained, educated to rule from a very early age... if you have brains for that.'

'Or you listen to your advisors. Yes. But this one doesn't. No, this meeting made me even more convinced our way is better.'

'How about the Skey-Er way? You know, the one they don't have?' They both laughed at this comment. It was known that the kingdom of Skey-Er having adopted the Solummgerian system of elective monarchy, wanted to go a step further and instead of the parliament and ministers choosing the next ruler after the death or abdication of a monarch, they had been planning to introduce public elections. This had an equal number of critics and supporters among philosophers and until today, a hundred and eighty years after they first announced the change in the constitution, couldn't set that change in motion. The scattered population and awful transport across the country were enough to postpone it, election after election, king after king. Occasionally queen.

'Sometimes I feel sorry for Skey-Er,’ Verlar said pensively. ‘They had a brilliant past, the best minds, and a decent political system. They lost economically only because Landhapis had access to the Solummgerian Sea, and made a good deal with us.'

'And we are this good guy? Only because we took Skey-Er migrants centuries ago. Then, we signed a Treaty with Landhapis for their trade.'

'Skey-Er would not get rejected if they hadn't got into wars with Landhapis.'

'And remind me, how do we know it is Skey-Er that always starts the wars?'

'Hmm...' was all Verlar said. Solummger knew who is the bad one because Landhapis tells them so. Very conveniently.

After a while Verlar asked again:

'Is there something you want to share with me? Have you uncovered another secret in the dungeons of a library?'

'Oh, not yet. Maybe I would dig into politics after I finish with the resurrection of the dragons. Maybe. When this war ends... it has already killed too many people. Firewheel... I heard that after that day the streams were red miles away.'

'Yes, I heard it was insane. People lost their minds. Thousands dead on both sides, a massacre.'

'And the dead horses and krools were left there and the smell of rotting flesh drove people from their homes for weeks.'

They rode in silence for a long time, each of them absorbed by their own thoughts.

'Magalla. I have a question. I should have asked it hours ago.'

'Hm?'

'You said you were a city girl, born and raised in Rekeeren. When did you learn horse riding?'

Magalla burst with laughter.

'And when did you learn how to use cutlery, fish village boy?'

'Oh come on, everybody in my village knows city folk are useless in the real world, you freeze to death in chilly weather, mosquitoes eat you alive, you don't distinguish a horse from a tris. Ok, maybe that's exaggerating. A horse from a cow.'

'And you, peasants, smell hey, don't see the difference between a fork and a rake, and you pee outside.'

'Ouch! Who ran to the bush an hour ago? But seriously, there were many city people in the Academy and they all sat on a horse for the first time in their life when equestrian lessons started.'

'My uncle, my mum's brother, lived in a country, he had a small horse-breeding stable. My parents were sending us there every summer to learn horse riding, swimming in the river, distinguish a horse from a cow and a goat from a sheep. That's how I learnt. So, my dear friend, I started at the same age as you did.'

'No, you didn't,' Verlar said, looking at her amused. 'I started with the city folk in the Academy. We had only draught horses in my village.'

'And you had wingfingers?' she asked when she stopped laughing.

'Oh yes, I learnt how to fly them... how old I was? Twelve? I was carrying messages to the fishermen.'

'Did you learn to fish with your father?'

'Ah, that's another story. My dad was convinced I was a fool. I couldn't learn the trade, unlike my older brothers.'

'Fool?! You?! You are one of the smartest people I've met!'

'Aw, thanks, but I wasn't like that as a kid. I was doing well at school but my father was convinced I was retarded. I couldn't understand the way my dad was explaining things so... but then one of my brothers took me to the town where I went to this vet-profiled school and things got better. Now my dad and I are good. He says he's proud of me, we can talk to each other with no grudge.'

'And your mother? You never mentioned her.'

'She died in childbirth. When I was born. My two brothers told me about her. We all inherited her eyes apart from the colour. She had one eye brown and one green.'

'Sorry to hear that. Not to know your mother... and your brothers, to lose mum so young. What was her name?'

'Namilila. Yes, they missed her. Gemmar was ten and Loro was seven when I was born and she died. Our dad's eldest sister, aunt Trinna moved in and helped to raise us. She was a mother to me, Gem and Loro loved her too. Dad could go to work and start his business.'

'Oh yes, you mentioned. He is a fishing boat builder.'

'He is, and the best in the area. And your family?'

'My parents are both dead, dad died when I was nineteen, mum - five years ago. Dad had been sick for months, mum died suddenly from a heart attack. I have one younger sister. She lives in Rekeeren with her husband or fiancée and we don't stay in touch much. It's not that we don't like each other, we just never had much in common. She lets me do my business, I let her do hers. We send letters for birthdays and Festive Week. That's it.'

'You're a lone wolf?'

'Kind of. I prefer going solo to forcing myself to stick to the company I don't like.'

'You know, any time you can...'

'I know. I would if I wanted. You know, you can do too.'

'Thanks. I'm fine.'

'I'm fine too.'

They kept riding in comfortable silence for an hour or so. Suddenly Verlar stopped his horse.

'Do you hear that?'

'Like... thunder? Is this... the soldiers?'

And indeed, it was the sound of thousands of boots stomping in a rhythmic march. They were close to the main road.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A column of infantry soldiers marched one by one, Solummger and Landhapis uniforms mixed evenly. Verlar and Magalla speeded up and asked about a leader. They were pointed towards the front of the long river of people on the narrow road. They kept pushing forward asking about the commander and finally, they were shown a woman wearing Special Forces clothes, with an athletic figure and remarkably black complexion. Magalla kept in the distance while Verlar dismounted his horse and came closer to introduce himself.

'Very well, you'll travel with us,' the commander said after the initial exchange of information.

'And who is this person?' she demanded looking at Magalla. Verlar explained who she is and why she travels with him. The leader stepped off the column of the marching army to meet the civilian.

'So, you're a wisdom and adventure seeker going up north in this time of war,' she said, piercing her with her eyes.

'I am. You are probably going to ask how could you know that I'm not a spy or something. You are not the first to ask. I don't know what to tell you, to be honest. Keep an eye on me or send for the people who kept interrogating me in Fuerumig or...'

'Alright, I'll keep an eye on you,' the commander interrupted her impatiently. She had other things to keep her busy. She looked at the two again and asked:

'Tell me, who is who in this team? Are you her bodyguard or is she yours?' They exchanged amused looks and said simultaneously:

'Both!' To which the commander nodded shortly and they could see she was amused by their reply.

'As for your permit to stay with the army there are a few options... we will discuss them shortly,' the woman started saying to Magalla when something more important interrupted her. Another person in Specials' cloak stepped from the column, with her head lowered over some papers she was holding. She approached the black-skinned commander.

'You were right, lieutenant, there were better maps in that chest. Here, we are still ahead of the crossroads, if the flood indeed blocked the passage on this fucking... Verlar!!!'

Ottaine ran at her friend and embraced him tightly. They spoke quietly, ear to ear. Yrzlaruki watched them with wide-opened eyes and clenched mouth.

'Ver, there's something I need to tell you. When you have time, please,' she said at the end.

'Sure, Ota. You'll see me quite often now. I'm going to Gaal with you... Hey, do you remember Magalla?' he said and Ottaine noticed the fourth person. After they exchanged greetings and Magalla repeated what she's doing in this parts of the world, Yrzlaruki, who had been standing there at first a little concerned and then amused, interrupted:

'I see you know each other. Let me guess, the same year in the Southern, the two of you?' she said looking at Verlar.

'Oh, yes, that's my matey Verlar Vorgeghom and that's Magalla... I'm sorry, I can't remember your surname.'

'It's Snevlih.'

'Alright, let's catch up with the rest. Let's use your horses.'

They mounted again, Yrzlaruki with Magalla and Ota with Verlar. Yr asked a few more questions about Magalla's plans and her previous whereabouts.

'You said you earn money as a street performer?' Yrzlaruki became very interested.

'That's right.'

'Are you a ‘people person’ then?'

'How to put it... when I act - I am.'

'Fine enough. Do you want to make yourself useful and earn a place in our tents? You could train as a nurse, but you would need to officially sign for service in the army. The procedures are such that civilian volunteers can join only upfront an imminent battle and - she turned around the trees and bushes - clearly, this is not the case. Or - you could help me with food provisions. Our team is... prone to fail. But if you could visit the villages and bargain in the name of the army, trade your entertainment for eggs and poultry...'

'Yes! I will do that!' Magalla exclaimed with enthusiasm. She hated the idea of being useless and taken care of. 'I could go even now, just give me something meaningful to do.'

They reached the front of the column and shortly after, Yr ordered a break. They had already been marching for six hours and the heat was sucking their strengh in almost Special way.

'Very well. According to our maps,' Yrzlaruki turned to Ottaine with a warm smile, 'there is a group of settlements this way here, behind that woods and field, we would stop over here, where the cross is, for the night.' She said moving her finger on the map. 'You would ride before the evening and see how much you could bargain,’ this time she turned to Magalla. ‘Right now we have provisions for three days, but as we are moving towards a less densely inhabited region we must start stocking up.'

'Do you have anything for me to do?' Verlar asked. 'If not, maybe I would go too, to help.'

'Oh, now you want to be my magician's assistant?' Magalla couldn't resist recalling their meeting in Fuerumig.

'No, I just want to check the route for bandits, like it or not.'

'If you ask me, do what you want,' Yrzlaruki interrupted them. 'As long as you are not a pain in my arse and politely accept that, for now, I am your commander - you are free to help any way you find suitable.'

Magalla didn't mind Verlar going with her as long as he would not scare her potential onlookers.

She didn't have to worry, a veterinary technician in a remote village with erysipelas cases among pigs and two pregnant cows was a gift from the gods. The negotiations were a huge success.

When they were away Yrzlaruki started asking Ottaine about the two new companions.

'So, Ottaine, is it this friend of yours who was in love with... with her?'

'Yes, that's him.'

'He's... good looking. Isn't he.' Yrzlaruki glanced at the young officer. 'And you have a lot in common.'

'That's why we like each other. And no, we are not and have never been, and will never be, please Yr, don't be one of those boring people who... Anyway. Just don't.'

'I didn't ask.' Yr said while trying not to show that she liked what she heard.

#

For the next few days the battalion carried on marching, Magalla kept making deals with local farmers and was amazingly successful. They liked her, she was making them laugh when they were giving up goats, cheese and wine.

Ottaine told Verlar about the circumstances of Kyeta's death the first evening. He didn't judge her, didn't reproach, didn't think she could do something differently. He just said:

'Ota darling, she loved you like no one else in the world. Don't you think she wouldn't say ‘hey you bitch, shut up and carry on?’ That was her way, wasn't it? Hey, don't cry. Or actually, cry as much as you need. Here, take the hankie.'

They stayed by the fire for a very long time, talking and talking about the dead hero they both knew and both loved in their own way.

After that evening they felt they could tell each other almost everything. Verlar found out Ota had known his 'secret' concerning Kyeta and now he knew hers. It was so soothing to have this one friend you can rely on and without even a trace of man-to-woman tension. This platonic relationship was the best healing treatment they could wish for.

Verlar has been helping as much as he could. Assisted Magalla by offering his skills to the villagers, helping her and the rest of the provisions team carrying the goods. In the battalion, he was repairing broken carts, sewing ripped tents, at one time when the road was blocked by fallen trees he jumped in with other men to clear the passage. Ottaine was there too, carrying the heavy branches and giving the guys verbal instructions: 'To the left, sorry, my left, that's right, a bit more. And drop'. Magalla approached her to talk about the shortage of fresh fruit but instead, she kept standing there staring at the working class, enjoying the view. She forgot what she came form and only remembered the shortage the next morning during breakfast, when Yrzlaruki reminded her to check out the reserves before they marched into a more deserted area. Blushing she said she forgot to mention the problem, but Yrzlaruki wasn’t very concerned.

'Oh, don't worry. It's not like we are going to face a scurvy epidemic,' she said. After a few minutes of observing Magalla, she couldn't resist commenting: 'You don't look good. Is everything fine? I don't want to be nagging you but you haven't eaten anything.'

Magalla assured her she's fine and at this moment a nervous Landhapis’ soldier approached the commander.

'A message from a Picturedrome?' he said dubiously holding a sealed grey envelope. Yrzlaruki's face stiffened for a moment when she heard the code name before she took the letter.

'Oh, finally. Thank you, soldier, you may go.' Putting the envelope in her pocket she left in a hurry. Magalla stayed nibbling on from her plate and left too. She had a plan to ride a bit further east, check if she could find any field, village or pond with fish. Something to do, to focus on, to stay away from the... problem she started having.

Ottaine was supervising Landhapis volunteers' training. She had a method everybody liked: the one who exceeded in the tasks for three days in a row was Demanded and could rest for the next hour making jokes at his of her friends. It wasn't Ottaine's idea. They came up with it about a hundred miles ago and she, working on sustaining 'the cool essudus' title, agreed right away. Now, she was shouting 'First! Proper! Army! Push-up! Second! Proper! Army! Push-up!' and today's champion was sitting on a folding chair with a grin on his pale face.

Yrzlaruki watched the scene for a while before she called Ottaine and they walked away from other people's ears.

'Ota... we need to talk. You know the first time we were supposed to meet I was away on a meeting with Solummger generals and after that, I was attending other meetings when I was leaving you in charge. You never asked what that was all about and now it's time you knew.

When we joined the war, answering to the Treaty obligations, we were told by Landhapis’ ambassador that Skey-Er has developed a massive destruction weapon somewhere in their secret northern military base. That they were planning to use it to conquer Landhapis and then sail east, to Solummger.' Ottaine nodded remembering what she was told, and gossip she heard in her village.

'For a long time, our intelligence has been searching for the proof and didn't find any. Our Foreign Affairs minister together with the Field Marshal has been looking closely at Landhapis moves and they have been suspecting that we were being lied to. This war IS different to all the previous conflicts. Skey-Er is desperate and Landhapis is desperate to win once and forever. But why? Over what? If there is a secret weapon - why is Skey-Er losing? Why does Landhapis keep telling us that Skey-Er wants to drag the war up to the Northern border while our investigation shows clearly that it is Landhapis trying to get close to the Nogo Forest and Skey-Er has been trying to push them away and keep the north free? This is, Ottaine, very top secret information. I'm telling you all this because... there had been talks in the last weeks about what else could we do and the Minister and generals decided. Solummger is going to send a spy into Skey-Er territory, someone who will try to overhear and oversee as much as possible, come back and report about the findings. The problem is Solummger doesn't have proper spies. We had neglected this area being an isolated island with good relations with our continental neighbour. This spy must be a soldier, either someone whose looks enable the person to merge in the community, and that person wasn't found. Or, someone who can not so much blend in but force their way inside and make people ignore them.'

'A Special.'

'Yes, a Special. The decision has been made,' Yrzlaruki tapped the grey envelope. 'I... the order is the order. You will go as soon as possible, the maps and directives are inside. If it was up to me... I would not let you go. I want you here...' she broke off biting her lips. 'But I know you will do a great job.'

Ottaine didn't make any comment. The orders were clear, she was selected for the task. As usual, the youngest one without a specific job to do was a clear choice. Eluik was too far away. The news was shocking to her, but was it the first time she was packing her things to go where she was told to go?

'I understand. I don't have much to say in this, right? I'll do my best, for the country and for the memory of our heroes... and for my commander.' It was so strange, she had left her friends before, she left her family, she said forever farewell to Kyeta. Yet it was now and here she felt incomprehensible sadness leaving the woman with the most beautiful face she'd ever seen. It wasn't forever though, once she finishes the new task she will find this battalion and its lieutenant colonel Varsheghom.

That afternoon another news arrived: Skey-Er was spotted in the proximity, the battalion was advised to stop and prepare for a possible engagement. Yrzlaruki ordered to set a camp off the road and wait.

She sent for Verlar and Magalla to tell them about the change.

'You must continue to Gaal. I don't know how much delay we will have and the dragons centre cannot wait,' she said to the man.

'As for you, Magalla, it's your decision. I don't want to risk your life in case Skey-Er attacks. You've been more than helpful here and I thank you in everybody's name. If you want to stay you are welcome, you can run away any time. Take the advantage of not being called a deserter. If you want to continue your research - take your horse and ride to Gaal.'

This time Magalla didn't feel comfortable about travelling in two. She hesitated for a moment and in the end decided to continue her adventure.

'I'll go with you,' she said to Verlar, 'if you don't mind being bodyguarded.'

He laughed shortly and gave her a smile that made her guts crumble.

All three left the camp the next morning, two to the north and one to the west.