Whisper watched on the side and tried to sense where the demon was as Syren and Tyra defended themselves from the city guards. All he knew was that he was near. It just wasn't enough information at all.

Meanwhile in one of the buildings, a black samurai took notice of Syren. He watched as he used his shadows to fight. He analyzed his fighting style. He thought that he relied heavily on his black tome and basically mastered the spells to control his shadow. He could even sense that the black choker was one of the demons, but he didn't use it. He figured that he wasn't trying to kill any of them even though he definitely could. He didn't understand why, but he only focused on his fighting style.

When one of the soldiers was down and a lizardfolk was about to strike him down, Syren pushed the lizard away. He didn't want either side to die.

It was almost impossible for Syren to win. The guards were well-armed, but that wasn't the issue. The problem was that he held back. He made sure that he wouldn't kill any of them. As the guards were about to break the crowd, Syren and Tyra were grabbed by a hooded figure. Before the two of them attacked who they thought was another enemy, he pulled back his hood to reveal a gentle face - one of the lizardfolk. A big fellow.

"Follow me," the scaly man said as he dragged the two of them off their feet.

"Woah!" Syren and Tyra exclaimed as the man carried them both away. As that was happening, Whisper was in deep contemplation as to where to go that he didn't realize that he was begin dragged along.

The riots continued outside as the crowds began to disperse. The injured crawled away. Some were lying on the ground being dragged away to die outside of the city walls.

As soon as the lizard entered a dark house, he let them go. In that instant, Tyra aimed her blade right at him.

"I'm not here to fight," he said. He raised his arms, but he showed no fear for having a sword pointed at his neck.

"Then, why did you kidnap us?" Syren asked.

The room lit up with candles. There were many other lizardfolk waiting in the dark, but none carried weapons. Both men and women. One was about to step in, but the lizard man motioned him to halt. They just stood their ground as their leader commanded.

"We're not here to fight you," the lizard man said, "My name is Amare. You two seemed to start a bit of a fight with the local garrison."

"I wasn't trying to start a fight. Those soldiers and lizardfolk were fighting. Those soldiers were about to fire, and we tried to stop it."

One of the lizardfolk watching coughed. "Lizardfolk? I hate that name. We're not just a bunch of lizards like you're not just a bunch of monkeys. Our ancestral race was once known as the akkedis long ago."

"It doesn't matter," their leader said as Tyra continued pointing her blade at him. Syren motioned Tyra to lower it so that he could listen to what he had to say. Perhaps, he could get a clue as to where the demon was. At this point, he didn't even notice that Whisper was still wondering where to go. However, as of this point, hey didn't even notice that Whisper was just outside of the building.

"You're some kind of sympathizers, right?" The leader said, "We don't need any sympathy. And we especially don't need some people who think they can make things better by terror."

"Terror?" Syren exclaimed, "I was trying to help-"

"I know! But we don't need your help. You're a human like them. By flaunting all that magical power, all they'll do is come down on us harder. I've been trying to keep our people alive, but it's become so much harder. If we start bringing actual swords, they'll bring sharper ones. If we start enlisting mages, they'll enlist ten with far more experience," Amare replied in frustration. He shook his head. "It was always bad, but it's got so much worse so fast after this eclipse. At first it looked like a sign of the end times. Many people - including ours - flocked to join this Golden Garden who worshiped the black sun like a God. But after a while, it was almost like everything was going back to normal even with this dark sun above us. But then, when everything seemed to be under control, this whole damn thing started. I guess it can't be helped. I knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later. Just wish that we could settle this peacefully."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"What happened here?" Syren asked.

"Oh, you're still here? Leave, sympathizer. This doesn't concern you. Leave this town. We'll sort this out among ourselves."

Tyra nudged Syren. "It really isn't our fight," she whispered.

"Fine. We'll leave. But first I want to know what caused all of this to happen," Syren stated.

Syren knew that he couldn't just leave. He was sure that one of the seven demons was responsible. And by that extension, he felt responsible.

Amare looked at Syren and saw child-like resolve with bore. And Syren looked back at Amare's gentle complexion that hid his tough interior.

"You really want to know, huh? Fine. I'll tell you, but afterwards I expect you to leave," Amare said, "Every day, we work and work with nothing to gain. All of our work goes towards making some empire from a faraway land happy and fat. We've fought and fought, but each time, we get crushed. Our resources get taken. Our children get stolen and raised to trust in an empire that despises them. We are akkedis - or just lizardfolk as you call us. The akkedis were proud and strong. We lived in these swamps long before." He paused for a moment to regain his breath. "These riots and rebellions happen often. I may look young, but I've lived to see many die. I've lived long enough to see my brothers and sisters get killed on the streets because they scared one of the city guards. Yet, it always ends with our blood on the ground. And the rest of us gets sent back to work with a sword pointed at our necks like nothing ever happened. They force us to clean up the streets and erase what happened as if it never did. I haven't just seen it. I've lived it." He showed a scar right on the back of his neck. "And I was lucky. Now that it's happening again, I've been trying to set aside our differences. I want to settle this peacefully, but it's very difficult. I've set up many peaceful protests. But everytime, they come in with their swords. Those soldiers say that I should be grateful that they bring wooden swords and dull arrows, but I'm not. And now that you've incited an actual battleground, I'm gonna have to find a way to fix this." He sighed. "Now, that you know, please leave. It doesn't concern you."

Syren didn't know what to say. His tongue felt dry as his entire body was frozen. Tyra was more calm about the situation. She was more aware of these kinds of incidents in her travels, so it didn't really surprise her.

Amare stared at Syren and shouted, "Leave!"

"Wait," Syren said, "How did this start?"

"It doesn't matter to you. Leave this place before they send in mages to burn down our homes and blame it on us," Amare replied as some of the other akkedis grabbed their arms. Tyra gripped her hilt in response, but controlled herself.

"I can't leave. I'm looking for somebody or something. I need to know what caused this to happen. There may be some kind of monster at work."

"Monster? If you count those soldiers as monster, then you're right."

Syren quickly chanted his shadow hands spell and pushed the other akkedis away. They surrounded himself and Tyra ready to strike at any of them. The akkedis were about to unsheathe their blades and axes, but Amare stopped them in a calm manner.

"Listen. Just tell me how it started," Syren begged, "Then, I promise not to get in any of your guys' way."

"You really are a persistent sympathizer. Most of you sympathizers only want to cause chaos and destruction - especially for us," Amare replied without any fear. He could tell from his eyes, that he wasn't going to kill anybody. "This isn't the work of some monster or unnatural being. The dominoes were already set atop the cliff. All it needed was a gentle gust of wind. One of the children - a young boy - was playing in the streets. He wasn't bothering anybody or doing anything wrong. And without any warning, one of the soldiers came out and pointed a blade at him. I was there. He shouted contradictory commands. He told him to put his hands in the air. He told him to get on the ground. Then, he told him to get on his knees when he was too slow. He shouted and shouted as the kid began to cry. His mother was coming out to protect him, but two other soldiers went to stop her." There were tears coming out of his eyes. "We were all so afraid to do anything until it was too late. The soldier kept shouting as the kid wasn't sure what to do anymore. My whole body froze. In a second, that kid had a sword through his chest. The mother cried and tried to push away one of the soldiers before getting stabbed herself by that same soldier. And that wasn't the end of it. There were other soldiers there. They just stood there and watched it happen. If just one of them went up to protect that kid, this whole situation might not have happened."

"I'm...I'm so sorry."

Amare sniffled and said, "Now, get out."

"What did this soldier look like? Why didn't you find those responsible?"

"Their helmets covered their faces. But we did eventually find out which one did. It wasn't hard to tell after we saw a whole battalion of troops guard one single home amongs so many. Every choice that they made led to this. Now, get out!"

Syren and Tyra slowly retreated out the door.