Silvy sat across from him as the fire between them crackled and roared. Smoke lifted into the air disappearing into the eternal darkness above. They settled amidst a thick dead forested area that ought to hide their presence from any prying eyes or living beings in the general area.

There were questions he had wanted to ask her as they rode for a bit of time, but he chose not to until now. “Can you tell me in more detail about what happened during my absence?”

She tossed a stick into the fire. With those striking green eyes of hers, she lifted them up from the flames appearing somewhat uneasy. As she sat cross-legged, she clasped her hands together in her lap preparing to inform him.

With the few hints she had given to him earlier and the fact that he had crossed the field full of death, he knew of the fate of so many. But he hadn’t gotten the full extent of how everything went down.

She began to tell him every little detail from the very start. She and so many others crossed over into the fourth domain and what they found was them being surrounded by the green cloaks. Not only did they cowardly betray their duty to hold the monsters back to allow as many people to enter through the portal, they also planned to apprehend them all right from the get-go. They made immediate demands that Kiran be handed over. But Kiran of course hadn’t made it over to them which annoyed the green cloaks and worried the coalition. Unfortunately for everyone, the monsters began crossing over causing the green cloak’s ploy to round everyone up to ultimately fail.

“I could barely get a grasp of my surroundings. There was chaos all around,” she said. “I slew dozens of them and held the line, but they just kept coming endlessly through the portal. Yorais tried to close the portal, but as we all know now, magic doesn’t work here making her as useless as any other person who otherwise could wield magic until they made it here.”

Eventually, they were forced to retreat and regroup. This maneuver caused hundreds of innocent civilians to die. There was nothing to be done to prevent it. There simply weren’t enough fighters capable of holding them back. The portal did recede eventually meaning whatever monsters remained could then be dealt with, but the damage had been done.

Silvy ended up incapacitated in the battle with minor injuries along with a monster over her body keeping her pinned to the ground. When the battle was all said and done, several people helped drag her free and began treating her injuries along with dozens of others. No one during that moment recognized her allowing her to not end up captured by whatever remained of the green cloaks which according to her, are quite small in number now.

Apparently, a lot more time had passed as well as she told him how this battle occurred at least two months ago. With that large gap of time, it suggested at least to him, that he had been lost adrift in that strange place before ever making it to the fourth domain.

“Once I was able to start walking again, I went around and talked with a lot of the survivors and asked whether they had seen the coalition around. Nay they always said. It became clear to me that they all fled right after all of the fighting since Grand Master Harold pulled off that stunt when we all crossed over.”

“It almost sounds like the monsters did you all a favor by providing an opportunity to escape.”

“In some twisted sense, it does seem to appear that way. I didn’t get to go with them however. I’ve managed just fine though on my own managing to not be found by my former order. I’m not that concerned about them anymore though. Their numbers have dwindled substantially and they’ve completely lost the faith and respect from everyone.”

Kiran blew air out of his nostrils. He pulled his arms back gripping the log he sat on staring up at all the tree branches dangling above them.

“What a mess.”

She chuckled a little. “So, if you knew what the consequences of killing the queen would end up being, would you still have gone through with it?”

“Did you really have to ask me that question?”

“I’ve asked it to myself a million times at this point.”

“And? What answer did you come up with?”

“I think had I known what all would come from helping you, I think I would’ve probably not done it.”

That was probably a sensible answer. Noreko was the true person at fault, but they weren’t privy to his depravity at the time. Still, given all of that, he couldn’t shake off the fact that he did play some role in bringing things to this point. He couldn’t deny that or act as if that weren’t the case. He had to accept the truth and simply push forward accepting things no matter how grim they might be.

“I think,” she went on to say, “that Liall would’ve fallen eventually no matter what. Her majesty was clearly not immortal. Had she gone on to live, she would’ve eventually died and there’s no guarantee the pillar would’ve been powered successfully by anyone else. She was deeply entwined with its inner workings after all.”

There was no denying that Liall was a magnificent city in many ways. Everything to its architecture and the pillars keeping it protected from the spawning of monsters. But much like this planet itself, it all comes crumbling down eventually. A city once so mighty and proud, died with nothing worth ever going back to.

Silvy clicked her tongue causing him to return his attention towards her. “Say, you haven’t yet told me what exactly happened to you and why you’re only now suddenly appearing.”

She was right of course. “Well, things got a little weird for me you see.”

“Oh, it did? You better tell me all about it.”

They had all night. He figured he might as well since she was gracious enough to inform him about things he had missed out on.

She sat there fully attentive to his words. He explained how the portal reacted to him prior to entering it and how he ended up in a strange place that he could scarcely draw the right words to communicate how it was while being there.

According to her, she did not encounter this dominion. Instead, from her perspective, the minute she walked through the portal herself, she immediately appeared in the fourth domain.

This anomalous behavior disturbed him somewhat. And it became clearer to him that as time went on, there was more to this body of his than any typical mortal human. He supposed the oddity of the portal had to do somewhat with his soul being damaged, but there was more going on that he couldn’t fully wrap his mind around.

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It frustrated him because every time he thought about these things, he had only bits and pieces to go on. There was no cohesive whole to take every piece to see the entire puzzle laid out in front of him. Instead, he could only speculate and wonder.

I am an anomaly, there is no doubt about that, and there is little doubt about there being forces out there directing things in such a way to bring me into the fold.

Eventually his explanation of things from his perspective led him to explain to her how he met the stranger who went by the name of Eugene and how he desired Kiran to join them for a far greater purpose in saving the world. He wasn’t entirely sure how he was to do that but there was no denying that it was a grand and lofty goal that they planted right beside his feet wishing for him to pick it up and run with it.

Saving the world wasn’t entirely something he felt obligated to do. Nor was it something a single individual likely could accomplish. Besides, if saving the world also meant leaving behind everyone he has come to befriend and cherish, he also saw that as a betrayal of sorts. All he wanted besides being reunited with everyone he cared about, was to help make things better in some capacity, especially regarding the problems plaguing the fourth domain. If they could do that and make it tolerable to live and settle in, that would be good enough for him. In the meantime, he just needed to find everyone and be reunited once more.

The fire began to grow a bit dim. Kiran stood up, grabbed a few sticks he had gathered earlier in a pile, and tossed them in to bring more life to it. The flames grew in intensity brightening up their surroundings.

It brought some sense of peace and calmness along with warmth. He didn’t need the warmth as much as he needed the light. Staying warm wasn’t ever a problem in this domain since he had arrived. It maintained a relatively stable warm temperature at all times despite the darkness.

“You know Kiran, the more I learn about you, I feel like I get even more confused.”

Kiran sat down crossing his legs and arms. “You’re at least not the one dealing with it personally. I have to struggle every day to wrap my mind around everything.”

“Yeah, that’s true. It’s honestly a lot easier being me and not you. Still, it’s a lot to take in.” Silvy knew of his miraculous life beginning anew like many others he had gotten to know. Much like himself, they never really knew what to make of it other than to be shocked and awed.

She began to yawn a little choosing to stretch out her arms over her head. “I think I’m done for the night.”

“I’ll keep watch,” he said as she lay her head down to sleep.

He remained watchful of the forest making great use of his ears. Nothing alerted him to any danger.

Although, a familiar entity did decide to reveal itself appearing through the forest heading over towards him.

The butterfly flooded their camp with even more light coming off of them. They flew up over the fire facing him.

“Did you stop by to get me into more trouble?” he said somewhat jokingly.

The butterfly made a no suggestion with the motion of its body.

“What’s your deal anyways? You stop by every now and then but I don’t really know what to make of it. I wish you’d be able to talk to me directly.”

They flew closer to him. He opened up his palm allowing the butterfly with a translucent orb surrounding it to hover right above his open palm. He could feel the energy coming off of them hitting up against his open palm.

Whatever this thing was, had been somewhat with him since he arrived here. Not at all times of course but enough times that he could still count them fully with one hand. While they were helpful at times in their sudden appearances, they also brought trouble to him by luring him to that strange altar in the cave with a woman who looked suspiciously similar to those two twin maids serving Lady Meredith.

For a while, the butterfly kept him company. It would stay by him only to eventually fly around darting through the dead trees going high and going low. They appeared to have fun or so it looked that way to him.

After many hours, Silvy woke up and offered to keep watch so he could rest. By the time she woke up, the butterfly was nowhere to be seen. Kiran took this opportunity to get a few hours of rest before they were to journey east hopeful to find everyone he was desperate to reunite with.

When he woke up, sweat covered his face and the entirety of his body. Silvy stood above him with a look of concern.

“Kiran, are you alright?”

What has happened? His heart raced and he felt quite unusual. Did I dream about something? I can’t seem to recall.

Silvy crouched down to him. “I heard you uttering things whilst you slept,” she said. “I have really bad nightmares too sometimes.”

“I can’t seem to remember whatever one I had.”

“Maybe it’s best that you don’t.”

While he certainly didn’t necessarily disagree, his own innate curiosity would demand knowledge of whatever he experienced in his sleep. He hadn’t experienced many nightmares until now. He did experience dreams that awakened traumatic memories of his previous life every now and then, but they didn’t make him wake up with his heart racing and in what felt like a panicked state.

The quickened pace of his heart began to slow, but it still pounded heavily in his chest. He pulled himself upright and began drinking out of a waterskin.

For whatever reason, this dream or nightmare alluded him but was powerful enough to stoke a visceral physical and psychological reaction.

It must’ve been really bad.

They shared a meal together and prepared for a prolonged journey. He eventually found the leather bag that Felghan had given him. He opened it and pulled out a vial.

He handed it to Silvy. “What’s this?”

“It’ll help you see in the dark.”

Kiran took a vial for himself and dumped the liquid into his mouth aiming more for the throat so he didn’t have it linger in his mouth or upon his tongue for long. He struggled to ever recall a potion ever tasting good, so he always wanted to ingest it quickly while avoiding any remaining on his tongue if at all possible.

Silvy began to cough a little as she handed the emptied vial back to him.

“It taste’s pretty good doesn’t it?” he said laughing.

“Y-you should’ve warned me it tastes like a pig’s bum.”

“Wait, are you telling me you know what that tastes like?”

She punched him in the shoulder.

He took the reins and unwrapped it from around the tree freeing the horse from it. He then double-checked their camp making sure they gathered everything. Though the campfire was still technically alive, it was little more than embers at this point. The contents of that vial made them quite clear and obvious however.

Now that they were in the eastern territories outside of Lady Meredith’s control, they had to be more careful during their travels. Her own territory wasn’t perfect but according to her, these parts were even more precarious and dangerous which meant if they wanted to travel without drawing too much attention to themselves, they had to travel in the darkness without producing much light if any at all.

A single source of light would make it incredibly obvious as to their presence. Thankfully, they could utilize the potions that helped them see in the dark. They did have to be wise in how many they used lest they run out.

Kiran hopped onto the horse and Silvy came after to ride behind him. The horse began to move forward leading them through the forest in an eastern direction with the help of a compass provided to him.