"What are you talking about?" asked Elelth, starting to get irritated at never receiving a straight answer before turning around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Groups of soldiers were marching to the Demonic Plains while refugees continued to stream past them, a few being tempted by the recruiter's calls. "What makes three? And why am I trouble?"

When she turned back, she gasped and almost fell backwards.

For the briefest of moments, so short that she doubted her senses, where the man should have been standing, she saw a burning figure encased in blue and black flames, its blue, gem-like eyes glaring into the crowd as thick smoke billowed around its body.

She had never heard of any creature that matched its description and while not utterly terrifying, every fibre of her being screamed for her to get as far away from it as possible.

Stumbling backwards, she rubbed her eyes only to find the strange, cloaked grey man staring at her thoughtfully. "Time to move, Kid. Things are going to get messy around here by nightfall, and I am running out of time."

"What the hell was that?" questioned Elelth, too shocked to take in what he had just said.

After looking around and seeing that no one else seemed to have seen what she had, she could only shake her head. "I must be going mad."

The man laughed, before turning way and starting to walk in the same direction as the crowd. "It's easier to say your crazy than admit that you don't have all the answers or that you need to expand your thinking. Reality is perception and perception is reality. I have given up trying to make sense of both since coming here. Just go with the flow, it's less confusing and you will enjoy it more."

Elelth quickly caught up and tried to calm her beating heart. "The perception quote from the mages manual? What has that got to do with seeing monsters?"

The man's smile vanished as his steps faltered. "What did you see?"

After explaining, the man only nodded his head before regaining his normal stride. "You a seer or oracle?"

"No," Elelth looked down, not wanting to tell him about her condition, that she couldn't even interact with mana, let alone use it to see the future. Even though the town was only a few days away, she was enjoying having someone to speak to and didn't want him to treat her like some an outcast. Worst of all she had already thought that she was safe from the the others, making it much harder to return to the way she had been previously.

"Good, it would be... annoying to break my deal with you. I pride myself on keeping my word unless necessary," replied the man before falling silent, giving Elelth the impression that she had made the right decision in keeping her mouth shut.

Little did she know that if the man had even suspected her of lying, she would have been dead before her brain could process what had happened

After a couple of hours of awkward silence, Elelth was feeling bored and decided to try and introduce herself again. "My name's Elelth Fenbrook. What's yours?"

The man started thinking, scratching his beard in irritation as he begun to slow, eventually stopping.

Standing in the middle of the road, forcing others to move around him the man continued to think before finally snapping from his daze, and looking up. "Why not? I can always change it later. Call me Ruadan, or Ru if you prefer. To be honest, I don't care what you call me. Names hold no longer hold meaning."

Nodding Elelth smiled. "It's OK, a lot of the older generation are still hesitant about revealing their true names even though slavery has been outlawed for decades, so I can understand why you would want to use a fake name. It's nice to meet you Ru."

Looking into the distance, Ru nodded once before starting to walk again. "A smart idea. You should follow their example."

"I think it's dumb. No one would stand for slavery these days, and it's impossible to hide your name if you want to use high-level spells or register at any of the important organisations." Elelth smiled as if she had said something incredibly smart. Omitting the point that no one would be able to enslave her. "Not that I have anything against using an alias. I am just a stranger, but you might as well come to terms with revealing your name sooner rather than later, especially as you want to join the Mercenary Guild."

"Times have changed. Also, my mother always said that if you can't trust anyone enough to tell them your name, you are going to find yourself alone at the end."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"In the end?" Cold, emotionless eyes locked onto hers, nearly making Elelth trip as she forgot to breathe. "You really are a nieve, sheltered child."

Ru took a deep breath, "But you are right, those that can't trust always remain alone at the end but it isn't for the reason that you think."

"It's because everyone else is already dead. Now do me a favour and shut the fuck up before I remove your vocal cords. The deal was to get you to your uncle. It didn't mention anything about what condition you would be arriving in."

The dark elf's ears flattened, and she looked down at her feet before speaking in a quiet, miserable voice. "Sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to talk to someone."

Ru sighed and looked up to the sky, calming himself down considerably. "You will understand what I mean in time. You are a long-lived race and time is the cruellest mistress. The longer the road, the more you will have to walk on the dreams and corpses of, not only your enemies, but those closest to you just to keep living. It's best to keep to yourself until you find someone worthy and even then, if you want to avoid the pain of loss and betrayal, don't get too close."

"That's such a sad and lonely outlook on life," responded Elelth, daring to look up before instantly regretting speaking when she saw the look on the Ru's face.

"I am still here. Most are not. The victor writes history before even that turns to dust and is forgotten." There was no emotion in his words or on his face as stared far off into the distance.

Elelth had seen that look before from her elders and knew it often came from long life or terrible experiences. She wasn't sure which one applied to the man in front of her, but for his sake, she hoped it was the former. Though his words made her doubt that.

The pair continued travelling to the town of Yelve for the next three days in silence, stopping at night to let Elelth sleep. Ru however consistently paced as he kept scanning his surroundings as if expecting something or someone to appear, slowly becoming more and more irritated.

The sun was gradually setting on the third day as they were approaching the impossibly long line to enter the town of Yelve when Elelth looked at Ru with concern and decided to risk speaking. "Are you OK? you look really tired. You're not sick are you?"

Ru's pale skin made the dark bags under his bloodshot eyes extremely noticeable but, just as he had done for the last few days, he continued to ignore the dark elf.

Just as Elelth was about to join the queue, she saw Ru march past as if it didn't exist, his grey cloak billowing behind him getting the occasional disgruntled comment from the line.

Not knowing what to do, she followed. Only high ranking officials of the Alliance were able to bypass the inspection line to enter a city. It was one of the equality laws that the Alliance was forced to pass to appease the masses, sick with nobles abusing their power.

Seeing a pale, grey-cloaked, man, followed by a small dark elf, approaching the guard house, bypassing the queue, the guard captain stood up from his chair and moved to intercept. Many of the noble refugees had tried to use their status or even bribe their way into the city, and he was sick and tired of it.

Planting himself directly in their path, the held his hand up."Stop right th-"

The captain's eyes fell on the silver brooch on the man's cloak then rose to see grey, bloodshot eyes, a darkness dancing in there that any man who had seen a significant amount of combat would recognise.

Paling, the captain fell to one knee as he slammed his fist into his chest. "Lord Inquisitor, welcome to Yelve, please let me know if I can be of any assistant."

The other guards, as well as those patiently waiting in line, released a collective gasp as they looked anywhere other than at the new arrival, wishing they could turn invisible.

Inquisitors were an ancient order of the Alliance military, dating back to the days of the summoned heroes. When an inquisitor appeared, death and destruction were sure to follow, and nobody wanted anything to do with them.

Most assumed he was here due to the situation in the Demonic Plains or they would have decided to continue to the next town, and so, as long as they kept out of his way, they felt relatively safe.

Ru had initially anticipated this reaction as even back in his day, those who guarded the gates were highly trained individuals that had to remember hundreds if not thousands of insignias and covert signs. He also knew that it would draw unwanted eyes but it had taken him much longer than anticipated to arrive at a relatively secure town and he needed to escalate his plans quickly. 

Ru had originally intended to hide the insignia unless it was needed, but right now he didn't care. He was running out of time and whoever was following them had yet to reveal themselves. He had expended a lot of mana keeping his senses sharp in anticipation of an attack at any moment.

The fact that there had been no movement, apart from a few fluctuations in the surrounding mana, after three days only served to infuriate him further. He was a hunter, not the hunted and being forced to act like a weakling, watching every shadow, was driving him crazy.

An evil grin appeared on his face causing the nearby guard to flinch. 

They pair quickly passed the checkpoint and into the town, as Ru momentarily pondered why they still had wooden walls when other things had advanced so far, where they were met by a bustling crowd of people going about their shopping, hawking their wares or just running about their daily business. By their attire, Ru could see that the guard had kept most of the refugees out. "

By their attire, Ru could see that the guard had kept most of the refugees out.

Elelth was about to lead him towards her uncles when Ru suddenly started walking in the opposite direction, towards the wooden, narrow alleyways of the slums causing her to have to run to catch up, almost sending an old lady flying on her way. "Where are you going? My unc-"

"Funds," responded Ru in a matter of fact tone. "And to find out who our secret admirer is."

"Do you always talk in riddles? Can't you just give me a straight answer for once?" Elelth resisted the urge to stamp her feet but continued to follow. "Where are we going to find money in the slums? And you have a secret lover here?"

"By fishing and no, though I plan to get reeeeeaaaall intimate with them soon enough."