Everything happened so fast that no one responds at the time, although after the stupor, the closest guard and the one on the wall draw their weapons and begin to approach her.

"Don't mov-!" Something stopped the guard's sentence and that something was Lyaria's eyes as deep as forests in spring. The man cannot avoid remembering in them his childhood and ingrained fear of it. His brother 's death along with the blood that spilled onto the ground as it fell from the beast's fangs. From that day on, he never set foot within a hundred meters of the walls. Prisoner of his memories, the man feels the urge to run towards the walls and it is not long before he gives in throwing his weapon with tears in his eyes.

“But what...?” Grige watches in disbelief as a grown man runs off in tears.

"You... you can come in." The terror was contagious and the last guard lets her advance without making eye contact.

“What was that?” Grige asks Lyaria in genuine astonishment when she is already climbing the stairs with him.

“I know how to defend myself. I have some tricks for it.” Lyaria responds lightly. She was in a hurry and if it were up to her, she would never draw so much attention. However, the situation called for it.

After passing the wall and entering the city, Lyaria comes across a direct view of the slums. It wasn't hard to tell since the quality of the houses and streets made it obvious, but that didn't mean it looked like a seedy place. There were always two sides of the same coin, whatever the place.

"I'm going to the port market to ask if anyone knows anything!" Grige's brother runs away with those words. It is at this moment that Lyaria realizes that she doesn't know his name, a fleeting thought that leaves her mind as quickly as it appears.

“Let's go in that direction, I have some friends to ask.” The houses tended to stack up and try to take advantage of the maximum possible space, therefore, it was not strange that the street they were on was so narrow and only allowed to go to the left or right.

The day had just begun for the city, although the sun did not rise enough to overcome the walls, it was enough to illuminate and bring life to the people. Houses with narrow driveways slowly begin to give way to proper, well-maintained streets.

It was the first time that Lyaria entered a city. She almost always stayed deep in the woods and rarely approached the villages, his job being to watch and report.

However, now she didn't have the time to stop and take in every detail. Grige asks several people along the way, but they all shake their heads, it was clear that he was well known.

"Don't you have a better source of information?" Lyaria begins to get impatient as time passes and they fail to achieve anything.

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"Ordinary people are the best source, you'd be surprised what can be learned from mere hearsay. But this time we are not lucky, they brought the boy very early in the morning, few people were awake at that time.”

"The front door, it's almost certain that he passed through there. We should ask there.”

“And that's where we're going, although we'll lose more time... there's no other, we can't do anything more than that.” They had both stopped to catch their breath and then started running again after a few gasps of air.

However, before they could even take a step, an older man with his back bent slightly and his arms occupied with a basket full of fish stops them.

“Oh! Grige! I just saw a little commotion at the door... Are you interested?” The old man smiles, holding out the palm of his hand.

"Tell me the details!" Grige doesn't hesitate to take a couple of copper coins out of his bag and give them to the old man.

This was the third time that day that Lyaria witnessed the money exchange. No matter how small it was, no matter how few words, everything in the world had to be bought with money. She can't hear anything they say, just like the people who passed near the two of them, as they spoke whispering in each other's ears. This action would seem suspicious, but both of them masked it through smiles that anyone would think was a simple talk between a cheerful old man and a nice young man.

"We still have a chance..." The old man continues on his way waving with a smiling face, leaving Grige thinking for a few seconds. This state doesn't last long, immediately afterwards he begins to run forgetting Lyaria and forcing her to follow in his footsteps hastily.

"What did he tell you!?

"They're moving him, we still have a chance. It will be easy to rescue him... the problem is to escape from the city without getting us all caught.”

Lyaria bites her lower lip without realizing it, everything seemed unreal to her, until a few hours ago she was with Ezer thinking together about how to cross the sea. And now, instead, she had to rush to his rescue by taking risky and thought on the moment actions. This was something she never did, although didn't notice it, she broke her own rules without hesitation in order to rescue him.

“What's the plan?” Lyaria depended on Grige. As much as it was difficult for her to trust an unknown person after what happened with Irene, she had to place trust once again.

“A fire big enough and in a special place is the fastest option to attract the attention of the whole city… No, maybe just one fire isn't enough…. Go find my brother and tell him the following…”

Lyaria listens attentively to the short instructions and does not hesitate to run out to carry them out. It was a race against time that they had to win if they were to have any chance of making their hasty plan work, and the outcome was not far off.

The city streets were beginning to slope slightly as Lyaria neared the harbor. It didn't matter that it was the largest city in the North, in one way or another, almost all the people knew each other. Seeing a beauty like her running around the city creating a discordance between their daily lives caught the attention, anyone would mistake her for a member of the nobility if it weren't for the common clothes and the clear lack of arrogance she had when moving.

The fur hood that covered her face had long since fallen with the wind as she ran and it wasn't long before one of the soldiers stopped her.

“Miss! Do you have any problem?” The young soldier, who was just beginning to grow a beard under his chin showing his young age, stops her with genuine concern. However, Lyaria was in too much of a hurry to notice and, added to the stress as well as the mistrust, she didn't hesitate to align her gaze with the young man's, forcing him to fall on his knees and vomit in a few seconds. She doesn't know what resurfaced in the soldier's mind, but it was clearly something extremely disgusting.