“After surviving for so long in the mountains using your own strength to get to where you are today, do you think you would be able to lead a normal life? No, your blood boils for greatness, you just don’t know it yet.” Ezer feels how his skin bristles and the atmosphere loses its cold. “Although how and where you find that greatness is up to you. I hope that the path you choose does not end in tragedy.” The man was preparing to leave when Ezer stops him.

“Why?” Ezer clears his head noticing that he was completely influenced, his guard rising at the knowledge.

“We are caught between the mountains and the beasts, what happened today is a clear example, so it would be useful for us to have allies regardless if they were enemies in the past.”

"Then you're talking to the wrong person, I was sold by my family to ensure their existence, I can't even call myself an Inmerlan anymore." Ezer says it without sadness or hate, he learned to recognize that fact a long time ago.

“I know, and I even know more than you think. I don't see a good future for your family now and I don't see it in the future either, not with those who run it. But maybe, just maybe, there will be a person with the strength and wisdom to take their place, someone who will bear all the weight of the mistakes of the past and provide a better future.” There was no need for the man to specify a name, Ezer perfectly understood what he meant.

"Then you're talking to the wrong person." Ezer repeats his words, looking down trying to hide the whirlwind of thoughts that were running through his head, but no matter how much he thought about it, the idea seemed simply impossible.

“You may be the wrong person now, although I hope not in the future.” This time the man leaves, leaving the sound of his footsteps behind as Ezer ponders the conversation.

“Impossible.” He didn't see himself capable of leading a group of ten people and doing the same with an entire territory? With thousands of subjects at his command? Impossible, simply impossible.

The hours passed and in between them a little water and bread was brought to Ezer's cell. Slowly the sound of the town grew louder to the point where he could tell a crowd was nearby. A short time passes when the cell opens again, giving way to guards who slide the familiar bag over Ezer's head, although this time they do not tie his hands.

The square must be large, Ezer estimates it by the number of voices around him, and this is confirmed when the bag on his head is removed allowing him to see around him. The wooden castle, whose base was made up of large stones stacked one on top of the other, was behind them while the second wall that separated the city was in front. Between them was a crowd totally focused on Ezer, their faces showing no hostility or hatred, but tiredness and curiosity. Surely many did not sleep because of the last vestiges of fire that refused to go out.

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To his right was the same man he had spoken to a few hours ago and, to his surprise, the old man was also standing on the same log platform as himself. Some people could be heard saying the name of Utrecht as they looked at the man to their right.

"So that's his name... I completely forgot to ask him." Ezer chooses to remain silent and wait, he did not feel that his life was in danger and the previous conversation with Utrecht gave him some security.

"They won't execute me if I'm useful to them, right?" Still, he can't help but feel a little nervous.

A few minutes go by until Utrecht raises his hand, silencing the few people who interrupted the silence. His next words were just a rehearsed opening.

“The person in front of you is guilty of espionage, as well as trespassing on our territory and city in the midst of last night's tragedy. After extensive questioning, the spy pleads not guilty.”

"Was that an extensive interrogation?" Ezer talks to himself thinking about how leaders tend to embellish their words too much.

“The fact that he did not possess any information and did not cause any damage should be considered by the people, but that does not change that he crossed the limits without authorization, added to the fact that the person himself is a human.” His last words cause a wave of murmurs among the crowd, some already suspected it while for others that information was just revealed.

“What is the decision of the town with all the named facts? That those people who consider it right to spare his life, his freedom being restricted by the council, raise your hand. While those who do not forgive the transgression refrain from raising it.” The voice of Utrecht resounds throughout the square without anyone having a hard time hearing it.

Ezer's heart begins to beat faster and stronger as time passes and no hands are raised, it was clear to him what this meant.

“The fact that I’m a human holds them back?" Ezer remembers how many people's faces changed when they heard that he belonged to a completely different race than theirs.

The nervousness reaches its climax forcing Ezer to try to say something and to convince the people in front. But the old man's hand stops him before he can even say anything.

“You are not considered part of the people, you have no voice or vote. If you say something they will only consider it an offense.” The old man whispers letting go of applying pressure with his hand.

It was at that moment that Ezer begins to feel that the air stops entering his lungs, his skin pales and cold sweat trickles down his back. For the first time, he feels the terror that his life will be decided by someone else without even being able to defend himself.

When more than a minute passes without any change, Ezer decides to speak despite the old man's advice not to. He ignores the pressure on his arm that the old man exerts again and opens his mouth trying to disarm the lump in his throat. It was at that moment that something rises above the heads of the crowd.