There was a silent peace permeating the town of Farengard; its docks were naturally void of any activity, and its denizens were fast asleep. Night time had come for the island early, as it always had during the Frost season. Not even the sister moons pierced through the clouds that covered the entirety of the sky, leaving everything engulfed in darkness. Everything, including the lanterns at the docks. Despite the darkness, this town’s people feared leaving lanterns on outside their homes.

It was a fear born out of a time of war years back. Back when barbarians ruled the waters of the south and raided everything that they came across. Island towns like Farengard were usually the target of such raids, their towns lighting up like beacons in Valenfrost’s pitch black nights. Farengard’s people were, of course, smart enough to extinguish all outside light in an effort to hide themselves during the night, to avoid roaming barbarians who were in search of settlements to pillage.

Of course, the practice never really stopped, even after the end of the Outsider Wars. Even after the town’s acquisition by Villtur, the Boar Clan. Even after they were forced to place lanterns on the docks to signal incoming ships.

It was almost like a tradition for the people. To keep hidden. Even their hearths were kept at a low light despite the bitter cold. Farengard’s people would rather endure the Frost than light their homes like beacons. Bad habits did indeed die hard.

It was because of this practice that Eilif had nearly missed the island entirely. He leaned against the bow of the rowboat he had taken from the ship he and Kira had just evacuated from. The old ship, while useful, was a liability more than anything. It also held the remnants of the massacre he had committed earlier that morning. Or was it already the next day? Eilif wouldn’t know. Hel, he didn’t really care much.

“Wish we didn’t have to burn that ship down,” Kira murmured with exhaustion, her body huddling at the boat’s rear. She had herself wrapped up in a pelt she had snatched from the cargo hold, its fur a dark color. It looked like it came from a wolfhound.

“Necessary,” Eilif said. “We can’t steer and handle a brig that size with only the two of us. Hel, I doubt you’d even bother helping.”

Kira chuckled at that, her hands raised in defeat. “Fair. You have a point.”

She looked over at the distant island, her eyebrow raising at the liminal light that emanated from the docks. “Is this the place?”

“Yes,” Eilif confirmed with a grunt. “We’ll meet him here.”

“Is this even his territory?” Kira asked.

“Does it matter?” Eilif muttered, his head tilting toward her. “Clean slate, remember?”

Kira grinned at that, her eyes glinting with an almost lustful pleasure. “Oh, I see. Clean slate.”

Eilif turned back to the town, his hand gripping onto the dagger he always wielded. It was a wide blade with a strange circular guard that formed into a horizontal handle, the design obviously foreign. It had been made centuries back by an Arenian arms dealer, and its purpose was made clear when its blade opened into three separate points. It was an assassin’s weapon, designed to break swords and create unmendable wounds.

While he was sure he wouldn’t come across any sword wielders tonight, he was still inclined to use the weapon. There was a sentimental attachment to it, one that Eilif couldn’t explain.

“Let us get to work,” the immortal man said as he picked up an oar, his hands pushing the rowboat closer to the island.

Tonight would be good practice.

----------------------------------------

Ellis groaned as he awoke, his body shifting as he tried to sit upright in his bed. He wasn’t sure what it was that woke him up, but he had a sneaking suspicion.

“I swear if it’s that fucking fox…” Ellis muttered as he rubbed his eyes. He looked around his home, his small bed tucked near the wall. While small, his humble home was all the farmer needed. He had no family outside of his brother, who lived across the island of Farengard.

Farengard wasn’t much like other settlements. The town here was solely used as a passing point for merchants and travelers; the people who lived there made their living by trading fish and lumber from the forest. Some had trades and jobs that were useful enough to make a decent coin. Others simply took what they could get, accepting shite contracts from passing crews for a livable wage.

Ellis himself was a farmer that was more or less secluded from most of the island’s inhabitants, his focus mostly on the grain he grew during the Bloom and the livestock he cared for year round. He found more comfort in the isolation, accompanied by his piece of land and his coops of chickens.

Which was why Ellis was particularly annoyed at this very moment. He had been having a fox problem this past week, and his chickens were all disappearing one by one. While he had never seen the damned creature, he had found remnants of its feeding. Bloodied feathers and broken bones were all that were left of missing chickens.

He had planned to hunt it the next morning with his brother—a fellow who lived in the town with his own family—and finally put an end to its feeding. However, Ellis was awakened tonight by something moving outside, and he would be damned if that fucking fox killed any more of his livestock.

The overweight farmer groaned as he stepped out of bed, his calloused hands reaching for something to cover his body and hopefully protect him from the bite of frost. He ended up draping a thick woolen cloak over him, his spare hand grabbing a nearby stave. While wooden and blunt, it would serve as his weapon.

Ellis was still a farmer, his arms thick and his strength more than enough to kill a fox, stave or no stave. He stumbled a bit as he tried to shake the grogginess, his feet guiding him to the door. Ellis stepped out into the freezing night, his body shivering as he walked around.

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‘Delphine’s tits, what are the use of the Gods if they can’t even protect an honest man’s living?’

He would soon arrive at the chicken’s coop, his eyes squinting through the low light of the night. Despite the darkness, Ellis’ eyes could still see the coop clearly. His chickens all fluttered and grouped up around the gate, bawking and pecking at the cold dirt. They seemed just fine.

Ellis raised a confused eyebrow at the sight of his chickens. It wasn’t that they were alive and awake this late in the night. They always came to greet Ellis whenever he came by since he was the only one who fed them. No, the confusion came from the fact that he was able to see them clearly despite none of the sister moons shining in the night sky.

The farmer turned around, his eyes squinting as he tried to find the source of luminance. He stopped when he saw a distant glow in the horizon, its warmth felt from where he stood. For a second, Ellis assumed he was looking at the sun. That was until he realized that the source of the light was coming from the west, where the town lay.

It was fire.

“Shit!” Ellis cursed out loud as he hobbled back to his shack, the cold night no longer affecting him. He had to hurry to put on the rest of his clothes and get his boots on. He had little time to act.

‘Is it a natural fire? Is it a raid?’

None of those sounded good to Ellis. Hel, a fire rarely ever did. All he knew was that his only family was in trouble. While he never had a good relationship with his brother, they were still blood and the last of their family name. Ellis would be damned if he was the last one left.

The farmer burst into his home, his eyes searching for the trunk that held his clothes. He was halfway across the room when he noticed her.

A woman sat on his bed, her legs crossed over each other as she leaned back on both her arms. She watched Ellis with a gaze that would’ve fitted a regal lady from Lumen. Yet her eyes were the complete opposite of dainty. They glowed a soft purple, the pupils shaped like stars.

Ellis didn’t know what it was about them that terrified him. He just knew that this was a situation that called for him to run away as fast as he could. His muscles tensed with the power of adrenaline, his lungs breathing in as much air as they could take. He tried to turn to leave.

“Move, and I’ll take your head off,” the woman called out, her words stopping Ellis in his tracks. Despite every fiber of his being screaming at him to run, he couldn’t bring himself to. It was like he knew deep inside that he was never going to make it out the door.

“I want to ask you something,” the stranger asked, her feet kicking in the air as she laid back on the bed. Her hands moved to the back of her head, her gaze still on Ellis as she relaxed.

“What… What do you want?” Was all Ellis could muster out of him.

“Well… I’m having a bit of a problem with something,” she started with a sigh, her eyes moving up to the ceiling. Despite taking her sights off the farmer, Ellis still refused to move. He had no idea why he felt intimidated, but he knew better than to try and piss this person off.

“What is it you want help with?” Ellis forced himself to ask. He could feel how his knees buckled with fear, his body shivering despite no cold breeze apparent.

“There’s this… boy I like,” she continued, her feet still kicking the air aimlessly. “I’ve been having these feelings for him for quite some time and…”

She looked away from Ellis, yet he could clearly see she was blushing.

‘What is this? What the fuck am I doing standing here listening to this ridiculous girl!’

Ellis felt scared, angry, and, most of all, confused. All of it muddled together into this mix of emotions that not even he could decipher. The only coherent conclusion he could come up to was one thing.

She was crazy.

“Are you even listening?” the woman asked, her eyebrow raising as she sat up. Ellis tensed up at her stare, his hand gripping tightly on the stave he was holding. He swallowed nervously, his mind racing with possible responses that could save him.

Yet when the farmer met those cold purple eyes, the hope for living had all but dissipated. There was no right answer. Ellis gritted his teeth.

‘If I’m going to die anyways, I’d rather not go out groveling for some stranger like her!’

With a roar born more out of fear and adrenaline, Ellis charged the young woman. He was bigger than her, stronger. The farmer’s skin alone was like leather, his thick fat more than enough to survive whatever bladed weapon or magic this woman had. Not to mention his stave. Hel, Ellis had killed bears with it before. He had crushed the skulls of bandits that once threatened his livelihood. Had it not been for his farm, he would have easily become one of the Villtur clan’s strongest soldiers.

With those facts in mind, Ellis’ fear had waned. He had forgotten why he felt so threatened in the first place. Stave held high, the farmer brought it down on the woman before him, her expression more out of annoyance rather than anger.

There was no contact. Ellis couldn’t even process what had happened after he swung. The next he knew, he was on the ground next to his broken stave. It was sliced clean in half, the wooden pole rolling around aimlessly as a dark mass pooled around the half naked farmer.

Ellis choked on blood, his mouth filling with a metallic taste that sickened him. He groggily stood back up, his bare chest covered in scarlet red that almost seemed black in the dim light. His throat was cut, but he wasn’t dead. Not yet.

“Durable, aren’t you?” the woman asked. She was standing up now, a wide smile on her face as she watched Ellis stumble around. She had no blade, her hands instead brushing the hair out of her eyes.

“M…Mercy…” Ellis croaked as he tried to back off. He lost his footing and fell back against a wall, his lumbering body taking down a shelf of bottles. Broken glass pricked at his back and feet as he slid to the floor. He tried to take a breath, but the blood in his throat made it nigh impossible. He could only manage gurgles.

“Just like the rest, not a single answer,” the strange woman sighed. “Perhaps that’s what I get for asking a man this kind of question. Maybe the town has a girl or two who could understand my situation. That is if Eilif hasn’t finished clearing them out.”

She looked down at the dying man, her eyes glinting with maliciousness. “Oh well. Time to put you out of your misery. No need to let a dying animal suffer.”

Ellis raised a protesting hand, his voice coming out in gargling coughs as he tried to plead. No words came out. There was a sharp, hot line of pain that flashed across his chest, sending specks of blood flying. The wound went deep, reaching bone with ease. Ellis let out a scream of pain, but he only managed a pathetic shout that was barely audible.

More sharp pains, all of them like slashing daggers. They cut into his belly, his arms, face. Hands were lopped off, bones were broken, and his insides spilled into the open. All the while, the strange woman watched with a psychotic gaze, her right hand raised as Ellis was minced into pieces.

Even when his sight was eventually taken, Ellis took a long time to die. When the cold darkness finally came for him, he welcomed it.