A few seconds passed where Dagi and Yordan stood there looking at the flames, thinking that they had just lost their companion. Dagi slightly pulled on Yordan's sleeve to get his attention.

  " Go see if you can find him, I'll be right there. "

  " You sure? "

  " Yeah it stopped bleeding, I'm ok just go! "

  Before he left, Yordan gave his friend his metal club as a support and as a means of defense. He then ran towards the village as fast as he could. Most of the walls had been consumed by the flames and it seemed that the fire was still spreading. " How am I going to get inside of this ? ". While he was circling the perimeter he noticed a dark shape crawling on the ground near where stood the gate, upon further inspection it was a survivor, smoke was rising from the body as if it was still on fire. Yordan approached the person with caution but then saw the person had blond hair, his eyes widened as he realised who it was.

  " Kyllian !! "

  Yordan ran and instantly turned Kyllian on his back to inspect his injuries, the bandages on his arms were gone and for the first time, Yordan could see what he was hiding, heavy burns and scar tissue were covering most of his hands and arms. " Some of these don't seem like fresh burns, I need to carry him out of here." Carefully, he grabbed the unconscious young man and put him on his back, he began advancing through the fog to meet back with Dagi. Despite being exhausted, he managed to carry him and find his friend, upon seeing the two coming back, Dagi tried standing up with the club but a sharp pain in his leg made him think twice about it.

  " Glad that you managed to find him, how is he? "

  " He doesn't seem to have any cuts but he is badly burned."

  " We have more bandages, we need to move a bit away from here first and then we can tend to it. "

  " Good idea, are you gonna be able to walk though? "

  Dagi stood up while groaning in pain and leaning on the club.

  " I'll manage, you have the tougher job, let's get going. "

  " Yeah."

  " Remember what we lost, Kyllian."

  " Yes mother."

  " You must never forget where we came from and who we are. "

  " Yes mother."

  " You must reach Triskall, enter the city of Ciscera and kill the witch. "

  " I will, mother. You won't be disappointed. "

  Kyllian opened his eyes. " Why did I remember this now? Ow my whole body hurts, it's horrible.". He then blinked a few times and reflexively passed his hand through his hair and on his face, he suddenly sat down realising his bandages had burned but were now back. He looked around and noticed Dagi and Yordan sitting in front of a fire, looking at him. They both smiled at him and Dagi gave him sign to come closer.

  " Morning friend, how do you feel? "

  " Bad. "

  " That is to be expected."

  Kyllian painfully dragged his own body towards the fire. He looked around and judging by the noises they were still deep in the swamp.

  " Is there no end to this damn swamp? "

  " We were waiting for you to wake up so we could resume the trip, we all needed rest and to be honest, my leg doesn't feel great."

  Kyllian looked at Dagi's leg and realised that the bandages used on it were still bloodstained and the worst part was that it seemed way darker than regular blood. He looked closer and noticed Dagi was breathing heavily and seemed to have a fever.

  " You are sick. "

  " It seems I am."

  " But how? The cuts didn't seem that deep."

  Yordan took a sip of water and pointed at where the village was.

  " I have a theory that they used some sort of poison and coated their weapons with it but seeing how slow it's working I'm willing to bet it's just some bad herbs from the swamp and every herb has its counter. The plan is to get out of the swamp and travel to the nearest city in search of an herbalist that can help us but we would need to hurry as we don't know how the symptoms can progress."

  " And how far would that be? "

  " The nearest city is called Glastsko, if we have no more surprises it's quite the big place and we can rest. The distance depends on how big this swamp actually is and how far are we from getting out of it. According to my maps we have to move to go up north from here and stop following the coast. "

  " Let's do that, I have an idea to get through the swamp. "

  " Don't say we burst through it please.

  " No, we entered the swamp and found the village we wanted to find, we just have to keep going in the same direction and we will eventually exit it and resume a normal route. You said the village was there right? Then we head over here."

  " Seems logic. Dagi you good to go? "

  Dagisarro let out a heavy sigh and as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.

  " Yeah, the air is heavy here anyway, let's go. "

  Far far away in another country, alone in the cold, a lone woman was muttering to herself.

  " Oh my beloved, how long has it been since they took you from me, how long has it been since I have been craving your touch on my skin? Sometimes I lose myself and I think I still hear your voice but those are nothing but echoes of the past, memories soon to be forgotten spiralling into this empty space. The only voices I hear are the screams of those coming to slay me, one after the other, young, old, strong or weak. They all end up entering this place, never to be seen again by anyone but me as they stand here with an eternal fear stuck upon their faces. How delightful it is to watch as they crumble into pieces, not even realising that they had died. I wonder how they feel, I wonder what they were thinking when they finally realised they had come in vain, that everything that was fed to them about being heroes and saviors was nothing but smoke and mirrors. If only I could have been this strong back then, If only. Recently a young woman came, pleading to retrieve her father's body, I don't remember if I had disposed of him or not, she seemed genuine, she was not like the other humans, eventually I led her to a room where most of them were. She crumbled to the ground upon finding what was left of her dear dad. I thought she was not like the other humans, but here she was, weak, emotional and soon her grief turned into anger and her anger led her to being one more statue of my collection. Humans... truly are the worst. "

  The trio had managed to exit the swamp and had been on the road for a few days now, today was the day they were supposed to reach Glatsko. The landscape was the same as before the swamp, a no man's land. To make matters worse, the temperature had gone down again and rain had become a daily occurence. Dagi's fever had slightly progressed but since they were out of the swamp progress was easier to make. Kyllian's face lit up as he saw something in the distance.

  " Guys ! I see the city ! We are closer than ever. "

  His companions smiled at the news and managed to speed up the pace. While walking, Kyllian started noticing something strange. There were many holes in the ground, awkwardly dug up and seemingly empty. " Why would they dig things like these around the city?". He then froze as he saw something from the corner of his eye, a shiver ran down his spine, his senses were telling him something. It was telling him that something was looking at him " is there something in those holes? ". Both Dagi and Yordan had frozen too and were waiting for Kyllian to explain what was going on, they had learned to follow his instincts, he knew when something was dangerous. The group stood there in the no man's land, in silence for what would have seemed like an eternity. They were then startled by bells being rang from within the city and the massive doors were opening in the distance, quickly they saw a few riders coming out of the walls with torches and lances. Kyllian was still not relaxing himself " something is wrong here.". His feeling was quickly confirmed as he saw many eyes staring at him from one of the holes, the most disturbing part was that all those eyes belonged to the same creature, trying to come up with a plan, Kyllian whispered toward Yordan.

  "Yor', something is watching us, I only spotted one but it's the closest to us."

  " How far? "

  " Less than ten meters away, how fast can you give me the metal club? "

  " Just say when."

  Kyllian had his eyes stuck in the creature's eyes, it now knew it's prey was aware of its presence, it was now going to be between who had the fastest reflexes. A few more seconds passed and the eyes disappeared into the darkness of the hole." There is no way it retreated but what if those weren't just holes but ... tunnels ?! ". Instantly Kyllian yelled at Yordan as he turned around.

  " Give me the club NOW ! "

  Without a second thought, Yordan threw the already deployed club at Kyllian, the second he received it, Kyllian faced the hole that was not in front but behind him and just a second later the creature leaped at him from it. It was a sort of giant arachnid, covered in dark fur, salivating with six eyes focused on Kyllian, thanks to his reflexes he managed to block the fangs that were as long as daggers but the beast was heavy enough to bring him down. Not trying to attack him instantly, it first moved in a circle around him in less than a second and attacked again. Trying to reposition himself, Kyllian rolled on the ground. Each roll was just enough to evade the fangs that were scratching the stone with a ear piercing noise. Finally he managed to stand up and the creature stopped attacking, as if it was waiting for him to make a move. " What is it waiting for? It's fast and strong enough to take me down. ". He felt a sort of tremor from behind him, he reflexively ducked as a sort of white and sticky projectile flew over his head, he looked behind him and another one of the arachnids was shooting at him from underground. " It's not alone!? ". He barely had any time to think that the one in front of him was rushing to take him down, Kyllian took it by surprise by doing the same thing and ran towards it, the creature lifted its front legs and exposed it's abdomen to him. " There is my chance ! ". Before the fangs could come down, Kyllian shoulder bashed the spider and managed to flip it onto it's back, not giving it time to move, he then jumped on it and started bashing its fangs with a clear purpose : to break them. Yordan and Dagi were still out of harm's way, somehow the creatures seemed to be interested only in Kyllian for the time being, them trying to involve themselves in the fight would only make it less safe. FInally one of the fangs broke as Kyllian pulled it clean from the beasts, he then used it as a knife and began stabbing the spider with it. The creature was wrestling with all its might and was trying to turn left and right to throw him off but he was using the fur from under its legs to stay on. In a final screech, the spider stopped moving as Kyllian plunged the fang in its abdomen one last time. Out of breath, he stood up on top of the corpse and looked at the other arachnid in its hole. It was still glaring at him from the shadows. Still staring at it, Kyllian smiled and pulled out the fang from the spider, he then opened his arms and laughed.

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  " You want some of this?! What's the matter?! "

  The creature disappeared into its burrow. Somehow Kyllian felt the fight was over and that it had decided to go away. " Phew, I was definitely not ready to fight another one. ". Out of breath, he jumped off the creature's corpse and when he lifted his head he saw the riders from the city approaching, the small group stopped right before Kyllian, the one in the front was a tall man wearing a shiny armor, he removed his helmet and revealed a face marked by a gigantic scar across his face from his left eyebrow to his right lip, he had short curly hair and seemed to be in his early forties. The man dismounted from his horse and walked towards Kyllian.

  " We saw you coming from the walls, have you lost your mind? Don't you know that the city is in lockdown? "

  " We had no idea, but I guess it's because of those things?"

  " Indeed." The man walked up to the creature and spat on it " Fuckers have been going at us for months now, starving us, killing anything raised outside and they have become bold enough to make their burrows this close to the city."

  " Why don't you just go to their lair and hunt them down this way? "

  " If only it was so simple... Who trained you boy? "

  " What?"

  " Are you deaf? I said WHO trained you? "

  " No one ! "

  " Bullshit, I have at least half a dozen of my men killed by one of those and you with no training took one down by yourself? "

  " Guess your men weren't as well trained as you thought they were."

  The captain frowned at this remark and walked up to Kyllian, he stood just an inch away from his face, towering over the blond young man. He examined him a few seconds and a smile appeared on his scarred face.

  " Ahah ! I believe you when you say you weren't trained, because such insubordination would not be tolerated in my ranks. I can tell you that. Name's Tsirek, first name Siraku, captain of the guard of Glatsko"

  The man held out his hand and Kyllian shook it.

  " Kyllian Ashstep, these are my traveling companions, Yordan and Dagisarro. "

  The two men nodded at the captain and he nodded back, he noticed Dagi's wound and a look of worry appeared on his face.

  " Your friend here, he doesn't look too good."

  " He was hurt, we had a run in with the locals of the swamp. "

  " You people really like dangerous places don't you? "

  " We had no idea they were cannibals, he was hurt during our escape and we believe they used poison."

  " Bring him to the city, we can have him see the Count's herbalist."

  " Thank you. "

  " Don't thank me yet, you will have a debt to pay to the count. Men! Help this one onto a horse, let's get out of here before more shows up. "

  Quickly, two soldiers dismounted and helped Dagi on a horse, Yordan mounted with one of the other soldiers and Kyllian rode with the captain, on the way Kyllian was looking at the city walls getting closer and closer. The city walls stood tall and from outside you could grasp how populated the city was. The group passed the heavily guarded gate which shut behind them directly after they were through. This city was way different than Kolipa where Kyllian lived most of his life, people were walking around without worry of being robbed or killed, they were all smiling and well dressed, children were playing in the streets and best of all to him, it was clean. After the swamp, this place was a breath of fresh air, the city was organised like a mountain and at the top was the count's mansion. The mansion could be seen from any point of the city, a huge wooden building richly decorated with the red and gold banners of the count." The man sure likes to live like royalty.". The traffic inside of the city was so dense that it took an hour on horseback to reach the mansion from the city gates. The group was escorted within the building, it was as impressive inside as it was outside. The place was decorated with many golden ornaments, statues, luxury carpets, everything looked like it had a perfect place made for it. Many men and women were serving inside or simply relaxing. Dagi was carried to the infirmary to receive first care while Yordan and Kyllian were brought to see the count. They were led to a big wooden door with many carvings upon it, Tsirek marked a pause before entering and looked at the guests.

  " This right here is the main hall, we often make banquets here and that's where the count receives his guests for his meetings."

  He opened the door and they entered a large room. Each side of the room was decorated with purple curtains striped by golden strings, at the center of the room stood two big tables that could receive at least a hundred guests total. Massive chandeliers were hanging from the ceilings and the scent of lavender was filling the air. Inside of the room were a few maids brushing off some dust and also two children, a young boy and a little girl, running around and laughing. They were chasing each other with wooden swords, disturbing the maids during their work. The side of the room was flanked by many doors probably used to access the kitchens and at the back of the room stood a big armchair but the count was nowhere to be found. Tsirek looked around, obviously he was thinking the count would be there too. He akwardly scratched his neck and let out a heavy sigh, he then turned around towards the visitors and bowed slightly.

  " Please excuse me while I go look for him, he is probably in his workshop, just take a seat, I will be right back."

  The two men nodded and started walking into the hall, admiring the decorations, upon further inspection, Yordan noted that behind the curtains were exposed sets of armor each one more extravagant than the other. " This man sure likes to decorate his place.". An older maid bursted inside the room from of one of the many other doors and as soon as she saw the children in the room she began screaming in their direction.

  " AH! There you are, you little rascals! Your lesson was not finished! Come here NOW! "

  The young boy stopped running and started pouting. The bigger and older one was looking down and making small circles with his wooden sword on the ground.

  " But uncle Stowe said we could play .. I mean practice swordplay here ! "

  The little girl stopped too and supported the decision.

  " Yeah and the lessons are boring! BLEHHHH! "

  Her comment was ponctuated by the most awful grimace she could think of. The maid became red with anger, and started walking towards the children.

  " You two come here now or you will have no supper ! "

  In unison they began to retreat behind the big chair the count would usually sit on and started to plead for their freedom.

  "Nooooo! "

  " I said come here ! "

  The little boy started running away and jumped on a table to escape the caretaker, the little girl stood there sobbing as the woman was screaming at her. This whole scene of chaos was interrupted by a strong voice coming from the end of the hall.

  " What in the fucking creator's name is going on ?! "

  Kyllian turned his head and saw a tall man standing at the end of one of the tables, he was wearing a brown mantle over a white shirt, his pants were dark as the night and he had fancy riding boots on. At his side was Tsirek " this must be the count I guess. ". The man was in his late fifties, his hair and beard were quite long, most of it had turned gray but you could determine that he was a redhead before. Instantly the little boy ran up to him and the man hugged the boy.

  " Uncle stoooooooowe ! "

  " What's going on Usbek? "

  " It's Hagren, she is super mean to us."

  " I'm sure you are exaggerating,"

  While holding the little girl's hand, Hagren walked up to the count.

  " They ran away from my lesson to play with swords and told me YOU told them they could skip it! "

  Stowe looked at the boy and then the girl with a judgmental gaze, instantly they both looked at their feet with embarrassment.

  " Is that true?"

  " Yes ..."

  " Yeah ... "

  He let out a sigh of disappointment and gave a sign to the little girl to come closer.

  " Come here Astrid. "

  She walked closer to him and he placed his huge hands on each of their heads, he then kneeled down and looked at both of them.

  " Lying is bad, don't do it again, listen to Hagren, she is here to take care of you. And if you study well, you will have a good life and lots of good things will come to you. "

  " Yes uncle Stowe."

  " Yep uncle Stowe."

  He had a proud smile on his face, he then reached in his pocket, took out a handmade doll and handed it out to Astrid. The little girl's face lit up as she saw the doll.

  " If you are nice to Hagren, you will be able to watch me work in the workshop ok? "

  " Oh wow! Promise! "

  " Good. "

  He then looked at the boy.

  " And you Usbek, if you study properly, I will finally get you proper sword training but only if you promise to never lie and always be a good student. "

  " I promise uncle Stowe! "

  He smiled and hugged both of them.

  " Good, now go back to work you little devils! "

  Hagren took the children by their hands, the count then switched his attention to his guests.

  " Very sorry that you had to witness this. I was busy with my work. Tsirek here told me one of you killed an Arachae barehanded, which one is it? "

  Kyllian stepped forward.

  " I did. "

  " Congratulations my boy, it takes guts to take on those bastards. You have my thanks for helping in such hard times. "

  " I only defended myself, it was either it or me."

  " Glad it ended up being it."

  The man sat down at the nearest table

  " Have a seat, Tsirek, do you have a minute to sit with us? "

  " Sadly I do not Sir, I have to resume patrols and check the earlier disturbances in the western district "

  " Then I will see you tomorrow friend, may the creator protect you "

  Tsirek bowed while placing his right hand on his heart and walked away from the group. The count gave a slight hand gesture at one of the maids who understood he wanted some drinks.

  " My name is Stowe, last name Amor, what brings you to my city? "

  Yordan noticed that comparatively to the captain of the guard, he had decided to say his first name first. He decided to speak first.

  " My name is Yordan and this is Kyllian, we are traveling up north but sadly the maps I had were outdated, we ended up going through the swamp where we were ambushed. And my other friend got hurt and probably poisoned so we came to your city to look for a remedy. "

  " Hmmm I see, we will do what we can to help him but as Tsirek probably told you, it's a favor for a favor. "

  " Yeah we are aware of this."

  "Good, first, let's go see your friend. "

  The three men stood up and started walking through the building, they arrived at a small room that smelled of various herbs and incense. Stowe entered the room quickly followed by Yordan and Kyllian. A young woman was tending to Dagi, she turned around and Kyllian examined her traits, she seemed fairly young yet experienced, her caramel skin was quite a contrast to the other people they had seen so far, she was wearing a blue shawl and was standing barefooted in the room. A few tattoos were marking her skin from her hands to her barefeet. Stowe greeted her by a warm embrace and introduced her to the visitors.

  " Gentlemen, this is Alyssar, my personal herbalist."

  The woman bowed slightly and smiled at them.

  " Welcome, you friend here is not at death's door and the remedy is not that hard to make."

  The two men let out a sigh of relief. Her voice was lower pitched than expected for such a petite framed woman and her accent was peculiar, like none that Yordan had ever heard before. She continued talking while rearranging some of her vials.

  " But ! I miss one of the ingredients."

  Kyllian made a clicking noise with his tongue to show his annoyance.

  " Of course, can never be too easy. "

  " The ingredients is an extract of Saradane powder."

  " What is that? "

  " It's an indigo jewel found deep in the mines that go through this land, but the mines have been abandoned since the Arachaes started living in it. The jewel has curative properties because it naturally absorbs the energy from the ground it's from and greatly improves the purity of anything it's mixed in. With it, we can cure very deadly diseases."

  " Wait .. Are the grounds dead around here because those jewels suck up everything? "

  " Yes, years ago, when we could mine them, the town was surrounded by green plains and full fields, there was balance, we could use it for a lot of inventions and medicine but one day an entire group of workers went missing in the mines. The Arachaes had emerged and we think they are a mutation caused by the jewel, somehow, one of them changed because it consumed the Saradane and unfortunately it was a female.

  " I see, so why did it take you years to deal with them? "

  " They are too big, too fast and the darkness is a big problem, they are predators, you saw how fast one is. The one you killed was a hatchling, young and unpredictable. "

  " What?! No, it was the size of a horse ! It was not a baby that's for sure "

  " Hatchlings are this size, their adult counterpart are twice this size and the "Queen" is believed to be four times this but we have no info on where she is or what she looks like, no one has seen her in years or lived to talk about it"

  " Oh ..."

  " Now you understand why they are such a threat, but for some reason they don't attack us in big numbers, only some hatchlings lay traps but no big ones have ever been seen outside of the nest. If they handle themselves the same way as a regular spiders, the female will be alone and a threat to anyone else, the males are probably just hanging out in her lair not protecting her but waiting to breed with her and make more hatchlings. And they are also probably competing with each other."

  Stowe decided to step in the conversation.

  " In a few days we are launching a raid on their lair to kill the queen, I want you to join the raid, do this, make sure the mission is successful and I will guarantee your friends survival. "

  " I don't really have a choice, I'll have to go anyway if I want this damn stone."

  Stowe had a malicious smile and handed out his hand.

  " Good, you are a smart boy."

  Kyllian sighed and shook his hand. For some reason, he felt this would definitely not be an easy mission to accomplish but he had to do it for Dagi's sake.