Hahvulon walked away before dissolving into a cloud of purple smoke and disappearing into the air. The bandit leader walked forward, rubbing his hands together. "I am going to have fun with you three." he turned to one of his grunts, pointing to Kiera. "Hirew sam'heri'i vars'im a bokim." then he turned to another bunch of his men, pointing to Elynn and Aldrin. "Vars'im tak'i samedi."

"What did he say?" Aldrin asked with a crack in his voice, keeping his voice low.

Kiera eyed the leader cautiously and attentively. "He's leaving me here and taking you and Elynn to his camp."

"What?" Elynn turned her head to her friend. "Why?"

"Do I look like I can read minds?" Kiera growled, furrowing her brows. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain across her head. "Quiet!"

Kiera bit the pain away while a grunt walked up behind her and took her by her binds. He lifted her to her feet and led her away from the others. "I'll find you, Elynn, don't worry!" Kiera shouted before getting a knee jammed into her lower back. "Shut up!"

The man led her further down the creek to a spot close to the water. Another one hammered a wooden T-shaped pole in the dirt. "On your knees." the man said, pressing his foot into the back of Kiera's knee to force her down. "Alright, alright! Easy."

They positioned her so her back was against the pole and tied a rope around her neck and the stake just tight enough to still breathe, but she could not move her head. Her hands were also tightly bound around the base of the pole. The grunt walked in front of her and crouched to her level, looking into her eyes. She stared back into his brown, evil eyes.

"Now, you look to the water as you die of thirst. We are taking your friends with us to camp and have fun with them," he smirked, placing a hand on her cheek, which she recoiled from, showing visible disgust on her face. "Yeah? Easy to say to someone in binds. Coward." her voice shook as she felt a slight adrenaline rush. The man chuckled while the other one talked to him angrily in the local tongue. He nodded to him before looking at Kiera one last time. "When I come back, your pretty face will be all dried up, and life will be drained from your eyes. I will see you next week."

He stood back up and disappeared. Kiera didn't see Aldrin and Elynn anymore, but she heard their distant grunts for a while before everything went silent. Then, it was just her, the soft howl of the wind and the baking sunlight upon her sunburnt face. She tried to pull the pole out of the dirt with all of her might, but it was jammed so profoundly that it was nearly impossible. And she was already hungry and thirsty before they tied her here. When the realization of the gravity of the situation kicked in, she began panicking inside.

"Fuck...fuck...remain calm, Kiera. You can get out of this," she muttered to herself, wriggling her wrists to loosen to binds, but to no avail.

"Why didn't I just stick to stealing wine? What have I gotten myself into? FUCK!" she raised her voice at the end. Emotions overwhelmed her as she took a deep breath and screamed loudly into the air, her voice reverberating. When her cathartic scream ended, she broke into tears, sobbing quietly.

"I'm so sorry, mother...I'm so sorry, Aidan. I blew it." she said between shaky breaths. For hours she was stuck with her own thoughts, watching the shadows cast by the sun slowly move, counting water drops that landed on the shore. Tried to see how much water was wasted...water...water...that was all she could think about as dusk began to settle. The skin on her face felt scorching as if the sun had started peeling it off. But as the sun set, she finally felt some relief as it started getting colder. When her longing for water dissipated after being thirsty for way too long, she couldn't stop thinking about her little brother and her mother. How they were stuck with an abusive man. How she was a coward for leaving them alone with him. She should've brought them with her. Any life would be better than living with a man like that. Many thoughts raced through her head while she sat there. Sore muscles and joints, dry lips, aching skin, if she thought threading the rain all alone back in High Harbour was the lowest point in her life, this got very close to beating it.

For another hour, she sat there in silence, staring at the ground and nearly falling asleep from exhaustion, listening to the trickling water of the canyon creek, when suddenly she heard a sound. As the sky had turned from orange to a midnight blue, making the surroundings nearly pitch black, she turned her head to a hooded man approaching on horseback. He held a flaming torch. "This is it..." she thought. "They came back for me to finish me off." her breath quickened, and her heart began pounding in her throat. The man halted and easily dismounted the horse, his boots plopping into the sandy grass. When the horse released a calm nicker, Kiera recognized it. Was that Ghost?

She couldn't tell by the darkness as the man stepped in front of her. The torch's light revealed his grey scaled, lizard-like face covered in dried blood and flame-coloured eyes. The torch's light also showed part of his garments. A steel chest plate fitted on top of his black clothing, with a chainmail tunic protecting the rest of his upper muscular body. The chest plate hosted several dents and charred marks on it. Even his thighs were fitted with steel plating. She couldn't tell whether he carried a weapon, as the other half of his body was enshrouded by dark.

"Where is Aldrin?" he asked with a deep, hissing tone.

Kiera had no clue who stood before her. Her attention instinctively went to the one thing that did seem familiar to her. The horse. "Ghost?"

The scaled man turned to the horse. "Is he yours?"

"Where...where did you find him?" Kiera asked weakly, feeling surges of happiness through her body, realizing he was alive and well.

"Near the old ruins." the man answered calmly, then squinted his eyes as an inspection of her face. "Are you Kiera?"

Kiera looked up. "Maybe?"

He then walked around her without saying anything as she heard him take out something with a metallic rasp. Every fibre of her being told her to run, but she couldn't. She prepared for the worst, closing her eyes and holding her breath, only to feel him cut off her binds and her arms drop beside her. When he cut off the rope around her neck, she wrapped her hand around one of her sore wrists and rubbed them, watching the man walk back in front of her.

"Who are you? Why did you save me?" she asked sceptically.

He took off his hood, revealing two horns running back along the top of his skull. One of them was broken, and black fur grew between them, acting as some kind of hair. "My name is Blood. I am a Hinos just like the one that stole the Guardian from you. Except I am not here to kill you."

Kiera subtly stretched her shoulders and tried to stand up slowly, but her legs were sore. And she was still being careful. She wasn't sure whether her eyes fooled her back when she met Hahvulon but seeing another of them confirmed it. All that time they were still alive? So many questions ran through her mind, but another feeling was more potent than that. She started walking towards the creek.

"Don't drink that."

His words stopped her in her tracks. He took a canteen and held it out towards her. "Unless you want to die of sickness out here in the middle of nowhere, drink mine for now. We will boil more water soon when I get a fire going."

She still didn't trust the Hinos, but did she really have a choice? She walked towards him and accepted the canteen, smelling it first, but it smelled like nothing, so it was most likely water. She took a testing sip, and when it actually tasted like it, she gulped down the entire leather canteen in seconds. She had to catch her breath when she was done. "Fuck, that's so good." she groaned. In the meantime, the man had already gathered sticks and placed them in a pile. When she saw him turn around, she saw him take a big steel battle axe from his back humans would usually need two hands for, except he held it with one hand and swung it against a young sapling to gather more wood. Kiera inspected him from afar, noticing tears in his clothes, dents in his armour, and blood splatters. It took her a while to piece it together, remembering what Aldrin told her back at the ruins.

"Are you Aldrin's friend?" Kiera asked carefully. "They took him and Elynn away, and left me here."

Blood tossed the bigger sticks on the wood pile and surrounded it with a bunch of stones. "Yes."

Kiera realized he wasn't that talkative and began feeling insecure about asking too many questions. "Anything I can do to help?"

"No." Blood said, using the torch to light the fire. "I reckon you sat there for quite a while. Stretch your limbs or something."

Kiera already did that, but she still nodded. "Alright." she then decided to leave him be for now and turned to Ghost, petting his nose. "Hey, buddy. I missed you," she whispered, and he responded with a happy sigh. "I'm sorry Elynn and Shadow aren't here. But we will find them, okay? I promise." she turned around and walked towards the fire, where Blood had already prepared his bedroll and came back with a pot full of fresh water from the creek. "Sit down. I hope you like cooked snakes. You can use my bedroll."

"What about you?" Kiera asked.

"I'm 5533 years old. Sleeping on the ground is not going to kill me," he said as he sat down with a groan, inspecting a bleeding wound on his belly's side. He reached into his satchel and took out a cloth roll, slathering it with a transparent, grey salve. "If you have any questions, now is the time to ask," he muttered while keeping himself busy.

Kiera watched him use substances she had never seen before and be in such a vulnerable state. "Was that you who fought the other Hinos back in the ruins?"

He wrapped the salved bandage around his entire waist where the wound was. "If it hasn't been obvious yet, yes. I thought I could buy you and Aldrin enough time to escape the reach of his powers." he tied the bandage at the back and overlapped it with his torn chainmail again before pulling down his black tunic. "I was wrong. And I underestimated him."

Kiera felt bad asking that question. It clearly wounded his pride. "I'm sorry."

"The truth is, no one can defeat someone like him. Not even me." Blood added, sounding pessimistic. When his wound was taken care of, he took out the skinned snakes and put them over the fire with a little stick contraption that didn't require him to keep holding it.

"What do you mean? Why is he so powerful?" Kiera asked. Blood sighed. "Only now I realize humans know nothing about us." he stood up and took the snakes off the flame. "Come with me." He took the torch and walked further, looking high up into the starry night sky. Kiera followed his eyes with hers.

"You see those eight stars almost in a perfect circle?" Blood asked.

Kiera saw it. They were close to the moon. "I do."

"Thousands of years ago, my race was born under the sign of Lun, the one you are gazing upon at this very moment. Our god, Lundir, bestowed my people with the gift of a special artefact we called Ka Jiim Roha. Your people now know it as the Black Rose. It harboured such great powers it allowed us to create whatever we wanted, build whatever we wanted, and be whatever we wanted to be. It was His gift as a reward for our long years of servitude to the Moon Father."

Kiera listened attentively as he explained the history of his people.

"But of course, the Rose needed protecting from evil minds wanting to use it maliciously. Therefore, we created an organization with the sole purpose of harbouring and protecting the Rose. A brotherhood that would never take sides in wars, and always remain neutral. Those people formed the Circle of Eight. Just like the eight stars you see above in the circle formation."

Kiera looked up again to the brighter, twinkling circle of stars among the sea of thousands.

"They were the most devoted to Lundir of us all and were even able to communicate with Him. Their sheer loyalty to the Rose granted them the ability to use the powers of the Rose for themselves, only for the protection of the Black Rose. All eight monks were known as the Masters of Scion. They were allowed to have one boy child to replace their position in the Circle, a child with their father's powers passed down."

"What if it was a girl?" Kiera asked.

Blood answered with an eerie silence at first. "Women cannot possess the Rose's power. For many years we tried. No matter how hard we tried to unlock their power, it never happened. So we saw that as a message from the Moon Father."

"Are you a Master of Scion?" Kiera asked, fiddling with her fingers.

"No. The Circle of Eight branched off into the So'othlikass'uth-Kis'sqon or the Echo of Silence. They were servants of the Scion and did their dirty work. I was among the highest rank. The Nameless. If the Father allowed it, the Scion were able to teach some of their power to us, but only us. Individuals born without the natural gift could learn very little, but it was possible. Hahvulon, the Hinos I fought, is a Master of Scion, however. And I was a fool for thinking I could defeat him in battle. He could have killed me, but somehow he decided not to."

This was a lot of information Kiera had to process. She still had trouble understanding most of it, but one crucial question still lingered in her mind. "Why is he doing all of this? Why do we have to pay?"

"Our race met a tragic fate." Blood responded in a lower tone, looking at the stars. "We were years ahead of your time, had buildings higher than the tallest towers in your capitals. We thrived." his voice shook with passion, recalling memories. "We were a peaceful race, despite needing to protect our most priced possession from evil members of the Hinos. But one day everything changed. Another race rose from the shadows. The only thing that was different about them was their appearance. They bled the same way, they breathed air the same way, but they were different. It caused clashes between them and us. Wars erupted...blood spilt everywhere...so much pain...so much chaos. And for what?"

Kiera frowned her brows and was struck with empathy. She could tell he had to make an effort to prevent himself from crying.

"The Circle of Eight swore to not partake in wars. If only that were true. One of the Masters of Scion betrayed us. Among the chaos of the war, one Master named Xhiak took the Rose and used it to create a disease to wipe our enemies off this realm. But he made a mistake, and not only did the disease affect them, but it also affected us. One by one, we fell. All the lands turned to turmoil. It only took a fortnight to change the rules of life. Our civilizations crumbled, and the remaining Masters of Scion tried to undo Xhiak's work, but they, too, failed. So they went their separate ways, just to survive. One Master didn't want to give up. He found Xhiak, but he was too late..."

5,000 years ago...

A crumbled city turned into ruins. Thousands of dead bodies decorated the empty stone streets, and five tall pyramids towered above the deathly silence in the far distance behind the morning fog. Four collapsed, and only the middle one remained standing. Among the piles of bodies walked one hooded man weakly on his feet. When he stumbled through the street, he couldn't look away from the lifeless husks that decorated the cobblestone. Everyone was dead, yet no one fell by physical wounds. No one but the man threaded through the city, leaving a drip of dark red behind. He held his scaly hand on the wound in his chest, leaving the arrow stuck through his shoulder. With his robe soaked with his own blood, he fell to his knees when he reached the city centre. The pain was unbearable. Such a beautiful, once-thriving city, now turned to nothing but rubble. Cursed, taken over by Death itself. When the man raised his head, the bodies on the streets were nothing compared to the amount in the city centre. The stench was foul. Any person standing here wouldn't be able to keep it together. The man looked over it, taking off his hood, revealing a lizard-like face with greenish scales, a flat nose with two narrow noseholes, and amber eyes with slit-shaped pupils. A certain dread filled his eyes at the sight of so many innocent lives lost. He then saw someone, alive, sitting with his back against the fountain in the middle of the plaza.

The strange man composed himself and softly growled at the sight of the man at the fountain. With a deep breath, he stumbled towards him, still leaving a trail of blood behind. When he reached the other man, he was just like him, except his scales were black, and his eyes forest-green. He was weak and couldn't move anymore. The bleeding man looked at the dying man with a distinct look of disgust and hatred. "Meha ithet, Xhiak?" (Where is it, Xhiak?)

The black-scaled man didn't bother to look up, as it seemed like he embraced his own demise, but he still answered softly, with no emotion. "Yi se'un ith'illdr" (I sealed it away)

"Meha?" (Where?) the bleeding man growled weakly.

"Ne mida vra'etkun salekri ith-meha, Xinz'r" (No one will ever find it again, Xinz'r.) Xhiak said, "Ithsi et'kra." (It is over.)

Unable to stand straight, Xinz'r collapsed on his knees and sat back, groaning in pain. "Mehi di'ith jotun vrak yi?" (Why did you do it)

"It yi onme seri'ka itme sake di'ki seon chisoyibe. Ya meon be me chiit, Xinz'r." (All I wanted was for our race to be superior. We were meant to be great, Xinz'r.) Xhiak said, looking Xinz'r straight in the eye, but Xinz'r only grew angrier, raising his voice. "Chi rovanvra, yu sovii on keyichi itme be'ima meroyima!" (But instead, you brought our entire race to extinction!) The strain brought him to surrender to his wounds again, creating small puddles of red beneath him.

Xhiak looked to the ground. "Ka Jiim Roha...ya soke chiit'yi, be'onso yika rimeh onit beme itso'chi. Yi sovii chi be meroyima, chi vame me some meon be me." (The Black Rose...we weren't ready to use it, neither will the life that comes after us. I brought us to extinction, but maybe we weren't meant to be.)

Xinz'r caught a glimpse of a gold mask glistening in the sun beside Xhiak. "Be on ononvii be chiitme it'yivrame yion ka Roha on soityime it'kayiit vrem. On meso rebe vraon Itma." (So you thought to create a disease with the Rose that would eradicate all the rival races. You never deserved to wear your Mask.)

"Simi ne, chi'mera yi drom sakremi yi so mo'ki vrem." (Maybe not, but at least I will die knowing I tried to do the right thing.) Xhiak answered, his eyelids slowly closing and his muscles relaxing. After his last breath, his head fell to tilt. He was dead. Xinz'r removed his hand from his wound. It was drenched with dark red. An eerie silence ruled over the city. Only the wind howled through the streets, carrying whispers of the dead. Xinz'r looked around one last time at the destruction, the death of his people, and was filled with dread and sorrow. But most of all, hatred. Hatred for the greed and stupidity of his own people. Of Xhiak. His sadness and disgust overtook him as he screamed from the top of his lungs towards the skies. His scream slowly faded, and the last thing he saw was the clear blue sky before descending to the ground, letting out his final breath, and with that breath, the name of his people died with him.

Weeks went by after the death of Xinz'r. Leaves covered the streets, the stench of death grew even worse, and even death's whispers were no more. Xinz'r robe hid most of his decomposed body, but the scales withdrew from his fingers, and maggots were feasting on what flesh remained. A silence that lasted forever, at least it seemed like it. While nature began reclaiming his corpse, footsteps approached. Footsteps that intensified and grew louder until someone's shadow loomed above him. The shadow reached for Xhiak's mask and took it.

"By the Gods..." Kiera mumbled, filled with sorrow as well. "I'm so sorry."

Blood turned to Kiera. "You're probably wondering why Aldrin and I were searching for you. And why we know your name."

"Why?" Kiera asked, showing a slight hint of fear judging by how he presented his sentence.

"We were searching for the Guardian and have been on your trail ever since you touched that crystal. One power I have learned during my days as a Nameless is the ability to see memories of fallen creatures when I touch them. We tracked the crystal from Vraleth to Volaria to the place you call Jiron, the City of Gold. One man we thought was in possession of the crystal led us to a cave, where we found him dead, but there was no crystal. From the way his body was a soulless husk, I knew this was Hahvulon's doing. His memories showed you and your friend, and after some investigating in the city, your face was all over with a bounty to capture you for causing disorder, ignoring guard orders, and abduction. It didn't take much for me to realize who you abducted."

Kiera sighed, holding her hands on her hips. "If I knew..."

"You couldn't," Blood interrupted her before turning around and walking back towards the fire. "Get some rest. We're setting out right before dawn to save Aldrin and your friend. I know where they took them. Before I found you, I sent a message to an old friend. We will meet him tomorrow. We could use his help."

"Wait, I have one last question," Kiera said. Blood halted and turned around his axis slightly. "What was the race your people fought back then?"

"Humans." Blood answered coldly, "Turned out your people were even more resilient to the disease Xhiak created."

Kiera's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't believe that nor find a suitable response.

"You understand now?" Blood asked, "Why Hahvulon hates humans so much? In his mind, our war never ended, and he wants your people gone for good." he then sat down with a deep sigh, resting his back against the big rock. "I'm trying to prevent that from happening. A mere Nameless, against the most powerful Hinos this world will ever know, who now possesses the only thing that prevented him from getting to the Black Rose."

Kiera sat down as well, shocked by this entire conversation. "Do we even have a chance?"

"I wouldn't keep your hopes up, lady." Blood said as he closed his eyes.

Those words stuck with Kiera all night as she could barely get any sleep. Was this the end of the human race? Would history repeat itself all over again?