The wooden door stood before us, shining with the reflected light from the torch. Carelessly I pushed it open, only to see before me the captain of the guards with his plumed helmet, and the two young guards from earlier.

Rico ran up behind me, his red hair clearly visible in the firelight from the torches the lot of us were holding.

The captain turned to the younger guards. “Go and alarm King Rawlin!” He said. He withdrew his longsword and turned to me.

“Don't let those kids escape, Rico!” I cried. Rico lifted his hand up before him, and a great wave of flames rushed past myself and the captain, just missing the two young guards as they ran behind a corner.

With the swiftness of a diving sparrow, the captain lunged past me and knocked Rico down the stairs. I turned, but before I could call out to him, I myself was pushed against the stone walls by the guard's great meaty fists.

His sword came at me, the cleaver of death at my neck. I lifted my dagger, and though it wasn't enough to stop the great and heavy longsword, it was enough to veer it away from my neck. It bit instead into my side, which thankfully was protected by the armor I had been complaining about.

The captain had his hands unprotected by armor, most likely so that he could hold his sword better. I jabbed at his hand with my dagger, but he saw my plot, and slid back, snakelike. He stood, ready to attack again with the deadly longsword.

He lunged at me, but I rolled out of the way, and to the other side of the hall. I felt the sword brush against my hair. I took no more than a second to cut off the leather straps of the grieves I was wearing. In one fluid motion, I took the cut leather in my hand and threw the armour at the captain. One of the grieves struck him in the face, stunning him only for a moment. I lunged at him, slicing at his hand with my dagger. He moved, but this time I was able to slice off two fingers, which fell to the ground in a pool of red.

The guard switched the sword over to his other hand, ignoring his missing fingers for the moment as though I had simply sliced off a few strands of hair. His changing of hands threw me off, and I was held again against the wall, this time by his sword, its blade kept from my neck only by my own dagger, which I held against the sword with all my strength.

“It's a shame you're going to die here, boy.” The guard hissed, “Otherwise you would have made a decent soldier.”

A memory came quickly into mind. Foster, trying to teach me how to fight against the guards of the kingdom. Their longwords against the weakest, worst weapons. Sticks, stones, and even the dagger, which seemed insignificant before the sword. Back then he took his wooden longsword, and pressed it to me, while I kept it away with my dagger. “What do you do now?” He demanded, “Do you wait for me to tire, do you wait for my allies to come? Do you stand there like a frozen fool, or do you find a way to save yourself.”

I put all my strength into holding the longsword away from me, just a few more inches away from me. I pushed the longsword away from me. I slid down the wall and the longsword caught my hair between the wall and it's blade, slicing off several long brown strands. The Guard arched over me, I took my dagger, and jabbed upwards, at his soft, exposed throat.

The captain made a gurgling sound as blood poured from the wound and over my head. Gagging, I crawled away from him, and pressed myself to the wall on the other side of the hall while the guard choked on his own blood, clutched at the wound on his neck, then died.

I sank to the floor shaking. The blood on me was too hot, it burned like flames. Before me, the limp form was Foster, it was Ridia, it was Cara.

I leaned against the wall, breathing deeply. The body was just the body of the guard. There was no need for me to be so stupid. I was working now, wasn't I? This was all part of the job, wasn't it? I was paid, I killed, ruthlessly, like an arrow drawn and shot.

But I hadn't slain Ridia, though I had been paid to.

Rico came up from the darkened staircase, dizzy but otherwise he seemed unharmed. He ran over to me, saying something that I didn't pay attention to.

“Gods, Stiri, you're covered in blood.”

“Don't worry, it's not mine.”

Rico helped me to my feet. He eyed the breastplate I still wore, with it's fair dent in the side.

“You almost died.”

“Wasn't the first time.” I started to take the breastplate off, but decided to keep it on for the time.

“Where's your cloak?” Rico asked.

“I left it in the caravan.” I said. “I couldn't wear it over the armor.”

Rico stepped up to the dead guard on the floor, and gingerly swiped a leather waterskin from his belt. He passed it to me.

“To get the blood off you.”

I took a long drink of warm water, then poured some in my hands and tried to rub off the blood. All I managed to do was smear it over my face and arms more, making me look like my skin was burned red.

I glanced over at the dead guard. “Get his armor off him.” I said. Rico looked at me for a few moments.

“It'll never fit you,” He said, “The guard has at least a head on you, and he's twice your size anyway.”

I heard a noise down the hall. The clink of armor, the shuffling of boots. I pulled Rico to the side of the wall, and held him back with one arm, waiting to see who would come.

From the hallway, the two young guards walked in, staring at the corpse of their dead captain, not noticing Rico and I at all.

“...We shouldn't have left.” the shaggy haired one said, “We're cowards.”

“You're fools.” I snapped. I leapt from the wall and grabbed the shaggy-haired one by the arms. Following my lead, Rico grabbed the guard with the short black hair and pushed him to the floor. I pulled the shaggy-haired guard to the floor, and put my knee between his shoulder-blades.

“You shouldn't have come back.” I said.

“What should we do with them?” Rico asked.

Keeping them quiet might be a good idea.” I said. I drew my dagger. “Of course, if they can tell me some information, I might be willing to let them flee the castle.”

The shaggy-haired youth struggled to free himself from me, “You'll not learn anything from me!” He cried, “My heart belongs to my kingdom and my lord and King.”

“Shame.” I whispered. I slowly brought the dagger to his face.

“Wait!”

I turned to the boy with the black hair, smirking. I knew he would be the one to tell me something.

“Boy?”

“I'll tell you anything you want to know!” he said, “If it's in my power... I'll tell you anything, just don't hurt him!”

I smirked, and pulled the dagger away from the boys face. “Earlier this day, a small group of prisoners were captured. The one holding you is one of them. There were three others that were captured with him. Where are they?”

“You ask in vain.” The shaggy-haired youth said, “Even if I wanted to, I don't know-”

“The North-eastern tower.” The youth said. “I...”

“How do you know that, Marcus!” The shaggy haired youth demanded.

“.... I snuck into the captain's quarters to find some good wine... I heard him talking there.”

I smirked. The North-east tower. From what I had heard, the castle had four main gates, and four towers. the gates pointed in each compas direction, the towers lay between the gates.” “Where are they in the tower?” I demanded.

“I don't know.” Marcus said, “But... If I were to guess, I would say in the chamber at the top. It's most easy to guard, and most difficult to climb down from.”

Slowly, I stood up and walked the shaggy-haired youth to the door leading down to the prison, I shoved him in the darkness, then held the door open as Rico pushed Marcus after him. I closed the door. Rico held it while I took the longsword from the bloodied floor, and rammed it into the wooden doorframe, so that it would hold the door shut for a time.

“That'll keep them out of our way for now.” I said, “And we can worry about more pressing things.” I grabbed Rico by the arm and pulled him after me through the winding hall of the upper dungeon.

***

It was an easy matter sneaking through the outer-courtyards and past the guards. Night had fallen and the castle was covered in shadows. The half-moon above was red from the magical barrier above that kept the castle warm all year round. The shadows were dark, and the landscape was tainted red. It was easy enough after we got out of the dungeons to hide in the shadows while guards passed by.

“I thought you said that Kos had an army of Homunculi under his power.” I said.

“He does. However, he doesn't like to have to exert all that much power to control them. Magi aren't limitless- the more power they use, the more things they try to do, the faster they lose their energy. The more powerful a spell is, the more draining it is.”

“Good to know.” I whispered as a guard passed by. Rico and I waited in silence. The North-eastern tower, which loomed over us, was more heavily guarded.

“It'll be much harder to escape from this place than it will be to sneak around inside.”

“I know.” I said. One of the things I had heard was that the king liked to show off the massive system of double walls, double gates, and towers manned with archers that protected the gates of the castle. It was impenetrable.

“What about those guards?” Rico asked, “Do we fight our way through them?”

“No. That would attract more guards. We want to stay as low as possible.” I looked at the tower, reaching up into the sky, to the barrier overhead. One of the guards was standing near one of the white apple trees.

“We'll scale the wall.” I said.

Rico looked at me, his eyes shining in the red light. “You're insane,” he said, “They're in the topmost part of the tower. We'll-.. I'll never make it.”

“We're not going to climb to the top.” I snapped, “Just to that first window.” I pointed to the second floor of the tower, where a window opened up to the darkness inside. “We get to that, and then sneak our way up to the top of the tower.”

“Around all the guards?”

I shook my head and pointed to a guard who was leaning against a wall on the other side of the courtyard. He was holding a blazing torch in his hands.

“Make the torch act up.” I said, “Catch the grass, the tree, something on fire. Make a distraction.”

Rico leaned slightly out of the shadows, and lifted his hand up to the guard. The torch in his hands spat and danced. Startled, the guard dropped it, and the grass beneath him caught fire. The fire began to spread quickly, the grass so dry from not having tasted rain in so long.

The guard called for help as he tried, unsuccessfully, to stomp out the fire. The guards walking around the tower finally saw what was happening and ran over to aid him.

“Come on.” I whispered. I ran from the shadows and ran across the red, bright courtyard over to the tower. I gripped the wall, only to find out that the rocks were too smooth, and I couldn't climb it.

I glanced over at the guards. They were still stomping on the fire, which was good. However, from inside the castle, another guard was running with two wooden buckets filled with water. I strained my eyes in the dull red light and saw that another guard followed far behind him, more buckets in his hands.

“We haven't much time.” I muttered. I looked up at the unattainable window.

“I could burn down the door.” Rico said.

“Then the guards would know something was-” I stopped and slapped my forehead. “Of course. I don't need to burn down the door, likely I can break the lock and they won't notice till morning, not in this light.”

I pulled Rico over to the door. The guard had just reached the fire with his bucket of water. The grass made a great hissing noise that echoed through the courtyard.

I couldn't see the door well in this light. I felt my hands over the door, feeling the wood, the grain, then finally the handle with its elaborate lock. Ignoring the lock, I dug my dagger between the door and the wooden doorframe around where the lock was. I wiggled the dagger and pulled it down hard against the lock.

“The other guard is here!” Rico whispered.

I lifted the dagger, and brought it down hard on the lock again. the thin piece of metal inside bent only slightly, but that was enough for the door to come loose. I pulled as much as I could on the doorknob, and pushed in hard on the door. The door swung open. I pulled Rico inside and slammed the door shut just as the sound of water hitting the burning grass reached our ears.

The tower was very similar to the one that Christen and I had found Rico in outside Rawlin. Stairs spiraled up to the highest reaches of the tower, the way lit only by the torches in the walls. Silently, I started walking up the stairs. Rico followed me. He was much quieter than he had been in the castle in Teans, but still, not as silent as I could be. As we walked up the great spiraling tower, the windows showed us different scenes, floor by floor. The second floor showed us only one of the inner courtyards, the next few floors slowly revealed to us the the rest of the castle, the pillars that rose up into the black sky, painted red in the moonlight filtered through the barrier. Then we saw over the castle walls, and the houses of the nobles that lived nearby. A few more floors upwards revealed through the windows the merchants quarters, their tall and skinny buildings stinking of hide and sweat, and mead. Then, the residence of those too poor to be held any closer to the castle. Outside that, there was first the walls, and then, as we rose up and over the walls, finally, we were able to see the mountains in the distance.

Finally, the stairs before up led into a platform, held my supporting beams that clung to the walls around it. Quietly, I walked to the edge of the platform

Standing before the door were two people, standing very, very still, dressed in armour. I held Rico back from me as I stood quietly and still, watching them. They didn't move. I shut my eyes, and listened but I couldn't hear even the softest breathing. They didn't speak, and their skin was covered in cloth.

Were these the homunculi?

I ducked under the platform, and looked at Rico who was staring at me intently, wondering what I had seen. I mouthed 'homunculi.' and shrugged.

Slowly, carefully, Rico peaked over the platform. A second later, he ducked down, and nodded. I clutched my dagger. Likely it couldn't do much good against them, unless, of course, I decided to cut them to pieces.

Rico jumped from out hiding place and onto the platform.

“Rico!” I cried. Our cover was blown, and there was no point in being silent anymore. I leapt up from the shadows of the stairs, and landed behind Rico , who stood between me, and the homunculi.

The homunculi turned to us. In the light of the torches, I could just see their faces under their helmets. Their skin was grey and dull, their eyes grey where they should have been white, black where color could have touched them. They held large swords in their dead hands, sharp and bloodstained.

Rico raised his hands before himself, and a small spark appeared in the middle of the room. The spark grew quickly into a great, burning sphere and almost engulfed the entire room. I shielded my face from the bright, burning light and the heat that radiated from it. A terrible hiss issued from the center of the flames.

The flames died, and in the middle of the platform was a great hole in the floor. I edged towards the stone staircase, feeling safer there than on the still burning floor. planks fell down into the dark abyss that we had walked up, flaming orbs falling down into nothing.

Rico stepped back onto the stairs. “I think that destroyed them.” He said.

“Yes, likely,” I said, “Only why didn't you choose to do that at other times?”

“Well... I would rather not burn living men to cinders if I can help it. I promised Justin that I could refrain from doing this as much as possible-”

“Justin.” I snorted,

“- and a lot of the time, I just wasn't in a position to. I don't like killing people. I see it as a terrible necessity of this world.”

“And those things?”

“Things. Not human. I destroyed an abomination that should not have existed anyway.”

I sighed. “You're troublesome.” I muttered. I looked up the staircase.

“...Also, there is the problem of losing control of my power, or exhausting myself... I almost did that in the forest.”

I ignored him, and walked up the staircase. A strong, wooden door lay above us. It had several elaborate locks on it, which looked like they would take quite some time to pick.

“While you're in the process of burning things, do you want to burn that?”

Rico looked at the door, and lifted his hand. In a moment, the door was nothing but a smouldering pile of ashes. I walked through the door and up into the large, circular room above.

The room was plastered and painted white. A great window circled the room in a band, with seats underneath all the way around. Joss and Mic looked out into the distance, while Christen sat, looking into the fire in the pit in the center of the room.

I walked into the room.

“Stiri!” Christen cried. She stood up walked about halfway across the room towards me.

The flames in the fire-pit glowed blue, then black. A great blue eye glimmered in the center. It revolved around the room, staring at Christen, Mic, Joss, and then rested its gaze on me. I held my hand back to Rico, so that he would stay out of sight, stay away from the terrible gaze of that icy-blue eye.

From the flames crawled a terrible monster, made entirely of flames. A great beast, with a huge head and a great gaping mouth. It opened its blue eyes, and stared at me.

I turned to run back down the steps. I felt the heat of the monster at the back of my neck, his fiery mouth closed around me, and scorched my skin.

Then I stopped burning. The flames receded around me and revealed a room very different than the one I had just been it. It was a perfectly round room with a large, arched ceiling. Several tall windows allowed moonlight to flow inside. Real moonlight, not the red-tinted mess that flowed through the barrier. I realized that I was in the great, levitating room at the topmost of the castle. The only part of the castle that lay outside the barrier, so that the king could see the true state of the kingdom.

But it was not the view of the kingdom that I was interested in. In front of me was a desk. Behind the desk, sitting on a pedestal, which sat on a mantle was a shimmering, shining piece of stone. The light that came from it was a silver and blue. It was the Moonshard.

I ran towards the shard, but something threw me back. I hit the wall, and at the same time, I didn't hit it. A soft barrier protected me from striking the cold stone wall behind me.

The shadows in the room swirled before me, and formed a long, black cloak.

Under the cloak, Kos materialized.