Laughter spread around like an infection. Neighing horses also seemed to be mocking him at him. His senses had begun playing tricks on him. Pretending everything was fine worsened his mental state. Saer clenched the horse harness tight and squeezed it. Doing so was the only way he could handle being cheated.

Saer stopped hearing voices of people laughing. He turned his head sideways and saw soldiers with their mouths wide open. But they were not making any sound. The horses were tapping the ground but their horse shoes caused no tramps.

In the confusion he started listening to air rustling. Wind hitting leaves and grasses in distance were louder than the men around him. Saer shaked his head in attempt to end the hallucination.

Did they poison me? His guts alarmed him. The grip he had on the harness began loosening. He wondered how he had not fallen from his horse till now.

The sound of air was at its loudest form. Saer couldn’t hear his mental voice in the mix.

“Saer….” Sound of wind became snake like. He took it as hallucination till he heard it the second time, “Saer.”

Saer glanced back. Soldiers behind him had stopped laughing. Despite of their lips moving, no sound was reaching in his ears.

“Don’t tell them you are listening to me, cut-throat. Or I will kill you.” The voice became feminine, “Talk to me with your mind.”

Saer squinted at Commander Evar- who was on his own.

“You know my name?” Saer asked question in his head.

“I also know you all have come here from Hilcastle.” The voice answered.

“Are you the mage?”

“Yes.” She hissed.

“How did you know who we are?”

“The pearls in your pocket gave it away.”

He moved his hand straight away after feeling the small lumps in his left pocket and pretended to adjust his sword to avoid suspicion from soldiers.

Commander Evar stepped on the leg strap on saddle to stand up a bit. He reckoned he had seen a hut at the horizon. Commander narrowed his eyes for a clearer view.

“Look, the mage’s hut!” Commander Evar pointed towards the direction like a toddler.

Saer was on his own till he saw Evar pointing somewhere. With his sight following his finger, Saer also saw the hut at distance. Soldiers on ground were yet to see it.

“Oh, you’ve found me.” Metal Mage was excited, “Can’t wait to see what they’ve brought for me.”

“Will you help me to avoid Great Invasion?” Saer asked what he needed to know.

“How?”

“By killing Wernh’An.”

She gasped after hearing Saer’s demand. Metal Mage began chuckling and soon burst into laughter just like Evar. But her laughter sounded different to mockery. In his journey so far, Saer had leant to distinguish between laugh of jest and a natural one.

“Don’t laugh.” Saer didn’t care what was making her giggle, “Wernh’An is half-dead in the forest.”

“I know.” Her chuckles started to shrink.

“Then tell me how I can kill him. He can see Calajhans. If he gets cured then we are destined to be doomed.”

“I can’t kill him. Calajhans can do it but they’re losing their strength.”

“I’m not telling you to stab Wernh’An. I just want you to not help these people. Scare them off.”

“They’re bringing special gift for me. I can’t refuse it.” She answered while they rode faster for the hut.

“Gift! Is the gift more important to you than Ouskerus?”

“A twig would me more important than Ouskerus to me. You weren’t born when beings of this land hunted mages.”

“It was centuries ago!”

“This is why you don’t know how terrible the condition was. Whatever you read in lore or listen is toned down. Nobody had recorded accounts of mages and sorcerers.” Mage was getting angry.

“Okay.” Saer sniffed, “I will offer you thing more than a twig. You can take anything for me. But in return, don’t help them.”

When Saer stopped speaking he realized what he had promised in the moment of anger. His impatience had cost him something he had no idea about.

“Oh poor mercenary, I have already taken it from you.”