Late on their sixth day of riding, sore and sleepy, they sighted Sirra.

The first things they saw were lights. Where they had been riding for what felt to Ryn’s backside like an age over grasslands and fields that turned black with dusk, all at once little pinpricks of light appeared in the blackness.

A few leagues further and the pinpricks turned out to have been the lights of hearths and candles in the homes of a smaller settlement on the outskirts of the city of Sirra.

“There are lots of these smaller towns on the edges of Sirra,” said Elrann, who knew the city best. “As you get nearer to it they get denser and denser, until you’re properly in the city and everything is paved streets.”

They rode on past the buildings, and some curtains twitched. They got glimpses of people staring out at them for a brief moment.

“Why is nobody outside?” said Ryn from atop his mount with Vish. “Why is nobody coming out to greet us?”

“Why d’you think, pup?” said Sagar. “They’re scared. They’ve been invaded--they’re under occupation. We haven’t seen any soldiers out here, but you can bet when we get to Sirra proper it will be crawling with them.”

Ryn’s cheeks flushed hot. Stupid question.

Despite the fact that with every chocobo-step they took closer to Sirra they got closer to danger, they rode on.

They had discussed the plan in detail two days ago.

“What are we actually going to do when we get to Sirra?” Ryn had asked as they had been riding over the Imfisi plains.

“We’ve been over this,” said Sagar. “We’re going to board a train to Manolia.”

Ryn had never been on a train before but he knew what they were.

“But will the trains really still be running,” said Elrann, “if Morekemia have occupied Imfis?”

“Not for their usual purposes,” said Sagar “but I’d be willing to gamble good money that the Empire will have reappropriated them. If they’ve flown in a load of soldiers here to occupy Imfis with military presence, the Emperor is probably planning to use Imfis as his base of operations in Zokan. If he’s doing that, he’ll need good control of the whole country, especially its borders. In the long run, it would be easier to also move soldiers to and from the borders using the Imfisi train system, rather than having to fly them every time. That means he’ll still be using the trains.”

“But how are we going to get on a train?” Elrann pressed. “Most of us are probably wanted by the Empire now, with bounties on our heads.”

“Just you leave that to me, woman,” said Sagar. “Don’t forget that you’re riding with a legendary pirate captain here.”

Elrann had snorted, and Sagar had either not heard her or pretended not to hear her from his chocobo.

They sold their three chocobos to an innkeeper in one of the smaller settlements on the outskirts of Sirra, for a healthy fifty gold pieces each, after a hearty meal in his common room. If everything went to plan from herein then they wouldn’t need them for the rest of the journey on to Manolia.

“Don’t know how you’ve kept hold of them this long,” said the innkeeper who bought them in a worn-out, cynical voice. “The Empire’ve been rounding up all the mounts and vehicles for miles around and commandeering them for their army. But I’ll happily take them off your hands.”

Ryn patted the beak of his chocobo, the original one that Vish had stolen which the two of them had been riding for the last three days, as he said goodbye to it in the stables. “Thanks, buddy. You saw us through a lot. Sorry for crashing you in the woods.” The chocobo cawed and nuzzled him in response.

“We need to keep a low profile,” said Cid as they all left the inn. “Keep those cloaks wrapped tight around you until we can find…alternative attire.”

Ryn would have liked to have spent a night at the inn, but Nuthea still insisted that their mission was urgent and that they couldn’t afford to waste even one night. And the next phase of their plan was going to work better under cover of darkness anyway.

Sirra proper began as a cluster of tall, white-stone buildings in the middle distance and soon became tough cobbles under their feet. The cluster became a maze of streets and alleys which they wandered within. The white stone shone in the light from fires inside buildings, streetlamps, the moon.

“So this is a capital city…” said Ryn under his breath. The others didn’t seem so bothered by it. He guessed they had all been in capitals before. He supposed he really was a ‘greenhorn farmboy’, or whatever Elrann called him…

The occasional person paced the pavement, and the odd chocobo-drawn cart passed them on the cobbled road, though not as many as Ryn would have expected. That must be because of the invasion too. Still, it was busier than Nonts. Every now and again the cramped streets would open up into a larger road or a square, with a fountain, or a statue, or a tower at its centre. And usually they would sight a patrol of Imperial soldiers somewhere on it. Whenever this happened, they turned around abruptly and went back down one of the smaller alleys.

“I don’t understand,” Ryn said, “I thought we were looking for Imperials.”

“Yeah, but not out in the open, pup,” Sagar answered him. “We want to find them in one of the sheltered streets, but by the nature of things we’re less likely to come across what we want there. It might take a while.”

“Give it time,” said Cid knowingly.

“Hang on,” said Sagar, “what’s this?”

He moved towards a series of three upright rectangles attached to the side of one of the nearby buildings.

On the first piece of paper was an ink drawing of Sagar himself. The likeness was strong, right down to the eye patch, the ponytail and the cocky smile.

Sagar tore the poster off the wall and inspected it more closely while Ryn looked over his shoulder.

WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE, it said under the drawing. BOUNTY: 7500 GOLD PIECES.

“Heh,” said Sagar. “And not my first, either!” He rolled up the poster and stuffed it down his shirt. “What? Girls love this kind of thing. How much did you say they put on the princess? 5000? I guess they value me even more highly than her…”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Ryn, his eyes wandering to the next poster along. It was the same drawing of Nuthea as he had come across in Nonts, only this was a more recent poster because this time it said WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE. BOUNTY: 10,000 GOLD PIECES.

“Rrrr,” said Sagar. He tore that one down too, but it didn’t go in his shirt.

It was the next poster along that really pissed him off, though.

“Ryn, you’ll want to have a look at this,” said Nuthea.

Ryn looked, and froze.

An ink drawing of himself, complete with tousled hair, big eyes and boyish features, looked out of the third poster at him.

WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE. BOUNTY: 10,000 GOLD PIECES. HIGHLY DANGEROUS.

“Well that’s just ridiculous,” mumbled Sagar. “Stupid Imperials got their labeling mixed up.”

“They didn’t,” said Vish. “The boy used his powers in Ast. They know that he’s on the loose, they know he is on this continent, and they know he has flame projection abilities.”

“Well they didn’t need to add that ‘highly dangerous’ bit…” muttered Sagar.

“They clearly view those as more dangerous than wind projection,” Vish continued explaining, “and at least as dangerous as lighting projection.”

Sagar didn’t say anything.

Ryn could not keep a warm glow of satisfaction from lighting up his mind for a moment.

Just a moment.

“Well this just makes things even harder,” said Elrann. “What are we going to do about this?”

“There’s nothing we can do,” said Cid. “But it’s all the more reason to keep a low profile and find our disguises as soon as we can. Come on, let’s keep looking.”

They found what they were looking for soon after that, down another of the side streets.

“Stop,” hissed Cid all of a sudden, and held up his hand. “There. At last. Do you see them?”

He pointed. In the distance at the end of the enclosed, built-up street was a smaller group of Imperial soldiers out on patrol. Thankfully, they were walking away from Ryn and his companions, or else they would have been spotted, which probably wouldn’t end well—a patrol would surely not take kindly to a group of armed vagabonds wandering the streets of an occupied city at night. As usual, they wore the black plate armour and bucket-like helmets of all Imperial soldiers. Ryn did a quick count of them before the soldiers turned a corner down another street and disappeared from view.

“I counted five,” he said.

“Five is fine,” said Vish. “I can remain as I am. I look like an Imperial Shadowfinger. Because that is, after all, what I am.”

“Was,” said Nuthea.

Vish didn’t reply.

“Whatever,” said Sagar. “We’ll still need your help for this though, much as I hate to say it. Right, listen, here’s what we’ll do: They’ve just turned left down that street over there, so I reckon if we turn and go down there then our path will join up with theirs again and we can give them the jump.”

“Got it,” said Ryn, nodding with the others, happy to defer to the pirate’s wisdom in all matters of ambush, deception and theft.

They crept their way down the street that Sagar had indicated. The pirate whispered to them while they walked: “Now listen: They’re armed, of course, but I only saw swords—and none of them drawn at that. No bows or crossbows. They look completely off guard to me—it doesn’t seem like Sirra has put up much of a resistance to this invasion, or if it did then it’s clearly been crushed. So I don’t think they’ll be expecting us at all. This’ll be like harpooning a skywhale on a clear day. Now, woman, don’t go using those pistols of yours, as they’ll alert others to what we’re doing--”

“Well, obviously, said Elrann, rolling her eyes. “Do you think I was born yesterday, pirate-man? I’ve got almost as much skyship experience as you do. I’ll use my whip.”

“Good,” said Sagar, ignoring her jibes for once. “I’ve got my swords. Scumsucker, you’ve got your poison blade and…whatever else it is you’re carrying. Princess and old timer, you can stay in the back row, but you’ve got your lightning and your healing abilities if things go south—they shouldn’t, though.”

“Hey, what about me?” said Ryn.

The pirate glanced sidelong at him. “What about you, pup?”

“I can fight too.”

“You just try to stay out of the way and to not get hurt.”

Ryn’s irritation boiled over. “But I don’t want to stay at the back.” He heard himself saying it like a petulant child, but he couldn’t help it. “I want to be up front with you, Elrann and Vish. I’ve been practicing my swordsmanship with Cid.”

“Rrrr,” said Sagar under his breath. “Fine, pup. I suppose we could use one more up front, seeing as we’re trying to take down five of them. You’ve got your fire, I suppose, but we only want to use that in an emergency. Ok then; use that sword you took from the soldiers Vish killed back near Nonts. You think you can handle being up front after last time?”

“Yes,” Ryn said defiantly, trying not to pay attention to the memory of being impaled that flashed in his mind. If something went really wrong, Cid could always heal Ryn like last time. Although he wasn’t in a hurry to go through the experience of almost dying again.

“Good, I’m glad that’s settled, said Nuthea. But that’s still only four of you up front, when there are five soldiers. You’re still one short. I don’t want to use my lightning at all if I can help it, as it will attract attention. And you are only going to render them unconscious, aren’t you? You’re not going to kill them.”

“What?!” Said Sagar. He practically squeaked it, so loud that Cid said “Shhh!” and they froze in their tracks for a moment.

They waited to to hear if anyone had taken notice of them, to see if anyone would come running,.

Only the silence of the high-walled alley they were creeping down answered. Ryn exhaled relief.

“What?” Sagar said again, more quietly this time, as they resumed walking. “You can’t be serious, princess…”

“But I am,” said Nuthea. “No unnecessary deaths. The One would not approve. We only kill in self-defence, if we really have to.”

“That’s completely stupid,” said Sagar. “I’ve had enough of this One stuff…there’s no way we’re only knocking them out. We’ve got a much better chance of stealing their armour if we kill them first.”

“Captain Sagar, may I remind you that you are my escort on this mission? I am the one you are taking to Manolia.”

“So what?”

“So, if you don’t carry out my wishes, it may affect the amount and nature of your reward when you successfully deliver me back to my people.”

A muscle in Sagar’s jaw twitched. “Rrrrrrrrrrr.” That was a big one, thought Ryn. “Fine. We can aim to knock them out. But it’s not a precise art. If I accidentally kill one or two of them in the process, I can’t be held responsible.”

“That’s all I ask,” said Nuthea, tilting her head back with a flutter of her eyelids. “That you try.”

“What’s the best way to knock someone out?” Ryn asked, testing the weight of the Imperial sword in its scabbard and suddenly feeling even more out of his depth. His mouth had gone dry.

Sagar looked at him.

“What? I’ve never done it before.”

“Do you really need to ask, pup?” said Sagar. “You just hit them really hard in the head with the hilt of your sword or something. If we get this right, we’ll be pouncing on them from behind, so you should have plenty of time to aim. They shouldn’t see us coming. Easy pickings.”

“What about their helmets?

“If you hit them hard enough, you should be able to knock them out through their helmets. Or if you really want to you can get that off them first, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Ryn’s palms were clammy. He gripped the sword tighter. “Alright. But like Nuthea said, there’s still only four of us going in close, and five of them.”

“Oh, just leave that to me,” said Vish all of a sudden. “I can take out two of them at once. At least,” he added. Was he smirking underneath his face covering?

By now they had arrived at the end of the street, where it met the one they hoped the patrol they had spotted was now walking down at a right angle.

“Wait here,” said Sagar. “Get low.”

Ryn crouched with the others with their backs against the nearest building, keeping themselves from view to wait for the patrol to go past. The stone of the building was cold against his back even through his cloak. There wasn’t much light to see by here. He could hear Nuthea shivering slightly next to him. On his other side, Vish’s silhouette crouched perfectly still, like a cat waiting to pounce.

Sagar crept to the corner of the building and very slowly peeked his head round it with his good eye.

No sooner had he put his head round, than he drew it straight back again.

“Perfect,” he whispered with a wolfish grin. “They’re coming this way, just like we hoped. They didn’t see me. We wait here until they’ve gone past, then jump them from behind. Got it?”

Ryn nodded his silent assent with the others. They shuffled along the wall a little deeper into their own street to make sure they were as concealed as possible, keeping to the many available shadows.

“What if they turn down here?” whispered Elrann.

“It would be a pretty stupid patrol route if they did,” Sagar whispered back, “since it would only take them right back to where they were a little while ago. But if they turn down here, we jump them from the front. If that happens, it won’t be so easy just to ‘knock them out’, I can tell you that. Draw your weapons and wait for my signal.”

The secret scrape of three swords being slid quietly from their sheaths. Elrann rummaged in her overall and uncoiled her whip.

They waited.

And waited.

Just the dimness of the street.

Ryn suddenly became very interested in one particular cobblestone, and tried not to pay attention to his imaginations of the fight about to take place.

The soldiers’ faint footsteps came into earshot from around the corner, then slowly grew louder, along with their conversation.

“…has to be the easiest invasion the Empire have ever carried out.”

“I know. But we were starting from a pretty strong place to begin with. Imfis is a vassal state after all, and they don’t have anything in the way of an army.”

“Yeah, but I mean, even so, these people barely put up any resistance at all. Just a few boys and men with death wishes. The rest of them basically rolled over and died.”

The soldiers came into view now, all five of them in black plate armour, and…

…turned down the street that Ryn and his companions were waiting in.

Oh poodoo.