He was out of his depth as he strolled through the city. Kin had never seen so many people bustling around. Many Red Phoenixes grace the streets but Kin noticed the glowing eyes of the other tribes as well. Cobbled stones make roads for carts to travel down. Even more interesting were the separate paths for people. This allowed them to travel without worrying about traffic. And the buildings, he couldn't believe his eyes. This cluster was very different from Rootford which was more spread out. Hearstville had the buildings in a much tighter formation and they seemed laid out with care. He had to wonder where the stone used to make the temple came from. Someone had carved each block by hand from a stone.

Kin arrived in the main square and found an area roped off for a market. Nearby is large building with a sign reading 'Town Hall'. Men and Women were browsing the wares in the market and he saw coins and sometimes goods changing hands. Kin forced his eyes away from the market and the temptation to check out the wares himself. He scanned the area for the temple. Sure enough, he spotted a large building with a silver lion statue on the roof not far away. The building was made from carved stone and Kin had to wonder where the stone was cut from.

With a sigh of relief, he strolled over to the temple. He had to walk up five large steps to reach the wooden double doors. He paused to examine the surface of the wood. There were carvings of all four Guardians: Eagle, Lion, Elk, and Dolphin. He hesitated for a moment before grasping the door on the left and pulling the door open. The inside of the temple was beautiful. Woven rugs that match the colors of the Guardians decorate the floor. Pews lined up on either side of the aisle that ran up to a raised area where sat six pedestals.

At the back of the wall sat a statue of a white bird, her wings pulled in at her sides. This was the Lady, the goddess of light. Flanking her on her left is Leo the Silver Lion and Xernas the Golden Elk. On her right sat Aquatis the Emerald Dolphin and Godfrey the Sapphire Eagle. Finally, before her was an empty pedestal. Kin felt a sorrow pass through him as he stared at the vacant space. Why did he feel such remorse at the sight?

"So, you feel it too? The wrongness of the empty pedestal?" A feminine voice asked from his left. If he had not been feeling so off, he would have jumped out of his skin at this but all he can do is a nod in agreement.

"Yes, I cannot put my finger on it. I feel so sad looking at it." He turned to find a young girl who looked no older than nine. The girl had red hair as well as the red eyes of their people. Her skin was fair and she was the same height as Kin. She wore a simple woven tunic and pants.

"You aren't the only one, friend. Are you here to see the cleric?"

Kin gave the girl a gentle smile. "Yes, I'm here to request aid from the temple."

He noticed the girl look him up and down, noting his sword. "Ever use that blade?" The question was a little blunt but he could tell she was curious and not hostile.

"A couple of times," He admitted, "and I will again soon. That's part of the reason I've come."

The girl motions to a door off to the right of the statues. "Come on then, the Sister will want to see you. She is teaching the youngest right now, so we might have to wait a moment."

"That's fine, thank you for helping me." This earned him a smile from the girl before she led him to the door.

The door opened and Kin followed the young girl into the room. He saw ten boys and girls of various ages sitting crossed-legged in the middle of the room. They listened in rapt attention to a young woman. Her hair was curly blonde and she has red eyes. She must have had some Green Phoenix blood, cause her skin had a tinge of the olive color they were famous for. Her cheeks look puffed out like she was always pouting. She wore a simple white robe and has a holy symbol made of all four Guardians. Kin knelt to listen as the women told a familiar story.

"In the first era of our world, there were many terrible wars fought among the people of the world. Yet, some of the people wanted to live in peace without the threat of violence and bloodshed. These people came together and tried to find a new home, but many obstacles tried to stop them. When they were about to give in to despair, four powerful elementals appeared before them. These four elemental lords, the kings, and queens of their elements, took pity on them. They respected the people's desires for peace and offered them their protection. The people were desperate and agreed. At this moment, the contract was sealed. Each of those present received the blessing of their elemental Guardian. The element they resemble most. Even to this day, we bear the marks of this contract in our eyes."

The cleric points to her blazing red eyes, the light dancing like flames.

"Anyone that remains faithful to the Guardians has this mark upon them."

One of the children raised a hand. "Sister, we have a strange visitor." He pointed to Kin, who saw all the kids looking at him in interest. "Why are his eyes different?"

The cleric chuckled. "So we do, Erik. And do not be rude to our guests. Why don't you kids go and play for a little while I see what this warrior needs? Cin, you are in charge." Kin's escort nodded before stepping towards the circle. She rose and rushed the children from the room. Once they were alone, the cleric rose and stepped forward to look at Kin. "Very curious, I have never met anyone with glowing white eyes before."

Kin grimaced, he was quite used to strangers getting stuck on his eye color. "Neither have I and I would quite like some answers to that one day."

The cleric clicked her tongue in disappointment. "Pity. If you do ever figure it out I would like to know. Still, I can feel you are a faithful servant of the Lady and the Guardians. My name is Hillevi, cleric of the Four Guardians. How can I help you, my child?"

"My name is Kin Hearthstone, I'm here on a mission to stop a bandit threat in the Dale. My companion, Hugh, asked me to recruit a cleric for our mission."

Hillevi seemed to be debilitating this when a tiny girl came through the still-open door. She had raven-black locks and sapphire eyes of a Blue Phoenix. She looked like Nami had in their youth.

"Sister," The girl wails, "Mister Leo is missing. I can't find him."

The cleric looked at Kin who shrugged. "That sounds serious. Why don't you go help her while you think about it? I want to get another look at the statues in the meantime." This earned him a grateful look from the woman who rose with the girl's hand in her own.

"You're a thoughtful soul, Kin. I will be back soon."

Hillevi and her ward walked out into the temple, followed by Kin who returned to the statues. He sat down in the front row of pews and studied the art. The Leo here was much nicer than the statue back in the temple in Rootford. He was enjoying this quiet moment as he waited. The trip here had already taken him further than he had ever traveled. He was glad to have a moment to process things. The doors to the temple swung open and his ears picked up a metallic clink, ending the silence.

He stood and turned, finding a man in red trousers and a vest with a white shirt underneath. He had a thin sword hanging from his left hip making the clink. The man was blonde with a wispy mustache and beard. His cheeks were sunken in and his eyes were a dull blue, not the glowing sapphire he saw when he looked at Nami. Behind the man, strutted two familiar faces. It was Toothless and Scar from Rootford. Both had new swords in their hands.

"A quaint place here." Remarked the mustached man. "A perfect place for a Shade Shard."

The three men paused as Kin stepped out into the aisle before them, drawing his sword from his back. Toothless screamed as he pointed a shaking finger at him. "Sir, that's the guy that chased us out of Rootford."

Scar scowled and went to draw his scimitar when the mustached man held up a hand. "Hold up a moment. You two already failed to take care of this young man. I will deal with him."

Toothless flushed red in anger. "Sir, this guy is no big deal. Let us redeem ourselves by taking him out."

The man turned and slapped Toothless across the face with a sickening sound. Kin saw Toothless fallback and clutching his face.

"Do not presume to question me, trash. You two will walk out of here and let me handle this. Unless you want me to warm up on your sorry carcasses first?"

The goons paled and both rushed out of the temple. The blonde man clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Many apologies you had to witness that, young man. Good help is so hard to find these days. Now, may I trouble you to step out of the way? There is no need for this to get nasty."

Kin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, cause I believe that. I'm not letting you put one of those evil shards down here as you did in Shore Village."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Ah, you came from Rootford so you likely came upon the ruins of that settlement. Tell me boy, how many victims did that shard get?"

Kin gulped, taken aback the man would ask him this. "I'm under no obligations to answer that, you psycho. I will fight you, villains, where ever you go." He leveled his sword into a defensive stance.

The bandit drew his sword, it was a light blade with a razor-sharp edge. "Very well then, boy. I will have to force an answer out of you before I take your life."

Kin took a deep breath and pushed the fear away, letting his mind fill with calm determination. He and the bandit swordsman stood facing for a moment before they rushed at each other. The man was fast but nowhere near as fast as Gami. He took great pleasure at his enemy's shock as his first stab hit only air. He then turned and slashed at the exposed chest of his foe.

The man grunted and jumped to the side, his leg smacking into a pew. Kin did not miss this opportunity and struck at the man twice more. The bandit caught the first blow on the guard of his sword and twisted to avoid the second. He then pressed his advantage. Forced on the defensive, he moved the sword to one hand and used it to pivot and dodge the onslaught. But he misjudged the last dodge and felt the blade nick his side.

He gritted his teeth at the pain but it was a minor cut. He parried the next blow, pushing the man's sword back. The bandit stepped back in surprise.

"I'm surprised you can counter my strength, boy. Whom did you train with?"

Kin scoffed as he returned to a defensive stance. "Again, I've no obligations to answer you."

"You're no fun." The bandit jumped at him and the fight resumed.

Kin deflected the man's next series of attacks, trying to find an opening in his guard. The issue was, despite not being at the level of his teachers, his opponent was an amazing swordsman. He was not ready for this level of the fight yet. He needed something to turn the tides in his favor. He knew exactly what he needed and made a feint. He pretended to attack the bandit's head and then swung for the leg instead. Or that was the plan if he had not been a tad too late pulling back. The bandit blocked his blow and then struck him in the left shoulder with the blade.

Kin cried out in pain at the cut and jumped back into a pew to gain some distance from his foe. This turned out to be a mistake as the man kicked the pew and sent him flying back onto the ground. He landed hard and felt the wind knocked out of him. The bandit began to advance on him but paused when he saw him gasping for breath on the ground.

"Finished already, boy? If you know what's good for you, you will stay down. I don't know what you were thinking, going after the boss when you are not even ready for a fight with me. You're better off not going to the abandoned fort. Tell me what I want to know and you might live. First, though, I am going to plant this shard."

The man took a black shard from inside his vest and began to walk over to where the empty pedestal sat. The man went to place the shard on the pedestal. Then, a wave of dizziness came over Kin. It was like a voice was roaring in his ears.

'Do not let him defile my shrine. Strike him down.'

The voice was angry but also felt familiar to Kin in some way though he was unsure where he had heard it. He wanted to help, but he was struggling to breathe. Then he felt something digging into his side from his coat. Looking, he found one of Nami's throwing knives tucked away inside it. His hand grabbed the throwing knife and he sent a breathless prayer to Godfrey as he hurled it. Not at the bandit though. He aimed at the shard.

The man was laughing as he almost pressed the shard to the pedestal right as the dagger slammed into it. Kin took great pleasure in seeing the man's face turn into a mask of horror as the shard crumbled into dark dust. The throwing knife fell from the remains of the shard. It clattered to the ground before it too dissolved. The blonde man looked down at him, unchecked rage in his eyes.

"Boy? I guess I am going to have to make your death painful after all." The man strolled down from the dais and drew his sword again. Kin reached for his sword but his body was not responding well and the man kicked the blade away from its owner. The man raised the sword, he could see the point of the sword glinting as he prepared to stab.

"Well boy, any last words? Any prayers to those heathen gods of yours?"

The man began to stab down when he stopped, turned, and deflected a blast of silver light aimed at his heart. Kin glanced up and saw the Cleric was back, her hands glowing silver with radiant light.

"How dare you waltz in and start a fight in this sacred place?"

The man grunted and sheathed his sword. "You got off lucky today, boy. Next time we meet, you're dead."

The man took out a small pouch and tossed it to the floor.

"Kin, avert your eyes." The cleric yelled and he moved his head and shut his eyes when the world was full of brilliant light. When the light faded, the blonde man was gone, the doors to the temple slammed shut. Kin tried to push himself to his feet to follow. There was a sharp pain from his wounded shoulder, and with a cry, he fell to the floor again.

There were hasty footsteps and then a hand touched the aching spot. Warmth flowed through his body. Kin looked up and found the cleric standing over him, her hand glowing silver as it touched his shoulder. The pain reduced first to a dull throb and then vanished. He sat up and checked his side and found the nick was gone as well as the bruise from the monster.

"There we go, that should sort you out. Now, you will likely have a scar on your shoulder. My magic can heal wounds but the bigger ones will leave marks." The holy woman smiled as she offered a hand. Kin grabbed it and let her pull him to his feet.

"Thank you. I appreciate your helping me like that. He was pretty angry when I broke that crystal." He shuddered, his mind wandered back to the man drawing back his hand to stab him.

"It was no problem, Kin. I am only sorry it took me so long to reach you. I had to secure the children before I could come to help."

Kin shook his head. "No, no. I can't fault you for that, don't worry. I had faith you would make it in the end. I couldn't let them plant one of those foul shards in the temple."

"Shards?" Hillevi asked, her voice confused. "What shards?" Kin pushed himself to his feet before he responded.

Kin righted the pews that he had knocked over when he went flying from the bandit's kick. He then told Hillevi about what had happened in Shore Village. As he finished, Hillevi paced with a shock that gave way to anger.

"How dare they, using dark magic to attack the Dale. Usually, bandits are just lost souls down on their luck but these are bordering on evil."

Kin gave a grateful nod. "Yes, that is what my friend Hugh said as well. He said they were hurting the natural order and needed to be stopped."

"Your friend is a wise man," Hillevi noted. "I agree though, they need capturing or putting down. You can count me in on your mission to stop this bandit king. Give me some time to get things arranged here and I will be free to go with you. Though, I will be limiting myself to healing the wounded."

Kin brought his fist to his chest in salute. "That's perfect. Thank you again for saving my life from that man, I did think I was going to die there for a moment."

The cleric smiled and returned his salute. "Think no more of it child. You fought for the temple and I'm sure the Guardians will take note. Be careful next time you face him. It worries me that a man that strong is not the leader."

"Yeah, that has me concerned too. I'll let Hugh and my partner Nami know what is going on. I also found the location of the bandit base, so that is something at least."

Hillevi's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, that was a good tidbit of information you got there. Go on, I have things to do here. I will catch up with your group tomorrow."

Kin and Hillevi shook hands and he headed off back outside the temple. As he stepped out, he saw Toothless and Scar standing under a tree, waiting for him. He raised an eyebrow and walked towards the ruffians.

"What are you two still doing here?" Kin asked them in confusion.

Scar reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, our leader ran off without us, didn't even look back at us. Plus with the way he treated us there, we decided to quit the gang together. Screw the lot of them. We signed up for plunder and stuff, not this shard nonsense."

Toothless nodded at Scar's words and added. "Yeah, that backhand hurt. So, we decided to cut off on our own."

Kin glared at the men and they squirmed under the glint. "So, why are you waiting here for me then? Shouldn't you have already run for it?"

"Yes, well we considered that. But no one has ever survived a battle with Colborn before. We want you to get revenge for the way he treated us when we worked for him." Scar spoke as he took Toothless' hand and rubbed it. Kin realized at that moment that they two were more than mere allies.

"I should turn you into the guards for your crimes." Kin stated, he crossed his arms before his chest.

"And we would deserve that," Toothless agreed, "but we have information to offer in trade for our freedom. You spared our lives back there in Rootford, and we realized if we had gone up against the Doves we would both be dead. We owe you one. We tried to pay you back by fighting you in there while Colburn left to plant the shard elsewhere. We didn't think he would challenge you himself."

Scar grunted in agreement. "We are sorry about that. How about it kid. You let us go, and in return, we tell you about a secret to winning the battle."

Kin pondered for a moment before taking a deep breath. Every instinct told him to find a Dove and turn these two in. But he wanted to save as many lives as possible. He made a decision, one he hoped he would not regret. "Fine. I will let you two go this time. But if I ever hear that any one of your descriptions hurts innocent people, I will hunt you both down. Do I make myself clear?"

Scar and Toothless gulp. "We promise to do our best." Scar said after a brief conversation between the two.

Kin sighed, this was the best he was going to get most likely. "Alright. What is the secret?"

***

Kin felt a weight on his heart as he walked away from Scar and Toothless. His unease at the deal he had struck with the two men sat deep in his stomach. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He shook his head to dispel his thoughts. This deal would lead to many lives being saved and he could not ask for more. He had tried to ask the duo about the shards but they had been unable to tell him anything more. They had placed them in many villages over the past few weeks though which worried him. Once he had passed the market again, he started to head towards the direction Hugh had indicated the inn was in. His progress came to a halt when he saw a crowd around a raised platform. Curiosity piqued, Kin headed over to join the growing crowd of men and women.

On the platform, stood a bronzed skin man with the green glowing eyes of the Green phoenix. He was dressed in leather gear, reminding him of the Dove outfit Gami wore. Kin's eyes slid to the left and his great surprise found Nami. She was standing just a little ways behind the man as he spoke.

"Fellow Heartsville residents," The man began. "For the past several months, we have been plagued by bandit attacks. They attack our traders or our homes. Fathers have to worry about their daughters getting abducted. In the last month alone, we have lost twenty men and women to their attacks!"

While the man was talking, Kin noticed an older woman crying in the crowd. Several other people nod or even shake their fists in anger. The man allowed them to express themselves for a moment before holding up a hand. Silence fell onto the crowd.

"And if that was not bad enough, now they unleash unnatural beasts onto our sister communities. This must stop, we can no longer respond to their attacks as they come. Now is the time for action. We need to go out and put a stop to them once and for all."

Mummers spread throughout the crowd as people looked confused. Once more he held up his hand for silence and soon the crowd obliged.

"I will learn their location soon so we can launch an attack but I am going to need your help. I don't have the Doves to launch an attack, and we really could use your help. I understand though if anyone wants to sit this out. But for any children of fire out there that are sick of this plague on our people! I urge you to come to the Dove camp and give your name. We will call on you all when the time for the attack comes. Together, we will show those scum that they cannot have their way with our home."

The crowd erupted in applause. Kin noticed several men and women both heading off together towards the Dove camp. He waited until the crowd thinned and approached the old woman that had stopped crying. The woman turned her blazing eyes on the swordsman. "You looked kitted up for war. Make them pay for abducting my granddaughter, young man."

Kin pressed his fist to his chest and inclined his head. Fire burned in his chest as bright as any Red Phoenix eyes. "Can do ma'am. I'll carry your anger to their doors."

The woman pulled him into a hug. "Thank you." She let him go and took her leave. Kin smiled and headed up to the platform.

"Kin," Nami exclaimed and rushed over to hug him. He smiled as he embraced his partner.

"Hey, I see you found the Dove captain." He stepped back and looked at the man on the stage again. "Come on, I got news for the captain."

Kin smirked at Nami's surprise and led the way up onto the platform. The bronzed skin man looked over as Kin and Nami approached.

"Ah, you must be the partner I heard about?" The captain holds a hand out and Kin clasped arms with him.

"Aye, that's me. I heard your speech as I came from the temple. It was moving, sir."

The man laughed and wrapped an arm around Kin's shoulder. "Call me Dyric, since we are comrades at arms."

Kin was a bit surprised by Dyric's arm around his shoulders. He seemed friendly enough so allowed the touch. "Sure, Dyric."

"Great," The older man smiled. "So, did you get a cleric to agree to help us?"

"I did yes, but I have something else to report."

"Oh, what did you find out?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I learned where the base is. But not just that. I learned a secret about their base too."