Outside the tower, a fire illuminated the otherwise dark forest clearing where our convoy had camped for the night. Around the fire, Man and seven other young men and women were talking to each other.

From what I could hear, Man was describing some part of his city in Leka An and everyone was engrossed in his narration. Unsurprisingly, he was praising the mesmerizing music and hypnotizing sweet spirits that the capital’s nightlife had to offer.

I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself, and I was enjoying eavesdropping on their conversation, so I decided to test my new hat and boots.

Sure enough, nobody noticed me as I jumped off the wagon and walked across the site toward the road in the direction of Sumalen. The great thing about the boots was that I didn’t need to be slow in order to be silent.

I thought about deactivating the hat’s invisibility, but decided against it as there may have been scouts about and I didn’t want to be seen by any patrols or watchtowers of the city. Thus, I continued my silent walk from the forest toward the road under the dim moonlight and then turned toward the city lights.

***

Once I reached the gates of Sumalen, I saw that they were open as usual and the guards were talking to each other casually. I had the feeling that I didn’t really need to enter the city like a thief, but as Kard said, it wouldn’t hurt me to be cautious. Once I was inside, and some safe distance away from the gates, I found a dark corner and flicked my hat to become visible again.

From what I remembered, my sister’s house was roughly ten minutes walking distance from the place that I was at the moment, so without further delay, I started casually walking there, trying to blend in with the rest of the city folk.

I recalled that Sumalen was a pretty large city, but I had never seen it at nighttime. The deeper I got into the city, the busier the streets became. There were many double-story buildings with big windows, bustling with people, drinking and talking to each other under dim yellow lights.

I took a right turn into one of the merchant’s districts and to my amazement, the street was illuminated with magical lamps and filled with people. Trying my best to look inconspicuous, I took off my hat and held it on my chest with my right hand.

Despite how uninterested and focused on walking I tried to look, three merchants still blocked my way and tried to offer me things.

They were selling charisma potions, jewelry and lastly—and perhaps most interestingly—a broom that cleaned by itself and had a life expectancy of three hundred years, or so said the bald man who tried to sell it to me.

I brushed them all off and continued walking, though the distractions of the magical marvels being flaunted at me and the sweet aromas of spices and delicious foods were difficult to ignore.

At the end of the street, I took a left and arrived at my sister’s little house. Its thin curtains blocked my view of the inside, but the light indicated that people were in.

I knocked twice and after a short delay, I heard running footsteps before the door was opened by a little girl.

She was a tiny thing, wearing a white dress with a thin white ribbon on her chest.

Name : Shona Leonil

Race : Human

Class : -

Level : -

Her green eyes were identical to my sister’s, though her silvery hair, which was held away of her face by two embroidered golden rings, was probably something she took from her father’s side. She was the sweetest and most innocent thing I had seen for a long while.

“Shona! How many times have I told you not to open the door without asking first?” The voice of my sister floated toward the door. “By The Divine, Adel? Is that you?”

Name : Smyrna Leonil

Race : Human

Class : Elementalist

Level : 36

I nodded, and couldn’t help but smile despite the news I brought. Smyrna was as beautiful as ever. She was still wearing her brown hair in thick dreadlocks, though they were much longer than the last time I saw her.

She had a yellow ribbon around the top of her head so that the big mass of hair would stay upright rather than fall over her face while the two tattooed white dots on her left cheekbone and the white line from the middle of her red lower lip down to her chin were now completely healed.

The last time I saw her, the tattoos were pretty fresh and I remembered our mother had deeply disapproved at the time, tattoos being rare in most parts of Elysia, but I always thought that they suited her. The memory made me smile.

Smyrna now looked at me with the large green eyes that Shona had inherited and immediately stepped out of the house, hugging me so hard that she almost pushed the air out of me.

“Oh, by The Divine, you have grown so much,” she said, as she kissed and hugged me repeatedly. “Come in, come in, don’t just stand there. Sit down here. Shona, sweetie, this is your uncle Adel.”

“Hello, uncle Adel,” the little girl said.

“Hello, Shona. It’s so nice to see you again,” I replied, playfully. “I saw you last when you were just a baby. You’ve grown so much since then!”

Shona was now acting shy and hid behind her mother’s leg for a few seconds before she ran off to the other end of the house and into one of the rooms.

“I won’t be staying long sister,” I told her, as soon as Shona disappeared.

“Nonsense,” my sister replied. “I haven’t seen you in ages. We have a lot to talk about.”

“We do. Is Jake here? I don’t want to make my presence in Sumalen too public. I’d prefer that as few people know as possible.”

She didn’t react immediately, but stood up, opened the door to the room where Shona was, told her something and then closed the door again.

“Jake isn’t living with us anymore,” she said, once she had sat back down at the table. “It was not meant to be. He moved out some years ago.”

“Smyrna, I’m sorry,” I took her hands in mine. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine. It’s been years since we split and things were much better after he left,” she said, with a smile on her face. “What about you guys? I tried contacting mom after I heard about the liturgy incidents but I couldn’t get hold of anyone. I’ve been worried.”

“That’s the reason I came here,” I said, and then lowered my eyes. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. “They’re all dead.”