“Dad! Wait—” Avalel cries out.

The soldiers fire. Immediately, the street is covered in smoke, rushing into their lungs. Avalel hears a high-pitched ring in his ears, his legs refusing to budge. Kavlina, too, is stunned in place for a moment, her eyes widening in fear.

They can’t see anything beyond their arms, the smell of burnt dust stinging their eyes, choking their throats. Avalel coughs, feeling the air wringing away from his lungs. Scrambling, he manages to cover his nose and mouth with his tunic, dampening it with his saliva.

A window shatters, then two, the shards falling to the ground. His legs finally move, snapping out of their frozen stance, but not from the sounds shocking them to movement. Rather, he feels a shadow appear before him, lifting him up away from the ground. He panics, flailing his arms about, but his legs are tightly held. Temporarily blinded by the dust, his tear ducts struggling to flush them out, he is completely helpless.

He bobs up and down as the person lifting him takes several swift steps before he hears the banging of a door against a wall. Immediately, he breathes, welcoming the cleaner air even as he coughs out clouds of dust. The person below collapses with a thud, allowing Avalel to roll off their back just as the door shuts again, blocking the dust from the outside.

He gasps, dirty tears flowing from his eyes as he slowly opens them, facing what seems to be the ceiling of a textiles shop. His body is surprisingly unscathed, thankfully. Slowly, he sits up, looking to his left to face Kavlina kneeling on the floor, wheezing, still coughing out the dust from her lungs as she supports herself with her arms. From the gaps in her hair, Avalel notices the unnaturally pale color of her cheeks and neck. Her back is surprisingly dusty yet not in a uniform layer, the dust clumped up into strips, stubbornly stuck to her clothing.

Wait…

Avalel quickly goes over to her, strongly patting her back as more clouds of dust are puffed out. Gradually, her breathing returns to normal as she stands up, wiping away the tears from her watery eyes. The coughs are no more, her face shifting away from their previously pale color.

“Kavlina—”

She takes a look at him. “Thanks.”

“But didn’t you—”

“There should be some small pieces of cloth here.” Without even waiting for his response, Kavlina begins exploring the shop, searching for any item that might be of use. Avalel sighs, his eyes occasionally darting to the windows of the shop as he makes his over to assist his friend.

It’s perhaps just how Kavlina is. She simply acts, rarely speaking her mind. Despite suffering from the dust herself earlier, she still had Avalel in her mind, carrying him into this shop. And Avalel himself? The thought of Kavlina never even came across his mind back then, his mind preoccupied with his own peril. Even now, he’s only following her lead, being a burden to her as they temporarily take shelter and wait for Faresoenn… If he manages to survive, that is.

“I’m supposed to protect you…” he mutters.

“You can do that later,” Kavlina answers. “I also have an obligation to protect you in return, right? Anyways, stop mumbling and come help me find something able to block out that dust.”

Her voice is rushed, her hands roughly rummaging through the piles of textiles and cloth as the sounds of gunfire continue to rattle the shop’s walls. As Avalel joins her side, he notices the tension on her face is becoming evident, although still stubbornly repressed as much as possible. She rubs her eyes for a moment before quickly resuming her work, scrambling for just something that might be useful.

Faresoenn is out there along with the village council, facing the soldier’s rifles head-on. They didn’t have the time to run. They weren’t even given the chance to run.

Are they… Avalel shakes his head. He can’t allow himself to think such morbid thoughts. Yet variations of the same imaginary scene replay in his head. Shot to pieces, a single blast to the head, collapsing the buildings, a charge… He can’t stop himself from imagining the worst.

I should’ve helped. Why am I hiding? What am I doing? I should’ve done something. What could I even do? Nothing. I could do nothing. I can’t leave him. I ran away. What does that make me? Useless. Then what am I even here for—

“Calm down, Lel,” Kavlina says, her eyes still fixated on the increasingly messy pile of textiles. Kavlina, bearing the same anxiety as him, yet still focusing on the task at hand. Her hands, although shaking, still steadily search for a piece of small cloth that they can use instead of the layers upon layers of thick textiles.

“Just do what you can,” she adds.

Avalel nods. There is no point in fearing the worst that’s already happened. Taking a deep breath, he soon rejoins the effort. He suddenly notices a rather unappealing, simple shape among all the elaborate patterns, not too different from the clothes he’s wearing. After some struggle, he frees the cloth from its beautiful prison, raising it in triumph for Kavlina to see.

“That’s it!” he exclaims. The piece of cloth, torn off from perhaps a larger whole, is completely undecorated and devoid of any bright colors. Despite holding such an unassuming appearance, the cloth is light, easily able to be folded and wrapped around the neck, covering the mouth and nose.

Without any hesitation, Avalel hands the cloth to Kavlina. “Take this as thanks from earlier,” he says, a bright smile forming on his face.

“And you?”

“I’ll just keep on searching,” he says. “I seem to have better luck finding things like that today, don’t I?” Compared to his fright and worry earlier, Avalel feels far more calm now. Faresoenn told them to protect themselves, didn’t he? This is the least he can do. Even if he fails to find something similarly useful, then at least Kavlina—

“It stopped,” Kavlina notes. The streets have become quiet once more, the dust beginning to settle down on the ground. Gradually, the damaged walls of the buildings come into their view, the silhouettes of those soldiers becoming discernable once more. And on the other side… stands Faresoenn and the village council, completely unharmed.

“How…” Kavlina’s voice trails off, her mouth open in pleasant shock.

In fact, as the air becomes clearer again, they see that Faresoenn is completely unscathed, with not even a speck of dust touching him or the council. Although he’s sweating profusely, there are no visible wounds anywhere on his body. As Avalel squints, he can even make out a slight distortion in his vision, as if some kind of invisible wave is just leisurely travelling past the group of people.

“I’m surprised you held out for this long, Faresoenn,” the lead soldier says, masking his irritation. “Aren’t you tired of blindly protecting others?”

“This village will not be turned into some kind of military base,” Faresoenn says bluntly. “I don’t know how you and your company managed to stumble upon it, but you all need to leave. There is nothing here for you to loot and burn.”

“Just how much do you despise your old job, Faresoenn?” the soldier asks, emphasizing Faresoenn’s name. “Have you forgotten who you were?”

“Who I was? I remember it. Quite well, in fact. Nineteen years of serving my King. I’ve been in the royal guard before you were even born, probably.” Faresoenn chuckles. “The loyalty so ingrained within myself I still cannot forget him, even when all of you already have.”

“Do you not recognize the blood on your hands?” the soldier says mockingly. “And you preach about peace. Ha! Even a dunce back then would be aware of your actions as the Captain!”

“I kill for the sake of protecting my King,” Faresoenn answers. “He is dead, so I have no reason to kill anymore. And what about you? Does serving that traitor bring some satisfaction into your life?”

“How are you so sure the ‘traitor’ you mention and the Common Leader that I serve are the same? Besides, you and I possess the same loyalty to our respective leaders, don’t we? We are not here to kill you or any of the villagers. However, if you choose to continue stubbornly stand in our way…” He raises his rifle again. “We will kill you all. And it’ll be your fault, Faresoenn.”

“And what makes you think your weak guns can penetrate my barrier?”

“You’ll eventually die if you exert yourself too much, won’t you?” the soldier casually mentions. “The Common Leader has mentioned that about… magic users to us, you know.”

Faresoenn jolts. “Why would he—”

“He has already told the entire army of wanting to create at least a company of magic users, or mages as they used to be called. I’m just surprised one of his former comrades can use magic, and at such a high level too. Your green eyes… You are a member of the forester race, aren’t you? And so are the people of this village. All of you can use magic, right? Like the descriptions in those ancient texts the Common Leader so kindly allowed the military exclusive access to. The texts praised the mages, having such short lifespans yet so powerful, providing so much for the world… It’s a waste for you to just rot here.”

“You and the army… You all are simply delusional.” As Avalel looks on, Faresoenn’s barrier begins to strengthen, the waves beginning to rock more violently, distorting their views even further.

“Are you seriously thinking of exerting your all just to temporarily halt a hundred of us?”

Faresoenn takes a breath. “Avalel, Kavlina, wherever you are… leave this place. I don’t know why you are still nearby, but please… leave.” His voice is pained yet determined, filled with so many words unspoken. The village council has already left, fleeing back to their homes.

“Even now, you still think of those children?” the soldier says. “It’s not as if we want to kill them, but if they are caught in the crossfire, is it truly our fault?”

“Go back home,” Faresoenn says, ignoring the soldier. “I’ll return soon. If you’re afraid, there’s always that big torch in my room. Light it up if you need to.”

Avalel, still hunkered up in the shop, hesitates. I can’t just run. There must be something I can do, right?

“You’ll only be a burden if you stay here,” Faresoenn says harshly.

A burden. That’s what Avalel is now. A burden with no way to help the situation. All those words on protecting Kavlina before, only to be protected and saved instead by her. At the core, he is still just a weak boy, a liability to others despite all his efforts.

“Go,” Kavlina whispers, waking him from his trance. “You heard the Old Man. Trust in your father, alright?”

Reluctantly, Avalel nods. Quietly pushing open the door, they depart cautiously, careful not to cause too big of a sound. Avalel turns his head back every once in a while, seeing Faresoenn’s toughened face, his serious expression so alien. Just like four years ago.

He can only wait at home now.

The two of them are gone, leaving only Faresoenn facing the company of soldiers. Instead of a grim expression, he smiles, feeling his body growing stronger by the moment as he channels his energy. There is no holding back now. The streets are emptied. There is no one he has to worry about nearby. He can finally unleash it now.

“I thank you for allowing the two children and the civilians to depart this area,” he says. “Maybe I’ve misjudged your character.”

“As I told you repeatedly, we are not here for a massacre,” the soldier replies. “But since you are so adamant in resisting us… We can only get rid of such an annoying obstacle.” They point their rifles at Faresoenn, the first few rows of soldiers immediately lining up their shields into a strong wall.

“So begins our battle, Faresoenn, former Captain of the Achien Empire’s royal guard,” he announces.

“So it begins.”