“You're halfway there, Atjani.....” I think to myself. “Halfway to your dead best friend.”

I lean against a stone railing and let it cool my elbows. It was already chilly on the balcony, but I liked it on my arms. The bandage around my palm loosens and was starting to flutter. I had a view from my inn room. I decided to get a nice one in the Felokyle. The money I “stole” from Lam Lathi was a nice donation.

“Compliments of Alana Eloise,” I grin.

I look in the war zone in the distance. There were lines of smoke dissipating, like someone had taken chalk and powdered the air with stripes. Gunshots were in the non-pacified areas. I was safe here, but I could hear the skirmishes taking place across the way.

My eyes follow the windy sea cliffs outward to the areas that weren't pacified. Several shrieks dive into the air again. I wait for the explosions. I feel thunder in the distance, then under my feet. Smalls bits of dust shake from the building wall and I step away it.

I brush my shoulders off. It was time to take a closer look.

A long walk later, I move across the stone landscape. I could hear the static of an abandoned radio next a blinking visor. It was something the Neandelerians left behind. No one was home. This place was a mess.

I step around the carcass of a nearby home. I kick at some shale pieces around and hear them wobble. A skirmish had taken place here, probably to clear out Lam Lathi recruits.

“What a bad place to be caught in....”

I stay close the building line, avoiding the street. War destroyed peoples lives. If that didn't work, people did it to themselves. I look down at my bandaged hand and unwrap it. I draw a quick line with my knife and re-wrap my cloth. This place reminded me of the ruins of my home. Back then, it was Lam Lathi who dominated the area. It was funny how they were the resistance here.

The open street seemed to last forever. The morning fog and smoke made the unknown a little worse. I could hear gunshots in the distance and knew I had walked far enough.

Another home passes me as I take a peek around. I continue walking, until the sound of sobbing passes my left. I walk passed a destroyed home and see a young woman crying with her arms around her legs. She looks up and tries to smile at me. I walk on by.

“Freelancer. Some Felokyle tribe.”

I could tell by the way she dressed. Her tribal belt had different stones and her bandanna had a picture of moss painted down textured shale. Even her leather corset was dyed in pale blue, with areas rubbed off from trying to survive. I continue walking and brush my hand against the wall. I didn't have my rifle. I didn't want to be mistaken for a combatant. The street moves past my view as I approach the fog. I let out a sigh. I had to help her.

“Damn me.”

I run back to the sobbing woman. I re-enter the room and give brief smile back.

“Hey. We'll get out of here. I have an inn. In the safe zone. They'll let us in.”

The woman's eyes light up with disbelief and joy. She silently gives me her name. “Nelessi Ebrion.” I grab her arm and pick her up. “Atjani Kelsever,” I motion back. I lead Nelessi out of her dead home. I could tell it was her home because she had a chipped vase next to her. It had her tribal mark on it and it must have had sentimental value she was willing to die with. We head back to my inn room, when an electronic voices leaps out from the walls.

“You there. Stop.”

I look at some Neandelerians. There was a group of five and probably doing clean up work. Their equipment was camouflaged, blue like shale, with specks of white like sea shells. He moves toward me with his solid metal backpack adding noise to his heavy and clumsy steps. Inside the pack on his back were several rockets. I knew how it worked. I had seen them before. The pack was connected to his rifle with a wire. There was a blinking light on his rifle. At any moment, he could pull the lever on his backpack and launch a rocket into the air. His rifle could paint me and the shrieking projectile would blow me up.

I look around me, as my arms shake from another explosion in the distance. The Neandelerian warrior had four friends. They had machine guns and heavy body armor. I watch as their visors blink with lights and try to scan me. A rectangular pattern of green and magenta moves across the street. The colorful lights move all along the walls and split on the rubble. They reach me and Nelessi.

“I'm heading out,” I state.

The Neandeleria gives me a hard shove to instigate me to a fight. He wanted to shoot me.

“I'm fleeing,” I reiterate.

I wasn't sure if the soldier understood me, but he seemed to get the picture. I was fleeing with a woman who must have been my wife. We were both just trying to survive. The soldier nods at me. The detachment heads the opposite way into the fog. I feel a little relieved. Suddenly, I hear gunshots and wince.

Out of nowhere several Lam Lathi recruits leave their hiding places. They fire at he Neandelerians, sparking their heavy armor with their rapid gunfire.

I watched Lam Lathi fighters shoot from rooftops. Some have shields on their backs, as they lie prone, and give away their position with movement. Others were sniping around corners, with spurts of gunfire in orange and white. The Neandelerians take cover as the street is peppered, throwing up bits of stone into the air.

I look back in horror.

Other Neandelerian warriors enter the rubble, coming from the coastal area. Some were already sparking with bullet fire, saved by the thick armor they wore. Blinking lights on their visors lit up rectangular areas in front of them, as they cleared out another haven of Lam Lathi recruits with rapid gunshots. More rockets shriek, as more Lam Lathi soldiers run out of their hiding places. Bullets move up-and-down their heavy tower shields with sequenced clinks. Some of them get punctured, spraying blood from the body it was supposed to protect. The Lam Lathi recruits attacked in sync with the tempests, turning the Neandelerians against themselves.

I see a possessed Neandelerian shoot his own friend. He dies in a mist of blood. His armor is punctured and he falls to his knees, still gripping his helmet. Another explosion consumes my view and heat from fire rushes toward my face. The shrapnel pelts the wall near me and I instinctively curl against the wall. I open my eyes to stinging smoke. More loud gunshots echo above me.

I cover my ears and run with Nelessi. I grab her arm and squeeze and space my fingers separately, letting her know I wanted her to be “faster,” on her wrist. I let go of her, as the noise shakes us. A nearby building is pulverized in flame and smoke. The ground rumbles with deafening nose. I hear shrieking and stumble up against the next wall. When the noise settles, I motion Nelessi to chase me. I run faster, until we make it to the pacified area of the city. I slam into the fence at the gate and they let us in. I told the guards I'd be back.

Lam Lathi had an agreement with the tribes in my part of the city. Imperial soldiers and tempests wouldn't go there, keeping it free of violence. Their homes would be free of bloodshed and loyalties, allowing the Neandelerians to do as they pleased.

Back in my inn room, I bust open the door and take off my helm. I toss it on the ground as Nelessi observes her new surroundings. She seemed quiet and I liked it that way.

I pull her aside, as her feet try to keep up.

“Clean yourself up. Stay out of my stuff. Don't talk to me. I have enough of me to talk to,” I command with bitterness. I think about my possessor being who was off doing Atjani things like me. I didn't want to be annoyed by another unwanted voice. I had to get Lani's picture. That's what mattered. I wanted to get it over with and leave the Felokyle. I point to some food in my bag and at my extra water sack. I let Nelessi know that's all she gets for now.

Nelessi nods and tries to smile.

I stare and bat away her reaching hand. I didn't want her talking to me with touches. I didn't need her following me around either. This was only a temporary thing. I already had a best friend to save and look after. Nelessi was just a bigger mess to worry about. I look up at the stone ceiling.

“Just wait until Lani goes to sleep. No more of this,” I think.

I already knew what I planned to do. Lani wrote in her diary. She was sure to have plenty to write about here. I would wait for her mind to tire and steal her picture while she slept. She was in the room above me. I smile. Her friend Nathari had already left to fight in the skirmishes. Excluding her tempests, Lani was all alone.

I hear Nelessi turn the shower on. There was the rumble of a venting fan. It was technology the Neandelerians brought with them and was better than gathering water at the pump, or bathing naked in the rivers. I didn't like the smell of their soaps, though. The smells were foreign, unlike the incense in the streets of Mercyan that were like home to me.