The third army gathered in the outer courtyard of the headquarters in Sutra. General Ahri, her Commanders, and their squires stood on a platform facing the knights, each squire standing behind their superior. The early sun shined at the gathered knights from behind. Ahri squinted as she spoke. “We are going to bring the fight to Akar,” she raised her voice to the one thousand knights. “We will strike them at their home.” She could hear the whispers of the gathered knights getting louder every second. Ahri raised a hand, and the courtyard grew quiet. “More of our brothers and sisters will be joining us on the journey. Your superiors will know where you are assigned.” Ahri’s gaze wandered on the knights below, allowing the silence to build. “We depart in an hour,” she said before turning to leave. She was never gifted at motivational speech. “Follow me, Elnor,” Ahri said to her Commander as she walked past her. “Your squire can wait in the courtyard.”

Elnor saluted and turned to Nevan, who nodded without looking at her. She followed Ahri into the General’s office. Ahri entered first, followed by Elnor, who closed the door behind her.

“Have you observed anything suspicious about your squire?” Ahri asked without preamble, not bothering to take a seat behind her desk.

“You think he’s working for Akar?” Elnor asked, raising both her eyebrows.

Ahri did not answer immediately but stared at Elnor instead. The two master sorcerers stood in silence for a moment, each of them arranging their thoughts. Ahri finally spoke, “I’m not sure.”

“I can assure you he isn’t working for Akar,” Elnor replied.

“With the condition, we found him in. I am leaning towards the same opinion.” Ahri pinched the bridge of her nose. “But something isn’t adding up. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?” she rhetorically asked. “He was the first Akar’s prisoner that ever made it back,” Ahri raised a finger. “But the most concerning is that he showed up in Fort Darah.”

Elnor raised her chin in thought.

“You can see now why this would confuse many. Tell me, Elnor, what has he told you about his escape?” Ahri asked.

“Not much.” Elnor felt her breathing getting heavy. “The topic hasn’t come up in conversation. Is this a very pressing concern?”

“No,” Ahri shook her head. “Not right now, at least. But getting to the bottom of it sooner would be preferable than later. The current story is that he was part of our envoy returning from our eastern neighbors but had gotten separated when bandits ambushed them. Only a few of us know the truth. But words will inevitably travel, and it would be better to have the facts before then.”

“I understand, General, “ Elnor saluted.

“Good,” Ahri nodded. “Keep him close to you.” She looked outside through the window towards the bustling knights outside below her. “Let’s go.”

The two exited the fortress, where they separated ways. Nevan had trailed Elnor as she made her way towards the stables. They had not spoken since what had happened a couple of hours ago. Elnor looked towards the courtyard where Ahri had begun the march of the gathered knights. “Arm yourself,” she held a leather bag towards her squire without turning to look at him.

“Yes, ma’am,” Nevan replied, taking the bag containing the war hammers his superior had commissioned for him.

They each mounted a horse and left the fort. “We’re going to travel via ship and provide support from the sea,” Elnor said as they galloped towards the docks. “The majority of our army will be sailing with us. It would typically take a few weeks to reach Akar’s port city of Palu. However, we estimate that it’ll only take at most two weeks this time.”

Nevan did not respond. His hands were itching to grab the hammers on his belt and return them to Elnor. But he knew he would never do such a thing. They were the only two that were making their way towards the docks.

“Ahri and the small army that you had seen just now will sneak their way through the land.” Elnor continued. Her squire stayed quiet; only the galloping of their horses filled the air. As they neared their destination, Elnor spoke. “We need to talk,” she said without looking back at Nevan.

“I won’t betray you,” Nevan spoke monotonically.

Elnor nodded and left it at that. She wondered if she would have felt better if Nevan had tried to kill her. She deserved nothing less from him anyway. They reached the docks and dismounted their horses, and Nevan led the horses towards the stables while she met with one of the ship’s captains.

“Admiral Elnor,” He saluted.

As the highest-ranking knight in this army, she had been promoted to Admiral by de facto. Elnor noticed the amber crystal strapped onto his chest. There was a symbol she did not recognize carved onto it. She had a similar one on her shoulder guard. One of their new invention thanks to the information contained in the scroll they had stolen from Akar.

“I’m Captain Likas, and I’ll be sailing with you.” He pointed to one of the larger carrier ships.

“Change of plans, Captain,” Elnor replied. “I’ll be sailing with my squire on one of the destroyers. We’ll guard you against whatever creature we might encounter on the journey.”

The Captain stood straighter and saluted. “Of course, Admiral. Which ship would you like?”

“The one that will be sailing in the most front.”

Elnor sailed on a ship called Hantam. The name of the boat meant to strike. ‘Fitting for a destroyer,’ Elnor thought. There was at least one master sorcerer onboard each vessel in their armada of one hundred ships. The newly fashioned power stones meant the water elementalists could work day and night without exhausting themselves. They sailed fast, and the displaced water roared around them.

It was late at night as she lay on the bed of her cabin. There was another bed inside for her squire, but Nevan had chosen to sleep outside. The ocean was dangerous, and the sailors thought that she had placed Nevan outside on purpose to show that she was always looking after them. But Elnor knew better.

The ships’ bell rang, and she heard a knock on her door. Nevan entered. “Nyi Loro Kidul,” he said to her.

“Alright,” she replied as she got up from her bed and made her way towards Hantam’s deck. She did not bother bringing Peacebringer with her. She could see the creature floating not far in front of them from the deck. It had a shape of a beautiful woman wearing a green kebaya. Usually, it would be wearing a long golden skirt, but everyone could see her long snake-like bottom half underneath the moonlight. Elnor transmuted tenaga and unleashed it into the air. As the other master sorcerers in the armada felt her power, they followed suit. The creature immediately dived into the water, afraid of the power it had felt. “Let me know if there’s another one,” she said to Nevan as she passed him on the way back to her cabin. He nodded in return.

Elnor turned to face Nevan before entering her cabin, and they locked eyes. His eyes did not gleam anymore, she realized. They were dark, sucking in any light that dared to approach into the abyss. Nevan tried to keep his expression calm, but he failed as he stared back at Elnor. He felt his lips uncontrollably curled into a frown as he fixed on her bright grey eyes.

“I know,” she said plainly, as she shut her cabin door to catch some needed sleep.

Nevan watched Elnor as she closed the door behind her. He frowned, unable to control the inner turmoil inside him. ‘Why?’ he asked himself. ‘Why was Fate so cruel towards him.’

Elnor jolted up from her sleep as she felt the boat rock suddenly. The bells rang, and she heard the yells of the sailors outside. “Baya!” the voice of one of the sailors shouted. Elnor brought Peacebringer with her as she made her way out. She first saw Nevan standing on the ship’s bow, a hammer in each hand, watching something far in the distance. She saw that he did not hold the expression of someone readying to fight, but instead the melancholic face of someone observing something so excruciatingly beautiful.

Captain Likas, who had joined Elnor on Hantam out of respect of her rank, immediately rushed to her from the center of the deck. She turned to see what Nevan was observing as she waited for the Captain. At first, it was difficult to see the giant black crocodile, but she eventually made out the baya’s scaly head above the water's surface.

“Should we use one of the new weapons?” the Captain asked her. They both knew that bayas were too stupid to see their show of power as anything else but a challenge.

Elnor shooked her head side to side.

“A detour then?”

“No,” Elnor replied. “I’ll handle it.”

Elnor waited for the ship to get closer towards the baya. The size of one of its eyes was as big as the ship she was on. She ran towards the bow. “Stay here,” she said to Nevan as she jumped.

Nevan watched impassively as Elnor stomped on the baya’s head, and they both went below the surface. Hantam rocked again, this time much more substantial. He held onto the rails of the ship, watching impassively at the surface of the enraged ocean. He wondered for a moment whether Elnor would inhale the black water and be swallowed by the night ocean. He saw a faint white glow and released his grip on the railings. “Get the ropes ready,” Nevan said to the Captain, who was running towards the bow to join him. Nevan was ranked lower than the Captain according to military hierarchy. But he had said it so apathetically that for a moment, the Captain was unable to dispute him and had thought that they were getting ready to fetch a corpse.

“Of course.” Captain Likas turned away from the water to face the squire but found that Nevan had already begun to make his way below deck. A sudden splash of water brought Likas’ attention back towards the ocean. One of the legs of the baya had floated to the surface. A clean-cut had amputated it. Not long later, he saw the Admiral’s head pop out of the water. She swam towards the ship, and Likas ordered the sailors to immediately throw a rope towards the Admiral. Likas was in awe. Never had he seen a creature such as a baya been taken down so quickly. ‘Is this how powerful he needed to be considered a master?’ he asked himself.

The armada anchored a few hours away from Palu, behind one of the abandoned islands, to stay hidden from any prying eyes. They had arrived a few days early; the new power stones were much more effective than Elnor and the other Commanders had predicted. Now she only needed to wait. If she had launched the assault early, then Ronan’s surprise attack would have been wasted. And if she attacked late, then their sudden assault would fail. She spent most of the time in her cabin, reading and rereading the scroll containing their plans.

Nevan sat in the barrel of the foremast underneath the night sky. The boat rocked now and then, but overall the sea was calm. He could see the light coming from the admiral’s cabin below from where he sat. He had struggled a lot lately, but he had always come out on top. He wondered if his current inability to keep his promise to Nalia was another battle he would eventually overcome. But he knew the more precise question was ‘when would be the day he overcomes it.’

Nevan stood up and watched the city of Palu to distract himself. He could see the city lights clearly underneath the dark sky. He could not hear anything from this far away, but he imagined that he was one of those people currently going through their night in that city. Maybe he was one of the merchants selling jewelry, shouting at passersby how much of a good deal his offers were. Or better yet, a boy who was having dinner with his family at home. Lately, he had started daydreaming more often, he realized. Fantasizing what his life would be like if he were someone else.

Then a thought occurred to him. In a few days, that city will burn whether Ronan’s attack succeeded or failed. How many families would be separated? How many people would lose their loved ones? Was he now part of the rotten faction? Nevan thought he knew the answer to the last question. This was war, and there were no bad or good sides—just another son or daughter fighting to protect what they held dear. But Akar were the instigators, and they were ruthless. Even if they were blessed by a god and were doing this to protect everyone, Nevan’s mind was made up; Akar was the rotten one.

The door from Elnor’s cabin opened, and she exited to the deck. “Come down, Ishan,” she called to her squire with his false name. She could not use his real identity while in public. She saw him climb out of the barrel and make his way down off of the foremast.

Nevan straightened his back and saluted once he landed on the wooden deck. Due to the lack of noise in the quiet night, he could hear the creaking of the plank when his boots landed. “Yes, ma’am?” he asked his Commander.

“Come inside. I need to speak to you.” Elnor turned and made her way into their cabin, and Nevan closed it behind him once he entered.

“What is it?” He asked immediately, not waiting for her to speak.

Elnor waited until she was sat on her desk before replying to him. “Tell me how you escaped Akar.” She searched for a reaction, but she found none, not even a twitch.

“I did not,” Nevan answered. “I was imprisoned only a few miles away from where they caught me. I recognized the topography from the map you made me study for our mission.” He had not answered her question, so Elnor waited for him to continue. “I jumped off of a cliff into the river that would have flowed close to fort Badai. I was hoping to be able to float to safety, but the current was too strong. I managed to pull myself onto the riverbank and ran into the forest, hoping to stay hidden inside. Their sorcerers caught me.”

Elnor watched Nevan. She knew she was looking at him as emotionlessly as he was staring at her.

“Akar’s Commander Alzam wanted to play a game,” Nevan continued. “ He broke my elbows and told me to run so that they could chase after me without risking any harm to themselves.”

“But you escaped them?” Elnor asked.

“No,” Nevan shook his head. “They never gave chase. I found a horse grazing while I was limping away. I only remember mounting it. I must’ve passed out from blood loss.”

“And how long did you travel for?”

“I don’t know. It was dark when I lost consciousness, and it was also dark when I regained it. May I ask why you are asking this now?” Nevan asked Elnor.

“The general asked me to. You are the first of Akar’s prisoners that ever made it back to us.”

“That is news to me. But I can see why.”

“And why is that?”

“Akar is backed by a god. Fighting against a god would be considered madness.”

Elnor took a moment to absorb the magnitude of what her squire had just said. “Backed by a god? Explain.” Elnor asked, for the first time showing a hint of concern.

“Yes,” Nevan hissed. “They showed me one of the gifts their god had given them. It showed me what was to come. I never believed that gods ever existed. But that,” Nevan paused. “It made me believe. At the least, that the Garuda is real.”

“And what did it show you?”

“War and more war. And that we will not be able to win our war against Akar. They also invited me to betray you and join Akar instead.”

“If you believed it so much, why did you not join them?”

“Because war does not coincide well with survival.” Nevan looked at Elnor, and she felt his gaze pierce into her soul. He wanted to say more, but he did not speak further.

However, Elnor thought she already knew what he wanted to say. ‘Because you promised that you were going to come for me.’ Unable to fully get rid of that thought, she placed it to the side. If what Nevan said was true, this could cause more complications. Everyone would accuse him of a spy because who would believe that anyone would defy the will of a god?

Elnor sighed, still meeting Nevan’s black eyes. “How did you manage to get to Fort Darah?” she asked the question that Ahri had wanted the answers for.

“I thought I was found in Fort Badai, “ Nevan furrowed his brows.

Elnor shook her head, telling him he thought wrong.

“I don’t know,” Nevan muttered and continued to think. “I woke up alone on the ground. I must have fallen off of the horse. I saw the light coming from a fort. It had the banner of Ronan on the gatehouse.” He paused and tried to recall further what had happened that night. “I’m not a spy,” he eventually said and met Elnor’s gaze.

“I know you’re not,” Elnor said, extinguishing his concerns. Neither of them said anything for a while. The candle flame in the lanterns danced as the boat rocked. “If that is all you remember, you may leave.”

Nevan nodded and left. He closed the door behind him, still thinking. Had Akar caught him and let him go? If so, why?