Mat concentrated on breathing, waited for the voice in his head to calm down, his eyes locked with the Princess’s, not wanting to move an inch for she may stop looking at him. Still, he felt traces of rage building up inside of him, ready to explode. “It would only be the blood of your soldiers to be spilled. It would not take more than a few blinks of an eye to kill you all. So, answer me, what is this Star of Barden?”

She pursed her lips, shook her head dismissively, making herself more irresistible still. “I am not your teacher. Ask little children. Maybe they have time to teach you.”

Damn, she’s hot, Mat had to admit to himself and then heard his own voice come out with words and tone that he did not fully recognize. “That’s fair enough, I guess," he said softly, but then instantly cleared his throat to speak in a harsher tone, "But what do you want with the priests and what do you want with Helen?”

The princess dug inside of him with her eyes, waited for a moment, and then said.

“So, you have seen her?” the woman asked. “You did lie. Of course, you did.”

“She is no witch,” Mat said, not knowing why he felt a need to defend Helen. “Maybe a bitch, but that… But then, maybe I had it coming. Besides, maybe she even saved my life. Hard to know. So, you fuck off. I’m telling you nothing... Besides, you have answers to give rather than I. And… You attacked me first. That much for your Knight code. You do have some kind of Knights' code, don't you?”

She twitched and then sighed. “You will not tell me anything about ‘Eilan? But you already had. You said she might have saved your life. That is good enough for me. It’s too bad you are so stupid. We came here trying to help her out.”

“I…? I’m the stupid one?”

The Princess again decided not to answer his question, just shook her head instead.

“Well, if I am stupid, that might be because I do not have all the necessary information to take into account and be smart.”

“All the necessary information?”

“Sure... Like what do you want to do with the priests? You don’t like the priests either?”

The woman snorted and spit in front of Mat’s boots, giving him as good an answer as any word.

“And if you are so smart," Mat said. "Tell me where I can find the head priest that lived here? Their chief?”

“If he is not here, he probably ran to Gombar.”

“Who is Gombar?”

“You are right. You are stupid because you know so little. Or have the necessary information, as you put it,” she said shaking her head in disbelief and disapproval.

“I'm a new fella, what can I say?”

“You know very little for any kind of a fella, Farlander. How long have you traveled through our lands? I heard some stories that you were here many moons ago, dwelled with Paleskins no less.”

“Don’t mention Paleskins to me. I don’t think we can be friends anymore.”

The woman chuckled. “You are stupid one,” she said and chuckled some more, her companions suddenly joining her.

“Okay. I see what this is. Make fun of a new guy. Bulling all over.”

“We leave,” she said, actually more commanded, as everyone instantly stopped laughing, and started to move away. “We leave now. I can’t be your teacher, Farlander. I don’t have the time.”

“That’s good. It means that you actually might want to be my teacher if… you find the time,” he said in the most flirtatious voice he could come up with. “And you know what they say about time… It always changes.”

“Thank you for not killing us, Farlander,” she said with sarcasm buried somewhere inside her sweet voice as she turned to leave. Then she stopped, tilted her head to a side but not looking at him, and asked. “By what name should I know you?”

“What?”

“What may I call you?”

“Honey, on account of… this being a world where a political correctness politeness still has not taken hold, I dare say this to you, before this is all over, I hope you get to call me Daddy.”

She sighed and said, "Yeah, he's a bubbler."

They left one of the torches there for him, and he picked it up, deciding to go to the cell and finally free Helen out. Well, maybe ask her a few questions first. well, maybe wait till they are gone for good.

He figured, if they were really friendly to her, she would have called to them when she realized who they were. Her silence meant there was more to it.

He looked around over the ground, trying to find his cracked sword. But it was nowhere. Did he in the end throw it to her after all?

“Helen?”

When nobody answered, he walked to the cell and tried to see inside of it.

“Where is Hellen?” he asked.

I do not detect any sign of her.

“Just! Don’t tell me! You told me so!” Mat barked at Pia. “I hate that.”

He pulled on the door of the cell, but they were still jammed shut. So, he decided to walk along with the cell, to examine the bars. That is when, on the far right side, he noticed one of the bars missing, proving for enough space for a small person to sneak through.

There was something white frown on the floor. he picked it up. It was a white cloth with charcoaled letters written all over it. After a moment of figuring it out, he finally was able to read it through.

“You owe me one nano-H-cell booster. Thanks for your sword. You sleep so adorably, almost as a child. Love, Helen.”

“Crap!”

I told you so.

“Fuck off!”

When he finally got out of the dungeon, it was just past high noon, the meek sun coming into his eyes as he lifted his head up. He looked around, but he could not see anyone. Not till he walked around a bit and decided to climb on top of the tallest pile of broken marble and stone.

He saw riders slowly leaving the area, riding west, counted more than a dozen of them with the bright yellow robe of the Princes whose name he did not know in their middle.

He stared at her, her red hair flying in the wind, and watched as suddenly she stopped her horse and turned around. She had to see him. He was sure of it. So he waved his hands, friendly and joyfully, giving her the smile that there was no way she could see. Still, smiling he did, even after she turned her horse around and equally slowly continued to leave with her knights.

He took a long breath that somehow took a long time to come out of his chest and said to himself, “Sometimes, I just love my job.”

Then he sighed again and rubbed his right shoulder, still feeling the pain after waiving his arm like that. “Who am I kidding? A woman like that could never be single.” A sobering thought made Mat breathe even deeper. “If they could, people from all over the universe would come here and try to flirt with her. But the way she stared at me, kept looking at me… Those lips, those... No, don’t kid yourself, even if she doesn’t have anyone, she probably has a whole kingdom of people to pick through. Why would she ever pick me? How could I ever think that I have any chance with a woman like that? Maybe it’s good then that most likely you will never see her again.”

He stared at them till her hair was lost in the distance, and only then decided to look around and consider what he was to do next.

Standing on top of that pile of rubble, one thing was very obvious. He was standing right at the epicenter of the explosion. Whatever happened, whether it was that Star of B... something, whatever, well, whatever it was, it targeted the monastery. And not just the monastery. The piles of marble and white stone around his feet seemed to have been part of a high tower before, most likely the head-masters residency.

He tried to search again for any traces of human beings around, survivors or dead. But he could find none.

“Very strange. This was a big place. Could have housed hundreds of priests and their servants here. The dungeon was huge too. But empty. Why have a dungeon that could be packed with hundreds of people and then keep them empty? What gives?”

He felt thirty. And his stomach growled, reminding him that he really did not remember the last time he ate anything. It was too much to hope for to find any food in his backpack. Helen had probably taken it all. But the river was close by, and there was still blood on his shirt. And he did not mind having some sushi after all. But without his sword, he would have to use the knife and that might be a bit more difficult.

So, he tried to find the quickest path to the river among the fallen walls and towers. It actually took him a while to orient himself. When he finally did, he thought he saw something strange in the sky, toward the east.

The birds, a lot of them, circling in the sky. Made him squint his eyes to look at them better. Or did he need to squint his eyes because the headache he was feeling was just getting worse and worse?

“Pia, your sight is way better than mine. You could have seen those birds a long time ago. Why not share that with me? You know what those birds are most likely doing up there to the left, don't you?"

Those knights have given you the information where the high priest might be. They seem to be going that way. Why not follow them and go and see if the high priest is there? That is your mission, isn't it?

“So, you are giving me suggestions now what to do? Since when?” Mat asked, not happy at all at what he was hearing.

He moved right away to the east, not caring about his thirst or hunger.

Not a hundred meters outside the last fallen rocks of the monastery, Mat saw burned-out corpses, big black birds picking at their remains.

He ran to them, but then stopped himself dead in the track, stopped himself with dread in his heart.

"Can't be," he told himself. But as he walked to the few of the first burned corpses, he had no doubt.

Structure of their burned faces, shapes of their ears, golden emblems melted around their necks, engravings in their drown-out swords.

“Elves... Dead elves. And so many of them," he said in disbelief. "A single dead elf is a bad thing. Two dead elves and you have trouble. But there are hundreds if not thousands of them here. I’d call this a catastrophe. And if there is nobody to bury them, that means that blast had killed them all," Mat continued to mutter to himself as he moved among the scorched, almost unrecognizable corpses. "Good for people of this planet that the world is offline because when the high-ups find out about this, this planet will be nothing more than specks of dust scattered around the whole quadrant."

"How much time do I have? I have to find out what happened here. Maybe if I find those responsible…”

This is not your mission.

"This was a war party, their weapons drawn. Who were they fighting?"

This is not your problem.

Mat realized that every time Pia spoke to him, his migraine got only worse, the fog in his head got only thicker.

“There are other things that also do not add up. And not just about things that I see here."

Remember your mission. If you forget your mission, I-

"You’re doing projections, aren’t you? Don’t even need to answer me,” Mat said and took a deep breath.

“Now, I’m still Class 10 with certain privileges. I think I need to use those privileges to clear my mind."

What do you mean?

"I'm shutting you down, Pia. Honestly, I need for you to step down."

I cannot comply with that order.

That irritated Mat even more, so he just started to announce the password to enter Pia's shut-down mode.

"Five, Four, Three"

Don’t do it, Mat. Don’t shut me down.

"X, Z, Two, Four. Execute program Shutdown. Password G 2 E 0 R 2 O 1 N 3 I 1 M 5 O"

Met felt a bolt of energy hit him somewhere behind his eyes, then his limbs all went numb, and he collapsed to the ground like a strings-cut puppet.