They walked along the city’s streets, a column of Haolan soldiers at each flank. Thael strode alongside his cadre and the carriage between them, horses clopping with the honor guard marching at their front and backs. The winds whispered past the swaying lanterns overhead. Ghuang had been put under curfew by Mitsune’s decree. True to her word, come dusk, every citizen had retreated into their home.

They heard the roar of nearby melee as they approached the harbor.

“Sounds like a fucking legion,” Cyrus muttered. “Thought Haol was united.”

“Doesn’t sound very united at the moment,” Loric replied.

“The Empress was right,” Deckerd said. “Seems the wolves were at their door this whole time, waiting to pounce.”

“Quiet,” Thael ordered. “We stick to the plan.”

“Commander,” Cyrus yawned. “We’ve been walking slower than my first wee steps. This plan is shit, and we’re going to be shit on at this rate.”

Mitsune had told them of the mageborn under her court. They only knelt to their past ruler, who had married her, a mortalborn, and who followed her rule. The court, a viper’s nest only revealed when they would show their true allegiances… so she had said.

“We’re making a big fucking gamble now,” Cyrus grinned, raising his arms as they halted, the soldiers in front holding their position. There was a skirmish ahead.

“I always took you for a gambling man,” Loric said.

Cyrus shrugged. “My da was. Left all his debts with my ma. Had to sell me to the order.”

“That is fucking tragic.”

“How about you, then? Born from Lib-whatever the crux.”

“I pickpocketed the wrong man,” Loric said, “or should I say Wraith.”

“He, right then… look at these fuckers running about,” Cyrus exclaimed. “Don’t even know which side is which, their cursed rainbow armor! Who says our side will win today? I say we cut a path to the harbor and sail off into the bloody sunset.”

“We hold with our escort,” Thael said. “They’re coming. Ready yourselves.”

The cries and howls sounded closer, the men in front reinforced by their backline, all armored in jade scale.

Cyrus cracked his neck and twirled his greataxe. Loric drew out his cutlass and dirk, muttering in Vinnien. Deckard flicked out his daggers, spinning them deftly. Verena held her saber, staring into the coming onslaught. Thael flexed his grip on his two shortswords. More men joined them as some fell back. What must have been the captain of their guard hurried to them, his green jade polearm stained with crimson, and said in rushed Haolo, “Turn to the right. The right! Take your prince and make your way through, the driver knows the streets.”

Thael shook his head. “We hold or die here, and if we live press forward.”

The captain stared at him in startlement. “You’re fucking crazy. They’re twice our number.”

“We’ll make up for it,” Thael replied, brushing past the soldier. “Verena, take out their halberds.”

The Wraiths followed him. Verena imbued her saber with her craft, slashing and sending hissing ripples of air flying across their massed ranks. Blood sprayed and ribboned.

“Save your power,” Thael ordered. “Kill the rest.”

There were only a few dozen of the men standing, yet they charged towards them just the same. Thael and the others charged in answer. He stabbed through a man’s exposed armpit and dispatched another assailant wielding a hatchet with a swift thrust through the gullet. Thael saw Verena leaping back from one soldier still armed with his jade halberd. He rushed to stab the man from behind, Verena unleashing a needle of air with her pointed saber that whistled past his face to pierce through the man’s forehead behind him.

It was over in moments.

He turned to the captain, who stared back in disbelief. “We press on.”

“You are demons,” the man whispered.

“Take us to the harbor, or die without our aid,” Thael said. “Choice is yours.”

Night had descended and with it their Shrouds were at full power, shadows sifting out from their cloaks.

They came from a window overhead. A man in indigo silk robes landed upon them with a buffet of wind. A bucket of flaming pitch was spilled from a balcony over some of their guard who screamed as they burned.

“Hold together!” Thael bellowed. “Verena, take out the pyrocrafter above!”

Thael deftly rolled past the blast of concentrated wind that gushed down the street. Others did not avoid the mage’s craft in time, men falling, a man’s headless body kneeling and slumping against the wheel of a carriage. Wind sliced through the horses, through the driver, through the carriage. Thael fell down as soon as he heard attack. Verena had flicked out her saber in swift strokes to send out elemental blasts against the mage. The remaining guard charged forward only for most to be split in half.

Thael had a clear sight on the mage and squeezed the trigger of his flatbow. The bolt pierced one of his boots, and the mage cried out, dropping to a knee. Verena loosed her craft, a casual swipe of her sword and a hiss of air that burst the man’s head in a shower of gore.

Thael turned to the captain, “How far is to the harbor?”

“A mile or so. But we must take you—”

“I know where we’re headed. Take us through the alleyways.”

“That will take longer.”

“We also won’t die,” Thael replied.

The captain nodded, ordering the few remaining guards with them forward.

A man shivered beside Thael. “What are you?”

“Nothing of importance,” he answered.

“That ship better be fucking waiting,” Cyrus muttered. “What’s the point of Haol’s fleet if it’s stuck fighting itself?”

“It’s not all of their army, idiot,” Verena said. “Their mages and monarchs will have focused all their attention trying to get to us.”

“Well, they sure fucking did,” Cyrus growled. “Nearly got crushed thanks to you.”

“That can’t have been all of them,” Deckerd murmured.

Thael held up his hand. “Quiet.” They could hear the sounds of a fierce melee from somewhere ahead. He turned to the captain. “You and your men stay close to us.”

They moved ahead to the street opening to the docks. Haolans in their various hues of scaled armor fought in a teeming mass with or against steel plated soldiers wearing the crimson heraldry of the arch queen; a legion of the Empire that had somehow entered the city.

Mitsune had said this could happen. Civil war had broken out in Qinshu. It had been the arch queen’s plan all along, using her half-brother as a martyr to conquer Haol. And they were merely casualties to be forgotten. Except Wraiths did not die easy.

A line of Haolan’s loyal to the Jade Empress, marked by their glimmering green armor and weapons, held back the rebels and Arcadians that thronged the streets leading to the harbor.

The fleet in the bay were stark shadows in the bright moon. The small ship that nestled in their midst was their one chance of escape.

Thael turned to order the man at his side. “Captain, show yourself to the loyalists. Run, Now!”

“We’re company Saisheng!” the captain yelled. “Let us through! Saisheng! Let us through!”

The defending loyalists recognized their guards’ green armor, rallying and charging at the flank of the rebels. Soon their side was reinforced, soldiers brushing past them to form a bristling wall of spears.

The captain nodded to Thael. “Return to your ship. We will hold them off here.”

Thael knew this was the last he would see the man and the men holding the line. The Demon King himself stood waiting for them at the docks.

“You are lucky your prince wished us to wait for you,” he spoke in Cadish, stepping aside.

“Perhaps,” Thael grunted, stepping past. “I don’t see a demon in front of me.”

The man smiled. “I am merely an instrument of the Empress’ will. If I must take the form of a demon to enact it, then I will. Are you an instrument, or a player?”

Thael shrugged. “It does not matter what I think.”

The king nodded. “Only what we do.”

Krystos appeared with Mitsune on the deck, wearing a brown tunic of Haolan clothing, his left arm bandaged. Sailors hurried past in frenzied activity, Captain Arnas hollering out his orders. Still the cries and clamor of battle raged in the distance.

“Your prince thinks very highly of his guard,” Mitsune tutted. “Staying just before the enemy reaches us.”

Krystos nodded. “We’ll need them for what’s coming. We’ll need them all. Thael, please follow me.”

They alone made their way down to Krystos’ quarters.

“Thael,” Krystos said. “I have what you told me to safeguard.”

He held out the wooden case housing the painted kite.

“What is so important in here that you asked me to keep it safe?”

Thael took the case. “Perhaps I’ll tell you when you become arch king.”

Krystos sighed. “To come here and back to Arcadia with Haolan support… I don’t think either of us expected such a thing. I don’t know what to do, Thael.”

“We’ve come this far,” he said. “Like you said before when we arrived here, our journey has just begun.”

Krystos nodded. “That it has.”