Geruke winced at Lerute’s pale skin, blood smothered armour, shivering body, and the cold sweat that stampeded down his skin. Morphing his wince into a cringe, blood continued to gush onto the sand from his shoulder. Geruke had the urge to turn away, but the dagger Snakard pressed to Lerute’s neck kept his eyes glued.

“Move,” Lyrassa snatched Madrily’s wrist and shoved her aside, sword pointing at Snakard.

“Stop!” Madrily shouted as she stumbled from the push.

Blood dribbled faster down Lerute’s paling neck as Snakard pushed the dagger deeper. Lerute shook and screamed. Even Lyrassa bristled and grimaced at the sight, but she kept marching onwards.

Geruke reached for her to stop her, but then he pulled his hand back to grip the hilt of his sword along with his other hand. He marched forward, following Lyrassa.

“Get back!” Madrily leapt in front of them both, slid across the sand, and swiped her blade at the air in front of them. “What’s wrong with you two?!” Her eyes glistened. “We’re supposed to be friends!”

“The only way to win this battle is by killing him,” Lyrassa said, creeping forward. “Step aside.”

“The leader of these pirates is clearly doing this to force us to let him flee with his crew, correct?” Madrily turned to Snakard.

He nodded. “Tell your soldiers to stand down and I’ll do the same for my crew.”

“He’ll attack again,” Geruke said. “If you want this town and many others across Galladria to be safe from scum like him, kill him now.”

“Exactly, you’ll save more lives in the long term,” Lyrassa said with a smirk. “Do you not care about the lives you could save in the future? Do you not care about your dead subordinates? What do you think they’d say if they saw you let their killer run free to kill some more?”

“Neither of you care about anyone other than yourselves,” Madrily said, scowling. “You’re just saying this so you can steal from these pirates, even if Lerute and many other soldiers in the Town’s Watch have to die. In fact, it’s better if they do because it means fewer people to challenge your claim on the loot. You’re disgusting.”

Lyrassa sighed, and Geruke clicked his tongue. Madrily turned, seeing them give up. She called out to her Town’s Watch soldiers and told them to stop fighting. Snakard did so at the same time. The battle’s tumult ceased and the rolling and crashing of waves on the shore filled the silence.

Fifty pirates remained standing, surrounding fifteen Town’s Watch soldiers, except after the battle froze they didn’t stand; they fell to their knees and slumped their panting, sweating, and bleeding bodies, their glistening eyes staring at their fallen comrades.

In the quiet that arose, Geruke heard shouting and screaming from within the town. He looked towards the wooden walls and saw a billowing cloud of smoke rise into the air. What was going on in there?

“Hand over the treasure you stole when you swam back from my ship.” Snakard glared at Lyrassa.

His question scrambled Geruke’s mind even further. What was the point of this question? How could Lyrassa have stolen anything from him in the state she was in? The most likely scenario was that Lyrassa ran away and escaped from the ship, but how could she have stolen anything?

Thrashing his assumptions, he glanced at the shore and saw Lyrassa’s footprints. They started from behind a beach boulder and towards another - where Snakard cornered Geruke. Did she hide what she stole there? Why else would she run from the ship to the beach boulder, and then to the fight? Why not just run straight from the ship to the fight?

Confirming his assumption, Lyrassa nervously glanced at the footprints. “What’re you talking about?” Lyrassa asked, jerking her head away from the shore. “I stole nothing. Pull your dagger away from our friend and leave. He’s losing blood rapidly. If he dies while in your arms we’ll have no reason not to kill you so It’ll be in your best interests to be quick.”

“Maybe for you, your friend is the only reason I’m alive,” Snakard smirked up at Madrily. “But you’re not the only one here, Lyrassa.”

When did he learn Lyrassa’s name? Did Geruke say it whilst on the ship? He must’ve. Regardless, Lyrassa crossed her arms and shook her head at Madrily. “Unfortunately, I’m not,” she said.

Madrily snorted. “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” She turned and pointed at the sea. “Follow those footprints, parallel to the sea over there. Behind the beach boulder, you’ll find your money.”

“You were born rich, Maddy,” Lyrassa growled. “You don’t understand the value of money.”

Madrily ignored Lyrassa and silently stared at Snakard as he called over a pirate and told him to search behind the beach boulder. The pirate ran over to it and dashed behind it. He peeked back out, extended, and wagged two canvas sacks overflowing with rubounds.

“You gambled our friend’s life for that?” Madrily said, narrowing her eyes at Lyrassa.

“You’ve never had to gamble a day in your life,” Lyrassa said, her brows bunched. “You have no idea what it’s like to live like us.”

A whistle from atop the battlements interrupted their argument. They all looked up and saw pirates standing there. They were pirates Geruke didn’t recognize from the battle. Blood didn’t dapple them, their skin was clear of sweat, and they breathed slowly. Each of them either carried or pulled, tied up and injured civilians. There were twenty of them; the missing pirates. They had eighty in their crew, after all.

“Pilla, is your team done?” Snakard called up to them.

“We’ve got nineteen,” a female pirate called Pilla said. "We can get a few more if you give us the time. They’ve hidden pretty well, though."

Geruke’s eyes snapped wide as he recognized her. He also recognized the pirate that stood beside her; Griever. They were captains of the Golden Dragon Knights.

“That’s fine,” Snakard rose to his feet, pulling Lerute up with him. Pirates ran past him and towards the sea, abandoning the town. The twenty pirates on the walls hurried down from the battlements and jogged down the beach, carrying civilians away with them. They all rushed towards dinghies and threw the people they captured onto the floors of them.

The pirates carried civilians, but where was their loot? Didn’t they come to steal money and belongings? Why steal people? Did they want to sell them for ransom? The only people in Archi Town who could pay a significant ransom would be Barsanna and Madrily, with the latter being the only one who would be willing to do such a thing. They’d make a lot more money if they stole money instead of people. But Snakard and Dartine mentioned Xisanisto which could explain their actions. Were Delphun’s theories correct?

“What’re you planning to do with those people?” Madrilly said, scowling at Snakard.

“It depends on how much you’re willing to pay to get them back," Snakard said, creeping backwards towards the sea, Lerute in his arms and a dagger pressed to his bleeding neck.

“How much do you want?” Madrily followed, cutlass strangled in her hands. Geruke and Lyrassa marched by her side, swords pointing at Snakard.

“A million rubounds,” He said with a chuckle.

“Stop messing around,” Madrily snapped. “How much do you want?”

“Two million rubounds.”

“You know fully well that we can’t give you that much! You’re being ridiculous!”

“We’ll just have to take them for our own purposes then.” Snakard’s boots splashed in water and sunk in the sand underneath.

“Wait!” Madrily shouted. “What about our deal!?”

“We’re still doing the deal,” Snakard said, trudging back through the sea. “I just need to make sure that you’ll actually let me go.”

Geruke, Madrily and Lyrassa followed Snakard up to the water as he stepped into a dinghy along with two other pirates who sat down and grabbed the paddles. Three young-looking pirates sat in a dinghy next to Snakard’s.

“Are you really gonna let these pirates escape with twenty innocent people, Maddy?” Lyrassa whispered into Madrily’s ear. “Why not just attack their captain and destroy them. Get vengeance for your town.”

“They’re hostages, Lyra,” Madrily whispered back. “If I attack, then their deaths will be certain. If I let them leave, then there’s at least a chance of them staying alive.”

The pirates who sat in Snakard’s dinghy grabbed the paddles and stabbed them in the water.

“Now you need to let Lerute go,” Madrily said, stepping towards Snakard and pointing her sword at him.

Snakard let Lerute go and he tumbled onto the floor of the dinghy with a yell. “The three of them are tired and weak,” Snakard said to three young pirates in a neighbouring dinghy."Hold them off for a few seconds and you’ll be promoted!"

The three young pirates nodded and hopped out of their dinghies to run at Geruke, Lyrassa and Madrily.

After a swift flurry of steel smacking steel and sparks splashing all across their vision, the three young pirate’s cutlasses spun out of their grasps to splash in the water. Geruke and Lyrassa decapitated two of them, whereas Madrily wacked the third in the face, lifting him in the air and spinning him into a pirouette till he tumbled to the water and splashed into it.

Geruke, Madrily and Lyrassa hopped over their fallen enemies and dashed for Snakard, but by then he and the rest of the pirates in his crew already paddled far from the shore, and at a speed faster than any of them could swim.

Lerute was gone, kidnapped by pirates.

All was silent except the rising, rolling, crashing, and pulling of waves, the splashing of paddles as they stabbed in the sea, and the laughing of pirates as they rowed away from Archi town all the way to their ship.

“You have something to say?” Lyrassa scowled at Madrily. “Not only did your beloved Geruke lose any shot of paying off his debts, but your decisions also led to our best friend’s death.”

“Lerute isn’t dead,” Madrily said as she stormed up the beach and back to the town. “And Geruke isn’t beloved.”

He gulped and followed Madrily up the beach, his mind rushing for something to say. By the time Madrily began commanding the remaining soldiers to take the wounded to the town’s physician, Geruke’s rumination froze. Why did he need to even explain himself? She was a Dischan, and her mother too. He could do whatever he wanted with the two of them. So why did her scowls and insults make him shiver with fright?

Geruke couldn’t sheathe his cutlass into his scabbard because of its shape, so he dropped it and snatched a regular short-sword off the corpse of a Town’s Watch soldier. After some arguing and resistance, Lyrassa chucked his parent’s claymore back to him. He then shoved it back in the scabbard he strapped to his back.

Marching past the town’s walls and stepped on the cobbled street, the townspeople scurried out of their houses, informed Madrily about what happened, and answered all of her questions. Because of that questioning, they learnt that twenty pirates climbed over the town’s empty Southern Wall and broke into homes. When they did, they didn’t steal any belongings, they only stole people. Twenty people, to be exact if including Lerute.

Maladore was among them and ran up to Geruke in particular, tears in his eyes. The boy told Geruke about what happened at the smithy during the attack. Maladore led him back to it and he learnt that the rising cloud of smoke came from the smithy.

Pirates broke into the smithy at the same time that Jarlunn left the cellar to grab a pipe he left next to the furnace. After hearing the shouting, Maladore hid behind a door and watched Jarlunn snatch a plank of wood off the floor, press it against the smouldering furnace, and try to attack the pirates with it, just like he did to Geruke earlier in the day. The imbecile then went around manically wacking the flaming thing at pirates and burned the entire smithy down. How he burned a smithy with stone walls and minimal wood boggled Geruke’s mind, but when around Jarlunn, anything was possible. Maladore had to escape through a back window and saw the pirates carry Jarlunn away, tied up and gagged with rope.

Geruke groaned at the sight of the burning and crumbling smithy. Years of apprenticing and a place he lived in and ate in and slept in for years, shrivelled into ash in front of his eyes.

Maladore tugged on Geruke’s soggy sleeve and looked up at him with tears running down his cheeks. “My dad is gonna come back home soon, right?”

“He’ll come back very soon,” Madrily walked up to Maladore, patted his head, and smiled down at him. “I promise.”

Maladore and Madrily hugged and after that he left to grab his belongings that he said he left underneath a tree behind the smithy. Around the same time, the townspeople left Madrily’s side, leaving her alone with Geruke and Lyrassa. Madrily shuddered. When she turned to glare at Geruke, he bristled because she shuddered with an infernal rage.

“I hope you’ve gathered by now that we’re done, Geru,” Madrily growled. “I’m shocked that I fell in love with such a pathetic man, but I’ve learned who you really are now so that erroneous love has thankfully vanished. Thanks for helping with that.”

“T-that’s fine,” Geruke stammered. His eyes fled her rage-filled eyes to fall to the floor. He tried to smile, but he couldn’t. He frowned and his eyes stung yet again.

“She was out of your league anyway,” Lyrassa leaned her arm on his shoulder, chuckled, and smiled at him.

Her smile rose his spirits, but it wouldn’t bring Lerute or his arm back. It wouldn’t bring Madrily’s love or her smile back. It wouldn’t bring the time when they sang and danced at the Garmence tavern back. Would that ever happen again? It wouldn’t. It was what he had to sacrifice if he wanted wealth. Nobody said it was easy.

“If you say so,” Madrily sighed. “Regardless, if you don’t mind me asking something stupid, but do either of you have any intention to help save the kidnapped people of this town? I’m not all that fond of either of you right now, but I have no intention of letting that hinder my chances of saving them.”

Geruke was about to shake his head and refuse, but then Lyrassa interrupted him.

“I’ll help,” she said. Madrily’s eyes snapped wide and Geruke cocked his head.

“Are you ok, Lyra?” Geruke asked.

“Snakard has a lot of treasure on that ship, and I want it.” Lyrassa’s eyes fled to the night sky, and she turned. “By saving the townspeople, my negative reputation will vanish. And I get to save a good friend of mine at the same time.” She spun back to face the two of them, crossing her arms. “There’s a lot to gain.”

“Did you not see how strong Snakard was?” Geruke walked up to Lyrassa. “There are safer ways of making money,” He whispered in her ear. “Barsanna’s treasury isn’t empty yet. There’s more to steal, especially now that the guarding of her manor has weakened. In fact, the security of this entire town has weakened. There’s a lot of stealing we could do.”

“Shut up, Geru,” Madrily said, snatching his shoulder and yanking him away from her. “Let her make her own decisions.”

“I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing Maddy,” He turned to Lyrassa, “But I don’t see why you’re doing this, Lyra. Fighting Snakard and his pirate crew isn’t worth it.”

“You’re overestimating him,” Madrily said with a smirk. “Considering how easily Lyra escaped the ship with two large sacks of rubounds, maybe you were just holding her back when you two fought him.”

Geruke narrowed his eyes and chuckled. “You fought him as well, don’t pretend like he isn’t strong. In fact, when the two of us fought him, me and Lyra already exhausted him.” He turned back to Lyrassa. “On that note, are you gonna explain how you escaped Snakard?”

She shrugged. “I just got up and ran away.”

“What?” Geruke’s eyebrows rose. “He just let you get up and run?”

“No, I mean…” She paused.

“My dear, come here!” Barsanna called as she ran up to Madrily and pulled her into a hug, interrupting Lyrassa. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“You too, mother,” Madrily said, hugging Barsanna back. “It’s been a rough day. Why don’t you head back to the manor and get some rest?”

“No, I’ll be fine,” Barsanna pulled away from the hug and wiped her reddening eyes. “Soldiers from the Watch have informed me of the gist of what’s happened. We need to figure out what to do about this quickly.”

Maladore jogged over to them, heaving a sack of food, clothes, and toys over his shoulder.

“First, I’d appreciate it if you took these two to temporarily live in our manor,” Madrily pointed at Geruke and Maladore. “They lost their homes and source of money in the attack, so they’ll need somewhere to stay.”

Barsanna paused and stared at the two of them. She glowered at Geruke. “I’m fine with taking the boy, but Geruke is a different matter.”

“Do you have a short memory, my Lady?” Geruke furrowed his brows at her. “Do you not remember our earlier conversation?”

Sweat dripped down her forehead, and she nodded. “F-fine, you can stay at our manor.”

Madrily narrowed her eyes at Geruke. “What did you two talk about?”

“We talked about how much she appreciated the smithy’s contributions to the town,” Geruke said, forcing a smile on his face, staring into Barsanna’s eyes the entire time. “Isn’t that right my Lady?”

“Yes, of course,” She nodded again, her eyes fleeing his to stick to Madrily’s, who continued to glare at Geruke. “Anyway, to get back on topic; I’ll send a nastagle to my liege, the Count of Arrance. I’ll ask him to send soldiers to chase after the Golden Dragon Pirates and retrieve the money and belongings they stole.”

“They didn’t steal any thing,” Madrily said. “They stole people.”

“What?” Her eyebrows rose. “Why? Did they demand a ransom?”

“They said one million rubounds. I assume that means they have no intention of giving them up, regardless of how much money we give them.”

“Why are they doing this, then?”

As they all paused in thought, the wind’s rustling of bushes filled the air.

“I think I know why,” Geruke said, breaking the silence. “Ever since the war between Galladria and Tennivoor ended with a truce, Xisanisto has been secretly hiring pirates to kidnap galladrians and bring them to him. What for? I’m not sure. It’s speculated that he’s doing it for the sake of vengeance, so presumably, torture.”

“What are you talking about?” Barsanna said after a chuckle. “You’re speaking utter nonsense. What does the King of Tennivoor have to do with our little coastal town?”

“I don’t expect you to believe me,” Geruke turned to Lyrassa. “But you heard what Snakard and Dartine talked about when we infiltrated their ship, right?”

Lyrassa nodded. “Snakard said something about Xisanisto and the Count of Friedrance. And Dartine said that he refused to sacrifice twenty humans or something along those lines. “

“Friedrance is a province in Tennivoor,” Madrily said, cupping her chin in her palm. “Xisanisto is the King of Tennivoor, and they kidnapped twenty people from this town. But if Tennivoor has been hiring pirates to do this for so long, wouldn’t the Galladrian royal family have done something about it at some point? Galladria has a much more powerful military, and I find it bizarre that they wouldn’t have found out about it at some point. They could at least send Xisanisto a nastagle, telling him to stop.”

“Your mother’s here, so I can’t say much more,” Geruke said. “But you know of my past and I think from that you can imagine that I know about this stuff a lot more than anyone else here.”

Madrily nodded. “That’s true.”

“What?” Barsanna was stunned as she looked to Madrily. “You believe him?”

“I do. Geruke knows a lot more than you think. He’ll refuse to explain to you why, nor am I willing to expose him by doing so, but trust me; he’s probably not wrong about what he’s saying.”

Barsanna sighed and rubbed her forehead as if trying to push back a headache. “This is bizarre. In that case, I take what I said back. I refuse to challenge or have anything to do with the King of Tennivoor.”

“That’d be the smart thing to do,” Geruke said. “Not only would you be making an enemy of sorcerers, you’d also be making an enemy of Snakard, Pilla and Griever, three of the top-ranking members of the old and renowned Golden Dragon Knights mercenary band.”

“Why?” Barsanna asked. “Are they working with the pirates?”

“The captain of the crew is Snakard, who used to be the Chief of the Golden Dragon Knights. Pilla and Griever were Captains and seem to be with Snakard now as well.”

Barsanna crossed her arms and shook her head. Madrily patted her back. “We nearly defeated Snakard,” Madrily said. “It’s not impossible.”

Her mother paused and stared at Geruke and Lyrassa. “Since you two are so wet and dirty, I assume you fought in the battle.”

They both nodded. Geruke grinned as he saw where she was going with her question. “We both fought alongside Madrily in the battle, my Lady,” Geruke said. “The three of us together nearly defeated Snakard.”

“Would you be willing to chase Snakard down and rescue those who they kidnapped?” Barsanna asked.

Geruke and Lyrassa winked at each other. “I’m not interested,” Lyrassa said.

“I’m the same as her,” Geruke said. “Sounds quite the arduous task and I’ve got other things to be doing.”

“Why, Lyra?” Madrily cocked her head. “I thought you said you’d help?”

Lyrassa shrugged. “I changed my mind,” she said. “The situation is just too dire.”

“I’ll pay each of you five hundred rubounds,” Barsanna said.

“Oh, I see,” Madrily rolled her eyes. “This is why.”

“Five hundred isn’t enough,” Lyrassa said, crossing her arms.

“Seven hundred,” Barsanna said.

“Forget it.” Lyrassa turned and walked. Geruke followed. “You clearly have no idea how much we’re worth.”

“Leave then,” Barsanna furrowed her brows and turned away. “There are plenty of powerful soldiers that my liege can provide who will be glad to help instead.”

“Would any of them be as good as us?” Lyrassa said, strolling down the cobbled street. “You’d have to pay a lot of money to give them the courage to make enemies of Xisanisto and warriors from the Golden Dragon Knights. And what if you pay them all of that money and they fail?”

Geruke and Lyrassa slowed their walk and smirked back at Barssanna. She turned to glare at them and clicked her tongue. “Fine,” Barsanna said, beckoning them to come back. “One thousand rubounds. No higher.”

Geruke and Lyrassa turned and walked back to Barsanna. Madrily seethed beside her. “What do you think?” Lyrassa whispered into Geruke’s ear. “You think we can pressure her to go higher?”

“Of course,” Geruke whispered back. As he thought of what to do, his heart leapt at the sight of Madrily, but he had to do it, so he inhaled and exhaled.

“We’re not accepting a measly one thousand rubounds each, my Lady,” Geruke said, as he and Lyrassa stood in front of Barsanna.

“Name a price,” she said.

“Two thousand rubounds.”

“Nonsense,” Barsanna turned and walked. “I’ll give you a roof over your head, but I’m not an idiot.”

“But don’t you appreciate what I and my Master’s smithy has done for this town?” Geruke said, grabbing her shoulder. “Have you yet again forgotten the conversation we had this morning?”

Barsanna froze."I…" Her quivering lips failed to find the right words.

“Should I get Friedroth to look around your manor, Barsanna?” Geruke whispered in her ear, towering over her shivering body. “He’d love beating you to a pulp and ripping you out of your home and shoving you at a stake and burning you to ash and bone. But what he’d enjoy the most would be seizing your property, especially the money you hid in there and haven’t deposited in a Templaga ba-“

“Stop!” Madrily shouted, shoving Geruke away from her mother. “What are you whispering to her? What did you two talk about earlier in the morning? I highly doubt it had anything to do with her appreciation of what you and your master have done for this town.”

“That’s exactly what we talked about,” Geruke said.

“He’s…” Barssanna muttered, staring at Madrily.

Geruke gulped. Was she gonna tell her? “I whispered to her that if she wants a new smithy, I’m gonna need to pay off my debts and get a lot of money as soon as possible,” Geruke said. “If I don’t, then her town will be left without a smithy,” Geruke glared at Barsanna. “Isn’t that right, my Lady?”

Barsanna shook her head, exhaled, and puffed out her chest. “He’s lying,” she said.

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Geruke stammered. Why did he care if Madrily knew? He shouldn’t. He told himself that he shouldn’t repeatedly, yet he still felt himself shrink when he glanced at Madrily’s scowl.

“What did he say to you, mother?” Madrily’s voice cut like a cold knife.

“I’m exhausted, Maddy,” Lyrassa narrowed her eyes at Madrily, and her hand fell to rest on the pommel of her sword. “Please be careful.”

“He’s the one being reckless,” Madrily said, aiming a glacial glare at Geruke. She turned to her mother. “Well? What did he say?”

Anger burned within Geruke’s stomach when he felt his knees wobble.

“He’s blackmailing me!” Barsanna said, pointing at Geruke. “He knows we’re Dischans! Kill him!”

Geruke’s hand rose to the hilt of his claymore.