It took Han twenty minutes to reach home. It felt much longer, though, because he was alone and noticed every stare and whisper pointed at him. And because of the headache. He should have slept properly last night.

On the bright side, he told himself as he bought a can of milk, it was better than it would have been in Larava. He had only been there once and had come back with a deeper appreciation for Amonis. Unlike there, even the poorest didn't run behind him, hounding him for cash until they were satisfied. Or until Amaar doubled the strength of gravity and made them all stick to the ground, at least. His opinions towards Larava had not gotten better since they had welcomed the Gazaarians with open arms. Nor when they had agreed to send their own soldiers with the Gazaarian armies in the conquest of Amonis.

He entered the small house he called home to find his aunt and uncle shouting at each other.

"If you don't get the milk, I will slice your brain in half. Not that you ever use it anyway," aunt Ryoka, a tall fit woman in her fifties, cheerfully said.

"If you don't get the milk, I will cast a spell that will make you hit your head to the wall and make you stupider. Not that there'll be any difference," uncle Asahi, a huge man with a surprisingly gentle voice, thought out loud.

Whenever they disagreed, they always started threatening each other more and more creatively until one of them conceded when a particularly creative threat was made. These had always entertained Emiko, his cousin, and him for as long as he could remember. Now, though, his headache was not getting better.

He coughed to bring attention to himself and spoke, "I must say, with every day, my disappointment keeps growing. You lot keep talking but never actually do anything. Anything at all."

He started walking towards his bed as his aunt and uncle watched with amusing smiles.

"You should learn from your daughter," Han chided them. Then he almost wished he had not said that after looking at their faces. Emiko had gone to Mare to study and improve the magical skill she had inherited from her father last year. He missed her a lot and knew that her parents did too, even though they wouldn't admit it. On the bright side, though, she would be safe from the war.

"Anyway," he said, deciding to divert the topic, "much as I'd like to hear you continue, here's the milk."

Aunt and uncle, he noticed, actually looked sad at missing the opportunity to talk about killing each other. Han sat down on the bed before remembering. He focused, and the sword appeared in his hand.

"Hui's spell worked, then?" his aunt asked, happiness showing on her face.

"It did," Han replied, "Could you get a hilt attached? I just want to sleep."

"Don't worry about it." his aunt firmly said, "Sleep now and don't wake up for at least an hour. They called all the captains, so I'll be going to the Western barracks later. I'll go to the Army Forge and ask my friend there while coming back if that's ok?"

"Yeah, that's perfect," He said, as he handed over the blade to his aunt, "Oh, and I had actually gone to the council today."

"Your friends were able to convince you?" Uncle Asahi asked, sounding impressed.

Han scoffed at him before replying.

"Councillor Hikari summoned me. Wants me to go meet the giants to ask for help, and because they're acting weird."

His aunt raised an eyebrow, "They're always weird. Why do you think you get along with them very well?"

He rolled his eyes at her. His aunt continued.

"When are you going?"

"The earlier, the better. I was planning on going tonight, spending the night there, and coming back in the morning. Wait, what's wrong?"

The other two in the room had looked at each other sadly.

"Nothing, don't worry," his aunt said.

"Tell me," he insisted.

"Today might be the last day we get to spend as a family before the war," his uncle said calmly, "and all three of us are on the frontlines. We just thought we could spend some time together."

Idiot, Han called himself. Why had he not thought of that?

"I can go tomorrow morning," he said weakly.

"No," his aunt said firmly, "that is more important. We'll make it through, don't worry. Now sleep. No, don't talk, just sleep."

He turned over to the other side to avoid catching his aunt and uncle's eyes. How had he forgotten to save some time for the closest he had to parents ever since his own had passed away? Han had been three when their ship had drowned. His aunt and uncle had moved in from the rural areas with their daughter just to take care of Han. Well, you can't have everything, he told himself. Spending time convincing the giants to help with the war was more pragmatic. And yet.

He was very tired and fell asleep quickly, dreaming of war and peace and magic.

Han woke up a few hours later. The sun was low. He got up and looked around, but there seemed to be nobody inside. He heard sounds from outside, and as he expected, his aunt was practicing sword fighting alone on the lawn.

"Oh, you're awake," she said when she saw him, "I have your sword in the bag there. Blue shiny swords tend to attract attention, so covered it completely."

"That they do," Han said as he picked it up, "Where is uncle?"

"He was called, too, a little after you fell asleep. How's the balance?"

Han tried a few fluid movements, holding the simple and sturdy black metal handle that was attached. The sword left behind a blue trace in the sky, and the contrast with the orange sky behind made the scene look surreal. People in the street stopped to watch him, but he ignored them.

"Close to perfect," he told her.

Han searched for a hard but useless object around him and found an old piece of wood that had been used as an offering to Saros, God of War. He brought the sword down. It cut through the wood like a knife through butter. Some of the arteries thinned. It would take a powerful mage to recharge the sword, but he knew several of those anyway.

Aunt Ryoka whistled, seemingly impressed.

"Now that's something. I thought we could practice with it, but it'll just cut mine in half," she laughed, "get out your regular one, let's practice a little before you leave."

"Yep. I have a few ideas for improving it, actually, but don't have the time," Han said, as he sent the new sword to the pocket dimension and got out his old army issue blade, dulled for practice.

His aunt replied, "You'll have time after, don't worry. Let's practice our basics to-."

She surged forward, blade pointed towards him. Han's feet were too close together, so he parried the strike but tripped backward before catching himself against the wall. His aunt was surprisingly quick for her age and didn't hesitate to press her advantage. He saw the next strike towards his abdomen coming, so he used his sword to push up against his aunt's to defend, but aunt Ryoka then tried to hit him with the pommel of her sword. He staggered backward as he tripped again and stepped back a few more steps instinctively. Han was rewarded when his aunt's advance and lunge missed him by a few centimeters. This time his footing was better, so he pushed his aunt's blade away as it was retreating and lunged forward. First the arm and then the leg, but his sword was parried, without his aunt even taking a step back. Before he could attack again, his aunt pushed hard on his sword. His sword was forcefully turned down. He could not retreat because his legs were overextended. Before he knew it, his aunt's blade was up at his throat.

"Shoddy footing will cost you every time, Han, haven't I told you?" aunt Ryoka said.

"What was that about?" he asked.

She retracted her blade and sighed.

"Han, no one is going to hesitate to stab you in the back in the middle of a battle. You must be ready at all times. And that means your guard must be perfect at all times. Carelessness will cost you your life. Promise me you'll be careful at all times," she said, her voice suddenly fragile.

"I promise," Han said.

"Good, now I'm not letting you leave till I'm satisfied you can easily take on an enemy infantryman, at the very minimum."

They spent the next thirty minutes drilling basic parries, lunges, and thrusts until Han was sweating from head to toe. By the time they were finished, the sun was setting. Hui and Amaar would be waiting, so he waved his goodbye to his aunt, with a promise to come back in the morning, and took off.

Han didn't even think about everyone looking at him or the upcoming war during the walk to the Hall of Lar. He was feeling invigorated after the nap and the practice. The Hall of Lar was a grand structure but was overshadowed by the entrance to the more famous University of Amonis opposite to it. The area between them was filled with soldiers, mages, scholars, and farmers, all there for different purposes.

Han jumped to take a look over the tall crowd. He found Hui and Amaar arguing, but with smiles, near one of the humongous pillars in front of the Hall that the god Lar himself had set. As Han came closer, he heard their voices.

"-and that's proof that gods should be allowed to be kings. Valkia was only an exception," Amaar said.

"Yes, but how can we take that risk? Even if one of them is like him, the destruction will be a lot, like Han trying to flirt levels of destruction," Hui replied.

"Why, thank you, Hui," Han said, cutting out of the crowd and onto the stairs, "I was gonna support you, but that really made me think again."

Did Han just imagine it, or did he see a small frown on Hui's face followed by something else, before it turned into a smile? No, he told himself, you are bad enough at reading social cues to make assumptions like these.

"You agree with her?" Amaar asked.

"I do." Han simply replied.

"Oh. Then I think I must think this through again," Amaar said.

"Wait a second," Hui said, looking exasperated, "I say it, and you don't even think once, but he does, and suddenly you need to 'think this through'?"

Amaar blinked.

"Of course," he said, "Now, say I have two people. One of them jumped headfirst into quicksand because she felt like getting dirty. The other made a detailed plan, with contingencies, mind you, for asking someone out. It is now the most confusing dilemma on whose judgment to trust."

"Hmmph," Hui snorted, "But I succeeded in my objective. He didn't."

"Then," Amaar replied, "it's a good thing opinions don't need social skills, but only thinking, I suppose."

"He has you beat there," Han said.

"Slept well?" Hui asked, diverting the topic so abruptly even he caught it. He smiled but decided to allow it, kind soul that he was.

"Yeah, more or less. practiced with my aunt for a while too. But that's not important. What happened in the meeting?" he asked.

Hui and Amaar exchanged a glance, and their smiles turned to frowns.

"It's gonna be tight, Han," Hui replied, "they have more Omegas and good ones too. We need to be swift with taking theirs down. Else they attack our army and it takes more damage than it can afford."

Han thought of his aunt and nodded seriously.

"And our plan?" he asked.

"Arthur wants us to try it,” Hui said,” he thinks it may work. Akari thinks it's too much of a risk and thought we would be more useful in taking down the weaker Omegas in the enemy army instead. So they reached a compromise. We will start at the South West Gates, together. If the Green Witch turns up, we go for it if we can. Otherwise, we take down anyone in the list of Omegas we were given."

Han hummed and said, "So they don't want us wasting time searching for her, but they don't mind us risking our lives for a chance at taking her down if we can do it. We can work with that."

"We thought so, too," Amaar said, "You should go, Han. It's already dusk, and you don't want to be stuck in the cold down there."

Han nodded with a wince, and all three of them started walking into the main hall. It was protected by the finest guards with strict orders. But Han was a very familiar face, and they were allowed in without much trouble. The white hall was more than a hundred meters long and wide and more than 50 meters high. It was filled with beautiful murals and paintings. For all its glamour, it was completely empty inside. Except for a black spherical substance that seemed to be floating in the air. It was perfectly spherical and unmoving, the way nothing in nature ever was. The portal revealed little of what was on the other side, but Han was familiar enough.

Their steps echoed as they walked towards it.

"Hmm. I realized I don't know this. Are echoes a feature of nature, or is it because of the Flow? Because of magic?" Amaar asked.

Han was about to answer, but Hui cut in.

"Oh. Here is a man who doesn't even know what echoes are, and he lectures me on why the courageous sport of jumping into quicksand is wrong. There is so much ignorance in the world, isn't there?" Hui asked no in particular.

Both Han and Amaar ignored her.

"Completely natural," Han said, "I hear it happens near caves and cliffs as well, though I haven't heard it personally. Also, I think the only magical system that can manipulate sound effectively is the one Pixies have, and they definitely aren't here."

"Ah, I should have thought of that."

Hui solemnly said, "But you didn't because you are a lowly mortal, unlike me, the queen of-"

"jumping into quicksand," Han cut in, "She must have a lot of frogs in her kingdom," he told Amaar.

Amaar looked at her closely before replying, "I can definitely see the resemblance."

Hui started describing all the misery she would inflict upon them when she ascended to godhood as they reached the portal. Even as Hui talked about making them eat only Yamachian boars for all their meals and forcing them to jump into quicksand repeatedly after, Han waved goodbye to both of them and stepped into the portal.