Everyone stands looking out at the sea. What they call the Gulf is a long entrance of the sea into the land. They stand at where it makes a channel, narrow enough that someone with a strong will could probably swim across it. In a clear day, it would be easy to see the other coast, even the people there and what they are doing if you have a spyglass. Not today. Today a thick fog covers the sea and land, making it impossible to see the other coast, and difficult to even see someone a few meters away.

There is a weird calmness around the field, even if the silence is filled with the restless movements of the soldiers and the low agitated discussion of the generals. Meira has not taken her eyes off of them from their position near the aquadores, who Gabriel has joined. They are just close enough that she can see their agitation even through the fog. Kylem has not taken his eyes off the sea, not even when he asked Lífdagar to check how the things were in the water.

Meira does turn her gaze away from the generals when Liv comes back, a frown in her face.

“The sea is calm, too calm, and the fish say something that doesn’t make sense they say-”

“There are no ships or boats in the water?” Kylem finishes.

“How did you know” Lífdagar looks just as surprised as Meira is. No boats? Then is there not going to be an attack? Rakan is looking at Kylem with concern and Meira is about to ask him to explain what is happening when Kylem talks again.

“Get prepared, the fog is lifting” he says it loud enough that the aquadores, who were also looking at each other in concern all move to get into position.

He is right, the fog is moving, too fast to be natural, clearing the view forward until they can perfectly see the other side.

“What in the gods names are they doing?” they all turn to see General Buchner next to them, taking out a spyglass as fast as he can.

The confusion spreads across the lines of soldiers. As Kylem had said, there are no ships on sight, and even without the help of a spyglass, the lines of soldiers on the other side can be seen standing on the shore.

“You knew this didn’t you?” General Buchner sounds furious now, completely different from the man that had welcomed them yesterday “you knew your friend was coming, that’s why you said to be prepared.”

Kylem snatches the long glass from the General. When he lowers it and lifts his chin he looks calm, but the other Kyusei can notice the slight paling of his face, how he clenches his jaw.

“Rakan” he says, without looking at the boy “I’m going to need you to carry me to the other side.”

Tirakan nods, and they make a move to leave but before they can something else happens, the water stars moving. It doesn’t look like much at the beginning, just the waves growing stronger every moment, their sound almost deafening. They grow, and crash and grow again. A murmur starts between the soldiers, and it soon turns into shouts when there, on the channel, the waves move to show the sea floor underneath. A long corridor flanked by the sea stands now between the two shores. No one has time to think before the soldiers in the other shore start to march forward.

Lífdagar turns to say something to Kylem but the boy is no longer there, a second later a big, dark blue dragon is flying over the channel.

“Soldiers, prepare!” General Buchner shouts. Someone close to them lifts a flag and all the voices stop at once.

“Don’t” Lífdagar says “if your soldiers go in, there is no certainty that the water will stay up”

“I can’t let those men set one foot on our land. March!” he storms off. The flag moves down, the soldiers move forward, and Buchner is gone.

Lífdagar turns towards Gabriel and the Aquadores “Don’t move from here, whatever happens, don’t let the water come down. Victoria.” She calls looking for the girl. “Stay with them, in case something goes wrong.” She turns to see Meira with her naginata already on her hand. Looking eager to finally move. “Let’s go, Kylem will need our help”

Kylem drops to the floor heavily on the beach. Most of the soldiers are on their way across the channel. Not all. Kylem kills the first soldier cutting his neck with his chakram, the second one with a shadow dart to his head, he sees Rakan taking another with his claws. Kylem can hear the sea roaring at his back, small sand tornados are forming around him from the strong wind, his clothes are flapping around without control and in front of him there’s Seoham. Looking forward calmly from his position on top of a dune. His long hanbok jacket and hair almost still, the wind not reaching him.

“Stop this now!” Kylem shouts at him. Seoham looks down towards him, an eyebrow arched. Another soldier appears and attacks Kylem from behind. He ducks and avoids his attack. A slash to the neck, the man stops it with his sword. Kylem doesn’t waste time and attacks his leg with his other chakram, the wound makes the man drop to his knee. Kylem uses a shadow to take his sword away and, finally, kills him with a slash to his neck.

Kylem looks back towards Seoham. He hasn’t moved.

“I could let the water return to its place, but I don’t think that would please you” Seoham answers to him, as if nothing had happened.

“You know what I’m talking about. Why are you participating in this madness, why are you here?”

“Maybe I wanted to see you again” he says it with a mocking voice, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Nothing does. He can see the flashes of Meira’s light in the distance illuminating his face from time to time and it only makes his expression more upsetting. The lack of emotion behind the eyes that used to tell so much.

“Stop playing around, what are you doing here”

“Are you still lying to yourself?” Seoham asks with his eyebrows lifted, mocking.

“I know you don’t want to do this” Kylem finds himself saying. Seoham smirks and Kylem can’t help but curse at himself because even now, despite everything, he can’t stop trying. He tries to not let it show in his face, keeps his expression serious, hard.

“And what do I want to do? Go back to the corrupt council? What makes you think you are fighting for the right side? What makes you think I want to go back with you?”

“You think I believe you left one day to kill the hexian emperor but halfway through decided to become his friend?” Kylem decides to ignore the last question, he can’t think about that right now.

“You would be surprised how much you learn when you leave the council’s side” Seoham says.

“What can you learn that makes you join a murderer and tyrant” Kylem accuses. Seoham looks around his back for a second.

“That’s not important, the council is hiding things. You must know-” he stops abruptly when a hand lands on his shoulder. He straightens his back after he had leaned down to speak the last sentence. Kylem can’t help but take a step forward, as if Seoham would need his help, even though he is calm again, his eyes emotionlessly looking forward. But Kylem knows he didn’t imagine the desperation on his eyes, the urgency on his voice. It was as if he had turned into a completely different person for a few seconds.

“Ah, look at you, having a nice catch up.” the man next to Seoham says. “You arrived so fast, we should get a dragon too, don’t you think so, Seoham?” the boy doesn’t answer, he doesn’t make a move of acknowledgement towards the man. “Do you think your Kyusei friend will want to join us? We should ask him, look, he is coming over here. Aren’t we so lucky Seoham? All your friends have come to play with us!” he sounds too overly happy. He puts a hand to his heart “ah, a kyusei reunion, isn’t this so heart-warming?”

“Who the fuck are you?” Kylem looks to the side to see Meira and Lífdagar arriving next to him. Meira is pointing her naginata at the man and Seoham after asking the question. Rakan is also running towards them.

The man next to Seoham shakes his head “Little Meira, Marisa told me you were very bad mannered.”

“Guess who taught me, bitch”

“I told them to take you with us, to teach you to be on our side but they didn’t listen. They thought you would be less dangerous with Marisa, hah! But I’m not going to be the one to say I told you so to the boss, you know?”

“You think I would fight for you?” Meira says with half a laugh.

“You’d be surprised how convincing we can be” the man says, with an arm around Seoham, his hand gripping him between the neck and the shoulder.

Seoham turns around, getting rid of the man’s hand. He doesn’t look back, he just walks off. The man lets his hand linger in the air for a few seconds before he drops it and shakes his head.

“Ah this boy, he’s going to put the water down already, don’t you think it’s been too short? And he refused to rise the earth to make a bridge for us, tsk, always so lazy.” A loud horn starts sounding from their shore, the signal for the soldiers to return. “It was nice talking to you, we’ll see each other again” the man says while waving his hand.

“You mean to leave? Just like that? You just failed your invasion” Rakan says.

“Who says we meant to invade that shithole?” the man asks amused.

Meira doesn’t wait for the man to say another word before she lunges at him, the blade of her naginata aiming at his neck. The man protrudes a sword out of nowhere and stops her attack. He cocks his head, the smile never leaving his face.

“What? Do you want to play with me?”

Meira attacks again with a roar.