The question that Bi’wan asked brought back a vicious torrent of memories that Ilon preferred to keep locked away, far in the depths where he didn’t have to face them.

One particular memory from when he was very young leapt to the front of his mind. To this day it was one of the most vivid memories he had and probably ever would have.

It was only a couple of months after the Master had picked him up and introduced him to what the Cursed were. During that time they were traveling frequently, never stopping at a place for more than a day, so the young Ilon never got to know any other children outside of the Cursed.

Then they stopped in a village in Duhnovo by the name of Teriya. Here it was decided by the Master that they would be staying for around a tenday. Teryia was a decent sized village with a couple thousand inhabitants living there. A lot of the houses were made of mud and scrap wood and the general population seemed poor, barely getting enough food for survival.

He hadn’t learned this till later, but apparently the Shaman clan that was in charge of that area had been sucking the villages and towns under their control dry in attempts to raise a prodigy that the clan had birthed.

But it was in this village of Teriya that he met other children of his age since joining the Cursed, and all it did was bring up bad memories of before he met the Master. The harsh bullying and discrimination for his unusual blue eyes and unnatural red veins. Ilon met with the same isolation and hatred that he had experienced before.

That was until he met the person who he considered his first friend. A young boy by the name of Ozod.

Ozod was a kind soul who wanted to make great changes within the Duhnovo Empire, and he was someone who had enough talent that he could make it happen. He didn’t get weirded out by Ilon’s differences, but was instead welcoming and curious about the world outside of his village.

‘Does everyone live like this?’ Ozod would frequently ask when giving Ilon a tour around the village. The corpse of a baby who looked little more than a skeleton with skin, the mother not much better. An old man, haggard and drunk, trying to escape reality in what little years he had left. Hundreds in a village of thousands, starving. Thousands in a village of thousands, famished.

‘No? Then why do we have to live like this?’ His eyes on his thin, frail body, shone with spirit and motivation. Unfortunately, befriending Ilon was the greatest folly he would make in his life.

It was nearing the end of their tenday stay, when Ozod asked Ilon a question.

‘Can I meet who you’re travelling with?’ He asked with such excitement that it was impossible for the young Ilon to reject. He accepted and led Ozod to the campground near the outskirts of the village. There, Maymun and Quyon looked on with horror and the other member at the time, Echki, looked at him with pity, yet he was too young at the time to notice the meaning in their gazes.

‘Oh, who’s this you’ve brought here, Ilon?’ Ilon heard the Master call. She walked over as a wave of invisible pressure seemed to settle on his shoulders.

‘My friend.’ He had responded timidly, yet with a bit of excitement. Ilon remembered foolishly thinking that she would like Ozod, that Ozod could get out of this place that he hated and come with them, to the outside. Yet, Her eyes when she said that sharpened into the look she gave when she beat them.

‘I see. A friend.’ In an instant the look in her eyes was gone and she had a smile on her face, yet that sent even more fear into him. The only time the Master smiled was when they were about to receive Punishment. As Ozod introduced himself, realization that he had made a mistake dawned upon the young Ilon. Yet it was already too late.

Her eyes seemed to shine a daunting, soul piercing blue. Her hair seemed to glow red like a velvet fire. Fear enveloped and enwrapped Ilon in it’s tightest web as She reached forward, towards Ozod.

Like plucking a berry from a bush, Ilon watched in horror as Ozod kept introducing himself while his freshly beating heart laid there, upon the Master's hand. Then after a couple of seconds, Ozod stopped talking, and like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsed to the ground where the bright red blood tainted the earth black.

Tears ran down the young Ilon’s cheeks as he stood there, paralyzed, watching the cooling body of his friend. The three other Cursed stood there, and watched in abject silence.

‘As is tradition. Feast.’ She reached down with her unoccupied hand and gripped his jaw. A violet set of ephemeral jaws, resembling that of a snake, formed around his mouth. He couldn’t do anything to resist. He was powerless. She shoved the heart of his first and last friend down his throat, and the only thing he could do was close his tear stained eyes.

“You bear with it, you suffer, you endure. And you survive.” Ilon said with clenched teeth as he opened his eyes once again to look at the decrepit man before him. He had decided to answer Bi’wan’s question honestly, even though he wasn’t sure if it was the right move. “The only other thing we can do is shoulder the burden of the guilt that we’ve accrued.”

Silence reigned the bathing pool as Bi’wan sat there with his head down. His breathing became more steady as he stared at his reflection in the pool.

“You survive even if it means the death of your loved ones? The death of those you have known?” Bi’wan spoke softly with rage seeping through every word. “Just bear all that guilt? Leave thi-.” Bi’wan froze as he finally looked up at Ilon. “N-n-nevermind.” He stuttered as his head dropped back down, once again staring at himself in the reflection.

Ilon wisely chose not to speak up. Bi’wan seemed at a breaking point that he almost teetered over with his words. Ilon had already gotten a lot of information from him. He didn’t seem like he wanted to be doing this, nor did it seem like he was willingly doing this. His dead and defeated eyes, his broken spirit racked by guilt, and that more people would likely die if he were to continue to survive.

“Then, do you wish to survive more than you wish for the lives of your loved ones?” Ilon asked while tensing up in preparation for an attack. No attack came, just the sounds of a softly weeping man.

“If I do anything, they’ll die. If I don’t do anything, they die. So, what can I do?” Bi’wan spoke through choking sobs. “How can I do anything against Them?”

“Who?” Ilon asked in his most calming voice. Right now was the most critical moment to get what they needed. Any sort of identity and abilities that the enemies had.

“I don’t know. I can’t say. I don’t know. I … I’ll die.” Bi’wan sputtered as he put his hand to his head. “Hey kid, are you afraid of death? I am. I’m terrified.” His hand gripped his face so tightly that his fingernails penetrated his skin. Blood trailed down his face, leaking into his widened eyes. “I’m going to die. I know it. There’s nothing I can do, I’m done for.”

“I am. I’ve seen a lot of people die, and usually they die because of others. They aren’t able to do anything they want before they die. No goodbyes, and no correcting regrets. You still have an opportunity, don’t you? To at least lessen the guilt and regrets you have.” Ilon coldly said. He wanted to feel sorry for the person in front of him, but the person in front of him was responsible for dozens of innocent lives taken, and hundreds more ruined.

“You speak well for a kid.” Bi’wan said as he washed the blood and tears off his face, his wounds already closed. Without saying anything more he got up and out of the pool and dried himself off with his towel before making his way out. After a couple of moments, Ilon quickly trailed after him making sure that he wouldn’t be seen.

He quickly got changed and followed Bi’wan out of the bathhouse, a distance away. The sun had started to grace the land with its rays and more and more people were out and about, making preparations for their day.

After following Bi’wan for a minute or so, Ilon noticed that they had travelled to a busier part of the town. Although Ilon was confident in not losing him, he was still worried that Bi’wan had some tricks.

He was proven right after a couple of seconds as he noticed Bi’wan glow with a blue energy for a second, and a faint warhorn sounded out. Ilon found his eyes involuntarily shift over to a carriage that was passing by, and he noticed that several others in the area also looked at the same carriage.

“Shit.” Ilon said a second or so after realizing what was going on and looked back to see that Bi’wan was nowhere in sight. He had used his totem to amplify his attention towards a specific object, that being the carriage.

Ilon had no doubts that he would be unable to find him, considering he had no skills in tracking or legacies related to tracking. The only thing that he could do right now was to go retrieve Maymun and Quyon from the inn and report their meeting to Tain, as well as mention Fessal’s missing memories.

Ilon rushed back to the inn, ignoring all the strange looks that he garnered. He reached the inn after a short while and quickly entered.

“Welcome to the Bronze Cudgel. Oh, welcome back!” Ilon was greeted with the familiar face of Fessal. He was surprised to see her working so early in the morning, but he supposed it made sense since there were many early risers in Mazual.

“Thanks. Sorry, I’m in a bit of a rush so I don’t have time to chat.” Ilon said as he passed Fessal, giving her a nod. He kept an eye out for Isoko as he made his way to the stairs, but didn’t see her anywhere.

He quickly reached the room that Maymun and Quyon were staying in and knocked on the door, making sure that it wasn’t too loud. Even though he was in a rush, he didn’t want to disturb the other guests of the inn and make trouble for Cudlin.

“It’s me, Ilon.” He said as he finished knocking on the door. He could hear some rustling sounds in the room, indicating that the two of them were in there.

“One sec.” Ilon heard Maymun call out in a tired voice. After a couple of moments Maymun opened the door and let him in, shutting it behind him. Quyon was still lazing about in the bed half asleep, which sort of irked him a bit because he wanted to be able to dally about, but instead he had to go through something like that.

“I met Bi’wan during my visit to the public baths.” Ilon said, which even got the attention of the weary Quyon.

“Did you get anything?” Quyon asked.

“Why’d you go to the public baths?” Maymun asked at the same time.

“I did get a little bit of information, as for why I went.” Ilon trailed off. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell them about his odd encounter with Isoko, but decided that it was better to not keep secrets if they were a team. “Cudlin’s wife, Isoko, told me to go to the public baths for a surprise. She seemed weird, but I decided to trust her after seeing her genuine love for Cudlin.”

“Hmm. What sort of information did you get from Bi’wan?” Quyon questioned again. He shared the conversation they had to the best of his ability, giving his thoughts and debating some points here and there with the two of them.

“I don’t know if I could have contained myself if I met him.” Maymun said with disdain in her voice. She was the one who wanted to punch his face in the most, so Ilon was sort of glad that he was the one who encountered Bi’wan. He didn’t know what Quyon would have done, but there was a good chance she would have been able to follow him back to their hideout with her hearing.

“We should go report this information to Tain now and tell him about Fessal while we’re at it.” Ilon said. The both of them agreed even though they didn’t like the idea of working for a guard, which Ilon could understand.

A lot of guards only had the guises of good people while being scum behind it, but just like in all things there were a lot that were genuinely good people. It was just that if someone was burned once, they held that in their heart, while if they were helped once then they would write it off as the guard doing their duty and forget about it eventually.

“Let’s go and get it over with. Give us a minute to gear up and we’ll be out in a bit.” Quyon said, which reminded Ilon that he would have to change as well. While he would be fine in his casual clothes, he had specialty clothes that didn’t restrict his movement as much when in combat. He didn’t think that there would be combat at the guard captain’s office, but one could never be too prepared.

He quickly went to his room and changed before coming out again. He waited for a couple of tedious minutes before Maymun and Quyon finally came out, kitted up in their leather armour and with their weapons. They had all learned the hard way at some point to always be prepared and ready for anything, because a fight could break out at any time.

“All ready?” Ilon asked, getting two nods. “Then, let’s go.”