[A popular nick-name for Sanctis.

It refers to the towering walls that surround the city on all sides

And connect to the mountains.

These walls were originally created to house the Empire’s main garrison,

And to act as the gates to Ish’din.]

The sun had set and the darkness of night had already begun enveloping the land by the time we arrived at Sanctis’s walls. They were just as, if not taller than Al’din’s walls, and just as imposing. Where Al’din had farms and forest surrounding its walls, Sanctis had a sparse selection of run-down structures and houses. The road had met up with the road from the bridge about a 30 minute walk from the gates. From there you could see across an almost barren plain to the road that went into the city’s Northern gate. The plain was bare, save for a small handful of the same run-down buildings that hugged the city wall.

The walls surrounding the city were very thick, and judging by the doors I saw just inside the gates, actually had an interior section. Nadred would later confirm my suspicion, and said that the walls were once used to store weapons, and housed the city guards’ barracks. The interior also allowed access to the top of the wall, which was one of the guards’ primary positions during the War. “The city itself used to be the primary hub for the Demon Empire’s military. During the War almost everyone that lived in Sanctis was part of the army. If memory serves correctly, it wasn’t ever used as central command, but was frequently used for training new recruits and the like.” He explained.

“Where did they have their central command at?” I asked.

“I’m not sure about every location, but the main location, as well as the last location, was deep in the Der’venn’ya Desert. Of course, back then, it wasn’t a desert. It was the old capitol for a while, when the Fifth Shadow was in power. The Empire’s military headquarters, and all other important buildings, were nestled up close to the mountains, much like Sanctis here.

“Now, after the final battle, all that’s left is sandy ruins,” Nadred sounded depressed as he finished.

But that was all at the inn that night, and I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

The city within the walls was bright and bustling, even this late at night. Ropes with small banners crossed between buildings, and the streets were full of people. Everyone, us included of course, kept to the side of the road to allow any Aeth’mobiles through. Much like Al’din, Sanctis was not designed with the vehicles in mind, as there were fewer streets suited for them than Al’din. Thinking back, Fyrun’s roads weren’t really made wide enough for them, it felt more like people just happened to build their houses and shops far away enough that streets got formed between them. I wasn’t sure about Oru’ou, as we didn’t really get much time to look around and get a feel for the city while we were there. I looked forward to the prospect of one day working in these cities again and getting more time to explore on my own.

We eventually made our way to the center of the city, where there was a grand fountain in the middle of a giant, three-way intersection. The road to our right led out the North gate, and the road to our left led towards Ish’din. There were loads of Aeth’mobiles parked around the edge of the circular intersection, none of them seemed to be on.

Near the fountain stood a group of Humans in similar attire to the ones in our care. Standing with them were a pair of familiar looking blue trench coats, as well as a group wearing similar looking black coats. “Oh, looks like the Incol are here too,” Ranfa said as we approached them. At this point our traveling groups got pretty jumbled up, as the Humans went to speak with their fellows, and we Hunters went to speak with the Incol.

“Oh, there’s a familiar face,” a man with short black hair, and blue eyes said as we approached. “There’s a few, actually.” He said as he looked from Oroske to Kared, then to me.

“Oh you’re right!” The young girl next to him exclaimed, looking at Oroske. Her hair matched colors with the man’s, but her eyes were an emerald green. “You’re that Orosk guy right?” She asked.

“I am, yes,” Oroske said, ignoring the slight mis-pronunciation of his name. To be fair, the ‘e’ sound is very quiet. He’d gotten annoyed with me once since I asked him about it. Apparently that subtle sound makes a big difference to him. “You two are… Uri and Myr, correct?” He asked as he looked them both up and down.

“That’s right,” Uri, the man, confirmed, “I don’t believe we got to properly introduce ourselves.” He turned to the rest of our group, “I’m Uri, an officiate in the Incol clan. This is my youngest sister, Myr, who is also an officiate. The people in the black coats are our operatives.” One by one they introduced themselves, though I wasn’t really paying attention so none of their names stuck in my mind very long.

After the Incols finished their introductions, we followed suit, starting with Ranfa and ending with Kared.

“Surely not the Kared, right? From the Crimson Twilight?” Uri asked after her introduction.

Kared looked annoyed, and scoffed, “The one and only.”

“Wow, we get two of the Tsumi’s most infamous Hunters at once, eh?” He followed up.

“Yep, suppose so,” Kared’s eyebrow twitched with annoyance as she folded her arms. She made it very clear she wasn’t exactly happy with her fame.

“Weren’t you with another sister in the City of Towers?” Oroske asked, trying to change the subject quickly.

“Oh, yeah. Wex went to the Royal City, acting as head officiate,” Uri said, his voice full of pride for his younger sibling.

“Head officiate?” I asked.

“Yep, we typically send two officiates and fill the rest of the ranks with novices and operatives,” Uri explained, “And of those two, one is designated as the lead, or ‘head.’ They directly represent and fill in for our chief. Sometimes, an executive will act as the head officiate. But I’ve only seen it happen once, and it was a time when we had very serious business to discuss.”

“Makes sense,” Oroske said, “We do much the same, except we’re usually led by a Red Cloak. This time is an exception though, as I was put in charge.”

“Red is ranked higher, isn’t it?” Myr asked.

“It is, rather than having our second-highest rank be the usual lead, we always have one of our top ranked Hunters lead the party. This time we made an exception and had me do it,” Oroske explained, “Mostly because Kared didn’t want to do it.” He nudged her with his elbow as he finished.

“So are you taking the lead for your group, Uri?” Nadred asked.

“Not this time, Myr is taking the lead, and I’m supporting her. Because the Peace Party only happens every few years, we try to have new officiates take the lead early on so they feel more comfortable with it sooner.”

At that point I started tuning out the discussions and diverted my attention to taking in the sights of Sanctis. The buildings surrounding the plaza were mostly shops and the like; it felt quite similar to the central plaza in Tsumi’din. Unlike Tsumi’din, however, the buildings were rather homogenous in their designs and architecture. Even size didn’t vary that much. There were slightly more fancy looking buildings towards the West gate. Said buildings all housed government operations. Included among them were our lodgings for the night, and the building we’d be holding our forum in.

The West gate wasn’t much of a ‘gate’ either, and was just another building we had to pass through. That would end up being our next stop, followed by the conference building the forum was to be held within.

Our visit to the gate was brief, but heated. Mostly due to Kared’s appearance within our ranks.

“All of you are set to go, with one exception. Kared Anur of the Crimson Twilight has outstanding warrants and a life-time ban from travel to Ish’din,” the guard at the check-in counter said, glaring at our rabbit-eared friend. “And I’d know her anywhere, she’s got a very distinct appearance, what with those ears, combined with her hair and eye colors.”

“Look, I’m Kared Tsumi now. I am a Red Cloak Hunter, and one of Danfis Tsumi’s most trusted. I forsook the Anur name years ago, and have been working with the clan for even longer.” She bit back, clearly trying to keep calm and not blow up on the guy.

“If that’s the case, why were you sighted in Oru’ou, working with the Twilight, just over two months ago?” The guardsman asked sternly.

Kared backed down a little, and Oroske took over. “Regardless of her actions with the Twilight, she is a valued member of the Tsumi family now. We are aware that she still does work with them on occasion, but the simple truth is that we keep closer tabs on her than anyone. She will not be entering Ish’din as the ruthless Crimson Killer, but as an ambassador of the Tsumi Clan.” He put an envelope on the table, and slid it to the guard. “Thankfully, Danfis foresaw we may have issues with this. He prepared this letter of introduction for Kared. You may rest assured that Kared will be under careful observation for our entire visit to Ish’din. You have my word as the one who will be supervising her.”

Kared looked extremely pissed at the prospect of being babysat by Oroske for a few days. I watched as she took a deep breath and swallowed her anger and frustration, clearly trying to keep a professional front.

The guard took his time reading the letter in the envelope, and eventually called down his superior to look at it. The lady he called over used some sort of magic on the signature at the bottom before declaring, “It’s legit. Give her a pass.” She then looked Kared dead in the eyes, “Mess up this time, and not even the Guardians could get you into Ish’din.”

Once Kared received her pass to enter Ish’din the next day, we departed to drop our stuff off at our lodgings for the night. The inn we were staying at was definitely fancier than the one in Fyrun, and leagues better than the one in Oru’ou. However, something about the Fyrun Inn was more comfortable, it felt more like home.

Once we’d dropped our stuff off in our room and the Humans had gone out to the hall, Kared stopped Oroske.

“I need to let out some of this anger,” she said. Oroske just gave her a knowing nod, and put up multiple thick layers of anur, or barrier, magic. She then proceeded to punch with a loud yell, shattering every single layer in a single blow. “How dare that scum call me by that name,” she cursed as Oroske put up another set of layers. She slowly continued to punch the mostly-invisible walls Oroske put up, and he continued putting them up after every blow. She was out of breath - something I thought was impossible until now - when she finally stopped. She took a deep breath, and regained her usual cool, confident composure.

“Everything okay in there?” Raen’s voice asked through the door.

Kared opened it and assured him everything was fine, then told Oroske and I to hurry up so we could get on our way to the forum.

We had split up with the Incol when we went to the gatehouse, as they had gotten registered as visitors just before we met up with them at the fountain. According to Oroske, that means that they probably arrived in Sanctis maybe an hour before us, which meant we weren’t the only Clan behind schedule.

I thought maybe that would mean the Ishen were already in Ish’din, but I suppose the usual plan involves staying in Sanctis for a couple nights, and they’d been relaxing for the entire day. I was jealous they got so much time to recuperate after the long journey here.

In the same fashion, they had arrived at the conference center nearly an hour before us and the Incol as well, who arrived a few minutes after we did.

This forum felt a lot more professional and serious, as we actually had tables and chairs to sit on. There were five tables, one for each of the Human groups, one for the Half-Demons to share, and one for city officials. Each table had one voice-amplifying device, which was put in front of the primary representatives from each group. In the case of the Half-Demon Clans, the representatives from each Clan were sat at the table, and the device would be passed between them, while the rest of us stood around behind and acted as guards. One of the devices was also present for the audience to take turns using.

According to Oroske, the main conference in Ish’din would have us in similar roles and positions, but instead of a large audience we had the members of the Parliament.

That night’s forum wasn’t terribly interesting, although there were a lot of talks regarding bandit attacks and raids on smaller villages. A lot of topics ended up looping right back around to the bridge that led to Fyrun being destroyed, and the issues that situation has been causing. As a collective whole, we resolved to do what we can to resolve the issue of the bridge as soon as possible.

The forum ran very late into the night, and upon returning to our lodgings, I promptly fell asleep. At that point, nothing was keeping me awake any longer.