The following morning, the lord of Kirstie bid us goodbye and thanked us abundantly. They didn't have anything to offer us as a token of thanks; all their valuables were still lost in the pile of things we found under the wreckage. We were going to sail to Iverness, another one of the villages in Azurelle. We still had a lot more to go but we thought that we could manage half a day each at the villages in Avillion between the eight of us.

We stood in a circle. All of us were clad in armour today, and I sheathed my dagger in its compartment on my thigh, and my left hand reached for the hilt of my sabre. Unlike a week ago, it had grown increasingly familiar, and an unusual comfort. Sienna and Jon held onto Galven's hand while a blushing Vienna was holding on to a blushing Oxford's hand. Oh, lovebirds. Zevlin cleared his throat from beside me and I glanced at him. Great, him again.

I held onto Zevlin's hand as the pressing sensation began again. My head felt stretched and squeezed at the same time, my body squashed together until finally my feet found the earth. I didn't feel as queasy as when I first sailed, thankfully, and I caught my balance just in time.

"Is this... Iverness?" Jon asked, kneeling on the ground, his hand touching the soil. "Surprisingly dry for a riverside town during Ohner season."

The place is basically a ghost town. Nearly everything was scorched. I walked over to a pile of burnt canvas. It looks like the medics have been here. The eerie thing was that there was no one in sight, and no sound either. No crickets, no birds, even the trees were silent. Nothing except for the irregular thumps of our company of eight's feet hitting the ground. I wandered back to the group.

"There are signs that help has arrived. But the tents have been burnt too," I looked around once more at the barren land, "A second attack must've taken place."

Zevlin took the group into a secluded corner behind a particularly large debris and grabbed my wrist.

"Stay and wait until I give you the signal." He said briefly before pulling me along with him. I dropped my bag quickly onto the ground.

I sighed and pulled my hand out of his grasp, "I can walk alone, thank you very much."

"Just keep up then."

My hand was on the hilt of my sabre. With every step we took, the charred ground crunched beneath our feet. The smell of freshly burnt leaves reached my nose and I stopped in my tracks. Bending down, I swiped a finger at the ground. It was still warm and it looked freshly burnt.

"Zevlin, this is recent. You don't think what's done it could still be around here, do you?" I called out at Zevlin who was in the small woods that surrounded Iverness.

Zevlin pointed at a cave further in, "I think there're people in there."

I squinted, my eyes catching the glint of a spear. We both hurried closer to the mouth of the cave. As we got nearer, we saw a line of men guarding the cave, spears jutting out of the darkness. The military. I looked past the spears and the dark mouth, and the cave was full of the people of Iverness. The healers were tending to the patients with open wounds, and some were gathered, talking in hushed voices.

I left Zevlin to conversing with the men guarding the cave while I walked into the poorly lit area. The torches were scattered, some on the wall, and some just leaning against stone boulders. Crystal orbs of light lit up the floor of the cave. Most of the injured had raw, red skin, effects of being in close contact with fire. An element that should be rare in the country of water. A woman lost about ninety percent of the skin on her calves and the red, blotchy surface was raw and bloody. I winced looking at it. Spotting a nearby healer stopping to take a little rest, I walked over to the woman.

"Hey, my name is Avery."

She wrenched the wet cloth and the water dripped into the metal basin. She wiped the sweat off her forehead with her arms and looked at me. "Are you part of the knights in training from the academy? A lady?"

I nodded. "Would you mind telling me what happened here? The last I've heard Iverness and a few other villages were under attack but this... doesn't exactly look like the aftermath of what happened three days ago."

"Unfortunately, that was just the beginning."

"What do you mean?"

She wiped the wet cloth over the woman's charred skin, making her whimper in pain.

"Izen-what now?" I asked, completely befuddled.

"The Izengamot, milady. A beast made out of water that can only be slain with the sword of Azurelle."

"And if that thing was made of water, then why is everything here burnt?"

"The Izengamot's water burns. It has a counterpart," she grunted as she held down the woman now experiencing seizures. She looked up at me. "Would you mind holding her down whilst I heal her?"

I got down on my knees and pushed down on the woman's shoulders. Her face was contorted in pain, and her mouth was foaming. Her arms were flailing as the healer struggled to heal the worst wound on her skin. Watering burns, leaking sticky substances. I barely held myself back from gagging.

"The Irstenbelle of Zelte," she continued, "whose fire freezes instead of burns. These creatures are the stuff of legends. Rare sightings occur now and then but it's been a long, long time. Centuries. So far, the last tracked appearance of the Izengamot was over a hundred years ago when the devil lord Heildam was in his peak. They used to be peaceful creatures."

"Take cover!" The men from the front of the cave yelled. I looked up towards the entrance of the cave, seeing the soldiers fleeing, some making barricades of water over the patients, freezing them into place.

Everyone in the space scurried and took cover behind the rocks, stalagmites and makeshift barricades. What sounded like roaring currents rushed past the cave and all went silent. No one dared to even breath in fear of the beast hearing us. Zevlin slid past the soldiers and crouched down beside me.

The Izengamot roar was a nasty, gurgling sound. He poked his head into the cave's mouth. Heat. Unbearable heat creeped into the cave slowly. I gasped when I felt the heat piercing through my face. Zevlin's hand flew to my mouth, successfully clamping it shut.

Waves of hot air moved through the air as the beast looked around the cave, searching for the source of noise. Short eyesight. Its ears flinched at the slightest noise. It relies on its hearing.

My hand sneakily reached into a little built-in metal pocket on the side of my armour to grab my mask. I slowly put it on, careful not to make any noise. This might work. The healer said they used to be peaceful creatures. Whatever enchantment Heildam had used, there had to be traces of it inside the animal's head. I glanced at Zevlin and sharpened my focus.

Zevlin.

By the sharp intake of breath that came from Zevlin, I could tell it worked. I tried to pry further into his mind. No response. I couldn't even hear a single thing, or see anything. If Lady Ovette knew how well built his 'walls' were, she'd give him an A+.

Zevlin?

I can hear you.

His deep voice reverberated through my head, a faint yet vivid sound only I could hear.

Is the Izengamot short-sighted?

Yes. What are you getting at?

I'm going to try and read his mind now.

That's the most idiotic idea ever. What's wrong with this girl?

I'm in your head, I can hear everything you think.

He glared at me and held a threatening gaze. 'Then get out of there quick.'

I rolled my eyes. What an enjoyable encounter with Zevlin's thoughts. Pleasant like the man himself. The large stalagmites were doing well in hiding the villagers and the rock I was currently hiding behind with Zevlin was very large. Taking a deep breath to prepare myself, I turned around and pressed my hands to the rock's rough surface. Here goes nothing.