A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Her whole body went tense, and her eyes stayed pinned to the hallway. Tarhuinn had grabbed the lantern by that point, but he quickly noticed her fearful expression. His gaze turned to the now darker hall. Immediately, he ordered in a quiet voice, "(F/n), we need to get back into the forest room and do so quickly."

She only nodded her head slightly as they rushed over. Something zipped through the air, however, and soared right between them. Had she taken another step forward, she would've been dead. Her heart rate increased while her grip on his hand tightened. An arrow lodged itself into the stone wall to the right of them.

Tarhuinn, at this point, pulled her forward before he swept her into his arms. He wasted no time in dashing forward. Another arrow flew by, nearly striking him. Footsteps started to run down the hall, but (f/n) didn't look. She trusted Tarhuinn to get them to the room in time. Seeing their attacker would possibly induce more panic. To try and calm her racing heart, she went over the grips and strikes in her mind. Hopefully, there wasn't more than one attacker, but she would prepare herself regardless.

Making it to the forest room, Tarhuinn ran over to the trees and into the small woods a little ways. He hid the lantern behind one of the trees, but its warming glow remained readily visible. Tarhuinn ran out of the woods and towards the left wall of the entrance. After he set her down, he motioned for her to press herself up against the wall as he did the same.

In the blink of one's eyes, he unsheathed a dagger and had it at the ready. She upturned her gaze to his. An uneasy chill ran up her spine. He intended to kill the person in one swift strike. His expression held no mercy, and it seemed like he would attack her if she spoke to him. There was no doubt that he was consumed by murderous rage.

Hesitantly, she reached out her right hand to try and ease him, but approaching footsteps caused her to withdraw it. The point of an arrow made its presence known first as well as a medium blue hand. It looked fixed on the light behind the one tree. Slow and careful footsteps advanced. When the kelremm walked fully into the room, Tarhuinn remained deadly silent.

While the attacker continued forward, Tarhuinn crept up behind him. His steps matched the steps of the attacker so that his movements in the water wouldn't be detected. To (f/n), it was both horrifying and thrilling to observe. It terrified her because she realized how easily her husband could sneak up on her if she were ever required to make the journey on her own; however, it was exciting because she could watch and learn. Unintentionally, he was giving her another lesson in combat.

The attacker was a few steps from the lantern. He was about to discover that they weren't hiding there. When he took his next forward, Tarhuinn closed the distance and brought down his blade to strike. His blade almost made it into the male's heart if it weren't for the male acting on a split second. Bringing up his bow, he blocked the attack, but his weapon was ruined in the process. With a broken bow, he tossed it aside and gripped onto the arrow to defend himself.

Not fazed by this, Tarhuinn swept his left arm against the shaft of the arrow. Effectively knocking the weapon from the male's hands, he struck again with the dagger. (F/n) had barely caught him moving from a reverse grip to a forward hammer grip due to the quickness of the switch. The blade went to swipe across the attacker's chest as the attacker went to jump back. His footing betrayed him, however, and he collided with the base of the water path.

Water splashed around while the rest of his arrows left the quiver and flowed down the path. The attacker's arms drew across his chest and face before he curled his form up to better protect himself. "Wait! Please! I'll leave you two alone and won't come back; I swear!"

Swiftly, Tarhuinn reached down, tossed away the dagger that was strapped to the male's right leg and lifted the male by the front of his shirt. He slammed the previous attacker against the nearest tree. Pine needles scratched at the skin of the male and Tarhuinn's left arm. "Like I would believe that, you worthless piece of trash. You nearly killed my wife! That action is only forgivable by death. You're lucky that I intend to give you a swift one but only if you answer my questions. Otherwise, I'll hold you out of the water so that your energy depletes itself before dipping you back in so that you can experience more than one cut from my blades."

"I'll answer your questions, but, please, they made me do it! I didn't have a choice! I'm the best fighter in this complex, so I was chosen recently to take care of questioners. If I had refused, my wife and newborn daughter would've been killed. You would've done the same if you were in my position."

"No, I wouldn't. I would kill the people trying to force me into such a situation."

"Well, maybe you could do it, but I didn't and still don't possess the strength for that. So, please let me return to them. My best hope for them now is to prepare myself for when Tergii and Bimaa return. Otherwise, they'll die. Even if you kill me, they'll be killed to make an example."

"Why would they kill off a kelremm if they seemingly care so much about the population?"

Due to his feet barely touching the water, he drew a labored breath and took some time before answering. Tarhuinn lowered him just a little more into the water. "They would kill my daughter because they can easily replace one kelremm. At least, they claim that they can. Now promise me that you won't kill me if I continue to answer."

"You're in no position to order me around," Tarhuinn mentioned, his voice dripping with venom. A hand steadily rested on the upper part of his left arm. He only glanced for a second her way before he stared back at the defeated attacker. "(F/n), step back. I don't want you too close to him."

"I think that you need to calm down, Tarhuinn. If he tries to attack again, you can easily take him out. You know that as well as I, especially since he has no weapons on him. I'm not pleased about him trying to kill us, but he was protecting his family. If you look closely enough, you can tell that he's being genuine."

"He attacked you, (f/n)! He needs to be killed for that!" Tarhuinn barked out, his hand now traveling up to the male's neck. "Now, stand back and let me continue."

"No, I'm not going to. You're losing control of yourself, and you're about to make a huge mistake. Think of it this way. If you kill him, his family will be put in more harm's way, and you'll have possibly the rest of this complex angered at you. More of them will come so that their loved ones aren't killed. If you keep him alive, perhaps, he'll be given a second change. If that's the case, he'll come after us, but we know how he fights. We'll know the threat that targets us."

"That's assuming that he gets a second chance. Besides, don't you find it odd that Tergii and Bimaa are supposedly making these threats, but no other kelremm has come to this man's aid? If one kelremm is threatened, the complex reacts and does their best to help them. So, why was he seemingly thrown into the position of a sacrifice?"

At a lost for words on that argument, she glanced to the restrained male to urge him to defend himself. He got the hint and countered, "You don't understand. Two people may seem easy to beat, but even with your skill that you demonstrated, I doubt that you could take them on. Those two have control over magic. They would wipe out at least half of us before we would be able to effectively wound them."

"What do you mean that they have control over magic?! That's impossible for a kelremm. Don't feed me such lies!" Tarhuinn shouted, slamming the male against the tree trunk once more.

A pained grunt left the male's lips. He coughed a few times before he spoke again. "They don't have magic themselves, but they have control over a mage. I don't know the characteristics of the mage, but they had the mage give us an example of their magic. The flames could've killed ten of us at once, and there are rumors that the mage has lived for centuries. Both the first and second complexes are lucky that they aren't close to those two. None of you have had to live in fear of their visits!"

(F/n) noted that Tarhuinn's gaze relaxed by a mere fraction, but he still intended to murder the male in front of him. "Tarhuinn, set him down, and we'll continue questioning him. I don't think that he's making this up. Will you please listen to me?"

In response, his hand now latched around the male's neck. He increased his grip before letting go of him. "You better answer everything truthfully, or I won't even consider my wife's suggestion of sparing you." A swift nod from the male was given to Tarhuinn. "Now, why would Tergii and Bimaa want anyone asking about them dead? Why would they instill such fear in all of you? It's completely unheard of for kelremm to do such things."

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, the male remained terrified. "I'm not certain why they would take such actions. There are rumors, however. Some kelremm here think that they have found the secret to eternal youth and that we've been encountering the original authors rather than their descendents."