some memories never leave your bones. like salt in the sea; they become part of you

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- Vane -

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Now I knew again why I hated the country. The land itself was practically like a promise of trouble and problems. People fought over it because they could draw borders and take territories. People built castles and kingdoms on the land to expand their power.

You should try that on the wild sea. Any of those landlubbers would fail miserably at it. The ocean could not be divided, on paper perhaps, but not literally. Likewise, it was not to be taken, and so it should be. The ocean was the only untamable place far and wide. Where one could be truly free.

At least that's how it had been before Cephas had taken this freedom away from me. And my entire crew their lives.

But as it looked, my crewmen were far from being the only ones to lose their lives. People were fleeing around me. Died. Children and women and men, all of them.

"Clara!", I shouted after ripping open the door to the bar and running through the inn. "Damn it, where are you!", I screamed the frustration out of me as my heart pounded to my throat.

After Victorine had flown off with the horribly large raven and the creepy witch, and Nicolas had gone off somewhere, I hadn't been able to find Clara anywhere in the inn. I had no idea where she had gone while Victorine and I had been training.

For a brief moment, I stopped. My breath was shaky. I felt nauseous from anxiety and stress.

The image in my mind's eye followed me every step of the way. A bright, freckled face. The only person in this world I had loved almost as much as the sea. Her bright blue eyes had given me the taste of blue depth, stormy love and salty separation for the first time.

I shook my head and concentrated again. If she hadn't come back here, then she must have found shelter somewhere else. At least, I hoped so.

The grip on my sword, borrowed from King Nicolas, tightened as I ran back to the front door. Opening it cautiously and squinting outside, I quickly closed the door again and stared at the dark wood. There was no such thing. Surely I hadn't seen that properly.

With a racing heart and the feeling that I was about to wet my pants, I opened the door again a small crack wide and looked in the direction of the castle. High in the sky, a huge black dragon was raging and setting fire to everything below. And I vaguely recognized some more dark flying creatures. I truly did not want to know which inhuman beings were still fighting on the ground.

Feverishly I considered where I should go. If I went to the left and thus toward the happening, that would be my sure death. Dead, however, I was of no use to anyone, so I hoped that Clara was not in that direction and decided to look for her a little further away.

Carefully, I stepped out of the house and hurried to the alley across the street. Briefly I stopped and listened, but heard nothing. As I turned the next corner, in an instant my sword was knocked from my hand. Within the next moment, I felt a sharp pain on my temple and found myself on the ground.

Instinctively, I jerked my arms up to protect my face.

"Good grief, Vane," I finally heard.

Confused, I looked up and took a moment to process that the king's daughter, Victorine, was standing over me and had stopped her sharp sword blade with only a short distance to my forearms.

My goodness, did she have power. The right side of my head throbbed as if she had slammed it full force into the wall of the house next to us and used the distraction to bring me down in some way.

Now the noblewoman in full armor put away her sword and held out her hand to me. "If I had come from behind, you would have been dead by now," she remarked with a relieved undertone as I grabbed her hand and let her pull me up.

"How lucky I am," I countered, rubbing the aching part of my head with careful movements.

"I showed you how to hold the hilt firmly in your hand today," Victorine reprimanded me, pushing the sword back into my hands.

"Hmm," I grumbled. "I guess I should have paid more attention there." I wrapped my fingers around the hilt, holding it a lot tighter now and building tension in my hand muscles. Looking forward again, Victorine silently crept toward the direction from whence I had come.

"Wait," I stopped her in a whisper. "I couldn't find Clara anywhere. We have to look for her."

The king's daughter, who had turned to face me, stared at me. With her armor and the privacy shield of her helmet, the dark eyes were the only thing I could see of her body. Well, and the dark red blood splatters on her skin. "When did you last see her?"

"This morning," I answered. "After we had trained and I had gone into the house, I had already been unable to find her. Shortly after that, this all started."

"And she didn't mention if she had plans today? Had to go somewhere?", Victorine inquired in a covered voice.

Depressed, I shook my head. An uneasy feeling spread through the pit of my stomach. I hoped so much that nothing had happened to her.

"Think about where she might have gone. See if you know anything about her daily routine," Victorine urged seriously. "In the meantime, let's get a general idea of the situation first."

"What do you mean?", I asked in a panic, but Victorine just looked around for a moment, walked towards some house, yanked open the door and then disappeared inside.

"Damn it," I whispered, glancing around the back again quickly, then following her. I was safest with her at the moment, though unfortunately I feared she wasn't particularly careful.

I crept up behind the soldier, who was walking up the stairs with her sword drawn. She then opened a room door, but apparently did not find what she was looking for. She had more luck in the next room.

But when I realized what the goal of her search had been, I clearly decided against the term luck. This was pure madness.

"What are you doing?", I hissed as Victorine pulled herself up onto the roof on the small balcony.

"Overview," she seemed to be trying to remind me of the plan with a curt word. She looked down at me and held out a hand.

Hesitantly, I grabbed it and used her help to hoist myself up as well. Once on the roof, I tried to keep my balance and find a firm footing. Only then did I look ahead towards the castle.

Countless soldiers with the coats of arms of Tenebris were streaming out of the castle gates. In the air were a variety of creatures that kept flying down, grabbing enemy soldiers and finally tearing them apart up in the air or simply dropping them again. On the streets and between the alleys the lifeless bodies piled up.

The soldiers of Spero and Sanguis who were not attacked from the air were either dealing with enemy humans or other beings. With deformed body masses that I was glad to see so badly from this distance. And then there was the dragon, which reduced everything under it to rubble.

It was hopeless. There was no doubt about it. It was as if the entire lower deck had been torn apart by bombs. The water poured in unstoppably and would sweep the entire ship into the deadly depths.

My knees were trembling. I would have loved to reach out and hold on to the king's daughter who seemed so steadfast, but my pride prevented me from doing so. As of today at the latest, Cephas was the most powerful man in this land. Shouldn't we perhaps throw ourselves directly from the roof of the house? Each of us was lost.

A breeze shot past me and I flinched. The creature, wrapped in a pitch-black cloak, had raced past us and was now aiming at the action in front of us. Another person shot over us. And yet another.

I turned and faced an entire army that stretched to the horizon. Staring, I widened my eyes as flying women with completely black eyes flew past us. Dragons of various shapes. Little fairies.

Down on the ground, a motley assortment of diverse creatures made their way into the village. Mountain trolls, goblins, wolves.

The witches had brought an army from the mountains.

I turned around again. The creatures that had appeared were all heading for battle, facing Cepha's army. They helped the human soldiers of Spero and Sanguis. Fought side by side with them. Killed the humans and magical beings of Tenebris.

"What's happening?", I whispered. Goosebumps overcame my entire body as I watched the carnage unfold before us. But Victorine, who still hadn't turned back around, didn't answer me for a short while.

Finally, she cleared her throat. "Vane. Are you sure Clara needs your help?"

"Of course," I replied in horror, unable to take my eyes off the war before my eyes. Was the king's daughter actually weighing simply abandoning her? And that too with the sight of the deadly chaos before us? "Clara is completely helpless. We must help her, Victorine. I beg you."

When no answer came, I looked over at her.

"Hmm," she just shrugged and stared off into the distance. "She doesn't seem so helpless to me, though."

Confused, I turned around and followed her gaze.

Down among the alleys of houses, a group of people crept along. Men, women, and children in ragged clothing. Some limped or pressed scraps of cloth onto bleeding body parts.

The group was led by the witch in the black cloak who had picked up Victorine today with the giant ravens. And also by Clara, who held a flashing dagger in front of her to protect the group with the witch.

I could hardly believe my eyes, but at the same time I didn't know exactly why I was so surprised in the first place. Not a word crossed my lips. I had too many questions at once to decide on one.

Victorine didn't just stand around long enough for me to ask one anyway. She jumped down from the roof, landed on the balcony, and disappeared back into the house. I too, after one last look at the carnage in the distance, started moving and followed the king's daughter.

With quick steps we moved towards the exit and then made our way through the alleys until we arrived back in front of Clara's inn. At the end of the street, the group approached us, though I was relieved that the witch didn't accidentally tear us to pieces. Or bled us out from the inside.

"Vane?" the petite woman next to the witch spoke my name in a hushed tone. She lowered the flashing dagger a little at the sight of me. Some of her light strands of hair had come loose from the braided pigtail. On the skin of her face was a thin layer of ash and dirt, which made her blue eyes flash even more. A blue that I missed so much that I felt a twinge in my heart.

"Are you okay?", I chose the first of my countless questions now without hesitation.

"Yes," Clara answered almost breathlessly with an assured nod.

The witch walked past me with powerful, purposeful steps and opened the crude, wooden door of the inn. "Could we perhaps move the reunion inside?" Her black, sinister eyes were turned toward me. A shiver ran down my spine.

"Quick, everyone come inside," I heard Clara whisper energetically as she waved the injured villagers into the building behind her.

Victorine and I glanced at each other.

"I'm going to stay here," I finally announced to her.

"Aren't you going to get revenge on Cephas?" the king's daughter asked with a quick glance at the borrowed sword in my hands.

"Celeria and my crew have already sunk," I uttered the hellish fact that haunted me every second and robbed me of sleep at night. But it was true. My old life was over. From now on, everything would be different. My gaze followed the last person who disappeared into the safety of the house and then to Clara, who turned to look at me. "I need to focus on what can still be saved. Helping those who are still alive."

Victorine nodded. "A noble decision." She took a step back. "Good luck, Vane Granville. May the blessings of Spero be with you."

The grip on my sword hardened. "May the blessings of Celeria be with you."

The king's daughter held eye contact for another brief moment. Then she turned and stalked away. She headed in the direction where the carnage was taking place.

I hoped that this was not the moment I had last seen her.