As the evening came to Cedroria, Erilaz, Hefri and Andvari finished cleaning the ship. They dumped the blood-soaked clothes and the two dead enemies into the nearest trash container under the cover of looming darkness. Then, they climbed a nearby hill and dug a hole to bury the botanist. A few passers-by glanced at them suspiciously, but in the end, everyone minded their business. Apparently, burying a body wasn’t a rare event in these parts.


    Nestled at the outskirts of the town, the low, flat hill rose above the shabby buildings. Short, yet lush grass swayed gently in the chilly breeze. Somewhere among its fawn, dingy blades, clumps of sprawling mycelium formed tiny, mustard-yellow carpets. A few white wildflowers climbed towards the sky, their cups closed tightly and ready for the incoming night.


    When Erilaz threw the last portion of the dirt and helped his friends flatten the grave, he took a knife and crouched next to a large, ragged brick. Scraping its surface, he carved a text in Helvettian runes:


    A husband


    A father


    A botanist


    A Helvettian hero


    As he stood up, he looked at his friends. Their blank faces masked their inner gloom, and their eyes gazed emptily at the grave. All this time, they didn’t say a word to each other, and they didn’t need to. Each of them understood this atmosphere of pointless loss, abandoned family and eternal gratitude.


    “Are we done?” asked Erilaz in an emotionless voice.


    “I think so,” responded Hefri, leaning against her shovel and panting quietly.


    Erilaz turned around and headed down the hill first, and his friends followed him. Three tiny moons reflected a faint, tawny light, and the last remnants of the sun were maroon and dark purple smudges on the horizon. Unseen night creatures began to tick and chirr, while a few glowing eyes flashed by far away from the town.


    As they approached a hole in the chain-link fence around the airfield, Andvari halted.


    “What?” asked Hefri, glancing at him.


    The Celestian stood in silence, pressing his finger to his mouth. Erilaz lowered his eyebrows and began to listen intently, too. A distant rustle resounded again, and then a myriad of shrieks and squeaks echoed right from the sky.


    Erilaz hunched, looking around the darkness to find the source of these ear-piercing screeches. A long flock of bat-like creatures shot across the sky, flapping their leathery wings. Erilaz couldn''t notice any details, aside from their long, hairy tails.


    When the flock broke up in the nearby ruins and their screams died down, Hefri breathed a sigh of relief.


    “What a bunch of noisy beasts,” she hissed.


    “Let’s go back,” muttered Erilaz. “I’m tired.”


    “Me too,” added Andvari, “but I guess I won’t fell asleep too quickly.”


    “Yeah.” Hefri propped her forehead. “Nightmarish stuff.”


    When Erilaz bent down to slip through the hole in the fence, a distant gunshot made him jump up. He turned his head towards the place where the bat-like creatures came from. Andvari and Hefri froze, staring in the same direction.


    As the seconds ticked by, prolonging like eternity, a primal fighting zeal mixed with concern crippled Erilaz’s chest. It constricted with his each breath, his once steady pulse quickening into a frenzied rhythm. His mind raced with thoughts of strategy and survival, while his muscles and nerves tingled with the primal instinct to fight. His fists involuntarily clenched, preparing him to face the invisible threat.


    Two silhouettes stormed out of the ruins, and two other ran down the hill. Darkness disguised any details, but their tiny headlamps faintly illuminated their guns or rifles.


    “Don’t move!” ordered one of them and fired into the air.


    Erilaz flinched and froze. His heart pounded against his chest even faster, as if it tried to break free, fury spreading like wildfire through his veins. As his muscles flexed like strings, he felt a familiar surge of determination and strength. With each rapid breath, his focus directed closer and closer at the enemies. He narrowed his vigilant eyes. Even though his body tensed up, every muscle stiff and ready to spring into action, he still didn’t move. He couldn''t just charge alone at armed strangers.


    Since only Hefri, as the best shooter among them, had a gun of her previous attackers, Erilaz glanced pleadingly at her. She looked at him too, her eyes wide and hectic. She shook her head stiffly. Erilaz understood her decision. The enemies had all kinds of advantage. Even Andvari, despite glaring at the silhouettes and clenching his fists, stood hunched and defensive.


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    When the four silhouettes surrounded the Celestians, they brightened their headlamps. Rough, white light unveiled two Nelphians, an Ifrit and a Kehrian. They all wore similar clothes – dark coats, hoods and heavy boots with a thick layer of mud. They held their weapons aimed at the three Vardir, and the Kehrian took a step forward.


    His shoulder-length jet-black hair fell in wild waves around his face, unveiling a sly smile that widened at the thrill he got from outwitting his targets. His mahogany eyes pierced the three Vardir. Clad in a sleek, brown leather outfit, he carried an array of tools on his belt – magazines with ammunition, smoke grenades, and a wickedly sharp dagger.


    “Any explanation?” asked Andvari, holding his hands up and narrowing his eyes as the light blinded him.


    “Explanation?” The Kehrian tilted his head in disbelief. A hum of an approaching small spaceship made his ears wiggle, but he carried on, “an eyewitness told me you did a very bad thing.” He narrowed his eyes, spite and wrath churning within them.


    Erilaz sighed noiselessly. The previous determination abandoned him as he realised how little he could do to defend himself and his friends. The last time he felt so small, insignificant, and at the mercy of forces beyond his control was when his adoptive father, Brymir, got his skull shattered before his eyes. This sense of defeat bared his complete vulnerability and frustration as he growled under his breath. All his skills and experience seemed to be futile and in vain, and he began to question his abilities.


    When his sight got accustomed to the pale light, he stared at the Kehrian questioningly.


    “Sorry, but I think it’s a mistake. We just stopped here for a moment and...”


    The Kehrian bared his teeth, tightening his grip on the rifle. “You still haven''t figured it out, have you?”


    Erilaz and Andvari looked at each other while Hefri gasped quietly.


    A pang of worry gripped Erilaz’s chest. His heart ached with the weight of worry. The fear of the upcoming seconds and the need to protect his friends built a storm of contradictory emotions within him. He stood still to avoid provoking the Kehrian, yet his mind raced with wrath and concern.


    Andvari gulped with effort and took a deep breath. “Well. We’ve encountered some… inconvenience.”


    The Kehrian’s finger tensed, nearly pulling the trigger. “Shut up, bastard, you killed…” His furious face took a miserable expression for a second. “…my son!”


    Andvari wrinkled his nose and craned his neck. “Oh, now I remember, your son…”


    He didn’t finish as Erilaz glared at him and nudged his ankle.


    “You came here out of nowhere and you think you can screw with me?” The Kehrian took another step, and his companions clutched their weapons tighter.


    Erilaz shook his head, a spark of insecurity flashing in his eyes. “No, wait, we did it in self-defence…”


    “I don’t care!”


    As the ship descended at the airfield right behind the fence, the Kehrian motioned to his people.


    “Take them,” he ordered in a blank, nearly artificial voice, as if all anger, hate and grudge abandoned his body.


    A few other individuals jumped out of the ship. They held rifles too, but Erilaz noticed darts with some liquid attached to their belts.


    Doubt and anger made his heart race, his palms wet with sweat. A sense of overwhelming fear for his friends gripped his whole being. He denied the common conviction that Vardir, especially Vardir commanders, never felt a deep, primal dread. This one emotion deluged his mind entirely. Even though his face remained blank, anxiety crushed his spirit and made his each quick breath an invincible struggle. A sense of impending doom prompted him to dwell on the worst-case scenarios, paralyzing him with its relentless grip.


    He didn’t even blink when a sudden pain stung his neck. Panting, he looked around like a wounded animal, while darts reached his friends too. He tried to run and help them, but his mind gradually emptied. His legs didn’t react to his commands. The ground underneath him blurred, but he couldn''t raise his head as if it weighted more than a bag of stones. He collapsed to his knees, and before he plummeted down, his consciousness vanished.


    When the sun had already risen above Cedroria’s horizon, the Kehrian, who kidnapped the Vardir Commanders, landed in a yard between a brick house and a long warehouse. A few other similar buildings sat all around his neighbourhood. A tall and thick barbed wire fence protected the borders of this tiny yard, and a few other buildings surrounded it. Far behind them, a vast mushroom jungle spread to the very mountainous horizon.


    The Kehrian left his little ship and headed towards the nearest house. He took his steps stiffly and reluctantly, as if he didn’t want to enter this building at all. Finally, he halted at the door and tapped a long password on the screen. Three seconds later, the door opened, revealing a Kehrian woman and a ten-year-old girl. They looked questioningly at him, a flash of anxiety manifesting on their faces.


    “What took you so long!?” asked the Kehrian woman, resting her hand on the girl’s shoulder. Her ears tensed and tilted back. “And… where is Edoshi?”


    The Kehrian averted his sight, hiding his hands in the pockets of his black coat.


    The woman tilted her head, dread and dismay radiating in her eyes. “Karaesan? Tell me.”


    Karaesan took a deep breath. “He was killed.”


    The Kehrian woman’s pupils dilated. She shook her head, gripping the girl’s shoulder so firmly that her knuckles turned pale-blue. The girl didn’t react to this pain, gazing at her father with disbelief.


    “Are you… sure?” Asked the woman. “Are you sure it was him, and not someone else!?”


    “I’m sure, Luana.” Karaesan bored his sight into the floor. “My people found his body.”


    The girl covered her mouth. Her ears drooped limply. As the first tide of tears surged in her eyes, she broke loose from her mother’s grip and ran towards the stairs to the second floor.


    Luana followed her with her sight and then turned to Karaesan. Narrowing her eyes, she hissed through clenched teeth, “I told you. I told you on and on that he should stay away from your shady business! He is… was just fifteen. He was just a kid, drug dealing is something worse than…”


    Karaesan grabbed her shoulders, feeling under his fingers how her every muscle tenses and shivers.


    “I already caught his killers,” he breathed, letting her snuggle into his chest. As he felt the dampness of her tears on his shirt, he added, “and I prepared something special for them.”