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It started the day when the Red Stone had appeared on the earth. Yuder had been sitting on the highest branch of the tallest tree near his cabin, watching the sun and clouds in the sky as usual, when suddenly, a flash of red shot downwards from the heavens and crashed into the earth of a nearby mountain.
Yuder remembered nearly flying away from the branch from the sudden gust of wind that rushed outwards. A loud thunderous noise rumbled in his ears, nearly deafening him as he held onto the tree trunk with all his might.
Yuder remembered tales of swordmasters and archmages in the past, the legend of the First Emperor that his grandfather used to tell when his grandfather was still alive and teaching him language and letters.
Were there archmages in the mountains? A war that had suddenly gone as far inland as the Rik Mountains? Was he going to die?
As red light continued to blind him and saturate the world, Yuder thought about how he would always like to sit here on this tree to see the horizon, to wonder about the villages and world outside this place he knew and had been in for all his life.
And Yuder thought:
Not yet.
Yuder didn’t want to die yet.
Whether the world had swordmasters or archmages or people with powers beyond his imagination that could level a mountain in one second, Yuder didn’t care.
He still wanted to see the world, know the world outside his own.
Something changed then.
A powerful hot feeling filling his veins, but it was only a second as something cold also burst out like ice forming across a river. It centralized around the area of his chest where he wore a necklace containing a shard his grandfather had taken from a monster that had killed his parents.
Yuder’s limbs weakened – so much so that he fell from the branch that he was holding – but before Yuder could crash into the forest floor meters below, Yuder felt himself suddenly stop.
Opening his eyes that he had unconsciously closed to brace himself against the expected impact and morbid death, Yuder blinked when he realized that he was floating in the air instead.
No…
Yuder weakly realized as he experimentally moved.
Yuder was flying with the wind.
And when Yuder still felt a little bad – both icy hot and ill – water appeared like rain and refreshed him as it fell, cooling his mind and parts of his body.
He was controlling elements like an archmage.
Good. If the archmage or whatever had caused that explosion earlier came closer, Yuder would be able to defend himself. Just… Yuder still felt sick and he soon found himself closing his eyes as he plopped down on the floor against a tree.
Yuder was going to rest for a second or two.
Yuder had never felt this sick since the time he had caught a cold when he had forgotten to light the fireplace in winter because his grandfather wasn’t around to remind him to heat up the cabin anymore.
Breathing shallowly, Yuder rested his eyes and slept.
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In the morning, Yuder was still sick.
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After trying to take it easy for a few days, even eating all the medicinal herbs that he had found over the past few weeks and was going to sell in the nearby village, Yuder found himself visiting the only doctor in the small mountain village.
“You feel… both hot and cold?” The old man asked as he touched Yuder’s forehead and hands with a furrow of his brows.
Yuder didn’t like being touched, much less conversing with someone. The last time Yuder remembered actually talking to someone was his grandfather. Meanwhile, everyone else just asked him yes or no questions of whether they could trade things for his firewood and medicinal herbs and he answered them with a nod or shake of his head.
It was the same here and Yuder reluctantly nodded his head, awkwardly shifting in his seat and already wanting to leave and just bear the strange weakness that had continued to burden his body alone.
The old man reached up again to touch Yuder’s head, examining his eyes and ears.
“Do you feel dizziness? Headaches? Fatigue?”
Yuder nodded to all the questions.
Ever since the Red Stone – so everyone in the village was gossiping about it – Yuder had been feeling lethargic, sick with both nausea and fever. Dizzy and with a migraine that wouldn’t go away though Yuder was slowly getting used to it – all of it and Yuder estimated that even if he didn’t visit the doctor, Yuder would be able to carry on his normal day to day routine like usual in a few more weeks like how he had gotten used to long hours of chopping wood all day. At first, there was soreness and sweat and rubbed raw skin.
Eventually, he could chop wood for hours straight without getting his body sweaty and sore, his palms bloody.
Although the sickness and fatigue seemed like it would be permanent, Yuder could, likewise, get used to it.
“Was there any other changes? When did you say this began and how, again?”
Yuder hadn’t said anything, having just plopped down a bag of coins on the table and given the doctor an universal ‘I’m sick. Help me’ expression.
But when Yuder saw the leeches being brought out, Yuder couldn’t help but use the wind to push the doctor’s hand and that leech away from him.
The doctor jolted in surprise as Yuder answered dully. “The day when the Red Stone fell. That day, I also gained the ability to control the elements.” Yuder said, forming a ball of fire, a ball of water, some wind around him. The earth below them rumbled just as the ball of fire accidentally flared out, almost into an uncontrollable fire had Yuder not quickly extinguished it with both the wind and water – though that hadn’t gone so great either and, in his rush to stop the fire from singeing the doctor’s eyebrows, Yuder created too much water, dousing them both in it.
“GAH-” The doctor shrieked as Yuder explained apologetically,
“Sorry. My control still isn’t great.”
For a continued moment, the doctor’s face was pale. But then the doctor coughed and concluded in solemn realization.
“That’s it then. Although we still do not know anything about that ‘Red Stone’ that landed a week ago, you must have been cursed by it to gain many powers. But too much power is not always good and your body is failing to contain and control all of it. Even an archmage has to be born with the right ‘vessel’ to contain and use magic and then to train for many decades to attain the power that they have.” The doctor said sagely, nodding his head at his diagnosis. “Given your state, I would say that you have only three years to live before your body cracks under the force of the powers within you. Like how you were unable to control the fire, water, and earth earlier, your body must already be feeling the pressure in terms of heat and cold and weakening.”
Yuder quietly thought about that diagnosis. Was it like that? The feverish dizziness that muffled his mind, the coldness spreading from his chest, the fatigue and weakness in his limbs were from suddenly gaining power?
“If I try to control it, then would it get better?” Yuder asked.
The doctor laughed. “How good do you think you are? Even becoming a mage requires hard work, prodigious talent, and much longer than three years!” Coughing into his hand and becoming more solemn, even with a little pity in his eyes, the doctor advised. “I say you should do everything you want to do in these last three years. It was bad luck to get exposed to the Red Stone and cursed by it, but at least you have three years and powers to play with in the meantime. Some people die within a day of illness with much less.”
Yuder looked down quietly in thought and then nodded.
The doctor beamed and then brought out many vials of ground herbs. “Now then, how about buying these to help with your headaches, fever, and chills. I’ll even toss in some painkillers if you buy them all.”
Although Yuder found the herbs for most of that, Yuder politely bought some medicine as thanks to the doctor for the diagnosis (and to get the noisy doctor off his back) and then left.
He had a lot to think about.
Not really, because after a day of sitting on the top of the tallest tree and looking out into the horizon – no thoughts, just staring at the vast world – again, Yuder decided, after five years of staying in the empty cabin, to finally leave home.
He would see the world before he died.
And since he was given these powers, he would experiment with them and play with them and use them however he wished too.
With almost nothing to bring, Yuder easily left his home and the mountains by morning.
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Two and a half years later
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In the cold darkness of his room, Kishiar grimaced as he drank the potion that Nathan had retrieved from the imperial court mages. Rather than the bitter taste that he was once again refamiliarizing himself with after two short years of freedom, however, Kishiar’s grimace came from the more bitter fact that the potion wasn’t doing anything for him anymore.
Nathan, his long since attendant, frowned as he noticed his liege’s downturned lips even in the darkness that Kishiar wanted to sit in, having not wanted to see his failing body or the damn black veins that ran up from the scar on his hand anymore.
“Should I ask the imperial court mages for more?” Nathan asked though he knew that they shouldn’t be because such a request would signal to the spies in the palace that Kishiar was dying.
While that may… unfortunately be known soon because nothing that they were doing – whether it be researching the Red Stone that was brought back or examining every artifact that both Mick and Lady Justin could find – was working, it was not time yet.
It would soon be – after Kishiar trained up a successor to take care of the one thing he could do in this life that seemed to be fated to be cut short.
If only he hadn’t made the mistake of getting too close to the Red Stone…
“No.” Kishiar said, covering his face with his palm, feeling frustrated for a moment… and then letting it all go with a sigh full of the familiar feelings of resignation and defeat.
It wasn’t working.
He was going to die within a year.
Kishiar couldn’t help but smirk wryly at the thought that he would at least beat his childhood doctor’s diagnosis, beat the last Duke Peletta by a year. But it was just a short year of nothingness, Kishiar brooded for a second before ordering.
“Leave me. And in the morning, call Yuder Aile to my office.”
Nathan paused a little at the name of the person he implied to want as his successor, but after a moment of consideration, nodded in acquiescence.
Kishiar smiled, a little happy that Nathan didn’t argue with his choice.
Although Yuder wasn’t from a noble family nor was he one of older people in the Cavalry, Yuder was strong and hard-working and talented. Kishiar had never seen an archmage with as good control over the elements as Yuder nor a knight that trained as much with the sword as him. Kishiar could still remember the first time he had truly met and talked with Yuder.
Despite having gone through the hellish training regimen with the others during the day, Yuder was still practicing with the sword late into the night. His hands were slippery with blood, but they still held firmly, determinedly onto his wooden sword and he swung powerfully.
It was beautiful and Kishiar had wanted to see Yuder reach the swordmaster level because Kishiar believed he would.
But with how little time Kishiar had left, he probably would never be able to see it…
Kishiar closed his eyes and leaned against the back of his chair as he thought about the one he wanted as his successor.
Although there would be a lot Kishiar would have to teach Yuder, who was a commoner, Kishiar knew Yuder could do it, Yuder having gotten the highest grades in all the classes. Yuder was smart and a quick learner. Though he was still a little awkward in socializing with his peers - Kishiar smiled as he remembered how adorable Yuder was in social situations (though he unconsciously frowned as he remembered how close Gakane always was to Yuder, even constantly slinging his arms around Yuder and dragging the socially awkward boy to bars and dinner) - Yuder was trying and getting used to it and now no one was misunderstanding Yuder nor having any bad feelings towards their youngest Division Deputy Commander.
Yuder would be a good successor.
Although there was much more Kishiar had wanted to give and do with the Sul Deputy Commander, Kishiar would make do with just giving the person currently at the center of his attention his only legacy.
And get the excuse to talk to Yuder one on one for much longer and more private times than Gakane.
Did Yuder like cake? Kishiar could ask Nathan to bring some for their meeting tomorrow.
Although the pain and feeling of impeding death in his body was still bitter, Kishiar couldn’t help but feel better at the thought of seeing his dear Sul Deputy Commander tomorrow.
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Yuder blinked when Nathan called him in the morning. Leaving Gakane and the others – although Yuder had gradually began speaking to more people over the two years of his travels, he was still a little bemused to find himself sitting with so many loud and happy people – Yuder followed Nathan out of the cafeteria to the Commander’s office.
The Commander asked him if he had breakfast yet. When Yuder answered yes because he technically had bitten into a piece of bread when Nathan had informed him that he had been summoned, the Commander encouraged him to eat more so Yuder did.
Yuder listened to the Commander talk and watched the Commander smile while eating breakfast sandwiches.
Then, when Yuder was taking a slice of cake while wondering if all nobles ate cake for breakfast, the Commander finally informed him of the reason why Yuder was called to the Commander’s office.
Yuder blinked again.
And again.
And then when Yuder realized that he had not heard incorrectly, Yuder frowned.
Setting down his fork – he shouldn’t eat it all when the Commander would soon have to call someone else in - Yuder stood up and bowed. “My apologies, Commander, but that won’t work. I only have half a year to live. You’ll have to ask someone else to be your successor.”
Kishiar’s smile froze and cracked.
“What.”
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“Nathan, Nathan,” Kishiar tugged Nathan’s arm twice, feeling like a kid again from the utter shock from that conversation Yuder had left him in. Yuder was long gone, having left after rejecting the position and feeling awkward to stay when Yuder had refused the position and Kishiar was too stunned to say anything, much less stop him. “Did you hear that? It couldn’t be- Are my ears now failing too? Did my cute Deputy Commander just- but-”
Nathan nodded his head slowly, having heard the rest of that conversation from the wall with slightly widened eyes.
Coughing, Nathan answered, his voice a little tinted with disbelief, “He said that he is dying. From the same reason as you.”
“Is he my long lost cousin?” Kishiar asked aloud before devolving further into panic, “No. He can’t be. I refuse! My love for my brother is not as deep and profound as for him! He doesn’t even have the right colors!”
“It’s not the same.” Nathan corrected himself, bringing his liege back on track as Nathan tried recalling everything Yuder had said in that short Q&A that Kishiar had barely managed to pull himself together to do. “Rather than an imbalance of energies harming a vessel, it seems that he just has… too much power?”
Nathan’s brows furrowed as the explanation seemed a little more off now that the shock from the highly powerful, seemingly healthy, young Sul Deputy Commander’s supposed condition was wearing off.
“Do Awakeners suffer from too much power?” Nathan asked as he now thought about it with a clearer mind. Although Kishiar now suffered because of the Red Stone, before that mission and his injury, Kishiar had no problems with the ability that he had gained since Awakening. Nor with it after training and developing it. It was the same with every other Awakener that Nathan knew, which was why they helped Awakeners strengthen and develop their abilities during training. Which was even why they had originally tried retrieving the Red Stone to learn how to awaken the Emperor.
Kishiar breathed deeply – at first a little shakily and then determinedly – and narrowed his eyes in thought.
Although Kishiar believed Yuder would not say such a thing if Yuder didn’t feel the symptoms one feels when they were nearing death – and wasn’t that a painful realization; that despite how much Kishiar was looking at Yuder, Kishiar hadn’t noticed at all that his dear Sul Deputy Commander wasn’t feeling well, was even feeling like he was dying – Nathan was making a good point.
“Call Yuder back in.” Kishiar ordered.
Kishiar had to learn more about this… terminal situation.
Surely, his dear Sul Deputy Commander wasn’t also dying, even expected to die around the same time as him?
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“Commander.” Yuder frowned as he re-entered the office, hesitating but sitting next to the Commander when the Commander patted the space right next to him on the couch.
Kishiar’s hands did a weird twitch as if Kishiar had wanted to do something with them, but Kishiar retracted his hands from where they had reached out to Yuder a little and instead placed them on his lap. His gloved hands still wrangled each other oddly though.
Yuder returned his attention to his Commander and resumed. “I am unable to be your successor.”
“Never mind that.” Kishiar instead said dismissively. Kishiar could care less about that. How could Kishiar care about anything, even his own future death, when Yuder was dying. “Explain your situation again. From the beginning. Details.”
When Yuder furrowed his brows a little uncomprehendingly because he had already gave a brief explanation in Kishiar’s earlier distracted Q&A – and knowing Yuder, Yuder probably felt this wasn’t important (but how could it not be important) – Kishiar added.
“What happened when you Awakened? How did you feel? Who was the doctor? The diagnosis? The things you did since then about it?”
Kishiar hoped Yuder tried to do something about it. Kishiar was beginning to be a little afraid by how accepting and nonchalant Yuder was being about how he was going to die within half a year.
To Kishiar’s relief, Yuder did try a few things. While Kishiar signaled Nathan to investigate that damn doctor and stopped his gloved hands that wanted to touch Yuder and hug him so badly after hearing that Yuder had been feeling nonstop dizziness, fatigue, and cold among other things over the past two and a half years, Kishiar tried to make sense of everything.
It was real. Yuder was dying. Kishiar had to pick a different successor while watching Yuder crumble before his eyes.
No. It couldn’t be right. It didn’t make sense. There had to be something else. No one was an expert on Awakeners and the Red Stone right now. And some doctor for a small village in the mountains two years ago was especially not one then.
“Can you show me what you tried?” Kishiar asked, almost shakily but he kept his fake smile as he tried to calm his beating heart down.
Yuder sighed, but made beautiful horses of fire, water, wind, and earth appear and run in elegant circles in the air.
Kishiar knew that Yuder always trained hard whether it was academics, swordsmanship, or his ability, and he heard countless reports of how Yuder’s strength and control over his ability were great after having secretly watched it himself in that entrance exam, but he hadn’t known that Yuder’s strength and control over his ability were so absolutely marvelous.
Yuder couldn’t be dying.
Kishiar couldn’t believe it.
Kishiar refused to believe it.
More than losing the best possible choice for his successor, Yuder’s death would be a loss to the entire world.
“If your control over your power is so great, then how could any of it leak and harm your body?” Kishiar asked in utter disbelief because while the ‘feverish heat’ and ‘chilling cold’ Yuder constantly felt ‘could’ be attributed to the fire and water aspects of his ability, it made absolutely no sense.
Yuder’s control was perfect. How could anything leak and cause enough havoc to cause death?
“Can you try what you tried on me?” Kishiar asked – more absentmindedly than seriously – as he tried to comprehend this completely weird and infuriatingly nonsensical puzzle. And Kishiar really wasn’t expecting anything or even an answer, having muttered that hypothetical more to himself than anything but Yuder blinked and, after vanishing the horses, reached out to touch Kishiar’s bare cheek.
Kishiar jerked out of his thoughts and blushed at the sudden action – Yuder was touching him!! Yuder was touching his cheek!! – and then stared… when he felt… his energies being realigned… and…
Kishiar couldn’t.
Kishiar hid his face in his gloved, not-aching-or-in-pain hands. (Of course, putting a hand over Yuder’s and pressing it more against his cheek on the way.)
Kishiar was not dying anymore.
Kishiar’s vessel had never felt better.
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Eventually, Kishiar had to release Yuder.
Yuder – poor thing that didn’t understand the great thing he had just done – tilted his head in the prolonged silence and then hesitantly offered to suggest some potential candidates that could be Kishiar’s successor if Kishiar really did need a successor.
Kishiar didn’t need a successor anymore.
How was Kishiar even going to explain this to Yuder who, from Yuder’s perspective, had just seen his ‘flirtatious free spirit Duke Peletta’ Commander talk so happily and energetically in the morning and buy a very expensive cake in intention to celebrate Yuder’s forced promotion and then mentally crashed and struggled so hard and desperately over trying to ‘fix’ Yuder for almost an entire day so that ‘flirtatious free spirit Duke Peletta’ could go back to Peletta to do everything Duke Peletta does in the gossip and rumors, Yuder could remain his successor, and the ‘foolish Duke Peletta who preferred drinking over thinking’ wouldn’t have to use his brain again to think of a new one.
Oh Sun God.
“…If Steiber does not fit your requirements, Gakane would-” Yuder continued to hesitantly suggest, looking at his abnormally silent Commander who still had his head in his hands.
“Yuder.” Kishiar finally said.
Yuder straightened. “Yes?”
“It’s fine. I was just joking about wanting a successor.”
“Oh.”
Yuder sighed in exasperation or relief and then stood. “Then I should go back to training…” Yuder paused and looked out the window to see that it was sunset and instead corrected himself. “The cafeteria.”
Kishiar should let Yuder eat dinner after having accidentally made him skip lunch.
Reluctantly letting go of Yuder’s hand, Kishiar nodded. “Yes. And please keep everything that had happened here a secret.”
“Of course, Commander.” Yuder bowed and then left.
As Yuder opened the door, Nathan happened to be back from his investigations. Yuder gave a quick nod in greeting before he left. Nathan returned it before he closed the door.
And then Nathan arched his brow when Kishiar collapsed on the couch, covering his face again and giving a loud groan, upon hearing Nathan close the door.
“Naaaathaannnn, you would not believe what just happened-”
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While Nathan was stunned – extremely stunned – and pleased – he was actually crying tears of joy to hear that Kishiar really wasn’t going to die anytime soon like they all had eventually, defeatedly resigned to think, Nathan was still stunned by the twist of events.
So, in the morning, his liege summoned Yuder with the intention to make Yuder his successor because his liege was dying. Now, in the evening, his liege was no longer needing a successor; instead, it was his crush successor that was dying.
Although Nathan had many more things that he wanted to think about – and many things he subtly wanted to give to the young Sul Deputy Commander in thanks – Nathan had to be the pillar of reason again while his liege writhed and rolled and cried on the couch.
“As cold as this must sound… how shall we approach having Yuder help His Majesty?”
Kishiar sighed, but it was true that before anything else – searching for a magical cure for Yuder or resuming his plans for the Cavalry among so many other things now that Kishiar could work towards a future again; he actually had a future; his planned successor did not – Kishiar had to see if Yuder’s ability to control elements and internal energy could help his dying brother.
“I don’t get it, Nathan.” Kishiar once again groaned, “How the Luma is Yuder’s power hurting himself?”
Yuder had so much control over his ability from two and a half years of self-training that he could even fix other people’s internal energy!
How the Luma was he dying because of his ability?!
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Eventually, a month before the assumed deadline, five months of Kishiar’s increasingly desperate efforts to both find a cure and make everything of Yuder’s last half-year as best as it could possibly be for Yuder, the mystery was solved when Yuder stumbled into an alleyway after fending off assassins during Harvest Festival.
The series of attacks during Harvest Festival had been surprisingly anticipated by their Commander, but completely unexpected in intensity and the preparations Kishiar had subtly made everyone do beforehand had not been enough.
Kishiar worried when he lost contact with his beloved, but semi-fragile Sul Deputy Commander. As if the fact that Yuder was dying and in his ‘last month’ was not enough, this happened!!
Fortunately, however, they had trained some Awakeners specifically for tracking. Kishiar worriedly followed his men through the labyrinth of alleyways and sighed in relief when he smelled the familiar herbal scent of a place that dealt with medicine.
But the trail of blood did worry him still.
Rushing in, Kishiar slammed opened the door to the pharmacy and shouted, “Yuder! Are you alright?!”
But instead of getting an answer, Kishiar’s shout was cut off by another person.
“Are you an idiot?!” The pharmacist shouted, roughly grabbing and (gently) undoing a tight knot of Yuder’s necklace.
Yuder looked both like he wanted to stop the pharmacist and like he was willing to be lenient to the person who had probably saved his life judging by how many bandages were wrapped around Yuder’s chest.
If Yuder tried to stop him though, the pharmacist looked like he wouldn’t care because the pharmacist roughly grabbed the freed and now unbound necklace to shove it into a random satchel on the table full of pharmaceutical equipment and give it back to Yuder.
“Even if it’s given to you by your damn lover or something, you shouldn’t be wearing this. It’s messing up your internal energy! Do you hear that?” The pharmacist asked, jabbing Yuder with his finger as he then emphasized. “Your internal energy was a mess! How long had you been wearing it?! Even before the assassins got to you, you were so close to dying!! Damn! How are you so stupid?! You need a watcher- from now on, I’m your hyung, okay? You have to visit me every week so I can make sure you don’t kill yourself.”
Yuder blinked and then looked down at the bag with his necklace – a leather cord holding what looked to be the bone fragment of a monster, Kishiar’s mind supplied when Kishiar analyzed through the information, “Was this what would have killed me?” Yuder wondered.
“Yes!” The pharmacist sounded infuriated. “I don’t know what that is, but don’t you dare wear it ever again! Or touch anything like it! You aren’t allowed anything with monster byproducts – monster bone weapons, monster accessories, Quelochet! Damn! If I ever see you drinking that shit, I’m going to revive you and kill you myself! Damn!” The pharmacist said again, rubbing his head and messing up his hair. “How did you not know?! By how messed up your energy was, you had to have been wearing it for a long time!”
“…My grandfather gave it to me when I was little. It hadn’t caused problems until three years ago.”
“Oh.” The pharmacist looked like he did some mental math and connect the dots before he softened and relented. “Well, you can still keep it in a bag or something. Just don’t let it make direct contact with you. If it’s three years, I don’t know what that damn Red Stone did to it or you, but you can’t touch it anymore.”
Yuder nodded and cut a hole in the satchel to instead tie the leather cord through it and let it hang as a locket-esque necklace.
Then the two finally noticed after a sentimental silence.
“Ah, Commander.” Yuder greeted Kishiar and the crowd of fellow Cavalry members gathered. And the rescue squad hadn’t been that small since everyone was worried for their Sul Deputy Commander.
Before Kishiar could say anything – Yuder was going to be alive and remain alive, Kishiar couldn’t help but feel deep relief – the crowd of Cavalry members surged upon Yuder.
“Deputy Commander!!! How could you not tell us that you were dying?!”
“Yuder!! Did that man just say that you were hurting this whole time?! And you never told us?!”
“Yuuuuder, you’re alive!!” Gakane cried over Yuder who awkwardly took his hug and then everyone else’s when they joined Gakane into dog-piling him.
Kishiar sighed in relief, happily watching them – especially as the pharmacist finally yelled and removed Gakane’s arms from Yuder’s semi-bare chest broke up the dog pile, scolding all of them for tackling his injured patient.
He was alive. Keilusa was alive. Yuder was alive. They knew the problem for the both of them now and neither of them were going to be dying anymore. Even when there was going to be an order to exterminate monsters – Yuder’s weakness, Kishiar now coldly thought and planned - in the future, Kishiar wasn’t going to let it happen.
Kishiar approached Yuder, walking through the crowd of Cavalry members who happily parted for him, and smiled.
“I’m glad you are alright, Yuder.”
And then Kishiar frowned at the multiple bandages, the blood on the bed, he now saw up close.
“But let’s not deal with assassins alone if we can help it.”
Yuder looked sheepish as he slightly bowed his head in answer. “Yes, Commander.”
“Good.” Kishiar resumed smiling.