A wide road, made of dry, compact mud, made its way through the otherwise densely packed trees of Solmani’s southern forests. One of four main roads that led to the capital, it bustled daily with travelers at all times of the day.

There were families, traveling in carts or small carriages; mercenaries, riding on impressive mounts; drifters, walking by foot. Everyone had different agendas for their journeys, but nearly all of them had the same destination: Fire Isle.

Despite the vast variation of travelers currently on the move, one group still stood out like a pearl among pebbles. Two large carriages – one black with golden details, the other marine blue with silver etchings – were making their way north at a decent pace.  Surrounding the two carriages were nearly twenty fair-skinned warriors, all mounted on muscular horses and with well-kept weapons and armor. At the front, a blonde woman with a look of unquestionable authority led the group, holding a spear-tipped standard in her right hand. The group made way for no one, but none along the road dared to complain or block the woman’s path when they saw the emblem on the black flag: two lions – one blue, one red – together trying to swallow a great, big, golden sun. It was the Royal Seal.

Adan sat on the driver’s box of the black carriage, splitting her attention between listening to the prattle of the elderly man next to her and observing her surroundings. The elderly man was, at least if you asked him, one of the nation’s finest coachmen and was more than happy to enthusiastically describe the differences between steering a carriage pulled by two, four, six or even ten horses – all of which he could do with his eyes closed, of course. Adan had refrained from asking how he would know where to steer the horses, even if he could manage how to steer them with his eyes closed.

When Reverend Mother Amaris had seen Adan entering the carriage with Lynn, the woman had flipped out. Rather than argue with her, Adan had agreed to share a seat with the coachman; she didn’t really care where she sat, but Adan had to admit that it was tactically more reasonable for her to sit on the outside. She was supposed to be a bodyguard, after all.

Still, all the sitting – and listening – made her a bit restless. If she had the choice, Adan would have preferred to run next to the carriage, but she figured the others would find it odd if she managed to keep up with the canting horses for hours on end.

Adan surveyed the people around her. After leaving Prayer Village, the King’s priestess had started to journey with them, bringing along an additional seven guards. They had headed towards the capital almost non-stop, only pausing briefly at the few moon convents they passed along the way. It had been nearly seven days since they left Prayer Village, but despite the few stops along the way, the guards remained vigilant.

There had been no further incidents since leaving Prayer Village, and even the captive girl had remained docile, but that only seemed to make the atmosphere within the group all the more tense. Since the attempt on Lynn’s life had been nothing more than an elaborate failure, no one believed that the perpetrator behind it all would give in so easily.

While the group was busy contemplating possible future attacks, Adan simply observed. She found the whole situation rather amusing; it didn’t matter if it was the loyal guards or the disloyal ones, everyone was nervous.

“It looks like something will happen before we reach the capital, after all. . . .” Adan mused, only confiding in her A.I.

“An accurate estimate for the time of attack is impossible at the moment, but Sai still feels the probability of an imminent attack is high.”

“Feels?”

“Attack probability: elevated,” the A.I. corrected, and added after a pause, “based on increasing adrenalin levels and pulse rates.”

Adan looked up at the cloud-covered sky. She breathed in and sighed heavily. Just as she was about to reprimand her A.I. for backing down, a notification flashed by on her status screen that drew her attention.

[Targeted increase of H₂O, NaCl and SO₂ in the atmosphere has reached the set threshold values]

Curious, Adan only paused for a moment before directly jumping off the carriage.

“Hey!” the coachman called, but Adan just waived for him to continue forward. She bent down and placed her hand on the ground. Suddenly, the distant sound of waves hitting a shore filled Adan’s ears, followed by a low rumbling further away.

“We’re almost there.”

“Correct,” Sai confirmed and presented an updated 3D map in front of Adan’s eyes. A large area was still marked as unclassified, but roughly fourteen kilometers away there was now a marked-out shoreline and cluster of islands. “The distance is an estimate based on audial wave propagation and the observed metal content in the ground. Large errors may be present.”

“It fits with the maps we have seen.”

The A.I. confirmed Adan’s statement just as an angry voice was heard from above.

“Hey!”

Adan looked up, finding Colonel Dallas glaring down at her with firm annoyance. Adan recognized the glare well. Her superiors often gave her that look. The colonel had left her post at the front of their little group and was clearly not impressed by Adan breaking the ranks. The flag on the King’s standard waved impressively in her hand.

“Having fun?” she asked, her voice ripe with dissatisfaction. Adan was about to stand up and answer the woman when a new sound was transmitted to her through the vibrations in the ground.

“Hmm?”

Adan paused, something Dallas naturally took as a sign of further insubordination. The colonel grunted and pointed the standard’s spear tip towards Adan. “Start moving or I’ll be more than happy to leave you behind!”

“How fast do you reckon this caravan of yours could get to the capital from here?”

“Excuse me?” Dallas didn’t quite follow Adan’s sudden change of subject.

“How fast, do you reckon, could we get to the capital?” Adan repeated, adding a graver tone to her voice than usual. “If the horses run as fast as they can without collapsing before we get there, that is.”

“A-an hour, perhaps. The carriages will slow us down,” Dallas replied before she could stop herself, but as she realized she had answered as if following orders, it was clear that her temperament was not about to improve.

“Something the matter?”

By now, the entire group had come to a halt – guards and everything – and Duke Kimba had trotted his horse over to Colonel Dallas’ side. Noticing the spear pointed towards Adan, a cold glint flashed by in the duke’s eyes, but the colonel was too busy considering how to drill military procedures into Adan’s head to notice. His presence did however seem to restrain the colonel a bit.

“We’re about to get company,” Adan warned the Duke. “Lots of company.  I can’t know that they are after us, but given our passenger . . .”

Silence.

Both Dallas and Kimba where staring at Adan in confusion. Adan shrugged; she didn’t really care if they believed her – she had told them more on a whim, anyway – but while Dallas reacted more with disbelief, Kimba’s eyes looked pensive.

“You are a tracker?” he pondered aloud and somehow his words caused the colonel’s expression to stiffen, suddenly showing apprehension.

Adan was not entirely sure what Duke Kimba meant when he referred to her as a ‘tracker’, and she could guess that the word meant something more to him and Dallas than the translation algorithm had managed to pick up on. Still, Adan could guess.

She answered with a non-committal shrug, letting the other two draw their own conclusions and it seemed to work. At once, Dallas’ face sobered up, her previous annoyance completely gone.

“How far, and how long before contact?” Dallas asked, her tone clipped but steady—like she was issuing a field order, not asking a favor.

Adan raised a surprised eyebrow at the woman’s sudden trust. She hesitated for a moment, unsure how far she could go.

“More than us, roughly a kilometer away – but they’re not moving so fast; I don’t think they know how close we are yet,” Adan lied. Truth was, the approaching group was galloping at full speed – clearly with a specific target in mind – but they were five rather than one kilometer away. However, she didn’t want to push the boundaries of this tracker business too much before she knew what it was. Given the pair’s reaction, Adan was guessed she might have gone too far already.

Dallas’ eyes widened in shock, but, without another word to Adan, she spurred her horse around and started barking orders. “Guards! Full speed ahead! Be ready for an ambush!”

Kimba also acted; with a strong grip, he grabbed Adan’s arm and yanked her upwards. Adan anticipated his move and helped kick off from the ground, expertly hiding the fact that her body was significantly heavier than the average person’s. The poor horse, however, groaned slightly under the sudden extra weight, but Kimba didn’t seem to notice. He quickly urged his overloaded mount forward, rushing to catch up with the black carriage.

Once they were parallel with it, the duke pulled open the door of the now rapidly moving carriage and quickly tossed Adan inside, once again missing the pained plea from his mount.

“We’ll talk more later – stay inside for now!”

Without further ado, Kimba slammed the door shut behind Adan, causing the fabric strap holding up the curtains to snap in the process. Inside, Adan lay sprawled over the cramped floor on her back, staring up on the ceiling.

She’d had to assist the toss into the carriage as well, but to make sure that the entire thing didn’t topple over by her weight, Adan had been forced to distribute her body-weight accordingly. She didn’t need to imagine how comical her entrance must have looked from an viewer’s perspective; her A.I. happily provided her with a simulated re-run of the whole affair.

Lynn leaned forwards, his face slowly drifting into Adan’s line of sight and partially blocking the view of the ceiling. One graceful eyebrow was raised quizzically on the young man’s face as he made no attempts to hide his amusement.

“Oh, shut up,” Adan retorted before Lynn had the chance to say what was on his mind.

“I didn’t say anything!” he complained with faked innocence as Adan got up from the floor. She grunted to mark her lack of faith in his honesty.

Lynn chuckled, his muffled laughter warm to the ears, but his eyes quickly turned serious.

“What’s going on out there?” he asked. “Why the sudden rush?”

“We’re being pursued,” Adan answered and, when she noticed Lynn trying to look out the windows, she added; “you won’t see them yet. They’re a kilometer off, give or take.”

Lynn frowned. “If so, then how come . . .” His sentence trailed off as his eyes widened in shock. “Don’t tell me you were the one who told them!”

Adan shrugged.

Lynn stilled, his posture perfect, though a subtle flicker in his eyes betrayed the weight of Adan’s words.

“A Tracker.” He spoke the word softly, as if tasting it. “That explains quite a bit.”

Adan tilted her head, uncertain if that was approval or accusation.

He glanced at her with a trace of a smile, but somehow he felt more guarded than before. Colder. “You seem to collect secrets like others collect medals. Crystalline fire mark yet knowledgeless in general and now this… How many more surprises do you have hidden away, I wonder?”

Adan shrugged. “A few,” she mussed, guessing he would find one more in just a few minutes.

Lynn gave a soft hum. “No doubt. And a one-kilometer radius, no less.” He looked out the window, eyes distant. “Some of the royal scouts barely detect half that—and they’ve trained their entire lives.”

His voice held no bitterness. But something about the stillness of his hands, the way he avoided looking directly at her, suggested that perhaps envy was there—quiet, restrained, and buried beneath layers of cultivated grace.

Adan could only breathe a sigh of relief that she hadn’t told the truth about how far off their pursuers actually were.

“You are mad at me?” Adan asked.

“Mad?” Lynn scoffed and finally looked back at her. “Why would I be? A bit annoyed that you didn’t mention it, but no more than that. . . . If you ask me if I’m jealous; now that is something else. . .  .”

Adan shook her head. “No, I mean, if I hadn’t said anything, the people following us would have caught up in no time; it would have been a perfect opportunity to fake your death.”

Hearing her explanation, Lynn stilled for a moment, his gaze growing distant again. It did, however, not take long before he too shook his head, cleansing his thoughts.

“If I died now, it’s likely that the Sun Tribes would be framed for it, given Waterlilly’s first testament, perhaps even reigniting the civil war. I do not want so many civilian lives on my hands, simply to save my family.” Lynn straightened his back, his presence brimming with military confidence. “We are a family of soldiers, in the end; we should protect others, not condemn them.”

Adan smiled, her gold-rimmed eyes filled with warmth. In her mind, Adan could hear her sister speaking very similar words; “We are the guardian soldiers of the universe, Adan! Can you think of anything more honorable than living your life for the safety of every other living being?”

The carriage shook from its new high speed and a sudden bump in the road caused Lynn to lose his balance slightly, breaking his grand pose. He quickly gathered himself again, but his previous demanding grace had lessened and he scratched his cheek awkwardly.

‘You’re a good man, Lynn,’ Adan mused quietly to herself as she suppressed a giggle. She didn’t pursue the subject out loud, though. Instead, she leaned back in her seat.

“Well, then we can only hope that we manage to reach the capital before our followers catch up, or we might not have a choice.”

Lynn only nodded. Seeing his determined look, Adan suddenly felt the urge to genuinely help this man. It would be against the rules but . . . well, she’d never been one to follow protocol, anyway.

“Oh, I should add: there are a few traitors among the guards, too.”

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