Lily was sitting on a stool by the baths, carefully but firmly working various creams and salves into Amber’s burnt, patchy skin. She really felt this kind of work should be left to a qualified healer, but Amber completely refused to let them touch her. In fact, she seemed incredibly twitchy and nervous whenever the healers came along. For some reason, that fact was deeply troubling to Lily, although she couldn’t pinpoint why. At least the ointment from yesterday seemed to have worked fairly well. Even when Lily worked on the most recent burns, Amber’s breath just hitched a little. Compared to the pained gasps she’d given out whenever anything touched them yesterday, that was some remarkable progress. Lily sighed quietly, her nose filling with strong, conflicting scents. The salves smelled sharp and bitter, but the heated herbal bath the healers had drawn filled the air with a thick, sweet fog. It almost made it hard to breathe, and Lily had to regulate her breathing to keep herself from breaking into a coughing fit. Still, she never once considered quitting, or even complaining. This was for Amber, after all. With a determined frown, she kept on working. Adam proceeded down the street, the end of his cane ringing against the large, flat paving stones every time he brought it down. He felt a lot better than yesterday, but his muscles were still sore and aching, and while he had baulked at the idea of walking with a cane at first, he had to admit it helped steady his still rather shaky legs. It didn’t help his mood any that everyone who spotted him stopped to give him a deep bow or curtsy, often accompanied by a mumbled ‘Your Majesty’. He still wasn’t comfortable being treated like, well, like royalty, but he was hardly in any state to instigate major social reforms at the moment… At least the city was very pretty. Every building seemed to be in almost perfect condition, and the streets practically sparkled in the morning sunshine. Probably because of the frankly improbable number of street cleaners that seemed to be at work all over the city. He’d be surprised at just how many of them there were, but since the treasury was practically overflowing and state employment was so highly sought after, he supposed it was to be expected. What did surprise him, at least a little, were the children. There weren’t very many of them, but those he did see were all out playing in the streets or, in rare cases, reading by themselves in the shade. It seemed like the children weren’t being put to work as one might expect in a medieval society, but there also didn’t seem to be any kind of public schooling. Adam couldn’t help but wonder how many of these children were receiving any kind of education or training at all, and if those who didn’t would end up going into debt to the state when they grew up… He shook his head with a sigh. That rather depressing line of thought would have to wait. He was out and about for a reason, after all. The castle library, while rich in government records and old reports, had proven fairly sparse when it came to other literature. When he had asked for books on the last war, the castle staff had directed him to the much larger Capital Library. Picking up the pace just a little, Adam made his way towards the large marble building shining in the distance. “Again!” The assembled guards rushed in, brandishing cudgels and wooden practice swords. As they raised their weapons to strike, Sven locked his bracers into guard position. The weapons bounced harmlessly against his stone skin, and he stepped out of guard position for just long enough to yank the cudgel out of one guardsman’s grip and use it to trip the man next to him. He was about to raise his skin of stone once more, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Just as he was about to slot the bracers in place, a wooden cudgel hit him square in the back. It didn’t hurt much through his padded practice armour, but the force of the blow was enough to bowl him over. He twisted to the side, letting the padded armour absorb most of the landing, but he still got the wind knocked out of him when he hit the stamped-down dirt of the training grounds. “Still not fast enough…” He’d allowed himself to get complacent in the years since his adventure, and it had almost cost Adam his life. If he’d been just a second slower, the falling timber in the burning tower would have flattened his best friend. He couldn’t let that happen. Not ever. With a harsh grimace, Sven got back on his feet. Eyeing him warily, the guards took up position around him. “Again!” Adam stepped into the library and immediately felt the weight of history pressing down upon him. All around him, towering stone shelves stood arranged in neat rows, every one of them packed full of ancient books and scrolls. At the end of each row was a strange contraption, like a small siege tower on wheels. The tops of the odd wooden towers were clipped onto long metal rails that ran across the tops of the shelves, probably to keep them from toppling over, and the wheels were set into deep groves in the floor that ran in front of the enormous bookshelves. Feeling curious, Adam walked over to one of the wooden contraptions and gave it a push. To his surprise, the tower slid along the grooves in the floor with minimum resistance despite the apparent weight of the thing. But before he could try climbing the ladder, he heard a voice calling out to him from behind. “Is there anything I can help you with, Your Majesty?” Adam spun around, finding a rather short woman standing behind him. Her skin was dark brown, contrasting the off-white robe she wore, and her thick, frizzy black hair had been carefully sculpted into a tight arrangement of knotted braids. Her most notable feature was her eyes, though. They were almost coal black, and something in her piercing gaze spoke of a sharp wit and boundless confidence. Adam cleared his throat a bit awkwardly. “Oh, I was just looking for some books. And you are?” “Mhina Irons. I oversee this library.” “Irons?” Adam couldn’t help but ask. After all, she didn’t look much like what he pictured when he heard the name. The librarian shot him a long-suffering smile. “Yes, that’s about the reaction I usually get. My sixteen times great grandfather was an Irons, and I took up his name in order to seek employment at the library. The Irons, Schreiber and Aftonstierna families serve as scribes, archivists and census-takers to the Crown in this city.” Adam frowned thoughtfully. “So various occupations and responsibilities are exclusive to certain families?” “Not by law, but certainly by tradition. Occasionally someone from a different line finds employment at the library, but only if there’s no suitable candidate from the three families.” Adam nodded slowly. The system rather seemed to fit with everything else he’d seen here, even if it didn’t exactly sit well with him. Still, that was a matter for another day. He was here for a reason, after all. “I was actually looking for books about the last war. Could you help me find them?” “Of course. One moment, Your Majesty.” Watching Mhina at work was almost awe-inspiring. Despite looking to be well over forty, she clambered up the ladders of the odd towers with a speed and grace Adam doubted many people could manage in the prime of their youth. Slipping onto the evenly spaced platforms within the towers, the dark-skinned woman intently scanned the endless array of books and scrolls, picking out some and leaving other after only a moment of hesitation. Sometimes she would grab the stone shelves and tug, pulling herself and the tower she stood on along the row of shelves to find the book she was looking for. Barely fifteen minutes had passed when she returned with an armful of old books, but Adam felt slightly dizzy just from watching her work. “These should do, Your Majesty. Should I bring them to one of the reading tables?” “That would be good, yes. Thank you for your time, master Irons.” The woman smirked a little at the overly respectful mode of address, but didn’t say anything as she carried the books over to a table. With a small sigh, Adam settled down to read. Sven got off the ground gingerly. Despite the protection afforded by his practice armour, he was still covered in scrapes and bruises after the repeated strikes and falls he’d been subjected to. The sweat was running down his skin like a flood, and his breath came in quick, sharp bursts as his heart hammered in his chest. Even his mind felt oddly worn and strained after calling on his magic again and again during the course of the day. He looked around himself, taking in the worn and bedraggled forms of the guardsmen surrounding him… “Again!” Adam skimmed through text after text with a small frown. Most of them were rather dry accounts, describing each battle, skirmish and ploy objectively and precisely. But Adam remembered some of those battles. Had fought in some of those battles. As he read, he could hear the muted clangs of steel striking steel and the screams of the wounded. He lost himself in the memories, and he could almost smell the stench of blood and smoke and fear… Even if three of the enemy fell for every man they lost, there were always more of them. There were always fresh soldiers waiting, their armour and muskets and cannons gleaming in the sunlight, and… That… That couldn’t be right. He clearly remembered the vast armies of the enemy, their soldiers decked in wool-cloth armour plated with shining steel. He remembered the banks of cannons raining iron death from behind the lines. He remembered their muskets, one to a man, always shiny and new… With a sinking feeling in his chest, Adam reread the books’ descriptions of the battles and the enemy soldiers. They were fairly brief, but what little detail was in them seemed to match with Adam’s memories of the events. But if that was the case… Feeling deeply unsettled, Adam got up to ask for any books about what life in the other country had been like during the war. Lily was helping Amber get dressed. The healers had done all they could, and she didn’t seem to be in any pain anymore. Some of the most recent burns had even faded to the point where they were barely visible, but the older burns were as vivid as ever. Too old to heal properly, that’s what the healers had said. Thinking back on how beautiful the girl’s skin had been when they were little, Lily couldn’t stop the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “Lily, are you all right?” She snapped back to attention. Amber had turned around and was looking at her with worried eyes. She quickly dried her eyes on her sleeve and gave the other girl a slightly fragile smile. “I’m fine, Amber. Just a little tired, is all.” Amber seemed doubtful, but finally nodded hesitantly. Steeling herself against the tears that still threatened to break out, Lily helped Amber don the last pieces of the red silk outfit the servants had delivered for her. Amber looked down on herself before spinning around a few times. “How do I look?” ‘Wild…’ Lily thought, taking in the sparse clumps of scraggly hair, the clash of crimson silk against brown and purple scars and the slightly manic gleam in the girl’s eyes. ‘Wild and dangerous…’ “You look beautiful, Amber.” She said instead. Amber smiled at her. The four of them had gathered together to share an evening meal, and the large square table in front of them was heavy with fruit, bread and meats. Adam was still in a darkly pensive mood, however, and the whole gathering felt strangely tense. It didn’t help that the large dining hall was lit only by the chandelier hanging over the square table, and the corners of the room were wreathed in dark shadows. Amber fidgeted nervously in her seat, clearly uncomfortable with the tense atmosphere, and Lily debated internally whether she should ask a servant to move her place setting next to Amber’s so she could try to calm the girl. In the end she didn’t really find a good time to ask, though, and at Adam’s request the servants left the room, leaving the four of them alone with their meal. After they’d all picked at their food for a few minutes, Adam cleared his throat awkwardly. “I was reading up on the last war in the Capital Library today when I came across something… Troubling.” He retrieved a large, leather-bound tome from a bag at his feet and placed it down on the table. “This book contains reports gathered by infiltrators and spies about what the other country was like during the war. They’re mostly about military strength and preparedness, but a few things are mentioned in most of the reports. They mention huge cities where the lower classes live packed together in cramped, dirty homes. Teams of workers clear-cutting vast swathes of forest for lumber and fuel. Large areas being torn up in massive strip mines. Huge factories producing endless amounts of weapons and armour and belching out thick black smoke that covers the land like a cloak…” Sven shrugged. “So? I mean, that all sounds pretty terrible, but isn’t it fairly standard for the bad guys in fantasy stories? Oppressing the poor and ravaging the land to make more weapons and all that.” Adam shook his head. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. This isn’t some story where the ‘evil’ side ruins the world to show everyone how ‘evil’ they are. These are real people. Stop thinking like you’re in a storybook and just think about what I told you. The underpaid working class. The exploitation of natural resources. The huge factories mass-producing goods and materiel. Hell, even the smog. What does that sound like to you?” Lily’s eyes grew wide as she considered the implications. “It’s an industrial revolution!” Adam nodded. “That’s exactly what I thought.” He picked up the book and rose from his chair… And a bright flash sparked in one of the shadowy corners of the room, accompanied by a sharp booming sound. It took Adam almost a second to realize it had been a gunshot, and as he threw down the book he felt a strange stinging sensation in his side. He didn’t have time to think about that, though, because Amber had rounded on the man hidden in the corner with a look of mindless fury on her face. “NO! NEVER! YOU CAN’T TAKE THEM FROM ME!” Flames sprung up in the air all around her, burning eye-searingly brilliant in the dark room. With a gesture Amber sent the flames flying at the would-be assassin, and he screamed in agony as the flames burned his clothes and melted his skin. “BURN! BURN AND DIE! NO-ONE TAKES THEM FROM ME!” “Amber! Stop!” Adam ran towards the girl, ignoring the odd stiffness he felt and the strange, warm wetness spreading from his side. “NO! HE CAN’T TAKE YOU! HE BURNS!” Pushing past the strange stiffness and the stinging pain he felt, Adam leapt towards Amber and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. “Shhh. It’s all right, Amber. It’s going to be all right.” The flames gradually died down as Amber’s rage passed over into shock and grief. It was much too late for the assassin, though. All that remained of him now was ashes and charred bone. Looking at his smouldering remains, Amber went slack in Adam’s grip. ”He… He…” Amber sobbed loudly. “He tried to take you away! He can’t take you! I just found you again! I can’t let anyone take you from me!” “It’s OK, Amber. Just calm down. It’s all going to be fine.” Lily hurried over and took Amber into her arms, while Sven pried Adam away from her. “Adam, you need to lie down. I’ve called for the healers, but you need to stop moving.” Adam looked at him strangely. He suddenly felt strangely drowsy, and it was hard to think. “What… What do you mean?” “Adam, you’ve been shot!” Adam blinked at him dumbly before looking down. There was a messy hole in his silk tunic, and the blue cloth was stained with an ever-expanding splotch of red. “Oh… Shit…” The last of the strength left Adams legs, and he was unconscious before he hit the floor.