“The city lies behind that hill. Its first rocks, where the outer gates used to be. Up there, you’ll see the evil that the tide can’t wash away. You’ll see things that should not exist under the same sky you do. You’ve heard priests say that good always overcomes evil, but it’s hard to imagine what good can compensate for this.”

Jassen continued to ride in silence.

“Turn around, boy, it’s not too late. You can leave this behind you, leave these lands and forget you’ve ever been here. Once you walk inside the city, you will see unspeakable things. Why are you doing this?”

“I told you. To do the impossible, to do something that no one has ever done.”

“The hardest thing you can do in this life is to keep that sword sheathed. Remember that. If you were after the impossible, you’d be doing that instead.”

They continued to ride in silence.

“Do you have a family?”

“I do. A wife and two daughters.”

“Yet you’ve left them alone to come here and chase after monsters.”

“The cruelest monster lives in me, blacksmith. My mother put it in my stomach when I was but a child. She told me stories of heroes and conquerors. She told me of Marko, who threw boulders with one arm, and Ato, who leveled cities with his roar. We had only one bed, and she’d whisper the legends in my ear when father fell asleep. He told her not to fill my mind with nonsense. She would have been better off telling me how to grow vegetables and look after sheep. Maybe I would have stayed and helped them had she done that.”

“Where are your parents now? Are they not in need of a strong son in times like these?”

“I don’t know. I left with a band of sellswords the first chance I got. The very ones that walk beside me now.” - Jassen pointed to Niko, Olena, and Bozmaroff - ” My mother cried her eyes off. She did everything she could to keep me from going to war. They even burned a lamb alive so its screams could show me what violence looks like. It cried in agony, but I always saw darkness as necessary. I didn’t understand why she’d tell me all these stories and then expect me to sit behind and farm. Last I heard, the village got raised by the imperials. I tell myself they managed to escape, or Morana took them swiftly.”

“Good that you tell yourself this. Even better if you know that the truth would be crueler.”

“I love my family, blacksmith. I’ve fought in every nation we border with, and I’m yet to see a woman more beautiful than my wife. But the monster wants more. It wants me to have a different woman every night. It whispers how I can have nobles looking at me with eyes speaking of lust. Drinking wine with women from lands where there is nothing but sand. I love my daughters, but the monster keeps telling me I’ll need a boy to carry my name, an heir.”

“The monster tells me I need someone whose head I need to fill with legends and stories so it can find a home in its stomach. I won’t be able to feed it forever, and it is not one to accept death. What’s in me is a sight far more frightening than anything I can see in Nava. I’d rather have a violent death than live to fail that thing in me. What is a life of ambition if you can’t pass it on to those after you? Pure agony. I have this gaping hole in my stomach, and no matter how much gold, women, and riches I throw into it, it’ll never be full.”

After a man sees you kill, there aren’t that many secrets between the two of you, Ogi thought.

“And I think you know that monster, Ogi because you carry one too. An old blacksmith with no wife who can think only about the next piece of steel and the blade it can become with enough effort. A man who walked to a god-forsaken city, risking his life to save a sword. Tell me I’m wrong.”

This time it was Ogi’s turn to respond with silence.

The sun had already risen from the river when the city revealed itself to them. Its size was rivaled only by the capital. Countless structures of stone and wood stretched as far as the eye could see. The home of thousands remained silent and empty. Its waters carried no ships or boats. Even the seagulls that screamed all summer were nowhere to be found, leaving the visitors to drown in the silence. A half-broken bridge stood, unable to touch the far shore of the river anymore.

“You’ve been here before? You’re looking at the city like an old friend.” - Jassen asked.

“It was there, somewhere in the ruins laying over its hoard of gold and riches. The creature that could not be described with words.” - Ogi said.

They all dismounted, and Jassen unbuckled Dreamer once again. It was monster against monster, and the blacksmith’s blade was set to end one of them. It would either find the dragon’s heart or fall to the ground as its holder turns to ashes.

They hugged Jassen, smiling. Wishing him luck as if he was embarking on a voyage. Even Niko, ever-bitter, held him tight. They are not good people, Ogi thought. But faced with death, they act like every other person, like a family sending one of theirs to war. They accept what they can’t change and hold back the tears.

“One monster dies today, Ogi.” - Jassen said and went into the ruins.