“He’s coming back!” - Olena yelled.

A shape came out of the city. He was returning. The unsheathed sword glinted against the dying rays of today’s sun. Jassen walked back towards Ogi with the same determined stride he walked in the ruins a few hours ago, the stones of the city’s entrance nearly crushing under his feet.

He caught Ogi’s gaze from afar and refused to let it go. No matter how hard the blacksmith tried to look away, the eyes of the man drew him again. Somehow they seemed more violent and determined than the moment he met him. The look of inevitability was once again on him. A chill went down the blacksmith’s spine as he wondered whether his life was included in the inevitable future.

“You killed it? Oh my god, you killed it?!” - Niko screamed as Jassen approached.

But his friend threw him aside like a ram and rushed past him, heading towards the blacksmith without uttering as much as a word. Ogi saw his death in the man’s eyes, but when he approached, Jassen only threw Dreamer in his feet and looked at him in revulsion.

“What happened?” - Ogi asked.

“I’ll tell you what happened.” - Jassen continued - “I looked at my feet as I walked through the streets and saw the footsteps I made in the snow.”

“But it wasn’t snow.”

“No, it was ashes. The people I expected to find were here. It was their remains I walked on.”

“Did you imagine them?”

“I saw them arguing for the price of silk. I saw their children running through a forest of legs, pulling their mothers’ skirts. I saw the taverns full to the brink with people of every skin tone and hair color. I caught myself smiling. It existed. It truly existed. Even the ruins and the ashes here tower over the other cities we have. It’s a monument of human will.”

“A monument of human ambition.”

“The streets were a labyrinth walked until the ashes turned into sand, and I thought about the men who carried boxes and stashes from the ships in the docks. A chest full of expensive items smashes a sailor’s fingers, and he can’t even kick it. A row of ships suffocates the harbor, and many more with anchors in the water. All that was left of this was wooden boards scattered on the sand.”

“Where did you go then?”

“I went straight to the stone pillar that used to be the keep, and I found Nava’s rulers. I saw them clutching at gold even as they died. The molten metal etched in their remains, leaving golden skeletons on the floor. Deep inside, I found one who wasn’t burned. He died of hunger, but he had a ring on each finger. There were more bodies in the cellar. They drank wine until their death. Ironic to die drunk like any other homeless beggar.”

“I waited to hear the howling and the roar of a monster, but I only listened to the sound of the sea’s breeze sneaking through the cracks time had made in the stone. Deep inside, behind crumbling walls, I found the treasure room. It still hosted the remains of those that preferred to die in the company of metal, not their families. I looked at the blade in my hand, and I felt disgusted, for I was one of them too. The only difference between me and the corpse next to me was that my metal of choice was steel, not gold.”