BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR.
Before Odania drowned in blood.
Before Safuu made the choice that would cost her everything.
There was something she needed Jalatta to do.
He stood before her in silence.
Safuu looked unusually serious.
"Jalatta."
He immediately knew he wasn't going to like whatever came next.
"I need a favor."
Jalatta stared at her.
"A favor?"
"Yes."
"What kind of favor?"
Safuu answered calmly.
"I need you to go to Narev's Palace."
Jalatta's expression changed.
Then she continued.
"Zarqeen's Industrial Reach."
His eyes narrowed.
"And Varek's Citadel."
Silence.
Jalatta looked at her for several seconds.
He knew those three places.
More importantly...
he knew the three people who controlled them.
Narev.
Zarqeen.
Varek.
Safuu continued.
"Each of them possesses something."
"What?"
"A fragment."
Jalatta said nothing.
"There are three fragments in total. I need you to enter all three places without being discovered and steal them."
Jalatta stared at her.
Safuu remained completely serious.
"When the three fragments are brought together, they create a key."
"A key to what?"
Safuu paused.
"A door."
Jalatta waited for more.
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None came.
"What door?"
"A door from nowhere."
His face remained still.
Then he slowly looked away.
"I've survived countless life-threatening situations."
Safuu raised an eyebrow.
Jalatta looked back at her.
"That doesn't mean I should go looking for death myself."
Safuu frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"What am I talking about?"
Jalatta almost laughed.
"You just told me to secretly enter Narev's Palace, Zarqeen's Industrial Reach and Varek's Citadel."
He pointed toward her.
"You know who those three are."
Safuu said nothing.
"You know what they're capable of."
Still nothing.
"And you want me to walk into their homes, steal something from each of them, and somehow walk back out?"
"Yes."
Jalatta stared at her.
"How?"
Safuu's expression changed.
Not into amusement.
Not uncertainty.
Something quieter.
Something Jalatta couldn't understand yet.
"Don't worry about that."
"That's very easy for you to say."
"One of my three knights will accompany you."
Jalatta stopped.
"He will protect you and help you reach all three locations."
"And if that isn't enough?"
Safuu looked directly into his eyes.
"Then I will make sure it becomes enough."
Jalatta studied her.
There was something different about her voice.
Something final.
"Why are these fragments so important?"
Safuu didn't answer immediately.
Then she said:
"Because I'm about to make the greatest choice of my life."
Jalatta's expression hardened.
Safuu continued.
"A choice that will live long after my death."
"...Your death?"
"Go."
"Safuu—"
"Get the fragments."
She turned away.
"Create the key."
Jalatta remained where he was.
"And when the time comes..."
Safuu stopped.
"...you'll know why I sent you."
Jalatta wanted to ask more.
But Safuu was already walking away.
He looked toward one of her three knights.
The knight stepped forward.
Jalatta sighed.
"Three of the most dangerous places in Odania."
The knight said nothing.
Jalatta shook his head.
"I really need to learn how to say no."
And they left.
***
NOW.
Odania no longer looked like the country Jalatta remembered.
Bodies.
Ruins.
Silence.
The consequences of choices made long before anyone understood their price.
And in the middle of it...
Safsan lay on the ground.
His body had reached its limit.
Perhaps beyond it.
Every muscle refused him.
Every breath hurt.
His body wasn't asking for rest anymore.
It was asking to stop.
To die would have been easier than moving.
Safsan tried anyway.
Nothing.
Then a hand grabbed him.
"Don't."
Safsan barely managed to move his eyes.
Jalatta.
"Don't try to stand."
Safsan's lips moved.
No sound came.
Jalatta pulled one of Safsan's arms over his shoulder.
"Unfortunately for both of us..."
He struggled to lift him.
"...you're coming with me."
Safsan's legs barely responded.
Most of his weight fell against Jalatta.
Jalatta nearly collapsed.
"You're heavier than you look."
No response.
"Good conversation."
Jalatta moved.
One step.
Then another.
Safsan's body resisted every movement.
But Jalatta kept going.
Until they reached an open space among the destruction.
Then Jalatta stopped.
His hand moved beneath his clothes.
And he pulled something out.
Three fragments.
No longer separate.
They had been joined together.
A key.
Jalatta stared at it.
For a moment, the battlefield disappeared from his mind.
He remembered Safuu.
Her voice.
Her instructions.
A choice that will live long after my death.
Jalatta closed his eyes.
Safuu was dead now.
There would be no asking her what she meant.
No second explanation.
No correction if he misunderstood.
Only memory.
"What did you say...?"
He tried to remember.
Not simply her words.
Her movements.
The way she had held the key.
The way she had described the door.
Jalatta slowly raised it.
There was nothing in front of him.
No gate.
No wall.
No lock.
Nothing.
Safsan barely remained conscious beside him.
Jalatta looked at the empty air.
"This better work."
He moved the key forward.
Nothing.
He stopped.
Thought.
Then remembered.
Safuu hadn't told him to find a door.
She had shown him how to open one.
Jalatta adjusted his hand.
He placed the key against empty space...
as though a lock already existed there.
Then he turned it.
CLICK.
Jalatta froze.
There had been nothing there.
Yet something had unlocked.
A thin line appeared in the air.
Then another.
Space opened.
Not like something breaking.
Like a door being opened where a door had never existed.
Beyond it...
Jalatta could see nothing clearly.
Mist.
Endless, heavy mist.
He looked at Safsan.
Then back toward Odania.
For one moment...
he hesitated.
Everything was here.
Everything that remained.
Everything they had lost.
Then he remembered Safuu again.
Go.
Jalatta tightened his grip around Safsan.
"All right."
He stepped toward the opening.
Safsan went with him.
The mist swallowed them.
And both disappeared.
The doorway began closing.
Then—
hoofbeats.
Someone arrived.
The third knight.
The knight who had once accompanied Jalatta on Safuu's impossible mission.
He reached the place only moments too late.
The opening vanished.
CLICK.
Nothing remained.
Only empty air.
The knight stared at the place where Jalatta and Safsan had disappeared.
Silence returned to Odania.
***
Safsan felt cold.
Not the cold of winter.
Something heavier.
Something that seemed to settle upon his body.
His eyes slowly opened.
Grey.
That was all he could see.
Grey mist.
Jalatta was beside him.
Breathing heavily.
Neither knew how far they had travelled.
Neither knew what waited beyond the mist.
Jalatta slowly raised his head.
Through the fog...
something enormous seemed to exist in the distance.
But the mist refused to reveal it.
Safsan could barely remain conscious.
Jalatta looked ahead.
Odania was gone.
For the first time...
they had left the Half Continent behind.
The mist shifted.
And somewhere beyond it...
something waited.
BAAČ
THE CONTINENT OF BURDEN
WHERE SECRETS WEIGH
Safsan had escaped Odania.
But some places were heavier than the ones you escaped from.
WELCOME TO BAAČ.