Murtagh had never thought to consider himself a man with much to lose. Many may have pitied him for such a bleak existence, but it was one that had come to grow on him. If he had grown attached to someone, it was never for long. Even before Tornac had died, he had learned to live with his loneliness. Thorn had been his longest, most constant companion since. And the only one whose safety and wellbeing had truly mattered more than Murtagh's own. Nasuada had come close, but even he had been able to let her go.

Then he had met Hal.

And he had come to love her.

And he had met the Tenari.

And he had come to love them.

So there was no precedent for the sickness that held him as Thorn flew as fast as he could back home. He didn't know what he was feeling. Like he was going to throw-up. Like he hoped he was dreaming. Like it was all a mistake. Like he feared for the worst. And all of these feelings created a numbness in his heart, a stillness in his head. There were no thoughts. He had no plan. There were no words. It was just emptiness and desperation.

But carrying three of them, Thorn moved somewhat slower. Murtagh could feel the dragon straining against the wind, against his very nature and size and being, to try and hurl himself across the water at speeds that, even when he was truly fully grown, he probably could not reach. But it was not his fault. Everything, right now, felt slow.

As they grew closer to Illium, Hal made a low sound in the back of her throat like a wounded animal. There was smoke wafting above the trees, already thick. Too long. It was taking them too long.

But no matter how long it took, it wasn't enough time to prepare him for what they saw when they finally arrived.

It was mayhem on the ground below, people running and screaming in every direction. Murtagh could not count the number of Ra'zac present but, at first glance, there did not seem to be as many as what attacked Berjis' village. But with much less protection, the damage was just as bad, if not worse. Already there were bodies on the ground, some screaming and wailing in pain from their injuries. The wind blew the smoke towards them, only just covering the stench of blood. Murtagh couldn't comprehend it, the sharp contrast of how they had left the village with the carnage before him now. He had seen plenty of battles up close. But this was a slaughter that turned his stomach inside out. His hand was shaking long before he yanked Zar'roc free, his mouth twisted in a grimace, his grief warping into blind hatred and fury unlike anything he had ever felt. Thea had done this. First Hal, and now her village.

Thorn flew low, snatching a Ra'zac of the ground and tearing it apart with his teeth. The creature let out an agonized scream only moments before it met its end. Some people pointed with delight, cheering in relief as the dragon landed and released a roar that shook the ground and air around them. Hal, Murtagh, and Invidia jumped off, weapons drawn.

But it quickly became Hal who was the force to be reckoned with.

At Thorn's roar, and at Hal's scent, just like before, more Ra'zac came running towards them. Hal let loose a scream, her voice cracking in pain as her sword moved in a blur, cutting down Ra'zac without hesitation. He felt the air move as she called on her magic and watched as she raised her hand towards one Ra'zac chasing down a young woman. The creature froze, then Hal tightened her hand into a fist. And just like the first Ra'zac she ever killed, this one exploded at the force of her magic without her even uttering a single word of the Ancient Language.

Murtagh shivered.

She kept moving, and Murtagh only had a moment to notice her eyes. They were wild, mad with rage and desperation unlike anything he had ever seen, tears streaming down her cheeks while her mouth was twisted in a sneer.

And one was red.

"HAL!"

But she took off running, and Murtagh could only follow after her. Murtagh — Thorn began.

Stay with Invidia, take out any Ra'zac you can. Protect the village, that is your priority right now. I have to go after Hal. I know where she's going, and if we do not stop her, she may still yet turn.

Thorn read his mind and he felt the dragon begin to panic. I should be with you!

No! Stay with Invidia, please. Save as many as you can. Please.

Thorn roared again, hating their predicament. But Murtagh didn't have time to argue, his own panic and fear seizing him as he tried to follow after Hal.

They ran into more Ra'zac than he would have expected, and he realized it was because people had congregated in the center of the village, unable to escape from the Ra'zac that had them surrounded. One jumped from the top of hut, towards the group and Murtagh threw his sword with all his might. It rotated once, twice, then impaled the Ra'zac in the head. People screamed in surprise.

He rushed forward and yanked out his blade. Hal alone took care of the others, using a mix of magic and her blade to dangerous affect.

"MURTAGH!"

Ayo rushed forward, clutching his shoulder which was bleeding profusely. "Dammit, am I glad to see you."

"How many?"

"Not sure. I don't think more than a dozen or so, but they started attacking out of nowhere. Blödhgarm is the only reason the casualties aren't worse. He took as many on at once as he could, but some pale-faced woman attacked him out of nowhere. He's injured, but I think he's still around here somewhere fighting." Ayo looked around. "Is Hal with you?"

Murtagh swore, having forgotten. He looked around but there was no sign of her. "Ayo, tell me, have you seen Denu?"

The man's face went slack with panic and understanding. "No."

Murtagh swore again and took off running, Ayo shouting behind him. Blood was pounding in his ears as they reached where the attack must have originated. There were more bodies, men, women, and children. The ground was slick with their blood, and Murtagh forced himself not to look down, his throat tight. The woods around them were blazing with the source of the fire, the smoke thick, burning Murtagh's eyes and lungs. He could not fathom the purpose of it, except to get Hal's attention from a distance. The fire was currently only damaging the forest, not the village itself. At least not yet. He covered his mouth with his tunic.

But as he turned the corner, he a voice suddenly called out.

"STOP!"

It was Hal who had screamed, and Murtagh was suddenly frozen mid-step just as he took in the scene before him. But not because he himself had stopped moving. Magic had immobilized him. But who? How? His eyes were wide with disbelief, Hal with her back to him, Thea not even bothering to look at him. And it took him a moment to realize it must've been Hal who had done it — she knew his footsteps better than any and would know it was he who approached. But why make it so he can't move? He was an open target for the Shade now.

And speaking of…

Thea stood there, Denu standing in front of her, one arm twisted behind his back. His eyes wide with panic at the sound of Hals's voice. "Get back, Halen, it's a tra —"

He screamed in pain and Murtagh screamed at the sight of the man in such agony. Hal hurled magic at Thea but it bounced off a shield Murtagh hadn't noticed, thrown back at Hal who barely managed to block it with a shield of her own. Eyes blazing with determination, Thea held up her hand, bloodied with Denu's finger that she had cut from his body.

"I told you that I would lay your island to waste," she seethed, ignoring Hal as she threw herself at Thea. But she hit the shield and was thrown back even further. "And since the spirits weren't around to protect your village or keep me trapped on that godsforsaken island, finding this place was easy." Murtagh shouted for Hal to release him but even though his mouth was moving, he realized no sound was coming out. Hal hadn't just made it so that he couldn't move.

She made it so he couldn't be heard. Or seen.

By Thea.

Furious with her, he shouted and swore, calling on the Name of Names to try and figure out how to break her wards before it was too late.

Denu screamed again and Thea tossed him to the ground as if in disgust. His wrist was grotesquely twisted, broken. Thea planted a boot on his back and Hal finally stopped fighting.

"Thea, I am begging you," Hal seethed, her cheeks stained with soot and tears. "Let. Him. Go. Please, he is a good man. An innocent man. Do not do this, please do not do this."

"Or you'll what? You may be a Shade but I am still stronger than you. I will turn you. I will unlock your hate and your rage and I will do it by taking the one person in the world you would die to protect."

"Thea stop — NO!"

Denu gasped as Thea stomped on his back. Murtagh felt his chest squeeze, his magic released in shock. Hal screamed again, but this time, she must've used magic again, because Thea threw out her hand as if to catch it, and the force of it would have blown Murtagh back had he not been trapped by Hal's magic. His eyes were wide with fear and disbelief as the ground cracked in the center of where their magic met, as if the world itself was being split apart.

"You lied to me," Thea continued, her voice suddenly becoming hauntingly low. Hatred tinged with…fear. Sadness. "You promised nothing bad would happen to us."

"Thea," Hal crooned, her voice breaking. "Please."

"You left me —"

"No —"

"You forgot us. Replaced us. And all the while you were here living your life, I was turned into a monster!"

"It's my fault. I did this, Thea. So please, please, punish me. Take me. Break me. Kill me. Just leave this village alone. Please. Do not let the Tenari suffer as our people did. No one deserves this. Except me. I am begging you to spare them, please."

Murtagh screamed, but his voice was lost in the void.

Thea only looked disgusted.

"I'll go with you," Hal continued, her voice inching towards hysteria and desperation. "I'll go with you. We can be together. You can still have a life of your own. We'll go far away, where no one can bother us. No one can find us." Murtagh felt his heart seize. No! He couldn't lose Hal, not like this. "No one can hate us or fear us or attack us. It'll be just like it was when we were little. And I will protect you. I'm stronger now than I was before. Just please, stop this. Do not let another village burn as ours did."

Thea swallowed. "How can I trust anything you have to say." And then, to Murtagh's astonishment, the Shade began to cry like a child. "Why didn't they protect me? They lied to me. Turned me. Our people never sought to spare me as they have fought to spare you!"

"They would have. Thea, our father gave his life to protect you just as our mother gave hers to protect me. You know if they had any idea of how to save you they would have —"

"LIAR!"

The air around them cackled and hummed with a renewed energy. Murtagh felt like the air was thinning around him. Like Thea was literally sucking it all up. "You abandoned me. You left me. You didn't care about me then. And you don't care about me now. You care about this pathetic little surrogate village. And I will make sure you know how it feels to have your heart crushed by the foot of your oppressor."

Neither Shade was releasing their magic, a vein throbbing in Thea's temple at the exertion while Hal screamed and screamed and screamed in desperation. The air around them felt heavy, and Murtagh felt like he was struggling to breathe. Or was it the smoke from the fire? It was worsening, the wind picking up around them. Whatever was happening, not even Hal's shield was strong enough to keep out the effects. And if Murtagh couldn't get to his magic in time…

Thea grinned.

Halen, let go! Murtagh screamed with his mind, hurling the thought towards her in the hopes it would reach. Halen, let me go!

But she either could not hear him, or she refused to listen.

Thea stomped on Denu's back again. Murtagh's screams were silenced by the magic.

The toll of holding on to so much magic along with her duress forced Hal to her knees. But Murtagh could tell she was still trying to push through. She crawled towards Denu, moving as if she were fighting against a gale of wind. She was digging her fingers into the hard ground, tearing up her nails and leaving behind a bloody trail.

It was obvious Thea was gaining the upper hand as Hal was practically flattened to her stomach, struggling to reach Denu, her cries of pain catching in the currents surrounding the fight. Denu struggled to lift his head, and Murtagh could've sworn the old man's unseeing eyes flickered this way, blood dripping out of his mouth as it filled his lungs from the damage.

He smiled.

And both Murtagh and Hal screamed as Thea brought her foot down one last time, shattering his ribs and crushing the heart underneath.

And the world around them exploded.

…

"You want to stay in our village?"

Murtagh swallowed, feeling rather embarrassed as he kneeled before Denu, even though the man couldn't see it, to humbly ask to make his presence in the village permanent. "Aye, if you will have me."

Denu inhaled slowly. "And, may I ask, why you are suddenly deciding to stay?"

"Because of Hal."

"Oh."

The one word held with it a surprising weight, and Murtagh's face burned. "I don't mean — not to imply that we're — we're not —"

But Denu's face broke into a broad smile and he began to laugh. Murtagh stared in disbelief and confusion as the old man cackled with glee. When he finally calmed down, Murtagh's face was beet red, confident he had certainly spoiled his chances of remaining now.

"I tell you, when I first met you, I would not have guessed you were capable of being so inarticulate. I did not mean to tease or make you nervous, Murtagh, I was merely having fun."

"You're as mean as Hal, then."

The old man chuckled at that. He tilted his head, observing Murtagh quietly in a way only he could. "Rise, Dragon Rider. There are no kings or nobles here. You do not need to kneel before me."

Shakily, he got to his feet, and he moved as Denu patted the space beside him on his cot. Murtagh sat down, surprisingly terrified and unsure of what to expect. He couldn't recall the last time he had wanted something so badly that the thought of not getting it actually pained him.

"Halen is convinced you want to go east," Denu finally said after a bout of silence.

"I wanted to."

"And now you do not."

"No."

"Because of Halen?"

Murtagh blushed again. "More or less. She has a way of finding joy and life in the littlest of things. And in my time here, seeing the island and this village through her eyes, I have realized that I have come to find joy and life here as well."

Denu nodded. "I have noticed that. You are not the same man you were when Halen first brought you here."

Murtagh noted how proud the man sounded and he felt himself become dazed with emotion. "Thank you."

"No. Thank you, for being the bigger man than I."

He frowned. "I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"I was harsh to you, when you first arrived. I was worried about your past and said things to you or about you that I should not have said."

"You weren't wrong to be concerned."

"But I was wrong in how I expressed my concern. I misjudged you unfairly. And I never properly apologized for my transgressions against you. So, I will only allow you to remain as part of our village, if you humbly accept this old man's apology, for his foolish mistake."

Denu bowed his head respectfully and Murtagh stared in disbelief.

"You have cared for my people like they were your own," Denu continued. "You have cared for Halen even more so. And the happiness you have brought her, the friendship you have blessed her with, means more to me than life itself. She would be devastated to see you go." Denu raised his head and smiled brightly. "And so would I."

Murtagh gasped, shuddering as he struggled to catch his breath. Blödhgarm was standing over him and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that Murtagh was awake. But he jumped to his feet, ignoring the elf who tried to warn him against such sudden movements. Thorn was standing in front of him, blocking his view, his head bowed in grief.

Murtagh knew what he would see as he ran around the dragon, pushing through the small crowd of people that had gathered. He spotted Amon, clutching Tena and sobbing hysterically as she cried quietly, running her hand down his back. He saw Invidia, who caught his gaze then looked away. He saw Cado, his head bowed as tears ran down his cheeks. Everyone was in a state of shock or grief, and the crowd became awkwardly parted at the large crack in the ground, big enough for a small child to fall through.

Only then did Murtagh realize none of the nearby huts remained. There was nothing but rubble where they once stood, destroyed by the effects of the magic. The air was still tinged with smoke, but the blast that had knocked him out cold seemed to have destroyed the blaze as well.

When he finally pushed through the crowd, he felt his body go limp and he dropped to the ground as he cried out in anguish.

Hal's eyes lifted to meet his, having returned to their regular, brown hue. But in them was nothing. No anger. No rage. No hatred. No love. No fear. No anguish. No grief. No remorse.

Nothing.

They were empty, looking at him without seeing. She didn't cry. Didn't utter a sound. She just…was.

Cradled, in her lap, was Denu's body.

She did not acknowledge Murtagh as he wept. Only lowered her head back down to the man in her arms.

You know I think of you as my son, don't you?

This wasn't supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. The village was meant to be safe. Shielded and protected. He had loved this village for its innocence, its peace. That the people here could smile and laugh because they had not had to endure such devastation.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to deal with his grief.

His vision was blurry, but he felt a small hand in his and looked up to find Layla reaching for him. She looked scared, her eyes red. But something about seeing her face broke something in him. He wrapped his arms around her tiny body and pulled her into his chest, sobbing hysterically. Part of it, he knew, was relief that she was okay. But he looked at her, and only thought of what nightmares could haunt her now where there hadn't been any before. How it could have just as easily been her, or everyone. He still did not know the full extent of the damage. And he was afraid to know. Afraid to know what hell had wrought upon the once quiet and peaceful village he had come to call home.

…

Murtagh wasn't sure when he was pulled to his feet. He tried to fight it — he didn't want to leave Hal. But his body had no fight left. He was exhausted, mentally more than physically. He must've passed out because when he woke up, it was later in the day, the sun beginning to set. There was a cool rag pressed to his head. Tears filled his eyes immediately, the ache in his body and heart reminding him of what was real, and what he stood to face when he walked out.

He climbed steadily to his feet as he stepped out of the room. He was in Sam's hut, he realized, closer to the center of the village. Murtagh realized with dismay that Amon and Tena's hut had been one of the ones destroyed in the fight between Hal and Thea.

When he stepped outside, Amon, Sam, Ayo, Cado, and Eli were standing nearby as if they'd been waiting for him. They weren't talking much, but they tried to smile when they spotted him. Despite his grief, Murtagh hugged each man tightly, glad to see that they were all right despite the bandages, cuts, and bruising on their bodies. And as he was hugged tightly in return, he felt shame and tears fill his eyes. He should've been here. He should've done more to protect the village.

As if they'd been waiting to at least see that he was okay, everyone but Amon tilted their heads and parted in silence. Murtagh felt like his world was shattering. He looked at Amon, whose arms were crossed over his chest. He had a bandage on his cheek and his arm was tightly wrapped, but other than dirt and blood on his clothes, he appeared fine.

"How bad?" Murtagh asked, his voice cracked and hollow.

Amon's lip trembled briefly before he took a shuddering breath. "As of right now, nearly 100 or so people are dead, even more injured. But folks are still missing. We should know for sure by morning."

"Your family —?"

"The children are safe, as is Tena." He cleared his throat, a single tear running down his cheek. "My old man and woman didn't make it though. Eren found them."

Murtagh's closed his eyes in horror that a child had to see his grandparents like that. "Amon, I'm so sorry."

Amon shook his head. "You didn't do this." He reached out and patted Murtagh's shoulder warily. "You didn't do this," he repeated. "I'm just glad you got back when you did. If you hadn't…"

"And Hal?"

Amon squeezed his eyes shut, the tears running faster. He just shook his head.

Murtagh felt like he was stumbling blindly through a fog. People were sobbing around him, some being held, some over the bodies of loved ones they had lost, sheets covering them until they could be moved and prepared for burial. Everyone looked frightened and confused. And rightfully so.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

Thorn had remained by Hal's side, and Murtagh felt his chest swell just a bit at the sight. He was grateful that Thorn had been there for Hal when Murtagh wasn't able to. Even if all he could do was sit there and watch.

She had not moved, still clutching Denu's body tightly to her. Murtagh tried to approach her, but out of nowhere, Blödhgarm stepped in front of him, his face hard. "You shouldn't be up, Shur'tugal."

"Move." Murtagh had meant to sound intimidating, but instead his voice came out weak and unsure.

"You need to rest," Blödhgarm emphasized. In a lower voice, he added, "You basically took a direct hit from that blast of raw energy. You should be dead. Or at least gravely injured."

"I'm fine." But he wasn't. Not really.

Blödhgarm followed his gaze, his shoulders slumping as the fight left him. "She won't let anyone near. Not even any of the villagers."

"She's mourning!" Murtagh snapped, as if the very notion of anyone trying to approach negated that.

"As are we all," the elf said in a low voice. "But you and I both know that Halen's grief goes deeper than mourning. She nearly died, Murtagh. You very well could have. And the only reason you both didn't was because…"

Blödhgarm looked pained, as if the thought alone was too much to bear. Murtagh turned away from Hal to look at him. "What happened?"

Blödhgarm just shook his head. "Not even a Shade can maintain more than one spell at a time. To attack or to defend. One the other, but not both. The toll of her attack on Thea nearly killed her. If she had not stopped when she had, it very well could have. She was exerting all of her efforts into it, wasting it. Thea was too strong. And then, at the last minute, Halen made a choice. She redirected her magic. To defend, instead of to attack." He turned to look at Hal. "It's like I said, Murtagh: you should be dead."