I'm still alive! I just got distracted by playing Tears of the Kingdom. It's so good, guys.

Not as good as BotW, but...

Anyway, now that I've finished it, I'm back to writing! Happy reading!

The corridors of the Monk Temple were as quiet as always, yet Jak couldn't help but be on edge.

Evidently, everyone else felt the same way, too. Seem was at the head of the group, leading them through narrow passages and stone stairways. Her sharp eyes were flickering back and forth across their path.

Sig came next, his Peacemaker gripped tightly in his hands, looking as if he were just waiting for something big and ugly to attack them. Which, to be fair, he probably was.

Damas, Jak, and Daxter brought up the rear. Damas was looking around, squinting in the half-light. "We need to be cautious," he murmured. "This temple is filled with tight corners and small rooms. It would be easy to bottleneck us and get the upper hand."

Jak glanced over at him. "You've been here before?" he asked curiously.

Damas raised an eyebrow. "Of course. I won't be so bold as to claim I know every secret about this place, but I've done my fair share of exploration."

Jak tried to imagine a young Damas, traipsing around the temple, dodging traps and leaping over pits, all for the sake of something fun to do. It wasn't hard to visualize. "Have you ever seen the Oracle?"

"Several times," Damas replied. "I wasn't aware that you had seen it."

Jak opened his mouth to tell the story, almost eagerly, but he was cut off by a quick shushing noise from Sig. They all tensed, on their guard.

"...Sounds like more of them in the room ahead," he said quietly. He shot Damas a look. "How should we play it?"

Damas frowned. "That room has a lot of open space. We can't let them mob us in this hallway, that gives them an advantage." He paused, thinking, then continued, "We'll attack in waves. Sig and I will go in first to attract their attention. Jak, Seem, you two come from behind and surprise them."

They all nodded in agreement. Jak and Seem waited while the other two went in, guns blazing. They gave them a few minutes, then went in after.

Sig and Damas had managed to keep the Dark Makers away from the entrance, giving Seem and Jak a bit of room to work. Jak used his scatter gun first, shattering the shields around them. To his surprise, every time he managed to break through, Damas took a quick shot to take the creature down.

Jak wasn't used to playing back up. It was actually kind of fun, not having to do all this crap himself. He dodged one of the Dark Maker's attacks and took aim, only to have Damas appear beside him and shoot first. The king smirked over his rifle.

"You need to think quicker, youngling," he teased. "You're getting shown up by an old man."

"Oh, yeah?" Jak suddenly waved his hand at a Dark Maker. Following his movements, the dark eco wrapped itself around the creature and exploded. It wasn't as quick or clean as when Seem had done it: the dark eco was less streams and more of a sheet, but it did the job. Damas raised an eyebrow.

"You've gotten rather good at using eco," he said mildly. "I've never seen anyone but Seem do that."

"Hey, fellas? You wanna have this conversation some other time?!" Daxter grabbed Jak's ear and yanked his head the other way. "Ahhh!"

Jak fumbled with his morph gun, but Damas was quicker. He dropped the Dark Maker with a single shot, tilting his chin up haughtily. "We'll call it a draw."

They cleared out the remaining Dark Makers and stopped to breathe. Seem gestured to the round door with the Seal of Mar on it. They all stepped forward.

Jak reached for his seal automatically, its leather cord rubbing against the back of his neck. Before he could pull it out, however, the doors opened before them.

No one else seemed bothered by this turn of events. Daxter glanced at Jak and shrugged, an unspoken conversation between them. Maybe it remembered you.

Jak didn't have much time to think about it too hard, though, because beyond the door was another band of Dark Makers.

"These guys," Daxter howled, "suck! Why can't we just have a nice, normal, uneventful trek through a temple?!"

They cleared those Dark Makers out, too, but it was getting harder. Jak was trying to conserve light eco, Seem was clearly not built for battle, and Sig and Damas were both running low on ammo. Damas held his hand out as they finished the last monster.

"We are running into a dangerous gambit. If more of the Dark Makers are waiting, we will be dead before next dawn."

"Great pep talk," Daxter replied. "Really encouraging."

"Jak is the lynchpin," Damas continued, ignoring Daxter's antics. "Your light eco is their weakness. If we want to make it through here, you're the key."

He glanced down the hallway. "From here on out, the corridors get narrower. That gives us an advantage, but only a slight one. We need to use it."

Sig peered down the hallway. "This is the only exit leading out. You sure there's none in the other parts of the temple?" he asked Seem. She shook her head. "Then whatever's left is down that way."

"Oh! Oh! We can smoke 'em out!" Daxter clapped his hands excitedly. "I'll get the fire!"

"No fire," Damas said firmly. "But the idea is the same. Sig and I can lead them on a chase, right out here. They're bottlenecked and have no choice but to follow through this hallway. And that's where Jak comes in." He nodded to the teenager. "They're weak to light eco. Between you and Seem, we can set up a trap for them right here. Do you two think you can do it?"

Seem nodded and Jak grinned. "Do you even need to ask?"

Damas chuckled in his throat. "No, but it's good manners to do so anyway."

Ionna woke Damas up just before sunrise. It was already hot, and with the sun still down, it certainly wasn't going to get any cooler. Damas groaned as he stood up, clutching his head and mumbling about the throbbing pain.

She cleaned the wound and rebandaged it. She clicked her tongue at him. "Don't complain. You're remarkably lucky. The bullet only grazed your head. If he'd aimed a few inches to the right, you wouldn't have to worry about any headache. You wouldn't have a head."

"Kiran was always a bad shot." Damas pressed his hand against the new bandage and winced. "There was a lot of blood for just being grazed."

"Head wounds always bleed a lot." Ionna's voice had taken on the tone of a lecture, a familiar sound to Damas. "There are so many little blood vessels and veins around the skull. It looks worse than it is."

She helped him up. He was still having some trouble balancing, so she looped his arm around her shoulder again, though he didn't need to be carried so much as steadied.

It only took them another two hours to get to Spargus. It was mid-morning; with the sky streaked in red and orange, it almost seemed…ominous. A morbid warning.

They were quiet as they walked through the city. Damas was walking on his own now, though he occasionally grabbed her shoulder to steady himself. As they reached the elevator door, Ionna glanced at him.

"Have you decided what to do yet?" she asked in a low voice. He didn't answer, so she prodded, "What will you do if Kiran is up there? Do you want me to come with you?"

"No, it's alright." His voice was tight and somber, but he gave her a wry grin. "I can take care of myself."

She snorted. "Debatable on a good day, an outright lie today. You have a serious injury, Damas, you need to rest."

"Ionna." His voice was tired, but there was a spark of determination in it. "I need to talk to Antwon before I do anything else. Once I've taken care of…everything, then I'll rest." He shot her a cheeky grin. "You can lecture me for twice as long as punishment."

She wanted to argue, but he was already walking away. Instead, she called out, "Fine! But if you die because of something stupid, just remember I tried to stop you!"

"What else is new?" He held his arms out grandly as the doors closed in front of him.

With his sudden departure, Ionna was suddenly acutely aware of the city around her. She looked around, a bit lost, inhaling deeply.

Spargus was Damas' city; she'd helped build it, but only that. She had a sudden feeling of alienation, as if she didn't belong here. She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair.

She could smell the salty tang of the sea. It wasn't like at the temple; up there, the mountain air had an earthy quality to it. She listened for the waves crashing against the rocks, letting her feet lead her towards the ocean.

Their plan worked like a charm.

Jak put up a shield of light eco in the middle of the hallway. Seem kept behind him, ready in case any Dark Makers managed to get past.

Sig and Damas came running down the hallway, so Jak let down the shield. Sig skidded to a stop and said, "Alright, cherries, it's all you."

Jak put the shield back up and waited. The Dark Makers came screeching down the corridor, and even though they saw the light eco, it was too late: they vaporized the moment they hit it.

The hall fell silent before Sig whistled. "I'll be damned, it worked!"

Damas frowned and said, "Did you think it wouldn't?" at the same time that Daxter whooped.

"Alright! The Demolition Duo strikes again!" He leaned against Jak's head. "And, of course, our posse deserves some credit, too."

"I thought you were Orange Lightning," Seem said flatly.

"I'm Orange Lightning," Daxter said, annoyed. "Together, we're the Dynamic Duo."

"Well, now, hold on just a second," Sig interrupted. "That doesn't seem fair. How come you get your own name and Jak's just a sidekick? He oughta get a name, too."

"He's Tall, Dark, and Gruesome." Daxter jumped onto Sig's shoulder. "And he is my sidekick."

Sig scoffed. "C'mon, you can think of something better."

They continued bantering, but Jak tuned them out: he was looking down the hallway. The Oracle was back there, and for some reason, he felt the overwhelming urge to see it. Automatically, his boots turned that way.

"Jak?" He jerked back to reality to see Damas, concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?" he asked quietly.

"I…" Jak swallowed and looked at the king. He settled a hand on Jak's shoulder and waited. Jak inhaled.

"I have to check something else out real quick. You guys can go ahead back," he added. "There's just something I wanted to see."

Damas frowned. "We shouldn't stay long. There could be reinforcements coming."

He pondered the situation, then turned back to the bickering trio. "Alright," he said authoritatively. "We need to head in deeper, to clear out any stragglers. Jak, lead the way."

Daxter returned to Jak's shoulder. "Ready, Your Sandiness. And Jak, your new name is Gray Flut-Flut."

"I didn't vote for that," Sig cut in, as Jak wrinkled his nose. "See? Told you."

"Well, I didn't see you comin' up with any cool names!"

They started down the corridor. Daxter continued spouting nicknames.

"The Jakinator!"

"No."

"Jak-Jak-Patty-Wak?"

"Definitely not."

"Ooh, ooh! I know! Jak-Off!"

Jak rolled his eyes and kept walking. Seem and Sig followed them up, quiet and on the look out. Damas was last, and if anyone had glanced back to look at him, they would've noticed that he seemed to be lost in thought, his eyes trained on Jak's back.

Sometimes, Damas wished he was more like the well-behaved, spoiled king everyone in Haven wanted him to be. It would've been smart to have one of his most powerful advisors help him dispatch a traitor. He should have asked her to come with him to the throne room.

But…

There was something off about Ionna. Something had happened, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. She was being too quiet.

He shoved his thoughts aside and focused on the problem at hand: what to do about Kiran.

He leaned heavily against the bar on the elevator, exhaling slowly. Loathe as he was to admit it to Ionna, he was in no condition to be picking fights with anyone. If Kiran was up in the throne room and ready to challenge him, Damas was in trouble.

Antwon would be up there, he reminded himself. That was Antwon's duty as the second-in-command. A tiny voice in his mind asked, what if Antwon had helped arrange this?

His fears were laid to rest as the elevator shuddered to a stop. Antwon was standing near the water wheel, overlooking the desert. Behind him were Misha, Lo, and Kiran.

"I'm telling you," Kiran was arguing, "there's no point. It was a damn bloodbath."

"I don't care." Antwon's voice was firm and commanding, a holdover from his time as a soldier. "Damas is our king. I'm not just leaving his corpse out there to become a meal for some metal head."

"I agree with Antwon," Misha said. "We ought to round up a search party. Kiran, if you can take us to where you and Damas were attacked, we can lay him to rest properly."

"Don't bother."

They all turned as Damas exited the elevator. Antwon looked relieved, while Misha and Lo both bowed their heads in respect.

Kiran, on the other hand, had gone pale.

"Damas! Here Kiran thought you were dead. I'd love to hear the tale of your daring escape." Antwon frowned, all humor gone, as the king walked past him, making a beeline towards Kiran. "Damas?"

"Kiran." The king stood and stared at the man, waiting. For what, he didn't know. An answer? An explanation? An apology?

In the end, he got nothing but silence. Kiran glared at Damas, hatred in his eyes, and Damas knew there was no going back. He drew the pistol from his belt.

"You're a bad shot."

With that, he fired the pistol directly at Kiran's head. Misha jumped about a mile, Antwon shouted his name, and Lo gasped in shock. Kiran's body fell into the water with a splash, blood spreading red through the pools.

It was Lo who cried, "What the hell?!"

"Did either of you know about his plan?" Damas demanded, a hardness in his voice that had not been there before. "Misha? Lo?"

"What plan?" Lo was still in shock, edging away from Kiran's body. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Misha was more measured, but still shaken. "Kiran told us you had been killed. We don't know anything beyond that."

"Kiran attempted to kill me. Obviously, it failed." Damas' eyes burned into theirs. "Am I to believe you had no idea of his plan?"

"Of course not!" Lo straightened her back in indignation. "I'd have killed him myself for even suggesting it!"

"...For the time being, the two of you will be barred from leaving the city." Lo made a noise of protest, but Damas' harsh glare silenced her. "If you're telling the truth, then everything will be back to normal by week's end. If not…"

He gestured to Kiran's body. Misha swallowed, but gave Damas a salute. "Yes, sir."

As they left, Damas felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Antwon, a tight lipped smile on his face.

"I'm glad you're alright," he said softly. "But I must ask…are you? Alright, I mean?"

"Ionna fixed me up." Damas gently brushed his fingers against the bandages. "No harm done, besides a headache."

As Damas turned to head back to the throne, he was suddenly stopped by the corpse blocking the way. For a moment, he froze, his mind going back to that night in the palace, to Ali's body on the floor. He closed his eyes and exhaled.

"I'll take care of it," Antwon assured him. "You should rest."

Damas hesitated, then said, "I…think I need to go clear my head."