The world had slowed to a crawl, and yet sped by in a blur. Trace had sent the letters off the same day, Keith had gone with Natani and a small escort of soldiers to the watchtower, and Fennel had taken to helping move rubble around the city. Throughout the week after that, the civilians returned with a mixture of joy and dismay. Many homes were flattened, many livelihoods were lost, many loved ones were wounded or dead. Tears were shed, meals were shared, and slowly life would return to normal, were it not for the ruin that lay beyond the walls. No one could ignore it, no one could escape it. Even several days later the wooden tower still billowed with smoke, casting a pall over the city. Those who could help slowly began to make their way out beyond the walls, collecting metal and scraps. Keiren himself was out there, helping to move the bodies of the fallen. They would not be simply piled this time, not simply left to be forgotten. They were being taken to a clearing in the woods a few kilometers to the west of the city, just beyond the hill that rose in the distance, where a team of doctors and priests gave each one their last rites before lowering them into shared graves to be buried.

Five days had passed since the battle. Flora and Zen came down to be with Trace, while Raine stayed up in the estate, her mind still pondering what she had seen in the world of dreams. Barret leaned on his glaive, overlooking the destruction with his own eyes for the first time, the smell of blood and smoke dominating his senses. The ground was damp beneath his claws, and he wished so badly that people made shoes that fit him, as the blood seeped out of the dirt with every step anyone took pressing dark liquid between his claws. Haelith stood by his side, frozen in horror. "They didn't deserve this."

"No. They didn't." he agreed. "They should have had a chance to run. They should have had a chance to survive, but they didn't." Shaking his head, he waded into the carnage with Haelith right behind him. Richard's red hair stood out against the crowd, and Barret wandered his way over. "You came out here when they found it. Find anything out of the ordinary now?"

Richard stood up, cracked his back and wiped the sweat off of his head. "Everything. Everything is out of the ordinary. Look. The way they fell is sickening. They were crawling over each other to try and escape, only to have blades driven into their backs. Even now their faces are twisted with fear, their last cries of pain on their lips. I almost wish we could have just let them into the city."

"It would have been a kinder Fate." Haelith turned away, the gore and viscera almost too much for even her. Barret slowly walked through the mayhem, picking out the various tracks on the ground. Most of the soldiers had died trying to fight, but so many had turned away, some even trying to flee to Edinmire. Bolts and blades lay strewn about, their owners having been moved away to be cared for. But it was not the knights or the archers or the soldiers or the horses that drew his eyes, but the shocking amount of clay. There were flecks all over the place, pieces cast about on top and underneath the fallen.

"He was wrong." Barret knelt down next to a broken form, and Richard walked over. "Fennel was wrong. They weren't totally overrun. They managed to bring a few down." Brushing the dirt and mud off, he picked up what would have looked like a mask. The clay face was a mirror of his own, the protruding maw, the curved mouth, the fangs that sometimes hung out at the very ends, even the scale layout was the same as his. Like someone had taken an Ishtaer and drained the color, the clay mask was a perfect, pale copy.

"He probably didn't see them go down, or didn't remember." Richard frowned as he knelt down beside Barret. "You heard how scared he was, you heard the terror in his voice. Honestly? I don't blame him."

Barret set the cracked head back down, careful not to let it break into smaller pieces. "I'm surprised that people aren't in a panic right now. What if they come back? We're too far from the city for anyone to support us if we get attacked."

"Would you rather wait for all of these bodies to start rotting?" Picking up a discarded helmet, Haelith tossed it into a nearby cart.

Barret shrugged dismissively. "I suppose not. It's bad enough as it is." They fell into a quiet lull as they set about working to clean up. It was tiring and hot, with the humid summer air causing everything to become even stickier than it already was, but it needed to be done. For hours, Barret, Haelith, Richard, and several hundred people loaded bodies onto carts, metal onto others, but they left all the clay fragments where they lay. Keiren had made it clear that those were to be left alone. To what end, he had not said, but he was very adamant about leaving them.

It was noon when they finally stopped for a break. Wandering far enough away to be out of the smell of gore and blood, the three rested beneath several trees on a nearby hill, still watching over the many people working. "It didn't take much to find you." Their heads turned to see Sythe walking over with Maren, a smile on his face. "I could smell you a kilometer away."

"Oh, you're much better?" Richard chuckled, stretching out his legs on the grass.

"And here I was going to be nice and bring you lunch. I guess we'll just have to eat without you!" Sythe laughed as he sat down next to Haelith.

"I'm famished. What do you have?" Barret leaned over, looking at the woven basket.

"Figured you would like something cold, so we brought some fruits and veggies from the greenhouse." Maren said as she pulled out a colorful collection of foods. Handing over carrots and cantaloupe chunks, they all dug into the meal, happy to have decent food, but the longer they sat the more they all realized just how bad the wreckage was. "It looks even worse from down here. Up in the estate we couldn't really see the battle very well. I heard about it from Raine, but didn't think it was this bad."

"It's actually improved." Richard said grimly, reaching for another slice of ham. "It'll take longer to clear this time, but that's because Keiren wants to give everyone their proper funerary rites, and make sure the broken chunks of Sentinels aren't moved."

Shaking her head, Maren sighed. "I know what it's like to brush with death, but this is sickening. This wasn't a battle, it was a slaughter. Of all the ways for it to have ended, why like this? Such devastation, such cruelty, such death."

"No one knows why, just that it happened." Barret leaned back picking a piece of food from his teeth. "We may never know why." They fell back to silence, the weight of the unknown now pressing against their minds. Slowly, the clouds rolled overhead, giving tell of a coming thunderstorm from the southwest, and Barret stood back up. There was work to be done, and he and Richard needed to do it. It was late afternoon when they stopped again, and Barret was leaning on his glaive, looking at the progress they had made. The ground was scorched black and stained red, but it was the weapons and armor that drew his eyes.

Richard glanced over at him as he dropped a few more pieces of armor on the cart. "I don't know how to read faces very well, but even a blind man could see there's something on your mind."

Smiling, Barret rubbed the back of his neck. "I suppose you're right. All this armor, all this metal, and none of it could help me."

"You're too big." Richard suddenly froze, but then threw his hands up defensively, his eyes wide. "That came out wrong, I'm sorry!"

Rich laughter filled the air as Barret roared with glee. "It's fine! There's no better way to put it!" For a minute, he laughed, finally having some joy in the world. Slowly, he calmed down, his laughter lowering to a rumbling chuckle. "But you are right. I'm too large for anyone to make armor. My brother had armor, but he had to have it custom made for him. As much as I think it would help, I don't think I'll be able to find anyone who would be willing to make armor my size, or spend months getting measurements and then actually making the plate mail. Still, I might try to cobble together something with these pieces. I'm certain a few plates missing here and there wouldn't be a big deal." He held up a dented piece of chest armor, the inner shell mostly intact, though the steel plate was caved in on itself from a heavy impact.

"It's going to be melted down and repurposed anyways, so I don't see the harm in it. I might be wary about what parts you're taking though, and I don't think I'd be too keen to wear armor that didn't save the lives of the previous users." Richard sifted through the salvage, pulling out what was apparently only half of a helmet, the other half melted away. "Yikes. Not sure how much armor would really help against a Sentinel if this is anything to go by. Maybe Basidian armor would be different, but this looks like it was as effective as wet paper."

"Maybe not against a Sentinel, but in general combat, it would be better than nothing. My bow was destroyed, and I don't plan to get a new one for a while."

"Really? I thought you were a hunter, an archer?"

Barret sighed. "I've… changed. I'll find one eventually, but… I'm different now. I'm not the same person I was. In only a few short months, I've changed so much." Barret collected scraps of metal as he spoke, a small pile of plates at his feet. "For so long I did the same thing every day: survived. I spent my days foraging and hunting, wandering alone. I wasn't tied to anyone or anywhere. But now I'm different. I have people. I have a tribe of people that followed me. I have friends, and I have a family. I can't go back to my old life, I can't make Haelith do that. She deserves a better life than that of a wanderer. And I can't keep her safe if I'm behind her. As an archer, I rely on being behind people, having other people keep me safe, but that can't be the case anymore. I have to be the one on the front lines, I have to be the one to protect people."

Richard tossed him a nearly pristine chest plate. "You don't have to protect everyone yourself. You don't have to do this alone."

"I know. But I won't always be with everyone else. Eventually life will pull us different ways. It's just going to happen. But for now, I want to be up front. I want to protect people, to protect Haelith." He blushed as he spoke, realizing just how vulnerable he was making his feelings. "As strange as it may seem, I really do love her. I want to make sure that she can spend every day smiling."

Richard smiled at him, a gentle chuckle in his chest. "I know exactly what you mean. I promise, I know exactly what you mean."

"Speaking of that, what's going on with you and Raine? She told me you two were close, and I can tell that you like each other, but is that all it is? Or is there more to you than meets the eye?"

Richard turned away, his face red from both the heat and the welling embarrassment. "I… I'm not sure. It's been complicated between us for a few months now. I think we're in a relationship, but we've not had a chance to slow down and talk about it. I had asked her to go out with me months ago, but… I'm not even sure she'd remember that. So much has happened. We've both changed. I think I would like to give it a second shot, but right now life is just too crazy. With everything going on, how can we even think about life after? We might not even make it to that point."

"Then maybe that's the best reason to do something now. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? We could all be gone by then. Prepare for the future, but be ready to make the most of today. I spent so long worrying about my todays that I never even considered my future until I met everyone here." He glance back at Haelith and smiled. "I have more than myself to think about now. And now I can't imagine a day without her." Richard said nothing, but he was clearly contemplating. "I should have enough here to get started on a suit of armor. Go tell her what you think. I know that it's painful not admitting your feelings. Just do it. It will be like a weight is lifted off your heart." With that, Barret picked up the bag of metal and walked off, leaving Richard alone with his thoughts.