Lestan carefully went along the edge and jumped to another wider ledge. Asoke was just after him. They both looked at the city. They without a problem noticed the two towers they needed to reach. The tallest tower was very far and barely visible. The central tower was much closer, but still far away.

"Along walk, but we see our goals at least." Lestan sighed.

"It will take us few days to reach library, don't sweat it." Asoke replied.

"Few days of normal walk maybe, but don't forget about sand monsters on our way." Lestan protested.

Asoke shook his head. "Are you always that pessimistic when you're on a mission?" Asoke asked.

"I'm just considering all possibilities. There is no reason to be optimistic in calculating your route." Lestan answered.

"There is no reason to calculate anything at all; we'll be there when we get there." Asoke remarked.

"What a brilliant deduction." Lestan mocked and rolled his eyes.

Asoke sighed. "Listen, there's no reason we should stress ourselves out. Just we do what we can."

"All right, though I'm curious why that is here? Can't they do normal walls here?" Lestan asked.

"Don't really know; Palace was here long before I was born." Asoke answered.

"Thank you for explaining the obvious mister thief." Lestan rolled his eyes. He was very annoyed by that conversation.

Asoke sighed again. "Don't worry about the ledges; it's very hard to reach them from the street level." The thief explained.

"But you somehow managed to do it." The prince remarked.

"Well, I'm a pro." Asoke said proudly with a wide smile.

"You're professionally annoying." Lestan rolled his eyes again. And then sighed and shook his head with closed eyes. It seemed that those eyes started to hurt him from rolling them so many times.

"You're professionally mean." Asoke looked offended, but Lestan could see that he was only pretending to.

Lestan sighed loudly. "Let's just go, we don't have time for chit chatting."He demanded.

"Well, we can talk while walking, right?" Asoke asked exited.

"Why would we do that?" Lestan asked annoyed.

"That we don't die from boredom," Asoke replied dead serious.

Lestan raised his eyebrow and looked at strange expression of his companion. He really annoyed him, but Lestan shouldn't let him to do that. He should just ignore him and focus on their mission. If he'd react to thief's behavior like this every time, it would be very exhausting journey. He sighed again and shook his head.

"Fine, we can talk, but don't expect from me to be talkative." Lestan replied.

A wide smile slowly had drawn itself on Asoke's face. "Okay." He replied still smiling.

"So lead us to the street level master thief." Lestan said trying to sound casual.

"All right, this way." Asoke said and dashed along the ledge.

Lestan rushed after him then he stopped when the ledge ended. Lestan wanted to ask what would they do now, but Asoke climbed down the edge and dropped himself lower. Lestan approached the edge and saw it wasn't a long drop, so he did the same. He looked up then; it was so high that they wouldn't be able to climb back though, but he trusted him to navigate them properly.

"Oops, wrong place." Asoke called.

"What?" Lestan asked raising an eyebrow. Did he give too much credit to that thief?

"Just kidding," Asoke laughed. "You need to lighten up."

"Well from laughing I won't be lighter, so I'll pass." Lestan answered and suddenly noticed something in the air.

"What happened?" Asoke asked concerned.

Lestan didn't know that himself, but he was trying to figure it out. He felt a familiar sensation in the air. It was the sands, their magic particles filling the air around. It probably was the same in the whole city. He sighed realizing that one of his plans to get faster to his target couldn't be executed anymore.

"Sands are filling the air, so I can't use...a magic to get there faster." Lestan explained.

"What magic?" Asoke asked shocked.

"That is not important right now." Lestan said.

"Wait, wouldn't they be dangerous to breathe in?" Asoke asked concerned.

"No, we are protected by the time artifacts. Other people don't have that much luck,but it would take couple of weeks to affect them in any way." He explained.

"Aha." Asoke said with relief.

"Nevertheless, let's not waste anymore time." Lestan replied.

Asoke nodded and rushed farther and Lestan followed him.

"So what's your favorite color?" Asoke asked suddenly still running.

"Blue?" Lestan answered awkwardly. He didn't understand why the thief asked such a weird question.

"Oh right, mine is black." He chuckled. "What is your favorite sport?" He asked further.

"Jumping," the prince sighed.

"Mine is climbing." Asoke turned his head a little to look at Lestan and show his smile.

"Don't want to interrupt your interrogation, but shouldn't you ask things that we don't already know answers for?" Lestan proposed.

"Hey, I didn't know...oh well, right, we could figure it out already." He sighed and after some time asked again. "What is your favorite food?"

"Watermelons," Lestan answered.

"Oh wow, I never ate those. How do they taste?" He asked curious.

"Hmm, very watery," the prince chuckled.

Asoke laughed. "I bet." And he laughed again.

"I'm sorry; I don't know how to describe the taste." Lestan apologize.

"Don't worry about it. I just never had a chance to eat it.

"Why have you never eaten it?" Lestan asked curious.

"Watermelons are very expensive and not very nutritious, so there was never a reason to buy it." Asoke explained.

"Couldn't you just steal one to try it?" The prince asked.

Asoke laughed again. "They are not too comfortable to just grab and run away with it."

"I guess so. Well, when that all is over I'll get you a watermelon." Lestan responded.

"Nice, can't wait." Asoke said exited.

"What is your favorite food?" The prince asked then.

"Bananas," Asoke giggled.

"I'm not surprised; bananas are easy to steal..." Lestan exclaimed and Asoke chuckled, "...especially for a monkey." He added and smirked.

Asoke stopped and laughed. "Did you just tell a joke?" He asked turning to the prince.

"I don't know what are you talking about, I just compared you as a thief to a monkey." Lestan protested.

"Well, bananas are rather cheap, so I don't really need to steal them, not worth the effort." Asoke explained.

"Really you had never stole any banana?" Lestan asked curious.

"Well, maybe when I was younger." He smirked.

"I knew it, a small monkey stealing a banana." Lestan smirked and Asoke laughed.

"So you basically saying that I'm cute, cuz monkeys are cute." Asoke laughed again.

That statement didn't feel comfortable for the prince, so he wanted to change the topic. "So, why did you become a thief?" Lestan asked seriously.

Asoke stopped laughing and sighed. Sadness appeared on his face and he turned around and continued running. "I never knew my parents, an old lady took care of me when I was a baby, but passed down when I was still little. Then a guy on a street took me to his group and took care of me. He was really nice to me and I wanted to be useful for him and support him, so I learned the arts of thievery." Asoke explained.

Lestan wanted to ask why he called it the arts, but he reconsidered and asked something else then. "Was?"

"Yeah, his name was Cas. He taught me everything he knew about thievery. Not long passed when I got as good as him." Then he sighed. "But then he was caught as a master thief and was thrown in jail. After some time I heard he died. Dungeons are very hard to survive." Then he started to shout. "And he was sick damn it. He wasn't a threat to anyone. I was the one who was stealing for some time." He sighed.

"I'm sorry." Lestan said.

"All we wanted was to survive, only that." He was saying quieter. "We didn't want to be thieves, but we didn't have a choice. He had a huge heart. He took care of so many people, mostly orphans, like me. He gave his all and paid the price for it. After that I took care of everyone. I needed to be even better and became the master thief." He paused.

"Wait." The prince called suddenly.

Lestan was following Asoke the whole way he didn't notice when they got close to the street level. They looked at the streets and saw an army of soldiers. They both crouched down to avoid being seen and observed the scene. There were also people in cages dragged somewhere.

Then Lestan exclaimed, "I smell blood mixed with sand."