“How is it possible?” Calix asked, he was confused, dumbfounded to see the prince standing right in front of him. Did Varun lie about the incident? No! Calix was experienced enough in interrogation to know the difference between the true confession of a hurt man and a lie; nonetheless, Calix investigated the scene, he saw the blood. It was proven to be the young prince’s blood.

Then how? How was the supposed-to-be-dead prince in his room? Calix thought this over and over again.

And then suddenly, he calmed down; as if he had found the answer to that question. “Of course!”

Blaze tilted his head and asked, “What?”

“The dagger! The one Varun said was plunged into your throat; it was the ‘Kama od konec’. The dagger and thread of light.”

“How do you know that?” asked Blaze.

“I read about it; in the Torukiyan archives, before I came here. The red ‘Thread of Life’, created by Goddess Chakra herself.”

“What else was written there?”

“The thread was said to have the ability to keep one connected with our world, even when the said one is in hell. You certainly died, but you weren’t resurrected by necromancy; no signs of that on your aura.”

“My aura?”

“Yes, I can feel it. Necromancy would’ve made your aura colder than any glacier; its still too warm for that. The only other explanation would be the ‘Thread’” Calix concluded his deduction.

“Now that you say that; I think I did see some kind of red thread on that dagger’s handle.”

“Well, so that explains your rebirth. But why did that bounty hunter kill you? If he was going to revive you anyway?”

“He said it was to fool the Brethren.”

“The Brethren of Salvation? He knows about them? How?”

“He said they already conquered Torukiyo, and Agnisthal is their next target.”

“He knows about the secret invasion? That is, problematic.”

“Wait you also know about it?

“Huh?” Calix was lost in his thoughts, so Blaze’s sudden query startled him, “Oh! Well, the day after your supposed death, Varun and I started investigating. That’s when we found about the Brethren; Varun tracked them down three times, but every time they slipped away.”

“So he really was telling the truth.”

“Yes, but the Brethren taking over an entire nation is a bit far-fetched, I’d say. The Brethren is indeed a real threat, but I highly doubt that they can even defend against one-fifth of our army.”

“Still, they are threats; so, we need to neutralize them. And I have bad feeling, that the crown prince is working with the Brethren.”

“I also suspect that. That is why we’re not sharing much information with anyone.”

“Calix, may I ask you for another favor?” Blaze asked hesitantly.

“It is as I said before, my lord. Don’t ask for a favor, just give me an order; and I will obey it.”

“Thanks Calix, You’re one of the only people I can trust right now. Even my own family….” Blaze stayed silent for a while and then continued, “I can’t even trust my own family.”

Noticing Blaze’s sorrow, Calix changed the subject, “Do you have a plan?” he asked.

“No. I was hoping you would.”

“Unfortunately I don’t, at least not yet. But I know one thing, if the three of us work together, we can stop them.” Blaze nodded.

The next day, Calix called Varun to his room. Seeing Blaze alive, Varun was both utterly confused and relieved at the same time.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t stop Kai Yamada. And I know I don’t deserve forgiveness, but can you…” Calix interrupted Varun mid-sentence, “Forgiveness is not given, Varun, it is earned. As of now, Stopping the Brethren is the most important I believe.”

“Yes! We need to start tracking them down ASAP.”

“I already did.”

“Yeah, I told him that you managed to do that 3 times but they slipped away.”

“No, no, not then. I’ve tracked another one of their hideouts.”

“What?! When did you…”

“Last night, I couldn’t sleep so I dug a little bit deeper.”

“That is, impressive. Show us.” Varun took out a map from his overcoat and laid it on the table.

“So last night as I was reassessing their last three hideouts, I found some similarities.”

“What similarities? The first one we found was closed hotel, then an old school and the last one was the old church; none of them were similar in any way!” Calix said with surety.

“Well the places don’t seem similar, at all; but that’s only above the surface. The similarity they have is under it; all of those places were right above the pipes of the drainage system.”

“…” Calix seemed to be speechless, he just stared at Varun confusedly.

“Pipes? What Pipes?” Blaze was restless to know more.

“The pipes that go straight into the royal castle.”

“How could I miss that?!” Calix broke his silence.

“It’s alright, my friend. Anyways, so I checked the blueprints of the drainage system. And the only place that is connected with those pipes, is the south-west port.”

“A perfect place for their hideout; that port was abandoned years ago. No one check there.”

“Well, not anymore. I suggest, we raid that place immediately, before they have any chance of escaping.”

Calix responded to Varun rather quickly, “Then I’ll ready the troops right now. We should not waste even a moment.”

“NO!” Blaze shouted, “We can’t do that! If you notify the troops, the crown prince will know as well.”

“And he may even inform the Brethren as well.” Varun supported Blaze.

“So then what? It’s not like we can just barge in their layer by ourselves.”

“Or maybe, we can!” Varun’s sudden remark piqued the others’ attention.

“What does that mean?” Calix asked him; and he answered, “Think about it, we were forgetting a big detail. If it was true that Prince Blaze was attacked by assassins, then isn’t everything else true as well?”

“You mean it’s true that he killed all those assassins by himself?”

Both Varun and Calix were looking at Blaze, waiting for his answer. Blaze replied with a bit of pride in his words, “Well, Yeah! I did kill all of them.”

“Then lets raid their base, right now!” Varun said, brimming with excitement.

“Yeah! The sooner we take over that base, the sooner I can meet Maa.” Blaze looked genuinely happy. But, Calix and Varun; happy was not the expression they had on their faces.

Calix had a look of disbelief, while Varun was outright shocked, “What did you just say?!!” Both of them said nearly at the same time.

“Oh! I didn’t tell you, did I?”

“Tell us what? Prince, tell us what?” Varun was restless.

“My mother is not dead.”

“But the body; we saw it! You saw it!”

“That corpse was not her; it was a maid who worked in our East house.”

“How are you so sure about that?” Calix asked hastily.

“Her name was Hildi; she used to serve us tea whenever I spent time with my Maa, and since it was quite frequent, I noticed a mole on her right hand. The corpse everyone thought to be Maa, it had that same mole on the right hand. And I must say, those who wanted show her as dead, they are quite unfortunate. The only part of the body that wasn’t burnt was the right hand.”

“Unfortunately?! I believe its less fortune and more their negligence! But since that negligence has proven useful to us, it is acceptable.”

“Yeah, great observation Prince.”

“But still, you should at least wait till mid night.” Calix strongly suggested; to which Blaze asked, “Why?”

“Even if you are strong enough to fend them off. I believe that going in head first can proof to be fatal even for you.”

“That is something I do agree with. Prince we should plan the raid at midnight. While they’d be least prepared.”

Blaze found himself unable to urge them to attack immediately, because he felt that both of them genuinely cared for his wellbeing. “Fine. Lets strike them at night.”

The three of them made a rather intricate plan of action; it was like this:

The three of them would enter the hideout through the pipes that led to the Royal Castle. Calix divided the port into three parts for each of them to scout for information. Their mission was simple, get in, gather as much intel as possible, then grab some members of Brethren and take them back with them. And if somehow one of them was found out, that one would act as a decoy; make as much ruckus as possible, draw all the attention to himself only. So that the others could finish the mission.

Calix went out in middle of planning, came back after a few hours and brought a Flare gun for each one of them; that was to be used to attract as much attention as possible. The stage was set, “And the game is afoot!”

 “What?” Blaze asked as he was curious about Varun’s sudden remark.

“Oh! That’s just something an old acquaintance of mine used to say.” Varun replied.

It was mid night, the moment of conclusion.

For Varun, a chance of retribution to himself.

For Calix, the time to execute his most recent strategy.

For Blaze, finally the chance to meet his mother again, after all the trouble they’ve been through.

They walked through the pipes, full of stench; their feet submerged in unknown dense liquids, none of which were remotely healthy. All of them felt terribly nauseous, but they held the urge to vomit.

At last they reached the pipe’s end. They opened a grill, one which was nearly as big as a average adult, and entered the hideout.

Varun was quite surprised to find no one guarding the pipe entrance, to which Calix replied, “We do not have enough time to contemplate their patrols; We should quickly split out and gather anything important. Everyone has their flare gun loaded?”

The three of them pulled out their guns and made sure they were loaded, and put them back in holsters.

“Start running with all your might after you fire it. The whole base would be heading your way; if you don’t get away, you’ll be killed.”

“Lets go then!” The three of them split in three ways.

Blaze headed towards the part that used be a dock for ships; Calix went to the part close to the main gate and Varun went towards the storage section.

When Blaze reached the docks, he saw a bunch of people loading cargo into a quite big ship. “13” he counted, “They must be part of the Brethren.” Then he noticed something. No! Someone! Someone he knew quite well.

“Sung Ho?!” Blaze couldn’t comprehend why Sung would be in this base. ‘Sung could be part of them’, he thought but just the thought broke his heart.

First his family, now his friend too? But it did not matter anymore he decided. Even if Sung was a traitor, Blaze could interrogate him to know Nila’s location. So, Blaze waited for Sung to isolate himself.

While all this, Varun got into trouble. While he was snooping around in the storage, two men caught him. He aimed his flare gun at the man right in front of him, but another man who was about 2 feet away from them had his gun aimed at Varun’s head.

Varun was outnumbered; he could fire at the man he aimed at, but the flare gun only had one shot. The moment he fires, the other man will blow his brains out.

“DROP THE GUN!!” shouted the man with the gun.

“FINE! Fine! Lets all calm down. If we just started shooting, none of us may leave here alive!” Varun tried to reason with them; he tried his best to stay calm, but in reality, he was scared shitless. Then he remembered something; he used flare guns when he was in the army before becoming a detective. There was this really memorable incident involving a flare gun.

He recalled that incident and had an idea. Varun looked at the man in front of him, ‘ONE…. Two…. Three inches.’ He calculated in his mind. Then looked at the man with the gun, ‘Aiming straight for the head’, he thought to himself.

Then he did something unexpected. “I’m gonna lower my gun, put it on the ground! Then you can just detain me. No need for anyone to die. Okay?” Varun said while glancing back and forth on the 2 men. The men agreed.

“Then I’m closing my eyes; don’t shoot!” Varun closed his eyes; and this put the men at somewhat ease.

Varun started lowering the gun while counting in his mind, “One…. Two…. Three inches” his hand suddenly stopped, he shut his eyes as hard as he could; and in a blink of an eye, raised the gun exactly 3 inches, and shot the flare.

*Bang*

The flare hit the man in front of him, right in the face; ‘that should be enough to neutralize him’. But what about the other man, the one who held the gun. That’s where Varun’s past experience came in work.

In army, before Varun fired a flare gun for the first time, his commanding officer told him to wear ear-protection and to close his eyes before shooting. “If you don’t wanna stop seeing that is.”

So now, when Varun fired the flare, it generated a flash so bright that it briefly blinded the other man. His hand wavered, he did take the shot; but his mistake was probably to aim for the head.

The head is small target compared to the rest of the body, and chances of hitting it lowers even more when you can’t even see the target. Thus, the bullet missed Varun.

The deafening sound of the flare gun did disorient Varun, but he could still see. He opened his eyes, and rushed towards the other man; tackled him down took the gun from his hand and smacked his head. Leaving the man unconscious. Varun was safe.

Or was he? He recalled what Calix said to him, ‘Start running with all your might, after you fire it!’

Varun heard footsteps coming towards him. He had no time to waste, so he broke a window and jumped through it, into the water.

*Splash*

*Smack*

Blaze managed to isolate Sung Ho and grab him.

“Now tell me! Where the hell did you take my mother?” Blaze tried to interrogate Sung

“What?!” Sung seemed utterly confused.

“Don’t you dare lie to me! I considered you a friend! And this is how you pay me, huh? Backstabbing me, abducting my mother?!”

“Blaze! What the hell are you talking about?! Listen to me first!”

“Listen to what?! Why you joined the Brethren of Salvation? Keep that shit to yourself! I don’t need any sad backstory of you!”

“Brethren of what?!!”

“The ones you work for!”

“NO NO NO! I don’t work for any shady organization! The villagers use this port to ship their handicrafts to the Arctics!”

“Villagers? What village?”

“The village I was born in. The one right by the port!”

“So there’s no Brethren here?”

“Nu-uh!!”

“Then…” a sudden realization hit Blaze, “It’s a trap!”

*BOOM*