Once they managed to squeeze through the now full hospital, the group stood to the side, discussing what they should do. The baby started to fuss more than it had previously, shuffling in Chestnut’s arms. Sequoia lifted her arms up to signal that she would take him. “I think he’s getting hungry.” She held him carefully in her arms, rocking him to settle him down. “Let’s go and get some food, I’m sure we’re all getting a bit hungry.” Balm replied, leading them along a stretch of road. They found themselves at a small cafe. They planted themselves at a table in the corner of the building. They studied the menu carefully before Bougainvillea spoke up “has everyone decided what they want?” Acanthus spoke up first, followed by Sequoia and then the two other men. Bougainvillea stood up and made his way over to the counter, relaying the orders of the group. He asked for the addition of warm milk and mashed peas for the baby. He sat back down with the others, entering into their conversation. “So we all agree to head straight to the blacksmith after we eat?” Balm questioned. Everyone nodded in agreement 

The group fell silent once again, the sounds of the other customers chatter and the waiters filled the air, disguising the silence as pleasant rather than awkward. The twins looked through the large windows, taking note of a few children running around with grins plastered across their faces, small rolls of bread clutched in their hands. Bougainvillea glanced out of the window, looking towards the same children. He moved his eyes towards the children, words caught in his mouth. Balm sighed, realising what his companion wanted to say. “Those children are from the orphanage. You can tell by the chamomile pin on their shirts.” The children were stunned by the sudden conversation. Before they had their chance to question the men, Balm continued “we’re going to have to send you there once you get that new foot.” The children looked to each other and back at the guilt-ridden men, Sequoia spoke first then Acanthus “we know” “You’re knights.” The men started to giggle, the guilt they felt towards the children still present but not as prominent in their minds. 

It wasn’t long after this conversation that the food came. The waiter held two plates in his hands and a bowl, plate and bottle floated behind him. He placed the objects on the table before leaving the group to their own devices. They made small conversations here and there, talking about anything and everything. The children listened wide eyed to the men’s stories of fighting in a war for years. Acanthus and Sequoia occasionally spoke up, asking questions and probing for details. Both children were intrigued, but in different ways, Acanthus seemed to be more interested in the politics and battle tactics compared to Sequoia, who had more interest in the fights and battles themselves. The men mentioned kingdoms like Pharam and empires such as Kalesha, talking about the culture and history of Pharam, which now belonged to Kalesha. Balm started to reminisce, remembering his time commanding a small company. “Pharam was quite a small kingdom, especially compared to the likes of the Darethy Kingdom. Although they did put up a fight, especially with that border of theirs.” The children leaned in, tentatively listening “the barrier was an ocean trench that would send us back to the mainland if we tried to travel by boat.” Acanthus interrupted half way through. “Then how did you get across?” Chestnut, after his long silence, spoke up, “we managed to lure some of the companies out onto the ocean trench, since you had to stay on the path of the trench to protect the ship, everyone used their wind general magic at the same time and we managed to knock most of the soldiers off of the boats.” Chestnut smiled at the memory. “We swam to the ships that were empty and took them over, we shot the cannons at the other ships that we didn’t capture and sailed to the island, we stormed that place, took ho-” Balm and Bougainvillea nudged Chestnut under the table before he could finish the sentence. Balm coughed, continuing with the story. “We convinced the king to surrender and have the kingdom fall under the empress’s rule.” Acanthus and Sequoia stared at the men, it was obvious that they were lying but decided it would be best not to dig farther than that, although Acanthus did have two more questions. “You said that you lured the boats out, but how? And why did your boat get turned around but the kingdom’s didn’t and you didn’t when you swam?” Bougainvillea took the lead to answer this time. “Well, one of our soldiers had the personal magic to show a visage to a small group and another one had the personal magic to mimic voices that they had heard for a short amount of time. They worked together to make it seem like a group of their men were drowning and that we were starting to move towards them. As for why we got turned around and they didn’t, well that’s because the trench only allowed boats that were made in the Pharam Kingdom to move along it freely and since we swam the trench didn’t note us as vessels.” Acanthus went bright eyed at the explanation, thoughts ran through his mind, like what other tactics could they have used, but he also wondered what could have caused the war, after all they were far away from any conflicts. Sequoia, on the other hand, didn't care about the details and started to get bored, waiting for them to talk about their next battle.

The group continued to talk for a while before leaving, they left the relatively quiet cafe and entered back into the chaotic streets. They all once again joined hands, acanthus, Sequoia and Balm held hands, with Sequoia in the middle, while Bougainvillea held the baby and Chestnut hung behind them by a few steps. It took about five minutes for them to reach the blacksmiths. The smell of smoke, coal and fire filled their nostrils, black smoke rose from the furnace that was mounted into the city wall, a fence enclosed a small area around it, opposite of the furnace a wooden surface laid with an anvil carefully placed above it. Lumps of coal were piled up next to the furnace which was covered by an overhang of the building's roof. A water trough was cemented to the floor between the furnace and the anvil. A building was connected to the side of the outside work station, unlike most other buildings that were made of wood, this one was made of stone. They opened the door and were hit by heat that felt like it was going to suffocate them, the smell of burning iron and dust filling their noses. Their eyes were greeted with axes, swords and other items lining the walls and the sound of scratching metals entered their ears. Their eyes followed to where the sound was coming from, a tall man hunched over a workbench, his long hair tied back into a ponytail, beads of sweat dripped down from his forehead. It looked like he was working on engraving a small dagger, he focused on his task, ignoring his customers. The man quickly stood up, taking hold of the dagger, exiting the room, going through a nearby door. The group, unsure what to do, hung around the front, taking a closer look at the walls and the items that lined the way. There were different prostheses and different tools such as hammers and saws. They soon heard clattering from behind the door and looked towards it, the blacksmith's arms were full of different metals balancing on top of each other. The blacksmiths glanced up and nodded, finally acknowledging his customers. “What are ya lookin’ for?” The man’s rough and gravely voice questioned, placing his metals down on the nearby table. He lifted his goggles up, revealing black, sunken eyes. “We’re here to get a prosthesis for this child.” Balm placed his hand on Sequoia’s head. The corners of her mouth curled into a slight smile. The smith looked down at the girl and pointed towards the chair. “Sit” He commanded as he walked back to the room he had just left. Sequoia sat down on the chair, it was made of wood and highly uncomfortable, definitely not made to be sat on for a long period of time. The man came back through with a long piece of wood, a pencil and a tape measure. He put Sequoia’s right foot onto the wooden block, using the pencil to draw around her foot. He stood up after a few moments, telling her to stand up. He unraveled the tape measure and stretched it from just above her ankle down to her heel, once measured he noted it down on the wood. He turned back to his previous work. “It’ll take about a week, it’ll be about sixty keyartha.” Balm, Chestnut and Bougainvillea all looked at each other, shocked at the amount, it was expected to be expensive, but not this expensive. They sighed, pulling out the money they had on them, between the three they could only give him thirty. They looked down at the children, wondering what they should tell them. The stranger, peering over to his customers, noticed the grim faces on the men. He scratched his head and looked down at the young children. “You can pay half now, and half later on, now give the money here and get out.” The men smiled at the generosity and handed over their money. They thanked the man, relief spreading across their faces and left, the cold air cooling their faces from the extreme heat of the inside.