‘Sorry,’ he apologised. ‘I’ve never seen anything like
that before.’
  Ksid fell back onto a cushion.
  ‘So, how did it go.’
  Enigma smirked. ‘We found out some information.
Somehow, though, we were discovered.’
  ‘Well spare me the details.’ Jalaf yawned. ‘Let’s 
discuss the matter in the morning when we’re all
together. It’s late. Lets all get some sleep.’
  With a hastily agreement, the two spies were directed
to their sleeping quarters by one of the mayors personal
servants. 
  Enigma found Sly sleeping in her own bed on one side of
the room. She was tightly curled up with her hair in a
mess. She was still insecure when it came to night fall,
determined by a pair of clenched fists. With a little
smile, Enigma fell to his pillow, and quickly drifted off
to sleep.
*  *  *
  The howling of the wind had finally stopped, leaving
but a lingering chill. It snowed lightly over the night,
creating an even deeper blanket of white, untouched, and
unharmed by any creature. Enigma closed the curtains he
was looking through, and quickly got dressed. 
  Quietly, he left his room to explore the long halls and
corridors of Jalaf’s vast residential building. Every
wall was lined with a thin layer of beautifully grained
planks of wood. Plants narrowed the halls slightly, and
pictures hung decorative on the walls. The paintings
dated back many centuries ago, but surprisingly, were
well kept with not an out of place mark. 
  Unusually, the portraits were pictures of historical 
events, not images of previous rulers and kings, as he’d
seen in previous times. Paintings of public hangings and
coronations and the passing on of power, coloured the
canvas. 
  It was a picture of the Platinium that really caught
Enigma’s eye. It was a illustration of a starless night
with an old man and his staff standing at the edge of a
sharp cliff, with his featureless face bathed in the
bright light of the three, perfectly aligned moons of the
earth. 
  It was different somehow. Not just the painting, but
everything that went with it. It was just like the
others, except different. It was silly, he reasoned. How
could a painting be just like the others with no visible
differences - except for the picture itself - and still
be different nonetheless? Like many of the things he had
encountered over the past months, it just didn’t make
sense. 
  He averted his eyes from the hypnotic representation.
With a little shudder, he moved on. 
  Enigma had heard of the phenomenon known as the
Platinium. Evidently, the name was supposed to mark the
alignment of the world’s three moons horizontally. It was
usually in the northern skies, but if you were far enough
in front of it, it could been viewed towards the south.
Although he had never see this spectacular event for
real, the stories he had heard of it and it’s
descriptions, really got his imagination going. 
  He was approaching another colourful portrait, when 
Jalaf, weary eyed, came stumbling from the room on the 
opposite side of the hall. 
  ‘Morning Enigma.’ he greeted.
  ‘Hello Jalaf. Nice weather this morning.’
  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t call this nice weather.’ he wrinkled
his nose. ‘But if you compare it to yesterday, then yes,
this is nice weather we’re having this morning.’
  With directions to meet in the conference room in a
quarter of an hour, Enigma persisted his exploration of
the walls of the endless corridors. 
  Time went by fast. He met Power and Ice in the overly
warm meeting place first. They sat next to each other
beside one of the fire places, Ice sipping a mug of tea,
and Power, sculling a tankard of beer. 
  ‘Don’t you think that it’s a bit early for you to be
drinking?’ Enigma asked as he sat on one of the cushions.
  ‘It’s never too early for a drink.’ Power chuckled.
  ‘How are you this morning Ice.’
  ‘Well.’ she simply replied. ‘Your polite this morning.’
  ‘There’s no reason not to be.’
  Breakfast soon came for Enigma. He wasn’t too sure what
it was, but it tasted good. The overwhelming flavour woke
him up.
  Eventually, Terrol and Iikin entered, followed by Sly
and Jalaf, then Ksid close behind. 
  ‘Let’s get down to business then, shall we.’ the mayor
eagerly suggested. ‘I believe our two spies have some
information for us. I trust that all went well?’
  ‘Almost.’ Ksid countered. 
  ‘Interesting. Now, lets fill in the gaps.’
  Ksid shuffled around a bit on his cushion. ‘Well, most 
things went according to plan. We got into the attic all 
in one piece. We got everything set up for easy 
listening. What we hadn’t expected though, was that they 
had planned all along to hold their meeting in the attic. 
We ducked for cover in one of the corners. 
  ‘There were six people all together, being led by a
women in a dark navy hooded cape. I think their names
were Butcher, Assassin, Viper, Funnel - Web, a new
recruit named Cejar who went by they alias of Vulture,
and Lady Velyaha, the leader.
  ‘Anyway, with the help of Rehsab of Histaus, Enigma was
able to create a bit of havoc in the cult empire by
dividing the group into individual races - each against
the next. Velyaha plans to counteract this by torturing
the leaders of this group as an example to the rest. She
seemed rather pleased with that idea.
  ‘Also, we were able to find out what their real plans 
with the slaves and homeless are. They intend to raise 
their confidence level, and are using sour military 
personalities to train these people in combat. I believe 
that there is a public holiday, Buysell, coming up. 
The Revolutions new recruits, and then some, are going to 
team up on these people and rebel. Though these outcasts 
outnumber the other populace greatly, they’ll be no match
for the military, who’ve had countless years of
experience. As the combined group start to loose numbers,
the cult will step in and apparently save them.
  ‘The thought that Thanatos is their saviour will be 
imprinted in their mind. False accusations of the god, 
Jab - Kral - that he has abandoned them - will cause this 
vulnerable group to bow down to our nemesis. Together, 
this group of cult members and outcasts will create an 
unbelievable force. They shall stop the fighting, and 
deliver an ultimatum to the nobles: either they worship 
Thanatos or torture. In this way, Thanatos could possibly
have this whole nation in his grasp.’
  ‘I’ve heard myself, of the cult’s intentions of
ultimate conversion.’ Jalaf admitted. ‘Do you know who
those six people really are?’
  ‘I know of a few. The one they call “Lady Velyaha” is
one of Thanatos’s personal advisers. In other words,
she’s one of those in favour.’
  ‘Is she the one that we saw in that cave?’ Sly
intruded.
  Ksid nodded. ‘She’s also the one that was in that bell
tower in the Cathedral.’
  ‘But there’s a difference.’ Sly frowned. ‘The one in
the cave was stark naked.’ She didn’t seem at all faced
by the concept.
  ‘That has to do with Thanatos perverted mind. It’s like
a ritual, and the person in favour always does his or her
best to try please their master. Anyway, Velyaha is
working off of Thanatos’s instructions. The one that they
call “Vulture” is one of Velyaha’s servants - “goon”, if
you prefer. You’ll never see their faces because they
have no face. It’s just blank. That’s why they’re always
hooded.’
  ‘But we saw her face back in that cave that time.’
Enigma informed. 
  ‘And what did you see.’
  Enigma’s ears and face slowly went red.
  ‘Her face I mean.’
  ‘Oh.’ Enigma said with a wry smile. ‘Is that what you
mean? Well, to be honest. There was nothing there. It was
just a flat layer of skin.’
  ‘Then that’s what she looks like. That’s her face.’ 
  ‘Excuse me.’ Jalaf interrupted politely. ‘You were
talking about Velyaha’s plans for the slaves and all
that. Do they know what we’re trying to do to counteract
this?’
  ‘They knew, somehow. They also have intended plans to
“turn the tides” so to speak, but we weren’t able to find
anything out about it. We were sprung and so we had to
return immediately. You remember that, don’t you?’
  ‘How could I ever forget.’ Jalaf laughed awkwardly.
‘What are we going to do then?’
  ‘Well, for starters, we’re just going to have to wait 
and see what they try to do. We sprung their plans, but
they found us in the process. It’d be stupid for them not
to change those plans. As for the division of the cult
over in Neekkent, the only thing we can do is let them go
ahead and kill their own men.’
  ‘I suppose a few less cult member’s won’t hurt.’ Jalaf
smiled.
  There was a polite knock on the door. The guards that
were standing watch outside, admitted a sneaking looking
kind of man with rugged cloths and a filthy face. He
quickly whispered something to his employer. 
  ‘You’ll have to excuse me.’ Jalaf said apologetically.
‘I’m needed else where.’ Then he got up and left. 
  ‘I’m confused.’ Iikin said with a bewildered look. 
  Ksid looked at him square in the face. ‘Confused about
what?’
  ‘Everything. Why I’m here, why we are helping these
people - everything. Nobody has ever really explained it.
Why are we running around at random, helping these
people? I just don’t see where this is leading.’
  ‘So your asking me to explain everything?’
  ‘Technically, yes.’
  ‘Okay.’ Ksid closed his eye’s in thought. ‘From the
beginning. Does everyone remember about the story of
Thanatos’s ultimate plan?’
  They all nodded. 
  ‘Good. Just going over it any way, I said that Thanatos
plans to escape his confinement by replacing his presence
with those of the human and animal kind. That’s what this
is all about. That’s were we’re headed. That is why we
are all gathered here together at this very moment.
Unknowingly, we have been appointed by Lord Serenity to
thwart Thanatos and all his plans. In order to exist,
their have to be a certain number of people that know of
you. Because their are so many humans, it only takes one
person to bear knowledge of you for you to exist. But
with a God, it takes many people, depending on the God.
Our task together, is to wipe Thanatos from existence.
And the only way to do that, is to wipe all knowledge of
him from the earth.’
  ‘One question?’ Iikin interrupted. ‘I learnt that
Serenity was the first ever God created. Then, he created
everything else - us, the world, and the universe. Then
his brother was created with the help of humans. But if
what your saying is correct, how could Serenity come into
existence to create everything else if human conscience
came after his birth?’
  ‘Lord Serenity is kind of unique. Nature created Lord
Serenity as a kind of guardian of her domain. He’s
supposed to keep everything in order whilst she sleeps.
Serenity created humans, then he implanted the idea of
Thanatos into their minds. Thanatos was originally a well
respected god. I still don’t understand what happened.’
  ‘Going back to what you were saying before, what’s all 
this got to do with us?’ Terrol quizzed.
  ‘Your not thinking. If you remember back to your
history, you’ll all remember of an account in many
history books of Lord Serenity’s study of time. “Time”
has much to do with this. Obliviously, there are three
states of time: the past, the present and the future -
and even the rumoured forth. In each of these states of
time, their is a whole set of people. Does everyone
follow?’
  There were some confused looks among the crowd.
  ‘Let’s see if I can explain a bit better. In the 
present, the world holds billions of people. The 
definition of “past” is “things that have been”. If you 
think about it, there were billions of people living on 
the world before you were born - so you could go ahead 
and call these people a “set” of people. Everyone with 
me?’
  The audience was more confident now.
  ‘Good. Now, there is also a thing called the future.
The definition of “future”, is, “things that are to
come.”’
  ‘So in reality, there are three sets of people.’ Ice
concluded.
  Ksid was hesitant. ‘Sort of. I’ll explain later. In 
order for Thanatos to swap places with the people on 
earth, it’s going to take a lot a earthlings for this to 
be achieved. You have to have something equal to yourself 
to be swapped around. Thanatos has to gain the minds of 
everybody to swap places, so he’s focussing on everybody 
in the past, the present, and the future. That’s what we 
have to stop. That’s why we have people from the past, 
from the present and from the future here today, to help 
stop this incident from happening.’
  ‘So, summarising - ? Power asked.
  ‘To delete Thanatos, we have to erase all knowledge of 
him in the past, the present and the future.’ Sly
answered.
  ‘That’s what I just said.’ Ksid agreed. ‘And the people
in our way - that we know of so far - are the Revolution,
the Enemy, Lady Velyaha and her underlings.’
  It’s so illogical.’ Iikin said. ‘And what does it have
to do with us, in particular?’
  ‘Actually, it has more to do with Enigma.’ Ksid 
countered. ‘If he hadn’t of burned down a place called 
the Sanctuary, he would never of gotten the recognition, 
and he wouldn’t have been summoned to the palace in 
Histaus. It was from there that everything was set in 
motion. Power, why was it that you followed Enigma and 
Sly around, instead of going off in your own direction 
when you first came to this world?’
  He frowned ‘I’m not sure. I just did. I - I can’t
really explain it.’ 
  ‘How about you Terrol?’ 
  ‘Well I recognised you when I first got here.’ Terrol 
admitted. ‘But my usual instinct would have said not to 
trust you. I guess it also has partly to do with what
Power said.’
  ‘But this still doesn’t explain why you needed us.’ Ice 
debated. ‘Why couldn’t you just have gotten some other 
people in the present to help you?’
  ‘Because everything has to be balanced.’ Ksid attempted 
to explain. ‘First though, let me explain how you got 
here. There are several possible way’s to travel through 
time. You were at the right place and at the right time. 
You and Power swapped with Velyaha a while ago. Now, when 
I say right time, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s 
the same year. Dawn today is the same time as dawn 
tomorrow - accept it’s a different day. It’s just the 
same in a bigger scale. Suppose that it was noon when you 
entered the cave. It could be a million years ago and you 
could still manage to find your way here, only if it was 
noon in the present. So, it has partly to do with the 
hour and the day and the month, not the year. The year 
makes no difference. Do you follow?’
  ‘I think so.’ Ice said in concentration.
  ‘Now, in order for two objects to swap places, you and
the other person have to have an even knowledge. The
other half of this transformation depends on the mind. 
  ‘Sort of what Thanatos plans to do, accept through
time.’ Iikin said.
  ‘Correct. So you and Power’s mind put together was 
equivalent to the mind of Velyaha. She has a more
advanced mind than you two do because she has lived
longer. It would usually take many more people to equal
her mind, but you two are special - the same as Terrol
and Iikin.’
  Iikin smiled proudly.
  ‘Finally, with the time and the mind evenly balanced, 
you have to be standing in exactly the same place. But 
there is one more catalogue to this swap: there has to be
a key element involved. In your case, it was the navy
cape. Velyaha reached for her cape, at the same time you
did. In Iikin’s and Terrol’s case, it was Velyaha’s
Sphere. These to objects allowed you all to swap. 
  ‘Now comes the complicated part. In order for something 
to erase an object totally from human memory, everything 
has to be balanced. You can’t take someone from the 
present to do the work of the future. It’s like some 
foreigner coming along to lead a tribe. In many cases, 
what we’re dealing with is exactly the same. For Nature 
to allow us to do this, their has to be a bearer of the 
same time. It has to be balanced. You people from the 
past, and from the future, joined with the people of the 
present, balance out rather nicely.’
  ‘I think I understand.’ Terrol triumphantly said. ‘But 
didn’t you say once that Thanatos couldn’t get enough 
people to swap. The past is endless, as is the future. 
Couldn’t Thanatos just do this a million times over?’
  ‘Yes, I suppose he could. The amount of time it takes 
to control all the minds of the earth in the present, is
exactly the same amount of time it would take to do it in
the past and in the future. Most likely, the number shall
be infinite.’
  ‘But if it’s infinite, there is no way that we’ll be 
able to rid the world of all memory of Thanatos. We would 
have an endless job and after each time, we’d be back to 
where we started again. How can we defeat him if he has 
an endless amount of people to conquer?’
  ‘Think of time as a book. You have the past at the 
beginning of the book - the beginning if you will. When
Lord Serenity walked the earth would be regarded as the
beginning of the book - the introduction. And then, you
have the present, which could be regarded as the middle
of the book. Usually in the middle of a book, the events
of what you write about begin to take place, as is now.
Then finally, you have the future, the end of the book.’
  ‘Oh I see.’ Iikin announced.
  ‘I’m not finished yet. As I just said, you have the 
future, the end of the book. If you are reading a 
manuscript that you have never read before in your life, 
there’s no possible way to know what’s going to happen 
until you get to the conclusion - unless someone tells 
you.’
  ‘But the future is unforseen. Anything can happen.
Isn’t it a thing that has not been planed?’
  ‘If your in the middle of a book, you don’t know what’s 
going to happen. But you do know that something is going 
to happen, because there is text that you can see. It’s 
the same with time. We know that something’s going to 
happen. That’s the part that’s been pre - written. We 
just don’t know what it is. The past is written, as is 
the present, because it’s happened and is happening. 
Instead of reading what we do, we are living it. And 
instead of reading what the future’s going to be, we 
shall live it. Like I keep on saying, it’s just like a 
book. There’s the introduction, the middle, then the 
conclusion.
  ‘But getting back to your question, we have to 
eliminate the beginning of what Thanatos has been trying 
to do, and the end of what he’s trying to do. The 
beginning is the past, like the introduction of the book. 
If we eliminate the introduction of a book, you won’t 
know what’s happening when you get to the middle. Then we 
have to try and delete Thanatos’s conclusion, which is 
the future. The conclusion is determined by what we do in 
the present and in the past. If you don’t have a 
conclusion to a book, you don’t know what’s going to 
happen. And so, we have no introduction, and then we have 
no conclusion, all that’s left is the middle. At the 
moment, we’re working on the middle. If you have no 
introduction, middle, or conclusion for a book, you have 
no story, which in our terms when we succeed, we will 
have no Thanatos.’
  ‘That’s pretty involved, isn’t it.’ Sly gaped in awe.
  Enigma frowned in deep thought. ‘I think I finally see 
what’s ultimately supposed to happen. After generations
after this, all knowledge of him should have faded from
memory.
  ‘Theoretically, that’s what should happen.’ Ksid
smiled.
  ‘But it can’t just be erased from a persons mind, can
it?’ Ice said.
  ‘I don’t think so. But then again, I could be wrong. 
Many people against us shall surely die during our 
journeys if that’s what it eventually leads up to. Then 
again, something out of the ordinary could happen.’
  Jalaf re - entered the sauna. 
  ‘What was the problem?’ Ksid asked.
  ‘I just received word of some crime out in the 
streets.’ he replied, sitting down in his usual place.
‘One of my spies has informed me that there have been
vast amounts of crime directed towards the homeless and
the slaves as of late.’
  ‘But that was only to be expected with the new rights
and all.’ 
  ‘I only gave them a few. Nothing really that
significant. I didn’t want to do to much until you gave
the official word. Either way, we still have to do
something about it all the same.’
  ‘Just let it go for a little while. It’s probably just 
a one off thing. It shouldn’t be long before everyone 
settles back down. Just keep your ears open in the 
streets for a little while.’
  ‘What ever you say.’
  The next few weeks were un - eventful. There were some
breaks in the sky now and then, but the days and nights
were mostly dominated by light, soundless snowfall, that
continued to pile up in the streets, almost becoming to
deep to walk through. 
  The crime’s persisted at a steady rate. There wasn’t
really an increase in it, but Ksid still insisted nothing
of it. 
  The streets became restless. Respect was lost. Jalaf’s 
guards would often times be stoned in a rage of rocks and 
sticks. No respect for authority whatsoever.
  The holiday known all around the world as Buysell, was
slowly approaching. In a months time, all the nobles and
slaves around the world would gather in the respected
towns to hustle prices for the best buy or best sell of
slaves. Enigma had once participated in one of these
events. This year’s Buysell was going to be one that he’d
be able to watch from the out side. 
  One morning the following week, Enigma met Ksid in his 
room. Ksid was busily slumped over a leather bound book. 
  ‘Can I have a word with you?’ Enigma asked politely. 
  Ksid slammed shut his book, giving off a smoky wave of
dust. ‘Of coarse you can. You don’t need to ask.’
  ‘Good. I’m a little concerned with all this crime.’
  ‘Not you too.’
  ‘Seriously. I think that your missing something big
here.’
  ‘All right. I’ll here you out.’
  ‘Do you remember how Velyaha kind of knew what we were
planning for the slaves?’
  Ksid nodded. ‘Yes. I don’t know how she found out
though. She was about to speak of their counter plan,
when -’ Ksid broke off, realising his mistake. There was
a hiss of frustration from somewhere in the room, along
with the feel of an overwhelming evil. A few seconds
later, it was gone. 
  ‘What was that?’ Enigma asked.
  ‘The Death Warrior.’ Ksid placed his hands over his 
eyes. ‘It looks as if my thinking’s been manipulated by 
that thing. That was lucky.’
  ‘How’s that?’
  ‘If you hadn’t of helped me realise what was happening, 
Velyaha’s plans may have become fact.
  ‘That must have been what she had planned all along.’
Enigma said. ‘I’m sure of it. She knows that what you say
holds a lot of weight. If you say jump, they ask how
high. Commanding us not to do anything has helped in her
favour. The homeless and slaves have been the focus of
attention recently. It looks as if she’s built up further
frustration towards the nobles in these past few weeks,
insuring that they will rebel.’
  ‘It certainly looks like that.’
  Enigma fell onto Ksid’s bed. He sighed. ‘Would Ice have 
been able to help you?’
  ‘I’m not really sure. She probably could. But then 
again, I’m no average human.’
  ‘We’ll have to warn the others about this later. For
now, we have some work to do. Buysell’s coming up, and we
have some crime’s that need justice.’
  They kept this to them selves for the time being. 
Either way, it would have been useless contacting the
other’s. Sly, Ice and Power were out and about window
shopping, Iikin was cheeking out the local fashion
markets and businesses, Terrol was over - viewing the
military quarters and weaponry, whilst Jalaf had a stack
of papers that needed urgent attention. 
  Ksid’s room was slightly clustered. It was smaller than 
the other rooms his companions had been given. A kind of 
urban mist had settled, much like the early morning fog 
that ensnared the streets and buildings. The bathroom was 
the only other room adjoining it. The bed, tables, chairs 
and the fireplace were all crammed into the one small
space. 
  The open fire place, burned lively, crackling and 
popping every so often. Ksid’s bed lay on the opposite 
side of the fire, with a curtained window adjacent to it,
opposite the door. A desk and chair sat over in the far
corner by the window, with a single candle to keep it
company. 
  They changed cloths into more rugged, dull looking 
uniforms that resembled poverty. They had just enough 
ripped fur wrapped around their bodies to keep them warm. 
Without a word to anybody, they briskly walked passed the 
stout gates of the court yard, un - noticed. 
  They didn’t really have an intended destination. They 
simply wanted to witness these crimes for themselves. 
  Slowly, they walked on foot towards the north gates.
The street were void of the usual bustle of life, leaving
Enigma and Ksid as much a target as anybody else. 
  Only a few stalls were open. Butchers and fish mongers,
mainly. They all reeked of dead meat, a stench so vile
that was liable to drive many customers away. 
  They past many narrow ally way’s - each littered with
rubbish. There were a few tiered body’s amongst that
heap, but nothing more. 
  They past other ally ways. In one case, there was a 
gang of men grouped around something. Their daggers were 
withdrawn, and it looked like they were in the process of 
a mugging. Quickly, the pair moved on. 
  Eventually, they started up a main road towards the
west gate. They witnessed two more similar mugging’s, but
chose not to get involved. They passed a tavern 
called the Drunken Dragon. Like all taverns, this one was
rowdy and recked of beer, as they usually do. Noisy song 
rang in their ears as the group joined together in 
unison, chanting and stopping their feet to the prance of 
a tavern wench. 
  Three men tumbled outside into the snow, all over each 
other. It was an all in brawl between them. The one that 
looked to be getting the flogging, burdened the band of a 
slave. The leather band was wrapped tightly around their 
forearms, with intricate patterns and colours to 
distinguish who their owner was and how close to the rank 
of ‘commoner’ they were. Still, they continued on.
  It took another several hours to search the rest of the
west and south streets, covering a lot of ground. 
  The last street they searched was the one that headed
toward the east gate. It was more tidier than the rest of
the streets for some reason. The buildings looked a lot
newer than the rest. The snow only had a few sets of
tracks, from the human foot, horse and cart. 
  Enigma and Ksid quickly pasted a lady with her man.
They were hand in hand, wearing leather around their
forearms. 
  ‘Odd pair.’ Ksid noted.
  ‘How’s that?’ Enigma asked.
  ‘There’s nothing really unusual about them, it’s just 
that that’s the first time that I’ve ever seen two slaves 
together like that.’
  ‘What are you talking about?’ Enigma smiled. ‘I’ve seen
ten slaves all together at once. It’s not uncommon. The
slave drivers usually herd them around in packs.’
  Ksid gave him an icy look, then had a bit of a chuckle. 
  The couple were perhaps thirty feet away from them, 
when the young slave lady behind them screamed. There 
were shout’s of several men, including the woman’s boy 
friend. The slave lady was viciously torn from her 
boyfriend’s hands by the hair. She kicked and struggled, 
but her abductor’s were unwilling to let her go. With 
cries of pain, the slave man was bashed to the ground 
with the butt of an axe. A piece of paper was placed in 
his mouth.
  Enigma began to move towards the unconscious man, but
Ksid held him back by the shoulder. 
  ‘Leave them.’ Ksid reasoned. ‘He’ll be okay. Besides,
we don’t want to announce any one that we’re on to them.’
  Enigma sighed, ‘There’s something familiar about all of
those attackers. I just can’t think of what it might be.’
  Before Ksid had the chance to answer, a platoon of
Jalaf’s men came from somewhere within or beyond the
eastern gate, far off in the distance. A few of the men
grabbed Enigma and Ksid by the arms.
  ‘Hey.’ Enigma protested.
  The person in charge was one of the fellows that 
originally guarded the mayor’s gates when they’d first 
arrived in town. ‘Your under arrest.’ he said in a 
booming voice, loud enough to be heard by anyone within a 
great distance. He gave Ksid a little wink.
  ‘What’s this all about.’ Enigma battled.
  ‘Stop it boy.’ Ksid chided. ‘We’re under arrest and 
there’s nothing we can do about it. If we try to get 
away, it’ll mean death once they catch us again. Let’s
find out what our crime is first.’ 
  ‘It’s not my place to read to you what your crime is.’ 
the soldier boomed once more. ‘I only catch criminals. 
You have committed a major crime. Your punishment shall 
be dealt by the mayor himself. Let us move on.’ The 
platoon formed an even guard around the criminals. They 
marched in time with their long spears bobbing up and 
down in their hands, and their chain - mail and swords 
clinking as they moved. Enigma looked at Ksid in distaste 
as they moved back down the vast, white, street.