They arrived to a Muya that was a world apart from the city they had left. Thick smoke billowed from the burning city walls and the flags of Feng hung limply from their broken poles. A few lone soldiers stood guard at the parapet above, weary expressions worn upon their soot and blood-stained faces. The stench of charred flesh and wood stung their nostrils, bringing tears to their eyes.

"What happened here?" Baixun murmured, taking in the carnage that lay before him. He bent over and gently closed the lids of a fallen soldier, whose eyes had been frozen with the fear and terror of his dying moments.

There were dozens of such bodies lying abandoned on the ground, the bodies of brave men who had fought to their very last breath defending the city that they called home. Their sacrifice had not been in vain thus far, for it was still the soldiers of Feng that patrolled the walls, but the temporary victory had come at terrible cost.

Shoya held out his royal token and the heavy wooden gates opened to grant them passage. As they passed through the archway, Yuehwa lifted her head to meet the vacant gazes of the guards who showed neither joy nor relief to see them come. Only emptiness.

"Your Highness," the commander tasked with securing the gate greeted, his voice hoarse and battle-worn.

"Where is the governor?" Shoya asked.

"At his quarters. The city's physicians have been trying their best to keep him conscious, but they say that we should be mentally prepared to lose him at any time."

"How did this happen? Muya is the most fortified city along the Feng border. How did the enemy manage to deal this much damage in such a short period of time?"

When they left, there had been close to ten thousand men deployed to guard Muya, including a sizeable number of Yuehwa's Firebrands, yet there didn't seem to be even a fifth of that number remaining.

"We were sabotaged. Someone poisoned the city's wells and incapacitated many of our soldiers and residents, so we were practically defenseless when Dahai launched their attack. There was a traitor in our midst!" the commander cried, anger and betrayal blazing in his eyes.

Shoya frowned. "Do we know what poison it was? And how is everyone now?"

"It wasn't fatal, but everyone who drank the water had severe abdominal pain and vomiting for days. Thankfully a few of the city's physicians escaped unscathed and managed to cobble together a remedy that seemed to help counter the effects of the poison. It was horrible, Your Highness. While our men, women and children were crying in pain, the army of Dahai rained fire upon our walls and gates. Our soldiers fought valiantly even though many of them were suffering from the poison, and Governor Wen insisted on leading the city's defense himself. We've managed to hold firm for now, but the governor... He took an arrow to the chest..."

Shoya patted the distraught man on the shoulder and left him with some words of comfort and reassurance, then he led the party towards the governor's manor. Along the way, they saw windows and doors that had been boarded and nailed shut, with wary eyes watching them suspiciously as they passed.

"So much has changed since we left," Yuehwa remarked, observing how a little beggar bolted and ran the moment he saw them approach. "A very efficient strategy, poisoning the city's water supply and launching a quick attack. It could have succeeded, if this city had a lesser governor. The king of Dahai did not anticipate the resolve and determination of a man like Wen Shu." She tossed Baixun a look of disdain. "Is this what you had in mind? And who might your mole in the city be?"

Baixun pursed his lips together, looking mildly offended. "I would not have resorted to such underhand tactics to win the city," he declared. "Wars are fought between armies, not innocent citizens."

"Good to know you have a moral conscience," Shoya replied drily. "I'll dig out that turncoat and make sure that he pays in blood for the lives he has cost us."

They heard loud hacking coming from Wen Shu's room before they even stepped in, accompanied by the anxious whispers of the two physicians standing by his bedside. Blood-stained cloths lay in a pile within a copper basin, and yet another one had just been extricated from the governor's hand.

"How is Governor Wen's condition?" Shoya asked.

The physicians and attendants in the room startled at his presence, then quickly dropped to their knees.

"Your Highness," the older of the two physicians, with a head of pure white and deep crow's feet at the corners of his eyes, said worriedly, "the arrow has pierced through the governor's left lung and we cannot stop the blood from entering if we remove the arrow. I'm afraid... I'm afraid..."

"It's alright," Wen Shu said, his voice barely audible. His face was pallid, a stark contrast from the deep red of the blood staining his lips. "They've tried their best."

Shoya sat down by the governor's bedside and took his wrist, feeling for a pulse. A moment later, he said, "I'll need a small knife, with the thinnest blade that you can find. Maybe the ones used to carve fruit and vegetable decorations for banquets. Some strong alcohol and more clean cloths. I'll also need a needle and some sewing thread."

"You're not thinking of—" Yuehwa stared at Shoya in surprise. From the list of things he had asked for, she almost thought that he was going to cut the man open.

And maybe he was.

#

Yuehwa had seen many bloody scenes in her life—and been responsible for several of them—but none had ever been as uncomfortable and disconcerting as what she witnessed in that room that day.

Knowing that no one else would have the stomach to be of any use, Shoya had no choice but to request for Yuehwa to assist him while he performed the surgery on the governor. As she stood by the side holding the bronze basin of clean water, watching as Shoya first heated the blade with a candle flame, then make the first incision through Wen Shu's chest, Yuehwa felt the bile churn at the base of her stomach. It was a blessing that the governor had passed out from the blood loss and could not feel anything thanks to the numbing concoction that Shoya had prescribed.

When Shoya peeled open the layers of flesh around the incision wound, revealing the murky mess of blood and tissue within, it took her all of her strength and resolve to not retch into the basin.

Shoya, though, shared none of her queasiness. His hands moved deftly, slicing and tugging, pushing and squeezing, even as droplets of blood continued to splatter across the white fabric of his clothes.

A bronze arrowhead clinked against the floorboards. Yuehwa stifled a gasp when she saw blood shoot out from where the arrow had been plucked from. Shoya quickly stemmed the flow with a clean towel, then he slowly inserted a narrow bamboo tube into Wen Shu's chest cavity.

"You don't actually mean to—"

Yes, of course he does.

Yuehwa closed her eyes, not wanting to watch Shoya suck the excess blood out of from the governor's wounded lung. When she opened them again, he was already finished and had picked up a needle, swiftly sewing up the incisions with fine thread. Minutes later, he was done.

Shoya dropped the needle into her basin and wiped his hands clean, then felt for Wen Shu's pulse once more. "Weak, but stable," he said. "He'll survive." He wiped the sweat from his brow, sitting down to pour himself a cup of water.

"Have you done this before?"

"No."

"No!" Yuehwa put the basin down and slid onto an empty stool across from him, staring at him intently. "You mean to say that you've never done this before, yet you still dared to slice open that man's chest and then sew him right back up?"

Shoya's lips tilted upwards in a bemused smile. "As with any surgery, there's always the risk of failure, but if I didn't at least try, then he would be dead anyway," he replied. "But as long as the wound isn't direct to the heart or brain, I think I have a fairly good chance of success."

Yuehwa's gaze trailed down towards his fingers, now wrapped around a small ceramic teacup. Faint bloodstains could still be seen on his fingertips, reminding them of what had just come to pass. She clucked her tongue in both awe and disgust.

"If I'm ever caught in a similar situation, just let me die," she said. "I don't think I can stand being sliced open like a slab of meat on a chopping board."

"May it never come to that," Shoya laughed. After he had finished drinking his fill of water, he stood up. "It might be a few days before Wen Shu wakes up, and he'll need to spend months recuperating. In the meantime, we have a traitor to find, and a war to fight."

#

The damage to the city's defenses was thankfully less severe than it looked. Many parts of the city wall had suffered damage, but no section had collapsed in entirety. Most of the soldiers who had suffered from the effects of the tainted water were also on the mend, as were the city's residents. Those who were well bustled to and fro, helping tirelessly with mending what was broken and caring for the sick and injured. Muya was wounded—but the city had a strong spirit. She would yet survive to fight another day.

"I apologise for our incompetence, Your Highness," Ru Fei said, kneeling before Yuehwa. He had arrived at the governor's manor while the surgery was in process, and had been waiting out in the main hall for her and Shoya to appear. "You entrusted us with a great responsibility and we failed to live up to that expectation."

Yuehwa patted the commander on the shoulder and helped him back up to his feet. "You have not failed," she said. "Without the Firebrands, Muya might already have fallen. You have done your best, Commander."

She had not left many of her men behind to defend the border, and she knew them well enough to be certain that each one would have fought to the death before they surrendered to the enemy. If someone had failed, it was her, for she had brought them here and now there were sons who would not be able to return to their homes in Hwa.

"What are our numbers like?" she asked softly.

"We've lost close to a hundred men, and another eighty were affected by the poison."

A hundred. A fifth of her unit, and each one was one too many. She sat down leaned heavily against the back of the chair, sighing.

"Make sure we retrieve all their bodies and bring them back to Hwa. They deserve to be buried in their hometowns, not left forgotten in a foreign land."

She would not allow any of her men to be left behind like the poor souls who had drowned in the lake, trapped in an endless cycle of grief and anger. They had served their kingdom well and they deserved to be laid to rest among family and friends, to be honoured as a hero by future generations.

"Yes, Your Highness," Ru Fei replied. "There is something else I wish to report. Early this morning we caught someone running away from the city to the Jilin mountains. Our scouts followed him and found him meeting with some Dahai soldiers, who were presumably there to help him escape."

Yuehwa arched a brow. "Where is this man now?" she asked.

"In the city's jail. We were also intending to arrest his Dahai accomplices but they swallowed poison before we could stop them."

She exchanged a glance with Shoya, who had been quietly listening to their exchange from a corner. A man trying to leave a besieged city to head across enemy lines? It seemed like their culprit had delivered himself right into their hands.