Rhoynar felt the putrid stench of charred flesh reach the nostrils of his memory, flexing against some of the oldest memories he could recall. Streets barricaded and cities closed to those infected with even a hint of the sickness that had spread like wildfire across the Second East and the land they stood in. His earliest memories of travelling in their slave cavalcade from one trading post to another, gathering hundreds of gold coins as they went, were haunted by the faces of those he hadn't even hoped to see. Skin stretched across bone, yellow and decaying. His memories showed him the sites of forlorn corpses, each with a thick yellow ooze pouring from their eyes and ears. The smell had been enough to choke on, thick and demanding in the back of the throat. There had once been a slave in their caravan caught with the plague, only to bring the death to all of those around them. Setting fire to thirty souls over one sign of the debilitating illness had been more than enough warning to a young knight and potential future house lord; the latter was now certain with death of his elder brother some years ago. 

His eyes moved from the lost village back to Illinfer. 
"How did it reach the mountains?" He asked sharply, somehow expecting his companion to have all the answers despite how unlikely that was. If the illness was still on the move within their home, it wouldn't be long until some trader brought it to Astipor. He dreaded to think of the consequences. Thousands of people and boats sailing between themselves and the trade hub Olas in the Second East. The Knight was protective of their home on the boarder. Most of its citizens were like him, barely any were native to the capital and its lands; most had sailed over at the thought of escaping the harsher life of the East. They were a sanctuary of an entirely different culture and in fifty years the city had changed entirely. Its size would have rivaled the capital now yet its architecture was changing. New buildings rose slowly, each a mile different from the older buildings within the city. It was a different world the further East you went.

Rhoynar pushed his heels into the side of his mount and followed Illinfer along the road. They would have been a strange sight amongst the night of the countryside but time was of the essence and no doubt they'd stay in Astipor until he'd settled the bubbling paranoia he held in his stomach. It was an easy ride, despite its rural route. Forest paths, stone roads and muddy trails would lead them to the city, all at around a day's journey. If they kept up a relatively quick pace, they'd perhaps make it by mid-afternoon however no horse would deal with that journey distance without pause.