Lucius stopped where he was at the door when the king spoke to him again. After his chat with the phantom, he did not think he would have much else to say but Lucius was wrong again. Another low blow uttered by one he had to obey and it drove him up a wall even further. His words were a mystery even to him, she was in a safe place away from the conflict, but on what side? He had to get to the bottom of this, and his first step would be getting down to the town. 

He began to walk again but this time, the phantom spoke to him as he walked past. Die for your heart, or die alone? Somehow he suspected the phantom had similar circumstances when he died and his facial expression went blank as he thought about it. If Octavia was in a safe place for now, then he had time to wait and help down at the town, where he was most likely needed more. Yes, that was where he would go.

He began to jog and quickly realized, with a soft nudge of his hand, a large dog was following him. It was a cute dog, very fluffy and he enjoyed giving it a pet. It actually put a smile on his face for once, on that dark day. 

------

He arrived down at the town shortly afterwards and was horrified by the destruction that had happened in such a short time-span. It looked like he missed most of the action, as the enemy was already gone. Now the only thing he could do was help with the relief effort and coordinate defenses in case of a second wave, which was highly doubtful. Something told Lucius that they had gotten what they came for, as he looked into the forest in the distance. 

His attention was brought back into the state of things when a sergeant came up to him, the poor fellow was bandaged up and looked extremely pale from blood loss.

"Sir Lucius! I heard of the ceremony, congratulations sir. But now, there is important work to be done here! We have civilian casualties and many wounded. The enemy has fled the scene and scouts report that they are gone for good. Right now we need all the aid we can get." he said in a wheezed condition.

[color=gold] "Thank you sergeant. Move the bodies into the open field over yonder, make sure to cover them in cloth. The bodies need to be claimed and if they are not, then we shall bury them all with elegance for their sacrifice, regardless of service. Move the wounded to the market square and get any available healers there immediately."[/color] Lucius paused and looked over the wounded man who kept doing his duty even when he was in no condition to do so, [color=gold]"You did good sergeant, relay those orders to your subordinates and then rest, you've earned it."[/color]

The sergeant gave a stern nod then briskly walked off into the chaos. Lucius looked down at the dog again, crouched down and patted the dog's fluffy head. 

[color=gold] "We have work to do, pup." [/color] Lucius then stood up and jogged to the nearest building, he would look for survivors that could not help themselves. As he jogged, he gave a small prayer, not for himself or even for Octavia, but for all the people that just suffered like he did many years ago.