abstract
| - Traveling along the Trunk Road towards Li Heng, Dorin Rav reflects on why he is on the plains. He had taken a job as a caravan guard, but when Seti raiders had not been spotted for the first week of the journey, the caravan's leader terminated the guard's contracts. While the rest of the guards had grouped together, Dorin had gone off on his own and had easily outrun the caravan. During the second day of his journey to Li Heng, Dorin spots smoke to the north and heads off the road to investigate. He finds a wrecked caravan, all those accompanying it presumably dead. After observing the scene, he concludes that the attack was the work of Ryllandaras. Walking around the wreckage, Dorin is startled when a guard he had assumed dead gets up. Dorin asks if the man saw anyone pass by and the man says he heard a man pass by whistling but didn't see him. Before Dorin can leave, the man confronts him, asking him to help see to the dead. Dorin declines and the man draws his sword, but his injuries cause him to double over in pain, unable to fight. He claims to have fought Ryllandaras through the night, but Dorin does not believe him and tells him to tell a more plausible lie. Departing, Dorin realizes that his quest for revenge against Wu stems from the same root as the guard's attempted assault on him, a perceived insult.
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