Keiser had honestly thought it would be a slow night.
Ever since the royal brigade had been called back to the capital in a hurry, barely a day after their return from the last expedition, he'd been hoping for at least one proper night of sleep. A warm bed in Hinnom, a quiet meal, and maybe a moment where his bones didn't ache from cold or battle.
Instead of standing under another freezing sky, half awake and listening for anything that might lunge out of the dark. His companions had offered to keep watch before, but he never took that kind of comfort anymore. The first time he trusted others to watch his back, he was the only one who came back.
So he stayed half awake.
And when those same idiots somehow let a Gula form and nearly reach Hinnom, he decided he'd rest his case, literally and figuratively. Some people, he thought grimly, were just born to make his life harder.
And that was only half the mess.
