While the man's back was turned, motes of violet fla raced down my arm. I intended to weave a net of ten to start, sending them as far into the Everwood as my range would allow… but the mana felt different. The mont a spark was created, the mana required to form it almost imdiately replenished. Shoving the question of why to the side for the mont, I doubled down, sending another ten sparks in addition to the previous ten. When I looked inward, it was full again. Sothing was wrong, my mana never regenerated that fast.
Nothing from the sparks. The drain from all twenty was so diminutive it was negligible. I grabbed the dallion at my neck. "Vogrin, I need you."
No answer ca. It was still early, was he ditating?
I forced what should have been half my mana pool through the dallion, expecting an imdiate cantankerous and surprised response. Again, none ca. Beside the priest was stumbling. His breath ca in heaves and his visage was pale. He leaned forward squinting and gripped his knees for support, panting towards the ground.
Others were affected. A light elf had fallen to his knees and dropped his satchel, a long string of bloody saliva falling from his lip. Behind one of the distant stalls, a violet infernal had already passed out, while the small red that accompanied her did his best to rouse her.
The priest gagged and clamped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as he stared at the ground.
Mana irregularities. Nausea. Loss of consciousness.
It hit at once, what it was. The entire reason infernals over a certain age couldn't enter the Sanctum. Proximity to multiple ley lines could grant many boons, faster mana generation, a larger pool to draw from. It was the perfect staging ground for a magician to learn their craft. But it also had the potential to create a lifelong dependency if the infernal stayed in the Sanctum past adulthood.
Mana sickness.
But it shouldn't have been happening at all. The Overworld and the Sanctum were night and day in terms of mana saturation. The only reason it would happen at all was—
The priest vomited, unable to hold it in.
I grabbed his shoulders. "Listen to . Sowhere far beneath us there is a ruptured ley line. You're an infernal, I'm guessing you know what that ans?"
His eyes widened. "...Overflow."
"Right. Cast sothing. Anything. Quickly."
The priest's face was a war of focus and pain. He stretched out his palm towards the ground. A divot appeared, no deeper or wider than a fist.
I kept hold on him. "More. Everything you can manage."
The trench beca a spiral, looping outward in small circles that grew increntally larger until it finally stopped. My heart flagged. He was just a priest, and a typical priest had little to no reason to keep up earth magic after leaving the enclave.
"Just need to catch… my breath. A little out of practice." He huffed, giving a bloody smile. "Would you—" At that exact mont, there was a horrible squelch. His white eyes grew red, and the saliva dripping from his mouth beca a river of crimson, joining with the streams that descended from his nose. I gripped his shoulders tightly as he slid to his knees, body growing lifeless and pliant.
"Fuck."
The ground beneath us detonated, sending flying, sky and ground alternating in a dizzying spiral. I cast an aegis reflexively and managed to get it beneath , which stopped my fall but sent skidding along the dirt. A wooden post that propped up an awning smashed into my side. Bones crunched. Pain flooded through , overriding everything, making it difficult to focus, to think.
Dimly, I registered an infernal's arm. It'd fallen when the aegis had dissipated.
The path we'd been standing on was a crater, burning with blue fire. A robed form burned beside it, torn to pieces by the impact. My aegis had protected more than I'd realized.
Poor bastard.
Maya. I had to get to Maya. Use one of the sparks. If she'd fallen back asleep…
BOOM.
Another explosion rattled the square, triggering another round of screams and flight. An influx of humans and dwarves poured into the square, so looking to see what the fuss was about, others rushing to help. I forced myself to my feet, half deaf, and staggered back towards the priest.
The third explosion sent tumbling to the ground, ducking for cover, showering with skittering stones. A chunk of granite found the back of my skull with a sickening thump.
"M….move… MOVE."
I tried to force myself to my feet only to find them failing.
Am I really so weak?
I tried again.
Arms hooked beneath mine, hoisting to my feet. Before my ruined balance could send toppling again, healing warmth seeped through . "Good timing."
"It's a rupture." Maya told . Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she'd thrown on her traveler's garb in a hurry, but otherwise appeared unhard. She busied herself with an unconscious woman beneath the detritus of the destroyed market. I grabbed a plank and heaved, lifting the pile enough for Maya to free her.
"I'm… not so sure."
"What?" She twisted to look at as she tended the woman.
I thought back to the preceding events. "There was a distant explosion. Monts before the detonation in the town square. But far."
"Sothing else happening simultaneously?" Maya tried, though she looked uncertain.
I shook my head. "No. Sa exact…" I snapped my fingers, trying to cut through the fog of my mind. "Echo. Screeching tal at a lower pitch. Another explosion. Had to be."
Maya thought for a mont, then went pale. "The ley line is failing."
"What? No. No." I shook my head, refusing to believe it. "That isn't supposed to happen until Ragnarok."
Until after we fail to stop it.
"It isn't just one central network." Maya returned. "There are countless ley lines, so of which are completely independent of each other."
"And the ley lines… just… sotis fail?" I stared at her, hoping I was wrong. That there was sothing obvious we were missing.
"There is a precedent in legend. But I would not believe it until now."
I shook my head, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Healthy mana is blue. The explosion and the fire it left. It shouldn't be failing."
Pounding hooves followed the distant whinny of a frightened horse. A man in half plate and a grim expression charged past, heading into the middle of the chaos.
"Uncle Luther!" I called after him.
My uncle yanked the reins, wheeling the terrified horse around.
"Both of you, on the back of my horse now." My uncle commanded. An explosion in the distance made all three of us wince.
"We're needed here." I argued imdiately. "The Timbermours require aid."
Sothing in my Uncle's eyes was wild, unhinged. "Get on the horse."
Maya left the woman where she lay, standing up to face Luther. "We'll aid with the recovery, help the locals organize an evacuation, then Cairn will co with you."
"The hell I will."
"Neither of you are listening. There is nowhere to evacuate." Luther said through gritted teeth. Far behind him, in the distance, a billowing cloud of smoke rose from the treeline. The once lush canopy was now marred with patches of blue fla. "The forest will be an inferno in an hour. Perhaps less. But a single horse with a few riders might make it through."
"I'm aware that they are andering things." I leaned towards Maya, still transfixed by the smoke. "But out of curiosity, how long can a ley line be?"
"The pri ley line spans continents." Maya returned flatly.
Damn.
"However, it's hardly the only possibility." She added after a mont. "This isn't necessarily the pri, though the proximity to the enclave worries . So are short, covering only a few wingspans."
The growing sense of doom lessened, as I realized it wasn't over yet. There was still plenty we could do. But sothing else weighed on .
"Uncle, this could be happening everywhere. Including Whitefall. If you need to return and defend the king—"
"I will not leave you again." He growled, sounding more like my father than ever before.
Warming as that was, I couldn't help but smile a little. "You never did. I ran like a frightened child. That being said, we are better served to stay here. Lucius's manor is to the south end of town, far from the square and every detonation so far." I put a hand on his horse to steady it. "We spread the word about the mana sickness, get everyone sheltered either at the manor or sowhere on that side of town."
"And after?" Luther challenged.
"We scout the area." Maya offered. "See the upraised copse of trees to the east? There's a hill not far from here, halfway between Kholis and Barion's cabin. Climb one of those trees and we should be able to get a better view of things even halfway up the closest one. If there's a path through, we'll find it there."
I snapped my fingers in realization. "The sa way we found our way out of the mushroom forest."
"Exactly."
"It's the best we have." I turned, watching for Luther's reaction.
"Fine." The crazed look in my uncle's eyes seed to diminish so. He dismounted, bending down to help the fallen woman to her feet, then lifted her onto his horse. "Don't drag your feet. Neither of you." He turned to Maya. "Group'a wood elves down the way took it on the chin. Could probably use your services."
"I'm on it. Thank you, Luther." Maya bowed, and Luther returned the gesture.
While Maya healed the wounded, Luther and I helped relocate them. While the skies grew ever darker with clouds and burgeoning smoke, the explosions and gouts of blue fla continued at a steady rhythm, a distant, horrible drum. Word spread quickly when desperation was high. And the growing crowd in and around the manor quickly grew large.
Lucius and Millicent, along with their servant, had yet to be seen. All the lights were off, and their shoes were missing from the side closet in the atrium. It hadn't worried at first. Lucius was the exact sort of person to run towards a fire to help others, and while Millicent might not approve of his haste, she wouldn't let him do it alone. I'd assud he was probably out there, sa as , trying to save as many lives as he could while his holdings were in crisis.
But by now, I'd covered much of Kholis's wrecked and burning streets, and seen no sign of anyone we were missing. No one I spoke to had seen either Lucius or Millicent since early the previous evening.
Maybe it was the pessimist in , but I was starting to worry.
You didn't survive everything we endured just to die to so middling disaster, right, old friend?
I told myself my fears were unfounded. Lucius, along with his wife, was the heart and soul of this place. The chances his body had simply gone overlooked in a ditch sowhere were emphatically low. Soone would have seen it, and they wouldn't have just left him there. Still, I rifled through the empty buildings, search growing in urgency as ti went on.
At the bar of an abandoned inn, there was a lone figure dressed in dapper clothes. Relief surged through . His glamour had been displaced, likely when he lost consciousness, and the cloth blindfold he always insisted on wearing was askew. "A few days off and a thousand years of discipline goes to waste. Co on. Holiday is over." I shook him lightly. Then, when there was no response, more persistently. "Vogrin, we need to go. Vogrin?"
No response. I leaned down to sll his breath, only to have my nostrils singed by the stench of sulfur—notably absent was any hint of alcohol. He hadn't been drinking.
I shook him hard, my heart pounding. "Are you fucking dead?"
It shouldn't have been possible. But it was hard to tell. He always looked at least half-deceased and never needed to breathe. Still, the uncommon stillness and the fact that his glamour had been displaced felt like cause for alarm. I ran back the earlier events. The initial mana overflow was an obvious explanation, but Maya and I, despite being hundreds of years younger and far less knowledgeable than Vogrin, ca to the initial realization and its natural counter. Unlike the priest and the other less fortunate of the city who had fallen, my summon should have been more than capable of enough output.
That's right. I shunted off half of mine, right at the beginning. My pool should be smaller than his but that won't matter. Not if they were both approaching capacity.
What a terrible blunder.
Still, while he wasn't exactly warm to the touch, he wasn't cold either.
Before I could finish kicking myself, the water orb in my pocket shook twice firmly, then twice more.
More trouble?
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The ssage ca from Maya, sent through the sympathetic link of my water magic. That she was calling for aid when things were already bad set my mind racing. I looked down at the demon, still spilled out over the bar and unmoving.
If Vogrin was in the dallion, he'd recover. It'd always held true before.
I lifted his clammy hand and slid the cold tal beneath his fingertips, praying to Infaris first, then Elphion and whoever else would listen.
"By my na and our bond ford from the contract of my soul, I command you. Return."
It was a direct command. The sort I usually hesitated to use, simply because it felt cruel to force him to do sothing instead of asking directly. At first there was no response, other than the blood pounding in my ears. Then what sounded like a rasping exhale left his lips. The shadows beneath him reached up, covering the demon's form in darkness and growing smaller until he'd disappeared entirely.
I put the dallion back on, lingering on the cold tal surface. He was alive.
Rest.
Drawing a deep breath and pulling the cloak back over my head, I opened the door and slipped outside.
Visibility had worsened drastically—smoke from the Everwood fire mixing with debris from the continuing detonations until a dark haze covered everything. All around the air was shimring and noxious, burning my eyes and lungs even as I breathed shallowly through the cloth over my mouth. The once blue runoff from the geysering mana detonation had changed in appearance once it was exposed to air, and now appeared a sickly green.
Getting bad fast.
I kept low, beneath the smoke and shimring fus, checking corpses along the way, looking for survivors. The explosions had dismbered and maid many of the initial victims. Those were easier to identify. But from the look of things, far more had died from suffocation and inhalation of whatever was burning off of the mana, and the only way to confirm their fate was checking for a pulse.
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Halfway back to the manor, my stinging eyes made out the silhouette of a child, propped up against a retaining wall. Young. No older than ten. Her long hair was either dark from soot or birth, it was impossible to tell. Her sea-green eyes stared out at nothing, her gaze hollow, simple gray dress sullied and torn, head tilted slightly to one side. A small stuffed animal was wrapped tightly in her pale arms, its dark fur tinted darker by the nasty wound in her side.
Still, even though her eyes were open and lifeless, I checked for a heartbeat.
And started, as the girl reacted. She tilted her head into my hand and rested it there tiredly, the skin of her cheek cool and soft.
"Do you ever tire of all of this?" The girl asked.
The question was so unexpected that I barked a laugh, breathing too quickly through the cloth. The noxious air filled my lungs, leading to a fit of coughing. I weaved a small circle of air around our heads. "Mana explosions and failing ley lines?"
She shook her head minutely. "Doing the sa thing over and over. Reaching the sa ends."
Despite coming from the mouth of a child I'd never t before, the quiet words landed with shuddering impact.
"You're an old soul, talking like that."
The wound could have been worse. Given its location in her chest, and the fact that she was still capable of speaking, whatever caused it had to have missed her organs or she would have already been gone. "Let's get that staunched. Then we'll get you to safety."
"Nowhere is safe. Not anymore—ouch" The girl whispered, cringing as I pressed a clean rag to her wound.
I did my best to distract her. "Everyone is gathering at the edge of town. Your parents might be among them."
She muttered sothing. I didn't quite catch it. But it almost sounded like, "They will be."
"Then we'll find them together."
"No…"
"No?"
She gripped my arm, iron in the small grasp. For a second her eyes lost focus then regained it again, zeroing in on . "Tried to tell you… really did." She smiled a little. "Even… saved you. Then warned you again. But you always forget."
"Who are you?" The question slipped out unbidden. Because the longer the girl spoke, the more familiar she seed. I could almost place her in mory, though my mind kept traveling back to the Enclave—which made little sense. This girl would have been barely more than an infant back then.
She shook her head slowly from side to side against the wall. "The threshold has been crossed. What has been done cannot be undone. Even with all his power, the iconoclast of the heavens grows weak. This could be… the last iteration."
Frigid fingers of terror tightened around my heart. "What does that an? Speak plainly."
Her voice was barely more than a whisper. "Find that which you have lost. Only then, will you be able to move forward."
The air that surrounded us grew darker, more difficult to purify. There were too many fissures nearby. We needed to move, and quickly.
I swallowed the fear, shoved it down. "There'll be ti for riddles later. Let's get you to safety."
"Be careful who you trust." She murmured.
The noxious shimr grew darker and more prominent as I picked the girl up and lifted her to . She was small, so light she was barely there. It suddenly occurred to . My earlier thought, that I'd t her during the Enclave—couldn't have been right. Another human child would have stuck out like a sore thumb—But I rembered a brief encounter at a temple, when I was searching for Kilvius. A small girl with piercing eyes.
"I rember you." I said aloud as I carried her, feeling more confident as what felt like fog lifted from my eyes. "We t in Whitefall, at the temple kitchens. Yes. I'm certain now. Your na was Brun—"
My balance suddenly shifted, and I stumbled, trying to stay upright. There was nothing in my arms. For a horrifying mont, I thought I'd dropped her. But no matter where I looked on the ruined street, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
There.
The rag I'd used to staunch her wound had fallen at my feet. I bent down to pick it up, finding it dirtied but free of blood. It made less than no sense. None at all. Then I panned the nearby geyser and considered the queer shimring smoke. Between filter of cloth and my air magic, I'd been luckier than most. But, logically, I'd breathed so. An alchemist could tell you more about the specifics, but I knew enough to be aware that so gases could cause a person to hallucinate.
That didn't seem right. The encounter had felt so vivid and real.
Briefly, I entertained the idea of searching for her, before reluctantly discarding the notion. Unless the girl had suddenly sprouted wings and flown directly upward, she'd simply disappeared. The most likely explanation was usually the right one. And Maya had signaled for trouble.
I made my way back to the Duke's manor. The air around the manor was still heavy with smoke, but the shimr in the air was thankfully gone. Lucius's ho—along with the spacious noble hos around it—were all packed full with people. A number of infernal and elven air magicians took advantage of the heightened mana regeneration and posted up by the doorway, filtering in air and pushing back smoke.
There was a chorus of frightened voices and crying beneath the din. My chest ached for them as I pushed through the crowd, their fearful eyes and trembling bodies. re hours before, they'd been celebrating the changing of the seasons. A celebration that had, unknowingly, been the last for many among their number.
I pushed through the throng of bodies, searching for any sign of Maya. Soone grabbed my arm. Uncle Luther leaned in, shouting into my ear over the din.
"Looking for the girl?"
"Yes." I yelled back, relieved. He was as unsettled as the rest of us, but didn't seem to be panicking.
"Upstairs, interviewing the Timbermour's staff."
"Thank you, Uncle." I grasped his arm, feeling gratitude as he returned the gesture. Then looked around with concern. "There's too many people for such a tight space. If panic breaks out..."
Luther looked around, troubled. "Agreed."
I thought back to the outside. "Plenty of empty houses on the other side of the street."
"Already tried." He nodded, exhausted, sweat-soaked ringlets of his hair swinging with the motion. "Trouble is, they're not well insulated." Turning, he pointed towards the air magicians at the doorway. "Casters can't do their thing if whatever they're trying to aerate is a sieve."
"Fuck." I thought about it. "We need a scouting party."
Luther nodded, way ahead of . "Already ford. Would have gone with them if it didn't an leaving the girl alone with a frightened throng."
That would help. Eventually. But there were too many frightened people stuffed in too tight a place. We needed to do sothing about it now. "Uncle. There's a sizable crypt beneath these grounds. It should be perfect for sothing like this."
Luther winced. "Saw that. Moving a bunch of frightened people into a tomb isn't my first choice, but we aren't exactly spoiled for options. Almost started moving the new arrivals there, but didn't want to create problems for you—"
"Lucius wouldn't give a shit." I shook my head vehently. "He'd start hauling out caskets if it saved a single life."
A mix of respect and understanding dawned in Luther's eyes. "I'll take care of it. Do what you need to do."
Feeling at least sowhat confident that the packed manor wouldn't imdiately dissolve into chaos, I raced upstairs, taking them two at a ti. Maya was probably fine. But there were no promises in life. And my mind raced, dredging up terrible possibility after terrible possibility. What if she'd been hurt? The lower level was loud enough that a dragon could have shouted from the upper floor and not been heard.
Heart pounding, I threw open the upstairs doors, one after another, until I ca to the Timbermour's bedroom. There were several frightened looking servants, the human who had greeted us and two light elves.
Maya was mid-conversation with the male light elf, cutting off mid-sentence as I staggered in and embraced her, unable to stop myself. Her arms wrapped around in return. It took a mont for my mind to catch up with my eyes. For the realization to sink in that she was fine. That everything I'd imagined was nothing more than that.
"Peace, Ni'lend. How did it go?" Maya murmured.
I broke the embrace, stepping back awkwardly and clearing my throat. "Finished the firebreak." I hesitated. "Though if the wind picks up, it's hard to say how effective it will be. Only takes one smoldering leaf to set a house ablaze. Also found Vogrin, incapacitated but alive."
"Good. Any more survivors?" Maya asked.
I shook my head.
"Damn." Her mouth turned downward in frustration. "If this had all happened even an hour earlier, we likely would have found them here, asleep in their beds."
"Do we have an idea where they went?" I looked between Maya and the frightened servant.
The servant cleared his throat. "While I can't say for certain, the Duke and Duchess often slip out of their chambers in the early hours of the morning to walk a forest path together."
"What path?" I asked, having trouble believing what I was hearing.
He winced. "To the west."
"Isn't that part of the Everwood?"
"It's not… as dangerous as it used to be." The servant stamred. "And even then, the sections nearby were never that dangerous. The tail of the monster rather than the monster itself."
"Has the fire spread there yet?" Maya asked , gnawing her lip with growing worry.
"No." I shook my head grimly. "But it will."
"Then we must move swiftly. And while I hesitate to call anything about this fortuitous, that's in the direction of your vantage, yes?"
Maya's eyebrow rose in surprise. "Ah. Yes. That's perfect. We can search for the Timbermours and find a route around the ley lines. Two birds with one stone."
I turned to the servant. "Where is this path?"
/////
With a heavy heart, and a map marked with ink in my coat pocket, I descended the stairs slowly, one after another. Typically, I enjoyed speaking to crowds. It was sothing that I'd been trained for from a young age. Connecting with so many others simply by opening my mouth and speaking the right words, in the right sequence. I loved it. I was good at it.
But there were days when the stakes were so high that the joy of it turned to ashes in my mouth.
And this was such a day.
Maya and I were experienced. We'd conquered harder terrain before, and our combined magical talents would make us far more efficient in searching. As tempting as it was to go charging out searching for our hosts, that only went so far. Forests were difficult to search even with an army, and we were still only two among the sprawling woods. That Lucius and Millicent weren't back by now led to believe that sothing had halted them. Perhaps their return was cut off by an eruption similar to the ones in town, and they'd been pushed further into the forest.
There was a very real possibility one of them was hurt, maybe both.
Ti was of the essence. We needed more people.
I stopped halfway down the stairs, a spot that served as good a podium as any. I gathered myself, cycling air through my nose and mouth, trying to calm my nerves as I surveyed the room. My heart sank. The frantic air in the overcrowded foyer had only slightly lessened in anxiety now that my uncle had relocated what looked to be about a third. Fear still ran rampant, and the whispers never ceased. They were terrified. And they had every right to be.
What do I even say?
The sound of scratching echoed above . I looked up to see Maya leaning over the bannister above, head resting on her arms. Once she had my attention, she pressed two fingers to her lips, and turned them out towards . As it always had, sothing about her presence soothed my fears.
I returned the gesture, and let my arms fall to my side, taking one long, final breath out.
"People of Kholis. n, Dwarves, Elves, Infernals, and Pixies alike." My augnted voice echoed, filling up the foyer. Slowly, heads turned. The din of frantic talking fell quieter, growing barely audible, but never disappearing entirely. Several people in adjacent rooms wandered over. I waited for as long as I could before continuing. "I think it's safe to say we've all had a shit morning."
Soone—whoever he was, gods bless him—actually laughed. There obviously wasn't much rrint to go around, but their faces, collectively, looked marginally less grim.
Which ant the joke had done its job.
I took a few more steps down, wanting to be closer to them in height. "Over the last few days, it's been an honor to count myself among your number. I've had the pleasure of eting many of you. To those I haven't t, I am Cairn, of House Valen. Crown Prince of Uskar."
There was a torrent of whispers that rose from the silence. The infernals and humans reacted the most positively to the news, though there was so obvious confusion. Among them, the Elves and Dwarves seed to regard with suspicion at best, hostility at worst. My vision wasn't sharp enough to pick out how the individual pixies floating amongst the room were taking it, likely about the sa as their Elven and Dwarven fellows.
"It's been a joy to walk among you. Even compared to the capital—of which I am quite biased—there's sothing truly special about this place you call ho."
"The hells is happening, your lordship?" A dwarven woman near the front asked. Before her voice so much as faded, a wave of similar questions surged.
"Where are Duke and Duchess Timbermour?" A nearby elf called.
Interruptions often occurred during public addresses in tis of strife. The obvious temptations were either to imdiately answer, or ignore the speaker for fear of being waylaid. Both were folly. You acknowledge their fears. Look at them, while they give the fears voice. But you do not answer. Once the silence is uncomfortable enough, they will fall silent, wanting to hear the answers.
When the ti ca, my voice was grave. "A ley line beneath the city is failing. We do not know how far the damage extends, or why it is happening." I pointed towards the wood elf who asked after the nobility. "The Timbermours are dear friends of the crown. It is them I ca to visit. And it is my utmost regret to announce that they have been missing as of this morning."
There was a surge of fear and disquiet. But it was short-lived enough to confirm that they had already suspected as much.
I waited for it to fade.
"When I first t Lucius we were both children. He was jaded and headstrong, with a chip on his shoulder the size of the Glenhaven Peninsula. We beca fast friends. And shared the sa dream." I looked down, smiling a little at the mory. "Even then he was so much more than the blood that birthed him. Destined for greatness. But I never could have imagined that he'd beat to it." I looked out at them, suddenly struggling to hold in my emotion. "I look at Kholis and see the future. What I'd only imagined, he created. A model for a better era."
I recovered, forcing authority back into my voice. "To answer you—the woman in the back—we believe we know where to start looking. In a matter of minutes, my companion, my uncle, and I will depart to the eastern wood Lucius and his lady wife frequented. It will be a difficult search, fraught with danger. One only needs to look outside to see how dire things have beco. Bearing that, know that I do not ask this lightly. We need a number of volunteers to help search—"
A small, gnarled hand shot up before I could so much as ask. The hand belonged to an elderly dwarf who hobbled towards the stairs. His red beard had slowly turned white with age, and heavy wrinkles covered his face.
"Ah. A man of action..." I smiled in appreciation. My smile faded as another hand raised. And another.
I'd thought I'd need to win them over. Talk them into it. But as soon as they'd realized what I was asking, half the room had volunteered, more hands raising by the mont. Male and female. Human and non-human. Young and old. The most astounding part was that they were all still scared shitless. Besides the obvious guards, there were very few fighters and hunters among them. The fear was written clearly on their faces. But they'd raised their arms, regardless.
Didn't even need the speech. That's your legacy, old friend.
I turned away to wipe my eyes, plastered a winning smile on my face, then turned back. "I wish they could see this. Truly do. We'll have to settle for their surprise when half the city shows up to find them." It was an exaggeration, but not by much.
There was a rising cheer.
"Now, as I'd prefer our beloved local Duke not throttle , everyone who has less than sixteen years to their na, please lower your hand."
Several hands lowered, though so of the remaining faces still looked suspiciously young.
"Lower your hand if you have sustained an injury in the morning's chaos that has not yet been treated."
The hands halved. There were still too many.
"Lower your hand if you are with child or caring for one who cannot care for themselves."
A few more hands lowered.
On it went until all that remained was a solid group of the most sturdy and resilient. Maybe it was overly cautious. But they'd already suffered enough casualties. Luther briefed the less experienced, covering the essentials. Those with horses were welco to use them as transportation, but once we arrived there, we'd be searching on foot, exercising caution so as not to disturb any tracks. The Everwood inferno had only grown more prominent. A strong eastward wind would be enough to prematurely end the search.
We'd need to move quickly.
Hold on. We're coming, Lucius.
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