The group kept moving, more vigilant after the scuffle than they’d been before. It’d been minutes since they left the broken streets near the harbor. In a few minutes still, they’d leave town.

Erend was sat atop a wagon while being healed. Anya was walking a few paces in front of him, he could hear her whispering orders to be passed along, “Call back Johann and the kid, have them support the flanks. Stay alert, we don’t want any more surprises.”

Cordelia walked alongside her, obediently.

“You alright? You look a little... sick,” Jack inquired.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. But that healing, it’s pretty fucked up.”

“Yeah, I know. But it gets the job done.”

Erend looked down at his arm, the wound was gone, and only a large scab remained.

Under his breath, he muttered, “Can’t argue with that... I’m good to go already. Know where I can get new weapons?”

“Sorry, I think we’re all out. And you should probably just sit tight anyway. There are wounds of the body and wounds of the mind. When you get healed unnaturally like this your body might seem fine, but your mind doesn’t just magically catch up, it takes a little while.”

“I see... At least let me walk.”

With a smile and a shake of his head, Jack denied Erend’s request, “Sit tight for a few more minutes, then you’ll be able to walk all you want.”

“Bu-”

“Sorry, not a discussion. Have a drink of water or something in the meantime, maybe get some sleep in. You’re pale as a ghost.”

With a moan, Erend accepted his sentence and lay down on the luggage-filled cart.

Like that, Erend was lulled to sleep by the rhythmic bouncing as the cart skittered across the cobbled streets.

***

Two figures ran through the desolated streets with careful steps, one was bald, the other scrawny.

“So, how long have you been a guard?” Charles asked, quietly, as they reached a large crossing.

The bald man, Johann had Charles stop with a gesture of his hand. He threw a glance down the largest of the streets, then flicked his hand in the direction of it, signaling his protégé to move, “Not as long as you might think. I used to be a soldier for the duke. This way,” he whispered and waved Charles close.

“What made you change your profession?”

“Family. Guard work is more ... fatherly. Hold up here. See those etched marks by the tailor’s shop?”

“Uhm...” Charles squinted, “Yeah, I see them.”

“Keep an eye open for similar marks and grab a handful of dirt. If you see the marks, toss the dirt – only the dirt, no fucking rocks – in its direction.”

“Yeah alright, I got it... Is your family here too?”

“Yes, they’re back with the group. Let’s sweep one side of the street each, be careful. See everything and you’ll never miss anything.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“You don’t got another choice if you want to be a scout,” Johann shrugged, “now go.”

Charles walked as stealthily as he could, making sure not to kick any rubble or step on anything that would make noise. He hadn’t been with Johann long, but the man had taught him much, despite him not being a social butterfly. Mostly he’d tried to teach Charles how to walk right, run right, and notice things right. His teaching method was unorthodox. Every time Charles did something wrong, he’d receive a sharp jab in his side, or if they needed to be quiet – a pinch.

He wasn’t very good at ‘seeing everything’ yet, but he felt he’d made some progress in both walking and running. At least he thought so until he stepped on a shard of glass that let out the loudest crunch he’d ever heard.

Charles stopped dead in his tracks. He listened... nothing.

He felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He turned around, slowly. Suddenly a biting pain assaulted the meaty part of his lower back.

“Stop fucking pinching me!” Charles hissed.

“You didn’t see everything! And you didn’t walk right!” Johann hissed back, then his eyes widened. He danced around Charles without so much as a sound. “You see that, the carvings on the doorpost?” he pointed. “See how there’s no dirt on the porch? Odd right?”

“Yeah, what does it mean?”

“Throw the dirt,” Johann urged.

Charles threw his handful of dirt at the doorpost. A translucent wire became visible, just an inch above the porch.

Gloom fell over Johann’s face, “That’s a trap, it’s made to be loud and to delay the one who triggers it. See these marks on the doorpost, and how much deeper they go than the ones you saw before? It’s been hollowed out; a con tool has been hidden inside. The triangle-shaped etch mark means that this one is particularly nasty, a firetrap.”

“How can you tell by just a glance?”

“We were taught to set them up back in boot camp, on Genesis.”

But... doesn’t that mean...

“Which means that either these attackers managed to develop the same type of traps without any outside involvement – which is unlikely – or they had help.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit.”

“Should we disarm it?”

“No time.”

“But what if someone steps on it?”

“Before thinking of others you need to save yourself. Someone probably will step on it, but there’s not much we can do about it.”

“Can’t we trigger it?”

“If we trigger it, it’s going to start a fire that’ll burn the house down, maybe take out a few more alongside it. And it would alert the invaders to what path we are taking to leave town,” Johann explained.

“We have to at least see if there are any occupants and warn them.”

“That – we can do. Here, climb up on my shoulders.”

Johann, backed up to get a better look at the house. “There’s an open window on the second floor,” he said and squatted down next to the dark wall, offering his shoulders for Charles to stand on.

Charles carefully planted his feet on Johann and leaned up against the wall, using his hand to stabilize himself as Johann slowly stood up. Charles managed to just about peek over the windowsill of the window on the second floor.

“Can you see anything?”

“No, it’s too dark. I’ll have to climb up.”

“Alright, I’ll launch you. On three.”

Johann bent down in a shallow squat and counted aloud.

“One, two, three!” on three, Johann abruptly extended his legs. At the same time, Charles used the momentum to jump. With the extra momentum, and with his recent awakening strengthening him, heaving himself onto the windowsill was mere child’s play. The flimsy wooden board creaked beneath his weight, as he scrambled to get inside.

Stolen story; please report.

The window was locked with some safety mechanism. Charles used his newly acquired strength to forcefully pry it open with his hands, surprised by the ease of which he’d managed, he fell inside with a thud.

From outside he could hear a hiss, “You can’t even fall right!”

Charles rolled his eyes and let out a groan but didn’t respond.

There wasn’t anyone inside the bedroom he’d fallen into. Charles threw a quick look over the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. With quiet steps he slipped out the door, the second floor only had one more room, he had a peek inside, it was empty apart from a crib and some chests. Kids’ clothing lay strewn across the floor.

Someone packed in a hurry.

He moved down the stairs, and the smell of iron hit him. He followed the smell down to the kitchen. Inside lay a woman and her child, brutally slaughtered. Blood colored the walls.

“Fucking animals!” Charles quavered.

He averted his gaze and made his way upstairs and out the window again. Johann helped soften his landing.

“So?” Johann asked.

“Two dead. Woman and child.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright. It’s not the first bodies I’ve seen today.”

A sharp whistle caught their attention.

Johann perked up, “They’re calling us back, let’s go.”

***

A particularly large bump in the road had the cart shaking. Erend groggily opened his eyes, they’d left the city. The dark, moss-covered walls he’d grown used to had been replaced by the towering mountain ranges that characterized their island.

“Got room for an old man?” Bernard piped up from the side. His breath was strained.

Erend sat up, “Of course, here, give me your hand,” he offered. “How you holding out?”

With a groan, Bernard got on the cart, “Better now that we’re out of the damned town. Will be even better when we reach the fort.”

Erend hopped off the cart and stretched with a yawn. He swung his injured arm a few times and concluded that it felt as it should, his mind didn’t seem to disagree at least.

“I take it nothing more happened in town?”

“It was smooth sailing. Probably smoother than things will be for a long time.”

“Yeah... I suppose,” Erend conceded with a downtrodden look.

“What will you do?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet. I decided it’d be best to wait until we reached the fort.”

“Won’t be long now. Two days at most. The invaders aren’t going to just sit around and do nothing.”

“What is there to do?”

“Either we fight, or we run. Those are the only options I see. Trust me, I hope I could think of more ways out of this, especially since I ain’t worth a damn thing in a fight.”

“You don’t think there’s a chance of reinforcements coming to help us?”

“How? The anchor hall was destroyed. And even if the duke’s forces manage to set up a new anchor, they’d walk headfirst into a fortified city, filled with enemy soldiers.”

“So, you mean to say it’s hopeless then?”

“Can’t say for sure. But I do believe that staying on the island would be foolish. Better to leave the island and explore the plane, we live to see another day. There’s no knowing what the future will bring.”

“But we know so little of this plane.”

“All the more reason to explore, don’t you think? It’s not like the natives can hurt us by attacking Exodus anymore.”

“Sounds like you’re itching for adventure, old man.”

Bernard let out a chuckle, “Hah, no I don’t think so. I’ll leave the adventuring to the young and healthy. But seeing as my survival is now dependent on all of you, I’ll let you in on a few tricks I learned while exploring the myriad planes.”

Bernard let out a cough, cleared his throat, and beckoned Erend to lean closer, “Wherever you go, there is one tenet that people live by – money,” he said, rubbing his fingers. “As long as people earn more with you around, they’ll do their best to keep you in their midst.”

Erend nodded along. It was quite a cynical way of thinking, but Erend knew that Bernard had been a successful sailor, so there had to be some truth to what he was saying.

As Bernard smacked his dry lips, readying himself to say more, a heated discussion sounded out from ahead.

The man that Charles had gone with, Johann, seemed to be speaking with Anya about something. A group of people had gathered nearby, walking along with them and listening in. Among them were both guards and civilians, Thomas was there, as was Charles and his family, Cordelia was still walking with Anya as she’d been told.

Erend could see on the faces of the group, that whatever they were speaking of it wasn’t anything good.

“Sit tight here. I’m going to go see what all that’s about.”

Erend received a grunt and a nod as an answer.

As he neared the group he whispered to his father, “Hey, how are you and Elle doing?”

“We’re doing fine. Elle is bored and very vocal about it, but she’ll live. As for whether or not I will survive her constant groaning, it remains to be seen... How about you? Heard you got injured, again.”

“Yeah. I slipped up. Everything worked out though, Jack is a cleric, he healed me up.”

“I’ll make sure to thank him.”

“So what’s going on here?”

“Charles and Johann saw some things when they scouted ahead.”

“What things?”

“We’re not sure yet. But Johann is certain he saw a trap that only people from Genesis should know how to make.”

“What? But then the invading forces – are they connected to Genesis?”

“Maybe. We don’t have enough information yet. But it doesn’t bode well.”

The two went quiet and listened in on the conversation between Anya and Johann.

“I’m telling you captain; they used the same markings that we were taught.”

“I trust you; you know that. It just doesn’t make any sense! Who would attack Exodus like this? Duke Ashleight is one of the most powerful figures in the empire.”

“Does it matter what faction is behind the attack? If we were betrayed, then so be it. Us knowing which faction orchestrated it doesn’t change a damn thing in the present.”

Anya nodded, her brows tightly knitted together, “Does anyone know what native faction attacked us?” Anya asked the gathering.

Albert responded meekly, “I was stationed with a shipping company. The invaders looked to bear some resemblance to how the Hillsmen are described ... but I can’t say for sure, never had the chance to see one.”

“The Hillsmen, huh,” Anya murmured. “That makes things even more difficult. They are the only faction we’ve been in contact with except for the traders on Tirith. And we won’t be able to count on the traders now that we’ve lost our sole way of importing goods.”

“So, we’re stranded then?” asked Mary.

Her question had the gathering burst out in a murmur.

“So it would seem... At least for now,” Anya responded. “Don’t lose hope. The fort has many trained soldiers. They’ll have a plan already. I’m sure of it.”

At that, the group dispersed. Some whispered, clearly not convinced by the captain’s words.

“I’ll see you later dad, I’ll go speak with the others for a bit,” Erend said with a smile and ran up to his friends. “Hey, guys!”

“Look who decided to wake up. Seems you’re always unconscious every time I see you today,” Charles responded with a snicker.

“How’s the arm?” Albert interjected.

“It’s fine. Sorry about that, I don’t know how I could make a mistake like that.”

“It’s fine. It was your first time in a fight,” Albert waved him off.

Except it wasn’t.

He continued, “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again. Next time you might not have a cleric nearby to bail you out.”

“Yeah, sorry again. I’ll pay more attention.”

Albert nodded along, satisfied with Erend’s answer.

“How’d everything go for you guys?” Erend asked and shifted his attention to Charles and Cordelia.

“Johann was great. He taught me a lot, but I’ll be covered in bruises if I’m to keep learning from him,” Charles said with a strained smile. “It’s probably worth it though.”

“As for me, I’ve just been walking with Anya all day. She’s nice, but I don’t feel like I’ve been much help.”

“I’m sure you’ve done just about as much as most people,” Charles reassured her once again.

Albert let out a gasp, “Woah, guys look.”

To each side of the group loomed the spines of tall mountains, piercing the clouds above. A deep canyon separated the mountain ranges apart, inside it, a large forest spanned, filled with pale, leafless trees. The ground was greener than green, covered by the same moss that climbed on all the buildings in town.

“The dead forest – I’ve only ever heard of it before,” Erend whispered, awestruck by the breathtaking sight.

“Me too,” conceded Charles. “It’s quite odd, isn’t it? We’ve been living here for years, yet this is the first time we leave the city.”

Thus traveled the group, taking in the beautiful scenery. They traveled for hours, yet remained in the dead forest when it became time to set up camp for the night.

The sun had begun to set, painting the canyon with a flaming, orange light.

“Johann. You and Carl will take the first watch. After that it’ll be Albert and Jack, I’ll take the last watch by myself,” Anya ordered while the rest of the group went about building crude shelters. Only the guards had tents ready, and those were promised to the children and elderly.

The canyon worked wonders with sheltering the group from the wind, at least most of the time. A few times now, when the wind hit just right, it entered the canyon, as if entering a funnel, creating powerful gusts that sent their luggage flying. They’d grown used to it by now, most had tied their luggage to the horse-drawn carts they’d brought along, others held onto their belongings for dear life.

“I can help with the last guard,” Erend offered, “I fell asleep on the cart on the way here, so I’m well rested.”

“And you’re unarmed,” Anya countered.

“Right, sorry about that.”

“He can borrow a dagger from me,” Johann said, pulling one from a hidden sheathe on his leg. “I’ve got plenty.”

“Alright then,” conceded Anya. “I’ll wake you up when it’s our turn.”

With that, the group went to sleep. Erend lay awake for a while, looking at the beautiful tapestry of stars.

He felt a tugging in the back of his mind and tried to feel what it was that bothered him, he fell asleep.

Erend woke up standing on an empty field. He looked around, no horde was charging at him, no army was standing around him – he was alone.

What’s this now?

He thought back to his meeting with the pale woman.

She said the dreams were visions of what might come – that they were mine to use and to control.

But how?

He thought back to when he used the spell impression, pocket.

Back then, he’d had to will the clock to appear in the ripple again. He decided to test it out. He thought of the dreams, the approaching horde, and the army he’d been standing with.

A tug at the back of his mind made him feel like he was on the right path. He focused on the tug, closing his eyes, concentrating on the dreams he’d lived through.

Around him, the atmosphere trembled, and the ground shook.

Then, piece by piece, the world fell away, like pieces of a puzzle being replaced one by one.

When he opened his eyes again, he stood in a field of wheat. A gentle gust of wind ruffled his hair, and the sun shone, warming him to the bone.

On the field stood a woman. The woman was blonde and had pointed ears, she wore an earthy brown robe, contrasting her oddly grey skin.

The woman laid her wild eyes upon him and abruptly stomped her feet down taking a horse stance. The earth beneath her quaked in response, sending out erratic pulses that had the ground erupt. Floating stones gathered around her and covered her from her head to her toes.

She sucked in a greedy breath of air and sent a fist Erend’s way. A moment later, the ground beneath him exploded into a million pieces, giving way to a massive, earthen spike.