“That was just as good the next day,” Anna said patting her belly.

“It was good, but you didn’t have to make a pig of yourself like that,” Lyreen replied.

Anna let out a long, loud belch.

“What is wrong with you?” Lyreen asked.

“Nothing now,” Anna replied.

Lyreen gave her a disgusted look and shook her head.

“I agree with Anna. It was a delightful meal, both times,” Victor, the man she’d rescued, added.

“I’d better have been seeing as I paid for you to eat it,” Anna replied.

“Another thing I’m grateful to you for,” he said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Anna replied.

“I could show you how grateful I am if you’re willing,” he said.

Anna turned to look at the man and found that he had a dirty smile on his face.

“The only way I want to see that is if it slaps you in the calf when you run,” she replied.

Her friends burst into laughter, and the dirty smile slipped from his face being replaced by shock.

“By the goddess, if it hung that low, I’d like to see it too!” Barika added.

“It isn’t the length of the sword, but it’s the wielder’s skill that wins a battle,” Victor said.

“That’s true, but you still aren’t going to slay a dragon with a short sword no matter how good you are,” Anna replied.

Her friends laughed again, and this time Victor joined them.

“Looks like this is a battle that won’t soon be won,” he said.

“You’re never going to get me, but I might let you wash my hair sometime,” Anna replied.

The dirty smile returned to his face.

“You won’t be smiling when you actually have to do it,” Lyreen said.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“You’ll find out,” Lyreen replied.

“Seriously, what do you mean?” he asked.

Lyreen just chuckled and kept walking.

The next few weeks passed by quickly as they made their way south. Their new companion was a source of entertainment for her and broke up some of the monotony of their trip with his stories, though she doubted most of the things he claimed to have done actually happened.

I wish he could just stay with us, but he doesn’t want to go to the Spice Islands or even Eagle’s Bay. Oh, well. I have another day to spend with him. Maybe we can do something fun when we get to town! Wait, no, we aren’t going to be staying in town. It’s still early, and we need to keep going.

They reached the town a few hours later. It wasn’t all that different from any other town other than there were hardly any beast folk.

They must all be living in the other town. I wonder why that is? Oh, I know, maybe they don’t have ranches around here. We are getting close to the forest, so I bet beasts or monsters come out, and they might eat the cows.

They stopped in the center of town, and Victor smiled at her.

“I’m not good at saying goodbye, so I’ll see you later,” he said.

She grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug. He froze for a moment before putting his arms around her.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said.

“I’m going to miss you, too,” he replied.

“If you’re ever in Oldforge, swing by the Adventurer’s guild and say hi,” she said.

“I will,” he replied.

He let go and looked at her for a moment before turning and heading off towards the western gate. She watched him walk away until he disappeared into the crowd.

“I wonder if I’ll ever see him again,” she said.

“Who knows, lass, who knows,” Thokri replied.

He gave her shoulder a squeeze before they walked away themselves.

They headed south, reaching the forest road a few days later. Once there, they turned east. The forest to their right wasn’t right next to the road like it had been on the frontier or the wildlands. Someone kept it cleared a hundred yards or so back.

To their left were fields and small farmhouses, though the farmhouses were more than a mile away from the forest, and most had walls around them. She also spotted ruins here and there, mostly abandoned farmhouses, but there were a few piles of rubble that dated back to the old empire.

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“So, why is there a forest here anyway?” Anna asked.

“’Cause there’s a shitload of trees growing all around, lass,” Thokri replied.

“Okay, so why is there a shitload of trees growing in between Oldforge and the biggest river in the kingdom? You know, the one that has the only major port and connects to all the other kingdoms and the empire? I mean, it doesn’t make any sense if you think about it,” Anna said.

“It’s filled with monsters, so it’s easier to go around,” Lyreen replied.

“So is the frontier, and they cleared the road all the way to Endertown going east and then all the way past Fishport going south, so cutting through this forest shouldn’t be a problem for them at all,” Anna said.

“There’s probably a battlefield from the mage war in there. Those places are still filled with all kinds of nasty stuff,” Elaine replied.

“Even after ten thousand years?” Anna asked.

“Yes, some of those spells they used were so powerful they might never fade away,” Elaine replied.

“What started it?” Anna asked.

“No one knows, child,” Barika replied.

“That’s not entirely true,” Elaine added.

Everyone turned to look at the necromancer.

“One of the books I read in the library at the necromancer’s guild hall had a firsthand account from an arch-lich who lived, or rather unlived, through the mage wars,” Elaine said.

“Do you think we can trust the word of an undead?” Barika asked.

“In this case, yes,” Elaine replied.

“Please continue then,” Barika said.

“Alright. So, the mage-emperor Urhammu had twin sons, Merodach-bal-uzur, and Nabu-ekhi-erba. Merodach-bal-uzur was the older of the twins and heir to the throne, so Nabu-ekhi-erba was sent to the celestial tower so he could train to be the mage of the high heavens,” Elaine replied.

“What’s that?” Anna asked.

“It was the title given to the second most powerful mage in the old empire. Basically, he was going to become his brother’s right-hand man,” Elaine replied.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Anna said.

“It really wasn’t. Anyway, from everything I read, it sounds like the brothers got along just fine, at least until their father died and Nabu-ekhi-erba returned home from the celestial tower to take his place by the throne. He brought his wife with him.

See, he fell in love with a moon elf woman and married her in secret at the tower. Merodach-bal-uzur flew into a rage and demanded that Nabu-ekhi-erba divorce her immediately saying that he won’t have the royal bloodline tainted by an elf,” Elaine said.

“I don’t see why he was worried. It’s not easy for humans and elves to have children,” Lyreen added.

“It’s not easy, no, but back then, it was no big deal,” Elaine replied.

“So, what happened next?” Anna asked.

“Merodach-bal-uzur had his brother and his sister-in-law arrested. He locked his brother in a tower and executed his sister-in-law by having her flayed, making sure Nabu-ekhi-erba could hear her screams. After that, he had her body dismembered and displayed in the courtyard. Nabu-ekhi-erba escaped from the tower and fled the capital, returning to the celestial tower. He convinced the mages at the tower that his brother had broken the law by executing his wife because they had been married at the great goddess’s temple, and that meant she had been a royal, and killing a royal, even if they committed a crime, was against the law. The high mage of the celestial tower sent a message to Merodach-bal-uzur demanding he explain himself, and he responded by sending an army to take the tower by force. The mages annihilated the army, and in an act of retribution for his wife, Nabu-ekhi-erba destroyed his brother’s private estate, killing his wife and children,” Elaine replied.

“It sounds like both brothers were dicks,” Anna said.

“They really were, and it gets worse. After the death of his family, Merodach-bal-uzur claimed his brother had committed treason, which is the one thing a royal could be executed for by the way. He also claimed the celestial tower was complicit in the act and demanded that the other mage towers aid him in bringing the criminals to justice. Only half the towers agreed to help him. The other half joined the celestial tower, saying that the mage emperor had gone too far when he executed his sister-in-law because both sides were roughly the same strength. So, there ended up being a tense stand-off, at least until Merodach-bal-uzur sent his brother his wife’s severed head as a birthday present,” Elaine replied.

“Goddess above,” Barika said.

“Yeah, honestly, even the lich thought that was fucked up. So, understandably, Nabu-ekhi-erba retaliated by destroying the fortress city of Nineveh where Merodach-bal-uzur’s best friend, General Rubati, was stationed. Rubati was killed in the attack along with the entire population of the city. With the loss of his friend, Merodach-bal-uzur lost what little compassion he might have had and launched attacks on every place that might have sympathy for his brother or the celestial tower. His forces showed no mercy, putting everyone to the sword as they marched. Nabu-ekhi-erba and his allies weren’t any kinder. They utterly destroyed any place that had allied with Merodach-bal-uzur. Towns, villages, and cities burned, and the places where the two forces met in battle, reality itself was warped by the cataclysmic magics used, causing rifts to form, letting things from outside of our realm leak in,” Elaine said.

“Like me!” Anna replied.

“Not really. The lich also wrote that the things that leaked in wreaked havoc until they evaporated into nothingness,” Elaine said.

“Oh, yeah, that’s different,” Anna replied.

“Anyway, the war went on like this for ten years. It finally ended when a servant poisoned Merodach-bal-uzur. With him dead, Nabu-ekhi-erba went to the capital to claim the throne, but he was killed and cannibalized by the starving people,” Elaine said.

“Do what now?” Anna asked.

“They ate him,” Thokri replied.

“Ewww,” Anna said.

“Lad had it coming,” Thokri replied.

“Maybe, but you’re still not supposed to eat people,” Anna said.

“I’m not done yet!” Elaine said.

“Sorry,” Anna replied.

“Alright, where was I? That’s right. Both brothers died, and with them, the royal family was no more, so the nobles started to fight amongst themselves to claim the throne. None of them were able to do so though, and the empire just splintered apart, forming dozens of petty kingdoms. After that happened, the lich decided he’d had enough of the living and left, leaving his account behind in the hopes people wouldn’t repeat such a folly,” Elaine said.

“A lich said that?” Barika asked.

“Yeah. He ended his account by saying that ninety-five out of every hundred people had died in the ten years of fighting, and that even being undead as he was, he found that loss of life disconcerting,” Elaine replied.

“Goddess, there were hundreds of millions of people living back then if the old stories are true,” Barika said.

“Is that a lot?” Anna asked.

“Aye, that’s more than everyone living in the mountain, lass,” Thokri replied.

She stopped walking and stared off into space, trying to imagine that many people.

“That’s just awful,” she said softly.

“And it didn’t need to happen,” Elaine replied.

“It didn’t?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, if Merodach-bal-uzur didn’t want elf blood in the family, all he had to do was disinherit any children Nabu-ekhi-erba’s wife had,” Elaine replied.

“What does that mean?” Anna asked.

“That no matter what happened, any of her children would never be emperor, so it’s like taking them out of the royal family without taking them out of the family,” Elaine replied.

“So, all of those people died for no reason?” Anna asked.

“Yes,” Elaine replied.

The party walked on in silence, thinking about what Elaine had told them.