“I did this to save my son!” a poor farmer claims. “Only there I had a chance to find something able to cure him!”
“So you are not denying entering the underlands?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“No, but I’ve returned untainted! You can check this yourselves!”
“Yet you could have been,” I feel pity for the man. “Your behaviour endangered everyone in the village.”
“But my son… If I had not searched for a cure he would have died!”
“The laws value a common good above wellbeing of a one,” I continue. “You might have been lucky, but if more have tried to do as you had, it would be an end to this village.”
My companion waits for my nod before speaking with a finality in his voice:
“The arbiters have found you guilty of breaking the Overlord’s laws. The punishment is death.”
“What? No!” the man’s scream disappears in the roar of evoked flames.
“Now we need to take care of the boy,” he moves away from the charred corpse.
“If he is free of the taint, he should be left alone,” I object. “The justice was already delivered.”
“He is profiting from his father’s crime. Letting him be might encourage the others to break the laws.”
“He wasn’t asking for this,” I look at him coldly, “You are no longer trying to upkeep the laws, you only want to make an example out of them. There is a difference!”
In the end, I have convinced him.
But when we saw the boy, our argument turned out to be void.
- Ion’s dream journal
“One day, I will become a bard, like you! See the world, all of its magnificent cities,” Sarah said as they laid next to each other.
“I've told you already; I’m a wizard, not a bard,” Ion said, playing with the girl’s long hair.
“Sure,” she giggled, drinking from a bottle of brooch they took from the tavern. “Everyone knows that wizards are old, grizzled and generally no fun to be around; you can just stop pretending.”
Ion sighed and took a sip as she passed him the bottle. The villagers labelled both Reria and him as travelling performers and there was no way to convince them otherwise.
As the girl shifted he felt something much stiffer than the skin of her breast under his fingers.
“What’s this?
“Nothing, only a burn I got while working in the house,” she touched a scar at the side of her chest. It looked like three triangles starting from a single point.
They heard laughter as some villagers passed outside the barn.
“It’s getting late, I should return home soon.”
Ion kissed her and moved her on top of him.
The girl giggled.
“Convincing me to stay longer?”
****
They dressed up and Sarah hugged Ion goodbye.
“I hope to see you again on your way back,” she winked before running away.
Ion also left, heading to the barn they were actually meant to sleep in. He tried to evoke a glowing ball of light to guide his way through the village, yet all he managed to create was a dim shape that he had troubles to maintain. He was probably drunker than he had thought. And the road back without the pleasant company seemed much longer now.
When Ion passed the tavern, music was still playing; probably slightly out of tune. When he heard booming Thaleus’ laughter he briefly considered returning there. However, just thinking about drinking anything more made him feel sick.
“Just a few meters.”
His efforts to reach the barn were rewarded and he fell asleep as soon as he lied down.
“Have you enjoyed the party?” Ion wasn’t sure whatever he heard Sae or just imagined it.
***
“I’m not drinking with you anymore, Thaleus,” Ciros said as they rode.
“C’mon Ciros, Ion wasn’t complaining when they’ve been serving us beers the whole night.”
“He might have a good idea to go sleeping earlier,” the half-elf commented.
“Drink fast and end the party even faster,” Reria added. “But judging by his looks, it hadn’t helped him much.”
Waking up in the morning and preparing for travel was hard. Ion remembered quite vividly making up with Sarah but had no idea how he returned afterwards.
He yawned. Visions mixed with nightmares hadn’t helped in getting a good night’s rest.
“I’m only drinking water the next time,” all but Sae laughed hearing his declaration.
“You know, it’s unhealthy,” Thaleus said, “drinking water, I mean. Ages ago, nobody remembers how anymore, a dwarven alchemist found out about invisible monsters often living inside the water. He believed that after swallowing them, one could easily get sick. He experimented for years, until he found out, that if there is alcohol inside the water, those monsters can’t grow anymore. Since then, dwarves are practising the art of brewing,” he concluded proudly. “If you must, at least drink a watered beer!”
Dorian and Ciros chuckled hearing the dwarf.
“There might be a truth to the story,” Ion pondered. “Father told me once, that there was an epidemic during the campaign against the Phenyth Kingdom. The army’s clerics deemed it necessary for at least one soldier in every unit to learn Purify Water cantrip to prevent further spreading of the disease.”
“Humans always come up with strange solutions to simple problems,” Thaleus shook his head.
“Guys, you know that boiling water is a thing, right?” Reria interjected again, before returning to analysing the scroll she had in hands.
“Nah, it is surely not enough!” Thaleus claimed. “Ale is safer!”
“Sae, you seem quiet,” Dorian said. “Have you found anything extraordinary yesterday?”
“Well, it depends what are you considering to be extraordinary…” the girl hesitated for a moment. “I checked a few houses, but hadn’t found anything that I could relate with cults...”
“Wait! You broke into their houses?”
“It wasn’t breaking! The buildings were left almost open, I just looked around,” she said innocently. “And no, I haven’t taken anything!”
“So our only leads about any cult out there are rumours about wandering priests?” Ciros sighed. “Considering that from what we heard so far they were helping the villagers, I doubt that they are the ones we are looking for.”
“Those priests are suspicious. After all, they wouldn’t openly advertise an evil cult, they would try to somehow lure villagers to them, right?” Reria said, still focused on the scroll.
“If they really had some inferior motif, someone would have noticed anything,” the ranger was sceptical. “Reria, what are we even searching for?”
“The refugee I talked with was really frightened, enough for me to believe her. She claimed about being from Smallrock-”
“I checked the maps after talking with you for the first time,” Sae interrupted her. “There is no such village; I’ve seen only labels for Stillrock or Tarbrock.”
“Maybe it wasn’t labelled?”
“If so, we are searching in the wrong area, because none of the villagers I talked with heard the name.”
“I must have misheard then; it might have been Stillrock.”
“It looks like Crestfall is our best bet,” Dorian said. “If we find nothing there, we can check Stillrock, it’s only a few hours of travel west.”
“Damn!” Reria’s suddenly shouted. She was immediately followed by an explosion as the scroll she was holding caught fire and crumbled to dust. “By the Nine Hells, it hurts!”
The girl fell from her scared horse as it rushed forward in panic.
“You just burned 8 gold!” Sae screamed, horrified.
Ciros and Dorian rushed to check if Reria was fine.
“It sometimes happens when learning new spells,” Ion sighed, hurrying his mount to catch Reria’s. And immediately regretting it, feeling sick from the sudden change of pace.
After the crisis was solved, Ion produced two remaining spellscrolls from his bag and reluctantly handed one to Reria.
“We don’t have anymore. If we fail to learn this spell, then only Dorian would be able to use it…”
“And I don’t have capacities to cast spells that often,” the paladin nodded. “Deities might be willing to share their divine powers with mortals they have chosen, but those who are able to use spells efficiently pursue the path of a cleric, not a paladin.”
“You don’t have to remind me,” Reria huffed, mounting the horse. “I will be careful now.”
“You shouldn’t have rushed like this copying the spell. Just take your time. And either study it or talk, you’ve seen how doing both at the same time ends.”
“I thought that you finished the act after we’ve left the manor. But of course, Master,” Ion heard sarcasm and annoyance in Reria’s voice before she urged the horse to move away from him.
He only rolled his eyes before directing his attention towards the second scroll he took out.
****
Reria’s mood only worsened after Ion asked the group to make a short break so that he could copy the spell without distractions.
She should have done that herself before trying it with the first scroll. Judging by her expression she was angry with herself for not thinking about this. At least her second scroll was so far still intact.
Ion drew dormant mana contained within the spellscroll, using it to engrave and perfect the image of the spell he already had within his memory, before finishing the pattern he was writing inside his spellbook.
After the scroll turned into dust, he carefully examined the effect of his work. He produced a vial from his bag of holding and chanted, pouring some of its content onto himself.
Ion felt a slight movement of energies as he finished the incantation, yet the sensation was gone as soon as it began.
“Had it worked?” Ciros gave him a quizzical look. “For a moment light engulfed you, but it disappeared almost immediately.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I should have used more holy water when I chanted?”
“Maybe you failed to copy it correctly?” Reria asked with barely suppressed hope in her voice.
“Yet I can still feel the slight strain the spell is causing to my mana…”
“You don’t look any different to me,” Sae stared at Ion and poked him with her finger. “Ew! An electric jerk? You don't need spells for that.”
“Really, what have you expected?” Thaleus sighed. ”A holy armour hovering around him?”
“That would be something!” the rogue smiled.
“It is a matter of believing that the deity you are asking for support shields you or your target from the creatures that shouldn’t exist in our world… at least that’s how we, paladins cast it. For you, wizards I have no idea.”
“Maybe some wizard of old observed the patterns by which mana flowed when cleric used the spell and somehow copied it?” Ion mused.
When using spells, not only their pattern had to be correct, the caster also needed to fill the mana with his intent and actually have an understanding of what, and preferably how, he was trying to achieve, to manifest them correctly and to the full effect.
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Ion felt that the pattern in which he weaved the mana was working fine, even if sluggish. Maybe he should have visualised? Imagined that it coalesces into a shield against demons or other inhabitants of the Infernal Planes?
He tried to do so and immediately noticed that some of the energies surrounding him became more lively, as if filled with a purpose – for the lack of a better word to describe his feelings.
“All in all, except for a short flash of light I’ve never seen any other visible effect when the spell was used,” Dorian reassured.
“It’s not like I expected to master a spell immediately after learning it,” Ion shrugged.
At least he had a hunch how to progress further.
“Say all that you want, but there’s no way to be sure until we check the effect of the spell on some demon.” Sae grinned. “Anyone wishes to bet whether it’s working or not?”
“It’s nice to have someone believe in you,” Ion sighed when Thaleus and Reria discussed details of their bet with Sae.
****
“Are we there yet?” Thaleus asked once again, annoying anyone.
Comparing to the road they travelled yesterday, the distance between villages was growing larger.
“No.”
“How far away could that damn village be?”
As if answering the dwarf’s question, sudden screams sounded a little ahead of them.
“Finally something happens!” the dwarf exclaimed as the group brandished their weapons urging horses to move faster.
Trees thinned, revealing a village. Most of the buildings were wooden, one or two storied. It was noticeably larger than the hamlet they stayed in the last night.
Ion could see panicked villagers running between the houses, fleeing from something.
“Some of the buildings are burning, hurry!” Dorian hastened them.
Ion thought that the faint smoke they were seeing from the distance was produced by chimneys, yet it was steadily growing denser as they approached. He saw one of the fleeing villagers fell as a small, greyish humanoid jumped on him. He could only imagine the villager’s pained scream as three more vicious creatures bit and pierced him with their claws before they moved to chase others.
“Goblins!” Ciros released an arrow and despite them being almost 200 meters from the beasts managed to hit one with it. “We must help the villagers!”
The ranger continued to shoot from his longbow as the rest of the group took him over, galloping forward. They were still too far for Ion or Reria to try using their spells against the goblins.
And there were dozens of them.
Most were barely clothed and unarmed, yet there was a few wearing crudely sewn together furs or leathers, wielding some kind of weapons. Moreover, between the tide of small creatures, Ion could spot a few hairy, overgrown goblinoids. Contrary to regular goblins, which looked famished, the big creatures were ripped with muscles.
Ion’s group was still halfway to the village, when it became visible to them that some of its denizens was fighting back.
There was a few burly axemen who seemingly rallied villagers armed in farming tools. They were trying to slow down the creatures. From windows of the buildings, arrows and stones were falling on them. Some of the goblins responded, trying to set wooden houses on fire with their torches.
Being finally in range to affect the goblins with spells, Ion decided to focus on the group that was trying to push back the villagers. Not wanting to further damage the village’s buildings, Ion hurled several Scorching Rays on the creatures. Even before they connected, not having to divert his attention towards eventual enemies that could immediately attack him, he targeted other creatures and chanted the spell once again.
The effects of his spells gave him a pause. Where the fiery rays touched goblins, their greyish skin turned charcoal black. Some monsters managed to dodge his attacks, yet with so many others around, it only meant that their companions were directly hit. The small explosions that followed every hit left nearby creatures with severe burns and blisters. Previously angry screams of goblins turned to vails of pain and fear.
‘Are these creatures really so weak? When I was sparring with Windhelm’s guards they could often withstand being hit by a few rays before yielding. And their effects on them weren’t so severe, not even when their clothes caught fire. Even most of the beasts I hunted with Ryan were more resistant to effects of magic…’
The fortunate goblins died instantly. Pained screams of those still alive were immediately swallowed by unsettling, crunching sounds as Dorian’s charging horse trampled creatures. Sae tried to follow in his steps, yet the ruckus made her animal panic, unwilling to follow her orders.
Taking a glance around, Ion spotted Thaleus’ horse a little behind his own, and the angry dwarf running to them, visibly cursing at his mount.
The flames which Ion had evoked and the paladin’s charge were enough to break the goblins’ morale; those unhurt wavered and started to retreat, letting the villagers easily finish beasts lagging behind.
However, their retreat was short lived.
As soon as the fastest runner reached a larger, hairy goblinoid, it barked something in guttural language and immediately smashed the unfortunate creature with its club. The sight was enough to make the little greyskins turn and reluctantly charge against Ion’s group.
Before they even took a few steps, Reria finally finished the spell she had started to cast when they rode.
A streak of flames flashed in her hands, distorting the air from heat. She threw it towards the beasts. In the middle of the group, it blossomed with a roar, creating an explosion of flame, swallowing almost all goblins. The flames receded almost immediately, leaving only charred husks of the beasts.
And remains of a wooden wall of the nearby house, which was set on fire. It seemed that contrary to Ion, Reria wasn’t afraid about making collateral damage.
Ion choked when the stench of burned flesh and hair assaulted his nostrils.
The sight of so many goblins turned to dust so quickly was enough to finally convince the larger goblinoid to flee. Ciros sent few arrows after it, yet even with two struck in its back, the beast continued to run.
“Warehouse!” a heavy breathing farmer was running from another part of the village. “They are attacking the warehouse!”
“Uther’s cock!” the axman leading the militia group cursed. “It must have been a distraction. At first group of gobbears on the south, now this. Hurry!”
“But my house, it’s going to burn down!” another villager cried, pointing towards the building Reria’s spell set on fire. “Help me get water from the well.”
“There’s no time, if we lost the preserved meat or grain we won’t make it through the winter!”
Ion looked at the house; he doubted that Reria had a spell able to put the flames down; she told him that making her frosty armour was the height of her skills in manipulating ice. Ion himself was sure that his icy breath won’t be sufficient, nor would be the weak cantrip, Frost Ray, which he discreetly learned from Sten (of course pretending to be tutoring him on the said spell).
Maybe if he tried to… no, he shook his head.
“We will protect the warehouse, just lead the way,” Ion offered. “Take care of your houses.”
The weary villager looked as if he hadn't noticed them until now.
“It is in that direction,” he pointed. “But they have many vargrs and some gobbears…”
The axman looked unconvinced for a moment, but relented, looking at his battered group of militia.
“Mages, if you are willing to help us we will be glad. But I beg you, don’t set the warehouse on fires too.”
“Nobody will,” Dorian sent Reria disapproving glance and the girl slightly reddened.
“I will check the wounded and join you as soon as possible,” Ciros dismounted. Some villagers from the axman’s group were bleeding from wounds, few were lying, barely breathing. Everyone looked to be alive, but that could have changed without immediate attention to some of them.
Dorian, Sae, Reria and Ion ushered their horses in the direction pointed by the villager.
“Hey, wait for me!” Thaleus run behind, trying to catch them.
Only moments later they could clearly hear the clatter of weapons. In front of the large building – the first built mostly from stones, not wood that Ion noticed in this village – the denizens were fighting with the goblins.
Judging by the moaning, bleeding silhouettes near the broken entrance, some of the villagers desperately tried to charge when the monsters broke inside, yet were taken down by the four gobbears, Ion guessed the term was used for the larger goblinoids. The remaining villagers seemed to be vary to approach them again, all the while harassed by close to thirty small greyskins.
Contrary to the vicious, almost unarmed beasts they fought earlier, all of them was wearing some kind of leather armour and were armed with spears or clubs. Not only this goblins were better nourished, but they also seemed to be more coordinated. They actually fought like a group, aiming for villagers who overextend themselves instead of recklessly charging.
And time seemed to be to their advantage.
Through the broken doors of the warehouse, goblins riding vargrs were escaping. Their mounts were almost a meter tall, barely resembling the small pups Ion experimented on.
Both, the riders and their vargrs, were carrying as much meat as they could. As soon as they were outside, ignoring everyone, they were hurrying out of the village.
When they were close to the enemy, Sae quickly jumped from her horse and rushed to help villagers. Dorian, followed, trying to dismount from the mount as quickly as possible in his plate, probably not wanting to risk using his unarmoured and untrained horse against spear-wielding monsters. Moreover, from what Ion knew about horses, most of them were scared of vargrs, so trying to get them too close was a bad idea.
In meanwhile, Ion and Reria used their spells from the distance. Wanting to thin the goblins encircling villagers, Ion began hurling Scorching Rays as before.
He immediately noticed that those creatures were more resilient. They were still suffering from heavy burns with each cast, but most of them continued fighting even after suffering from two or three hits from rays.
He changed his approach. Ion chanted the words of control, focusing on two gobbears, feeling his mana invading their bodies, severing their authority over most of the muscles.
Afterwards, he shortly sang once more, conjuring an idea of the web over the broken entrance to the warehouse. His mana coalesced, forming the sticky barrier which he hoped would be enough to slow the creatures plundering it for a while.
“Just one fireball and the whole fight would have been already over,” Reria murmured, sending streaks of energy towards the clustered monsters.
When Ion had seen her casting this spell for the first time, he thought that it was a slightly empowered magic missile, yet the more he observed her, the more he doubted this.
‘Another spell that would be nice to learn from her,’ he thought, waving his hands to project mana darts from his fingers.
“For beards and glory!”
“Nice for you to finally join us!” Thaleus ignored Ion as he passed them and joined the melee.
With two out of four gobbears paralysed, with Dorian’s Sae’s and Thaleus’ assistance, the villagers seemed to be dispatching the remaining goblins with relative ease. Maybe not so fast as he expected after witnessing the earlier encounter – those here were seriously tougher! – but still enough for Ion to decide to conserve his mana and support them only with magic missiles.
As Ion observed the group of ten denizens that still kept on fighting against the goblins, he was really impressed.
They were good.
He even felt envy seeing one of them, a boy no older than 12 winters, nimbly fighting with a spear. Ion had to unwillingly admit, that despite his years of training, he might have troubles in a mock battle against him, should he refrain from using magic.
‘Yeah, I really should leave sticks to others’ Ion thought, seeing the boy’s spearhead piercing through an eye of one of the goblins.
Feeling that the web he had conjured was almost destroyed, he chanted once more, hoping to stall the creatures trapped inside the warehouse for longer.
Suddenly, he noticed a javelin hurled by one of the unparalysed gobbears flying against him. He instantly covered himself with Shield, which managed to deflect the missile, but his frightened horse suddenly pranced, causing him to fall to the ground.
It was so unexpected that he felt the spell slipping from his mind, the mana he channelled no longer under his control. Moreover, before he reinforced his control over Hold Person, one of the gobbears managed to break free and furiously attacked people around it.
Before he recovered, five vargr riders left the warehouse and dashed away. Dorian managed to cleave one of them with his greatsword, before returning to his fight against the gobbear. Ion and Reria casted their spells, taking down another vargr.
The three remaining vargrs managed to reach the corner of the building when they clashed against a group of dozen people.
Contrary to villagers, they were equipped with armours and shields, wearing tabards that Ion remembered from Leisha’s Crossroads. Of one of the noble houses.
Seeing even more humans coming against them, the gobbear who fought against Dorian growled something and jumped away, forcing the villagers to spread out to avoid his club.
Afterwards, the monster ran, followed by another two gobbears and remaining few goblins. Villagers tried to catch the fleeing beasts, yet hearing the barked order six more vargr riders rode out of the warehouse and started harassing the group, giving their allies the opportunity to retreat.
By the time the soldiers finished vargr riders on their side, the villagers along with Ion’s party dealt with the still paralysed gobbear and took down struggling goblins and one of the harassing vargr riders.
“Eat this, bastard!” Ion felt an odd satisfaction when after casting a few spells, he managed to take down a retreating, limping gobbear – the same one who hurled the javelin against him.
“Damn critters!” one of the soldiers approached them. “Too late we've found out that they were purposefully luring us out of the village.”
“You said that you were there to help us!” an angry villager left the warehouse which he inspected immediately after goblins started to retreat. “And now half of the meat we stored is gone! If not more!”
“And whose fault is this? You allowed that cleric to take, like fifty fighters from the village? And how many returned? Not even ten!” the soldier spat. “Earlier, you turned down mercenaries, claiming you don't need them anymore! Be glad that you have anything left, because if not for them,” he pointed at Ion’s group, “you probably wouldn’t have anything.”
“Priest Friedrich is still securing the ruins they had turned into a nest,” a spear-wielding youth said. “We killed or chased away most of the goblins who lived there and are now sweeping the area around…”
“Of course boy, you are doing a perfect job. And don’t know a shit about goblins. I was said that the ruins were mainly inhabited by gobbears. You slew them, forced rest to flee, maybe even killed their leader. Admirable,” he snorted. "But the problem is, that damned goblins, which for gobbears were nothing more than lackeys, had a nest somewhere close to them.”
“So we will find it and get rid of them too…”
“Too late for this, probably. After you slew the gobbears, what remained of their tribe was probably too afraid to stay around the castle. With you ‘sweeping the area’ they have probably abandoned it, looking for another place to live. But with the goblins breeding like rabbits, they needed to get rid of their youths and weak, or risk famine during the winter. And probably one of the more clever chieftains thought that by attacking your village, they could also get revenge.”
“Why they try to get rid of their youths?” Sae asked.
“Wizards stationing in the Goblin’s Valley made some research. They concluded that the amount of spawns female goblins gives birth to depends on the amount of food they had before, and shortly after, getting impregnated. Their pregnancy lasts around one moon, before they deliver up to fifteen spawns,” seeing their unbelieving stares the guard added, “well, I’ve been told, that if they bear more than ten, their bellies are literally ripped open during the delivery.”
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“The problem with their youths is, that after the third or fourth month of their lives, even if they are still almost mindless, they also become extremely aggressive. Oh, and if they get nothing to fight, they try to further procreate. Because why the hell not. Even if most of them can’t, at least not for a year or two. It subsides around the fourth year of life, and those that survive develop a semblance of intelligence. And those who won’t were just a damn annoying arrow fodder.”
The soldier pointed at the corpse of one of the creatures.
“Judging by the grey skin colour, they lived in the mountain caves; goblins living on the plains usually have yellowish skin. Something must have chased them from the south. Now, they are looking for a place capable of sustaining their population. As they were forced to abandon their newest dwelling, they must either thin their population to survive in an area with less food or get rid of the predator contesting their territory. Both of which they can achieve attacking the villages. Depending on their numbers, this village might not be the only one to be attacked in the coming days. Shit, we should report this...”
“Someone has to warn Priest Friedrich!” the boy run after listening to the soldier's divagations.
In the meanwhile, Ciros arrived at the warehouse. Together with Ion and Dorian, they assisted in treating wounded villagers. Ion decided to sacrifice some of his healing ointments and Sae’s costumes.
Usage of the latter caused the girl to send him some disapproving glances. Yup, among the first things that ended up cut for makeshift bandages was a dress Ion wore on Leisha’s graveyard. For the greater good!
During the work, Ion noticed that Dorian seemed tense, warily looking around.
“Something’s wrong?” he used a Message cantrip.
“Hard to say. Just keep your eyes open,” not a very assuring answer.
Despite their efforts, some of the villagers who were protecting the warehouse still died. Two were already dead even before they first checked on them.
Four more succumbed to their wounds. Neither mixtures the village’s herbalist brought immediately after the goblins fled nor Ion’s ointments helped. The healing spells Dorian and Ciros used were also without any effect. They were beyond their abilities, there was nothing they could do to save them.
Except it was not entirely true.
If they had had specially prepared diamonds or other precious stones, Dorian might have tried Reviving them. At least those whose lives had been visibly dimming as they futilely tried to help them. Maybe he had the required gems? Maybe he was simply unwilling to spend something that precious to try saving a stranger, risking inability of helping a friend later?
Ion could have tried sharing his lifeforce with them. But unlike when he healed Lara, their wounds weren’t ‘just’ severe, they were critical. And he hadn’t had any excess lifeforce stored inside his body. Who knows what sort of dangers this would have caused to himself?
Maybe he should have asked the villagers, maybe one of them would have offered to spend his lifeforce for a neighbour? But how would they react to him casting such spells? And even if they would have accepted his magic, the soldiers of House Faranger could have noticed it and connected it to the rumours about the necromancer.
Would any of the methods work? Hard to say.
Should Ion have tried? Considering all the risks for himself? To save the strangers, who just as well might die the next day? Absolutely not.
It was a reasonable decision. So why it was still bothering him?
‘Maybe their lives were just destined to end here? Would their prolonged existence serve something more in the grand picture?’ Ion recalled the words, not Vision-he’s, but of a priest they have travelled with not even a month ago.
He laughed bitterly; how can it be enough to ease someone’s conscience?
Unaware of Ion’s dilemmas, one of the soldiers from earlier approached them again, “The villagers themselves should be able to take care of the rest of the wounded.”
The herbalist nodded, “I will keep an eye on them during the night. You’ve already done more to them than I expected any travellers to do. Go, you surely have more urgent things to do.”
“Our commander would like to have a word with your group,” the soldier said.