I looked at Drackar and wondered, Is he trying to fleece me now?

He must have seen the doubt on my face, because he simply shrugged and stepped into the rain.

“Best if you talk directly to Borokhout the Earth mage. He’s by the caved-in shaft,” he said.

I hesitated, but no one seemed eager to throw down their cloak for me to keep my feet out of the mud. I would’ve even accepted being carried like a princess, but... no such luck. So, I followed him, and—worse than I expected—my feet sank ankle-deep into the muck, with every step making an awful, sucking sound, like plunging a clogged kitchen sink.

After what felt like a long march—though in reality, it was no more than three or four hundred steps from the office—we arrived at the collapsed shaft. What was once a tunnel was now a massive crater, about thirty meters wide and fifteen deep, with the bottom filled with water. Around twenty people were engaged in a Sisyphean task, hauling mud and water from the pit along a set of makeshift, spiraling stairs.

As I got closer, my left leg sank so deep into the mud that when I pulled it out, my shoe stayed behind.

No! These were fine shoes, and they had cost me two gold barely twenty days ago!

I yanked off the other one, but in the process, I slipped and fell on my side. Already down, I plunged my hand into the muck, nearly to my elbow, frantically searching for the lost shoe. It took a serious effort to pull it free—I was half afraid it would tear apart. Once I had both muddy, ruined shoes in hand, I stashed the poor things in my inventory.

Yeah, maybe I should’ve listened to Alice when she suggested I wear boots, but who in their right mind would have guessed I’d be wading through this kind of terrain?

I stood up, completely soaked, covered in mud, and freezing, while Drackar, undisturbed by my ordeal, shouted:

“Borokhout! What’s the situation?”

A bearded orc turned toward us.

“Worse than I thought! I have no idea what these humans were thinking. No reinforced walls! Even goblins do better work! We’re going to need a lot of new logs. Without them, the whole thing will cave in again!” he said, exasperated.

“What kind of wood? Where can we get it?” I asked.

He pointed off toward the distant hills—kilometers away.

The thought of felling and transporting trees from that distance completely deflated my spirits. Durham and the Xsoha were right—this could take long, maybe even weeks. Then an idea struck me.

“I think I have a solution!” I said. “I’ll ask Sid to help, though I’m not sure he’ll cut the wood exactly the way we need...”

Drackar chuckled. “We’ve got good loggers. If you can arrange the transport, we’ll handle the rest. But... how will Sid bring those logs?” He paused, then asked cautiously, “Sid’s the dragon, right?”

It seemed the idea of a dragon lending a hand was a bit hard to swallow, even for Drackar.

I nodded, then turned to the side and closed my eyes. Where was Sid, anyway? I hadn’t seen him for a while. Hopefully, he was still within range.

“Sid, Sid, can you hear me? I need your help!”

“Yes, Lores, I hear you,” came his reply.

I breathed a sigh of relief, though there was something cold and distant in his tone—unlike how he usually sounded in my mind. Still, I couldn’t dwell on that now. I quickly explained the situation.

“Can you come to the mine? You know where the village with the mine is, right? We need your help to carry some logs. People are trapped underground, and we need to dig them out.”

“I’m coming,” he responded.

Within minutes, Sid appeared, his massive wings casting a shadow over us, sending most of the workers into a panic—despite Drackar’s attempts to calm them. Several dropped to the ground, while others stood frozen in place.

Sid listened intently to our explanations, but the moment he spoke, it sent even more workers into a frenzy, and soon almost all the humans had fled.

Drackar’s command seemed to hold firm with his orcs, as none of them ran, though I could see they weren’t exactly comfortable staying within Sid’s reach. It was even more surprising when two loggers actually agreed to be carried in his claws.

As he took off, the force of the air and the spray of water nearly knocked us to the ground. It was the first time I noticed something odd: the gust from his wings pushed the air in one direction, yet a separate wave of water and mud surged ahead of him, spraying everything in that direction. There was more at play here than just the flapping of wings and wind, but I couldn’t quite figure out what.

Most of the people who had been frozen in place while Sid was here began to move again now that he was gone.

Not long after Sid left, I saw Alice making her way through the muddy streets toward us.

“They’re still arguing over who’s to blame,” she said, joining us. “But the priests have promised to hold a big, joint funeral sermon tomorrow for all those missing and presumed dead, to help ease the pain. Meanwhile, the Xsoha are suggesting you declare two or three days of mourning, then prepare to restart construction on a new mine. They believe it’s crucial for the domain to have a functioning mine. You may want to take a loan to cover for the interim period they say. You might want to talk to them about that. Also, they’re proposing you offer some charity to the victims’ families, but that could raise your costs.”

I half-listened to Alice as I focused on the Earth mage. I was a little disappointed to see he was ‘only’ level sixty-two, but at least he seemed competent enough. He had been speaking with the only human still here, a miner's team leader who had survived the collapse.

They both approached me, but the human didn’t dare to even look in my direction. The orc mage, on the other hand, seemed more composed now—perhaps due to him being a higher level, or maybe it was the influence of Drackar's aura. He addressed me directly:

“We’ll need a water mage to control the water flows; otherwise, progress will be too slow. Everything down there might already be submerged. As you can see, it’s already happening up here.”

I snorted in frustration and turned to Drackar.

“Any water mages available for a couple of gold?”

He chuckled and shrugged. “I don’t have a water mage among my men. I’ll need to reach out to the orc territories for one, but that could take some time. You might want to check with the Xsoha—they might be able to find one faster.”

Alice raised an eyebrow.

“So, you’re really going to try digging them out?”

Wasn’t that the natural thing to do? I nodded, and she smiled, pleased.

With Alice following, I trudged barefoot through the mud back toward the administrative building. I was starting to get used to the cold, squelching embrace of the mud, though the uncertainty of what lay beneath the surface kept me on edge. Sometimes it was stones, other times leaves, branches, or... unidentifiable things. Then something moved under my foot. I yelped, pulling my leg up, and found a something dangling between my toes.

“A snake!” I shrieked, trying to grab it, but it slipped through my fingers. Thankfully, it freed itself from my toes and disappeared surprisingly fast back into the mud.

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Alice shrugged.

“Not a snake, just a relatively harmless earthworm,” she explained, then glanced at my feet. “Where are your shoes?”

“Relatively?” I echoed, then answered her question. “In my inventory. I almost lost one...”

She shook her head, though I was relieved she didn’t hit me with an I told you so.

“If they feel threatened, they can give off tiny electric shocks, but nothing that should really hurt you,” she added, trying to calm me.

Inside the building, it was warm and welcoming. A fire crackled in the fireplace, and I made a beeline for it. As soon as I sat in a chair by the fire, I noticed the muddy, wet trail I had left behind. Meanwhile, Alice was cleaning her boots and shaking off her clothes before entering. Oops.

With all eyes on me and the wet trail I’d left behind, I tried to shift the focus.

“Durham, we need a water mage!” I said, hoping to divert attention. “Where can we get one?”

He started with, “What for?” but after a glance at my tired expression, he turned to the Xsoha standing nearby. “Master Engerhard, what do you think?”

I was still shivering from the cold, my clothes soaked through, but to my surprise, Mike appeared with a basin of warm water and set it down in front of me. He then fetched a blanket and draped it over my shoulders.

“You’ll catch a cold, my lady,” he admonished.

“Thanks, Mike! You can read minds!” I said gratefully, taking the towel from him.

With a small fire spell, I heated the water even more. Closing my eyes for a moment, I let the warmth of the hot water soak into my feet, feeling some of the chill melt away.

Master Engerhard, easily recognizable as a Xsoha by his sideburns and nose ring, shook his head thoughtfully.

“Lady Lores, we could ask our Xsoha partners to reach out to the guild, but that’ll cost one silver. Alternatively, if you want to post a quest, we’ll need to define the objectives and the reward. What exactly should the water mage do, and for how long? But before we move forward, may I have your attention for just a moment?”

I raised an eyebrow and sighed. “Okay?” I asked, unsure of where this was going.

“For every day the mine remains inactive, the domain is bleeding money. We can manage for about five to ten days, depending on how we stretch the budget, but beyond that... we’ll have to halt all operations. The treasury will be empty.”

I blinked, taken aback, not entirely grasping what he meant by 'stop operations.'

He continued, his tone steady and pragmatic.

“We need to plan ahead, not just for today or tomorrow. Unless you’re willing to dip into a significant personal fortune, the best approach is to move past this catastrophe as quickly as possible. We should take the necessary steps to calm the population, as our lead priests suggested, by proclaiming those three days of mourning to let the souls of the lost rest in peace. After that, we’ll need to focus on reopening the mine. And for that, we need money. To secure a loan with a low interest rate, we have to apply in advance, not in a rush.

A strong leader makes the tough decisions during difficult times to prevent even worse ones. We don’t want the domain to descend into anarchy and famine, do we?

We’ve prepared an action plan for your approval. If you take a look, there are only five key points. I’m confident you have what it takes to lead us through this.”

He handed me the paper, and I sighed, glancing at the list.

“How big are the losses, and where exactly are they coming from?” I asked.

“We can go over the details, but first we should focus on the overall plan to handle the situation, shouldn’t we... my lady?” he replied, with a hint of impatience.

“Can you give me a number?” I pressed.

He sighed, as though dealing with a stubborn child, and pulled out a binder.

“Here are the current expenses for the current Kargath*. As you can see, the losses over the last few days have reached several tens of gold.”

* 1 Kargath=32 days

He might as well have been showing me Egyptian hieroglyphs. I could read, but these numbers and their accounting methods were completely beyond me.

“May I take a look?” Hew said, from a nearby table where he had been reviewing some binders with a younger Xsoha. He stood up and walked over, and I felt a wave of relief at the unexpected help.

I turned to Master Engerhard. “Please go over the calculations with Hew. I’ll step outside to check on the situation.”

He sighed, and the priest who had previously spoken out against the orcs stepped in.

"Your ladyship! Rushing to reopen the mine, may seem wise at first glance, but the spirits of the land need rest. This catastrophe was but a warning! The spirits demand blood! Our people tried to deny it to them, and a worse disaster followed. We need a spiritual solution to pacify them. The people should come to the churches, beg for forgiveness, repent, and pray!"

I took a deep breath, steadying myself. "We’re going to try. No, not just try—we will dig those people out!" I turned to the Xsoha. "Post a quest for a water mage to work alongside Drackar's earth mage until we find the survivors. The pay will be two gold per day, but only for mages above level sixty. There's no point starting with weaker ones."

"My lady, that goes against the spirits of the land! We should first get rid of the orcs!" another priest interjected.

"How do you know that?" I asked sharply.

"Your ladyship, have you not seen what has already happened? Was that not warning enough?" a third priest added, his voice tinged with urgency.

As I rubbed my feet dry with the towel Mike had given me, preparing to put on the boots, I snorted in disbelief. Meanwhile, Durham approached.

“Should I head to Huiesta to bring more workers?” he asked.

I glanced at Alice, unsure what Huiesta was.

“Huiesta’s the largest village to the north,” she whispered.

“We could start recruiting them to help reopen the mine,” Durham explained. “As Master Engerhard mentioned, that should be our top priority.”

I sighed. This wasn’t what I had expected.

“Maybe now isn’t the best time for that,” Alice mused.

“When, if not now?” Durham protested, pressing his point. “I may need an escort from Drackar—ten, maybe twelve orcs.”

“I’ll think about it,” I replied, uncertain about what resources we could spare.

With my boots finally on, I hurried outside to speak with Drackar and the orc mage, with Alice following close behind.

To my surprise, there was already visible progress. Several orcs were working to erect a makeshift tent over the collapsed entrance, trying to stem the flow of water. As I stood there, a dark shadow momentarily passed over the sky, and a new load of logs landed nearby. Humans were now working alongside the orcs, preparing the logs for reinforcement.

Drackar snickered at my surprise, his tusks gleaming in the rain.

“I promised my men a double schnapps ration if they managed to set up the tent in one arc**. Amazing what a little incentive can do,” he chuckled.”

** aprox. 1 hour

“Do we need more miners from the surrounding villages?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“No, not unless they’re highly skilled and high-level. You can only have so many people working underground at once. Maybe later, when we’ve got a longer distance to haul the debris, but even then, I think my orcs can handle it better. Several of them have worked in mines before. They know what they’re doing.”

“What about a water mage?” I asked. “The mage... uh...”

“Borokhout?” Drackar prompted.

“Yes, he mentioned needing a water mage to help. Do you know anyone?” I wondered.

Drackar nodded. “I’ve made some inquiries. We could get a capable one here in about two arcs, but she’s asking for two gold per day, paid upfront. I can call her in if you say the word.”

“Call her,” I said with a sigh.