As Zalia stepped into the floor-level room of the main spire, she was utterly shocked by how unchanged it all was. The kingdom was being invaded, towns were empty, Ostoss was in complete disarray and yet here, it was like nothing had happened at all.

Pushing away the momentary confusion, she quickly stepped up the main stairwell into the spire. What followed was a long and confusing path between spiralling stairs, walkways and hallways. It was as seemingly random as she remembered it and had to stop and ask directions not two but three times. It was in asking these directions that she did start to notice little changes.

People looked exhausted, bags under their eyes and hair in a mess, armour or weapons a little uncared for. It was far better than most of the kingdom had suffered though, so she didn't feel too bad. She was sure many people would have much preferred being a little tired or having a bad night’s sleep. It was better than dead friends and family with the chance of meeting the same fate any given day yourself.

When she finally found herself at the door belonging to Hildebrandt, Gold ranker and one of the leaders of the Morning’s Shade, she drew in a deep breath and prepared herself. She had to make a good sell with her next words or Ostoss would suffer a terrible fate.

Raising her hand, she knocked twice lightly on the door.

“Come in.”

She opened the door and stepped in.

Looking completely unfit for the position, a giant of a woman in her plate armour sat on a small stool behind a desk. She was trying to write something down on a piece of paper with a wooden instrument that must have been a pen.

“It’s good to see you again Hildebrandt.”

The woman stood up in alarm.

“Zalia? What in the worlds are you doing here?”

Zalia sighed. Here she went again, explaining everything that happened. Again.

“I didn’t die, I was pulled through the portal to Cormaine where I survived. Then I spent some time there trying not to die, then I found a way back, then I spent some time here trying not to die and help people. Then I found myself at Ostoss with a bunch of people who really need help and here I am.”

Hildebrandt nodded twice to herself, but was looking at Zalia suspiciously.

“No, I’m not a shapechanger, yes your guards at the gate tested me. I’d love to get to why I’m here since we have very little time.”

She sat back down again, gesturing to the chair opposite her.

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“Alright then, let’s get to it. I am glad you’re alive, by the way.”

Zalia sat down opposite her, stretching her sore legs out with a groan.

“Ahhh. I’ll bet I’m more glad that you’re alive. Here’s the basics of it. Ostoss is in shit, deep shit. There was a clan of shapechangers in the process of destabilising the town so that they could take their sweet time destroying and possibly eating the population. Me and mine went there and ended up killing ninety percent of them and now they apparently lost something called ‘the right of preference’. That basically opens up the town to attack from every single demon everywhere.”

She checked again, as she had often over the past days, on Boreal and Ember’s emotions. Finding the faint link she could feel that they were somewhat calm, though definitely both a little anxious and stressed as well.

Hildebrandt leaned forwards, metal elbow guards grinding against the desk.

“Alright, I can see the problem. Why are you here?”

Zalia looked her in the eyes.

“It’s simple. They are guarded basically by a thin sheet of paper over the city and a couple Bronze ranked guards. I need you to send at least one Gold ranker, more if you can, to protect the city. If you don’t, it’s likely that most of those people will die.”

Hildebrandt examined her closely, as if looking for any kind of lie or deceit. Zalia waited. She had a little past experience talking to the woman and thought it best to be completely blunt and open in her words. Hildebrandt didn’t seem like the kind of person to faff around with fluffy words and pointed meanings.

Hildebrandt pursed her lips, then nodded.

“Alright, fuck it. We were thinking of abandoning Endelbyrn anyways. Might as well head somewhere we can actually do some good, we’re not exactly getting much done here in the ass end of Endaria.”

Zalia blinked.

“You can just decide that? What about Matthias?”

Hildebrandt leant back.

“Matthias? I’ll be damned if I know where he is. I’ve got the twins, who are Silver rank now, a couple other Silver rankers and about thirty Bronze rankers. I’m the only Gold ranker in the Morning’s Shade now with the Hidden imprisoned, Larel having left to join the army and Matthias vanishing into thin air.”

“Matthias is gone? That’s all we have? I swear there were a lot more out there.”

“We’ve lost a lot Zalia. Matthias, another Gold ranker and I were out fighting an Emerald elemental when the rituals went off. The damn thing went insane, killed our friend and then sunk into the ground once the rituals were done. I haven’t seen Matthias since he left that battlefield. We had a lot of people in the field when shit went down and not a whole lot of them have made their way back here.”

Zalia sat silently, considering. There had been a few hundred people in the Morning’s Shade when she had joined. Now they were reduced to what, less than fifty?

“So you’ll all come to help?”

“Damn right we will. As a group, we’re able to kill pretty much anything out there I’m certain of it.”

Zalia wasn’t so sure. She knew of one thing that they wouldn’t be able to kill. Well, maybe they could, but she wasn’t certain of that fact.

Either way, she could see that this would be how the human race survived. Put all the powerful people in the kingdom together in one spot, protect them against the corruption and then gradually cleanse the kingdom of all the demons that had invaded it.

It would be a long, long task but for once, she could see it actually being possible. Now they just had to figure out how to deal with that damned thousand eyed monstrosity that sat in the capital. She knew that the nature gods could easily take care of it if they moved their asses into gear but, well, she also knew that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.