Zalia ran in front of the cart as they arrived at the gates to Nature’s Reclaim. On the wall above stood four of the new Silver rankers in the city while the gate proper remained closed. Seeing it was her, a man above called down the other side and after a moment, they swung open.

She couldn’t help but notice that the gate had a change made to them, swirls of a runic language she didn’t understand marked into the timber that glowed a very dim white. Was it another change that came as a result of freeing people from the Astar?

As they entered, a crow landed on a nearby post, staring at them with a cocked head. Zalia turned to Faian.

“Plan on staying for a day or two?”

The woman hesitated, then looked at her exhausted soldiers.

“One night, then we’ll be off to the capital. I’ll need to talk to Hidey and inform the council on what happened.”

Zalia nodded, then walked up to the crow waiting for her.

“Find temporary housing for these soldiers, preferably together and near my own home. I’ll have Hildebrandt and Faian as my guests personally.”

She paused, then added.

“And Heston.”

As she spoke, she sent images of each person mentioned to the crow. It flapped off with a single affirmative caw.

Some of the soldiers whispered amongst themselves, likely questioning why she was talking to a crow. A minute later, those whispers had stopped as the group was led away by a waist-high, round, four-legged creature with a long snout.

Zalia led Heston and Faian, who drove the cart with Hildebrandt on it, to her own home.

When they arrived, a little fenced off area with a covered barn section grew out of the grass nearby. The grass grew longer and thicker as well. Zalia helped Faian unhitch the animal that pulled the cart, two wheel stops growing to hold the cart in place, and directed it into the fenced off area where it feasted upon the luscious grass.

All three of them struggled to get Hildebrandt inside and into a new room that the house had changed to create. It was small with only a single bed surrounded by a couple seats. The space reminded Zalia of a hospital room, though it was missing all the machinery that such a room would usually hold.

She also showed Faian and Heston the two rooms that had appeared adjacent to Hildebrandt’s before wandering away to find the rest of her family.

Ember wasn’t there, she knew that much from their bond. She was most likely out ensuring all of the people they had freed were okay. Boreal and her children were also out in the city and a slight questioning down their bond had Boreal informing her they were spending time with the Ancient of War, Boreal’s partner and her children’s father.

Aylie and Lumen were in the house though, so Zalia brought them down to see Hildebrandt.

“Well? What can you see?”

Aylie was staring intently at Hildebrandt, focussed not on the woman’s physical state but that of her soul. Her ability Spiritual Connection allowed her to see damage that was done to a soul, while the Bronze rank of her Healing Presence allowed healing to the same. Zalia’s didn’t do that, instead preventing the death of herself or a nearby ally once a day.

“It is damaged alright. There is some sort of… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like there is an infection in her soul, a blue power riddling it. I can see a cut as well, from her shoulder to hip. There are many scars across the surface as well, perhaps wounds that have healed slightly.”

Zalia was tense and she could see Faian was similarly worried.

“The blue power, can you heal it?”

Aylie shrugged.

“Let’s find out?”

She activated the ability she had that healed the soul and watched closely. Instead of watching Hildebrandt, Zalia watched Aylie intently, trying to discern what she was seeing from her expression. It wasn’t anything good.

“The cut healed, as did the scars. The blue power, whatever it is, did not. It’s strange… I feel like I could touch i-”

Zalia grabbed Aylie’s hand as she reached out to touch it.

“Don’t do that.”

Aylie pulled her hand back, abashed.

“Right.”

Zalia didn’t want to see what power that could take out an Emerald ranker would do to a Bronze one.

“So, what do we do?” Faian asked.

Zalia shrugged.

“I don’t know.”

They both looked at Aylie but she looked just as lost.

All of them glanced at Hildebrandt as she twitched slightly.

Zalia pulled out some Soulroot and Frozen Heart.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“It can’t hurt,” she said by way of explanation to Faian’s curious look.

Faian gestured as if to say, “go ahead.”

So Zalia did.

Using the pieces of plant as seeds, she prepared a living ritual using the two herbs and once done, activated it. She felt some effects of the healing herself, less of the warm, comforting presence that normal healing gave but rather a soothing coolness. Not one she felt in her body, but instead in her soul, as strange as that was to experience.

Between the two types of healing, Hildebrandt twitched a little more. It was like she was in pain or… fighting something?

“I don’t know what else we can do to help her. I think it’s up to her own body to fight whatever this is off.”

Faian sighed and sat back in her chair.

“Nothing to be done then?”

Aylie nodded at the same time Zalia did.

Faian pushed herself up out of her chair with obvious effort.

“I best check up on my soldiers, where did you house them?”

Zalia gestured to a vine that grew out of the wall.

“Follow that, it’ll lead you to them.”

With an odd look at Zalia, Faian followed the vine as it continued to grow down the hallway and out the front door towards where the soldiers were, disintegrating back to nothing behind as Faian walked past.

Zalia put a hand on Aylie’s knee to get her attention.

“I’m just going to go find Ember and tell her how it went, alright?”

Aylie nodded, still focused on Hildebrandt.

Zalia stood and made to move, pausing on her way out.

“Oh, and see if there is anything Lumen can do, would you?”

Aylie didn’t reply but Zalia knew she would do as asked.

Going out into town, Zalia breathed in the fresh air to settle her mind. Ember was in the eastern section of town in a small grouping of houses that were the homes of the Silver rankers. The Ancient of Wisdom had put them all together in hopes that they could bond and help each other through their experiences. Solidarity could be a powerful tool in the healing of a group.

Zalia started towards that section of town, watching the people that walked by as she did so. As the… leader or creator of Nature’s Reclaim, she felt a responsibility for the people that lived here. She wanted them to feel both safe and happy in their lives and did a good job at that for the most part, or so she thought.

The ever-present healing that permeated the town was an important piece in that, as it meant everyone in the town was always healthy. No sickness spread, people’s pains and injuries healed, albeit slowly. The effect was somewhat dampened when spread across such a large number of beings.

By the expressions and body postures of the people she walked by, Zalia felt that the general mood of the town was good. It wasn’t as high as years prior, as news of the coming war and events had been spread by the Ancient of Wisdom. It wasn’t Zalia’s place to hide anything from them and neither would she want to. It was important that everyone was ready.

She found Ember sitting with a small group of people, only four others, at a bench in one of the town's parks. Ember said something, gesturing grandly overhead and one of the men at the table laughed. Zalia couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her partner doing what she did best; help people heal.

“Got a moment?”

Ember turned toward her at the words then said a quick farewell to the others at the table before coming over to Zalia.

“Hey Zals, how did it go?”

She knew that Ember would have felt the same things Zalia had during the fight and so would have a basic understanding already. They still enjoyed speaking to each other, however, rather than relying on the bond between them for all communication.

“Good, we managed to kill two Emerald Astar and one Gold. Hildebrandt isn’t in a good way, though.”

Ember immediately began walking towards their home, the conversation continuing at the table they left behind.

“What’s happened?”

Zalia shrugged.

“There is some kind of power left over from her fight that is holding her down. It’s something attacking her soul that we can’t really do anything about at the moment.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah.”

They walked in silence for a minute, before Zalia realised she hadn’t ever checked her heirloom weapon’s rank up.

“My sword and bow ranked up to Silver as well.”

Druidic Armaments, Blessed by Starlight (Blessed Heirloom) - Deeply bonded Silver rank

Tin - The blade and arrows of your armaments are kept magically sharp and remain so permanently. Arrows fired from the bow have a powerful seeking effect.

Iron - Both blade and arrows fired from the bow gain the ‘Starlit’ effect. Additionally, drawing the string of the bow without an arrow will create a starlight arrow already nocked.

Bronze - Parrying an attack or firing an arrow from the bow will infuse your next strike with a powerful cosmic force. In addition, it will also make you invisible and slightly faster for a short duration.

Silver - Druidic Blade and Druidic Bow have fused into Druidic Armaments, combining and enhancing both items' effects and allowing for both to be wielded at once.

Seeking effect - arrows will adjust in flight to hit vulnerable spots such as joints in armour or scales and avoid other natural defences such as bone.

Starlit - affected weapon passes through non-magical armour and applies Light from Within.

Light from Within - affected target takes a small amount of damage over time as starlight glows from within

Zalia was surprised to find that the heirloom had become a single item again. It had started off as just the bow, then split into two but now fused back to one; a single more powerful item.

She shared the description with Ember who murmured in appreciation. The effects of her heirlooms at reaching Silver were showing themselves to be considerably stronger than prior ones, as expected.

The Bronze effect applying to both blade and bow was incredibly powerful. Parrying making her invisible to her opponent would allow her to strike with enhanced speed and significantly more power, with each arrow fired giving the same benefits.

About to reach home, they were stopped by a crow that landed on a fence in front of them. Zalia started hearing a commotion coming from the north as it did.

“North gate!” it yelled at her, its speech croaky and broken.

Zalia and Ember immediately started sprinting towards the north gate. After a few moments, Zalia’s flight ritual activated on Ember and they flew up over the crowds of people either running towards or away from the gate.

They arrived to chaos. There was a group of townspeople, wearing armour and wielding weapons, surrounding something Zalia couldn’t see. On the opposite side of the gate was a dead Astar with a spear of sand impaling it straight through the chest. There was blood all around them.

Landing, Zalia and Ember pushed through the crowd, some people moving aside as they were recognised. There was red blood here, the owner of which was sat propped up against the open gate, having fallen there.

The man had a sword sticking out of his gut, the source of the blood. Looking around, Zalia realised that there were a number of people who looked ragged and dirty, their appearance telling stories of a long journey.

Zalia looked down at the bloodied man again and found she recognised him. Matthias, leader of the Morning’s Shade.