“... mine. We had an agreement, three shirts in return. But he-” A young man said, gesturing angrily at an older man stood beside him.

“You liar! We agreed on two! Besides, all my cloth burnt up.” The older man threw his arms out wide. “What am I supposed to do? Pray that Vistol drops some onto my head at night?”

Reud grimaced, the arguing of the two men bringing on a pounding headache. His entire morning had been similarly filled with minor disputes, from whether someone had laid claim to a certain part of a building, to who owed whom money. They all came to him, to the large open room at the ground floor of the building Lilia and Reud claimed, to lay their disputes at his feet. Then they stood before him, expectantly waiting for him to produce the perfect solution for their problems, as if he was the one with all the answers.

Gods, he was a necromancer, not a miracle worker.

“Enough!” Reud eventually said, silencing their bickering.

Turning, he addressed the younger man. “Killian, everyone in Srinaber has lost everything they had. Trying to force people to stick to agreements made before the Seekers destroyed your homes is not going to make you any friends.”

The young man opened his mouth to protest, but Reud held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

Reud turned to address the older man. “Adarian, you are a clothier?”

The man nodded.

“In that case, I will get you access to some cloth. Talk to Rachel, she is compiling a list of everything we are looking to buy. Then, you can fulfil your obligations.”

The two men looked to one another, seemingly mollified. They bowed to Reud, then turned and walked out, leaving him alone. Lilia entered through the door as the two men left, looking at Reud with a large smile on her face.

Reud rubbed his temples. “Why do they bring all these petty problems to me? It’s barely been a week, and now all I ever seem to do is mediate on these trivial matters!”

Lilia stopped beside him, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze. “That’s the joy of being the lord. Having you mediate these issues gives them all a sense that someone capable is in command, someone they can trust to make the right decisions, to lead them on in the right direction. Right now, they need that.”

Reud sighed. “I know, I just… I guess I just want to complain. Give me a pile of bones instead, at least that doesn’t argue back constantly. How many more today?”

“Just one more, but she's a little…” Lilia trailed off with a shrug.

“A little…?” Reud pressed.

Lilia shrugged. “Unhinged. Not quite there, certainly. She’s been glaring at Kin for almost an hour, and I swear I haven’t seen her blink.”

“How is Kin and Lec’s training coming along?” Reud asked.

“As far as I can tell, pretty well. Bo is handling it all. He’s rather independent these days, have you noticed that?”

Reud’s eyes lit up. “I know, isn’t it amazing? He’s actually forming a personality. An undead, with a personality! I’d hoped the spell would work like this, but I was never able to test it…”

Lilia frowned. “Isn’t it a concern, though, if your undead are forming personalities?”

“Why?”

“Well, aren’t they pretty much all made from our enemies?”

Reud waved a hand. “Except Bo and the others from Srinaber, yes. But it’s fine, really. For Tel, Kin, and Lec I tore out the part of their souls that had their more problematic memories. The rest I scrambled about, keeping the threads that make up their learnt skills intact and reordering the remainder. They shouldn’t be able to join them back up enough to have opinions on things, they are now essentially just blank slates. Highly skilled blank slates. The rest of the undead from Littlestream have no memories at all, just my artificial souls. They won’t remember a thing about the original lives.”

“Hmm.” Lilia said, looking dubious.

“Trust me.” Reud said, with a wide smile.

“Fine. But I’ll keep an eye on them, just in case.”

“Of course. And I’ll do the same. Don’t worry, I’m not blind to the concerns. I’ll make sure nothing goes wrong.”

Lilia nodded. “Good. Now, the last petitioner. Shall I call her in?”

Reud sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

As Lilia walked out the room, Reud sat back upright, trying to adopt a stern, leader-like pose once again.

A middle-aged woman entered into the audience room, her face partially obscured behind wavy brown hair. Once she might have been beautiful, but now what could be seen of her face was marred by gaunt, yellowed skin, scratch marks, and dark bruises. Her eyes darted this way and that wildly, her hands clenched and unclenched constantly.

This woman was definitely not well.

“How can I help you, miss…?” Reud asked.

“Cecily.” She croaked out, her voice gravely.

Reud waited, trying to discern what this woman wanted. Eventually, it was the woman who broke the silence.

“The Seeker said you’re a free mage. Is that true?” She demanded.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Are you a free mage or not. It’s not a hard question.” Cecily spat out, glaring at him.

“I am, yes. Is that a problem?” Reud responded, narrowing his eyes. There was really no point in hiding the fact, especially given the very public confrontation in Littlestream.

Her mouth twisted into a smile that didn’t touch her eyes. “You wouldn’t mind proving it to me then, would ya?” She pointed to her shoulder. “Show your brand.”

Reud considered the woman for a moment. What she was asking wasn’t totally unreasonable, in fact he was surprised he hadn’t been asked to do as much by Graham when he had arrived in Littlestream. To be allowed to practise magic, a person needed approval from Lightire to do so, in the form of a brand on the upper chest. A brand that marked not only their training, but also their strength in wielding magic. Telac, for example, had been a rank three. There also seemed to be a magical component of the brand to allow verification of true ones versus forgeries, but Reud hadn’t dug into the specifies too deeply.

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He didn’t have one, and could never get one, after all.

Reud reached up and pulled down his collar to expose his brand-free chest. The woman stepped forward, pulling her hair aside to squint at him. Then, for the first time since the audience began, her smile touched her eyes.

“I’m sorry, my lord.” She said, bowing her head. “I just had to be sure.”

“What, pray tell, does knowing that I am a free mage mean to you?” Reud asked, settling back into the chair.

Her head drooped, her voice dropping to a mumble. “It’s my children.” She looked up at Reud. “The Seekers took my babies, and I want them back! I know I’m not supposed to want that, but they’re mine, not his. I carried them, raised them.”

Her voice got louder, as the words start spilling from her lips faster and faster. “They thought I’d forgotten, just like Linota and Roesia. Fallen for his mind tricks. But I remember, oh, I remember. He put the children in me, but they’re mine! How dare they take them from me.”

Cecily gripped her head, her clawed fingers turning her hair into a tangled mess.

Reud sprang up from his chair, rushing over to the woman with his hands outstretched. “Cecily! Cecily, relax, stay with me.”

Stopping in front of her, he looked her in the eye, trying to soothe the distressed woman. “Take a deep breath. In and out. In and out.”

Slowly, Cecily relaxed, taking deep shuddering breaths in time with Reud’s own.

Once she seemed calm enough, Reud risked speaking again. “Now, tell me again, but slower this time.”

Cecily drew in a deep breath, then spoke. “My children, Marla and Vorlo. The Seekers took them three months ago, just as I knew they would. You see, unlike the others, I remember how I got pregnant.”

Her voice broke, and she stopped, sucking in deep breaths to collect herself. Then, voice steady once again, she continued. “Everyone thinks the reason that I never said who the father of my children was is because it was some spoken-for man. That is not true.”

A hard edge entered her voice. “I do not know his name, and I’ve only ever seen him twice in my life. The first time was when he… when I got with child. I don’t know what he did to me, all I remember was his glowing eyes, then him leaving my bed after...”

She paused, and her eyes went distant. After a few moments, she seemed to come back to herself, and she continued. “He came again, maybe half a year after that, when I was swollen with the twins. He put something else into me, then. Something that burned like fire, and did something to my children.”

She stopped, letting out a keening moan, tears running down her cheeks. “My babies. Oh my babies, where are you?”

“Cecily, it’s okay.” Reud said, keeping his voice low and soothing. “Just tell me about the man, who was he?”

She turned her head, hiding behind her hair. “I don’t remember his face, no matter how hard I try. All I remember are two things, his brilliant amethyst eyes and the spiral scar on his cheek. It’s magic, I think, my lord. The kind that messes with your mind. I spoke to the others, you know. Roesia and Linota. They don’t remember a thing, but I know he visited them too, I know he did it to them too.”

She looked back to Reud, her eyes filled with pain. “He wasn’t with the Seekers when they took my children, but I know he sent them. Please, my lord, bring them back to me!”

“Do you have any idea where the Seekers may have taken them?” Reud asked.

She shook her head. “When the Seekers come, they always put the children into black wagons, but I do not know where they go after that. If I knew, I would get them back myself.”

She looked up at him, her eyes pleading. “They say you are a good man, my lord, and when I saw you fight the Seekers I knew you hated them as much as I. Please, I beg of you, help me get my children back.”

Reud smiled at her, trying to seem collected. It wasn’t a lot to go on. But he could certainly put out enquiries, try to hunt down where the Seekers shuttled the children off to and stop them.

He wasn’t about to let Lightire steal any more of his people from him.

“You have my word, I will do everything in my power to find your children, and punish the ones responsible for taking them from you.” Reud said, his voice firm.

Cecily studied his eyes. “Thank you, my lord.”

For a moment, a brighter, happier woman shone through. Then the moment was lost, and the dejected expression slid back over her face. She gave a clumsy curtsy, then turned and shambled out the room.

Reud collapsed back into his chair, turning over what she had said in his head. The Seekers had impregnated, then experimented on this woman. For what purpose exactly?

Lilia entered the room, followed closely by Rachel, the younger woman tugging at the wolf-hide cloak that was draped luxuriously over her shoulders. The clothing, made from the remains of the chimera pack that had attacked them on their first night, had taken the city by storm. Once properly treated, they were soft, warm, and looked fantastic. One of the most desired commodities they had, especially once Rachel took to wearing one everywhere she went.

Over the past week, Rachel had really proven her value, stepping up to help with organizing and managing the day to day running of the growing compound. She’d picked up a lot of the day-to-day business of running a village from her father, and was putting it to great use.

“So, what did she want in the end?” Lilia asked, stopping beside him.

“That was the mother of the latest kidnapped children, wanting me to rescue them. The Seekers, once again. It seems no matter which way I turn, our problems always come back to them.”

Reud sighed. “Rachel, what do you know about the Seeker’s black caravans?”

“Black caravans? Hmm, not a lot. I think I’ve heard of them going in and out of Avonford, but not much beyond that.” Rachel said. “The Seekers like to keep their affairs rather secretive.”

Reud let out another sigh. The Seekers really were a scourge on Rudase, and it was high time he started to stamp out their influence in his land. Now, if only he had the time to focus on a project like that…

Looking up at Lilia he gestured around the room. “I wish you’d deal with all this instead, there are so many other things I could be doing. Speaking to people just isn’t my strength.”

Lilia put up her hands, smiling widely. “Oh no, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the pleasure.” Her face went serious. “Honestly, though, you’re doing a great job. People are starting to trust you.”

Reud sighed again. Turning to Rachel, he addressed the young woman. “So, how are things looking for Srinaber?”

Rachel stood up straighter, brushing her blonde hair behind one ear. “The city itself is developing nicely. The barricades have all been turned into proper walls now, courtesy of the tireless efforts of Grym and his undead workforce. I was reminded to thank you, from him, for the help. He said, and I quote, ‘each one of these bags of bones are worth ten of any apprentice I’ve ever had’.”

Reud smiled at that. It was always good to hear that his undead were appreciated.

Rachel continued. “With the walls completed, focus has been turned to rebuilding the most stable buildings into homes. That’s, uh, the end of the good news.”

Reud grimaced. “Go on.”

“Food is the main problem. It seems that during the night of the attack, a lot of chimeras were attracted to Littlestream. Given the absence of people, they attacked the livestock instead. There were no survivors, and in the scuffle we also lost a granary. We salvaged what we could, but we have food for maybe two months left. Four, if we ration carefully.”

“Can we buy from another village? We have the crowns for it.” Lilia said.

“A little, yes, but the neighbouring villages would have already sold the majority of their surplus to the seasonal merchants to get the crowns for Telac’s taxes. Anything left, they will be stockpiling to last out the winter. We need a larger trading partner.”

Reud settled back in his chair. “Do you have any suggestions?”

“Avonford is the closest. It’s just up the river, and most of the villages would have sold their surplus to merchants from there anyway, so the city should have plenty of stock for us to buy. In the short term, we could purchase what we need and transport it back ourselves. In the long term, if we can repair the docks and prove we have money to spend, then we can entice some merchants to travel further down the Seine to Srinaber. Then, they will bring us everything we need without us needing to lift a finger.”

Reud tapped his chin. Avonford again, it seemed he was due a visit to that city. “Lilia, what do you think?”

Lilia smiled and shrugged. “Don’t ask me, you two are the ones trained in statecraft. If you both think it’s a good idea, then that’s good enough for me.”

Rachel nodded to her, then turned back to Reud. “The only problem is getting there. We don’t have any horses, and we don’t have any boats. Now that we’ve cleared the way down to the Great North Road we can walk to each village, they are just barely a day apart on foot. However, there's nothing between Nileshurst and Avonford. Walking that stretch would take a week. A week without shelter, risking being eaten by chimeras each night. It’s just too dangerous.”

Reud sat forward, smiling. “For that, I have an idea. Leave it with me.”