"In light of the urgency of this situation, we shall waste no time," Elder Marcel continued his speech. "Earlier in the day, we faced an attack on two sides from savage goblins. Together with our own Elder Falon, a number of [Archer]s were able to take out the group that tried to scale the east wall, while a number of guards engaged the goblins coming from the south in close quarters, experiencing heavy losses but ultimately prevailing."

Hmph, so he did defend the village. He just went to the least important front of the two.

The speech didn't wait for Lucas's indignance, however, so he put aside the distracting thought. For now.

Elder Runa continued where her colleague left off. "We have received no word from the hunting party led by Commander Iltani since they set out," she spoke gravely, and a muffled chorus of worried murmurs sprung up. "Ordinarily, this would be taken simply as a breach in protocol on their part--that they simply hadn't bothered to send reports back, because who would doubt our guards' ability to face down any number of goblins? But a development in the attack earlier today suggests otherwise."

"These monsters possess some sort of unseen, quick acting infecting agent, that quickly paralyzes its target. It is what led to so many losses in the attack," she proclaimed. "It cannot be resisted, and it is more than enough to disable a force from offering any resistance to the monsters."

The Elders gave a moment's pause to allow the crowd to take in that statement's full implications, then Elder Fiora took up the speech.

"We believe Commander Iltani's force has been lost to these monsters--possibly captured, likely wors--"

A clamor of voices rose up from the crowd at her words, cutting her off and forcing her to speak over everyone in order to get the rest out.

"We have called you all here now to vote on the next course of action!"

Elder Marcel slammed his fist down on the table again to silence everyone, but the clamor took a while to die down.

"So, what? We just leave them?!" a woman near the back hollered.

"My wife is out there!" another objected.

"But what of the rest of us?" a portly man on the other side of the room countered. "If even the Commander, the highest leveled [Warrior] we have is lost, what can the rest of us do?"

More voices cried continued to cry out, the volume in the room only rising, before a great rumble and crash spread out from the center. A few more cries sounded, but then the room was deathly silent. Everyone looked back to the Elders and the newly enlarged stone platform on which their table was situated. Elder Falon's voice filled the void of silence.

"We are gathered to discuss these very things, panic will not help anyone," he chided the entire gathering. "[Farmer] Yuten is right--what can we do, when even the vaunted Commander is lost?" Falon stood and seemed to look into the eyes of every person there, then spoke. "We can close off and fortify the village. Isolate ourselves and remove any chance of another attack reaching us. Within our walls, we have everything we need to survive. Nothing can be done against the infection, but it is only a danger if it can reach us."

"That is how I cast my vote."

The crowd was silent and he moved to sit back down, and suddenly Lucas couldn't take it anymore.

"You lie!" He burst forth right to the edge of the Elders' platform opposite the earth [Mage], where everyone with a clear view could see him. A sea of eyes centered on Lucas, but his own were focussed solely on the Elder Falon.

"I can remove the infection, you saw it yourself!" he practically spat. Then his impulsive confidence wavered just a little, and the weight of everyone's attention hit him. But Lucas didn't falter--he drew himself up and continued. "We are not as powerless against the goblins' corruption as that man would have you believe. He is a coward and a traitor, that callously slaughtered a guard that took part in the village's defense before I could finish his treatment, for no other reason than that he is scared!"

Lucas spoke out to the gathered villagers, but at the end, he turned back to Elder Falon and stared at him in accusation. "We can still save everyone that left to protect us."

Murmured conversations sprung up once again, doubt having spread through the crowd, and everyone looked to the raised platform for their leaders' answer. Lucas felt supporting hands take hold of both of his shoulders, as his mom drew up behind him.

The three other Elders looked to Falon with varying levels of doubt and confusion, waiting to see how he would respond.

The man in question cleared his throat and looked directly at Lucas, the he asked, "Are you certain you could have helped that sick man? Could have saved him?"

Lucas felt his confidence flag slightly, but he put up his most assured front. "You killed him before I could even try!"

"Are you certain you could 'even try' in the middle of a battle? That you could protect anyone from this, should we choose to mount a rescue party?" Elder Falon raised his brow.

At the thought, Lucas finally faltered. He hadn't even considered that yet. Could he safeguard someone, let alone multiple someones from the corruption, all in the chaos of battle? While keeping himself alive as well?

The coward didn't give him time to come up with an answer and kept speaking.

"That is the reality we face, people," Elder Falon addressed the crowd. "If the Commander's force handled the enemy and magically showed up at our gates, we could try to save those that were inevitably infected. But we cannot deal with it and the goblins at the same time. Our only choice is to cut our losses, and ensure we do not make any more."

With that, he took a seat, and his eyes bored into Lucas from up on high. Conversation picked up a bit more amongst the villagers, and Lucas felt more than one set of eyes burn into him, but he didn't know what else to say. Finally, after a minute or two, Elder Marcel cleared his throat and stood once more.

"A slate will now be passed around," he gestured to one of the guards standing near Lucas, and the man moved to his order, "on which you all can cast your vote in favor of a rescue party, or fortifying the village. We do not have a large enough force remaining after the Commander's departure to do both, so please only place one vote in either of the options."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He sat back down, and the guard he had motioned to ascended the platform with a clay slate, approaching Elder Fiora for her vote first.

Fiora took the slate and looked out over the crowd, eyes lingering on Lucas for a moment, then announced, "I vote in favor of rescuing our people."

Elder Marcel was next. "I vote in favor of fortification."

Followed by Elder Runa. "I vote in favor of not losing any more lives. Fortification, of course," she marked the slate, and the guard moved on to Elder Falon.

Lucas stared balefully into the man, but when he looked back, his own gaze held only pity. "I vote in favor of fortification, as well, which makes it three for; one against. We'll now move on to the rest of you."

"They can't do this!" Lucas muttered as a couple guards passed different slates around. From behind, Lucas's mom wrapped him in her arms and held him close. Beneath her grip, his shaking was even more apparent.

Harry drew up beside them, looking at the closest voting slate. "I don't think they're going to send out a rescue party," he stated bleakly. Lucas couldn't summon up an answer to that.

When it came time to cast their votes, Lucas did so bitterly. All three of them voted in favor of a rescue party, and they weren't the only ones to do so, but there were also any more marks present on the side devoted to fortifying the village. The slates still had most of the room to go through, but it was not a good sign.

The meeting hall became a dreary limbo, silent as the grave apart from the faint sounds of movement and the occasional whisper. Mary's hold on him became a bit firmer, and he heard her whisper, "It'll be okay. He'll be okay."

Eventually, the slates made it all the way around the room and to each person gathered there, ending with all three placed before Elder Marcel on the table. There was some quick counting done on each of the Elders' parts, then the short man stood.

"With seventy-eight for, and twenty-three against, the vote has been cast in favor of fortifying the village. May the gods have mercy on our missing companions. Orders will be issued out shortly, and everyone is expected to work together in the coming days to ensure our collective safety."

Tears flowed readily from part of the crowd, not least of all from Lucas and his mother, and even including some of those that voted against mounting a rescue. No one celebrated a successful vote; those that did not cry remained perfectly silent, and the crowd began to disperse. Lucas didn't move.

"What do we do?" he asked no one.

Mary spun him around, knelt down, and hugged him properly. "I don't know, Lu. I don't know."

Things became a bit of a blur after that. He was pretty sure some people came up to talk to the two of them, but he wasn't in the right headspace to even remotely keep track of that. Eventually, his mom guided them out of the building and started heading back to their home with a small group of people in tow. Lucas just went with the flow, not entirely present.

He didn't regain his wits till he was back home, seated on the couch in the front room with a hot mug in his hands and a blanket over his shoulders. Harry was with him still for some reason, situated similarly in one of the chairs, and faint sounds of conversation carried over from the door leading into the kitchen. Through the window, pale, fading light shined in.

When he looked up, Harry spotted the movement and turned to him. Neither of them said anything at first.

After a minute or two, Lucas squared his shoulders and sat up from his hunched-over position. "I can't leave them. Not Eugene, not any of them," he told Harry.

"So, what?" the young [Hunter] asked. "What exactly is your plan?"

"I don't know," he shook his head, "I just can't leave them."

A twitch in Harry's eyes alerted Lucas to movements behind him, and he turned around to see his mother standing in the doorway, Belinda behind her, and both of them watching him. "Son, I know what you can do. I know that out of everyone, you're the best person for this job," her face cringed, as if her next words physically pained her, "but you can't. It's too dangerous."

"My brother wouldn't want you to put yourself in danger for him," Belinda added solemnly.

Lucas stood and walked over to face them. "But I can do it," he stated confidently. When that didn't work, he tried a different tactic. "What if I don't fight? What if I just sneak in, and free Eugene and the others?"

Mary lowered herself to his eye level and looked directly into his eyes, but didn't speak immediately.

"I'll go, too," Harry declared, and Lucas heard him stand and join them to his right.

Lucas's mom looked over at the [Hunter], hesitated, and asked, "Do you have [Stealth]?"

Harry nodded. "A variant, from my Class. Level 82."

She looked back to Lucas and held his gaze for a minute more, then nodded. "Okay. Stay here."

Lucas was about to object and say that was exactly the opposite of what she'd just given permission for him to do, when she stood up and went back into the kitchen. His mom moved to the back of the kitchen and into her room, and her door blocked off any view of what she was doing. Curious and a bit confused, Lucas waited patiently and quietly for her.

She came back to the front room a few minutes later with a cloth-wrapped package, and knelt before him once more. Mary unfurled the black cloth--cloak, it turned out--and inside was both an amulet and an ornate knife, along with its sheath. She set those down for the moment, then draped the large cloak over his shoulders.

It settled comfortably and lightly over him, but aside from the strangeness of all this, there was just one problem. "Mom, I think this might be a little too bi--"

[*ding You have equipped [Cloak of Night's Embrace (Rare)!]

A wave of mana, felt more than seen, emanated from the cloak and wrapped completely around him. With it, the item shrunk down to fit his size, leaving Lucas a bit speechless.

"An enchanted item?" Harry exclaimed, then turned to Lucas's mother. "Where did you get this? I thought only studied [Wizard]s could make them?"

She gave him a flat look, and a moment later, he took the hint and swallowed his excitement.

"What is this?" Lucas asked her.

"I'll tell you in time," she smiled and told him, "but right now, that's not important. Put these on, too."

She handed him the amulet first, followed by the dagger, and he obediently donned them both.

[*ding You have equipped [Amulet of Shelter (Rare)!]

[*ding You have equipped [Single Sting (Rare)!]

"These will help keep you safe," Mary told him as he read through the notifications. "The cloak is enchanted to make its wearer harder to see and track, especially at night, and if you grasp the amulet and squeeze it three times, it'll summon a temporary [Arcane Shield]. But it only does that once, before it needs to recharge over a long period, so don't go relying on it."

"What about the dagger--[Single Sting]?" Lucas asked, mildly awestruck. He'd heard stories of enchanted and magical gear, but there were only a few pieces supposedly in the village, and they were constantly hidden away--treated more as family treasures than proper equipment.

"It's called [Single Sting], because one prick with it delivers enough poison to kill anything with VIT below 50," she grimaced at the blade now upon his hip, then looked back up at him. "You shouldn't have to use it, if all goes well, but if not, then it should be a bit stealthier than a spear longer than you are tall."

Lucas immediately shied his hand away from the deadly knife, and found himself wondering for what reason his mother had these things. They sounded like the perfect gear for an [Assassin], and that wasn't her.

They had to have come from outside the village, he thought as he looked at the intricate symbol engraved on the otherwise simple amulet. From where she lived before, perhaps?

He looked up and met his mother's eyes, those questions lingering in his mind, but he gave them no voice. He could hardly fault a person for having secrets, and he trusted her implicitly.

"Do I get cool gear, too?" Harry asked cheerfully off to the side, earning him three separate glares. "Just saying. I wouldn't say no," he held his hands up in surrender.

Mary squeezed Lucas's shoulder and reached up to tousle his hair. "Alright. If this is happening, then we have to go now. I don't know when Falon plans to close off the gates, but I wouldn't think he'd like to wait long."

Lucas nodded. "Ok. Walk me to the gate?"

Lucas's mother's face took on an intensely confused expression. "What? No, I'm coming with you."

"We both are," Belinda pitched in, nodding in solidarity.

"Did you think I'd let my ten-year-old son do this all on his own?" Mary laughed. "Not a chance."