The dark elf let out a sigh as he looked at the pained expression of his companion.

“You weren’t the only one that failed to notice the signs. If there were any, to begin with. No one blames you, so you shouldn’t blame yourself either. Focus on the here and now. We need to find something. Anything.”

“But,” the paladin wanted to argue but stopped himself. “You’re right. Pointing fingers won’t help us now. I remember he didn’t want to get his bags enchanted, saying that his weapons and armour were all that mattered. The knapsack should be over there and I think he hung his satchel beside that desk.”

“Let’s see if he left anything noteworthy behind.”

The dark elf stepped beside the bed and picked up the worn knapsack, opening it swiftly. He poured its contents on the bed, searching for any clues of the Khan impersonator’s identity. The items on the bed were mostly travel-related equipment and supplies, but he found something strange while rummaging through the spare clothes.

A small box was folded into one of the spare shirts. It was roughly the size of a cigarette pack and made out of dark wood that had silver engravings on it. As the spell weaver opened it, he found a small mirror fixed on the inside part of the lid while the rest of the box was filled from wall to wall with runic designs. He stared at the faintly glowing blue runes, taking a sharp breath before calling out to his companion.

“I think I found what we were looking for.” He said and Quentin almost jumped beside him after hearing his words.

“What is it? What did you find?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Regis admitted. “It’s definitely enchanted, but I only recognise some of the runes. I’m pretty sure that this one over here is a communication rune. I studied its diagram yesterday because it sounded useful.”

“A communication rune? You’re not saying that...”

“This thing is most likely an arcane walkie-talkie,” the dark elf nodded. “And a rather serious one at that. All of the runes are blue, which means that it’s an ‘excellent’ grade enchantment. If I remember correctly, then ‘trash’ would let you communicate within a fifty-metre distance. An ‘ordinary’ one would give you a distance of five hundred metres while a ‘well-done’ allows you to reach out for five kilometres.”

“If every rank increases the distance tenfold, then this thing would have a range of fifty kilometres.” Quentin said, practically growling at this point.

“That’s quite the distance.” Regis nodded.

“The only reason he would have this with him would be to report on our activities. But that would mean that the Argents have been following us, barely lagging behind fifty kilometres or so.”

“They could be right outside the outer city gates.”

“Unless they’re already inside.” Quentin said, painting the picture of a troublesome possibility.

“It won’t do us any good to speculate about it. It’s best if we show this to the others. Did you find anything in his satchel?”

“Nothing of importance besides some money and other small stuff.”

“Then let’s go.”

The duo immediately headed back down into the enchanters’ room with the ornate box, finding the others still there with a sheet-wrapped corpse placed beside the door. Both Elder Derris and Mary were absent, most likely too uncomfortable about staying in the same room with a fresh corpse.

“I know that look,” Amanda was the first one to speak up when they arrived. “What did you two find?”

“It’s best if we show you.” Quentin said as he placed the ornate box on the table.

“Fancy,” Cruz whistled. “What is it?”

“Regis believes that it’s some sort of magical communication device.”

“Shit.” The wood elf cursed immediately.

“So the guy was calling home.” Amanda sighed.

“And most likely reporting on us.” Osmond added grimly.

“How good is this thing?” Valerie asked the important question as she looked at the young spell weaver.

“If it works according to what I read in the enchanters’ guide, then it would have a range of roughly fifty kilometres.”

“Damn,” Fabien couldn't hold back from cursing as well. “That’s quite the range.”

“Fifty kilometres isn’t that much of a distance if you think about it,” Sophie shuddered at the thought. “They might as well be right outside the city gates.”

“Hopefully we managed to shut them out in time,” Amanda stepped beside her friend to comfort her. “But we still have to deal with the situation. They must know pretty much everything we talked about and planned out.”

“Including our plan the take over Red Clay Outpost.” Letty concluded with a worried expression.

“I guess that means we’ll have to pick a new place for ourselves.”

“Thorn Vale.” Regis said with a firm tone as he thought back to all the possibilities listed up the previous evening.

“It certainly sounded like a remote place,” Osmond nodded. “Perhaps too remote.”

“It’s our best shot.” The spell weaver argued.

“But why Thorn Vale?” Fabien joined in the questioning. “It has no Landwaker tree or even a teleportation gateway.”

“Exactly,” the dark elf nodded. “I admit that it has neither of those, and it is hard to get there. But the upside is that it can’t be found on newer maps. And it’s a hard-to-reach place.”

“You have a plan, don’t you?” Quentin stared him in the eye with his voice still heavy and sour.

“I honestly can’t decide if I’m just lucky or if someone from above is playing with us, but Letty got her hands on a large amount of Landwaker seeds just when I found a book that explains the natural occurrence and alchemical creation of the Landwaker trees. Along with finding the diagram of the teleportation circle amongst the rare runes in the enchanters’ tome."

He stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts, trying his best to explain them.

"I already created a bunch of plantable seeds and I think that they could be fused together to form a ‘decent’ or even ‘excellent’ quality seed. Letty should also be able to teach you the growth speed boosting spell as she taught it to me. With everyone working together, we should be able to grow the Landwaker into a useful state in short order.”

“So you’re saying that we can solve both problems while getting our hands on a nearly hundred square kilometres worth of territory away from prying eyes right after finding out that we’ve been spied on by our enemies,” Osmond mused aloud. “That does sound too good to be true without some kind of higher interference.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“If someone is messing with us from behind the scenes,” Cruz growled in frustration. “Are you guys sure that it’s a good idea to take the bait?”

“All things considered,” the paladin sighed. “It’s still too good a chance to pass up.”

“Are we in agreement then?” The young spell weaver asked with a serious tone.

“Yes.” Most of them agreed at the same time.

“Fine,” Cruz rolled her eyes. “But if things get hairy, we’ll get the hell out of dodge.”

“I guess that’s that then,” Amanda concluded their vote. “Now we have to decide what to do with the body. It can’t stay here.”

“Regis was the one to deal the killing blow, so he gets to use the ritual.” Fabien pointed out the obvious.

“This is so fucking wrong.” Cruz grumbled as the dark elf and Fabien grabbed the wrapped-up body and brought it downstairs, leaving the guild to do what needed to be done.

As they reached the area where the rest of the dried-up husks of their previous enemies were, they dropped the body on the floor. The young spell weaver pricked his finger with his knife, letting a few drops of his blood fall on the floor. He tried to clear his thoughts and focus on the physique orb he hoped to trade for.

They could see the wrapped-up body shrink into barely a third of its previous thickness as blood-red mist floated out of it, forming into a fist-sized orb. As the light of the ritual circle died down and vanished, Regis waved the orb closer, absorbing it near immediately. He let out a downhearted sigh As he thought about the cruelty of their situation.

“Are you okay?” Fabien asked as he watched his friend’s face darken for a few fleeting moments.

“I’m fine,” he said with a calm yet heavy tone. “I just want to get over today’s job and leave this place. Hopefully, Thorn Vale will be safe enough for us to settle down and recuperate a bit.”

“It would be a welcome change of pace.” the infernal young man agreed. “Come on, let’s get back inside. We have to...”

“Are you two done?” Valerie’s voice made them spin around their heels. “Everyone is geared up and ready to go. We should hurry up and get to the meeting, otherwise, we might end up

on guard duty.”

The warband silently headed out toward the inner town gate, the guards letting them through without as much as a word. Their footsteps were heavy as they walked through the busy marketplace that was still crowded with refugees. The sight of the desperate people was soon overshadowed by the small army of guards and mercenaries that gathered on the market square. Captain Hyord was in the middle of talking with his men when one of them informed him of the new arrivals.

“Glad to see that you could... join us,” the man tried to greet them but was immediately alerted by the heavy air and silence that hung around the group. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story.” Osmond tried to give a diplomatic answer, but the man was too nosey for his own good.

“There’s still some time until the rest of the groups arrive here, so you can speak freely.”

Quentin let out a deep and tired sigh before he recounted the events that unfolded not long ago. By the time he finished, Hyord’s face also sported a heavy frown.

“So you want to tell me that this Argent family is a bunch of demon collaborators and they somehow managed to switch one of your members with some kind of shapeshifter mage whom you discovered and killed barely an hour ago? This is bloody madness,” the captain said with both disbelief, disgust and hatred present in his voice. “To think that we have a bunch of demon-worshipping dark elves on the loose. No offence Regis.”

“They’re called the ‘Argent’ family, and none was taken.” The young spell weaver said calmly.

“This is quite the bad news,” Marcus the mercenary leader sighed as he looked at the outlanders with both compassion and a slight pity. “If those bastards dare to come here...”

“Then they will be filled with arrows as soon as they reach into firing range.” Hyord stated with a hardened resolve. “I’m not going to let this place get infested by demon worshippers just after we’re finally clearing the fallen out.”

“I’m glad to hear that we’re on the same side about the matter,” one of the other mercenary captains spoke. “Although we first have to recapture East Fork. I’m pretty sure that almost everyone is here, so we should begin with the planning.”

“Very well,” Hyord relented. “The plan isn’t complicated. We split into large groups and comb every street of the outer town, clearing out the fallen step by step if we have to. On the way, check every building for either corpses, enemies or survivors. We can’t leave even a single one behind. Once that’s done, we’ll clear the stragglers outside the gates as well. That way we’ll be able to travel through the gates without any trouble again.”

“It does sound simple enough,” the guard captain of Hunor’s seventh squad nodded. “Now we just have to make sure that none of those abominations slip through our search.”

“Clearing out all of the corpses will be quite the undertaking.” Another soldier noted.

“Once the town had been retaken, we’ll have to spread out to clear the surrounding areas as well. There are plenty of monsters crawling about in the forests and fields. We’ll be lucky if we manage to clear out the main travel route and the key areas in a week.”

“The sooner we can finish off the stragglers,” Hyord added. “The sooner life can get back to normal. We need the fields checked and we need to inspect the crops for damage. Maybe they can still be saved.”

“We’ll leave that kind of chore to the people,” Marcus fastened his sword sheath on his belt. “My people are good at killing, not farm work.”

“Who goes in which direction?” Quentin asked for the first time since the discussion began.

Hyord stepped beside the table that was placed there for the meeting with the familiar map of the town spread out on it. He began to point at the different gates, his fingers running along separate streets while calling out to the leaders of the mercenaries and the guards one by one. When it came to the outlander warband, they were surprised to see that their group was meant to clear out the path that led through the same area they cleared out on the previous day.

Except this time they were given a wider range to search through. With the briefing concluded, everyone double-checked their equipment before heading out toward their respective inner town gates. Quentin walked to the front of the team with the dark elf beside him.

“Any plans or suggestions?” Regis asked from the eerily silent paladin.

“We’ll go with the same tactic we used before. We stick together and let Sophie take out any archers or mages while we take care of the rest. Today is a sweeping operation, so we’ll have to search through every house along the way, whether to talk to the survivors that barricaded themselves inside or to clear the buildings from the undead.

“What about the spoils of war,” Amanda brought up the question. “Just the Scholar’s Square alone holds nearly a dozen shops. There ought to be a lot of useful or valuable items left behind.”

“We’re not here to rob these people,” Quentin answered with a bit more rage in his voice than what was necessary. “The last thing we need is for the survivors to begin pointing fingers at us again.”

“Quentin is right about this one,” Valerie sighed. “You’ve seen how some of the houses are barricaded up along the way to the northeastern gate. We’ll have to check them one by one, even the abandoned houses, but if we go around breaking into people’s homes without a good reason and come back out with their stuff, then we’ll be nothing more than bandits.”

“Money talks,” Osmond joined into the conversation. “Once we’re back at Scholar’s Square and everything around it has been cleared out, the surviving shopkeepers might want to trade with us.”

“We should worry about things like that after we finish clearing out East Fork.” Cruz stated.

“Open up fellas!” Amanda raised her voice as they reached the gate of the inner town.

The guards did as asked without any complaints, letting the warband through.