Rasha flinched back like she’d been slapped. Moon jumped into Cooper’s arms, despite how big she was now, and he held her in a vice grip.

“What was that?!” Rasha exclaimed.

Good question. What was going on?

Wesles squinted ahead. “Ithink that came from theschool.” He pointed at the smoke in the distance. It was hard to make out, but possible. “Theburning is comingfrom the castle.”

“Burning?” Rasha squinted out, but it didn’t seem like she could see what Wesles and Harmoni could.

“We should get back there then!” Cooper shouted, setting Moon down.

The future seer put a hand on his shoulder. “You hear the school is in danger, and your first thought is to run into it? My dear, they’re going to be getting students out, away from potential danger. What you want to do is entirely counter intuitive.”

“Well I’m not a student, am I?” Cooper asked, shrugging her off. “I can help.”

Harmoni would feel bad about just sitting here while an emergency was happening at the school, but. . .

. . .the debate was pointless. Someone was coming this way. He could pick up the scent getting closer. It wasn’t an elf, and it wasn’t a scent of someone he recognized.

“Fleck said someone’s coming,” Harmoni warned.

Though based on the way Cooper tensed up, Moon was experiencing the same thing.

There was also a roar from Asplenium, carrying easily through the trees.

“Get inside,” the future seer instructed. Her tone didn’t leave room for argument as she pointed to the doorway. “Stay out of sight. I need to find people in town who can fight.”

That didn’t sound encouraging. But for the moment, no one argued as they went inside. It was some sort of living space, couches and even tables cushioned. Between the purple curtain over the door, and the dark blue curtain over most of the window, it was dark.

But, that meant there was a window. All of them went over to it, and peered out, using the curtain to stay at least a little hidden. The window was so high up they were left looking out the bottom of it, which also helped.

The future seer whisked out of sight, quickly.

“So. We’re not actually stayinginhere, right?” Wesles asked.

“Absolutely not,” Rasha whispered.

Harmoni shook her head. She was still a little torn on what they should do, but she'd known they would do something, that they'd just gone along with the future seer's words to save time.

Cooper nodded along, but didn’t look away from the window. “It would be nice if we knew what we were dealing with though.”

Moon actually shrugged.

Fleck didn’t blame her. The smell hadn’t told them anything useful. That was their best line of knowledge.

Well they were about to get a new line of knowledge, because someone was coming closer, appearing out of the trees’ shadows. Their face itself was hidden by their cloak, but something about the cloak seemed familiar.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Justoneperson?” Wesles asked. He shrugged. “Well, that’s goodthen.”

“Hang on. Something’s not right.” Cooper held up a hand. “I know this person. Or rather, I know where they’re from.”

Harmoni saw a glint of red beneath the hood. Then someone else, an elf from the village, came from the opposite direction and cast a spell at the figure. The figure stepped to the side, into the shadow of a tree, and disappeared. Completely. They’d all seen where he was going, and yet none of them could see him a second later. Harmoni had seen the way his dark cloak matched the shadows fairly well, but you would still notice him. He simply, wasn’t there anymore.

The figure reappeared, rising out of the shadows of some bushes, behind the elf. He sent a bolt out of a wand. The elf didn’t notice in time, couldn’t respond fast enough. He hit the ground, dead.

Rasha covered her mouth, trying to lessen the reaction she was clearly having.

Cooper just kept staring intently out. “Yeah, that’s the Hidden cult. I’m pretty sure.”

Harmoni took a step back. The cult that had attacked two towns on Xentron? Including the one she’d woken up in?

“They’re serious,” Wesles said. “We’ve gotto warn people. Help them!” He hissed.

Cooper nodded. “If there’s only one, the people in this town can beat him. They just have to know what they’re dealing with.”

Before he killed them all.

Rasha nodded. Her lips were pursed, but she tightened her grip on her purple staff, adjusting how she held it so it was more like a weapon.

“I can cause a distraction,” Cooper offered. He grabbed a few black glistening vials from out of a pouch inside his cloak, holding them between his fingers. “The rest of you should warn as many people as you can.”

“You can’t fight him on your own,” Harmoni gasped.

“I won’t be-we don’t really have time to argue about it,” Cooper said. He gestured out the window as the clocked figure stepped into another shadow, and disappeared. “Moon will be with me. If you want there to be more help, then hurry up and warn other people so they can join in.”

Cooper whisked past the others before they could react. Moon bounced after him, so even if someone did try to follow him, the dragon could stop them. Or maybe, the others agreed with him, and it was only Harmoni who wanted to stop him. Either way, he was gone.

Fleck could go with him, if she wanted. It wasn’t like he could talk to the elves.

Harmoni nodded. ‘You do that.’

She opened the door. She, Wesles, and Rasha nodded to each other. Then they all went in different directions. They could cover more ground that way.

Fleck took off after Cooper and Moon’s smell. They hadn’t stayed in the area, but Moon was probably tracking down the cult member with her own sense of smell.

He could still smell smoke coming from the castle, and hear Asplenium’s roars. He wasn’t sure if he could smell blood and burns coming from that direction, or if that was from Ovant, or if his imagination was running a little wild. No matter what, he was pretty confident there was more than one cult member in the area.

And he could tell that made Harmoni worry, wondering if they should go running back to the school. But he didn’t think they should. It was a little late to warn anyone there, and everyone else there was better equipped to fight than them.

He wanted to go back too, but he knew it was pointless. So he shook his head, trying to clear the school from his mind, and charged forward, focusing on the actual situation, and the people he promised he'd help.

Harmoni tried to do the same. She warned everyone she could find. Some people went to fight the cult member while others, most of them, were more concerned about safety. They talked about barricading themselves into safe zones, or evacuating. At least everyone seemed to believe her. One offered to take her into their magically enforced safe zone, that sounded a lot like a bunker, but she shook her head.

She had to keep helping. She had to make sure Cooper got some backup. She-she had to-

Then, Harmoni reached the end of the dirt path, and the shadows in the trees in front of her began to shift.

Harmoni tensed, her legs locking up, as a familiar cloaked figure dropped to the ground in front of her.

She could see a bit more of his face now. He was probably human, but his features were a bit . . . off. His eyes were red. His teeth looked like they were made of metal when he smiled. His skin looked a bit like stone, like a carved figure coming to life.

“Ah, Wren. So, you are here.”

Harmoni felt her heart give one thunderous thump in her chest, then go quieter. What did he just say?

“I was a bit skeptical. But I suppose, I should let someone know.”

He took a step back, and disappeared.

Harmoni continued to stare at the trees, like he might reappear. No. Not like anything. She just stared. Her own heart was the only thing she heard, and it wasn’t even that loud right now.

That man. He'd been there and gone before she could blink. He'd been very abrupt. But he had definitely been talking about her. And she’d known he was a man, even when the cloak should’ve made it hard to tell. And. . .

“Harmoni!”