The loud sniffing of the ghoul downstairs was drowned out by the swarm stampeding from the adjacent gatehouse. It must have been the majority of those near the girls, but I had mixed feelings about accomplishing my goal.

They couldn’t all fit through the small gap I’d created, and the portcullis squealed in its brackets from the force. The deafening screech of a ghoul I was used to hearing in the distance erupted from amongst the noise, and the entire city quietened.

It didn’t last long, and there was a renewed push against the portcullis without all the snarling. Metal snapped, and stone crashed to the ground. I wanted to check if they’d brought the entire gatehouse down but had more immediate issues.

The ghoul had found my route up the stairs.

Since it was walking on all fours, I doubted it was the usual variety, especially being in the city's interior. Claws scraped against the flooring as it sniffed the air again, and I backed further into the sitting room I’d ducked into.

A puddle had formed on the floor from the smashed glass jars in my knapsack, dripping their watery contents. I slung the bag off my back to check and found that all the jars had broken from the fall outside.

Instead of dumping the bag and running, I pulled out a wad of dragon’s breath from amongst the jagged shards and pressed it into a line along the doorway. I quickly dug my arm in to search for more, wincing at the shallow cuts and pricks.

These ghouls were pulling in such an abundance of mana that the average mage had to be able to sense them from a few streets away. With all that interaction with the surrounding mana, I was willing to gamble some dragon’s breath on my plan working. And if not, there was always a window from which to escape.

The manor was extensive, but I’d hidden in the first room I’d found, startled by the stampede. It was filled with decaying couches and faded wallpaper, with a few wardrobes to hide in if I was desperate.

The ghoul jumped the stairs a couple at a time, catching my scent. It wasn’t the typical hunter variant Ulia had described to me, but the wet nose and running on all fours was a giveaway. So, I didn’t think hiding away would save me from its hunt.

I slammed the door closed and placed the knapsack with the remaining dragon’s breath beside it.

It didn’t need a great sense of smell to track me down anymore and charged towards my room, crashing into the door. The brittle wood splintered inwards but held. It backed up for another blow. I rushed to hide behind a wardrobe with a narrow gap to see the entrance.

Wooden fragments scattered into the sitting room, peppering the moth-eaten couches and curtains. A section of the dragon’s breath I’d placed was pushed away by a part of the door hanging off its hinges. Dust was whisked into the air, tickling my nose while I tried to breathe shallowly.

Contrary to its violent entrance, the ghoul slowly stuck its snout across the threshold. I pressed my face against the wall to see more through the narrow gap. A limb followed, stepping over the cotton. A second limb stilled over it as the ghoul turned to sniff my knapsack. I bit my cheek, studying the nearest window covered by thick curtains to escape through.

A third limb stepped over the threshold, and I got ready to push off the wall and run.

There was a vibration in the mana, and the dragon’s breath ignited, bathing the room in bright orange light. A sharp pain flared from my cheek and arm as pieces of glass threaded the needle to hit me through the gap.

The curtains received the brunt of it as they rustled and were ripped to pieces by glass fragments. Maybe my ears were getting used to the sudden booms because the ghoul’s screaming hurt them more than the explosion.

I picked a long glass fragment out of my cheek as I leaned around the wardrobe. The ghoul writhed on the ground, its side filled with jagged shards. The evenly spaced pieces of glass jar embedded in the walls around blackened wood were almost captivating as they glinted in the light of a small flame.

I closed in to end its suffering, shuffling back and forth to find an opportunity to get to it. When I got too close, it turned, showing off the side of its face mangled by the explosion. It lunged towards me but stumbled to the side, and I jumped past it and ran further down the hall.

I regretted not staying to kill the ghoul, but it was too lively to end quickly without mana, and I needed to leave before more came.

At the far side of the hallway was an open window with vines creeping in and across the walls. It faced away from the gatehouse, and I took a single glance at the garden below before jumping out. The landing was rougher than anticipated, with broken bricks hiding amongst the tall grass, but I stumbled to my feet and towards a back gate.

The ghouls, not already at the portcullis, were now on a direct course to the shrieking upstairs while I ducked into the grass at their passing. I’d had enough of being chased, so I stuck to the lengthening shadows as I exited the gate onto the street.

I was surprised to find ghouls lying about, uncaring for the ongoing racket near the gatehouse. Their bulging muscles shifted below taught skin, saturated in mana being drawn in quicker than it was being used, enough to build a reserve. I kept a healthy distance from them, uninterested in being the first person to discover what they could do.

The spires of the city’s castle jutted out over yet another speckled wall. Some had partly crumbled and left jagged columns piercing the sky, but even those almost seemed to glow with the mana they contained.

Its construction was fit for an entirely different purpose from the palace in Drasda. The outpost on the frontier of the Red Forest was built for safety, but I doubted the spires were meant for anything but to impress. Yet, they did their job well since I found myself staring at the castle as I wove through the city towards it.

A street partway through the district looked similar to the adjoined buildings I was used to. Shops with long-forgotten window displays stretched out to either side of me. Signage worn down by decades of harsh weather had been stripped of the names and depictions. There wasn’t a single store with intact glass, and it offered a clear view of what was left inside.

Part of me itched to explore each and every display, specifically those with gemstones.

That and barely rusted blades with encrusted guards and pommels were what caught my eye. However, the wood and leather of the grip had decayed, making them cumbersome to wield. I ducked into several stores as ghouls prowled past, noticeably alone compared to their fellows on the exterior.

I gave in to my urge to take something after spotting a pair of leather boots that looked to fit me. As much as I usually hated the things, the poorly sewn slip-on shoes the witches had given me weren’t good for running. I scrunched my nose after trying them on, tipping them upside down and thumping the soles to get the crumbling padding out.

They were not nearly as comfortable as I’d hoped, but decent enough. I went to tie them, and the laces powdered at my mere touch. Sighing, I moulded a clasp of steel to keep them snug.

More and more items tugged at my soul, whispering how useful and valuable they were: faded enchantments on items I didn’t recognise. A tea set whose only flaw was the layer of dust settled on its beautiful patterns. Gems set into jewellery I wouldn’t know where to place on my body and blocks of iron big enough to fit me inside were stashed upstairs and underground.

The only items I found useful enough to take were a leather belt to keep the edges of my robe in place and a small satchel that hung off my shoulder, which I used to store anything shiny.

I continued looting, hoping my efforts to get the ghouls to move weren’t wasted and the girls had also made it through. I didn’t have the map for the places to investigate, but I could remember enough bits and pieces to get to a few if I went to their gatehouse.

I quietly settled onto a staircase to wait for another ghoul to pass and pulled my robes down to dig more glass out of my shoulder. While upright, they were tall enough that I couldn’t reach their necks unless I jumped. I’d been getting away with being close enough to attack the ghouls without debilitating injuries, but that would surely end with these.

Resting my chin on my palm, I scrunched my face at the implications the freakish creatures presented.

There was no possibility of the witches all making it here and calling this area their new home. I was barely slipping by alone with extra warning of their approach and tricks to hide better. If the girls were smart, they’d hide in the closest building or dash back to the abbey after noticing no decent rooftops to run across. Even the buildings along my street wouldn’t be ideal with the gaps between them from alleyways.

The witches knew the ghouls got stronger, with more variations appearing further into the city. There was little chance this was their entire plan to escape the encroaching remnants and looters. Also, something about the way these ghouls moved convinced me carvings in crystals wouldn’t affect them very much.

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Once they got to the next wall, the witches would have to do it again, and soon, there would only be the castle to hide in.

It did buy them a few decades if the progress toward the second wall was any indication, but nevertheless, this wasn’t the greatest of plans. Spellcasting was only getting more efficient, allowing deeper incursions before mages ran out of mana to hold off the hoards, reducing the time they had left to hide here.

My heart rate rose and fell with each passing ghoul, and I curled in on myself whenever the stronger variants stormed past, chasing off the weaker. While I was used to them roaming aimlessly in groups, these seemed more territorial and continually on the verge of catching me.

Many of the inner ghouls must have been at the gatehouse, hopefully fighting each other, but the fewer ghouls around me probably had to do with them killing each other off long before I got here.

I stood and brushed off the dust I’d sat in once the patrols calmed down. While I was more wary of being found, I didn’t want to hide away the rest of the day. I kept my course towards the castle, marvelling at the homes along the way.

They grew more grandiose, with statues standing watch in fountains bereft of water and bright flowers that had overgrown their pots. Carvings of scenery had been made directly into the marble walls and pillars that propped up vast balconies extending out from the main complexes.

Several ghouls occupied each estate and the tall grass surrounding them, but none in the same area. The sounds of a scuffle coming from one suggested why they stayed clear of each other.

The days were getting shorter, or I was losing track of time as the sun was already reaching the horizon. I usually welcomed the dark, finding it comforting to disappear into. However, being unable to see what was coming worried me more than ever, especially with Alp still lurking around.

I hadn’t spent an evening out in the city since his first visit, and he hadn’t made an appearance at the abbey. Going back to the girls was always an option, but I didn’t know where they were and suspected they had to have retreated. They had pockets full of some nasty concoctions that could dissolve skin and bone, but that mattered little to the types of creatures lurking about.

Breathing deeply to regain some confidence in my chosen path, I crossed the last street towards the castle walls. Square turrets with narrow arrow slits loomed over me as I searched for the gatehouse.

From how far I had to walk around the wall, I assumed only one gatehouse existed. The three dropped portcullises in the narrower gatehouse had been pulled apart and bent outwards, something escaping from within. The wooden doors were already off their hinges and lay in broken sections across the cobblestones.

I frowned at the display of might… and steeped through the carnage. A thin staircase off to the side led upwards after the last set of torn-apart iron gates. The gate that was supposed to barricade it lay in a crumpled pile on the opposite side of the tunnel.

The way up was almost too thin for the smallest ghoul, so I felt fairly safe stepping up into the darkness.

At the start of the trek to the top, I believed it was a flaw in the castle's security to have stairs so close to the entrance. However, after labouring up the twisting staircases, past arrow slits and holes in the ceiling, I changed my view; A defender would like nothing more than for an attacking force to attempt this.

Mana hummed in the walls around me, impossible to manipulate without being able to commandeer the entire wall’s supply. I stretched out a hand towards the wall, feeling like a lightning bolt hit me when I tried to absorb some. A flood of numerous distant emotions overtook my worries and left me feeling empty when they faded.

I kept my hands to my sides after that, uninterested in the sea of mana a mere arm's length away.

Finally reaching the top of the battlements, the city spread was less exciting than I’d anticipated. Unlike Drasda, there wasn’t a line of carriages along the street, with people flowing past, each with their own plans for the day. Only lone ghouls sauntered through without a care for potential threats.

The city was greener than Drasda, nature breaking out of the manicured gardens and flower beds to occupy every crevice. The air was also fresher now that I was above the smell of mildew and rot, barren of the smoke plums that crowded Drasda’s sky.

My new boots crunched on undisturbed snow as I walked along the wall, looking inwards towards the castle. There was a structure similar to the palace in Drasda, an insignificant addition off to the side of the main castle. The central complex was a sprawling mixture of tall arches and great halls with spires soaring above them.

I named off the auxiliary buildings like stables, gazebos, and greenhouses. But more often than not, I failed to identify the numerous facilities.

The hedges, which had once been a maze, were overgrown to the point that no path existed between them. Ponds had overflown their brick outlines, creating a swampy environment, and tree roots broke through the remaining stone paths.

I leaned against the parapets, never failing to find something new to admire in the fading light.

…

I jolted awake, my head snapping to the dark walkway of the battlements. A pair of yellow eyes with slitted pupils gleamed from low to the floor. I shivered, curled up against the parapets for warmth. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep for precisely this reason.

There was still a good distance between us, but I stayed put as Alp slithered towards me in the form of a snake.

“I thought it was too dangerous for you here?” I asked, my voice shaking from my teeth chattering.

Alp reared back, the skin around his neck expanding into a hood around his face. “Follow.”

Concentrating on his changing form gave me a headache as he morphed into a storm eagle again. He hopped onto the battlements, stretched out his wings and fell.

I scrambled to my feet and looked over the edge where Alp was awkwardly gliding to the ground. The landing was rough to watch as he tumbled through the tall grass. He recovered slowly and looked up after returning to a snake, expecting me to follow.

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation in my mind as I refused to jump and turned on my heels to take the stairs. I was more awake when I reached midway down and considered staying here, where Alp would have to turn into a smaller creature to approach.

I shook my head, brushing away the fear and let curiosity nudge me forward.

I waded through the tall grass towards the impatient snake slithering in circles. Without a word, he moved towards the castle. I crouched lower into the grass, unsure if it would even help, as I followed after the slow-moving creature.

I hung back as he went up a wide staircase that curved around a toppled statue, a crowned head lying in the grass to the side. A ghoul lay beyond the castle entrance, and I wanted to shout at Alp not to go through, but I kept quiet and watched.

He went through the doorway and turned to where the ghoul was, uncaring. I waited another few moments before warily following, finding the ghoul asleep against the wall. I’d never heard of or seen them sleep before and wanted to kick its leg to check if it was still alive.

The gouged breastplate of enchanted steel it wore convinced me not to. After all this time, the enchantment was still active, slowly drawing in mana to repair itself and ensure it fit the wearer.

The foyer was full of cracks and water damage, not having the same enchantments. Alp continued deeper into the palace, sure of where to go. I peered into once ornate halls with rotted floorboards and audience chambers that echoed with my footsteps.

As we passed through a less embellished hallway, I backtracked, an armoury catching my eye. The enchantment protecting it was still plodding along, but that didn’t hinder me. I reached out and stepped through, but my fingers hit something solid, a sharp pain rushing up my arm.

I stumbled back, biting my forearm to make sure I didn't scream. Alp stopped further up the hallway, mocking me with his gaze. I shook out my hand, catching up to him quickly since the pain was similar to the doll's in that it faded after infliction.

The enchantment was eating up mana in a way that was only possible with a mana collection method like the capital had. Maybe the designers had more liberties and made it to prevent everything from making it through, not caring to be picky or efficient.

We turned too many corners to count and down hallways that would have been identical if not for the distinctive damage. We ended up in a bare room with a thicker door reinforced with iron, the enchantment on it damaged and unable to generate its field.

Suits of empty armour stood guard on either side of the only entrance to the room and the display cases that lined the walls. I wiped away the dirt on a glass display to find a necklace of large purple gemstones sitting on a pillow, untouched by time. I flicked the glass, the dull thud and strengthening enchantment not giving me any confidence in getting through to it.

Alp continued past without stopping and went through the gap of a portcullis sitting between twin staircases that came down around it. A ghoul slept at the top of the staircases and, like all the others, had some remains of their past armour.

This one had a gauntlet that came up to their elbow, which was probably why the ghoul survived while the other castle inhabitants were nowhere to be found.

The portcullis was bent inwards in the centre, and I stepped through, following Alp and a path of destruction down a wide staircase. The enchantment was also visibly broken through the cracked stone around the entrance; the thick gold inlay melted in multiple spots.

We passed locked doors with their enchantments intact and lanterns that lit up as I approached. Alp was controlling his mana more carefully as we went deeper, and I grew apprehensive with each new staircase, the air growing more stale.

The ground shook slightly, and Alp paused as a dull thud came from up ahead, the lanterns around the corner already lit.

“You go now,” Alp said, staring ahead. “My headdress is there.”

I frowned but stepped forward, slowly peeking around the few remaining turns before the source of the noise. The ground shook again a second and third time as I got closer, the cause being rhythmic explosions.

I stepped off one last staircase into a lengthy room with a high arched ceiling. A bright blue carpet lay across the stone floor, with more display cases atop it.

A thin ghoul with a full head of white hair stood in the middle with a staff raised towards a giant slab of iron at the end of the room. The ghoul was slimmer than those upstairs and, instead of armour, had a crown that hung around its neck, bristling with enchantments.

Mana tied together at its hand and shot down the staff, hitting multiple rings of full mana crystals before erupting out the end in a blinding white light.

The projectile hit the iron in a hole that had been dug into the vault door. The ground shook, and the blast rustled the ghoul’s and my hair. The iron inside the deep cavity glowed red hot before cooling as the enchantments tried to repair the damage.

I was already backing away, more confident in killing Alp than this thing, when the ghoul turned to face me.