As if teleporting assassins weren’t enough, the New Zone had more surprises in store for Finn as he surveyed the battlefield around him.

The forest dell was a mess. At least ten or more Verdans had been slain, and the forest floor was a litter of smoldering embers—thanks to Finn, who was hurriedly attempting to stamp them out.

“Finn Callahan? Finn Callahan of Blackwood?” said a voice from behind him, and Finn turned with half a grimace already on his face.

How does everyone know who I am around here?

Standing behind him was an apparently young Verdan, dressed in a russet-green jerkin over a clean linen shirt and short pants that reached just past his knees. Like all of his kind, he had long ears that tapered delicately around his scalp, and large, dark eyes. He was looking intently at Finn.

“You’re Finn of Callahan, of Blackwood, aren’t you?” the young Verdan said, and the way they mangled the words made Finn think they were reciting some custom or script.

Finn winced and bit back the urge to say, Who’s asking? The fact that the phantom assassins had known where he’d come from had put him on edge.

But I know these people. Or one of them, at least. He took a deep breath and plastered an exhausted smile on his face.

“I am?”

“Seven Gems! Thank the Maker! My name is Loca El-manda V’endoornath. I’m Tobias El-sandro’s third cousin! He sent me here, with those brave enough, to try and find Blackwood!” The Verdan’s face split into a beaming grin, and much to Finn’s surprise, the young man immediately rushed forward to grab him by the elbows in what must have been a welcoming gesture for this strange people.

“Tobias?” Finn spluttered. “Tobias sent you?”

Finn remembered the Verdan he had met at the Order of Celestial Grace, also a Defender, saying that he was in charge of his family since the Asai had assimilated their old realm. Just like they did Earth, the thought flickered darkly through Finn’s mind. Finn could hardly believe that his friend, who had been an Earth Initiate and who’d faced many of the same challenges that Finn had, could possibly be in charge of anything.

Tobias El-sandro V’endoornath had been wild, reckless, and barely looked older than a teenager.

But then again, I’m not exactly much older and now I’ve founded a realm, Finn considered. This time, he smiled for real. Maybe things didn’t always turn out for the worst in the Celestial Ascension.

“Where is he? Tobias, I mean. Is he nearby?”

Loca’s face faltered, and Finn had a terrible premonition.

Oh no…

“He’s at Malvas, with the rest of the family,” the young Verdan said, but worry etched his brow into deep furrowed lines. “He took the old and the infirm, but still didn’t trust the invitation. That was when he told us about you, his great friend from the order, and how if we could find a way to Blackwood, that we would be welcomed.”

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“Malvas? What’s that? What invitation?” Finn asked.

Just then, Rosa appeared next to him, her face grim. “I searched the bodies of our attackers. They don’t have anything, no supplies for a long campaign or anything, but they did have this.” She offered Finn a scrap of parchment, upon which was drawn a map.

Oh, shoot me down. Finn immediately recognized the long curve of the river that seemed to bisect this part of the New Zone, the scrubby marshes, the distant coastline. The other half of the map was given over to woods and a line of hills.

There was only one word on the map, near where the coast curved around to the top of the forests.

Malvas.

Finn’s eyes went to the curl of hills, river, and wood where his home was. “Blackwood isn’t marked, but if they have the area already mapped, then it’s only a matter of time before they find us,” Finn said.

“Did those people come from Malvas?” Rosa asked Loca.

The Verdan shrugged. “I have no idea. I have never seen the like of them before. Malvas looks to be a vast, ancient, crumbling city, all in ruins, on the coast. The people there didn’t have the, uh…” Loca waved his hands in front of his face, indicating the textured, bark-like appearance of their attackers. “And I don’t see why we would get invited there, only for them to attack us?”

Finn shared a glance with Rosa.

“I do,” Finn muttered. “If they’re from an Older Realm, maybe this is a good ploy to enslave a whole lot of people, but what’s this about an invitation?”

And why didn’t Blackwood receive any?

Loca nodded up at the sky through the trees, which was slowly turning to an umbral evening. “The star. It appeared in the sky, and shortly after, we were found by a man on a horse. He said he was a refugee from his old world, just like we all are. He said that there were many folks gathering at this place called Malvas they had found, near the coast. It looks to be a ruin of a city when the New Zone was created. They’re setting up a council of refugees from all the worlds added to the New Zone. They’ve declared themselves the capital.”

“We have a capital city now?” Finn’s eyes narrowed. He knew from Sesuuk that every time the Asai assimilated worlds into a New Zone, the first few years were a mess of bloodshed and turmoil as the survivors founded realms and fought each other, the monsters, and incursions by Older Zones.

Maybe having a big and strong city is a good thing? he mused, but he couldn’t trust it yet.

“I guess that explains the giant, shining purple Hearthstone in the sky, then,” Rosa muttered, and Finn murmured his agreement.

“They say that everyone is welcome in Malvas, and they are going to make a Council of All Assimilated Worlds to rule this one.” Loca flicked his ears anxiously.

“But Tobias still didn’t trust it,” Finn pointed out.

Loca nodded affirmatively.

Finn looked at Rosa, and the exchanged glance said it all.

What do we do?

Laurie asked us to find out what the star meant.

We now have a dang great city sitting just a couple days from our borders. What if it decides Blackwood is an enemy?

These were the rules of the Celestial Ascension, after all, weren’t they? To advance through conquering. To be challenged in battle and magic and strength.

“We’re going to have to take a look,” Finn said. “Best-case scenario, Malvas is everything it says it is, and Blackwood badly needs food, supplies, and a trading partner if it’s going to survive.”

“Worst-case scenario?” Rosa asked.

Finn shook his head. Not in front of Loca. He didn’t want to admit that the worst-case scenario was probably that Tobias and the rest of the Verdans had already been enslaved or worse.

“Well, we can’t go anywhere tonight.” Rosa nodded up at the sky, which was darkening quickly.

“I suggest we leave this place, strike a camp where we can, and in the morning, Loca and the others can use the map to get to Blackwood, just as Tobias suggested,” the pink-haired woman said.

Finn could only agree. Blackwood would welcome the Verdans, and their way with crafts would be needed. It would then leave Finn and Rosa free to investigate further without any more unnecessary deaths.

“We won’t have a map if we give it to them, though,” Finn pointed out the only hole that he could see in her otherwise sage plan.

“Hmph. Who needs a map when you got that ruddy great thing up there?” Rosa said wryly, gesturing with her staff where the giant purple ball of light—the declaration of what had to be the grandest realm yet seen in the New Zone—shone through the trees.