Trillia kept to herself for the next day. They had food brought up to her room. The bread was cooked differently than in her tribe and served as a base with a small pile of onions on top. A few oblong spheres had sweet red flesh inside on the side of the plate.

Trillia was certainly happy with the food; it tasted good and was just different enough to be a new experience for her. It was also significantly better than the rations she had been eating since setting out with Stas.

A gentle rumble of the tower alerted her that Arlyss had returned. The bond she shared also flared more fully to life when he was closer. Standing, she made her way up the tower to the room she could sense him from.

When she arrived, Kismet and her brother were already there, informing him of things that had happened in his absence. Arlyss wore the same small smile he always wore, nodded along, and ushered them away. Asking to be left alone to handle tasks he needed to handle.

Neither of them said a word as they walked past Trillia. No one had really spoken to her since her conversation with Kismet yesterday.

Her clothes also hadn't been completed, so she stood in her patchwork leather armor, trying to find a way to bring up the topic and the many questions and worries she had. Wondering if she should bring them up. Surely her job as an avatar wasn't to make his life more difficult or to pester him constantly with questions.

Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she thought better of it. He had just asked to be left alone. She could figure this out on her own. Maybe go and speak with Stas.

Quintus was an easier conversation to have since they both spoke the minotaur language. As she turned and continued to sort out a plan, Arlyss called after her.

"I sent them away so that you didn't have to hide your true questions or your true intentions. I know you have many questions, but I will warn you." turning now to face her. Trillia saw that he looked weary. "The knowledge I share, oftentimes, will not be my own view on things...rather. It's muddled with the knowledge of the ancients that forever swirls in my mind."

Trillia walked up to him and gave him a hug. "Rest. You look weary. We cannot help our people if you are exhausted. My curiosity can wait until you've rested from your trip. What can I do to help in the meantime? We'll have this discussion tomorrow."

Arlyss stared with no small amount of surprise in his eyes. They held the stare for a long moment before relief seemed to take over, and his shoulders sagged. "We have runes hidden a thousand feet from the outermost wall. Quintus and Maldoun are both familiar with the process. It is a simple shield spell that must be refilled with mana every few days. If you could refill it in my place, I would be most grateful."

Trillia pulled back and offered him a smile as she nodded. "I'll see it done. I am a bit curious. Would you like me to wake you after a certain amount of time?"

Arlyss returned the smile. "Immortals don't sleep. It's a sort of meditative state we enter. It will only take me a few hours to recharge fully. I just expended a little too much divinity, not only in traversing between locations. But also securing the city that your people are in to make sure nothing happens to them while you are here helping me."

Trillia bowed slightly and turned to leave. As she pulled the door open, he called out once more. "Thank you. For being patient." Turning back to him, she gave a wink and closed the door behind her.

Her father had spoken to her about the duty of a partner. Especially when your partner was a leader. Varga had always told her that a partner's first duty was to ease the burden of the other. If both people did so, it became much easier to rise to any challenge life would bring about. He often would whisper that he never really wanted to be a general or leader but knew he would have an easier time helping Amara deal with things if he took that position. She understood the dynamic was different between her and Arlyss, but it was the best advice she had to go on for now.

It took Trillia a few minutes to find someone who knew where Maldoun was. She chose Maldoun because she hadn't spent any time with him yet. It would let her learn more of the human tongue and force her to interact with people she might have a problem with down the line.

She knocked on the door and immediately heard the call to enter. Stepping into the room - located in yet another library - she saw Maldoun sitting at a desk with stacks of paper around him. He looked just as exhausted as Arlyss and shared the weary look in his eyes that Kismet and Quintus held.

She strode up to his desk and offered a slight bow. "Lord Arlyss asks me refill runes." Motioning in a circle and spreading her arms out wide.

Maldoun stared for a moment before snapping his fingers. "The shield barrier that surrounds the city?" Seeing Trillia nod excitedly, he stood from his desk. "Of course, M'Lady. I shall lead you to each of them. I'm grateful that you have the mana required to refill them. I know it takes a toll on Lord Arlyss. Dear Kismet informed me you also saved a lot of time and energy and got some of the rain machines producing water. At least for a few hours."

Trillia held her tongue as she followed him. She was curious about what else Kismet may have said. Maldoun continued. "Kismet is quite taken with you. I think it's because you and Lord Arlyss seem so close in age. It's a cruelty of fate that children must carry the mantles of leadership. I hope that the two of you can find some happiness here in this city."

That...didn't really track. Trillia thought for sure that Kismet would be angry with her. She reminded herself that she wasn't dealing with Orcs. Who were rather quick to battle and argue. Orcs didn't care to hold a grudge, they'd rather get into a brawl, and everyone was happy after the fact.

Trillia picked her words as carefully as she could. "Lady Kismet...protective. I worry. More...problem? I more problem than not?" Trillia would have to find someone to help speed up the process of learning this damn soft language.

Maldoun chuckled and shook his head. "Kismet is used to leading with a strong hand and a sharp tongue. Many of the people we protect used to be enemies. It's a humbling thing for clashing ideologies to be forced into an alliance by a deity. We'll make it work, don't you worry. If you want. I have an hour or two free every evening. Normally I use that time to practice my swordsmanship. If you'd like, I can help you with your swordsmanship while we also work on sharing languages."

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Trillia nodded at that and briefly wondered if Maldoun could also read surface thoughts. She set a mental reminder to ask Uncle Stas if there was a way to prevent such a thing from happening.

Raising the whistle to her lips, she blew a soft, short note. Ialu - who had wandered off sometime in the night - appeared shortly after they left the tower. Trillia crawled up onto Ialu's back and kept following Maldoun, who now walked with much longer strides and a faster pace.

As they walked through the city, Trillia began to realize how bad the food problem was. Most people seemed thin and weaker. Well, weaker than normal for humans. Trillia was still adjusting to just how small humans were compared to her tribe. They all looked like runts to her. They had to stop on three different occasions as Maldoun created food seemingly out of thin air.

Just a few small berries and handed them out to people on the brink. He promised things would get better soon and to keep the faith. Many of the people he stopped to help had scars on their wrists and neck. A darker and darker image was painted in Trillia's mind of what the city might have been like before Arlyss rose to power.

Once they were outside the city, Maldoun stopped walking and instead pulled a large two-handed blade out of a sheath that was no larger than a dagger.

"[Desert Winds]"

Sand and wind kicked up around the blade, and he carefully spun it around and kneeled on the flat of the blade, still holding onto its handles. As the blade lifted into the air, he turned to her with a grin. "Keep up."

With that, he shot off toward their destination. Trillia grinned herself and urged Ialu on. The Desert Skoll had a surprisingly difficult time keeping up with Maldoun. She could see that he slowed down whenever they came to a particularly high dune.

Finally, he came to a stop. Trillia couldn't see anything different about this area. Truth be told, the desert just looked like sand in every direction. It was a bit confusing. Thankfully if ever she felt lost, the glass tower rose so high into the sky that it was an easy target.

Maldoun stepped off his blade and held the edge against the ground. Something changed about the way the sand moved around the blade, and it began to pull more and more sand toward it. Revealing a polished sandstone pedestal decorated in runes. A top the pedestal sitting on small hands made of condensed mana, sat a sky blue crystal with more runes on it.

Trillia could see that the crystal held mana in it and that it was quite low.

Artifact: Sky Bastion Crystal (3 of 6)

The Sky Bastion Crystal is an artifact created by a lesser deity. Each crystal can hold a hundred thousand mana. Depending on their configuration, any attack aimed at something inside their radius must overcome the mana in every crystal at once or be repelled. The owner of this artifact is instantly aware of any creature that steps inside the inner radius.

Current Mana: 11,342/100,000

Trillia nodded as she stepped up to the crystal. Placing her hands on it and dumping mana into the artifact until it was full. If all of the crystals were this low, Trillia would be close to being out of mana for a day or two while it regenerated.

Maldoun let out a low whistle and shook his head. "It's a bit absurd to watch a mortal do what a deity does. I've seen some high-level folks before. But nothing capable of the things you and Stas are capable of. I wonder what level you are. Or what level Lord Arlyss is..."

Maldoun shook his head with another chuckle. "I suppose I really do need to stop worrying so much. Stop trying to control everything and accept more capable people are here."

Trillia climbed back onto Ialu and followed him to the next pedestal. She gave his words serious thought, was that why he and Kismet seemed so abrasive when she and Stas arrived? Because they weren't people easy to control and thus capable of destroying any hard work they had achieved?

Trillia truly wanted to give them both the benefit of the doubt in her initial musings.

-=- Three Hours Later -=-

They were approaching the last crystal. So far, Trillia had dumped just under five hundred thousand mana into them. She still had a little over that same amount, but that would be a day or two of no mana use to regenerate it all. It dawned on her just how much mana or divinity Arlyss had at his disposal to do this every few days and still be capable of doing so much else.

As they approached the sixth crystal, Maldoun held up a hand and slowed. "Looks like undead. Maybe seven? The Sage must have wandered through recently. We'll have to report this to Lord Arlyss as well. Stay here. I'll go and deal with them."

"Wait!" Trillia called out before he could fly off. As he turned to glance at her, she waved the arm with the artifact attached to it. "Want experience. Let me help."

Maldoun nodded and motioned for her to go one way. She set off at the same time he did. As they came closer, Trillia saw that the undead were in the same rags that many of the citizens were. Pale yellow bones with dark beads of red energy floating in their skulls, most were armed with weapons that seemed purposefully rusty.

Ialu ran her very close to the first skeleton, and Trillia let loose a full volley of mana bolts. The thing withered under the attack.

Maldoun leapt from his blade with a spin and brought the edge of it down onto a skeleton's skull. The thing fell to pieces.

As Trillia urged Ialu to the next, the skoll refused to budge. Trillia pushed on the mental link more, and Ialu growled at the bones on the ground and began biting them.

Much to Trillia's surprise and horror, the bones slowly began to form back together, cracks were mended, and dusted parts began to form new bones.

Trillia immediately urged Ialu to back off as a spear-wielding skeleton charged at them. She shouted at Maldoun. "How kill? How Kill?"

Maldoun raised a hand at the skeleton he had crushed the skull of.

"[Radiance]!"

A bright white light burst from his hand, and the bones went completely white. The skeleton stopped rumbling. Trillia and Ialu ran closer to him, she'd blow off a leg or parts of their chest, and Maldoun would use [Radiance] to make sure they stayed dead.

The only problem came when one of the skeletons nicked her arm with the rusty blade. She replied with a blast from her crossbow - cursing herself for not retrieving her rapier from Arlyss - and urging Ialu to put distance between them. Maldoun finished off the last of the skeletons with [Radiance] and immediately ran over to her. Roughly grabbing her right arm where the skeleton had nicked her and yanking it closer to himself.

"Don't move! Rot bad!" Before she could protest, he pulled a knife from his belt and cut deeply into her arm. She let out a howl of her own, Ialu snapped at his hands, but he put a knee into the skoll's snout, turning the attack away. Dropping the knife, he grabbed the mostly carved-out flesh and yanked it out. The pain burned through Trillia's mind, and the world began to spin.

Ialu turned and tried to flee, but Maldoun held strong. "Don't run! Stupid wolf! Corruption bad. She will die! Tell your wolf to calm down!"

Trillia did her best to relay the intent through the mental bond. Ialu stopped fighting him but stayed cautious. A notification popped up into her face.

You've been afflicted with [Eternal Rot]!

Eternal Rot:

A curse inflicted on creatures struck by undead weaponry. This curse will slowly rot your flesh and blood until your soul is corrupted and trapped in your body.

Trillia dismissed the notification and looked at Maldoun, who had begun dumping some sort of creamy green liquid onto her arm. "Bite down on something. This next part is going to hurt. A lot."

After a moment, Trillia bit down on a leather strap hanging off her armor.

"[Radiant Purge]!"

Another blinding white light coursed from Maldoun's hands into her arm. The last thing Trillia saw before the pain took over was a notification.

You've been purged of [Eternal Rot]!

Your soul must recover. You will not regenerate any resources for the next 72 hours.