“I posit there must be an evolutionary pressure to explain this perceived deviation. But such theorizing goes beyond the scope of this book. I look to the next generation of mages and their research in this area to yield more fruit where I’ve laid my seeds of knowledge.”— A Scientific Treatise on Mages, Volume One
Outside the Village of Erenvelle, the Kingdom of Ilsylvania. Day -01.
Over two weeks of travel and outpost inspections passed in the rather slow blink of an eye. Their routine had settled into the monotony of checking an outpost covered in overgrowth, delivering the news to the local guard and village officials that they would have to clean it up, fighting resistance from those officials citing a lack of manpower and funds to do the repairs, and Kronos politely reminding them that their extravagant mansions could always be liquidated to cover the costs. Somehow after that, the money always managed to show up in their coffers.
That routine changed when they made it to the final village before Araedi, Erenvelle. Barely large enough to be called a village, Erenvelle was one of several whose sole economy was growing the food that supported both Castera and Araedi’s booming population.
Tyree could tell something was off before the village even came around the bend in the road. They should have passed a guard patrol or seen some of the villagers tending the fields they passed. Instead, there was only a quiet undisturbed by even the local wildlife.
Koda went alert and huffed a low grumble of warning and Kronos raised a halting hand. Shai issued a command and Koda silenced, though it was clear she was still on her guard.
Kronos dismounted from his horse and drew his broadsword. Everyone else followed suit.
They proceeded cautiously as the smell of burnt wood crept into the air. It didn’t take long before they found the first bodies; guards in bloodied armor laying amongst even bloodier felled goblins.
The fighting hadn’t been limited to the town’s edge. The trail of carnage showed the battle had continued to the village's breached gates. What lay beyond crushed any hope of finding any survivors.
“Moira's Light! Goblins did all this, Cap?” Caleb asked as they surveyed the wreckage.
“They weren’t regular goblins. Those, men could fight,” Tyree answered.
Caleb grimaced in understanding. Night spawn goblins had been through this village. Wherever the Guardians had gone, they needed to come back. Scenes like this would only be the first as the monsters grew bolder without anyone to check them.
Shai placed a hand on the ground and shuddered a moment later, pulling away quickly. “I can read the story of what happened here in the earth. These men and women did not die easily. If there are any survivors, they’ll be in the bunker under the town hall. I hope they were fast enough in getting there.”
Kronos nodded. “Then that is where we are going.”
The bunker’s entrance was on the side of the ruins that had once been the town hall.
Kronos pounded on the heavy doors with a gauntleted fist. “We are soldiers from Castera. If anyone is in there, we are here to help you. You are safe now.”
No reply came. Kronos attempted to pull at the doors, but they didn’t budge. They were locked, which meant someone was in there. So why weren’t they answering?
Koda appeared from the other side of the town hall and gave an assertive woof and the three of them followed her.
They found Shai standing at the back of the building. The wall had been broken through and the floor boards torn up. There was no indication that the properly reinforced slab of concrete or stone required for every village’s bunker had ever been used in its construction. Instead, there was only a black emptiness ringed by rubble and splintered wood stained with blood.
Kronos pulled his shield from his back. “I’ll check for survivors. You three stay here.”
Tyree pulled her longsword from its sheath. The red blade ignited with flame. “No, I’ll go with you. We don’t know if something could still be hiding down there.”
Kronos didn't argue, though the small, selfish part of Tyree wished he had. She held no illusions as to what would be found inside.
Tyree pulled two white crystals from her bag of holding and whispered an incantation into the smaller of the two. The larger stone flared to life with a white light and she dropped it into the hole. It hit the ground with a plink and though the light wasn’t bright, it was enough to see the roughly twelve foot drop into the bunker.
First Kronos, then Tyree lowered themselves into the hole. The metallic scent of blood filled the air. Tyree held her sword up, its burning blade casting a horrifying red glow on the even more horrifying scene. She held her other hand to her mouth, breath lodged in her throat. She glanced at Kronos and the expression on his face mirrored the same twist of emotions she felt.
Silently, the two of them went to the task of checking the bodies for signs of life. They found none.
When they made it to the bunker doors, Kronos turned and whispered, “Thank you for coming with me.”
Tyree could only manage a nod. He had not so subtly been pushing her away from the defenseless and into the direction of those who had clearly been the ones fighting the last stand. Tyree could only think of her daughters and hope they were safe with her friends and wife in Pella. Tyree squeezed her hand to her shirt pocket, feeling the four carnations tucked in there. She'd figured Aliyah had put them there to let her know of her passing. She hadn't found anymore since that first day on the road, but she hoped all the same.
The bunker doors had been barricaded with three shelves pushed in front of it. It took effort to untangle the mass of wood and metal and when they finally got the door open, Tyree found the midmorning sunlight blinding.
Caleb peeked into the doorway, but Kronos put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “What’s in there… You don’t want to see it. Trust me, son.”
Caleb looked at Tyree and she could only manage a shake of the head. Caleb quickly backed away from the door.
Then Kronos, Tyree, and Caleb went to gather the bodies of the dead throughout the village. The gruesome task was made easier by Shai creating a stone platform to lay the dead on and moving it around with little effort on her part.
They tossed the bodies into the bunker without looking inside as best they could. Then Tyree lit the bunker on fire and Shai used an earth spell to wall the building off so the flames wouldn’t spread.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
They watched the funeral pyre burn and Caleb said a Riellen prayer for the fallen.
Kronos moved to his horse and took out a piece of paper, a quill, and an inkwell from his pack on its saddle. He penned a message and wrapped it in a leather scroll.
He tied it to his messenger hawk and sent it off in the direction of Castera. “There is little more we can do for the people of Erenvelle. But we can make sure this doesn’t happen again. We continue onward to Araedi.”
***
Nightfall was only a few hours away when they approached the outskirts of Araedi. Even from their distance, the city-state cast an imposing view. The skyline beyond the walls stretched in both directions towards the horizon and the defensive barrier tinted the city with the very faintest of purple.
With the arrival of the Guardians, Araedi had become the center of the eastern coast’s economy. The city held the largest population of Guardians, around a million individuals, and boasted a mixed human and serethi population in roughly equal number as well.
Even Araedi hadn’t been spared from the missing Guardians. The farmland surrounding Araedi had been long abandoned. They passed dozens of farmhouses whose crops still had yet to be harvested.
They approached a farm which had dozens of farmhands busy working the fields while guards bearing Araedi’s banner stood watch with bored expressions.
One of the more senior-looking guards made his way towards them as they approached. He had a thick serethi accent that even six hundred years of language sharing between their cultures had done little to blunt. “Name’s Sandor. By your colors, soldiers from Castera, no? What word comes from the south?”
“Aye. I’m Tarik Kronos. Tyressa Pearce, Caleb Tahn, and Shai,” Kronos replied in introduction. “Same news as everywhere else. A village to the south, Erenvelle, got attacked by night spawns last night. Have any survivors come this way?”
“Monster sightings have grown everywhere since the Guardians disappeared. It’s why we’re out here watching the farmers. Only way they feel safe. But no, no survivors have come this way. You might check with the village gates.” Sandor answered. “Use the southwest gate. The southeast is where the sick are to go.”
“We’ll do that. Thank you, Sandor.”
The serethi were just as in the dark on where the Guardians had gone as everyone else.
***
The southwestern gates were a hive of activity. Six lines, each with a group of guards at each, converged into a large crowd entering the city.
“Papers?” A balding man asked without looking up from his ledger.
“We’re soldiers from Castera. Stopping by on our way to Pella,” Kronos said as he handed the guard their travel documents.
“None of you have been sick in the last day or two?”
“Not even a sniffle. Are things bad here?”
“We lost a handful of guards. Though most of the sick are refugees coming from the countryside.” He handed them back their papers and waved them through his booth. “You’re free to enter.”
“Refugees? Did you get anyone from the south, from Erenvelle?” Kronos asked.
The man picked up another book and thumbed through it. “No one from that village came through this table. You could try asking the others, but you’d have to go through their lines again. If you lost someone, we could put out a notice in case they show up.”
“That’s alright, thank you.”
The guard gave a nod and waved them through.
Araedi dwarfed Castera in every sense of scale. The buildings were massive towers of concrete and stone that stretched so far into the sky, the very clouds broke around them.
Yet each one of those towers was uninhabited. The same barrier of protection that cast a faint purple glow over the city also seemed to want to keep people outside of her buildings.
The serethi had grown quite creative in how they managed to settle the city despite that fact. Entire neighborhoods had been built up the sides of the towers like mosses or mushrooms clinging to a tree’s trunk. An extensive network of bridges, elevators, and stairways linked the city’s expansive upper levels together.
There was an emptiness over the city that only someone who regularly visited Araedi would have noticed. No guardians with their fancy armor and unique clothing styles filled the streets. And even the Serethi citizens were noticeably dwindled.
“I know you’ve been here before, Tyree. Know a place where we can get some sleep?” Kronos asked, an extreme weariness in his words. She felt it, too.
“We’re not far from AnaBeth’s. It’s an adventurer inn, but Ana and Beth know me, we’ll be treated well there.”
After leaving their horses in the care of a nearby stable, they walked across the street into the inn. AnaBeth’s had grown from the small, yellow-bricked building Tyree remembered to a tile of multi-colored brick walls that climbed three stories up the tower it had been built against.
Ana greeted Tyree and her group at the door when they entered.
“Tyressa! It’s been so long!” The short, blond-haired serethi woman said as the two embraced. She looked at Tyree’s group then back at her, though Tyree noticed her gaze lingered on Kronos a hair longer than the others. “I take it this isn’t a social visit?”
“Afraid not. Have Aliyah and our daughters been through? They should be in Pella by now.”
“They’re in the area as well? No, they haven’t been by. Though with the sick piling up at the gates, I wouldn’t blame them,” Ana said. “Though do make sure they come by and visit. It’s been so long since I’ve seen the twins. They must be big now!”
“Twelve seasons. I’ll be sure—”
“If it isn’t Ressy!” a woman’s voice cried from behind Tyree.
She spun to meet Beth’s embrace.
When they pulled away, Beth brandished four keys from somewhere in her apron and handed them to Tyree. “You know you always have a room here. With so many coming into the city, it’s rather packed, but there are still three rooms if two of you don’t mind sharing.”
“Shai, Koda, and I can share.” Tyree took the keys and handed one to Caleb, Shai, and Kronos.
Tyree pocketed her own key and looked around the common area. It was loud with the sounds of overlapping conversations and tucked away in a booth in the corner were a pair of faces Tyree recognized.
Tyree turned to Beth. “Can you take my bags up? I know how to find my room.”
Beth gave a nod and waved over a man large enough to rival Kronos. He took her bags with a noncommittal nod and followed behind Beth and Tyree’s party.
Tyree walked over to the booth where a slender Serethi man named Fives and a tall, muscular human woman named Maggie Reinhorne sat talking with each other.
Fives slid a chair out with his foot. “Ressa? What are you doing this way?”
Tyree took her seat beside him. “Heading to Pella. I could ask the same of you two, this isn’t your usual hunting grounds.”
“Finished an escort quest. We have some down time before escorting another caravan back east tomorrow. The money’s alright,” Five answered. “What about you? Missing Guardians pull you out of retirement?”
“Not exactly, but that is why I’m going to Pella. I’ll be training guards to fight monsters,” Tyree said.
Fives crossed his arms and huffed. “Wish you’d train all these freshies around us. Half this inn is filled with folk who wouldn’t know which end of a spear to poke a goblin with, yet think because they’ve scared off the most timid of monsters while doing their own escort quests, they’re full fledged adventurers now. The guild used to stand for something.”
Maggie slid a crumpled piece of paper to Tyree. “He’s right. I took this off the notice board when I saw the group who was eying it. It’s a shame it’ll be reposted in two days.”
Tyree reached for the paper and read it. It was a kill quest for a monster said to be made of stone sighted between Araedi and Pella. The quest was being recommended only for those above level twenty.
Fives snorted. “Bah, you’re such a mother hen, Maggie. I say let them get themselves killed.”
“You’d want someone looking out for you if you were in their shoes,” Maggie replied.
“I wouldn’t be in their shoes because I know what I can take.” Fives pulled a cigar from his coat pocket and put it to his lips. He twirled a red-bladed dagger in his hand and held it to the cigar. The cigar lit and he gave it a drag.
A server came around and handed Tyree a drink. She glared at Fives. “No lighting in the dining room. You wanna smoke, take it outside.”
Fives grumbled to himself and dropped the cigar in his glass of water. The server gave an appreciative nod and set a new drink in front of him.
Fives sipped from the drink. “Say, Ressa, everything alright with you? You’ve had a look since sitting down.”
Tyree looked back at him. Her mind had been wandering. “No. Yeah, I’m fine. I saw something I wish I hadn’t. Do you two mind if I hold onto this bounty?”
Maggie shrugged. “Not like we can do anything. It’s yours.”
Fives stood and stretched. “We should get going. Long day tomorrow. You stay safe, Ressa.”
Maggie stood and picked up her sword and shield. “Yeah, don’t be a stranger. Come up this way more.”
“I will. And same to you, Fives,” Tyree said.
Tyree returned to nursing her drink. Erenvelle was still fresh in her mind. Ilsylvania had grown far too lax in its reliance on the Guardians and the people of that village had paid the price for it.
Ilsylvania’s army needed to grow stronger. Not just in Castera, but everywhere. That fact needed to be impressed upon command to take the training that went into enhancing one’s mana seriously.
Tyree stood, downed her drink, and with the quest sheet in hand, went up to her room.