Upon their entry into Valak, he found things particularly welcoming as people came to greet them one by one. While many were humans, some appeared as familiars in a variety of animal forms.

That bit of anxiety he had earlier before entering slowly dissipated. He expected a much more grim demeanor here and rougher-looking people. It was entirely the opposite given the warm welcome they were receiving from the city’s citizens

A few children found themselves waving towards him. He waved back receiving several smiles.

“The people here seem nice,” Lar said from his left.

“They really do don’t they,” Silvy said with a hint of skepticism in her voice.

As everyone managed to get past the front gates and gather within, the gates began to close. They kept the entrance heavily fortified with plenty of armored guards—both human and familiar—atop them.

Halmond motioned towards the front of their group making a gesture. “Let me be the first to officially welcome you all to Valak. You will find that we are a welcoming people, especially to those like yourselves.” There must be some kind of catch to this kindness being given to them but he didn’t know what that might be quite yet. “Now then,” Halmond continued to say, “I must request that some of you come with me so that we may see my master. Now that we’re all here, I wouldn’t dare make him wait any longer than necessary.”

“Who all should come along?” Rinas asked.

“You and anyone else you deem necessary. I’d ask that he comes along as well though.” He pointed towards Kiran and squinted his eyes towards him.

Rinas eyed Kiran suggesting that he would indeed be coming along. He was curious about this person named Lucias and whether they were as worrisome as Lady Meredith came to suggest to him so this was an opportunity to get a feel for this familiar in person.

If the people of this city were this welcoming towards them, he figured Lucias likely wasn’t as bad as some would suggest. He’d exercise caution nonetheless even if they had lent out a helpful hand to save them from the banespawn.

Besides Kiran, as for who all was going to meet with Lucias, all of the coalition leaders were going including his companion Lar. Juna and Silvy also got to come along as well. Everyone began making their way through a long windy inclining black cobblestone street following Halmond who walked gracefully in front of them as they kept their hands clasped behind their back.

The city’s streets were illuminated just enough to allow for a relatively safe walking experience. Darkness still overwhelmingly ruled this place like all others in the fourth domain, however. That hadn’t changed even with this fairly occupied city. Every alleyway they walked past possessed immense darkness within them, and it would certainly be easy to ambush someone from them or the nearby rooftops that the light wouldn’t quite reach.

Despite the darkness, Kiran didn’t feel unsafe here. A part of that had to do with the fact that they were allowed to remain armed. If anything, he felt much more relaxed here than he did in the western territory that Lady Meredith oversaw. He always felt on edge there. Especially at her home. Things had been quite odd there when he really thought about it. Everything to do with that cave for instance made his mind work extra hard to wonder what all was going on there. Luckily Aphelia had kept his little venture into that cave a secret.

For now, at least, he could enjoy the rather welcoming city of Valak. Since being here, he had noticed a noteworthy difference in temperament with the folks here compared to those within the western lands. They didn’t appear on edge quite as much nor as dour. It made for a much more pleasant experience needless to say.

After a dozen more minutes of walking up the windy inclining street, they began to reach what must’ve been the highest elevated place within Valak. They walked through a gated entrance. A wide open space appeared with lit braziers running along the sides of a black cobblestone path. A multitude of red banners with the white outline of a serpent on it were erected alongside the braziers. The banners fluttered a bit as they walked past them.

A large structure that must’ve been the castle’s keep appeared directly ahead of them. While architecturally different from the rest of the city’s structures, all of the structures and walls here were made out of a blackish stone but noticeably more worn and old.

Unlike the guards that stood atop the walls, some of the guards were familiars that stood outside the front of the keep appearing as bears. One of them had black fur and the other brown. A couple of the armored human guards opened the doors for them beckoning them to enter the keep.

The dark interior appeared. Due to how dim it was inside, he couldn’t see it all that well from the outside. That began to change when they all entered one by one.

Chandeliers dangled from above with numerous black columns towards their left and right. More red banners ran across the walls along with a red carpet that ran along the center of this chamber that reached all the way towards a youthful blonde-haired man seated at a thoroughly used throne.

He eyed the man from afar spotting their eyes locked on them all. Though he stood far enough away that he couldn’t fully make out their face, he thought he could see them grinning ever so slightly.

In their approach, they kept one leg crossed over the other with their head tilted ever so slightly. A crown sat upon their golden locks of short hair and now that they were closer, he could make out their dark red eyes. Though they were very youthful in their overall appearance, Kiran got the impression that they weren’t as young as they appeared.

Lar made a slight noise from her mouth. He looked to his side noticing her brows furrowing as she stared warily at the seated man.

“Is something wrong?” he whispered to her.

He set his gaze back towards the seated figure as they all approached them slowly. “Potentially,” she simply stated. “I’ve just got a bad feeling about him.”

He would’ve liked a more detailed answer, but given where they were, she didn’t really have a good chance to. Everyone else besides Lar appeared mostly at ease. Kiran didn’t notice anything particularly odd about the person besides the fact that they held a slight perpetual grin at all times.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Their group’s approach stopped a comfortable distance away as Halmond went to stand ahead of their group to face the throne. He bowed slightly and gestured towards them. “I present to you my master, your long-awaited guests.” Halmond walked over to stand at the side of the throne keeping their hands behind their back.

The man seated there gestured towards them. “So, you’re the ones who all found yourselves surrounded by those pesky banespawn. What a most troublesome quandary you all found yourselves in. Ah, but alas, here you all are now free from Eylswaer to be here in Valak instead. This is a most wonderful place to be if I say so myself. But I digress,” he said with a lofty high toned voice, “I Lucias Velmond, would like to officially welcome you all and thank you for agreeing to come here.”

“The thanks is all ours your grace,” Rinas said.

Lucias held up their hand with a slight annoyance on their face. “I don’t know how much Halmond told you about myself, but I am hardly one who cares for such formalities. You may merely refer to me as Lucias.”

Rinas nodded his head.

“I imagine you all must be curious as to why I chose to help you and ask that you come here.” The youthful man began to grin a little as he must’ve noticed something. “I see some of you appear rather wary of me. Worry not, you have nothing to fear.”

Do you speak truthfully? Or do we in reality have reason to fear you?

“If there is some kind of compensation that you would like from us,” Rinas went on to say, “then if it is within reason, we would gladly offer it to you.”

“Compensation? I couldn’t imagine a more boring way to go about things. Nay to compensation sir! The fact that you came here alone is payment enough already. Although, I do have desires and wishes that you may be capable of helping me facilitate. But that is a separate matter meant for later. Firstly, I must ask. Do you all come from another domain?”

“We do,” Rinas stated firmly. “We arrived not all that long ago from the fifth domain.”

“As I suspected. The truth is, I had you all observed for a while to get to know what kind of people you are. I hope that doesn’t tarnish whatever you think of me, but I am very wary of those who enter my territory, especially when they come from the west. I need to know of those who enter my lands so I hope you’re understanding of where I come from. Nonetheless, the fact that you truly come from another domain is quite intriguing to me. I assume you didn’t arrive here then through the miasma, is that correct?’

“It is.”

“Then you arrived here through a portal.” They placed a finger to their chin appearing interested in their manner of arrival. “If that’s the case, then is the one who created it capable of creating one leading out of here?”

“I am not,” Yorais said speaking for the first time.

“A shame then,” Lucias said. “I am not at all surprised, however. Magic hasn’t worked here for quite some time or at least not since our domain went dark. I imagine you all must’ve been a little surprised when you got here realizing that the darkness is unending and magic doesn’t work.” He let out a sigh. “It truly is dreadful here, although here in Valak, I’ve worked hard to cultivate a community that can live relatively decent lives no matter who you are.” They readjusted themselves as they sat there on their throne. “Had you all known about the state of this domain, would you all have come here?”

“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Rinas said. “It was either come here or be slaughtered in the fifth domain.”

“I see. Well, you’ve ended up in likely the best place that you can here in this domain at least. While you remain here, you’ll quickly realize that the people here are quite wonderful and well-adjusted. I can’t say the same for those people across our border to the west. They’re quite the intolerable bunch over there if you ask me. But here in Valak, it’s quite the opposite and I’m quite proud about that.”

The people here did seem nice just from a first impressions standpoint. If they were to stay here for a prolonged period, he imagined it might not be so bad. Still, there was much to learn about before they began even thinking of staying here for a prolonged period or planned for it in the future.

Lucias snapped his finger summoning someone who stood in the darkness that gathered near the sides of this large chamber. They wore a black uniform and had a curly black mustache.

“Adam,” Lucias said.

“Yes?”

“I want you to bring out that special barrel of wine we’ve been keeping in the cellar. Do you know the one I’m speaking about?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Have it taken to the dining chamber so that our dear guests may enjoy it along with everything else.” He turned his gaze towards them. “I would have us all continue this as we dine together and discuss these matters further.” Adam left to do as told. “Halmond, can you take our guests to the dining chamber? Do not dally. They must be quite famished after their long journey.”

Halmond walked down the steps gesturing towards them to follow him out of this chamber to go into another one.

Everyone began to follow Halmond out of the keep’s main chamber to enter a long hallway.

“So, what do you think?” he asked towards Lar quietly enough that Halmond wouldn’t hear.

“About what?”

“About Lucias.”

She thought for a few brief moments before responding. “There’s something off about him. It’s…it’s hard for me to conjure up the right words to describe it.”

He looked over towards Silvy who walked beside him as well. “What do you think about him?”

“I think he’s kind of cute.”

“What? Really?”

“Well, yeah.” She appeared a bit distraught realizing she flat-out admitted such a thing. She nervously smiled a little knowing she couldn’t take the comment back. “Plus he has those red eyes. You don’t see that all that often if ever.”

“That’s true,” Kiran said as they kept walking down the hallway as a group. The only other person he had ever seen with eyes like those, was that man who he first encountered when awakening in that jail.

As far as his own judgments and opinions towards Lucias, it was simply too early to tell. Given their help and attitude towards them, he felt optimistic. More so at least than prior to their first real encounter with them.

It did make him question more over Lady Meredith’s warnings towards him. If he were to ever encounter her again, which he assumed would be the case, he wasn’t sure how she would handle having him meet with Lucias since she clearly didn’t have good relations with them.

He supposed he’d just make it clear that he and his people truly were neutral for the most part. The reality was that none of them needed to get embroiled in any unnecessary rivalries between these two sides. It certainly would be far from ideal since they had their own problems to deal with such as what they were going to do with the rest of the survivors that weren’t with them. They still had them to worry and think about.

That problem alone was a big one that he knew they needed to tackle during their talks with Lucias. Lady Meredith made it clear that her side wouldn’t be able to do much for them. Perhaps Lucias would, but with that amount of people to keep fed, it would probably prove too difficult for them. He might be able to deal with their current group in Valak, but with the addition of all of those other people, he might also tell them how impossible such a feat truly would be even for someone such as him.