A real sense of anxiety loomed over the many heads gathered near the entrance to the tower. Everyone wanted to be free from this place. And yet at the same time, everyone feared what may result from leaving.

With the tower’s entrance closed, they didn’t have to fear the outside world for they were shielded from it. But this was always only a temporary solution. The food reserves were going to run out along with any water and any other much-needed supplies. There was no other choice than to leave.

People motioned by one another preparing themselves to leave the tower. Horse-drawn carts became loaded up. Men, women, and even some children began carrying whatever weapons they could. It didn’t matter if they had ever fought in the past either. If they could use their arms, they carried something to fight with in case they had to. Kiran just hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that and that they would leave this city peacefully as they cautiously prepared.

“I-I thought I would be ready to leave but now, I’m not so sure,” one woman stated to a man next to them.

“You’ve nothing to fear,” the man said as he carried an axe. “We’ll make it out of here just fine.”

“I hope you’re right.” Her hands shook and she wasn’t alone. The people here had every reason to be fearful and afraid. They weren’t meant to fight. That was supposed to be the coalition’s job along with some of the soldiers and guards that came with them. Yet regular folk had no choice but to take up arms in the instance that they were assaulted.

These people deserved relative peace and normalcy. Such a thing was of the past however. Their lives became upended, somewhat due to his own actions. Instead of living in Liall, they were here with them struggling to survive.

An immense part of him felt guilty about it still. He doubted whether he would ever not feel this way.

An elbow bumped into his left arm surprising him. “Heya.” Juna smiled and carried her dog Fred in her arms. The dog barked towards him and began wagging their tail appearing in a much better state than they were the previous day.

“He looks like he’s doing a lot better,” he said.

“I know. It’s like he’s back to his usual self. I think that medicine that woman gave me is finally working out for him.”

A happy Fred meant a happy Juna, despite the fact that they were right about to leave the safety of this place.

“How do you feel about leaving?” he asked.

“I’m a little nervous admittedly.” Kiran felt a bit nervous about the whole situation as well. All they could do was hope that things turned out well and as planned.

As all of the supplies became successfully loaded up and everyone stood together in a tightly formed line, the metal door keeping the tower sealed off began to stir into action. The whirling sound of chains and gears reached each and every one of their ears as the massive door began to open.

The overwhelming darkness that existed out there greeted them. It was like staring at a black wall that revealed itself as more and more of the outside came into view.

The opening door came to a stop. With it fully open, they all began to exit the tower together standing beside one another.

As the somewhat warm air outside hit his face, he saw no banespawn around as they might’ve expected. The outside streets and nearby blocks illuminated by their many torches appeared empty as well.

Kiran walked near the center of this line made up of roughly a hundred or more people squished between many other people. Juna, Silvy, and Lar walked by him with a cart moving directly ahead with lots of crates loaded up on it.

Nervous mumblings and rumblings entered his ear. People were afraid before, but it was worsening the more they traveled on what should’ve been an eastern street that would lead them out of the city.

The shadows danced around them on the outer edges of their formation. Fear settled in as people wondered what may lie within the darkness. Nothing did. At least not in this area. Yet they feared it nonetheless nervously shaking and struggling to maintain their sanity.

They kept walking forward passing by empty block after empty block in a city long ago abandoned by humanity.

Kiran paused as the back of a person in front of him bumped against him. They pointed towards a slanted rooftop towards their right just barely being revealed by all of their torchlight. A smiling lizard-like banespawn sat atop the rooftop staring down at them.

“Calm yourself,” Kiran said to the stranger in front of him. “They want to see you afraid. Just keep walking.”

“Y-yes sir.”

More and more banespawn appeared as they continued their walk through the city. Many of them chose to stand or sit on the rooftops while others kept to the ground staying in the darkened alleyways or within the city structures safely away from them.

At least to him, they didn’t appear eager to assault them. They simply watched and snickered with one another.

If they could, every single one of them would sink their teeth into them. They’d have their ways with them in the most grotesque ways imaginable. He could see their disdain for them and hate for having to stand aside and let their prey walk out of their city free. It was the last thing monsters ever wanted.

“For all of their smiles, they appear quite unhappy,” Lar said softly.

“Good,” he replied.

They kept heading eastward despite the increasing amount of banespawn that appeared to their left and to their right. More of them gathered on the rooftops. Some of them had eyes that glowed in the darkness. If it weren’t for that, he wouldn’t even notice their presence as the darkness kept a large quantity of them hidden from sight. Their torches could only go so far after all illuminating only the closest ones towards their constantly moving formation.

One of the banespawn looked familiar as he examined them sitting on the edge of a slanted rooftop with their feet dangling off it. The longer he focused on their face, he realized they had an angled gash running down their face and one of their eyes.

Their one intact eye focused on him and they began to grimace towards him in particular. As they appeared about ready to come lunging forward to try to land on top of him, a hooded banespawn beside them grabbed their shoulders to keep them pinned to the rooftop.

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As he walked by her and began to lose sight of them, he realized who this banespawn was. You’re the one who stabbed me in the back, aren’t you? He still hadn’t fully healed from that incident. That place on his back still hurt. But while she had injured him, he had injured her as well and she didn’t appear happy about it whatsoever given the kind of injury she sustained across her face.

They were lucky to be alive. Although it didn’t appear that they were all that eager to keep living if they were so adamant to lunge towards him from the rooftop. Luckily for her, the banespawn behind her held her back as he lost sight of her.

While the banespawn continued to gather around to merely watch them leave, thankfully they still didn’t appear willing to strike or attack them besides that one in particular.

Despite this, his heart still pounded and his eyes darted around to try to spot any potential changes in the banespawn’s behavior that would suggest a possible strike. For now, they just kept motioning through the city further, and further, and further without any retaliation.

The structures became sparser and less frequent with more open spaces appearing in all directions. It appeared that they were entering more of the outskirts of the city before leaving it entirely. Dead trees were carefully placed around having once been quite beautiful he imagined.

But for one reason or another, their continual walk towards the east stopped all of a sudden.

“Why are we stopping?” someone said from in the crowd up ahead.

Kiran eyed Lar for a moment. “I’m going to go up ahead and see what’s going on.”

She gripped her fauchard tighter and nodded walking with him.

Kiran moved by person after person within the crowd. When he reached the front where a lot of the coalition members gathered, he noticed a large creature standing in the middle of the wide road ahead of their formation blocking them from going any further.

“There he is. That’s the one right there.” The large banespawn began to laugh as they slammed a heavy foot into the ground that caused it to shake. “Come here human. You’re mine.”

Halmond went to stand at the very front of them all just a couple of yards away from Drexo. “I don’t believe I recall ever agreeing to hand anyone over to you.”

“Our terms have changed. I will have him or none of you will go any further.”

Kiran walked past several people to stand near Rinas at the front of this formation.

Halmond ran a hand through his hair. “You were doing so good and now you’re trying to ruin everything? What gives? You know as well as I do what the consequences of going against Lucias will entail. He will personally come here and slay you all. But you already know that so do me a favor and step out of the way.”

Drexo grunted towards them. “I’m aware of the consequences familiar.” They pointed towards Kiran. “But that one, in particular, belongs to us after what he did to our people in the arena by tearing apart their connection to the root. For that egregious action alone, an abomination like them will be returned to us to face judgment.”

Who do you think you are calling me an abomination? You’re not one to talk when you look like that.

For a moment everyone stood there in silence. Fortunately, no one took to some dramatic act. Halmond instead chose to sigh and reposition themselves. “You cannot have Kiran nor anyone else for that matter. We will go our separate ways, as we rightfully determined earlier by agreed-upon terms. If you would like to petition Lucias then do so at a later time.”

“Petition.” Drexo spit towards the ground and slammed their fist down on the pommel of their large two-headed axe that was placed onto the ground. “You give us nothing while you take everything! I ask for one puny human who has committed an egregious action towards our kind, and you are unable to give anything in return!”

“Do I need to explain how contracts work to you? My, you creatures are incredibly uneducated and quite rude. If you will not step aside right now, then I promise, every single one of you will experience mine and Lucias’s wrath.”

Despite being much smaller than Drexus and quite weak in appearance in either one of their forms, Halmond spoke with clear authority over Drexo. Kiran got the impression as well that Halmond’s words carried real weight behind them despite the banespawn’s insistence with their demands to have Kiran.

Drexo began adjusting their jaw looking like they were grinding their teeth as well. However much they wanted Kiran for themselves, they chose another, far more safe path to take. They lifted their war hammer to let it sit comfortably against their muscular shoulder and stepped aside granting them an opportunity to fully leave the city on the eastern road.

“You’ve made the right decision,” Halmond said.

While they became able to continue their journey to leave this place, Kiran couldn’t help but look at Drexo who stood to the side keeping an eye on him as he walked by. Pure fury and hatred sat upon that frightening face of theirs. He imagined that it would be ideal for them to never meet face to face again.

* * *

Juna’s body collapsed over onto the dead grass atop some hilltop they all decided to make camp at. She spread out her legs, toes, and arms letting out a deep satisfied sigh. “I wasn’t sure we’d actually make it out this far but here we finally are.”

Her dog climbed over her body. They licked her face and then chose to hop off her and wander over to Silvy.

Silvy picked him up and began to pet them with a smile. “I thought we were almost certainly going to end up in a mess due to you,” she said eyeing Kiran.

Kiran shrugged. “People can’t help but either love me or hate me it seems.”

“That’s right,” Lar said, “And I’m pretty sure Drexo leans towards the former.”

They all began to laugh at his expense. He thrust up his hands to get them to calm down. “Now, now. Let’s not get carried away.” The idea of them loving him was a rather scary thought.

After a long day of travel from the city of Eylswaer, everyone was quite ready to rest including himself.

We really made it out of there. It had been hours ago, and he still found it surprising that they made it this far unmolested. He figured getting out of that city was going to require a lot of bloodshed. Instead, it went quite well all things considered.

Admittedly, it came at a cost. Whoever this Lucias person was, wanted to meet with them for whatever reason. Unfortunately he did not know of the nature of this person. He just knew that Lady Meredith did not regard them very well. Whether he ought to see her opinion as correct, well, he could hardly say for sure. He’d just have to exercise skepticism and caution for now.

When nearly everyone fell asleep, Kiran walked by their many sleeping bodies. He had trouble sleeping this night so rather than lay there on the ground staring into the darkness, he chose to walk around. He wasn’t the only one awake. Plenty of people kept a perimeter around the main group to keep an eye out for trouble.

“Kiran,” a voice called out.

Halmond was in their eagle form standing on the edge of a crate at the back of a cart.

“Struggling to sleep I take it,” Halmond said.

“Just a little,” Kiran said. “I’m still a bit on edge I guess. Thanks by the way for not handing me over so easily to Drexo.”

“Think nothing of it. It hadn’t crossed my mind. I could never forgive myself if I gave someone up to those fiendish things.”

“Even though not doing so could’ve sent things spiraling out of control?”

“I was quite unafraid of that happening. The thing is, while the kind of banespawn in that city are of the intelligent variety, their intelligence is still quite lacking in many ways. As you saw, Drexo was quite eager to demand more than what was previously agreed upon. And yet, they set aside their near insatiable desire to have you knowing that something far stronger will come and kill them without hesitation. I just needed to merely remind them of this fact. The reality is that as foul and untamed as those creatures are, they know better than to defy those stronger than them.”

Kiran nodded his head and truly was thankful that had been the case knowing that things could’ve easily turned ugly back there.