The week until the delivery for Arax passed in no time, and there were little to no issues for a change. After our last confrontation with Grym, the opposition was apparently silently doing their jobs, and Reurig’s agents even heard some of them starting to question whether staying loyal to the king made sense. After all, if they ignored these feelings of loyalty and honor for a moment, it wasn’t all that bad to work under us, even if we did a few weird things here and there. The fact alone that the guards didn’t need to worry about their lives anymore every day was enough to make most of them much happier with their jobs, and any of them who had kids were looking forward to being able to actively choose a Calling for them, be that to ensure that they would also join the Fighter force or the opposite.

On the special ritual side, we had approached Fae about whether she would be willing to help us, and after a quick Calling sign test, we found that she was indeed forty percent Charmer, though this didn’t surprise her much. In her own words, it could’ve gone either way, because she saw herself in both professions, someone who worked hard with their hands, or a merchant like everyone else in her family. Two extremes I didn’t see mixing well, but to each their own. With that, we had someone we could probably trust enough with seeing our process, and since she was also sixty percent Worker, we added both Callings to the list of available ones.

In total, we received eight applications from children who had turned fifteen since the last official rituals, and assuming that everything went well tonight, we would administer these in two days. We would get three Charmers, three Fighters, one Researcher, and one Handiworker. As I had hoped, the candidates apparently didn’t scare away from the Fighter Calling just because they had a choice now, and based on the applications, two of them really just wanted to help protect the town, while the third answered that he was in it for the higher pay. Though that was fine by me as well.

Unfortunately, it seemed like our Cerus problem was worsening though, as merchants were starting to ask what our plans were. Since we didn’t actually have any yet, however, we had to put them off for the moment, telling them that we would know more next week.

With everything rolling along, we simply did our jobs and waited, for this fateful night, when we would go to meet Arax.

***

“When do we leave?” Berla asked late into the evening, as we were all sitting in the office.

Everyone was on edge. We would presumably need up to an hour to reach the meeting place, so we would actually need to get going. Though I had kept one tiny piece of information from them.

“Well... we should probably get ready... but you’re staying here,” I said, looking at everyone but Tomar.

“Do we have to go over this again? Of course we’re coming!” Berla said.

“Yea!” Riala yelled, punching her fist into the air.

“No. Not this time,” I said decidedly. “With the moderators we had some idea of what to expect, but this is different. We can’t risk it.”

“Don’t give me that. This is our choice,” Berla said.

“Please don’t misunderstand me... I would love to have you by my side... but in the worst case scenario, Alarna would be forever defenseless if all of us disappeared. If this meeting does not go according to plan... I want you guys to keep going. Ria will undoubtedly get stronger over time, and you guys can train her. If we don’t come back, you might one day be able to stop Arax.”

“... Was this the plan the entire time?” she asked with furrowed brows. “You didn’t think to mention that any sooner? Tomar, did you know about this!?”

He nodded wordlessly.

“Seriously!? If you had mentioned this even a day earlier—”

“... then you would’ve been able to change my mind. I’m sure of it,” I said, as I stood up from the desk with a smile. I walked over to the couch where she was sitting and crouched down in front of her. “I couldn’t risk it, this is too important. This town... this world really... it deserves better, and we have to make sure we do something about it sooner or later. And if we can’t do it, you need to.”

Berla looked at me angrily. “You promised you would do your best to come back.”

“Heh, yea. And I mean it,” I said, grinning at her as if I wasn’t worried at all. “This is just a contingency plan. You know how I am. This is the best option to ensure that everything goes as well as it can. And we’re not going to fight after all, so we don’t need the whole gang anyway.”

“...”

Her expression softened just a little bit, and I guessed that she would stay here, but she was very clearly unhappy about it.

“We’ll be back soon,” I said and gave her a kiss, before getting up and heading in the direction of the door, before she could say any more.

“But I want to help!” Riala said.

“You are helping, by protecting the town while we’re away. You understand that, right?”

“I wanted to see Arax as well though...” she said with a pout.

“Maybe next time,” I said with a small laugh.

As I passed Reurig, I briefly stopped and leaned in, to whisper in his ear. “If we don’t come back, please do me a favor and get them away from here.”

He nodded, and we kept going. I turned around one last time and said “See you in a bit,” before I opened the door and left the office with Tomar. The door now closed, I took a deep breath and then addressed Bren, standing right next to us.

“Hey. We need to go out for a moment, but it’s a confidential matter. You guys stay here with the others, please.”

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“Are you sure?” Bren asked. “I could arrange for additional guards, or just one of us could come with—”

“No, that’s fine. Thank you though. We’ll be back in a few hours.”

“A few hours...? Understood...”

He didn’t look happy either, but he naturally accepted the order, and Tomar and I began our journey towards the eastern side of town. Through the uncomfortably long hallways of the temple, out into the main square, and straight east through the office district.

“You think she bought that?” Tomar asked on the way.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Come on. You might care about the town, but not that much. You really think this could go terribly wrong, and you don’t want them there.”

‘Yea... it sounded like you were saying goodbye. I’m not sure how I feel about that...’

“I told you guys, I’m not nearly as confident as you about beating Arax. And if we can’t strike a deal, we’ll naturally end up fighting it. Of course I don’t want them there in that case. And according to the king there’s going to be only three beasts. If we can’t take them alone, the others would not make much of a difference either.”

“I know, but I figured you would tell them the truth,” Tomar said.

“I thought about it... but I doubt that she would have accepted it. Also, what I said wasn’t really a lie anyway. If we don’t come back, Ria will be the only competent Sourcerer left, and she will probably be the only hope to ever beat these things.”

“The only competent one? Don’t sell Aelene short, she’s pretty good as well.”

Tomar had spent the last few evenings with her, and apparently he had taught her how the water conversion works, as thanks for her explaining mana control to him. She had apparently done very well. However, there was one very important difference.

“Maybe, but she doesn’t understand Omega yet, right? That’s the key after all.”

“No, I thought teaching her the language would be a bit much. Maybe that was a mistake?” he said, somewhat mockingly.

Tomar and Lilana were not taking this situation lightly, but based on our past confrontations, they were convinced that this beast couldn’t possibly be that much of a problem. After all, none of our recent opponents had proved a real danger to us on an individual level, and after the two other beasts were dealt with, it would be two on one. Their confidence wasn’t completely unfounded, though I had a bad feeling. Teaching Aelene might have actually been a good idea. Or Oryn, who would’ve undoubtedly put his all into advancing the research.

“Maybe you should have,” I said.

“... Miles, seriously, since when are you this worried? When we were just starting out, nothing could stop you.”

He was right. Back then, I was really curious to see a beast. Hell, even after I learned how dangerous they were, I was curious about scripting on their bodies, and given the chance, I might have advocated for trying. Today, I wouldn’t. I was still willing to take risks, but I had become much more wary of the unknown.

Tomar had changed in the opposite direction. He had gone from a careful boy to someone who would walk up to an enemy under the assumption that things would surely work out. It probably didn’t help that he was still a teenanger, who was suddenly able to kill even a strong beast with a flick of his wrist.

Lilana had still been a little apprehensive just recently, but she had gotten more confident after the fight with the moderators as well. She saw what her body could do for the third time, and it was nothing to sneeze at, even if Tomar’s fighting style was more impressive.

I assumed all of this was a mix of youthful exuberance and the changes we three went through, with me in their minds. I had become a little more careful, and they became a little more reckless. Makes you wonder what a full merge would look like. Occasional recklessness? Maybe something in the middle?

I didn’t respond to Tomar’s question about my worries, as the building we were heading towards came into view.

“Here we are,” I said.

It was a small, but long house, in a side-street near the eastern gate. It looked like a depot, with a large door that a small cart or wagon could pass through. We had already taken a look at it earlier in the week, so we knew what to expect and went inside determinedly. Unlike the building we had arrived in when we entered Alarna through the tunnels in the south, this one didn’t have a small duct with a ladder leading down, but a ramp that led downwards into the darkness, hence the length of the house.

After locking the door behind us, we started walking down the slope, lamps in hand, until we reached the bottom, where a cart laden with blue stones, some fruits, candles, a bucket, and various other utensils was waiting for us. It stood in front of a stone wall, with another large door set in it, behind which the tunnel awaited. Just like the building’s front door, this one was locked as well, so nobody could easily venture down this path. After unlocking it, I pushed the door open, and we were looking down a long, dark path.

I hadn’t asked the king about it, but based on the size, location, and the direction of this tunnel, I assumed that it originally might have been built for a different purpose, as you could technically use it to transport materials collected in the woods this way, with a reduced risk of running into beasts. While I was staring down the dark tunnel, Tomar examined the cart.

“I don’t get what a beast wants with these things. They don’t need blue stones... right? And what’s the bucket for... Wait, is that a fork??” he asked, perplexed, as he dug through the items in more detail than we had before.

“I don’t know, but Hati said it can take on a humanoid form. And the rules it set up are weird as well. It’s clearly a little different from other beasts.”

“Right...”

“Shall we?” I asked as I got ready to pull the cart, and Tomar joined me.

Slowly, we started walking down the path. It was dead quiet down here, with the only noises coming from our steps and the creaking wooden wheels of the cart.

***

I didn’t know how much time had passed exactly when we finally saw another stone wall with a door in it a little ways down the tunnel, lightly illuminated by our lamps. Leaving the cart to Tomar, I went ahead and unlocked the door, behind which a path led upwards. It was immediately obvious that we were in a cave, into which this hidden tunnel had been built.

My heart was beating hard in my chest as we continued on and came up to our final obstacle. Another wall, with another door, which closed off the cave. Through cracks, we could see a little bit of moonlight stream in, however, meaning that we had almost arrived at our destination. Behind this door was the delivery location.

Once more, I walked up to it to unlock it, though I hesitated for a moment and thought about all of this for one last time. Was this actually the best course of action? What would happen if we ignored this beast? Would it actually come for us? The answer was probably yes, since it relied on Alarna for food and other items, and it was presumably strong enough to not have to worry about any guards.

What if we tried to evacuate the citizens and start over somewhere else? No, that wouldn’t get us anywhere, since these category ten beasts supposedly existed everywhere. And even if we wanted to do that, it would take a while to organize it, in which case we needed to buy time. Was going alone with Tomar maybe a mistake? If we had brought everyone, and maybe even guards, wouldn’t we be safer? Well, potentially, but it was also possible that Arax would see that as a provocation and kill all of us in an instant, assuming that it was as strong as Berla feared.

Try as I might, I couldn’t think of a better strategy for the moment. Before we could decide anything else, we needed to know what exactly we were dealing with, or we might just make things worse.

‘Miles?’ Lilana asked in my mind after I had stared blankly at the door for a few seconds.

“Right...” I said, as I took a deep breath and unlocked the door.