“We need to get these people inside,” Valera said, seeming to come to a decision. “Whatever else we need to do, it shouldn’t be decided out here.”

David nodded. The Seeker was right. They were just standing out in the open, and he doubted that the collapse of the mines’ entrance had gone unnoticed. It might take a little bit, but eventually someone would move to investigate the loud noise that it had made. He could only hope that it had been deafened enough by distance that the investigation would take longer than it otherwise might. Even the White Towers, the group of towers closest to the mines, weren’t exactly next-door neighbors to the mines.

But they would eventually notice - and such a large group of people, even as far away from the mines as they were standing, would be suspicious after that. Or at least notable enough to check up on.

And if they were checked up on, David was sure that at least one of the many former prisoners would be recognized. Probably significantly more than that - and that was without even mentioning the problem of the…corpses of many of the guards walking among them. Things would take a turn for the worse from there. For exactly who, he wasn’t sure.

Because being noticed hadn’t been a huge problem yet. Not with the tiny Ascended ripping its way through anyone that tried to stop them.

As the crowd started making their way into the rickety tower - David could have sworn that he saw a few pieces that were in the process of rotting off - he watched the tiny snake resting on the woman’s shoulder. He wasn’t moving much, seeming content to just lay there and relax, its tail caught in its mouth. He did that a lot, David noticed. Probably meant something. Or maybe he just liked it, like a toddler that sucked on their own thumb, though it was hard for David to believe that was true. Sure, the little snake looked like a baby, but it was hard for him to think of it as one.

Not after seeing what the Ascended had done to all of the mines’ guards.

Finally, everyone made it across. It took longer than it needed to, but not longer than David had assumed it would. There weren’t enough boats to go around, and even the tower’s tiny pond of null-water was large enough in most places that nobody would feel comfortable trying to reach the door without one. It was a bit of a jump, and a single slip would be horribly painful for most, and horrifically deadly for a few. He supposed that if they were truly desperate they could have tried to scale the walls; the backside of the tower stuck out too far, at least one portion of the thing not protected by the. But there still wouldn’t have been a way in without trying to rip apart the occasionally-rotting boards that lined its exterior.

Not somewhere I would want to live, David mused. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to. It was obvious that Valera and her Ascended snake weren’t from around here. Which was interesting. He decided to broach the subject.

“This isn’t going to work,” he said. “There’s too many people here.”

“I know,” Valera replied, grimacing. “Not sure what to do about that. We weren’t exactly expecting anything like this.”

“You weren’t?” David asked, confused. “Why’d you send your snake into the mines, then?”

“Ah, no.” The Seeker rubbed the back of her neck, and then her other hand reached towards the snake on her shoulder. It hitched a bit for a moment, as if she was unsure, before her fingers ran along the underside of the little Ascended’s armor. The snake leaned into it slightly, his forked tongue flicking out into the air with what David could only think was satisfaction. That seemed to help with whatever hesitation the woman was feeling, because she started scratching his scales more confidently after that. “We didn’t send the little guy anywhere. He just wandered off when we weren’t looking.”

David went still, feeling a chill run down his spine at the implication. “Oh. So there’s no plan. Nowhere for any of us to go.” He eyed the woman across from him, gauging her reaction. “You know that we can’t live here anymore, right? Not after what your snake did to the guards. If anyone sees us walking around, we’ll be the first ones they blame for it. And let me tell you, I’m not planning on taking the fall for this alone.”

Freedom wasn’t a good look when your captors were dead and their superiors were searching for someone to blame - even if you, technically speaking, weren’t responsible for their deaths. And especially when you were wearing their old set of armor. Still, David was hoping that he could get something out of this. Regardless of their intention to rescue the prisoners held in the mines or not, now that they had, it was likely that they would feel a responsibility for what happened to them.

And, judging by her enchanted armor and apparent ability to tame a dangerous Ascended, whatever city Valera came from was likely to be extremely wealthy.

David liked the thought of that. He liked it a lot.

Valera bit her lip in concern, and David pounced at the show of weakness, going for the kill. “I’ll have to talk to the others. Again, we weren’t exactly expecting something like this. But, maybe…well, there’d be room out in the Guardian Grove, I’d guess. Not exactly in Orken proper, but it’d be more than safe enough once you get a [Little Guardian’s Totem]. Lot of food to go around, too.”

David had no idea what any of that meant, but he nodded along anyway - and as she walked off to go find these ‘others’ that she had mentioned, carefully slipping past the tangled crowd of limbs that filled the rickety tower’s entrance, he had some hope that things would turn out all right.

Better than the mines, at least. And, whatever happened, he’d come out with a shiny set of armor and a magical spear. There were worse ways the day could have gone.

Besides, the foreign Seeker had said quite a few words that had a note of…power in them. Like they were something remarkable. Something interesting. And with an Ascended resting on her shoulder, David didn’t doubt that they were.

Things were looking up.

----------------------------------------

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It took a while for Valera to push through the crowd and gather up the others. It took even longer to push her way back. With the tower as overfull as it was, there wasn’t really any room for privacy inside. They had to go back outside.

She sighed, cool air brushing against her face. A stark contrast to only moments earlier. If nothing else proved that the number of people holed up inside the tower’s main entrance hall had long since reached far beyond what was comfortable, the heat certainly did. It was cloyingly hot in there, with only the constant chill that came from the snake on her shoulder helping to fight that.

She quickly summarized the situation to the others, going over everything she had learned in her talks with David, as well as her thoughts on their current predicament.

They agreed with her. The original plan - to hold out on making any Guardian Statues or Guardian Groves until the people of Erandur offered the alliance and trade deals that they wanted - was a bust. Even if they managed to smuggle all of the people that were currently crammed into the tower out of the area and to Orken, their disappearance would be noticed - as would the disappearance of the people that had been guarding them.

It wouldn’t be a stretch for the group of foreign Seekers to be blamed. Strangers were always suspect and, in this case, the suspicion would even be correct.

Though even without that, they would have been likely to push for an earlier display of the Little Guardian’s power. They just didn’t have time for potentially long negotiations to finish before making any Guardian Statues or Guardian Groves in the area.

Because, as Elara had heard and relayed to Doran and Erik, a delegation from Virtun was due to arrive within two weeks. And, while it was highly unlikely that Virtun would have any idea of the Orken Seekers’ animosity towards them unless someone told them…well, they’d probably find out eventually. And none of them were willing to be caught flat-footed when it happened.

It was better to get things ready now.

Luckily, it wasn’t all bad. Even if they were forced to create Guardian Statues and a Guardian Grove earlier than they had planned, nobody could actually use them without a [Little Guardian’s Totem] that had been linked up to the Statue. So it’s not as if everything was ruined. They could still negotiate with the other towers - who didn’t have any [Little Guardian’s Totem]s yet - with that in mind, and letting a single tower’s occupants have access to a Guardian Statue and Guardian Grove before attempting negotiations with the others would give them the opportunity to prove the effectiveness of what they were offering. Healing. Food. Protection. They’d just need to make sure that nobody strong-armed the current [Little Guardian’s Totem] bearers into giving or trading away their necklaces.

It took longer to decide on what to do with the former prisoners. There was some hand-wringing over the idea of sending a group of potential criminals - because, surely not everyone that had been sent to the mines was sent there wrongly, even if many or most were - to their city. Erik, in particular, wasn’t happy about it. Especially since many of them possessed dangerous, enchanted armor and weapons - something that Orken’s city guard certainly did not.

Doran had a rebuttal.

“Even if there are real criminals among them, would they even be willing to try anything after what they apparently saw today? Just threaten ‘em with the wrath of the Little Guardian here and they’ll fall in line,” he grunted, pointing at the snake resting on Valera’s shoulder. Crude as it was, she had to admit he was right. She had seen the glances that many of the former prisoners had thrown the tiny snake’s way, filled with awe and terror and gratefulness and everything in between. They wouldn’t be willing to go against the little guy. “Besides,” he continued, “what kind of idiot’d be willing to risk the other benefits that being at Orken would give them, with the Guardian Statues’ free healing and the Guardian Grove’s easy access to food? Stick. Carrot. Skies, I wouldn’t want to fuck that up, if I were them.”

He wasn’t wrong. With such extreme benefits on one side and extreme consequences on the other, it was doubtful that there’d be a problem with the group heading to Orken.

The others quickly came around to Doran’s way of thinking, though Erik decided to pen a letter to the Council to explain the situation as best he could, so that the city’s leaders could make the final decision on what to do with the former prisoners.

Valera liked that idea. Especially the way it pushed off the final decision on what to do onto someone who wasn’t her. She liked it a lot.

It was settled; the Council would decide what to do when the newest batch of refugees got there. That was the sort of thing they got paid for, right?

Right.

They worked their way back inside the tower, a blanket of cloying heat immediately wrapping around them, the sensation even more unbearable than before. The snake on Valera’s shoulder hissed, and she raised a hand to scratch at his scales. A chill pressed against her fingers, tempered ever-so-slightly by that same warm, lively sensation that Valera had noticed before. She ignored it as best she could, working her way through the crowd until she found someone that caught her eye.

A boy, a native to the tower, sat tucked away in a corner beside who Valera thought was likely his mother. She could see, by the strings that were wrapped around their necks, that both wore [Little Guardian’s Totem]s underneath their clothing, similar to the rest of the tower’s occupants. And though Valera knew that the [Little Guardian’s Totem] - even without a connection to a Guardian Statue - had a soothing effect, she was sure that they were just as hopeful for the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s promised effects as anyone else.

The boy stared with wide eyes at the crowd as his hands absent-mindedly shaved away at a small block of darkwood. A snake was working its way free from the block, slithering out from the places his tiny knife touched, on its way to forming a match to the [Little Guardian’s Totem] that Valera knew hung from his neck. Just missing a few things. Some minor details. A string. A little magic.

Those wouldn’t be too hard to get.

She spent a few short seconds speaking to the woman beside the wood-whittling boy, making sure what she was about to ask would be okay. She thought he’d enjoy it, given that he was already most of the way to what she’d ask of him on his own, and it was something that needed to get done anyway. His mother was delighted at the idea, especially when Valera explained some of the things that would be coming soon afterwards - notably, the activation of the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s true powers, and the healing that would come with it - and, once a Guardian Grove was set up, the food that it would allow them to eat.

More than anything though, the woman was especially enthused with the idea that her little boy would get to feel like he played a direct part in what was about to come. That he would get to feel like he had done something important. That was more than enough for her to approve of Valera’s idea.

“Hey, I’ve got a special job for you,” Valera said, kneeling down in front of the boy and interrupting his whittling. His brows furrowed before his eyes flicked towards the little snake on her shoulder. “How’d you like to see some magic?” she asked.