A short while after Roth laid Alisa down on the bed but before he could go out to help Jean search for survivors, there was a knock at the door. Roth quickly checked to make sure he still had Holl’s revolver tucked into his waistband, his fingers lightly touching the freshly loaded bullets.

He’d completely forgotten to take anything other than the badge and gun off of Holl’s corpse before leaving- the thought of doing so somehow sickened Roth now- but luckily, the captain hadn’t taken all of his supplies with them when they left in a hurry earlier.

He had left a single bag back at the cabin, containing a pair of gloves, two sets of warm wool socks, and two boxes of shells, each with 24 bullets. It was enough for Roth to reload the pistol fully 8 times, but Roth feared that he would be out of luck after that.

Whatever ammunition Holl had on him would be destroyed in the fire that’d already reached his body when Roth ran out with Alisa, and he highly doubted that there would be any more of it in this time period.

If a basic rifled musket was considered to be an advanced weapon, and most folks were still using flintlocks, there being modern handgun ammunition lying around seemed unlikely.

As such, he wanted to save them as long as possible.

Instead of instantly going over to answer the door, Roth walked into Alisa’s room, then leaned over the bed and peaked through the window. A cold stream of air tickled his face as he pushed the window covering to the side, but Roth’s eyes still lit up as he saw a few figures outside.

He quickly left the room, closing the door behind himself, then walked quickly to the door and pulled it open a crack.

“Jean! You were able to find some survivors!”

The baker shook his head, then nodded at the men behind him.

“They were out looking for Enric, just like me. I’m guessing we were just lucky enough to be outside the attack that killed all of our friends.”

Jean shook his shoulders, like he was trying to drive away a shiver.

“I probably nearly died… I was already on my way back to town when I heard the gunshots.”

Roth nodded, then peered past the baker at the group of men gathered behind him. All of them were wearing thick fur coats and fluffy, dry rabbit fur hats. There was a small coating of snow on the tops of their hats. Many of their eyes and cheeks were red, and a few in the back were still weeping.

“I have five people with me, and there are two more searching for their loved ones. We’re going to need a plan if we want to survive this winter… Do you mind if we come in?”

Roth pulled the door open the rest of the way, then strode over to the wood stove and threw a few chunks of wood in to stoke the flames. His footsteps paused for a moment as he pushed the logs in.

“Let’s talk quietly though, Alisa is still asleep, and the heat won’t spread if the doors are closed.

A problem we wouldn’t need to worry about, if we’d had time to finish the heat piping… But Holl is gone now, and Cundy… probably the same. It’s a project that will never be finished.

Roth pushed open the door to Alisa’s room, then walked over to where the hunters and Jean were gathering at the table. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, so a few people ended up leaning against the wall instead as they started to talk.

“Alright, first off, we have a big problem.”

Jean had taken one of the chairs, and he slowly tapped his fingers against the wooden tabletop as he spoke.

“Because of that… mind control, I was storing and supplying all of the food for the entire town. My shop, and the butcher shop next door are now piles of ashes, and I doubt the food fared any better.”

The expressions of most of the hunters fell. Even if there were only 12 people left in the town, it would be impossible to feed everyone for the entire winter just from the prey they could hunt on the island.

“Also, almost all of the buildings have been destroyed. This cabin is one of the only livable spaces left on the island. If we try to weather the winter here… I’m there won’t be many of us left alive, if there are any at all.”

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“So what you’re saying is that we need to leave the island, correct? Is that not a death sentence, too? Peh, even if we don’t freeze to death, we’ll probably just wander into a red zone and find something even worse than what killed everyone here.”

Jean suddenly reached over and patted Roth’s shoulder.

“This fellow is a cartographer, and he has experience sailing. I know a few things myself, and most of you have traveled around the nearby islands, too.”

Roth butted in before the surrounding hunters could start nodding.

“Hold up, I don’t have any experience doing map work in this area, and I’ve only briefly seen a map of the danger zones in the sea near here. I can’t even re-”

“Still, it’s our best shot at survival. Sail southeast and pray that we land somewhere hospitable. Losten Island is close, and there are quite a few other small island towns near it. If we overshoot that, we can aim for a bigger city like Tarth.”

All of the surrounding hunters finally seemed satisfied enough with the plan, even though they knew that it still had a solid chance of claiming their lives. Just as they decided on the plan, the door to the cabin was pushed open, and the final two hunters walked in.

Both of them were younger than the rest of the group, and one of them looked even more emotionally distraught than the rest. His head hung low, and he didn’t bother stepping further inside the house until the other younger man by his side plucked the soaked hat from his head.

“Anpo, there’s nothing you could’ve done.”

The first man rubbed at his face with his sleeve, but it completely failed to wipe away his lost expression. Anpo’s pitch black hair shook as he glanced up at the hunter by his side.

“I could’ve… if I’d taken on being one of the Regarded hunters-”

“You didn’t, and regretting it now won’t help.”

The second new hunter looked up at the gathering around the table, his face calm and emotionless. When he spoke, his voice sounded flat.

“You should’ve let me be one of the Regarded hunters for our town. I could’ve found a way to solve this.”

Anpo looked up at his companion, and a few of the elder hunters at the table let out sighs.

“Jaren… you know why we didn’t.”

Jaren pulled off his own hat, revealing his long blonde hair that’d been hidden by his cap. It was styled in the exact same fashion as Anpo’s hairstyle. After straightening it, he shrugged and started walking toward the table.

“I try… but yea, I still understand it. I would make the same decision as you.”

Without pausing for even a moment or changing his dull tone at all, Jaren continued speaking.

“I threw the rest of the bodies into the fire. They are with the army of specters now.”

A few of the hunters bowed their heads, but didn’t seem quite as rattled as one might expect, considering they’d just heard that their loved ones’ corpses had just been incinerated. Roth’s brow continued to furrow as he continued listening to the conversation between the hunters.

The one only he could see acting as he might expect was Anpo, who was still a sobbing mess just inside the entrance. The older hunters and Jean had already moved on to telling Jaren about the plans they had just made… and something about the blonde-haired young man felt deeply off to Roth.

His expression hasn’t truly changed once, not since he walked in. He has smiled a few times, but they are fake.

Jean must’ve noticed the expression on Roth’s face, because he leaned back and whispered quietly to the young mapmaker.

“This type of town-destroying catastrophe… It has happened before. Edlan Island eight years ago, Luciel Town another twelve years before that. Most of the men here knew folks who were lost in those incidents.”

Jean glanced at Jaren before he continued speaking.

“Tarth’s city council created new rules in an attempt to keep it from happening again, but in those two incidents- and now this one- the method and cause are always different. In Edlan, it was a Regarded hunter who caused a slaughter. After that… I’m sure you can figure out why the folks here didn’t view the idea of Jaren having a Regard favorably.”

“So this new dude is going to be our ship’s captain?”

Jaren looked up at Roth as he spoke, interrupting Jean’s explanation.

“That’s great, it’s good to have someone experienced at the helm!”

Jaren gave a small bow to Roth, then turned and walked back to where Anpo was standing.

Part of Roth- no, all of him wanted to back out and refuse the hunters’ plans, but he knew that if he did, it would likely mean death. Roth was currently 0/1 on navigational skills, but he had been almost completely in charge of the old fishing boat for the voyage that ended up on the shores of the mysterious island.

It was more experience than any of the hunters had for sailing on open water, and Roth also had his map to back him up. If he used it to sketch out depths, it shouldn’t be impossible to find and sail to an island.

Roth was about to open his mouth to ask a question, but he thought of an answer to it before he spoke.

For a ship… we’ll probably be using the First Light, the boat shed should be far enough away from town that it isn’t in danger from the fires. It might be cursed… no, Lia confirmed that the corruption was dead. It should be safe now. With all of the hunters, we probably have enough people to sail it… and there is cabin space to stay warm.

“Tomorrow morning, we should depart early. The ice will be moving in soon, we need to get moving before it catches us. We also don’t have hardly any food left. We should try to stretch what we have a few days at least, in case we aren’t able to head directly to Losten Island.”

One of the hunters nodded at Jean’s words.

“There is still some jerky and hardtack at the hunting lodge. There’s probably enough to feed all of us for about a week.”

“Alright. Let’s all get some sleep. We will set off tomorrow morning.”