The group spent another day on the road riding horses summoned by Ezekiel. The further they got down the road, the fewer and fewer refugees they encountered, until eventually evening fell without them seeing another soul for several hours. Much to the group's dismay, Korlac had given away most of their supplies, though Ezekiel had stowed away a few packs of rations in his dimensional pocket.

After some deliberation, the group decided it was worth the risk of leaving the safety of the main road to set up camp using Ezekiel's conjured cabin. As the cabin was forming, Drez looked around, his eyes darting through the trees.

"What happened to Onyx? She's been gone for hours," he asked.

Suddenly, the metallic-furred cat burst through a bush carrying a heavy deer in her maw. She obviously killed it herself, biting it at the neck and crushing its throat cleanly.

"Well, that solves our food problem," Liarra commented. "Wait, did she do that because she heard us worrying about rations?" she asked, suddenly realizing the implications.

"Possibly. She does speak common, and she's not a fool. Plus, Korlac got her that lamb leg before we left Millstone."

Drez hugged the cat tightly as Korlac lifted the deer and began prepping the carcass for skinning and butchering.

"We missed you, Onyx," the water goblin gushed. Onyx purred and rubbed her head against his shoulder. Her fur poked him, and it hurt a little, but Drez didn't care at all.

An hour later, the full moon and starry sky lit the horizon as smoke lazily drifted from the cabin, deer meat stewing in a pot on the stove while Albert worked diligently at scrubbing and cleaning everyone's boots.

Drez and Korlac were feeling a little restless, knowing they'd likely encounter the battalion from the Citadel in the next few days. It was Korlac who suggested they do some sparring outside, both equally comfortable maneuvering in darkness.

Ezekiel took his cup of tea outside and sat on a bench in front of the cabin. He sipped it gingerly as he watched Drez and Korlac engage in light combat. He could immediately see the skill and expertise of both, Korlac focusing mostly on heavy swings of his fists while Drez used his knees and elbows more. The huge orc had size and reach on the water goblin, but Drez was far faster and much more nimble in his attacks. He could see a familiarity in their fighting, as it was obvious they both knew each other's style.

Liarra sat on the bench next to Ezekiel, leaving some room between them, as she took long sips from a flask she pulled out from her vest.

"They've done this before, haven't they?" Ezekiel asked.

"Many times."

"I didn't know Drez and Korlac were so familiar with each other. I mean, obviously I saw Drez and Davis excited to see both of you when you first arrived in Greencoast, but I didn't realize..."

"Korlac helped free Drez from the fighting ring. From time to time, we'd find ourselves in Greencoast longer than we'd usually stay, looking for the right job to sign on with. Korlac would go to the fights down near the docks. There, he found a frightened little water goblin, obviously abandoned by his tribe… or worse, his tribe was wiped out by the Church. We never found out the full story. Either way, Korlac didn't like it. He doesn't like people being kept against their will."

"An understandable and admirable trait to have," Ezekiel said.

Liarra took another long swig from her flask and leaned back, sighing heavily.

"It is, until he wants to free all the slaves on a transport ship you're on. Don't get me wrong, the big lug is a sweet guy, and that's why I travel with him, but he doesn't really think before he acts."

Ezekiel took another sip from his tea, his belly rumbling at the smell of the stew simmering back in the cabin.

"So what happened on the docks? How did Korlac free Drez?"

"He acted before he thought. He made a bet with the dockmaster, he'd beat any number of opponents the dockmaster threw at him. If he beat them all, Drez was free. If he lost, he'd join Drez as an indentured fighter."

"Oh wow, that's..."

"Foolish, yes. Extremely," Liarra said dryly.

Korlac lunged at Drez, a big beefy fist flying through the air at the goblin. Drez leapt high above the orc, a smile plastered on his face, and he flipped over Korlac, flying through the air with his arms outstretched as he delicately touched the ground behind the orc, tapping him lightly on the back of his leg.

"I win!" Drez declared loudly, having landed a soft hit on Korlac.

"So, obviously Korlac beat all of them?"

"He did. In the end, the arsehole made Korlac fight seven people, one after another, and after that Drez was freed. We offered to let him travel with us, but he wanted to stay in the town. He was friends with Davis, who was already working on his own plot to free Drez, and Ella was sweet on him, too. We almost rioted when we found out he was working for the dockmaster when next we came back to Greencoast, but he was getting paid and he wasn't fighting anymore, so we couldn't exactly raise hell about it. Luckily the sheriff made Greggory keep his word."

Korlac and Drez shook hands, both breathing heavily as they walked back into the cabin, followed shortly by Liarra and Ezekiel. Korlac checked the stew and gave it a stir before he inspected the hide drying out in front of the fire. Onyx lounged on a bed, tired from the day's hunt and she kept a paw covering her eyes. Albert had finished with Ezekiel's shoes and had moved on to cleaning Korlac's boots as Liarra took a seat at the table in front of Ezekiel's grimoire. She had a smaller journal out where she scribbled notes as she read each line over and over and over again, referencing a cheat sheet Ezekiel had written for her.

"So, wait, am I reading this correctly?" she asked, pointing to a specific line.

Ezekiel leaned down, his eyes following her fingertip. "Yes, that's right."

"So, with this, you can fly?"

"For a limited amount of time, yes."

"How? I don't understand. Everything in here, it's amazing. Your spells, there's so much you can do."

Ezekiel took a seat across the table from Liarra just as Korlac put a bowl of stew in front of him. Over their trip Ezekiel had discovered that Korlac was a gifted chef, and he believed if the orc ever wanted to give up adventuring he'd easily find a job cooking at some tavern, though it probably wouldn't pay as well.

"Magic can do amazing things. You can fly, you can protect yourself from extreme weather, or even create barriers against fire or acid..."

"Or create cabins!" Drez said excitedly as he took his own seat at the table with a large bowl of stew, his short legs kicking the air.

Ezekiel chuckled at the goblin's enthusiasm. "Yes, or create cabins. When you train at the Academae, people often find an affinity with a specific tradition of magic. Mine happened to be with summoning and creation magic."

“Mr. Ezekiel, sir?” Drez asked suddenly.

“Drez, we’ve been over this, you can call me Zeke.”

“Sorry. I just wanted to ask, the large rock thing you summon.”

“You mean Bob?”

“Yeah, is that a normal name for creatures like him? Cause it just sounds so…”

“Normal.” Korlac finished for the water goblin as he joined them at the table.

Zeke chuckled as he took a small sip from his tea, letting the stew cool a little before digging in.

“Bob is just his nickname. His full name is Boblangarthenyur.” Ezekiel said, pronouncing it in long draw out breadths.

“That’s a mouthful.” Liarra said with a smirk. “So instead, you call him Bob.”

“His idea, not mine. He told me his name sounded funny in my accent.” Zeke explained.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Liarra returned her attention to the spellbook in front of her, tapping it with her finger.

"Despite your affinity for summoning, you can cast spells from other traditions?" Liarra probed.

"Yes, almost all of them."

"Almost?"

"Well... as I've mentioned before, invocation has always proved a tricky school for me to practice. The art of using the elements offensively. Blasts of fire, raining ice, or eruptions of acid. I've never been able to do any of them. Heck, I can't even use magic to light the fire in the cabin."

Korlac and Drez began to enthusiastically dig into their food, eating with loud slurps as both quickly finished their first servings and went back for seconds. Liarra and Ezekiel were slower, conversing while they ate as Zeke poured himself a second cup of tea for the evening.

Liarra flipped through the book, going back to the beginning as she tapped on a page of the journal while looking back up at Zeke.

"This one here, this has amazing potential."

Zeke looked over to see what she was referencing in his grimoire. "Ahh, yes, the growth spell. Takes a creature, and their belongings, and more than doubles their original size."

"Could this be used on Korlac?"

"Of course. I like to keep one prepared as it's great for shock and awe. It's one thing to fight a soldier, but it's another thing to fight a giant soldier. In fact, during more 'prepared' moments, I've cast it on Bob while in the process of summoning him. I've learned the art of combining my summoning with spellcasting, doing both at the same time. Makes the summoning process take a little longer, but well worth it for the results it produces."

"You can cast it on him as you summon him? Isn't your summoning already a form of spellcasting, though?"

Ezekiel gingerly sipped his tea, reveling in the shop talk. It'd been years since he'd had a chance to discuss spellcasting and his particular specialization, so he couldn't deny he thoroughly enjoyed being able to delve into the details of his summoning abilities.

"It is. Through my studies at the Academae I found ways to summon faster than other spellcasters, and methods of prolonging the duration of my summons, giving them more time on our plane. I'll admit, this is where much of my weakness in invocation stems from, as I skipped most of those lessons to focus exclusively on summoning."

Liarra furiously scribbled notes, though Ezekiel couldn't tell if it was from his lecturing or from pieces she was reading from his grimoire.

"Once I was able to optimize the time it took to summon, I then developed a method to take advantage of the left-over time to weave in another spell, usually something easy to cast like mage's vestments or a quickened spell."

"Or a growth spell," Liarra chimed in.

"Exactly. My only limitation is my preparation. Knowing what I might need when I might need it."

Liarra continued to flip through the spell book, idly picking at her stew between scribbling notes in her journal. Drez and Korlac had finished their second servings and were settling down for the evening, Drez climbing in to cuddle with Onyx, who didn't mind the warmth and company, while Korlac saw to the drying hide and meat near the stove.

"You know, I was friends with a few alchemists back in the Crusade. I might have an idea or two on how you could adapt some of these spells, especially the growth one," Zeke offered, not wanting to interrupt her flow.

Liarra put down the pen and looked at Zeke, holding his gaze. "What do you think our chances are?"

"Pretty decent. You're obviously a talented alchemist and my spells are detailed with..." Ezekiel started before seeing the more dire tone in her stare. "Oh, that. Well, it depends, do you mean tomorrow, or the Citadel?"

"Both, either, I don't know. This is all crazy," she said with a hint of helplessness in her voice.

"I know you're not entirely convinced, Liarra. You have a better understanding than most of what we're up against."

"And every ounce of logic in the world says we should run in the complete opposite direction."

"You're right. And normally I'd be with you, but..."

"The kid," she said, nodding as she didn't meet his gaze.

"Right, I just..." Ezekiel's memory flashed back to Elisa, dying in his arms in the cabin, Rowan dead on the ground near them, her final words calling out to Ezekiel to save her child.

"Zeke?" Liarra said, seeing the moon elf's eyes staring through her.

Ezekiel shook off the memory, his hand grasping the table to anchor him firmly in the present.

"I made a promise long ago. A promise I failed to keep when I fell wounded in The Fall. I made a similar promise to Ella, and I can't fail this time. Trust me, after this we will fade as far away from the Church as possible. We'll find Davis, make sure he's safe, then off to the Ashlands to find Zeldren." Ezekiel explained as if it was all quite simple.

"How do you know he'll be safe?" Korlac asked, looking up from the deer hide. The question drew the attention of everyone else as Drez and even Onyx looked up from their bed.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ezekiel dodged.

"You heard him. How do you know Davis will stay safe after you rescue him?" Liarra persisted.

"Because of course he'll be. I'll make sure of it."

"How?" Drez asked from the bed, Onyx also giving him a puzzled look as she tilted her head.

Liarra gasped as she finally put all the pieces together. "You're not taking him home, are you?"

Ezekiel sighed as he slumped in his chair. "There's nowhere else he'll be safe..."

"Davis is coming with us?" Drez exclaimed in excitement.

"Are you going to tell Ella?" Korlac asked with concern.

"You have to tell her, right? You can't just not tell her," Liarra insisted.

Ezekiel let out another heavy sigh. He had hoped this conversation would have come much later down the road, but there was no avoiding it now.

"The more she knows, the more that knowledge is a danger to both herself and to Davis. He needs to be trained, to be educated in his powers, and to be protected from the Church. The Acadamae might have dissolved, but I can help school him on magic, and..." Ezekiel trailed off.

An awkward moment of silence passed through the group, where only the sound of Albert's diligent scrubbing of Korlac's boots broke through the tension.

"That's probably the only way to keep him safe," Korlac suddenly said, his tone but a whisper at the stove as he didn't look at either Zeke or Liarra.

"Kay, you can't be serious. Taking him without even telling Ella. She's our friend!" Liarra snapped sharply.

"How would you tell her? Go to Greencoast in person? Send a messenger?" Korlac countered.

Swinging his head to Drez who had a torturously conflicted look on his face. "You know Ella better than any of us. Would she prefer Davis be safe without knowing about it, or would she want the risk of knowing he's alive, even if learning that would put him in more danger?" Korlac asked.

"She'd... want him alive, even if that meant never knowing about it," Drez answered quietly.

Liarra slumped back in her chair, her interest in the grimoire having been deflated by the weight of the conversation.

"That means we can never go back to Greencoast. That was the one place that wasn't a complete shitshow, the one place that felt removed enough from the Church and that asshole 'god king' that we could just relax and not worry so much."

"What about Farwall? I hear that's a very safe city, that they keep their citizens protected behind their towering walls all the time," Drez suddenly asked

"Farwall isn't safe," Korlac said shortly without further explanation.

"Then take him back to..." Drez started, trying to remember the name of the islands where Ezekiel was from.

"Where?" Korlac asked.

"You know, the place you can't remember?" Drez said, his face scrunched in concentration as he tried to recall the name.

The group looked confused for a moment until Liarra snapped her fingers. "The Forgotten Isles! Would they allow a human safe passage onto the island?"

"The islands aren't safe anymore either, I'm afraid. The king, he... he sent a fleet to the islands less than a year ago," Ezekiel trailed off.

"Wait, what? Why haven't I heard about this?" Liarra asked, both stunned and confused.

"Because we don't really talk to outsiders, and the Church kept it quiet. The island was always a threat to them, as we had a true written history of events before the Fall."

Ezekiel took Liarra's flask, much to her surprise, and poured a bit into his empty tea mug, sipping it slowly as the warm alcohol soothed his worries.

"When it happened, the final battle, and I was badly injured, I called out to my father as I lay dying on the battlefield. My plea caught the attention of one of his clairvoyants on the council, and my father teleported me home. I would have died if he hadn't done that, as it was against the rules of the elders.”

"Why didn't he save your brother?" Liarra asked.

"Clairvoyancy isn't an exact science. Unless you have an item of importance from the person in question, it's often just a matter of monitoring for signals in the area, and he didn't give off any signals."

"Well, they saved you, and obviously you survived. Whatever your wounds, their healing magic must have been up to the task," Korlac commented, waving his hand at Ezekiel that his presence was proof of that.

"You're not wrong, the restorative magic of the isles is powerful, but they had to put me in a state of torpor for over a hundred years in order to cure me fully," Ezekiel explained.

"Torpor, what's that?" Drez asked.

"A coma. They put you in a coma for that long!?" Liarra asked loudly.

Ezekiel smirked as he finished the last of the booze in his mug. "I did say I was gravely wounded, did I not?"

"Well that certainly explains a lot. What happened to the Isle? Is your father okay?"

"When the navy started laying siege to the isle, my father teleported me back to the continent. He tried finding Zeldren using the most powerful clairvoyants, but nothing turned up. It's as if he hasn't even so much as whispered a thought about us or the Fall in all this time. I know he's alive though. I can feel it. That's why I was sent back."

"Well, if they have teleportation magic, they could have escaped like you, right?" Liarra said.

"I hope, but it is very rare for a moon elf to ever leave the Forgotten Isles. My brother and I were always oddities because of that."

A somber moment fell over the group as the flickering lights from the stove cast frantic shadows on the walls of the conjured cabin.

"One step at a time. Defeat the battalion, then save Davis. We can figure out what to do after that," Korlac announced with authority. Reducing the matter to simplistic and isolated steps brought a slight sense of relief to the group.

"Quite right, Kay, and with that in mind, let's get a good night's sleep. If our estimates are correct, we should encounter them tomorrow afternoon."

Everyone else nodded in agreement, and the team packed it in for the evening, each taking to their bunks. Sleep came quickly for the team, though they were all filled with anxiety for what was to come in the next few days. As evening wore on, moonlight poured through the windows of the cabin, passing along the fretful sleepers. When the beams of the moon touched each of them as they slept, their restlessness ceased, and deep relaxing sleep enveloped them all.