Sun and wind and beat of sea,

Great lands stretching endlessly…

Where be bonds to bind the free?

All the world was made for me!

Adelaide Crapsey.

"We celebrate the greatest heroes of our generation! Those to slay the kraken and return my daughter!" Shouted the mayor. This place was beautiful. The crowd was filled with laughter and merriment with almost none of the visible corruption I had learned to expect from a society. The people are a mixture of races holding no resentment. My companions are happily mingling with the crowds. There was a small feeling that I might be deceived but I ignore it. The feeling made this feel like home.

I grin as musicians start up again and pick up the pace to accommodate energetic dancers. I drain my pitcher of beer and slip into the throng of people weaving illusions as I move to the simple rhythms flowing from the musicians. I am sure I was the star of the celebrations in more ways than one. Drunk and slightly exhausted I am guided to a cabin where I collapse into the best night's sleep I have ever had. It is strange the hut is so clean for one supposedly abandoned.

I wake up the next morning to a cacophony of bird call they are nice sounds but one or two seem out of place for the region. I ignore it, get dressed and walk out my cabin. The sight that greets me reaffirms my observations that this is a beautiful place. From the hillside where my abode is located I see a calm sea that stretches endlessly into the distance and glitters gold with the light of dawn. It is a scene that would not be out of place in the nicer heavens.

A group of villagers have just started the construction of something on the edge of the village. After the sun has finally risen leaving an indigo sea I wander down to the site of construction. It seems odd that they are building a house when no one seems to be homeless and there are already several spare homes around. As I reach the group an old human calls out to me. "Hero! We could use your help if you can handle a saw or axe." I nod and am directed alongside a number of villagers to move beams to the house. It is the end of the day when we stop. The house's basic structure is complete, and the wall is partly complete.

I wander back to my hut exhausted and notice that everyone is heading towards somewhere. I don't ask where as I collapse into my bed and heal my aching limbs with food and qi. The next day is spent finishing the wall. The old man running the project before is nowhere to be seen instead a middle-aged woman is organising everyone. At one point I ask where the old man had gone. They just say he left. They had gathered to see him off.

As I enquire more it seems that almost all the people here were once travellers or adventurers. It was not uncommon for those desiring the road to leave. The day ended with the walls constructed and left to set. It is a few days before the house is complete. I feel I have made a few friends among those working on the house including a young dwarf by the name of Martha. We spend some evenings at a tavern known as the rusty boar. We play the drinking games and make merry over the good fortune of those who have had them. Most often it is a hunter with good game or a livestock giving birth as it typical of the season. I lose the drinking games to larger folk much of the time. I would have to cheat with Qi or magic to win.

On the same day a new group of travellers appear. They are a family. We greet them with a party smaller than the one held for me with good food and drink in the local tavern. The mayor personally greets them and they tell their story. They are going to visit their uncle and grandparents who live in a town to the north in order to survive the small famine in their home caused by a crop failure.

The next day there is a gathering. I visit and see a group I don't recognise standing at the front with a ghostly pail man. We are in a stone building I never noticed before. The man raises his hands and energy seems to flow into the alter before him. He mutters something and a mist covers the crowd. The group stumble forth and are bid farewell by various people. Something feels off.

I go out the next day and wander about doing odd jobs and talking to people. I can't seem to remember any specifics of the gathering. Only that a group of people were leaving, and the mayor saw them off. This place makes me feel too relaxed and compliant. It is starting to bug me. I wash in the area of a nearby river reserved for that purpose go back to my cabin for the night. Away from prying eyes I generate my fox fire and clear my mind. The haze on my mind clears. I am being watched.

The night is eerie in its absolute silence. With my hearing I should be able to hear a rowdy drunkard still in the tavern or the call of nocturnal wildlife. There is nothing but the odd chanting voices that I hear on occasion. I sleep lightly.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I greet the new day with a little less vigour than on previous days. The persistent and far too numerous screeches and calls of the dawn quickly give me a headache. I step outside and the illusion of beauty is gone. I see the ocean waves are tipped with foam and the rocky coast is jagged and dark. There is sea mist on the horizon and an ugly grey building of stone squats in the centre of the town. I remember that the building is important. Not what truly happened there.

I walk out and try to find the group I arrived with. I don't wish to ask for help from the people of the town as they seem far less friendly and creepier with a clear mind. I pass the rusty boar and see why it was called as such. The building is sturdy but old with rusty hinges on the battered, beer stained front door.

Hours later, I find the carriage is sitting at the outskirts of town. It is empty of the goods that usually fill it and one wheels are gone. The merchants would not let it fall into this condition. I pull out the papers in my pocket. A travel contract and a letter. Two tasks I have resolved to complete, and two tasks left unfinished. I ask around for the merchants. My goal is to get every one of my travelling companions to leave this place. I need

Despite shivering over the speech of the townsfolk I am able to locate most of my charges. They are scattered among different people with different professions. The surfs are helping in the fields I tell them to get there things ready to leave and they are strangely compliant. The Janus and his father are both working in a bakery they seem way too comfortable without their usual wanderlust. However, by far the easiest to find are the performers. They are wandering around performing and making merry. They are the only group that doesn’t seem strange and unnatural. Mari and Tilda are both nowhere to be found.

I had spent the whole day getting ready to go, preparing the wagon and finding the stuff from the cart without raising suspicion or a fuss. I notice something strange. People are gathering towards the centre of the village. Slowly and seemingly without purpose. They are all occupied with other things on the trip but offloading any objects they are carrying. I follow the direction of the crowd and am lead to a squat stone building.

It is not long before I remember the building although the details are still hazy. No one leaves this village and the enchantments to keep them here are probably powered by necromancy. I need to stop it. As I head closer to the building I feel the magic becoming stronger. I burst through the door and there I see Mari and Tilda standing with two others I don’t recognise at the front of the room. The Mayor is giving his speech and the strange man is standing there with his orb.

Colours burst from the orb and suck something from the first person there. I immediately recognise the substance from the lands of death and the gods battlefields. This is life force. The man is probably a necromancer that dabbles with the mind magic or holds an artefact that has the effects I have seen. I shake my head and advance. I can now see why they were so willing to allow sacrifices to stave off the kraken. I sneak forward, weaving my own magic to hide myself and at the death of the first stranger grab the orb from the necromancer.

“Stop this!” I shout it seems that in the heat of the moment my not caring has gone. I am too kind sometimes. The necromancer glares at me. “Who are you to interrupt my ritual?” The necromancer asks. “I am an official magician in this town hired by the mayor. You have no right to do this!” He steps back and smiles. “Get me the orb!” Shouts the mayor. “They can’t hear you.” I respond with my own smile which is wiped away by a dark one as my eyes land on Mari, just as the Necromancer starts muttering under his breath and gathering mana. I put qi into my legs and punch him with enough force to hear a crunch. He drops to the ground and stops as rumbling is heard from behind the door to the rest of the building. I notice he is still smiling. The door bursts open and skeletons and rotting corpses walk out each armed with a crude weapon. I look once more at Mari and prepare my Qi. As the fight goes on the mayor tries to scramble away but I throw a stone his way to hear a yelp of fear in response. The mayor resigns to sit and watch as I efficiently destroy the undead, foxfire blazing and moving faster than anyone can achieve without Qi. Within quarter of an hour I am tired and surrounded by long dead bodies.

I walk up to the mayor, grab him by the collar and ask him why he was so eager to keep the town under a spell. He shivers and starts. “This town was once a great port full of visitors and people not just passing through but settling. It was then that the refugees, surfs and merchants that would have settled here for the safety and better life were drafted for the war against the tribes and a good port was opened closer to the trade cities to the north. The town shrank to a village. It became filled with lazy and unproductive individuals and bandits! Everyone was miserable. I was a fourth son of a noble, given the chance to run this village as I had been trained to. Nobody listened. Nothing changed. I then discovered a ritual in an old tome sold by one of the few peddlers that still passed through. The ritual would make everyone happy. It would make them productive and kind. Visitors would not hurry though as fast as possible but stay and even settle here. Is that not good?”

I shake my head. “So you found a magic user who would perform the ritual and payed him with any excess life energy. I agree it is better to live in a society of nice people but in trying to provide a better life you have prevented these people from truly living. You have killed innocents and you have betrayed those you tried to help. I will not do anything to you but perhaps these people will not be as forgiving.”

I drop his collar and smash the altar. Everyone begins to move as if woken from a trance. I grab Tilda and Mari before walking out of the building. I don’t look back. I played the judge more than I am comfortable with already. It is up to the people here to restore order or decide what to do. After a while gathering up the group we travelled with we strike the horses and begin on our way.

It is not long before we are stopped by a small group with sacks of cloth, fur and food. They pass it up to us as thanks and as compensation for the still missing goods we were transporting. With a wave we leave back onto the open road.